initial commit of ebook 38569HEADmain

16 files changed, 39189 insertions, 0 deletions

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/38569-8.txt b/38569-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dff02ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13057 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life, by
+Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life
+
+
+Author: Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2012  [eBook #38569]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN
+LIFE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 38569-h.htm or 38569-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38569/38569-h/38569-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38569/38569-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/fiftyoneyearsofv00jersrich
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+[Illustration: Margaret Countess of Jersey]
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+by
+
+THE DOWAGER COUNTESS OF JERSEY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+John Murray, Albemarle Street, W.
+1922
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATED TO MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
+
+
+Printed in Great Britain by
+Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+  "What is this child of man that can conquer
+  Time and that is braver than Love?
+  Even Memory."
+                                LORD DUNSANY.
+
+
+  Though "a Sorrow's Crown of Sorrow"
+    Be "remembering happier things,"
+  Present joy will shine the brighter
+    If our morn a radiance flings.
+
+  We perchance may thwart the future
+    If we will not look before,
+  And upon a past which pains us
+    We may fasten Memory's door.
+
+  But we will not, cannot, banish
+    Bygone pleasure from our side,
+  Nor will doubt, beyond the storm-cloud,
+    Shall be Light at Eventide.
+                                M. E. J.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD
+
+  The Duke of Wellington--Travelling in the Fifties--
+  Governesses--"Mrs. Gailey"--Queen Victoria at
+  Stoneleigh--A narrow escape--Life at Stoneleigh--Rectors
+  and vicars--Theatricals                                         pp. 1-22
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  A VICTORIAN GIRL
+
+  Mentone--Genoa--Trafalgar veterans--Lord Muncaster and
+  Greek brigands--The Grosvenor family--Uncles and aunts--
+  Confirmation--"Coming out"--Ireland--Killarney--The
+  O'Donoghue--Myths and legends--The giant Benadadda             pp. 23-50
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  MARRIAGE
+
+  Fanny Kemble--An old-fashioned Christmas--A
+  pre-matrimonial party--Fonthill Abbey--Engagement--
+  Married to Lord Jersey                                         pp. 51-64
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  EARLY MARRIED LIFE
+
+  Lord Jersey's mother--In London--Isola Bella, Cannes--
+  Oxfordshire neighbours--Caversfield Church--Life at
+  Middleton--Mr. Disraeli--Froude and Kingsley--James
+  Russell Lowell--T. Hughes and J. R. Lowell--Mr. Gladstone
+  on Immortality--Thought-reading--Tom Hughes and Rugby,
+  Tennessee--Cardinal Newman                                     pp. 65-93
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887
+
+  Sarah Bernhardt--Death of Gilbert Leigh--In Italy, 1884--
+  Court Ball in Berlin--The Crown Prince Frederick--Prince
+  Bismarck--Conversation with Bismarck--Bismarck and Lord
+  Salisbury--Thanksgiving Service--Trials of Court
+  Officials--The Naval Review--Knowsley--Apotheosis of the
+  Queen                                                         pp. 94-121
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE
+
+  Lord Halsbury's ghost story--The ghostly reporter--A
+  Jubilee sermon--Marathon--Miss Tricoupi--Nauplia--The
+  Laurium Mines--Hadji Petros--Olympia--Zante                  pp. 122-140
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  VOYAGE TO INDIA--HYDERABAD
+
+  Mr. Joseph Chamberlain--Departure for India--Colonel
+  Olcott and Professor Max Müller--Sir Samuel Baker--
+  Mahableshwar--H.H. the Aga Khan--Races at Hyderabad--
+  H.H. the Nizam of Hyderabad--Purdah ladies--Breakfast in
+  a zenana                                                     pp. 141-161
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES
+
+  Brahmin philosophers--Faith of educated Hindus--
+  Theosophists at Adyar--The Ranees of Travancore--The
+  Princesses of Tanjore--"The Heart of Montrose"--The
+  Palace of Madura--Rous Peter's Sacred Door--Loyalty of
+  native Indians--Passengers on the _Pundua_--The Brahmo
+  Somaj--Maharajah of Benares--Marriages of infants and
+  widows                                                       pp. 162-187
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME
+
+  The Relief of Lucknow--View from the Kotab Minar--
+  Sekundra and Futtehpore Sekree--The legend of Krishna--
+  The Jains--The Maharajah of Bhownuggar--Baroda--English
+  as Lingua Franca--Meditations of a Western wanderer--An
+  English plum-pudding--The Greek Royal Family--Original
+  derivations                                                  pp. 188-211
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  WINDSOR--EGYPT AND SYRIA
+
+  Dinner at Windsor--Voyage up the Nile--Choucry Pasha,
+  Princess Nazli--The Pigmies--Inn of the Good Samaritan--
+  The Holy City--Balbec--Damascus, Lady Ellenborough--
+  Oriental methods of trade--Smyrna--Constantinople--The
+  Selamlik--The Orient Express--Story of a picture             pp. 212-239
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+  FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA
+
+  War Office red tape--Balmoral--Farewell to England--
+  Voyage on the _Arcadia_--The Federation Convention--The
+  delegates--The Blue Mountains--Sir Alfred Stephen--
+  Domestic Conditions--Correspondence with Lord Derby--
+  Labour Legislation--The Ex-Kaiser--Lord Derby's poem         pp. 240-265
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+  FURTHER IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA--NEW ZEALAND
+  AND NEW CALEDONIA
+
+  Yarrangobilly Caves--Dunedin--The New Zealand Sounds--
+  Hot Springs of New Zealand--Huia Onslow--Noumea--The
+  Governor of New Caledonia--The Convict Settlement--
+  Convicts in former days--Death of Lord Ancram                pp. 266-286
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+  TONGA AND SAMOA
+
+  Tongan ladies--Arrival at Apia--German plantations--R. L.
+  Stevenson--King Malietoa--The Enchanted Forest--King
+  Mataafa--The Kava Ceremony--A native dance--
+  Missionaries--Samoan mythology--Desire for English
+  protection--Visit from Tamasese--_An Object of Pity_--
+  Courage of R. L. Stevenson                                   pp. 287-318
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+  DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA--CHINA AND JAPAN
+
+  Bushrangers--Circumstantial evidence--The Great Barrier
+  Reef--Coloured labour--Hong-Kong--Canton--The Viceroy of
+  Canton--Japanese scenery--Interview with the Empress--
+  The Sacred Mirror of the Sun Goddess--Christianity in
+  Japan--Daimios of old Japan--Japanese friends                pp. 319-345
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+  JOURNEY HOME--THE NILE--LORD KITCHENER
+
+  The well-forged link of Empire--Columbus discovers
+  America--The Mayor cuts his hair--The pageant "America"--
+  Back at Osterley--The dahabyah _Herodotus_--Escape of
+  Slatin Pasha--How a King and an Arab evaded orders--The
+  Dervishes--Lord Kitchener                                    pp. 346-368
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+  DIAMOND JUBILEE AND DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA
+
+  Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary--The Queen at Temple
+  Bar--The South African War--Indian princesses--Lord and
+  Lady Northcote--The Victoria League--Mr. Chamberlain's
+  letter                                                       pp. 369-383
+
+  INDEX                                                        pp. 385-392
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  MARGARET, COUNTESS OF JERSEY (photogravure)               _Frontispiece_
+    _After the portrait by Ellis Roberts at Osterley Park._
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+  STONELEIGH ABBEY                                                      18
+
+  THE LIBRARY, MIDDLETON PARK                                           68
+    _From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey._
+
+  MIDDLETON PARK                                                        68
+    _From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey._
+
+  OSTERLEY PARK                                                        238
+    _From a photograph by W. H. Grove._
+
+  GROUP AT MIDDLETON PARK, CHRISTMAS, 1904                             370
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD
+
+
+I was born at Stoneleigh Abbey on October 29th, 1849. My father has told
+me that immediately afterwards--I suppose next day--I was held up at the
+window for the members of the North Warwickshire Hunt to drink my health.
+I fear that their kind wishes were so far of no avail that I never became
+a sportswoman, though I always lived amongst keen followers of the hounds.
+For many years the first meet of the season was held at Stoneleigh, and
+large hospitality extended to the gentlemen and farmers within the Abbey
+and to the crowd without. Almost anyone could get bread and cheese and
+beer outside for the asking, till at last some limit had to be placed when
+it was reported that special trains were being run from Birmingham to a
+neighbouring town to enable the populace to attend this sporting carnival
+at my father's expense. He was a splendid man and a fearless rider while
+health and strength permitted--rather too fearless at times--and among the
+many applicants for his bounty were men who based their claims to
+assistance on the alleged fact that they had picked up Lord Leigh after a
+fall out hunting. It was always much more difficult to restrain him from
+giving than to induce him to give.
+
+My mother, a daughter of Lord Westminster, told me that from the moment
+she saw him she had never any doubt as to whom she would marry. No wonder.
+He was exceptionally handsome and charming, and I believe he was as prompt
+in falling in love with her as she confessed to having been with him. An
+old relative who remembered their betrothal told me that she knew what was
+coming when Mr. Leigh paid £5 for some trifle at a bazaar where Lady
+Caroline Grosvenor was selling. The sole reason for recording this is to
+note that fancy bazaars were in vogue so long ago as 1848.
+
+My mother was only twenty when she married, and very small and pretty. I
+have heard that soon after their arrival at Stoneleigh my father gave
+great satisfaction to the villagers, who were eagerly watching to see the
+bride out walking, by lifting his little wife in his arms and carrying her
+over a wet place in the road. This was typical of his unfailing devotion
+through fifty-seven years of married life--a devotion which she returned
+in full measure.
+
+I was the eldest child of the young parents, and as my grandfather,
+Chandos Lord Leigh, was then alive, our home for a short time was at
+Adlestrop House in Gloucestershire, which also belonged to the family; but
+my grandfather died and we moved to Stoneleigh when I was far too young to
+remember any other home. In those days we drove by road from one house to
+the other, and on one occasion my father undertook to convey my cradle in
+his dog-cart, in the space under the back seat usually allotted to dogs.
+In the middle of a village the door of this receptacle flew open and the
+cradle shot out into the road, slightly embarrassing to a very young man.
+
+About the earliest thing I can recollect was seeing the Crystal Palace
+Building when in Hyde Park. I do not suppose that I was taken inside, but
+I distinctly remember the great glittering glass Palace when I was driving
+with my mother. Of course we had pictures of the Great Exhibition and
+heard plenty about it, but oddly enough one print that impressed me most
+was a French caricature which represented an Englishman distributing the
+prizes to an expectant throng with words to this effect: "Ladies and
+Gentlemen, some intrusive foreigners have come over to compete with our
+people and have had the impertinence to make some things better than we
+do. You will, however, quite understand that none of the prizes will be
+given to these outsiders." It was my earliest lesson in doubting the
+lasting effects of attempts to unite rival countries in any League of
+Nations.
+
+[Sidenote: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON]
+
+Somewhere about this time I had the honour of being presented to the great
+Duke of Wellington in the long Gallery (now, alas! no more) at Grosvenor
+House. I do not remember the incident, but he was _the_ Hero in those
+days, and I was told it so often that I felt as if I could recall it. My
+father said he kissed me, but my mother's more modest claim was that he
+shook hands.
+
+My parents were each endowed with nine brothers and sisters--i.e. my
+father was one of ten who all lived till past middle life, my mother was
+one of thirteen of whom ten attained a full complement of years. Indeed,
+when my parents celebrated their golden wedding they had sixteen brothers
+and sisters still alive. As almost all these uncles and aunts married and
+most of them had large families, it will be readily believed that we did
+not lack cousins, and the long Gallery was a splendid gathering-place for
+the ramifications of the Grosvenor side of our family. Apart from the
+imposing pictures, it was full of treasures, such as a miniature crystal
+river which flowed when wound up and had little swans swimming upon it. It
+was here, later on in my girlhood, that I saw the first Japanese Embassy
+to England, stately Daimios or Samurai in full native costume and with two
+swords--a great joy to all of us children.
+
+To go back to early recollections--my next clear impression is of the
+Crimean War and knitting a pair of red muffetees for the soldiers. Plenty
+of "comforts" were sent out even in those days. Sir George Higginson once
+told me that when boxes of miscellaneous gifts arrived it was the custom
+to hold an auction. On one occasion among the contents were several copies
+of Boyle's Court Guide and two pairs of ladies' stays! So useful! The
+latter were bestowed upon the French vivandière. No W.A.A.C.s then to
+benefit.
+
+After the Crimean War came the Indian Mutiny, and our toy soldiers
+represented English and Sepoys instead of English and Russians. Children
+in each generation I suppose follow wars by their toys. Despite the
+comradeship of English and French in the Crimea, I do not believe that we
+ever quite ceased to regard France as the hereditary foe. A contemporary
+cousin was said to have effaced France from the map of Europe; I do not
+think we were quite so daring.
+
+In all, I rejoiced in five brothers and two sisters, but the fifth brother
+died at fourteen months old before our youngest sister was born. His death
+was our first real sorrow and a very keen one. Long before that, however,
+when we were only three children, Gilbert, the brother next to me, a baby
+sister Agnes, and myself, our adventurous parents took us to the South of
+France. I was four years old at the time and the existence of a foreign
+land was quite a new light to me. I well remember running into the nursery
+and triumphantly exclaiming, "There is a country called France and I am
+going there!"
+
+[Sidenote: TRAVELLING IN THE FIFTIES]
+
+My further recollections are vague until we reached Lyons, where the
+railway ended and our large travelling carriage brought from England was
+put on a boat--steamer, I suppose--and thus conveyed to Avignon. Thence we
+drove, sleeping at various towns, until we reached Mentone, where we spent
+some time, and I subsequently learnt that we were then the only English in
+the place. I think that my parents were very brave to take about such
+young children, but I suppose the experiment answered pretty well, as a
+year later they again took Gilbert and me to France--this time to
+Normandy, where I spent my sixth birthday, saw the great horses dragging
+bales of cotton along the quays at Rouen, and was enchanted with the ivory
+toys at Dieppe.
+
+I think that people who could afford it travelled more in former days than
+is realised. Both my grandparents made prolonged tours with most of their
+elder children. My grandfather Westminster took my mother and her elder
+sisters in his yacht to Constantinople and Rome. My mother well remembered
+some of her experiences, including purchases from a Turkish shopkeeper who
+kept a large cat on his counter and served various comestibles with his
+hands, wiping them between each sale on the animal's fur. At Rome she told
+me how she and one of her sisters, girls of some twelve and thirteen years
+old, used to wander out alone into the Campagna in the early morning,
+which seems very strange in view of the stories of restraint placed upon
+children in bygone days. As to my grandfather Leigh, I believe he
+travelled with his family for about two years, to Switzerland, France and
+the North of Italy. They had three carriages, one for the parents, one for
+the schoolroom, and one for the nursery. A courier escorted them, and an
+avant-courier rode on in front with bags of five-franc pieces to secure
+lodgings when they migrated from one place to another. On one occasion on
+the Riviera they met the then Grand Duke Constantine, who thrust his head
+out of the window and exclaimed "Toute Angleterre est en route!"
+
+[Sidenote: GOVERNESSES]
+
+After our return from Normandy we were placed in charge of a resident
+governess, a young German, but as far as I can recollect she had very
+little control over us. We discovered that the unlucky girl, though of
+German parentage, had been born in Russia, and with the unconscious
+cruelty of children taunted her on this account. Anyhow her stay was
+short, and she was succeeded about a year later by an Englishwoman, Miss
+Custarde, who kept us in very good order and stayed till she married when
+I was fourteen. Her educational efforts were supplemented by masters and
+mistresses during the London season and by French resident governesses in
+the winter months, but I do not think that we were at all overworked.
+
+I doubt whether Miss Custarde would have been considered highly educated
+according to modern standards, but she was very good in teaching us to
+look up information for ourselves, which was just as useful as anything
+else. Her strongest point was music, but that she could not drive into me,
+and my music lessons were a real penance to teacher and pupil alike. She
+would give me lectures during their progress on such topics as the
+Parable of the Talents--quite ignoring the elementary fact that though I
+could learn most of my lessons quickly enough I had absolutely no talent
+for music. She was, however, a remarkable woman with great influence, not
+only over myself, but over my younger aunts and over other men and women.
+She was very orderly, and proud of that quality, but she worked too much
+on my conscience, making me regard trivial faults as actual sins which
+prevented her from kissing me or showing me affection--an ostracism which
+generally resulted in violent fits of penitence. She had more than one
+admirer before she ended by marrying a schoolmaster, with whom she used to
+take long walks in the holidays. One peculiarity was that she would give
+me sketches of admirers and get me to write long stories embodying their
+imaginary adventures. I suppose these were shown as great jokes to the
+heroes and their friends. Of course she did not think I knew the
+"inwardness" of her various friendships, equally of course as time went on
+I understood them perfectly. Miss Custarde is not the only governess I
+have known who acquired extraordinary influence over her pupils. In Marcel
+Prevost's novel _Anges Gardiens_, which represents the dangers to French
+families of engaging foreign governesses, he makes the Belgian, Italian,
+and German women all to a greater or less extent immoral, but the
+Englishwoman, though at least as detestable as the others, is not immoral;
+the great evil which she inflicts on the family which engages her is the
+absolute power which she acquires over her pupil. The whole book is very
+unfair and M. Prevost seems to overlook the slur which he casts on his own
+countrymen, as none of the men appear able to resist the wiles of the
+sirens engaged to look after the girls of their families; but it is odd
+that he should realise the danger of undue influence and attribute it only
+to the Englishwoman. Why should this be a characteristic of English
+governesses--supposing his experience (borne out by my own) to be typical?
+Is it an Englishwoman's love of power and faculty for concentration on the
+object which she wishes to attain?
+
+We liked several of our foreign governesses well enough, but they
+exercised no particular influence--and as a rule their engagements were
+only temporary. I do not think that Miss Custarde gave them much
+opportunity of ascendancy. With one her relations were so strained that
+the two ladies had their suppers at different tables in the schoolroom,
+and when the Frenchwoman wanted the salt she rang the bell for the
+schoolroom-maid to bring it from her English colleague's table. However, I
+owed a great deal to Miss Custarde and know that her affection for all of
+us was very real. She died in the autumn of 1920, having retained all her
+faculties till an advanced age.
+
+After all no human being could compete with our mother in the estimation
+of any of her children. Small and fragile and often suffering from
+ill-health, she had almost unbounded power over everyone with whom she
+came in contact, and for her to express an opinion on any point created an
+axiom from which there was no appeal. As middle-aged men and women we have
+often laughed over the way in which we have still accepted "mama said"
+so-and-so as a final verdict. As children our faith not only in her wisdom
+but in her ability was unlimited. I remember being regarded as almost a
+heretic by the younger ones because I ventured to doubt whether she could
+make a watch. Vainly did I hedge by asserting that I was certain that if
+she had learnt she could make the most beautiful watch in the world--I
+had infringed the first article of family faith by thinking that there was
+anything which she could not do by the uninstructed light of nature. She
+was a good musician, and a really excellent amateur artist--her
+water-colour drawings charming. Her knowledge of history made it
+delightful to read aloud to her, as she seemed as if the heroes and
+heroines of bygone times had been her personal acquaintance. Needless to
+say her personal care for everyone on my father's property was untiring,
+and the standard of the schools in the various villages was maintained at
+a height uncommon in days when Education Acts were not so frequent and
+exacting as in later years.
+
+[Sidenote: "MRS. GAILEY"]
+
+Another great character in our home was our old nurse. For some reason she
+was never called Nanna, but always "Mrs. Gailey." The daughter of a small
+tradesman, she was a woman of some education--she had even learnt a little
+French and had been a considerable reader. Though a disciple of Spurgeon,
+she had lived as nurse with my mother's cousin the Duke of Norfolk in the
+days when the girls of the family were Protestants though the boys were
+Roman Catholics. When the Duchess (daughter of Lord Lyons) went over to
+the Roman Church the Protestant nurse's position became untenable, as the
+daughters had to follow their mother. She told us that this was a great
+distress at first to the eldest girl Victoria (afterwards Hope-Scott), for
+at twelve years old she was able to feel the uprooting of her previous
+faith. The other sisters were too young to mind. Gailey's idol, however,
+was Lord Maltravers (the late Duke), who must have been as attractive a
+boy as he became delightful a man.
+
+Gailey came to us when I was about four, my first nurse, who had been my
+wet-nurse, having married the coachman. Our first encounter took place
+when I was already in my cot, and I announced to her that if she stayed a
+hundred years I should not love her as I had done "Brownie." "And if I
+stay a hundred years," was the repartee, "I shall not love you as I did
+the little boy I have just left"--so we started fair. Nevertheless she was
+an excellent nurse and a fascinating companion. She could tell stories by
+the hour and knew all sorts of old-fashioned games which we played in the
+nursery on holiday afternoons.
+
+The great joy of the schoolroom children was to join the little ones after
+tea and to sit in a circle while she told us either old fairy tales, or
+more frequently her own versions of novels which she had read and of which
+she changed the names and condensed the incidents in a most ingenious
+manner. On Sunday evenings _Pilgrim's Progress_ in her own words was
+substituted for the novels. Miss Custarde could inflict no greater
+punishment for failure in our "saying lessons" than to keep us out of the
+nursery. Gailey stayed with us till some time after my marriage and then
+retired on a pension.
+
+The Scottish housekeeper, Mrs. Wallace, was also a devoted friend and a
+great dispenser of cakes, ices, and home-made cowslip and ginger wine.
+Rose-water, elder-flower water, and all stillroom mysteries found an
+expert in her, and she even concocted mead from an old recipe. Few people
+can have made mead in this generation--it was like very strong rather
+sweet beer. We all loved "Walley"--but she failed us on one occasion.
+Someone said that she had had an uncle who had fought at Waterloo, so we
+rushed to her room to question her on this hero's prowess. "What did your
+uncle do at Waterloo?" The reply was cautious and rather chilling: "I
+believe he hid behind his horse." She looked after all our dogs and was
+supposed to sleep with eight animals and birds in her room.
+
+[Sidenote: QUEEN VICTORIA AT STONELEIGH]
+
+In the summer of 1858 a great event occurred in the annals of Stoneleigh.
+Queen Victoria stayed at my father's for two nights in order to open Aston
+Hall and Park, an old Manor House and property, which had belonged to the
+Bracebridge family and had been secured for the recreation of the people
+of Birmingham. Naturally there was great excitement at the prospect. For
+months beforehand workmen were employed in the renovation and redecoration
+of the Abbey and its precincts. Many years afterwards an ex-coachpainter
+met one of my sons and recalled to him the glorious days of preparation
+for Her Majesty's visit. "Even the pigsties were painted, sir," said he.
+
+Stoneleigh is a large mass of buildings--parts of the basement remain from
+the original Abbey of the Cistercian monks. On these was built a
+picturesque house about the beginning of the seventeenth century, early in
+the eighteenth century a large mansion was added in the classical Italian
+style, and about a hundred years later a new wing was erected to unite the
+two portions. The old Abbey Church stood in what is now a lawn between the
+house and the ancient Gateway, which bears the arms of Henry II. To put
+everything in order was no light task. The rooms for the Queen and Prince
+Consort were enclosed on one side of the corridor leading to them by a
+temporary wall, and curtained off where the corridor led to the main
+staircase. In addition to every other preparation, the outline of the
+gateway, the main front of the house, and some of the ornamental
+flower-beds were traced out with little lamps--I think there were
+22,000--which were lighted at night with truly fairy-like effect. By that
+time we were five children--the house was crowded in every nook and corner
+with guests, servants, and attendants of all kinds. Somehow my brother
+Gilbert and I were stowed away in a room with two or three maids, but the
+"little ones," Agnes and two small brothers Dudley and Rupert, were sent
+to the keeper's house in the Deerpark. That house was a delightful
+old-world building standing on a hill with a lovely view, and we were
+occasionally sent there for a day or two's change of air, to our great
+joy.
+
+On the occasion of the Royal Visit, however, Gilbert and I quite realised
+our privilege in being kept in the Abbey and allowed to stand with our
+mother and other members of the family to welcome the Queen as the
+carriage clattered up with its escort of Yeomanry. My father had, of
+course, met Her Majesty at the station. The Queen was more than gracious
+and at once won the hearts of the children--but we did not equally
+appreciate the Prince Consort. Assuredly he was excellent, but he was very
+stiff and reserved, and I suppose that we were accustomed to attentions
+from our father's guests which he did not think fit to bestow upon us,
+though the Queen gave them in ample measure.
+
+We were allowed to join the large party of guests after dinner, and either
+the first or the second evening witnessed with interest and amusement the
+presentation of the country neighbours to the Queen. Having been carefully
+instructed as to our own bows and curtsies, we naturally became very
+critical of the "grown-up" salutations, particularly when one nervous lady
+on passing the royal presence tossed her head back into the air by way of
+reverence. I think the same night my father escorted the Queen into the
+garden in front of the house, which was separated from part of the Park by
+a stone balustrade. In this park-ground several thousand people had
+assembled who spontaneously broke into "God save the Queen" when she
+appeared. Fortunately the glorious hot summer night (July) was ideal for
+the greeting.
+
+One morning our small sister and brothers were brought to the Abbey "to be
+presented." Agnes made a neat little curtsy, though we unkindly asserted
+that it was behind the Queen's back, but the baby boys were overcome by
+shyness and turned away from the Queen's kisses. Unfortunate children!
+they were never allowed to forget this!
+
+[Sidenote: THE PRINCE CONSORT]
+
+Poor Prince Consort lost his last chance of good feeling from Gilbert and
+myself when he and the Queen went to plant memorial trees. We rushed
+forward to be in time to see the performance, but he sternly swept us from
+the royal path. No doubt he was justified in bidding us "stand back," but
+he might have remembered that we were children, and his host's children,
+and done it more gently.
+
+I shall refer to our dear Queen later on, but may here insert a little
+incident of her childhood which came to my knowledge accidentally. In the
+village belonging to my married home, Middleton Stoney, there was a
+middle-aged policeman's wife who cultivated long ringlets on either side
+of her face. She once confided to me that as a child she had had beautiful
+curls, and that, living near Kensington Palace, they had on one occasion
+been cut off to make "riding curls" for Princess (afterwards Queen)
+Victoria, who had lost her own hair--temporarily--from an illness. The
+child had not liked this at all, though she had been given some of the
+Princess's hair as an equivalent. I imagine that her parents received more
+substantial payment.
+
+Our childhood was varied by a good deal of migration. We were regularly
+taken each year about May to our father's London house, 37 Portman Square,
+where we entertained our various cousins at tea-parties and visited them
+in return. We were generally taken in the autumn to some seaside place
+such as Brighton, Hastings, Rhyl, or the Isle of Wight. We estimated the
+merits of each resort largely according to the amount of sand which it
+afforded us to dig in, and I think Shanklin in the Isle of Wight took the
+foremost place in our affections.
+
+[Sidenote: A NARROW ESCAPE]
+
+Two years, however, had specially delightful autumns, for in each of these
+our father took a moor in Scotland--once Kingairloch and the second time
+Strontian. On each occasion I accompanied my parents; to Kingairloch,
+Gilbert (Gilly he was always called) came also--the second year he spent
+half the time with us and then returned to his tutor and Agnes, and Dudley
+took his place for the remainder of our stay. How we enjoyed the fishing,
+bathing in the loch, and paddling in the burns! Everyone who has spent the
+shooting season in Scotland knows all about it, and our experiences,
+though absolutely delightful, did not differ much from other people's.
+These visits were about 1860 and 1861. The railroad did not extend nearly
+so far as at present and the big travelling-carriage again came into play.
+One day it had with considerable risk to be conveyed over four ferries and
+ultimately to be driven along a mountainous road after dark. As far as I
+remember we had postilions--certainly the charioteer or charioteers had
+had as much whisky as was good for them, with the result that the back
+wheels of the heavy carriage went right over the edge of a precipice. The
+servants seated behind the carriage gave themselves over for lost--we
+children were half-asleep inside and unconscious of our peril, when the
+horses made a desperate bound forward and dragged the carriage back on to
+the road. We were taken later to see the place with the marks of the
+wheels still plain on the rocky edge--and young as we were could quite
+realise what we had escaped. Both shooting lodges were situated in the
+midst of the lovely mountain scenery of North Argyllshire, possibly
+Kingairloch was the more beautiful of the two. One day from dawn to eve
+the mountains echoed and re-echoed with the plaintive bleating of flocks,
+and we were told that it was because the lambs were taken from their
+mothers. I still possess some verses which my mother wrote on that
+occasion, and transcribe them to show that she had a strong poetic as well
+as artistic vein:
+
+  "Far over the mountains and over the corries
+  Echoed loud wailings and bleatings the day
+  When from the side of the mothers that loved them
+  The lambs at Kingairloch were taken away.
+
+  "Vainly, poor mothers, ye watch in the valley
+  The nook where your little ones gambolled before,
+  Vainly ye climb to the heights of the mountains--
+  They answer you not, and shall answer no more!
+
+  "Never again from that stream-silvered hill-side,
+  Seeking fresh grass betwixt harebell and heather,
+  Shall you and your lambkins look back on Loch Corry,
+  Watching the flight of the sea-bird together.
+
+  "No more, when the storm, striking chords on the mountains,
+  Drives down the thick mists their tall summits to hide,
+  Shall you give the sweet gift of a mother's protection
+  To the soft little creatures crouched down by your side.
+
+  "Past the sweet peril! and gone the sweet pleasure!--
+  Well might the echoes tell sadly that day
+  The plaint of the mothers that cried at Kingairloch
+  The day that the lambs were taken away."
+
+Visits to Scotland included sojourns at Ardgowan, the home of our uncle
+and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart on the Clyde. Aunt
+Occy, as we called her, was probably my mother's favourite sister--in any
+case her children were our favourite cousins on the Grosvenor side, and we
+loved our many visits to Ardgowan both when we went to the moors and in
+after years. There were excursions on the hills and bathing in the
+salt-water of the Clyde, fishing from boats, and shells to be collected on
+the beach. Also my uncle had a beautiful yacht in which he took us
+expeditions towards Arran and to Loch Long from which we were able to go
+across the mountain pass to Loch Lomond.
+
+My grandmother Lady Leigh died in 1860, before which time she used to pay
+lengthened visits to Stoneleigh accompanied by three or four unmarried
+daughters. She was a fine handsome old lady. Her hair had turned white
+when she was about thirty-two, but, as old ladies did in those days, she
+wore a brown front with a black velvet band. She had a masterful temper
+and held her daughters in considerable awe, but, after the manner of
+grandparents, was very kind to us. I fancy that so many unmarried
+sisters-in-law may have been a slight trial to my mother, but we regarded
+our aunts as additional playfellows bound to provide us with some kind of
+amusement. The favourite was certainly "Aunt Georgy," the youngest
+daughter but one. She had an unfailing flow of spirits, could tell stories
+and join in games, and never objected to our invasion of her room at any
+time. Poor "Aunt Gussie" (Augusta) was less fortunate: she had bad health
+and would scold us to make us affectionate--an unsuccessful method to say
+the least of it--the natural result was, I fear, that we teased her
+whenever opportunity offered. Aunt Georgie was very good-looking and I
+believe much admired. She did not, however, marry till she was about
+forty. A Colonel Newdigate, whose runaway horse she had stopped when quite
+a girl, had fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her. She
+persistently refused and he married someone else. When his wife died, he
+returned to his first affection and ultimately melted my Aunt's heart. She
+had no children of her own, but was a good stepmother to his only son--now
+Sir Frank Newdegate, Governor of West Australia.
+
+[Sidenote: LIFE AT STONELEIGH]
+
+Stoneleigh offered every possible amusement to children--long galleries
+and passages to race up and down, a large hall for battledore and
+shuttlecock and other games, parks and lawns for riding and cricket, and
+the River Avon at the bottom of the garden for fishing and boating, not to
+mention skating in hard winters. People are apt to talk and write as if
+"Early Victorian" and "Mid-Victorian" children were kept under strict
+control and made to treat their elders with respectful awe. I cannot
+recall any undue restraint in our case. As I have already said, our mother
+was an influence which no one would have attempted to resist, but she
+never interfered with any reasonable happiness or amusement. Our father
+was the most cheerful of companions, loving to take us about to any kind
+of sights or entertainments which offered, and buying us toys and presents
+on every possible occasion. The only constraint put upon us, which is not
+often used with the modern child, concerned religious observance. We had
+to come in to daily Prayers at 10 o'clock even if it interfered with
+working in our gardens or other out-door amusement--and church twice on
+Sundays was the invariable rule as soon as we were old enough to walk to
+the neighbouring villages of Stoneleigh and Ashow, or to attend the
+ministrations of the chaplain who generally officiated once each Sunday in
+the chapel in the house. We had to learn some "Scripture lesson" every day
+and two or three on Sundays, and I being the eldest had not only to repeat
+these Sunday lessons to my mother, but also to see in a general way that
+my younger brothers and sisters knew theirs. I was made to learn any
+number of chapters and hymns, and Scripture catechisms--not to speak of
+the Thirty-nine Articles! At last when mother and governess failed to find
+something more to learn by heart I was told to commit portions of Thomas à
+Kempis to memory. Here, I grieve to confess, I struck--that is to say, I
+did not venture actually to refuse, but I repeated the good brother's
+words in such a disagreeable and discontented tone of voice that no one
+could stand it, and the attempt to improve me in this way was tacitly
+abandoned.
+
+[Illustration: STONELEIGH ABBEY.]
+
+[Sidenote: RECTORS AND VICARS]
+
+On the whole I feel sure that the advantages of acquiring so many great
+truths, and generally in beautiful language, far outweighed any passing
+irritation that a young girl may have felt with these "religious
+obligations." If it is necessary to distinguish between High and Low
+Church in these matters, I suppose that my parents belonged to the
+orthodox Evangelical School. I have a vague recollection of one Vicar of
+Stoneleigh still preaching in the black silk Geneva gown. At Ashow--the
+other church whose services we attended--the Rector when I was small was
+an old Charles Twisleton, a cousin of my father's. He, however, had
+discarded the black gown long before my day. My father told me that when
+the new Oxford School first took to preaching in surplices Mr. Twisleton
+adopted this fashion. Thereupon the astonished family at the Abbey
+exclaimed, "Oh, Cousin Charles, are you a Puseyite?" "No, my dears," was
+the confidential reply, "but black silk gowns are very expensive and mine
+was worn out." Probably many poor clergymen were glad to avail themselves
+of this economical form of ritual. I have an idea that Rudyard Kipling's
+Norman Baron's advice to his son would have appealed to my parents had it
+been written in their day:
+
+  "Be polite but not friendly to Bishops,
+  And good to all poor Parish priests."
+
+I feel that they were "friendly to Bishops" when they met, and they were
+certainly good to all the Rectors and Vicars of the various villages which
+belonged to my father or of which the livings were in his gift, but they
+had no idea of giving their consciences into ecclesiastical keeping. In
+fact my grandmother Westminster once said to my mother, "My dear, you and
+I spend much of our lives in rectifying the errors of the clergy"; those
+excellent men often failing in business capacity.
+
+The church services at both our churches were simple to a degree. At
+Stoneleigh the organ was in the gallery and the hymns were sung by the
+schoolchildren there. The pulpit and reading-desk were part of what used
+to be called a "three-decker" with a second reading-desk for the clerk.
+This was exactly opposite our large "Squire's Pew" across the aisle. There
+had from time immemorial been a Village Harvest Home with secular
+rejoicings, but at last there came the great innovation of service with
+special decoration and appropriate Psalms and Lessons in church. I do not
+know the exact year, but think that it must have been somewhere in the
+sixties, after my Uncle James--my father's youngest brother--became Vicar
+of Stoneleigh, as it must have been his influence which induced my father
+to consent to what he considered slightly ritualistic.
+
+However, all went well till it came to the Special Psalms. The choir had
+nothing to do with leading responses--these pertained to the clerk--old
+Job Jeacock--and when the first "special" was given out he utterly failed
+to find it. The congregation waited while he descended from his
+desk--walked across the aisle to our pew and handed his Prayerbook to me
+that I might help him out of his difficulty!
+
+Decorations in the churches at Christmas were fully approved, and of
+course the house was a bower of holly, ivy and mistletoe--these were
+ancient customs never omitted in our home. Christmas was a glorious time,
+extending from the Villagers' Dinner on S. Thomas's Day to the Ball on our
+father's birthday, January 17th--a liberal allowance. The children dined
+down on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and there was always a
+Christmas Tree one evening laden with toys and sweetmeats. Among other
+Christmas customs there was the bullet-pudding--a little hill of flour
+with a bullet on the top. Each person in turn cut a slice of the pudding
+with his knife, and when the bullet ultimately fell into the flour whoever
+let it down had to get it out again with his mouth. Snap-dragon was also a
+great institution. The raisins had to be seized from a dish of burning
+spirits of wine, presided over by "Uncle Jimmy" (the clergyman) dressed
+as a ghost in a sheet, who had regularly on this occasion to thrill us
+with a recitation of "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene"--the faithless
+lady who was carried off from her wedding feast by the ghost of her lover.
+Of course her fate was inextricably mixed up in our minds with the flame
+of the snap-dragon.
+
+[Sidenote: THEATRICALS]
+
+Twelfth Night, with drawing for characters, was duly honoured--nor were
+private theatricals forgotten. Like all children we loved dressing-up and
+acting. The first "regular" play with family and household for audience in
+which we performed was _Bluebeard_, written in verse by my mother, in
+which I was Fatima. After that we had many performances--sometimes of
+plays written by her and sometimes by myself. I do not think that we were
+budding Irvings or Ellen Terrys, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and
+the audiences were tolerant.
+
+More elaborate theatricals took place at Hams Hall, the house of Sir
+Charles Adderley (afterwards Lord Norton), who married my father's eldest
+sister. They had a large family, of whom five sons and five daughters grew
+up. These young people were devoted to acting and some of us occasionally
+went over to assist--at least I recollect performing on one occasion--and
+we often saw these cousins either at Hams or at Stoneleigh, the houses
+being at no great distance apart. The youngest son, afterwards well known
+as Father Adderley, was particularly fond of dressing up--he was a
+well-known actor--and I am not sure that he did not carry his histrionic
+tastes into the Church of which he was a greatly esteemed prop. Another
+numerous family of cousins were the children of my father's fifth sister,
+married to the Rev. Henry Cholmondeley--a son of Lord Delamere--who held
+the living of my father's other place--Adlestrop. Uncle Cholmondeley was
+clever and devoted enough to teach all his five sons himself without
+sending them to preparatory schools; and between his teaching and their
+abilities, most, if not all, of them won scholarships to aid their careers
+at public schools. With their four sisters they were a noisy but amusing
+set of companions, and we always enjoyed their visits. My father's
+youngest sister was not old enough for her children to be our actual
+contemporaries, but when she did marry--Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower of
+Titsey--she had twelve sons and three daughters--a good record.
+
+My mother's sisters rivalled my father's in adding to the population--one,
+Lady Macclesfield, having had fifteen children, of whom twelve were alive
+to attend her funeral when she died at the age of ninety. So I reckoned at
+one time that I had a hundred _first_ cousins alive, and generally found
+one in whatever quarter of the globe I chanced to visit.
+
+Speaking of theatrical performances, I should specially mention my
+father's next brother, Chandos Leigh, a well-known character at the Bar,
+as a Member of the Zingari, and in many other spheres. Whenever
+opportunity served and enough nephews and nieces were ready to perform he
+wrote for us what he called "Businesses"--variety entertainments to follow
+our little plays--in which we appeared in any capacity--clowns, fairies,
+Shakespeare or Sheridan characters, or anything else which occurred to him
+as suited to our various capacities, and for which he wrote clever and
+amusing topical rhymes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A VICTORIAN GIRL
+
+
+The Christmas festivities of 1862 had to be suspended, as my mother's
+health again obliged my father to take her to the South of France. This
+time I was their sole companion, the younger children remaining in
+England.
+
+We travelled by easy stages, sleeping at Folkestone, Boulogne, Paris,
+Dijon, Lyons, Avignon, and Toulon. I kept a careful journal of our travels
+on this occasion, and note that at Lyons we found one of the chief silk
+manufactories employed in weaving a dress for Princess Alexandra, then
+engaged to the Prince of Wales. It had a gold rose, shamrock and thistle
+combined on a white ground. There also we crossed the Rhône and saw in the
+hospital at Ville Neuve, among other curious old paintings, one by King
+Réné d'Anjou. It represented the Holy Family, and my childish eyes carried
+away the impression of a lovely infant patting a soft woolly lamb. So
+completely was I fascinated that, being again at Lyons after my marriage,
+I begged my husband to drive out specially to see the picture of my dream.
+Alas! ten years had changed my eyesight, and instead of the ideal figures,
+I saw a hard stiff Madonna and Child, with a perfectly wooden lamb. I
+mention this because I have often thought that the populace who were so
+enraptured with a Madonna like Cimabue's in S. Maria Novella at Florence
+_saw_ as I did something beyond what was actually there. Grand and
+stately it is, but I think that unsophisticated eyes must have endowed it
+with motherly grace and beauty, as I gave life and softness to the baby
+and the lamb.
+
+[Sidenote: MENTONE]
+
+We went on by train from Toulon as far as Les Arcs and then drove to
+Fréjus, and next day to Cannes. Whether the train then only went as far as
+Les Arcs or whether my parents preferred the drive through the beautiful
+scenery I do not know--anyhow we seem to have thoroughly enjoyed the
+drive. I note that in April we returned from Cannes to Toulon by a new
+railroad. Cannes was a little seaside country town in those days, with few
+hotels and villas such as have sprung up in the last half-century; but
+even then it attracted sufficient visitors to render hotel accommodation a
+difficulty, and we had to shorten our intended stay. We went to pay our
+respects to the ex-Lord Chancellor Brougham, already King of Cannes. He
+was then eighty-five, and I have a vague recollection of his being very
+voluble; but I was most occupied with his great-nephew, a brother of the
+present Lord Brougham, who had a little house of his own in the garden
+which was enough to fascinate any child. From Cannes we drove to Nice,
+about which I record that "the only thing in Nice is the sea." We had
+considerable difficulty in our next stage from Nice to Mentone, as a rock
+had in one place fallen from the top of a mountain to the valley below and
+filled up part of the road with the débris of its fall. At Mentone we
+spent over three weeks, occupied in walks with my father and drives with
+him and my mother, or sometimes he walked while I rode a donkey up the
+mountains. There was considerable political excitement at that time,
+Mentone having only been ceded by Italy to France in 1861 and the natives
+being by no means reconciled to French rule. There was a great local
+feeling for Garibaldi, and though the "Inno Garibaldi" was forbidden I
+fear that my mother occasionally played it in the hotel, and any listener
+(such as the waiter) who overheard it beamed accordingly. I happened to
+have a scarlet flannel jacket for outdoor wear, and remember women in the
+fields shouting out to me "Petite Garibaldi."
+
+My mother often sat on the beach or among olive trees to draw while I
+read, or looked at the sea, or made up stories or poems, or invented
+imaginary kingdoms to be shared with my sister and brothers on my
+return--I fear always reserving supreme dominion for my own share.
+
+When we left England the idea had been to continue our travels as far as
+Rome, but my mother's health forbade, as the doctor said that the
+cold--particularly of the Galleries--would be too much for her. It was a
+great disappointment, above all to her, but she was very good in
+submitting. As so long a tranquil sojourn anywhere had not been
+contemplated, our library was rather restricted, but two little volumes
+which she had brought, one of Dryden, and Milton's "Paradise Regained,"
+afforded me happy hours. Also I perpetrated an Epic in six Cantos on the
+subject of Rienzi! From Mentone we went to San Remo for a week, returning
+to Mentone February 17th, when preparations began for a Fête to be given
+by the English and Danish to the inhabitants of the town on the occasion
+of the Prince of Wales's marriage. Old Lord Glenelg was, I believe,
+nominal President, but my father was the moving spirit--entertaining the
+populace being for him a thoroughly congenial task.
+
+Many years afterwards in Samoa Robert Louis Stevenson told me that he was
+at Mentone with his father at the time of the festivities, but he was a
+young boy, and neither he nor I knew under what circumstances we were
+ultimately to make acquaintance. There were all sorts of complications to
+be overcome--for one thing it was Lent and my father had to obtain a
+dispensation from M. le Curé for his flock to eat meat at the festal
+dinner. This was accorded on condition that fish was not also consumed.
+Then there appeared great questions as to who would consent to sit down
+with whom. We were told that orange-pickers would not sit down with
+orange-carriers. As a matter of fact I believe that it was against
+etiquette for women to sit down with the men, and that in the end 300
+workmen sat down in the garden of the Hôtel Victoria (where we were
+staying) and I can still recollect seeing the women standing laughing
+behind them while the men handed them portions of food. Posts were
+garlanded with heath and scarlet geraniums, and decorated with English,
+French, and Danish flags and portraits of Queen Victoria and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales. The festivities included a boat-race and other
+races, and ended with illuminations and fireworks at night. All went off
+splendidly, though the wind rather interfered with lighting the little
+lamps which decorated some of the buildings.
+
+In connection with the Prince's wedding I heard one story which I believe
+was told by my aunt Macclesfield--(appointed Lady-in-Waiting to the
+Princess) to my mother, which as far as I know has never appeared in
+print.
+
+The present ex-Kaiser, then little Prince William aged four, came over
+with his parents for the wedding. He appeared at the ceremony in a
+Scottish suit, whereupon the German ladies remonstrated with his mother,
+saying that they understood that he was to have worn the uniform of a
+Prussian officer. "I am very sorry," said his mother; "he had it on, but
+Beatrice and Leopold" (the Duke of Albany) "thought that he looked so
+ridiculous with tails that they cut them off, and we had to find an old
+Scottish suit of his uncle's for him to wear!" An early English protest
+against militarism!
+
+[Sidenote: GENOA]
+
+Two days after the excitement of these royal festivities we again left
+Mentone by road for Genoa, which we reached March 16th, having stopped on
+the way at San Remo, Alassio, and Savona. At Genoa we joined my mother's
+sister Agnes and her husband, Sir Archibald Campbell (of Garscube), and
+saw various sights in their company.
+
+I knew very little of my Uncle Archibald, as he died comparatively young.
+At Genoa he was certainly very lively, and I fear that I contrived
+unintentionally but naturally to annoy him--it only shows how Italian
+politics excited everyone, even a child. He had seen some map in which the
+Italians had marked as their own territory, not only what they had lately
+acquired, but all to which they then aspired; I hardly imagine the
+Trentino, but certainly Venice. Uncle Archy scoffed at their folly--with
+precocious audacity, and I suppose having heard such Italian views at
+Mentone, I asserted that they would ere long have both Venice and Rome! He
+was quite indignant. It was impertinent of me, as I knew nothing of their
+power or otherwise, but it was a good shot!
+
+I have heard that Sir Archibald's mother was a stately old Scottish lady
+who thought a great deal of family, and precedence, and that one day he
+scandalised her by asking, "Well, mother, what would be the precedence of
+an Archangel's eldest son?"
+
+Aunt Aggy was broken-hearted when he died, and always delicate, fell into
+very ill-health. When the Franco-German War broke out she set to work
+undauntedly for the sick and wounded, and positively wanted to go abroad
+to nurse in some hospital--probably in Germany. A certain very clever Dr.
+Frank, of German-Jewish descent, was to make arrangements. The whole
+Grosvenor family and all its married connections were up in arms, and my
+father was dispatched to remonstrate with her. With much annoyance and
+reluctance she gave in--and soon after married Dr. Frank! The family were
+again astounded, but after all when they knew him they realised that he
+made her happy and took to him quite kindly. My aunt and Dr. Frank lived a
+great deal at Cannes, where they had a nice villa--Grandbois--and many
+friends, and he had a tribe of admiring patients. Aunt Aggy was very
+charming and gentle and lived to a good age.
+
+From Genoa we drove in easy stages to Spezia, noting towns and villages on
+the way. It was a delightful means of travelling, walking up the hills and
+stopping at little townships for luncheon in primitive inns. Motors have
+somewhat revived this method of travel, but whirling along at a great pace
+can never allow you to see and enjoy all the lesser beauties which struck
+you in the old leisurely days. I have duly noted all sorts of trivial
+incidents in my journal, but they are much what occur in all such
+expeditions and I need not dilate on the beauties of mountain, sea, and
+sky which everyone knows so well. At Spezia we saw the scene of Shelley's
+shipwreck, and on one coast of the Gulf the prison where Garibaldi had
+been interned not very long before. I record that it was a large
+building, and that his rooms, shown us by a sailor, were "very nice." I
+trust that he found them so. After returning to our old quarters we left
+Mentone on April 15th, evidently with great regret and with a parting sigh
+to the voiturier who had driven us on all our expeditions, including those
+to Genoa and Spezia--also to my donkey-man and to the chambermaid. Looking
+back, I feel that these southern weeks were among the happiest of my life,
+and that something of the sunlight and mountain scenery remained as
+memories never effaced.
+
+[Sidenote: TRAFALGAR VETERANS]
+
+We returned to England by much the same route as our outward journey, only
+the railroad being now open from Cannes to Toulon a night at Fréjus was
+unnecessary. I cannot remember whether it was on our outward or our
+homeward journey, but on one or the other we met at the Palace of the
+Popes at Avignon an old custodian who had fought at Trafalgar and been for
+some years prisoner in England. He showed with some pride an English book,
+and it amused my mother to recognise a translation from a German work of
+which she did not hold a high opinion. I do not suppose that the French
+soldier read enough of it to do him much harm.
+
+It is rather curious that my father on two or three occasions took us to
+see at Greenwich Hospital an old servant of Nelson's who was with him at
+Trafalgar, so I have seen both a Frenchman and an Englishman who took part
+in that battle. Nelson's servant had a little room hung all round with
+pictures of the hero. My father asked him whether the Admiral said the
+prayer which one print represents him as reciting on his knees before the
+battle. The man said he did not know what words he used, but he saw him
+kneel down to pray. On our way to Paris we spent a night at
+Fontainebleau--and finally reached Stoneleigh on May 1st, 1863.
+
+Speaking of my mother's numerous brothers and sisters, I ought not to omit
+the eldest, Eleanor, Duchess of Northumberland, who was a very great lady,
+handsome and dignified till her death at an advanced age. She had no
+children, but was admired and respected by many nephews and nieces. I
+believe that her country neighbours regarded her as almost royal,
+curtsying when she greeted them. I remember her telling me that she could
+not go and hear some famous preacher in London because she would not have
+her carriage out on Sunday and had never been in any sort of cab. What
+would she have thought of the modern fashion of going in omnibuses?
+However, a year or two before her death the late Duke of Northumberland
+(grandson of her husband's cousin and successor) told me with great glee
+that they had succeeded in getting Duchess Eleanor into a taxi and that
+she had enjoyed it very much. I cannot think how they managed it. She
+lived during her widowhood at Stanwick Park, and my youngest sister
+Cordelia had a rather comical experience when staying with her there on
+one occasion. My aunt, among other tabooed innovations, altogether
+objected to motors and would not allow any through her Lodge gates.
+Previous to her visit to Stanwick, Cordelia had stayed with the Lawsons at
+Brayton in Cumberland and while there had been stopped by a policeman for
+riding a tricycle after dark without a light. She left her address with
+the Lawson family, and while at Stanwick the local policeman appeared,
+absolutely trembling at having been forced to enter these sacred
+precincts, to summon her in that she "drove a carriage, to wit a tricycle,
+between the hours, etc." The household managed to keep it dark from Aunt
+Eleanor, and Cordelia sent authority to the Lawson family to settle the
+case and pay the fine--but what would the aunt have said had she known of
+her niece's crime and penalty?
+
+[Sidenote: LORD MUNCASTER AND GREEK BRIGANDS]
+
+Lady Macclesfield, the second daughter, I have already mentioned. The
+surviving sister (one having died young) next above my mother in age was
+Elizabeth Lady Wenlock, who was very clever and, among her nine children,
+had charming daughters to whom I may refer later on. Then after my mother
+came Octavia and Agnes--and then Jane, married to Lord Muncaster, who died
+seven years later at Castellamare, leaving her with one little girl of
+about two years old. Margaret or Mimi, as we called her, was a great
+interest when the young widowed mother brought her to stay with us, soon
+after her father's death. She was a dear little girl, and we were told
+that she was a great heiress, and somehow in the hands of the Lord
+Chancellor. Her father had died without a will, and all the property,
+including the beautiful Muncaster Castle in Cumberland, went to the child
+though her uncle succeeded to the title. However, poor little Mimi died
+when she was eleven years old, so her uncle succeeded to the property
+after all. He was the Lord Muncaster who was captured by the brigands near
+Marathon in 1870 with his wife and her sister, Miss L'Estrange, Mr. Vyner,
+Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, and two other men. The brigands let the ladies go
+without injury--Lady Muncaster had hidden her rings in her mouth to
+protect them--but they would only let one man go to get ransom for the
+rest. The men drew lots and it fell to Vyner, but he absolutely refused to
+take the chance, saying that he was a bachelor and Lord Muncaster a
+married man. Instead of ransom the Greek Government sent troops. The
+brigands were annihilated, but they first killed Vyner and his companions.
+It was said that the Government stood in with the brigands, but I have
+never quite understood why, if so, the former did not prefer the money to
+the death of their allies--unless they thought that they would have to
+produce the ransom. Lord Muncaster always had his head hanging a little to
+one side, and in my youth I had a floating idea that it was from permanent
+grief at the tragedy. Meantime my Aunt Jane married a second time, a
+brother of Lord Crawford's. She was pretty, with green eyes and a nervous
+manner. She was a beautiful needlewoman and I believe a true musician.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GROSVENOR FAMILY]
+
+One more Grosvenor aunt must be remembered, my mother's youngest sister
+Theodora. I have heard that my grandmother was greatly distressed at the
+loss of her fourth daughter, Evelyn, who died as a child, although there
+were seven surviving sisters, therefore when another girl-baby arrived she
+called her Theodora--the gift of God. Certainly she was greatly attached
+to the child, and I fancy that the little Theodora was given much more
+spoiling and freedom than her elder sisters. She was very lively and
+amusing, and being the only daughter left unmarried when my grandfather
+died--in 1869--she became her mother's constant companion. When she
+ultimately married a brother of Lord Wimborne's she and Mr. Merthyr Guest
+continued to live with my grandmother, who endowed them with a large
+fortune. Mr. Guest died some years ago, but Aunt Theodora still lives--and
+has one daughter.
+
+My grandfather was a quiet old gentleman as far as I recollect him--he is
+somehow associated in my mind with carpet slippers and a diffident
+manner. He was what they call of a "saving" disposition, but I really
+believe that he was oppressed with his great wealth, and never sure that
+he was justified in spending much on himself and his family. When he
+became a thorough invalid before his death he was ordered to take certain
+pills, and in order to induce him to do so my grandmother would cut them
+in two and take half herself. After his death his halves were discovered
+intact done up with red tape!
+
+During his lifetime I stayed with my parents once or twice at the old
+Eaton Hall, before my uncle (the first Duke) built the present Palace. It
+was a nice, comfortable house. I have heard, from a neighbour who
+recollected the incident, that when it was being built the workmen
+employed would chisel rough representations of each other's features in
+the gargoyles which formed part of the decoration. I suppose that was done
+in ancient times by the men who built the churches and colleges of those
+days.
+
+My grandparents besides these numerous daughters had four sons--two, both
+named Gilbert, died, one as a baby, the other, a sailor, as a young man.
+The late Duke was my godfather and always very kind to me, particularly
+when, after my marriage, I stayed on more than one occasion at the new
+Eaton. I never knew a man more anxious to do all he could for the people
+about him, whether in the country or on his London property. He had very
+much the feeling of a patriarch and loved nothing better than to have
+about him the generations of his family. It was a complicated family, as
+he married first his own first cousin, Constance Leveson-Gower, and after
+her death the sister of his son-in-law Lord Chesham, husband of his
+second daughter Beatrice. I cannot quite unravel it, but somehow he was
+brother-in-law to his own daughter. The youngest son, Richard, a quaint,
+amusing man, was created Lord Stalbridge.
+
+Having said so much of my mother's family, I think I should mention the
+two sisters of my father whom I have hitherto omitted. One was his second
+sister, Emma--a typical and excellent maiden aunt. She was principally
+noted for being my sister Agnes's godmother and feeling it her duty to
+hear her Catechism--but neither Agnes nor any of us minded; in fact I
+remember--I suppose on some wet Sunday--that we all insisted on sharing
+the Scripture lesson and were given figs in consequence. The third sister
+was Caroline, twin with Augusta, but very different, for whereas Aunt
+Gussie was delicate and nervous, not to say irritable, Aunt Car was slow
+and substantial. She ended with marrying when no longer very young an old
+cousin of my father's, a clergyman, Lord Saye and Sele, who had actually
+baptized her early in life. She made him an excellent wife; she had
+numerous step-children, though none of her own. Looking back on these
+Early Victorian uncles and aunts with their various wives and husbands, I
+cannot but claim that they were good English men and women, with a keen
+sense of duty to their tenants and neighbours rich and poor. Of course
+they varied immensely in character and had their faults like other people,
+but I cannot recall one, either man or woman, who did not try to act up to
+a standard of right, and think I was fortunate to have been brought up
+among them.
+
+[Sidenote: UNCLES AND AUNTS]
+
+In my younger days I had also living several great-uncles and aunts on
+both sides, but the only one whom I can spare time and space to mention
+here is my Grandfather Leigh's sister, Caroline Lady East. When she was
+young Mr. East fell in love with her and she with him, but he was an
+impecunious youth and my great-grandparents would not permit the marriage.
+Whereupon he disguised himself as a hay-maker and contrived an interview
+with his lady-love in which they exchanged vows of fidelity. Then he went
+to India, where he remained eleven years, and returned to find the lady
+still faithful, and having accumulated a sufficient fortune married her.
+They had a nice little country house on the borders of Oxfordshire and
+Gloucestershire, and, though they had no children, were one of the
+happiest old couples I ever knew. My great-aunt died in 1870, but Uncle
+East lived till over ninety and went out hunting almost to the end--so
+eleven years of India had not done him much harm. He stayed with us at
+Middleton after my marriage when old Lord Abingdon was also a guest. Lord
+Abingdon must have been over seventy at the time, but a good deal younger
+than Sir James. They had known each other in youth and were quite
+delighted to meet again, but each confided separately to my husband and
+myself that he had thought that the other old fellow was dead. However,
+they made great friends, and in token of reunion Lord Abingdon sent his
+servant to cut Uncle East's corns!
+
+To return to my recollections of my own girlhood. I think that it must
+have been in 1864 that I had a bad attack of chicken-pox which temporarily
+hurt my eyes and left me somewhat weak. Either in that autumn or the
+following one my parents took me to the Isle of Arran and left me there
+for a time with a maid--while they accompanied my brother Gilbert back to
+school. I loved the Isle of Arran, and was only disturbed by the devotion
+of a child-niece of the landlady's who would follow me about everywhere.
+The only way of escape was to go--or attempt to go--into the mountains of
+which she was afraid, knowing that there were giants there.
+
+I must not omit one honour which I enjoyed in 1865. My mother took me to
+see my Aunt Macclesfield, who was in Waiting at Marlborough House when His
+present Majesty was born. My aunt welcomed us in the Princess of Wales's
+pretty sitting-room hung with a kind of brocade with a pattern of roses.
+The baby was then brought in to be admired, and to my gratification I was
+allowed to hold the little Prince in my arms. I did not then realise that
+in after years I could claim to have nursed my King.
+
+Shortly afterwards we used to hear a good deal of the American Civil War.
+We were too young to have much opinion as to the rival causes, but there
+was a general impression conveyed to our minds that the "Southerners were
+gentlemen." Some time after the war was over, in December 1868, Jefferson
+Davis, the Southern (Confederate) President, came to stay at Stoneleigh.
+He was over in Europe on parole. We were told that he had been in prison,
+and one of my younger brothers was anxious to know whether we "should see
+the marks of the chains." We had a favourite old housemaid who was
+preparing his room, and we imparted to her the thrilling information of
+his former imprisonment. Her only response was "Umph, well, I suppose he
+won't want these silver candlesticks." A large bedroom was being prepared
+for him, but she considered that silver candlesticks were only for ladies,
+and that presidents and prisoners were not entitled to such luxuries.
+
+He proved to be a benevolent old gentleman who impressed my cousins and
+myself by the paternal way in which he addressed any elder girl as
+"daughter."
+
+After this--but I cannot remember the particular years--we went in the
+autumn to Land's End, The Lizard, and Tintagel, and also had villas at
+Torquay and Bournemouth respectively, but our experiences were too
+ordinary to be worthy of record. I think I was about seventeen when I went
+with my parents to Vichy, where my father drank the waters--and we went on
+to some beautiful Auvergne country. This was my last excursion abroad with
+my parents before I married.
+
+[Sidenote: CONFIRMATION]
+
+In 1867 I was confirmed. The church which we attended was in Park Street.
+It has since been pulled down, but was then regarded as specially the
+church of the Westminster family. My grandparents sat in a large pew
+occupying the length of the gallery at the west end of the church. We had
+a pew in the south gallery with very high sides, and my early
+recollections are of sitting on a dusty red hassock from which I could see
+little but the woodwork during a very long sermon. One Sunday when I was
+approaching years of discretion the clergyman gave out notice of a
+Confirmation, with the usual intimation that Candidates should give in
+their names in the Vestry. My mother told me to do this accompanied by my
+younger brother (Gilbert) as chaperon. The clergyman seemed a good deal
+surprised, and I rather fancy that I was the only Candidate. He was an old
+man who had been there for a long time. He said that he would come and see
+me at my parents' house, and duly arrived at 37 Portman Square. I was sent
+in to my father's sitting-room for the interview, and I believe that he
+was more embarrassed than I was, for I had long been led to regard
+Confirmation as the proper sequence to learning my Catechism and a fitting
+step in religious life. The clergyman somewhat uneasily remarked that he
+had to ascertain that I knew my Catechism, and asked me to say it. This I
+could have done in my sleep, as it had for years formed part of my Sunday
+instruction. When I ended he asked after a slight pause whether I knew why
+the Nicene Creed was so called. This was unexpected pleasure. I had lately
+read Milman's _Latin Christianity_ to my mother, and should have enjoyed
+nothing better than delivering to my pastor a short lecture on the Arian
+and Athanasian doctrines. When I began it, however, he hastily cut me
+short, saying that he saw that I knew all about it--how old was I?
+"Seventeen and a half." "Quite old enough," said he, and told me that he
+would send me my ticket, and when I went to the church someone would show
+me where to sit. This ended my preparation as far as he was concerned. I
+believe he intimated to my parents that he would see Miss Leigh again, but
+in practice he took care to keep clear of the theological _enfant
+terrible_.
+
+I was duly confirmed on May 31st, by Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London. I feel
+sure that my mother amply supplied any lacunĉ left by the poor old
+clergyman. No doubt in those days Preparation for Confirmation was not
+regarded as seriously as at present, but I do not think that mine was
+quite typical, as some of my contemporary cousins underwent a much more
+serious course of instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: "COMING OUT"]
+
+That autumn I began to "come out" in the country. We went to a perfectly
+delightful ball at the Shaw-Stewarts' at Ardgowan, where the late Duke of
+Argyll--then Lord Lorne--excited my admiration by the way he danced reels
+in Highland costume. Thence my brother and I went to Hans Hall to the
+coming-of-age of my cousin Charles Adderley, now Lord Norton. The whole
+country-side swarmed to the festivities, and one party unable to obtain
+any other conveyance chartered a hearse. Miss Ferrier, in her novel _The
+Inheritance_, makes one of her female characters arrive at a country
+house, where she was determined to be received, in a hearse--but she was
+even more gruesome than my cousin's guests as she accompanied the corpse!
+
+The following year (1868), May 12th, I was presented--Princess Christian
+held the Drawing-Room on behalf of the Queen, who still lived in
+retirement as far as social functions were concerned. She, however,
+attended this Drawing-Room for about half an hour--receiving the entrée.
+Her devotion to the Prince Consort and to his memory was unparalleled. No
+doubt the fact that she had practically never had anyone with whom she
+could associate on equal terms until her marriage had a good deal to do
+with it. I know of a lady whom she summoned to sit with her when the
+Prince Consort was being carried to his funeral on the ground that she was
+a widow and could feel for her, and she said that her shudders when the
+guns went off were dreadful, and that she seemed unable to realise that
+here for the first time was something that she could not control.
+
+To return to my entry in the world. Naturally I went during 1868 and the
+three or four succeeding years to the balls, dinners, and garden parties
+usual in the course of the season. The "great houses" then existed--they
+had not been pulled down or turned into public galleries and offices.
+Stafford House, Grosvenor House, Northumberland House, and others
+entertained in royal style, and there were Garden Parties at Argyll Lodge
+and Airlie Lodge on Campden Hill, at Syon, and at Chiswick, then in
+possession of the Duke of Devonshire.
+
+In those days there was still a sort of question as to the propriety of
+waltzing. Valses and square dances were danced alternately at balls, and a
+few--but very few--girls were limited to the latter. Chaperones were the
+almost invariable rule and we went back to them between the dances.
+"Sitting-out" did not come in till some years later. In the country,
+however, there was plenty of freedom, and I never remember any restriction
+on parties of girls and young men walking or rowing together without their
+elders. By the time I came out my brother Gilbert (Gilly) was at Harrow
+and Dudley and Rupert at Mr. Lee's Private School at Brighton. My special
+charge and pet Rowland was still at home, and the youngest of the family
+Cordelia a baby.
+
+Dudley and Rupy were inseparable. Duddy delicate, Rupy sturdy and full of
+mischief into which he was apt to drag his elder brother. I had to look
+after them, and see that they accomplished a few lessons in the
+holidays--no light task, but I was ready for anything to keep off holiday
+tutors and, I am afraid, to retain my position as elder sister. Love of
+being first was doubtless my besetting sin, and my good-natured younger
+brothers and sisters accepted my rule--probably also because it was easier
+than that of a real grown-up person. My mother had bad health, and my
+father took it for granted that it was my business to keep the young ones
+as far as possible out of mischief. As for my sister Agnes, she was always
+a saint, and I am afraid that I was a tyrant as far as she was concerned.
+Cordelia was born when I was over sixteen and was always rather like my
+child. Rowland was just seven when her arrival delighted the family, and
+his first remark when he heard that he had a little sister was "I wonder
+what she will think of my knickerbockers"--to which he had lately been
+promoted. Boys wore little tunics with belts when they first left off baby
+frocks, and sailor suits were not introduced when my brothers were
+children.
+
+[Sidenote: IRELAND]
+
+My next special recollection is of a visit to Ireland which I paid in
+company with my parents, Gilbert, and Agnes in August 1869. We crossed in
+the _Leinster_ and duly lionised Dublin. I kept a journal during this tour
+in which the sights of the city are duly noted with the remark, after
+seeing the post office, that we "made the various observations proper to
+intelligent but tired travellers."
+
+The country--Bray, Glendalough, and the Seven Churches seem to have
+pleased us much better. I do not know whether the guides and country
+people generally are as free with their legends now as they were fifty
+years ago, but they told us any amount of stories to our great
+satisfaction. Brough, the guide at the Seven Churches, was particularly
+voluble and added considerably to the tales of St. Kevin given in the
+guide-book. St. Kevin, as recounted by Moore in his ballad, pushed
+Kathleen into the Lake when she would follow him. I remember that Brough
+was much embarrassed when I innocently asked _why_ he did this. However,
+he discreetly replied: "If your honourable father and your honourable
+mother want you to marry a gentleman and you don't like him, don't push
+him into the water!" Excellent advice and not difficult to follow in a
+general way. When St. Kevin was alive the skylark used to sing early in
+the morning and waken the people who had been up late the night before at
+a wedding or merrymaking. When the Saint saw them looking so bad he
+asked, "What's the matter?" On hearing that the lark would not let them
+get any sleep, he laid a spell that never more should lark sing above that
+lake. This encouragement of late hours seems rather inconsistent with his
+general asceticism. St. Kevin was more considerate to a blackbird than to
+the laverock. The former once laid her eggs on his extended hand, and he
+kept it held out until she had had time to build her nest in it and hatch
+her young.
+
+Brough was even better acquainted with fairies than with saints. He knew a
+man at Cork named Jack M'Ginn, a wool-comber, who was carried away by the
+fairies for seven years. At the end of that time he accompanied them to a
+wedding (fairies like weddings). There was present a young lady whom the
+fairies wanted to make sneeze three times, as if they could do so and no
+one said "God bless her" they could take her away. So they tickled her
+nose three times with horse-hair, but as they were withdrawing it the
+third time Jack cried out in Irish "God bless her." This broke the spell,
+and Jack fell crashing down amongst the crockery, everyone ran away, and
+he arose retransformed to his natural shape.
+
+Another acquaintance of Brough's--a stout farmer--met one evening three
+fairies carrying a coffin. Said one, "What shall we do for a fourth man?"
+"Switch the first man who passes," replied the second. So they caught the
+farmer and made him carry it all night, till he found himself in the
+morning nearly dead not far from his own door. Our guide enjoined us to be
+sure, if fairies passed us in the air, to pick some blades of grass and
+throw them after them, saying "Good luck to you good folk": as he sagely
+remarked, a civil word never does harm. As more prosaic recollections,
+Brough told us of the grand fights at Glendalough, when the young men were
+backed up by their sisters and sweethearts. The etiquette was for a young
+woman to take off her right stocking, put a stone in it and use it as a
+weapon, "and any woman who fought well would have twenty young farmers
+wanting to marry her."
+
+[Sidenote: KILLARNEY]
+
+We stopped at Cork, whence we drove to see Blarney Castle and its stones.
+In those days, and probably still, there were two, one called the Ladies'
+Stone, which we three children all kissed, and another suspended by iron
+clamps from the top of the Castle, so that one had to lie down and hold on
+to the irons with one's body partly over an open space--rather a
+break-neck proceeding, particularly in rising again. Only Gilly
+accomplished this. The railway to Glengariff then went as far as
+Dunmanway, whence it was necessary to drive. We slept at the Royal Hotel
+where we arrived in the evening, and to the end of my life I never shall
+forget the beauty of Bantry Bay as we saw it on waking next morning with
+all its islands mirrored in purple shadows. But the whole drive to
+Killarney, and above all the Lakes as they break upon your sight, are
+beyond description. We saw it all in absolutely glorious weather--possibly
+rare in those regions, but certainly the Lakes of Killarney impressed me
+then as more beautiful than either the Scottish or the English Lakes
+because of their marvellous richness of colour. After fifty years, and
+travels in many lands, I still imagine that they are only excelled in
+_colour_ by the coral islands of the Pacific; but of course the Irish
+Lakes may dwell in my memory as more beautiful than they really are, as I
+saw them first when I had far fewer standards of comparison. Anyhow, they
+were like a glorious dream. We spent some enchanting days at Killarney and
+saw all the surrounding beauties--the Gap of Dunloe with the Serpent Lake
+in which St. Patrick drowned the last snake in Ireland (in a chest into
+which he enticed the foolish creature by promising to let it out again),
+Mangerton, the highest mountain in Ireland but one, and Carrantuohill, the
+highest of all, which my brother and sister and I were allowed to ascend
+on condition that the guide would take good care of us. However, when out
+of our parents' sight he found that he was troubled with a corn, and lay
+down to rest, confiding us to a ponyman who very nearly lost us in a fog.
+The ponies could only approach the base, the rest was pretty stiff
+climbing.
+
+[Sidenote: THE O'DONOGHUES]
+
+The Upper, the Middle, and the Lower Lake are all lovely, but the last was
+particularly attractive from its connection with the local hero--the Great
+O'Donoghue, whose story we gleaned from our guides and particularly a boy
+who carried our luncheon basket up Mangerton. He was a magician and had
+the power of taking any shape he pleased, but he ended by a tremendous
+leap into the Lake, after which he never returned to his home. Once every
+seven years, however, between six and seven on May Day morning, he rides
+from one of the islands in the Lower Lake to the opposite shore, with
+fairies strewing flowers before him, and for the time his Castle also
+reappears. Any unmarried man who sees him will marry a rich wife, and any
+unmarried woman a rich husband. Our boatman pointed out an island where
+girls used to stand to see him pass, but no one ever saw him except an old
+boatman, and he had been married a long time, so the apparition did not
+help him. No O'Donoghue has ever been drowned since the hero's
+disappearance. We heard two different versions of the cause of the
+tragedy. Both attributed it to his wife's want of self-control. One
+related that the husband was in the habit of running about as a hare or a
+rabbit, and as long as she did not laugh all went well, but when he took
+this flying leap into the water she burst into a fit of laughter and
+thereby lost him permanently. Our boy guide's story was more
+circumstantial and more dramatic. According to him, the O'Donoghue once
+turned himself into an eel, and knotted himself three times round Ross
+Castle, where he lived (a super-eel or diminutive castle!). This
+frightened the lady dreadfully, and he told her that if she "fritted"
+three times on seeing any of his wonders she would see him no more. Some
+time after he turned himself into a goose and swam on the lake, and she
+shrieked aloud, thinking to lose him. Finally he brought out his white
+horse and told her that this was her last chance of restraining her fears.
+She promised courage and kept quiet while he rode straight up the Castle
+wall, but when he turned to come down she fainted, whereupon, horse and
+all, he leapt into the water. The boy also declared that in the previous
+year he was seen by two boatmen, a lady and a gentleman, another man, and
+some "company," whereupon the lady fainted--recalling the lady of
+O'Donoghue, it was the least she could do. In the lower Lake may still be
+seen rocks representing the chieftain's pigeons, his spy-glass, his books
+containing the "Ould Irish," and his mice (only to be seen on Sundays
+after prayers). In the Bitter Lake, which was pointed out to us from a
+distance, is the fairy-island where he dances with the fairies.
+
+[Sidenote: MYTHS AND LEGENDS]
+
+The O'Donoghue in his lifetime had his frivolous moments. He once changed
+a number of fern fronds into little pigs, which he took to the fair at
+Killarney and sold to the jobbers. They looked just like other pigs until
+the purchasers reached some running water. As we all know, running water
+dissolves any spell, and the pigs all turned back into little blades of
+fern. As testimony to the authenticity of this tale the water was duly
+shown to us. The O'Donoghue, however, knew that the jobbers would not
+remain placid under the trick, so he went home and told his maid to say,
+if anyone asked for him, that he had gone to bed and to sleep and could
+only be wakened by pulling his legs. The jobbers arrived, received the
+message, went in and pulled his legs, which immediately came off! Off they
+ran in alarm, thinking that they had killed the man, but the good
+O'Donoghue was only having his fun with them, so called them back and
+returned their money. We picked up a good deal of fairy-lore during our
+sojourn in the south of Ireland, and I record it as it may have passed
+away during the past half-century. The driver who took us to the Gap of
+Dunloe told me that in his mother's time a woman working in the fields put
+down her baby. While she was out of the way the steward saw the fairies
+change it for a fairy-baby who would have been a plague to her all her
+life. So as the child was crying and shrieking he stood over it and
+declared that he would shoot the mother or anyone else who should come
+near it, and as no one came to comfort it the fairies could not leave
+their baby to cry like that, so they brought back the stolen child and
+took away their own. That steward was such a man of resource that one
+cannot help wishing that he were alive to deal with the Sinn Feiners of
+the present day. Another piece of good advice which we received was, if
+we saw a fairy (known by his red jacket) in a field to keep an eye fixed
+on him till we came up with him--then to take away his purse, and each
+time we opened it we should find a shilling. I regret to say that I never
+had the opportunity, but the guide, remarking my father's tendency to give
+whenever asked, observed that he thought his lordship had found a fairy
+purse. It is a commonplace to notice the similarity of folk-lore in many
+lands pointing to a common origin, but it is rather curious to compare the
+tale of the O'Donoghue with that of the Physicians of Myddfai in South
+Wales. Only in that the husband, not the wife, caused the final tragedy.
+The fairy-wife, rising from the Lake, warns her mortal husband that she
+will disappear for ever if he strikes her three times. Long years they
+live in happiness, but thrice does he give her a slight blow to arouse her
+from unconventional behaviour at a christening, a wedding, and a funeral
+respectively. Thereupon she wends her way to the Lake and like a white
+cloud sinks into its waters. She leaves her sons a legacy of wisdom and
+healing skill, and from time to time a shadowy form and clear voice come
+to teach them still deeper knowledge.
+
+From the south of Ireland we went to the north, but I regret to say were
+not nearly so fascinated by the loyal Ulsterman as by the forthcoming sons
+of the south. Nevertheless we enjoyed the wild scenery of Lough Swilly and
+the legends connected with Dunluce Castle and the Giant's Causeway. Among
+the tales of Dunluce was that of a banshee whose duty it is (or was) to
+keep clean one of the rooms in the ruin. The old man who showed us over
+declared that she did not always properly fulfil her task. She is supposed
+to be the spirit of a cook who fell over the rocks into the water and
+reappears as a tall woman with red hair. The place of cook must have been
+a rather trying one in ancient days, for the kitchen pointed out to us was
+on the edge of a precipice and we were told that once when a good dinner
+was prepared the attendants let it all fall into the sea! It was not,
+however, explained whether this was the occasion on which the like fate
+befell the cook. Possibly she died in a frantic effort to rescue it.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GIANT BENADADDA]
+
+The Giant's Causeway was very interesting. We first entered Portcorn Cave,
+which has fine colours and a great deal of froth said to have been caused
+by the giant's washerwoman washing a few collars there. The giant in
+question was called Fin MacCoul, and at the same time there lived another
+Giant in Scotland called Benadadda. Wishing to pass backwards and
+forwards, the two agreed that Fin should pave a way of columns and
+Benadadda should work it. Hence Fingal's Cave--_gal_ or _gael_ meaning
+"the stranger"--presumably the name was given in compliment to the future
+guest. But the two champions found the work harder than they had expected,
+and Benadadda sent to tell Fin that if he did not make haste he must come
+over and give him a beating. Fin returned that he was not to put himself
+out, but to come if he pleased. Soon after Fin rushed in crying out to his
+wife, "Goodness gracious! he's coming. I can't face that fellow!" And he
+tumbled into bed.
+
+Soon Benadadda walked in. "Good day, ma'am. Ye're Mrs. McCoul?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I percave you are Benadadda?"
+
+"I am ma'am. Is Fin at home?"
+
+"He's just gone into the garden for a few vegetables, but he'll be back
+directly. Won't ye take a cheer?"
+
+"Thank you kindly"--and he sat down.
+
+She continued: "I've got a little boy in that cradle and we think he's
+taything, fer he won't give the fayther nor me any raste. Just put your
+finger along his gums."
+
+Benadadda, unable to refuse a lady, put his fingers into Fin's mouth, who
+promptly bit them off, and then jumping up called on Benadadda to come on.
+The Scottish giant, unable to fight with his wounded hand, told them, "I
+wish I'd never come among you craters," and walked off. Mrs. MacCoul ran
+after him with an oatcake, but having tasted it he said, "Very good
+outside, but give the rest to your goodman"; for she had baked the tin
+girdle inside the cake. This is how I recorded the tale, which I suppose I
+picked up locally, but I have somewhere heard or read another account in
+which, without waiting for his fingers to be bitten off, Benadadda
+exclaimed, "Begorra, is that the baby? then I'll be but a mouthful to the
+fellow himself," and made off.
+
+I am unable to say which version is authentic, but neither seems to
+attribute undaunted valour to either champion, and both agree that Irish
+wit got the better of superior Scottish strength. I record these tales
+rather than attempt description of the Caves and other beauties of the
+coast, as the physical features remain and the legends may be forgotten.
+The great rocks shaped like columns are called the Giant's Organs, and are
+(or were) supposed to play every Christmas morning. The tune they play is
+"St. Patrick's day in the morning," upon hearing which the whole Causeway
+dances round three times.
+
+We left Ireland at the end of August, having thoroughly enjoyed our
+travels there. It was then a peaceful country. The Queen had given her
+name to Queenstown Harbour in 1849, and I suppose had visited Killarney on
+the same occasion. Anyhow, memories of her stay still lingered there. I
+recollect even now the enthusiasm with which a boatman who had been one of
+those who had taken her on the Lake said, "I passed a long day looking at
+her." It was a thousand pities that she did not often revisit Ireland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MARRIAGE
+
+
+Next year--1870--all thoughts were to a large extent taken up with the
+Franco-German War. It does not seem to me that we took violent sides in
+the struggle. Naturally we were quite ignorant of the depths of cruelty
+latent in the German nature, or of the manoeuvres on the part of Bismarck
+which had led to the declaration of war. We were fond of our sister's
+French governess Mdlle. Verdure, and sorry for the terrible collapse of
+her country, but I think on the whole that the strongest feeling in our
+family was amazement at the revelation of inefficiency on the part of the
+French, mingled with some admiration for the completeness of German
+organisation. Anyhow, everyone was set to work to provide comforts for the
+sick and wounded on both sides--medical stores which I fancy would have
+been to a large extent condemned wholesale if submitted to the medical
+authorities during the late War, but which I am sure were very useful and
+acceptable in '70-71. As is well known, that winter was an exceptionally
+hard one--we had fine times skating, and I remember a very pleasant visit
+to old Lord Bathurst at Cirencester--but it must have been terrible in
+Paris. Our French man-cook had some refugee sisters quartered in the
+neighbourhood who were employed by my mother in dressmaking work for our
+benefit, but I do not know whether refugees were numerous in England.
+
+What did really excite us in common with all England were the excesses of
+the Commune. Never shall I forget the papers coming out with terrific
+headlines: "Paris in Flames--Burning of the Tuileries," and so on. I
+passed the morning in floods of tears because they were "burning history,"
+and had to be rebuked by my mother for expressing the wish that the
+incendiaries could be soaked in petroleum and themselves set on fire.
+
+The year 1871 was rendered interesting to our family by the marriages of
+our two Leigh uncles--Chandos, commonly known among us as "Uncle Eddy,"
+married an amiable and good-looking Miss Rigby, who inherited money from a
+(deceased) Liverpool father. Uncle Eddy was a great character. A fine,
+athletic man, successful in every walk of life which he entered, a good
+horseman, cricketer and actor, he did well at the Bar and seemed to know
+practically everybody and to be friends with them all. He was blessed with
+supreme self-confidence and appeared innocently convinced that everyone
+was as much interested in his affairs as he was himself. This childlike
+disposition was really attractive, and quite outweighed the boyish conceit
+which endured to the end of a long and useful life.
+
+His love affairs with Miss Rigby were naturally very public property. I
+heard all about them from the beginning, and have no doubt that anyone of
+age to listen and capable of sympathising was similarly favoured. He
+originally proposed to the young lady after a few days' acquaintance, and
+she turned pale and said "You have no right to speak to me in this way."
+Ups and downs followed, including a consultation with planchette, which
+quite properly wavered and shook and spoke with an uncertain voice. This
+was all in 1870. Some time in January we acted a small farce which I had
+perpetrated called _The Detective_. When it was over my uncle informed me
+that failing his marriage he intended to leave me a thousand pounds in
+recognition of this play. Fortunately I founded no hopes on that thousand
+pounds, for I think that it was the following morning when Uncle Eddy came
+shouting along the top corridor where we slept. "Margaret--you've lost
+your thousand pounds!" The post had come in and the fair lady had
+relented.
+
+[Sidenote: FANNY KEMBLE]
+
+James, my father's youngest brother, called "Uncle Jimmy," had travelled
+in the United States and been entertained on her plantation in Georgia by
+a charming Southern lady--a Miss Butler, daughter of the descendant of an
+old Irish family who had married the well-known actress Fanny Kemble. Mr.
+and Mrs. Pierce Butler had separated--not from any wrong-doing, but from
+absolute incompatibility of temper. For one thing the wife took up a
+violent anti-slavery attitude--a little awkward when (as she must have
+known when she married) the husband owned a cotton plantation worked by
+slave labour. However, the two daughters remained on friendly terms with
+both parents, and Mr. Butler died during--or shortly after--the war. One
+daughter married a Dr. Wister and became the mother of the well-known
+author, Owen Wister; the younger, Frances, married my uncle and was
+adopted into the family as "Aunt Fanny." Though some ten or eleven years
+older than myself, she and I became the greatest friends, and I much liked
+her somewhat erratic, though withal stately, mother, who was called "Mrs.
+Kemble." Both Uncles were married (on different days) in June 1871, my
+sister Agnes being bridesmaid to Miss Butler and I to Miss Rigby.
+
+Both marriages were very happy ones, though my Uncle Chandos ended his
+life in a dark cloud cast by the late War--in which he lost his only two
+sons, and his wife was killed in a motor accident not long after his
+death.
+
+Since I wrote above I have found an old journal from May 18th, 1868, to
+November 3rd, 1869. I do not extract much from it, as it largely consists
+of records of the various balls and entertainments which we attended--but
+it is rather amusing to note what circumstances, social and otherwise,
+struck the fancy of a girl in her first two seasons. Politically the Irish
+Church Bill seems to have been the burning question. We went to part of
+the Debate on the Second Reading (June 17th, 1869) in the House, and I not
+only give a summary of Lord Salisbury's speech, but when the Bill was
+carried, devote over two pages of my journal to a full description of the
+details of the measure. The _causes célèbres_ of Madame Rachel, the Beauty
+Doctor, and of the nun, Miss Saurin, against her Mother Superior, Mrs.
+Starr, appear also to have been topics of conversation.
+
+[Sidenote: AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS]
+
+One visit is perhaps worth recording. My father's mother was a Miss Willes
+of an old family living on the borders of Northamptonshire and
+Oxfordshire--regular country people. One of her brothers, Charles, was
+married to a certain Polly--I think she was a Miss Waller, but anyhow they
+were a plump, old-fashioned pair. She was supposed to keep a book in which
+were recorded the names of over a hundred nephews and nieces, and to sell
+a pig to give a present to any one of the number who married. On the last
+day of 1868 my brother Gilly and I went with our Aunt Georgiana to stay
+with this charming old couple at King-Sutton Manor House near Banbury.
+This is how I describe the New Year festivities of fifty years ago: "It is
+a queer old house like one in a storybook, full of corners. My wash-stand
+was in a recess with a window, separated from the rest of the room by
+doors so that it looked like a chapel. We had dinner between six and
+seven, a real Christmas dinner with nearly twenty people--great-uncle
+Charles, great-aunt Martha, great-aunt Sophy, George Willes, Willie
+Willes, Stany Waller, the clergyman Mr. Bruce, Aunt Polly herself beaming
+at the head of the table, turkey and beef stuck with holly, and the
+plum-pudding brought in, in flaming brandy.... Almost everyone seemed
+related to all the rest. A few more people came after dinner while we were
+in the drawing-room and the dining-room was being cleared for dancing. Two
+fiddlers and a blowing-man were then perched on a table in a corner and
+dancing began--quadrilles, lancers, jig, reel, and valse carried on with
+the utmost energy, by Aunt Polly in particular, till about half-past
+eleven, when muffled bells began to ring in a church close by and the
+dancing was stopped that we might all listen. At twelve o'clock the
+muffles were taken off, Aunt Polly charged with Xmas cards into the midst
+of her company, punch was brought in in great cups, silver, I believe;
+everyone kissed, shook hands, and wished everyone else a Happy New Year,
+the bells rang a joy-peal, and we had supper, and then began dancing again
+till between one and two in the morning. After many efforts Gilly
+succeeded in catching Aunt Polly under the misletoe and kissing her." I do
+not know what a "blowing-man" may have been, but have a vivid recollection
+of Aunt Polly trying to dance everyone down in a perpetual jig, and of
+the portly figure of Uncle Charles, who had to be accommodated with two
+chairs at dinner.
+
+We had other very pleasant visits--and amongst them we stayed with my
+uncle and aunt Wenlock for my cousin Carry Lawley's wedding to Captain
+Caryl Molyneux. This marriage was particularly interesting to all the
+cousinhood, as it was brought about after considerable opposition. Carry
+was an extraordinarily pretty, lively, and attractive girl rather more
+than a year older than myself. She had brilliant eyes and auburn hair and
+was exceedingly clever and amusing. Her family naturally expected her to
+make a marriage which would give all her qualities a wide sphere. However,
+at the mature age of eleven she won the affections of Lord Sefton's
+younger brother and he never fluctuated in his choice. I do not know at
+what exact moment he disclosed his admiration, but he contrived to make
+the young lady as much in love with him as he was with her. Vainly did her
+mother refuse consent. Carry stuck to her guns, and I believe ultimately
+carried her point by setting up a cough! Anyhow the parents gave in, and
+when they did so, accepted the position with a good grace. Somehow what
+was considered sufficient provision for matrimony was made and Caryl and
+Carry were married, on a brilliant spring day in April 1870.
+
+[Sidenote: A PRE-MATRIMONIAL PARTY]
+
+It was at the Wenlocks' London house, in the following year, that I made
+the acquaintance of Lord Jersey. We had unknowingly met as children at an
+old inn on Edgehill called "The Sunrising"; at that time his parents, Lord
+and Lady Villiers, lived not far off at Upton House, which then belonged
+to Sarah, Lady Jersey. While my brother and I were playing outside, a boy
+with long fair hair looked out of the inn and smilingly lashed his whip at
+us, unconscious that it was his first salutation to his future wife! I
+discovered in after years that George Villiers, as he then was, used to
+ride over for lessons to a neighbouring clergyman and put up his pony at
+the inn.
+
+At the dinner-party at Berkeley Square Lord Jersey did not take me in, and
+I had not the slightest idea who he was, but when the ladies left the
+dining-room I was laughed at for having monopolised his attention when he
+was intended to talk to his partner. He was reckoned exceedingly shy, and
+I thought no more of the matter till the following season, to which I
+shall return in due course.
+
+After our return to Stoneleigh, though I do not recollect in which month
+(I think August), we had a large and gay party including a dance--it was
+distinctly a pre-matrimonial party, as three of the girls whom it included
+were either engaged or married before twelve months were over, though none
+of them to the men present. The three girls were Gwendolen (then called
+Gwendaline) Howard, who married Lord Bute; Maria Fox-Strangways, married
+to Lord Bridport's son Captain Hood; and myself. Rather oddly, a much
+older man and a widower, Lord Raglan, who was also of the party, caught
+the matrimonial microbe and married his second wife in the ensuing autumn.
+
+Among others my cousin and great friend Hugh Shaw-Stewart was there and
+immortalised our doings in verse. At Christmas time I managed to get
+slight congestion of the lungs and soon after went to spend some time with
+my kind uncle and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart at
+Fonthill, and Hughie, who had also suffered from chest trouble, stayed
+with his parents there while preparing for Oxford.
+
+[Sidenote: FONTHILL ABBEY]
+
+Fonthill, as is well known, belonged to the eccentric Beckford and was
+full of his traditions. After his death the property was divided and my
+grandfather Westminster bought the portion which included Beckford's old
+house, of which the big tower had fallen down, and built himself a modern
+house lower down the hill. Another part was bought--I do not know when--by
+Mr. Alfred Morrison. When my grandfather Westminster died in the autumn of
+1869 he left the reversion of Fonthill Abbey to Uncle Michael. Perhaps he
+thought that the Shaw-Stewarts should have an English as well as a
+Scottish home. However that might have been, Fonthill is a delightful
+place--and I benefited by their residence there at this time. I think that
+they were only to come into actual possession after my grandmother's
+death--but that she lent it to them on this occasion as my aunt was
+delicate and it was considered that she would be the better for southern
+air.
+
+The modern house was a comfortable one with good rooms, but had a
+peculiarity that no room opened into another, as my grandfather objected
+to that arrangement--dressing-rooms, for instance, though they might open
+into the same lobbies, might not have doors into the bedrooms.
+
+Part of Beckford's old house higher up the hill was preserved as a sort of
+museum. The story was that he insisted on continuous building, Sundays and
+weekdays alike. The house had a very high tower which could be seen from a
+hill overlooking Bath, where he ultimately went to live. Every day he used
+to go up the hill to look at his tower, but one morning when he ascended
+as usual he saw it no longer--it had fallen down. It used to be implied
+that this was a judgment on the Sunday labour. Also we were told that he
+made the still-existing avenues and drove about them at night, which gave
+him an uncanny reputation. Probably his authorship of that weird tale
+_Vathek_ added to the mystery which surrounded him. He had accumulated
+among many other treasures a number of great oriental jars from the Palace
+of the King of Portugal, and when these were sold after his death my
+grandfather, to the best of my recollection, purchased three.
+
+Mr. Morrison had secured a good many of the others, which I saw in after
+years when I stayed at the other Fonthill House which he had built on his
+part of the property. Many of the other treasures passed, as is well
+known, into the possession of Beckford's daughter who married the 10th
+Duke of Hamilton. Alas--most of them must have been dispersed ere now!
+
+Mr. Alfred Morrison, when I was at Fonthill with my uncle and aunt, was a
+subject of much interest, as it was rumoured that he wanted to emulate
+Beckford. I do not quite know in what way beyond trying to collect the
+oriental jars. He was a distinctly literary man, and was reported to have
+married his wife because he found her reading a Greek grammar in the
+train. Whether or no that was the original attraction I cannot say, but
+she proved a delightful and amusing person when I met her in after years.
+Meantime we used to hear of the beautiful horses which he sent to the
+meets of the local hounds, though he did not ride, and other proofs of his
+wealth and supposed eccentricity.
+
+My uncle as well as my aunt being far from strong, we led a quiet though
+pleasant life. Hughie and I shared a taste for drawing and painting of
+very amateur description and Hughie used to help me with Latin verses, in
+which I then liked to dabble.
+
+After my return to Stoneleigh I had yet another treat. My Uncle James and
+his new wife "Aunt Fanny" were kind enough to ask me to share in the
+spring their first trip abroad after their marriage. We went via Harwich
+to Rotterdam and thence for a short tour in Holland and Belgium with which
+I was highly delighted. The quaint canals, the cows with table-cloths on
+their backs, the queer Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, and still more the
+cathedrals and picture galleries in Belgium gave me infinite pleasure, but
+are too well known to describe.
+
+Even the copyist in the Antwerp Gallery who, being armless, painted with
+his toes was an amusement, as much to my uncle, who loved freaks, as to
+myself. Ghent and Bruges were a revelation; and I was much entertained by
+the guide who took us up the Belfry of St. Nicholas (I think it was) at
+the former city and pointed triumphantly to the scenery as "bien beau,
+tout plat, pas de montagnes." He shared the old Anglo-Saxon conception of
+Paradise.
+
+  "Nor hills nor mountains there
+  Stand steep, nor strong cliffs
+  Tower high, as here with us; nor dells nor dales,
+  Nor mountain-caves, risings, nor hilly chains;
+  Nor thereon rests aught unsmooth,
+  But the noble field flourishes under the skies
+  With delights blooming."
+
+In the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, over the high altar, was an image of the
+saint with three children in a tub. My uncle asked a priest what he was
+doing with the children, but all the good man could say was that "St.
+Nicolas aimait beaucoup les enfants," quite ignorant of the miracle
+attributed to his own saint, namely, that he revived three martyred boys
+by putting them into a barrel of salt.
+
+Shortly after our return to England we moved to Portman Square for the
+season. At a dinner-party--I believe at Lord Camperdown's--I again met
+Lord Jersey, but fancied that he would have forgotten me, and subsequently
+ascertained that he had the same idea of my memory. So we did not speak to
+each other. Later on, however, my father told my mother that he had met
+Lord Jersey and would like him asked to dinner. The families had been
+friends in years gone by, but had drifted apart. My mother agreed, sent
+the invitation, which was accepted. In arranging how the guests were to
+sit I innocently remarked to my mother that it was no good counting Lord
+Jersey as a young man--or words to that effect--as "he would never speak
+to a girl"--and I was rather surprised when in the drawing-room after he
+came across to me and made a few remarks before the party broke up.
+
+After this events moved rapidly for me. Jersey, unexpectedly to many
+people, appeared at balls at Montagu House, Northumberland House (then
+still existing), and Grosvenor House. Also he came to luncheon once or
+twice in Portman Square. He did not dance at balls, but though
+"sitting-out" was not then the fashion we somehow found a pretext--such as
+looking at illuminations--for little walks. Then Lord Tollemache drove my
+mother and me to a garden-party at Syon, where I well recollect returning
+from another "little walk" across a lawn where my mother was sitting with
+what appeared to me to be a gallery of aunts.
+
+[Sidenote: ENGAGEMENT]
+
+We went to a last ball at the Howards of Glossop in Rutland Gate, and
+discovering that we were about to leave London Jersey took his courage in
+two hands and came to Portman Square, July 18th, and all was happily
+settled.
+
+I went next morning--it may have been the same evening--to tell Aunt
+Fanny, who was then laid up at a house not far from ours. I had been in
+the habit of paying her constant visits, so she had an idea of what might
+happen, and I found her mother, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, with her. One word was
+enough to enlighten my aunt, who then said, "May I tell my mother?" I
+assented, and she said, "This child has come to tell me of her
+engagement." Whereupon Mrs. Kemble demanded, with a tragical air worthy of
+her aunt Mrs. Siddons, "And are you very happy, young lady?" I cheerfully
+answered, "Oh yes"--and she looked as if she were going to cry. My aunt
+said afterwards that any marriage reminded her of her own unfortunate
+venture. Aunt Fanny was much amused when I confided to her that finding
+immediate slumber difficult the first night of my engagement I secured it
+by attempting the longest sum which I could find in Colenso's arithmetic.
+My brothers and sisters accepted the news with mixed feelings--but poor
+little Cordelia, who had been left at Stoneleigh, was quite upset. I wrote
+her a letter in which I said that Lord Jersey should be her brother and
+she should be bridesmaid. The nurse told me that she burst into tears on
+receiving it and said that he should not be her brother, and not take away
+Markie. She quite relented when she saw him, because she said that he had
+nice smooth light hair like Rowly--and as time went on, she suggested that
+if Aggy would only "marry or die" she should be "head girl and hear the
+boys their lessons." As the youngest "boy" was seven years older than
+herself this may be regarded as an exceptional claim for woman's supremacy
+in her family.
+
+My future mother-in-law, Jersey's mother, and his brothers welcomed me
+most kindly. As for his sisters, Lady Julia Wombwell and Lady Caroline
+Jenkins, I cannot say enough of their unvarying friendship and affection.
+
+[Sidenote: MARRIED TO LORD JERSEY]
+
+I was engaged about the middle of July, and shortly we returned to
+Stoneleigh. My mother was terribly busy afterwards, as my brother Gilbert
+came of age on the first of September and the occasion was celebrated with
+great festivities, including a Tenants' Ball, when the old gateway was
+illuminated as it had been for the Queen's visit. The ivy, however, had
+grown so rapidly in the intervening years that an iron framework had to be
+made outside it to hold the little lamps. There was a very large family
+party in the house, and naturally my affairs increased the general
+excitement and I shared with my brother addresses and presentations. As my
+mother said--it could never happen to her again to have a son come of age
+and a daughter married in the same month. She was to have launched the
+_Lady Leigh_ lifeboat in the middle of September, but my sister was
+commissioned to do it instead--and we returned to Portman Square for final
+preparations. Like most girls under similar circumstances I lived in a
+whirl during those days, and my only clear recollections are signing
+Settlements (in happy ignorance of their contents) and weeping bitterly
+the night before the wedding at the idea of parting from my family, being
+particularly upset by my brother Dudley's floods of fraternal tears.
+However, we were all fairly composed when the day--September 19th, 1872,
+dawned--and I was safely married by my Uncle Jimmy at St. Thomas's Church,
+Orchard Street. It was not our parish, but we had a special licence as it
+was more convenient. My bridesmaids were my two sisters, Frances
+Adderley, one of the Cholmondeleys, Minna Finch (daughter of my father's
+cousin Lady Aylesford), and Julia Wombwell's eldest little girl
+Julia--afterwards Lady Dartrey.
+
+When all was over and farewells and congratulations ended, Jersey and I
+went down for a short honeymoon at Fonthill, which my grandmother lent us.
+So ended a happy girlhood--so began a happy married life. I do not say
+that either was free from shadows, but looking back my prevailing feeling
+is thankfulness--and what troubles I have had have been mostly of my own
+making.
+
+My father was so good--my mother so wise. One piece of advice she gave me
+might well be given to most young wives. "Do not think that because you
+have seen things done in a particular way that is the only right one." I
+cannot resist ending with a few sentences from a charming letter which
+Aunt Fanny wrote me when I went to Stoneleigh after my engagement:
+
+    "I have thought of you unceasingly and prayed earnestly for you. I
+    could not love you as I do, did I not believe that you were true and
+    good and noble--and on that, more than on anything else, do I rest my
+    faith for your future. Oh, Marky my darling child, _cling_ to the good
+    that is in you. Never be false to yourself. I see your little boat
+    starting out on the sea of life, anxiously and tremblingly--for I know
+    full well however smooth the water may be now there must come rocks in
+    everyone's life large enough to wreck one. Do you call to mind, dear,
+    how you almost wished for such rocks to battle against a little time
+    ago, wearying of the tame, even stream down which you were floating?
+    God be with you when you do meet them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY MARRIED LIFE
+
+
+It is more difficult to write at all consecutively of my married life than
+of my girlhood, as I have less by which I can date its episodes and more
+years to traverse--but I must record what I can in such order as can be
+contrived.
+
+We did not stay long at Fonthill, and after a night or two in London came
+straight to our Oxfordshire home--Middleton Park.
+
+My husband's grandfather and father had both died in the same month
+(October 1859) when he was a boy of fourteen. He was called "Grandison"
+for the three weeks which intervened between their deaths, having been
+George Villiers before, so when he returned again to Eton after his father
+died, the boys said that he came back each time with a fresh name. His
+grandmother, however, the well-known Sarah, Lady Jersey, continued to
+reign at Middleton, for the largest share of the family fortune belonged
+to her as heiress of her grandfather Mr. Child--and, I suppose, in
+recognition of all he had enjoyed of hers, her husband left her the use of
+the Welsh property and she alone had the means to keep up Middleton. She
+was very fond of my husband, but when she died, soon after he came of age
+and inherited the place, he did not care to make many changes, and though
+his mother paid lengthened visits she had never really been mistress of
+the house. Therefore I seemed to have come straight upon the traces of a
+bygone generation. Even the china boxes on my dressing-table and the
+blotters on the writing-tables were much as Lady Jersey had left them--and
+there were bits of needlework and letters in the drawers which brought her
+personally vividly before me. The fear and awe of her seemed to overhang
+the village, and the children were still supposed to go to the Infant
+School at two years old because she had thought it a suitable age. She had
+been great at education, had built or arranged schools in the various
+villages belonging to her, and had endowed a small training school for
+servants in connection with a Girls' School at Middleton. Naturally the
+care of that school and other similar matters fell to my province, and I
+sometimes felt, as I am sure other young women must have done under
+similar circumstances, that a good deal of wisdom was expected from me at
+an age which I should have considered hardly sufficient for a second
+housemaid. Some of the schools of that date must have been quaint enough.
+An old lame woman still had charge of the Infant School at the
+neighbouring hamlet of Caulcot, whom we soon moved into the Almshouses. In
+after years one of her former pupils told me that she was very good at
+teaching them Scripture and a little reading, but there was no question of
+writing. If the old lady had occasion to write a letter on her own account
+she used a knitting-needle as a pen while my informant held the paper
+steady. If a child was naughty she made him or her stand crouched under
+the table as a punishment. She never put on a dress unless she knew that
+Lady Jersey was at the Park, and then, she being crippled with rheumatism,
+her pupil had to stand on a chair to fasten it up, lest the great lady
+should pay a surprise visit.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD JERSEY'S MOTHER]
+
+Sarah, Lady Jersey, had a great dislike to any cutting down or even
+lopping of trees. She had done much towards enlarging and planting the
+Park, and doubtless trees were to her precious children. Therefore the
+agent and woodmen, who realised the necessity of a certain amount of
+judicious thinning, used to wait until she had taken periodical drives of
+inspection amongst the woods, and then exercised some discretion in their
+operations, trusting to trees having branched out afresh or to her having
+forgotten their exact condition before she came again.
+
+In one school, Somerton, I was amused to find a printed copy of
+regulations for the conduct of the children, including injunctions never
+to forget their benefactress. But she was really exceedingly good to the
+poor people on the property and thoughtful as to their individual
+requirements. One old woman near her other place, Upton, told me how she
+had heard of her death soon after receiving a present from her, and added,
+"I thought she went straight to heaven for sending me that petticoat!"
+Also she built good cottages for the villagers before the practice was as
+universal as it became later on. The only drawback was that she would at
+times insist on the building being carried on irrespective of the weather,
+with the result that they were not always as dry as they should have been.
+
+Lady Jersey was well known in the world, admired for her beauty and lively
+conversation, and no doubt often flattered for her wealth, but she left a
+good record of charity and duties fulfilled in her own home.
+
+As for her beautiful daughter Lady Clementina, she was locally regarded
+as an angel, and I have heard that when she died the villagers resented
+her having been buried next to her grandmother, Frances Lady Jersey, as
+they thought her much too good to lie next to the lady who had won the
+fleeting affections of George IV.
+
+I soon found home and occupation at Middleton, but I confess that after
+being accustomed to a large and cheerful family I found the days and
+particularly the autumn evenings rather lonely when my husband was out
+hunting, a sport to which he was much addicted in those days. However, we
+had several visitors of his family and mine, and went to Stoneleigh for
+Christmas, which was a great delight to me.
+
+Soon after we went abroad, as it was thought desirable after my chest
+attack of the previous winter that I should not spend all the cold weather
+in England. We spent some time at Cannes, and I fancy that it really did
+my husband at least as much good as myself--anyhow he found that it suited
+him so well that we returned on various occasions.
+
+Sir Robert Gerard was then a great promoter of parties to the Ile Ste
+Marguerite and elsewhere, and the Duc de Vallombrosa and the Duchesse de
+Luynes helped to make things lively.
+
+[Sidenote: IN LONDON]
+
+I will not, however, dwell on scenes well known to so many people, and
+only say that after a short excursion to Genoa and Turin we returned in
+the early spring, or at the end of winter, to superintend a good deal of
+work which was then being done to renovate some of the rooms at Middleton.
+At the beginning of May we moved to 7 Norfolk Crescent--a house which we
+had taken from Mr. Charles Fane of Child's Bank--and my eldest son was
+born there on June 2nd, 1873. He had come into the world unduly
+soon--before he was expected--and inconveniently selected Whit Monday
+when the shops were shut and we were unable to supply certain deficiencies
+in the preparations. Nevertheless he was extremely welcome, and though
+very small on his arrival he soon made up for whatever he lacked in size,
+and, as everyone who knows him will testify, he is certainly of stature
+sufficient to please the most exacting.
+
+[Illustration: THE LIBRARY, MIDDLETON PARK.]
+
+[Illustration: MIDDLETON PARK. _From photographs by the present Countess
+of Jersey._]
+
+My mother-in-law and her second husband, Mr. Brandling, were among our
+frequent visitors. Mr. Brandling had a long beard and a loud voice, and a
+way of flinging open the doors into the dining-room when he came in in the
+morning which was distinctly startling. Apart from these peculiarities he
+did not leave much mark in the world. He was very fond of reading, and I
+used to suggest to him that he might occupy himself in reviewing books,
+but I do not think that he had much power of concentration. My
+mother-in-law was tactful with him, but he had a decided temper,
+especially when he played whist. As I did not play, this did not affect
+me.
+
+My younger sister-in-law, Caroline, and I were great friends. She had
+married Mr. Jenkins, who was well known as a sportsman and an amiable,
+genial man. His chief claim to fame, apart from his knowledge of horses
+and their training, was an expedition which he had made to avenge his
+sister's death in Abyssinia. His sister had married a Mr. Powell and she
+and her husband had been murdered by natives when travelling in that
+country. Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Powell's brother went to Egypt, collected
+followers, went into the territory where the murder had taken place,
+burned the village which sheltered the aggressors, and had the chief
+culprits handed over to them for execution. It was said that the fact
+that a couple of Englishmen would not leave their relatives' death
+unavenged produced more effect than the whole Abyssinian expedition.
+
+[Sidenote: ISOLA BELLA, CANNES]
+
+The winter after my boy's birth Caroline lost hers, who was a few months
+older than mine, and was herself very ill, so we invited her and Mr.
+Jenkins to join us at Cannes, where we had this season taken a
+villa--Isola Bella. We were the first people who inhabited it. It has
+since been greatly enlarged and its gardens so extended that it is now one
+of the finest houses in the place. Even then it was very pretty and
+attractive, and we enjoyed ourselves greatly.
+
+There was a quaint clergyman at that time who had known Caroline when she
+had been sent as a girl to Hyères, where he then ministered, and where he
+had been famous for a head of hair almost too bushy to admit of being
+covered by a hat. He was anxious to re-claim acquaintance, but though
+civil she was not effusive. He was noted for paying long visits when he
+got into anyone's house. I heard of one occasion on which his name was
+announced to a young lady who was talking to a man cousin whom she knew
+well. The youth on hearing the name exclaimed that he must hide, and crept
+under the sofa. The visitor stayed on and on till the young man could
+stand his cramped position no longer and suddenly appeared. The parson was
+quite unmoved and unmovable by the apparition of what he took to be a
+lover, and merely remarked "Don't mind me!"
+
+We found this house so charming that we sent our courier back to England
+to bring out our boy. My aunt, Lady Agnes, and her husband, Dr. Frank,
+with their baby girl, lived not far off--they had found Isola Bella for us
+and were pleasant neighbours. My husband, Caroline, and myself found
+additional occupation in Italian lessons from a fiery little patriot whose
+name I forget, but who had fought in the war against the Austrians. Among
+other things he had a lurid story about his mother whose secrets in the
+Confessional had been betrayed by a priest, resulting in the arrest and I
+believe death of a relative. After which though the lady continued her
+prayers she--not unnaturally--declined to make further confessions.
+
+Our sojourn on this visit to Cannes was further brightened by Conservative
+triumphs in the 1874 elections. We used to sit after breakfast on a stone
+terrace in front of the villa, Mr. Jenkins smoking and Jersey doing
+crochet as a pastime--being no smoker; and morning after morning the
+postman would appear with English papers bringing further tidings of
+success.
+
+The Jenkinses returned to England rather before ourselves--we travelled
+back towards the end of April in singularly hot weather, and when we
+reached Dover Jersey left me there for a few days to rest while he went
+back to Middleton. Unfortunately the journey, or something, had been too
+much for me, and a little girl, who only lived for a day, appeared before
+her time at the Lord Warden Hotel. It was a great disappointment, and I
+had a somewhat tedious month at the hotel before migrating to 12
+Gloucester Square--the house which we had taken for the season.
+
+I have no special recollections of that season, though I think that it was
+that year that I met Lord Beaconsfield at the Duke of Buccleuch's. It is,
+however, impossible to fix exactly the years in which one dined in
+particular places and met particular people, nor is it at all important.
+
+[Sidenote: OXFORDSHIRE NEIGHBOURS]
+
+I would rather summarise our life in the country, where we had garden
+parties, cricket matches, and lawn tennis matches at which we were able to
+entertain our neighbours. Now, alas! the whole generation who lived near
+Middleton in those days has almost passed away. Our nearest neighbours
+were Sir Henry and Lady Dashwood at Kirtlington Park with a family of sons
+and daughters; Lord Valentia, who lived with his mother, Mrs. Devereux,
+and her husband the General at Bletchington; and the Drakes--old Mrs.
+Drake and her daughters at Bignell. Sir Henry's family had long lived at
+Kirtlington, which is a fine house, originally built by the same
+architect--Smith, of Warwick--who built the new portion of Stoneleigh
+early in the eighteenth century. Sir Henry was a stalwart, pleasant man,
+and a convinced teetotaller. Later on than the year of which I speak the
+Dashwoods came over to see some theatricals at Middleton in which my
+brothers and sisters and some Cholmondeley cousins took part. After the
+performance they gave a pressing invitation to the performers to go over
+on a following day to luncheon or tea. A detachment went accordingly, and
+were treated with great hospitality but rather like strolling players.
+"Where do you act next?" and so on, till finally Sir Henry burst out:
+"What an amusing family yours is! Not only all of you act, but your uncle
+Mr. James Leigh gives temperance lectures!" Sir Henry's son, Sir George
+Dashwood, had a large family of which three gallant boys lost their lives
+in the Great War. To universal regret he was obliged to sell Kirtlington.
+It was bought by Lord Leven, whose brother and heir has in turn sold it to
+Mr. Budgett. Not long before I married, the then owner of another
+neighbouring place--Sir Algernon Peyton, M.F.H., of Swift's House, had
+died. Lord Valentia took the Bicester hounds which he had hunted, for a
+time, rented Swift's from his widow, and ultimately did the wisest thing
+by marrying her (1878) and installing her at Bletchington. They are really
+the only remaining family of my contemporaries surviving--and, though they
+have occasionally let it, they do live now in their own house. They had
+two sons and six daughters--great friends of my children. The eldest son
+was killed in the Great War.
+
+Another neighbour was a droll old man called Rochfort Clarke, who lived at
+a house outside Chesterton village with an old sister-in-law whose name I
+forget (I think Miss Byrom)--but his wife being dead he was deeply
+attached to her sister. Soon after our marriage he came to call, and
+afterwards wrote a letter to congratulate us on our happiness and to say
+that had it not been for the iniquitous law forbidding marriage with a
+deceased wife's sister we should have seen a picture of equal domestic
+felicity in him and Miss ----. He was very anxious to convert Irish Roman
+Catholics to the ultra-Protestant faith, and he interpreted the Second
+Commandment to forbid _all_ pictures of any sort or kind. None were
+allowed in his house. Once he wrote a letter to the papers to protest
+against the ritualism embodied in a picture in Chesterton Church--an
+extremely evangelical place where Moody and Sankey hymns prevailed. Later
+on the clergyman took me into the church to show me the offending idol. It
+consisted of a diminutive figure--as far as I could see of a man--in a
+very small window high up over the west door. The most appalling shock was
+inflicted upon him by a visit to the Exhibition of 1851, where various
+statuary was displayed including Gibson's "Tinted Venus." This impelled
+him to break into a song of protest of which I imperfectly recollect four
+lines to this effect:
+
+  "Tell me, Victoria, can that borrowed grace
+  Compare with Albert's manly form and face?
+  And tell me, Albert, can that shameless jest
+  Compare with thy Victoria _clothed and dressed_?"
+
+The sister-in-law died not long after I knew him, and he then married a
+respectable maid-servant whom he brought to see us dressed in brown silk
+and white gloves. Shortly afterwards he himself departed this life and the
+property was bought by the popular Bicester banker Mr. Tubb, who married
+Miss Stratton--a second cousin of mine--built a good house, from which
+pictures were not barred, and had four nice daughters.
+
+I cannot name all the neighbours, but should not omit the old Warden of
+Merton, Mr. Marsham, who lived with his wife and sons at Caversfield. The
+eldest son, Charles Marsham, who succeeded to the place after his death,
+was a great character well known in the hunting and cricket fields. He was
+a good fellow with a hot temper which sometimes caused trying scenes.
+Towards the end of his life he developed a passion for guessing Vanity
+Fair acrostics, and when he saw you instead of "How d'ye do?" he greeted
+you with "Can you remember what begins with D and ends with F?" or words
+to that effect. There was a famous occasion when, as he with several
+others from Middleton were driving to Meet, one of my young brothers
+suggested some solution at which he absolutely scoffed. When the hounds
+threw off, however, Charlie Marsham disappeared and missed a first-class
+run. It was ultimately discovered that he had slipped away to a telegraph
+office to send off a solution embodying my brother's suggestion!
+
+[Sidenote: CAVERSFIELD CHURCH]
+
+Caversfield Church was a small building of considerable antiquity standing
+very close to the Squire's house. The present Lord North, now an old man,
+has told me that long ago when he was Master of Hounds he passed close to
+this church out cub-hunting at a very early hour, when the sound of most
+beautiful singing came from the tower, heard not only by himself but by
+the huntsmen and whips who were with him--so beautiful that they paused to
+listen. Next time he met the clergyman, who was another Marsham son, he
+said to him, "What an early service you had in your church on such a day!"
+"I had no weekday service," replied Mr. Marsham, and professed entire
+ignorance of the "angelic choir." I have never discovered any tradition
+connected with Caversfield Church which should have induced angels to come
+and sing their morning anthem therein, but it is a pretty tale, and Lord
+North was convinced that he had heard this music.
+
+One thing is certain, the tiny agricultural parish of Caversfield could
+not have produced songsters to chant Matins while the world at large was
+yet wrapped in slumber.
+
+Thinking of Caversfield Church, I recollect attending a service there when
+the Bishop of Oxford (Mackarness, I believe) preached at its reopening
+after restoration. In the course of his sermon he remarked that there had
+been times when a congregation instead of thinking of the preservation and
+beautifying of the sacred building only considered how they should make
+themselves comfortable therein. This, as reported by the local
+representative, appeared in the Bicester paper as an episcopal comment
+that in former days people had neglected to make themselves comfortable in
+church. However, my old Archdeacon uncle-by-marriage, Lord Saye and Sele,
+who was a distinctly unconventional thinker, once remarked to my mother
+that he had always heard church compared to heaven, and as heaven was
+certainly the most comfortable place possible he did not see why church
+should not be made comfortable. The old family pew at Middleton Church had
+been reseated with benches to look more or less like the rest of the
+church before I married, but was still a little raised and separated by
+partitions from the rest of the congregation. Later on it was levelled and
+the partitions removed. From the point of view of "comfort," and apart
+from all other considerations, I do think that the square "Squire's
+Pew"--as it still exists at Stoneleigh--where the occupants sit facing
+each other--is _not_ an ideal arrangement.
+
+At Broughton Castle--the old Saye and Sele home--one of the bedrooms had a
+little window from which you could look down into the chapel belonging to
+the house without the effort of descending. Once when we stayed there and
+my mother was not dressed in time for Morning Prayers she adopted this
+method of sharing in the family devotions.
+
+Broughton Castle, and Lord North's place, Wroxton Abbey (now for sale) are
+both near Banbury, which is about thirteen miles from Middleton--nothing
+in the days of motors, but a more serious consideration when visits had to
+be made with horses.
+
+[Sidenote: LIFE AT MIDDLETON]
+
+Mr. Cecil Bourke was clergyman at Middleton when I married and had two
+very nice sisters, but he migrated to Reading about two years later, and
+was succeeded by the Rev. W. H. Draper, who has been there ever since. He
+is an excellent man who has had a good wife and eleven children. Mrs.
+Draper died lately, to the sorrow of her many friends. Some of the
+children have also gone, but others are doing good work in various parts
+of the Empire. Old Lord Strathnairn, of Mutiny fame, was once staying with
+us at Middleton. He was extremely deaf and apt to be two or three periods
+behind in the conversation. Someone mentioned leprosy and its causes at
+dinner, and after two or three remarks that subject was dropped, and
+another took its place, in which connection I observed that our
+clergyman's wife had eleven children. Lord Strathnairn, with his mind
+still on "leprousy," turned to me and in his usual courteous manner
+remarked, "It is not catching, I believe?"
+
+Among other neighbours were Mr. and Mrs. Hibbert at Bucknell Manor, who
+had six well-behaved little daughters whom, though they treated them
+kindly, they regarded as quite secondary to their only son. On the other
+hand, Mr. and Mrs. Dewar at Cotmore were perfectly good to their four
+sons, but the only daughter distinctly ruled the roost. Moral: if a boy
+baby has any choice he had better select a family of sisters in which to
+be born, and the contrary advice should be tendered to a female infant.
+
+To return to our own affairs. The little girl whom we lost in April 1874
+was replaced, to our great pleasure, by another little daughter born at
+Middleton, October 8th, 1875, and christened Margaret like the baby who
+lay beneath a white marble cross in the churchyard. The new little
+Margaret became and has remained a constant treasure. Villiers' first
+words were "Hammer, hammer," which he picked up from hearing the constant
+hammering at the tank in the new water-tower. He was very pleased with his
+sister, but a trifle jealous of the attentions paid her by his nurse. A
+rather quaint incident took place at the baby's christening. When
+Villiers was born, old Lord Bathurst, then aged eighty-two, asked to come
+and see him as he had known my husband's great-grandmother Frances, Lady
+Jersey (the admired of George IV), and wanted to see the fifth generation.
+We asked him to stay at Middleton for the little girl's christening, and
+after dinner to propose the baby's health.
+
+He asked her name, and when I told him "Margaret" he murmured, "What
+memories that brings back!" and fell into a reverie. When he rose for the
+toast he confided to the family that her great-grandmother on my
+side--Margarette, Lady Leigh--had been his first love and repeated,
+"Maggie Willes, Maggie Willes, how I remember her walking down the streets
+of Cirencester!" He was a wonderful man for falling in love--even when he
+was quite old he was always fascinated by the youngest available girl--but
+he died unmarried. Perhaps one love drove out the other before either had
+time to secure a firm footing in his heart.
+
+Lord Bathurst told me that when he was a middle-aged man and friend of the
+family Sarah Lady Jersey was very anxious to secure Prince Nicholas
+Esterhazy for her eldest daughter Sarah (a marriage which came off in due
+course). She had asked him to stay at Middleton, and it was generally
+believed that if he accepted the match would be arranged. Lord Bathurst in
+November 1841 was riding into Oxford when he met Lady Jersey driving
+thence to Middleton. She put her head out of the carriage and called to
+him, "We have got our Prince!" At that time the Queen was expecting her
+second child, and Lord Bathurst, more occupied with Her Majesty's hopes
+than with those of Lady Jersey, at once assumed that this meant a Prince
+of Wales, and rode rapidly on to announce the joyful tidings. These were
+almost immediately verified, and he gained credit for very early
+intelligence. He was a gallant old man, and despite his years climbed a
+fence when staying at Middleton. He died between two and three years
+later.
+
+On a visit to the Exeters at Burghley, near Stamford, we had met Mr. and
+Mrs. Finch of Burley-on-the-Hill, near Oakham, and they asked us to stay
+with them soon after little Margaret's birth. I mention this because it
+was here that I met Lady Galloway, who became my great friend, and with
+whom later on I shared many delightful experiences. She was a handsome and
+fascinating woman a few months younger than myself.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. DISRAELI]
+
+It was in this year, May 18th, 1875, that Disraeli wrote to Jersey
+offering him the appointment of Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen--saying, "I
+think, also, my selection would be pleasing to Her Majesty, as many
+members of your family have been connected with the Court." On May 28th he
+notified the Queen's approval. (It is rather quaint that the first letter
+begins "My dear Jersey"--the second "My dear Villiers." My husband was
+never called "Villiers," but Disraeli knew his grandfather and father, who
+were both so called.) Jersey used to answer for Local Government in the
+House of Lords. The Queen was always very kind to him, as she had known
+his grandmother so well, and told me once that Lady Clementina had been
+her playfellow. She was his godmother; she records it if I remember
+rightly in the Life of the Prince Consort, or anyhow in a letter or Diary
+of the period, and says there that she became godmother as a token of
+friendship to Sir Robert Peel--his mother's father. She declared to us
+that she had held him in her arms at his christening, and of course it was
+not for us to contradict Her Majesty: but I think that she officiated by
+proxy. She gave him two or three of her books in which she wrote his name
+as "Victor Alexander," and again we accepted the nomenclature. As a matter
+of fact he was "Victor Albert George" and always called "George" in the
+family. He had, however, the greatest respect and affection for his royal
+godmother, and valued her beautiful christening cup. As Lord-in-Waiting he
+had to attend the House of Lords when in session, and spoke
+occasionally--he always sat near his old friend Lord de Ros, who was a
+permanent Lord-in-Waiting.
+
+I used to go fairly often to the House during the years which followed his
+appointment and before we went to Australia, and heard many interesting
+debates. Jersey and I always considered the late Duke of Argyll and the
+late Lord Cranbrook as two of the finest orators in the House. The Duke
+was really splendid, and with his fine head and hair thrown back he looked
+the true Highland Chieftain. Several much less effective speakers would
+sometimes persist in addressing the House. I remember Lord Houghton
+exciting much laughter on one occasion when he said of some point in his
+speech "and that reminds me," he paused and repeated "and that reminds
+me," but the impromptu would not spring forth till he shook his head and
+pulled a slip of paper, on which it was carefully written, out of his
+waistcoat pocket.
+
+I was told, though I was not present, of a house-party of which the Duke
+of Argyll and Lord Houghton both formed part. One evening--Sunday evening,
+I believe--Lord Houghton offered to read to the assembled company
+Froude's account of the "Pilgrimage of Grace" in his _History of England_.
+Most of them seem to have submitted more or less cheerfully, but the Duke,
+becoming bored, retired into the background with a book which he had taken
+from the table. Just when Lord Houghton had reached the most thrilling
+part and had lowered his voice to give due emphasis to the narrative, the
+Duke, who had completely forgotten what was going on, threw down his book
+and exclaimed, "What an extraordinary character of Nebuchadnezzar!"
+Whereupon Lord Houghton in turn threw down Froude and in wrathful accents
+cried, "One must be a Duke and a Cabinet Minister to be guilty of such
+rudeness!"
+
+Froude was rather a friend of ours--a pleasant though slightly cynical
+man. I recollect him at Lady Derby's one evening saying that books were
+objectionable; all books ought to be burnt. I ventured to suggest that he
+had written various books which I had read with pleasure--why did he write
+them if such was his opinion? He shrugged his shoulders and remarked, "Il
+faut vivre." When Lady Derby told this afterwards to Lord Derby he said
+that I ought to have given the classic reply, "Je n'en vois pas la
+necessité," but perhaps this would have been going a little far.
+
+[Sidenote: FROUDE AND KINGSLEY]
+
+Froude and Kingsley were brothers-in-law, having married two Misses
+Grenfell. On one occasion the former was giving a Rectorial Address at St.
+Andrews and remarked on the untrustworthiness of clerical statements.
+About the same time Kingsley gave a discourse at Cambridge in which he
+quoted a paradox of Walpole's to the effect that whatever else is true,
+history is not. Some epigrammists thereupon perpetrated the following
+lines. I quote from memory:
+
+  "Froude informs the Scottish youth
+  Parsons seldom speak the truth;
+  While at Cambridge Kingsley cries
+  'History is a pack of lies!'
+  Whence these judgments so malign?
+  A little thought will solve the mystery.
+  For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine
+  And Kingsley goes to Froude for history."
+
+The Galloways when we first made their acquaintance lived at 17 Upper
+Grosvenor Street. In 1875 we occupied 17_a_ Great Cumberland Street--and
+in 1876 a nice house belonging to Mr. Bassett in Charles Street--but in
+1877 we bought 3 Great Stanhope Street, being rather tired of taking
+houses for the season. My second (surviving) daughter Mary was born here
+on May 26th--a beautiful baby, god-daughter to Lady Galloway and Julia
+Wombwell. My third and youngest daughter, Beatrice, was born at Folkestone
+October 12th, 1880, and the family was completed three years later by
+Arthur, born November 24th, 1883, to our great joy, as it endowed us with
+a second son just before his elder brother went to Mr. Chignell's
+school--Castlemount--at Dover.
+
+In the same month, but just before Arthur was born, our tenant at
+Osterley, the old Duchess of Cleveland (Caroline), died. She was a fine
+old lady and an excellent tenant, caring for the house as if it had been
+her own. She had most generous instincts, and once when part of the
+stonework round the roof of Osterley had been destroyed by a storm she
+wrote to my husband saying that she had placed a considerable sum with his
+bankers to aid in its restoration. This was unexpected and certainly
+unsolicited, which made it all the more acceptable. We should never have
+thought of disturbing her during her lifetime, and even when she died our
+first idea was to relet the place to a suitable tenant. I had never lived
+there (though we once slept for a night during the Duchess's tenure), so
+had no associations with, and had never realised, the beauty of, the
+place. However, after her death we thought we would give one garden-party
+before reletting, which we did in 1884. The day was perfect, and an
+unexpected number of guests arrived. We were fascinated with the place and
+decided to keep it as a "suburban" home instead of letting, and it became
+the joy of my life and a great pleasure to my husband.
+
+[Sidenote: JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL]
+
+I will speak of some of our guests later on, but I must first mention some
+of those whom we knew at Great Stanhope Street and Middleton during the
+earlier years of our married life. One of our great friends was the
+American Minister Mr. Lowell. Looking through some of his letters, I
+recall his perfect charm of manner in speaking and in writing. The
+simplest occurrence, such as changing the date of a dinner-party in 1882,
+gave him the opportunity of words which might have befitted a courtier of
+old days:
+
+    "Her Majesty--long life to her--has gone and appointed Saturday, June
+    3rd, to be born on. After sixty-three years to learn wisdom in, she
+    can do nothing better than take my Saturday away from me--for I must
+    go to drink her health at the Foreign Office! 'Tis enough to make a
+    democrat of any Tory that ever was except you. I have moved on my poor
+    little dinner to 5th. I can make no other combination in the near
+    future, what with Her Majesty's engagements and mine, but that. Can
+    you come then? Or is my table to lose its pearl? If you can't, I shall
+    make another specially for you."
+
+Before I knew Mr. Lowell personally I was introduced to his works by Mr.
+Tom Hughes ("Tom Brown" of the "Schooldays") who stayed with us at
+Middleton at the beginning of 1880 and gave me a copy of Lowell's poems
+carefully marked with those he preferred. Four years later in August
+Lowell stayed with us there. It was a real hot summer, and he wrote into
+Hughes' gift these verses which certainly make the volume doubly precious:
+
+  "Turbid from London's noise and smoke,
+  Here found I air and quiet too,
+  Air filtered through the beech and oak,
+  Quiet that nothing harsher broke
+  Than stockdoves' meditative coo.
+
+  "So I turn Tory for the nonce
+  And find the Radical a bore
+  Who cannot see (thick-witted dunce!)
+  That what was good for people once
+  Must be as good for evermore.
+
+  "Sun, sink no deeper down the sky,
+  Nature, ne'er leave this summer mood,
+  Breeze, loiter thus for ever by,
+  Stir the dead leaf or let it lie,
+  Since I am happy, all is good!"
+
+[Sidenote: T. HUGHES AND J. R. LOWELL]
+
+This poem was afterwards republished under the title "The Optimist" in a
+collection called _Heartsease and Rue_. Lowell added four additional
+stanzas between the first and the last two, elaborating the description
+and the underlying idea. I think, however, that the three original ones
+are the best, particularly the gentle hit at the "Tory"--with whom he
+loved to identify me. The "stockdoves" were the woodpigeons whose cooing
+on our lawn soothed and delighted him. Mr. Hughes told me that he had
+first made Mr. Lowell's acquaintance by correspondence, having written to
+him to express his admiration of one of his works. I have just discovered
+that in an Introduction to his Collected Works published 1891 Hughes says
+that Trübner asked him in 1859 to write a preface to the English edition
+of the _Biglow Papers_ which gave him the long-desired opportunity of
+writing to the author. He also told me--which he also describes in the
+Introduction--how nervous he was when about at last to meet his unknown
+friend lest he should not come up to the ideal which he had formed, and
+how overjoyed he was to find him even more delightful than his letters. In
+a fit of generosity Hughes, quite unasked, gave me a very interesting
+letter which Lowell wrote him on his appointment to England in 1880. It is
+a long letter, some of it dealing with private matters, but one passage
+may be transcribed:
+
+    "I have been rather amused with some of the comments of your press
+    that have been sent me. They almost seem to think I shall come in a
+    hostile spirit, because I have commented sharply on the pretension and
+    incompetence of one or two British bookmakers! It is also more than
+    hinted that I said bitter things about England during our war. Well, I
+    hope none of my commentators will ever have as good reason to be
+    bitter. It is only Englishmen who have the happy privilege of speaking
+    frankly about their neighbours, and only they who are never satisfied
+    unless an outsider likes England _better_ than his own country. Thank
+    God I have spoken my mind at home too, when it would have been far
+    more comfortable to hold my tongue. Had I felt less kindly toward
+    England, perhaps I shouldn't have been so bitter, if bitter I was."
+
+Mr. Hughes records, again in the Introduction, that Lowell said in one of
+his letters during the American War, "We are all as cross as terriers with
+your kind of neutrality"--but he rejoices in the gradual increasing
+warmth of his feeling for England as he grew to know her better during the
+last years of his life.
+
+While I knew him he was always most friendly, and it is pleasant to recall
+him sitting in the garden at Osterley on peaceful summer evenings enjoying
+specially that blue haze peculiar to the Valley of the Thames which
+softens without obscuring the gentle English landscape.
+
+One more letter, including a copy of verses, I cannot resist copying. In
+July 1887 he endowed me with Omar Khayyám, and some months later I
+received this--dated "At sea, 2nd November 1887":
+
+    "Some verses have been beating their wings against the walls of my
+    brain ever since I gave you the Omar Khayyám. I don't think they will
+    improve their feathers by doing it longer. So I have caught and caged
+    them on the next leaf that you may if you like paste them into the
+    book. With kindest regards to Lord Jersey and in the pleasant hope of
+    seeing you again in the spring,
+        Faithfully yours,
+            J. R. LOWELL."
+
+    "With a copy of Omar Khayyám.
+
+      "These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,
+      Each softly lucent as a rounded moon:
+      The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
+      Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
+
+      "Fit rosary for a queen in shape and hue
+      When Contemplation tells her pensive beads
+      Of mortal thoughts for ever old and new:
+      Fit for a queen? Why, surely then, for you!
+
+      "The moral? When Doubt's eddies toss and twirl
+      Faith's slender shallop 'neath our reeling feet,
+      Plunge! If you find not peace beneath the whirl,
+      Groping, you may at least bring back a pearl."
+
+He adds beneath the lines: "My pen has danced to the dancing of the
+ship."
+
+The verses (of course not the covering letter) appeared in _Heartsease and
+Rue_.
+
+Mr. Lowell stayed with us at Osterley in the two summers following his
+return. He died in America just before we went to Australia.
+
+We knew Robert Browning pretty well, and I recollect one interesting
+conversation which I had with him on death and immortality. Of the former
+he had the rather curious idea that the soul's last sojourn in the body
+was just between the eyebrows. He said that he had seen several people
+die, and that the last movement was there. I cannot think that a quiver of
+the forehead proves it. For immortality, he said that he had embodied his
+feelings in the "Old Pictures in Florence" in the lines ending "I have had
+troubles enough for one." No one, however, can read his poems without
+realising his faith in the hereafter.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. GLADSTONE ON IMMORTALITY]
+
+How diverse are the views of great men on this mystery! Lady Galloway
+wrote to me once from Knowsley of a talk she had had with Mr. Gladstone
+which I think worth recording in her own words:
+
+    "The theory of Mr. Gladstone's that mostly interested me last night
+    was--that every soul was not _of necessity immortal_--that all the
+    Christian faith of the immortality of the soul and resurrection of the
+    body was a new doctrine introduced and revealed by our Lord in whom
+    alone, maybe, we receive _immortal life_. This he only _suggests_, you
+    understand--does not lay it down--but I don't think I have quite
+    grasped his idea of the mystery of death, which as far as I can
+    understand he thinks Man would not have been subject to but for the
+    Fall--not that Death did not exist before the Fall--but that it would
+    have been a different kind of thing. In fact that the connection
+    between Sin and Death meant that you lost immortality thro' Sin and
+    gained it thro' Christ."
+
+I might as well insert here part of a letter from Edwin Arnold, author of
+_The Light of Asia_, which he wrote me in January 1885 after reading an
+article which I had perpetrated in _The National Review_ on Buddhism. I
+had not known him previously, but he did me the honour to profess interest
+in my crude efforts and to regret what he considered a misconception of
+Gautama's fundamental idea. He continues:
+
+    "I remember more than one passage which seemed to show that you
+    considered _Nirvana_ to be annihilation; and the aim and _summum
+    bonum_ of the Buddhist to escape existence finally and utterly. Permit
+    me to invite you not to adopt this view too decidedly in spite of the
+    vast authority of men like Max Müller, Rhys David, and others. My own
+    studies (which I am far from ranking with theirs, in regard of
+    industry and learning) convince me that it was, in every case, _the
+    embodied life_; _life_ as we know it and endure it, which Gautama
+    desired to be for ever done with.... I believe that when St. Paul
+    writes 'the things not seen are eternal,' he had attained much such a
+    height of insight and foresight as Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. I even
+    fancy that when Professor Tyndall lectures on the light-rays which are
+    invisible to our eyes, and the cosmical sounds which are inaudible to
+    ears of flesh and blood, he _approaches_ by a physical path the
+    confines of that infinite and enduring life of which Orientals dreamed
+    metaphysically."
+
+After this Mr. Arnold--afterwards Sir Edwin--became numbered among our
+friends, and was very kind in giving us introductions when we went to
+India, as I will record later.
+
+[Sidenote: THOUGHT-READING]
+
+Meantime I may mention a quaint bit of palmistry or thought-reading
+connected with him. We had a friend, Augusta Webb of Newstead, now Mrs.
+Fraser, who was an expert in this line. She was calling on me one day
+when I mentioned casually that I had met Mr. Arnold, whose _Light of Asia_
+she greatly admired. She expressed a great wish to meet him, so I said,
+"He is coming to dine this evening--you had better come also." She
+accepted with enthusiasm. He sat next to me, and to please her I put her
+on his other side. In the course of dinner something was said about
+favourite flowers, and I exclaimed, "Augusta, tell Mr. Arnold his
+favourite flower." She looked at his hand and said without hesitation, "I
+don't know its name, but I think it is a white flower rather like a rose
+and with a very strong scent." He remarked, astonished, "I wish I had
+written it down beforehand to show how right you are. It is an Indian
+flower." (I forget the name, which he said he had mentioned in _The Light
+of Asia_), "white and strong-smelling and something like a tuberose." It
+is impossible that Augusta could have known beforehand. Her sister told me
+later that she did occasionally perceive a person's thought and that this
+was one of the instances.
+
+To return to Thomas Hughes, who originally gave me Lowell's poems. He was
+an enthusiast and most conscientious. On the occasion when, as I said
+before, he stayed at Middleton he promised to tell my boy Villiers--then
+six and a half years old--a story. Having been prevented from doing so, he
+sent the story by post, carefully written out with this charming letter:
+
+    "_February 1st, 1880._
+
+    "MY DEAR LITTLE MAN,
+
+    "I was quite sorry this morning when you said to me, as we were going
+    away, 'Ah, but you have never told me about the King of the Cats, as
+    you promised.' I was always taught when I was a little fellow, smaller
+    than you, that I must never 'run word,' even if it cost me my knife
+    with three blades and a tweezer, or my ivory dog-whistle, which were
+    the two most precious things I had in the world. And my father and
+    mother not only told me that I must never 'run word,' for they knew
+    that boys are apt to forget what they are only told, but they never
+    'ran word' with me, which was a much surer way to fix what they told
+    me in my head; because boys find it hard to forget what they see the
+    old folk that they love do day by day.
+
+    "So I have tried all my long life never to 'run word,' and as I said I
+    would tell you the story about Rodilardus the King of the Cats, and as
+    I can't tell it you by word of mouth because you are down there in the
+    bright sunshine at Middleton, and I am up here in foggy old London, I
+    must tell it you in this way, though I am not sure that you will be
+    able to make it all out. I know you can read, for I heard you read the
+    psalm at prayers this morning very well; only as Mama was reading out
+    of the same book over your shoulder, perhaps you heard what she said,
+    and that helped you a little to keep up with all the rest of us. But a
+    boy may be able to read his psalms in his prayer book and yet not able
+    to read a long piece of writing like this, though I am making it as
+    clear as I can. So if you cannot make it all out you must just take it
+    off to Mama and get her to look over your shoulder and tell you what
+    it is all about. Well then, you know what I told you was, that I used
+    to think that some people could get to understand what cats said to
+    one another, and to wish very much that I could make out their talk
+    myself. But all this time I have never been able to make out a word of
+    it, and do not now think that anybody can. Only I am quite sure that
+    any boy or man who is fond of cats, and tries to make out what they
+    mean, and what they want, will learn a great many things that will
+    help to make him kind and wise. And when you asked me why I used to
+    think that I could learn cat-talk I said I would tell you that story
+    about the King of the Cats which was told to me when I was a very
+    little fellow about your age. And so here it is."
+
+The story itself is a variant, very picturesquely and graphically told, of
+an old folk-tale, which I think appears in Grimm, of a cat who,
+overhearing an account given by a human being of the imposing funeral of
+one of his race, exclaims, "Then I am King of the Cats!" and disappears up
+the chimney.
+
+[Sidenote: TOM HUGHES AND RUGBY, TENNESSEE]
+
+Tom Hughes, at the time of his visit to Middleton, was very keen about the
+town which he proposed to found on some kind of Christian-socialist
+principles, to be called "New Rugby," in Tennessee. It was to have one
+church, to be used by the various denominations, and to be what is now
+called "Pussyfoot." What happened about the church I know not, but I have
+heard as regards the teetotalism that drinks were buried by traders just
+outside the sacred boundaries and dug up secretly by the townsmen. Anyhow,
+I fear that the well-meant project resulted in a heavy loss to poor
+Hughes. I recollect that Lord Galloway's servant suggested that he would
+like to accompany Mr. Hughes to the States--"and I would valet you, sir."
+Hughes repudiated all idea of valeting, but was willing to accept the man
+as a comrade. All he got by his democratic offer was that the man told the
+other servants that Mr. Hughes did not understand real English
+aristocracy. Which reminds me of a pleasing definition given by the Matron
+of our Village Training School for Servants of the much-discussed word
+"gentleman." She told me one day that her sister had asked for one of our
+girls as servant. As we generally sent them to rather superior situations,
+I hesitated, though I did not like to refuse straight off, and asked,
+"What is your brother-in-law?" "He is a gentleman," was the answer.
+Observing that I looked somewhat surprised, the Matron hastened to add,
+"You see, my sister keeps a temperance hotel, and in such a case the
+husband does not work, only cleans the windows and boots and so on."
+Whereby I gather that not to work for regular wages is the hall-mark of a
+gentleman! But a girl was not provided for the place.
+
+I believe that Henry James was first introduced to us by Mr. Lowell, and
+became a frequent visitor afterwards. He was an intimate friend of my
+uncle the Dean of Hereford and of his mother-in-law Mrs. Kemble.
+
+Under the name of Summersoft he gives a delightful description of Osterley
+in his novel _The Lesson of the Master_. "It all went together and spoke
+in one voice--a rich English voice of the early part of the eighteenth
+century." The Gallery he calls "a cheerful upholstered avenue into the
+other century."
+
+[Sidenote: CARDINAL NEWMAN]
+
+One dinner at Norfolk House lingers specially in my memory; it was in the
+summer of 1880 and was to meet Dr. Newman not long after he had been
+promoted to the dignity of Cardinal--an honour which many people
+considered overdue. A large party was assembled and stood in a circle
+ready to receive the new "Prince of the Church," who was conducted into
+the room by the Duke. As soon as he entered a somewhat ancient lady, Mrs.
+W-- H--, who was a convert to "the Faith," went forward and grovelled
+before him on her knees, kissing his hand with much effusion, and I fancy
+embarrassing His Eminence considerably. My aunt, the Duchess of
+Westminster, who was very handsome but by no means slim, was standing next
+to me and whispered, "Margaret, shall we have to do that? because I should
+never be able to get up again!" However, none of the Roman Catholics
+present seemed to consider such extreme genuflections necessary. I think
+they made some reasonable kind of curtsy as he was taken round, and then
+we went in to dinner. Somewhat to my surprise and certainly to my
+pleasure, I found myself seated next to the Cardinal and found him very
+attractive. I asked him whether the "Gerontius" of the poem was a real
+person, and he smiled and said "No," but I think he was pleased that I had
+read it. I never met him again, but in October 1882 I was greatly
+surprised to receive a book with this charming letter written from
+Birmingham:
+
+    "MADAM,
+
+    "I have but one reason for venturing, as I do, to ask your Ladyship's
+    acceptance of a volume upon the Russian Church which I am publishing,
+    the work of a dear friend now no more. That reason is the desire I
+    feel of expressing in some way my sense of your kindness to me two
+    years ago, when I had the honour of meeting you at Norfolk House, and
+    the little probability there is, at my age, of my having any other
+    opportunity of doing so.
+
+    "I trust you will accept this explanation, and am
+
+        "Your Ladyship's faithful servant,
+            "JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN."
+
+The book was _Notes of a Visit to the Russian Church_ by Lord Selborne's
+brother, Mr. W. Palmer, edited and with a Preface by Cardinal Newman. I
+have never been able to understand what he considered my kindness, as I
+thought the Great Man so kind to me, a young female heretic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887
+
+
+I find it difficult to recall all our foreign travels. In 1876 I
+paid--with my husband--my first visit to Switzerland, and three years
+later we went again--this time making the doubtful experiment of taking
+with us Villiers aged six and Margaret (called Markie) aged three. Somehow
+we conveyed these infants over glaciers and mountains to various places,
+including Zermatt. We contrived a sort of awning over a _chaise à
+porteurs_ carried by guides--but they did a good bit of walking also. I
+was really terrified on one occasion when we drove in a kind of dog-cart
+down precipitous roads along the edge of precipices. The children sat on
+either side of me--their little legs too short to reach the floor of the
+carriage. I had an arm round either, feeling--I believe justly--that if I
+let go for a moment the child would be flung into space. Jersey was
+walking--the maid, I suppose, with courier and luggage--anyhow I had sole
+responsibility for the time being. Our courier was excellent, and no
+matter where we arrived contrived to produce a rice-pudding on which the
+children insisted. It is unnecessary to describe the well-known scenes
+through which we passed. Switzerland impressed me, as it does all
+travellers, with its grandeur and beauty--but I never loved it as I did
+the South and, later on, the East.
+
+[Sidenote: SARAH BERNHARDT]
+
+Another winter we went--after Christmas--with Villiers only--to Biarritz;
+again I did not think it southern enough in sky and vegetation to rival
+the Riviera, though the pinewoods, and great billows rolling in from the
+sea, were attractive. Soon afterwards we embarked in a governess--a clever
+young woman called Ada Mason, who was recommended by Lady Derby. She had
+been a show pupil at the Liverpool Girls' College, and before we engaged
+her permanently she went to complete her French education in Paris. She
+stayed with us till she married in Australia. In March 1883 we took
+Villiers, Markie, and Miss Mason to the Riviera, Florence, and Venice. I
+do not know that there is anything exceptional to record. I observe in a
+short journal which I kept on this occasion that Jersey and I while in
+Paris went to the Vaudeville to see Sarah Bernhardt in _Fédora_. My
+comment is: "She acted wonderfully but I did not think much of the play.
+The great coup was supposed to be when the hero gave her a bang on the
+head, but as that used to make the ladies faint he contented himself with
+partially throttling her when we saw it." I suppose French ladies are more
+susceptible than English. Once in after years I went with a friend to see
+the divine Sarah in _La Tosca_. I thought the torture part horrid enough,
+but when La Tosca had killed the wicked Governor my companion observed
+plaintively, "We did not see any blood," as if it were not sufficiently
+realistic.
+
+On this same journey abroad we visited, as on various other occasions, the
+Ile St. Honorat and Ste Marguerite, a picnic party being given on the
+former by Lord Abercromby and Mr. Savile. The Duchesse de Vallombrosa
+brought Marshal McMahon, and special interest was excited on this occasion
+since Bazaine had lately escaped from what had been formerly the prison
+of the Masque de Fer. Jersey went with some of the party to Ste
+Marguerite, and Marshal McMahon told Mr. Savile that he did not connive at
+Bazaine's escape, but that Madame Bazaine came to him and asked when he
+would let her husband out. He replied, "In six years, or six months, if he
+is a _bon garçon_"; so she went out saying, "Then I shall know what to
+do," and slammed the door after her, with the evident purpose of unlocking
+another door, which she accomplished.
+
+Marshal McMahon must have been a fine fellow, but hardly possessed of
+French readiness of speech if this story which I have heard of him is
+true. He was to review the Cadets at a Military College--St. Cyr, I
+think--and was begged beforehand to say a special word of encouragement to
+a young Algerian who was in training there. When it came to the point the
+only happy remark which occurred to him was, "Ah--vous êtes le nègre--eh
+bien continuez le!"
+
+From Cannes we went to several other places, including Spezzia, Genoa,
+Venice, and Florence. We saw all the orthodox sights in each place and at
+Florence dined with Mr. John Meyer and his first wife, who, if I remember
+rightly, was a Fitzgerald. He was in the exceptional position of having no
+nationality--he was somehow connected with Germany and Russia (not to
+speak of Judĉa) and had been in South America and Switzerland. He had been
+a Russian, but had lost that nationality as having been twenty-five years
+absent from that country. He wanted to become an Englishman, as his wife
+wanted to send her boy to school in England, but it would mean a
+lengthened residence or a private Act of Parliament costing £3,000. In the
+end the nice Mrs. Meyer who entertained us on this occasion died, and he
+bought an Italian Marquisate and turned into an Italian! He married as his
+second wife a beautiful Miss Fish, and I last saw them in their charming
+villa near Florence.
+
+The Meyers were pleasant hosts, and it was at the dinner which I have
+mentioned that I first made the acquaintance of a telephone. They had
+asked some people to come in after dinner, and to show how the instrument
+worked telephoned to invite an additional guest. I never encountered a
+telephone at a private house in London till long afterwards.
+
+Our younger children, Mary and Beatrice, stayed during our absence at our
+little Welsh home--Baglan House, near Briton Ferry--a place which all our
+children loved.
+
+[Sidenote: DEATH OF GILBERT LEIGH]
+
+In 1884 a great sorrow befell our family. My brother Gilbert, then M.P.
+for South Warwickshire, went in August of that year to America with Mr. W.
+H. Grenfell--now Lord Desborough--with the object of getting some
+bear-shooting in the Rockies. Towards the end of the month they began
+camping--but the hunting was not good, as Indians had previously driven
+the part of the country which they visited with the view of getting game
+for their side. Mr. Grenfell's journal records frost at the end of August
+and heavy snow on the night of September 1st. On September 12th they
+pitched a camp in the Big Horn Mountains on a charming spot close to a
+clear, rocky river with trees and high walls on either side. On Sunday the
+14th, a boiling hot day, they had an hour's wash in the river, and after
+luncheon Gillie started off down the Ten Sleeper cañon alone on his
+horse--he was never seen alive again. For a whole week Mr. Grenfell and
+the three men whom they had with them searched in every possible
+direction, and at last, on the 21st, they found my brother lying dead at
+the foot of a precipice from which he had evidently fallen and been
+instantaneously killed--"a terrible way," writes Mr. Grenfell, "to find a
+friend who had endeared himself to all--always cheery and ready to make
+the best of everything--nothing put him out"--"his simplicity, absence of
+self-assertion, and quaint humour made him a general favourite--whatever
+happened he never complained and did not know what fear was."
+
+The news did not reach England till some three days later, and it is
+impossible to dwell on the terrible sorrow of all who loved him so dearly.
+My brother Dudley was mercifully in the States at the time of the fatal
+accident, and my uncle James Leigh set off at once to bring the body home;
+but the long wait--till October 20th--was unspeakably trying most of all
+for my poor parents, who were broken-hearted. My mother put a bunch of
+white rosebuds on his coffin, for when a little boy he had said one day
+that his "idea of love was a bunch of roses."
+
+I will only add her verses on her firstborn son:
+
+  "He is gone, and gone for ever,
+  'Coming home again' now never--
+  If 'tis cold he feels it not,
+  Recks not if 'tis scorching hot,
+  But by children circled round
+  Roams the happy hunting-ground,
+  Pure in heart and face as they,
+  Gladsome in God's glorious day.
+
+  "If I see him once again
+  Will he tell me of his pain?
+  Did he shout or cry or call
+  When he saw that he must fall?
+  Feel one pang of mortal fear
+  When the fatal plunge was near?
+  Or to the last--to fear a stranger--
+  Think to triumph over danger?
+
+  "I think so--on his marble face
+  Fright and terror left no trace--
+  Still--as if at Stoneleigh sleeping,
+  There he lay--all the weeping
+  Broke in streams from other eyes
+          Far away.
+  But to him come not again
+  Cold or heat or grief or pain."
+
+Gilly was truly "to fear a stranger." He had, as Mr. Grenfell recounts,
+been six times before to the Rocky Mountain country and always had
+extraordinary adventures--once he rode his horse along a ledge till he
+could neither go forward nor turn, and had to slip over its tail and climb
+out, leaving the animal to shift for itself. Two cowboys roped and got the
+saddle and bridle off and left the horse, which somehow backed out and got
+down without injury.
+
+[Sidenote: IN ITALY, 1884]
+
+Earlier in the year 1884 Jersey, Lady Galloway, and I made a pleasant tour
+among the Italian Lakes, including a run to Milan for Easter Sunday, where
+we heard some of the splendid service in the Cathedral. We took with us
+Villiers, his last trip abroad before his regular schooldays. He had
+attended Miss Woodman's classes during two or three London seasons, and
+had had a visiting tutor from Oxford--Mr. Angel Smith--for the past year
+or so at Middleton; but on May 1st, after our return from the Lakes, he
+went to Mr. Chignell's, Castlemount, Dover, where he remained till he went
+to Eton three years later. He had an unvaryingly good record both for the
+lessons and conduct while at Castlemount.
+
+I have no special recollection of the two following years, so pass on to
+1887. That winter Lady Galloway was in Russia and was to stay in Berlin
+with the Ambassador, Sir Edward Malet, and his wife, Lady Ermyntrude, on
+her return. The Malets very kindly invited me to meet her and to spend a
+few days at the Embassy. I arrived there on February 21st, and found Lady
+Galloway and her sister-in-law Lady Isabel Stewart already installed. The
+following afternoon the routine of German court etiquette--now a thing of
+the past--began. Lady Ermyntrude took us to leave cards on the various
+members of the Corps Diplomatique and then proceeded to present Mrs.
+Talbot (now Lady Talbot) and myself to Gräfin Perponcher, the Empress's
+Obermeisterin. She was a funny old soul in a wig, but regarded as next
+door to royalty, and it was therefore correct to make half a curtsy when
+introduced to her. It was a great thing to have anyone so kind, and yet so
+absolutely aware of all the shades of ceremonial, as Lady Ermyntrude, to
+steer us through the Teutonic pitfalls.
+
+[Sidenote: COURT BALL IN BERLIN]
+
+In the evening we were taken to the Carnival Court Ball, where we stood in
+a row behind Lady Ermyntrude to be presented to the Crown Prince and
+Princess as they came round. The Diplomatic people were on the left of the
+royal seats. The Weisser Saal was lighted partly with candles and partly
+with electric lights; one felt that either one or the other would have had
+a better effect, but no doubt that was all rectified in later years. We
+were presently taken into an outer room or gallery to be presented to the
+Empress Augusta, who was seated in a chair with a sort of Stonehenge of
+chairs in front. She was attired in what appeared to be royal robes heavy
+with gold embroidery and gigantic diamonds, but she looked almost like a
+resurrected corpse, except that her eyes were still large and wonderfully
+bright and glittering as if they had little torches behind them. I fancy
+that she had some preparation of belladonna dropped into them on these
+occasions. Her mouth was always a little open, giving the impression that
+she wanted to speak but could not; really, however, she talked fast
+enough, and was very gracious in sending messages to my grandmother
+Westminster. After our presentation we had to sit in Stonehenge for a few
+minutes. We had heard that when the Empress was a girl, her governess
+would place her in front of a circle of chairs, and make her go round and
+address a polite remark to each. We recognised the utility of the practice
+as Her Majesty made a neat little sentence to each of the circle seated
+before her this evening. Sir Edward and Lady Ermyntrude went home early,
+as they were in mourning, but when we tried to go in to supper with the
+Embassy Staff, we were seized on by Count Eulenberg and told to go into
+the royal supper-room. The Crown Prince and Princess came and talked to us
+very kindly, but I could not help thinking the latter rather indiscreet,
+as when I made a futile remark as to the fine sight presented by the
+Palace she returned, "A finer sight at Buckingham Palace," then, lowering
+her voice, "and prettier faces!" True enough, but a little risky addressed
+to a stranger with possible eavesdroppers.
+
+The old Emperor William was not at this ball, as he was not well
+enough--which distressed him, as he liked society; but two days later we
+were invited to a small concert at his own Palace. When we had made our
+curtsies to the Empress she desired that we should go round and be
+presented to His Majesty. I had been told previously that he was
+interested in the idea of seeing me, as he had been a great friend of my
+grandmother Westminster and they used to interchange presents on their
+birthdays. When we were taken up to him Gräfin Perponcher reminded him of
+Jersey's grandmother and Lady Clementina Villiers, but he immediately
+asked if I were not also related to Lady Westminster. When I said that I
+was her granddaughter he asked, "Et êtes-vous toujours en relation avec
+elle?" and on hearing that I wrote to her charged me with messages which
+she was afterwards very pleased to receive.
+
+During the singing we sat round little tables covered with red velvet
+table-covers, which seemed a funny arrangement, as it meant that some of
+the audience had their backs to the performers. There were five
+which--joining each other--ran down the centre of the room. The Empress
+sat at the head of the end one, and the Crown Princess presided at a round
+one in the middle of the room, at which Lady Galloway and I were seated.
+Princess Victoria (afterwards Schaumburg Lippe) sat between us--we found
+her lively, though not pretty. When the performance was over the Emperor
+came and talked to us again; he seemed very cheerful, though he put his
+hand on the back of a chair for, as he said, "un petit appui"! I told him
+that I had been with the crowd to see him when he looked out at the
+soldiers as he did every morning. "Quoi, Madame, vous avez fait la
+curieuse?" he said, and proceeded to tell us that he was now "devenu la
+mode," though formerly no one came to look at him. Finally some supper was
+brought and put on the tables where we had been sitting.
+
+[Sidenote: THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK]
+
+The following day we were invited to breakfast (or rather 12.30 luncheon)
+with the Crown Prince and Princess--only their three unmarried daughters
+besides Lady Galloway, Lady Isabel, and myself. The Crown Prince was a
+most fascinating man and particularly impressed us by his devotion to his
+wife, having even consulted a lady dentist by her desire! The three
+Princesses each had in front of her place at table a large collection of
+little silver objects given them on their respective birthdays. The
+parents again reverted to my grandmother, and on hearing of her immense
+number of children and grandchildren the Prince remarked, "What a number
+of birthday presents that must mean!"--which amused me, as with all
+grandmamma's kindness to me personally, she was far from troubling about
+the identity of all her grandchildren--life would not have been long
+enough.
+
+The Princess talked much of the hospitals at Berlin, and of her trouble in
+introducing anything like decent nursing into them. She said when she
+first married a Children's Ward would be shut up at night without any
+nurse whatever in charge, and several children found dead in the morning.
+I believe she did great things for the hospitals, but fear that discretion
+was not always the better part of her valour, and that she more than once
+gave offence by comparison with the superior method in England. After
+luncheon the Princesses departed and the parents took us through their own
+rooms, which were very pretty and comfortable. When we reached her Studio
+the Crown Princess did not want to take us in, as she said she must go off
+to see Princess William (the late ex-Kaiserin), but the Prince said, "You
+go, I shall take them"--for he was determined that we should see, and duly
+admire, his wife's artistic talents. We saw the Crown Princess again in
+the evening at the theatre, as she sent for Lady Galloway and me into her
+box and put Mary through a searching catechism about Russia.
+
+Saturday 26th till the following Tuesday we spent at Dresden, which we
+greatly admired. We saw the Galleries and Museums, and attended a Wagner
+opera--_Siegfried_; but I need not record sights and sentiments shared
+with so many other travellers. I had some experience at Dresden of the
+dangers of "Verboten." I ventured out for a short time alone and felt the
+risk of being arrested at least twice--once for walking on the wrong side
+of the bridge, once for standing in the wrong place in the principal
+church. I committed a third crime, but forget its nature.
+
+Two evenings after our return to Berlin we were invited to another royal
+concert, and on this occasion I sat at Prince William's table quite
+unconscious that he would be hereafter England's greatest foe! What
+impressed me most about him was the way in which he asked questions.
+Someone told him that I held a position in the Primrose League, and he at
+once wanted to know all about it. The impression left on my mind was that
+he thought that it brought women too prominently forward.
+
+Next day we visited the various palaces at Potsdam--the Crown Princess had
+kindly sent word to her gardener Mr. Walker, to meet us, and he proved an
+amiable and efficient guide. At the Stadt Schloss Frederick the Great's
+bedroom, with a silver balustrade, was being prepared for the baptism of
+Prince William's fourth son. We had been warned at the Embassy that this
+expedition would be one of difficulty if not of danger, but we
+accomplished all successfully save our return from the Wild Park Station
+at Berlin. Of course this was before the days of motors, so our journey to
+and from Potsdam was by train, and somehow we missed the Embassy carriage
+at the station. Innocently we took a fly, but at the Embassy it was
+discovered that this was a _second-class_ fly, which was considered a most
+disreputable proceeding. We had not known the various categories of Berlin
+vehicles.
+
+[Sidenote: PRINCE BISMARCK]
+
+We had one real piece of good fortune, due to Herbert Bismarck, whom we
+had known in England and met several times at Berlin. His father had not
+been present at the opening of the Reichstag which we attended, so we had
+asked Herbert if he were likely to speak on any following day, for we were
+anxious to see him and he did not often appear at entertainments or
+such-like gatherings.
+
+Herbert promised to let us know, but he did better, for he coached his
+mother what to do should we call, and Lady Ermyntrude took us to see the
+Princess on Saturday afternoon. Princess Bismarck was most gracious, said
+Herbert had asked every day if we had called; he was devoted to England
+and to his collection of photographs of English ladies, which he expected
+her to distinguish one from the other.
+
+[Sidenote: CONVERSATION WITH BISMARCK]
+
+Her sister, Countess Arnim, was also in the room. When we had been talking
+with them for a few minutes the Princess rang, and beckoned to the servant
+who answered to come close that she might whisper. Lady Galloway overheard
+her say in German, "Tell the Prince that the English ladies are here."
+After a short interval an inner door opened slowly, and the tall form of
+the Chancellor appeared. We all jumped up as the Princess announced "Mon
+Mari." He shook hands with Lady Ermyntrude, who introduced us each in
+turn. Hearing that Lady Galloway was "la soeur de Lord Salisbury," he was
+anxious to investigate whether she resembled him in face, but decided not
+very much, as "Lord Salisbury avait les traits très masculins and le
+visage plus carré," which he emphasised rather in action than in words.
+Mary had to sit on one side of him facing the light in order that he might
+the better make these comparisons. I was at the end of a sofa on his other
+hand. Lady Galloway then remarked that he had been very kind to her nephew
+Lord Edward Cecil, who had been in Berlin in the spring of the previous
+year. Curiously enough, though he had had him to dinner, he did not seem
+to remember him, though he perfectly recollected Lord Cranborne, who had
+been with his father at the time of the Congress. Being informed that Lord
+Edward had been abroad in order to study German, he asked, "Eh bien,
+a-t-il eu de succès?" and remarked that German was a difficult language
+but less so for the English than for some other people, and that while the
+English often spoke French more fluently they grasped the German
+construction better as being more akin to their own. Mary agreed, saying
+we were of the same race, whereupon he politely thanked her for having
+recalled and acknowledged the fact. I then remarked that it had been
+suggested that he wished to change "les caractères allemands," meaning the
+letters. He misunderstood me to mean the characters of the people, and
+said that he should hardly be capable of that, but added: "On m'accuse
+d'avoir changé une nation de poêtes en nation de politiques militaires,
+mais c'est parce que nous avons été si longtemps l'enclume qu'il fallait
+le faire. Il faut toujours être l'enclume ou le marteau, maintenant nous
+sommes le marteau. Nous étions l'enclume jusqu'à Leipzig et Waterloo." I
+suggested that at Waterloo "nous étions deux marteaux," and he answered,
+bowing, "J'espère que nous les serons encore ensemble." Little did he or I
+look on twenty-seven years! Bismarck then asked for the English of
+"enclume"--"car je ne suis pas forgeron," and when we told him he said
+that he only knew "l'anglais pour voyager, le russe pour la chasse et le
+français pour les affaires," and went on to speak of his son, who, as we
+all agreed, knew English so well. Like the Princess, he said that Count
+Herbert was much attached to our country, and added that if he continued
+to do well and "si je peux guider sa destinée j'ai l'intention qu'il aille
+quelque jour en Angleterre": meantime he thought that Count Hatzfeldt was
+getting on all right. Lady Galloway said that he was very popular.
+Bismarck considered that he did better as Ambassador than in affairs at
+home, as though he could work well he lacked the power of sticking to his
+work. I then referred to Mr. Deichmann, a country neighbour of ours who
+had built a house near Bicester and married a Miss de Bunsen, widow of
+another German, who had been his friend. Mr. (afterwards Baron) Deichmann
+and his wife were undoubtedly friends (or henchmen?) of the Bismarcks, and
+Mr. Deichmann was very proud of a tankard which the Prince had given him.
+"He gave me a very good horse," returned the Prince, when I mentioned
+this, and described him as "bon enfant." In the light of after experience
+I feel sure that the Deichmanns were employed to report to the Prince on
+social matters in England and particularly in diplomatic circles. I do not
+at all mean that they were anti-English, but that they were "utilised."
+They were very intimate friends of the Münsters, and somehow kept in with
+the Crown Princess and her family, although the Princess certainly did not
+love Bismarck! I well recollect a dinner which (in years later than that
+of our interview with the great man) the Deichmanns gave at their house
+in London to reconcile the French and German Embassies. What had been the
+exact cause of friction I do not know, but the _ostensible_ one was that
+the then Ambassadress, Madame Waddington, had not worn mourning when some
+German princelet died. Anyhow, Madame Deichmann had Madame Waddington to
+dinner, and Marie Münster to a party afterwards, and they were made to
+shake hands and be friends. It was clever of Madame Deichmann, and she
+well deserved the title of Baroness afterwards conferred upon her.
+However, I am not altogether sure that Bismarck appreciated the reference
+to his friends on this occasion--he may not have wished to be thought too
+intimate! He did not resent it though, and when we rose to take leave gave
+Lady Galloway many messages for Lord Salisbury, hoping to see him again in
+Germany or when he, Bismarck, came to England, which he seemed to regard
+as quite on the cards. He also asked Lady Ermyntrude affectionately after
+Sir Edward, whom he thought looking rather unwell when he last saw him,
+though quite himself again when he became excited.
+
+[Sidenote: BISMARCK AND LORD SALISBURY]
+
+Just as we were going away the Prince asked if we would like to see the
+room where the Congress had been held. Of course we were delighted, so
+that he took us in and showed us where they all sat, Lord Beaconsfield on
+his right hand, and Lord Salisbury, as he particularly pointed out to Lady
+Galloway, just round the corner. Then Gortschakoff, who, he said, did not
+take much part, next Schouvaloff, on whom the work fell, but he added in
+English, "Lord Salisbury _squeezed_ him." And there, he said, pointing to
+the other side of the table, "sat the victim of the Congress, the Turk."
+So little impression had the victim made upon him that he could not even
+remember his name--he thought, however, that it was Mehemet--Mehemet
+something--at last Princess Bismarck helped him out--Mehemet Ali. I
+believe the head Turk was Karatheodori Pasha, but presume that he was a
+nonentity; at all events neither Prince nor Princess Bismarck referred to
+him. Bismarck rather apologised for the bareness of the room, a fine,
+large, long apartment, and wished that he were equal to giving balls in
+it--this, with Emperor William's desire to go to balls, gave a cheerful
+impression of these old men.
