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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6567.txt b/6567.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fcf2b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/6567.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16000 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Adventure of Living, by John St. Loe Strachey + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Adventure of Living + +Author: John St. Loe Strachey + +Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6567] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 28, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING *** + + + + +Produced by Mark Zinthefer, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration: (signature of author) From a drawing by W. Rothenstein.] + +THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING + +A Subjective Autobiography (1860-1922) + +By John St. Loe Strachey Editor of _The Spectator_ + + _"We carry with us the wonders we seek without + us; there is all Africa and her prodigies in us; we + are that bold and adventurous piece of Nature, which + he that studies wisely learns in a compendium what + others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume."_ + SIR THOMAS BROWNE + + + + +TO MY WIFE + + +You who know something of the irony of life in general, and still more +of it in the present particular, will not be surprised that, having made +two strict rules for my guidance in the writing of this book, I break +them both in the first page! Indeed, I can hear you say, though without +any touch of the satirical, that it was only natural that I should do +so. + +The first of my two rules, heartily approved by you, let me add, is that +I should not mention you in my autobiography.--We both deem it foolish +as well as unseemly to violate in print the freemasonry of marriage.-- +The second, not unlike the first, is not to write about living people. +And here am I hard at it in both cases! + +Yet, after all, I have kept to my resolve in the spirit, if not in the +letter:--and this though it has cost me some very good "copy,"--copy, +too, which would have afforded me the pleasantest of memories. There are +things seen by us together which I much regret to leave unchronicled, +but these must wait for another occasion. Many of them are quite +suitable to be recorded in one's lifetime. For example, I should dearly +like to set forth our ride from Jerusalem to Damascus, together with +some circumstances, as an old-fashioned traveller might have said, +concerning the Garden of the Jews at Jahoni, and the strange and +beautiful creature we found therein. + +I count myself happy indeed to have seen half the delightful and notable +things I have seen during my life, in your company. Do you remember the +turbulent magnificence of our winter passage of the Splügen, not in a +snowstorm, but in something much more thrilling--a fierce windstorm in a +great frost? The whirling, stinging, white dust darkened the air and +coated our sledges, our horses, and our faces. We shall neither of us +ever forget how just below the Hospice your sledge was actually blown +over by the mere fury of the blizzard; how we tramped through the +drifts, and how all ended in "the welcome of an inn" on the summit; the +hot soup and the _Côtelettes de Veau_. It was together, too, that +we watched the sunrise from the Citadel at Cairo and saw the Pyramids +tipped with rose and saffron. Ours, too, was the desert mirage that, in +spite of reason and experience, almost betrayed us in our ride to the +Fayum. You shared with me what was certainly an adventure of the spirit, +though not of the body, when for the first time we saw the fateful and +well-loved shores of America. The lights danced like fireflies in the +great towers of New York, while behind them glowed in sombre splendour +the fiery Bastions of a November sunset. + +But, of course, none of all this affords the reason why I dedicate my +book to you. That reason will perhaps be fully understood only by me and +by our children. It can also be found in certain wise and cunning little +hearts, inscrutable as those of kings, in a London nursery. Susan, +Charlotte, and Christopher could tell if they would. + +If that sounds inconsequent, or, at any rate, incomprehensible, may I +not plead that so do the ineffable Mysteries of Life and Death. + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION + + +It is with great pleasure that I accept Major Putnam's suggestion that I +should write a special preface to the American edition of my +autobiography. Major Putnam, I, and the _Spectator_, are a +triumvirate of old friends, and I should not be likely to refuse a +request made by him, even if its fulfilment was a much less agreeable +task than that of addressing an American audience. + +I was born with a mind which might well be described as _Anima +naturaliter Americana_. I have always loved America and the +Americans, and, though I cannot expect them to feel for me as I feel for +them, I cherish the belief that, at any rate, they do not dislike me +instinctively. That many of them regard me as somewhat wild and +injudicious in my praise of their country I am well aware. They hold +that I often praise America not only too much, but that I praise her for +the wrong things,--praise, indeed, where I ought to censure, and so +"spoil" their countrymen. Well, if that is a true bill, all I can say is +that it is too late to expect me to mend my ways. + +During my boyhood people here understood America much less than they do +now. Though I should be exaggerating if I said that there was anything +approaching dislike of America or Americans, there were certain +intellectual people in England who were apt to parade a kind of +conscious and supercilious patronage of the wilder products of American +life and literature. I heard exaggerated stories about Americans, and +especially about the Americans of the Far West,--heard them, that is, +represented as semi-barbarians, coarse, rash, and boastful, with bad +manners and no feeling for the reticences of life. Such legends +exasperated me beyond words. I felt as did the author of _Ionica_ +on re-reading the play of Ajax. + + The world may like, for all I care, + The gentler voice, the cooler head, + That bows a rival to despair, + And cheaply compliments the dead. + + That smiles at all that's coarse and rash, + Yet wins the trophies of the fight, + Unscathed in honour's wreck and crash, + Heartless, but always in the right. + + * * * * * + +There were my superior persons drawn to the life! + +When the complaisant judge would not acknowledge the rights of the noble +Ajax, but gave to another what was due to him, the poet touched me even +more nearly:-- + + Thanked, and self-pleased: ay, let him wear + What to that noble breast was due; + And I, dear passionate Teucer, dare + Go through the homeless world with you. + +The poem I admit does not sound very apposite in the year 1922, but it +well reflected my indignation some fifty years ago. The West might then +be regarded as the Ajax of the Nations. Nowadays, not even the youngest +of enthusiasts could think it necessary to show his devotion by wanting +to "go through the homeless world" with the richest and the most +powerful community on the face of the earth. + +I am not going to make any show of false modesty by suggesting that +Americans may not care to read about the intimate details of my life and +opinions, or to follow "the adventure of living" of a journalist and a +public writer whose life, judged superficially, has been quite +uneventful. I read with pleasure the lives of American men and women +when they were not people of action, and I daresay people across the +Atlantic will pay me a similar compliment. + +Yet--I should like to give a word or two of explanation as to the way in +which I have treated my subject. At first sight I expect that my book +will seem chaotic and bewildering, a mighty maze and quite without a +plan. As a matter of fact, however, the work was very carefully planned. +My sins of omission and of commission were deliberate and, as our +forefathers would have said, matters of art. + +My first object was a negative one; that is, to avoid the kind of +autobiography in which the author waddles painfully, diligently, and +conscientiously along an arid path, which he has strewn, not with +flowers and fruits of joy, but with the cinders of the commonplace. My +readers know such autobiographies only too well. They are usually based +upon copious diaries and letters. The author, as soon as he gets to +maturity, spares us nothing. We look down endless vistas of dinners and +luncheon parties and of stories of how he met the celebrated Mr. Jones +at the house of the hardly less celebrated Mr. Smith and how they talked +about Mr. Robinson, the most celebrated of all of them. If I have done +nothing else worthy of gratitude, I have, at any rate, avoided such +predestinated dullness. + +What I have made my prime object is the description of the influences +that have affected my life and, for good or evil, made me what I am. The +interesting thing about a human being is not only what he is, but how he +came to be what he is. + +The main influence of my life has been _The Spectator_, and, +therefore, as will be seen, I have made _The Spectator_ the pivot +of my book, or, shall I say, the centre from which in telling my story I +have worked backwards and forwards. But this is not all. Though I pay a +certain homage to chronology and let my chapters mainly follow the +years, I am in this matter not too strict. Throughout, I obey the +instinct of the journalist and take good copy wherever I can find it. I +follow the scent while it is hot and do not say to myself or to my +readers that this or that would be out-of-place here, and must be +deferred to such and such a chapter, or to some portion of the book +giving an account of later years, devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes! In +a word, I am discursive not by accident, but by design. + +If I am asked why I make this apologia, I shall have no difficulty in +replying. I desire to leave nothing unsaid which may bring me into +intimate touch with the greatest reading public that the world has ever +seen-and, to my mind, a public as worthy as it is great. + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY. + +May 5, 1922 + + +POSTSCRIPT TO AMERICAN PREFACE + +_While this book and preface is going through the press, I cannot +resist adding a Postscript on a point suggested by my publisher. It is +that I should say something which may inform the new generation as to +"The Spectator's" position during the Civil War. + +"The Spectator" was as strong a friend of America in past years as it is +at present, and in those past years its friendship was the more useful +because the need for a true understanding between all parts of the +English-speaking race was not realised by nearly so many people as it is +now. That there was ever any essential bitterness of feeling here or in +America I will not admit for a moment, but that there was ignorance, +pig-headedness, and want of vision, is beyond all doubt. This want of +vision was specially illustrated during the Civil War. "The Spectator," +however, I am proud to say, without being unjust to the South, or +failing to note its gallantry, and its noble sacrifices even in a wrong +cause, was consistently on the side of the North. Moreover, it realised +that the North was going to win, and ought to win, and so would abolish +slavery. There is a special tradition at the "Spectator" office of which +we are very proud. It is that the military critic of "The Spectator," at +that time Mr. Hooper, a civilian but with an extraordinary flair for +strategy, divined exactly what Sherman was doing when he started on his +famous march. Many years afterwards General Sherman, either in a speech +or on the written page, for I cannot now verify the fact, though I am +perfectly certain of it, said that when he started with the wires cut +behind him, there were only two people in the world who knew what his +objective was. One was himself and the other, as he said, "an anonymous +writer in the London 'Spectator.'" My American readers will understand +why I and all connected with "The Spectator" are intensely proud of this +fact. The fate, not only of America but of the whole English-speaking +race, hung upon the success of Sherman's feat of daring. In turn that +success hung upon the fact that Sherman's objective was the sea. To have +divined that was a notable achievement in the art of publicity._ + +J. ST. L. S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I.--HOW I CAME TO _The Spectator_ + + II.--HOW I CAME TO _The Spectator (Continued)_ + + III.--MY PHYSICAL HOME, MY FAMILY, AND MY GOOD FORTUNE THEREIN + + IV.--MY FATHER + + V.--MY FATHER'S STORIES OF THE STRACHEY FAMILY + + VI.--MY CHILDHOOD AND SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL INCIDENTS + + VII.--MY CHILDHOOD (_Continued_) + + VIII.--THE FAMILY NURSE + + IX.--BOYHOOD: POETRY AND METRE + + X.--OXFORD + + XI.--A CLASSICAL EDUCATION + + XII.--AN OXFORD FRIENDSHIP + + XIII.--OXFORD MEMORIES + + XIV.--PRESS WORK IN LONDON + + XV.--THE "CORNHILL" + + XVI.--MEREDITH TOWNSEND + + XVII.--MEREDITH TOWNSEND (_Continued_) + + XVIII.--MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE 'NINETIES + + XIX.--MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE 'NINETIES (_Continued_) + + XX.--THE ETHICS OF JOURNALISM + + XXI.--THE PLACE OF THE JOURNALIST IN MODERN LIFE + + XXII.--A WAR EPISODE--MY AMERICAN TEA-PARTIES + + XXIII.--IDYLLS OF THE WAR + + XXIV.--FIVE GREAT MEN + + XXV.--FIVE GREAT MEN (Continued) + + XXVI.--MY POLITICAL OPINIONS + + XXVII.--MY POLITICAL OPINIONS (Continued) + + XXVIII.--UNWRITTEN CHAPTERS + + + + +INDEX + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +ST. LOE STRACHEY [Frontispiece] From a drawing by W. Rothenstein. + +VIEW OF NORTH FRONT OF SUTTON COURT, IN THE COUNTY OF SOMERSET, THE +FAMILY HOUSE OF THE STRACHEYS + +SIR EDWARD STRACHEY IN THE HALL AT SUTTON COURT, WITH HIS FAVOURITE CAT +From a picture by his son Henry Strachey. + +JOHN STRACHEY, THE FRIEND OF LOCKE + +THE CLOSE, SUTTON COURT, SOMERSET + +SUTTON COURT, SOMERSET + +SUTTON COURT, SOMERSET + +MRS. SALOME LEAKER,--"THE FAMILY NURSE" + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY,--ÆTAT 16 From a photograph done at Cannes, about +1876. + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY AS AN OXFORD FRESHMAN, ÆTAT 18 MEREDITH TOWNSEND, +EDITOR OF THE "FRIEND OF INDIA," AND HIS MOONSHEE, THE PUNDIT OOMACANTO +MUKAJI, DOCTOR OF LOGIC IN THE MUDDEH UNIVERSITY Taken at Serampore, +Bengal, in 1849. + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY, ÆTAT. 32 + +J. ST. LOE STRACHEY AT NEWLANDS CORNER, ÆTAT. 45 + + + + +THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOW I CAME TO "THE SPECTATOR" + + +Sir Thomas Browne gave his son an admirable piece of literary advice. +The young son had been travelling in Hungary and proposed to write an +account of what he had seen. His father approved the project, but urged +him strongly not to trouble himself about the methods of extracting iron +and copper from the ores, or with a multitude of facts and statistics. +These were matters in which there was no need to be particular. But, he +added, his son must on no account forget to give a full description of +the "Roman alabaster tomb in the barber's shop at Pesth." + +In writing my recollections I mean to keep always before me the +alabaster tomb in the barber's shop rather than a view of life which is +based on high politics, or even high literature. At first sight it may +seem as if the life of an editor is not likely to contain very much of +the alabaster tomb element. In truth, however, every life is an +adventure, and if a sense of this adventure cannot be communicated to +the reader, one may feel sure that it is the fault of the writer, not of +the facts. A dull man might make a dull thing of his autobiography even +if he had lived through the French Revolution; whereas a country curate +might thrill the world with his story, provided that his mind were cast +in the right mould and that he found a quickening interest in its +delineation. Barbellion's _Diary_ provides the proof. The interest +of that supremely interesting book lies in the way of telling. + +But how is one to know what will interest one's readers? That is a +difficult question. Clearly it is no use to put up a man of straw, call +him the Public, and then try to play down to him or up to him and his +alleged and purely hypothetical opinions and tastes. Those who attempt +to fawn upon the puppet of their own creation are as likely as not to +end by interesting nobody. At any rate, try and please yourself, then at +least one person's liking is engaged. That is the autobiographer's +simple secret. + +All the same there is a better reason than that. Pleasure is contagious. +He who writes with zest will infect his readers. The man who argues, +"This seems stupid and tedious to me, but I expect it is what the public +likes," is certain to make shipwreck of his endeavour. + +The pivot of my life has been _The Spectator_, and so _The +Spectator_ must be the pivot of my book--the point upon which it and +I and all that is mine turn. I therefore make no apology for beginning +this book with the story of how I came to _The Spectator_. + +My father, a friend of both the joint editors, Mr. Hutton and Mr. +Townsend, was a frequent contributor to the paper. In a sense, +therefore, I was brought up in a "Spectator" atmosphere. Indeed, the +first contributions ever made by me to the press were two sonnets which +appeared in its pages, one in the year 1875 and the other in 1876. I did +not, however, begin serious journalistic work in _The Spectator_, +but, curiously enough, in its rival, _The Saturday Review_. While I +was at Oxford I sent several middle articles to _The Saturday_, got +them accepted, and later, to my great delight, received novels and poems +for review. I also wrote occasionally in _The Pall Mall_, in the +days in which it was edited by Lord Morley, and in _The Academy_. +It was not until I settled down in London to read for the Bar, a year +and a half after I had left Oxford, that I made any attempt to write for +_The Spectator_. In the last few days of 1885 I got my father to +give me a formal introduction to the editors, and went to see them in +Wellington Street. They told me, as in my turn I have had to tell so +many would-be reviewers, what no doubt was perfectly true, namely that +they had already got more outside reviewers than they could possibly +find work for, and that they were sorry to say I must not count upon +their being able to give me books. All the same, they would like me to +take away a couple of volumes to notice,--making it clear, however, that +they did this out of friendship for my father. + +I was given my choice of books, and the two I chose were a new edition +of _Gulliver's Travels_, well illustrated in colour by a French +artist, and, if I remember rightly, the _Memoirs of Henry +Greville_, the brother of the great Greville. I will not say that I +departed from the old _Spectator_ offices at 1 Wellington Street--a +building destined to play so great a part in my life--in dudgeon or even +in disappointment. I had not expected very much. Still, no man, young or +old, cares to have it made quite clear that a door at which he wishes to +enter is permanently shut against him. + +However, I was not likely to be depressed for long at so small a matter +as this; I was much too full of enjoyment in my new London life. The +wide world affords nothing to equal one's first year in London--at +least, that was my feeling. My first year at Oxford had been delightful, +as were also the three following, but there was to me something in the +throb of the great pulse of London which, as a stimulant, nay, an +excitant, of the mind, even Oxford could not rival. + +For once I had plenty of leisure to enjoy the thrilling drama of life--a +drama too often dimmed by the cares, the business, or even the pleasures +of the onlooker. A Bar student is not overworked, and if he is not rich, +or socially sought after, he can find, as I did, plenty of time in which +to look around him and enjoy the scene. That exhilaration, that luxury +of leisurely circumspection may never return, or only, as happily in my +own case, with the grand climacteric. Once more I see and enjoy the +gorgeous drama by the Thames. + +To walk every morning to the Temple or to Lincoln's Inn, where I was +reading in Chambers, was a feast. Then there were theatres, balls, +dances, dinners, and a thousand splendid sights to be enjoyed, for I was +then, as I have always been and am now, an indefatigable sightseer. I +would, I confess, to this day go miles to see the least promising of +curiosities or antiquities. "Who knows? it may be one of the wonders of +the world" has always been my order of the day. + +I was aware of my good fortune. I remember thinking how much more +delightful it must be to come fresh to London than to be like so many of +my friends, Londoners born and bred. They could not be thrilled as I was +by the sight of St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, or by the scimitar +curve of the Thames from Blackfriars to Westminster. Through the +National Gallery or the British Museum I paced a king. The vista of the +London River as I went to Greenwich intoxicated me like heady wine. And +Hampton Court in the spring, _Ut vidi ut perii_--"How I saw, how I +perished." It was all a pageant of pure pleasure, and I walked on air, +eating the fruit of the Hesperides. + +But though I was so fully convinced that the doors of _The +Spectator_ were shut against me, I was, of course, determined that my +two reviews should, if possible, make the editors feel what a huge +mistake they had made and what a loss they were incurring. But, alas! +here I encountered a great disappointment. When I had written my reviews +they appeared to me to be total failures! I was living at the time in an +"upper part" in South Molton Street, in which I, my younger brother, +Henry Strachey, and two of my greatest friends, the present Sir Bernard +Mallet and his younger brother Stephen Mallet, had set up house. I +remember to this day owning to my brother that though I had intended my +review of _Gulliver's Travels_ to be epoch-making, it had turned +out a horrible fiasco. However, I somehow felt I should only flounder +deeper into the quagmire of my own creation if I rewrote the two +reviews. Accordingly, they were sent off in the usual way. Knowing my +father's experience in such matters, I did not expect to get them back +in type for many weeks. As a matter of fact, they came back quite +quickly. I corrected the proofs and returned them. To my astonishment +the review of Swift appeared almost at once. I supposed, in the luxury +of depression, that they wished to cast the rubbish out of the way as +quickly as possible. + +My first intention was not to go again to _The Spectator_ office, +the place where I was so obviously not wanted, but I remembered that my +father had told me that it was always the custom to return books as soon +as the proofs were corrected or the articles had appeared. I determined, +therefore, that I would do the proper thing, though I felt rather shy, +and feared I might be looked upon as "cadging" for work. + +With my books under my arm I walked off to Wellington Street, on a +Tuesday morning, and went up to Mr. Hutton's room, where on that day the +two editors used to spend the greater part of the morning discussing the +coming issue of the paper. I had prepared a nice little impromptu +speech, which was to convey in unmistakable terms that I had not come to +ask for more books; "I fully realise and fully acquiesce in your +inability to use my work." When I went in I was most cordially received, +and almost immediately Mr. Hutton asked me to look over a pile of new +books and see if there was anything there I would like. This appeared to +be my cue, and I accordingly proceeded to explain that I had not come to +ask for more books but only to bring back the two books I had already +reviewed and to thank the editors. I quite understood that there was no +more work for me. + +Then, to my amazement, Mr. Townsend, with that vividness of expression +which was his, said something to the effect that they had only said that +when they didn't know that I could write. The position, it appeared, had +been entirely changed by the review of _Gulliver's Travels_ and +they hoped very much that I should be able to do regular work for _The +Spectator_. Mr. Hutton chimed in with equally kind and appreciative +words, and I can well remember the pleasant confusion caused in my mind +by the evident satisfaction of my future chiefs. I was actually hailed +as "a writer and critic of the first force." + +To say that I returned home elated would not be exactly true. Bewildered +would more accurately describe my state of mind. I had genuinely +believed that my attempt to give the final word of criticism upon +_Gulliver's Travels_--that is what a young man always thinks, and +ought to think, he is doing in the matter of literary criticism--had +been a total failure. Surely I couldn't be wrong about my own work. Yet +_The Spectator_ editors were evidently not mad or pulling my leg or +even flattering me! It was a violent mystery. + +Of course I was pleased at heart, but I tried to unload some of my +liabilities to Nemesis by the thought that my new patrons would probably +get tired of my manner of writing before very long. What had captured +them for the moment was merely a certain novelty of style. They would +very soon see through it, as I had done in my poignant self-criticism. +But this prudent view was before long, in a couple of days, to be exact, +knocked on the head by a delightful letter which Mr. Townsend wrote to +my father. In it he expressed himself even more strongly in regard to +the review than he had done in speaking to me. + +I honestly think that what I liked best in the whole business was the +element of adventure. There was something thrilling and, so, intensely +delightful to me in the thought, that I had walked down to Wellington +Street, like a character in a novel, prepared for a setback, only to +find that Fate was there, "hid in an auger-hole," ready to rush and +seize me. Somehow or other I felt, though I would not admit it even to +myself, that the incident had been written in the Book of Destiny, and +that it was one which was going to affect my whole life. Of course, +being, like other young men, a creature governed wholly by reason and +good sense, I scouted the notion of a destined day as sentimental and +ridiculous. Still, the facts were "as stated," and could not be +altogether denied. + +Looking back at the lucky accident which brought the right book, the +right reviewer, and the properly-tuned editors together, I am bound to +say that I think that the editors were right and that I had produced +good copy. At any rate, their view being what it was, I have no sort of +doubt that they were quite right to express it as plainly and as +generously as they did to me. To have followed the conventional rule of +not puffing up a young man with praise and to have guarded their true +opinion as a kind of guilty secret would have been distinctly unfair to +me, nay, prejudicial. There are, I suppose, a certain number of young +people to whom it would be unsafe to give a full measure of eulogy. But +these are a small minority. The ordinary young man or young woman is +much more likely to be encouraged or sometimes even alarmed by unstinted +praise. Generous encouragement is the necessary mental nourishment of +youth, and those who withhold it from them are not only foolish but +cruel. They are keeping food from the hungry. + +If my editors had told me that they thought the review rather a poor +piece of work, I should, by "the law of reversed effort," have been +almost certain to have taken up a combative line and have convinced +myself that it was epoch-making. When a man thinks himself overpraised, +if he has anything in him at all, he begins to get anxious about his +next step. He is put very much on his mettle not to lose what he has +gained. + +It may amuse my readers, if I quote a few sentences from the article, +and allow them to see whether their judgment coincides with that of my +chiefs at _The Spectator_ on a matter which was for me fraught with +the decrees of Destiny. This is how I began my review of Swift and his +masterpiece: + +"Never anyone living thought like you," said to Swift the woman who +loved him with a passion that had caught some of his own fierceness and +despair. The love which great natures inspire had endowed Vanessa with a +rare inspiration. Half-consciously she has touched the notes that help +us to resolve the discord in Swift's life. Truly, the mind of living man +never worked as Swift's worked. That this is so is visible in every +line, in every word he ever wrote. No phrase of his is like any other +man's; no conception of his is ever cast in the common mould. It is this +that lends something so dreadful and mysterious to all Swift's writings. + +From this time I began to get books regularly from _The Spectator_ +and to pay periodical visits to the office, where I learned to +understand and to appreciate my chiefs. But more of them later. The year +1886 was one of political convulsion, the year of the great split in the +Liberal Party; the year in which Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain +finally severed themselves from Mr. Gladstone and began that co- +operation with the Conservatives which resulted in the formation of the +Unionist Party. I do not, however, want to deal here with the Unionist +crisis, except so far as it affected me and _The Spectator_. While +my father and my elder brother remained Liberals and followed Mr. +Gladstone, I followed Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Goschen. +My conversion was not in any way sought by my new friends and chiefs at +_The Spectator_ office, though they at once took the Unionist side. +I have no doubt, however, that my intercourse with Hutton and Townsend +had its effect, though I also think that my mind was naturally Unionist +in politics. I was already a Lincoln worshipper in American history and +desired closer union with the Dominions, not separation. I was for +concentration, not dispersion, in the Empire. In any case, I took the +plunge, one which might have been painful if my father had not been the +most just, the most fair-minded, and the most kind-hearted of men. +Although he was an intense, nay, a fierce Gladstonian, I never had the +slightest feeling of estrangement from him or he from me. It happened, +however, that the break-up of the Liberal Party affected me greatly at +_The Spectator_. When the election of 1886 took place, I was asked +by a friend and Somersetshire neighbour, Mr. Henry Hobhouse, who had +become, like me, a Liberal Unionist, to act as his election agent. This +I did, though, as a matter of fact, he was unopposed. The moment he was +declared elected I made out my return as election agent and went +straight back to my work in London. Almost at once I received a letter +which surprised me enormously. It was from Mr. Hutton, telling me that +Mr. Townsend had gone away for his usual summer holiday, and that he +wanted someone to come and help him by writing a couple of leaders a +week and some of the notes. I, of course, was delighted at the prospect, +for my mind was full of politics and I was longing to have my say. Here +again, though it did not consciously occur to me that I was in for +anything big, I seem to have had some sort of subconscious premonition. +At any rate, I accepted with delight and well remember my talk at the +office before taking up my duties. My editor explained to me that Mr. +Asquith, who had been up till the end of 1885 the writer of a weekly +leader in _The Spectator_ and also a holiday writer, had now +severed his connection with the paper, owing to his entry into active +politics. It did not occur to me, however, that I was likely to get the +post of regular leader-writer in his stead, though this was what +actually happened. + +I left the office, I remember, greatly pleased with the two subjects +upon which I was to write. The first article was to be an exhortation to +the Conservative side of the Unionist Party not to be led into thinking +that they were necessarily a minority in the country and that they could +not expect any but a minute fraction of working-men to be on their side. +With all the daring of twenty-six I set out to teach the Conservative +party their business. This is how I began my article which appeared on +the 24th of July, 1886. + +In their hearts the Conservatives cannot really believe that anyone with +less than £100 a year willingly votes on their side. A victory in a +popular constituency always astonishes them. They cannot restrain a +feeling that by all the rules of reason and logic they ought to have +lost. What inducement, they wonder, can the working-men have to vote for +them? Lord Beaconsfield, of course, never shared such notions as +these.... Yet his party never sincerely believed what he told them, and +only followed him because they saw no other escape from their +difficulties. The last extension of the franchise has again shown that +he was right, and that in no conditions of life do Englishmen vote as a +herd. + +Here is how I ended it: + +Conciliation or Coercion was the cry everywhere. And yet the majority of +the new voters, to their eternal honour, proved their political infancy +so full of sense and patriotism that they let go by unheeded the appeals +to their class-prejudices and to their emotions, and chose, instead, the +harder and seemingly less generous policy, based on reason rather than +on sentiment, on conviction rather than on despair. As the trial was +severe, so is the honour due to the new voters lasting and conspicuous. + +The length of the quotation is justified by its effect on--my life. For +me it has another interest. In re-reading it, I note that, right or +wrong, it takes exactly the view of the English democracy which I have +always taken and which I hold today as strongly as I did forty years +ago. + +The article had an instant reaction. It delighted Mr. Townsend, who, +though he did not _know_ it was by me, guessed that it was mine, +and wrote at once to ask me whether, when Mr. Hutton went on his +holiday, I could remain at work as his assistant. Very soon after, he +suggested, with a swift generosity that still warms my heart, that if I +liked to give up the Bar, for which I was still supposing myself to be +reading, I could have a permanent place at _The Spectator_, and +even, if I remember rightly, hinted that I might look forward to +succeeding the first of the two partners who died or retired, and so to +becoming joint editor or joint proprietor. That prospect I do admit took +away my breath. With the solemn caution of youth, or at any rate with +youth's delight in irony in action, I almost felt that I should have to +go and make representations to my chief about his juvenile impetuosity +and want of care and prudence. Surely he must see that he had not had +enough experience of me yet to make so large a proposition, that it was +absurd, and so forth. _O sancta simplicitas!_ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW I CAME TO "THE SPECTATOR" (_Continued_) + + +Even the success chronicled in the preceding chapter did not exhaust the +store of good luck destined for my first appearance as a political +leader-writer. Fate again showed its determination to force me upon +_The Spectator_. When I arrived at the office on the Tuesday +morning following the publication of the number of the paper in which my +first two leaders appeared, I found that the second leader had done even +better than the first. Its title seemed appallingly dull, and, I +remember, called forth a protest from Mr. Hutton when I suggested +writing it. It was entitled "The Privy Council and the Colonies." I had +always been an ardent Imperialist, and I had taken to Constitutional Law +like a duck to the water, and felt strongly, like so many young men +before me, the intellectual attraction of legal problems and still more +the majesty and picturesqueness of our great Tribunals. Especially had I +been fascinated by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and its +world-wide jurisdiction. I had even helped to draw some pleadings in a +Judicial Committee case when in Chambers. Accordingly, though with some +difficulty, I persuaded Mr. Hutton to let me have my say and show what a +potent bond of Empire was to be found therein. I also wanted to +emphasise how further ties of Imperial unity might be developed on +similar lines--a fact, I may say, which was not discovered by the +practical politicians till about the year 1912, or twenty-seven years +later. + +Now it happened that Mr. Gladstone's Ministry, though beaten at the +elections, had not yet gone out of office. It also happened that Lord +Granville, then Colonial Secretary, was to receive the Agents-General of +the self-governing Colonies, as they were then called, on the Saturday; +and finally, that Lord Granville had a fit of the gout. The result of +the last fact was that he had to put off preparing his speech till the +last possible moment. When he had been wheeled in a chair into the +reception-room--his foot was too painful to allow him to walk--he began +his address to the Deputation in these terms: + +In a very remarkable article which appears in this week's +_Spectator_ it is pointed out "that people are apt to overlook the +importance of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as one of the +bonds that unite the Colonies and the Mother Country." + +He then went on to use the article as the foundation for his speech. I +had talked about the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council being a +body which "binds without friction and links without strain," and Lord +Granville did the same. + +But of this speech I knew nothing when I entered The _Spectator_ +office on my fateful second Tuesday. I was only intent to get +instructions for new leaders. Besides, I had been away on a country- +house visit from the Saturday to the Monday, and had missed Monday's +_Times_. I was therefore immensely surprised when Mr. Hutton, from +the depths of his beard, asked me in deep tones whether I had seen +_The Times_ of Monday, and what was said therein about my Privy +Council article. I admit that for a moment I thought I had been guilty +of some appalling blunder and that, as the soldiers say, I was "for it" +However, I saw that I must face the music as best I could, and admitted +that I had not seen the paper. "Then you ought to have," was Mr. +Hutton's not very reassuring reply. He got up, went to a side-table, +and, after much digging into a huge heap of papers, extracted Monday's +_Times_ and with his usual gruff good-temper read out the opening +words of Lord Granville's speech. He was, in fact, greatly delighted, +and almost said in so many words that it wasn't every day that the +Editors of _The Spectator_ could draw Cabinet Ministers to +advertise their paper. + +Certainly it was astonishingly good luck for a "commencing journalist" +to bring down two birds with two articles, _i.e._, to hit one of +his own editors with one article, and to bag a Cabinet Minister with the +other. + +No doubt the perfectly cautious man would have said, "This is an +accident, a mere coincidence, it means nothing and will never happen +again." Fortunately people do not argue in that rational and statistical +spirit. All my chiefs knew or cared was that I had written good stuff +and on a very technical subject, and that I had caught the ear of the +man who, considering the subject, most mattered--the Secretary of State +for the Colonies. + +Anyway, my two first trial leaders had done the trick and I was from +that moment free of _The Spectator_. Townsend's holiday succeeded +to Hutton's, and when the holidays were over, including my own, which +not unnaturally took me to Venice,--"_Italiam petimus_" should +always be the motto of an English youth,--I returned to take up the +position of a weekly leader-writer and holiday-understudy, a mixed post +which by the irony of fate, as I have already said, had just been +vacated by Mr. Asquith. Here was an adventure indeed, and I can say +again with perfect sincerity that for me the greatest delight of the +whole thing was this element of the Romantic. + +I was quite sensible that I had had the devil's own luck in my capture +of a post on _The Spectator_. Indeed, I very much preferred that, +to the thought that the good fortune that was mine was the reward of a +grinding and ignoble perseverance. I was in no mood for the drab +virtues. I hugged the thought that it was not through my merits but +because I possessed a conquering star that I had got where I was. + +Curiously enough, I had never dreamed of joining _The Spectator_ +staff or even of becoming its Editor. I had imagined every other sort of +strange and sudden preferment, of frantic proprietors asking me at a +moment's notice to edit their papers, or of taking up some great and +responsible position, but never of carrying by assault 1 Wellington +Street. But that, of course, made it all the more delightful. No one +could have prepared me a greater or a more grateful surprise. + +It is strange to look back and see how at this moment that mystery which +we barbarously call "the force of circumstances" seemed to have +determined not merely to drive in my nail but to hammer it up to the +head. It happened that both Mr. Hutton and Mr. Townsend had great belief +in the literary judgment of Canon Ainger, a man, it is to be feared, now +almost forgotten, but whose opinion was looked upon in the 'eighties and +'nineties with something approaching reverence. + +In 1886--my "Spectator" year, as I may call it--when I was acting as +election-agent to Mr. Henry Hobhouse, I happened to be searching in the +old library at Hadspen House for something to read, something with which +to occupy the time of waiting between the issue of the writ and +nomination-day. If there was to be no opposition it did not seem worth +while to get too busy over the electorate. We remained, therefore, in a +kind of enchanter's circle until nomination-day was over. It was a time +in which everybody whispered mysteriously that a very strong candidate, +name unknown, would suddenly appear at Yeovil, Langport, or Chard--I +forget which of these pleasant little towns was the place of nomination +--and imperil our chances. As was natural to me then, and, I must +confess, would be natural to me now, my search for a book took me +straight to that part of the library in which the poets congregated. My +eye wandered over the shelves, and lighted upon _Poems in the +Dorsetshire Dialect_ by the Rev. William Barnes. Hadspen House was +quite close to the Dorset border. I was interested and I took down the +volume. I don't think I had ever heard of Barnes before, but being very +fond of the Somersetshire dialect and proud of my ability to speak in +it, my first impulse was rather to turn up my nose at the vernacular of +a neighbouring county. It was, then, with a decided inclination to look +a gift-horse in the mouth that I retired with Barnes to my den. Yet, as +Hafiz says, "by this a world was affected." I opened the poems at the +enchanting stanzas, "Lonesome woodlands! zunny woodlands!" and was +transported. In a moment I realised that for me a new foot was on the +earth, a new name come down from Heaven. I read and read, and can still +remember how the exquisite rhythm of "Woak Hill" was swept into my mind, +to make there an impression which will never be obliterated while life +lives in my brain. I did not know, in that delirium of exaltation which +a poetic discovery always makes in the heart of a youth, whether most to +admire the bold artifice of the man who had adapted an unrhymed Persian +metre--the Pearl--to the needs of a poem in the broadest Dorsetshire +dialect, or the deep intensity of the emotion with which he had clothed +a glorious piece of prosodiac scholarship. + +I recognised at once that the poem was fraught with a pathos as +magnificent as anything in the whole range of classic literature--and +also that this pathos had that touch of stableness in sorrow which we +associate, and rightly associate, with the classics. Miserably bad +scholar as I was, and am, I knew enough to see that the Dorsetshire +schoolmaster and village parson had dared to challenge the deified +Virgil himself. The depth of feeling in the lines-- + + An' took her wi' air-reachen arm + To my zide at Woak Hill + +is not exceeded even by those which tell how Æneas filled his arms with +the empty air when he stretched them to enfold the dead Creusa. + +Upon the last two stanzas in "Woak Hill" I may as truly be said to have +lived for a month as Charles Lamb lived upon "Rose Aylmer." + + An' that's why folk thought, for a season, + My mind were a-wandren + Wi' sorrow, when I wer so sorely + A-tried at Woak Hill. + + But no; that my Mary mid never + Behold herzelf slighted, + I wanted to think that I guided + My guide from Woak Hill. + +Equally potent was the spell cast by what is hardly less great a poem +than "Woak Hill," the enchanting "Evenen, an' Maids out at Door." There +the Theocritus of the West dares to use not merely the words of common +speech and primitive origin, but words drawn from Low Latin and of +administrative connotation. Barnes achieves this triumph in words with +perfect ease. He can use a word like "parish" not, as Crabbe did, for +purposes of pure narration but in a passage of heightened rhetoric: + +But when you be a-lost vrom the parish, zome more Will come on in your +pleazen to bloom an' to die; An' the zummer will always have maidens +avore Their doors, vor to chatty an' zee volk goo by. + +For daughters ha' mornen when mothers ha' night, An' there's beauty +alive when the fairest is dead; As when one sparklen wave do zink down +from the light, Another do come up an' catch it instead. + +Rightly did the Edinburgh reviewer of the 'thirties, in noticing Barnes's +poems--the very edition from which I was reading, perfect, by the way, +in its ribbed paper and clear print--declare "there has been no such art +since Horace." And here I may interpolate that the reviewer in question +was Mr. George Venables, who was within a year to become a friend of +mine. He and his family were close friends of my wife's people, and when +after my marriage I met him, a common love of Barnes brought together +the ardent worshipper of the new schools of poetry, for such I was, and +the old and distinguished lawyer who was Thackeray's contemporary at the +Charterhouse. Barnes was for us both a sign of literary freemasonry +which at once made us recognise each other as fellow-craftsmen. + +Bewildered readers will ask how my discovery of Barnes affected my +position at _The Spectator_. It happened in this way. A couple of +weeks after I had been established at _The Spectator_ as a +"_verus socius_" Barnes died, at a very great age. It was one of +those cases in which death suddenly makes a man visible to the +generation into which he has survived. Barnes had outlived not only his +contemporaries but his renown, and most of the journalists detailed to +write his obituary notice had evidently found it a hard task to say why +he should be held in remembrance. + +But by a pure accident here was I, in the high tide of my enthusiasm for +my new poet. Needless to say I was only too glad to have a chance to let +myself go on Barnes, and so was entrusted with the Barnes Obituary +article for _The Spectator_. + +The result was that the next week my chiefs showed me a letter one of +them had received from Canon Ainger, asking for the name of the +"evidently new hand" who had written on Barnes, and making some very +complimentary remarks on his work. It was eminently characteristic of +them that instead of being a little annoyed at being told that an +article had appeared in _The Spectator_ with an unexpected literary +charm, they were as genuinely delighted as I was. + +In any case, the incident served, as I have said, to drive the nail up +to the head and to make Mr. Hutton and Mr. Townsend feel that they had +not been rash in their choice, and had got a man who could do literature +as well as politics. + +Not being without a sense of superstition, at any rate where cats are +concerned, and a devout lover of "the furred serpent," I may record the +last, the complete rite of my initiation at _The Spectator_ office. +While I was one day during my novitiate talking over articles and +waiting for instructions--or, rather, finding articles for my chiefs to +write about, for that very soon became the routine--a large, +consequential, not to say stout black Tom-cat slowly entered the room, +walked round me, sniffed at my legs in a suspicious manner, and then, to +my intense amazement and amusement, hurled himself from the floor with +some difficulty and alighted upon my shoulder. Mr. Townsend, who loved +anything dramatic, though he did not love animals as Mr. Hutton did, +pointed to the cat and muttered dramatically, "Hutton, just look at +that!" + +He went on to declare that the cat very seldom honoured "upstairs" with +his presence, but kept himself, as a rule, strictly to himself, in the +basement. Apparently, however, the sagacious beast had realised that +there was a new element in the office, and had come to inspect it and +see whether he could give it his approval or not. When it was given, it +was conceded by all concerned that the appointment had received its +consecration. Like "the Senior Fellow" in Sir Frederick Pollock's poem +on the College Cat, I was passed by the highest authority in the office. + + One said, "The Senior Fellow's vote!" + The Senior Fellow, black of coat, + Save where his front was white, + Arose and sniffed the stranger's shoes + With critic nose, as ancients use + To judge mankind aright. + + I--for 'twas I who tell the tale-- + Conscious of fortune's trembling scale, + Awaited the decree; + But Tom had judged: "He loves our race," + And, as to his ancestral place, + He leapt upon my knee. + + Thenceforth, in common-room and hall, + A _verus socius_ known to all, + I came and went and sat, + Far from cross fate's or envy's reach; + For none a title could impeach + Accepted by the cat. + +It was at this time that Mr. Townsend wrote me, on behalf of himself and +his partner, a letter stating definitely that if I would devote myself +to _The Spectator_, he and Hutton would guarantee me at once a +certain salary, though I might still take any work I liked outside. But +this was not all. The letter went on to say that the first of the +partners who died or retired would offer me a half-share of the paper. +It was pointed out that, of course, that might conceivably mean a fairly +long apprenticeship, but that it was far more likely to mean a short +one. It proved to be neither the one nor the other, but what might be +called a compromise period of some ten years. + +And so in the course of a very few weeks my fate had been decided for me +and the question I had so often put to myself: Should I stick to the Bar +or throw in my lot with journalism? was answered. A great wave had +seized me and cast me up upon the shore of 1 Wellington Street. I felt +breathless but happy. Though I did not fully realise how deeply my life +had been affected by the decision or how strange in some ways was the +course that lay before me, I had an instinctive feeling that I must +follow wholeheartedly the path of Destiny. I determined to free my mind +from all thoughts of a return to the Bar. I shut my eyes for ever to the +vision of myself as Lord Chancellor or Lord Chief Justice--a vision that +has haunted every young man who has ever embarked upon the study of +English Law;--the vision of which Dr. Johnson, even at the end of his +life, could not speak without profound emotion. + +I acted promptly. I at once gave up my nice little room in the Temple. +It was about eight foot square, furnished with one table, one arm-chair, +one cane chair, and a bookcase, and dignified by the name of Chambers. I +sometimes wonder now whether, if I could have looked down the long +avenue of the years and seen the crowded, turbulent series of events +which, as Professor Einstein has taught us, was rushing upon me like a +tiger on its prey, I should have been alarmed or not. I should have seen +many things exciting, many things sad, many things difficult, but above +all I should have seen what could only have been described as a +veritable snowstorm of written and printed pages. + +I have sometimes, as every man will, reversed the process, looked back +and reviewed the past. On such occasions I have been half inclined to +make the reflection, common to all journalists, when they survey the +monumental works of our brethren in the superior ranks of the literary +profession: "Have I not cast my life and energy away on things ephemeral +and unworthy? Have not I preferred a kind of glorified pot-boiling to +the service of the spirit?" In the end, however, like the painter with +the journalist's heart in Robert Browning's poem, I console myself for +having enlisted among the tradesmen of literature rather than among the +artists: + + For I have done some service in my time, + And not been paid profusely. + Let some great soul write my six thousand leaders! + +It is, I admit, an appalling thought to have covered so much paper and +used so much ink. But, after all, an apology may be made for mere volume +in journalism analogous to that made for it by Dr. Johnson when he said +that poets must to some extent be judged by their quantity as well as +their quality. Anyway, I am inclined to be proud of my output. When an +occasion like the present makes me turn back to my old articles, I am +glad to say that my attitude, far from being one of shame, is more like +that of the Duke of Wellington. When quite an old man, somebody brought +him his Indian Despatches to look over. As he read he is recorded to +have muttered: "Damned good! I don't know how the devil I ever managed +to write 'em." + +The tale of how I came to _The Spectator_ is finished. I must now +describe what sort of a youth it was who got there, and what were the +influences that had gone to his making. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MY PHYSICAL HOME, MY FAMILY, AND MY GOOD FORTUNE THEREIN + + +The autobiographer, or at any rate the writer of the type of +autobiography on which I am engaged, need not apologise for being +egotistical. If he is not that he is nothing. He must start with the +assumption that people want to hear about him and to hear it from +himself. Further, he must be genuinely and actively interested in his +own life and therefore write about it willingly and with zest. If you +get anywhere near the position of an autobiographer, "_invitus_," +addressing a reader, "_invitum_," the game is up. + +It would, then, be an absurdity to pretend to avoid egotism. + +It would be almost as futile to apologise for being trivial. All details +of human life are interesting, or can be made interesting, especially if +they can be shown to be contributory to the development of the subject +on the Anatomy-table. The elements that contributed to the building up +of the man under observation are sure to be worth recording. + +The autobiographer who is going to succeed with his task must set down +whatever he believes went to the making of his mind and soul, and of +that highly composite product which constitutes a human being. Nothing +is too small or too unimportant to be worthy of record. But people to +whom criticism is a passion and who love it even more than life, and +they are often very valuable people, will say, "Are we not, then, to be +allowed to dub your book trivial, if we think so?" Of course they must +have that license, but they must make good the plea of triviality, not +in the facts but in the exposition. _There_ no man has a right to +be trivial, or empty, or commonplace. Whatever is recorded must be +recorded worthily. + +Take a plain example. If I set forth to describe my crossing Waterloo +Bridge on a particular day in a particular year, I must not merely on +that ground be attacked for triviality. I may be able to show, in the +first place, that the crossing by that bridge and not, let us say, by +using Hungerford Bridge or Blackfriars Bridge, affected my life. I may +also be able to describe my walk or drive in such a way that it will +make a deep impress upon the reader's mind. In a word, to get judgment +against me, the critic must demur, not on my facts but on a point of +literature, that is, on my method of presentation. + +In considering the multitude of things which have gone to make me what I +am, which have drawn into a single strand the innumerable threads that +the Fates have been spinning for me ever since they began their dread +business, what strikes me most of all and first of all is my good +fortune. I may, on a future occasion, complain that in middle life and +in later life I did not have good luck, but bad luck, but I should be an +ingrate to Destiny if I did not admit that nothing could have been more +happy than the circumstances with which I was surrounded at my birth-- +the circumstances which made the boy, who made the youth, who made the +man. + +Above all, I was fortunate in my father and my mother. Though I must put +them first in honour on my record, as first in time and in memory, I can +show them best by touching in a preliminary study on those surroundings, +moral and intellectual, into which I was born. + +[Illustration: View of the North Front of Sutton Court, in the County of +Somerset, the Family House of the Stracheys.] + +In the first place, I count myself specially happy in that my parents +were people of moderate fortune. They were not too poor to give me the +pleasures and the freedoms of a liberal education, and of all that used +to be included in the phrase "easy circumstances." Ours was a pleasant +and leisurely way of life, undisturbed by the major worries and +anxieties of narrow means. + +On the other hand, my home surroundings were not of the pompous, +luxurious kind which makes nothing moral or physical matter very much, +which drowns a man in security. I knew what it was to want a thing, and +to be told that it was much too expensive to be thought of. I knew I +should have to make my way in life like my ancestors before me, for not +only was my family in no sense a rich one, but I was a second son, who +could only look forward to a second son's portion,--an honourable +distinction, this, and one of which my father and my mother were often +wont to speak. + +I had, in a word, all the pride of a second son, a creature devoted to +carving his own way to fame and fortune. I will not say that my parents +wanted to console me for being a second son and for seeing my elder +brother inherit the estate and Sutton the beloved, for that was never +thought of or dreamt of by them, or by me. On the contrary, I was told +in all sincerity, and firmly believe now, as I did then, that though +somebody must keep the flame alight on the family altar, where it was +lighted so long ago, and though this duty fell to the eldest son, I need +not envy him. He was tied. I as a younger son was left free, +untrammelled, the world before me. If I was worthy of my fate, the ball +was at my feet. Such was the policy of younger sons, and so it was +handed on to me. + +Again, I was fortunate in being brought up in the country, and not in +London or near some great town;--in being, that is, the inmate of "an +English country-house" in the accepted sense, a place to which a certain +definite way of life pertains, especially when the house is not bought, +but inherited, and is regarded with a peculiar veneration and admiration +by all who live in it. + +The love of some old "house in the country" constitutes a family +freemasonry, of which those who have not actually experienced it can +form no conception. It unites those who differ in opinion, in age, in +outlook on life, and in circumstances. It is the password of the heart. + +Call a dog-kennel Sutton, and I should love it. How much more so when it +stands beside its sheltering elms and limes, with its terraces looking +to the blue line of Mendip, its battlemented and flower-tufted fortress +wall, and its knightly Tower built for security and defence. + +In a word, I had the supreme good-luck to be born the second son of a +Somersetshire squire and to be brought up in a Somersetshire country- +house. If the reader would know what that means to a Somersetshire man, +let him turn to Coryat's _Crudities_ and see what the Elizabethan +tourist says in his Introduction as to the possession of a Manor in the +county aforesaid. + +But I must be careful not to give a false impression. Sutton is no +palace in miniature, no grandiose expression of the spacious days of +Elizabeth, no pompous outcome of Vanbrugh's magnificent mind, no piece +of reticent elegance by Adams. Instead, it may well seem to the visiting +stranger little more than a fortuitous concourse of mediaeval, +Elizabethan, Jacobean, and modern atoms, which time and the country +builder, too unlearned to be vulgar, have harmonized into a very +moderate, though admittedly attractive, "country seat," of the smaller +sort. + +Just as the house had nothing grand about it, so the life lived in it +was not in the least like that described in the old-fashioned sporting +or Society novel, or in the Christmas Number of an Illustrated Paper or +Magazine. Neither my home nor my family was by any means "typical," +which so often means very untypical. This is specially true of the +Family. They were not in my time, and, indeed, never have been, persons +"complete with" fox-hounds, racers, cellars of port, mortgages, gaming +or elections debts, obsequious tenantry, and a brutal enforcement of the +Game Laws, varied by the semi-fraudulent enclosure of the poor man's +common. With such rural magnificoes, if they ever existed in that form, +which I greatly doubt, we had nothing in common. Even when reduced to +reasonable limits, the picture will not fit the majority of English +country-houses and country gentlemen. + +In the first place, the Stracheys could not afford the type of life +depicted by the novelists and satirists, and, in the second place, they +had not the opportunity. Their eldest sons always had to do something in +the world, and even when in possession of the estate were by no means +inclined to spend their lives as nothing but sportsmen. Certainly my +ancestors never showed any inclination to vegetate, or to live gun in +hand and spaniel at heel, like the squires in the old engravings and +colour-prints. + +Here I may say parenthetically that we have the good luck to possess +many old family papers at Sutton. I used to read long and happily in +these as a boy, and early saw the falsehood of the conventional, feudal +view of the English squirearchy. When I worked back to the mediaeval +possessors of Sutton, I could find nothing to satisfy my youthful dreams +of knights in armour doing deeds of prowess, or even of tyranny upon +"the villagers crouching at their feet." Instead, I found, with some +disappointment, I admit, that the very first record in regard to Sutton +was that of a dispute in the law-courts with the local parson--a dispute +which is, of course, perennial in all villages and "quiet places by +rivers or among woods." It is as active now as it was in the twelfth +century. + +Whether Sir Walter de Sutton, with half a knight's fee, for that, +apparently, was the proper legal description of the Sutton Court estate, +got the best of the Vicar, or the Vicar of him, does not seem to have +been recorded. Anyway, they went for each other, not with lance in rest, +on the one side, and Holy Water, bell, book, and candle on the other, +but with attorneys, and writs, and motions in arrest of judgment, and +all the formulae which can be seen at work in the Year Books of Edward +II, for that was the date of the Tower, and of the aforesaid Walter de +Sutton. + +As I shall show later, when I come to deal with my ancestry, Sutton was +never a "Heartbreak House." In each succeeding generation it held the +place which it held when I was young, and which, Heaven be praised! it +still holds. A small, comfortable, yet dignified manor-house, surrounded +by farmhouses and cottages in which live still just the kind of people +who have lived there throughout the period of legal or of literary +memory--the period described as that to which "the memory of man runneth +not to the contrary." + +The village people were poor, but yet not dependent; people not, +perhaps, very enterprising, and yet with a culture of their own; and +people, above all, with natural dignity and good manners shown to those +they like and respect, though often with a conventional set of bad +manners to use, if required, as armour against a rough world. These are +always produced when they are inclined to suspect strangers of regarding +them with patronage, ridicule, or contempt. + +At this day I could show a rural labourer living in one of the Sutton +Court cottages, aged eighty-three or so, who lived there when I was a +boy and looked then, to my eyes, almost exactly as he does now. Tall, +distinguished, with not merely good manners but a good manner, and with +real refinement of speech, though a strong Somersetshire accent, Israel +Veal would show nothing of himself to a stranger. Probably he would +speak so little, though quite politely, that he would be put down as +"one of those muddle-headed, stupid yokels with little or no mind," who, +according to the townsman, "moulder" in country villages "till they +become demented." + +Yet when, a year ago, I introduced my son to him, though my son was, +till then, unknown to him, he at once talked freely. He had got the +password and knew all was safe and well. He proceeded at once to tell +him what he had often told me--how he had "helped to put Sir Henry" (my +father's uncle, whom he succeeded) "into his coffin." He then went on to +describe how (in 1858) the coffin was carried on men's shoulders the +whole way to Chew Magna to be buried there in the Strachey Chapel. The +event set down in cold print does not sound of very great interest or +importance. It will seem, indeed, at first hearing to partake a little +too much of the countryman of the melodrama, or of the comic papers, who +always talks about funerals and corpses. As a matter of fact, however, +Israel Veal has so little self-consciousness and possesses such a gift +for dignified narration that, told by him, the story, if indeed it can +be called a story, always seems of real significance. There is something +of the air of the prophet about the narrator, though he indulge in no +prophecy. I found myself, indeed, saying to my son, "I am so glad you +have heard that as I used to hear it," quite imagining for the moment +that it was a piece of family lore of high import which was being +sacramentally passed on by the old retainer. + +At Sutton, though I was not brought up in a hunting-stable, or amid a +crowd of gamekeepers, and so forth, we had the usual establishment of a +country-gentleman of moderate means in the 'seventies. My mother had a +comfortable, heavy landau, with a pair of quiet horses, still officially +and in bills called "coach-horses." My father had a small brougham of +his own for doing magistrate's work, drawn by a horse believed to be of +a very fiery disposition, and called "Black Bess." I and my brothers had +ponies on whose backs we spent many hours. My father had been an invalid +most of his life, and, owing to a stiff knee, could not ride. But, +though an anxious parent, he wisely realised that an Englishman must if +possible know how to use the back of a horse. Ours was a bad riding +country, owing to the great number of small fields, but we galloped up +and down the roads with a youthful lack of consideration for our horses' +legs. Curiously enough, there were no hounds near us, and therefore I +never actually rode to hounds till I was forty. Happily, however, I was +familiar with the saddle, and, though an exceedingly careless rider, had +not, even after nearly twenty years' intermission of riding, to re-learn +my grip. + +Even now, to get on a horse and ride through woods and lanes and over +Downs and Commons is an enormous pleasure, and if a mild jump or two can +be added I am transported into the Seventh Heaven. To me the greatest of +all physical enjoyments has always been the sensation produced by a +horse with all four legs off the ground. + +There was another aspect of the country-house, which I am sure was not +without its effect. My father, though he knew little or nothing about +agriculture, was to a great extent his own agent, and therefore the +farmers and the cottage tenants were constantly coming to the house to +consult him and to talk over small matters. There also came to him +pretty frequently people on police and magistrate's business, to get +warrants signed, so that the offenders could be legally held till +brought before the Petty Sessions. At these interviews, whether +economic, administrative, or constabulary, I and my brothers were +permitted to attend. While my father sat at his table in what was called +"the magistrate's room," or "Sir Edward's business room," and the other +persons of the drama either sat opposite him, if they were merely on +business, or stood if they were accompanied by a policeman, we children +sat discreetly on a sofa on my father's side of the room and listened +with all our ears. + +It was always interesting and curious, and occasionally we had a real +piece of dramatic "fat," in the shape of charges of witchcraft. Assaults +or threatening language "likely to cause breaches of the Peace" were +also regarded as highly diverting. Charges of witchcraft were usually +levelled by one old lady against another. One might hear accounts of how +intrepid men and women nailed down the footsteps of the witch, of how +deadly-nightshade was grown over the porch of a cottage to keep off +witches, and how evil spirits in the shape of squeaking chickens +frequented the woman who was "overlooked." My father did his best to +make peace and subdue superstition, but it was quite easy to see that +his audiences, especially when they were women, regarded him as a victim +of ignorance. "Poor gentleman, he don't understand a word about it." +That was their attitude. + +Lastly, my country home had what so many English country-houses have, a +largish library. The hoary tradition that English squires are as a class +illiterate, which they are not even when inordinately given to sport, +has no foundation. In the Great Parlour, for so it was called, there +were plenty of good books, and I was early turned loose among them. My +father would have thought it a crime to keep books from a boy on the +plea that he might injure the bindings or lose the volumes or get harm +from unlicensed reading. I did exactly what I liked in the library and +browsed about with a splendid incoherence which would have shocked a +pedant, but delighted a true man of letters. Now I would open the folio +edition of Ben Jonson, now Congreve's plays and poems printed by +Baskerville; now a volume of "Counsel's Brief delivered in the defence +of Warren Hastings Esqre. at his impeachment," which we happened to +possess; now _Travels to the Court of Ashanti_; now _Chinese +Punishments_; now Flaxman's Illustrations to the _Iliad_, the +_Odyssey_, or _Dante_. + +Those were glorious days, for one had real leisure. One varied the +turning over of books in the Great Parlour with a scamper on one's pony, +with visits to the strawberry bed, and with stretching oneself full- +length on a sofa, or the hearth-rug in the Hall, reading four or five +books at a time. In such an atmosphere it was easy to forget one's +proper lessons and the abhorred dexterity of Greek and Latin +grammarians. + +If the physical "aura" of Sutton Court was delightful and stimulating to +mind and body, still more stimulating and of still happier chance was +the mental atmosphere. I may class myself as thrice-blessed in being +brought up in Whig ideas, in a Whig family, with Whig traditions, for in +spite of the stones, intellectual and political, that have been thrown +at them, salvation is of the Whigs. When I speak thus of the Whigs I do +not, of course, mean Whiggism of the Whig aristocracy as represented by +modern Tory historians, or by the parasitic sycophants of a militant +Proletariat. I mean true Whig principles--the principles of Halifax, of +Somers, of Locke, of Addison, and of Steele--the principles of the Bill +of Rights and of "the Glorious Revolution of 1688";--the Whiggism which +had its origin in the party of Cromwell and of the Independents, of John +Milton and of Richard Baxter, the party which even in its decadence +flowered in England in Chatham and William Pitt, and in America in +Washington, John Adams, and the founders of the Republic. Whig +principles to me mean that the will of the majority of the nation as a +whole must prevail, and not the will of any section, even if it is a +large section and does manual work. These are the principles which are +in deadly opposition to Jacobinism and Bolshevism. Under Jacobinism and +Bolshevism, as their inventors proclaim, true policy must be made to +prevail by force, or fraud, if necessary. Privilege is claimed for the +minority. Oligarchy, and a very militant form of oligarchy, thus takes +the place of true democracy. + +But though the will of the people, be it what it may be, must prevail, +the Whig claims absolute liberty in all matters of personal opinion and +of conscience, and advocates the greatest amount of liberty procurable +in social action. He will not sanction direct action in order to secure +even these things, but he asserts the right of free speech in order to +convert the majority, when it needs converting, to his views, and will +not rest till he obtains it. Never persecute a man for his opinions as +long as he does not proceed to lawless action. Maintain freedom against +a lawless crowd as steadfastly as against a lawless crown. Never refuse +a man an impartial hearing, and never judge a man guilty till he has +been proved so. These are the true Whig principles, and in these I was +brought up. + +It is true that my father, yielding not unnaturally to the fashion of +his day,--the fashion of decrying the Whigs--would always call himself +a Liberal rather than a Whig, and, indeed, Whiggism in his youth was +often little better than a specially bad type of Toryism. As soon, +however, as I began to study history in any detail, that is not in +handbooks, but in the originals, I soon saw that he was one of the best +of Whigs, whether in matters of State or Church. Moderation, justice, +freedom, sympathy with suffering, tolerance, yielded not in the form of +patronage but in obedience to a claim of right which could not be +gainsaid--these were the pillars of his mind. + +Who will deny that it was good fortune to be brought up in these views +and by such an expounder? As I looked at the pictures that hung on the +walls in the Great Hall (not very great, in fact, though bearing that +name), I remembered with a glow of pride that it was on these principles +that my family had been nourished. William Strachey, the first Secretary +to the Colony of Virginia, would, I felt, have been a true Whig if Whig +principles had been enunciated in his time, for the Virginia Company was +a Liberal movement. John Strachey, his son, stood at the very cradle of +Whiggism, for was he not the intimate friend of John Locke? Locke in his +letters from exile and in his formative period writes to Strachey with +affection and admiration. + +To my glowing imagination John Strachey thus became the unknown inspirer +of Locke, and therefore, perhaps, the inspirer and founder of the Whig +philosophy. The son of Locke's friend, though the West Country was, as a +rule, hopelessly Tory and full of Squire Westerns, stood firm by William +and Mary and George I. As a Fellow of the Royal Society, the second John +Strachey must have been a friend of Sir Isaac Newton, the mighty Whig of +Science. + +There were also Cromwellian ancestors on the distaff side. Indeed, +though once more not in the ordinary conventional sense, the aura of +Sutton was a Whig aura. + +Though the aura of Sutton Court had a strong effect upon me morally and +intellectually, the emotional side of me was even more deeply touched. +The beauty and fascination of the house, its walls, its trees, and its +memories, made, as I have already said, so deep an impression upon me +that to this hour I love the place, the thought of it, and even the very +name of it, as I love no other material thing. By nature I am not among +those who become permanently attached to objects. It is true that I love +my own home in Surrey, a house which I built, as it were, with my own +hands. I love the scenery; I love it also as the place where my wife and +I went as young people, and as the place where my children were born, +but the thought of it does not touch me emotionally as does the thought +of Sutton. What I have felt about Sutton all my life, I shall feel till +I feel no more on earth. But that will not be all. I am convinced that I +shall in some sense or other feel it in some other place. The indent on +my soul will not be effaced. + +I have touched on some of the chief things, natal and prenatal, which +went to the making of my mind before I began to shape that mind for +myself. Every man must do this, for whatever be the stars in his +horoscope or the good fairies who preside over his cradle, they can only +give, as it were, "useful instructions" and a good plan of the route. +They leave him also plenty of opportunities for muddling those +instructions and plunging into every kind of folly that they showed him +how to avoid. In the last resort, a man is his own star and must make +his own soul, though, of course, he has a right, nay, a duty, to give +thanks for all good chances and happy circumstances. At any rate, I must +now approach the time at which I took control of myself, and of the +magic boat that had been built and equipped for me by others. Had I been +fully conscious when I started on my own voyage, it should have been +with a devout gratitude that my ship, at any rate, had not been rigged +in the eclipse, and that I set sail under so bright a sky and with so +prosperous a gale behind me. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MY FATHER + + +I delay too long the picture of my father. Perhaps unconsciously I have +been trying to avoid describing him, for I know the difficulty of the +task and dread producing something unworthy. Important as were our home +and traditions, our family, our friends, and our mode of life, they are +as nothing in my making when compared to the influence of such a man as +he was. + +I shall not attempt to describe my father's physical appearance, for +that has been done with sympathy, felicity, and power of presentation in +my brother's portrait here reproduced. I will say only that he was +slight of build and short of stature. He is standing in the little Great +Hall at Sutton, in his black overcoat and hat, ready for one of those +walks on the terrace which he took from his earliest childhood. He was +born in the old house in 1812. It was not, however, till the year 1819 +that he first came to live at Sutton. His earliest recollection was, as +he used to tell us, playing on the terrace with the great ginger- +coloured tom-cat, "King George." We always supposed this feline +magnifico to have derived from some stock imported by the first Sir +Henry when he was Master of the Household to George III. As my readers +will see, King George's successor, in the true "mode" of his race, sits +in a purely detached manner in the middle of the polished oak floor +near, but in no special relation to his master, or rather, dependent, +for no cat has a master though many have dependents. + +But unstinted, unconditional eulogy is bound to end in flattery, and my +father was much too good a man and too simple a man to be exposed to +even the hint of such a taint. Though he would take sincere praise and +sympathy with the pleasure of a wholly unaffected nature, the best +courtier in the world would have found it impossible to flatter him. + +I shall, therefore, be particular to draw clearly such faults as he had. +Also I shall tell them first, though I know they will have a tendency to +change into eulogy as I proceed. In truth, his faults, such as they +were, endeared him only the more to people who understood him. + +He did not always show complete equity in judgment, though I admit, and +I think the majority of mankind would admit, that there was something +essentially noble, if unpractical, in the way in which this want of +equity was shown. So tender was his heart, so passionate his hatred of +cruelty, so profound his chivalry, that he was apt to have his +intellectual balance unduly affected by any tale of suffering inflicted +by the strong on the weak, or by any accusation of wrong done to women +or to children. When he heard such a tale he was too little inclined to +show the worldly wisdom of the man who says, "Let us wait and hear all +the facts. It may be a mere cock-and-bull story." + +Instead, his attitude always reminded me of that of some eager knight- +errant, on fire to accomplish his duty and to succour helpless damsels +and all persons in distress. He always assumed that a call for succour +came from a deserving object, if only it was agonising enough. He would +post off, as it were, lance in rest and vizor down, upon the slightest +rumour of wrong or cruelty. No woman suffering, or alleged to be +suffering, from the cruelty of a husband, would ever call for his +sympathy in vain. It was, however, cases of cruelty to little children +that most tended to overwhelm his judgment. His burning horror at the +mere idea of such deeds knew no bounds. A wife might to some extent be +able to protect herself from the brutalities of her husband, but what +chance had a helpless, friendless, terrified child, incapable even of +running away from its tormentors, or of making an appeal for protection +to outsiders? Those who have lived on unkindness and terror ever since +they became conscious, cannot even console their poor little hearts with +imaginary visions of happiness. + +[Illustration: Sir Edward Strachey in the Hall at Sutton Court with his +Favourite Cat. (From a picture by his son, Henry Strachey.)] + +The unhappiness of a tortured child is a thing not to be thought of. It +scorches the mind like a blast of sulphur. + +Not only as a magistrate was my father's voice always raised on the side +of the women and children. He would always listen to any mother who came +to protest against the cruelty of the village schoolmistress to her +offspring. The cruelty of the teacher was almost as unendurable to him +as that of a bad father or husband. He would not hear of any +justification for rapping school-children over the knuckles with a +ruler. If one ventured to say that there were such things as demon- +children and that they had a power to probe and prod even the best of +good people into a kind of frenzy in which they were hardly accountable +for their acts, the plea roused his deepest indignation. Indeed, it was +only at some sort of suggestion like this that I ever saw my father +really angry. Then, and only then, he would flare up and reply that this +was the sort of excuse that people always made to cover cruelty, +wickedness, and injustice. Grown-up people were much too ready to invent +plausible grounds for the oppression of children. "Serve you right," was +never heard to fall from his lips by any child. + +That he was justified in the general, if not in the particular, case, I +fully realise. Indeed, I and all his children, I think, look back now +with the sense that even if we sometimes criticised him (I admit, only +very slightly) on this point, we were and remain proud that he was +_splendide in-judex_. + +Let no one suppose that because my father was a saint, as undoubtedly he +was, his general attitude towards life was of the priggish or +puritanical kind. It was nothing of the sort. Was not one of his +favourite characters in Shakespeare the immortal Mrs. Quickly? + +He was a very fastidious and reticent man in matters of the spirit, +unless you approached him definitely and in earnest on a particular +point. Then he would talk freely, and showed a marked liberality of +soul. A courtly eighteenth century divine, though probably nobody would +in reality have had less in common with my father, might have described +him as "a thoroughly well-bred man in matters of religion." In spite of +the fact that he was brought up amongst the Evangelicals and understood +them and shared their better side, nothing, I feel sure, disgusted him +more than their way of living in their spiritual shirtsleeves. + +I can imagine his horror at the habit of the Clapham sect of "engaging" +(_i.e._, engaging in prayer), in season and out of season. "Shall +we engage?" the Evangelical Pietist, whether a clergyman or a layman, +would say at the end of some buttered-toast-and-pound-cake tea-party, +and then everyone would be expected to flop down on their knees and +listen to an extemporary appeal to their Maker! + +My father was full of stories of the men of his own time and of the men +of former times, of historical allusions and analogies. He abounded in +pregnant sayings culled from English, from Greek and Latin, and also +from Persian, for he had learned the French of the East when he was at +Haileybury studying for the Civil Service of the Honourable East India +Company. Also he was fairly well-read in some branches of French +literature and knew enough Italian to translate a quotation from Dante +or from Tasso. He was also deeply read and deeply interested in Biblical +criticism and in the statecraft of the Old Testament. His book on +"Hebrew Politics" was hailed by theological students of liberal views as +a real contribution to Biblical exegesis. + +This all sounds like the record of a scholar. Yet he was not a scholar +but a man with a most active and creative interest in his own world and +his own time. Politics was his master-passion in things secular, and he +followed every turn of the political wheel, not merely with the interest +of a spectator, but with that of a man whose heart and mind were both +deeply concerned. He was a Party Liberal, and also a liberal in the very +best sense, and full of the most earnest zeal for the people's cause. My +only quarrel with him here--if it was a quarrel--was that in his anxiety +to support what he believed to be the cause of the people he was in +effect anti-democratic. + +On this point I was wont to chaff him, for there was no man with whom +you could more easily argue without hurting his feelings. I would put it +like this: + +You think of the people and your duty to them in too much of a _grand +seigneur_ manner for me. You seem to want to find out what they want, +and then do it, whether it is right or wrong, out of a patronising sense +of moral benevolence. I, on the other hand, am a true democrat because I +regard myself as one of the people--a creature with just as many rights +as they have. Their opinion, if it is the opinion of the majority, will +of course prevail, and ought to prevail, and I shall loyally acquiesce +in it. But I am not going to do what I think unwise, as you appear to +think I should, because somebody has put a ticket on the back of a +certain view and declared it to be the popular view. It may quite well +turn out that the alleged popular view is not popular at all, but is +scouted by the majority. + +That, of course, was, and was meant to be, a parody of his attitude, but +it was one which he never resented, though he would not admit its +nearness to the truth. + +I shall not give the supreme characteristic impression of the man if I +do not tell something about his stories, and give some specimens of his +table-talk, especially as I have felt very strongly, though it may be +difficult to transfer the impression, that his general talk, quite apart +from his example and direct teaching, had a potent influence upon my +character, and so upon my life. + +To begin with, he was an ideal talker to children and young people, +because, besides leisure, he had an innate kindliness and sympathy with +the young which made him always anxious to put himself and his mind and +heart at their disposal. He was in a perpetual mood to answer any +questions, however tiresome and however often repeated. As he was a man +of wide reading, of good memory, and almost an expert in many kinds of +knowledge, we as children had something of that incomparable advantage +for which I have always envied royalty. They are able to learn by the +simple process of talking to people who know. That is not only the +easiest road to knowledge, but if your teacher is no charlatan a more +vivid impression is made upon the mind than is made by books. + +If you went to my father and asked him who Aurungzebe was, or Hereward +the Wake, or Masaniello, or Edward Keen, or Callimachus, or Titus Oates, +or Dr. Chalmers, or Saint Januarius, he would tell you at once something +vivid and stimulating about each of them, something which remained in +your mind. Often his answer would lead to other fascinating and +delightful discoveries for the questioner. I will take a couple of +examples at random. When I asked him about Masaniello, he not only told +the story of the insurrection among the _lazzaroni_ at Naples, but +he launched out into accounts of his own experience of Naples in the +'forties and of the crowds of picturesque and starving beggars and +banditti who in those days still infested the city and its horrible and +putrescent lanes and alleys. The Naples of the Bombas, in which he had +spent two or more winters, was always a delightful source of anecdote. I +could fill a book with his talk about Neapolitan nobles who let two +apartments in their Palaces with only one set of furniture, and of the +Neapolitan boatmen who formed the crew of the boat which he kept in the +Bay, for he was too great an invalid to walk. Especially did we love to +hear of how he was carried up Mount Vesuvius in a "litter"--a word which +he always used. It thrilled me. It seemed to make the whole scene Roman +and magnificent. One thought of Pliny going to observe the great +eruption, of Cicero, of Pompey, of Seneca, carried down to Baiæ in their +curtained chairs. My other example is Callimachus, the Greek, or rather, +Alexandrine poet of the Decadence. The mention of his name brought in +its train an excellent story derived from my father's uncle, the second +Sir Henry Strachey, the squire whom he succeeded at Sutton. The story +runs as follows. When the said great-uncle, as a boy just come out to +India, went to dine with the great Orientalist, Sir William Jones, in +his house in Calcutta (_circa_ 1793), Sir William quoted to him a +couple of lines out of Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo, which he had hurled +at the head of Burke when the great Whig tribune threatened that he +would get him (Sir William Jones) recalled if he continued to support +Warren Hastings. The lines quoted from the obscure Greek poet he +translated to the young civilian, Henry Strachey. "In reply, I reminded +Burke," he said, "of the lines in the Hymn to Apollo: '_The Euphrates +is a noble river, but it rolls down all the dead dogs of Babylon to the +sea._'" + +My father was wont to point out that, as a matter of fact, Jones's +memory was not quite accurate. If you look at the Burke correspondence, +you will see the dignified letter in which Jones replied to Burke. In it +he makes no direct reference to the orator's threat, and only uses the +first line of Callimachus, which he turns into a compliment. He is sure, +he declares, that the mighty torrent of Burke's eloquence will always be +used in the defence of a friend. Perhaps he thought that, if Burke +looked up the passage, he would be snubbed as it were automatically. + +When, however, Jones told the story twelve years afterwards he did what +we are all inclined to do in such circumstances. He imagined himself +much more valiant and much more ready to take a great man by the scruff +of his neck and shake him, than he really was. We are all heroes in our +memories. By the way, it was Callimachus who wrote the epigram on the +death of Heraclitus which was made immortal by the translation of the +author of "Ionica." It is, I hold, the best poetic translation in the +English tongue. + +Of the distinguished people with whom my father was personally +acquainted in his earlier days, among the most memorable were Carlyle +and Edward Irving. Carlyle was tutor to my father's first cousin, +Charles Buller, later to be known as "the young Marcellus of the Whig +Party." Of Carlyle he had many stories. Curiously enough, I might have +seen Carlyle myself, for when I was about fifteen or sixteen he was +still alive, and my father offered to take me to see him in Chelsea. +With the cheery insolence of youth, I weighed the question in the +balance and decided that I did not want to trouble myself with the +generation that was passing away. I can still remember, however, that +what almost moved me to accept my father's proposal was the fact that +Carlyle was actually born in the 18th century, and before Keats. Edward +Irving had made a vivid impression upon my father, though he only saw +him, I believe, at the age of seven or eight. He could distinctly +remember Irving taking him upon his knee, holding him at arm's length, +looking into his face, and saying, in his deep, vibrant orator's voice: +"Edward, don't ye long to be a mon?" Evidently the impression made upon +my father by the words, or rather the way in which they were spoken, was +profound. The incident always reminded me of that wonderful story told +by Crabbe Robinson the Diarist. As a young man, Crabbe Robinson went to +see one of the trials in which Erskine was engaged as Counsel. All he +could remember of the speech was Erskine leaning over the jury-box and +in low tones, full of meaning and tremulous with passion, uttering the +commonplace words: "Gentlemen of the Jury, if you give a verdict against +my client I shall leave this court a miserable man!" So profound was the +influence of the orator that Crabbe Robinson tells us that for weeks +afterwards he used to wake with a start in the middle of the night, +saying over to himself the words: "I shall leave this court a miserable +man." + +Another contemporary well known to my father was Peacock, the novelist, +for Peacock was also an official in the India House and so a colleague +of my grandfather, Edward Strachey. + +Of my father's religious views, though they deeply affected my own, I +shall speak only very shortly. He was, above all, a devout man. Pure in +heart, he earned the promised blessing and saw God throughout his days +on earth. The fatherhood of God and the imminence of the Kingdom of +Heaven were no empty words for him. But, though he was so single-minded +a follower of Christ and His teachings, he was no Pharisee of the New +Dispensation; the sacerdotalism of the Christian Churches was as hateful +to him as the sacerdotalism of the Jews was to Christ. He was concerned +with the living spirit, not with ritual, or formularies, or doctrinal +shibboleths. His mind was open to all that was true, good, and generous. +He asked for free and full development of the soul of man. "The cry of +Ajax was for light," was one of his best-loved quotations. + +He welcomed the researches of scholarship in the foundations of +religion, as he did of science in the material world, and of philosophy +in the things of the mind. Though he loved to worship with his fellows, +and was a sincere member of the Church of England, the maxim _nulla +solus extra ecclesiasm_ filled him with horror. It was the worst of +blasphemies. + +His teacher was Frederick Maurice, but in certain ways he went further +than that noble-hearted, if somewhat mystical, divine. It would have +been an absurdity to ask my father whether it would not be better to +give up Christianity and try instead the faith of Christ. That was +always his faith. For him religion meant a way of life, a spiritual +exaltation--not going to church, or saying prayers, or being sedulous in +certain prescribed devotions. His creed was a communion with, and a +trust in, God, through Christ. Above all, he had an overmastering sense +of duty. + +He was sensitive in body and mind to a high degree, and so may have +seemed to himself and other observers to be like Mr. Fearing in Banyan's +Dream. But I remember that when Mr. Fearing came to the Valley of the +Shadow of Death, no man was happier or braver. The river had never been +so low as when he crossed it. The Shining Ones had never made an easier +passage for a pilgrim. So it was with my father. He had all his life +dreaded the physical side of dissolution. Yet, when Death came he was +wholly calm and untroubled. It is designedly that I do not say he was +resigned. Resignation implies regret. He had none. + +I do not think I can more fitly sum up the impression made by my father +than by quoting the epigram of Martial on "Felix Antonius." + + To-day, my friend is seventy-five; + He tells his tale with no regret; + His brave old eyes are steadfast yet, + His heart the lightest heart alive. + + He sees behind him green and wide + The pathway of his pilgrim years; + He sees the shore and dreadless hears + The whisper of the creeping tide. + + For out of all his days, not one + Has passed and left its unlaid ghost + To seek a light for ever lost, + Or wail a deed for ever done. + + So for reward of life-long truth + He lives again, as good men can, + Redoubling his allotted span + With memories of a stainless youth. + +The version I have taken is that by Sir Henry Newbolt, and undoubtedly +it is one of the best examples extant of the transference of the spirit +of a Latin poem into English. My readers, however, will no doubt +remember that this epigram was also translated into English by Pope. +Though the modern poet's version is to be preferred, the older +translation contains one of the most felicitous lines written even by +Pope. + +It is needless to say that I realise the essential inappropriateness of +joining my father's name with that of Martial. It is, indeed, a capital +example of the irony of circumstance that I am able to do so. But, after +all, why should we be annoyed instead of being thankful, when bright +flowers spring up on a dunghill? Certainly, my father would not have +felt any indignity. He was the least superstitious and also the least +sophistical of men. If a thing was worthy in itself he would never call +it common or unclean on a punctilio. + +If, while dealing with my father's influence on my life, I were not to +say something about the influence of my mother, I should leave a very +false impression. My mother was a woman of a quick intelligence and of a +specially attractive personality. To her we children owed a great deal +in the matter of manners. My father gave us an excellent example in +behaviour and in that gentleness, unselfishness, and sincerity which is +the foundation of good breeding. My mother, who was never shy, and very +good at mental diagnosis, added that burnish without which good manners +often lose half their power. What she particularly insisted on was the +practice of that graciousness of which she herself afforded so admirable +an example. Naturally, like a good mother, she always reproved us for +bad manners, or for being unkind to other children, or selfish, or +affected, or oafish, or sulky. Her direst thunders, however, were kept +for anything which approached ill-breeding. Giving ourselves airs, or +"posing," or any other form of juvenile vulgarity, were well-nigh +unforgivable sins. + +But she did not content herself with inculcating the positive side of +good manners. She was equally strong on the negative side. For example, +if there was a party of farm tenants, or cottagers, a school-feast, or +anything of the kind, both when we were small and half grown-up, she +insisted that we must never dream of keeping in a corner by ourselves. +We must go and do our duty in entertaining our guests. No excuses of +shyness or not liking to talk to people one didn't know, or suggestions +that they would think us putting on side if we went up to them, were +allowed for a moment. The injunctions we received were that, at a party +in our own house, we must never think of our own pleasure or enjoyment, +but must devote ourselves wholly and solely to the pleasure of our +guests. The sight of anyone sitting moping in a corner and looking bored +or unhappy was the destruction of a party. Such persons, if seen, must +be pounced upon at once, amused, and made much of, till they were +perfectly happy, as "the guests who got more attention than anybody +else." In a word, we were taught that the strength of the social chain +is its weakest link. It was quite safe to leave the big people, or the +big people's children, to look after themselves. The people to be made +much of and treated like royalty were those who looked uncomfortable or +seemed to feel out of it. The result was that my mother's parties were +never a failure. Though her ill-health never allowed her to be a hostess +on a big scale, her parties, whether in Somersetshire or at Cannes, were +always voted delightful. Everyone, from Somersetshire farmer or +clergyman, to the notables of a Riviera winter resort, owned her social +charm. As an example of it, I remember how one winter, which we spent at +Bournemouth, for my mother's health, the invalid's drawing-room became +at once the centre of a memorable little society, consisting, as far as +I remember, of people whom we had never known before. There was a +delightful old Mr. Marshall, of the Marshalls of the Lakes, who used to +come and play whist with her, and with whom we boys sometimes rode. +Though he was about eighty, he kept up his riding and liked to have a +boy to ride with him. Another old gentleman, attractive in his manner, +in his dress, and in his kindly, old-fashioned dignity, was Lord +Suffolk. He dressed like "the Squire" in the old _Punches_. He wore +a low-crowned, broadish-brimmed hat, Bedford cord breeches and gaiters, +and a light-brown or buff cloth coat and waistcoat. He had two invalid +daughters, and these, if I remember rightly, were the cause of the +family having a villa at Bournemouth. + +It was, however, either at the house-parties at Chewton or at Strawberry +Hill, which were hardly considered complete by Lady Waldegrave without +my mother, or else again at Cannes in her own villa that she made her +main impression upon people of the greater world. Though of good parts, +she was not in any sense intellectual. I never heard her attempt to say +brilliant things or epigrammatic things, or to talk about books or +historic people. + +She was, like so many charming women, perfectly natural and perfectly at +her ease, and full of receptive interest. When she talked it was always +to draw out her interlocutor and never to show off her own cleverness. +She was quite as popular, indeed I had almost said more popular, with +women as with men, and had as great a fascination for young people as +for old. I remember well our pleasure in being told of a letter written +by one of the big London hostesses who had come out to Cannes, made my +mother's acquaintance, and fallen a charm to her winning voice, her warm +regard, and her gracious eyes. She had written to a friend, saying, in +effect, + +What on earth did you mean by not telling me more about your cousin, +Lady Strachey? She turns out to be one of the most delightful people I +have ever met, and yet you never breathed a word about her. Why did you +want to keep her to yourself? Through your selfishness I have missed +three or four weeks of her. + +It is notoriously difficult to describe charm, and I shall make no +attempt, except to say that my mother's spell did not consist in good +looks in the ordinary sense of the word. She had a witching expression, +an exceedingly graceful carriage of her head and body, and a good +figure; but her face was so mobile and so entirely governed by her smile +that photographs and pictures were always pronounced as "impossible" and +"utterly unlike." + +Though she was in no sense nervous, the attempt to sit for her picture +seemed at once to break the spell and destroy that "_beau regard_" +which was, I feel sure, the secret of the pleasure she spread around +her. No doubt she took trouble to please, but she had the art of +concealing her art. No one ever criticised her as "theatrical" or +"artificial." + +Her children fully felt her charm. Looking back, I can now see that she, +most wisely, took as much trouble to fascinate us as she did the rest of +the world. She would not mind this remark, for she was no naturalist, +but held that you ought to take as much trouble to be polite and to give +pleasure to your nearest and dearest as to strangers. Anyway, we were +never allowed to be rude or careless to her, or to anybody else merely +because they were well-loved relations. We never failed to get up from +our chairs when she entered the room, or to open doors for her, or to +show her any other physical form of politeness. But she did not +inculcate this by anything approaching harshness, or by a sharp tongue. +All she did was to make us feel that we were uncouth bores, to be pitied +rather than condemned, if we failed in the minor politenesses. + +No doubt she was assisted here by the fact of being an invalid, and also +by the good example which my father set us. He was one of the best-bred +of men as well as one of the noblest and most simple-hearted. I shall +never forget the patient courtesy with which he would treat some old +village woman who was positively storming at him in regard to alleged +grievances. His politeness, however, never had in it any studied +element. Nobody could ever have said that he was overdoing it. Again, +there was no inverted snobbishness about him. He was quite as polite to +a great lady as to a cottager's wife. + +I will undertake to say that in his whole life he had never shown off--a +thing which could be said of very few men, but which, after all, is the +secret of all good breeding. + +But to return to my mother. She also never showed off, though with her +the art of pleasing and being pleased was very carefully studied. She +inherited this quality from her father, Dr. Symonds. She also found in +him her example for the exact conduct of the social code. I remember her +saying that, though her father was a very hard-worked doctor, and often +had to take meals quickly and at odd times, he made it an absolute rule, +no matter how busy he was, never to get into a rush, or be fussed, or do +things in a huggermugger way. If he came in late and tired, he would eat +his dinner as quietly and decorously as if he had got several hours +before him. Everything had to be done decently and in order. He would +not dream of getting up from his chair if he wanted an extra spoon or +fork in a hurry, but would either send one of his children to get it for +him or else ring the bell for the butler. + +This was not an attempt at grandeur, but due to a feeling that if he +once got into chaotic ways he would go to pieces. Probably he felt the +necessity all the more from the fact that he was a widower and might the +more easily have dropped into untidy and slovenly household ways. + +I have no time to dwell on my mother's most intimate friendship with +Lady Waldegrave and with their habit of writing daily letters to each +other, and of the social and political life which my mother shared with +her friend as well as her health would permit. For my present purposes, +what matters, though it sounds abominably egotistical to say so, is the +effect of my mother upon my character and life. Unquestionably the fact +of her being an invalid was a great lesson. In the first place, it did a +great deal to educate her children to be unselfish. It was a rule of the +house that everything was to be sacrificed to my mother's comfort, for +she was often not only in great pain but dangerously ill. My father was, +in any case, the most unselfish of men, but we might have regarded that, +as children often will, as a kind of personal quality of his own, like a +lame knee, or a dislike of draughts, or a fondness for cold mutton, or +other simple forms of living. When we saw his daily and hourly sacrifice +of himself to my mother and that tenderness of heart which never failed +him, we must have been made of rock or oak not to be inspired by an +example so noble and fraught with so magnificent a pathos. We showed +badly in comparison with our father, but still we had him always before +us, and if we were ever tempted to exhibit selfishness or want of +consideration to my mother, his devotion was a standing, though never an +open, rebuke, and brought the bitterest remorse. + +My mother maintained the true dignity of the sickroom. She never +complained either of the hard fate which chained one who loved the world +and its amusements so much to her bed, nor, again, did she ever cherish +or show the slightest grievance if we had seemed unkind or had not done +what she would have liked us to do. It is needless to say that the +effect of this was exactly what she would have desired, though not +admitted even to herself, for she was not a person at all self-conscious +or self-analytical in these matters. + +The fact remains that people who are brought up in a house with an +invalid, where that invalid has the love, respect, and devotion of the +head of the home, get a valuable lesson. There is more than that. The +sight of pain and suffering and the imminence of sorrow and danger, if +it be not too terrifying, is good for children. It makes them early +acquainted with the realities of life and its essential sternness. Then, +when death or sorrow makes its inevitable descent, the child is prepared +to meet it, or knows, at any rate, the spirit in which it ought to be +met. Those who have never seen Death or heard the swing of his scythe, +till he suddenly bursts upon them, or upon those they love dearly, are +greatly to be pitied. They have not learnt the art of quietening the +soul in face of an inexorable command. + +_Timor mortis_ is a reality, and we can be, and ought to be, +prepared for it. The sick-room, if children are made to understand its +significance in a wise and kindly spirit, and through the conduct of +such people as my father and my mother, is a teacher of no mean order. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MY FATHER'S STORIES OF THE STRACHEY FAMILY + + +Delightful as were my father's literary and historical stories and +observations, already described, I liked them best when they dealt with +our own family and its traditions. My father, though without a trace of +anything approaching pride of birth, knew his own family history well, +and was never tired of relating stories of "famous men and our fathers +that begat us." As a great Shakespearian devotee, he specially delighted +to tell us of our direct ancestor, William Strachey, "the friend of Ben +Jonson," for so we knew him. + +The said ancestor married the Widow Baber, niece of a famous seafarer, +Sir Richard Cross, who commanded the _Bonaventura_ at the Siege of +Cadiz, and so brought Sutton into the family. This William Strachey +almost certainly knew Shakespeare. It is now generally admitted that the +storm in _The Tempest_ was based upon Strachey's account of the +shipwreck of Sir George Somers's fleet on the Bermudas--the Isle of +Devils so greatly dreaded by seamen. They provided in this case, +however, a haven of refuge. Strachey was first Secretary to the Colony +of Virginia. Thus we have an ancestor who gives us the right, as a +distinguished American scholar once said to me, to consider ourselves +"Founders' kin to the United States"--a piece of family pride which no +man can deem snobbish or ridiculous. + +William Strachey wrote a very remarkable letter describing the +shipwreck, or rather tempest. The letter was addressed to the Lady +Willoughby de Broke of that day, a woman of ability and greatly +interested in the Virginia Company, as were all the liberal spirits of +the age, including Elizabeth herself. This letter was handed about in +manuscript, as was so often the case in those times, and Shakespeare, in +all human probability, must have seen it, detected good copy for the +theatre--he had a never-failing instinct in that direction--and used it +for his famous last play. Shakespeare must have met and talked with +Strachey on his return from America, for recent investigations have +shown that Shakespeare had many communications with the men who founded +the Virginia Company, and was very likely a member. + +Here I may interpose that I have always been specially interested in the +fact that in the letter to Lady Willoughby de Broke, Strachey notes a +circumstance that was often observed in the war. He tells us that the +young gallants, when every hand was required to work at the pumps, had +to exert themselves to the very utmost, and to work as long and as hard +as the professional seamen. To the astonishment of himself and everyone +else, they were able to do as much work and to keep at it as strenuously +as the old mariners. + +Another reason for feeling pretty sure that William Strachey must have +known Shakespeare is the fact, of which we have ample proof, that +Strachey was well known to the men of letters of the day. To begin with, +he was a friend of Ben Jonson and wrote a set of commendatory verses for +the Laureate's "Sejanus." These appear in the folio edition of Jonson's +works. Probably this sonnet--it has fourteen lines--is one of the most +cryptic things in the whole of Elizabethan literature. No member of our +family or any other family has ever been able to construe it. Yet it is +a pleasure to me to gather from the concluding couplet that the author +had sound Whig principles: + + If men would shun swol'n Fortune's ruinous blasts, + Let them use temperance; nothing violent lasts. + +[Illustration: John Strachey, the Friend of Locke.] + +An even more interesting proof of William Strachey's literary +connections is to be found in the fact that when he, Strachey, went to +Venice he took with him a letter of introduction from the poet, Dr. +Donne, to the then Ambassador with the Republic, Sir Henry Wotton, also +a poet. The letter is witty and trenchant. After noting that Strachey +was "sometime secretary to Sir Thomas Gates," he adds, "I do boldly say +that the greatest folly he ever committed was to submit himself and +parts to so mean a master." The rest of the letter is pleasantly +complimentary and shows that Donne and Strachey were fast friends. + +This William Strachey, as my father used to point out to us, had a very +considerable amount of book-writing to his credit. There were two or +three pamphlets written by him and published as what we should now call +Virginia Company propaganda. One of these gives a very delightful +example of the English and American habit of applying a "get- +civilisation-quick" system for the native inhabitants of any country +into which they penetrate. Strachey's book, which was reprinted by the +Hakluyt Society, was entitled "Articles, Lawes and Orders, Divine, +Politique, and Martiall, for the Colony of Virginia," and was printed in +1610. + +One of these pamphlets was sold at auction in London just before the +war, and went--very naturally and, in a sense, very properly--to +America. The volume in question contained, besides the ordinary letter- +press, several poems by William Strachey and an autograph inscription +written in the most wonderfully neat and clear handwriting--a standard +in handwriting to which no member of the family before or since has ever +attained. But besides the handwriting the dedication has other claims on +our attention. It is charmingly worded. It shows, amongst other things, +how natural was the cryptic dedication to the Shakespeare Sonnets. It +runs as follows: + + To his right truly honoured, and + best beloved friend, sometymes + a Personall Confederat and + Adventurer, and now a + sincere and holy Beadsman + for this Christian prose- + cutiõ Thomas Lawson, Esq. + William Strachey wisheth + as full an accomplishment of his best Desires, + as devoutly as becoms the Dutie of a + Harty Freinde. January/21. + +"This Christian prosecutiõ" was the Virginia Company and its system of +colonisation. There is also in one of the show-cases in the Bodleian an +interesting short dictionary of the language of the Chesapeake Indians +compiled by Strachey. In a note attached thereto Strachey says that he +thinks it will be useful to persons who wish to "trade or truck" with +the Indians. + +Another memorable fact in regard to William Strachey I may mention here, +though it was not known to my father. I lately discovered that Campion, +the poet-musician, who, like Strachey, was a Member of Gray's Inn, wrote +a short Latin poem to Strachey. It is addressed "Ad Guillielmus +Strachæum." In it Campion tells Strachey that although he has very few +verses to give to his "old comrade," the man "who rejoiced in and made +many competent verses," he will always be dear to him. He ends by +calling him "summus pieridem unicusque cultor." The poem concludes +almost as it began: "Strachaeo, veteri meo sodali"--_To Strachey, my +old comrade_. + +Evidently Strachey did not keep his verses entirely for dedication. As +far as I know, the best of his verses dedicatory are those addressed to +Lord Bacon in his "Historie of Travaile into Virginia." They run:-- + + Wild as they are, accept them, so we're wee; + To make them civill will our honour be; + And if good worcks be the effects of myndes, + Which like good angells be, let our designes, + As we are Angli, make us Angells too; + No better worck can state--or church-man do. + +The Campion connection interests me personally because Campion was the +protagonist of unrhymed lyrical verse--my special metrical hobby. I like +to think that William Strachey may have supported Campion in his +controversy with Gabriel Harvey, who, by the way, lived at Saffron +Walden, from which town came also William Strachey. There is danger, +however, in such speculation. Before long someone may prove that it was +not Bacon who wrote Shakespeare but Strachey who wrote both Bacon and +Shakespeare. + +The following example of my father's family lore was still more +interesting and exciting to us. John Strachey, son of William Strachey, +married a Miss Hodges of Wedmore, an heiress in the heraldic sense, +through whom we can proudly claim to represent the Somersetshire family +of Hodges, whose arms we have always quartered. This lady's grandfather, +or great-grandfather--I am not quite sure which--was of the very best +type of Elizabethan soldiers-errant. He was killed at the Siege of +Antwerp in 1583. + +He had the good fortune to be commemorated in one of the most spirited +epitaphs of his age. On the wall of Wedmore Church in Somersetshire is a +brass tablet bearing a heart surrounded by a laurel-wreath. The +inscription of the memorial runs thus: + + * * * * * + +Sacred to the memory of Captain Thomas Hodges, of the County of +Somerset, esq., who, at the siege of Antwerp, about 1583, with +unconquered courage won two ensigns from the enemy; where, receiving his +last wound, he gave three legacies: his soule to the Lord Jesus, his +body to be lodged in Flemish earth, his heart to be sent to his dear +wife in England. + + Here lies his wounded heart, for whome + One kingdom was too small a roome; + Two kingdoms therefore have thought good to part + So stout a body and so brave a heart. + + * * * * * + +I have often wondered how a poet could have been found in Somersetshire +in those days to produce such spirited verse. The Elizabethan age, so +splendid in great poetry, was apt to be tortured and affected in what +Dr. Johnson called "lapidary inscriptions." + +Little did I think when, as a boy, I first read those lines how closely +linked England was to remain with the soil where Thomas Hodges fell, how +many thousand stout bodies and brave hearts would again be laid in +Flemish earth, and how many true soldiers would in my own day deserve my +forbear's epitaph. + +It seems most likely that Thomas Hodges's armour was preserved by the +Hodges and brought to Sutton by Miss Hodges. In an old Hodges inventory +which is still among the papers at Sutton there is mentioned "an armour +of proof." My father also used to tell us how he had seen two or three +sets of armour hanging on the brackets which supported the Minstrels' +Gallery in the Hall at Sutton. My father's uncle, alas, was born in the +eighteenth century and bred in India till about 1820. He was therefore +little affected by Scott and the Gothic revival. When he came back to +England, though full of interest in his house and family, he not only +removed the Minstrels' Gallery from the Hall, but allowed the armour +that had hung on it for some hundred and fifty years to be destroyed. +The Estate mason was seen mixing mortar in the breastplate, and the +coachman washed the carriage with his legs in the Cromwellian jack- +boots. Oddly enough, when we were quite small children, my eldest +brother, by pure accident, discovered half a steel helmet behind one of +the greenhouses. + +Two swords, however, were allowed to remain at Sutton, and are there to +this day. They are, however, probably Cromwellian and not Elizabethan. + +We know very little of what happened to the Stracheys during the Civil +War, for at the crisis of the conflict John Strachey was only a boy. He +was born in 1634 and therefore was only twenty-six at the end of the +Commonwealth, and would have been only fifteen years old at the time of +the King's execution. That the family were good Roundheads, however, +cannot be doubted, for John Strachey when he grew up became a close +friend of John Locke. Further, Captain Thomas Hodges, whose daughter was +later married to John Strachey, raised a troop of horse to fight on the +side of the Commonwealth. My father was always very proud of the fact +that the intellectual father of the Whigs was so closely united with our +ancestor. A propos of a deferred visit to Spain, Locke says in one of +his letters that he is glad he is not going, because he will now be able +to pay his visit to Sutton Court; "a greater rarity than my travels have +afforded me, for, believe me, one may go a long way before one meets a +friend." + +Of all my father's stories those which delighted and thrilled us most +were his anecdotes of Clive. Clive, one might almost say, was the patron +saint of the family, and some day I hope to make a further and better +collection of legends in regard to him and other relations and +connections of my family with India. + +But first I must explain why we Stracheys regard Clive as our patron +saint. It will be remembered how, after Clive had won Plassey, he came +home full of riches and honours, obtained his peerage and bought his +unique collection of rotten boroughs. He did not, however, remain long +at home. He was soon sent out to India again to reform the Civil Service +and to place the affairs alike of the Company and of the King, +_i.e._ the British Government and Parliament, on a sound basis. The +moment Clive left India, the Company's government had begun to +degenerate on all sides, military, naval, and civilian. In two years +corruption was destroying what Clive's statesmanship and military genius +had won. + +Clive, when he agreed to return to Bengal was a Member of Parliament, +and like a wise man he knew that anyone who has to deal with great +affairs must be sure of a good Private Secretary. He looked round, +therefore, for an able and trustworthy young man, and lighted upon Henry +Strachey, who had just reached years of discretion. But I had better +quote Clive's own ringing words in regard to his selection. They will +serve to show, among other things, that Clive was not the kind of +inspired savage that he is sometimes portrayed, but a man with an +extraordinary command of the English language. In the speech in +the House of Commons in which Clive flung back the accusations made +against him in regard to the grants and presents which he took from Meer +Jaffir, not only after the Battle of Plassey but in the final settlement +which concluded his Indian career, he described the members of his +official family--the men whom he had taken out to India with him on that +occasion. As Strachey had become a Member of the House of Commons he +could not refer to him by name. Here are Clive's actual words: + +[Illustration: The Close, Sutton Court, Somerset] + + * * * * * + +Another gentleman was my Secretary, now a Member of this House. He was +recommended to me by one of the greatest men in this Kingdom, now no +more, Mr. Grenville. Many and great are the obligations I have been +under to him (Grenville), but the greatest of all the obligations was +his having recommended to me this gentleman. Without his ability and +indefatigable industry I could never have gone through my great and +arduous undertaking, and in serving me he served the Company. + + * * * * * + +Curiously enough, we have no idea how Henry Strachey came across George +Grenville, or why George Grenville was able to give him so high a +character. In any case, Clive was a shrewd judge of men, and though very +good to his subordinates, would never tolerate inefficiency. His +approval meant much. + +But Clive did more for us as a family than merely appoint Henry Strachey +to be his private secretary. It happened that at the time of his +appointment Henry Strachey was very much in the position in which Clive +was when he first went out to India. Henry Strachey was the eldest son +of a hopelessly embarrassed country gentleman of old family. John +Strachey, the friend of Locke, had been very well off, and so had his +son John, the Fellow of the Royal Society. Besides Sutton and an estate +at Elm and Buckland, near Frome, he owned a considerable amount of +property in Westminster. There are many interesting and amusing things +to tell of him, but here I will only say that the said John Strachey the +second had two wives and nineteen children, consequently at his death +the family estates were heavily "dipped." His son, Hodges Strachey, who +succeeded him, added to these pecuniary troubles, and then died; the +property descended to a younger brother, Henry Strachey. Though he +married into a rich Edinburgh family, the Clerks of Pennycuick, and so +was kinsman not only of the Clerks but of the Primroses, he did nothing +to redeem the fortunes of the family. Indeed, things had gone so far by +his time that the Strachey estates had actually passed to the mortgagees +in discharge of a sum of twelve thousand pounds. A year's grace was, +however, given. If the £12,000 could not be paid within the twelve +months, Sutton, and the whole of the land, would have passed for ever +from the family. + +When Clive heard of this predicament, he, with extraordinary generosity, +advanced the money in anticipation of the remuneration which Strachey +was to receive for his services in India. Thus Sutton Court was saved. +Thanks to Clive there are still Stracheys at Sutton and I am here to +tell the tale. In those days twelve thousand pounds was a very big sum +of money indeed to an impecunious country gentleman, and a considerable +sum even to a man as rich as Clive. The modern equivalent would be over +£30,000. But Clive was not a man who hesitated to do things in a big +way, and he was well repaid. Henry Strachey was not only devoted to him +throughout his life, but acted as his executor and as the guardian to +his infant son and heir. + +One of three or four pictures which Dance, the portrait-painter, painted +of Clive hangs to this day in the Hall at Sutton. It always thrilled me +to look at this picture, when a boy, because of the background, where, +surrounded by the smoke of battle, a company of horsemen with drawn +swords charge an invisible Oriental foe. If I remember rightly, the +British Cavalry played no part at Plassey, but probably the artist +thought that historical accuracy might quite legitimately be +subordinated in this instance to the demands of art. + +I could fill this book with stories of Clive which my father had heard +from his father and from his uncle and from other contemporaries. I will +only mention one here, however, and I choose it because it further +illustrates the wonderful power of Clive's prose style, a power which +always impressed me, even as a boy. Just before Clive died by his own +hand, he addressed a letter to Henry Strachey, who had now become a +close friend as well as an ex-secretary, and who had married Lady +Clive's first cousin. He was thus a member of the actual as well as of +the official family of his Chief. Here are the words which Clive +addressed to Strachey:-- + + How miserable is my condition! I have a disease which + makes life insupportable, but which my doctors tell me won't + shorten it one hour. + +If ever man conveyed the sense of physical suffering, deep melancholy, +and utter despair by the medium of the written word, it was Clive in +this passage. He had, it will be remembered, attempted suicide before, +as a young man. When the pistol refused to go off, he considered it an +omen that he was reserved for greater things. + +My father used to tell us (whether on good medical evidence or not I do +not know) that it was supposed that Clive suffered from a very painful +form of dyspepsia accompanied by vertigo, and that when these attacks +came on they depressed him beyond measure. He lived in constant dread of +their recurrence, and it was upon a sudden sense that an attack was +impending that he cut his throat. He could not face again what might +have been an agony of three or four months' duration. + +It was natural that, as boys, we liked especially to hear the story of +the suicide in Berkeley Square. There was plenty of blood and mystery in +the tale. + +Some eight years before his death, I got my father, who was a very +accurate and careful man, to put down, partly from family papers and +partly from memory, as exact an account as he could of the actual +suicide. This, the authentic version of the suicide, I published in the +_Spectator_. + +My father's stories of the first Sir Henry, as we were wont to call him, +Clive's Private Secretary, were many, and all of them poignant or +amazing. As a child, however, though I always delighted in them I did +not fully realise their historical interest. They gave a vivid picture +of the mind and actions of a Whig Member of Parliament from about 1770 +to 1812, the period during which Henry Strachey was continuously in +Parliament. In the course of his forty years of public life, Henry +Strachey held a number of important offices, for he was a much-trusted +man. He played, indeed, a part more like that of one of the great +permanent officials of the present day than that of a politician. I take +it that he had not a powerful gift of speech and that he was not a +pushing man, otherwise, considering his brains and the way in which he +was trusted, he would have gone a good deal higher than he did. A story +which testifies to his influence is curious. When Burke began his +attacks in the Commons upon Warren Hastings, he tried to enlist support +from Henry Strachey, who does not seem to have thrown in his lot +especially with Hastings. All he would do, however, was to tell Burke +that he would be neutral--provided that, in the course of the attacks on +Hastings, Burke cast no aspersions upon the name and fame of Lord Clive. +If Clive's memory was assailed he, Strachey, would hit back. Whether it +was due to this fact or to some other, it is certain that Burke was +always careful to draw a clear distinction between the cases of Clive +and of Hastings. + +Perhaps the most vivid story of all is the following. Strachey had been +in office in the ill-starred Coalition under Fox and North. When the +Ministry broke up, the King sent for Lord Shelburne, a member of the +Coalition, who, it will be remembered, at once formed a Government of +his own. While the Ministry was in the making, Henry Strachey met Fox on +Hay Hill, that minute yet "celebrated acclivity" which runs from the +corner of Berkeley Square into Dover Street. The smiling demagogue, who, +by the by, was a fellow member of Brooke's, hailed his ex-colleague with +a-- + +"Hullo, Strachey, what's going to happen to you?" + +"Oh, Lord Shelburne says he wants me to keep my office." + +"Then, by God, you're out!" Nobody, at that time, believed in +Shelburne's good faith. He was alleged by both sides to be a man on +whose word no dependence could ever be placed--a man who would tell you +that he wanted your assistance on the very day he had struck your name +out of the list of his Cabinet. + +Things, however, turned out differently in Strachey's case, and +Shelburne kept his word. In all probability, indeed, he was a man who +was very much maligned. + +In any case, Shelburne trusted Strachey, and when he began the +negotiations for the Peace of Versailles which ended the war with +America, and recognised the United States, Strachey was sent as a +negotiator. Originally a Member of Parliament named Oswald had been +employed at Paris, but he had not proved to be a match for the able +American delegates, Franklin, Jay, and Adams. Accordingly Strachey was +sent over to give tone and vigour to the British Delegation. As a family +we are exceedingly proud of the account of Strachey given by that great +man, John Adams, later President of the United States. It is contained +in his secret report sent to Washington from Paris: + + Strachey is as artful and insinuating a man as they could + send; he pushes and presses every point as far as it can possibly + go; he has a most eager, earnest, pointed spirit. + +That is a certificate of character of which any statesman or diplomat +might be proud. + +But Strachey, I am glad to say, was more than a mere skilful agent. It +is now fully recognised by Canadian historians who have made a special +study of the question, that Strachey was the one man at Paris who stood +up for the United Empire Loyalists and did his very best to get for them +proper recognition and proper compensation. Unfortunately the British +Ministry was tired and callous, and Strachey's efforts did not prevail, +but he fought for the United Empire Loyalists to the end. Without his +help, things would have been worse than they were. + +One thing that helped to make Strachey a good peace negotiator was the +fact that a year before he had gone to America as Secretary to Lord Howe +and Admiral Howe when they were sent out either to carry on the war by +sea and land, or else to make peace with the insurgent colonies. + +As a result of this official visit to America, Strachey had a very large +number of confidential papers left in his possession, and some of these +have escaped the burning which was the fate of most of his +correspondence. He was one of the men who made it a practice to destroy +private papers as soon as they were done with. The story of these +American papers is, again, one which must be reserved for another +occasion. But, though the time has come to cut Henry Strachey off at the +main, and though I must reluctantly forego the account of his dealings +with George III, when he, Strachey, was Master of the Household, I +cannot resist giving one family document which my father was very fond +of reading to us and which was, I honestly think, regarded by the family +as the most priceless of all the papers kept in the strong-room at +Sutton Court. It went by the name of the "Head Munky" letter. + +Lady Strachey, the first Sir Henry's wife, was a widow with children +when she married. She also had children by her second marriage and, as +several of these married, she had at the end of her life a large number +of grandchildren. Anyway, she was evidently a lady who thoroughly +understood what children want at a children's party. She fully +appreciated, that is, the value of bears, monkeys, crocodiles, and Punch +as entertainers of the young--witness the letter which follows: + + WATER MARK 1804. + To Lady Strachey, + 9 hill street + Berkeley square. + + MY LADY, + + agreebel to order James Botton and Company will attend + Tomorrow evening at 8 But begs to inform That the Bear + being Laim am afeard cant perform But the doggs and munkees + is in good condishon and will I hopes be aprooved with + the music + + my tarms is as toilers pr nite + + Bear ... ... ... ... ... 10. 6. + + 8 doggs for kotillin} ... 16 + at pr dogg 2 } + musick 5 + Drum and orms 7 + head munky 7 + 3 others 9 + keeper 2. 6 + + Punch is a seprit Consarn and Cums high but Can order + him at sam time though not in that line since micklemass he + belongs to Mr valentine Burstem at the marmaid + + 14 Princess Court + holborn-- + I am + my Lady + your most dutiful + humbel servant + tuesday JAMES BOTTEN. + + 19 Piccadilly + + P.S. Please Let the head munky Jacko Cum down The airy + on account not making no dirt in the haul + + The Jentleman says consarning tubb for the crocodile but I + never Lets her out nor the ostriges as I explained to him for + your satisfaction-- + +My father always said, and no doubt with truth, that the "Jentleman" +alluded to at the end of the letter was the butler. He had evidently +been sent to "The Mermaid" or some other hostelry to negotiate for the +appearance of "Jacko." When I read the letter I always see a vivid +picture of "Jacko" coming over and down the area railings, hand over +hand, and wiping his paws on the doormat! + +Evidently Mr. James Botten was an artist in his way and, like his +employer, understood the infant mind, for does he not put the bear at +the very top of his list and charges for him at the highest rate? Why +children so delight in bears and have such a firm belief that they are +kind, gentle, and grandfatherly animals is a piece of psychology which I +have never been able to fathom. As to the existence of the feeling, +there can be no possible doubt. My grandchildren, budding Montessorians +though they be, have the same absolute and unlimited confidence in bears +that I had at the age of three. + +There is another story of this Lady Strachey which I may as well put in +here, because it is with such amazing clearness the characteristic of a +vanished age. My father used to say that when the second Sir Henry +Strachey came back from India, for he was there only ten years, his +father was still in Parliament. Henry Strachey was only just thirty, and +therefore there was the usual desire felt by his family to find +something for the young man to do--something "to prevent him idling +about in town and doing nothing or worse." In order to provide this +necessary occupation his mother offered him £4,000 with which to buy a +seat in Parliament. She thought that a seat would keep him amused and +out of mischief! In spite of the fact that he was a strenuous Radical, +Sir Henry's only remark in telling the story was: "I refused, because I +did not like the idea of always voting in the opposite lobby to my +father." The first Henry Strachey, though a staunch Whig in early life, +was a supporter of William Pitt and later, of Lord Liverpool. Therefore +the second Henry Strachey, if he had got into the House, when he first +came home, would no doubt have voted with the Radical Rump. + +There are many stories I could tell of the second Sir Henry, who lived +on at Sutton till the year '58, when my father succeeded, but these +again must be kept for another book--if I ever have time to write it. I +must say the same of my own grandfather, my father's father, Edward +Strachey, and his memorable wife. Of both of them plenty is to be found +in Carlyle's account of his early years. I shall only record of Edward +Strachey here the fact that after he returned from India he became an +official at the India House on the Judicial side, and was called the +Examiner, his duties being to examine the reports of important law-cases +sent from India to the Board of Directors. When one day I asked my +father for his earliest recollection of any important event, he told me +that he could well remember his father coming back from the India House +(which was by a Thames wherry, for the Examiner lived at Shooter's Hill +and had to cross the river) and saying to his mother: "The Emperor is +dead." That was in the year 1822, and the Emperor was, of course, +Napoleon. Strachey was one of the first people to hear of the event +because St. Helena was borrowed by the Government for prison purposes +from the East India Company. The East Indiamen, however, still used it +as a house of call. Therefore it happened that the East India Company, +by the actual appearance of one of the ship's captains at the India +House, heard of the great event an hour or two before the Government to +whom the despatches were forwarded. My father must have been ten years +old at the time, as he was born in 1812. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MY CHILDHOOD AND SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL INCIDENTS + + +And now for the child who was so happy in his surroundings, and, above +all, in those who were to care for him. + +There were naturally certain nursery traditions about me of the +magnifying kind, but, taken as a whole, I don't think I can claim to +have been anything but a normal child, with health fair to moderate and +an intelligence which was reasonably quick and responsive. I had, +however, no educational precociousness; I did not read till I was nearly +nine, and even then did not use the power of reading. The book habit did +not come till I was twelve or thirteen-though then it came, as far as +poetry was concerned, with a rush. By fifteen I had read all the older +English poets and most of the new. In reading poetry I showed a devotion +which I am thankful to say I have always maintained. In this matter at +least I am the opposite of Darwin. He confessed that the power to read +poetry left him entirely in middle life. The older I grow, the more I +love verse. + +The actual study of metre was a source of acute satisfaction. It is said +of me, indeed, that when, at a little more than two and a half years +old, we were starting for a long journey to Pau, where my mother had +been ordered to winter, I insisted on my father not packing, but taking +with him in his hand, Spenser's _Faerie Queen_. He had been reading +it to us that autumn. I did not know what a journey meant, but I was +determined the readings should not be broken. I also could not have +known what Spenser meant, but his stanza fed ear, and heart, and mind +with melody. + +It was at this age, too, that I seem to have made two theological +observations which greatly amused my family. I was discovered one day +digging with tempestuous energy in the garden. When asked what I was +doing, I replied, "Digging for hell-fire!" That was especially curious +because my father, as a strong Broad Churchman and a devoted friend and +disciple of Frederick Maurice, was a wholehearted disbeliever in hell +and its flames. He had "dismissed Hell with costs," as Lord Westbury +said, ever since he came to man's estate. How I derived my knowledge on +this point was never cleared up. Demons with three-pronged forks and +curly tails are, of course, universally regarded as "the friends of +little children" by natural right, and my preference I must suppose was +transferred to their flaming home. + +My other early piece of theological criticism was characteristic. Either +my father or my mother, I forget which, was explaining to me the story +of the Crucifixion and our Lord's arrest by the armed men of the High +Priest. Greatly surprised and perturbed by the fact that Christ did not +resist and make a fight of it I energetically enquired, "Hadn't He a +gun?" I was told No. "Hadn't He a sword?" No. And then: "Hadn't He even +a stick with a point?" Though not naturally combative, I have always +been a strong believer in the virtue of the counterattack as the best, +or, indeed, the only efficient form of self-defence. + +I was, I believe, an easy-going, contented child, with no tendency to be +frightened either by strangers, by imaginary terrors, or by the dark. I +jogged easily along the Nursery high-road. There was, however, a family +tradition that, though as a rule I was perfectly willing to let other +children have my toys, and would not take the trouble to do what nurses +call "stand up for myself," I did occasionally astonish my playmates and +my guardians by super-passionate outbursts. These, however, were very +rare indeed, for all my life I have had a great dislike or even horror +of anything in the shape of losing my temper, an unconscious +recognition, as it were, of the wisdom of the Roman saying, "Anger is a +short madness." Instinctively I felt with Beaumont and Fletcher: + +Oh, what a beast in uncollected man! + +My general psychology, as far as I can tell from memory, was plain and +straightforward when a child. I have no recollection of feeling any +general depression or disappointment, of thinking that I was +misunderstood, _i.e._ of entertaining what is now called "an +inferiority complex." I never gave way to any form of childish +melancholy. I did not even have alarming, or mysterious, or metaphysical +dreams! What makes this more curious is the fact that I very much +outgrew my strength, about the age of nine or ten. I was not allowed to +play active games, or run about, or do any of the things in which I +delighted. + +Though without great physical strength, I was all my life exceedingly +fond of the joys of bodily exercise, whether swimming, rowing, riding, +walking, mountaineering, skating, playing tennis or racquets or whatever +game was going. + +In none of these pastimes did I reach anything approaching excellence, +but from all of them I got intense enjoyment. I tasted, indeed, almost +every form of athleticism and genuinely smacked my lips at the flavour +of each in turn, yet never bothered about the super-pleasure which +comes from doing such things as well as they can be done. + +Though my bodily health did not give me an unhappy or depressed +childhood, or make me suffer from any sort of morbid reaction, I had +occasionally a very curious and somewhat rare experience--one which, +though it has been noted and discussed, has never, as far as I know, +been fully explained by physicians either of the body or of the soul. + +The condition to which I refer is that which the musician Berlioz called +"_isolement_"--the sense of spiritual isolation, which seizes on +those who experience it with a poignancy amounting to awe. Wordsworth's +_Ode to Immortality_ affords the _locus classicus_ in the way +of description: + + Fallings from us, vanishings, + Blank misgivings of a creature + Moving about in worlds not realised. + +I once amused myself by getting together a large number of descriptions +of "_isolement_" and found that, though they may differ considerably, +they have in common the characteristics enumerated by the Ode. + +The first thing to be noted about the sense of _isolement_ is that +it comes, not in sleeping, but in waking hours, and that, whether truly +or not, it brings with it the feeling that it is the result of some +external impulse. The best form of explanation, however, is to describe +as exactly as I can my own sensations. Though the sense of +_isolement_ has been experienced by me as a little child, as a lad, +as a young man, and even up to the age of forty or forty-five, the +recollections of my first visitation, which occurred when I could not +have been more, at the very most, than six years of age, are very much +more vivid and keener-edged than those of the later occasions. + +Outside the two doors of the nurseries at Sutton Court there is a long +passage, and in this is something unusual--a little fire-place and +grate. I was one day standing in that passage, quite close to the grate, +and expecting nothing in particular. Then suddenly there came over me a +feeling so strange and so different from anything I had ever felt before +as to be almost terrifying. It was _overwhelming_ in the true +meaning of the word. Incredible as it seems in the case of so small a +child, I had the clearest and most poignant feeling of being left +completely, utterly alone, not merely in the world, but in something +far, far bigger--in the universe, in a vastness infinite and +unutterable. + +As with Wordsworth, everything seemed to vanish and fall away from me, +even my own body. I was literally "beside myself." I stood a naked soul +in the sight of what I must _now_, though of course did not then, +call for want of better explanatory expressions, the All, the Only, the +Whole, the Everlasting. It was no annihilation, no temporary absorption +into the Universal Consciousness, no ingression into the Divine Shadow, +that the child experienced. Rather it was the amplest exaltation and +magnification of the Ego which it is possible to conceive. I gained, not +lost, by discarding the "lendings" of life. Something that was from one +point of view a void, and from another a rounded completeness, hemmed me +in. + +Here I should perhaps interpolate yet another caveat. I did not, of +course, as a child, use or even know of the vocabulary of the +metaphysicians. I did, however, entertain thoughts which I could not +then express, but which the words given above most nearly represent. +There is one exception. In talking about "a naked soul" I am not +_interpreting_ my childish thrill of deep emotion into a later +vocabulary. I have always remembered the emotion in those very words. It +is so recorded on my memory. Of that I am sure. + +The effect on me was intensely awe-inspiring--so awe-inspiring, indeed, +as to be disturbing in a high degree. Though it did not in the least +terrify me or torture me, or make me have anything approaching a dread +of its repetition, I experienced a kind of rawness and sensitiveness of +soul such as when, to put it pathologically, a super-sensitive mucous +membrane surface is touched roughly by a hand or instrument. One is not +exactly pained, but one quivers to the impact. So quivered my soul, +though not my brain or my body, for there was no suggestion of any +bodily faintness, or of any agitation of "grey matter," in the +experience. For example, I was not in the least dizzy. I was outside my +bodily self and far away from the world of matter. + +In addition to this awe and sensitiveness, and what one might call +spiritual discomfort, there was something altogether curious and +unexpected, something that still remains for me as much the most vivid +and also much the most soul-shaking part of the experience, something +which many people will regard as impossible to have occupied the mind of +a child of six. I can best describe it, though very inadequately, as a +sudden realisation of the appalling greatness of the issues of living. I +avoid saying "life and death" deliberately, for Death was nowhere in the +picture. I was confronted in an instant, and without any preparation, or +gradation of emotion, not only with the immanence but with the ineffable +greatness of that whole of which I was a part. Though it may be a little +difficult to make the distinction clear, this feeling had nothing to do +with the sense of isolation. It was an entirely separate experience. I +felt, with a conviction which I know not how to translate into words, +that what I was "in for" by being a sentient human being was +immeasurably great. It was thence that the sense of awe came, thence the +extraordinary sensitiveness, thence the painful exhilaration, the +spiritual sublimation. "Oh! what a tremendous thing it is to be a living +person! Oh, how dreadfully great!" That is the way the child felt. That +was what kept ringing in my ears. + +Though I was isolated, I had no sense of smallness or of utter +insignificance in face of the Universe. I did not feel myself a +miserable, fortuitous atom, a grain of cosmic dust. I felt, though, +again, I am interpreting rather than recording, that I was fully equal +to my fate. As a human being I was not only immortal, but _capax +imperii_,--a creature worthy of a heritage so tremendous. + +From that day to this, talk about the unimportance, the futility of man +and his destiny has left me quite cold. + +Though, as a small child, I was by no means without religious feeling, +and had, as I have always had, a deep and instinctive sense of the +Divine existence, I had not the least desire to translate my vision of +the universal into the terms of theology. + +That is a very odd fact, but a fact it is. The vision remained, and +remains, isolated, immutable, and apart. Though I had perfect confidence +in my father and mother, and often talked to them of spiritual matters, +I did not at the time feel any impulse to relate my experience either to +them or to anyone else. I had no desire to unload my mind--a remarkable +thing for so eager a talker and expounder as I have always been. This +reticence, I am sure, came not from a fear of being laughed at, or of +shocking anyone, or again from a fear of a repetition of the experience. +It simply did not occur to me to talk. The experience was solely mine, I +was satisfied and even a little perturbed by the result. Probably some +sense of the great difficulty of finding words to fit my thoughts also +held me back. + +It was only after two or three similar visitations that I casually told +the story of this "ecstasy" to my younger brother. I was then about +twenty-four and he twenty. I was much surprised to find that he had +never had any experiences of this particular kind, for I supposed them +common. He, however, became much interested, and some little time after +showed me the passage to which I have referred in Berlioz' +_Memoirs_. + +This set me investigating, and I soon found examples of states of +ecstasy similar to, if not exactly like, my own. Tennyson supplied one +in the visional passages in the _Princess_. Kinglake had a +visitation akin to _isolement_. Wordsworth, however, came nearest +to my sensations. Indeed, he describes them exactly. + +My later manifestations of _isolement_ were similar to my first, +though not so vivid. As I write at the age of sixty-two, my impression +is that the last occasion on which I experienced the sense of +_isolement_ was about twenty years ago. How welcome would be a +repetition! I do not, however, expect another ecstasy, any more than did +Wordsworth, and for very much the same reasons. I do not think that the +vision was due to any morbid or irregular working of the brain, or to +any other pathological or corporeal mal-functioning. I believe that the +experience was purely an experience of the spirit. That is why I +attribute to it a psychological and even metaphysical value. + +At any rate, it corresponds with my personal metaphysic of existence. +Further, I think with Wordsworth that in all probability the fact that +it was most vivid in early childhood and gradually ceased when I grew +up, is a proof that in some way or other it was based on a spiritual +memory. Wordsworth, after the description I have already given, goes +on:-- + + High instincts, before which our mortal nature + Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised; + But for those first affections, + Those shadowy recollections, + Which, be they what they may, + Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, + Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; + Uphold us--cherish--and have power to make + Our noisy years seem moments in the being + Of the eternal silence; truths that wake + To perish never; + Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, + Nor man nor boy, + Nor all that is at enmity with joy, + Can utterly abolish or destroy! + +That seems to me the explanation which can most reasonably be applied to +the mental phenomena which I have described. It satisfied me completely. +Wordsworth struck the exact balance between mental exaltation and the +trembling "like a guilty thing surprised," of which I have given a more +prosaic account. + +I must add here that the _Ode to Immorality_ is not a poem which my +father used to read to us as children, and as far as I can remember I +did not take to reading it, or know anything about it, till I was +seventeen or eighteen; that is, ten or twelve years later. Even when it +became a favourite with me, for some reason or other I did not dwell +upon the _isolement_ part of it, but rather upon the earlier +passages. Curiously enough, it was a quotation in Clough's _Amours de +Voyages_ which first made me realise that Wordsworth was dealing with +_isolement_. + +I hope no one will think that in describing my experiences of +_isolement_ in my own mind I was exaggerating the importance of the +incident. I know that similar waking trances are very common. I also +know that modern psychology, or, I should say, certain schools of modern +psychology, regard them merely as manifestations or outcrops of the +unconscious self. If I understand the argument rightly, they hold that +just as in dreams the unconscious self gets possession of one's +personality and the consciousness is for a certain time deposed or +exiled, the same thing may happen, and does happen in our waking hours. +Therefore _isolement_ must not be regarded as anything wonderful or +mystic, but merely as a day-dream. I admit that this seems at first +sight a plausible explanation. Yet I can say with Gibbon, "this +statement is probable; but certainly false." + +Anyone who has experienced the feeling as I experienced it would think +it by no means unlikely that it represented something far deeper, and +was due to some impulse external to oneself. Certainly to me the feeling +was essentially one of revelation, of being suddenly made to see and +understand things which before had been dark or unknown. I realised that +what I should now call the materialistic hypothesis would not help me to +a solution. No "fanciful shapes of a plastic earth" were in my vision. +My _Ego_, whatever it was or was to be, was, I perceived, a spirit +and not a creature of flesh-and-blood, and also not a hypothesis, but a +reality. + +Since it is appropriate to my account of the phenomenon of +_isolement_, I may add a curious passage in Walt Whitman's +_Specimen Days and Collect_, which shows that the poet knew this +form of ecstasy: + +Even for the treatment of the universal, in politics, metaphysics, or +anything, sooner or later we come down to our single, solitary soul. +There is, in sanest hours, a consciousness, a thought that rises, +independent, lifted out from all else, calm, like the stars, shining, +eternal. This is the thought of identity--yours for you, whoever you +are, as mine for me. Miracle of miracles, beyond statement, most +spiritual and vaguest of earth's dreams, yet hardest basic fact, and +only entrance to all facts. In such devout hours, in the midst of the +significant wonders of heaven and earth (significant only because of the +Me in the centre), creeds, conventions fall away and become of no +account before this simple idea. Under the luminousness of real vision, +it alone takes possession, takes value. Like the shadowy dwarf in the +fable, once liberated and look'd upon, it expands over the whole earth +and spreads to the roof of heaven. The quality of BEING, in the object's +self, according to its own central idea and purpose, and of growing +therefrom and thereto--not criticism by other standards and adjustments +thereto--is the lesson of Nature. + +Who knows whether this may not be Walt Whitman's "secret," or, at any +rate, the spiritual experience of which the poet's latest biographer, +Mr. Emory Holloway, writes? His interesting account of Walt Whitman's +Manuscript Note-Books is preceded by the following statement: + +The first of these (The MS. Note-Books) begins with a sense of +suppressed, half-articulate power in the language of a novel ecstasy. +Some mystical experience, some great if not sudden access of +intellectual power, some enlargement and clarifying of vision, some +selfless throb of cosmic sympathy, has come to Walt Whitman. At first he +can only ejaculate his wonder, and pray for the advent of a perfect man +who will be worthy to communicate to the world this new vision of +humanity. Then, like the prophet Isaiah, whose great book he is wont to +carry in his pocket to Coney Island, he suddenly realises that a vision +is itself a commission; and from this moment he dedicates himself to a +life task as audacious as it seems divine. + +Though the subject, I admit, fascinates me, I must say no more on it, +lest my autobiography should become "a sort of a commentary" on "the +ecstasy," featuring Plotinus! + +Though always intensely interested in things psychical, and a copious +reader of all the phenomena of the unseen world, I have only had one +other psychic adventure in the whole of my life, and that an +insignificant one. It is, however, worth recording shortly. It happened +that in the early autumn of the year 1920, while my son was away from +home, learning French in a family at Versailles, I went to my dressing- +room to sleep, at about three o'clock in the afternoon. I woke up at +four o'clock--an hour's sleep is my ration--with a start and the +recollection that I had just dreamt a dream of a very alarming kind. In +my dream my wife had come to me with a telegram in her hand, and had +told me that our son had been killed in a hunting accident in France. +The impression was extremely vivid, and for a moment I was greatly +perturbed. This, however, did not last. A little reflection soon made me +feel that it could be nothing but a bad dream--a nightmare. People do +not hunt in August, or at Versailles, and therefore there was no reason +whatever to regard the dream seriously. Still, as a faithful member of +the Psychical Society, I thought I must take notice of the incident, +even though it seemed ridiculous. No scientific investigator ever dares +to say that any "odd" observed fact is not worth considering. + +Accordingly I sat down and wrote to my son, mentioning the dream and +asking whether between three and four on that day he was in any kind of +mental trouble or anxiety--anything that by an imperfect telephonic +message might have got through to me as a hunting accident. To my +astonishment, I received by return a letter from Versailles telling me +that about three-fifteen on the day in question he had been in a small +railway accident, which, though not resulting in any deaths, had injured +several people, and had given him a fairly severe shaking. + +Considering how seldom I dream, and if I do dream, how seldom the dream +concerns anybody else, it is difficult to account for this as a mere +coincidence. My dreams, when I have them, are practically all of the +pure nightmare description and of the usual sealed-pattern. I am worried +by the sense of not being able to pack in time to catch my train, or +else I am compelled to go back to Oxford and try to pass an examination +under impossible and humiliating conditions. Indeed, I don't think I can +ever remember a dream, except this one about my son, which was of a non- +egotistical kind, that is, in which somebody else speaks, and of which I +am not the centre. In a word, it seems to me that, though my son had no +recollection of thinking of me (the accident was not important enough +for that), his unconscious self got busy and, as I was in a light sleep, +it was able to telephone an excited message to its nearest relation, my +unconscious self. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MY CHILDHOOD (_Continued_) + + +It must not be supposed that either my childhood or boyhood was a +psychic or poetic affair, or that in any way I was a cranky and abnormal +child. I was nothing of the kind. In spite of what I had better call my +metrical precociousness, which I deal with in detail in a later chapter, +I was exceedingly fond of outdoor sports of all sorts. Though never a +very strong swimmer, I loved particularly what Dr. Johnson might have +called the "pleasures of immersion," whether in the icy cold of our +Somersetshire streams or in the bland waters of the Mediterranean. The +back of the horse and the buffet of the wave still remain for me the +intensest of physical delights. Next in my affections comes mountain- +climbing, though here I must not write of it. Instead, I would record +two memories--one of the very beginning, and one of the very end, of my +childhood. My very first memory is concerned with the American Civil +War--a conflict which has always exercised a great influence over my +mind. To me the struggle between the North and the South stands for one +of the pivotal facts in the history of the English-speaking race. I have +a clear recollection of my mother showing me a full-page picture, +probably in the _Illustrated London News_, entitled "The Last Shot +in the War." It was, if my memory serves, a darkish picture, with a big +piece of artillery dimly portrayed in the foreground, and a still dimmer +background, in which one seemed to catch sight of shadowy armies, warring +in the gloom. Or were they only trees and clouds? I cannot remember my +mother's words, but I have a recollection, firm though so distant, that +she told me how the great war had come about, and how this was the end of +all the misery and slaughter. The year, I think, must have been '65, that +is, when I was five years old. + +[Illustration: Sutton Court, Somerset.] + +As soon as my father began to talk to us of great events, which was when +I was about six, and to expound, as fathers should, the merits of the +struggle, I became an intense Northerner. All my father's sympathies +were with the North, both on the imperative duty of maintaining the +Union and on the slavery issue. He was an intense abolitionist. As a lad +of sixteen or seventeen, he had given up sugar, at the end of the +'twenties, because in those days sugar was grown by slaves on the West +Indian plantations. He would not support a slave industry, and until the +slaves were freed he did not go back to sugar. + +Curiously enough, though my father greatly admired Mr. Lincoln, he did +not put into my mind that passionate devotion to the saviour of the +Union which I developed later. By this I do not mean that he was +critical of Lincoln, but merely that Lincoln was not one of his special +heroes. This fact, however, made a sounder foundation for my feelings +about America and the American people than would the mere cult of the +individual. I learned first to understand the greatness of the +separation issue, to realise the magnificence and the significance of +the American nation. + +Another point of interest in the context is worth noting. My American +readers must not run away with the idea that there was anything strange +in a Somersetshire squire being on the side of the North. It is quite a +delusion to suppose that all the people of education and position in +England were Southerners. They were nothing of the kind. I cannot, of +course, remember those times myself, but I often talked them over with +men like Lord Cromer, who not only was on the Northern side, but paid a +visit to the Northern Armies as a young artillery officer, and heard the +guns at Petersburg. He pointed out how strong Conservatives such as his +uncle, Tom Baring, were convinced Northerners, as was also, of course, +Disraeli. + +No doubt the man who did the harm in England and made Americans believe +that we rejoiced in the rebellion, was Mr. Gladstone. Partly through +want of information and partly through a curious mental twist, he +persuaded himself that the South was fighting for freedom like the +Italians in Naples or Lombardy. He not only believed in "the erring +sister, go in peace" policy, but considered that for "erring sister" +should be substituted "good and gallant sister." Mr. Gladstone's +influence was, unfortunately, at that time very great, and he misled an +enormous number of people on the merits of the quarrel. Happily my +father, though a keen admirer of Gladstone, did not follow him here. He +maintained the Northern view against all comers, as did the Duke of +Argyll, Lord Houghton, and dozens of other men of light and leading, +including, I am glad to say, my future chiefs, the Editors of _The +Spectator_. + +Of another combative memory I can be more specific, for my recollection +of it is positively photographic. I can see myself, a little creature in +a straw hat, playing on what the nurses used to call "the libery lawn"-- +a beautiful stretch of sward, upon which the Great Parlour window +opened. This lawn is half surrounded by an old red sandstone battlement +wall, with a long, terrace-like mound in front of it. Suddenly, in the +middle of our play, I saw the Great Parlour window open and my father, +with his hand held to shelter his eyes from the glare, stepping on to +the gravel path. He called to my elder brother and me that if we liked +he would read us an account of a great battle that had just been fought +in Austria. It was the Battle of Sadowa. My father held in his hand a +copy of the _Daily News_, to which he was a fairly frequent +contributor. The paper contained Forbes's vivid account of the action +which humbled the Austrian Empire before its Hohenzollern rivals. I was +always glad to hear about a fight, and was very soon tucked up at the +end of my father's green sofa. Owing to his stiff knee he always used a +sofa to rest and read on rather than sat in an armchair. He began to +read at once, for he was as eager as we were to devour the story of how +"Our Special Correspondent" climbed the church-tower and saw men and +armies battling in the plain below. + +I did not, of course, understand the nature of the war, but my father +was greatly moved and read with such emotion that the encounter lived +before my eyes. Here I should note that my father, though the most +humane of men, was intensely fond of stories of war, and in a layman's +way understood a good deal about strategy. For example, he knew not +only, like Sir Thomas Browne, all the battles in Plutarch, but also all +the big Indian battles and those of the Peninsula. He was a special +student of Waterloo, for he had talked with plenty of men and officers +who had been in the Belgian Campaign. + +Another recollection of my childhood will come in aptly here, for it +concerns a Waterloo veteran. He lived at Chew Magna, and kept a small +shop. Like many of the combatants on the British side, he was probably +only about fifteen or sixteen years old at Waterloo. Half the regiments +there were Militia regiments, and notoriously were composed of lads. +Therefore, in '69 or '70, when I used to ride over to see him, my +soldier was only about seventy-one or seventy-two. At his shop could be +bought pencils, pens, and little books of most attractive appearance, +sealing-wax and many other objects fascinating to the schoolboy. +However, the real attraction was the seller, and not the things sold. As +soon as I discovered that the man had been at Waterloo, I loved to go +in, pull over the old man's stock, and then gossip with him about the +Battle. Unless my recollection plays me false, he was distinctly a good +talker. This is how he told the story of the 18th of June: + +Our regiment was marched out into a cornfield. The officers told us to +lie down on the ground and wait, because the enemy had got their +artillery playing on us. Cannon-balls kept coming over pretty close to +the ground. If we kept flat, however, there was not much risk. Every now +and then the artillery fire would cease entirely, and then our officers +called us to get up as quick as ever we could, and form square. The +front rank lay down, the second rank knelt, the third stooped low, and +the rear rank stood up. Our bayonets were fixed and our muskets loaded. +There was not much time. As soon as we had got into place we heard the +cavalry thundering up. Then, all of a sudden and as if they had sprung +up from the ground (there was a little hollow in front), they were +riding round us, riding like mad, cursing and swearing and shouting, +waving their swords, and trying to force their horses on to our +bayonets. We kept shooting at 'em all the time. But the bullets used to +bound off their steel coats. (They were, of course, cuirassiers.) We +soon found out, however, that if we aimed under their arm-pits, or at +their faces, or the lower part of their bodies, we could kill them, or +at least damage them. Our square was never really broken, but every now +and then one of the Frenchmen would drive his horse right through our +bayonets and into the middle, where we killed him. Of course, their idea +was that if one got in, the others could follow him, but we never let +them do that. We always closed up and held fast. Then, all of a sudden, +the cavalry would go back as quick as they came, and in a minute there +was not one of them to be seen. They had all utterly disappeared. As +soon as ever they were gone, the guns began to fire again, and down we +all went flat to the ground, and this went on all the morning, first up +and then down. + +From a private soldier's point of view, this was, I expect, a very +accurate description of the battle. + +I, of course, wanted to know more, and especially whether he had seen +the Duke. He declared that he had, but it was a dim picture. According +to my friend, he saw the Duke and his staff riding by at the back of the +square, and heard him say something to an officer, but what he did not +catch. If he had only known, he was describing a particular +characteristic of the Duke. Wellington, when in action, was the dumbest +of dumb things, and it would have required a moral earthquake to get +more than some curt order out of him. Even a "tinker's curse" or "a +tuppenny damn" would have seemed loquacious in him on such an occasion. +The not very sensational "_Up Guards and at 'em!_" was in later +life disputed by the Duke. Under great pressure, the most he would admit +was that he might possibly have said it, though he did not believe he +ever did. + +The kind of battle remark he favoured was one which my father used to +tell me he had heard from Mountstewart Elphinstone, his father's bosom +friend. Elphinstone rode with the Duke at the Battle of Assaye. When +some hundred Mahratta guns were in full blast against the British line, +Elphinstone asked Sir Arthur Wellesley--it was Elphinstone's first +battle--whether the fire was really hot. "Well, they're making a good +deal of noise, but they don't seem to be doing much damage," was the +reply of the Duke, after he had carefully looked up and down the line. + +By a curious piece of luck, we boys were in touch not only with a +Waterloo veteran, but also with a man who had been at Trafalgar. At Lady +Waldegrave's house, Strawberry Hill, one of the men in the garden had +been, as a boy, on the _Victory_. My brother Harry remembers +speaking to him, but, though I must have seen him, I have no +recollection of him, and probably did not talk to him. If I had, I am +sure I should have questioned him, and would probably have remembered +the answers. + +I will end the stories of my childhood by relating an incident which +always seems to me to belong to the earlier epoch, though it really +happened when I was about thirteen, and therefore no longer a child. The +scene is Sutton, and therefore it must have been during the holidays, +for I am sure I was living at our tutor's at Chewton at the time. I had +gone out for a country walk by myself, for I was fond of roaming about +the fields, and especially of tracing to their sources the wooded +gullies abounding in our Somersetshire country. On such solitary rambles +I was always accompanied by a poet, in my pocket. On the occasion I am +going to describe, Swinburne in his _Poems and Ballads_ was my +guest of honour. + +I emerged from my riverine exploration on to a hillside where the stream +rose--near a place with the delightfully rustic name of Hinton Belwit. +Here the springtime and the bright sun invited me to sit upon a stile +and to read of Dolores or Faustine, or _The Garden of Proserpine_, +--I know not which. While thus absorbed and probably muttering verses +aloud, I did not notice a typical Somersetshire farmer of the seventies +who was approaching the stile. When, therefore, I heard his voice and +looked up, it was as if the man had dropped from the clouds. What he was +saying was quite as unexpected as his appearance. It ran something like +this: "It be all craft, craft. You men be as full of craft as hell be of +tailors." Needless to say, I was enchanted. This looked like the +beginning of an adventure, for the old gentleman was puffing hard and in +the condition which Jeremy Taylor describes as "very zealously angry." + +I, however, was too much interested to learn what he meant to resent his +abuse, and politely invited an explanation. He went on to declare with +great vehemence what a curse this book-learning and education were to +the working-men and how they filled them with "craft"--that was the +refrain of all his remarks. It made them unfit to work and to serve +honest men like himself, who had never had anything to do with that evil +thing--book-learning. When I gently asked why the sight of me had made +him think about it, he explained, with a look of infinite slyness, that +he saw I was reading a book. Then came an amusing disclosure. At +fourteen I was a very much overgrown lad, almost as tall as I am now, +and weighing almost as much and he had mistaken me for one of the +ordination pupils of a Roman Catholic priest who lived in the valley +close by. They were wont to walk about the country breviary in hand, not +merely reading, but actually reciting the office to themselves. My green +book was taken for a breviary, or for a book of hours, and my mouthings +of _Dolores_ or _The Garden of Proserpine_ for "the blessed +mutter of the Mass"! Assured by me that I was not a priest, he asked me +who I was. I told him my name and he instantly stretched out a huge and +grimy hand, and shook mine with a hearty violence, and insisted that I +should come home with him and drink a mug of cider. I accepted with +avidity. It was all in the adventure. Who knows? I might go to his house +and find the most delightful maiden in disguise! In fact, anything and +everything was possible. So I went, expecting and hoping for great +things, though quite willing to be content with small things and "a mug +o' zyder" if I could not get anything bigger. + +As soon as we got into the farm kitchen and saw the farmer's wife, the +old gentleman began to explain his mistake. "And to think, Mother, that +this be young Mr. Strachey, after all. You can mind, carn't you, wife, +how we used to see him and his brothers riding by with their ponies and +their long hair? It is just like King Arthur and the cakes, it is." At +this his good wife, with a toss of her head, said, "Don't you be so +ignorant, maaster, talking about what you don't know. It's King Henry +you means." "That I don't. I mean King Arthur. You go down and get the +young maaster a mug o' zyder, and don't you say no more." + +Then he slowly closed one pig-like eye and aimed it in my direction. +That was his idea of winking. Patting me on the knee, he added, "The +women be always like that--bain't they?--always trying to think they +know better. It was just like King Arthur and the cakes, weren't it?" I, +of course, assented and, I am sorry to say, with the magnificent +pedantry of boyhood, reflected that he was not the first person to make +the mistake. Did not Mrs. Quickly piously ejaculate that the dead +Falstaff was "in Arthur's bosom"? Besides, it was proof that the +Somersetshire people still remembered King Arthur--a point treasured by +me for my father, who was a keen student and great lover of the +Arthurian legends. It was he who edited for Macmillan the _Morte +d'Arthur_ in the Globe series. According to my father, and I expect +quite rightly, Arthur was the last of the British kings to stand up +against the Saxons, and really did inhabit that most magnificent of +ditch-defended hills, Cadbury Castle. + +Cadbury, as the village at its foot, Queen's Camel, shows, is quite +possibly a broken-down form of Camelot. But there is better proof than +that. Till forty years ago, and possibly even now, the people round +Cadbury told tales of King Arthur, and firmly believed he would come +again. For example, the rector of Queen's Camel told my father that a +local girl, a housemaid in the Rectory, told him, as if it were a matter +of course, that every night of the full moon the King and his Knights +rode round the castle hall and watered their horses at the Wishing-Well. +She had seen them herself. Another man told the rector that his father +had one day seen a sort of opening in the hill, and had looked in. +"There he zeed a king sitting in a kind of a cave, with a golden crown +on his head and beautiful robes on him." + +The best Arthurian story of all was the following. The rector, as an +archaeologist, did a little excavation on his own on the flat place at +the very top of the hill--a place in which there were what looked like +rough foundations. He used to take with him a local labourer to do some +of the spade-work. One day they dug up a Quern. The labourer asked what +it was. The clergyman explained that it was a form of hand-mill used in +the olden days for grinding corn. In reply he was met with one of the +most amazing remarks ever made to an antiquarian. "Oh, a little hand- +mill be it! Ah, now I understands what I never did before. That's why +they fairies take such a lot of corn up to the top of the hill. They be +taking it up for to grind." + +Anticipating Kipling, the rector might well have exclaimed, "How is one +to put that into a 'Report on Excavations on Cadbury Hill submitted to +the Somersetshire Archaeological Society by the Rector of Queen's +Camel'?" + +Anyway, I was delighted to have actually heard a man speak the words +"King Arthur," and also went home chuckling at the thought of being +mistaken for a Roman priest--an event which particularly amused my +mother. + +Soon after I was eleven, we went to Chewton Vicarage for the first time +as "private pupils." Then my mother's health became worse, and we had to +go to Cannes more or less regularly. In order that our education should +be continued, we then reverted to the plan of tutors in the house. We +had two of these in succession, both Balliol men. Though they were able +men, they were not successes as educationalists. My father always used +to say that he thought both of them had been badly overworked at Oxford +and had been advised to take tutorial posts as a rest-cure--a very +pleasant rest-cure when it took the form of wintering in the South of +France. + +But, though my brothers and I effectually resisted the efforts made to +teach us, we learnt during our winters in France a great many things +indirectly. Unfortunately, French was not one of those things. My father +would have liked us to speak and write French. He had it, however, so +strongly impressed upon him by his advisers that if we were to go to +Oxford we must above all things get a sufficient knowledge of Latin and +Greek to pass Responsions that, though we had an occasional lesson in +French, our sojourn on the Riviera, as far as learning French was +concerned, was thrown away. + +We lived entirely with the boys and girls of the rest of the British +colony, and regarded the French inhabitants literally as part of the +scenery, and largely as a humorous part thereof. We got on well enough +with them, and knew enough French to buy endless sweets at Rumpelmeyer's +or _chez Nègres_, to get queer knives and "oddities" at the fairs, +or to conduct paper-chases along the course of the Canal or in Pine Woods +bordering it. We refused, however, to take the French or their language +seriously. + +[Illustration: Sutton Court, Somerset] + +However, my father did contrive to instil a little French politics into +us. He was a fervent admirer of Gambetta and the Third Republic, and +used to read us extracts from Gambetta's organ, _La Republique +Francaise_. It thus happened that I early became a staunch adherent +of the great Democratic leader and was full of zeal against first the +Comte de Chambord and then the Comte de Paris. I still remember the +excitement we all felt over Marshal MacMahon's rather half-hearted +efforts to play the part of a General Monk. + +We had, further, the excitement of seeing a famous General immured close +to us in a fortress prison for the crime of treason. The Ile de Ste. +Marguerite, opposite Cannes, with its picturesque Vauban fortifications, +became, while we were at Cannes, the prison of Marshal Bazaine, the man +who surrendered Metz to the Germans. He occupied, besides, the very +rooms which had been occupied by "The Man with the Iron Mask." Can it be +wondered that when we had a picnic-party on the island, or rowed under +the walls of the fortress in a boat, we used to strain every muscle in +order to get a glimpse of the prisoner? On one occasion we saw +somebody's hat or head moving along a parapet, and were told it was the +Marshal taking his daily exercise on the terrace of the fort, but +whether it really was or not, who can say? At any rate, the Marshal +escaped from his imprisonment during our stay, probably to the relief of +his jailers. That was a source of great excitement in itself, and it was +heightened by rumours that an English girl had assisted the prisoner to +break out. + +We were not personally in favour of Bazaine, but regarded him with +distinct repulsion for surrendering at Metz. Still, an escape was an +escape; and, besides, the fat old Marshal had let himself down by a rope +into an open boat! + +The epoch of tutors came to an end soon after the birth of my sister, +which happened at Marseilles, when my mother was on her way to Cannes. +After the event, my mother was pronounced by the doctors to be able to +winter in England, and I and my two brothers, therefore, went back to +Chewton Mendip and became private pupils of Mr. Philpott, for the second +time. Here we remained till I went first to a tutor at Oxford--Mr. Bell-- +and then to live with my uncle and aunt, Professor T. H. Green (Mrs. +Green was my mother's sister). There I was "coached for Balliol" by two +of the best scholars in the University. One of them was Professor +Nettleship, who a couple of years later was made Professor of Latin, and +the other is now Sir Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen. They were +both delightful expounders of the classics, and, though I was an +unaccountably bad scholar, I am proud to say that they both liked me and +liked teaching me. However, I need say no more on this point, as all +that is worth saying about it is supplied by Sir Herbert Warren in the +letter which I have included in my Oxford Chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE FAMILY NURSE + + +In the families of the well-to-do few influences have a greater effect +upon the child, and so upon the man, than that exercised by the servants +of the household in which he or she is brought up. And of those +influences, upstairs or downstairs, none, of course, is so potent as +that of the nurse. That is what Goethe would call one of the secrets +that are known to all. Why it should ever be regarded as a secret Heaven +knows; yet it must be so considered, for it is very seldom spoken of +except in the case of nurses. + +Anyway, I and my brothers, and in our earlier years my sister, were +quite as fortunate in our nurse as we were in our parents and in our +home. Her name was Mrs. Leaker. She was not married, but bore the brevet +rank always accorded to upper servants of her position. She played many +parts in our family household, and always with a high distinction. She +began as nurse; she next became cook; then housekeeper; then reverted +for a time to nurse, and then became something more than housekeeper +because she ruled over the nursery as well as over the kitchen, the +store-room, and the housemaids' room. But whatever her name in the +household, and whatever her duties, she was always in fact head-nurse. +She loved children, and they loved her, though not without a certain +sense of awe. She had a fiery temper; but that fieriness was reserved +almost entirely for grown-up people. A child, if it knew the proper +moment for action, could do anything it liked with her. + +Taken altogether, she was one of the most remarkable women, whether for +character or intellect, that I have ever come across. In appearance she +had, what can be best described as, the gipsy look, though she did not +believe herself to have gipsy blood. Her complexion was swarthy, her +hair was black, and her eyes dark and full of an eager and scintillating +brightness which made her face light up and change with every mood of +her mind and radiate a vivid intelligence. If anyone who knew her was +asked to state the most memorable thing about her, I am sure the answer +would be, "mobility," both of mind and body. There was a quickness as +well as a lightness in her step--I hear it as I write--in the gestures +of her hands and her head, and indeed in everything she did. + +Let nobody suppose for a moment that this was a case of _paralysis +agitans_, or St. Vitus' Dance. There was nothing involuntary in her +unrest. It was all part of an intense vitality and an intense desire for +self-expression. When she was in one of her worst tempers, she would +pace up and down a room, turning at each wall like a lion in a cage, in +a way which I have only seen one other person effect with equal spirit +and unconsciousness. That was an eminent statesman, in the moment of +great political crisis. Her nature was so eager and so active, and +seemed to be so perpetually fretting her body and mind, that anyone +seeing her in middle life would have been inclined to prophesy that such +agitations must wear her out prematurely and that she had only a short +life before her, or else an imbecile's end. + +Yet, as a matter of fact, she lived in good health till over eighty, and +to the last moment retained the full control of her faculties. She died, +as might any other old person, of bronchitis. In truth, she was an +example of Sir Thomas Browne's dictum that we live by an invisible flame +within us. As a matter of fact, her flame was anything but invisible. It +was remarkably visible. It leapt, and crackled, and gleamed, and took on, +like the witch's oils, every colour in the spectrum. Now crimson, now +violet, now purple, now yellow, glowed and flashed the colours of her +mind. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Salome Leaker,--"The Family Nurse."] + +Mrs. Leaker was brought up in a poor household, in an age when +illiteracy, alas! seemed the natural fate of the poor. But you could no +more have kept education from her than you could have kept food from a +hungry lioness. She was determined to get it somehow, and get it she +did. She taught herself to read before she had reached womanhood, and +taught herself by pure force of her will, adopting, curiously enough, +what would now be described as the Montessori method. She opened books +and read them somehow or other till she understood the meaning of the +words. Her letters her mother had taught her. She often told me that +nobody had taught her to read. When she had attained the power of +reading, self-education was easy enough. It led to results of an amazing +kind--results which at first sight seem to prove all the lore of the +educationalists at fault. People, we are told, must be trained to like +and understand good literature. Without that training they will never +know the good from the bad. + +Now read this story of an innate appreciation of good literature which +she told me with her own lips. I asked her once, when I was a lad, what +she thought of "Junius," who had begun to exercise a great influence +over my rhetorical instincts. It was as natural to consult her on a +point of literature as on one of domestic surgery. Her reply was perhaps +the strangest ever made by a woman over sixty to a boy of undergraduate +age. It ran in this way, for I recall her words. + +When I was a girl, and a young housemaid in my first place at Mrs. +Lloyd's, in Clifton, I used to have as part of my work to dust the +library. When I was dusting, I used to take down the books and look at +what was in them, and often got through a page or two with my duster in +my hand. Once I took down a volume marked "Junius," and read a page or +two, and as I read I began to feel as if I was drunk. In those days I +had never heard of the Duke of Grafton or Lord Sandwich, or any of the +other people he talks about, and I did not know what it all meant, but +the words went to my head like brandy. + +Now, I ask anyone with a sense of literature whether it would be +possible to give a better lightning criticism of "Junius" and his style +than that conveyed in Leaker's words. She had got the exact touch. +"Junius," in truth, is not only empty for her, but empty for the whole +world except as regards his style. There he is unquestionably great. +Tumid, exaggerated, and monotonous as it often is, his style does affect +one like wine. That is certainly how it affected, and still affects, me. +Even at an age when I did not really know much more about the Duke of +Grafton than did Leaker, and probably cared less, I had got the +peroration of the first letter to the Duke of Grafton by heart. I used +to walk up and down the terrace, or across the meadows that led to the +waterfall, shouting to myself, or my bored companions, that torrent of +lucid, thrilling invective. I mean the passage in which "Junius" gives +advice to the University of Cambridge. They will, he hopes, take it to +heart when they shall be "perfectly recovered from the delirium of an +Installation," and when that learned society has become "once more a +peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation." + +How the waterfall gave me back the reverberating words! How the lime +trees rocked to the final crack of the whip over the unhappy Grafton! +"The learned dullness of declamation will be silent; and even the venal +Muse, though happiest in fiction, will forget your virtues." + +But that was by no means her only achievement of literary diagnosis and +the power to get hold of books somehow or other. When in the 'twenties +she came to Bristol from Dartmouth, which was her home, with her mother +and brothers (her father was dead), she travelled, as did all people +with slender means in those days, in the waggon. These vehicles +proceeded at the rate of about three or four miles an hour. All she +could tell about her journey was that she lay in the straw, in the +bottom of the waggon, and read Wordsworth's _Ruth, The White Doe of +Rylstone_. She was, throughout her life, very fond of _Ruth_ and +this was her first reading. I have often thought to myself how much the +great apostrophe must have meant to the lion-hearted, vehement, +imaginative girl: + + Before me shone a glorious world,-- + Fresh as a banner bright, unfurled + To music suddenly. + +In later life she had the poem by heart, and I venture to say that there +was not a word of it that she did not understand, both intellectually +and emotionally. But though she loved books and literature, it must not +be supposed that she was indifferent to other forms of art. Anything +beautiful in nature or art made a profound impression upon her. When +Leaker first went to Paris, on our way to Pau or Cannes, I forget which, +my mother sent her to the Louvre and told her specially to look at the +Venus of Milo. She gave her directions where to find the statue; when +she came back, she said to my mother: + +I couldn't find the statue you told me about, but I saw another which is +the most lovely thing in the world. I never thought to see anything so +beautiful, and the broken arm did not matter at all, for she stood there +like a goddess. + +She had found the Venus for herself, although some fault in the +directions had made her feel sure that it could not be what she had been +sent to look at. Later on, when we took to going to France regularly for +my mother's health, she every year did her homage to the Venus. What is +more, when she went for the first time to Florence, she fully realised +how poor a thing the Venus de Medici was in comparison. + +But though, as I have said, all beautiful things appealed to her, +literature was her first love and the element in which she lived. But +literature did not in her case only mean Shakespeare, Milton, and the +Bible, as it does to so many English people. She cropped all the flowers +in the fields of literature, prose and verse. She was as intense an +admirer of Shakespeare as was my father, and a greater lover of Milton. +Shakespeare she lived on, including, curiously enough, _Timon of +Athens_, who was a great favourite. When any lazy member of my family +wanted to find a particular line or passage in Shakespeare, he or she +would go to Leaker rather than trouble to look up the quotation in a +concordance; Leaker was certain to find you at once what you wanted. +There was no pedantry about her and no mere _tour de force_ of the +memory. She entered into the innermost mental recesses of Shakespeare's +characters. What is more, she made us children follow her. + +Though we were kept clean and well looked after, there was no nonsense +in her nursery as to over-exciting our minds or emotions, or that sort +of thing. She was quite prepared to read us to sleep with the witches in +_Macbeth_, or the death-scene in _Othello_. I can remember now +the exaltation derived, half from the mesmerism of the verse and half +from a pleasant terror, by her rendering of the lines: "Put out the +light, and then put out the light." I see her now, with her wrinkled +brown face, her cap with white streamers awry over her black hair +beginning to turn grey. In front of her was a book, propped up against +the rim of a tin candlestick shaped like a small basin. In it was a dip +candle and a pair of snuffers. That was how nursery light was provided +in the later 'sixties and even in the early 'seventies. As she sat bent +forward, declaiming the most soul-shaking things in Shakespeare between +nine and ten at night, we lay in our beds with our chins on the +counterpanes, silent, scared, but intensely happy. We loved every word, +and slept quite well when the play was finished. We were supposed to go +to sleep at nine, but if there was anything exciting in the play, very +little pressure was required to get Leaker to finish, even if it took an +extra half-hour--or a little more. In truth, she was always ready to +read to us by night or day. + +Though no Sabbatarian, she had a tendency to give _Paradise Lost_ a +turn on Sundays. As far as I remember, she never read _Paradise +Regained_. _Comus_ and the short poems, especially _Lycidas_, +were great favourites with her. One might have supposed that she +would not like Wordsworth. As a matter of fact, she loved him and +thoroughly understood him and his philosophy of life. She did not +merely read the lyric and elegiac poems like _Ruth_, but had gone +through and enjoyed _The Excursion_ and many of the longer poems. +Coleridge she loved, and Southey, and Crabbe, and Gray, and Dr. Johnson, +and indeed the whole of English poetic literature. In modern poetry she +read freely Tennyson and Robert Browning, and admired them both. + +Byron was a special favourite of hers, and here again she showed her +intellect and her taste, not by worshipping the Eastern Tales or the +sentimentalities of _Childe Harold_, but by a thorough appreciation +of _Don Juan_. Her taste, indeed, was almost unfailing. Take a +simple example. She used frequently to chant the delightful lines to Tom +Moore, which begin: + + My boat is on the shore, + And my barque is on the sea, + But ere I go, Tom Moore, + Here's a double health to thee. + +Having a great deal of sympathy for scorn and indignation, she, of +course, loved the last verse and implanted it deeply in my mind by +constant quotation in tones of scathing intensity: + + Here's a tear for those who love me, + And a smile for those who hate, + And whatever sky's above me, + Here's a heart for every fate. + +That was her own spirit. Truly she had a heart for every fate. She was +quite fearless. + +Although she was not in the least a prejudiced person, I remember once, +in the excitement of my own discovery of Swinburne, trying to create an +equal enthusiasm in her mind. She returned me the book, however, without +enthusiasm and with the trenchant remark that it made her feel as if she +was in an overheated conservatory, too full of highly-scented flowers to +be pleasant! She was not in the least shocked by Swinburne, and if you +produced a good line or two you could win her approval, but the +atmosphere was not sympathetic. Of Rossetti she was a little more +tolerant, but she felt, I think, that there was not enough scope and +freedom. + +It is unnecessary to dwell upon the educational advantages of such a +nurse, and of having the very best part of English literature poured +into one's mouth almost with the nursery-bottle, and certainly with the +nursery mug. If my friends find me, as I fear they sometimes do, too +fond of making quotations, they must blame Mrs. Leaker, for when at her +best she threw quotations from the English Classics around her in a kind +of hailstorm. Some of the lines that had stuck in her mind were very +curious, though she had forgotten where they came from. One specially +amusing piece of Eighteenth-Century satirical verse I have never been +able to trace. Perhaps if I put it forth here I shall find out whence it +comes--very likely from some perfectly obvious source. The lines which +were used to calm us in our more grandiose and self-conceited moods ran +as follows: + + Similes that never hit, + Vivacity that is not wit, + Schemes laid this hour, the next forsaken, + Advice oft asked, but never taken. + +She had a couplet which she often produced when the newspapers came out +with some big social scandal or the coming to financial grief of some +great family name. On such occasions she would mutter to herself: + + Debts and duns + And nothing for my younger sons. + +Another verse, though I quote it not the least to show her literary +taste but because it was exceedingly characteristic of her, was in the +spring-time always on her lips: + + The broom, the broom, the yellow broom, + The ancient poets sung it, + And sweet it is on summer days + To lie at ease among it. + +I could fill a book, and perhaps some day I will do so, with Leaker's +reflections on men and things, and her epigrammatic sayings, and still +more with her wonderful old sea-stories, especially of the press-gang, +which she could almost remember in operation. Her father was, as she +always put it, "in the King's Navy," and he had been "bosun" to a ship's +"cap'n." He was at the Mutiny of the Nore, but was not a mutineer. + +She was, however, full of stories about the Mutiny, which we found +extremely exciting. She used to sing, or rather "croon" to us some of +the mutineers' songs. One that I specially remember began with this +verse: + + Parker was a gay young sailor, + Fortune to him did not prove kind; + He was hung for mutiny at the Nore, + Worse than him were left behind. + +After declaiming that verse to us, she would add in low tones that made +one's blood run cold, "Men have been hung at the yardarm for singing +that song. It was condemned throughout the Fleet." + +That in itself seems a link with the past, but through Leaker I had a +much more remarkable example of what, in spite of the smiles of the +statistician, fascinated us all. Leaker, when about the age of sixty, +brought her old mother, who was then ninety-four or ninety-five, to whom +she was devoted, to live in one of the cottages at Sutton, the year +being, as far as I can recollect, 1868 or 1869. I can distinctly recall +the old lady. She was very thin and faded, but with all her wits about +her, though weak and shy. + +Leaker told us, with pride, that her mother, when she was a little girl, +had sat upon the knee of an old soldier who had fought at Blenheim. This +is quite possible. If old Mrs. Leaker was, as I think, only five years +short of a hundred in 1869, she could easily have been in the world at +the same time as a lad who had been at Blenheim in his eighteenth year. +Old Mrs. Leaker was, I calculated, born about 1774. She would therefore +have been six years old in 1780. But a man who was ninety-five in 1780 +would have been born in 1685, and so twenty-nine in 1714, the year of +Blenheim. Possibly some historical calculator will despoil me of this +story. Meantime, I am always thrilled to think that I have seen a woman +who had seen a man who had been in action with the great Marlborough at +his greatest victory. + +Before I leave my old nurse I must say something about a very curious +and interesting attempt which, at my request, she made at the end of her +life. It was to put down her recollections and reflections. +Unfortunately, I made this request rather too late, and so the result, +as a whole, was confused and often unintelligible. Still, the two little +MS. books which she wrote contain some very remarkable and +characteristic pieces of writing, and show the woman as she was. +Although in her day she had read plenty of autobiographies, she makes no +attempt to imitate them, or to write in a pedantic or literary style. As +far as she can, she shows us what she really was. Leaker's heart beats +against the sides of the little books just as I used to hear it when I +was a child in her arms, either in need of consolation, with toothache +or growing-pains, or else trying to give consolation, for she was often, +like all fierce people, melancholy and depressed after her own fierce +outbursts of anger. + +Here is the very striking and characteristic exordium to her +autobiography: + +I have not had an unpleasant life, although I was an old maid, and was a +servant for fifty years. I was a nurse and no mother could have loved +her children more than I loved those I nursed. I had three dear, good +mistresses, two of whom I left against their will. + +The third and last was my mother, whom the old nurse outlived for many +years. + +Here is her account of the miseries endured by the poor after Waterloo-- +miseries which I often think of in these days, when I note the foolish, +the demented way in which we are approaching our economic difficulties +and dangers: + +I am writing of the time a little after Waterloo. We were living at +Dartmouth. Everything was very dear. We lived mostly on barley bread. We +children were so used to it that we did not mind it, but my poor mother +could never eat it without repugnance, and we always tried to make her +get white bread, not knowing that she could not properly afford it. Many +a time (so she told me in after-years) she made her supper off a turnip +rather than let her children go hungry to bed. The cheapest sugar was +then tenpence a pound, and the very cheapest tea quite as much as five +shillings, but what I had to get for my mother was in very small +quantities. We children never had it, nor, as far as I remember, cared +for it. It was a treat when we could get milk to dip our bread in. + +But though their poverty was so dire it did not kill the girl's joy in +life or, wonderful to say, in literature: + +Though we were very poor, my childhood seems pleasant to me as I look +back, for my mother did all she could to make us happy. She went out +sewing very often, and we were glad she should go, for she got better +food than she could get at home, and what was, I believe, as much good +to her, she sometimes got food for her mind. But, poor dear, she was +always having a struggle with her conscience, and her love of what is +called light reading, as being a Methodist she thought it wrong to read +such books. She told me that when she was married she was given a new +edition of all the Elizabethan plays, twenty-five volumes, beautifully +bound. (I heard afterwards that a new edition was published at that +time.) However, about the year 1818 she thought it right to burn them, +although she was so fond of them. Yet when I was sitting at work with +her she would tell me tales out of the plays. How vexed I used to be +with her for burning them, poor dear loving mother! She taught me to +read out of my father's large old Bible, and the Apocrypha was a book of +wonder to me. She was fond of Young's _Night Thoughts_. Milton she +read often; my father gave it to her; poor man, he thought it would +please her. He was a sweet-tempered man, easy and kindhearted, but not +clever like my mother. He once said to her when she laughed at him for +some blunders, "Well, my dear, what can the woman with five talents +expect from the man with one?" + +Leaker had plenty of stories of the press-gang. Though she never herself +saw it in operation, people not very much older told her of how they +were "awakened in the night by people crying out that they had been +taken." + +Her mother, too, used to tell her heartrending stories about these +times. + +"I can hardly even now bear to think of the dreadful things done by the +press-gang in the name of the law. I never hated the French as I hated +them." + +Needless to say, I inherited her hatred of the press-gang, and have +maintained it all my life. It was the very worst and most oppressive +form of national service ever invented, and I think with pride that my +collateral ancestor, Captain George St. Loe (_temp_. William & +Mary) was the first man in England who urged in his writings that the +only fair way of making the nation secure was compulsory universal +service. + +Leaker's mother was early in her married life converted to Methodism. +Some of her reflections on the smuggling that went on in and around the +little Devonshire port give the lie to those foolish, ignorant, and +shameless people who allege that because people are poor they cannot be +expected to have any idea of what is called conventional morality in +regard to "mine and thine." They will naturally and excusably, it is +asserted, break any law, moral or divine. + +That is not how it struck Leaker's mother: + +There was a good deal of smuggling going on in the town when I was a +girl, and one day a member of my mother's chapel brought some gay things +for her to buy. Oh, how I did long for her to get me a pretty +neckerchief, but she said, "No, my dear, I cannot buy it for you, as I +do not see any difference in cheating a single man or a government of +men. I believe that in the sight of God both are equally sinful." + +Leaker says of her mother, "She had a large share of romance, and loved +a tale of witches, or a love-story"--and so did her daughter. The +supernatural gained fresh interest from her skilful story-telling, and +the art of the _raconteur_ still lives in her pages. Here is one of +the best of her stories. Even now it gives a delightful sense of fear: + +This story was told me by the mother of a friend of mine--Mrs. Jackson +was her name, a ladylike woman, but who appeared to me to be very old +when I was a girl. Her husband was sailing master on board a man-of-war, +and this is what took place once when she was on board with him. They +were in port, and there was a large party of friends and officers +spending the evening on the ship, when a sudden storm arose, and no one +could go on shore. They were going to amuse themselves with music, and a +violin was brought, but a string broke before the instrument had been +touched. "Never mind," said the captain, "I have a man on board who is a +first-rate hand at deceiving the sight." Everyone was pleased at the +idea of conjuring, and the man was sent for, and asked to show some of +his tricks; but he said, "No, I can't tonight, as it is not a good +time." Said the captain, "What is to hinder you?" "Well, sir, I do not +like doing it this stormy weather." "That is all stuff and nonsense," +replied the captain; "you must try. Come, set to work." So the man asked +for a chafing dish, which was brought to him. There was a fire of +charcoal in it. He said and did something (Mrs. Jackson did not tell us +what), and after a while there appeared in the dish, coming out of the +fire, a tiny tree, with a tiny man holding a hatchet. The tree seemed to +grow from the bottom, and the little man chopped at it all the time. The +performing man was greatly agitated, and asked one of the ladies to lend +him her apron (ladies wore them in those days). Mrs. Jackson took off +hers and handed it to him. He tied it on, and ran round the table on +which the chafing-dish stood, catching the chips, and apparently in +great alarm lest one of them should fall to the ground. She used to say +it was painful to see the poor man's agony of fear. While this was going +on the storm grew much worse, so that the people on board were afraid +that the ship would be driven from her anchorage. At last the tree fell +under the tiny man's hatchet, and nothing was left on the table but the +chafing-dish. The conjuror gave back the apron, and then, turning to the +captain, said, "Never from this night will I do what I have done +tonight. You may believe me or not, but if one of those chips had fallen +to the ground, nothing could have saved the ship, and everyone on board +would have gone down with her." + +When the old lady told this story she would say that she had distinctly +seen the chips fly, and heard the noise of the chopping. She used to +show the apron, which she never wore again, but kept, carefully put +away, to be shown to anyone who liked to see it. + +Can one wonder that the little man with his little axe and the little +tree, and the unknown peril of death that came up from the sea, made a +deep impression upon my mind, though not in any sense a haunting or +unpleasant one? I longed to see the chips fly and the tiny tree bow to +the sturdy strokes of the weird woodman. + +Leaker's stories of ordinary witchcraft were many and curious, and +though they cannot be set out here I must quote one or two lines in +regard to them: + +I do not think there was a place in the land so full of witches, white +and black, as Dartmouth. My mother was, for her time and station, pretty +fairly educated, yet she seemed to me to believe in them firmly. + +The autobiography shows that when she was sitting alone, thinking and +writing, the old nurse felt acutely the solitude and weariness of an old +age that had outlived contemporaries as well as bodily faculties. When, +however, the friends of another generation were with her, she never +seemed too tired or too sad to enter keenly into all the interests of +their lives. After a hopeful consultation with an oculist she writes: + +Is it not strange, that when the most terrible trouble is a little +better, what looked light in comparison with want of sight comes back as +heavily as ever? How I wish I could be more thankful for the mercies I +have and not be always longing for the unattainable. + +Everyone who has lived through a great crisis has probably shared the +old nurse's surprise at finding that smaller troubles, which for a while +were reduced to nothingness, soon revive with our own return to ordinary +life. + +However [as she says] I will not go into reflections, but write of my +young days. How all these things come back to me, a lone old woman who +longs for, and yet is afraid of death. If I could only be sure, be sure! +Is it possible there is no other state of being? Oh, God, it is too +dreadful to think of. + +Then she would turn to _Paradise Lost_, and how often have we not +heard her repeat the lines: + +And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me, +opens wide, finding, as Aristotle would have said, relief and even +comfort in the "purgation" through poetry, of the passions of pity and +terror. + +I will end my account of Leaker with one of her memories of happier +moods in which we can feel the magic of spring laying hold on the vivid +imagination of the bright-eyed Devonshire girl: + +One early spring day I heard my eldest brother tell my mother that he +had seen a primrose. She said, "Do not tell Salome, for if she knows +there will be no keeping her at home." But I had heard, and that was +enough. Early next morning away I went, rambling all day from field to +field, picking primroses. First a handful of the common yellow ones, +then some coloured ones, and did ever a Queen prize jewels as I did +those coloured flowers? But the joy in them only lasted a little while. +I would next see some white ones, and then the coloured ones were thrown +away, and I would set to work to gather the pale ones. Oh, how beautiful +they looked! I can see them now, and almost feel the rapture I felt +then. It makes me young again--almost. My dear mother used to say, "What +do you do with all the flowers you pick? You never bring any home." I do +not know what I did with them, but the joy of picking them was beyond +expression. Have I ever felt such joy or happiness since? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BOYHOOD: POETRY AND METRE + + +If I am to be exact, this chapter should have the sub-title of "Poetry +and Metre," for poetry, other people's and my own, and an impassioned +study of the metrical art, were the essential things about my boyhood. +Between the ages of twelve and eighteen, at which time I may be said to +have become grown-up, Poetry was my life. + +My schoolboy period was not passed by me at school, except a term and a +half at an excellent private school--one which still flourishes--the +MacLaren School at Summertown. Rather reluctantly, for he was horrified +by the bullying and cruelty which went on during his own day at English +schools, my father consented to my mother's desire that we should go to +school. After he had taken many precautions, and had ascertained that +there was no bullying at Summertown, my elder brother and I were +despatched to the school in question. + +I was quite happy, got on well with the schoolmasters and with Mrs. +MacLaren, the clever Scotswoman who ran the school, and gave +satisfaction in everything except learning. In this matter I developed +an extraordinary power of resistance, partly due, no doubt, to my bad +eyesight. I was pronounced, in reports, to be a boy who gave no trouble +and who was always happy and contented, and appeared to have good +brains, and yet who, somehow or other, was easily surpassed at work by +boys with inferior mental capacity. + +My schoolfellows, I believe, thought me odd; but I made friends easily, +and kept them. Though I could be "managed" by anyone who wanted to get +something out of me, I was never put upon or bullied, because if +attempts were made to coerce me, I was, like the immortal Mr. Micawber, +not disinclined for a scrap. I stood erect before my fellow-boy, and +when he tried to bully me I punched his head. Mr. Micawber's comment is +too moving not to be recorded. "I and my fellow-man no longer meet upon +those glorious terms." I and my fellow-schoolboy did occasionally meet +upon those glorious terms, greatly to my enjoyment. + +It happened, however, that there was an outbreak of scarlet fever in the +school, and my father became anxious, and removed us at once--somewhat, +I think, to my regret, but probably for my good. It was ultimately +decided that my brother and I, instead of returning to MacLaren's, +should, as I have already mentioned, go to the house of a clergyman, Mr. +Philpott, who was the vicar of a neighbouring village, Chewton Mendip. +The Vicarage was close to Chewton Priory, the house of my mother's +closest friend, Lady Waldegrave. + +Though Mr. Philpott was not an educational expert, in the modern sense, +he was a man of good parts, fond of the arts, and something of a man of +the world. His wife was a woman of great nobility of character and also +of considerable mental power. She combined the qualities of a self- +sacrificing and devoted mother with a certain ironic, or even sardonic, +touch. She was a daughter of Mr. Tattersall, the owner of Tattersall's +sale-rooms, and at her father's house she had become acquainted in the +latter part of the 'fifties and the early 'sixties with all the great +sporting characters of that epoch. Of these she used to tell us boys +plenty of strange and curious anecdotes. + +Chewton Mendip was only seven miles from Sutton, and so while there we +were in constant touch with our own home life. We had also the amusement +of seeing my father and mother when they went over, as they often did, +to dine and sleep, or stay for longer visits, at the Priory. Lady +Waldegrave was a great entertainer, and the house was thronged, not only +with her country neighbours but with numbers of smart people from +London--people such as Hayward, Bagehot, Lord Houghton, on the literary +side, and men like Sir Walter Harcourt on the political. Again, +picturesque figures in the European world, such as the Comte de Paris, +the Due d'Aumale, were often guests, and there were always members of +the Foreign Embassies and Legations. For example, it was at the Priory +that I first saw a real alive American, in the shape of General Schenk, +the United States Minister to the Court of St. James. I remember well +his teaching the whole houseparty to play poker--a game till then quite +unknown in England. + +It was in the interval between leaving school and going to Chewton to +the Philpotts that I began to read poetry for myself. Before, I had only +loved it through my father's and Leaker's reading to us from +Shakespeare, Scott, Byron, Spenser, Coleridge, Southey, and the old +Ballads. When, however, I discovered that I could read poetry for +myself, I tore the heart out of every book in the library that was in +verse. Though my parents would have thought it an unforgivable crime to +keep books from a child of theirs, for some reason or other I used to +like in the summer-time to get up at about five or six o'clock (I was +not a very good sleeper in those days, though I have been a perfect +sleeper ever since), dress myself, run through the silent, sleeping +house, and hide in the Great Parlour. There in absolute quietness and +with a great sense of grandeur I got out my Byron or my Shelley, and +raced though their pages in a delirium of delight. I can recall still, +and most vividly, the sunlight streaming into the Great Parlour window, +as I opened the great iron-sheathed shutters. Till breakfast-time I +lolled on the big sofa, mouthing to myself explosive couplets from +_Don Juan_. I am proud to say that, though I liked, as a boy +should, the sentimentalism of the stanzas which begin + + 'Tis sweet to hear the watchdog's honest bark + +I was equally delighted with + + Sweet is a legacy, and passing sweet + The unexpected death of some old lady. + +The ironic mixture of emotion and sarcasm fascinated me. + +No sooner were Byron, Shelley, and Keats explored than I fell tooth and +nail upon Swinburne, Morris, and Rossetti, and every other possible poet +of my generation. I forget the exact date on which I became enamoured of +the Elizabethan dramatists, but it was some time between fourteen and +sixteen, and when I did catch the fever, it was severe. + +As everyone ought to do under such circumstances, I thought, or +pretended to think, that Marlowe, Beaumont, Fletcher, Ben Jonson, +Webster, and Ford were the equals, if not indeed the superiors, of +Shakespeare. + +That was a view with which my father by no means agreed, but with his +kindly wisdom he never attempted to condemn or dispute my opinions. He +left me to find out the true Shakespeare for myself. This I ultimately +did, and ended by being what, as a rule, is wrong in literature, but, I +think, right in the case of Shakespeare, a complete idolater. + +But though hand-in-hand with Charles Lamb I wandered through the Eden of +the Elizabethan playwrights, I by no means neglected the Eighteenth +Century. Quite early I became a wholehearted devotee of Pope and at once +got the _Ode to the Unfortunate Lady_ by heart. I dipped into +_The Rape of the Lock_, gloried in the Moral Essays, especially in +the _Characters of Women_ and the epistle to Bathurst on the use of +riches. Gray, who was a special favourite of Leaker's, soon became a +favourite of mine, and I can still remember how I discovered the _Ode +to Poesy_ and how I went roaring its stanzas through the house. Such +lines as + + Where each old poetic mountain + Inspiration breathes around + +or + + Hark, his hands the lyre explore, + +were meat and drink to me. The _Elegy in a Country Churchyard_ +quickly seized my memory. + +Nobody could avoid knowing when I had made a poetic discovery. I was as +noisy as a hen that has laid an egg, or, to be more exact, I felt and +behaved like a man who has come into a fortune. For me there were no +coteries in Literature, or if there were, I belonged to them all. If I +heard somebody say that there were good lines in the poems of some +obscure author or other, I did not rest satisfied till I had got hold of +his _Complete Works_. For example, when Crabbe was spoken of, I ran +straight to _The Tales of the Hall_ and thoroughly enjoyed myself. +I even tasted _The Angel in the House_ when I heard that Rossetti +and Ruskin, and even Swinburne, admired Coventry Patmore. Though largely +disappointed, I even extracted honey from _The Angel_, though I +confess it was rather like a bee getting honey out of the artificial +flowers in the case in a parlour window. Still, if I could only find two +lines that satisfied me, I thought myself amply rewarded for the trouble +of a search. It is still a pleasure to repeat + + And o'er them blew + The authentic airs of Paradise. + +I felt, I remember, about the epithet "authentic" what Pinkerton in +_The Wrecker_ felt about Hebdomadary--"You're a boss word." + +I have no recollection of what made me take to writing verse myself. It +was the old story. "I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came." My first +lisp--the first poem I ever wrote--of all the odd things in the world +was a diminutive satire in the style of Pope. Throughout my boyhood I +was an intense romanticist, and full of Elizabethan fancies, imaginings. +and even melancholies--I use the word, of course, in the sense of +Burton, or of Shakespeare. Yet all the time I read masses of Pope. The +occasion for my satire was one which must be described as inevitable in +the case of one eager to try his hand at imitations of Pope. By this I +mean that the satiric outburst was not provoked by any sort of anger. I +merely found in some of the circumstances of the life around me good +copy. One of the things I liked particularly in Pope was the Epistle +describing the Duke of Chandos's house, the poem which begins-- + + At Timon's villa let us pass a day, + Where all cry out what sums are thrown away. + +And there, straight in front of me, was the Priory, Lady Waldegrave's +grandiose country-house. I heard plenty of criticism of the house. Its +nucleus was a Carpenter's Gothic villa, built originally by a Dean of +Wells, bought by Lord Waldegrave in the 'thirties or 'forties, and then +gradually turned by Frances, Lady Waldegrave, into a big country-house, +but a house too big for the piece of ground in which it was set. The +skeleton of the roadside villa was alleged by the local critics to show +through the swelling flesh that overlaid it. Here was a chance for the +satirist, and so I sharpened my pencil and began: + + Oh, stones and mortar by a Countess laid + In sloping meadows by a turnpike glade,-- + A Gothic mansion where all arts unite + To form a home for Baron, Earl or Knight. + +The rest is lost! Considering that I was only twelve, and that Pope was +little read by the youth of the 'seventies, my couplets may fairly claim +to be recognised as a literary curiosity. + +It is hardly necessary to say that the moment I found I could write, and +that metre and rhyme were no difficulty to me, I went at it tooth and +nail. The more I wrote the more interested did I become in metre, and it +is not too much to say that within a couple of years from my first +attempt, that is by the time I was about fourteen and a half, I had +experimented not only in most of the chief measures, but in almost all +the chief stanzas used by the English poets. To these, indeed, I added +some of my own devising. In this way Prosody early became for me what it +has always been, a source of pleasure and delight in itself. I liked +discovering metrical devices in the poets, analysing them, _i.e._ +discovering the way the trick worked, and in making experiments for +myself. The result of this activity was that I had soon written enough +verse to make a little pamphlet. With this pamphlet in my pocket and +without consultation with anybody--the young of the poets are as shy as +the young of the salmon--I trudged off to Wells, the county town, five +miles distant across Mendip. How I discovered the name of the local +printer I do not know, but I did discover it, and with beating heart +approached his doors. After swearing him to secrecy, I asked for an +estimate. He was a sympathetic man, and named a price which even then +seemed to me low, and which was in reality so small that it would be +positively unsafe to name to a master-printer nowadays. + +As far as I remember, I did not receive a proof, but my delight at +seeing my verses come back in print was beyond words. I remember, too, +that I received a flattering note from my first publisher, prophesying +success for future poetic ventures. But, though very happy, I believe, +and am indeed sure, that I did not entertain any idea that I was going +to become a poet. Possibly I thought the trade was a bad one for a +second son who must support himself. It is more probable that I +instinctively felt that although it was so great a source of joy to me, +poetry was not my true vocation. Perhaps, also, I had already begun to +note the voice of pessimism raised by the poets of the 'seventies, and +to feel that they did not believe in themselves. I distinctly remember +that Tennyson's "Is there no hope for modern rhyme?" was often on my +lips and in my mind. His question distinctly expected the answer "No." +It is little wonder, then, that I did not want to be a poet, and I never +envisaged myself as a Byron, a Shelley, or a Keats. + +The thing that strikes me most, on looking back at my little volume of +verse, is its uncanny competence, not merely from the point of view of +prosody, but of phraseology and what I may almost term scholarship. The +poems did not show much inspiration, but they are what 18th-century +critics would have called "well-turned." That would not be astonishing, +in the case of a boy who had been well-educated and had acquired the art +of expression. But I had not been well-educated. Owing to my ill-health +my teachers had not been allowed to press me, and I was in a sense quite +illiterate. I could hardly write, I could not spell at all, and nobody +had ever pruned my budding fancies or shown me how to transfer thoughts +to language, as one is shown, or ought to be shown, when one learns the +Greek and Latin grammars and attacks Latin prose or Latin verse. My +teaching in this direction had been more than sketchy. The only +schoolroom matter in which I had made any advance was mathematics. +Euclid and algebra fascinated me. I felt for them exactly what I felt +for poetry. Though I did not know till many years afterwards that when +Pythagoras discovered the forty-seventh proposition he sacrificed a yoke +of oxen, not to Pallas Athene but to the Muses, I was instinctively +exactly of his opinion. I can remember to this day how I worked out the +proof of the forty-seventh proposition with Mr. Battersby, a young +Cambridge man who was curate to Mr. Philpott and who took us on in +mathematics. The realisation of the absolute, unalterable fact that in +every right-angled triangle the square of the side subtending it is +equal to the squares of the sides containing it, filled me with the kind +of joy and glory that one feels on reading for the first time Keats's +_Ode to a Nightingale_ or one of the great passages in Shakespeare. +I saw the genius of delight unfold his purple wing. I was transfigured +and seemed to tread upon air. For the first time in my life I realised +the determination of an absolute relationship. A great window had been +opened before my eyes. I saw all things new. My utter satisfaction could +not be spoiled by feeling, as one does in the case of the earlier +propositions of Euclid, that I had been proving what I knew already-- +something about which I could have made myself sure by the use of a +foot-rule or a tape-measure. I had acquired knowledge, by an act of pure +reasoning and not merely through the senses. I felt below my feet a +rock-bed foundation which nothing could shake. Come what might, a^2 = +b^2 + c^2. No one could ever deprive me of that priceless possession. + + At that time I did not see or dream of the connection which no doubt +does exist between mathematics and poetry--the connection which made the +wise Dryden say that every poet ought to be something of a +mathematician. Needless to say, my teachers did not see the connection. +They were simply amazed that the same person should become as drunk with +geometry and algebra as with poetry. Probably they consoled themselves +by the thought that I was one of the people who could persuade +themselves into believing anything! + +It is of importance to record my precocity in the use of measured +language, from the point of view of the growth of my mind. It will, I +think, also amuse those of my readers who have written poetry for +themselves in their youth (that, I suppose, is the case with most of us) +to observe my hardihood in the way of metrical experiment. Here is the +Invocation to the Muses which served as an Introduction to my little +book. It will be noted that I have here tried my hand at my favourite +measure, the dactylic. Towards anapaests I have always felt a certain +coldness, if not indeed repulsion. + +TO THE MUSES + +(1874) + + Come to my aid, Muses love-laden, lyrical: + Come to my aid, Comic, Tragic, Satirical. + Come and breathe into me + Strains such as swept from Keats' heaven-strung lyre, + Strains such as Shelley's, which never can tire. + Come then, and sing to me, + Sing me an ode such as Byron would sing, + Passionate, love-stirring, quick to begin. + Why come you not to me? + Then must I write lyrics after vile rules + Made by some idiot, used by worse fools-- + Then the deuce take you all! + + (Ætat. 14.) + +I have to thank Mr. Edmund Gosse for inspiring this attempt. I hope he +will forgive even if he does not forget. I had made a shopping +expedition into Bristol, and went to tea or luncheon at Clifton Hill +House where lived my mother's brother, John Addington Symonds. It +happened that Mr. Gosse was a visitor at the house on the day in +question, and that to my great delight we all talked poetry. I saw my +chance, and proceeded to propound to these two authorities the following +question: "Why is it that nobody has ever written an English poem in +pure dactyls?" Greatly to my surprise and joy, Mr. Gosse informed me +that it had been done. Thereupon he quoted the first four lines of what +has ever since been a favourite poem of mine, Waller's lines to Hylas: + + Hylas, O Hylas! why sit we mute, + Now that each bird saluteth the spring? + Tie up the slackened strings of thy lute, + Never may'st thou want matter to sing. + +I hope I am not quoting incorrectly, but it is nearly fifty years since +I saw the poem and at the moment I have not got a Waller handy. With the +exactitude of youth I verified Mr. Gosse's quotation the moment I got +home. I took my poetry very seriously in those days. I rushed to the +Great Parlour, and though then quite indifferent to such a material +thing as fine printing, I actually found the poem in one of +Baskerville's exquisite productions. + +The poem next to my dactylic Introduction was a dramatic lyric, partly +blank verse and partly rhymed choruses, in the Swinburne manner. In my +poem the virtuous and "misunderstood" Byron is pursued and persecuted by +the spirits of Evil, Hypocrisy, Fraud, and Tyranny, but is finally +redeemed by the Spirit of Good, whose function it is to introduce the +triumphant poet to Shelley. + +There follows another dramatic lyric on Shelley's death, which takes the +form of the death-bed confession to his priest of an old sailor at +Spezzia. The old man, according to a story published in 1875, was one of +the crew of a small ship which ran down the boat containing Shelley and +Williams, under the mistaken impression that the rich "milord Byron" was +on board, with lots of money. Here the style is more that of Browning +than of Swinburne. A few lines are quite sufficient to show the sort of +progress I was making in blank verse. + + What noise of feet is that? Ah, 'tis the priest. + Here, priest, I have a sin hangs heavy. See + There by the fishing-nets that lovely youth, + I killed him--oh, 'twas fifty years ago, + Only, tonight he will not let me rest, + But looks with loving eyes, making me fear. + Oh, Father, 'twas not him I meant to kill, + 'Twas the rich lord I coveted to rob, + He with the bright wild eyes and haughty mien. + +Imitation of Browning was by no means a passing mood with me. A year +before I tackled my Shelley and Byron poems, I had written a piece of +imitation Browningese which is not without its stock of amusement, +considering what was to be the fate of the versifier. + +JEAN DUVAL'S LAST WORDS + +Jean Duval has presented himself at a Paris newspaper office, asking for +employment; this being refused him he makes a last request, offering to +sell his muse, which he had hoped to keep unhired. This also being +refused, his want of bread overcomes him, and he curses the Editor and +dies. + + A plague on all gold, say I, + I who must win it, or die. + Here goes, I'll sell my Muse. + You may buy her for twenty sous. + No, I'll write by the ream, + Only give me your theme, + And a sou more for a light + To put in my garret at night. + Garret!--ah, I was forgetting, + My present's a very cheap letting + Under the prison wall, + Just where it grows so tall. + Why don't I steal, you say? + Oh, I wasn't brought up that way. + Will you give me the twenty sous? + Come, it isn't much to lose. + You won't? Then I die. Ah, well, + God will find you a lodging in hell. + +(_Ætat_. 14.) + +The melancholy which belongs to the young poet, a melancholy which had +to be feigned in my case, was reserved for sonnets of a somewhat +antinomian type. Here is an example. + +SONNET + +(1875) + + O why so cruel, ye that have left behind + Life's fears, and from draped death have drawn the veil? + Oh, why so cruel? Does life or death avail? + Why tell us not?--why leave us here so blind, + To tread this earth, not sure that we may find + Even an end beyond this worldly pale + Of petty hates and loves so weak and frail? + O why not speak?--is it so great a thing + To cross death's stream and whisper in the ear + Of us weak mortals some faint hope or cheer? + Or tell us, dead ones, if the hopes that spring + From joyous hours when all seems bright and clear + Have any truth. O speak, ye dead, and say + If that in hope of dying, live we may. + +(_Ætat_. 15.) + +A metrical essay of which I am more proud is a poem written at the end +of 1874, or possibly at the beginning of 1875. With a daring which now +seems to me incredible I undertook to write in that most difficult of +measures, the Spenserian stanza. The matter of the composition is by no +means memorable, but I think I have a right to congratulate myself upon +the fact that I was able at that age to manage the triple rhymes and the +twelve-syllable line at the end of each stanza without coming a complete +cropper. I could not do it now, even if my life depended on it. + + TO THE POWERS OF SONG + +I + + Spirit, whose harmony doth fill the mind, + Deign now to hear the wailing of a song + That lifts to thee its voice, and strives to find + Aught that may raise it from the servile throng + Who seek on earth but living to prolong. + For them no goddess, no fair poets reign, + They hear no singing, as the earth along + They move to their dull tasks; they live, they wane, + They die, and dying, not a thought of thee retain. + +II + + Thou art the Muse of whom the Grecian knew, + The power that reigneth in each loving heart; + From thee the sages their great teachings drew. + Thou mak'st life tuneful by the poet's art. + Without thy aid the love-god's fiery dart + Wakes but a savage and a blind desire, + Where nought of beauty e'er can claim a part. + Without thee, all to which frail men aspire + Has nothing good, is but of this poor earth, no higher. + +III + + Unhappy they who wander without light, + And know thee not, thou goddess of sweet life; + Cursed are they all that live not in thy sight, + Cursed by themselves they cannot drown the strife + In thee, of passion, of the ills so rife + On earth; they have no star, no hope, no love, + To guide them in the stormy ways of life; + They are but as the beasts who slowly move + On the world's face, nor care to look for light above. + +IV + + I am not as these men; I look for light, + But none appears, no rays for me are flung. + I would not be with those that sit in night; + I fain would be that glorious host among, + That band of poets who have greatly sung. + But woe, alas, I cannot, I no power + Of singing have, all my tired heart is wrung + To think I might have known a happier hour, + And sung myself, not let my aching spirit cower. + (_Ætat_. 14.) + +A bad poem, though interesting from the number of poets mentioned, is a +satiric effort entitled _The Examination_. It supposes that all the +living poets have been summoned by Apollo to undergo a competitive +examination. The bards, summoned by postcards, which had just then been +introduced, repair to Parnassus and are shown to the Hall. Rossetti and +Morris, however, make a fuss because the paper is not to their taste. +Walt Whitman, already a great favourite of mine, "though spurning a +jingle," is hailed as "the singer of songs for all time." Proteus +(Wilfrid Blount) is mentioned, for my cult for him was already growing. +Among other poets who appear, but who have since died to fame, are Lord +Lytton, Lord Southesk, Lord Lome, Mrs. Singleton, and Martin Tupper. In +the end Apollo becomes "fed up" with his versifiers, and dismisses them +all with the intimation that any who have passed will receive printed +cards. The curtain is rung down with the gloomy couplet: + + Six months have elapsed, but no poet or bard, + So far as I know, has yet got a card + +Another set of verses, written between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, +which are worth recalling from the point of view of metre include some +English hexameters. I was inspired to write them by an intense +admiration of Clough's _Amours de Voyage_, an admiration which +grows greater, not lesser, with years. + +As I have started upon the subject of verse, I think I had better pursue +the course of the stream until, as the old geographers used to say about +the Rhine, its waters were lost in the sands, in my case not of Holland +but of Prose. + +From 1877 to the time when I actually entered Balliol, at eighteen and a +half, I went on writing verse, and was fortunate enough to get one or +two pieces published. Besides two sonnets which were accepted by _The +Spectator_--sonnets whose only _raison d'être_ was a certain +competence of expression--was a poem entitled _Love's Arrows_, +which was accepted, to my great delight, by Sir George Grove, then the +Editor of _Macmillan's Magazine_, a periodical given up to +_belles-lettres_. The poem may be best described as in the Burne +Jones manner. I shall not, however, quote any part of it, except the +prose introduction, which I still regard with a certain enthusiasm as a +successful fake. It ran as follows: + +At a league's distance from the town of Ponteille in Provence and hard +by the shrine of Our Lady of Marten, there is in the midst of verdant +meadows a little pool, overshadowed on all sides by branching oak-trees, +and surrounded at the water's edge by a green sward so fruitful that in +spring it seemeth, for the abundance of white lilies, as covered with +half-melted snow. Unto this fair place a damsel from out a near village +once came to gather white flowers for the decking of Our Lady's chapel; +and while so doing saw lying in the grass a naked boy; in his hair were +tangled blue waterflowers, and at his side lay a bow and marvellously +wrought quivers of two arrows, one tipped at the point with gold, the +other with lead. These the damsel, taking up the quiver, drew out; but +as she did so the gold arrow did prick her finger, and so sorely that, +starting at the pain, she let fall the leaden one upon the sleeping boy. +He at the touch of that arrow sprang up, and crying against her with +much loathing, fled over the meadows. She followed him to overtake him, +but could not, albeit she strove greatly; and soon, wearied with her +running, fell upon the grass in a swoon. Here had she lain, had not a +goatherd of those parts found her and brought her to the village. Thus +was much woe wrought unto the damsel, for after this she never again +knew any joy, nor delighted in aught, save only it were to sit waiting +and watching among the lilies by the pool. By these things it seemeth +that the boy was not mortal, as she supposed, but rather the Demon or +Spirit of Love, whom John of Dreux for his two arrows holdeth to be that +same Eros of Greece.--MSS. _Mus. Aix. B._ 754. Needless to say, +it was a pure invention and not a copy, or travesty of an old model. I +was egregiously proud of the scription at the end which, if I remember +rightly, my father helped me to concoct. A certain interest has always +attached in my mind to this piece of prose. To read it one would imagine +that the author had closely studied the translations of Morris and other +Tenderers of the French romances, but as far as I know I had not read +any of them. The sole inspiration of my forgery were a few short +references in Rossetti and Swinburne. This shows that in the case of +literary forgeries one need not be surprised by verisimilitudes, and +that it is never safe to say that a literary forger could not have done +this or that. If he happens to have a certain flair for language and the +tricks of the literary trade, he can do a wonderful amount of forgery +upon a very small stock of knowledge. After all, George Byron forged +Sonnets by Keats which took in Lord Houghton--a very good judge in the +case of Keats. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OXFORD + + +My introduction to Oxford and its life was somewhat chaotic. Out of that +chaos, as I shall show later, I achieved both good and evil. But I must +first explain how the chaos arose. By the time I had reached seventeen +it had become obvious to my father--or, rather, to the people at the +University, who so advised him--that if I was to be able to matriculate +at Balliol I must set my intellectual house in order and learn something +of the things upon which alone one could matriculate. The irony of +accident had designed my mental equipment to be of a kind perfectly +useless for the purposes of the preliminary Oxford examinations. It was +no doubt true that I knew enough poetry and general literature to +confound half the Dons in Balliol. I also knew enough mathematics, as, +to my astonishment, a mathematical tutor at Oxford in an unguarded hour +confessed to me, to enable me to take a First in Mathematical Mods. But +knowledge of literature, a power of writing, a not inconsiderable +reading in modern history, and the aforesaid mathematics were no use +whatever for the purposes of matriculation. + +In those days Latin and Greek Grammar, Latin Prose and "Latin and Greek +Unseen," and certain specially-prepared Greek and Latin Books were +essentials. It is true that these alone would not have matriculated me. +In addition to them the writing of a good essay and of a good general +paper were required, to obtain success. Still, the _sine qua non_ +was what the representative of the old Oxford in Matthew Arnold's +_Friendship's Garland_ calls "the good old fortifying classical +curriculum." I could by no possibility have reached the heights of +"Hittal," who, it will be remembered, wrote "some longs and shorts about +the Caledonian boar which were not bad." Though English verses came so +easily, Latin verses did not come at all. + +After many family councils it was decided that I should accept the +invitation of my uncle and aunt (Professor T. H. Green and his wife) and +take up my residence with them in their house in St. Giles's. There I +read for Responsions. If it had not been for some extraordinary power of +resistance in the matter of Latin and Greek I ought to have found the +task easy, for, as I have said elsewhere, I had two of the most +accomplished scholars in the University to teach me. One was Mr. Henry +Nettleship, soon to become Regius Professor of Latin. The other was a +young Balliol man who had just won a Magdalen Fellowship and who was +destined to become President of that famous college over which he still +presides so worthily and so wisely. But, alas! I was Greek and Latin +proof, and all I really gained from my learned teachers was two very +close and intimate friends, and the privilege of meeting at the house of +the one and in the rooms in the College of the other, a good many of the +abler Dons, young and old, and getting on good terms with them. In the +same way, I used to see at my uncle's house the best of Oxford company, +and also a certain number of Cambridge men. + +It must not be supposed, however, that I was not learning anything. I +was getting a priceless store of knowledge, + +[Illustration: J St Loe Strachey. Ætat 16 (From a photograph done at +Cannes, about 1876.)] nay, wisdom from my uncle, who was kindness +itself and who was, I am sure, fond of me. He was almost as ready to +talk and to answer questions as my father. In him, too, I saw the +working of a great and good man and of a noble character. + +Though in a different, but equally true, way, Green was as religious a +man as my father. If my father felt the personal relationship between +God and His children more than Green did, that was chiefly because +Green's mind could take nothing which had not the sanction of reason, +or, to be more accurate, of an intuition guarded so closely by Reason +that very little of the mystic element in Faith remained unchallenged. +No one could live with Green without loving him and feeling reverence +for his deep sincerity and his instinct for the good. + +Though foolish people talked of him as a heretic, or even an infidel, he +was in truth one of the most devout of men. That noble passage in +Renan's play fits him exactly. The Almighty, conversing as in Job with +one of His Heavenly Ministers as to this Planet's people, says: + +Apprends, enfant fidèle, ma tendresse pour ceux qui doutent ou qui +nient. Ces doutes, ces négations sont fondés en raison; ils viennent de +mon obstination à me cacher. Ceux qui me nient entrent dans mes vues. +Ils nient l'image grotesque ou abominable que l'on a mise en ma place. +Dans ce monde d'idolâtres et d'hypocrites, seuls, ils me respectent +réellement. + +Understand, faithful child, my tenderness for those who doubt and who +deny. Those doubts, those denials are founded on reason; they come from +my obstinate resolve to hide myself. Those who deny me enter into my +plans. They deny the grotesque or abominable image which men have set up +in my place. In a world of idolators and hypocrites, they alone really +respect me. + +But what I gained from my uncle and his friends, from Nettleship and +from Warren, and also from the people I used to meet at the house of my +great-uncle, Dr. Frederick Symonds, was not all that I achieved in the +year before I matriculated. The air of Oxford did not repress but +greatly stimulated my love of verse and _belles-lettres_, and I +careered over the green pastures of our poetry like the colt let loose +that I was. Elizabethan plays were at the moment my pet reading, and +without knowing it I emulated Charles James Fox, who is said while at +Oxford to have read a play a day--no doubt out of the Doddesley +collection. I even went to the Bodleian in search of the Elizabethans, +and remember to this day my delight in handling the big and little books +mentioned by Lamb in his Dramatic Selections. I recall how I turned over +the leaves of such enchanting works as Inigo Jones's designs for _The +Tempest_ played as a Masque. Though I do not happen to have seen it +since, and so speak with a forty years' interval, the pen-and-ink +drawing of Ariel, portrayed exactly like a Cinquecento angel, is fixed +in my mind. It has all the graciousness and gentleness of Bellini and +all the robust beauty of Veronese or Palma Vecchio. To tell the truth, I +was in the mood of the lady of the Island over which Prospero waved his +wand. I could say with Miranda, "O brave new world, that has such men +and women in it!" Indeed, though I still stood outside the gates, as it +were, I had already felt the subtle intoxication of Oxford. + +The result of all this was that when I at last got through Responsions +and entered Balliol, with the understanding that directly I got through +Pass Mods. I was to abandon the Classics and read for the History +School, I knew, as it were, too much and too little. This knowledge of +some things and want of knowledge of others produced a result which was +highly distasteful to the normal academic mind. In a word, I was in the +position of Gibbon when he went up to Magdalen. His ignorance would have +astonished a schoolboy and his learning a professor, and no doubt he +seemed to the greater part of the High Table an odious and forward young +man. + +All the same, and though no one then believed it, I was extraordinarily +innocent, if not as to my ignorance, as to my learning. When I met a Don +who, I was told, was "unsurpassed" in the Greek or Latin classics and +could probably appreciate them as well as if he had been a Greek or +Roman of the best period, I was tremendously excited. I felt sure that +being so highly endowed in this direction he could not possibly have +neglected English literature, and must know all about that also, and so +would be of the greatest help to me. I was inclined, therefore, to rush +at these scholars with the perfect assurance that I could get something +from them. When, however, they either evaded my questionings or told me +curtly that they had never heard of the people about whom I asked, I +felt sure that this was only said to get rid of me. For some reason +unknown to me I had managed, I felt, to offend them as Alice offended +the creatures in Wonderland. + +I can recall a specific example. I found a certain learned scholar who +had never even heard of, and took no interest in, Marlowe's _Dido and +Æneas_, and could not be drawn into expressing an opinion as to +whether the translations were good or bad. In other cases I found that +even the names of men like Burton of the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ +produced no reaction. Yet, wretched Latinist as I was, I had been +thunderstruck with delight when, rummaging the Cathedral after a Sunday +service, where, by the way, I heard Pusey preach his last sermon, I came +upon Burton's tomb, and read for the first time the immortal epitaph +which begins: + +_Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus,_ + +I can see now that what I thought was the pretended ignorance of the +Dons, and their fastidious unwillingness to talk to an uneducated +schoolboy, as I believed myself to be, was nothing of the kind. I have +not the slightest doubt now that they regarded me as a cheeky young ass +who was trying to show off in regard to things of which he was totally +ignorant and of which, needless to say, they were ignorant too, for, +alas! the minute study of the Classics does not appear to necessitate a +general knowledge of literature. A scholar fully _en rapport_ with +Aristophanes or Juvenal and Martial may never have read Ben Jonson's +_Alchemist,_ or Beaumont and Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning +Pestle;_ or studied Charles Churchill, or Green on _The Spleen._ + +There was a mental attitude which the typical Don, full of the public- +school spirit and its dislikes, could never forgive. Except for the few +intimate friends who were devoted to me--Nettleship and Warren, T. H. +Green and, later, curiously enough, Mr. A. L. Smith, the present Master +of Balliol,--I was, I expect, universally regarded as the most +intolerable undergraduate they had ever beheld. + +Jowett, the Master of Balliol, evidently felt the Stracheyphobia very +strongly, or perhaps I should say felt it his duty to express it very +strongly. He had not, I think, a great natural instinct in regard to the +characters of young men, but he was naturally anxious to improve those +with whom he came in contact. His method was to apply two or three fixed +rules. One of these was--and a good one in suitable cases--that if you +got hold of a boy who thought too much of himself, the best thing was to +stamp upon him upon every possible occasion, and so help him to reform +his ways. No doubt it saved a great deal of trouble to give this rule a +universal application, and it was often successful. Every now and then, +however, the generalisation failed. + +Fortunately for me, I was not only of a contented nature, but so happy-- +and also so happy-go-lucky--that I was not the very least worried by the +opinion of my educational superiors. I should have been genuinely +pleased to have pleased them, but as I had clearly failed in that, I did +not trouble about it further. I could always console myself with the +thought that schoolmasters and dons were notoriously narrow-minded +people, and that when one got out into the big world their opinions +would matter very little. + +In a word, I accepted the situation with a cheerful and genuine +acquiescence. The Master did not like me, but then, why should he? I was +obviously not a model undergraduate. This acquiescence was soon +buttressed by a reasoned if somewhat unfair estimate of the Master's +character. I very soon began to hear plenty of Oxford gossip about him +and his failings--chief among them being his supposed favouritism. He +was very generally called a snob, which no doubt, in a superficial +sense, he was, and I soon got my nose well in the air in regard to his +worship of dukes and marquesses and even of the offscourings of Debrett +and his willingness to give special privileges to their errant progeny. +I had, however, to give the Master credit for the way in which he would +often shower his partial favours on some boy who had climbed the ladder +of learning and risen from a Board School to become a Scholar or +Exhibitioner of Balliol. My general feeling, however, was that of the +idealist who despises the schoolmaster or the scholar who becomes +worldly in his old age, and even goes so far as to follow the shameless +maxim, "_Dine with the Tories and vote with the Whigs._" + +Of course I know now that Jowett's apparent worldliness and snobbishness +were calculated. He was very anxious to get good educative influences +exerted over the men who were to rule the country. This, translated into +action, meant getting the big men of the day, the _Optimates_ of +British politics and commerce, to send their sons to Balliol. He also, +no doubt, liked smart society for itself. Men of the world, especially +when they were politicians or persons of distinction, greatly interested +the translator of Plato, Thucydides, and Aristotle. Though he was not +the kind of man to inflate himself with any idea that he was +"_Socrates redivivus_" I have no doubt that he found the worldlywise +malice of Lord Westbury as piquant as the Greek philosopher did the +talk of Alcibiades. + +Young men, however, do not make excuses, and, as I have said, I was +inclined to be much scandalised, and to feel complacently self-righteous +over stories of the Master's "love of a lord" + +The feeling which I engendered in the minds of the rest of the Balliol +Dons differed very little from that entertained by the Master. I can say +truthfully that I never received a word of encouragement, of kindly +direction, or of sympathy of any sort or kind from them in regard to my +work or anything else. The only exception was Mr. A. L. Smith. The +reason, I now feel sure, was that they believed that to take notice of +me would have only made me more uppish. I daresay they imagined I should +have been rude or surly, or have attempted to snub them. Still, the fact +is something of a record, and so worthy of note. + +If I had been at a public school and had learned there to understand the +ways of teachers and masters, as the public-school boy learns to +understand them, as an old fox learns to understand the cry of the +hounds and of the huntsmen, I should have had no difficulty whatever in +getting on good terms with the College. As it was, I misunderstood them +quite as much as they misunderstood me. Each of us was unable to handle +the other. Yet I think, on a balance of accounts, I had a little more +excuse on my side than the Dons had. I was very young, very immature, +and without any knowledge or experience of institutional social life. +They, on the other hand, must have had previous knowledge of the +exceptional boy who had not been at a public school. Therefore they +should quite easily have been able to adjust their minds to my case. +They should not have allowed themselves to assume that the "uppishness" +was due to want of that humility which they rightly expected in their +pupils. + +Curiously enough, my undergraduate contemporaries at Balliol were far +more successful in their efforts at understanding somebody who had not +been at a public school. They appeared to have no prejudices against the +homebred boy. I was never made in the least to feel that there was any +bar or barrier between me and my fellow-freshmen. As proof of this, I +may point to the fact that every one of my intimate friends at Balliol +were public-school boys. I have no doubt I was considered odd by most of +my contemporaries, but this oddness, and also my inability to play +football or cricket, never seemed to create, as far as I could see, any +prejudice. Indeed, I think that my friends were quite discerning enough +and quite free enough from convention to be amused and interested by a +companion who was not built up in accordance with the sealed pattern. + +In spite of the Dons, about whom I troubled singularly little, in spite +of my being ploughed twice for Mods., sent down from my college, made to +become an unattached student, and only reinstated at Balliol after I had +got through Mods, and was guaranteed to be going to do well in the +History Schools, I can say with absolute truth that I was never anything +but supremely happy at Oxford--I might almost say deliriously happy. + +I may interpolate here that when I went back to Balliol after my year as +an unattached student, the only thing that the Master said, on +readmitting me, was something of this kind: "The College is only taking +you back, Mr. Strachey, because your history tutor says that you are +likely to get a First." I was appropriately shocked at this, for I had +become well aware that Jowett was looked upon by a good many people in +the University as simply a hunter for Firsts, a Head who did not care +much what kind of people he had in his College, or how their minds were +developed in the highest sense, so long as they came out well in the +Schools List. He was alleged, that is, to take a tradesman's view of +learning. These kinds of gibe I naturally found soothing, for I was able +to imagine myself as a scholar, though not as a winner of a First. +Incidentally, also, though I did not acknowledge it to myself, I think I +was a little hurt by the Master's want of what I might call humanity, or +at any rate courtesy in his treatment of the shorn lamb of Moderations. +However, I have not the least doubt that he thought he was stimulating +me for my good. This, indeed, was his constant mood. I remember at +Collections his telling me that I should never do anything except, +possibly, be able to write light trifles for the magazines. On another +occasion he asked me what I was going to do in life. I told him that I +wanted to go to the Bar, which was then my intention. To this he replied +oracularly, "I should have thought you would have done better in +diplomacy." + +That tickled me. It was clearly a back-hander over an ingenious attempt +which I had made a day or two before to prove how much better it would +be for me to get off three days before Collections and so obtain another +whole week in the bosom of my family at Cannes! No doubt Jowett's system +of controlling the recalcitrant portions of the College through sarcasm +was well meant and occasionally fairly successful. Taking it as a whole, +however, I felt then, as I feel now, that sarcasm is the one weapon +which it is never right or useful to use in the case of persons who are +in the dependent position when compared with the wielder of the +sarcastic rapier;--persons _in statu pupillari,_ persons much +younger than oneself, persons in one's employment, or, finally, members +of one's own family. Sarcasm should be reserved for one's equals, or, +still better, for one's superiors. The man who is treated with sarcasm, +if he cannot answer back either because it is true, or he is stupid, or +he is afraid to counter-attack a superior, is filled, and naturally +filled, with a sense of burning indignation. He feels he has had a cruel +wrong done to him and is in no mood to be converted to better courses. +That to which his mind reacts at once is some form of vengeance, some +way of getting even with his tormentor. The words that burn or rankle or +corrode are not the words to stimulate. No doubt Socrates said that he +was the gadfly of the State and stung that noble animal into action, but +what may be good for a sluggish old coach-horse is not necessarily good +for a thoroughbred colt with a thin skin. + +To return to my general feeling about Oxford while I lived there. +Instinctively I seem to have realised what I came to see so clearly in +my post-Oxford days, that the great thing that one gets at a University +is what Bagehot called the "impact of young mind upon young mind." +Though there must be examinations and lectures, and discipline and hard +reading, nothing of all this matters a jot in comparison with the +association of youth with youth and the communion of quick and eager +spirits. I have lived my life with clever people, men and women who +thought themselves masters of dialectic, but I can say truthfully that I +have never heard such good talk as in my own rooms and in the rooms of +my contemporaries at Oxford. There, and there only, have I seen +practised what Dr. Johnson believed to be an essential to good talk, the +ability to stretch one's legs and have one's talk out. It may be +remembered that Dr. Johnson, in praising John Wesley as a talker, sadly +admitted that his great qualities in this respect were all marred +because Wesley was always in a hurry, always had some pressing business +in hand which cut him short when at his best. + +The happy undergraduate never has to catch a train, never has an editor +or a printer waiting for him, never has an appointment which he cannot +cut, never, in effect, has money to make. He comes, indeed, nearer than +anybody else on earth to the Hellenic ideal of the good citizen, of the +free man in a free state. If he wants to talk all through the night with +his friends, he talks. The idea of his sparing himself in order that he +may be fresh next morning for Mr. Jones's lecture never enters his head +for a moment. Rightly; he considers that to talk at large with a couple +of friends is the most important thing in the world. In my day we would +talk about anything, from the Greek feeling about landscape to the +principles the Romans would have taken as the basis of actuarial tables, +if they had had them. We unsphered Plato, we speculated as to what +Euripides would have thought of Henry James, or whether Sophocles would +have enjoyed Miss---'s acting, and felt that it was of vital import to +decide these matters. But I must stop, for I see I am beginning to make +most dangerous admissions. If I go on, indeed, I am likely enough to +become as much disliked by the readers of the present day as I was by +the Oxford Dons of forty years ago. + +I could fill this book with stories of my life at Oxford, of its +enchantment, of my friendships, of my walks and rides and of my +expeditions up the river; for, not being a professional athlete, I had +time to enjoy myself. It would be a delight also to recall my +associations, the first in my life, with young men who were writing +verses, like myself, such men as Beeching, Mackail, Spring Rice (our +Ambassador during the War, at Washington), Rennell Rodd, Nicolls, and a +dozen others. But space forbids. I can only quote Shenstone's delightful +verses on Oxford, in his _Ode to Memory_, verses which I have +quoted a hundred times: + + And sketch with care the Muses' bow'r, + Where Isis rolls her silver tide, + Nor yet omit one reed or flow'r + That shines on Cherwell's verdant side, + If so thou may'st those hours prolong + When polish'd Lycon join'd my song. + + The song it Vails not to recite-- + But, sure, to soothe our youthful dreams, + Those banks and streams appear'd more bright + Than other banks, than other streams; + Or, by thy softening pencil shown, + Assume they beauties not their own? + + And paint that sweetly vacant scene + When, all beneath the poplar bough, + My spirits light, my soul serene, + I breathed in verse one cordial vow + That nothing should my soul inspire + But friendship warm and love entire. + +I do not mean to inflict upon my readers the tiresome record of my +failure to pass Moderations, or the description of how I did eventually +get through by a process which came very near to learning by heart +English translations of Xenophon's _Memorabilia_, a portion of +Livy's History, and Horace's Epistles. To do so would be both long and +tedious. The circumstances have, however, a certain interest considered +from one point of view, and that is the use and misuse of the classics +for educational purposes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A CLASSICAL EDUCATION + + +Though I made such a hash of classical studies and was apparently so +impermeable to Latin and Greek literature, I am not one of those people +who are prepared to damn the Greek and Latin classics, either with faint +praise or with a strenuous invective. I am not prepared to say with +Cobden that a single copy of _The Times_ is worth the whole of +Thucydides, or to ask, as did the late Mr. Carnegie, what use Homer was +either in regard to wisdom or human progress. I believe that in all the +things of the soul and the mind the stimulus of the Greek spirit is of +the utmost value. The Romans, no doubt, excelled the Greeks on the +practical side of law--though not in the pure jurisprudential spirit. +Again, the Hebrews did incomparable service to mankind in their handling +of such vital matters as the family, the place of women and children in +the State, and the position of the slave. On the moral issues, in fact, +the Jewish prophet is far the safer teacher: + + As men divinely taught, and better teaching + The solid rules of Civil Government + In their majestic, unaffected style + Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. + In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, + What makes a Nation happy, and keeps it so, + What ruins Kingdoms, and lays Cities flat. + +In what concerns the intellectual rather than the moral side of life the +Greek is, of course, supreme. It is hardly too much to say that +intellectual progress has only pursued a steady and consistent course +when men's minds have been in touch with the Greek. The sense of beauty +in all the arts, intellectual and figurative, was the prerogative of the +Hellenic communities, or, rather, of Athens, for only in Athens was +perfection in the arts achieved. The Greek was the best, as he was the +first, director and teacher. It is true that the artists of Florence, +Umbria, Lombardy, and Venice equalled the Greeks in some of the arts and +excelled them absolutely in the new art of painting. In Greece, +painting, though it had a beauty of its own, was hardly more than +exquisitely-coloured sculpture in the lowest conceivable relief. In +painting the Italians were guided by a wholly different series of visual +conceptions. Their understanding and use of atmosphere and mass was +something of which the Greeks had formed no conception. Apart, however, +from painting, the Greeks were the first to light and feed the sacred +flame of Beauty. + +There is a charming story of the way in which Renan emphasised this +fact. Some thirty-five years ago--I well remember the period--it was the +fashion, just as, in a sense, it is the fashion now, to say that the +Egyptians were the real masters of sculpture, wall-painting, and metal +work, that the Greeks learnt from them, and in the fine arts originated +nothing. At that time it happened that the Keeper of the Egyptian +antiquities at the Louvre was running this theory for all it was worth. +One day he showed Renan and a party of distinguished visitors a special +exhibition illustrating his contention. Notable examples of Egyptian art +were produced, as proving how perfectly and finally the Egyptians +treated the human figure in the round, in bas-relief, in the bronze +statue, in the wooden statue, and even in earthenware. And to all the +treasures displayed was added the chorus of the Professor: "_And so, +you see, the Greeks invented nothing._" Renan assented. "Nothing. +Nothing," he echoed, but added as an afterthought: "_Seulement le +Beau._" + +I have sometimes thought that these words, "_Seulement le Beau_," +might do as the commemorative epitaph of the Greek race. But of course +the Greek was a great deal more than the exponent of the beautiful. I +only tell this story to make it quite clear how deep is my reverence and +admiration for the Greeks, and how strongly I feel that their +philosophers and their poets are lively oracles from which the human +spirit may still draw perennial draughts of inspiration. + +But if this is so, it will be asked, "How comes it that, with these +views, you proclaim yourself an opponent to compulsory Greek and +compulsory Latin in schools and universities?" My answer is, it is just +because I am such an intense believer in the quickening power of the +Greek mind and in the immense advantages secured by getting into touch +with the Greek spirit that I desire the abolition of compulsory Greek. +No civilised man should ever be out of touch with it at first hand. But +this means, translated into action, no compulsory Greek grammar, no +compulsory drudgery in acquiring the things which do not really belong +to the Greeks but to the vapid pedants of vanished ages. I passionately +desire that as many people as possible should enjoy Hellenic culture. I +want to clear away the smoky mist of grammatical ineptitude which keeps +men from the great books and great minds of antiquity and prevents the +soul of the Greek and the soul of the Englishman--natural allies, for +some strange reason--from flowing together. + +It is appropriate that I should testify. Owing to having been forced to +try to learn the Greek Grammar instead of reading the books written by +the Greeks in a language which I could understand, I very nearly made an +intellectual shipwreck. Indeed, it was only by a series of lucky +accidents that I escaped complete ignorance of the Greek spirit, though +retaining a certain knowledge of the grammar. + +It was only after I had miserably squirmed my way through Mods., as a +man may squirm through some hole in a prison wall, that I had the +slightest idea of what was meant by the Greek spirit. + +I closed my grammar, with all the miserable and complicated stuff about +_tnpto_ and its aorists, the enclitic and the double-damned +Digamma, to open my Jowett's Plato, my Dakyns' Xenophon, and, later, +Gilbert Murray's Dramatists and Mackail's Anthology. It is true that in +the squirming process I have described I had to read a portion of the +_Anabasis_ and of the _Odyssey_ and _Memorabilia_, as well as +books of Caesar, Livy, Horace, and Virgil. + +In the case of these books I acquired nothing but a distaste so deep +that it has only just worn off. Only after an interval of forty years +could I bear to read these kill-joys in translation. No doubt some of +the fault was mine. Possibly I was born with an inability to learn +languages. But if that is so it is a misfortune, not a crime for which +one should be put on the rack! + +By the time I realised fully the glory of Greek letters, I was a very +busy man, and bitter indeed was the thought that the well-meaning +persons who maintain our university system had actually been keeping me +all those years from the divine wells of grace and beauty. But for them, +how many more years of enjoyment might I have drawn from the Socratic +_Dialogues_, from the _Apology_, and from the _Republic_! Think +of it! It was not till four years ago that I read Thucydides and had my +soul shaken by the supreme wickedness, the intellectual devilry of +the Melian controversy. How I thrilled at the awful picture of the supreme +tragedy at Syracuse! How I saw! How I perished with the Greek warriors +standing to arms on the shore, and watching in their swaying agony +the Athenian ships sink one by one, without being able to lift a hand, +or cast a long or short spear to help them! Yet the watchers knew that +the awful spectacle on which they gazed meant death, or a slavery worse +than death, for every one of them! + +Almost worse to me than the denial of Plato, the dramatists Thucydides +and Homer, was the refusal to allow me to walk or hunt with Xenophon, +and to saunter through his kitchen or his grounds. And all because I +could not show the requisite grammatical ticket. Could anything be more +fascinating than the tale of Xenophon's prim yet most lovable young +wife, or the glorious picture of the boy and girl lovers with which +Xenophon closes his _Symposium_? + +My sense of a deprivation unnecessary and yet deliberate was as great in +regard to Latin literature. It was only in 1919, owing to what I had +almost called a fortunate illness, that I took to reading Cicero's +Letters and came under an enchantment greater than that cast even by +Walpole, Madame de Sévigné, or Madame du Deffand. + +For forty years I was kept in ignorance of a book which painted the +great world of Rome with a touch more intimate than even that of St. +Simon. Cicero in his Letters makes the most dramatic moment in Roman +history, the end of the Oligarchic Republic, live before one. Even +Macaulay's account of the Revolution of 1688 seems tame when called in +comparison. + +I know that by the time some Greek or Latin scholar has got as far as +this he will ask with a smile, + +Why is this self-dubbed ignoramus making all this pother about being +deprived of the classics? Surely he cannot have failed to realise that +it is impossible to understand and appreciate the classics properly +without having learnt Latin and Greek? But you cannot learn Latin and +Greek without learning the grammar. He not only on his own showing has +no grievance, but is giving support to those who desire that the +classics should remain the centrepiece of our educational system. + +For all such objections I have one, and I think a final, argument. When +people ask me how I propose to enjoy Plato without knowing Greek, I ask +them to tell me, in return, how they manage to enjoy reading one of the +greatest poets in the world, Isaiah, without knowing Hebrew. How have +they found consolation in the Psalms; how have they absorbed the worldly +wisdom of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes; how have they read the lyric +choruses of the Song of Solomon; how have they followed the majestic +drama of the Book of Job? _They read them in translations_. That is +the way in which they have filled their minds with the noble deeds and +thoughts of the Hebrew history and Hebrew literature. That is the +answer, the true answer, and the only answer. + +A good, practical, commonsense proof of what I am saying is to be found +in the fact that the ordinary man and also the man of brains who has +gone through the good old fortifying classical curriculum, to quote +Matthew Arnold once more, and who _theoretically_ can read the +great Greek and Latin authors in their own languages, and without +translations, hardly reads them at all. Those who know that it is a +translation or nothing will be found to be far closer and more constant +readers of Plato and Thucydides. Certainly that is my case. To this day +I find myself reading the Greek and Latin authors in translation when +many of my friends, who took Honours Mods, and Honours Greats, would no +more think of opening books which they are supposed to have read than +they would attempt to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. The man with a +classical education will still worry himself over an accidental false +quantity or a wrongly-placed Greek accent, but it is extraordinary how +seldom, unless he is a schoolmaster, you hear of him enjoying the +classics or applying knowledge drawn from the classics to modern +literature or to modern politics. + +A further proof of this view, which I admit sounds strange, may be +registered. The only man I have known who habitually read Greek in the +original was Lord Cromer, and he had not had a classical education. He +left a private day-school in London to go straight to Chatham, where he +was prepared for entry into the artillery. And at Chatham they did not +teach Greek. Therefore when, as a gunner subaltern, he went to the +Ionian Islands on the staff of Sir Henry Storks, he was without any +knowledge of Greek. He wanted, however, as he told me, to know modern +Greek, as the language of the islands. Also, like the natural Englishman +he was, to be able to talk with the Albanian hunters with whom he went +shooting in the hills of the mainland. But when he had mastered enough +modern Greek to read the newspaper and so forth, he began to wonder +whether he could not use his knowledge to find out what Homer was like. + +He very soon found out that he could read him as one reads Chaucer. From +this point he went on till he made himself--I will not say a Greek +scholar, but something much better--a person able to read Greek and +enjoy it in the original. Throughout the period of my friendship with +him, which lasted for nearly a quarter of a century, he was constantly +reading and translating from Greek authors and talking about them in an +intimate and stimulating way. + +Once more, it is because I want people to study and to love classical +literature and to imbibe the Greek spirit that I desire that the +ordinary man should not be forced to grind away at Greek grammar when he +might be getting in touch with great minds and great books. I am not +blind, of course, to the gymnastic defence of the classics, though I do +not share it. All I say is, do not let us make a knowledge of the Greek +and Latin languages a _sine qua non_ in our educational system, on +the ground that such knowledge brings the ordinary man into touch with +the Greek spirit. It does nothing of the kind. + +But though Greek and Latin literature had thus been temporarily closed +to me, I still, Heaven be praised, could enjoy the glories of my own +language. When I began to read for the History School, I not only felt +like a man who had recovered from a bad bout of influenza, but I began +to realise that academic study was not necessarily divorced from the +joys of literature, but that, instead, it might lead me to new and +delightful pastures. Even early Constitutional History, though +apparently so arid, opened to me an enchanting field of study. The study +of the Anglo-Saxon period brought special delights. It introduced me to +the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and to Bede, both of them books which deserve +far greater fame than they have yet received. Again, I can quite +honestly say that the early part of Stubbs's Excerpts from the Laws, +Charters, and Chronicles proved to be for me almost as pleasant as a +volume of poetry. To my astonishment _Magna Charta_ and the +_Dialogus de Scaccario_ were thoroughly good reading. The answer to +"_Quod est murdrum_" was a thrilling revelation of what the Norman +Conquest was and was not. I understood; and what is more delightful than +that? There were even good courses, I found, in such apparently +univiting a feast as "The Constitutions of Clarendon." I shall not +easily forget my pleasure in discovering that the quotation "_Nollumus +leges Angliaemutari_" on which Noodle relied in his immortal oration, +is to be found in the record of the Barons' great "Palaver." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AN OXFORD FRIENDSHIP + + +Though it is the rule of these memoirs not to deal at any length or +detail with living people, I feel I must make an exception in regard to +Sir Bernard Mallet, the first friend I made at Oxford, the closest +friend of my college days, and the dearest friend of my after-life. Of +course, even in his case I cannot say all that I should like to say, for +I don't want to expose myself to the gibe of the wit who, reading a +sympathetic notice of a living man, declared that he did not care for +funeral orations on the living! Another advocate of ascetic reticence in +similar circumstances is said to have remarked that it was hardly decent +to use such favourable expressions except in the case of a dead man! +But, though I am not going to expose myself to the accusation of +gushing, I cannot give a true picture of myself without dwelling upon +Mallet's influence upon me. My friendship with him was my first +experience of real friendship--the relation which it is in the power of +youth to establish and maintain, a relation akin to the tie of +brotherhood, and one which may have, and ought to have, in it an element +of devotion. + +Friendship between two young men, keen on all things political, +intellectual, and literary, is rightly and necessarily founded upon +talk. My friend and I were eager to know not only about each other but +about everything else in the universe. Mallet's influence became at once +very great upon me at a point where I much needed it. He was deeply +interested, and very well-read for a boy of his age, in Political +Economy. His father, Sir Louis Mallet, was not only one of the most +famous and most enlightened of Civil Servants, but had made a scientific +study of the theory of economics. Besides that he had acted as Cobden's +official secretary when Cobden negotiated the Commercial Treaty with +France, and had become deeply attached to the great Free Trader and his +policy. From his father Mallet had learnt what was infinitely more +important than anything he could learn in textbooks. He had learnt to +look upon Political Economy not as something to be applied only to +trade, but something which concerned our morals, our politics, and even +our spiritual life. Though it, no doubt, involved Free Trade, what both +the Mallets pleaded for was "the policy of Free Exchange" a policy +entering and ruling every form of human activity, or, at any rate, +everything to which the quality of value inured, and so the quality of +exchangeability. + +At the time when I went up to Balliol and sat down beside Mallet at the +Freshmen's table in the Hall, wild and eager, shy and forthcoming, +bursting with the desire to talk and to hear talk, and yet not exactly +knowing how to approach my fellow-novices, I was an ardent, if +theoretical, Republican and Socialist. I was, while only a schoolboy of +fourteen or fifteen, a passionate admirer of Arch, the man who formed +the first Agricultural Labourers' Union, and a regular reader of his +penny weekly organ. It was the first paper to which I became an annual +subscriber. Now, though I had noted some of the extravagances of the +extremists, I was on the edge of conversion to full-blown Socialism or +Communism. We did not much distinguish in those days between the two. I +was especially anxious, as every young man must be, to see if I could +not do something to help ameliorate the condition of working-men and to +find a policy which would secure a better distribution of wealth and of +the good things of the world. + +Very soon, at once indeed, I confided my views to my new friend. Our +conversation is imprinted upon my mind. Though, of course, I did not +realise it at the time, it was destined to have a great effect upon my +life. I told Mallet that I was so haunted by the miseries of the poor +and the injustice of our social order that, however much I disliked it +for other reasons, and however great the dangers, I was growing more and +more into the belief that it would be my duty to espouse the cause of +Socialism; then, be it remembered, preached by Mr. Hyndman in full and +Mr. Henry George, the single-tax man, in an attenuated form. I was a +Free Trader, of course, but if, as a result of the Free Trade system, +the poor were getting poorer, and the rich richer, as, alas! it seemed, +I was prepared to fight to the death even against Free Trade. + +On this Mallet, instead of growing zealously angry with my ignorant +enthusiasm, asked me very pertinently what right I had to suggest that +the principles of Political Economy and Free Trade had been tested and +had failed. He admitted that if to maintain them would prevent a better +distribution of wealth, they must be abolished forthwith. He went on to +agree also that if everything else had been exhausted, it would be right +to try Socialism, _provided one was not convinced that the remedy +would prove worse than the disease_. But he went on to explain to me, +what I had never realised before, that the enlightened economists took +no responsibility for the existing system. They held, instead, that the +present ills of the world came, not from obeying but from disobeying the +teachings of Political Economy. Everywhere Free Exchange was +interfered with and violated, on some pretext or another. Even in +England it would not be said that Free Exchange had been given a +complete trial. It was, he went on to show, because they believed that +the ills of human society could be cured, _and only cured_, by a +proper understanding and a proper observance of the laws of economics +that men like his father advocated Free Exchange so strongly and +opposed every attempt to disestablish it. + +[Illustration: J. St. Loe Strachey as an Oxford Fresman Ætat. 18] + +We want as much as any Socialist to get rid of poverty, misery and +destitution, and we believe we have got the true remedy, if only we were +allowed to apply it. There would be plenty of the good things of the +world for everybody, if we did not constantly interfere with production, +and if we did not destroy capital, which would otherwise be competing +for labour, not labour for it. By the madness of war and the preparation +for war, we lay low that which prevents unemployment. We are always +preventing instead of encouraging exchanges, the essential sources of +wealth. Yet we wonder that we remain poor. + +But the policy of Free Exchange, he went on, must not be regarded merely +as a kind of alternative to Socialism. True believers in economics were +bound to point out that the nostrum of the Socialists, though intended +to do good, would do infinite harm if applied to the community. There +was a possibility of release from the prison-house and its tortures by +the way of Free Exchange, but none by the way of Socialism. That could +only deepen and increase the darkness and bring even greater miseries +upon mankind than those they endured at the present moment. + +I listened greatly moved, and asked for more instruction. I soon +realised that economics were a very different thing to what I had +supposed. My father was a strong Free Trader and had talked to me on the +subject, but without any great enthusiasm. He was an idealist, and in +his youth had strong leanings, first to the Socialism of Owen, and then +to the Christian Socialism of Maurice, Kingsley, and their friends. +Though later he had dropped these views and had become a convinced +supporter of Cobden and Bright in the controversy over the Factory Acts +(and let me say that in this I still believe he was perfectly right), he +had taken the Shaftesbury rather than the Manchester view. Right or +wrong in principle, any proposal to protect women and children would +have been sure to secure his support. He would rather be wrong with +their advocates than right with a million of philosophers. Again, though +he liked Bright, I don't think he ever quite forgave him for talking +about the "residuum." My father had no sympathy with insult, even if it +was deserved. With him, to suffer was to be worthy of help and comfort, +and here, of course, he was right. Again, though he read his Mill, he +was not deeply interested. He understood and assented to the main +arguments, but he had never happened to get inspired by the idea that +the way to accomplish his essential desire to improve the lot of the +poor, and so to save society, was by discovering a true theory of +applying the principles of Free Exchange. As Sir Louis Mallet used to +say, a great deal of this misunderstanding came from the unfortunate +fact that we called our policy Free _Trade_, and so narrowed it and +made it appear sordid. If, like the French, we had called it Free +Exchange, we should have made it universal and so inspiring. + +Mallet's words, then, came to me like a revelation. I saw at once, as I +have seen and felt ever since, that Political Economy, properly +understood and properly applied, is not a dreary science, but one of the +most fascinating and mentally stimulating of all forms of human +knowledge. Above all, it is the one which gives real hope for making a +better business of human life in the future than was ever known in the +past; far better than anything the Communist theorisers can offer. Let +their theories be examined, not with sentimental indulgence but in the +scientific spirit, and they fade away like the dreams they are. + +My teacher was as keen as myself. But when two young minds are striking +on each other, the sparks fly. It was not long, then, before I believed +myself to have mastered the essential principles of Free Exchange-- +principles simple in themselves, though not easy to state exactly. To +apply them in a lazy and sophistically-minded world is still more +difficult. Even business men and traders, who ought to know better, +ignore the science on which their livelihood is wholly founded. + +Thus, with a halo of friendship and intellectual freedom round me, I +learned what Economics really meant, and what might be accomplished if +men could only understand the nature of Exchange, and apply their +knowledge to affairs. + +When I see some public man floundering in the morasses of sophistry, +often a quagmire of his own creation, I say to myself, "There, but for +Bernard Mallet, goes John St. Loe Strachey." I should, indeed, be an +ingrate if I did not acknowledge my debt. + +Here is Sir Bernard Mallet's account of me at Oxford in the year 1878. + +SIR BERNARD MALLET'S MEMORANDUM + +I can find no diaries--or any of the letters which I must have written +to my people about Oxford, so I must do what I can without their help. I +daresay they would not have been much use, as I never wrote good +letters, and my recollections of our first meeting are still pretty +fresh. It would be odd if they were not, for our Oxford alliance was far +the biggest and most important influence in my life there. + +I think it must have been within two or three days of my arrival at +Balliol as freshman, in October, 1878, that I found myself sitting +beside you at dinner in Hall. No doubt we soon found out each other's +names. Yours at once fixed my attention because, as my father was then +Under Secretary of State for India and in intimate relations with your +two uncles, the great Indian statesmen, Sir John and General Richard +Strachey, it had long been familiar to me. This seemed to place us at +once, and give me a topic to begin on. Not that conversation was ever +lacking in your company! I remember to this hour the vivid, emphatic way +you talked, and your appearance then--your rather pale face and your +thin but strongly-built figure. I was at once greatly impressed, but I +am not sure that the first impression on a more or less conventional +public-schoolboy (such as I suppose I must have been) was altogether +favourable! Certainly I have always thought of you as a reason for +distrusting my first impression of a man! Luckily for me, however, we +continued to meet. You were so alive and unreserved that you very soon +posted me up in all the details of your life and family, and drew the +same confidences from me; and we soon found that we had so much in +common that in a very few days we fell into those specially intimate +relations which lasted through our Oxford days and long after. It is not +easy to analyse or account for the rapid growth of such a friendship, +but on my part, I think, it was the fact of your being so different from +others which at first slightly repelled, and then strangely attracted +me. To begin with, you had never been at school; you knew nothing of +Greek or Latin as languages, nor of cricket or football! But the want of +this routine education or discipline was no disadvantage to you (except +for certain serious misadventures in "Mods.!") because your personality +and strong intelligence enabled you to get far more out of exceptional +home surroundings than you could have got out of any school. You had +kept all your intellectual freshness and originality. In English +literature, from the Elizabethan downwards, you had read widely and +deeply, and your wonderful memory never failed you in quotation from the +poets. You ought really, with those tastes and that training, to have +become a poet yourself! and till politics and journalism drew you off I +often thought that pure literature would be your line. But your +political instincts were even then quite as strong; you came of a family +with political interests and traditions; and as a boy you had met a good +many Liberal statesmen--either at the house of Lady Waldegrave, your +mother's friend and country neighbour, or at Cannes, where your family +used to spend the winter. But your politics had rather a poetical tinge! +Shelley, Swinburne, Walt Whitman coloured your ideas--you were a +democrat and republican, with a great enthusiasm for the United States +and for the story of Abraham Lincoln. But you were never faddist or +doctrinaire, and your practical bent showed itself in the keen interest +you took in the noticing of political economy in which I used to dabble, +and which we used to discuss by the hour. You seemed, without having +studied text-books, to have an intuitive grasp of economic and fiscal +truths which astonished me and others much better qualified to judge +than I was. The real truth is that, though there were, no doubt, gaps in +your mental equipment which may have horrified the dons, you were miles +ahead of most of us in the width and variety of your interests, in your +gift of self-expression and, in a way, in knowledge of the world. Every +talk with you seemed to open up new vistas to me. I was perhaps more +receptive than the usual run of public-schoolboy, as I too had had +interests awakened by home surroundings and tradition. We both of us, in +fact, owed a very great deal to our respective fathers, and it was a +real pleasure and guide to me to be introduced later to your father and +home at Sutton Court--as I know it was to you to get to know and +appreciate my father. + +But I must not wander from my subject, which is to try and give a +faithful account of how you struck me in those days. I have said nothing +yet of one of your characteristics which I think weighed with me, and +impressed me more than anything else, and that was the remarkable power +you had, and have always retained, of drawing out the best in others. +Intellectual power or force of character (or whatever you like to call +it) is so often self-centred as to lose half its value. With you, +however, it was different. You always appeared to be, and I think +genuinely were, quite as much interested in other people's ideas or +personalities as in your own--or even more interested. You listened to +them, you questioned, you put them on their mettle, you helped them out +by interpreting their crude or half-impressed thoughts, and all this +without a trace of flattery or patronage. By this, and by your generous +over-appreciation of them, you inspired your friends with greater +confidence in themselves than they would otherwise have had. In your +company they were, or felt themselves, really better men. To one of my +disposition, at all events, this was a source of extraordinary +encouragement and help. I felt it from the first, and I cannot omit +mentioning it in my attempt to describe what you were like when we met +at Oxford. I am afraid it is a poor attempt, and wanting in details +which contemporary records, if they had existed, could alone have +supplied. But I hope you may find something in it which will suit your +purpose. I don't think, after all, you have changed as much as most +people in the forty-odd years I have known you! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OXFORD MEMORIES (_Concluded_) + + +Even at the risk of making my autobiography open to accusation that it +is a kind of Strachey Anthology, I should be giving a false impression +of myself and my life at Oxford if I did not say something about my +poetical life at the University, for there, as in my childhood and my +boyhood, poetry played a great part. I did not leave the Muses till I +left their bower on the Isis. Every mood of my Oxford life was reflected +in my verse. I can only record a very few of those reflections, and +here, again, must look forward to some day making a collection of my +poems and letting them tell their own tale--an interesting incursion, I +venture to say, for those who are interested in the evolution of English +verse from 1870 to 1890. + +The first thing to be recorded in this epitome of my _biographica +poetica_ is my intense delight at finding in Oxford people of my own +age who cared for poetry as I did, and the same kind of poetry. It is +true that most of my friends with a poetic bent wore their rue with a +difference, but that did not matter. Though they practised a different +rite, they were all sworn to the great mystery of the Muses. Men like +Beeching, Mackail, Nichols, Warren, and also Willie Arnold, who, though +not an undergraduate, very soon became one of my close friends, never +failed, and this is the test, to be delighted in any new discovery in +verse with which I was for the moment intoxicating myself. + +I was always irregular in my tastes. If I liked a piece of verse, I +liked it with passion and praised it inordinately; again I was apt to be +as absolute in my dislike. I was a kind of poaching gipsy of literature. +I had not only a willingness to eat any wild thing from a hedgehog to a +beechnut or a wild raspberry, but also an uncanny power of finding out +literary game, raising it, and trapping it, not by the stately methods +of the scholar but by some irrational and violent intuition. Instead of +reading slowly, patiently, and laboriously, as no doubt I ought to have +read, _i.e._, as my tutors would have liked me to read, I used to +dive headlong into some poet, old or young. Even if I could only "get at +him" for an odd half-hour, I could bring back with me something worth +keeping, something which would sing in my head and be forced into the +ears of my friends for many days, and sometimes many weeks. + +This habit of what one might call random and sudden quotation was +amusingly hit off by a friend of mine, Fry, son of the late Lord Justice +Sir Edward Fry. In a neat little verse after the manner of Beeching's +and Mackail's celebrated verses on the Balliol Dons--verse modelled, it +may be noted, on the pageant of Kings and Queens in Swinburne's _Poems +and Ballads_, Fry thus delineated me: + + I am Strachey, never bored + By Webster, Massinger or Ford; + There is no line of any poet + Which can be quoted, but I know it. + +In the first couplet I have to own a true bill. Even if my friends were +bored, though I was not, which I now feel must have often been the case, +they certainly never showed it. I seemed to be given a kind of privilege +or license to quote as much as ever I liked. + +I expect, however, that the Dons were not quite as easy-going. If I +quoted something that seemed to me apposite at the end of a lecture, or +when I was seeing my tutor over an essay, I noticed with an innocent +wonderment that they were apt to appear shocked. Probably I made them +feel nervous. Either they had not heard the lines before, and, +therefore, very likely thought that I was trying to get a score off them +by inventing some tag of rhymes which I could afterwards say they took +for genuine, or, on the other hand, if they did know the lines, I made +some blunder in quoting them which painfully added to a conviction +already formed that I was a wild, inconsequent, and shallow-minded boy +whose only idea was to "show off" and strut about in borrowed plumes. +After all, even if that was a mistaken diagnosis it was not an unnatural +one. + +I was an unsettling and unclassifiable influence in a place that liked +orderly classification. The Dons, I make no doubt, felt about me as did +Lance about his dog. He who undertakes to be an undergraduate should be +an undergraduate in all things, and not a kind of imitation Bohemian +verse-writer, bawling his creaking couplets through the College Hall. +They knew the type of scholar who could write good Greek verse, and even +English verse. They also knew, and in a way respected, the athlete, the +hunting man, or "the magnificent man" who kept two hunters and a private +servant, and spent at the rate of a couple of thousands a year. But here +was a creature who did not fit into any of these categories, and who was +painfully irregular without being vicious or extravagant, or drunken, or +abnormally rowdy. I was, in fact, a mental worry. I could not be fitted +neatly into Oxford life. + +I have mentioned Fry's rhyme about me. I must also mention Beeching's +verse, or at any rate the first couplet--the rest, though friendly +enough, was not worthy of the opening: + + Spoken jest of Strachey, shall it + Fail to raise a smile in Mallet? + +I was, of course, pleased to be thus associated with my friend, though +honesty compels me to say that I laughed quite as much, or even more, at +Mallet's jests than he did at mine. Still for the rhyme's sake (I have +always sympathised with the rhymer's difficulties), it was necessary to +put the joke on the other leg. + +At Balliol in the late 'seventies' and early 'eighties' we were a nest +of singing-birds. I well remember the present Sir Rennell Rodd coming +into my rooms when I was a freshman and asking me whether I would +contribute to a little collection of poems which he and a group of his +friends were bringing out, the group, by the way, including the present +Lord Curzon. I shyly assented; but there was a difficulty. They wanted +something short and lyrical, and most of my verses were either too long, +or else, I thought, too immature to be published. In the end, Rodd +carried off with him the following lyric--a work in regard to which I +felt no pride of parentage either then or now, and only quote because it +was made the occasion for a very neat parody by Mackail. Here is the +poem: + + My lute + Lies mute, + My lyre is all unstrung, + And the music it once flung + Dies away. + In the day + I have no power to sing, + Nor doth the night-time bring + Any song. + All is wrong, + Now my lady hath no care + For my heart and for my prayer. + +The parody was quite delightful, and I can well remember the intense joy +with which I heard of it and my surprise that the author thought it +necessary to apologise for it. He apparently thought I might be hurt. It +ran something like this: + + My scout + Is out. + My scout is never in. + I am growing very thin, + And pale-- + etc., etc. + +Our verse efforts, though not very good in themselves, had a good +result. + +A rival clique of poets, led by Mackail and Beeching, put forward a +little pamphlet of their own, full of what was really exquisite verse of +the Burne-Jones, Morris, Swinburne type. In the following term, however, +the two poetic schools amalgamated under a common editorship, adopting +the name of _Waifs and Strays_ as their title. To almost every +issue of the _Waifs and Strays_ I contributed, though I think my +Editors sometimes were rather horrified at my sending in so much blank +verse, and blank verse of what the Elizabethans called a "licentious" +type, that is, not governed by strict rules. + +Besides this, my poems were apt to be too long. I had a friendly +conflict over them with Beeching. It showed, however, the open- +mindedness of the Morrisean editors that my poetry, though so entirely +different to their own, was not only accepted but that they showed great +sympathy with my experiments in unrhymed measures. + +Oxford memories are among the pleasantest things in the world; they are +the last chapter, or last chapter but one, in the book of youth. But I +must soon roll up the enchanted manuscript, come to sterner things, and +leave many serene hours unnumbered. Especially do I regret to pass over +the long days spent on the river in a four, with a cox and a good +luncheon and tea hamper in the stern, and a sixth man in the bows. +Those, indeed, were sweet hours and the fleetest of time. Mallet, I, and +Warren were usually the nucleus of the party. To ourselves we added +another three. Among these was sometimes Grant Duff, sometimes Horatio +Brown, who, though he had left Oxford at that period, was often "up for +a month or two"; sometimes, too, Portsmouth Fry, and one or other of +Mallet's Clifton College friends. Again, sometimes Mallet's brother +Stephen, or my brother Henry, joined the pursuit of the golden fleece. + +I was always for pushing on in order to experience something or discover +something. As Pepys used to say, "I was with child to see something +new." Once, by incredible exertion, I managed to get my boatload as far +up the river as Lechlade. The place, I need hardly say, was chosen by me +not for geographical reasons or because of the painted glass, but solely +and simply because of Shelley's poem. I longed to go to the actual +source of the river, to Thames-head itself, but in this I never +succeeded. Mallet was always for milder measures, and for enjoying the +delights of the infant Thames at Bablock Hythe, or some place of equal +charm and less exertion. Like the poet in Thomson, as I frequently +reminded him, he + + Would oft suspend the dashing oar + To bid his gentle spirit rest. + +He would demand, or take, an "easy" on the slightest pretext. A water- +lily, the dimness of his eyeglass, the drooping of the sunlight in the +West, the problem of whether some dingy little bird was a kingfisher or +a crested wagtail, demanded consultation and a pause in our toil. +Occasional rests, he proved, were a wise, nay, necessary precaution with +a heavy old tub manned by indifferent oarsmen. I, on the other hand, +would have violently explored the Thames in a man-o'-war's barge if I +could have done it no other way. + +We talk of the charm of the open road, but what is it to the charm of +the open river, especially when the stream gets narrow? There, if +anywhere, reigns the Genius of the Unexpected. You push your boat round +some acute angle of water, with willows and tall rushes obscuring your +course, and then suddenly shoot out into the open, with a view, perhaps, +of an old church or manor-house, or of stately fields and trees--things +which a boy feels may be the prelude to the romance of his life. So +strong with me, indeed, was this feeling that fate was waiting round the +corner, not to stick a knife into me, but perhaps to crown me, that when +I wrote my unfinished novel, I began with a boatload of undergraduates +shooting out of the Thames up a tunnel of green boughs made by a +canalised brook, into a little lake in front of an exquisite grey +Elizabethan house. There the heroine and an aged parent or guardian were +surprised taking tea upon a bank studded with primroses and violets. How +an aged parent or guardian consented to have tea out-of-doors in violet- +time was not explained! But if I do not take care I shall go the way of +those orators who take up the whole of their speeches in explaining that +they have not time to say anything. Therefore, farewell to the glories +and delights of the Thames. + +Whether, in point of fact, I was a bad son of Oxford, or she a +disdainful, indifferent, or careless mother, I neither know nor desire +to know. It is enough for me, as I have said already, that I loved her +young and love her now, love her for her faults as much as for her +virtues, but love her most of all for her beauty and her quietness, and +for the golden stream of youth which runs a glittering torrent through +her stately streets and hallowed gardens, her walks between the waters, +and her woodlands. The punctual tide of young hearts ebbs and flows as +of yore in a thousand college rooms--true cells of happiness. It informs +and inspires every inch of Oxford. It murmurs in her libraries and in +her galleries and halls. The pictures of the men of the past--often +England's truest knights of the eternal spirit--look gravely from their +deep-set frames. + +But what is the use of a biography if it is general and not particular? +I may too often yield, like most people, to the temptations of a vague +rhetoric, but not here. Every loving thought of Oxford has for me +stamped upon it a specific and an originating example. When I think of +the faces looking down on me from the walls, and of how ardently I used +to wish that I might call my academic grandsires "my home and feast to +share," I picture myself back in Oxford, listening to a lecture in the +Hall of University. I see above me and above the wainscot Romney's (or +is it Gainsborough's?) picture of "the generous, the ingenuous, the +high-souled William Wyndham." I recall the delight with which I thought +of that fascinating and impulsive creature. He had sat where I was +sitting, and had dreamed like me in that very Hall the dreams of youth. + +I keep in mind yet another specific example of how I linked myself to +the past. I remember, when dining in Christ Church Hall with a friend, +that I had the good luck to find myself opposite Lawrence's picture of +Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, the young diplomatist. He is dressed, if +I remember rightly, in a green velvet coat of exquisite tint and +texture. I daresay if by chance a reader looks up the two pictures he +will find that under the spell of memory they have assumed beauties not +their own. But what does that matter? They were to me, at twenty, an +inspiration. They are still, at sixty, a dream of delight. + +Yet, intense as was my joy, when I return to Oxford and see my son +sharing the old pleasures, though with a difference, I can honestly say, +"_Non equidem invideo miror magis_"--"I do not envy, but am the +more amazed." I hope, nay, am sure that my son can retort with sincerity +from this shepherd's dialogue turned upside down, "_O fortunate senex; +ergo tua rura manebunt_"--"Oh, happy old man; therefore your little +fields and little woodlands at Newlands shall still flourish and +abound." + +As my father taught me by his example long ago, I can be supremely happy +in my remembrances, and yet even happier at my own end of the continuum. +One has a right to be Hibernian in an Einstein world. After all, have I +not a right to be? I, who have always been an explorer at heart, am +getting near the greatest exploration of all. There are only two or +three more bends of the stream, and I shall shoot out into that lake or +new reach, whichever it may be. I may have a pleasant thrill of dread of +what is there, but not of fear. The tremendous nature of that +magnificent unknown may send a shiver through my limbs, but it is +stimulating, not paralysing. + +Therefore, though I enjoy the past in retrospect, I open my arms with a +lover's joy to the future that is rushing to meet me. The man who cannot +enjoy that which is in front of him has never really enjoyed the past. +He is so much engaged in whimpering over what he has lost, that he +misses the glory of what is to come. Heaven be praised that sons have +morning when fathers have night, and may the fountain of perpetual youth +always send its best, its clearest, its most musical rivulets through +the High, the Broad, and the Corn. + +But, though my memories of Oxford are so vivid and so happy, they are +also, as must in the end be all things human, enwoven with tears. It was +there that my eldest son died. I cannot do more than record the bare +fact. Yet I cannot write of Oxford as if he had never been. The shadow +that falls across my page could not be gainsaid. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PRESS WORK IN LONDON + + +Before I come to the period when I became, not only Editor, but +Proprietor, of _The Spectator_, I must give an account of some of +my experiences with other newspapers. My first newspaper article +appeared in _The Daily News_. It gave an account of the bonfires +lighted on the hill-tops round Cortina, in the Tyrol, at which place we +spent the summer of 1880, on the birthday of the Austrian Emperor. I was +an undergraduate at the time and was much delighted to find myself +described as "a correspondent" of _The Daily News_. I expect I owed +the acceptance of my descriptive article to the first sentence, which +began, "While the Austrian Kaiser is keeping his birthday with the +waters of the Ischl in his kitchens, we at Cortina, etc., etc." The +paper, however, for which I wrote chiefly during the time I was at +Oxford and in my first year after leaving Balliol was _The Saturday +Review_. The _Saturday_ in those days was famous for its "middles," +and I was very proud to be able to get articles of this kind +accepted. I also wrote for _The Academy_ and for _The Pall +Mall_, which at that time was being edited by Lord Morley. I remember +that when going with a letter of introduction to him, he asked me +whether I had had any former experience of journalism. I told him that I +was writing "middles" for the _Saturday_. His reply was characteristic. +"Ah! When I was a young man I wrote miles of 'middles' for them"-- +stretching out his hands to show the unending chain. Some of my +work also appeared in _The Academy_, then a paper manfully +struggling to represent the higher side of English literature. One +article I recall was a review of a reprint of the poems of Gay--a poet +who has come back into public notice owing to the delightful art of Mr. +Lovat Fraser, combined with the talent of the ladies and gentlemen who +so admirably represent Macheath and his minions male and female. On +looking at the article the other day, I was glad to see that I drew +attention to Gay's peculiar handling of the couplet and also to his +delight in every kind of old song and ballad. I quoted in this respect, +however, not from "The Beggar's Opera" but from the song as sung by +Silenus in Gay's Eclogues. One of these songs I have always longed to +hear or to read, owing to the fascination of its title--"The grass now +grows where Troy town stood." + +After I went to _The Spectator_ the newspaper world widened in my +view. I left off writing for the _Saturday_ and the _Pall Mall_ +and the _Academy_. Instead, and after I married, I took a +regular post as leader-writer on the staff of the _Standard_. I +also wrote a weekly leader for the _Observer_ for the best part of +a year. Of the _Observer_ I have only one thing to note, and that +is a saying of the Editor, Mr. Dicey, brother to my old friend, +Professor Dicey--a man for whom I have great veneration, though my lips +are happily closed in regard to him by the fact that he still lives. At +our first interview Mr. Dicey told me that in writing for the +_Observer_ I must remember that I was not writing for a weekly +paper, like the _Spectator_, but for a daily paper which, however, +only happened to come out on one day in the week. That, I always +thought, was a very illuminating and instructive remark, and it is one +which should be observed, in my opinion, by all writers in Sunday +papers. At present Sunday papers are in danger of becoming merely weekly +magazines. What the world wants, or, at any rate, what a great many +people want, is a daily paper to read on Sundays, not a miscellany, +however good. But perhaps Mr. Dicey and I were old-fashioned. Anyway, +there was a sort of easygoing, old-fashioned, early-Victorian air about +the _Observer_ Office of those days which was very pleasant. Nobody +appeared to be in a hurry, and one was given almost complete freedom as +to the way in which to treat one's subject. I was also a contributor to +the _Manchester Guardian_. For that distinguished paper I wrote +Notes for their London Letter and also a number of short reviews. + +I should add that from that time till I became Editor and Proprietor of +the _Spectator_ I wrote a weekly article for _The Economist_-- +a piece of work in which I delighted, for the Editor, Mr. Johnstone, was +not only a great editor, but a very satisfactory one from the +contributor's point of view. He told you exactly what he wanted written +about, and then left you to your own devices. As it happened, I +generally was in entire agreement with his policy, but if I had not +been, it would not have mattered, because he made it so very clear to +one, as an editor should, that one was expressing not one's own views, +but the views of the _Economist_. Whether they were in fact right +or wrong, they certainly deserved full consideration. Therefore, full +exposition could never be regarded as taking the wrong side. + +Though _The Economist_ was less strongly Unionist than I was, I +cannot recall any occasion on which my leaders were altered by the +Editor. I can only recall, indeed, one comment made by Mr. Johnstone in +the course of some nine years. It was one that at the time very greatly +interested and amused me. It happened that Mr. Johnstone, though so +great a journalist and so sound a politician, was not a man who had paid +any attention to literature. Possibly, indeed, he did not consider that +it deserved it. When, however, the complete works of Walter Bagehot, for +many years Editor of _The Economist_, were published, Mr. Johnstone +asked me to review them for the paper. Needless to say I was delighted. +How could a young man in the 'nineties, full of interest in the +Constitution, in Economics, and in _belles-lettres_, have felt +otherwise than enthusiastic about Bagehot? + +It was, therefore, with no small zest that I undertook an appreciation +of Bagehot in his own paper. I was always an immense admirer of +Bagehot's power of dealing with literary problems, and still more of +that perfection of style for which, by the way, he never received full +credit. I sought to say something which would make people "sit up and +take notice" in regard to his place in literature on this special point. +Accordingly, in praising his style, I said that it was worthy to be +compared with that of Stevenson, who at the time was held to be our +greatest master of words. Mr. Johnstone, with, as I fully admitted, a +quite unnecessary urbanity of manner, apologised to me for having +altered the article. He had, he explained, left out the passage about +Stevenson. But mark the reason! It was not because he thought the praise +exaggerated, but because he thought, and thought also that Mr. Bagehot's +family might think, that one was not properly appreciative of Bagehot's +work if one compared it to that of Stevenson! I have always been a lover +of the irony of accident in every form; but here was something which was +almost too bewilderingly poignant. I had thought, as I wrote, that +people might think I was going a good deal too far in my praise of +Bagehot, but lo and behold! my purple patch was "turned down," not +because of this but because it was held to be too laudatory of +Stevenson, and not laudatory enough of my hero! + +I was, nevertheless, quite right. Bagehot's style was inimitable, and I +think if I were writing now, and with a better perspective, I should +have said not less but a good deal more in its praise. The humorous +passages in "The English Constitution" are in their way perfect, and, +what is more, they are really original. They owe nothing to any previous +humorist. They stand somewhere between the heartiness of Sydney Smith +and the dainty fastidiousness of Matthew Arnold, and yet imitate +neither. They have a quality, indeed, which is entirely their own and is +entirely delightful. One of the things which is so charming about them +is that they are authoritative without being cocksure. What could be +more admirable than the passage which points out that Southey, "who +lived almost entirely with domestic women, actually died in the belief +that he was a poet"? The pathos of the situation, and the Olympian +stroke delivered in such a word as "domestic" cannot but fill any +artisan of words with admiration. The essay, "Shakespeare and the Plain +Man," is full of such delights. + +If I am told that I digress too much and that I seem to forget that I am +writing my autobiography and not an estimate of Walter Bagehot, I shall +not yield to the criticism. There is method in my madness. No, I am +prepared to contend, and to contend with my last drop of ink, that I am +justified in what I have done. If this book is worth anything, it is the +history of a mind, and Bagehot had a very great effect upon my mind, +largely through his skill in the art of presentation. Therefore it +cannot be out of place to say something about Bagehot's style. In truth, +instead of my being unduly discursive I have not really said as much as +I ought to have said on the subject. + +I was also for rather more than a year a leader-writer on the +_Standard_--my only experience of true daily journalism. Of this +work I can only say that I enjoyed it very much while I was in direct +contact with Mr. Mudford, one of the greatest of English publicists, and +the man who made the _Standard_ what it was from 1874 till about +1894, one of the most important papers in the country. In those days the +_Standard_ though strongly conservative, was in no sense a +capitalist organ, nor in the bad sense a mere party organ. While it +supported the fixed institutions of the country, the Church, the Crown, +the House of Lords, and the City, it, at the same time, did it with +reason and moderation. In fact, though it was called a Tory paper, and +rejoiced in the name, it would have been called "left-centre" in any +other country. It was, it need not be said, strongly Unionist. I, +therefore, had no difficulty whatever in writing for it. + +Oddly enough, it was said, and I think with truth, that Mr. Gladstone +always read the leaders in the _Standard_ and that it was his +favourite paper. He had, no doubt, a strong vein of Conservatism in his +nature. Though he thought it his duty to be a Liberal, when he gave +himself a holiday, so to speak, from party feelings, what he reverted to +was almost exactly the _Standard_ attitude towards the great +institutions I have just named. A propos of this I cannot resist a most +illuminating story of Mr. Gladstone, which I once heard told by Mr. +George Wyndham, the Irish Secretary. Mr. Wyndham commanded the Cheshire +yeomanry, after Mr. Gladstone had gone into retirement, and had his +regiment under canvas for training at the Park at Hawarden. Being an old +House of Commons friend, he went several times to dine. On one of these +occasions he was alone with Mr. Gladstone after dinner. While sipping +his port, the great man unbosomed himself on the political situation of +the future in language which, as Mr. Wyndham pointed out, approximated +to that of an old country squire--language which seemed astonishing from +the mouth of one who had only a few months before been the leader of the +Liberal and Radical Party. + +Mr. Gladstone began with a panegyric of the English squires and +landlords, and then went on to say that he feared that in the coming +time the country-gentlemen of England who had done so much for her would +have a hard and difficult time. "But," he went on, "I pray Heaven, Mr. +Wyndham, that they will meet these trials and difficulties with a firm +and courageous spirit. They must not weakly yield the position to which +they have attained and which they deserve." I can remember no more of +Mr. Gladstone's speech, but it was all to the effect that the country- +gentleman must stand up against the rising tide of democracy. No wonder, +then, that Mr. Gladstone liked the _Standard_, even though it very +often attacked him in the strongest language. + +Another person said to be a regular reader of the _Standard_, and I +should add rightly said to be, was Queen Victoria. The Queen, as Lord +Salisbury said at the time of her death, understood the English people +exactly, and especially the English middle-class. Therefore she would +have been wise to have read the _Standard_ as the representative +and interpreter of that class even if she had not liked the paper on its +merits. As a matter of fact, however, its note happened to be pitched +exactly to suit her. Her admiration was not politic, but personal. + +Here I may note an interesting example of how little the person who has +had no first-hand experience of journalism understands the journalist's +trade and how often he or she is amazed at what I may call our simple +secrets. It happened that while I was writing leaders for the +_Standard_, which was twice a week, _i.e._, on Wednesday nights +and on Sunday nights, the news came in of the death of Lady Ely, +a lifelong personal friend of the Queen. Lady Ely had been with her +almost from girlhood and held up to the last, if not actually a Court +appointment, a position which brought her into constant personal contact +with the Queen. She was, in fact, the last of the Queen's women +contemporaries who were also close friends. This fact was common +knowledge, and Mr. Mudford in one of his notes, which were written in a +calligraphy the badness of which it is almost impossible to describe +without the aid of a lithographic print, wrote to me shortly, telling me +of the death and asking me to write that night a leader on Lady Ely. He +pointed out how great the loss was to the Queen, and how much, +therefore, she must stand in the need of sympathy. I don't suppose I had +ever heard of Lady Ely before, for ever since I came to London she was +living in retirement, and was not only not written about in the press, +but was very little talked about in general society. Further, I had only +the ordinary knowledge about the Queen, at that time much scantier than +it is now. It might be supposed that with this amount of ignorance it +would have been impossible to write a column and a half on the death of +an old lady who may be said to have had no public life at all, and whose +private life, even if it had been known, would have been either too +trivial or too intimate to be written about in a newspaper. + +All the same, the task was not one which any journalist worth his salt, +that is, any journalist with imagination, would find difficult to +accomplish. What I did, and all it was necessary to do, was to envisage +a great lady devoted to the Queen from the time the Queen was married, +and also receiving in exchange the Queen's devotion to her. These two +women, now grown old, one in the service of her country and the other in +the service of her friend, had gradually seen, not only their nearest +and dearest drop away, but almost the whole of their own generation. +Thus they stood very much alone in the world. Sovereigns by their nature +are always lonely, and this loneliness was intensified in the case of +the Queen by the premature death of Prince Albert and by that inability +of sovereigns to make intimate friends, owing, not only to the seclusion +which life in a palace entails, but to the busy-ness of their lives. +This being so, the breaking by death of a friendship formed when life +was easier to Queen Victoria than it was after the death of the Prince +Consort was an irreparable loss. In a very special degree the Queen +needed sympathy of all who had minds to think or hearts to feel. + +Such considerations were as easy to put on paper as they were true. To +draw a picture of the unknown Lady Ely seems more difficult, but, after +all, one felt sure that to have remained the intimate and trusted friend +of the Queen she must have had great qualities, for the Queen did not +give her confidence lightly. The separation of the two friends and the +intensification of the Queen's loneliness was therefore bound to touch +the heart of anyone who heard "the Virgilian cry" and felt "the sense of +tears in mortal things." + +I am not ashamed to say that though by nature little disposed towards +the attitude of the courtier, I wrote my modest tribute of regret _ex +animo_. I was not only not writing a conventional article of +condolence, not even writing dramatically, but sincerely. When, however, +the leader was finished, I, of course, thought very little more of the +matter, but passed on to consider, after the way of my profession, +subjects so vital or so trivial as the best means of supporting Mr. +Balfour in his law-and-order campaign in Ireland, maintaining the cause +of Free Trade (the Standard was always a Free Trade paper), or +discussing such topics as "Penny Fares in Omnibuses," or "The +Preservation of the Ancient Monuments of London," or "Should Cats be +Taxed?" It was therefore with some astonishment that I received a +message from Mr. Mudford saying that the Queen had sent one of her +Private Secretaries to enquire on behalf of Her Majesty the name of the +writer of the article on Lady Ely. The Queen, said her Envoy, had been +very touched and struck by the article and felt sure that it must have +been written by someone who knew Lady Ely. It exactly represented her +life and character, and her special devotion to the Queen. The Queen +also appeared much struck by the representation of her own feeling +towards her friend. + +Mr. Mudford, of course, gave my name. I have often thought with some +curiosity that the Queen must have been rather bewildered to find the +complete remoteness of the writer from her friend and herself. The Queen +had a very limited literary sense and, we may be sure, failed altogether +to realise how the nerves and sinews work in that strange creature the +journalist. She can hardly have been otherwise than disappointed in +finding that it was not some old friend of her own, or some friend of +her friend, but a person of whom she knew nothing--and with a name which +must have left her quite cold, even though with her knowledge of India +and her own family that name was not actually unfamiliar. My uncle, Sir +John Strachey, after the murder of Lord Mayo, was for six or seven +months Viceroy of India, pending the appointment of a successor. She +also, no doubt, had known the name of another Indian uncle, Sir Richard +Strachey. + +But though Mr. Mudford was very sympathetic to the new journalist on his +staff, the arrangement did not last long. After I had been there about +six months, Mr. Mudford went into greater retirement than even before, +and practically left the whole conduct of the paper to his subordinate, +Mr. Byron Curtis, a journalist whom I can best describe by saying that +he was of the kind delineated by Thackeray. Though we had no open +quarrel I found it difficult to work with Mr. Curtis, and he, on the +other hand, was by no means satisfied with my work. He used to say to +me, "Please do remember, Mr. Strachey, that we don't want academic stuff +such as you put into the _Spectator_ and as they appear to like. +What we want is a nice flow of English." "A nice flow of English" with +Mr. Curtis meant what I may call the barrel-organ type of leader-- +something that flowed like water from a smooth-running pump. This I +admit I could never manage to produce. Mr. Curtis's standard of style +was solely governed by the question of the repetition of the same word. +It was an unforgivable sin to repeat a substantive, adjective, or verb +without an intervening space of at least four inches. This, of course, +leads to that particular form of "journalese" in which a cricket-ball +becomes a "leathern missile" and so forth. Apropos of this I remember a +good Fleet Street story. An Editor, enraged with a contributor, tore up +an article on grouse, with the exclamation, "Look here! You have +actually used the word 'grouse' twenty times in your first paragraph! +Why cannot you call them something else?" "But," said the contributor, +"what else can I call them? They are grouse, and that is the only name +they have got. What would you want me to say?" "Oh! hang it all! Don't +make excuses. Why, can't you call them 'the feathered denizens of the +moor'?" + +In any case, Mr. Curtis and I found it impossible to work together. The +process of separation was speeded up by the fact that I did not find +night-work suit me. All the same, I very much liked going down to the +policeman on night-duty. What was trying was to be up all night for two +nights in the week, and to lead a normal life during the other five. +That tended to throw one's working days quite out of gear. To adopt two +ways of life was a failure. All the same, I am always glad when I pass +down Fleet Street to be able to say to myself, "I too once lived in +Arcadia," and knew the pleasant side of the life. There was something +peculiarly delightful, when one's leader was finished, in lighting a +pipe or a cigar and stretching out one's legs and feeling really at +leisure. There is only real leisure in the middle of the night, that is +between one and five. There are no appointments, no meals, no duties, no +plans, no dependence on other people's arrangements. One is as free in +one's complete isolation as a Trappist monk. If one sees a friend in +Fleet Street or Shoe Lane at three, he will be as free as you. + +Such a friend was Mr. Joseph Fisher, then the understudy of Mr. Byron +Curtis. Mr. Fisher, who is an Ulster-man, later became the Editor of +_The Northern Whig_, and I am happy to say is still alive. He has +done excellent work in defending the interests of the Loyalists and +Protestants of the North. + +That, I think, is the full record of my regular newspaper activities, +except for one particular. I have not mentioned the fact that I edited +the official organ of the Liberal Unionist Party for about two years--a +monthly, entitled The _Liberal Unionist_. The paper was started +during the election of 1886. The work was interesting, if not +particularly well paid, and brought me into contact with most of the +leaders of the Unionist Party--Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. +Goschen, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Arthur Elliot, and Mr. Henry Hobhouse, +to name only a few of my colleagues on the Liberal Unionist Central +Committee. I never had any difficulties with them. They gave me a free +hand, and in return I gave them what I think was good value. As my work +enlarged I found I wanted help in _The Liberal Unionist,_ and +secured an admirable helper in Mr. C. L. Graves. This was the beginning +of our private and journalistic friendship, and, though I must not break +my rule of not dealing with living people, I may say here what a kind +and loyal helper he has always been to me, not only in _The Liberal +Unionist_ but for many years in _The Spectator_. All who know +him, and especially his associates on _Punch,_ will, I feel sure, +agree with me that no man was ever a more loyal colleague. No man has +ever succeeded better than he in combining scholarship and vivacity in +humorous and satiric verse. + +While carrying on the activities I have mentioned above, I also from +time to time wrote for the magazines--for the _Edinburgh +Quarterly,_ for the _National,_ the _Nineteenth Century,_ +the _Contemporary,_ and once or twice, I think, in the +_Fortnightly._ I even perpetrated a short story in a magazine now +deceased--a story which, by the way, if I had time to adapt it, might, I +think, make an excellent cinema film. The title was good--"The Snake +Ring." It was a story of a murder in the High Alps, when the High Alps +were not so much exploited as they are now. There were adventures in +sledging over mountain passes in mid-winter, and wonderful mountain +Palazzi, with gorgeous seventeenth-century interiors, in lonely snowed- +up villages in inaccessible valleys. As a rule, however, my +contributions to the magazines were of a serious kind. Very soon after I +left Oxford, I wrote my first article in the _Quarterly_. This was +followed by several more, for the old Editor, Dr. Smith, took a strong +liking to my work. Dr. Smith was a man of real learning and a true +journalist. Though it was the custom to laugh at his "h's," or rather, +his occasional want of them, he was very much liked in society. As a boy +I had made his acquaintance, I remember, at Lady Waldegrave's, though +this chance meeting had nothing to do with the acceptance of my first +article. Henry Reeve of the _Edinburgh_ also on several occasions +asked me to write the political article in the _Review_. That was a +pleasure. I was given a free hand, and I had the agreeable sense that I +was sitting in the seats of the mighty, of Sydney Smith and of Macaulay. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE "CORNHILL" + + +My editorship of the _Cornhill_, to which I always look back with +great pleasure, came as a complete surprise to me. Among the many new +friends my marriage brought me was Mr. George Smith, the head of the +firm of Smith & Elder, a man very well known in the London of the +'fifties, 'sixties, and 'seventies as the most enterprising of +publishers, the discoverer of Charlotte Bronte, the friend and adviser +of Thackeray, and, above all, the founder of the first cheap, popular, +literary magazine, the _Cornhill_. It was in the editorship of the +_Cornhill_ that Thackeray found pecuniary if not editorial ease, +and during the first ten years of its life it was the natural home of +much of the best writing of the time. Tennyson on one side of the +republic of Parnassus and Swinburne on the other were contributors to +its pages. But pre-eminently it was the place to which was drawn the +best fiction of the age. The planning, the enterprise, and very often +the inspiration of the _Cornhill_ came from Mr. George Smith. +Though primarily a man of business, he had an extraordinary flair for +literature. He was the last person in the world to have claimed the +title of a man of letters, or, again, that of critic, and yet he had an +appreciation of good literature and a capacity for finding it in +unlikely places which was sometimes almost uncanny. Just as some of the +greatest connoisseurs in the Arts know a good picture or an important +piece of china when they see it, though they are often ignorant of the +history or of the technique of any art, so Mr. George Smith had an +almost unfailing eye for good copy when it came his way. + +Nowadays, there is comparatively little difficulty in running a literary +monthly on sound lines either here or in America. But that is because +the world has learnt Mr. George Smith's lesson. All can raise the flower +now, for all have got the seed, but at the beginning of the 'sixties the +_Cornhill_ had the quality of originality. It exactly hit the +popular taste; and in a very short time it was selling by the hundred +thousand, a tremendous achievement at that epoch. But though the +_Cornhill_ did so well and though Mr. George Smith's energies +remained as great as ever up till his death, the magazine had to own the +fate of many publications of its kind before and since. It met with +competition, and I cannot help thinking that it also suffered from its +proprietor getting interested in other things, especially in his +magnificent and public-spirited venture--for such it was, rather than a +business venture--the National Dictionary of Biography. Mr. George Smith +himself always looked upon the National Dictionary as a piece of public +service, and he put a great deal of his own time and energy into it. The +_Cornhill_, though always maintaining a high literary standard, +greatly altered its character after Mr. Leslie Stephen's editorship came +to an end. Its price was altered to sixpence, and for a time it was +purely a magazine of fiction, in which the firm of Smith & Elder ran in +serial form novels of which they had bought the book rights. There were, +besides the two serial novels, only a few short stories and light +essays, but these were only a kind of stuffing for the fiction. + +In the year '96, however, it occurred to Mr. Smith that it would be +interesting to revive the _Cornhill_ and show that there was still +life and force in the magazine which had published some of Thackeray's +best essays, and his later novels--the magazine in which had appeared +novels like Romola, with Leighton's illustrations, and in which Louis +Stevenson had given to the world those first and most delightful of his +essays, afterwards collected in _Virginibus Puerisque._ Once more, +determined George Smith, it should become the home of good literature as +a whole, and not merely of readable fiction. + +For his new series--the price reverted to sixpence--Mr. Smith wanted a +new editor. He was not one of those people who waste time over that +mysterious process known as "sounding" people, a process that seems to +connote a great deal of farsightedness, caution, arid discrimination in +the sounder, but which, as a matter of fact, is almost always a cloak +for indecision. That was not Mr. George Smith's way. He wrote me a +plain, straightforward letter, telling me what his plans for the +Cornhill were, adding without any flummery that he thought I was the man +to give what he wanted, and asking me whether I would become Editor. I +got the letter during my first visit to Cairo, in November, 1895. I at +once replied that if my chiefs at _The Spectator_ saw no objection, +I should be delighted to try my hand. My chiefs saw no objection, and I +set to work. + +When I say "delighted," I am using the term in no conventional sense. My +head had long been filled with plans for the editing of a literary +magazine, and here was the chance to bring them to fruition. Besides, as +every young man should, I longed for something in which I should have a +show of my own and be able to try every sort of experiment--a thing +which you can only do when you are either starting a new paper, or +making, as was to be the case with the new series of the +_Cornhill_, an entirely new departure. + +If I remember rightly, I actually stipulated with Mr. George Smith for a +free hand, but the stipulation was quite unnecessary. I saw during my +first talk with him that a free hand was exactly what he intended to +give me. No editor ever had a more delightful proprietor. Though he was, +I suppose, very nearly forty years my senior, he was as young as I was, +quite as full of enterprise, quite as anxious to make new departures, +and quite as willing to run risks and to throw his cap over the hedge. +Nominally I had to deal with Mr. Reginald Smith, one of the partners in +the firm and the son-in-law of Mr. George Smith. (It was a mere accident +that a Smith had married a Smith.) Reginald Smith was a good scholar, +had done very well at Eton, at Cambridge, and had gone to the Bar, but +he had not got his father-in-law's fire or his _flair_ for +literature, nor, again, his father-in-law's boldness. I was on the best +of terms with him and he was the most kind and friendly of publishers. +It often happened, however, in going over my plans for the new +_Cornhill_, he thought this or that proposal on my part might prove +too expensive, too risky, too radical, or too unconventional. In such +cases he always said that we had better take the decision to Mr. George +Smith. On the first occasion I was a little alarmed as to what the +result might be. I felt that Mr. Smith might naturally support his son- +in-law in the direction of caution, and that the appeal to Caesar might +go against me. The first example, however, was enough to convince me +that my anxieties had no foundation. I remember well how Mr. Smith at +once out-dared my daring, saying that he entirely agreed with me, and +not only thought that I ought to have my way, but enthusiastically +declared that it was the best way. After that I had no more trouble, and +it was I who in future suggested an appeal to the head, for I knew that +the result would always be a decision on the side of enterprise. Mr. +George Smith was never the man to be frightened by such phrases as +"dangerous innovation which might be very much resented by the readers" +Dangerous innovations were just what he liked, the things out of which +he had made his fame and his money, and he backed them to the end like +the true sportsman that he was. + +There is nothing, perhaps, more interesting and more attractive than the +planning and putting together of the first number of a magazine. I had a +blank sheet of paper upon which to draw up my Table of Contents, except +for an instalment of a novel. What I was determined to make the +_Cornhill_ under my editorship was a place of _belles-lettres._ +And besides good prose, if I could get it, I wanted good poetry. +In the prose I naturally aimed at short stories, memoirs (as long +as these were really worth having) and inspiring literary and historical +criticism. I always felt that there was very good copy to be found in +anniversary studies, that is, studies of great men whose births or +deaths happened to fall within the month of publication and so might +reasonably be supposed to be in the public mind. Another direction in +which I felt sure there was good copy, if I could get the right man to +do it in the right way, was in the great criminal trials of former ages. +Every journalist knows that a trial sells his paper better than any +other event. The daily newspaper could always forestall the magazine in +the matter of trials of the day, but there remained open to me the whole +field of State trials. + +Besides these features, I realised how much the ordinary Englishman +likes natural history, if it is dealt with in the proper way, and likes +also to hear of what is newest and most taking in the worlds of science +and philosophy and in the things of the spirit generally. These, +perhaps, were fairly obvious features, but there was one other in which +I may claim a certain originality. In the 'nineties we were all talking +and writing about "human documents," by which we meant memoirs, +autobiographies, and, above all, diaries which, when written, were not +meant to see the light, and in which the naked human heart was laid bare +for inspection. It occurred to me that, though I could not get, except +by some accident, a human document of this kind, it might be rather fun +to manufacture one. I could not get a Marie Bashkirtseff to intrigue my +readers as the young Russian lady in question had intrigued Mr. +Gladstone and the rest of us, but I thought I could get hold of some one +who could write a similar sort of diary, which, though it might not be +so introspective, would be a good deal more witty. I therefore turned +over in my mind the people I could ask to write a "journal intime." +While I was in bed, experiencing the mental state that Sir Walter Scott +used to call "simmering," i.e., thinking about my work in a half- +hypnotic condition, I remember that the idea occurred to me. The man to +do what I wanted was, I suddenly felt, the wisest and wittiest of my +Balliol contemporaries, Dean Beeching. But he was not then a Dean, or +even a Canon or a Reader at Lincoln's Inn, but simply a country +clergyman. I wrote at once to him, telling him that I had become Editor +of the new _Cornhill,_ and asking him to write for me, under the +seal of secrecy, a monthly article in Diary form, which was to be called +"Pages from a Private Diary" In it he was to put all the best things he +could think of in the way of good stories, criticism of matters old and +new, comments upon life, literature, and conduct, accounts of historical +figures and historical events, all informed with _verve_ and +interest and all presented in that inimitable style, half-serious, half- +quizzical, of which Beeching was a master. + +Beeching wrote back to tell me how much he liked the idea, and how sure +he was that he could not do anything of the kind worth my taking. It was +quite beyond him. I replied that this was nonsense, that I was quite +sure from his answer that he understood exactly what I wanted, that he +could do it, and that I should want the first instalment by the middle +of May. I further charged him solemnly that he was not to write the +thing like an essay but that he must make it a real diary, writing it +day by day, and making it in this way genuine reality and not an essay +with dates in it. In the end he consented to try his best. He realised +at once that it would be quite necessary to keep the diary as a true +diary--that is, write it spasmodically. I then again enjoined the utmost +secrecy upon him, saying that it was not only a case of "_omne ignotum +pro magnifico_," but also that secrecy was the best possible +advertisement. I knew that his copy would be extraordinarily attractive, +and I wanted people at London dinner-parties and in club smoking-rooms +to ask each other, "Have you guessed yet who the _Cornhill_ diarist +is?" I may say that my prophecy was exactly fulfilled, for not only did +the Private Diary get a great deal of praise on its merits, which were +truly memorable, but also on what I may call "guessing competition" +grounds--a vice or a virtue of human nature which I was quite determined +to exploit for all it was worth. I still recall my excitement when +Beeching's copy arrived. It was written in a beautifully neat hand (we +did not type much in those days) and accompanied by a heart-broken +letter in regard to the author and his supposed failure. I had only to +read two pages to see that, with his wonderful instinct for humour as +well as his scholarship and knowledge of English and classical +literature, he had given me exactly what I wanted. I wrote at once to +him, telling him what I thought of the Diary and that there was to be no +talk of his abandoning it. I should expect it regularly once a month, +for at least nine months or a year. Once more I enjoined secrecy. The +"Pages from a Private Diary" were, of course, afterwards republished and +did exceedingly well as a book. They may still be read with pleasure by +anyone who cares for good literature and a good laugh. All I need add +about the Diary is that I told Beeching to envisage himself, not as a +country clergyman, for that would give away the secret, but as a retired +Anglo-Indian who had come to live in a village in the south of England. +This kind of man might be as interested in the villagers as he was in +history and literature, and would be able to look upon them with new +eyes. A little anti-clericalism might, I suggested, put the reader off +the track and help maintain the secret. In a word, I rather suggested +the idea of a Berkshire Xenophon, a man who had fought battles in his +own day, but was now studying economics or philosophy amid rural scenes. +Nobly did Beeching respond. I think in the first instalment, if not, in +the second, he told a delightful story of a Berkshire labourer looking +over a sty at a good litter of Berkshire grunters and remarking, "What I +do say is this. We wants fewer of they black parsons and more of they +black pigs." Be that as it may, no person of discernment ever wanted +fewer Beechings, or fewer pages from his Private Diary. + +Another innovation which I was very keen to follow up, and in which I +was backed by Mr. George Smith, was the habit of placing an editorial +note to most of the articles, in which I said something as to what the +writer was at and conveyed a suggestion (a very proper thing for an +editor to do) that the article was of unusual merit and deserved looking +into, and so on. For example, in the case of the "Pages from a Private +Diary" I put the following: + +There are as good private and "intimate" journals being kept at this +moment as any that were kept in the last century. Unfortunately, +however, the public will not see them, in the course of nature, till +forty or fifty years have elapsed; till, that is, half their charm has +evaporated. The _Cornhill_ has been lucky enough, however, to +secure one of the best of these, but only on conditions. The chief of +these is absolute anonymity. But, after all, anonymity only adds the +pleasure of guessing. All that can be said of the _Cornhill_ +Diarist is that he lives in the country, and that, like the author of +_The Anatomy of Melancholy_, he is _paucis notus paucioribus +ignotus_. + +As a proof of the delightful things which Beeching wrote in his Diary, +out of his own head, as children say, I may quote the following: + +8th.--My old gardener has at last condescended to retire. He has been on +the place, I believe, for sixty years man and boy; but for a long time +he has been doing less and less; his dinner-hour has grown by insensible +degrees into two, his intercalary luncheons and nuncheons more and more +numerous, and the state of the garden past winking at. This morning he +was rather depressed, and broke it to me that I must try to find someone +to take his place. As some help, he suggested the names of a couple of +his cronies, both well past their grand climacteric. When I made a +scruple of their age, he pointed out that no young man of this +generation could be depended upon; and, further, that he wished to end +his days in his own cottage (_i.e._ my cottage), where he had lived +all his life, so that there would be a difficulty in introducing anyone +from outside. I suppose I must get a young fellow who won't mind living +for the present in lodgings. I make a point, as far as possible, of +taking soldiers for servants, feeling in duty bound to do so; besides, I +like to have well set-up men about the place. When they are teetotallers +they do very well. William, my coachman, is a teetotaller by profession, +but, as the phrase goes, not a bigot. He was a gunner, and the other +night--I suppose he had been drinking delight of battle with his peers-- +he brought me home from ---, where I had been dining, in his best +artillery style, as though the carriage was a field-piece. + +He was equally delightful when raking in with both hands from old and +new sources good stories and good sayings. Take, for example, though +this was not in the first number, the following story of a young +Presbyterian: + +Jack has a Scotch cousin, Donald, who is of a more metaphysical turn of +mind, as becomes a Shorter Catechumen. The following little dialogue +will show that he inherits the faith of his fathers: + +_Donald:_ Mother, was Jesus Christ a Jew? _Mother:_ Yes, +Donald. _Donald:_ But how could He be, when God the Father is a +Presbyterian? + +The "Pages from a Private Diary" were a very great success, in spite of +their author being ultimately discovered by Mr. Bain, the well-known +bookseller. Partly by accident and partly from a printer friend, who +told him where the proofs went, he guessed that Beeching was the author. + +But proud as I was of the Diary, I am not sure that my greatest find was +not a wonderful short series entitled "Memoirs of a Soudanese Soldier." +It happened that while I was up the Nile I came across an old Soudanese +soldier--a lieutenant who had just risen from the ranks, and so avoided +having to leave the Soudanese regiment to which he belonged on a rather +exiguous pension. The officer in question, Ali Effendi Gifoon, was a +typical Soudanese in face and figure. He looked like a large, grave, +elderly monkey, but he was as brave as a lion and as courteous, as +chivalrous, and as loyal as an Arthurian knight-errant. All the time +there was in him a touch of the pathos that belongs to some noble +animal. Slavery made him sad just as freedom made him loyal and +grateful. I have seen many strange and picturesque people in my time, +but of them all AH Effendi Gifoon was the strangest. To begin with, he +was a slave-soldier, which seemed to carry one back to Xerxes or some +other of the great Babylonian or Persian rulers and their armies. He was +caught when a young man high up the Nile by one of the great Arab slave- +dealers and raiders of Egypt. The dealer sold him to Mehemet AH the +Pasha. He, like most tyrants of Turkish extraction, believed in slave- +soldiers if you could get the right breed, and, therefore, he was always +ready to buy the right type of man for his Soudanese battalions. In +order to keep his ranks full, the dealers caught young Soudanese for him +as one might catch young badgers or any other fighting animal "for a +gent what wanted them very particular." A village was surrounded, and +the children and young men pounced upon, and the rest who were not +wanted were either killed or allowed to die of starvation. + +His origin was strange enough, but still stranger was a fact which I +soon learnt after I made the acquaintance of Gifoon, and travelled up +the Nile with him for three days. We sat talking late into the night, on +the top deck of the stern-wheeler mail boat, with a British officer +acting as interpreter. Gifoon knew only two cities besides Cairo. They +were Paris and the City of Mexico, It makes one's head whirl, but it is +the truth. It reminds me of a New Zealand patient in our War Hospital. +He made from our house his visit to London, and our Sister-in-charge +warned him of the dangers and temptations of the metropolis. He assured +her that he was all right, for he knew Wollaranga (his native town) and +Cairo intimately, and that he was "salted" to the life of great cities. + +Gifoon's knowledge of Mexico came about in this way. Napoleon III had no +sooner entered upon his Mexican campaign than he found that his French +troops died like flies in the piece of swampy country between the coast +and the City of Mexico. Yet that fever-haunted track must be held, or +communication would have been cut between the French troops on the +Mexican plateau and the sea. In his difficulty Napoleon III appealed to +his brother tyrant, the Khedive of Egypt. Ismail, wishing to please the +Emperor, who could influence the French financiers, from whom he was +always borrowing, instantly produced a battalion of Soudanese soldiers +who were warranted to stand anything in the way of climate, or, if not, +it did not much matter. There would be no complaints if they all died in +Mexico, because they would leave nobody behind them with any right to +complain. Slaves have no relations. Accordingly the Soudanese were +shipped off to Vera Cruz, and there fought for the French. When the war +came to an end the remaining Africans were brought back to Paris to +grace Napoleon's spectacular effort to get out of his failure. Just as +Napoleon gilded the dome of the Invalides when he came home from Russia +in order to keep people's tongues off Borodino, so Napoleon III showed a +sample of his black contingent on the Boulevards, and awarded Gifoon, +the leading black hero, a medal given under the same conditions as the +Victoria Cross. + +When Gifoon got back to Cairo, one of those strange things happened to +him which happen only in Eastern countries. The Khedive made the black +man of valour his coachman--partly to show what esteem he had for the +French ruler, partly to show how small was any achievement compared with +the honour of doing personal service to "Effendina," and partly, +perhaps, in order to show off his picturesque hero to stray European +visitors, for Ismail on the one side of his head had the instinct of the +company-promoter. He liked, as it were, good human copy for his +Prospectuses. When, however, Ismail's troubles ending, abdication began +and the re-making of the Egyptian Army, the coachman V. C. drifted back +to the army and was found there by the British officers who were turning +the Soudanese soldiers into some of the best fighting troops in the +world. + +Captain Machell, who was foremost in the making of the Soudanese, by a +lucky accident happened upon Gifoon, saw his worth, made a friend of +him, and brought him forward. When I saw Machell in Egypt he not only +told me his friend's history, but added that in the leisure of a desert +camp he had got Gifoon to write down the story of his life. The old man +talked, and the young English soldier, who knew Arabic, or, rather, the +broken-down form which Gifoon talked, translated into English, giving +the meaning of what was said as clearly as possible, not in literary +English but in the straightforward style in which an English officer in +the wilds makes out his Reports. For example, when Gifoon talked about +regiments, or battalions, or corps, using in his Arabic dialect the +nearest word, Machell put down the expression which was most +appropriate, such, for example, as "_cadre._" This fact gave rise +to a very curious example of how easily plain people get bemused in +matters of style. + +It happened that at the time my first number came out, I had a friend at +the Reform Club who, as a Civil Engineer, had spent a good deal of time +in the 'fifties and 'sixties in the Turkish Empire, and knew, or thought +he knew, the East by heart. He was fond of me and greatly interested in +my venture in the _Cornhill_, and also in all I told him about my +good luck in getting the memoirs of a genuine Soudanese fighting-man. +When I saw him after my new number had come out, I hastened to ask his +verdict on the memoirs. I found him very sad and distracted. "Strachey, +you have been 'had'--entirely taken in. The memoirs are not genuine. I +assure you they are not. They are the most obvious fake. Anyone who has +been in the East can see that at a glance." "But," I replied, "I know +they are not a fake. I have seen the man myself, and talked with him for +hours. I know also that Machell is a perfectly straight man and took +down exactly what Ali Effendi Gifoon said. The idea of his trying to +take me in is impossible." But he would not be moved. He was certain +that the thing was a fake, and said he could convince me. As an +infallible proof he pointed to a passage in which Gifoon used the +regular military technical language to describe the organization of the +troops under the Khedive. For example, the translator made the Soudanese +soldier in the British version talk about "military operations," +"regimental _cadres_," "seconded," and so forth." You don't know +the Orientals as I do," said the old gentleman over and over again. +"They would no more be able to talk like that, Strachey, than you could +talk like the Khoran." It was no use for me to point out that nobody +suggested for a moment that he used the English words in dispute. How +could he? He knew no English. The phrases which were supposed to show +the fake were simply Machell's rough-and-ready method of getting through +to English readers the ideas that the Soudanese soldier intended to +convey. He used some Arabic or Central African phrase which meant "war," +or "a body of men," and so forth, and Machell fitted them with the +nearest technical phrase at his command. No doubt a more artistic effect +would have been produced by using the Arabic word, or finding some +primitive Anglo-Saxon equivalent, and then explaining in a note that +what was meant was, in fact, a "battalion," "company," or "section." But +Machell, not being able to write in what the Americans call the "hath +doth" style, boldly used the only language he knew--the language of the +Reports, Schedules, and Forms of the British Army. To my mind, and to +the mind of anyone with literary instinct, the very fact that made my +old friend think the memoirs were a fake made me sure that they were +genuine. If Machell had written like Walter Scott, or still more like +Kipling, I should have had great doubts as to whether he was not making +things up and taking me in. As it was, I felt perfectly happy. + +The memoirs, though they never attracted the public attention they +deserved, were full of extremely curious and interesting things, and +showed, indeed, not only the oriental, but primitive tribesman's mind +with a wonderful intimacy. The most curious thing in the memoirs was a +prophecy made by a Mohammedan saint. Though I cannot quite expect people +of the present generation to realise the full poignancy of this +prophecy, I think I can make the chief point clear. The memoirs, which +were written down in 1895 and published in 1896, contained the following +prophecy: + +I remember the great Sayid Hassan el Morghani of Kassala uttering the +prophecies which were generally ridiculed then, but which are rapidly +being justified as events go on. Sayid Hassan was the father of Sayid +Ali el Morghani, who was at Suakin with us, and who is now so greatly +respected as the representative of this powerful sect of Moslems. + +Sayid Hassan was undoubtedly possessed of second-sight and I implicitly +believe him to have been a Ragil Kashif, _i.e._, a man who could +penetrate the mysteries of the future. Wild and improbable as his +prophecies must have appeared to most of those who heard them at +Kassala, yet his every utterance was received with profound respect, and +gradually we saw one after another of his statements borne out by facts. + +The burden of the Morghani's prophecies was that evil times were in +store for the Soudan. He warned us all "El marah illi towlid me +takhodhash" (Take not unto thyself a wife who will bear thee children), +for a crisis was looming over the near future of the Soudan, when those +who wish to support the Dowlah, or Government, must fly, and they will +be lucky if they escape with their lives. Kassala would be laid waste +four times, and on the fourth or last occasion the city would begin to +live once more. + +Mahomed Noor, who was Emir of Kassala at that time, openly ridiculed +these prophecies; upon which the Morghani replied that all he had +foretold would undoubtedly come to pass, but that, as Mahomed Noor had +but a very short time to live, and would die a violent death, he would +not have an opportunity of seeing it himself. Being pressed to say upon +what he based his prophecies regarding the Emir's death, he said that +his end was near, and that Mahomed Noor and his son would shortly be +killed by the Abyssinians on the same day. The flame of _fitna_, or +insurrection, would not first appear in the Soudan, but the fire would +be kindled in Egypt itself. Then the whole Soudan would rise, and the +people would not be appeased until the land had been deluged in blood +and entire tribes had disappeared off the face of the earth. The work of +re-conquest and re-establishment of order would fall upon the Ingleez, +who, after suppressing the revolt in Egypt, and gradually having +arranged the affairs of that country, would finally occupy the Soudan, +and would rule the Turk and the Soudanese together for a period of five +years. The idea of the Turk being ruled by anyone was received with +special incredulity, and on his being pressed to explain who and what +these mighty Ingleez were, he said they were a people from the North, +tall of stature and of white complexion. The English regeneration would +place the Soudan on a better footing than it had ever been on before, +and he used to say that the land of Kassala between El Khatmieh and +Gebel um Karam would ultimately be sold for a guinea a pace. The final +struggle for the supremacy in the Soudan would take place on the great +plain of Kerrere, to the north of Omdurman; and, pointing to the desert +outside Kassala, which is strewn with large white stones, he said: +"After this battle has been fought, the plain of El Kerrere will be +strewn with human skulls as thickly as it is now covered with stones." +When the Soudan had been thoroughly subdued, the English occupation +would be extended to Abyssinia. Then there would no longer be dissension +between the people of that country and the Egyptians, who would +intermarry freely, and would not allow the difference in their religion +to remain a barrier between them. + +The passage about the Ingleez in this prophecy, though striking and +picturesque, might be explained away by the fact that the Effendi later +became so strongly impressed by the power of the English that everything +in his mind was tinctured by this fact. Any vaticinations of changes to +be wrought by some great and mysterious external power would, after our +occupation of Egypt, naturally suggest the English. + +What, however, is much more striking is the prophecy that the final +struggle for the supremacy of the Soudan would take place on the great +plain of Kerrere, to the north of Omdurman. When I first read that +prophecy in proof, the great plain outside the north of Omdurman meant +nothing to me. Not only did the re-conquest of the Soudan appear +anything but imminent, in the spring of 1896, but one was inclined to +believe that the advance to Khartoum would very probably be made by +water, or, again, would come from Suakin and the Red Sea. Lord +Kitchener, as it happened, made the advance by the Nile Valley, +_i.e._, by land and rail, and so had to cross the plain to the +north of Omdurman. + +Though the plain of El Kerrere was in fact strewn first with the white +djibbas, or tunics, of the dead Soudanese, and later with their skulls +and bones, as thickly as a piece of sandy desert with stones--Lord +Kitchener's army had not sufficient men to bury the vast mass of dead +Dervishes till several years after--this might be put down as the +commonplace of picturesque prophecy. It was, however, a distinctly good +hit on the prophet's part to suggest that the Dervish rule would +literally be swallowed up by the casualties in one great battle at the +point indicated. That was exactly what happened. I remember well, years +after the prophecy, reading in the account of the special correspondents +that the field of Omdurman some few days after the battle looked exactly +like a plain covered with patches of white snow. Anyway, though +interested by the prophecy, it seemed to me at the time to be much too +remote and too vague to take much interest in it. When, however, two +years later, I read the passage about the patches of snow, I suddenly +remembered the prophecy, looked it up, and was greatly impressed. + +One of the things which I am proudest of as regards the _Cornhill_ +is the fact that I was able to discover three or four new writers who +later made names for themselves. One of these was Mr. Patchett Martin, +who, in a series of books, _Deeds that Won the Empire_, showed +himself extraordinarily adept at carrying on the Macaulay tradition of +readableness and picturesqueness in the handling of historical events. +Another "find" was Mr. Bullen, a man really inspired with the spirit of +the sea, and a man with a sense of literature. I remember, for example, +early in my acquaintance with him,--an acquaintance due solely to the +fact that I accepted his MS. on its merits and without knowing the least +who he was--talking to him about Herman Melville's _Moby Dick_--the +story of the mysterious White Whale which haunts the vast water spaces +of the South Pacific--a story about which I note with interest that of +late certain American and English writers have become quite mystical, +or, as the Elizabethans would have put it, "fond." + +The story of how Bullen's MS. was accepted, and, therefore, how Bullen +became within a very few months, from an absolutely unknown ex-seaman +struggling to keep himself and his family from starvation, a popular +writer and lecturer, is worth recording. It shows how great a part pure +luck plays in a man's life, and especially in the lives of men of +letters. It is more agreeable, no doubt, to think that we are the sole +architects of our careers, but the facts are often otherwise. We are as +much, if not more beholden to luck than skill. + +After the first number of the _Cornhill_ had been got out, we +became so snowed under with copy that I had to give instructions that, +though all the MSS. should be gone through, none could be accepted. I +told my staff that they must harden their hearts even to good short +stories and good essays, as we had already accepted enough stuff to +carry us on for three or four months. I was determined that I would not +start water-logged, or, rather, ink-logged! "All we can do is to send +the MSS. back, but give a word of blessing and encouragement to the good +ones." + +Somewhat to my annoyance, as I was about to leave the office one +evening, Mr. Graves, who was my chief helper, forced a MS. upon me with +the words, "I know what you said about showing you nothing more; but I +simply won't take the responsibility of rejecting this. You must do it, +if anyone has to. It is too good a piece of work for anyone except an +Editor to reject." When I got home I very unwillingly began to read it. +I felt I should be in a difficulty, whatever happened. If it was as good +as Graves said, I should have to take it. But that would mean dislodging +somebody else whose MS. I had already accepted. I had, however, only to +read four or five pages to see that Mr. Graves was perfectly right and +that, whatever else happened, this MS. had got to be accepted. + +Happily, I did not wait, but wrote at once a letter of congratulation to +the unknown Mr. Bullen, and told him I would take his story, which +proved to be the first instalment of a book. Smith & Elder, when +acquainted with what had happened, saw the value of the copy, got in +touch with Bullen at once, and very soon agreed to publish his first +Whaling book. He told me afterwards that when the letter arrived he was +in the direst of straits. He had practically no money on which to keep +himself, his wife, and his children alive. His health was in a bad +state, as was that of his wife, and he was in the hands of a money- +lender who was pressing for payment and was about to sell him up. He +had, of course, put nothing of this into his covering letter, but +somehow or other I had an instinct that the man was in trouble. Somehow +or other, his emotional struggle had transferred itself to me along the +wire of the letter. Subconsciousness spoke to subconsciousness. +Curiously enough, a similar impulse founded on no evidence has come to +me on one or two other occasions, and they have always proved +substantial. Anyway, I think I either sent Bullen a cheque in advance, +or asked him whether he would like to have one, and so the situation was +saved. + +The discovery of Bullen was always a pleasure, but still greater was my +delight in the discovery of one of whom I may now say without +exaggeration that he has become one of the leading men of letters of our +time. The author I mean is Mr. Walter De La Mare. My friend, Mr. Ingpen, +who was then on the staff of Smith & Elder, and was detailed to help me +in getting up and getting out the _Cornhill_, came to me, after I +had been in office for about three weeks, and asked me whether as a +personal favour I would look at an article by a relation of his called +De La Mare, a youth who was then on the staff of a business house in the +City, but who had literary leanings and was married to Mr. Ingpen's +sister. I told him that I should, of course, be delighted, but that I +had outrun the constable terribly in the way of accepting MSS., as he +knew, for he wrote most of the letters of acceptance. I was afraid, +therefore, that however good his brother-in-law's work, I could only +give one verdict. He told me that he fully realised the situation, but +that he would be glad if I would read the MS. all the same, and tell him +what I thought of it. + +Accordingly I stuck the MS. in my pocket. With a certain feeling of +dread that I might be forced to accept it, I took it out on the +following Sunday, at Newlands, and began to read. I shall never forget +my delight. I had been pleased at the Bullen find, but here was +something quite different. When I laid down Mr. De La Mare's MS. -- +signed Walter Ramal, an anagram of De La Mare--I am proud to say that I +fully realised that a new planet had swum into my ken. I had had the +good luck to be the literary astronomer first to notice that the Host of +Heaven had another recruit. That is an experience as thrilling as it is +rare. The story was entitled "A Mote," and I am delighted to think I had +the prescience to pass it on to my readers with the following note, for, +as I have said before, I insisted, somewhat to the horror of +conventional people, in decorating the contributions of any new writer +with an explanation or comment. Here was my guess at De La Mare's story. +I do not mean to say that it contains the whole truth, but, at any rate, +it was a good shot considering the facts before me. Here it is: + +Those who hold the doctrine of transmigration will hardly fail, after +they have read this story, to think that the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe +is once more abroad.--Ed. _Cornhill_. + +Here I may add that these notes had a curiously irritating effect upon +the older and more rigid readers of the magazine. Mr. Reginald Smith, +for example, was quite terrified by the passionate way in which old +gentlemen at his club attacked him on the way in which the pages of the +_Cornhill_ were defiled by the Editor's "horrible little notes." +Nobody wanted to read them. They were either futile or patronising, or +both. They utterly spoilt the magazine, and so forth and so on. Mr. +Reginald Smith, though kindness itself in the matter, was inclined to +yield to the storm and to think that I had perhaps made a mistake in +breaking away from the established custom. I appealed to Mr. George +Smith, quite certain that he would support me and the innovation. He did +so; and I continued, though, perhaps, with a little more reticence, to +put up directing-posts for my readers. I am sure I was right. After all, +the ordinary man gets very much confused by new writers and is very +likely to miss a good thing merely because he is put off by the title or +the first few sentences. Yet all the time, the essay or short story at +which he shies is the very thing he would like to read if only it had +been properly introduced to him. In Mr. De La Mare's case, however, +there was no fear of being put off by reading the first few sentences. +If you had once read these you were quite certain to finish. I never +remember a better opening: + +I awoke from a dream of a gruesome fight with a giant geranium. I +surveyed, with drowsy satisfaction and complacency, the eccentric jogs +and jerks of my aunt's head. + +The performance is even better than this promise of strange things +strangely told. In the end it is not "my aunt" but "my uncle" who sees +visions, and visions whose subtlety and originality it would be hard to +beat. I will tantalise my readers with a quotation: + +My uncle stopped dead upon the gravel, with his face towards the garden. +I seemed to _feel_ the slow revolution of his eyes. + +"I see a huge city of granite," he grunted; "I see lean spires of metal +and hazardous towers, frowning upon the blackness of their shadows. +White lights stare out of narrow window-slits; a black cloud breathes +smoke in the streets. There is no wind, yet a wind sits still upon the +city. The air smells like copper. Every sound rings as it were upon +metal. There is a glow--a glow of outer darkness--a glow imagined by +straining eyes. The city is a bubble with clamour and tumult rising thin +and yellow in the lean streets like dust in a loam-pit. The city is +walled as with a finger-ring. The sky is dumb with listeners. Far down, +as the crow sees ears of wheat, I see that _mote_ of a man, in his +black clothes, now lit by flaming jets, now hid in thick darkness. Every +street breeds creatures. They swarm gabbling, and walk like ants in the +sun. Their faces are fierce and wary, with malevolent lips. Each mouths +to each, and points and stares. On I walk, imperturbable and stark. But +I know, oh, my boy, I know the alphabet of their vile whisperings and +gapings and gesticulations. The air quivers with the flight of black +winged shapes. Each foot-tap of that sure figure upon the granite is +ticking his hour away." My uncle turned and took my hand. "And this, +Edmond, this is the man of business who purchased his game in the City, +and vied with all in the excellence of his claret. The man who courted +your aunt, begot hale and whole children, who sits in his pew and is +respected. That beneath my skull should lurk such monstrous things! You +are my godchild, Edmond. Actions are mere sediment, and words--froth, +froth. Let the thoughts be clean, my boy; the thoughts must be clean; +thoughts make the man. You may never at any time be of ill repute, and +yet be a blackguard. Every thought, black or white, lives for ever, and +to life there is no end." + +"Look here, Uncle," said I, "it's serious, you know; you must come to +town and see Jenkinson, the brain man. A change of air, sir." "Do you +smell sulphur?" said my uncle. I tittered and was alarmed. + +Anyone who reads this and knows anything of literature will understand +the feelings of a young editor in publishing such matter, especially in +publishing it in 1896. At the present time the refrain that "All can +raise the flower now, for all have got the seed" is a reality. In the +'nineties work like "The Mote" was rare. Connoisseurs of style will +recognise what I mean when I say that what endeared "Walter Ramal" to me +was that, in spite of the fact that Stevenson at that very time was at +his best, and so was Kipling, there was not a trace of either author's +influence in Mr. De La Mare's prose. The very occasional appearances of +Stevensonianism were in truth only examples of common origin. He at once +made me feel that he was destined for great things. When there are two +such influences at work, happy is the man who can resist them, and +resist them in the proper way, by an alternative of his own, and not by +a mere bald and hungry reticence. + +Mr. Walter De La Mare's second article was called "The Village of Old +Age." It was a charming piece of what I simply cannot and will not call +"elfish" writing. The word in me, foolishly, no doubt, produces physical +nausea. If, however, someone with a stronger stomach in regard to words +called it elfish I should understand what he meant, and agree. But, good +as were these two essays, they were nothing compared to De La Mare's +marvellous story, "The Moon's Miracle." That was a piece of glorious +fantasy in which the writer excelled himself, not only as regards the +mechanism of his essay-story, but as to its substance, and, most of all, +its style. He prefaced it by this quotation from _Paradise Lost_: + +As when, to warn proud cities, war appears Waged in the troubled sky, +and armies rush To battle in the clouds; before each van Prick forth the +faery knights, and couch their spears, Till thickest legions close; with +feats of arms From either end of heaven the welkin burns. + +The following was his short synopsis of the story: + +How the Count saw a city in the sky and men in harness issuing thereout-- +Of the encampment of the host of the moons-men-Of how the battle was +joined--The Count's great joy thereat and of how the fight sped. + +The first sentences were these: + +The housekeeper's matronly skirts had sounded upon the staircase. The +maids had simpered their timid "Good-night, sir," and were to bed. +Nevertheless, the Count still sat imperturbable and silent. A silence of +frowns, of eloquence on the simmer; a silence that was almost a menace. +This enough for any man of adventure to know that he is in for a good +time--in for something big. What he was in for in this case was a great +aerial battle seen from Wimbledon Common--an admirable _locale_ for +such an event, as I have always thought. I can best prove the depth of +the impression made upon me by the fact that twenty years afterwards, +when on some summer evening one knew that an air raid had begun, I never +failed, when I watched the skies, to think of the little group on +Wimbledon Common. It had actually come true. They were scouring the +fields of air in the story of fight. No doubt what one saw there was not +as exquisite a spectacle as that seen by the Count. Still, there was +always something thrilling and so delightful in scanning the vast +battle-field of Heaven in order to find a Zeppelin, or, later, an +aeroplane squadron. Here is the passage describing what the Count and +his friends saw, when they discerned a city in the sky, and round it the +tents of the moonsmen: + +The tents were of divers pale colours, some dove-grey, others saffron +and moth-green, and those on the farther side, of the colour of pale +violets, and all pitched in a vast circle whose centre was the moon. I +handed the mackintosh to the Count and insisted upon his donning of it. +"The dew hangs in the air," said I, "and unless the world spin on too +quick, we shall pass some hours in watching." "Ay," said he in a muse, +"but it seems to me the moon-army keeps infamous bad watch. I see not +one sentinel. Those wings travel sure as a homing bird; and to be driven +back upon their centre would be defeat for the--lunatics. Give _me_ +but a handful of such cavalry, I would capture the Southern Cross. +Magnificent! magnificent! I remember, when I was in it--" For, while he +was yet deriding, from points a little distant apart, single, winged +horsemen dropped from the far sky, whither, I suppose, they had soared +to keep more efficient watch; and though we heard no whisper of sound, +by some means (inaudible bugle-call, positively maintains the Count) the +camp was instantly roused and soon astir like seething broth. Tents were +struck and withdrawn to the rear. Arms and harness, bucklers and gemmy +helms sparkled and glared. All was orderly confusion. + +I could go on for many more pages than I am afraid my readers would +approve to chronicle the joys of my editorship, and especially the joys +of discovery. I will only, however, mention two or three more names. One +is that of the late Mr. Bernard Capes. I think I am right in saying that +my story of "The Moon-stricken," which was published in the +_Cornhill_, was one of his first appearances before the English +public. Another author whom, I am glad to say, I and those who helped me +"spotted" as having special qualities of readability was Mr. Hesketh +Prichard. In this case my wife did what Mr. Graves had done in the case +of Mr. Bullen. After I had charged her, as she valued the peace of the +family, to accept nothing, but to return all the MSS. which I gave her, +she insisted upon my reading Hesketh Prichard's story. My judgment +confirmed hers, and in spite of the difficulties of congestion, which +was becoming greater and greater but which, of course, was my proof of +success, I accepted the story. There was, of course, nothing novel in +this experience. It is what always happens, and must happen, in +journalism. An editor is like a great fat trout, who is habitually +thoroughly well gorged with flies. It is the business of the young +writer who wants to make his way, to put so inviting a fly upon his line +and to fling it so deftly in front of the said trout's nose that, though +the trout has sworn by all the Gods, Nymphs, and Spirits of River and +Stream that he won't eat any more that day, he cannot resist the +temptation to rise and bite. You must take the City of Letters by Storm. +It will never yield to a mere summons to surrender. + +The _Cornhill_, though so agreeable an experience, did not last +long. _The Spectator_ soon claimed me for its own. I had to resign +the _Cornhill_ in order, first, to find more time for _The +Spectator_, and then, to carry the full weight of editorship which +came to me with Mr. Hutton's death. Mr. Hutton's death was quickly +followed by Mr. Townsend's retirement. This made me, not only sole +Editor, but sole Proprietor, of the paper. + +Before I proceed to describe the task I set myself in _The +Spectator_ when I obtained a free hand, and to record my journalistic +aims and aspirations, I desire to describe Mr. Townsend--a man whose +instinctive genius for journalism has, to my mind, never been surpassed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MEREDITH TOWNSEND + + +Taking _The Spectator_ as the pivot of my life, I began this book +by a plunge _in medias res_. This done, I had to go back and tell +of my rearing and of my life in something approaching chronological +sequence. In so doing, however, I have striven to remain true to Sir +Thomas Browne's instructions and to keep the alabaster tomb in the +barber's shop always before my eyes. Now, however, that I have reached +the time when I became Proprietor and Editor of _The Spectator_, I +may fitly return to my chiefs and predecessors. + +Unfortunately I can do this only in the case of Mr. Townsend. In regard +to any character-drawing or description of Mr. Hutton my pen must refuse +to write. Just before he died Mr. Hutton made me promise not to write +anything whatever about him in _The Spectator_, and though I am not +sure that he meant that promise to extend to what I might wish to write +elsewhere, I have always felt myself to be under a general and not +merely a particular obligation of silence. Mr. Hutton and I were always +the best of friends, and I regarded him with admiration as well as +affection. On some points we differed strongly, but on more we were in +full agreement. + +Though I did not go nearly as far as he did in the matter of +spiritualism I had deep sympathy with his main attitude in regard to +things psychological. It was this fact, perhaps, which made him say to +me, half humorously but half in earnest, when he knew that he was +leaving the office to die, as I also knew it, "Remember, Strachey, if +you ever write anything about me in _The Spectator_, I will haunt +you!" + +I obeyed his wish and clearly must always do so, though not merely for +this warning. Indeed, I remember well hoping that perhaps his spirit +might still be anxious, and might find it possible to revisit his room, +of which I had become the occupant. In this instance, at least, "the +harsh heir" would not have resented the return. As I sat at his table +late in the evening and heard, as we so often did in our river-side +office, wild gusts of wind blowing up the Thames, rattling my windows, +sweeping up the stairway, and shaking the door, I often caught myself +trying to believe that it was Button's half-lame step on the threshold, +and that at any moment he might fling open the door, put his hand in +mine, and ask a hundred things of the paper and the staff. But, alas! he +never came. As on many other occasions in my life, the desire to be +haunted, the longing to see the dead was not potent, efficient, +authoritative. But I must write no more of Hutton. If we cannot see the +dead, at least we must keep troth with them. + +Of Mr. Townsend I am happy in being able to speak quite freely. I am not +trammelled by any promise. Before doing so, however, I would most +strongly insist that no one shall suppose that because I say so much +more of him than of his brother Editor, it is because my heart felt +warmer towards him. I had, indeed, the warmest of feelings towards both, +then. If anyone were to ask me which I liked the better, I should find +it impossible to answer. They were both true friends. They made a +great intellectual partnership. They were complementary to each other in +an extraordinary degree. It was quite remarkable how little either +intruded upon the intellectual ground of the other. This could never +have been said of me, however, who for some years made a sort of +triumvirate with them. I had a great deal of common ground with both. +That was all very well for a subordinate and a younger man, but it would +not have been half so satisfactory in the case of an equal partnership. +Hutton was occupied with pure literature--especially poetry--and with +theology and with home politics. Townsend, on the other hand, though he +was a great reader and lover of books, and a man of real religious +feeling, was specially interested in Asia and the Asiatic spirit and +foreign affairs. To these subjects Hutton's mind, though he would not +have admitted it, was in the main closed. Townsend knew a great deal +about diplomatic history and about war by land and sea, as must every +man who has lived long in India; Hutton's mind was little occupied with +such things. Home politics, as I have said, were his field and had his +deepest concern, while Townsend took in these no more than an ordinary +interest. Again, Hutton was deeply interested in psychology and the +study of the mind, whereas what interested Townsend most was what might +be called the scenery of life and politics. Townsend looked upon life as +a drama played in a great theatre and seen from the stalls. To Hutton, I +think, life was more like some High Conference at which he himself was +one of the delegates, and not merely a spectator. + +[Illustration: Meredith Townsend, Editor of the _Friend of India_, +and his Moonshee, the Pundit Oomacanto Mukaji, Doctor of Logic in the +Muddeh University. (Taken at Serampore, Bengal, in 1849.)] + +And now for Townsend the man and the friend. What always seemed to me +the essential thing about him was his great kindliness and generosity of +nature, a kindliness and generosity which, when you knew him, were not +the least affected by his delight in saying sharp and even biting +things. He barked, but he never bit. You very soon came to find, also, +that the barking, though often loud, was not even meant to terrify, much +less to injure. Quite as essential, perhaps, as this kindliness, and of +course far more important, was a fact of which I ultimately came to have +striking proof, namely that he was the most honourable and high-minded +of men. It is easy enough for any man of ordinary good character to keep +a bargain when he has made it. It is by no means an easy thing for a man +who has, or seems to have, cause to regret the consequences of a +particular course he has taken, entirely to overcome and forget his +dissatisfaction. + +I can easily illustrate what I mean when I describe how, later on, I +became first half-partner in _The Spectator_ with Townsend and then +sole Proprietor and Editor-in-Chief. Within eight or nine months of +Hutton's retirement, Townsend, for a variety of reasons yet to be +described, but also largely on account of the fact that his health was +beginning to give way, determined that he would end his days in the +country. He proposed, therefore, that I should buy him out of _The +Spectator_ altogether and become sole Proprietor and Editor. As I was +some thirty years younger than he was, and on his death would become +sole Proprietor, subject to a fixed payment to the executors of his +Will, this was in fact only anticipating what would happen at his death. +He promised, meantime, to write two articles for me every week as long +as his health would allow, and to take charge during my holidays. The +arrangement appeared favourable to him from the financial point of view, +when it was made, and involved a good deal better terms than those +contained in our Deed of Partnership. At any rate, the plan originated +entirely with him. All I did was to say "Yes." + +But to make an arrangement of that kind and to keep to it in such a way +that I never had the very slightest ground for even the shadow of a +"private grievance" was wonderful. Think of it for a moment. The +position of chief and subordinate was suddenly and absolutely reversed. +I became the editor and he the contributor. Like the shepherd in Virgil, +he tilled as a tenant the land which he had once owned as a freehold. +Yet he never even went to the length of shrugging his shoulders and +saying, "Well, of course it's your paper now, and you can do what you +like with it, but you're making a great mistake." His loyalty to his +contract, and to me and to the paper, was never dimmed by a moment of +hesitation, much less of grumbling or regret. He was kindness and +consideration personified. I shall never forget how perfectly easy he +made my position. + +There was another factor in the situation which would have made it even +more trying for anyone but Townsend. Directly I became sole Proprietor, +I threw myself with all the energy at my command into the business side +of the paper, and within a couple of years had doubled the circulation +and greatly increased the profits. This did not, of course, take +anything away from Townsend's share in the paper, but it might very well +have made him feel, had he been of a grudging spirit, that he had made a +mistake in selling out when he did. As a matter of fact, the paper would +not have done so well under the partnership. I should have hesitated to +risk his property by launching out, and he would probably have thought +it his duty to restrain me. He disliked anything speculative in +business, did not believe in the possibilities of expansion, and +preferred the atmosphere of the Three per Cents. That being so, I could +not have appealed to him to put more capital into _The Spectator_. + +In effect, we should each have waited on the other and done nothing. +However, the fact remains that there never was a trace of jealousy on +his part. I have no doubt that he occasionally wished he had retained a +share in the paper. He would hardly have been human if he had not done +so; but he never showed any regret of a kind which would have been +painful or embarrassing to me. Under conditions which might have been +most trying we continued and maintained a close and unclouded +friendship. It was unaffected by the slightest touch of friction. Take a +small point: he even insisted on changing his room at the office for +mine. His room, the room he had occupied for over thirty years, was on +the first floor, and this, he insisted, was the place for the Editor-in- +Chief, and so must be mine. I yielded only to his peremptory request. + +Of Townsend's intellectual gifts I cannot speak without expressing a +keen admiration. It is my honest belief that he was, in the matter of +style, the greatest leader-writer who has ever appeared in the English +Press. He developed the exact compromise between a literary dignity and +a colloquial easiness of exposition which completely fills the +requirements of journalism. He was never pompous, never dull, or common, +and never trivial. When I say that he was the greatest of leader-writers +I am not forgetting that at this moment we have in Mr. Ian Colvin of +_The Morning Post_ a superb artist in the three-paragraph style of +matutinal exhortation. Bagehot, again, was a great leader-writer; so +were Robert Low and Sir Henry Mayne; and so also was Hutton. But these +men, great publicists as they were, never attained to quite Townsend's +verbal accomplishment. I fully admit that many of them could, on +occasion, write with far greater political judgment, and with greater +learning, and with greater force and eloquence. But where Townsend +excelled them and was easily first was in his power of dramatic +expression and what can only be described as verbal fascination. No one +could excite the mind and exalt the imagination as he did. And the +miracle was that he did it all the time in language which appeared to be +nothing more than that of a clever, competent man talking at his club. +He used no literary artifice, no rhetorical emphasis, no elaboration of +language, no _finesse_ of phrase. His style was easy but never +elegant or precious or ornamented. It was familiar without being common- +place, free without discursiveness, and it always had in it the note of +distinction. What was as important, he contrived, even in his most +paradoxical moments, to give a sense of reserve power, of a heavy +balance at the Bank of Intellect. + +He never appeared to preach or to explain to his readers. But though he +had all the air of assuming that they were perfectly well-read and +highly experienced in great affairs, he yet managed to tell them very +clearly what they did not and could not know. He could give instruction +without the slightest assumption of the schoolmaster. In truth, his +writing at its best was in form perfect journalism. + +But, all the same, Townsend both in matter and in style had his faults +as a leader-writer. Though he was never carried away by language, was +never blatant and never hectoring, he was often much too sensational in +his thoughts and so necessarily in the phrases in which he clothed them. +He let his ideas run away with him, and would sometimes say very +dangerous and even very absurd things--things which became all the more +dangerous and all the more absurd because they were, as a rule, conveyed +in what were apparently carefully-balanced and carefully-selected words. +His wildest words were prefaced with declarations of reticence and +repression. + +It was said of a daily newspaper in the 'sixties that its proprietor's +instructions to his leader-writers were framed in these words: + +"What we want from you is common sense conveyed in turgid language." + +What the world sometimes got from Townsend was turgid thought conveyed, +I will not say in commonplace language, for his style could never be +that, but in the language of sobriety, good sense, and good taste. + +Let no one think that in saying this I am being false to my friend. +Townsend's faults of judgment were all upon the surface. At heart he had +a great and sound mind, though sometimes he could not resist the +temptation to drop the reins on his horse's neck and let it carry him +where it would, and at a pace unbecoming a responsible publicist. +Sometimes, too, the horse was actually pressed and encouraged to kick up +its heels and go snorting down the flowery meads of sensationalism! + +People generally went through three phases in the process of getting to +know Townsend. To begin with, they thought he was a man inspired with +the highest political wisdom and knowledge. His gifts of dialectical +vaticination made them look upon him as the lively oracle of the special +Providence which he himself was accustomed to say presided over the +British Empire. After a time, however, they began to think that he was +what they called too "viewy," too much inclined to paradox, too wild. +Often, alas! the feeling in regard to him ended here, and he was written +down as impracticable if amusing. That view, though probable, was +certainly false. Those who had the good fortune and the good sense to +persist, and were not put off by this discovery of a superficial +flightiness of thought, but dug deeper in his mind, ended, as I ended, +in something like veneration for his essential wisdom. They found again, +as I did, that he was very apt to be in the right when he seemed most +fallacious. After all, a house may be cool and comfortable, even if the +front door is painted in flame-colour and has a knocker of rock crystal +set in gold. + +I may here appropriately point out how great an effect his book of +collected _Spectator_ articles dealing with Asia, and especially +India, has had upon public opinion. _Asia and Europe_ (Constable, +London, Putnam, New York) remains the essential book on the subject +handled, and every year its influence is widening. No one can understand +Asia or Islam without reference to its inspiring and also prophetic +pages. For example, I notice that Mr. Stoddard, in his recent book on +_The Revival of Islam_ (Scribner), constantly quotes Mr. Townsend +on the subject. And this, remember, is not due to any fascination of +style, but rather to the fact that many of Townsend's prophecies, which +at the time seemed wild and unsubstantial enough, have come true. + +Though I have said that Mr. Townsend's style as a journalist was +perfect, and I firmly believe this, it must be confessed that +occasionally he indulged in paradoxes which cannot be defended. I will +not conceal the fact that these occasional kickings over the traces +personally delighted me as a young man, and still delight me, but, all +the same, they are indefensible from the point of view of the serious +man--that dreadful person, the _vir pietate gravis_. For instance, +it was always said by some of his friends, and I think with truth, for I +have not dared to verify the point, that he began his leader recording +the Austrian defeat and the Battle of Sadowa with these words: _"So +God not only reigns but governs"_ + +Another example of his trenchant style occurred in a "sub-leader" on a +story from America, which related how the inhabitants of the "coast +towns," _i.e._, villages in one of the Eastern States, had refused +to allow a ship that was supposed to contain cholera or fever patients +from New York to land at a local port. The farmers went down with their +rifles and shot-guns, so the story went, fired upon the sailors and even +the invalids, while they were attempting to land, and drove them back to +their ship. Townsend's leader on this legend, no doubt purely +apocryphal, was full of wise things, but ended up with the general +reflection that people are apt to forget that "mankind in general are +tigers in trousers" and that the majority of them "would cheerfully +shoot their own fathers to prevent the spread of infection." + +No doubt, if you had asked Townsend to justify his statement, he would +at once have admitted that the language was a little strong, and would +have been quite willing to introduce some modification, such as "men +occasionally behave as if they were tigers in trousers," and to add that +"in certain instances some men might even go so far as to hold that it +might be a public duty to shoot their own fathers to prevent the spread +of infection." He was always rather sad, however, if one suggested a +little hedging of this kind when one was reading over the final proofs +of the paper. What he liked, and as a journalist was quite right to +like, was definiteness. Qualifying words were an abomination to his +strong imagination. No man ever loved the dramatic side of life more +than he did. He even carried this love of drama to the lengths of +honestly being inclined to believe things simply and solely because they +were sensational. The ordinary man when he hears an extraordinary tale +is inclined to say, "What rubbish! That can't be true. I never heard +anything like that before," and so on. Townsend, on the other hand, was +like the Father of the Church who said, _"Credo quia impossibile."_ +If you told Townsend a strange story, and suggested that it could not +possibly be true because of some marvellous or absurd incident which was +supposed to have occurred, his natural and immediate impulse was to look +upon that special circumstance as conclusive proof of its credibility +and truth. His extraordinarily wide, if inaccurate, recollections of +historical facts and fictions would supply him with a hundred +illustrations to show that what seemed to you ridiculous, or, at any +rate, inexplicable, was the simplest and most reasonable thing in the +world. This leaning toward the sensational, which belongs to so many +journalists and is probably a beneficial part of their equipment, should +not be forgotten by those who are tempted to judge the Press harshly in +the matter of scare headlines and scare news. When something has been +inserted in the Press that turns out later to be a cock-and-bull story, +the plain man is apt to think that it must have been "put in" because +the editor, though he knew it was false, thought it good copy and likely +to sell his paper. In my experience that is not in the least how the +thing works. A great many editors, however, greatly like and are +naturally inclined to believe in "good copy." And, after all, they have +got many more excuses for doing so than the ordinary man realises. +Nobody can have anything to do with a newspaper without being amazed at +the strangeness, the oddity, the topsy-turvy sensationalism of life, +when once it is laid bare by the newspaper reporters. + +For example, they write an article to show how astrology has absolutely +died out in England. A day afterwards you get a letter from some old +gentleman in Saffron Walden or Peckham Rye or Romford, informing you +that in his small town, or suburban district, "there are ten practising +astrologers, not to mention various magicians who do a little astrology +in their odd moments." And all this is written with an air of perfect +simplicity, as if the information conveyed were the most natural thing +in the world and would be no surprise to any ordinary well-informed +person. + +But it was not only in outside affairs and in his view of the world that +lay outside the windows of his mind that Townsend found life a thing of +odd discoveries, strange secrets, and thrilling hazards. His own +existence, though in reality an exceedingly quiet one, indeed almost +that of a recluse, was still to him a great adventure. There was always +for him the possibility of the sudden appearance of the man in the black +cloak with hat drawn over his brows, either looking, or saying "Beware!" +I remember well his pointing out to a member of the staff who is still, +I am glad to say, a colleague of mine, a delightful reason for the +arrangement of the furniture in his, Townsend's, room at 1 Wellington +Street, Strand. Townsend complained that his writing-table was in a very +cold corner, and that from it he could not feel the warmth of the fire. +It was suggested to him that the best plan would be to bring the table +nearer to the fire and to sit with his back to the door. "But don't you +see," said Townsend, "that would be impossible? I couldn't see who was +entering the room." As he spoke there rose up visions of Eastern figures +in white turbans gliding in stealthily and with silent tread, and +standing behind the editorial chair, unseen but all-seeing. Alas! we did +not often have such adventures in Wellington Street, but no doubt it +stimulated Townsend's mind in what might otherwise have been +insupportably dull surroundings to think of such possibilities. This +idea, indeed, of watching the entry was a favourite topic of his. I +remember his telling me when I first came regularly to the office, that +Mr.---, the then manager, who sat in the inner room downstairs, had a +mirror so placed that he could see all who came through the main door, +without himself being seen, and so appearing to place callers under +observation. At my expressing some surprise that this was necessary, I +was met with the oracular reply that though it wasn't talked about, such +an arrangement would be found "in every office in London." Of a piece +with this half-reality, half make-believe, with which, as I say, +Townsend transformed his quiet life into one long and thrilling +adventure, was a remark which I remember his making in the course of a +most innocent country walk: "If the country people knew the secret of +the foxglove root it would be impossible to live in the country." +Apropos of this remark, my painter brother, who had always lived in the +country and had plenty of cottage friends in Somersetshire, pointed out +that as a matter of fact the country people knew the effects of +digitalis as a poison exceedingly well, even though they were not +inclined so to use it as to make life in the country impossible. He went +on to tell, if I may be discursive for a moment, how, one day he was +painting quietly behind a hedge, he caught a scrap of conversation +between two hedge-makers who were unaware of his presence. It ran as +follows: "And so they did boil down the hemlock and gave it to the +woman, and she died." That was the statement: whether ancient or modern, +who knows? For myself, I have always wondered what the hedgers would +have said if they had suddenly had their rustic _on dit_ capped +with the tale of how the hemlock was used in Athens 2,400 years ago. Did +the "woman" of Somersetshire stave off the effects of the poison by +walking about? Did her limbs grow cold and numb and dead while the brain +still worked? But such questions are destined to remain for ever +unanswered. Country people do not like to be cross-questioned upon stray +remarks of this character, and if you attempt to fathom mysteries will +regard you with suspicion almost deadly in its intensity till the end of +your days. "What business had he to be asking questions like that?" is +the verdict which kills in the country. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MEREDITH TOWNSEND (_Continued_) + + +Though I cannot resist writing upon the picturesque side of Townsend's +character, I must take care not to give a wrong impression. Nobody must +think, because of Townsend's emphasis and vividness of language, and +that touch of imagination he introduced into every thought and every +sentence, that he was an oddity or an eccentric. In spite of the fact +that he would never take life plain when he could get it coloured, he +was a perfectly sane person. As I have said, the more you knew him the +more you felt that, though you might be shocked by the first rashness of +his thought, it would very likely turn out to be a perfectly sane +judgment--proper discount being allowed for his brilliance of vision. I +used sometimes to put some of his most wonderful and hair-raising +statements into dull English, and then ask him whether that wasn't what +he meant. I generally received the instant assurance that my sober +version exactly represented his view. + +His attitude of mind might, indeed, be summed up by a thing that he once +said to me in a period of political calm in the middle of August in the +'nineties. "_Strachey, I wish something dramatic would happen._" He +went on to explain how he was fretted almost beyond endurance by the +dullness of the world. And yet I often wonder whether even he might not +have found the last six years almost too highly "accidented" even for +him. But I know one thing. If he had the anxious mind developed to the +highest point, he was essentially a brave man and a true lover of his +country. If he had been destined to live through the war there would +have been no stouter heart than his, and none would have given a more +stimulating expression to the spirit of the nation than he. + +I wish profoundly that I had made during his life, as I ought to have +done, a proper collection of Townsend's aphoristic and sensational +sayings. They would have been not only a source of delight and +entertainment, but also a storehouse of what might be called the +practical wisdom of an imaginative mind. A good example of what I mean +is the following. Townsend was once having an exciting and not to say +violent argument with a younger man. In the course of the combat +Townsend, we may presume, used a generous freedom of language, and it +was returned in kind by his opponent. The clash of mind was fierce. Then +the younger man pulled himself together. He felt he had gone too far in +some of the things he had said, and apologised to Townsend. If he had +been rude or over-vehement in the way in which he had maintained and +insisted upon his view--he hoped he should be forgiven. "Not at all," +was the instant reply. _"You have a perfect right to be wrong!"_ +There was here a great deal more than a felicitous epigram. This +acknowledgment of every man's right to be wrong underlay Townsend's +philosophy of life and his religious attitude. Though, curiously enough, +he had borrowed a certain touch of fatalism from his intercourse as a +young man with the philosophies of the East, he felt very strongly the +essential freedom of the will. But that freedom he saw could not exist, +could not be worthily exercised, could not, as it were, have its full +reward in a man's own soul, unless it were a true freedom. Unless a man +had the freedom to do wrong as well as the freedom to do right he was +not really free. It was idle to pretend that you were giving people a +choice of freedom if you put restrictions upon them which would +effectually prevent their doing anything but that which the inventor of +the restrictions considered to be right; if the doing of the right +resulted not from their own impulse but from the application of exterior +force over which they had no control, no virtue, no moral force. "There +is no compulsion, only you must" meant to him, as it must to every man +who knows what truth and justice are, the utmost derogation of freedom. + +I have spoken of the influence of the East upon Townsend's mind in +matters of religion. Though he never became a mystic, and had not +naturally the mystic's attitude or even any true understanding of what +mysticism is, as a young man he had looked through the half-open door of +the Eastern world not merely with wonder and delight but with a great +deal of sympathy. He went to Calcutta, or, rather, to one of its +suburbs, when he was a boy of eighteen, and remained there without +coming home for over ten years. In that time he acquired a fair +acquaintance with several Indian languages, and an intimate knowledge of +Bengali, which he always regarded as the Italian of the East. In Bengali +he was so accomplished that he was given the post of Government +Translator. + +In the old daguerreotype here reproduced he is seen sitting, by his +moonshee, a Brahmin of the highest caste,--see the mystic Brahmin +thread which the Jesuits were accused of wearing,--from whom he learned +Hindustani and, I think, a certain amount of Sanskrit. With the moonshee +he had many long talks upon those subjects on which the intellectual +Brahmins have discoursed and delighted to discourse ever since the day +when Alexander took his bevy of Hellenic Sophists across the Indus. +Greeks bursting with the new lore of Aristotle--Alexander's own tutor-- +at once got to work on the Brahmins and began to discuss Fate, Free- +will, the Transmigration of Souls, the nature of thought, the power of +words, and the mystery of the soul. The Brahmins met them half-way, as +today they meet any wandering European metaphysicians. Townsend had an +active, eager spirit, and he and the moonshee tired the sun with talk. +But there was more than eternal talk between them. They grew to be real +friends, in spite of an interval of some forty years. Townsend used to +say of the moonshee, "If there is a heaven, that old man is there." +Though belonging to the caste of the High Priests of the Hindu faith, he +was poor in worldly possessions. But though holy and learned he had no +touch in him of sacerdotal arrogance--difficult achievement, considering +the sort of veneration with which Brahmins of his exalted spiritual rank +were treated in Bengal. + +To illustrate the depth of this veneration, Townsend was fond of telling +a story of how he had in his employment in the printing office of his +paper, _The Friend of India_, a high-class Brahmin engaged, I +think, as a proof-reader, at low wages. It chanced that on some occasion +Townsend was interviewing a very rich Bengal magnate, a mediatised +Prince, so far as I remember, though of comparatively humble caste. When +the Brahmin entered to bring Townsend a proof, or upon some other +business of the paper, the rich noble rose, and, as Townsend +picturesquely put it, "swept the dust off the Brahmin's feet with his +forehead." The Brahmin received the obeisance without the slightest +embarrassment, as a right entirely his due. "There," said Townsend, "is +the whole of the East." Fanciful shapes of the plastic earth, the wealth +and the power of the rich man, and the man of semi-royal rank, are +perfectly real and fully recognised, but they make no difference to the +essential fact of religion. Caste in its religious aspects is something +of which we English people have no conception. + +I remember pleasing Townsend with an illustration of the truth of how +English people cannot conceive of great rank without a considerable +amount of riches. When reading for the Bar, I came across a short Act of +Parliament, in the reign of Henry VI, which was passed to deprive the +existing Duke of Buckingham of all his rank and titles "because he was +so poor." The two Houses of Parliament were sorry, no doubt, to have to +act, but they felt it was no more respectable for a Duke to go about +without money than for an ordinary man to go about without clothes. They +were doing the right thing by him in reducing him to the ranks of the +proletariat in name as well as in fact. English people, insisted +Townsend, never seem to realise that the distinction of birth is so +valuable because it is incommunicable. That, of course, is quite true. +English people, happily, as I think, never have, and never will, regard +mere birth with any veneration or even interest. What affects them is +that potent, if rather indefinite, thing, position--the aura of +distinction which surrounds great office, great wealth, and even great +learning; and, oddly enough, most of all by the acclamation of fashion. +The Committee of Almack's put the thing exactly, when a certain Duchess, +to whom they had refused invitations for a ball, writing in +expostulation reminded them of her rank. They simply replied that "the +Duchess of Newcastle, though undoubtedly a woman of rank, was not a +woman of fashion." It was only to "persons of fashion" that the doors of +Almack's stood always open. + +Townsend's conversation was a curious contradiction. Half of it +consisted of tremendous generalities, which made the hearer gasp with a +kind of mental deflation. The other side consisted of specific +statements of the most meticulous kind. And these contradictory forms of +attack upon the intelligence with whom he was in conversation were mixed +together in the most admired disorder. I remember well a lady who met +Mr. Townsend for the first time at a luncheon-party in London, telling +me that at a pause in the conversation she heard him say of a Polish +actress, Madame Modjeska, then performing in town, "She has the most +mobile face in South-western Europe." On another occasion the oracle +gave forth this tremendous sentence: _"Musicians have no morals"_ +but then, remembering a musician who was a close friend of his and mine, +Townsend added, "Except G--." + +This is a beautiful example of the extreme generalisation followed by a +headlong descent to the minutely specific. If you had suggested to +Townsend that this was rather a large order, he would have replied, +without turning a hair, that you were no doubt perfectly right, and +would probably have limited himself in a lightning flash--"Statisticians +would probably put the figure at 27 1/2 per cent, or some such figure." + +If he had been made to choose in his writings between the specific and +the general, he would, however, I am convinced, have chosen the +specific, for the specific statement was his leading rule in journalism, +as no doubt it was one of the sources of the charm of his style. You +should always be specific even if you could not be accurate, might be +given as an accurate parody of his principle. + +This predilection sometimes led him into strange difficulties, +especially in medicine, where he loved to use all the "terms of art." +Technical expression had a fatal fascination for him, especially when he +did not understand them. I remember his saying, with a naiveté which was +quite delightful, apropos of a common friend in illness, "I have +discovered the nature of H's ailment. There is no doubt now that he is +suffering from the true Blankitis. By the way, Strachey, what is +Blankitis?" I am afraid in the case in question I did not know, and he +did not know, and in fact none of us but didn't know what the word +meant. (I have adopted the phraseology of the little boy when the +magistrate asked him if he knew where he would go to if he gave false +evidence.) But Townsend had no sympathy with agnosticism of this kind. +In spite of the vastness of his view, he loved placing things neatly, +correctly, and in order. + +He used to tell an excellent story about himself and of the kind of +answer you are apt to get if you try to catalogue English people too +exactly, especially in regard to their religious opinions. + +Twenty-five years ago [said Townsend], when I first came here on leaving +the East, I did not realise this peculiarity. I was very much interested +in finding out the religious views of all sorts of people, and +especially of uneducated people; and so I asked Mrs. Black (the then +reigning housekeeper at the _Spectator_ office) what her religious +views were. I expected to be told that she was either Church of England, +or Chapel, or Presbyterian, or something of the kind. To my surprise +this is how she met my inquiry. She looked me straight in the face, and +said, "I am a moderate Atheist." + +By that name she always went in the secret councils of the office. After +all, only an English person could have invented that particular form of +religion. I always felt that answer would have delighted Voltaire and +given him another ground for quizzing English moderation even in +negation. I thought then, and have often thought since, how far the +principle of moderation might be extended, and whether you could be a +moderate agnostic or a moderate fatalist or a moderate logician. + +Townsend had a capacity for wit, but, as he was fond of saying himself, +no sympathy with farce or mere high spirits. I doubt even if he had a +sense of humour in the ordinary meaning of that term, or in the +Frenchman's definition: "la mélancholie gaie que les Anglais nomment +'humour.'" To say this is not to say that he did not enjoy a humorous, +an ironic, a witty, or an epigrammatic story or saying. He enjoyed such +things immensely and would laugh heartily at them. But he had no use for +a "droll," as I must fully admit I have. I can thoroughly enjoy the +long-toed comedian, and feel quite sure that if time and opportunity +could combine to let me see once a week a film figuring Charlie Chaplin +I should be transported with delight. Good clowning, or even bad +clowning, or what people call the appalling, or melancholy, or "cut- +throat," jokes in a comic paper I always find captivating. + +Of good stories and laughable stories Townsend was in many ways an +admirable _raconteur_. Many people would say that cannot be true. +On your own confession he was too much of an exaggerator. I don't agree. +Exaggeration is not a fair word for what he did to his stories. He had +in him a kind of mental accelerator, and upon this he depended, no +doubt, too much on occasion, as do so many motor-drivers. All the same, +his stories always got home, and, strangely enough, this perpetual +speeding-up of his mind never seemed to injure it or to wear it out. On +the whole, his stories and his quotations were splendid, though I +confess one dared not verify his dates and facts and quoted words, for +fear of spoiling a real work of art. Strangely enough, he was nearly +always accurate in the spirit if not in the letter. Some day I should +like to tell some of the stories that he told me of Lord Dalhousie, or +Lord Canning and the White Mutiny, and of Lady Canning as a hostess. + +That Townsend was a masterly letter-writer this account of him will, I +feel, have already suggested. He was vivid, picturesque, and attractive +to a high degree. The place he lived in when he was taking a country +holiday was always the most wonderful place in the world and the people +he met there marvellous and mysterious beyond words. Even if they were +bores, they were bores raised to such a high power as to become +intensely attractive. + +A curious example of the impact made upon his mind by the Eastern +religions was shown in his belief that there was a great deal to be said +for the Eastern view that Almighty Providence had entrusted the world +and its government to a "demi-ergon" or angelic Vizier, who was given +the governance of the world under certain conditions of rule which he +had to observe. I remember well Townsend once saying to me: "Some day I +will write a book upon the neglected religion--the religion which holds +God to have 'devolved' the government of the world on a great Spirit or +Angel." It was his belief, or an assumed belief (for the thing to him was +really a day-dream), that in this way the great antinomy between free- +will and that predestination which is implicit in omnipotence, could be +got rid of. Townsend thought that this matter had never been discussed +as fully as it ought to have been. I am not theologian enough to know +how far this is true, but I suspect that this is just the sort of point +upon which Townsend would have been misinformed. It seems almost certain +that every conceivable abstract point of view, in pure theology not +depending upon examination and observation, must long ago have been +discussed exhaustively. Not only did the Schoolmen and the Jesuits sound +every space of water, but the Byzantine Greeks in the early days of the +Christian Faith produced "heresies" of every imaginable kind. The union +of Semitic revelation and neoplatonic mysticism, first at Alexandria and +later in the City of the Christian Emperor Constantine, constituted a +forcing-house of theological systems. + +Before I leave my recollections of Mr. Townsend, I want to say something +of a curious incident in his last illness; and I must also attempt to +describe his personal appearance. During the last six or nine months of +his life--he was nearly eighty and his health had been undermined by his +hard work in the Delta of the Ganges--his brain and memory failed him +almost completely. His intellectual life sank, indeed, to what was +practically a perpetual delirium. Occasionally, however, there would be +a lucid interval, in which he became for a short time truly conscious +and could make sensible and rational remarks. For example, on one +occasion when he was in the middle of a paroxysm of loud, violent, and +incoherent talk, almost approaching raving, he suddenly turned to his +wife or daughter with an apology of bewildering poignancy. "I do wish +that man on the sofa would keep quiet. I am afraid his noise worries +you. It worries me quite as much." Even stranger, more curious, and more +suggestive of the double personality is the following circumstance. +Though I remember his telling me only some six or seven years before his +death that he had entirely forgotten his Bengali and did not suppose he +could now speak a word of it, he talked when his memory went a very +great deal in the Indian vernacular and apparently with great fluency. +And here I may note that he was always very fond of correcting people +who talked as if the inhabitants of Bengal talked Hindustani, saying +that it was Bengali that they talked, that the language was entirely +different from Hindustani, and was also the language of some fifty or +sixty million people and not by any means a patois. On the first +occasion, when the doctor was present, when Mr. Townsend reverted to the +language of the East, Mrs. Townsend in explaining what was happening, +made a very natural slip, and said: "You hear, he is talking in +Hindustani." + +Immediately there came from the bed a voice in Townsend's old tone and +manner, and making a correction quite in his old style: "No, not +Hindustani, Bengali." But though the true consciousness was, as it were, +on the watch and quite able to make a correction, its force was spent, +at any rate for the time. Nothing more was said for a long interval by +the consciousness. + +Here I should like to put in a plea for a much closer psychological +study of the sayings of the delirious, the insane, and of persons in the +hour of death. Such words are not, as a rule, recorded and are often +passed over in fear or pity. This seems to me a great mistake. No harm +could be done, but, rather, a great deal of good, if nurses were taught +to record such expressions. This would result, I feel sure, in a greater +kindness to delirious persons and to those who are insane or on the +verge of insanity, quite apart from the benefit which would accrue to +scientific investigation. If people understood something of the double +or multiplex personality there would be less terror and surprise at some +of the phenomena of the emergence of the uncontrolled subconsciousness. +It might at first be thought that the doctor was the proper person to +make a record of the kind I am suggesting. But the doctor is, as a rule, +too busy to do this sort of work, and, what is more, it is not he who +generally has the opportunity to note the real expressions of the +subconsciousness or to witness the struggle between the two +personalities. Even in the case of delirious or semiconscious persons, +the patient, when the doctor is there, makes an effort and pulls himself +together and so reconstructs the normal personality. It is the nurse who +sees the patient mentally off his or her guard, and who is, as it were, +in a position to note the things of most value to the psychologist. + +Townsend's personal appearance is difficult to describe. He had, from +the time I first saw him in '85, grey hair and a grey moustache. He was +a small man, wiry and full of energy, and in the first ten years of our +friendship quite capable of taking long country walks. He always wore, +even in the country, black or dark-grey clothes, which indeed +constituted for him a kind of uniform. His eyes were grey and glittered +brightly and keenly behind his gold-rimmed spectacles. These he never +removed, except for a moment of polishing on a large silk bandana +handkerchief. He smoked comparatively little, but was a perpetual snuff- +taker. Nothing was more amusing than to hear him discourse on snuff- +taking and describe his adventures with snuff merchants. In fact, snuff- +taking in his mind had become endowed with a kind of freemasonry. All +snuff-takers, he declared, knew each other. They were so few in number. +He was also very interesting about snuff-boxes, and the lost art of +making hinges through which the almost impalpable dust of well-ground +snuff would be unable to penetrate. + +I might indeed have exampled his snuff-taking as a proof of his power of +endowing everything with a sense of adventure and pregnant interest. + +His step was light and very quick, his voice pleasant and refined, and +his manner of talking, as may be imagined, what I must--in spite of the +associations--call arresting. The saying that if you had taken refuge +under an arch during a rainstorm and found yourself next to Dr. Johnson +you would have realised in his first ten words that you were face to +face with a man of true distinction might well have been applied to +Townsend himself. + +But, after all, Townsend is not a man who can be described. You may +describe a Mrs. Siddons with a faultless profile, a great statesman or +writer with what an old family servant of ours called "an iron +countenance"; but it is impossible to describe the intelligence, the +nervous energy, the versatility of expression which quick-coming, eager +thoughts throw upon the human face. Who can paint a thought, or number +the flashes of wit? Townsend was to be appreciated, not to be described. +Moreover, he was a man who impressed you more the hundredth time you saw +him than on the first. It is the old mystery, the old paradox set forth +by Wordsworth: + + You must love him ere to you + He will seem worthy of your love. + +It was only when you had learned to love his wit and the gallant +cataract of his mind that you could fully understand and value its +fascination. + +As a postscript to Townsend's oracular sayings I must add one of his +dicta on women. Here his generalisations were enormous and almost always +included a wild nosedive from the empyrean of generalities to that +purely specific element, the hard earth. For example, he was never tired +of saying--in various forms, for he never really repeated himself--that +women were far more trustworthy in money matters than men. He used to +say that he had never in any single instance in his whole career been +repaid a loan of money made to a man. On the other hand, he had never +been cheated by a woman. + +It may perhaps be said that, considering I am writing a biography of +myself and not of Townsend, I have dwelt too long on my predecessor in +title. But, in truth, I have hardly dwelt long enough, for I am +describing the making of my mind. I could hardly be too detailed or too +particular in my description of Townsend, for his influence upon my +journalistic career was of enormous importance. Though I very soon +realised Townsend's defects as an editor, as a critic of public affairs, +as a man of letters, and as a user of words, my admiration for him as a +great journalist did not diminish but grew year by year. + +I learned as time went on to disregard the faults and exaggerations +which so often greatly displeased the statesmen or men of letters who +had not the time or the patience really to understand and so to be +tolerant. Townsend had to some extent done what is very rarely done in +England, though it is so much done in America; that is, he had thought +out a good many of the problems of publicity and arrived at very sound +conclusions. If he had lived in America, I have no doubt that, with the +encouragement of a public that understands publicity, he would have +carried his ideas much further than he was able to carry them here, and +would have been hailed as a master in his art. As it was, he never wrote +anything on the function of the newspaper editor, and it was only in the +shape of sparkles from the wheel that one saw the tendency of his mind +to do what the Americans have done. They have succeeded in isolating +publicity and making it a special art, so that it has now become with +them a special art with special conditions of its own. + +Townsend, as far as I remember, never talked about the ethics of +journalism or the duties of the journalist. It must not be supposed for +a moment that this was because he did not realise or respect those +duties, or was indifferent. It was rather due to the fact that he had a +kind of innocence, a _sancta simplicitas_, on this as, indeed, on +many moral and social questions. He took sound and honourable behaviour +as a matter of course, and he would no more have thought of praising +other people or himself for having a strict sense of honour in their +conduct of a newspaper than he would of praising them or himself for not +committing petty larceny, perjury, or fraud. He took, indeed, a very +hopeful view of mankind and did not the least believe they were really +bad, even if they did show themselves to be tigers on occasion. For +instance, I remember his saying to me once, with that naive gaiety which +was peculiar to him, that though he and Hutton differed a great deal in +matters of theology they never had any differences as to the line the +paper should take. Though Hutton inclined to an extremely "high" section +of the Church, to what, indeed, might be described as a kind of +sublimated sacerdotalism, and Townsend to a Broad Church +Presbyterianism, buttressed by an intense opposition to every form of +priestly function, he went on to point out that everything was made easy +"because both Hutton and I are at heart on the side of the angels." + +Apropos of angels, I remember with intense delight one of Townsend's +most characteristic sayings. In the course of a conversation which began +on some mundane theme and drifted on to spiritual lines, I remember his +suddenly throwing the noble horse of dialectic on to his haunches with +the catastrophic remark: "Strachey, remember this. If there are angels, +they have edges." Here was the whole man. The idler or the fool will +think, or pretend to think, that this was simply ridiculous nonsense, +and will pass on with the comment, "We are not amused." As a matter of +fact, there was a great deal of good sense packed under a kind of semi- +humorous hydraulic pressure in this amazing dictum. What he meant was +that if there were angels, they were not vague, fluid, evanescent +creatures, some times part of a general angelic reservoir and sometimes +in single samples, but definite personalities. His was only a fierce and +violent way of saying what Tennyson said so exquisitely in the immortal +lines: + + Eternal form shall still divide + The eternal soul from all beside, + And I shall know him when we meet. + +There can be no eternal form without an edge. The edge, the dividing- +line, is the essential thing in individuals, and Townsend's mind had +pounced upon this as a cat will fall like a thunderbolt upon a mouse. It +was in this vivid, practical way that his mind worked. He jumped all the +intermediate things and came out with the essential in his mouth. But +those who had slow or atrophied minds and did not see the process often +failed to recognise what he was after, or what a clever kill he had +made. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE 'NINETIES + + +I have described how I came to London, how I became established at +_The Spectator_ Office, and what, before I succeeded to the +Editorship of _The Spectator_, were my various _extra_ activities in +journalism and literature. I must now say something of my personal life. +In 1887 I married. The year or so spent in my father-in-law's house, 14 +Cornwall Gardens, where my first child was born, was very happy and +delightful. As my people lived either in Somersetshire or on the Riviera, +I knew "on my own" comparatively few people in London, though those +I did know were for the most part people to whom special interest was +attached. + +It happened that my mother-in-law, Mrs. Simpson, was not only a very +charming person in herself, but, partly owing to a natural gift for, and +love of, Society, and partly owing to the fact that her father, Mr. +Nassau-Senior, the conversationalist, had been one of the best-known men +in the political-literary world of London and of Paris, from 1820 to +1860, she knew a very large number of distinguished men and women of the +middle Victorian epoch. By this I mean such men as Thackeray, Matthew +Arnold, Robert Browning, Leslie Stephen, Mr. Justice Stephen, Sir +Mountstuart Grant-Duff, Sir Louis Mallet, Mr. Lecky, Lord Arthur Russell +and his brothers--to choose a few names almost at random. The last- +named, Lord Arthur Russell, was the most kindly and friendly of men. +Probably without being conscious of it themselves, he and his +distinguished wife formed what a pedantic social analyst might call the +centre of a social group. + +I shall, for this reason, choose the Arthur Russells for description in +detail. They were very old friends of the Nassau-Seniors and so of Mrs. +Simpson, and friends with a double liaison. Mr. Nassau-Senior and his +family had been throughout his life on very friendly terms with Lady +William Russell, one of the most remarkable women of Regency and +Victorian London as regards her beauty, her intellectual ability, and +her social qualities. When Byron wrote the graceful and lively stanza +which so audaciously recommends the gilded youth, who want to know +whether their partners' complexions are real or synthetic, to wait till +the light of dawn comes through the ballroom windows and then note what +it discloses, he breaks off to say that, at any rate, there is one lady +who will always stand the test, and adds: + + At the next London or Parisian ball + You're sure to see her cheek outblooming all. + +That lady was Lady William Russell--sister, by the way, of the unhappy +Lady Flora Hastings so cruelly caught in the meshes of an angry Court +intrigue based on the natural, nay, inevitable, ignorance and want of +worldly knowledge of a girl-Queen, the stupidity and lack of worldly +wisdom of the Court Physicians, and the blundering bitterness of a group +of Great Ladies--the whole assisted and inflamed by the baser type of +party-politician. + +Lady William Russell had three sons, each destined to play, if not +great, yet important parts in the world. The eldest became the Duke of +Bedford. Though he lived in many ways a sequestered, almost hermit-like, +life, he was a man of singular ability. Of him Jowett was wont to record +a curious piece of private history. The Duke had said to him, that in +the course of his life he had lived upon all incomes from £300 to +£300,000 a year and in each category had been happy and contented. +Perhaps the best way to describe Hastings, Duke of Bedford, is to say +that he was a typical Russell, though a man with a Melbourne-like mind +would perhaps add that his untypicalness was the most typical thing +about him. The next brother was Lord Odo Russell, who played a very +distinguished, brilliant, and useful part in the diplomacy of the period +marked by the rise first of Prussian and then of German power. His son +is the present Lord Ampthill. The third son was Lord Arthur Russell. All +three boys were brought up in what might be called a nursery or +schoolroom friendship with the children of the Nassau-Senior family. My +mother-in-law remained in touch with all three Russells throughout her +life; but her special friend, partly because he always lived in England, +and partly because he married a friend of the Seniors, was Lord Arthur. + +Among Mr. Nassau-Senior's Parisian friends was the brilliant and +distinguished Mme. de Peyronnet, an Englishwoman by birth, married to a +man of distinguished French family, who occupied an official post in the +post-Restoration Administration. Mme. de Peyronnet formed part of the +memorable group of Liberals of which Tocqueville was one of the most +distinguished members;--a group which from the latter part of Louis- +Philippe's reign to the break-up of the Third Empire comprised as +notable a body of intellectuals as were ever brought together even in +the city of Paris--the natural home of Social intellectualism. This, +too, was the group of which M. and Mme. Mohl were shining ornaments. M. +de Peyronnet was, I believe, a very charming man, but somewhat eclipsed +by his brilliant wife, whom I am glad to say I knew, and whose talk was +to my mind one of the most delightful of mental experiences. Poignant, +free, brilliant, and yet never pedantic or laboured, and, above all, +never trivial, Mme. de Peyronnet's conversation was a perpetual source +of joy to all who had the good fortune to know her and the ability to +understand her. She had three daughters, who all inherited their +mother's brilliancy and good looks. + +Of these three daughters one, as I have said, married Lord Arthur +Russell, the next, and she, I am glad to say, lives in full intellectual +vigour, married Lord Sligo, a typical "great gentleman" of the middle +Victorian period. Except for his perfect manners and absence of any +traces of grandiloquence or pomposity, he might have stepped out of +Disraeli's novels, or let us say an expurgated edition from which all +the vulgarity and false-taste had been eliminated and only the +picturesqueness and cleverness retained. The third sister, Mlle, de +Peyronnet, never married, but remained the devoted companion of her +mother. + +I am not going to imitate the pomposity of Lord Beaconsfield, which I +have just denounced, by talking nonsense about _Salons_, the +Eighteenth Century, or of the spirit of Mme. du Deffand or of Mile. de +Lespinasse living again in these fascinating women. I am content to take +them as they were and quite prepared to believe that they were not only +very much nicer women, but also quite as able and quite as brilliant as +those whom the spirit of Convention would be sure to name as their +prototypes. I am quite certain that, though they took a natural and +proper interest in history, it never for a moment crossed the minds of +any of them to talk like the ladies of the _ancien régime_ or to +imitate them in any sort or way. They were as natural and +unsophisticated as they were incisive, intrepid, and amusing in their +conversation. + +Never has it been my good fortune to hear better talk than that which +flowed so easily from them, and happily, in the case of Lady Sligo, +still flows. What struck me most was the way in which anecdote, +recollection, and quotation, though not frigidly or formally dismissed, +kept a subordinate place in the talk and had to make way for comments +which were actual, original, personal, and therefore in a high degree +stimulating. Their talk had nothing of the flavour of the second-hand or +of hearsay, however good. + +I had been accustomed as a boy to hear the best type of what I may call +old-fashioned after-dinner English conversation, from the mouth of a +master, Abraham Hayward. Hayward was an excellent example of the special +type of _raconteur_ who first became famous in the Regency period. +These men, who were chiefly anecdotal in their talk, are well described +by Byron in the immortal account of the House-party, _Don Juan_-- +"Long-bow from Scotland, Strong-bow from the Tweed." Hayward was a man +of real ability, though in a narrow sphere, and with a remarkable power +of style. With him talk meant telling stories of Byron, Melbourne, +Castlereagh, Cobden, Bright, Peel, and later Gladstone, Palmerston, and +Lord John and other eminent Victorians. He told these with great +intensive force and was vivacious as well as concise. All the same, the +talk was anecdotal, and that can never be as stimulating as when it is +spontaneous. It was the difference between fresh meat and tinned meat-- +the difference between a vintage claret on the day it is uncorked and +the day after. + +Do not let it be supposed that by this comparison I am suggesting that +the talk of Mme. de Peyronnet and her daughters was naturalistic and so +artless. It was nothing of the kind. Though original and spontaneous, it +was the result, consciously or unconsciously, of a distinct artistic +intention. When they talked, they talked their best, as does the writer +of good familiar letters. Lady Arthur Russell was the most pungent +talker of the three, Lady Sligo the most reminiscent and, in the proper, +not the derived sense, the most woman-of-the-worldly. I mean by this +that she dealt most with the figures of the great world, but by no means +in a grandiloquent, consequential, or Beaconsfieldian sense. She had +travelled a great deal and seen an enormous number of people in every +country of Europe as well as in England, and, therefore, she was and is +more cosmopolitan in her talk than were her sisters. + +Mlle. de Peyronnet was the most epigrammatic. She had the happy gift of +improvising in a lightning-flash epigrams and _jeux de mots_ which +would not have discredited the best wits even of France. I think her +repartee, or rather _jeu de mot_, at the dentist's, which went the +round of London, the best example I can take by way of illustration. +Most people are dreary and depressed in a dentist's chair. Not so Mlle. +de Peyronnet. Even here she kept not only her good-temper, but also her +brilliant imagination and, above all, her verbal felicity. + +The scene passes in a Dental _Atelier_ in Paris. Mlle. de Peyronnet +must be imagined seated in the fateful chair, dreading the pain but +hoping for the relief of an extraction. But, as Tacitus said, that +morning she saw all things cross and terrible. The dentist, instead of +doing his work deftly, bungled it, or else it was the fault of the +patient's jaw. At any rate, the tooth broke off in the forceps, and the +dentist had to confess to his patient that all the pain he had given her +was useless. He had left in the root! "_Ah, mademoiselle,_" he +exclaimed, "_quelle Tragédie!_" But the patient, though suffering +acute agony, was worthy of the occasion. She did not pause for an +instant in her comment--"_Une Tragédie de Racine!_" + +There have been, no doubt, greater and deeper witticisms than that, but +could anything have been happier, neater, more good-tempered, more +exactly appropriate? + +I sometimes feel I would rather have said that than have written +Racine's _Mithridates_. + +I have summarised the characteristics of each of the sisters' talk. Of +Mme. de Peyronnet, who in many ways was more brilliant than her +daughters, I will say only that she combined their several qualities. +When I add that her talk, like that of her daughters, was original, it +must not be supposed that she had not a proper appreciation of great +events or of great people. Her memories naturally stretched a great deal +further than those of her daughters. I remember well asking her whether +she had seen any of the human _remanets_ of the Revolution, some of +whom, at any rate, must have been alive during her early married life in +Paris. She told me that, though there were no reprisals after the +Restoration, it was curious how few of the Terrorists were visible in +the Paris of her youth. Some, of course, had gone to earth under +aliases, but most of them were dead. The Terror which the Terrorists +felt as much as inspired, the excitement, and probably also the +debauchery of the time when everyone felt, "Let us eat and drink, for +tomorrow we die," did not create an atmosphere in which people +cultivated hygienic habits or studied rules of "how to live till +eighty." + +And then, I remember well, she corrected her denial. "Yes, but I did see +one of the Terrorists," and then she told me how she actually saw in the +flesh the man who was perhaps the worst of them all, the implacable, +irresistible Fouché, the man who had been an incendiary, an extremist, +and yet who was never in reality a fanatic or a profligate. Fouché +always dressed in black, and in a fashion which seems to have resembled +Cruikshank's caricatures of the Chadbands of the Regency period. He was +a loyal, hard-working servant of any Government which employed him. If +the policy of those he was working with was killing, he would kill in +battalions, as indeed he did at Lyons. Yet all the time he felt no touch +of the blood-lust which inspired men like Carrier. He would never have +thought of killing for the sake of killing, or of committing acts of +unnecessary cruelty. He was, indeed, a man of spotless private +character. He was guilty of no excess except the awful excess of knowing +no difference between right and wrong. + +"What," I asked Mme. de Peyronnet," did he look like, and how did you +come to see him?" Here is her reply. + +When quite a young woman I was in the theatre one night and suddenly saw +a great deal of commotion. People were standing up and looking about +them and talking eagerly. This commotion, I soon saw, was caused by a +very old man with white hair who was making his way through the crowd to +his stall. As he moved, there ran through the house the excited whisper, +"_Cest le Duc d'Otranto_." + +That was the melodramatic title which Napoleon had conferred upon the +man he could not trust, but dare not openly distrust or dismiss, any +more than could Louis XVIII. Even in the calmest and most peaceful times +the Duke of Otranto remained menacing and terrible. The background which +I see when I think of Fouché is not the Convention or the Committee of +Public Safety. I see him as he is described to us by the youth who went +to Lyons, to plead with him for the right to cross into Switzerland. He +found Fouché busy. He was doing his best to execute the command of the +Convention to lay Lyons low, and to kill the greater part of her +principal inhabitants. Fouché, always loyal and always punctiliously +exact in his work, saw what a difficult job was the killing of seven or +eight hundred men at once unless by a well thought-out plan. The mere +collecting and dragging away the corpses for burial would be an immense +task. The plan he ultimately devised was admirably simple. He first made +the prisoners dig a long, wide, and deep trench--I understand that the +Bolsheviks use the same method. He then lined them up at the very edge +of the ditch. When the firing-party got to work their victims fell +neatly backwards into their long grave. All that was needed was to +shovel in the earth, which had been piled on the opposite side of the +trench. + +The young man of whose account I am thinking uses language in describing +Fouché superintending the preparation of the trench which reads like a +paraphrase of Tacitus' account of Tiberius at the trial of Piso and +Placentia. "Nothing so much daunted Piso as to behold Tiberius, without +mercy, without wrath, close, dark, unmovable, and bent against every +access of tenderness." So stood Fouché. + +When Mme. de Peyronnet saw him, the Terrorist had been entirely replaced +by the "civilised Statesman." What passed before her eyes was a very +old, white-haired man, with a regard deep and impenetrable. She added, +however, "I remember noting that everyone seemed to treat him with the +greatest awe." By that time, strange to say, he was one of the richest +and most respected men in France. Further, he had by his second marriage +entered one of the greatest families of the _ancien régime_, and +had actually been accepted as "one of us" by the inner hierarchy of the +French noblesse! He had even made his peace with the Church and become, +at any rate in all outward forms, perhaps _ex animo_, a devout +Catholic. What is even more astounding is that his second wife was as +devoted to him as was his first, and so, apparently, was he to her. +Fouché, indeed, may be said to have been an expert in domestic felicity. +The man is as inexplicable as the Emperor to whom I have dared to +compare him. Only, unfortunately for us, Fouché had no Tacitus to +chronicle his deeds of horror and his ineffable treacheries and his +complacent moderation in infamy. Would that the author of the Annals re- +incarnated could have given us pictures not only of Fouché but of +Robespierre, Marat, Saint-Just, Camille Desmoulins, Fouquier Tinville, +and the rest! + +Nothing was more fascinating than to hear Mme. de Peyronnet talk of the +street-fighting in '48 and of how life went on, I had almost said, as +usual, in the intervals of the fusillades. She told me, I remember, that +when you were walking in a side-street and heard firing in the boulevard +or main street at the end of it, it was almost impossible not to creep +up what you thought or hoped was the safest side, and put your head +round the corner and see what was happening. Who is getting the best of +it in a fight is a question that will not be denied, though it may +easily mean a stray bullet in your head. + +Speaking of '48, though it breaks my rule, I must recall an account +which I induced Lady Sligo to give last year to me and my son, of her +recollections of Lamartine during this very period. I happened, if I +remember rightly, to be comparing Lamartine's ceaseless flow of +admirable oratory with that of Mr. Lloyd George. Both men seemed to find +it possible to speak all day and manage affairs all night, without +apparently exhausting themselves. Inexhaustibility in the matter of +vital energy seemed to be the gift of each. Most men are soon pumped dry +by skipping from China to Peru, from Upper Silesia to the Lower Congo, +from Vladivostok to Washington. Not so Mr. Lloyd George, and certainly +not so Lamartine. During his amazing tenure of the office of President +of the Second Republic, he would make a perfectly correct and yet +perfectly sympathetic speech to a deputation from Ireland in the early +part of the morning, and to one from Chili in the afternoon. He always +contrived to soothe men's minds, without really saying anything. + +Full of my readings of the Poet-President's orations and Despatches, I +asked Lady Sligo whether she had ever seen or heard the great man. She +told us how, when a girl of fourteen or fifteen, M. Lamartine, either +President or ex-President, I am not sure which, and his pleasant wife, +took a great fancy to her and how on several occasions she drove out +with them in their capacious landau. Lamartine's dress was marvellous. +Apparently it chiefly consisted of white duck trousers, which were +folded round his portly form in some extraordinary manner. There was +also a white waistcoat, and, as far as I remember, something in the +nature of a tight-waisted frock-coat. But what seems to have stuck most +in her memory is that the pockets of the white pantaloons were stuffed +with gold coins, and that these gold coins, whether in the carriage, in +the armchairs, or on the sofas on which the great man was apt to fling +himself, would tumble out on the floor. It was the duty of the younger +portion of the family and friends to collect the product of these golden +showers. + +"Why," I asked, "did M. Lamartine make himself into a kind of walking +gold-reserve?" The answer was as curious as it was simple. Lamartine, it +may be remembered, was not only President of the Provisional Government, +but also the most popular man of letters of his day in France--a kind of +Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, and Carlyle rolled into one exuberant +whole. But Lamartine, though he made enormous sums by his books, also +spent enormously, and in the middle part of his life, in order to +augment his always insufficient income, he founded a kind of personal +magazine, half newspaper and half institute, to which apparently people +from all over France subscribed. There was, however, no actual office, +except Lamartine's house, and the subscriptions, which were paid in +advance in gold, poured literally into his pockets, and were either +spent at once or put into some sort of receptacle which represented the +immortal and inexhaustible French family stocking. + +Lady Sligo had the good luck to hear one of the daily orations by which +Lamartine governed France under ideal conditions. It will be remembered +that in the worst part of '48, Lamartine literally kept France quiet by +day and by night by speaking whenever and wherever an audience of +fighters or revolters or simple citizens were gathered together. Often +before have men incited mobs to violence by their subtle and deceiving +tongues. Lamartine is probably the only man who spoke _en +permanence_ not to inflame, but to pacify, not to intoxicate with +furious words, but to hypnotise into sobriety. + +On one occasion when Monsieur and Madame were starting on an afternoon +excursion in the great landau, with Mlle. de Peyronnet wedged between +the white pantaloons and Mme. Lamartine's skirts (I presume I might at +that date have said crinoline), a deputation of _ouvriers_ suddenly +appeared. Lady Sligo described them exactly as they are to be seen in +Gavarni's wonderful drawings in _The Illustrated London News_ of +1848--strange beings with long beards and rakish caps, sometimes of +liberty and sometimes of less pronounced cut, with belts round their +trousers through which their shirts were pulled, and heavy, strange- +looking muskets in their hands. The queer crowd who surged round the +carriage were a deputation who wished to put some of their special woes +and difficulties before Lamartine, and to get his help and advice. +Doubtless they also longed to see their leader face to face and to be +soothed by the golden voice and fervent words. They greeted him with +respect and enthusiasm but immediately the cry went up, "_Un discours! +Un discours_!" Lamartine, who was always more ready to speak than +even the Parisian mob to hear, at once stood up in the carriage and +addressed the crowd. No doubt he harangued in that magnificently +platitudinous manner of which he was the master. Lady Sligo could only +remember the general impression made on her, which was that the great +Lamartine spoke with deep feeling as well as with conspicuous charm. +Very soon he had satisfied the wishes of the deputation and reduced them +to that peculiar condition which newspapers of the day described as +"fraternisation." + +I have often wondered exactly what happened when it is recorded that +"fraternisation" became general. Apparently it was not very much more +than everybody shaking everybody else's hands and talking at once. You +felt happy and full of brotherly affection, and exchanged the +compliments of the Revolution with everyone you encountered. Even our +own forefathers did this on occasion, and not merely when they were +politically moved, but also at any emotional moment. Amazing as it +sounds, I remember my mother-in-law, Mrs. Simpson, telling me that when +she was a girl in the 'forties and 'fifties, she had seen people in the +Covent Garden Opera House so moved by the singing and acting of Mario +and Grisi as to rise in their places not merely to cheer, but to do +something which I suppose would have been called "fraternisation." In a +sudden burst of emotion they all shook hands with each other and, as it +were, congratulated themselves on hearing the Diva's glorious song or +Mario "soothing with the tenor note the souls in purgatory." And then we +talk as if these same people of the 'forties and 'fifties were +unendurably stuffy and stodgy! In truth, they were nothing of the kind. + +Have I not myself heard the old Lady Stanley of Alderley describe how +when she and her people were having their luggage examined at the Genoa +Custom House, someone rushed in with the news that Byron was dead? Upon +this, everybody present burst into tears--not merely the matron and the +maid, but the men old and young. We all admire "le Byron de nos jours" +very greatly (I shall not name him for fear of the consequences) but +honestly I don't think you could now get the tiniest trickle of tears +down the cheek of anyone at a _Douane_, or anywhere else, by +announcing his demise. "Other times, other emotions." + +But I have wandered far from the family of Arthur Russell and the double +ties, French and English, which bound them to my wife's family. Quite +apart from my marriage connection, I came in touch with the Arthur +Russells. Lord Arthur was a close friend of Sir Louis Mallet, and I have +already described my friendship with Sir Louis, first through his son, +and then through my own admiration for that able and delightful man--a +great charmer as well as a great thinker in the region of Political +Economy, "a social creature," as Burke might have called him, as well as +a wise man--a man who could be an earnest devotee of Cobden on the one +side of his nature, and on the other fastidious in a high degree in his +social outlook. But if I go on to express my admiration of Sir Louis +Mallet this will cease to be an autobiography and become something in +the nature of Bossuet's eulogies, so ardent was my cult for Cobden's +friend. + +The Russells were also on intimate terms with the Grant-Duffs, with whom +I had become acquainted through the Mallets, and also through Sir +Mountstuart's eldest son, the present Arthur Grant-Duff, who was at +Balliol with me. He soon entered the Diplomatic Service, in which, like +his brother Evelyn, he has had an honourable and useful career. I had, +therefore, every sort of reason for liking the Arthur Russell family. +They were friends of my friends as well as friends of my relations. But +Lord Arthur Russell and his family were destined to be to me much more +than "friends-in-law." I had not been more than two or three times in +the company of Lord Arthur without feeling that attraction towards him +which a young man sometimes experiences, and if he does, always with +high satisfaction, in the case of a man or woman belonging to an older +generation. I am proud to think that he liked me almost at first sight, +I am not vain enough to say, as much as I liked him, but, at any rate, +quite enough to create a sense of social relationship exceedingly +flattering as well as exceedingly delightful. I was just entering the +intellectual world of London, and knew that it was no small thing to get +at once on the best of terms with a man like Arthur Russell. He had +known and knew almost everybody worth knowing in London, in Paris, and +in most of the European capitals from Berlin to Rome. By this I do not +mean social grandees, but the true men of light and leading, in science, +literature, the Arts, philosophy, and politics. + +Though Lord Arthur never held office, he had been for many years a +Liberal Member of Parliament, and had also been a member of almost every +literary and political club in London, such as "The Club," "Grignon's," +"The Breakfast Club," and so on. Besides his literary and historical +sympathies and interests, he was a man devoted to natural history, and +had a great many friends on this side of knowledge. He was also a friend +both of Hutton and of Townsend, always a diligent reader and a fairly +frequent contributor to the columns of _The Spectator_, which made +yet another tie between us. Finally, Lord Arthur, hitherto a very loyal, +if sometimes critical, supporter of Mr. Gladstone, became, as I had +become, a Liberal Unionist. He followed, that is, Lord Hartington into +opposition on the Home Rule question. But I, as a member of the Liberal +Unionist Committee and Editor of _The Liberal Unionist_,--the organ +of our new Party,--had a position amongst Liberal Unionists rather +above what might have been expected at my age. I was then about twenty- +seven--a position which brought me into touch with Lord Hartington, Mr. +Bright, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Chamberlain, and, in fact, all the +Liberal and Radical Unionists of the day. Finally and, as it were, to +cement my wife's old and my new friendship with the Arthur Russells, I +bought a piece of land on which to build a Saturday-to-Monday cottage, +which, though I did not fully realise it at the moment, was close to the +Arthur Russells' Surrey house, The Ridgeway. + +No sooner had we pitched our tent in what was then the fascinating +wilderness of Newlands Corner, than we discovered that we were only an +easy Sunday afternoon walk from our friends. Soon it became a fixed +habit with us, from which I think we never varied, to descend from our +Downs every Sunday and walk by a series of delightful bridle-paths to +The Ridgeway for tea--a serious institution in a family where there were +two girls and four boys. + +At the Arthur Russells, when re-enforced by Mme. and Mile, de Peyronnet, +Lady Sligo, who had also settled in Surrey, one heard talk such as I +have never known bettered and very seldom equalled. Nothing could have +been easier or more stimulating. Those were gatherings at which no one +assumed the attitude described in _The Rejected Addresses_: + + I am a blessed Glendoveer. + 'Tis mine to speak and yours to hear. + +I was, except for the Russell boys and girls and my own wife, the +youngest member of the party, but I was always made to feel at The +Ridgeway that they were as willing to hear as even I was willing to +talk, which, as my friends will vouch, was saying a good deal. I was, in +truth, bursting to give my view, as a young man should be, on a hundred +subjects. The intellectual world lay all before me. But though +Providence was my guide, I was not yet confined to any fixed course, but +with joyous inconsequence raced up and down the paths of the Dialectical +Paradise as unconscious and as unashamed as a colt in a green meadow. + +Lord Arthur Russell, though a man of a gentle, tranquil spirit, had a +great sympathy with youth. He was, like all his race, a Whig, and a +Moderate, in every human function and aspiration. He did not, however, +allow that liberal spirit to be dimmed by fear or by selfishness. He was +one of those fortunate men who are not awed by rumour or carried away by +prejudice. Still less was there any touch of pride or vulgarity in his +nature Meanness and commonness of mind were as far from him as from any +man I have ever known. Yet there was nothing either of the recluse or of +the saint about him. He was not afraid to look on life, and its +realities, and he took the very greatest interest, not only in what +concerned _homo sapiens_, but also _homo natumlis_. He loved +good stories and told good stories, and loved also to analyse and +comment upon the actions of the great men of his own day and of past +days, for it need hardly be said that as the nephew of Lord John +Russell, the son of Lady William Russell, and the cousin of half the +politicians of his day, he was the repository of every sort of social +and political tradition. He was an extraordinarily accurate man, and by +no means willing to pick up, or record, or pass on stray pieces of +gossip about historical people, without verification. + +Lord Arthur's first-hand and personal recollections, though never of the +tiresome kind, had often great poignancy and actuality. I remember being +thrilled by an account which he had had direct from his uncle, Lord John +Russell, of the latter's visit to Napoleon at Elba in the early part of +1815. The interview, of course, made a great impression upon him and the +account he gave was vivid and picturesque. I must omit a detail which +shows what a dirty savage Napoleon was, and how he maintained even in +his little _palazzo_ at Elba the manners not only of the camp, but +of the rudest soldier. In describing this episode, which would have been +too trivial for narration if not so nasty, Lord John was wont to say, "I +was very much surprised." It must be remembered here that not only in +1815, but even fifty years before (witness the testimony both of Dr. +Johnson and Horace Walpole), Englishmen were apt to be shocked by +continental habits in the matter of personal cleanliness. + +Another detail, however, is quite fit to tell. Napoleon knew quite well +that the brother of the Duke of Bedford and a Member of the House of +Commons was an important person, and was accordingly exceedingly civil +to the young man. But Lord John told his nephew that very early in the +conversation Napoleon seized him by the ear and held it almost all the +time he was talking, or rather, pouring forth one of his streams of +familiar eloquence as to the harshness and cruelty of the Allies. +Napoleon, when he was cross, would sometimes wring people's ears till +they screamed for pain. Talleyrand, for example, was on one occasion, +when held by the ear, so much hurt as to be deprived of his habitual +insensibility to Napoleon's insults, and gave vent to the famous aside, +"What a pity that so great a man should have been so badly brought up!" + +In any case, Lord John's ear, though held for ten or twelve minutes, was +not screwed up. I remember when I heard the story, thirty years ago, at +once asking the question, "Which ear was it he held?" That sounded +almost to myself as I asked it a silly question, but, as the reply +showed, it was not. Lord Arthur replied, "That is curious. It is exactly +the question I asked my uncle, and he, instead of treating it as +trivial, answered as if it was a matter of the first importance, 'My +left ear.'" Certainly it seems to me a strong link with the past. Here +was Lord Arthur, who would not have been much over eighty if he had +lived till today, who had seen a piece of human flesh which had actually +been held by the Corsican Tamerlane. + +Lord Arthur once showed his belief in my discretion and also his +divination that I was not one of the supercilious intellectuals who +think details of family history are tiresome and unimportant, in a way +which greatly pleased me. He confided to me the true story, which he had +had from various people of the older generation who knew the facts, as +to the relations between the two Duchesses of Devonshire. The elder +Duchess, Georgiana, was the Juno of the Whigs. It would be folly to call +her the Madonna of the Whigs. It was at her eyes that the coal porter at +the Westminster Election wanted to light his pipe. Sir Joshua +immortalised her in his picture of the young mother and her child. To +her the mystic poet and philosopher bent the knee of admiration, in the +enchanting couplet: + +Oh, lady, nursed in pomp and pleasure, Where got you that heroic +measure? + +The other Duchess was born Elizabeth Harvey--the woman whose eyes still +scintillate also from Sir Joshua's canvas, with an energy so +overwhelming as to be uncanny--the woman who fascinated without actual +beauty, but whose smile might have embroiled the world--the woman who +stirred even the sluggish Gibbon and made him say, with a personal +vivacity and poignancy which is unique in his writings, that if she had +entered the House of Lords and beckoned the Lord Chancellor to leave the +Woolsack and follow her, he must have obeyed. Gibbon had evidently +racked his brains to think of the most audacious act of which a woman +could be capable, and that quaintly proved in his case to be the +enchantment of a Lord Chancellor! If, at the present moment, there is a +lady possessed of charms equal to those of Elizabeth Duchess of +Devonshire, let us hope that the precincts of both the Lords and the +Commons Houses are well guarded! + +I shall not on the present occasion say more than that Lord Arthur gave +me a note of the true facts of the story, to which many allusions, +generally incorrect, have appeared in various memoirs--a story of +incidents which, strangely enough, quite possibly affected the history +of the world. These incidents had as their sequel the appointment of the +son of a well-known Scottish doctor, Dr. Moore, to an Infantry regiment. +That Infantry subaltern became Sir Thomas Moore the man who lost his +life in saving the British Empire, and first taught the people of these +islands and then, what is more important, the whole of Europe, that +there was nothing invincible about the troops of Napoleon, when they +were faced by British regiments properly trained, as Moore trained them +at Shorncliff. Just as the destruction of the Spartan Hoplites in the +Island of Sphacteria broke the military spell cast by the armies of +Sparta, so Moore's victorious retreat to, and action at, Corunna broke +the spell of the Napoleonic Legions. + +Though I have Lord Arthur's notes, and though he in no way bound me to +secrecy, they want an interval longer than a hundred and ten years +"prior to publication." Therefore they will rest in my safe, or wherever +else they may have been affectionately mislaid, and where it would +probably take a day's hard work to find them. There is no such secrecy +and security as "filing for future reference." When the notes are found +by my literary executors, they will please remember that they should not +be given to the public until they have ample assurance that the head of +the Devonshire family sees no objection. It is not a family skeleton in +any sense, but till family facts become historic, the utmost discretion +is demanded alike by courtesy and good feeling. + +I had, alas! no sooner fully realised that I had made a friend in Lord +Arthur and that I might look forward to many years of intimate +intercourse with a man of knowledge and sympathy, from whom I could +learn much and in the most fascinating and delightful way, than the end +came. A short illness, followed by a rapid operation--hopeless, or +almost hopeless--cut short this honourable and gracious life. I was one +of the very few people whom Lord Arthur asked to see in the few days +allowed him between life and death. He wanted to see me out of pure +friendliness, to talk about his children and to show me, as only such an +act could, that he, like me, had hoped much from our friendship. He was +the kind of man who would be sure to prefer saying this by deed rather +than by word. + +But for the simplicity and essential nobility of character which he +possessed, he might well have sent for me to see how a good man could +die. There was everything to strengthen and so to quiet one in the way +in which he faced the message which comes to all--a message so deeply +dreaded by most of us, yet which, when it does come, proves to be not a +sentence, but a reprieve--the mandatory word that does not imprison us, +but sets us free, which flings the gates and lets us see the open +heaven, instead of the walls and vaulted ceiling of the cells of which +we have been the inhabitants. + +But though the very last thing that Lord Arthur was thinking about was +the impression upon my mind, that impression was intense both in kind +and in degree. That short last talk at his bedside, in which so little +was said, so much felt by both of us, has never left my memory. If for +no other reason, it must be recorded here for it had, I feel, an +essential if undefinable influence upon my life. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE 'NINETIES (_Continued_) + + +I am afraid that throughout these memoirs I have talked too much about +the volumes which I might fill, but am not filling. Yet I must do so +once more in this chapter. My mother-in-law, Mrs. Simpson, was an +admirable talker and full of clear and interesting memories. I had no +sooner entered the Simpson house and family than I found that there were +a hundred points of sympathy between us. She had known everybody in +London, who was worth knowing, through her father, Mr. Nassau-Senior, +and had visited with him--she acted for some twenty years as his social +companion owing to her mother's ill-health--most of the political +country-houses in England, and had known in London everyone worth +knowing on the Whig side, and most of the neutrals. Macaulay was one of +her father's closest friends; so was the third Lord Lansdowne, the Lord +Henry Petty of the Cabinets of the'thirties and 'forties--Lord Aberdeen, +Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston, and, earlier, Lord Melbourne, +Lord St. Leonards, Lord Denman, and Lord Campbell, to mention only a few +names and at random. It was her father's habit to ride every day in the +Park for reasons hygienic and social, and she rode with him. There they +were sure to be joined by the Whig statesmen who sought Senior's advice +on economic points. She saw little of the Tories,--except perhaps Mr. +Gladstone, soon to become a Liberal, and Sir Robert Peel. Disraeli was +of course, in those days, considered by the strict Whigs as +"impossible"--a "charlatan," and "adventurer," almost "impostor." + +In the world of letters she saw much of Sydney Smith, who was early a +friend of her father's. She actually had the good fortune, while Miss +Minnie Senior, to stop at the Combe Florey Rectory, and to discover that +the eminent wit took as much trouble to amuse his own family when alone +as to set the tables of Mayfair upon a roar. He liked to tease his girl +guest by telling her that her father, then a Master in Chancery, did not +care a straw for his daughter _"Minnie." "De Minimis non curat +Lex"_--"the Master does not care for Minnie"--was a favourite +travesty of the well-known maxim. + +Rogers was also a friend, and as a girl she remembered going to his +"very small" breakfast-parties, in the celebrated dining-room in which +hung his famous pictures. + +They were hung high, so as to get the light which was at the top of the +room. It was this arrangement, by the way, that made Sydney Smith say +that Rogers' dining-room was like Heaven and its opposite. There were +gods and angels in the upper part, but below was "gnashing of teeth." +While Rogers talked about his pictures, he would have them taken down by +his man-servant, Edmond, and placed upon a chair at his side, or almost +upon the lap of his guest, so that he might lecture about them at his +ease. Mrs. Simpson often told me of the horror she felt as a girl lest +she should throw a spoonful of soup over a Raphael or by an accident run +a knife or a fork into the immortal canvas! She had not learnt that +pictures are about the most indestructible things in the world. + +[Illustration: J St. Loe Strachey. Ætat 32] + +Through her father Mrs. Simpson also knew the great French statesmen of +her day, _i.e._, the middle period of the century, 1840 to 1870. He +was the friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, and of Thiers and Guizot, and +of most of the statesmen and men of letters who were their +contemporaries. The leading Italian statesmen, such as Cavour, were also +his friends. In fact, there were few people in Europe worth knowing whom +he did not know. What was more, he had a most astonishing personal gift-- +the gift for photographing in words the talk of the statesmen whom he +encountered, not, remember, as a mere recorder but on terms of mutual +benefit. Though he liked to draw their opinions, in both senses, they +sought his wisdom and advice with equal assiduity. He was quite as much +Johnson as he was Boswell, or rather, almost as much Socrates as he was +Plato, for that is the best analogy. + +_Conversations with the Statesmen of the Third Empire_, in two +volumes, crown octavo, sounds a pretty dull title, and yet anyone who +takes the trouble to read these conversations will find that they are +some of the most vivacious dialogues in all literature. Senior's system +of recording conversations throws a curious light, by the way, upon the +mechanism of the Platonic Dialogues. For some twenty-four centuries the +world has wondered how much of these Dramas of the Soul is to be +attributed to Socrates and how much to Plato, and the general verdict +has been that in most of them there is very much more Plato than +Socrates. In a word, they have been judged to be works of art in which +certain very general ideas and principles derived from Socrates are +expanded, put into shape, and often greatly altered by the alleged +recorder, or rather dramatic recounter. + +Mrs. Simpson told me something of her father's method of putting down +his conversations which bears closely upon the value of this theory of +the Dialogues. But first I must note that Senior's reports of +conversations were famous for their extraordinary accuracy. Mrs. Simpson +well remembered an incident in proof of this statement. Her father had +written out a very important talk with Thiers in which by far the +greater part of the talk was sustained as usual by the great Frenchman. +When Senior had written it out, that is about a couple of days after the +conversation, he sent it, as was his habit, to Thiers for correction. +Thiers sent it back, saying that he could not find a word to alter, +adding that he was astonished to find that Senior had not only put down +his views and ideas, but had given his actual words. Yet, as a matter of +fact, Senior had done nothing of the kind. He had not even tried to do +so. What he had aimed at was something very different. His aim was to +give the spirit of the conversation, to produce the extreme +characteristic impression made on his mind by the talk of his +interlocutor, not the words themselves. + +To show in a still more convincing way that I am making no exaggerated +deduction from my premises, I may call the further testimony given me +directly by Senior's daughter. It is this testimony which convinces me +that in the Platonic dialogues there is less Plato and more Socrates +than is generally imagined. Mrs. Simpson, or Miss Senior, as she then +was, once said to her father that she would like to listen to one of his +conversations and try to see whether she could not write it down as he +did. Her father, delighted that she should make the experiment, +explained to her the art as he practised it and gave her the following +directions. + +To begin with, you must never try to remember the actual words that you +hear Thiers, or Guizot, or Lord Aberdeen, or Mr. Bright, or whoever else +it may be, use. If you begin to rack your brains and your memory you +will spoil the whole thing. You must simply sit down and write the +conversation out as you, knowing their views, think they must have +spoken or ought to have spoken. Then you will get the right result. If +you consciously rely on your memory, your report will lose all life and +interest. + +While the conversation was going on Senior attended very accurately to +the ideas expressed and got a thorough understanding of them. When he +took up his pen he put himself in the position of a dramatist and wrote +what he felt sure his interlocutor would have said on the particular +theme. He put himself, that is, in his interlocutor's place. The +thoughts got clothed with the right words, though, no doubt, under great +compression. + +That is interesting and curious, not solely from the point of view of +Plato, but of a great many of the speeches in classical history. People +have often wondered whether the men who speak so wisely and so well in +Thucydides or Tacitus really talked like that. Judging from Senior's +case, they very probably did. Thucydides, indeed, when describing his +method, uses expressions by no means at variance with the Senior system +of reporting, the system which, though aiming only at the spirit, often, +if we are to believe Thiers, hits the words also. It is quite possible +then that the British chieftain really made the speech recorded as his +in Tacitus, the speech which contains what is perhaps the greatest of +all political epigrams, "I know these Romans. They are the people who +make a desert and call it Peace." + +There is another point in regard to the secret of Senior's power of +recording conversations which is worth noting by modern psychologists. I +cannot help thinking that what Senior did, unconsciously of course, was +to trust to his subconsciousness. That amiable and highly +impressionable, if dumb, spirit which sits within us all, got busy when +Thiers or Guizot was talking. The difficulty was to get out of him what +he had heard, and had at once transferred to the files in the Memory +cupboard. Senior, without knowing it, had, I doubt not, some little +trick which enabled him to get easily _en rapport_ with his +subconsciousness, and so tap the rich and recently stored vintage. His +writing was probably half automatic. It certainly was vivid and dramatic +in a high degree. + +If anyone wants proof of my eulogy of Nassau-Senior's powers as a +conversationalist, let him go to the London Library and get down +Senior's works. Perhaps the best volume to begin with is +_Conversations and Journals in Egypt_--a book which Lord Cromer +used to declare was the best thing ever written about Egypt. I remember +also Sir Mountstuart Grant-Duff saying that one of the conversations +with Hekekyan Bey, describing how he--the Bey--on a certain occasion saw +Mehemet sitting alone in his Palace by the Sea, deserted by all his +followers, was as poignant as anything in Tacitus. It will be remembered +that in 1840 we sent a fleet to Egypt under Sir Charles Napier, to +enforce our Syrian policy. The private instructions given by Lord +Palmerston to his admiral were as pointed as they were concise: "Tell +Mehemet Ali that if he does not change his policy and do what I wish, I +will chuck him into the Nile." In due course our fleet appeared at +Alexandria. The Pasha was at first recalcitrant, but when our ships took +up position opposite the town and palace and cleared for action he gave +way and agreed to the British terms. During the crisis and when it +looked as if the old tyrant was either bent upon political and personal +suicide, or else had lost all sense of proportion, the courtiers and the +people of Alexandria generally fled from their doomed Lord and Master. +As if by magic his palace was utterly deserted. No Monarch falls so +utterly as an Oriental Despot. Hekekyan Bey described the scene of which +he was a witness in words which could hardly be bettered: + +I was then the engineer charged with the defences of the coast. We were +expecting an attack from Sir Charles Napier, and I had been to Rosetta +to inspect the batteries. It was on a tempestuous night that I returned +to Alexandria, and went to the palace on the shore of the former Island +of Pharos, to make my report to Mehemet Ali. + +The halls and passages, which I used to find full of Mamelukes and +officers strutting about in the fullness of their contempt for a +Christian, were empty. Without encountering a single attendant, I +reached his room overlooking the sea; it was dimly lighted by a few +candles of bad Egyptian wax, with enormous untrimmed wicks. Here, at the +end of his divan, I found him rolled up in a sort of ball,--solitary, +motionless, apparently absorbed in thought. The waves were breaking +heavily on the mole, and I expected every instant the casements to be +blown in. The roar of wind and sea was almost awful, but he did not seem +conscious of it. + +I stood before him silent. Suddenly he said, as if speaking to himself, +"I think I can trust Ibrahim." Again he was silent for some time, and +then desired me to fetch Motus Bey, his admiral. I found him, and +brought him to the Viceroy. Neither of them spoke, until the Viceroy, +after looking at him steadily for some minutes, said to me, "He is +drunk; take him away." I did so, and so ended my visit without making +any report. + +That heart-cry of the deserted tyrant, "_I think I can trust +Ibrahim_"--his own son, in all probability, though called his stepson +(Ibrahim's mother was a widow)--is comparable to the cry of Augustus: +"_Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!_" + +Wonderfully Tacitean is a later comment of the Pasha--an Armenian by +birth. He told Senior that the Pasha could never forget or forgive that +he had seen his master in the day of his humiliation. So intolerable was +the thought that Mehemet Ali made two secret attempts to kill his +faithful servant. "He wished me to die, but he did not wish to be +suspected of having killed me." In my recollections of Lord Cromer, in +an earlier chapter, I have told a story of one of Mehemet Ali's removals +of inconvenient servants which is well worth recalling in this context. + +If I say much more about Mr. Nassau-Senior I shall fill a book. I admit +that it would be a very curious and attractive work, for he was in the +truest sense a man of note, but I cannot put a book inside a book. +Therefore this must be, not merely one of my unwritten chapters, but one +of my unwritten books. + +In the same way, I cannot dwell upon dozens of delightful men and women +with whom I became acquainted through my wife and her people, and who +remained fast and good friends, though, alas! many of them have long +since joined the majority,--for example, Lecky, Leslie Stephen, and Mr. +Justice Stephen, and Mr. Henry Reeve of the _Edinburgh_. The last- +named, very soon after our acquaintanceship, invited me to write for +him, and thus I was able to add the _Edinburgh_ as well as the +_Quarterly_ to the trophies of my pen. My wife and I used often to +dine at his house--always a place of good company even if the aura was +markedly Victorian. Reeve was full of stories of how Wordsworth used to +stop with him when he came up to London in his later years. He lent his +Court suit to Wordsworth in order that the Poet-Laureate should present +himself at a Levee in proper form. But again these remembrances must be +repressed for reasons of space. + +Just as I have taken the Arthur Russell group as a type of the people +with whom my marriage made me friends, so I shall take as typical two +men of high distinction who were friends of my mother-in-law, and whom I +saw either at her house or at houses of friends to whom we were bidden +through the kindly, old-fashioned institution of wedding-parties. These +were Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning. I met Matthew Arnold at a +dinner at Mrs. Simpson's, given largely, I think, because I expressed my +desire to see a man for whose poetry and prose I had come to have an +intense admiration. When quite young I was a little inclined to turn up +my nose at Matthew Arnold's verse, though I admit I had a good deal of +it by heart. By the time, however, that I had got to my twenty-seventh +year, I bent my knee in reverent adoration at the shrine, and realised +what the two _Obermann_ poems and _The Grande Chartreuse_ stanzas +meant, not only to the world but to me. + +I was captivated in advance by Matthew Arnold's literary charm. I +delighted also in the stories about him of which London and Oxford were +full. I had only to watch him and listen to his talk across the dinner- +table to realise the truth of his own witty self-criticism. When he +married, he is said to have described his wife thus: "Ah! you must see +my Fanny. You are sure to like her. She has all my graces and none of my +airs." The said airs and graces were, of course, only a gentle and +pleasant pose. They winged with humour Matthew Arnold's essential, I had +almost said sublime, seriousness. Truly he was like one of the men for +whom he longed: + + Who without sadness shall be sage, + And gay without frivolity. + +Though, of course, Socrates had more fire, more of the demon in him, one +can well believe that at times, and when his circumambient irony was at +its gentlest, it must have been like that of Matthew Arnold. Matthew +Arnold has been called over fastidious, but I do not think that is fair. +Fastidious he no doubt was. Also he thought it his duty to rub in our +national want of fastidiousness, and our proneness to mistake nickel for +silver. It must not be supposed, however, that Matthew Arnold could not +endure to look upon the world as it is because of the high standard he +had set up in Literature and in the Arts. In reality his was a wise and +comprehensive view. He could enjoy men and things in practice even when +he disapproved of them in theory. His inimitably delicate distinctions +were drawn quite as much in favour of the weak as in support of the +strong. Take, for example, his famous _mot_, "I would not say he +was not a gentleman, but if you said so, I should understand what you +meant." For example, Matthew Arnold would not have said that Shelley was +not a poet. If, however, you had said so, he would have _very +nearly_ agreed with you, and would have given all sorts of reasons to +support your view. Yet, in all probability, he would at the same time +have urged you not to forget that all the same he had a claim to a good +place, if not a front place, in the glorious choir of Apollo. + +I cannot remember any particular thing said on that occasion by Matthew +Arnold, but I do remember very well how pleased and touched I was when +after dinner he crossed over from his side of the table, and sitting +down by me, began talking about the members of his family, whom he +seemed to know that I knew. I knew Mrs. Ward; I knew his niece, Miss +Arnold, Mrs. Ward's sister, soon to become Mrs. Leonard Huxley, and, +last but not least, I was on the closest terms of intimacy with that +most admirable of journalists, Willie Arnold of the _Manchester +Guardian_. Probably because I was acting as a sort of aide-de-camp +and son of the house to my father-in-law, Mr. Simpson, I did not get a +connected literary talk. Besides, I felt sure that from his friendliness +I should later have plenty of opportunities to ask a hundred things of +his spiritual home. Little did I know how soon he was to be cut off. +These were the years which saw the deaths of Barnes, Browning, Tennyson, +and Matthew Arnold--years of which one was tempted to say with +Wordsworth: + +Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits, Or waves that own no curbing +hand, How fast has brother followed brother From sunshine to the sunless +land. + +Browning was the other poet for whom I felt a very strong admiration and +whom I had often wanted to meet. Though a friend of the Simpsons, and a +visitor and diner at their house, I met him not at 14 Cornwall Gardens +but at a very small dinner-party in the house of a common friend. After +dinner Browning, Sir Sidney Colvin, another man, and I were left +drinking our coffee and our port and smoking our cigarettes. Browning +was, I believe, often inclined to talk like a man of the world about +people or stocks and shares rather than about literature. But I was +determined to do what I could to prevent him pushing that foible too +far. Therefore I did my very best to lead the conversation on to better +pastures. I had always loved Landor, and something or other gave me an +opportunity to ask a question about him. Mr. Browning, I felt sure, must +have known him in his last years at Florence. + +I was happy in my venture and struck a vein of reminiscence of a very +poignant kind. Browning told us that he did not know Landor very well, +but that he saw him in the last years of his life under circumstances of +a terribly pathetic kind. Landor played almost exactly the part of King +Lear--though from a different reason--and got almost exactly King Lear's +reward. Landor, it will be remembered, was originally a rich man. It +will also be remembered that he was possessed of a very arbitrary and +turbulent nature and quarrelled with many members of his family, and +especially with his own children. However, they lived in a villa at +Fiesole for some time, in a kind of turbulent domesticity. Landor, on +leaving England, had unwisely given away his property to his children, +thinking that he could rely upon them to be kind to him. But he had not +trained them in the ways of kindness. He had been hot, brutal, and +tyrannical to them when he had the power. When they got it they were +equally brutal to him. At last his daughter determined to bear the old +man's ill-temper--ill-temper, apparently, approaching to madness--no +longer. He was told by Miss Landor that if he could not control himself +better she would not tolerate him any longer in the villa, and would, in +fact, turn him out of doors. He disobeyed her injunctions, or, as she +probably put it, failed to keep his promise of better behaviour, and +then, incredible as it sounds from anyone who had ever read _Lear_, +she actually barred the doors of what had once been his home against the +unhappy old man and drove him out to wander whither he could. If she did +not physically put him out of doors, she put humiliations so unendurable +upon him that, like Lear, he left the house in an agony of broken- +heartedness and despair. The once-proud poet had very few friends in +Florence, little or no money, and literally nowhere to go. The result +was that he wandered, half-distracted, like Lear, bewailing the wound at +his heart which a daughter's hand had given. Somehow, like an old, +stray, and starving dog, he wandered to the Brownings' house. There, +needless to say, he found rest for the body and comfort for the soul. +Mrs. Browning did everything she could for Landor--took him in, fed +him, put him to bed, and strove to quiet and soften his fierce and +pitiful and outraged heart. Browning went on to tell how as soon as the +old man was a little composed, he drove up to Fiesole to see Miss +Landor--thinking that perhaps, after all, it was only a family quarrel +which could be tactfully adjusted. That supposition proved entirely +mistaken. + +I found [said Browning] an almost exact reincarnation of the daughters +of Lear in Miss Landor. She was perfectly hard and perfectly cold. She +told me of her father's troublesome ways, nay, misdeeds, of how she had +borne them for a long time, of how he had promised better behaviour, and +of how he had broken his word again and again. At last the limit had +been passed. She could endure him in her house no longer. I argued with +her [he went on] as well as I could, urged that she evidently did not +realise her father's mental condition, and pointed out that whatever his +past faults he was now lying in my house a dying man, and dying of a +broken heart. I hoped and believed that my description of his anguish +and his distraction would melt her. + +Then came the most terrible part of the story. Miss Landor must, I +suppose, have accompanied Browning through the garden to the gate of the +villa, and there spoke her final words. Browning said something about +the remorse which she would inevitably feel. Her father had, no doubt, +given her great provocation, but if the end came before she had forgiven +him and helped him, she would never be able to forgive herself. His +words were of no avail. She had Goneril's heart. Pointing to a ditch at +the side of the road, she answered, "I tell you, Mr. Browning, that if +my father lay dying in that ditch, I would not lift a finger to save +him." + +And so Browning went back to Casa Guido. He had looked into the awful +depths which Shakespeare had explored--an agony of the mind beyond +words, and beyond solution. The sense of pity and terror had been raised +for which even the poet's art could find no purgation. + +What he said to the unhappy old man when he returned to Florence he did +not tell us. Mercifully, Landor's memory was failing, and so one may +hope that the waters of the Lethe brought him like Lear their blessed +relief. + +Strangely enough, no poet ever sang their healing virtues more +poignantly than did Landor. When Agamemnon, in Landor's poem, red from +Clytemnestra's axe, reaches the Shades, the Hours bring him their golden +goblet. He drinks and forgets. He is no more maddened by the thought +that his daughter will learn his fate. Till then he had felt: + + the first woman coming from Mycenae + Will pine to pour the poison in her ear. + +I have set down, I believe correctly, what I heard Browning tell, but I +am bound to add that it does not quite correspond with the facts given +in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. Leslie Stephen in the +life of Landor mentions the quarrel and the kind intervention of the +Brownings, but does not make the incident nearly so tragic. Very +probably indignation made Browning emphasise the bad side of the story. +Also he was telling of something which had taken place thirty years +before. Finally, it is thirty-five years since I heard the conversation +here recorded and indignation has also, no doubt, played its part in +deepening the colours of my narration. But, though for these reasons I +do not suggest that the details I have given are of biographical +importance, I feel absolutely certain on two essential points: (1) +Browning unquestionably compared the scene he witnessed to _Lear_ +and compared it in the most striking and poignant way. (2) The words put +into the mouth of Miss Landor are not any invention or addition of mine. +They made a profound impression upon me and I am sure they are the +actual words I heard Browning use. He spoke them with passion and +dramatic intent, and they still ring in my ears. My memory for many +things is as treacherous as that of most people, but when a certain +degree of dramatic intensity is reached the record on the tablets of my +mind is almost always correct and remains unchanged. + +Before I leave the subject of my wife's family and friends and of the +warm-hearted kindness with which they received me, I ought to say +something about my father-in-law, Mr. Simpson. Though he had not his +wife's charm of manner and delight in all the amenities of life and of +social intercourse on its best side, he was to me a very attractive man, +as well as one of very great ability. Through his shyness he made all +but his intimates regard him as dull. There was in truth no dullness +about him. His mind was one of great acuteness within its own very +special limits. Either by nature or training, I can hardly tell which, +he was exactly fitted to be what he was, that is, first a Second +Wrangler at Cambridge, then a Conveyancer, and Standing Counsel to the +Post Office. Though he never took silk, he was in the most exact sense a +counsel learned in the law, and received the singular honour of being +made a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, although he was not a Queen's Counsel. +His special gift in the study and practice of the law was his skilful +draftsmanship whether in wills, conveyances, or clauses in Acts of +Parliament. His vast knowledge and his judgment as to what was the +proper interpretation of the Statutes, of the rules of Equity, of the +principles of the Common Law, and of the practice of the Courts, was +unrivalled. + +Mr. Simpson was, in private life, one of the most honourable and high- +minded men that I have ever known. Most honourable men are content to be +careful of other people's rights and conscious of their own duties in +big things, but do not bother themselves to ask whether they have done +exactly right in little things. Mr. Simpson was as particular in the +minutiae of conduct as he was in great affairs. Take, for example, the +way in which he regarded the duty of silence in regard to any knowledge +of clients' private affairs which he had derived in the course of his +professional work. He never yielded to the temptation to gossip, even +about cases which were thirty or forty years old, cases which it might +have been argued had become historical. This care extended not only to +his own cases, but to matters which he had heard discussed in his +chambers in Lincoln's Inn or in those of his brother barristers. + +You could not move him by saying that everybody was dead in the case +concerned, or that it would be to the credit of particular people to +tell what really happened and what were the true causes and motives of +the action. Nothing of this kind would affect him. He gave for his +silence reasons similar to those which Dr. Lushington gave when, on his +death-bed as a very old man, his family asked him to leave for +historical purposes a record of the truth about Byron's quarrel with his +wife. Dr. Lushington replied that even if he could do so without a +breach of faith with any living person, he would not. He had a higher +duty, and that was to help men and women to feel that they could +unburden themselves fully to their professional advisers, and that there +was no risk of those advisers in the future constituting themselves the +judges of whether this or that thing should become known to the world at +large. + +What the client wants is the seal of the confessional. If he cannot have +that, he will often refuse to speak the whole truth. But this may mean +not only personal injury to those who would speak out if they could feel +sure of secrecy, but might inflict injury on others, and indeed on the +community as a whole. There is, I feel, no rational denial of this point +of view. At any rate, this was the principle which Mr. Simpson carried +out in the most meticulous way. He would only talk about the law in the +abstract or upon points made in open court. He would not even go so far +as to say, "I drew up that marriage settlement, or made that will, or +advised this or that man to take action." + +He carried his reticence beyond even professional knowledge. For +example, he regarded what was said in a club smoking-room as said under +the seal of secrecy, and nothing would induce him to repeat what he had +heard. Strangely enough, he was a member of the Garrick Club, and I +remember him once mentioning that Thackeray used to hold forth in the +smoking-room to all present. Naturally I thought that he would be +willing to describe some of these talks, for they had obviously made a +great impression on him. He, however, was adamant in this matter. When +people talked in club-rooms, he argued, they ought to have the feeling +that it was like talking in their own house and to their own family. For +him Clubs were "tiled" houses. + +I think, myself, that he went too far here; but certainly he was erring +on the right side. At the present moment the habit of certain lawyers, +doctors, and businessmen, to discuss the private affairs of their +clients and customers in public is much too common. No doubt most of +them are careful to use a good deal of camouflage and to tell their +stories as "A" "B" cases, without mentioning names. But that is not +always successful. Chance and the impishness of coincidence will very +often enable one to discover the most carefully camouflaged secret. I +remember, as a young man, coming across an instance of this kind which +very much struck me. It happened that the barrister in whose chambers I +was a pupil said, very properly, to me on the first day that he supposed +I understood that whatever I saw in papers in chambers must be regarded +as strictly confidential. It might, he said, happen that I should see +things of a highly confidential nature about someone whom I knew in +Society; and he went on to tell a story of how, when he was young, two +young barristers or students came across a set of papers in which two +young ladies, sisters, who happened to be acquaintances of these young +men, were mentioned as having a reversionary interest in a very large +sum of money with only one old life between it and them. Though +apparently only daughters of a struggling professional man, they would +soon, it appeared, be great heiresses. The result was two proposals and +two marriages! Whether they lived happily ever afterwards is not stated, +but they lived, at any rate, "wealthily." + +I did not condemn the principle as unsportsmanlike but I remember +thinking that there must be a million chances against a barrister ever +seeing papers relating to someone he knows. Yet, within two or three +days, I was told to help in drafting a marriage settlement which dealt +with people at whose house I was going to dance on the very night in +question. To my surprise I found that my host and hostess were very rich +people. Though I lived for nearly two years in Mr. Simpson's house, and +for the next fourteen years, that is, till his death, I saw him +constantly, I neither exchanged a bitter word with him, nor felt the +slightest indignation or annoyance at anything he did or said. He was at +heart one of the kindliest as well as one of the shyest and apparently +most austere of men. Mathematics and law may have dried up his +intellect, but they never dried up his heart. + +Though he was a man of fine intellect, and had a great and deep +knowledge of many subjects, I think I never saw a man who was so +absolutely devoid of any interest in poetry or _Belles-Lettres_. I +believe indeed that he was quite without any understanding of what +poetry meant. If I had been told that he was the Wrangler who said that +he could not see "what _Paradise Lost_ proved," I should not have +been the least surprised. And yet the style of his writing was often +remarkable for its perfect clarity and perfect avoidance of anything in +the shape of ambiguity. He could say what he wanted to say in the fewest +number of words and in a way in which the most ingenious person could +not twist into meaning something which they were not intended to mean. +He was indeed a super-draftsman. But that is a gift which every man of +letters who is worthy of his salt ought to salute with reverence. + +My treatment of many things in this book has been inadequate owing to +want of space, but in no case has it been so inadequate as that of +London of the 'nineties. But my complaint here is, of course, a +complaint common to every biography. + +Biographers, I am told, always write in this strain. They begin by +declaring that they have nothing to say and end by wailing over the +insufficiency of the space allowed them. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ETHICS OF JOURNALISM + + +When I became not only sole Proprietor of _The Spectator_ but also +Editor-in-Chief, Chief Leader-writer, and Chief Reviewer, it was natural +that I should confront myself with the problem of the position and use +of the journalist--in a word, that I should ask myself what I was doing. +Should I accept and be content with the ordinary outlook of the +journalist on his profession, or should I in any particular strike out a +new line, or an extension of an old one for myself? + +At that time, i.e. in 1898, the air was full of talk as to the functions +and duties of the journalist, for journalism was emerging from its +period of veiled power and was beginning to fill a much larger space in +the public mind. But in my case this was not the whole of the +opportunity. By a singular set of circumstances I found myself in the +unique position just described. Townsend and Hutton, it is true, were +joint Editors and joint Proprietors; but the sense of responsibility of +each to the other was a strong check. I, however, as sole Proprietor and +sole Editor, could do exactly what I liked. I could decide, without +reference to anyone else, the policy to be adopted. Further, as Chief +Leader-writer, I was the man who had to carry out the policy adopted. I +had, that is, the function of making the decisions immediately +operative. This is more important in fact than it is in theory. In +theory an Editor's word--subject to the Proprietor's veto--is final. He +gives his instructions to the leader-writer, and the leader-writer, +presuming that he is not a fool or a headstrong egoist or a man +determined to flout his Editor's wishes, obeys them. That is the theory. +But there are several mitigating circumstances. In the first place, it +is often difficult for an Editor to make his policy quite clear to his +staff. Next, the leader-writer, no matter how strong his intention to +obey his instructions and to enter into the spirit of his chief, may +fail to do so, from want of that complete clarity of mind that comes +only with personal conviction. If not his own view, his own +understanding of the facts is apt to get in the way and prevent him +carrying out his duties exactly as his chief meant him to perform them, +and exactly as he himself wishes to perform them. + +Again, by a sort of law of reversed effort, the leader-writer may be too +anxious to carry out his chief's wishes and so may distort the Editor's +view. There is yet another way in which a loss of power may occur. If +the Editor had himself been writing, he would have seen as he wrote that +this or that particular line of policy that he had adopted was not +tenable, and therefore he would have altered that line. The +conscientious leader-writer may, however, resist this conversion by +circumstantial argument. He may feel: + + This seems to me to be all wrong, but I have got to make the + best of it. Otherwise I shall be taking the responsibility, + which I do not want to take, of altering my Chief's instructions. + He said, "Defend the Government's action," so + defend it I must. + +But the Editor himself may be in a similar position. If he has an active +Proprietor who gives regular and specific instructions, he is not really +the Editor but only the Proprietor's mouthpiece. In that case, he, too, +can, as it were, avoid a great deal of the feeling of personal +responsibility. He may say, + + I do not like this view. But, after all, it is the matter for the + Proprietor, and he may have good reasons for his decision. + Anyway, I cannot in a matter of this kind attempt to dictate + to him, because if a mistake is made, he will have to stand the + racket. After all, I may be wrong as to the policy we should + pursue, and if I am, then I shall be doing what I do not want to + do, that is, gravely injuring somebody else's property and + position. A man may make great sacrifices and run great risks + with his own property, but I don't want to be told later that I + was the man who insisted on taking his own line against the + opinion of his chief with the result that a fatal blow was given + to the position of the paper, I don't feel justified in risking + another man's property. + +The Editor, in fact, is very much in the position of the leader-writer. + +These things being so, I realised that the responsibility for whatever +was done in _The Spectator_ was going to be my responsibility in a +very special degree. I could not plead consideration for anyone else's +need if I had to defend _The Spectator's_ position. Therefore, I +must be not only specially careful as to what I did from day to day, but +I must think out for myself an answer to the journalistic interrogatory +"_Quo vadis_?" What is the journalist's function in the State, and +how am I to carry it out? The formula for the discharge of the +journalist's functions, which I ultimately came to consider to be true +in the abstract and capable of being translated into action, was, +curiously enough, the formula of a man whose judgment I profoundly +distrusted, whose work as a journalist I disliked, and who as a man was +to me exceedingly unsympathetic. It was that of Mr. Stead, the erratic +Editor first of the _Pall Mall_ and then of the _Review of +Reviews_. The journalist, he declared, was "the watch-dog of +society." Stead, though a man of honest intent and very great ability, +was also a man of many failings, many ineptitudes, many prejudices, and +many injustices--witness the attitude he adopted in his last years +towards Lord Cromer. Further, there was an element of commonness in his +mental attitude as in his style. But with all this, he had a very +considerable _flair_, not only in the matter of words, but in +ideas. Though the phrase was not used in his time, he was a pastmaster +in the art of making "slogans." This, of the watch-dogs in the case of +the Press, was one of his best. It exactly fitted the views which I was +gradually developing in regard to the journalist's functions. In the +course of my twelve years' apprenticeship at _The Spectator_, +_The Economist_, _The Standard,_ and the other journals for +which I wrote, I made it my business to study the work of my colleagues. +I soon saw that the men who did the best and most useful work were the +watch-dogs; the men who gave warnings. But I also very soon found out +that in practice the part is one which cannot be played if the performer +wants to have a pleasant time in the world, or to make himself generally +liked by his fellow-men. A watch-dog is never popular. How could he be? +People do not like to be disturbed, and to be warned generally means a +loud noise and often a shock to delicate nerves. Besides, it generally +ends in asking people not to do something they are strongly tempted to +do. The bark of the watch-dog is, in a rough-and-ready way, much too +much like the voice of conscience to be agreeable to the natural man. +Though sometime after he may be very grateful to the watch-dog for his +bark, when he first hears it he is inclined to say: + + Oh! drat that dog. I wish he'd shut up. There he is barking + away, and it is probably only the moon, or some harmless + tramp, or a footstep a mile away down the road, for the brute's + power of hearing is phenomenal. Yet if he goes on like that I + must pay some attention, or else there'll be an awful row with + the Boss to-morrow morning if anything was stolen or any + damage done. The creature's spoilt my night, anyway; I must + get up and see what's going on. + +The result is that the tired householder paddles about the house in +carpet slippers, grumbling about this folly of thinking that anyone +could be so unjust or unfair as to attack a well-meaning man like him. +It would be an infamy to think of any such scheme. "I want my neighbours +to trust me, and they will never do that unless I trust them. So I will +have another glass of port and get to bed, and, if that infernal dog +will allow me, go to sleep." + +"All's Well" is always a more popular motto for life than "Beware!" It +is not only the householder who dislikes the watch-dog. There are people +who have more sinister motives than a love of peace for disliking the +watch-dog. Those who like to have a night out occasionally without +comment from the Master; and those who think it only fair that certain +perquisites should be smuggled out of the house by the charwoman and +others without any fuss, "cannot abide" the dog and its horrid way of +barking at a shawl thrown over a large plaited basket. + + Nobody [they argue] wants to see the master robbed, but + there is a great difference between robbery and having things + a little easy now and then, and no tiresome questions asked. + If we are all to be deprived of our night's rest by that dog, + there will be no end of trouble, and if it goes on much further + we shall have to see about getting rid of him, or else changing + him for a dog that is more reasonable. + +But that is not the whole of the trouble. Not only is the watch-dog +generally disliked, but he is in danger of being turned from what he +ought to be, into a gruff old grumbler. You cannot go on perpetually +barking out warnings without getting a hoarse note into your voice, and +that makes you compare very ill with the parlour dog and his charming +manners, or with the sporting dogs who go out and attend their masters +at their pleasures. The working dogs, too, such as those of the +shepherd, are far more popular and far more picturesque. + +Finally, the watch-dog is often misunderstood because he has got a very +narrow gamut of notes. His bark is taken as an angry warning, when all +he means to say is: "This is a new man and a new policy, and you had +better look into it and see whether it is all right. I should not be +doing my duty if I did not warn you to look out." Then if the new-comer +turns out to be a harmless or useful person, the watch-dog is blamed +because he did not recognise merit on the instant. + +But if acting as watch-dog is a disagreeable job, as it most undoubtedly +is, it has its compensations. Journalism of which the mainspring is the +gaining of pleasure may easily degenerate into something akin to the +comic actor's function. Stevenson in a famous passage compared the +writers of _belles-lettres_ to "_filles de joie._" That was +not, I think, appropriate to the artists in words, but at any rate it is +a condition into which the journalist who knows nothing of the watch- +dog's duties can easily descend. Our danger is to fall into a kind of +intellectual prostitution, and from this the duty of barking keeps us +free. + +"But," it may be argued in reply, "why need you bark in such a loud and +raucous way? Why need you be so bitter?" Here comes a close and +interesting issue. How is it possible to give a warning in earnest +without exposing one's self to the accusation of being bitter? I have +again and again tried, as a journalist, to consider this question, for +it has often been my lot to be accused of "intense personal bitterness." +Yet in reality I have felt no such feeling. What people have called +bitterness has to me seemed only barking sufficiently loud to force +attention. I have often, indeed, had a great deal of admiration and +sympathy for the men for whom I have been supposed to entertain angry +feelings. I have longed to say nice things about them, but that, of +course, is impossible when you are on a warning campaign. The journalist +that does that is lost. At once the friends of the person against whom +the warning is issued complain of your lack of character, of your want +of stability, of your habit of turning round and facing the other way. +You cannot be a watch-dog only at stated hours, and on off days purr +like the family cat. + +I will take a specific illustration of what I mean by the watch-dog +function in journalism. Throughout my life I have been a strong +democratic Imperialist. To me the alliance of free self-governing +Dominions, which constitute the British Empire, has a sacred character. +It has rendered great help to the cause of peace, civilisation, and +security, and it will render still more. I feel, further, that +throughout Africa, as throughout India, we have done an incomparable +service to humanity by our maintenance of just and stable government. +Our record on the hideous crime of slavery, even if it stood alone, +would be a justification for the British Empire. But it does not stand +alone; there are hundreds of other grounds for saying that, if the +British Empire had not existed, it would have had to be invented in the +interests of mankind. But though I was always so ardent a supporter of +the British Empire and of the Imperial spirit, I was not one of those +people who thought that the mere word "Imperialism" would cover a +multitude of misdeeds. + +To come to close quarters with my illustration, I thought that the +watch-dog had to do a good deal of barking in the case of Mr. Rhodes's +practical methods of expanding the British Empire. They seemed to me so +dangerous and so little consistent with a high sense of national honour +and good faith that I felt it was part of my job to protest against them +with all my strength. We were told, for example, by his friends, that +Mr. Rhodes believed in the policy of the open cheque-book. If you wanted +a thing, you must pay for it, and he did. He went further than that: his +favourite maxim was said to be, "I never yet saw an opposition that I +could not buy or break." It appeared to me that here was an extremely +dangerous man, and one against whom the public ought to be warned, and +as loudly as possible. + +What first set me on his track was Rhodes's gift of £10,000 to Mr. +Parnell for the funds of the Irish Nationalists. The gift was made about +the time when Mr. Rhodes wished to get his Charter through the House of +Commons. Of course, I know that Mr. Rhodes was accustomed to say that +the gift and the Charter had nothing to do with each other, and even +that the dates would not fit. It was, he declared, an unworthy suspicion +to suggest that it had ever crossed his mind that Parnellite criticism, +then very loud in the House, could be lulled by a good subscription. +Besides, he was and always had been a whole-hearted Home Ruler. Mr. +Rhodes, who bought policies as other men buy pictures, made it a +condition, of course, that the Nationalists should assure him that they +had no intention of leaving the Empire! + +My view of the facts was different, and I believe it was the true view. + +Mr. Rhodes wanted the Charter badly, and he did not much mind how he got +it. He did not, of course, want the Charter in order to make himself +rich. He wanted to extend the Empire in South Africa on particular +lines, and these included a Chartered Province under his personal +guidance. To accomplish this he was perfectly willing to take the help +of bitter enemies of the Empire and of England, like Mr. Parnell; men +who wanted to give our Empire the blow at the heart. Worse than that, he +was willing to give them the pecuniary help they needed in their effort +to destroy England, and to risk the consequences. That was surely a case +for the watch-dog. "Look at what the man in the fur-lined Imperial cloak +has got under it." + +To my mind what was even worse than the Parnellite subscription was the +way in which the Chartered Company was run and the way in which its +shares at par were showered on "useful" politicians at home and in South +Africa. The Liberal party at Westminster professed to be anti- +Imperialist and pro-Boer. Yet I noted to my disgust that Mr. Rhodes not +only called himself a Liberal, but that quite a number of "earnest +Liberals" were commercially interested in the Charter. + +In this context I may recall a phrase used by a witness before a +Parliamentary Committee at Capetown, which made inquiries as to the +distribution of "shares at par" when the selling price of Chartered +stock was very high. The witness was asked on what system certain +authorised but unallotted shares were distributed at par. They were, he +stated, given to journalists and other persons "_who had to be +satisfied on this Charter_." I am not by nature a suspicious person, +but, rightly or wrongly, that appeared to me to be a short cut to +ruining the Empire. Though personally I knew nothing about Rhodes, and +was inclined to like an adventurous, pushful spirit, it was clear to me +that, holding the views I did as to the functions of the journalist, I +had no choice but to bark my loudest. My Imperialist friends were for +the most part horribly shocked at what they called my gross and unjust +personal prejudices against a great man. Some of them, indeed, asked me +how I could reconcile my alleged Unionist and anti-separatist views with +opposition to the great Empire-builder. When I told them that it was +just because I was an Imperialist, and did not want to see the Empire +destroyed, that I opposed Rhodes, pointed out to them that he was an +arch corrupter, and insisted that corruption destroyed, not made, +Empires, I was told that I did not know what I was talking about. I was +a foolish idealist who did not understand practical politics. Such self- +righteous subtleties must be ignored in the conduct of great affairs. + +This talk, instead of putting me off, made me feel it was absolutely +necessary, however disagreeable, to pursue my policy. In this view I +soon had the good fortune to obtain the support and encouragement of +Lord Cromer. Here, by the admission of all men, was the greatest of +living Imperialists. Yet I found that he was in full sympathy with my +determination to let the British public know what was going on. + +As I have said, I felt very deeply about the gift to the Nationalists. +Later, I heard that Mr. Rhodes had not only bought off, or tried to buy +off, Irish opposition, but that he had actually offered and given a +considerable sum of money to the funds of the Liberal Party in order to +get them to change their policy in regard to Egypt. The great part of +the Liberal leaders and the party generally considered that we were +pledged to leave Egypt. This did not suit Mr. Rhodes, with his curious +shilling-Atlas and round-ruler point of view about a Cape to Cairo +Railway. What would happen if, when the railway was completed to the +Egyptian frontier, the platelayers found either a hostile Egypt or a +foreign power in possession, and determined to prevent a junction of the +rails? Mr. Rhodes regarded such a possibility as intolerable, and, after +his manner, determined to buy out the opposition to his great hobby. +Accordingly, he approached Mr. Schnadhorst, the Boss of the Liberal +Party, and told him that he, Rhodes, was a good sound Liberal, and +wanted to give £10,000 to the Liberal funds, which were then much +depleted--owing to the secession several years previously of Lord +Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain. But the gift was conditional. Mr. Rhodes +did not see his way to present the money unless he could have an +assurance from Mr. Gladstone himself that the Liberal party would not, +if they came into power, evacuate Egypt. In a word, he proposed to buy a +non-evacuation policy, and offered a good price for it. Mr. Schnadhorst +wanted £10,000 for his party, and wanted it badly. Accordingly he wrote +a letter to Mr. Rhodes, assuring him that the party would not evacuate +Egypt. The letter would not do for Mr. Rhodes. He wanted a categorical +pledge from Mr. Gladstone. This he only obtained indirectly, and +ultimately I believe that only about £5,000 was paid. + +But though for several years I heard rumours of a large subscription by +Mr. Rhodes to the Liberal funds, they were vague. Chance, however, +enabled me to prove what I felt was probably the truth. It happened that +Mr. Boyd, one of Mr. Rhodes's private secretaries, sent a letter to +_The Spectator_ about Rhodesia, in which he made a clear allusion +to the subscription to the Liberal funds. I at once noted this admission +and insisted that the matter should now be cleared up. The Liberal +leaders ought, I declared, to say frankly whether any subscription had +ever been accepted from Mr. Rhodes. + +Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, as leader of the Liberal Party, wrote an +indignant letter to _The Spectator_, declaring that the statement +was a lie. He added that he was authorised by Sir William Harcourt to +say that he joined in the denial and so in the accusation of falsehood +against Mr. Rhodes's secretary. I then called on Mr. Rhodes in justice +to himself to make good, if he could, the allegations of his private +secretary. + +Then the whole strange story came out. Mr. Rhodes wrote to say that the +correspondence with Mr. Schnadhorst was at the Cape, but that he had +cabled for it, and that when it came he would send it to _The +Spectator_ and let the British people judge whether the story was or +was not a lie. When the letters arrived they showed that Mr. Rhodes had +actually proposed to buy the policy he wanted, as he might have bought a +shirt or a suit-case, and that the famous Liberal Manager was quite +willing to do business--especially as it was pretty obvious that the +evacuation of Egypt was no longer popular with a considerable section of +Liberals. + +I was, naturally, well satisfied with the result of the warnings which I +had given in regard to Mr. Rhodes. I had brought about an exposure of +his methods, and had also exposed the carelessness and recklessness +which allowed the agents of the Liberal Party to make a secret deal with +a man like Mr. Rhodes, and a deal in which the consideration was a large +sum of money. And all the time a number of the conventional Liberals +were denouncing Mr. Rhodes for his shoddy Imperialism! The attitude of +the public at large in regard to my action was curious. The politicians +on my own side evidently thought that I had pushed things too far, and +had been indiscreet. Some of them naively asked, in effect, where should +I be if something unpleasant were to come out about the past of my own +leaders. When I suggested that I should have to do exactly what I had +done in the case of the Liberals, they were very much shocked at my +"disloyalty to my party." + +The Liberals, on the other hand, though the vast majority of them, +leaders and led, had known nothing whatever of the transaction, and were +in truth greatly ashamed of it, instead of being angry with their chief +Party Manager, were violently angry with me. They declared that I was +showing a most vindictive spirit towards a great and good man like Mr. +Gladstone. I had "entered into a conspiracy with Mr. Rhodes in regard to +the publication of a private correspondence." When I pointed out that, +as a matter of fact, I disliked Mr. Rhodes's methods quite as much as +they did, and held that it was as bad to buy a policy as to sell one, +they inconsequently murmured that I had dealt a deadly blow against the +sanctity of public life by helping Rhodes to break faith, and that my +conduct was unforgivable. + +I may end my story by a description of an interview which I had in +regard to this matter with Mr. Rhodes at his hotel in Mayfair. It was +the only occasion on which I saw or spoke to him. His private secretary, +Mr. Boyd, came to me and said that Mr. Rhodes was very anxious to hand +over to me in person the letters between himself and the Liberal +Manager. Would I therefore mind going to see Mr. Rhodes, and letting him +tell me the whole story in his own words? I did not feel in a +particularly kindly frame of mind towards Mr. Rhodes, and I knew and +thoroughly disliked his ways with the Press. Further, I did not want to +run any risk of Mr. Rhodes hinting later that I had tried to blackmail +him, or that he had made a suggestion as to interesting me later in the +Chartered Company which had been apparently welcomed by me, and so on +and so on. I therefore expressed my opinion that there was no need +whatever for a personal interview. Mr. Boyd thereupon made a strong plea +_ad misericordiam_. Mr. Rhodes was, he said, exceedingly ill and +was worrying himself greatly about the matter. He had not long to live, +and I should be playing a very inhuman part if I did not grant the +interview to a very sick man. Melted by Boyd's evident sincerity and +anxiety I agreed, but only on the condition that if Mr. Rhodes had +anyone present at the interview, I also must have a friend present. That +I felt was rather an insulting condition, and I rather expected that Mr. +Rhodes would have replied: "If Mr. Strachey cannot treat me like a +gentleman, I don't want to see him." Instead, a most polite message came +back from Mr. Rhodes, saying that he gladly agreed to my suggestion and +that he would see me quite alone. Why Mr. Rhodes was so insistent as to +an interview I cannot tell, unless it was that he had been rather +worried about _The Spectator's_ hostility to him, and he thought he +might be able to mollify me in the course of a private talk. I remember +Mr. Boyd told me how he had heard Rhodes often express great trouble and +surprise at my attitude towards him. Why should a journalist whom he had +never seen be so hostile? What could have induced him to take the line +he took in _The Spectator_? "I have never been able to make him +out," was how he summed up the position. That struck me as very +characteristic. It had evidently never occurred to Rhodes that a +journalist could act on the watch-dog principle. The way his mind +appeared to work was something like this. + + Strachey and _The Spectator_ are avowedly Imperialists and + strong anti-Little Englanders. Therefore they ought to be on + my side. If they are not with me, it can only be that they are + standing out for some reason or other. What is it? It isn't + money. If they had wanted to be "satisfied on this Charter" + they would have made it clear to me. It can't be pride or + prejudice. You can't wound or injure a man you have never + seen. As far as I know, Strachey has not been got at by any + of my personal enemies. He hates Kruger and his party even + more than he does me. It's a most disagreeable and distracting + puzzle. + +That, I am told, was the way the great man argued till his +_entourage_ called the spectacle of the puzzled pro-consul deeply +pathetic. Rhodes was, I believe, genuinely "haunted" by the problem +which he could not solve. I and _The Spectator_ got on his nerves. +But perhaps if he saw me he could get the solution he desired. He had +squared Boers and Governors and high British Officials, and Generals and +Zulu Chiefs, and missionaries, and miners, and Jewish diamond-dealers by +talk and nothing more. Why not this journalist? He would try. He would +worry his secretaries to within an inch of their lives till they got the +Editor to see him. + +Touched, as I have said, by the appeal about the anguish of the dying +lion, I yielded, went to his hotel, and was ushered in by Boyd. I did +not feel the charm which was supposed to flow from Rhodes. To begin +with, I thought him an ugly-looking fellow. The "late Roman Emperor" +profile was a very flattering suggestion. Instead, his appearance +explained a quaint and Early Victorian saying which had greatly tickled +me when it fell from Lord Cromer's lips. "I saw him once in Cairo. I +didn't like him. He seemed to me a great snob." Rhodes ought to have had +the manners and mental habits of a gentleman, but apparently these had +suffered a good deal of dilution in the diamond-fields. His address was +distinctly oily, and I remember thinking what a mistake he had made in +his conception of the stage directions for the short dialogue scene +which he had insisted on his entourage producing.--"_Empire- +Builder_, generous, human, alert, expansive, and full-blooded. +_Publicist_, dry, thin-lipped, pedantic, opinionative, hard." That +was what he, no doubt, expected of the cast. In a word, his attempt to +fascinate lacked polish. It was clumsy, almost to the point of +innocence, and opportunist to the point of weakness. He did not know how +to take me, and was obviously "fishing." + +I was determined to seize the opportunity of telling Mr. Rhodes fairly +and squarely what I thought of him and his policy. I therefore received +his elephantine flatteries and civilities with a grim silence, and then +told him I should like him to know what had made me oppose him, and +would continue to make me do so. I was an Imperialist, I pointed out, +and I regarded him as an enemy to the cause of my country. He had given +payments of money to the Irish enemies of Britain and the Empire, and +that I could never forgive. "The Parnellites were engaged in a plot to +ruin the British Empire. You knew it, and yet you helped them. You gave +them the means to arm and fortify their conspirators and assassins." Mr. +Rhodes appeared put out by this frontal attack--no doubt an unpleasant +one, and so intended. He began by making elaborate explanations, and by +declaring "the dates won't fit," but his arguments were muddled and +incoherent. "I assure you you are doing me wrong about the Irish policy. +I know it is not an intentional injustice, but indeed you are wrong. I +am sure I could convince you of this if there was only time." + +Though I was not mollified I felt there was no more to be said. Mr. +Rhodes was not going to convince me nor I to convert him. Accordingly, I +got up and moved to the door. On this Mr. Rhodes said, very +flatteringly, by way of goodbye, that he was greatly pleased that "these +letters," as they were obliged to be published, should appear in _The +Spectator_. His device was pathetically obvious. He knew, or believed +he knew, that the journalist's passion was "copy," and he wanted to +remind me that he had supplied me with one of the very best political +"stories" ever put before an Editor. + +I was comparatively a young man then, only a little over forty, and I +was disgusted at what I felt was an impertinent attempt to "land" me. I +instantly pulled the papers out of my pocket and flung them on to the +table, saying, + + You are entirely mistaken if you think I want your letters for + _The Spectator_. As far as I am concerned, they may just as + well appear in _The Times_ or any other paper. All I want is + publicity. I have been accused by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman + of publishing lies, and that I do not mean to endure. + I make no claim, however, on behalf of _The Spectator_. Choose + your own paper. + +Here Mr. Rhodes showed an excellent command of himself. He urged me +strongly, nay, he implored me to take the papers. No other course would +be fair to his secretary, who had been called a liar. "As poor Boyd was +unjustly accused of lying, in _The Spectator_, I am sure you will +agree that it is only fair that his good faith should be vindicated in +the same place." To this plea I could, of course, offer no opposition. I +therefore replaced the papers in my pocket, said "good morning," and +walked away. + +I suppose many people, certainly Mr. Rhodes's admirers, will say that I +was brutal and unjust. If they do, I think I have a good defence, but I +am not going to set it forth here. More interesting is the general +opinion I formed of Rhodes after seeing him in the flesh, and +experiencing what was supposed to be his special gift--that of talking a +man round. + +Rhodes, I had to acknowledge, was not the kind of magnificent man that I +had sometimes envisaged him. I think he was a lucky man rather than a +man of genius. The chief trouble with him was that he really believed +that all men were buyable. He was a kind of throw-back to the eighteenth +century, just as the eighteenth-century politicians were to the age of +Juvenal and Tacitus. He took their records seriously and acted on their +views of humanity. If he chose to use his money for buying policies as +other people used theirs to buy places, why not? What else, granted that +he was the kind of man described, could Rhodes do with his money? + +But these excuses, though I admitted them, made me not less but more +eager to oppose Mr. Rhodes and the influences he employed. My duty was +to expose Mr. Rhodes, _i.e._ to get people to understand his +methods. These almost entirely depended upon secrecy, and that made +publicity my best weapon. When once the Rhodesian moral strategy was +made public, the game was up. + +I believe I did some good by my double warning. In the first place, I +warned the British public that Rhodes, if not watched, would secretly +buy policies behind their backs and that the party machine, when in want +of money, would with equal secrecy sell them. And I proved my point, +incredible as it may seem. + +"But why rake up an old scandal?" asks Urbanus with an ironic smile. +Because the warning ought to be a standing warning. I am by no means +sure that when all the secrets are known, we, or rather our +grandchildren, will not find that Mr. Rhodes has had imitators, in +recent times. + +I could, of course, mention other examples of the way in which this +particular watch-dog gave trouble, and got himself heartily disliked, +but the one I have given will serve. Besides, the other examples touch +living people, and with living people I want to have as little to do as +possible in these memoirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE PLACE OF THE JOURNALIST IN MODERN LIFE + + +The watch-dog's function by no means exhausts the work of the +journalist. There remains that strange function which is not yet quite +realised or understood in a modern community, the function of publicity. +Publicity is, in one sense, the method or instrument by which the watch- +dog gives its warning: it is his bark. But there is something more in +publicity than this. Publicity is an end as well as a means. There are +positive and distinct virtues inherent in publicity quite apart from the +fact that it is the medium through which the journalist works. This fact +is beginning to be realised more and more in this country. In America, +it has long been recognised. There, indeed, publicity may be said to +have been crowned. It is considered one of the pillars of society, and +so in truth it is. + +I can best illustrate what I mean by this, by telling a story of Delane, +the editor of _The Times_ when _The Times_ was at its greatest. +It is one which should never be forgotten by the critics of journalism +and journalists. Someone had been taking Delane to task over an +incident connected with his newspaper, and Delane replied: "You +appear to forget that my business is publicity." If the public would not +forget this essential fact in regard to newspapers they would attain to +a much clearer and juster understanding of the problems of the Press. We +must always remember that the journalist's business is publicity. At +first the plain man may be inclined to say that Delane's words have +nothing to do with the matter, or, rather, he may feel inclined to reply +in the spirit of Talleyrand's answer to the man who said he had to live-- +"I do not see the necessity." A very little reflection, however, will +show the necessity of publicity, will show, I mean, that publicity has a +real and very important function in the State, and that it is literally +true that the modern world could not live and progress without the +newspaper. The newspaper is indispensable to progress, and to progress +in the right direction. Unless we know, day by day, what people are +doing, in our nation, in our country, in our town, in our village, we +should be like men wandering about in the dark, and we should find it +far more difficult than we do now to obtain the co-operation of others +for good and worthy objects. We should fail also to get that +encouragement, moral, intellectual, and social, which is obtained by +knowing that others are thinking the same thoughts and entertaining the +same aspirations that we are. It is good to know of the righteous work +which is being done by others. It is even good to know, within +reasonable limits, the evil that is being done under the sun, in order +that we may lay our plans and bring up our forces to check that evil. +Without that daily report on the world's doings, which is the modern +newspaper, we should for the most part be blind and deaf, and if not +dumb, at any rate hardly able to speak above a whisper. + +This view may at first sight seem the presumptuous claim of a journalist +for his trade. Let any of my hearers, however, try to imagine a +newspaperless world and he will soon realise that I am not exaggerating. +It is not merely a desire for amusement that makes the leaders of men in +a besieged town, or even in so narrow a field as an Arctic expedition, +encourage the foundation of a newspaper. They want it as a means of +illumination quite as much as of entertainment. + +People sometimes talk of men's instinctive desire for news, but, like +many other instincts, this one is founded on convenience and the law of +self-preservation. Readers of Stevenson's _Kidnapped_ will remember +how, after the Appin murder, the fugitives on the heather obeyed, even +at very great risk to themselves, the sacred duty of the Highlands to +"pass the news." In savage countries and in troubled times a man is +looked upon as a wild beast rather than a human being if he does not +pass the news. Asian travellers dwell upon the way in which the Bedouins +observe the duty of passing the news, and described how, if a solitary +Arab is encountered, the news is, as a matter of course, passed to him. +The seclusion of women even yields to this imperative law of the desert, +and an Arab man and an Arab woman may be seen with their horses, tail to +tail, and so themselves back to back also, giving and receiving the news +over their shoulders. + +I am tempted to give a modern example of the advantage of news in the +purest sense. Some years ago, in the course of one of those brave +attempts which have been made to cleanse the Augean stable of municipal +politics in San Francisco, the editor of the chief newspaper engaged in +the campaign of purity was kidnapped in the streets of San Francisco. He +was hurried off in a motorcar and placed under restraint in a train at a +suburban station, from which he was to be carried to a place some 500 +miles away. It happened, however, that a reporter caught sight of the +editor's face in the reserved portion of the Pullman car where he was +imprisoned, and telegraphed to a San Francisco evening paper that the +well-known Mr. So-and-So was "on the ---- train, going North." The +reporter had not the slightest notion of the romantic circumstances of +the kidnapping and thought he was merely telegraphing an item of social +news. One of the editor's colleagues in the campaign against corruption +happened, however, to see this item in the evening paper and at once +realised what it meant. He instantly telephoned to the proper +authorities at a town halfway between San Francisco and the kidnappers' +destination; the train was stopped, and the kidnapped man brought before +a judge on a warrant of Habeas Corpus, and promptly released. No doubt +mere publicity can occasionally serve the evildoers equally well, but +here, at any rate, is an instance of its utility which may be regarded +as proof of the advantage of collecting and transmitting news even of +the most unimportant, or apparently unimportant, kind. + +Though I hold that publicity is a function of very real utility to the +State, it must not be supposed that I think it can be practised without +limitations, or that I do not realise that it has dangers both great and +many. It has been said that honesty is not as easy as Blind Man's Buff. +The same thing may well be said of publicity. The first and most obvious +limitation of publicity is that publicity should only be given to truth +and not to error. Here, however, we must not forget that there are +certain forms of error which can only be exposed and got rid of by +publicity, and, again, that it is often only possible to find out what +is truth and what error by submitting the alleged facts to the test of +publicity. What at first seems an incredible rumour turns out to be +literally true, and therefore a failure to report it would actually have +been a suppression of the truth. The more one studies this question of +publicity the more it appears that what is wanted in the public interest +is a just and clear understanding of the way in which publicity is to be +achieved. The journalist's business is publicity, but it is also his +business to see that this duty of publicity, though carried out to the +full, is carried out in a way which shall do not harm but good. If the +methods of publicity are sound, fearless, and without guile, all is +well. If they have not these qualities, then publicity may become the +most dishonourable and degrading of all trades. + +It must not be supposed, however, that by saying this I am trying to +give a defence of the Yellow Press. I fully realise its evils, only I +desire that the Yellow Press should be condemned for its faults, and not +merely for its virtues when carried to excess. What the Yellow Press +should be condemned for is its tendency to that supreme evil-- +indifference to veracity of statement. Another of its extreme evils, an +evil made possible by publicity, is that of triviality. It debauches the +public mind, in my opinion, much more by its triviality than by its +vulgarity or grossness. Sensationalism and want of reticence will in the +end cure themselves, but triviality is a defect which grows by what it +feeds on. People get a habit of reading silly details about silly +people, and the habit becomes an actual craze; they can no more do +without it than they can rest without chewing gum. This triviality is +indeed twice cursed. It degrades both him who reads and him who writes. +As to the public, indeed, I sometimes feel inclined to say with Ben +Jonson in his famous Ode: + + If they love lees and leave the lusty wine, + Envy them not their palates with the swine. + +But it is a pitiful sight to see unfortunate men who might do better +work, condemned to filling the trough with insipid and unsavoury swill +collected from the refuse-pails of the town. + +Twenty years ago, I had a conversation in regard to this point with the +reporters of two very Yellow newspapers, on an Atlantic liner outside +the port of New York. The _Lucania_ had run upon a sand-bank, and +we had to wait all day in sight of that towered city, exposed to the +full fury of the interviewer. When I ventured to ask the two reporters +in question whether they did not think it was perfectly absurd and +ridiculous to print the chronicles of small beer, or, rather, of small +slops, such as appeared in their columns, they readily, and I believe +perfectly honestly, agreed, but said in defence that they had to obey +their editor's orders. To me, at any rate, they acted most honourably +and gave no report of our conversation, for I had reminded them that dog +did not eat dog. A third reporter, however, to whom I had not thought it +necessary to indicate as "private and confidential" an enthusiastic +remark drawn by the beauty of New York harbour in an autumn sunset, was +not so sensitive. "This is more splendid," I said, "than even the +approach to Venice. There is nothing in the whole world like the sea- +front of New York seen from the sea." This reporter honoured me next day +with a headline of such magnificent triviality that I cannot refrain +from quoting it: "_Editor Strachey says New York skins Venice!