+
+Little did we then realise what our feelings with regard to Germany would
+be twenty-seven years later! Though I feel ashamed now of the impression
+made upon me by Prince Bismarck, I cannot help recording that I was
+foolish enough to write some verses comparing him to Thor, the
+Scandinavian war-god, with his hammer and anvil, and to add them to my
+account of our interview.
+
+After our return to England Lord Salisbury told Lady Galloway that he
+should like to see this account, and when I met him again he said to me
+with great amusement, "So you have seen Thor?"
+
+Prince Bismarck had an undoubted admiration for Lord Salisbury. Not long
+after Sir Edward Malet's appointment to Berlin poor Lady Ermyntrude had a
+child who did not survive its birth. She was very ill. Some little time
+afterwards her father, the Duke of Bedford, told me that she had been very
+anxious to come over to England to be with her parents for her
+confinement. This was arranged, and then Sir Edward, anxious about her
+health, wanted to join her. He did not know whether he could rightfully
+leave his diplomatic duties, but Bismarck reassured him, telling him that
+so long as Lord Salisbury was in power he need have no apprehension as to
+the relations between England and the German Empire.
+
+I confess also to having been fascinated by the Crown Prince--afterwards
+the Emperor Frederick; but he was not in the least like a Prussian--he was
+like a very gentle knight. Poor man! He had already begun to suffer from
+the fatal malady to his throat. The last time I spoke with him he came
+into the box in which we were sitting at the theatre and said, "I cannot
+talk to you much, my throat is so bad."
+
+The next event which made a great impression on me in common with every
+other subject of the British Empire was the first Jubilee of Queen
+Victoria. Its excitements, its glories, have been told over and over
+again, but no one who did not live through it can grasp the thrill which
+ran from end to end of the nation, and no one who did live through it can
+pass it on to others. The Queen became a tradition while yet alive. When
+ten thousand children from the elementary schools were entertained in Hyde
+Park the proceedings concluded by the release of a balloon bearing the
+word "Victoria." As it ascended one child was heard gravely explaining to
+another that "that was the Queen going up to Heaven." A man (or woman)
+wrote to the paper that in the evening he had observed that the sunset
+colours had formed themselves into a distinct arrangement of red, white,
+and blue! I chanced the week before the Jubilee celebrations to express to
+a girl in a shop a hope for fine weather. In a tone of rebuke she replied,
+"Of course it will be fine: it is for the Queen!"--a sentiment more
+poetically expressed by the French Ambassador Baron de Courcel, who said
+to me on one rather doubtful day in the week preceding the Diamond
+Jubilee, "Le bon Dieu nettoie les cieux pour la Reine!" This confidence
+was fully justified: the weather was glorious. When traffic was stopped in
+the main thoroughfares, and all streets and houses had their usual
+dinginess hidden in glowing decorations, London looked like a fairy
+city--a fitting regal background for an imperial apotheosis--only
+perchance excelled by the Diamond Jubilee ten years later. "Mother's come
+home," I heard a stalwart policeman say on the day when the Queen arrived
+in Buckingham Palace. That was just it--Mother had come back to her joyous
+children.
+
+[Sidenote: THANKSGIVING SERVICE]
+
+The Dowager Lady Ampthill, one of her ladies-in-waiting, recounted an
+incident which I do not think appeared in any of the papers. When the
+royal train was coming down from Scotland Lady Ampthill awoke in the early
+summer dawn, and looked out of the carriage in which she had been
+sleeping. The world was not yet awake, but as the train rushed through the
+country amongst fields and meadows she was astonished to see numbers of
+men and women standing apparently silently gazing--simply waiting to see
+the passing of the Great Queen to her Jubilee. Perhaps the climax was the
+Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey.
+
+I cannot refrain from inserting here my mother's lines describing the
+final scene on that occasion:
+
+  "It was an hour of triumph, for a nation
+    Had gathered round the Monarch of their pride;
+  All that a people held of great or lovely,
+    The wise, the world-renowned, stood side by side.
+
+  "Lands famed in story sent their Kings and chieftains,
+    Isles scarcely recked of came our Queen to greet,
+  Princesses lent the tribute of their beauty,
+    And laid the flowers of welcome at her feet.
+
+  "The organs pealed, the trumpets gave their challenge,
+    A stormy shout of gladness rent the air,
+  All eyes beamed welcome, and all hearts bowed with her
+    When low she bent her royal head in prayer.
+
+  "She bent amid a haughty nation, knowing
+    No sun e'er set upon its widespread towers,
+  Though right and good had deemed that day the lion
+    To sheath its claws and robe itself in flowers.
+
+  "When Cĉsar kept high holiday, when Rome
+    Called forth her maidens to fill hours of ease,
+  Pale warriors darkly met in bloody ring
+    Or some Numidian giant died to please.
+
+  "But in that hour supreme when all eyes turned
+    Upon the Queen's kind face and gestures mild,
+  Bright tears unbidden rose, stern bosoms heaved,
+    They saw her stoop--she stooped to kiss her child.
+
+  "Children and children's children passed before her,
+    Each one 'fair History's mark' with stately grace;
+  Mother of many nations, Queen and Empress,
+    She drew them each within her fond embrace.
+
+  "Symbolic kiss--it spoke of early birthdays,
+    When little hearts had swelled with little joys,
+  It told of kisses given and counsels tender
+    To graceful maidens and to princely boys;
+
+  "Of fond caresses given in days of gladness
+    When Hope was young and blue the skies above,
+  Of kisses interchanged in hours of sorrow
+    When all seemed shattered save the bonds of love.
+
+  "And of that hour of dutiful surrender
+    Of hearts to Him who gives to Kings to be,
+  The memory of those kisses grave and tender
+    Shall knit our hearts, Victoria, still to thee.
+
+  "Sceptres outlasting long the hands that held them,
+    Thrones that have seated dynasties may fall:
+  Love never dies, his chain is linked to heaven,
+    The Lord, the friend, the comforter of all.
+
+  "Yes! of those hours so joyous and so glorious
+    When the tall fires prolonged the festal day,
+  The memory of those kisses gently given
+    Shall be the dearest we shall bear away."
+
+On July 2nd I recollect Lord and Lady Lathom coming to spend a Sunday with
+us at Osterley. He was then Lord Chamberlain--and the poor man seemed
+utterly exhausted by the strain of the Jubilee festivities though very
+happy at their success. He spoke among other things of the quaint
+applications which he had received for permission to attend the service at
+the Abbey. Amongst others he had one from a lady who said that if she did
+not obtain a seat a large class would be unrepresented--namely, the class
+of Old Maids. I think she had one. Even people like my father not
+connected with the Court were pestered to "use influence"--one lady wrote
+to him to try and get seats for herself and her father, and wanted them
+near the preacher as "papa was very deaf."
+
+[Sidenote: TRIALS OF COURT OFFICIALS]
+
+Lord Mount Edgcumbe--then Lord Steward--once told me of a trying
+experience which he had in connection with the Jubilee. There was a great
+banquet at Windsor and he had to order the seating of the guests, who
+included various foreign royalties. As is well known in dealing with
+foreigners the order in which they sit is far more important than the
+precedence in which they walk into the banqueting hall--if you put two
+princes or dignitaries one on the right, the other on the left of the
+table, and both are about equally important, you must take care to put the
+left-hand man one higher up at the table than the guest on the right.
+Well, Lord Mount Edgcumbe had ordered this feast of some thirty or forty
+notabilities or more to complete satisfaction, and had gone to his room
+to attire himself in all the glory of a High Steward. Just as he was
+getting into his breeches a message was brought him that two more German
+princelets had arrived who had to be included in the party. Poor man! he
+had to hasten to complete his toilet and to rush down and rearrange the
+whole table.
+
+Talking of German etiquette (I don't know how far it survives the fall of
+the Hohenzollerns), we had a most eccentric Teutonic specimen at Osterley
+that Jubilee summer. Our kind hostess at Berlin--Lady Ermyntrude
+Malet--introduced to us, by letter, a certain Count Seierstorpff--so we
+asked him to spend Whitsuntide. We had various other guests, including the
+Kintores and Lord and Lady Maud Wolmer (now Lord and Lady Selborne) and
+Lady Maud's sister, Lady Gwendolen Cecil. Count Seierstorpff's one form of
+conversation was to catechise everybody as to the rank of the company--how
+far they were "ebenbürtig." This culminated in his asking me what Lady
+Maud would be if Lord Wolmer were to die! I told Lord Wolmer this, and he
+said, "Couldn't you tell him that of two sisters in the house, both
+equally eligible, one is unmarried!"
+
+When on Whit-Monday we drove to see Ham House he kept jumping up on the
+seat of the landau in which he went with some of the party to inspect the
+surrounding country--spying, I suppose--and when we were sitting outside
+the house after dinner he suddenly disappeared and was found to have
+rushed wildly right round a portion of the grounds. Many years
+afterwards--1913, I believe--Jersey and I met him again at Cannes. He had
+grown into a fat, truculent Prussian, and had married a pleasant American
+wife. Poor people! After the War I asked what became of them. He and his
+two sons were killed in the War--she had lost money and relations by the
+sinking of the _Lusitania_--had gone mad and was in an asylum. I only
+wonder that _he_ had not gone mad, but suppose there was method in his
+Osterley madness.
+
+[Sidenote: THE NAVAL REVIEW]
+
+The last festivity in which I took part that summer was the Jubilee Naval
+Review at Spithead. Jersey went by invitation of the P. and O. Company on
+a ship of their fleet--the _Rome_ if I recollect rightly--but Lady
+Galloway and I with her stepfather Lord Derby were invited from Friday,
+July 22nd, for the Review on Saturday and to spend Sunday on board the
+_Mirror_, one of Sir John Pender's electric-cable ships. I never shared in
+a more amusing party. There was great confusion with the luggage at
+Waterloo. I think most people lost something. Lady Galloway and I each had
+two small boxes and each lost one, but it did not matter, as we were able
+to supplement each other's remaining articles. Sir William Russell the
+journalist lost all his luggage, but it was said that he invariably did
+so, and he did not seem to mind at all. Lord Wolseley, Lord Alcester, Lord
+Lymington (afterwards Portsmouth), and Sir William Des Voeux, who had been
+Governor of Fiji, Lady Tweeddale, and Countess Marie Münster were among
+the guests, and our kind host did everything to make us happy. The
+_Mirror_, like the other unofficial ships, remained stationary during the
+Review, but Lady Galloway and I persuaded the Chairman, Sir John Pender,
+and the Captain to let a boat take us to the House of Lords ship, the
+_Euphrates_, for which we had tickets, and which was to follow the Queen's
+Yacht, the _Victoria and Albert_, down the lines. It was a magnificent
+sight. I will not attempt to describe it, as it has been far better
+recorded than any words of mine could achieve. One thing, however, I may
+note. The then biggest and finest ships were like rather ugly floating
+forts, and all, or almost all, different from each other. The graceful old
+men-of-war with long lines and pointed bows were considered obsolete. Ten
+years later when there was a Review for the second Jubilee all was changed
+again. I do not mean that the naval architects had reverted to the old
+models, but the general effect was a return to the old lines, and the
+fortress ships, almost sunk under the sea, had disappeared. Also they were
+later on built in classes, so that their fittings were interchangeable and
+the engineers from one ship could be easily transferred to another.
+
+To return to our personal experiences. The rest of the party had remained
+on the _Mirror_, and I rather fancy some of them got a little bored, as
+their time was less exciting than ours. Anyhow, one or two of the men
+became exceedingly anxious for our return as the dinner-hour approached,
+as of course the boat could not fetch us off from the _Euphrates_ till all
+the proceedings were over and the coast clear. We were told when we did
+get back, which I do not think was unduly late, that Lord Alcester had
+expressed a somewhat uncomplimentary opinion of women, emphasised with a
+capital D! However, everyone enjoyed the illumination of the ships, and
+particularly the searchlights--then somewhat of a novelty and in which the
+_Mirror_ specially distinguished herself. On Sunday morning our Chairman,
+Sir John Pender, was very properly anxious that his guests should enjoy
+"religious privileges"; and as everyone was content that he should have
+service on board instead of putting us on shore, it was arranged
+accordingly. There was a distinct rivalry as to who should officiate. We
+had not a Bishop nor even one of the lesser lights of the Church among our
+otherwise representative company--the Captain evidently considered that
+under these circumstances he was the proper person to read prayers, and he
+produced prayer-books--I suppose that they were provided by the Electric
+Company--and Sir John distinctly held that as Chairman it was for him,
+although a Nonconformist, to conduct the Anglican devotions--so he began.
+The Captain determined anyhow to act as prompter. They got on all
+right--till Sir John, a little man, stood up to read the First Lesson.
+This unfortunately began, "And Satan stood up"--still more unfortunately
+it appeared that it was the wrong lesson, and the Captain ruthlessly
+pulled him down. Nevertheless we somehow reached a happy conclusion.
+
+In the afternoon some of us, including Lord Derby, were offered a choice
+of cruising about among the ships or going over to see Lord and Lady De La
+Warr at a little house they had somewhere on the coast called Inchmery. We
+chose the latter, and were sent in a tug called the _Undaunted_. I tried
+to immortalise the expedition in a so-called poem of which I only quote a
+few verses--needless to say Lord Derby was the hero:
+
+  "There was an Earl--a noble Earl
+    Who would a sailor be,
+  And therefore asked two kindly dames
+    To take him out to sea....
+
+      *       *       *       *
+
+  "We've often heard of Inchmery,
+    Its charms and crabs are vaunted;
+  Bring round the tug and cast her off,
+    That splendid tug _Undaunted_!
+
+  "The splendid tug sailed fast and far,
+    She bore as fair a band
+  As ever dared the heaving deep
+    And sighed to gain the land.
+
+  "She bore our Only General,
+    Whose prowess must be granted,
+  For he can always go to sleep
+    And always wake when wanted.
+
+  "A great Colonial Governor
+    Who would have ruled the main,
+  Only emotions swelled his breast
+    Which he could not restrain."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As to the above, Lord Wolseley explained to us that he shared a
+characteristic with Napoleon and I rather think Wellington--namely, that
+he could always go to sleep in a minute when he so desired, and wake with
+equal celerity. He exemplified this by retiring into the little cabin of
+the launch when the waves became somewhat restive, and fell fast asleep
+immediately, seated on a bench. The poor Colonial Governor, Sir William
+Des Voeux, was less happy--he had to lie prostrate at the bottom of the
+launch during the short transit until we landed.
+
+The De La Warrs gave us an excellent tea, and we then strolled among the
+rocks on the shore, where it was supposed that the great Lord Derby wanted
+to find crabs:
+
+  "The time speeds on--and now at length,
+    By new-born terrors haunted,
+  Soldier and sage demand the tug--
+    'Where is the good _Undaunted_'?
+
+  "What object meets their straining eyes,
+    From aid and rescue far?
+  Dauntless perhaps, but useless quite,
+    She's stranded on the bar.
+
+  "The Captain smiles, 'It wasn't I,'
+    The General's out of reach,
+  The noble Earl sits down to play
+    Aunt Sally on the beach."
+
+It was a fine sight to see Lord Derby (uncle of the present Lord Derby),
+regarded by most people as an exceptionally solemn statesman, sitting
+tranquilly on the shore throwing stones--a sort of ducks and drakes--into
+the sea--quite unmoved by the tug's disaster.
+
+However, Lord De La Warr came to the rescue with a launch which took us
+safely back to the _Mirror_--minus Sir William, who had found the tug
+quite bad enough and declined to trust himself to the launch. He remained
+for the night at Inchmery, and I presume, like the rest of us, found his
+way back to London next day.
+
+[Sidenote: KNOWSLEY]
+
+The Lord Derby of this expedition was a great friend of mine. His wife,
+formerly Lady Salisbury, was Lady Galloway's mother, and I originally met
+her staying at Galloway House--after which she invited us several times to
+Knowsley. I think my first visit there was in 1879 when we met the
+Leckys--afterwards great friends--and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lowe (afterwards
+Lord Sherbrooke). He was an albino and chiefly remembered for his abortive
+attempt to tax matches, giving rise to the joke "ex luce lucellum." She
+was, I believe, a very good-natured woman, but it was funny to see the
+result of her excessive flow of conversation. She would begin with a
+circle round her, and person after person would gradually steal away,
+leaving her at length with only one victim whom amiability or good manners
+forbade to depart.
+
+I well recollect that Lady Derby won my heart on this occasion by coming
+to the front door to meet us on arrival, under the evident impression
+that as a young woman I might be shy coming to a very large house among
+those, including my host, who were mostly strangers. I dare say that I
+might have survived the shock, but I was much struck with the courtesy and
+thoughtfulness of a woman old enough to be my mother, and it was one of
+the first lessons, of which I have had many in life, of the great effect
+of the manner in which people originally receive their guests.
+
+Lady Derby was a remarkable woman in many ways. Her heart was first in her
+husband and children and then in politics. She could never take a
+lightsome view of life and let it carry her along. She always wished to
+manage and direct it. Her motives were invariably excellent, but
+occasionally things might have gone better had she taken less trouble
+about them. She did great things for her children, who adored her, but
+even with them it might sometimes have been well had their lives been left
+a little more to their own discretion. She was kindness itself to me, and
+I used greatly to enjoy going to Derby House, then in St. James's Square,
+where she was always at home to her particular friends at tea-time and
+where one always had the chance of meeting interesting people.
+
+[Sidenote: APOTHEOSIS OF THE QUEEN]
+
+To conclude my recollections of the Jubilee. I think that it was in the
+autumn of 1887, and not after the Diamond Jubilee, that we were staying
+with Lord and Lady Muncaster at their beautiful home in Cumberland. We
+went to the local church and an Archdeacon was preaching for some Society
+which involved a plea for missionary effort. He spoke to this effect (of
+course these are not the exact words): "There are black men, brown men,
+red men, and yellow men in the British Empire. We must not despise any of
+them, for we are all children of one Great----" I naturally expected
+"Father," but he added "Mother"! So far had Queen Victoria advanced in the
+tutelary rank! I was told after her death that the Tibetans had adopted
+her as a protecting deity--and that they attributed the invasion of their
+country to the fact that she had died, as we had never disturbed them in
+her lifetime. I record later on how natives in Madras did "poojah" to her
+statue, offering coconuts and such like tribute--but the Indians also did
+"poojah" to a steam-engine when they first saw it, so perhaps this was not
+an extraordinary token of reverence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE
+
+
+To go a little back in recollections of the eighties one of our friends
+was Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor in 1868 and again from 1874 till, I
+believe, his death. Once when I was sitting near him at dinner, we were
+discussing ghost stories. He said that without giving them general
+credence he was impressed by one which had been told him by the wife of
+the Prussian Minister, Madame Bernstorff. (I think, though am not sure,
+that Bernstorff was Minister before there was a German Embassy.) The story
+was, briefly, that a man in Berlin had a dream, thrice repeated, in which
+a comrade appeared to him and said that he had been murdered, and that his
+dead body was being carried out of the city, covered with straw, by a
+certain gate. The man roused himself, told the police, the body was duly
+found and the murderers arrested. "Well," said I, "I think I have read
+that story in Dryden, and believe he took it from Chaucer." Sure enough I
+found the tale in "The Cock and the Fox," Dryden's modernised version of
+Chaucer's "Tale of the Nun's Priest"--but the amusing thing is that Dryden
+says,
+
+  "An ancient author, equal with the best,
+  Relates this tale of dreams among the rest"--
+
+and a note explains that the "ancient author" was Cicero, from whose
+treatise, _De Divinatione_, the story was taken. I sent the book to Lord
+Cairns, who answered (June 25th, 1883): "It is Madame Bernstorff's story
+to the letter! It was most kind of you to send it to me, and it is a fresh
+proof that there is nothing new under the sun! The 'catena' of
+Cicero--Chaucer--Dryden--Bernstorff is very amusing."
+
+[Sidenote: LORD HALSBURY'S GHOST STORY]
+
+Being a Lord Chancellor does not render a man immune from belief in
+ghosts. I have more than once heard the late Lord Halsbury relate his
+adventure in this line. As a young man he went to stay with a friend, who
+put him up for the night. After he had gone to bed, a figure entered his
+room, and taking it to be his host he spoke to it, but it made no reply
+and left as silently as it entered. At breakfast next morning he said to
+the master of the house--I suppose jokingly--"If you did come in my room
+last night I think you might have answered when I spoke to you." Both his
+hosts looked embarrassed, and then his friend said, "Well, to tell you the
+truth, that room is considered to be haunted; but it is our best room, and
+my wife thought that a hard-headed lawyer would not be liable to be
+disturbed, so we put you there." Mr. Giffard, as, Lord Halsbury then was,
+left without further incident, but some time after, meeting his friend
+again, he said, "Well, how's your ghost getting on?" "Oh, my dear fellow,"
+was the reply, "don't talk of my ghost. My aunt came to stay with me and
+we put her into that room. The ghost came in and tried to get into her
+bed, and she will never speak to me again!"
+
+Lord Halsbury also had a story about a ghost who haunted his brother's
+house in London. I think it was a little old woman, I cannot remember the
+details, but he certainly seemed to believe in it.
+
+Talking of dreams and apparitions, though I cannot remember the
+year--probably in the early nineties--I recollect a rather amusing
+instance of the explosion of one of such stories when thoroughly sifted.
+Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Knowles told me one day that the great object
+of Myers and Gurney and the founders of the Psychical Society was to
+obtain evidence of a genuine apparition seen by _two_ witnesses who would
+both bear such testimony as would stand cross-examination by a barrister.
+This was most sensible, as one person may honestly believe in an
+appearance, which may be an hallucination caused by circumstances, and
+affected by his own mental or bodily condition, but it is hardly possible
+that such conditions will enable two people to see the same spirit at the
+same moment unless it should actually appear. Mr. Knowles said that at
+last the Psychical Society had found a well-authenticated story in which
+two thoroughly credible witnesses had seen the ghost, and this was to come
+out in the forthcoming number of _The Nineteenth Century_.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GHOSTLY REPORTER]
+
+The witnesses were an English judge and his wife; to the best of my
+recollection they were Sir Edmund and Lady Hornby, and the scene of the
+apparition Shanghai. Anyhow, I perfectly recollect the story, which was as
+follows. The judge had been trying a case during the day, and he and his
+wife had retired to bed when a man (European, not native) entered their
+bedroom. They were much annoyed by this intrusion and asked what he
+wanted. He replied that he was a reporter who had been in court, but had
+been obliged to leave before the conclusion of the trial, and was
+extremely anxious that the judge should tell him what the verdict was that
+he might complete the report for his paper. The judge, to get rid of him,
+gave some answer that satisfied him, and the man departed. Next day the
+judge learnt that a reporter had been present who was taken ill and died
+before the conclusion of the trial, and he was convinced that this was his
+ghostly visitor. The weak point, said Mr. Knowles, was that the narrators
+would not allow themselves to be cross-examined by a barrister. They were
+very old, and nervous about the publication of the story in print, and the
+thought of cross-examination was quite too much for them. However, Mr.
+Knowles and the other investigators were fully satisfied as to their bona
+fides, and the tale duly appeared in an article in the Review. No sooner
+was it published than various people wrote pointing out that it was all a
+misapprehension. There had been no reporter who had suddenly died on the
+occasion specified, and various other details were disproved by officials
+and others who had been at the place at the time when the judge was by way
+of having presided over the trial and seen the ghost. (Sir Edmund was a
+judge of the Supreme Court of China and Japan.) Mr. Knowles came again and
+said, "There you see!" The story when subjected to the light of publicity
+fell to the ground. No doubt something had put the germ into the old
+people's heads and it had blossomed in the course of years.
+
+To return for a minute to the year 1887. In that year my husband was
+appointed Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire--an appointment which he held
+until his death. This is referred to in the following verses by Mr. Lionel
+Ashley, younger son of the great Lord Shaftesbury and a friend of my
+husband's and mine of long standing. Lady Galloway and I used to call him
+"the Bard," as he was fond of making verses about us. I insert these
+because they give such a happy idea of one of Osterley Saturday-to-Monday
+parties. They are dated June 19th, 1887, which I see by our Visitors' List
+was the Sunday.
+
+  "In a cot may be found, I have heard the remark,
+    More delight than in Castles with pillars.
+  But we find in the Palace of Osterley Park,
+    All the charms of suburban Villiers.
+
+  "A Sunday in Osterley Gardens and Halls,
+    That's a day to look on to and after.
+  Its pleasures my memory fondly recalls,
+    And the talk, with its wisdom and laughter.
+
+  "In a nice little church a grave sermon we heard,
+    Which reproved Christianity flabby,
+  And urged that in heaven a place be preferred
+    To a Jubilee seat in the Abbey.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "The Irish question, in masterly way,
+    Mr. Lowell made easy and clear.
+  We must make them content, without further delay,
+    But the method was not his affair.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Of the Queen's new Lieutenant, with pleasure we hail
+    The appointment, for now 'tis a mercy,
+  From cold shoulders in Oxfordshire never will fail
+    To protect her a glorious Jersey.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Then may everyone of th' illustrious Brood
+    Learn to make the same excellent stand his own,
+  That not only the names, but the qualities good
+    May descend to each 'Child' and each 'Grandison.'"
+
+The last line was rather prophetic, as there was no "Grandison" apart from
+the family's Irish title at the time of writing. My husband, as already
+mentioned, bore the name for the three weeks between his grandfather's and
+father's death, but our elder son was always Villiers. Now _his_ son is
+Grandison and I think bids fair to inherit the "qualities good" of his
+grandfather--he could not do better.
+
+[Sidenote: A JUBILEE SERMON]
+
+The "nice little church" was that at Norwood Green, and the sermon,
+preached by a rather eccentric Irish clergyman, informed us that he had
+been studying history and found that in the days of George III's Jubilee
+"there was an old king and a ma-ad king. How would you have liked that?"
+And he continued to tell us of the death at that period of Sir John Moore
+commemorated by an Irish clergyman who "two years later was translated to
+the Kingdom of Heaven, for which his Irish curacy had so well prepared
+him."
+
+In addition to those above named by Mr. Ashley, we had staying with us
+Lord Rowton, Lord and Lady Galloway, Lady Lytton and her daughter Betty,
+Col. Charles Edgcumbe, my sister Cordelia, and my brother-in-law Reginald
+Villiers, to whom my husband was greatly attached. It is very pleasant to
+recall those happy days, but sad to think how few that shared them are
+left!
+
+I turn from our Osterley parties for the time being to record a most
+amusing journey which Lady Galloway and I made to Greece in 1888. Lord
+Jersey could not make up his mind to start with us, though we had hopes
+(which proved vain) that he might join us later. Our families were
+somewhat excited on learning our intention, as the recollection of the
+Marathon brigands who captured poor Mr. Vyner and the Muncasters still
+coloured the popular ideas of Greece.
+
+Our husbands, however, were--fortunately--confident in our own powers of
+taking care of ourselves. Lord Jersey calmly remarked, "If you are
+captured Galloway and I will come with an army to rescue you." Mr. Ashley,
+less trustful of the future, insisted on presenting each of us with a
+small revolver and box of cartridges. I forget what Mary did with hers,
+but my one object was to conceal the weapon from possible brigands. I
+regarded them rather like wasps, who are supposed not to sting if you let
+them alone, but I was certain that if I tried to shoot I should miss, and
+then they might be annoyed and I should suffer. I had to take the
+revolver, but I hid the cartridges in my luggage and put the weapon where
+it would not be seen.
+
+We were not absolutely certain till we reached Marseilles whether we
+should go to Greece after all, or to Algeria or elsewhere, but finding
+that we could get berths on a Messageries boat we ultimately carried out
+our original intention though we did not really mean to stay long in
+Athens or its neighbourhood, and imagined Marathon (the scene of the Vyner
+tragedy) to be quite "out of bounds."
+
+However, when on March 31st we reached the Pirĉus early in the morning we
+soon found that we were in the happiest possible abode. Our constant
+friend and protector Sir Thomas (now Lord) Sanderson had written from the
+Foreign Office to Mr. William Haggard, the British Chargé d'Affaires, to
+look after us in the absence of the Minister, and it is impossible to
+speak too highly of his kindness. The Greek Ministers were deeply
+impressed by the fact that Lady Galloway was (half) sister to the English
+Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and laid themselves out to make everything
+pleasant and delightful. Greece was still almost unknown to Cook's
+tourists. I think there was a Cook's Office, but I do not recall seeing
+any of his clients about the place--anyhow, not outside Athens itself. Mr.
+Haggard met us with a boat belonging to the Harbour Master's Office, and
+as soon as we had settled ourselves in the Hôtel d'Angleterre at Athens (a
+very good hotel) he began to make all sorts of arrangements for us--so
+that instead of three days we stayed some three weeks in Athens and about
+a month altogether in Greece.
+
+[Sidenote: MARATHON]
+
+We told Mr. Haggard that our friends were very much afraid of our finding
+brigands at Marathon, or rather at their finding us. He assured us that
+after the tragedy--seventeen years previously--all the brigands had been
+killed and it was perfectly safe; anyhow, he took us to Marathon next day,
+and we were delighted with the scenery through which we passed and with
+the silent, desolate field where the battle had been waged, with wild
+flowers growing on the hillock pointed out as the soldiers' grave. Whether
+it still keeps its impressive solitude I know not. It is useless to
+attempt description of Greece, so well known to all either from personal
+experience or from hundreds of accounts both in prose and poetry, but I
+may just say that as my mother (who saw it as a girl) told me, the colours
+of the mountains were like those of a dove's neck, and the clearness of
+the atmosphere such that one felt as if one could see through the hills.
+
+An evening or two later we dined with Mr. Haggard and his wife, and we
+were soon introduced to the various notabilities, who from the King and
+Queen downwards were most kind and hospitable. To begin with their
+Majesties, who entertained us at breakfast at the Royal Kiosk at the
+Pirĉus, and on more than one subsequent occasion at dinner, and whom we
+met on various other occasions: King George had much of the charm of his
+sister Queen Alexandra and was a distinctly astute monarch. As far as one
+could judge, he really liked his quaint little kingdom, and I remember his
+asserting with energy that they were a good people. The Queen, a Russian,
+was a kindly, pious woman and apparently happy with her children, to whom
+she was devoted. She then had six, but there were only three at home at
+the time--Princess Alexandra, a pretty, merry girl just grown-up, and two
+younger children, Marie and Andrew. Andrew was a dear little boy about six
+or seven years old. When I asked Princess Marie about his birthday she
+gravely replied that he was too young to have a birthday!
+
+Greece struck me as a singularly "democratic" country in the sense that
+there was really no "aristocracy" between the Sovereign and the people.
+What in other countries is commonly called "Society" was in Athens mainly
+composed of the Ministers, the Corps Diplomatique, and one or two rich
+merchants--particularly one called Syngros, who spent large sums on public
+works. One of these was the Academy, a large building with, as far as we
+could ascertain, nothing as yet inside it.
+
+The Mykenĉ Museum, which contained many of Schliemann's antiquities,
+discovered at Argos and elsewhere, was specially interesting; but the
+Greek newspaper which followed our movements and formulated our opinions
+for us said that when we visited the Academy "both ladies were
+enthusiastic at the sight of the building. They confessed that they never
+expected to find in Athens such a beautiful building; they speak with
+enthusiasm of Athens in general"--but evidently the Academy (of which I do
+not think we saw the inside) was "It."
+
+M. Tricoupi was then Prime Minister, Minister of War, and practically
+Dictator. He was undoubtedly a man of great ability and judgment, and was
+devoted to England. We saw him constantly and also his sister Miss
+Tricoupi, a wonderful old lady.
+
+[Sidenote: MISS TRICOUPI]
+
+She gave up her life to promoting her brother's interests in all respects.
+She appeared to me like a link with the past, as she had been with her
+brother in England early in the century, and then had taken to Sarah, Lady
+Jersey, as a present from King Otho, a water-colour drawing of a room in
+his Palace which always hung in my bedroom at Middleton. She also knew my
+grandmother and my mother's elder sisters. Whenever Parliament was sitting
+she sat at home from one o'clock in the afternoon till any hour of the
+night to which the debates happened to continue. Any of her brother's
+supporters, no matter of what rank, could come into the large room at one
+end of which she was seated. It did not appear to be necessary that she
+should speak to them, much less offer them refreshments. I saw some men
+who appeared to be sailors or fishermen enter and seat themselves at the
+far end of the room without speaking or apparently attracting any
+particular notice.
+
+When we went to see her she gave us tea and delicious little rolled-up
+pieces of bread-and-butter--this we were assured was an especial favour.
+Naturally she could not have fed the whole of Athens daily! Poor woman--I
+saw her again on our subsequent visit to Athens, and after that used to
+correspond for nearly thirty years. She wrote most interesting letters,
+though after her brother's death she lived mainly in retirement. During
+the war, however, her feelings became somewhat embittered towards the
+Allies; she ultimately died seated on her sofa--she never would give in to
+incapacity, though she must have been very old.
+
+One of the most amusing members of the Ministry was Theotoki, Minister of
+Marine, who went with us on more than one excursion and was most kind in
+providing gunboats for any destination which had to be reached by sea. I
+rather think that he was of Venetian descent--he had a nice, lively wife,
+and I should say that he was not averse to a little innocent flirtation.
+The bachelor Tricoupi embodied all his ideals of woman in his capable and
+devoted sister, and had very advanced Woman Suffrage views, more uncommon
+then than a quarter of a century later. He was all in favour of the
+appointment of women not only as Members of Parliament, but also as
+Ministers of the Crown. One day he and Theotoki were taking us somewhere
+by sea when a discussion arose on this point. Either Lady Galloway or I
+wickedly suggested that women, admitted to the Cabinet, might exercise
+undue influence on the minds of the male members. Tricoupi in perfect
+innocence thereupon replied that it might be arranged that only _married_
+men should hold such office, apparently convinced that matrimony would
+make them woman-proof! I shall never forget Theotoki's expressive glance.
+
+[Sidenote: NAUPLIA]
+
+Dragoumi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was one of those who gave a
+dinner-party in our honour, on which occasion he and M. Tricoupi and one
+of the other Ministers concocted an excellent programme to enable us to
+visit Nauplia and Argos and Mykenĉ. I wrote an account of this to my
+mother which she kept, so I may as well transcribe it, as it gives an
+account of places which have probably been much altered and brought up to
+date in the present day under the auspices of "Cook's Tours." I told my
+mother:
+
+    "We went with Bakhméteff the Russian and Haggard the Englishman, who
+    each had a Greek servant, and we having a German courier made up a
+    tolerably mixed lot. You would have laughed to see the three Cabinet
+    Ministers sitting in solemn conclave at a party the night before to
+    settle all details of our expedition. Theotoki, the Minister of
+    Marine, had a ship ready to send to meet us anywhere we liked, and
+    Tricoupi ordered Dragoumis, the Foreign Minister, just to go down to
+    send off some further telegram, which Dragoumis--a white-haired
+    statesman--obediently trotted off to do. The Czar of all the Russias
+    is not a greater autocrat than Tricoupi. When we arrived at Nauplia we
+    found the M.P. for that district waiting for us at the station, and he
+    had received orders to have the hotel thoroughly cleaned and
+    prepared--no one had been allowed to inhabit it for four days before
+    our arrival. The landlord, as far as we could make out, was locked up
+    in a room, whence we heard coughs and groans, presumably because he
+    had found a clean dwelling such a ghastly thing, and we were waited on
+    by a very smart individual (who was a Parisian doctor of law!) and a
+    small Greek girl. When we woke up next morning we found by way of
+    variety that the ground was covered with snow and the coachman said he
+    could not possibly go to Epidaurus--however, Bakhméteff sent for the
+    Prefect of Police, who told him he must, so with four horses in front
+    and one trotting behind we went a perfectly lovely drive through
+    splendid mountain country looking even more beautiful from the snow on
+    the hills. Perhaps you don't know about Epidaurus--an ancient temple
+    of Ĉsculapius is there, and near it has lately been discovered the
+    most perfect theatre in Greece, which could seat twenty-five thousand
+    people. Hardly a stone is out of place--we went up to the top row, and
+    an unfortunate 'Ephor of Antiquities' who had also been ordered up
+    from Athens to do us the honours stood on the stage and talked to
+    us--one could hear every word. The Ephor and all the inhabitants of
+    Nauplia (who are stated by the papers to have received us 'with
+    affection') thought us quite mad, not only for going in the snow, but
+    for going in an open carriage, a circumstance also carefully recorded
+    in the papers. A Greek would have shut up the carriage and both
+    windows. Thursday we returned (i.e. to Athens) by Tiryns, Argos and
+    Mykenĉ and saw Dr. Schliemann's excavations. The Treasury of Atreus is
+    a marvellous thing--a great cone-shaped chamber in a hill with an
+    inner chamber on one side and an enormous portal with projecting walls
+    in front with a gigantic slab over it. Metal plates are said to have
+    been fastened on the walls at one time, but how on earth the
+    prehistoric people arranged these stones curving inwards so as to keep
+    in place and how they lifted some of them at all passes the wit of man
+    to conceive."
+
+I continue in this letter to explain how much of all this Dr. Schliemann
+and his wife did and did not find, and also to describe the "Lion Gate"
+and the "Agora"--but all that is well-known and doubtless has been further
+explored since our visit.
+
+Among other dissipations at Athens we attended two balls--one at M.
+Syngros', the other at the Austrian Legation. After the former a
+correspondent of one of the Greek papers wrote:
+
+    "It is a curious phenomenon the gaiety with which the Prime Minister
+    is possessed this year. I have no doubt that he belongs to that
+    fortunate circle which sees with affection the setting on each day of
+    the Carnival. It appears that the presence of the two distinguished
+    English ladies who are receiving the hospitality of our town for some
+    days now has revived in him dormant feelings and reminiscences. M.
+    Tricoupi passed the years of his youth in England, and it was with the
+    English ladies that he enjoyed the sweet pleasure of dancing. This
+    evening he dances also with Lady Jersey. He frequently accompanied the
+    two distinguished ladies to the Buffet, and with very juvenile agility
+    he hastens to find for them their _sorties de bal_ with which the
+    noble English ladies are to protect their delicate bodies from the
+    indiscretion of that cold night."
+
+M. Bakhméteff, who was one of our companions to Nauplia, was a typical
+Russian--very clever, knowing some eight or nine languages and all about
+Greece ancient and modern. We used to call him the "Courier," as he was
+invaluable on our various expeditions, and he seemed to enjoy his honorary
+post. Like many of his compatriots he had no real religious belief, but
+regarded religious observance as quite a good thing for women; he told me
+that a man looked rather ridiculous kneeling, but it was a becoming
+attitude for women--the folds of her dress fell so nicely! But he assured
+me that if I saw him on duty in Russia I should see him kissing the ikons
+with all reverence. Poor man! If still alive, I wonder what has happened
+to him. He lent me a capital Japanese costume for the ball at the Austrian
+Legation. Lady Galloway went as "Dresden china" or a "_bouquetière_."
+
+[Sidenote: THE LAURIUM MINES]
+
+We made a very interesting expedition to the Laurium mines, of which I
+subsequently ventured to give an account in _The National Review_, but
+again I think it unnecessary here to describe a well-known enterprise--the
+revival in modern days of lead mines worked in classical times. We stayed
+the night at the house of the manager, M. Cordella. He and his wife were
+most kindly hosts, and everyone contributed to our enjoyment. One little
+domestic detail amused us. As we entered the substantial and comfortable
+house one of us exclaimed to the other, "Oh, there is a bath!"--a luxury
+not always found in our wanderings--but a second glance showed us that we
+should have to wait till our return to the hotel next day, as the bath was
+fixed in the well of the staircase!
+
+As for our sentiments about the mines I cannot do better than quote the
+words of the _N ea Ephemeris_, one of the papers which knew so well what
+we thought on each occasion:
+
+    "The eminently English spirit of the most ingenious and noble ladies
+    saw in all those works something like the positiveness of the spirit
+    that prevails in their own country and were delighted at it in Greece
+    which they loved so much. They had no words to express their
+    satisfaction to the true man possessed with the spirit of our century
+    whom they found in the person of M. Cordella, the director of the
+    works, and to his worthy wife, who tendered to them so many nice
+    attentions."
+
+This, the _Hora_, and the _Acropolis_, seem to have been the chief
+Government papers, and occasionally one of them would hold up to contempt
+a wretched Delyannis organ which basely ignored the presence of the
+English Prime Minister's sister!
+
+I cannot record all our excursions to Eleusis, Ĉgina, and elsewhere, but I
+will add a few lines describing the general appearance of the people at
+that time, also written to my mother, as probably they have greatly
+changed in over thirty years:
+
+    "The Peloponnesian shepherds look remarkably picturesque, as they wear
+    large white coats with peaked hoods over their heads. Further north
+    the coats are more often blue--near Athens black and a different
+    shape--near Eleusis the people are Albanians and wear Albanian
+    costumes, which are very bright with many colours. Almost all the
+    natives outside the towns wear costumes which make the villages look
+    like places in plays, and every little inn is a regular picture--but
+    the country is very thinly populated and you go for miles without
+    seeing a soul. It is most beautiful."
+
+[Sidenote: HADJI PETROS]
+
+One rather interesting character was the Lord Chamberlain, an old
+gentleman called Hadji Petros, son of the original brigand who was one of
+the husbands of Lady Ellenborough, and is the thinly disguised "Hadji
+Stavros" of About's novel _Le Roi des Montagnes_. Hadji Petros was
+supposed to be quite illiterate, but he _could_ sign his name, as he did
+so on a case of chocolate which he gave me. Anyway, "by royal permission"
+he took us over the Palace and down into the kitchens, where he showed us
+the correct method of making Turkish coffee. His son, we were told, was a
+very smart young officer who led cotillons at the Athenian balls--two
+generations from the original brigand.
+
+We left Athens on February 22nd, and were taken by ship from a port near
+Patras at the end of the Gulf of Corinth to Pyrgos. We went in a
+Government boat (the _Salaminia_, I believe), and it was arranged that we
+should stay with the Demarch (Mayor) and drive thence to see Olympia.
+
+Fortunately for us M. Bakhméteff accompanied us, and the whole thing was
+very entertaining. The officers on the ship thought it too absurd that we
+should want to take off even hand luggage for the night, as they said we
+should find everything we wanted at the Demarch's. Sure enough we found
+three elaborate sitting-rooms adorned with photographs and chairs tied up
+with ribbons, a bedroom with two comfortable beds and plenty of
+pin-cushions, and a dressing-room provided with tooth-brushes, sponges,
+and dentifrice water, but as means of washing one small green glass jug
+and basin between us. However, we managed to borrow two large, red
+earthenware pans from the kitchen and got on nicely. The Demarch was more
+than kind and hospitable, but as he knew no language save his native Greek
+it was lucky that Bakhméteff was there to interpret. We landed too late
+for Olympia that evening, so we were taken down to a most romantic and
+desolate spot, where Alpheus runs into the sea in full view of the
+Acroceraunian mountains where "Arethusa arose from her couch of snows." In
+addition to one or two officials we were guarded by a delightful gendarme
+and were introduced to a bare-legged giant in an oil-skin coat whose duty
+was to look after the fish in a kind of stew or watercourse running out of
+a lake. Whether the poachers had been busy lately I know not, but the
+efforts of the custodian, the gendarme, and the rest of the party to give
+us a fishing entertainment were singularly abortive. Their object appeared
+to be to capture a mullet, and at length a dead one was landed by the
+joint throwing of a small net and poking with Lady Galloway's parasol.
+With dauntless courage they returned to the charge, and when another small
+fish was seen the gendarme drew his sword and vainly tried to stab it.
+Ultimately the professional fishermen did catch it and gave it to the
+gendarme, who skipped about with glee. He had seen me put some shells in
+my pocket, and apparently thought we should like to do the same with the
+fish, so proceeded to _wash_ it--and naturally let it escape. Next day the
+Demarch told M. Bakhméteff that he had ordered an open carriage for the
+ladies (knowing our lunatic tendencies) and that he would take him
+(Bakhméteff) in a shut one. Bakhméteff came to us in a frantic state of
+mind and begged our authority to say that English ladies could not
+possibly go in a carriage alone--so ultimately we three proceeded in the
+open carriage with our gendarme on the box, and the Demarch followed with
+his servant. All went well till it began to rain, when our gallant
+defender jumped off the box and into the shut carriage with the Demarch
+and the other man. They put up both windows and I believe smoked, only
+leaving a little breathing-hole in front. Doubtless they enjoyed
+themselves immensely--so did we.
+
+[Sidenote: OLYMPIA--ZANTE]
+
+As with other well-known places, I omit all description of Olympia,
+reached by a road concerning which we decided that it would be a
+compliment to compare it to a ploughed field. The drive took four hours
+each way. I dare say there are hotels and chars-à-bancs if not trams now,
+but I am very glad to recall Olympia, as we saw it in the wilds with ruins
+of temples and the newly excavated Gymnasium undisturbed by eager
+tourists. The Museum, containing the beautiful statue of Hermes with the
+Infant Bacchus, had not long been erected on the lines of a Greek temple.
+By way of an additional treat our hosts had roasted a lamb whole and
+brought it into the outer hall of the Museum on a stick regardless of the
+mess which it made. We made futile efforts to protect the floor with
+newspapers, but were obliged to eat some of the meat.
+
+From Pyrgos we went to the Island of Zante, where we spent Sunday. I wrote
+to my mother that it was a most lovely place--and told her:
+
+    "We took some luncheon up into an olive grove on the hills and lay on
+    cushions there in the most perfect air and warmth you can imagine,
+    with birds singing and the greenest grass thick with flowers just like
+    the Pre-Raphaelite pictures. A little higher up you could see the sea
+    on both sides. Cephalonia in one distance and the Acroceraunian
+    mountains in the other. This island is, as you know, famous for
+    flowers, and the nosegays the Consul sent us were so enormous that
+    after filling all the vases, etc., we could we had to fill two large
+    foot pans and put them on the balcony."
+
+Of Cephalonia, where we spent a few hours on our way to Corfu, my chief
+recollection is of wild mountainous country. The Consul (or Vice-Consul)
+who took us for a drive told us a thrilling tale--as yet unconcluded--of
+two rival families. The father of one married his daughter to a young man,
+whereas the other family wanted her and attacked the bridal party on the
+wedding day. I forget exactly how many people they killed, but I think the
+bridegroom was among the victims, and anyhow they carried off the young
+lady to the mountains, and she was still there at the time of our visit.
+
+Corfu was very delightful--but I recall no particular incident. There
+seemed to be a good many people who still regretted that Mr. Gladstone had
+handed it over to Greece.
+
+Our gunboat and M. Bakhméteff had left us at Zante, and from Corfu we went
+by an Austrian Lloyd steamer to Brindisi; thence by train to Naples. There
+we found Lord Rowton and dined with him and one or two friends. We also
+spent a day with him in Rome, where he was a good deal amused by our
+evident feeling that Roman were not to be compared to Greek antiquities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+VOYAGE TO INDIA--HYDERABAD
+
+
+I must go back a little in these mixed memories to record our early
+acquaintance with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who afterwards became one of our
+great friends. I believe that I first met him at Lady St. Helier's (then
+Lady Jeune) at a luncheon or party in 1886. We asked him to dinner at 3
+Great Stanhope Street, and he accepted--and we also asked the Jeunes. Mr.
+Chamberlain, though this was about the time that he split with Gladstone
+over Home Rule, was still regarded as a dangerous Radical, and was by no
+means universally met in Conservative houses. As it happened he arrived at
+our dinner a little before the Jeunes. As they were announced I went to
+the drawing-room door to meet them and she stopped me, and said in a low
+voice before entering the room, "You are coming to dine with me on such a
+date--shall you mind meeting Mr. Chamberlain?" (She had quite forgotten
+our meeting at her house.) "He is in the house," was my reply--whereat she
+gasped and nearly fell backwards. I well recollect the stern disapproval
+of our old-fashioned Tory butler Freeman. He showed it in his manner,
+though he did not venture at the moment to put it into words--but a few
+days afterwards we had another dinner at which were present some of our
+regular--and I am sure highly respectable--friends. The following morning
+Freeman said to me solemnly, "We had a very nice dinner last night."
+"Yes," said I, "I think it went off very well." "_All very nice people_,"
+he added with marked emphasis, and left me to digest the unspoken rebuke.
+
+Freeman was a great character and his comments were apt to be amusing. The
+year after this incident Lord Robert Cecil spent a Sunday at Osterley, and
+after the party had left on Monday Freeman informed me that there was only
+one thing that had troubled him. In reply to my rather anxious inquiry as
+to what had gone wrong he said: "That fine young fellow Lord Salisbury's
+son did not hold himself up properly. I spoke to his servant about it, and
+he said it was his book. I said our young lord [Villiers] is very clever,
+but I hope he will hold himself up." Poor Freeman! he was rather a rough
+diamond in some respects, but one of the best and most faithful of
+servants. He caught a chill and died early in 1894, soon after our return
+from Australia.
+
+[Sidenote: HADJI PETROS]
+
+To return to Mr. Chamberlain. Though already twice a widower he was still
+regarded politically as a young man, and I remember the American Minister
+Mr. Phelps assuring me that he had watched in the House of Commons Mr.
+Gladstone snub Chamberlain in a way that he was convinced had a good deal
+to do with his breach with the Liberal party. I doubt that being more than
+a very secondary cause, but I perfectly recall the acrimonious tone in
+which Mr. Chamberlain early in our acquaintance commented on the way in
+which politicians were treated "because they were young." Anyhow, Mr.
+Chamberlain not only asserted himself as worthy of all consideration
+politically, but he rapidly discarded socially his stern views of those
+whom he had formerly stigmatised as "lilies of the field." The late Sir
+Cecil Spring Rice once told me that he and Mr. Chamberlain had been thrown
+together a good deal on some occasion in America, and the latter had
+confided to him that he had really believed that the so-called "upper
+classes" were, taken as a whole, the idle, selfish, self-indulgent, and
+generally pernicious people whom he had denounced, but that when he came
+to know them he realised that they were a very different set of
+individuals. I have always held that Mr. Chamberlain was an honest man,
+and that when people accused him of changing his coat his changes were the
+result of conviction. He once said to me that he had invariably held that
+the people ought to have what they really wanted, and that more than once
+he had discovered that he was mistaken in what he had previously imagined
+to be their desires, and that then he was willing to follow their lead.
+"For instance," he said, "I thought the country wanted Secular Education
+and therefore advocated it, but experience showed me that this was not the
+case and I therefore ceased to support it." Of course this principle may
+be pushed too far. A statesman ought to have some convictions from which
+he cannot and will not depart, but it would be absurd to say that a man
+entering political life is bound to have a cut-and-dried programme which
+nothing will make him modify. Moreover Mr. Chamberlain had grown up in a
+narrow commercial circle, and larger knowledge of men and manners was
+bound to widen his views. On the first occasion that he stayed with us at
+Osterley in June 1887 and June 1888 his daughter Miss Beatrice Chamberlain
+came with him. I see by our old Visitors' Book that we had some very good
+Conservatives to meet them--in 1888 Lady Lathom and her daughter Maud,
+George Curzon, Lord and Lady Kintore, Sir John Stirling Maxwell, and my
+husband's cousin, Prince Louis Esterhazy. I have been told that more than
+one person first saw Mr. Chamberlain rowing on the Lake at Osterley in a
+tall hat and with a pipe in his mouth! I rather think that it was at a
+garden party. In 1888 just after the death of the Emperor Frederick almost
+everyone appeared in mourning, which somebody said made it look like a
+funeral wake tempered with strawberries. Poor Beatrice Chamberlain,
+however, appeared in a sort of plaid gown which made her very unhappy. She
+confided to Lady Lathom that she had just returned from France and had not
+known that people were wearing mourning--moreover she belonged to some
+society in Birmingham (a very sensible one) which agreed not to wear
+mourning except for quite the nearest relatives. She was afraid we might
+think that her clothes were due to her Radical principles, which we
+certainly did not. She became a very talented and distinguished woman, and
+her death, a few years ago, was a loss to many good causes. I was much
+touched by a letter which she wrote me after my husband died in 1915 in
+which she said that he and I had been kind to her "particularly in the
+long-ago days when I, not so very young, but so very raw, was keeping
+house for papa and came with him into this strange, unknown, and uncharted
+world of London." We had done little enough, and it was very nice of her
+to preserve such a recollection for over a quarter of a century.
+
+Next year when Mr. Chamberlain stayed with us he had married the charming
+Miss Endicott, now Mrs. Carnegie, but I shall have more to say of them
+both later on.
+
+[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FOR INDIA]
+
+I must now record some recollections of the first of our three visits to
+India.
+
+The idea of such a journey arose from my seeing Mr. Robert Bourke in a
+hansom as I was driving late in the season of 1886. He waved to me and I
+stopped to hear what he had to say. "I want to talk to you and Jersey,"
+said he. "Very well," I said; "come down to Osterley and you will find us
+both at such a time." It was accordingly arranged, and he told us that
+Lord Salisbury had offered him the Government of Madras. He was somewhat
+upset, as he had been Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs when Lord
+Salisbury was Secretary of State for that Department, and when the latter
+became Prime Minister Mr. Bourke thought that he ought to have had higher
+promotion, and regarded this offer rather as exile. However, on talking it
+all over he began to paint the gubernatorial glories in more roseate hues,
+and my husband and I both recommended him to accept, as we neither of us
+thought in our hearts that he was likely to attain Cabinet rank in
+England. Then he said, "If I go, will you come out and stay with me?" It
+was a new but attractive project, and we gave a provisional promise which
+we fulfilled in the autumn of 1888. My parents undertook to keep an eye on
+the younger children and to have them at Stoneleigh for part of our
+absence--it was arranged that Villiers should join us when his Christmas
+holidays began, and the Eton authorities consented that he should miss the
+following term as it was thought that India would be equally educational.
+We accordingly took our passages on the P. and O. _Arcadia_, which left
+Marseilles on Friday, October 26th. My brother Dudley and Mr. Charles
+Buller sailed in the same ship, which was a new one and had improvements
+then reckoned very novel. For instance, it had electric light, which had
+not yet been installed in all the P. and O. fleet. There were about 240
+first-class passengers--some entertaining ones among them, including Sir
+Samuel and Lady Baker, Captain Hext, who was Director of Indian Marine,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Leigh. In the second saloon was the theosophist
+Colonel Olcott--an odd mixture of philanthropy and humbug--but discussions
+with him often served to pass the time. One was not allowed to ask a
+second-saloon passenger for meals, but we had permission for him to come
+and talk to us, and also to give two theosophical lectures in the
+first-class saloon. I shall have more to say of him at Madras--but the
+inner meaning of theosophy is so often discussed that I insert here the
+way in which he presented it as I noted in my journal after one of his
+lectures given when we were nearing Port Said:
+
+    "Colonel Olcott gave a lecture on the Theosophical Society of which he
+    is President. The Society has its headquarters in Madras"
+    (N.B.--really at Adyar near Madras) "and has three chief
+    objects--Universal Brotherhood, Study of ancient oriental texts,
+    Investigation of hidden psychical forces. It admits members of any
+    religion, but requires universal toleration. Practically its own
+    tenets are Buddhist, that being rather a philosophy than a religion.
+    It professes, however, to assist its members to the better
+    comprehension of the esoteric or underlying significations of their
+    respective religions."
+
+Colonel Olcott himself was a Buddhist, and moreover laid claim to certain
+powers of healing, which I should imagine, in so far as they were
+effectual, were a kind of faith healing; he went beyond M. Coué, as he
+declared that he had healed a blind man! Mrs. Gerard Leigh gravely asked
+him one day whether he could give her something to protect her against
+spooks, as she often had to stay in a house which she believed to be
+haunted. "Give me something you are accustomed to wear," he said, and she
+handed him a ring. He stared at it, and said, "If you could see--you would
+see two rays" (blue rays I think he said) "going from my eyes into this
+ring." "What will it do?" she asked. "Well," was the answer, "it will be
+like a hand laid on your head to protect you." If she remembered it next
+time a spook was about, I feel sure that it was most effectual. "Your
+ring," he said to one of us, "came out of a jeweller's shop--mine came out
+of a rose," and told us a pleasing legend of how his sister held a rose
+and Madame Blavatsky conjured a ring out of it.
+
+[Sidenote: COL. OLCOTT AND PROF. MAX MULLER]
+
+He had very exalted philanthropic views, and long afterwards, when he was
+in England, Professor Max Müller told me that he had said to him, "Colonel
+Olcott, with all your fine ideas for doing good how can you lend yourself
+to that nonsense of broken tea-cups and so on?" "And," continued Max
+Müller, "he looked down through his funny blue spectacles and answered,
+'All religions must be manured'--which surely gave away the whole show."
+
+Colonel Olcott was extremely anxious to enlist me as a member of the
+Theosophical Society, assuring me that he only wanted my signature to a
+document which he would keep privately, "not for publication." What good
+it would do him in that case is not very apparent, but the net was spread
+in vain in the sight of the bird as far as I was concerned. Years
+afterwards he reappeared at Sydney and renewed his appeal in the following
+pathetic--but still unsuccessful--verses:
+
+  "_To our Lady of Leigh_
+  Only a paper,
+  A very short paper,
+  An innocent paper,
+  My lady, to sign,
+  Expressing your int'rest,
+  Your broad-minded int'rest,
+  Your psychical int'rest,
+  In this work of mine.
+  Sign: I entreat you,
+  Bishops will greet you,
+  Clergy beseech you,
+  Lady, to join
+  This league confraternal
+  To seek the eternal--
+  _Not_ the infernal--
+  Basis of truth!
+                            H. S. O."
+
+  SYDNEY, 7th May 1891.
+
+Another, still more generally interesting, fellow-voyager on the _Arcadia_
+was, as already mentioned, Sir Samuel Baker, who, with his intrepid wife,
+was making one of his frequent journeys to India. He enlivened many hours
+which might have proved tedious by stories of his African adventures, and
+was always surrounded by an interested circle of listeners. He told how on
+his expedition to the sources of the White Nile he had met two tattered
+figures which proved to be Speke and Grant coming back from tracing that
+part of the river which flowed from the Victoria Nyanza. They urged him to
+continue his undertaking as they said that if he also found the source he
+was seeking "England will have done it"--and she did. He asked them to
+come into his camp--but they hung back--and when he asked why they
+explained that they heard he had Mrs. Baker with him, and were in such
+rags that they did not like to present themselves before a lady!
+Nevertheless they were induced not to treat the desert like a London
+drawing-room, and the lady laughed and mended their clothes for them. Sir
+Samuel loved to tell stories of his wife's heroism and self-possession in
+more than one critical juncture. With all her adventures she had remained
+a very simple and charming woman.
+
+[Sidenote: SIR SAMUEL BAKER]
+
+When we were passing the Arabian Coast of the Gulf of Suez Sir Samuel
+Baker pointed out Mount Sinai, though some people pretend that you can
+only see its whereabouts--not the Mountain itself. He told us a great deal
+of Moses' adventures--from Josephus, I believe--but he also said that he
+himself had seen all the Plagues of Egypt, though he said that for "lice"
+one should read "ticks"! We asked how about the Darkness? He said he had
+been in a Khamsin wind when for twenty minutes you could not see the flame
+of a candle close by; and as for the "first-born," when plague or cholera
+swept off families they only cared about the first-born, the second- or
+third-born did not count. He and Lady Baker were also very amusing about
+the visits to Egypt of the Princess of Wales and the Empress Eugénie
+respectively.
+
+We had a mild excitement in the Gulf of Aden when a man played the
+"Boulanger" hymn during dinner. No one now would recognise the "Boulanger"
+hymn, as the hero of the black horse is forgotten, but then the Germans
+hissed and the French applauded. The captain was appealed to, and sent
+word to "tell the man to stop that noise"--a message which the steward
+delivered too accurately to please the performer!
+
+I do not describe any of the sights which we saw either at the Ports or at
+sea, much as they thrilled such unaccustomed oriental travellers as
+ourselves. Most people now are familiar with the voyage either from
+personal experience or from oral or written descriptions. I have made it
+several times since, and, bad sailor as I am, only wish I were young
+enough to undertake it again. Our cicerones treated us mercifully, but I
+believe some greenhorns are not so fortunate. I heard of one youth who was
+warned in advance that the sailors and others were sure to try to take
+him in. He was told several facts concerning the places and people which
+they passed--these he absolutely refused to believe. At last someone
+pointed out rocks in the sea near Suez and said, "Those are the wheels of
+Pharaoh's chariots." "Ah, that I know is true," said the youth, "for it's
+in the Bible."
+
+We arrived at Bombay on the morning of November 10th, and were as
+delighted as are most visitors with the glitter and glow of the city with
+its swarming and varied population. The Yacht Club was a cool and pleasant
+resort--and we visited the Arab horse-market, the Towers of Silence, and
+other well known sights. Particularly were we impressed with the curious
+Caverns on the Island of Elephanta, with the gigantic figures carved in
+high relief. Few could help being awed by the three immense heads joined
+together in the Central Division of the great Central Hall, representing
+Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu. I was specially interested in the designs
+representing the story of the favourite Hindu deity Ganpati or Ganesha.
+You see the marriage of his parents Siva and Parvati, his birth, and a
+battle among the gods and demons in the course of which he had his head
+cut off. His irate mother substituted an elephant's head and declared that
+she, the Mother of Nature, would upset everything unless gods and men
+worshipped him in this guise--and he now appears as God of Wisdom. Another
+version is that Siva himself cut off his son's head, mistaking him for an
+intruder in his mother's apartments. However that may be, the lower class
+of Hindu have adopted him as a favourite deity, and we were told of a
+great festival in February when they flock to the Caves with offerings of
+coco-nuts, rice, and leaves.
+
+Our travelling-companion Captain Hext was most kind to us in Bombay, and a
+Parsee, Mr. Allbless, showed us something of the life of that community.
+
+[Sidenote: MAHABLESHWAR]
+
+From Bombay, after a night at Poona, we went to Mahableshwar to stay with
+our kind friends, Lord and Lady Reay, he being at that time Governor of
+the Bombay Presidency. We left the train at Wathar and a drive of about
+five hours through magnificent scenery brought us to our destination soon
+after seven in the evening of November 14th. We were greatly struck by the
+huge square-topped mountains towering in giant terraces above fertile,
+well-watered valleys. The soil was generally deep brown or deep red. As
+darkness came on we saw quantities of fire-flies amongst the luxuriant
+vegetation. Next morning the view from the house across the valley to a
+gigantic square-topped mountain beyond was so dazzling as almost to take
+away one's breath. Few things are so impressive as to arrive after dark at
+an unknown dwelling, and to awaken in the morning to a new world of
+glorious scenery quivering in sunshine and colour. I recall two instances
+of the same awaking to the joy of natural beauty previously
+unsuspected--once at Glengariff and once at Mahableshwar. The soft
+radiance of Southern Ireland was very different from the almost violent
+colouring of India, but the sudden delight was the same.
+
+We spent a very happy six days at Mahableshwar and saw all sorts of
+interesting people and places, including the haunts of the great Mahratta
+Chieftain Sivaji. Our introduction to Indian hill-life could not have been
+made under pleasanter auspices nor with kinder hosts.
+
+The Duke of Connaught was then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay
+Presidency troops. H.R.H. and the Duchess lived near the Reays, and they
+were also very good to us. Lady Patricia Ramsay was then a most attractive
+little girl of two years old. The older children were in England. The
+Duke, here as elsewhere, had a great reputation as a soldier.
+
+When we visited Pertab Ghur, one of Sivaji's thirty-one mountain
+fortresses, we were told with amazement that the Duke and his officers had
+lately brought a battery of mule artillery up the steep hill leading
+thereto. This fort had an arched gateway almost concealed in the
+hill-side, with a door covered with iron spikes. About fifty people live
+in the fort, and when they saw the battery approaching they took the
+soldiers for dacoits and shut the gates against them.
+
+[Sidenote: H.H. THE AGA KHAN]
+
+One visitor to Lord and Lady Reay while we were with them was the Aga
+Khan, since so widely known, but then a boy of about thirteen who was
+brought by his uncle to pay his respects to the Governor. The story of his
+ancestry as told to me at the time was as follows. Some generations ago a
+Hindu announced a tenth Avatar, or Incarnation, of Vishnu, and persuaded a
+number of people to give him offerings for the Avatar. At last, however,
+the devotees became tired of parting with their goods for an unseen deity
+and insisted that the Avatar should be shown to his disciples. The Hindu
+agreed, and selected a deputation of two hundred, whom he conducted on a
+sort of pilgrimage through Northern India seeking for a suitable
+representative who would consent to play the required part. At last they
+reached the borders of Persia, and there he heard of a holy man belonging
+to the then Royal Family who would, he thought, fulfil all the
+requirements. Before introducing his followers he contrived a private
+interview with the Imaun (as I believe he was called) and offered to hand
+over to him all the disciples and their future offerings if he would
+assume the character of an Avatar and pretend to have received those
+already given. The Princely Saint consented on condition that the Hindu
+believers should become Mohammedans--no doubt this wholesale conversion to
+the true faith overcame any scruples which he may have felt concerning the
+requisite trivial deception. Thus arose the sect of the Khojahs, Hindu--or
+at least Indian--Mohammedans, acknowledging the spiritual headship of this
+Persian Avatar and his descendants. Some say that this Imaun was one of
+the tribe or order of the Assassins of whom the Old Man of the Mountains
+was chief in the time of the Crusades. It was declared that each head of
+Aga Khan's family was assassinated in turn, and that his life would be
+sacrificed in due course to make way for his successor. However, I hope
+that is not true, as I have known him for over thirty years and saw him
+very much alive not long ago.
+
+When we met at Mahableshwar he was a stout youth with dark eyes and hair
+and a very composed manner. His father, who had died before our interview,
+did not want the boy in childhood to know of his semi-divine character as
+he justly thought that it would not be very good for him, but the boy was
+too acute to be kept in the dark. His mother was a Persian princess, and
+he is immensely rich from offerings made to himself and his ancestors.
+Even in boyhood he was called "His Highness," that title having been given
+him in 1896--but the rank and salute of a chief of the Bombay Presidency
+was not granted till 1916, as he is not a territorial prince, but owes his
+wealth and immense influence to the large numbers both in India and
+Zanzibar who acknowledge his spiritual sway.
+
+We were told that he sometimes had a milk bath and that his followers were
+then allowed to drink the milk in which he had bathed! Lord Reay asked
+whether he would have to fast in Ramadan, but he said not till he was
+fifteen. I asked what was done to people if they did not keep the fast. He
+said nothing in India, but in Persia the Moollahs beat defaulters.
+
+When Aga Khan grew up he managed to reconcile his followers to the
+orthodox Mohammedan faith. He traces his descent from Mohammed's
+son-in-law Ali. What his private religious views may have been is
+impossible to say; I should think he was really a Mohammedan, but
+considered it necessary to allow his followers to regard him as
+semi-divine. He was supposed in after years to have said to his friends
+that he could drink wine if he liked because his devotees were made to
+believe that his throat was so holy that it changed to water on touching
+it--and he added that "being a god was not all beer and skittles!" I must
+say that when he sat near me at dinner at Osterley he did not drink wine.
+He was once dining there when in England for King Edward's coronation, and
+I told him that the Sikh High-Priest was reported to have said that he did
+not like to be mixed up with "these secular persons" and wanted to hold
+the robe of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the occasion. Aga Khan
+comically protested against such an invasion of his ecclesiastical status,
+and said in that case he should complain to the King and go back to India!
+
+From Mahableshwar a journey of two days and a night brought us to
+Hyderabad (Deccan)--where we stayed at the Residency with the
+Acting-Resident Mr. Howell and his wife. We were enchanted with
+Hyderabad--a real typical Native State and extraordinarily picturesque. We
+saw various interesting examples of native life and tradition both in the
+pauses on our journey and from the train. As we drew near Hyderabad there
+were numbers of immense syenite stones piled on each other or scattered
+over the plain. Legend says that when Rama was pursuing the giant Ravana
+who had carried off Siva he enlisted the aid of the monkey-god Hanuman and
+his army to make a bridge to Ceylon. The monkeys carried rocks from the
+Himalayas, but not unnaturally became pretty tired by the time they
+reached the Deccan and let a good many fall, which may still be seen
+scattered about.
+
+[Sidenote: RACES AT HYDERABAD]
+
+Hyderabad is largely Mohammedan, and the Nizam has a considerable army,
+including a regiment of negro cavalry and a good many Arabs. We were
+fortunate in seeing a race-meeting the day after our arrival, and this
+gathering of natives in all their variety of costume and colour was
+dazzling to our unaccustomed eyes. The populace swarmed in the trees and
+clustered round the boundary of the course, but even more brilliant were
+the garments of the native nobles and gentlemen who walked about in the
+ring and gathered in the grandstand. They wore long coats of every
+conceivable hue and of rich materials, flowered red and green and gold
+silk, purple velvet or embroidered white, with gold-worked belts, bright
+turbans, and sometimes swords. There were little boys gaily dressed like
+their fathers, riders in white muslin with black and gold turbans, on
+prancing horses with tails dyed pink, others carrying little flags at the
+end of spears; Arabs of the Nizam's bodyguard with high boots and green,
+red, dark-blue, and gold costumes and striped floating round their heads,
+and the Nizam's syces in yellow and blue.
+
+The Nizam himself, an effete individual, had a red fez, a pearl
+watch-chain, and dazzling emerald rings, but was otherwise in European
+dress. Around him were the gentlemen of his Court, salaaming to him and to
+each other with strictly Oriental etiquette, and mingled with them English
+officers, ladies and civilians. Flags were flying surmounted by the Union
+Jack, and a band played, ending up with "God save the Queen." The jockeys
+were some English and some native, the owners English, Parsee, and
+Mohammedan.
+
+A hot Indian sun made the scene glow with golden warmth during the
+afternoon and with rosy pink as it set in the evening with the unexpected
+rapidity which is almost startling until use has made it familiar. I was
+talking a few days later to an Indian gentleman about his visit to
+England, and he said what he did not like was the light, which interfered
+with his sleeping. Light is the last thing of which I should have expected
+England to be accused, but there is in India no great variety in the
+length of night and day all the year round, so my friend was unaccustomed
+to the very early dawn of an English summer day. Not long ago I heard of
+an English coachman employed in America. He, on being asked his opinion of
+the States, said he did not like two things--they had no twilight and said
+the Lord's Prayer wrong (i.e. "Who art" instead of "Which art"). It is
+difficult to satisfy the physical and theological prejudices of an alien
+in any land.
+
+[Sidenote: H.H. THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD]
+
+Jersey had been introduced to the Nizam the day following our arrival; I
+made his acquaintance at the races, but found him singularly lacking in
+animation. The only occasion on which I saw him aroused to anything like
+interest was when we went to the Palace to see his jewels. He had
+wonderful strings of pearls and emeralds, something like a tiara of
+diamonds for the front of a turban, large single diamonds in rings, one
+remarkable ruby engraved with the seals of the Moghul emperors, and an
+uncut diamond valued at £720,000 which was as uninteresting to look at as
+a pebble picked up on a beach. If I recollect rightly that diamond
+afterwards played a part in a lawsuit. Jersey said something about black
+pearls, which he happened to admire. The Nizam did not appear to notice
+the remark, which was translated to him, but presently made a slight sign,
+and with the ghost of a smile produced a little calico bag from which he
+extracted a couple of these gems.
+
+Poor man--he had _four thousand_ women shut up in his Zenana. That
+included his father's wives and women servants as well as his own. Every
+woman who becomes his wife begins with a monthly pension of 35 rupees,
+which can, of course, be increased by his favour. There was a story going
+when we were at Hyderabad that the women had, shortly before, inveigled
+the Nizam into the depths of the Zenana and given him a good flogging! No
+doubt strange things may happen in remote apartments where no male except
+eunuchs may enter. The present Nizam is, I believe, an enlightened and
+loyal ruler.
+
+The City of Hyderabad was about eight miles in circumference, and as a
+quarter was occupied by the Nizam's palatial buildings there was room and
+to spare both for ladies and Court officials. The Nizam is of course
+semi-independent, but the British Government exercises the ultimate
+control. Fortunately, though the Nizam did not shine intellectually, he
+had some very intelligent Ministers, notably Sir Salar Jung, who
+exercised the chief control, and the very enlightened Director of
+Education, Syed Hossain Bilgrami, who with his brother Seyd Ali had
+originally come from Bengal and contrived to establish an intellectual
+standard distinctly superior to that of many Native States. Amongst other
+things Syed Hossain had set up a Zenana School for "purdah" girls of the
+upper classes, which was at that time quite a new experiment in India.
+When we saw it the head mistress was a Mrs. Littledale, a Christian Hindu
+lady married to an Englishman. The main idea was that the young ladies
+should be sufficiently educated to be real companions to the men whom they
+were ultimately to marry. One of the pupils on the occasion of our visit
+was a cousin of the Bilgramis engaged to one of Syed Hossain's sons. The
+young man in question was then at Oxford, and understood to be anxious for
+the education of his lady-love. The whole question of the higher education
+of Indian women, particularly of those of the upper classes, bristles with
+difficulties. It has much advanced in the thirty-three years which have
+elapsed since our first visit to Hyderabad, but the problems have not yet
+been by any means completely solved. If young women are educated up to
+anything like a European standard they can hardly fail to be discontented
+with continuous seclusion. On the other hand, if they are allowed to come
+out of purdah and to mix freely with others of both sexes they will be
+looked down upon by large sections of the community, and in many cases,
+particularly among the ruling families, it will be difficult to arrange
+suitable marriages for them. One sometimes wonders whether such complete
+freedom as prevails in Western and Northern lands has been altogether
+beneficial to their women, and the climate of India might make
+unrestrained intercourse even more difficult. However, Parsee women are
+not secluded, nor are the women of the quite low Indian castes.
+
+[Sidenote: PURDAH LADIES]
+
+As far as I could make out, opinions differed among the ladies themselves
+as to whether they should or should not prefer to come out of purdah. Some
+certainly considered that for husbands to allow it would be to show that
+they did not properly value their wives. For instance, the Nizam's
+aide-de-camp Ali Bey, a very active, intelligent soldier, told us that he
+would not at all mind his wife seeing men or going about, but that she
+would not wish it. On one occasion when the fort at Secunderabad was
+brilliantly illuminated with electric lights for some festivity he offered
+to drive her out late, when the people had gone, to see the effect, but
+she declined. On the other hand, when we dined with the Financial
+Secretary Mehdi Ali, and the ladies went afterwards into an inner
+drawing-room to see Mrs. Mehdi Ali, she rather pathetically said to me in
+perfect English: "I cannot go to call upon you, Lady Jersey. I am not a
+woman, but a bird in a cage." It seemed rather absurd that she should be
+secluded, for she was evidently highly educated, and I understood read
+French as well as English. Her costume was somewhat interesting. Most of
+the Moslem ladies wore trousers and were enveloped in a sari. Mrs. Mehdi
+Ali had a gorgeous brocade garment specially designed by Howell & James,
+which at a casual glance looked like an ordinary gown but somehow embraced
+a "divided skirt."
+
+I had an amusing breakfast with the sisters of Sir Salar Jung and his
+brother the Munir-ul-Mulk. We had dined the previous evening at a gorgeous
+banquet with the brothers, and the ladies of the party, including Lady
+Galway, Mrs. Howell, and five others, were invited for eleven o'clock the
+following morning to the Zenana in the same Palace. Of course brothers may
+be present with their sisters. With a truly Oriental disregard of time the
+Munir appeared about 11.25, the ladies still later. The Munir was attired
+in an azure blue coat embroidered with silver. The materials of the most
+gorgeous men's coats were imported from Paris--and their fezes chiefly
+came from Lincoln & Bennett's in London.
+
+As for the ladies, they generally wore stockings and over them long
+drawers or breeches, fitting tightly to the lower part of the leg and very
+full above. They had jackets and voluminous scarves called "chuddars." I
+believe the breeches were sewn on! One of the sisters wore yellow as a
+prevailing colour, and had bare arms and feet. The other had a magnificent
+gold embroidered crimson velvet jacket, a green chuddar, and pink
+stockings. These ladies were both married, but the husband of one was in a
+lunatic asylum. There was also present a female cousin, but she, being a
+widow, was all in white and wore no jewels except one or two armlets.
+
+[Sidenote: BREAKFAST IN A ZENANA]
+
+Our breakfast was spread on a long table under the colonnade where we had
+dined the previous night. We had then sat on chairs at a regular
+dining-table, but this was only raised a few inches from the ground and we
+sat on the floor, which was covered with a white cloth. The table was
+thickly covered with piled-up dishes containing principally all kinds of
+curry and rice cooked in different ways. Water was the main drink, but
+anyone who liked could ask for coffee. Everyone had plates, and the
+Englishwomen were provided with spoons and forks, but the Indian ladies
+ate (very tidily) with their fingers, over which attendants poured water
+after breakfast. The two sisters (half-sisters really) sat side by side,
+and laughed and chattered incessantly. Miss White, a lady doctor who was
+present, interpreted anything they had to say, but they were just merry,
+talkative children with no real interest in anything beyond their clothes,
+food, and jewels. Miss White said that they knew, and taught their
+children, nothing. I should say that they were the most ignorant of all
+the native ladies whom I have met in India, but certainly not the least
+happy, and apparently quite contented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES
+
+
+From Hyderabad we went to Madras to fulfil our promise of paying a visit
+to Mr. Bourke, who had now become Lord Connemara. We stayed there for over
+three weeks and became much interested in the Presidency. Being rather
+remote from the usual routes of visitors it is perhaps less known, and has
+been called the "Benighted Presidency," but many of the natives are
+exceptionally intelligent, and there appears to be more opportunity than
+in some other parts of India of seeing the Hindu faith in working order
+and less affected than elsewhere by the influence of the Mohammedan
+conquerors. Lord Connemara's Private Secretary, Mr. Rees (afterwards Sir
+John Rees, so sadly killed by falling from a train) was very kind in
+securing two Brahmins of different varieties of the Hindu faith to come
+and talk to me and explain their views--both spoke excellent English. One
+was a Munshi who belonged to the "Advaita" sect, which holds that
+everything is part of the Divinity; the other--an ascetic--held a refined
+form of what is called the "Sankhya" philosophy, which presupposes eternal
+matter with which the Eternal Mind unites itself. After all, such fine
+drawn distinctions are quite congenial to the spirit of the early
+Gnostics, the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, and even to Christians of
+to-day who are ready to start fresh communities from differences on
+tenets which seem to the ordinary mind without practical bearing on the
+Two Great Commandments.
+
+[Sidenote: BRAHMIN PHILOSOPHERS]
+
+To return to my Brahmin friends. Both those here mentioned and others to
+whom I have spoken claim a faith certainly different from the vast mass of
+the Indian peoples. They claim to believe in One God, and say that all
+proceed from Him and that all effort should be directed to reabsorption
+into Him. Good acts tend to this result by the gradual purification in
+successive incarnations of "Karma," which may perhaps be described as the
+residuum of unconquered passions and unexpiated sins after death. When the
+Munshi was explaining this theory of upward progress Mr. Rees asked him
+what happened to devil-worshippers and such like out-caste races. "They go
+to hell," was the prompt reply. Observing my look of surprise, Ramiah
+hastened to add, "Oh, we have plenty of hells, twenty, thirty,
+forty"--evidently thinking that I was astounded not at the sweeping
+perdition of his countrymen, but at the probably overcrowded condition of
+the infernal regions.
+
+Shiva, Vishnu, and the other gods and goddesses adored by the populace
+were regarded by the illuminati as embodiments of various divine
+attributes, or incarnations to reveal the divine will and to deliver men
+from evil. There seemed no unwillingness to accept Christ in some such way
+as this. As one said to me, "I do not know His history as well as I know
+my own sacred books, but if what is told of Him is true, I believe that he
+must have been a saint, if not a Divine Incarnation." Another thought that
+each race had its own revelation. "We," he said, "have Krishna, you have
+Christ. You say that your Christ was crucified--our Krishna was shot."
+
+To an inquiry why if their own faith was so elevated they left the masses
+to idol-worship I had the crushing reply: "Ignorant people and _females_
+cannot at once comprehend the universal presence. We teach them first that
+God is in the image--so He is, for He is everywhere--and from that we go
+on to explain that He pervades the universe." I asked my ascetic friend,
+Parthasaradi, whether in that case they might find the deity in the leg of
+a table--to which he retorted with Tyndall's views about the mutability of
+atoms, from which he deduced that being everywhere He was certainly also
+in the leg of the table--and he cited Roman Catholic teaching on his side
+as justifying idol-worship. Parthasaradi had a marvellous store of
+quotations from Tyndall, Leibnitz, Matthew Arnold, and others at his
+fingers' ends. He kindly said that if I were as good as my creed he would
+be satisfied, and hoped that I would be content if he were as good as his.
+He had catechised Mr. Rees about me before he would condescend to talk to
+me, as he did not think that "European females" were generally
+sufficiently interested in Hindu religion to make them worthy of his
+expositions. He had been a Vakil of the High Court, but had given up his
+position to embrace an ascetic life, and had devoted his property to
+founding a library, only reserving enough for himself and his wife to live
+upon. His wife had become a sort of nun. He was a curious-looking man with
+long shaggy black hair and very white teeth--rather handsome. His costume
+consisted of a cotton dhoti (cloth) of doubtful whiteness wrapped round
+his legs and a green shawl twisted about his body. There is no doubt that
+he was very earnest in his faith in the Almighty, and I was really touched
+by his appeal one day to Mr. Rees, who chanced to be present at a visit
+which he paid me. Mr. Rees told him that he was so eloquent that he almost
+converted him to the need for greater religion. Whereupon said the
+ascetic, with evident emotion: "Why don't you come at once? You need not
+wait for an invitation as to a _Governor's breakfast_." He spoke just like
+a member of the Salvation Army, and I am sure with an equally genuine
+feeling. It would be absurd to generalise from a superficial acquaintance
+with India, but it seemed to me from conversation with these and other
+educated Indians that, while quite willing to accept the high Christian
+morality and also to profit from the education in Christian schools,
+working out a man's own salvation appealed to them more than the doctrine
+of Atonement.
+
+[Sidenote: FAITH OF EDUCATED HINDUS]
+
+The Dewan Rao Behadur Kanta Chunder, a highly intelligent man whom we met
+later on at Jeypore, allowed that the Atonement was his stumbling-block.
+He had been educated in a Mission School and had a great respect and
+affection for the Principal, but he was not a professing Christian. He
+said that he believed in one God, but was obliged to continue
+Shiva-worship to please his mother. I hope that he received the same
+dispensation as Naaman! He further said that he believed in the
+transmigration of souls, but thought that all spirits would ultimately
+return to the Great Spirit whence they came.
+
+I asked this Dewan about a point on which I was curious--namely, whether
+as a child, before he came under Mission influence, his Hindu faith had a
+practical influence on his daily conduct. "Oh, yes," he said; "if I did
+anything wrong I was quite frightened of the images of the gods in the
+house"--so I suppose they have a real effect, but no one seemed to think
+that anything made the native Indian truthful! However, it is to be
+feared that with the majority even of Christians truth is not a primary
+virtue.
+
+To return to Madras and our adventures there. I do not attempt
+descriptions of the cities or scenery which we visited. Much as we enjoyed
+such sights, they are fully described in guide books, and I keep to our
+personal experiences. The length of our visit to Madras was partly due to
+unfortunate circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail at length,
+though they have since in broad outline become public property. Briefly,
+shortly after our arrival Lady Connemara, who had been staying at
+Ootacamund, arrived at Government House accompanied by the doctor and one
+of the staff. The following day she migrated to an hotel just as a large
+dinner-party was arriving, and we had to conceal her absence on plea of
+indisposition.
+
+After several days' absence and much negotiation she consented to
+return--but Lord Connemara implored us to remain while she was away, and
+even after she came back, to help him look after his guests, particularly
+some who came to stay in the house. We were rather amused, when later on
+we visited the Prendergasts at Baroda, to discover that Sir Harry
+Prendergast and his daughters, who had stayed at Government House in the
+midst of the trouble, had never discovered that Lady Connemara was not
+there, but thought that she was ill in her own rooms all the time! I
+cannot help thinking that some of us must have been rather like the
+policeman before the magistrate of whom the cabman said "I won't go for to
+say that the gentleman is telling a lie, but he handles the truth rather
+carelessly." I fear that we must have handled the truth rather
+carelessly.
+
+Fortunately the native servants could not speak English, and the better
+class natives in the city behaved extraordinarily well in wishing to keep
+things quiet as far as possible. Anyhow, Lady Connemara came back for a
+time, and ultimately--some time in the following year, I think--returned
+to England. The end, as is well known, was a divorce. She married the
+doctor, and Lord Connemara a rich widow--a Mrs. Coleman. They are all dead
+now and the causes of dispute do not matter; they may be summed up with
+the old formula, "Faults on both sides."
+
+The delay was rather tiresome for us, as we had planned to get to Calcutta
+well before Christmas, but on the other hand it enabled us to see a good
+deal that we could not have done in the short time which we had originally
+destined to the Presidency, and Lord Connemara and his staff did
+everything for our entertainment.
+
+[Sidenote: THEOSOPHISTS AT ADYAR]
+
+Among other excursions we had an amusing visit to our ship acquaintance,
+Colonel Olcott, at the headquarters, or Library, of the Theosophical
+Society at Adyar. Adyar is a pretty place, and there are nice shady drives
+near it with banyan, tamarind, and other trees. As we approached we saw a
+large bungalow on the top of a small hill, and noticed a number of people
+seated in the verandah. It was evident that they saw us from their
+elevation, but it did not seem to have struck them that we could also see
+them from below. When we arrived at the door everyone had disappeared
+except Colonel Olcott, who was seated in an attitude of abstraction, but
+jumped up holding out his hands and expressing great pleasure at our
+visit.
+
+We were taken into a long hall, hung round with the shields of the various
+theosophical Lodges in India and elsewhere. There were several rooms, and
+as we were shown into them the people whom we had seen on the verandah
+were either "discovered" or "entered" like actors on a stage, and duly
+introduced: "A Russian Countess"--the "Countess of Jersey"; "a Japanese
+nobleman"--the "Earl of Jersey." We were shown the doors of Kathiawar wood
+rather well carved, and beyond there was a kind of Sanctuary with two
+large paintings of Mahatmas behind doors like those of a Roman Catholic
+altarpiece. I believe that it was behind those doors that Madame Blavatsky
+was supposed to have performed a miracle with broken tea-cups, but I am
+not clear as to details and Colonel Olcott was too cute to attempt to
+foist the story upon us. What he did tell us was that the artist
+Schmiechen painted the Mahatmas without having seen them, implying some
+kind of inspiration. We happened to know Schmiechen, as he had painted
+several of our family, so when we were back in England I remarked that I
+had seen the pictures which he had painted without having seen the
+subjects. "Yes," said he, "but I had very good photographs of them!"
+
+Olcott told us that he intended to have portraits of the Founders of all
+religions in this Sanctuary, but so far the only companion of the Mahatmas
+was a photograph of Paracelsus. He, however, produced another photograph
+from somewhere and bade me prepare to respect a bishop. The bishop proved
+to be black! Poor Olcott! He made another attempt to convert me while at
+Madras by lending me copies of a rather colourless magazine--always
+assuring me that his Society was in no sense anti-Christian. When he
+called to see the effect which this publication had had upon me I remarked
+that I had read not only the magazine, but its advertisements, which
+advertised distinctly anti-Christian books. He turned the colour of
+beetroot, for he had never thought of the advertisements.
+
+[Sidenote: THE RANEES OF TRAVANCORE]
+
+While we were at Madras the then Maharajah of Travancore was invested with
+the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Star of India. He was a gorgeous
+figure wearing over a long coat of cloth-of-gold with small green spangles
+the pale-blue satin cloak of the Order, which cost him two thousand rupees
+at Calcutta. His white turban was adorned with beautiful emeralds. The
+right of succession in Travancore is peculiar, being transmitted to males
+through females. As there were no directly royal females in 1857, this
+Maharajah's uncle adopted two Ranees to be "Mothers of Princes." The elder
+Ranee was charming and highly educated, but unfortunately had no children,
+and her husband, though a clever man (perhaps too clever!) got into
+difficulties and was banished. The Ranee declined all the suggestions of
+her friends that she should divorce him, and her constancy was rewarded by
+his recall to her side. This marital fidelity pleased Queen Victoria so
+much that she sent the Princess a decoration.
+
+The younger Ranee had two sons, of whom one, called the First Prince, was
+considered Heir Presumptive and was present at the Investiture. He did not
+strike me as much of a man, and he and the Maharajah were reported not to
+be on friendly terms. Ladies marry in Travancore by accepting a cloth
+(i.e. sari) from a man--if they do not like him they have only to send it
+back, which constitutes a divorce.
+
+Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff, when Governor of Madras, was admiring the
+embroidered cloth of one of these Travancore ladies and innocently said
+that he would like to send her a cloth from Madras as a specimen of the
+handiwork executed there, to which she promptly retorted that she was much
+obliged, but that she was quite satisfied with her present husband.
+
+Although I refrain from descriptions in a general way, I must include some
+reference to a journey in the southern part of the Presidency which Lord
+Connemara kindly arranged for us, as it is less well known than Madras
+itself and other cities generally visited. Also this part of the country
+will doubtless change rapidly, if it has not already done so.
+
+A long day's journey took us to Tanjore, where the temporary District
+Judge, Mr. Fawcett, was good enough to receive us in his bungalow
+and show us the sights. The great Temple rejoices in the name of
+Bahadeeswara-swami-kovil and is said to have been built in the eleventh
+century. The Gôpuram or great pyramidical tower, 216 feet from the base to
+the top of the gilded Kalasum, which takes the place of our Cross, is most
+imposing. It is covered with carvings, and amongst them we were shown the
+head and bust of an Englishman in a round hat commonly called "John
+Bright." The attendants point to this with pride, saying that it was put
+there when the temple was originally built, on account of a prophecy that
+the English would one day possess the land. We were struck by the
+wonderful foresight of the Hindu prophets in the time of William the
+Conqueror, as they foretold not only the advent of the English, but also
+their costume 800 years after the date of the prophecy.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PRINCESSES OF TANJORE]
+
+The Sivajee dynasty had ruled that part of the country till a Rajah called
+Serfojee ceded his territory to the British. His granddaughter, the senior
+lady of his son Sevajee, was the last real Princess of the family. She
+was dead before the date of our visit, but some ladies of the zenana still
+lingered on in the Palace. Some years after our visit Lord Dufferin told
+me of his experiences at Tanjore. As Viceroy he was admitted to the
+zenana, though of course other men could not enter. He was shown into a
+large, dimly lighted room at the end of which was a Chair of State covered
+with red cloth. The attendants made signs for him to approach the chair,
+and he was just about to take his seat upon it when he suddenly perceived
+a small figure wrapped in the red cloth. He had been about to sit down on
+the Princess!
+
+We did not see the ladies, but we visited the large rambling Palace, in
+which were three very fine halls. One was rather like a church, with a
+nave and two narrow side aisles, and two rows of dim windows one above the
+other. This appeared to be utilised as a Museum with very miscellaneous
+contents. There was a silver-plated canopy intended to be held over bridal
+pairs--and a divan on which were placed portraits of Queen Victoria and
+the late Ranee attended by large dolls or figures presumably representing
+members of the Sivajee family. All about the halls were cheap ornaments,
+photographs, and, carefully framed, an advertisement of Coats' sewing
+cotton! Another hall contained a fine statue of Serfojee by Flaxman, a
+bust of Nelson, and a picture representing the head of Clive with mourners
+for his death.
+
+There was also an interesting library with many Sanscrit and other
+manuscripts. One book in particular, full of paintings of elephants
+executed for Serfojee, was really amusing. Towards the beginning was a
+picture of angelic white elephants, and other black, red, and purple
+elephants all with wings. An attendant declared that elephants supported
+the various quarters of the globe and used to have wings, but one day in
+flying they fell down upon a Rishi (Saint) and disturbed his devotions,
+whereupon he induced the gods to deprive them of their flying powers. It
+is always dangerous to offend Saints.
+
+From Tanjore a night's journey took us to Madura, where we stayed with Mr.
+Turner, the Collector of the District, in an interesting and remarkable
+house. At the time of our visit it belonged to the Johnston family, but
+they let it to the Government that the rent might pay for a Scholarship at
+the Madras College. The principal living-room was rather like a church,
+having forty columns in it, and, the floor being on different levels and
+divided in various ways, it served for sitting-room, dining-, and
+billiard-room. From one corner a winding staircase led to a terrace from
+which opened bedrooms. Below the living-room were vaults or dungeons where
+wild beasts and prisoners were confined in the old days when the house was
+a sort of Summer Palace. In one of these vaults tradition said that a
+queen was starved to death.
+
+[Sidenote: "THE HEART OF MONTROSE"]
+
+My bedroom, a very large room, was rendered additionally attractive as
+having been the temporary resting-place of the heart of Montrose, enclosed
+in a little steel case made of the blade of his sword. Lord Napier of
+Merchiston, descended from Montrose's nephew, gave this to his daughter
+(afterwards Mrs. Johnston) on his death-bed, 1773, in a gold filigree box
+of Venetian workmanship. When Mr. and Mrs. Johnston were on their way to
+India their ship was attacked by a French frigate and Mr. Johnston with
+the captain's permission took charge of four quarter-deck guns. Mrs.
+Johnston refused to leave her husband and remained on deck holding her
+son, aged five, by one hand and in the other a large velvet reticule
+including, with several treasures, the gold filigree box. A shot wounded
+the lady's arm, bruised the child's hand, knocked down the father, and
+shattered the filigree box, but the steel case with the heart resisted the
+blow.
+
+Arrived at Madura Mrs. Johnston employed a native goldsmith to make a
+filigree box after the pattern of that which was damaged, and also a
+silver urn in which it was placed and which stood on an ebony table in the
+then drawing-room. The natives soon started a legend that the urn
+contained a talisman, and that whoever possessed it could never be wounded
+in battle or taken prisoner. Owing to this report it was stolen, and for
+some time could not be traced, but at last Mrs. Johnston learnt that it
+had been purchased by a neighbouring chief for a large sum of money.
+
+Mr. A. Johnston, her son, in a letter to his daughters dated 1836 and
+published as an appendix to Napier's _Life of Montrose_, relates the
+particulars which he had heard from his mother, and further his own
+experiences, which give an impression of very familiar friendship between
+English and natives in days when the former were largely isolated from
+intercourse with home.
+
+Young Alexander Johnston was sent each year by his father during the
+hunting season to stay with one or other of the neighbouring chiefs for
+four months together to acquire the different languages and native
+gymnastic exercises. On one occasion he was hunting in company with the
+chief who was supposed to have the urn, and distinguished himself by so
+wounding a wild hog that his companion was enabled to dispatch it.
+Complimenting the youth on his bravery, the chief asked in what way he
+could recognise his prowess.
+
+Young Johnston thereupon told the history of the urn and its contents, and
+begged the great favour of its restoration to his mother if it were really
+in his friend's possession. The chivalrous native replied that he had
+indeed purchased it for a large sum, not knowing that it was stolen from
+Mrs. Johnston, and added that one brave man should always attend to the
+wishes of another brave man no matter of what country or religion, and
+that he felt it a duty to carry out that brave man's wish who desired that
+his heart should be kept by his descendants. With Oriental magnanimity he
+accompanied the restored heart with rich presents to the youth and his
+mother.
+
+In after years this chief rebelled against the authority of the Nabob of
+Arcot, was conquered by the aid of English troops, and executed with many
+members of his family. He behaved with undaunted courage, and on hearing
+that he was to die, at once alluded to the story of the urn and expressed
+the hope that his heart would be preserved by those who cared for him, in
+the same way as that of the European warrior.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Johnston returned to Europe in 1792, and being in France when
+the Revolutionary Government required the surrender of all gold and silver
+articles in private possession, they entrusted the urn and its contents to
+an Englishwoman at Boulogne, who promised to secrete it. Unfortunately she
+died shortly afterwards, and the Johnstons were never able to trace the
+lost treasure.
+
+Mr. Alexander Johnston adds that he ultimately received from the French
+Government the value of the plate and jewels which his parents had been
+compelled to give up to the Calais municipality. It is, however, unlikely
+that he would have recovered the heart thirty or forty years
+afterwards--unless indeed Mrs. Johnston had kept it in its little steel
+case and surrendered the urn.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PALACE OF MADURA]
+
+The old Palace at Madura is a fine building, now used for a court of
+justice. At the time of our visit recollections of the Prince of Wales
+(Edward VII) still prevailed. When he arrived at the Palace a row of
+elephants was stationed on either side of the court on to which the
+principal buildings opened. All the elephants duly salaamed at a given
+signal except one--perhaps inoculated with Bolshevik principles. Whereupon
+the stage-manager of the proceedings called out in Tamil to the mahout of
+the recalcitrant animal, "I fine you five rupees!"
+
+One of the purdah Ranees still occupied a side room of the Palace, and our
+host Mr. Turner with another man was stationed to guard the door. The
+Prince, however, feeling that "nice customs curtsy to great kings," put
+them aside and entered the apartment with all his suite. The Ranee was
+much flurried at first, but finally fascinated, and afterwards gave him a
+handsome necklace.
+
+From delightful terraces on the Palace roof you get an extensive view of
+the town and surrounding country. There are two fine hills, one called
+Secundermullai, as Alexander the Great is supposed to have camped there,
+the other Elephantmullai, from a legend that the Chola (Tanjore) King's
+magician made him a gigantic elephant, but the Pandyan (Madura) King's
+magician changed it into a mountain. As the mountain bears a decided
+resemblance to an elephant, who will doubt the tale?
+
+The most striking feature of Madura is the immense Temple, of which the
+size, the decorations, and the wealth displayed are impressive evidence of
+the vitality of the Hindu faith. Four gôpurams or towers guard the
+entrances to the halls, galleries, arcades, and courts within the sacred
+precincts. One hall is called the Hall of a Thousand Pillars and is said
+really to contain 997. In the galleries are colossal figures of dragons,
+gods, goddesses, and heroes, groups being often carved out of one gigantic
+monolith.
+
+The presiding deity is Minachi, the old Dravidian fish-goddess adopted by
+the Brahmins as identical with Parvati, wife of Siva. The Brahmins
+constantly facilitated the conversion of the lower races to their faith by
+admitting their tutelar deities to the Hindu Pantheon. The great
+flag-staff of Minachi (alias Parvati) is overlaid with gold. There are a
+thousand Brahmins and attendants employed about the Temple, which has an
+annual income of 70,000 rupees, and shortly before our visit the
+Nättuköttai Chetties or native money-lenders had spent 40,000 rupees on
+the fabric.
+
+The Treasury contains stores of jewels, particularly sapphires, and
+"vehicles" for the gods in the form of elephants, cows, lions, or peacocks
+constructed of, or overlaid with, gold or silver of fine workmanship. Two
+cows, late additions, were pointed out to us as having cost 17,000 rupees.
+
+The Chetties are an immensely wealthy caste, and lavish money in building
+both temples and commodious houses for themselves. At one corner of the
+latter they put a large figure of an Englishman attended by a small
+native, at another an Englishwoman in a crinoline and with rather short
+petticoat. They evidently like to propitiate the powers both seen and
+unseen.
+
+Before the Prince of Wales's visit the Collector asked them to contribute
+a specified sum towards the fund being raised for his entertainment. They
+refused, but offered so much less. They were then shut up in a place
+enclosed with palisades, while a series of notes and messages was
+interchanged with them. They were much amused by the proceedings, which
+they evidently regarded as the proper method of negotiation, and kept
+refusing with roars of laughter, till feeling that they had played the
+game long enough, they consented to give the sum originally asked and were
+released.
+
+[Sidenote: ROUS PETER'S SACRED DOOR]
+
+Among the many objects of interest in the temple one of the quaintest was
+a _door_ dedicated to a former Collector called Rous Peter. He used to
+worship Minachi in order to obtain any money that he wanted from the
+Pagoda Treasury for the repair of the roads and other public purposes.
+
+After his death the Brahmins placed him among their devils, and used to
+light little lamps round the door in his honour. A devil was quite as much
+respected as a beneficent deity, indeed it was even more necessary to keep
+him in a good humour. Mr. Peter unfortunately did not always distinguish
+between his own and the public funds and finally poisoned himself.
+
+He had a great friend, one Colonel Fisher, who married a native woman, and
+he and Peter were buried side by side near the Pagoda. Colonel Fisher's
+family were, however, not satisfied with this semi-heathen arrangement and
+later on built a Christian church destined to include their remains. There
+was some little difficulty with the Christian authorities about this, but
+ultimately it was amicably settled. When we were at Madura a screen behind
+the altar shut off from the rest of the church the part where they were
+buried, to which the natives came with garlands to place on Peter's tomb.
+
+As is well known, such semi-deification of Europeans who had captivated
+Indian imagination was not uncommon. We heard of a colonel buried in
+another part of the Presidency on whose grave the natives offered brandy
+and cheroots as a fitting tribute to his tastes.
+
+A twenty-three hours' journey brought us back to Madras on the afternoon
+of December 16th. We had greatly enjoyed our few days in the new world of
+Southern India, and were impressed with the hold that the Hindu faith
+still had on the population.
+
+During the whole of our stay at Madras Lord Connemara and his staff made
+every effort for our enjoyment. Mr. Rees (Private Secretary) was
+especially kind in arranging that I should see, not only the Public
+Museums and other Institutions, but also some of the private houses to
+which Europeans were not generally admitted. Among the excellent
+representatives of the British Government were the Minister of Education,
+Mr. Grigg, and Mrs. Grigg. Madras owes much to them both--the native girls
+particularly to Mrs. Grigg. Their son, who acted as one of Lord
+Connemara's pages at the Investiture of the Maharajah of Travancore, is
+now Sir Edward Grigg, whose knowledge of the Empire has been invaluable to
+the Prince of Wales, and who is now Secretary to the Prime Minister.
+
+One of the most prominent educational institutions at Madras was the
+Scottish Free Church Mission which had a College for boys and Schools for
+girls of different castes. These included some Christians, but there was
+no claim to any large number of conversions. All scholars learnt to read
+the Bible, and no doubt a good system of morality was inculcated. I
+believe that had we gone to Trichinopoly we should have found many more
+Christians. It is much easier to convert pariahs and low-caste natives,
+numerous in Southern India, than those of the higher castes, who have to
+give up social position and worldly advantage if they change their faith.
+Lord Connemara often received very amusing correspondence. One letter was
+from a luckless husband who wrote: "Nothing is more unsuitable than for a
+man to have more than one wife. I have three, and I pray your Excellency
+to banish whichever two you please to the Andaman Islands or some other
+distant country."
+
+[Sidenote: LOYALTY OF NATIVE INDIANS]
+
+When we first visited India at all events the natives had implicit faith
+in English power and justice even when their loyalty left something to be
+desired. An Englishman was talking to a man suspected of pro-Russian
+sympathies, and pointed out to him the way in which Russians treated their
+own subjects. "If Russia took India," he said, "what would you do if a
+Russian tried to confiscate your property?" "In that case," was the prompt
+reply, "I should appeal to the High Court." For the most part, however,
+they were intensely loyal to the person of the Sovereign.
+
+When Queen Victoria's statue was unveiled at the time of the First Jubilee
+the natives came in thousands to visit it, and to "do poojah," presenting
+offerings of cocoa-nuts, etc. The statue was in bronze, and they expressed
+great pleasure in finding that their Mother was brown after all; they had
+hitherto imagined her to be white!
+
+We had arranged to sail from Madras to Calcutta by a British India named
+the _Pundua_, which ought to have landed us there in good time for
+Christmas, but our voyage had many checks. First the hydraulic unloading
+machinery of that "perfidious bark" went wrong, and we were only taken on
+board three days later than the scheduled time for starting. Starting at
+all from Madras was not particularly easy in those days, for the harbour
+had been constructed on a somewhat doubtful principle; nature had not done
+much for it, and the results of science and engineering had been seriously
+damaged by a cyclone. As Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff had sagely remarked,
+"Any plan is a good one if you stick to it," but the damaged walls were
+being rebuilt somewhat tentatively and there was no conviction as to the
+ultimate outcome. Probably there is now a satisfactory structure, but in
+our time there was not much protection for the boat which carried us to
+the _Pundua_. Mr. Rees was to accompany us to Calcutta, and Lord Connemara
+and Lord Marsham took us on board. We had taken tender farewells of all
+our friends ashore and afloat--the Governor had gone back in his boat,
+when we heard an explosion followed by a fizzing. A few minutes later the
+captain came up and said, "Very sorry, but we cannot start to-day." "What
+has happened?" "The top of the cylinder has blown off." Much humiliated we
+had to return with our luggage to Government House, and to appear at what
+was called "The Dignity Ball" in the evening.
+
+Next day (December 22nd) we really did get off; the wretched _Pundua_
+possessed three cylinders, so one was disconnected, and she arranged to
+proceed at two-third speed with the others. This meant something over nine
+knots an hour, and, after sticking on a sandbank near the mouth of the
+Hoogli, we ultimately reached the neighbourhood of Diamond Harbour on
+December 26th, and by means of a Post Office boat, and train, reached
+Calcutta and Government House late that evening.
+
+[Sidenote: PASSENGERS ON THE "PUNDUA"]
+
+When I went on board the _Pundua_ I was shown into the good-sized "Ladies
+Cabin" and told that I could have that and the adjoining bathroom to
+myself. In reply to my inquiry as to whether the other ladies on board
+would not want it, I was told that there was only one other lady and she
+was not in the habit of using the bath! This seemed queer, till I
+discovered that she was the heroine of one of the tragedies which
+sometimes occur in the East. She was the daughter of a family of mixed
+European and Indian parentage. The other children were dusky but
+respectable. She was white, and rather handsome, and fascinated a luckless
+young Englishman of good family, who married her, only to discover that
+she was extravagant and given to flirtation. They were on their way to a
+post--tea-planting if I remember aright--somewhere to the North of India.
+When they first left England the husband was very sea-sick, and the wife
+carried on a violent flirtation with another passenger and was also
+described as swearing and drinking. When the husband recovered she
+insisted on his shooting her admirer, and on his declining tried to shoot
+her husband. The captain, however, seized the revolver and shut her up in
+a second-class cabin. She was only allowed to dine with the first-class
+passengers on Christmas evening. Poor husband! I believe that he was quite
+a good fellow, but I do not know their subsequent fate.
+
+We also had on board an orchid-hunter who had given up the destination
+which he had originally proposed to himself, because he discovered that a
+rival was going to some new field for exploration, and as he could not let
+him have the sole chance of discovering the beautiful unknown flower of
+which there were rumours, he set off to hunt _him_. All the material for a
+novel, if only the lady with the revolver had formed an alliance,
+offensive and defensive, with the orchid-hunter. Unfortunately we did not
+learn the after-history of any of these fellow-passengers.
+
+We were warmly welcomed at Government House, Calcutta, by Lord and Lady
+Lansdowne. Lord Lansdowne, an old school and college friend of Jersey's,
+had just taken over the reins of Government from Lord Dufferin. Lord
+William Beresford, another old friend of my husband's, was Military
+Secretary, and Colonel Ardagh Private Secretary. Sir Donald Mackenzie
+Wallace, who had been so eminently successful as Private Secretary to the
+late Viceroy, was staying on for a short time to place his experience at
+the service of the new rulers. The aides-de-camp were Major Rowan
+Hamilton, Captain Streatfeild, Captain Arthur Pakenham, Captain Harbord,
+and Lord Bingham.
+
+We found that the tardy arrival of our unfortunate _Pundua_ had not only
+been a disappointment to ourselves, but, alas! a great grief to many of
+the Calcutta ladies, as it was bringing out their new frocks for the
+Viceroy's Christmas Ball. I hope that it proved a consolation to many that
+the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal gave a ball at Belvedere two days after
+the ship came in, when no doubt the dresses were unpacked. Lady
+Lansdowne's pretty daughter, now Duchess of Devonshire, was just out and
+therefore able to attend this ball.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BRAHMO SOMAJ]
+
+We spent a few very pleasant days at Calcutta and met various interesting
+people. Amongst them was Protap Chunder Mozoondar, Head of the Brahmo
+Somaj (i.e. Society Seeking God). He paid me a special visit to expound
+the tenets of his Society, which, as is well known, was founded by Babu
+Chunder Sen, father of the (Dowager) Maharanee of Kuch Behar. Briefly, the
+ideas of the Society are based on natural theology, or the human instinct,
+which tells almost all men that there is a God. The Brahmo Somaj accepts a
+large portion of the Holy Books of all nations, especially the Vedas and
+the Bible. It acknowledges Christ as a Divine Incarnation and Teacher of
+Righteousness, but again it does not regard His atonement as necessary to
+salvation. My informant's view was that Christian missionaries did not
+sufficiently take into account Hindu feelings, and enforced unnecessary
+uniformity in dress, food, and outward ceremonies. This is quite possible,
+but it would be difficult for a Christian missionary not to insist on the
+Sacraments, which form no essential part of the Brahmo Somaj ritual.
+
+Babu Chunder Sen's own sermons or discourses in England certainly go
+beyond a mere acknowledgment of Christ as a Teacher and express deep
+personal devotion to him and acceptance of His atonement in the sense of
+at-one-ment, or bringing together the whole human race, and he regards the
+Sacraments as a mystical sanctification of the ordinary acts of
+bathing--so congenial to the Indian--and eating. However, in some such way
+Protap Chunder Mozoondar seemed to think that a kind of Hinduised
+Christianity would ultimately prevail in India.
+
+It is impossible for an ordinary traveller to form an opinion worth having
+on such a point, but the Brahmo Somaj, like most religious bodies, has
+been vexed by schism. Babu Chunder Sen among other reforms laid down that
+girls should not be given in marriage before the age of fourteen, but his
+own daughter was married to the wealthy young Maharajah Kuch Behar before
+that age. This created some prejudice, though the marriage was a
+successful one, and she was a highly educated and attractive woman. She
+had a great reverence for her father, and in after years gave me some of
+his works. Another pundit, later on, started another Brahmo Somaj
+community of his own. The explanation of this given to me by Kuch Behar
+himself was that he was a "Parti" and that this other teacher (whose name
+I have forgotten) wanted him to marry his daughter, but he chose Miss Sen
+instead! I fear that this is not a unique example of church history
+affected by social considerations.
+
+While at Calcutta we received a telegram to say that Villiers had reached
+Bombay and we met him at Benares on New Year's Day, 1889. He had come out
+escorted by a Mr. Ormond, who wanted to come to India with a view to work
+there and was glad to be engaged as Villiers's travelling companion.
+Rather a curious incident was connected with their voyage. A young Mr. S.
+C. had come out on our ship the _Arcadia_--on Villiers's ship a youth
+travelled who impersonated this same man. The amusing part was that a very
+excellent couple, Lord and Lady W. (both now dead), were on the same ship.
+Lady W. was an old friend of Mrs. S. C.--the real man's mother--but, as it
+happened, had not seen the son since his boyhood. Naturally she accepted
+him under the name he had assumed, and effusively said that she had nursed
+him on her knee as a child. The other passengers readily accepted him as
+the boy who had been nursed on Lady W.'s knee, and it was not until he had
+landed in India that suspicion became excited by the fact that there were
+_two_ S. C.'s in the field and that number Two wished to raise funds on
+his personality. This assumption of someone else's name is common enough,
+and every traveller must have come across instances, but it was rather
+funny that our son and ourselves should have travelled with the respective
+claimants.
+
+[Sidenote: MAHARAJAH OF BENARES]
+
+At Benares we were taken in hand by a retired official--a Jain--rejoicing
+in the name of Rajah Shiva Prashad. We stayed at Clark's Hotel, while
+Shiva Prashad showed us all the well-known sights of the Holy City, and
+also took us to pay a formal visit to the "Maharajah _of the people_ of
+Benares." It is curious that the Maharajah should have adopted that name,
+just as Louis Philippe called himself "King of the French" rather than "of
+France" to indicate less absolute power. The Maharajah's modesty was due
+to the fact that Shiva is supposed to uphold Benares on his trident, and
+bears the name of "Mahadeva"--Great God, or Ruler of the City--so the
+earthly potentate can only look after the people--not claim the city
+itself.
+
+The Maharajah's Palace was on the river in a kind of suburb called
+Ramnagar, to which we were taken on a barge. We were received at the
+water-steps by a Babu seneschal, at the Castle steps by the Maharajah's
+grandson, and at the door of a hall, or outer room, by the Maharajah
+himself--a fine old man with spectacles. It was all very feudal; we were
+seated in due state in the drawing-room, and after some polite
+conversation, translated by our friend the Rajah, who squatted on the
+floor at the Maharajah's feet, we were entertained with native music and
+nautch-dancing. After we had taken leave of our host we inspected his
+tigers, kept, I suppose, as an emblem of his rank. Shiva Prashad told us a
+romantic tale of his own life, according to which he first entered the
+service of the Maharajah of Bhurtpore, but was disgusted by the cruelty
+which he saw exercised--prisoners thrown into miserable pits, and only
+given water mixed with salt to drink. He left the Maharajah, and thought
+of becoming an ascetic, but being taunted by his relatives for his failure
+in life, he (rather like St. Christopher) determined to enter the service
+of someone "greater than the Maharajah." He discovered this superior power
+in the British Government, which gave him an appointment in the Persian
+Department.
+
+While there he somehow found himself with Lord Hardinge and three thousand
+men arrayed against sixty thousand Sikhs. The Council of War recommended
+falling back and waiting for reinforcements, "but Lord Hardinge pronounced
+these memorable words--'We must fight and conquer or fall here.'" They
+fought--and first one three thousand, then another three thousand friendly
+troops joined in, so the Homeric combat ended in their favour, and Prashad
+himself was employed as a spy. Afterwards he retired to the more peaceful
+occupation of School Inspector, and when we knew him enjoyed a pension and
+landed property.
+
+[Sidenote: MARRIAGES OF INFANTS AND WIDOWS]
+
+He posed as a perfect specimen of a happy and contented man, and had much
+to say about the excellence of the British Raj and the ignorance and
+prejudice of his own countrymen, whom he said we could not understand as
+we persisted in comparing them with Europeans--that is, with reasonable
+beings, whereas they had not so much sense as animals! All the same I
+think a good deal of this contempt for the Hindu was assumed for our
+benefit, particularly as the emancipation of women evidently formed no
+part of his programme. He gave an entertaining account of a visit paid by
+Miss Carpenter to his wife and widowed sister. Miss Carpenter was a
+philanthropic lady of about fifty, with hair beginning to grizzle, who
+carried on a crusade against infant marriage and the prohibition of the
+remarriage of widows. "Well," was the comment of Mrs. Prashad, "I married
+when I was seven and my husband nine and I have been happy. How is it that
+this lady has remained unmarried till her hair is growing grey? Has no one
+asked her? There ought to be a law in England that no one shall remain
+unmarried after a certain age!" The sister countered an inquiry as to her
+continued widowhood with the question, "Why does not the Empress marry
+again?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME
+
+
+From Benares we went to Lucknow, where we had the good fortune to meet Sir
+Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts, and Lady Roberts, who were
+exceedingly kind to us during our stay. We had one most interesting
+expedition under their auspices. We and some others met them by
+appointment at Dilkusha, a suburban, ruined house of the former King of
+Oude from which Sir Colin Campbell had started to finally relieve Outram
+and Havelock in November 1857. Roberts, then a young subaltern, was, as is
+well known, of the party, and he took us as nearly as possible over the
+ground which they had traversed. Havelock, who had previously brought
+relief to the garrison, but not enough to raise the siege of Lucknow, had
+sent word to Sir Colin not to come the same way that he had, as it
+entailed too much fighting and loss to break right through the houses held
+by the rebels, but to keep more to the right. Sir Frederick pointed out
+the scenes of several encounters with the enemy, and one spot where he,
+sent on a message, was nearly lost--also Secunderabagh, a place with a
+strong wall all round it, where the British found and killed two thousand
+rebels, the British shouting "Remember Cawnpore!" to each man as they
+killed him.
+
+[Sidenote: THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW]
+
+Each party--Campbell's, and Havelock's who advanced to join them--put
+flags on the buildings they captured as signals to their friends. At last
+they respectively reached the Moti Mahal or Pearl Palace. Here Sir
+Frederick showed us the wall on which the two parties, one on either side,
+worked till they effected a breach and met each other. Then Sir Colin
+Campbell, who was at the Mess House just across the road, came forward and
+was greeted by Generals Outram and Havelock--and the relief was complete.
+
+Sir Frederick had not seen the wall since the breach had been built up
+again, but he pointed out its whereabouts, and Jersey found the new
+masonry which identified the spot. Colonel May, who had come with us from
+Dilkusha, then took us over the Residency in which he, then a young
+engineer, had been shut up during the whole of the siege. It was amazing
+to see the low walls which the besieged had managed to defend for so long,
+particularly as they were then overlooked by comparatively high houses
+held by the rebels which had since been levelled to the ground. Colonel
+May indicated all the posts, and the places of greatest danger, but there
+was danger everywhere, except perhaps in the underground rooms in which
+250 women and children of the 32nd were lodged. Cannon-balls were always
+flying about--he told us of one lady the back of whose chair was blown
+away while she was sitting talking to him just outside the house, and of a
+cannon-ball which passed between the knees of a Mrs. Kavanagh, while she
+was in the verandah, without injuring her. We also saw the place where the
+rebels twice assembled in thousands crying "Give us Gubbins Sahib and we
+will go away." They particularly hated Mr. Gubbins, as he was Financial
+Commissioner.
+
+Sir Frederick said the ladies seemed quite dazed as they came out, and
+told us of one whom he knew who came out with two children, but
+subsequently lost her baby, while her husband was killed in the Mutiny.
+She, he said, never fully recovered her senses. No wonder, poor woman! One
+quaint thing we were told was that the rebels played themselves into
+quarters every evening with "God save the Queen."
+
+One unfortunate incident marred an otherwise delightful time at Lucknow. A
+sham fight took place, and Sir Frederick Roberts was good enough to lend a
+horse to Jersey and a beautiful pony to Villiers in order that they might
+witness it. Villiers, boylike, tried to ride his pony up the steep bank of
+a nullah. It fell back with him, and he suffered what was called a "green
+fracture," the bones of his forearm being bent near the wrist. They had to
+be straightened under chloroform. We were able to leave Lucknow two days
+later, but the arm rather hampered him during the rest of our journey.
+
+Delhi was our next stopping-place, where we had a most interesting time,
+being entertained by the Officer Commanding, Colonel Hanna--who had during
+the siege been employed in helping to keep open the lines of communication
+so as to supply food and munitions to the troops on the Ridge. He was
+therefore able to show us from personal knowledge all the scenes of the
+fighting and relief, as well as all the well-known marvels of architecture
+and the glories left by the great Moghuls. His house was near the old
+fortifications, which I believe are now demolished for sanitary reasons,
+but it was then a joy to look out of the windows, and see the little
+golden-brown squirrels which frequented the old moat, with the two marks
+on their backs left by Krishna's fingers when he caressed their
+progenitors.
+
+We were thrilled by his stories of events of which he had been an
+eye-witness, culminating in his account of the three days during which
+the British troops were permitted to sack the reconquered city. My husband
+remarked that he would not have stopped them at the end of three days.
+"Yes, you would, had you been there," said Colonel Hanna. It must be very
+hard to restrain men maddened by weeks of hardship and the recollection of
+atrocities perpetrated by their foes, if they are once let loose in the
+stronghold of their enemies. The troops camped on the Ridge, and losing
+their bravest from hour to hour seem to have had at least one advantage
+over the defenders of Lucknow--they did not suffer from the terrible
+shortage of water.
+
+[Sidenote: VIEW FROM THE KOTAB MINAR]
+
+Without attempting an account of all the palaces, tombs, and mosques which
+we saw, I must just say that nothing that I have ever seen is so
+impressive in its way as the view from the Kotab Minar after you have
+scaled the 375 steps to its tapering summit. Over the great plain are
+scattered the vestiges of deserted cities built by the conquerors and
+emperors of two thousand years, a history culminating on the Ridge of
+Delhi, where Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress, and where her grandson
+received in person the homage of the feudatory princes and chiefs over
+whom he was destined to rule. Even the Campagna of Rome has not that array
+of skeletons of past and bygone cities actually displayed before the eyes
+of the beholder, each bearing the name of some ruler whose name and deeds
+are half remembered although his dynasty has passed away.
+
+One of these cities is Tughlakabad, with the tomb of Tughlak and his son
+Juna. The latter was a horrid tyrant who maimed and ill-treated many
+victims. His cousin and successor Feroz seems to have been a merciful and
+pious ruler: he compensated the injured as far as possible and got them to
+write deeds of indemnity, which he placed in Juna's tomb that the latter
+might present them on the day of judgment. One cannot help thinking that
+Feroz rather than Juna may benefit from this action at the Great Assize.
+
+On January 12th we went to spend Saturday to Monday with Major and Mrs.
+Paley at Meerut. Our nephew George Wombwell was laid up at Colonel
+Morris's house there with typhoid fever. He seemed to be recovering, and
+after making arrangements for a nurse and every attention we returned to
+Delhi on Monday. We were afraid to keep Villiers in a cantonment station
+with illness about. Alas! Jersey was summoned back a few days later, when
+we were at Agra, as George became worse, and died. It was very sad.
+
+At Agra we went first to Lauri's Hotel, but Sir John Tyler, Superintendent
+of the Jail, persuaded us to come and stay with him, which was really a
+great thing, as Villiers had by no means completely recovered from the
+effect of his accident, and Sir John being a surgeon was able to look
+after him. Needless to say we visited the famous Taj by moonlight and by
+day, each time finding fresh beauties. I venture to quote a sentence about
+it from an article which I wrote concerning India published in _The
+Nineteenth Century_, because Sir Edwin Arnold was polite enough to say
+that I had discovered a fault which had escaped the observation of himself
+and his fellows:
+
+    "The Taj, that fairy palace of a love stronger than death, sprung from
+    sunset clouds and silvered by the moon, has but one fault--it is too
+    perfect. Nothing is left to the imagination. There are no mysterious
+    arches, no unfinished columns, nothing is there that seems to speak of
+    human longing and unfulfilled aspiration; you feel that a conqueror
+    has made Art his slave, and the work is complete; you can demand
+    nothing more exquisite in this world."
+
+[Sidenote: SEKUNDRA AND FUTTEHPORE-SEKREE]
+
+Among the many wonders of Agra and its neighbourhood I was specially
+impressed by the Tomb of the Great Akbar at Sekundra. As in the case of
+the Taj, the real tomb is underneath the building, but in the Taj the Show
+Tomb is simply in a raised chamber something like a chapel, whereas
+Akbar's Show Tomb is on a platform at the summit of a series of red
+sandstone buildings piled on each other and gradually diminishing in size.
+The tomb, most beautifully carved, is surrounded by a finely worked marble
+palisade and arcade running round the platform. Presumptuously, I took
+this mighty erection as an ideal for a scene in a child's story, _Eric,
+Prince of Lorlonia_.
+
+We were also delighted with Futtehpore-Sekree, the great city which Akbar
+built and then deserted because it had no water. It reminded us of
+Pompeii, though perhaps it had less human interest it had a greater
+imprint of grandeur. The great Archway or High Gate, erected 1602 to
+commemorate Akbar's conquests in the Deccan, has a striking Arabic
+inscription, concluding with the words:
+
+    "Said Jesus on whom be peace! The world is a bridge; pass over it, but
+    build no house there: he who hopeth for an hour may hope for eternity:
+    the world is but an hour; spend it in devotion: the rest is unseen."
+
+The greatest possible art has been lavished on the tomb of the hermit
+Sheikh Suleem. This holy man had a baby six months old when Akbar paid him
+a visit. Seeing his father look depressed instead of elated by the honour,
+the precocious infant asked the cause. The hermit must have been too much
+absorbed in religious meditation to study the habits of babies, for
+instead of being startled by the loquacity of his offspring he confided to
+him that he grieved that the Emperor could not have an heir unless some
+other person sacrificed his child. "By your worship's leave," said baby,
+"I will die that a Prince may be born," and before the father had time to
+remonstrate calmly expired. As a result of this devotion Jehanghir was
+born, and Akbar built Futtehpore-Sekree in the neighbourhood of the
+hermit's abode.
+
+When Sheikh Suleem died he was honoured with a splendid tomb inlaid with
+mother-of-pearl and enclosed in a marble summer-house with a beautifully
+carved screen to which people who want children tie little pieces of wool.
+Apparently a little addition to the offering of wool is desirable, as the
+priest who acted as guide assured us that an English officer who had a
+blind child tied on the wool, but also promised our informant a hundred
+rupees if the next was all right. The next was a boy with perfect eyesight
+and the priest had his reward.
+
+Beside the baby's tomb, which is in an outer cemetery, we saw a little
+tomb erected by a woman whose husband was killed in the Afghan War over
+one of his old teeth!
+
+We were fortunate in having Sir John Tyler as our host at Agra, for as
+Superintendent of the Jail he was able to ensure that we should have the
+best possible carpets, which we wanted for Osterley, made there. They were
+a long time coming, but they were well worth it. Abdul Kerim, Queen
+Victoria's Munshi, was a friend of his, in fact I believe that Sir John
+had selected him for his distinguished post. He was on leave at Agra at
+the time of our visit, and we went to a Nautch given at his father's
+house in honour of the Bismillah ceremony of his nephew.
+
+From Agra we visited Muttra, where we were the guests of the Seth Lachman
+Das--a very rich and charitable old man of the Bunyah (banker and
+money-lender) caste. He lodged us in a bungalow generally let to some
+English officers who were temporarily absent, and he and his nephew did
+all in their power to show us the sights at Muttra and in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BIRTHPLACE OF KRISHNA]
+
+Amongst other sacred spots we were taken to Krishna's birthplace. It was
+curious that though, throughout India, there are magnificent temples and
+rock-carvings in honour of Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna, his
+birthplace was only marked by a miserable little building with two dolls
+representing Krishna's father and mother.
+
+The legend of Krishna's babyhood is a curious echo of the birth of our
+Lord and the crossing of the Red Sea combined. It seems that a wicked
+Tyrant wanted to kill the child but his foster-father carried him over the
+river near Muttra, and as soon as the water touched the infant's feet it
+receded and they passed over dry shod. In memory of this event little
+brass basins are sold with an image within of the man carrying the child
+in his arms. The child's foot projects, and if one pours water into the
+basin it runs away as soon as it touches the toe. I do not know what may
+be the hydraulic trick, but certainly it is necessary to put the brass
+basin into a larger one before trying the experiment to receive the water
+which runs out at the bottom. The little birthplace building was in the
+courtyard of a mosque--part of which was reserved for the Hindus.
+
+The Seth had built a temple in Muttra itself, where he annually expended
+large sums in feeding the poor, and he and his family had erected a still
+finer one at Brindaban, a famous place of pilgrimage in the neighbourhood,
+where they had set up a flag-staff 120 feet high overlaid with real gold.
+Seth Lachman Das maintained at his own expense twenty-five priests and
+fifteen attendants besides fifty boys who were fed and instructed in the
+Shastras. As at Madura, we were struck by these rich men's apparent faith
+in their own religion.
+
+After visiting Deeg and Bhurtpore, we reached the pretty Italian-looking
+town of Ulwar. The Maharajah, who was an enlightened potentate, had
+unfortunately gone into camp, but we were interested in the many tokens of
+his care for his subjects and of his artistic tastes. He kept men
+executing illuminations like the old monks.
+
+When we visited the jail I was admitted to the quarters of the female
+prisoners, who seemed quite as anxious to show the labels which they
+carried recording their crimes, as schoolchildren are to display their
+exercises or needlework when one visits a school. One smiling woman
+brought me a label inscribed "Bigamy," which struck me as rather ludicrous
+considering the circumstances, and also a little unfair to the criminal.
+Indian men are allowed several wives--why was she punished for having more
+than one husband? Probably, however, she was safer locked up in prison
+than left at the mercy of two husbands, one of whom would almost certainly
+have cut off her nose if he had an access of jealousy.
+
+After Ulwar we spent a few days at that most attractive city, Jeypore,
+called by Sir Edwin Arnold the "City of Victory," a victorious Maharajah
+having transferred his capital there from the former picturesque town of
+Amber. The principal street of Jeypore has houses on either side painted
+pink, which has a brilliant effect in the sunlight, but when we were there
+the paint certainly wanted renewing. The Maharajah was a rarely
+intelligent man, and he had a particularly clever and agreeable Dewan--or
+Prime Minister. We made great friends with the English doctor--Dr.
+Hendley--who not only attended some of the native nobles, but also was
+able to superintend the English lady doctor and thereby help the native
+ladies. Formerly when a child was born a live goat was waved over its head
+and the blood of a cock sprinkled on it and its mother. Mother and child
+were then kept for a fortnight without air, and with a charcoal fire
+constantly burning, more charcoal being added if the child cried.
+Mercifully the younger ladies and their husbands were beginning to realise
+the comfort of English treatment on these occasions.
+
+[Sidenote: THE JAINS]
+
+On our way from Muttra to Ahmedabad we slept at the Rajpootana Hotel,
+about sixteen miles from Mount Abu Station, in order to visit the Dilwarra
+Temples of the Jains. The Jains are a sect of very strict
+Buddhists--almost the only representatives of the Buddhists left in
+Hindustan proper. Ceylon and Burmah are Buddhist, so are some of the lands
+on the Northern Frontier, but the Brahmins contrived to exterminate
+Buddhism in the great Peninsula in the eighth century after it had spread
+and flourished there for about a thousand years. These Dilwarra temples
+are well worth a visit. The pious founder is said to have bought the land
+for as many pieces of silver as would cover it, and to have paid
+£18,000,000 sterling for building, besides £560,000 for levelling the site
+on the steep hill.
+
+Without attempting to guarantee the accuracy of these figures, it may
+safely be said that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find any
+buildings in the world of which the interiors present an equal amount of
+highly finished artistic labour. Outside the temples are low and not
+imposing, inside they are one mass of minute and elaborate sculpture. You
+stand beneath a dome with saints or angels worthy of a Gothic cathedral
+rising to its central point. Around are arcades with pillars and arches,
+beyond which are numerous small chapels or shrines, each with the figure
+of a large cross-legged Rishi or Saint with little rishis in attendance.
+Every inch of arch, arcade, and ceiling is adorned with marvellous carving
+of ornaments, or of men, ships, and animals. We were told that the central
+figure in each temple was "Of the Almighty," who seemed to exact as
+tribute to his power a fearful noise of cymbals and tomtoms. He appeared
+to be not exactly a deity, but a divine emanation. The really perfect Jain
+wore a piece of muslin over his mouth to avoid destroying the life of even
+invisible insects, but such extreme virtue was, I fancy, rare and must
+have been highly uncomfortable.
+
+[Sidenote: THE MAHARAJAH OF BHOWNUGGER]
+
+From Ahmedabad we went to Bhownugger, where we were received in great
+state by the young Maharajah symptuously attired in green velvet and the
+Star of India, and attended by his high officials and a guard of honour.
+We felt very dirty and dusty after a hot journey (thermometer in railway
+carriages nearly 100°) when received with so much splendour, but we liked
+the Maharajah immensely and he became devoted to my husband.
+
+He gave us a splendid time with all sorts of "tamashas" while we were his
+guests, but we were specially interested in his personality. He had been
+educated in the college for young chiefs at Ajmere and had acquired a very
+high standard of ideas of right and wrong and of his duty to his people. I
+expect that, like the rest of us, he often found it hard to carry his
+theories into practice, and it was rather pathetic when, speaking of what
+he wished to do, he added, "We must do the best we can and leave the rest
+to God"--then, looking up at the chandelier hanging in the bungalow in
+which he entertained us, he continued, "God is like that light, and the
+different religions are the different colours through which He shines."
+
+One of his difficulties, poor man, was in his matrimonial arrangements. He
+had married two or three ladies of high rank, as considered suitable by
+the Brahmins, but he had also married to please himself a fair maiden of
+lower caste. He then learnt that if he did not get rid of _her_ the
+Brahmins meant to get rid of _him_. Thereupon he took the Political
+Officer of that part of the country, Captain Ferris, into the middle of
+the tennis ground, as the only spot free from the risk of spies, and
+poured his griefs into the Englishman's sympathetic bosom. Captain
+Ferris's solution was that Mrs. Ferris should call upon the despised Rani,
+as she did on the more orthodox wives, and that the Maharajah should cling
+to his English adviser for several days, driving about with him and never
+leaving him, which would for the time being prevent attempts at
+assassination. What was to happen afterwards I do not know. Perhaps the
+Brahmins became aware that any foul play would bring the English raj down
+upon them. Anyhow, the Maharajah lived to pay a visit to England and came
+to see us there--though he did not attain old age.
+
+We heard a good deal of the harm resulting from the great expense of
+native marriages, including the temptation to infanticide. In the district
+about Ahmedabad the lower castes do not forbid second marriages, and these
+are less expensive than the first. Therefore a girl was sometimes married
+to _a bunch of flowers_, which was then thrown down a well. The husband
+thus disposed of, the widow could contract a second alliance quite
+cheaply.
+
+We then spent two nights as guests of the Thakur Sahib of Limbdi, who,
+like the other Kathiawar Princes of Morvi and Gondal, had been in England
+for the Jubilee, and whom we had known there. All three, particularly
+Limbdi and Gondal, were enlightened men, with various schemes for
+promoting the welfare of their subjects. The life of many of these Indian
+Chiefs recalls the days of Scottish Clans. When we were driving with
+Limbdi he would point out labouring men who saluted as he passed as his
+"cousins," and finally told us that he had six thousand blood relations.
+
+[Sidenote: BARODA]
+
+On February 14th we arrived at Baroda, where we were most hospitably
+entertained by Sir Harry and Lady Prendergast. Baroda, like so many Indian
+cities, offered a picture of transition, or at least blending of East and
+West. As is well known, the late Gaikwar poisoned the British Resident. He
+was tried by a Tribunal of three Indians and three British. The former
+acquitted, the latter condemned him. He was deposed and three boys of the
+family were selected of whom the Maharanee was allowed to adopt one as
+heir. She chose the present Gaikwar, who was educated under British
+auspices, but has not always been happy in his relations with the British
+Government. He however proved quite loyal during the late war. When we
+were at Baroda he had been decorating his Palace in an inferior European
+style. He had bought some fair pictures, but would only give an average of
+£100, as he said that neither he nor his subjects were capable of
+appreciating really good ones. In contrast to these modern arrangements we
+saw the "Chattries" of former Gaikwars. These were funny little rooms,
+something like small loose boxes in a garden surrounding a shrine. In one
+was a doll, representing Kunda Rao's grandfather, in another the ashes of
+his father under a turban with his photograph behind, in yet a third the
+turbans of his mother and two other sons. In each room there were a bed,
+water and other vessels, and little lights burning, the idea being that
+all should be kept in readiness lest the spirits should return to occupy
+the apartments. After all, the rooms of the late Queen of Hanover were
+until lately, perhaps are still, kept as in her lifetime, provided with
+flowers and with a lady-in-waiting in daily attendance; so East and West
+are much alike in their views of honour due to the departed.
+
+Back to Bombay for yet five happy days with our dear friends Lord and Lady
+Reay before saying farewell to India on February 22nd. We had had a truly
+interesting experience during our three and a half months in the Eastern
+Empire, and were deeply impressed by the manner in which so many races
+were knit together under British rule. How far all this may endure under
+the new attempts at Constitution-making by Occidentals for Orientals
+remains to be seen. When we paid this first of our visits to India it was
+perfectly evident that the idea of the Queen-Empress was the corner-stone
+of government. My husband talked to many natives, Maharajahs and
+officials, and would sometimes refer to the leaders of the great English
+political parties. Their names seemed to convey nothing to the Indians,
+but they always brought the conversation back to "The Empress." Disraeli
+was criticised in England for having bestowed that title on his Mistress,
+but we had constant opportunities of seeing its hold upon the Oriental
+mind. "Give my best respects to the Empress," was a favourite mission
+given to Jersey by his Maharajah friends. He conscientiously tried to
+acquit himself thereof when we saw the Queen, who was a good deal amused
+when he painstakingly pronounced their titles and names.
+
+I once heard a story which shows the effect of the Royal ideal on quite a
+different class. A census was in progress and a large number of
+hill-tribes had to be counted. These people had been told a legend that
+the reason for this reckoning was that the climate in England had become
+so hot that a large number of the women were to be transported there to
+act as slaves and fan the Queen--also the men were to be carried off for
+some other servile purpose. Consequently the mass of the people hid
+themselves, to the great embarrassment of the officials. One extremely
+capable man, however, knew the people well and how to deal with them. He
+contrived to induce the leading tribesmen to come and see him. In reply to
+his inquiry they confessed their apprehensions. "You fools," said the
+Englishman, "it is nothing of the sort. I will tell you the reason. You
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Hind?" Yes--they had heard of her. "And you
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Roum?" (the Czar). They had also heard of him.
+"Well, the Kaiser-i-Roum paid a visit to the Kaiser-i-Hind, and when they
+had finished their curry and rice they began talking. He said he had more
+subjects than she, the Kaiser-i-Hind said she had most. To settle the
+matter they laid a heavy bet and both sent orders to count their people.
+If you don't let yourselves be counted the Kaiser-i-Hind will lose the bet
+and your faces will be blackened." The tale of the bet appealed to their
+sporting instincts. All difficulties disappeared. The tribesmen rushed to
+be counted--probably two or three times over.
+
+[Sidenote: ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA]
+
+Again, it was curious to notice how the English language was weaving its
+net over India.
+
+At Jeypore an English-speaking native official had been told off to take
+us about during our stay. When we were thanking him and saying good-bye,
+he remarked that the next person whom he was to conduct was a judge from
+Southern India. The judge was a native Indian, but as he did not know the
+language of the Jeypore State he had sent in advance to ask to be provided
+with a guide who could speak English. Formerly the _lingua franca_ of the
+upper, or educated, classes was Persian, of the lower ones Urdu--the kind
+of Hindustani spoken by the Mohammedan, and afterwards by the English
+army. Of course both languages still prevail, but all educated Indians
+learn English in addition to two or three of the hundred-odd languages
+spoken in the Peninsula. On a later visit a Hyderabad noble was taking my
+daughter and me to see various sights. I noticed that he talked to a good
+many natives in the course of our excursion, and as they appeared to be of
+different castes and occupations, I asked him at last how many languages
+he had talked during the day. After a little reflection he reckoned up
+six. It will not be such a very easy matter to get all these people into
+the category of enlightened electors.
+
+On our voyage home I occupied myself by writing the article already
+mentioned as appearing in _The Nineteenth Century_--from which I extract
+the following supplement to my recollections:
+
+    "Caste is the ruling note in India. The story which tells how the
+    level plains of Kathiawar were reclaimed from the sea illustrates
+    this. The egrets laid their eggs on the former ocean-line and the wave
+    swept them away. The egrets swore that the sea should be filled up
+    until she surrendered the eggs. They summoned the other birds to help
+    them, and all obeyed their call except the eagle. He was the favourite
+    steed of Vishnu, so thought himself exonerated from mundane duties.
+    But Vishnu looked askance at him and said that he should be put out of
+    caste unless he went to help his fellows. Back he flew to Kathiawar,
+    and when the sea saw that the royal bird had joined the ranks of her
+    opponents she succumbed and gave back the eggs.
+
+    "Hindu respect for animal life entails consequences which make one
+    wonder how the earth can provide not only for the swarms of human
+    inhabitants, including unproductive religious mendicants, but also for
+    such numbers of mischievous beasts. Some castes will kill no animals
+    at all, and all Hindus hold so many as sacred that peacocks, monkeys,
+    and pigeons may be seen everywhere, destroying crops and eating people
+    out of house and home. The people of a town, driven to desperation,
+    may be induced to catch the monkeys, fill a train with them, and
+    dispatch it to discharge its cargo at some desolate spot; but woe
+    betide a simicide! The monkeys in any given street will resent and
+    lament the capture of a comrade, but do not care at all if a stranger
+    is carried off. He is not of their caste."
+
+[Sidenote: MEDITATIONS OF A WESTERN WANDERER]
+
+In May 1889--_The National Review_ also published the following verses,
+which I wrote after reading Sir Alfred Lyall's "Meditations of a Hindu
+Prince." I called them "Meditations of a Western Wanderer":
+
+  "All the world over, meseemeth, wherever my footsteps have trod,
+  The nations have builded them temples, and in them have imaged their God.
+  Of the temples the Nature around them has fashioned and moulded the plan,
+  And the gods took their life and their being from the visions and
+      longings of man.
+
+  "So the Greek bade his marble be instinct with curves of the rock-riven
+      foam,
+  Within it enshrining the Beauty and the Lore of his sunlitten home;
+  And the Northman hewed deep in the mountain and reared his huge pillars
+      on high,
+  And drank to the strength of the thunder and the force flashing keen
+      from the sky.
+
+  "But they knew, did those builders of old time, that wisdom and courage
+      are vain,
+  That Persephone rises in springtide to sink in the winter again,
+  That the revelling halls of Walhalla shall crumble when ages have rolled
+  O'er the deep-rooted stem of the World-ash and the hardly-won Treasure
+      of gold.
+
+  "I turn to thee, mystical India, I ask ye, ye Dreamers of earth,
+  Of the Whence and the Whither of spirit, of the tale of its birth and
+      rebirth.
+  For the folks ye have temples and legends and dances to heroes and kings,
+  But ye sages know more, would ye tell it, of the soul with her god-given
+      wings.
+
+  "Ah, nations have broken your barriers; ah, empires have drunk of your
+      stream,
+  And each ere it passed bore its witness, and left a new thought for your
+      dream:
+  The Moslem saith, 'One is the Godhead,' the Brahmin 'Inspiring all,'
+  The Buddhist, 'The Law is Almighty, by which ye shall stand or shall
+      fall.'
+
+  "Yea, verily One the All-Father; yea, Brahmin, all life is from Him,
+  And Righteous the Law of the Buddha, but the path of attainment is dim.
+  Is God not afar from His creature--the Law over-hard to obey?
+  Wherein shall the Life be of profit to man seeing evil bear sway?
+
+  "Must I ask of the faith which to children and not to the wise is
+      revealed?
+  By it shall the mist be uplifted? By it shall the shrine be unsealed?
+  Must I take it, the often-forgotten yet echoing answer of youth--
+  ''Tis I,' saith the Word of the Father, 'am the Way and the Life and the
+      Truth'?
+
+  "The Truth dwelleth ay with the peoples, let priests hide its light as
+      they will;
+  'Tis spirit to spirit that speaketh, and spirit aspireth still;
+  Wherever I seek I shall find it, that infinite longing of man
+  To rise to the house of his Father, to end where his being began.
+
+  "And the secret that gives him the power, the message that shows him the
+      way,
+  Is the Light he will struggle to follow, the Word he perforce will obey.
+  It is not the voice of the whirlwind, nor bolt from the storm-kindled
+      dome;
+  'Tis stillness that bringeth the tidings--the child knows the accents of
+      home."
+
+We had a calm voyage to Suez in the _Bengal_. It was fortunate that it was
+calm--for the _Bengal_ was quite an old-fashioned ship. I think only
+something over 3,000 tons--different from the _Arcadia_, then the
+show-ship of the P. and O. fleet. I was amused once to come across an
+account by Sir Richard Burton of a voyage which he took in the _Bengal_
+years before, when he described the P. and O. as having done away with the
+terrors of ocean travel by having provided such a magnificent vessel.
+
+We spent nine days at Cairo and Alexandria and saw the usual sights, then
+quite new to us; but it is generally a mistake to visit one great land
+with a history and antiquities of its own when the mind has just been
+captured by another. Anyhow, we were so full of the glories of India that
+Egypt failed to make the appeal to us which she would otherwise have done,
+and which she did on subsequent visits. The mosques in particular seemed
+to us inferior to the marble dreams of Delhi and Agra. Moreover on this
+occasion we did not ascend the Nile and see the wonderful temples. The one
+thing which really impressed me was the Sphinx, though I regret to say
+that my husband and son entirely declined to share my feelings. Lord
+Kitchener was then, as Adjutant to Sir Francis Grenfell, Colonel
+Kitchener. He afterwards became a great friend of ours, but we first made
+his acquaintance on this visit to Cairo. We had a most interesting
+inspection of the Barrage works under the guidance of Sir Colin Moncrieff
+and dined with the Khedive, and at the British Agency.
+
+From Alexandria we went by an Egyptian steamer--at least a steamer
+belonging to an Egyptian line--to Athens, which we reached on March 15th,
+accompanied by Lady Galloway. On this voyage I performed the one heroic
+deed of my life, with which bad sailors like myself will sympathise. The
+crew of this ship was mainly Turkish--the native Egyptians being no good
+as seamen, but the captain, Losco by name, was a Maltese and exceedingly
+proud of being a British subject.
+
+[Sidenote: AN ENGLISH PLUM-PUDDING]
+
+The first day of our voyage on the _Béhéra_ was calm, and we sat
+cheerfully at dinner listening to his conversation. He was particularly
+emphatic in his assertions that he understood something of English
+cuisine, I believe taught by his mother, and above all he understood the
+concoction of an English plum-pudding and that it must be boiled for
+twenty-four hours. Said he, "You shall have a plum-pudding for dinner
+tomorrow." Then and there he sent for the steward and gave him full
+instructions. Next evening the plum-pudding duly appeared, but meantime
+the wind had freshened and the sea had risen. Under such conditions I am
+in the habit of retiring to my cabin and remaining prostrate until happier
+hours dawn--but was I to shake, if not shatter, the allegiance of this
+British subject by failing in my duty to a British pudding? I did not
+flinch. I sat through the courses until the pudding was on the table. I
+ate and praised, and then retired.
+
+We reached Athens early on the following morning and forgot rough seas and
+plum-puddings in the pleasure of revisiting our former haunts and showing
+them to Jersey and Villiers. The King and Queen were again good enough to
+ask us to luncheon and dinner, and this time we also found the British
+Minister, Sir Edmund Monson, who had been absent on our previous visit. He
+kindly included Villiers, though barely sixteen years old, in an
+invitation to dinner, and much amusement was caused in diplomatic circles
+by the very pretty daughter of the American Minister, Clarice Fearn. She
+was about seventeen and had evidently been almost deprived of young
+companionship during her sojourn at Athens. She was seated at the British
+Legation between Villiers and a French Secretary no longer in his first
+youth, so she promptly turned to the latter and said, "I am not going to
+talk to you, I am going to talk to Lord Villiers"; result, an animated
+conversation between the youngsters throughout dinner. She at once
+acquired the nickname of "La belle-fille de l'avenir," and long afterwards
+a man who had been at the British Legation some time subsequent to our
+visit said that he had always heard her called this, though he had never
+known the reason. I need hardly add that "Society" at Athens was very
+small and easily amused. Poor "belle-fille de l'avenir," I saw her again
+when she and her sister stayed for a time at Somerville College at
+Oxford, but she died quite young. Her sister, Mrs. Barton French, still
+lives.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GREEK ROYAL FAMILY]
+
+For the rest I need not recapitulate Greek experiences beyond transcribing
+part of a letter to my mother which contains an account of the domestic
+life of the Greek Royal Family in those bygone days:
+
+    "Despite the weather we have been very comfortable here and found
+    almost all our old friends. The Queen has a new baby since last year,
+    to whom she is quite devoted. It is number seven, but you might think
+    they had never had a baby before. The first time we had luncheon there
+    we all migrated to the nursery, and the Duke of Sparta who is going to
+    marry Princess Sophie of Germany, almost resented George's suggestion
+    that some beautiful gold things of his might be moved out of the
+    nursery cupboard, as he said 'they have always been there.' Last
+    Sunday we had luncheon there again, and this time the baby was brought
+    downstairs and his brothers and sisters competed for the honour of
+    nursing him, the Queen and several of us finally seating ourselves on
+    the floor in order that the infant prince might more conveniently play
+    with the _head_ of his next youngest brother, who lay down with it on
+    a cushion for the purpose. It makes one almost sad to see the eldest
+    Princess, brought up like this--a perfectly innocent girl always in
+    fits of laughter--going to be married to one of the Czar's brothers;
+    she will find it so different in that Russian Court, poor thing."
+
+Further on in the same letter I write:
+
+    "Everyone has a different story about the Rudolph-Stephanie affair. I
+    have met several people who knew the Baroness and say she was very
+    lovely. Some disbelieve suicide, as he was shot through the back of
+    his head and she through the small of her back, but, as the Austrian
+    Minister here says, no one knows or ever will know the real truth. I
+    think the tragedies in those three imperial houses, Russia, Germany,
+    and Austria, surpass any the world has ever seen," and I cite the wise
+    man's prayer for "neither poverty nor riches" as "about right."
+
+My mother sent the long letter of which this formed part to my aunt
+Theodora Guest, who made a characteristic comment. She allowed the wisdom
+of the prayer, but continued--"but in praying for neither poverty nor
+riches, I should be careful to add 'especially not the former,' for I
+don't see that poverty ensures peace, or security from murder--and it
+would be hard to be poor all one's life _and_ be murdered at the end!
+Better be rich and comfortable if only for a time. Still I would not be
+Empress of _Russia_ for something, and that poor innocent Grecian princess
+_is_ to be pitied."
+
+This was written April 1889. What would my mother, my aunt, or myself have
+said now?
+
+The baby of our luncheon party was Christopher, now the husband of Mrs.
+Leeds. The poor little Princess whose doom we feared had a more merciful
+one than many of her relations. She married the Grand Duke Paul later in
+1889 and died in 1891 after the birth of her second child. Taken indeed
+from the evil to come. Her children were adopted by the Grand Duchess
+Serge, who I believe has been murdered in the late Terror--but I do not
+know what has happened to the children.
+
+[Sidenote: ORIGINAL DERIVATIONS]
+
+To turn to something more cheerful. A delightful woman, a real Mrs.
+Malaprop, had lately been at Athens and much enlivened the British
+Legation both by her remarks and her credulity. With her the Parthenon was
+the "Parthian," the Odeum (an ancient theatre) the "Odium," Tanagra became
+"Tangiers," and so on. She told Mr. Haggard that she did not like the
+"Parthian," it was too big. "Oh," he said, "you ought to like it, for you
+have heard of the Parthian shafts--those" (pointing to the columns) "are
+the original Parthian shafts." "How very interesting!" said she. He then
+proceeded to inform her that the Odeum was used for music (which was
+true), but added that the music was so bad that they all hated it, and
+therefore the place was called the "Odium"--also "very interesting." She
+was taken for an excursion in Thessaly, where there were sheep-pens on the
+mountains, and one happened to be fenced in a shape something like an
+irregular figure 8. Another lady pointed this out and gravely informed her
+that that was how the Pelasgians _numbered their mountains_. "Oh,
+Charles," shouted the victim to her husband, "do look--the Pelasgians
+numbered their hills--one, two, three--there is number eight!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WINDSOR--EGYPT AND SYRIA
+
+
+After our return to London in the spring I was greatly surprised when on
+meeting Sir Henry Ponsonby one day at a party he desired me to send my
+article on India to the Queen. He was at that time her Private Secretary
+and knew her deep interest in all things concerning India, but I never
+imagined that anything which I had written was sufficiently important to
+be worth her notice. However, I could but do as I was ordered, and I was
+still more surprised a little later at the result, which was a command
+that Jersey and I should dine and sleep at Windsor. Jersey had been there
+before, but it was novel to me and very interesting.
+
+We were taken on arrival to a very nice set of rooms overlooking the Long
+Walk, up which we presently saw the Queen returning from her afternoon
+drive. An excellent tea was brought us and Lord Edward Clinton came to
+look after us--also another member of the Household, I forget who it was,
+but I recollect that an animated discussion took place in our sitting-room
+as to an omission on the part of somebody to send to meet the Speaker
+(Arthur Peel) at the station! It is always rather a comfort to ordinary
+mortals to find that even in the most exalted establishments mistakes do
+sometimes occur. We were told that dinner would be at a nominal 8.30, and
+that a page would take us down when we were ready. Of course we were
+dressed in excellent time, but just as I had finished my toilet Jersey
+came into my room in great agitation. He was expected to wear what we
+called "the funny trousers"--not knee-breeches, but trousers fastened just
+below the calf of the leg and showing the socks. Unfortunately his black
+silk socks were marked in white, and he said I must pick out the
+marking--which was impossible all in a minute, and the rooms somewhat
+dimly lit. However, my maid suggested inking over the marks, to my immense
+relief--and all was well.
+
+[Sidenote: DINNER AT WINDSOR]
+
+When we went downstairs the Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Southampton, showed us a
+plan of the table, and it was explained that when the Queen went in to
+dinner we all followed--were not sent in with a man--and seated ourselves
+as directed. Then as time approached we were drawn up on either side of
+the door by which the Queen entered. She greeted each in turn kindly but
+quickly, and went straight in. It was not really stiff or formidable when
+we were once seated. After dinner the Queen established herself in a chair
+in the Long Gallery and each guest was called up in turn for a little
+conversation. She talked to me about India, and said that it was only her
+great age and the fact that she was a very bad sailor that prevented her
+going there. She was much interested in our having seen her Munshi at
+Agra, and he always formed a link between Her Majesty and ourselves. She
+had us to Windsor two or three times altogether, and always spoke of him
+and arranged that we should see him. He was quite a modest humble man to
+begin with, but I fear that his head was rather turned later on.
+
+Two pieces of advice Her Majesty bestowed upon me, to keep a Journal, and
+wherever I travelled never to forget England.
+
+This school term we were greatly pleased at Villiers winning the Junior
+Oppidan Exhibition at Eton. He had not even told us that he was going in
+for it, and we saw the first announcement in _The Times_. His master, Mr.
+Donaldson, wrote that he took it "in his stride without quickening his
+space at all or making any special preparation for it." It was certainly a
+creditable performance after missing a whole term while in India.
+
+In February 1890 Lady Galloway and I set off on a fresh expedition. Jersey
+was anxious that I should escape the cold, and held out
+hopes--unfortunately not fulfilled--of joining us later. We went by a
+Messageries steamer--the _Congo_--to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo,
+where we found various friends, including Colonel Kitchener, who had
+meantime stayed at Osterley and who looked after us splendidly. He was
+very amusing, and when there was a difficulty about our cabins on the Nile
+boat he went off with us to Cook's Office and said that we _must_ have two
+cabins instead of two berths with which, despite our orders given in
+London, they tried to put us off. No one in Egypt could ever resist
+Kitchener's orders. He declared that we represented two aunts whom he
+expected. I do not mean that he told Cook this.
+
+He told us how he and other officers had looked after Mr. Chamberlain on a
+late journey up the Nile and how he felt sure that they had enlightened
+him a good deal. It was very shortly after this that Mr. Chamberlain made
+a famous speech in Birmingham wherein he said that he had seen enough of
+Egypt to realise that England could not abandon the country in its present
+condition. I do not remember the words, but that was what they conveyed,
+quite different from former Radical pronouncements. That was the great
+thing with Mr. Chamberlain. As I have already maintained, he had an open
+mind, and was ready to learn from facts and experience.
+
+[Sidenote: VOYAGE UP THE NILE]
+
+To return to our Egyptian experiences. We went to Luxor on the post boat,
+and spent about a week at the hotel there. We found all sorts of friends
+on dahabyahs and in other places, and were duly impressed by the mighty
+temples and tombs of the kings. I do not attempt any description of these
+marvels, never to be forgotten by those who have seen them.
+
+While we were at Luxor the Sirdar, Sir Francis Grenfell, arrived on a tour
+of inspection with Lady Grenfell and others. We joined the same steamer,
+the _Rameses_, and having so many friends on board made the voyage as far
+as Assouan additionally pleasant. The direct military jurisdiction at that
+time began near Edfou, and a force of Ababdeh, or native guerilla police
+who were paid to guard the wells, came to receive the Sirdar on his
+reaching this territory. A number mounted on camels led by their Sheikh on
+horseback galloped along the bank as the ship steamed on. At Edfou itself
+there was a great reception of native infantry and others mounted on
+camels and horses.
+
+On this trip we saw beautiful Philĉ in perfection; and also had the
+experience, while at Assouan, of shooting the cataract, really a
+succession of rapids among rocks. The boatmen took care to make this
+appear quite dangerous by getting close to a rock and then just avoiding
+it with loud shouts. An Austrian, Prince Schwarzenberg, who was one of our
+fellow-passengers, looked pretty anxious during the process, but there was
+no real cause for alarm. Last time we visited Egypt the Dam, though of
+enormous benefit to the country, had destroyed much of the charm of Philĉ
+and of the excitement of the cataract.
+
+From Assouan the Grenfells and their party went on to Wady Halfa, and Lady
+Galloway, Mr. Clarke of the British Agency, and I set off on our return
+journey to Cairo. Prince Schwarzenberg and his friend Count Westfahlen
+were our fellow-passengers. The Prince was very melancholy, having lost a
+young wife to whom he was devoted; also he was very religious. Count
+Westfahlen admired him greatly. The Prince was quite interesting and
+cheered up considerably in the course of our voyage. He was a good deal
+impressed by the ordinary fact, as it seemed to us, that the English on
+board the steamer had left a portion of the deck undisturbed for the
+Sirdar's party without having been officially requested to do so.
+According to him, Austrians of the middle-class would not have done so
+under similar circumstances. On the other hand, he was astonished to learn
+that English boys of our own families were in the habit of playing games
+with the villagers. If his views of Bohemian society were correct,
+"democracy" for good and for evil was at a distinct discount!
+
+Meantime the most amusing part of our down-river voyage occurred at
+Assiout, where the steamer anchored, and where we spent the afternoon with
+the Mudir Choucry Pasha and dined with him in the evening. He received us
+with a splendid cortège of donkeys (quite superior to the ordinary race)
+and attendants; and showed us the hospital--where there were some women
+among others who had been wounded at Toski--the prison, and American
+schools. What entertained us most, however, was an Italian Franciscan
+convent where the nuns trained girls. The Prince was quite scandalised
+because, he said, they ought to have been strictly cloistered--whereas
+they admitted him, Mr. Clarke, and the Mudir, whom they declared was "un
+bon papa"; and one of the nuns played "Il Bacio" and the Boulanger Hymn
+for our amusement.
+
+[Sidenote: CHOUCRY PASHA.]
+
+Choucry Pasha then took Lady Galloway and me to visit his wife and married
+daughter, who, though their charms were by no means dangerous, were much
+more particular in secluding themselves than the nuns, for the men of our
+party had to keep out of the way until our interview was over and they had
+retired. Then the Mudir sent a messenger to ask the Prince and Mr. Clarke
+to join us. They declared that they were taken aback when the black
+servant conveyed the summons thus: "Pasha, ladies, harem," not feeling
+sure but that they would have to rescue us from an unknown fate. What they
+did find in the house was the dusky host on his knees unpacking his
+portmanteau before us in order to produce for our inspection some
+antiquities which he had stowed away amongst his socks and other garments!
+
+The dinner, later in the evening, consisted of various oriental dishes,
+and a large turkey appearing after sweet pastry.
+
+[Sidenote: PRINCESS NAZLI]
+
+While at Cairo we paid a visit to the well-known Princess Nazli, a
+relation of the Khedive's who received Europeans, both men and ladies, but
+not altogether with the approval of her vice-regal relatives. She said
+that the doctor wanted her to go to the Kissingen baths, but the Khedive
+did not like her to go alone, would prefer that she should marry someone.
+The Khedive had told her in speaking of some other relations that Sir
+Evelyn Baring might interfere with anything else but not with the members
+of his family. She had retorted, "You had better let him interfere with
+the family, as then he will resign in three weeks."
+
+She told us of the cruelties which she knew were inflicted on their slaves
+by the old ladies of Ibrahim Pasha's and Mehemet Ali's family, and of how
+her English governess would send her to try to obtain mercy when the
+screams of the victims were heard. She remembered when she was a child how
+the ladies taught their attendants to use the kourbash, and how she saw
+the poor women covered with blood.
+
+Among other notable people then in Cairo was the explorer Henry Stanley
+(afterwards Sir Henry), who had not long returned from his expedition to
+relieve Emin Pasha, and had visited the Pigmies. We met him at dinner at
+Colonel Kitchener's, and as I sat near him we talked a good deal. My
+impression was that he did not easily begin a conversation, but was fluent
+when once launched. He was engaged on his book, _In Darkest Africa_, in
+which he declared that there were to be three pages devoted to a beautiful
+white lady fragrant with the odours of Araby whom he met under the
+Equator! If I subsequently identified her I fear that I have now forgotten
+her.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PIGMIES]
+
+I remarked on the loss of my brother-in-law's relative Mr. Powell, who had
+gone up in a balloon and never been heard of again, whereat Stanley's
+comment was, "That would be someone to look for!" We had already met his
+companion, Dr. Parkes, at the Citadel, who had shown some of us the little
+darts used by the dwarfs. Years later Mr. James Harrison brought several
+of the Pigmy men and women to England, and they performed at the
+Hippodrome. He kindly offered to bring them down to one of our Osterley
+garden parties, where they created great interest and amusement. They
+were about as big as children five to seven years old, and quite willing
+to be led by the hand. We had a long, low table arranged for them on the
+lawn near some tall trees, and one of the little men said, through the
+interpreter, that he thought that "there must be good shooting in this
+forest." We gave them some children's toys; when the little woman first
+saw a doll she shrank away quite frightened, but was subsequently much
+pleased. The chief little man appropriated a skipping-rope, and appeared
+with it tied round his waist at the Hippodrome that evening. We were told
+that the price of a wife among them was two arrows, and one who had
+previously lost an arrow was distressed at having lost "half a wife." The
+Pigmies did not seem to mind the company, but when one rather big man had
+inspected a little woman more closely than pleased her she waited till he
+had turned his back and then put out her tongue at him!
+
+To return to our travels in 1890. We left Port Said on a Russian boat on
+the afternoon of March 19th and reached Jaffa early the following morning
+and Jerusalem the same evening. It was very thrilling, and I am always
+glad that we were there before the days of railways. The whole place was
+pervaded with Russian pilgrims, many of whom arrived on our boat.
+Jerusalem has inspired painters, scribes, and poets for hundreds of years,
+so I will only mention one or two of the scenes which struck us most.
+
+Naturally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre made a deep impression upon us.
+The Sepulchre may or may not have been the original tomb in which our Lord
+was laid, but it has been consecrated by the vows and prayers of countless
+generations, thousands have shed their blood to win that spot from the
+infidel, and if warring Churches have built their chapels around it at
+least they cluster under the same roof and bow to the same Lord. The then
+Anglican Bishop, Dr. Blyth, took us over the church. We entered by the
+Chapel of the Angels into the little chapel or shrine containing the
+Sepulchre. There indeed it was impossible to forget the divisions of
+Christendom, as the altar over the Holy Tomb was divided into two
+portions, one decorated with images to suit the Latins, the other with a
+picture to meet the views of the Orthodox Church. Other chapels of the
+Roman and various Eastern Churches surround the Sanctuary, the finest
+being that of the Greeks, who seemed when we were there to exercise the
+chief authority over the whole building. The Greek Patriarch was a great
+friend of Bishop Blyth, and had allowed one or two English and American
+clergymen to celebrate in Abraham's Chapel, a curious little chapel in an
+upper part of the mass of buildings included in the church. Near it was
+the bush in which the ram substituted for Isaac was supposed to have been
+caught.
+
+Comprised in the church building are the steps up to Calvary, the place of
+the Crucifixion, and the cleft made by the earthquake in the rock.
+
+The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is also very interesting. The
+Grotto, said to be on the site of the Stable, is under the church and the
+place of our Lord's Birth is marked by a silver star let into the
+pavement. Beyond are caves formerly inhabited by St. Jerome, dark places
+in which to have translated the Bible. As usual there are chapels for the
+different sects, and blackened marks on the wall of a cave showed where
+they set it on fire in one of their quarrels. While we were in the church
+a procession passed from the Latin Chapel to the Grotto, and a Turkish
+soldier was standing with a fixed bayonet opposite the Armenian Chapel to
+keep the peace as it went by. The Armenians had been forced to fold a
+corner of the carpet before their altar slanting instead of square, that
+the Latin processions might have no pretext for treading on it. I suppose
+Indian Mohammedans are now enlisted as ecclesiastical police, unless
+indeed the warring Churches trust to the impartiality of English Tommies.
+
+[Sidenote: INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN]
+
+From Jerusalem we had a delightful excursion to Jericho. A carriage road
+over the mountain pass was in course of construction, but we had to ride
+horses as it was not yet ready for vehicles. On the way we passed the
+usual Russian pilgrims with their greasy ringlets, plodding on foot, but
+the most interesting party was one we saw at the Khan or Inn at the top of
+the pass. This Inn was no doubt on the site of that where the Good
+Samaritan left the traveller whom he had treated as a neighbour. Even if
+our Lord was only relating a parable, not an historic incident, this must
+have been the Inn which He had in mind, as it is the one natural
+stopping-place for travellers between Jerusalem and Jericho. While we were
+seated in the courtyard resting awhile in the open-air in preference to
+the primitive room within, there rode in a group exactly like the pictures
+of the Flight into Egypt--a man leading a donkey or mule (I forget which)
+on which was seated a woman carrying a baby, evidently taking it to
+baptize in Jordan. "The Madonna and Child," exclaimed Lady Galloway, and
+we felt thrilled to see a living Bible picture before our eyes.
+
+As to falling among thieves, we had been assured that there was every
+chance of our doing so unless we paid the Sheikh of an Arab tribe to
+accompany us as escort. This was a simple and generally accepted form of
+blackmail. The plundering Arabs agreed among themselves that any tourist
+giving a fixed sum to one of their leaders should be guaranteed against
+the unwelcome attentions of the rest. As a special tribute to "Lord
+Salisbury's sister," we were also provided with a Turkish soldier, but I
+doubt his utility. Anyhow the Arab was more picturesque and probably a
+more effectual guardian.
+
+We had also with us our dragoman Nicholas, whom we had brought on from
+Egypt. I do not think that he knew much about Palestine, but he was always
+ready with an answer, and generally asserted that any spot we asked for
+was "just round the corner" of the nearest hill. I maliciously asked for
+Mount Carmel, knowing that it was far to the north. With a wave of his
+hand he declared, "Just round there." When we reached the bituminous
+desert land surrounding the Dead Sea I gravely asked for Lot's wife.
+"Lot's wife?" said Nicholas, hopelessly perplexed. "Don't you know,
+Nicholas?" said Lady Galloway. "She was turned into a pillar of salt." "Oh
+yes," he replied pointing to the nearest salt-like hillock, "there she
+is." No doubt if he ever took later travellers to those parts they had the
+benefit of our identification.
+
+We stopped for luncheon at Jericho, and having inspected the strange land
+surrounding the Dead Sea, we went on to the Jordan, a small, rapid river
+flowing among alders and rushes. There we washed our rings and bracelets
+and then returned to the Jordan Hotel at Jericho, a solitary building kept
+by a Hungarian, very comfortable in a simple way--though possessing a
+perfect farmyard of noisy animals. As is well known the Dead Sea lies over
+1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean and the Jordan discharges
+its water into it, without any outlet on the other side. Hence evaporation
+leaves all the saline deposits of the river in this inland Sea and causes
+its weird dead appearance and the heavy, forbidding nature of its waters.