_"--a +contribution to the illimitable inane worthy to stand by a headline in +an English provincial paper: "_Vestryman choked by a whelk!_" + +Publicity, when it is honest publicity, is as important a thing as the +collection and presentation of evidence at a trial. Without the +evidence, of what avail would be advocacy or judgment? I have dealt with +the problem of publicity, but publicity of course is not the whole of +journalism. Besides news there is comment, and comment, at any rate +among serious-minded people like the British, is quite as well thought +of as news. It is with that part of journalism, indeed, that the editor +of a weekly newspaper has most to do. The journalism of comment may be +divided into parts, both perfectly legitimate. There is what I may term +judicial journalism, and the journalism of advocacy. In judicial +journalism the writer attempts to approach the jury of the public rather +as a judge than as a barrister, to sum up rather than make a speech for +the prosecution or the defence. This does not, of course, mean that he +does not in the end take a side or give a decision. He forms a view and +states it, but in stating it he admits the existence of the other side +and does not try to carry the jury away with him by the arts of +rhetoric. Such journalism is not necessarily cold-blooded. Just as a +judge may denounce baseness or misconduct in burning words, so the +journalist who endeavours to maintain the judicial attitude may, when +the necessity arises, be strong in his denunciation of what he holds to +be weak, dangerous, or evil. He, however, who is bold enough to essay +this form of journalism must never forget that a judge who professes to +be judicial in tone, but who ends in being partial, is a worse man than +an honest advocate, because he is, in fact, cloaking partisanship by +hypocrisy. + +Little need be said in defence of the advocate journalist. He makes no +pretence to be doing anything but pleading the cause of his party, and +placing it in the best possible light. It is not his business, but that +of the opposition writer, to put the case for the other side, and if he +occasionally pretends to an enthusiasm which does not really belong to +him, he is only practising the innocent artifice of the counsel who +tells the jury that he will be an unhappy man should he have failed in +the task of persuading them to restore his long-suffering, if +burglarious, bibulous, or bigamous, client to his best wife and family. + +It must not be supposed, however, that the advocate journalist is a +cynic who realises that his own cause is a poor one, but calls it the +best of causes because he is paid so to do. That, as all men of +experience know, is a fallacy as regards the barrister, and it is still +more a fallacy as regards the journalist. We should remember the story +of the barrister who, at the end of a long career, declared that he had +been singularly fortunate. He had never been called upon to defend a +guilty person or to argue a case where the merits and the law were not +strongly on his side. If this feeling grows up in the case of a man who, +changing from prosecution to defence and from plaintiff to defendant, +may often have to alter his point of view completely, how much more is +it likely to grow up in that of the advocate journalist who is always on +the same side? Believe me, the notion of the political journalist +perpetually writing leaders against his own convictions is a pure +figment of the popular imagination. No doubt an editor will sometimes +ask a leader-writer not to put a particular view so strongly as he, the +leader-writer, is known to feel it, but such reticence cannot surely be +regarded as insincerity on the ethics of anonymity in journalism. The +public are apt to suppose that anonymity is the cloak of all sorts of +misdoings, and I have often heard people declare that in their opinion +every leader-writer should be forced to sign his name. As I once heard +it picturesquely expressed, "The mask should be torn from the villain's +face. Why should a man be allowed to stab his neighbour in the dark!" As +a matter of fact, I am convinced that anonymity makes, not for +irresponsibility but for responsibility, and that there are many men +who, though truculent, offensive, and personal when they write with the +"I," will show a true sense of moderation and responsibility when they +use the editorial "we." The man who writes for a newspaper very soon +gets a strong sense of what is right and proper to be said in that +particular organ, and he instinctively refuses to give way to personal +feeling and personal animosity when he is writing, not in his own name, +but in that of his newspaper. + + I have hated and distrusted So-and-So ever since I was at + Cambridge with him. I know what a false-hearted creature + he was then, and how vain and supercilious, and I should like + to get my knife into him some day. I feel, however, that the + _Daily Comet_ could not possibly attack him in this way. Even + though my editor has told me that I may say what I like about + him it would not be fair to go for him unless I signed my name. + +That is an imaginary soliloquy which, I am sure, represents the feelings +of plenty of leader-writers when confronted with a personal issue. + +Again, men who write anonymously, and in the name of their paper and not +of themselves, are much less likely to yield to the foolish vanity of +self-assertion. When Zola visited England, I remember a very striking +passage in which he expressed to an interviewer his astonishment at the +anonymity of the British Press. He wondered how it was that our writers +refused themselves the "delicious notoriety" which they might obtain +through signed articles. Thank heaven, our writers prefer the dignity +which can be maintained through the honourable tradition of a great +journal to such "delicious notoriety" The delicious notoriety of the +individual is the ruin of the better journalism. + +Again, we must never forget that the signed article, however true and +sound it may be, is always to some extent discounted through the +personality of the writer. "A" may have written in perfect sincerity of +a particular statesman, but if he signs his name the gossip-mongers are +sure to say that the article in question is to be accounted for by the +fact that a fortnight before the writer was stopping with the Cabinet +Minister who has been well spoken of, or because the writer's wife is +well known to be a friend of the statesman, or for some equally trivial +reason. Just as a good chairman of a committee should sink his +individuality and speak for the committee as a whole, so a good leader- +writer can with perfect honesty and sincerity sink his individuality and +speak for his newspaper rather than himself. + +But, though I incline to anonymity as the rule of political journalism, +I quite admit that in pure literature and in the arts the signed article +is often to be preferred. For the object with which the reader +approaches a literary article is the desire for pleasure, and that +pleasure is naturally heightened by knowing the name of the actor who is +on the stage. Though it might be an amusing trick it would be on the +whole very disappointing to the public if the play-bill on which the +names of the characters appear had instead of the actors' names +arbitrary letters, like X, Y, and Z. They would probably not appreciate +the task of guessing who was concealed under the wig or the shadows +painted on the face which converted Miss Jones' somewhat aquiline +features into a _nez retroussé_. No one can doubt that the Parisian +public liked to know that the _Causeries de Lundi_ were by Sainte- +Beuve, just as they now like to see the signature of Mr. J. C. Squire at +the end of an article. To push the point to extremes, who would care to +grope through a nameless Georgian Anthology in which each poem had to be +taken on its intrinsic merits? Even if the public could stand the test, +I feel certain that the critics could not. I have always had a good deal +of sympathy for the dramatic critic in Mr. Shaw's play when he declares +that he can place a play with perfect certainty if he knows whom it was +written by, but not unless. Fancy the poor critic going through a volume +and saying to himself: "Now is this Shanks or is it Graves trying to +score off him by a parody? Again, is this one of the Sitwells writing +like Sassoon in order to drive the grocers to delirium?" But, harrowing +thought, perhaps it is neither, but only some admirer of the Georgian +Mind at Capetown or Melbourne, who has produced for his own use an +amalgam of several styles. The mere writing about it is making me so +uncomfortable that I must hastily desist! + +There is another point upon which I must touch, though very shortly. +That is the ethics of newspaper proprietorship. People sometimes talk as +if it were a great misfortune that the newspapers of England are, as a +rule, owned by rich men. I cannot agree, though I do think it is a great +misfortune that a newspaper cannot be started by a poor man. My reason +for desiring that as a rule a newspaper proprietor should be rich is the +danger of newspapers being bought, or, at any rate, of their articles +being bought, as too often happens in countries where newspapers are not +great properties. It is often said, for example, that a hundred pounds +or so will procure the insertion of an article in most continental +newspapers. This is no doubt a gross libel on the best foreign +newspapers, but it indicates a danger when newspapers are owned by men +of small means and make small profits. When a newspaper is bringing in +£50,000 or £60,000 a year it is obvious that even if we assume the +newspaper proprietor to have no sense of public duty, it will not be +worth his while to sell the influence of his paper. He is not going to +risk the destruction of a great property--destruction would surely +ensue from his corrupt act becoming known--for a few hundred pounds. To +put it brutally, "his figure" would be too high for any to pay--a +quarter of a million at least. + +But though it makes for soundness that newspaper proprietors should be +personally independent, it is also most important that they should be +men whose wealth is derived from their newspapers and not from other +sources. A great newspaper in the hands of a man who does not look to +make a profit but owns it for external reasons is a source of danger. +Strange as it may seem at first sight, the desire for direct and +legitimate profit in a newspaper is an antiseptic and prevents +corruption. One does not want to see a newspaper proprietor, with his +ear to the ground, always thinking of his audience, but the desire to +stand well with his readers is often a power in the direction of good. +The proprietor who endeavours to be the honest servant of his readers +will not go very far wrong. When I say honest servant I mean the man who +plays the part of the servant who, though he will do his master's +bidding when that bidding is not positively immoral, at the same time is +prepared to warn that master, courteously but firmly, against rash or +base actions. There is nothing corrupt in such honest service, when +rendered either to a man or a nation, or even to a Party. + +To put it in another way, there are worse things than studying public +opinion and endeavouring partly to interpret it honestly and partly to +guide it in the right direction. + +I will end this chapter by asking the readers of a Journalist's Memoirs +to do two things. Firstly, to think better of journalists and their +morals than they are at first sight inclined to do. Secondly, not to +exaggerate the influence and power of the Press. No doubt it has some +great powers, but those powers are much more limited than is popularly +supposed. Remember that by using exaggerated language in regard to the +power of the Press, people increase the evil which they desire to +diminish. Dr. Johnson said very truly that no man was ever written down +except by himself. Believe me, this is as true now as when Dr. Johnson +said it. I do not believe in the power of the Press either to crush a +good man and a great man, or to exalt a weak man or a base man. No doubt +a conspiracy of journalists might conceivably keep back a wise statesman +or public man for a year or two, and, again, might for a time advertise +into undue prominence an inferior man. In the end, however, matters +right themselves. The public have a very sound instinct in persons as +well as in things, and when they recognise real worth in a man they will +know how to prevent the newspaper from doing him wrong, supposing him +for some reason to have incurred the enmity of the whole Press--not an +easy thing to accomplish. If the _Dictator_ makes a dead set +against Smith, the _Detractor_ is pretty sure to find good in him, +and may even run him as a whole-souled patriot! We are a contradictious +trade. + +_Don't be afraid of the Press, but do it justice and keep it in its +place, that is, the place of a useful servant, but not of a master._ + +This is the last word on the Press of a working journalist, one who, +though he holds no high-falutin' illusions as to his profession, is at +the same time intensely proud of that profession, and who believes that, +taken as a whole, there is no calling more worthy of being practised by +an honourable man, and one who wishes to serve his country. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A WAR EPISODE-MY AMERICAN TEA-PARTIES + + +The war is too near, too great, and also too much an object from which +people turn in weariness and impatience to be dealt with by me, except +very lightly. In spite then of the transcendent effect which the war had +upon my life I shall only touch upon one or two salient points. The +first that I select is as curious as it was interesting. It is also +appropriate, for it marked a step, and a distinct step, if one which +covered only a small space, towards the goal that I have always put +before me. That goal is a good understanding between both branches of +the English-speaking race. It involves above all things that Americans +shall never be treated, either in thought, in deed, or in word, as +foreigners. When the war had been going a week or two, I and a number of +other editors were summoned to a solemn conclave presided over by a +Minister of the Crown. We were asked to give advice as to how the +Government should deal with the American correspondents. Owing to the +increasing severity of the censorship they were unable to get any news +through to their newspapers. Though they were quite friendly and +reasonable in one sense about this, they were in a state of agitation +because their editors and proprietors on the other side, unable as yet +to understand what modern war meant, and to envisage its conditions, +were cabling them imperative messages to send something, and something +of interest, to the American public which was suffering from a news- +hunger such as had never before existed in the world's history. If the +correspondents could not get anything to send they must make room for +those who could. The notion that the order for news could not be obeyed +was regarded as "impossible." + +But the Government, though anxious to do everything they could for the +American correspondents, was itself in the grip of the censorship. The +Prime Minister's speeches, even, were censored lest they should afford +information to the enemy. This policy of intensive suppression was +enforced by all sorts of gloomy prophecies from Naval and Military +chiefs: + + If you allow things to be sent out before they have been + carefully considered, and that means long considered, we cannot + be responsible for the consequences. Things which look + perfectly innocent to you or to the people who send them, when + read by the keen-eyed men in the German Intelligence Office + may give them all sorts of hints as to what are our doings and + intentions. By pleasing one American newspaper you may + send thousands of men to their doom by sea or land. + +That being the tone of the Censor's Office, the Government was naturally +in a state of perplexity. At the same time they felt, and rightly felt, +that it was most undesirable to confront our American friends of the +Press (for they were all friendly) with a pure _non possumus_. What +made it worse was the fact that the correspondents had told Ministers in +plain terms that if they could get no news here they must pack their +portmanteaus and go to Holland and thence to Berlin, where +correspondents were made much of and allowed to send any amount of +wireless. + +Many plans were suggested at the meeting, but those which found favour +with the Press made the representatives of the Government shiver with +horror, while the official suggestions, on the other hand, were, I am +afraid, greeted with polite derision by the journalists. Greatly daring, +I proposed that we should do for the American correspondents what was +done for them in their own country by the President. President Wilson +met the correspondents at Washington every Monday for a confidential +talk of twenty minutes or so. What he said and they said was not to be +reported, but they were "put wise" as to the general situation. I +suggested that in a similar way Mr. Asquith might give a quarter of an +hour once a week to the American correspondents. He would not, of +course, be able to give them anything to publish, but at any rate if +they saw him they would not feel so utterly out of it as they were at +the moment. To see no one but a Censor who always said No, was like +living on an iceberg on a diet of toast-and-water. They would be able at +least to cable to their chiefs saying that they had seen the Prime +Minister and had heard from him the general outline of the situation, +though they could not at present publish any of the confidences which +had been entrusted to them. Anyone who knows anything about the +relations between the Government and the Press at the beginning of the +war will be amazed at my daring, or shall I say "impudence"?--though by +no means astonished to hear of the response with which it met. The +spokesmen of the Government said in effect: "Mr. Strachey, you must be +mad to make any such suggestion. It cannot be entertained for a moment. +You must think of something better than that." Unfortunately I could +think of nothing better, the other journalists could think of nothing +better, the officials could think of nothing better, and so the meeting, +as the reporters say, broke up, if not in confusion, at any rate in +depression. + +I was so much alarmed by the notion of the correspondents leaving the +country, and also sympathised so strongly with my American colleagues +that I felt that I must do something on my own. I therefore went +straight back to Brooks' and wrote to Mr. Asquith, telling him what the +situation was, what I had proposed, and how I was regarded as quite +crazy. I went on to say that I knew this would not affect his mind, but +that I was afraid that he would probably not be able to spare the time +for a weekly interview, and that I therefore suggested a compromise. + + Will you [I said] come and lunch with me next Wednesday + at my house at 14 Queen Anne's Gate to meet all the American + correspondents, and so at any rate give them one talk? As it + happens I don't know any of the American correspondents, + even by name. All the same, I am quite certain that if you + show them this mark of your confidence you will never regret + it. There is not the slightest fear of any betrayal. I am, + indeed, perfectly willing to guarantee, from my knowledge of + the honour of my own profession, that not a single word that + you say but do not want published will ever be published. + +In a word, I guaranteed not merely the honour but the discretion of my +colleagues from across the water. I am not a political admirer of Mr. +Asquith, and have had, perhaps, to pummel him with words as much as any +man in the country. I was not, however, the least surprised to find that +he would not allow himself to be overborne by the suggestion of his +subordinates that the scheme was mad and so forth. Very +characteristically he wrote me a short note with his own hand, simply +saying that he would be delighted to meet my friends at lunch on +Wednesday next as proposed. This acquiescence relieved me greatly, for I +was convinced that the situation was exceedingly dangerous and +disagreeable. + +My next step, and one that I had to take immediately, was to get my +guests together. As I have said, I knew nothing of them and for a moment +thought it not improbable that even if I did manage to get hold of their +names and addresses they might when they received the letter think it +was a hoax. However, the thing had to be done, so it was no use to waste +time by foreseeing difficulties. My first step was to get the help of my +friend, Sir Harry Brittain (then Mr. Brittain). I wrote to him, asking +for the names and addresses of all the correspondents of American +newspapers in London, for I had reason--I forget exactly why--to believe +that he possessed the information I so greatly needed. The messenger +whom I had despatched with my note brought back a prompt answer +conveying the information I required. I immediately sat down, dictated +my notes, about twenty I think, and had them posted. In these I +described the situation quite frankly. I said that as a journalist I had +been very much struck and also very much worried by the thought of the +situation in which the correspondents had been placed. They were, I +said, like men in a house in which all the lights had gone out, and that +house not their own. In such circumstances, who could wonder if they +knocked over half the furniture in trying to find their way about or to +get hold of a light somewhere. I ventured further to propose, though not +known to them, that they should give me the pleasure of their company at +luncheon on the following Wednesday, at 14 Queen Anne's Gate, to meet +the Prime Minister, in order that they might, by means of a talk with +him, get a general outline of the situation. + +I knew, of course, that it was not necessary to put my colleagues +formally on their honour not to publish anything without definite leave +so to do. The first principle upon which an American correspondent acts +is that, though he expects frankness from the people he talks to, +nothing will ever induce him to reveal what he has been told is +confidential and not for publication. You can no more get stuff not +meant for publication from an American correspondent than you can get +the secrets of the confessional from a priest. Reticence is a point of +honour. I have no doubt that some of my American journalistic friends +will say that there is no great merit in this, because the +correspondents know quite well that if they were once to betray a public +man they would never have a chance to do it again. Their professional +careers would be utterly ruined. Though I should not agree that self- +preservation was the motive, I knew at any rate that every consideration +of sound business and professional pride as well as of honour made it +quite certain that there would be no betrayal. + +I was, therefore, most anxious not to appear ignorant of this fact or to +seem to doubt my guests. Accordingly I merely added that whatever was +said was not for publication and also that I was anxious that the fact +of this luncheon taking place should not be disclosed. I gave my reason. +If the luncheon, and if any other meetings which I hoped to arrange, +became known about by the representatives of Foreign newspapers, I felt +that pressure might be put upon me to include them in my invitations. +The result would be a small public meeting, and not an intimate social +function such as I desired. My wishes were respected in every way. No +word said at the luncheon, or at any of the weekly gatherings that +followed it for nearly three years, was ever made public. Further, their +existence was never alluded to, though the meetings would have made +excellent copy, quite apart from anything that was said at them. The +secret was religiously kept. + +I was deeply touched by the letters which I received in reply to my +invitation. They were all from men then unknown to me, though I am glad +and proud to say that many of them were from men who have since become +intimate friends. They were written with that frankness, genuineness, +and warmth of feeling which are characteristics of the American, and +contrast so strongly with the stuttering efforts of the Briton to be +genial and forthcoming. + +Owing to the fact that we had moved to our house in the country in the +last days of July, 1914, my London house was shut up except for a +caretaker, and my wife could not bring up servants for the occasion or +give me her help, which would have been invaluable, because she was +tremendously busy with Red Cross organisation and getting our house +ready for what it was so soon to become, _i.e._ a hospital with +forty beds. I had, therefore, to do the necessary catering myself. I +felt that, considering the need for discretion, my best plan would be to +go to so old-fashioned an English house as Gunter's. The very name +seemed stable and untouched by the possibility of spies. + +Accordingly I told Gunter's representative to make arrangements for a +luncheon for twenty people and to be sure that all the waiters were +Englishmen and, if possible, old service men. That accomplished, I +awaited the hour. I do not think I was anxious as to how my party would +go off. I was much too busy for that. I was at the time deep in work +that I considered appropriate to the Sheriff of the County of Surrey, +which office I then held. On the Tuesday before the luncheon I was +sleeping at Queen Anne's Gate, but went as usual to _The Spectator_ +office in the morning, transacted my business, and got back half-an-hour +before "zero," which was 1.30, so that I might arrange the places of my +guests, a task in which I was helped by Sir Eric Drummond, then Mr. +Asquith's Private Secretary. Unfortunately I have not a record of all +the people who were there, but I know that among them was Mr. Edward +Price Bell of the _Chicago Daily News_, known throughout the +newspaper world of London as the doyen of American correspondents. He is +a man for whom respect is felt in this country in proportion to the +great number of years which he has devoted not only to the service of +his newspaper but to improving the relations between this country and +his own. Mr. Price Bell is the most patriotic of Americans, but he has +never hesitated to make it clear that the word "foreign" does not apply +to the relations between Great Britain and America. + +Mr. Roy Martin, now the General Manager of that wonderful institution, +The Associated Press of America, and his colleague and successor now +head of the London office, Mr. Collins; Mr. Keen of The United Press and +Mr. Edward Marshall of _The New York Times_ were certainly there. +Another of the men present with whom I was in the future to become +intimate was Mr. Curtis Brown, the well-known and very able Literary +Agent and the representative of the New York Press. It was, indeed, at +his suggestion that these Memoirs, which have proved the pleasantest +literary task ever undertaken by me, were begun and were placed in the +hands of Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton in England and of Major Putnam in +the United States. Mr. Fred Grundy, Mr. Patchin, Mr. Tewson, and Mr. +Tuohy were also among my "first-nighters." + +These men became the stalwarts of my regular parties, but there were +also a number of other good friends and men of interest and ability, +such as Mr. Palmer, who occupied journalistic posts here for a short +time only, and then were moved either to the front or to some other part +of Europe or back to their own country. + +The luncheon proved a great success. From the first moment I realised +that there was to be no coldness or official reticence or shyness, but a +perfectly easy atmosphere. Mr. Asquith made himself exceedingly +agreeable to my guests, and they did the same, not only to him, but to +each other, to Mr. Asquith's staff, and to me, their host. Needless to +say that as my object was to introduce the journalists to Mr. Asquith +and get him to talk to them and they to him, I placed myself as far away +from him as I could, though I was still able, if the conversation +flagged (which, by the way, it never did) to put in a question or to +raise some point about which I knew there was a general desire to get +information. Wisely, as I think, I would have no speechmaking. After +luncheon we retired into my library for our coffee and cigars, and I was +then able to take each one of my guests up to Mr. Asquith for a few +minutes' talk. The result was excellent. Mr. Asquith was very frank, +but, though light in hand, he was as serious as the occasion demanded. I +felt that the general result was that my guests felt that they were +receiving the consideration they ought to receive, which I knew the +Government desired that they should receive, but which they had very +nearly missed, thanks to the fact that Governments so often find it +impossible to do what they ought to do, and, indeed, want to do. +Official efforts at politeness, instead of being the soft answers which +turn away wrath, too often prove violent irritants. + +So great was the success of the luncheon that when it was over and Mr. +Asquith had to leave for a Cabinet Committee (he remained for over two +hours in the house--not a bad compliment to the correspondents in +itself, when one remembers that the date was early September, 1914), I +made the following proposal to my guests. I told them what a pleasure it +would be to me if we made an arrangement to meet at 14 Queen Anne's Gate +every Wednesday afternoon till further notice, for tea and cigarettes. +We were all busy, but we must all have tea somewhere, and why not in a +place close to the Houses of Parliament, the Foreign Office, Downing +Street, and the War Office? I went on to say that though I could not +promise a Prime Minister once a week, I would undertake to get one of +his colleagues or else some distinguished general or admiral whose +conversation about the war would be worth hearing, to ornament my +Conversazione. The proposal was met with the charming ease and good +sense with which every suggestion that I made to my guests was received, +and it was arranged that we should begin in the following week. + +Oddly enough, I cannot now remember who was my next guest of honour, but +I do remember that in the course of that year I twice got Sir Edward +Grey, and that on one occasion he spent over two hours, from 4.30, that +is, until nearly 6.30, over my tea-cups. Other Cabinet Ministers were +equally obliging, and if I remember rightly, among the number were +included two Lord Chancellors, Lord Haldane, and Lord Buckmaster. Mr. +Balfour and Mr. McKenna were also visitors, as was Earl Grey--the cousin +of Sir Edward Grey. Lord Roberts was to have come, but Death intervened +to prevent his visit. + +Lest the diet should be monotonous, I also got distinguished people like +the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, Admiral Sir Cyprian +Bridge, Admiral Sir Reginald Custance, General Ian Hamilton, and Admiral +Sir Reginald Hall, at that time the head of the Intelligence Department +at the Admiralty. There was also Sir Maurice Hankey, the Belgian +Minister, the American Ambassador, Mr. Page, and Colonel House, whom I +was lucky enough to catch on one of his flying visits. Last, but not +least, I had the two Censors, Sir Edward Cook and Sir Frank Swettenham. +It was as if The Thunderer and Mercury had descended to play with mere +mortals. My two naval experts, Admiral Cyprian Bridge and Admiral +Custance, were among the most constant supporters of my Conversaziones. +They proved very popular with the correspondents. + +I know that the lions I provided for my arena in Queen Anne's Gate were +quite genuine when they told me how much they had liked meeting the able +and keenly-interested young men who formed the bulk of the +correspondents. + +I suppose I ought not to flatter my own tea-parties, but I am bound to +say that I don't think I ever listened to better talk than the talk I +heard on those occasions. I specially remember a conversation which took +place when Lord Buckmaster became Chief Censor, shortly before he was +made Chancellor. Naturally enough, the correspondents were inclined to +be critical, though friendly, and he, though equally friendly, was +sternly determined to defend the policy which his office was pursuing. +Curiously enough, our dialectic on that occasion seemed to have made as +strong an impression upon others as upon myself. I found, later, one of +the most distinguished of news experts of his own or any other country, +Mr. Roy Martin, of the Associated Press of America, in a little tract +which he wrote about the censorship when America entered the war, spoke +of my parties and the talk with Lord Buckmaster in terms which showed +that he had been impressed. The tract in question was entitled +"Newspaper Men should direct the Censorship." The following is the +passage to which I am referring: + + On the day when Lord Buckmaster became Lord High + Chancellor I met him at the hospitable home of St. Loe + Strachey, of _The Spectator_, the best friend American newspaper + men have had during this war, in London, and told him that + newspaper men had probably been a more constant nuisance to + him than to any man in Great Britain. With characteristic + suavity he assured me that he had only the pleasantest recollection + of all his relations with the press. An American + probably would have admitted a part of the indictment. We + do not produce that type of urbanity in this country; like the + colour on the walls of St. Paul's and the Abbey, it comes only + with centuries. + + But all the dreadful lapses of the British censorship and all + its inequalities can be avoided by the United States. The + mistakes which required months to correct are signposts for us. + Its printed rules reveal its slow growth. Our censorship can + develop equal efficiency in a month, if it notes the charted + pitfalls in Whitehall. + +I think my tea-parties would have run to the end of the war if it had +not been that my health temporarily gave way. Owing to my illness I had +to be a great deal away from London, and in any case was not equal to +the extra strain they imposed. If I remember rightly, the last meeting +was held at _The Spectator_ office, for 14 Queen Anne's Gate was +let at the time, _i.e._ in April or May, 1917. + +I hope I shall not be thought indiscreet if I take note of an incident +which occurred in the last six months of the Strachey teas, for it +marked the extreme kindness, consideration, and true-hearted friendship +shown me by my guests. For some reason, I daresay a good one, though I +have forgotten it, the Foreign Office suddenly took it into their heads +that they might improve upon my tea-parties by making them more +official. Accordingly they asked me whether I should mind handing over +the conduct of them to a gentleman whom they named. He had lived, they +pointed out, for over twenty years in the United States and was +therefore likely to be a better host than I was. Indeed, it was +suggested, of course most politely and considerately, that on general +grounds he would be more acceptable to the correspondents than I should +be and would understand them better. + +We were at war, and we did not in those days waste time upon +compliments, but spoke our minds freely--and quite rightly. I was not in +the least hurt. Though I loved the parties, which had given me such good +friends and such good talk, I was very busy, and indeed very much +overworked, and was in a sense relieved at the idea of getting a couple +of hours of much needed leisure in the week. Accordingly, it was +arranged that I should retire gracefully and recommend my official +successor to my American friends in a short speech. This I did with +perfect good-will. But the Foreign Office, though they did not reckon +without their host, had reckoned without his guests. When the concrete +proposal (well-meant, I am sure) was made in all its glorious naïveté in +a little speech by the new host, it was received with something like +annoyance--a fact which worried me not a little, for I had, rather +unwisely perhaps, assured my official mentors that there would be no +objection. + +Things, however, went further than the grim silence with which the +initial proposal was met at what was designed to be "the positively last +appearance of Mr. Strachey." After a few days I heard that three or four +of the correspondents, representing the whole body (with their usual +tact they had kept this from me), had gone to one of the officials at +the Foreign Office and told him plainly that if the scheme was not +abandoned and I was not continued as host, they would none of them put +in an appearance at the weekly gatherings. The result was that the +official scheme was abandoned and that my Conversaziones continued as +before. + +Many people may think this action somewhat strange. I do not think so. +Noting that I had only spent three weeks in America, it was most natural +that the officials concerned should consider that I must be ignorant of +American minds and ways and that my ignorance might be liable to become +offensive. But this view, to borrow Gibbon's immortal phrase, "though +probable is certainly false." It is logical, no doubt, but it is not +consistent with the inconsistency of human nature. + +I ought, perhaps, at the same time to record that earlier in the war, +when, owing to the amount of work I had on hand, I offered to retire +from the office of host and let it be carried on by others, I was +sternly rebuked by the Prime Minister's Private Secretary, and told +peremptorily that it was my duty to go on exactly as before--a mandate +which I naturally regarded as a compliment as well as an order. + +The incident was indeed a pleasant one, and I have reason to believe +that what I did was regarded with satisfaction and with gratitude by the +Prime Minister and his colleagues in the Cabinet. In any case, the whole +episode was characteristically English. I suggested it myself, I carried +it out myself, and though my little organisation had no regular official +sanction or recognition, it was regarded as I have just recorded as war- +work from which I could not retire, without leave. It was valued as a +useful method of keeping touch between the men who were directing the +war and the journalists of America. Without frightening anyone by making +official inquiries, it was easy to find out the temper of the men who +kept America informed. Those concerned had only to drop in at the next +Strachey tea and sound the correspondents. + +Is it to be wondered at, then, that I am intensely proud of what I was +able to do? and proud in three capacities: as a man who wanted to help +his country during the war, as a working journalist who wanted to help +his colleagues, and last, but not least, as one whose life's object has +been to improve the relations between this country and America. + +To this account of my tea-parties I will further add as a postscript +some proofs of what was the opinion of the correspondents as to these +gatherings. + +I had plenty of kind words from my American journalist friends, but as, +I am thankful to say, they are almost all living, I shall obey my rule +and not quote their letters or my recollections of their words. One of +them, Mr. Needham, who, alas! died in an aeroplane accident in the +spring of 1915, wrote me a letter not long before he died, from which I +may quote the following. The letter was written from Paris, and is dated +11th April, 1915. + + The thing I miss most, now that I am away from England, + is your charming tea every Wednesday afternoon. I know of + nothing to compare with it, and I find myself wishing that I + could drop in, have a good time, and incidentally pick up some + really useful knowledge, which one can't so easily do, you know. + +Having said so much, I think I must quote the next sentence, because it +involved a question which was often discussed in the spring of 1915 at +the tea-parties. That was a rather plain-spoken article which I had +written in _The Spectator_ in regard to President Wilson's policy +of neutrality on a moral issue. I spoke frankly, and my words were not +unnaturally resented by those of Mr. Wilson's friends who were personal +admirers and supporters of the President. + + I want to tell you, also, that privately speaking with my + finger to my lips, I quite approve of your article on Wilson. + You will find it hard, at least over here, to find anyone to disagree + with you, except, of course, on American top-soil, + namely, an American Embassy or Legation. + +I may add another proof that the correspondents met my efforts to help +them and also do them the honour they deserved for the magnificent work +they did individually and collectively in preventing the growth of ill- +feeling, or, at any rate, misunderstanding, between what I may call +their and our two nations. + +On November 4th, 1914, my friends gave me a dinner at Claridge's Hotel, +which was, I can say without flattery, the easiest, the most pleasant, +the most natural, the least strained function of the kind in which I +have ever taken part. Here is the list of my hosts--as representative a +body both for men and newspapers as any journalist could desire to +entertain him: + +Edward Bell _Chicago Daily News_ + Sam Blythe _Saturday Evening Post_ + Curtis Brown _New York Press_ + John T. Burke _New York Herald_ + R. M. Collins _Associated Press_ + Herbert Corey _Associated Newspapers_ + Fred Grundy _New York Sun_ + Edward Keen _United Press_ + Ernest Marshall _New York Times_ + Roy Martin _Associated Press_ + H. B. Needham _Collier's Weekly_ + Frederick Palmer _Everybody's_ + Philip Patchin _New York Tribune_ + Fred Pitney _New York Tribune_ + J. Spurgeon _New York World_ + W. Orton Tewson _New York American_ + J. M. Tuohy _New York World_ + +The dinner was as good as the company, and that is saying a great deal. +I shall record the Menu, to show that in 1914 the cooks of London were +still bravely ignoring the ugly fact that we were at war. + + MENU + + Oyster Cocktail à la Strachey + + Lobster-Newburg + Chicken à la Maryland + + Selle d'Agneau + + Haricots Verts + Pommes Anna + + Bécassine Fine Champagne + + Aubergine + + Bombe à la Censor + + Friandises + + Cheese Savoury à la "Spectator" + + Corbeilles de Fruits + + Café--Liqueurs + +The speeches I remember well. Those about me were much too flattering, +but I liked them none the less for that. I am sure they were sincere. +Certainly mine was. I had started out on the hard track of duty to my +profession and my country, and behold, it had turned into the Primrose +Path of pleasure! I expected to deal with a body of severe strangers and +I found myself with a band of brothers--men to whom you could entrust +your secrets in the spirit in which you entrust a bank with your money. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +IDYLLS OF THE WAR + + +People are getting tired of military controversies, and if they were +not, I should be precluded from dealing with them by the fact that I +intend to avoid as far as possible matters which concern living men, +unless these are non-contentious. _Horas non numero nisi serenas_. +Again, and even if it were desirable to add fresh fuel to the +controversial fire, I could not, speaking generally, add to knowledge +without violating confidence. + +Nevertheless I cannot treat the war as if it had never existed, or as if +it had no influence on my life. It had, of course, a profound influence, +and that I am bound to display in an autobiography of the kind I am +writing. + +This influence, however, must be gathered indirectly rather than +directly. All I propose to do at present is to touch the war on two +points. First, I want to give one or two examples of what I may call +"War Idylls"--recollections which were of so picturesque and poignant a +character that they made a fast impression on my mind. Later, I must say +something of the adventure of living continuously for four and a half +years in a hospital. There I learnt great and useful lessons about my +countrymen and countrywomen and confirmed from direct knowledge what had +been but guesses or intuitive visions. + +My Idylls of the conflict are partly objective and partly subjective. In +my visits to the front and in such war-work as I did at home, I +witnessed many striking and even entertaining things, and I saw them at +moments of mental concentration and exaltation which no doubt heightened +them and sometimes made them assume an interest and importance not +altogether their own. + +The first visit to the front undertaken by me began on the 8th of May, +1915, that memorable day on which was received the news of the sinking +of the _Lusitania_. + +I shall not give any account of my feelings when hearing for the first +time a great cannonade, or seeing shells burst, or catching a glimpse of +the German line. Of all such things none were or could afford an +experience so terrible as the sight I saw at Bailleul. A number of men +still in the agonies of gas-poisoning, men hovering between life and +death, lay on their stretchers in rows in the vestibule of the Hospital, +awaiting removal. They spoke in strange, lifeless voices, like men +recalled from death by some potent spell. But on this unnecessary horror +of war I do not mean to dwell. I shall, however, quote from my War Diary +an account of a visit to the Scherpenberg, because it gives a glimpse of +a side of war too often neglected or ignored. + +_May 19th, 1915:_--From the hospital we went to one of the most +wonderful places in the theatre of war, a place of which I had heard a +great deal, but not a word too much, from my guide. This was the +Scherpenberg. Directly overlooking the plain in which Ypres stands are +two hills, Scherpenberg and Kemmel. Kemmel is constantly being pounded +by artillery fire of all sorts, but Scherpenberg, for some strange or at +any rate unknown reason, is never shelled, and the windmill on the top +of it is still going merrily. As I sat on the grass of the hill-top, +with the men working at the mill behind us and a nightingale singing in +the little hazel brake on our left, it was very difficult to believe +that one was looking not only at the scene of recent battle, but at the +scene of a battle proceeding at that very moment. The Germans were +engaged in a fierce counter-stroke on the North-Eastern front of the +Ypres salient. The only indication was the bursting of a good deal of +shrapnel at this point. It was here that I first saw shrapnel shells and +noticed the little white puffs of smoke, which for all the world looked +like the steam let off by an ordinary locomotive. Behind us, or rather, +on the right of Scherpenberg hill, there was a big British gun which was +firing steadily on the German trenches. The rush of the shell made a +distinctly cheerful sound. My companion told me that the sound was +anything but cheerful when the direction was reversed and the shell, +instead of going from you, was coming towards you. Then the noise was +converted into a melancholy moan. While the German and British shrapnel +was bursting on the trenches to the North-East of us, there was +noticeable a good deal of dark cloud round Ypres, due, as we learnt +afterwards, to some buildings having been set on fire during the German +attack that morning. With glasses one could see quite clearly the tower +of the Cloth Hall, which had not apparently been at all injured. The +towers of the Cathedral were also quite plain, but owing to the roof +having been blown off, it was very difficult to realise that they +belonged to the same building and were not independent towers. The wood +to the South-East of Ypres was very clearly seen. This is the wood, as +far as I can make out, which R---- had on several occasions told me was +a dreadful place, filled with unburied bodies, pitted with shell-holes +and with half the trees broken by explosions and ready to fall. None of +this, however, could be seen from a distance. As one looked from the +windmill, Poperinghe with its prominent church spire was to the left and +it was quite impossible to discern anything abnormal in its appearance. +It looked even then like an ordinary prosperous Flemish town. In the +foreground, that is between the Scherpenberg and Ypres, lay what +everyone calls "Dickybush" and Voormezeele, or as the soldiers would +say, Vermicelli. There were plenty of people moving up and down the +road, which ran straight from the base of the Scherpenberg into Ypres, +passing through "Dickybush." The ground all round was being tilled quite +as assiduously as if there had been no war. In fact, close to us the +only difference the war made was that there were a great many Tommies, +either alone or in small parties, going backwards and forwards on the +road, just as one sees them at manoeuvres. They appeared to be perfectly +at home, quite cheerful, and on the best of good terms with the +inhabitants. + +Just below the hill, or, rather, half-way down, is a very pleasant- +looking small farm, or big peasant's house. As I had not yet talked to a +Belgian peasant I felt I must make the picture complete by doing so. We +therefore went to the house and made an excuse for talking to the +people. Several women came out and all more or less talked volubly--but +unfortunately in Flemish. Soon, however, a typical farmer's daughter of +about sixteen or seventeen came out and fired off a great deal of very +bad French and English intermixed with Flemish. She was a pleasant- +looking, fat girl, with beady black eyes. She told us that she had been +living in Ypres up till a fortnight before. I suppose as a servant or +possibly in a shop. It seems that at first she found nothing +disagreeable in the bombardment, but of late things had got so hot that +she determined to leave. Indeed, although she looked the picture of +health and good spirits, she told us that towards the end she had felt +rather nervous. She had been near too many bursting shells and burning +houses and seen too many people killed. In fact, as the Tommies would +say, she could not stick it any longer. I asked her how she had got +away. The answer was simple. She had merely walked down the road to +Poperinghe and then, "fetching a compass" like St. Paul, had got into +"Dickybush" and so home. "A very long walk?" I queried. At this she +giggled, and added that "les soldats Anglais sont si gentils." She had +had a good many lifts in motor-cars on the road. I did not doubt it. She +was just the kind of girl, perfectly straight and of good intent I am +sure, who, whether in peace or war, would get lifts from any British +soldier engaged in driving anything, from a motor-car to a gun. + +As we finished our conversation with the group of women I looked in at +the window with the innocent idea of seeing what the furnishings of a +Flemish farmhouse were like. There, to my amazement, I saw two prim and +perfectly well-behaved Tommies sitting at a table and just beginning to +have tea, or, rather, coffee. It was the modern version of those +seventeenth century Flemish pictures which one sees in most Museums, +where a brutal and licentious soldiery are in possession of some +wretched Belgian yeoman's house. The Tommies were, of course, going to +pay liberally for their coffee and were evidently behaving with the pink +of propriety. + +From the farm we walked down the road half-way into "Dickybush" and +then, turning to the right, took a field-path up a little hill to get +one last view of Ypres under its canopy of mist and smoke, pierced by +the towers of the Cloth Hall and the Cathedral. The little field-path +was of the kind which one sees everywhere on the Continent, a path +somehow quite different from the English field-path. At the end of it +stood a typical Belgian peasant, for we were over the border. I asked +him a question, but he shook his head, for he could only talk Flemish, +and muttered something about "les Allemands," making the usual sign for +throat cutting. It was curious to see that this was not done in the +conventional, theatrical way, but with a grim stoicism which was not +unimpressive. He was not in any kind of panic and was working hard in +his fields. He meant merely to convey in gesture some expression like +"those damned cutthroats of Germans." I left the Scherpenberg Hill with +great regret. It was a wonderful "specular mount." As one stood by the +side of the windmill and gazed over the battle-ground, one seemed to get +war in its true perspective, something not quite as horrible or +sensational as one gathers from special correspondents at the front, and +yet something full of a deadly earnestness, intensity, and most +impressive fatefulness. Though one forgot it at moments, there was +always present to one's mind "the rough edge of battle" of which Milton +spoke, out yonder in the trenches. The battlefield seen from a distance +and in a position of complete safety is like going over a hospital and +seeing the flowers in the wards, the perfect sanitary arrangements and +the general air of orderly comfort, and ignoring the operating-theatre +with all its grim tragedies. In a battle of this kind the first-line +trench is the operating theatre, hidden away from the people who have no +business in it. + +As a pendant to what I saw from the Scherpenberg while heavy fighting +was going on in the salient, I may set forth how, a year later (that is, +in August, 1916), I and a friend climbed the steep path of yellow sand +which leads to the top of "Le Mont des Cats," a sister summit. From this +isolated sandhill, one sees the whole plain of Flanders laid out like a +green map at one's feet. But on this occasion, instead of seeing, as I +had seen from the Scherpenberg, the pomp and circumstance of war, the +view on that particular August afternoon from the Mont des Cats was +apparently one of perfect peace. + +The opposing armies lay quiet in their trenches. Only the boom of an +occasional gun which the foe or the British were firing (cheerfully +rather than sullenly) and now and then the noise of an "Archie" warning +a Taube to "keep off the grass" in the vault of Heaven, destroyed the +illusion of profound rest and reminded one that the wide world was at +war. Otherwise the pacific fallacy was for the moment complete. In the +sober sunlight of the late summer afternoon the whole earth seemed +lapped in happy slumber. + +Yet two hours after, and at the actual sunset, so quick are the changes +at the front, the present writer, by that time off the hill and in the +plain below, saw the heavens gloriously alive with the pageantry of +conflict. The vault was pitted with woolly tufts of shrapnel and +beautiful dead-whitesmoke-wreaths from the phosphorescent bombs. These +spread their sinuous toils high and low and seemed to fill the skies. On +both sides the aerial combatants were going home to roost, exchanging +challenges by the way. And all the time, hidden in a hundred woods and +brakes, the Archies sang in chorus. These evening voluntaries, including +the winding-up of a good many aerial sausages, were competing with the +last rays of the glorious indolent, setting sun, and were made complete +and appropriate by a good deal of "field music" from the big guns. But +even this, though it was a reminder of war, seemed to those who watched +rather part of the setting of a dramatic fantasia of the sky than a real +cannonade. It was one of the most wonderful pageants of the sky that +human eyes ever beheld. Even Staff Officers stopped their cars and got +out to look. A series of accidents: a gorgeous sunset, a clear sky, +great visibility, all combined to make the empyrean into an operatic +"set" which Wagner might have envied but could never have imitated. + +In November, 1915, I also paid a visit to the front. I had some exciting +moments, but here again I want to give, not war reminiscences which will +seem very small beer to half the population of the United Kingdom, but +merely to describe an incident which combined the picturesque and the +entertaining. + +I was taken by my son-in-law, Captain Williams Ellis, and a life-long +friend, Lord Ruthven, then the Master of Ruthven, and chief Staff +Officer of the Guards Division, into the first trench-line opposite the +Aubers Ridge, and incidentally to view some of the worst and wettest +trenches on the whole front, at the moment held in part by my son-in- +law's regiment, the Welsh Guards. My guides naturally took me up a +communication-trench, named "Fleet Street," where one was always up to +one's knees in water and sometimes over them. They brought me back, +however, by Drury Lane, which was a somewhat drier street, also +appropriate to _The Spectator_. Here again I will quote from my +Diary: + +When we emerged from the end of the Drury Lane communication-trench +upon the Route de Tilleloi, we proceeded down that excellent road, +discoursing on a hundred war topics. Suddenly, however, we came upon a +strange spectacle,--a row of men with their backs to the trench-line, +walking with extreme slowness and seriousness, in the most strict +alignment, both as regards their front and the distances between them, +across a piece of muddy pasture. The sun was just about to set, but the +light was good and we could see in this row of intent backs that there +was a subaltern in the middle and about eight or nine men on each side +of him. In solemn silence they went on their way. I was just beginning +to think within myself how very worthy it was of the said subaltern to +take out a section of his platoon and practise them in some particular +type of advance in open order, when, looking more closely at the line of +backs, I noticed that the men on the extreme right and left were +carrying something slung over their shoulders. I then saw that these +somethings were hares. The young devil of a subaltern, quite contrary to +orders and at the risk of courtmartial, was indulging in a hare drive +under shell-fire! His men, of course, were greatly delighted in the +adventure. The whole proceeding was marked by that seriousness which +Americans say is only shown by Britons when engaged in some form of +sport. Light-heartedness is good enough for the trenches, but not to be +thought of when on a predatory sporting expedition. Fortunately for my +conductor, the subaltern and his party did not belong to his Division, +and so he was able to turn a blind eye. My heart warmed to the young +wretch, but the authorities are perfectly right to be very stern in such +matters. All shooting is forbidden by the French law, and of course a +French proprietor feels it a horrible outrage that while he is not +allowed to shoot, some young English officer prances over his ground and +bags his hares. That is more than flesh-and-blood can stand, and one is +glad to think that it is being stamped upon. Still, when all is said and +done, I wouldn't have missed the sight of shooting hares under shell- +fire for anything in the world. It is correct to say that the drive was +conducted under shell-fire, but no one must suppose that shells were +exploding at everybody's feet. All the same, only a little time before a +shell did drop the other side of the shooting party, and a very little +time afterwards we saw one explode to the right, about two hundred yards +from where we were. In fact, the general position was not unlike that +described by Mr. Jorrocks: the shooters were having all the pleasures +and excitements of war with only one per cent. of the risks. + +After a very pleasant visit to General French at his headquarters at St. +Omar, the visit ended with a touch of excitement. + +On the morning of my departure, we received news that a hospital ship +had been sunk in the Channel. At 10.30, I finished my talk with Sir +John, got into a motor and drove to Boulogne. Having been told that all +the mines had been swept up and that everything was perfectly right, I +was to have started by the 12.15 boat, that is the boat which started an +hour after the doomed hospital ship. We were all told, however, that we +were not to cross by the said 12.15, or leave-boat, but must wait for +the P. & O. mail-boat. I rather kicked at this, but as all sorts of +generals and big wigs were placed under the same condemnation I saw it +was useless to protest, and went and had lunch. I can only presume they +had already had wireless news of the sinking of the hospital ship and +also of the steam collier, and wanted to be sure that there were no more +mines about. Accordingly we did not sail till 3.45, no one in the ship, +of course, knowing anything about the disaster. I only heard of it +coming up in the train to London, and then the news characteristically +came--not from a general with whom I was travelling--but from a +subaltern who had somehow picked up the news on the Folkestone quay.... +It was curious to reflect that if anyone had offered me the opportunity +of going on a hospital ship as one of the sights, I should have closed +with it unhesitatingly. Luckily for me, however, I had not come across +any R. A. M. C. people, and therefore am still in a position to sign my +name to these notes. I managed to get to Brooks's for some late supper +at 9.30. At first I was told that I could only have cold beef, but not +being a Staff Officer, and not being afraid of being called a luxurious +and self-indulgent pig, I insisted upon having some hot soup and some +cold pheasant, and also a cup of hot cocoa. After this warming supper I +went to Garland's, and found awaiting me large packets of letters and +proofs. Next morning I was writing my Thursday leader at _The +Spectator_ office, "as usual." + +My last and most exciting visit to the front took place on August 2, +1916, that is, just after the great attack on the Somme. Most of my +experiences, however, though very exciting to me at the time, would now +make very dull reading. Still, there were one or two impressive moments. +During the visit I was for a night a guest at Lord Haig's advanced +headquarters, and from a little hill above the château in which he +lived, I was able to see the trench-line by night. + +During dinner, the guns began to speak loudly, and after dinner I got +one of the Staff to take me to the top of the down above the château to +watch the lights of the battle-line. It was a memorable sight. The +flashes of our guns on one side, and of those of the Germans on the +other, made an almost continuous line of pallid light. Besides, every +minute or two, all along the front, one could see the German or British +magnesium flares illuminating the trench-line. These flares are used as +one uses a bull's-eye on a dark walk. Just as you turn the bull's-eye on +any place which you are not quite sure of, so a flare-light is sent up +when either side suspects evil designs on a particular part of their +trench-line. The effect of the lights was very much like that of a +distant firework display, but the continual roar of the guns gave a +touch of anger and menace which made one realise that one was watching +war and not a Brock's Benefit. The roar of the artillery lasted all +night, and when I woke early in the morning it was still going on. Just +about five o'clock, however, it suddenly stopped, and I realised with a +thumping heart that the Australians and Kents and Surreys were going +over the parapet at Pozières. + +At breakfast the Commander-in-Chief showed us a telephone message he had +just received from Pozières, saying that we had carried the piece of +trench which we desired to carry, and had inflicted considerable losses +upon the Germans without suffering too heavily ourselves. We had, +besides, taken several hundred prisoners. + +In the course of this visit, I had the good luck to go into the former +German trenches at Notre Dame de Lorette, and also to see some of the +German first-line trenches and dug-outs on the Somme at Fricourt, and +Albert and its hanging statue. But although this was exciting, it was +eclipsed by a visit to Ypres, which I was able to induce my friend, R----, +to manage for me. Ypres just then was not considered a very healthy +spot. I was General Hunter Weston's guest at the Château de Louvet. + +I had once before been in Ypres. It was in the course of a bicycle tour +in 1896 or '97, a fact which afforded me some very poignant points of +comparison. The chief thing that is impressed on my memory was a curious +and pathetic little idyll which is thus recorded in my Diary. + +We left our car outside the walls, and entered Ypres close to the Menin +Gate, now demolished--where my wife and I entered the town twenty years +ago. + +(We bicycled from Lille, where we had gone to see the Lille bust--a +journey which the whole wealth of the world could not now buy one the +right to take.) + +I was glad to find that my memory was not in fault, and I recalled +perfectly the great grey-brick walls and the wide moat which in June, +1896, was covered with white waterlilies. There seemed to be none now, +but perhaps "they withered all" when the town died. I should not wonder +if this were so, for shells must certainly have dropped in the moat, and +in so doing must have disturbed them at the very roots. Crossing the +moat by the bridge, we went to the _Place_, once bordered by one of +the greatest and most magnificent examples of civic mediaeval +architecture the world had to show--the Cloth Hall of Ypres. Its walls +now only stand some 20 or 30 feet high. The remains of the towers of the +Cathedral are a little higher, and one of the pinnacles of the Cloth +Hall points like a gaunt grey finger to the sky. I wandered alone into +the Institute of St. Vincent de Paul, which stands to the north of the +_Place_ and is only partially ruined. The façade, a pleasant +example of Louis XIV work, is still standing, and there are also pieces +of the roof intact. One enters by the church or chapel door. I passed +through this, with its desecrated altars and its ruined ecclesiastical +finery, into the sacristies and other rooms behind, including one lofty +room lined entirely with blue-and-white tiles. While there, I heard, to +my surprise, a faint and very distant sound of a sweeping broom. It +echoed through those empty, roofless halls with a weird sound, for at +that moment there was only an occasional growl of artillery in the air. +Everything else was strangely quiet. Needless to say, an uninhabited +town is never noisy, and at five o'clock in the morning it is not merely +not noisy but deadly still. Greatly astonished, I followed the sound +through a long succession of ruined rooms, until I came upon a soldier +with a broom, steadily sweeping the floor of a small empty room a little +off the main sacristy. He had a steel helmet upon his head, like myself. +Slowly and like a man in a dream he plied his work. He looked at me as +if I too were part of the dream, and when I asked him what his regiment +was, he answered with a sort of shadowy salute and in faint, far-away +tones, "The 52nd." I am bound to say I have never been more taken aback +than I was by that answer. It literally left me speechless--a record, my +friends tell me. The strangeness of the whole scene and the silence had +made me prepared for mysteries, but it was a little too much to be told +that _I_ was face to face with a man from one of the most famous of +the Peninsular regiments. It is unnecessary to say that no modern +soldier, asked his regiment, would now give its old numeral. He would +have described himself as belonging to, say, the 2nd Battalion of the +Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. I hastily retreated from this vision of +the past, and recounted my experiences to R----. As much mystified as +myself, he moved with me on the sound of the broom. The man gave him the +same answer as he did to me, and produced the same sense of mystery. But +then there came the prosaic explanation. He belonged, he added, to the +Canadians. His far-away manner was soon accounted for by the fact that +he was a French-speaking Canadian and only very dimly understood my +question. So passed into prose a very pretty piece of mystery! He was no +doubt a Roman Catholic and anxious to do anything he could to keep the +sanctuary clean. From the Grande Place, with its air of Pompeian +melancholy, we passed on to the ramparts. There, I was thrilled to see +the guard being relieved in the dead silence of the dawn by helmet-clad +men. Mounting or relieving guard on these ramparts is no empty pageant, +for at any moment a German shell may drop and obliterate the post.... +When we had gone what I judge to be about a mile along the canal, it +being now seven o'clock, we turned off to the left into some fields, in +order to take a path which led to a point in the road where our car had +been sent round to meet us. When we were about half the way across the +fields a shell came over our heads, and we could see it bursting upon +the road almost exactly at the spot where we expected the car to wait. +This was somewhat disconcerting, and R., after the manner of the British +officer, whose first thought in reality as well as in fiction is for his +man, showed a good deal of anxiety lest his chauffeur should have been +in trouble. The shell was not a solitary one, and there was soon another +bursting on our left and another in the air in front of us. Though I +have, in the abstract, no desire for shellfire, even when very mild, I +could not, in a sense, help being glad that I was obliged to get so +excellent a view of what a shell bursting in the air looks like at +fairly close quarters. To be truthful, it looks almost exactly like what +I used to call an absurdly exaggerated picture in the illustrated +newspapers! There was no great danger, but R.--- who was no doubt +slightly anxious about his charge, _i.e._ myself, just as one is +anxious when showing sights to visitors when one is threatened by a +hailstorm,--thought we had better sit down and wait till we saw whether +the shelling was going to stop or possibly develop into something really +unpleasant. Accordingly, we sat down on what had once been a rather neat +piece of sandbag work, something in the nature of what an Irishman might +have called a "built-up dug-out." Though the roof was off, I was glad to +have a feeling of security in the small of my back. It rested against a +double thickness of sandbags. While waiting here I was consoled by my +companion by a story of what an artillery general had said to him under +similar circumstances, i.e. that when one saw the shells not bursting +near enough to do any harm, one was perfectly safe. The only trouble, he +went on, was that "some infernal idiot in the German artillery positions +might go and monkey with the sights." "In that case, there might be a +nasty accident." Happily no interfering idiot in this case monkeyed with +the sights, and very soon the battery which was attending to our part of +the country "ceased fire," and it was soon pronounced safe for us to +resume our walk. Altogether I was much impressed with R.'s complete +indifference. Nothing could have been more reassuring for civilian +nerves. When we emerged on the piece of road where we ought to have +found our car and chauffeur, we were immediately plunged back from the +solemnities of war into the normal picnic situation. Everyone knows how +at a picnic the car is sent round another way, with clear directions to +go to a perfectly familiar spot, a place where the host says he has made +his chauffeur meet him a dozen times before, and to wait there. Yet the +rendezvous when you reach it always turns out to be absolutely vacant +and bereft, not only of the car but of any signs of human life whatever. +No desert looks so forlorn as a place where one expects to meet somebody +and does not meet them. This was exactly our case. Happily there were no +signs of the car having been destroyed, and therefore our anxiety for +the chauffeur's safety was relieved. + +To cut a long story short, we wandered about till we found and +commandeered another car, and drove up the main road. There we soon +found the errant car, wailing behind a shed and some trees. It appeared +that the chauffeur had found the rendezvous too hot for him, after two +shells burst not a dozen yards away from the car, and he retreated +therefore to a safe corner, where we found him talking to a fellow- +soldier. He was very properly reprimanded for having moved from the +place where he was told to wait, but all the same I was glad there was +no accident. + +During our return journey, we were not worried by bombardment of any +kind, and got back to H. Q. for an excellent breakfast at 8.30. The +morning I spent strolling about the grounds of the château. At luncheon, +R. asked me what I would like to do, and I suggested a visit to the +Belgian inundations. The arrangements required were somewhat elaborate, +but thanks to the good offices of the Belgian _liaison_ officer +attached to the Corps Commander's staff, we got the necessary permits. I +am exceedingly glad to think that we did pay this visit, for it was not +only most picturesque but also most deeply interesting from a military +point of view. The greater part of the Belgian line and the whole of the +part we visited runs parallel to the course of the canalised river Yser, +which empties itself into the sea at Nieuport. To reach it we had to +pass through Furnes, most charming of old Flemish towns, with a +ravishing Grande Place, surrounded by beautiful brick houses, some of +them of the XVth century, some of them dating from the time of the +Spanish occupation, and some again, of the epoch of Louis XIV. As the +Belgian lines are on a dead flat alluvial plain reclaimed from the sea, +it had proved impossible to manage communication-trenches. If they were +dug into the ground they would instantly become full of water. No doubt +they might have been built up with sandbag parapets, but this apparently +was not thought necessary, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the +inundation pushes back the German lines for nearly two miles. We +(_i.e._ the two Belgian officers who accompanied us, R. and myself) +all packed into one motor for this part of the drive, lest two motors +should draw the attention of the enemy's artillery. Also the car was +made to drive very slowly lest it should raise a cloud of dust and so +give us away. We ran up a road parallel to the course of the Yser, and +passed three brick chimneys belonging to a factory which had been much +knocked about by the German artillery fire. One of the chimneys was +pierced by the very neatest shell-hole you ever saw. It went straight +through the shaft of the chimney, in at one side and out at the other, +for all the world like two windows opposite each other. The fabric of +the chimney remained secure. Needless to say, this eye was put into the +needle of the chimney because it had been used as a Belgian observation- +post. We soon got out of our car and walked across the fields to the old +railway embankment, which was now being used as the bank of the +inundation. On the land side of it the ground was marshy, but it was +_terra firma_. On the other side there are two thousand yards of +grey-brown water about three or four feet deep. The inundation was +produced by reversing the process of reclamation. The gates of the Yser +used to be shut against high tides, to prevent the sea-water coming up, +and opened at low tides to let down the land water. Now they are opened +at high tides, so that the tide can rush in and maintain the inundation, +and at low tides they are closed, so that the fresh water of the Yser +can overflow its banks. On the top of the railway bank is a fine series +of sandbag parapets and parados. R., however, pointed out that the +parados is so good as to be really another parapet. Therefore, if the +enemy took those Belgian trenches they would, without any alteration of +the premises, be able to open business on the south side. In the south +face of the railway embankment a number of excellent dug-outs have been +excavated, and strengthened with stone, brickwork, and concrete by the +ingenious Belgian engineers. Those works showed what the world has +always seen in the architecture of the Low Countries, namely, what +wonderful constructors are the Flemings. Building seems to come as +naturally to them as to the Italians, though their staple is brick, not +marble. + +Before I leave the subject of the inundations, I ought to say that +across the stretch of muddy water the Belgians hold a good many little +islets and pieces of ground, which, for some reason or other, are a few +feet higher than the rest of the reclaimed plain. Communication with +these is kept, not by boats, but by paths of duck-board which lie across +the flooded lands. The Germans, however, recognise that they have been +completely outwitted by the inundation, and that it is no use to attempt +to attack the Belgians. Accordingly things are very quiet on this line. +It happened, however, that as we walked back across the fields, having +followed the same plan as in the morning of sending our car round to +meet us at a safe place, the Germans chose to throw a few shells, and I +had therefore, when I reached the place of safety, the feeling, good to +the civilian heart, that I had been shelled both before and after +luncheon in one day--though I admit that the shelling was not of a very +serious description. It did, however, justify the steel helmet and the +gas-mask. + +I shall end my Idylls of the War with what I hope will not be called a +frivolous note. + +At the end of the war, when men had to be taken away even from the +necessary work of agriculture, women, with that surprising capacity for +work of all kinds, which seems to be their privilege, took on every sort +of job and did them all remarkably well. Perhaps the most curious +instance of this is that women at once took up the work of shepherds, +and began to keep their flocks on bleak and lonely Downs; a function, +remember, which no women had performed in England for two or three +hundred years. Here is my account of the first shepherdess I ever saw, +written on October, 1918, and on the day of my encounter. + +I had always longed to see a shepherdess, keeping her sheep on the +Downs, and watching them feed, in sober security. I think it was that +desire that made me, when at Oxford, contemplate a learned study of +Elizabethan pastoral plays--a work which, if I remember rightly, never +got beyond a dedication to a damsel who, "perchance to soothe my +youthful dreams," appeared too bright for common life and needed the +crook and the wreath. And now today I saw, as I was riding along the +Pilgrim's Way across the Downs, a shepherdess. Alas! _quantum mutata +ab ilia_. Even when I saw her, a long distance off, leaning on her +crook, I did not desire to:-- + + "Assume her homely ways and dress, + A shepherd, she a shepherdess." + +Still less, when I rode up closer, did I entertain any romantic ideas. I +had not been so fantastic in mind as to expect a war shepherdess to wear +a straw hat in December, wreathed with roses and forget-me-nots, or a +mixture of all the flowers of spring, summer, and autumn, as is the wear +of the pastoral Muse. Again, I did not look for a "Rogue in porcelain," +with gold buckles on neat black shoes, and highly ornamented stays worn +outside her gown. A stalwart young woman, in a khaki smock and sou'- +wester, Bedford-cord breeches, and long leather boots, would have +satisfied my utmost demands in 1918. Instead, however, my shepherdess +was dressed, if her clothes could be called dress, like a female tramp. +Long draggle-tailed skirts, some sort of a shawl, and the most appalling +old cloth cap on her head, concealing a small quantity of grey hairs and +shading a wrinkled, aged face! It was a bitter disappointment. She would +have done far better for a Norn or one of the Weird Sisters. Yet, when I +stopped my horse to talk to her--I had not forgotten that "the courtesy +of shepherds" demands that one should always exchange words with the +folk of the lonely trade--I found myself unconsciously dropping into the +language of pastoral verse. Does not the Third Eclogue of Virgil begin: + + "Die mihi, ... ? An Melibei?" + +At any rate, I began: "Whose flock is this?" She answered as if out of +the book: "It's Farmer Black's. First the one-armed shepherd had it. Now +I've got it," and her eyes looked lovingly on as fine a flock of ewes as +you could wish to see. They were spread fanwise along the opposite side +of the sharply-defined chalk valley. She went on to tell me that she had +also got the lamb flock, but not with her that day. I asked how she had +come to take up pastoral work, thinking that probably she was the widow +of a shepherd. But it seemed that she had never done shepherd's work +before, though, as she said, she had "been brought up among them." +"Them" was obviously the ewes and lambs. One could see that she was +thoroughly competent, and that while she was in charge there would be no +straying or stealing, or over-feeding, or starving, or any other ill. +Then we talked of her dog, who sat by her, vigilant and confident, ready +at her slightest word or nod to race round his charges. Yes, he was a +good dog now, but when she had him first he was wicked. "He was that +spiteful, you dursn't trust him." The one-armed shepherd had "used him +cruel," and made him savage with the sheep. Now at last she had got him +quite right again, and she looked down lovingly upon the dog--a bob- +tail of the South Down breed--who sat at attention by her side. But, she +ended, the work was very hard, and the weather getting too cold for her +to be up on the Downs much longer. She would have to give it up for this +winter. + +I wished her good luck and cantered off, a disillusioned man. But as I +turned my heard for one more glimpse of my one and only shepherdess, I +saw the dog looking up with the utmost faith and affection into her +poor, kindly, weazened old face. I could not wish her other than she +was. I could well believe that the farmer was satisfied with her, and +hardly regretted that she had not thought it worth while to dress the +part with a little more attention. Perhaps in the time to come we shall +develop a real race of shepherdesses, + + "Who without sadness shall be safe, + And gay without frivolity." + If we do, I think they are pretty sure, whether young or old, to tie +bunches of wild flowers to their crooks. But, after all, for a war +shepherdess, garments such as my Downland Amoret had on were more +appropriate. Anyway, the brave old thing was doing her war-work +sturdily. She shivered, I am sure, for service not for hire. All honour +to her and the thousands of women who did as she did! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +FIVE GREAT MEN + + +There are five men,--three of them close friends and the others good +friends and men for whom I felt a warm admiration,--who stand out as +prominent influences in my life. In the first group I put Lord Cromer, +Colonel John Hay, and Mr. Theodore Roosevelt. They were men with whom I +was, I think, in sympathy on every point in regard to the conduct of +political life and to the spirit in which it should be carried on. The +other two were Joseph Chamberlain and the Duke of Devonshire. Mr. +Chamberlain I knew intimately and esteemed highly, having always a +sincere admiration for him even when we differed most in politics. In +regard to the other, the late Duke of Devonshire, I may say that +although I was on much less intimate terms with him than with Mr. +Chamberlain, I never felt any political difference, except in the matter +of speed of action. Yet even when one was most impatient with the Duke's +slowness in uptake, one often admired him most and felt at the back of +one's mind that he was most in the right. + +In selecting these five men from among my friends I must remind people +that this does not show that they were my only close and intimate +friends in public life. There were plenty of others, but I am thankful +to say I am prevented from mentioning most of them because of my rule +not to write of the living. Indeed, I have been so fortunate in my +friends that but for this rule I could fill not a single volume but a +series of vast tomes. + +In moments of mental elation I had planned to direct my executors to +place upon the tablet which will be fixed to the wall of the Strachey +Chapel in Chew Magna Church, nothing but the words: "His friends were +many and true-hearted." I admit that this is a piece of self-laudation +that a man could hardly be justified in bestowing upon himself. If you +can read their "history in a people's eyes," you can certainly best read +a man's history by asking who were his friends and how did they treat +him and feel towards him. Till lately, however, I have felt a difficulty +in the matter, for, to tell the truth, these deeply moving words came in +the first place not from some classical writer but from that nautical +ditty, "Tom Bowling." They are the work of that amazing British Tyrteus +Dibdin,--the broken-down poet actor who drew an annual salary from the +Admiralty for maintaining the spirit of the British Navy through his +songs! ["_We 'ires a poet for ourselves_" was, according to Byron, +the boast of Mr. Rowland of oily fame. The Admiralty could make a +similar claim.] + +I felt that it would be rather much to ask one's executor to get a +country vicar to pass a line of a nautical ditty for insertion in a +church. If, in verifying the quotation, the parson should be arrested by +the neighbouring line, "_His Poll was kind and true_," what then? +There is no harm in the poem as a whole but somehow it has not quite the +monumental air about it. Lately, however, I discovered to my great +satisfaction and not a little to my amusement that, as so often happens, +one of the Greeks of the great age had been before Dibdin. In that +enchanting dialogue, "The Symposium" of Xenophon, Hermogenes is asked by +one of the persons of the dialogue: "On what do you plume yourself most +highly?" "_On the virtue and the power of my friends_," he +answered, "_and that being what they are, they care for me_." I +feel now that when the time comes, my complimentary self-determination +may be shrouded in the veil of a learned language, and if the words, +"His friends were many and true-hearted" are added in the vernacular +they will pass with men of Hellenic culture as an allowable example of a +free translation. + +It will also have a certain support from one of the tablets with which +my tablet will be colleague, the tablet that commemorates the first Sir +Henry Strachey, the Secretary of Clive and a man who was for forty years +and more a Member of the House of Commons. This epitaph has not the +usual flowery pomposity that one would expect to find in the case of a +man of his age and occupation and position. It is reticent, if +conventional. One phrase, however, stands out. Henry Strachey is +described as "_an active friend_." That is much too great praise +for a man to claim for himself, but there is nothing that I should like +better than to be able to think when I boasted that my friends, like the +friends of Hermogenes, were many and cared for me, that I had helped to +make them so because in a world so full of passive friends I had at any +rate tried to be active. + + * * * * * + +I must begin with Lord Cromer, for I had a regard for him, and for his +wise and stimulating advice, which touches the point of veneration. He +was seldom out of my thoughts. He was in the habit of consulting me +freely in regard to public events and on other great matters, and we +either met and talked or else wrote to each other almost daily. I was a +much younger man than he, and I had not, as he had, come into personal +contact with the problems of practical administration at first hand, but +had been accustomed to see them and deal with them rather as +abstractions. It is true that the questions on which my opinion had to +be expressed in _The Spectator_ were often of vital importance and +that I had to advise my readers thereon. Still, I was never myself an +executant. I was, indeed, rather like the type of laboratory doctor who +has of late come into being. He does not himself come into contact with +the patient though he is asked to investigate special points. His +opinion may have great weight and influence, but he does not carry out +the physical cure of the patient. + +Many of Lord Cromer's oldest and most intimate friends may perhaps be +surprised to hear that Lord Cromer consulted me so often and on so many +points. If so, I shall not be astonished at their astonishment. It would +be most natural in the case of a man so self-reliant, so able to judge +and balance things for himself--so little liable to be carried away by +personal feelings, as Lord Cromer. Yet, it is true The reason was, I +think, that Lord Cromer found with me, as I found with him, that in +response to, or in reaction from any particular series of events we +almost always found ourselves _ad idem_. We wanted the same good +causes to win, and we wanted to frustrate the same evil projects. In +public affairs, we agreed not only as to what was injurious and as to +what was sound, but, which is far more important, we agreed as to what +was _possible_. + +In economic matters, both in theory and practice, we moved on exactly +the same lines. Once or twice, when I most sincerely thought that I was +differing from Lord Cromer and told him so, because I felt I might seem +to be shifting my ground,--or rather, looking at things from a different +angle,--I found that an exactly similar process had gone on in his mind. + +As so often happens with a friendship of this kind, I foretold in my own +mind almost from the first moment I saw him, the kind of tie that was +going to unite us. I had not spent half an hour in his company before I +realized that I had at last found a man dealing with great affairs in a +great way,--not only a man who satisfied me absolutely in theory, but a +man with whom I could act unreservedly because his mind was tuned to the +same pitch as mine. + +I well remember the day and the hour of our meeting. Always deeply +interested in Imperial questions, and especially in the Egyptian +problem, I determined, in the year 1896, to pay a visit to Egypt. Like +most young men of my day, I admired Lord Cromer and his work, but I had +no special cult for him. Naturally, however, I took out letters of +introduction, for until the end of his occupation of the post of Consul +General, he was "Egypt." One of these was from my chief, Mr. Hutton, one +from my uncle, Sir Richard Strachey, and another, if I remember rightly, +from another uncle, Sir John Strachey; the two uncles had been +colleagues of Lord Cromer's on the Indian Council. Directly I arrived in +Cairo, I left my card and my letters of introduction in the usual way, +and expected, after a decent delay, to be asked to pay a semiofficial +visit at the Agency. Instead, Lord Cromer acted with his characteristic +promptitude. Early on the morning of the day after I had left my letters +of introduction and my own and my wife's cards, there came one of the +beautifully dressed Syces from the Agency with an invitation to lunch +with the Cromers that day. We went and to our great delight found them +alone. Therefore, I was able at once to get _en rapport_ with my +friend that was to be. I had not finished luncheon before we had plunged +into the whole Egyptian question and had got to my own cherished point, +one connected with the French occupation of Tunis, their promises of +evacuation, and so forth. This, my first experience of I do not know how +many hundred talks with Lord Cromer, was exactly like the last. In the +art of unfolding his mind and his subject he was a master. I questioned +and he answered, and I remember distinctly feeling that I had never +before put myself so easily _en rapport_ with any man. I had been +told that he was gruff, nay, grumpy, and quite without any of the arts +of the diplomatist, and that I should find him very different from the +statesmen and politicians to whom I was accustomed. Instead, I found him +plain and straightforward, but as kind as he was quick. + +After luncheon, we had a very long talk which was at last interrupted by +Lord Cromer having to go out to open something or to see somebody. As I +was saying good-bye he suddenly said: "I suppose you can keep a secret?" +I made a suitable reply, and added I had a lock to my portmanteau. With +his quick step he was at the side of his bureau in a moment. Unlocking a +drawer, he thrust into my hand a white paper. "That," he said, "is a +memorandum which I wrote the other day for Lord Salisbury, giving a +character of the Khedive and of all the chief Egyptian statesmen. It +wouldn't do to lose it, and there are, I suppose, agents of the Khedive +who might possibly look out for papers in your rooms if they heard you +had been seeing me." He said this rather apologetically, for he hated +anything sensational or melodramatic like the true Whig he was. He added +however: "I think it would be better when you are not reading it if you +kept it in your portmanteau. Don't trouble to return it till you have +read it thoroughly. I think it will amuse you." + +I was touched at the moment, but when I got back to my hotel and saw the +nature of the document I felt pleased beyond words. I did not, of +course, imagine that Lord Cromer would suspect me of wanting to betray +his secrets, but considering the place, the Agent General's position, +and the fact that he was then at the height of his quarrel with the +Khedive and on the most delicate terms with half the men mentioned in +the document, I felt that he had reposed a confidence in me which most +people would have thought only justified in the case of a man they had +known for years, a man who, they were sure, would not cackle about a +subject of which he was naturally, as I was, quite ignorant. No doubt he +knew there was no peril of my publishing anything, but if I had left +these perfectly plain-spoken _dossiers_ of all the big men in Cairo +about in the hotel, the result might have been catastrophic. This +exhibition of confidence was characteristic of Cromer. If he trusted +you, he trusted you altogether. Though he indulged in no nonsense about +being able to tell in a moment whether a man was trustworthy or not, and +did not often act upon impulse, he was quite capable of doing so on +occasion. + +In itself the document was exceedingly brilliant and just the piece of +work which a busy Prime Minister like Lord Salisbury would greatly +value. It put him _au fait_ with the exact position of the various +players in the great game of intrigue which was always going on, and +with the plots and counter plots made in the Khedive's Palace or in the +houses of the various Pashas. They spent most of their time in those +days in trying to trip up the Agency. + +Lord Cromer not only exposed the motives of the men with whom he was +dealing; he often gave the just apologies for these motives. But he did +more than this. Without being unduly literary or rhetorical he gave +lively characters of the men described. What fascinated me about these +analyses of character, however, was that though they were like the best +literature, you felt that Cromer had never let himself be betrayed into +an epigram, a telling stroke, or a melodramatic shadow in order to +heighten the literary effect. The document was a real State Paper, and +not a piece of imitation Tacitus or Saint Simon. + +I found myself greatly admiring and even touched with envy. I wondered +whether, in similar circumstances, I should have been able to resist the +temptation to be Tacitean. One felt instinctively that Lord Salisbury +must have been grateful to have such an instrument for dealing with a +situation so delicate and so intricate and placing so great a +responsibility on the man in charge. + +During my stay in Cairo, my intimacy with Lord Cromer deepened from day +to day. We talked and talked, and from every talk I gained not only +knowledge of the East, but knowledge on a thousand points of practical +and also theoretical politics. Cromer, like so many Imperial +administrators before him, was an exceedingly well-read man, in modern +and ancient history, in Economics, and in political theory. Above all, +he was a devotee of Memoirs and he was always able to reinforce an +argument with "Don't you remember what ... said about that." I may say +frankly that the great delight to me was the delight of confirmation. +Inexperienced as I then was in public affairs, it was a matter of no +small pleasure and of no small amount of pride to find my own special +opinions, views, and theories as to political action plainly endorsed. + +In not a single case was I disappointed or disillusioned either with +what had been my own views or with what were Lord Cromer's. I soon saw, +as I am sure did he, that we were capable of a real intellectual +alliance; and so our friendship was made. + +Considering the reputation that Lord Cromer had for masterfulness and +for something approaching disregard of other people's feelings when he +thought them foolish or in the wrong; for the irritability of extreme +energy; or again for a fierce impatience with anyone who opposed his +views, my experience surprised me not a little. I did not find a trace +of these things in my intercourse with him, and this in spite of the +fact that knowing what to expect in this way, I was keenly on the +lookout. Moreover I was, with all a young man's prickliness, quite +determined that I would not be treated as I was told Cromer was apt to +treat people. But I seldom if ever found myself in disagreement with him +on the merits and never as to manner of action. No doubt we were as a +rule concerned with matters where I did not know the facts and he did. + +Neither of us could, of course, differ as to conclusions when once the +facts were agreed on. Each had his little inch measure of logic and both +measures were scaled alike. Still, in intercourse so constant as that +between us in letters and in talk, it is, I must confess, extraordinary +that he and I never really differed and that this was certainly not due +to either of us being prepared to give way upon essentials. + +If anyone thinks that I occupied what the XVIIIth century people were +wont to call the spaniel position to Lord Cromer, they are mistaken. He +never attempted to bully me out of an opinion or even out of a +prejudice. If, indeed, I had been a self-conscious man, I might have +been a little worried by the fact that when I told him of some line that +I had taken or was going to take in _The Spectator_, he would +almost always say, with his cheerful and eager self-confidence: "You are +perfectly right: of course, that's the line to take"; and so forth. + +It was indeed, sometimes a subject of chaff in my family when Cromer was +staying with us at Newlands that he would begin ten or twelve sentences +in the course of a Saturday to Monday visit with: "Strachey, you and I +have been absolutely right from beginning to end." And so I believe we +were, though it may seem strange that I should have the hardihood to +record it "between boards." + +In view of Cromer's alleged testiness, I may record a very striking +"contraindication." During the year and a half or nearly two years in +which he wrote a review every week in _The Spectator_ on some +important book, I never had any difficulties with him whatever. He was, +with the possible exception of my cousin, Lytton Strachey, the best +reviewer I ever had. He not only took an immense amount of trouble with +his reviews from his own point of view, but he also took immense trouble +to realise and understand _The Spectator_ view and to commit me to +nothing which he thought I might dislike. It happened, however, that on +one occasion I did have to use the editorial blue pencil and alter +something, or at any rate get him to alter it. At first he seemed a +little fussy about my objection, but when I was firm and explained my +reasons he agreed, and in the end, with that attractive frankness that +always went side by side with any testiness, he said that on reflection +he thought I was perfectly right. + +In this context I ought also to record that so clever a reviewer was he +and so reasonable were all his views, that it was not only difficult but +almost impossible to catch him out, I will not say in a mistake in +facts, for in these he was always accurate, but in an over-statement or +an under-statement. + +A full balanced judgment of Lord Cromer and his work for the country and +the Empire is one which cannot be framed now. Again, I am not the man to +frame it, for I admit that I loved the man too much to make a judicial +estimate by me possible. Still, I want to say something of his character +and his achievement. He stood for so much that is good in our national +activities, and his example and inspiration are of such value, that I +desire almost beyond anything else in politics to make people understand +his point of view; and specially in what pertains to the Government of +the Eastern races. In such questions the British people will, I am +confident, find his principles the safest of guides. + +I realise that Lord Cromer is now in the blind spot of politics. Sooner +or later, however, there will be a revival in interest in this great +man. People will begin to ask what it was that made his fame with his +contemporaries so great. To such questions I shall venture to anticipate +the answer. + +The British people may be stupid, but they know a man when they see him. +That is why they honoured Lord Cromer, yet I doubt if even one per cent. +of the nation could have given true and sufficient reasons for the +belief that was in them. It was certainly not because he had added, in +fact if not in name, a great province to the British Empire. Plenty of +countries richer and greater have been drawn within the magic circle of +the _Pax Britannica_ without the men who accomplished the task +having received anything approaching the recognition accorded to Lord +Cromer. Again, it was not Lord Cromer's administrative skill that won +him his fame, great though that skill was. In India and in East and West +Africa we have had examples of successful development by great officials +that have passed almost unnoticed. Lord Cromer's financial ability, or +shall I say financial judgment? for he himself was the last man to +profess any special and personal knowledge of figures, was doubtless +very great; but most of his countrymen were quite incapable of gauging +its scope, or of understanding what he had done to produce order out of +chaos, or how he had turned a bankrupt country into a solvent one. + +Deftness, no matter how great, in the placing of a loan, or in evolving +financial freedom out of the mass of hostile checks and balances sought +to be set up by the Powers in Egypt, would by itself have entirely +failed to win him the acclamations which greeted him when he retired +from active duty. Even his work as a diplomatist, though so supremely +skilful, was never properly understood at home. There was a vague notion +that he had played a lone hand against all the Powers and had won out, +but success here could not possibly have obtained for Lord Cromer that +unbounded confidence which was shown him by the nation. + +The respect and veneration which the British public felt for Lord Cromer +would, if his health had permitted, have called him to power at the +moment of worst crisis in the war; yet those who called him could not +have said why they felt sure he would prove the organizer of victory. +They were content to believe that it was so. + +What was the quality that placed Lord Cromer so high in the regard of +his fellow-countrymen throughout Britain and the Empire? What was it +that made him universally respected,--as much by soldiers as by +civilians, by officials as by Members of Parliament, by Whigs as by +Radicals, by Socialists as by Individualists? The answer is to be found +in the spirit in which Lord Cromer did his work. What raised him above +the rank-and-file of our public men was his obedience to a very plain +and obvious rule. It was this: _to govern always in the interests of +the governed_. This sounds a trite and elementary proposition, and +yet the path it marks out is often a very difficult one to follow. It +may be straight, but it is so narrow that only the well-balanced man can +avoid stepping off either to the right or to the left. It is always a +plank across a stream; sometimes it may be compared to a spear resting +on the rocks in a raging torrent. + +There are a hundred temptations, many of them by no means ignoble, to +divert the Imperial administrator from keeping the narrow path exactly. +In certain circumstances it may seem a positive virtue to exploit some +province of the Empire for the Mother Country, or for the Empire as a +whole--to forget the interests of the governed in the interests of the +great organism of which that province forms only a part. Plentiful are +the arguments for leaning a little to the one side or to the other. Yet +if these were listened to, on the ground of the interests of the Empire +as a whole (it must be admitted that the temptation to think of the +interests of the people of these islands is one which has been steadily +resisted by all our great Proconsuls) they might bring disaster in their +train. + +Strange as it may seem, nothing has proved a better or surer foundation +of Empire, or has more helped even its material development, than the +determination not to take advantage of the absolute power of the Mother +Country over the Dependencies and subject States, but, on the contrary, +to develop these as a sacred trust. We rightly asked for, and we took, +far more help from the Daughter Nations during the war than from the +Dependencies, for the very good reason that the Daughter Nations were +their own mistresses and could do what they liked. They stood on an +equality with us. In the case of the Dependencies, we are Trustees, and +no temptation whatever, either for ourselves or for others, would allow +us to budge one inch from the straight path. + +Here, Lord Cromer was at his very strongest. He was an ideal Trustee. +And what made this evident was the fact that he talked comparatively +little about his trust, and never behaved in regard to it as a pedant or +a prig. As long as the principle was firmly maintained, he bothered +himself very little about matters of appearance. + +If Lord Cromer kept the path successfully in this respect, he kept it +equally well in regard to another temptation. The weak administrator is +always liable to govern, not in the true interests of the governed, but +in what the governed think is their interest--to do what they actually +desire rather than what they would desire if they were better judges. +Weak governors, that is, act as if they were servants and not trustees. +To play the part of an obedient servant is right and necessary here, for +we are over age, have no need of trustees, and govern ourselves. It is +wrong when you stand in _loco parentis_ to those whose affairs you +administer. We all know what is the kind of government that an Eastern +people establishes for itself. In spite of the suffering that it +inflicts upon the people, there is good evidence to show that, judged by +the test of popularity, the governed in the East prefer arbitrary +personal rule to just and efficient constitutional government. In the +same way a child will tell you, and honestly tell you, that he prefers +raspberry-jam and heavy pastry at odd times to regular meals of brown +bread and butter, and that he is quite willing, in the interests of the +pastry system of nourishment, to brave the pains which Mary experienced +when she consumed both jam and pastry. The wise guardian does not, +however, in view of such statement, conclude that it is his or her duty +to let the child have whatever he likes. + +In the same way, Lord Cromer, though perfectly willing to admit that in +a truly self-governing State it is the duty of the administrator either +to resign or to carry out the will of his masters, the people, he would +make no such admission in the case of an Oriental country. Yet this did +not, as might be supposed, lead to a cold, harsh, or metallic system of +government. Lord Cromer had far too much wisdom and moderation, was far +too much of a Whig, as he himself would have said, to push to extremes +the view that a native must have what was good for him, and not what he +asked for at the top of his voice. + +In small matters, indeed in all non-essentials, Lord Cromer strove of +course to give the native what he wanted, and strove still more to +refrain from forcing on him, because it was for his good, what he did +not want. Lord Cromer was never tired of quoting what, in Bacon's +phrase, he would call "luciferous" stories, to illustrate the folly of +the administrator who thrusts physical improvements or the devices of +European enlightenment upon the unwilling Oriental solely because they +are good _per se_, or economical, or will make the governed richer +or cleverer or happier. One of the stories of which Lord Cromer was +particularly fond was that of the young Indian civilian who on his first +day in a new district, and when he was entirely unknown, took a walk in +the fields and saw an elderly ryot ploughing the land. Being good at the +vernacular and full of zeal, the district officer asked how things were +in that part of the country. The old man, like all tillers of the soil, +replied with a kind of gloomy complacency that things were undoubtedly +very bad, but that they might be worse. Anyway the only thing to do was +to go on cultivating the land. "This year it is the cattle plague. Last +year it was the Agricultural College. But since they are both the will +of God, both must be borne without complaint." That story the present +writer remembers Lord Cromer telling him on his return from the opening +of a model farm or some such agricultural improvement. Such improvements +ought, no doubt, as Lord Cromer said, to make the task of the fellaheen +much easier, but nevertheless it was certain that the majority would +regard them as pure evil--mere oppressions by wayward if not demented +tyrants. + +They wanted to be left alone, not taught how to get another fifteen per +cent, of produce out of the land. Knowing this, Lord Cromer harried the +native as little as possible. He was fond indeed of saying that there +was very little you could do to make an Oriental people grateful.--"Why +should they be grateful?" he would interject.