+
+[Sidenote: THE HOLY CITY]
+
+It is impossible to dwell on all the spots named as scenes of Gospel
+history and tradition. As Lady Galloway truly remarked, the difference
+between the story as simply told by the Evangelists, and the aggregation
+of subsequent legend, deepened our conviction of the truth which we had
+learnt in childhood. For myself I had heard so much of the disappointment
+which I should probably feel at finding Jerusalem so small and thronged
+with so much that was tawdry and counter to all our instincts, that I was
+relieved to find the city and its surroundings far more beautiful and
+impressive than I had expected. To look from the Mount of Olives across
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat to where the Mosque of Omar rises on Mount Zion
+is in itself a revelation of all that stirred the souls of men of three
+Faiths who fought and died to win the Holy City. On the wall of rock on
+the city side of the Valley a spot was pointed out to us on which
+Mohammedan tradition foretold that Jesus would stand to judge mankind at
+the Last Day. I asked why Mohammedans should believe that our Lord would
+be the Judge. My informant hesitatingly replied that "He would judge the
+world for not believing in Mohammed"--but I think that the answer was only
+invented on the spur of the moment.
+
+The one sacred spot inside the city about which there appeared to be no
+dispute was Pilate's House, as from time immemorial this building had been
+the abode of the Roman Governor. When we saw it it formed part of the
+Convent of the Sisters of Zion, very nice women who educated orphans and
+carried on a day school. In a basement was the old pavement with marks of
+some kind of chess or draught board on which the Roman soldiers played a
+game. One of the arches of the court, now included in the Convent Chapel,
+is called the Ecce Homo Arch, as it is probable that our Lord stood under
+it when Pilate said "Behold the Man."
+
+On our way back to Jaffa we slept at Ramleh and again embarked on a
+Russian steamer, which sailed on the evening of March 25th and reached
+Beyrout on the following morning. Jaffa was known as a very difficult port
+in rough weather, but we were lucky both in landing and embarking. One of
+the rocks which impeded the entrance to the port was believed to have been
+the monster which Perseus petrified with the head of Medusa. I only hope
+that no engineer has blown up this classic rock for the sake of any
+improvement to the harbour!
+
+Palestine must have entirely changed since we were there thirty-one years
+ago, and it is curious to look back on the problems exercising men's minds
+at that time. The Jewish population was then stated to have nearly trebled
+itself in ten years. We were rather entertained by a sermon delivered by a
+very vehement cleric in the English Church. He prophesied that the Empire
+of Israel was bound to attain its ancient magnificent limits, but he said
+that he was not asking his congregation to contribute to this achievement
+(though he gave them the opportunity), as it was certain to be effected;
+only any of us who held back would not share in the ultimate triumph. I do
+not know what he would have said now, but if alive and holding the same
+views he must be a kind of Zionist.
+
+The Sultan had given the old Church of the Knights of St. John of
+Jerusalem to the Emperor Frederick for the Germans, and the performances
+of his son are only too familiar, but in our day the fear was of Russian
+machinations. Russian pilgrims, as a pious act, were carrying stones to
+assist in building the Russian church, of which the tall minaret dominated
+the Mount of Olives, and the Russian Government was erecting large
+buildings for pilgrims just outside the city walls which, as we were
+significantly told, would be equally available for troops.
+
+[Sidenote: BALBEC]
+
+From Beyrout we had a two days' drive, sleeping at Shtora on the way to
+Balbec. The road was over Lebanon, and a wonderful piece of French
+engineering. The Hôtel de Palmyra at Balbec was very comfortable. We found
+close by some of the first tourists of the season in tents supplied by
+Cook. They were very cheerful, but I think must have been rather cold, as
+March is full early for camping out in those regions and there was plenty
+of snow on the mountain tops. The women in that region wear a kind of
+patten in winter to keep them above the snow. It is a wooden over-shoe
+with raised sole and high wooden heel instead of the iron ring under
+English pattens. We were amazed at the splendour of the ruined Temples of
+Balbec, where the Sun was worshipped at different periods of ancient
+history as Baal or Jupiter. Most astonishing of all was the enormous
+Phoenician platform or substructure of great stones, three of which are
+each well over 60 feet long. In a quarry near by is another stone, 68 feet
+long, hewn but not cut away from the rock.
+
+From Balbec we drove to Damascus, and met on the way an escort sent to
+meet Lady Galloway. We did not take the escort beyond Shtora, where we
+had luncheon, but at Hemeh we found the Vice-Consul, Mr. Meshaka, and a
+carriage and guard of honour sent by the Governor, so we drove into the
+town in state.
+
+The result of these attentions to "the Prime Minister's sister" was comic.
+A weird female had, it appears, seen us at Jerusalem and followed our
+traces to Damascus. We saw her once coming into the restaurant smoking a
+big cigar, and heard that she drank. She was reported to have had a
+difference with her late husband's trustees on the subject of his
+cremation. Whether he, or she, or the trustees wanted him cremated I
+forget, and am uncertain whether she was carrying about his ashes, but
+anyhow she had vowed vengeance against Lady Galloway because we had been
+provided with an escort on more than one occasion and she had not. The
+maids said that this woman had armed herself with a revolver and sworn to
+shoot her rival! I will record our further meeting in due course.
+
+Meantime we were delighted with Damascus, one of the most beautiful cities
+I have ever seen, standing amidst orchards then flowering with blossom,
+among which run Abana and Pharpar, so picturesque in their windings that
+we were inclined to forgive Naaman for vaunting them as "better than all
+the waters of Israel." The men wore long quilted coats of brilliant
+colours, red, green, and yellow, and the women brightly coloured cotton
+garments. The whole effect was cheerful and gay.
+
+Being an Oriental city, it was naturally full of intrigue and various
+citizens, notably the Jews, tried to claim European nationality so as to
+evade the exactions of the Turkish Government, but as far as we could
+judge they seemed very prosperous. We visited several houses, Turkish,
+Christian, and Jewish, very pretty, built round courts with orange trees
+and basins of water in the centre. The rooms were painted, or inlaid with
+marble--one of the Jewish houses quite gorgeous with inlaying,
+mother-of-pearl work, and carved marble; in one room a marble tree, white,
+with a yellow canary-bird perching in its branches. I think it was this
+house which boasted a fresco of the Crystal Palace to show that its owner
+lived under the "High Protection of the British Government." Perhaps the
+family has now substituted a painting of the Eiffel Tower to propitiate
+the French.
+
+We went to a mountain-spot overlooking the town below the platform called
+Paradise, from which tradition says that Mohammed looked down on the city,
+but thought it so beautiful that he refrained from entering it lest having
+enjoyed Paradise in this life he should forfeit a right to it hereafter.
+It is a pretty story, but I fear that history records that he did visit
+Damascus, for which I trust that he was forgiven, as the temptation must
+have been great.
+
+[Sidenote: DAMASCUS. LADY ELLENBOROUGH]
+
+We were much interested while at Damascus in hearing more about Lady
+Ellenborough, who had lived in the house occupied by the Consul, Mr.
+Dickson, who was very kind to us during our stay.
+
+Lady Ellenborough was quite as adventurous a lady as Lady Hester Stanhope,
+and her existence on the whole more varied. She was the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Henry Digby, and when quite a young girl married Lord
+Ellenborough, then a widower. After six years' experience of matrimony she
+was divorced, it was said in consequence of her flirtations with the then
+Prince Schwarzenberg. However, that may have been, she was at one time
+married to a Bavarian Baron Venningen. How she got rid of him I do not
+know, but she was well known as the "wife" of Hadji Petros the brigand,
+whose son I have mentioned as among our friends at Athens. While in Greece
+she fell a victim to the fascination of the handsome Sheikh Mejmel el
+Mazrab, who had brought over Arab horses for sale. She went off with him,
+and her marriage to him is duly recorded in Burke's Peerage. She lived
+with him partly at Damascus and partly in the desert, evidently much
+respected by her neighbours, who called her "Lady Digby" or "Mrs. Digby"
+as being sister of Lord Digby. She was a good artist and is said to have
+been very clever and pleasant. She dressed like a Bedouin woman, and when
+she attended the English church service came wrapped in her burnous; but
+Mr. Dickson's father, who was then the clergyman, always knew when she had
+been there by finding a sovereign in the plate. She died in 1881. I never
+heard that she had a child by any of her husbands.
+
+Among the glories of Damascus is the great Mosque, once a Christian
+church, and hallowed by both Christian and Moslem relics. When we were
+there it still had an inscription high up, I think in Greek characters,
+stating that the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of
+Christ. There was a fire some time after we saw it, but I trust that the
+inscription is still intact. Among the many other places which we saw was
+the wall down which St. Paul escaped in a basket, and as we looked thence
+into the desert Mr. Dickson told us that until a short time before, a
+camel post started regularly from a gate near by, bearing an Indian mail
+to go by way of Bagdad. Before the Overland Route was opened this was one
+of the speediest routes, and was continued long after the necessity had
+ceased to exist.
+
+[Sidenote: ORIENTAL METHODS OF TRADE]
+
+Time was some difficulty in Damascus, as Europeans generally reckoned by
+the usual clock, while the natives, Syrians and Arabs, counted, as in
+Biblical days, from sunrise to sunset and their hours varied from day to
+day--not that punctuality worried them much. In making an appointment,
+however, in which men of East and West were both involved it was necessary
+to specify which sort of time was approximately intended. Mr. Meshaka
+kindly took us to make some purchases, and he introduced us to one shop in
+which the proprietor--an Oriental, but I forget of exactly what
+nationality--had really established fixed prices on a reasonable scale.
+While we were looking round some Americans came in and began asking
+prices. The shopkeeper told them his principle of trade, whereupon said
+one of them: "That will not do at all. You must say so much more than you
+want and I must offer so much less. Then we must bargain until we come to
+an agreement."
+
+While they were considering their purchases I asked the price of some tiny
+models, in Damascus ware, of the women's snow-shoes. The man answered me
+aloud, and then came up and whispered that they were a fifth of the price,
+but he was obliged to put it on nominally "because of those people"! How
+can dealers remain honest with such inducements to "profiteering"?
+However, there is not much risk of their abandoning their ancient methods
+of trade. I recollect Captain Hext (our P. and O. fellow-traveller)
+telling me of one of his experiences somewhere in the Levant. While his
+ship stopped at a port one of the usual local hawkers came on board and
+showed him a curio which he wished to possess. Captain Hext and the man
+were in a cabin, and the man reiterated that the object in question was
+worth a considerable sum, which he named. While Captain Hext was
+hesitating a note for him was dropped through the cabin-window by a friend
+well versed in the habits of those regions. Acting on the advice which it
+contained, he said to the hawker, "By the head of your grandmother is this
+worth so much?" The man turned quite pale, and replied, "By the head of my
+grandmother it is worth"--naming a much lower sum--which he accepted, but
+asked Captain Hext how he had learnt this formula (which of course he did
+not reveal) and implored him to tell no one else or he would be ruined. I
+am not quite sure whether it was the "head" or the "soul" of his
+grandmother by which he had to swear, but I think head.
+
+We drove back from Damascus via Shtora to Beyrout, where the Consul told
+us of the strange requirements of visitors. One told him that he had been
+directed to pray for some forty days in a cave--and expected the Consul to
+find him the cave!
+
+[Sidenote: SMYRNA]
+
+At Beyrout we took an Austrian boat and had a most interesting voyage,
+stopping at Larnaca (Cyprus) and at Rhodes, where I had just time to run
+up the Street of the Knights. Early on Easter Eve we reached Smyrna, where
+we stayed at the British Consulate with Mr. Holmwood till the following
+afternoon. There was a considerable population of mixed nationalities,
+amongst them English whose children had never been in England. Some of the
+young women whom we saw in church on Easter Sunday were plump,
+white-skinned, and dark-eyed like Orientals. Mr. Holmwood said that many
+were sent for education to Constantinople, and apparently an Eastern
+life, necessarily with little exercise or occupation, had even affected
+their appearance.
+
+It was by no means safe in those days to venture far outside the town, for
+brigands were dreaded, and only some two years previously had carried off
+the sons of one of the principal English merchants and held them to
+ransom. They sent word that they would let them go free if the father
+would come unarmed and unattended to a certain spot and bring £500. On his
+undertaking to do so they liberated the boys without waiting for the
+actual money, but the youngest died from the effects of exposure, their
+captors having had constantly to move to avoid pursuit. Mr. Holmwood would
+not let us out of the sight of himself and his dragoman, for he said that
+the Turks, unlike the Greeks, had no respect for women.
+
+A Canon Cazenove who was in our ship officiated on Easter Sunday. The
+British Government having ceased to subsidise a chaplain for the Consular
+Church, there was only service when a travelling clergyman could be
+annexed, but the congregation rolled up joyfully at short notice. While we
+were in church we heard cannon discharged outside in honour of the
+Sultan's birthday, and the impression was somewhat strange--an English
+service in the precincts of one of the Seven Churches of the Revelation, a
+congregation partly of travelling, partly of orientalised British, and
+without the echoes of Mohammedan rule. Poor Smyrna! still the battleground
+of warring races.
+
+We resumed our voyage and I was thrilled when we passed Tenedos, touching
+at Besika Bay and seeing in the distance the Plains of Troy. We entered
+the Dardanelles in rain and mist, and I think it was fortunate that we got
+through safely, as our Austrian captain, though a mild lover of little
+birds, was also credited with an affection for drink. A fine morning
+followed the wet evening; Sir Edgar Vincent sent a boat from the Bank to
+meet us, and received us most hospitably in his charming house. During a
+delightful week at Constantinople we saw all the "lions" of that wonderful
+city, under his auspices.
+
+Despite its unrivalled position and the skill and wealth lavished upon it
+by Christendom and Islam, I do not think that Constantinople takes the
+same hold upon one's affection as Athens or Rome. Many of the buildings
+seem to have been "run up" for the glory of some ruler rather than grown
+up out of the deep-rooted religion or patriotism of a race. St. Sophia is
+glorious with its cupola and its varied marble columns, but greatly spoilt
+by the flaunting green shields with the names of the companions of the
+Prophet; and the whole effect is distorted because the prayer carpets
+covering the pavement have to slant towards the Kebla, the niche or tablet
+indicating the direction of Mecca; whereas the Mosque, having been built
+as a Christian church, was destined to look towards Jerusalem--at least it
+was built so that the congregation should turn to the East.
+
+There was, however, one beautiful object which we were delighted to have
+seen while it retained a brilliance which it has since lost. There were in
+a new building in process of erection opposite the Museum four tombs which
+had lately been discovered near Sidon and brought to Constantinople by
+Hampdi Bey, Director of the School of Art. All were fine, but the finest
+was that dignified by the name of Alexander's Tomb. The attribution was
+doubtful, but not the beauty. They had been covered up while the building
+was in progress, but were just uncovered and we were allowed to see them.
+The unrivalled reliefs on "Alexander's Tomb" represented Greeks and
+Persians first as fighting, and then as having made friends. The two
+nations were easily distinguished, as the Greeks had hardly any garments,
+while the Persians were fully clothed. The tombs having long been buried
+in the sand, the vivid colours, and particularly the purple worn by the
+Persians, had been perfectly preserved, but I understand that, exposed to
+the light, all soon faded away.
+
+[Sidenote: CONSTANTINOPLE]
+
+The streets of Constantinople were not nearly so gay as those of Cairo or
+of many other Eastern towns which I have seen. Things may have altered
+now, but during our visit hardly any women walked about the city, and the
+men were mostly dressed in dark European clothes with red fezes, not at
+all picturesque. At the Sweet Waters, a stream in a valley rather like
+Richmond, where we drove on Friday afternoon, it was different. The ladies
+celebrated their Sabbath by driving in shut carriages, or walking about
+near the water, in gay-coloured mantles, often with parasols to match, and
+with transparent veils which did not at all conceal their very evident
+charms.
+
+Sir William White was then Ambassador, and he and his wife were very kind
+to us. Among other things Lady White invited us to join a party going over
+to Kadikeui on the Scutari side of the Bosphorus. It was a quaint
+expedition. The Embassy launch and the French launch each carried guests.
+The French launch, "mouche" as they called it, started first, but the sea
+was rapidly rising, and the few minutes which elapsed before we followed
+meant that the waves were almost dangerous. It was impossible, however,
+that the British should show the white feather when France led the way.
+Lady Galloway and I sat silent, one or two foreign ladies, Belgians, I
+think, screamed and ejaculated; the Swedish Minister sat on the prow like
+a hardy Norseman and encouraged the rest of us, but the Persian Minister
+wept hot tears, while Lady White stood over him and tried to console him
+with a lace-trimmed handkerchief and a bottle of eau de Cologne.
+
+Having landed as best we could, Sir Edgar Vincent, Lady Galloway and I
+drove to Scutari, where we saw the howling dervishes. There was a band of
+little children who were to lie on the floor for the chief, and specially
+holy, dervish to walk upon at the conclusion of the howling ceremony. The
+building where this took place was so hot and crowded that I soon went
+outside to wait for my companions. Immediately a number of dishevelled
+inhabitants began to gather round me, but I dispersed them with my one
+word of Turkish pronounced in a loud and indignant tone. I do not know how
+it is spelt, but it is pronounced "Haiti" and means "go away." I make it a
+point in any fresh country to learn if possible the equivalent for the
+words "hot water" and "go away." I suppose as we were not in an hotel I
+found the Turkish for "hot water" unnecessary, but "go away" is always
+useful.
+
+Among the people we met in Constantinople was a venerable Pasha called
+Ahmed Vefyk, who used to govern Brusa and part of Asia Minor, and was
+noted for his honest energy, and for doing what he thought right
+irrespective of the Sultan. He talked English well, and his reminiscences
+were amusing. He told us that fifty-five years previously he had taken
+thirty-nine days to travel from Paris to Constantinople and then everyone
+came to see him as a curiosity. He introduced us to his fat wife and to a
+daughter, and offered to make all arrangements for us if we would visit
+his former Government.
+
+[Sidenote: THE SELAMLIK]
+
+Alas! time did not admit, neither could we wait to dine with the Sultan,
+though we received messages desiring that we should do so. We were told,
+however, that the Sultan always wished to retain known visitors in
+Constantinople, and to effect this would ask them to dine and then keep
+postponing the date so as to delay their departure. We could not chance
+this, so were obliged to leave without having seen more of His Majesty
+than his arrival at the ceremony of the Selamlik--a very pretty sight, but
+one which has often been described. We were at a window just opposite the
+Mosque and were edified, among other incidents, by the way in which the
+ladies of the harem had to perform their devotions. They were driven up in
+closed carriages, their horses (not themselves) were taken out, and they
+remained seated in the vehicles for the duration of the service, which
+lasted about three-quarters of an hour. Imagine Miss Maud Royden left in a
+taxi outside a church while the ministers officiated within! The Sultan
+was driven up with brown horses, and drove himself away in another
+carriage with white ones. I do not know if this had any symbolic
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: THE ORIENT EXPRESS]
+
+We left Constantinople by the Orient Express on the evening of April 14th,
+and had quite an exciting journey to Vienna, which we reached on the
+afternoon of the 16th. Sir Edgar Vincent accompanied us, and there was
+also on the train Captain Waller, a Queen's Messenger, and these were each
+bound to have a separate sleeping compartment. There were various
+passengers of different nationalities, including our maids.
+
+A compartment with four berths had been reserved for Lady Galloway and
+myself--but when the maids looked in to arrange it they came back in
+alarm, announcing that our Damascus foewoman of the revolver and the cigar
+had installed herself in our compartment and refused to move! Of course
+Sir Edgar, being Governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, was all-powerful
+and the lady had to give way--but there was another sufferer. Later on a
+Greek who shared a compartment with a German wanted to fight him; they had
+to be forcibly separated and the Greek shut up for Tuesday night in the
+saloon while the German was left in possession--which further reduced the
+accommodation. When we stopped at Budapest, about midnight, the sister of
+the Queen of Servia was escorted into the train with flowers and courtesy,
+but the poor woman had to spend the night in the passage, as the
+alternatives were sharing the compartment of the revolver woman, who, we
+were told in the morning, terrified her by barking like a dog, or going
+into the saloon with the Greek, equally uncomfortable.
+
+These were not all the excitements. Previously, at Sofia, Prince Ferdinand
+of Bulgaria got into the train accompanied by an imposing-looking man who
+we thought was Stambuloff, the Prime Minister afterwards assassinated. It
+appeared that Prince Ferdinand's pastime was to join the train in this
+way, have his _déjeuner_ on board, get out at the frontier, and return to
+his capital by the next train. It seemed a curious mode of enjoyment, but
+probably Bulgaria was less lively than it has become since. We heard
+afterwards that he was annoyed because Sir Edgar and ourselves had not
+been presented to him, but he might have given a hint had he wished it.
+
+Anyhow, we presently saw some apricot omelettes walking about and asked
+for some, but were told that this was a _déjeuner commandé_ and we could
+not share it, to which deprivation we resigned ourselves. When the repast
+was over, however, an American solemnly addressed Sir Edgar saying, "Did
+you, who were near the royal circle, have any of that asparagus?" (I think
+it was asparagus--may have been French beans.) "No," replied Sir Edgar.
+"Very well then," said the Yankee; "since you had none I will not protest,
+but we were refused it, and if you had had any I should certainly have
+made a row." It was lucky that we had not shared any of the Princely fare,
+for there was hardly space for more rows on that train.
+
+At Vienna Lady Galloway and I parted. She went to her relatives at Berlin,
+and I returned via Cologne and Flushing to England, where I was very glad
+to rejoin my family after these long wanderings.
+
+We had some very happy parties at Osterley during the succeeding summer. I
+have already mentioned Mr. Henry James's description of the place. Our
+great friend Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his novel _Sir Lucian Elphin_, also
+adopted it under another name as the background of one of his scenes, and
+I have quoted Mr. Ashley's verses written in 1887. I love the place and
+its memories so dearly that I cannot resist adding the testimony of
+another friend, Mr. Augustus Hare. He knew it well both in the days of the
+Duchess of Cleveland and after we had taken up our abode there, and
+mentions it several times in _The Story of my Life_, but he tells, in an
+account of a visit to us including the Bank Holiday of August 1890, of our
+last party before we went to Australia. From that I extract a few lines,
+omitting the over-kindly portraits of ourselves which he was apt to draw
+of his friends:
+
+    "I went to Osterley, which looked bewitching, with its swans floating
+    in sunshine beyond the shade of the old cedars. Those radiant gardens
+    will now bloom through five years unseen, for Lord Jersey has accepted
+    the Governorship of New South Wales, which can only be from a sense of
+    duty, as it is an immense self-sacrifice.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "The weather was really hot enough for the luxury of open windows
+    everywhere and for sitting out all day. The party was a most pleasant
+    one. M. de Stael, the Russian Ambassador; Lady Crawford, still lovely
+    as daylight, and her nice daughter Lady Evelyn; Lady Galloway,
+    brimming with cleverness; M. de Montholon, French Minister at Athens;
+    Mr. and Mrs. Frank Parker, most amusing and cheery; Sir Philip Currie,
+    General Feilding, etc. Everything was most unostentatiously sumptuous
+    and most enjoyable. On Monday we were sent in three carriages to
+    Richmond, where we saw Sir Francis Cook's collection, very curious and
+    worth seeing as it is, but which, if his pictures deserved the names
+    they bear, would be one of the finest collections in the world. Then
+    after a luxurious luncheon at the Star and Garter we went on to Ham
+    House, where Lady Huntingtower showed the curiosities, including all
+    the old dresses kept in a chest in the long gallery. Finally I told
+    the Jersey children--splendid audience--a long story in a glade of the
+    Osterley garden, where the scene might have recalled the _Decameron_.
+    I was very sorry to leave these kind friends, and to know it would be
+    so long before I saw them again."
+
+[Illustration: OSTERLEY PARK. _From a photograph by W. H. Grove._]
+
+[Sidenote: STORY OF A PICTURE]
+
+Sir Francis Cook--Viscount Monserrate in Portugal--had a wonderful
+collection both of pictures and _objets d'art_ which he was always ready
+to show to our friends and ourselves. I am not expert enough to know
+whether all the names attributed to the pictures could be verified, but I
+can answer for one which we saw on an occasion when we took Lord Rowton
+over with some others. It was a large circular painting of the
+Adoration of the Magi by Filippo Lippi. Lord Rowton expressed the
+greatest interest in seeing it, as he said that Lord Beaconsfield and
+himself had hesitated greatly whether to utilise the money received for
+_Endymion_ to purchase this beautiful picture, which was then in the
+market, or to buy the house in Curzon Street. I should think the decision
+to buy the house was a wise one under the circumstances, but the picture
+is a magnificent one. I saw it not long ago at an exhibition of the
+Burlington Fine Arts Club lent by the son--or grandson--of Sir Francis
+Cook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA
+
+
+Mr. Hare's account of our August Party in 1890 mentions the reason of its
+being the last for some time. My husband had been already offered the
+Governorship of Bombay and would have liked it for many reasons, but was
+obliged to decline as the climate might have been injurious after an
+attack of typhoid fever from which he had not long recovered. He was then
+appointed Paymaster-General, an unpaid office which he held for about a
+year. The principal incident which I recollect in this connection was a
+lengthened dispute between his Department and the Treasury over a sum of
+either two pounds or two shillings--I think the latter--which had gone
+wrong in an expenditure of thirty-five millions. In the end Jersey came to
+me and triumphantly announced that the Paymaster-General's Department had
+been proved to be in the right. How much paper, ink, and Secretary's time
+had gone to this conclusion I cannot say. Postage being "On Her Majesty's
+Service" would not come into the reckoning.
+
+[Sidenote: WAR OFFICE RED TAPE]
+
+We had one other experience of pre-war War Office methods, but that was
+many years later. A rumour arrived in Middleton village that the soldier
+son of one of our labourers had had his head blown off. As there was no
+war proceeding at the time, we could not think how this accident had
+happened, and went to ask the parents where their son was stationed. They
+had no clear idea, but after a long talk remembered that they had
+received a photograph of his regiment with the Pyramids in the background.
+Armed with this information we approached the War Office and ultimately
+elicited that the poor youth had not lost his head, but had died of fever
+in Egypt, when arose the question of certain pay due to him. The War
+Office, with an insatiable thirst for information, would pay nothing until
+elaborate forms were filled up with the names and addresses of all the
+brothers and sisters. These proved to be scattered over the face of the
+Empire, and as the parents could neither read nor write, endless visits to
+them were necessary before we could find out enough to fill in the forms.
+Before this was accomplished I had to leave home and one of my daughters
+took charge.
+
+At last she wrote that the money was really being paid to the old father
+and would be deposited in the Post Office. Knowing that he was very shaky,
+I wrote back begging that she would get him to sign a paper naming his
+heir, but before this was done he suddenly fell down dead, leaving the
+money in the Post Office, and my daughter corresponded on alternate days
+with the General Post Office and the War Office before she could get it
+out. Then some more money was found to be due, and the War Office said
+they could not pay it until they had certificates from the sexton and the
+undertaker who had buried the poor old man. I was back by the time these
+were procured, and lo and behold! one spelt his name Hitchcox and one
+Hitchcocks. Foreseeing another lengthened correspondence, I enclosed the
+form with a letter in Jersey's name vouching for the fact that they
+referred to the same person but that the villagers spelt the name in two
+different ways. Fortunately the War Office felt that they were now
+sufficiently acquainted with the family biography and paid up. No wonder a
+plethora of clerks was needed even in pre-war days.
+
+To return to our own affairs. The late Lord Knutsford, then Colonial
+Secretary, in the summer of 1890 asked my husband if he would accept the
+Governorship of New South Wales, and he consented. Great stress was laid
+on our not telling anyone before the Queen had approved, and we were most
+conscientious, though I do not believe that other people keep such offers
+equally secret from all their friends and relatives. It was rather
+inconvenient as we wanted to invite my brother Rupert to accompany us as
+A.D.C. and he was already committed to another appointment abroad. As soon
+as the telegram announcing the Queen's approval arrived, I sent a footman
+to look for him at two or three addresses saying that he must find Captain
+Leigh somehow. He brought him back in triumph, having caught him in the
+street. Lord Ancram and my cousin Harry Cholmondeley were the other
+A.D.C.s, and George Goschen, now Lord Goschen, Private Secretary.
+
+[Sidenote: BALMORAL]
+
+Just before we were due to start, the Queen sent for us to Balmoral to say
+good-bye. We there met amongst others the Duke of Clarence, the only time
+I ever saw him, and I thought him a singularly gentle, modest young man.
+Some old gentleman had lately left him a long gold and turquoise chain
+which had belonged to Marie Antoinette. He told the Queen about it, and,
+with genuine surprise, said he could not think why it had been left to
+him. Her Majesty expressed the greatest interest in anything which had
+belonged to Marie Antoinette, so he ran upstairs and brought it down for
+his grandmother's inspection. He talked of his voyage to Australia, and
+said he was sorry that he had been too young to appreciate all he had seen
+as he should have done. I remember the late Admiral Lord Clanwilliam, who
+had the supervision of the young Princes when they were on board the
+_Bacchante_, saying that no boys had ever given him less trouble, and that
+Prince George (the present King) was equal to boys a year older than
+himself.
+
+When we went to Australia Lord Hopetoun was already there as Governor of
+Victoria, and Lord Kintore as Governor of South Australia, while Lord
+Onslow reigned in New Zealand. These, like Jersey, had all previously been
+Lords-in-Waiting to the Queen, and Her Majesty said to us, "As soon as I
+get a nice Lord-in-Waiting Lord Salisbury sends him off to govern a
+Colony"; to which my husband aptly replied, "You see, Ma'am, how well you
+brought us up!" A remark rewarded by a gracious smile.
+
+The Queen was indeed more than kind, and was very much upset when our
+departure was delayed, just when all preparations were made, by my being
+seized with an attack of typhoid fever. She telegraphed constantly, and
+when the Court returned to Windsor sent a messenger daily to inquire. We
+were told that her kind heart led her to imagine that my illness was
+either caused or intensified by our having been summoned to Balmoral just
+at the last minute, because she had forgotten that we were starting so
+soon. Of course it had nothing to do with it, but the Queen was well aware
+what typhoid fever meant. As she wrote to Jersey, she was "but too well
+acquainted with this terrible illness not to feel anxious whenever any
+relations or friends are suffering from it."
+
+The result was that when I was convalescent Jersey had to start alone,
+and I went with my children to spend Christmas at Stoneleigh, following
+him in January. Lady Galloway was a true friend, for since our London
+house was let she took me from Claridge's Hotel, where I was taken ill, to
+her house in Upper Grosvenor Street and nursed me there for weeks.
+Everyone was kind, Lady Northcote offering that I should take possession
+of her house and have Lady Galloway there to look after me, but in the end
+I stayed in Upper Grosvenor Street till I could move to Stoneleigh.
+Christmas at Stoneleigh was an unexpected pleasure, and my parents,
+brothers, and sisters did all they could to further my convalescence. An
+addition to the family party was my brother Dudley's charming new American
+wife, of whom he was intensely proud. When we greeted them or drank their
+healths, however, in the course of the festivities he invariably prefaced
+his words of thanks with "I and my wife" despite the laughing protests of
+his auditors. On Twelfth Night we drew characters, with the
+result--perhaps not quite fortuitous--that my eldest girl Margaret and her
+youngest brother Arthur, aged seven, were Queen and King. Their healths
+were duly drunk, and Arthur eagerly and emphatically responded, beginning
+"My wife and I!"
+
+Mrs. Dudley Leigh had been in her girlhood much admired in the Court of
+Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie. She was greatly attached to the
+Empress and was one of the young ladies recorded in Filon's _Memoirs_ as
+having helped to cheer the deposed monarchs in the first part of their
+exile when they resided at Cowes.
+
+Hélène Leigh (then Beckwith) told me that she and her sister often went to
+spend an evening with the Empress, who, as is well known, had a leaning
+towards spiritualism and table-turning. The Emperor disliked the
+experiments, and on one occasion begged them to stop. Presently he went to
+bed and then Eugénie determined to resume. The table moved, and rapped out
+"Janvier." The Empress asked what the date implied, and the answer came
+"La Mort." In the following January the Emperor died. Personally none of
+these coincidences convince me, as I have known automatic and other
+prophecies which did not "come off." The Emperor was very ill and his
+death must have seemed imminent to many present, but I allow that it is
+curious that the date as remembered by my sister-in-law should have proved
+accurate.
+
+[Sidenote: FAREWELL TO ENGLAND]
+
+At last I was considered well enough to start, and went off accompanied by
+four children, two governesses and three servants, the rest of the
+household having preceded us. We had a bitterly cold journey, and Lady
+Galloway, who joined us in London and went with us across France and
+Italy, had her work cut out to keep us warm and fed. She then went to stay
+with some of her friends, having promised to visit us later in Australia.
+
+It was very sad leaving all my family, and particularly my eldest boy
+Villiers. He had to finish his time at Eton and was then to come to us
+before going to Oxford. Everyone who has to leave children behind--and,
+alas! that is the lot of only too many English parents--knows what it
+means, and I will not dwell upon it.
+
+All our friends were most sympathetic and helpful, and I was particularly
+touched by Lord Derby's thoughtfulness. In his first letter on hearing of
+the appointment he wrote: "You are a queen and an exile. Are you to be
+congratulated or condoled with?..." He went on with serious words of
+encouragement, and a little later took the trouble voluntarily to write
+out for our use notes on Australia "founded on the reports of many friends
+and on some experience of C. O."
+
+Among his very shrewd remarks was:
+
+    "Distrust all informants who have been long away; things change
+    rapidly in those parts. And remember that the enriched colonist who
+    comes back with £10,000 a year to live in England does not in the
+    least represent the country in which his money was made."
+
+Again he says that the Governor--
+
+    "Must spend his whole salary and something over. But it is a mistake
+    to suppose that mere outlay and splendid festivities will conciliate
+    goodwill--though they go a long way towards it. What the colonists
+    really wish and like is that the Governor should appreciate them, mix
+    in their amusements and apparently like to be among them."
+
+Fortunately Jersey always liked to be among his fellow-men and understood
+them, and the Australians soon found that out, and never forgot it. Also
+Lord Derby truly said:
+
+    "The less a Governor interferes directly, the better; if his ministers
+    come to think that he desires so to do, they will tell him nothing; if
+    relieved from this fear, they will be glad enough to profit by his
+    experience and impartiality."
+
+Many of Lord Derby's further comments are much to the point, but I only
+cite one which is somewhat of a forecast:
+
+    "Schemes of imperial federation are not treated seriously by anybody,
+    but intercolonial federation is a growing idea, and likely to be
+    worked out, though still much opposed."
+
+During our absence Lord Derby was an excellent correspondent and I may
+refer to his letters later on.
+
+[Sidenote: VOYAGE ON THE "ARCADIA"]
+
+We sailed in the _Arcadia_, the same ship which had taken us to India,
+with the same Captain Andrewes. The usual incidents of a long voyage were
+not wanting--the natural effect on young men and women was exemplified in
+the growing attachment of a very clever Australian Professor to our
+English governess--an attachment which ultimately ripened to a wedding in
+Australia, when Miss Mason became Mrs. Harry Allen. She is now Lady Allen,
+and when the Prince of Wales visited Australia she sat at a banquet
+between H.R.H. and the Governor-General, so our Australian experiences
+were quite successful as far as she was concerned.
+
+I do not recollect much of the other events on board ship, for I was still
+not very strong and lived mostly with my children, in a nice large cabin
+which the P. and O. had arranged for me. There was, however, one couple
+who excited considerable interest--a youth who always appeared in spotless
+white and a coloured sash, and a girl who wore white frocks, displaying
+varied ribbons to match her admirer's. When we reached Ceylon passengers
+were forbidden to send any washing ashore, as there was small-pox in
+Colombo, and the young man went nearly frantic at being unable to refresh
+his wardrobe. His fellow-passengers cruelly ragged him, and he was
+reported to have run up and down in front of his cabin with a drawn sword.
+
+I suppose the small-pox was only in the native quarters, for we were
+allowed to land, to our great joy, had a delightful drive to Mount
+Lavinia, where we saw the mango trick--not very impressive--had dinner at
+the Colombo Hotel, and re-embarked for the longest and dullest part of our
+voyage. The monotony of the nine days between Ceylon and Australia was
+relieved in a manner more stirring than pleasant. We were met by a
+cyclone, and had to go considerably out of our course to avoid its full
+fury, but what we did encounter was quite bad enough and we were very
+thankful when we sighted Australia.
+
+We were fortunate during our sojourn in having the old friends whom I
+previously mentioned, and their wives, as colleagues. Lady Hopetoun and
+Lady Kintore were away when we landed, having been on a trip home; but
+Lord Kintore met us at Adelaide and took us up for the day to his
+beautiful house in the Mountains--Marble Hill--while Lord Hopetoun looked
+after us with equal hospitality at Melbourne. We only stayed a few hours
+at each place, as our great object was to reach our destination, which was
+primarily the Governor's little country house, Hill View, situated in the
+hills. Here I spent about a fortnight to rest and revive before going down
+for the assembling of the Federation Convention at Sydney.
+
+This was a very stirring introduction to Colonial life. (The words
+"Colony" and "Colonial" are now taboo, but before Federation the present
+Australian States were called "Colonies," and "Colonial" was freely used
+by everyone!)
+
+[Sidenote: THE FEDERATION CONVENTION]
+
+Delegates from all the States were assembled in Sydney and most of them
+had brought wives, so it was somewhat confusing to a new-comer to be at
+once introduced to a number of people, however kindly disposed towards
+her, whom she had never seen before, in totally novel surroundings. As far
+as I recollect the initial banquet took place on the evening of my
+arrival, March 1st, 1891. It was given in the Town Hall, a really fine
+building in which we afterwards attended endless functions of all
+descriptions. It was arranged that Lady Innes, wife of Sir George Innes, a
+judge, should dine alone with me and accompany me to the Gallery to hear
+the speeches after the banquet. All the guests courteously rose on my
+arrival; my cousin Harry Cholmondeley escorted me, very magnificent in his
+A.D.C.'s uniform. As the Cholmondeleys had been in the habit of acting
+with us at Middleton, I felt very much as if I were taking part in private
+theatricals.
+
+The principal speeches were made by Jersey and the New South Wales
+Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, who was the main promotor of Federation. Sir
+Henry was a remarkable character in his way. He was the son of a small
+farmer on my grandmother's property at Stoneleigh, where he attended the
+village school, and his first pair of breeches was made by the village
+tailor (the same parish clerk who made me find his places in church).
+Henry Parkes emigrated to Australia, and a lady there told me how he kept
+a sort of toy-shop and "fancy repository" where she could take her
+umbrella to be mended. He became a Member of Parliament and almost an
+autocrat. He had a fine head, like a shaggy lion, and was a good speaker,
+though I fear that the education given him in Stoneleigh School had not
+altogether overcome a certain difficulty with his "h's," and in the
+transaction of business he was somewhat slow in thought. He was, however,
+undoubtedly able and tenacious, and did a great deal for his growing
+country. He was a trifle like the German Kaiser in his desire for his
+city's progress in art, and had filled the National Park and the Botanic
+Gardens with statues and busts more notable for quantity than
+quality--but the intention was good, though the expenditure was large. I
+believe that he had originated the motto of the Federation: "One People,
+One Destiny."
+
+Jersey's speech was extremely well received, though his reference to the
+Union of the Saxon Heptarchy as precursor to that of the Australian States
+enabled one of the papers to indulge next day in witticisms. It declared
+that it had greatly perplexed the audience, some thinking that "Heptarchy"
+was the name of one of His Excellency's ancestors who had fought at
+Crécy--others that it was a kind of cake!
+
+[Sidenote: THE DELEGATES]
+
+Next day began the serious work of the Convention. Delegates were present
+from the six Australian Colonies; there were also three New Zealanders,
+including the celebrated Sir George Grey, who held a "watching brief" to
+see what the Australians were doing, though New Zealand had no intention
+of federating with the others. She was quite right, for although in those
+days people were apt to think of New Zealand as part of "Australasia," she
+is too far off and too different in origin and natural conditions to form
+a portion of what is a very distinct continent.
+
+No doubt the most intellectual and probably efficient member of the
+Convention was the President, Sir Samuel Griffith, Chief Justice of
+Queensland and afterwards Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. It
+is not for me to attempt a summary of the debates and of all the questions
+to which they gave rise, naturally the most difficult being the relations
+between the States. No doubt the result ultimately achieved did credit to
+the statesmanship of many who took part. Probably the weakest point was
+leaving to the separate States every power not expressly transferred to
+the Commonwealth; in Canada everything not expressly reserved to the
+Provinces went to the Dominion, which certainly tends to closer union.
+However, this is looking a good deal ahead.
+
+One of the points which seemed to add interest, perhaps dignity, to the
+convention was the great size of the delegates. They averaged over six
+feet in height, and I really forget how many pounds avoirdupois in
+weight--but something quite remarkable. Australian legislators were
+undoubtedly of sturdy growth, and whatever else they favoured had a great
+predilection for tea. I sometimes attended debates in New South Wales
+Parliament. My husband was precluded from doing so, but members seemed to
+think it rather a compliment that I should be present. However exciting
+the discussion, and whoever the orator, as sure as six o'clock struck a
+cry of "Tea, tea, tea!" arose from all sides of the house, and out rushed
+everybody to refresh himself before returning to duty.
+
+The great antagonist to Sir Henry Parkes was Mr., afterwards Sir George,
+Dibbs. He was an immense man, who had had a varied career, but was
+generally esteemed for his direct and downright honesty. When in his turn
+he became head of the Government he was noted as the first Australian-born
+Premier. When we first arrived in the Colony he was supposed to have
+Republican tendencies, but these seemed gradually, indeed rapidly, to
+evaporate. While we were in Australia he paid his first visit to England,
+where many prominent people, including our family and friends, paid him
+much attention. The final touch was put by the Prince of Wales (afterwards
+King Edward), who had discovered his liking for a big cigar, and with
+unfailing tact he gave him one to smoke. Dibbs said, "No, he should keep
+it," whereupon the Prince replied that he was to smoke that, and he would
+give him another. Of course this got into the Sydney papers, and when the
+traveller returned the street boys used to shout out, "Geordie, where's
+the cigar the Prince of Wales gave you?"
+
+The papers afforded us endless amusement during his trip. They used to
+come out with heavy headlines. "Dibbs meets one King--several Princes,"
+etc. "Dibbs visits the Queen," and on one occasion, mixed up with it all,
+"Lady Leigh desires that Dibbs should bring out Lord Jersey's son." _The
+Bulletin_ had a wicked page of drawings caricaturing Parkes' wrath as he
+read these items.
+
+Dibbs returned a rabid imperialist. I said to him one day, "I suppose that
+talk of republicanism was only your fun?" "Only my fun," was his hasty
+reply.
+
+The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Darley, and his delightful wife and
+family were among our greatest friends. Sir Frederick was a tall, handsome
+man; his resemblance to my father was often noticed by those who knew them
+both. Lady Darley was a very cultivated woman, sister to Rolf Boldrewood,
+author of _Robbery under Arms_, whose real name was Thomas Browne.
+
+Lady Darley was great at "spirit-drawing"--a power in which she quite
+honestly believed. It was curious, but I think instinctive. She would take
+a pencil between her fingers, and talk and look about the room while the
+pencil drew shading on a sheet of paper. Ultimately the shading would
+evolve a large head with no outline but the shadow. Once when in after
+years the Darleys were staying at Middleton Lady Darley showed her powers
+at my request, and another lady who was among our guests confided to me
+afterwards that she had produced an exact portrait of a relative long
+since dead who had held my friend in great affection. I am certain that
+Lady Darley did not know of this person's existence--the result must be
+left between telepathy and imagination! Anyhow, these mystic powers never
+interfered with Lady Darley's care for her family and for her duties to
+the community--she was a real influence for good. She and Sir Frederick
+have now passed away, but some of their daughters live in England and are
+still among our friends.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BLUE MOUNTAINS]
+
+Sir Frederick had built a charming house in the Blue Mountains called
+Lilianfels after a daughter who had died in youth. It was situated on a
+high plateau among most romantic scenery--deep ravines and almost
+inaccessible, thickly wooded valleys. One of these valleys plays a leading
+part in _Robbery under Arms_, the bushranging hero Starlight having his
+lair among the rocks. A railway had been made to this high ground,
+twisting and turning in extraordinary fashion, tradition said because the
+engineer wanted to pay constant visits to an innkeeper's daughter at a
+house somewhere on the way. Once at Katoomba, beyond which lay Lilianfels,
+the difficulty for the pedestrian would not be to scale mountains, but to
+descend into the valleys, and in our time not many people attempted it.
+Tourists, however, came up to admire the splendid views and the
+picturesque waterfalls, and to visit the famous Jenolan caves in the same
+neighbourhood.
+
+The whole formation of the valleys and caves showed that this part of the
+mountain-range had been in bygone ages cliffs washed by the sea. The
+Jenolan caves were long labyrinths full of stalactites and stalagmites of
+wonderful forms and colours. About two miles had been opened up when we
+were there, doubtless much more has since become accessible. Some of us
+climbed down a primitive iron ladder to view a mystical underground river,
+source unknown. I seized on it with joy for a child's story which I
+published later on.
+
+I believe that there is now a fine hotel near the caves, but when we spent
+a night there we found a very primitive hostelry; and as we were a party
+of nine, including the Duchess of Buckingham and her cousin Miss Murray, I
+am afraid we left little accommodation for other arrivals. We were
+unconscious of the inconvenience to which we were putting them until some
+time afterwards, when a little publication was sent us anonymously. It
+appears that a public room which had been allotted to us as a dining-room
+had been turned into a bedroom for two travellers after we had retired.
+Now this hotel was strictly Pussyfoot, and my husband, having been warned,
+had brought his own wine for our Party. He left two bottles in the room,
+and our successors frankly confessed that they had carried them off in
+triumph and shared the contents with their companions without saying where
+they had found them. The writer in the account sent us said that he did
+not imagine that the Governor knew how he had hampered the other guests
+and did not suppose that he realised the fate of his wine until he read
+this account. I must say that we were more amused than annoyed! All this
+happened long after our landing in the country, but thinking of the
+Darleys recalls our visit to my memory.
+
+[Sidenote: SIR ALFRED STEPHEN]
+
+The Chief Justice in each Colony was a great personality, and in due
+course Sir Frederick became in addition Lieutenant-Governor, succeeding in
+that office dear old Sir Alfred Stephen, who held it when we arrived. Sir
+Alfred was a member of the English family which has given so many
+distinguished luminaries to the Bar, and he worthily upheld their
+traditions at the Antipodes. He had been in Tasmania before settling in
+New South Wales, had been twice married, and had had nine children by each
+wife, nine born in each Colony, and, if I remember rightly, nine sons and
+nine daughters in all. With sons, daughters, sons-in-law,
+daughters-in-law, and other relatives his connections played such a
+prominent part in Sydney society that my A.D.C. brother found it advisable
+to devote certain pages in the Government House invitation book to "Sir
+Alfred Stephen's family," instead of entering them in the usual
+alphabetical lists.
+
+Sir Alfred was a delightful and intellectual man with great devotion to
+philanthropic schemes. On one point only I was disposed to differ from
+him--namely, he was extremely anxious to facilitate divorce and was much
+too serious in the matter to see the comic side of some of the American
+reasons for separation. Quite late in life, after being nearly bald his
+hair began to grow again, and he proudly called attention to his newly
+flowing locks.
+
+I cannot name all the Ministers. Some had (much to their credit) risen
+from quite lowly positions; others like Sir Frank Suttor, belonged to old
+Australian families--indeed while we were in Australia a child of the
+sixth generation was born to the Suttors, quite a record in such a young
+country.
+
+The general rule was while in Sydney the Governor and his wife could only
+receive private hospitality from the Chief Justice, Lieutenant-Governor,
+Admiral commanding the Station, and the Anglican and Roman Catholic
+Primates. Apart from these they could attend any ball or function given
+by, I think, six joint hosts--as for instance the Squatters' Ball, a Club
+dinner, or a Charity Entertainment. It was a wise rule on the whole, as it
+would have been exceedingly difficult to discriminate among hosts and
+hostesses without giving offence; and personally I was very glad that the
+Ministers and their wives should not have been even indirectly called upon
+to entertain us, as most of them were anything but rich, and yet had one
+begun the custom others might have felt bound to follow. Up the country it
+was different--when we visited the different Districts for agricultural
+shows, opening of school buildings, or general inspections, it was fully
+recognised that prominent people should receive us, and I cannot say
+enough of their kindness and hospitality.
+
+Indeed, open-handed hospitality was the rule in Australia, and the
+squatters and landowners, such as Mr. and Mrs. Osborne, Dr. and Mrs. Hay,
+and many others of our hosts and friends, seemed never to regard their own
+convenience if they could make their guests happy.
+
+Among the oldest families was that of Mrs. Macarthur Onslow, whose
+ancestor had introduced merino sheep into New South Wales, and who
+was--and is--universally respected in the State.
+
+[Sidenote: DOMESTIC CONDITIONS]
+
+Looking back on our various expeditions, I realise that our visits must
+often have been no small tax in remote places and in houses where servants
+were necessarily few. Quite rich people, having to our knowledge lands and
+flocks bringing in thousands a year, would have only three or four
+servants--the daughters of the house would do much of the work, and
+visitors would be quite prepared to help in making butter and cakes. A
+good deal that had been said in England about the splendid times which
+servants had overseas struck me on nearer observation as capable of being
+looked at from quite another point of view. For instance, much was made at
+one time of maid-servants having horses to ride. When the nearest town was
+perhaps fifteen or twenty miles off, when a horse cost £5 or £10, was
+never groomed, and when the rider himself or herself caught and saddled
+him as wanted, riding was not such an exceptional privilege.
+
+Again, it was true that wages were about double what they were in England,
+but accommodation was much rougher, and servants were expected to help in
+every department as required--no question of saying "that is not my
+place." I am speaking of nearly thirty years ago, but certainly almost all
+the servants whom we took out returned with us to England.
+
+This also applies to any remarks about social conditions. As I said
+before, Lord Derby was most regular in writing, and begged for any news
+which I could send him. Having been Colonial Secretary, he retained great
+interest in the Dominions. He told me in one letter that he was keeping
+mine, as he thought they might be of use hereafter, and after his death a
+number were returned to me. I have also preserved many of his; but looking
+through them, both his and mine refer so largely to topics of the day in
+both hemispheres that I hardly think that voluminous extracts can be of
+much present interest.
+
+[Sidenote: CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD DERBY]
+
+I, however, quote a few. In one of his first letters he says:
+
+    "Writing to Australia is no easy matter. What can one say to a friend
+    who has met with reverses? And surely there is no greater reverse in
+    life than being turned upside down. Does it pay to be a constitutional
+    monarch turned wrong-side up?"
+
+To which I replied:
+
+    "Your reversed friend was delighted to get your letter; though, as my
+    little boy says when told that he is upside down, 'No, we are standing
+    straight, it is the people in England who are standing on their heads
+    now,' which shows that he is rapidly imbibing Australian theories, and
+    believes that whatever be the follies of the Old World, we in New
+    South Wales must be all right."
+
+I do not think that I felt upside down, but nevertheless I had from time
+to time the feeling of having been buried and dug up again. Born and
+brought up in a very old house, and having both lived and travelled almost
+entirely among what was ancient, it was a strange experience to live where
+there were no relics of an Old World, and hardly any spot where history
+had been made in the long ago. On the other hand, Australia looked bravely
+forward, and was, and is, building for the future. As Lord Derby put it in
+another letter:
+
+    "I trust you enjoy colonial society and antipodean politics which at
+    least have the charm of greater hopefulness than we can indulge in in
+    this used up old country."
+
+Some of his accounts might almost have been written to-day; for instance,
+July 1891:
+
+    "The Labour party seems quite as lively with you as it is here.
+    Questions of that class will play a considerable part at the coming
+    elections, and many candidates who call themselves conservative will
+    swallow pledges more than half socialistic."
+
+And again in November:
+
+    "Speeches are constantly made but seldom read. England is sick of the
+    Irish question (!) but has no other ready to put in its place. Claims
+    for shorter hours and higher wages are rising in every trade and
+    business, and this is the only subject that really touches public
+    opinion; it is not, however, an easy one for candidates to make
+    capital out of, for opinion in the electoral masses has not pronounced
+    in favour of or against a compulsory eight hours; which is the main
+    question in dispute. The cat has not jumped yet, when it does pledges
+    and opinions will be swallowed, and a dishonest scramble will follow."
+
+Many cats have jumped since then, but the main outlines of politics are
+not essentially different.
+
+I confess that I was impressed by the extent to which the problem of the
+unemployed existed in a country with apparently limitless possibilities.
+Meetings of these men took place constantly near the Queen's Statue during
+1892, and perhaps a portion of a letter which I wrote to Lord Derby may be
+worth recording as at least a first-hand impression of what took place at
+the time.
+
+    "As to the unemployed, they present the usual features of the class,
+    somewhat intensified by local colour. A kind Government not only
+    provides a free Labour Bureau to meet their case, but has obtained for
+    them certain buildings belonging to the Municipality as sleeping and
+    smoking-rooms, and to the 'married destitute' is now distributing
+    orders for free rations. I understand that about 9,000 entered their
+    names on the books of the Labour Bureau, but only some 200 have so far
+    proved themselves qualified for free rations. What I am, however,
+    trying hard to make out is why, when everyone tells you 'there is work
+    for everyone in this country if he likes'--'everyone can make money
+    here'--'this is the working-man's paradise,' etc., etc., there should
+    be such numbers of men out of work and undoubtedly so much real
+    destitution. Possibly two incidents which have occurred lately may
+    assist in the solution of the problem. A contractor took a number of
+    men from the Labour Bureau to do certain works near the Harbour. He
+    tried to sort them with a view to giving the less efficient 6_s._ a
+    day, the others to have 7_s._ or 8_s._ a day when proved capable of
+    earning it. They all struck, and even the Minister for Works backed
+    them up, saying the contractor must not do that--he must give all the
+    men standard wages, but might send away the inefficient ones and have
+    others in their place."
+
+Of course the wages in Australia have risen enormously in the last
+twenty-five years. At the time I wrote, as far as I recollect, miners had
+about 14_s._ a day and other skilled labourers somewhere from 10_s._ to
+13_s._ The men employed by the contractor were probably unskilled. I
+continue my letter:
+
+    "Yesterday I visited a large Government Asylum for women ... no poor
+    law here. It comes to exactly the same thing, only, instead of the
+    rates, Government supports the institution. But the interesting thing
+    was this--connected with this women's asylum is a farm, and the
+    Matron's husband (an ex P. & O. captain) has voluntarily taken it in
+    hand. He wanted labour, and observed that in a neighbouring Government
+    Asylum for men there are numbers of men capable of doing plenty of
+    work, but not up to the 7_s._ to 10_s._ a day standard. He asked
+    permission to have some of these men, and has now about 40 employed
+    about the farm, giving them board and lodging at this Women's Asylum
+    and from 3_d._ to 1_s._ a day. I saw some at 3_d._ doing 4ft.
+    draining, and I talked to one, a bricklayer, who was doing excellent
+    work for 1_s._ a day. I calculated with the Master what his board and
+    lodging were worth (meat about 2-1/2_d._ lb.) and it came to about
+    1_s._ a day, so with 1_s._ wages on six days that was about 13_s._ a
+    week."
+
+I remark that had Trade Unions found out that these men, whom masters
+would not employ at full rates, were working instead of sitting with
+folded hands, it would doubtless have been stopped. Meantime, though
+ancient history, this is not altogether unenlightening.
+
+[Sidenote: LABOUR LEGISLATION]
+
+One rather amusing incident took place in Parliament. "Eight hours" was
+the Trade Union rule, but was not enforced by law at the time of which I
+write. A measure was brought into the Legislative Assembly (the Lower
+House) to make it legally obligatory. First came the preamble, which was
+accepted, then Clause Two stating that Eight Hours should be the legal
+working-day, which was passed with acclamation, then the various clauses
+with penalties attached which would oblige employers and employed to abide
+by the new law. All these were promptly negatived. It seems to have struck
+somebody that two clauses expressing an academic opinion looked a little
+isolated, so a member brought forward a third clause stating that nobody
+was to be obliged to work eight hours if he did not want to do so. This
+was accepted with equal unanimity, and the Bill stood practically thus:
+1st. Name. 2nd. Eight hours is a legal working-day. 3rd. No one is obliged
+to work eight hours. I believe that the whole thing evaporated in a burst
+of laughter and never went to the Upper House, but of course every sort of
+stringent regulation as to working-hours has come in since.
+
+However, the immediate sequel of this legislative effort deserves record.
+A ship came into Sydney Harbour and stevedores were enlisted to unload it.
+After eight hours' work they wanted to go on so as to get overtime pay.
+"Not at all," said the captain, "I am in no hurry. Eight hours is a legal
+working-day, and I am not going to break the law." Whereupon they all
+struck because they were not allowed to work overtime! This is enough on
+this burning question, which is certainly not peculiar to Australia.
+
+Before leaving Lord Derby's letters a few extracts with regard to European
+foreign affairs may be of interest. In March '91 he writes:
+
+    "Every thing and person on the Continent is quiet; even the German
+    Emperor. At least he has not been emitting any oracles lately. He is
+    said to have grown tired of Caprivi, and another change is talked of.
+    There is a vague idea about that he is 'going queer.' I don't know
+    that it rests on any authority."
+
+In the same letter, though this did not then concern foreign politics, he
+says:
+
+    "The only rising man I hear of is on the Gladstonian side--young Sir
+    Edward Grey, grandson of old Sir George, once Home Secretary. He is
+    making a name as an effective debater."
+
+Even Lord Derby could not foresee under what circumstances these two men,
+the Kaiser and Sir Edward, would become protagonists twenty-three years
+later! He also speaks of the "rising celebrity," Rudyard Kipling. In the
+following May he says:
+
+    "Foreign affairs seem quiet all over Europe; I am not behind the
+    scenes, but I know that the diplomatists expect no early disturbance.
+    The Czar would scarcely indulge in the pleasing pastime of baiting his
+    Jews, if he looked forward to wanting a loan. Besides, he hates
+    soldiering, and takes some interest in finance. The German Emperor has
+    been making a fool of himself, which is nothing new; he delivered a
+    speech the other day, in which he praised the beer-swilling and
+    duelling of German students as being the most effective influences to
+    keep up the true German character! He is an energetic young savage,
+    and that is the best one can say."
+
+It should be remembered that the Czar who indulged in "the pleasing
+pastime of Jew baiting" was not the luckless Nicholas II so brutally
+murdered--a victim, say some, to the baited Jews--but his father,
+Alexander III, whom he succeeded in 1894.
+
+[Sidenote: THE EX-KAISER]
+
+In July Lord Derby refers to the visit of the German Emperor at the
+beginning of the month:
+
+    "He has been ramping up and down, seeing everything, questioning
+    everybody, intent on making the most of his time, and keeping all the
+    world in the condition of fuss and bustle which is the element in
+    which he lives. It is almost too soon to judge the effect of his
+    visit. I should say that he was popular rather than otherwise; not
+    from his manners, which are queer and rather blunt; but there is a
+    certain simplicity about him which pleases, as when he told the
+    Windsor people, in answer to an address, that he had come 'to see his
+    grandmamma, who had always been kind to him.' He had a good reception
+    in the city, though not so enthusiastic as the press makes out. There
+    was about as much interest shown in his state entry as in an ordinary
+    Lord Mayor's Show. He is understood to be well satisfied, and the
+    visit has given people a subject to talk about, which they were
+    beginning to want. None now lasts longer than a week. By that time,
+    journalistic enterprise has said whatever is to be said, and the
+    public grows weary. I am afraid one effect of this German visit will
+    be to put the French in a bad humour, though with no good reason. But
+    that cannot be helped."
+
+Lord Derby seems to have been somewhat reassured, as in August, after
+touching on home affairs, he writes:
+
+    "The other event is more important: the visit of the French fleet to
+    Portsmouth, where it has been reviewed by the Queen, and civilities of
+    every kind have been exchanged. I call the matter important, because
+    the visit of the German Emperor made a great feeling of soreness in
+    France, and led to endless talk about England having joined the
+    anti-gallican alliance. All that nonsense is ended by the courtesy
+    shown to French officers: and the relations of the two countries, if
+    not absolutely cordial, are again comfortable. The business was well
+    managed and does credit to the people in Downing Street."
+
+Lord Derby continued to send most interesting news, but unfortunately some
+of his later letters are missing, and alas! he died in the spring of 1893,
+so I never saw my kind and constant friend again.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD DERBY'S POEM]
+
+I never saw the following lines published. They were given me by Lady
+Galloway, who told me that Lord Derby believed that he had composed them,
+as he could not remember having heard or read them when he woke with them
+in his mind. She wrote down what he said with regard to them.
+
+    "Lines made, as I believe, in sleep, in the course of a dream, in
+    which some fellow-student had asked me to complete a poem which he was
+    sending in:
+
+      "We judge but acts--not ours to look within:
+      The crime we censure, but ignore the sin:
+      For who tho' versed in every legal art
+      Can trace the mazes of the human heart,
+      Allow for nature, training, faults of race
+      And friendships such as make us brave or base,
+      Or judge how long yon felon in his cell
+      Resisted, struggled--conquered ere he fell?
+      Our judgments skim the surface of the seas,
+      We have no sounding-line for depths like these.
+                                    Jan. 1893, 5 to 7 a.m."
+
+One or two imperfect lines follow. The idea recalls Burns's "Address to
+the Unco' Guid":
+
+  "Then at the balance let's be mute,
+    We never can adjust it;
+  What's done we partly may compute,
+    But know not what's resisted."
+
+Lord Derby, however, goes deeper into the springs of action. Verses
+composed in sleep are by no means uncommon, but apart from Coleridge's
+"Kubla Khan," are perhaps seldom as consecutive as these.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FURTHER AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS--NEW ZEALAND AND NEW CALEDONIA
+
+
+Lady Galloway came out to us towards the end of 1891, and in January she
+accompanied us on one of our amusing expeditions. This time it was about
+three days' tour through a hilly--indeed mountainous country. The hills in
+Australia do not, as a rule, attain great height; it is because they are
+so ancient in the world's history that they have been worn down by the
+storms of ages and the ravages of time. We went, however, to open another
+range of caverns of the same kind as the Jenolan Caves. These, the
+Yarrangobilly Caves, had been explored, and to a certain extent excavated,
+within more recent years, and were now to be made accessible to tourists.
+
+Mr. Dibbs and other officials and Members of Parliament, notably some
+Labour Members, came also; and a mixed multitude, said to amount to about
+five hundred people in all, took part more or less in what was called "The
+Governor's Picnic."
+
+[Sidenote: YARRANGOBILLY CAVES]
+
+These did not follow us all through the hills, but camped in the valley
+near the caves. Here a comic incident occurred. For the first part of the
+tour we were in one district, for the last in another, but somehow in the
+middle we fell between two stools. In Number One and Number Three we were
+entertained by hosts who displayed the usual lavish hospitality, and all
+the way we were conveyed by kindly charioteers, and accompanied by a
+splendid voluntary mounted escort, but in Number Two, the valley near the
+caves, something had gone wrong. A wooden hut with several rooms had been
+prepared for our reception, but no food! It was a sort of debatable
+ground, and either through misunderstanding or, as was hinted, through
+local jealousy, it was nobody's business to act host on the border land.
+
+The poor Premier and other officials were desperate when they discovered
+our plight, and in the end Dibbs possessed himself of one of the troopers'
+swords and rushed off to a party of picnickers who were innocently sitting
+down to enjoy the supper which they had brought with them, asking what
+they meant by eating cold mutton while the Governor and his party were
+destitute!
+
+He returned triumphant with a joint. Meantime someone had produced a
+packet believed to contain Brand's Essence. Lady Galloway claimed that she
+knew how to make soup, so it was handed over to her. She upset it all into
+a soup plate full of water, and then, and not till then, it was discovered
+to be tea! However, one way and another, we were provided with sufficient
+food, and duly inaugurated the caves.
+
+They were beautiful, but never have I been so hard pressed for adjectives.
+The old guide whom we also met in the Jenolan Caves had been put on duty
+at the Yarrangobilly excavations for the occasion. He stopped our party of
+six or seven people before each particular stalagmite or stalactite, and
+would not move on till each of us in turn had ejaculated "beautiful,"
+"magnificent," "stupendous," or some other such laudatory word as
+suppressed laughter enabled us to utter, for it became a sort of game not
+to repeat what our companions had said.
+
+The following day an early start took us to Tumut, where we had a great
+reception and excellent entertainment. We were, however, not allowed to
+enter the town for our first greetings. As we drew near it, about 9 a.m.
+we perceived a table with a white cloth and several men standing round it
+in a field ("paddock" is the correct term in Australia). The wagonette was
+stopped, we were requested to get out, and we found that the magistrates
+of the district were waiting there with champagne, forestalling the
+reception prepared for us by the Municipality!
+
+Shortly after our return to Hill View, our summer's home, Lady Galloway,
+my brother Rupert, and I set off on a trip to New Zealand. In the
+intervening time the whole of Australia was deeply moved by the terrible
+news of the death of the Duke of Clarence. The fact of his recent
+engagement brought home to every household the full force of the tragedy.
+Addresses of condolence poured in, and the staff was fully occupied in
+acknowledging them and forwarding them to England.
+
+We sailed from Melbourne, staying for a day at Hobart in Tasmania, where
+Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir Robert Hamilton the Governor, who was then
+absent, took excellent care of us. Tasmania appeared to be a happy,
+friendly little place, but naturally we had no time to see much. The
+harbour is fine, and the vegetation in the neighbourhood of the city was
+rich and green with quite an English aspect.
+
+We then took ship for Dunedin, quite in the south of the South Island. It
+took us about four days and the sea was by no means calm.
+
+[Sidenote: DUNEDIN]
+
+Dunedin is a very interesting place and quite lives up to its name, for
+it is a small edition of Edinburgh. Scotch names over most of the shops,
+and as we walked past the open door of a boys' school we heard
+instructions being given in a very decided Scottish accent. There is a
+hill which recalls the Castle Hill, and even a manufacture of a very good
+woollen fabric with a distinctly plaid character. No doubt all this has
+greatly developed, but I trust it remains true to its Scottish origin. It
+was founded in 1848 by emigrants representing the Free Kirk of Scotland
+who left after the separation from the Established Church. There is a
+story that some of the first settlers put up a notice on their land to the
+effect that their co-religionists might help themselves to wood but that
+all others were to pay for it. True fraternal feeling, but it is hardly
+consonant with usual Scottish shrewdness that they should have expected
+the other wood-gatherers to volunteer payment.
+
+From Dunedin we went on to Invercargill, the extreme southern point, where
+the Governor, Lord Onslow, had invited us to join him on the Government
+yacht, the _Hinemoa_, and there we found Lady Onslow awaiting us.
+
+We were indeed fortunate in sharing in this expedition. The Onslows, who
+were on the point of returning to England, had arranged a trip to the
+Sounds for which they had not previously found time, and it was only in
+their yacht that we could have fully enjoyed the wonders of these fiords
+of the Southern Hemisphere. I do not know how it is now, but then
+excursion steamers only went about four times a year, were very crowded,
+and entered a limited number of Sounds. Lord Onslow took us into one after
+another, each more imposing than the last. I was particularly impressed by
+the desolate grandeur of one said not to have been entered for
+twenty-five years. The mountainous steeps which guarded it were in great
+part simply rocky slopes, and it seemed as if the spirits of the place
+resented our intrusion. In most of the other Sounds the precipitous
+mountain sides were clad with wildly luxuriant foliage, and land and water
+were alive with birds, particularly water-fowl. Amongst these were the
+lovely black-and-white Paradise ducks, which could be caught with
+long-handled nets something like gigantic butterfly nets.
+
+The precipices enclosing the Sounds rise in some cases five or six
+thousand feet from the water's edge, their tops are snow-clad, and great
+waterfalls thunder into the calm sea-inlets below. The most famous fiord
+is Milford Sound, where is the great Bowen Fall. So thick is the
+vegetation that one fallen tree was pointed out to us on which we were
+assured that 500 different specimens of ferns, creepers, etc., might be
+counted. We had no time to verify this statement, but a hasty inspection
+made it seem not at all impossible. One thing is certain--the
+mountain-side with its impenetrable forest descends so precipitously into
+the waters below that our yacht of 500 tons was tied up to an overhanging
+tree and had no need to cast anchor. I think that there are seventeen
+Sounds in all (I do not mean that we saw so many), but Milford Sound is
+the only one which could be reached from the land, and even that was, in
+our time, a matter of great difficulty. For a long time the only
+inhabitant had been a man called Sutherland, who was considered a hermit
+and periodically supplied with food. He had discovered about fourteen
+miles inland the great Sutherland waterfall, which is much higher than
+Niagara though not nearly so broad.
+
+[Sidenote: THE NEW ZEALAND SOUNDS]
+
+When we were in Milford Sound we found a small band of convicts who had
+been lately established there for the purpose of making a road to the
+Fall. I do not think that they were working very hard, but they had
+cleared about two miles of footpath through the thicket along which we
+walked, and a lovely walk it was. Tea at the end, however, was
+considerably disturbed by sandflies which came round us in a perfect
+cloud, so that we could only push our cups up under our veils.
+
+New Zealand sandflies are a peculiarly virulent species--a large blister
+rises directly they bite you, but they have the saving grace that they
+stop the moment the sun sets. They were, however, the only drawback to
+this most delightful of trips. While we were fighting them my brother and
+Lord Onslow's A.D.C., Captain Guthrie, tried to push on to the Fall. As
+far as I remember, they got a distant view but had not time to reach
+it.[1]
+
+Lord Onslow was a most considerate nautical host. We cruised from Sound to
+Sound by night as a rule, so that we might lie prostrate and asleep on the
+rough waves which are apt to surround those shores, and during the day we
+enjoyed the calm waters of the fiord.
+
+We parted from the yacht and from our kind hosts with regret, having
+arranged to be again their guests at Wellington. Meantime we saw something
+of the South Island, which, by the way, bears the alternative name of
+Middle Island. New Zealand is really composed of three islands--North
+Island, the South or Middle Island, and a little one at the foot named
+Stewart Island. New Zealand claims dominion over a large number of small
+islands in the Pacific, to which happily two of the Samoan group over
+which it exercises a "mandate" have been added since the war. Lord Onslow
+told us that shortly before our visit he had been to settle the claims of
+certain rival Queens of Raratonga, one of these dependencies. Having
+decided in favour of one of these royal ladies, he endowed her with a
+sundial, as a sign of supremacy, as he thought she could well assert
+herself by "setting the time of day." The South Island is full of beauty.
+We went in a steamer up Lake Wakatipu. I cannot attempt a description of
+all the charms of this lake and its neighbourhood. Naturally it differed
+from the Italian Lakes in the absence of picturesque villages (now, by the
+way, almost swallowed up by the rows of villas which skirt Como and
+Maggiore), but on the other hand there was the fascination of radiant
+nature little touched by the hand of man. Probably now there is a happy
+and growing population near Lake Wakatipu.
+
+Before we left South Island we stayed for a night or two with my cousin,
+Edmund Parker, a member of Dalgetty's firm, who then lived at
+Christchurch. It is curious that whereas Dunedin owed its origin to the
+Scotch Free Kirk, Christchurch, founded two years later, was a child of
+the "Canterbury Association," which, under the auspices of the Archbishop
+of Canterbury, Lord Lyttelton, and others, sent out a body of settlers
+largely drawn from Oxford and strictly members of the Church of England.
+They took up a tract of land and sold it in portions, devoting ten
+shillings out of every pound received to church and schools; their city
+was named Christchurch after the Cathedral and College in Oxford, and the
+surrounding district bears the name of Canterbury. It stands upon the
+river Avon, the banks of which are planted with willows said to have been
+originally brought from Napoleon's Tomb at St. Helena. There is a fine
+cathedral copied from Caen Cathedral in Normandy, and the whole place
+recalls some city of the Old World transplanted to a newer and brighter
+land.
+
+The story goes that some of the original settlers, importing classics into
+agriculture, "swore at their oxen in Greek"--perhaps someone who heard
+them quoting Virgil's Georgics took any foreign tongue for Greek oaths.
+
+[Sidenote: HOT SPRINGS OF NEW ZEALAND]
+
+After crossing to Wellington and spending a day or two with the Onslows
+there, we set off again to visit the famous hot-lake district in the
+Northern Island. Our headquarters were at Rotorua and Whakarewarewa, from
+both of which we visited the marvellous geysers, springs, and hot lakes
+with which the district abounds.
+
+The great Pink and White Terraces had been destroyed by a mud volcano some
+years before our visit, but we saw in many places how similar formations
+were being reproduced by the chemical substances thrown up by the springs,
+making polished pink-and-white pavements and even terraces on a small
+scale. To see the natural hot fountains starting up from the pools among
+the rocks was entrancing. Some of the columns play at regular intervals,
+some only occasionally; one irregular performer shoots up a column of
+boiling water to a height sometimes attaining 100 feet. One was called the
+Prince of Wales's Feathers, as the water sprang up in that form.
+
+New Zealand is far more prolific in legends than Australia; the Maoris
+being of a higher type than the Australian aboriginal, naturally handed
+down semi-historical, semi-mythical traditions of their ancestors. Among
+the prettiest and best-known tales is that of Hinemoa. This young lady was
+the daughter of the chief of a powerful tribe whose headquarters was at
+Whakarewarewa. Among the many suitors attracted by her beauty she
+preferred a youth named Tutaneki; but though his mother was the daughter
+of the chief of the Island of Mokoia, situated in the centre of the Lake
+of Rotorua, his father was a commoner, and Hinemoa's father was furious at
+the idea of a _mésalliance_. He dared Tutaneki again to set foot on the
+mainland, and caused all the canoes to be hauled up on the beach to keep
+Hinemoa from attempting to join her lover. Tutaneki, however, was an
+accomplished musician, and every evening the strains of his lute floated
+so sweetly over the waters of the lake that Hinemoa could no longer stand
+separation. Taking six empty gourds as an improvised life-belt, she swam
+the three miles dividing her from music and love. Fortunately, though
+numbed by her exertions, she landed on the island where a hot spring,
+still called Hinemoa's Bath, wells up near the beach, and a plunge into it
+soon revived her. More successful than Leander, she was united to her
+lover and lived with him peacefully on Mokoia. Her father appears to have
+reconciled himself to the inevitable.
+
+At one moment we almost thought that we should have, in a minor degree, to
+emulate the performance of Hinemoa. We arranged to row across the Lake to
+a spot on the shore opposite our hotel, where we were to be met by a
+"coach" (as the ordinary vehicles were called) bringing our luncheon.
+Somehow first our rudder broke away and then the boatman seemed to lose
+his head--and anyhow lost one of his oars. We were thereby left
+helplessly floating at no great distance from the beach, and, what was
+worse, with no apparent possibility of securing our luncheon. However, my
+brother, bolder than Tutaneki, saved Lady Galloway and myself from
+imitating Hinemoa. He plunged into the water and managed to wade ashore,
+and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing him return carrying the
+luncheon basket on his head, and having sent a messenger to summon another
+boat to our rescue.
+
+One particularly fascinating feature in the Hot Lakes District was the
+charm of open-air hot baths. Certain pools were surrounded by high
+palisades rendering them absolutely private. You secured a key and locked
+yourself in, when you could disport yourself in natural hot water and wade
+about under the trees to your heart's content. The water was of a
+delightful temperature, but certainly impregnated with chemicals, as I
+found the skin peeling off my feet after two or three such baths.
+
+[Sidenote: HUIA ONSLOW]
+
+We arrived at Auckland in time to witness the final send-off of that most
+popular Governor, Lord Onslow, with special tributes to Lady Onslow and
+her baby son Huia, who, having been born during his parents' tenure of
+office, had been endowed with the Maori chieftain's distinctive badge, the
+feather of the Huia, and was christened by that name. Whenever he appeared
+the Maoris shouted "Huia! Huia!" and, most tactfully, the child showed a
+preference for brown men over white. Poor Huia grew into a splendid and
+talented youth, but was disabled by an accident while diving. Despite his
+crippled condition he gallantly pursued his scientific studies till
+released by death in 1922.
+
+Of all Rudyard Kipling's Songs of the Cities I think the Song of Auckland
+best conveys the claim of that vision of beauty:
+
+  "Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart--
+  On us, on us the unswerving season smiles,
+  Who wonder 'mid our fern why men depart
+  To seek the Happy Isles!"
+
+Truly, New Zealand must have waited while Providence bestowed gifts on
+many lands, and have then received a special bounty from each store of
+blessing. The strength of the mountain pass, the plunge of the waterfall,
+the calm mirror of the lake, the awe of the forest, the glow of the
+flowers, the fertile pasture for the flock, the rich plains for the
+corn--gold, coal, and Kauri gum, the marvels of her springs--all these and
+much more are given to her children, together with one of the most perfect
+climates on the face of the earth. She has but one drawback--namely, that
+she is ringed round by some of the stormiest oceans known to man. Perhaps
+were it not so too many eager pilgrims would seek this far-off Paradise!
+
+Lord and Lady Onslow returned with us to Sydney Government House, and soon
+after left with their family for England. Lady Galloway in turn sailed in
+the spring (Australian autumn), to my great regret. She made the voyage in
+a Messageries boat, accompanied by the very pretty daughters of Lord
+Southesk, Helena and Dora Carnegie.
+
+In July of this year (1892) my husband and I were fortunately able to make
+a most interesting journey to the French Colony of New Caledonia. As is
+well known, certain questions had arisen from time to time between
+Australia and New Caledonia, as the former Government asserted that
+convicts escaped from the French penal colony were apt to take refuge on
+Australian shores; and since the total cessation of convict transportation
+from Great Britain Australians were, not unnaturally, additionally
+sensitive to their arrival from any other quarter.
+
+[Sidenote: NOUMEA]
+
+Apart from this, however, the relations between the British and French
+"outposts of Empire" were very friendly and a good many Australians had
+established themselves as free settlers in Noumea, the capital of New
+Caledonia; and when the French Government heard that Jersey contemplated a
+visit they sent word (as we learnt later on) that a generous sum was to be
+spent on the reception of the first Australian Governor to undertake the
+voyage. Owing to the fact that he had to await permission from home before
+absenting himself from New South Wales, and as there was then no cable to
+Noumea, we were unable to name an exact date for our arrival, which after
+some three days' voyage took place on July 13th. We sailed in a
+Messageries boat, the _Armand Béhic_, very luxurious and with most
+obliging officers, but much too narrow in proportion to its length, which
+caused it to roll even when the sea was perfectly calm. This was a common
+fault with Messageries boats in those days. Probably also it was deficient
+in cargo, as, despite a large Government subsidy, this line was run to New
+Caledonia at a considerable loss. I wrote to my mother describing our
+arrival as follows:
+
+    "We were received" (at Noumea) "with a tremendous salute of guns,
+    after which the Conseil de Santé promptly put the ship and all its
+    company into quarantine for 24 hours! We (including Private Secretary
+    and servants) were allowed to stay on board, where we were perfectly
+    comfortable, but all the other passengers from the _Armand Béhic_ and
+    another ship arriving from Sydney at about the same time, were bundled
+    off to the quarantine island. There were about 180 of them and
+    accommodation for about 25. What the rhyme or reason of 24 _hours'_
+    quarantine was in a question of small-pox which might appear, if at
+    all, in 21 days, we at first failed to discover, but the solution--and
+    I fancy the true one--ultimately offered was that when our ship
+    arrived with the British Ensign flying there was an awful hullabaloo.
+    They did not know we were coming by this ship, and neither Government
+    House nor anything else was ready, so they cried, "Whatever shall we
+    do? Happy thought! Small-pox at Sydney--let us quarantine them till we
+    have had time to prepare," (Here let me remark that as a rule
+    Australia was absolutely free from small-pox, but a few cases had
+    lately been brought by a ship, and of course relegated to the New
+    South Wales remote quarantine stations.)
+
+To resume my letter:
+
+    "It mattered very little to us, but was awfully hard on the other
+    victims, particularly as they put all their worn linen into some
+    concoction of chemicals which utterly spoilt it. Meantime we went off
+    to the quarantine island for a walk and went up a hill whence we had a
+    beautiful view of the harbour which is _lovely_ ... high hills of
+    charming shapes round it ... the real glow of vivid green, red, and
+    blue which one imagines in the South Pacific.... Well, next morning,
+    at 9 a.m., we were allowed to land in great honour and glory, and were
+    received by the Mayor, girt with his tricolour sash, and all the
+    Municipal Council, and then escorted to Government House, where
+    everything had been prepared, down to unlimited scent-bottles,
+    tooth-brushes, and splendidly bound copies of Byron and Milton, to
+    make us feel at home. The only drawback was that having once
+    established us, and apparently cleaned up the house for our arrival,
+    nobody ever attempted to dust or clean in any way again--and as it
+    rained all the time after the first day, and everyone walked
+    everywhere, including in the ball-room, in muddy boots, the effect was
+    peculiar. Every place was, however, decorated with flowers and flags,
+    which are no doubt excellent substitutes for dusters and dustpans."
+
+[Sidenote: THE GOVERNOR OF NEW CALEDONIA]
+
+I shall not easily forget that household. It is hardly necessary to say
+that the Governor, M. Laffon, was a bachelor, a young man, clever and
+charming but evidently unaccustomed to domestic details. I believe that he
+was appointed through the influence of the Paris Rothschild, who was a
+friend of his father, and who had a predominating share in the nickel
+mines which constitute the great wealth of New Caledonia. He, however, was
+a civilian and had no voice in the appointment of the Private Secretary
+and Military A.D.C. who constituted his staff, and who treated their Chief
+with a profound disregard which scandalised our Private Secretary, George
+Goschen.
+
+M. Laffon got up at any hour in the morning to take us to "objects of
+interest" before the heat of the day, but the staff did not trouble
+themselves to appear till about noon, and when a ceremonious _déjeuner_
+was given we found that the Minister of the Interior was running round to
+put the name-cards on the places of the guests. These young men told Mr.
+Goschen that when they did not want to go anywhere they pleaded headache
+and wondered if their Governor were surprised at the frequency of these
+ailments. "But don't you have a headache?" added one of them. "An A.D.C.,"
+retorted our virtuous Briton, "never has a headache." "But you have
+sentiments?" "An A.D.C.," was the reply, "has no feelings." "You must feel
+unwell sometimes?" "Never more than one out of four of us at a time."
+
+Poor George Goschen was nearly crippled with rheumatism while at Noumea,
+but would rather have died on the spot than have omitted to set a good
+example by following us everywhere in a pelting rain. Nevertheless when
+they deigned to accompany us the two Frenchmen made themselves very
+agreeable.
+
+Our English footman, originally a boy from Middleton village, was
+considerably taken aback when he found that the only attendance in our
+rooms was the sudden inroad of a party of kanakas (natives) who ran in
+with feather brushes, stirred up a little dust, and rapidly disappeared.
+"Well, Henry," said Mr. Goschen, "either you or I will have to make His
+Excellency's bed." And, stimulated by this and by my maid's example, Henry
+turned to, and we were made perfectly comfortable.
+
+Fortunately for the peace of mind of our kind hosts, the Government and
+Municipality, we came in for the Fêtes de Juillet, so though they could
+not carry out the special entertainments projected for us, they had three
+balls, and some races, already arranged. It was rather strange to have the
+music supplied by a Convict Band in their penal garb, but it was very
+good.
+
+In the middle of one of the balls we were summoned to witness a
+"pilou-pilou," that is a native dance by the kanakas--merry-looking people
+with tremendous heads of wool standing straight up. They danced a kind of
+ballet with much swaying of their bodies and swinging of their weapons,
+which they afterwards presented to me. I did not much like taking them,
+but was assured that it was the custom.
+
+These kanakas were darker and of a more negro type than the Samoans whom
+we afterwards visited, but not so dark as the Australian aboriginals, nor
+so savage as the inhabitants of the New Hebrides or New Ireland.
+
+We saw two of their villages, and their system of irrigation by little
+watercourses on the hill-side, which showed considerable capacity for
+agriculture. The Roman Catholic missionaries claimed to have converted
+about ten thousand of them, and it was curious to find in a dark little
+hut of bark and reeds, with little inside except mats and smoke, two or
+three Mass books and a crucifix. Some of the priests whom we met had gone
+into the wilds of New Caledonia before the French annexed it in 1853, and
+regardless of danger had worked there ever since.
+
+[Sidenote: THE CONVICT SETTLEMENT]
+
+We were taken to see the chief buildings of the Convict Settlement, which
+appeared to be large and well planned, but one had rather a painful shock
+when the first object pointed out was the site of the guillotine.
+Naturally the convicts were divided into different classes. We entered one
+long building where a number were confined in common, and seemed fairly
+cheerful, but others were in little separate cells from which they were
+only brought out, and then alone, for a very short time each day. Some had
+only a brief period of such solitary confinement, but in one small cell we
+found a very big man who almost seemed to fill it with his body when he
+stood up at our entrance. He had been condemned to seven years of this
+penance for having assaulted a waiter. He implored the Governor either to
+have him executed at once, or to allow him a little more liberty. I backed
+up his plea, and M. Laffon promised some consideration, which I trust was
+effectual.
+
+The worst thing we saw was the lunatics' prison, inhabited by men who had
+gone mad since their arrival in the Island. One man had a most refined and
+intellectual head; he had been a distinguished lawyer at Lyons and was
+transported for having killed a man who, if I recollect rightly, had been
+his sister's lover. No wonder that shame, exile, and his surroundings had
+driven him mad. Another was much happier; he was quite harmless, and was
+allowed to wander about and indulge his mania, which was the decoration of
+the little chapel. I have no reason at all to think that the convicts were
+ill-treated, but we did not see the place where the worst criminals were
+confined, and one of the French ladies mysteriously remarked, "Ils ont des
+temps durs ceux-là."
+
+I always feel, however, that philanthropists who are ready to condemn the
+treatment of convicts in any part of the world fail to realise the
+difficulty of keeping order amongst large bodies of men, most of whom, at
+all events, have criminal instincts. The heroes of novels and plays who
+undergo such imprisonment are almost invariably represented as unjustly
+convicted, probably scapegoats for real criminals, and all our sympathy is
+evoked on their behalf. No doubt, particularly in the early days of
+Australia, there were many cruelties and much undue severity, but the
+comparatively few officers and men who were put to guard and govern masses
+of criminals had no easy task. They were far removed from any possibility
+of summoning help in cases of mutiny, and probably many of them
+deteriorated mentally and physically through much anxiety and the
+hardships which they themselves had to encounter.
+
+[Sidenote: CONVICTS IN FORMER DAYS]
+
+On the other hand, I heard many authentic stories in Australia of the kind
+treatment and good behaviour of the convicts who were sent out from
+England for slight offences, and who became steady and law-abiding
+settlers, and were particularly careful in the education and upbringing of
+their children. One gentleman told me of a dentist who refused a fee for
+treating him because his father, who had been an official in convict days,
+had been so good to the dentist's ticket-of-leave family. Of course it
+seems very hard of our ancestors to have transported men and women for
+stealing bread or poaching, and I am not justifying the penal laws of the
+eighteenth century, but being what they were I am not at all sure that the
+majority of those who were sent to Australia were not better off than they
+would have been shut up in the prisons of those days in England, and
+certainly their children had a much better start in life. I believe that
+the great hardship was the voyage out in a slow sailing ship, overcrowded,
+with little fresh air and the constant risk of food and water running
+short. Once landed, there were many chances of prosperity for the
+well-behaved. I say nothing of the real black sheep who were relegated to
+Port Arthur or Norfolk Island. It is a mercy to think that those days are
+past and over.
+
+To return to New Caledonia. There were elaborate arrangements for work in
+the nickel mines, and as assigned servants to free settlers whom the
+French Government were very anxious to plant on the land. I do not think
+that they were very successful in inducing large numbers to undertake the
+long voyage, though there were a few Bretons on our ship. A good many
+Australians, however, were established in trade in Noumea.
+
+Words fail to do justice to the kindness of the New Caledonian
+French--they made every exertion to render us happy, and completely
+succeeded. When we left they robbed their Museum of a whole collection of
+native curiosities which they put on board ship with us, despite our
+protestations. One quaint incident perhaps deserves record. Just as we
+departed I received an imposing-looking missive written in flowery
+English, which proved to be a letter from a French poilu. He informed me
+that he had been in Australia and had there married a girl whose name he
+gave me. She was then living in Victoria, and if I remember rightly was
+half Belgian, half British. A small child had been the offspring of the
+union, but "France had called on him to serve," and though his time of
+service overseas was nearly up, and though he wished to return to
+Australia to "stand by his wife," France saw otherwise and proposed to
+ship him back to Marseilles; he was in despair until I had appeared "like
+a star of hope upon the horizon."
+
+When we were back at Sydney I wrote to the Charity Organization at
+Melbourne asking if they could find out anything about the lady. Oddly
+enough she was actually employed in the C.O.S. Office, and was said to be
+quite respectable, though there appeared to have been a little informality
+about the "marriage lines."
+
+I then wrote to the very amiable French Colonel at Noumea and asked
+whether under the circumstances he could see his way to letting the
+lovelorn swain return to Australia instead of to France. With prompt
+courtesy he granted my request, and named some approximate date for the
+man's arrival in Melbourne. Thereupon I wrote a further letter to the
+C.O.S., asking that they would be prepared for a marriage ceremony about
+which there should, this time, be no mistake. The end of the romance, at
+all events of this chapter, was that I received a gushing epistle of
+gratitude signed by "two young hearts," or words to that effect, "made for
+ever happy." I never saw the youth and maiden whom I had thus been
+instrumental in launching among the eddies and currents of matrimony, but
+I trust that the little girl was sufficient to justify a somewhat blind
+experiment.
+
+[Sidenote: DEATH OF LORD ANCRAM]
+
+A great tragedy threw a shadow over our sojourn in N.S.W.
+
+One of our aides-de-camp was Lord Ancram, elder son of Lord Lothian, and a
+particularly attractive young man. He was a great favourite in Sydney and
+much in request at gatherings of every description, being good-looking and
+having charming manners. In June 1892 he and my brother were invited to
+join a shooting party in the country. He went off in high spirits, and
+when he came to say good-bye to me, knowing him to be rather delicate, I
+cautioned him to be sure and put some kind of bedding under as well as
+over him if sleeping out at night. This he promised to do. I never saw him
+again. It was customary in Australia to shoot riding. He and his
+companions got off their horses for luncheon, and put their guns on the
+ground. On remounting one of the party seems to have picked up a loaded
+gun in mistake for his own which he had discharged. Handled incautiously
+this gun went off, and poor Ancram was shot through the head, dying
+instantaneously. I shall never forget the universal sorrow not only in
+Government House, but among the whole warm-hearted community of New South
+Wales. It was some comfort that the Admiral commanding the Station, Lord
+Charles Scott, was Ancram's uncle, and he and his nice wife were able to
+help, and advise as to the best means of breaking the news to the poor
+parents and relatives in England.
+
+Poor George Goschen, who was devoted to Ancram, was almost prostrated by
+grief. It was rather curious that not very long before the accident Ancram
+told me that he had dreamt that he found himself back in his old home, but
+that his brother had taken his place and that nobody recognised him or
+took any notice of him!
+
+Treasures of the Old World are sometimes found at the Antipodes. On one of
+our tours, at a township called Bungendore, a large wooden box appeared
+unexpectedly in our private railway car. Opened, it was found to contain a
+letter from a Mr. Harold Mapletoft Davis explaining that he confided to
+our care relics from Little Gidding, brought from England long before by
+his parents. His mother, Miss Mapletoft, was directly descended from Dr.
+Mapletoft and from his wife, the only Miss Colet who married. In the box
+were a copy of the famous _Harmonies_, and bound volumes of manuscript
+writings by Mary Colet and her sisters. The fine binding of _The
+Harmonies_, now in the British Museum, was said to have been executed by
+Mary Colet herself; she did not die young as represented in "John
+Inglesant," but lived to a good old age. There was also a lovely Charles I
+embroidered miniature chest of drawers, containing a boar's tooth, a
+handkerchief with the royal monogram, and other relics. Charles I left
+this at Little Gidding during his troubles. It was ultimately purchased by
+Queen Victoria, and is now at Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TONGA AND SAMOA
+
+
+Not long after our return from New Caledonia I set sail again, this time
+to take advantage of an invitation from the Britannic Land Commissioner to
+stay with him at his house in Samoa. My brother Rupert Leigh and my
+daughter Margaret accompanied me on the Norddeutscher Lloyd mail-ship
+_Lubeck_. The Germans subsidised the line, but it was, I understood, run
+at a regular loss. We left on August 3rd, and encountered very rough
+weather, seas sweeping over the bridge, and even invading our cabins.
+Captain Mentz was very kind, installed us in his own quarters, and did his
+best to find food which Margaret and I could eat despite sea-sickness. I
+must say this for him, although he was a German!
+
+We passed Norfolk Island, but did not land anywhere until we reached
+Nekualofa, the chief town of the Tongan group, which consists of about 100
+islands and atolls. Tonga, like every island in the Pacific of which I
+ever heard, has its own particular quarrels and politics. It was governed
+at the time of our visit by an ancient potentate called King George, after
+George III of England. His wife had been Queen Charlotte, but she had
+died.
+
+The hero, or rather villain, of recent Tongan history was one Shirley
+Baker, a Wesleyan missionary with the aspirations of a Richelieu or
+Mazarin. He belonged to the Wesleyan Church of Australia, which had
+previously become independent of the Mother Church in England. Shirley
+Baker, however, having made himself Prime Minister of Tonga, did not care
+to take orders even from Australia, but persuaded the dusky monarch that
+the right and proper thing was to have a Free Methodist Church of his own.
+This would not have mattered, but the inhabitants were all compelled to
+belong to this new connexion, and beaten and imprisoned if they wished to
+adhere to what was presumably the Church of their baptism. Other trifling
+accusations, such as of poisoning, were brought against this
+ecclesiastical Prime Minister, and ultimately the British High
+Commissioner from Fiji had to come down and deport him to New Zealand.
+Still, however, as far as we could learn during a brief stay of some
+twenty-four hours, though there was surface peace, intrigue and suspicion
+were still rampant.
+
+Even before we landed my brother came to me and said that one of our
+fellow-passengers had warned him that if we paid a visit to King George
+the missionary interpreter in attendance would probably misrepresent what
+we had to say to the monarch. "But," added Rupert, "I don't think that we
+have anything particular to say, have we?" I agreed that I did not think
+that our communications would vitally affect the peace of the world, or
+even of the Pacific, so we ventured to enter the royal precincts.
+
+The Palace was a comfortable-looking villa, of which the most striking
+adornment was a full-length oil-painting of the old German Emperor
+William, presented to the King for having declared the neutrality of Tonga
+in the Franco-German War of 1870. The High Commissioner of Fiji had
+countered this propaganda by presenting an engraving of Queen Victoria,
+but we were bound to confess, that, being merely head and shoulders, our
+Sovereign Lady was placed at a disadvantage in the artistic competition.
+
+[Sidenote: TONGAN LADIES]
+
+The Tongan ladies were celebrated for their beauty, and we were told that
+when the Duke of Edinburgh, as Prince Alfred, visited Australia and some
+places in the Pacific, Tonga was much disappointed because he failed to
+land on its shores. The inhabitants, however, found balm for their wounded
+feelings in two explanations offered: first, Queen Victoria was so
+impressed by the importance of the group that had she sent a
+representative it must have been her eldest, not her second son; secondly,
+she had heard so much of the charms of the ladies that she feared lest the
+Prince should bring back a dusky daughter-in-law if exposed to their
+wiles. One only wonders why they thought that she should object. The King
+was a fine old man, and we had no reason to believe that a rather
+weak-looking missionary gave any serious misconstruction of our
+conventional remarks. They dealt a good deal with our Queen, and at all
+events he introduced her name at the right place!
+
+We had a very pretty drive in a vividly green lane, had tea at the hotel,
+and returned to sleep on board. The real joy, however, was our departure
+at sunrise next morning. Never before or since have I seen such a glory of
+colour--St. John may have witnessed something like it when he wrote the
+Revelation, but I cannot believe that earth contains a rival.
+
+The sun struck the coral reefs through an absolutely calm sea, and its
+beams were broken up into streams and rivers of crimson, blue, green, and
+purple, as if a rainbow or the tail of an angelic peacock or bird of
+paradise had fallen into the ocean; nor did the rivers remain unchanged.
+At one moment a flood of crimson passed by, and if we ran to the other
+side of the ship, we found that the waters were turning to emerald; they
+parted and mingled and parted again till we seemed in a fairy world of
+magic.
+
+We spent much time in the lagoons of Samoa and saw beautiful hues,
+particularly deep purples, there, but never again the extraordinary beauty
+of the Tongan archipelago. Behind the ever-changing sea rose a myriad
+islands crowned with palms and floating in light. My brother asked me if I
+remembered the little picture in our old Ballantyne's _Coral Island_ of
+schoolroom days. I had already thought of it, and gratefully felt that at
+least one dream of childhood had been fulfilled, that I had seen something
+of what our books had told, though not as the sailor which I had sighed to
+be.
+
+King George died in the spring after we had made his acquaintance. A
+prominent resident whom we had met at Nukualofa, Mr. Parker, wrote to
+describe the honours paid to his memory. He said that he had been for so
+many years "a leading character for good and bad that his sudden, but on
+account of his age not unexpected, death caused much commotion."
+
+    "However much some of his subjects may have disliked him (or rather
+    his régime) when alive, and with much reason there were many, now that
+    he is dead the respect they show is very striking. The place both day
+    and night is as silent as death, though there is plenty of movement."
+    On a low white wall surrounding the premises, "at intervals of about
+    one foot there is a lamp placed on the top; and at every few yards of
+    the road a camp of people squat down with torches, and patiently wait
+    for daylight as a sign of respect, and also in all probability to keep
+    evil spirits away, though if asked the watchers would not say so."
+
+The house itself was brilliantly illuminated with hundreds of coloured
+lamps and paper lanthorns, and within, mats, flowers, and sandal-wood
+powder were lavished on the dead monarch. Meantime I must return to our
+voyage.
+
+[Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT APIA]
+
+We landed at Apia, the capital of Samoa, on August 13th, by Sydney
+calendar. (Samoan was different, as we had crossed 180° longitude, but
+this is unimportant.) We were met by our kindest of hosts, Mr. Bazett
+Michael Haggard, with the boat of the British Commission rowed by a fine
+crew of natives in white shirts and red lava-lavas or kilts. These, like
+other Samoan men, were tattooed from the waist to the knee rather as if
+they wore tight breeches under their kilts. We were taken to Haggard's
+quarters, a two-storied house called Ruge's Buildings, embowered in trees,
+containing a fine long reception room upstairs, with bedrooms off it for
+my daughter, myself, and my maid. Below were the servants' quarters, the
+staff being a very intelligent Indian and two Samoan boys; behind was a
+courtyard with rooms beyond for Mr. Haggard and my brother. The whole had
+been the property of a commercial company. Mr. Haggard in his anxiety for
+our safety used to lock us women in at night, but I do not know what
+danger he apprehended.
+
+Ruge's Buildings were situated on the principal road of Apia, not far from
+the harbour which was the scene of the famous hurricane in which the
+English ship _Calliope_ outrode the storm and escaped, while the German
+_Adler_ was wrecked against the reefs. Her mast still rose above her
+shattered remains, marking the spot where she lay.
+
+The Samoan group consisted of three principal and several outlying
+islands. Tutuila, which possesses the best harbour, was held by the
+Americans, while Upolu, site of the capital, and Savaii, a mountainous
+isle, were more or less in dispute between the Germans and the British.
+The politics of the whole group were involved to a degree, and certainly
+hold little interest for anyone at this time of day. The League of Nations
+did not exist in 1892, but Samoa would have afforded a splendid field for
+its discussions, not to say a happy hunting-ground for commissions and
+expenditure.
+
+The main points of difference in 1892 may be summarised thus: There were
+two kings, Malietoa Laupepa, acknowledged by the European Powers, and a
+rebel, Mataafa, fortified in the mountains. There was another monarch,
+Tamasese, but he was not then counted among the royal claimants, though
+son of a chief called the "German King," because his father had once upon
+a time been acknowledged by the Germans, who gave him a uniform.
+
+Also there were three Land Commissioners and three Consuls, English,
+American, and German; a German Prime Minister; Mabon, Secretary of
+State--I think American--and a Swedish Chief Justice. The last-named was
+appointed to settle any matters of difference which might arise between
+the Land Commissioners of the three Great Powers, and they were to decide
+the disputes between the various claimants to land.
+
+The Europeans had often tried to induce the natives to sell them land far
+below its value, and the natives were not altogether behindhand in the
+game, as they would sell the same land to two or three different
+purchasers. Result, far more claims to land than acres existing to satisfy
+the claimants. The Swedish Chief Justice, a man called Cedercrantz, with a
+squint, did not know English when appointed, and had to go to Fiji to
+learn it.
+
+To add to the complications there were three sets of missionaries in
+Upolu, London missionaries and Wesleyans, with a standing feud between
+them, and Roman Catholics of course violently opposed to both. All this
+for a population well under a hundred thousand! However, despite all these
+quarrels, and the consequent excitements, the natives seemed a singularly
+contented and easy-going community, and everyone whom we met vied with all
+others in making us happy.
+
+The Samoans are fairer than the New Caledonians and their hair less
+woolly; they approached nearer to the Malay type. We found they did not in
+the least want to work in the cocoa-nut plantations set on foot by the
+Germans, and why should they. Fishing one day a week and cultivating a few
+yams and taros on another day would supply their food, and the women made
+tappa for their few garments out of the bark of trees.
+
+[Sidenote: GERMAN PLANTATIONS]
+
+The Germans imported workmen of the dusky negro type from the New Hebrides
+and New Ireland, but the English settlers were not allowed to do this, and
+the consequence in our time was that the Germans owned the plantations,
+but otherwise trade and population accrued largely to New Zealanders and
+other British subjects.
+
+Our host, Bazett Haggard, brother to Rider Haggard and to William Haggard
+whom we had known in Athens, was a great character. When he visited Sydney
+he was known as "Samoa," for he never talked of anything else, which was
+perhaps not surprising under the circumstances.
+
+A lawyer by profession, on appointment as Land Commissioner he had been
+endowed with a Foreign Office uniform and a Red Box which were sources of
+infinite gratification and innocent pride. An Australian young lady asked
+in awed tones, "Have you seen the beautiful box which Lord Salisbury gave
+Mr. Haggard?" Previous to a ball at Government House he asked with all the
+solemnity appropriate to a budding diplomat whether I would dance with him
+as first representative of the Foreign Office at Sydney. After the dance
+he laid aside his sword for the rest of the evening, assuring me that this
+was the proper etiquette, to dance the State dance wearing the sword and
+subsequent ones without it. No doubt he was right.
+
+Apart from Samoa the universe for him revolved round his native county,
+Norfolk, whence sprang all that was finest in the British race,
+particularly the Haggard brothers. I forget how many there were, but they
+had, he said, all loud voices, and on some occasion won a contested
+election by the simple process of shouting.
+
+Apart from this quaint strain of simple satisfaction with himself and his
+surroundings he was the kindest of men, and I was assured that when it
+came to his legal work all his oddities were cast aside and that he was an
+excellent and capable Commissioner.
+
+[Sidenote: R. L. STEVENSON]
+
+On the evening following our arrival he invited Robert Louis Stevenson and
+Mrs. Stevenson to dinner, and if we had already felt the fascination of
+Utopia we then fell under the spell of the Enchanter who evoked all the
+magic woven round its land and sea. I shall never forget the moment when I
+first saw him and his wife standing at the door of the long, wood-panelled
+room in Ruge's Building. A slim, dark-haired, bright-eyed figure in a
+loose, black velvet jacket over his white vest and trousers, and a
+scarlet silk sash round his waist. By his side the short, dark woman with
+cropped, curly hair and the strange piercing glance which had won for her
+the name in native tongue, "The Witch Woman of the Mountain."
+
+Stevenson was never one to keep all the treasures of his imagination and
+humour for his books. Every word, every gesture revealed the man, and he
+gave one the impression that life was for him a game to be shared with his
+friends and played nobly to the end. I think that Matthew Arnold's
+"Empedocles on Etna" expressed him when he sang:
+
+  "Is it so small a thing
+  To have enjoy'd the sun,
+  To have lived light in the spring,
+  To have loved, to have thought, to have done;
+  To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes?"
+
+But Stevenson, braver to confront life than Empedocles, would not have
+leapt into the crater!
+
+At that dinner, which inaugurated our friendship, a very merry talk
+somehow turned on publishers and publishing. It began, if I remember
+rightly, with a reference to Mrs. Humphry Ward's latest book, for which
+she was reported to have received a number of thousands which both
+Stevenson and Haggard pronounced to be incredible, Haggard speaking from
+his brother's experience and Stevenson from his own. Thereupon it was
+suggested by someone, and carried unanimously, that we should form an
+"Apia Publishing Company"; and later on in Haggard's absence the rest of
+us determined to write a story of which our host should be hero, and the
+name, suggested, I think, by Stevenson, was to be _An Object of Pity, or
+the Man Haggard_.
+
+Before this was completed various incidents occurred which were
+incorporated into the tale. Another friend of Mr. Haggard was the British
+Consul, Mr. Cusack Smith, and he took us to tea with him and his pretty
+wife on the Sunday afternoon following our arrival. They lived in a
+pleasant bungalow of which the compound--or lawn--was enlivened by a
+good-sized turtle tied to a post, which was being kept ready to be
+slaughtered and cooked when we came to dine with them!
+
+The question of fresh meat was not altogether easy to solve in Samoa. We,
+knowing that there were certain difficulties, had brought with us a
+provision of tongues and similar preserved foods, also of champagne, but
+there were few cows and oxen, and sheep were impossible to rear on the
+island--at least so far means had not been found to feed them amongst the
+luxuriant tangle of tropical vegetation. Preserved provisions, including
+butter, were mostly brought from New Zealand. Samoa itself provided skinny
+chickens, some kind of pigeon, yams, taros, and of course fish.
+
+The occasional great treat was pig cooked in the native oven, an excellent
+kitchen arrangement. A hole was dug in the ground, the object to be cooked
+was wrapped up in leaves and placed between hot stones; the whole was then
+covered up with earth and left long enough for the meat to be thoroughly
+soft and cooked through; when opened nothing could be more tender.
+
+[Sidenote: KING MALIETOA]
+
+Among other entertainments we were invited to dine by King Malietoa, to
+whom we had already paid a formal visit of ceremony. The banquet, which
+took place about three in the afternoon, was laid on a long cloth spread
+on the ground and consisted of all sorts of native delicacies, including
+a dish of a peculiar kind of worm, and, besides pig and pigeon, of
+vegetables cooked in various ways. The staff of the monarch included an
+orator or "Talking Man," and a jester, thereby recalling the attendants of
+the Duke of Austria in _The Talisman_.
+
+The Talking Man, whose badge of office was a fly-whisk, carried over his
+shoulder, had had his innings at our formal reception, but the jester came
+in very useful at the banquet. We were told that one of his most
+successful jokes was to snatch away pieces of the food placed before the
+King. On this occasion he was crouched just behind Malietoa and myself.
+Part of the regal etiquette was for the monarch to give me a piece of any
+delicacy in his fingers, but he always tactfully looked the other way when
+he had done so, thereby giving me the chance of slipping it into the hands
+of the jester, who consumed it chuckling with glee.
+
+Malietoa was a gentle, amiable being who seemed rather oppressed by the
+position into which he had been thrust by the Powers. His rival Mataafa
+was undoubtedly the stronger character of the two, and appealed to the
+romantic instincts of Stevenson, who was his personal friend.
+
+Stevenson and Haggard between them therefore concocted a plot whereby I
+was to visit incognita the camp in the mountains of the rebel potentate.
+As it would not do to keep my own name, my husband being then Governor of
+New South Wales, I was to become Stevenson's cousin, Amelia Balfour, and
+he wrote beforehand to ask that accommodation should be provided for me
+with the ladies of this royal house, as I was not well accustomed to
+Island customs.
+
+This is how Stevenson later on described the encounter in the very
+fragmentary "Samoid":
+
+  "Two were the troops that encountered; one from the way of the shore,
+  And the house where at night, by the timid, the Judge[2] may be heard
+      to roar,
+  And one from the side of the mountain. Now these at the trysting spot
+  Arrived and lay in the shade. Nor let their names be forgot.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  So these in the shade awaited the hour, and the hour went by;
+  And ever they watched the ford of the stream with an anxious eye;
+  And care, in the shade of the grove, consumed them, a doubtful crew,
+  As they harboured close from the bands of the men of Mulinuu
+  But the heart of the Teller of Tales (Tusitala) at length could endure
+      no more,
+  He loosed his steed from the thicket, and passed to the nearer shore,
+  And back through the land of his foes, steering his steed, and still
+  Scouting for enemies hidden. And lo! under Vaca Hill
+  At the crook of the road a clatter of hoofs and a glitter of white!
+  And there came the band from the seaward, swift as a pigeon's flight.
+  Two were but there to return: the Judge of the Titles of land;
+  He of the lion's hair, bearded, boisterous, bland;
+  And the maid that was named for the pearl,[3] a maid of another isle,
+  Light as a daisy rode, and gave us the light of her smile.
+  But two to pursue the adventure: one that was called the Queen
+  Light as the maid, her daughter, rode with us veiled in green,
+  And deep in the cloud of the veil, like a deer's in a woodland place,
+  The fire of the two dark eyes, in the field of the unflushed face.
+  And one her brother[4] that bore the name of a knight of old,
+  Rode at her heels unmoved; and the glass in his eye was cold.
+  Bright is the sun in the brook; bright are the winter stars,
+  Brighter the glass in the eye of that captain of hussars."
+
+The adventurous party consisted of R.L.S., his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, his
+stepdaughter Mrs. Strong (née Osbourne), and a young native chief Henry
+Simele, my brother, and myself. It was arranged with infinite, but
+somewhat futile, secrecy that Mr. Haggard, my daughter and I, with Rupert
+should ride out in the afternoon and find the Vailima party awaiting us at
+the Gasi-gasi Ford. This duly came off; we were rather late, and found our
+companions crouching, excited, at the appointed spot in the attitude
+proper for conspirators.
+
+[Sidenote: THE ENCHANTED FOREST]
+
+Haggard and my daughter thereupon returned to Ruge's Buildings, and the
+rest of us pursued our way through the enchanted forest, past groves of
+bananas, and up the mountain. From time to time little stiles barring the
+narrow paths had to be negotiated; some Europeans explorers had imagined
+that these were a kind of fortification to protect Mataafa's quarters, but
+really they were nothing more romantic than fences to keep pigs from
+wandering.
+
+Nature in Samoa everywhere erected natural screens for those who desired
+concealment in the extraordinary luxuriance of her tangled vegetation:
+overhead, broad-leaved forest trees interlacing their branches so that it
+was possible to ride even at midday under a tropical sun; below, the long
+and varied creeping plants which went under the general name of "vines,"
+and which rendered progress difficult except where narrow tracks had been
+cleared leading from one little village to another. Mostly, however, the
+villagers were within easy reach of the seashore, partly for convenience
+of fishing, partly as being accessible in boats. The villagers loved to
+visit their friends, rowing pleasantly from place to place within the
+lagoons which circled the Island.
+
+To return to our journey. Among other instances of tropical luxuriance, we
+passed a quantity of sensitive plant. The original plant had been placed
+by a member of a German firm on his child's grave, thence it had quickly
+spread and had become a perfect pest in the surrounding districts. My
+horse was an extremely lanky and skinny animal which Mr. Haggard had
+procured for my use, and which alternately rejoiced in the names of
+"Pedigree" and "Starvation," the latter seeming more appropriate. R.L.S.
+rode a fat little pony. Mrs. Strong subsequently caricatured our progress
+by representing me very tall with an extremely tight waistband, and
+Stevenson looking upward from his diminutive steed.
+
+Mrs. Strong, be it understood, regarded any kind of fitting garment as a
+foolish superfluity. On this occasion she had donned corsets for the
+convenience of a long ride, but when, in the twilight, we neared our
+destination she slipped them off and gave them to an attendant, bidding
+him be a good boy and carry them for her.
+
+[Sidenote: KING MATAAFA]
+
+As we approached the royal abode we were met first by a man beating a
+drum, then by the whole population, and heard many remarks interchanged in
+low tones; my companions told me that they referred to the "Tamaiti Sili"
+or "Great Lady," showing how singularly ineffectual was my disguise. If
+any proof of this were needed it was soon supplied. Mataafa, a very fine
+old man, received us most courteously, attended specially by a remarkable
+old gentleman called Popo, who had curiously aquiline features quite
+unlike the ordinary native. Stevenson thus described him:
+
+  "He who had worshipped feathers and shells and wood,
+  As a pillar alone in the desert that points where a city stood,
+  Survived the world that was his, playmates and gods and tongue--
+  For even the speech of his race had altered since Popo was young.
+  And ages of time and epochs of changing manners bowed,
+  And the silent hosts of the dead wondered and muttered aloud
+  With him, as he bent and marvelled, a man of the time of the Ark,
+  And saluted the ungloved hand of the Lady of Osterley Park."
+
+We were first presented with refreshing cocoa-nuts, and after profuse
+compliments, conveyed through the interpreter, dinner, or supper, was
+prepared on a small wooden table in the background. It consisted of
+pigeon, chickens, taros, and yams, but poor Mataafa, who had previously
+adjourned for evening service, could not share the birds because it was a
+fast day. He was a Roman Catholic--another point of difference between him
+and Malietoa, who was a Protestant.
+
+After the evening repast came the kava ceremony. As is well known, kava is
+a drink made from the roots of the pepper-tree, chewed by young persons
+(who have first carefully washed their teeth), and then soaked in water.
+To me it always tasted rather like soapy water, but it is most popular
+with the natives, who will sit at festivities drinking large quantities.
+It is said to have no effect on the head, but to numb the lower limbs if
+too much is imbibed.
+
+At special ceremonies, however, it is somewhat in the nature of a
+loving-cup, only each guest has a cocoa-nut shell refilled from the
+general wooden-legged bowl for his benefit. The kava is always given in
+strict order of precedence, and the interest was to see whether Mataafa
+would give the first cup to Stevenson as a man, and head of the family, or
+to me, a mere woman and ostensibly a female relative, as in the latter
+case it would show that he saw through my cousinly pretensions. It was
+rather a curious scene in the dimly lighted native house--chairs for the
+King and his European guests, while the interpreter, Henry Simele, and
+the native henchmen squatted near-by. With an indescribable expression of
+suppressed amusement Mataafa handed the cup to me, whereupon Stevenson,
+with a delightful twinkle of his eye, exclaimed, "Oh, Amelia, you're a
+very bad conspirator!"
+
+Stevenson and my brother were then taken off to another house, while Mrs.
+Strong and I were escorted to the couch prepared for us--a large pile of
+soft mats enclosed in a mosquito curtain, with two pillows side by side at
+the head.
+
+A native house has often been described. It is generally a roof shaped
+like an inverted boat of wooden beams supported on posts and thatched with
+palm-leaves. Its size varies greatly according to the position and wealth
+of the owner. Mataafa's was a large one and his mats were beautiful. There
+was only one room, and in a general way no one would have demurred at
+sleeping all together. However, in this case a large tappa curtain was let
+down in the centre; the King and his warriors slept on one side, and the
+other formed the apartment of Mrs. Strong and myself.
+
+Mrs. Strong was a most entertaining companion, and told me stories of
+American experience before we both composed ourselves to sleep. She was
+much amused by my one preparation for evening toilet, which was a
+toothbrush; but I had to go outside the matting curtains suspended between
+the posts to use it, as all cooking and washing was bound to take place
+where nothing should spoil the beautiful mats carpeting the house proper.
+I found guards outside waiting in the darkness, and when he heard of my
+excursion Stevenson declared that my teeth would become historic. It is
+not to be supposed that the natives neglect cleanliness--they constantly
+bathe in the sea and in streams, but all washing takes place outside, not
+inside, their houses.
+
+[Sidenote: THE KAVA CEREMONY]
+
+Next morning we adjourned from the private abode to Mataafa's large new
+Parliament House, where all his chiefs were assembled for public or King's
+kava. They sat round in a sort of circle, each representing one of the
+royal "names" or tribes.
+
+Without going into the intricacies of Samoan genealogy it may be explained
+that no Prince could properly be King of the whole group unless he could
+prove his title to rule over all the "names." As it seemed that neither
+Malietoa nor Mataafa could do this, their quarrel was unlikely ever to be
+decided except by force and by the support given to one or the other from
+outside. Anyhow, a great number of "names" were represented on this
+occasion and the scene was very interesting.
+
+This Parliament House was said to be the largest native building in Samoa,
+and was certainly fine and well constructed. On the cross-beams of the
+central "roof-tree" were three painted wooden birds, emblems of the King's
+house, as his father had been called "King of the Birds."
+
+The King and his guests again sat on chairs, the chiefs squatted on the
+ground. This time, being public, the King, with true courtesy, accepted my
+ostensible position, and gave the kava first to R.L.S.; after the rest of
+us had drunk, it was carried to each chief in turn, and in several cases
+curious rites accompanied their acceptance of the cup. In one case an old
+man had to lie down and be massaged for an imaginary ailment, in another
+the kava was poured over a _stone_ which stood for one of the "names"
+whose human representative was lacking. The most dramatic incident was
+when a fine-looking chief, who was a sort of War Lord in Mataafa's army,
+five times refused the cup with a very haughty air before condescending to
+drink, which he then had to do five times. We were told that this was in
+memory of an ancestor who had refused water when no supply could be
+obtained for his king, recalling the story of David pouring out the water
+obtained at the risk of his captains' lives.
+
+When all was over some of the chiefs were presented to us, particularly
+the War Lord, who had laid by his truculent manners and was very smiling
+and amiable. He had had two drinks, first as Head of the Forces, later on
+as Headman of his Village--so was in great form.
+
+Poor Mataafa! After we left the Islands war broke out again, his forces
+were finally defeated, and I believe that he died in exile. My stolen
+visit to him will, however, be always a most delightful recollection.
+
+We also paid our respects to Tamasese, son of the "German King," previous
+to spending a night with the Wesleyan Missionary and his wife. Tamasese
+was out when we arrived, as he did not expect us so early. We had started
+in the Commissioner's boat at 4 a.m., and saw the sun rise over the locked
+lagoon. We were, however, most courteously received by his handsome wife
+Viti, who besides her tappa lava-lava wore a kind of double bib or
+sleeveless jumper falling to the waist before and behind, with a hole in
+the middle for her head to go through. This ingenious garment was made of
+cotton pocket-handkerchiefs not yet cut apart for sale and printed with
+portraits of prize-fighters.
+
+Tamasese, when he entered the house, proved to be the finest native whom
+we had yet seen, with the square head and broad limbs of a Roman emperor.
+In addition to the lava-lava both men and women loved to decorate
+themselves and their guests with garlands of flowers worn either on their
+heads or hung round their necks. I have a vivid recollection of my brother
+seated on a box in Tamasese's hospitable house with a wreath of flowers on
+his head, surrounded by an admiring crowd of young women, including the
+handsome Viti, a young cousin or adopted daughter, and the Taupau or Maid
+of the Village, a girl selected for her beauty and charm to represent the
+community in the receptions and merry-makings which are a prominent
+feature in Samoan life.
+
+[Sidenote: A NATIVE DANCE]
+
+Later in the day we were present at a native dance, if dance it can be
+called, when the performers sat for the most part on the ground, and the
+action took place by girls swinging their arms and bodies while the men
+contributed the music. The girls did not confine themselves to rhythmic
+movements, but also gave a kind of comic dramatic performance, mimicking
+amongst other things the manners and customs of white people with much
+laughter and enjoyment. They threw bunches of leaves about by way of
+cricket balls--got up and walked in peculiar manners, with explanations
+which were translated to us as "German style," "English style," and so on;
+and when they sang a kind of song or recitative, concerning a college for
+native girls about to be established by the missionaries, they made the
+very sensible suggestion that one or two of them should go and try what
+the life was like before they entered in any number.
+
+Tamasese paid us a return visit at Apia. It was curious to see him seated
+on a chair having luncheon with us, dressed solely in a white lava-lava
+and a large garland of leaves and flowers or berries. He also attended an
+evening party at Ruge's Buildings; on that occasion he added a white linen
+coat to his costume at Haggard's request, simply because the cocoa-nut oil
+with which natives anoint their bodies might have come off on the ladies'
+dresses in a crowd.
+
+The truth is that a lava-lava and a coating of oil are much the most
+healthy and practical costume in a tropical climate. When a shower of rain
+comes on it does so with such force that any ordinary garment is soaked
+through in a few minutes. It is impossible for natives to be always
+running home to change their clothes even if their wardrobes permitted,
+and remaining in these wet garments is surely provocative of the
+consumption which so often carries them off.
+
+Shirley Baker in Tonga made it a law that everyone should wear an upper
+and a nether garment; in Samoa it was not a legal question, but the
+missionaries made doubtless well-intentioned efforts to enforce the
+addition of white shirts to the male, and overalls to the female costume,
+which really seemed unnecessary with their nice brown skins.
+
+It is difficult for a casual visitor to judge fairly the influence of
+missionaries on natives, but on the whole, as far as I have seen missions
+in different lands, despite mistakes and narrow-mindedness, it seems to be
+for good. There is an enormous difference between missions to ancient
+civilisations such as those of India and China, and to children of nature
+such as the population of the Pacific. I do not forget the command "Go ye
+and teach all nations," an authority which no Christian can dispute; I am
+thinking only of _how_ this has been done, and with what effect on the
+"nations."
+
+It is pretty evident that when the nations have an elaborate ritual of
+their own, and when the educated classes among them have a decided
+tendency to metaphysics, a ritual such as that of the Roman Catholics is
+apt to appeal to them, and the men sent to teach them must be prepared to
+enter into their difficulties and discussions. When, however, the
+populations to be approached are merely inclined to deify the forces of
+nature, and to believe in the power of spirits, if a man of some education
+comes among them, helps them in illness, and proves his superiority in
+agriculture and in the arts of daily life, they are very ready to accept
+his authority and obey his injunctions.
+
+[Sidenote: MISSIONARIES]
+
+In the case of the South Sea Islanders there is no doubt that the
+missionaries have afforded them protection against the tyranny and vices
+introduced by many of the low-class traders and beachcombers who exploited
+them in every possible way. The missionaries have done their best to stop
+their drinking the horrible spirits received from such men, in return for
+forced labour and the produce of their land. They have done much to
+eradicate cannibalism and other evil customs. Their error seems to have
+been the attempt to put down dances and festivities of all kinds on the
+plea that these were connected with heathen rites, instead of encouraging
+them under proper restrictions. Even when we were in the Islands, however,
+many of the more enlightened missionaries had already realised that human
+nature must have play, and that, as St. John told the huntsman who found
+him playing with a partridge, you cannot keep the bow always bent.
+Probably by now the Christian Churches in the Pacific have learnt much
+wisdom by experience.
+
+As before remarked, there were, in 1892, three sets of missionaries in
+Samoa. Apart from the Roman Catholics, the most important were the London
+Missionaries, whose founders had been men of high education and who had
+settled in the Islands about the time of Queen Victoria's accession. The
+Wesleyans had also made many converts.
+
+Some years before our visit a sort of concordat had been arranged between
+the various Anglican and Protestant Churches working in the Pacific. The
+Church of England clergy were to work in the Islands commonly called
+Melanesia; the Wesleyans, whose great achievements had been in Fiji, were
+to take that group, Tonga, and other offshoots of their special missions;
+the London missionaries were to have Samoa and other fields of labour
+where their converts predominated. Under this agreement the Wesleyan
+missionaries left Samoa, but alas! after a time they came back, to the not
+unnatural indignation of the London missionaries. Their plea was that
+their flock begged them to return. An outsider cannot pronounce on the
+rights and wrongs of the question, but the feeling engendered was evident
+to the most casual observer.
+
+As for the Roman Catholics, we were sitting one evening with a London
+missionary, when a native servant ran in to inform him that the R.C.
+priest was showing a magic-lantern in which our host and one of his
+colleagues were represented in hell!
+
+I should add that I noticed that in a course of lectures given to their
+students by the London missionaries was one "on the errors of the Roman
+Church," but that was not as drastic, nor, I presume, so exciting, as the
+ocular argument offered by the priest.
+
+[Sidenote: SAMOAN MYTHOLOGY]
+
+The mythology of the Samoans was much like that of other primitive
+nations, and as in similar cases their gods and heroes were closely
+connected. The chief deity was a certain Tangoloalangi or
+"god-of-heaven." He had a son called Pilibuu, who came down to earth,
+settled in Samoa, and planted kava and sugar-cane. He also made a
+fishing-net and selected as his place of abode a spot on Upolu large
+enough to enable him to spread it out. Pilibuu had four sons to whom he
+allotted various offices; one was to look after the plantations, another
+to carry the walking-stick and fly-whisk to "do the talking," a third as
+warrior carried the spear and club, while the youngest had charge of the
+canoes. To all he gave the excellent advice, "When you wish to work, work;
+when you wish to talk, talk; when you wish to fight, fight." The second
+injunction struck me as that most congenial to his descendants.
+
+The Samoans had legends connected with their mats, those of fine texture
+being valued as jewels are in Western lands. One was told me at great
+length about a mat made by a woman who was a spirit, who worked at
+different times under the vines, under a canoe, and on the sea-shore.
+Either her personal charms or her industry captivated Tangoloalangi, and
+he took her up to heaven and made her his wife. Her first child, a
+daughter, was endowed with the mat, and looking down from heaven she was
+fascinated by the appearance of a fine man attired in a lava-lava of red
+bird-of-paradise feathers. She descended in a shower of rain, but her
+Endymion, mistaking her mode of transit for an ordinary storm, took off
+his plumes for fear they should get wet. Arrived on earth she went up to
+him and said, "Where is the man I saw from heaven wearing a fine
+lava-lava?" "I am he," replied the swain. Incredulous, she retorted, "I
+saw a man not so ugly as you." "I am the same as before, but you saw me
+from a distance with a red lava-lava on." In vain he resumed his
+adornment; the charm was broken and she would none of him. Instead of
+returning to the skies she wandered to another village and had further
+adventures with the mat, which she gave to her daughter by the earthly
+husband whom she ultimately selected. She told the girl that on any day on
+which she took the mat out to dry in the sun there would be darkness,
+rain, and hurricane. The mat was still preserved in the family of the man
+who told me the story, and was never taken out to dry in the sun.
+
+The Samoans, like other races, had a story of the Flood, and one
+derivation (there are several) of the name of the Group is Sa = sacred or
+preserved, Moa = fowl, as they say that one of their gods preserved his
+fowls on these islands during the deluge.
+
+They had sacred symbols, such as sticks, leaves, and stones, and a general
+belief in spirits, but I never heard of any special ritual, nor were there
+any traces of temples on the Islands. They seemed a gentle, amiable
+people, not fierce like the natives of New Ireland, the New Hebrides, and
+others of negroid type.
+
+The constant joy of the natives is to go for a malanga or boat expedition
+to visit neighbouring villages, and we quite realised the fascination of
+this mode of progress when we were rowed through the quiet lagoons in
+early morning or late evening, the rising or setting sun striking colours
+from the barrier reefs, and our boatmen chanting native songs as they bent
+to their oars. Once a little girl was thrown into our boat to attend us
+when we were going to sleep in a native teacher's house. She lay down at
+the bottom with a tappa cloth covering her from the sun. We were amused,
+when the men began to sing, to hear her little voice from under the cloth
+joining in the melody.
+
+[Sidenote: DESIRE FOR ENGLISH PROTECTION]
+
+On this occasion we visited one or two stations of the London
+missionaries and inspected a number of young chief students. I noticed one
+youth who seemed particularly pleased by something said to him by the
+missionary. I asked what had gratified him, and Mr. Hills said that he had
+told him that the Island from which he came (I think one of the Ellice
+Islands) had just been annexed by the British, and they were so afraid of
+being taken by the Germans! That well represented the general feeling.
+Once as we were rowing in our boat a large native canoe passed us, and the
+men in it shouted some earnest supplication. I asked what it was, and was
+told that they were imploring "by Jesus Christ" that we should beg the
+British Government to take the Island.
+
+Poor things, not long after we left, the agreement was made by which
+England assumed the Protectorate of Tonga and Germany that of Upolu and
+Savaii of the Samoan group. Since the war New Zealand has the "mandate" to
+govern them, and I hope they are happy. I never heard that they were
+ill-treated by the Germans during their protectorate, but they had
+certainly seen enough of the forced labour on German plantations to make
+them terribly afraid of their possible fate.
+
+The London missionaries had stations not only on the main Island, but also
+on the outlying islets of Manono and Apolima which they were anxious that
+we should visit. The latter was a small but romantic spot. The only
+practicable landing-place was between two high projecting rocks, and we
+were told that any party of natives taking refuge there could guarantee
+themselves against pursuit by tying a rope across from rock to rock and
+upsetting any hostile canoe into the sea.
+
+Ocean itself, not the inhabitants, expressed an objection to our presence
+on this occasion. There was no sheltering lagoon to receive us, the sea
+was so rough and the surf so violent that our crew assured us that it was
+impossible to land, and we had to retreat to Manono. Mr. Haggard sent a
+message thence to the Apolima chiefs assuring them of our great regret,
+and promising that I would send my portrait to hang in their village
+guest-house. I told this to the head missionary's wife when I saw her
+again, and she exclaimed with much earnestness, "Oh, do send the
+photograph or they will all turn Wesleyans!" To avert this catastrophe a
+large, elaborately framed photograph was duly sent from Sydney and
+formally presented by Mr. Haggard. I trust that it kept the score or so of
+Islanders in the true faith. A subsequent visitor found it hanging upside
+down in the guest-house, and the last I heard of it was that the chiefs
+had fled with it to the hills after some fighting in which they were
+defeated. I seem to have been an inefficient fetish, but I do not know
+whose quarrel they had embraced.
+
+We had one delightful picnic, not by boat, but riding inland to a
+waterfall some twenty or thirty feet high. Our meal was spread on rocks in
+the little river into which it fell, and after our luncheon the native
+girls who accompanied us sat on the top of the fall and let themselves be
+carried by the water into the deep pool below. My daughter and I envied,
+though we could not emulate them, but my brother divested himself of his
+outer garments and clad in pyjamas let two girls take him by either arm
+and shot with them down into the clear cool water. One girl who joined the
+entertainment was said to be a spirit, but there was no outward sign to
+show wherein she differed from a mortal. Mortals or spirits, they were a
+cheery, light-hearted race.
+
+[Sidenote: VISIT FROM TAMASESE]
+
+I must mention Tamasese's farewell visit to us accompanied by one or two
+followers. Mr. Haggard donned his uniform for the occasion, and as usual
+we English sat in a row on chairs, while the Samoans squatted on the floor
+in front. We had as interpreter a half-caste called Yandall, who had some
+shadowy claim to the royal blood of England in his veins. How or why I
+never understood, but he was held in vague esteem on that account.
+
+At this visit, after various polite phrases had been interchanged, Haggard
+premised his oration by enjoining on Yandall to interpret his words
+exactly. He first dilated in flowery language on the importance of my
+presence in Samoa, on which our guests interjected murmurs of pleased
+assent. He then went on to foreshadow our imminent departure--mournful
+"yahs" came in here--and then wound up with words to this effect:
+"Partings must always occur on earth; there is but one place where there
+will be no more partings, and that is the Kingdom of heaven, _where Lady
+Jersey will be very pleased to see all present_"! Imagine the joy of the
+Stevenson family when this gem of rhetoric was reported to them.
+
+I have already referred to the story, _An Object of Pity, or the Man
+Haggard_, which was written by my brother and myself in collaboration with
+the Stevensons. The idea was that each author should describe his or her
+own character, that Haggard should be the hero of a romance running
+through the whole, and that we should all imitate the style of Ouida, to
+whom the booklet was inscribed in a delightful dedication afterwards
+written by Stevenson, from which I venture to cull a few extracts:
+
+    "Lady Ouida,--Many besides yourself have exulted to collect Olympian
+    polysyllables and to sling ink not Wisely but too Well. They are
+    forgotten, you endure. Many have made it their goal and object to
+    Exceed; and who else has been so Excessive?... It is therefore, with a
+    becoming diffidence that we profit by an unusual circumstance to
+    approach and to address you.
+
+    "We, undersigned, all persons of ability and good character, were
+    suddenly startled to find ourselves walking in broad day in the halls
+    of one of your romances. We looked about us with embarrassment, we
+    instinctively spoke low; and you were good enough not to perceive the
+    intrusion or to affect unconsciousness. But we were there; we have
+    inhabited your tropical imagination; we have lived in the reality that
+    which you have but dreamed of in your studio. And the Man Haggard
+    above all. The house he dwells in was not built by any carpenter, you
+    wrote it with your pen; the friends with which he has surrounded
+    himself are the mere spirit of your nostrils; and those who look on at
+    his career are kept in a continual twitter lest he should fall out of
+    the volume; in which case, I suppose he must infallibly injure himself
+    beyond repair; and the characters in the same novel, what would become
+    of them?... The present volume has been written slavishly from your
+    own gorgeous but peculiar point of view. Your touch of complaisance in
+    observation, your genial excess of epithet, and the grace of your
+    antiquarian allusions, have been cultivated like the virtues. Could we
+    do otherwise? When nature and life had caught the lyre from your
+    burning hands who were we to affect a sterner independence?"
+
+There follow humorous comments on the contents of the chapters, and the
+Dedication ends with the signatures of "Your fond admirers" in Samoan with
+English translations. Mrs. Stevenson, for instance, was "O Le Fafine
+Mamana O I Le Maunga, The Witch-Woman of the Mountain"; and the rest of us
+bore like fanciful designations. It was of course absurd daring on the
+part of Rupert and myself to write the initial chapters, which dealt with
+an imaginary conspiracy typical of the jealousies among various
+inhabitants of the Islands, and with our expedition to Malie (Mataafa's
+Camp); but we were honoured by the addition of four amusing chapters
+written by Stevenson, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Strong, and their cousin Graham
+(now Sir Graham) Balfour. The Stevensons gave a lurid account of Haggard's
+evening party at Ruge's Buildings, and Mr. Balfour projected himself into
+the future and imagined Haggard old and historic surrounded by friends and
+evolving memories of the past.
+
+[Sidenote: "AN OBJECT OF PITY"]
+
+We had kept him in ignorance of what was on foot, but when all was
+complete the Stevensons gave us luncheon at Vailima with the best of
+native dishes, Lloyd Osbourne, adorned with leaves and flowers in native
+fashion, officiating as butler. When the banquet was over a garland of
+flowers was hung round Haggard's neck, a tankard of ale was placed before
+him, and Stevenson read aloud the MSS. replete with allusions to, and
+jokes about, his various innocent idiosyncrasies. So far from being
+annoyed, the good-natured hero was quite delighted, and kept on saying,
+"What a compliment all you people are paying me!" In the end we posed as a
+group, Mrs. Strong lying on the ground and holding up an apple while the
+rest of us knelt or bent in various attitudes of adoration round the erect
+form and smiling countenance of Haggard. The photograph taken did not come
+out very well, but sufficiently for my mother later on to make a coloured
+sketch for me to keep as a frontispiece for my special copy of _An Object
+of Pity_. It was indeed a happy party--looking back it is sad to think how
+few of those present now survive, but it was pleasure unalloyed while it
+lasted.
+
+As for the booklet, with general agreement of the authors I had it
+privately printed at Sydney, the copies being distributed amongst us. Some
+years after Stevenson's death Mr. Blaikie asked leave to print twenty-five
+presentation copies in the same form as the Edinburgh edition, to which
+Mrs. Stevenson consented. I wrote an explanatory Preface, and lent for
+reproduction the clever little book of coloured sketches by Mrs. Strong,
+with Stevenson's verses underneath to which I have already alluded.
+
+We had arranged to return to Australia by the American mail-ship, the
+_Mariposa_, so after three of the happiest weeks of my life we had to
+embark on board her on the evening of September 2nd, when she entered the
+harbour of Apia.
+
+Regret at leaving Samoa was, however, much allayed by meeting my son,
+Villiers, who had come across America from England in the charge of Sir
+George Dibbs, our New South Wales Premier, whose visit to the mother-land
+I have already described. Villiers had grown very tall since we parted, he
+had finished his Eton career and joined us to spend some months in
+Australia before going to Oxford. We were amused by an "interview" with
+him and Dibbs in one of the American papers, in which he was described as
+son of the Governor of New South Wales, but more like a young Englishman
+than a young Australian, which was hardly surprising considering that he
+had at that time never set foot in Australia. This reminds me of some
+French people who seeing a Maharajah in Paris at the time of Lord Minto's
+appointment to India, thought that the dignified and turbaned Indian must
+be the new Viceroy--the Earl of Minto.
+
+[Sidenote: COURAGE OF R. L. STEVENSON]
+
+Poor Robert Louis Stevenson--he died not long after our visit; his life,
+death, and funeral have been recorded in many books and by many able pens.
+His life, with all its struggles and despite constant ill-health, was, I
+hope and believe, a happy one. Perhaps we most of us fail to weigh fairly
+the compensating joy of overcoming when confronted with adversity of any
+kind. He told me once how he had had a MS. refused just at the time when
+he had undertaken the cares of a family represented by a wife and her
+children, but I am sure that the pleasure of the success which he won was
+greater to his buoyant nature than any depression caused by temporary
+failure.
+
+He loved his Island home, though he had from time to time a sense of
+isolation. He let this appear once when he said how he should feel our
+departure, and how sorry he should be when he should also lose the
+companionship of Haggard.
+
+There has lately been some correspondence in the papers about misprints in
+his books. This may be due in part to the necessity of leaving the
+correction of his proofs to others when he was residing or travelling in
+distant climes. When we were in Samoa, _Una, or the Beach of Falesa_, was
+appearing as a serial in an illustrated paper of which I received a copy.
+Stevenson had not seen it in print until I showed it to him, and was much
+vexed to find that some verbal alteration had been made in the text. At
+his request when we left the Island I took a cable to send off from
+Auckland, where our ship touched, with strict injunctions to "follow Una
+line by line." There was no cable then direct from Samoa, and apparently
+no arrangement had been made to let the author see his own work while in
+progress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA--CHINA AND JAPAN
+
+
+Early in 1893 my husband was obliged to resign his Governorship, as our
+Welsh agent had died and there were many urgent calls for his presence in
+England. The people of New South Wales were most generous in their
+expressions of regret, and I need not dwell on all the banquets and
+farewells which marked our departure. I feel that all I have said of
+Australia and of our many friends there is most inadequate; but though the
+people and places offered much variety in fact, in description it would be
+most difficult to avoid repetition were I to attempt an account of the
+townships and districts which we visited and of the welcome which we
+received from hospitable hosts in every place. There were mining centres
+like Newcastle where the coal was so near the surface that we walked into
+a large mine through a sloping tunnel instead of descending in a cage;
+there was the beautiful scenery of the Hawkesbury River, the rich lands
+round Bathurst and Armidale and other stations where we passed most
+enjoyable days with squatters whose fathers had rescued these lands and
+made "the wilderness to blossom like a rose." It often seemed to me that
+one special reason why Englishmen in Colonial life succeeded where other
+nations equally intelligent and enterprising failed to take permanent root
+was the way in which Englishwomen would adapt themselves to isolation. We
+all know the superiority of many Frenchwomen in domestic arts, but it is
+difficult to imagine a Frenchwoman living in the conditions accepted by
+English ladies in all parts of the Empire.
+
+One lady in New South Wales lived fifteen miles from the nearest
+neighbour, and her one relaxation after a hard day's work was to hear that
+neighbour playing down the telephone on a violin. That, however, was
+living in the world compared to the fate of another friend! The husband of
+the latter lady was, when we met, a very rich man who drove a four-in-hand
+and sent his son to Eton. When they first started Colonial life they lived
+for five years a hundred miles from any other white woman. The lady had a
+white maid-servant of some kind for a short time at the beginning of their
+career, but she soon left, and after that she had only black "gins"
+(women). I was told that one of her children had been burnt in a bush
+fire, and her brother-in-law was killed by the blacks. Naturally I did not
+refer to those tragedies, but I asked whether she did not find the
+isolation very trying, particularly the evenings. She said, oh no, she was
+so occupied during the day and so tired when the work was over that she
+had no time to wish for anything but rest. She was a very quiet, pleasant
+woman, a lady in every sense of the word, and one could not but admire the
+way in which she had passed through those hard and trying years and
+resumed completely civilised existence.
+
+[Sidenote: BUSHRANGERS]
+
+We heard many tales of bushrangers from those who had encountered them or
+heard of their performances from friends. It is not very astonishing that
+a population largely recruited in early days from convicts should have
+provided a contingent of highwaymen. Their two main sources of income
+were the oxen and horses which they stole and sold again after
+scientifically "faking" the brands, and the gold which they robbed as it
+was being conveyed to distant banks.
+
+I have referred to Rolf Boldrewood's hero "Starlight." Certain incidents
+of his career were adapted from the life of the most prominent bushranger
+Kelly, but whereas Starlight, for the purpose of the story, is endowed
+with some of the traits of a fallen angel, Kelly seems to have been a
+common sort of villain in most respects, only gifted with exceptional
+daring and with that power over other men which is potent for good or
+evil. He was described as wearing "armour"; I believe that he protected
+himself with certain kitchen utensils under his clothes. In the end, when
+hotly pursued by the police, he and his band underwent a regular siege in
+a house, but by that time the police were able to bring up reinforcements
+by rail, the gang was forced to surrender, and Kelly and others were
+executed.
+
+A sordid incident was that on the very night of his execution Kelly's
+brother and sister appeared, for money, on the stage in a theatre at
+Melbourne!
+
+The railroad was the effectual means of stopping bushranging, both by
+facilitating the movements of the police and by enabling gold to be
+transported without the risks attendant on coaches, or horsemen who were
+sometimes sent by their employers to carry it from place to place. A
+gentleman told me how he had been thus commissioned, and being attacked by
+a solitary bushranger in a wayside inn, dodged his assailant round and
+round a stove and ultimately got off safely.
+
+Bushranging was extinct before our arrival in New South Wales, but Jersey
+had one rather curious experience of its aftermath. An old man had
+murdered his wife, and, in accordance with the then custom, the capital
+sentence pronounced upon him by the judge came before the Governor in
+Council for confirmation. Jersey asked the advice of each member in turn,
+and all concurred in the verdict except one man, who declined to give an
+opinion. After the Council he took my husband aside and told him that he
+had not liked to join in the condemnation as he knew the criminal
+personally. He added this curious detail. The murderer had formerly been
+connected with a gang of bushrangers; he had not actually shared in their
+depredations, but he had received the animals they stole, and it was his
+job to fake the brands--namely, to efface the names or marks of the proper
+owners and to substitute others so that the horses or cattle could not be
+identified. The gang was captured and broken up, the members being all
+sentenced to death or other severe punishment, but this man escaped, as
+his crimes could not be proved against him. Nemesis, however, awaited him
+in another form. He kept his faking iron; and when his wife was found
+murdered, the fatal wound was identified as having been inflicted with
+this weapon, and he was thereby convicted.
+
+[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE]
+
+Another story of those bygone days, though unconnected with bushranging,
+seems worth preservation. A man was found lying dead in the streets of
+Brisbane (or some other town in Queensland), and there was no evidence
+whatever to show how he had come by this fate, though the fact that his
+watch was missing pointed to violence on the part of some person unknown.
+A considerable time afterwards certain poor houses were demolished, with
+the view presumably to building better ones in their place. Behind a brick
+in the chimney of one of these houses was found the missing watch. A
+workman who had inhabited the house at the time of the murder was
+thereupon arrested, and brought before a judge who had come on circuit.
+The workman protested his innocence, saying that he had seen the man lying
+in the street and, finding that he was quite dead, appropriated his watch
+and took it home to his wife. The woman had told him that he was very
+foolish, as if the watch were found in his possession he might be accused
+of killing the man, and yielding to her persuasions instead of trying to
+sell or wearing it he hid it behind the chimney where it was found. The
+story sounded thin, but on hearing the details of place and date the
+presiding judge exclaimed that it was true. When a young barrister he
+himself had been in the same town, and was running to catch the train when
+a man, apparently drunk, lurched against him; he pushed him aside and saw
+him fall, but had no idea that he was injured, and hurried on. The workman
+was acquitted, and I suppose that the judge acquitted himself!
+
+Space has not admitted any record of our visitors at Sydney, but I must
+mention the pleasure which we had in welcoming Miss Shaw who came on
+behalf of _The Times_ to examine and report on the Kanaka question. It was
+universally allowed that _The Times_ had been very well advised in sending
+out so charming and capable a lady. She won the hearts of the Queensland
+planters, who introduced her to many sides of plantation life which they
+would never have troubled themselves to show a mere man. We gladly
+continued in England a friendship thus begun at the Antipodes, none the
+less gladly when Miss Shaw became the wife of an equally talented servant
+of the Empire, Sir Frederick Lugard.
+
+One year we entertained at Osterley a number of foreign Colonial delegates
+and asked representative English people to meet them.
+
+Among our guests were Sir Frederick and Lady Lugard. The latter was seated
+between a Belgian, interested in the Congo, and I think a Dutchman. After
+dinner these gentlemen asked me in somewhat agitated tones, "Qui était
+cette dame qui était si forte dans la question de l'Afrique?" and one said
+to the other, "Elle vous a bien roulé, mon cher."
+
+I explained that it was Lady Lugard, formerly Miss Flora Shaw.
+
+"Quoi--la grande Miss Shaw! Alors cela s'explique," was the reply in a
+voice of awe.
+
+In February 1893 Villiers and our younger children left in the _Ophir_
+direct for England, accompanied by Harry Cholmondeley, the German
+governess, and the servants. My brother remained on the staff of our
+successor, Sir Robert Duff. Our eldest daughter, Margaret, stayed with us,
+as we contemplated a visit to Japan and a trip across Canada and to
+Chicago on our way back, and wished for her company.
+
+We travelled by train to Toowoomba in Queensland, where we slept one
+night, and then went on to Brisbane, where we embarked on board the
+Eastern Australian ship the _Catterthun_. Brisbane was still suffering
+from the after-effects of great floods, and it was curious, particularly
+in the suburbs, to see many houses, which had been built on piles to avoid
+the depredation of ants, overturned, and lying on their sides like houses
+thrown out of a child's box of toys. Nevertheless Brisbane struck us as a
+cheerful and prosperous city during our few hours' stay.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GREAT BARRIER REEF]
+
+The voyage through the lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef, though hot, was
+most enjoyable. As is well known this great coral reef extends for over
+twelve hundred miles in the ocean washing the north-east coast of
+Australia. In the wide expanse of sea between it and the mainland ships
+can generally sail unvexed by storms, and from a few hours after we left
+Brisbane till we reached the mouth of the North Continent that was our
+happy condition.
+
+We stopped at one or two coast towns and passed through the very pretty
+Albany Passage to the Gulf of Carpentaria, across which we had a perfectly
+smooth passage. We then spent a night or two with Mr. Dashwood at Port
+Darwin, where we were much interested in the population, partly officials
+of the Eastern Extension Cable Company and partly Chinese. Everything has
+doubtless changed greatly in the years which have intervened since our
+visit. Port Darwin was then the chief town of the Northern Territory of
+South Australia--now the Northern Territory has been taken over by the
+Commonwealth Government, which appoints an Administrator and encourages
+settlement. I hope the settlers will succeed, but Port Darwin remains in
+my memory as a very hot place and the European inhabitants as of somewhat
+yellow complexion.
+
+The Chinese had a temple or Joss house, attached to which was a sort of
+hall in which were stored numerous jars recalling those of the Forty
+Thieves, but containing the bones of dead Chinamen awaiting transport to
+their own country.
+
+While at Port Darwin Mr. Dashwood very kindly arranged a Corroboree for
+us. We were told that this was one of the few places where such an
+entertainment was possible. In parts of Australia farther south the
+aboriginals have become too civilised, and in the wilder places they were
+too shy and would not perform before white men.
+
+The whole thing was well worth seeing. The men were almost naked, and had
+with their own blood stuck wool in patterns on their black bodies. They
+had tall hats or mitres of bamboo on their heads and carried long spears.
+The Corroboree began after dark, and the men shouted, danced, and carried
+on a mimic war to the glare of blazing bonfires. A sort of music or
+rhythmic noise accompanied the performance caused by weird figures painted
+with stripes of white paint who were striking their thighs with their
+hands. They looked so uncanny that I could not at first make out what they
+were, but was told that they were the women or "gins." The scene might
+have come out of the infernal regions or of a Witches' Walpurgis Night.
+
+Next morning my husband wanted to give the performers presents; he was
+begged not to give them money, as they would spend it in drink, but he was
+allowed to purchase tobacco and tea and distribute packets of these. Most
+peaceable quiet men and women tidily dressed came up to receive them, and
+it was hardly possible to believe that these were the demoniac warriors
+who had thrilled us the night before.
+
+While at Port Darwin we visited the prison, and seven or eight Malays,
+under sentence of death for piracy or some similar crime, were paraded for
+our inspection. I thought this somewhat hard upon them, but we were
+assured that such notice would be rather pleasing to them than otherwise,
+and their smiling countenances certainly conveyed that impression. One odd
+bit of red-tape was connected with this. Every death-sentence had to go to
+Adelaide, then headquarters of the Northern Territory Government, to be
+confirmed, but because when Port Darwin was first established it took
+many weeks for any communication to go to and fro, no criminal could be
+executed till that number of weeks had elapsed, although telegraph or post
+could have reported the sentence and received confirmation in days if not
+in hours. No doubt all is now different, but I do not suppose that the
+criminals objected to the delay.
+
+[Sidenote: COLOURED LABOUR]
+
+Here, as elsewhere in the semi-tropical parts of Australia, the burning
+question of coloured labour arose--one wondered, for instance, whether
+such labour would not have largely facilitated the introduction of rubber.
+Still Australia must, and will, decide this and similar problems for
+herself; and if even strictly regulated Indian or kanaka labour would
+infringe the ideal of "White Australia," the barrier must be maintained.
+
+Of course our officers on board the _Catterthun_ were white, but the crew
+were Chinese. At one time an attempt had been made to prevent their
+employment--very much to Captain Shannon's distress, as he loved his
+Chinamen. This veto, however, was not in force when we made the voyage,
+though the men were not allowed on shore. We had a Chinese Wesleyan
+missionary on board, and we were told that when his Wesleyan friends
+wanted him to visit them at Melbourne or Sydney (the former, I think) they
+had to deposit £100, to be refunded when he returned to the ship, as a
+guarantee against his remaining in the country.
+
+At Port Darwin we said a final farewell to Australia and sailed for
+Hong-Kong. Our one port of call during this voyage was at Dilli, port of
+the Portuguese Colony of Timor. The southern portion of Timor belongs to
+the Dutch, but our company was under contract to call at the Portuguese
+port, and we suffered acutely in consequence. The Portuguese had owned a
+gunboat for five years, during which time they had contrived to knock some
+forty-nine holes in its boiler. They had had it once repaired by the
+Dutch, but it was past local efforts, so we had to tow the wretched thing
+to Hong-Kong, which seriously impeded our progress. The Portuguese could
+not even tie it on straight, so after we had gone some distance we had to
+send an officer and a carpenter on board. They found the three officers of
+the Portuguese Navy who had it in charge prostrate with sea-sickness (not
+surprising from the way they were tossing about), so they tied the vessel
+properly behind us, left a card, and returned.
+
+Timor was a picturesque mountainous island, but its commerce as far as we
+could learn consisted of Timor ponies--sturdy little beasts--and postage
+stamps. Of course everyone on board rushed off to purchase the latter for
+their collections.
+
+I rode up with one or two companions to a Portuguese monastery on the top
+of a hill, where the Father Superior entertained us with exceptionally
+good port wine. He said that he and his community educated young native
+chiefs. We tried politely to ascertain whether the education was gratis.
+The Reverend Father said that the youths did not pay, but each brought
+several natives who cultivated the plantations belonging to the monastery
+as an equivalent. Presumably this was not slavery, but what a convenient
+way of paying school fees! An improvement on Squeers--the scholars learnt,
+and their attendants toiled, for the public good.
+
+Timor provided an interesting addition to our passengers in the person of
+a Portuguese Archbishop with his attendant priests. I believe that his
+Grace had got into some kind of ecclesiastical hot-water and was going to
+Macao for inquiry, but I do not know particulars. However, on the Sunday
+following our departure from Timor I learnt that our captain would read
+the English service and the Chinese Wesleyan would hold one for the crew
+on the lower deck. I suggested to the first officer that he should offer
+the Portuguese priests facilities for their rites, as it seemed only
+proper that all creeds should take part. This was gratefully accepted, but
+when a few days later I sent my friend again to propose a service on March
+25th (the Annunciation) the padre was quite annoyed, and asked what he
+knew about it! My officer piously declared that we knew all about it, but
+the Archbishop would have nothing to say to it.
+
+[Sidenote: HONG-KONG]
+
+The only rough part of our whole voyage was some twenty-four hours before
+reaching Hong-Kong, and if we had not had the gunboat dragging behind we
+should probably have landed before the storm. I was greatly surprised by
+the beauty of Hong-Kong. Its depth of colour is astonishing and the
+variety of craft and constant movement in the harbour most fascinating. As
+viewed from the Peak, it was like a scene from a world-drama in which
+modern civilisation and traffic were ever invading the strange and ancient
+life of the China beyond. There were the great men-of-war and merchant
+ships of the West side by side with the sampans on which thousands of
+Chinese made their homes, lived and moved and had their being. To the
+roofs of the sampans the babies were tied by long cords so that they might
+play on deck without falling into the water. Anyhow, the boys were
+securely tied--there seemed some little doubt about the knots in the case
+of girls. Then behind the city were the great red-peaked hills which one
+sees on screens--I had always thought that they were the convention of the
+artist, but no, they were exact transcripts from nature.
+
+Across the harbour lay the British mainland possession, Kowloon, to which
+we paid an amusing visit. We were taken by the Commodore of the Station,
+and as I believe we did something unauthorised, gratitude forbids me to
+mention his name. We entered a Chinese gambling-house, which was very
+quaint. There was a high hall with a gallery or galleries running
+round--behind were some little rooms with men smoking, I imagine opium. In
+the gallery in which we took seats were several people, including Chinese
+ladies. On the floor of the hall was a table at which sat two or three
+Chinamen who appeared to be playing some game of their own--probably
+fan-tan. We were given little baskets with strings in which to let down
+our stakes. As we did not know the game and had no idea what we were
+backing, we put in some small coins for the fun of the thing, and when we
+drew them up again found them agreeably multiplied. I had a shrewd
+suspicion that the heathen Chinee recognised our escort and took good care
+that we were not fleeced.
+
+The climate of Hong-Kong is said to be very trying, and our brief
+experience bore this out. We spent Easter Sunday there, and it was so hot
+that attendance in the Cathedral was a distinct effort. A few days later
+we went on an expedition to the Happy Valley, and it was so cold that our
+hosts handed round orange brandy to keep the party alive.
+
+While we were there our daughter Margaret attended her first "come-out"
+ball, and we felt that it was quite an original performance for a
+débutante to be carried to Government House in a Chinese chair.
+
+Hong-Kong should be a paradise for the young--there were only nine English
+girls in the Colony of age to be invited, and any number of young men from
+ships and offices.
+
+[Sidenote: CANTON]
+
+Even more interesting than Hong-Kong was our brief visit to Canton. The
+railway from Kowloon to Canton was not then built, and we went by boat up
+the Pearl River. Everything was novel to us, including the pagodas on the
+banks of the river, erected to propitiate some kind of deities or spirits,
+but once there remaining unused, and generally falling into decay. We
+reached Canton at daybreak, and if Hong-Kong was a revelation Canton was
+still more surprising. The wide river was packed with native vessels. How
+they could move at all was a problem: some were propelled by wheels like
+water wheels, only the motive power was men who worked a perpetual
+tread-mill; the majority were inhabited by a large river population called
+the Tankers, who ages before had taken up their abode on boats when driven
+by nature or man from land. We were told that they never willingly went
+ashore, and when compelled to do so by business, ran till they regained
+their floating homes. But not the river alone, the vast city with its
+teeming population was so exactly what you see in Chinese pictures that it
+appeared quite unreal; for a moment I felt as if it had been built up to
+deceive the Western traveller, as houses were erected and peasants dressed
+up in the eighteenth century to make Catherine the Great believe in a
+prosperous population where none existed.
+
+However, Canton was real, and the more we saw during our short stay the
+more were we astonished by pictures awakened to life. We visited a rich
+merchant, and his house and enclosed garden, with little bridges,
+quaintly trimmed shrubs, and summer-houses in which were seated portly
+gentlemen in silk garments and round hats with buttons on the top, had
+been transported bodily from the old Chinese wall-paper in my nursery at
+Stoneleigh. His wife was escorted into his hall by attendant maidens, but
+so thick was the paint on her face and mouth that for her utterance was as
+difficult as walking on her tiny feet.
+
+The merchant spoke a little English, but was not very easy to understand.
+He showed the charmingly decorated apartments of his "Number One Wife,"
+but I am uncertain whether that was the lady we saw or a predecessor, and
+in the garden we were introduced to "my Old Brother." We were entertained
+with super-fine tea and also presented with some in packets, but we did
+not find that pure Chinese tea was altogether appreciated by our friends
+in England. We stayed at the Consulate with Mr. Watters; a most
+interesting man who, having spent a large portion of his life in China,
+had become imbued with much of their idealism, and esteemed them highly in
+many respects. The Consulates of the various European Powers were all
+situated in a fortified enclosure called the Shameen, outside the city
+proper. It was very pretty and pleasant, with green grass and nice
+gardens. Soup made of birds' nests duly appeared at dinner. As is well
+known, these nests are made by the birds themselves of a kind of gum, not
+of twigs and leaves. The birds are a species of sea-swallow which builds
+in cliffs and rocks. The nests come chiefly from Java, Sumatra, and the
+coasts of Malacca. Our kind host also provided sharks' fins, another
+much-esteemed luxury.
+
+The wonderful streets of Canton with their gaily painted signs and shops
+teeming with goods of all descriptions, the temples, Examination Hall,
+and Prison have been described by so many travellers that I will not dwell
+upon them. We were carried to all the sights in chairs, and under the
+auspices of Mr. Watters were treated with every civility, though I cannot
+of course say whether any insulting remarks were made in the vernacular.
+
+[Sidenote: THE VICEROY OF CANTON]
+
+Our constant friend, Sir Thomas Sanderson, had written in advance to
+ensure that Jersey should be treated with every respect by the then
+Viceroy of Canton, who was Li-Hung Chang's brother. It was arranged that
+guards belonging to the Consulate should accompany my husband when he went
+to pay his ceremonial call so that he might appear sufficiently important.
+He was very courteously received, and took the opportunity of hinting to
+the interpreter that when His Excellency returned the visit my daughter
+and I would like to see him. Directly he arrived at the Consulate he
+expressed a wish that we should appear, and we gladly obeyed the summons.
+We discovered afterwards that this was quite an innovation, as the Viceroy
+had never before seen a white woman. Anyhow, he seemed just as amused at
+seeing us as we were at seeing him, and asked every sort of question both
+about public matters in England and about our domestic affairs.
+
+He wanted to know what would be done with my jewellery when I died and why
+I did not wear ear-rings. Of course he inquired about the Queen, also
+about the British Parliament. Concerning the latter the interpreter
+translated the pertinent question, "His Excellency wants to know how five
+hundred men can ever settle anything"--I fear that my husband could only
+laugh in reply.
+
+The Viceroy and his attendants remained for about an hour. We were seated
+at a long table facing the Great Man, and Mr. Watters and the Vice-Consul
+at either end. When our guest and his followers had departed Mr. Watters
+told us that they had been carefully watching lest anything should have
+been said in Chinese which could have been construed as derogatory to the
+British. Only once, he said, had a term been used with regard to the
+Queen's sons which was not absolutely the highest properly applied to
+Princes. The Viceroy was, however, in such a good temper and the whole
+interview went off so well that they thought it wiser to take no notice of
+this single lapse from diplomatic courtesy.
+
+It was, probably still is, necessary to keep eyes and ears open in dealing
+with the "childlike and bland" race. The late Lord Loch once described to
+me a typical scene which took place when he was Governor of Hong-Kong. A
+great review of British troops was being held at which a prominent Chinese
+Governor or General (I forget which) was present and a number of Chinese
+were onlookers. The Chinese official was exceedingly anxious to edge out
+of his allotted position to one a little in front of Lord Loch, who was of
+course taking the salute. If he had succeeded in doing so his countrymen
+would have at once believed in the Chinese claim that all foreign nations
+were tributary to the Son of Heaven and have accepted the salute as a
+recognition of the fact. Lord Loch therefore stepped a little in advance
+each time that his guest moved forward, and this continued till both,
+becoming aware of the absurdity of the situation, burst out laughing and
+the gentleman with the pigtail perforce resigned his "push."
+
+Thanks to Mr. Watters we were able to buy some exceptionally good
+Mandarins' coats and embroideries, as he found dealers who had really fine
+things and made them understand that Jersey meant business.
+
+From Hong-Kong we sailed in an American ship for Japan, and landed at Kobe
+towards the middle of April. We had a very pleasant captain, who amused me
+by the plaintive way in which he spoke of the cross-examination to which
+he was subjected by many passengers. One man was much annoyed by the day
+lost in crossing 170° longitude. "I tried to explain as courteously as I
+could," said the captain, "but at last he exclaimed, 'I don't believe you
+know anything about it, but I have a brother-in-law in a bank in New York
+and I shall write and ask him!'"--as if they kept the missing day in the
+bank.
+
+[Sidenote: JAPANESE SCENERY]
+
+Kobe is approached through the beautiful inland sea, but unfortunately it
+was foggy as we passed through, so we lost the famous panorama, but we
+soon had every opportunity of admiring the charms of Nature in Japan. We
+had always heard of the quaint houses and people, of their valour and
+their art, but somehow no one had told us of the beauty of the scenery,
+and it was quite a revelation to us.
+
+I do not attempt any account of the wonderful towns, tombs, and temples
+which we saw during our month's sojourn in the country, as travellers and
+historians have described them again and again, and Lafcadio Hearn and
+others who knew the people well have written of the spirit and devotion of
+the Japanese; but I venture to transcribe a few words from an article
+which I wrote just after our visit for _The Nineteenth Century_, giving my
+impressions of the landscape in spring:
+
+    "Japanese scenery looks as if it ought to be etched. Large broad
+    masses of light and shade would fail to convey the full effect.
+    Between trees varied in colouring and delicate in tracery peep the
+    thatched cottage roofs and the neat grey rounded tiles of little
+    wooden houses standing in gardens gay with peach blossom and wisteria;
+    while the valleys are mapped out into minute patches of green young
+    corn or flooded paddy-fields interspersed here and there with
+    trellises over which are trained the spreading white branches of the
+    pear. Everywhere are broad river-courses and rushing mountain streams,
+    and now and again some stately avenue of the sacred cryptomeria leads
+    to a temple, monastery, or tomb. Nothing more magnificent than these
+    avenues can be conceived. The tall madder-pink stems rear their tufted
+    crests in some cases seventy or eighty feet into the air, and the
+    ground below is carpeted with red pyrus japonica, violets, ferns, and,
+    near the romantic monastery of Doryo-San, with a kind of lily or iris
+    whose white petals are marked with lilac and yellow. The avenue
+    leading to Nikko extends in an almost unbroken line for over fifteen
+    miles, the trees being known as the offering of a daimio who was too
+    poor to present the usual stone or bronze lantern at the tomb of the
+    great Shogun Ieyasu."
+
+At Tokyo we were hospitably entertained at the Legation by Mr. (now Sir
+Maurice) de Bunsen, Chargé d'Affaires, in the absence of the Minister. The
+Secretary of Legation, Mr. Spring Rice (afterwards Sir Cecil), added
+greatly to our pleasure by his knowledge of things Japanese and the
+trouble he took to explain them.
+
+A letter to my mother, dated April 1893, resumes many of my impressions of
+a Japan of nearly thirty years ago when it was still only emerging from
+its century-long seclusion.
+
+    "You cannot imagine what a delightful country Japan is. Not only is it
+    so pretty, but it is so full of real interest. I had imagined that it
+    was rather a joke full of toy-houses and toy-people--on the contrary
+    one finds great feudal castles with moats and battlements, gigantic
+    stones fifteen feet long, and the whole place full of legends of
+    knights and their retainers, ghosts and witches and enchantments....
+    The Clan-system here was in full-swing till just the other day, when
+    Sir Harry Parkes routed out the Mikado, and the Shoguns (Tycoons) or
+    Great War Lords, who had ruled the country for centuries, had at last
+    to give way.
+
+    "Even now the representatives of the greatest clans hold chief places
+    in the Ministry and Naval and Military Departments, and the question
+    in Parliament here is whether the radical opposition can break up the
+    clan-system and distribute the loaves and fishes of Government
+    patronage evenly amongst the people. Meantime I doubt if the Mikado,
+    or Emperor as it is most proper to call him, is very happy in his new
+    life. He thinks it correct to adapt himself to 'Western civilisation,'
+    but very evidently prefers the seclusion of his ancestors and has
+    credit for hating seeing people. There was to have been a garden
+    party--the Cherry Blossom Party--at the Palace last Friday, but
+    unfortunately it pelted, so it was promptly given up and everyone said
+    that His Imperial Majesty was very glad not to have to 'show.'
+
+[Sidenote: INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPRESS]
+
+    "However G. had an audience with him yesterday and all of us with the
+    Empress. It was rather funny. In the first place there was great
+    discussion about our clothes. G. went in uniform, but the official
+    documents granting audience specified that the ladies were to appear
+    at 10 a.m., in high gowns--and in the middle of the Japanese
+    characters came the French words 'robes en traine.' The wife of the
+    Vice-Chamberlain--an Englishwoman--also wrote to explain that we must
+    come without bonnets and with high gowns with trains! So we had to
+    write back and explain that my latest Paris morning frock had but a
+    short train and M's smartest ditto none at all.
+
+    "However, they promised to explain this to the Empress, and we arrived
+    at the Palace, which we found swarming with gold-laced officials,
+    chamberlains, vice-chamberlains, and pages, and ladies in their
+    regulation costume--high silk gowns just like afternoon garments but
+    with long tails of the same material, about as long as for
+    drawing-rooms--how they could have expected the passing voyager to be
+    prepared with this peculiar fashion at twenty-four hours' notice I
+    know not, and I think it was lucky that I had a flowered brocade with
+    some kind of train to it.