--There was, however, one +thing which they could and did appreciate, and that was low taxation. It +was no good to say to the Oriental: "It is true you pay higher taxation, +but then look at the benefits you get for it--the road up to the door of +your house which enables you to save immensely in transport, the light +railway not far off, the increased water for irrigation, a school for +your children, and so forth and so on." To all these benefits the +Oriental taxpayer is totally indifferent, or at all events he refuses to +see any connection between them and the taxes paid. They come or do not +come, like the rain from Heaven. All he is certain about is that the +tax-collector is asking him double what he used to ask. So much for +local improvements! + +In fine, Lord Cromer, though he kept his rule to govern in the interests +of the governed so strictly and was so exact a trustee, was always +human--never pedantic, professorial, or academic, in the carrying out of +his rule. He was above all things, a just man, and he realised that +justice was not true justice unless it were humanised by knowledge and +the sympathy of comprehension. Yet he knew and understood the benefits +of strong government, though he always tried so to harness his +administration that the straps would gall as little as possible. That is +why he won to such a strange degree the trust and admiration, I had +almost said the love, of the Egyptian people. Peasant men and women who +had never seen him, and who had the dimmest and vaguest idea of what he +was and what he stood for, yet felt an unbounded belief in his desire +that they should be justly treated. There is a well-known story which +exactly illustrates the point I am making. + +A young English officer engaged in sanitary work in the Delta pointed +out to a well-to-do farmer's wife in a cholera year that she was running +terrible risks by having her cesspool quite close to the door of her +house, and so placed that it was contaminating all the drinking-water +used by her and her family. At last after many ineffectual remonstrances +he ordered the removal of this sure and certain road to death by +cholera. The woman was furious, and ended up a battle royal by telling +him that though for the moment he could oppress the poor and triumph +over the Godly, it would not be for long. "The man Krahmer" in Cairo +would see her righted. She would appeal to him and he would protect her. + +Lord Cromer felt, and felt rightly, that this invocation was his best +epitaph. Appeals, no matter how strange, were never frowned down by him +but encouraged. However ill-founded, they taught something. They were +often of an intimate character and couched in the wonderful language of +the Babu, for Egypt has its Babus as well as Bengal. One complaint which +had to do with an irrigation dispute began as follows: "Oh, hell! +Lordship's face grow red with rage when he hears too beastly conduct of +Public Works Department." + +Macaulay's splendid eulogy of Hampden may, with very little alteration, +be applied to Lord Cromer. "The sobriety, the self-command, the perfect +soundness of judgment, the perfect rectitude of intention," were as +truly the qualities of the Ruler and regenerator of Egypt as they were +of the great statesman of the Rebellion--the man who fought so nobly +against the sullen tyranny of Charles and Laud. + +For Joseph Chamberlain, I felt a very real and very warm affection as a +man. Unfortunately for me, however, I was, except in the matter of Home +Rule, out of sympathy with most of his later political principles, or, +at any rate, his political standpoint. Mr. Chamberlain, though in no +sense a man of extreme, wild, or immoderate views, was in no sense a +Whig. To tread the narrow, uphill, and rather stony path of the _via +media_, fretted him. He liked large enterprises and large ways of +carrying them out, and, though it would be a great mistake to call him +imprudent, he was distinctly a man of daring imagination in politics. He +liked to prophesy and to help fulfil his prophecies. He was not content +to wait and watch things grow. He was, indeed, one of the political +gardeners who thoroughly enjoy the forcing-house. If he had been a +grower of vegetables instead of Orchids, he would have dealt, I feel +sure, almost entirely in "_primeurs_." + +I can think of no man who used the imaginative faculty more in politics +than he did, except Disraeli, and here, indeed, Mr. Chamberlain had the +advantage. Disraeli was apt to let his imagination run so wild as to +become vulgar, pompous, and ostentatious, whereas Mr. Chamberlain always +kept his visionary schemes within the due bounds of seriousness and +reason. Though I think he placed no limits to the capacity of the +English people to meet and to overcome dangers and difficulties in the +world of politics, and always held them, as, indeed, do I, capable to be +of heroic mould, he never inflated himself or his countrymen on any +subject, but spoke always weightily and with good sense. To take a +concrete example, he, no more than Lord Cromer, would have intoxicated +his mind with a fantastic idea like that of the Cape to Cairo railway as +did Mr. Rhodes. That was at its best only a symbol and at worst the +caprice of an Imperial egoist. Though Mr. Chamberlain had gained from +his training and business success some of the best qualities of the +statesman, that is, confidence in himself, and his sound practical +sense, he was not, as I think his greatest admirers would agree, a deep +political thinker. + +He was, however, a great orator and a great parliamentary advocate, and, +if properly briefed, there was no man who could state a case better or +more persuasively than he did. This gift of advocacy, though an advocacy +quite untouched by cynicism, was apt to raise doubts in the public mind +as to his sincerity,--doubts which were due to ignorance of the man and +to nothing else. It is true that he argued as the most convinced and +most happy exponent of Free Trade during the first half of his political +life and later as a convinced Protectionist. Yet I am certain that on +both occasions he was perfectly sincere. In each case, though he did not +realise it, he was speaking from a brief, but from a brief that for the +time had thoroughly converted him and made him think of the policy +advocated in the spirit of a missionary. + +Mr. Chamberlain was a man of whom the nation was proud, and had a right +to be proud. He was a good fighter and an unwearied worker, and he spent +himself ungrudgingly in the service of his country. Above all things, he +had that quality of vigour and daring which endears itself, and always +will endear itself, to a virile race. He was not for ever counting the +cost of his actions, but would as gaily as any hero of romance throw his +cap over the wall and follow it without a thought of the difficulties +and dangers that might confront him on the other side. + +No one has ever asserted that Mr. Chamberlain left his comrades in the +lurch, failed to support a friend in a tight place, or accepted help +from others and then was careless about helping them in return or making +them acknowledgment for what they had done. Remember that it is very +rare in the case of a public man to find so total an absence of the +complaint of ingratitude. The accusation of ingratitude, indeed, may be +well described as the commonest of all those brought against the great +by the small. "He was willing enough to take help from me when he needed +it; now he has raised himself, the humble ladder is kicked down or else +its existence is utterly ignored."--"While we were unknown men we worked +together shoulder to shoulder and helped each other. When he grew big +and strong, he forgot the colleagues of his early days, ignored their +past services, and humiliated them with the cold eye of forgetfulness."-- +"I soon saw that, if he had not actually forgotten me, he would very +much rather not be asked to remember me."--"It was evidently a bore to +him to talk of old days, or to be reminded that even his prowess and +strength had once been glad of 'a back up.'"--"He liked to think that he +owed it all to himself and to no one else." These are the kind of +criticisms that most winners in the Political Stakes have to bear. Such +criticisms, very likely unfair in themselves, were, for example, +constantly made in regard to Mr. Gladstone. But though my recollection +carries me back to very nearly the beginning of Mr. Chamberlain's active +career, I cannot recall a single instance of such grumbling, either in +private or public, in regard to Mr. Chamberlain. On the contrary, the +world of politics is filled with men who gratefully remember that, +though their work for Mr. Chamberlain may have been humble in appearance +or in fact, he never forgot the helping hand and the loyal service, but +repaid them a hundredfold. + +That genius for friendship of which Lord Morley once spoke, extended far +beyond the ordinary limits of friendship. Mr. Chamberlain not only never +forgot a friend, but never forgot any loyal or honest helper, and, what +from the helper's point of view is equally important, never forgot also +that it is not enough merely to remember the helper. You must try to +help him in return. + +This unwillingness to forget support, this instinct towards repayment of +loyal service, was no piece of cynical calculation, no acting on the +maxim that the way to get men to serve you well and support you is to +make it clear to them that you always pay your debts with full interest. +That Mr. Chamberlain was proud of the fact that no man could call him +ungrateful I do not doubt; but I am sure also that his action was due to +the impulse of a generous nature and to no sordid calculation. + +He was a natural chieftain. He expected obedience and loyalty in the men +who enlisted under his banner, but he felt in every corner of his being +that it was the duty of the chieftain to succour, to help, and to +advance those who stood by him. No labour and no self-sacrifice was too +great to help a member of the clan he had constituted, and it was given +quite as readily to the man who was never likely to be able to help +again as to him from whom future favours might be expected. + +This quality of gratitude and devotion may not be the greatest of moral +qualities, but it is certainly one of the most attractive--a quality +which will always secure a love and veneration similar to that with +which Mr. Chamberlain was regarded, not only by his own people, but +throughout the country. Cool and pedantic political philosophers may +think that he carried the backing of his friends too far, but it was a +generous fault and not likely to be resented in the workaday world. The +man who has the instinct for comradeship will "bring home hearts by +dozens" when the virtuous and well-balanced awarder of the good-conduct +prizes in life's school will leave his fellows cold. + +Because I have dwelt on this side of Mr. Chamberlain's character, it +must not be supposed that I have forgotten, or that I desire to +minimize, the splendid public services done by him, first in the region +of municipal life--a priceless contribution--then in national politics, +and last of all in the wider Imperial sphere. In every part of our +public life he lit a torch which will not be extinguished. Men differ, +and will continue to differ, as to his policy. None will differ as to +the spirit in which he acted, or deny that he gave what nations most +need--the stimulus of high endeavour. + +However, I do not want to speak too much of his politics, partly because +my aim is to be uncontroversial, and still more because his personal +character is far more likely to interest my readers than any diagnosis +of the politician. + +The qualities of heart and head, which I have described, were not +learned by me through Mr. Chamberlain's public form, but through a close +study at first hand. From the year 1887 or '88 till the Tariff Reform +controversy, I was on very intimate terms, social as well as political, +with Mr. Chamberlain. I think he was fond of me. I know I was fond of +him. I expect he thought I was a little too cool, or, as he might have +said, not keen enough, just as I thought him inclined to be too zealous +a partisan,--too ready to push party conditions to the uttermost. Yet +both of us, and that is after all the great thing in friendship, felt +the sense of personal attraction. + +He was among other things one of the most delightful of companions. To +see him, as I so often did, in his house in the country set at the edge +of a great city,--that best describes Highbury,--was a delightful +experience. The house-parties at the Whitsuntide and Easter recesses, +which lasted double the length of ordinary Saturday to Monday parties, +were most attractive. Chamberlain was an expert at asking the right +people to meet each other, but if he had not been it would not have +mattered. Owing to his vigour of mind and the stimulating character of +his talk he would have turned a house-party of the purest "duds" into a +success. As a matter of fact, however, he was the last man to endure +bores. People who were asked to Highbury, were asked because he liked +them, not for any conventional reasons. + +Another factor which made these visits to Birmingham delightful was the +hostess. Mrs. Chamberlain had as high social qualities as the host. But +I must not speak of Mrs. Chamberlain as I feel, for to do so would break +the rule of not writing about living people. I will say, however, that +even an interval of a quarter of a century--the date in her case sounds +utterly preposterous I admit--has not dimmed my recollection of a +fascinating and gracious young woman. New to England, new to our +politics, and plunged into the midst of a party crisis of a very bitter +kind, she showed an unfailing instinct as a hostess. She never said an +unkind thing or made an enemy. Besides her youth, her good-looks, and +her charm of manner and her natural dignity she possessed the gift of +making parties go. Though she always made herself felt in her parties, +she was never formidable. She was always friendly and yet never gushing +or affected. But I most sincerely ask Mrs. Chamberlain's pardon for I +cannot conceal from myself that she will not like to be written about in +terms of eulogy. + +Mr. Chamberlain was indeed singularly fortunate in his family as +supporters in the matter of entertaining. His two sons, Austen and +Neville, evidently enjoyed the house-parties as much as did their father +and his guests. Both inherited a liking for good company. Therefore, +whether one went in the evening to the big or the little smoking-room +one was sure of good talk. + +Highbury was a house thoroughly well designed for entertainments, and +the large gardens, or small park, whichever you like to call it, which +surrounded the house, afforded plenty of sitting-out room. No one who +shared in the parties will ever forget the long and good talks on the +lawn on which the wicker chairs were set with brightly coloured rugs for +the sitter's feet. Guests worthy of that honour were taken through the +orchid house by Mr. Chamberlain himself, for his knowledge and love of +his favourite flower was no pose, but a reality. + +This absence of "pose" was, by the way, one of the most striking things +about Mr. Chamberlain. He was an extraordinarily natural man. You cannot +possibly imagine his taking up anything, from a new kind of cigar, a new +form of hat, or a new type of novel, because he was told it was the +right thing to do, or because he thought it was expedient for a +politician with a future to encourage this or that fashionable craze. I +have compared him to Disraeli in the matter of imagination. In the +absence of "pose" he was, however, the exact opposite of Disraeli. For +example, Lord Beaconsfield praised Lord Bolingbroke and talked about +Lord Carteret, not because he really liked either of the statesmen +mentioned, but because he thought it sounded well, and also because it +amused him to look more learned historically than he was. You could no +more expect Mr. Chamberlain to do that than to wear a particular flower, +not because he liked it, but because it had been admired by say Mr. Pitt +or Mr. Canning. + +It must not be supposed from this, however, that Mr. Chamberlain was +indifferent to, or ignorant of, the past. Though he was not going to let +himself be dominated by old traditions, he was as distinctly well read +in political history as in poetry. If he wanted to do so, he could quote +freely and intimately from Browning, or Matthew Arnold. The latter was, +I think, specially liked by him. But here again, any idea of his liking +to prove himself a person of culture or learning cannot be entertained +for a moment. He was much too sure of himself and much too sure of his +own aims to want to be regarded as a man of cultivation. He liked what +he liked, and he talked about what he liked. There was no "showing off." +Again, there was not the slightest touch of snobbishness in Mr. +Chamberlain. I don't think he was even amused by people expecting him, +because he was not a man of great family or known as a great merchant +prince, to be socially a kind of wild man to whom it must seem strange +to eat a good dinner every day of his life "complete with the best of +wines and cigars,"--in fact, to live exactly like men who had inherited +their money, not made it. In truth, though the fact was unknown to the +public and it never occurred to Mr. Chamberlain to talk about it, he was +not a self-made man, but the son of a rich father. He belonged to a very +old City family, for Mr, Chamberlain was not a Birmingham man, but a +Londoner, through and through. His family had, however, remained in +London even after it had grown rich and not retired to the country, like +so many "warm men" to use the eighteenth century _argot_. I +remember well Austen Chamberlain telling me that he had taken up his +membership of the Cordwainers Company by right of inheritance. His +family had been connected with that company in tail male, so to speak, +since the time of Charles II. + +This connection with the city companies had an interesting result. In +the '70s and '80s it was a mark of a Radical to demand the abolition of +the Livery Companies of London and to say hard things about the +Corporation and the City. A Radical meeting was hardly complete without +an attack on the City and its "fat and feasting Tories." When you were +on a Radical platform you expected indeed as Shakespeare says: + + "... to hear the City + Abused extremely, and to cry 'That's witty!'" + +Mr. Chamberlain, however, whether in the House of Commons or on the +platform, did not like his Colleagues to abuse the City Companies, but +instead, gave them, as all sane people will now agree quite rightly, the +benefit of his support. We should all be the poorer without the +picturesqueness lent to London Municipal Life by its livery. Some of +them may still want a little reform, but for the most part their wealth +is well spent. + +But Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain were not only good country hosts. Nothing +could have been more pleasant or more interesting than their London +dinners. The talk was always good and Mr. Chamberlain was always the +chief point of attraction. He was never cross, or moody, or depressed. +Instead, he was always ready to talk. You could put up any game with him +and he would fly at it with zest and spirit. + +Time has not dimmed the warmth of my personal feeling either for Austen +or Neville Chamberlain. And here I want to say one word of regret in +respect of Miss Beatrice Chamberlain,--her father's eldest daughter who +died during the first year of the Peace. She was a woman of great +ability and inherited no small share of her father's power of talk and +fondness for social life. Highbury house-parties owed much to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +FIVE GREAT MEN (_Continued_) + + +It was at one of Mr. Chamberlain's house-parties that I first met one of +the five distinguished men who made a deep impression on my mind and so +on my life. That man was Colonel John Hay, some time Ambassador of the +United States to this country. I shall never forget going down, some +thirty-two years ago, to Birmingham with my wife for a Saturday to +Monday party, and finding that the chief guest was the new American +Ambassador. When one is young and going to a pleasant house, there is +nothing more delightful or stimulating than the moment of waiting at the +side of a country-house omnibus consecrated to station work and +wondering who are to be one's fellow-guests. On that occasion it was not +long before we discovered that they were Colonel and Mrs. Hay and their +daughter Helen. It did not take one long to see what a memorable man Hay +was. It was indeed a case for me of friendship at first sight. Though it +only took, even in pre-motor days, some twenty minutes to drive to +Highbury, I had become, long before we reached the front door, a fervent +admirer of the man who had been Private Secretary to the greatest man of +modern times,--Abraham Lincoln. + +The acquaintance begun at Highbury ripened for both of us into a true +friendship. I was deeply touched to find that Mr. Hay met me half way in +my desire to be friendly, for I knew enough about him to know that his +reputation was that of a very reticent, very fastidious man--a person by +no means inclined to fall into the arms of the first comer. But I don't +want to flatter myself. Perhaps the passport to Hay's heart in my case +was my love of Lincoln, for that he soon saw was real and not assumed. +Anyway, Hay and I soon began to see a great deal of each other, and he +paid me the compliment of confiding in me throughout the war between +Spain and America. He would have liked to avoid that war and did his +very best to do so, but I knew that all the time he felt it was +inevitable. I remember well his saying to me that the positions of the +United States and Spain were like two railway engines on the same track, +neither of which would give way and both of which were advancing. You +might delay the collision, but you could not prevent it, unless one +train cleared out of the way of the other, and to this neither side in +control would agree. Therefore, a collision had to come,--and come it +did. + +Hay loved his tenure of office in England and greatly regretted that he +had to accede to Mr. McKinley's request that he should go back and +become Secretary of State. He knew the work would be too much for him, +and told me so quite simply and unaffectedly, but he was never a man to +shirk a duty. During his term of office, he and I were constantly in +touch with each other by letter. Though Hay did not write long letters, +he contrived in his short notes to say many poignant things,--often in +the form of comments on _Spectator_ articles, for he was a diligent +reader of my paper. One example is so curious and so interesting that I +must set it forth. The War enables me to do so without any risk of doing +injury in the diplomatic sphere. It concerns the memorable visit of +Prince Henry of Prussia to the United States in the year 1902. + +The Kaiser was alarmed at the good feeling growing up between Britain +and the United States. He therefore made a special effort to capture +American goodwill, largely in the hope of drawing off American sympathy +from this country. Accordingly he sent his sailor brother to American to +announce his august and Imperial satisfaction with the United States. +The Americans--most kindly of hosts--gave him the best possible +reception. At that time Mr. Roosevelt was President, and Hay was +Secretary. Writing of Prince Henry's reception on March 1, 1902, _The +Spectator_ pointed out what delightful hosts the Americans had proved +and were proving, but went on to express very grave doubt whether in the +circumstances and with the men then at the helm, the Kaiser would "cut +any political ice" or gain any material advantage by the visit or by the +attempts at diplomatic bargaining sure to be connected with it. The +article continued as follows: + + American photographers are taking "snapshots" of the + Prince at every turn in his progress; but the snapshots we + should like to see would be those of the President and Mr. Hay + just before and just after the Prince had made some political + request. They would hardly look, if our view of the American + temperament is correct, like the faces of the same persons. + The infinitely courteous hosts will in a moment become hard + business men, thinking not of the pleasantest sentences to say, + but of the permanent interests of the United States. Only + the humour might linger a little in the eyes. + +The article took some six days to get to America, but as soon as it was +possible for a return of comments I received from Hay the following +characteristic and laconic note: + + _Spectator_, March 1, p. 317, 2nd Column, + half-way down. + + My Dear Strachey, + You are a mind reader. + + J. H. + +I turned eagerly to the passage, for I could not at the moment recollect +what we had said, and found what I have given above. By a guess, or +(shall I say?) by a piece of thought transference, I had had the good +luck to envisage exactly what had happened at Washington. Prince Henry +was not merely a social but a political bagman. He had asked for +something. He wanted a tangible "souvenir" of his visit. He had made +proposals to the State Department of the usual Prussian type. By "usual +Prussian type," I mean that he had asked for concessions of territory +and engagements in which all the real, and most of the apparent, benefit +was on the Prussian side. I do not now remember their exact nature, +though later I learned from Hay something of their general scope and +character. My only trustworthy recollection is that Hay referred to them +with that patient, well-bred disgust with which he always received +overtures of this kind. He was a man of a very fastidious sense of +honour, and not amused by the low side of life, or by trickery even when +foiled. And here I may perhaps be allowed to interpolate another +personal recollection. I remember his telling me twenty years ago--that +is, during the Spanish War--how the German Ambassador in London had +approached him officially with the request that a portion of the +Philippine Islands should be ceded--Heavens knows why--to the Kaiser. I +can well recall his contemptuous imitation of the manner of the request. +"You haf so many islands; why could you not give us some?" I asked Hay +what he had replied. With a somewhat grim smile he answered: "I told +him: 'Not an island--not one!'" + +I shall perhaps be accused of indiscretion in what I have written, +especially when I am dealing with a man so discreet, so punctilious in +all official intercourse, as John Hay. I feel, however, that I am +justified by the time which has elapsed, and by the events of the last +few years. + +I could fill, not one, but several chapters with the delightful talks +about Lincoln which I had with Mr. Hay. He was always at his best when +talking about Lincoln. It must not be supposed, however, that he was a +man with one idea or that he was, as it were, eaten up by his great +chief. Hay was a true statesman and a man with clear and consistent +views of his own. I had the pleasure of bringing Hay into touch with +Lord Cromer. Cromer was, of course, greatly impressed. I remember +pointing out to him that Hay was really the best illustration that he +could have had for one of his favourite theories,--that is, that the +people who in their youth had been private secretaries were, other +things being equal, the best people to whom to give big appointments. +Cromer used to say that the reason for this was a very plain one. The +difficulty with most officials, and especially with men in the Army, was +that they so often did not attain to positions of real responsibility, +and where they had to take the initiative, till their minds had been +atrophied by official routine and by the fact that they had simply +carried out other people's orders, and not to think or act for +themselves. It was different with a young man who at the most +impressionable time of life had not only been under the influence of a +great man, but had seen great affairs absolutely at first hand and not +dressed up in official memoranda. Again, the Private Secretary saw the +whole of them and not merely departmental fragments. + +It was no doubt this fact which made Hay a great Ambassador and a great +Secretary of State. He had not only had the magnificent education which +was received by the whole of Lincoln's personal staff, the inspiration, +intellectual, moral, and political, which a man like Lincoln spreads +around him, but he had seen at their very source the great affairs of +home, war, and foreign politics. + +He had seen how great questions arise and how hard it is to settle them; +how they go wrong through accidents, or delay, or negligence, how +necessary it is to prevent the rise of prejudice, selfishness, and folly +in their handling. In a word, there could not have been a better proof +of Lord Cromer's dictum than Hay's career. I remember talking on the +general subject to Hay, who in effect agreed, and later I also said the +same thing to President Roosevelt. I told him I thought it was a great +pity that the Presidents of the United States and other holders of great +offices did not encourage young men of brains and also of great +possessions, coming from families with great influence, local or social, +to become, when young, private secretaries. There would be a double +blessing produced thereby. It would help to bind men of wealth and +influence to the public service, and would get them trained to fill in +later life the great offices of State--Cabinet Ministers, Ambassadors, +and special commissioners. If a young man had been a member, say, of the +President's official family for four or five years and had then gone +into business or even into leisure, he would, granted that he was a man +of intelligence, have received an insight into affairs which might be of +great use to the nation later on. I even went so far as to dream that +the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great +Britain might have an occasional exchange of secretaries and so get a +certain number of people on both sides of the Atlantic who knew +something about the arcana in each government. As it is, both halves of +the English-speaking race are apt to make official bogeys,--to spell +Washington or London as the case may be with a very big capital letter, +and then to envisage this impersonation as something dark, mysterious, +or even terrible. How useful it would be if, when this sort of talk was +in the air, someone could say, "Honestly, they really are not a bit like +that (in Washington, or in London). You picture them as hard-shell +Machiavellis with sinister reasons for not answering our despatches or +proposals promptly, or as going behind our backs in this or that matter. +Believe me, they are just about like what we are here. They go out to +lunch as we do; they forget big things and trifle with small things, and +for fear of their trivialities being exposed, they talk big as if they +had some great and ruthless reasons of state for their official +misadventures. When you begin to ask, 'What are they up to? What is +their game?' the answer ninety-nine times out of a hundred is 'There is +not any game at all.'" + +Before I take leave of Hay, I want to add a fact which deeply touched +me. It will be remembered that the Secretary of State, after a breakdown +in his health at Washington, came over to Europe to try the Mannheim +cure. The treatment at first seemed to do him good; but he was in truth +a broken man. So precarious, indeed, was his condition that, passing +through London, the only people he saw were Lord Lansdowne, then Foreign +Minister, and King Edward VII. I was the only exception. He asked me to +come up and see him, telling me that I must not let it be known or he +would be killed with kindness. If I was deeply touched by his thought of +me, I was still more moved to see how extreme was his weakness of body. +His mind, however, was as clear as ever and he talked almost in his old +way. He was the kind of man who was much too sensitive to say in words, +what I knew he felt--that it was good-bye. I came away from that last +talk, with my devotion to the man, high as it was before, greatly +heightened. + + * * * * * + +Though I did not know the Duke of Devonshire, earlier known as Lord +Hartington, nearly so intimately as the other four, I had for him a +political admiration which was almost unbounded. When a young man as was +only natural--I was twenty-six when I first came into contact with him-- +I rather chafed at what I thought was his impenetrability. This, +however, I soon discovered was due to no want of intelligence, but +partly to natural shyness, partly to his education, partly to +temperament, and partly also to a kind of dumbness of the mind, which is +by no means inconsistent with a real profundity of intellect. + +It is this mental profundity which is the main thing to remember about +the Duke of Devonshire. To speak of him as if he were merely a man of +character and firmness is to mistake him altogether. The Duke impressed +all who saw him at close quarters. It was only the people who did not +know him who said that he owed his rise to high office solely to his +birth and wealth. I remember Mr. Chamberlain once saying to me, "It's +all nonsense to talk about Hartington being dull and stupid. He is a +very clever man." What made this admission all the more memorable was +that Mr. Chamberlain was at the moment in a condition of something like +exasperation with his colleague's dilatory ways, and his constitutional +unwillingness to tackle a question till it was almost too ripe; you +simply could not hurry him. One of the difficult things about the Duke +was that he never realised the full greatness of his position in +politics, how much people depended on his lead, and how anxious they +were to find out what he thought and then fellow him without demur. But +the more they wanted to get a lead out of him, the more he seemed +determined to avoid if he possibly could the responsibility they had +asked him to assume, and partly because of a certain lethargy of his +mind, and partly because he never could be made to believe that anybody +could really want to lean upon and follow somebody else, he often +appeared to be utterly stubborn. I remember once, just before the +election in 1905, urging him as strongly as I knew how to make a public +statement and to give a public lead to the Unionist Free Trade electors +as to how they should vote. He was more than loath to take my advice. He +was all for letting the thing alone. He actually went so far as to say, +and remember, this was without the slightest suggestion of pose, "I +don't see why I should tell people what I should do if I had a vote. +They will do what they think right and I shall do what I think right. +They don't want me to interfere." It was no good to try and talk him +round, as one would have been inclined to talk round any ordinary +politician, by pointing out how very flattering it was to him for people +to wait upon his words and to desire to follow him, or to paint in +romantic language what he, as a leader of men, owed to his followers. +Anything of that sort was unthinkable with the Duke, and, if it had been +tried, would first of all have puzzled him utterly and when it had at +last dawned on him, would have put him off more than ever. + +I could only repeat then that it was his duty to give people a lead and +when I said this once more I was met with the old tale that he would do +what he thought right, and they--the voters--would do what they thought +right. But what was wonderful in the Duke about a matter of this kind +was that he did not in the least show any annoyance at being badgered by +a man who was not only so much younger than he was, but also of so much +less experience in politics or affairs. + +He was essentially a good-tempered man and had not a trace of _amour +propre_ in his nature. I doubt if he had ever intentionally snubbed a +man in his life, though, no doubt, he had often done so unintentionally, +for he was plain-spoken. He hated to hurt people's feelings, but he +sometimes thought that their feelings were like his own, quite iron- +clad. I remember an example of his imperturbability in this respect. +Once, in the eagerness of pressing a plan of action for the Unionist +Free Traders, to which he was disinclined, I expressed the wish to +propose it to the Council of our group and see what they thought of it. +He made no objection and I gathered that he thought it could do no harm +to have the matter aired, which, of course, was all I desired. A day or +two afterwards, however, the Duke casually and in the most good-humoured +way happened to say to me that I, of course, no doubt realised that if +people assented to my motion, he would have to resign as President of +our Association. I was, horror-struck, for to have lost him would have +meant utter destruction for our movement,--the movement, that is, to +prevent the Tariff Reformers running away with the Unionist Party. I +said at once that I would most gladly withdraw my proposal, and +expressed my complete confidence in his leadership. + +He was delightfully naive about the whole matter and, here again, +without any pose. He declared that he did not see why I should not go on +with my scheme if I really thought it was a good one, and that he did +not regard it as in the least hostile to himself. There was nothing in +it that was in the least personally objectionable to him. + +At a much earlier period of my acquaintance with him the Duke gave +another example of his good nature and want of fussiness. When the split +came in the Liberal party and the Liberal Unionist organisation was +created under his leadership and that of Mr. Chamberlain, I was chosen +as I have related elsewhere to act as Editor of the party organ, _The +Liberal Unionist._ Each number was to contain an article by some man +of importance, so I naturally asked Lord Hartington, as he then was, to +supply the signed article for the first number. I was entirely new to +the task of editing, and the Duke had never, oddly enough, written +anything before for publication, though, of course, he had made plenty +of speeches. The Duke was old-fashioned in his ways and did not have a +typewriter or a secretary, but wrote with his own hand. It was a very +good handwriting, but not quite printer-proof. Like all first numbers +mine was late. The proofs of the Duke's article were not sent out early +enough, with the result that we had to go to press without getting back +a corrected proof from the Duke. The result was one or two bad +misprints; the Duke was not angry--only sad, for he thought it might +make him look ridiculous. I was told, however, by excited members of the +Committee that I had made an awful blunder and must go and apologise for +so bad a beginning. Naturally, I was eager to express my regret, and +went down at once to the House of Commons and sent in for him. Now, as +ill-luck would have it, he was in the middle of an important debate on +Home Rule and just on the point of rising to speak when he received my +message. However, in the kindest way he came out, to see, as he said, +whether he could do anything for me, and apologised most profusely for +having kept me waiting for ten or twelve minutes. It was not, indeed, +till these apologies had been got over that I was able to make my +apologies, which he received in the most delightful way. If he had been +a pompous prig, he might so easily have lectured me (for I was not 26) +on how important it was for a young man just entering political life, +etc., etc. Of course, he had no thought of making me his special +adherent by his good temper and easiness. Such things never entered his +head. All the same, his courtesy, consideration, and evident +determination not to take advantage of my slip, made a deep impression +on me. A final example of the Duke's inability to realise that it +mattered to anybody else what he did was shown when he let Mr. Balfour, +then Prime Minister, persuade him to remain in the Unionist Ministry in +1905 when the rest of his Free Trade colleagues resigned. I felt none of +the amazement mixed with indignation felt by some of the Liberal +Unionists, because I knew my man, I felt, indeed, quite sure that what +had happened was that the Duke imagined that nobody would misunderstand +him and that perhaps, as he said, it was a pity when so many people were +resigning that he should resign also. He wouldn't be missed and so why +should he not just remain where he was? I felt equally sure, however, +that in a very little time he would come to understand the importance of +clearing up his position. + +I was on manoeuvres and riding with the Hampshire Yeomanry at a great +sham fight on the Wiltshire downs, when I heard of the Cabinet crisis. I +well remember that on a hill-top, which was finally carried by our side, +I met the present Lord Middleton, then Mr. St. John Broderick, Secretary +of State for War and learned from him what had happened. That night I +went home to write on the crisis. When I got home I said to my wife, +"The Duke has not resigned, but it is all right. I will write an article +in _The Spectator_ which, while perfectly sympathetic, will set +forth the situation in a way which will be certain to bring the Duke +out." The result was as I expected. + +I was interested some time afterwards to hear from one of his relatives +that my article was largely instrumental in determining him to follow +his followers in the matter of resignation. Almost the last time I saw +the Duke of Devonshire affords another example of his good-nature, of +his plain-spokenness, of his humanity, and of his public spirit. I had +always been, and still am, deeply concerned in the housing question. We +cannot be a really civilised nation unless we can get good houses and +cheap houses for the working-classes. Not being a philosopher, I had +always supposed that one way of getting good and cheap houses was to +find some improved form of construction. I have been informed, however, +by my Socialist friends that this is an entire mistake and that there +are much better ways. Though admitting that this was possible, and +hoping that it might be, I was always inclined to add, though I made no +converts,--"However good the other scheme, cheap construction, granted +it is also adequate construction, must be a desirable premium upon any +and every other scheme, financial or rhetorical, of getting good +houses." Therefore, I advocated and carried out by the joint action of +_The Spectator_ and another paper I then owned, _The County +Gentleman,_ a scheme for an exhibition of good cottages, in which a +prize was given for the best cottage. The novelty of my plan was that +the exhibits were not to be models of cottages, but were to be real +cottages. The Garden City were almost as glad to lend me their ground as +I was to avail myself of it, and by a well thought out arrangement we +were able, as it were, to endow the Garden City with some L20,000 worth +of good cottages without their having to put their hands into their +pockets. It was quite easy to guarantee to find purchasers or hirers of +the cottages put up by competitors. The competitor, therefore, could not +lose his money or tie it up for very long, and he was very likely able +to win a prize in one of the various categories. The greater number of +cottages were planned for competitions in which the cost was limited to +L150, for that was my ideal of the price for a cottage; and if a +competitor was sure to get his L150 back and might also get a prize +either of L150, or L100, or L50, he was in clover. But I am not out +to describe the success of the Cheap Cottages Exhibition, but only to +throw light on the character of the Duke of Devonshire. I asked the Duke +to open the Exhibition for me, and this he did in a speech full of +excellent good sense. He obeyed _ex animo_ my direction of "No +flowers by request." I remember, however, being somewhat disconcerted as +we went down in the special train by a remark which he made to one of +the Directors of the Garden City, who was saying, very properly, the +usual things about how pleased the Company had been to help with my +scheme. The Duke, with a loud laugh, replied with what was meant to be a +perfectly good-tempered joke, "And a jolly good advertisement for your +company you must have found it. Ha! Ha!" The Director, as was perhaps +not to be wondered at, looked somewhat flabbergasted at this sally. +Fortunately, I overheard it and was able to prevent any risk of wounded +feelings by explaining how helping to spread information in regard to +the good work being done by the Garden City was a thing which I and +those who were helping me were specially glad to do. If we had been able +to provide a useful advertisement for the Company we should feel almost +as well pleased as by the success of our own venture. The Duke at once +fully assented, but I don't think he in the least realised that his +original way of putting the remark might easily have given umbrage. If +it had been said to him and not by him it would not have caused any +annoyance and he no doubt assumed that other people would feel as simply +and as naturally as he did. + +It would be impossible to give any account of the Duke and his character +and actions without noticing his devotion to the Turf. It was that +devotion which made Lord Salisbury once say with humorous despair that +he could not hold a most important meeting "because it appears that +Hartington must be at Newmarket on that day to see whether one quadruped +could run a little faster than another." The Duke was quite sincere in +his love of racing. There was no pose about it. He did not race because +he thought it his duty to encourage the great sport, or because he +thought it would make him popular, or for any other outside reason. He +kept racers and went to races because he loved to see his horses run, +though oddly enough I don't think he was ever a great man across +country, or was learned in matters of breeding and trainers. He just +liked racing and so he practised it and that is all that is to be said +about it. In this combination of sport and high political seriousness +he was extraordinarily English. Pope described the Duke's attitude +exactly in his celebrated character of Godolphin; the words fit the Duke +of Devonshire absolutely. They may well serve as a peroration to this +chapter. + + Who would not praise Patricio's high desert, + His hand unstained, his uncorrupted heart, + His comprehensive head! all interests weigh'd, + All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd? + He thanks you not,--his pride is in piquet, + Newmarket fame, and judgment at a bet. + +But I am dwelling too much on the picturesque side of the Duke and so +getting too near the caricature view of the man. What I want is to give +in little a true picture of a really great man, for that is what he in +truth was. + +Instead of tracing the Duke's political actions and political opinions, +I prefer to attempt an analysis of his political character. The first +and most obvious fact about the Duke was his independence, and what I +may call his inevitableness of action. Knowing the Duke's views on a +particular subject, you could always tell in any given circumstance what +would be his line of conduct. With most politicians explanations have to +be found at some point of their career for this or that action. +Everything seemed to point to their taking a particular course, and yet +they took another. In the case of one man this was due to influence +exerted over him by a friend. In that of another it was due to hostility +to some colleague or rival. The personal element deflected the course of +history. In the case of the Duke of Devonshire such explanations are +unthinkable. It is impossible to imagine him a Home-ruler out of +devotion to Mr. Gladstone, or a Free-trader out of jealousy or distrust +of Mr. Chamberlain. The Duke had no dislikes or prejudices of this kind. +Certainly he had none in the case of Mr. Chamberlain. All the efforts of +the Tapers and Tadpoles and paragraph-writers in the Press failed to +produce the slightest sense of rivalry between them. The Duke, to use a +racing phrase, went exclusively on men's public form, and gave his +contemporaries credit for the same public spirit which he himself +showed. + +He was the last man in the world to think that he had a monopoly of +patriotism. His high-mindedness was, he assumed, shared by others. He +never betrayed a colleague, and he never thought it possible that a +colleague could think of betraying him. The result was that throughout +his career he was never once the victim of any intrigue or conspiracy. +He kept his mind fixed always on questions and not on men, and just as +he always endeavoured to solve the real problem at issue rather than +secure a party triumph, so his aim was to bring advantage to the nation, +not to gain a victory over an opponent. I should be the last to say that +in this the Duke of Devonshire was unique. What, however, was unique +about his position was the fact that no one ever attributed to him +unworthy motives or insinuated that he was playing for his own hand. If +any one had ventured to do so, the country would simply have regarded +the accuser as mad. + +Another striking quality possessed by the Duke of Devonshire was his +absolute straightforwardness of conduct and clearness of language. No +one ever felt that he had a "card up his sleeve." He told the country +straight out exactly what he thought, and his reticence--for reticent he +was in a high degree--was due, not to the fact that he did not think it +advisable at the moment to let the country know what he was thinking, +but simply and solely to the fact that he had not been able to come to a +determination. He did not like meeting questions half-way, but waited +till circumstances forced them on his attention. + +The late Duke of Argyll once said of him at a public meeting: "Oh, +gentlemen, what a comfort it is to have a leader who says what he means +and means you to understand what he says." Here in a nutshell was the +quality which the country most admired in the Duke of Devonshire. They +always knew exactly what he stood for, and whether he was a Unionist or +a Home-ruler, a Free-trader or a Protectionist. He was never seeking for +a safe point to rest on, one which, in the immortal language of the +politician in the _Biglow Papers_, would leave him "frontin' south +by north." + +In spite of the independence, straightforwardness, and clearness of the +Duke's attitude, he often showed a curious diffidence, and seemed unable +to realise that he had so absolutely the confidence of the country that +no explanations were ever necessary in his case. For example, after the +secession of the Unionist Free-traders from Mr. Balfour's Administration +spoken of above, the Duke thought it necessary to explain--in his place +in the House of Lords--how it was that he remained for a few days +longer in the Cabinet than did his Unionist Free-trade colleagues. I +have reason to know that the Duke found such an explanation a painful +and trying one to make. Nevertheless he insisted on making it, and this +though on the day he spoke he was suffering from the beginnings of a +severe attack of influenza. It will be remembered that he then declared, +with a sincerity which in one sense deeply touched, and in another sense +might almost be said to have amused, the nation, that his mind was not +so clear as it ought to have been during his negotiations with Mr. +Balfour, and that he had not at first completely grasped the situation. +As a matter of fact, is it safe to say that no one, least of all his +Unionist Free-trade colleagues, thought there was the slightest need for +such an apology. If the thought of the nation on that occasion could +have been put into words, it would have run something like this:--"There +was not the least reason for you to say what you have said. Every one +recognised that you would in the end do exactly what you did--that is, +leave the Ministry--and the fact that you took four or five days longer +than your colleagues to realise that this was inevitable was looked on +as the most natural thing in the world. It was a proof to the British +people as a whole that a Free-trader could do nothing else. If you had +acted as quickly as others, it might possibly have been thought that +there was something not absolutely necessary in your action." + +The Duke of Devonshire was often spoken of as a great aristocrat and as +a representative of the aristocratic interests in the country. Nothing, +however, could have been further from the truth. Though no doubt the +Duke was in a sense intensely proud of being a Cavendish, and though he +felt in his heart of hearts very strongly the duty of _noblesse +oblige_, he had nothing of that temperament which people usually mean +when they use the word "aristocrat." He was the last man in the world +whom one could associate with the idea of the noble who springs upon a +prancing war-steed, either real or metaphorical, and waves his sword in +the air. His represented rather what might be called the old-fashioned +English temperament, the possessors of which in effect say to the +world:--"I'll mind my own business, and you mind yours. You respect me, +and I'll respect you. You stand by me, and I'll stand by you; and when +we have both done our duty to ourselves and each other, for heaven's +sake don't let us have any d----d nonsense about it." + +But though this is true in a sense, one would lose touch altogether with +the Duke's character if one insisted on it too much, or gave the +impression that the Duke's nature was one of surly defiance such as +Goldsmith describes in the famous line on the Briton in _The +Traveller_. No doubt one of his colleagues, Robert Lowe, once said of +him: "What I like about Hartington is his 'you-be-damnedness.'" But +though this element was not wanting in the Duke's character, it did not +in any way prevent him from being at heart as kindly, as sympathetic, +and as courteous as he was reasonable, straightforward, and plain- +spoken. + +One may strive as one will to draw the character of the Duke, but in the +end one comes back to the plain fact that he was a great public +servant,--one who served, not because he liked service for its own sake +or for the rewards it brought in sympathy and public applause, but +solely because he was mastered by the notion of duty and by the sense +that, like every other Englishman, he owed the State a debt which must +be paid. Pope said of one of his ancestors that he cared not to be great +except only in that he might "save and serve the State." That was +exactly true of the late Duke of Devonshire. + +This tradition of public service is one which has long been associated +with the house of Cavendish, and it is cause for national congratulation +to think that there is no risk of that tradition being broken. The +present Duke possesses the high character and the sense of public duty +which distinguished his predecessor. It may safely be predicted of him +that the ideals of public duty maintained by his uncle will not suffer +in his keeping. + + * * * * * + +Of the five great figures in England and America, who were known to me +and who are dead, I find by far my greatest difficulty in writing about +Theodore Roosevelt. Though I saw very much less of him than I did of +Lord Cromer, my feeling of regret at his death was specially poignant. +Mr. Roosevelt was almost my exact contemporary. Therefore, I could look +forward, and did look forward, to enjoying his friendship for many years +to come. Lord Cromer was ten or fifteen years my senior, and, though my +intimacy with him was of the very closest, far closer than that which I +enjoyed with Mr. Roosevelt, I did not feel myself on the same plane with +him. To put the matter specifically, Lord Cromer was engaged in most +important and most responsible public work when I was little more than a +child, and by the time I left Oxford he had already finished the first +three or four years of his great task in Egypt. Again, when Roosevelt's +death came, it came without warning. I did not know that his health had +in any way been failing. + +Roosevelt and I were always so much in accord and our friendship through +the post was of so intimate a kind that I am sometimes amazed when I +think of the comparatively small number of days, or rather hours, that I +actually passed in his company. For several years before I saw him in +the flesh I had exchanged constant letters with him, and so much did he +reveal himself in them that, when we did meet, he appeared to me exactly +the man I had envisaged. Naturally I wondered greatly whether this would +be so, and took a strict inquisition of the impression made on me in +seeing him face to face. In similar cases, one almost always finds +surprises in minor, if not in major, differences; but Roosevelt needed +no re-writing on the tablets of my mind. + +I shall never forget my visit to the White House. If I had slept under +that roof alone, and without any guide or interpreter, I should have +been deeply moved. My readers then may imagine what my feelings were +when I, who had read and thought so much of Lincoln, found that my +dressing-room was the little sanctum upstairs into which Lincoln, in the +crises of the war, used to retire for consultation with his Generals, +Ministers, and intimate friends. At that time the ground floor of the +White House, other than the great ceremonial rooms, had been almost +entirely absorbed by the various officials connected with the +Presidency. + +Our train from New York was nearly an hour late, and, therefore, when we +arrived, we had only bare time to dress for dinner. Yet when we reached +the room where guests assembled before dinner we found the President +alone. Though it was through no fault of ours that we were late, my wife +had fully realised the necessity of being down in time. Dinner was if I +remember rightly at eight, and we were shaking hands with the President +by five minutes to. + +I have already described how Lord Cromer at first sight showed himself +willing to tell me everything and to trust wholly to the discretion of +his visitor. Mr. Roosevelt exhibited an equal confidence. In the long +talk which I had with him on my first evening at the White House, +throughout the Sunday and during a long ride on the Monday, in pouring +rain on a darkish November evening, we talked of everything under the +sun, and had our talk out. Mr. Roosevelt was one of those very busy men +who somehow contrive to have time for full discussion. After breakfast +on the Monday morning,--we did not move to other quarters in Washington, +till late on the Monday,--Mr. Roosevelt asked me whether I would like +to see how he got through his work. I accepted with avidity. Accordingly +we went from the White House to the President's office, which had been +built, under Mr. Roosevelt's directions, in the garden and was just +finished. We first went into Mr. Roosevelt's special room. There he put +me in a window seat and said I was quite free to listen to the various +discussions which he was about to have with Cabinet Ministers, Judges, +Ambassadors, Generals, Admirals, Senators, and Congressmen. + +It was very remarkable to see the way in which he managed his +interlocutors,--who by the way apparently took me either for a private +secretary or else as part of the furniture! I recall the clever manner +in which Mr. Roosevelt talked to an Ambassador, and kept him off thorny +questions, and yet got rid of him so skilfully that his dismissal looked +like a special act of courtesy. The interview with a leading Western or +Southern Senator, who had got some cause of complaint, I forget what, +was equally courteous and dexterous, though the President's attitude +here was, of course, perfectly different. Roosevelt was a man, for all +his downrightness, of great natural dignity and of high breeding, though +he had the good sense never, as it were, to _affiché_ this good +breeding to any man who might have misunderstood it and thought that he +was being patronised. In this case the Senator was a self-made man, who +would, no doubt, have been suspicious if he had been talked to in the +voice and language used for the Ambassador. Mr. Roosevelt had no +difficulty whatever in making his change of manners as quick as it was +complete. A Judge of the Supreme Court, who came for a short talk, +demanded yet a third style and got it, as did also one of the members of +the President's Cabinet. + +"The President's Cabinet" remember, is not only a piece of official +style. It represents a fact. The American Cabinet Ministers are not +responsible to Congress, as ours are to Parliament, but are the nominees +of the President and responsible only to him. In a word, they are +_"the President's Cabinet."_ Communications between them and the +House of Representatives and the Senate come always theoretically, and +largely actually, through the President. + +After an hour, or rather more, had been spent in these interviews, the +President took me into another room, which was the Cabinet Room, and +very soon the Members of the Administration began to assemble and to +take their seats round the big table in the centre. I felt as the +children say, that this was getting "warm." Even though I had the +President's general leave to stop, I thought I had better not take +advantage of it. As soon as I saw my friend Colonel Hay enter, I went up +to him and asked him whether he did not think that though I had been +honoured by the President's invitation, I had better not remain during +the Cabinet. I could see that this relieved him not a little. Though +devoted to Roosevelt, he was a little inclined to think that the +President's ways were sometimes too unconventional. Therefore, I slipped +quietly out of the room. + +It is amusing to recall that when at luncheon, I apologised half +whimsically for my desertion, Mr. Roosevelt told me that I had acted +_"with perfect tact."_ Anyway, I look back to the incident with +interest. I hold that I probably got nearer to seeing the United States +Cabinet actually at work than do most people. Business had actually +begun before I completed my retreat. + +I won the approval of the President not only for my discretion here, +but, as I afterwards found out, for my complete willingness, nay, +pleasure, in going out for a ride with him in a flood of rain on a dark +November evening. That was not a very great feat, but apparently some of +his visitors had shown themselves anything but happy in such rides. He +was indeed inclined to use his afternoon winter rides as a test of men. +Accustomed, however, as I was to the English climate and always, not +only willing, but intensely eager to get on the back of a horse, it +never occurred to me to think that our ride would either be put off +because it poured or its accomplishment counted to me for righteousness. + +Certainly it was a curious kind of ride. I was mounted on a superb +Kentucky horse procured for me from the Cavalry Barracks--a creature +whose strength and speed proved how well deserved is the reputation of +that famous breed. We were a party of four, with General Wood and a +young aide-de-camp. No sooner were we mounted--I on a McClellan saddle-- +than we set off at a fast pace which very soon became a gallop. I +remember, as we dashed through the rain on the hard pavements, thinking +that our horses' hooves sounded like an elopement on the stage--"heard +off". The lovers' ardour is usually marked by the vivid manner in which +their horses wake the thunders of the King's highway. + +We crossed the well-known creek or torrent in the park near the city, +which meant putting our horses through a fairly swift and broad though +not deep stream, and then passed through what had once been a largish +plantation. The trees had, however, been cut down a year or two before. +This we negotiated at a gallop, the President leading. I admit that it +was an exciting performance. Not only was it almost dark when we reached +the wood or ex-wood, but the wood-cutters had left the stumps of +innumerable small trees or saplings, standing up about six inches from +the ground. You could hardly imagine anything better devised for +catching a horse's foot. But even worse than the risk of a horse +stumbling over a stump, was the thought of his putting his hoof down on +one of the more sharply pointed stumps, often not more than the +thickness of a big walking stick. It would have pierced like a spear. + +However, I felt that the honour of my country and of my profession as a +journalist were at stake. Therefore, I made my horse, who was not at all +unwilling, keep well alongside the President. Under such conditions +steering was impossible; and we galloped along at haphazard. I was +consoled to feel that if the President's horse could pick his way, mine +could probably do the same. As it happened nobody's horse made a +blunder, and we all four emerged quite safely from the ordeal and soon +turned homeward, but by a different way. Our pace, however, did not +slacken. We galloped along a main thoroughfare, which was not made safer +by tram lines. All the same I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and was proud +to bring my big horse of nearly seventeen hands home without a slip. It +was in truth a delightful experience. My horse proved well able to keep +up with the President's very fine charger--needless to say, I knew +enough to know that one does not attempt to out-ride persons in the +position of sovereigns--and we talked as hard as we rode, for a whole +hour without interruption. + +The President's remark as we dismounted was characteristic,--"Don't you +think, Strachey. I am quite right, as I can only get an hour's exercise +a day, to go while I am at it, as hard as I can?" That remark was really +meant as a kind of rebound argument for General Wood. + +I assured the President in the enthusiasm of the moment that he was +perfectly right, but General Wood in a ride, which I subsequently took +with him, shook his head over the President's way of galloping fast on +the hard roads and declared that he shook his horse's legs all to +pieces. Some day there would be an accident. "I try to get him to give +up the practice but I am afraid I don't have much success, though he +takes it very well. No, he's not a careful rider!"--a comment, by the +way, which I had so often heard about myself that it sounded quite +familiar. Need I add that this was anxious affection on the part of +General Wood, one of the ablest of military and civil administrators +alive today--and a man whom I am proud to say has honoured me with a +friendship as warm and as generous as that of his great Chief and +friend. + +Some day my correspondence with Mr. Roosevelt will, I hope, see the +light; but not yet. The President's powers in the matter of letter +writing, however, deserve a special comment. He was probably one of the +greatest letter writers in the matter of quantity who ever lived. He was +also high up in quality. He liked letter writing, and he certainly +expressed himself not only with vigour but with ease and distinction. If +not a faultless writer, he wrote well enough for his purpose, and showed +his largeness and fineness of character. Though a well-educated man, +with a strong tradition of culture behind him, and, further, with a very +marked love of good literature, he was too busy and too practical to +find time to turn or tune his phrases. His letters are very readable and +from many points of view very attractive, but they do not possess the +kind of fascination which belongs to the correspondence of some of the +elder statesmen of England or America--the kind of fascination which we +may feel sure will be exercised whenever Lord Rosebery's letters are +given to the world--may the event be a long way off. Finally, they have +not that inspiration in word and thought of which the history of +personal and political correspondence affords us its best example in the +letters of Abraham Lincoln. + +One of the delightful things about Roosevelt's correspondence is, that +he touched life at so many sides. He struck the hand of a great +gentleman, a great statesman, and, in the best sense, a man of the +world, into the hands not only of kings and emperors, ministers and +soldiers, but of authors, poets, artists, men of science, explorers, +naturalists, and last, but not least, of men of action in all ranks of +life. He attained to this freedom of the Great World early in life. He +had in effect that singular advantage which belongs to kings. For twenty +years of his life at least he had always at his command the best brains +in the world. He had only to make a sign to get _en rapport_ with +the man who knew most on the subject that was interesting him. Besides +this, as his Biographer, Mr. Bishop, has pointed out, Roosevelt had the +essential mark of a great man. Emerson truly said, "He is great who +never reminds us of others." Certainly Roosevelt stood alone. Though he +touched many men of the Old World and the New, and of the old age and +the new, he was intensely individual. + +As to his personal characteristic. One of the most memorable of his +personal characteristics was that, in spite of the fierce conflicts of +his political life, no one ever seriously accused him of a mean or +ignoble act. Though, not professing to be a political saint, he ran as +straight as any statesman of whom we have record. Not Pitt nor Lord Grey +here, nor Washington nor Lincoln in America, had a finer sense of honour +and of political rectitude. He preached the square deal; he practised +it. + +To do that in party politics and with a democracy so vast and so full of +cross-currents and stormy elements as that of America is not nearly as +easy as it sounds. Roosevelt was of course no plaster saint. He dared to +look at life as a whole, and without its trappings and disguises, and +yet all the time he made men feel that it was not only right but quite +possible, in Burke's phrase, "to remember so to be a patriot as not to +forget that you are a gentleman." + +I shall not touch upon Mr. Roosevelt's political views or political +acts. They are too well known for comment. Nor, again, is there, I am +glad to say, any necessity to make clear in these pages how strong was +the sympathy between Roosevelt and the English people, and how anxious +he was to keep together the whole of the English-speaking race,--not, of +course, by any sort of alliance, but by mutual understanding, and +through adherence to common aims and common ideals. + +These things are public property. What I would rather dwell upon is a +certain boldness of attitude in which Roosevelt set a wonderful example +to the leaders of a democracy. Though Mr. Roosevelt was in many ways an +exceedingly astute and practical politician, he was not the least awed +by rumour, not the least afraid of touching questions because they were +thorny. His attitude towards Labour when questions of public order were +involved, is well shown in the letter to Senator Lodge in which +Roosevelt gives an account of a visit which he paid to Chicago during a +strike, accompanied by disorder in the streets. + + When I came to Chicago I found a very ugly strike, on + account of which some of my nervous friends wished me to try + to avoid the city. Of course I hadn't the slightest intention + of doing so. I get very much puzzled at times on questions of + finance and the tariff, but when it comes to such a perfectly + simple matter as keeping order, then you strike my long suit. + The strikers were foolish enough to come to me on their own + initiative and make me an address in which they quoted that + fine flower of Massachusetts statesmanship, the lamented + Benjamin F. Butler, who had told rioters at one time, as it + appeared, that they need have no fear of the United States + Army, as they had torches and arms. This gave me a good + opening, and while perfectly polite, I used language so simple + that they could not misunderstand it; and repeated the same + with amplifications at the dinner that night. So if the rioting + in Chicago gets beyond the control of the State and the City, + they now know well that the Regulars will come. + +Commenting on the President's visit to Chicago, Mr. Secretary Hay said: +"It requires no courage to attack wealth and power, but to remind the +masses that they, too, are subject to the law, is something few public +men dare to do." That of course is perfectly true. But it is equally +true that when a public man does dare speak the truth it always turns +out to be the best and most paying policy that he could have adopted. +Roosevelt did not lose popularity with the mass of his countrymen but +gained it by his honesty. + +Another example of Roosevelt's political honesty was the way in which he +treated the question of negro-lynching in the South. This is delicate +ground, and as I have been accused by a Southern newspaper most +absurdly, as I am certain all reasonable Americans will agree, of +attacking America and the American people because in _The +Spectator_ I have spoken out in regard to lynching, I will quote +without comment the account of Roosevelt's plain speaking, given by Mr. +Bishop: + + The President gave another illustration of his courage in + October, 1905, when he made a tour of the South, speaking at + various points in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, + and Alabama, including a visit to the home of his mother at + Roswell, Georgia. At Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 25th, + he was introduced by the Governor of the State to a large + concourse of citizens in the City Park. In his introductory + remarks, the Governor made a quasi defence of the lynching + of coloured men for supposed outrages upon white women. + In opening his speech the President declared that he had been + fortunate enough to have spoken all over the Union and had + never said in any State or any section what he would not have + said in any other State or in any other section. Turning a few + minutes later directly to the Governor, he said: "Governor, + you spoke of a hideous crime that is often hideously avenged. + The worst enemy of the negro race is the negro criminal, and, + above all, the negro criminal of that type; for he has + committed not only an unspeakably dreadful and infamous crime + against the victim, but he has committed a hideous crime + against the people of his own colour; and every reputable + coloured man, every coloured man who wishes to see the uplifting + of his race, owes it as his first duty to himself and to + that race to hunt down that criminal with all his soul and + strength. Now for the side of the white man. To avenge + one hideous crime by another hideous crime is to reduce the + man doing it to the bestial level of the wretch who committed + the bestial crime. The horrible effects of the lynchings are + not for that crime at all, but for other crimes. And above + all other men, Governor, you and I and all who are exponents + and representatives of the law, owe it to our people, owe it to + the cause of civilisation and humanity, to do everything in our + power, and unofficially, directly and indirectly, to free the + United States from the menace and reproach of lynch law." + +I have never gone, and do not want to go, one hairs-breadth beyond what +Mr. Roosevelt said in condemnation of the lynchers. Further, I fully +realise that the best men in the South detest lynching and are as +anxious to put down lynching as indeed were the best men in the South to +get rid of slavery. I want, however, to say with Roosevelt that whatever +else is right, and whatever ought to be the relations between white men +and black, lynching must be wrong, and must tend to make the +difficulties of a mixed population even greater than they were already. +Whatever may be the vices of the black man, burning negroes alive at the +mandate of an irresponsible mob, who are acting on rumour and hearsay, +cannot but be the very acme of human depravity. And it is as stupid as +it is wicked. + +Though there was a distinct strain of austerity as well as +authoritativeness in Mr. Roosevelt's nature, there was also a deep +strain of sentiment. He was a man easily moved, not only by "the sense +of tears in mortal things," but by all that was generous and noble. A +delightful example of how deeply and quickly his feelings could be +touched when a child is given by Mrs. Douglas Robinson, his sister, in +the account of her brother. + +The Roosevelt family were in Rome at the end of the "sixties" and +played, like other English-speaking children, on the Pincian Hill. While +they were playing at leapfrog word was suddenly passed round that the +Pope was coming. + + "Teddie" whispered to the little group of American children + that he didn't believe in Popes--that no real American would; + and we all felt it was due to the stars and stripes that we + should share his attitude of distant disapproval. But then, + as is often the case, the miracle happened, for the crowd parted, + and to our excited, childish eyes something very much like a + scene in a story-book took place. The Pope, who was in his + sedan-chair carried by bearers in beautiful costumes, his + benign face framed in white hair and the close cap which he + wore, caught sight of the group of eager little children craning + their necks to see him pass; and he smiled and put out one + fragile, delicate hand towards us, and lo! the late scoffer who, + in spite of the ardent Americanism that burned in his eleven-year-old + soul, had as much reverence as militant patriotism in + his nature, fell upon his knees, and kissed the delicate hand, + which for a brief moment was laid upon his hair. Whenever + I think of Rome this memory comes back to me, and in a way + it was so true to the character of my brother. The Pope to + him had always meant what later he would have called "unwarranted + superstition," but that Pope, Pio Nono, the kindly, + benign old man, the moment he appeared in the flesh, brought + about in my brother's heart the reaction which always came + when the pure, the good, or the true crossed his path. + +That is almost as good a papal story as that of the Pope whom the great +Napoleon brought a virtual captive from the Vatican to grace his +coronation as Emperor. The Pope, while moving about Paris, was +accustomed to give his blessing freely, for he soon became a very +popular character. It happened, however, that one day, while going +through the galleries of the Louvre, he unwittingly gave his blessing to +a little crowd that contained a fierce, anti-clerical Jacobin and +revolutionary. The man showed the greatest disgust and contempt at +receiving the Pope's blessing, and retorted with curses on the man who +dared implore for him Heaven's grace and favour. The Pope, with his +Italian grace and good manners, easily got the best of the scowling +brows and the muttered imprecations. He apologised simply and humbly to +the man whom he had blessed by mistake and added, "I do not think, sir, +that after all an old man's blessing can have done you any harm." Quite +as little could Roosevelt's boyish kiss make him a votary to +superstition. + +I feel for the reasons that I have already given that I am not managing +to express my personal feeling about Roosevelt. Yet he is the last man +of whom I want to write perfunctorily or even ceremoniously. Therefore, +for the time I shall bring my recollections of him to a close by merely +noting certain characteristics of the statesman. + +The essential quality in Roosevelt was the spirit of good citizenship. +He was a very able politician and party leader. He was also no mean +orator in a nation where the arts of the rostrum are specially +cultivated and understood. He was a skilled and powerful administrator. +He had a soldier's eye for country and a soldier's heart. What is more, +he understood the soldier's spirit as well as did Cromwell. Though a +strict disciplinarian, he knew that if you are to get the best out of a +soldier, you must make him feel a free citizen and not a fighting slave. +Roosevelt, again, was a man highly qualified to be the personal +representative and head of a great nation. He had the dignity of +demeanour, the sense of proportion, the knowledge of the world, the +instinct for great affairs, together with that universality of +comprehension which is necessary to the efficient discharge of high +office. + +Yet, great as was Roosevelt in all these matters, it was not so much the +qualities just enumerated which make, and will continue to make, his +memory live in America. Others could rival him or surpass him on the +political stage. He made good citizenship an art. He never tired in +enforcing by precept and example the duty which men and women owe to the +community. No man, as his life and work showed, can be allowed to keep +his good citizenship in watertight compartments. He must not say that he +had done his best in his district or city or State, or at Washington, +and that no more was to be required of him. He must do his duty to the +State in all capacities. Duty accomplished in one sphere would not +relieve him of responsibility in the others. + +Though Roosevelt was a Whig, an individualist, and a man who hated over- +centralisation, abhorred administrative tyranny, and loathed +_Etatism_, he never failed to pay due homage to the nation +personified. To him the Government as representing the community, was +something sacred and revered, not merely a committee to manage tram- +lines, roads, and drains. Treason to the State was to him the greatest +of crimes. When he talked of the National Honour, he meant something +very real and definite, and was not merely indulging in a rhetorical +flourish. Good citizenship was indeed to Roosevelt a religion, as in a +rougher and less conscious way it was to Cromwell and to Lincoln. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +MY POLITICAL OPINIONS + + +Though I have been engaged in politics all my life, I have deliberately +left my political views, aspirations, and actions to almost the last +chapter in my autobiography. That will seem strange to all except my +most intimate friends, for I know well that the majority of people who +know anything of me regard me as altogether given over to politics. + +My reason for assigning so small a place in my memoirs to what has +occupied so much of my life is a double one. In the first place, I was +most anxious not be polemical. Politics are synonymous with strife, and +if I had written a political biography, it would have become the record +of a battle, or rather, of many battles, in which I could hardly have +avoided saying hard things both of living and dead people. But that was +what I most wanted to avoid. The veteran who tells of his old fights is +always apt to become a bore. People who disagree with the view put forth +think him prejudiced and unforgiving, while those who are with him yawn +over a twice-told tale. Further, though I confess to being as deeply +interested and as deeply concerned in politics as ever, I have greatly +enjoyed a rest from strife. To suffer my mind to turn upon the poles of +literature and the humanities is a pure delight. No doubt Marcus +Aurelius in his autobiography says that life is more like a wrestling- +match than a dance. That was like a Stoic. Instead, I can say _ex +animo_ with Mrs. Gamp, "Them that has other natures may think +different! They was born so and can please themselves." Therefore, I have +chosen the point of view of the dance rather than the dust, the oil, and +the sweat of the athlete. + +[Illustration: J St Loe Strachey at Newlands Corner Ætat 45] + +But though I do not want to fight my political battles over again, +either in regard to Home Rule or the fiscal controversy, I realise that +my readers will, at any rate, expect me to say something about my +political views. Further than that, there are one or two things which, +if unsaid, would undoubtedly give a false impression of the writer of +this book. + +The pivot of my politics is a whole-hearted belief in the principles of +Democracy. I mean by this, not devotion to certain abstract principles +or views of communal life which have had placed upon them the label +"Democratic," but a belief in the justice, the convenience, and the +necessity of ascertaining and loyally abiding by the lawfully-expressed +Will of the Majority of the People. By using the phrase "lawfully +expressed" I do not mean to suggest any pretext for evasion. On the +contrary, I use the words in order to prevent and avoid evasion. A good +many people who call themselves Democrats, or believers in the Popular +Will, such, for example, as the leaders of the French Revolution, the +apologists for the Russian Soviet, and the men from whose lips the words +"Proletariat" and "Proletarian" are constantly falling, do not, when it +comes to the point, want to obey the Will of the Majority of the whole +People, but only the majority of a certain arbitrarily selected section +of the people. They are, in fact, willing to recognise the Will of the +People only when this accords with their own will--that is, with what +they believe ought to be the Will of the People. When I use the +expression "the Will of the People lawfully and constitutionally +expressed," I use it to avoid this false democracy. + +To put it quite frankly, I am willing to bow to the maxim, "Vox populi, +vox Dei" as long as the "vox populi" is the genuine thing and not +obtained by falsity or fraud, by corruption or coercion. + +Though I am prepared to bow loyally to the Will of the People, whether I +personally agree with it or not, I, of course, have a right, nay, a +duty, to do my best to bring the Will of the People in accord with what +I hold to be right, just, and likely to promote the welfare of the +nation. I retain, that is, the right to convert, if I can, a minority +view into a majority view. If any section of the people try to prevent +me from exercising this right of conversion, then I believe that the +sacred right of insurrection arises. + +It is possible that it arises also in the attempt to prevent me from +exercising the rights of conscience, that is, the right to think and to +express my views. The rights of conscience are not, in my opinion, +pooled and placed at the command of the majority, as are the +_actions_ and _behaviour_ of the units that make up the State. +The Will of the People even cannot command the minds of men and women. +That region is under an eternal taboo, which even the majority must not +attempt to violate. If they do make the attempt, they must expect +resistance. Christ taught us to "render unto Caesar the things that are +Caesar's," but a man's conscience is not one of Caesar's perquisites. + +So much for the abstract basis of Democracy. Of the convenience of +following out and obeying the Democratic principle I have as little +doubt as I have of the moral obligation involved. What, in my view, is +wanted in the State is homogeneity. Such homogeneity, or, shall I call +it completeness of the admixture of the elements which constitute the +State, is essential. The fullest and strongest sanction for the laws is +the security of a State, and where can you get a sanction fuller and +stronger than the Will of the Majority? + +The point is best seen in a simple illustration. Suppose that among +seven people in a railway carriage the question arises as to whether the +window is to be put up or down. As it must be settled one way or the +other, if order is to be preserved, the only just way is to go by the +Will of the Majority. If five people want it shut and only two want it +open, the will of the five must prevail. That, of course, does not prove +that the five have given a sound decision from the hygienic point of +view. They have, however, come to a settlement, and it is obvious that +the maximum of convenience rests in respecting that settlement. It has +the superior physical power behind it. If, however, any gentleman or +lady in the carriage can give a discourse upon the advantage of fresh +air, which will bring over three of those who originally voted in the +majority, then the policy can be changed. + +With these views, it is no wonder that I have always found it impossible +to feel much sympathy with the people who say that Democracy is on its +trial and must be judged, like any other form of government, by its +results. This either means too much or too little. No doubt it may be +argued that, if the Will of the People properly expressed was to elect a +single man as dictator and invest him with the power of deciding in all +matters of detail, you might still have a Democracy, though it looked +like a Monarchy. But these are abstract points. For practical purposes +in a European community there can, in my opinion, be no doubt as to the +convenience of basing, in the last resort, your system of government +upon the Will of the People, as it is based, in theory, at any rate, in +England and in America. + +I admit, however, that when you come to apply your principles in +practice the problem alters. Nothing is more obvious in our great modern +communities than the fact that the people cannot rule themselves +directly. Though they could meet in the Agora of Athens and decide the +fate of the Athenian Republic, or in the meadow of the Gemeinde at +Appenzell, or any of the other small Swiss cantons, in a country with +even only a couple of million of people, you must rely on the +Representative System. In other words, though the many must will the +direction in which the State shall move, it is only the few who can make +that will executive. + +Now comes the difficulty. As the advocates of Proportional +Representation have been telling us for so many years, the +Representative System may actually place the control of the Government +in the hands of a minority. Again, though men may be elected to do one +thing, they may in practice do another. Representative assemblies are +often swayed, not merely by the voice of the orator, but, what is even a +more serious matter, by the voice of the minority. Also, as Mill pointed +out, under the party system applied to the Representative System, you +are liable to be ruled not by a majority, but by a majority of a +majority. Your Parliament is split up into two parties--the lefts and +the rights. The lefts are not completely homogeneous. Therefore they +have to decide on their course of action by a vote within their party. +But if the party is nearly divided, it may well be that the majority of +the majority is a small minority of the whole. But things are even worse +than that when party loyalty is maintained, as is usually the case. +Then, a minority within the lefts may be so powerful through its +persistency, or, again, through its fanatical obsession on a particular +point, that it is able to force a majority within the party to act in +the particular way the minority wants. In short, there are a dozen +different ways, under a Representative System, of making operative, not +the Will of the Majority of the People, but the Will of a Minority. + +It is because of this that since the Anglo-Saxon peoples have had +representative institutions they have sought some system under which the +people as a whole could exercise a veto on the legislative vagaries of +their "deputies" or "select men." The people, in moments of tension, +have yearned for the right to veto the work of their representatives +when such work is obviously based upon the decision of a minority. The +only substantial result of that yearning in Great Britain up till now +has been the _ad hoc_ General Election. + +At the time of the destruction of the Monarchy of Charles I, the Army of +the Commonwealth, a very democratic body, actually demanded the +Referendum, or Poll of the People, for all important changes in the +Constitution. Their descendants in the United States, though they did +not insert the Popular Veto in the Federal Constitution, have in each +State decreed that all fundamental legislation, _i.e._, all changes +in the Constitution, shall be passed subject to the veto of the whole +mass of the electors. Switzerland is generally regarded as the home of +the Referendum, though in reality that honour belongs to the individual +States of the American Union. In Switzerland every Federal Act is either +submitted _automatically_ or else is submittable "on demand," to +the veto of the People. + +Favouring, as I do, real Democracy, and so believing that the Will of +the People alone should prevail, and that we should get complete and +unchallengeable sanction for the laws, I have always regarded the +Referendum, or Poll of the People, as an essential corrective to the +inconveniences and anomalies of the Representative System. The Popular +Veto is, in my view, the essential antiseptic of the Constitutional +Pharmacopeia. + +_To put it with brutal plainness, I desire the Referendum in order to +free us from the evils of log-rolling and other exigencies of the kind +which Walt Whitman grouped under the general formula of "the insolence +of elected persons."_ + +I am told by my horrified Radical friends that my proposal is +politically odious--a Tory device that would stop all reforms. This I +doubt. But if it is really the Will of the People that we should not +have reforms, then we must do without them. Till we can convert the Will +of the People, we must abide by it. Anyway, I have always thought this +objection (which, by the way, is not, as Artemus Ward would say, "writ +sarkastic") an exceedingly illuminating fact. It shows how skin-deep is +the democratic principle in the minds of many men who think themselves +strong Radicals. They do not really believe in submitting to the Will of +the People. They want to do what they think is good for the People, but +they have no true sense of freedom. They do not realise that if you are +to give a man true freedom, you must inevitably give him the right to do +wrong as well as the right to do right. If you do not do that, he is no +freeman, but merely a virtuous slave--a creature, as Dryden said, "tied +up from doing ill." For such compulsory freedom I have no use. I want to +convert people, not to force them, or cajole them. Of course, I cannot +banish force altogether, because if the Will of the Majority is not +obeyed, we shall never arrive anywhere. We shall spend our time in +fruitless and so futile discussions. What we can avoid by the Poll of +the People is coercion by the minority. Curiously enough, the minority, +_teste_ Lenin, seem to have no sentimental objection to coercion. +They fly to it at once. As a rule, however, the show of power is quite +enough when the will of the majority is expressed. So great is the +impact of its declaration that men will not fight against it. + +Having got so far, a great many of my readers will, no doubt, rub their +eyes and say, "Why on earth is this man letting forth this torrent of +rather obvious, well-known, elementary, political stuff? It might do for +a Fourth Form in a public school, or for a lecture on the duties of +persons on the new Register of Electors, but one really thought that the +adult citizen had got beyond this sort of thing." + +I apologise humbly for being so elementary; but, after all, I have an +excuse. It seems to me that the real danger of the moment is minority +rule. Therefore, though all I have said may be condemned as unoriginal, +I hold it worthwhile to bring people's minds back to the fact that they +are in danger of minority rule, in spite of the fact that they have the +very strongest moral reasons for refusing to be ruled by a minority. + +Perhaps some of us have not yet observed that in almost all countries +the so-called Labour Parties are copying the brutal frankness of Lenin +and Trotsky and saying openly that it is only the Proletariat, or, as +the wiser of them put it, the manual workers who have the right to +decide in what direction the Ship of State shall be steered, and how she +shall be worked on the voyage. Now, though I have no desire to +substitute any other section of the community for the manual workers, +and hold most strongly that such workers have as great a right as +University professors, or members of the Stock Exchange, or even members +of the bureaucracy, to say how we are to be governed, I will never admit +that they have a prerogative right to rule, and that I and other non- +manual workers have only the right to obey. That is, however, the +Proletarian claim. The so-called capitalist or bourgeois is, in effect, +to be outlawed. + +In such a context I cannot help thinking of the carman and Uncle Joseph +in _The Wrong Box_. Uncle Joseph makes a remark about the lower +classes, to which the carman replies, "Who are the lower classes? You +are the lower classes yourself!" I claim an inalienable right to be +regarded as one of the people, and I do not mean, if I can help it, to +have that right taken away from me, either by a Cæsarian Dictator, an +Oligarchy of manual workers, a Federation of Trade Unions, Combined +Guild Socialists, or a Soviet of Proletarians. + +I will yield anything to the members of these Societies in their +capacity of citizens possessing each the same rights as mine, but I will +yield nothing to them as the possessors of privilege. I hope I shall not +be considered arrogant when I say that I am sure that in the maintenance +of this view I shall find myself with the majority both in England and +in America. But, of course, the rub is, shall we be able to awaken the +Will of the Majority? May not a group of subtle and skilful demagogues, +acting with the manual workers' Oligarchy or the Soviet of Proletarians, +contrive to prevent me and my fellows in the majority coming together? +That, I admit, is a real danger, and that is why I want to amend our +Constitution in such a way as to place in the hands of the People +themselves a right of veto over the work of the House of Commons. I want +legislation of a vital description referred to a Poll of the People. +Needless to say, I do not want to see every petty Bill referred to the +people, but I do want all laws affecting great issues to obtain the +popular sanction. Let Bills be discussed and threshed out in Parliament, +and then put to the people with this question, "Do you or do you not +desire that this Act shall come into operation? Those in favour of the +Act will mark their papers 'Yes'; those against it will mark their +papers 'No.'" In my opinion, we shall not be safe from minority rule +until we get this acknowledgment of the right of the people to say the +final word. Let us loyally obey the will of the majority, but let us be +sure that it is the majority. + +I have been at pains to make my position clear on the point of +Democracy, but being a whole-hearted believer in the Democratic +principle does not, of course, prevent one having strong views on +specific and particular points of policy, or having affinities with +particular schools of political thought. By inclination and conviction I +belong to the Moderates. Whether they are called Independents, or Whigs, +or men of the Left Centre, or Anti-revolutionaries, does not greatly +matter. I prefer the Whig variety when the Whigs were at their best, +that is, in the days of the Revolution of 1688, the days of Halifax and +Somers. No doubt the Whigs, like every other party, became corrupted by +too easy and too prolonged possession of power, for power, when it is +too easily attained and too securely held, is a great corrupter. Lord +Halifax gives a description of The Trimmer, by which term he meant, of +course, not a man of vacillation or timidity, but the man who +deliberately "trims" the boat of State and endeavours to keep her on an +even keel. When he sees that there are too many people, or too much +cargo, on one side, with the result that the boat is heeling over, he +trims her by throwing his weight, or his portmanteaus, to the other +side. The trimmer does not want to stop the progress of the boat, but he +wants her progress to be safe and not risky. He does not object to +things being done, but he does object to them being done in a wrong way, +or in an ineffective way. But, though the true Whig is a man of +compromise, he is not afraid of working for specific objects of which he +approves, in company with people who perhaps disagree with him on +fundamentals. He makes no lepers in politics, except of those who favour +corruption and demoralisation; but will work honestly for a good cause +with any honest man, no matter what his abstract opinions. For example, +I have always loved the old saying about the Whigs and the Republicans. +The Whig leader says to the Radical extremist, "You want to go the whole +way to Windsor. We want to go only half-way; but, at any rate, we can +keep together as far as Hounslow." + +The mention of Monarchy suggests a word or two about my own personal +position on a point which, though not now of practical importance, may +conceivably become so in the near future. I am one of those people who +might without error be described as a theoretical Republican and a +practical Constitutional Monarchist. I feel that in theory nobody could +in these days set up an hereditary Constitutional Monarchy. At the same +time, there are a great number of practical advantages in a limited and +Constitutional Monarchy, and when it exists only fools and pedants would +get rid of it. We possess, in fact, all the advantages of a Republic and +also all the advantages of a Monarchy, and these are by no means small. + +In a word, I have always agreed with Burke on this matter. Burke, +quoting from Bolingbroke, says somewhere--I forget where for the +moment, but I think in one of his Speeches in the House of Commons--that +he prefers a Monarchy to a Republic for the following reason: "It is +much easier to engraft the advantages of a Republic upon a Monarchy than +it is to engraft the advantages of a Monarchy upon a Republic." That is +obviously true, though I admit that the drafters of the American +Constitution made an attempt--in some ways very successful--to implant +some of the advantages of a Monarchy upon their Republic. The reason +behind the aphorism of "Burke out of Bolingbroke" is obvious. The stock +on which the graft is made is not the thing which you wish to fructify. +It is the inactive base. Constitutional Monarchy is just the stock you +want. In the first place, it is permanent--that is, its roots are in the +ground. But though the stock does not need to be changed, you can change +and renew your graft as much and as often as you like. You get through +the Monarchy stability and continuity, and you can make as much or as +little of your Monarch as occasion requires. If he is a specially +vicious or untrustworthy man, you can get rid of him. If he is an +imbecile, you can, have a Regency. If he is a nonentity, you can, +through the Constitutional principle that the King reigns but does not +govern, see that your system is not interfered with. If, on the other +hand, the King is a sensible man with a high sense of public duty and of +fine personal character, as, for example, the present occupant of the +Throne, there gradually grows up a power and influence in the State +which is of the very greatest use. The King gets for the whole nation a +position analogous to that which the permanent official gets in a great +Department of State. He has not the power of the Secretary of State, but +his knowledge and experience give him immense weight. In a word, a +monarch, after fifteen or twenty years of experience, in which he had +seen Ministries go up and down, parties blossom and wither, develops an +instinct for government which is very valuable. He becomes an ideal +adviser for his advisers. + +I well remember being immensely struck by the emergence of this point of +view in the speech which Lord Salisbury made in the House of Lords on +the death of Queen Victoria. Without exactly using the phrase, he +described how the Queen advised her advisers. He spoke of the occasions +on which the Queen had tendered her admonitions to the Cabinet, and went +on to say that the Queen knew the English people so thoroughly and so +sympathetically, and had such an instinct for interpreting their wishes, +that it was always with grave anxiety and doubt that her Ministers +refrained from taking her advice or finally decided to disregard her +warnings on some specific matter of policy, which involved possibilities +of a clash with public opinion. + +No one who has studied the law of the Constitution and the history of +its growth can but feel a kind of instinctive awe for the happy series +of accidents, tempered by human wisdom, which has given us the +Constitution we possess. Under the Act of Settlement and the various +Declaratory Statutes regulating the powers of the Monarch and +promulgated at the time of the Revolution of 1688, for example, "The +Bill of Rights," we have a crowned Republic with a royal and hereditary +President. We talk about the King being Sovereign "by Divine Right" and +"by the Grace of God," but, of course, in fact, the King's title is a +purely Parliamentary one, and is derived from an Act of Parliament--an +Act of Parliament which settles the Throne upon "the heirs of the body +of the Electress Sophia," who shall join in communion with the Church of +England and who shall not be a member of the Roman Catholic Church or +intermarry with a Roman Catholic. + +Therefore, when the Sovereign dies and a new Sovereign succeeds, he +succeeds in virtue of an Act of Parliament, and in no other way. He is +the choice of the people. The repeal of the Act of Settlement would put +another man in his place, and, again, an amendment of the Act of +Settlement might secure the selection of some other member of the Royal +Family, instead of the person previously designated to succeed by the +Act of Settlement. + +But these, of course, are legal technicalities. The British Monarchy is +an early example of Whiggism. The theory may be pedantic, or, if you +will, ridiculous, but the result is excellent. It is a practical +working-out of the national determination, partly conscious and partly +subconscious, to obtain for our use the best features of a Monarchy and +of a Republic. This, no doubt, would horrify the acute, analytical minds +of the Latin races. Again, the philosophic Teuton would despise it as +incomprehensible. Only those possessed of the Anglo-Saxon temperament by +birth or training--that is, only English-speaking persons, whether +British or American, can appreciate fully the British political and +constitutional system. Indeed, it sometimes has the effect of producing +in foreigners a sense of desperation. Old Mirabeau, surnamed "The Friend +of Man," the father of the great Mirabeau, and a political philosopher +of no mean order, was reduced to a paroxysm of incoherent rage by the +mere contemplation of our Constitution. "Those miserable islanders do +not know, and will not know until their whole wretched system comes to +its inevitable destruction, whether they are living under a Monarchy or +a Republic, a Democracy or an Oligarchy." A wit with a penchant for the +vernacular might well reply, "That's the spirit!" It is this that will +last, while what delights and soothes the well-balanced mind of the +clear-thinking Academicians of the Constitutional Law flaunts and goes +down an unregarded thing. As Sir Thomas Browne said long ago, nations +are not governed by ergotisms (or as we should say syllogisms) but by +instinct and common sense. + +Natural parts and good judgments rule the world. States are not governed +by ergotisms. Many have ruled well, who could not, perhaps, define a +commonwealth; and they who understand not the globe of the earth command +a great part of it. Where natural logick prevails not, artificial too +often faileth. Where nature fills the sails, the vessel goes smoothly +on; and when judgment is the pilot, the insurance need not be high. + +Though one may be both a Democrat and a Whig, and yet think there is no +better function for the good citizen than to trim the boat, this does +not necessarily mean that one cannot be a party politician. Party, in +spite of all the very obvious objections that can be raised against it, +is, it seems to me, absolutely necessary to representative government. +If you choose out of the body of the population a certain number of men +to rule, those men are sure to have divergent views and aims. As +Stevenson said about our railway system, "Wherever there is competition +there can also be combination." The first instinct of a body of men with +number of divergent opinions is for those who have similar or allied +aims to get together and take combined action. But the moment that has +happened you have got a party system. The party system is, indeed, first +a plain recognition of these facts, and then an organization of the +common will. + +As the party system grows and intensifies, it alters its phenomena, but +its essentials are always the same. The main objection to the party +system lies in the closeness and strictness of its organisation. The +best party system is one in which the organisation is not too perfect, +and from which it is comparatively easy to break away. The really bad +party system is that in which a man is caught so tightly and becomes so +deeply involved in party loyalty, or what may be called the freemasonry +side of politics, that he grows into feeling a kind of moral obligation +to stick to his party, right or wrong. Party tends, that is, to become a +kind of horrible parody of patriotism. Oddly enough, the less clear are +the dividing-lines between parties and the less real the distinctions +between the views that they wish to carry out, the more intense the +party spirit seems to become, and the more impossible it is for the +members to break away. Though they disagree at heart with the +proceedings of their leaders and disapprove of the party's action as a +whole, they seem condemned to adhere to the platform. + +I remember a luciferous story which was told to me by Colonel John Hay +to illustrate the frenzy of party. A murderer was supposed to have +entered the house of a great Republican politician and, holding a dagger +over him, to have told him that his hour was come and that he must die. +The politician tried every appeal he could think of. "Consider," he +said, "my poor wife and the misery she will feel at my death." "I am +sorry for her, but it cannot be helped. You must die." "But think of my +poor innocent children who will be left helpless orphans." "I am sorry +for them too, but you must die." "Think of the evil effect on the +country at this moment of crisis." "Yes, I know, and I am sorry; but +that cannot move me. You must die." And then came the final appeal, "But +think of the effect on the Republican Party!" Across the would-be +murderer's face came a quiver of irresolution. The dagger dropped from +his hands, and with the cry, "Good heavens! I never thought of that," he +rushed from the room. + +But though this is the danger, there is, happily, no need for us to +carry the party system quite so far as that. Party discipline there must +be, but it can be kept well within bounds. Nothing is more wholesome +than for party leaders to know that if they push things too far and too +often ask their followers to condone doubtful acts, their followers will +leave them. Clearly, as the Irishman said of the truth, this spirit of +independence must not be dragged out on every paltry occasion. It must, +however, always remain in the background as a possibility, and, what is +more even those who do not themselves revolt would be well advised to +prevent extreme penal measures being applied within the party to a man +who breaks away on a particular point. + +For myself, curiously enough, I never felt any dislike of party, and +was, indeed, I fondly believe, designed by Providence for a good and +loyal party man, with no inconvenient desire to assert my own views. A +perverse fate, however, has forced me twice in my life to break with my +party, or, to put it more correctly, it has twice happened to me that +the party to which I belonged adopted the policy that I had always +deemed it essential to oppose. To begin with, I left the Liberal Party, +to which my family had always belonged ever since the time of the +Commonwealth, over Mr. Gladstone's sudden conversion to Home Rule and +the abandonment of the Legislative Union. Whether I was right or wrong I +am not going to discuss here. At any rate I followed Lord Hartington, +Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. John Bright, the Duke of Argyll, and a host of +other good Liberals and Whigs and became, first a Liberal-Unionist, and +then an unhyphenated Unionist, and a loyal supporter of Lord Salisbury, +Mr. Balfour, and their administration. + +In the Unionist Party, which has become quite as thoroughly Democratic +as its opponent, I had hoped to live and die, but unfortunately, there +came the one other question upon which I felt it my duty to take as +strong a line as I did in opposing the very injurious and unjust form of +Home Rule which first Mr. Gladstone, and then Mr. Asquith, advocated. + +People who have forgotten, or who are not aware of the actual +conditions, may think it strange that I, who proclaim myself so strongly +in favour of obeying the Will of the Majority, should have become so +strong a Unionist. A little reflection will show, however, that not only +was there nothing contradictory in my attitude, but that it was natural +and inevitable from my democratic premises. I held the Union with +Ireland to be as much an incorporating union as the union between the +several States of the American Republic. I held that the Will of the +Majority must prevail within the United Kingdom. The area in which the +votes were to be counted was, in a word, to be the whole national area, +and not a small portion of it. As I have argued for the last thirty-five +years, in public and in private, and as I still feel, the Home Rule +Question is and always must be a question of area. + +The area which I took for the decision, and which I still think was the +right area to give the decision, was the United Kingdom. If any other +were adopted, you might very soon fritter away the whole United Kingdom. +Again, if we are to make a great financial present, as the Irish claim +we must do, from the taxpayer of the centre to the detached fragments of +the circumference, the process becomes a tragedy. If Ireland may go at +the wish of her electors, so, of course, may Scotland, and so may Wales, +each with their subsidy from England. Next, outlying portions of England +may want to break away. The result would be a veritable apotheosis of +political fissiparousness. + +In spite of this, I admit that you cannot fight a political battle on +the principle of the _reductio ad absurdum_. The people of England +might hold that for special reasons Ireland would have a right to +separate, but that this must not be a precedent to be applied to the +rest of Britain. Assuming, however, that Ireland shall have exceptional +treatment, I saw, as of course, did many other people, for I am not so +foolish as to make any claim to seeing further than my neighbours, that +the question of area again controlled the event. Ireland was not a +homogeneous country. There were two Irelands--the Ireland of the North +and the Ireland of the South, the Ireland of the Celt and of the Teuton, +and, above all, the Ireland in which Roman Catholics formed a large +majority of the population, and the Ireland in which the Protestants +formed the local majority. In a word, the twenty-six counties of the +South and the six counties of the North differed in every respect. +Neither could justly be put in control of the other; though both might +be united through a Union with England, Scotland, and Wales. + +From these premises I drew certain inferences, which I believe to be +entirely sound. One was that you could not say that Ireland, as a whole, +might claim to break away from the United Kingdom, and then refuse the +claim of the Six-County Area to break away from the rest of Ireland. +Arguments against the diversion and disruption of Ireland would be +exactly the same as those used by the Unionists to forbid the +destruction of the United Kingdom. Feeling this, as I did, when Mr. +Gladstone introduced his second Home Rule Bill, I took an early +opportunity of going over to Belfast and ascertaining the facts on the +spot. I was confirmed in my view that there could be no solution of the +Irish Question which would be either just, or reasonable, or efficient, +that did not recognise the existence of the two Irelands--which did not, +in effect, say to the Nationalists, "If you insist on your pound of +flesh and break up an arrangement which has done so much for Ireland as +a whole, that is, the Legislative Union, you must also yield the pound +of flesh to the people of North-East Ulster, a community which does not +want the United Kingdom to be partitioned, any more than you want +Ireland to be partitioned." In this faith I have remained. I believe +that the breaking-up of the Legislative Union with Ireland was bad for +England, bad for Ireland, and bad for the Empire; but if it should be +the Will of the People of the United Kingdom, then that Will could only +be equitably applied by a recognition of the existence of the two +Irelands. Yet this simple fact Liberal party politicians like Mr. +Gladstone, Mr. Asquith, and their followers either absolutely ignored, +or else sapiently admitted that it was a serious difficulty and then +passed on to the purchase of the Southern Irish vote for other purposes! + +Perhaps it will be said, "But you are getting away from your main +premise--the Will of the Majority. If it should be the will of the +Majority of the United Kingdom not to recognise the existence of the two +Irelands, you are bound, according to your theory, to submit to that +view." I admit that I may be bound, but I do not believe, and never have +believed, that the people of North-East Ulster are bound. You can turn +Northern Ireland out of the Union if you will, but you have no moral +right to place them under the dominance to which they object--the +dominance of a Dublin Parliament. To do that is to call into existence +that rare but inalienable, right, "the sacred right of insurrection" +against intolerable injustice. + +As far as I know, no State has ever yet seriously claimed the right to +deprive any portion of itself of the political status belonging to its +inhabitants, except when compelled to do so by foreign conquerors. That +is why I, though a Majority Democrat, have always felt that the people +of Belfast and of North-East Ulster were loyal, and not disloyal, +citizens, when they declared that if they were to be turned out of the +United Kingdom they had an inalienable right to declare that they would +not be placed under a Dublin Parliament. The Parliament of the United +Kingdom, of which their representative formed an integral part, though +it had a right to make laws for them, had no right to hand them over to +the untender mercies of the Southern Irish. _Delegatus non potest +delegare_--the delegate cannot delegate. But the representatives of +the United Kingdom are delegates for the people of the United Kingdom. +They have a right to govern it, but they cannot hand over their power of +government to some other body. My contention is triumphantly supported +by what happened during the attempt, happily unsuccessful, to break up +the United States of America. When Virginia seceded from the Union, the +people of what might be called the Ulster Virginia, a group of counties +in the west of Virginia, declared that the Richmond Legislature had no +right to deprive them of their inalienable right of citizenship in the +American Republic. Therefore they not only refused to secede, but, as +they were physically unable to control Virginia as a whole, they formed +themselves into the Loyal State of West Virginia, just as the Ulster +people were prepared, if they had been forced out of the Union by Mr. +Asquith's Bill, to set up a State for themselves. + +At the end of the Civil War, the legal pedants of Washington were +inclined to say that, right or wrong on the merits, the people of West +Virginia had not acted legally in setting up their State, and that +therefore, when the Peace came, they must be put back into Virginia and +under the Richmond Government. The self-made State of West Virginia +naturally objected at this intolerable and unjust decision. When the +matter came before Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet, that great and wise man +acted with a firmness not outdone even in the list of his magnificent +achievements. He would hear nothing of the technical pedantries and +legal sophistries submitted to him. West Virginia, he declared, must +remain detached from Virginia, and it remains to this day a State of the +Union. Here are the concluding words of the memorandum which Mr. Lincoln +circulated to his Cabinet:-- + +Can this Government stand, if it indulges constitutional constructions +by which men in open rebellion against it are to be accounted, man for +man, the equals of those who maintain their loyalty to it?... If so, +their treason against the Constitution enhances their constitutional +value.... It is said, the devil takes care of his own. Much more should +a good spirit--the spirit of the Constitution and the Union--take care +of its own. I think it cannot do less and live.... We can scarcely +dispense with the aid of West Virginia in this struggle; much less can +we afford to have her against us, in Congress and in the field. Her +brave and good men regard her admission into the Union as a matter of +life and death. They have been true to the Union under very severe +trials. We have so acted as to justify their hopes, and we cannot fully +retain their confidence and co-operation if we seem to break faith with +them. The division of a State is dreaded as a precedent. But a measure +made expedient by a war is no precedent for times of peace. It is said +that the admission of West Virginia is secession, and tolerated only +because it is our secession. Well, if we call it by that name, there is +still difference enough between secession against the Constitution and +secession in favour of the Constitution. + +I shall never forget the profound impression made upon me when I first +read those words. They gave what to me was the support of the highest +moral and political authority to the view at which I had arrived +instinctively. I had, as was natural, some doubts about my position, for +I saw that my theories might lead to encouraging resistance to the +apparent Will of the Majority. But after finding a supporter in Lincoln, +I had no more doubts or fears. + +I have dwelt so long on this matter because I want to show what, rightly +or wrongly, was my guiding principle:--I objected to Home Rule as bad +for the Empire, bad for the United Kingdom, and bad in an even extremer +degree for Ireland herself. If, however, it should be determined that +some measure of Home Rule must be passed, then the existence of the two +Irelands must be recognised in any action which should be determined +upon. Therefore, when the support which the Unionist Party determined on +giving to Mr. Lloyd George at the end of the War made some form of Home +Rule seem almost inevitable, I strongly advocated the division of +Ireland as the only way of avoiding a civil war in which the merits +would be with Northern Ireland. I would personally have preferred to see +the Six-County Area incorporated with England and become one or two +English counties. As that seemed for various reasons unobtainable, the +setting up of the Northern Legislature and the Northern State became the +inevitable compromise. + +That accomplished, I should have preferred to see Southern Ireland +detached from the Empire. I have no desire to be a fellow-citizen with +Mr. de Valera, Mr. Michael Collins, or even Mr. Griffiths, or, again, +with the hierarchy of the Roman Church in Ireland. They have perfectly +different views of the crime of murder from mine. I believe murder to be +the greatest of crimes against the community, and, granted that we +should give up any attempt to teach Ireland better, I would rather +detach her altogether from the Empire. I hold that to be included in the +British Empire is one of the highest and greatest privileges obtainable +by any community, and I am not going down on my knees to beg an +unwilling Southern Ireland to enjoy this privilege. + +Further, I hold that if we let the Southern Irish go, we have a duty to +the Protestants and Roman Catholic loyalists, of whom, of course, there +are a very great many in the South. We have no right to force them to +forfeit their citizenship of the British Empire. They must be allowed to +come away from the South with full compensation for their disturbance if +they so desire. If circumstances force you to denationalise a certain +part of your country, you must give the loyal inhabitants an opportunity +to leave, and as far as possible must not allow their material interests +to suffer. It would be perfectly easy to have exempted all persons in +the South who were loyal to Britain and to have put the burden of their +migration where it ought to have fallen--that is, on the Southern +enemies of England and Scotland who, by their policy, had made human +life for the Protestants and Loyalists a veritable hell. + +If the South had refused to pay, we should ourselves have taken on the +burden, and imposed a duty on agricultural produce coming from the South +of Ireland into England sufficient to find the interest on a loan raised +to compensate the Southern refugees. That would be a perfectly possible +way, a very easy fiscal transaction. + +I am not going to argue further whether these views on the Irish problem +are _per se_ right or wrong. I can only adopt with variation the +party-politician's peroration: "These, gentlemen, are my principles; if +they don't suit, they can't be altered." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +MY POLITICAL OPINIONS (_Continued_) + + +I have described how the policy of Home Rule adopted by the Liberal +Party made me, as it did so many other people in the United Kingdom, +first a Liberal-Unionist and then a Unionist without a hyphen. +Unfortunately, however, the Unionist Party did not for very long offer +me a quiet and secure political haven. Like the Duke of Devonshire, whom +I always regarded during his life as my leader in politics, I had to +weigh my anchor during the tempest caused by Mr. Chamberlain's scheme of +Tariff Reform, and then seek safety in the ocean of independence. I am +not going at length into the merits of the fiscal question, except to +say that, though it was the only point on which I differed from the bulk +of the Unionist Party, it was, unfortunately, the one other matter of +policy in which I could not play the good party man and bow my head to +the decision of the Party as a whole. I felt as strongly about the +Tariff Reform as I did about the dissolution of the United Kingdom. +Rightly or wrongly again, my opposition was based very much on the same +essential grounds. I believed that the policy of Tariff Reform, if +carried out, would end by breaking up instead of uniting the British +Empire, which I desired above all things to maintain "in health and +strength long to live." I held that to give up Free Trade would do +immense damage to our economic position here and intensify our social +conditions by impoverishing the capitalist as well as the manual worker; +and, finally, that there was very great danger of any system of +Protection introducing corruption into our public life. If four or five +words, or sometimes even a single word and a comma, added to or taken +away from the schedule of a Tariff Act can give a man or group of men a +monopoly and tax half the nation in order to make them rich, you have +given men too personal a reason for the use of their votes. + +I can summarise my position in regard to Tariff Reform very easily. I am +no pedant about Protection, and if it could be shown that the security +of an island kingdom like the United Kingdom could only be made complete +by Protection in certain matters, I should be perfectly willing to vote +for measures to give that security. In other words, I would have voted +for what has been called "a state of siege" tariff. I should have +regarded it as an economic loss which must be borne just as must the +charges of the Army and Navy, in order to ensure the safety and welfare +of the realm. + +But Mr. Chamberlain and his followers, though there was an occasional +word or two about national security, did not base their appeal to the +nation on the ground of national security. They based it on quite +different grounds. They told us in effect, "If you want to maintain and +develop your industries, if you want to prevent them gradually dying +out, if you want to get the greatest amount of employment for +workingmen, and also for capital,--in a word, if you want to increase +the wealth of the nation, you must go in for Protection, _i.e._, +Tariff Reform." Tariff Reform thus became a national "get-rich-quick" +political war-cry. That, to my mind, was an appeal which had to be +counter-attacked at once as the most dangerous delusion from which any +people could suffer, and a delusion specially perilous to a country like +England--a nation living, and bound to live, by trade and barter rather +than by agriculture or the satisfaction of her own wants. England is a +country to which the encouragement of every form of exchange is vital. +But you cannot encourage exchanges under a system of Protection. +Protection sets out to limit Exchange by forbidding half the exchanges +of the world, that is, exchanges between persons of different +nationalities and different locations. + +If your object is to increase the national wealth, you must be a Free +Trader. There is no other way. If, however, your object is national +security--if you say, "I would rather see the nation safe than wealthy," +then I fully admit there is a good case, not merely in theory, but very +possibly in practice, for a certain amount of Protection. The existence +of arsenals in which rifles, explosives, and other material of war can +be made are obviously necessary, and no nation could safely see such +essential industries depart from these shores on the ground that we +could more economically make something else to exchange for rifles, +guns, ammunition, and armour-plate made elsewhere. Again, since the +existence of dye industries is so closely connected with the manufacture +of explosives, I am perfectly willing to admit that it may be necessary +to give Protection in this special matter. Again, it is possible, though +I think it less clear than is generally supposed, that there may be one +or two key industries which the experience of the War shows us it is +worth while to maintain here, even if a subsidy is required for such +maintenance. Finally, I think the experience of the War proved that we +must see to it that our ability to feed ourselves, though it may be at +short commons, for at least six months of the year, ought to receive due +consideration. + +I am as much opposed to war and as much in favour of peace as my +neighbours, but I do not want my descendants some day when called upon +to resist a threatened wrong to have to decide on peace, not on its +merits but because they are at the mercy of an international bully; and +remember we are not going to get rid of international bullies till we +have got educated and reasonable democracies established throughout the +world. + +The world will be safe only when rid of populations so servile by nature +that they are willing to allow themselves to be governed by men like the +ex-German Emperor. True education and true democracy are the best +anodynes to war. + +But, as I have said, Mr. Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform Leaguers, +though, of course, they occasionally spoke about security, really made +their appeal on the old Protectionist ground that "Day by day we get +richer and richer"--provided we limit our exchanges instead of extending +them. When the Tariff Reform agitation had made me, as I have said, find +safety in sea room with men like the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Cromer, +Lord George Hamilton, Mr. Arthur Elliott, Lord Hugh Cecil, Lord Robert +Cecil, and a number of very distinguished _Conservative_ Unionists +was well as _Liberal_ Unionists, I experienced the full disadvantages, +or rather the weakness, of independence in politics. We Unionist +Free Traders, as we called ourselves, were not really strong +enough to organise a party for ourselves, nor, indeed, did we think it +advisable to do so, for, except in the matter of Tariff Reform, we were +strongly opposed to the Liberal and Free Trade Party, and strongly in +sympathy with the bulk of the Unionist Party. In a word, we Unionist +Free Traders could not form a whole-hearted alliance with either of the +two old parties. We detested the Irish policy followed by Mr. Asquith, +its truckling to the Nationalists and its apparent determination to shed +the blood of the people of Ulster, if that was necessary to force them +under a Dublin Parliament. Again, we hated, and no man more than I, the +socialistic legislation which the Asquith Government were willing to +adopt at the bidding of the Labour Party. The mixture of coercion and +cajolery which Mr. Lloyd George knew so well how to employ in his +Radical days, in order to induce the House of Commons to accept his +various measures, was particularly abhorrent to us. + +It was not only the bad Irish policy of the Government, their flirtation +with Socialism, and the Marconi business, that made me strongly opposed +to Mr. Asquith's pre-War administration. I greatly disliked the foreign +policy of the Liberal Government. It was a weak and timid compromise +between half-hearted pacificism and inadequate preparation. I was +confident, as must have been anyone who kept his eyes open, that Germany +was preparing for war with this country as part of her world-policy, and +I felt it likely that as soon as the widening and deepening of the Kiel +Canal was finished, and so the effective strength of the German Fleet +doubled, the first excuse would be taken to bring on the "inevitable" +world-war. Therefore, I held that preparation for war was absolutely +necessary. Adequate preparation might indeed avert war. The German +Emperor wanted not so much war as victory, and the more we were prepared +the more we should be able to say that we would not allow the conquest +of Europe by arms, though we were quite ready to let Germany conquer by +good trading, _if she could_. The British people, as a whole, had +no jealousy of her splendid trade organisation and power of manufacture, +and nothing could ever have induced them to make an unprovoked attack on +Germany. + +If we had adopted universal military service here; if we had even, as I +wanted and urged in public, kept a couple of million of rifles in store +here, ready for the improvisation of great military forces, Germany, +however anxious to strike her blow, would probably have held her hand. +We were tempting her to war by our want of preparation. + +Unfortunately, Mr. Asquith and his Government, though full of anxiety +and trembling at the prospect of what might happen, came to the +disastrous decision not to make whole-hearted, but only half-hearted, +preparations. They decided that, though they would not do enough in the +way of preparation to make war impossible, they would do enough to give +an excuse to the Potsdam war-party. For the rest, they would trust to +the peace party--or alleged peace party--in Germany. In reality, there +was no such peace party, or, if there was, it was an impotent thing. The +servility of the German people rendered it quite unimportant! True +democracy may be trusted in the matter of peace. Your tyrant whether he +speaks with a popular voice, or whether he professes to be a God-given +autocrat, is always a danger. + +It was the slavish spirit of the German people and their willingness, +though so intelligent and so highly organised, to let themselves be +governed by a blatant Emperor of second-class intellect, which +constituted the real danger to European peace. If Mr. Asquith had said +to the people of this country, or, indeed, to the world, "We are going +to be vigilant in our preparations till the German people have freed +themselves and so given hostages for the peace of the world," he would, +I believe, have had the support of all the best elements in English +political life. He would not have used such crude language, but he could +have made his meaning clear in courteous phrases. Instead of which, he +took a line which, in effect, encouraged France, and so Russia, to stand +up against Germany, and not to take her threats lying down, and yet did +not insure against the obligations he was, in effect, incurring. + +To say that preparation, as is sometimes said, would have precipitated +war is a delusion. It might, I well believe, have precipitated it if the +preparations had been delayed till 1913, but not if they had been +undertaken, as they could have been quite easily, several years earlier, +_i.e._, after the Agadir incident and when the trend of events was +quite clear. Yet in January, 1914, Mr. Lloyd George thought it advisable +to say that we had reached a period when we could safely reduce our Army +and Navy. His speech was as provocative of war as any public utterance +recorded by history. + +Finally, I had a quarrel with the Liberal Government over Mr. Lloyd +George's famous first Budget, which I thought, and still think, a +thoroughly bad measure. But even here Fate did not allow me to range +myself with my old party, the Unionists. I could not, any more than +could Lord Cromer and many other of my political Unionist Free Trade +associates, believe that it was wise from the constitutional or +conservative point of view to try and fight the so-called "People's +Budget" by invoking action in the House of Lords over a financial +matter. I think the action of the Lords was bad from the legal point of +view. I am sure it was bad from the point of view of political +convenience. The country instinctively recognised that the Lords were +indulging in a revolutionary action, and, though the English people are, +I am glad to say, not frightened by the mere word "revolution," they +have a feeling that, if revolutionary action is to be taken, it ought +never to be taken by the representatives of Constitutionalism. That is +just the kind of inappropriateness which always annoys English people. +The result, of course, was that at the inevitable General Election the +Unionists did not gain enough seats to justify their action, and +thereupon Mr. Asquith and his followers undertook in the Parliament Act +the abolition of the power of the House of Lords to insist on the people +being consulted in matters of great importance. The Lords in recent +times never claimed the veto power but only this right to see that the +country endorsed the schemes of its representatives. + +Then came another break with the Unionists for me and for those who +thought like me. Lord Halsbury, Mr. Austen Chamberlain and their +followers, chiefly the right, or Tory, wing of the Unionists, were +strongly in favour of the Lords throwing out the Parliament Bill. It was +known that if the Lords did throw the Bill out, Mr. Asquith would advise +the King to create sufficient Peers (four hundred was the number +calculated to be required) to pass the measure. Though it was unpleasant +to be associated in this matter with the people who were most keen about +Mr. Lloyd George's Budget, I had not the slightest hesitation as to what +line of action I ought to take, and in The Spectator I urged with all +the strength at my command that the Unionist Party had no business to +set up as revolutionaries, which they in effect were doing by insisting +that the Bill should only be passed by the creation of four hundred +Peers. They, I urged, would appear before the public as the wreckers of +the Constitution. The result of the line I took in _The Spectator_-- +a +line not supported by the rest of the Unionist Press, or, at any +rate, by only a very small section of it--was to call down a vehemence +of denunciation on my head more violent than I, accustomed as I was to +abuse from both sides, had ever before experienced. Happily, I am one of +those people who find a hot fight stimulating and amusing and who, like +Attila, love the _certaminis gaudia_, the glories and delights of a +rough-and-tumble scrap. I and _The Spectator_ were, I remember, +denounced by name by Mr. Austen Chamberlain at a banquet of Die-Hards. +Mr. Garvin in _The Observer_ abused _The Spectator_ in perfect +good faith, I admit, but with characteristic intensity. I received dire +threats from old readers of _The Spectator_, and finally I received +gifts of white feathers to show what the country Die-Hards thought of +me! + +I felt quite certain, however, that not only was I right to speak my +mind, but that in the last resort the common sense of what the Anglo- +Saxon chronicler called "_miletes agresti_," and the new journalism +"the backwoodsman peers," would turn out to be not for but against +revolutionary action. And so it happened. + +I did not actually go to the House of Lords to hear the debate, as I am +one of those people who confess to be easily bored by what Lord +Salisbury called "the dreary drip of dilatory declamation." I waited, +however, pen in hand, to hear the result of the division, which was not +taken till late on a Thursday night. A relative in the House had +undertaken to telephone the event to me at the earliest moment, so that +I should have plenty of time to chronicle a victory for common sense, or +deplore the first step in an ill-judged constitutional revolution. When +the telephone-bell rang and the figures of the division were given, they +showed a majority against the rejection of the Bill. It was not a large +majority, but it was sufficient, and I at once turned with a sense of +real relief to write the funeral sermon on a round in the great +political game which had been as badly played as possible by the +Unionist leaders. I am still proud to think that _The Spectator_ +had taken a considerable share in preventing the crowning blunder. +Throughout the crisis I had acted in the utmost intimacy and complete +accord with Lord Cromer. He worked as hard with the Unionist chiefs in +private as I did with the rank-and-file in public. + +There were several curious episodes in this fierce quarrel of which I +was cognisant; but these events, and also those connected with the +Conferences on the Home Rule Bill, which was in progress when the War +broke out, cannot be fully dealt with. In fifteen or twenty years' time +either I or my literary executors may be able to disclose that portion +of them with which I was specially concerned. Till then the memoranda +and letters in which they are set forth must remain sealed books. For +fear of misconception I ought perhaps to add that they disclose nothing +dishonourable in any sort of way to any of the participants. Instead, +they bear out Lord Melbourne's aphorism. A lady is reported to have +addressed him in the following terms: "I suppose, Lord Melbourne, that +as Prime Minister you found mankind terribly venal." "No, no, Ma'am; not +venal, only damned vain." I might, during my inspection of the Arcana of +the Constitution and my first-hand knowledge of our leading politicians, +have been inclined to vary it, "Not venal, not self-seeking-only damned +foolish, or damned blind." + +Before I leave off reviewing my political views and actions, in which +there are many things which I am exceedingly sorry not to print at full +length, I desire a word or two in regard to my position towards the War. +I want to say quite plainly and clearly that, though it would be out of +place and wearisome to discuss the War and its origin here, I refuse +absolutely and entirely to apologise for the War, or to speak as if I +were ashamed of it, or of the part which, as a journalist, I played in +regard to it before it came or while it was in progress. The War was not +only necessary to secure our safety, but it was, I am as fully convinced +as ever I was, a righteous war. Unless we had been willing to run the +risk of being enslaved by Germany, or, if you will, unless we had been +prepared to fight for our lives and liberties at the most terrible +disadvantage, we were bound, both by reasons of safety and by reasons of +honour, to prevent France being destroyed by Germany. If after all that +had happened in the ten years before the war we had remained neutral, +France and Russia would have felt, and with reason, that we had deserted +them. It is, therefore, quite possible that, if Germany, after a rapid +initial success, had proposed very generous terms, they might have +patched up a peace at our expense, and in effect told Germany that she +might have as much of the perfidious British Empire as she required. +Germany would almost certainly have been willing to agree to such an +arrangement. Her rulers, like Napoleon, knew that they could not rule +Europe unless the naval supremacy of the British Empire was destroyed. +In a word, it was quite clear that if we, France, and Russia did not +hang _together_, we should hang separately. + +That was the argument of convenience. The argument based on honour and +justice was stronger still. The notion of allowing Belgium and France to +be exposed to the risk of destruction while we watched in fancied +security was absolutely intolerable. We could not say to France, though +some people actually thought it possible, "This is not our quarrel. You +must decide between Russia and Germany as best you can. We refuse to +fight Russia's battles; though we would fight yours if you were wantonly +attacked." But that was as foolish as it was selfish. France and Russia +were bound to support each other against the foe they found so potent +and so menacing;--a foe willing, nay, eager, to support that "negation +of God erected into a system" called the Austrian Empire. + +To be concise, France was bound in honour not to leave Russia in the +lurch when she was attacked, and we were also bound in honour not to +desert France. We had pursued, in the past, a policy which directly +encouraged France, not only to make a stand against Germany, but to +commit herself more and more to her Russian Allies and to regard, +indeed, that alliance as part of the security of the world, part of the +insurance against a German domination of Europe, part of the joint peace +premium. First to back up France, as we did at Agadir and afterwards, +and then suddenly to step aside with the cry of "Angela, there is +danger. I leave thee," would have been so base that, had we perpetrated +it, we could never have recovered our national self-respect. But self- +respect is as essential to the welfare of nations as it is to the +welfare of the individual. + +The War was a terrible evil, and we have suffered very greatly, but I +refuse absolutely to be apologetic in regard to our method of carrying +it through. On the contrary, I think there is nothing in human history +more magnificent than the way in which people in the British Empire +steadily kept to their purpose and were willing to make any and every +sacrifice to maintain the right. Here I appeal to a contemporary +judgment which happens to be as impartial as the judgment of any future +historian is likely to be. I mean the judgment passed on us by the firm +if friendly hand of the American Ambassador, Mr. Page. Wonderful and +deeply moving are his descriptions of the way in which the English +people of all classes and of all political creeds and temperaments +withstood the shock of the declaration of war and of its first dreadful +impact. Speaking generally his descriptions of the years '14, '15, and +'16--"Years which reeled beneath us, terrible years"--are as great and +as memorable as anything ever recorded in human history. As a picture of +a people undergoing the supreme test and seen in the fullest intimacy +and absolutely at first-hand, it is equal to anything even in +Thucydides. A noble passion inspires and consecrates the narration-- +vibrant with the sense not only of sorrow but also of exaltation and +complete understanding. It was the happiest of accidents that one of our +own race, and blood, and language should have been able to view the +nation's sacrifice as he viewed it, and yet be able to speak as could +only a man who was not actually participating in the sacrifice, and was +not actually part of the nation. An American citizen of pure English +language and lineage, like Mr. Page, could say things, and say them +outright, which no Englishman could have said. The Englishman would have +been checked and tongue-tied by the sense that he was plucking laurels +for his own brow. _Page's immortal letters--I am using the words with +sober deliberation and not in any inflated rhetoric--stand as the best +and greatest national monument for Britain's dead and Britain's +living_. + +That noble attitude of the British people, that gallantry without pose +or self-glorification, that valour without vain glory, that recognition +that pity and truth must be shared by the conqueror with the conquered +all were maintained by our people in war as in peace. There were tears +for the sons of the enemy as well as for our own. In spite of endless +provocations we kept our humanity and so our honour. + +If our battle spirit became us, our spirit since then has been as worthy +of the best that is in mankind. It is true that while making the Peace, +we said and did many foolish things, both as far as the rest of the +world is concerned and also in regard to our own interests; but we have +a perfect right to say that all was done in honour and nothing in +malice, in selfishness, or in that worst of all crimes and follies, the +spirit of revenge. There is no justice in revenge. It is a hateful and +premeditated negation of justice, the creature of ignoble panic, and not +of faith and courage. It is pure evil. + +I even refuse to bemoan the legacies of the War. The War has left us in +poverty and in peril. But even though that poverty and that peril are +largely the result of the mismanagement of those to whom we have +entrusted the work of reconstruction, I am not going to sit down by the +international roadside and rave about it. The way in which that social +peril and that poverty have been borne by the vast majority of our +population has been wholly admirable. I am optimist enough to see and +salute a nobility of sacrifice in all classes which to my mind is +earnest that the future of our half of the English-speaking race--of the +other half no man need have any doubts--will be as great as was its +past. + +Could anything have been better than the way in which the rich, opulent, +well-to-do classes of this country have taken the tremendous revolution +in their lives and fortunes accomplished by the War? The economic and +social change has been as great and almost as shattering as those +wrought by any social revolution in the world's history. Yet they have +hardly caused a murmur among those who have had to endure them. + +The great country-houses of England, only some eight years ago its +architectural and social glory, are passing rapidly out of the hands of +their old owners. Some are destined to fall actually into ruin, some to +become institutions, schools, hospitals, or asylums, and a few--but only +a few--to pass into the hands of the new possessors of wealth--a body +much smaller in numbers than is usually represented. There are thousands +of families whose members, once rich, have now passed into a condition +so straitened that only ten years ago they would have regarded it as +utterly insupportable--a position to which actual extinction was +preferable. Yet, Heaven be praised! this great social revolution has not +caused one drop of blood, and very little bitterness or complaint. +Coming, as it has come, as the result of a great national sacrifice, it +has been accepted with a patriotism as great as that which accepted the +sacrifice of the War. English people of all classes are tenacious of +their rights, and one may feel certain that the class of which I am +speaking, if they felt an injustice was being done them, would not have +forfeited their property without a struggle. Of such civil strife, +however, there has never been a thought. In a word, our revolution has +come in the guise of a patriotic duty and sacrifice. + +It was accompanied, strange to tell, by a sudden, and therefore +unsettling, temporary great increase of material prosperity among the +poorer part of the community. The sacrifices, moral and physical, though +not material, made by the manual workers were, though not greater, every +bit as great as those made by the rich and the well-to-do. They were +borne by the working-classes with what one must admit showed, in one +sense, an even greater nobility of conduct. Education made matters +explicable to the prosperous, and especially to their women, whereas the +greater part of the women of the manual workers, and a very large part +of the men, had to take the reasons for the War wholly on trust. They +had not been sufficiently forewarned of the danger, and the War burst +upon them literally as a horrible surprise--a surprise which so soon +meant for the women the sacrifice of all they held most dear. + +Though there seems a likelihood that proportionately the material +sacrifice may remain less great for the manual workers than for those +who are above them in the economic scale, the loss caused by the world's +destitution is bound to be great, even though it will not be +revolutionary. Still, I am convinced that it will be met with equal +courage, provided our rulers, through panic or through false ideas of +expediency, do not feed the manual workers of the nation on a diet of +mere flattery, sophistry, and opportunism, but rather instruct and +inspire them to play a worthy part. + +But, though I see how many and how great are the dangers that surround +us, I believe that as a nation and an Empire we shall pass through the +fiery furnace with unsinged hair. It has been said that the Almighty +must favour the British Empire, for again and again some event which it +is difficult to regard as a mere accident has saved it from destruction, +or turned its necessity to glorious gain. I find no difficulty in +agreeing and also have no desire to apologise for calling it the Will of +God that our nation shall not perish. I admit, however, it would be more +in the philosophic fashion to describe it as the resultant of the Life- +Urge, or of "the Something behind the Somebody"--a formula which is +possibly destined to take the place of Matthew Arnold's more polished +"stream of tendency making for righteousness." + +But when I say this of the new voices, I hope that no one will imagine +that I speak cynically or even in sympathetic irony. It may well be that +those who use the phrase "Life-Urge" in reality mean very nearly what I +mean when I speak of "the Grace of Heaven." They, indeed, may be more +honest and more sincere than I am in their reticence of language and in +their determination not to deceive themselves, even by an iota. Their +fierce preservation of the citadel of agnosticism, till they are sure, +may make them unhappy and hard-pressed in spirit. It can never make them +ignoble. + +For myself, I am convinced that there is no better way of serving God, +or of acknowledging the greatness of the issues of life and death than +that splendid devotion to truth which will not allow even the minutest +dilution,--which demands, not only the truth, and the whole truth, but +nothing but the truth. Who dare blame these young "Knights of the Holy +Ghost" who make their Gospel a demand for an absolute purity, who ask +for the thing which has no admixture? + +Does not our Lord Himself tell us, "_Blessed are the pure in hearty +for they shall see God_"? And does not purity of heart mean no mixed +motives, no substitutes, no easy concessions, no compromises, no +arrangements, but only the truth and the light, single and undefiled? + +But I fear I may seem to be losing touch with that of which I speak, or +claiming some sort of monopoly of Divine guidance for my race and +country. Nothing could be further from my thought. All that I do is to +cherish the belief that the trend of events is towards moral and +spiritual progress, and that the chief instrument of salvation will be +the English-speaking race. In speaking thus, as a lover or a child, I am +certainly not pointing to the road of selfishness. If the English- +speaking kin is to take the lead and to bring mankind from out the +shadow and once again into the light, it can only be through care, toil, +and sacrifice-things little consistent with national selfishness or +national pride. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +UNWRITTEN CHAPTERS + + +The writing of memoirs is a pleasant exercise. At any rate, I have found +it so. It has led me back to many curious and delightful things which I +had wholly forgotten. They came unbidden in the train of events which I +had always remembered "in principle" and was at pains to evoke in +detail. But though the process has obvious advantages, it has had one +drawback. My recollections, and still more my reflections, and what I +may call my self-comments Conscious and Subconscious, have been so many +that at times I have felt like a man struggling in a mighty torrent. + +The result has been that, though I have written more than I intended to +write, I have not covered anything like the amount of ground which I +hoped to cover. I am left staring at a list of unwritten chapters. A +list as long as that of those chapters included in my book or else +eliminated lest the volume should swell to the size of the London +Directory or to one of those portentous catalogues which Mr. Bernard +Quaritch used to put forth in the days when I first began to love books, +not merely for their contents, but as books. + +The titles of the unwritten chapters have, however, so fascinated me, +and seem so necessary to my life and, therefore, to my book, that I +must, at any rate, put their names on record, together with some faint +indication of their nature, lest my readers should think there is some +deep reason why I do not touch them. It is, I feel, only natural that +people should think the worst of an Autobiographer. + +The unwritten chapter which I most deeply regret is that chapter on the +War Hospital which we opened in the house in which I am writing--a +Hospital which my wife, though I suppose I ought not to say this, +managed, in spite of ill-health and many difficulties, with +extraordinary success. Though physically disabled, she, for nearly five +years, maintained practically single-handed, the organisation and +direction of a well-equipped surgical and medical institution in a house +not built for that purpose, though, oddly enough, one which in certain +ways lent itself to hospital purposes. The Newlands Corner Hospital had +an average of forty beds. + +Four and a half years is a long time to be out of one's house. It is a +still longer time in which to turn your home into an institution and +yourself into a matron. Altogether some eight or nine hundred men passed +through the hospital. The doctors of the Royal Herbert Hospital, +Woolwich, with which we were affiliated, and Colonel Simpson, the +A.D.M.S. of that Hospital,--a man of marked ability in his profession +and with a natural gift for administration,--soon found out that +Newlands air and Newlands care were excellent things for difficult and +anxious cases. Therefore we had our full share of bad, or, as the +Sisters and nurses put it, good, cases. + +As I had nothing to do with the hospital except on the proprietory side-- +I +was very busy with war--work of my own--I cannot be accused of self- +laudation if I say that my wife won the praise, not only of the Medical +Authorities, but, which was still more to her and to me, the confidence +and gratitude of her patients. No small part of her success was due to a +very simple fact. She early saw the necessity of dividing the +administrative side of the hospital from the nursing side. Nursing is so +fascinating in itself that many Commandants were drawn from their proper +sphere of administration into surgical and medical work. My wife, partly +from an instinct for sound administration, and partly also because at +the moment she lacked the physical strength, confined herself strictly +to her own side. In a hospital in which the patients were continually +changing, which was four miles from a town and two miles from a railway +station, that side was in war-times and during the period of rationing, +by no means a light job. But the fact that there was one person, and +that the person in supreme charge of the institution, who did nothing +else except attend to the smooth running of the machine, meant that +there were no arrears of correspondence, that all Army forms were filled +up exactly and not, as many Commandants were inclined to think was far +better, in accordance with what they themselves judged to be reasonable +and necessary. Indeed, I was wont to tell my wife that I was appalled at +the bureaucratic spirit which she developed! I believe I am right in +saying that she never got an Army form wrong, though on several +occasions she was able to point out to her official superiors that they +had mistaken, or at any rate forgotten, their own elaborate rules. + +The result was an extremely easy functioning of the official engine. +While other Commandants could be heard complaining that they could not +get answers from the authorities, or get the Army payments made +properly, my wife, I believe, never once failed to get the War Office +cheque, on the day it was due. There were never any complaints that she +was in arrears with her correspondence or with necessary information. +But then, instead of raging, as no doubt, she might have been quite as +much inclined to do as anyone else, at the absurdities of "red tape" and +so forth, she accepted them as necessary evils, like hailstorms and the +"all dreaded thunder-stroke." + +Six months before the War, believing the catastrophe was coming, she +took instructions from an R.A.M.C. staff sergeant-major in all the +intricacies of yellow, blue, and red tickets, and of forms from A to Z, +or rather, from the first wound to the burial, required by the R.A.M.C. +The result was that when the War broke out she knew a great deal more +about the details of the Army Medical system than did many Staff or +Regimental Officers, and even more than many Medical Officers. + +But I am breaking my rule of not writing about living people, and I must +stop. I may, however, say something about my own place in the hospital, +for my position was curious, and of very great interest to me. During +the four and a half years that the hospital was open, I lived in it as +what might be called a parlour-boarder. I kept my own bedroom, but my +house contained, as it were, forty guests, and guests of a very +fascinating kind. Our family life was embedded in the hospital. My +daughter was working in the wards, and my son used to come back from +Eton to spend his holidays in his hospital home. I was working at the +time, not only at _The Spectator_, but also at recruiting for the +Regular Army, which I regarded as my special duty, for I happened that +year to be Sheriff of my county. In addition I was at the head of a +curious little corps called the Surrey Guides and further was a member +of the Executive Committee for the Volunteer Training Corps--a body +whose activities alone would be well worth a chapter. + +But though my work lay outside Newlands, and though I always spent two +nights a week in London, conducting, besides my editorial duties at +_The Spectator_ office, the duties I have already described in +connection with the American Correspondents, I gained a most valuable +experience from the hospital. In the first place, I did something which +was almost unique. I lived for four and a half years in a community of +women-the only man amongst nine. The house, of course, was full of male +patients, but I lived with the staff. + +Besides my wife and daughter, there was a Sister-in-Charge, and, when +needed, an additional professional nurse, a staff of _masseuses_ +which varied in number in accordance with the nature of the cases sent +to us, and four or five resident V.A.D.'s, including the night nurses. +In a house in such an isolated position as ours it was not possible for +the V.A.D.'s to live at home and come in for their duty hours. + +I suppose the conventional cynic will expect me to say that I found out +how much more quarrelsome, jealous, and feline is a community of women +than one of men. Though I amused myself very much by watching how women +work in association, I am bound to say that I saw nothing which led me +to any such conclusion. I have seen plenty of men's quarrels in offices, +in clubs, in the common rooms of colleges, at schools, and still more, +perhaps, in mess-rooms and barracks, and I am bound to say that, +according to my experience, my sex is quite as bad as, and, on the +whole, rather worse than, women at the communal quarrel. Women are a +little less noisy in their quarrels, and little more ingenious, but that +is as far as I should care to generalise. + +"They did not let you see."--That will not do as an explanation, for I +am sure that after the first seven or eight months, the ladies of the +staff came to ignore me completely, or to regard me rather as a part of +the furniture. Consequently, I saw them in what, if they had been men, +one might have called their shirt-sleeves. When you see hard-worked and +anxious people, as they come down to breakfast in the morning, when they +rush in to lunch, and when they sink, tired, into their chairs at +dinner, you have a pretty good opportunity for finding out all about +them. Under such conditions they cannot keep up the veil of convention +and of company manners. However, I cannot go into all these details, +much as I should like to, but must give only a general verdict. + +I ended up my four and a half years as a parlour-boarder in a semi- +convent with a respect for women and their work, which had always been +very high, made still higher. If perhaps I found women a little less +sensitive than I thought, I certainly found them a great deal more +sensible, and, of course, as I suppose is the universal experience, a +great deal less easily shocked by things that ought not to shock them +than they are supposed to be. I mean by this that women are much less +afraid to look life full in the face and much more willing to understand +and to pardon, than is supposed. Also, I came to the conclusion that +women, though great disciplinarians, and often hard upon each other, are +not essentially merciless. + +They are certainly, on the whole, less lazy than men, which is probably +a misfortune. I think Matthew Arnold was right when he spoke of women +being "things that move and breathe mined by the fever of the soul." The +fever of the soul, especially in a Sister, who, as is the case with most +of them, was grossly overworked in the hospital where she was trained, +is apt to prove a great evil. + +If I learned a good deal about women at the hospital and if the result +of that learning was respect and admiration, I acquired an equally great +respect and admiration for the British soldier. I had always loved those +"contemptible regiments" who, as Sir Thomas Browne says, "will die at +the word of a sergeant," but I loved them still more when I saw their +good-natured, unostentatious way of life. They were, above all things, +easy and sympathetic livers. Almost the only thing that shocked and +disgusted them was being treated as heroes. Dr. Johnson talked about the +"plebeian magnanimity of the British common soldier" and meant the right +thing, though, in truth, there was nothing plebeian in the said +magnanimity,--nothing which would not have been worthy of the highest +birth and the highest breeding. + +But the hospital did not raise my admiration merely for the soldier. It +raised it equally for the British working-man, who composed by far the +larger part of our patients. Ours, remember, was a soldiers' hospital, +not an officers'. We had, I think, in the whole course of our hospital +not more than four men who had been public-school boys or University +men. All the rest were labourers or artisans. When the hospital doors +closed, I respected the English working-man as much as ever, and added +to that respect a love and sympathy which I may record, but shall not +attempt to explain or to express in detail. I could fill a book with +stories and studies of our friends, for so they became, and so they +still remain. + +My wife is constantly in touch with her old patients, and this does not +mean applications for help or for work, but letters and visits of +pleasure. That is good, but what is even better is that we constantly +come across references to the Newlands feeling, for around it quickly +grew up an indefinable _esprit de corps_. For example, on the day +on which I write these pages, one of our local newspapers contains a +letter from a Yorkshireman who had somehow seen an article in the +aforesaid paper in regard to some Red Cross work done by my wife. He +talks of the happy hours he spent at Newlands Corner, "hours which will +live for ever in my mind." That, of course, is commonplace enough and +sounds trivial, but it is repeated often enough to provoke a sense of +true communal fellowship. + +One of the things with which I think my wife and I were specially +pleased about the hospital was the rapid way in which this sense of +_esprit de corps, i.e._, the public-school feeling, grew up. After +the first month or two, patients talked quite seriously and candidly +about "the old hospital." Again and again men told us that they should +never forget Newlands. Like the true Englishmen they were, they partly +loved Newlands because of the beauty of the scenery. The Englishman, +though generally insensible of, or at any rate irresponsive to, the +arts, is never irresponsive to a view. (John Stuart Mill's Autobiography +contains, by the way, a curious passage in regard to this point.) I +remember my wife telling me, the day after she had admitted a very bad +case, that the patient had said to her, "I am sure I shall get well +here, Commandant. It's such beautiful scenery." + +But no more of the hospital here. I live in the hope that some day I may +write its history, and may be able to say something which will not be +open to the charge of, "Oh! Another boring book about the War!" As I +conceive it, my hospital book will be an analysis of the mind and +character of the British working-man with his defensive armour off, and +not an attempt to give any views on military or medical reform and so +forth. + +One word more. My position in the hospital with the men was a strange +one. They soon saw that I played the game, and that if I saw them +breaking rules, met them, when I was riding, out of bounds, or +discovered them at any other of their wicked tricks, I never told tales, +or got them into trouble, or evoked any disciplinary reprisals. This +intensive cultivation of the blind eye raised me to the position of a +friendly neutral and gained for me their confidence. Besides, I believe +it soothed them to think that I, too, had to endure the regiment of +women to which they were exposed. They suspected that I also quailed, as +they must, before "the Sister in charge." + +Their manners, by the way, were always perfect without being formal or +absurd. They seemed to have an instinct for absolute good breeding. Yet +they were all the time what Whitman called "natural and nonchalant +persons." Neither my wife, nor her staff, nor I ever made any pretence +to ourselves that they were plaster saints because their manners were +good. They were as wicked as demons and as mischievous as monkeys, and +seized every occasion for natural wrong-doing. In fact, they were just +like schoolboys, but they observed always the schoolboy law. Quarrel +they might, and dislike each other as they often did very bitterly, they +never told tales of each other. The Belgians, of whom we had some at the +beginning, were very different. They, curiously enough, gave each other +away quite freely, and complained of each other to the Commandant. But, +as one of our men said to me in excuse for the bad behaviour of the +Belgians, "They was never taught any better. They hadn't the training +we've had." + +Another unwritten chapter, which I desire particularly to write, is a +chapter on Newlands, the history of the house which I love only less +than I love Sutton Court,--the house which I and my wife built, if not +with our own hands, at any rate with our own heads,--the house in which +my children were born, and two of my grandchildren,--the house from +which my daughter was married,--the house which I have seen grow like a +tree out of the ground,--finally, a house sanctified by the sufferings +of brave men, who had fought for a great cause and laid us all under an +obligation never to be expressed in words. Newlands, with its keen, +almost mountain, air, its views, its woodlands, its yews, its groves of +ash, and oak, and thorn, its green paths winding through the greyer and +deeper-toned gorse, heather, and bracken, is a thing to live for. If one +can be grateful, as certainly one can, to things inanimate, I am +grateful for the health and strength which Newlands has given me. But +this must be told, if I ever write it, in the history of the house. +Still, I regret not to have done more honour to Newlands here, as I +regret not to have been able to make my salute to the wounded in better +form. + +Another chapter "arising out of" Newlands, which I should like to have +written, would have been on my work as Chief of the Surrey Guides. My +readers need not be afraid of some burst of amateur militarism. I should +have treated the Surrey Guides simply as a kind of "new model" version +of Cobbett's Rural Rides. It was my duty to explore all the paths and +roads of the county, and delightful work it was. My experiences must +certainly be put on record somewhere and sometime, for, alas! the horse +is dying out and with him will die the bridle-paths and the pack-roads. +The night-riding part of my Surrey Guide work was to me particularly +attractive. No one who has not tried night-riding across country will +realise how fascinating it is and, comparatively speaking, how easy. +Provided you ride a pony, instead of a huge, long-legged, heavy- +weighted, badly-balanced horse, there is neither danger nor difficulty. + +I will not say that the secret of night-riding is to give yourself up to +your horse, for your horse may be as big a blunderer as you, and become +a mixture of stupidity and anxiety. What I advise is, give yourself up +to your sub-consciousness, if you can, and this will lead you through +the darkest places and the roughest roads in ample security. + +Another chapter which I believed I was going to write in this book was +to be devoted to inscriptions. I have always loved the art of the +epigraphists, and I wanted to quote some examples, including (1) an +inscription for a sun-dial, (2) an inscription for a memorial to Lord +Halifax, the trimmer, the greatest of Whig statesmen, (3) another to +William Pitt, and (4) an inscription to the Quakers who fought and died +in the War,--men whose noble combination of patriotism and self- +abnegation impressed me profoundly. + +Their ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest, Their names a great example +stand to show How strangely high endeavour may be blest When Piety and +Valour jointly go. + +Another Surrey chapter might have dealt with my activities as Sheriff +and my conceptions of that office. + +Still another chapter ought to have centred in my personal life at +Newlands. It was at Newlands that my health broke down and I saw, or +thought I saw, as did my doctors, the advance of the penumbra, the +shadow of eclipse which was to engulf my life. I wanted very much, when +I began this book, to put on record a description of how utterly +different than is commonly supposed are the feelings of the occupant of +the condemned cell. I should also like to have recorded certain +reflections upon how a serious illness becomes a kind of work of art, a +drama or film in real life, in which the patient, the doctors, the +nurses, the friends, and the relations all play their appropriate parts, +and contribute each in his order to the central theme. But this and "The +Adventure of Dying," a theme which has never yet been adequately +treated, but ought some day to be, must await not, of course, the actual +coming of the Gondolier, for that is too late, but that interval between +life and death which the Emperor Diocletian boasted that he had created +for himself. + +Another unwritten chapter on a subject which may sound dull, but which +might very well have been one of the best, was to be called "The +Consolations of the Classics." It would have told how in his later years +new stars had risen for the adventurer in the voyage of life, while many +of the planets that were in their zenith in his youth have suffered +decline. + +As a boy, and even in the prime of life, I knew nothing of Racine. I now +bend my head in adoration. Again, I knew little or nothing of Balzac. I +now think of him as one of the greatest of the analysts of human +conduct,--not as great as Shakespeare, but, all the same, very great, +and almost as terrible as he is great. If ever a man fascinates and is +intolerable, it is Balzac. + +I should have liked, but that is not a thing which can be compressed or +sandwiched into any chapter, to have written quite frankly and fully +about my religious beliefs. Here, indeed, I had planned with some care. +I wanted to say not what I thought other men ought to believe, nor what +I thought I ought to believe myself, or, again, what I ought not to +believe in order to make my _credo_ look reasonable and "according +to plan." What I wanted to do was to say frankly, fairly, and truthfully +what I do believe as a matter of fact and not as a matter of ought or +ought not. I wanted to record an existing set of actualities, not to +write a piece of philosophy or metaphysics. _I wanted, in fact, to +photograph my soul._ But this, again, must wait, though I hope it +will not wait very long. + +If I write such a paper I shall certainly take for my motto Lord +Halifax's words to Bishop Burnet: "I believe as much as I can: and God +Almighty will, I am sure, pardon me if I have not the digestion of an +ostrich." + +I will neither be put off on the one side by making an effort to express +belief in more than I can believe, nor, again, refuse to record my +honest belief in some "fact of religion" because it will not be thought +creditable for me, or because certain people will think me superstitious +and unreasonable, just as other people will think me too rationalistic. +I will yield nothing to the demand, "You cannot possibly believe +_this_, when you have just said that you don't believe _that_. +The two things must hang together. You cannot pick and choose like this +at your fancy." + +My answer is, I can, I do, and I will. My endeavour is not an attempt to +reconcile beliefs, but to say for good or for evil what I do believe. I +believe that London lies to the Northeast of the place at which I am +dictating these words. Faith is a fact, not a fragment of reasoning, and +I mean to put down the said fact for what it is worth. + +How I wish I could write my chapter on the odd things that have happened +to me in life, and record the strange and inexplicable things that I +have heard of from other people. I don't mean by this that I have a +number of second-hand ghost-stories to tell. All the same I could t-ell +of certain things much more impressive because they are so much less +sensational. It was my habit as a young man, a habit which I wish I had +not abandoned, to ask everybody I came across, who was worth +interrogating, what was the oddest thing that had happened in their +lives. One would have supposed that I should often have got for my +impertinence a surly answer, or, at any rate, an elegant rapier-thrust, +or some other form of snub. Strangely enough, I never found anyone "shy" +at my question, but I did get many curious answers, and some of these I +have a perfect right to record. A section of this chapter should deal +with accidental conversations and accidental confessions. It has been my +good luck once or twice to listen to the most strange talk in trains and +other public places, and again, by straight questions I have sometimes +elicited very crooked answers. + +For example, when I was a young man I once heard an old gentleman in a +third-class railway carriage remark vaguely and yet impressively to the +company at large, as follows: "I once saw six men hanged in a very +rustic manner." That, I think everyone will agree with me, was an +excellent conversational opening. The full story, though I cannot tell +it here, was quite as good. So was the story of William Harvey, "_the +girt big Somersetshire man_" and what he did in a fight with Spanish +Pilots in the Bilbao River. Of this story, told to me in the broadest +Somersetshire dialect by a Somersetshire boatman who was present at the +fight, I cannot resist quoting one passage: "They were all dressed in +white and fighting with their long knives. But William Harvey, who was +six feet six high, got hold of the axe we always kept on deck for +cutting away the mast if it went in a storm, and he knocked them over +with that. And as fast as he did knock them over, we did chuck the +bodies into the water." + +Another of my accidental conversations opened with these words: "And she +never knew till she followed her to her grave that she was her own +mother." The personal pronouns are slightly mixed, but the story might +well develop like a Greek play. + +Again, I planned a chapter to describe the four most beautiful human +beings seen by me in the course of my life. Strangest of all, and +perhaps most beautiful of all, using beauty in rather a strained sense, +was the man alluded to in my dedication,--the man my wife and I saw in +the Jews' Garden at Jahoni. We were resting in the garden after a very +long ride in very hot weather, when there entered a young man in a white +tunic, with bare feet and legs. On his head was a wide hat of rough +straw, and across his shoulder a mattock. His face and form could only +be described in the famous words, "Beauty that shocks you." Why his +beauty shocked us, and must have shocked any other seers possessed of +any sensibility, I cannot say. Thinking he was a gardener, we asked our +Dragoman to ask him some simple question but he could not, or did not, +obtain any information. The creature was like the figures of Faunus or +Vertumnus, or one of those half-deities or quarter-deities that one sees +among the marbles in public collections. "Graeco-Roman School, of the +late Antonine Period; probably representing a Rural Deity, or God of +Spring or Agriculture in the Latin mythology." Certainly the more +decadent side of late Greek or Roman art seemed in some strange way to +be living again in this amazing being. + +Far more really beautiful, far more interesting, and far more impressive +was a woman whom I and my younger brother met with in a tram-car outside +the Porta del Popolo in Rome. Up till then I had spent much time in +wondering why the Italian population had declined in the matter of good- +looks and why one never saw anyone like a Bellini or a Raphael Madonna. +And then I looked up after having my ticket clipped and saw the perfect +youthful mother of the Cinquecento painters sitting opposite me. A more +exquisitely harmonious face and expression were never vouchsafed to my +eyes. She was a countrywoman of the richer peasant class, and was +apparently making her first visit to the city accompanied by her +husband. One would gladly have taken oath at first sight that she was +the perfect wife and mother, and yet there was no sentimental pose about +her--only the most naive and innocent delight told in smiles, laughter, +and blushes. The things she saw from the tram window seemed to make her +whole being ripple with pleasure. Happily I cannot here be judged as a +sentimental visionary for my companion will avouch the facts. + +Curiously enough, though I think English women, as a whole, far surpass +the Italians in their looks, the other perfectly beautiful woman whom I +have seen was also an Italian. I was taking an early walk, with my +younger brother, from Baveno to the summit, or at any rate, to the +shoulder of the Monte Moteroni. The time was between five and six +o'clock in the morning, and the place a small peasant's farm just at the +fringe of the land between the open mountain and the cultivated slopes. +I looked over the hedge or wall, I forget which, and there was a bare- +legged girl of some seventeen or eighteen working in the field with her +father and her brothers, hoeing potatoes. Here, indeed, was something +worth writing home about--a figure like the Lombard girl in Browning's +"Italian in England, "--a face gentle, simple, kind, but, above all, +beautiful, and a figure worthy of the face. + +The fourth figure in my gallery of the visions that the turn of the road +took from my eyes and "swept into my dreams for ever" was seen during a +purely prosaic walk in South Kensington. Unsuspecting, unperturbed, I +was bent on a constitutional, or maybe a shopping expedition, when there +suddenly arose before my astonished eyes, out of a man-hole in the +middle of the street--I honestly believe it was the Cromwell Road--a +young workman with flaxen hair and a short beard,--a man with something +of the face and figure which the Italian painters gradually came to +attribute to the Christ. But here again, as in the case of the Madonna +of the tram-car, the man evidently had never been told of, or thought +of, the resemblance. He seemed perfectly unconscious and natural. Though +the trained eye might notice a resemblance in the outline of the face, +the happy smile and negligent air showed nothing of the Man of Sorrows. +He was just an ordinary Englishman. + +When I think of those four figures of resplendent beauty--and +especially of the two women, for the Syrian had something sinister and +uncanny about him and the young Englishman was too prosaic in +essentials--I recall the passage which I know is somewhere in Sir Thomas +Browne, though I am quite unable to find it, in which the Physician +Philosopher declares that when he sees specially beautiful persons he +desires to say a grace or thanksgiving to Heaven for the joy that has +been vouchsafed him. + +As to the strange stories and strange things told me, I should have +liked particularly to chronicle two at length. One is the story of a +tiny Indian spindle that spun by itself in the dust, and the other, +though it had no marvel in it, except the marvel of maternal feeling, is +the story of a chamois and her young one on a glacier-pass. The English +mountaineer who told it me, was on a difficult climb. Suddenly he saw to +his astonishment a chamois, the shyest of all animals, standing stock- +still on a steep glacier. She actually let him come so close to her that +he could have touched her with his hand, and then he saw the reason. The +chamois stood at the very edge of a deep crevasse, and up from its cold, +blue depths came the cry of a terrified and agonised creature--cries +that were answered by the mother chamois. The little chamois had fallen +through the ice-bridge and lay some hundred feet or so below and beyond +all recovery. The narrator was an ordinary table-d'hote Smoking-Room +tourist, but he could hardly recount the story without tears. He tried, +but it was impossible to effect a rescue, and he had to leave the +wretched mother where she was. As he said, "Considering what chamois +are, it sounds absolutely incredible that the mother should have been +able to overcome her shyness of mankind and stay by the young one. I +wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. She took no more notice +of me and my guide than if we had been rocks. Poor brute!" + +Another chapter would have recorded the influence upon my life of great +writers, great poets, great painters, great sculptors, and great +musicians. Next, I should have loved to give in detail accounts of my +travels, not in strange or dangerous parts of the earth, but through +some of the most beautiful scenery of Europe and in the fringes of +Africa and Asia. As a young man, I journeyed in sledges over most of the +Alpine passes in the winter, for, owing to my uncle John Symonds being +one of the discoverers of the High Alps in winter, I was early, so to +speak, in the snow-field. To this day nothing attracts me more than the +thought of a long day or night spent in a sledge. + +I crossed the Splugen by day in the winter, and by moon-light in the +summer. I crossed the St. Gothard (before the tunnel was made) in a +Vetturino carriage. I have crossed the Simplon, and I have many times +crossed the Bernina and all the other passes of the Orisons in the snow +in mid-winter. For those who like, as I do, sharp cold, and ardent +sunlight, there is nothing more delightful, and if as sometimes happens, +one can see or hear an avalanche really close, without getting into it, +a pleasant spice of danger is added. But I did not love the Alps merely +in the winter. Though no expert climber, I was fond of the mountains to +the point of fanaticism, and though I never got higher than 11,000 feet, +or a little over, I had the extremely interesting experience of falling +into a crevasse. Fortunately I was well held by the rope against the +white grey edge of the blue abyss, while my legs kicked freely in the +illimitable inane. + +Is there anything in the world like being aroused in the grey of dawn by +the man with the axe and the rope? Can anything equal that succession of +scenes, the Alpine village in sleepy silence, the pastures and the +cultivated land, the inevitable little bridge on the inevitable stream, +then the belt of pines, then the zone of rocks and flowers, best and +gayest of all gardens, and last the star gentians and the eternal snows? +A holiday heart, twenty years of age, a friend, a book of poetry, and a +packet of food in one's pocket!--Truly, "If there is a Paradise, it is +here, it is here!" + +Horses that I have known and liked, and on whose backs I have felt +supremely happy--rides on mules in Spanish or African mountains, rides +in the Syrian or Libyan Deserts on true Arabs, or, perhaps most +thrilling of all, night rides on the Downs, would make a tale, whether +delightful to read by others I know not, but certainly delightful to be +recorded by me. + +"Projects Fulfilled and Unfulfilled" would have made a good chapter, as +would also "Quotations and the Effects of Poetry on Everyday Existence." + +Another chapter which I have not written, but should like to have +written, would have been "Some Uncles"--I use the word "some" in both +the common and the slang sense--for I may be said to have been specially +rich in this relationship. Two of my Indian uncles were well known to +the public. One was Sir John Strachey, for six months acting Viceroy of +India, owing to Lord Mayo's assassination and the delay in his successor +taking up the post. The other was Sir Richard Strachey, who began his +Indian life as a subaltern in the Hon. East India Company's Corps of +Sappers and Miners. He had a horse killed under him at the Battle of +Sobraon, and afterwards became one of the greatest of Indian Civil +Engineers, a Member of Council (Public Works Department), and one of the +greatest of canal and railway constructors. Henry Strachey, another +uncle, commanded a battalion of Gourkhas, and died over ninety years of +age. Though little known to the world, he was a man of memorable +character and in his youth accidentally and temporarily the talk of +London as a Thibetan explorer. William Strachey, a fourth uncle, was the +strangest of men. Like the "Snark," he breakfasted at afternoon tea and +lived by candlelight instead of sunlight,--a wholly fantastic man, +though one of great ability. At one time he was what our forefathers +called "a man about town,"--a member of Brook's Club during the Fifties +and Sixties, a friend of Thackeray and of "Flemming, the Flea," and a +clerk in the Colonial office. He was often selected by Lord Palmerston +for special work. Later, however, he developed such strangely nocturnal, +though by no means noisy habits, that he almost disappeared from the ken +of his family. He, by the way, once spoke to me of Lady William Russell, +of whom I have already written, describing her as one of the most +beautiful and in later years one of the most delightful people he had +ever seen, and the best of all hostesses--"You used to look up at the +fanlight over the door of her house in South Audley Street, and if you +saw the gas-jet burning you knew that she was at home, expecting the +company of her friends, and needed no further invitation. Whatever the +hour was, if the light was burning you could go in and finish your +evening in talk with her and her other guests." She was thus at home +almost every evening to the people favoured enough to have the entry of +her house. + +Another uncle was Mr. George Strachey, a diplomat, and for some thirty +years Her Britannic Majesty's representative at Dresden,--a man of great +ability, but with a nature better fitted to a man of letters than to an +official. Of Strachey great-uncles I could tell many a curious and +entertaining tale, and especially of the man whom my father succeeded,-- +the man we called "the second Sir Henry." It has been said of him that +he was "odd even for a Strachey," and I could prove that up to the hilt. +Almost as odd, from many points of view, though much more human, was his +brother, Richard Strachey, one of the prize figures of the Military and +Diplomatic Service of the East India Company. He is still commemorated +in Persia on the leaden water-pipes of Ispahan, but how and why is too +long a story for a chapter of apology. + +Dearly should I have loved to write a chapter on "The Art of Living," +for unquestionably "life demands art,"--an aphorism, by the way, not, as +most people think, of Pope but of Wordsworth. (Wordsworth, remember, had +a great deal of the Eighteenth Century in him.) That chapter, however, +would easily become a book or a serpent, as says the Italian proverb. + +Last of all, how many are the men and women, now dead, whom I should +like to have mentioned and of whom I have something worth saying. They +are included in a rough list which I drew up when I first thought of +writing my autobiography. I give these names written down just as they +occurred to me. Some of them have been referred to in the body of this +book, but most of them are not even mentioned. Lord Roberts; Watts the +painter; Sir John Millais; Sir William Harcourt; Lord Houghton; Walter +Bagehot; Lord Carlingford; Lord Goschen; the Duke of Argyll of +Gladstone's Cabinets; Mr. Macmillan, the publisher; Mr. George Smith; +Lady Stanley of Alderley; Lord Carlisle; Lord Morpeth; Sir Edward Cook; +Lord Kitchener; the late Duke of Northumberland; Admiral Dewey; Mr. +William Arnold; Lord Burghclere; Sir William Jenner; Miss Mary Kingsley; +Lord Glenesk; the late Lord Grey; the late Lord Astor; Sir William +White, the naval constructor; the late Lord Sligo; Dean Beeching; Bishop +Perceval; Archbishop Temple; my uncle, Professor T. H. Green; Professor +Dicey; Professor Freeman; Bishop Stubbs; Mr. Lecky; Mrs. Humphry Ward; +Lord Bowen; Mr. Baugh Allen, the last of the Special Pleaders; Professor +Henry Smith, the mathematician; Lord Justice Fry, and Lord Balfour of +Burleigh. + +There was another man, too little and too lately known, with whom I +wanted to deal at length, for he exercised a distinct and special +influence on my life. I mean Donald Hankey, "The Student in Arms." I +had, indeed, designed to speak of him in a special chapter on the effect +of the War on my life, but that chapter did not get written, or, rather, +remains over to be written when the perspective is easier and better, +and the world has given up its last, and to me very futile and foolish, +mode of talking as if we ought to be ashamed of the War, or, at any +rate, as if we ought to treat it as an utterly tiresome subject. + +Here, then, I shall say only that the essential thing about Hankey was +that he was one of the true saints of the world, or, rather, one of the +saints who matter. Yet never was there a less saintly saint. He was a +man you could talk to rationally on any subject. I, who really knew him, +would not have called him a man of the world, because it would have been +in essence misleading; but I should have quite understood someone else +saying it and should have known exactly what he meant. Not only had he +not the temper of the zealot or the fanatic, but he was a kindly man, +with no fierceness about him. Yet somehow, and this was the miracle, he +contrived to have none of the easy unction of the pushing man of +holiness who realises that if he is to succeed in accomplishing what he +wants accomplished, he must assume a certain cunning suavity of manner +which is really foreign to his character. Hankey had no pose. He was at +bottom what Walt Whitman calls a "natural and nonchalant" person, who +happened to be made all through of sweetness and light, though never the +superior person, and never, as it were, too good for this world. Not for +one moment did you find in him the chill of sanctity. In the phrase of +John Silver, "he kept company very easy." + +I should imagine that confession was the very last thing that Hankey +would ever have encouraged in anyone, for it is the most debilitating of +the virtues. All the same, a penitent would have found him an +extraordinarily easy occupant of the box. He was warm-hearted, +sympathetic, and full of the victorious spirit. One felt with Hankey +that he was born for whatever was arduous. In truth he was "God's +soldier." What gives the extreme characteristic impression of Hankey is +that last vision of him set forth in a letter by the soldier who, +happening to look into a trench, saw him kneeling in prayer with his +company gathered round him, just before they went over the parapet. + +If he had lived, he would, I am sure, have talked about the scene. I +never saw a man so natural and so little embarrassed in discussing such +matters as prayer or other spiritual experiences. He had in a marked +degree that absence of _mauvaise honte_ which marks the good man at +all times, in all places, in all religions, and in all races. + +There is a man, now dead, who told me something which I want to record +in this very convenient chapter. His words impressed me out of all +proportion to their intrinsic importance. I feel indeed that there must +be something in them which I cannot analyse, but which makes them worth +preserving. The vitamines of food, we know, are not strictly analysable, +though their presence can be detected. No one knows of what they +consist, but, nevertheless, we know two things about them. They exist, +and they have a great influence upon metabolism. So in the food of the +mind there are vitamines which we can recognise, but not analyse, and, +therefore, cannot wholly understand. My readers, if they will look into +their own memories, will, I am sure, recall experiences of these mental +vitamines, trivial or ordinary in themselves, and yet holding a place so +clear and often indeed so vehement as to suggest that they contain some +quickening quality of their own. + +The man with whom I connect certain of these vitamines of the mind was +Sir George Grove, the compiler of the _Dictionary of Music_. I did +not know him well; but, as a boy, he did me a kindly service. He +accepted the first poem of any length that I ever published. When I was +seventeen, that is a year before I went to Oxford, I sent him a poem, +alluded to in another chapter of this book, called "Love's Arrows." He +liked it and published it in _Macmillan's Magazine_, of which he +was then Editor. Macmillan's was a magazine given up to good literature, +and to get a place in it was considered no small honour. + +Grove possessed a keen sense of literature, and he had known many of the +famous people of the Victorian era. True to my plan of asking questions, +I asked him whether he had ever seen Cardinal Newman. He replied by a +story which was revealing as to a certain fierceness in Newman's +character and mental configuration. In any case, it had both +rhetorically and intellectually a considerable influence on my mind. + +Here is a _précis_ of our conversation. + +"Did you ever see Newman?" + +"Only once, and then I heard him preach." + +"Was he in a big sense eloquent?" + +"Yes. Though he had none of the airs and graces of the orator, he had +somehow in a high degree the power of thrilling you. I heard him in Lent +preaching in a small Roman Catholic chapel in London. He was a gaunt +figure, extremely emaciated and hollow-cheeked, with a very bad cough, +and as he stood in the pulpit, coughing hoarsely, he beat his breast +with his hand and forearm, till it sounded like the reverberation of a +huge cavernous drum." Grove went on to describe how the time was one of +great spiritual excitement in the Church of England and in the Roman +Church,--a time when people thought that Rome was going to reassert her +ascendancy over English minds. During the very week or month in which +the sermon was preached, Stanley's _Life of Arnold_ had appeared. +"At the end of that book Stanley describes how when Arnold lay dying, he +had, one evening, a very long talk with him about the Sacraments and the +part they played in the religious life. He records that conversation and +the Broad Church view of Arnold, and then tells how he rose next morning +and went to enquire as to Arnold, and how he found that Arnold had died +in the night. Newman was preaching on the old, old maxim, '_Nulla +salus extra ecclesiam_,' and dwelt, as a preacher with his views +naturally would, on the contrast between the covenanted and uncovenanted +mercies of God. Those who were in the Church were absolutely safe. For +those who could trust only to the uncovenanted mercies of God there +could be no such safety. 'But,' he went on, 'it is not for me to deal +with them and their prospects of salvation and of life eternal.' And +then, with great feeling and emotion, 'Nor shall I presume to canvass +the fate of that man who, at night, doubted the efficacy of sacramental +wine, and died in the morning.'" + +Though the words, of course, had no spiritual effect on Grove, he dwelt +upon the difficulty he had in conveying the profound emotional force of +these phrases when they were spoken by this strange figure in the +pulpit. Grove need not have made any apology. He amply managed, and this +was a proof of the preacher's power, to transfer the emotion of the +moment to me. The words in the spiritual sense mean nothing to me. +Indeed, they disgust, nay, horrify me as utterly irreligious. Yet I am +bound to say that I feel, and always have felt, their emotional appeal +urgently and deeply. Here, if anywhere, are the vitamines of oratory. + +Again, I should like to have had a chapter on the links of the past, +because I have been fortunate in that respect. Some of these I have +recorded in other chapters, but I should like to put on record the fact +that I actually knew and spent several days in a country house with a +lady who actually received a wedding-present from Keats and also one +from Shelley. That lady was Mrs. Proctor, the widow of Barry Cornwall, +the poet. When I first saw Mrs. Proctor, who, by the way, was well known +to my wife and Mrs. Simpson, she was a fellow-guest with me and my wife +at a house-party at the Grant-Duffs'. Though, I suppose, nearly ninety +years old at that time (it was three or four years before her death), +there was not a trace of extreme old age in her talk. She was neither +deaf nor blind, but enjoyed life to the full. She did not seem even to +suffer from physical weakness, but was capable of hours of sustained +talk. She had known everybody worth knowing in the literary world and +had vivid recollections of them. For example, besides mentioning the +wedding-presents from Keats and Shelley, she was also proud to remember +that she had received a present from the murderer, Wainwright, Lamb's +friend,--who wrote under the name of Janus Weathercock--the man who +insured his step-daughter's life and then poisoned her. Owing to the +extraordinary way in which things were arranged in those days, the +murderer, though found guilty, had his sentence commuted to +transportation--apparently as a kind of recognition of his literary +ability. + +Oddly enough, this was not the only time that accident put me in touch +with this singular and sinister figure,--the man too who first talked +about the psychological interest of colours and cared, as Mrs. Proctor +said, for strange-looking pots and pieces of china. My friend Willie +Arnold told me that when his mother was a girl, or a young married +woman, I forgot which, in Tasmania, she had her picture drawn by a +convict, and that convict was the celebrated Wainwright. According to +Willie Arnold, his character was not supposed to be of the best even in +those days, and great care was taken that during the sittings someone +else should always be in the room! + +Another link with the past, which is worth recording, is that I knew +well a man, Sir Charles Murray, who told me that he had seen Byron. When +I cross-questioned him, he told me something that I think must have been +an error of memory. He said it was at a ball in Paris that he saw the +poet. Now, I feel pretty sure that Byron never was in Paris. In the +earlier part of his life he could not have got there because of the war, +and after the peace, as we all know, he began his travels at Antwerp, +and journeyed up the Rhine into Switzerland and then crossed the Alps by +the Simplon into Italy. + +Perhaps, however, my most sensational link with the past was as follows. +When I first came into Surrey, the old Lord Lovelace--the man who +married Byron's daughter, and who built Horsley Towers--was still alive +and could be seen, as I saw him, driving about our Surrey lanes in a +pony-chaise. Lord Lovelace is reported to have made the following entry +in his diary about the year 1810, that is, when he was a boy some ten or +twelve years old--"Today I dined with the old Lord Onslow [a neighbour +then, presumably, of about ninety years of age], and heard him say that +as a boy he had known one of the Cromwellian troopers--Captain +Augustine--who was on guard round the scaffold when Charles I was +executed." + +Oddly enough, I have another link with the Cromwellian Wars. I remember, +some forty years ago, my uncle, Sir Charles Cave, of whom I am glad to +say I can speak in the present tense, told me that he was shooting on +one of his farms below Lansdowne, the hill that rises above Bath. The +tenant of the land was a very old farmer, and he informed my uncle that +his grandmother, who lived to a great age, but whom he had just known as +a boy, used to say that she remembered how, when a girl, the soldiers +came into the village after the Battle of Lansdowne and took every loaf +of bread out of the place. + +An even more personal link with the past was afforded by my mother's +aunt, Miss Sykes, and my great-aunt. She had seen George III walking on +the terrace at Windsor, old, blind, and mad, with his family and +courtiers curtseying to those poor blind eyes and vacant wits every time +he turned in his constitutional. Another of her recollections, however, +was far more thrilling to me as a lad. Miss Sykes, sister of my mother's +mother, belonged to a naval family, and her mother's sister had married +Admiral Byron, the seaman uncle of the poet. Therefore, Byron and Miss +Sykes were in that unnamed relationship, or pseudo-relationship, which +belongs to those who have an aunt or an uncle in common. It happened +that my aunt was on a visit to the Byrons when the poet's body, which +was consigned to the Admiral, was brought to London. The Admiral, who +lived near Windsor, posted up to receive the barrel of spirits in which +the remains were preserved. When he returned from his gruesome visit the +ladies of his family, and none more so than my aunt, then a girl of +fifteen or sixteen, were very anxious to know what he had seen and what +the remains of the most-talked-of man in the Europe of his day looked +like. "What did he look like, my dear? He looked like an alligator," +said the Admiral, who did not mince his words. It is strange that men +should prefer to put their kin in what, in the naval records after +Trafalgar, is called "a pickle" rather than give them a burial at sea or +in "some corner of a foreign field"! But on such matters there can be no +argument. It is a matter of feeling, not of reasoning. + +So much for unwritten chapters and unwritten books, though, perhaps, I +ought to add a postscript upon the writing of memoirs, describing how +pleasant, though arduous a task it is. At any rate, it has proved so in +my case. I began these memoirs with the feeling that, though it was +quite worth while to record my part in the general adventure of living, +I must expect that, even if I were to contrive to give pleasure to my +readers, the part of the writer must be hard, laborious, and ungrateful. +"Why," I asked myself, "should I munch for others the remainder biscuit +of life?" Yet, strange to say, what I had looked forward to almost with +dread, turned out to be by far the pleasantest literary experience of my +life. I have never been one of those people who dislike writing, or find +it, as some people do, agonising; but I was not in the least prepared to +find how pleasant it could be to dive into the depths of memory and let, +what the author of the anonymous Elizabethan play, _Nero_, calls +"the grim churl" of memory lead you through the labyrinth of the past. + +But, though the path was pleasant, nay, exhilarating and stimulating, I +must confess to the fact that I have had no psychological experiences, +regrets, or disillusionments. I have had no temptation to write as to +the shortness and precariousness of human existence, or to reflect how +base I had found mankind, or, again, to deplore the past, curse the +present, and dread the future. Life to me, in looking back, seems on the +whole a very natural and simple show. No one, in one sense, feels more +strongly than I do that we are being swept along by the mighty current +of a vast river, without any clearer indication of what is the outlet of +the river than of what is its source. But though these things may be an +excuse for a great deal of rhetoric, they somehow seem to me, if I may +use the word again, natural and non-inflammatory. It is far easier to +trust what those who, liking the vagueness of theology, call "the larger +hope," but which I should be content to call plainly the mercy of God--a +mercy which I, for one, make bold to say I would rather have +uncovenanted than covenanted. Covenanted mercies are a kind of thing +which may do very well at an insurance office or for business purposes, +but they are not the mercies one would ever dream of asking for or +accepting from an earthly father. Then how can one dare to speak of them +in the same breath with God? + +"But this," I hear some readers say, "is the illusion of faith and has +nothing of the permanence of fact." Well, I, for one, am content to rest +on faith, honest and instinctive. Faith, to my mind, is a fact and a +very palpable fact,--a fact as vital as any of the other great +incommensurables and insolubles of our existence. + +If I am asked to treat of the river, or rather, the ocean of life and +the adventure of its voyage in terms that will satisfy those not +fortunate enough to have faith, let me commend to them that memorable +dream set forth by that most honest and exact of agnostics as of +jurists, Mr. Justice Stephen. The dream, published some fifty years ago, +is as noble a piece of literature as it is a monument of intellectual +insight. + +I dreamt [he says, after Bunyan's fashion] that I was in the cabin of a +ship, handsomely furnished and lighted. A number of people were +expounding the objects of the voyage and the principles of navigation. +They were contradicting each other eagerly, but each maintained that the +success of the voyage depended absolutely upon the adoption of his own +plan. The charts to which they appealed were in many places confused and +contradictory. They said that they were proclaiming the best of news, +but the substance of it was that when we reached port most of us would +be thrown into a dungeon and put to death by lingering torments. Some, +indeed, would receive different treatment; but they could not say why, +though all agreed in extolling the wisdom and mercy of the Sovereign of +the country. Saddened and confused I escaped to the deck, and found +myself somehow enrolled in the crew. The prospect was unlike the +accounts given in the cabin. There was no sun; we had but a faint +starlight, and there were occasionally glimpses of land and of what +might be lights on shore, which yet were pronounced by some of the crew +to be mere illusions. They held that the best thing to be done was to +let the ship drive as she would, without trying to keep her on what was +understood to be her course. For the strangest thing on that strange +ship was the fact that there was such a course. Many theories were +offered about this, none quite satisfactory; but it was understood that +the ship was to be steered due north. The best and bravest and wisest of +the crew would dare the most terrible dangers, even, from their +comrades, to keep her on her course. Putting these things together, and +noting that the ship was obviously framed and equipped for the voyage, I +could not help feeling that there was a port somewhere, though I doubted +the wisdom of those who professed to know all about it. I resolved to do +my duty, in the hope that it would turn out to have been my duty, and I +then felt that there was something bracing in the mystery by which we +were surrounded, and that, at all events, ignorance honestly admitted +and courageously faced, and rough duty vigorously done, was far better +than the sham knowledge and the bitter quarrels of the sickly cabin and +glaring lamplight from which I had escaped. + +Was there ever a nobler parable more nobly expressed? It may well end +the last page of the last chapter of _The Adventure of Living_. + + +_Academy, The_, 182 + +Adams, John, 72 + +Advocate journalism, 319-320 + +Ainger, Canon, 18, 22 + +Alps, 482-483 + +America, iv, 313 + +American Civil War, 90-92, 444-446 + +American journalists, 326-342 + +Americans, 326 + +Anonymity, 320-322 + +Antwerp, Siege of, 64 + +Arnold, Dr., 489 + +Arnold, Matthew, 283-285 + +Arnold, Willie, 284, 491 + +Arthurian legend, 98-100 + +_Asia and Europe_, 231 + +Asquith, Herbert, 12, 17, 328-329, 334, 452, 453, 454 + +Aubers Ridge, 349 + +Autobiography, 27-28 + + +BAGEHOT, WALTER, 184-186 + +Bailleul, 344 + +Balfour, Lord, 401, 407 + +Barbellion's diary, 4 + +Barnes, Rev. William, 19-22 + +Bazaine, Marshal, 99, 101-102 + +Beaconsfield, Lord, 256, 387 + +Beautiful human beings, 478-481 + +Bedford, Duke of, 250 + +Beeching, Dean, 171-175, 200-204 + +_Beggar's Opera, The_, 182 + +Bell, Mr. Edward Price, 333 + +Berlioz, 80 Blenheim, 113 + +Brown, Mr. Curtis, 333 + +Browne, Sir Thomas, 3, 105, 481 + +Browning, Robert, 25, 285-289 + +Browning, imitation of, 132-133 + +Buckmaster, Lord, 336, 337 + +Bullen, F.T., 213-215 + +Buller, Charles, 48 + +Burke, 48,70,71 + +Byron, Admiral, 493 + +Byron, Lord, 124,254, 266,492-493 + + +CAIRO, iv Callimachus, 47-48 + +Camelot, 99 + +Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry,305 + +Campion, Thomas, 62-63 + +Capes, Bernard, 221 + +Carlyle, 48-49 + +Caste, 240-241 + +Cat, _Spectator_, 22, 24 + +Chamberlain, Mrs., 385-386 + +Chamberlain, Austen, 386 + +Chamberlain, Miss Beatrice, 389 + +Chamberlain, Joseph, 380-389,397-398 + +Chamberlain, Neville, 380 + +Chamois, 481-482 + +Charles I., 492 + +Cheap cottages, 402 + +Chicago riots, 418 + +Cicero, 157 + +Classics, 153, 161, 476 + +City Companies, 388-389 + +Civil War, 65 + +Clive, 66-70 + +Clough's _Amours de Voyage_, 86 + +Colvin, Mr. Ian, 228 + +_Conversations and Journals in Egypt_,280-281 + +_Conversations with the Statesmen of the Third Empire_, 277 + +Crabbe, 125 + +Cromer, Lord, 159, 308, 365-380,394,409 + +Cross, Sir Richard, 59 + +Curtis, Byron, 191-192 + + +Damascus, iii Death, 58 + +De La Mare, Mr. Walter, 215-219 + +Delane, 313 Democracy, 425-433 + +Devonshire, Duke of, 11, 397-409 + +Devonshire, Elizabeth, Duchess of 272 + +Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, 272 + +Dibdin, 364 Dicey, E. and A., 182-183 + +"Dickybush," 345 + +_Dictionary of National Biography_, 196 + +_Digitalis_, 235 + +Donne and William Strachey, 61 + +Dream of my son's death, 88-89 + +Dream, Mr. Justice Stephen's, 495-496 + + +Economics, 163-167 + +_Economist, The_, 183-184 + +_Edinburgh Review_, 194 + +Ely, Lady, 183-190 + +_English Constitution, The_, 185 + +Erskine, 49 + + +Faith, 494-496 + +Fayum, the, iv Fisher, Mr. Joseph, 192 + +_'48_, 262-265 + +Fouche, 260-262 + +Free Exchange, 163-167 + +French Revolution, 3 + +Friendship, 363-365 + +Furnes, 357 + + +Gambetta, 101 + +Garden City, 402-403 + +Gay, 182 + +George III., 73, 492 + +George, Lloyd, 263, 452, 454 + +German Ambassador, 393 + +Germany, 452-454 + +Gibbon, 272 + +Gifoon, Ali Effendi, 205-208 + +Gladstone, Mr., 11, 92, 186, 187, 304 + +Gosse, Mr. Edmund, 131-132 + +Granville, Lord, quotes _Spectator_ article, 16-17 + +Graves, Mr. C. L., 193, 214 + +Green, Professor T. H., 102, 140-141 + +Grenville, George, 67 + +Grove, Sir George, 488-490 + +_Gulliver's Travels_, review of, 5-7 + + +Hadspen House, 18-19 + +Haig, Lord, 352 + +Hankey, Donald, 486-487 + +Hartington, Lord, 11, 397-409 + +Harvey, William, 478 + +Hastings, Lady Flora, 254 + +Hastings, Warren, 70-71 + +Hay, Colonel John, 390-397, 4I3-418 + +Hayward, Abraham, 257 + +"Head Munky" letter, 73-74 + +Hekekyan Bey, 280-281 + +Henry of Prussia, Prince, 392-393 + +"Highbury," 385-386 + +Hobhouse, Henry, 18 + +Hodges, Captain Thomas, 63-64 + +Hutton, 4, 8, 22-23, 223-225 + + +Illness, 58 + +Imperialism, 300-312 + +Indian spindle, 481 + +Ingpen, Mr., 215 + +Inscriptions, 475 + +_Ionica_, author of, 48 + +Ireland, 441-447 + +Irving, Edward, 48-49 + +_Isolement_, 80-88 + + +Jahoni, iii, 479 + +Jerusalem, v Johnstone, 183-186 + +Jones, Sir William, 47-48 + +Journalism, 25-26 + +Jowett, Dr., 144-146, 148-149, 255 + +Judicial journalism, 319 + +"Junius," 105-107 + + +Keats, 490-491 + +Kemmel, 344 + +Kerrere, El, 211-212 + +Khedive, 368-369 + +Kitchener, Lord, 212 + + +Lamartine, 262-265 + +Landor, W. S., 285-288 + +Lansdowne, Battle of, 492 + +Leader-writer, the, 294-296 + +Leaker's, Mrs., Autobiography, 113-116 + +Liberal Party, split in (1886), 11-14, 400 + +_Liberal Unionist, The_, 193, 400 + +Life, 493-496 + +Lincoln, Abraham, n, 91, 390-391,395,410,444-446 + +London, first year in, 5, 6 + +Lovelace, Lord, 492 + +_Love's Arrows_, introduction to, 137-138 + +Lushington, Dr., 290 + + +MACKAIL, 174-175 + +McMahon, Marshal, 101 + +Machell, Captain, 207-209 + +Mallet, Sir Bernard, 7, 162-170 + +Mallet, Sir Louis, 266-267 + +Mallet, Stephen, 7 + +Marshalls of the Lakes, 54 + +Martial, 51 + +Martin, Mr. Roy, 333, 336-337 + +Masaniello, 47 + +Maurice, Frederick, 50 + +Mehemet Ali, 280-282 + +Melville, Herman, 213 + +Milton, 109 + +_Moby Dick_, 213 + +Mohl, M. and Mme., 255 + +Monarchy, 434-437 + +Mont des Cats, Le, 348-349 + +Moore, Sir John, 273 + +Moore, Thomas, no Morley, Lord, 181 + +Mother, my, 52-58 + +Mudford, 186 + +Murray, Sir Charles, 491 + + +NAPIER, SIR CHARLES, 280-281 + +Naples, 47 + +Napoleon I., 76,270-271 + +Napoleon III., 206 + +Nassau-Senior, 253, 275-283 + +Needham, Mr., 340-341 + +Negro-lynching, 419-420 + +Nettleship, Professor, 102 + +Newbolt, Sir Henry, 52 + +Newlands Corner, 473-474 + +Newlands Corner Hospital, 466-473 + +Newman, Cardinal, 488-489 + +Newspaper proprietorship, 323 + +New York, iv Nore, Mutiny of the, 112 + +Novel, unfinished, 177 + + +_Observer, The_, 182 + +Onslow, Lord, 492 + +Otranto, Duke of, 260-262 + + +PAGE, AMBASSADOR, 460 + +_Pages from a Private Diary_, 200-204 + +_Pall Mall, The_, 182 + +Parliament Act, 455 + +Parody, 174-175 + +Party system, 438-440 + +Patmore, Coventry, 126 + +Peacock, 49 + +Peyronnet, Mme. de, 255, 258-262 + +_Poems in the Devonshire Dialect_, 19-22 + +Pollock, Sir Frederick, quoted, 23 + +Pope, the, 421-422 + +Pope, Alexander, 125-127, 404 + +Poperinghe, 345-346 + +Power of the Press, 325 + +Pozieres, 353 + +"President's Cabinet," the, 412 + +Press-gangs, 115 + +Pritchard, Mr. Hesketh, 221 + +Private school, 121-122 + +Private secretaries, 394-396 + +Proctor, Mrs., 490 + +Protection, 449-450 + +Publicity, 250-251, 313-318 + +Pusey, Dr., 143 + + +_Quarterly Review, The_, 194 + + +RACINE, 259, 476 + +Reeve, Henry, 194, 282 + +Religious views, my father's, 50-51 + +Religious views, my, 476-477 + +Renan, 141, 154-155 + +Rennell-Rodd, Sir, 174 + +Rhodes, Cecil, 301-311 + +Robinson, Crabbe, 49 + +Robinson, Mrs. Douglas, 420 + +Rogers, Samuel, 276 + +Roosevelt, President, 409-423 + +Russell, Lord Arthur, 253, 266-274 + +Russell, Lord John, 270-271 + +Russell, Lord Odo, 255 + +Russell, Lady William, 254, 484 + + +SADOWA, 93, 231 + +St. Vincent de Paul, Institute of,354-356 + +Salisbury, Lord, 187, 404 + +_Saturday Review_, 4, 181 + +Scherpenberg, the, 344-348 + +Schnadhorst, 304-305 + +Secrecy, 290-293 + +_Sejanus_, 60 + +Shakespeare, 108-109, 124 + +Shakespeare and William Strachey, 59-60 + +Shelburne, Lord, 71 + +Shelley, 491 + +Shenstone, 151-152 + +Shepherdess, 360-362 + +Simpson, Mrs., 253, 266, 276-277 + +Simpson, Mr., 289-293 + +Sligo, Lord, 256 + +Sligo, Lady, 257, 258, 262-265 + +Smith, Mr. George, 195-199, 216 + +Smith, Reginald, 198,216 + +Smith, Sydney, 276 + +Social revolution, 461-463 + +Socialism, 163-167 + +Somersetshire farmer, 96-98 + +Soudanese Soldier, Memoirs of a., 204-212 + +Spluegen, iv Standard, The, 182 186-190 + +Stanley, Dean, 489 + +Stanley of Alderney, Lady, 266 + +Stephen, Mr. Justice, 495-496 + +Stephen, Leslie, 196, 288 + +Strachey, Mrs. A., 466-469 + +Strachey, Sir Edward, 33-35, 41-43 + +Strachey, Lady, 52-58 + +Strachey, Sir Henry, 41, 66-74, 365 + +Strachey, 2nd Sir Henry, 33, 47, 75 + +Strachey, John, the friend of Locke, 38-39 + +Strachey, Mr. Lytton, 372 + +Strachey, William (friend of Ben Jonson), 38, 59-63 + +Strachey, William (the "Snark"), 484 + +Student in Arms, A, 486-487 + +Suffolk, Lord, 54 Supernatural, 116-118 + +Surrey Guides, 474 + +Sutton Court, Somerset, 29-36, 39 + +Sutton, Sir Walter de, 32 + +Swinburne, 110 + +Sykes, Miss, 493 + +Symonds, Dr., 56-57 + + +TACITUS, 258, 261, 262, 279 + +Talleyrand, 271, 314 + +Tariff Reform, 448-451 + +Tattersall's, 122 + +Taxpayer, 378 + +Tempest, The, 59 + +Terrorists, 259 + +Thackeray, 291 + +Thiers, 278 + +Tocqueville, 255 + +Townsend, Meredith, 4, 8, 9, 22-24, 225-252 + + +UNCLES, SOME, 483-484 + +Unionist Party, formation of, 11 + + +VEAL, ISRAEL, 33 + +Venables, Mr. George, and Barnes, 21 + +Venus of Milo, 107-108 + +Versailles, 71-72 + +Victoria, Queen, 187-191 + +Virgil, 20, 361 + +Virginia Company, 59-63 + +Virginibus Puerisque, 197 + + +WAINWRIGHT, 491 + +Waldegrave, Lady, 54, 57, 123 + +Waller, 131 + +War, the Great, 326, 457-463 + +War Hospital, 466-473 + +Warren, Sir Herbert, 102 + +Waterloo, 93-96, 114 + +Weathercock, Janus, 491 + +Wellington, Duke of, 25, 95-96 + +Western Virginia, 444-445 + +Whig traditions, 36-38, 433-434 + +White House, 410 + +Whitman, Walt, 86-87 + +Wilson, President, 340 + +Woak Hill, 19-20 + +Wood, General Leonard, 415 + +Wordsworth, William, 80-81, 84-86, 107, 282 + +Wotton, Sir Henry, 61 + +Wyndham, George, 186-187 + + +YPRES, 345-347, 353-354 + +Yser, 357-358 + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Adventure of Living, by John St. Loe Strachey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING *** + +This file should be named 6567.txt or 6567.zip + +Produced by Mark Zinthefer, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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