+
+    "The saloons were very magnificent--built five years ago--all that was
+    Japanese in them first-class--the European decorations a German
+    imitation of something between Louis XV and Empire, which I leave to
+    your imagination. G. was carried off in one direction whilst we were
+    left to a trained little lady who fortunately spoke a little English,
+    and after a bit we were taken to a corridor where we rejoined G. and
+    Mr. de Bunsen and were led through more passages to a little room
+    where a little lady stood bolt upright in a purple gown with a small
+    pattern of gold flowers and an order--Japanese, I believe. She had a
+    lady to interpret on her right, and two more, maids of honour, I
+    suppose, in the background. The interpreting lady appeared to be
+    alive--the vitality of the others was doubtful. We all bowed and
+    curtsied, and I was told to go up to the Empress, which I did, and
+    when I was near enough to avoid the possibility of her moving, she
+    shook hands and said something almost in a whisper, interpreted to
+    mean that she was very glad to see me for the first time. I expressed
+    proper gratification, then she asked as to the length of our stay, and
+    finally said how sorry she was for the postponement of the garden
+    party, to which I responded with, I trust, true Eastern hyperbole that
+    Her Majesty's kindness in receiving us repaid me for the
+    disappointment. This seemed to please her, and then she shook hands
+    again, and went through her little formulĉ with M. and G., giving one
+    sentence to the former and two to the latter, after which with a great
+    deal more bowing and curtsying we got out of the room and were shown
+    through the other apartments. I heard afterwards that Her Majesty was
+    very pleased with the interview, so she must be easily gratified, poor
+    dear. I am told 'by those who know' that she is an excellent woman,
+    does a great deal for schools and hospitals to the extent on at least
+    one occasion of giving away all her pocket-money for the year and
+    leaving herself with none. The poor woman has no children, but the
+    Emperor is allowed other inferior spouses--with no recognised
+    position--to the number of ten. I do not know how many ladies he has,
+    but he has one little boy and two or three girls. The little boy is
+    thirteen and goes to a day-school, so is expected to be of much more
+    social disposition than his papa."
+
+[Sidenote: THE SACRED MIRROR OF THE SUN-GODDESS]
+
+The boy in question is now Emperor and has unfortunately broken down in
+health. Mrs. Sannomya (afterwards Baroness), wife of the Vice-Chamberlain,
+told me that he was very intelligent, and that the Empress, who adopted
+him in accordance with Japanese custom, was fond of him. She also told me
+that the secondary wives were about the Court, but that it was not
+generally known which were the mothers of the Prince and Princesses. Mrs.
+Sannomya personally knew which they were, but the children were to be
+considered as belonging to the Emperor and Empress, the individual mothers
+had no recognised claim upon them. I believe that this Oriental "zenana"
+arrangement no longer exists, but meanwhile it assured the unbroken
+descent of the Imperial rulers from the Sun-goddess. We were assured that
+the reigning Emperor still possessed the divine sword, the ball or jewel,
+and the mirror with which she endowed her progeny. The mirror is the
+symbol of Shinto, the orthodox faith of Japan, and it derives its sanctity
+from the incident that it was used to attract the Sun-goddess from a cave
+whither she had retired in high dudgeon after a quarrel with another
+deity. In fact it seems to have acted as a pre-historic heliograph. By the
+crowing of a cock and the flashing of the mirror Ten sho dai jin was
+induced to think that morning had dawned, and once more to irradiate the
+universe with her beams.
+
+Though Shintoism, the ancient ancestral creed, was re-established when the
+Emperor issued from his long seclusion, the mass of the population no
+doubt prefer the less abstract and more ritualistic Buddhism of China and
+Japan. What the educated classes really believe is exceedingly hard to
+discover. A very charming Japanese diplomatic lady remarked to me one
+Sunday at Osterley in connection with church-going that "it must be very
+nice to have a religion." Viscount Hayashi summed up the popular creed, in
+answer to an inquiry on my part, as "the ethics of Confucius with the
+religious sanction of Buddhism": perhaps that is as good a definition as
+any other.
+
+It seems doubtful whether Christianity has made solid progress, though
+treated with due respect by the Government. Mr. Max Müller told me that
+when the Japanese were sending emissaries to the various Western Powers
+with instructions to investigate their methods both in war and peace, two
+of these envoys visited him and asked him to supply them with a suitable
+creed. "I told them," said he, "'Be good Buddhists first and I will think
+of something for you.'" An English lady long resident in Japan threw some
+further light on the Japanese view of ready-made religious faith. At the
+time when foreign instructors were employed to start Japan with her face
+turned westward, a German was enlisted to teach court etiquette, no doubt
+including "robes montantes en traine." While still in this service a Court
+official requested him to supply the full ceremonial of a Court
+_Christening_. "But," returned the Teuton, "you are not Christians, so how
+can I provide you with a Christening ceremony?" "Never mind," was the
+reply, "you had better give it us now that you are here; we never know
+when we may want it."
+
+[Sidenote: CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN]
+
+St. Francis Xavier, who preached Christianity to the Japanese in the
+sixteenth century, records the testimony of his Japanese secretary, whom
+he found and converted at Goa, as to the effect likely to be produced on
+his fellow-countrymen by the saintly missionary. "His people," said Anjiro
+of Satsuma, "would not immediately assent to what might be said to them,
+but they would investigate what I might affirm respecting religion by a
+multitude of questions, and above all by observing whether my conduct
+agreed with my words. This done, the King, the nobility, and adult
+population would flock to Christ, being a nation which always follows
+reason as a guide."
+
+Whether convinced by reason or example it is certain that the Japanese of
+the day accepted Christianity in large numbers, and that many held firm in
+the terrible persecution which raged later on. Nevertheless the Christian
+faith was almost exterminated at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
+only a few lingering traces being found when the country was reopened to
+missions in the latter half of the nineteenth.
+
+Nowadays the Japanese idea unfortunately appears to be that Christianity
+has not much influence on the statesmanship of foreign countries, and
+their leading men in competition with the West seem too keen on pushing to
+the front in material directions to trouble much about abstract doctrines.
+Belief in a spirit-world, however, certainly prevailed among the masses of
+the people whom we saw frequenting temples and joining in cheerful
+pilgrimages.
+
+The great interests of our visit from a social and political point of view
+was finding an acute and active-minded race in a deliberate and determined
+state of transition from a loyal and chivalrous past to an essentially
+modern but still heroic future. Neither the war with China nor that with
+Russia had then taken place, but foundations were being laid which were to
+ensure victory in both cases. The Daimios had surrendered their land to
+the Emperor and received in return modern titles of nobility, and incomes
+calculated on their former revenues. The tillers of the soil were secured
+on their former holdings and instead of rent paid land-tax. Naturally
+everything was not settled without much discontent, particularly on the
+part of the peasants, who thought, as in other countries, that any sort of
+revolution ought to result in their having the land in fee-simple. Much
+water, however, has flowed under the Sacred Bridges of Japan since we were
+there, and I do not attempt to tread the labyrinths of the agrarian or
+other problems with which the statesmen of New Japan had or have to deal.
+
+[Sidenote: DAIMIOS OF OLD JAPAN]
+
+One thing, however, was evident even to those who, like ourselves, spent
+but a short time in the country. The younger nobles gained more than they
+lost in many ways by the abandonment of their feudal prominence. Their
+fathers had been more subservient to the Shoguns than the French nobility
+to Louis XIV. The third of the Tokugawa line, who lived in the seventeenth
+century, decreed that the daimios were to spend half the year at Yedo (the
+modern Tokyo), and even when they were allowed to return to their own
+estates they were obliged to leave their wives and families in the
+capital as hostages. The mountain passes were strictly guarded, and all
+persons traversing them rigidly searched, crucifixion being the punishment
+meted out to such as left the Shogun's territory without a permit. On the
+shores of the beautiful Lake Hakone at the foot of the main pass villas
+were still pointed out where the daimios rested on their journey, and we
+were told that a neighbouring town was in other times largely populated by
+hair-dressers, who had to rearrange the elaborate coiffures of the ladies
+who were forced to take their hair down before passing the Hakone Bar.
+True, the daimios lived and travelled with great state and had armies of
+retainers, but at least one great noble confessed to me that the freedom
+which he then enjoyed fully compensated him for the loss of former
+grandeur.
+
+My daughter who "came out" at Hong-Kong had quite a gay little season at
+Tokyo, as we were hospitably entertained by both Japanese and diplomats,
+and amongst other festivities we thoroughly enjoyed a splendid ball given
+by Marquis Naboshima, the Emperor's Master of Ceremonies.
+
+We were also fortunate in seeing the actor Danjolo, commonly called the
+"Irving of Japan," in one of his principal characters. The floor of the
+theatre was divided into little square boxes in which knelt the audience,
+men, women, and children. From the main entrance of the house to the stage
+ran a gangway, somewhat elevated above the floor; this was called the
+Flowery Path, and served not only as a means of access to the boxes on
+either side, but also as an approach by which some of the principal actors
+made a sensational entrance on the scene. A large gallery, divided like
+the parterre, ran round three sides of the house and was reached from an
+outside balcony. European spectators taking seats in the gallery were
+accommodated with chairs.
+
+The main feature wherein the Japanese differed from an English stage was
+that the whole central part of the former was round and turned on a pivot.
+The scenery, simple but historically correct, ran across the diameter of
+the reversible part; so while one scenic background was before the
+audience another was prepared behind and wheeled round when wanted. To
+remove impedimenta at the sides or anything which had to be taken away
+during the progress of a scene, little black figures with black veils over
+their faces, like familiars of the Inquisition, came in, and Japanese
+politeness accepted them as invisible.
+
+Danjolo, who acted the part of a wicked uncle, proved himself worthy of
+his reputation and was excellently supported by his company. All the parts
+were taken by men; some plays were in those days acted by women, but it
+was not then customary for the two sexes to perform together. Now I
+believe that the barrier has been broken down and that they do so freely.
+
+When we had a Japanese dinner at the Club the charming little waitresses
+gave dramatic performances in intervals between the courses.
+
+Certainly the Japanese are prompt in emergency. A Japanese of high rank
+once told me how the Rising Sun came to be the National Flag. A Japanese
+ship arrived at an American port and the harbour authorities demanded to
+know under what flag she sailed. This was before the days when Japan had
+entered freely into commercial relations with other lands, and the captain
+had no idea of a national ensign. Not to be outdone by other mariners, he
+secured a large piece of white linen and painted upon it a large red orb.
+This was offered and accepted as the National Flag of Japan, and is still
+the flag of her merchant fleet. With rays darting from it, it has become
+the ensign of her warships, and, as a gold chrysanthemum on a red ground,
+represents the Rising Sun in the Imperial Standard. According to my
+informant, who told me the tale at a dinner-party in London, the whole
+idea sprang from the merchant captain's readiness of resource.
+
+Whatever changes Japan may undergo, it must still retain the charm of its
+pure, transparent atmosphere with the delicate hues which I never saw
+elsewhere except in Greece. In some respects, unlike as they are
+physically, the Japanese recall the quick-witted, art-loving Greeks.
+Again, Japan, with its lovely lakes and mountains and its rich vegetation,
+has something in common with New Zealand, and, like those happy Islands,
+it has the luxury of natural hot springs. I shall never forget the hotel
+at Miyanoshita where the large bathrooms on the ground-floor were supplied
+with unlimited hot and cold water conducted in simple bamboo pipes direct
+from springs in a hill just behind the house.
+
+[Sidenote: JAPANESE FRIENDS]
+
+Still more vividly do I recall the Japanese who did so much for our
+enjoyment at Tokyo. Amongst others was the delightful Mrs. Inouye, whose
+husband, as Marquis Inouye, has since been Ambassador in London.
+Marchioness Inouye has remained a real friend, and constantly sends me
+news from the Island Empire. Nor must I forget how much we saw under the
+guidance of my cousin, the Rev. Lionel Cholmondeley, for many years a
+missionary in Japan, and Chaplain to the British Embassy there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+JOURNEY HOME--THE NILE--LORD KITCHENER
+
+
+Our sojourn in Japan was all too short, and we sailed from Yokohama in a
+ship of the Empress Line on May 12. Capturing a spare day at 170°
+longitude, we reached Vancouver on the Queen's Birthday. Our thirteen
+days' voyage was somewhat tedious, as I do not think that we passed a
+single ship on the whole transit. The weather was dull and grey, and there
+was a continuous rolling sea, but I must say for our ship that no one
+suffered from sea-sickness. She lived up to the repute which we had heard
+concerning these liners; they were broad and steady, and I for one was
+duly grateful.
+
+[Sidenote: THE WELL-FORGED LINK OF EMPIRE]
+
+We had some pleasant fellow-passengers, including Orlando Bridgeman (now
+Lord Bradford) and his cousin Mr. William Bridgeman (now a prominent
+politician). A voyage otherwise singularly devoid of excitement was
+agitated by the discovery of one or more cases of small-pox among the
+Chinese on board. Every effort was made to keep this dark, but when the
+ukase went forth that every passenger who had not been vaccinated recently
+must undergo the operation, no doubt remained as to the truth of the
+rumours current. Fortunately my husband, my daughter, myself, and my maid
+had all been vaccinated just before leaving Sydney, but we still felt
+anxious about possible quarantine at Victoria--the port on the Island of
+Vancouver--the town being on the mainland. Nothing happened, however, and
+_if_ the ship's doctor perjured himself, and _if_ the captain did not
+contradict him, I trust that the Recording Angel did not set it down, as
+the relief of the passengers was indeed great.
+
+The truth afterwards so forcibly expressed by Rudyard Kipling was brought
+home to us when landing on Canadian shores:
+
+  "Take 'old of the Wings o' the mornin',
+  An' flop round the earth till you're dead;
+  But you won't get away from the tune that they play
+  To the bloomin' old rag over'ead."
+
+Every morning at Sydney we were aroused by "God Save the Queen" from the
+men-of-war in the harbour just below Government House, and at Vancouver we
+found the whole population busy celebrating Queen Victoria's Birthday. At
+the hotel nobody was left in charge but a boy of fourteen, a most
+intelligent youth who somehow lodged and fed us. Next day we were anxious
+to find him and recognise his kind attentions before leaving, but
+evidently in his case sport outweighed possible tips, for he had gone to
+the races without giving us a chance.
+
+Vancouver had a curiously unfinished appearance when we saw it, houses
+just arising and streets laid out but not completed. I have heard, and
+fully believe, that it has since become a very fine city, rising as it
+does just within the Gateway to the Pacific, though it is of Victoria that
+Rudyard Kipling (to quote him again) sings:
+
+  "From East to West the tested chain holds fast,
+  The well-forged link rings true."
+
+The Directors of the Canadian Pacific had most kindly assigned a private
+car to our use, but we had arrived a little before we had been expected,
+and as our time was limited we travelled in the ordinary train as far as
+Glacier, where we slept and the car caught us up.
+
+Glacier in the Rockies well deserved its name, as we found ourselves once
+more in the midst of ice and frozen snow such as we had not seen except on
+distant mountains for over two years. We were allowed to attach the car to
+the through trains, and detach it to wait for another, as desired, which
+gave us the chance of seeing not only the great mountains and waterfalls
+as we flew by, but also of admiring at leisure some of the more famous
+places.
+
+From Winnipeg our luxurious car with its bedrooms and living-rooms all
+complete took us down as far as St. Paul in the States, where we joined
+the ordinary train for Chicago. I think that it was at St. Paul that we
+had our first aggravating experience of American independence, which
+contrasted with the courtesy of Japan. A number of passengers had some
+twenty-five minutes to secure luncheon (or dinner, I forget which) before
+the departure of the next train. Unfortunately they depended almost
+entirely on the ministrations of a tall and gaily attired young woman;
+still more unfortunately one or two of them rashly requested her to make
+haste. Her vengeance was tranquil but sure. She slowly and deliberately
+walked round, placing a glass of iced water near each guest. It was hot
+enough to render iced water acceptable, but not to the exclusion of other
+food.
+
+[Sidenote: COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA]
+
+We included Chicago in our wanderings for the purpose of seeing the great
+Exhibition which was by way of celebrating the fourth centenary of
+Columbus's discovery of America. A schoolboy once described the life and
+exploits of Columbus to this effect: "Columbus was a man who could make
+an egg stand on end without breaking it. He landed in America and saw a
+Chief and a party of men and said to them, 'Are you the savages?' 'Yes,'
+said the Chief; 'are you Columbus?' 'Yes,' said Columbus. Then the Chief
+turned to his men and said, 'It's of no use; we're discovered at last.'"
+Whether Columbus would have taken the trouble to discover America if he
+could have seen in a vision New York, Niagara, and a few other phenomena I
+know not, but I am sure he would have never gone out of his way to
+discover Chicago.
+
+My sister-in-law, Mrs. Rowland Leigh, has told me that her grandfather
+sold a great part of the land on which Chicago now stands for a pony for
+her grandmother to ride upon. With all due respect he made a great mistake
+in facilitating the erection of this overgrown, bumptious, and obtrusive
+city. It may have improved in the past thirty years, but I can conceive of
+no way in which it could have become attractive.
+
+It was horribly hot when we arrived, but a chilling and unhealthy wind
+blew from Lake Michigan, on which it stands, which gave us all chest
+colds, and we heard that these were prevalent throughout the city. Then
+the streets were badly laid and dirty. I think that the inhabitants burnt
+some peculiar kind of smoky fuel. They were very proud of this Exhibition,
+which looked well, on the lines of the White City at Shepherd's Bush. It
+was made of _Phormium tenax_ (New Zealand flax) plastered over with white
+composition, and as it stood near some part of the Lake which had been
+arranged to accommodate it the white buildings reflected in the blue water
+had a picturesque effect. The only part of the interior which really
+impressed me was a building (not white) representing the old monastery
+where Columbus had lived for some time in Spain. This was filled with a
+very interesting loan collection of objects connected with his life and
+times.
+
+The citizens of Chicago had invited a large variety of crowned heads and
+princely personages to attend the Exhibition as their guests, but previous
+engagements had been more prevalent than acceptances. They had succeeded
+in securing a Spanish Duke who was a lineal descendant of Columbus, and he
+and his family had been the prominent features of their ceremonies to
+date. Shortly before we came great excitement had arisen because it was
+announced that the Infanta Eulalia, aunt of the King of Spain, and a real
+genuine Princess, would honour the city and Exhibition with her royal
+presence. Two problems had thereupon to be solved. What would they do with
+the Duke? They no longer wanted a minor luminary when a star of the first
+magnitude was about to dawn above their horizon. That was promptly
+settled. They put the poor grandee into a train for New York on a Friday
+and told him that they would continue to frank him until the Monday, after
+which date he would be "on his own." He was said to have declared himself
+highly satisfied with the arrangement, as this would leave him free to
+enjoy himself after his own fashion during the remainder of his sojourn in
+America. I only hope that they had paid his return tickets by steamboat,
+but I never heard how that was managed.
+
+[Sidenote: THE MAYOR CUTS HIS HAIR]
+
+The Duke being thus disposed of, problem two required far more serious
+consideration. The Mayor of Chicago was a "man of the people" and had
+never condescended to wear a tall hat, in fact he had such a bush of hair
+that he could not have got one on to his head; and as a sort of socialist
+Samson whose political strength lay in his locks, he had steadily
+declined to cut it. So day by day the Chicago papers came out with: "Will
+H. [I forget his exact name] cut his hair?" "Will he wear a tall hat?" And
+when the great day came and the Infanta was met at the station by the
+Conscript Fathers, a pĉan of joy found voice in print: "He wore a tall
+hat." "He has cut his hair." I cannot say whether the pillars of the
+municipal house fell upon him at the next election.
+
+I do not feel sure of the official designation of the sturdy citizens who
+ultimately received the Infanta. They may have constituted the
+Municipality or the Council of the Exhibition, very likely both combined.
+One thing, however, is certain: no Princess of Romance was more jealously
+guarded by father, enchanter, giant, or dwarf than Eulalia by her Chicago
+hosts. The first knight-errant to meet his fate was our old Athens friend,
+Mr. Fearn. He was Head of the Foreign Section of the Exhibition, a highly
+cultured man, had held a diplomatic post in Spain, where he had known the
+Infanta, and could speak Spanish. When he heard that she was coming he
+engaged sixteen rooms at the Virginia Hotel (where we were staying) and
+arranged to give her a reception. Could this be allowed? Oh, no! Mr. Fearn
+could converse with her in her own tongue and no one else would be able to
+understand what was said--the party had to be cancelled.
+
+Then H.R.H. was to visit the Foreign Section, and Mr. Fearn, who naturally
+expected to be on duty, invited various friends, including ourselves, to
+be present in the Gallery of the rather fine Entrance Hall. Mr. Fearn,
+Head of the Section, to receive the Princess on arrival? Not at all--why,
+she might think that he was the most important person present. Mr. Fearn
+might hide where he pleased, but was to form no part of the Reception
+Committee.
+
+They wanted to take away his Gallery, but there he put his foot down. His
+friends were coming and must have their seats. So he sat with us and we
+watched the proceedings from above. I must say that they were singularly
+unimpressive. The Infanta arrived escorted by some big,
+uncomfortable-looking men, while a few little girls strewed a few small
+flowers on the pavement in front of her. I heard afterwards that H.R.H.,
+who was distinctly a lady of spirit, was thoroughly bored with her escort,
+and instead of spending the hours which they would have desired in gazing
+on tinned pork, jam-pots, and machinery, insisted on disporting herself in
+a kind of fair called, I think, the Midway Pleasance, where there were
+rows of little shops and a beer-garden. She forced her cortège to
+accompany her into the latter and to sit down and drink beer there. They
+were duly scandalised, but could not protest. The Infanta was put up at
+the P---- Hotel owned by a couple of the same name. The husband had
+avowedly risen from the ranks, and the wife, being very pretty and having
+great social aspirations, had left Mr. P. at home when she journeyed to
+Europe. They were very rich and had a house in Chicago in the most
+fashionable quarter on the shores of the Lake, and gave a great party for
+the Princess to which were bidden all the élite of the city.
+
+It appeared, however, that the royal guest did not discover till just as
+she was setting forth that her hosts were identical with her innkeepers,
+and the blue blood of Spain did not at all approve the combination. It was
+too late to back out of the engagement, but her attitude at the party
+induced rather a frost, and her temper was not improved by the fact that
+a cup of coffee was upset over her gown.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PAGEANT "AMERICA"]
+
+I cannot say that I saw this, for, though we received a card for the
+entertainment, it came so late that we did not feel called upon to make an
+effort to attend. The lady's sense of humour, however, was quite
+sufficient to enable her to see the quaint side of her reception
+generally, in fact I chanced to hear when back in England that she had
+given to some of our royal family much the same account that is here
+recorded. It is not to be assumed, nevertheless, that Chicago Society does
+not include charming and kindly people. Among the most prominent were, and
+doubtless are, the McCormicks, some of whom we had known in London, and
+who exerted themselves to show us hospitality. Mrs. McCormick, head of the
+clan, gave us a noble luncheon, previous to which we were introduced to
+about thirty McCormicks by birth or marriage. "I guess you've got right
+round," said one when we had shaken hands with them all. Mrs. McCormick
+Goodhart took us to see a great spectacle called "America," arranged at a
+large theatre by Imre Kiralfy, subsequently of White City fame.
+
+The colour scheme was excellent. The historical scenes presented might be
+called eclectic. The Discovery of America was conducted by a page in white
+satin who stood on the prow of Columbus's ship and pointed with his hand
+to the shore. Behind him in the vessel were grouped men-at-arms whose gold
+helmets were quite untarnished by sea-spray. Perhaps they had been kept in
+air-tight boxes till the Discovery was imminent and then brought out to do
+honour to the occasion. The next scene which I recollect was the arrival
+of the Pilgrim Fathers in an Indian village. The Fathers, in square-cut
+coats and Puritan headgear, stood round the village green, and did not
+turn a hair, while young women danced a ballet in front of them. After
+all, I saw a ballet danced in after years at the Church Pageant at Fulham,
+so there is no reason why the Pilgrim Fathers should not have enjoyed one
+when it came their way. The final climax, however, was a grand
+agricultural spectacle with a great dance of young persons with
+reaping-hooks. This was a just tribute to the McCormick family, who were
+the great manufacturers of agricultural implements and thereby promoted
+the prosperity of Chicago.
+
+On leaving Chicago we wended our way to Niagara. I am free to confess that
+we had seen so much grandeur and beauty, and particularly such picturesque
+waterfalls, in Japan, that we did not approach any scene in the New World
+with the thrill of expectation which we might have nursed had we come
+fresh from more prosaic surroundings, but Niagara swept away any vestige
+of indifference or sight-weariness. It is not for me to describe it. I can
+only say that we were awe-struck by the unending waters rushing with their
+mighty volume between the rocks and beneath the sun. When we sometimes
+tried to select the sights which we had seen most worthy of inclusion in
+the Nine Wonders of the World, neither my husband nor I ever hesitated to
+place Niagara among the foremost.
+
+At New York we stayed two or three nights waiting for our ship. It was
+very hot, and most of our American friends away at the seaside or in the
+country. My chief impressions were that the waiting at the otherwise
+comfortable Waldorf Hotel was the slowest I had ever come across; and that
+the amount of things "verboten" in the Central Park was worthy of Berlin.
+In one place you might not drive, in another you might not ride, in a
+third mounted police were prepared to arrest you if you tried to walk.
+Really, except in wartime, England is the one place where you can do as
+you like. However, I am sure that New York had many charms if we had had
+time and opportunity to find them out.
+
+We sailed in the White Star ship _Majestic_, and after a pleasant crossing
+reached England towards the end of June 1893. The country was terribly
+burnt up after a hot and dry spell, but we were very happy to be at home
+again, and to find our friends and relations awaiting us at Euston.
+
+[Sidenote: BACK AT OSTERLEY]
+
+My daughter was just in time for two or three balls at the end of the
+London season, the first being at Bridgewater House. She and I were both
+delighted to find that our friends had not forgotten us, and that she had
+no lack of partners on her somewhat belated "coming out." We were also in
+time to welcome our friends at a garden party at Osterley, and to
+entertain some of them from Saturdays to Mondays in July.
+
+Then began many pleasant summers when friends young and old came to our
+garden parties, and also to spend Sundays with us at Osterley, or to stay
+with us in the autumn and winter at Middleton. Looking back at their names
+in our Visitors' Book, it is at once sad to feel how many have passed away
+and consoling to think of the happy days in which they shared, and
+particularly to remember how some, now married and proud parents of
+children, found their fate in the gardens at Osterley or in the boat on
+the Lake.
+
+It would be difficult to say much of individuals, but I could not omit
+recording that among our best and dearest friends were Lord and Lady
+Northcote. I find their names first in the list of those who stayed with
+us July 1st-3rd, 1893, and their friendship never failed us--his lasted
+till death and hers is with me still.
+
+Before, however, I attempt any reminiscences of our special friends, I
+would mention yet two more expeditions which had incidents of some
+interest.
+
+In 1895 Lady Galloway and I were again in Rome, and I believe that it was
+on this occasion that we were received by Queen Margaret, whose husband
+King Umberto was still alive. She was a charming and beautiful woman with
+masses of auburn hair. She spoke English perfectly and told us how much
+she admired English literature, but I was rather amused by her expressing
+particular preference for _The Strand Magazine_--quite comprehensible
+really, as even when one knows a foreign tongue fairly well, it is always
+easier to read short stories and articles in it than profounder works. She
+also liked much of Rudyard Kipling, but found some of his writings too
+difficult. Later on I sent Her Majesty the "Recessional," and her
+lady-in-waiting wrote to say that she had read and re-read the beautiful
+verses.
+
+A former Italian Ambassador told me that when the present King was still
+quite young some members of the Government wanted him removed from the
+care of women and his education confided to men. The Queen, however, said,
+"Leave him to me, and I will make a man of him." "And," added my
+informant, "she did!"
+
+[Sidenote: THE DAHABYAH "HERODOTUS"]
+
+Later in the year my husband engaged a dahabyah, the _Herodotus_, to take
+us up the Nile, and we left England on January 22nd, 1896, to join it.
+Margaret and Mary went with us, and we sailed from Marseilles for
+Alexandria in the _Sénégal_, a Messageries boat which was one of the most
+wretched old tubs that I have ever encountered. How it contrived to reach
+Alexandria in a storm was a mystery, the solution of which reflects great
+credit on its captain. We had a peculiar lady among our fellow-passengers,
+who, when Columbus was mentioned, remarked that he was the man who went to
+sea in a sack. We believe that she confused him with Monte Cristo.
+
+Anyhow we reached Cairo at last, where we were joined by Lady Galloway,
+who had been staying with Lord and Lady Cromer at the Agency, and we
+joined our dahabyah--a very comfortable one--at Gingeh on February 4th. As
+we had a steam-tug attached, we were happily independent of wind and
+current, and could stop when we pleased--no small consideration. We
+realised this when, reaching Luxor three days later, we met with friends
+who had been toiling upstream for a month, unable to visit any antiquities
+on the way, as whenever they wanted to do so the wind, or other phenomena,
+became favourable to progress. I ought not to omit having met Nubar Pasha,
+the Egyptian statesman, at Cairo, a dear old man, with a high esteem for
+the English, who, he said, had a great respect for themselves, and for
+public opinion. At first sight those two sentiments seem not altogether
+compatible, but on thinking over his remark one perceives how they balance
+each other.
+
+At El Ballianeh, another stopping-place on our voyage to Luxor, we found
+the town decorated in honour of the Khedive's lately married sister, who
+was making an expedition up the Nile. Her husband, having modern
+tendencies, was anxious that she should ride like the English ladies, and
+had ordered a riding-habit for her, but only one boot, as he only saw one
+of the Englishwomen's feet. Had he lived in the present year of grace his
+vision would not have been so limited.
+
+Near Karnak, E. F. Benson and his sister were busy excavating the Temple
+of Mant. Miss Benson had a concession and excavated many treasures, while
+her brother no doubt drew out of the desert his inspiration for _The Image
+in the Sand_, published some years later.
+
+In pre-war days we used to say that the Nile was like Piccadilly and Luxor
+resembled the Bachelors' Club, so many friends and acquaintances passed up
+and down the river, but on this particular voyage the aspect which most
+impressed my husband and myself was the dominating influence of the
+Sirdar, Lord Kitchener. We only saw him personally for a few minutes, as
+he was with his staff on a tour of inspection, but wherever we met
+officers of any description there was an alertness, and a constant
+reference to "The Sirdar!" "The Sirdar has ordered," "The Sirdar wishes."
+A state of tension was quite evident, and soon proved to be justified.
+
+No one quite knew when and where the Mahdi would attack, everybody was on
+the look-out for hidden Dervishes. At Assouan we had luncheon with the
+officers stationed there, Major Jackson (now Sir Herbert) and others, who
+were most hospitable and amusing. I must confess that though they were
+more than ready for the Dervishes, they were specially hot against the
+French. Of course at that time the feeling on both sides was very bitter;
+it was long before the days of the entente, and any French officer who
+made friends with an Englishman had a very bad mark put against his name
+by his superiors.
+
+Either at Assouan or Philĉ, where Captain Lyons entertained us, we heard a
+comical story of a tall Englishman in a café at Cairo. He was alone, and
+three or four French officers who were sitting at a little table began to
+make insulting remarks about the English. This man kept silent until one
+of them put out his foot as he passed, plainly intending to trip him up.
+Thereupon he seized his assailant and used him as a kind of cudgel or
+flail wherewith to belabour his companions. Naturally the others jumped up
+and attacked in their turn, and the Englishman, outnumbered, must have had
+the worst of it had not the girl behind the counter suddenly taken his
+part and aimed a well-directed shower of empty bottles at the Frenchmen,
+who thereupon found discretion the better part of valour and retreated.
+
+[Sidenote: ESCAPE OF SLATIN PASHA]
+
+Major Jackson gave us a graphic account of the arrival of Slatin Pasha
+after his escape from Omdurman after eleven years' captivity. He said that
+a dirty little Arab merchant arrived at his quarters claiming to be Slatin
+Pasha. He knew that Slatin had been prisoner, but did not know of his
+escape, and felt doubtful of his identity. "However," said he, "I put him
+into a bedroom and gave him some clothes and a cake of Sunlight Soap, and
+there came out a neat little Austrian gentleman." I have always thought
+what a large bakshish Major Jackson might have received from the
+proprietor of Sunlight Soap had he given them that tale for publication. I
+believe that Major Burnaby had £100 for mentioning the effect of Cockle's
+Pills on some native chief in his _Ride to Khiva_. However, Slatin managed
+to convince his hosts that he was himself, despite that he had almost
+forgotten European customs and languages during his long slavery. At
+Assouan we were obliged to abandon our nice dahabyah and transfer
+ourselves to a shaky and hot stern-wheeler called the _Tanjore_, as the
+large dahabyah could not travel above the First Cataract and we wanted to
+go to Wady Halfa. There was some doubt as to whether we could go at all,
+and the stern-wheeler had to form one of a fleet of four which were bound
+to keep together and each to carry an escort of six or seven Soudanese
+soldiers for protection. What would have happened had a strong force of
+dervishes attacked us I do not know, but fortunately we were unmolested.
+Of the other three stern-wheelers one was taken by the Bradley Martins,
+Cravens, and Mrs. Sherman, and the other two were public.
+
+We had an object-lesson on the advantages of a reputation for being
+unamiable. On board one of the public stern-wheelers was a certain F. R.,
+author and journalist, with his wife and daughter. Jersey overheard Cook's
+representative giving special injunctions to the agent in charge of this
+boat to keep F. R. in good humour, as he might make himself very
+disagreeable. Whether he did anything to damage the firm I know not, but I
+know that he bored his fellow-passengers so much that on the return
+journey they either transferred themselves to the fourth boat or waited
+for another, anything rather than travel back with the R.'s. So the R.'s
+secured a whole stern-wheeler to themselves.
+
+I have carefully refrained from any description of the well-known temples
+and tombs, which record the past glories of the cities of the Nile, but I
+must say a word of the wonderful rock temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbal,
+close on the river banks. We saw it by moonlight, which added much to the
+effect of the great pylon cut in the rock with its four sitting figures of
+the king, each 66 feet high. Small figures stand by the knees of the
+colossi, who look solemnly out over the river unmoved by the passing
+centuries. Inside the rock is a large corridor with eight great Osiride
+figures guarding its columns, and within are smaller chambers with
+sculptured walls.
+
+[Sidenote: HOW A KING AND AN ARAB EVADED ORDERS]
+
+I would also recall among the less important relics of the past the small
+ruined Temple of Dakkeh. It was built in Ptolemaic times by an Ethiopian
+monarch singularly free from superstition. It was the custom of these
+kings to kill themselves when ordered to do so by the priests in the name
+of the gods, but when his spiritual advisers ventured to send such a
+message to King Erzamenes, he went with his soldiers and killed the
+priests instead.
+
+I do not know whether the story lingered on the banks of the Nile till our
+times, but the instinct of this king seems to have been reincarnated in an
+Arab, or Egyptian, soldier who related to an English officer his first
+experience of an aeroplane during the late war. This man was enlisted by
+the Turks during their invasion of Egypt and afterwards captured by the
+British. Said he, "I saw a bird, oh, such a beautiful bird, flying in the
+sky. My officer told me to shoot it, but I did not want to kill that
+beautiful bird, so I killed my officer." Certainly if one wished to
+disobey an unreasonable order it was the simplest method of escaping
+punishment.
+
+At Wady Halfa we were delightfully entertained at tea and dinner by
+Colonel Hunter (now Sir Archibald). Dinner in his pretty garden was indeed
+a pleasant change from our jolting stern-wheeler. Previously he took us to
+see the 500 camels--riding and baggage--of the camel-corps. All were
+absolutely ready for action. Like the horses of Branksome Hall in the "Lay
+of the Last Minstrel," who "ready and wight stood saddled in stable day
+and night," these camels lay in rows with all their kit on or near
+them--nothing to be done when the order of advance should be given except
+to fill their water-flasks. All this with the shadow of the Sirdar
+pointing towards them--to fall even sooner than the officers perchance
+anticipated.
+
+While our boat waited at Wady Halfa we made a short expedition, two hours
+by train on a local military railway, to Sarras, which was then the
+Egyptian frontier. Egyptian officers showed us the Fort on a hill with two
+Krupp and two Maxim guns. There were one or two other little forts on
+heights, and below was the camp with tents, huts, camels, and horses. From
+the hill we looked out at the country beyond, a mass of small hills rising
+from a sandy desert, all barren and arid. It gave a weird impression to
+stand thus on the uttermost outpost of civilisation wondering what of
+death and terror lay beyond.
+
+[Sidenote: THE DERVISHES]
+
+Seven years previously, in July 1889, Sir Herbert Kitchener (as he then
+was) had written to my husband from the Egyptian Headquarters at Assouan,
+and thus described the Dervishes:
+
+    "I leave for the South to-morrow and shall then have an opportunity of
+    seeing the Dervish camp. It is most extraordinary that they have been
+    able to invade Egypt in the way they have done without any supplies or
+    transport. I have talked to numbers of prisoners and they say they are
+    just as fanatical as ever; their intention is to march on Cairo,
+    killing all who do not accept their faith, and they do not care in the
+    least how many lives they lose in the attempt, as all that die in
+    their belief go straight to heaven. They have brought all their women
+    and children with them, and seem to have no feeling whatever for the
+    sufferings they make them undergo. We have rescued almost thousands
+    and fed and clothed them; they come in the most awful state of
+    emaciation. I expect we shall have a fight shortly with the strong men
+    of the party who now keep all the food for themselves, leaving the
+    women and children to die of starvation."
+
+There was certainly real anxiety about them even during our expedition,
+and it was thought better for our stern-wheelers to anchor in the middle
+of the stream at night, when far from barracks, for fear of attack. I
+think, however, that it was at Assouan, a well-guarded centre, that the
+Bradley Martins came to implore Jersey to come and reassure poor Mrs.
+Sherman, Mrs. Bradley Martin's kind old mother. She had heard some firing
+in connection with Ramadan, and told her family that she knew that their
+dahabyah had been captured by dervishes and that they were keeping it from
+her. Why she thought that the dervishes were considerate enough to keep
+out of her cabin I do not know, nor why she consented to believe my
+husband and not her own children. However, it is not uncommon for people
+to attach more weight to the opinion of an outsider than to that of the
+relatives whom they see every day.
+
+Before returning to Cairo we tied up near Helouan and rode there along a
+good road with trees on either side. Helouan itself struck us as
+resembling the modern part of a Riviera town pitched in the desert.
+Neither trees nor verandahs mitigated the glare of the sun, unless a few
+clumps near the sulphur baths did duty as shade for the whole place. There
+were numerous hotels and boarding-houses, though I recorded the opinion,
+which I saw no reason to modify on a visit some years later, that there
+seemed no particular reason for people to go there unless preparatory to
+committing suicide. However, I suppose that the Races and the Baths
+constituted the attraction, and it may have become more adapted to a
+semi-tropical climate since we saw it.
+
+Before we said farewell to the _Herodotus_ the crew gave us a "musical and
+dramatic" entertainment. The comic part was largely supplied by the cook's
+boy, who represented a European clad in a remarkably battered suit and
+ordered about a luckless native workman. The great joke was repeatedly to
+offer him as a seat the ship's mallet (with which posts for tying up were
+driven into the bank) and to withdraw it the moment he tried to sit down.
+His face, and subsequent flogging of the joker, were hailed with shrieks
+of laughter. Similar pranks interspersed with singing, dancing, and
+tambourine playing were witnessed by an appreciative audience, including
+eight or ten native friends of the sailors, who were supplied with coffee
+and cigarettes.
+
+On March 12th we reached Cairo and, with regret, left our comfortable
+dahabyah for the Ghezireh Palace Hotel. On the 14th came the rumour that
+orders had come from England that troops should advance on Dongola. There
+was the more excitement as it was asserted, and I believe truly, that the
+Government had taken this decisive step without previous consultation with
+either Lord Cromer or the Sirdar. However, all was ready, and the climax
+came when in September 1898 the Dervishes were defeated by Sir Herbert
+Kitchener, the Mahdi slain, and Gordon avenged.
+
+On October 7th of that year Sir Herbert wrote from Cairo, in answer to my
+congratulations:
+
+    "I am indeed thankful all went off without a hitch. I see the ----
+    says we kill all the wounded, but when I left Omdurman there were
+    between six and seven thousand wounded dervishes in hospital there.
+    The work was so hard on the Doctors that I had to call on the
+    released Egyptian doctors from prison to help; two of them were well
+    educated, had diplomas, and were and are very useful. We ran out of
+    bandages and had to use our first field dressing which every man
+    carries with him."
+
+[Sidenote: LORD KITCHENER]
+
+How unjust were newspaper attacks on a man unfailingly humane! Kitchener's
+reception in England towards the end of the year was a wild triumph--more
+than he appreciated, for he complained to me of the way in which the
+populace mobbed him at Charing Cross Station and pulled at his clothes. I
+remember at Dover, either that year or on his return from South Africa,
+meeting the mistress of an Elementary School whom I knew who was taking
+her scholars to see him land "as an object lesson," an object lesson being
+permitted in school hours. The children might certainly have had many less
+useful lessons.
+
+Lord Kitchener (as he had then become) spent a Sunday with us at Osterley,
+June 17-19th, 1899. I well recollect a conversation which I had with him
+on that occasion. He expressed his dissatisfaction at his military work
+being ended. "I should like to begin again as a simple captain if I could
+have something fresh to do." "Why," said I, "you are Governor-General of
+the Soudan, surely there is great work to do there." No, that was not the
+sort of job he wanted. "Well," I told him, "you need not worry yourself,
+you are sure to be wanted soon for something else."
+
+Little did he think, still less did I, that exactly six months later, on
+December 18th, orders would reach him at Khartum to join Lord Roberts as
+Chief of the Staff, in South Africa. He started at once, and met his
+Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar on 27th. Indeed a fresh and stirring act
+in the drama of his life opened before him. Later on, when he had
+succeeded Lord Roberts in the supreme command, he wrote (January 1902)
+thanking me for a little diary which I had sent him, and continued:
+
+    "We are all still hard at it, and I really think the end at last
+    cannot be far off. Still in this enormous country and with the enemy
+    we have to contend with there is no saying how long some roving bands
+    may not continue in the field, living like robbers in the hills and
+    making occasional raids that are difficult to meet.
+
+    "It will be a joyful day when it is over, but however long it may be
+    in coming, we shall all stick to it.
+
+    "The Boers are simply senseless idiots to go on destroying their
+    country."
+
+What would he have said of the Irish of twenty years later?
+
+After his return from South Africa I was much amused by the account he
+gave us of receiving the O.M. medal from King Edward, who was ill at the
+time. When he arrived at Buckingham Palace he was taken to the King's
+bedroom, but kept waiting behind a large screen at the entrance in company
+with Queen Alexandra, who kept exclaiming, "This is most extraordinary!"
+At last they were admitted to the royal presence, when the King drew out
+the order from under his pillow. The recipient had evidently been kept
+waiting while somebody went to fetch it.
+
+I have other recollections of Lord Kitchener at Osterley, though I cannot
+exactly date them. One Sunday some of us had been to church, and on our
+return found George Peel extended in a garden chair, looking positively
+white with anxiety. He confided to us that Kitchener and M. Jusserand of
+the French Embassy had been marching up and down near the Lake at the
+bottom of the garden violently discussing Egypt and Fashoda, and he was
+afraid lest the Englishman should throw the Frenchman into the
+Lake--which, considering their respective sizes, would not have been
+difficult. They certainly parted friends, and Kitchener mentions in one of
+his letters: "I saw Jusserand in Paris, but he said nothing to me about
+his engagement. I must write to him."
+
+[Sidenote: KITCHENER AND MRS. BOTHA]
+
+Another meeting which took place at one of our garden parties was with
+Mrs. Louis Botha. I was walking with the General when I saw her coming
+down the steps from the house. He and I went forward to meet her, and it
+was really touching to see the evident pleasure with which she responded
+to the warm greetings of her husband's former opponent. She, like her
+husband, knew the generous nature of the man.
+
+Lord Kitchener certainly knew what he wanted even in little things, but
+even he could not always get it.
+
+Just when he was appointed to the Mediterranean Command (which I am sure
+that he had no intention of taking up) he came down to see us one
+afternoon, and amused himself by sorting our Chinese from our Japanese
+china, the latter kind being in his eyes "no good." Tired of this, he
+suddenly said, "Now, let us go into the garden and pick strawberries."
+"But," said I, "there are no strawberries growing out-of-doors in May."
+"Oh," he exclaimed, "I thought when we came to Osterley we _always_ picked
+strawberries." Fortunately I had some hot-house ones ready at tea.
+
+At King Edward's Durbar at Delhi Lord Kitchener's camp adjoined that of
+the Governor of Bombay, Lord Northcote, with whom we were staying. He
+arrived a day or two after we did, came over to see us, and took me back
+to inspect the arrangements of his camp, including the beautiful plate
+with which he had been presented. He was extremely happy, and most anxious
+to make me avow the superiority of his establishment to ours, which I
+would not admit. At last in triumph he showed me a fender-seat and said,
+"Anyhow, Lady Northcote has not a fender-seat." But I finally crushed him
+with, "No, but we have a billiard-table!"
+
+I must allow that there was a general suspicion that all would not go
+smoothly between two such master minds as his and the Viceroy's. Those are
+high politics with which I would not deal beyond saying that the
+impression of most people who know India is that the power ultimately
+given to the Commander-in-Chief was well as long as Lord Kitchener held
+it, but too much for a weaker successor in a day of world-upheaval.
+
+The last time I saw him was in the July before the Great War, when he came
+down to tea, and talked cheerfully of all he was doing at Broome Park, and
+of the trees he intended to plant, and how I must come over from Lady
+Northcote's at Eastwell Park and see his improvements. He certainly then
+had no idea of what lay before him. In a last letter written from the War
+Office (I think in 1915, but it is only dated "25th") he speaks of trying
+to motor down some evening, but naturally never had time.
+
+The final tragedy ended a great life, but he had done his work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DIAMOND JUBILEE--INDIA--THE PASSING OF THE GREAT QUEEN
+
+
+I realise that in the foregoing pages I have dwelt more on foreign lands
+than on our own country. This only means that they offered more novelty,
+not that England was less interesting to my husband and myself.
+
+The great Lord Shaftesbury used to say that his was a generation which
+served God less and man more. I trust that only the latter half of this
+dictum has proved true, but certainly throughout Queen Victoria's reign
+men and women seemed increasingly awake to their duty to their fellows and
+particularly to children.
+
+Without touching on well-known philanthropic movements, I should like to
+mention one, unostentatious but typical of many others--namely, the
+"Children's Happy Evenings Association," founded by Miss Ada Heather-Bigg
+and inspired throughout its existence by the energy of her sister, Lady
+Bland-Sutton. This was the pioneer Society for organised play in the
+Board, now "County," Schools. It owed much to the work of many of my
+friends, and was specially fortunate in the personal interest of its
+patron, now Queen Mary. Though the exigencies of the new Education Act
+compelled it to cease its voluntary work after the Great War, during
+thirty years it brought happiness into the lives of thousands of poor
+children.
+
+To return to our Osterley experiences.
+
+We had one specially interesting Sunday in June 1895. Among others staying
+with us from Saturday to Monday were Lord and Lady George Hamilton and Sir
+Stafford and Lady Northcote. Mr. Arthur Balfour came down on Sunday to
+dine and spend the night, and he and Lord George were busy with a game of
+lawn tennis on the garden front of the house. Several of us were in
+another part of the grounds under the cedars overlooking the Lake,
+enjoying the fine warm afternoon.
+
+All at once a very hot and dusty figure appeared through the little gate
+near the portico and revealed itself as Schomberg--commonly called
+"Pom"--McDonnell, then Lord Salisbury's Private Secretary. I went to meet
+him, offering tea, dinner, or whatever hospitality he preferred. All he
+would say in breathless and very serious tones was, "Give me an egg beat
+up in brandy and find me Arthur Balfour."
+
+The desired refreshment and the statesman were produced in due course. It
+appeared on further inquiry that Mr. McDonnell had bicycled from Hatfield
+to London in search of Mr. Balfour, and not finding him in Carlton Gardens
+had pursued him to Osterley. Such were the exigencies of pre-motor days.
+The interview over, the messenger retreated as swiftly as he had come.
+
+We were not allowed to know the message till next morning when the papers
+came with the thrilling announcement, "Resignation of the Government"! Mr.
+Balfour said to me, "I might quite well have told you, but Pom was so very
+determined that I should not."
+
+The only recipient of the secret was Lord George Hamilton.
+
+When Mr. Balfour returned to the lawn-tennis ground he said very quietly
+to Lord George between the sets, "The Government have resigned"; and
+then continued his game as if nothing had happened.
+
+[Illustration: GROUP AT MIDDLETON PARK, CHRISTMAS, 1904
+
+  Viscount Villiers
+  Hon. Arthur Villiers
+  Hon. Walter Rice
+  Lord Dunsany
+  Imogen Rice
+  Earl of Jersey
+  Col. Earl of Longford
+  Countess of Longford
+  Lady Margaret Rice
+  Countess of Jersey
+  Lord Silchester
+  Lady Pansy
+  Lady Dunsany
+  Charles Rice
+  Pakenham
+  Elwyn Rice]
+
+Lord Rosebery's Government had been defeated a few days previously on the
+cordite vote, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman having been Secretary of State
+for War. Of course there was great excitement. Mr. St. John Brodrick spent
+the next Sunday with us, and was summoned to London by Lord Salisbury
+early on the Monday morning, when he was offered, and accepted, the post
+of Under-Secretary of State for War.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. CHAMBERLAIN, COLONIAL SECRETARY]
+
+There was a prevalent idea that Mr. Chamberlain would become Secretary of
+State for War, but I felt sure that he would obtain the Colonies, knowing
+what a deep interest he took in the Overseas Empire. We had once had a
+long conversation about it at a dinner at Greenwich. When the appointment
+was made I wrote to congratulate him, and he said in his reply, "I hope I
+may be able to do something to promote the closer union of our Empire"--a
+hope amply fulfilled.
+
+I have many recollections of Mr. Chamberlain at Osterley. He was a
+charming guest, always ready to take his share in any amusement or
+discussion. It was comical to see him on one occasion making his way in a
+sort of trot down the Gallery with a serious expression on his face, and
+his arm extended at full length holding a poker towards him, which the
+game somehow entailed his keeping clear of his nose.
+
+He loved to sit on the platform on the top of the double flight of steps
+leading to the garden after dinner on hot nights, smoking and talking. I
+remember that he told us a good ghost story, but am sorry that I forget
+the details. The last time I saw him before his sad illness I sat next to
+him at dinner at his own house. He had then taken up Protection (which I
+always wished he had called "Preference"). I said to him: "You know, Mr.
+Chamberlain, I am a Free Trader?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I know, but you will give an old friend credit for being
+honest."
+
+"Certainly," I replied, and I said that truthfully with my whole heart.
+
+In later years we were neighbours at Cannes, as we had the Villa Luynes
+for four seasons, not far from the Villa Victoria where he took up his
+winter abode. Everyone bore witness to Mrs. Chamberlain's devotion, and it
+was splendid to see how she encouraged him, and helped him to retain his
+interest in the outer world in which he could no longer play an active
+part.
+
+Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was marked by even greater
+enthusiasm than the celebrations of 1887. Ten years of that life of
+devotion to her Empire had drawn ever closer the links between her and her
+people. They had shared with her yet more sorrows and yet more joys,
+especially the death of the Duke of Clarence, the marriage of our present
+King, and the births of our Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
+
+I think the Prince of Wales began his inroad into the hearts of the
+populace on this occasion. When the Queen returned from her triumphal
+procession to St. Paul's the two little Princes were taken out on to a
+balcony to see and be seen by the throng below. The infant Prince Albert
+danced in his nurse's arms, but Prince Edward, or, as he was always
+called, Prince David, solemnly and correctly saluted in return for the
+ringing cheers with which he was greeted. An eye-witness recounted at the
+time that still the spectators cheered, and again and again the boy
+saluted, till at length as they would not stop he evidently felt that
+something more was required, and saluted _with both hands_.
+
+[Sidenote: THE QUEEN AT TEMPLE BAR]
+
+We had an exciting time, as the custom has always been that when the Lord
+Mayor receives the Sovereign at Temple Bar he should await his or her
+arrival at Child's Bank, which is No. 1 Fleet Street. We accordingly went
+there with our family and particular friends, including my father and
+mother. My father's ancestor, Sir Thomas Leigh, was Lord Mayor when Queen
+Elizabeth visited the city on her accession and presented it with the
+Pearl Sword; and two of my husband's ancestors, Sir Francis Child and his
+son bearing the same name, who were Lords Mayor in the eighteenth century,
+are represented in their portraits at Osterley as holding this sword.
+
+The Lord Mayor of the Diamond Jubilee, Sir George Faudel-Phillips, brought
+this same sword to the Bank and showed it to us, realising our special
+interest, as the representatives of both our families had had charge of
+the sword in bygone years, and were present to see it offered to Queen
+Victoria.
+
+This ceremony took place exactly opposite the Bank, and was certainly a
+trying one for the Lord Mayor, as he had to offer the sword to her
+Majesty, receive it back, and then in his flowing robes leap to his horse
+and still bearing the weapon ride before her carriage to St. Paul's.
+
+It was impossible not to recall pictures of John Gilpin when one saw his
+mantle flying in the air, but I must say that Sir George displayed
+excellent horsemanship and carried through his part without a hitch.
+
+I never saw the Queen more beaming than on this occasion, and no wonder,
+for she fully realised that the wild acclamations of the people came
+straight from their hearts. When we were again at Windsor in the
+following May I ventured to hope that Her Majesty had not been overtired.
+She said, "No--not on the day, but when the celebrations had gone on for a
+month she was rather tired."
+
+Rather an amusing incident occurred during the procession. Lady Northcote
+and her father, Lord Mount Stephen, were among our guests at the Bank. A
+few days previously Lady Northcote had met Lord Roberts, Sir Donald
+Stewart, and Sir Redvers Buller, and had said jokingly: "What is the good
+of knowing Field Marshals if they do not salute one on such an occasion?"
+As a result all three saluted her--Lord Roberts in particular was riding
+at the head of the Colonial and Asiatic troops on the little white Arab
+horse which he had ridden all through the Afghan War, and all the time
+when he was Commander-in-Chief in Madras and in India. The horse wore the
+Afghan medal and the Kandahar Star given him by Queen Victoria. When Lord
+Roberts was opposite Child's, he duly reined his charger round and
+solemnly saluted. An evening paper gravely asserted that he had saluted
+the city and that it was "a fine thing finely done." It was finely done,
+but the salute was to a lady, not to the city!
+
+In the following year our eldest daughter Margaret married Lord Dynevor's
+son, Walter Rice, and in 1899 our second daughter Mary married Lord
+Longford. These proved the happiest possible marriages, and our
+grandchildren as delightful as their parents. Both these weddings took
+place from 25 St. James's Place by the extreme kindness of Lady Northcote,
+who provided the whole of the entertainments, including putting us all up
+for the two occasions.
+
+My brother Rowland in 1898 married in America the daughter of General
+Gordon of Savannah, who was warmly welcomed in our family.
+
+In March 1899 Lady Northcote and I had a short but delightful tour in
+Holland and Belgium.
+
+Soon after this came the black shadows of the African War, in which
+Longford took a distinguished part, serving with the 2nd Life Guards and
+with the Imperial Yeomanry, and, at Lord Robert's desire, raising the
+Irish Horse. Though he was wounded at Lindley he returned safely--but,
+alas! in the European War he was killed at Suvla Bay--one of the best and
+bravest of men.
+
+Lord Northcote having been appointed Governor of Bombay, he and Lady
+Northcote left England early in 1900. My remaining daughter Beatrice and I
+travelled with them as far as Marseilles, where they joined their ship and
+we went on to North Italy.
+
+[Sidenote: THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR]
+
+The war was still raging in South Africa and we lived in a state of
+constant anxiety. While we were in Florence, however, the news came of the
+relief of Kimberley. I shall always recollect the arrival of a brief
+telegram to the effect that "General French had ridden into Kimberley,"
+quite sufficient to induce total strangers to address each other in the
+tea-shop, which was a common resort, and to exchange happy speculations as
+to the truth of the news.
+
+In Paris on our way back we had the further tidings of the surrender of
+Cronje, and the relief of Ladysmith, which I regret to say did not improve
+the temper of the French or their manners towards English travellers--but
+perhaps all this is better now forgotten. We had found the Italians
+perfectly amiable.
+
+One great difference between the Boer War and that which has since
+devastated the world was that the former did not in any way interfere
+with ocean travel, and in the autumn following the departure of our
+friends, Jersey, Beatrice, and myself set off again to join them in India.
+They were on tour when we first reached Bombay, so we went to see some of
+our former haunts and a few places which we had not previously visited.
+
+I have already written so much of India that I will only very briefly
+mention some incidents which particularly struck me on this occasion. I
+pass over the wonderful Caves of Ellora, for, marvellous as they are, they
+are fully described in guide-books. We paid a second visit to Hyderabad,
+and it was curious there to note the strong contrast between the modern
+education of the girls of the higher classes and the conservative attitude
+of some of the old ladies.
+
+We attended a large dinner given by the Vikar, or Prime Minister, who was
+married to the Nizam's sister, and after dinner he expressed a wish that I
+should pay a visit to his wife, who lived in a palace near the hall in
+which we had dined. The Resident's wife kindly accompanied me, though she
+had not hitherto made the lady's acquaintance.
+
+It was the weirdest visit I ever paid. Darkness had fallen, and we were
+received at the entrance of the Palace by a number of wild-looking females
+bearing torches and wrapped in red saris. They reminded me of an old print
+representing a beldame with a flaming torch at the Gate of Tartarus, with
+Cerberus and other monsters in the background: rather a libel on the
+women, who were doubtless excellent in private life, but who seemed to be
+guarding a fatal portal on this occasion. They conducted us to a vast,
+dimly lighted chamber with pillars and arches; which might have been the
+Hall of Eblis.
+
+[Sidenote: INDIAN PRINCESSES]
+
+What was happening in its recesses I could not see, but in the middle, on
+an ordinary-looking chair, sat the Princess, her destined daughter-in-law
+squatting at her feet and attendants in the background. She was wrapped in
+a gorgeous green-and-gold sari and covered with jewels on neck, arms, and
+ankles, but her bare feet projected in an uncomfortable manner; she looked
+as if a cushion on the floor would have suited her much better than her
+stiff seat. Near her, looking singularly incongruous, stood her son, and a
+stepson whose existence scandal said she resented. The young men were
+attired in immaculate European dress-clothes, and might had walked out of
+the Bachelors' Club except that they wore on their heads curious
+mitre-shaped hats which indicated their connection with the Nizam's house.
+They both spoke English perfectly. Our conversation with the lady was
+naturally limited to translated platitudes, but I was interested to see
+the heroine, who was reckoned very clever but not over-scrupulous.
+
+At the great fortress city of Gwalior we visited very different
+ladies--the mother and wife of Scindia, who received us in pleasant
+apartments, well-furnished, light and airy. The old lady might have been
+an English dowager--she was extremely talkative and full of her son the
+Maharajah, who was expected back immediately from the Boxer War. The
+little wife was in the charge of an English governess and seemed anxious
+to remain in another room out of her mother-in-law's way. She was about
+eighteen, and was much amused at the height of my daughter who was her
+contemporary. Unfortunately the poor young thing had no child, though she
+had been married for some years. The Maharajah was devoted to her and
+wanted to avoid a second marriage, but later on was obliged to consent to
+taking another wife with a view to providing an heir.
+
+I do not know what ceremonies were then necessary, but when he married our
+young friend certain difficulties had arisen. The wife of Scindia had to
+be chosen from a very limited caste, and the only eligible young lady at
+the moment was the daughter of a quite middle-class family somewhere near
+Bombay or Poona. Now if the lady had been his equal by birth it would have
+been proper for the Maharajah to ride to her residence in order to bring
+her home, but he could not have gone to a comparatively humble abode. As a
+compromise he had to ride the same number of days which it would have
+taken him to reach his bride, but it was arranged that he should do this
+in his own dominions, sleeping each night at the house of one of his
+Sirdars.
+
+At Lahore we saw the College for young Chiefs, modelled as far as possible
+on the lines of an English Public School and, like the Mayo College at
+Ajmere, intended to bring up a manly race of rulers without the risks
+attendant on sending them to England. The majority of the youths whom we
+saw were Mohammedans or Sikhs. The Mohammedans would mess together, but,
+though the Sikhs are by way of disregarding caste, in practice it was
+found that each youth preferred to eat in private. This may have been
+partly a question of dignity, as these young northern chiefs came attended
+with personal servants.
+
+Their private rooms, with occupant's name outside, were not unlike those
+of Eton boys, and each contained a little illuminated card calling
+attention to the special observances of the scholar's own faith, and
+saying that the Directors of the College were anxious that the students
+should attend to their religious obligations.
+
+I noticed outside one door "Granth Sahib," and wondered what Scotsman had
+entered himself as pupil with such companions. On inquiry it proved that
+this was the shrine or chapel of the "Granth" or Sacred Book of the Sikhs,
+the one symbol allowed in their worship. We went into the room where it
+was kept, and found a large volume lying on the floor, with flowers thrown
+upon it, evidently the offering of some devotee who had performed "poojah"
+or worship.
+
+At beautiful Amritsar, now a home of sad memories, in the Golden Temple in
+the Lake, we saw a far more gorgeous shrine, but still with the Granth as
+its centre of worship.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD AND LADY NORTHCOTE]
+
+I must not linger over these scenes, though every part of India offers a
+fresh temptation to dwell on its manifold races, its historic temples and
+palaces, but must hasten to our sojourn at Bombay, where Lord and Lady
+Northcote gave us some of the most delightful weeks of our lives,
+including a truly cheerful Christmas in a home away from home.
+
+Every day brought something of interest seen under the best possible
+auspices, and every evening a happy time with our friends. It was a joy
+also to find how they had rooted themselves in the esteem and affection of
+both English and Indians in the Presidency.
+
+Just before we sailed for England came the news of Queen Victoria's
+serious illness. Everyone knew, though no one liked to acknowledge, that
+recovery was problematical. Wireless telegraphy was still in its infancy,
+so we had no news between Bombay and Aden, where we arrived in the middle
+of the night. I was asleep in my berth when our ship anchored, and I shall
+never forget waking in the early dawn and hearing a man's voice saying to
+a friend just outside my cabin, "She went off very quietly." No need to
+ask who it was whose passing from earth had wrung the hearts of many
+nations, and not least of those who go down to the sea in ships.
+
+People who remember those winter days need no description of their import,
+and those who are too young to recall them can never realise what it meant
+to feel as if a whole Empire had become one great orphaned family.
+Statesmen and soldiers had given place to their successors, poets,
+philosophers, and men of science had passed away, but for over sixty years
+the Queen had been the unchanging centre of our national life, and it
+seemed incredible that even she had laid down the burden of sovereignty,
+and would no longer share the joys and sorrows of her people.
+
+And here I would end these wandering reminiscences, but must just record
+one tribute to her memory in which I was privileged to take part.
+
+In the following May a number of women dressed in deep mourning assembled
+at 10 Downing Street, then the dwelling of the Prime Minister, Mr. Arthur
+Balfour. His sister Miss Balfour, Miss Georgina Frere, daughter of the
+late Sir Bartle Frere, and Lady Edward Cecil (now Lady Milner) had
+assembled us in order that we might establish a society for knitting more
+closely together British subjects dwelling in various parts of the Empire.
+
+[Sidenote: THE VICTORIA LEAGUE]
+
+We called it the Victoria League in memory of the great Queen-Empress
+under whose sway that Empire had extended to "regions Cĉsar never knew."
+The executive committee then elected was composed of the wives and sisters
+of Cabinet Ministers, of wives of leaders of the Opposition, and other
+representative ladies. Most unexpectedly, just before the meeting Lady
+Rayleigh (Mr. Balfour's sister) informed me that I was to take the chair
+and that it was intended to appoint me first President. My breath was
+quite taken away, but there was neither time nor opportunity for
+remonstrance, and I concluded that I was chosen because one great object
+of the founders being to emphasise "no party politics," it was thought
+wiser not to select a President whose husband was of Cabinet rank, and
+that though a Conservative I had the qualification of overseas experience.
+
+The late Lady Tweedmouth, a Liberal, was appointed Vice-President, and
+shortly afterwards Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, representing the Liberal
+Unionists, became Honorary Secretary. Later on Miss Talbot, now Dame
+Meriel, took the post of Secretary, which she held for fifteen years, and
+Mrs. Maurice Macmillan succeeded Miss Georgina Frere as Honorary
+Treasurer, a position which she still holds. Miss Drayton, O.B.E., is now
+our most efficient Secretary.
+
+For myself I have been President for twenty-one years, and, thanks to the
+extraordinary kindness and capacity of my colleagues, those years have
+been full of interest and unshadowed by any disputes, despite the
+divergent politics of the directing committees. We have always borne in
+mind the purpose of the League so well summed up by Rudyard Kipling on its
+foundation, "the first attempt to organise sympathy."
+
+We have now 38 British Branches and 22 Overseas Affiliated Leagues,
+besides Allied Associations, and we are honoured by having the King and
+Queen as Patrons and the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal
+Family as Vice-Patrons.
+
+Men were soon added to our Councils, and we had two splendid Deputy
+Presidents in Sir Edward Cook and Sir James Dunlop-Smith, now, alas! both
+taken from us. But the twenty-one years of the League's work lie outside
+the limits of these wandering recollections.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S LETTER]
+
+I would, however, like to insert the wise words which Mr. Chamberlain
+wrote on March 16th, 1902, in reply to a request sent by desire of our
+Committee for some official recognition. After acknowledging my letter he
+continues:
+
+    "I heartily approve of the efforts you are making to draw closer the
+    ties between our Colonial kinsfolk and ourselves. I believe that the
+    questions of sentiment enter more largely into these things than the
+    average man is willing to admit, and that we have lost much in the
+    past by the absence of personal intercourse with those whose support
+    and friendship are daily becoming more important to us as a Nation.
+    The Colonials are especially sensitive to these personal
+    considerations. They find it difficult to understand our
+    preoccupations and the impossibility of returning the hospitality they
+    so freely offer when we visit them.
+
+    "No Government can set this matter right, as it is not a question of
+    official recognition, but of private and personal courtesy.
+
+    "I look therefore with the greatest hope to the work of such
+    associations as yours which may help to make our Colonists feel that
+    we appreciate their affection and desire as far as in us lies to
+    reciprocate it."
+
+He then proceeds to explain the view which he says he has already
+discussed with Mr. Alfred Lyttelton--namely, that it is wiser to refrain
+from giving official colour to a work which had better maintain a "private
+and personal character." He continues:
+
+    "I cannot dissociate myself from my office, and I do not think that it
+    would be wise or desirable that I should extend the vast field of
+    responsibility which that office already covers by associating myself
+    publicly with these private Associations."
+
+He expresses himself as ready at any time to give such assistance as
+obtaining special privileges for the guests we represent at the Coronation
+or other functions, and then says:
+
+    "But I feel that, except in such ways, I had better stand apart, and
+    that the great value of these associations lies in their non-official
+    character. I represent the Government--you represent the people, and I
+    think it is most important that this distinction should be carefully
+    preserved.
+
+    "I am open to conviction, but I think I am right in begging you to
+    accept my reasons and to excuse me from accepting a request which as a
+    private individual I should have been proud to comply with."
+
+Naturally we felt the justice of views so fully and courteously explained.
+
+And now I must end. The years spent under the rule of two great Kings, and
+the guidance of two gracious Queens, have had their joys and sorrows,
+public and private, but they lie too near our day for a woman to attempt
+even a personal record of what they have brought under her ken.
+
+The happy marriages of my eldest son to the beloved daughter of Lord
+Kilmorey, of my youngest daughter to Lord Dunsany, and of my brother
+Rupert to Miss Dudley Smith belong to the present century.
+
+I can only say how grateful I am for the affection of many friends, and
+the love of my children and grandchildren, which have softened the sorrows
+and heightened the joys of these latter years.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Abdul Kerim, Queen Victoria's Munshi, 194-195, 213
+
+  Abingdon, Earl of, 35
+
+  Abu Simbal, 360, 361
+
+  Adderley, Sir Charles, and Hon. Lady, née Leigh, 21
+
+  Adderley Cousins at Hams Hall, 21, 64
+
+  Adyar, Theosophist Headquarters, 167, 168
+
+  Aga Khan, H.H., the, 152-154
+
+  Akbar, his Tomb, 193;
+    why he built Futtehpore-Sekree, 194
+
+  Albert Edward, H.R.H. Prince of Wales (Edward VII), gives cigar to Mr.
+      Dibbs, 251, 252
+
+  Alcester, Admiral Lord, 115
+
+  Alexandra, H.R.H., Princess of Wales (afterwards Queen), gown woven for,
+       23;
+    fête given for her marriage at Mentone, 25, 26;
+    Prince William at her wedding, 26;
+    at Marlborough House, 36, 366
+
+  Alexandra, Princess, of Greece, 209-210
+
+  Ali Beg, 159
+
+  Ampthill, Dowager Lady, 111
+
+  Ancram, Earl of, A.D.C., accidentally killed, 285
+
+  Andrew, Prince, of Greece, 130
+
+  Antwerp, 60
+
+  Apia, capital of Samoa, 291
+
+  _Arcadia_, s.s., 145, 247
+
+  Ardagh, Col. Sir John, 182
+
+  Ardgowan, 16
+
+  Argyll, 8th Duke of, 80, 81
+
+  _Armand Béhic_, Messageries s.s., 277
+
+  Arnold, Sir Edwin, 88, 89
+
+  Arran, Isle of, 35, 36
+
+  Ashley, Hon. Lionel, 125, 126, 127
+
+  Assiout and its Mudir, 216-217
+
+  Assouan, 214, 358, 359, 363
+
+  Athens, 127
+
+  Auckland, 275
+
+  Augusta, Empress, 100-101
+
+  Australia, voyage to, 247, 248
+
+  Avon, River, at Stoneleigh, 17
+
+  Avon, River, at Christchurch, N.Z., 273
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baker, Sir Samuel and Lady, 148, 149
+
+  Baker, Shirley, Wesleyan Missionary, 287, 288
+
+  Bakméteff, Russian diplomat, 132, 135, 137, 138, 140
+
+  Bathurst, William, 5th Earl, 78, 79
+
+  Bazaine, Marshal, his escape from Ste. Marguerite, 96
+
+  Beaconsfield, Lord, 71, 79
+
+  Beckford, William, of Fonthill Abbey, 58, 59
+
+  Bedford, Hastings, Duke of, 109
+
+  Benadadda, Scotch giant, 48, 49
+
+  Benson, Mr. E. F. and Miss, Excavations in Egypt, 358
+
+  Beresford, Lord William, 182
+
+  Berlin, visit to, 100-110
+
+  Bernhardt, Sarah, 95
+
+  Bernstorff, Madame, her ghost story, 122, 123
+
+  Bhownuggar, Maharajah of, his aims and difficulties, 198, 199
+
+  Biarritz, 95
+
+  Bilgrami, Syed Hossain, C.S.I., 158
+
+  Bismarck, Prince, 105-110
+
+  Bismarck, Princess, 105
+
+  Bismarck, Count Herbert, 105
+
+  Blyth, Dr., Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem, 220
+
+  Bombay, 150
+
+  Bourke, Rev. Cecil, 76
+
+  Brahmo-Somaj, 182-184
+
+  Brandling, Mr. Charles, 69
+
+  Brisbane, 324
+
+  Brough (Irish Guide), 41-42
+
+  Brougham, 1st Lord, Lord Chancellor, 24
+
+  Broughton Castle, 76
+
+  Browne, Thomas (Rolf Boldrewood), 252
+
+  Browning, Robert, 76
+
+  Buckingham, Duchess of, 254
+
+  Buller, Mr. Charles, 145
+
+  Buller, F.M. Sir Redvers, 374
+
+  Burley-on-the-Hill, 79
+
+  Bute, Dowager Marchioness of, née Howard, 57
+
+
+  C
+
+  Cairns, 1st Earl, Lord Chancellor, his ghost story, 122
+
+  Cairo, 357
+
+  Calcutta, 182-184
+
+  Campbell, Lady Agnes: _see_ Frank
+
+  Campbell, Sir Archibald, 27
+
+  Campbell, Sir Colin, 188, 189
+
+  Canadian Pacific Railway, 347-348
+
+  Cannes, 24, 68, 372
+
+  Canton, Viceroy of, 333, 334
+
+  Carnegie, Ladies Helena and Dora, 276
+
+  Carpenter, Miss, philanthropist, 186, 187
+
+  Caulcot Infant School, 66, 67
+
+  Caversfield, _The Angelic Choir_, 75
+
+  Cazenove, Canon, 231
+
+  Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, 114
+
+  Cecil, Lord Robert, 142
+
+  Cedercrantz, Swedish Chief Justice in Samoa, 292
+
+  Cephalonia and its brigands, 139, 140
+
+  Ceylon, 247
+
+  Chamberlain, Miss Beatrice, 144
+
+  Chamberlain, Mrs., née Endicott, 144, 372
+
+  Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, first acquaintance with, 140;
+    his political creed, 143, 372;
+    at Osterley, 143, 144, 371;
+    in Egypt, 214, 215;
+    letter concerning Victoria League, 352, 383
+
+  Chandar Ras Behadur Khanha, 165
+
+  Chicago, 348-354
+
+  Cholmondeley, Captain Harry, A.D.C., 242, 249
+
+  Cholmondeley, Rev. Lionel, 345
+
+  Cholmondeley, Hon. Mrs., née Leigh, 21
+
+  Christchurch, N.Z., 272
+
+  Christian, H.R.H., Princess, 39
+
+  Christmas at Stoneleigh Abbey, 20, 21
+
+  Chunder Sen Babu, 183
+
+  Clarence, H.R.H., Duke of, 242;
+    death of, 268
+
+  Clarke, Mr. Frederick, 216, 217
+
+  Clarke, Mr. Rochfort and pictures, 73, 74
+
+  Cleveland, Caroline, Duchess of, 82
+
+  Clinton, Lord Edward, 212
+
+  Colombo, 247
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, how he discovered America, 348, 349
+
+  Connaught, T.R.H. Duke and Duchess, 151, 152
+
+  Connemara, Lord, 145, 162, 166, 167, 180
+
+  Consort, H.R.H. Prince, 11, 12, 13
+
+  Constantine, Duke of Sparta ("Tino"), 209
+
+  Constantine, Grand Duke (Romanoff), 6
+
+  Constantinople, 232, 233
+
+  Cook, Sir Edward, 382
+
+  Cook, Sir Francis, collection at Richmond, 238
+
+  Crawford, Emily, Countess of, 238
+
+  Crimean War, 4
+
+  Cromer, Earl and Countess of, 357
+
+  Crystal Palace, 2, 3
+
+  Curzon, Hon. George, afterwards Marquis, 127
+
+  Cusack-Smith, Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) and Mrs., 296
+
+  Custarde, Miss, Governess, 6-8
+
+
+  D
+
+  Damascus, 226-230
+
+  Darley, Sir Frederick, Chief Justice, N.S.W., and Lady, 251-253
+
+  Dartrey, Countess of, 64
+
+  Dashwood, Sir George, 72
+
+  Dashwood, Sir Henry and Lady, 72
+
+  Davis, Jefferson, ex-President, 36
+
+  de Bunsen, Sir Maurice, 336
+
+  Deichmann, Baron and Baroness, 107, 108
+
+  De La Warr, Earl and Countess of, 117-119
+
+  Derby, Edward, 15th Earl of, at the Spithead Naval Review, 115, 117-119;
+    letters from, 245-247, 257-264;
+    poem composed in sleep, 264-265;
+    death of, 264
+
+  Derby, Mary, Countess of, 119, 120
+
+  de Ros, Lord, 80
+
+  Des Voeux, Sir William, 118-119
+
+  Devereux, General and Hon. Mrs., 72
+
+  Devonshire, Duchess of, 182
+
+  Dewar, Mr. and Mrs., 77
+
+  Dibbs, Sir George, First Australian-born Premier, 251, 252
+
+  Dickson, Mr., Consul, at Damascus, 227, 228
+
+  Dieppe, 5
+
+  Dragoumis, Greek Foreign Minister, 132, 133
+
+  Draper, Rev. W. H. and Mrs., 76, 77
+
+  Drayton, Miss, O.B.E., 381
+
+  Duff, Sir Robert, 324
+
+  Dufferin, Marquis of, Viceroy, 171
+
+  Dunedin, N.Z., 268, 269
+
+  Dunlop-Smith, Sir James, 382
+
+  Dynevor, Lord (Hon. W. Rice), 374
+
+
+  E
+
+  East, Sir James, 35
+
+  Eaton Hall, 33
+
+  Edgcumbe, Col. Hon. Charles, 127
+
+  Edgehill, "The Sunrising,", 56
+
+  Edinburgh, H.R.H. Duke of, 289;
+    at Melbourne, 247
+
+  Edward, Prince of Wales, his first public appearance, 372, 373
+
+  Elephanta, Caves of, 150
+
+  Ellenborough, Lady, her romantic life, 227, 228
+
+  Endicott, Miss: _see_ Chamberlain
+
+  Epidaurus Amphitheatre, 133
+
+  Esterhazy, Prince Louis, 143
+
+  Esterhazy, Prince Nicholas, 78
+
+  Eugénie, Empress, 245
+
+  Eulalia, Infanta, 350-354
+
+  Eulenberg, Count, 101
+
+
+  F
+
+  Faudel-Phillips, Sir George, Lord Mayor at Temple Bar, 373
+
+  Fawcett, Mr., Judge at Tanjore, 170
+
+  Fearn, Clarice, 208
+
+  Fearn, Mr., American diplomat, 208
+
+  Ferdinand of Bulgaria, 236
+
+  Ferris, Captain, British Agent at Bhownuggar, 199
+
+  Fiji, High Commissioner, 288
+
+  Fin, McCoul (Fingal), Irish Giant, 48
+
+  Fonthill Abbey, 57, 58, 64
+
+  Frank, Dr., 28
+
+  Frank, Lady Agnes, 27, 28, 70
+
+  Frederick, Crown Prince, afterwards Emperor, 102, 103, 110
+
+  Frederick, Crown Princess, afterwards Empress, 102, 103, 104
+
+  Free Kirk Settlers in New Zealand, 269
+
+  Freeman, family butler, 141, 142
+
+  Frere, Miss Georgina, 381
+
+  Froude, J. A., 81;
+    epigram on him and Kingsley, 82
+
+  Futtehpore-Sekree, 193
+
+
+  G
+
+  Gailey, Mrs., nurse at Stoneleigh, 9, 10
+
+  Galloway, Mary, Countess of, first acquaintance with, 79, 82;
+    letter from, 87;
+    with her in Italy, 99;
+    in Berlin, 100-109;
+    at the Naval Review, 115-119;
+    in Greece, 127-140;
+    meeting at Cairo and return to Greece, 207;
+    journey with her through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Constantinople and
+      Vienna, 214-237;
+    nurses Lady Jersey in Upper Grosvenor Street, 244;
+    visits Australia and New Zealand, 266-276
+
+  Garibaldi Hymn, 25;
+    prison, 28
+
+  Genoa, 27
+
+  George V, H.M. King, as an infant, 36;
+    on the _Bacchante_, 243
+
+  George, King of Greece, 129, 208
+
+  George, King of Tonga, 287-290
+
+  Gerard, Sir Robert, 68
+
+  Ghent, 60
+
+  Giant's Causeway, its legend, 48, 49
+
+  Gladstone, Mr., his theory of immortality, 87
+
+  Glendalough and its legends, 41, 42
+
+  Glengariff, 43
+
+  Goschen, Hon. George, afterwards Viscount, Private Secretary, 279, 280,
+      286
+
+  Grandison, Viscount, Irish title of Jersey family, 65, 126
+
+  Grant Duff, Sir Mount Stuart, offers a cloth to the Ranee, 169;
+    views on Madras Harbour, 180
+
+  Greenwich Hospital, 29
+
+  Grenfell, Sir Francis Sirdar, afterwards Lord Grenfell, 215, 216
+
+  Grenfell, Mr. W. H., afterwards Lord Desborough, 97, 98
+
+  Grey, Sir George, of New Zealand, 250
+
+  Griffith, Sir Samuel, Australian statesman, 250
+
+  Grigg, Mr., Madras Minister of Education, and Mrs., 178
+
+  Grigg, Sir Edward as a boy at Madras, 178
+
+  Grosvenor House, 3, 4, 61
+
+  Gubbins, Sahib, Financial Commissioner at Lucknow, 189
+
+  Guest, Lady Theodore, 32, 210
+
+  Gwalior, 377
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hadji Petros, Greek Lord Chamberlain, 137
+
+  Hadji Petros, brigand, a husband of Lady Ellenborough, 228
+
+  Haggard, Bazett Michael, 291, 293, 294
+
+  Haggard, William, chargé d'affaires in Athens, 128;
+    and Mrs., 129-210
+
+  Hakone, Lake, 343
+
+  Halsbury, 1st Earl of, Lord Chancellor, and the ghost, 123
+
+  Hamilton, Lady, wife of Governor of Tasmania, 268
+
+  Hamilton, Lord and Lady George, 376
+
+  Hanna, Colonel Commanding at Delhi, 190;
+    his stories of the siege, 191
+
+  Hare, Augustus, his account of Osterley, 237, 238
+
+  Havelock, Sir Henry, and the Relief of Lucknow, 188
+
+  Hay, Dr. and Mrs., 256
+
+  Hayashi, Viscount, on Japanese religion, 340
+
+  Heather-Bigg, Miss Ada, foundress Children's Happy Evenings, 369
+
+  Helouan, 363
+
+  Hendley, Doctor, 197
+
+  Hext, Captain, Director of Indian Marine, 146, 151, 229, 230
+
+  Higginson, Sir George, Story of Crimea, 4
+
+  Hinemoa, Maori heroine, 274
+
+  _Hinemoa_, New Zealand Government yacht, 269
+
+  Hobart, 268
+
+  Holmwood, Mr., British Consul at Smyrna, 230
+
+  Hong-Kong, 329, 330, 331
+
+  Hood, Lady Maria, née Fox-Strangways, 57
+
+  Hopetoun, Lord, afterwards Marquis of Linlithgow, 248
+
+  Hornby, Sir Ed. and Lady, apparition to at Shanghai, 124, 125
+
+  Houghton, Lord, 80, 81
+
+  Hughes, Thomas, gives Lowell's works to Lady Jersey, 85;
+    writes story for her son, 89-91;
+    founds "New Rugby," 91
+
+  Hunter, Colonel, afterwards General Sir Archibald, 361
+
+  Hyderabad, 155-161, and 376, 377
+
+
+  I
+
+  Inchmery, 117-119
+
+  India, visits to, 145-204;
+    poem inspired by, 205
+
+  Innes, Sir George and Lady, 249
+
+  Inouye, Marquis and Marchioness, 345
+
+  Invercargill, 269
+
+  Ireland and its legends, 41-50
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, Major, afterwards Sir Herbert, at Assouan, 358, 359
+
+  Jains, the, and the Dilwarra Temples, 197-198
+
+  James, Henry, 92
+
+  Japan, Emperor of, 337-340
+
+  Japan, Empress of, 337-339
+
+  Jeacock, Job, Parish Clerk at Stoneleigh, 20;
+    made Sir H. Parkes's first breeches, 249
+
+  Jenkins, W. H. 69 and 70
+
+  Jenkins, Lady Caroline, née Villiers, 63, 69-71
+
+  Jenolan Caves, N.S.W., 253, 254
+
+  Jersey, 7th Earl of, as a boy, 56;
+    engagement and marriage, 61-64;
+    Lord-in-Waiting, 79;
+    Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 125;
+    at Windsor, 212-213;
+    Travels in France, 68, 95, 96;
+    in Italy, 94, 96, 97;
+    in Switzerland, 94;
+    in India, 145-205;
+    in Egypt, 206-7, 356-364;
+    in Greece, 208-11;
+    Paymaster-General, 240;
+    appointed Governor of New South Wales, 242;
+    at Balmoral, 242, 243;
+    life in Australia, 249-257, 267, 268;
+    visits New Caledonia, 276-284;
+    in China, 329-335;
+    in Japan, 335-345, 376-379;
+    through Canada, 347-348;
+    in United States, 343-345;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Jersey, Frances, Countess of, née Twysden, 68, 78
+
+  Jersey, Julia, Countess of, née Peel, 62, 69
+
+  Jersey, Margaret Elizabeth, Countess of, née Leigh, birth, 1;
+    journey with parents to France, 4-5;
+    to Scotland, 14, 15;
+    to France and Italy, 23-29, 36;
+    to Ireland, 40-50;
+    with Rev. J. and Mrs. Leigh to Holland and Belgium, 60;
+    marriage, 61-64;
+    country neighbours, 72-77;
+    other friends, 81-93;
+    after marriage, travels in France, 68, 95, 96;
+    in Italy, 94, 96, 97, 356, 375;
+    in Switzerland, 94;
+    in Germany, 100-109;
+    at the Naval Review, 116-119;
+    travels in India, 146-205, 376-379;
+    at Windsor, 212, 213;
+    travels in Greece, 127-140, 208-211;
+    in Egypt, 206-7, 214-218, 356-364;
+    Palestine, 219-225;
+    Syria, 225-230;
+    Constantinople, 232-235;
+    in Australia, 249-257, 267, 268;
+    visits New Zealand, 268-276, 319-323;
+    New Caledonia, 276-284;
+    Tonga, 287-291;
+    Samoa, 291-318;
+    President Victoria League, 381
+
+  Jersey, Sarah, Countess of, née Fane, 65-67, 78
+
+  Jeypore, City of Victory, 196
+
+  Johnston, Mr. and Mrs., and the Heart of Montrose, 172-175
+
+  Jung, Sir Salar, and his sisters, 159-161
+
+  Jusserand, Monsieur, 366-367
+
+
+  K
+
+  Karnak, 358
+
+  Katoomba, 253
+
+  Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, 53, 62
+
+  Killarney Lakes, 43-45
+
+  Kingsley, Charles: _see_ Froude, J. A.
+
+  Kintore, Earl, 248
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, "rising celebrity," 262;
+    quoted, 19, 276, 347;
+    his "Recessional," 356
+
+  Kitchener, Earl, in Egypt, 207, 214, 358;
+    visits to Osterley, 214, 365-367, 368;
+    letters from, 362, 363, 364-365, 366;
+    at Delhi, 367-368
+
+  Knowles, Sir James and _Nineteenth Century_, 124, 125
+
+  Kobe, 335
+
+  Kotab Minar, the, 191
+
+  Kowloon, 330
+
+  Krishna, Brahmin worship of, his birthplace, 195
+
+  Kuch Behar, Maharajah of, 183, 184
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lachman Das, Seth, 195-196
+
+  Laffon, Monsieur, Governor of New Caledonia, 279, 281
+
+  Lahore, 378, 379
+
+  Lansdowne, Marquis and Marchioness of, 182
+
+  Lathom, Earl and Countess of, 113, 144
+
+  Laurium Mines, 135, 136
+
+  Lecky, Mr. and Mrs., 119
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Agnes, 4, 12, 13, 14, 34, 40
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Augusta, 17
+
+  Leigh, Caroline, Lady, née Grosvenor, 2;
+    devotion of children, 8, 9;
+    advice on daughter's marriage, 64;
+    letters of daughter to, 209, 210, 133-134, 336-339;
+    poems by, 15, 16, 98, 99, 111-113;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Leigh, Chandos, 1st Lord, 2
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Sir Chandos, K.C., 22, 52, 53
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Lady Chandos, née Rigby, 52, 53
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mary Cordelia, 30, 40, 62, 127
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Dudley, afterwards 3rd Lord Leigh, 12, 13, 14, 40, 63, 145,
+      244
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Dudley, née Beckwith, 244, 245
+
+  Leigh, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard, 146, 147
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Gilbert, M.P., 4, 12, 13, 14, 54;
+    death of, 97-99
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. James, née Butler, 53, 54, 60, 62;
+    letter from, 64
+
+  Leigh, Margarette, Lady, née Willes, 16, 78
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Rowland, 40, 375
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rowland, née Gordon, 349, 375
+
+  Leigh, Major Hon. Rupert, 12, 40;
+    A.D.C., 242;
+    accompanies Lady Jersey on s.s. _Lübeck_, 287;
+    in Tonga, 288, 289;
+    in Samoa, 298;
+    writes in _An Object of Pity_, 315;
+    joins Staff of Sir Robert Duff, 324;
+    marriage, 383
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rupert, née Dudley Smith, 383
+
+  Leigh, Hon. and Rev. J. W. (Dean of Hereford), 20, 21, 53
+
+  Leigh, William Henry, 2nd Lord, entertains North Warwickshire Hunt, 1;
+    marriage, 2;
+    travels with his children, 4, 5, 14, 15, 23-29, 36;
+    receives Queen Victoria at Stoneleigh, 11-13;
+    takes moors in Scotland, 14, 15;
+    talks with Nelson's servant, 29;
+    visits Ireland, 41-50;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Leveson-Gower, Hon. Mrs., née Leigh, 22
+
+  Littledale, Mrs., School for Indian ladies, 158
+
+  Lloyd. Mr. and Mrs., 31, 32
+
+  Loch, 1st Lord, 334
+
+  Longford, Colonel, Earl of, 374, 375
+
+  Lowe, Robert, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, and Mrs., 119
+
+  Lowell, Mr. J. R., letters from, 83, 86;
+    poems by, 84, 86
+
+  Lucknow, 188
+
+  Lugard, Sir Frederick and Lady, 323, 324
+
+  Lyons Silk Manufactory, 23
+
+  Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Alfred, 381
+
+  Lyttelton, Lord, and the Canterbury Association, 282
+
+  Lytton, Countess of, and Lady Betty, 127
+
+
+  M
+
+  Macclesfield, Mary, Countess of, née Grosvenor, her story of ex-Kaiser,
+      26, 27;
+    mentioned, 31, 36
+
+  McDonnell, Sir Schomberg, 370
+
+  MacMahon, Marshal, 96
+
+  Macmillan, Mrs. Maurice, 381
+
+  Madras, 162 et seq.;
+    Harbour, 180
+
+  Madura,172-177
+
+  Mahableshwar, 151
+
+  Malet, Sir Edward, 100, 101, 109
+
+  Malet, Lady Ermyntrude, 100, 101, 105, 109
+
+  Malietoa Laupepa, King of Samoa, 292;
+    dinner with, 296-297
+
+  Marathon and its brigands, 31, 32;
+    visited, 129
+
+  Marie, Princess, of Greece, 130
+
+  Margaret, Queen of Italy, 356
+
+  Marsham, Charles, 74
+
+  Mary, H.M. Queen, interest in "Children's Happy Evenings Association,"
+      369
+
+  Mason, Miss (Lady Allen), 247
+
+  Mataafa, rival King of Samoa, 292, 297-304
+
+  Max Müller, Professor, 147, 340
+
+  Maxwell, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., 237
+
+  May, Colonel, at Lucknow, 189
+
+  Mehdi Ali, Mrs., 159
+
+  Mentone, 5;
+    marriage celebrations at for Prince of Wales, 25, 26
+
+  Meshaka, Mr., Vice-Consul at Damascus, 226-229
+
+  Meyer, Mr. and Mrs. John, 96, 97
+
+  Middleton Park, 65, 66, 71, 72
+
+  Milford Sound, 270
+
+  Miyanoshita, hot baths, 345
+
+  Molyneux, Hon. Mrs. Caryl, née Lawley, 56
+
+  Morrison, Mr. Alfred, 58, 59
+
+  Mount Abu, Jain temples on, 197, 198
+
+  Mount Stephen, Lord, 374
+
+  "Mrs. Malaprop," a modern, 210, 211
+
+  Muncaster, Lady, née Grosvenor, 31;
+    marries Hon. H. Lindsay, 32
+
+  Muncaster, Lord and Lady, 31, 32, 120
+
+
+  N
+
+  Nabeshima, Marquis, 345
+
+  Napier of Merchiston, Lord, 172
+
+  Nauplia, 132, 133
+
+  Nazli, Princess, 217, 218
+
+  Nekualofa in Tonga, 287
+
+  Newdegate, Sir Frank, 17
+
+  Newdigate, Hon. Mrs., née Leigh, 16, 17
+
+  New Caledonia, voyage to, 276, 277
+
+  Newcastle in Australia, 319
+
+  Newman, Cardinal, 92, 93
+
+  New York, 354, 355
+
+  New Zealand, 268-276
+
+  Niagara, 354
+
+  Nikko, 336
+
+  Nile, the, 215, 216, 356-364
+
+  Nizam, H.H. the late, 155-157, 376, 377
+
+  Nizam, His Exalted Highness the present, 377
+
+  Norfolk, Duchess of, née Lyons, 9
+
+  Norfolk, Henry, Duke of, as Lord Maltravers, 9;
+    at Norfolk House, 92
+
+  Norfolk Island, 217
+
+  North, Lord, 75
+
+  Northcote, Lady, 244, 355, 356, 370, 374, 375, 379
+
+  Northcote, Sir Stafford (afterwards Lord), 355, 356, 370, 375, 379
+
+  Northumberland, Eleanor, Duchess of, née Grosvenor, 30, 31
+
+  Noumea, 277, 278
+
+  Nubar Pasha on the English, 357
+
+
+  O
+
+  O'Donoghue, the, 44-46
+
+  Olcott, Colonel, Theosophist, 146-148;
+    at Adyar, 167-169
+
+  Olga, Queen of Greece, 127-128, 209
+
+  Olympia, 139
+
+  "One People, One Destiny," 250
+
+  Onslow, Countess, 269, 275, 276
+
+  Onslow, Earl, 269, 271, 272, 275, 276
+
+  Onslow, Hon. Huia. Maori Chieftain, after years of, 275
+
+  Onslow, Mrs. MacArthur, 256
+
+  Orient Express, 235
+
+  Osborne, Mr. and Mrs., 256
+
+  Osbourne, Lloyd, 298, 315
+
+  Osterley Park, 82, 83, 86, 143, 144, 237, 238, 355
+
+
+  P
+
+  Parker, Hon. Edmund, 272
+
+  Parker, Mr., of Tonga, 290
+
+  Parkes, Sir Henry, Premier of New South Wales, 249-251
+
+  Paley, Major and Mrs., 192
+
+  Peel, Hon. George, 366
+
+  Pender, Sir John, 115-117
+
+  Perponcher, Gräfin, 100
+
+  Phelps, Mr., American Minister, 142
+
+  Pigmies, African, 218, 219
+
+  Ponsonby, Sir Henry, 212
+
+  Port Darwin, 325-327
+
+  Popo, Samoan native, 300
+
+  Prendergast, Sir Harry, 166;
+    and Lady, 200
+
+  Protap, Chunder Mozoondar, 182, 183
+
+  _Pundua_, s.s., 180, 181, 182
+
+  Pyrgos, 137, 139
+
+
+  R
+
+  Raglan, Lord, 57
+
+  Ramsay, Lady Patricia, as a child, 152
+
+  Raratonga Island and its Queens, 272
+
+  Reay, Lord and Lady, 151, 152, 201
+
+  Rees, Sir John, 162, 163, 178, 180
+
+  _Robbery under Arms_, 253
+
+  Roberts, F.M. Earl, at Lucknow, 188-190;
+    at Child's Bank, 374
+
+  Rome, 140, 356
+
+  Rotorua, 273;
+    Lake of, 274, 275
+
+  Rowton, Lord, 127, 140;
+    his anecdote of a picture, 239
+
+  Ruge's Buildings, 27
+
+  Russell, Sir William, 115
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Helier, Lady, 140
+
+  St. Kevin at Glendalough, 41, 42
+
+  Salisbury, Marquis of, Prime Minister, Bismarck's esteem for, 105, 106,
+      108, 109
+
+  Samoa, 291 et seq.
+
+  Sanderson, Lord, 128, 333
+
+  Sannomiya, Baroness, 337, 339
+
+  Savaii, Samoan Island, 292
+
+  Schwarzenberg, Prince, 215, 216
+
+  Scott, Lord and Lady Charles, 285
+
+  Seierstorpff, Count, 114
+
+  Serfojee, Rajah of Tanjore, 170, 171
+
+  Sivajee, Princess at Tanjore, 171
+
+  Shaftesbury, Earl of, dictum on his generation, 369
+
+  Shaw-Stewart, Sir Hugh, 57
+
+  Shaw-Stewart, Sir Michael and Lady Octavia, née Grosvenor, 16, 38, 57
+
+  Shintoism, 339, 340
+
+  Shiva Prashad, Rajah, 185-187
+
+  Simele, Henry, Samoan Chief, 298, 302
+
+  Slatin Pasha, his escape from Omdurman, 359
+
+  Smyrna, 230, 231
+
+  Somerton School, 67
+
+  Southampton, Lady, Lady-in-Waiting, 213
+
+  Speke and Grant, their meeting with Sir S. Baker, 148
+
+  Spezia, 28, 29
+
+  Spring Rice, Sir Cecil, 336
+
+  Stalbridge, Lord, 34
+
+  Stanley, Sir Henry, Explorer, 218
+
+  Stephen, Sir Alfred, Lieutenant-Governor, N.S.W., 255
+
+  Stevenson, R. L., 25, 294, 295;
+    visit to rebel camp with, 297-303;
+    chief author of _An Object of Pity_, 313-316
+
+  Stevenson, Mrs. R. L., 294, 315, 316
+
+  Stewart, F.M. Sir Donald, 374
+
+  Strathnairn, F.M. Lord, 77
+
+  Strong, Mrs., 298, 300, 302, 315
+
+  Suleem Sheikh and his infant son, 193, 194
+
+  Sutherland, discoverer of Sutherland Falls, N.Z., 270
+
+  Suttor, Sir Frank, 255
+
+  Switzerland, expedition to, with children, 94
+
+  Sydney, arrival at, 248
+
+  Syon House, 61
+
+
+  T
+
+  Talbot, Dame Meriel, O.B.E., 381
+
+  Tamasese, Samoan Chief, 292, 304-306
+
+  Tanjore, 170
+
+  Theotoki, Greek Minister, 131-133
+
+  Timor, island of, 327-329
+
+  Toowoomba, Queensland, 324
+
+  Tricoupi, Greek Prime Minister, 130, 131
+
+  Tricoupi, Miss, 130, 131, 133, 134
+
+  Trafalgar seamen, 29
+
+  Travancore, Maharajah and Ranees of, 169, 170
+
+  Tonga, islands of, 287-291
+
+  Tubb, Mr. and Mrs., 74
+
+  Tughlakabad and its rulers, 191, 192
+
+  Tumut, N.S.W., reception at, 268
+
+  Turner, Mr., Collector of Madura, 172
+
+  Tutuila, Samoan Island, 291, 292
+
+  Tweedmouth, Fanny, Lady, 381
+
+  Tyler, Sir John, of Agra, 192, 194
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulwar, 196
+
+  Upton House, 56
+
+  Upolu, chief Samoan island, 292
+
+
+  V
+
+  Vailima, R. L. Stevenson's home, 315
+
+  Valentia, Viscount and Viscountess, 72, 73
+
+  Vancouver, arrival at, 346, 347
+
+  Vetyk Ahmed Pasha, his reminiscences, 234
+
+  Victoria, H.M. Queen, at Stoneleigh Abbey, 12, 13;
+    anecdote of her childhood, 13, 14;
+    in Ireland, 50;
+    devotion to Prince Consort's memory, 39;
+    first Jubilee, 110-113, 120, 121;
+    reverence for in India, 179, 201-203;
+    receives Lord and Lady Jersey at Windsor, 212, 213;
+    Diamond Jubilee, 372-374;
+    her death, 379, 380
+
+  Victoria League founded, 380-382
+
+  Villiers, Hon. Arthur, birth, 82
+
+  Villiers, Lady Beatrice, 82;
+    in Italy, 373;
+    in India, 376, 377;
+    marries Lord Dunsany, 383
+
+  Villiers, Lady Clementina, 67, 68, 79
+
+  Villiers, Lady Margaret, 77, 98;
+    in Switzerland and Italy, 94, 95;
+    in Tonga and in Samoa, 287, 291, 298, 299;
+    leaves Australia with parents, 324;
+    at Hong-Kong, 330;
+    at Canton, 333;
+    in Japan, 337, 338, 343;
+    in London, 355;
+    in Egypt, 356;
+    marries Hon. Walter Rice, 374
+
+  Villiers, Lady Mary, 82, 97, 356;
+    marries Earl of Longford, 374
+
+  Villiers, Hon. Reginald, 127
+
+  Villiers, Viscount (now 8th Earl of Jersey), birth, 68, 69;
+    at Castlemount School, Dover, 82;
+    story written for by Tom Hughes, 89-91;
+    in Switzerland, at Biarritz and in Italy, 94, 95;
+    in India and Greece, 184-209;
+    wins Junior Oppidan Scholarship at Eton, 214;
+    remains in England when Lady Jersey at Apia, his experience with
+      American reporter, 316;
+    marriage with Lady Cynthia Needham, 383
+
+  Vincent, Sir Edgar, afterwards Lord d'Abernon, at Constantinople, 232;
+    on the Orient Express, 235-237
+
+  Viti, Samoan lady, her dress, 304-305
+
+
+  W
+
+  Wady Haifa, 361, 362
+
+  Wakatipu Lake, 272
+
+  Wallace, Mrs., housekeeper, 10, 11
+
+  Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 182
+
+  Watters, Mr., Acting Consul at Canton, 332, 333
+
+  Whakarewarewa hot springs, 273
+
+  Wenlock, Elizabeth, Lady, née Grosvenor, 31, 56
+
+  Wellington, Arthur, Duke of, 3
+
+  Wellington in New Zealand, 273
+
+  Westfahlen, Count, 216
+
+  Westminster, Constance, Duchess of, 92
+
+  Westminster, 1st Duke of, 33
+
+  Westminster, Marchioness of, 19, 33
+
+  Westminster, Marquis of, 5, 32, 33
+
+  White, Miss, lady doctor at Hyderabad, 161
+
+  White, Sir William and Lady, 233, 234
+
+  William I, Emperor, 101, 102;
+    his picture in Tonga, 288
+
+  William, Prince, afterwards William II, 26, 27, 104
+
+  Willes, Mr. and Mrs. Charles, their New Year's Party, 54-56
+
+  Wister, Owen, American author, 53
+
+  Wolmer, Lord and Lady, afterwards Earl and Countess of Selborne, 114
+
+  Wolseley, F.M. Viscount, 115, 118
+
+  Wombwell, George, death of, 172
+
+  Wombwell, Lady Julia, 63
+
+
+  X
+
+  Xavier, St. Francis, in Japan, 341
+
+
+  Y
+
+  Yandall, Samoan interpreter, 313
+
+  Yarrangobilly Caves, 266-268
+
+  Yokohama, 346
+
+
+  Z
+
+  Zante, island of, 139, 140
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I learn that since our time a hut has been erected between Sutherland
+Falls and Milford Sound called Sandfly Hut. The guide-book says with
+consoling candour that it "is well named, but this pest is no less
+noticeable at any of the other stopping-places."
+
+[2] Haggard, who had described to us the loud voices of himself and his
+brothers.
+
+[3] Margaret Villiers.
+
+[4] Captain Rupert Leigh.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 38569-8.txt or 38569-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/5/6/38569
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/38569-8.zip b/38569-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8cd6c2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-8.zip
diff --git a/38569-h.zip b/38569-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08df2be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h.zip
diff --git a/38569-h/38569-h.htm b/38569-h/38569-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ee8007
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/38569-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,13059 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life, by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;}
+
+    .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+
+    hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;}
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    .giant {font-size: 200%}
+    .large {font-size: 125%}
+
+    .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .poem {margin-left: 15%;}
+    .index {margin-left: 20%;}
+    .caption {text-align: center; font-size: small;}
+    .title {text-align: center; font-size: 150%;}
+	.letter {font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold;}
+    .right {text-align: right;}
+    .center {text-align: center;}
+
+    .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none}
+    a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none}
+
+    .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;}
+
+    .sidenote {width: 7em; font-size: x-small; color: black; background-color: #ffffff; position: absolute; left: 1em;}
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life, by
+Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life</p>
+<p>Author: Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 14, 2012  [eBook #38569]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by<br />
+    the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org">http://www.archive.org</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/fiftyoneyearsofv00jersrich">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/fiftyoneyearsofv00jersrich</a>
+   </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><small>FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE</small></h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">All Rights Reserved</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<img src="images/signature.jpg" alt="Margaret Countess of Jersey" /></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">FIFTY-ONE YEARS<br />OF VICTORIAN LIFE</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">BY THE DOWAGER<br />
+COUNTESS OF JERSEY</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LONDON<br />
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.<br />
+1922</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DEDICATED<br />
+TO<br />
+MY CHILDREN<br />
+AND<br />
+GRANDCHILDREN</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><i>Printed in Great Britain by<br />
+Hazell, Watson &amp; Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&#8220;What is this child of man that can conquer<br />
+Time and that is braver than Love?<br />
+Even Memory.&#8221;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Lord Dunsany.</span></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Though &#8220;a Sorrow&#8217;s Crown of Sorrow&#8221;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be &#8220;remembering happier things,&#8221;</span><br />
+Present joy will shine the brighter<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If our morn a radiance flings.</span><br />
+<br />
+We perchance may thwart the future<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If we will not look before,</span><br />
+And upon a past which pains us<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We may fasten Memory&#8217;s door.</span><br />
+<br />
+But we will not, cannot, banish<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bygone pleasure from our side,</span><br />
+Nor will doubt, beyond the storm-cloud,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall be Light at Eventide.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15em;">M. E. J.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Duke of Wellington&mdash;Travelling in the Fifties&mdash;Governesses&mdash;&#8220;Mrs.
+Gailey&#8221;&mdash;Queen Victoria at Stoneleigh&mdash;A narrow escape&mdash;Life at Stoneleigh&mdash;Rectors and vicars&mdash;Theatricals</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_1">pp.&nbsp;1-22</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">A VICTORIAN GIRL</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Mentone&mdash;Genoa&mdash;Trafalgar veterans&mdash;Lord Muncaster and Greek
+brigands&mdash;The Grosvenor family&mdash;Uncles and aunts&mdash;Confirmation&mdash;&#8220;Coming
+out&#8221;&mdash;Ireland&mdash;Killarney&mdash;The O&#8217;Donoghue&mdash;Myths and legends&mdash;The giant Benadadda</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_23">pp.&nbsp;23-50</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">MARRIAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fanny Kemble&mdash;An old-fashioned Christmas&mdash;A pre-matrimonial
+party&mdash;Fonthill Abbey&mdash;Engagement&mdash;Married to Lord Jersey</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_51">pp.&nbsp;51-64</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">EARLY MARRIED LIFE</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lord Jersey&#8217;s mother&mdash;In London&mdash;Isola Bella, Cannes&mdash;Oxfordshire
+neighbours&mdash;Caversfield Church&mdash;Life at Middleton&mdash;Mr. Disraeli&mdash;Froude
+and Kingsley&mdash;James Russell Lowell&mdash;T. Hughes and J. R. Lowell&mdash;Mr.
+Gladstone on Immortality&mdash;Thought-reading&mdash;Tom Hughes and Rugby, Tennessee&mdash;Cardinal Newman</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_65">pp.&nbsp;65-93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sarah Bernhardt&mdash;Death of Gilbert Leigh&mdash;In Italy, 1884&mdash;Court Ball
+in Berlin&mdash;The Crown Prince Frederick&mdash;Prince Bismarck&mdash;Conversation
+with Bismarck&mdash;Bismarck and Lord Salisbury&mdash;Thanksgiving Service&mdash;Trials
+of Court Officials&mdash;The Naval Review&mdash;Knowsley&mdash;Apotheosis of the Queen</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_94">pp.&nbsp;94-121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lord Halsbury&#8217;s ghost story&mdash;The ghostly reporter&mdash;A Jubilee
+sermon&mdash;Marathon&mdash;Miss Tricoupi&mdash;Nauplia&mdash;The Laurium Mines&mdash;Hadji Petros&mdash;Olympia&mdash;Zante</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_122">pp.&nbsp;122-140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">VOYAGE TO INDIA&mdash;HYDERABAD</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Mr. Joseph Chamberlain&mdash;Departure for India&mdash;Colonel Olcott and
+Professor Max M&uuml;ller&mdash;Sir Samuel Baker&mdash;Mahableshwar&mdash;H.H. the
+Aga Khan&mdash;Races at Hyderabad&mdash;H.H. the Nizam of Hyderabad&mdash;Purdah ladies&mdash;Breakfast in a zenana</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_141">pp.&nbsp;141-161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Brahmin philosophers&mdash;Faith of educated Hindus&mdash;Theosophists at
+Adyar&mdash;The Ranees of Travancore&mdash;The Princesses of Tanjore&mdash;&#8220;The
+Heart of Montrose&#8221;&mdash;The Palace of Madura&mdash;Rous Peter&#8217;s Sacred Door&mdash;Loyalty
+of native Indians&mdash;Passengers on the <i>Pundua</i>&mdash;The Brahmo
+Somaj&mdash;Maharajah of Benares&mdash;Marriages of infants and widows</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_162">pp.&nbsp;162-187</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The Relief of Lucknow&mdash;View from the Kotab Minar&mdash;Sekundra and
+Futtehpore Sekree&mdash;The legend of Krishna&mdash;The Jains&mdash;The Maharajah
+of Bhownuggar&mdash;Baroda&mdash;English as Lingua Franca&mdash;Meditations
+of a Western wanderer&mdash;An English plum-pudding&mdash;The Greek Royal
+Family&mdash;Original derivations</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_188">pp.&nbsp;188-211</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">WINDSOR&mdash;EGYPT AND SYRIA</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Dinner at Windsor&mdash;Voyage up the Nile&mdash;Choucry Pasha, Princess
+Nazli&mdash;The Pigmies&mdash;Inn of the Good Samaritan&mdash;The Holy City&mdash;Balbec&mdash;Damascus,
+Lady Ellenborough&mdash;Oriental methods of trade&mdash;Smyrna&mdash;Constantinople&mdash;The
+Selamlik&mdash;The Orient Express&mdash;Story of a picture</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_212">pp.&nbsp;212-239</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA</td></tr>
+<tr><td>War Office red tape&mdash;Balmoral&mdash;Farewell to England&mdash;Voyage on
+the <i>Arcadia</i>&mdash;The Federation Convention&mdash;The delegates&mdash;The Blue
+Mountains&mdash;Sir Alfred Stephen&mdash;Domestic Conditions&mdash;Correspondence
+with Lord Derby&mdash;Labour Legislation&mdash;The Ex-Kaiser&mdash;Lord Derby&#8217;s poem</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_240">pp.&nbsp;240-265</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">FURTHER IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA&mdash;NEW ZEALAND AND NEW CALEDONIA</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Yarrangobilly Caves&mdash;Dunedin&mdash;The New Zealand Sounds&mdash;Hot
+Springs of New Zealand&mdash;Huia Onslow&mdash;Noumea&mdash;The Governor of New
+Caledonia&mdash;The Convict Settlement&mdash;Convicts in former days&mdash;Death of Lord Ancram</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_266">pp.&nbsp;266-286</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">TONGA AND SAMOA</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Tongan ladies&mdash;Arrival at Apia&mdash;German plantations&mdash;R. L. Stevenson&mdash;King
+Malietoa&mdash;The Enchanted Forest&mdash;King Mataafa&mdash;The Kava
+Ceremony&mdash;A native dance&mdash;Missionaries&mdash;Samoan mythology&mdash;Desire
+for English protection&mdash;Visit from Tamasese&mdash;<i>An Object of Pity</i>&mdash;Courage of R. L. Stevenson</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_287">pp.&nbsp;287-318</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA&mdash;CHINA AND JAPAN</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Bushrangers&mdash;Circumstantial evidence&mdash;The Great Barrier Reef&mdash;Coloured
+labour&mdash;Hong-Kong&mdash;Canton&mdash;The Viceroy of Canton&mdash;Japanese
+scenery&mdash;Interview with the Empress&mdash;The Sacred Mirror of
+the Sun Goddess&mdash;Christianity in Japan&mdash;Daimios of old Japan&mdash;Japanese friends</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_319">pp.&nbsp;319-345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">JOURNEY HOME&mdash;THE NILE&mdash;LORD KITCHENER</td></tr>
+<tr><td>The well-forged link of Empire&mdash;Columbus discovers America&mdash;The
+Mayor cuts his hair&mdash;The pageant &#8220;America&#8221;&mdash;Back at Osterley&mdash;The
+dahabyah <i>Herodotus</i>&mdash;Escape of Slatin Pasha&mdash;How a King and an
+Arab evaded orders&mdash;The Dervishes&mdash;Lord Kitchener</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_346">pp.&nbsp;346-368</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">DIAMOND JUBILEE AND DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary&mdash;The Queen at Temple Bar&mdash;The
+South African War&mdash;Indian princesses&mdash;Lord and Lady Northcote&mdash;The
+Victoria League&mdash;Mr. Chamberlain&#8217;s letter</td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_369">pp.&nbsp;369-383</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td>
+    <td valign="bottom" align="right"><a href="#Page_385">pp.&nbsp;385-392</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Margaret, Countess of Jersey</span> (photogravure)<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>After the portrait by Ellis Roberts at Osterley Park.</i></span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>FACING PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Stoneleigh Abbey</span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Library, Middleton Park</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey.</i></span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_69">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Middleton Park</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey.</i></span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_69">68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Osterley Park</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From a photograph by W. H. Grove.</i></span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Group at Middleton Park, Christmas, 1904</span></td>
+    <td valign="top" align="right"><a href="#Page_371">370</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<p class="title">AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD</p>
+
+<p>I was born at Stoneleigh Abbey on October 29th, 1849. My father has told
+me that immediately afterwards&mdash;I suppose next day&mdash;I was held up at the
+window for the members of the North Warwickshire Hunt to drink my health.
+I fear that their kind wishes were so far of no avail that I never became
+a sportswoman, though I always lived amongst keen followers of the hounds.
+For many years the first meet of the season was held at Stoneleigh, and
+large hospitality extended to the gentlemen and farmers within the Abbey
+and to the crowd without. Almost anyone could get bread and cheese and
+beer outside for the asking, till at last some limit had to be placed when
+it was reported that special trains were being run from Birmingham to a
+neighbouring town to enable the populace to attend this sporting carnival
+at my father&#8217;s expense. He was a splendid man and a fearless rider while
+health and strength permitted&mdash;rather too fearless at times&mdash;and among the
+many applicants for his bounty were men who based their claims to
+assistance on the alleged fact that they had picked up Lord Leigh after a
+fall out hunting. It was always much more difficult to restrain him from
+giving than to induce him to give.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>My mother, a daughter of Lord Westminster, told me that from the moment
+she saw him she had never any doubt as to whom she would marry. No wonder.
+He was exceptionally handsome and charming, and I believe he was as prompt
+in falling in love with her as she confessed to having been with him. An
+old relative who remembered their betrothal told me that she knew what was
+coming when Mr. Leigh paid &pound;5 for some trifle at a bazaar where Lady
+Caroline Grosvenor was selling. The sole reason for recording this is to
+note that fancy bazaars were in vogue so long ago as 1848.</p>
+
+<p>My mother was only twenty when she married, and very small and pretty. I
+have heard that soon after their arrival at Stoneleigh my father gave
+great satisfaction to the villagers, who were eagerly watching to see the
+bride out walking, by lifting his little wife in his arms and carrying her
+over a wet place in the road. This was typical of his unfailing devotion
+through fifty-seven years of married life&mdash;a devotion which she returned
+in full measure.</p>
+
+<p>I was the eldest child of the young parents, and as my grandfather,
+Chandos Lord Leigh, was then alive, our home for a short time was at
+Adlestrop House in Gloucestershire, which also belonged to the family; but
+my grandfather died and we moved to Stoneleigh when I was far too young to
+remember any other home. In those days we drove by road from one house to
+the other, and on one occasion my father undertook to convey my cradle in
+his dog-cart, in the space under the back seat usually allotted to dogs.
+In the middle of a village the door of this receptacle flew open and the
+cradle shot out into the road, slightly embarrassing to a very young man.</p>
+
+<p>About the earliest thing I can recollect was seeing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the Crystal Palace
+Building when in Hyde Park. I do not suppose that I was taken inside, but
+I distinctly remember the great glittering glass Palace when I was driving
+with my mother. Of course we had pictures of the Great Exhibition and
+heard plenty about it, but oddly enough one print that impressed me most
+was a French caricature which represented an Englishman distributing the
+prizes to an expectant throng with words to this effect: &#8220;Ladies and
+Gentlemen, some intrusive foreigners have come over to compete with our
+people and have had the impertinence to make some things better than we
+do. You will, however, quite understand that none of the prizes will be
+given to these outsiders.&#8221; It was my earliest lesson in doubting the
+lasting effects of attempts to unite rival countries in any League of
+Nations.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON</div>
+
+<p>Somewhere about this time I had the honour of being presented to the great
+Duke of Wellington in the long Gallery (now, alas! no more) at Grosvenor
+House. I do not remember the incident, but he was <i>the</i> Hero in those
+days, and I was told it so often that I felt as if I could recall it. My
+father said he kissed me, but my mother&#8217;s more modest claim was that he
+shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>My parents were each endowed with nine brothers and sisters&mdash;i.e. my
+father was one of ten who all lived till past middle life, my mother was
+one of thirteen of whom ten attained a full complement of years. Indeed,
+when my parents celebrated their golden wedding they had sixteen brothers
+and sisters still alive. As almost all these uncles and aunts married and
+most of them had large families, it will be readily believed that we did
+not lack cousins, and the long Gallery was a splendid gathering-place for
+the ramifications of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> Grosvenor side of our family. Apart from the
+imposing pictures, it was full of treasures, such as a miniature crystal
+river which flowed when wound up and had little swans swimming upon it. It
+was here, later on in my girlhood, that I saw the first Japanese Embassy
+to England, stately Daimios or Samurai in full native costume and with two
+swords&mdash;a great joy to all of us children.</p>
+
+<p>To go back to early recollections&mdash;my next clear impression is of the
+Crimean War and knitting a pair of red muffetees for the soldiers. Plenty
+of &#8220;comforts&#8221; were sent out even in those days. Sir George Higginson once
+told me that when boxes of miscellaneous gifts arrived it was the custom
+to hold an auction. On one occasion among the contents were several copies
+of Boyle&#8217;s Court Guide and two pairs of ladies&#8217; stays! So useful! The
+latter were bestowed upon the French vivandi&egrave;re. No W.A.A.C.s then to
+benefit.</p>
+
+<p>After the Crimean War came the Indian Mutiny, and our toy soldiers
+represented English and Sepoys instead of English and Russians. Children
+in each generation I suppose follow wars by their toys. Despite the
+comradeship of English and French in the Crimea, I do not believe that we
+ever quite ceased to regard France as the hereditary foe. A contemporary
+cousin was said to have effaced France from the map of Europe; I do not
+think we were quite so daring.</p>
+
+<p>In all, I rejoiced in five brothers and two sisters, but the fifth brother
+died at fourteen months old before our youngest sister was born. His death
+was our first real sorrow and a very keen one. Long before that, however,
+when we were only three children, Gilbert, the brother next to me, a baby
+sister Agnes, and myself, our adventurous parents took us to the South of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+France. I was four years old at the time and the existence of a foreign
+land was quite a new light to me. I well remember running into the nursery
+and triumphantly exclaiming, &#8220;There is a country called France and I am
+going there!&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">TRAVELLING IN THE FIFTIES</div>
+
+<p>My further recollections are vague until we reached Lyons, where the
+railway ended and our large travelling carriage brought from England was
+put on a boat&mdash;steamer, I suppose&mdash;and thus conveyed to Avignon. Thence we
+drove, sleeping at various towns, until we reached Mentone, where we spent
+some time, and I subsequently learnt that we were then the only English in
+the place. I think that my parents were very brave to take about such
+young children, but I suppose the experiment answered pretty well, as a
+year later they again took Gilbert and me to France&mdash;this time to
+Normandy, where I spent my sixth birthday, saw the great horses dragging
+bales of cotton along the quays at Rouen, and was enchanted with the ivory
+toys at Dieppe.</p>
+
+<p>I think that people who could afford it travelled more in former days than
+is realised. Both my grandparents made prolonged tours with most of their
+elder children. My grandfather Westminster took my mother and her elder
+sisters in his yacht to Constantinople and Rome. My mother well remembered
+some of her experiences, including purchases from a Turkish shopkeeper who
+kept a large cat on his counter and served various comestibles with his
+hands, wiping them between each sale on the animal&#8217;s fur. At Rome she told
+me how she and one of her sisters, girls of some twelve and thirteen years
+old, used to wander out alone into the Campagna in the early morning,
+which seems very strange in view of the stories of restraint placed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> upon
+children in bygone days. As to my grandfather Leigh, I believe he
+travelled with his family for about two years, to Switzerland, France and
+the North of Italy. They had three carriages, one for the parents, one for
+the schoolroom, and one for the nursery. A courier escorted them, and an
+avant-courier rode on in front with bags of five-franc pieces to secure
+lodgings when they migrated from one place to another. On one occasion on
+the Riviera they met the then Grand Duke Constantine, who thrust his head
+out of the window and exclaimed &#8220;Toute Angleterre est en route!&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">GOVERNESSES</div>
+
+<p>After our return from Normandy we were placed in charge of a resident
+governess, a young German, but as far as I can recollect she had very
+little control over us. We discovered that the unlucky girl, though of
+German parentage, had been born in Russia, and with the unconscious
+cruelty of children taunted her on this account. Anyhow her stay was
+short, and she was succeeded about a year later by an Englishwoman, Miss
+Custarde, who kept us in very good order and stayed till she married when
+I was fourteen. Her educational efforts were supplemented by masters and
+mistresses during the London season and by French resident governesses in
+the winter months, but I do not think that we were at all overworked.</p>
+
+<p>I doubt whether Miss Custarde would have been considered highly educated
+according to modern standards, but she was very good in teaching us to
+look up information for ourselves, which was just as useful as anything
+else. Her strongest point was music, but that she could not drive into me,
+and my music lessons were a real penance to teacher and pupil alike. She
+would give me lectures during their progress on such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> topics as the
+Parable of the Talents&mdash;quite ignoring the elementary fact that though I
+could learn most of my lessons quickly enough I had absolutely no talent
+for music. She was, however, a remarkable woman with great influence, not
+only over myself, but over my younger aunts and over other men and women.
+She was very orderly, and proud of that quality, but she worked too much
+on my conscience, making me regard trivial faults as actual sins which
+prevented her from kissing me or showing me affection&mdash;an ostracism which
+generally resulted in violent fits of penitence. She had more than one
+admirer before she ended by marrying a schoolmaster, with whom she used to
+take long walks in the holidays. One peculiarity was that she would give
+me sketches of admirers and get me to write long stories embodying their
+imaginary adventures. I suppose these were shown as great jokes to the
+heroes and their friends. Of course she did not think I knew the
+&#8220;inwardness&#8221; of her various friendships, equally of course as time went on
+I understood them perfectly. Miss Custarde is not the only governess I
+have known who acquired extraordinary influence over her pupils. In Marcel
+Prevost&#8217;s novel <i>Anges Gardiens</i>, which represents the dangers to French
+families of engaging foreign governesses, he makes the Belgian, Italian,
+and German women all to a greater or less extent immoral, but the
+Englishwoman, though at least as detestable as the others, is not immoral;
+the great evil which she inflicts on the family which engages her is the
+absolute power which she acquires over her pupil. The whole book is very
+unfair and M. Prevost seems to overlook the slur which he casts on his own
+countrymen, as none of the men appear able to resist the wiles of the
+sirens engaged to look after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> the girls of their families; but it is odd
+that he should realise the danger of undue influence and attribute it only
+to the Englishwoman. Why should this be a characteristic of English
+governesses&mdash;supposing his experience (borne out by my own) to be typical?
+Is it an Englishwoman&#8217;s love of power and faculty for concentration on the
+object which she wishes to attain?</p>
+
+<p>We liked several of our foreign governesses well enough, but they
+exercised no particular influence&mdash;and as a rule their engagements were
+only temporary. I do not think that Miss Custarde gave them much
+opportunity of ascendancy. With one her relations were so strained that
+the two ladies had their suppers at different tables in the schoolroom,
+and when the Frenchwoman wanted the salt she rang the bell for the
+schoolroom-maid to bring it from her English colleague&#8217;s table. However, I
+owed a great deal to Miss Custarde and know that her affection for all of
+us was very real. She died in the autumn of 1920, having retained all her
+faculties till an advanced age.</p>
+
+<p>After all no human being could compete with our mother in the estimation
+of any of her children. Small and fragile and often suffering from
+ill-health, she had almost unbounded power over everyone with whom she
+came in contact, and for her to express an opinion on any point created an
+axiom from which there was no appeal. As middle-aged men and women we have
+often laughed over the way in which we have still accepted &#8220;mama said&#8221;
+so-and-so as a final verdict. As children our faith not only in her wisdom
+but in her ability was unlimited. I remember being regarded as almost a
+heretic by the younger ones because I ventured to doubt whether she could
+make a watch. Vainly did I hedge by asserting that I was certain that if
+she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> had learnt she could make the most beautiful watch in the world&mdash;I
+had infringed the first article of family faith by thinking that there was
+anything which she could not do by the uninstructed light of nature. She
+was a good musician, and a really excellent amateur artist&mdash;her
+water-colour drawings charming. Her knowledge of history made it
+delightful to read aloud to her, as she seemed as if the heroes and
+heroines of bygone times had been her personal acquaintance. Needless to
+say her personal care for everyone on my father&#8217;s property was untiring,
+and the standard of the schools in the various villages was maintained at
+a height uncommon in days when Education Acts were not so frequent and
+exacting as in later years.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">&#8220;MRS. GAILEY&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>Another great character in our home was our old nurse. For some reason she
+was never called Nanna, but always &#8220;Mrs. Gailey.&#8221; The daughter of a small
+tradesman, she was a woman of some education&mdash;she had even learnt a little
+French and had been a considerable reader. Though a disciple of Spurgeon,
+she had lived as nurse with my mother&#8217;s cousin the Duke of Norfolk in the
+days when the girls of the family were Protestants though the boys were
+Roman Catholics. When the Duchess (daughter of Lord Lyons) went over to
+the Roman Church the Protestant nurse&#8217;s position became untenable, as the
+daughters had to follow their mother. She told us that this was a great
+distress at first to the eldest girl Victoria (afterwards Hope-Scott), for
+at twelve years old she was able to feel the uprooting of her previous
+faith. The other sisters were too young to mind. Gailey&#8217;s idol, however,
+was Lord Maltravers (the late Duke), who must have been as attractive a
+boy as he became delightful a man.</p>
+
+<p>Gailey came to us when I was about four, my first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> nurse, who had been my
+wet-nurse, having married the coachman. Our first encounter took place
+when I was already in my cot, and I announced to her that if she stayed a
+hundred years I should not love her as I had done &#8220;Brownie.&#8221; &#8220;And if I
+stay a hundred years,&#8221; was the repartee, &#8220;I shall not love you as I did
+the little boy I have just left&#8221;&mdash;so we started fair. Nevertheless she was
+an excellent nurse and a fascinating companion. She could tell stories by
+the hour and knew all sorts of old-fashioned games which we played in the
+nursery on holiday afternoons.</p>
+
+<p>The great joy of the schoolroom children was to join the little ones after
+tea and to sit in a circle while she told us either old fairy tales, or
+more frequently her own versions of novels which she had read and of which
+she changed the names and condensed the incidents in a most ingenious
+manner. On Sunday evenings <i>Pilgrim&#8217;s Progress</i> in her own words was
+substituted for the novels. Miss Custarde could inflict no greater
+punishment for failure in our &#8220;saying lessons&#8221; than to keep us out of the
+nursery. Gailey stayed with us till some time after my marriage and then
+retired on a pension.</p>
+
+<p>The Scottish housekeeper, Mrs. Wallace, was also a devoted friend and a
+great dispenser of cakes, ices, and home-made cowslip and ginger wine.
+Rose-water, elder-flower water, and all stillroom mysteries found an
+expert in her, and she even concocted mead from an old recipe. Few people
+can have made mead in this generation&mdash;it was like very strong rather
+sweet beer. We all loved &#8220;Walley&#8221;&mdash;but she failed us on one occasion.
+Someone said that she had had an uncle who had fought at Waterloo, so we
+rushed to her room to question her on this hero&#8217;s prowess. &#8220;What did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> your
+uncle do at Waterloo?&#8221; The reply was cautious and rather chilling: &#8220;I
+believe he hid behind his horse.&#8221; She looked after all our dogs and was
+supposed to sleep with eight animals and birds in her room.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">QUEEN VICTORIA AT STONELEIGH</div>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1858 a great event occurred in the annals of Stoneleigh.
+Queen Victoria stayed at my father&#8217;s for two nights in order to open Aston
+Hall and Park, an old Manor House and property, which had belonged to the
+Bracebridge family and had been secured for the recreation of the people
+of Birmingham. Naturally there was great excitement at the prospect. For
+months beforehand workmen were employed in the renovation and redecoration
+of the Abbey and its precincts. Many years afterwards an ex-coachpainter
+met one of my sons and recalled to him the glorious days of preparation
+for Her Majesty&#8217;s visit. &#8220;Even the pigsties were painted, sir,&#8221; said he.</p>
+
+<p>Stoneleigh is a large mass of buildings&mdash;parts of the basement remain from
+the original Abbey of the Cistercian monks. On these was built a
+picturesque house about the beginning of the seventeenth century, early in
+the eighteenth century a large mansion was added in the classical Italian
+style, and about a hundred years later a new wing was erected to unite the
+two portions. The old Abbey Church stood in what is now a lawn between the
+house and the ancient Gateway, which bears the arms of Henry II. To put
+everything in order was no light task. The rooms for the Queen and Prince
+Consort were enclosed on one side of the corridor leading to them by a
+temporary wall, and curtained off where the corridor led to the main
+staircase. In addition to every other preparation, the outline of the
+gateway, the main front of the house, and some of the ornamental
+flower-beds were traced out with little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> lamps&mdash;I think there were
+22,000&mdash;which were lighted at night with truly fairy-like effect. By that
+time we were five children&mdash;the house was crowded in every nook and corner
+with guests, servants, and attendants of all kinds. Somehow my brother
+Gilbert and I were stowed away in a room with two or three maids, but the
+&#8220;little ones,&#8221; Agnes and two small brothers Dudley and Rupert, were sent
+to the keeper&#8217;s house in the Deerpark. That house was a delightful
+old-world building standing on a hill with a lovely view, and we were
+occasionally sent there for a day or two&#8217;s change of air, to our great
+joy.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of the Royal Visit, however, Gilbert and I quite realised
+our privilege in being kept in the Abbey and allowed to stand with our
+mother and other members of the family to welcome the Queen as the
+carriage clattered up with its escort of Yeomanry. My father had, of
+course, met Her Majesty at the station. The Queen was more than gracious
+and at once won the hearts of the children&mdash;but we did not equally
+appreciate the Prince Consort. Assuredly he was excellent, but he was very
+stiff and reserved, and I suppose that we were accustomed to attentions
+from our father&#8217;s guests which he did not think fit to bestow upon us,
+though the Queen gave them in ample measure.</p>
+
+<p>We were allowed to join the large party of guests after dinner, and either
+the first or the second evening witnessed with interest and amusement the
+presentation of the country neighbours to the Queen. Having been carefully
+instructed as to our own bows and curtsies, we naturally became very
+critical of the &#8220;grown-up&#8221; salutations, particularly when one nervous lady
+on passing the royal presence tossed her head back into the air by way of
+reverence. I think the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> same night my father escorted the Queen into the
+garden in front of the house, which was separated from part of the Park by
+a stone balustrade. In this park-ground several thousand people had
+assembled who spontaneously broke into &#8220;God save the Queen&#8221; when she
+appeared. Fortunately the glorious hot summer night (July) was ideal for
+the greeting.</p>
+
+<p>One morning our small sister and brothers were brought to the Abbey &#8220;to be
+presented.&#8221; Agnes made a neat little curtsy, though we unkindly asserted
+that it was behind the Queen&#8217;s back, but the baby boys were overcome by
+shyness and turned away from the Queen&#8217;s kisses. Unfortunate children!
+they were never allowed to forget this!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE PRINCE CONSORT</div>
+
+<p>Poor Prince Consort lost his last chance of good feeling from Gilbert and
+myself when he and the Queen went to plant memorial trees. We rushed
+forward to be in time to see the performance, but he sternly swept us from
+the royal path. No doubt he was justified in bidding us &#8220;stand back,&#8221; but
+he might have remembered that we were children, and his host&#8217;s children,
+and done it more gently.</p>
+
+<p>I shall refer to our dear Queen later on, but may here insert a little
+incident of her childhood which came to my knowledge accidentally. In the
+village belonging to my married home, Middleton Stoney, there was a
+middle-aged policeman&#8217;s wife who cultivated long ringlets on either side
+of her face. She once confided to me that as a child she had had beautiful
+curls, and that, living near Kensington Palace, they had on one occasion
+been cut off to make &#8220;riding curls&#8221; for Princess (afterwards Queen)
+Victoria, who had lost her own hair&mdash;temporarily&mdash;from an illness. The
+child had not liked this at all, though she had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> given some of the
+Princess&#8217;s hair as an equivalent. I imagine that her parents received more
+substantial payment.</p>
+
+<p>Our childhood was varied by a good deal of migration. We were regularly
+taken each year about May to our father&#8217;s London house, 37 Portman Square,
+where we entertained our various cousins at tea-parties and visited them
+in return. We were generally taken in the autumn to some seaside place
+such as Brighton, Hastings, Rhyl, or the Isle of Wight. We estimated the
+merits of each resort largely according to the amount of sand which it
+afforded us to dig in, and I think Shanklin in the Isle of Wight took the
+foremost place in our affections.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A NARROW ESCAPE</div>
+
+<p>Two years, however, had specially delightful autumns, for in each of these
+our father took a moor in Scotland&mdash;once Kingairloch and the second time
+Strontian. On each occasion I accompanied my parents; to Kingairloch,
+Gilbert (Gilly he was always called) came also&mdash;the second year he spent
+half the time with us and then returned to his tutor and Agnes, and Dudley
+took his place for the remainder of our stay. How we enjoyed the fishing,
+bathing in the loch, and paddling in the burns! Everyone who has spent the
+shooting season in Scotland knows all about it, and our experiences,
+though absolutely delightful, did not differ much from other people&#8217;s.
+These visits were about 1860 and 1861. The railroad did not extend nearly
+so far as at present and the big travelling-carriage again came into play.
+One day it had with considerable risk to be conveyed over four ferries and
+ultimately to be driven along a mountainous road after dark. As far as I
+remember we had postilions&mdash;certainly the charioteer or charioteers had
+had as much whisky as was good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> for them, with the result that the back
+wheels of the heavy carriage went right over the edge of a precipice. The
+servants seated behind the carriage gave themselves over for lost&mdash;we
+children were half-asleep inside and unconscious of our peril, when the
+horses made a desperate bound forward and dragged the carriage back on to
+the road. We were taken later to see the place with the marks of the
+wheels still plain on the rocky edge&mdash;and young as we were could quite
+realise what we had escaped. Both shooting lodges were situated in the
+midst of the lovely mountain scenery of North Argyllshire, possibly
+Kingairloch was the more beautiful of the two. One day from dawn to eve
+the mountains echoed and re-echoed with the plaintive bleating of flocks,
+and we were told that it was because the lambs were taken from their
+mothers. I still possess some verses which my mother wrote on that
+occasion, and transcribe them to show that she had a strong poetic as well
+as artistic vein:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Far over the mountains and over the corries<br />
+Echoed loud wailings and bleatings the day<br />
+When from the side of the mothers that loved them<br />
+The lambs at Kingairloch were taken away.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Vainly, poor mothers, ye watch in the valley<br />
+The nook where your little ones gambolled before,<br />
+Vainly ye climb to the heights of the mountains&mdash;<br />
+They answer you not, and shall answer no more!<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Never again from that stream-silvered hill-side,<br />
+Seeking fresh grass betwixt harebell and heather,<br />
+Shall you and your lambkins look back on Loch Corry,<br />
+Watching the flight of the sea-bird together.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;No more, when the storm, striking chords on the mountains,<br />
+Drives down the thick mists their tall summits to hide,<br />
+Shall you give the sweet gift of a mother&#8217;s protection<br />
+To the soft little creatures crouched down by your side.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;Past the sweet peril! and gone the sweet pleasure!&mdash;<br />
+Well might the echoes tell sadly that day<br />
+The plaint of the mothers that cried at Kingairloch<br />
+The day that the lambs were taken away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Visits to Scotland included sojourns at Ardgowan, the home of our uncle
+and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart on the Clyde. Aunt
+Occy, as we called her, was probably my mother&#8217;s favourite sister&mdash;in any
+case her children were our favourite cousins on the Grosvenor side, and we
+loved our many visits to Ardgowan both when we went to the moors and in
+after years. There were excursions on the hills and bathing in the
+salt-water of the Clyde, fishing from boats, and shells to be collected on
+the beach. Also my uncle had a beautiful yacht in which he took us
+expeditions towards Arran and to Loch Long from which we were able to go
+across the mountain pass to Loch Lomond.</p>
+
+<p>My grandmother Lady Leigh died in 1860, before which time she used to pay
+lengthened visits to Stoneleigh accompanied by three or four unmarried
+daughters. She was a fine handsome old lady. Her hair had turned white
+when she was about thirty-two, but, as old ladies did in those days, she
+wore a brown front with a black velvet band. She had a masterful temper
+and held her daughters in considerable awe, but, after the manner of
+grandparents, was very kind to us. I fancy that so many unmarried
+sisters-in-law may have been a slight trial to my mother, but we regarded
+our aunts as additional playfellows bound to provide us with some kind of
+amusement. The favourite was certainly &#8220;Aunt Georgy,&#8221; the youngest
+daughter but one. She had an unfailing flow of spirits, could tell stories
+and join in games, and never objected to our invasion of her room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> at any
+time. Poor &#8220;Aunt Gussie&#8221; (Augusta) was less fortunate: she had bad health
+and would scold us to make us affectionate&mdash;an unsuccessful method to say
+the least of it&mdash;the natural result was, I fear, that we teased her
+whenever opportunity offered. Aunt Georgie was very good-looking and I
+believe much admired. She did not, however, marry till she was about
+forty. A Colonel Newdigate, whose runaway horse she had stopped when quite
+a girl, had fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her. She
+persistently refused and he married someone else. When his wife died, he
+returned to his first affection and ultimately melted my Aunt&#8217;s heart. She
+had no children of her own, but was a good stepmother to his only son&mdash;now
+Sir Frank Newdegate, Governor of West Australia.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LIFE AT STONELEIGH</div>
+
+<p>Stoneleigh offered every possible amusement to children&mdash;long galleries
+and passages to race up and down, a large hall for battledore and
+shuttlecock and other games, parks and lawns for riding and cricket, and
+the River Avon at the bottom of the garden for fishing and boating, not to
+mention skating in hard winters. People are apt to talk and write as if
+&#8220;Early Victorian&#8221; and &#8220;Mid-Victorian&#8221; children were kept under strict
+control and made to treat their elders with respectful awe. I cannot
+recall any undue restraint in our case. As I have already said, our mother
+was an influence which no one would have attempted to resist, but she
+never interfered with any reasonable happiness or amusement. Our father
+was the most cheerful of companions, loving to take us about to any kind
+of sights or entertainments which offered, and buying us toys and presents
+on every possible occasion. The only constraint put upon us, which is not
+often used with the modern child, concerned religious observance. We had
+to come in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> to daily Prayers at 10 o&#8217;clock even if it interfered with
+working in our gardens or other out-door amusement&mdash;and church twice on
+Sundays was the invariable rule as soon as we were old enough to walk to
+the neighbouring villages of Stoneleigh and Ashow, or to attend the
+ministrations of the chaplain who generally officiated once each Sunday in
+the chapel in the house. We had to learn some &#8220;Scripture lesson&#8221; every day
+and two or three on Sundays, and I being the eldest had not only to repeat
+these Sunday lessons to my mother, but also to see in a general way that
+my younger brothers and sisters knew theirs. I was made to learn any
+number of chapters and hymns, and Scripture catechisms&mdash;not to speak of
+the Thirty-nine Articles! At last when mother and governess failed to find
+something more to learn by heart I was told to commit portions of Thomas &agrave;
+Kempis to memory. Here, I grieve to confess, I struck&mdash;that is to say, I
+did not venture actually to refuse, but I repeated the good brother&#8217;s
+words in such a disagreeable and discontented tone of voice that no one
+could stand it, and the attempt to improve me in this way was tacitly
+abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img1.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">STONELEIGH ABBEY.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">RECTORS AND VICARS</div>
+
+<p>On the whole I feel sure that the advantages of acquiring so many great
+truths, and generally in beautiful language, far outweighed any passing
+irritation that a young girl may have felt with these &#8220;religious
+obligations.&#8221; If it is necessary to distinguish between High and Low
+Church in these matters, I suppose that my parents belonged to the
+orthodox Evangelical School. I have a vague recollection of one Vicar of
+Stoneleigh still preaching in the black silk Geneva gown. At Ashow&mdash;the
+other church whose services we attended&mdash;the Rector when I was small was
+an old Charles Twisleton, a cousin of my father&#8217;s.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> He, however, had
+discarded the black gown long before my day. My father told me that when
+the new Oxford School first took to preaching in surplices Mr. Twisleton
+adopted this fashion. Thereupon the astonished family at the Abbey
+exclaimed, &#8220;Oh, Cousin Charles, are you a Puseyite?&#8221; &#8220;No, my dears,&#8221; was
+the confidential reply, &#8220;but black silk gowns are very expensive and mine
+was worn out.&#8221; Probably many poor clergymen were glad to avail themselves
+of this economical form of ritual. I have an idea that Rudyard Kipling&#8217;s
+Norman Baron&#8217;s advice to his son would have appealed to my parents had it
+been written in their day:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Be polite but not friendly to Bishops,<br />
+And good to all poor Parish priests.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I feel that they were &#8220;friendly to Bishops&#8221; when they met, and they were
+certainly good to all the Rectors and Vicars of the various villages which
+belonged to my father or of which the livings were in his gift, but they
+had no idea of giving their consciences into ecclesiastical keeping. In
+fact my grandmother Westminster once said to my mother, &#8220;My dear, you and
+I spend much of our lives in rectifying the errors of the clergy&#8221;; those
+excellent men often failing in business capacity.</p>
+
+<p>The church services at both our churches were simple to a degree. At
+Stoneleigh the organ was in the gallery and the hymns were sung by the
+schoolchildren there. The pulpit and reading-desk were part of what used
+to be called a &#8220;three-decker&#8221; with a second reading-desk for the clerk.
+This was exactly opposite our large &#8220;Squire&#8217;s Pew&#8221; across the aisle. There
+had from time immemorial been a Village Harvest Home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> with secular
+rejoicings, but at last there came the great innovation of service with
+special decoration and appropriate Psalms and Lessons in church. I do not
+know the exact year, but think that it must have been somewhere in the
+sixties, after my Uncle James&mdash;my father&#8217;s youngest brother&mdash;became Vicar
+of Stoneleigh, as it must have been his influence which induced my father
+to consent to what he considered slightly ritualistic.</p>
+
+<p>However, all went well till it came to the Special Psalms. The choir had
+nothing to do with leading responses&mdash;these pertained to the clerk&mdash;old
+Job Jeacock&mdash;and when the first &#8220;special&#8221; was given out he utterly failed
+to find it. The congregation waited while he descended from his
+desk&mdash;walked across the aisle to our pew and handed his Prayerbook to me
+that I might help him out of his difficulty!</p>
+
+<p>Decorations in the churches at Christmas were fully approved, and of
+course the house was a bower of holly, ivy and mistletoe&mdash;these were
+ancient customs never omitted in our home. Christmas was a glorious time,
+extending from the Villagers&#8217; Dinner on S. Thomas&#8217;s Day to the Ball on our
+father&#8217;s birthday, January 17th&mdash;a liberal allowance. The children dined
+down on both Christmas Day and New Year&#8217;s Day, and there was always a
+Christmas Tree one evening laden with toys and sweetmeats. Among other
+Christmas customs there was the bullet-pudding&mdash;a little hill of flour
+with a bullet on the top. Each person in turn cut a slice of the pudding
+with his knife, and when the bullet ultimately fell into the flour whoever
+let it down had to get it out again with his mouth. Snap-dragon was also a
+great institution. The raisins had to be seized from a dish of burning
+spirits of wine,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> presided over by &#8220;Uncle Jimmy&#8221; (the clergyman) dressed
+as a ghost in a sheet, who had regularly on this occasion to thrill us
+with a recitation of &#8220;Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene&#8221;&mdash;the faithless
+lady who was carried off from her wedding feast by the ghost of her lover.
+Of course her fate was inextricably mixed up in our minds with the flame
+of the snap-dragon.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THEATRICALS</div>
+
+<p>Twelfth Night, with drawing for characters, was duly honoured&mdash;nor were
+private theatricals forgotten. Like all children we loved dressing-up and
+acting. The first &#8220;regular&#8221; play with family and household for audience in
+which we performed was <i>Bluebeard</i>, written in verse by my mother, in
+which I was Fatima. After that we had many performances&mdash;sometimes of
+plays written by her and sometimes by myself. I do not think that we were
+budding Irvings or Ellen Terrys, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and
+the audiences were tolerant.</p>
+
+<p>More elaborate theatricals took place at Hams Hall, the house of Sir
+Charles Adderley (afterwards Lord Norton), who married my father&#8217;s eldest
+sister. They had a large family, of whom five sons and five daughters grew
+up. These young people were devoted to acting and some of us occasionally
+went over to assist&mdash;at least I recollect performing on one occasion&mdash;and
+we often saw these cousins either at Hams or at Stoneleigh, the houses
+being at no great distance apart. The youngest son, afterwards well known
+as Father Adderley, was particularly fond of dressing up&mdash;he was a
+well-known actor&mdash;and I am not sure that he did not carry his histrionic
+tastes into the Church of which he was a greatly esteemed prop. Another
+numerous family of cousins were the children of my father&#8217;s fifth sister,
+married to the Rev. Henry Cholmondeley&mdash;a son of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Lord Delamere&mdash;who held
+the living of my father&#8217;s other place&mdash;Adlestrop. Uncle Cholmondeley was
+clever and devoted enough to teach all his five sons himself without
+sending them to preparatory schools; and between his teaching and their
+abilities, most, if not all, of them won scholarships to aid their careers
+at public schools. With their four sisters they were a noisy but amusing
+set of companions, and we always enjoyed their visits. My father&#8217;s
+youngest sister was not old enough for her children to be our actual
+contemporaries, but when she did marry&mdash;Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower of
+Titsey&mdash;she had twelve sons and three daughters&mdash;a good record.</p>
+
+<p>My mother&#8217;s sisters rivalled my father&#8217;s in adding to the population&mdash;one,
+Lady Macclesfield, having had fifteen children, of whom twelve were alive
+to attend her funeral when she died at the age of ninety. So I reckoned at
+one time that I had a hundred <i>first</i> cousins alive, and generally found
+one in whatever quarter of the globe I chanced to visit.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of theatrical performances, I should specially mention my
+father&#8217;s next brother, Chandos Leigh, a well-known character at the Bar,
+as a Member of the Zingari, and in many other spheres. Whenever
+opportunity served and enough nephews and nieces were ready to perform he
+wrote for us what he called &#8220;Businesses&#8221;&mdash;variety entertainments to follow
+our little plays&mdash;in which we appeared in any capacity&mdash;clowns, fairies,
+Shakespeare or Sheridan characters, or anything else which occurred to him
+as suited to our various capacities, and for which he wrote clever and
+amusing topical rhymes.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<p class="title">A VICTORIAN GIRL</p>
+
+<p>The Christmas festivities of 1862 had to be suspended, as my mother&#8217;s
+health again obliged my father to take her to the South of France. This
+time I was their sole companion, the younger children remaining in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled by easy stages, sleeping at Folkestone, Boulogne, Paris,
+Dijon, Lyons, Avignon, and Toulon. I kept a careful journal of our travels
+on this occasion, and note that at Lyons we found one of the chief silk
+manufactories employed in weaving a dress for Princess Alexandra, then
+engaged to the Prince of Wales. It had a gold rose, shamrock and thistle
+combined on a white ground. There also we crossed the Rh&ocirc;ne and saw in the
+hospital at Ville Neuve, among other curious old paintings, one by King
+R&eacute;n&eacute; d&#8217;Anjou. It represented the Holy Family, and my childish eyes carried
+away the impression of a lovely infant patting a soft woolly lamb. So
+completely was I fascinated that, being again at Lyons after my marriage,
+I begged my husband to drive out specially to see the picture of my dream.
+Alas! ten years had changed my eyesight, and instead of the ideal figures,
+I saw a hard stiff Madonna and Child, with a perfectly wooden lamb. I
+mention this because I have often thought that the populace who were so
+enraptured with a Madonna like Cimabue&#8217;s in S. Maria Novella at Florence
+<i>saw</i> as I did something beyond what was actually there. Grand and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+stately it is, but I think that unsophisticated eyes must have endowed it
+with motherly grace and beauty, as I gave life and softness to the baby
+and the lamb.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MENTONE</div>
+
+<p>We went on by train from Toulon as far as Les Arcs and then drove to
+Fr&eacute;jus, and next day to Cannes. Whether the train then only went as far as
+Les Arcs or whether my parents preferred the drive through the beautiful
+scenery I do not know&mdash;anyhow we seem to have thoroughly enjoyed the
+drive. I note that in April we returned from Cannes to Toulon by a new
+railroad. Cannes was a little seaside country town in those days, with few
+hotels and villas such as have sprung up in the last half-century; but
+even then it attracted sufficient visitors to render hotel accommodation a
+difficulty, and we had to shorten our intended stay. We went to pay our
+respects to the ex-Lord Chancellor Brougham, already King of Cannes. He
+was then eighty-five, and I have a vague recollection of his being very
+voluble; but I was most occupied with his great-nephew, a brother of the
+present Lord Brougham, who had a little house of his own in the garden
+which was enough to fascinate any child. From Cannes we drove to Nice,
+about which I record that &#8220;the only thing in Nice is the sea.&#8221; We had
+considerable difficulty in our next stage from Nice to Mentone, as a rock
+had in one place fallen from the top of a mountain to the valley below and
+filled up part of the road with the d&eacute;bris of its fall. At Mentone we
+spent over three weeks, occupied in walks with my father and drives with
+him and my mother, or sometimes he walked while I rode a donkey up the
+mountains. There was considerable political excitement at that time,
+Mentone having only been ceded by Italy to France in 1861 and the natives
+being by no means reconciled to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> French rule. There was a great local
+feeling for Garibaldi, and though the &#8220;Inno Garibaldi&#8221; was forbidden I
+fear that my mother occasionally played it in the hotel, and any listener
+(such as the waiter) who overheard it beamed accordingly. I happened to
+have a scarlet flannel jacket for outdoor wear, and remember women in the
+fields shouting out to me &#8220;Petite Garibaldi.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>My mother often sat on the beach or among olive trees to draw while I
+read, or looked at the sea, or made up stories or poems, or invented
+imaginary kingdoms to be shared with my sister and brothers on my
+return&mdash;I fear always reserving supreme dominion for my own share.</p>
+
+<p>When we left England the idea had been to continue our travels as far as
+Rome, but my mother&#8217;s health forbade, as the doctor said that the
+cold&mdash;particularly of the Galleries&mdash;would be too much for her. It was a
+great disappointment, above all to her, but she was very good in
+submitting. As so long a tranquil sojourn anywhere had not been
+contemplated, our library was rather restricted, but two little volumes
+which she had brought, one of Dryden, and Milton&#8217;s &#8220;Paradise Regained,&#8221;
+afforded me happy hours. Also I perpetrated an Epic in six Cantos on the
+subject of Rienzi! From Mentone we went to San Remo for a week, returning
+to Mentone February 17th, when preparations began for a F&ecirc;te to be given
+by the English and Danish to the inhabitants of the town on the occasion
+of the Prince of Wales&#8217;s marriage. Old Lord Glenelg was, I believe,
+nominal President, but my father was the moving spirit&mdash;entertaining the
+populace being for him a thoroughly congenial task.</p>
+
+<p>Many years afterwards in Samoa Robert Louis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> Stevenson told me that he was
+at Mentone with his father at the time of the festivities, but he was a
+young boy, and neither he nor I knew under what circumstances we were
+ultimately to make acquaintance. There were all sorts of complications to
+be overcome&mdash;for one thing it was Lent and my father had to obtain a
+dispensation from M. le Cur&eacute; for his flock to eat meat at the festal
+dinner. This was accorded on condition that fish was not also consumed.
+Then there appeared great questions as to who would consent to sit down
+with whom. We were told that orange-pickers would not sit down with
+orange-carriers. As a matter of fact I believe that it was against
+etiquette for women to sit down with the men, and that in the end 300
+workmen sat down in the garden of the H&ocirc;tel Victoria (where we were
+staying) and I can still recollect seeing the women standing laughing
+behind them while the men handed them portions of food. Posts were
+garlanded with heath and scarlet geraniums, and decorated with English,
+French, and Danish flags and portraits of Queen Victoria and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales. The festivities included a boat-race and other
+races, and ended with illuminations and fireworks at night. All went off
+splendidly, though the wind rather interfered with lighting the little
+lamps which decorated some of the buildings.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with the Prince&#8217;s wedding I heard one story which I believe
+was told by my aunt Macclesfield&mdash;(appointed Lady-in-Waiting to the
+Princess) to my mother, which as far as I know has never appeared in
+print.</p>
+
+<p>The present ex-Kaiser, then little Prince William aged four, came over
+with his parents for the wedding. He appeared at the ceremony in a
+Scottish suit, whereupon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> the German ladies remonstrated with his mother,
+saying that they understood that he was to have worn the uniform of a
+Prussian officer. &#8220;I am very sorry,&#8221; said his mother; &#8220;he had it on, but
+Beatrice and Leopold&#8221; (the Duke of Albany) &#8220;thought that he looked so
+ridiculous with tails that they cut them off, and we had to find an old
+Scottish suit of his uncle&#8217;s for him to wear!&#8221; An early English protest
+against militarism!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">GENOA</div>
+
+<p>Two days after the excitement of these royal festivities we again left
+Mentone by road for Genoa, which we reached March 16th, having stopped on
+the way at San Remo, Alassio, and Savona. At Genoa we joined my mother&#8217;s
+sister Agnes and her husband, Sir Archibald Campbell (of Garscube), and
+saw various sights in their company.</p>
+
+<p>I knew very little of my Uncle Archibald, as he died comparatively young.
+At Genoa he was certainly very lively, and I fear that I contrived
+unintentionally but naturally to annoy him&mdash;it only shows how Italian
+politics excited everyone, even a child. He had seen some map in which the
+Italians had marked as their own territory, not only what they had lately
+acquired, but all to which they then aspired; I hardly imagine the
+Trentino, but certainly Venice. Uncle Archy scoffed at their folly&mdash;with
+precocious audacity, and I suppose having heard such Italian views at
+Mentone, I asserted that they would ere long have both Venice and Rome! He
+was quite indignant. It was impertinent of me, as I knew nothing of their
+power or otherwise, but it was a good shot!</p>
+
+<p>I have heard that Sir Archibald&#8217;s mother was a stately old Scottish lady
+who thought a great deal of family, and precedence, and that one day he
+scandalised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> her by asking, &#8220;Well, mother, what would be the precedence of
+an Archangel&#8217;s eldest son?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Aggy was broken-hearted when he died, and always delicate, fell into
+very ill-health. When the Franco-German War broke out she set to work
+undauntedly for the sick and wounded, and positively wanted to go abroad
+to nurse in some hospital&mdash;probably in Germany. A certain very clever Dr.
+Frank, of German-Jewish descent, was to make arrangements. The whole
+Grosvenor family and all its married connections were up in arms, and my
+father was dispatched to remonstrate with her. With much annoyance and
+reluctance she gave in&mdash;and soon after married Dr. Frank! The family were
+again astounded, but after all when they knew him they realised that he
+made her happy and took to him quite kindly. My aunt and Dr. Frank lived a
+great deal at Cannes, where they had a nice villa&mdash;Grandbois&mdash;and many
+friends, and he had a tribe of admiring patients. Aunt Aggy was very
+charming and gentle and lived to a good age.</p>
+
+<p>From Genoa we drove in easy stages to Spezia, noting towns and villages on
+the way. It was a delightful means of travelling, walking up the hills and
+stopping at little townships for luncheon in primitive inns. Motors have
+somewhat revived this method of travel, but whirling along at a great pace
+can never allow you to see and enjoy all the lesser beauties which struck
+you in the old leisurely days. I have duly noted all sorts of trivial
+incidents in my journal, but they are much what occur in all such
+expeditions and I need not dilate on the beauties of mountain, sea, and
+sky which everyone knows so well. At Spezia we saw the scene of Shelley&#8217;s
+shipwreck, and on one coast of the Gulf the prison where Garibaldi had
+been interned not very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> long before. I record that it was a large
+building, and that his rooms, shown us by a sailor, were &#8220;very nice.&#8221; I
+trust that he found them so. After returning to our old quarters we left
+Mentone on April 15th, evidently with great regret and with a parting sigh
+to the voiturier who had driven us on all our expeditions, including those
+to Genoa and Spezia&mdash;also to my donkey-man and to the chambermaid. Looking
+back, I feel that these southern weeks were among the happiest of my life,
+and that something of the sunlight and mountain scenery remained as
+memories never effaced.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">TRAFALGAR VETERANS</div>
+
+<p>We returned to England by much the same route as our outward journey, only
+the railroad being now open from Cannes to Toulon a night at Fr&eacute;jus was
+unnecessary. I cannot remember whether it was on our outward or our
+homeward journey, but on one or the other we met at the Palace of the
+Popes at Avignon an old custodian who had fought at Trafalgar and been for
+some years prisoner in England. He showed with some pride an English book,
+and it amused my mother to recognise a translation from a German work of
+which she did not hold a high opinion. I do not suppose that the French
+soldier read enough of it to do him much harm.</p>
+
+<p>It is rather curious that my father on two or three occasions took us to
+see at Greenwich Hospital an old servant of Nelson&#8217;s who was with him at
+Trafalgar, so I have seen both a Frenchman and an Englishman who took part
+in that battle. Nelson&#8217;s servant had a little room hung all round with
+pictures of the hero. My father asked him whether the Admiral said the
+prayer which one print represents him as reciting on his knees before the
+battle. The man said he did not know what words he used, but he saw him
+kneel down to pray.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> On our way to Paris we spent a night at
+Fontainebleau&mdash;and finally reached Stoneleigh on May 1st, 1863.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of my mother&#8217;s numerous brothers and sisters, I ought not to omit
+the eldest, Eleanor, Duchess of Northumberland, who was a very great lady,
+handsome and dignified till her death at an advanced age. She had no
+children, but was admired and respected by many nephews and nieces. I
+believe that her country neighbours regarded her as almost royal,
+curtsying when she greeted them. I remember her telling me that she could
+not go and hear some famous preacher in London because she would not have
+her carriage out on Sunday and had never been in any sort of cab. What
+would she have thought of the modern fashion of going in omnibuses?
+However, a year or two before her death the late Duke of Northumberland
+(grandson of her husband&#8217;s cousin and successor) told me with great glee
+that they had succeeded in getting Duchess Eleanor into a taxi and that
+she had enjoyed it very much. I cannot think how they managed it. She
+lived during her widowhood at Stanwick Park, and my youngest sister
+Cordelia had a rather comical experience when staying with her there on
+one occasion. My aunt, among other tabooed innovations, altogether
+objected to motors and would not allow any through her Lodge gates.
+Previous to her visit to Stanwick, Cordelia had stayed with the Lawsons at
+Brayton in Cumberland and while there had been stopped by a policeman for
+riding a tricycle after dark without a light. She left her address with
+the Lawson family, and while at Stanwick the local policeman appeared,
+absolutely trembling at having been forced to enter these sacred
+precincts, to summon her in that she &#8220;drove a carriage, to wit a tricycle,
+between the hours, etc.&#8221; The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> household managed to keep it dark from Aunt
+Eleanor, and Cordelia sent authority to the Lawson family to settle the
+case and pay the fine&mdash;but what would the aunt have said had she known of
+her niece&#8217;s crime and penalty?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD MUNCASTER AND GREEK BRIGANDS</div>
+
+<p>Lady Macclesfield, the second daughter, I have already mentioned. The
+surviving sister (one having died young) next above my mother in age was
+Elizabeth Lady Wenlock, who was very clever and, among her nine children,
+had charming daughters to whom I may refer later on. Then after my mother
+came Octavia and Agnes&mdash;and then Jane, married to Lord Muncaster, who died
+seven years later at Castellamare, leaving her with one little girl of
+about two years old. Margaret or Mimi, as we called her, was a great
+interest when the young widowed mother brought her to stay with us, soon
+after her father&#8217;s death. She was a dear little girl, and we were told
+that she was a great heiress, and somehow in the hands of the Lord
+Chancellor. Her father had died without a will, and all the property,
+including the beautiful Muncaster Castle in Cumberland, went to the child
+though her uncle succeeded to the title. However, poor little Mimi died
+when she was eleven years old, so her uncle succeeded to the property
+after all. He was the Lord Muncaster who was captured by the brigands near
+Marathon in 1870 with his wife and her sister, Miss L&#8217;Estrange, Mr. Vyner,
+Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, and two other men. The brigands let the ladies go
+without injury&mdash;Lady Muncaster had hidden her rings in her mouth to
+protect them&mdash;but they would only let one man go to get ransom for the
+rest. The men drew lots and it fell to Vyner, but he absolutely refused to
+take the chance, saying that he was a bachelor and Lord Muncaster a
+married man. Instead of ransom the Greek<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Government sent troops. The
+brigands were annihilated, but they first killed Vyner and his companions.
+It was said that the Government stood in with the brigands, but I have
+never quite understood why, if so, the former did not prefer the money to
+the death of their allies&mdash;unless they thought that they would have to
+produce the ransom. Lord Muncaster always had his head hanging a little to
+one side, and in my youth I had a floating idea that it was from permanent
+grief at the tragedy. Meantime my Aunt Jane married a second time, a
+brother of Lord Crawford&#8217;s. She was pretty, with green eyes and a nervous
+manner. She was a beautiful needlewoman and I believe a true musician.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GROSVENOR FAMILY</div>
+
+<p>One more Grosvenor aunt must be remembered, my mother&#8217;s youngest sister
+Theodora. I have heard that my grandmother was greatly distressed at the
+loss of her fourth daughter, Evelyn, who died as a child, although there
+were seven surviving sisters, therefore when another girl-baby arrived she
+called her Theodora&mdash;the gift of God. Certainly she was greatly attached
+to the child, and I fancy that the little Theodora was given much more
+spoiling and freedom than her elder sisters. She was very lively and
+amusing, and being the only daughter left unmarried when my grandfather
+died&mdash;in 1869&mdash;she became her mother&#8217;s constant companion. When she
+ultimately married a brother of Lord Wimborne&#8217;s she and Mr. Merthyr Guest
+continued to live with my grandmother, who endowed them with a large
+fortune. Mr. Guest died some years ago, but Aunt Theodora still lives&mdash;and
+has one daughter.</p>
+
+<p>My grandfather was a quiet old gentleman as far as I recollect him&mdash;he is
+somehow associated in my mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> with carpet slippers and a diffident
+manner. He was what they call of a &#8220;saving&#8221; disposition, but I really
+believe that he was oppressed with his great wealth, and never sure that
+he was justified in spending much on himself and his family. When he
+became a thorough invalid before his death he was ordered to take certain
+pills, and in order to induce him to do so my grandmother would cut them
+in two and take half herself. After his death his halves were discovered
+intact done up with red tape!</p>
+
+<p>During his lifetime I stayed with my parents once or twice at the old
+Eaton Hall, before my uncle (the first Duke) built the present Palace. It
+was a nice, comfortable house. I have heard, from a neighbour who
+recollected the incident, that when it was being built the workmen
+employed would chisel rough representations of each other&#8217;s features in
+the gargoyles which formed part of the decoration. I suppose that was done
+in ancient times by the men who built the churches and colleges of those
+days.</p>
+
+<p>My grandparents besides these numerous daughters had four sons&mdash;two, both
+named Gilbert, died, one as a baby, the other, a sailor, as a young man.
+The late Duke was my godfather and always very kind to me, particularly
+when, after my marriage, I stayed on more than one occasion at the new
+Eaton. I never knew a man more anxious to do all he could for the people
+about him, whether in the country or on his London property. He had very
+much the feeling of a patriarch and loved nothing better than to have
+about him the generations of his family. It was a complicated family, as
+he married first his own first cousin, Constance Leveson-Gower, and after
+her death the sister of his son-in-law Lord Chesham, husband of his
+second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> daughter Beatrice. I cannot quite unravel it, but somehow he was
+brother-in-law to his own daughter. The youngest son, Richard, a quaint,
+amusing man, was created Lord Stalbridge.</p>
+
+<p>Having said so much of my mother&#8217;s family, I think I should mention the
+two sisters of my father whom I have hitherto omitted. One was his second
+sister, Emma&mdash;a typical and excellent maiden aunt. She was principally
+noted for being my sister Agnes&#8217;s godmother and feeling it her duty to
+hear her Catechism&mdash;but neither Agnes nor any of us minded; in fact I
+remember&mdash;I suppose on some wet Sunday&mdash;that we all insisted on sharing
+the Scripture lesson and were given figs in consequence. The third sister
+was Caroline, twin with Augusta, but very different, for whereas Aunt
+Gussie was delicate and nervous, not to say irritable, Aunt Car was slow
+and substantial. She ended with marrying when no longer very young an old
+cousin of my father&#8217;s, a clergyman, Lord Saye and Sele, who had actually
+baptized her early in life. She made him an excellent wife; she had
+numerous step-children, though none of her own. Looking back on these
+Early Victorian uncles and aunts with their various wives and husbands, I
+cannot but claim that they were good English men and women, with a keen
+sense of duty to their tenants and neighbours rich and poor. Of course
+they varied immensely in character and had their faults like other people,
+but I cannot recall one, either man or woman, who did not try to act up to
+a standard of right, and think I was fortunate to have been brought up
+among them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">UNCLES AND AUNTS</div>
+
+<p>In my younger days I had also living several great-uncles and aunts on
+both sides, but the only one whom I can spare time and space to mention
+here is my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Grandfather Leigh&#8217;s sister, Caroline Lady East. When she was
+young Mr. East fell in love with her and she with him, but he was an
+impecunious youth and my great-grandparents would not permit the marriage.
+Whereupon he disguised himself as a hay-maker and contrived an interview
+with his lady-love in which they exchanged vows of fidelity. Then he went
+to India, where he remained eleven years, and returned to find the lady
+still faithful, and having accumulated a sufficient fortune married her.
+They had a nice little country house on the borders of Oxfordshire and
+Gloucestershire, and, though they had no children, were one of the
+happiest old couples I ever knew. My great-aunt died in 1870, but Uncle
+East lived till over ninety and went out hunting almost to the end&mdash;so
+eleven years of India had not done him much harm. He stayed with us at
+Middleton after my marriage when old Lord Abingdon was also a guest. Lord
+Abingdon must have been over seventy at the time, but a good deal younger
+than Sir James. They had known each other in youth and were quite
+delighted to meet again, but each confided separately to my husband and
+myself that he had thought that the other old fellow was dead. However,
+they made great friends, and in token of reunion Lord Abingdon sent his
+servant to cut Uncle East&#8217;s corns!</p>
+
+<p>To return to my recollections of my own girlhood. I think that it must
+have been in 1864 that I had a bad attack of chicken-pox which temporarily
+hurt my eyes and left me somewhat weak. Either in that autumn or the
+following one my parents took me to the Isle of Arran and left me there
+for a time with a maid&mdash;while they accompanied my brother Gilbert back to
+school. I loved the Isle of Arran, and was only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>disturbed by the devotion
+of a child-niece of the landlady&#8217;s who would follow me about everywhere.
+The only way of escape was to go&mdash;or attempt to go&mdash;into the mountains of
+which she was afraid, knowing that there were giants there.</p>
+
+<p>I must not omit one honour which I enjoyed in 1865. My mother took me to
+see my Aunt Macclesfield, who was in Waiting at Marlborough House when His
+present Majesty was born. My aunt welcomed us in the Princess of Wales&#8217;s
+pretty sitting-room hung with a kind of brocade with a pattern of roses.
+The baby was then brought in to be admired, and to my gratification I was
+allowed to hold the little Prince in my arms. I did not then realise that
+in after years I could claim to have nursed my King.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards we used to hear a good deal of the American Civil War.
+We were too young to have much opinion as to the rival causes, but there
+was a general impression conveyed to our minds that the &#8220;Southerners were
+gentlemen.&#8221; Some time after the war was over, in December 1868, Jefferson
+Davis, the Southern (Confederate) President, came to stay at Stoneleigh.
+He was over in Europe on parole. We were told that he had been in prison,
+and one of my younger brothers was anxious to know whether we &#8220;should see
+the marks of the chains.&#8221; We had a favourite old housemaid who was
+preparing his room, and we imparted to her the thrilling information of
+his former imprisonment. Her only response was &#8220;Umph, well, I suppose he
+won&#8217;t want these silver candlesticks.&#8221; A large bedroom was being prepared
+for him, but she considered that silver candlesticks were only for ladies,
+and that presidents and prisoners were not entitled to such luxuries.</p>
+
+<p>He proved to be a benevolent old gentleman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> who impressed my cousins and
+myself by the paternal way in which he addressed any elder girl as
+&#8220;daughter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After this&mdash;but I cannot remember the particular years&mdash;we went in the
+autumn to Land&#8217;s End, The Lizard, and Tintagel, and also had villas at
+Torquay and Bournemouth respectively, but our experiences were too
+ordinary to be worthy of record. I think I was about seventeen when I went
+with my parents to Vichy, where my father drank the waters&mdash;and we went on
+to some beautiful Auvergne country. This was my last excursion abroad with
+my parents before I married.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CONFIRMATION</div>
+
+<p>In 1867 I was confirmed. The church which we attended was in Park Street.
+It has since been pulled down, but was then regarded as specially the
+church of the Westminster family. My grandparents sat in a large pew
+occupying the length of the gallery at the west end of the church. We had
+a pew in the south gallery with very high sides, and my early
+recollections are of sitting on a dusty red hassock from which I could see
+little but the woodwork during a very long sermon. One Sunday when I was
+approaching years of discretion the clergyman gave out notice of a
+Confirmation, with the usual intimation that Candidates should give in
+their names in the Vestry. My mother told me to do this accompanied by my
+younger brother (Gilbert) as chaperon. The clergyman seemed a good deal
+surprised, and I rather fancy that I was the only Candidate. He was an old
+man who had been there for a long time. He said that he would come and see
+me at my parents&#8217; house, and duly arrived at 37 Portman Square. I was sent
+in to my father&#8217;s sitting-room for the interview, and I believe that he
+was more embarrassed than I was, for I had long been led to regard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+Confirmation as the proper sequence to learning my Catechism and a fitting
+step in religious life. The clergyman somewhat uneasily remarked that he
+had to ascertain that I knew my Catechism, and asked me to say it. This I
+could have done in my sleep, as it had for years formed part of my Sunday
+instruction. When I ended he asked after a slight pause whether I knew why
+the Nicene Creed was so called. This was unexpected pleasure. I had lately
+read Milman&#8217;s <i>Latin Christianity</i> to my mother, and should have enjoyed
+nothing better than delivering to my pastor a short lecture on the Arian
+and Athanasian doctrines. When I began it, however, he hastily cut me
+short, saying that he saw that I knew all about it&mdash;how old was I?
+&#8220;Seventeen and a half.&#8221; &#8220;Quite old enough,&#8221; said he, and told me that he
+would send me my ticket, and when I went to the church someone would show
+me where to sit. This ended my preparation as far as he was concerned. I
+believe he intimated to my parents that he would see Miss Leigh again, but
+in practice he took care to keep clear of the theological <i>enfant
+terrible</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I was duly confirmed on May 31st, by Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London. I feel
+sure that my mother amply supplied any lacun&aelig; left by the poor old
+clergyman. No doubt in those days Preparation for Confirmation was not
+regarded as seriously as at present, but I do not think that mine was
+quite typical, as some of my contemporary cousins underwent a much more
+serious course of instruction.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">&#8220;COMING OUT&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>That autumn I began to &#8220;come out&#8221; in the country. We went to a perfectly
+delightful ball at the Shaw-Stewarts&#8217; at Ardgowan, where the late Duke of
+Argyll&mdash;then Lord Lorne&mdash;excited my admiration by the way he danced reels
+in Highland costume. Thence my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> brother and I went to Hans Hall to the
+coming-of-age of my cousin Charles Adderley, now Lord Norton. The whole
+country-side swarmed to the festivities, and one party unable to obtain
+any other conveyance chartered a hearse. Miss Ferrier, in her novel <i>The
+Inheritance</i>, makes one of her female characters arrive at a country
+house, where she was determined to be received, in a hearse&mdash;but she was
+even more gruesome than my cousin&#8217;s guests as she accompanied the corpse!</p>
+
+<p>The following year (1868), May 12th, I was presented&mdash;Princess Christian
+held the Drawing-Room on behalf of the Queen, who still lived in
+retirement as far as social functions were concerned. She, however,
+attended this Drawing-Room for about half an hour&mdash;receiving the entr&eacute;e.
+Her devotion to the Prince Consort and to his memory was unparalleled. No
+doubt the fact that she had practically never had anyone with whom she
+could associate on equal terms until her marriage had a good deal to do
+with it. I know of a lady whom she summoned to sit with her when the
+Prince Consort was being carried to his funeral on the ground that she was
+a widow and could feel for her, and she said that her shudders when the
+guns went off were dreadful, and that she seemed unable to realise that
+here for the first time was something that she could not control.</p>
+
+<p>To return to my entry in the world. Naturally I went during 1868 and the
+three or four succeeding years to the balls, dinners, and garden parties
+usual in the course of the season. The &#8220;great houses&#8221; then existed&mdash;they
+had not been pulled down or turned into public galleries and offices.
+Stafford House, Grosvenor House, Northumberland House, and others
+entertained in royal style, and there were Garden Parties at Argyll Lodge
+and Airlie Lodge on Campden Hill, at Syon, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> at Chiswick, then in
+possession of the Duke of Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>In those days there was still a sort of question as to the propriety of
+waltzing. Valses and square dances were danced alternately at balls, and a
+few&mdash;but very few&mdash;girls were limited to the latter. Chaperones were the
+almost invariable rule and we went back to them between the dances.
+&#8220;Sitting-out&#8221; did not come in till some years later. In the country,
+however, there was plenty of freedom, and I never remember any restriction
+on parties of girls and young men walking or rowing together without their
+elders. By the time I came out my brother Gilbert (Gilly) was at Harrow
+and Dudley and Rupert at Mr. Lee&#8217;s Private School at Brighton. My special
+charge and pet Rowland was still at home, and the youngest of the family
+Cordelia a baby.</p>
+
+<p>Dudley and Rupy were inseparable. Duddy delicate, Rupy sturdy and full of
+mischief into which he was apt to drag his elder brother. I had to look
+after them, and see that they accomplished a few lessons in the
+holidays&mdash;no light task, but I was ready for anything to keep off holiday
+tutors and, I am afraid, to retain my position as elder sister. Love of
+being first was doubtless my besetting sin, and my good-natured younger
+brothers and sisters accepted my rule&mdash;probably also because it was easier
+than that of a real grown-up person. My mother had bad health, and my
+father took it for granted that it was my business to keep the young ones
+as far as possible out of mischief. As for my sister Agnes, she was always
+a saint, and I am afraid that I was a tyrant as far as she was concerned.
+Cordelia was born when I was over sixteen and was always rather like my
+child. Rowland was just seven when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> her arrival delighted the family, and
+his first remark when he heard that he had a little sister was &#8220;I wonder
+what she will think of my knickerbockers&#8221;&mdash;to which he had lately been
+promoted. Boys wore little tunics with belts when they first left off baby
+frocks, and sailor suits were not introduced when my brothers were
+children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">IRELAND</div>
+
+<p>My next special recollection is of a visit to Ireland which I paid in
+company with my parents, Gilbert, and Agnes in August 1869. We crossed in
+the <i>Leinster</i> and duly lionised Dublin. I kept a journal during this tour
+in which the sights of the city are duly noted with the remark, after
+seeing the post office, that we &#8220;made the various observations proper to
+intelligent but tired travellers.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The country&mdash;Bray, Glendalough, and the Seven Churches seem to have
+pleased us much better. I do not know whether the guides and country
+people generally are as free with their legends now as they were fifty
+years ago, but they told us any amount of stories to our great
+satisfaction. Brough, the guide at the Seven Churches, was particularly
+voluble and added considerably to the tales of St. Kevin given in the
+guide-book. St. Kevin, as recounted by Moore in his ballad, pushed
+Kathleen into the Lake when she would follow him. I remember that Brough
+was much embarrassed when I innocently asked <i>why</i> he did this. However,
+he discreetly replied: &#8220;If your honourable father and your honourable
+mother want you to marry a gentleman and you don&#8217;t like him, don&#8217;t push
+him into the water!&#8221; Excellent advice and not difficult to follow in a
+general way. When St. Kevin was alive the skylark used to sing early in
+the morning and waken the people who had been up late the night before at
+a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> wedding or merrymaking. When the Saint saw them looking so bad he
+asked, &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter?&#8221; On hearing that the lark would not let them
+get any sleep, he laid a spell that never more should lark sing above that
+lake. This encouragement of late hours seems rather inconsistent with his
+general asceticism. St. Kevin was more considerate to a blackbird than to
+the laverock. The former once laid her eggs on his extended hand, and he
+kept it held out until she had had time to build her nest in it and hatch
+her young.</p>
+
+<p>Brough was even better acquainted with fairies than with saints. He knew a
+man at Cork named Jack M&#8217;Ginn, a wool-comber, who was carried away by the
+fairies for seven years. At the end of that time he accompanied them to a
+wedding (fairies like weddings). There was present a young lady whom the
+fairies wanted to make sneeze three times, as if they could do so and no
+one said &#8220;God bless her&#8221; they could take her away. So they tickled her
+nose three times with horse-hair, but as they were withdrawing it the
+third time Jack cried out in Irish &#8220;God bless her.&#8221; This broke the spell,
+and Jack fell crashing down amongst the crockery, everyone ran away, and
+he arose retransformed to his natural shape.</p>
+
+<p>Another acquaintance of Brough&#8217;s&mdash;a stout farmer&mdash;met one evening three
+fairies carrying a coffin. Said one, &#8220;What shall we do for a fourth man?&#8221;
+&#8220;Switch the first man who passes,&#8221; replied the second. So they caught the
+farmer and made him carry it all night, till he found himself in the
+morning nearly dead not far from his own door. Our guide enjoined us to be
+sure, if fairies passed us in the air, to pick some blades of grass and
+throw them after them, saying &#8220;Good luck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> to you good folk&#8221;: as he sagely
+remarked, a civil word never does harm. As more prosaic recollections,
+Brough told us of the grand fights at Glendalough, when the young men were
+backed up by their sisters and sweethearts. The etiquette was for a young
+woman to take off her right stocking, put a stone in it and use it as a
+weapon, &#8220;and any woman who fought well would have twenty young farmers
+wanting to marry her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">KILLARNEY</div>
+
+<p>We stopped at Cork, whence we drove to see Blarney Castle and its stones.
+In those days, and probably still, there were two, one called the Ladies&#8217;
+Stone, which we three children all kissed, and another suspended by iron
+clamps from the top of the Castle, so that one had to lie down and hold on
+to the irons with one&#8217;s body partly over an open space&mdash;rather a
+break-neck proceeding, particularly in rising again. Only Gilly
+accomplished this. The railway to Glengariff then went as far as
+Dunmanway, whence it was necessary to drive. We slept at the Royal Hotel
+where we arrived in the evening, and to the end of my life I never shall
+forget the beauty of Bantry Bay as we saw it on waking next morning with
+all its islands mirrored in purple shadows. But the whole drive to
+Killarney, and above all the Lakes as they break upon your sight, are
+beyond description. We saw it all in absolutely glorious weather&mdash;possibly
+rare in those regions, but certainly the Lakes of Killarney impressed me
+then as more beautiful than either the Scottish or the English Lakes
+because of their marvellous richness of colour. After fifty years, and
+travels in many lands, I still imagine that they are only excelled in
+<i>colour</i> by the coral islands of the Pacific; but of course the Irish
+Lakes may dwell in my memory as more beautiful than they really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> are, as I
+saw them first when I had far fewer standards of comparison. Anyhow, they
+were like a glorious dream. We spent some enchanting days at Killarney and
+saw all the surrounding beauties&mdash;the Gap of Dunloe with the Serpent Lake
+in which St. Patrick drowned the last snake in Ireland (in a chest into
+which he enticed the foolish creature by promising to let it out again),
+Mangerton, the highest mountain in Ireland but one, and Carrantuohill, the
+highest of all, which my brother and sister and I were allowed to ascend
+on condition that the guide would take good care of us. However, when out
+of our parents&#8217; sight he found that he was troubled with a corn, and lay
+down to rest, confiding us to a ponyman who very nearly lost us in a fog.
+The ponies could only approach the base, the rest was pretty stiff
+climbing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE O&#8217;DONOGHUES</div>
+
+<p>The Upper, the Middle, and the Lower Lake are all lovely, but the last was
+particularly attractive from its connection with the local hero&mdash;the Great
+O&#8217;Donoghue, whose story we gleaned from our guides and particularly a boy
+who carried our luncheon basket up Mangerton. He was a magician and had
+the power of taking any shape he pleased, but he ended by a tremendous
+leap into the Lake, after which he never returned to his home. Once every
+seven years, however, between six and seven on May Day morning, he rides
+from one of the islands in the Lower Lake to the opposite shore, with
+fairies strewing flowers before him, and for the time his Castle also
+reappears. Any unmarried man who sees him will marry a rich wife, and any
+unmarried woman a rich husband. Our boatman pointed out an island where
+girls used to stand to see him pass, but no one ever saw him except an old
+boatman, and he had been married a long time, so the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> apparition did not
+help him. No O&#8217;Donoghue has ever been drowned since the hero&#8217;s
+disappearance. We heard two different versions of the cause of the
+tragedy. Both attributed it to his wife&#8217;s want of self-control. One
+related that the husband was in the habit of running about as a hare or a
+rabbit, and as long as she did not laugh all went well, but when he took
+this flying leap into the water she burst into a fit of laughter and
+thereby lost him permanently. Our boy guide&#8217;s story was more
+circumstantial and more dramatic. According to him, the O&#8217;Donoghue once
+turned himself into an eel, and knotted himself three times round Ross
+Castle, where he lived (a super-eel or diminutive castle!). This
+frightened the lady dreadfully, and he told her that if she &#8220;fritted&#8221;
+three times on seeing any of his wonders she would see him no more. Some
+time after he turned himself into a goose and swam on the lake, and she
+shrieked aloud, thinking to lose him. Finally he brought out his white
+horse and told her that this was her last chance of restraining her fears.
+She promised courage and kept quiet while he rode straight up the Castle
+wall, but when he turned to come down she fainted, whereupon, horse and
+all, he leapt into the water. The boy also declared that in the previous
+year he was seen by two boatmen, a lady and a gentleman, another man, and
+some &#8220;company,&#8221; whereupon the lady fainted&mdash;recalling the lady of
+O&#8217;Donoghue, it was the least she could do. In the lower Lake may still be
+seen rocks representing the chieftain&#8217;s pigeons, his spy-glass, his books
+containing the &#8220;Ould Irish,&#8221; and his mice (only to be seen on Sundays
+after prayers). In the Bitter Lake, which was pointed out to us from a
+distance, is the fairy-island where he dances with the fairies.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MYTHS AND LEGENDS</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>The O&#8217;Donoghue in his lifetime had his frivolous moments. He once changed
+a number of fern fronds into little pigs, which he took to the fair at
+Killarney and sold to the jobbers. They looked just like other pigs until
+the purchasers reached some running water. As we all know, running water
+dissolves any spell, and the pigs all turned back into little blades of
+fern. As testimony to the authenticity of this tale the water was duly
+shown to us. The O&#8217;Donoghue, however, knew that the jobbers would not
+remain placid under the trick, so he went home and told his maid to say,
+if anyone asked for him, that he had gone to bed and to sleep and could
+only be wakened by pulling his legs. The jobbers arrived, received the
+message, went in and pulled his legs, which immediately came off! Off they
+ran in alarm, thinking that they had killed the man, but the good
+O&#8217;Donoghue was only having his fun with them, so called them back and
+returned their money. We picked up a good deal of fairy-lore during our
+sojourn in the south of Ireland, and I record it as it may have passed
+away during the past half-century. The driver who took us to the Gap of
+Dunloe told me that in his mother&#8217;s time a woman working in the fields put
+down her baby. While she was out of the way the steward saw the fairies
+change it for a fairy-baby who would have been a plague to her all her
+life. So as the child was crying and shrieking he stood over it and
+declared that he would shoot the mother or anyone else who should come
+near it, and as no one came to comfort it the fairies could not leave
+their baby to cry like that, so they brought back the stolen child and
+took away their own. That steward was such a man of resource that one
+cannot help wishing that he were alive to deal with the Sinn Feiners of
+the present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> day. Another piece of good advice which we received was, if
+we saw a fairy (known by his red jacket) in a field to keep an eye fixed
+on him till we came up with him&mdash;then to take away his purse, and each
+time we opened it we should find a shilling. I regret to say that I never
+had the opportunity, but the guide, remarking my father&#8217;s tendency to give
+whenever asked, observed that he thought his lordship had found a fairy
+purse. It is a commonplace to notice the similarity of folk-lore in many
+lands pointing to a common origin, but it is rather curious to compare the
+tale of the O&#8217;Donoghue with that of the Physicians of Myddfai in South
+Wales. Only in that the husband, not the wife, caused the final tragedy.
+The fairy-wife, rising from the Lake, warns her mortal husband that she
+will disappear for ever if he strikes her three times. Long years they
+live in happiness, but thrice does he give her a slight blow to arouse her
+from unconventional behaviour at a christening, a wedding, and a funeral
+respectively. Thereupon she wends her way to the Lake and like a white
+cloud sinks into its waters. She leaves her sons a legacy of wisdom and
+healing skill, and from time to time a shadowy form and clear voice come
+to teach them still deeper knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>From the south of Ireland we went to the north, but I regret to say were
+not nearly so fascinated by the loyal Ulsterman as by the forthcoming sons
+of the south. Nevertheless we enjoyed the wild scenery of Lough Swilly and
+the legends connected with Dunluce Castle and the Giant&#8217;s Causeway. Among
+the tales of Dunluce was that of a banshee whose duty it is (or was) to
+keep clean one of the rooms in the ruin. The old man who showed us over
+declared that she did not always properly fulfil her task. She is supposed
+to be the spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> of a cook who fell over the rocks into the water and
+reappears as a tall woman with red hair. The place of cook must have been
+a rather trying one in ancient days, for the kitchen pointed out to us was
+on the edge of a precipice and we were told that once when a good dinner
+was prepared the attendants let it all fall into the sea! It was not,
+however, explained whether this was the occasion on which the like fate
+befell the cook. Possibly she died in a frantic effort to rescue it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GIANT BENADADDA</div>
+
+<p>The Giant&#8217;s Causeway was very interesting. We first entered Portcorn Cave,
+which has fine colours and a great deal of froth said to have been caused
+by the giant&#8217;s washerwoman washing a few collars there. The giant in
+question was called Fin MacCoul, and at the same time there lived another
+Giant in Scotland called Benadadda. Wishing to pass backwards and
+forwards, the two agreed that Fin should pave a way of columns and
+Benadadda should work it. Hence Fingal&#8217;s Cave&mdash;<i>gal</i> or <i>gael</i> meaning
+&#8220;the stranger&#8221;&mdash;presumably the name was given in compliment to the future
+guest. But the two champions found the work harder than they had expected,
+and Benadadda sent to tell Fin that if he did not make haste he must come
+over and give him a beating. Fin returned that he was not to put himself
+out, but to come if he pleased. Soon after Fin rushed in crying out to his
+wife, &#8220;Goodness gracious! he&#8217;s coming. I can&#8217;t face that fellow!&#8221; And he
+tumbled into bed.</p>
+
+<p>Soon Benadadda walked in. &#8220;Good day, ma&#8217;am. Ye&#8217;re Mrs. McCoul?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir; I percave you are Benadadda?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am ma&#8217;am. Is Fin at home?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s just gone into the garden for a few vegetables, but he&#8217;ll be back
+directly. Won&#8217;t ye take a cheer?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>&#8220;Thank you kindly&#8221;&mdash;and he sat down.</p>
+
+<p>She continued: &#8220;I&#8217;ve got a little boy in that cradle and we think he&#8217;s
+taything, fer he won&#8217;t give the fayther nor me any raste. Just put your
+finger along his gums.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Benadadda, unable to refuse a lady, put his fingers into Fin&#8217;s mouth, who
+promptly bit them off, and then jumping up called on Benadadda to come on.
+The Scottish giant, unable to fight with his wounded hand, told them, &#8220;I
+wish I&#8217;d never come among you craters,&#8221; and walked off. Mrs. MacCoul ran
+after him with an oatcake, but having tasted it he said, &#8220;Very good
+outside, but give the rest to your goodman&#8221;; for she had baked the tin
+girdle inside the cake. This is how I recorded the tale, which I suppose I
+picked up locally, but I have somewhere heard or read another account in
+which, without waiting for his fingers to be bitten off, Benadadda
+exclaimed, &#8220;Begorra, is that the baby? then I&#8217;ll be but a mouthful to the
+fellow himself,&#8221; and made off.</p>
+
+<p>I am unable to say which version is authentic, but neither seems to
+attribute undaunted valour to either champion, and both agree that Irish
+wit got the better of superior Scottish strength. I record these tales
+rather than attempt description of the Caves and other beauties of the
+coast, as the physical features remain and the legends may be forgotten.
+The great rocks shaped like columns are called the Giant&#8217;s Organs, and are
+(or were) supposed to play every Christmas morning. The tune they play is
+&#8220;St. Patrick&#8217;s day in the morning,&#8221; upon hearing which the whole Causeway
+dances round three times.</p>
+
+<p>We left Ireland at the end of August, having thoroughly enjoyed our
+travels there. It was then a peaceful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> country. The Queen had given her
+name to Queenstown Harbour in 1849, and I suppose had visited Killarney on
+the same occasion. Anyhow, memories of her stay still lingered there. I
+recollect even now the enthusiasm with which a boatman who had been one of
+those who had taken her on the Lake said, &#8220;I passed a long day looking at
+her.&#8221; It was a thousand pities that she did not often revisit Ireland.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<p class="title">MARRIAGE</p>
+
+<p>Next year&mdash;1870&mdash;all thoughts were to a large extent taken up with the
+Franco-German War. It does not seem to me that we took violent sides in
+the struggle. Naturally we were quite ignorant of the depths of cruelty
+latent in the German nature, or of the man&oelig;uvres on the part of
+Bismarck which had led to the declaration of war. We were fond of our
+sister&#8217;s French governess Mdlle. Verdure, and sorry for the terrible
+collapse of her country, but I think on the whole that the strongest
+feeling in our family was amazement at the revelation of inefficiency on
+the part of the French, mingled with some admiration for the completeness
+of German organisation. Anyhow, everyone was set to work to provide
+comforts for the sick and wounded on both sides&mdash;medical stores which I
+fancy would have been to a large extent condemned wholesale if submitted
+to the medical authorities during the late War, but which I am sure were
+very useful and acceptable in &#8217;70-71. As is well known, that winter was an
+exceptionally hard one&mdash;we had fine times skating, and I remember a very
+pleasant visit to old Lord Bathurst at Cirencester&mdash;but it must have been
+terrible in Paris. Our French man-cook had some refugee sisters quartered
+in the neighbourhood who were employed by my mother in dressmaking work
+for our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> benefit, but I do not know whether refugees were numerous in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>What did really excite us in common with all England were the excesses of
+the Commune. Never shall I forget the papers coming out with terrific
+headlines: &#8220;Paris in Flames&mdash;Burning of the Tuileries,&#8221; and so on. I
+passed the morning in floods of tears because they were &#8220;burning history,&#8221;
+and had to be rebuked by my mother for expressing the wish that the
+incendiaries could be soaked in petroleum and themselves set on fire.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1871 was rendered interesting to our family by the marriages of
+our two Leigh uncles&mdash;Chandos, commonly known among us as &#8220;Uncle Eddy,&#8221;
+married an amiable and good-looking Miss Rigby, who inherited money from a
+(deceased) Liverpool father. Uncle Eddy was a great character. A fine,
+athletic man, successful in every walk of life which he entered, a good
+horseman, cricketer and actor, he did well at the Bar and seemed to know
+practically everybody and to be friends with them all. He was blessed with
+supreme self-confidence and appeared innocently convinced that everyone
+was as much interested in his affairs as he was himself. This childlike
+disposition was really attractive, and quite outweighed the boyish conceit
+which endured to the end of a long and useful life.</p>
+
+<p>His love affairs with Miss Rigby were naturally very public property. I
+heard all about them from the beginning, and have no doubt that anyone of
+age to listen and capable of sympathising was similarly favoured. He
+originally proposed to the young lady after a few days&#8217; acquaintance, and
+she turned pale and said &#8220;You have no right to speak to me in this way.&#8221;
+Ups and downs followed, including a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>consultation with planchette, which
+quite properly wavered and shook and spoke with an uncertain voice. This
+was all in 1870. Some time in January we acted a small farce which I had
+perpetrated called <i>The Detective</i>. When it was over my uncle informed me
+that failing his marriage he intended to leave me a thousand pounds in
+recognition of this play. Fortunately I founded no hopes on that thousand
+pounds, for I think that it was the following morning when Uncle Eddy came
+shouting along the top corridor where we slept. &#8220;Margaret&mdash;you&#8217;ve lost
+your thousand pounds!&#8221; The post had come in and the fair lady had
+relented.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">FANNY KEMBLE</div>
+
+<p>James, my father&#8217;s youngest brother, called &#8220;Uncle Jimmy,&#8221; had travelled
+in the United States and been entertained on her plantation in Georgia by
+a charming Southern lady&mdash;a Miss Butler, daughter of the descendant of an
+old Irish family who had married the well-known actress Fanny Kemble. Mr.
+and Mrs. Pierce Butler had separated&mdash;not from any wrong-doing, but from
+absolute incompatibility of temper. For one thing the wife took up a
+violent anti-slavery attitude&mdash;a little awkward when (as she must have
+known when she married) the husband owned a cotton plantation worked by
+slave labour. However, the two daughters remained on friendly terms with
+both parents, and Mr. Butler died during&mdash;or shortly after&mdash;the war. One
+daughter married a Dr. Wister and became the mother of the well-known
+author, Owen Wister; the younger, Frances, married my uncle and was
+adopted into the family as &#8220;Aunt Fanny.&#8221; Though some ten or eleven years
+older than myself, she and I became the greatest friends, and I much liked
+her somewhat erratic, though withal stately, mother, who was called &#8220;Mrs.
+Kemble.&#8221; Both Uncles were married (on different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> days) in June 1871, my
+sister Agnes being bridesmaid to Miss Butler and I to Miss Rigby.</p>
+
+<p>Both marriages were very happy ones, though my Uncle Chandos ended his
+life in a dark cloud cast by the late War&mdash;in which he lost his only two
+sons, and his wife was killed in a motor accident not long after his
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Since I wrote above I have found an old journal from May 18th, 1868, to
+November 3rd, 1869. I do not extract much from it, as it largely consists
+of records of the various balls and entertainments which we attended&mdash;but
+it is rather amusing to note what circumstances, social and otherwise,
+struck the fancy of a girl in her first two seasons. Politically the Irish
+Church Bill seems to have been the burning question. We went to part of
+the Debate on the Second Reading (June 17th, 1869) in the House, and I not
+only give a summary of Lord Salisbury&#8217;s speech, but when the Bill was
+carried, devote over two pages of my journal to a full description of the
+details of the measure. The <i>causes c&eacute;l&egrave;bres</i> of Madame Rachel, the Beauty
+Doctor, and of the nun, Miss Saurin, against her Mother Superior, Mrs.
+Starr, appear also to have been topics of conversation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS</div>
+
+<p>One visit is perhaps worth recording. My father&#8217;s mother was a Miss Willes
+of an old family living on the borders of Northamptonshire and
+Oxfordshire&mdash;regular country people. One of her brothers, Charles, was
+married to a certain Polly&mdash;I think she was a Miss Waller, but anyhow they
+were a plump, old-fashioned pair. She was supposed to keep a book in which
+were recorded the names of over a hundred nephews and nieces, and to sell
+a pig to give a present to any one of the number who married. On the last
+day of 1868 my brother Gilly and I went with our Aunt Georgiana<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> to stay
+with this charming old couple at King-Sutton Manor House near Banbury.
+This is how I describe the New Year festivities of fifty years ago: &#8220;It is
+a queer old house like one in a storybook, full of corners. My wash-stand
+was in a recess with a window, separated from the rest of the room by
+doors so that it looked like a chapel. We had dinner between six and
+seven, a real Christmas dinner with nearly twenty people&mdash;great-uncle
+Charles, great-aunt Martha, great-aunt Sophy, George Willes, Willie
+Willes, Stany Waller, the clergyman Mr. Bruce, Aunt Polly herself beaming
+at the head of the table, turkey and beef stuck with holly, and the
+plum-pudding brought in, in flaming brandy.... Almost everyone seemed
+related to all the rest. A few more people came after dinner while we were
+in the drawing-room and the dining-room was being cleared for dancing. Two
+fiddlers and a blowing-man were then perched on a table in a corner and
+dancing began&mdash;quadrilles, lancers, jig, reel, and valse carried on with
+the utmost energy, by Aunt Polly in particular, till about half-past
+eleven, when muffled bells began to ring in a church close by and the
+dancing was stopped that we might all listen. At twelve o&#8217;clock the
+muffles were taken off, Aunt Polly charged with Xmas cards into the midst
+of her company, punch was brought in in great cups, silver, I believe;
+everyone kissed, shook hands, and wished everyone else a Happy New Year,
+the bells rang a joy-peal, and we had supper, and then began dancing again
+till between one and two in the morning. After many efforts Gilly
+succeeded in catching Aunt Polly under the misletoe and kissing her.&#8221; I do
+not know what a &#8220;blowing-man&#8221; may have been, but have a vivid recollection
+of Aunt Polly trying to dance everyone down in a perpetual jig, and of
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> portly figure of Uncle Charles, who had to be accommodated with two
+chairs at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>We had other very pleasant visits&mdash;and amongst them we stayed with my
+uncle and aunt Wenlock for my cousin Carry Lawley&#8217;s wedding to Captain
+Caryl Molyneux. This marriage was particularly interesting to all the
+cousinhood, as it was brought about after considerable opposition. Carry
+was an extraordinarily pretty, lively, and attractive girl rather more
+than a year older than myself. She had brilliant eyes and auburn hair and
+was exceedingly clever and amusing. Her family naturally expected her to
+make a marriage which would give all her qualities a wide sphere. However,
+at the mature age of eleven she won the affections of Lord Sefton&#8217;s
+younger brother and he never fluctuated in his choice. I do not know at
+what exact moment he disclosed his admiration, but he contrived to make
+the young lady as much in love with him as he was with her. Vainly did her
+mother refuse consent. Carry stuck to her guns, and I believe ultimately
+carried her point by setting up a cough! Anyhow the parents gave in, and
+when they did so, accepted the position with a good grace. Somehow what
+was considered sufficient provision for matrimony was made and Caryl and
+Carry were married, on a brilliant spring day in April 1870.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A PRE-MATRIMONIAL PARTY</div>
+
+<p>It was at the Wenlocks&#8217; London house, in the following year, that I made
+the acquaintance of Lord Jersey. We had unknowingly met as children at an
+old inn on Edgehill called &#8220;The Sunrising&#8221;; at that time his parents, Lord
+and Lady Villiers, lived not far off at Upton House, which then belonged
+to Sarah, Lady Jersey. While my brother and I were playing outside, a boy
+with long fair hair looked out of the inn and smilingly lashed his whip at
+us, unconscious that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> his first salutation to his future wife! I
+discovered in after years that George Villiers, as he then was, used to
+ride over for lessons to a neighbouring clergyman and put up his pony at
+the inn.</p>
+
+<p>At the dinner-party at Berkeley Square Lord Jersey did not take me in, and
+I had not the slightest idea who he was, but when the ladies left the
+dining-room I was laughed at for having monopolised his attention when he
+was intended to talk to his partner. He was reckoned exceedingly shy, and
+I thought no more of the matter till the following season, to which I
+shall return in due course.</p>
+
+<p>After our return to Stoneleigh, though I do not recollect in which month
+(I think August), we had a large and gay party including a dance&mdash;it was
+distinctly a pre-matrimonial party, as three of the girls whom it included
+were either engaged or married before twelve months were over, though none
+of them to the men present. The three girls were Gwendolen (then called
+Gwendaline) Howard, who married Lord Bute; Maria Fox-Strangways, married
+to Lord Bridport&#8217;s son Captain Hood; and myself. Rather oddly, a much
+older man and a widower, Lord Raglan, who was also of the party, caught
+the matrimonial microbe and married his second wife in the ensuing autumn.</p>
+
+<p>Among others my cousin and great friend Hugh Shaw-Stewart was there and
+immortalised our doings in verse. At Christmas time I managed to get
+slight congestion of the lungs and soon after went to spend some time with
+my kind uncle and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart at
+Fonthill, and Hughie, who had also suffered from chest trouble, stayed
+with his parents there while preparing for Oxford.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">FONTHILL ABBEY</div>
+
+<p>Fonthill, as is well known, belonged to the eccentric<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Beckford and was
+full of his traditions. After his death the property was divided and my
+grandfather Westminster bought the portion which included Beckford&#8217;s old
+house, of which the big tower had fallen down, and built himself a modern
+house lower down the hill. Another part was bought&mdash;I do not know when&mdash;by
+Mr. Alfred Morrison. When my grandfather Westminster died in the autumn of
+1869 he left the reversion of Fonthill Abbey to Uncle Michael. Perhaps he
+thought that the Shaw-Stewarts should have an English as well as a
+Scottish home. However that might have been, Fonthill is a delightful
+place&mdash;and I benefited by their residence there at this time. I think that
+they were only to come into actual possession after my grandmother&#8217;s
+death&mdash;but that she lent it to them on this occasion as my aunt was
+delicate and it was considered that she would be the better for southern
+air.</p>
+
+<p>The modern house was a comfortable one with good rooms, but had a
+peculiarity that no room opened into another, as my grandfather objected
+to that arrangement&mdash;dressing-rooms, for instance, though they might open
+into the same lobbies, might not have doors into the bedrooms.</p>
+
+<p>Part of Beckford&#8217;s old house higher up the hill was preserved as a sort of
+museum. The story was that he insisted on continuous building, Sundays and
+weekdays alike. The house had a very high tower which could be seen from a
+hill overlooking Bath, where he ultimately went to live. Every day he used
+to go up the hill to look at his tower, but one morning when he ascended
+as usual he saw it no longer&mdash;it had fallen down. It used to be implied
+that this was a judgment on the Sunday labour. Also we were told that he
+made the still-existing avenues and drove about them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> at night, which gave
+him an uncanny reputation. Probably his authorship of that weird tale
+<i>Vathek</i> added to the mystery which surrounded him. He had accumulated
+among many other treasures a number of great oriental jars from the Palace
+of the King of Portugal, and when these were sold after his death my
+grandfather, to the best of my recollection, purchased three.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Morrison had secured a good many of the others, which I saw in after
+years when I stayed at the other Fonthill House which he had built on his
+part of the property. Many of the other treasures passed, as is well
+known, into the possession of Beckford&#8217;s daughter who married the 10th
+Duke of Hamilton. Alas&mdash;most of them must have been dispersed ere now!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alfred Morrison, when I was at Fonthill with my uncle and aunt, was a
+subject of much interest, as it was rumoured that he wanted to emulate
+Beckford. I do not quite know in what way beyond trying to collect the
+oriental jars. He was a distinctly literary man, and was reported to have
+married his wife because he found her reading a Greek grammar in the
+train. Whether or no that was the original attraction I cannot say, but
+she proved a delightful and amusing person when I met her in after years.
+Meantime we used to hear of the beautiful horses which he sent to the
+meets of the local hounds, though he did not ride, and other proofs of his
+wealth and supposed eccentricity.</p>
+
+<p>My uncle as well as my aunt being far from strong, we led a quiet though
+pleasant life. Hughie and I shared a taste for drawing and painting of
+very amateur description and Hughie used to help me with Latin verses, in
+which I then liked to dabble.</p>
+
+<p>After my return to Stoneleigh I had yet another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> treat. My Uncle James and
+his new wife &#8220;Aunt Fanny&#8221; were kind enough to ask me to share in the
+spring their first trip abroad after their marriage. We went via Harwich
+to Rotterdam and thence for a short tour in Holland and Belgium with which
+I was highly delighted. The quaint canals, the cows with table-cloths on
+their backs, the queer Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, and still more the
+cathedrals and picture galleries in Belgium gave me infinite pleasure, but
+are too well known to describe.</p>
+
+<p>Even the copyist in the Antwerp Gallery who, being armless, painted with
+his toes was an amusement, as much to my uncle, who loved freaks, as to
+myself. Ghent and Bruges were a revelation; and I was much entertained by
+the guide who took us up the Belfry of St. Nicholas (I think it was) at
+the former city and pointed triumphantly to the scenery as &#8220;bien beau,
+tout plat, pas de montagnes.&#8221; He shared the old Anglo-Saxon conception of
+Paradise.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Nor hills nor mountains there<br />
+Stand steep, nor strong cliffs<br />
+Tower high, as here with us; nor dells nor dales,<br />
+Nor mountain-caves, risings, nor hilly chains;<br />
+Nor thereon rests aught unsmooth,<br />
+But the noble field flourishes under the skies<br />
+With delights blooming.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, over the high altar, was an image of the
+saint with three children in a tub. My uncle asked a priest what he was
+doing with the children, but all the good man could say was that &#8220;St.
+Nicolas aimait beaucoup les enfants,&#8221; quite ignorant of the miracle
+attributed to his own saint, namely, that he revived three martyred boys
+by putting them into a barrel of salt.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after our return to England we moved to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> Portman Square for the
+season. At a dinner-party&mdash;I believe at Lord Camperdown&#8217;s&mdash;I again met
+Lord Jersey, but fancied that he would have forgotten me, and subsequently
+ascertained that he had the same idea of my memory. So we did not speak to
+each other. Later on, however, my father told my mother that he had met
+Lord Jersey and would like him asked to dinner. The families had been
+friends in years gone by, but had drifted apart. My mother agreed, sent
+the invitation, which was accepted. In arranging how the guests were to
+sit I innocently remarked to my mother that it was no good counting Lord
+Jersey as a young man&mdash;or words to that effect&mdash;as &#8220;he would never speak
+to a girl&#8221;&mdash;and I was rather surprised when in the drawing-room after he
+came across to me and made a few remarks before the party broke up.</p>
+
+<p>After this events moved rapidly for me. Jersey, unexpectedly to many
+people, appeared at balls at Montagu House, Northumberland House (then
+still existing), and Grosvenor House. Also he came to luncheon once or
+twice in Portman Square. He did not dance at balls, but though
+&#8220;sitting-out&#8221; was not then the fashion we somehow found a pretext&mdash;such as
+looking at illuminations&mdash;for little walks. Then Lord Tollemache drove my
+mother and me to a garden-party at Syon, where I well recollect returning
+from another &#8220;little walk&#8221; across a lawn where my mother was sitting with
+what appeared to me to be a gallery of aunts.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ENGAGEMENT</div>
+
+<p>We went to a last ball at the Howards of Glossop in Rutland Gate, and
+discovering that we were about to leave London Jersey took his courage in
+two hands and came to Portman Square, July 18th, and all was happily
+settled.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>I went next morning&mdash;it may have been the same evening&mdash;to tell Aunt
+Fanny, who was then laid up at a house not far from ours. I had been in
+the habit of paying her constant visits, so she had an idea of what might
+happen, and I found her mother, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, with her. One word was
+enough to enlighten my aunt, who then said, &#8220;May I tell my mother?&#8221; I
+assented, and she said, &#8220;This child has come to tell me of her
+engagement.&#8221; Whereupon Mrs. Kemble demanded, with a tragical air worthy of
+her aunt Mrs. Siddons, &#8220;And are you very happy, young lady?&#8221; I cheerfully
+answered, &#8220;Oh yes&#8221;&mdash;and she looked as if she were going to cry. My aunt
+said afterwards that any marriage reminded her of her own unfortunate
+venture. Aunt Fanny was much amused when I confided to her that finding
+immediate slumber difficult the first night of my engagement I secured it
+by attempting the longest sum which I could find in Colenso&#8217;s arithmetic.
+My brothers and sisters accepted the news with mixed feelings&mdash;but poor
+little Cordelia, who had been left at Stoneleigh, was quite upset. I wrote
+her a letter in which I said that Lord Jersey should be her brother and
+she should be bridesmaid. The nurse told me that she burst into tears on
+receiving it and said that he should not be her brother, and not take away
+Markie. She quite relented when she saw him, because she said that he had
+nice smooth light hair like Rowly&mdash;and as time went on, she suggested that
+if Aggy would only &#8220;marry or die&#8221; she should be &#8220;head girl and hear the
+boys their lessons.&#8221; As the youngest &#8220;boy&#8221; was seven years older than
+herself this may be regarded as an exceptional claim for woman&#8217;s supremacy
+in her family.</p>
+
+<p>My future mother-in-law, Jersey&#8217;s mother, and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> brothers welcomed me
+most kindly. As for his sisters, Lady Julia Wombwell and Lady Caroline
+Jenkins, I cannot say enough of their unvarying friendship and affection.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MARRIED TO LORD JERSEY</div>
+
+<p>I was engaged about the middle of July, and shortly we returned to
+Stoneleigh. My mother was terribly busy afterwards, as my brother Gilbert
+came of age on the first of September and the occasion was celebrated with
+great festivities, including a Tenants&#8217; Ball, when the old gateway was
+illuminated as it had been for the Queen&#8217;s visit. The ivy, however, had
+grown so rapidly in the intervening years that an iron framework had to be
+made outside it to hold the little lamps. There was a very large family
+party in the house, and naturally my affairs increased the general
+excitement and I shared with my brother addresses and presentations. As my
+mother said&mdash;it could never happen to her again to have a son come of age
+and a daughter married in the same month. She was to have launched the
+<i>Lady Leigh</i> lifeboat in the middle of September, but my sister was
+commissioned to do it instead&mdash;and we returned to Portman Square for final
+preparations. Like most girls under similar circumstances I lived in a
+whirl during those days, and my only clear recollections are signing
+Settlements (in happy ignorance of their contents) and weeping bitterly
+the night before the wedding at the idea of parting from my family, being
+particularly upset by my brother Dudley&#8217;s floods of fraternal tears.
+However, we were all fairly composed when the day&mdash;September 19th, 1872,
+dawned&mdash;and I was safely married by my Uncle Jimmy at St. Thomas&#8217;s Church,
+Orchard Street. It was not our parish, but we had a special licence as it
+was more convenient. My bridesmaids were my two sisters,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Frances
+Adderley, one of the Cholmondeleys, Minna Finch (daughter of my father&#8217;s
+cousin Lady Aylesford), and Julia Wombwell&#8217;s eldest little girl
+Julia&mdash;afterwards Lady Dartrey.</p>
+
+<p>When all was over and farewells and congratulations ended, Jersey and I
+went down for a short honeymoon at Fonthill, which my grandmother lent us.
+So ended a happy girlhood&mdash;so began a happy married life. I do not say
+that either was free from shadows, but looking back my prevailing feeling
+is thankfulness&mdash;and what troubles I have had have been mostly of my own
+making.</p>
+
+<p>My father was so good&mdash;my mother so wise. One piece of advice she gave me
+might well be given to most young wives. &#8220;Do not think that because you
+have seen things done in a particular way that is the only right one.&#8221; I
+cannot resist ending with a few sentences from a charming letter which
+Aunt Fanny wrote me when I went to Stoneleigh after my engagement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have thought of you unceasingly and prayed earnestly for you. I
+could not love you as I do, did I not believe that you were true and
+good and noble&mdash;and on that, more than on anything else, do I rest my
+faith for your future. Oh, Marky my darling child, <i>cling</i> to the good
+that is in you. Never be false to yourself. I see your little boat
+starting out on the sea of life, anxiously and tremblingly&mdash;for I know
+full well however smooth the water may be now there must come rocks in
+everyone&#8217;s life large enough to wreck one. Do you call to mind, dear,
+how you almost wished for such rocks to battle against a little time
+ago, wearying of the tame, even stream down which you were floating?
+God be with you when you do meet them.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<p class="title">EARLY MARRIED LIFE</p>
+
+<p>It is more difficult to write at all consecutively of my married life than
+of my girlhood, as I have less by which I can date its episodes and more
+years to traverse&mdash;but I must record what I can in such order as can be
+contrived.</p>
+
+<p>We did not stay long at Fonthill, and after a night or two in London came
+straight to our Oxfordshire home&mdash;Middleton Park.</p>
+
+<p>My husband&#8217;s grandfather and father had both died in the same month
+(October 1859) when he was a boy of fourteen. He was called &#8220;Grandison&#8221;
+for the three weeks which intervened between their deaths, having been
+George Villiers before, so when he returned again to Eton after his father
+died, the boys said that he came back each time with a fresh name. His
+grandmother, however, the well-known Sarah, Lady Jersey, continued to
+reign at Middleton, for the largest share of the family fortune belonged
+to her as heiress of her grandfather Mr. Child&mdash;and, I suppose, in
+recognition of all he had enjoyed of hers, her husband left her the use of
+the Welsh property and she alone had the means to keep up Middleton. She
+was very fond of my husband, but when she died, soon after he came of age
+and inherited the place, he did not care to make many changes, and though
+his mother paid lengthened visits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> she had never really been mistress of
+the house. Therefore I seemed to have come straight upon the traces of a
+bygone generation. Even the china boxes on my dressing-table and the
+blotters on the writing-tables were much as Lady Jersey had left them&mdash;and
+there were bits of needlework and letters in the drawers which brought her
+personally vividly before me. The fear and awe of her seemed to overhang
+the village, and the children were still supposed to go to the Infant
+School at two years old because she had thought it a suitable age. She had
+been great at education, had built or arranged schools in the various
+villages belonging to her, and had endowed a small training school for
+servants in connection with a Girls&#8217; School at Middleton. Naturally the
+care of that school and other similar matters fell to my province, and I
+sometimes felt, as I am sure other young women must have done under
+similar circumstances, that a good deal of wisdom was expected from me at
+an age which I should have considered hardly sufficient for a second
+housemaid. Some of the schools of that date must have been quaint enough.
+An old lame woman still had charge of the Infant School at the
+neighbouring hamlet of Caulcot, whom we soon moved into the Almshouses. In
+after years one of her former pupils told me that she was very good at
+teaching them Scripture and a little reading, but there was no question of
+writing. If the old lady had occasion to write a letter on her own account
+she used a knitting-needle as a pen while my informant held the paper
+steady. If a child was naughty she made him or her stand crouched under
+the table as a punishment. She never put on a dress unless she knew that
+Lady Jersey was at the Park, and then, she being crippled with rheumatism,
+her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> pupil had to stand on a chair to fasten it up, lest the great lady
+should pay a surprise visit.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD JERSEY&#8217;S MOTHER</div>
+
+<p>Sarah, Lady Jersey, had a great dislike to any cutting down or even
+lopping of trees. She had done much towards enlarging and planting the
+Park, and doubtless trees were to her precious children. Therefore the
+agent and woodmen, who realised the necessity of a certain amount of
+judicious thinning, used to wait until she had taken periodical drives of
+inspection amongst the woods, and then exercised some discretion in their
+operations, trusting to trees having branched out afresh or to her having
+forgotten their exact condition before she came again.</p>
+
+<p>In one school, Somerton, I was amused to find a printed copy of
+regulations for the conduct of the children, including injunctions never
+to forget their benefactress. But she was really exceedingly good to the
+poor people on the property and thoughtful as to their individual
+requirements. One old woman near her other place, Upton, told me how she
+had heard of her death soon after receiving a present from her, and added,
+&#8220;I thought she went straight to heaven for sending me that petticoat!&#8221;
+Also she built good cottages for the villagers before the practice was as
+universal as it became later on. The only drawback was that she would at
+times insist on the building being carried on irrespective of the weather,
+with the result that they were not always as dry as they should have been.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Jersey was well known in the world, admired for her beauty and lively
+conversation, and no doubt often flattered for her wealth, but she left a
+good record of charity and duties fulfilled in her own home.</p>
+
+<p>As for her beautiful daughter Lady Clementina, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> was locally regarded
+as an angel, and I have heard that when she died the villagers resented
+her having been buried next to her grandmother, Frances Lady Jersey, as
+they thought her much too good to lie next to the lady who had won the
+fleeting affections of George IV.</p>
+
+<p>I soon found home and occupation at Middleton, but I confess that after
+being accustomed to a large and cheerful family I found the days and
+particularly the autumn evenings rather lonely when my husband was out
+hunting, a sport to which he was much addicted in those days. However, we
+had several visitors of his family and mine, and went to Stoneleigh for
+Christmas, which was a great delight to me.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after we went abroad, as it was thought desirable after my chest
+attack of the previous winter that I should not spend all the cold weather
+in England. We spent some time at Cannes, and I fancy that it really did
+my husband at least as much good as myself&mdash;anyhow he found that it suited
+him so well that we returned on various occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Robert Gerard was then a great promoter of parties to the Ile Ste
+Marguerite and elsewhere, and the Duc de Vallombrosa and the Duchesse de
+Luynes helped to make things lively.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">IN LONDON</div>
+
+<p>I will not, however, dwell on scenes well known to so many people, and
+only say that after a short excursion to Genoa and Turin we returned in
+the early spring, or at the end of winter, to superintend a good deal of
+work which was then being done to renovate some of the rooms at Middleton.
+At the beginning of May we moved to 7 Norfolk Crescent&mdash;a house which we
+had taken from Mr. Charles Fane of Child&#8217;s Bank&mdash;and my eldest son was
+born there on June 2nd, 1873. He had come into the world unduly
+soon&mdash;before he was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>expected&mdash;and inconveniently selected Whit Monday
+when the shops were shut and we were unable to supply certain deficiencies
+in the preparations. Nevertheless he was extremely welcome, and though
+very small on his arrival he soon made up for whatever he lacked in size,
+and, as everyone who knows him will testify, he is certainly of stature
+sufficient to please the most exacting.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img2.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">THE LIBRARY, MIDDLETON PARK.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img3.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MIDDLETON PARK.<br /><small><i>From photographs by the present Countess of Jersey.</i></small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>My mother-in-law and her second husband, Mr. Brandling, were among our
+frequent visitors. Mr. Brandling had a long beard and a loud voice, and a
+way of flinging open the doors into the dining-room when he came in in the
+morning which was distinctly startling. Apart from these peculiarities he
+did not leave much mark in the world. He was very fond of reading, and I
+used to suggest to him that he might occupy himself in reviewing books,
+but I do not think that he had much power of concentration. My
+mother-in-law was tactful with him, but he had a decided temper,
+especially when he played whist. As I did not play, this did not affect
+me.</p>
+
+<p>My younger sister-in-law, Caroline, and I were great friends. She had
+married Mr. Jenkins, who was well known as a sportsman and an amiable,
+genial man. His chief claim to fame, apart from his knowledge of horses
+and their training, was an expedition which he had made to avenge his
+sister&#8217;s death in Abyssinia. His sister had married a Mr. Powell and she
+and her husband had been murdered by natives when travelling in that
+country. Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Powell&#8217;s brother went to Egypt, collected
+followers, went into the territory where the murder had taken place,
+burned the village which sheltered the aggressors, and had the chief
+culprits handed over to them for execution. It was said that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> the fact
+that a couple of Englishmen would not leave their relatives&#8217; death
+unavenged produced more effect than the whole Abyssinian expedition.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ISOLA BELLA, CANNES</div>
+
+<p>The winter after my boy&#8217;s birth Caroline lost hers, who was a few months
+older than mine, and was herself very ill, so we invited her and Mr.
+Jenkins to join us at Cannes, where we had this season taken a
+villa&mdash;Isola Bella. We were the first people who inhabited it. It has
+since been greatly enlarged and its gardens so extended that it is now one
+of the finest houses in the place. Even then it was very pretty and
+attractive, and we enjoyed ourselves greatly.</p>
+
+<p>There was a quaint clergyman at that time who had known Caroline when she
+had been sent as a girl to Hy&egrave;res, where he then ministered, and where he
+had been famous for a head of hair almost too bushy to admit of being
+covered by a hat. He was anxious to re-claim acquaintance, but though
+civil she was not effusive. He was noted for paying long visits when he
+got into anyone&#8217;s house. I heard of one occasion on which his name was
+announced to a young lady who was talking to a man cousin whom she knew
+well. The youth on hearing the name exclaimed that he must hide, and crept
+under the sofa. The visitor stayed on and on till the young man could
+stand his cramped position no longer and suddenly appeared. The parson was
+quite unmoved and unmovable by the apparition of what he took to be a
+lover, and merely remarked &#8220;Don&#8217;t mind me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We found this house so charming that we sent our courier back to England
+to bring out our boy. My aunt, Lady Agnes, and her husband, Dr. Frank,
+with their baby girl, lived not far off&mdash;they had found Isola Bella for us
+and were pleasant neighbours. My husband,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Caroline, and myself found
+additional occupation in Italian lessons from a fiery little patriot whose
+name I forget, but who had fought in the war against the Austrians. Among
+other things he had a lurid story about his mother whose secrets in the
+Confessional had been betrayed by a priest, resulting in the arrest and I
+believe death of a relative. After which though the lady continued her
+prayers she&mdash;not unnaturally&mdash;declined to make further confessions.</p>
+
+<p>Our sojourn on this visit to Cannes was further brightened by Conservative
+triumphs in the 1874 elections. We used to sit after breakfast on a stone
+terrace in front of the villa, Mr. Jenkins smoking and Jersey doing
+crochet as a pastime&mdash;being no smoker; and morning after morning the
+postman would appear with English papers bringing further tidings of
+success.</p>
+
+<p>The Jenkinses returned to England rather before ourselves&mdash;we travelled
+back towards the end of April in singularly hot weather, and when we
+reached Dover Jersey left me there for a few days to rest while he went
+back to Middleton. Unfortunately the journey, or something, had been too
+much for me, and a little girl, who only lived for a day, appeared before
+her time at the Lord Warden Hotel. It was a great disappointment, and I
+had a somewhat tedious month at the hotel before migrating to 12
+Gloucester Square&mdash;the house which we had taken for the season.</p>
+
+<p>I have no special recollections of that season, though I think that it was
+that year that I met Lord Beaconsfield at the Duke of Buccleuch&#8217;s. It is,
+however, impossible to fix exactly the years in which one dined in
+particular places and met particular people, nor is it at all important.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">OXFORDSHIRE NEIGHBOURS</div>
+
+<p>I would rather summarise our life in the country,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> where we had garden
+parties, cricket matches, and lawn tennis matches at which we were able to
+entertain our neighbours. Now, alas! the whole generation who lived near
+Middleton in those days has almost passed away. Our nearest neighbours
+were Sir Henry and Lady Dashwood at Kirtlington Park with a family of sons
+and daughters; Lord Valentia, who lived with his mother, Mrs. Devereux,
+and her husband the General at Bletchington; and the Drakes&mdash;old Mrs.
+Drake and her daughters at Bignell. Sir Henry&#8217;s family had long lived at
+Kirtlington, which is a fine house, originally built by the same
+architect&mdash;Smith, of Warwick&mdash;who built the new portion of Stoneleigh
+early in the eighteenth century. Sir Henry was a stalwart, pleasant man,
+and a convinced teetotaller. Later on than the year of which I speak the
+Dashwoods came over to see some theatricals at Middleton in which my
+brothers and sisters and some Cholmondeley cousins took part. After the
+performance they gave a pressing invitation to the performers to go over
+on a following day to luncheon or tea. A detachment went accordingly, and
+were treated with great hospitality but rather like strolling players.
+&#8220;Where do you act next?&#8221; and so on, till finally Sir Henry burst out:
+&#8220;What an amusing family yours is! Not only all of you act, but your uncle
+Mr. James Leigh gives temperance lectures!&#8221; Sir Henry&#8217;s son, Sir George
+Dashwood, had a large family of which three gallant boys lost their lives
+in the Great War. To universal regret he was obliged to sell Kirtlington.
+It was bought by Lord Leven, whose brother and heir has in turn sold it to
+Mr. Budgett. Not long before I married, the then owner of another
+neighbouring place&mdash;Sir Algernon Peyton, M.F.H., of Swift&#8217;s House, had
+died. Lord<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> Valentia took the Bicester hounds which he had hunted, for a
+time, rented Swift&#8217;s from his widow, and ultimately did the wisest thing
+by marrying her (1878) and installing her at Bletchington. They are really
+the only remaining family of my contemporaries surviving&mdash;and, though they
+have occasionally let it, they do live now in their own house. They had
+two sons and six daughters&mdash;great friends of my children. The eldest son
+was killed in the Great War.</p>
+
+<p>Another neighbour was a droll old man called Rochfort Clarke, who lived at
+a house outside Chesterton village with an old sister-in-law whose name I
+forget (I think Miss Byrom)&mdash;but his wife being dead he was deeply
+attached to her sister. Soon after our marriage he came to call, and
+afterwards wrote a letter to congratulate us on our happiness and to say
+that had it not been for the iniquitous law forbidding marriage with a
+deceased wife&#8217;s sister we should have seen a picture of equal domestic
+felicity in him and Miss &mdash;&mdash;. He was very anxious to convert Irish Roman
+Catholics to the ultra-Protestant faith, and he interpreted the Second
+Commandment to forbid <i>all</i> pictures of any sort or kind. None were
+allowed in his house. Once he wrote a letter to the papers to protest
+against the ritualism embodied in a picture in Chesterton Church&mdash;an
+extremely evangelical place where Moody and Sankey hymns prevailed. Later
+on the clergyman took me into the church to show me the offending idol. It
+consisted of a diminutive figure&mdash;as far as I could see of a man&mdash;in a
+very small window high up over the west door. The most appalling shock was
+inflicted upon him by a visit to the Exhibition of 1851, where various
+statuary was displayed including Gibson&#8217;s &#8220;Tinted Venus.&#8221; This impelled
+him to break into a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> song of protest of which I imperfectly recollect four
+lines to this effect:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Tell me, Victoria, can that borrowed grace<br />
+Compare with Albert&#8217;s manly form and face?<br />
+And tell me, Albert, can that shameless jest<br />
+Compare with thy Victoria <i>clothed and dressed</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sister-in-law died not long after I knew him, and he then married a
+respectable maid-servant whom he brought to see us dressed in brown silk
+and white gloves. Shortly afterwards he himself departed this life and the
+property was bought by the popular Bicester banker Mr. Tubb, who married
+Miss Stratton&mdash;a second cousin of mine&mdash;built a good house, from which
+pictures were not barred, and had four nice daughters.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot name all the neighbours, but should not omit the old Warden of
+Merton, Mr. Marsham, who lived with his wife and sons at Caversfield. The
+eldest son, Charles Marsham, who succeeded to the place after his death,
+was a great character well known in the hunting and cricket fields. He was
+a good fellow with a hot temper which sometimes caused trying scenes.
+Towards the end of his life he developed a passion for guessing Vanity
+Fair acrostics, and when he saw you instead of &#8220;How d&#8217;ye do?&#8221; he greeted
+you with &#8220;Can you remember what begins with D and ends with F?&#8221; or words
+to that effect. There was a famous occasion when, as he with several
+others from Middleton were driving to Meet, one of my young brothers
+suggested some solution at which he absolutely scoffed. When the hounds
+threw off, however, Charlie Marsham disappeared and missed a first-class
+run. It was ultimately discovered that he had slipped away to a telegraph
+office to send off a solution embodying my brother&#8217;s suggestion!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CAVERSFIELD CHURCH</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>Caversfield Church was a small building of considerable antiquity standing
+very close to the Squire&#8217;s house. The present Lord North, now an old man,
+has told me that long ago when he was Master of Hounds he passed close to
+this church out cub-hunting at a very early hour, when the sound of most
+beautiful singing came from the tower, heard not only by himself but by
+the huntsmen and whips who were with him&mdash;so beautiful that they paused to
+listen. Next time he met the clergyman, who was another Marsham son, he
+said to him, &#8220;What an early service you had in your church on such a day!&#8221;
+&#8220;I had no weekday service,&#8221; replied Mr. Marsham, and professed entire
+ignorance of the &#8220;angelic choir.&#8221; I have never discovered any tradition
+connected with Caversfield Church which should have induced angels to come
+and sing their morning anthem therein, but it is a pretty tale, and Lord
+North was convinced that he had heard this music.</p>
+
+<p>One thing is certain, the tiny agricultural parish of Caversfield could
+not have produced songsters to chant Matins while the world at large was
+yet wrapped in slumber.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking of Caversfield Church, I recollect attending a service there when
+the Bishop of Oxford (Mackarness, I believe) preached at its reopening
+after restoration. In the course of his sermon he remarked that there had
+been times when a congregation instead of thinking of the preservation and
+beautifying of the sacred building only considered how they should make
+themselves comfortable therein. This, as reported by the local
+representative, appeared in the Bicester paper as an episcopal comment
+that in former days people had neglected to make themselves comfortable in
+church. However, my old Archdeacon uncle-by-marriage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> Lord Saye and Sele,
+who was a distinctly unconventional thinker, once remarked to my mother
+that he had always heard church compared to heaven, and as heaven was
+certainly the most comfortable place possible he did not see why church
+should not be made comfortable. The old family pew at Middleton Church had
+been reseated with benches to look more or less like the rest of the
+church before I married, but was still a little raised and separated by
+partitions from the rest of the congregation. Later on it was levelled and
+the partitions removed. From the point of view of &#8220;comfort,&#8221; and apart
+from all other considerations, I do think that the square &#8220;Squire&#8217;s
+Pew&#8221;&mdash;as it still exists at Stoneleigh&mdash;where the occupants sit facing
+each other&mdash;is <i>not</i> an ideal arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>At Broughton Castle&mdash;the old Saye and Sele home&mdash;one of the bedrooms had a
+little window from which you could look down into the chapel belonging to
+the house without the effort of descending. Once when we stayed there and
+my mother was not dressed in time for Morning Prayers she adopted this
+method of sharing in the family devotions.</p>
+
+<p>Broughton Castle, and Lord North&#8217;s place, Wroxton Abbey (now for sale) are
+both near Banbury, which is about thirteen miles from Middleton&mdash;nothing
+in the days of motors, but a more serious consideration when visits had to
+be made with horses.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LIFE AT MIDDLETON</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Cecil Bourke was clergyman at Middleton when I married and had two
+very nice sisters, but he migrated to Reading about two years later, and
+was succeeded by the Rev. W. H. Draper, who has been there ever since. He
+is an excellent man who has had a good wife and eleven children. Mrs.
+Draper died lately, to the sorrow of her many friends. Some of the
+children<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> have also gone, but others are doing good work in various parts
+of the Empire. Old Lord Strathnairn, of Mutiny fame, was once staying with
+us at Middleton. He was extremely deaf and apt to be two or three periods
+behind in the conversation. Someone mentioned leprosy and its causes at
+dinner, and after two or three remarks that subject was dropped, and
+another took its place, in which connection I observed that our
+clergyman&#8217;s wife had eleven children. Lord Strathnairn, with his mind
+still on &#8220;leprousy,&#8221; turned to me and in his usual courteous manner
+remarked, &#8220;It is not catching, I believe?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Among other neighbours were Mr. and Mrs. Hibbert at Bucknell Manor, who
+had six well-behaved little daughters whom, though they treated them
+kindly, they regarded as quite secondary to their only son. On the other
+hand, Mr. and Mrs. Dewar at Cotmore were perfectly good to their four
+sons, but the only daughter distinctly ruled the roost. Moral: if a boy
+baby has any choice he had better select a family of sisters in which to
+be born, and the contrary advice should be tendered to a female infant.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our own affairs. The little girl whom we lost in April 1874
+was replaced, to our great pleasure, by another little daughter born at
+Middleton, October 8th, 1875, and christened Margaret like the baby who
+lay beneath a white marble cross in the churchyard. The new little
+Margaret became and has remained a constant treasure. Villiers&#8217; first
+words were &#8220;Hammer, hammer,&#8221; which he picked up from hearing the constant
+hammering at the tank in the new water-tower. He was very pleased with his
+sister, but a trifle jealous of the attentions paid her by his nurse. A
+rather quaint incident took place at the baby&#8217;s christening. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+Villiers was born, old Lord Bathurst, then aged eighty-two, asked to come
+and see him as he had known my husband&#8217;s great-grandmother Frances, Lady
+Jersey (the admired of George IV), and wanted to see the fifth generation.
+We asked him to stay at Middleton for the little girl&#8217;s christening, and
+after dinner to propose the baby&#8217;s health.</p>
+
+<p>He asked her name, and when I told him &#8220;Margaret&#8221; he murmured, &#8220;What
+memories that brings back!&#8221; and fell into a reverie. When he rose for the
+toast he confided to the family that her great-grandmother on my
+side&mdash;Margarette, Lady Leigh&mdash;had been his first love and repeated,
+&#8220;Maggie Willes, Maggie Willes, how I remember her walking down the streets
+of Cirencester!&#8221; He was a wonderful man for falling in love&mdash;even when he
+was quite old he was always fascinated by the youngest available girl&mdash;but
+he died unmarried. Perhaps one love drove out the other before either had
+time to secure a firm footing in his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Bathurst told me that when he was a middle-aged man and friend of the
+family Sarah Lady Jersey was very anxious to secure Prince Nicholas
+Esterhazy for her eldest daughter Sarah (a marriage which came off in due
+course). She had asked him to stay at Middleton, and it was generally
+believed that if he accepted the match would be arranged. Lord Bathurst in
+November 1841 was riding into Oxford when he met Lady Jersey driving
+thence to Middleton. She put her head out of the carriage and called to
+him, &#8220;We have got our Prince!&#8221; At that time the Queen was expecting her
+second child, and Lord Bathurst, more occupied with Her Majesty&#8217;s hopes
+than with those of Lady Jersey, at once assumed that this meant a Prince
+of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Wales, and rode rapidly on to announce the joyful tidings. These were
+almost immediately verified, and he gained credit for very early
+intelligence. He was a gallant old man, and despite his years climbed a
+fence when staying at Middleton. He died between two and three years
+later.</p>
+
+<p>On a visit to the Exeters at Burghley, near Stamford, we had met Mr. and
+Mrs. Finch of Burley-on-the-Hill, near Oakham, and they asked us to stay
+with them soon after little Margaret&#8217;s birth. I mention this because it
+was here that I met Lady Galloway, who became my great friend, and with
+whom later on I shared many delightful experiences. She was a handsome and
+fascinating woman a few months younger than myself.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MR. DISRAELI</div>
+
+<p>It was in this year, May 18th, 1875, that Disraeli wrote to Jersey
+offering him the appointment of Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen&mdash;saying, &#8220;I
+think, also, my selection would be pleasing to Her Majesty, as many
+members of your family have been connected with the Court.&#8221; On May 28th he
+notified the Queen&#8217;s approval. (It is rather quaint that the first letter
+begins &#8220;My dear Jersey&#8221;&mdash;the second &#8220;My dear Villiers.&#8221; My husband was
+never called &#8220;Villiers,&#8221; but Disraeli knew his grandfather and father, who
+were both so called.) Jersey used to answer for Local Government in the
+House of Lords. The Queen was always very kind to him, as she had known
+his grandmother so well, and told me once that Lady Clementina had been
+her playfellow. She was his godmother; she records it if I remember
+rightly in the Life of the Prince Consort, or anyhow in a letter or Diary
+of the period, and says there that she became godmother as a token of
+friendship to Sir Robert Peel&mdash;his mother&#8217;s father. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> declared to us
+that she had held him in her arms at his christening, and of course it was
+not for us to contradict Her Majesty: but I think that she officiated by
+proxy. She gave him two or three of her books in which she wrote his name
+as &#8220;Victor Alexander,&#8221; and again we accepted the nomenclature. As a matter
+of fact he was &#8220;Victor Albert George&#8221; and always called &#8220;George&#8221; in the
+family. He had, however, the greatest respect and affection for his royal
+godmother, and valued her beautiful christening cup. As Lord-in-Waiting he
+had to attend the House of Lords when in session, and spoke
+occasionally&mdash;he always sat near his old friend Lord de Ros, who was a
+permanent Lord-in-Waiting.</p>
+
+<p>I used to go fairly often to the House during the years which followed his
+appointment and before we went to Australia, and heard many interesting
+debates. Jersey and I always considered the late Duke of Argyll and the
+late Lord Cranbrook as two of the finest orators in the House. The Duke
+was really splendid, and with his fine head and hair thrown back he looked
+the true Highland Chieftain. Several much less effective speakers would
+sometimes persist in addressing the House. I remember Lord Houghton
+exciting much laughter on one occasion when he said of some point in his
+speech &#8220;and that reminds me,&#8221; he paused and repeated &#8220;and that reminds
+me,&#8221; but the impromptu would not spring forth till he shook his head and
+pulled a slip of paper, on which it was carefully written, out of his
+waistcoat pocket.</p>
+
+<p>I was told, though I was not present, of a house-party of which the Duke
+of Argyll and Lord Houghton both formed part. One evening&mdash;Sunday evening,
+I believe&mdash;Lord Houghton offered to read to the assembled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> company
+Froude&#8217;s account of the &#8220;Pilgrimage of Grace&#8221; in his <i>History of England</i>.
+Most of them seem to have submitted more or less cheerfully, but the Duke,
+becoming bored, retired into the background with a book which he had taken
+from the table. Just when Lord Houghton had reached the most thrilling
+part and had lowered his voice to give due emphasis to the narrative, the
+Duke, who had completely forgotten what was going on, threw down his book
+and exclaimed, &#8220;What an extraordinary character of Nebuchadnezzar!&#8221;
+Whereupon Lord Houghton in turn threw down Froude and in wrathful accents
+cried, &#8220;One must be a Duke and a Cabinet Minister to be guilty of such
+rudeness!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Froude was rather a friend of ours&mdash;a pleasant though slightly cynical
+man. I recollect him at Lady Derby&#8217;s one evening saying that books were
+objectionable; all books ought to be burnt. I ventured to suggest that he
+had written various books which I had read with pleasure&mdash;why did he write
+them if such was his opinion? He shrugged his shoulders and remarked, &#8220;Il
+faut vivre.&#8221; When Lady Derby told this afterwards to Lord Derby he said
+that I ought to have given the classic reply, &#8220;Je n&#8217;en vois pas la
+necessit&eacute;,&#8221; but perhaps this would have been going a little far.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">FROUDE AND KINGSLEY</div>
+
+<p>Froude and Kingsley were brothers-in-law, having married two Misses
+Grenfell. On one occasion the former was giving a Rectorial Address at St.
+Andrews and remarked on the untrustworthiness of clerical statements.
+About the same time Kingsley gave a discourse at Cambridge in which he
+quoted a paradox of Walpole&#8217;s to the effect that whatever else is true,
+history is not. Some epigrammists thereupon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> perpetrated the following
+lines. I quote from memory:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Froude informs the Scottish youth<br />
+Parsons seldom speak the truth;<br />
+While at Cambridge Kingsley cries<br />
+&#8216;History is a pack of lies!&#8217;<br />
+Whence these judgments so malign?<br />
+A little thought will solve the mystery.<br />
+For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine<br />
+And Kingsley goes to Froude for history.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Galloways when we first made their acquaintance lived at 17 Upper
+Grosvenor Street. In 1875 we occupied 17<i>a</i> Great Cumberland Street&mdash;and
+in 1876 a nice house belonging to Mr. Bassett in Charles Street&mdash;but in
+1877 we bought 3 Great Stanhope Street, being rather tired of taking
+houses for the season. My second (surviving) daughter Mary was born here
+on May 26th&mdash;a beautiful baby, god-daughter to Lady Galloway and Julia
+Wombwell. My third and youngest daughter, Beatrice, was born at Folkestone
+October 12th, 1880, and the family was completed three years later by
+Arthur, born November 24th, 1883, to our great joy, as it endowed us with
+a second son just before his elder brother went to Mr. Chignell&#8217;s
+school&mdash;Castlemount&mdash;at Dover.</p>
+
+<p>In the same month, but just before Arthur was born, our tenant at
+Osterley, the old Duchess of Cleveland (Caroline), died. She was a fine
+old lady and an excellent tenant, caring for the house as if it had been
+her own. She had most generous instincts, and once when part of the
+stonework round the roof of Osterley had been destroyed by a storm she
+wrote to my husband saying that she had placed a considerable sum with his
+bankers to aid in its restoration. This was unexpected and certainly
+unsolicited, which made it all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> more acceptable. We should never have
+thought of disturbing her during her lifetime, and even when she died our
+first idea was to relet the place to a suitable tenant. I had never lived
+there (though we once slept for a night during the Duchess&#8217;s tenure), so
+had no associations with, and had never realised, the beauty of, the
+place. However, after her death we thought we would give one garden-party
+before reletting, which we did in 1884. The day was perfect, and an
+unexpected number of guests arrived. We were fascinated with the place and
+decided to keep it as a &#8220;suburban&#8221; home instead of letting, and it became
+the joy of my life and a great pleasure to my husband.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL</div>
+
+<p>I will speak of some of our guests later on, but I must first mention some
+of those whom we knew at Great Stanhope Street and Middleton during the
+earlier years of our married life. One of our great friends was the
+American Minister Mr. Lowell. Looking through some of his letters, I
+recall his perfect charm of manner in speaking and in writing. The
+simplest occurrence, such as changing the date of a dinner-party in 1882,
+gave him the opportunity of words which might have befitted a courtier of
+old days:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Her Majesty&mdash;long life to her&mdash;has gone and appointed Saturday, June
+3rd, to be born on. After sixty-three years to learn wisdom in, she
+can do nothing better than take my Saturday away from me&mdash;for I must
+go to drink her health at the Foreign Office! &#8217;Tis enough to make a
+democrat of any Tory that ever was except you. I have moved on my poor
+little dinner to 5th. I can make no other combination in the near
+future, what with Her Majesty&#8217;s engagements and mine, but that. Can
+you come then? Or is my table to lose its pearl? If you can&#8217;t, I shall
+make another specially for you.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Before I knew Mr. Lowell personally I was introduced to his works by Mr.
+Tom Hughes (&#8220;Tom Brown&#8221; of the &#8220;Schooldays&#8221;) who stayed with us at
+Middleton at the beginning of 1880 and gave me a copy of Lowell&#8217;s poems
+carefully marked with those he preferred. Four years later in August
+Lowell stayed with us there. It was a real hot summer, and he wrote into
+Hughes&#8217; gift these verses which certainly make the volume doubly precious:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Turbid from London&#8217;s noise and smoke,<br />
+Here found I air and quiet too,<br />
+Air filtered through the beech and oak,<br />
+Quiet that nothing harsher broke<br />
+Than stockdoves&#8217; meditative coo.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;So I turn Tory for the nonce<br />
+And find the Radical a bore<br />
+Who cannot see (thick-witted dunce!)<br />
+That what was good for people once<br />
+Must be as good for evermore.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Sun, sink no deeper down the sky,<br />
+Nature, ne&#8217;er leave this summer mood,<br />
+Breeze, loiter thus for ever by,<br />
+Stir the dead leaf or let it lie,<br />
+Since I am happy, all is good!&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">T. HUGHES AND J. R. LOWELL</div>
+
+<p>This poem was afterwards republished under the title &#8220;The Optimist&#8221; in a
+collection called <i>Heartsease and Rue</i>. Lowell added four additional
+stanzas between the first and the last two, elaborating the description
+and the underlying idea. I think, however, that the three original ones
+are the best, particularly the gentle hit at the &#8220;Tory&#8221;&mdash;with whom he
+loved to identify me. The &#8220;stockdoves&#8221; were the woodpigeons whose cooing
+on our lawn soothed and delighted him. Mr. Hughes told me that he had
+first made Mr. Lowell&#8217;s acquaintance by correspondence, having written to
+him to express his admiration of one of his works. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> just discovered
+that in an Introduction to his Collected Works published 1891 Hughes says
+that Tr&uuml;bner asked him in 1859 to write a preface to the English edition
+of the <i>Biglow Papers</i> which gave him the long-desired opportunity of
+writing to the author. He also told me&mdash;which he also describes in the
+Introduction&mdash;how nervous he was when about at last to meet his unknown
+friend lest he should not come up to the ideal which he had formed, and
+how overjoyed he was to find him even more delightful than his letters. In
+a fit of generosity Hughes, quite unasked, gave me a very interesting
+letter which Lowell wrote him on his appointment to England in 1880. It is
+a long letter, some of it dealing with private matters, but one passage
+may be transcribed:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have been rather amused with some of the comments of your press
+that have been sent me. They almost seem to think I shall come in a
+hostile spirit, because I have commented sharply on the pretension and
+incompetence of one or two British bookmakers! It is also more than
+hinted that I said bitter things about England during our war. Well, I
+hope none of my commentators will ever have as good reason to be
+bitter. It is only Englishmen who have the happy privilege of speaking
+frankly about their neighbours, and only they who are never satisfied
+unless an outsider likes England <i>better</i> than his own country. Thank
+God I have spoken my mind at home too, when it would have been far
+more comfortable to hold my tongue. Had I felt less kindly toward
+England, perhaps I shouldn&#8217;t have been so bitter, if bitter I was.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Hughes records, again in the Introduction, that Lowell said in one of
+his letters during the American War, &#8220;We are all as cross as terriers with
+your kind of neutrality&#8221;&mdash;but he rejoices in the gradual increasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+warmth of his feeling for England as he grew to know her better during the
+last years of his life.</p>
+
+<p>While I knew him he was always most friendly, and it is pleasant to recall
+him sitting in the garden at Osterley on peaceful summer evenings enjoying
+specially that blue haze peculiar to the Valley of the Thames which
+softens without obscuring the gentle English landscape.</p>
+
+<p>One more letter, including a copy of verses, I cannot resist copying. In
+July 1887 he endowed me with Omar Khayy&aacute;m, and some months later I
+received this&mdash;dated &#8220;At sea, 2nd November 1887&#8221;:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Some verses have been beating their wings against the walls of my
+brain ever since I gave you the Omar Khayy&aacute;m. I don&#8217;t think they will
+improve their feathers by doing it longer. So I have caught and caged
+them on the next leaf that you may if you like paste them into the
+book. With kindest regards to Lord Jersey and in the pleasant hope of
+seeing you again in the spring,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Faithfully yours,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">J. R. Lowell</span>.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;With a copy of Omar Khayy&aacute;m.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,<br />
+Each softly lucent as a rounded moon:<br />
+The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,<br />
+Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Fit rosary for a queen in shape and hue<br />
+When Contemplation tells her pensive beads<br />
+Of mortal thoughts for ever old and new:<br />
+Fit for a queen? Why, surely then, for you!<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;The moral? When Doubt&#8217;s eddies toss and twirl<br />
+Faith&#8217;s slender shallop &#8217;neath our reeling feet,<br />
+Plunge! If you find not peace beneath the whirl,<br />
+Groping, you may at least bring back a pearl.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>He adds beneath the lines: &#8220;My pen has danced to the dancing of the
+ship.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>The verses (of course not the covering letter) appeared in <i>Heartsease and
+Rue</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lowell stayed with us at Osterley in the two summers following his
+return. He died in America just before we went to Australia.</p>
+
+<p>We knew Robert Browning pretty well, and I recollect one interesting
+conversation which I had with him on death and immortality. Of the former
+he had the rather curious idea that the soul&#8217;s last sojourn in the body
+was just between the eyebrows. He said that he had seen several people
+die, and that the last movement was there. I cannot think that a quiver of
+the forehead proves it. For immortality, he said that he had embodied his
+feelings in the &#8220;Old Pictures in Florence&#8221; in the lines ending &#8220;I have had
+troubles enough for one.&#8221; No one, however, can read his poems without
+realising his faith in the hereafter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MR. GLADSTONE ON IMMORTALITY</div>
+
+<p>How diverse are the views of great men on this mystery! Lady Galloway
+wrote to me once from Knowsley of a talk she had had with Mr. Gladstone
+which I think worth recording in her own words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The theory of Mr. Gladstone&#8217;s that mostly interested me last night
+was&mdash;that every soul was not <i>of necessity immortal</i>&mdash;that all the
+Christian faith of the immortality of the soul and resurrection of the
+body was a new doctrine introduced and revealed by our Lord in whom
+alone, maybe, we receive <i>immortal life</i>. This he only <i>suggests</i>, you
+understand&mdash;does not lay it down&mdash;but I don&#8217;t think I have quite
+grasped his idea of the mystery of death, which as far as I can
+understand he thinks Man would not have been subject to but for the
+Fall&mdash;not that Death did not exist before the Fall&mdash;but that it would
+have been a different kind of thing. In fact that the connection
+between Sin and Death meant that you lost immortality thro&#8217; Sin and
+gained it thro&#8217; Christ.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>I might as well insert here part of a letter from Edwin Arnold, author of
+<i>The Light of Asia</i>, which he wrote me in January 1885 after reading an
+article which I had perpetrated in <i>The National Review</i> on Buddhism. I
+had not known him previously, but he did me the honour to profess interest
+in my crude efforts and to regret what he considered a misconception of
+Gautama&#8217;s fundamental idea. He continues:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I remember more than one passage which seemed to show that you
+considered <i>Nirvana</i> to be annihilation; and the aim and <i>summum
+bonum</i> of the Buddhist to escape existence finally and utterly. Permit
+me to invite you not to adopt this view too decidedly in spite of the
+vast authority of men like Max M&uuml;ller, Rhys David, and others. My own
+studies (which I am far from ranking with theirs, in regard of
+industry and learning) convince me that it was, in every case, <i>the
+embodied life</i>; <i>life</i> as we know it and endure it, which Gautama
+desired to be for ever done with.... I believe that when St. Paul
+writes &#8216;the things not seen are eternal,&#8217; he had attained much such a
+height of insight and foresight as Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. I even
+fancy that when Professor Tyndall lectures on the light-rays which are
+invisible to our eyes, and the cosmical sounds which are inaudible to
+ears of flesh and blood, he <i>approaches</i> by a physical path the
+confines of that infinite and enduring life of which Orientals dreamed
+metaphysically.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>After this Mr. Arnold&mdash;afterwards Sir Edwin&mdash;became numbered among our
+friends, and was very kind in giving us introductions when we went to
+India, as I will record later.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THOUGHT-READING</div>
+
+<p>Meantime I may mention a quaint bit of palmistry or thought-reading
+connected with him. We had a friend, Augusta Webb of Newstead, now Mrs.
+Fraser, who was an expert in this line. She was calling on me one day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+when I mentioned casually that I had met Mr. Arnold, whose <i>Light of Asia</i>
+she greatly admired. She expressed a great wish to meet him, so I said,
+&#8220;He is coming to dine this evening&mdash;you had better come also.&#8221; She
+accepted with enthusiasm. He sat next to me, and to please her I put her
+on his other side. In the course of dinner something was said about
+favourite flowers, and I exclaimed, &#8220;Augusta, tell Mr. Arnold his
+favourite flower.&#8221; She looked at his hand and said without hesitation, &#8220;I
+don&#8217;t know its name, but I think it is a white flower rather like a rose
+and with a very strong scent.&#8221; He remarked, astonished, &#8220;I wish I had
+written it down beforehand to show how right you are. It is an Indian
+flower.&#8221; (I forget the name, which he said he had mentioned in <i>The Light
+of Asia</i>), &#8220;white and strong-smelling and something like a tuberose.&#8221; It
+is impossible that Augusta could have known beforehand. Her sister told me
+later that she did occasionally perceive a person&#8217;s thought and that this
+was one of the instances.</p>
+
+<p>To return to Thomas Hughes, who originally gave me Lowell&#8217;s poems. He was
+an enthusiast and most conscientious. On the occasion when, as I said
+before, he stayed at Middleton he promised to tell my boy Villiers&mdash;then
+six and a half years old&mdash;a story. Having been prevented from doing so, he
+sent the story by post, carefully written out with this charming letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">&#8220;<i>February 1st, 1880.</i></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">My dear little Man</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was quite sorry this morning when you said to me, as we were going
+away, &#8216;Ah, but you have never told me about the King of the Cats, as
+you promised.&#8217; I was always taught when I was a little fellow, smaller
+than you, that I must never &#8216;run word,&#8217; even if it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>cost me my knife
+with three blades and a tweezer, or my ivory dog-whistle, which were
+the two most precious things I had in the world. And my father and
+mother not only told me that I must never &#8216;run word,&#8217; for they knew
+that boys are apt to forget what they are only told, but they never
+&#8216;ran word&#8217; with me, which was a much surer way to fix what they told
+me in my head; because boys find it hard to forget what they see the
+old folk that they love do day by day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So I have tried all my long life never to &#8216;run word,&#8217; and as I said I
+would tell you the story about Rodilardus the King of the Cats, and as
+I can&#8217;t tell it you by word of mouth because you are down there in the
+bright sunshine at Middleton, and I am up here in foggy old London, I
+must tell it you in this way, though I am not sure that you will be
+able to make it all out. I know you can read, for I heard you read the
+psalm at prayers this morning very well; only as Mama was reading out
+of the same book over your shoulder, perhaps you heard what she said,
+and that helped you a little to keep up with all the rest of us. But a
+boy may be able to read his psalms in his prayer book and yet not able
+to read a long piece of writing like this, though I am making it as
+clear as I can. So if you cannot make it all out you must just take it
+off to Mama and get her to look over your shoulder and tell you what
+it is all about. Well then, you know what I told you was, that I used
+to think that some people could get to understand what cats said to
+one another, and to wish very much that I could make out their talk
+myself. But all this time I have never been able to make out a word of
+it, and do not now think that anybody can. Only I am quite sure that
+any boy or man who is fond of cats, and tries to make out what they
+mean, and what they want, will learn a great many things that will
+help to make him kind and wise. And when you asked me why I used to
+think that I could learn cat-talk I said I would tell you that story
+about the King of the Cats which was told to me when <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>I was a very
+little fellow about your age. And so here it is.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The story itself is a variant, very picturesquely and graphically told, of
+an old folk-tale, which I think appears in Grimm, of a cat who,
+overhearing an account given by a human being of the imposing funeral of
+one of his race, exclaims, &#8220;Then I am King of the Cats!&#8221; and disappears up
+the chimney.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">TOM HUGHES AND RUGBY, TENNESSEE</div>
+
+<p>Tom Hughes, at the time of his visit to Middleton, was very keen about the
+town which he proposed to found on some kind of Christian-socialist
+principles, to be called &#8220;New Rugby,&#8221; in Tennessee. It was to have one
+church, to be used by the various denominations, and to be what is now
+called &#8220;Pussyfoot.&#8221; What happened about the church I know not, but I have
+heard as regards the teetotalism that drinks were buried by traders just
+outside the sacred boundaries and dug up secretly by the townsmen. Anyhow,
+I fear that the well-meant project resulted in a heavy loss to poor
+Hughes. I recollect that Lord Galloway&#8217;s servant suggested that he would
+like to accompany Mr. Hughes to the States&mdash;&#8220;and I would valet you, sir.&#8221;
+Hughes repudiated all idea of valeting, but was willing to accept the man
+as a comrade. All he got by his democratic offer was that the man told the
+other servants that Mr. Hughes did not understand real English
+aristocracy. Which reminds me of a pleasing definition given by the Matron
+of our Village Training School for Servants of the much-discussed word
+&#8220;gentleman.&#8221; She told me one day that her sister had asked for one of our
+girls as servant. As we generally sent them to rather superior situations,
+I hesitated, though I did not like to refuse straight off, and asked,
+&#8220;What is your brother-in-law?&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> &#8220;He is a gentleman,&#8221; was the answer.
+Observing that I looked somewhat surprised, the Matron hastened to add,
+&#8220;You see, my sister keeps a temperance hotel, and in such a case the
+husband does not work, only cleans the windows and boots and so on.&#8221;
+Whereby I gather that not to work for regular wages is the hall-mark of a
+gentleman! But a girl was not provided for the place.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that Henry James was first introduced to us by Mr. Lowell, and
+became a frequent visitor afterwards. He was an intimate friend of my
+uncle the Dean of Hereford and of his mother-in-law Mrs. Kemble.</p>
+
+<p>Under the name of Summersoft he gives a delightful description of Osterley
+in his novel <i>The Lesson of the Master</i>. &#8220;It all went together and spoke
+in one voice&mdash;a rich English voice of the early part of the eighteenth
+century.&#8221; The Gallery he calls &#8220;a cheerful upholstered avenue into the
+other century.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CARDINAL NEWMAN</div>
+
+<p>One dinner at Norfolk House lingers specially in my memory; it was in the
+summer of 1880 and was to meet Dr. Newman not long after he had been
+promoted to the dignity of Cardinal&mdash;an honour which many people
+considered overdue. A large party was assembled and stood in a circle
+ready to receive the new &#8220;Prince of the Church,&#8221; who was conducted into
+the room by the Duke. As soon as he entered a somewhat ancient lady, Mrs.
+W&mdash; H&mdash;, who was a convert to &#8220;the Faith,&#8221; went forward and grovelled
+before him on her knees, kissing his hand with much effusion, and I fancy
+embarrassing His Eminence considerably. My aunt, the Duchess of
+Westminster, who was very handsome but by no means slim, was standing next
+to me and whispered, &#8220;Margaret, shall we have to do that? because I should
+never be able to get up again!&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> However, none of the Roman Catholics
+present seemed to consider such extreme genuflections necessary. I think
+they made some reasonable kind of curtsy as he was taken round, and then
+we went in to dinner. Somewhat to my surprise and certainly to my
+pleasure, I found myself seated next to the Cardinal and found him very
+attractive. I asked him whether the &#8220;Gerontius&#8221; of the poem was a real
+person, and he smiled and said &#8220;No,&#8221; but I think he was pleased that I had
+read it. I never met him again, but in October 1882 I was greatly
+surprised to receive a book with this charming letter written from
+Birmingham:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Madam</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have but one reason for venturing, as I do, to ask your Ladyship&#8217;s
+acceptance of a volume upon the Russian Church which I am publishing,
+the work of a dear friend now no more. That reason is the desire I
+feel of expressing in some way my sense of your kindness to me two
+years ago, when I had the honour of meeting you at Norfolk House, and
+the little probability there is, at my age, of my having any other
+opportunity of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I trust you will accept this explanation, and am</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">&#8220;Your Ladyship&#8217;s faithful servant,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">John H. Cardinal Newman</span>.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>The book was <i>Notes of a Visit to the Russian Church</i> by Lord Selborne&#8217;s
+brother, Mr. W. Palmer, edited and with a Preface by Cardinal Newman. I
+have never been able to understand what he considered my kindness, as I
+thought the Great Man so kind to me, a young female heretic.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<p class="title">BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887</p>
+
+<p>I find it difficult to recall all our foreign travels. In 1876 I
+paid&mdash;with my husband&mdash;my first visit to Switzerland, and three years
+later we went again&mdash;this time making the doubtful experiment of taking
+with us Villiers aged six and Margaret (called Markie) aged three. Somehow
+we conveyed these infants over glaciers and mountains to various places,
+including Zermatt. We contrived a sort of awning over a <i>chaise &agrave;
+porteurs</i> carried by guides&mdash;but they did a good bit of walking also. I
+was really terrified on one occasion when we drove in a kind of dog-cart
+down precipitous roads along the edge of precipices. The children sat on
+either side of me&mdash;their little legs too short to reach the floor of the
+carriage. I had an arm round either, feeling&mdash;I believe justly&mdash;that if I
+let go for a moment the child would be flung into space. Jersey was
+walking&mdash;the maid, I suppose, with courier and luggage&mdash;anyhow I had sole
+responsibility for the time being. Our courier was excellent, and no
+matter where we arrived contrived to produce a rice-pudding on which the
+children insisted. It is unnecessary to describe the well-known scenes
+through which we passed. Switzerland impressed me, as it does all
+travellers, with its grandeur and beauty&mdash;but I never loved it as I did
+the South and, later on, the East.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SARAH BERNHARDT</div>
+
+<p>Another winter we went&mdash;after Christmas&mdash;with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Villiers only&mdash;to Biarritz;
+again I did not think it southern enough in sky and vegetation to rival
+the Riviera, though the pinewoods, and great billows rolling in from the
+sea, were attractive. Soon afterwards we embarked in a governess&mdash;a clever
+young woman called Ada Mason, who was recommended by Lady Derby. She had
+been a show pupil at the Liverpool Girls&#8217; College, and before we engaged
+her permanently she went to complete her French education in Paris. She
+stayed with us till she married in Australia. In March 1883 we took
+Villiers, Markie, and Miss Mason to the Riviera, Florence, and Venice. I
+do not know that there is anything exceptional to record. I observe in a
+short journal which I kept on this occasion that Jersey and I while in
+Paris went to the Vaudeville to see Sarah Bernhardt in <i>F&eacute;dora</i>. My
+comment is: &#8220;She acted wonderfully but I did not think much of the play.
+The great coup was supposed to be when the hero gave her a bang on the
+head, but as that used to make the ladies faint he contented himself with
+partially throttling her when we saw it.&#8221; I suppose French ladies are more
+susceptible than English. Once in after years I went with a friend to see
+the divine Sarah in <i>La Tosca</i>. I thought the torture part horrid enough,
+but when La Tosca had killed the wicked Governor my companion observed
+plaintively, &#8220;We did not see any blood,&#8221; as if it were not sufficiently
+realistic.</p>
+
+<p>On this same journey abroad we visited, as on various other occasions, the
+Ile St. Honorat and Ste Marguerite, a picnic party being given on the
+former by Lord Abercromby and Mr. Savile. The Duchesse de Vallombrosa
+brought Marshal McMahon, and special interest was excited on this occasion
+since Bazaine had lately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> escaped from what had been formerly the prison
+of the Masque de Fer. Jersey went with some of the party to Ste
+Marguerite, and Marshal McMahon told Mr. Savile that he did not connive at
+Bazaine&#8217;s escape, but that Madame Bazaine came to him and asked when he
+would let her husband out. He replied, &#8220;In six years, or six months, if he
+is a <i>bon gar&ccedil;on</i>&#8221;; so she went out saying, &#8220;Then I shall know what to
+do,&#8221; and slammed the door after her, with the evident purpose of unlocking
+another door, which she accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Marshal McMahon must have been a fine fellow, but hardly possessed of
+French readiness of speech if this story which I have heard of him is
+true. He was to review the Cadets at a Military College&mdash;St. Cyr, I
+think&mdash;and was begged beforehand to say a special word of encouragement to
+a young Algerian who was in training there. When it came to the point the
+only happy remark which occurred to him was, &#8220;Ah&mdash;vous &ecirc;tes le n&egrave;gre&mdash;eh
+bien continuez le!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>From Cannes we went to several other places, including Spezzia, Genoa,
+Venice, and Florence. We saw all the orthodox sights in each place and at
+Florence dined with Mr. John Meyer and his first wife, who, if I remember
+rightly, was a Fitzgerald. He was in the exceptional position of having no
+nationality&mdash;he was somehow connected with Germany and Russia (not to
+speak of Jud&aelig;a) and had been in South America and Switzerland. He had been
+a Russian, but had lost that nationality as having been twenty-five years
+absent from that country. He wanted to become an Englishman, as his wife
+wanted to send her boy to school in England, but it would mean a
+lengthened residence or a private Act of Parliament costing &pound;3,000. In the
+end the nice Mrs. Meyer who entertained us on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> this occasion died, and he
+bought an Italian Marquisate and turned into an Italian! He married as his
+second wife a beautiful Miss Fish, and I last saw them in their charming
+villa near Florence.</p>
+
+<p>The Meyers were pleasant hosts, and it was at the dinner which I have
+mentioned that I first made the acquaintance of a telephone. They had
+asked some people to come in after dinner, and to show how the instrument
+worked telephoned to invite an additional guest. I never encountered a
+telephone at a private house in London till long afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Our younger children, Mary and Beatrice, stayed during our absence at our
+little Welsh home&mdash;Baglan House, near Briton Ferry&mdash;a place which all our
+children loved.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DEATH OF GILBERT LEIGH</div>
+
+<p>In 1884 a great sorrow befell our family. My brother Gilbert, then M.P.
+for South Warwickshire, went in August of that year to America with Mr. W.
+H. Grenfell&mdash;now Lord Desborough&mdash;with the object of getting some
+bear-shooting in the Rockies. Towards the end of the month they began
+camping&mdash;but the hunting was not good, as Indians had previously driven
+the part of the country which they visited with the view of getting game
+for their side. Mr. Grenfell&#8217;s journal records frost at the end of August
+and heavy snow on the night of September 1st. On September 12th they
+pitched a camp in the Big Horn Mountains on a charming spot close to a
+clear, rocky river with trees and high walls on either side. On Sunday the
+14th, a boiling hot day, they had an hour&#8217;s wash in the river, and after
+luncheon Gillie started off down the Ten Sleeper ca&ntilde;on alone on his
+horse&mdash;he was never seen alive again. For a whole week Mr. Grenfell and
+the three men whom they had with them searched in every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> possible
+direction, and at last, on the 21st, they found my brother lying dead at
+the foot of a precipice from which he had evidently fallen and been
+instantaneously killed&mdash;&#8220;a terrible way,&#8221; writes Mr. Grenfell, &#8220;to find a
+friend who had endeared himself to all&mdash;always cheery and ready to make
+the best of everything&mdash;nothing put him out&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;his simplicity, absence of
+self-assertion, and quaint humour made him a general favourite&mdash;whatever
+happened he never complained and did not know what fear was.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The news did not reach England till some three days later, and it is
+impossible to dwell on the terrible sorrow of all who loved him so dearly.
+My brother Dudley was mercifully in the States at the time of the fatal
+accident, and my uncle James Leigh set off at once to bring the body home;
+but the long wait&mdash;till October 20th&mdash;was unspeakably trying most of all
+for my poor parents, who were broken-hearted. My mother put a bunch of
+white rosebuds on his coffin, for when a little boy he had said one day
+that his &#8220;idea of love was a bunch of roses.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I will only add her verses on her firstborn son:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;He is gone, and gone for ever,<br />
+&#8216;Coming home again&#8217; now never&mdash;<br />
+If &#8217;tis cold he feels it not,<br />
+Recks not if &#8217;tis scorching hot,<br />
+But by children circled round<br />
+Roams the happy hunting-ground,<br />
+Pure in heart and face as they,<br />
+Gladsome in God&#8217;s glorious day.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;If I see him once again<br />
+Will he tell me of his pain?<br />
+Did he shout or cry or call<br />
+When he saw that he must fall?<br />
+Feel one pang of mortal fear<br />
+When the fatal plunge was near?<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>Or to the last&mdash;to fear a stranger&mdash;<br />
+Think to triumph over danger?<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;I think so&mdash;on his marble face<br />
+Fright and terror left no trace&mdash;<br />
+Still&mdash;as if at Stoneleigh sleeping,<br />
+There he lay&mdash;all the weeping<br />
+Broke in streams from other eyes<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Far away.</span><br />
+But to him come not again<br />
+Cold or heat or grief or pain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gilly was truly &#8220;to fear a stranger.&#8221; He had, as Mr. Grenfell recounts,
+been six times before to the Rocky Mountain country and always had
+extraordinary adventures&mdash;once he rode his horse along a ledge till he
+could neither go forward nor turn, and had to slip over its tail and climb
+out, leaving the animal to shift for itself. Two cowboys roped and got the
+saddle and bridle off and left the horse, which somehow backed out and got
+down without injury.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">IN ITALY, 1884</div>
+
+<p>Earlier in the year 1884 Jersey, Lady Galloway, and I made a pleasant tour
+among the Italian Lakes, including a run to Milan for Easter Sunday, where
+we heard some of the splendid service in the Cathedral. We took with us
+Villiers, his last trip abroad before his regular schooldays. He had
+attended Miss Woodman&#8217;s classes during two or three London seasons, and
+had had a visiting tutor from Oxford&mdash;Mr. Angel Smith&mdash;for the past year
+or so at Middleton; but on May 1st, after our return from the Lakes, he
+went to Mr. Chignell&#8217;s, Castlemount, Dover, where he remained till he went
+to Eton three years later. He had an unvaryingly good record both for the
+lessons and conduct while at Castlemount.</p>
+
+<p>I have no special recollection of the two following years, so pass on to
+1887. That winter Lady Galloway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> was in Russia and was to stay in Berlin
+with the Ambassador, Sir Edward Malet, and his wife, Lady Ermyntrude, on
+her return. The Malets very kindly invited me to meet her and to spend a
+few days at the Embassy. I arrived there on February 21st, and found Lady
+Galloway and her sister-in-law Lady Isabel Stewart already installed. The
+following afternoon the routine of German court etiquette&mdash;now a thing of
+the past&mdash;began. Lady Ermyntrude took us to leave cards on the various
+members of the Corps Diplomatique and then proceeded to present Mrs.
+Talbot (now Lady Talbot) and myself to Gr&auml;fin Perponcher, the Empress&#8217;s
+Obermeisterin. She was a funny old soul in a wig, but regarded as next
+door to royalty, and it was therefore correct to make half a curtsy when
+introduced to her. It was a great thing to have anyone so kind, and yet so
+absolutely aware of all the shades of ceremonial, as Lady Ermyntrude, to
+steer us through the Teutonic pitfalls.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">COURT BALL IN BERLIN</div>
+
+<p>In the evening we were taken to the Carnival Court Ball, where we stood in
+a row behind Lady Ermyntrude to be presented to the Crown Prince and
+Princess as they came round. The Diplomatic people were on the left of the
+royal seats. The Weisser Saal was lighted partly with candles and partly
+with electric lights; one felt that either one or the other would have had
+a better effect, but no doubt that was all rectified in later years. We
+were presently taken into an outer room or gallery to be presented to the
+Empress Augusta, who was seated in a chair with a sort of Stonehenge of
+chairs in front. She was attired in what appeared to be royal robes heavy
+with gold embroidery and gigantic diamonds, but she looked almost like a
+resurrected corpse, except that her eyes were still large and wonderfully
+bright<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> and glittering as if they had little torches behind them. I fancy
+that she had some preparation of belladonna dropped into them on these
+occasions. Her mouth was always a little open, giving the impression that
+she wanted to speak but could not; really, however, she talked fast
+enough, and was very gracious in sending messages to my grandmother
+Westminster. After our presentation we had to sit in Stonehenge for a few
+minutes. We had heard that when the Empress was a girl, her governess
+would place her in front of a circle of chairs, and make her go round and
+address a polite remark to each. We recognised the utility of the practice
+as Her Majesty made a neat little sentence to each of the circle seated
+before her this evening. Sir Edward and Lady Ermyntrude went home early,
+as they were in mourning, but when we tried to go in to supper with the
+Embassy Staff, we were seized on by Count Eulenberg and told to go into
+the royal supper-room. The Crown Prince and Princess came and talked to us
+very kindly, but I could not help thinking the latter rather indiscreet,
+as when I made a futile remark as to the fine sight presented by the
+Palace she returned, &#8220;A finer sight at Buckingham Palace,&#8221; then, lowering
+her voice, &#8220;and prettier faces!&#8221; True enough, but a little risky addressed
+to a stranger with possible eavesdroppers.</p>
+
+<p>The old Emperor William was not at this ball, as he was not well
+enough&mdash;which distressed him, as he liked society; but two days later we
+were invited to a small concert at his own Palace. When we had made our
+curtsies to the Empress she desired that we should go round and be
+presented to His Majesty. I had been told previously that he was
+interested in the idea of seeing me, as he had been a great friend of my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>grandmother Westminster and they used to interchange presents on their
+birthdays. When we were taken up to him Gr&auml;fin Perponcher reminded him of
+Jersey&#8217;s grandmother and Lady Clementina Villiers, but he immediately
+asked if I were not also related to Lady Westminster. When I said that I
+was her granddaughter he asked, &#8220;Et &ecirc;tes-vous toujours en relation avec
+elle?&#8221; and on hearing that I wrote to her charged me with messages which
+she was afterwards very pleased to receive.</p>
+
+<p>During the singing we sat round little tables covered with red velvet
+table-covers, which seemed a funny arrangement, as it meant that some of
+the audience had their backs to the performers. There were five
+which&mdash;joining each other&mdash;ran down the centre of the room. The Empress
+sat at the head of the end one, and the Crown Princess presided at a round
+one in the middle of the room, at which Lady Galloway and I were seated.
+Princess Victoria (afterwards Schaumburg Lippe) sat between us&mdash;we found
+her lively, though not pretty. When the performance was over the Emperor
+came and talked to us again; he seemed very cheerful, though he put his
+hand on the back of a chair for, as he said, &#8220;un petit appui&#8221;! I told him
+that I had been with the crowd to see him when he looked out at the
+soldiers as he did every morning. &#8220;Quoi, Madame, vous avez fait la
+curieuse?&#8221; he said, and proceeded to tell us that he was now &#8220;devenu la
+mode,&#8221; though formerly no one came to look at him. Finally some supper was
+brought and put on the tables where we had been sitting.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK</div>
+
+<p>The following day we were invited to breakfast (or rather 12.30 luncheon)
+with the Crown Prince and Princess&mdash;only their three unmarried daughters
+besides Lady Galloway, Lady Isabel, and myself. The Crown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Prince was a
+most fascinating man and particularly impressed us by his devotion to his
+wife, having even consulted a lady dentist by her desire! The three
+Princesses each had in front of her place at table a large collection of
+little silver objects given them on their respective birthdays. The
+parents again reverted to my grandmother, and on hearing of her immense
+number of children and grandchildren the Prince remarked, &#8220;What a number
+of birthday presents that must mean!&#8221;&mdash;which amused me, as with all
+grandmamma&#8217;s kindness to me personally, she was far from troubling about
+the identity of all her grandchildren&mdash;life would not have been long
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>The Princess talked much of the hospitals at Berlin, and of her trouble in
+introducing anything like decent nursing into them. She said when she
+first married a Children&#8217;s Ward would be shut up at night without any
+nurse whatever in charge, and several children found dead in the morning.
+I believe she did great things for the hospitals, but fear that discretion
+was not always the better part of her valour, and that she more than once
+gave offence by comparison with the superior method in England. After
+luncheon the Princesses departed and the parents took us through their own
+rooms, which were very pretty and comfortable. When we reached her Studio
+the Crown Princess did not want to take us in, as she said she must go off
+to see Princess William (the late ex-Kaiserin), but the Prince said, &#8220;You
+go, I shall take them&#8221;&mdash;for he was determined that we should see, and duly
+admire, his wife&#8217;s artistic talents. We saw the Crown Princess again in
+the evening at the theatre, as she sent for Lady Galloway and me into her
+box and put Mary through a searching catechism about Russia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>Saturday 26th till the following Tuesday we spent at Dresden, which we
+greatly admired. We saw the Galleries and Museums, and attended a Wagner
+opera&mdash;<i>Siegfried</i>; but I need not record sights and sentiments shared
+with so many other travellers. I had some experience at Dresden of the
+dangers of &#8220;Verboten.&#8221; I ventured out for a short time alone and felt the
+risk of being arrested at least twice&mdash;once for walking on the wrong side
+of the bridge, once for standing in the wrong place in the principal
+church. I committed a third crime, but forget its nature.</p>
+
+<p>Two evenings after our return to Berlin we were invited to another royal
+concert, and on this occasion I sat at Prince William&#8217;s table quite
+unconscious that he would be hereafter England&#8217;s greatest foe! What
+impressed me most about him was the way in which he asked questions.
+Someone told him that I held a position in the Primrose League, and he at
+once wanted to know all about it. The impression left on my mind was that
+he thought that it brought women too prominently forward.</p>
+
+<p>Next day we visited the various palaces at Potsdam&mdash;the Crown Princess had
+kindly sent word to her gardener Mr. Walker, to meet us, and he proved an
+amiable and efficient guide. At the Stadt Schloss Frederick the Great&#8217;s
+bedroom, with a silver balustrade, was being prepared for the baptism of
+Prince William&#8217;s fourth son. We had been warned at the Embassy that this
+expedition would be one of difficulty if not of danger, but we
+accomplished all successfully save our return from the Wild Park Station
+at Berlin. Of course this was before the days of motors, so our journey to
+and from Potsdam was by train, and somehow we missed the Embassy carriage
+at the station. Innocently we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> took a fly, but at the Embassy it was
+discovered that this was a <i>second-class</i> fly, which was considered a most
+disreputable proceeding. We had not known the various categories of Berlin
+vehicles.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">PRINCE BISMARCK</div>
+
+<p>We had one real piece of good fortune, due to Herbert Bismarck, whom we
+had known in England and met several times at Berlin. His father had not
+been present at the opening of the Reichstag which we attended, so we had
+asked Herbert if he were likely to speak on any following day, for we were
+anxious to see him and he did not often appear at entertainments or
+such-like gatherings.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert promised to let us know, but he did better, for he coached his
+mother what to do should we call, and Lady Ermyntrude took us to see the
+Princess on Saturday afternoon. Princess Bismarck was most gracious, said
+Herbert had asked every day if we had called; he was devoted to England
+and to his collection of photographs of English ladies, which he expected
+her to distinguish one from the other.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CONVERSATION WITH BISMARCK</div>
+
+<p>Her sister, Countess Arnim, was also in the room. When we had been talking
+with them for a few minutes the Princess rang, and beckoned to the servant
+who answered to come close that she might whisper. Lady Galloway overheard
+her say in German, &#8220;Tell the Prince that the English ladies are here.&#8221;
+After a short interval an inner door opened slowly, and the tall form of
+the Chancellor appeared. We all jumped up as the Princess announced &#8220;Mon
+Mari.&#8221; He shook hands with Lady Ermyntrude, who introduced us each in
+turn. Hearing that Lady Galloway was &#8220;la s&oelig;ur de Lord Salisbury,&#8221; he
+was anxious to investigate whether she resembled him in face, but decided
+not very much, as &#8220;Lord Salisbury avait les traits tr&egrave;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> masculins and le
+visage plus carr&eacute;,&#8221; which he emphasised rather in action than in words.
+Mary had to sit on one side of him facing the light in order that he might
+the better make these comparisons. I was at the end of a sofa on his other
+hand. Lady Galloway then remarked that he had been very kind to her nephew
+Lord Edward Cecil, who had been in Berlin in the spring of the previous
+year. Curiously enough, though he had had him to dinner, he did not seem
+to remember him, though he perfectly recollected Lord Cranborne, who had
+been with his father at the time of the Congress. Being informed that Lord
+Edward had been abroad in order to study German, he asked, &#8220;Eh bien,
+a-t-il eu de succ&egrave;s?&#8221; and remarked that German was a difficult language
+but less so for the English than for some other people, and that while the
+English often spoke French more fluently they grasped the German
+construction better as being more akin to their own. Mary agreed, saying
+we were of the same race, whereupon he politely thanked her for having
+recalled and acknowledged the fact. I then remarked that it had been
+suggested that he wished to change &#8220;les caract&egrave;res allemands,&#8221; meaning the
+letters. He misunderstood me to mean the characters of the people, and
+said that he should hardly be capable of that, but added: &#8220;On m&#8217;accuse
+d&#8217;avoir chang&eacute; une nation de po&ecirc;tes en nation de politiques militaires,
+mais c&#8217;est parce que nous avons &eacute;t&eacute; si longtemps l&#8217;enclume qu&#8217;il fallait
+le faire. Il faut toujours &ecirc;tre l&#8217;enclume ou le marteau, maintenant nous
+sommes le marteau. Nous &eacute;tions l&#8217;enclume jusqu&#8217;&agrave; Leipzig et Waterloo.&#8221; I
+suggested that at Waterloo &#8220;nous &eacute;tions deux marteaux,&#8221; and he answered,
+bowing, &#8220;J&#8217;esp&egrave;re que nous les serons encore ensemble.&#8221; Little did he or I
+look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> on twenty-seven years! Bismarck then asked for the English of
+&#8220;enclume&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;car je ne suis pas forgeron,&#8221; and when we told him he said
+that he only knew &#8220;l&#8217;anglais pour voyager, le russe pour la chasse et le
+fran&ccedil;ais pour les affaires,&#8221; and went on to speak of his son, who, as we
+all agreed, knew English so well. Like the Princess, he said that Count
+Herbert was much attached to our country, and added that if he continued
+to do well and &#8220;si je peux guider sa destin&eacute;e j&#8217;ai l&#8217;intention qu&#8217;il aille
+quelque jour en Angleterre&#8221;: meantime he thought that Count Hatzfeldt was
+getting on all right. Lady Galloway said that he was very popular.
+Bismarck considered that he did better as Ambassador than in affairs at
+home, as though he could work well he lacked the power of sticking to his
+work. I then referred to Mr. Deichmann, a country neighbour of ours who
+had built a house near Bicester and married a Miss de Bunsen, widow of
+another German, who had been his friend. Mr. (afterwards Baron) Deichmann
+and his wife were undoubtedly friends (or henchmen?) of the Bismarcks, and
+Mr. Deichmann was very proud of a tankard which the Prince had given him.
+&#8220;He gave me a very good horse,&#8221; returned the Prince, when I mentioned
+this, and described him as &#8220;bon enfant.&#8221; In the light of after experience
+I feel sure that the Deichmanns were employed to report to the Prince on
+social matters in England and particularly in diplomatic circles. I do not
+at all mean that they were anti-English, but that they were &#8220;utilised.&#8221;
+They were very intimate friends of the M&uuml;nsters, and somehow kept in with
+the Crown Princess and her family, although the Princess certainly did not
+love Bismarck! I well recollect a dinner which (in years later than that
+of our interview with the great man) the Deichmanns gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> at their house
+in London to reconcile the French and German Embassies. What had been the
+exact cause of friction I do not know, but the <i>ostensible</i> one was that
+the then Ambassadress, Madame Waddington, had not worn mourning when some
+German princelet died. Anyhow, Madame Deichmann had Madame Waddington to
+dinner, and Marie M&uuml;nster to a party afterwards, and they were made to
+shake hands and be friends. It was clever of Madame Deichmann, and she
+well deserved the title of Baroness afterwards conferred upon her.
+However, I am not altogether sure that Bismarck appreciated the reference
+to his friends on this occasion&mdash;he may not have wished to be thought too
+intimate! He did not resent it though, and when we rose to take leave gave
+Lady Galloway many messages for Lord Salisbury, hoping to see him again in
+Germany or when he, Bismarck, came to England, which he seemed to regard
+as quite on the cards. He also asked Lady Ermyntrude affectionately after
+Sir Edward, whom he thought looking rather unwell when he last saw him,
+though quite himself again when he became excited.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BISMARCK AND LORD SALISBURY</div>
+
+<p>Just as we were going away the Prince asked if we would like to see the
+room where the Congress had been held. Of course we were delighted, so
+that he took us in and showed us where they all sat, Lord Beaconsfield on
+his right hand, and Lord Salisbury, as he particularly pointed out to Lady
+Galloway, just round the corner. Then Gortschakoff, who, he said, did not
+take much part, next Schouvaloff, on whom the work fell, but he added in
+English, &#8220;Lord Salisbury <i>squeezed</i> him.&#8221; And there, he said, pointing to
+the other side of the table, &#8220;sat the victim of the Congress, the Turk.&#8221;
+So little impression had the victim made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> upon him that he could not even
+remember his name&mdash;he thought, however, that it was Mehemet&mdash;Mehemet
+something&mdash;at last Princess Bismarck helped him out&mdash;Mehemet Ali. I
+believe the head Turk was Karatheodori Pasha, but presume that he was a
+nonentity; at all events neither Prince nor Princess Bismarck referred to
+him. Bismarck rather apologised for the bareness of the room, a fine,
+large, long apartment, and wished that he were equal to giving balls in
+it&mdash;this, with Emperor William&#8217;s desire to go to balls, gave a cheerful
+impression of these old men.</p>
+
+<p>Little did we then realise what our feelings with regard to Germany would
+be twenty-seven years later! Though I feel ashamed now of the impression
+made upon me by Prince Bismarck, I cannot help recording that I was
+foolish enough to write some verses comparing him to Thor, the
+Scandinavian war-god, with his hammer and anvil, and to add them to my
+account of our interview.</p>
+
+<p>After our return to England Lord Salisbury told Lady Galloway that he
+should like to see this account, and when I met him again he said to me
+with great amusement, &#8220;So you have seen Thor?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Prince Bismarck had an undoubted admiration for Lord Salisbury. Not long
+after Sir Edward Malet&#8217;s appointment to Berlin poor Lady Ermyntrude had a
+child who did not survive its birth. She was very ill. Some little time
+afterwards her father, the Duke of Bedford, told me that she had been very
+anxious to come over to England to be with her parents for her
+confinement. This was arranged, and then Sir Edward, anxious about her
+health, wanted to join her. He did not know whether he could rightfully
+leave his diplomatic duties, but Bismarck reassured him, telling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> him that
+so long as Lord Salisbury was in power he need have no apprehension as to
+the relations between England and the German Empire.</p>
+
+<p>I confess also to having been fascinated by the Crown Prince&mdash;afterwards
+the Emperor Frederick; but he was not in the least like a Prussian&mdash;he was
+like a very gentle knight. Poor man! He had already begun to suffer from
+the fatal malady to his throat. The last time I spoke with him he came
+into the box in which we were sitting at the theatre and said, &#8220;I cannot
+talk to you much, my throat is so bad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next event which made a great impression on me in common with every
+other subject of the British Empire was the first Jubilee of Queen
+Victoria. Its excitements, its glories, have been told over and over
+again, but no one who did not live through it can grasp the thrill which
+ran from end to end of the nation, and no one who did live through it can
+pass it on to others. The Queen became a tradition while yet alive. When
+ten thousand children from the elementary schools were entertained in Hyde
+Park the proceedings concluded by the release of a balloon bearing the
+word &#8220;Victoria.&#8221; As it ascended one child was heard gravely explaining to
+another that &#8220;that was the Queen going up to Heaven.&#8221; A man (or woman)
+wrote to the paper that in the evening he had observed that the sunset
+colours had formed themselves into a distinct arrangement of red, white,
+and blue! I chanced the week before the Jubilee celebrations to express to
+a girl in a shop a hope for fine weather. In a tone of rebuke she replied,
+&#8220;Of course it will be fine: it is for the Queen!&#8221;&mdash;a sentiment more
+poetically expressed by the French Ambassador Baron de Courcel, who said
+to me on one rather doubtful day in the week preceding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the Diamond
+Jubilee, &#8220;Le bon Dieu nettoie les cieux pour la Reine!&#8221; This confidence
+was fully justified: the weather was glorious. When traffic was stopped in
+the main thoroughfares, and all streets and houses had their usual
+dinginess hidden in glowing decorations, London looked like a fairy
+city&mdash;a fitting regal background for an imperial apotheosis&mdash;only
+perchance excelled by the Diamond Jubilee ten years later. &#8220;Mother&#8217;s come
+home,&#8221; I heard a stalwart policeman say on the day when the Queen arrived
+in Buckingham Palace. That was just it&mdash;Mother had come back to her joyous
+children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THANKSGIVING SERVICE</div>
+
+<p>The Dowager Lady Ampthill, one of her ladies-in-waiting, recounted an
+incident which I do not think appeared in any of the papers. When the
+royal train was coming down from Scotland Lady Ampthill awoke in the early
+summer dawn, and looked out of the carriage in which she had been
+sleeping. The world was not yet awake, but as the train rushed through the
+country amongst fields and meadows she was astonished to see numbers of
+men and women standing apparently silently gazing&mdash;simply waiting to see
+the passing of the Great Queen to her Jubilee. Perhaps the climax was the
+Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot refrain from inserting here my mother&#8217;s lines describing the
+final scene on that occasion:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;It was an hour of triumph, for a nation<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Had gathered round the Monarch of their pride;</span><br />
+All that a people held of great or lovely,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wise, the world-renowned, stood side by side.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Lands famed in story sent their Kings and chieftains,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Isles scarcely recked of came our Queen to greet,</span><br />
+Princesses lent the tribute of their beauty,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And laid the flowers of welcome at her feet.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;The organs pealed, the trumpets gave their challenge,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stormy shout of gladness rent the air,</span><br />
+All eyes beamed welcome, and all hearts bowed with her<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When low she bent her royal head in prayer.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;She bent amid a haughty nation, knowing<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No sun e&#8217;er set upon its widespread towers,</span><br />
+Though right and good had deemed that day the lion<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To sheath its claws and robe itself in flowers.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;When C&aelig;sar kept high holiday, when Rome<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Called forth her maidens to fill hours of ease,</span><br />
+Pale warriors darkly met in bloody ring<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or some Numidian giant died to please.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;But in that hour supreme when all eyes turned<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon the Queen&#8217;s kind face and gestures mild,</span><br />
+Bright tears unbidden rose, stern bosoms heaved,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They saw her stoop&mdash;she stooped to kiss her child.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Children and children&#8217;s children passed before her,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Each one &#8216;fair History&#8217;s mark&#8217; with stately grace;</span><br />
+Mother of many nations, Queen and Empress,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She drew them each within her fond embrace.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Symbolic kiss&mdash;it spoke of early birthdays,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When little hearts had swelled with little joys,</span><br />
+It told of kisses given and counsels tender<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To graceful maidens and to princely boys;</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Of fond caresses given in days of gladness<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When Hope was young and blue the skies above,</span><br />
+Of kisses interchanged in hours of sorrow<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When all seemed shattered save the bonds of love.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;And of that hour of dutiful surrender<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of hearts to Him who gives to Kings to be,</span><br />
+The memory of those kisses grave and tender<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall knit our hearts, Victoria, still to thee.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Sceptres outlasting long the hands that held them,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thrones that have seated dynasties may fall:</span><br />
+Love never dies, his chain is linked to heaven,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Lord, the friend, the comforter of all.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;Yes! of those hours so joyous and so glorious<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When the tall fires prolonged the festal day,</span><br />
+The memory of those kisses gently given<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall be the dearest we shall bear away.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>On July 2nd I recollect Lord and Lady Lathom coming to spend a Sunday with
+us at Osterley. He was then Lord Chamberlain&mdash;and the poor man seemed
+utterly exhausted by the strain of the Jubilee festivities though very
+happy at their success. He spoke among other things of the quaint
+applications which he had received for permission to attend the service at
+the Abbey. Amongst others he had one from a lady who said that if she did
+not obtain a seat a large class would be unrepresented&mdash;namely, the class
+of Old Maids. I think she had one. Even people like my father not
+connected with the Court were pestered to &#8220;use influence&#8221;&mdash;one lady wrote
+to him to try and get seats for herself and her father, and wanted them
+near the preacher as &#8220;papa was very deaf.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">TRIALS OF COURT OFFICIALS</div>
+
+<p>Lord Mount Edgcumbe&mdash;then Lord Steward&mdash;once told me of a trying
+experience which he had in connection with the Jubilee. There was a great
+banquet at Windsor and he had to order the seating of the guests, who
+included various foreign royalties. As is well known in dealing with
+foreigners the order in which they sit is far more important than the
+precedence in which they walk into the banqueting hall&mdash;if you put two
+princes or dignitaries one on the right, the other on the left of the
+table, and both are about equally important, you must take care to put the
+left-hand man one higher up at the table than the guest on the right.
+Well, Lord Mount Edgcumbe had ordered this feast of some thirty or forty
+notabilities or more to complete satisfaction, and had gone to his room
+to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> attire himself in all the glory of a High Steward. Just as he was
+getting into his breeches a message was brought him that two more German
+princelets had arrived who had to be included in the party. Poor man! he
+had to hasten to complete his toilet and to rush down and rearrange the
+whole table.</p>
+
+<p>Talking of German etiquette (I don&#8217;t know how far it survives the fall of
+the Hohenzollerns), we had a most eccentric Teutonic specimen at Osterley
+that Jubilee summer. Our kind hostess at Berlin&mdash;Lady Ermyntrude
+Malet&mdash;introduced to us, by letter, a certain Count Seierstorpff&mdash;so we
+asked him to spend Whitsuntide. We had various other guests, including the
+Kintores and Lord and Lady Maud Wolmer (now Lord and Lady Selborne) and
+Lady Maud&#8217;s sister, Lady Gwendolen Cecil. Count Seierstorpff&#8217;s one form of
+conversation was to catechise everybody as to the rank of the company&mdash;how
+far they were &#8220;ebenb&uuml;rtig.&#8221; This culminated in his asking me what Lady
+Maud would be if Lord Wolmer were to die! I told Lord Wolmer this, and he
+said, &#8220;Couldn&#8217;t you tell him that of two sisters in the house, both
+equally eligible, one is unmarried!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When on Whit-Monday we drove to see Ham House he kept jumping up on the
+seat of the landau in which he went with some of the party to inspect the
+surrounding country&mdash;spying, I suppose&mdash;and when we were sitting outside
+the house after dinner he suddenly disappeared and was found to have
+rushed wildly right round a portion of the grounds. Many years
+afterwards&mdash;1913, I believe&mdash;Jersey and I met him again at Cannes. He had
+grown into a fat, truculent Prussian, and had married a pleasant American
+wife. Poor people! After the War I asked what became of them. He and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> his
+two sons were killed in the War&mdash;she had lost money and relations by the
+sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i>&mdash;had gone mad and was in an asylum. I only
+wonder that <i>he</i> had not gone mad, but suppose there was method in his
+Osterley madness.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE NAVAL REVIEW</div>
+
+<p>The last festivity in which I took part that summer was the Jubilee Naval
+Review at Spithead. Jersey went by invitation of the P. and O. Company on
+a ship of their fleet&mdash;the <i>Rome</i> if I recollect rightly&mdash;but Lady
+Galloway and I with her stepfather Lord Derby were invited from Friday,
+July 22nd, for the Review on Saturday and to spend Sunday on board the
+<i>Mirror</i>, one of Sir John Pender&#8217;s electric-cable ships. I never shared in
+a more amusing party. There was great confusion with the luggage at
+Waterloo. I think most people lost something. Lady Galloway and I each had
+two small boxes and each lost one, but it did not matter, as we were able
+to supplement each other&#8217;s remaining articles. Sir William Russell the
+journalist lost all his luggage, but it was said that he invariably did
+so, and he did not seem to mind at all. Lord Wolseley, Lord Alcester, Lord
+Lymington (afterwards Portsmouth), and Sir William Des Voeux, who had been
+Governor of Fiji, Lady Tweeddale, and Countess Marie M&uuml;nster were among
+the guests, and our kind host did everything to make us happy. The
+<i>Mirror</i>, like the other unofficial ships, remained stationary during the
+Review, but Lady Galloway and I persuaded the Chairman, Sir John Pender,
+and the Captain to let a boat take us to the House of Lords ship, the
+<i>Euphrates</i>, for which we had tickets, and which was to follow the Queen&#8217;s
+Yacht, the <i>Victoria and Albert</i>, down the lines. It was a magnificent
+sight. I will not attempt to describe it, as it has been far better
+recorded than any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> words of mine could achieve. One thing, however, I may
+note. The then biggest and finest ships were like rather ugly floating
+forts, and all, or almost all, different from each other. The graceful old
+men-of-war with long lines and pointed bows were considered obsolete. Ten
+years later when there was a Review for the second Jubilee all was changed
+again. I do not mean that the naval architects had reverted to the old
+models, but the general effect was a return to the old lines, and the
+fortress ships, almost sunk under the sea, had disappeared. Also they were
+later on built in classes, so that their fittings were interchangeable and
+the engineers from one ship could be easily transferred to another.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our personal experiences. The rest of the party had remained
+on the <i>Mirror</i>, and I rather fancy some of them got a little bored, as
+their time was less exciting than ours. Anyhow, one or two of the men
+became exceedingly anxious for our return as the dinner-hour approached,
+as of course the boat could not fetch us off from the <i>Euphrates</i> till all
+the proceedings were over and the coast clear. We were told when we did
+get back, which I do not think was unduly late, that Lord Alcester had
+expressed a somewhat uncomplimentary opinion of women, emphasised with a
+capital D! However, everyone enjoyed the illumination of the ships, and
+particularly the searchlights&mdash;then somewhat of a novelty and in which the
+<i>Mirror</i> specially distinguished herself. On Sunday morning our Chairman,
+Sir John Pender, was very properly anxious that his guests should enjoy
+&#8220;religious privileges&#8221;; and as everyone was content that he should have
+service on board instead of putting us on shore, it was arranged
+accordingly. There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> a distinct rivalry as to who should officiate. We
+had not a Bishop nor even one of the lesser lights of the Church among our
+otherwise representative company&mdash;the Captain evidently considered that
+under these circumstances he was the proper person to read prayers, and he
+produced prayer-books&mdash;I suppose that they were provided by the Electric
+Company&mdash;and Sir John distinctly held that as Chairman it was for him,
+although a Nonconformist, to conduct the Anglican devotions&mdash;so he began.
+The Captain determined anyhow to act as prompter. They got on all
+right&mdash;till Sir John, a little man, stood up to read the First Lesson.
+This unfortunately began, &#8220;And Satan stood up&#8221;&mdash;still more unfortunately
+it appeared that it was the wrong lesson, and the Captain ruthlessly
+pulled him down. Nevertheless we somehow reached a happy conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon some of us, including Lord Derby, were offered a choice
+of cruising about among the ships or going over to see Lord and Lady De La
+Warr at a little house they had somewhere on the coast called Inchmery. We
+chose the latter, and were sent in a tug called the <i>Undaunted</i>. I tried
+to immortalise the expedition in a so-called poem of which I only quote a
+few verses&mdash;needless to say Lord Derby was the hero:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;There was an Earl&mdash;a noble Earl<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who would a sailor be,</span><br />
+And therefore asked two kindly dames<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To take him out to sea....</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span></span><br />
+&#8220;We&#8217;ve often heard of Inchmery,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its charms and crabs are vaunted;</span><br />
+Bring round the tug and cast her off,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That splendid tug <i>Undaunted</i>!</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;The splendid tug sailed fast and far,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She bore as fair a band</span><br />
+As ever dared the heaving deep<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sighed to gain the land.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;She bore our Only General,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose prowess must be granted,</span><br />
+For he can always go to sleep<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And always wake when wanted.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;A great Colonial Governor<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who would have ruled the main,</span><br />
+Only emotions swelled his breast<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which he could not restrain.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>As to the above, Lord Wolseley explained to us that he shared a
+characteristic with Napoleon and I rather think Wellington&mdash;namely, that
+he could always go to sleep in a minute when he so desired, and wake with
+equal celerity. He exemplified this by retiring into the little cabin of
+the launch when the waves became somewhat restive, and fell fast asleep
+immediately, seated on a bench. The poor Colonial Governor, Sir William
+Des Voeux, was less happy&mdash;he had to lie prostrate at the bottom of the
+launch during the short transit until we landed.</p>
+
+<p>The De La Warrs gave us an excellent tea, and we then strolled among the
+rocks on the shore, where it was supposed that the great Lord Derby wanted
+to find crabs:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;The time speeds on&mdash;and now at length,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By new-born terrors haunted,</span><br />
+Soldier and sage demand the tug&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&#8216;Where is the good <i>Undaunted</i>&#8217;?</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;What object meets their straining eyes,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From aid and rescue far?</span><br />
+Dauntless perhaps, but useless quite,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She&#8217;s stranded on the bar.</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;The Captain smiles, &#8216;It wasn&#8217;t I,&#8217;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The General&#8217;s out of reach,</span><br />
+The noble Earl sits down to play<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aunt Sally on the beach.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>It was a fine sight to see Lord Derby (uncle of the present Lord Derby),
+regarded by most people as an exceptionally solemn statesman, sitting
+tranquilly on the shore throwing stones&mdash;a sort of ducks and drakes&mdash;into
+the sea&mdash;quite unmoved by the tug&#8217;s disaster.</p>
+
+<p>However, Lord De La Warr came to the rescue with a launch which took us
+safely back to the <i>Mirror</i>&mdash;minus Sir William, who had found the tug
+quite bad enough and declined to trust himself to the launch. He remained
+for the night at Inchmery, and I presume, like the rest of us, found his
+way back to London next day.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">KNOWSLEY</div>
+
+<p>The Lord Derby of this expedition was a great friend of mine. His wife,
+formerly Lady Salisbury, was Lady Galloway&#8217;s mother, and I originally met
+her staying at Galloway House&mdash;after which she invited us several times to
+Knowsley. I think my first visit there was in 1879 when we met the
+Leckys&mdash;afterwards great friends&mdash;and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lowe (afterwards
+Lord Sherbrooke). He was an albino and chiefly remembered for his abortive
+attempt to tax matches, giving rise to the joke &#8220;ex luce lucellum.&#8221; She
+was, I believe, a very good-natured woman, but it was funny to see the
+result of her excessive flow of conversation. She would begin with a
+circle round her, and person after person would gradually steal away,
+leaving her at length with only one victim whom amiability or good manners
+forbade to depart.</p>
+
+<p>I well recollect that Lady Derby won my heart on this occasion by coming
+to the front door to meet us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> on arrival, under the evident impression
+that as a young woman I might be shy coming to a very large house among
+those, including my host, who were mostly strangers. I dare say that I
+might have survived the shock, but I was much struck with the courtesy and
+thoughtfulness of a woman old enough to be my mother, and it was one of
+the first lessons, of which I have had many in life, of the great effect
+of the manner in which people originally receive their guests.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Derby was a remarkable woman in many ways. Her heart was first in her
+husband and children and then in politics. She could never take a
+lightsome view of life and let it carry her along. She always wished to
+manage and direct it. Her motives were invariably excellent, but
+occasionally things might have gone better had she taken less trouble
+about them. She did great things for her children, who adored her, but
+even with them it might sometimes have been well had their lives been left
+a little more to their own discretion. She was kindness itself to me, and
+I used greatly to enjoy going to Derby House, then in St. James&#8217;s Square,
+where she was always at home to her particular friends at tea-time and
+where one always had the chance of meeting interesting people.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">APOTHEOSIS OF THE QUEEN</div>
+
+<p>To conclude my recollections of the Jubilee. I think that it was in the
+autumn of 1887, and not after the Diamond Jubilee, that we were staying
+with Lord and Lady Muncaster at their beautiful home in Cumberland. We
+went to the local church and an Archdeacon was preaching for some Society
+which involved a plea for missionary effort. He spoke to this effect (of
+course these are not the exact words): &#8220;There are black men, brown men,
+red men, and yellow men in the British Empire. We must not despise any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> of
+them, for we are all children of one Great&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; I naturally expected
+&#8220;Father,&#8221; but he added &#8220;Mother&#8221;! So far had Queen Victoria advanced in the
+tutelary rank! I was told after her death that the Tibetans had adopted
+her as a protecting deity&mdash;and that they attributed the invasion of their
+country to the fact that she had died, as we had never disturbed them in
+her lifetime. I record later on how natives in Madras did &#8220;poojah&#8221; to her
+statue, offering coconuts and such like tribute&mdash;but the Indians also did
+&#8220;poojah&#8221; to a steam-engine when they first saw it, so perhaps this was not
+an extraordinary token of reverence.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<p class="title">GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE</p>
+
+<p>To go a little back in recollections of the eighties one of our friends
+was Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor in 1868 and again from 1874 till, I
+believe, his death. Once when I was sitting near him at dinner, we were
+discussing ghost stories. He said that without giving them general
+credence he was impressed by one which had been told him by the wife of
+the Prussian Minister, Madame Bernstorff. (I think, though am not sure,
+that Bernstorff was Minister before there was a German Embassy.) The story
+was, briefly, that a man in Berlin had a dream, thrice repeated, in which
+a comrade appeared to him and said that he had been murdered, and that his
+dead body was being carried out of the city, covered with straw, by a
+certain gate. The man roused himself, told the police, the body was duly
+found and the murderers arrested. &#8220;Well,&#8221; said I, &#8220;I think I have read
+that story in Dryden, and believe he took it from Chaucer.&#8221; Sure enough I
+found the tale in &#8220;The Cock and the Fox,&#8221; Dryden&#8217;s modernised version of
+Chaucer&#8217;s &#8220;Tale of the Nun&#8217;s Priest&#8221;&mdash;but the amusing thing is that Dryden
+says,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;An ancient author, equal with the best,<br />
+Relates this tale of dreams among the rest&#8221;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>and a note explains that the &#8220;ancient author&#8221; was Cicero, from whose
+treatise, <i>De Divinatione</i>, the story was taken. I sent the book to Lord
+Cairns, who answered (June 25th, 1883): &#8220;It is Madame <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>Bernstorff&#8217;s story
+to the letter! It was most kind of you to send it to me, and it is a fresh
+proof that there is nothing new under the sun! The &#8216;catena&#8217; of
+Cicero&mdash;Chaucer&mdash;Dryden&mdash;Bernstorff is very amusing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD HALSBURY&#8217;S GHOST STORY</div>
+
+<p>Being a Lord Chancellor does not render a man immune from belief in
+ghosts. I have more than once heard the late Lord Halsbury relate his
+adventure in this line. As a young man he went to stay with a friend, who
+put him up for the night. After he had gone to bed, a figure entered his
+room, and taking it to be his host he spoke to it, but it made no reply
+and left as silently as it entered. At breakfast next morning he said to
+the master of the house&mdash;I suppose jokingly&mdash;&#8220;If you did come in my room
+last night I think you might have answered when I spoke to you.&#8221; Both his
+hosts looked embarrassed, and then his friend said, &#8220;Well, to tell you the
+truth, that room is considered to be haunted; but it is our best room, and
+my wife thought that a hard-headed lawyer would not be liable to be
+disturbed, so we put you there.&#8221; Mr. Giffard, as, Lord Halsbury then was,
+left without further incident, but some time after, meeting his friend
+again, he said, &#8220;Well, how&#8217;s your ghost getting on?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, my dear fellow,&#8221;
+was the reply, &#8220;don&#8217;t talk of my ghost. My aunt came to stay with me and
+we put her into that room. The ghost came in and tried to get into her
+bed, and she will never speak to me again!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Halsbury also had a story about a ghost who haunted his brother&#8217;s
+house in London. I think it was a little old woman, I cannot remember the
+details, but he certainly seemed to believe in it.</p>
+
+<p>Talking of dreams and apparitions, though I cannot remember the
+year&mdash;probably in the early nineties&mdash;I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> recollect a rather amusing
+instance of the explosion of one of such stories when thoroughly sifted.
+Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Knowles told me one day that the great object
+of Myers and Gurney and the founders of the Psychical Society was to
+obtain evidence of a genuine apparition seen by <i>two</i> witnesses who would
+both bear such testimony as would stand cross-examination by a barrister.
+This was most sensible, as one person may honestly believe in an
+appearance, which may be an hallucination caused by circumstances, and
+affected by his own mental or bodily condition, but it is hardly possible
+that such conditions will enable two people to see the same spirit at the
+same moment unless it should actually appear. Mr. Knowles said that at
+last the Psychical Society had found a well-authenticated story in which
+two thoroughly credible witnesses had seen the ghost, and this was to come
+out in the forthcoming number of <i>The Nineteenth Century</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GHOSTLY REPORTER</div>
+
+<p>The witnesses were an English judge and his wife; to the best of my
+recollection they were Sir Edmund and Lady Hornby, and the scene of the
+apparition Shanghai. Anyhow, I perfectly recollect the story, which was as
+follows. The judge had been trying a case during the day, and he and his
+wife had retired to bed when a man (European, not native) entered their
+bedroom. They were much annoyed by this intrusion and asked what he
+wanted. He replied that he was a reporter who had been in court, but had
+been obliged to leave before the conclusion of the trial, and was
+extremely anxious that the judge should tell him what the verdict was that
+he might complete the report for his paper. The judge, to get rid of him,
+gave some answer that satisfied him, and the man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> departed. Next day the
+judge learnt that a reporter had been present who was taken ill and died
+before the conclusion of the trial, and he was convinced that this was his
+ghostly visitor. The weak point, said Mr. Knowles, was that the narrators
+would not allow themselves to be cross-examined by a barrister. They were
+very old, and nervous about the publication of the story in print, and the
+thought of cross-examination was quite too much for them. However, Mr.
+Knowles and the other investigators were fully satisfied as to their bona
+fides, and the tale duly appeared in an article in the Review. No sooner
+was it published than various people wrote pointing out that it was all a
+misapprehension. There had been no reporter who had suddenly died on the
+occasion specified, and various other details were disproved by officials
+and others who had been at the place at the time when the judge was by way
+of having presided over the trial and seen the ghost. (Sir Edmund was a
+judge of the Supreme Court of China and Japan.) Mr. Knowles came again and
+said, &#8220;There you see!&#8221; The story when subjected to the light of publicity
+fell to the ground. No doubt something had put the germ into the old
+people&#8217;s heads and it had blossomed in the course of years.</p>
+
+<p>To return for a minute to the year 1887. In that year my husband was
+appointed Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire&mdash;an appointment which he held
+until his death. This is referred to in the following verses by Mr. Lionel
+Ashley, younger son of the great Lord Shaftesbury and a friend of my
+husband&#8217;s and mine of long standing. Lady Galloway and I used to call him
+&#8220;the Bard,&#8221; as he was fond of making verses about us. I insert these
+because they give such a happy idea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of one of Osterley Saturday-to-Monday
+parties. They are dated June 19th, 1887, which I see by our Visitors&#8217; List
+was the Sunday.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;In a cot may be found, I have heard the remark,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More delight than in Castles with pillars.</span><br />
+But we find in the Palace of Osterley Park,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All the charms of suburban Villiers.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;A Sunday in Osterley Gardens and Halls,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That&#8217;s a day to look on to and after.</span><br />
+Its pleasures my memory fondly recalls,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the talk, with its wisdom and laughter.</span><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;In a nice little church a grave sermon we heard,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which reproved Christianity flabby,</span><br />
+And urged that in heaven a place be preferred<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To a Jubilee seat in the Abbey.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span></span><br />
+&#8220;The Irish question, in masterly way,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Lowell made easy and clear.</span><br />
+We must make them content, without further delay,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But the method was not his affair.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span></span><br />
+&#8220;Of the Queen&#8217;s new Lieutenant, with pleasure we hail<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The appointment, for now &#8217;tis a mercy,</span><br />
+From cold shoulders in Oxfordshire never will fail<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To protect her a glorious Jersey.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span></span>
+<br />
+&#8220;Then may everyone of th&#8217; illustrious Brood<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Learn to make the same excellent stand his own,</span><br />
+That not only the names, but the qualities good<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May descend to each &#8216;Child&#8217; and each &#8216;Grandison.&#8217;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>The last line was rather prophetic, as there was no &#8220;Grandison&#8221; apart from
+the family&#8217;s Irish title at the time of writing. My husband, as already
+mentioned, bore the name for the three weeks between his grandfather&#8217;s and
+father&#8217;s death, but our elder son was always Villiers. Now <i>his</i> son is
+Grandison and I think bids fair to inherit the &#8220;qualities good&#8221; of his
+grandfather&mdash;he could not do better.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A JUBILEE SERMON</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>The &#8220;nice little church&#8221; was that at Norwood Green, and the sermon,
+preached by a rather eccentric Irish clergyman, informed us that he had
+been studying history and found that in the days of George III&#8217;s Jubilee
+&#8220;there was an old king and a ma-ad king. How would you have liked that?&#8221;
+And he continued to tell us of the death at that period of Sir John Moore
+commemorated by an Irish clergyman who &#8220;two years later was translated to
+the Kingdom of Heaven, for which his Irish curacy had so well prepared
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In addition to those above named by Mr. Ashley, we had staying with us
+Lord Rowton, Lord and Lady Galloway, Lady Lytton and her daughter Betty,
+Col. Charles Edgcumbe, my sister Cordelia, and my brother-in-law Reginald
+Villiers, to whom my husband was greatly attached. It is very pleasant to
+recall those happy days, but sad to think how few that shared them are
+left!</p>
+
+<p>I turn from our Osterley parties for the time being to record a most
+amusing journey which Lady Galloway and I made to Greece in 1888. Lord
+Jersey could not make up his mind to start with us, though we had hopes
+(which proved vain) that he might join us later. Our families were
+somewhat excited on learning our intention, as the recollection of the
+Marathon brigands who captured poor Mr. Vyner and the Muncasters still
+coloured the popular ideas of Greece.</p>
+
+<p>Our husbands, however, were&mdash;fortunately&mdash;confident in our own powers of
+taking care of ourselves. Lord Jersey calmly remarked, &#8220;If you are
+captured Galloway and I will come with an army to rescue you.&#8221; Mr. Ashley,
+less trustful of the future, insisted on presenting each of us with a
+small revolver and box of cartridges. I forget what Mary did with hers,
+but my one object<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> was to conceal the weapon from possible brigands. I
+regarded them rather like wasps, who are supposed not to sting if you let
+them alone, but I was certain that if I tried to shoot I should miss, and
+then they might be annoyed and I should suffer. I had to take the
+revolver, but I hid the cartridges in my luggage and put the weapon where
+it would not be seen.</p>
+
+<p>We were not absolutely certain till we reached Marseilles whether we
+should go to Greece after all, or to Algeria or elsewhere, but finding
+that we could get berths on a Messageries boat we ultimately carried out
+our original intention though we did not really mean to stay long in
+Athens or its neighbourhood, and imagined Marathon (the scene of the Vyner
+tragedy) to be quite &#8220;out of bounds.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>However, when on March 31st we reached the Pir&aelig;us early in the morning we
+soon found that we were in the happiest possible abode. Our constant
+friend and protector Sir Thomas (now Lord) Sanderson had written from the
+Foreign Office to Mr. William Haggard, the British Charg&eacute; d&#8217;Affaires, to
+look after us in the absence of the Minister, and it is impossible to
+speak too highly of his kindness. The Greek Ministers were deeply
+impressed by the fact that Lady Galloway was (half) sister to the English
+Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and laid themselves out to make everything
+pleasant and delightful. Greece was still almost unknown to Cook&#8217;s
+tourists. I think there was a Cook&#8217;s Office, but I do not recall seeing
+any of his clients about the place&mdash;anyhow, not outside Athens itself. Mr.
+Haggard met us with a boat belonging to the Harbour Master&#8217;s Office, and
+as soon as we had settled ourselves in the H&ocirc;tel d&#8217;Angleterre at Athens (a
+very good hotel) he began to make all sorts of arrangements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> for us&mdash;so
+that instead of three days we stayed some three weeks in Athens and about
+a month altogether in Greece.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MARATHON</div>
+
+<p>We told Mr. Haggard that our friends were very much afraid of our finding
+brigands at Marathon, or rather at their finding us. He assured us that
+after the tragedy&mdash;seventeen years previously&mdash;all the brigands had been
+killed and it was perfectly safe; anyhow, he took us to Marathon next day,
+and we were delighted with the scenery through which we passed and with
+the silent, desolate field where the battle had been waged, with wild
+flowers growing on the hillock pointed out as the soldiers&#8217; grave. Whether
+it still keeps its impressive solitude I know not. It is useless to
+attempt description of Greece, so well known to all either from personal
+experience or from hundreds of accounts both in prose and poetry, but I
+may just say that as my mother (who saw it as a girl) told me, the colours
+of the mountains were like those of a dove&#8217;s neck, and the clearness of
+the atmosphere such that one felt as if one could see through the hills.</p>
+
+<p>An evening or two later we dined with Mr. Haggard and his wife, and we
+were soon introduced to the various notabilities, who from the King and
+Queen downwards were most kind and hospitable. To begin with their
+Majesties, who entertained us at breakfast at the Royal Kiosk at the
+Pir&aelig;us, and on more than one subsequent occasion at dinner, and whom we
+met on various other occasions: King George had much of the charm of his
+sister Queen Alexandra and was a distinctly astute monarch. As far as one
+could judge, he really liked his quaint little kingdom, and I remember his
+asserting with energy that they were a good people. The Queen, a Russian,
+was a kindly, pious woman and apparently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> happy with her children, to whom
+she was devoted. She then had six, but there were only three at home at
+the time&mdash;Princess Alexandra, a pretty, merry girl just grown-up, and two
+younger children, Marie and Andrew. Andrew was a dear little boy about six
+or seven years old. When I asked Princess Marie about his birthday she
+gravely replied that he was too young to have a birthday!</p>
+
+<p>Greece struck me as a singularly &#8220;democratic&#8221; country in the sense that
+there was really no &#8220;aristocracy&#8221; between the Sovereign and the people.
+What in other countries is commonly called &#8220;Society&#8221; was in Athens mainly
+composed of the Ministers, the Corps Diplomatique, and one or two rich
+merchants&mdash;particularly one called Syngros, who spent large sums on public
+works. One of these was the Academy, a large building with, as far as we
+could ascertain, nothing as yet inside it.</p>
+
+<p>The Myken&aelig; Museum, which contained many of Schliemann&#8217;s antiquities,
+discovered at Argos and elsewhere, was specially interesting; but the
+Greek newspaper which followed our movements and formulated our opinions
+for us said that when we visited the Academy &#8220;both ladies were
+enthusiastic at the sight of the building. They confessed that they never
+expected to find in Athens such a beautiful building; they speak with
+enthusiasm of Athens in general&#8221;&mdash;but evidently the Academy (of which I do
+not think we saw the inside) was &#8220;It.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>M. Tricoupi was then Prime Minister, Minister of War, and practically
+Dictator. He was undoubtedly a man of great ability and judgment, and was
+devoted to England. We saw him constantly and also his sister Miss
+Tricoupi, a wonderful old lady.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MISS TRICOUPI</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>She gave up her life to promoting her brother&#8217;s interests in all respects.
+She appeared to me like a link with the past, as she had been with her
+brother in England early in the century, and then had taken to Sarah, Lady
+Jersey, as a present from King Otho, a water-colour drawing of a room in
+his Palace which always hung in my bedroom at Middleton. She also knew my
+grandmother and my mother&#8217;s elder sisters. Whenever Parliament was sitting
+she sat at home from one o&#8217;clock in the afternoon till any hour of the
+night to which the debates happened to continue. Any of her brother&#8217;s
+supporters, no matter of what rank, could come into the large room at one
+end of which she was seated. It did not appear to be necessary that she
+should speak to them, much less offer them refreshments. I saw some men
+who appeared to be sailors or fishermen enter and seat themselves at the
+far end of the room without speaking or apparently attracting any
+particular notice.</p>
+
+<p>When we went to see her she gave us tea and delicious little rolled-up
+pieces of bread-and-butter&mdash;this we were assured was an especial favour.
+Naturally she could not have fed the whole of Athens daily! Poor woman&mdash;I
+saw her again on our subsequent visit to Athens, and after that used to
+correspond for nearly thirty years. She wrote most interesting letters,
+though after her brother&#8217;s death she lived mainly in retirement. During
+the war, however, her feelings became somewhat embittered towards the
+Allies; she ultimately died seated on her sofa&mdash;she never would give in to
+incapacity, though she must have been very old.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most amusing members of the Ministry was Theotoki, Minister of
+Marine, who went with us on more than one excursion and was most kind in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+providing gunboats for any destination which had to be reached by sea. I
+rather think that he was of Venetian descent&mdash;he had a nice, lively wife,
+and I should say that he was not averse to a little innocent flirtation.
+The bachelor Tricoupi embodied all his ideals of woman in his capable and
+devoted sister, and had very advanced Woman Suffrage views, more uncommon
+then than a quarter of a century later. He was all in favour of the
+appointment of women not only as Members of Parliament, but also as
+Ministers of the Crown. One day he and Theotoki were taking us somewhere
+by sea when a discussion arose on this point. Either Lady Galloway or I
+wickedly suggested that women, admitted to the Cabinet, might exercise
+undue influence on the minds of the male members. Tricoupi in perfect
+innocence thereupon replied that it might be arranged that only <i>married</i>
+men should hold such office, apparently convinced that matrimony would
+make them woman-proof! I shall never forget Theotoki&#8217;s expressive glance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">NAUPLIA</div>
+
+<p>Dragoumi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was one of those who gave a
+dinner-party in our honour, on which occasion he and M. Tricoupi and one
+of the other Ministers concocted an excellent programme to enable us to
+visit Nauplia and Argos and Myken&aelig;. I wrote an account of this to my
+mother which she kept, so I may as well transcribe it, as it gives an
+account of places which have probably been much altered and brought up to
+date in the present day under the auspices of &#8220;Cook&#8217;s Tours.&#8221; I told my
+mother:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;We went with Bakhm&eacute;teff the Russian and Haggard the Englishman, who
+each had a Greek servant, and we having a German courier made up a
+tolerably mixed lot. You would have laughed to see the three <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>Cabinet
+Ministers sitting in solemn conclave at a party the night before to
+settle all details of our expedition. Theotoki, the Minister of
+Marine, had a ship ready to send to meet us anywhere we liked, and
+Tricoupi ordered Dragoumis, the Foreign Minister, just to go down to
+send off some further telegram, which Dragoumis&mdash;a white-haired
+statesman&mdash;obediently trotted off to do. The Czar of all the Russias
+is not a greater autocrat than Tricoupi. When we arrived at Nauplia we
+found the M.P. for that district waiting for us at the station, and he
+had received orders to have the hotel thoroughly cleaned and
+prepared&mdash;no one had been allowed to inhabit it for four days before
+our arrival. The landlord, as far as we could make out, was locked up
+in a room, whence we heard coughs and groans, presumably because he
+had found a clean dwelling such a ghastly thing, and we were waited on
+by a very smart individual (who was a Parisian doctor of law!) and a
+small Greek girl. When we woke up next morning we found by way of
+variety that the ground was covered with snow and the coachman said he
+could not possibly go to Epidaurus&mdash;however, Bakhm&eacute;teff sent for the
+Prefect of Police, who told him he must, so with four horses in front
+and one trotting behind we went a perfectly lovely drive through
+splendid mountain country looking even more beautiful from the snow on
+the hills. Perhaps you don&#8217;t know about Epidaurus&mdash;an ancient temple
+of &AElig;sculapius is there, and near it has lately been discovered the
+most perfect theatre in Greece, which could seat twenty-five thousand
+people. Hardly a stone is out of place&mdash;we went up to the top row, and
+an unfortunate &#8216;Ephor of Antiquities&#8217; who had also been ordered up
+from Athens to do us the honours stood on the stage and talked to
+us&mdash;one could hear every word. The Ephor and all the inhabitants of
+Nauplia (who are stated by the papers to have received us &#8216;with
+affection&#8217;) thought us quite mad, not only for going in the snow, but
+for going in an open carriage, a circumstance also carefully recorded
+in the papers. A Greek would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> have shut up the carriage and both
+windows. Thursday we returned (i.e. to Athens) by Tiryns, Argos and
+Myken&aelig; and saw Dr. Schliemann&#8217;s excavations. The Treasury of Atreus is
+a marvellous thing&mdash;a great cone-shaped chamber in a hill with an
+inner chamber on one side and an enormous portal with projecting walls
+in front with a gigantic slab over it. Metal plates are said to have
+been fastened on the walls at one time, but how on earth the
+prehistoric people arranged these stones curving inwards so as to keep
+in place and how they lifted some of them at all passes the wit of man
+to conceive.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>I continue in this letter to explain how much of all this Dr. Schliemann
+and his wife did and did not find, and also to describe the &#8220;Lion Gate&#8221;
+and the &#8220;Agora&#8221;&mdash;but all that is well-known and doubtless has been further
+explored since our visit.</p>
+
+<p>Among other dissipations at Athens we attended two balls&mdash;one at M.
+Syngros&#8217;, the other at the Austrian Legation. After the former a
+correspondent of one of the Greek papers wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;It is a curious phenomenon the gaiety with which the Prime Minister
+is possessed this year. I have no doubt that he belongs to that
+fortunate circle which sees with affection the setting on each day of
+the Carnival. It appears that the presence of the two distinguished
+English ladies who are receiving the hospitality of our town for some
+days now has revived in him dormant feelings and reminiscences. M.
+Tricoupi passed the years of his youth in England, and it was with the
+English ladies that he enjoyed the sweet pleasure of dancing. This
+evening he dances also with Lady Jersey. He frequently accompanied the
+two distinguished ladies to the Buffet, and with very juvenile agility
+he hastens to find for them their <i>sorties de bal</i> with which the
+noble English ladies are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> to protect their delicate bodies from the
+indiscretion of that cold night.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>M. Bakhm&eacute;teff, who was one of our companions to Nauplia, was a typical
+Russian&mdash;very clever, knowing some eight or nine languages and all about
+Greece ancient and modern. We used to call him the &#8220;Courier,&#8221; as he was
+invaluable on our various expeditions, and he seemed to enjoy his honorary
+post. Like many of his compatriots he had no real religious belief, but
+regarded religious observance as quite a good thing for women; he told me
+that a man looked rather ridiculous kneeling, but it was a becoming
+attitude for women&mdash;the folds of her dress fell so nicely! But he assured
+me that if I saw him on duty in Russia I should see him kissing the ikons
+with all reverence. Poor man! If still alive, I wonder what has happened
+to him. He lent me a capital Japanese costume for the ball at the Austrian
+Legation. Lady Galloway went as &#8220;Dresden china&#8221; or a &#8220;<i>bouqueti&egrave;re</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE LAURIUM MINES</div>
+
+<p>We made a very interesting expedition to the Laurium mines, of which I
+subsequently ventured to give an account in <i>The National Review</i>, but
+again I think it unnecessary here to describe a well-known enterprise&mdash;the
+revival in modern days of lead mines worked in classical times. We stayed
+the night at the house of the manager, M. Cordella. He and his wife were
+most kindly hosts, and everyone contributed to our enjoyment. One little
+domestic detail amused us. As we entered the substantial and comfortable
+house one of us exclaimed to the other, &#8220;Oh, there is a bath!&#8221;&mdash;a luxury
+not always found in our wanderings&mdash;but a second glance showed us that we
+should have to wait till our return to the hotel next day, as the bath was
+fixed in the well of the staircase!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>As for our sentiments about the mines I cannot do better than quote the
+words of the <i>N ea Ephemeris</i>, one of the papers which knew so well what
+we thought on each occasion:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The eminently English spirit of the most ingenious and noble ladies
+saw in all those works something like the positiveness of the spirit
+that prevails in their own country and were delighted at it in Greece
+which they loved so much. They had no words to express their
+satisfaction to the true man possessed with the spirit of our century
+whom they found in the person of M. Cordella, the director of the
+works, and to his worthy wife, who tendered to them so many nice
+attentions.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>This, the <i>Hora</i>, and the <i>Acropolis</i>, seem to have been the chief
+Government papers, and occasionally one of them would hold up to contempt
+a wretched Delyannis organ which basely ignored the presence of the
+English Prime Minister&#8217;s sister!</p>
+
+<p>I cannot record all our excursions to Eleusis, &AElig;gina, and elsewhere, but I
+will add a few lines describing the general appearance of the people at
+that time, also written to my mother, as probably they have greatly
+changed in over thirty years:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The Peloponnesian shepherds look remarkably picturesque, as they wear
+large white coats with peaked hoods over their heads. Further north
+the coats are more often blue&mdash;near Athens black and a different
+shape&mdash;near Eleusis the people are Albanians and wear Albanian
+costumes, which are very bright with many colours. Almost all the
+natives outside the towns wear costumes which make the villages look
+like places in plays, and every little inn is a regular picture&mdash;but
+the country is very thinly populated and you go for miles without
+seeing a soul. It is most beautiful.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HADJI PETROS</div>
+
+<p>One rather interesting character was the Lord <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>Chamberlain, an old
+gentleman called Hadji Petros, son of the original brigand who was one of
+the husbands of Lady Ellenborough, and is the thinly disguised &#8220;Hadji
+Stavros&#8221; of About&#8217;s novel <i>Le Roi des Montagnes</i>. Hadji Petros was
+supposed to be quite illiterate, but he <i>could</i> sign his name, as he did
+so on a case of chocolate which he gave me. Anyway, &#8220;by royal permission&#8221;
+he took us over the Palace and down into the kitchens, where he showed us
+the correct method of making Turkish coffee. His son, we were told, was a
+very smart young officer who led cotillons at the Athenian balls&mdash;two
+generations from the original brigand.</p>
+
+<p>We left Athens on February 22nd, and were taken by ship from a port near
+Patras at the end of the Gulf of Corinth to Pyrgos. We went in a
+Government boat (the <i>Salaminia</i>, I believe), and it was arranged that we
+should stay with the Demarch (Mayor) and drive thence to see Olympia.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for us M. Bakhm&eacute;teff accompanied us, and the whole thing was
+very entertaining. The officers on the ship thought it too absurd that we
+should want to take off even hand luggage for the night, as they said we
+should find everything we wanted at the Demarch&#8217;s. Sure enough we found
+three elaborate sitting-rooms adorned with photographs and chairs tied up
+with ribbons, a bedroom with two comfortable beds and plenty of
+pin-cushions, and a dressing-room provided with tooth-brushes, sponges,
+and dentifrice water, but as means of washing one small green glass jug
+and basin between us. However, we managed to borrow two large, red
+earthenware pans from the kitchen and got on nicely. The Demarch was more
+than kind and hospitable, but as he knew no language save his native Greek
+it was lucky that Bakhm&eacute;teff<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> was there to interpret. We landed too late
+for Olympia that evening, so we were taken down to a most romantic and
+desolate spot, where Alpheus runs into the sea in full view of the
+Acroceraunian mountains where &#8220;Arethusa arose from her couch of snows.&#8221; In
+addition to one or two officials we were guarded by a delightful gendarme
+and were introduced to a bare-legged giant in an oil-skin coat whose duty
+was to look after the fish in a kind of stew or watercourse running out of
+a lake. Whether the poachers had been busy lately I know not, but the
+efforts of the custodian, the gendarme, and the rest of the party to give
+us a fishing entertainment were singularly abortive. Their object appeared
+to be to capture a mullet, and at length a dead one was landed by the
+joint throwing of a small net and poking with Lady Galloway&#8217;s parasol.
+With dauntless courage they returned to the charge, and when another small
+fish was seen the gendarme drew his sword and vainly tried to stab it.
+Ultimately the professional fishermen did catch it and gave it to the
+gendarme, who skipped about with glee. He had seen me put some shells in
+my pocket, and apparently thought we should like to do the same with the
+fish, so proceeded to <i>wash</i> it&mdash;and naturally let it escape. Next day the
+Demarch told M. Bakhm&eacute;teff that he had ordered an open carriage for the
+ladies (knowing our lunatic tendencies) and that he would take him
+(Bakhm&eacute;teff) in a shut one. Bakhm&eacute;teff came to us in a frantic state of
+mind and begged our authority to say that English ladies could not
+possibly go in a carriage alone&mdash;so ultimately we three proceeded in the
+open carriage with our gendarme on the box, and the Demarch followed with
+his servant. All went well till it began to rain, when our gallant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+defender jumped off the box and into the shut carriage with the Demarch
+and the other man. They put up both windows and I believe smoked, only
+leaving a little breathing-hole in front. Doubtless they enjoyed
+themselves immensely&mdash;so did we.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">OLYMPIA&mdash;ZANTE</div>
+
+<p>As with other well-known places, I omit all description of Olympia,
+reached by a road concerning which we decided that it would be a
+compliment to compare it to a ploughed field. The drive took four hours
+each way. I dare say there are hotels and chars-&agrave;-bancs if not trams now,
+but I am very glad to recall Olympia, as we saw it in the wilds with ruins
+of temples and the newly excavated Gymnasium undisturbed by eager
+tourists. The Museum, containing the beautiful statue of Hermes with the
+Infant Bacchus, had not long been erected on the lines of a Greek temple.
+By way of an additional treat our hosts had roasted a lamb whole and
+brought it into the outer hall of the Museum on a stick regardless of the
+mess which it made. We made futile efforts to protect the floor with
+newspapers, but were obliged to eat some of the meat.</p>
+
+<p>From Pyrgos we went to the Island of Zante, where we spent Sunday. I wrote
+to my mother that it was a most lovely place&mdash;and told her:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;We took some luncheon up into an olive grove on the hills and lay on
+cushions there in the most perfect air and warmth you can imagine,
+with birds singing and the greenest grass thick with flowers just like
+the Pre-Raphaelite pictures. A little higher up you could see the sea
+on both sides. Cephalonia in one distance and the Acroceraunian
+mountains in the other. This island is, as you know, famous for
+flowers, and the nosegays the Consul sent us were so enormous that
+after filling all the vases, etc., we could we had to fill two large
+foot pans and put them on the balcony.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>Of Cephalonia, where we spent a few hours on our way to Corfu, my chief
+recollection is of wild mountainous country. The Consul (or Vice-Consul)
+who took us for a drive told us a thrilling tale&mdash;as yet unconcluded&mdash;of
+two rival families. The father of one married his daughter to a young man,
+whereas the other family wanted her and attacked the bridal party on the
+wedding day. I forget exactly how many people they killed, but I think the
+bridegroom was among the victims, and anyhow they carried off the young
+lady to the mountains, and she was still there at the time of our visit.</p>
+
+<p>Corfu was very delightful&mdash;but I recall no particular incident. There
+seemed to be a good many people who still regretted that Mr. Gladstone had
+handed it over to Greece.</p>
+
+<p>Our gunboat and M. Bakhm&eacute;teff had left us at Zante, and from Corfu we went
+by an Austrian Lloyd steamer to Brindisi; thence by train to Naples. There
+we found Lord Rowton and dined with him and one or two friends. We also
+spent a day with him in Rome, where he was a good deal amused by our
+evident feeling that Roman were not to be compared to Greek antiquities.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<p class="title">VOYAGE TO INDIA&mdash;HYDERABAD</p>
+
+<p>I must go back a little in these mixed memories to record our early
+acquaintance with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who afterwards became one of our
+great friends. I believe that I first met him at Lady St. Helier&#8217;s (then
+Lady Jeune) at a luncheon or party in 1886. We asked him to dinner at 3
+Great Stanhope Street, and he accepted&mdash;and we also asked the Jeunes. Mr.
+Chamberlain, though this was about the time that he split with Gladstone
+over Home Rule, was still regarded as a dangerous Radical, and was by no
+means universally met in Conservative houses. As it happened he arrived at
+our dinner a little before the Jeunes. As they were announced I went to
+the drawing-room door to meet them and she stopped me, and said in a low
+voice before entering the room, &#8220;You are coming to dine with me on such a
+date&mdash;shall you mind meeting Mr. Chamberlain?&#8221; (She had quite forgotten
+our meeting at her house.) &#8220;He is in the house,&#8221; was my reply&mdash;whereat she
+gasped and nearly fell backwards. I well recollect the stern disapproval
+of our old-fashioned Tory butler Freeman. He showed it in his manner,
+though he did not venture at the moment to put it into words&mdash;but a few
+days afterwards we had another dinner at which were present some of our
+regular&mdash;and I am sure highly respectable&mdash;friends. The following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> morning
+Freeman said to me solemnly, &#8220;We had a very nice dinner last night.&#8221;
+&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said I, &#8220;I think it went off very well.&#8221; &#8220;<i>All very nice people</i>,&#8221;
+he added with marked emphasis, and left me to digest the unspoken rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>Freeman was a great character and his comments were apt to be amusing. The
+year after this incident Lord Robert Cecil spent a Sunday at Osterley, and
+after the party had left on Monday Freeman informed me that there was only
+one thing that had troubled him. In reply to my rather anxious inquiry as
+to what had gone wrong he said: &#8220;That fine young fellow Lord Salisbury&#8217;s
+son did not hold himself up properly. I spoke to his servant about it, and
+he said it was his book. I said our young lord [Villiers] is very clever,
+but I hope he will hold himself up.&#8221; Poor Freeman! he was rather a rough
+diamond in some respects, but one of the best and most faithful of
+servants. He caught a chill and died early in 1894, soon after our return
+from Australia.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HADJI PETROS</div>
+
+<p>To return to Mr. Chamberlain. Though already twice a widower he was still
+regarded politically as a young man, and I remember the American Minister
+Mr. Phelps assuring me that he had watched in the House of Commons Mr.
+Gladstone snub Chamberlain in a way that he was convinced had a good deal
+to do with his breach with the Liberal party. I doubt that being more than
+a very secondary cause, but I perfectly recall the acrimonious tone in
+which Mr. Chamberlain early in our acquaintance commented on the way in
+which politicians were treated &#8220;because they were young.&#8221; Anyhow, Mr.
+Chamberlain not only asserted himself as worthy of all consideration
+politically, but he rapidly discarded socially his stern views of those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+whom he had formerly stigmatised as &#8220;lilies of the field.&#8221; The late Sir
+Cecil Spring Rice once told me that he and Mr. Chamberlain had been thrown
+together a good deal on some occasion in America, and the latter had
+confided to him that he had really believed that the so-called &#8220;upper
+classes&#8221; were, taken as a whole, the idle, selfish, self-indulgent, and
+generally pernicious people whom he had denounced, but that when he came
+to know them he realised that they were a very different set of
+individuals. I have always held that Mr. Chamberlain was an honest man,
+and that when people accused him of changing his coat his changes were the
+result of conviction. He once said to me that he had invariably held that
+the people ought to have what they really wanted, and that more than once
+he had discovered that he was mistaken in what he had previously imagined
+to be their desires, and that then he was willing to follow their lead.
+&#8220;For instance,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I thought the country wanted Secular Education
+and therefore advocated it, but experience showed me that this was not the
+case and I therefore ceased to support it.&#8221; Of course this principle may
+be pushed too far. A statesman ought to have some convictions from which
+he cannot and will not depart, but it would be absurd to say that a man
+entering political life is bound to have a cut-and-dried programme which
+nothing will make him modify. Moreover Mr. Chamberlain had grown up in a
+narrow commercial circle, and larger knowledge of men and manners was
+bound to widen his views. On the first occasion that he stayed with us at
+Osterley in June 1887 and June 1888 his daughter Miss Beatrice Chamberlain
+came with him. I see by our old Visitors&#8217; Book that we had some very good
+Conservatives to meet <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>them&mdash;in 1888 Lady Lathom and her daughter Maud,
+George Curzon, Lord and Lady Kintore, Sir John Stirling Maxwell, and my
+husband&#8217;s cousin, Prince Louis Esterhazy. I have been told that more than
+one person first saw Mr. Chamberlain rowing on the Lake at Osterley in a
+tall hat and with a pipe in his mouth! I rather think that it was at a
+garden party. In 1888 just after the death of the Emperor Frederick almost
+everyone appeared in mourning, which somebody said made it look like a
+funeral wake tempered with strawberries. Poor Beatrice Chamberlain,
+however, appeared in a sort of plaid gown which made her very unhappy. She
+confided to Lady Lathom that she had just returned from France and had not
+known that people were wearing mourning&mdash;moreover she belonged to some
+society in Birmingham (a very sensible one) which agreed not to wear
+mourning except for quite the nearest relatives. She was afraid we might
+think that her clothes were due to her Radical principles, which we
+certainly did not. She became a very talented and distinguished woman, and
+her death, a few years ago, was a loss to many good causes. I was much
+touched by a letter which she wrote me after my husband died in 1915 in
+which she said that he and I had been kind to her &#8220;particularly in the
+long-ago days when I, not so very young, but so very raw, was keeping
+house for papa and came with him into this strange, unknown, and uncharted
+world of London.&#8221; We had done little enough, and it was very nice of her
+to preserve such a recollection for over a quarter of a century.</p>
+
+<p>Next year when Mr. Chamberlain stayed with us he had married the charming
+Miss Endicott, now Mrs. Carnegie, but I shall have more to say of them
+both later on.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DEPARTURE FOR INDIA</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>I must now record some recollections of the first of our three visits to
+India.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of such a journey arose from my seeing Mr. Robert Bourke in a
+hansom as I was driving late in the season of 1886. He waved to me and I
+stopped to hear what he had to say. &#8220;I want to talk to you and Jersey,&#8221;
+said he. &#8220;Very well,&#8221; I said; &#8220;come down to Osterley and you will find us
+both at such a time.&#8221; It was accordingly arranged, and he told us that
+Lord Salisbury had offered him the Government of Madras. He was somewhat
+upset, as he had been Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs when Lord
+Salisbury was Secretary of State for that Department, and when the latter
+became Prime Minister Mr. Bourke thought that he ought to have had higher
+promotion, and regarded this offer rather as exile. However, on talking it
+all over he began to paint the gubernatorial glories in more roseate hues,
+and my husband and I both recommended him to accept, as we neither of us
+thought in our hearts that he was likely to attain Cabinet rank in
+England. Then he said, &#8220;If I go, will you come out and stay with me?&#8221; It
+was a new but attractive project, and we gave a provisional promise which
+we fulfilled in the autumn of 1888. My parents undertook to keep an eye on
+the younger children and to have them at Stoneleigh for part of our
+absence&mdash;it was arranged that Villiers should join us when his Christmas
+holidays began, and the Eton authorities consented that he should miss the
+following term as it was thought that India would be equally educational.
+We accordingly took our passages on the P. and O. <i>Arcadia</i>, which left
+Marseilles on Friday, October 26th. My brother Dudley and Mr. Charles
+Buller sailed in the same ship, which was a new one and had improvements
+then reckoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> very novel. For instance, it had electric light, which had
+not yet been installed in all the P. and O. fleet. There were about 240
+first-class passengers&mdash;some entertaining ones among them, including Sir
+Samuel and Lady Baker, Captain Hext, who was Director of Indian Marine,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Leigh. In the second saloon was the theosophist
+Colonel Olcott&mdash;an odd mixture of philanthropy and humbug&mdash;but discussions
+with him often served to pass the time. One was not allowed to ask a
+second-saloon passenger for meals, but we had permission for him to come
+and talk to us, and also to give two theosophical lectures in the
+first-class saloon. I shall have more to say of him at Madras&mdash;but the
+inner meaning of theosophy is so often discussed that I insert here the
+way in which he presented it as I noted in my journal after one of his
+lectures given when we were nearing Port Said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Colonel Olcott gave a lecture on the Theosophical Society of which he
+is President. The Society has its headquarters in Madras&#8221;
+(N.B.&mdash;really at Adyar near Madras) &#8220;and has three chief
+objects&mdash;Universal Brotherhood, Study of ancient oriental texts,
+Investigation of hidden psychical forces. It admits members of any
+religion, but requires universal toleration. Practically its own
+tenets are Buddhist, that being rather a philosophy than a religion.
+It professes, however, to assist its members to the better
+comprehension of the esoteric or underlying significations of their
+respective religions.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Colonel Olcott himself was a Buddhist, and moreover laid claim to certain
+powers of healing, which I should imagine, in so far as they were
+effectual, were a kind of faith healing; he went beyond M. Cou&eacute;, as he
+declared that he had healed a blind man! Mrs. Gerard Leigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> gravely asked
+him one day whether he could give her something to protect her against
+spooks, as she often had to stay in a house which she believed to be
+haunted. &#8220;Give me something you are accustomed to wear,&#8221; he said, and she
+handed him a ring. He stared at it, and said, &#8220;If you could see&mdash;you would
+see two rays&#8221; (blue rays I think he said) &#8220;going from my eyes into this
+ring.&#8221; &#8220;What will it do?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;Well,&#8221; was the answer, &#8220;it will be
+like a hand laid on your head to protect you.&#8221; If she remembered it next
+time a spook was about, I feel sure that it was most effectual. &#8220;Your
+ring,&#8221; he said to one of us, &#8220;came out of a jeweller&#8217;s shop&mdash;mine came out
+of a rose,&#8221; and told us a pleasing legend of how his sister held a rose
+and Madame Blavatsky conjured a ring out of it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">COL. OLCOTT AND PROF. MAX MULLER</div>
+
+<p>He had very exalted philanthropic views, and long afterwards, when he was
+in England, Professor Max M&uuml;ller told me that he had said to him, &#8220;Colonel
+Olcott, with all your fine ideas for doing good how can you lend yourself
+to that nonsense of broken tea-cups and so on?&#8221; &#8220;And,&#8221; continued Max
+M&uuml;ller, &#8220;he looked down through his funny blue spectacles and answered,
+&#8216;All religions must be manured&#8217;&mdash;which surely gave away the whole show.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Olcott was extremely anxious to enlist me as a member of the
+Theosophical Society, assuring me that he only wanted my signature to a
+document which he would keep privately, &#8220;not for publication.&#8221; What good
+it would do him in that case is not very apparent, but the net was spread
+in vain in the sight of the bird as far as I was concerned. Years
+afterwards he reappeared at Sydney and renewed his appeal in the following
+pathetic&mdash;but still unsuccessful&mdash;verses:</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: -.75em;">&#8220;<i>To our Lady of Leigh</i></span><br />
+Only a paper,<br />
+A very short paper,<br />
+An innocent paper,<br />
+My lady, to sign,<br />
+Expressing your int&#8217;rest,<br />
+Your broad-minded int&#8217;rest,<br />
+Your psychical int&#8217;rest,<br />
+In this work of mine.<br />
+Sign: I entreat you,<br />
+Bishops will greet you,<br />
+Clergy beseech you,<br />
+Lady, to join<br />
+This league confraternal<br />
+To seek the eternal&mdash;<br />
+<i>Not</i> the infernal&mdash;<br />
+Basis of truth!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">H. S. O.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Sydney</span>, 7th May 1891.</p>
+
+<p>Another, still more generally interesting, fellow-voyager on the <i>Arcadia</i>
+was, as already mentioned, Sir Samuel Baker, who, with his intrepid wife,
+was making one of his frequent journeys to India. He enlivened many hours
+which might have proved tedious by stories of his African adventures, and
+was always surrounded by an interested circle of listeners. He told how on
+his expedition to the sources of the White Nile he had met two tattered
+figures which proved to be Speke and Grant coming back from tracing that
+part of the river which flowed from the Victoria Nyanza. They urged him to
+continue his undertaking as they said that if he also found the source he
+was seeking &#8220;England will have done it&#8221;&mdash;and she did. He asked them to
+come into his camp&mdash;but they hung back&mdash;and when he asked why they
+explained that they heard he had Mrs. Baker with him, and were in such
+rags that they did not like to present themselves before a lady!
+Nevertheless they were induced not to treat the desert like a London
+drawing-room, and the lady laughed and mended their clothes for them. Sir
+Samuel loved to tell stories of his wife&#8217;s heroism and self-possession in
+more than one critical juncture. With all her adventures she had remained
+a very simple and charming woman.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SIR SAMUEL BAKER</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>When we were passing the Arabian Coast of the Gulf of Suez Sir Samuel
+Baker pointed out Mount Sinai, though some people pretend that you can
+only see its whereabouts&mdash;not the Mountain itself. He told us a great deal
+of Moses&#8217; adventures&mdash;from Josephus, I believe&mdash;but he also said that he
+himself had seen all the Plagues of Egypt, though he said that for &#8220;lice&#8221;
+one should read &#8220;ticks&#8221;! We asked how about the Darkness? He said he had
+been in a Khamsin wind when for twenty minutes you could not see the flame
+of a candle close by; and as for the &#8220;first-born,&#8221; when plague or cholera
+swept off families they only cared about the first-born, the second- or
+third-born did not count. He and Lady Baker were also very amusing about
+the visits to Egypt of the Princess of Wales and the Empress Eug&eacute;nie
+respectively.</p>
+
+<p>We had a mild excitement in the Gulf of Aden when a man played the
+&#8220;Boulanger&#8221; hymn during dinner. No one now would recognise the &#8220;Boulanger&#8221;
+hymn, as the hero of the black horse is forgotten, but then the Germans
+hissed and the French applauded. The captain was appealed to, and sent
+word to &#8220;tell the man to stop that noise&#8221;&mdash;a message which the steward
+delivered too accurately to please the performer!</p>
+
+<p>I do not describe any of the sights which we saw either at the Ports or at
+sea, much as they thrilled such unaccustomed oriental travellers as
+ourselves. Most people now are familiar with the voyage either from
+personal experience or from oral or written descriptions. I have made it
+several times since, and, bad sailor as I am, only wish I were young
+enough to undertake it again. Our cicerones treated us mercifully, but I
+believe some greenhorns are not so fortunate. I heard of one youth who was
+warned in advance that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> sailors and others were sure to try to take
+him in. He was told several facts concerning the places and people which
+they passed&mdash;these he absolutely refused to believe. At last someone
+pointed out rocks in the sea near Suez and said, &#8220;Those are the wheels of
+Pharaoh&#8217;s chariots.&#8221; &#8220;Ah, that I know is true,&#8221; said the youth, &#8220;for it&#8217;s
+in the Bible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at Bombay on the morning of November 10th, and were as
+delighted as are most visitors with the glitter and glow of the city with
+its swarming and varied population. The Yacht Club was a cool and pleasant
+resort&mdash;and we visited the Arab horse-market, the Towers of Silence, and
+other well known sights. Particularly were we impressed with the curious
+Caverns on the Island of Elephanta, with the gigantic figures carved in
+high relief. Few could help being awed by the three immense heads joined
+together in the Central Division of the great Central Hall, representing
+Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu. I was specially interested in the designs
+representing the story of the favourite Hindu deity Ganpati or Ganesha.
+You see the marriage of his parents Siva and Parvati, his birth, and a
+battle among the gods and demons in the course of which he had his head
+cut off. His irate mother substituted an elephant&#8217;s head and declared that
+she, the Mother of Nature, would upset everything unless gods and men
+worshipped him in this guise&mdash;and he now appears as God of Wisdom. Another
+version is that Siva himself cut off his son&#8217;s head, mistaking him for an
+intruder in his mother&#8217;s apartments. However that may be, the lower class
+of Hindu have adopted him as a favourite deity, and we were told of a
+great festival in February when they flock to the Caves with offerings of
+coco-nuts, rice, and leaves.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Our travelling-companion Captain Hext was most kind to us in Bombay, and a
+Parsee, Mr. Allbless, showed us something of the life of that community.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MAHABLESHWAR</div>
+
+<p>From Bombay, after a night at Poona, we went to Mahableshwar to stay with
+our kind friends, Lord and Lady Reay, he being at that time Governor of
+the Bombay Presidency. We left the train at Wathar and a drive of about
+five hours through magnificent scenery brought us to our destination soon
+after seven in the evening of November 14th. We were greatly struck by the
+huge square-topped mountains towering in giant terraces above fertile,
+well-watered valleys. The soil was generally deep brown or deep red. As
+darkness came on we saw quantities of fire-flies amongst the luxuriant
+vegetation. Next morning the view from the house across the valley to a
+gigantic square-topped mountain beyond was so dazzling as almost to take
+away one&#8217;s breath. Few things are so impressive as to arrive after dark at
+an unknown dwelling, and to awaken in the morning to a new world of
+glorious scenery quivering in sunshine and colour. I recall two instances
+of the same awaking to the joy of natural beauty previously
+unsuspected&mdash;once at Glengariff and once at Mahableshwar. The soft
+radiance of Southern Ireland was very different from the almost violent
+colouring of India, but the sudden delight was the same.</p>
+
+<p>We spent a very happy six days at Mahableshwar and saw all sorts of
+interesting people and places, including the haunts of the great Mahratta
+Chieftain Sivaji. Our introduction to Indian hill-life could not have been
+made under pleasanter auspices nor with kinder hosts.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Connaught was then Commander-in-Chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> of the Bombay
+Presidency troops. H.R.H. and the Duchess lived near the Reays, and they
+were also very good to us. Lady Patricia Ramsay was then a most attractive
+little girl of two years old. The older children were in England. The
+Duke, here as elsewhere, had a great reputation as a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>When we visited Pertab Ghur, one of Sivaji&#8217;s thirty-one mountain
+fortresses, we were told with amazement that the Duke and his officers had
+lately brought a battery of mule artillery up the steep hill leading
+thereto. This fort had an arched gateway almost concealed in the
+hill-side, with a door covered with iron spikes. About fifty people live
+in the fort, and when they saw the battery approaching they took the
+soldiers for dacoits and shut the gates against them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">H.H. THE AGA KHAN</div>
+
+<p>One visitor to Lord and Lady Reay while we were with them was the Aga
+Khan, since so widely known, but then a boy of about thirteen who was
+brought by his uncle to pay his respects to the Governor. The story of his
+ancestry as told to me at the time was as follows. Some generations ago a
+Hindu announced a tenth Avatar, or Incarnation, of Vishnu, and persuaded a
+number of people to give him offerings for the Avatar. At last, however,
+the devotees became tired of parting with their goods for an unseen deity
+and insisted that the Avatar should be shown to his disciples. The Hindu
+agreed, and selected a deputation of two hundred, whom he conducted on a
+sort of pilgrimage through Northern India seeking for a suitable
+representative who would consent to play the required part. At last they
+reached the borders of Persia, and there he heard of a holy man belonging
+to the then Royal Family who would, he thought, fulfil all the
+requirements. Before introducing his followers he contrived a private<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+interview with the Imaun (as I believe he was called) and offered to hand
+over to him all the disciples and their future offerings if he would
+assume the character of an Avatar and pretend to have received those
+already given. The Princely Saint consented on condition that the Hindu
+believers should become Mohammedans&mdash;no doubt this wholesale conversion to
+the true faith overcame any scruples which he may have felt concerning the
+requisite trivial deception. Thus arose the sect of the Khojahs, Hindu&mdash;or
+at least Indian&mdash;Mohammedans, acknowledging the spiritual headship of this
+Persian Avatar and his descendants. Some say that this Imaun was one of
+the tribe or order of the Assassins of whom the Old Man of the Mountains
+was chief in the time of the Crusades. It was declared that each head of
+Aga Khan&#8217;s family was assassinated in turn, and that his life would be
+sacrificed in due course to make way for his successor. However, I hope
+that is not true, as I have known him for over thirty years and saw him
+very much alive not long ago.</p>
+
+<p>When we met at Mahableshwar he was a stout youth with dark eyes and hair
+and a very composed manner. His father, who had died before our interview,
+did not want the boy in childhood to know of his semi-divine character as
+he justly thought that it would not be very good for him, but the boy was
+too acute to be kept in the dark. His mother was a Persian princess, and
+he is immensely rich from offerings made to himself and his ancestors.
+Even in boyhood he was called &#8220;His Highness,&#8221; that title having been given
+him in 1896&mdash;but the rank and salute of a chief of the Bombay Presidency
+was not granted till 1916, as he is not a territorial prince, but owes his
+wealth and immense<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> influence to the large numbers both in India and
+Zanzibar who acknowledge his spiritual sway.</p>
+
+<p>We were told that he sometimes had a milk bath and that his followers were
+then allowed to drink the milk in which he had bathed! Lord Reay asked
+whether he would have to fast in Ramadan, but he said not till he was
+fifteen. I asked what was done to people if they did not keep the fast. He
+said nothing in India, but in Persia the Moollahs beat defaulters.</p>
+
+<p>When Aga Khan grew up he managed to reconcile his followers to the
+orthodox Mohammedan faith. He traces his descent from Mohammed&#8217;s
+son-in-law Ali. What his private religious views may have been is
+impossible to say; I should think he was really a Mohammedan, but
+considered it necessary to allow his followers to regard him as
+semi-divine. He was supposed in after years to have said to his friends
+that he could drink wine if he liked because his devotees were made to
+believe that his throat was so holy that it changed to water on touching
+it&mdash;and he added that &#8220;being a god was not all beer and skittles!&#8221; I must
+say that when he sat near me at dinner at Osterley he did not drink wine.
+He was once dining there when in England for King Edward&#8217;s coronation, and
+I told him that the Sikh High-Priest was reported to have said that he did
+not like to be mixed up with &#8220;these secular persons&#8221; and wanted to hold
+the robe of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the occasion. Aga Khan
+comically protested against such an invasion of his ecclesiastical status,
+and said in that case he should complain to the King and go back to India!</p>
+
+<p>From Mahableshwar a journey of two days and a night brought us to
+Hyderabad (Deccan)&mdash;where we stayed at the Residency with the
+Acting-Resident<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Mr. Howell and his wife. We were enchanted with
+Hyderabad&mdash;a real typical Native State and extraordinarily picturesque. We
+saw various interesting examples of native life and tradition both in the
+pauses on our journey and from the train. As we drew near Hyderabad there
+were numbers of immense syenite stones piled on each other or scattered
+over the plain. Legend says that when Rama was pursuing the giant Ravana
+who had carried off Siva he enlisted the aid of the monkey-god Hanuman and
+his army to make a bridge to Ceylon. The monkeys carried rocks from the
+Himalayas, but not unnaturally became pretty tired by the time they
+reached the Deccan and let a good many fall, which may still be seen
+scattered about.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">RACES AT HYDERABAD</div>
+
+<p>Hyderabad is largely Mohammedan, and the Nizam has a considerable army,
+including a regiment of negro cavalry and a good many Arabs. We were
+fortunate in seeing a race-meeting the day after our arrival, and this
+gathering of natives in all their variety of costume and colour was
+dazzling to our unaccustomed eyes. The populace swarmed in the trees and
+clustered round the boundary of the course, but even more brilliant were
+the garments of the native nobles and gentlemen who walked about in the
+ring and gathered in the grandstand. They wore long coats of every
+conceivable hue and of rich materials, flowered red and green and gold
+silk, purple velvet or embroidered white, with gold-worked belts, bright
+turbans, and sometimes swords. There were little boys gaily dressed like
+their fathers, riders in white muslin with black and gold turbans, on
+prancing horses with tails dyed pink, others carrying little flags at the
+end of spears; Arabs of the Nizam&#8217;s bodyguard with high boots and green,
+red, dark-blue,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> and gold costumes and striped floating round their heads,
+and the Nizam&#8217;s syces in yellow and blue.</p>
+
+<p>The Nizam himself, an effete individual, had a red fez, a pearl
+watch-chain, and dazzling emerald rings, but was otherwise in European
+dress. Around him were the gentlemen of his Court, salaaming to him and to
+each other with strictly Oriental etiquette, and mingled with them English
+officers, ladies and civilians. Flags were flying surmounted by the Union
+Jack, and a band played, ending up with &#8220;God save the Queen.&#8221; The jockeys
+were some English and some native, the owners English, Parsee, and
+Mohammedan.</p>
+
+<p>A hot Indian sun made the scene glow with golden warmth during the
+afternoon and with rosy pink as it set in the evening with the unexpected
+rapidity which is almost startling until use has made it familiar. I was
+talking a few days later to an Indian gentleman about his visit to
+England, and he said what he did not like was the light, which interfered
+with his sleeping. Light is the last thing of which I should have expected
+England to be accused, but there is in India no great variety in the
+length of night and day all the year round, so my friend was unaccustomed
+to the very early dawn of an English summer day. Not long ago I heard of
+an English coachman employed in America. He, on being asked his opinion of
+the States, said he did not like two things&mdash;they had no twilight and said
+the Lord&#8217;s Prayer wrong (i.e. &#8220;Who art&#8221; instead of &#8220;Which art&#8221;). It is
+difficult to satisfy the physical and theological prejudices of an alien
+in any land.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">H.H. THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD</div>
+
+<p>Jersey had been introduced to the Nizam the day following our arrival; I
+made his acquaintance at the races, but found him singularly lacking in
+animation. The only occasion on which I saw him aroused to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>anything like
+interest was when we went to the Palace to see his jewels. He had
+wonderful strings of pearls and emeralds, something like a tiara of
+diamonds for the front of a turban, large single diamonds in rings, one
+remarkable ruby engraved with the seals of the Moghul emperors, and an
+uncut diamond valued at &pound;720,000 which was as uninteresting to look at as
+a pebble picked up on a beach. If I recollect rightly that diamond
+afterwards played a part in a lawsuit. Jersey said something about black
+pearls, which he happened to admire. The Nizam did not appear to notice
+the remark, which was translated to him, but presently made a slight sign,
+and with the ghost of a smile produced a little calico bag from which he
+extracted a couple of these gems.</p>
+
+<p>Poor man&mdash;he had <i>four thousand</i> women shut up in his Zenana. That
+included his father&#8217;s wives and women servants as well as his own. Every
+woman who becomes his wife begins with a monthly pension of 35 rupees,
+which can, of course, be increased by his favour. There was a story going
+when we were at Hyderabad that the women had, shortly before, inveigled
+the Nizam into the depths of the Zenana and given him a good flogging! No
+doubt strange things may happen in remote apartments where no male except
+eunuchs may enter. The present Nizam is, I believe, an enlightened and
+loyal ruler.</p>
+
+<p>The City of Hyderabad was about eight miles in circumference, and as a
+quarter was occupied by the Nizam&#8217;s palatial buildings there was room and
+to spare both for ladies and Court officials. The Nizam is of course
+semi-independent, but the British Government exercises the ultimate
+control. Fortunately, though the Nizam did not shine intellectually, he
+had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> some very intelligent Ministers, notably Sir Salar Jung, who
+exercised the chief control, and the very enlightened Director of
+Education, Syed Hossain Bilgrami, who with his brother Seyd Ali had
+originally come from Bengal and contrived to establish an intellectual
+standard distinctly superior to that of many Native States. Amongst other
+things Syed Hossain had set up a Zenana School for &#8220;purdah&#8221; girls of the
+upper classes, which was at that time quite a new experiment in India.
+When we saw it the head mistress was a Mrs. Littledale, a Christian Hindu
+lady married to an Englishman. The main idea was that the young ladies
+should be sufficiently educated to be real companions to the men whom they
+were ultimately to marry. One of the pupils on the occasion of our visit
+was a cousin of the Bilgramis engaged to one of Syed Hossain&#8217;s sons. The
+young man in question was then at Oxford, and understood to be anxious for
+the education of his lady-love. The whole question of the higher education
+of Indian women, particularly of those of the upper classes, bristles with
+difficulties. It has much advanced in the thirty-three years which have
+elapsed since our first visit to Hyderabad, but the problems have not yet
+been by any means completely solved. If young women are educated up to
+anything like a European standard they can hardly fail to be discontented
+with continuous seclusion. On the other hand, if they are allowed to come
+out of purdah and to mix freely with others of both sexes they will be
+looked down upon by large sections of the community, and in many cases,
+particularly among the ruling families, it will be difficult to arrange
+suitable marriages for them. One sometimes wonders whether such complete
+freedom as prevails in Western and Northern lands has been altogether
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>beneficial to their women, and the climate of India might make
+unrestrained intercourse even more difficult. However, Parsee women are
+not secluded, nor are the women of the quite low Indian castes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">PURDAH LADIES</div>
+
+<p>As far as I could make out, opinions differed among the ladies themselves
+as to whether they should or should not prefer to come out of purdah. Some
+certainly considered that for husbands to allow it would be to show that
+they did not properly value their wives. For instance, the Nizam&#8217;s
+aide-de-camp Ali Bey, a very active, intelligent soldier, told us that he
+would not at all mind his wife seeing men or going about, but that she
+would not wish it. On one occasion when the fort at Secunderabad was
+brilliantly illuminated with electric lights for some festivity he offered
+to drive her out late, when the people had gone, to see the effect, but
+she declined. On the other hand, when we dined with the Financial
+Secretary Mehdi Ali, and the ladies went afterwards into an inner
+drawing-room to see Mrs. Mehdi Ali, she rather pathetically said to me in
+perfect English: &#8220;I cannot go to call upon you, Lady Jersey. I am not a
+woman, but a bird in a cage.&#8221; It seemed rather absurd that she should be
+secluded, for she was evidently highly educated, and I understood read
+French as well as English. Her costume was somewhat interesting. Most of
+the Moslem ladies wore trousers and were enveloped in a sari. Mrs. Mehdi
+Ali had a gorgeous brocade garment specially designed by Howell &amp; James,
+which at a casual glance looked like an ordinary gown but somehow embraced
+a &#8220;divided skirt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I had an amusing breakfast with the sisters of Sir Salar Jung and his
+brother the Munir-ul-Mulk. We had dined the previous evening at a gorgeous
+banquet with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the brothers, and the ladies of the party, including Lady
+Galway, Mrs. Howell, and five others, were invited for eleven o&#8217;clock the
+following morning to the Zenana in the same Palace. Of course brothers may
+be present with their sisters. With a truly Oriental disregard of time the
+Munir appeared about 11.25, the ladies still later. The Munir was attired
+in an azure blue coat embroidered with silver. The materials of the most
+gorgeous men&#8217;s coats were imported from Paris&mdash;and their fezes chiefly
+came from Lincoln &amp; Bennett&#8217;s in London.</p>
+
+<p>As for the ladies, they generally wore stockings and over them long
+drawers or breeches, fitting tightly to the lower part of the leg and very
+full above. They had jackets and voluminous scarves called &#8220;chuddars.&#8221; I
+believe the breeches were sewn on! One of the sisters wore yellow as a
+prevailing colour, and had bare arms and feet. The other had a magnificent
+gold embroidered crimson velvet jacket, a green chuddar, and pink
+stockings. These ladies were both married, but the husband of one was in a
+lunatic asylum. There was also present a female cousin, but she, being a
+widow, was all in white and wore no jewels except one or two armlets.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BREAKFAST IN A ZENANA</div>
+
+<p>Our breakfast was spread on a long table under the colonnade where we had
+dined the previous night. We had then sat on chairs at a regular
+dining-table, but this was only raised a few inches from the ground and we
+sat on the floor, which was covered with a white cloth. The table was
+thickly covered with piled-up dishes containing principally all kinds of
+curry and rice cooked in different ways. Water was the main drink, but
+anyone who liked could ask for coffee. Everyone had plates, and the
+Englishwomen were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> provided with spoons and forks, but the Indian ladies
+ate (very tidily) with their fingers, over which attendants poured water
+after breakfast. The two sisters (half-sisters really) sat side by side,
+and laughed and chattered incessantly. Miss White, a lady doctor who was
+present, interpreted anything they had to say, but they were just merry,
+talkative children with no real interest in anything beyond their clothes,
+food, and jewels. Miss White said that they knew, and taught their
+children, nothing. I should say that they were the most ignorant of all
+the native ladies whom I have met in India, but certainly not the least
+happy, and apparently quite contented.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<p class="title">MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES</p>
+
+<p>From Hyderabad we went to Madras to fulfil our promise of paying a visit
+to Mr. Bourke, who had now become Lord Connemara. We stayed there for over
+three weeks and became much interested in the Presidency. Being rather
+remote from the usual routes of visitors it is perhaps less known, and has
+been called the &#8220;Benighted Presidency,&#8221; but many of the natives are
+exceptionally intelligent, and there appears to be more opportunity than
+in some other parts of India of seeing the Hindu faith in working order
+and less affected than elsewhere by the influence of the Mohammedan
+conquerors. Lord Connemara&#8217;s Private Secretary, Mr. Rees (afterwards Sir
+John Rees, so sadly killed by falling from a train) was very kind in
+securing two Brahmins of different varieties of the Hindu faith to come
+and talk to me and explain their views&mdash;both spoke excellent English. One
+was a Munshi who belonged to the &#8220;Advaita&#8221; sect, which holds that
+everything is part of the Divinity; the other&mdash;an ascetic&mdash;held a refined
+form of what is called the &#8220;Sankhya&#8221; philosophy, which presupposes eternal
+matter with which the Eternal Mind unites itself. After all, such fine
+drawn distinctions are quite congenial to the spirit of the early
+Gnostics, the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, and even to Christians of
+to-day who are ready to start fresh communities from differences on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+tenets which seem to the ordinary mind without practical bearing on the
+Two Great Commandments.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BRAHMIN PHILOSOPHERS</div>
+
+<p>To return to my Brahmin friends. Both those here mentioned and others to
+whom I have spoken claim a faith certainly different from the vast mass of
+the Indian peoples. They claim to believe in One God, and say that all
+proceed from Him and that all effort should be directed to reabsorption
+into Him. Good acts tend to this result by the gradual purification in
+successive incarnations of &#8220;Karma,&#8221; which may perhaps be described as the
+residuum of unconquered passions and unexpiated sins after death. When the
+Munshi was explaining this theory of upward progress Mr. Rees asked him
+what happened to devil-worshippers and such like out-caste races. &#8220;They go
+to hell,&#8221; was the prompt reply. Observing my look of surprise, Ramiah
+hastened to add, &#8220;Oh, we have plenty of hells, twenty, thirty,
+forty&#8221;&mdash;evidently thinking that I was astounded not at the sweeping
+perdition of his countrymen, but at the probably overcrowded condition of
+the infernal regions.</p>
+
+<p>Shiva, Vishnu, and the other gods and goddesses adored by the populace
+were regarded by the illuminati as embodiments of various divine
+attributes, or incarnations to reveal the divine will and to deliver men
+from evil. There seemed no unwillingness to accept Christ in some such way
+as this. As one said to me, &#8220;I do not know His history as well as I know
+my own sacred books, but if what is told of Him is true, I believe that he
+must have been a saint, if not a Divine Incarnation.&#8221; Another thought that
+each race had its own revelation. &#8220;We,&#8221; he said, &#8220;have Krishna, you have
+Christ. You say that your Christ was crucified&mdash;our Krishna was shot.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>To an inquiry why if their own faith was so elevated they left the masses
+to idol-worship I had the crushing reply: &#8220;Ignorant people and <i>females</i>
+cannot at once comprehend the universal presence. We teach them first that
+God is in the image&mdash;so He is, for He is everywhere&mdash;and from that we go
+on to explain that He pervades the universe.&#8221; I asked my ascetic friend,
+Parthasaradi, whether in that case they might find the deity in the leg of
+a table&mdash;to which he retorted with Tyndall&#8217;s views about the mutability of
+atoms, from which he deduced that being everywhere He was certainly also
+in the leg of the table&mdash;and he cited Roman Catholic teaching on his side
+as justifying idol-worship. Parthasaradi had a marvellous store of
+quotations from Tyndall, Leibnitz, Matthew Arnold, and others at his
+fingers&#8217; ends. He kindly said that if I were as good as my creed he would
+be satisfied, and hoped that I would be content if he were as good as his.
+He had catechised Mr. Rees about me before he would condescend to talk to
+me, as he did not think that &#8220;European females&#8221; were generally
+sufficiently interested in Hindu religion to make them worthy of his
+expositions. He had been a Vakil of the High Court, but had given up his
+position to embrace an ascetic life, and had devoted his property to
+founding a library, only reserving enough for himself and his wife to live
+upon. His wife had become a sort of nun. He was a curious-looking man with
+long shaggy black hair and very white teeth&mdash;rather handsome. His costume
+consisted of a cotton dhoti (cloth) of doubtful whiteness wrapped round
+his legs and a green shawl twisted about his body. There is no doubt that
+he was very earnest in his faith in the Almighty, and I was really touched
+by his appeal one day to Mr. Rees,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> who chanced to be present at a visit
+which he paid me. Mr. Rees told him that he was so eloquent that he almost
+converted him to the need for greater religion. Whereupon said the
+ascetic, with evident emotion: &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you come at once? You need not
+wait for an invitation as to a <i>Governor&#8217;s breakfast</i>.&#8221; He spoke just like
+a member of the Salvation Army, and I am sure with an equally genuine
+feeling. It would be absurd to generalise from a superficial acquaintance
+with India, but it seemed to me from conversation with these and other
+educated Indians that, while quite willing to accept the high Christian
+morality and also to profit from the education in Christian schools,
+working out a man&#8217;s own salvation appealed to them more than the doctrine
+of Atonement.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">FAITH OF EDUCATED HINDUS</div>
+
+<p>The Dewan Rao Behadur Kanta Chunder, a highly intelligent man whom we met
+later on at Jeypore, allowed that the Atonement was his stumbling-block.
+He had been educated in a Mission School and had a great respect and
+affection for the Principal, but he was not a professing Christian. He
+said that he believed in one God, but was obliged to continue
+Shiva-worship to please his mother. I hope that he received the same
+dispensation as Naaman! He further said that he believed in the
+transmigration of souls, but thought that all spirits would ultimately
+return to the Great Spirit whence they came.</p>
+
+<p>I asked this Dewan about a point on which I was curious&mdash;namely, whether
+as a child, before he came under Mission influence, his Hindu faith had a
+practical influence on his daily conduct. &#8220;Oh, yes,&#8221; he said; &#8220;if I did
+anything wrong I was quite frightened of the images of the gods in the
+house&#8221;&mdash;so I suppose they have a real effect, but no one seemed to think
+that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> anything made the native Indian truthful! However, it is to be
+feared that with the majority even of Christians truth is not a primary
+virtue.</p>
+
+<p>To return to Madras and our adventures there. I do not attempt
+descriptions of the cities or scenery which we visited. Much as we enjoyed
+such sights, they are fully described in guide books, and I keep to our
+personal experiences. The length of our visit to Madras was partly due to
+unfortunate circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail at length,
+though they have since in broad outline become public property. Briefly,
+shortly after our arrival Lady Connemara, who had been staying at
+Ootacamund, arrived at Government House accompanied by the doctor and one
+of the staff. The following day she migrated to an hotel just as a large
+dinner-party was arriving, and we had to conceal her absence on plea of
+indisposition.</p>
+
+<p>After several days&#8217; absence and much negotiation she consented to
+return&mdash;but Lord Connemara implored us to remain while she was away, and
+even after she came back, to help him look after his guests, particularly
+some who came to stay in the house. We were rather amused, when later on
+we visited the Prendergasts at Baroda, to discover that Sir Harry
+Prendergast and his daughters, who had stayed at Government House in the
+midst of the trouble, had never discovered that Lady Connemara was not
+there, but thought that she was ill in her own rooms all the time! I
+cannot help thinking that some of us must have been rather like the
+policeman before the magistrate of whom the cabman said &#8220;I won&#8217;t go for to
+say that the gentleman is telling a lie, but he handles the truth rather
+carelessly.&#8221; I fear that we must have handled the truth rather
+carelessly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>Fortunately the native servants could not speak English, and the better
+class natives in the city behaved extraordinarily well in wishing to keep
+things quiet as far as possible. Anyhow, Lady Connemara came back for a
+time, and ultimately&mdash;some time in the following year, I think&mdash;returned
+to England. The end, as is well known, was a divorce. She married the
+doctor, and Lord Connemara a rich widow&mdash;a Mrs. Coleman. They are all dead
+now and the causes of dispute do not matter; they may be summed up with
+the old formula, &#8220;Faults on both sides.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The delay was rather tiresome for us, as we had planned to get to Calcutta
+well before Christmas, but on the other hand it enabled us to see a good
+deal that we could not have done in the short time which we had originally
+destined to the Presidency, and Lord Connemara and his staff did
+everything for our entertainment.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THEOSOPHISTS AT ADYAR</div>
+
+<p>Among other excursions we had an amusing visit to our ship acquaintance,
+Colonel Olcott, at the headquarters, or Library, of the Theosophical
+Society at Adyar. Adyar is a pretty place, and there are nice shady drives
+near it with banyan, tamarind, and other trees. As we approached we saw a
+large bungalow on the top of a small hill, and noticed a number of people
+seated in the verandah. It was evident that they saw us from their
+elevation, but it did not seem to have struck them that we could also see
+them from below. When we arrived at the door everyone had disappeared
+except Colonel Olcott, who was seated in an attitude of abstraction, but
+jumped up holding out his hands and expressing great pleasure at our
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>We were taken into a long hall, hung round with the shields of the various
+theosophical Lodges in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> India and elsewhere. There were several rooms, and
+as we were shown into them the people whom we had seen on the verandah
+were either &#8220;discovered&#8221; or &#8220;entered&#8221; like actors on a stage, and duly
+introduced: &#8220;A Russian Countess&#8221;&mdash;the &#8220;Countess of Jersey&#8221;; &#8220;a Japanese
+nobleman&#8221;&mdash;the &#8220;Earl of Jersey.&#8221; We were shown the doors of Kathiawar wood
+rather well carved, and beyond there was a kind of Sanctuary with two
+large paintings of Mahatmas behind doors like those of a Roman Catholic
+altarpiece. I believe that it was behind those doors that Madame Blavatsky
+was supposed to have performed a miracle with broken tea-cups, but I am
+not clear as to details and Colonel Olcott was too cute to attempt to
+foist the story upon us. What he did tell us was that the artist
+Schmiechen painted the Mahatmas without having seen them, implying some
+kind of inspiration. We happened to know Schmiechen, as he had painted
+several of our family, so when we were back in England I remarked that I
+had seen the pictures which he had painted without having seen the
+subjects. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; said he, &#8220;but I had very good photographs of them!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Olcott told us that he intended to have portraits of the Founders of all
+religions in this Sanctuary, but so far the only companion of the Mahatmas
+was a photograph of Paracelsus. He, however, produced another photograph
+from somewhere and bade me prepare to respect a bishop. The bishop proved
+to be black! Poor Olcott! He made another attempt to convert me while at
+Madras by lending me copies of a rather colourless magazine&mdash;always
+assuring me that his Society was in no sense anti-Christian. When he
+called to see the effect which this publication had had upon me I remarked
+that I had read not only the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> magazine, but its advertisements, which
+advertised distinctly anti-Christian books. He turned the colour of
+beetroot, for he had never thought of the advertisements.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE RANEES OF TRAVANCORE</div>
+
+<p>While we were at Madras the then Maharajah of Travancore was invested with
+the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Star of India. He was a gorgeous
+figure wearing over a long coat of cloth-of-gold with small green spangles
+the pale-blue satin cloak of the Order, which cost him two thousand rupees
+at Calcutta. His white turban was adorned with beautiful emeralds. The
+right of succession in Travancore is peculiar, being transmitted to males
+through females. As there were no directly royal females in 1857, this
+Maharajah&#8217;s uncle adopted two Ranees to be &#8220;Mothers of Princes.&#8221; The elder
+Ranee was charming and highly educated, but unfortunately had no children,
+and her husband, though a clever man (perhaps too clever!) got into
+difficulties and was banished. The Ranee declined all the suggestions of
+her friends that she should divorce him, and her constancy was rewarded by
+his recall to her side. This marital fidelity pleased Queen Victoria so
+much that she sent the Princess a decoration.</p>
+
+<p>The younger Ranee had two sons, of whom one, called the First Prince, was
+considered Heir Presumptive and was present at the Investiture. He did not
+strike me as much of a man, and he and the Maharajah were reported not to
+be on friendly terms. Ladies marry in Travancore by accepting a cloth
+(i.e. sari) from a man&mdash;if they do not like him they have only to send it
+back, which constitutes a divorce.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff, when Governor of Madras, was admiring the
+embroidered cloth of one of these Travancore ladies and innocently said
+that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> would like to send her a cloth from Madras as a specimen of the
+handiwork executed there, to which she promptly retorted that she was much
+obliged, but that she was quite satisfied with her present husband.</p>
+
+<p>Although I refrain from descriptions in a general way, I must include some
+reference to a journey in the southern part of the Presidency which Lord
+Connemara kindly arranged for us, as it is less well known than Madras
+itself and other cities generally visited. Also this part of the country
+will doubtless change rapidly, if it has not already done so.</p>
+
+<p>A long day&#8217;s journey took us to Tanjore, where the temporary District
+Judge, Mr. Fawcett, was good enough to receive us in his bungalow and show
+us the sights. The great Temple rejoices in the name of
+Bahadeeswara-swami-kovil and is said to have been built in the eleventh
+century. The G&ocirc;puram or great pyramidical tower, 216 feet from the base to
+the top of the gilded Kalasum, which takes the place of our Cross, is most
+imposing. It is covered with carvings, and amongst them we were shown the
+head and bust of an Englishman in a round hat commonly called &#8220;John
+Bright.&#8221; The attendants point to this with pride, saying that it was put
+there when the temple was originally built, on account of a prophecy that
+the English would one day possess the land. We were struck by the
+wonderful foresight of the Hindu prophets in the time of William the
+Conqueror, as they foretold not only the advent of the English, but also
+their costume 800 years after the date of the prophecy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE PRINCESSES OF TANJORE</div>
+
+<p>The Sivajee dynasty had ruled that part of the country till a Rajah called
+Serfojee ceded his territory to the British. His granddaughter, the senior
+lady of his son Sevajee, was the last real Princess of the family.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> She
+was dead before the date of our visit, but some ladies of the zenana still
+lingered on in the Palace. Some years after our visit Lord Dufferin told
+me of his experiences at Tanjore. As Viceroy he was admitted to the
+zenana, though of course other men could not enter. He was shown into a
+large, dimly lighted room at the end of which was a Chair of State covered
+with red cloth. The attendants made signs for him to approach the chair,
+and he was just about to take his seat upon it when he suddenly perceived
+a small figure wrapped in the red cloth. He had been about to sit down on
+the Princess!</p>
+
+<p>We did not see the ladies, but we visited the large rambling Palace, in
+which were three very fine halls. One was rather like a church, with a
+nave and two narrow side aisles, and two rows of dim windows one above the
+other. This appeared to be utilised as a Museum with very miscellaneous
+contents. There was a silver-plated canopy intended to be held over bridal
+pairs&mdash;and a divan on which were placed portraits of Queen Victoria and
+the late Ranee attended by large dolls or figures presumably representing
+members of the Sivajee family. All about the halls were cheap ornaments,
+photographs, and, carefully framed, an advertisement of Coats&#8217; sewing
+cotton! Another hall contained a fine statue of Serfojee by Flaxman, a
+bust of Nelson, and a picture representing the head of Clive with mourners
+for his death.</p>
+
+<p>There was also an interesting library with many Sanscrit and other
+manuscripts. One book in particular, full of paintings of elephants
+executed for Serfojee, was really amusing. Towards the beginning was a
+picture of angelic white elephants, and other black, red, and purple
+elephants all with wings. An attendant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> declared that elephants supported
+the various quarters of the globe and used to have wings, but one day in
+flying they fell down upon a Rishi (Saint) and disturbed his devotions,
+whereupon he induced the gods to deprive them of their flying powers. It
+is always dangerous to offend Saints.</p>
+
+<p>From Tanjore a night&#8217;s journey took us to Madura, where we stayed with Mr.
+Turner, the Collector of the District, in an interesting and remarkable
+house. At the time of our visit it belonged to the Johnston family, but
+they let it to the Government that the rent might pay for a Scholarship at
+the Madras College. The principal living-room was rather like a church,
+having forty columns in it, and, the floor being on different levels and
+divided in various ways, it served for sitting-room, dining-, and
+billiard-room. From one corner a winding staircase led to a terrace from
+which opened bedrooms. Below the living-room were vaults or dungeons where
+wild beasts and prisoners were confined in the old days when the house was
+a sort of Summer Palace. In one of these vaults tradition said that a
+queen was starved to death.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">&#8220;THE HEART OF MONTROSE&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>My bedroom, a very large room, was rendered additionally attractive as
+having been the temporary resting-place of the heart of Montrose, enclosed
+in a little steel case made of the blade of his sword. Lord Napier of
+Merchiston, descended from Montrose&#8217;s nephew, gave this to his daughter
+(afterwards Mrs. Johnston) on his death-bed, 1773, in a gold filigree box
+of Venetian workmanship. When Mr. and Mrs. Johnston were on their way to
+India their ship was attacked by a French frigate and Mr. Johnston with
+the captain&#8217;s permission took charge of four quarter-deck guns. Mrs.
+Johnston refused to leave her husband and remained on deck holding her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+son, aged five, by one hand and in the other a large velvet reticule
+including, with several treasures, the gold filigree box. A shot wounded
+the lady&#8217;s arm, bruised the child&#8217;s hand, knocked down the father, and
+shattered the filigree box, but the steel case with the heart resisted the
+blow.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at Madura Mrs. Johnston employed a native goldsmith to make a
+filigree box after the pattern of that which was damaged, and also a
+silver urn in which it was placed and which stood on an ebony table in the
+then drawing-room. The natives soon started a legend that the urn
+contained a talisman, and that whoever possessed it could never be wounded
+in battle or taken prisoner. Owing to this report it was stolen, and for
+some time could not be traced, but at last Mrs. Johnston learnt that it
+had been purchased by a neighbouring chief for a large sum of money.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. A. Johnston, her son, in a letter to his daughters dated 1836 and
+published as an appendix to Napier&#8217;s <i>Life of Montrose</i>, relates the
+particulars which he had heard from his mother, and further his own
+experiences, which give an impression of very familiar friendship between
+English and natives in days when the former were largely isolated from
+intercourse with home.</p>
+
+<p>Young Alexander Johnston was sent each year by his father during the
+hunting season to stay with one or other of the neighbouring chiefs for
+four months together to acquire the different languages and native
+gymnastic exercises. On one occasion he was hunting in company with the
+chief who was supposed to have the urn, and distinguished himself by so
+wounding a wild hog that his companion was enabled to dispatch it.
+Complimenting the youth on his bravery, the chief asked in what way he
+could recognise his prowess.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>Young Johnston thereupon told the history of the urn and its contents, and
+begged the great favour of its restoration to his mother if it were really
+in his friend&#8217;s possession. The chivalrous native replied that he had
+indeed purchased it for a large sum, not knowing that it was stolen from
+Mrs. Johnston, and added that one brave man should always attend to the
+wishes of another brave man no matter of what country or religion, and
+that he felt it a duty to carry out that brave man&#8217;s wish who desired that
+his heart should be kept by his descendants. With Oriental magnanimity he
+accompanied the restored heart with rich presents to the youth and his
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>In after years this chief rebelled against the authority of the Nabob of
+Arcot, was conquered by the aid of English troops, and executed with many
+members of his family. He behaved with undaunted courage, and on hearing
+that he was to die, at once alluded to the story of the urn and expressed
+the hope that his heart would be preserved by those who cared for him, in
+the same way as that of the European warrior.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Johnston returned to Europe in 1792, and being in France when
+the Revolutionary Government required the surrender of all gold and silver
+articles in private possession, they entrusted the urn and its contents to
+an Englishwoman at Boulogne, who promised to secrete it. Unfortunately she
+died shortly afterwards, and the Johnstons were never able to trace the
+lost treasure.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alexander Johnston adds that he ultimately received from the French
+Government the value of the plate and jewels which his parents had been
+compelled to give up to the Calais municipality. It is, however, unlikely
+that he would have recovered the heart thirty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> or forty years
+afterwards&mdash;unless indeed Mrs. Johnston had kept it in its little steel
+case and surrendered the urn.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE PALACE OF MADURA</div>
+
+<p>The old Palace at Madura is a fine building, now used for a court of
+justice. At the time of our visit recollections of the Prince of Wales
+(Edward VII) still prevailed. When he arrived at the Palace a row of
+elephants was stationed on either side of the court on to which the
+principal buildings opened. All the elephants duly salaamed at a given
+signal except one&mdash;perhaps inoculated with Bolshevik principles. Whereupon
+the stage-manager of the proceedings called out in Tamil to the mahout of
+the recalcitrant animal, &#8220;I fine you five rupees!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One of the purdah Ranees still occupied a side room of the Palace, and our
+host Mr. Turner with another man was stationed to guard the door. The
+Prince, however, feeling that &#8220;nice customs curtsy to great kings,&#8221; put
+them aside and entered the apartment with all his suite. The Ranee was
+much flurried at first, but finally fascinated, and afterwards gave him a
+handsome necklace.</p>
+
+<p>From delightful terraces on the Palace roof you get an extensive view of
+the town and surrounding country. There are two fine hills, one called
+Secundermullai, as Alexander the Great is supposed to have camped there,
+the other Elephantmullai, from a legend that the Chola (Tanjore) King&#8217;s
+magician made him a gigantic elephant, but the Pandyan (Madura) King&#8217;s
+magician changed it into a mountain. As the mountain bears a decided
+resemblance to an elephant, who will doubt the tale?</p>
+
+<p>The most striking feature of Madura is the immense Temple, of which the
+size, the decorations, and the wealth displayed are impressive evidence of
+the vitality<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of the Hindu faith. Four g&ocirc;purams or towers guard the
+entrances to the halls, galleries, arcades, and courts within the sacred
+precincts. One hall is called the Hall of a Thousand Pillars and is said
+really to contain 997. In the galleries are colossal figures of dragons,
+gods, goddesses, and heroes, groups being often carved out of one gigantic
+monolith.</p>
+
+<p>The presiding deity is Minachi, the old Dravidian fish-goddess adopted by
+the Brahmins as identical with Parvati, wife of Siva. The Brahmins
+constantly facilitated the conversion of the lower races to their faith by
+admitting their tutelar deities to the Hindu Pantheon. The great
+flag-staff of Minachi (alias Parvati) is overlaid with gold. There are a
+thousand Brahmins and attendants employed about the Temple, which has an
+annual income of 70,000 rupees, and shortly before our visit the
+N&auml;ttuk&ouml;ttai Chetties or native money-lenders had spent 40,000 rupees on
+the fabric.</p>
+
+<p>The Treasury contains stores of jewels, particularly sapphires, and
+&#8220;vehicles&#8221; for the gods in the form of elephants, cows, lions, or peacocks
+constructed of, or overlaid with, gold or silver of fine workmanship. Two
+cows, late additions, were pointed out to us as having cost 17,000 rupees.</p>
+
+<p>The Chetties are an immensely wealthy caste, and lavish money in building
+both temples and commodious houses for themselves. At one corner of the
+latter they put a large figure of an Englishman attended by a small
+native, at another an Englishwoman in a crinoline and with rather short
+petticoat. They evidently like to propitiate the powers both seen and
+unseen.</p>
+
+<p>Before the Prince of Wales&#8217;s visit the Collector asked them to contribute
+a specified sum towards the fund<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> being raised for his entertainment. They
+refused, but offered so much less. They were then shut up in a place
+enclosed with palisades, while a series of notes and messages was
+interchanged with them. They were much amused by the proceedings, which
+they evidently regarded as the proper method of negotiation, and kept
+refusing with roars of laughter, till feeling that they had played the
+game long enough, they consented to give the sum originally asked and were
+released.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ROUS PETER&#8217;S SACRED DOOR</div>
+
+<p>Among the many objects of interest in the temple one of the quaintest was
+a <i>door</i> dedicated to a former Collector called Rous Peter. He used to
+worship Minachi in order to obtain any money that he wanted from the
+Pagoda Treasury for the repair of the roads and other public purposes.</p>
+
+<p>After his death the Brahmins placed him among their devils, and used to
+light little lamps round the door in his honour. A devil was quite as much
+respected as a beneficent deity, indeed it was even more necessary to keep
+him in a good humour. Mr. Peter unfortunately did not always distinguish
+between his own and the public funds and finally poisoned himself.</p>
+
+<p>He had a great friend, one Colonel Fisher, who married a native woman, and
+he and Peter were buried side by side near the Pagoda. Colonel Fisher&#8217;s
+family were, however, not satisfied with this semi-heathen arrangement and
+later on built a Christian church destined to include their remains. There
+was some little difficulty with the Christian authorities about this, but
+ultimately it was amicably settled. When we were at Madura a screen behind
+the altar shut off from the rest of the church the part where they were
+buried, to which the natives came with garlands to place on Peter&#8217;s tomb.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>As is well known, such semi-deification of Europeans who had captivated
+Indian imagination was not uncommon. We heard of a colonel buried in
+another part of the Presidency on whose grave the natives offered brandy
+and cheroots as a fitting tribute to his tastes.</p>
+
+<p>A twenty-three hours&#8217; journey brought us back to Madras on the afternoon
+of December 16th. We had greatly enjoyed our few days in the new world of
+Southern India, and were impressed with the hold that the Hindu faith
+still had on the population.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of our stay at Madras Lord Connemara and his staff made
+every effort for our enjoyment. Mr. Rees (Private Secretary) was
+especially kind in arranging that I should see, not only the Public
+Museums and other Institutions, but also some of the private houses to
+which Europeans were not generally admitted. Among the excellent
+representatives of the British Government were the Minister of Education,
+Mr. Grigg, and Mrs. Grigg. Madras owes much to them both&mdash;the native girls
+particularly to Mrs. Grigg. Their son, who acted as one of Lord
+Connemara&#8217;s pages at the Investiture of the Maharajah of Travancore, is
+now Sir Edward Grigg, whose knowledge of the Empire has been invaluable to
+the Prince of Wales, and who is now Secretary to the Prime Minister.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most prominent educational institutions at Madras was the
+Scottish Free Church Mission which had a College for boys and Schools for
+girls of different castes. These included some Christians, but there was
+no claim to any large number of conversions. All scholars learnt to read
+the Bible, and no doubt a good system of morality was inculcated. I
+believe that had we gone to Trichinopoly we should have found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> many more
+Christians. It is much easier to convert pariahs and low-caste natives,
+numerous in Southern India, than those of the higher castes, who have to
+give up social position and worldly advantage if they change their faith.
+Lord Connemara often received very amusing correspondence. One letter was
+from a luckless husband who wrote: &#8220;Nothing is more unsuitable than for a
+man to have more than one wife. I have three, and I pray your Excellency
+to banish whichever two you please to the Andaman Islands or some other
+distant country.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LOYALTY OF NATIVE INDIANS</div>
+
+<p>When we first visited India at all events the natives had implicit faith
+in English power and justice even when their loyalty left something to be
+desired. An Englishman was talking to a man suspected of pro-Russian
+sympathies, and pointed out to him the way in which Russians treated their
+own subjects. &#8220;If Russia took India,&#8221; he said, &#8220;what would you do if a
+Russian tried to confiscate your property?&#8221; &#8220;In that case,&#8221; was the prompt
+reply, &#8220;I should appeal to the High Court.&#8221; For the most part, however,
+they were intensely loyal to the person of the Sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>When Queen Victoria&#8217;s statue was unveiled at the time of the First Jubilee
+the natives came in thousands to visit it, and to &#8220;do poojah,&#8221; presenting
+offerings of cocoa-nuts, etc. The statue was in bronze, and they expressed
+great pleasure in finding that their Mother was brown after all; they had
+hitherto imagined her to be white!</p>
+
+<p>We had arranged to sail from Madras to Calcutta by a British India named
+the <i>Pundua</i>, which ought to have landed us there in good time for
+Christmas, but our voyage had many checks. First the hydraulic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> unloading
+machinery of that &#8220;perfidious bark&#8221; went wrong, and we were only taken on
+board three days later than the scheduled time for starting. Starting at
+all from Madras was not particularly easy in those days, for the harbour
+had been constructed on a somewhat doubtful principle; nature had not done
+much for it, and the results of science and engineering had been seriously
+damaged by a cyclone. As Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff had sagely remarked,
+&#8220;Any plan is a good one if you stick to it,&#8221; but the damaged walls were
+being rebuilt somewhat tentatively and there was no conviction as to the
+ultimate outcome. Probably there is now a satisfactory structure, but in
+our time there was not much protection for the boat which carried us to
+the <i>Pundua</i>. Mr. Rees was to accompany us to Calcutta, and Lord Connemara
+and Lord Marsham took us on board. We had taken tender farewells of all
+our friends ashore and afloat&mdash;the Governor had gone back in his boat,
+when we heard an explosion followed by a fizzing. A few minutes later the
+captain came up and said, &#8220;Very sorry, but we cannot start to-day.&#8221; &#8220;What
+has happened?&#8221; &#8220;The top of the cylinder has blown off.&#8221; Much humiliated we
+had to return with our luggage to Government House, and to appear at what
+was called &#8220;The Dignity Ball&#8221; in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Next day (December 22nd) we really did get off; the wretched <i>Pundua</i>
+possessed three cylinders, so one was disconnected, and she arranged to
+proceed at two-third speed with the others. This meant something over nine
+knots an hour, and, after sticking on a sandbank near the mouth of the
+Hoogli, we ultimately reached the neighbourhood of Diamond Harbour on
+December 26th, and by means of a Post Office boat, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> train, reached
+Calcutta and Government House late that evening.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">PASSENGERS ON THE &#8220;PUNDUA&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>When I went on board the <i>Pundua</i> I was shown into the good-sized &#8220;Ladies
+Cabin&#8221; and told that I could have that and the adjoining bathroom to
+myself. In reply to my inquiry as to whether the other ladies on board
+would not want it, I was told that there was only one other lady and she
+was not in the habit of using the bath! This seemed queer, till I
+discovered that she was the heroine of one of the tragedies which
+sometimes occur in the East. She was the daughter of a family of mixed
+European and Indian parentage. The other children were dusky but
+respectable. She was white, and rather handsome, and fascinated a luckless
+young Englishman of good family, who married her, only to discover that
+she was extravagant and given to flirtation. They were on their way to a
+post&mdash;tea-planting if I remember aright&mdash;somewhere to the North of India.
+When they first left England the husband was very sea-sick, and the wife
+carried on a violent flirtation with another passenger and was also
+described as swearing and drinking. When the husband recovered she
+insisted on his shooting her admirer, and on his declining tried to shoot
+her husband. The captain, however, seized the revolver and shut her up in
+a second-class cabin. She was only allowed to dine with the first-class
+passengers on Christmas evening. Poor husband! I believe that he was quite
+a good fellow, but I do not know their subsequent fate.</p>
+
+<p>We also had on board an orchid-hunter who had given up the destination
+which he had originally proposed to himself, because he discovered that a
+rival was going to some new field for exploration, and as he could not let
+him have the sole chance of discovering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the beautiful unknown flower of
+which there were rumours, he set off to hunt <i>him</i>. All the material for a
+novel, if only the lady with the revolver had formed an alliance,
+offensive and defensive, with the orchid-hunter. Unfortunately we did not
+learn the after-history of any of these fellow-passengers.</p>
+
+<p>We were warmly welcomed at Government House, Calcutta, by Lord and Lady
+Lansdowne. Lord Lansdowne, an old school and college friend of Jersey&#8217;s,
+had just taken over the reins of Government from Lord Dufferin. Lord
+William Beresford, another old friend of my husband&#8217;s, was Military
+Secretary, and Colonel Ardagh Private Secretary. Sir Donald Mackenzie
+Wallace, who had been so eminently successful as Private Secretary to the
+late Viceroy, was staying on for a short time to place his experience at
+the service of the new rulers. The aides-de-camp were Major Rowan
+Hamilton, Captain Streatfeild, Captain Arthur Pakenham, Captain Harbord,
+and Lord Bingham.</p>
+
+<p>We found that the tardy arrival of our unfortunate <i>Pundua</i> had not only
+been a disappointment to ourselves, but, alas! a great grief to many of
+the Calcutta ladies, as it was bringing out their new frocks for the
+Viceroy&#8217;s Christmas Ball. I hope that it proved a consolation to many that
+the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal gave a ball at Belvedere two days after
+the ship came in, when no doubt the dresses were unpacked. Lady
+Lansdowne&#8217;s pretty daughter, now Duchess of Devonshire, was just out and
+therefore able to attend this ball.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE BRAHMO SOMAJ</div>
+
+<p>We spent a few very pleasant days at Calcutta and met various interesting
+people. Amongst them was Protap Chunder Mozoondar, Head of the Brahmo
+Somaj (i.e. Society Seeking God). He paid me a special visit to expound
+the tenets of his Society, which, as is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> well known, was founded by Babu
+Chunder Sen, father of the (Dowager) Maharanee of Kuch Behar. Briefly, the
+ideas of the Society are based on natural theology, or the human instinct,
+which tells almost all men that there is a God. The Brahmo Somaj accepts a
+large portion of the Holy Books of all nations, especially the Vedas and
+the Bible. It acknowledges Christ as a Divine Incarnation and Teacher of
+Righteousness, but again it does not regard His atonement as necessary to
+salvation. My informant&#8217;s view was that Christian missionaries did not
+sufficiently take into account Hindu feelings, and enforced unnecessary
+uniformity in dress, food, and outward ceremonies. This is quite possible,
+but it would be difficult for a Christian missionary not to insist on the
+Sacraments, which form no essential part of the Brahmo Somaj ritual.</p>
+
+<p>Babu Chunder Sen&#8217;s own sermons or discourses in England certainly go
+beyond a mere acknowledgment of Christ as a Teacher and express deep
+personal devotion to him and acceptance of His atonement in the sense of
+at-one-ment, or bringing together the whole human race, and he regards the
+Sacraments as a mystical sanctification of the ordinary acts of
+bathing&mdash;so congenial to the Indian&mdash;and eating. However, in some such way
+Protap Chunder Mozoondar seemed to think that a kind of Hinduised
+Christianity would ultimately prevail in India.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible for an ordinary traveller to form an opinion worth having
+on such a point, but the Brahmo Somaj, like most religious bodies, has
+been vexed by schism. Babu Chunder Sen among other reforms laid down that
+girls should not be given in marriage before the age of fourteen, but his
+own daughter was married to the wealthy young Maharajah Kuch Behar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> before
+that age. This created some prejudice, though the marriage was a
+successful one, and she was a highly educated and attractive woman. She
+had a great reverence for her father, and in after years gave me some of
+his works. Another pundit, later on, started another Brahmo Somaj
+community of his own. The explanation of this given to me by Kuch Behar
+himself was that he was a &#8220;Parti&#8221; and that this other teacher (whose name
+I have forgotten) wanted him to marry his daughter, but he chose Miss Sen
+instead! I fear that this is not a unique example of church history
+affected by social considerations.</p>
+
+<p>While at Calcutta we received a telegram to say that Villiers had reached
+Bombay and we met him at Benares on New Year&#8217;s Day, 1889. He had come out
+escorted by a Mr. Ormond, who wanted to come to India with a view to work
+there and was glad to be engaged as Villiers&#8217;s travelling companion.
+Rather a curious incident was connected with their voyage. A young Mr. S.
+C. had come out on our ship the <i>Arcadia</i>&mdash;on Villiers&#8217;s ship a youth
+travelled who impersonated this same man. The amusing part was that a very
+excellent couple, Lord and Lady W. (both now dead), were on the same ship.
+Lady W. was an old friend of Mrs. S. C.&mdash;the real man&#8217;s mother&mdash;but, as it
+happened, had not seen the son since his boyhood. Naturally she accepted
+him under the name he had assumed, and effusively said that she had nursed
+him on her knee as a child. The other passengers readily accepted him as
+the boy who had been nursed on Lady W.&#8217;s knee, and it was not until he had
+landed in India that suspicion became excited by the fact that there were
+<i>two</i> S. C.&#8217;s in the field and that number Two wished to raise funds on
+his personality. This assumption of someone else&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> name is common enough,
+and every traveller must have come across instances, but it was rather
+funny that our son and ourselves should have travelled with the respective
+claimants.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MAHARAJAH OF BENARES</div>
+
+<p>At Benares we were taken in hand by a retired official&mdash;a Jain&mdash;rejoicing
+in the name of Rajah Shiva Prashad. We stayed at Clark&#8217;s Hotel, while
+Shiva Prashad showed us all the well-known sights of the Holy City, and
+also took us to pay a formal visit to the &#8220;Maharajah <i>of the people</i> of
+Benares.&#8221; It is curious that the Maharajah should have adopted that name,
+just as Louis Philippe called himself &#8220;King of the French&#8221; rather than &#8220;of
+France&#8221; to indicate less absolute power. The Maharajah&#8217;s modesty was due
+to the fact that Shiva is supposed to uphold Benares on his trident, and
+bears the name of &#8220;Mahadeva&#8221;&mdash;Great God, or Ruler of the City&mdash;so the
+earthly potentate can only look after the people&mdash;not claim the city
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>The Maharajah&#8217;s Palace was on the river in a kind of suburb called
+Ramnagar, to which we were taken on a barge. We were received at the
+water-steps by a Babu seneschal, at the Castle steps by the Maharajah&#8217;s
+grandson, and at the door of a hall, or outer room, by the Maharajah
+himself&mdash;a fine old man with spectacles. It was all very feudal; we were
+seated in due state in the drawing-room, and after some polite
+conversation, translated by our friend the Rajah, who squatted on the
+floor at the Maharajah&#8217;s feet, we were entertained with native music and
+nautch-dancing. After we had taken leave of our host we inspected his
+tigers, kept, I suppose, as an emblem of his rank. Shiva Prashad told us a
+romantic tale of his own life, according to which he first entered the
+service of the Maharajah of Bhurtpore, but was disgusted by the cruelty
+which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> he saw exercised&mdash;prisoners thrown into miserable pits, and only
+given water mixed with salt to drink. He left the Maharajah, and thought
+of becoming an ascetic, but being taunted by his relatives for his failure
+in life, he (rather like St. Christopher) determined to enter the service
+of someone &#8220;greater than the Maharajah.&#8221; He discovered this superior power
+in the British Government, which gave him an appointment in the Persian
+Department.</p>
+
+<p>While there he somehow found himself with Lord Hardinge and three thousand
+men arrayed against sixty thousand Sikhs. The Council of War recommended
+falling back and waiting for reinforcements, &#8220;but Lord Hardinge pronounced
+these memorable words&mdash;&#8216;We must fight and conquer or fall here.&#8217;&#8221; They
+fought&mdash;and first one three thousand, then another three thousand friendly
+troops joined in, so the Homeric combat ended in their favour, and Prashad
+himself was employed as a spy. Afterwards he retired to the more peaceful
+occupation of School Inspector, and when we knew him enjoyed a pension and
+landed property.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MARRIAGES OF INFANTS AND WIDOWS</div>
+
+<p>He posed as a perfect specimen of a happy and contented man, and had much
+to say about the excellence of the British Raj and the ignorance and
+prejudice of his own countrymen, whom he said we could not understand as
+we persisted in comparing them with Europeans&mdash;that is, with reasonable
+beings, whereas they had not so much sense as animals! All the same I
+think a good deal of this contempt for the Hindu was assumed for our
+benefit, particularly as the emancipation of women evidently formed no
+part of his programme. He gave an entertaining account of a visit paid by
+Miss Carpenter to his wife and widowed sister. Miss Carpenter was a
+philanthropic lady of about fifty, with hair beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> to grizzle, who
+carried on a crusade against infant marriage and the prohibition of the
+remarriage of widows. &#8220;Well,&#8221; was the comment of Mrs. Prashad, &#8220;I married
+when I was seven and my husband nine and I have been happy. How is it that
+this lady has remained unmarried till her hair is growing grey? Has no one
+asked her? There ought to be a law in England that no one shall remain
+unmarried after a certain age!&#8221; The sister countered an inquiry as to her
+continued widowhood with the question, &#8220;Why does not the Empress marry
+again?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<p class="title">NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME</p>
+
+<p>From Benares we went to Lucknow, where we had the good fortune to meet Sir
+Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts, and Lady Roberts, who were
+exceedingly kind to us during our stay. We had one most interesting
+expedition under their auspices. We and some others met them by
+appointment at Dilkusha, a suburban, ruined house of the former King of
+Oude from which Sir Colin Campbell had started to finally relieve Outram
+and Havelock in November 1857. Roberts, then a young subaltern, was, as is
+well known, of the party, and he took us as nearly as possible over the
+ground which they had traversed. Havelock, who had previously brought
+relief to the garrison, but not enough to raise the siege of Lucknow, had
+sent word to Sir Colin not to come the same way that he had, as it
+entailed too much fighting and loss to break right through the houses held
+by the rebels, but to keep more to the right. Sir Frederick pointed out
+the scenes of several encounters with the enemy, and one spot where he,
+sent on a message, was nearly lost&mdash;also Secunderabagh, a place with a
+strong wall all round it, where the British found and killed two thousand
+rebels, the British shouting &#8220;Remember Cawnpore!&#8221; to each man as they
+killed him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW</div>
+
+<p>Each party&mdash;Campbell&#8217;s, and Havelock&#8217;s who advanced to join them&mdash;put
+flags on the buildings they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> captured as signals to their friends. At last
+they respectively reached the Moti Mahal or Pearl Palace. Here Sir
+Frederick showed us the wall on which the two parties, one on either side,
+worked till they effected a breach and met each other. Then Sir Colin
+Campbell, who was at the Mess House just across the road, came forward and
+was greeted by Generals Outram and Havelock&mdash;and the relief was complete.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Frederick had not seen the wall since the breach had been built up
+again, but he pointed out its whereabouts, and Jersey found the new
+masonry which identified the spot. Colonel May, who had come with us from
+Dilkusha, then took us over the Residency in which he, then a young
+engineer, had been shut up during the whole of the siege. It was amazing
+to see the low walls which the besieged had managed to defend for so long,
+particularly as they were then overlooked by comparatively high houses
+held by the rebels which had since been levelled to the ground. Colonel
+May indicated all the posts, and the places of greatest danger, but there
+was danger everywhere, except perhaps in the underground rooms in which
+250 women and children of the 32nd were lodged. Cannon-balls were always
+flying about&mdash;he told us of one lady the back of whose chair was blown
+away while she was sitting talking to him just outside the house, and of a
+cannon-ball which passed between the knees of a Mrs. Kavanagh, while she
+was in the verandah, without injuring her. We also saw the place where the
+rebels twice assembled in thousands crying &#8220;Give us Gubbins Sahib and we
+will go away.&#8221; They particularly hated Mr. Gubbins, as he was Financial
+Commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Frederick said the ladies seemed quite dazed as they came out, and
+told us of one whom he knew who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> came out with two children, but
+subsequently lost her baby, while her husband was killed in the Mutiny.
+She, he said, never fully recovered her senses. No wonder, poor woman! One
+quaint thing we were told was that the rebels played themselves into
+quarters every evening with &#8220;God save the Queen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One unfortunate incident marred an otherwise delightful time at Lucknow. A
+sham fight took place, and Sir Frederick Roberts was good enough to lend a
+horse to Jersey and a beautiful pony to Villiers in order that they might
+witness it. Villiers, boylike, tried to ride his pony up the steep bank of
+a nullah. It fell back with him, and he suffered what was called a &#8220;green
+fracture,&#8221; the bones of his forearm being bent near the wrist. They had to
+be straightened under chloroform. We were able to leave Lucknow two days
+later, but the arm rather hampered him during the rest of our journey.</p>
+
+<p>Delhi was our next stopping-place, where we had a most interesting time,
+being entertained by the Officer Commanding, Colonel Hanna&mdash;who had during
+the siege been employed in helping to keep open the lines of communication
+so as to supply food and munitions to the troops on the Ridge. He was
+therefore able to show us from personal knowledge all the scenes of the
+fighting and relief, as well as all the well-known marvels of architecture
+and the glories left by the great Moghuls. His house was near the old
+fortifications, which I believe are now demolished for sanitary reasons,
+but it was then a joy to look out of the windows, and see the little
+golden-brown squirrels which frequented the old moat, with the two marks
+on their backs left by Krishna&#8217;s fingers when he caressed their
+progenitors.</p>
+
+<p>We were thrilled by his stories of events of which he had been an
+eye-witness, culminating in his account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> of the three days during which
+the British troops were permitted to sack the reconquered city. My husband
+remarked that he would not have stopped them at the end of three days.
+&#8220;Yes, you would, had you been there,&#8221; said Colonel Hanna. It must be very
+hard to restrain men maddened by weeks of hardship and the recollection of
+atrocities perpetrated by their foes, if they are once let loose in the
+stronghold of their enemies. The troops camped on the Ridge, and losing
+their bravest from hour to hour seem to have had at least one advantage
+over the defenders of Lucknow&mdash;they did not suffer from the terrible
+shortage of water.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">VIEW FROM THE KOTAB MINAR</div>
+
+<p>Without attempting an account of all the palaces, tombs, and mosques which
+we saw, I must just say that nothing that I have ever seen is so
+impressive in its way as the view from the Kotab Minar after you have
+scaled the 375 steps to its tapering summit. Over the great plain are
+scattered the vestiges of deserted cities built by the conquerors and
+emperors of two thousand years, a history culminating on the Ridge of
+Delhi, where Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress, and where her grandson
+received in person the homage of the feudatory princes and chiefs over
+whom he was destined to rule. Even the Campagna of Rome has not that array
+of skeletons of past and bygone cities actually displayed before the eyes
+of the beholder, each bearing the name of some ruler whose name and deeds
+are half remembered although his dynasty has passed away.</p>
+
+<p>One of these cities is Tughlakabad, with the tomb of Tughlak and his son
+Juna. The latter was a horrid tyrant who maimed and ill-treated many
+victims. His cousin and successor Feroz seems to have been a merciful and
+pious ruler: he compensated the injured as far as possible and got them to
+write deeds of indemnity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> which he placed in Juna&#8217;s tomb that the latter
+might present them on the day of judgment. One cannot help thinking that
+Feroz rather than Juna may benefit from this action at the Great Assize.</p>
+
+<p>On January 12th we went to spend Saturday to Monday with Major and Mrs.
+Paley at Meerut. Our nephew George Wombwell was laid up at Colonel
+Morris&#8217;s house there with typhoid fever. He seemed to be recovering, and
+after making arrangements for a nurse and every attention we returned to
+Delhi on Monday. We were afraid to keep Villiers in a cantonment station
+with illness about. Alas! Jersey was summoned back a few days later, when
+we were at Agra, as George became worse, and died. It was very sad.</p>
+
+<p>At Agra we went first to Lauri&#8217;s Hotel, but Sir John Tyler, Superintendent
+of the Jail, persuaded us to come and stay with him, which was really a
+great thing, as Villiers had by no means completely recovered from the
+effect of his accident, and Sir John being a surgeon was able to look
+after him. Needless to say we visited the famous Taj by moonlight and by
+day, each time finding fresh beauties. I venture to quote a sentence about
+it from an article which I wrote concerning India published in <i>The
+Nineteenth Century</i>, because Sir Edwin Arnold was polite enough to say
+that I had discovered a fault which had escaped the observation of himself
+and his fellows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The Taj, that fairy palace of a love stronger than death, sprung from
+sunset clouds and silvered by the moon, has but one fault&mdash;it is too
+perfect. Nothing is left to the imagination. There are no mysterious
+arches, no unfinished columns, nothing is there that seems to speak of
+human longing and unfulfilled aspiration;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> you feel that a conqueror
+has made Art his slave, and the work is complete; you can demand
+nothing more exquisite in this world.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SEKUNDRA AND FUTTEHPORE-SEKREE</div>
+
+<p>Among the many wonders of Agra and its neighbourhood I was specially
+impressed by the Tomb of the Great Akbar at Sekundra. As in the case of
+the Taj, the real tomb is underneath the building, but in the Taj the Show
+Tomb is simply in a raised chamber something like a chapel, whereas
+Akbar&#8217;s Show Tomb is on a platform at the summit of a series of red
+sandstone buildings piled on each other and gradually diminishing in size.
+The tomb, most beautifully carved, is surrounded by a finely worked marble
+palisade and arcade running round the platform. Presumptuously, I took
+this mighty erection as an ideal for a scene in a child&#8217;s story, <i>Eric,
+Prince of Lorlonia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We were also delighted with Futtehpore-Sekree, the great city which Akbar
+built and then deserted because it had no water. It reminded us of
+Pompeii, though perhaps it had less human interest it had a greater
+imprint of grandeur. The great Archway or High Gate, erected 1602 to
+commemorate Akbar&#8217;s conquests in the Deccan, has a striking Arabic
+inscription, concluding with the words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Said Jesus on whom be peace! The world is a bridge; pass over it, but
+build no house there: he who hopeth for an hour may hope for eternity:
+the world is but an hour; spend it in devotion: the rest is unseen.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The greatest possible art has been lavished on the tomb of the hermit
+Sheikh Suleem. This holy man had a baby six months old when Akbar paid him
+a visit. Seeing his father look depressed instead of elated by the honour,
+the precocious infant asked the cause. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> hermit must have been too much
+absorbed in religious meditation to study the habits of babies, for
+instead of being startled by the loquacity of his offspring he confided to
+him that he grieved that the Emperor could not have an heir unless some
+other person sacrificed his child. &#8220;By your worship&#8217;s leave,&#8221; said baby,
+&#8220;I will die that a Prince may be born,&#8221; and before the father had time to
+remonstrate calmly expired. As a result of this devotion Jehanghir was
+born, and Akbar built Futtehpore-Sekree in the neighbourhood of the
+hermit&#8217;s abode.</p>
+
+<p>When Sheikh Suleem died he was honoured with a splendid tomb inlaid with
+mother-of-pearl and enclosed in a marble summer-house with a beautifully
+carved screen to which people who want children tie little pieces of wool.
+Apparently a little addition to the offering of wool is desirable, as the
+priest who acted as guide assured us that an English officer who had a
+blind child tied on the wool, but also promised our informant a hundred
+rupees if the next was all right. The next was a boy with perfect eyesight
+and the priest had his reward.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the baby&#8217;s tomb, which is in an outer cemetery, we saw a little
+tomb erected by a woman whose husband was killed in the Afghan War over
+one of his old teeth!</p>
+
+<p>We were fortunate in having Sir John Tyler as our host at Agra, for as
+Superintendent of the Jail he was able to ensure that we should have the
+best possible carpets, which we wanted for Osterley, made there. They were
+a long time coming, but they were well worth it. Abdul Kerim, Queen
+Victoria&#8217;s Munshi, was a friend of his, in fact I believe that Sir John
+had selected him for his distinguished post. He was on leave at Agra at
+the time of our visit, and we went to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> a Nautch given at his father&#8217;s
+house in honour of the Bismillah ceremony of his nephew.</p>
+
+<p>From Agra we visited Muttra, where we were the guests of the Seth Lachman
+Das&mdash;a very rich and charitable old man of the Bunyah (banker and
+money-lender) caste. He lodged us in a bungalow generally let to some
+English officers who were temporarily absent, and he and his nephew did
+all in their power to show us the sights at Muttra and in the
+neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE BIRTHPLACE OF KRISHNA</div>
+
+<p>Amongst other sacred spots we were taken to Krishna&#8217;s birthplace. It was
+curious that though, throughout India, there are magnificent temples and
+rock-carvings in honour of Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna, his
+birthplace was only marked by a miserable little building with two dolls
+representing Krishna&#8217;s father and mother.</p>
+
+<p>The legend of Krishna&#8217;s babyhood is a curious echo of the birth of our
+Lord and the crossing of the Red Sea combined. It seems that a wicked
+Tyrant wanted to kill the child but his foster-father carried him over the
+river near Muttra, and as soon as the water touched the infant&#8217;s feet it
+receded and they passed over dry shod. In memory of this event little
+brass basins are sold with an image within of the man carrying the child
+in his arms. The child&#8217;s foot projects, and if one pours water into the
+basin it runs away as soon as it touches the toe. I do not know what may
+be the hydraulic trick, but certainly it is necessary to put the brass
+basin into a larger one before trying the experiment to receive the water
+which runs out at the bottom. The little birthplace building was in the
+courtyard of a mosque&mdash;part of which was reserved for the Hindus.</p>
+
+<p>The Seth had built a temple in Muttra itself, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> he annually expended
+large sums in feeding the poor, and he and his family had erected a still
+finer one at Brindaban, a famous place of pilgrimage in the neighbourhood,
+where they had set up a flag-staff 120 feet high overlaid with real gold.
+Seth Lachman Das maintained at his own expense twenty-five priests and
+fifteen attendants besides fifty boys who were fed and instructed in the
+Shastras. As at Madura, we were struck by these rich men&#8217;s apparent faith
+in their own religion.</p>
+
+<p>After visiting Deeg and Bhurtpore, we reached the pretty Italian-looking
+town of Ulwar. The Maharajah, who was an enlightened potentate, had
+unfortunately gone into camp, but we were interested in the many tokens of
+his care for his subjects and of his artistic tastes. He kept men
+executing illuminations like the old monks.</p>
+
+<p>When we visited the jail I was admitted to the quarters of the female
+prisoners, who seemed quite as anxious to show the labels which they
+carried recording their crimes, as schoolchildren are to display their
+exercises or needlework when one visits a school. One smiling woman
+brought me a label inscribed &#8220;Bigamy,&#8221; which struck me as rather ludicrous
+considering the circumstances, and also a little unfair to the criminal.
+Indian men are allowed several wives&mdash;why was she punished for having more
+than one husband? Probably, however, she was safer locked up in prison
+than left at the mercy of two husbands, one of whom would almost certainly
+have cut off her nose if he had an access of jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>After Ulwar we spent a few days at that most attractive city, Jeypore,
+called by Sir Edwin Arnold the &#8220;City of Victory,&#8221; a victorious Maharajah<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+having transferred his capital there from the former picturesque town of
+Amber. The principal street of Jeypore has houses on either side painted
+pink, which has a brilliant effect in the sunlight, but when we were there
+the paint certainly wanted renewing. The Maharajah was a rarely
+intelligent man, and he had a particularly clever and agreeable Dewan&mdash;or
+Prime Minister. We made great friends with the English doctor&mdash;Dr.
+Hendley&mdash;who not only attended some of the native nobles, but also was
+able to superintend the English lady doctor and thereby help the native
+ladies. Formerly when a child was born a live goat was waved over its head
+and the blood of a cock sprinkled on it and its mother. Mother and child
+were then kept for a fortnight without air, and with a charcoal fire
+constantly burning, more charcoal being added if the child cried.
+Mercifully the younger ladies and their husbands were beginning to realise
+the comfort of English treatment on these occasions.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE JAINS</div>
+
+<p>On our way from Muttra to Ahmedabad we slept at the Rajpootana Hotel,
+about sixteen miles from Mount Abu Station, in order to visit the Dilwarra
+Temples of the Jains. The Jains are a sect of very strict
+Buddhists&mdash;almost the only representatives of the Buddhists left in
+Hindustan proper. Ceylon and Burmah are Buddhist, so are some of the lands
+on the Northern Frontier, but the Brahmins contrived to exterminate
+Buddhism in the great Peninsula in the eighth century after it had spread
+and flourished there for about a thousand years. These Dilwarra temples
+are well worth a visit. The pious founder is said to have bought the land
+for as many pieces of silver as would cover it, and to have paid
+&pound;18,000,000 sterling for building, besides &pound;560,000 for levelling the site
+on the steep hill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>Without attempting to guarantee the accuracy of these figures, it may
+safely be said that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find any
+buildings in the world of which the interiors present an equal amount of
+highly finished artistic labour. Outside the temples are low and not
+imposing, inside they are one mass of minute and elaborate sculpture. You
+stand beneath a dome with saints or angels worthy of a Gothic cathedral
+rising to its central point. Around are arcades with pillars and arches,
+beyond which are numerous small chapels or shrines, each with the figure
+of a large cross-legged Rishi or Saint with little rishis in attendance.
+Every inch of arch, arcade, and ceiling is adorned with marvellous carving
+of ornaments, or of men, ships, and animals. We were told that the central
+figure in each temple was &#8220;Of the Almighty,&#8221; who seemed to exact as
+tribute to his power a fearful noise of cymbals and tomtoms. He appeared
+to be not exactly a deity, but a divine emanation. The really perfect Jain
+wore a piece of muslin over his mouth to avoid destroying the life of even
+invisible insects, but such extreme virtue was, I fancy, rare and must
+have been highly uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE MAHARAJAH OF BHOWNUGGER</div>
+
+<p>From Ahmedabad we went to Bhownugger, where we were received in great
+state by the young Maharajah symptuously attired in green velvet and the
+Star of India, and attended by his high officials and a guard of honour.
+We felt very dirty and dusty after a hot journey (thermometer in railway
+carriages nearly 100&deg;) when received with so much splendour, but we liked
+the Maharajah immensely and he became devoted to my husband.</p>
+
+<p>He gave us a splendid time with all sorts of &#8220;tamashas&#8221; while we were his
+guests, but we were specially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> interested in his personality. He had been
+educated in the college for young chiefs at Ajmere and had acquired a very
+high standard of ideas of right and wrong and of his duty to his people. I
+expect that, like the rest of us, he often found it hard to carry his
+theories into practice, and it was rather pathetic when, speaking of what
+he wished to do, he added, &#8220;We must do the best we can and leave the rest
+to God&#8221;&mdash;then, looking up at the chandelier hanging in the bungalow in
+which he entertained us, he continued, &#8220;God is like that light, and the
+different religions are the different colours through which He shines.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One of his difficulties, poor man, was in his matrimonial arrangements. He
+had married two or three ladies of high rank, as considered suitable by
+the Brahmins, but he had also married to please himself a fair maiden of
+lower caste. He then learnt that if he did not get rid of <i>her</i> the
+Brahmins meant to get rid of <i>him</i>. Thereupon he took the Political
+Officer of that part of the country, Captain Ferris, into the middle of
+the tennis ground, as the only spot free from the risk of spies, and
+poured his griefs into the Englishman&#8217;s sympathetic bosom. Captain
+Ferris&#8217;s solution was that Mrs. Ferris should call upon the despised Rani,
+as she did on the more orthodox wives, and that the Maharajah should cling
+to his English adviser for several days, driving about with him and never
+leaving him, which would for the time being prevent attempts at
+assassination. What was to happen afterwards I do not know. Perhaps the
+Brahmins became aware that any foul play would bring the English raj down
+upon them. Anyhow, the Maharajah lived to pay a visit to England and came
+to see us there&mdash;though he did not attain old age.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>We heard a good deal of the harm resulting from the great expense of
+native marriages, including the temptation to infanticide. In the district
+about Ahmedabad the lower castes do not forbid second marriages, and these
+are less expensive than the first. Therefore a girl was sometimes married
+to <i>a bunch of flowers</i>, which was then thrown down a well. The husband
+thus disposed of, the widow could contract a second alliance quite
+cheaply.</p>
+
+<p>We then spent two nights as guests of the Thakur Sahib of Limbdi, who,
+like the other Kathiawar Princes of Morvi and Gondal, had been in England
+for the Jubilee, and whom we had known there. All three, particularly
+Limbdi and Gondal, were enlightened men, with various schemes for
+promoting the welfare of their subjects. The life of many of these Indian
+Chiefs recalls the days of Scottish Clans. When we were driving with
+Limbdi he would point out labouring men who saluted as he passed as his
+&#8220;cousins,&#8221; and finally told us that he had six thousand blood relations.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BARODA</div>
+
+<p>On February 14th we arrived at Baroda, where we were most hospitably
+entertained by Sir Harry and Lady Prendergast. Baroda, like so many Indian
+cities, offered a picture of transition, or at least blending of East and
+West. As is well known, the late Gaikwar poisoned the British Resident. He
+was tried by a Tribunal of three Indians and three British. The former
+acquitted, the latter condemned him. He was deposed and three boys of the
+family were selected of whom the Maharanee was allowed to adopt one as
+heir. She chose the present Gaikwar, who was educated under British
+auspices, but has not always been happy in his relations with the British
+Government. He however proved quite loyal during the late war. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> we
+were at Baroda he had been decorating his Palace in an inferior European
+style. He had bought some fair pictures, but would only give an average of
+&pound;100, as he said that neither he nor his subjects were capable of
+appreciating really good ones. In contrast to these modern arrangements we
+saw the &#8220;Chattries&#8221; of former Gaikwars. These were funny little rooms,
+something like small loose boxes in a garden surrounding a shrine. In one
+was a doll, representing Kunda Rao&#8217;s grandfather, in another the ashes of
+his father under a turban with his photograph behind, in yet a third the
+turbans of his mother and two other sons. In each room there were a bed,
+water and other vessels, and little lights burning, the idea being that
+all should be kept in readiness lest the spirits should return to occupy
+the apartments. After all, the rooms of the late Queen of Hanover were
+until lately, perhaps are still, kept as in her lifetime, provided with
+flowers and with a lady-in-waiting in daily attendance; so East and West
+are much alike in their views of honour due to the departed.</p>
+
+<p>Back to Bombay for yet five happy days with our dear friends Lord and Lady
+Reay before saying farewell to India on February 22nd. We had had a truly
+interesting experience during our three and a half months in the Eastern
+Empire, and were deeply impressed by the manner in which so many races
+were knit together under British rule. How far all this may endure under
+the new attempts at Constitution-making by Occidentals for Orientals
+remains to be seen. When we paid this first of our visits to India it was
+perfectly evident that the idea of the Queen-Empress was the corner-stone
+of government. My husband talked to many natives, Maharajahs and
+officials, and would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> sometimes refer to the leaders of the great English
+political parties. Their names seemed to convey nothing to the Indians,
+but they always brought the conversation back to &#8220;The Empress.&#8221; Disraeli
+was criticised in England for having bestowed that title on his Mistress,
+but we had constant opportunities of seeing its hold upon the Oriental
+mind. &#8220;Give my best respects to the Empress,&#8221; was a favourite mission
+given to Jersey by his Maharajah friends. He conscientiously tried to
+acquit himself thereof when we saw the Queen, who was a good deal amused
+when he painstakingly pronounced their titles and names.</p>
+
+<p>I once heard a story which shows the effect of the Royal ideal on quite a
+different class. A census was in progress and a large number of
+hill-tribes had to be counted. These people had been told a legend that
+the reason for this reckoning was that the climate in England had become
+so hot that a large number of the women were to be transported there to
+act as slaves and fan the Queen&mdash;also the men were to be carried off for
+some other servile purpose. Consequently the mass of the people hid
+themselves, to the great embarrassment of the officials. One extremely
+capable man, however, knew the people well and how to deal with them. He
+contrived to induce the leading tribesmen to come and see him. In reply to
+his inquiry they confessed their apprehensions. &#8220;You fools,&#8221; said the
+Englishman, &#8220;it is nothing of the sort. I will tell you the reason. You
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Hind?&#8221; Yes&mdash;they had heard of her. &#8220;And you
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Roum?&#8221; (the Czar). They had also heard of him.
+&#8220;Well, the Kaiser-i-Roum paid a visit to the Kaiser-i-Hind, and when they
+had finished their curry and rice they began talking. He said he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> had more
+subjects than she, the Kaiser-i-Hind said she had most. To settle the
+matter they laid a heavy bet and both sent orders to count their people.
+If you don&#8217;t let yourselves be counted the Kaiser-i-Hind will lose the bet
+and your faces will be blackened.&#8221; The tale of the bet appealed to their
+sporting instincts. All difficulties disappeared. The tribesmen rushed to
+be counted&mdash;probably two or three times over.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA</div>
+
+<p>Again, it was curious to notice how the English language was weaving its
+net over India.</p>
+
+<p>At Jeypore an English-speaking native official had been told off to take
+us about during our stay. When we were thanking him and saying good-bye,
+he remarked that the next person whom he was to conduct was a judge from
+Southern India. The judge was a native Indian, but as he did not know the
+language of the Jeypore State he had sent in advance to ask to be provided
+with a guide who could speak English. Formerly the <i>lingua franca</i> of the
+upper, or educated, classes was Persian, of the lower ones Urdu&mdash;the kind
+of Hindustani spoken by the Mohammedan, and afterwards by the English
+army. Of course both languages still prevail, but all educated Indians
+learn English in addition to two or three of the hundred-odd languages
+spoken in the Peninsula. On a later visit a Hyderabad noble was taking my
+daughter and me to see various sights. I noticed that he talked to a good
+many natives in the course of our excursion, and as they appeared to be of
+different castes and occupations, I asked him at last how many languages
+he had talked during the day. After a little reflection he reckoned up
+six. It will not be such a very easy matter to get all these people into
+the category of enlightened electors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>On our voyage home I occupied myself by writing the article already
+mentioned as appearing in <i>The Nineteenth Century</i>&mdash;from which I extract
+the following supplement to my recollections:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Caste is the ruling note in India. The story which tells how the
+level plains of Kathiawar were reclaimed from the sea illustrates
+this. The egrets laid their eggs on the former ocean-line and the wave
+swept them away. The egrets swore that the sea should be filled up
+until she surrendered the eggs. They summoned the other birds to help
+them, and all obeyed their call except the eagle. He was the favourite
+steed of Vishnu, so thought himself exonerated from mundane duties.
+But Vishnu looked askance at him and said that he should be put out of
+caste unless he went to help his fellows. Back he flew to Kathiawar,
+and when the sea saw that the royal bird had joined the ranks of her
+opponents she succumbed and gave back the eggs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hindu respect for animal life entails consequences which make one
+wonder how the earth can provide not only for the swarms of human
+inhabitants, including unproductive religious mendicants, but also for
+such numbers of mischievous beasts. Some castes will kill no animals
+at all, and all Hindus hold so many as sacred that peacocks, monkeys,
+and pigeons may be seen everywhere, destroying crops and eating people
+out of house and home. The people of a town, driven to desperation,
+may be induced to catch the monkeys, fill a train with them, and
+dispatch it to discharge its cargo at some desolate spot; but woe
+betide a simicide! The monkeys in any given street will resent and
+lament the capture of a comrade, but do not care at all if a stranger
+is carried off. He is not of their caste.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MEDITATIONS OF A WESTERN WANDERER</div>
+
+<p>In May 1889&mdash;<i>The National Review</i> also published the following verses,
+which I wrote after reading Sir Alfred Lyall&#8217;s &#8220;Meditations of a Hindu
+Prince.&#8221; I called them &#8220;Meditations of a Western Wanderer&#8221;:</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+&#8220;All the world over, meseemeth, wherever my footsteps have trod,<br />
+The nations have builded them temples, and in them have imaged their God.<br />
+Of the temples the Nature around them has fashioned and moulded the plan,<br />
+And the gods took their life and their being from the visions and longings of man.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;So the Greek bade his marble be instinct with curves of the rock-riven foam,<br />
+Within it enshrining the Beauty and the Lore of his sunlitten home;<br />
+And the Northman hewed deep in the mountain and reared his huge pillars on high,<br />
+And drank to the strength of the thunder and the force flashing keen from the sky.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;But they knew, did those builders of old time, that wisdom and courage are vain,<br />
+That Persephon&#275; rises in springtide to sink in the winter again,<br />
+That the revelling halls of Walhalla shall crumble when ages have rolled<br />
+O&#8217;er the deep-rooted stem of the World-ash and the hardly-won Treasure of gold.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;I turn to thee, mystical India, I ask ye, ye Dreamers of earth,<br />
+Of the Whence and the Whither of spirit, of the tale of its birth and rebirth.<br />
+For the folks ye have temples and legends and dances to heroes and kings,<br />
+But ye sages know more, would ye tell it, of the soul with her god-given wings.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Ah, nations have broken your barriers; ah, empires have drunk of your stream,<br />
+And each ere it passed bore its witness, and left a new thought for your dream:<br />
+The Moslem saith, &#8216;One is the Godhead,&#8217; the Brahmin &#8216;Inspiring all,&#8217;<br />
+The Buddhist, &#8216;The Law is Almighty, by which ye shall stand or shall fall.&#8217;<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Yea, verily One the All-Father; yea, Brahmin, all life is from Him,<br />
+And Righteous the Law of the Buddha, but the path of attainment is dim.<br />
+Is God not afar from His creature&mdash;the Law over-hard to obey?<br />
+Wherein shall the Life be of profit to man seeing evil bear sway?<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span><br />
+&#8220;Must I ask of the faith which to children and not to the wise is revealed?<br />
+By it shall the mist be uplifted? By it shall the shrine be unsealed?<br />
+Must I take it, the often-forgotten yet echoing answer of youth&mdash;<br />
+&#8216;&#8217;Tis I,&#8217; saith the Word of the Father, &#8216;am the Way and the Life and the Truth&#8217;?<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;The Truth dwelleth ay with the peoples, let priests hide its light as they will;<br />
+&#8217;Tis spirit to spirit that speaketh, and spirit aspireth still;<br />
+Wherever I seek I shall find it, that infinite longing of man<br />
+To rise to the house of his Father, to end where his being began.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;And the secret that gives him the power, the message that shows him the way,<br />
+Is the Light he will struggle to follow, the Word he perforce will obey.<br />
+It is not the voice of the whirlwind, nor bolt from the storm-kindled dome;<br />
+&#8217;Tis stillness that bringeth the tidings&mdash;the child knows the accents of home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We had a calm voyage to Suez in the <i>Bengal</i>. It was fortunate that it was
+calm&mdash;for the <i>Bengal</i> was quite an old-fashioned ship. I think only
+something over 3,000 tons&mdash;different from the <i>Arcadia</i>, then the
+show-ship of the P. and O. fleet. I was amused once to come across an
+account by Sir Richard Burton of a voyage which he took in the <i>Bengal</i>
+years before, when he described the P. and O. as having done away with the
+terrors of ocean travel by having provided such a magnificent vessel.</p>
+
+<p>We spent nine days at Cairo and Alexandria and saw the usual sights, then
+quite new to us; but it is generally a mistake to visit one great land
+with a history and antiquities of its own when the mind has just been
+captured by another. Anyhow, we were so full of the glories of India that
+Egypt failed to make the appeal to us which she would otherwise have done,
+and which she did on subsequent visits. The mosques in particular seemed
+to us inferior to the marble dreams of Delhi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> and Agra. Moreover on this
+occasion we did not ascend the Nile and see the wonderful temples. The one
+thing which really impressed me was the Sphinx, though I regret to say
+that my husband and son entirely declined to share my feelings. Lord
+Kitchener was then, as Adjutant to Sir Francis Grenfell, Colonel
+Kitchener. He afterwards became a great friend of ours, but we first made
+his acquaintance on this visit to Cairo. We had a most interesting
+inspection of the Barrage works under the guidance of Sir Colin Moncrieff
+and dined with the Khedive, and at the British Agency.</p>
+
+<p>From Alexandria we went by an Egyptian steamer&mdash;at least a steamer
+belonging to an Egyptian line&mdash;to Athens, which we reached on March 15th,
+accompanied by Lady Galloway. On this voyage I performed the one heroic
+deed of my life, with which bad sailors like myself will sympathise. The
+crew of this ship was mainly Turkish&mdash;the native Egyptians being no good
+as seamen, but the captain, Losco by name, was a Maltese and exceedingly
+proud of being a British subject.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">AN ENGLISH PLUM-PUDDING</div>
+
+<p>The first day of our voyage on the <i>B&eacute;h&eacute;ra</i> was calm, and we sat
+cheerfully at dinner listening to his conversation. He was particularly
+emphatic in his assertions that he understood something of English
+cuisine, I believe taught by his mother, and above all he understood the
+concoction of an English plum-pudding and that it must be boiled for
+twenty-four hours. Said he, &#8220;You shall have a plum-pudding for dinner
+tomorrow.&#8221; Then and there he sent for the steward and gave him full
+instructions. Next evening the plum-pudding duly appeared, but meantime
+the wind had freshened and the sea had risen. Under such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> conditions I am
+in the habit of retiring to my cabin and remaining prostrate until happier
+hours dawn&mdash;but was I to shake, if not shatter, the allegiance of this
+British subject by failing in my duty to a British pudding? I did not
+flinch. I sat through the courses until the pudding was on the table. I
+ate and praised, and then retired.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Athens early on the following morning and forgot rough seas and
+plum-puddings in the pleasure of revisiting our former haunts and showing
+them to Jersey and Villiers. The King and Queen were again good enough to
+ask us to luncheon and dinner, and this time we also found the British
+Minister, Sir Edmund Monson, who had been absent on our previous visit. He
+kindly included Villiers, though barely sixteen years old, in an
+invitation to dinner, and much amusement was caused in diplomatic circles
+by the very pretty daughter of the American Minister, Clarice Fearn. She
+was about seventeen and had evidently been almost deprived of young
+companionship during her sojourn at Athens. She was seated at the British
+Legation between Villiers and a French Secretary no longer in his first
+youth, so she promptly turned to the latter and said, &#8220;I am not going to
+talk to you, I am going to talk to Lord Villiers&#8221;; result, an animated
+conversation between the youngsters throughout dinner. She at once
+acquired the nickname of &#8220;La belle-fille de l&#8217;avenir,&#8221; and long afterwards
+a man who had been at the British Legation some time subsequent to our
+visit said that he had always heard her called this, though he had never
+known the reason. I need hardly add that &#8220;Society&#8221; at Athens was very
+small and easily amused. Poor &#8220;belle-fille de l&#8217;avenir,&#8221; I saw her again
+when she and her sister stayed for a time at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> Somerville College at
+Oxford, but she died quite young. Her sister, Mrs. Barton French, still
+lives.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GREEK ROYAL FAMILY</div>
+
+<p>For the rest I need not recapitulate Greek experiences beyond transcribing
+part of a letter to my mother which contains an account of the domestic
+life of the Greek Royal Family in those bygone days:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Despite the weather we have been very comfortable here and found
+almost all our old friends. The Queen has a new baby since last year,
+to whom she is quite devoted. It is number seven, but you might think
+they had never had a baby before. The first time we had luncheon there
+we all migrated to the nursery, and the Duke of Sparta who is going to
+marry Princess Sophie of Germany, almost resented George&#8217;s suggestion
+that some beautiful gold things of his might be moved out of the
+nursery cupboard, as he said &#8216;they have always been there.&#8217; Last
+Sunday we had luncheon there again, and this time the baby was brought
+downstairs and his brothers and sisters competed for the honour of
+nursing him, the Queen and several of us finally seating ourselves on
+the floor in order that the infant prince might more conveniently play
+with the <i>head</i> of his next youngest brother, who lay down with it on
+a cushion for the purpose. It makes one almost sad to see the eldest
+Princess, brought up like this&mdash;a perfectly innocent girl always in
+fits of laughter&mdash;going to be married to one of the Czar&#8217;s brothers;
+she will find it so different in that Russian Court, poor thing.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Further on in the same letter I write:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Everyone has a different story about the Rudolph-Stephanie affair. I
+have met several people who knew the Baroness and say she was very
+lovely. Some disbelieve suicide, as he was shot through the back of
+his head and she through the small of her back, but, as the Austrian
+Minister here says, no one knows or ever will know the real truth. I
+think the tragedies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> in those three imperial houses, Russia, Germany,
+and Austria, surpass any the world has ever seen,&#8221; and I cite the wise
+man&#8217;s prayer for &#8220;neither poverty nor riches&#8221; as &#8220;about right.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>My mother sent the long letter of which this formed part to my aunt
+Theodora Guest, who made a characteristic comment. She allowed the wisdom
+of the prayer, but continued&mdash;&#8220;but in praying for neither poverty nor
+riches, I should be careful to add &#8216;especially not the former,&#8217; for I
+don&#8217;t see that poverty ensures peace, or security from murder&mdash;and it
+would be hard to be poor all one&#8217;s life <i>and</i> be murdered at the end!
+Better be rich and comfortable if only for a time. Still I would not be
+Empress of <i>Russia</i> for something, and that poor innocent Grecian princess
+<i>is</i> to be pitied.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was written April 1889. What would my mother, my aunt, or myself have
+said now?</p>
+
+<p>The baby of our luncheon party was Christopher, now the husband of Mrs.
+Leeds. The poor little Princess whose doom we feared had a more merciful
+one than many of her relations. She married the Grand Duke Paul later in
+1889 and died in 1891 after the birth of her second child. Taken indeed
+from the evil to come. Her children were adopted by the Grand Duchess
+Serge, who I believe has been murdered in the late Terror&mdash;but I do not
+know what has happened to the children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ORIGINAL DERIVATIONS</div>
+
+<p>To turn to something more cheerful. A delightful woman, a real Mrs.
+Malaprop, had lately been at Athens and much enlivened the British
+Legation both by her remarks and her credulity. With her the Parthenon was
+the &#8220;Parthian,&#8221; the Odeum (an ancient theatre) the &#8220;Odium,&#8221; Tanagra became
+&#8220;Tangiers,&#8221; and so on. She told Mr. Haggard that she did not like the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>&#8220;Parthian,&#8221; it was too big. &#8220;Oh,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you ought to like it, for you
+have heard of the Parthian shafts&mdash;those&#8221; (pointing to the columns) &#8220;are
+the original Parthian shafts.&#8221; &#8220;How very interesting!&#8221; said she. He then
+proceeded to inform her that the Odeum was used for music (which was
+true), but added that the music was so bad that they all hated it, and
+therefore the place was called the &#8220;Odium&#8221;&mdash;also &#8220;very interesting.&#8221; She
+was taken for an excursion in Thessaly, where there were sheep-pens on the
+mountains, and one happened to be fenced in a shape something like an
+irregular figure 8. Another lady pointed this out and gravely informed her
+that that was how the Pelasgians <i>numbered their mountains</i>. &#8220;Oh,
+Charles,&#8221; shouted the victim to her husband, &#8220;do look&mdash;the Pelasgians
+numbered their hills&mdash;one, two, three&mdash;there is number eight!&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<p class="title">WINDSOR&mdash;EGYPT AND SYRIA</p>
+
+<p>After our return to London in the spring I was greatly surprised when on
+meeting Sir Henry Ponsonby one day at a party he desired me to send my
+article on India to the Queen. He was at that time her Private Secretary
+and knew her deep interest in all things concerning India, but I never
+imagined that anything which I had written was sufficiently important to
+be worth her notice. However, I could but do as I was ordered, and I was
+still more surprised a little later at the result, which was a command
+that Jersey and I should dine and sleep at Windsor. Jersey had been there
+before, but it was novel to me and very interesting.</p>
+
+<p>We were taken on arrival to a very nice set of rooms overlooking the Long
+Walk, up which we presently saw the Queen returning from her afternoon
+drive. An excellent tea was brought us and Lord Edward Clinton came to
+look after us&mdash;also another member of the Household, I forget who it was,
+but I recollect that an animated discussion took place in our sitting-room
+as to an omission on the part of somebody to send to meet the Speaker
+(Arthur Peel) at the station! It is always rather a comfort to ordinary
+mortals to find that even in the most exalted establishments mistakes do
+sometimes occur. We were told that dinner would be at a nominal 8.30, and
+that a page would take us down when we were ready. Of course we were
+dressed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> excellent time, but just as I had finished my toilet Jersey
+came into my room in great agitation. He was expected to wear what we
+called &#8220;the funny trousers&#8221;&mdash;not knee-breeches, but trousers fastened just
+below the calf of the leg and showing the socks. Unfortunately his black
+silk socks were marked in white, and he said I must pick out the
+marking&mdash;which was impossible all in a minute, and the rooms somewhat
+dimly lit. However, my maid suggested inking over the marks, to my immense
+relief&mdash;and all was well.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DINNER AT WINDSOR</div>
+
+<p>When we went downstairs the Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Southampton, showed us a
+plan of the table, and it was explained that when the Queen went in to
+dinner we all followed&mdash;were not sent in with a man&mdash;and seated ourselves
+as directed. Then as time approached we were drawn up on either side of
+the door by which the Queen entered. She greeted each in turn kindly but
+quickly, and went straight in. It was not really stiff or formidable when
+we were once seated. After dinner the Queen established herself in a chair
+in the Long Gallery and each guest was called up in turn for a little
+conversation. She talked to me about India, and said that it was only her
+great age and the fact that she was a very bad sailor that prevented her
+going there. She was much interested in our having seen her Munshi at
+Agra, and he always formed a link between Her Majesty and ourselves. She
+had us to Windsor two or three times altogether, and always spoke of him
+and arranged that we should see him. He was quite a modest humble man to
+begin with, but I fear that his head was rather turned later on.</p>
+
+<p>Two pieces of advice Her Majesty bestowed upon me, to keep a Journal, and
+wherever I travelled never to forget England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>This school term we were greatly pleased at Villiers winning the Junior
+Oppidan Exhibition at Eton. He had not even told us that he was going in
+for it, and we saw the first announcement in <i>The Times</i>. His master, Mr.
+Donaldson, wrote that he took it &#8220;in his stride without quickening his
+space at all or making any special preparation for it.&#8221; It was certainly a
+creditable performance after missing a whole term while in India.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1890 Lady Galloway and I set off on a fresh expedition. Jersey
+was anxious that I should escape the cold, and held out
+hopes&mdash;unfortunately not fulfilled&mdash;of joining us later. We went by a
+Messageries steamer&mdash;the <i>Congo</i>&mdash;to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo,
+where we found various friends, including Colonel Kitchener, who had
+meantime stayed at Osterley and who looked after us splendidly. He was
+very amusing, and when there was a difficulty about our cabins on the Nile
+boat he went off with us to Cook&#8217;s Office and said that we <i>must</i> have two
+cabins instead of two berths with which, despite our orders given in
+London, they tried to put us off. No one in Egypt could ever resist
+Kitchener&#8217;s orders. He declared that we represented two aunts whom he
+expected. I do not mean that he told Cook this.</p>
+
+<p>He told us how he and other officers had looked after Mr. Chamberlain on a
+late journey up the Nile and how he felt sure that they had enlightened
+him a good deal. It was very shortly after this that Mr. Chamberlain made
+a famous speech in Birmingham wherein he said that he had seen enough of
+Egypt to realise that England could not abandon the country in its present
+condition. I do not remember the words, but that was what they conveyed,
+quite different from former Radical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> pronouncements. That was the great
+thing with Mr. Chamberlain. As I have already maintained, he had an open
+mind, and was ready to learn from facts and experience.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">VOYAGE UP THE NILE</div>
+
+<p>To return to our Egyptian experiences. We went to Luxor on the post boat,
+and spent about a week at the hotel there. We found all sorts of friends
+on dahabyahs and in other places, and were duly impressed by the mighty
+temples and tombs of the kings. I do not attempt any description of these
+marvels, never to be forgotten by those who have seen them.</p>
+
+<p>While we were at Luxor the Sirdar, Sir Francis Grenfell, arrived on a tour
+of inspection with Lady Grenfell and others. We joined the same steamer,
+the <i>Rameses</i>, and having so many friends on board made the voyage as far
+as Assouan additionally pleasant. The direct military jurisdiction at that
+time began near Edfou, and a force of Ababdeh, or native guerilla police
+who were paid to guard the wells, came to receive the Sirdar on his
+reaching this territory. A number mounted on camels led by their Sheikh on
+horseback galloped along the bank as the ship steamed on. At Edfou itself
+there was a great reception of native infantry and others mounted on
+camels and horses.</p>
+
+<p>On this trip we saw beautiful Phil&aelig; in perfection; and also had the
+experience, while at Assouan, of shooting the cataract, really a
+succession of rapids among rocks. The boatmen took care to make this
+appear quite dangerous by getting close to a rock and then just avoiding
+it with loud shouts. An Austrian, Prince Schwarzenberg, who was one of our
+fellow-passengers, looked pretty anxious during the process, but there was
+no real cause for alarm. Last time we visited Egypt the Dam, though of
+enormous benefit to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> the country, had destroyed much of the charm of Phil&aelig;
+and of the excitement of the cataract.</p>
+
+<p>From Assouan the Grenfells and their party went on to Wady Halfa, and Lady
+Galloway, Mr. Clarke of the British Agency, and I set off on our return
+journey to Cairo. Prince Schwarzenberg and his friend Count Westfahlen
+were our fellow-passengers. The Prince was very melancholy, having lost a
+young wife to whom he was devoted; also he was very religious. Count
+Westfahlen admired him greatly. The Prince was quite interesting and
+cheered up considerably in the course of our voyage. He was a good deal
+impressed by the ordinary fact, as it seemed to us, that the English on
+board the steamer had left a portion of the deck undisturbed for the
+Sirdar&#8217;s party without having been officially requested to do so.
+According to him, Austrians of the middle-class would not have done so
+under similar circumstances. On the other hand, he was astonished to learn
+that English boys of our own families were in the habit of playing games
+with the villagers. If his views of Bohemian society were correct,
+&#8220;democracy&#8221; for good and for evil was at a distinct discount!</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the most amusing part of our down-river voyage occurred at
+Assiout, where the steamer anchored, and where we spent the afternoon with
+the Mudir Choucry Pasha and dined with him in the evening. He received us
+with a splendid cort&egrave;ge of donkeys (quite superior to the ordinary race)
+and attendants; and showed us the hospital&mdash;where there were some women
+among others who had been wounded at Toski&mdash;the prison, and American
+schools. What entertained us most, however, was an Italian Franciscan
+convent where the nuns trained girls. The Prince was quite scandalised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+because, he said, they ought to have been strictly cloistered&mdash;whereas
+they admitted him, Mr. Clarke, and the Mudir, whom they declared was &#8220;un
+bon papa&#8221;; and one of the nuns played &#8220;Il Bacio&#8221; and the Boulanger Hymn
+for our amusement.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CHOUCRY PASHA.</div>
+
+<p>Choucry Pasha then took Lady Galloway and me to visit his wife and married
+daughter, who, though their charms were by no means dangerous, were much
+more particular in secluding themselves than the nuns, for the men of our
+party had to keep out of the way until our interview was over and they had
+retired. Then the Mudir sent a messenger to ask the Prince and Mr. Clarke
+to join us. They declared that they were taken aback when the black
+servant conveyed the summons thus: &#8220;Pasha, ladies, harem,&#8221; not feeling
+sure but that they would have to rescue us from an unknown fate. What they
+did find in the house was the dusky host on his knees unpacking his
+portmanteau before us in order to produce for our inspection some
+antiquities which he had stowed away amongst his socks and other garments!</p>
+
+<p>The dinner, later in the evening, consisted of various oriental dishes,
+and a large turkey appearing after sweet pastry.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">PRINCESS NAZLI</div>
+
+<p>While at Cairo we paid a visit to the well-known Princess Nazli, a
+relation of the Khedive&#8217;s who received Europeans, both men and ladies, but
+not altogether with the approval of her vice-regal relatives. She said
+that the doctor wanted her to go to the Kissingen baths, but the Khedive
+did not like her to go alone, would prefer that she should marry someone.
+The Khedive had told her in speaking of some other relations that Sir
+Evelyn Baring might interfere with anything else but not with the members
+of his family. She had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>retorted, &#8220;You had better let him interfere with
+the family, as then he will resign in three weeks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She told us of the cruelties which she knew were inflicted on their slaves
+by the old ladies of Ibrahim Pasha&#8217;s and Mehemet Ali&#8217;s family, and of how
+her English governess would send her to try to obtain mercy when the
+screams of the victims were heard. She remembered when she was a child how
+the ladies taught their attendants to use the kourbash, and how she saw
+the poor women covered with blood.</p>
+
+<p>Among other notable people then in Cairo was the explorer Henry Stanley
+(afterwards Sir Henry), who had not long returned from his expedition to
+relieve Emin Pasha, and had visited the Pigmies. We met him at dinner at
+Colonel Kitchener&#8217;s, and as I sat near him we talked a good deal. My
+impression was that he did not easily begin a conversation, but was fluent
+when once launched. He was engaged on his book, <i>In Darkest Africa</i>, in
+which he declared that there were to be three pages devoted to a beautiful
+white lady fragrant with the odours of Araby whom he met under the
+Equator! If I subsequently identified her I fear that I have now forgotten
+her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE PIGMIES</div>
+
+<p>I remarked on the loss of my brother-in-law&#8217;s relative Mr. Powell, who had
+gone up in a balloon and never been heard of again, whereat Stanley&#8217;s
+comment was, &#8220;That would be someone to look for!&#8221; We had already met his
+companion, Dr. Parkes, at the Citadel, who had shown some of us the little
+darts used by the dwarfs. Years later Mr. James Harrison brought several
+of the Pigmy men and women to England, and they performed at the
+Hippodrome. He kindly offered to bring them down to one of our Osterley
+garden parties, where they created great interest and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>amusement. They
+were about as big as children five to seven years old, and quite willing
+to be led by the hand. We had a long, low table arranged for them on the
+lawn near some tall trees, and one of the little men said, through the
+interpreter, that he thought that &#8220;there must be good shooting in this
+forest.&#8221; We gave them some children&#8217;s toys; when the little woman first
+saw a doll she shrank away quite frightened, but was subsequently much
+pleased. The chief little man appropriated a skipping-rope, and appeared
+with it tied round his waist at the Hippodrome that evening. We were told
+that the price of a wife among them was two arrows, and one who had
+previously lost an arrow was distressed at having lost &#8220;half a wife.&#8221; The
+Pigmies did not seem to mind the company, but when one rather big man had
+inspected a little woman more closely than pleased her she waited till he
+had turned his back and then put out her tongue at him!</p>
+
+<p>To return to our travels in 1890. We left Port Said on a Russian boat on
+the afternoon of March 19th and reached Jaffa early the following morning
+and Jerusalem the same evening. It was very thrilling, and I am always
+glad that we were there before the days of railways. The whole place was
+pervaded with Russian pilgrims, many of whom arrived on our boat.
+Jerusalem has inspired painters, scribes, and poets for hundreds of years,
+so I will only mention one or two of the scenes which struck us most.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre made a deep impression upon us.
+The Sepulchre may or may not have been the original tomb in which our Lord
+was laid, but it has been consecrated by the vows and prayers of countless
+generations, thousands have shed their blood to win that spot from the
+infidel, and if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> warring Churches have built their chapels around it at
+least they cluster under the same roof and bow to the same Lord. The then
+Anglican Bishop, Dr. Blyth, took us over the church. We entered by the
+Chapel of the Angels into the little chapel or shrine containing the
+Sepulchre. There indeed it was impossible to forget the divisions of
+Christendom, as the altar over the Holy Tomb was divided into two
+portions, one decorated with images to suit the Latins, the other with a
+picture to meet the views of the Orthodox Church. Other chapels of the
+Roman and various Eastern Churches surround the Sanctuary, the finest
+being that of the Greeks, who seemed when we were there to exercise the
+chief authority over the whole building. The Greek Patriarch was a great
+friend of Bishop Blyth, and had allowed one or two English and American
+clergymen to celebrate in Abraham&#8217;s Chapel, a curious little chapel in an
+upper part of the mass of buildings included in the church. Near it was
+the bush in which the ram substituted for Isaac was supposed to have been
+caught.</p>
+
+<p>Comprised in the church building are the steps up to Calvary, the place of
+the Crucifixion, and the cleft made by the earthquake in the rock.</p>
+
+<p>The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is also very interesting. The
+Grotto, said to be on the site of the Stable, is under the church and the
+place of our Lord&#8217;s Birth is marked by a silver star let into the
+pavement. Beyond are caves formerly inhabited by St. Jerome, dark places
+in which to have translated the Bible. As usual there are chapels for the
+different sects, and blackened marks on the wall of a cave showed where
+they set it on fire in one of their quarrels. While we were in the church
+a procession passed from the Latin Chapel to the Grotto, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> Turkish
+soldier was standing with a fixed bayonet opposite the Armenian Chapel to
+keep the peace as it went by. The Armenians had been forced to fold a
+corner of the carpet before their altar slanting instead of square, that
+the Latin processions might have no pretext for treading on it. I suppose
+Indian Mohammedans are now enlisted as ecclesiastical police, unless
+indeed the warring Churches trust to the impartiality of English Tommies.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN</div>
+
+<p>From Jerusalem we had a delightful excursion to Jericho. A carriage road
+over the mountain pass was in course of construction, but we had to ride
+horses as it was not yet ready for vehicles. On the way we passed the
+usual Russian pilgrims with their greasy ringlets, plodding on foot, but
+the most interesting party was one we saw at the Khan or Inn at the top of
+the pass. This Inn was no doubt on the site of that where the Good
+Samaritan left the traveller whom he had treated as a neighbour. Even if
+our Lord was only relating a parable, not an historic incident, this must
+have been the Inn which He had in mind, as it is the one natural
+stopping-place for travellers between Jerusalem and Jericho. While we were
+seated in the courtyard resting awhile in the open-air in preference to
+the primitive room within, there rode in a group exactly like the pictures
+of the Flight into Egypt&mdash;a man leading a donkey or mule (I forget which)
+on which was seated a woman carrying a baby, evidently taking it to
+baptize in Jordan. &#8220;The Madonna and Child,&#8221; exclaimed Lady Galloway, and
+we felt thrilled to see a living Bible picture before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As to falling among thieves, we had been assured that there was every
+chance of our doing so unless we paid the Sheikh of an Arab tribe to
+accompany us as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> escort. This was a simple and generally accepted form of
+blackmail. The plundering Arabs agreed among themselves that any tourist
+giving a fixed sum to one of their leaders should be guaranteed against
+the unwelcome attentions of the rest. As a special tribute to &#8220;Lord
+Salisbury&#8217;s sister,&#8221; we were also provided with a Turkish soldier, but I
+doubt his utility. Anyhow the Arab was more picturesque and probably a
+more effectual guardian.</p>
+
+<p>We had also with us our dragoman Nicholas, whom we had brought on from
+Egypt. I do not think that he knew much about Palestine, but he was always
+ready with an answer, and generally asserted that any spot we asked for
+was &#8220;just round the corner&#8221; of the nearest hill. I maliciously asked for
+Mount Carmel, knowing that it was far to the north. With a wave of his
+hand he declared, &#8220;Just round there.&#8221; When we reached the bituminous
+desert land surrounding the Dead Sea I gravely asked for Lot&#8217;s wife.
+&#8220;Lot&#8217;s wife?&#8221; said Nicholas, hopelessly perplexed. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you know,
+Nicholas?&#8221; said Lady Galloway. &#8220;She was turned into a pillar of salt.&#8221; &#8220;Oh
+yes,&#8221; he replied pointing to the nearest salt-like hillock, &#8220;there she
+is.&#8221; No doubt if he ever took later travellers to those parts they had the
+benefit of our identification.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped for luncheon at Jericho, and having inspected the strange land
+surrounding the Dead Sea, we went on to the Jordan, a small, rapid river
+flowing among alders and rushes. There we washed our rings and bracelets
+and then returned to the Jordan Hotel at Jericho, a solitary building kept
+by a Hungarian, very comfortable in a simple way&mdash;though possessing a
+perfect farmyard of noisy animals. As is well known the Dead Sea lies over
+1,300 feet below the level of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> Mediterranean and the Jordan discharges
+its water into it, without any outlet on the other side. Hence evaporation
+leaves all the saline deposits of the river in this inland Sea and causes
+its weird dead appearance and the heavy, forbidding nature of its waters.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE HOLY CITY</div>
+
+<p>It is impossible to dwell on all the spots named as scenes of Gospel
+history and tradition. As Lady Galloway truly remarked, the difference
+between the story as simply told by the Evangelists, and the aggregation
+of subsequent legend, deepened our conviction of the truth which we had
+learnt in childhood. For myself I had heard so much of the disappointment
+which I should probably feel at finding Jerusalem so small and thronged
+with so much that was tawdry and counter to all our instincts, that I was
+relieved to find the city and its surroundings far more beautiful and
+impressive than I had expected. To look from the Mount of Olives across
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat to where the Mosque of Omar rises on Mount Zion
+is in itself a revelation of all that stirred the souls of men of three
+Faiths who fought and died to win the Holy City. On the wall of rock on
+the city side of the Valley a spot was pointed out to us on which
+Mohammedan tradition foretold that Jesus would stand to judge mankind at
+the Last Day. I asked why Mohammedans should believe that our Lord would
+be the Judge. My informant hesitatingly replied that &#8220;He would judge the
+world for not believing in Mohammed&#8221;&mdash;but I think that the answer was only
+invented on the spur of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The one sacred spot inside the city about which there appeared to be no
+dispute was Pilate&#8217;s House, as from time immemorial this building had been
+the abode of the Roman Governor. When we saw it it formed part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> of the
+Convent of the Sisters of Zion, very nice women who educated orphans and
+carried on a day school. In a basement was the old pavement with marks of
+some kind of chess or draught board on which the Roman soldiers played a
+game. One of the arches of the court, now included in the Convent Chapel,
+is called the Ecce Homo Arch, as it is probable that our Lord stood under
+it when Pilate said &#8220;Behold the Man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On our way back to Jaffa we slept at Ramleh and again embarked on a
+Russian steamer, which sailed on the evening of March 25th and reached
+Beyrout on the following morning. Jaffa was known as a very difficult port
+in rough weather, but we were lucky both in landing and embarking. One of
+the rocks which impeded the entrance to the port was believed to have been
+the monster which Perseus petrified with the head of Medusa. I only hope
+that no engineer has blown up this classic rock for the sake of any
+improvement to the harbour!</p>
+
+<p>Palestine must have entirely changed since we were there thirty-one years
+ago, and it is curious to look back on the problems exercising men&#8217;s minds
+at that time. The Jewish population was then stated to have nearly trebled
+itself in ten years. We were rather entertained by a sermon delivered by a
+very vehement cleric in the English Church. He prophesied that the Empire
+of Israel was bound to attain its ancient magnificent limits, but he said
+that he was not asking his congregation to contribute to this achievement
+(though he gave them the opportunity), as it was certain to be effected;
+only any of us who held back would not share in the ultimate triumph. I do
+not know what he would have said now, but if alive and holding the same
+views he must be a kind of Zionist.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>The Sultan had given the old Church of the Knights of St. John of
+Jerusalem to the Emperor Frederick for the Germans, and the performances
+of his son are only too familiar, but in our day the fear was of Russian
+machinations. Russian pilgrims, as a pious act, were carrying stones to
+assist in building the Russian church, of which the tall minaret dominated
+the Mount of Olives, and the Russian Government was erecting large
+buildings for pilgrims just outside the city walls which, as we were
+significantly told, would be equally available for troops.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BALBEC</div>
+
+<p>From Beyrout we had a two days&#8217; drive, sleeping at Shtora on the way to
+Balbec. The road was over Lebanon, and a wonderful piece of French
+engineering. The H&ocirc;tel de Palmyra at Balbec was very comfortable. We found
+close by some of the first tourists of the season in tents supplied by
+Cook. They were very cheerful, but I think must have been rather cold, as
+March is full early for camping out in those regions and there was plenty
+of snow on the mountain tops. The women in that region wear a kind of
+patten in winter to keep them above the snow. It is a wooden over-shoe
+with raised sole and high wooden heel instead of the iron ring under
+English pattens. We were amazed at the splendour of the ruined Temples of
+Balbec, where the Sun was worshipped at different periods of ancient
+history as Baal or Jupiter. Most astonishing of all was the enormous
+Ph&oelig;nician platform or substructure of great stones, three of which are
+each well over 60 feet long. In a quarry near by is another stone, 68 feet
+long, hewn but not cut away from the rock.</p>
+
+<p>From Balbec we drove to Damascus, and met on the way an escort sent to
+meet Lady Galloway. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> did not take the escort beyond Shtora, where we
+had luncheon, but at Hemeh we found the Vice-Consul, Mr. Meshaka, and a
+carriage and guard of honour sent by the Governor, so we drove into the
+town in state.</p>
+
+<p>The result of these attentions to &#8220;the Prime Minister&#8217;s sister&#8221; was comic.
+A weird female had, it appears, seen us at Jerusalem and followed our
+traces to Damascus. We saw her once coming into the restaurant smoking a
+big cigar, and heard that she drank. She was reported to have had a
+difference with her late husband&#8217;s trustees on the subject of his
+cremation. Whether he, or she, or the trustees wanted him cremated I
+forget, and am uncertain whether she was carrying about his ashes, but
+anyhow she had vowed vengeance against Lady Galloway because we had been
+provided with an escort on more than one occasion and she had not. The
+maids said that this woman had armed herself with a revolver and sworn to
+shoot her rival! I will record our further meeting in due course.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime we were delighted with Damascus, one of the most beautiful cities
+I have ever seen, standing amidst orchards then flowering with blossom,
+among which run Abana and Pharpar, so picturesque in their windings that
+we were inclined to forgive Naaman for vaunting them as &#8220;better than all
+the waters of Israel.&#8221; The men wore long quilted coats of brilliant
+colours, red, green, and yellow, and the women brightly coloured cotton
+garments. The whole effect was cheerful and gay.</p>
+
+<p>Being an Oriental city, it was naturally full of intrigue and various
+citizens, notably the Jews, tried to claim European nationality so as to
+evade the exactions of the Turkish Government, but as far as we could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+judge they seemed very prosperous. We visited several houses, Turkish,
+Christian, and Jewish, very pretty, built round courts with orange trees
+and basins of water in the centre. The rooms were painted, or inlaid with
+marble&mdash;one of the Jewish houses quite gorgeous with inlaying,
+mother-of-pearl work, and carved marble; in one room a marble tree, white,
+with a yellow canary-bird perching in its branches. I think it was this
+house which boasted a fresco of the Crystal Palace to show that its owner
+lived under the &#8220;High Protection of the British Government.&#8221; Perhaps the
+family has now substituted a painting of the Eiffel Tower to propitiate
+the French.</p>
+
+<p>We went to a mountain-spot overlooking the town below the platform called
+Paradise, from which tradition says that Mohammed looked down on the city,
+but thought it so beautiful that he refrained from entering it lest having
+enjoyed Paradise in this life he should forfeit a right to it hereafter.
+It is a pretty story, but I fear that history records that he did visit
+Damascus, for which I trust that he was forgiven, as the temptation must
+have been great.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DAMASCUS. LADY ELLENBOROUGH</div>
+
+<p>We were much interested while at Damascus in hearing more about Lady
+Ellenborough, who had lived in the house occupied by the Consul, Mr.
+Dickson, who was very kind to us during our stay.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Ellenborough was quite as adventurous a lady as Lady Hester Stanhope,
+and her existence on the whole more varied. She was the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Henry Digby, and when quite a young girl married Lord
+Ellenborough, then a widower. After six years&#8217; experience of matrimony she
+was divorced, it was said in consequence of her flirtations with the then
+Prince Schwarzenberg. However, that may have been, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> was at one time
+married to a Bavarian Baron Venningen. How she got rid of him I do not
+know, but she was well known as the &#8220;wife&#8221; of Hadji Petros the brigand,
+whose son I have mentioned as among our friends at Athens. While in Greece
+she fell a victim to the fascination of the handsome Sheikh Mejmel el
+Mazrab, who had brought over Arab horses for sale. She went off with him,
+and her marriage to him is duly recorded in Burke&#8217;s Peerage. She lived
+with him partly at Damascus and partly in the desert, evidently much
+respected by her neighbours, who called her &#8220;Lady Digby&#8221; or &#8220;Mrs. Digby&#8221;
+as being sister of Lord Digby. She was a good artist and is said to have
+been very clever and pleasant. She dressed like a Bedouin woman, and when
+she attended the English church service came wrapped in her burnous; but
+Mr. Dickson&#8217;s father, who was then the clergyman, always knew when she had
+been there by finding a sovereign in the plate. She died in 1881. I never
+heard that she had a child by any of her husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Among the glories of Damascus is the great Mosque, once a Christian
+church, and hallowed by both Christian and Moslem relics. When we were
+there it still had an inscription high up, I think in Greek characters,
+stating that the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of
+Christ. There was a fire some time after we saw it, but I trust that the
+inscription is still intact. Among the many other places which we saw was
+the wall down which St. Paul escaped in a basket, and as we looked thence
+into the desert Mr. Dickson told us that until a short time before, a
+camel post started regularly from a gate near by, bearing an Indian mail
+to go by way of Bagdad. Before the Overland Route was opened this was one
+of the speediest routes, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> was continued long after the necessity had
+ceased to exist.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ORIENTAL METHODS OF TRADE</div>
+
+<p>Time was some difficulty in Damascus, as Europeans generally reckoned by
+the usual clock, while the natives, Syrians and Arabs, counted, as in
+Biblical days, from sunrise to sunset and their hours varied from day to
+day&mdash;not that punctuality worried them much. In making an appointment,
+however, in which men of East and West were both involved it was necessary
+to specify which sort of time was approximately intended. Mr. Meshaka
+kindly took us to make some purchases, and he introduced us to one shop in
+which the proprietor&mdash;an Oriental, but I forget of exactly what
+nationality&mdash;had really established fixed prices on a reasonable scale.
+While we were looking round some Americans came in and began asking
+prices. The shopkeeper told them his principle of trade, whereupon said
+one of them: &#8220;That will not do at all. You must say so much more than you
+want and I must offer so much less. Then we must bargain until we come to
+an agreement.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>While they were considering their purchases I asked the price of some tiny
+models, in Damascus ware, of the women&#8217;s snow-shoes. The man answered me
+aloud, and then came up and whispered that they were a fifth of the price,
+but he was obliged to put it on nominally &#8220;because of those people&#8221;! How
+can dealers remain honest with such inducements to &#8220;profiteering&#8221;?
+However, there is not much risk of their abandoning their ancient methods
+of trade. I recollect Captain Hext (our P. and O. fellow-traveller)
+telling me of one of his experiences somewhere in the Levant. While his
+ship stopped at a port one of the usual local hawkers came on board and
+showed him a curio which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> he wished to possess. Captain Hext and the man
+were in a cabin, and the man reiterated that the object in question was
+worth a considerable sum, which he named. While Captain Hext was
+hesitating a note for him was dropped through the cabin-window by a friend
+well versed in the habits of those regions. Acting on the advice which it
+contained, he said to the hawker, &#8220;By the head of your grandmother is this
+worth so much?&#8221; The man turned quite pale, and replied, &#8220;By the head of my
+grandmother it is worth&#8221;&mdash;naming a much lower sum&mdash;which he accepted, but
+asked Captain Hext how he had learnt this formula (which of course he did
+not reveal) and implored him to tell no one else or he would be ruined. I
+am not quite sure whether it was the &#8220;head&#8221; or the &#8220;soul&#8221; of his
+grandmother by which he had to swear, but I think head.</p>
+
+<p>We drove back from Damascus via Shtora to Beyrout, where the Consul told
+us of the strange requirements of visitors. One told him that he had been
+directed to pray for some forty days in a cave&mdash;and expected the Consul to
+find him the cave!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SMYRNA</div>
+
+<p>At Beyrout we took an Austrian boat and had a most interesting voyage,
+stopping at Larnaca (Cyprus) and at Rhodes, where I had just time to run
+up the Street of the Knights. Early on Easter Eve we reached Smyrna, where
+we stayed at the British Consulate with Mr. Holmwood till the following
+afternoon. There was a considerable population of mixed nationalities,
+amongst them English whose children had never been in England. Some of the
+young women whom we saw in church on Easter Sunday were plump,
+white-skinned, and dark-eyed like Orientals. Mr. Holmwood said that many
+were sent for education to Constantinople, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>apparently an Eastern
+life, necessarily with little exercise or occupation, had even affected
+their appearance.</p>
+
+<p>It was by no means safe in those days to venture far outside the town, for
+brigands were dreaded, and only some two years previously had carried off
+the sons of one of the principal English merchants and held them to
+ransom. They sent word that they would let them go free if the father
+would come unarmed and unattended to a certain spot and bring &pound;500. On his
+undertaking to do so they liberated the boys without waiting for the
+actual money, but the youngest died from the effects of exposure, their
+captors having had constantly to move to avoid pursuit. Mr. Holmwood would
+not let us out of the sight of himself and his dragoman, for he said that
+the Turks, unlike the Greeks, had no respect for women.</p>
+
+<p>A Canon Cazenove who was in our ship officiated on Easter Sunday. The
+British Government having ceased to subsidise a chaplain for the Consular
+Church, there was only service when a travelling clergyman could be
+annexed, but the congregation rolled up joyfully at short notice. While we
+were in church we heard cannon discharged outside in honour of the
+Sultan&#8217;s birthday, and the impression was somewhat strange&mdash;an English
+service in the precincts of one of the Seven Churches of the Revelation, a
+congregation partly of travelling, partly of orientalised British, and
+without the echoes of Mohammedan rule. Poor Smyrna! still the battleground
+of warring races.</p>
+
+<p>We resumed our voyage and I was thrilled when we passed Tenedos, touching
+at Besika Bay and seeing in the distance the Plains of Troy. We entered
+the Dardanelles in rain and mist, and I think it was fortunate that we got
+through safely, as our Austrian captain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> though a mild lover of little
+birds, was also credited with an affection for drink. A fine morning
+followed the wet evening; Sir Edgar Vincent sent a boat from the Bank to
+meet us, and received us most hospitably in his charming house. During a
+delightful week at Constantinople we saw all the &#8220;lions&#8221; of that wonderful
+city, under his auspices.</p>
+
+<p>Despite its unrivalled position and the skill and wealth lavished upon it
+by Christendom and Islam, I do not think that Constantinople takes the
+same hold upon one&#8217;s affection as Athens or Rome. Many of the buildings
+seem to have been &#8220;run up&#8221; for the glory of some ruler rather than grown
+up out of the deep-rooted religion or patriotism of a race. St. Sophia is
+glorious with its cupola and its varied marble columns, but greatly spoilt
+by the flaunting green shields with the names of the companions of the
+Prophet; and the whole effect is distorted because the prayer carpets
+covering the pavement have to slant towards the Kebla, the niche or tablet
+indicating the direction of Mecca; whereas the Mosque, having been built
+as a Christian church, was destined to look towards Jerusalem&mdash;at least it
+was built so that the congregation should turn to the East.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, one beautiful object which we were delighted to have
+seen while it retained a brilliance which it has since lost. There were in
+a new building in process of erection opposite the Museum four tombs which
+had lately been discovered near Sidon and brought to Constantinople by
+Hampdi Bey, Director of the School of Art. All were fine, but the finest
+was that dignified by the name of Alexander&#8217;s Tomb. The attribution was
+doubtful, but not the beauty. They had been covered up while the building
+was in progress,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> but were just uncovered and we were allowed to see them.
+The unrivalled reliefs on &#8220;Alexander&#8217;s Tomb&#8221; represented Greeks and
+Persians first as fighting, and then as having made friends. The two
+nations were easily distinguished, as the Greeks had hardly any garments,
+while the Persians were fully clothed. The tombs having long been buried
+in the sand, the vivid colours, and particularly the purple worn by the
+Persians, had been perfectly preserved, but I understand that, exposed to
+the light, all soon faded away.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CONSTANTINOPLE</div>
+
+<p>The streets of Constantinople were not nearly so gay as those of Cairo or
+of many other Eastern towns which I have seen. Things may have altered
+now, but during our visit hardly any women walked about the city, and the
+men were mostly dressed in dark European clothes with red fezes, not at
+all picturesque. At the Sweet Waters, a stream in a valley rather like
+Richmond, where we drove on Friday afternoon, it was different. The ladies
+celebrated their Sabbath by driving in shut carriages, or walking about
+near the water, in gay-coloured mantles, often with parasols to match, and
+with transparent veils which did not at all conceal their very evident
+charms.</p>
+
+<p>Sir William White was then Ambassador, and he and his wife were very kind
+to us. Among other things Lady White invited us to join a party going over
+to Kadikeui on the Scutari side of the Bosphorus. It was a quaint
+expedition. The Embassy launch and the French launch each carried guests.
+The French launch, &#8220;mouche&#8221; as they called it, started first, but the sea
+was rapidly rising, and the few minutes which elapsed before we followed
+meant that the waves were almost dangerous. It was impossible, however,
+that the British should show the white feather when France<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> led the way.
+Lady Galloway and I sat silent, one or two foreign ladies, Belgians, I
+think, screamed and ejaculated; the Swedish Minister sat on the prow like
+a hardy Norseman and encouraged the rest of us, but the Persian Minister
+wept hot tears, while Lady White stood over him and tried to console him
+with a lace-trimmed handkerchief and a bottle of eau de Cologne.</p>
+
+<p>Having landed as best we could, Sir Edgar Vincent, Lady Galloway and I
+drove to Scutari, where we saw the howling dervishes. There was a band of
+little children who were to lie on the floor for the chief, and specially
+holy, dervish to walk upon at the conclusion of the howling ceremony. The
+building where this took place was so hot and crowded that I soon went
+outside to wait for my companions. Immediately a number of dishevelled
+inhabitants began to gather round me, but I dispersed them with my one
+word of Turkish pronounced in a loud and indignant tone. I do not know how
+it is spelt, but it is pronounced &#8220;Haiti&#8221; and means &#8220;go away.&#8221; I make it a
+point in any fresh country to learn if possible the equivalent for the
+words &#8220;hot water&#8221; and &#8220;go away.&#8221; I suppose as we were not in an hotel I
+found the Turkish for &#8220;hot water&#8221; unnecessary, but &#8220;go away&#8221; is always
+useful.</p>
+
+<p>Among the people we met in Constantinople was a venerable Pasha called
+Ahmed Vefyk, who used to govern Brusa and part of Asia Minor, and was
+noted for his honest energy, and for doing what he thought right
+irrespective of the Sultan. He talked English well, and his reminiscences
+were amusing. He told us that fifty-five years previously he had taken
+thirty-nine days to travel from Paris to Constantinople and then everyone
+came to see him as a curiosity. He introduced us to his fat wife and to a
+daughter, and offered to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> all arrangements for us if we would visit
+his former Government.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE SELAMLIK</div>
+
+<p>Alas! time did not admit, neither could we wait to dine with the Sultan,
+though we received messages desiring that we should do so. We were told,
+however, that the Sultan always wished to retain known visitors in
+Constantinople, and to effect this would ask them to dine and then keep
+postponing the date so as to delay their departure. We could not chance
+this, so were obliged to leave without having seen more of His Majesty
+than his arrival at the ceremony of the Selamlik&mdash;a very pretty sight, but
+one which has often been described. We were at a window just opposite the
+Mosque and were edified, among other incidents, by the way in which the
+ladies of the harem had to perform their devotions. They were driven up in
+closed carriages, their horses (not themselves) were taken out, and they
+remained seated in the vehicles for the duration of the service, which
+lasted about three-quarters of an hour. Imagine Miss Maud Royden left in a
+taxi outside a church while the ministers officiated within! The Sultan
+was driven up with brown horses, and drove himself away in another
+carriage with white ones. I do not know if this had any symbolic
+significance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE ORIENT EXPRESS</div>
+
+<p>We left Constantinople by the Orient Express on the evening of April 14th,
+and had quite an exciting journey to Vienna, which we reached on the
+afternoon of the 16th. Sir Edgar Vincent accompanied us, and there was
+also on the train Captain Waller, a Queen&#8217;s Messenger, and these were each
+bound to have a separate sleeping compartment. There were various
+passengers of different nationalities, including our maids.</p>
+
+<p>A compartment with four berths had been reserved for Lady Galloway and
+myself&mdash;but when the maids<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> looked in to arrange it they came back in
+alarm, announcing that our Damascus foewoman of the revolver and the cigar
+had installed herself in our compartment and refused to move! Of course
+Sir Edgar, being Governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, was all-powerful
+and the lady had to give way&mdash;but there was another sufferer. Later on a
+Greek who shared a compartment with a German wanted to fight him; they had
+to be forcibly separated and the Greek shut up for Tuesday night in the
+saloon while the German was left in possession&mdash;which further reduced the
+accommodation. When we stopped at Budapest, about midnight, the sister of
+the Queen of Servia was escorted into the train with flowers and courtesy,
+but the poor woman had to spend the night in the passage, as the
+alternatives were sharing the compartment of the revolver woman, who, we
+were told in the morning, terrified her by barking like a dog, or going
+into the saloon with the Greek, equally uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>These were not all the excitements. Previously, at Sofia, Prince Ferdinand
+of Bulgaria got into the train accompanied by an imposing-looking man who
+we thought was Stambuloff, the Prime Minister afterwards assassinated. It
+appeared that Prince Ferdinand&#8217;s pastime was to join the train in this
+way, have his <i>d&eacute;jeuner</i> on board, get out at the frontier, and return to
+his capital by the next train. It seemed a curious mode of enjoyment, but
+probably Bulgaria was less lively than it has become since. We heard
+afterwards that he was annoyed because Sir Edgar and ourselves had not
+been presented to him, but he might have given a hint had he wished it.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow, we presently saw some apricot omelettes walking about and asked
+for some, but were told that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> this was a <i>d&eacute;jeuner command&eacute;</i> and we could
+not share it, to which deprivation we resigned ourselves. When the repast
+was over, however, an American solemnly addressed Sir Edgar saying, &#8220;Did
+you, who were near the royal circle, have any of that asparagus?&#8221; (I think
+it was asparagus&mdash;may have been French beans.) &#8220;No,&#8221; replied Sir Edgar.
+&#8220;Very well then,&#8221; said the Yankee; &#8220;since you had none I will not protest,
+but we were refused it, and if you had had any I should certainly have
+made a row.&#8221; It was lucky that we had not shared any of the Princely fare,
+for there was hardly space for more rows on that train.</p>
+
+<p>At Vienna Lady Galloway and I parted. She went to her relatives at Berlin,
+and I returned via Cologne and Flushing to England, where I was very glad
+to rejoin my family after these long wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>We had some very happy parties at Osterley during the succeeding summer. I
+have already mentioned Mr. Henry James&#8217;s description of the place. Our
+great friend Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his novel <i>Sir Lucian Elphin</i>, also
+adopted it under another name as the background of one of his scenes, and
+I have quoted Mr. Ashley&#8217;s verses written in 1887. I love the place and
+its memories so dearly that I cannot resist adding the testimony of
+another friend, Mr. Augustus Hare. He knew it well both in the days of the
+Duchess of Cleveland and after we had taken up our abode there, and
+mentions it several times in <i>The Story of my Life</i>, but he tells, in an
+account of a visit to us including the Bank Holiday of August 1890, of our
+last party before we went to Australia. From that I extract a few lines,
+omitting the over-kindly portraits of ourselves which he was apt to draw
+of his friends:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>&#8220;I went
+to Osterley, which looked bewitching, with its swans floating
+in sunshine beyond the shade of the old cedars. Those radiant gardens
+will now bloom through five years unseen, for Lord Jersey has accepted
+the Governorship of New South Wales, which can only be from a sense of
+duty, as it is an immense self-sacrifice.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>&#8220;The weather was really hot enough for the luxury of open windows
+everywhere and for sitting out all day. The party was a most pleasant
+one. M. de Stael, the Russian Ambassador; Lady Crawford, still lovely
+as daylight, and her nice daughter Lady Evelyn; Lady Galloway,
+brimming with cleverness; M. de Montholon, French Minister at Athens;
+Mr. and Mrs. Frank Parker, most amusing and cheery; Sir Philip Currie,
+General Feilding, etc. Everything was most unostentatiously sumptuous
+and most enjoyable. On Monday we were sent in three carriages to
+Richmond, where we saw Sir Francis Cook&#8217;s collection, very curious and
+worth seeing as it is, but which, if his pictures deserved the names
+they bear, would be one of the finest collections in the world. Then
+after a luxurious luncheon at the Star and Garter we went on to Ham
+House, where Lady Huntingtower showed the curiosities, including all
+the old dresses kept in a chest in the long gallery. Finally I told
+the Jersey children&mdash;splendid audience&mdash;a long story in a glade of the
+Osterley garden, where the scene might have recalled the <i>Decameron</i>.
+I was very sorry to leave these kind friends, and to know it would be
+so long before I saw them again.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img4.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">OSTERLEY PARK.<br /><small><i>From a photograph by W. H. Grove.</i></small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">STORY OF A PICTURE</div>
+
+<p>Sir Francis Cook&mdash;Viscount Monserrate in Portugal&mdash;had a wonderful
+collection both of pictures and <i>objets d&#8217;art</i> which he was always ready
+to show to our friends and ourselves. I am not expert enough to know
+whether all the names attributed to the pictures could be verified, but I
+can answer for one which we saw on an occasion when we took Lord Rowton
+over with some others. It was a large circular painting of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>Adoration of the Magi by Filippo Lippi. Lord Rowton expressed the
+greatest interest in seeing it, as he said that Lord Beaconsfield and
+himself had hesitated greatly whether to utilise the money received for
+<i>Endymion</i> to purchase this beautiful picture, which was then in the
+market, or to buy the house in Curzon Street. I should think the decision
+to buy the house was a wise one under the circumstances, but the picture
+is a magnificent one. I saw it not long ago at an exhibition of the
+Burlington Fine Arts Club lent by the son&mdash;or grandson&mdash;of Sir Francis Cook.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<p class="title">FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hare&#8217;s account of our August Party in 1890 mentions the reason of its
+being the last for some time. My husband had been already offered the
+Governorship of Bombay and would have liked it for many reasons, but was
+obliged to decline as the climate might have been injurious after an
+attack of typhoid fever from which he had not long recovered. He was then
+appointed Paymaster-General, an unpaid office which he held for about a
+year. The principal incident which I recollect in this connection was a
+lengthened dispute between his Department and the Treasury over a sum of
+either two pounds or two shillings&mdash;I think the latter&mdash;which had gone
+wrong in an expenditure of thirty-five millions. In the end Jersey came to
+me and triumphantly announced that the Paymaster-General&#8217;s Department had
+been proved to be in the right. How much paper, ink, and Secretary&#8217;s time
+had gone to this conclusion I cannot say. Postage being &#8220;On Her Majesty&#8217;s
+Service&#8221; would not come into the reckoning.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">WAR OFFICE RED TAPE</div>
+
+<p>We had one other experience of pre-war War Office methods, but that was
+many years later. A rumour arrived in Middleton village that the soldier
+son of one of our labourers had had his head blown off. As there was no
+war proceeding at the time, we could not think how this accident had
+happened, and went to ask the parents where their son was stationed. They
+had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> clear idea, but after a long talk remembered that they had
+received a photograph of his regiment with the Pyramids in the background.
+Armed with this information we approached the War Office and ultimately
+elicited that the poor youth had not lost his head, but had died of fever
+in Egypt, when arose the question of certain pay due to him. The War
+Office, with an insatiable thirst for information, would pay nothing until
+elaborate forms were filled up with the names and addresses of all the
+brothers and sisters. These proved to be scattered over the face of the
+Empire, and as the parents could neither read nor write, endless visits to
+them were necessary before we could find out enough to fill in the forms.
+Before this was accomplished I had to leave home and one of my daughters
+took charge.</p>
+
+<p>At last she wrote that the money was really being paid to the old father
+and would be deposited in the Post Office. Knowing that he was very shaky,
+I wrote back begging that she would get him to sign a paper naming his
+heir, but before this was done he suddenly fell down dead, leaving the
+money in the Post Office, and my daughter corresponded on alternate days
+with the General Post Office and the War Office before she could get it
+out. Then some more money was found to be due, and the War Office said
+they could not pay it until they had certificates from the sexton and the
+undertaker who had buried the poor old man. I was back by the time these
+were procured, and lo and behold! one spelt his name Hitchcox and one
+Hitchcocks. Foreseeing another lengthened correspondence, I enclosed the
+form with a letter in Jersey&#8217;s name vouching for the fact that they
+referred to the same person but that the villagers spelt the name in two
+different ways. Fortunately the War Office felt that they were now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+sufficiently acquainted with the family biography and paid up. No wonder a
+plethora of clerks was needed even in pre-war days.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our own affairs. The late Lord Knutsford, then Colonial
+Secretary, in the summer of 1890 asked my husband if he would accept the
+Governorship of New South Wales, and he consented. Great stress was laid
+on our not telling anyone before the Queen had approved, and we were most
+conscientious, though I do not believe that other people keep such offers
+equally secret from all their friends and relatives. It was rather
+inconvenient as we wanted to invite my brother Rupert to accompany us as
+A.D.C. and he was already committed to another appointment abroad. As soon
+as the telegram announcing the Queen&#8217;s approval arrived, I sent a footman
+to look for him at two or three addresses saying that he must find Captain
+Leigh somehow. He brought him back in triumph, having caught him in the
+street. Lord Ancram and my cousin Harry Cholmondeley were the other
+A.D.C.s, and George Goschen, now Lord Goschen, Private Secretary.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BALMORAL</div>
+
+<p>Just before we were due to start, the Queen sent for us to Balmoral to say
+good-bye. We there met amongst others the Duke of Clarence, the only time
+I ever saw him, and I thought him a singularly gentle, modest young man.
+Some old gentleman had lately left him a long gold and turquoise chain
+which had belonged to Marie Antoinette. He told the Queen about it, and,
+with genuine surprise, said he could not think why it had been left to
+him. Her Majesty expressed the greatest interest in anything which had
+belonged to Marie Antoinette, so he ran upstairs and brought it down for
+his grandmother&#8217;s inspection. He talked of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> his voyage to Australia, and
+said he was sorry that he had been too young to appreciate all he had seen
+as he should have done. I remember the late Admiral Lord Clanwilliam, who
+had the supervision of the young Princes when they were on board the
+<i>Bacchante</i>, saying that no boys had ever given him less trouble, and that
+Prince George (the present King) was equal to boys a year older than
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>When we went to Australia Lord Hopetoun was already there as Governor of
+Victoria, and Lord Kintore as Governor of South Australia, while Lord
+Onslow reigned in New Zealand. These, like Jersey, had all previously been
+Lords-in-Waiting to the Queen, and Her Majesty said to us, &#8220;As soon as I
+get a nice Lord-in-Waiting Lord Salisbury sends him off to govern a
+Colony&#8221;; to which my husband aptly replied, &#8220;You see, Ma&#8217;am, how well you
+brought us up!&#8221; A remark rewarded by a gracious smile.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen was indeed more than kind, and was very much upset when our
+departure was delayed, just when all preparations were made, by my being
+seized with an attack of typhoid fever. She telegraphed constantly, and
+when the Court returned to Windsor sent a messenger daily to inquire. We
+were told that her kind heart led her to imagine that my illness was
+either caused or intensified by our having been summoned to Balmoral just
+at the last minute, because she had forgotten that we were starting so
+soon. Of course it had nothing to do with it, but the Queen was well aware
+what typhoid fever meant. As she wrote to Jersey, she was &#8220;but too well
+acquainted with this terrible illness not to feel anxious whenever any
+relations or friends are suffering from it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The result was that when I was convalescent Jersey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> had to start alone,
+and I went with my children to spend Christmas at Stoneleigh, following
+him in January. Lady Galloway was a true friend, for since our London
+house was let she took me from Claridge&#8217;s Hotel, where I was taken ill, to
+her house in Upper Grosvenor Street and nursed me there for weeks.
+Everyone was kind, Lady Northcote offering that I should take possession
+of her house and have Lady Galloway there to look after me, but in the end
+I stayed in Upper Grosvenor Street till I could move to Stoneleigh.
+Christmas at Stoneleigh was an unexpected pleasure, and my parents,
+brothers, and sisters did all they could to further my convalescence. An
+addition to the family party was my brother Dudley&#8217;s charming new American
+wife, of whom he was intensely proud. When we greeted them or drank their
+healths, however, in the course of the festivities he invariably prefaced
+his words of thanks with &#8220;I and my wife&#8221; despite the laughing protests of
+his auditors. On Twelfth Night we drew characters, with the
+result&mdash;perhaps not quite fortuitous&mdash;that my eldest girl Margaret and her
+youngest brother Arthur, aged seven, were Queen and King. Their healths
+were duly drunk, and Arthur eagerly and emphatically responded, beginning
+&#8220;My wife and I!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dudley Leigh had been in her girlhood much admired in the Court of
+Napoleon III and the Empress Eug&eacute;nie. She was greatly attached to the
+Empress and was one of the young ladies recorded in Filon&#8217;s <i>Memoirs</i> as
+having helped to cheer the deposed monarchs in the first part of their
+exile when they resided at Cowes.</p>
+
+<p>H&eacute;l&egrave;ne Leigh (then Beckwith) told me that she and her sister often went to
+spend an evening with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> Empress, who, as is well known, had a leaning
+towards spiritualism and table-turning. The Emperor disliked the
+experiments, and on one occasion begged them to stop. Presently he went to
+bed and then Eug&eacute;nie determined to resume. The table moved, and rapped out
+&#8220;Janvier.&#8221; The Empress asked what the date implied, and the answer came
+&#8220;La Mort.&#8221; In the following January the Emperor died. Personally none of
+these coincidences convince me, as I have known automatic and other
+prophecies which did not &#8220;come off.&#8221; The Emperor was very ill and his
+death must have seemed imminent to many present, but I allow that it is
+curious that the date as remembered by my sister-in-law should have proved
+accurate.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">FAREWELL TO ENGLAND</div>
+
+<p>At last I was considered well enough to start, and went off accompanied by
+four children, two governesses and three servants, the rest of the
+household having preceded us. We had a bitterly cold journey, and Lady
+Galloway, who joined us in London and went with us across France and
+Italy, had her work cut out to keep us warm and fed. She then went to stay
+with some of her friends, having promised to visit us later in Australia.</p>
+
+<p>It was very sad leaving all my family, and particularly my eldest boy
+Villiers. He had to finish his time at Eton and was then to come to us
+before going to Oxford. Everyone who has to leave children behind&mdash;and,
+alas! that is the lot of only too many English parents&mdash;knows what it
+means, and I will not dwell upon it.</p>
+
+<p>All our friends were most sympathetic and helpful, and I was particularly
+touched by Lord Derby&#8217;s thoughtfulness. In his first letter on hearing of
+the appointment he wrote: &#8220;You are a queen and an exile. Are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> you to be
+congratulated or condoled with?...&#8221; He went on with serious words of
+encouragement, and a little later took the trouble voluntarily to write
+out for our use notes on Australia &#8220;founded on the reports of many friends
+and on some experience of C. O.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Among his very shrewd remarks was:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Distrust all informants who have been long away; things change
+rapidly in those parts. And remember that the enriched colonist who
+comes back with &pound;10,000 a year to live in England does not in the
+least represent the country in which his money was made.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Again he says that the Governor&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Must spend his whole salary and something over. But it is a mistake
+to suppose that mere outlay and splendid festivities will conciliate
+goodwill&mdash;though they go a long way towards it. What the colonists
+really wish and like is that the Governor should appreciate them, mix
+in their amusements and apparently like to be among them.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Fortunately Jersey always liked to be among his fellow-men and understood
+them, and the Australians soon found that out, and never forgot it. Also
+Lord Derby truly said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The less a Governor interferes directly, the better; if his ministers
+come to think that he desires so to do, they will tell him nothing; if
+relieved from this fear, they will be glad enough to profit by his
+experience and impartiality.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Many of Lord Derby&#8217;s further comments are much to the point, but I only
+cite one which is somewhat of a forecast:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Schemes of imperial federation are not treated seriously by anybody,
+but intercolonial federation is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> a growing idea, and likely to be
+worked out, though still much opposed.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>During our absence Lord Derby was an excellent correspondent and I may
+refer to his letters later on.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">VOYAGE ON THE &#8220;ARCADIA&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>We sailed in the <i>Arcadia</i>, the same ship which had taken us to India,
+with the same Captain Andrewes. The usual incidents of a long voyage were
+not wanting&mdash;the natural effect on young men and women was exemplified in
+the growing attachment of a very clever Australian Professor to our
+English governess&mdash;an attachment which ultimately ripened to a wedding in
+Australia, when Miss Mason became Mrs. Harry Allen. She is now Lady Allen,
+and when the Prince of Wales visited Australia she sat at a banquet
+between H.R.H. and the Governor-General, so our Australian experiences
+were quite successful as far as she was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>I do not recollect much of the other events on board ship, for I was still
+not very strong and lived mostly with my children, in a nice large cabin
+which the P. and O. had arranged for me. There was, however, one couple
+who excited considerable interest&mdash;a youth who always appeared in spotless
+white and a coloured sash, and a girl who wore white frocks, displaying
+varied ribbons to match her admirer&#8217;s. When we reached Ceylon passengers
+were forbidden to send any washing ashore, as there was small-pox in
+Colombo, and the young man went nearly frantic at being unable to refresh
+his wardrobe. His fellow-passengers cruelly ragged him, and he was
+reported to have run up and down in front of his cabin with a drawn sword.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose the small-pox was only in the native quarters, for we were
+allowed to land, to our great joy, had a delightful drive to Mount
+Lavinia, where we saw the mango trick&mdash;not very impressive&mdash;had dinner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> at
+the Colombo Hotel, and re-embarked for the longest and dullest part of our
+voyage. The monotony of the nine days between Ceylon and Australia was
+relieved in a manner more stirring than pleasant. We were met by a
+cyclone, and had to go considerably out of our course to avoid its full
+fury, but what we did encounter was quite bad enough and we were very
+thankful when we sighted Australia.</p>
+
+<p>We were fortunate during our sojourn in having the old friends whom I
+previously mentioned, and their wives, as colleagues. Lady Hopetoun and
+Lady Kintore were away when we landed, having been on a trip home; but
+Lord Kintore met us at Adelaide and took us up for the day to his
+beautiful house in the Mountains&mdash;Marble Hill&mdash;while Lord Hopetoun looked
+after us with equal hospitality at Melbourne. We only stayed a few hours
+at each place, as our great object was to reach our destination, which was
+primarily the Governor&#8217;s little country house, Hill View, situated in the
+hills. Here I spent about a fortnight to rest and revive before going down
+for the assembling of the Federation Convention at Sydney.</p>
+
+<p>This was a very stirring introduction to Colonial life. (The words
+&#8220;Colony&#8221; and &#8220;Colonial&#8221; are now taboo, but before Federation the present
+Australian States were called &#8220;Colonies,&#8221; and &#8220;Colonial&#8221; was freely used
+by everyone!)</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE FEDERATION CONVENTION</div>
+
+<p>Delegates from all the States were assembled in Sydney and most of them
+had brought wives, so it was somewhat confusing to a new-comer to be at
+once introduced to a number of people, however kindly disposed towards
+her, whom she had never seen before, in totally novel surroundings. As far
+as I recollect the initial banquet took place on the evening of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+arrival, March 1st, 1891. It was given in the Town Hall, a really fine
+building in which we afterwards attended endless functions of all
+descriptions. It was arranged that Lady Innes, wife of Sir George Innes, a
+judge, should dine alone with me and accompany me to the Gallery to hear
+the speeches after the banquet. All the guests courteously rose on my
+arrival; my cousin Harry Cholmondeley escorted me, very magnificent in his
+A.D.C.&#8217;s uniform. As the Cholmondeleys had been in the habit of acting
+with us at Middleton, I felt very much as if I were taking part in private
+theatricals.</p>
+
+<p>The principal speeches were made by Jersey and the New South Wales
+Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, who was the main promotor of Federation. Sir
+Henry was a remarkable character in his way. He was the son of a small
+farmer on my grandmother&#8217;s property at Stoneleigh, where he attended the
+village school, and his first pair of breeches was made by the village
+tailor (the same parish clerk who made me find his places in church).
+Henry Parkes emigrated to Australia, and a lady there told me how he kept
+a sort of toy-shop and &#8220;fancy repository&#8221; where she could take her
+umbrella to be mended. He became a Member of Parliament and almost an
+autocrat. He had a fine head, like a shaggy lion, and was a good speaker,
+though I fear that the education given him in Stoneleigh School had not
+altogether overcome a certain difficulty with his &#8220;h&#8217;s,&#8221; and in the
+transaction of business he was somewhat slow in thought. He was, however,
+undoubtedly able and tenacious, and did a great deal for his growing
+country. He was a trifle like the German Kaiser in his desire for his
+city&#8217;s progress in art, and had filled the National Park and the Botanic
+Gardens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> with statues and busts more notable for quantity than
+quality&mdash;but the intention was good, though the expenditure was large. I
+believe that he had originated the motto of the Federation: &#8220;One People,
+One Destiny.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jersey&#8217;s speech was extremely well received, though his reference to the
+Union of the Saxon Heptarchy as precursor to that of the Australian States
+enabled one of the papers to indulge next day in witticisms. It declared
+that it had greatly perplexed the audience, some thinking that &#8220;Heptarchy&#8221;
+was the name of one of His Excellency&#8217;s ancestors who had fought at
+Cr&eacute;cy&mdash;others that it was a kind of cake!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE DELEGATES</div>
+
+<p>Next day began the serious work of the Convention. Delegates were present
+from the six Australian Colonies; there were also three New Zealanders,
+including the celebrated Sir George Grey, who held a &#8220;watching brief&#8221; to
+see what the Australians were doing, though New Zealand had no intention
+of federating with the others. She was quite right, for although in those
+days people were apt to think of New Zealand as part of &#8220;Australasia,&#8221; she
+is too far off and too different in origin and natural conditions to form
+a portion of what is a very distinct continent.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the most intellectual and probably efficient member of the
+Convention was the President, Sir Samuel Griffith, Chief Justice of
+Queensland and afterwards Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. It
+is not for me to attempt a summary of the debates and of all the questions
+to which they gave rise, naturally the most difficult being the relations
+between the States. No doubt the result ultimately achieved did credit to
+the statesmanship of many who took part. Probably the weakest point was
+leaving to the separate States<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> every power not expressly transferred to
+the Commonwealth; in Canada everything not expressly reserved to the
+Provinces went to the Dominion, which certainly tends to closer union.
+However, this is looking a good deal ahead.</p>
+
+<p>One of the points which seemed to add interest, perhaps dignity, to the
+convention was the great size of the delegates. They averaged over six
+feet in height, and I really forget how many pounds avoirdupois in
+weight&mdash;but something quite remarkable. Australian legislators were
+undoubtedly of sturdy growth, and whatever else they favoured had a great
+predilection for tea. I sometimes attended debates in New South Wales
+Parliament. My husband was precluded from doing so, but members seemed to
+think it rather a compliment that I should be present. However exciting
+the discussion, and whoever the orator, as sure as six o&#8217;clock struck a
+cry of &#8220;Tea, tea, tea!&#8221; arose from all sides of the house, and out rushed
+everybody to refresh himself before returning to duty.</p>
+
+<p>The great antagonist to Sir Henry Parkes was Mr., afterwards Sir George,
+Dibbs. He was an immense man, who had had a varied career, but was
+generally esteemed for his direct and downright honesty. When in his turn
+he became head of the Government he was noted as the first Australian-born
+Premier. When we first arrived in the Colony he was supposed to have
+Republican tendencies, but these seemed gradually, indeed rapidly, to
+evaporate. While we were in Australia he paid his first visit to England,
+where many prominent people, including our family and friends, paid him
+much attention. The final touch was put by the Prince of Wales (afterwards
+King Edward), who had discovered his liking for a big cigar, and with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+unfailing tact he gave him one to smoke. Dibbs said, &#8220;No, he should keep
+it,&#8221; whereupon the Prince replied that he was to smoke that, and he would
+give him another. Of course this got into the Sydney papers, and when the
+traveller returned the street boys used to shout out, &#8220;Geordie, where&#8217;s
+the cigar the Prince of Wales gave you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The papers afforded us endless amusement during his trip. They used to
+come out with heavy headlines. &#8220;Dibbs meets one King&mdash;several Princes,&#8221;
+etc. &#8220;Dibbs visits the Queen,&#8221; and on one occasion, mixed up with it all,
+&#8220;Lady Leigh desires that Dibbs should bring out Lord Jersey&#8217;s son.&#8221; <i>The
+Bulletin</i> had a wicked page of drawings caricaturing Parkes&#8217; wrath as he
+read these items.</p>
+
+<p>Dibbs returned a rabid imperialist. I said to him one day, &#8220;I suppose that
+talk of republicanism was only your fun?&#8221; &#8220;Only my fun,&#8221; was his hasty
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Darley, and his delightful wife and
+family were among our greatest friends. Sir Frederick was a tall, handsome
+man; his resemblance to my father was often noticed by those who knew them
+both. Lady Darley was a very cultivated woman, sister to Rolf Boldrewood,
+author of <i>Robbery under Arms</i>, whose real name was Thomas Browne.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Darley was great at &#8220;spirit-drawing&#8221;&mdash;a power in which she quite
+honestly believed. It was curious, but I think instinctive. She would take
+a pencil between her fingers, and talk and look about the room while the
+pencil drew shading on a sheet of paper. Ultimately the shading would
+evolve a large head with no outline but the shadow. Once when in after
+years the Darleys were staying at Middleton Lady Darley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> showed her powers
+at my request, and another lady who was among our guests confided to me
+afterwards that she had produced an exact portrait of a relative long
+since dead who had held my friend in great affection. I am certain that
+Lady Darley did not know of this person&#8217;s existence&mdash;the result must be
+left between telepathy and imagination! Anyhow, these mystic powers never
+interfered with Lady Darley&#8217;s care for her family and for her duties to
+the community&mdash;she was a real influence for good. She and Sir Frederick
+have now passed away, but some of their daughters live in England and are
+still among our friends.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE BLUE MOUNTAINS</div>
+
+<p>Sir Frederick had built a charming house in the Blue Mountains called
+Lilianfels after a daughter who had died in youth. It was situated on a
+high plateau among most romantic scenery&mdash;deep ravines and almost
+inaccessible, thickly wooded valleys. One of these valleys plays a leading
+part in <i>Robbery under Arms</i>, the bushranging hero Starlight having his
+lair among the rocks. A railway had been made to this high ground,
+twisting and turning in extraordinary fashion, tradition said because the
+engineer wanted to pay constant visits to an innkeeper&#8217;s daughter at a
+house somewhere on the way. Once at Katoomba, beyond which lay Lilianfels,
+the difficulty for the pedestrian would not be to scale mountains, but to
+descend into the valleys, and in our time not many people attempted it.
+Tourists, however, came up to admire the splendid views and the
+picturesque waterfalls, and to visit the famous Jenolan caves in the same
+neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>The whole formation of the valleys and caves showed that this part of the
+mountain-range had been in bygone ages cliffs washed by the sea. The
+Jenolan caves were long labyrinths full of stalactites and stalagmites of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
+wonderful forms and colours. About two miles had been opened up when we
+were there, doubtless much more has since become accessible. Some of us
+climbed down a primitive iron ladder to view a mystical underground river,
+source unknown. I seized on it with joy for a child&#8217;s story which I
+published later on.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that there is now a fine hotel near the caves, but when we spent
+a night there we found a very primitive hostelry; and as we were a party
+of nine, including the Duchess of Buckingham and her cousin Miss Murray, I
+am afraid we left little accommodation for other arrivals. We were
+unconscious of the inconvenience to which we were putting them until some
+time afterwards, when a little publication was sent us anonymously. It
+appears that a public room which had been allotted to us as a dining-room
+had been turned into a bedroom for two travellers after we had retired.
+Now this hotel was strictly Pussyfoot, and my husband, having been warned,
+had brought his own wine for our Party. He left two bottles in the room,
+and our successors frankly confessed that they had carried them off in
+triumph and shared the contents with their companions without saying where
+they had found them. The writer in the account sent us said that he did
+not imagine that the Governor knew how he had hampered the other guests
+and did not suppose that he realised the fate of his wine until he read
+this account. I must say that we were more amused than annoyed! All this
+happened long after our landing in the country, but thinking of the
+Darleys recalls our visit to my memory.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SIR ALFRED STEPHEN</div>
+
+<p>The Chief Justice in each Colony was a great personality, and in due
+course Sir Frederick became in addition Lieutenant-Governor, succeeding in
+that office<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> dear old Sir Alfred Stephen, who held it when we arrived. Sir
+Alfred was a member of the English family which has given so many
+distinguished luminaries to the Bar, and he worthily upheld their
+traditions at the Antipodes. He had been in Tasmania before settling in
+New South Wales, had been twice married, and had had nine children by each
+wife, nine born in each Colony, and, if I remember rightly, nine sons and
+nine daughters in all. With sons, daughters, sons-in-law,
+daughters-in-law, and other relatives his connections played such a
+prominent part in Sydney society that my A.D.C. brother found it advisable
+to devote certain pages in the Government House invitation book to &#8220;Sir
+Alfred Stephen&#8217;s family,&#8221; instead of entering them in the usual
+alphabetical lists.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Alfred was a delightful and intellectual man with great devotion to
+philanthropic schemes. On one point only I was disposed to differ from
+him&mdash;namely, he was extremely anxious to facilitate divorce and was much
+too serious in the matter to see the comic side of some of the American
+reasons for separation. Quite late in life, after being nearly bald his
+hair began to grow again, and he proudly called attention to his newly
+flowing locks.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot name all the Ministers. Some had (much to their credit) risen
+from quite lowly positions; others like Sir Frank Suttor, belonged to old
+Australian families&mdash;indeed while we were in Australia a child of the
+sixth generation was born to the Suttors, quite a record in such a young
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The general rule was while in Sydney the Governor and his wife could only
+receive private hospitality from the Chief Justice, Lieutenant-Governor,
+Admiral commanding the Station, and the Anglican and Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> Catholic
+Primates. Apart from these they could attend any ball or function given
+by, I think, six joint hosts&mdash;as for instance the Squatters&#8217; Ball, a Club
+dinner, or a Charity Entertainment. It was a wise rule on the whole, as it
+would have been exceedingly difficult to discriminate among hosts and
+hostesses without giving offence; and personally I was very glad that the
+Ministers and their wives should not have been even indirectly called upon
+to entertain us, as most of them were anything but rich, and yet had one
+begun the custom others might have felt bound to follow. Up the country it
+was different&mdash;when we visited the different Districts for agricultural
+shows, opening of school buildings, or general inspections, it was fully
+recognised that prominent people should receive us, and I cannot say
+enough of their kindness and hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, open-handed hospitality was the rule in Australia, and the
+squatters and landowners, such as Mr. and Mrs. Osborne, Dr. and Mrs. Hay,
+and many others of our hosts and friends, seemed never to regard their own
+convenience if they could make their guests happy.</p>
+
+<p>Among the oldest families was that of Mrs. Macarthur Onslow, whose
+ancestor had introduced merino sheep into New South Wales, and who
+was&mdash;and is&mdash;universally respected in the State.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DOMESTIC CONDITIONS</div>
+
+<p>Looking back on our various expeditions, I realise that our visits must
+often have been no small tax in remote places and in houses where servants
+were necessarily few. Quite rich people, having to our knowledge lands and
+flocks bringing in thousands a year, would have only three or four
+servants&mdash;the daughters of the house would do much of the work,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> and
+visitors would be quite prepared to help in making butter and cakes. A
+good deal that had been said in England about the splendid times which
+servants had overseas struck me on nearer observation as capable of being
+looked at from quite another point of view. For instance, much was made at
+one time of maid-servants having horses to ride. When the nearest town was
+perhaps fifteen or twenty miles off, when a horse cost &pound;5 or &pound;10, was
+never groomed, and when the rider himself or herself caught and saddled
+him as wanted, riding was not such an exceptional privilege.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it was true that wages were about double what they were in England,
+but accommodation was much rougher, and servants were expected to help in
+every department as required&mdash;no question of saying &#8220;that is not my
+place.&#8221; I am speaking of nearly thirty years ago, but certainly almost all
+the servants whom we took out returned with us to England.</p>
+
+<p>This also applies to any remarks about social conditions. As I said
+before, Lord Derby was most regular in writing, and begged for any news
+which I could send him. Having been Colonial Secretary, he retained great
+interest in the Dominions. He told me in one letter that he was keeping
+mine, as he thought they might be of use hereafter, and after his death a
+number were returned to me. I have also preserved many of his; but looking
+through them, both his and mine refer so largely to topics of the day in
+both hemispheres that I hardly think that voluminous extracts can be of
+much present interest.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD DERBY</div>
+
+<p>I, however, quote a few. In one of his first letters he says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Writing to Australia is no easy matter. What can one say to a friend
+who has met with reverses? <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>And surely there is no greater reverse in
+life than being turned upside down. Does it pay to be a constitutional
+monarch turned wrong-side up?&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>To which I replied:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Your reversed friend was delighted to get your letter; though, as my
+little boy says when told that he is upside down, &#8216;No, we are standing
+straight, it is the people in England who are standing on their heads
+now,&#8217; which shows that he is rapidly imbibing Australian theories, and
+believes that whatever be the follies of the Old World, we in New
+South Wales must be all right.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>I do not think that I felt upside down, but nevertheless I had from time
+to time the feeling of having been buried and dug up again. Born and
+brought up in a very old house, and having both lived and travelled almost
+entirely among what was ancient, it was a strange experience to live where
+there were no relics of an Old World, and hardly any spot where history
+had been made in the long ago. On the other hand, Australia looked bravely
+forward, and was, and is, building for the future. As Lord Derby put it in
+another letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I trust you enjoy colonial society and antipodean politics which at
+least have the charm of greater hopefulness than we can indulge in in
+this used up old country.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Some of his accounts might almost have been written to-day; for instance,
+July 1891:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The Labour party seems quite as lively with you as it is here.
+Questions of that class will play a considerable part at the coming
+elections, and many candidates who call themselves conservative will
+swallow pledges more than half socialistic.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>And again in November:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Speeches are constantly made but seldom read. England is sick of the
+Irish question (!) but has no other ready to put in its place. Claims
+for shorter hours and higher wages are rising in every trade and
+business, and this is the only subject that really touches public
+opinion; it is not, however, an easy one for candidates to make
+capital out of, for opinion in the electoral masses has not pronounced
+in favour of or against a compulsory eight hours; which is the main
+question in dispute. The cat has not jumped yet, when it does pledges
+and opinions will be swallowed, and a dishonest scramble will follow.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Many cats have jumped since then, but the main outlines of politics are
+not essentially different.</p>
+
+<p>I confess that I was impressed by the extent to which the problem of the
+unemployed existed in a country with apparently limitless possibilities.
+Meetings of these men took place constantly near the Queen&#8217;s Statue during
+1892, and perhaps a portion of a letter which I wrote to Lord Derby may be
+worth recording as at least a first-hand impression of what took place at
+the time.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;As to the unemployed, they present the usual features of the class,
+somewhat intensified by local colour. A kind Government not only
+provides a free Labour Bureau to meet their case, but has obtained for
+them certain buildings belonging to the Municipality as sleeping and
+smoking-rooms, and to the &#8216;married destitute&#8217; is now distributing
+orders for free rations. I understand that about 9,000 entered their
+names on the books of the Labour Bureau, but only some 200 have so far
+proved themselves qualified for free rations. What I am, however,
+trying hard to make out is why, when everyone tells you &#8216;there is work
+for everyone in this country if he likes&#8217;&mdash;&#8216;everyone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> can make money
+here&#8217;&mdash;&#8216;this is the working-man&#8217;s paradise,&#8217; etc., etc., there should
+be such numbers of men out of work and undoubtedly so much real
+destitution. Possibly two incidents which have occurred lately may
+assist in the solution of the problem. A contractor took a number of
+men from the Labour Bureau to do certain works near the Harbour. He
+tried to sort them with a view to giving the less efficient 6<i>s.</i> a
+day, the others to have 7<i>s.</i> or 8<i>s.</i> a day when proved capable of
+earning it. They all struck, and even the Minister for Works backed
+them up, saying the contractor must not do that&mdash;he must give all the
+men standard wages, but might send away the inefficient ones and have
+others in their place.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Of course the wages in Australia have risen enormously in the last
+twenty-five years. At the time I wrote, as far as I recollect, miners had
+about 14<i>s.</i> a day and other skilled labourers somewhere from 10<i>s.</i> to
+13<i>s.</i> The men employed by the contractor were probably unskilled. I
+continue my letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Yesterday I visited a large Government Asylum for women ... no poor
+law here. It comes to exactly the same thing, only, instead of the
+rates, Government supports the institution. But the interesting thing
+was this&mdash;connected with this women&#8217;s asylum is a farm, and the
+Matron&#8217;s husband (an ex P. &amp; O. captain) has voluntarily taken it in
+hand. He wanted labour, and observed that in a neighbouring Government
+Asylum for men there are numbers of men capable of doing plenty of
+work, but not up to the 7<i>s.</i> to 10<i>s.</i> a day standard. He asked
+permission to have some of these men, and has now about 40 employed
+about the farm, giving them board and lodging at this Women&#8217;s Asylum
+and from 3<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> a day. I saw some at 3<i>d.</i> doing 4ft.
+draining, and I talked to one, a bricklayer, who was doing excellent
+work for 1<i>s.</i> a day. I calculated with the Master what his board and
+lodging were worth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> (meat about 2&#189;<i>d.</i> lb.) and it came to about
+1<i>s.</i> a day, so with 1<i>s.</i> wages on six days that was about 13<i>s.</i> a
+week.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>I remark that had Trade Unions found out that these men, whom masters
+would not employ at full rates, were working instead of sitting with
+folded hands, it would doubtless have been stopped. Meantime, though
+ancient history, this is not altogether unenlightening.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LABOUR LEGISLATION</div>
+
+<p>One rather amusing incident took place in Parliament. &#8220;Eight hours&#8221; was
+the Trade Union rule, but was not enforced by law at the time of which I
+write. A measure was brought into the Legislative Assembly (the Lower
+House) to make it legally obligatory. First came the preamble, which was
+accepted, then Clause Two stating that Eight Hours should be the legal
+working-day, which was passed with acclamation, then the various clauses
+with penalties attached which would oblige employers and employed to abide
+by the new law. All these were promptly negatived. It seems to have struck
+somebody that two clauses expressing an academic opinion looked a little
+isolated, so a member brought forward a third clause stating that nobody
+was to be obliged to work eight hours if he did not want to do so. This
+was accepted with equal unanimity, and the Bill stood practically thus:
+1st. Name. 2nd. Eight hours is a legal working-day. 3rd. No one is obliged
+to work eight hours. I believe that the whole thing evaporated in a burst
+of laughter and never went to the Upper House, but of course every sort of
+stringent regulation as to working-hours has come in since.</p>
+
+<p>However, the immediate sequel of this legislative effort deserves record.
+A ship came into Sydney Harbour and stevedores were enlisted to unload it.
+After eight hours&#8217; work they wanted to go on so as to get overtime pay.
+&#8220;Not at all,&#8221; said the captain, &#8220;I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> am in no hurry. Eight hours is a legal
+working-day, and I am not going to break the law.&#8221; Whereupon they all
+struck because they were not allowed to work overtime! This is enough on
+this burning question, which is certainly not peculiar to Australia.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Lord Derby&#8217;s letters a few extracts with regard to European
+foreign affairs may be of interest. In March &#8217;91 he writes:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Every thing and person on the Continent is quiet; even the German
+Emperor. At least he has not been emitting any oracles lately. He is
+said to have grown tired of Caprivi, and another change is talked of.
+There is a vague idea about that he is &#8216;going queer.&#8217; I don&#8217;t know
+that it rests on any authority.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>In the same letter, though this did not then concern foreign politics, he
+says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The only rising man I hear of is on the Gladstonian side&mdash;young Sir
+Edward Grey, grandson of old Sir George, once Home Secretary. He is
+making a name as an effective debater.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Even Lord Derby could not foresee under what circumstances these two men,
+the Kaiser and Sir Edward, would become protagonists twenty-three years
+later! He also speaks of the &#8220;rising celebrity,&#8221; Rudyard Kipling. In the
+following May he says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Foreign affairs seem quiet all over Europe; I am not behind the
+scenes, but I know that the diplomatists expect no early disturbance.
+The Czar would scarcely indulge in the pleasing pastime of baiting his
+Jews, if he looked forward to wanting a loan. Besides, he hates
+soldiering, and takes some interest in finance. The German Emperor has
+been making a fool of himself, which is nothing new; he delivered a
+speech the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> day, in which he praised the beer-swilling and
+duelling of German students as being the most effective influences to
+keep up the true German character! He is an energetic young savage,
+and that is the best one can say.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>It should be remembered that the Czar who indulged in &#8220;the pleasing
+pastime of Jew baiting&#8221; was not the luckless Nicholas II so brutally
+murdered&mdash;a victim, say some, to the baited Jews&mdash;but his father,
+Alexander III, whom he succeeded in 1894.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE EX-KAISER</div>
+
+<p>In July Lord Derby refers to the visit of the German Emperor at the
+beginning of the month:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;He has been ramping up and down, seeing everything, questioning
+everybody, intent on making the most of his time, and keeping all the
+world in the condition of fuss and bustle which is the element in
+which he lives. It is almost too soon to judge the effect of his
+visit. I should say that he was popular rather than otherwise; not
+from his manners, which are queer and rather blunt; but there is a
+certain simplicity about him which pleases, as when he told the
+Windsor people, in answer to an address, that he had come &#8216;to see his
+grandmamma, who had always been kind to him.&#8217; He had a good reception
+in the city, though not so enthusiastic as the press makes out. There
+was about as much interest shown in his state entry as in an ordinary
+Lord Mayor&#8217;s Show. He is understood to be well satisfied, and the
+visit has given people a subject to talk about, which they were
+beginning to want. None now lasts longer than a week. By that time,
+journalistic enterprise has said whatever is to be said, and the
+public grows weary. I am afraid one effect of this German visit will
+be to put the French in a bad humour, though with no good reason. But
+that cannot be helped.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Lord Derby seems to have been somewhat reassured, as in August, after
+touching on home affairs, he writes:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>&#8220;The other event is more
+important: the visit of the French fleet to Portsmouth, where it has been reviewed by the Queen, and civilities of
+every kind have been exchanged. I call the matter important, because
+the visit of the German Emperor made a great feeling of soreness in
+France, and led to endless talk about England having joined the
+anti-gallican alliance. All that nonsense is ended by the courtesy
+shown to French officers: and the relations of the two countries, if
+not absolutely cordial, are again comfortable. The business was well
+managed and does credit to the people in Downing Street.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Lord Derby continued to send most interesting news, but unfortunately some
+of his later letters are missing, and alas! he died in the spring of 1893,
+so I never saw my kind and constant friend again.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD DERBY&#8217;S POEM</div>
+
+<p>I never saw the following lines published. They were given me by Lady
+Galloway, who told me that Lord Derby believed that he had composed them,
+as he could not remember having heard or read them when he woke with them
+in his mind. She wrote down what he said with regard to them.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Lines made, as I believe, in sleep, in the course of a dream, in
+which some fellow-student had asked me to complete a poem which he was
+sending in:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;We judge but acts&mdash;not ours to look within:<br />
+The crime we censure, but ignore the sin:<br />
+For who tho&#8217; versed in every legal art<br />
+Can trace the mazes of the human heart,<br />
+Allow for nature, training, faults of race<br />
+And friendships such as make us brave or base,<br />
+Or judge how long yon felon in his cell<br />
+Resisted, struggled&mdash;conquered ere he fell?<br />
+Our judgments skim the surface of the seas,<br />
+We have no sounding-line for depths like these.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Jan. 1893, 5 to 7 a.m.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>One or two imperfect lines follow. The idea recalls Burns&#8217;s &#8220;Address to
+the Unco&#8217; Guid&#8221;:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Then at the balance let&#8217;s be mute,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We never can adjust it;</span><br />
+What&#8217;s done we partly may compute,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But know not what&#8217;s resisted.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Lord Derby, however, goes deeper into the springs of action. Verses
+composed in sleep are by no means uncommon, but apart from Coleridge&#8217;s
+&#8220;Kubla Khan,&#8221; are perhaps seldom as consecutive as these.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<p class="title">FURTHER AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS&mdash;NEW ZEALAND AND NEW CALEDONIA</p>
+
+<p>Lady Galloway came out to us towards the end of 1891, and in January she
+accompanied us on one of our amusing expeditions. This time it was about
+three days&#8217; tour through a hilly&mdash;indeed mountainous country. The hills in
+Australia do not, as a rule, attain great height; it is because they are
+so ancient in the world&#8217;s history that they have been worn down by the
+storms of ages and the ravages of time. We went, however, to open another
+range of caverns of the same kind as the Jenolan Caves. These, the
+Yarrangobilly Caves, had been explored, and to a certain extent excavated,
+within more recent years, and were now to be made accessible to tourists.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dibbs and other officials and Members of Parliament, notably some
+Labour Members, came also; and a mixed multitude, said to amount to about
+five hundred people in all, took part more or less in what was called &#8220;The
+Governor&#8217;s Picnic.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">YARRANGOBILLY CAVES</div>
+
+<p>These did not follow us all through the hills, but camped in the valley
+near the caves. Here a comic incident occurred. For the first part of the
+tour we were in one district, for the last in another, but somehow in the
+middle we fell between two stools. In Number One and Number Three we were
+entertained by hosts who displayed the usual lavish hospitality, and all
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> way we were conveyed by kindly charioteers, and accompanied by a
+splendid voluntary mounted escort, but in Number Two, the valley near the
+caves, something had gone wrong. A wooden hut with several rooms had been
+prepared for our reception, but no food! It was a sort of debatable
+ground, and either through misunderstanding or, as was hinted, through
+local jealousy, it was nobody&#8217;s business to act host on the border land.</p>
+
+<p>The poor Premier and other officials were desperate when they discovered
+our plight, and in the end Dibbs possessed himself of one of the troopers&#8217;
+swords and rushed off to a party of picnickers who were innocently sitting
+down to enjoy the supper which they had brought with them, asking what
+they meant by eating cold mutton while the Governor and his party were
+destitute!</p>
+
+<p>He returned triumphant with a joint. Meantime someone had produced a
+packet believed to contain Brand&#8217;s Essence. Lady Galloway claimed that she
+knew how to make soup, so it was handed over to her. She upset it all into
+a soup plate full of water, and then, and not till then, it was discovered
+to be tea! However, one way and another, we were provided with sufficient
+food, and duly inaugurated the caves.</p>
+
+<p>They were beautiful, but never have I been so hard pressed for adjectives.
+The old guide whom we also met in the Jenolan Caves had been put on duty
+at the Yarrangobilly excavations for the occasion. He stopped our party of
+six or seven people before each particular stalagmite or stalactite, and
+would not move on till each of us in turn had ejaculated &#8220;beautiful,&#8221;
+&#8220;magnificent,&#8221; &#8220;stupendous,&#8221; or some other such laudatory word as
+suppressed laughter enabled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> us to utter, for it became a sort of game not
+to repeat what our companions had said.</p>
+
+<p>The following day an early start took us to Tumut, where we had a great
+reception and excellent entertainment. We were, however, not allowed to
+enter the town for our first greetings. As we drew near it, about 9 a.m.
+we perceived a table with a white cloth and several men standing round it
+in a field (&#8220;paddock&#8221; is the correct term in Australia). The wagonette was
+stopped, we were requested to get out, and we found that the magistrates
+of the district were waiting there with champagne, forestalling the
+reception prepared for us by the Municipality!</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after our return to Hill View, our summer&#8217;s home, Lady Galloway,
+my brother Rupert, and I set off on a trip to New Zealand. In the
+intervening time the whole of Australia was deeply moved by the terrible
+news of the death of the Duke of Clarence. The fact of his recent
+engagement brought home to every household the full force of the tragedy.
+Addresses of condolence poured in, and the staff was fully occupied in
+acknowledging them and forwarding them to England.</p>
+
+<p>We sailed from Melbourne, staying for a day at Hobart in Tasmania, where
+Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir Robert Hamilton the Governor, who was then
+absent, took excellent care of us. Tasmania appeared to be a happy,
+friendly little place, but naturally we had no time to see much. The
+harbour is fine, and the vegetation in the neighbourhood of the city was
+rich and green with quite an English aspect.</p>
+
+<p>We then took ship for Dunedin, quite in the south of the South Island. It
+took us about four days and the sea was by no means calm.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DUNEDIN</div>
+
+<p>Dunedin is a very interesting place and quite lives up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> to its name, for
+it is a small edition of Edinburgh. Scotch names over most of the shops,
+and as we walked past the open door of a boys&#8217; school we heard
+instructions being given in a very decided Scottish accent. There is a
+hill which recalls the Castle Hill, and even a manufacture of a very good
+woollen fabric with a distinctly plaid character. No doubt all this has
+greatly developed, but I trust it remains true to its Scottish origin. It
+was founded in 1848 by emigrants representing the Free Kirk of Scotland
+who left after the separation from the Established Church. There is a
+story that some of the first settlers put up a notice on their land to the
+effect that their co-religionists might help themselves to wood but that
+all others were to pay for it. True fraternal feeling, but it is hardly
+consonant with usual Scottish shrewdness that they should have expected
+the other wood-gatherers to volunteer payment.</p>
+
+<p>From Dunedin we went on to Invercargill, the extreme southern point, where
+the Governor, Lord Onslow, had invited us to join him on the Government
+yacht, the <i>Hinemoa</i>, and there we found Lady Onslow awaiting us.</p>
+
+<p>We were indeed fortunate in sharing in this expedition. The Onslows, who
+were on the point of returning to England, had arranged a trip to the
+Sounds for which they had not previously found time, and it was only in
+their yacht that we could have fully enjoyed the wonders of these fiords
+of the Southern Hemisphere. I do not know how it is now, but then
+excursion steamers only went about four times a year, were very crowded,
+and entered a limited number of Sounds. Lord Onslow took us into one after
+another, each more imposing than the last. I was particularly impressed by
+the desolate grandeur of one said not to have been entered for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+twenty-five years. The mountainous steeps which guarded it were in great
+part simply rocky slopes, and it seemed as if the spirits of the place
+resented our intrusion. In most of the other Sounds the precipitous
+mountain sides were clad with wildly luxuriant foliage, and land and water
+were alive with birds, particularly water-fowl. Amongst these were the
+lovely black-and-white Paradise ducks, which could be caught with
+long-handled nets something like gigantic butterfly nets.</p>
+
+<p>The precipices enclosing the Sounds rise in some cases five or six
+thousand feet from the water&#8217;s edge, their tops are snow-clad, and great
+waterfalls thunder into the calm sea-inlets below. The most famous fiord
+is Milford Sound, where is the great Bowen Fall. So thick is the
+vegetation that one fallen tree was pointed out to us on which we were
+assured that 500 different specimens of ferns, creepers, etc., might be
+counted. We had no time to verify this statement, but a hasty inspection
+made it seem not at all impossible. One thing is certain&mdash;the
+mountain-side with its impenetrable forest descends so precipitously into
+the waters below that our yacht of 500 tons was tied up to an overhanging
+tree and had no need to cast anchor. I think that there are seventeen
+Sounds in all (I do not mean that we saw so many), but Milford Sound is
+the only one which could be reached from the land, and even that was, in
+our time, a matter of great difficulty. For a long time the only
+inhabitant had been a man called Sutherland, who was considered a hermit
+and periodically supplied with food. He had discovered about fourteen
+miles inland the great Sutherland waterfall, which is much higher than
+Niagara though not nearly so broad.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE NEW ZEALAND SOUNDS</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>When we were in Milford Sound we found a small band of convicts who had
+been lately established there for the purpose of making a road to the
+Fall. I do not think that they were working very hard, but they had
+cleared about two miles of footpath through the thicket along which we
+walked, and a lovely walk it was. Tea at the end, however, was
+considerably disturbed by sandflies which came round us in a perfect
+cloud, so that we could only push our cups up under our veils.</p>
+
+<p>New Zealand sandflies are a peculiarly virulent species&mdash;a large blister
+rises directly they bite you, but they have the saving grace that they
+stop the moment the sun sets. They were, however, the only drawback to
+this most delightful of trips. While we were fighting them my brother and
+Lord Onslow&#8217;s A.D.C., Captain Guthrie, tried to push on to the Fall. As
+far as I remember, they got a distant view but had not time to reach
+it.<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a></p>
+
+<p>Lord Onslow was a most considerate nautical host. We cruised from Sound to
+Sound by night as a rule, so that we might lie prostrate and asleep on the
+rough waves which are apt to surround those shores, and during the day we
+enjoyed the calm waters of the fiord.</p>
+
+<p>We parted from the yacht and from our kind hosts with regret, having
+arranged to be again their guests at Wellington. Meantime we saw something
+of the South Island, which, by the way, bears the alternative name of
+Middle Island. New Zealand is really composed of three islands&mdash;North
+Island, the South or Middle Island, and a little one at the foot named
+Stewart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> Island. New Zealand claims dominion over a large number of small
+islands in the Pacific, to which happily two of the Samoan group over
+which it exercises a &#8220;mandate&#8221; have been added since the war. Lord Onslow
+told us that shortly before our visit he had been to settle the claims of
+certain rival Queens of Raratonga, one of these dependencies. Having
+decided in favour of one of these royal ladies, he endowed her with a
+sundial, as a sign of supremacy, as he thought she could well assert
+herself by &#8220;setting the time of day.&#8221; The South Island is full of beauty.
+We went in a steamer up Lake Wakatipu. I cannot attempt a description of
+all the charms of this lake and its neighbourhood. Naturally it differed
+from the Italian Lakes in the absence of picturesque villages (now, by the
+way, almost swallowed up by the rows of villas which skirt Como and
+Maggiore), but on the other hand there was the fascination of radiant
+nature little touched by the hand of man. Probably now there is a happy
+and growing population near Lake Wakatipu.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left South Island we stayed for a night or two with my cousin,
+Edmund Parker, a member of Dalgetty&#8217;s firm, who then lived at
+Christchurch. It is curious that whereas Dunedin owed its origin to the
+Scotch Free Kirk, Christchurch, founded two years later, was a child of
+the &#8220;Canterbury Association,&#8221; which, under the auspices of the Archbishop
+of Canterbury, Lord Lyttelton, and others, sent out a body of settlers
+largely drawn from Oxford and strictly members of the Church of England.
+They took up a tract of land and sold it in portions, devoting ten
+shillings out of every pound received to church and schools; their city
+was named Christchurch after the Cathedral and College in Oxford, and the
+surrounding district bears<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> the name of Canterbury. It stands upon the
+river Avon, the banks of which are planted with willows said to have been
+originally brought from Napoleon&#8217;s Tomb at St. Helena. There is a fine
+cathedral copied from Caen Cathedral in Normandy, and the whole place
+recalls some city of the Old World transplanted to a newer and brighter
+land.</p>
+
+<p>The story goes that some of the original settlers, importing classics into
+agriculture, &#8220;swore at their oxen in Greek&#8221;&mdash;perhaps someone who heard
+them quoting Virgil&#8217;s Georgics took any foreign tongue for Greek oaths.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HOT SPRINGS OF NEW ZEALAND</div>
+
+<p>After crossing to Wellington and spending a day or two with the Onslows
+there, we set off again to visit the famous hot-lake district in the
+Northern Island. Our headquarters were at Rotorua and Whakarewarewa, from
+both of which we visited the marvellous geysers, springs, and hot lakes
+with which the district abounds.</p>
+
+<p>The great Pink and White Terraces had been destroyed by a mud volcano some
+years before our visit, but we saw in many places how similar formations
+were being reproduced by the chemical substances thrown up by the springs,
+making polished pink-and-white pavements and even terraces on a small
+scale. To see the natural hot fountains starting up from the pools among
+the rocks was entrancing. Some of the columns play at regular intervals,
+some only occasionally; one irregular performer shoots up a column of
+boiling water to a height sometimes attaining 100 feet. One was called the
+Prince of Wales&#8217;s Feathers, as the water sprang up in that form.</p>
+
+<p>New Zealand is far more prolific in legends than Australia; the Maoris
+being of a higher type than the Australian aboriginal, naturally handed
+down <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>semi-historical, semi-mythical traditions of their ancestors. Among
+the prettiest and best-known tales is that of Hinemoa. This young lady was
+the daughter of the chief of a powerful tribe whose headquarters was at
+Whakarewarewa. Among the many suitors attracted by her beauty she
+preferred a youth named Tutaneki; but though his mother was the daughter
+of the chief of the Island of Mokoia, situated in the centre of the Lake
+of Rotorua, his father was a commoner, and Hinemoa&#8217;s father was furious at
+the idea of a <i>m&eacute;salliance</i>. He dared Tutaneki again to set foot on the
+mainland, and caused all the canoes to be hauled up on the beach to keep
+Hinemoa from attempting to join her lover. Tutaneki, however, was an
+accomplished musician, and every evening the strains of his lute floated
+so sweetly over the waters of the lake that Hinemoa could no longer stand
+separation. Taking six empty gourds as an improvised life-belt, she swam
+the three miles dividing her from music and love. Fortunately, though
+numbed by her exertions, she landed on the island where a hot spring,
+still called Hinemoa&#8217;s Bath, wells up near the beach, and a plunge into it
+soon revived her. More successful than Leander, she was united to her
+lover and lived with him peacefully on Mokoia. Her father appears to have
+reconciled himself to the inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>At one moment we almost thought that we should have, in a minor degree, to
+emulate the performance of Hinemoa. We arranged to row across the Lake to
+a spot on the shore opposite our hotel, where we were to be met by a
+&#8220;coach&#8221; (as the ordinary vehicles were called) bringing our luncheon.
+Somehow first our rudder broke away and then the boatman seemed to lose
+his head&mdash;and anyhow lost one of his oars. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> were thereby left
+helplessly floating at no great distance from the beach, and, what was
+worse, with no apparent possibility of securing our luncheon. However, my
+brother, bolder than Tutaneki, saved Lady Galloway and myself from
+imitating Hinemoa. He plunged into the water and managed to wade ashore,
+and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing him return carrying the
+luncheon basket on his head, and having sent a messenger to summon another
+boat to our rescue.</p>
+
+<p>One particularly fascinating feature in the Hot Lakes District was the
+charm of open-air hot baths. Certain pools were surrounded by high
+palisades rendering them absolutely private. You secured a key and locked
+yourself in, when you could disport yourself in natural hot water and wade
+about under the trees to your heart&#8217;s content. The water was of a
+delightful temperature, but certainly impregnated with chemicals, as I
+found the skin peeling off my feet after two or three such baths.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HUIA ONSLOW</div>
+
+<p>We arrived at Auckland in time to witness the final send-off of that most
+popular Governor, Lord Onslow, with special tributes to Lady Onslow and
+her baby son Huia, who, having been born during his parents&#8217; tenure of
+office, had been endowed with the Maori chieftain&#8217;s distinctive badge, the
+feather of the Huia, and was christened by that name. Whenever he appeared
+the Maoris shouted &#8220;Huia! Huia!&#8221; and, most tactfully, the child showed a
+preference for brown men over white. Poor Huia grew into a splendid and
+talented youth, but was disabled by an accident while diving. Despite his
+crippled condition he gallantly pursued his scientific studies till
+released by death in 1922.</p>
+
+<p>Of all Rudyard Kipling&#8217;s Songs of the Cities I think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> the Song of Auckland
+best conveys the claim of that vision of beauty:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart&mdash;<br />
+On us, on us the unswerving season smiles,<br />
+Who wonder &#8217;mid our fern why men depart<br />
+To seek the Happy Isles!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Truly, New Zealand must have waited while Providence bestowed gifts on
+many lands, and have then received a special bounty from each store of
+blessing. The strength of the mountain pass, the plunge of the waterfall,
+the calm mirror of the lake, the awe of the forest, the glow of the
+flowers, the fertile pasture for the flock, the rich plains for the
+corn&mdash;gold, coal, and Kauri gum, the marvels of her springs&mdash;all these and
+much more are given to her children, together with one of the most perfect
+climates on the face of the earth. She has but one drawback&mdash;namely, that
+she is ringed round by some of the stormiest oceans known to man. Perhaps
+were it not so too many eager pilgrims would seek this far-off Paradise!</p>
+
+<p>Lord and Lady Onslow returned with us to Sydney Government House, and soon
+after left with their family for England. Lady Galloway in turn sailed in
+the spring (Australian autumn), to my great regret. She made the voyage in
+a Messageries boat, accompanied by the very pretty daughters of Lord
+Southesk, Helena and Dora Carnegie.</p>
+
+<p>In July of this year (1892) my husband and I were fortunately able to make
+a most interesting journey to the French Colony of New Caledonia. As is
+well known, certain questions had arisen from time to time between
+Australia and New Caledonia, as the former Government asserted that
+convicts escaped from the French penal colony were apt to take refuge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> on
+Australian shores; and since the total cessation of convict transportation
+from Great Britain Australians were, not unnaturally, additionally
+sensitive to their arrival from any other quarter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">NOUMEA</div>
+
+<p>Apart from this, however, the relations between the British and French
+&#8220;outposts of Empire&#8221; were very friendly and a good many Australians had
+established themselves as free settlers in Noumea, the capital of New
+Caledonia; and when the French Government heard that Jersey contemplated a
+visit they sent word (as we learnt later on) that a generous sum was to be
+spent on the reception of the first Australian Governor to undertake the
+voyage. Owing to the fact that he had to await permission from home before
+absenting himself from New South Wales, and as there was then no cable to
+Noumea, we were unable to name an exact date for our arrival, which after
+some three days&#8217; voyage took place on July 13th. We sailed in a
+Messageries boat, the <i>Armand B&eacute;hic</i>, very luxurious and with most
+obliging officers, but much too narrow in proportion to its length, which
+caused it to roll even when the sea was perfectly calm. This was a common
+fault with Messageries boats in those days. Probably also it was deficient
+in cargo, as, despite a large Government subsidy, this line was run to New
+Caledonia at a considerable loss. I wrote to my mother describing our
+arrival as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;We were received&#8221; (at Noumea) &#8220;with a tremendous salute of guns,
+after which the Conseil de Sant&eacute; promptly put the ship and all its
+company into quarantine for 24 hours! We (including Private Secretary
+and servants) were allowed to stay on board, where we were perfectly
+comfortable, but all the other passengers from the <i>Armand B&eacute;hic</i> and
+another ship arriving from Sydney at about the same time, were bundled
+off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> to the quarantine island. There were about 180 of them and
+accommodation for about 25. What the rhyme or reason of 24 <i>hours&#8217;</i>
+quarantine was in a question of small-pox which might appear, if at
+all, in 21 days, we at first failed to discover, but the solution&mdash;and
+I fancy the true one&mdash;ultimately offered was that when our ship
+arrived with the British Ensign flying there was an awful hullabaloo.
+They did not know we were coming by this ship, and neither Government
+House nor anything else was ready, so they cried, &#8220;Whatever shall we
+do? Happy thought! Small-pox at Sydney&mdash;let us quarantine them till we
+have had time to prepare,&#8221; (Here let me remark that as a rule
+Australia was absolutely free from small-pox, but a few cases had
+lately been brought by a ship, and of course relegated to the New
+South Wales remote quarantine stations.)</p></div>
+
+<p>To resume my letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;It mattered very little to us, but was awfully hard on the other
+victims, particularly as they put all their worn linen into some
+concoction of chemicals which utterly spoilt it. Meantime we went off
+to the quarantine island for a walk and went up a hill whence we had a
+beautiful view of the harbour which is <i>lovely</i> ... high hills of
+charming shapes round it ... the real glow of vivid green, red, and
+blue which one imagines in the South Pacific.... Well, next morning,
+at 9 a.m., we were allowed to land in great honour and glory, and were
+received by the Mayor, girt with his tricolour sash, and all the
+Municipal Council, and then escorted to Government House, where
+everything had been prepared, down to unlimited scent-bottles,
+tooth-brushes, and splendidly bound copies of Byron and Milton, to
+make us feel at home. The only drawback was that having once
+established us, and apparently cleaned up the house for our arrival,
+nobody ever attempted to dust or clean in any way again&mdash;and as it
+rained all the time after the first day, and everyone <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>walked
+everywhere, including in the ball-room, in muddy boots, the effect was
+peculiar. Every place was, however, decorated with flowers and flags,
+which are no doubt excellent substitutes for dusters and dustpans.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GOVERNOR OF NEW CALEDONIA</div>
+
+<p>I shall not easily forget that household. It is hardly necessary to say
+that the Governor, M. Laffon, was a bachelor, a young man, clever and
+charming but evidently unaccustomed to domestic details. I believe that he
+was appointed through the influence of the Paris Rothschild, who was a
+friend of his father, and who had a predominating share in the nickel
+mines which constitute the great wealth of New Caledonia. He, however, was
+a civilian and had no voice in the appointment of the Private Secretary
+and Military A.D.C. who constituted his staff, and who treated their Chief
+with a profound disregard which scandalised our Private Secretary, George
+Goschen.</p>
+
+<p>M. Laffon got up at any hour in the morning to take us to &#8220;objects of
+interest&#8221; before the heat of the day, but the staff did not trouble
+themselves to appear till about noon, and when a ceremonious <i>d&eacute;jeuner</i>
+was given we found that the Minister of the Interior was running round to
+put the name-cards on the places of the guests. These young men told Mr.
+Goschen that when they did not want to go anywhere they pleaded headache
+and wondered if their Governor were surprised at the frequency of these
+ailments. &#8220;But don&#8217;t you have a headache?&#8221; added one of them. &#8220;An A.D.C.,&#8221;
+retorted our virtuous Briton, &#8220;never has a headache.&#8221; &#8220;But you have
+sentiments?&#8221; &#8220;An A.D.C.,&#8221; was the reply, &#8220;has no feelings.&#8221; &#8220;You must feel
+unwell sometimes?&#8221; &#8220;Never more than one out of four of us at a time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>Poor George Goschen was nearly crippled with rheumatism while at Noumea,
+but would rather have died on the spot than have omitted to set a good
+example by following us everywhere in a pelting rain. Nevertheless when
+they deigned to accompany us the two Frenchmen made themselves very
+agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>Our English footman, originally a boy from Middleton village, was
+considerably taken aback when he found that the only attendance in our
+rooms was the sudden inroad of a party of kanakas (natives) who ran in
+with feather brushes, stirred up a little dust, and rapidly disappeared.
+&#8220;Well, Henry,&#8221; said Mr. Goschen, &#8220;either you or I will have to make His
+Excellency&#8217;s bed.&#8221; And, stimulated by this and by my maid&#8217;s example, Henry
+turned to, and we were made perfectly comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the peace of mind of our kind hosts, the Government and
+Municipality, we came in for the F&ecirc;tes de Juillet, so though they could
+not carry out the special entertainments projected for us, they had three
+balls, and some races, already arranged. It was rather strange to have the
+music supplied by a Convict Band in their penal garb, but it was very
+good.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of one of the balls we were summoned to witness a
+&#8220;pilou-pilou,&#8221; that is a native dance by the kanakas&mdash;merry-looking people
+with tremendous heads of wool standing straight up. They danced a kind of
+ballet with much swaying of their bodies and swinging of their weapons,
+which they afterwards presented to me. I did not much like taking them,
+but was assured that it was the custom.</p>
+
+<p>These kanakas were darker and of a more negro type than the Samoans whom
+we afterwards visited, but not so dark as the Australian aboriginals, nor
+so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> savage as the inhabitants of the New Hebrides or New Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>We saw two of their villages, and their system of irrigation by little
+watercourses on the hill-side, which showed considerable capacity for
+agriculture. The Roman Catholic missionaries claimed to have converted
+about ten thousand of them, and it was curious to find in a dark little
+hut of bark and reeds, with little inside except mats and smoke, two or
+three Mass books and a crucifix. Some of the priests whom we met had gone
+into the wilds of New Caledonia before the French annexed it in 1853, and
+regardless of danger had worked there ever since.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE CONVICT SETTLEMENT</div>
+
+<p>We were taken to see the chief buildings of the Convict Settlement, which
+appeared to be large and well planned, but one had rather a painful shock
+when the first object pointed out was the site of the guillotine.
+Naturally the convicts were divided into different classes. We entered one
+long building where a number were confined in common, and seemed fairly
+cheerful, but others were in little separate cells from which they were
+only brought out, and then alone, for a very short time each day. Some had
+only a brief period of such solitary confinement, but in one small cell we
+found a very big man who almost seemed to fill it with his body when he
+stood up at our entrance. He had been condemned to seven years of this
+penance for having assaulted a waiter. He implored the Governor either to
+have him executed at once, or to allow him a little more liberty. I backed
+up his plea, and M. Laffon promised some consideration, which I trust was
+effectual.</p>
+
+<p>The worst thing we saw was the lunatics&#8217; prison, inhabited by men who had
+gone mad since their arrival in the Island. One man had a most refined and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>intellectual head; he had been a distinguished lawyer at Lyons and was
+transported for having killed a man who, if I recollect rightly, had been
+his sister&#8217;s lover. No wonder that shame, exile, and his surroundings had
+driven him mad. Another was much happier; he was quite harmless, and was
+allowed to wander about and indulge his mania, which was the decoration of
+the little chapel. I have no reason at all to think that the convicts were
+ill-treated, but we did not see the place where the worst criminals were
+confined, and one of the French ladies mysteriously remarked, &#8220;Ils ont des
+temps durs ceux-l&agrave;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I always feel, however, that philanthropists who are ready to condemn the
+treatment of convicts in any part of the world fail to realise the
+difficulty of keeping order amongst large bodies of men, most of whom, at
+all events, have criminal instincts. The heroes of novels and plays who
+undergo such imprisonment are almost invariably represented as unjustly
+convicted, probably scapegoats for real criminals, and all our sympathy is
+evoked on their behalf. No doubt, particularly in the early days of
+Australia, there were many cruelties and much undue severity, but the
+comparatively few officers and men who were put to guard and govern masses
+of criminals had no easy task. They were far removed from any possibility
+of summoning help in cases of mutiny, and probably many of them
+deteriorated mentally and physically through much anxiety and the
+hardships which they themselves had to encounter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CONVICTS IN FORMER DAYS</div>
+
+<p>On the other hand, I heard many authentic stories in Australia of the kind
+treatment and good behaviour of the convicts who were sent out from
+England for slight offences, and who became steady and law-abiding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>
+settlers, and were particularly careful in the education and upbringing of
+their children. One gentleman told me of a dentist who refused a fee for
+treating him because his father, who had been an official in convict days,
+had been so good to the dentist&#8217;s ticket-of-leave family. Of course it
+seems very hard of our ancestors to have transported men and women for
+stealing bread or poaching, and I am not justifying the penal laws of the
+eighteenth century, but being what they were I am not at all sure that the
+majority of those who were sent to Australia were not better off than they
+would have been shut up in the prisons of those days in England, and
+certainly their children had a much better start in life. I believe that
+the great hardship was the voyage out in a slow sailing ship, overcrowded,
+with little fresh air and the constant risk of food and water running
+short. Once landed, there were many chances of prosperity for the
+well-behaved. I say nothing of the real black sheep who were relegated to
+Port Arthur or Norfolk Island. It is a mercy to think that those days are
+past and over.</p>
+
+<p>To return to New Caledonia. There were elaborate arrangements for work in
+the nickel mines, and as assigned servants to free settlers whom the
+French Government were very anxious to plant on the land. I do not think
+that they were very successful in inducing large numbers to undertake the
+long voyage, though there were a few Bretons on our ship. A good many
+Australians, however, were established in trade in Noumea.</p>
+
+<p>Words fail to do justice to the kindness of the New Caledonian
+French&mdash;they made every exertion to render us happy, and completely
+succeeded. When we left they robbed their Museum of a whole collection of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+native curiosities which they put on board ship with us, despite our
+protestations. One quaint incident perhaps deserves record. Just as we
+departed I received an imposing-looking missive written in flowery
+English, which proved to be a letter from a French poilu. He informed me
+that he had been in Australia and had there married a girl whose name he
+gave me. She was then living in Victoria, and if I remember rightly was
+half Belgian, half British. A small child had been the offspring of the
+union, but &#8220;France had called on him to serve,&#8221; and though his time of
+service overseas was nearly up, and though he wished to return to
+Australia to &#8220;stand by his wife,&#8221; France saw otherwise and proposed to
+ship him back to Marseilles; he was in despair until I had appeared &#8220;like
+a star of hope upon the horizon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When we were back at Sydney I wrote to the Charity Organization at
+Melbourne asking if they could find out anything about the lady. Oddly
+enough she was actually employed in the C.O.S. Office, and was said to be
+quite respectable, though there appeared to have been a little informality
+about the &#8220;marriage lines.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I then wrote to the very amiable French Colonel at Noumea and asked
+whether under the circumstances he could see his way to letting the
+lovelorn swain return to Australia instead of to France. With prompt
+courtesy he granted my request, and named some approximate date for the
+man&#8217;s arrival in Melbourne. Thereupon I wrote a further letter to the
+C.O.S., asking that they would be prepared for a marriage ceremony about
+which there should, this time, be no mistake. The end of the romance, at
+all events of this chapter, was that I received a gushing epistle of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>
+gratitude signed by &#8220;two young hearts,&#8221; or words to that effect, &#8220;made for
+ever happy.&#8221; I never saw the youth and maiden whom I had thus been
+instrumental in launching among the eddies and currents of matrimony, but
+I trust that the little girl was sufficient to justify a somewhat blind
+experiment.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DEATH OF LORD ANCRAM</div>
+
+<p>A great tragedy threw a shadow over our sojourn in N.S.W.</p>
+
+<p>One of our aides-de-camp was Lord Ancram, elder son of Lord Lothian, and a
+particularly attractive young man. He was a great favourite in Sydney and
+much in request at gatherings of every description, being good-looking and
+having charming manners. In June 1892 he and my brother were invited to
+join a shooting party in the country. He went off in high spirits, and
+when he came to say good-bye to me, knowing him to be rather delicate, I
+cautioned him to be sure and put some kind of bedding under as well as
+over him if sleeping out at night. This he promised to do. I never saw him
+again. It was customary in Australia to shoot riding. He and his
+companions got off their horses for luncheon, and put their guns on the
+ground. On remounting one of the party seems to have picked up a loaded
+gun in mistake for his own which he had discharged. Handled incautiously
+this gun went off, and poor Ancram was shot through the head, dying
+instantaneously. I shall never forget the universal sorrow not only in
+Government House, but among the whole warm-hearted community of New South
+Wales. It was some comfort that the Admiral commanding the Station, Lord
+Charles Scott, was Ancram&#8217;s uncle, and he and his nice wife were able to
+help, and advise as to the best means of breaking the news to the poor
+parents and relatives in England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>Poor George Goschen, who was devoted to Ancram, was almost prostrated by
+grief. It was rather curious that not very long before the accident Ancram
+told me that he had dreamt that he found himself back in his old home, but
+that his brother had taken his place and that nobody recognised him or
+took any notice of him!</p>
+
+<p>Treasures of the Old World are sometimes found at the Antipodes. On one of
+our tours, at a township called Bungendore, a large wooden box appeared
+unexpectedly in our private railway car. Opened, it was found to contain a
+letter from a Mr. Harold Mapletoft Davis explaining that he confided to
+our care relics from Little Gidding, brought from England long before by
+his parents. His mother, Miss Mapletoft, was directly descended from Dr.
+Mapletoft and from his wife, the only Miss Colet who married. In the box
+were a copy of the famous <i>Harmonies</i>, and bound volumes of manuscript
+writings by Mary Colet and her sisters. The fine binding of <i>The
+Harmonies</i>, now in the British Museum, was said to have been executed by
+Mary Colet herself; she did not die young as represented in &#8220;John
+Inglesant,&#8221; but lived to a good old age. There was also a lovely Charles I
+embroidered miniature chest of drawers, containing a boar&#8217;s tooth, a
+handkerchief with the royal monogram, and other relics. Charles I left
+this at Little Gidding during his troubles. It was ultimately purchased by
+Queen Victoria, and is now at Windsor.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<p class="title">TONGA AND SAMOA</p>
+
+<p>Not long after our return from New Caledonia I set sail again, this time
+to take advantage of an invitation from the Britannic Land Commissioner to
+stay with him at his house in Samoa. My brother Rupert Leigh and my
+daughter Margaret accompanied me on the Norddeutscher Lloyd mail-ship
+<i>Lubeck</i>. The Germans subsidised the line, but it was, I understood, run
+at a regular loss. We left on August 3rd, and encountered very rough
+weather, seas sweeping over the bridge, and even invading our cabins.
+Captain Mentz was very kind, installed us in his own quarters, and did his
+best to find food which Margaret and I could eat despite sea-sickness. I
+must say this for him, although he was a German!</p>
+
+<p>We passed Norfolk Island, but did not land anywhere until we reached
+Nekualofa, the chief town of the Tongan group, which consists of about 100
+islands and atolls. Tonga, like every island in the Pacific of which I
+ever heard, has its own particular quarrels and politics. It was governed
+at the time of our visit by an ancient potentate called King George, after
+George III of England. His wife had been Queen Charlotte, but she had
+died.</p>
+
+<p>The hero, or rather villain, of recent Tongan history was one Shirley
+Baker, a Wesleyan missionary with the aspirations of a Richelieu or
+Mazarin. He belonged to the Wesleyan Church of Australia, which had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>previously become independent of the Mother Church in England. Shirley
+Baker, however, having made himself Prime Minister of Tonga, did not care
+to take orders even from Australia, but persuaded the dusky monarch that
+the right and proper thing was to have a Free Methodist Church of his own.
+This would not have mattered, but the inhabitants were all compelled to
+belong to this new connexion, and beaten and imprisoned if they wished to
+adhere to what was presumably the Church of their baptism. Other trifling
+accusations, such as of poisoning, were brought against this
+ecclesiastical Prime Minister, and ultimately the British High
+Commissioner from Fiji had to come down and deport him to New Zealand.
+Still, however, as far as we could learn during a brief stay of some
+twenty-four hours, though there was surface peace, intrigue and suspicion
+were still rampant.</p>
+
+<p>Even before we landed my brother came to me and said that one of our
+fellow-passengers had warned him that if we paid a visit to King George
+the missionary interpreter in attendance would probably misrepresent what
+we had to say to the monarch. &#8220;But,&#8221; added Rupert, &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that we
+have anything particular to say, have we?&#8221; I agreed that I did not think
+that our communications would vitally affect the peace of the world, or
+even of the Pacific, so we ventured to enter the royal precincts.</p>
+
+<p>The Palace was a comfortable-looking villa, of which the most striking
+adornment was a full-length oil-painting of the old German Emperor
+William, presented to the King for having declared the neutrality of Tonga
+in the Franco-German War of 1870. The High Commissioner of Fiji had
+countered this propaganda by presenting an engraving of Queen Victoria,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
+but we were bound to confess, that, being merely head and shoulders, our
+Sovereign Lady was placed at a disadvantage in the artistic competition.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">TONGAN LADIES</div>
+
+<p>The Tongan ladies were celebrated for their beauty, and we were told that
+when the Duke of Edinburgh, as Prince Alfred, visited Australia and some
+places in the Pacific, Tonga was much disappointed because he failed to
+land on its shores. The inhabitants, however, found balm for their wounded
+feelings in two explanations offered: first, Queen Victoria was so
+impressed by the importance of the group that had she sent a
+representative it must have been her eldest, not her second son; secondly,
+she had heard so much of the charms of the ladies that she feared lest the
+Prince should bring back a dusky daughter-in-law if exposed to their
+wiles. One only wonders why they thought that she should object. The King
+was a fine old man, and we had no reason to believe that a rather
+weak-looking missionary gave any serious misconstruction of our
+conventional remarks. They dealt a good deal with our Queen, and at all
+events he introduced her name at the right place!</p>
+
+<p>We had a very pretty drive in a vividly green lane, had tea at the hotel,
+and returned to sleep on board. The real joy, however, was our departure
+at sunrise next morning. Never before or since have I seen such a glory of
+colour&mdash;St. John may have witnessed something like it when he wrote the
+Revelation, but I cannot believe that earth contains a rival.</p>
+
+<p>The sun struck the coral reefs through an absolutely calm sea, and its
+beams were broken up into streams and rivers of crimson, blue, green, and
+purple, as if a rainbow or the tail of an angelic peacock or bird of
+paradise had fallen into the ocean; nor did the rivers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> remain unchanged.
+At one moment a flood of crimson passed by, and if we ran to the other
+side of the ship, we found that the waters were turning to emerald; they
+parted and mingled and parted again till we seemed in a fairy world of
+magic.</p>
+
+<p>We spent much time in the lagoons of Samoa and saw beautiful hues,
+particularly deep purples, there, but never again the extraordinary beauty
+of the Tongan archipelago. Behind the ever-changing sea rose a myriad
+islands crowned with palms and floating in light. My brother asked me if I
+remembered the little picture in our old Ballantyne&#8217;s <i>Coral Island</i> of
+schoolroom days. I had already thought of it, and gratefully felt that at
+least one dream of childhood had been fulfilled, that I had seen something
+of what our books had told, though not as the sailor which I had sighed to
+be.</p>
+
+<p>King George died in the spring after we had made his acquaintance. A
+prominent resident whom we had met at Nukualofa, Mr. Parker, wrote to
+describe the honours paid to his memory. He said that he had been for so
+many years &#8220;a leading character for good and bad that his sudden, but on
+account of his age not unexpected, death caused much commotion.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;However much some of his subjects may have disliked him (or rather
+his r&eacute;gime) when alive, and with much reason there were many, now that
+he is dead the respect they show is very striking. The place both day
+and night is as silent as death, though there is plenty of movement.&#8221;
+On a low white wall surrounding the premises, &#8220;at intervals of about
+one foot there is a lamp placed on the top; and at every few yards of
+the road a camp of people squat down with torches, and patiently wait
+for daylight as a sign of respect, and also in all probability to keep
+evil spirits away, though if asked the watchers would not say so.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>The house itself was brilliantly illuminated with hundreds of coloured
+lamps and paper lanthorns, and within, mats, flowers, and sandal-wood
+powder were lavished on the dead monarch. Meantime I must return to our
+voyage.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ARRIVAL AT APIA</div>
+
+<p>We landed at Apia, the capital of Samoa, on August 13th, by Sydney
+calendar. (Samoan was different, as we had crossed 180&deg; longitude, but
+this is unimportant.) We were met by our kindest of hosts, Mr. Bazett
+Michael Haggard, with the boat of the British Commission rowed by a fine
+crew of natives in white shirts and red lava-lavas or kilts. These, like
+other Samoan men, were tattooed from the waist to the knee rather as if
+they wore tight breeches under their kilts. We were taken to Haggard&#8217;s
+quarters, a two-storied house called Ruge&#8217;s Buildings, embowered in trees,
+containing a fine long reception room upstairs, with bedrooms off it for
+my daughter, myself, and my maid. Below were the servants&#8217; quarters, the
+staff being a very intelligent Indian and two Samoan boys; behind was a
+courtyard with rooms beyond for Mr. Haggard and my brother. The whole had
+been the property of a commercial company. Mr. Haggard in his anxiety for
+our safety used to lock us women in at night, but I do not know what
+danger he apprehended.</p>
+
+<p>Ruge&#8217;s Buildings were situated on the principal road of Apia, not far from
+the harbour which was the scene of the famous hurricane in which the
+English ship <i>Calliope</i> outrode the storm and escaped, while the German
+<i>Adler</i> was wrecked against the reefs. Her mast still rose above her
+shattered remains, marking the spot where she lay.</p>
+
+<p>The Samoan group consisted of three principal and several outlying
+islands. Tutuila, which possesses the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> best harbour, was held by the
+Americans, while Upolu, site of the capital, and Savaii, a mountainous
+isle, were more or less in dispute between the Germans and the British.
+The politics of the whole group were involved to a degree, and certainly
+hold little interest for anyone at this time of day. The League of Nations
+did not exist in 1892, but Samoa would have afforded a splendid field for
+its discussions, not to say a happy hunting-ground for commissions and
+expenditure.</p>
+
+<p>The main points of difference in 1892 may be summarised thus: There were
+two kings, Malietoa Laupepa, acknowledged by the European Powers, and a
+rebel, Mataafa, fortified in the mountains. There was another monarch,
+Tamasese, but he was not then counted among the royal claimants, though
+son of a chief called the &#8220;German King,&#8221; because his father had once upon
+a time been acknowledged by the Germans, who gave him a uniform.</p>
+
+<p>Also there were three Land Commissioners and three Consuls, English,
+American, and German; a German Prime Minister; Mabon, Secretary of
+State&mdash;I think American&mdash;and a Swedish Chief Justice. The last-named was
+appointed to settle any matters of difference which might arise between
+the Land Commissioners of the three Great Powers, and they were to decide
+the disputes between the various claimants to land.</p>
+
+<p>The Europeans had often tried to induce the natives to sell them land far
+below its value, and the natives were not altogether behindhand in the
+game, as they would sell the same land to two or three different
+purchasers. Result, far more claims to land than acres existing to satisfy
+the claimants. The Swedish Chief Justice, a man called Cedercrantz, with a
+squint, did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> not know English when appointed, and had to go to Fiji to
+learn it.</p>
+
+<p>To add to the complications there were three sets of missionaries in
+Upolu, London missionaries and Wesleyans, with a standing feud between
+them, and Roman Catholics of course violently opposed to both. All this
+for a population well under a hundred thousand! However, despite all these
+quarrels, and the consequent excitements, the natives seemed a singularly
+contented and easy-going community, and everyone whom we met vied with all
+others in making us happy.</p>
+
+<p>The Samoans are fairer than the New Caledonians and their hair less
+woolly; they approached nearer to the Malay type. We found they did not in
+the least want to work in the cocoa-nut plantations set on foot by the
+Germans, and why should they. Fishing one day a week and cultivating a few
+yams and taros on another day would supply their food, and the women made
+tappa for their few garments out of the bark of trees.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">GERMAN PLANTATIONS</div>
+
+<p>The Germans imported workmen of the dusky negro type from the New Hebrides
+and New Ireland, but the English settlers were not allowed to do this, and
+the consequence in our time was that the Germans owned the plantations,
+but otherwise trade and population accrued largely to New Zealanders and
+other British subjects.</p>
+
+<p>Our host, Bazett Haggard, brother to Rider Haggard and to William Haggard
+whom we had known in Athens, was a great character. When he visited Sydney
+he was known as &#8220;Samoa,&#8221; for he never talked of anything else, which was
+perhaps not surprising under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>A lawyer by profession, on appointment as Land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Commissioner he had been
+endowed with a Foreign Office uniform and a Red Box which were sources of
+infinite gratification and innocent pride. An Australian young lady asked
+in awed tones, &#8220;Have you seen the beautiful box which Lord Salisbury gave
+Mr. Haggard?&#8221; Previous to a ball at Government House he asked with all the
+solemnity appropriate to a budding diplomat whether I would dance with him
+as first representative of the Foreign Office at Sydney. After the dance
+he laid aside his sword for the rest of the evening, assuring me that this
+was the proper etiquette, to dance the State dance wearing the sword and
+subsequent ones without it. No doubt he was right.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from Samoa the universe for him revolved round his native county,
+Norfolk, whence sprang all that was finest in the British race,
+particularly the Haggard brothers. I forget how many there were, but they
+had, he said, all loud voices, and on some occasion won a contested
+election by the simple process of shouting.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from this quaint strain of simple satisfaction with himself and his
+surroundings he was the kindest of men, and I was assured that when it
+came to his legal work all his oddities were cast aside and that he was an
+excellent and capable Commissioner.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">R. L. STEVENSON</div>
+
+<p>On the evening following our arrival he invited Robert Louis Stevenson and
+Mrs. Stevenson to dinner, and if we had already felt the fascination of
+Utopia we then fell under the spell of the Enchanter who evoked all the
+magic woven round its land and sea. I shall never forget the moment when I
+first saw him and his wife standing at the door of the long, wood-panelled
+room in Ruge&#8217;s Building. A slim, dark-haired, bright-eyed figure in a
+loose, black velvet jacket over his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> white vest and trousers, and a
+scarlet silk sash round his waist. By his side the short, dark woman with
+cropped, curly hair and the strange piercing glance which had won for her
+the name in native tongue, &#8220;The Witch Woman of the Mountain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Stevenson was never one to keep all the treasures of his imagination and
+humour for his books. Every word, every gesture revealed the man, and he
+gave one the impression that life was for him a game to be shared with his
+friends and played nobly to the end. I think that Matthew Arnold&#8217;s
+&#8220;Empedocles on Etna&#8221; expressed him when he sang:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Is it so small a thing<br />
+To have enjoy&#8217;d the sun,<br />
+To have lived light in the spring,<br />
+To have loved, to have thought, to have done;<br />
+To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Stevenson, braver to confront life than Empedocles, would not have
+leapt into the crater!</p>
+
+<p>At that dinner, which inaugurated our friendship, a very merry talk
+somehow turned on publishers and publishing. It began, if I remember
+rightly, with a reference to Mrs. Humphry Ward&#8217;s latest book, for which
+she was reported to have received a number of thousands which both
+Stevenson and Haggard pronounced to be incredible, Haggard speaking from
+his brother&#8217;s experience and Stevenson from his own. Thereupon it was
+suggested by someone, and carried unanimously, that we should form an
+&#8220;Apia Publishing Company&#8221;; and later on in Haggard&#8217;s absence the rest of
+us determined to write a story of which our host should be hero, and the
+name, suggested, I think, by Stevenson, was to be <i>An Object of Pity, or
+the Man Haggard</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>Before this was completed various incidents occurred which were
+incorporated into the tale. Another friend of Mr. Haggard was the British
+Consul, Mr. Cusack Smith, and he took us to tea with him and his pretty
+wife on the Sunday afternoon following our arrival. They lived in a
+pleasant bungalow of which the compound&mdash;or lawn&mdash;was enlivened by a
+good-sized turtle tied to a post, which was being kept ready to be
+slaughtered and cooked when we came to dine with them!</p>
+
+<p>The question of fresh meat was not altogether easy to solve in Samoa. We,
+knowing that there were certain difficulties, had brought with us a
+provision of tongues and similar preserved foods, also of champagne, but
+there were few cows and oxen, and sheep were impossible to rear on the
+island&mdash;at least so far means had not been found to feed them amongst the
+luxuriant tangle of tropical vegetation. Preserved provisions, including
+butter, were mostly brought from New Zealand. Samoa itself provided skinny
+chickens, some kind of pigeon, yams, taros, and of course fish.</p>
+
+<p>The occasional great treat was pig cooked in the native oven, an excellent
+kitchen arrangement. A hole was dug in the ground, the object to be cooked
+was wrapped up in leaves and placed between hot stones; the whole was then
+covered up with earth and left long enough for the meat to be thoroughly
+soft and cooked through; when opened nothing could be more tender.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">KING MALIETOA</div>
+
+<p>Among other entertainments we were invited to dine by King Malietoa, to
+whom we had already paid a formal visit of ceremony. The banquet, which
+took place about three in the afternoon, was laid on a long cloth spread
+on the ground and consisted of all sorts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> of native delicacies, including
+a dish of a peculiar kind of worm, and, besides pig and pigeon, of
+vegetables cooked in various ways. The staff of the monarch included an
+orator or &#8220;Talking Man,&#8221; and a jester, thereby recalling the attendants of
+the Duke of Austria in <i>The Talisman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Talking Man, whose badge of office was a fly-whisk, carried over his
+shoulder, had had his innings at our formal reception, but the jester came
+in very useful at the banquet. We were told that one of his most
+successful jokes was to snatch away pieces of the food placed before the
+King. On this occasion he was crouched just behind Malietoa and myself.
+Part of the regal etiquette was for the monarch to give me a piece of any
+delicacy in his fingers, but he always tactfully looked the other way when
+he had done so, thereby giving me the chance of slipping it into the hands
+of the jester, who consumed it chuckling with glee.</p>
+
+<p>Malietoa was a gentle, amiable being who seemed rather oppressed by the
+position into which he had been thrust by the Powers. His rival Mataafa
+was undoubtedly the stronger character of the two, and appealed to the
+romantic instincts of Stevenson, who was his personal friend.</p>
+
+<p>Stevenson and Haggard between them therefore concocted a plot whereby I
+was to visit incognita the camp in the mountains of the rebel potentate.
+As it would not do to keep my own name, my husband being then Governor of
+New South Wales, I was to become Stevenson&#8217;s cousin, Amelia Balfour, and
+he wrote beforehand to ask that accommodation should be provided for me
+with the ladies of this royal house, as I was not well accustomed to
+Island customs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>This is how Stevenson later on described the encounter in the very
+fragmentary &#8220;Samoid&#8221;:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Two were the troops that encountered; one from the way of the shore,<br />
+And the house where at night, by the timid, the Judge<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> may be heard to roar,<br />
+And one from the side of the mountain. Now these at the trysting spot<br />
+Arrived and lay in the shade. Nor let their names be forgot.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span></span><br />
+So these in the shade awaited the hour, and the hour went by;<br />
+And ever they watched the ford of the stream with an anxious eye;<br />
+And care, in the shade of the grove, consumed them, a doubtful crew,<br />
+As they harboured close from the bands of the men of Mulinuu<br />
+But the heart of the Teller of Tales (Tusitala) at length could endure no more,<br />
+He loosed his steed from the thicket, and passed to the nearer shore,<br />
+And back through the land of his foes, steering his steed, and still<br />
+Scouting for enemies hidden. And lo! under Vaca Hill<br />
+At the crook of the road a clatter of hoofs and a glitter of white!<br />
+And there came the band from the seaward, swift as a pigeon&#8217;s flight.<br />
+Two were but there to return: the Judge of the Titles of land;<br />
+He of the lion&#8217;s hair, bearded, boisterous, bland;<br />
+And the maid that was named for the pearl,<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> a maid of another isle,<br />
+Light as a daisy rode, and gave us the light of her smile.<br />
+But two to pursue the adventure: one that was called the Queen<br />
+Light as the maid, her daughter, rode with us veiled in green,<br />
+And deep in the cloud of the veil, like a deer&#8217;s in a woodland place,<br />
+The fire of the two dark eyes, in the field of the unflushed face.<br />
+And one her brother<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> that bore the name of a knight of old,<br />
+Rode at her heels unmoved; and the glass in his eye was cold.<br />
+Bright is the sun in the brook; bright are the winter stars,<br />
+Brighter the glass in the eye of that captain of hussars.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The adventurous party consisted of R.L.S., his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, his
+stepdaughter Mrs. Strong (n&eacute;e Osbourne), and a young native chief Henry
+Simele, my brother, and myself. It was arranged with infinite,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> but
+somewhat futile, secrecy that Mr. Haggard, my daughter and I, with Rupert
+should ride out in the afternoon and find the Vailima party awaiting us at
+the Gasi-gasi Ford. This duly came off; we were rather late, and found our
+companions crouching, excited, at the appointed spot in the attitude
+proper for conspirators.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE ENCHANTED FOREST</div>
+
+<p>Haggard and my daughter thereupon returned to Ruge&#8217;s Buildings, and the
+rest of us pursued our way through the enchanted forest, past groves of
+bananas, and up the mountain. From time to time little stiles barring the
+narrow paths had to be negotiated; some Europeans explorers had imagined
+that these were a kind of fortification to protect Mataafa&#8217;s quarters, but
+really they were nothing more romantic than fences to keep pigs from
+wandering.</p>
+
+<p>Nature in Samoa everywhere erected natural screens for those who desired
+concealment in the extraordinary luxuriance of her tangled vegetation:
+overhead, broad-leaved forest trees interlacing their branches so that it
+was possible to ride even at midday under a tropical sun; below, the long
+and varied creeping plants which went under the general name of &#8220;vines,&#8221;
+and which rendered progress difficult except where narrow tracks had been
+cleared leading from one little village to another. Mostly, however, the
+villagers were within easy reach of the seashore, partly for convenience
+of fishing, partly as being accessible in boats. The villagers loved to
+visit their friends, rowing pleasantly from place to place within the
+lagoons which circled the Island.</p>
+
+<p>To return to our journey. Among other instances of tropical luxuriance, we
+passed a quantity of sensitive plant. The original plant had been placed
+by a member<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> of a German firm on his child&#8217;s grave, thence it had quickly
+spread and had become a perfect pest in the surrounding districts. My
+horse was an extremely lanky and skinny animal which Mr. Haggard had
+procured for my use, and which alternately rejoiced in the names of
+&#8220;Pedigree&#8221; and &#8220;Starvation,&#8221; the latter seeming more appropriate. R.L.S.
+rode a fat little pony. Mrs. Strong subsequently caricatured our progress
+by representing me very tall with an extremely tight waistband, and
+Stevenson looking upward from his diminutive steed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Strong, be it understood, regarded any kind of fitting garment as a
+foolish superfluity. On this occasion she had donned corsets for the
+convenience of a long ride, but when, in the twilight, we neared our
+destination she slipped them off and gave them to an attendant, bidding
+him be a good boy and carry them for her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">KING MATAAFA</div>
+
+<p>As we approached the royal abode we were met first by a man beating a
+drum, then by the whole population, and heard many remarks interchanged in
+low tones; my companions told me that they referred to the &#8220;Tamaiti Sili&#8221;
+or &#8220;Great Lady,&#8221; showing how singularly ineffectual was my disguise. If
+any proof of this were needed it was soon supplied. Mataafa, a very fine
+old man, received us most courteously, attended specially by a remarkable
+old gentleman called Popo, who had curiously aquiline features quite
+unlike the ordinary native. Stevenson thus described him:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;He who had worshipped feathers and shells and wood,<br />
+As a pillar alone in the desert that points where a city stood,<br />
+Survived the world that was his, playmates and gods and tongue&mdash;<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>For even the speech of his race had altered since Popo was young.<br />
+And ages of time and epochs of changing manners bowed,<br />
+And the silent hosts of the dead wondered and muttered aloud<br />
+With him, as he bent and marvelled, a man of the time of the Ark,<br />
+And saluted the ungloved hand of the Lady of Osterley Park.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We were first presented with refreshing cocoa-nuts, and after profuse
+compliments, conveyed through the interpreter, dinner, or supper, was
+prepared on a small wooden table in the background. It consisted of
+pigeon, chickens, taros, and yams, but poor Mataafa, who had previously
+adjourned for evening service, could not share the birds because it was a
+fast day. He was a Roman Catholic&mdash;another point of difference between him
+and Malietoa, who was a Protestant.</p>
+
+<p>After the evening repast came the kava ceremony. As is well known, kava is
+a drink made from the roots of the pepper-tree, chewed by young persons
+(who have first carefully washed their teeth), and then soaked in water.
+To me it always tasted rather like soapy water, but it is most popular
+with the natives, who will sit at festivities drinking large quantities.
+It is said to have no effect on the head, but to numb the lower limbs if
+too much is imbibed.</p>
+
+<p>At special ceremonies, however, it is somewhat in the nature of a
+loving-cup, only each guest has a cocoa-nut shell refilled from the
+general wooden-legged bowl for his benefit. The kava is always given in
+strict order of precedence, and the interest was to see whether Mataafa
+would give the first cup to Stevenson as a man, and head of the family, or
+to me, a mere woman and ostensibly a female relative, as in the latter
+case it would show that he saw through my cousinly pretensions. It was
+rather a curious scene in the dimly lighted native house&mdash;chairs for the
+King and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> European guests, while the interpreter, Henry Simele, and
+the native henchmen squatted near-by. With an indescribable expression of
+suppressed amusement Mataafa handed the cup to me, whereupon Stevenson,
+with a delightful twinkle of his eye, exclaimed, &#8220;Oh, Amelia, you&#8217;re a
+very bad conspirator!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Stevenson and my brother were then taken off to another house, while Mrs.
+Strong and I were escorted to the couch prepared for us&mdash;a large pile of
+soft mats enclosed in a mosquito curtain, with two pillows side by side at
+the head.</p>
+
+<p>A native house has often been described. It is generally a roof shaped
+like an inverted boat of wooden beams supported on posts and thatched with
+palm-leaves. Its size varies greatly according to the position and wealth
+of the owner. Mataafa&#8217;s was a large one and his mats were beautiful. There
+was only one room, and in a general way no one would have demurred at
+sleeping all together. However, in this case a large tappa curtain was let
+down in the centre; the King and his warriors slept on one side, and the
+other formed the apartment of Mrs. Strong and myself.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Strong was a most entertaining companion, and told me stories of
+American experience before we both composed ourselves to sleep. She was
+much amused by my one preparation for evening toilet, which was a
+toothbrush; but I had to go outside the matting curtains suspended between
+the posts to use it, as all cooking and washing was bound to take place
+where nothing should spoil the beautiful mats carpeting the house proper.
+I found guards outside waiting in the darkness, and when he heard of my
+excursion Stevenson declared that my teeth would become historic. It is
+not to be supposed that the natives neglect cleanliness&mdash;they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> constantly
+bathe in the sea and in streams, but all washing takes place outside, not
+inside, their houses.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE KAVA CEREMONY</div>
+
+<p>Next morning we adjourned from the private abode to Mataafa&#8217;s large new
+Parliament House, where all his chiefs were assembled for public or King&#8217;s
+kava. They sat round in a sort of circle, each representing one of the
+royal &#8220;names&#8221; or tribes.</p>
+
+<p>Without going into the intricacies of Samoan genealogy it may be explained
+that no Prince could properly be King of the whole group unless he could
+prove his title to rule over all the &#8220;names.&#8221; As it seemed that neither
+Malietoa nor Mataafa could do this, their quarrel was unlikely ever to be
+decided except by force and by the support given to one or the other from
+outside. Anyhow, a great number of &#8220;names&#8221; were represented on this
+occasion and the scene was very interesting.</p>
+
+<p>This Parliament House was said to be the largest native building in Samoa,
+and was certainly fine and well constructed. On the cross-beams of the
+central &#8220;roof-tree&#8221; were three painted wooden birds, emblems of the King&#8217;s
+house, as his father had been called &#8220;King of the Birds.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The King and his guests again sat on chairs, the chiefs squatted on the
+ground. This time, being public, the King, with true courtesy, accepted my
+ostensible position, and gave the kava first to R.L.S.; after the rest of
+us had drunk, it was carried to each chief in turn, and in several cases
+curious rites accompanied their acceptance of the cup. In one case an old
+man had to lie down and be massaged for an imaginary ailment, in another
+the kava was poured over a <i>stone</i> which stood for one of the &#8220;names&#8221;
+whose human representative was lacking. The most dramatic <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>incident was
+when a fine-looking chief, who was a sort of War Lord in Mataafa&#8217;s army,
+five times refused the cup with a very haughty air before condescending to
+drink, which he then had to do five times. We were told that this was in
+memory of an ancestor who had refused water when no supply could be
+obtained for his king, recalling the story of David pouring out the water
+obtained at the risk of his captains&#8217; lives.</p>
+
+<p>When all was over some of the chiefs were presented to us, particularly
+the War Lord, who had laid by his truculent manners and was very smiling
+and amiable. He had had two drinks, first as Head of the Forces, later on
+as Headman of his Village&mdash;so was in great form.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mataafa! After we left the Islands war broke out again, his forces
+were finally defeated, and I believe that he died in exile. My stolen
+visit to him will, however, be always a most delightful recollection.</p>
+
+<p>We also paid our respects to Tamasese, son of the &#8220;German King,&#8221; previous
+to spending a night with the Wesleyan Missionary and his wife. Tamasese
+was out when we arrived, as he did not expect us so early. We had started
+in the Commissioner&#8217;s boat at 4 a.m., and saw the sun rise over the locked
+lagoon. We were, however, most courteously received by his handsome wife
+Viti, who besides her tappa lava-lava wore a kind of double bib or
+sleeveless jumper falling to the waist before and behind, with a hole in
+the middle for her head to go through. This ingenious garment was made of
+cotton pocket-handkerchiefs not yet cut apart for sale and printed with
+portraits of prize-fighters.</p>
+
+<p>Tamasese, when he entered the house, proved to be the finest native whom
+we had yet seen, with the square head and broad limbs of a Roman emperor.
+In addition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> to the lava-lava both men and women loved to decorate
+themselves and their guests with garlands of flowers worn either on their
+heads or hung round their necks. I have a vivid recollection of my brother
+seated on a box in Tamasese&#8217;s hospitable house with a wreath of flowers on
+his head, surrounded by an admiring crowd of young women, including the
+handsome Viti, a young cousin or adopted daughter, and the Taupau or Maid
+of the Village, a girl selected for her beauty and charm to represent the
+community in the receptions and merry-makings which are a prominent
+feature in Samoan life.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A NATIVE DANCE</div>
+
+<p>Later in the day we were present at a native dance, if dance it can be
+called, when the performers sat for the most part on the ground, and the
+action took place by girls swinging their arms and bodies while the men
+contributed the music. The girls did not confine themselves to rhythmic
+movements, but also gave a kind of comic dramatic performance, mimicking
+amongst other things the manners and customs of white people with much
+laughter and enjoyment. They threw bunches of leaves about by way of
+cricket balls&mdash;got up and walked in peculiar manners, with explanations
+which were translated to us as &#8220;German style,&#8221; &#8220;English style,&#8221; and so on;
+and when they sang a kind of song or recitative, concerning a college for
+native girls about to be established by the missionaries, they made the
+very sensible suggestion that one or two of them should go and try what
+the life was like before they entered in any number.</p>
+
+<p>Tamasese paid us a return visit at Apia. It was curious to see him seated
+on a chair having luncheon with us, dressed solely in a white lava-lava
+and a large garland of leaves and flowers or berries. He also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> attended an
+evening party at Ruge&#8217;s Buildings; on that occasion he added a white linen
+coat to his costume at Haggard&#8217;s request, simply because the cocoa-nut oil
+with which natives anoint their bodies might have come off on the ladies&#8217;
+dresses in a crowd.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is that a lava-lava and a coating of oil are much the most
+healthy and practical costume in a tropical climate. When a shower of rain
+comes on it does so with such force that any ordinary garment is soaked
+through in a few minutes. It is impossible for natives to be always
+running home to change their clothes even if their wardrobes permitted,
+and remaining in these wet garments is surely provocative of the
+consumption which so often carries them off.</p>
+
+<p>Shirley Baker in Tonga made it a law that everyone should wear an upper
+and a nether garment; in Samoa it was not a legal question, but the
+missionaries made doubtless well-intentioned efforts to enforce the
+addition of white shirts to the male, and overalls to the female costume,
+which really seemed unnecessary with their nice brown skins.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult for a casual visitor to judge fairly the influence of
+missionaries on natives, but on the whole, as far as I have seen missions
+in different lands, despite mistakes and narrow-mindedness, it seems to be
+for good. There is an enormous difference between missions to ancient
+civilisations such as those of India and China, and to children of nature
+such as the population of the Pacific. I do not forget the command &#8220;Go ye
+and teach all nations,&#8221; an authority which no Christian can dispute; I am
+thinking only of <i>how</i> this has been done, and with what effect on the
+&#8220;nations.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is pretty evident that when the nations have an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> elaborate ritual of
+their own, and when the educated classes among them have a decided
+tendency to metaphysics, a ritual such as that of the Roman Catholics is
+apt to appeal to them, and the men sent to teach them must be prepared to
+enter into their difficulties and discussions. When, however, the
+populations to be approached are merely inclined to deify the forces of
+nature, and to believe in the power of spirits, if a man of some education
+comes among them, helps them in illness, and proves his superiority in
+agriculture and in the arts of daily life, they are very ready to accept
+his authority and obey his injunctions.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MISSIONARIES</div>
+
+<p>In the case of the South Sea Islanders there is no doubt that the
+missionaries have afforded them protection against the tyranny and vices
+introduced by many of the low-class traders and beachcombers who exploited
+them in every possible way. The missionaries have done their best to stop
+their drinking the horrible spirits received from such men, in return for
+forced labour and the produce of their land. They have done much to
+eradicate cannibalism and other evil customs. Their error seems to have
+been the attempt to put down dances and festivities of all kinds on the
+plea that these were connected with heathen rites, instead of encouraging
+them under proper restrictions. Even when we were in the Islands, however,
+many of the more enlightened missionaries had already realised that human
+nature must have play, and that, as St. John told the huntsman who found
+him playing with a partridge, you cannot keep the bow always bent.
+Probably by now the Christian Churches in the Pacific have learnt much
+wisdom by experience.</p>
+
+<p>As before remarked, there were, in 1892, three sets of missionaries in
+Samoa. Apart from the Roman Catholics,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> the most important were the London
+Missionaries, whose founders had been men of high education and who had
+settled in the Islands about the time of Queen Victoria&#8217;s accession. The
+Wesleyans had also made many converts.</p>
+
+<p>Some years before our visit a sort of concordat had been arranged between
+the various Anglican and Protestant Churches working in the Pacific. The
+Church of England clergy were to work in the Islands commonly called
+Melanesia; the Wesleyans, whose great achievements had been in Fiji, were
+to take that group, Tonga, and other offshoots of their special missions;
+the London missionaries were to have Samoa and other fields of labour
+where their converts predominated. Under this agreement the Wesleyan
+missionaries left Samoa, but alas! after a time they came back, to the not
+unnatural indignation of the London missionaries. Their plea was that
+their flock begged them to return. An outsider cannot pronounce on the
+rights and wrongs of the question, but the feeling engendered was evident
+to the most casual observer.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Roman Catholics, we were sitting one evening with a London
+missionary, when a native servant ran in to inform him that the R.C.
+priest was showing a magic-lantern in which our host and one of his
+colleagues were represented in hell!</p>
+
+<p>I should add that I noticed that in a course of lectures given to their
+students by the London missionaries was one &#8220;on the errors of the Roman
+Church,&#8221; but that was not as drastic, nor, I presume, so exciting, as the
+ocular argument offered by the priest.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">SAMOAN MYTHOLOGY</div>
+
+<p>The mythology of the Samoans was much like that of other primitive
+nations, and as in similar cases their gods and heroes were closely
+connected. The chief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> deity was a certain Tangoloalangi or
+&#8220;god-of-heaven.&#8221; He had a son called Pilibuu, who came down to earth,
+settled in Samoa, and planted kava and sugar-cane. He also made a
+fishing-net and selected as his place of abode a spot on Upolu large
+enough to enable him to spread it out. Pilibuu had four sons to whom he
+allotted various offices; one was to look after the plantations, another
+to carry the walking-stick and fly-whisk to &#8220;do the talking,&#8221; a third as
+warrior carried the spear and club, while the youngest had charge of the
+canoes. To all he gave the excellent advice, &#8220;When you wish to work, work;
+when you wish to talk, talk; when you wish to fight, fight.&#8221; The second
+injunction struck me as that most congenial to his descendants.</p>
+
+<p>The Samoans had legends connected with their mats, those of fine texture
+being valued as jewels are in Western lands. One was told me at great
+length about a mat made by a woman who was a spirit, who worked at
+different times under the vines, under a canoe, and on the sea-shore.
+Either her personal charms or her industry captivated Tangoloalangi, and
+he took her up to heaven and made her his wife. Her first child, a
+daughter, was endowed with the mat, and looking down from heaven she was
+fascinated by the appearance of a fine man attired in a lava-lava of red
+bird-of-paradise feathers. She descended in a shower of rain, but her
+Endymion, mistaking her mode of transit for an ordinary storm, took off
+his plumes for fear they should get wet. Arrived on earth she went up to
+him and said, &#8220;Where is the man I saw from heaven wearing a fine
+lava-lava?&#8221; &#8220;I am he,&#8221; replied the swain. Incredulous, she retorted, &#8220;I
+saw a man not so ugly as you.&#8221; &#8220;I am the same as before, but you saw me
+from a distance with a red lava-lava on.&#8221; In vain he resumed his
+adornment;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> the charm was broken and she would none of him. Instead of
+returning to the skies she wandered to another village and had further
+adventures with the mat, which she gave to her daughter by the earthly
+husband whom she ultimately selected. She told the girl that on any day on
+which she took the mat out to dry in the sun there would be darkness,
+rain, and hurricane. The mat was still preserved in the family of the man
+who told me the story, and was never taken out to dry in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>The Samoans, like other races, had a story of the Flood, and one
+derivation (there are several) of the name of the Group is Sa = sacred or
+preserved, Moa = fowl, as they say that one of their gods preserved his
+fowls on these islands during the deluge.</p>
+
+<p>They had sacred symbols, such as sticks, leaves, and stones, and a general
+belief in spirits, but I never heard of any special ritual, nor were there
+any traces of temples on the Islands. They seemed a gentle, amiable
+people, not fierce like the natives of New Ireland, the New Hebrides, and
+others of negroid type.</p>
+
+<p>The constant joy of the natives is to go for a malanga or boat expedition
+to visit neighbouring villages, and we quite realised the fascination of
+this mode of progress when we were rowed through the quiet lagoons in
+early morning or late evening, the rising or setting sun striking colours
+from the barrier reefs, and our boatmen chanting native songs as they bent
+to their oars. Once a little girl was thrown into our boat to attend us
+when we were going to sleep in a native teacher&#8217;s house. She lay down at
+the bottom with a tappa cloth covering her from the sun. We were amused,
+when the men began to sing, to hear her little voice from under the cloth
+joining in the melody.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DESIRE FOR ENGLISH PROTECTION</div>
+
+<p>On this occasion we visited one or two stations of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> the London
+missionaries and inspected a number of young chief students. I noticed one
+youth who seemed particularly pleased by something said to him by the
+missionary. I asked what had gratified him, and Mr. Hills said that he had
+told him that the Island from which he came (I think one of the Ellice
+Islands) had just been annexed by the British, and they were so afraid of
+being taken by the Germans! That well represented the general feeling.
+Once as we were rowing in our boat a large native canoe passed us, and the
+men in it shouted some earnest supplication. I asked what it was, and was
+told that they were imploring &#8220;by Jesus Christ&#8221; that we should beg the
+British Government to take the Island.</p>
+
+<p>Poor things, not long after we left, the agreement was made by which
+England assumed the Protectorate of Tonga and Germany that of Upolu and
+Savaii of the Samoan group. Since the war New Zealand has the &#8220;mandate&#8221; to
+govern them, and I hope they are happy. I never heard that they were
+ill-treated by the Germans during their protectorate, but they had
+certainly seen enough of the forced labour on German plantations to make
+them terribly afraid of their possible fate.</p>
+
+<p>The London missionaries had stations not only on the main Island, but also
+on the outlying islets of Manono and Apolima which they were anxious that
+we should visit. The latter was a small but romantic spot. The only
+practicable landing-place was between two high projecting rocks, and we
+were told that any party of natives taking refuge there could guarantee
+themselves against pursuit by tying a rope across from rock to rock and
+upsetting any hostile canoe into the sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>Ocean itself, not the inhabitants, expressed an objection to our presence
+on this occasion. There was no sheltering lagoon to receive us, the sea
+was so rough and the surf so violent that our crew assured us that it was
+impossible to land, and we had to retreat to Manono. Mr. Haggard sent a
+message thence to the Apolima chiefs assuring them of our great regret,
+and promising that I would send my portrait to hang in their village
+guest-house. I told this to the head missionary&#8217;s wife when I saw her
+again, and she exclaimed with much earnestness, &#8220;Oh, do send the
+photograph or they will all turn Wesleyans!&#8221; To avert this catastrophe a
+large, elaborately framed photograph was duly sent from Sydney and
+formally presented by Mr. Haggard. I trust that it kept the score or so of
+Islanders in the true faith. A subsequent visitor found it hanging upside
+down in the guest-house, and the last I heard of it was that the chiefs
+had fled with it to the hills after some fighting in which they were
+defeated. I seem to have been an inefficient fetish, but I do not know
+whose quarrel they had embraced.</p>
+
+<p>We had one delightful picnic, not by boat, but riding inland to a
+waterfall some twenty or thirty feet high. Our meal was spread on rocks in
+the little river into which it fell, and after our luncheon the native
+girls who accompanied us sat on the top of the fall and let themselves be
+carried by the water into the deep pool below. My daughter and I envied,
+though we could not emulate them, but my brother divested himself of his
+outer garments and clad in pyjamas let two girls take him by either arm
+and shot with them down into the clear cool water. One girl who joined the
+entertainment was said to be a spirit, but there was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> outward sign to
+show wherein she differed from a mortal. Mortals or spirits, they were a
+cheery, light-hearted race.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">VISIT FROM TAMASESE</div>
+
+<p>I must mention Tamasese&#8217;s farewell visit to us accompanied by one or two
+followers. Mr. Haggard donned his uniform for the occasion, and as usual
+we English sat in a row on chairs, while the Samoans squatted on the floor
+in front. We had as interpreter a half-caste called Yandall, who had some
+shadowy claim to the royal blood of England in his veins. How or why I
+never understood, but he was held in vague esteem on that account.</p>
+
+<p>At this visit, after various polite phrases had been interchanged, Haggard
+premised his oration by enjoining on Yandall to interpret his words
+exactly. He first dilated in flowery language on the importance of my
+presence in Samoa, on which our guests interjected murmurs of pleased
+assent. He then went on to foreshadow our imminent departure&mdash;mournful
+&#8220;yahs&#8221; came in here&mdash;and then wound up with words to this effect:
+&#8220;Partings must always occur on earth; there is but one place where there
+will be no more partings, and that is the Kingdom of heaven, <i>where Lady
+Jersey will be very pleased to see all present</i>&#8221;! Imagine the joy of the
+Stevenson family when this gem of rhetoric was reported to them.</p>
+
+<p>I have already referred to the story, <i>An Object of Pity, or the Man
+Haggard</i>, which was written by my brother and myself in collaboration with
+the Stevensons. The idea was that each author should describe his or her
+own character, that Haggard should be the hero of a romance running
+through the whole, and that we should all imitate the style of Ouida, to
+whom the booklet was inscribed in a delightful dedication afterwards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
+written by Stevenson, from which I venture to cull a few extracts:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Lady Ouida,&mdash;Many besides yourself have exulted to collect Olympian
+polysyllables and to sling ink not Wisely but too Well. They are
+forgotten, you endure. Many have made it their goal and object to
+Exceed; and who else has been so Excessive?... It is therefore, with a
+becoming diffidence that we profit by an unusual circumstance to
+approach and to address you.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We, undersigned, all persons of ability and good character, were
+suddenly startled to find ourselves walking in broad day in the halls
+of one of your romances. We looked about us with embarrassment, we
+instinctively spoke low; and you were good enough not to perceive the
+intrusion or to affect unconsciousness. But we were there; we have
+inhabited your tropical imagination; we have lived in the reality that
+which you have but dreamed of in your studio. And the Man Haggard
+above all. The house he dwells in was not built by any carpenter, you
+wrote it with your pen; the friends with which he has surrounded
+himself are the mere spirit of your nostrils; and those who look on at
+his career are kept in a continual twitter lest he should fall out of
+the volume; in which case, I suppose he must infallibly injure himself
+beyond repair; and the characters in the same novel, what would become
+of them?... The present volume has been written slavishly from your
+own gorgeous but peculiar point of view. Your touch of complaisance in
+observation, your genial excess of epithet, and the grace of your
+antiquarian allusions, have been cultivated like the virtues. Could we
+do otherwise? When nature and life had caught the lyre from your
+burning hands who were we to affect a sterner independence?&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>There follow humorous comments on the contents of the chapters, and the
+Dedication ends with the signatures of &#8220;Your fond admirers&#8221; in Samoan with
+English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> translations. Mrs. Stevenson, for instance, was &#8220;O Le Fafine
+Mamana O I Le Maunga, The Witch-Woman of the Mountain&#8221;; and the rest of us
+bore like fanciful designations. It was of course absurd daring on the
+part of Rupert and myself to write the initial chapters, which dealt with
+an imaginary conspiracy typical of the jealousies among various
+inhabitants of the Islands, and with our expedition to Malie (Mataafa&#8217;s
+Camp); but we were honoured by the addition of four amusing chapters
+written by Stevenson, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Strong, and their cousin Graham
+(now Sir Graham) Balfour. The Stevensons gave a lurid account of Haggard&#8217;s
+evening party at Ruge&#8217;s Buildings, and Mr. Balfour projected himself into
+the future and imagined Haggard old and historic surrounded by friends and
+evolving memories of the past.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">&#8220;AN OBJECT OF PITY&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>We had kept him in ignorance of what was on foot, but when all was
+complete the Stevensons gave us luncheon at Vailima with the best of
+native dishes, Lloyd Osbourne, adorned with leaves and flowers in native
+fashion, officiating as butler. When the banquet was over a garland of
+flowers was hung round Haggard&#8217;s neck, a tankard of ale was placed before
+him, and Stevenson read aloud the MSS. replete with allusions to, and
+jokes about, his various innocent idiosyncrasies. So far from being
+annoyed, the good-natured hero was quite delighted, and kept on saying,
+&#8220;What a compliment all you people are paying me!&#8221; In the end we posed as a
+group, Mrs. Strong lying on the ground and holding up an apple while the
+rest of us knelt or bent in various attitudes of adoration round the erect
+form and smiling countenance of Haggard. The photograph taken did not come
+out very well, but sufficiently for my mother later on to make a coloured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+sketch for me to keep as a frontispiece for my special copy of <i>An Object
+of Pity</i>. It was indeed a happy party&mdash;looking back it is sad to think
+how few of those present now survive, but it was pleasure unalloyed while
+it lasted.</p>
+
+<p>As for the booklet, with general agreement of the authors I had it
+privately printed at Sydney, the copies being distributed amongst us. Some
+years after Stevenson&#8217;s death Mr. Blaikie asked leave to print twenty-five
+presentation copies in the same form as the Edinburgh edition, to which
+Mrs. Stevenson consented. I wrote an explanatory Preface, and lent for
+reproduction the clever little book of coloured sketches by Mrs. Strong,
+with Stevenson&#8217;s verses underneath to which I have already alluded.</p>
+
+<p>We had arranged to return to Australia by the American mail-ship, the
+<i>Mariposa</i>, so after three of the happiest weeks of my life we had to
+embark on board her on the evening of September 2nd, when she entered the
+harbour of Apia.</p>
+
+<p>Regret at leaving Samoa was, however, much allayed by meeting my son,
+Villiers, who had come across America from England in the charge of Sir
+George Dibbs, our New South Wales Premier, whose visit to the mother-land
+I have already described. Villiers had grown very tall since we parted, he
+had finished his Eton career and joined us to spend some months in
+Australia before going to Oxford. We were amused by an &#8220;interview&#8221; with
+him and Dibbs in one of the American papers, in which he was described as
+son of the Governor of New South Wales, but more like a young Englishman
+than a young Australian, which was hardly surprising considering that he
+had at that time never set foot in Australia. This <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>reminds me of some
+French people who seeing a Maharajah in Paris at the time of Lord Minto&#8217;s
+appointment to India, thought that the dignified and turbaned Indian must
+be the new Viceroy&mdash;the Earl of Minto.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">COURAGE OF R. L. STEVENSON</div>
+
+<p>Poor Robert Louis Stevenson&mdash;he died not long after our visit; his life,
+death, and funeral have been recorded in many books and by many able pens.
+His life, with all its struggles and despite constant ill-health, was, I
+hope and believe, a happy one. Perhaps we most of us fail to weigh fairly
+the compensating joy of overcoming when confronted with adversity of any
+kind. He told me once how he had had a MS. refused just at the time when
+he had undertaken the cares of a family represented by a wife and her
+children, but I am sure that the pleasure of the success which he won was
+greater to his buoyant nature than any depression caused by temporary
+failure.</p>
+
+<p>He loved his Island home, though he had from time to time a sense of
+isolation. He let this appear once when he said how he should feel our
+departure, and how sorry he should be when he should also lose the
+companionship of Haggard.</p>
+
+<p>There has lately been some correspondence in the papers about misprints in
+his books. This may be due in part to the necessity of leaving the
+correction of his proofs to others when he was residing or travelling in
+distant climes. When we were in Samoa, <i>Una, or the Beach of Falesa</i>, was
+appearing as a serial in an illustrated paper of which I received a copy.
+Stevenson had not seen it in print until I showed it to him, and was much
+vexed to find that some verbal alteration had been made in the text. At
+his request when we left the Island I took a cable to send off from
+Auckland, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> our ship touched, with strict injunctions to &#8220;follow Una
+line by line.&#8221; There was no cable then direct from Samoa, and apparently
+no arrangement had been made to let the author see his own work while in
+progress.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<p class="title">DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA&mdash;CHINA AND JAPAN</p>
+
+<p>Early in 1893 my husband was obliged to resign his Governorship, as our
+Welsh agent had died and there were many urgent calls for his presence in
+England. The people of New South Wales were most generous in their
+expressions of regret, and I need not dwell on all the banquets and
+farewells which marked our departure. I feel that all I have said of
+Australia and of our many friends there is most inadequate; but though the
+people and places offered much variety in fact, in description it would be
+most difficult to avoid repetition were I to attempt an account of the
+townships and districts which we visited and of the welcome which we
+received from hospitable hosts in every place. There were mining centres
+like Newcastle where the coal was so near the surface that we walked into
+a large mine through a sloping tunnel instead of descending in a cage;
+there was the beautiful scenery of the Hawkesbury River, the rich lands
+round Bathurst and Armidale and other stations where we passed most
+enjoyable days with squatters whose fathers had rescued these lands and
+made &#8220;the wilderness to blossom like a rose.&#8221; It often seemed to me that
+one special reason why Englishmen in Colonial life succeeded where other
+nations equally intelligent and enterprising failed to take permanent root
+was the way in which Englishwomen would adapt themselves to isolation. We
+all know the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> superiority of many Frenchwomen in domestic arts, but it is
+difficult to imagine a Frenchwoman living in the conditions accepted by
+English ladies in all parts of the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>One lady in New South Wales lived fifteen miles from the nearest
+neighbour, and her one relaxation after a hard day&#8217;s work was to hear that
+neighbour playing down the telephone on a violin. That, however, was
+living in the world compared to the fate of another friend! The husband of
+the latter lady was, when we met, a very rich man who drove a four-in-hand
+and sent his son to Eton. When they first started Colonial life they lived
+for five years a hundred miles from any other white woman. The lady had a
+white maid-servant of some kind for a short time at the beginning of their
+career, but she soon left, and after that she had only black &#8220;gins&#8221;
+(women). I was told that one of her children had been burnt in a bush
+fire, and her brother-in-law was killed by the blacks. Naturally I did not
+refer to those tragedies, but I asked whether she did not find the
+isolation very trying, particularly the evenings. She said, oh no, she was
+so occupied during the day and so tired when the work was over that she
+had no time to wish for anything but rest. She was a very quiet, pleasant
+woman, a lady in every sense of the word, and one could not but admire the
+way in which she had passed through those hard and trying years and
+resumed completely civilised existence.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BUSHRANGERS</div>
+
+<p>We heard many tales of bushrangers from those who had encountered them or
+heard of their performances from friends. It is not very astonishing that
+a population largely recruited in early days from convicts should have
+provided a contingent of highwaymen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> Their two main sources of income
+were the oxen and horses which they stole and sold again after
+scientifically &#8220;faking&#8221; the brands, and the gold which they robbed as it
+was being conveyed to distant banks.</p>
+
+<p>I have referred to Rolf Boldrewood&#8217;s hero &#8220;Starlight.&#8221; Certain incidents
+of his career were adapted from the life of the most prominent bushranger
+Kelly, but whereas Starlight, for the purpose of the story, is endowed
+with some of the traits of a fallen angel, Kelly seems to have been a
+common sort of villain in most respects, only gifted with exceptional
+daring and with that power over other men which is potent for good or
+evil. He was described as wearing &#8220;armour&#8221;; I believe that he protected
+himself with certain kitchen utensils under his clothes. In the end, when
+hotly pursued by the police, he and his band underwent a regular siege in
+a house, but by that time the police were able to bring up reinforcements
+by rail, the gang was forced to surrender, and Kelly and others were
+executed.</p>
+
+<p>A sordid incident was that on the very night of his execution Kelly&#8217;s
+brother and sister appeared, for money, on the stage in a theatre at
+Melbourne!</p>
+
+<p>The railroad was the effectual means of stopping bushranging, both by
+facilitating the movements of the police and by enabling gold to be
+transported without the risks attendant on coaches, or horsemen who were
+sometimes sent by their employers to carry it from place to place. A
+gentleman told me how he had been thus commissioned, and being attacked by
+a solitary bushranger in a wayside inn, dodged his assailant round and
+round a stove and ultimately got off safely.</p>
+
+<p>Bushranging was extinct before our arrival in New South Wales, but Jersey
+had one rather curious <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>experience of its aftermath. An old man had
+murdered his wife, and, in accordance with the then custom, the capital
+sentence pronounced upon him by the judge came before the Governor in
+Council for confirmation. Jersey asked the advice of each member in turn,
+and all concurred in the verdict except one man, who declined to give an
+opinion. After the Council he took my husband aside and told him that he
+had not liked to join in the condemnation as he knew the criminal
+personally. He added this curious detail. The murderer had formerly been
+connected with a gang of bushrangers; he had not actually shared in their
+depredations, but he had received the animals they stole, and it was his
+job to fake the brands&mdash;namely, to efface the names or marks of the proper
+owners and to substitute others so that the horses or cattle could not be
+identified. The gang was captured and broken up, the members being all
+sentenced to death or other severe punishment, but this man escaped, as
+his crimes could not be proved against him. Nemesis, however, awaited him
+in another form. He kept his faking iron; and when his wife was found
+murdered, the fatal wound was identified as having been inflicted with
+this weapon, and he was thereby convicted.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE</div>
+
+<p>Another story of those bygone days, though unconnected with bushranging,
+seems worth preservation. A man was found lying dead in the streets of
+Brisbane (or some other town in Queensland), and there was no evidence
+whatever to show how he had come by this fate, though the fact that his
+watch was missing pointed to violence on the part of some person unknown.
+A considerable time afterwards certain poor houses were demolished, with
+the view presumably to building better ones in their place. Behind a brick
+in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> chimney of one of these houses was found the missing watch. A
+workman who had inhabited the house at the time of the murder was
+thereupon arrested, and brought before a judge who had come on circuit.
+The workman protested his innocence, saying that he had seen the man lying
+in the street and, finding that he was quite dead, appropriated his watch
+and took it home to his wife. The woman had told him that he was very
+foolish, as if the watch were found in his possession he might be accused
+of killing the man, and yielding to her persuasions instead of trying to
+sell or wearing it he hid it behind the chimney where it was found. The
+story sounded thin, but on hearing the details of place and date the
+presiding judge exclaimed that it was true. When a young barrister he
+himself had been in the same town, and was running to catch the train when
+a man, apparently drunk, lurched against him; he pushed him aside and saw
+him fall, but had no idea that he was injured, and hurried on. The workman
+was acquitted, and I suppose that the judge acquitted himself!</p>
+
+<p>Space has not admitted any record of our visitors at Sydney, but I must
+mention the pleasure which we had in welcoming Miss Shaw who came on
+behalf of <i>The Times</i> to examine and report on the Kanaka question. It was
+universally allowed that <i>The Times</i> had been very well advised in sending
+out so charming and capable a lady. She won the hearts of the Queensland
+planters, who introduced her to many sides of plantation life which they
+would never have troubled themselves to show a mere man. We gladly
+continued in England a friendship thus begun at the Antipodes, none the
+less gladly when Miss Shaw became the wife of an equally talented servant
+of the Empire, Sir Frederick Lugard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>One year we entertained at Osterley a number of foreign Colonial delegates
+and asked representative English people to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>Among our guests were Sir Frederick and Lady Lugard. The latter was seated
+between a Belgian, interested in the Congo, and I think a Dutchman. After
+dinner these gentlemen asked me in somewhat agitated tones, &#8220;Qui &eacute;tait
+cette dame qui &eacute;tait si forte dans la question de l&#8217;Afrique?&#8221; and one said
+to the other, &#8220;Elle vous a bien roul&eacute;, mon cher.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I explained that it was Lady Lugard, formerly Miss Flora Shaw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quoi&mdash;la grande Miss Shaw! Alors cela s&#8217;explique,&#8221; was the reply in a
+voice of awe.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1893 Villiers and our younger children left in the <i>Ophir</i>
+direct for England, accompanied by Harry Cholmondeley, the German
+governess, and the servants. My brother remained on the staff of our
+successor, Sir Robert Duff. Our eldest daughter, Margaret, stayed with us,
+as we contemplated a visit to Japan and a trip across Canada and to
+Chicago on our way back, and wished for her company.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled by train to Toowoomba in Queensland, where we slept one
+night, and then went on to Brisbane, where we embarked on board the
+Eastern Australian ship the <i>Catterthun</i>. Brisbane was still suffering
+from the after-effects of great floods, and it was curious, particularly
+in the suburbs, to see many houses, which had been built on piles to avoid
+the depredation of ants, overturned, and lying on their sides like houses
+thrown out of a child&#8217;s box of toys. Nevertheless Brisbane struck us as a
+cheerful and prosperous city during our few hours&#8217; stay.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE GREAT BARRIER REEF</div>
+
+<p>The voyage through the lagoon of the Great Barrier<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> Reef, though hot, was
+most enjoyable. As is well known this great coral reef extends for over
+twelve hundred miles in the ocean washing the north-east coast of
+Australia. In the wide expanse of sea between it and the mainland ships
+can generally sail unvexed by storms, and from a few hours after we left
+Brisbane till we reached the mouth of the North Continent that was our
+happy condition.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped at one or two coast towns and passed through the very pretty
+Albany Passage to the Gulf of Carpentaria, across which we had a perfectly
+smooth passage. We then spent a night or two with Mr. Dashwood at Port
+Darwin, where we were much interested in the population, partly officials
+of the Eastern Extension Cable Company and partly Chinese. Everything has
+doubtless changed greatly in the years which have intervened since our
+visit. Port Darwin was then the chief town of the Northern Territory of
+South Australia&mdash;now the Northern Territory has been taken over by the
+Commonwealth Government, which appoints an Administrator and encourages
+settlement. I hope the settlers will succeed, but Port Darwin remains in
+my memory as a very hot place and the European inhabitants as of somewhat
+yellow complexion.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese had a temple or Joss house, attached to which was a sort of
+hall in which were stored numerous jars recalling those of the Forty
+Thieves, but containing the bones of dead Chinamen awaiting transport to
+their own country.</p>
+
+<p>While at Port Darwin Mr. Dashwood very kindly arranged a Corroboree for
+us. We were told that this was one of the few places where such an
+entertainment was possible. In parts of Australia farther south the
+aboriginals have become too civilised, and in the wilder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> places they were
+too shy and would not perform before white men.</p>
+
+<p>The whole thing was well worth seeing. The men were almost naked, and had
+with their own blood stuck wool in patterns on their black bodies. They
+had tall hats or mitres of bamboo on their heads and carried long spears.
+The Corroboree began after dark, and the men shouted, danced, and carried
+on a mimic war to the glare of blazing bonfires. A sort of music or
+rhythmic noise accompanied the performance caused by weird figures painted
+with stripes of white paint who were striking their thighs with their
+hands. They looked so uncanny that I could not at first make out what they
+were, but was told that they were the women or &#8220;gins.&#8221; The scene might
+have come out of the infernal regions or of a Witches&#8217; Walpurgis Night.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning my husband wanted to give the performers presents; he was
+begged not to give them money, as they would spend it in drink, but he was
+allowed to purchase tobacco and tea and distribute packets of these. Most
+peaceable quiet men and women tidily dressed came up to receive them, and
+it was hardly possible to believe that these were the demoniac warriors
+who had thrilled us the night before.</p>
+
+<p>While at Port Darwin we visited the prison, and seven or eight Malays,
+under sentence of death for piracy or some similar crime, were paraded for
+our inspection. I thought this somewhat hard upon them, but we were
+assured that such notice would be rather pleasing to them than otherwise,
+and their smiling countenances certainly conveyed that impression. One odd
+bit of red-tape was connected with this. Every death-sentence had to go to
+Adelaide, then headquarters of the Northern Territory Government, to be
+confirmed, but because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> when Port Darwin was first established it took
+many weeks for any communication to go to and fro, no criminal could be
+executed till that number of weeks had elapsed, although telegraph or post
+could have reported the sentence and received confirmation in days if not
+in hours. No doubt all is now different, but I do not suppose that the
+criminals objected to the delay.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">COLOURED LABOUR</div>
+
+<p>Here, as elsewhere in the semi-tropical parts of Australia, the burning
+question of coloured labour arose&mdash;one wondered, for instance, whether
+such labour would not have largely facilitated the introduction of rubber.
+Still Australia must, and will, decide this and similar problems for
+herself; and if even strictly regulated Indian or kanaka labour would
+infringe the ideal of &#8220;White Australia,&#8221; the barrier must be maintained.</p>
+
+<p>Of course our officers on board the <i>Catterthun</i> were white, but the crew
+were Chinese. At one time an attempt had been made to prevent their
+employment&mdash;very much to Captain Shannon&#8217;s distress, as he loved his
+Chinamen. This veto, however, was not in force when we made the voyage,
+though the men were not allowed on shore. We had a Chinese Wesleyan
+missionary on board, and we were told that when his Wesleyan friends
+wanted him to visit them at Melbourne or Sydney (the former, I think) they
+had to deposit &pound;100, to be refunded when he returned to the ship, as a
+guarantee against his remaining in the country.</p>
+
+<p>At Port Darwin we said a final farewell to Australia and sailed for
+Hong-Kong. Our one port of call during this voyage was at Dilli, port of
+the Portuguese Colony of Timor. The southern portion of Timor belongs to
+the Dutch, but our company was under contract to call<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> at the Portuguese
+port, and we suffered acutely in consequence. The Portuguese had owned a
+gunboat for five years, during which time they had contrived to knock some
+forty-nine holes in its boiler. They had had it once repaired by the
+Dutch, but it was past local efforts, so we had to tow the wretched thing
+to Hong-Kong, which seriously impeded our progress. The Portuguese could
+not even tie it on straight, so after we had gone some distance we had to
+send an officer and a carpenter on board. They found the three officers of
+the Portuguese Navy who had it in charge prostrate with sea-sickness (not
+surprising from the way they were tossing about), so they tied the vessel
+properly behind us, left a card, and returned.</p>
+
+<p>Timor was a picturesque mountainous island, but its commerce as far as we
+could learn consisted of Timor ponies&mdash;sturdy little beasts&mdash;and postage
+stamps. Of course everyone on board rushed off to purchase the latter for
+their collections.</p>
+
+<p>I rode up with one or two companions to a Portuguese monastery on the top
+of a hill, where the Father Superior entertained us with exceptionally
+good port wine. He said that he and his community educated young native
+chiefs. We tried politely to ascertain whether the education was gratis.
+The Reverend Father said that the youths did not pay, but each brought
+several natives who cultivated the plantations belonging to the monastery
+as an equivalent. Presumably this was not slavery, but what a convenient
+way of paying school fees! An improvement on Squeers&mdash;the scholars learnt,
+and their attendants toiled, for the public good.</p>
+
+<p>Timor provided an interesting addition to our passengers in the person of
+a Portuguese Archbishop with his attendant priests. I believe that his
+Grace had got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> into some kind of ecclesiastical hot-water and was going to
+Macao for inquiry, but I do not know particulars. However, on the Sunday
+following our departure from Timor I learnt that our captain would read
+the English service and the Chinese Wesleyan would hold one for the crew
+on the lower deck. I suggested to the first officer that he should offer
+the Portuguese priests facilities for their rites, as it seemed only
+proper that all creeds should take part. This was gratefully accepted, but
+when a few days later I sent my friend again to propose a service on March
+25th (the Annunciation) the padre was quite annoyed, and asked what he
+knew about it! My officer piously declared that we knew all about it, but
+the Archbishop would have nothing to say to it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HONG-KONG</div>
+
+<p>The only rough part of our whole voyage was some twenty-four hours before
+reaching Hong-Kong, and if we had not had the gunboat dragging behind we
+should probably have landed before the storm. I was greatly surprised by
+the beauty of Hong-Kong. Its depth of colour is astonishing and the
+variety of craft and constant movement in the harbour most fascinating. As
+viewed from the Peak, it was like a scene from a world-drama in which
+modern civilisation and traffic were ever invading the strange and ancient
+life of the China beyond. There were the great men-of-war and merchant
+ships of the West side by side with the sampans on which thousands of
+Chinese made their homes, lived and moved and had their being. To the
+roofs of the sampans the babies were tied by long cords so that they might
+play on deck without falling into the water. Anyhow, the boys were
+securely tied&mdash;there seemed some little doubt about the knots in the case
+of girls. Then behind the city were the great red-peaked hills<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> which one
+sees on screens&mdash;I had always thought that they were the convention of the
+artist, but no, they were exact transcripts from nature.</p>
+
+<p>Across the harbour lay the British mainland possession, Kowloon, to which
+we paid an amusing visit. We were taken by the Commodore of the Station,
+and as I believe we did something unauthorised, gratitude forbids me to
+mention his name. We entered a Chinese gambling-house, which was very
+quaint. There was a high hall with a gallery or galleries running
+round&mdash;behind were some little rooms with men smoking, I imagine opium. In
+the gallery in which we took seats were several people, including Chinese
+ladies. On the floor of the hall was a table at which sat two or three
+Chinamen who appeared to be playing some game of their own&mdash;probably
+fan-tan. We were given little baskets with strings in which to let down
+our stakes. As we did not know the game and had no idea what we were
+backing, we put in some small coins for the fun of the thing, and when we
+drew them up again found them agreeably multiplied. I had a shrewd
+suspicion that the heathen Chinee recognised our escort and took good care
+that we were not fleeced.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Hong-Kong is said to be very trying, and our brief
+experience bore this out. We spent Easter Sunday there, and it was so hot
+that attendance in the Cathedral was a distinct effort. A few days later
+we went on an expedition to the Happy Valley, and it was so cold that our
+hosts handed round orange brandy to keep the party alive.</p>
+
+<p>While we were there our daughter Margaret attended her first &#8220;come-out&#8221;
+ball, and we felt that it was quite an original performance for a
+d&eacute;butante to be carried to Government House in a Chinese chair.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>Hong-Kong should be a paradise for the young&mdash;there were only nine English
+girls in the Colony of age to be invited, and any number of young men from
+ships and offices.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CANTON</div>
+
+<p>Even more interesting than Hong-Kong was our brief visit to Canton. The
+railway from Kowloon to Canton was not then built, and we went by boat up
+the Pearl River. Everything was novel to us, including the pagodas on the
+banks of the river, erected to propitiate some kind of deities or spirits,
+but once there remaining unused, and generally falling into decay. We
+reached Canton at daybreak, and if Hong-Kong was a revelation Canton was
+still more surprising. The wide river was packed with native vessels. How
+they could move at all was a problem: some were propelled by wheels like
+water wheels, only the motive power was men who worked a perpetual
+tread-mill; the majority were inhabited by a large river population called
+the Tankers, who ages before had taken up their abode on boats when driven
+by nature or man from land. We were told that they never willingly went
+ashore, and when compelled to do so by business, ran till they regained
+their floating homes. But not the river alone, the vast city with its
+teeming population was so exactly what you see in Chinese pictures that it
+appeared quite unreal; for a moment I felt as if it had been built up to
+deceive the Western traveller, as houses were erected and peasants dressed
+up in the eighteenth century to make Catherine the Great believe in a
+prosperous population where none existed.</p>
+
+<p>However, Canton was real, and the more we saw during our short stay the
+more were we astonished by pictures awakened to life. We visited a rich
+merchant, and his house and enclosed garden, with little bridges,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>
+quaintly trimmed shrubs, and summer-houses in which were seated portly
+gentlemen in silk garments and round hats with buttons on the top, had
+been transported bodily from the old Chinese wall-paper in my nursery at
+Stoneleigh. His wife was escorted into his hall by attendant maidens, but
+so thick was the paint on her face and mouth that for her utterance was as
+difficult as walking on her tiny feet.</p>
+
+<p>The merchant spoke a little English, but was not very easy to understand.
+He showed the charmingly decorated apartments of his &#8220;Number One Wife,&#8221;
+but I am uncertain whether that was the lady we saw or a predecessor, and
+in the garden we were introduced to &#8220;my Old Brother.&#8221; We were entertained
+with super-fine tea and also presented with some in packets, but we did
+not find that pure Chinese tea was altogether appreciated by our friends
+in England. We stayed at the Consulate with Mr. Watters; a most
+interesting man who, having spent a large portion of his life in China,
+had become imbued with much of their idealism, and esteemed them highly in
+many respects. The Consulates of the various European Powers were all
+situated in a fortified enclosure called the Shameen, outside the city
+proper. It was very pretty and pleasant, with green grass and nice
+gardens. Soup made of birds&#8217; nests duly appeared at dinner. As is well
+known, these nests are made by the birds themselves of a kind of gum, not
+of twigs and leaves. The birds are a species of sea-swallow which builds
+in cliffs and rocks. The nests come chiefly from Java, Sumatra, and the
+coasts of Malacca. Our kind host also provided sharks&#8217; fins, another
+much-esteemed luxury.</p>
+
+<p>The wonderful streets of Canton with their gaily painted signs and shops
+teeming with goods of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> descriptions, the temples, Examination Hall,
+and Prison have been described by so many travellers that I will not dwell
+upon them. We were carried to all the sights in chairs, and under the
+auspices of Mr. Watters were treated with every civility, though I cannot
+of course say whether any insulting remarks were made in the vernacular.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE VICEROY OF CANTON</div>
+
+<p>Our constant friend, Sir Thomas Sanderson, had written in advance to
+ensure that Jersey should be treated with every respect by the then
+Viceroy of Canton, who was Li-Hung Chang&#8217;s brother. It was arranged that
+guards belonging to the Consulate should accompany my husband when he went
+to pay his ceremonial call so that he might appear sufficiently important.
+He was very courteously received, and took the opportunity of hinting to
+the interpreter that when His Excellency returned the visit my daughter
+and I would like to see him. Directly he arrived at the Consulate he
+expressed a wish that we should appear, and we gladly obeyed the summons.
+We discovered afterwards that this was quite an innovation, as the Viceroy
+had never before seen a white woman. Anyhow, he seemed just as amused at
+seeing us as we were at seeing him, and asked every sort of question both
+about public matters in England and about our domestic affairs.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to know what would be done with my jewellery when I died and why
+I did not wear ear-rings. Of course he inquired about the Queen, also
+about the British Parliament. Concerning the latter the interpreter
+translated the pertinent question, &#8220;His Excellency wants to know how five
+hundred men can ever settle anything&#8221;&mdash;I fear that my husband could only
+laugh in reply.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>The Viceroy and his attendants remained for about an hour. We were seated
+at a long table facing the Great Man, and Mr. Watters and the Vice-Consul
+at either end. When our guest and his followers had departed Mr. Watters
+told us that they had been carefully watching lest anything should have
+been said in Chinese which could have been construed as derogatory to the
+British. Only once, he said, had a term been used with regard to the
+Queen&#8217;s sons which was not absolutely the highest properly applied to
+Princes. The Viceroy was, however, in such a good temper and the whole
+interview went off so well that they thought it wiser to take no notice of
+this single lapse from diplomatic courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>It was, probably still is, necessary to keep eyes and ears open in dealing
+with the &#8220;childlike and bland&#8221; race. The late Lord Loch once described to
+me a typical scene which took place when he was Governor of Hong-Kong. A
+great review of British troops was being held at which a prominent Chinese
+Governor or General (I forget which) was present and a number of Chinese
+were onlookers. The Chinese official was exceedingly anxious to edge out
+of his allotted position to one a little in front of Lord Loch, who was of
+course taking the salute. If he had succeeded in doing so his countrymen
+would have at once believed in the Chinese claim that all foreign nations
+were tributary to the Son of Heaven and have accepted the salute as a
+recognition of the fact. Lord Loch therefore stepped a little in advance
+each time that his guest moved forward, and this continued till both,
+becoming aware of the absurdity of the situation, burst out laughing and
+the gentleman with the pigtail perforce resigned his &#8220;push.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to Mr. Watters we were able to buy some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> exceptionally good
+Mandarins&#8217; coats and embroideries, as he found dealers who had really fine
+things and made them understand that Jersey meant business.</p>
+
+<p>From Hong-Kong we sailed in an American ship for Japan, and landed at Kobe
+towards the middle of April. We had a very pleasant captain, who amused me
+by the plaintive way in which he spoke of the cross-examination to which
+he was subjected by many passengers. One man was much annoyed by the day
+lost in crossing 170&deg; longitude. &#8220;I tried to explain as courteously as I
+could,&#8221; said the captain, &#8220;but at last he exclaimed, &#8216;I don&#8217;t believe you
+know anything about it, but I have a brother-in-law in a bank in New York
+and I shall write and ask him!&#8217;&#8221;&mdash;as if they kept the missing day in the
+bank.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">JAPANESE SCENERY</div>
+
+<p>Kobe is approached through the beautiful inland sea, but unfortunately it
+was foggy as we passed through, so we lost the famous panorama, but we
+soon had every opportunity of admiring the charms of Nature in Japan. We
+had always heard of the quaint houses and people, of their valour and
+their art, but somehow no one had told us of the beauty of the scenery,
+and it was quite a revelation to us.</p>
+
+<p>I do not attempt any account of the wonderful towns, tombs, and temples
+which we saw during our month&#8217;s sojourn in the country, as travellers and
+historians have described them again and again, and Lafcadio Hearn and
+others who knew the people well have written of the spirit and devotion of
+the Japanese; but I venture to transcribe a few words from an article
+which I wrote just after our visit for <i>The Nineteenth Century</i>, giving my
+impressions of the landscape in spring:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Japanese scenery looks as if it ought to be etched. Large broad
+masses of light and shade would fail to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> convey the full effect.
+Between trees varied in colouring and delicate in tracery peep the
+thatched cottage roofs and the neat grey rounded tiles of little
+wooden houses standing in gardens gay with peach blossom and wisteria;
+while the valleys are mapped out into minute patches of green young
+corn or flooded paddy-fields interspersed here and there with
+trellises over which are trained the spreading white branches of the
+pear. Everywhere are broad river-courses and rushing mountain streams,
+and now and again some stately avenue of the sacred cryptomeria leads
+to a temple, monastery, or tomb. Nothing more magnificent than these
+avenues can be conceived. The tall madder-pink stems rear their tufted
+crests in some cases seventy or eighty feet into the air, and the
+ground below is carpeted with red pyrus japonica, violets, ferns, and,
+near the romantic monastery of Doryo-San, with a kind of lily or iris
+whose white petals are marked with lilac and yellow. The avenue
+leading to Nikko extends in an almost unbroken line for over fifteen
+miles, the trees being known as the offering of a daimio who was too
+poor to present the usual stone or bronze lantern at the tomb of the
+great Shogun Ieyasu.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>At Tokyo we were hospitably entertained at the Legation by Mr. (now Sir
+Maurice) de Bunsen, Charg&eacute; d&#8217;Affaires, in the absence of the Minister. The
+Secretary of Legation, Mr. Spring Rice (afterwards Sir Cecil), added
+greatly to our pleasure by his knowledge of things Japanese and the
+trouble he took to explain them.</p>
+
+<p>A letter to my mother, dated April 1893, resumes many of my impressions of
+a Japan of nearly thirty years ago when it was still only emerging from
+its century-long seclusion.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;You cannot imagine what a delightful country Japan is. Not only is it
+so pretty, but it is so full of real interest. I had imagined that it
+was rather a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> joke full of toy-houses and toy-people&mdash;on the contrary
+one finds great feudal castles with moats and battlements, gigantic
+stones fifteen feet long, and the whole place full of legends of
+knights and their retainers, ghosts and witches and enchantments....
+The Clan-system here was in full-swing till just the other day, when
+Sir Harry Parkes routed out the Mikado, and the Shoguns (Tycoons) or
+Great War Lords, who had ruled the country for centuries, had at last
+to give way.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even now the representatives of the greatest clans hold chief places
+in the Ministry and Naval and Military Departments, and the question
+in Parliament here is whether the radical opposition can break up the
+clan-system and distribute the loaves and fishes of Government
+patronage evenly amongst the people. Meantime I doubt if the Mikado,
+or Emperor as it is most proper to call him, is very happy in his new
+life. He thinks it correct to adapt himself to &#8216;Western civilisation,&#8217;
+but very evidently prefers the seclusion of his ancestors and has
+credit for hating seeing people. There was to have been a garden
+party&mdash;the Cherry Blossom Party&mdash;at the Palace last Friday, but
+unfortunately it pelted, so it was promptly given up and everyone said
+that His Imperial Majesty was very glad not to have to &#8216;show.&#8217;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPRESS</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;However G. had an audience with him yesterday and all of us with the
+Empress. It was rather funny. In the first place there was great
+discussion about our clothes. G. went in uniform, but the official
+documents granting audience specified that the ladies were to appear
+at 10 a.m., in high gowns&mdash;and in the middle of the Japanese
+characters came the French words &#8216;robes en traine.&#8217; The wife of the
+Vice-Chamberlain&mdash;an Englishwoman&mdash;also wrote to explain that we must
+come without bonnets and with high gowns with trains! So we had to
+write back and explain that my latest Paris morning frock had but a
+short train and M&#8217;s smartest ditto none at all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;However, they promised to explain this to the Empress, and we arrived
+at the Palace, which we found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> swarming with gold-laced officials,
+chamberlains, vice-chamberlains, and pages, and ladies in their
+regulation costume&mdash;high silk gowns just like afternoon garments but
+with long tails of the same material, about as long as for
+drawing-rooms&mdash;how they could have expected the passing voyager to be
+prepared with this peculiar fashion at twenty-four hours&#8217; notice I
+know not, and I think it was lucky that I had a flowered brocade with
+some kind of train to it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The saloons were very magnificent&mdash;built five years ago&mdash;all that was
+Japanese in them first-class&mdash;the European decorations a German
+imitation of something between Louis XV and Empire, which I leave to
+your imagination. G. was carried off in one direction whilst we were
+left to a trained little lady who fortunately spoke a little English,
+and after a bit we were taken to a corridor where we rejoined G. and
+Mr. de Bunsen and were led through more passages to a little room
+where a little lady stood bolt upright in a purple gown with a small
+pattern of gold flowers and an order&mdash;Japanese, I believe. She had a
+lady to interpret on her right, and two more, maids of honour, I
+suppose, in the background. The interpreting lady appeared to be
+alive&mdash;the vitality of the others was doubtful. We all bowed and
+curtsied, and I was told to go up to the Empress, which I did, and
+when I was near enough to avoid the possibility of her moving, she
+shook hands and said something almost in a whisper, interpreted to
+mean that she was very glad to see me for the first time. I expressed
+proper gratification, then she asked as to the length of our stay, and
+finally said how sorry she was for the postponement of the garden
+party, to which I responded with, I trust, true Eastern hyperbole that
+Her Majesty&#8217;s kindness in receiving us repaid me for the
+disappointment. This seemed to please her, and then she shook hands
+again, and went through her little formul&aelig; with M. and G., giving one
+sentence to the former and two to the latter, after which with a great
+deal more bowing and curtsying we got out of the room and were shown
+through the other apartments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> I heard afterwards that Her Majesty was
+very pleased with the interview, so she must be easily gratified, poor
+dear. I am told &#8216;by those who know&#8217; that she is an excellent woman,
+does a great deal for schools and hospitals to the extent on at least
+one occasion of giving away all her pocket-money for the year and
+leaving herself with none. The poor woman has no children, but the
+Emperor is allowed other inferior spouses&mdash;with no recognised
+position&mdash;to the number of ten. I do not know how many ladies he has,
+but he has one little boy and two or three girls. The little boy is
+thirteen and goes to a day-school, so is expected to be of much more
+social disposition than his papa.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE SACRED MIRROR OF THE SUN-GODDESS</div>
+
+<p>The boy in question is now Emperor and has unfortunately broken down in
+health. Mrs. Sannomya (afterwards Baroness), wife of the Vice-Chamberlain,
+told me that he was very intelligent, and that the Empress, who adopted
+him in accordance with Japanese custom, was fond of him. She also told me
+that the secondary wives were about the Court, but that it was not
+generally known which were the mothers of the Prince and Princesses. Mrs.
+Sannomya personally knew which they were, but the children were to be
+considered as belonging to the Emperor and Empress, the individual mothers
+had no recognised claim upon them. I believe that this Oriental &#8220;zenana&#8221;
+arrangement no longer exists, but meanwhile it assured the unbroken
+descent of the Imperial rulers from the Sun-goddess. We were assured that
+the reigning Emperor still possessed the divine sword, the ball or jewel,
+and the mirror with which she endowed her progeny. The mirror is the
+symbol of Shinto, the orthodox faith of Japan, and it derives its sanctity
+from the incident that it was used to attract the Sun-goddess from a cave
+whither she had retired in high dudgeon after a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> quarrel with another
+deity. In fact it seems to have acted as a pre-historic heliograph. By the
+crowing of a cock and the flashing of the mirror Ten sho dai jin was
+induced to think that morning had dawned, and once more to irradiate the
+universe with her beams.</p>
+
+<p>Though Shintoism, the ancient ancestral creed, was re-established when the
+Emperor issued from his long seclusion, the mass of the population no
+doubt prefer the less abstract and more ritualistic Buddhism of China and
+Japan. What the educated classes really believe is exceedingly hard to
+discover. A very charming Japanese diplomatic lady remarked to me one
+Sunday at Osterley in connection with church-going that &#8220;it must be very
+nice to have a religion.&#8221; Viscount Hayashi summed up the popular creed, in
+answer to an inquiry on my part, as &#8220;the ethics of Confucius with the
+religious sanction of Buddhism&#8221;: perhaps that is as good a definition as
+any other.</p>
+
+<p>It seems doubtful whether Christianity has made solid progress, though
+treated with due respect by the Government. Mr. Max M&uuml;ller told me that
+when the Japanese were sending emissaries to the various Western Powers
+with instructions to investigate their methods both in war and peace, two
+of these envoys visited him and asked him to supply them with a suitable
+creed. &#8220;I told them,&#8221; said he, &#8220;&#8216;Be good Buddhists first and I will think
+of something for you.&#8217;&#8221; An English lady long resident in Japan threw some
+further light on the Japanese view of ready-made religious faith. At the
+time when foreign instructors were employed to start Japan with her face
+turned westward, a German was enlisted to teach court etiquette, no doubt
+including &#8220;robes montantes en traine.&#8221; While still in this service a Court
+official requested him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> supply the full ceremonial of a Court
+<i>Christening</i>. &#8220;But,&#8221; returned the Teuton, &#8220;you are not Christians, so how
+can I provide you with a Christening ceremony?&#8221; &#8220;Never mind,&#8221; was the
+reply, &#8220;you had better give it us now that you are here; we never know
+when we may want it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN</div>
+
+<p>St. Francis Xavier, who preached Christianity to the Japanese in the
+sixteenth century, records the testimony of his Japanese secretary, whom
+he found and converted at Goa, as to the effect likely to be produced on
+his fellow-countrymen by the saintly missionary. &#8220;His people,&#8221; said Anjiro
+of Satsuma, &#8220;would not immediately assent to what might be said to them,
+but they would investigate what I might affirm respecting religion by a
+multitude of questions, and above all by observing whether my conduct
+agreed with my words. This done, the King, the nobility, and adult
+population would flock to Christ, being a nation which always follows
+reason as a guide.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Whether convinced by reason or example it is certain that the Japanese of
+the day accepted Christianity in large numbers, and that many held firm in
+the terrible persecution which raged later on. Nevertheless the Christian
+faith was almost exterminated at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
+only a few lingering traces being found when the country was reopened to
+missions in the latter half of the nineteenth.</p>
+
+<p>Nowadays the Japanese idea unfortunately appears to be that Christianity
+has not much influence on the statesmanship of foreign countries, and
+their leading men in competition with the West seem too keen on pushing to
+the front in material directions to trouble much about abstract doctrines.
+Belief in a spirit-world, however, certainly prevailed among the masses of
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> people whom we saw frequenting temples and joining in cheerful
+pilgrimages.</p>
+
+<p>The great interests of our visit from a social and political point of view
+was finding an acute and active-minded race in a deliberate and determined
+state of transition from a loyal and chivalrous past to an essentially
+modern but still heroic future. Neither the war with China nor that with
+Russia had then taken place, but foundations were being laid which were to
+ensure victory in both cases. The Daimios had surrendered their land to
+the Emperor and received in return modern titles of nobility, and incomes
+calculated on their former revenues. The tillers of the soil were secured
+on their former holdings and instead of rent paid land-tax. Naturally
+everything was not settled without much discontent, particularly on the
+part of the peasants, who thought, as in other countries, that any sort of
+revolution ought to result in their having the land in fee-simple. Much
+water, however, has flowed under the Sacred Bridges of Japan since we were
+there, and I do not attempt to tread the labyrinths of the agrarian or
+other problems with which the statesmen of New Japan had or have to deal.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">DAIMIOS OF OLD JAPAN</div>
+
+<p>One thing, however, was evident even to those who, like ourselves, spent
+but a short time in the country. The younger nobles gained more than they
+lost in many ways by the abandonment of their feudal prominence. Their
+fathers had been more subservient to the Shoguns than the French nobility
+to Louis XIV. The third of the Tokugawa line, who lived in the seventeenth
+century, decreed that the daimios were to spend half the year at Yedo (the
+modern Tokyo), and even when they were allowed to return to their own
+estates they were obliged to leave their wives and families in the
+capital<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> as hostages. The mountain passes were strictly guarded, and all
+persons traversing them rigidly searched, crucifixion being the punishment
+meted out to such as left the Shogun&#8217;s territory without a permit. On the
+shores of the beautiful Lake Hakone at the foot of the main pass villas
+were still pointed out where the daimios rested on their journey, and we
+were told that a neighbouring town was in other times largely populated by
+hair-dressers, who had to rearrange the elaborate coiffures of the ladies
+who were forced to take their hair down before passing the Hakone Bar.
+True, the daimios lived and travelled with great state and had armies of
+retainers, but at least one great noble confessed to me that the freedom
+which he then enjoyed fully compensated him for the loss of former
+grandeur.</p>
+
+<p>My daughter who &#8220;came out&#8221; at Hong-Kong had quite a gay little season at
+Tokyo, as we were hospitably entertained by both Japanese and diplomats,
+and amongst other festivities we thoroughly enjoyed a splendid ball given
+by Marquis Naboshima, the Emperor&#8217;s Master of Ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>We were also fortunate in seeing the actor Danjolo, commonly called the
+&#8220;Irving of Japan,&#8221; in one of his principal characters. The floor of the
+theatre was divided into little square boxes in which knelt the audience,
+men, women, and children. From the main entrance of the house to the stage
+ran a gangway, somewhat elevated above the floor; this was called the
+Flowery Path, and served not only as a means of access to the boxes on
+either side, but also as an approach by which some of the principal actors
+made a sensational entrance on the scene. A large gallery, divided like
+the parterre, ran round three sides of the house and was reached from an
+outside balcony. European spectators<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> taking seats in the gallery were
+accommodated with chairs.</p>
+
+<p>The main feature wherein the Japanese differed from an English stage was
+that the whole central part of the former was round and turned on a pivot.
+The scenery, simple but historically correct, ran across the diameter of
+the reversible part; so while one scenic background was before the
+audience another was prepared behind and wheeled round when wanted. To
+remove impedimenta at the sides or anything which had to be taken away
+during the progress of a scene, little black figures with black veils over
+their faces, like familiars of the Inquisition, came in, and Japanese
+politeness accepted them as invisible.</p>
+
+<p>Danjolo, who acted the part of a wicked uncle, proved himself worthy of
+his reputation and was excellently supported by his company. All the parts
+were taken by men; some plays were in those days acted by women, but it
+was not then customary for the two sexes to perform together. Now I
+believe that the barrier has been broken down and that they do so freely.</p>
+
+<p>When we had a Japanese dinner at the Club the charming little waitresses
+gave dramatic performances in intervals between the courses.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly the Japanese are prompt in emergency. A Japanese of high rank
+once told me how the Rising Sun came to be the National Flag. A Japanese
+ship arrived at an American port and the harbour authorities demanded to
+know under what flag she sailed. This was before the days when Japan had
+entered freely into commercial relations with other lands, and the captain
+had no idea of a national ensign. Not to be outdone by other mariners, he
+secured a large piece of white linen and painted upon it a large red orb.
+This was offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> and accepted as the National Flag of Japan, and is still
+the flag of her merchant fleet. With rays darting from it, it has become
+the ensign of her warships, and, as a gold chrysanthemum on a red ground,
+represents the Rising Sun in the Imperial Standard. According to my
+informant, who told me the tale at a dinner-party in London, the whole
+idea sprang from the merchant captain&#8217;s readiness of resource.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever changes Japan may undergo, it must still retain the charm of its
+pure, transparent atmosphere with the delicate hues which I never saw
+elsewhere except in Greece. In some respects, unlike as they are
+physically, the Japanese recall the quick-witted, art-loving Greeks.
+Again, Japan, with its lovely lakes and mountains and its rich vegetation,
+has something in common with New Zealand, and, like those happy Islands,
+it has the luxury of natural hot springs. I shall never forget the hotel
+at Miyanoshita where the large bathrooms on the ground-floor were
+supplied with unlimited hot and cold water conducted in simple bamboo
+pipes direct from springs in a hill just behind the house.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">JAPANESE FRIENDS</div>
+
+<p>Still more vividly do I recall the Japanese who did so much for our
+enjoyment at Tokyo. Amongst others was the delightful Mrs. Inouye, whose
+husband, as Marquis Inouye, has since been Ambassador in London.
+Marchioness Inouye has remained a real friend, and constantly sends me
+news from the Island Empire. Nor must I forget how much we saw under the
+guidance of my cousin, the Rev. Lionel Cholmondeley, for many years a
+missionary in Japan, and Chaplain to the British Embassy there.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<p class="title">JOURNEY HOME&mdash;THE NILE&mdash;LORD KITCHENER</p>
+
+<p>Our sojourn in Japan was all too short, and we sailed from Yokohama in a
+ship of the Empress Line on May 12. Capturing a spare day at 170&deg;
+longitude, we reached Vancouver on the Queen&#8217;s Birthday. Our thirteen
+days&#8217; voyage was somewhat tedious, as I do not think that we passed a
+single ship on the whole transit. The weather was dull and grey, and there
+was a continuous rolling sea, but I must say for our ship that no one
+suffered from sea-sickness. She lived up to the repute which we had heard
+concerning these liners; they were broad and steady, and I for one was
+duly grateful.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE WELL-FORGED LINK OF EMPIRE</div>
+
+<p>We had some pleasant fellow-passengers, including Orlando Bridgeman (now
+Lord Bradford) and his cousin Mr. William Bridgeman (now a prominent
+politician). A voyage otherwise singularly devoid of excitement was
+agitated by the discovery of one or more cases of small-pox among the
+Chinese on board. Every effort was made to keep this dark, but when the
+ukase went forth that every passenger who had not been vaccinated recently
+must undergo the operation, no doubt remained as to the truth of the
+rumours current. Fortunately my husband, my daughter, myself, and my maid
+had all been vaccinated just before leaving Sydney, but we still felt
+anxious about possible quarantine at Victoria&mdash;the port on the Island of
+Vancouver&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> town being on the mainland. Nothing happened, however, and
+<i>if</i> the ship&#8217;s doctor perjured himself, and <i>if</i> the captain did not
+contradict him, I trust that the Recording Angel did not set it down, as
+the relief of the passengers was indeed great.</p>
+
+<p>The truth afterwards so forcibly expressed by Rudyard Kipling was brought
+home to us when landing on Canadian shores:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Take &#8217;old of the Wings o&#8217; the mornin&#8217;,<br />
+An&#8217; flop round the earth till you&#8217;re dead;<br />
+But you won&#8217;t get away from the tune that they play<br />
+To the bloomin&#8217; old rag over&#8217;ead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Every morning at Sydney we were aroused by &#8220;God Save the Queen&#8221; from the
+men-of-war in the harbour just below Government House, and at Vancouver we
+found the whole population busy celebrating Queen Victoria&#8217;s Birthday. At
+the hotel nobody was left in charge but a boy of fourteen, a most
+intelligent youth who somehow lodged and fed us. Next day we were anxious
+to find him and recognise his kind attentions before leaving, but
+evidently in his case sport outweighed possible tips, for he had gone to
+the races without giving us a chance.</p>
+
+<p>Vancouver had a curiously unfinished appearance when we saw it, houses
+just arising and streets laid out but not completed. I have heard, and
+fully believe, that it has since become a very fine city, rising as it
+does just within the Gateway to the Pacific, though it is of Victoria that
+Rudyard Kipling (to quote him again) sings:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;From East to West the tested chain holds fast,<br />
+The well-forged link rings true.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Directors of the Canadian Pacific had most kindly assigned a private
+car to our use, but we had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> arrived a little before we had been expected,
+and as our time was limited we travelled in the ordinary train as far as
+Glacier, where we slept and the car caught us up.</p>
+
+<p>Glacier in the Rockies well deserved its name, as we found ourselves once
+more in the midst of ice and frozen snow such as we had not seen except on
+distant mountains for over two years. We were allowed to attach the car to
+the through trains, and detach it to wait for another, as desired, which
+gave us the chance of seeing not only the great mountains and waterfalls
+as we flew by, but also of admiring at leisure some of the more famous
+places.</p>
+
+<p>From Winnipeg our luxurious car with its bedrooms and living-rooms all
+complete took us down as far as St. Paul in the States, where we joined
+the ordinary train for Chicago. I think that it was at St. Paul that we
+had our first aggravating experience of American independence, which
+contrasted with the courtesy of Japan. A number of passengers had some
+twenty-five minutes to secure luncheon (or dinner, I forget which) before
+the departure of the next train. Unfortunately they depended almost
+entirely on the ministrations of a tall and gaily attired young woman;
+still more unfortunately one or two of them rashly requested her to make
+haste. Her vengeance was tranquil but sure. She slowly and deliberately
+walked round, placing a glass of iced water near each guest. It was hot
+enough to render iced water acceptable, but not to the exclusion of other
+food.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA</div>
+
+<p>We included Chicago in our wanderings for the purpose of seeing the great
+Exhibition which was by way of celebrating the fourth centenary of
+Columbus&#8217;s discovery of America. A schoolboy once described the life and
+exploits of Columbus to this effect: &#8220;Columbus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> was a man who could make
+an egg stand on end without breaking it. He landed in America and saw a
+Chief and a party of men and said to them, &#8216;Are you the savages?&#8217; &#8216;Yes,&#8217;
+said the Chief; &#8216;are you Columbus?&#8217; &#8216;Yes,&#8217; said Columbus. Then the Chief
+turned to his men and said, &#8216;It&#8217;s of no use; we&#8217;re discovered at last.&#8217;&#8221;
+Whether Columbus would have taken the trouble to discover America if he
+could have seen in a vision New York, Niagara, and a few other phenomena I
+know not, but I am sure he would have never gone out of his way to
+discover Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>My sister-in-law, Mrs. Rowland Leigh, has told me that her grandfather
+sold a great part of the land on which Chicago now stands for a pony for
+her grandmother to ride upon. With all due respect he made a great mistake
+in facilitating the erection of this overgrown, bumptious, and obtrusive
+city. It may have improved in the past thirty years, but I can conceive of
+no way in which it could have become attractive.</p>
+
+<p>It was horribly hot when we arrived, but a chilling and unhealthy wind
+blew from Lake Michigan, on which it stands, which gave us all chest
+colds, and we heard that these were prevalent throughout the city. Then
+the streets were badly laid and dirty. I think that the inhabitants burnt
+some peculiar kind of smoky fuel. They were very proud of this Exhibition,
+which looked well, on the lines of the White City at Shepherd&#8217;s Bush. It
+was made of <i>Phormium tenax</i> (New Zealand flax) plastered over with white
+composition, and as it stood near some part of the Lake which had been
+arranged to accommodate it the white buildings reflected in the blue water
+had a picturesque effect. The only part of the interior which really
+impressed me was a building (not white) representing the old monastery
+where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> Columbus had lived for some time in Spain. This was filled with a
+very interesting loan collection of objects connected with his life and
+times.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Chicago had invited a large variety of crowned heads and
+princely personages to attend the Exhibition as their guests, but previous
+engagements had been more prevalent than acceptances. They had succeeded
+in securing a Spanish Duke who was a lineal descendant of Columbus, and he
+and his family had been the prominent features of their ceremonies to
+date. Shortly before we came great excitement had arisen because it was
+announced that the Infanta Eulalia, aunt of the King of Spain, and a real
+genuine Princess, would honour the city and Exhibition with her royal
+presence. Two problems had thereupon to be solved. What would they do with
+the Duke? They no longer wanted a minor luminary when a star of the first
+magnitude was about to dawn above their horizon. That was promptly
+settled. They put the poor grandee into a train for New York on a Friday
+and told him that they would continue to frank him until the Monday, after
+which date he would be &#8220;on his own.&#8221; He was said to have declared himself
+highly satisfied with the arrangement, as this would leave him free to
+enjoy himself after his own fashion during the remainder of his sojourn in
+America. I only hope that they had paid his return tickets by steamboat,
+but I never heard how that was managed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE MAYOR CUTS HIS HAIR</div>
+
+<p>The Duke being thus disposed of, problem two required far more serious
+consideration. The Mayor of Chicago was a &#8220;man of the people&#8221; and had
+never condescended to wear a tall hat, in fact he had such a bush of hair
+that he could not have got one on to his head; and as a sort of socialist
+Samson whose political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> strength lay in his locks, he had steadily
+declined to cut it. So day by day the Chicago papers came out with: &#8220;Will
+H. [I forget his exact name] cut his hair?&#8221; &#8220;Will he wear a tall hat?&#8221; And
+when the great day came and the Infanta was met at the station by the
+Conscript Fathers, a p&aelig;an of joy found voice in print: &#8220;He wore a tall
+hat.&#8221; &#8220;He has cut his hair.&#8221; I cannot say whether the pillars of the
+municipal house fell upon him at the next election.</p>
+
+<p>I do not feel sure of the official designation of the sturdy citizens who
+ultimately received the Infanta. They may have constituted the
+Municipality or the Council of the Exhibition, very likely both combined.
+One thing, however, is certain: no Princess of Romance was more jealously
+guarded by father, enchanter, giant, or dwarf than Eulalia by her Chicago
+hosts. The first knight-errant to meet his fate was our old Athens friend,
+Mr. Fearn. He was Head of the Foreign Section of the Exhibition, a highly
+cultured man, had held a diplomatic post in Spain, where he had known the
+Infanta, and could speak Spanish. When he heard that she was coming he
+engaged sixteen rooms at the Virginia Hotel (where we were staying) and
+arranged to give her a reception. Could this be allowed? Oh, no! Mr. Fearn
+could converse with her in her own tongue and no one else would be able to
+understand what was said&mdash;the party had to be cancelled.</p>
+
+<p>Then H.R.H. was to visit the Foreign Section, and Mr. Fearn, who naturally
+expected to be on duty, invited various friends, including ourselves, to
+be present in the Gallery of the rather fine Entrance Hall. Mr. Fearn,
+Head of the Section, to receive the Princess on arrival? Not at all&mdash;why,
+she might think that he was the most important person present. Mr. Fearn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>
+might hide where he pleased, but was to form no part of the Reception
+Committee.</p>
+
+<p>They wanted to take away his Gallery, but there he put his foot down. His
+friends were coming and must have their seats. So he sat with us and we
+watched the proceedings from above. I must say that they were singularly
+unimpressive. The Infanta arrived escorted by some big,
+uncomfortable-looking men, while a few little girls strewed a few small
+flowers on the pavement in front of her. I heard afterwards that H.R.H.,
+who was distinctly a lady of spirit, was thoroughly bored with her escort,
+and instead of spending the hours which they would have desired in gazing
+on tinned pork, jam-pots, and machinery, insisted on disporting herself in
+a kind of fair called, I think, the Midway Pleasance, where there were
+rows of little shops and a beer-garden. She forced her cort&egrave;ge to
+accompany her into the latter and to sit down and drink beer there. They
+were duly scandalised, but could not protest. The Infanta was put up at
+the P&mdash;&mdash; Hotel owned by a couple of the same name. The husband had
+avowedly risen from the ranks, and the wife, being very pretty and having
+great social aspirations, had left Mr. P. at home when she journeyed to
+Europe. They were very rich and had a house in Chicago in the most
+fashionable quarter on the shores of the Lake, and gave a great party for
+the Princess to which were bidden all the &eacute;lite of the city.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared, however, that the royal guest did not discover till just as
+she was setting forth that her hosts were identical with her innkeepers,
+and the blue blood of Spain did not at all approve the combination. It was
+too late to back out of the engagement, but her attitude at the party
+induced rather a frost, and her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> temper was not improved by the fact that
+a cup of coffee was upset over her gown.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE PAGEANT &#8220;AMERICA&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>I cannot say that I saw this, for, though we received a card for the
+entertainment, it came so late that we did not feel called upon to make an
+effort to attend. The lady&#8217;s sense of humour, however, was quite
+sufficient to enable her to see the quaint side of her reception
+generally, in fact I chanced to hear when back in England that she had
+given to some of our royal family much the same account that is here
+recorded. It is not to be assumed, nevertheless, that Chicago Society does
+not include charming and kindly people. Among the most prominent were, and
+doubtless are, the McCormicks, some of whom we had known in London, and
+who exerted themselves to show us hospitality. Mrs. McCormick, head of the
+clan, gave us a noble luncheon, previous to which we were introduced to
+about thirty McCormicks by birth or marriage. &#8220;I guess you&#8217;ve got right
+round,&#8221; said one when we had shaken hands with them all. Mrs. McCormick
+Goodhart took us to see a great spectacle called &#8220;America,&#8221; arranged at a
+large theatre by Imre Kiralfy, subsequently of White City fame.</p>
+
+<p>The colour scheme was excellent. The historical scenes presented might be
+called eclectic. The Discovery of America was conducted by a page in white
+satin who stood on the prow of Columbus&#8217;s ship and pointed with his hand
+to the shore. Behind him in the vessel were grouped men-at-arms whose gold
+helmets were quite untarnished by sea-spray. Perhaps they had been kept in
+air-tight boxes till the Discovery was imminent and then brought out to do
+honour to the occasion. The next scene which I recollect was the arrival
+of the Pilgrim Fathers in an Indian village.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> The Fathers, in square-cut
+coats and Puritan headgear, stood round the village green, and did not
+turn a hair, while young women danced a ballet in front of them. After
+all, I saw a ballet danced in after years at the Church Pageant at Fulham,
+so there is no reason why the Pilgrim Fathers should not have enjoyed one
+when it came their way. The final climax, however, was a grand
+agricultural spectacle with a great dance of young persons with
+reaping-hooks. This was a just tribute to the McCormick family, who were
+the great manufacturers of agricultural implements and thereby promoted
+the prosperity of Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Chicago we wended our way to Niagara. I am free to confess that
+we had seen so much grandeur and beauty, and particularly such picturesque
+waterfalls, in Japan, that we did not approach any scene in the New World
+with the thrill of expectation which we might have nursed had we come
+fresh from more prosaic surroundings, but Niagara swept away any vestige
+of indifference or sight-weariness. It is not for me to describe it. I can
+only say that we were awe-struck by the unending waters rushing with their
+mighty volume between the rocks and beneath the sun. When we sometimes
+tried to select the sights which we had seen most worthy of inclusion in
+the Nine Wonders of the World, neither my husband nor I ever hesitated to
+place Niagara among the foremost.</p>
+
+<p>At New York we stayed two or three nights waiting for our ship. It was
+very hot, and most of our American friends away at the seaside or in the
+country. My chief impressions were that the waiting at the otherwise
+comfortable Waldorf Hotel was the slowest I had ever come across; and that
+the amount of things &#8220;verboten&#8221; in the Central Park was worthy of Berlin.
+In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> one place you might not drive, in another you might not ride, in a
+third mounted police were prepared to arrest you if you tried to walk.
+Really, except in wartime, England is the one place where you can do as
+you like. However, I am sure that New York had many charms if we had had
+time and opportunity to find them out.</p>
+
+<p>We sailed in the White Star ship <i>Majestic</i>, and after a pleasant crossing
+reached England towards the end of June 1893. The country was terribly
+burnt up after a hot and dry spell, but we were very happy to be at home
+again, and to find our friends and relations awaiting us at Euston.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">BACK AT OSTERLEY</div>
+
+<p>My daughter was just in time for two or three balls at the end of the
+London season, the first being at Bridgewater House. She and I were both
+delighted to find that our friends had not forgotten us, and that she had
+no lack of partners on her somewhat belated &#8220;coming out.&#8221; We were also in
+time to welcome our friends at a garden party at Osterley, and to
+entertain some of them from Saturdays to Mondays in July.</p>
+
+<p>Then began many pleasant summers when friends young and old came to our
+garden parties, and also to spend Sundays with us at Osterley, or to stay
+with us in the autumn and winter at Middleton. Looking back at their names
+in our Visitors&#8217; Book, it is at once sad to feel how many have passed away
+and consoling to think of the happy days in which they shared, and
+particularly to remember how some, now married and proud parents of
+children, found their fate in the gardens at Osterley or in the boat on
+the Lake.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to say much of individuals, but I could not omit
+recording that among our best and dearest friends were Lord and Lady
+Northcote. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> find their names first in the list of those who stayed with
+us July 1st-3rd, 1893, and their friendship never failed us&mdash;his lasted
+till death and hers is with me still.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, I attempt any reminiscences of our special friends, I
+would mention yet two more expeditions which had incidents of some
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>In 1895 Lady Galloway and I were again in Rome, and I believe that it was
+on this occasion that we were received by Queen Margaret, whose husband
+King Umberto was still alive. She was a charming and beautiful woman with
+masses of auburn hair. She spoke English perfectly and told us how much
+she admired English literature, but I was rather amused by her expressing
+particular preference for <i>The Strand Magazine</i>&mdash;quite comprehensible
+really, as even when one knows a foreign tongue fairly well, it is always
+easier to read short stories and articles in it than profounder works. She
+also liked much of Rudyard Kipling, but found some of his writings too
+difficult. Later on I sent Her Majesty the &#8220;Recessional,&#8221; and her
+lady-in-waiting wrote to say that she had read and re-read the beautiful
+verses.</p>
+
+<p>A former Italian Ambassador told me that when the present King was still
+quite young some members of the Government wanted him removed from the
+care of women and his education confided to men. The Queen, however, said,
+&#8220;Leave him to me, and I will make a man of him.&#8221; &#8220;And,&#8221; added my
+informant, &#8220;she did!&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE DAHABYAH &#8220;HERODOTUS&#8221;</div>
+
+<p>Later in the year my husband engaged a dahabyah, the <i>Herodotus</i>, to take
+us up the Nile, and we left England on January 22nd, 1896, to join it.
+Margaret and Mary went with us, and we sailed from Marseilles for
+Alexandria in the <i>S&eacute;n&eacute;gal</i>, a Messageries boat which was one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> of the most
+wretched old tubs that I have ever encountered. How it contrived to reach
+Alexandria in a storm was a mystery, the solution of which reflects great
+credit on its captain. We had a peculiar lady among our fellow-passengers,
+who, when Columbus was mentioned, remarked that he was the man who went to
+sea in a sack. We believe that she confused him with Monte Cristo.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow we reached Cairo at last, where we were joined by Lady Galloway,
+who had been staying with Lord and Lady Cromer at the Agency, and we
+joined our dahabyah&mdash;a very comfortable one&mdash;at Gingeh on February 4th. As
+we had a steam-tug attached, we were happily independent of wind and
+current, and could stop when we pleased&mdash;no small consideration. We
+realised this when, reaching Luxor three days later, we met with friends
+who had been toiling upstream for a month, unable to visit any antiquities
+on the way, as whenever they wanted to do so the wind, or other phenomena,
+became favourable to progress. I ought not to omit having met Nubar Pasha,
+the Egyptian statesman, at Cairo, a dear old man, with a high esteem for
+the English, who, he said, had a great respect for themselves, and for
+public opinion. At first sight those two sentiments seem not altogether
+compatible, but on thinking over his remark one perceives how they balance
+each other.</p>
+
+<p>At El Ballianeh, another stopping-place on our voyage to Luxor, we found
+the town decorated in honour of the Khedive&#8217;s lately married sister, who
+was making an expedition up the Nile. Her husband, having modern
+tendencies, was anxious that she should ride like the English ladies, and
+had ordered a riding-habit for her, but only one boot, as he only saw one
+of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> Englishwomen&#8217;s feet. Had he lived in the present year of grace his
+vision would not have been so limited.</p>
+
+<p>Near Karnak, E. F. Benson and his sister were busy excavating the Temple
+of Mant. Miss Benson had a concession and excavated many treasures, while
+her brother no doubt drew out of the desert his inspiration for <i>The Image
+in the Sand</i>, published some years later.</p>
+
+<p>In pre-war days we used to say that the Nile was like Piccadilly and Luxor
+resembled the Bachelors&#8217; Club, so many friends and acquaintances passed up
+and down the river, but on this particular voyage the aspect which most
+impressed my husband and myself was the dominating influence of the
+Sirdar, Lord Kitchener. We only saw him personally for a few minutes, as
+he was with his staff on a tour of inspection, but wherever we met
+officers of any description there was an alertness, and a constant
+reference to &#8220;The Sirdar!&#8221; &#8220;The Sirdar has ordered,&#8221; &#8220;The Sirdar wishes.&#8221;
+A state of tension was quite evident, and soon proved to be justified.</p>
+
+<p>No one quite knew when and where the Mahdi would attack, everybody was on
+the look-out for hidden Dervishes. At Assouan we had luncheon with the
+officers stationed there, Major Jackson (now Sir Herbert) and others, who
+were most hospitable and amusing. I must confess that though they were
+more than ready for the Dervishes, they were specially hot against the
+French. Of course at that time the feeling on both sides was very bitter;
+it was long before the days of the entente, and any French officer who
+made friends with an Englishman had a very bad mark put against his name
+by his superiors.</p>
+
+<p>Either at Assouan or Phil&aelig;, where Captain Lyons entertained us, we heard a
+comical story of a tall Englishman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> in a caf&eacute; at Cairo. He was alone, and
+three or four French officers who were sitting at a little table began to
+make insulting remarks about the English. This man kept silent until one
+of them put out his foot as he passed, plainly intending to trip him up.
+Thereupon he seized his assailant and used him as a kind of cudgel or
+flail wherewith to belabour his companions. Naturally the others jumped up
+and attacked in their turn, and the Englishman, outnumbered, must have had
+the worst of it had not the girl behind the counter suddenly taken his
+part and aimed a well-directed shower of empty bottles at the Frenchmen,
+who thereupon found discretion the better part of valour and retreated.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">ESCAPE OF SLATIN PASHA</div>
+
+<p>Major Jackson gave us a graphic account of the arrival of Slatin Pasha
+after his escape from Omdurman after eleven years&#8217; captivity. He said that
+a dirty little Arab merchant arrived at his quarters claiming to be Slatin
+Pasha. He knew that Slatin had been prisoner, but did not know of his
+escape, and felt doubtful of his identity. &#8220;However,&#8221; said he, &#8220;I put him
+into a bedroom and gave him some clothes and a cake of Sunlight Soap, and
+there came out a neat little Austrian gentleman.&#8221; I have always thought
+what a large bakshish Major Jackson might have received from the
+proprietor of Sunlight Soap had he given them that tale for publication. I
+believe that Major Burnaby had &pound;100 for mentioning the effect of Cockle&#8217;s
+Pills on some native chief in his <i>Ride to Khiva</i>. However, Slatin managed
+to convince his hosts that he was himself, despite that he had almost
+forgotten European customs and languages during his long slavery. At
+Assouan we were obliged to abandon our nice dahabyah and transfer
+ourselves to a shaky and hot stern-wheeler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> called the <i>Tanjore</i>, as the
+large dahabyah could not travel above the First Cataract and we wanted to
+go to Wady Halfa. There was some doubt as to whether we could go at all,
+and the stern-wheeler had to form one of a fleet of four which were bound
+to keep together and each to carry an escort of six or seven Soudanese
+soldiers for protection. What would have happened had a strong force of
+dervishes attacked us I do not know, but fortunately we were unmolested.
+Of the other three stern-wheelers one was taken by the Bradley Martins,
+Cravens, and Mrs. Sherman, and the other two were public.</p>
+
+<p>We had an object-lesson on the advantages of a reputation for being
+unamiable. On board one of the public stern-wheelers was a certain F. R.,
+author and journalist, with his wife and daughter. Jersey overheard Cook&#8217;s
+representative giving special injunctions to the agent in charge of this
+boat to keep F. R. in good humour, as he might make himself very
+disagreeable. Whether he did anything to damage the firm I know not, but I
+know that he bored his fellow-passengers so much that on the return
+journey they either transferred themselves to the fourth boat or waited
+for another, anything rather than travel back with the R.&#8217;s. So the R.&#8217;s
+secured a whole stern-wheeler to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I have carefully refrained from any description of the well-known temples
+and tombs, which record the past glories of the cities of the Nile, but I
+must say a word of the wonderful rock temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbal,
+close on the river banks. We saw it by moonlight, which added much to the
+effect of the great pylon cut in the rock with its four sitting figures of
+the king, each 66 feet high. Small figures stand by the knees of the
+colossi, who look solemnly out over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> river unmoved by the passing
+centuries. Inside the rock is a large corridor with eight great Osiride
+figures guarding its columns, and within are smaller chambers with
+sculptured walls.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">HOW A KING AND AN ARAB EVADED ORDERS</div>
+
+<p>I would also recall among the less important relics of the past the small
+ruined Temple of Dakkeh. It was built in Ptolemaic times by an Ethiopian
+monarch singularly free from superstition. It was the custom of these
+kings to kill themselves when ordered to do so by the priests in the name
+of the gods, but when his spiritual advisers ventured to send such a
+message to King Erzamenes, he went with his soldiers and killed the
+priests instead.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know whether the story lingered on the banks of the Nile till our
+times, but the instinct of this king seems to have been reincarnated in an
+Arab, or Egyptian, soldier who related to an English officer his first
+experience of an aeroplane during the late war. This man was enlisted by
+the Turks during their invasion of Egypt and afterwards captured by the
+British. Said he, &#8220;I saw a bird, oh, such a beautiful bird, flying in the
+sky. My officer told me to shoot it, but I did not want to kill that
+beautiful bird, so I killed my officer.&#8221; Certainly if one wished to
+disobey an unreasonable order it was the simplest method of escaping
+punishment.</p>
+
+<p>At Wady Halfa we were delightfully entertained at tea and dinner by
+Colonel Hunter (now Sir Archibald). Dinner in his pretty garden was indeed
+a pleasant change from our jolting stern-wheeler. Previously he took us to
+see the 500 camels&mdash;riding and baggage&mdash;of the camel-corps. All were
+absolutely ready for action. Like the horses of Branksome Hall in the &#8220;Lay
+of the Last Minstrel,&#8221; who &#8220;ready and wight stood saddled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> in stable day
+and night,&#8221; these camels lay in rows with all their kit on or near
+them&mdash;nothing to be done when the order of advance should be given except
+to fill their water-flasks. All this with the shadow of the Sirdar
+pointing towards them&mdash;to fall even sooner than the officers perchance
+anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>While our boat waited at Wady Halfa we made a short expedition, two hours
+by train on a local military railway, to Sarras, which was then the
+Egyptian frontier. Egyptian officers showed us the Fort on a hill with two
+Krupp and two Maxim guns. There were one or two other little forts on
+heights, and below was the camp with tents, huts, camels, and horses. From
+the hill we looked out at the country beyond, a mass of small hills rising
+from a sandy desert, all barren and arid. It gave a weird impression to
+stand thus on the uttermost outpost of civilisation wondering what of
+death and terror lay beyond.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE DERVISHES</div>
+
+<p>Seven years previously, in July 1889, Sir Herbert Kitchener (as he then
+was) had written to my husband from the Egyptian Headquarters at Assouan,
+and thus described the Dervishes:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I leave for the South to-morrow and shall then have an opportunity of
+seeing the Dervish camp. It is most extraordinary that they have been
+able to invade Egypt in the way they have done without any supplies or
+transport. I have talked to numbers of prisoners and they say they are
+just as fanatical as ever; their intention is to march on Cairo,
+killing all who do not accept their faith, and they do not care in the
+least how many lives they lose in the attempt, as all that die in
+their belief go straight to heaven. They have brought all their women
+and children with them, and seem to have no feeling whatever for the
+sufferings they make them undergo. We have rescued almost thousands
+and fed and clothed them; they come in the most awful state <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>of
+emaciation. I expect we shall have a fight shortly with the strong men
+of the party who now keep all the food for themselves, leaving the
+women and children to die of starvation.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>There was certainly real anxiety about them even during our expedition,
+and it was thought better for our stern-wheelers to anchor in the middle
+of the stream at night, when far from barracks, for fear of attack. I
+think, however, that it was at Assouan, a well-guarded centre, that the
+Bradley Martins came to implore Jersey to come and reassure poor Mrs.
+Sherman, Mrs. Bradley Martin&#8217;s kind old mother. She had heard some firing
+in connection with Ramadan, and told her family that she knew that their
+dahabyah had been captured by dervishes and that they were keeping it from
+her. Why she thought that the dervishes were considerate enough to keep
+out of her cabin I do not know, nor why she consented to believe my
+husband and not her own children. However, it is not uncommon for people
+to attach more weight to the opinion of an outsider than to that of the
+relatives whom they see every day.</p>
+
+<p>Before returning to Cairo we tied up near Helouan and rode there along a
+good road with trees on either side. Helouan itself struck us as
+resembling the modern part of a Riviera town pitched in the desert.
+Neither trees nor verandahs mitigated the glare of the sun, unless a few
+clumps near the sulphur baths did duty as shade for the whole place. There
+were numerous hotels and boarding-houses, though I recorded the opinion,
+which I saw no reason to modify on a visit some years later, that there
+seemed no particular reason for people to go there unless preparatory to
+committing suicide. However, I suppose that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> Races and the Baths
+constituted the attraction, and it may have become more adapted to a
+semi-tropical climate since we saw it.</p>
+
+<p>Before we said farewell to the <i>Herodotus</i> the crew gave us a &#8220;musical and
+dramatic&#8221; entertainment. The comic part was largely supplied by the cook&#8217;s
+boy, who represented a European clad in a remarkably battered suit and
+ordered about a luckless native workman. The great joke was repeatedly to
+offer him as a seat the ship&#8217;s mallet (with which posts for tying up were
+driven into the bank) and to withdraw it the moment he tried to sit down.
+His face, and subsequent flogging of the joker, were hailed with shrieks
+of laughter. Similar pranks interspersed with singing, dancing, and
+tambourine playing were witnessed by an appreciative audience, including
+eight or ten native friends of the sailors, who were supplied with coffee
+and cigarettes.</p>
+
+<p>On March 12th we reached Cairo and, with regret, left our comfortable
+dahabyah for the Ghezireh Palace Hotel. On the 14th came the rumour that
+orders had come from England that troops should advance on Dongola. There
+was the more excitement as it was asserted, and I believe truly, that the
+Government had taken this decisive step without previous consultation with
+either Lord Cromer or the Sirdar. However, all was ready, and the climax
+came when in September 1898 the Dervishes were defeated by Sir Herbert
+Kitchener, the Mahdi slain, and Gordon avenged.</p>
+
+<p>On October 7th of that year Sir Herbert wrote from Cairo, in answer to my
+congratulations:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I am indeed thankful all went off without a hitch. I see the &mdash;&mdash;
+says we kill all the wounded, but when I left Omdurman there were
+between six and seven thousand wounded dervishes in hospital there.
+The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> work was so hard on the Doctors that I had to call on the
+released Egyptian doctors from prison to help; two of them were well
+educated, had diplomas, and were and are very useful. We ran out of
+bandages and had to use our first field dressing which every man
+carries with him.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD KITCHENER</div>
+
+<p>How unjust were newspaper attacks on a man unfailingly humane! Kitchener&#8217;s
+reception in England towards the end of the year was a wild triumph&mdash;more
+than he appreciated, for he complained to me of the way in which the
+populace mobbed him at Charing Cross Station and pulled at his clothes. I
+remember at Dover, either that year or on his return from South Africa,
+meeting the mistress of an Elementary School whom I knew who was taking
+her scholars to see him land &#8220;as an object lesson,&#8221; an object lesson being
+permitted in school hours. The children might certainly have had many less
+useful lessons.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kitchener (as he had then become) spent a Sunday with us at Osterley,
+June 17-19th, 1899. I well recollect a conversation which I had with him
+on that occasion. He expressed his dissatisfaction at his military work
+being ended. &#8220;I should like to begin again as a simple captain if I could
+have something fresh to do.&#8221; &#8220;Why,&#8221; said I, &#8220;you are Governor-General of
+the Soudan, surely there is great work to do there.&#8221; No, that was not the
+sort of job he wanted. &#8220;Well,&#8221; I told him, &#8220;you need not worry yourself,
+you are sure to be wanted soon for something else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Little did he think, still less did I, that exactly six months later, on
+December 18th, orders would reach him at Khartum to join Lord Roberts as
+Chief of the Staff, in South Africa. He started at once, and met his
+Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar on 27th. Indeed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> fresh and stirring act
+in the drama of his life opened before him. Later on, when he had
+succeeded Lord Roberts in the supreme command, he wrote (January 1902)
+thanking me for a little diary which I had sent him, and continued:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;We are all still hard at it, and I really think the end at last
+cannot be far off. Still in this enormous country and with the enemy
+we have to contend with there is no saying how long some roving bands
+may not continue in the field, living like robbers in the hills and
+making occasional raids that are difficult to meet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will be a joyful day when it is over, but however long it may be
+in coming, we shall all stick to it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Boers are simply senseless idiots to go on destroying their
+country.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>What would he have said of the Irish of twenty years later?</p>
+
+<p>After his return from South Africa I was much amused by the account he
+gave us of receiving the O.M. medal from King Edward, who was ill at the
+time. When he arrived at Buckingham Palace he was taken to the King&#8217;s
+bedroom, but kept waiting behind a large screen at the entrance in company
+with Queen Alexandra, who kept exclaiming, &#8220;This is most extraordinary!&#8221;
+At last they were admitted to the royal presence, when the King drew out
+the order from under his pillow. The recipient had evidently been kept
+waiting while somebody went to fetch it.</p>
+
+<p>I have other recollections of Lord Kitchener at Osterley, though I cannot
+exactly date them. One Sunday some of us had been to church, and on our
+return found George Peel extended in a garden chair, looking positively
+white with anxiety. He confided to us that Kitchener and M. Jusserand of
+the French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> Embassy had been marching up and down near the Lake at the
+bottom of the garden violently discussing Egypt and Fashoda, and he was
+afraid lest the Englishman should throw the Frenchman into the
+Lake&mdash;which, considering their respective sizes, would not have been
+difficult. They certainly parted friends, and Kitchener mentions in one of
+his letters: &#8220;I saw Jusserand in Paris, but he said nothing to me about
+his engagement. I must write to him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">KITCHENER AND MRS. BOTHA</div>
+
+<p>Another meeting which took place at one of our garden parties was with
+Mrs. Louis Botha. I was walking with the General when I saw her coming
+down the steps from the house. He and I went forward to meet her, and it
+was really touching to see the evident pleasure with which she responded
+to the warm greetings of her husband&#8217;s former opponent. She, like her
+husband, knew the generous nature of the man.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kitchener certainly knew what he wanted even in little things, but
+even he could not always get it.</p>
+
+<p>Just when he was appointed to the Mediterranean Command (which I am sure
+that he had no intention of taking up) he came down to see us one
+afternoon, and amused himself by sorting our Chinese from our Japanese
+china, the latter kind being in his eyes &#8220;no good.&#8221; Tired of this, he
+suddenly said, &#8220;Now, let us go into the garden and pick strawberries.&#8221;
+&#8220;But,&#8221; said I, &#8220;there are no strawberries growing out-of-doors in May.&#8221;
+&#8220;Oh,&#8221; he exclaimed, &#8220;I thought when we came to Osterley we <i>always</i> picked
+strawberries.&#8221; Fortunately I had some hot-house ones ready at tea.</p>
+
+<p>At King Edward&#8217;s Durbar at Delhi Lord Kitchener&#8217;s camp adjoined that of
+the Governor of Bombay, Lord Northcote, with whom we were staying. He
+arrived a day or two after we did, came over to see us, and took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> me back
+to inspect the arrangements of his camp, including the beautiful plate
+with which he had been presented. He was extremely happy, and most anxious
+to make me avow the superiority of his establishment to ours, which I
+would not admit. At last in triumph he showed me a fender-seat and said,
+&#8220;Anyhow, Lady Northcote has not a fender-seat.&#8221; But I finally crushed him
+with, &#8220;No, but we have a billiard-table!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I must allow that there was a general suspicion that all would not go
+smoothly between two such master minds as his and the Viceroy&#8217;s. Those are
+high politics with which I would not deal beyond saying that the
+impression of most people who know India is that the power ultimately
+given to the Commander-in-Chief was well as long as Lord Kitchener held
+it, but too much for a weaker successor in a day of world-upheaval.</p>
+
+<p>The last time I saw him was in the July before the Great War, when he came
+down to tea, and talked cheerfully of all he was doing at Broome Park, and
+of the trees he intended to plant, and how I must come over from Lady
+Northcote&#8217;s at Eastwell Park and see his improvements. He certainly then
+had no idea of what lay before him. In a last letter written from the War
+Office (I think in 1915, but it is only dated &#8220;25th&#8221;) he speaks of trying
+to motor down some evening, but naturally never had time.</p>
+
+<p>The final tragedy ended a great life, but he had done his work.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<p class="title">THE DIAMOND JUBILEE&mdash;INDIA&mdash;THE PASSING OF THE GREAT QUEEN</p>
+
+<p>I realise that in the foregoing pages I have dwelt more on foreign lands
+than on our own country. This only means that they offered more novelty,
+not that England was less interesting to my husband and myself.</p>
+
+<p>The great Lord Shaftesbury used to say that his was a generation which
+served God less and man more. I trust that only the latter half of this
+dictum has proved true, but certainly throughout Queen Victoria&#8217;s reign
+men and women seemed increasingly awake to their duty to their fellows and
+particularly to children.</p>
+
+<p>Without touching on well-known philanthropic movements, I should like to
+mention one, unostentatious but typical of many others&mdash;namely, the
+&#8220;Children&#8217;s Happy Evenings Association,&#8221; founded by Miss Ada Heather-Bigg
+and inspired throughout its existence by the energy of her sister, Lady
+Bland-Sutton. This was the pioneer Society for organised play in the
+Board, now &#8220;County,&#8221; Schools. It owed much to the work of many of my
+friends, and was specially fortunate in the personal interest of its
+patron, now Queen Mary. Though the exigencies of the new Education Act
+compelled it to cease its voluntary work after the Great War, during
+thirty years it brought happiness into the lives of thousands of poor
+children.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>To return to our Osterley experiences.</p>
+
+<p>We had one specially interesting Sunday in June 1895. Among others staying
+with us from Saturday to Monday were Lord and Lady George Hamilton and Sir
+Stafford and Lady Northcote. Mr. Arthur Balfour came down on Sunday to
+dine and spend the night, and he and Lord George were busy with a game of
+lawn tennis on the garden front of the house. Several of us were in
+another part of the grounds under the cedars overlooking the Lake,
+enjoying the fine warm afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>All at once a very hot and dusty figure appeared through the little gate
+near the portico and revealed itself as Schomberg&mdash;commonly called
+&#8220;Pom&#8221;&mdash;McDonnell, then Lord Salisbury&#8217;s Private Secretary. I went to meet
+him, offering tea, dinner, or whatever hospitality he preferred. All he
+would say in breathless and very serious tones was, &#8220;Give me an egg beat
+up in brandy and find me Arthur Balfour.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The desired refreshment and the statesman were produced in due course. It
+appeared on further inquiry that Mr. McDonnell had bicycled from Hatfield
+to London in search of Mr. Balfour, and not finding him in Carlton Gardens
+had pursued him to Osterley. Such were the exigencies of pre-motor days.
+The interview over, the messenger retreated as swiftly as he had come.</p>
+
+<p>We were not allowed to know the message till next morning when the papers
+came with the thrilling announcement, &#8220;Resignation of the Government&#8221;! Mr.
+Balfour said to me, &#8220;I might quite well have told you, but Pom was so very
+determined that I should not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The only recipient of the secret was Lord George Hamilton.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Balfour returned to the lawn-tennis ground he said very quietly
+to Lord George between the sets, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>&#8220;The Government have resigned&#8221;; and
+then continued his game as if nothing had happened.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">Viscount Villiers<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Hon. Arthur Villiers<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Hon. Walter Rice<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Lord Dunsany<br />
+Imogen Rice&nbsp;<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Earl of Jersey</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img5.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">GROUP AT MIDDLETON PARK, CHRISTMAS, 1904</p>
+
+<p class="center">Col. Earl of Longford<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Countess of Longford<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Lady Margaret Rice<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Countess of Jersey<br />
+Lord Silchester<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Lady Pansy<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Lady Dunsany<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Charles Rice<br />
+Pakenham<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>Elwyn Rice</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Rosebery&#8217;s Government had been defeated a few days previously on the
+cordite vote, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman having been Secretary of State
+for War. Of course there was great excitement. Mr. St. John Brodrick spent
+the next Sunday with us, and was summoned to London by Lord Salisbury
+early on the Monday morning, when he was offered, and accepted, the post
+of Under-Secretary of State for War.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MR. CHAMBERLAIN, COLONIAL SECRETARY</div>
+
+<p>There was a prevalent idea that Mr. Chamberlain would become Secretary of
+State for War, but I felt sure that he would obtain the Colonies, knowing
+what a deep interest he took in the Overseas Empire. We had once had a
+long conversation about it at a dinner at Greenwich. When the appointment
+was made I wrote to congratulate him, and he said in his reply, &#8220;I hope I
+may be able to do something to promote the closer union of our Empire&#8221;&mdash;a
+hope amply fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>I have many recollections of Mr. Chamberlain at Osterley. He was a
+charming guest, always ready to take his share in any amusement or
+discussion. It was comical to see him on one occasion making his way in a
+sort of trot down the Gallery with a serious expression on his face, and
+his arm extended at full length holding a poker towards him, which the
+game somehow entailed his keeping clear of his nose.</p>
+
+<p>He loved to sit on the platform on the top of the double flight of steps
+leading to the garden after dinner on hot nights, smoking and talking. I
+remember that he told us a good ghost story, but am sorry that I forget
+the details. The last time I saw him before his sad illness I sat next to
+him at dinner at his own house. He had then taken up Protection (which I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+always wished he had called &#8220;Preference&#8221;). I said to him: &#8220;You know, Mr.
+Chamberlain, I am a Free Trader?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I know, but you will give an old friend credit for being
+honest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Certainly,&#8221; I replied, and I said that truthfully with my whole heart.</p>
+
+<p>In later years we were neighbours at Cannes, as we had the Villa Luynes
+for four seasons, not far from the Villa Victoria where he took up his
+winter abode. Everyone bore witness to Mrs. Chamberlain&#8217;s devotion, and it
+was splendid to see how she encouraged him, and helped him to retain his
+interest in the outer world in which he could no longer play an active
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Victoria&#8217;s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was marked by even greater
+enthusiasm than the celebrations of 1887. Ten years of that life of
+devotion to her Empire had drawn ever closer the links between her and her
+people. They had shared with her yet more sorrows and yet more joys,
+especially the death of the Duke of Clarence, the marriage of our present
+King, and the births of our Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.</p>
+
+<p>I think the Prince of Wales began his inroad into the hearts of the
+populace on this occasion. When the Queen returned from her triumphal
+procession to St. Paul&#8217;s the two little Princes were taken out on to a
+balcony to see and be seen by the throng below. The infant Prince Albert
+danced in his nurse&#8217;s arms, but Prince Edward, or, as he was always
+called, Prince David, solemnly and correctly saluted in return for the
+ringing cheers with which he was greeted. An eye-witness recounted at the
+time that still the spectators cheered, and again and again the boy
+saluted, till at length as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> they would not stop he evidently felt that
+something more was required, and saluted <i>with both hands</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE QUEEN AT TEMPLE BAR</div>
+
+<p>We had an exciting time, as the custom has always been that when the Lord
+Mayor receives the Sovereign at Temple Bar he should await his or her
+arrival at Child&#8217;s Bank, which is No. 1 Fleet Street. We accordingly went
+there with our family and particular friends, including my father and
+mother. My father&#8217;s ancestor, Sir Thomas Leigh, was Lord Mayor when Queen
+Elizabeth visited the city on her accession and presented it with the
+Pearl Sword; and two of my husband&#8217;s ancestors, Sir Francis Child and his
+son bearing the same name, who were Lords Mayor in the eighteenth century,
+are represented in their portraits at Osterley as holding this sword.</p>
+
+<p>The Lord Mayor of the Diamond Jubilee, Sir George Faudel-Phillips, brought
+this same sword to the Bank and showed it to us, realising our special
+interest, as the representatives of both our families had had charge of
+the sword in bygone years, and were present to see it offered to Queen
+Victoria.</p>
+
+<p>This ceremony took place exactly opposite the Bank, and was certainly a
+trying one for the Lord Mayor, as he had to offer the sword to her
+Majesty, receive it back, and then in his flowing robes leap to his horse
+and still bearing the weapon ride before her carriage to St. Paul&#8217;s.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible not to recall pictures of John Gilpin when one saw his
+mantle flying in the air, but I must say that Sir George displayed
+excellent horsemanship and carried through his part without a hitch.</p>
+
+<p>I never saw the Queen more beaming than on this occasion, and no wonder,
+for she fully realised that the wild acclamations of the people came
+straight from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> their hearts. When we were again at Windsor in the
+following May I ventured to hope that Her Majesty had not been overtired.
+She said, &#8220;No&mdash;not on the day, but when the celebrations had gone on for a
+month she was rather tired.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Rather an amusing incident occurred during the procession. Lady Northcote
+and her father, Lord Mount Stephen, were among our guests at the Bank. A
+few days previously Lady Northcote had met Lord Roberts, Sir Donald
+Stewart, and Sir Redvers Buller, and had said jokingly: &#8220;What is the good
+of knowing Field Marshals if they do not salute one on such an occasion?&#8221;
+As a result all three saluted her&mdash;Lord Roberts in particular was riding
+at the head of the Colonial and Asiatic troops on the little white Arab
+horse which he had ridden all through the Afghan War, and all the time
+when he was Commander-in-Chief in Madras and in India. The horse wore the
+Afghan medal and the Kandahar Star given him by Queen Victoria. When Lord
+Roberts was opposite Child&#8217;s, he duly reined his charger round and
+solemnly saluted. An evening paper gravely asserted that he had saluted
+the city and that it was &#8220;a fine thing finely done.&#8221; It was finely done,
+but the salute was to a lady, not to the city!</p>
+
+<p>In the following year our eldest daughter Margaret married Lord Dynevor&#8217;s
+son, Walter Rice, and in 1899 our second daughter Mary married Lord
+Longford. These proved the happiest possible marriages, and our
+grandchildren as delightful as their parents. Both these weddings took
+place from 25 St. James&#8217;s Place by the extreme kindness of Lady Northcote,
+who provided the whole of the entertainments, including putting us all up
+for the two occasions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>My brother Rowland in 1898 married in America the daughter of General
+Gordon of Savannah, who was warmly welcomed in our family.</p>
+
+<p>In March 1899 Lady Northcote and I had a short but delightful tour in
+Holland and Belgium.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this came the black shadows of the African War, in which
+Longford took a distinguished part, serving with the 2nd Life Guards and
+with the Imperial Yeomanry, and, at Lord Robert&#8217;s desire, raising the
+Irish Horse. Though he was wounded at Lindley he returned safely&mdash;but,
+alas! in the European War he was killed at Suvla Bay&mdash;one of the best and
+bravest of men.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Northcote having been appointed Governor of Bombay, he and Lady
+Northcote left England early in 1900. My remaining daughter Beatrice and I
+travelled with them as far as Marseilles, where they joined their ship and
+we went on to North Italy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR</div>
+
+<p>The war was still raging in South Africa and we lived in a state of
+constant anxiety. While we were in Florence, however, the news came of the
+relief of Kimberley. I shall always recollect the arrival of a brief
+telegram to the effect that &#8220;General French had ridden into Kimberley,&#8221;
+quite sufficient to induce total strangers to address each other in the
+tea-shop, which was a common resort, and to exchange happy speculations as
+to the truth of the news.</p>
+
+<p>In Paris on our way back we had the further tidings of the surrender of
+Cronje, and the relief of Ladysmith, which I regret to say did not improve
+the temper of the French or their manners towards English travellers&mdash;but
+perhaps all this is better now forgotten. We had found the Italians
+perfectly amiable.</p>
+
+<p>One great difference between the Boer War and that which has since
+devastated the world was that the former<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> did not in any way interfere
+with ocean travel, and in the autumn following the departure of our
+friends, Jersey, Beatrice, and myself set off again to join them in India.
+They were on tour when we first reached Bombay, so we went to see some of
+our former haunts and a few places which we had not previously visited.</p>
+
+<p>I have already written so much of India that I will only very briefly
+mention some incidents which particularly struck me on this occasion. I
+pass over the wonderful Caves of Ellora, for, marvellous as they are, they
+are fully described in guide-books. We paid a second visit to Hyderabad,
+and it was curious there to note the strong contrast between the modern
+education of the girls of the higher classes and the conservative attitude
+of some of the old ladies.</p>
+
+<p>We attended a large dinner given by the Vikar, or Prime Minister, who was
+married to the Nizam&#8217;s sister, and after dinner he expressed a wish that I
+should pay a visit to his wife, who lived in a palace near the hall in
+which we had dined. The Resident&#8217;s wife kindly accompanied me, though she
+had not hitherto made the lady&#8217;s acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>It was the weirdest visit I ever paid. Darkness had fallen, and we were
+received at the entrance of the Palace by a number of wild-looking females
+bearing torches and wrapped in red saris. They reminded me of an old print
+representing a beldame with a flaming torch at the Gate of Tartarus, with
+Cerberus and other monsters in the background: rather a libel on the
+women, who were doubtless excellent in private life, but who seemed to be
+guarding a fatal portal on this occasion. They conducted us to a vast,
+dimly lighted chamber with pillars and arches; which might have been the
+Hall of Eblis.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">INDIAN PRINCESSES</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>What was happening in its recesses I could not see, but in the middle, on
+an ordinary-looking chair, sat the Princess, her destined daughter-in-law
+squatting at her feet and attendants in the background. She was wrapped in
+a gorgeous green-and-gold sari and covered with jewels on neck, arms, and
+ankles, but her bare feet projected in an uncomfortable manner; she looked
+as if a cushion on the floor would have suited her much better than her
+stiff seat. Near her, looking singularly incongruous, stood her son, and a
+stepson whose existence scandal said she resented. The young men were
+attired in immaculate European dress-clothes, and might had walked out of
+the Bachelors&#8217; Club except that they wore on their heads curious
+mitre-shaped hats which indicated their connection with the Nizam&#8217;s house.
+They both spoke English perfectly. Our conversation with the lady was
+naturally limited to translated platitudes, but I was interested to see
+the heroine, who was reckoned very clever but not over-scrupulous.</p>
+
+<p>At the great fortress city of Gwalior we visited very different
+ladies&mdash;the mother and wife of Scindia, who received us in pleasant
+apartments, well-furnished, light and airy. The old lady might have been
+an English dowager&mdash;she was extremely talkative and full of her son the
+Maharajah, who was expected back immediately from the Boxer War. The
+little wife was in the charge of an English governess and seemed anxious
+to remain in another room out of her mother-in-law&#8217;s way. She was about
+eighteen, and was much amused at the height of my daughter who was her
+contemporary. Unfortunately the poor young thing had no child, though she
+had been married for some years. The Maharajah was devoted to her and
+wanted to avoid a second marriage, but later on was obliged to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> consent to
+taking another wife with a view to providing an heir.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what ceremonies were then necessary, but when he married our
+young friend certain difficulties had arisen. The wife of Scindia had to
+be chosen from a very limited caste, and the only eligible young lady at
+the moment was the daughter of a quite middle-class family somewhere near
+Bombay or Poona. Now if the lady had been his equal by birth it would have
+been proper for the Maharajah to ride to her residence in order to bring
+her home, but he could not have gone to a comparatively humble abode. As a
+compromise he had to ride the same number of days which it would have
+taken him to reach his bride, but it was arranged that he should do this
+in his own dominions, sleeping each night at the house of one of his
+Sirdars.</p>
+
+<p>At Lahore we saw the College for young Chiefs, modelled as far as possible
+on the lines of an English Public School and, like the Mayo College at
+Ajmere, intended to bring up a manly race of rulers without the risks
+attendant on sending them to England. The majority of the youths whom we
+saw were Mohammedans or Sikhs. The Mohammedans would mess together, but,
+though the Sikhs are by way of disregarding caste, in practice it was
+found that each youth preferred to eat in private. This may have been
+partly a question of dignity, as these young northern chiefs came attended
+with personal servants.</p>
+
+<p>Their private rooms, with occupant&#8217;s name outside, were not unlike those
+of Eton boys, and each contained a little illuminated card calling
+attention to the special observances of the scholar&#8217;s own faith, and
+saying that the Directors of the College were anxious that the students
+should attend to their religious obligations.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>I noticed outside one door &#8220;Granth Sahib,&#8221; and wondered what Scotsman had
+entered himself as pupil with such companions. On inquiry it proved that
+this was the shrine or chapel of the &#8220;Granth&#8221; or Sacred Book of the Sikhs,
+the one symbol allowed in their worship. We went into the room where it
+was kept, and found a large volume lying on the floor, with flowers thrown
+upon it, evidently the offering of some devotee who had performed &#8220;poojah&#8221;
+or worship.</p>
+
+<p>At beautiful Amritsar, now a home of sad memories, in the Golden Temple in
+the Lake, we saw a far more gorgeous shrine, but still with the Granth as
+its centre of worship.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">LORD AND LADY NORTHCOTE</div>
+
+<p>I must not linger over these scenes, though every part of India offers a
+fresh temptation to dwell on its manifold races, its historic temples and
+palaces, but must hasten to our sojourn at Bombay, where Lord and Lady
+Northcote gave us some of the most delightful weeks of our lives,
+including a truly cheerful Christmas in a home away from home.</p>
+
+<p>Every day brought something of interest seen under the best possible
+auspices, and every evening a happy time with our friends. It was a joy
+also to find how they had rooted themselves in the esteem and affection of
+both English and Indians in the Presidency.</p>
+
+<p>Just before we sailed for England came the news of Queen Victoria&#8217;s
+serious illness. Everyone knew, though no one liked to acknowledge, that
+recovery was problematical. Wireless telegraphy was still in its infancy,
+so we had no news between Bombay and Aden, where we arrived in the middle
+of the night. I was asleep in my berth when our ship anchored, and I shall
+never forget waking in the early dawn and hearing a man&#8217;s voice saying to
+a friend just outside my cabin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> &#8220;She went off very quietly.&#8221; No need to
+ask who it was whose passing from earth had wrung the hearts of many
+nations, and not least of those who go down to the sea in ships.</p>
+
+<p>People who remember those winter days need no description of their import,
+and those who are too young to recall them can never realise what it meant
+to feel as if a whole Empire had become one great orphaned family.
+Statesmen and soldiers had given place to their successors, poets,
+philosophers, and men of science had passed away, but for over sixty years
+the Queen had been the unchanging centre of our national life, and it
+seemed incredible that even she had laid down the burden of sovereignty,
+and would no longer share the joys and sorrows of her people.</p>
+
+<p>And here I would end these wandering reminiscences, but must just record
+one tribute to her memory in which I was privileged to take part.</p>
+
+<p>In the following May a number of women dressed in deep mourning assembled
+at 10 Downing Street, then the dwelling of the Prime Minister, Mr. Arthur
+Balfour. His sister Miss Balfour, Miss Georgina Frere, daughter of the
+late Sir Bartle Frere, and Lady Edward Cecil (now Lady Milner) had
+assembled us in order that we might establish a society for knitting more
+closely together British subjects dwelling in various parts of the Empire.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">THE VICTORIA LEAGUE</div>
+
+<p>We called it the Victoria League in memory of the great Queen-Empress
+under whose sway that Empire had extended to &#8220;regions C&aelig;sar never knew.&#8221;
+The executive committee then elected was composed of the wives and sisters
+of Cabinet Ministers, of wives of leaders of the Opposition, and other
+representative ladies. Most unexpectedly, just before the meeting Lady
+Rayleigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> (Mr. Balfour&#8217;s sister) informed me that I was to take the chair
+and that it was intended to appoint me first President. My breath was
+quite taken away, but there was neither time nor opportunity for
+remonstrance, and I concluded that I was chosen because one great object
+of the founders being to emphasise &#8220;no party politics,&#8221; it was thought
+wiser not to select a President whose husband was of Cabinet rank, and
+that though a Conservative I had the qualification of overseas experience.</p>
+
+<p>The late Lady Tweedmouth, a Liberal, was appointed Vice-President, and
+shortly afterwards Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, representing the Liberal
+Unionists, became Honorary Secretary. Later on Miss Talbot, now Dame
+Meriel, took the post of Secretary, which she held for fifteen years, and
+Mrs. Maurice Macmillan succeeded Miss Georgina Frere as Honorary
+Treasurer, a position which she still holds. Miss Drayton, O.B.E., is now
+our most efficient Secretary.</p>
+
+<p>For myself I have been President for twenty-one years, and, thanks to the
+extraordinary kindness and capacity of my colleagues, those years have
+been full of interest and unshadowed by any disputes, despite the
+divergent politics of the directing committees. We have always borne in
+mind the purpose of the League so well summed up by Rudyard Kipling on its
+foundation, &#8220;the first attempt to organise sympathy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We have now 38 British Branches and 22 Overseas Affiliated Leagues,
+besides Allied Associations, and we are honoured by having the King and
+Queen as Patrons and the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal
+Family as Vice-Patrons.</p>
+
+<p>Men were soon added to our Councils, and we had two splendid Deputy
+Presidents in Sir Edward Cook<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> and Sir James Dunlop-Smith, now, alas! both
+taken from us. But the twenty-one years of the League&#8217;s work lie outside
+the limits of these wandering recollections.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">MR. CHAMBERLAIN&#8217;S LETTER</div>
+
+<p>I would, however, like to insert the wise words which Mr. Chamberlain
+wrote on March 16th, 1902, in reply to a request sent by desire of our
+Committee for some official recognition. After acknowledging my letter he
+continues:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I heartily approve of the efforts you are making to draw closer the
+ties between our Colonial kinsfolk and ourselves. I believe that the
+questions of sentiment enter more largely into these things than the
+average man is willing to admit, and that we have lost much in the
+past by the absence of personal intercourse with those whose support
+and friendship are daily becoming more important to us as a Nation.
+The Colonials are especially sensitive to these personal
+considerations. They find it difficult to understand our
+preoccupations and the impossibility of returning the hospitality they
+so freely offer when we visit them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No Government can set this matter right, as it is not a question of
+official recognition, but of private and personal courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I look therefore with the greatest hope to the work of such
+associations as yours which may help to make our Colonists feel that
+we appreciate their affection and desire as far as in us lies to
+reciprocate it.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>He then proceeds to explain the view which he says he has already
+discussed with Mr. Alfred Lyttelton&mdash;namely, that it is wiser to refrain
+from giving official colour to a work which had better maintain a &#8220;private
+and personal character.&#8221; He continues:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I cannot dissociate myself from my office, and I do not think that it
+would be wise or desirable that I should extend the vast field of
+responsibility which that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> office already covers by associating myself
+publicly with these private Associations.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>He expresses himself as ready at any time to give such assistance as
+obtaining special privileges for the guests we represent at the Coronation
+or other functions, and then says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;But I feel that, except in such ways, I had better stand apart, and
+that the great value of these associations lies in their non-official
+character. I represent the Government&mdash;you represent the people, and I
+think it is most important that this distinction should be carefully
+preserved.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am open to conviction, but I think I am right in begging you to
+accept my reasons and to excuse me from accepting a request which as a
+private individual I should have been proud to comply with.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Naturally we felt the justice of views so fully and courteously explained.</p>
+
+<p>And now I must end. The years spent under the rule of two great Kings, and
+the guidance of two gracious Queens, have had their joys and sorrows,
+public and private, but they lie too near our day for a woman to attempt
+even a personal record of what they have brought under her ken.</p>
+
+<p>The happy marriages of my eldest son to the beloved daughter of Lord
+Kilmorey, of my youngest daughter to Lord Dunsany, and of my brother
+Rupert to Miss Dudley Smith belong to the present century.</p>
+
+<p>I can only say how grateful I am for the affection of many friends, and
+the love of my children and grandchildren, which have softened the sorrows
+and heightened the joys of these latter years.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE END</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<p class="index">
+<span class="letter">A</span><br />
+<br />
+Abdul Kerim, Queen Victoria&#8217;s Munshi, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br />
+<br />
+Abingdon, Earl of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
+<br />
+Abu Simbal, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br />
+<br />
+Adderley, Sir Charles, and Hon. Lady, n&eacute;e Leigh, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+Adderley Cousins at Hams Hall, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Adyar, Theosophist Headquarters, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br />
+<br />
+Aga Khan, H.H., the, <a href="#Page_152">152-154</a><br />
+<br />
+Akbar, his Tomb, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why he built Futtehpore-Sekree, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Albert Edward, H.R.H. Prince of Wales (Edward VII), gives cigar to Mr. Dibbs, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br />
+<br />
+Alcester, Admiral Lord, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+<br />
+Alexandra, H.R.H., Princess of Wales (afterwards Queen), gown woven for, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">f&ecirc;te given for her marriage at Mentone, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prince William at her wedding, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Marlborough House, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Alexandra, Princess, of Greece, <a href="#Page_209">209-210</a><br />
+<br />
+Ali Beg, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br />
+<br />
+Ampthill, Dowager Lady, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br />
+<br />
+Ancram, Earl of, A.D.C., accidentally killed, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
+<br />
+Andrew, Prince, of Greece, <a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
+<br />
+Antwerp, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Apia, capital of Samoa, <a href="#Page_291">291</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Arcadia</i>, s.s., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
+<br />
+Ardagh, Col. Sir John, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Ardgowan, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br />
+<br />
+Argyll, 8th Duke of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Armand B&eacute;hic</i>, Messageries s.s., <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br />
+<br />
+Arnold, Sir Edwin, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br />
+<br />
+Arran, Isle of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
+<br />
+Ashley, Hon. Lionel, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Assiout and its Mudir, <a href="#Page_216">216-217</a><br />
+<br />
+Assouan, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a><br />
+<br />
+Athens, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Auckland, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
+<br />
+Augusta, Empress, <a href="#Page_100">100-101</a><br />
+<br />
+Australia, voyage to, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br />
+<br />
+Avon, River, at Stoneleigh, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Avon, River, at Christchurch, N.Z., <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">B</span><br />
+<br />
+Baker, Sir Samuel and Lady, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br />
+<br />
+Baker, Shirley, Wesleyan Missionary, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
+<br />
+Bakm&eacute;teff, Russian diplomat, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+Bathurst, William, 5th Earl, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Bazaine, Marshal, his escape from Ste. Marguerite, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+Beaconsfield, Lord, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Beckford, William, of Fonthill Abbey, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Bedford, Hastings, Duke of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Benadadda, Scotch giant, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Benson, Mr. E. F. and Miss, Excavations in Egypt, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
+<br />
+Beresford, Lord William, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Berlin, visit to, <a href="#Page_100">100-110</a><br />
+<br />
+Bernhardt, Sarah, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Bernstorff, Madame, her ghost story, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+<br />
+Bhownuggar, Maharajah of, his aims and difficulties, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
+<br />
+Biarritz, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br />
+<br />
+Bilgrami, Syed Hossain, C.S.I., <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+Bismarck, Prince, <a href="#Page_105">105-110</a><br />
+<br />
+Bismarck, Princess, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br />
+<br />
+Bismarck, Count Herbert, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br />
+<br />
+Blyth, Dr., Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br />
+<br />
+Bombay, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+<br />
+Bourke, Rev. Cecil, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+<br />
+Brahmo-Somaj, <a href="#Page_182">182-184</a><br />
+<br />
+Brandling, Mr. Charles, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br />
+<br />
+Brisbane, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Brough (Irish Guide), <a href="#Page_41">41-42</a><br />
+<br />
+Brougham, 1st Lord, Lord Chancellor, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br />
+<br />
+Broughton Castle, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span><br />
+Browne, Thomas (Rolf Boldrewood), <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br />
+<br />
+Browning, Robert, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br />
+<br />
+Buckingham, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
+<br />
+Buller, Mr. Charles, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br />
+<br />
+Buller, F.M. Sir Redvers, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+Burley-on-the-Hill, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Bute, Dowager Marchioness of, n&eacute;e Howard, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">C</span><br />
+<br />
+Cairns, 1st Earl, Lord Chancellor, his ghost story, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br />
+<br />
+Cairo, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br />
+<br />
+Calcutta, <a href="#Page_182">182-184</a><br />
+<br />
+Campbell, Lady Agnes: <i>see</i> <a href="#frank">Frank</a><br />
+<br />
+Campbell, Sir Archibald, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Campbell, Sir Colin, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+<br />
+Canadian Pacific Railway, <a href="#Page_347">347-348</a><br />
+<br />
+Cannes, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br />
+<br />
+Canton, Viceroy of, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
+<br />
+Carnegie, Ladies Helena and Dora, <a href="#Page_276">276</a><br />
+<br />
+Carpenter, Miss, philanthropist, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br />
+<br />
+Caulcot Infant School, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Caversfield, <i>The Angelic Choir</i>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
+<br />
+Cazenove, Canon, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
+<br />
+Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Cecil, Lord Robert, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Cedercrantz, Swedish Chief Justice in Samoa, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
+<br />
+Cephalonia and its brigands, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+Ceylon, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
+<br /><a name="chamberlain" id="chamberlain"></a>
+Chamberlain, Miss Beatrice, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
+<br />
+Chamberlain, Mrs., n&eacute;e Endicott, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a><br />
+<br />
+Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, first acquaintance with, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his political creed, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Osterley, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Egypt, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter concerning Victoria League, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Chandar Ras Behadur Khanha, <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br />
+<br />
+Chicago, <a href="#Page_348">348-354</a><br />
+<br />
+Cholmondeley, Captain Harry, A.D.C., <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br />
+<br />
+Cholmondeley, Rev. Lionel, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Cholmondeley, Hon. Mrs., n&eacute;e Leigh, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+Christchurch, N.Z., <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br />
+<br />
+Christian, H.R.H., Princess, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br />
+<br />
+Christmas at Stoneleigh Abbey, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br />
+<br />
+Chunder Sen Babu, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
+<br />
+Clarence, H.R.H., Duke of, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Clarke, Mr. Frederick, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
+<br />
+Clarke, Mr. Rochfort and pictures, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+<br />
+Cleveland, Caroline, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Clinton, Lord Edward, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br />
+<br />
+Colombo, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
+<br />
+Columbus, Christopher, how he discovered America, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a><br />
+<br />
+Connaught, T.R.H. Duke and Duchess, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
+<br />
+Connemara, Lord, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br />
+<br />
+Consort, H.R.H. Prince, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br />
+<br />
+Constantine, Duke of Sparta (&#8220;Tino&#8221;), <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br />
+<br />
+Constantine, Grand Duke (Romanoff), <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br />
+<br />
+Constantinople, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br />
+<br />
+Cook, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br />
+<br />
+Cook, Sir Francis, collection at Richmond, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
+<br />
+Crawford, Emily, Countess of, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
+<br />
+Crimean War, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Cromer, Earl and Countess of, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br />
+<br />
+Crystal Palace, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Curzon, Hon. George, afterwards Marquis, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Cusack-Smith, Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) and Mrs., <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br />
+<br />
+Custarde, Miss, Governess, <a href="#Page_6">6-8</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">D</span><br />
+<br />
+Damascus, <a href="#Page_226">226-230</a><br />
+<br />
+Darley, Sir Frederick, Chief Justice, N.S.W., and Lady, <a href="#Page_251">251-253</a><br />
+<br />
+Dartrey, Countess of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Dashwood, Sir George, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Dashwood, Sir Henry and Lady, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Davis, Jefferson, ex-President, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br />
+<br />
+de Bunsen, Sir Maurice, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Deichmann, Baron and Baroness, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br />
+<br />
+De La Warr, Earl and Countess of, <a href="#Page_117">117-119</a><br />
+<br />
+Derby, Edward, 15th Earl of, at the Spithead Naval Review, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117-119</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters from, <a href="#Page_245">245-247</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257-264</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poem composed in sleep, <a href="#Page_264">264-265</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Derby, Mary, Countess of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+de Ros, Lord, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br />
+<br />
+Des V&oelig;ux, Sir William, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a><br />
+<br />
+Devereux, General and Hon. Mrs., <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Devonshire, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Dewar, Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Dibbs, Sir George, First Australian-born Premier, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span><br />
+Dickson, Mr., Consul, at Damascus, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br />
+<br />
+Dieppe, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br />
+<br />
+Dragoumis, Greek Foreign Minister, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br />
+<br />
+Draper, Rev. W. H. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Drayton, Miss, O.B.E., <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Duff, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Dufferin, Marquis of, Viceroy, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+Dunedin, N.Z., <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
+<br />
+Dunlop-Smith, Sir James, <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br />
+<br />
+Dynevor, Lord (Hon. W. Rice), <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">E</span><br />
+<br />
+East, Sir James, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br />
+<br />
+Eaton Hall, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Edgcumbe, Col. Hon. Charles, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Edgehill, &#8220;The Sunrising,&#8221;, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+<br />
+Edinburgh, H.R.H. Duke of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Melbourne, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Edward, Prince of Wales, his first public appearance, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
+<br />
+Elephanta, Caves of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a><br />
+<br />
+Ellenborough, Lady, her romantic life, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br />
+<br />
+Endicott, Miss: <i>see</i> <a href="#chamberlain">Chamberlain</a><br />
+<br />
+Epidaurus Amphitheatre, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br />
+<br />
+Esterhazy, Prince Louis, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br />
+<br />
+Esterhazy, Prince Nicholas, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Eug&eacute;nie, Empress, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br />
+<br />
+Eulalia, Infanta, <a href="#Page_350">350-354</a><br />
+<br />
+Eulenberg, Count, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">F</span><br />
+<br />
+Faudel-Phillips, Sir George, Lord Mayor at Temple Bar, <a href="#Page_373">373</a><br />
+<br />
+Fawcett, Mr., Judge at Tanjore, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
+<br />
+Fearn, Clarice, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br />
+<br />
+Fearn, Mr., American diplomat, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br />
+<br />
+Ferdinand of Bulgaria, <a href="#Page_236">236</a><br />
+<br />
+Ferris, Captain, British Agent at Bhownuggar, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br />
+<br />
+Fiji, High Commissioner, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br />
+<br />
+Fin, McCoul (Fingal), Irish Giant, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br />
+<br />
+Fonthill Abbey, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br />
+<br />
+Frank, Dr., <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br />
+<br /><a name="frank" id="frank"></a>
+Frank, Lady Agnes, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Frederick, Crown Prince, afterwards Emperor, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br />
+<br />
+Frederick, Crown Princess, afterwards Empress, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Free Kirk Settlers in New Zealand, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
+<br />
+Freeman, family butler, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Frere, Miss Georgina, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br /><a name="froude" id="froude"></a>
+Froude, J. A., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">epigram on him and Kingsley, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Futtehpore-Sekree, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">G</span><br />
+<br />
+Gailey, Mrs., nurse at Stoneleigh, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><br />
+<br />
+Galloway, Mary, Countess of, first acquaintance with, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter from, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with her in Italy, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Berlin, <a href="#Page_100">100-109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the Naval Review, <a href="#Page_115">115-119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Greece, <a href="#Page_127">127-140</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meeting at Cairo and return to Greece, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey with her through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Constantinople and Vienna, <a href="#Page_214">214-237</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nurses Lady Jersey in Upper Grosvenor Street, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Australia and New Zealand, <a href="#Page_266">266-276</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Garibaldi Hymn, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prison, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Genoa, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+George V, H.M. King, as an infant, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the <i>Bacchante</i>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br />
+<br />
+George, King of Greece, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br />
+<br />
+George, King of Tonga, <a href="#Page_287">287-290</a><br />
+<br />
+Gerard, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br />
+<br />
+Ghent, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br />
+<br />
+Giant&#8217;s Causeway, its legend, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br />
+<br />
+Gladstone, Mr., his theory of immortality, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br />
+<br />
+Glendalough and its legends, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Glengariff, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br />
+<br />
+Goschen, Hon. George, afterwards Viscount, Private Secretary, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br />
+<br />
+Grandison, Viscount, Irish title of Jersey family, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br />
+<br />
+Grant Duff, Sir Mount Stuart, offers a cloth to the Ranee, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">views on Madras Harbour, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Greenwich Hospital, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Grenfell, Sir Francis Sirdar, afterwards Lord Grenfell, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
+<br />
+Grenfell, Mr. W. H., afterwards Lord Desborough, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br />
+<br />
+Grey, Sir George, of New Zealand, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br />
+<br />
+Griffith, Sir Samuel, Australian statesman, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br />
+<br />
+Grigg, Mr., Madras Minister of Education, and Mrs., <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br />
+<br />
+Grigg, Sir Edward as a boy at Madras, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br />
+<br />
+Grosvenor House, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+<br />
+Gubbins, Sahib, Financial Commissioner at Lucknow, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+<br />
+Guest, Lady Theodore, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br />
+<br />
+Gwalior, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">H</span><br />
+<br />
+Hadji Petros, Greek Lord Chamberlain, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span><br />
+Hadji Petros, brigand, a husband of Lady Ellenborough, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br />
+<br />
+Haggard, Bazett Michael, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br />
+<br />
+Haggard, William, charg&eacute; d&#8217;affaires in Athens, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Mrs., <a href="#Page_129">129-210</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Hakone, Lake, <a href="#Page_343">343</a><br />
+<br />
+Halsbury, 1st Earl of, Lord Chancellor, and the ghost, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br />
+<br />
+Hamilton, Lady, wife of Governor of Tasmania, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
+<br />
+Hamilton, Lord and Lady George, <a href="#Page_376">376</a><br />
+<br />
+Hanna, Colonel Commanding at Delhi, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his stories of the siege, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Hare, Augustus, his account of Osterley, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br />
+<br />
+Havelock, Sir Henry, and the Relief of Lucknow, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
+<br />
+Hay, Dr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br />
+<br />
+Hayashi, Viscount, on Japanese religion, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Heather-Bigg, Miss Ada, foundress Children&#8217;s Happy Evenings, <a href="#Page_369">369</a><br />
+<br />
+Helouan, <a href="#Page_363">363</a><br />
+<br />
+Hendley, Doctor, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br />
+<br />
+Hext, Captain, Director of Indian Marine, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br />
+<br />
+Higginson, Sir George, Story of Crimea, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br />
+<br />
+Hinemoa, Maori heroine, <a href="#Page_274">274</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Hinemoa</i>, New Zealand Government yacht, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
+<br />
+Hobart, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
+<br />
+Holmwood, Mr., British Consul at Smyrna, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br />
+<br />
+Hong-Kong, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a><br />
+<br />
+Hood, Lady Maria, n&eacute;e Fox-Strangways, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Hopetoun, Lord, afterwards Marquis of Linlithgow, <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br />
+<br />
+Hornby, Sir Ed. and Lady, apparition to at Shanghai, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<br />
+Houghton, Lord, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br />
+<br />
+Hughes, Thomas, gives Lowell&#8217;s works to Lady Jersey, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes story for her son, <a href="#Page_89">89-91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">founds &#8220;New Rugby,&#8221; <a href="#Page_91">91</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Hunter, Colonel, afterwards General Sir Archibald, <a href="#Page_361">361</a><br />
+<br />
+Hyderabad, <a href="#Page_155">155-161</a>, and <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">I</span><br />
+<br />
+Inchmery, <a href="#Page_117">117-119</a><br />
+<br />
+India, visits to, <a href="#Page_145">145-204</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poem inspired by, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Innes, Sir George and Lady, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br />
+<br />
+Inouye, Marquis and Marchioness, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Invercargill, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br />
+<br />
+Ireland and its legends, <a href="#Page_41">41-50</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">J</span><br />
+<br />
+Jackson, Major, afterwards Sir Herbert, at Assouan, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a><br />
+<br />
+Jains, the, and the Dilwarra Temples, <a href="#Page_197">197-198</a><br />
+<br />
+James, Henry, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+Japan, Emperor of, <a href="#Page_337">337-340</a><br />
+<br />
+Japan, Empress of, <a href="#Page_337">337-339</a><br />
+<br />
+Jeacock, Job, Parish Clerk at Stoneleigh, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">made Sir H. Parkes&#8217;s first breeches, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Jenkins, W. H. <a href="#Page_69">69</a> and <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br />
+<br />
+Jenkins, Lady Caroline, n&eacute;e Villiers, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a><br />
+<br />
+Jenolan Caves, N.S.W., <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br />
+<br />
+Jersey, 7th Earl of, as a boy, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engagement and marriage, <a href="#Page_61">61-64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord-in-Waiting, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Windsor, <a href="#Page_212">212-213</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Travels in France, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Italy, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Switzerland, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in India, <a href="#Page_145">145-205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Egypt, <a href="#Page_206">206-7</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-364</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Greece, <a href="#Page_208">208-11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paymaster-General, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointed Governor of New South Wales, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Balmoral, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">life in Australia, <a href="#Page_249">249-257</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits New Caledonia, <a href="#Page_276">276-284</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in China, <a href="#Page_329">329-335</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Japan, <a href="#Page_335">335-345</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376-379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">through Canada, <a href="#Page_347">347-348</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in United States, <a href="#Page_343">343-345</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Child&#8217;s Bank, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Jersey, Frances, Countess of, n&eacute;e Twysden, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Jersey, Julia, Countess of, n&eacute;e Peel, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br />
+<br />
+Jersey, Margaret Elizabeth, Countess of, n&eacute;e Leigh, birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">journey with parents to France, <a href="#Page_4">4-5</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Scotland, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to France and Italy, <a href="#Page_23">23-29</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">to Ireland, <a href="#Page_40">40-50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Rev. J. and Mrs. Leigh to Holland and Belgium, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, <a href="#Page_61">61-64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">country neighbours, <a href="#Page_72">72-77</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">other friends, <a href="#Page_81">81-93</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">after marriage, travels in France, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Italy, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Switzerland, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Germany, <a href="#Page_100">100-109</a>;</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the Naval Review, <a href="#Page_116">116-119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travels in India, <a href="#Page_146">146-205</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376-379</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Windsor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travels in Greece, <a href="#Page_127">127-140</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208-211</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Egypt, <a href="#Page_206">206-7</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214-218</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-364</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Palestine, <a href="#Page_219">219-225</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Syria, <a href="#Page_225">225-230</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constantinople, <a href="#Page_232">232-235</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Australia, <a href="#Page_249">249-257</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits New Zealand, <a href="#Page_268">268-276</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319-323</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New Caledonia, <a href="#Page_276">276-284</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tonga, <a href="#Page_287">287-291</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Samoa, <a href="#Page_291">291-318</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President Victoria League, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Jersey, Sarah, Countess of, n&eacute;e Fane, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Jeypore, City of Victory, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+<br />
+Johnston, Mr. and Mrs., and the Heart of Montrose, <a href="#Page_172">172-175</a><br />
+<br />
+Jung, Sir Salar, and his sisters, <a href="#Page_159">159-161</a><br />
+<br />
+Jusserand, Monsieur, <a href="#Page_366">366-367</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">K</span><br />
+<br />
+Karnak, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br />
+<br />
+Katoomba, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br />
+<br />
+Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br />
+<br />
+Killarney Lakes, <a href="#Page_43">43-45</a><br />
+<br />
+Kingsley, Charles: <i>see</i> <a href="#froude">Froude, J. A.</a><br />
+<br />
+Kintore, Earl, <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br />
+<br />
+Kipling, Rudyard, &#8220;rising celebrity,&#8221; <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his &#8220;Recessional,&#8221; <a href="#Page_356">356</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Kitchener, Earl, in Egypt, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits to Osterley, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365-367</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters from, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364-365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Delhi, <a href="#Page_367">367-368</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Knowles, Sir James and <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br />
+<br />
+Kobe, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br />
+<br />
+Kotab Minar, the, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br />
+<br />
+Kowloon, <a href="#Page_330">330</a><br />
+<br />
+Krishna, Brahmin worship of, his birthplace, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br />
+<br />
+Kuch Behar, Maharajah of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">L</span><br />
+<br />
+Lachman Das, Seth, <a href="#Page_195">195-196</a><br />
+<br />
+Laffon, Monsieur, Governor of New Caledonia, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a><br />
+<br />
+Lahore, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br />
+<br />
+Lansdowne, Marquis and Marchioness of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Lathom, Earl and Countess of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br />
+<br />
+Laurium Mines, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br />
+<br />
+Lecky, Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Agnes, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Augusta, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Caroline, Lady, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devotion of children, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advice on daughter&#8217;s marriage, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters of daughter to, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133-134</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336-339</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poems by, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-113</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Child&#8217;s Bank, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Chandos, 1st Lord, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Sir Chandos, K.C., <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Lady Chandos, n&eacute;e Rigby, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Mary Cordelia, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Dudley, afterwards 3rd Lord Leigh, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Dudley, n&eacute;e Beckwith, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Gilbert, M.P., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href="#Page_97">97-99</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Mrs. James, n&eacute;e Butler, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter from, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Margarette, Lady, n&eacute;e Willes, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Rowland, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rowland, n&eacute;e Gordon, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Major Hon. Rupert, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A.D.C., <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accompanies Lady Jersey on s.s. <i>L&uuml;beck</i>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Tonga, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Samoa, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes in <i>An Object of Pity</i>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins Staff of Sir Robert Duff, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rupert, n&eacute;e Dudley Smith, <a href="#Page_383">383</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, Hon. and Rev. J. W. (Dean of Hereford), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+Leigh, William Henry, 2nd Lord, entertains North Warwickshire Hunt, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">travels with his children, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-29</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Queen Victoria at Stoneleigh, <a href="#Page_11">11-13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">takes moors in Scotland, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">talks with Nelson&#8217;s servant, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visits Ireland, <a href="#Page_41">41-50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Child&#8217;s Bank, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Leveson-Gower, Hon. Mrs., n&eacute;e Leigh, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br />
+<br />
+Littledale, Mrs., School for Indian ladies, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br />
+<br />
+Lloyd. Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br />
+<br />
+Loch, 1st Lord, <a href="#Page_334">334</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span><br />
+Longford, Colonel, Earl of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a><br />
+<br />
+Lowe, Robert, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, and Mrs., <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br />
+<br />
+Lowell, Mr. J. R., letters from, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poems by, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lucknow, <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br />
+<br />
+Lugard, Sir Frederick and Lady, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Lyons Silk Manufactory, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br />
+<br />
+Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Alfred, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Lyttelton, Lord, and the Canterbury Association, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br />
+<br />
+Lytton, Countess of, and Lady Betty, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">M</span><br />
+<br />
+Macclesfield, Mary, Countess of, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, her story of ex-Kaiser, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mentioned, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br />
+<br />
+McDonnell, Sir Schomberg, <a href="#Page_370">370</a><br />
+<br />
+MacMahon, Marshal, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br />
+<br />
+Macmillan, Mrs. Maurice, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Madras, <a href="#Page_162">162</a> et seq.;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harbour, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Madura,<a href="#Page_172">172-177</a><br />
+<br />
+Mahableshwar, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br />
+<br />
+Malet, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Malet, Lady Ermyntrude, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Malietoa Laupepa, King of Samoa, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dinner with, <a href="#Page_296">296-297</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Marathon and its brigands, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visited, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Marie, Princess, of Greece, <a href="#Page_130">130</a><br />
+<br />
+Margaret, Queen of Italy, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br />
+<br />
+Marsham, Charles, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+<br />
+Mary, H.M. Queen, interest in &#8220;Children&#8217;s Happy Evenings Association,&#8221; <a href="#Page_369">369</a><br />
+<br />
+Mason, Miss (Lady Allen), <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br />
+<br />
+Mataafa, rival King of Samoa, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297-304</a><br />
+<br />
+Max M&uuml;ller, Professor, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Maxwell, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br />
+<br />
+May, Colonel, at Lucknow, <a href="#Page_189">189</a><br />
+<br />
+Mehdi Ali, Mrs., <a href="#Page_159">159</a><br />
+<br />
+Mentone, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage celebrations at for Prince of Wales, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Meshaka, Mr., Vice-Consul at Damascus, <a href="#Page_226">226-229</a><br />
+<br />
+Meyer, Mr. and Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br />
+<br />
+Middleton Park, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br />
+<br />
+Milford Sound, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
+<br />
+Miyanoshita, hot baths, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Molyneux, Hon. Mrs. Caryl, n&eacute;e Lawley, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+<br />
+Morrison, Mr. Alfred, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br />
+<br />
+Mount Abu, Jain temples on, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a><br />
+<br />
+Mount Stephen, Lord, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;Mrs. Malaprop,&#8221; a modern, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a><br />
+<br />
+Muncaster, Lady, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Hon. H. Lindsay, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Muncaster, Lord and Lady, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">N</span><br />
+<br />
+Nabeshima, Marquis, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br />
+<br />
+Napier of Merchiston, Lord, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+<br />
+Nauplia, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br />
+<br />
+Nazli, Princess, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br />
+<br />
+Nekualofa in Tonga, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br />
+<br />
+Newdegate, Sir Frank, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+Newdigate, Hon. Mrs., n&eacute;e Leigh, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br />
+<br />
+New Caledonia, voyage to, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a><br />
+<br />
+Newcastle in Australia, <a href="#Page_319">319</a><br />
+<br />
+Newman, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br />
+<br />
+New York, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br />
+<br />
+New Zealand, <a href="#Page_268">268-276</a><br />
+<br />
+Niagara, <a href="#Page_354">354</a><br />
+<br />
+Nikko, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Nile, the, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-364</a><br />
+<br />
+Nizam, H.H. the late, <a href="#Page_155">155-157</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+Nizam, His Exalted Highness the present, <a href="#Page_377">377</a><br />
+<br />
+Norfolk, Duchess of, n&eacute;e Lyons, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br />
+<br />
+Norfolk, Henry, Duke of, as Lord Maltravers, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Norfolk House, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Norfolk Island, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br />
+<br />
+North, Lord, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br />
+<br />
+Northcote, Lady, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br />
+<br />
+Northcote, Sir Stafford (afterwards Lord), <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a><br />
+<br />
+Northumberland, Eleanor, Duchess of, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br />
+<br />
+Noumea, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a><br />
+<br />
+Nubar Pasha on the English, <a href="#Page_357">357</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">O</span><br />
+<br />
+O&#8217;Donoghue, the, <a href="#Page_44">44-46</a><br />
+<br />
+Olcott, Colonel, Theosophist, <a href="#Page_146">146-148</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Adyar, <a href="#Page_167">167-169</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Olga, Queen of Greece, <a href="#Page_127">127-128</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br />
+<br />
+Olympia, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br />
+<br />
+&#8220;One People, One Destiny,&#8221; <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br />
+<br />
+Onslow, Countess, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a><br />
+<br />
+Onslow, Earl, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a><br />
+<br />
+Onslow, Hon. Huia. Maori Chieftain, after years of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a><br />
+<br />
+Onslow, Mrs. MacArthur, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br />
+<br />
+Orient Express, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br />
+<br />
+Osborne, Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span><br />
+Osbourne, Lloyd, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
+<br />
+Osterley Park, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">P</span><br />
+<br />
+Parker, Hon. Edmund, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br />
+<br />
+Parker, Mr., of Tonga, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br />
+<br />
+Parkes, Sir Henry, Premier of New South Wales, <a href="#Page_249">249-251</a><br />
+<br />
+Paley, Major and Mrs., <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br />
+<br />
+Peel, Hon. George, <a href="#Page_366">366</a><br />
+<br />
+Pender, Sir John, <a href="#Page_115">115-117</a><br />
+<br />
+Perponcher, Gr&auml;fin, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br />
+<br />
+Phelps, Mr., American Minister, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br />
+<br />
+Pigmies, African, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br />
+<br />
+Ponsonby, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br />
+<br />
+Port Darwin, <a href="#Page_325">325-327</a><br />
+<br />
+Popo, Samoan native, <a href="#Page_300">300</a><br />
+<br />
+Prendergast, Sir Harry, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Lady, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Protap, Chunder Mozoondar, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Pundua</i>, s.s., <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Pyrgos, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">R</span><br />
+<br />
+Raglan, Lord, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Ramsay, Lady Patricia, as a child, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br />
+<br />
+Raratonga Island and its Queens, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br />
+<br />
+Reay, Lord and Lady, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br />
+<br />
+Rees, Sir John, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Robbery under Arms</i>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br />
+<br />
+Roberts, F.M. Earl, at Lucknow, <a href="#Page_188">188-190</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Child&#8217;s Bank, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Rome, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a><br />
+<br />
+Rotorua, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lake of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Rowton, Lord, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his anecdote of a picture, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Ruge&#8217;s Buildings, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br />
+<br />
+Russell, Sir William, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">S</span><br />
+<br />
+St. Helier, Lady, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br />
+<br />
+St. Kevin at Glendalough, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br />
+<br />
+Salisbury, Marquis of, Prime Minister, Bismarck&#8217;s esteem for, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br />
+<br />
+Samoa, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> et seq.<br />
+<br />
+Sanderson, Lord, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
+<br />
+Sannomiya, Baroness, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br />
+<br />
+Savaii, Samoan Island, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
+<br />
+Schwarzenberg, Prince, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
+<br />
+Scott, Lord and Lady Charles, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br />
+<br />
+Seierstorpff, Count, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Serfojee, Rajah of Tanjore, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+Sivajee, Princess at Tanjore, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br />
+<br />
+Shaftesbury, Earl of, dictum on his generation, <a href="#Page_369">369</a><br />
+<br />
+Shaw-Stewart, Sir Hugh, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Shaw-Stewart, Sir Michael and Lady Octavia, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br />
+<br />
+Shintoism, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a><br />
+<br />
+Shiva Prashad, Rajah, <a href="#Page_185">185-187</a><br />
+<br />
+Simele, Henry, Samoan Chief, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br />
+<br />
+Slatin Pasha, his escape from Omdurman, <a href="#Page_359">359</a><br />
+<br />
+Smyrna, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br />
+<br />
+Somerton School, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br />
+<br />
+Southampton, Lady, Lady-in-Waiting, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br />
+<br />
+Speke and Grant, their meeting with Sir S. Baker, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br />
+<br />
+Spezia, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Spring Rice, Sir Cecil, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br />
+<br />
+Stalbridge, Lord, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br />
+<br />
+Stanley, Sir Henry, Explorer, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br />
+<br />
+Stephen, Sir Alfred, Lieutenant-Governor, N.S.W., <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br />
+<br />
+Stevenson, R. L., <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visit to rebel camp with, <a href="#Page_297">297-303</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chief author of <i>An Object of Pity</i>, <a href="#Page_313">313-316</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Stevenson, Mrs. R. L., <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a><br />
+<br />
+Stewart, F.M. Sir Donald, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br />
+<br />
+Strathnairn, F.M. Lord, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br />
+<br />
+Strong, Mrs., <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
+<br />
+Suleem Sheikh and his infant son, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
+<br />
+Sutherland, discoverer of Sutherland Falls, N.Z., <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br />
+<br />
+Suttor, Sir Frank, <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br />
+<br />
+Switzerland, expedition to, with children, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br />
+<br />
+Sydney, arrival at, <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br />
+<br />
+Syon House, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">T</span><br />
+<br />
+Talbot, Dame Meriel, O.B.E., <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Tamasese, Samoan Chief, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304-306</a><br />
+<br />
+Tanjore, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
+<br />
+Theotoki, Greek Minister, <a href="#Page_131">131-133</a><br />
+<br />
+Timor, island of, <a href="#Page_327">327-329</a><br />
+<br />
+Toowoomba, Queensland, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br />
+<br />
+Tricoupi, Greek Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br />
+<br />
+Tricoupi, Miss, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br />
+<br />
+Trafalgar seamen, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br />
+<br />
+Travancore, Maharajah and Ranees of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br />
+<br />
+Tonga, islands of, <a href="#Page_287">287-291</a><br />
+<br />
+Tubb, Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br />
+<br />
+Tughlakabad and its rulers, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span><br />
+Tumut, N.S.W., reception at, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br />
+<br />
+Turner, Mr., Collector of Madura, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+<br />
+Tutuila, Samoan Island, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
+<br />
+Tweedmouth, Fanny, Lady, <a href="#Page_381">381</a><br />
+<br />
+Tyler, Sir John, of Agra, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">U</span><br />
+<br />
+Ulwar, <a href="#Page_196">196</a><br />
+<br />
+Upton House, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+<br />
+Upolu, chief Samoan island, <a href="#Page_292">292</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">V</span><br />
+<br />
+Vailima, R. L. Stevenson&#8217;s home, <a href="#Page_315">315</a><br />
+<br />
+Valentia, Viscount and Viscountess, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br />
+<br />
+Vancouver, arrival at, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a><br />
+<br />
+Vetyk Ahmed Pasha, his reminiscences, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
+<br />
+Victoria, H.M. Queen, at Stoneleigh Abbey, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anecdote of her childhood, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Ireland, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devotion to Prince Consort&#8217;s memory, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first Jubilee, <a href="#Page_110">110-113</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reverence for in India, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201-203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">receives Lord and Lady Jersey at Windsor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Diamond Jubilee, <a href="#Page_372">372-374</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her death, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Victoria League founded, <a href="#Page_380">380-382</a><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Hon. Arthur, birth, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Lady Beatrice, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Italy, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in India, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Lord Dunsany, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Lady Clementina, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Lady Margaret, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Switzerland and Italy, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Tonga and in Samoa, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">leaves Australia with parents, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Hong-Kong, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Canton, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Japan, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in London, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Egypt, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Hon. Walter Rice, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Lady Mary, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marries Earl of Longford, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Hon. Reginald, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br />
+<br />
+Villiers, Viscount (now 8th Earl of Jersey), birth, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Castlemount School, Dover, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">story written for by Tom Hughes, <a href="#Page_89">89-91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Switzerland, at Biarritz and in Italy, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in India and Greece, <a href="#Page_184">184-209</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wins Junior Oppidan Scholarship at Eton, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">remains in England when Lady Jersey at Apia, his experience with American reporter, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage with Lady Cynthia Needham, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Vincent, Sir Edgar, afterwards Lord d&#8217;Abernon, at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the Orient Express, <a href="#Page_235">235-237</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Viti, Samoan lady, her dress, <a href="#Page_304">304-305</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">W</span><br />
+<br />
+Wady Haifa, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a><br />
+<br />
+Wakatipu Lake, <a href="#Page_272">272</a><br />
+<br />
+Wallace, Mrs., housekeeper, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br />
+<br />
+Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br />
+<br />
+Watters, Mr., Acting Consul at Canton, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br />
+<br />
+Whakarewarewa hot springs, <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br />
+<br />
+Wenlock, Elizabeth, Lady, n&eacute;e Grosvenor, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br />
+<br />
+Wellington, Arthur, Duke of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><br />
+<br />
+Wellington in New Zealand, <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br />
+<br />
+Westfahlen, Count, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br />
+<br />
+Westminster, Constance, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br />
+<br />
+Westminster, 1st Duke of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Westminster, Marchioness of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+Westminster, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br />
+<br />
+White, Miss, lady doctor at Hyderabad, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br />
+<br />
+White, Sir William and Lady, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br />
+<br />
+William I, Emperor, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his picture in Tonga, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></span><br />
+<br />
+William, Prince, afterwards William II, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br />
+<br />
+Willes, Mr. and Mrs. Charles, their New Year&#8217;s Party, <a href="#Page_54">54-56</a><br />
+<br />
+Wister, Owen, American author, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br />
+<br />
+Wolmer, Lord and Lady, afterwards Earl and Countess of Selborne, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br />
+<br />
+Wolseley, F.M. Viscount, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a><br />
+<br />
+Wombwell, George, death of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br />
+<br />
+Wombwell, Lady Julia, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">X</span><br />
+<br />
+Xavier, St. Francis, in Japan, <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">Y</span><br />
+<br />
+Yandall, Samoan interpreter, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br />
+<br />
+Yarrangobilly Caves, <a href="#Page_266">266-268</a><br />
+<br />
+Yokohama, <a href="#Page_346">346</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="letter">Z</span><br />
+<br />
+Zante, island of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p>
+
+<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> I learn that since our time a hut has been erected between Sutherland
+Falls and Milford Sound called Sandfly Hut. The guide-book says with
+consoling candour that it &#8220;is well named, but this pest is no less
+noticeable at any of the other stopping-places.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Haggard, who had described to us the loud voices of himself and his
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> Margaret Villiers.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Captain Rupert Leigh.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 38569-h.txt or 38569-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/5/6/38569">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/5/6/38569</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/38569-h/images/frontis.jpg b/38569-h/images/frontis.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7bbca5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/frontis.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/img1.jpg b/38569-h/images/img1.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..daf6241
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/img1.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/img2.jpg b/38569-h/images/img2.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1867ab2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/img2.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/img3.jpg b/38569-h/images/img3.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f20ba8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/img3.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/img4.jpg b/38569-h/images/img4.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7b838a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/img4.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/img5.jpg b/38569-h/images/img5.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d9cabf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/img5.jpg
diff --git a/38569-h/images/signature.jpg b/38569-h/images/signature.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a64c8bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569-h/images/signature.jpg
diff --git a/38569.txt b/38569.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24f2f3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13057 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life, by
+Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life
+
+
+Author: Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2012  [eBook #38569]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN
+LIFE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 38569-h.htm or 38569-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38569/38569-h/38569-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38569/38569-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/fiftyoneyearsofv00jersrich
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+[Illustration: Margaret Countess of Jersey]
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+by
+
+THE DOWAGER COUNTESS OF JERSEY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+John Murray, Albemarle Street, W.
+1922
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATED TO MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
+
+
+Printed in Great Britain by
+Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+  "What is this child of man that can conquer
+  Time and that is braver than Love?
+  Even Memory."
+                                LORD DUNSANY.
+
+
+  Though "a Sorrow's Crown of Sorrow"
+    Be "remembering happier things,"
+  Present joy will shine the brighter
+    If our morn a radiance flings.
+
+  We perchance may thwart the future
+    If we will not look before,
+  And upon a past which pains us
+    We may fasten Memory's door.
+
+  But we will not, cannot, banish
+    Bygone pleasure from our side,
+  Nor will doubt, beyond the storm-cloud,
+    Shall be Light at Eventide.
+                                M. E. J.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD
+
+  The Duke of Wellington--Travelling in the Fifties--
+  Governesses--"Mrs. Gailey"--Queen Victoria at
+  Stoneleigh--A narrow escape--Life at Stoneleigh--Rectors
+  and vicars--Theatricals                                         pp. 1-22
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  A VICTORIAN GIRL
+
+  Mentone--Genoa--Trafalgar veterans--Lord Muncaster and
+  Greek brigands--The Grosvenor family--Uncles and aunts--
+  Confirmation--"Coming out"--Ireland--Killarney--The
+  O'Donoghue--Myths and legends--The giant Benadadda             pp. 23-50
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  MARRIAGE
+
+  Fanny Kemble--An old-fashioned Christmas--A
+  pre-matrimonial party--Fonthill Abbey--Engagement--
+  Married to Lord Jersey                                         pp. 51-64
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  EARLY MARRIED LIFE
+
+  Lord Jersey's mother--In London--Isola Bella, Cannes--
+  Oxfordshire neighbours--Caversfield Church--Life at
+  Middleton--Mr. Disraeli--Froude and Kingsley--James
+  Russell Lowell--T. Hughes and J. R. Lowell--Mr. Gladstone
+  on Immortality--Thought-reading--Tom Hughes and Rugby,
+  Tennessee--Cardinal Newman                                     pp. 65-93
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887
+
+  Sarah Bernhardt--Death of Gilbert Leigh--In Italy, 1884--
+  Court Ball in Berlin--The Crown Prince Frederick--Prince
+  Bismarck--Conversation with Bismarck--Bismarck and Lord
+  Salisbury--Thanksgiving Service--Trials of Court
+  Officials--The Naval Review--Knowsley--Apotheosis of the
+  Queen                                                         pp. 94-121
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE
+
+  Lord Halsbury's ghost story--The ghostly reporter--A
+  Jubilee sermon--Marathon--Miss Tricoupi--Nauplia--The
+  Laurium Mines--Hadji Petros--Olympia--Zante                  pp. 122-140
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  VOYAGE TO INDIA--HYDERABAD
+
+  Mr. Joseph Chamberlain--Departure for India--Colonel
+  Olcott and Professor Max Mueller--Sir Samuel Baker--
+  Mahableshwar--H.H. the Aga Khan--Races at Hyderabad--
+  H.H. the Nizam of Hyderabad--Purdah ladies--Breakfast in
+  a zenana                                                     pp. 141-161
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES
+
+  Brahmin philosophers--Faith of educated Hindus--
+  Theosophists at Adyar--The Ranees of Travancore--The
+  Princesses of Tanjore--"The Heart of Montrose"--The
+  Palace of Madura--Rous Peter's Sacred Door--Loyalty of
+  native Indians--Passengers on the _Pundua_--The Brahmo
+  Somaj--Maharajah of Benares--Marriages of infants and
+  widows                                                       pp. 162-187
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME
+
+  The Relief of Lucknow--View from the Kotab Minar--
+  Sekundra and Futtehpore Sekree--The legend of Krishna--
+  The Jains--The Maharajah of Bhownuggar--Baroda--English
+  as Lingua Franca--Meditations of a Western wanderer--An
+  English plum-pudding--The Greek Royal Family--Original
+  derivations                                                  pp. 188-211
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  WINDSOR--EGYPT AND SYRIA
+
+  Dinner at Windsor--Voyage up the Nile--Choucry Pasha,
+  Princess Nazli--The Pigmies--Inn of the Good Samaritan--
+  The Holy City--Balbec--Damascus, Lady Ellenborough--
+  Oriental methods of trade--Smyrna--Constantinople--The
+  Selamlik--The Orient Express--Story of a picture             pp. 212-239
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+  FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA
+
+  War Office red tape--Balmoral--Farewell to England--
+  Voyage on the _Arcadia_--The Federation Convention--The
+  delegates--The Blue Mountains--Sir Alfred Stephen--
+  Domestic Conditions--Correspondence with Lord Derby--
+  Labour Legislation--The Ex-Kaiser--Lord Derby's poem         pp. 240-265
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+  FURTHER IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA--NEW ZEALAND
+  AND NEW CALEDONIA
+
+  Yarrangobilly Caves--Dunedin--The New Zealand Sounds--
+  Hot Springs of New Zealand--Huia Onslow--Noumea--The
+  Governor of New Caledonia--The Convict Settlement--
+  Convicts in former days--Death of Lord Ancram                pp. 266-286
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+  TONGA AND SAMOA
+
+  Tongan ladies--Arrival at Apia--German plantations--R. L.
+  Stevenson--King Malietoa--The Enchanted Forest--King
+  Mataafa--The Kava Ceremony--A native dance--
+  Missionaries--Samoan mythology--Desire for English
+  protection--Visit from Tamasese--_An Object of Pity_--
+  Courage of R. L. Stevenson                                   pp. 287-318
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+  DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA--CHINA AND JAPAN
+
+  Bushrangers--Circumstantial evidence--The Great Barrier
+  Reef--Coloured labour--Hong-Kong--Canton--The Viceroy of
+  Canton--Japanese scenery--Interview with the Empress--
+  The Sacred Mirror of the Sun Goddess--Christianity in
+  Japan--Daimios of old Japan--Japanese friends                pp. 319-345
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+  JOURNEY HOME--THE NILE--LORD KITCHENER
+
+  The well-forged link of Empire--Columbus discovers
+  America--The Mayor cuts his hair--The pageant "America"--
+  Back at Osterley--The dahabyah _Herodotus_--Escape of
+  Slatin Pasha--How a King and an Arab evaded orders--The
+  Dervishes--Lord Kitchener                                    pp. 346-368
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+  DIAMOND JUBILEE AND DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA
+
+  Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary--The Queen at Temple
+  Bar--The South African War--Indian princesses--Lord and
+  Lady Northcote--The Victoria League--Mr. Chamberlain's
+  letter                                                       pp. 369-383
+
+  INDEX                                                        pp. 385-392
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  MARGARET, COUNTESS OF JERSEY (photogravure)               _Frontispiece_
+    _After the portrait by Ellis Roberts at Osterley Park._
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+  STONELEIGH ABBEY                                                      18
+
+  THE LIBRARY, MIDDLETON PARK                                           68
+    _From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey._
+
+  MIDDLETON PARK                                                        68
+    _From a photograph by the present Countess of Jersey._
+
+  OSTERLEY PARK                                                        238
+    _From a photograph by W. H. Grove._
+
+  GROUP AT MIDDLETON PARK, CHRISTMAS, 1904                             370
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AN EARLY VICTORIAN CHILD
+
+
+I was born at Stoneleigh Abbey on October 29th, 1849. My father has told
+me that immediately afterwards--I suppose next day--I was held up at the
+window for the members of the North Warwickshire Hunt to drink my health.
+I fear that their kind wishes were so far of no avail that I never became
+a sportswoman, though I always lived amongst keen followers of the hounds.
+For many years the first meet of the season was held at Stoneleigh, and
+large hospitality extended to the gentlemen and farmers within the Abbey
+and to the crowd without. Almost anyone could get bread and cheese and
+beer outside for the asking, till at last some limit had to be placed when
+it was reported that special trains were being run from Birmingham to a
+neighbouring town to enable the populace to attend this sporting carnival
+at my father's expense. He was a splendid man and a fearless rider while
+health and strength permitted--rather too fearless at times--and among the
+many applicants for his bounty were men who based their claims to
+assistance on the alleged fact that they had picked up Lord Leigh after a
+fall out hunting. It was always much more difficult to restrain him from
+giving than to induce him to give.
+
+My mother, a daughter of Lord Westminster, told me that from the moment
+she saw him she had never any doubt as to whom she would marry. No wonder.
+He was exceptionally handsome and charming, and I believe he was as prompt
+in falling in love with her as she confessed to having been with him. An
+old relative who remembered their betrothal told me that she knew what was
+coming when Mr. Leigh paid L5 for some trifle at a bazaar where Lady
+Caroline Grosvenor was selling. The sole reason for recording this is to
+note that fancy bazaars were in vogue so long ago as 1848.
+
+My mother was only twenty when she married, and very small and pretty. I
+have heard that soon after their arrival at Stoneleigh my father gave
+great satisfaction to the villagers, who were eagerly watching to see the
+bride out walking, by lifting his little wife in his arms and carrying her
+over a wet place in the road. This was typical of his unfailing devotion
+through fifty-seven years of married life--a devotion which she returned
+in full measure.
+
+I was the eldest child of the young parents, and as my grandfather,
+Chandos Lord Leigh, was then alive, our home for a short time was at
+Adlestrop House in Gloucestershire, which also belonged to the family; but
+my grandfather died and we moved to Stoneleigh when I was far too young to
+remember any other home. In those days we drove by road from one house to
+the other, and on one occasion my father undertook to convey my cradle in
+his dog-cart, in the space under the back seat usually allotted to dogs.
+In the middle of a village the door of this receptacle flew open and the
+cradle shot out into the road, slightly embarrassing to a very young man.
+
+About the earliest thing I can recollect was seeing the Crystal Palace
+Building when in Hyde Park. I do not suppose that I was taken inside, but
+I distinctly remember the great glittering glass Palace when I was driving
+with my mother. Of course we had pictures of the Great Exhibition and
+heard plenty about it, but oddly enough one print that impressed me most
+was a French caricature which represented an Englishman distributing the
+prizes to an expectant throng with words to this effect: "Ladies and
+Gentlemen, some intrusive foreigners have come over to compete with our
+people and have had the impertinence to make some things better than we
+do. You will, however, quite understand that none of the prizes will be
+given to these outsiders." It was my earliest lesson in doubting the
+lasting effects of attempts to unite rival countries in any League of
+Nations.
+
+[Sidenote: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON]
+
+Somewhere about this time I had the honour of being presented to the great
+Duke of Wellington in the long Gallery (now, alas! no more) at Grosvenor
+House. I do not remember the incident, but he was _the_ Hero in those
+days, and I was told it so often that I felt as if I could recall it. My
+father said he kissed me, but my mother's more modest claim was that he
+shook hands.
+
+My parents were each endowed with nine brothers and sisters--i.e. my
+father was one of ten who all lived till past middle life, my mother was
+one of thirteen of whom ten attained a full complement of years. Indeed,
+when my parents celebrated their golden wedding they had sixteen brothers
+and sisters still alive. As almost all these uncles and aunts married and
+most of them had large families, it will be readily believed that we did
+not lack cousins, and the long Gallery was a splendid gathering-place for
+the ramifications of the Grosvenor side of our family. Apart from the
+imposing pictures, it was full of treasures, such as a miniature crystal
+river which flowed when wound up and had little swans swimming upon it. It
+was here, later on in my girlhood, that I saw the first Japanese Embassy
+to England, stately Daimios or Samurai in full native costume and with two
+swords--a great joy to all of us children.
+
+To go back to early recollections--my next clear impression is of the
+Crimean War and knitting a pair of red muffetees for the soldiers. Plenty
+of "comforts" were sent out even in those days. Sir George Higginson once
+told me that when boxes of miscellaneous gifts arrived it was the custom
+to hold an auction. On one occasion among the contents were several copies
+of Boyle's Court Guide and two pairs of ladies' stays! So useful! The
+latter were bestowed upon the French vivandiere. No W.A.A.C.s then to
+benefit.
+
+After the Crimean War came the Indian Mutiny, and our toy soldiers
+represented English and Sepoys instead of English and Russians. Children
+in each generation I suppose follow wars by their toys. Despite the
+comradeship of English and French in the Crimea, I do not believe that we
+ever quite ceased to regard France as the hereditary foe. A contemporary
+cousin was said to have effaced France from the map of Europe; I do not
+think we were quite so daring.
+
+In all, I rejoiced in five brothers and two sisters, but the fifth brother
+died at fourteen months old before our youngest sister was born. His death
+was our first real sorrow and a very keen one. Long before that, however,
+when we were only three children, Gilbert, the brother next to me, a baby
+sister Agnes, and myself, our adventurous parents took us to the South of
+France. I was four years old at the time and the existence of a foreign
+land was quite a new light to me. I well remember running into the nursery
+and triumphantly exclaiming, "There is a country called France and I am
+going there!"
+
+[Sidenote: TRAVELLING IN THE FIFTIES]
+
+My further recollections are vague until we reached Lyons, where the
+railway ended and our large travelling carriage brought from England was
+put on a boat--steamer, I suppose--and thus conveyed to Avignon. Thence we
+drove, sleeping at various towns, until we reached Mentone, where we spent
+some time, and I subsequently learnt that we were then the only English in
+the place. I think that my parents were very brave to take about such
+young children, but I suppose the experiment answered pretty well, as a
+year later they again took Gilbert and me to France--this time to
+Normandy, where I spent my sixth birthday, saw the great horses dragging
+bales of cotton along the quays at Rouen, and was enchanted with the ivory
+toys at Dieppe.
+
+I think that people who could afford it travelled more in former days than
+is realised. Both my grandparents made prolonged tours with most of their
+elder children. My grandfather Westminster took my mother and her elder
+sisters in his yacht to Constantinople and Rome. My mother well remembered
+some of her experiences, including purchases from a Turkish shopkeeper who
+kept a large cat on his counter and served various comestibles with his
+hands, wiping them between each sale on the animal's fur. At Rome she told
+me how she and one of her sisters, girls of some twelve and thirteen years
+old, used to wander out alone into the Campagna in the early morning,
+which seems very strange in view of the stories of restraint placed upon
+children in bygone days. As to my grandfather Leigh, I believe he
+travelled with his family for about two years, to Switzerland, France and
+the North of Italy. They had three carriages, one for the parents, one for
+the schoolroom, and one for the nursery. A courier escorted them, and an
+avant-courier rode on in front with bags of five-franc pieces to secure
+lodgings when they migrated from one place to another. On one occasion on
+the Riviera they met the then Grand Duke Constantine, who thrust his head
+out of the window and exclaimed "Toute Angleterre est en route!"
+
+[Sidenote: GOVERNESSES]
+
+After our return from Normandy we were placed in charge of a resident
+governess, a young German, but as far as I can recollect she had very
+little control over us. We discovered that the unlucky girl, though of
+German parentage, had been born in Russia, and with the unconscious
+cruelty of children taunted her on this account. Anyhow her stay was
+short, and she was succeeded about a year later by an Englishwoman, Miss
+Custarde, who kept us in very good order and stayed till she married when
+I was fourteen. Her educational efforts were supplemented by masters and
+mistresses during the London season and by French resident governesses in
+the winter months, but I do not think that we were at all overworked.
+
+I doubt whether Miss Custarde would have been considered highly educated
+according to modern standards, but she was very good in teaching us to
+look up information for ourselves, which was just as useful as anything
+else. Her strongest point was music, but that she could not drive into me,
+and my music lessons were a real penance to teacher and pupil alike. She
+would give me lectures during their progress on such topics as the
+Parable of the Talents--quite ignoring the elementary fact that though I
+could learn most of my lessons quickly enough I had absolutely no talent
+for music. She was, however, a remarkable woman with great influence, not
+only over myself, but over my younger aunts and over other men and women.
+She was very orderly, and proud of that quality, but she worked too much
+on my conscience, making me regard trivial faults as actual sins which
+prevented her from kissing me or showing me affection--an ostracism which
+generally resulted in violent fits of penitence. She had more than one
+admirer before she ended by marrying a schoolmaster, with whom she used to
+take long walks in the holidays. One peculiarity was that she would give
+me sketches of admirers and get me to write long stories embodying their
+imaginary adventures. I suppose these were shown as great jokes to the
+heroes and their friends. Of course she did not think I knew the
+"inwardness" of her various friendships, equally of course as time went on
+I understood them perfectly. Miss Custarde is not the only governess I
+have known who acquired extraordinary influence over her pupils. In Marcel
+Prevost's novel _Anges Gardiens_, which represents the dangers to French
+families of engaging foreign governesses, he makes the Belgian, Italian,
+and German women all to a greater or less extent immoral, but the
+Englishwoman, though at least as detestable as the others, is not immoral;
+the great evil which she inflicts on the family which engages her is the
+absolute power which she acquires over her pupil. The whole book is very
+unfair and M. Prevost seems to overlook the slur which he casts on his own
+countrymen, as none of the men appear able to resist the wiles of the
+sirens engaged to look after the girls of their families; but it is odd
+that he should realise the danger of undue influence and attribute it only
+to the Englishwoman. Why should this be a characteristic of English
+governesses--supposing his experience (borne out by my own) to be typical?
+Is it an Englishwoman's love of power and faculty for concentration on the
+object which she wishes to attain?
+
+We liked several of our foreign governesses well enough, but they
+exercised no particular influence--and as a rule their engagements were
+only temporary. I do not think that Miss Custarde gave them much
+opportunity of ascendancy. With one her relations were so strained that
+the two ladies had their suppers at different tables in the schoolroom,
+and when the Frenchwoman wanted the salt she rang the bell for the
+schoolroom-maid to bring it from her English colleague's table. However, I
+owed a great deal to Miss Custarde and know that her affection for all of
+us was very real. She died in the autumn of 1920, having retained all her
+faculties till an advanced age.
+
+After all no human being could compete with our mother in the estimation
+of any of her children. Small and fragile and often suffering from
+ill-health, she had almost unbounded power over everyone with whom she
+came in contact, and for her to express an opinion on any point created an
+axiom from which there was no appeal. As middle-aged men and women we have
+often laughed over the way in which we have still accepted "mama said"
+so-and-so as a final verdict. As children our faith not only in her wisdom
+but in her ability was unlimited. I remember being regarded as almost a
+heretic by the younger ones because I ventured to doubt whether she could
+make a watch. Vainly did I hedge by asserting that I was certain that if
+she had learnt she could make the most beautiful watch in the world--I
+had infringed the first article of family faith by thinking that there was
+anything which she could not do by the uninstructed light of nature. She
+was a good musician, and a really excellent amateur artist--her
+water-colour drawings charming. Her knowledge of history made it
+delightful to read aloud to her, as she seemed as if the heroes and
+heroines of bygone times had been her personal acquaintance. Needless to
+say her personal care for everyone on my father's property was untiring,
+and the standard of the schools in the various villages was maintained at
+a height uncommon in days when Education Acts were not so frequent and
+exacting as in later years.
+
+[Sidenote: "MRS. GAILEY"]
+
+Another great character in our home was our old nurse. For some reason she
+was never called Nanna, but always "Mrs. Gailey." The daughter of a small
+tradesman, she was a woman of some education--she had even learnt a little
+French and had been a considerable reader. Though a disciple of Spurgeon,
+she had lived as nurse with my mother's cousin the Duke of Norfolk in the
+days when the girls of the family were Protestants though the boys were
+Roman Catholics. When the Duchess (daughter of Lord Lyons) went over to
+the Roman Church the Protestant nurse's position became untenable, as the
+daughters had to follow their mother. She told us that this was a great
+distress at first to the eldest girl Victoria (afterwards Hope-Scott), for
+at twelve years old she was able to feel the uprooting of her previous
+faith. The other sisters were too young to mind. Gailey's idol, however,
+was Lord Maltravers (the late Duke), who must have been as attractive a
+boy as he became delightful a man.
+
+Gailey came to us when I was about four, my first nurse, who had been my
+wet-nurse, having married the coachman. Our first encounter took place
+when I was already in my cot, and I announced to her that if she stayed a
+hundred years I should not love her as I had done "Brownie." "And if I
+stay a hundred years," was the repartee, "I shall not love you as I did
+the little boy I have just left"--so we started fair. Nevertheless she was
+an excellent nurse and a fascinating companion. She could tell stories by
+the hour and knew all sorts of old-fashioned games which we played in the
+nursery on holiday afternoons.
+
+The great joy of the schoolroom children was to join the little ones after
+tea and to sit in a circle while she told us either old fairy tales, or
+more frequently her own versions of novels which she had read and of which
+she changed the names and condensed the incidents in a most ingenious
+manner. On Sunday evenings _Pilgrim's Progress_ in her own words was
+substituted for the novels. Miss Custarde could inflict no greater
+punishment for failure in our "saying lessons" than to keep us out of the
+nursery. Gailey stayed with us till some time after my marriage and then
+retired on a pension.
+
+The Scottish housekeeper, Mrs. Wallace, was also a devoted friend and a
+great dispenser of cakes, ices, and home-made cowslip and ginger wine.
+Rose-water, elder-flower water, and all stillroom mysteries found an
+expert in her, and she even concocted mead from an old recipe. Few people
+can have made mead in this generation--it was like very strong rather
+sweet beer. We all loved "Walley"--but she failed us on one occasion.
+Someone said that she had had an uncle who had fought at Waterloo, so we
+rushed to her room to question her on this hero's prowess. "What did your
+uncle do at Waterloo?" The reply was cautious and rather chilling: "I
+believe he hid behind his horse." She looked after all our dogs and was
+supposed to sleep with eight animals and birds in her room.
+
+[Sidenote: QUEEN VICTORIA AT STONELEIGH]
+
+In the summer of 1858 a great event occurred in the annals of Stoneleigh.
+Queen Victoria stayed at my father's for two nights in order to open Aston
+Hall and Park, an old Manor House and property, which had belonged to the
+Bracebridge family and had been secured for the recreation of the people
+of Birmingham. Naturally there was great excitement at the prospect. For
+months beforehand workmen were employed in the renovation and redecoration
+of the Abbey and its precincts. Many years afterwards an ex-coachpainter
+met one of my sons and recalled to him the glorious days of preparation
+for Her Majesty's visit. "Even the pigsties were painted, sir," said he.
+
+Stoneleigh is a large mass of buildings--parts of the basement remain from
+the original Abbey of the Cistercian monks. On these was built a
+picturesque house about the beginning of the seventeenth century, early in
+the eighteenth century a large mansion was added in the classical Italian
+style, and about a hundred years later a new wing was erected to unite the
+two portions. The old Abbey Church stood in what is now a lawn between the
+house and the ancient Gateway, which bears the arms of Henry II. To put
+everything in order was no light task. The rooms for the Queen and Prince
+Consort were enclosed on one side of the corridor leading to them by a
+temporary wall, and curtained off where the corridor led to the main
+staircase. In addition to every other preparation, the outline of the
+gateway, the main front of the house, and some of the ornamental
+flower-beds were traced out with little lamps--I think there were
+22,000--which were lighted at night with truly fairy-like effect. By that
+time we were five children--the house was crowded in every nook and corner
+with guests, servants, and attendants of all kinds. Somehow my brother
+Gilbert and I were stowed away in a room with two or three maids, but the
+"little ones," Agnes and two small brothers Dudley and Rupert, were sent
+to the keeper's house in the Deerpark. That house was a delightful
+old-world building standing on a hill with a lovely view, and we were
+occasionally sent there for a day or two's change of air, to our great
+joy.
+
+On the occasion of the Royal Visit, however, Gilbert and I quite realised
+our privilege in being kept in the Abbey and allowed to stand with our
+mother and other members of the family to welcome the Queen as the
+carriage clattered up with its escort of Yeomanry. My father had, of
+course, met Her Majesty at the station. The Queen was more than gracious
+and at once won the hearts of the children--but we did not equally
+appreciate the Prince Consort. Assuredly he was excellent, but he was very
+stiff and reserved, and I suppose that we were accustomed to attentions
+from our father's guests which he did not think fit to bestow upon us,
+though the Queen gave them in ample measure.
+
+We were allowed to join the large party of guests after dinner, and either
+the first or the second evening witnessed with interest and amusement the
+presentation of the country neighbours to the Queen. Having been carefully
+instructed as to our own bows and curtsies, we naturally became very
+critical of the "grown-up" salutations, particularly when one nervous lady
+on passing the royal presence tossed her head back into the air by way of
+reverence. I think the same night my father escorted the Queen into the
+garden in front of the house, which was separated from part of the Park by
+a stone balustrade. In this park-ground several thousand people had
+assembled who spontaneously broke into "God save the Queen" when she
+appeared. Fortunately the glorious hot summer night (July) was ideal for
+the greeting.
+
+One morning our small sister and brothers were brought to the Abbey "to be
+presented." Agnes made a neat little curtsy, though we unkindly asserted
+that it was behind the Queen's back, but the baby boys were overcome by
+shyness and turned away from the Queen's kisses. Unfortunate children!
+they were never allowed to forget this!
+
+[Sidenote: THE PRINCE CONSORT]
+
+Poor Prince Consort lost his last chance of good feeling from Gilbert and
+myself when he and the Queen went to plant memorial trees. We rushed
+forward to be in time to see the performance, but he sternly swept us from
+the royal path. No doubt he was justified in bidding us "stand back," but
+he might have remembered that we were children, and his host's children,
+and done it more gently.
+
+I shall refer to our dear Queen later on, but may here insert a little
+incident of her childhood which came to my knowledge accidentally. In the
+village belonging to my married home, Middleton Stoney, there was a
+middle-aged policeman's wife who cultivated long ringlets on either side
+of her face. She once confided to me that as a child she had had beautiful
+curls, and that, living near Kensington Palace, they had on one occasion
+been cut off to make "riding curls" for Princess (afterwards Queen)
+Victoria, who had lost her own hair--temporarily--from an illness. The
+child had not liked this at all, though she had been given some of the
+Princess's hair as an equivalent. I imagine that her parents received more
+substantial payment.
+
+Our childhood was varied by a good deal of migration. We were regularly
+taken each year about May to our father's London house, 37 Portman Square,
+where we entertained our various cousins at tea-parties and visited them
+in return. We were generally taken in the autumn to some seaside place
+such as Brighton, Hastings, Rhyl, or the Isle of Wight. We estimated the
+merits of each resort largely according to the amount of sand which it
+afforded us to dig in, and I think Shanklin in the Isle of Wight took the
+foremost place in our affections.
+
+[Sidenote: A NARROW ESCAPE]
+
+Two years, however, had specially delightful autumns, for in each of these
+our father took a moor in Scotland--once Kingairloch and the second time
+Strontian. On each occasion I accompanied my parents; to Kingairloch,
+Gilbert (Gilly he was always called) came also--the second year he spent
+half the time with us and then returned to his tutor and Agnes, and Dudley
+took his place for the remainder of our stay. How we enjoyed the fishing,
+bathing in the loch, and paddling in the burns! Everyone who has spent the
+shooting season in Scotland knows all about it, and our experiences,
+though absolutely delightful, did not differ much from other people's.
+These visits were about 1860 and 1861. The railroad did not extend nearly
+so far as at present and the big travelling-carriage again came into play.
+One day it had with considerable risk to be conveyed over four ferries and
+ultimately to be driven along a mountainous road after dark. As far as I
+remember we had postilions--certainly the charioteer or charioteers had
+had as much whisky as was good for them, with the result that the back
+wheels of the heavy carriage went right over the edge of a precipice. The
+servants seated behind the carriage gave themselves over for lost--we
+children were half-asleep inside and unconscious of our peril, when the
+horses made a desperate bound forward and dragged the carriage back on to
+the road. We were taken later to see the place with the marks of the
+wheels still plain on the rocky edge--and young as we were could quite
+realise what we had escaped. Both shooting lodges were situated in the
+midst of the lovely mountain scenery of North Argyllshire, possibly
+Kingairloch was the more beautiful of the two. One day from dawn to eve
+the mountains echoed and re-echoed with the plaintive bleating of flocks,
+and we were told that it was because the lambs were taken from their
+mothers. I still possess some verses which my mother wrote on that
+occasion, and transcribe them to show that she had a strong poetic as well
+as artistic vein:
+
+  "Far over the mountains and over the corries
+  Echoed loud wailings and bleatings the day
+  When from the side of the mothers that loved them
+  The lambs at Kingairloch were taken away.
+
+  "Vainly, poor mothers, ye watch in the valley
+  The nook where your little ones gambolled before,
+  Vainly ye climb to the heights of the mountains--
+  They answer you not, and shall answer no more!
+
+  "Never again from that stream-silvered hill-side,
+  Seeking fresh grass betwixt harebell and heather,
+  Shall you and your lambkins look back on Loch Corry,
+  Watching the flight of the sea-bird together.
+
+  "No more, when the storm, striking chords on the mountains,
+  Drives down the thick mists their tall summits to hide,
+  Shall you give the sweet gift of a mother's protection
+  To the soft little creatures crouched down by your side.
+
+  "Past the sweet peril! and gone the sweet pleasure!--
+  Well might the echoes tell sadly that day
+  The plaint of the mothers that cried at Kingairloch
+  The day that the lambs were taken away."
+
+Visits to Scotland included sojourns at Ardgowan, the home of our uncle
+and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart on the Clyde. Aunt
+Occy, as we called her, was probably my mother's favourite sister--in any
+case her children were our favourite cousins on the Grosvenor side, and we
+loved our many visits to Ardgowan both when we went to the moors and in
+after years. There were excursions on the hills and bathing in the
+salt-water of the Clyde, fishing from boats, and shells to be collected on
+the beach. Also my uncle had a beautiful yacht in which he took us
+expeditions towards Arran and to Loch Long from which we were able to go
+across the mountain pass to Loch Lomond.
+
+My grandmother Lady Leigh died in 1860, before which time she used to pay
+lengthened visits to Stoneleigh accompanied by three or four unmarried
+daughters. She was a fine handsome old lady. Her hair had turned white
+when she was about thirty-two, but, as old ladies did in those days, she
+wore a brown front with a black velvet band. She had a masterful temper
+and held her daughters in considerable awe, but, after the manner of
+grandparents, was very kind to us. I fancy that so many unmarried
+sisters-in-law may have been a slight trial to my mother, but we regarded
+our aunts as additional playfellows bound to provide us with some kind of
+amusement. The favourite was certainly "Aunt Georgy," the youngest
+daughter but one. She had an unfailing flow of spirits, could tell stories
+and join in games, and never objected to our invasion of her room at any
+time. Poor "Aunt Gussie" (Augusta) was less fortunate: she had bad health
+and would scold us to make us affectionate--an unsuccessful method to say
+the least of it--the natural result was, I fear, that we teased her
+whenever opportunity offered. Aunt Georgie was very good-looking and I
+believe much admired. She did not, however, marry till she was about
+forty. A Colonel Newdigate, whose runaway horse she had stopped when quite
+a girl, had fallen in love with her and wanted to marry her. She
+persistently refused and he married someone else. When his wife died, he
+returned to his first affection and ultimately melted my Aunt's heart. She
+had no children of her own, but was a good stepmother to his only son--now
+Sir Frank Newdegate, Governor of West Australia.
+
+[Sidenote: LIFE AT STONELEIGH]
+
+Stoneleigh offered every possible amusement to children--long galleries
+and passages to race up and down, a large hall for battledore and
+shuttlecock and other games, parks and lawns for riding and cricket, and
+the River Avon at the bottom of the garden for fishing and boating, not to
+mention skating in hard winters. People are apt to talk and write as if
+"Early Victorian" and "Mid-Victorian" children were kept under strict
+control and made to treat their elders with respectful awe. I cannot
+recall any undue restraint in our case. As I have already said, our mother
+was an influence which no one would have attempted to resist, but she
+never interfered with any reasonable happiness or amusement. Our father
+was the most cheerful of companions, loving to take us about to any kind
+of sights or entertainments which offered, and buying us toys and presents
+on every possible occasion. The only constraint put upon us, which is not
+often used with the modern child, concerned religious observance. We had
+to come in to daily Prayers at 10 o'clock even if it interfered with
+working in our gardens or other out-door amusement--and church twice on
+Sundays was the invariable rule as soon as we were old enough to walk to
+the neighbouring villages of Stoneleigh and Ashow, or to attend the
+ministrations of the chaplain who generally officiated once each Sunday in
+the chapel in the house. We had to learn some "Scripture lesson" every day
+and two or three on Sundays, and I being the eldest had not only to repeat
+these Sunday lessons to my mother, but also to see in a general way that
+my younger brothers and sisters knew theirs. I was made to learn any
+number of chapters and hymns, and Scripture catechisms--not to speak of
+the Thirty-nine Articles! At last when mother and governess failed to find
+something more to learn by heart I was told to commit portions of Thomas a
+Kempis to memory. Here, I grieve to confess, I struck--that is to say, I
+did not venture actually to refuse, but I repeated the good brother's
+words in such a disagreeable and discontented tone of voice that no one
+could stand it, and the attempt to improve me in this way was tacitly
+abandoned.
+
+[Illustration: STONELEIGH ABBEY.]
+
+[Sidenote: RECTORS AND VICARS]
+
+On the whole I feel sure that the advantages of acquiring so many great
+truths, and generally in beautiful language, far outweighed any passing
+irritation that a young girl may have felt with these "religious
+obligations." If it is necessary to distinguish between High and Low
+Church in these matters, I suppose that my parents belonged to the
+orthodox Evangelical School. I have a vague recollection of one Vicar of
+Stoneleigh still preaching in the black silk Geneva gown. At Ashow--the
+other church whose services we attended--the Rector when I was small was
+an old Charles Twisleton, a cousin of my father's. He, however, had
+discarded the black gown long before my day. My father told me that when
+the new Oxford School first took to preaching in surplices Mr. Twisleton
+adopted this fashion. Thereupon the astonished family at the Abbey
+exclaimed, "Oh, Cousin Charles, are you a Puseyite?" "No, my dears," was
+the confidential reply, "but black silk gowns are very expensive and mine
+was worn out." Probably many poor clergymen were glad to avail themselves
+of this economical form of ritual. I have an idea that Rudyard Kipling's
+Norman Baron's advice to his son would have appealed to my parents had it
+been written in their day:
+
+  "Be polite but not friendly to Bishops,
+  And good to all poor Parish priests."
+
+I feel that they were "friendly to Bishops" when they met, and they were
+certainly good to all the Rectors and Vicars of the various villages which
+belonged to my father or of which the livings were in his gift, but they
+had no idea of giving their consciences into ecclesiastical keeping. In
+fact my grandmother Westminster once said to my mother, "My dear, you and
+I spend much of our lives in rectifying the errors of the clergy"; those
+excellent men often failing in business capacity.
+
+The church services at both our churches were simple to a degree. At
+Stoneleigh the organ was in the gallery and the hymns were sung by the
+schoolchildren there. The pulpit and reading-desk were part of what used
+to be called a "three-decker" with a second reading-desk for the clerk.
+This was exactly opposite our large "Squire's Pew" across the aisle. There
+had from time immemorial been a Village Harvest Home with secular
+rejoicings, but at last there came the great innovation of service with
+special decoration and appropriate Psalms and Lessons in church. I do not
+know the exact year, but think that it must have been somewhere in the
+sixties, after my Uncle James--my father's youngest brother--became Vicar
+of Stoneleigh, as it must have been his influence which induced my father
+to consent to what he considered slightly ritualistic.
+
+However, all went well till it came to the Special Psalms. The choir had
+nothing to do with leading responses--these pertained to the clerk--old
+Job Jeacock--and when the first "special" was given out he utterly failed
+to find it. The congregation waited while he descended from his
+desk--walked across the aisle to our pew and handed his Prayerbook to me
+that I might help him out of his difficulty!
+
+Decorations in the churches at Christmas were fully approved, and of
+course the house was a bower of holly, ivy and mistletoe--these were
+ancient customs never omitted in our home. Christmas was a glorious time,
+extending from the Villagers' Dinner on S. Thomas's Day to the Ball on our
+father's birthday, January 17th--a liberal allowance. The children dined
+down on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and there was always a
+Christmas Tree one evening laden with toys and sweetmeats. Among other
+Christmas customs there was the bullet-pudding--a little hill of flour
+with a bullet on the top. Each person in turn cut a slice of the pudding
+with his knife, and when the bullet ultimately fell into the flour whoever
+let it down had to get it out again with his mouth. Snap-dragon was also a
+great institution. The raisins had to be seized from a dish of burning
+spirits of wine, presided over by "Uncle Jimmy" (the clergyman) dressed
+as a ghost in a sheet, who had regularly on this occasion to thrill us
+with a recitation of "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene"--the faithless
+lady who was carried off from her wedding feast by the ghost of her lover.
+Of course her fate was inextricably mixed up in our minds with the flame
+of the snap-dragon.
+
+[Sidenote: THEATRICALS]
+
+Twelfth Night, with drawing for characters, was duly honoured--nor were
+private theatricals forgotten. Like all children we loved dressing-up and
+acting. The first "regular" play with family and household for audience in
+which we performed was _Bluebeard_, written in verse by my mother, in
+which I was Fatima. After that we had many performances--sometimes of
+plays written by her and sometimes by myself. I do not think that we were
+budding Irvings or Ellen Terrys, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and
+the audiences were tolerant.
+
+More elaborate theatricals took place at Hams Hall, the house of Sir
+Charles Adderley (afterwards Lord Norton), who married my father's eldest
+sister. They had a large family, of whom five sons and five daughters grew
+up. These young people were devoted to acting and some of us occasionally
+went over to assist--at least I recollect performing on one occasion--and
+we often saw these cousins either at Hams or at Stoneleigh, the houses
+being at no great distance apart. The youngest son, afterwards well known
+as Father Adderley, was particularly fond of dressing up--he was a
+well-known actor--and I am not sure that he did not carry his histrionic
+tastes into the Church of which he was a greatly esteemed prop. Another
+numerous family of cousins were the children of my father's fifth sister,
+married to the Rev. Henry Cholmondeley--a son of Lord Delamere--who held
+the living of my father's other place--Adlestrop. Uncle Cholmondeley was
+clever and devoted enough to teach all his five sons himself without
+sending them to preparatory schools; and between his teaching and their
+abilities, most, if not all, of them won scholarships to aid their careers
+at public schools. With their four sisters they were a noisy but amusing
+set of companions, and we always enjoyed their visits. My father's
+youngest sister was not old enough for her children to be our actual
+contemporaries, but when she did marry--Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower of
+Titsey--she had twelve sons and three daughters--a good record.
+
+My mother's sisters rivalled my father's in adding to the population--one,
+Lady Macclesfield, having had fifteen children, of whom twelve were alive
+to attend her funeral when she died at the age of ninety. So I reckoned at
+one time that I had a hundred _first_ cousins alive, and generally found
+one in whatever quarter of the globe I chanced to visit.
+
+Speaking of theatrical performances, I should specially mention my
+father's next brother, Chandos Leigh, a well-known character at the Bar,
+as a Member of the Zingari, and in many other spheres. Whenever
+opportunity served and enough nephews and nieces were ready to perform he
+wrote for us what he called "Businesses"--variety entertainments to follow
+our little plays--in which we appeared in any capacity--clowns, fairies,
+Shakespeare or Sheridan characters, or anything else which occurred to him
+as suited to our various capacities, and for which he wrote clever and
+amusing topical rhymes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A VICTORIAN GIRL
+
+
+The Christmas festivities of 1862 had to be suspended, as my mother's
+health again obliged my father to take her to the South of France. This
+time I was their sole companion, the younger children remaining in
+England.
+
+We travelled by easy stages, sleeping at Folkestone, Boulogne, Paris,
+Dijon, Lyons, Avignon, and Toulon. I kept a careful journal of our travels
+on this occasion, and note that at Lyons we found one of the chief silk
+manufactories employed in weaving a dress for Princess Alexandra, then
+engaged to the Prince of Wales. It had a gold rose, shamrock and thistle
+combined on a white ground. There also we crossed the Rhone and saw in the
+hospital at Ville Neuve, among other curious old paintings, one by King
+Rene d'Anjou. It represented the Holy Family, and my childish eyes carried
+away the impression of a lovely infant patting a soft woolly lamb. So
+completely was I fascinated that, being again at Lyons after my marriage,
+I begged my husband to drive out specially to see the picture of my dream.
+Alas! ten years had changed my eyesight, and instead of the ideal figures,
+I saw a hard stiff Madonna and Child, with a perfectly wooden lamb. I
+mention this because I have often thought that the populace who were so
+enraptured with a Madonna like Cimabue's in S. Maria Novella at Florence
+_saw_ as I did something beyond what was actually there. Grand and
+stately it is, but I think that unsophisticated eyes must have endowed it
+with motherly grace and beauty, as I gave life and softness to the baby
+and the lamb.
+
+[Sidenote: MENTONE]
+
+We went on by train from Toulon as far as Les Arcs and then drove to
+Frejus, and next day to Cannes. Whether the train then only went as far as
+Les Arcs or whether my parents preferred the drive through the beautiful
+scenery I do not know--anyhow we seem to have thoroughly enjoyed the
+drive. I note that in April we returned from Cannes to Toulon by a new
+railroad. Cannes was a little seaside country town in those days, with few
+hotels and villas such as have sprung up in the last half-century; but
+even then it attracted sufficient visitors to render hotel accommodation a
+difficulty, and we had to shorten our intended stay. We went to pay our
+respects to the ex-Lord Chancellor Brougham, already King of Cannes. He
+was then eighty-five, and I have a vague recollection of his being very
+voluble; but I was most occupied with his great-nephew, a brother of the
+present Lord Brougham, who had a little house of his own in the garden
+which was enough to fascinate any child. From Cannes we drove to Nice,
+about which I record that "the only thing in Nice is the sea." We had
+considerable difficulty in our next stage from Nice to Mentone, as a rock
+had in one place fallen from the top of a mountain to the valley below and
+filled up part of the road with the debris of its fall. At Mentone we
+spent over three weeks, occupied in walks with my father and drives with
+him and my mother, or sometimes he walked while I rode a donkey up the
+mountains. There was considerable political excitement at that time,
+Mentone having only been ceded by Italy to France in 1861 and the natives
+being by no means reconciled to French rule. There was a great local
+feeling for Garibaldi, and though the "Inno Garibaldi" was forbidden I
+fear that my mother occasionally played it in the hotel, and any listener
+(such as the waiter) who overheard it beamed accordingly. I happened to
+have a scarlet flannel jacket for outdoor wear, and remember women in the
+fields shouting out to me "Petite Garibaldi."
+
+My mother often sat on the beach or among olive trees to draw while I
+read, or looked at the sea, or made up stories or poems, or invented
+imaginary kingdoms to be shared with my sister and brothers on my
+return--I fear always reserving supreme dominion for my own share.
+
+When we left England the idea had been to continue our travels as far as
+Rome, but my mother's health forbade, as the doctor said that the
+cold--particularly of the Galleries--would be too much for her. It was a
+great disappointment, above all to her, but she was very good in
+submitting. As so long a tranquil sojourn anywhere had not been
+contemplated, our library was rather restricted, but two little volumes
+which she had brought, one of Dryden, and Milton's "Paradise Regained,"
+afforded me happy hours. Also I perpetrated an Epic in six Cantos on the
+subject of Rienzi! From Mentone we went to San Remo for a week, returning
+to Mentone February 17th, when preparations began for a Fete to be given
+by the English and Danish to the inhabitants of the town on the occasion
+of the Prince of Wales's marriage. Old Lord Glenelg was, I believe,
+nominal President, but my father was the moving spirit--entertaining the
+populace being for him a thoroughly congenial task.
+
+Many years afterwards in Samoa Robert Louis Stevenson told me that he was
+at Mentone with his father at the time of the festivities, but he was a
+young boy, and neither he nor I knew under what circumstances we were
+ultimately to make acquaintance. There were all sorts of complications to
+be overcome--for one thing it was Lent and my father had to obtain a
+dispensation from M. le Cure for his flock to eat meat at the festal
+dinner. This was accorded on condition that fish was not also consumed.
+Then there appeared great questions as to who would consent to sit down
+with whom. We were told that orange-pickers would not sit down with
+orange-carriers. As a matter of fact I believe that it was against
+etiquette for women to sit down with the men, and that in the end 300
+workmen sat down in the garden of the Hotel Victoria (where we were
+staying) and I can still recollect seeing the women standing laughing
+behind them while the men handed them portions of food. Posts were
+garlanded with heath and scarlet geraniums, and decorated with English,
+French, and Danish flags and portraits of Queen Victoria and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales. The festivities included a boat-race and other
+races, and ended with illuminations and fireworks at night. All went off
+splendidly, though the wind rather interfered with lighting the little
+lamps which decorated some of the buildings.
+
+In connection with the Prince's wedding I heard one story which I believe
+was told by my aunt Macclesfield--(appointed Lady-in-Waiting to the
+Princess) to my mother, which as far as I know has never appeared in
+print.
+
+The present ex-Kaiser, then little Prince William aged four, came over
+with his parents for the wedding. He appeared at the ceremony in a
+Scottish suit, whereupon the German ladies remonstrated with his mother,
+saying that they understood that he was to have worn the uniform of a
+Prussian officer. "I am very sorry," said his mother; "he had it on, but
+Beatrice and Leopold" (the Duke of Albany) "thought that he looked so
+ridiculous with tails that they cut them off, and we had to find an old
+Scottish suit of his uncle's for him to wear!" An early English protest
+against militarism!
+
+[Sidenote: GENOA]
+
+Two days after the excitement of these royal festivities we again left
+Mentone by road for Genoa, which we reached March 16th, having stopped on
+the way at San Remo, Alassio, and Savona. At Genoa we joined my mother's
+sister Agnes and her husband, Sir Archibald Campbell (of Garscube), and
+saw various sights in their company.
+
+I knew very little of my Uncle Archibald, as he died comparatively young.
+At Genoa he was certainly very lively, and I fear that I contrived
+unintentionally but naturally to annoy him--it only shows how Italian
+politics excited everyone, even a child. He had seen some map in which the
+Italians had marked as their own territory, not only what they had lately
+acquired, but all to which they then aspired; I hardly imagine the
+Trentino, but certainly Venice. Uncle Archy scoffed at their folly--with
+precocious audacity, and I suppose having heard such Italian views at
+Mentone, I asserted that they would ere long have both Venice and Rome! He
+was quite indignant. It was impertinent of me, as I knew nothing of their
+power or otherwise, but it was a good shot!
+
+I have heard that Sir Archibald's mother was a stately old Scottish lady
+who thought a great deal of family, and precedence, and that one day he
+scandalised her by asking, "Well, mother, what would be the precedence of
+an Archangel's eldest son?"
+
+Aunt Aggy was broken-hearted when he died, and always delicate, fell into
+very ill-health. When the Franco-German War broke out she set to work
+undauntedly for the sick and wounded, and positively wanted to go abroad
+to nurse in some hospital--probably in Germany. A certain very clever Dr.
+Frank, of German-Jewish descent, was to make arrangements. The whole
+Grosvenor family and all its married connections were up in arms, and my
+father was dispatched to remonstrate with her. With much annoyance and
+reluctance she gave in--and soon after married Dr. Frank! The family were
+again astounded, but after all when they knew him they realised that he
+made her happy and took to him quite kindly. My aunt and Dr. Frank lived a
+great deal at Cannes, where they had a nice villa--Grandbois--and many
+friends, and he had a tribe of admiring patients. Aunt Aggy was very
+charming and gentle and lived to a good age.
+
+From Genoa we drove in easy stages to Spezia, noting towns and villages on
+the way. It was a delightful means of travelling, walking up the hills and
+stopping at little townships for luncheon in primitive inns. Motors have
+somewhat revived this method of travel, but whirling along at a great pace
+can never allow you to see and enjoy all the lesser beauties which struck
+you in the old leisurely days. I have duly noted all sorts of trivial
+incidents in my journal, but they are much what occur in all such
+expeditions and I need not dilate on the beauties of mountain, sea, and
+sky which everyone knows so well. At Spezia we saw the scene of Shelley's
+shipwreck, and on one coast of the Gulf the prison where Garibaldi had
+been interned not very long before. I record that it was a large
+building, and that his rooms, shown us by a sailor, were "very nice." I
+trust that he found them so. After returning to our old quarters we left
+Mentone on April 15th, evidently with great regret and with a parting sigh
+to the voiturier who had driven us on all our expeditions, including those
+to Genoa and Spezia--also to my donkey-man and to the chambermaid. Looking
+back, I feel that these southern weeks were among the happiest of my life,
+and that something of the sunlight and mountain scenery remained as
+memories never effaced.
+
+[Sidenote: TRAFALGAR VETERANS]
+
+We returned to England by much the same route as our outward journey, only
+the railroad being now open from Cannes to Toulon a night at Frejus was
+unnecessary. I cannot remember whether it was on our outward or our
+homeward journey, but on one or the other we met at the Palace of the
+Popes at Avignon an old custodian who had fought at Trafalgar and been for
+some years prisoner in England. He showed with some pride an English book,
+and it amused my mother to recognise a translation from a German work of
+which she did not hold a high opinion. I do not suppose that the French
+soldier read enough of it to do him much harm.
+
+It is rather curious that my father on two or three occasions took us to
+see at Greenwich Hospital an old servant of Nelson's who was with him at
+Trafalgar, so I have seen both a Frenchman and an Englishman who took part
+in that battle. Nelson's servant had a little room hung all round with
+pictures of the hero. My father asked him whether the Admiral said the
+prayer which one print represents him as reciting on his knees before the
+battle. The man said he did not know what words he used, but he saw him
+kneel down to pray. On our way to Paris we spent a night at
+Fontainebleau--and finally reached Stoneleigh on May 1st, 1863.
+
+Speaking of my mother's numerous brothers and sisters, I ought not to omit
+the eldest, Eleanor, Duchess of Northumberland, who was a very great lady,
+handsome and dignified till her death at an advanced age. She had no
+children, but was admired and respected by many nephews and nieces. I
+believe that her country neighbours regarded her as almost royal,
+curtsying when she greeted them. I remember her telling me that she could
+not go and hear some famous preacher in London because she would not have
+her carriage out on Sunday and had never been in any sort of cab. What
+would she have thought of the modern fashion of going in omnibuses?
+However, a year or two before her death the late Duke of Northumberland
+(grandson of her husband's cousin and successor) told me with great glee
+that they had succeeded in getting Duchess Eleanor into a taxi and that
+she had enjoyed it very much. I cannot think how they managed it. She
+lived during her widowhood at Stanwick Park, and my youngest sister
+Cordelia had a rather comical experience when staying with her there on
+one occasion. My aunt, among other tabooed innovations, altogether
+objected to motors and would not allow any through her Lodge gates.
+Previous to her visit to Stanwick, Cordelia had stayed with the Lawsons at
+Brayton in Cumberland and while there had been stopped by a policeman for
+riding a tricycle after dark without a light. She left her address with
+the Lawson family, and while at Stanwick the local policeman appeared,
+absolutely trembling at having been forced to enter these sacred
+precincts, to summon her in that she "drove a carriage, to wit a tricycle,
+between the hours, etc." The household managed to keep it dark from Aunt
+Eleanor, and Cordelia sent authority to the Lawson family to settle the
+case and pay the fine--but what would the aunt have said had she known of
+her niece's crime and penalty?
+
+[Sidenote: LORD MUNCASTER AND GREEK BRIGANDS]
+
+Lady Macclesfield, the second daughter, I have already mentioned. The
+surviving sister (one having died young) next above my mother in age was
+Elizabeth Lady Wenlock, who was very clever and, among her nine children,
+had charming daughters to whom I may refer later on. Then after my mother
+came Octavia and Agnes--and then Jane, married to Lord Muncaster, who died
+seven years later at Castellamare, leaving her with one little girl of
+about two years old. Margaret or Mimi, as we called her, was a great
+interest when the young widowed mother brought her to stay with us, soon
+after her father's death. She was a dear little girl, and we were told
+that she was a great heiress, and somehow in the hands of the Lord
+Chancellor. Her father had died without a will, and all the property,
+including the beautiful Muncaster Castle in Cumberland, went to the child
+though her uncle succeeded to the title. However, poor little Mimi died
+when she was eleven years old, so her uncle succeeded to the property
+after all. He was the Lord Muncaster who was captured by the brigands near
+Marathon in 1870 with his wife and her sister, Miss L'Estrange, Mr. Vyner,
+Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, and two other men. The brigands let the ladies go
+without injury--Lady Muncaster had hidden her rings in her mouth to
+protect them--but they would only let one man go to get ransom for the
+rest. The men drew lots and it fell to Vyner, but he absolutely refused to
+take the chance, saying that he was a bachelor and Lord Muncaster a
+married man. Instead of ransom the Greek Government sent troops. The
+brigands were annihilated, but they first killed Vyner and his companions.
+It was said that the Government stood in with the brigands, but I have
+never quite understood why, if so, the former did not prefer the money to
+the death of their allies--unless they thought that they would have to
+produce the ransom. Lord Muncaster always had his head hanging a little to
+one side, and in my youth I had a floating idea that it was from permanent
+grief at the tragedy. Meantime my Aunt Jane married a second time, a
+brother of Lord Crawford's. She was pretty, with green eyes and a nervous
+manner. She was a beautiful needlewoman and I believe a true musician.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GROSVENOR FAMILY]
+
+One more Grosvenor aunt must be remembered, my mother's youngest sister
+Theodora. I have heard that my grandmother was greatly distressed at the
+loss of her fourth daughter, Evelyn, who died as a child, although there
+were seven surviving sisters, therefore when another girl-baby arrived she
+called her Theodora--the gift of God. Certainly she was greatly attached
+to the child, and I fancy that the little Theodora was given much more
+spoiling and freedom than her elder sisters. She was very lively and
+amusing, and being the only daughter left unmarried when my grandfather
+died--in 1869--she became her mother's constant companion. When she
+ultimately married a brother of Lord Wimborne's she and Mr. Merthyr Guest
+continued to live with my grandmother, who endowed them with a large
+fortune. Mr. Guest died some years ago, but Aunt Theodora still lives--and
+has one daughter.
+
+My grandfather was a quiet old gentleman as far as I recollect him--he is
+somehow associated in my mind with carpet slippers and a diffident
+manner. He was what they call of a "saving" disposition, but I really
+believe that he was oppressed with his great wealth, and never sure that
+he was justified in spending much on himself and his family. When he
+became a thorough invalid before his death he was ordered to take certain
+pills, and in order to induce him to do so my grandmother would cut them
+in two and take half herself. After his death his halves were discovered
+intact done up with red tape!
+
+During his lifetime I stayed with my parents once or twice at the old
+Eaton Hall, before my uncle (the first Duke) built the present Palace. It
+was a nice, comfortable house. I have heard, from a neighbour who
+recollected the incident, that when it was being built the workmen
+employed would chisel rough representations of each other's features in
+the gargoyles which formed part of the decoration. I suppose that was done
+in ancient times by the men who built the churches and colleges of those
+days.
+
+My grandparents besides these numerous daughters had four sons--two, both
+named Gilbert, died, one as a baby, the other, a sailor, as a young man.
+The late Duke was my godfather and always very kind to me, particularly
+when, after my marriage, I stayed on more than one occasion at the new
+Eaton. I never knew a man more anxious to do all he could for the people
+about him, whether in the country or on his London property. He had very
+much the feeling of a patriarch and loved nothing better than to have
+about him the generations of his family. It was a complicated family, as
+he married first his own first cousin, Constance Leveson-Gower, and after
+her death the sister of his son-in-law Lord Chesham, husband of his
+second daughter Beatrice. I cannot quite unravel it, but somehow he was
+brother-in-law to his own daughter. The youngest son, Richard, a quaint,
+amusing man, was created Lord Stalbridge.
+
+Having said so much of my mother's family, I think I should mention the
+two sisters of my father whom I have hitherto omitted. One was his second
+sister, Emma--a typical and excellent maiden aunt. She was principally
+noted for being my sister Agnes's godmother and feeling it her duty to
+hear her Catechism--but neither Agnes nor any of us minded; in fact I
+remember--I suppose on some wet Sunday--that we all insisted on sharing
+the Scripture lesson and were given figs in consequence. The third sister
+was Caroline, twin with Augusta, but very different, for whereas Aunt
+Gussie was delicate and nervous, not to say irritable, Aunt Car was slow
+and substantial. She ended with marrying when no longer very young an old
+cousin of my father's, a clergyman, Lord Saye and Sele, who had actually
+baptized her early in life. She made him an excellent wife; she had
+numerous step-children, though none of her own. Looking back on these
+Early Victorian uncles and aunts with their various wives and husbands, I
+cannot but claim that they were good English men and women, with a keen
+sense of duty to their tenants and neighbours rich and poor. Of course
+they varied immensely in character and had their faults like other people,
+but I cannot recall one, either man or woman, who did not try to act up to
+a standard of right, and think I was fortunate to have been brought up
+among them.
+
+[Sidenote: UNCLES AND AUNTS]
+
+In my younger days I had also living several great-uncles and aunts on
+both sides, but the only one whom I can spare time and space to mention
+here is my Grandfather Leigh's sister, Caroline Lady East. When she was
+young Mr. East fell in love with her and she with him, but he was an
+impecunious youth and my great-grandparents would not permit the marriage.
+Whereupon he disguised himself as a hay-maker and contrived an interview
+with his lady-love in which they exchanged vows of fidelity. Then he went
+to India, where he remained eleven years, and returned to find the lady
+still faithful, and having accumulated a sufficient fortune married her.
+They had a nice little country house on the borders of Oxfordshire and
+Gloucestershire, and, though they had no children, were one of the
+happiest old couples I ever knew. My great-aunt died in 1870, but Uncle
+East lived till over ninety and went out hunting almost to the end--so
+eleven years of India had not done him much harm. He stayed with us at
+Middleton after my marriage when old Lord Abingdon was also a guest. Lord
+Abingdon must have been over seventy at the time, but a good deal younger
+than Sir James. They had known each other in youth and were quite
+delighted to meet again, but each confided separately to my husband and
+myself that he had thought that the other old fellow was dead. However,
+they made great friends, and in token of reunion Lord Abingdon sent his
+servant to cut Uncle East's corns!
+
+To return to my recollections of my own girlhood. I think that it must
+have been in 1864 that I had a bad attack of chicken-pox which temporarily
+hurt my eyes and left me somewhat weak. Either in that autumn or the
+following one my parents took me to the Isle of Arran and left me there
+for a time with a maid--while they accompanied my brother Gilbert back to
+school. I loved the Isle of Arran, and was only disturbed by the devotion
+of a child-niece of the landlady's who would follow me about everywhere.
+The only way of escape was to go--or attempt to go--into the mountains of
+which she was afraid, knowing that there were giants there.
+
+I must not omit one honour which I enjoyed in 1865. My mother took me to
+see my Aunt Macclesfield, who was in Waiting at Marlborough House when His
+present Majesty was born. My aunt welcomed us in the Princess of Wales's
+pretty sitting-room hung with a kind of brocade with a pattern of roses.
+The baby was then brought in to be admired, and to my gratification I was
+allowed to hold the little Prince in my arms. I did not then realise that
+in after years I could claim to have nursed my King.
+
+Shortly afterwards we used to hear a good deal of the American Civil War.
+We were too young to have much opinion as to the rival causes, but there
+was a general impression conveyed to our minds that the "Southerners were
+gentlemen." Some time after the war was over, in December 1868, Jefferson
+Davis, the Southern (Confederate) President, came to stay at Stoneleigh.
+He was over in Europe on parole. We were told that he had been in prison,
+and one of my younger brothers was anxious to know whether we "should see
+the marks of the chains." We had a favourite old housemaid who was
+preparing his room, and we imparted to her the thrilling information of
+his former imprisonment. Her only response was "Umph, well, I suppose he
+won't want these silver candlesticks." A large bedroom was being prepared
+for him, but she considered that silver candlesticks were only for ladies,
+and that presidents and prisoners were not entitled to such luxuries.
+
+He proved to be a benevolent old gentleman who impressed my cousins and
+myself by the paternal way in which he addressed any elder girl as
+"daughter."
+
+After this--but I cannot remember the particular years--we went in the
+autumn to Land's End, The Lizard, and Tintagel, and also had villas at
+Torquay and Bournemouth respectively, but our experiences were too
+ordinary to be worthy of record. I think I was about seventeen when I went
+with my parents to Vichy, where my father drank the waters--and we went on
+to some beautiful Auvergne country. This was my last excursion abroad with
+my parents before I married.
+
+[Sidenote: CONFIRMATION]
+
+In 1867 I was confirmed. The church which we attended was in Park Street.
+It has since been pulled down, but was then regarded as specially the
+church of the Westminster family. My grandparents sat in a large pew
+occupying the length of the gallery at the west end of the church. We had
+a pew in the south gallery with very high sides, and my early
+recollections are of sitting on a dusty red hassock from which I could see
+little but the woodwork during a very long sermon. One Sunday when I was
+approaching years of discretion the clergyman gave out notice of a
+Confirmation, with the usual intimation that Candidates should give in
+their names in the Vestry. My mother told me to do this accompanied by my
+younger brother (Gilbert) as chaperon. The clergyman seemed a good deal
+surprised, and I rather fancy that I was the only Candidate. He was an old
+man who had been there for a long time. He said that he would come and see
+me at my parents' house, and duly arrived at 37 Portman Square. I was sent
+in to my father's sitting-room for the interview, and I believe that he
+was more embarrassed than I was, for I had long been led to regard
+Confirmation as the proper sequence to learning my Catechism and a fitting
+step in religious life. The clergyman somewhat uneasily remarked that he
+had to ascertain that I knew my Catechism, and asked me to say it. This I
+could have done in my sleep, as it had for years formed part of my Sunday
+instruction. When I ended he asked after a slight pause whether I knew why
+the Nicene Creed was so called. This was unexpected pleasure. I had lately
+read Milman's _Latin Christianity_ to my mother, and should have enjoyed
+nothing better than delivering to my pastor a short lecture on the Arian
+and Athanasian doctrines. When I began it, however, he hastily cut me
+short, saying that he saw that I knew all about it--how old was I?
+"Seventeen and a half." "Quite old enough," said he, and told me that he
+would send me my ticket, and when I went to the church someone would show
+me where to sit. This ended my preparation as far as he was concerned. I
+believe he intimated to my parents that he would see Miss Leigh again, but
+in practice he took care to keep clear of the theological _enfant
+terrible_.
+
+I was duly confirmed on May 31st, by Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London. I feel
+sure that my mother amply supplied any lacunae left by the poor old
+clergyman. No doubt in those days Preparation for Confirmation was not
+regarded as seriously as at present, but I do not think that mine was
+quite typical, as some of my contemporary cousins underwent a much more
+serious course of instruction.
+
+[Sidenote: "COMING OUT"]
+
+That autumn I began to "come out" in the country. We went to a perfectly
+delightful ball at the Shaw-Stewarts' at Ardgowan, where the late Duke of
+Argyll--then Lord Lorne--excited my admiration by the way he danced reels
+in Highland costume. Thence my brother and I went to Hans Hall to the
+coming-of-age of my cousin Charles Adderley, now Lord Norton. The whole
+country-side swarmed to the festivities, and one party unable to obtain
+any other conveyance chartered a hearse. Miss Ferrier, in her novel _The
+Inheritance_, makes one of her female characters arrive at a country
+house, where she was determined to be received, in a hearse--but she was
+even more gruesome than my cousin's guests as she accompanied the corpse!
+
+The following year (1868), May 12th, I was presented--Princess Christian
+held the Drawing-Room on behalf of the Queen, who still lived in
+retirement as far as social functions were concerned. She, however,
+attended this Drawing-Room for about half an hour--receiving the entree.
+Her devotion to the Prince Consort and to his memory was unparalleled. No
+doubt the fact that she had practically never had anyone with whom she
+could associate on equal terms until her marriage had a good deal to do
+with it. I know of a lady whom she summoned to sit with her when the
+Prince Consort was being carried to his funeral on the ground that she was
+a widow and could feel for her, and she said that her shudders when the
+guns went off were dreadful, and that she seemed unable to realise that
+here for the first time was something that she could not control.
+
+To return to my entry in the world. Naturally I went during 1868 and the
+three or four succeeding years to the balls, dinners, and garden parties
+usual in the course of the season. The "great houses" then existed--they
+had not been pulled down or turned into public galleries and offices.
+Stafford House, Grosvenor House, Northumberland House, and others
+entertained in royal style, and there were Garden Parties at Argyll Lodge
+and Airlie Lodge on Campden Hill, at Syon, and at Chiswick, then in
+possession of the Duke of Devonshire.
+
+In those days there was still a sort of question as to the propriety of
+waltzing. Valses and square dances were danced alternately at balls, and a
+few--but very few--girls were limited to the latter. Chaperones were the
+almost invariable rule and we went back to them between the dances.
+"Sitting-out" did not come in till some years later. In the country,
+however, there was plenty of freedom, and I never remember any restriction
+on parties of girls and young men walking or rowing together without their
+elders. By the time I came out my brother Gilbert (Gilly) was at Harrow
+and Dudley and Rupert at Mr. Lee's Private School at Brighton. My special
+charge and pet Rowland was still at home, and the youngest of the family
+Cordelia a baby.
+
+Dudley and Rupy were inseparable. Duddy delicate, Rupy sturdy and full of
+mischief into which he was apt to drag his elder brother. I had to look
+after them, and see that they accomplished a few lessons in the
+holidays--no light task, but I was ready for anything to keep off holiday
+tutors and, I am afraid, to retain my position as elder sister. Love of
+being first was doubtless my besetting sin, and my good-natured younger
+brothers and sisters accepted my rule--probably also because it was easier
+than that of a real grown-up person. My mother had bad health, and my
+father took it for granted that it was my business to keep the young ones
+as far as possible out of mischief. As for my sister Agnes, she was always
+a saint, and I am afraid that I was a tyrant as far as she was concerned.
+Cordelia was born when I was over sixteen and was always rather like my
+child. Rowland was just seven when her arrival delighted the family, and
+his first remark when he heard that he had a little sister was "I wonder
+what she will think of my knickerbockers"--to which he had lately been
+promoted. Boys wore little tunics with belts when they first left off baby
+frocks, and sailor suits were not introduced when my brothers were
+children.
+
+[Sidenote: IRELAND]
+
+My next special recollection is of a visit to Ireland which I paid in
+company with my parents, Gilbert, and Agnes in August 1869. We crossed in
+the _Leinster_ and duly lionised Dublin. I kept a journal during this tour
+in which the sights of the city are duly noted with the remark, after
+seeing the post office, that we "made the various observations proper to
+intelligent but tired travellers."
+
+The country--Bray, Glendalough, and the Seven Churches seem to have
+pleased us much better. I do not know whether the guides and country
+people generally are as free with their legends now as they were fifty
+years ago, but they told us any amount of stories to our great
+satisfaction. Brough, the guide at the Seven Churches, was particularly
+voluble and added considerably to the tales of St. Kevin given in the
+guide-book. St. Kevin, as recounted by Moore in his ballad, pushed
+Kathleen into the Lake when she would follow him. I remember that Brough
+was much embarrassed when I innocently asked _why_ he did this. However,
+he discreetly replied: "If your honourable father and your honourable
+mother want you to marry a gentleman and you don't like him, don't push
+him into the water!" Excellent advice and not difficult to follow in a
+general way. When St. Kevin was alive the skylark used to sing early in
+the morning and waken the people who had been up late the night before at
+a wedding or merrymaking. When the Saint saw them looking so bad he
+asked, "What's the matter?" On hearing that the lark would not let them
+get any sleep, he laid a spell that never more should lark sing above that
+lake. This encouragement of late hours seems rather inconsistent with his
+general asceticism. St. Kevin was more considerate to a blackbird than to
+the laverock. The former once laid her eggs on his extended hand, and he
+kept it held out until she had had time to build her nest in it and hatch
+her young.
+
+Brough was even better acquainted with fairies than with saints. He knew a
+man at Cork named Jack M'Ginn, a wool-comber, who was carried away by the
+fairies for seven years. At the end of that time he accompanied them to a
+wedding (fairies like weddings). There was present a young lady whom the
+fairies wanted to make sneeze three times, as if they could do so and no
+one said "God bless her" they could take her away. So they tickled her
+nose three times with horse-hair, but as they were withdrawing it the
+third time Jack cried out in Irish "God bless her." This broke the spell,
+and Jack fell crashing down amongst the crockery, everyone ran away, and
+he arose retransformed to his natural shape.
+
+Another acquaintance of Brough's--a stout farmer--met one evening three
+fairies carrying a coffin. Said one, "What shall we do for a fourth man?"
+"Switch the first man who passes," replied the second. So they caught the
+farmer and made him carry it all night, till he found himself in the
+morning nearly dead not far from his own door. Our guide enjoined us to be
+sure, if fairies passed us in the air, to pick some blades of grass and
+throw them after them, saying "Good luck to you good folk": as he sagely
+remarked, a civil word never does harm. As more prosaic recollections,
+Brough told us of the grand fights at Glendalough, when the young men were
+backed up by their sisters and sweethearts. The etiquette was for a young
+woman to take off her right stocking, put a stone in it and use it as a
+weapon, "and any woman who fought well would have twenty young farmers
+wanting to marry her."
+
+[Sidenote: KILLARNEY]
+
+We stopped at Cork, whence we drove to see Blarney Castle and its stones.
+In those days, and probably still, there were two, one called the Ladies'
+Stone, which we three children all kissed, and another suspended by iron
+clamps from the top of the Castle, so that one had to lie down and hold on
+to the irons with one's body partly over an open space--rather a
+break-neck proceeding, particularly in rising again. Only Gilly
+accomplished this. The railway to Glengariff then went as far as
+Dunmanway, whence it was necessary to drive. We slept at the Royal Hotel
+where we arrived in the evening, and to the end of my life I never shall
+forget the beauty of Bantry Bay as we saw it on waking next morning with
+all its islands mirrored in purple shadows. But the whole drive to
+Killarney, and above all the Lakes as they break upon your sight, are
+beyond description. We saw it all in absolutely glorious weather--possibly
+rare in those regions, but certainly the Lakes of Killarney impressed me
+then as more beautiful than either the Scottish or the English Lakes
+because of their marvellous richness of colour. After fifty years, and
+travels in many lands, I still imagine that they are only excelled in
+_colour_ by the coral islands of the Pacific; but of course the Irish
+Lakes may dwell in my memory as more beautiful than they really are, as I
+saw them first when I had far fewer standards of comparison. Anyhow, they
+were like a glorious dream. We spent some enchanting days at Killarney and
+saw all the surrounding beauties--the Gap of Dunloe with the Serpent Lake
+in which St. Patrick drowned the last snake in Ireland (in a chest into
+which he enticed the foolish creature by promising to let it out again),
+Mangerton, the highest mountain in Ireland but one, and Carrantuohill, the
+highest of all, which my brother and sister and I were allowed to ascend
+on condition that the guide would take good care of us. However, when out
+of our parents' sight he found that he was troubled with a corn, and lay
+down to rest, confiding us to a ponyman who very nearly lost us in a fog.
+The ponies could only approach the base, the rest was pretty stiff
+climbing.
+
+[Sidenote: THE O'DONOGHUES]
+
+The Upper, the Middle, and the Lower Lake are all lovely, but the last was
+particularly attractive from its connection with the local hero--the Great
+O'Donoghue, whose story we gleaned from our guides and particularly a boy
+who carried our luncheon basket up Mangerton. He was a magician and had
+the power of taking any shape he pleased, but he ended by a tremendous
+leap into the Lake, after which he never returned to his home. Once every
+seven years, however, between six and seven on May Day morning, he rides
+from one of the islands in the Lower Lake to the opposite shore, with
+fairies strewing flowers before him, and for the time his Castle also
+reappears. Any unmarried man who sees him will marry a rich wife, and any
+unmarried woman a rich husband. Our boatman pointed out an island where
+girls used to stand to see him pass, but no one ever saw him except an old
+boatman, and he had been married a long time, so the apparition did not
+help him. No O'Donoghue has ever been drowned since the hero's
+disappearance. We heard two different versions of the cause of the
+tragedy. Both attributed it to his wife's want of self-control. One
+related that the husband was in the habit of running about as a hare or a
+rabbit, and as long as she did not laugh all went well, but when he took
+this flying leap into the water she burst into a fit of laughter and
+thereby lost him permanently. Our boy guide's story was more
+circumstantial and more dramatic. According to him, the O'Donoghue once
+turned himself into an eel, and knotted himself three times round Ross
+Castle, where he lived (a super-eel or diminutive castle!). This
+frightened the lady dreadfully, and he told her that if she "fritted"
+three times on seeing any of his wonders she would see him no more. Some
+time after he turned himself into a goose and swam on the lake, and she
+shrieked aloud, thinking to lose him. Finally he brought out his white
+horse and told her that this was her last chance of restraining her fears.
+She promised courage and kept quiet while he rode straight up the Castle
+wall, but when he turned to come down she fainted, whereupon, horse and
+all, he leapt into the water. The boy also declared that in the previous
+year he was seen by two boatmen, a lady and a gentleman, another man, and
+some "company," whereupon the lady fainted--recalling the lady of
+O'Donoghue, it was the least she could do. In the lower Lake may still be
+seen rocks representing the chieftain's pigeons, his spy-glass, his books
+containing the "Ould Irish," and his mice (only to be seen on Sundays
+after prayers). In the Bitter Lake, which was pointed out to us from a
+distance, is the fairy-island where he dances with the fairies.
+
+[Sidenote: MYTHS AND LEGENDS]
+
+The O'Donoghue in his lifetime had his frivolous moments. He once changed
+a number of fern fronds into little pigs, which he took to the fair at
+Killarney and sold to the jobbers. They looked just like other pigs until
+the purchasers reached some running water. As we all know, running water
+dissolves any spell, and the pigs all turned back into little blades of
+fern. As testimony to the authenticity of this tale the water was duly
+shown to us. The O'Donoghue, however, knew that the jobbers would not
+remain placid under the trick, so he went home and told his maid to say,
+if anyone asked for him, that he had gone to bed and to sleep and could
+only be wakened by pulling his legs. The jobbers arrived, received the
+message, went in and pulled his legs, which immediately came off! Off they
+ran in alarm, thinking that they had killed the man, but the good
+O'Donoghue was only having his fun with them, so called them back and
+returned their money. We picked up a good deal of fairy-lore during our
+sojourn in the south of Ireland, and I record it as it may have passed
+away during the past half-century. The driver who took us to the Gap of
+Dunloe told me that in his mother's time a woman working in the fields put
+down her baby. While she was out of the way the steward saw the fairies
+change it for a fairy-baby who would have been a plague to her all her
+life. So as the child was crying and shrieking he stood over it and
+declared that he would shoot the mother or anyone else who should come
+near it, and as no one came to comfort it the fairies could not leave
+their baby to cry like that, so they brought back the stolen child and
+took away their own. That steward was such a man of resource that one
+cannot help wishing that he were alive to deal with the Sinn Feiners of
+the present day. Another piece of good advice which we received was, if
+we saw a fairy (known by his red jacket) in a field to keep an eye fixed
+on him till we came up with him--then to take away his purse, and each
+time we opened it we should find a shilling. I regret to say that I never
+had the opportunity, but the guide, remarking my father's tendency to give
+whenever asked, observed that he thought his lordship had found a fairy
+purse. It is a commonplace to notice the similarity of folk-lore in many
+lands pointing to a common origin, but it is rather curious to compare the
+tale of the O'Donoghue with that of the Physicians of Myddfai in South
+Wales. Only in that the husband, not the wife, caused the final tragedy.
+The fairy-wife, rising from the Lake, warns her mortal husband that she
+will disappear for ever if he strikes her three times. Long years they
+live in happiness, but thrice does he give her a slight blow to arouse her
+from unconventional behaviour at a christening, a wedding, and a funeral
+respectively. Thereupon she wends her way to the Lake and like a white
+cloud sinks into its waters. She leaves her sons a legacy of wisdom and
+healing skill, and from time to time a shadowy form and clear voice come
+to teach them still deeper knowledge.
+
+From the south of Ireland we went to the north, but I regret to say were
+not nearly so fascinated by the loyal Ulsterman as by the forthcoming sons
+of the south. Nevertheless we enjoyed the wild scenery of Lough Swilly and
+the legends connected with Dunluce Castle and the Giant's Causeway. Among
+the tales of Dunluce was that of a banshee whose duty it is (or was) to
+keep clean one of the rooms in the ruin. The old man who showed us over
+declared that she did not always properly fulfil her task. She is supposed
+to be the spirit of a cook who fell over the rocks into the water and
+reappears as a tall woman with red hair. The place of cook must have been
+a rather trying one in ancient days, for the kitchen pointed out to us was
+on the edge of a precipice and we were told that once when a good dinner
+was prepared the attendants let it all fall into the sea! It was not,
+however, explained whether this was the occasion on which the like fate
+befell the cook. Possibly she died in a frantic effort to rescue it.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GIANT BENADADDA]
+
+The Giant's Causeway was very interesting. We first entered Portcorn Cave,
+which has fine colours and a great deal of froth said to have been caused
+by the giant's washerwoman washing a few collars there. The giant in
+question was called Fin MacCoul, and at the same time there lived another
+Giant in Scotland called Benadadda. Wishing to pass backwards and
+forwards, the two agreed that Fin should pave a way of columns and
+Benadadda should work it. Hence Fingal's Cave--_gal_ or _gael_ meaning
+"the stranger"--presumably the name was given in compliment to the future
+guest. But the two champions found the work harder than they had expected,
+and Benadadda sent to tell Fin that if he did not make haste he must come
+over and give him a beating. Fin returned that he was not to put himself
+out, but to come if he pleased. Soon after Fin rushed in crying out to his
+wife, "Goodness gracious! he's coming. I can't face that fellow!" And he
+tumbled into bed.
+
+Soon Benadadda walked in. "Good day, ma'am. Ye're Mrs. McCoul?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I percave you are Benadadda?"
+
+"I am ma'am. Is Fin at home?"
+
+"He's just gone into the garden for a few vegetables, but he'll be back
+directly. Won't ye take a cheer?"
+
+"Thank you kindly"--and he sat down.
+
+She continued: "I've got a little boy in that cradle and we think he's
+taything, fer he won't give the fayther nor me any raste. Just put your
+finger along his gums."
+
+Benadadda, unable to refuse a lady, put his fingers into Fin's mouth, who
+promptly bit them off, and then jumping up called on Benadadda to come on.
+The Scottish giant, unable to fight with his wounded hand, told them, "I
+wish I'd never come among you craters," and walked off. Mrs. MacCoul ran
+after him with an oatcake, but having tasted it he said, "Very good
+outside, but give the rest to your goodman"; for she had baked the tin
+girdle inside the cake. This is how I recorded the tale, which I suppose I
+picked up locally, but I have somewhere heard or read another account in
+which, without waiting for his fingers to be bitten off, Benadadda
+exclaimed, "Begorra, is that the baby? then I'll be but a mouthful to the
+fellow himself," and made off.
+
+I am unable to say which version is authentic, but neither seems to
+attribute undaunted valour to either champion, and both agree that Irish
+wit got the better of superior Scottish strength. I record these tales
+rather than attempt description of the Caves and other beauties of the
+coast, as the physical features remain and the legends may be forgotten.
+The great rocks shaped like columns are called the Giant's Organs, and are
+(or were) supposed to play every Christmas morning. The tune they play is
+"St. Patrick's day in the morning," upon hearing which the whole Causeway
+dances round three times.
+
+We left Ireland at the end of August, having thoroughly enjoyed our
+travels there. It was then a peaceful country. The Queen had given her
+name to Queenstown Harbour in 1849, and I suppose had visited Killarney on
+the same occasion. Anyhow, memories of her stay still lingered there. I
+recollect even now the enthusiasm with which a boatman who had been one of
+those who had taken her on the Lake said, "I passed a long day looking at
+her." It was a thousand pities that she did not often revisit Ireland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MARRIAGE
+
+
+Next year--1870--all thoughts were to a large extent taken up with the
+Franco-German War. It does not seem to me that we took violent sides in
+the struggle. Naturally we were quite ignorant of the depths of cruelty
+latent in the German nature, or of the manoeuvres on the part of Bismarck
+which had led to the declaration of war. We were fond of our sister's
+French governess Mdlle. Verdure, and sorry for the terrible collapse of
+her country, but I think on the whole that the strongest feeling in our
+family was amazement at the revelation of inefficiency on the part of the
+French, mingled with some admiration for the completeness of German
+organisation. Anyhow, everyone was set to work to provide comforts for the
+sick and wounded on both sides--medical stores which I fancy would have
+been to a large extent condemned wholesale if submitted to the medical
+authorities during the late War, but which I am sure were very useful and
+acceptable in '70-71. As is well known, that winter was an exceptionally
+hard one--we had fine times skating, and I remember a very pleasant visit
+to old Lord Bathurst at Cirencester--but it must have been terrible in
+Paris. Our French man-cook had some refugee sisters quartered in the
+neighbourhood who were employed by my mother in dressmaking work for our
+benefit, but I do not know whether refugees were numerous in England.
+
+What did really excite us in common with all England were the excesses of
+the Commune. Never shall I forget the papers coming out with terrific
+headlines: "Paris in Flames--Burning of the Tuileries," and so on. I
+passed the morning in floods of tears because they were "burning history,"
+and had to be rebuked by my mother for expressing the wish that the
+incendiaries could be soaked in petroleum and themselves set on fire.
+
+The year 1871 was rendered interesting to our family by the marriages of
+our two Leigh uncles--Chandos, commonly known among us as "Uncle Eddy,"
+married an amiable and good-looking Miss Rigby, who inherited money from a
+(deceased) Liverpool father. Uncle Eddy was a great character. A fine,
+athletic man, successful in every walk of life which he entered, a good
+horseman, cricketer and actor, he did well at the Bar and seemed to know
+practically everybody and to be friends with them all. He was blessed with
+supreme self-confidence and appeared innocently convinced that everyone
+was as much interested in his affairs as he was himself. This childlike
+disposition was really attractive, and quite outweighed the boyish conceit
+which endured to the end of a long and useful life.
+
+His love affairs with Miss Rigby were naturally very public property. I
+heard all about them from the beginning, and have no doubt that anyone of
+age to listen and capable of sympathising was similarly favoured. He
+originally proposed to the young lady after a few days' acquaintance, and
+she turned pale and said "You have no right to speak to me in this way."
+Ups and downs followed, including a consultation with planchette, which
+quite properly wavered and shook and spoke with an uncertain voice. This
+was all in 1870. Some time in January we acted a small farce which I had
+perpetrated called _The Detective_. When it was over my uncle informed me
+that failing his marriage he intended to leave me a thousand pounds in
+recognition of this play. Fortunately I founded no hopes on that thousand
+pounds, for I think that it was the following morning when Uncle Eddy came
+shouting along the top corridor where we slept. "Margaret--you've lost
+your thousand pounds!" The post had come in and the fair lady had
+relented.
+
+[Sidenote: FANNY KEMBLE]
+
+James, my father's youngest brother, called "Uncle Jimmy," had travelled
+in the United States and been entertained on her plantation in Georgia by
+a charming Southern lady--a Miss Butler, daughter of the descendant of an
+old Irish family who had married the well-known actress Fanny Kemble. Mr.
+and Mrs. Pierce Butler had separated--not from any wrong-doing, but from
+absolute incompatibility of temper. For one thing the wife took up a
+violent anti-slavery attitude--a little awkward when (as she must have
+known when she married) the husband owned a cotton plantation worked by
+slave labour. However, the two daughters remained on friendly terms with
+both parents, and Mr. Butler died during--or shortly after--the war. One
+daughter married a Dr. Wister and became the mother of the well-known
+author, Owen Wister; the younger, Frances, married my uncle and was
+adopted into the family as "Aunt Fanny." Though some ten or eleven years
+older than myself, she and I became the greatest friends, and I much liked
+her somewhat erratic, though withal stately, mother, who was called "Mrs.
+Kemble." Both Uncles were married (on different days) in June 1871, my
+sister Agnes being bridesmaid to Miss Butler and I to Miss Rigby.
+
+Both marriages were very happy ones, though my Uncle Chandos ended his
+life in a dark cloud cast by the late War--in which he lost his only two
+sons, and his wife was killed in a motor accident not long after his
+death.
+
+Since I wrote above I have found an old journal from May 18th, 1868, to
+November 3rd, 1869. I do not extract much from it, as it largely consists
+of records of the various balls and entertainments which we attended--but
+it is rather amusing to note what circumstances, social and otherwise,
+struck the fancy of a girl in her first two seasons. Politically the Irish
+Church Bill seems to have been the burning question. We went to part of
+the Debate on the Second Reading (June 17th, 1869) in the House, and I not
+only give a summary of Lord Salisbury's speech, but when the Bill was
+carried, devote over two pages of my journal to a full description of the
+details of the measure. The _causes celebres_ of Madame Rachel, the Beauty
+Doctor, and of the nun, Miss Saurin, against her Mother Superior, Mrs.
+Starr, appear also to have been topics of conversation.
+
+[Sidenote: AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS]
+
+One visit is perhaps worth recording. My father's mother was a Miss Willes
+of an old family living on the borders of Northamptonshire and
+Oxfordshire--regular country people. One of her brothers, Charles, was
+married to a certain Polly--I think she was a Miss Waller, but anyhow they
+were a plump, old-fashioned pair. She was supposed to keep a book in which
+were recorded the names of over a hundred nephews and nieces, and to sell
+a pig to give a present to any one of the number who married. On the last
+day of 1868 my brother Gilly and I went with our Aunt Georgiana to stay
+with this charming old couple at King-Sutton Manor House near Banbury.
+This is how I describe the New Year festivities of fifty years ago: "It is
+a queer old house like one in a storybook, full of corners. My wash-stand
+was in a recess with a window, separated from the rest of the room by
+doors so that it looked like a chapel. We had dinner between six and
+seven, a real Christmas dinner with nearly twenty people--great-uncle
+Charles, great-aunt Martha, great-aunt Sophy, George Willes, Willie
+Willes, Stany Waller, the clergyman Mr. Bruce, Aunt Polly herself beaming
+at the head of the table, turkey and beef stuck with holly, and the
+plum-pudding brought in, in flaming brandy.... Almost everyone seemed
+related to all the rest. A few more people came after dinner while we were
+in the drawing-room and the dining-room was being cleared for dancing. Two
+fiddlers and a blowing-man were then perched on a table in a corner and
+dancing began--quadrilles, lancers, jig, reel, and valse carried on with
+the utmost energy, by Aunt Polly in particular, till about half-past
+eleven, when muffled bells began to ring in a church close by and the
+dancing was stopped that we might all listen. At twelve o'clock the
+muffles were taken off, Aunt Polly charged with Xmas cards into the midst
+of her company, punch was brought in in great cups, silver, I believe;
+everyone kissed, shook hands, and wished everyone else a Happy New Year,
+the bells rang a joy-peal, and we had supper, and then began dancing again
+till between one and two in the morning. After many efforts Gilly
+succeeded in catching Aunt Polly under the misletoe and kissing her." I do
+not know what a "blowing-man" may have been, but have a vivid recollection
+of Aunt Polly trying to dance everyone down in a perpetual jig, and of
+the portly figure of Uncle Charles, who had to be accommodated with two
+chairs at dinner.
+
+We had other very pleasant visits--and amongst them we stayed with my
+uncle and aunt Wenlock for my cousin Carry Lawley's wedding to Captain
+Caryl Molyneux. This marriage was particularly interesting to all the
+cousinhood, as it was brought about after considerable opposition. Carry
+was an extraordinarily pretty, lively, and attractive girl rather more
+than a year older than myself. She had brilliant eyes and auburn hair and
+was exceedingly clever and amusing. Her family naturally expected her to
+make a marriage which would give all her qualities a wide sphere. However,
+at the mature age of eleven she won the affections of Lord Sefton's
+younger brother and he never fluctuated in his choice. I do not know at
+what exact moment he disclosed his admiration, but he contrived to make
+the young lady as much in love with him as he was with her. Vainly did her
+mother refuse consent. Carry stuck to her guns, and I believe ultimately
+carried her point by setting up a cough! Anyhow the parents gave in, and
+when they did so, accepted the position with a good grace. Somehow what
+was considered sufficient provision for matrimony was made and Caryl and
+Carry were married, on a brilliant spring day in April 1870.
+
+[Sidenote: A PRE-MATRIMONIAL PARTY]
+
+It was at the Wenlocks' London house, in the following year, that I made
+the acquaintance of Lord Jersey. We had unknowingly met as children at an
+old inn on Edgehill called "The Sunrising"; at that time his parents, Lord
+and Lady Villiers, lived not far off at Upton House, which then belonged
+to Sarah, Lady Jersey. While my brother and I were playing outside, a boy
+with long fair hair looked out of the inn and smilingly lashed his whip at
+us, unconscious that it was his first salutation to his future wife! I
+discovered in after years that George Villiers, as he then was, used to
+ride over for lessons to a neighbouring clergyman and put up his pony at
+the inn.
+
+At the dinner-party at Berkeley Square Lord Jersey did not take me in, and
+I had not the slightest idea who he was, but when the ladies left the
+dining-room I was laughed at for having monopolised his attention when he
+was intended to talk to his partner. He was reckoned exceedingly shy, and
+I thought no more of the matter till the following season, to which I
+shall return in due course.
+
+After our return to Stoneleigh, though I do not recollect in which month
+(I think August), we had a large and gay party including a dance--it was
+distinctly a pre-matrimonial party, as three of the girls whom it included
+were either engaged or married before twelve months were over, though none
+of them to the men present. The three girls were Gwendolen (then called
+Gwendaline) Howard, who married Lord Bute; Maria Fox-Strangways, married
+to Lord Bridport's son Captain Hood; and myself. Rather oddly, a much
+older man and a widower, Lord Raglan, who was also of the party, caught
+the matrimonial microbe and married his second wife in the ensuing autumn.
+
+Among others my cousin and great friend Hugh Shaw-Stewart was there and
+immortalised our doings in verse. At Christmas time I managed to get
+slight congestion of the lungs and soon after went to spend some time with
+my kind uncle and aunt Sir Michael and Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart at
+Fonthill, and Hughie, who had also suffered from chest trouble, stayed
+with his parents there while preparing for Oxford.
+
+[Sidenote: FONTHILL ABBEY]
+
+Fonthill, as is well known, belonged to the eccentric Beckford and was
+full of his traditions. After his death the property was divided and my
+grandfather Westminster bought the portion which included Beckford's old
+house, of which the big tower had fallen down, and built himself a modern
+house lower down the hill. Another part was bought--I do not know when--by
+Mr. Alfred Morrison. When my grandfather Westminster died in the autumn of
+1869 he left the reversion of Fonthill Abbey to Uncle Michael. Perhaps he
+thought that the Shaw-Stewarts should have an English as well as a
+Scottish home. However that might have been, Fonthill is a delightful
+place--and I benefited by their residence there at this time. I think that
+they were only to come into actual possession after my grandmother's
+death--but that she lent it to them on this occasion as my aunt was
+delicate and it was considered that she would be the better for southern
+air.
+
+The modern house was a comfortable one with good rooms, but had a
+peculiarity that no room opened into another, as my grandfather objected
+to that arrangement--dressing-rooms, for instance, though they might open
+into the same lobbies, might not have doors into the bedrooms.
+
+Part of Beckford's old house higher up the hill was preserved as a sort of
+museum. The story was that he insisted on continuous building, Sundays and
+weekdays alike. The house had a very high tower which could be seen from a
+hill overlooking Bath, where he ultimately went to live. Every day he used
+to go up the hill to look at his tower, but one morning when he ascended
+as usual he saw it no longer--it had fallen down. It used to be implied
+that this was a judgment on the Sunday labour. Also we were told that he
+made the still-existing avenues and drove about them at night, which gave
+him an uncanny reputation. Probably his authorship of that weird tale
+_Vathek_ added to the mystery which surrounded him. He had accumulated
+among many other treasures a number of great oriental jars from the Palace
+of the King of Portugal, and when these were sold after his death my
+grandfather, to the best of my recollection, purchased three.
+
+Mr. Morrison had secured a good many of the others, which I saw in after
+years when I stayed at the other Fonthill House which he had built on his
+part of the property. Many of the other treasures passed, as is well
+known, into the possession of Beckford's daughter who married the 10th
+Duke of Hamilton. Alas--most of them must have been dispersed ere now!
+
+Mr. Alfred Morrison, when I was at Fonthill with my uncle and aunt, was a
+subject of much interest, as it was rumoured that he wanted to emulate
+Beckford. I do not quite know in what way beyond trying to collect the
+oriental jars. He was a distinctly literary man, and was reported to have
+married his wife because he found her reading a Greek grammar in the
+train. Whether or no that was the original attraction I cannot say, but
+she proved a delightful and amusing person when I met her in after years.
+Meantime we used to hear of the beautiful horses which he sent to the
+meets of the local hounds, though he did not ride, and other proofs of his
+wealth and supposed eccentricity.
+
+My uncle as well as my aunt being far from strong, we led a quiet though
+pleasant life. Hughie and I shared a taste for drawing and painting of
+very amateur description and Hughie used to help me with Latin verses, in
+which I then liked to dabble.
+
+After my return to Stoneleigh I had yet another treat. My Uncle James and
+his new wife "Aunt Fanny" were kind enough to ask me to share in the
+spring their first trip abroad after their marriage. We went via Harwich
+to Rotterdam and thence for a short tour in Holland and Belgium with which
+I was highly delighted. The quaint canals, the cows with table-cloths on
+their backs, the queer Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, and still more the
+cathedrals and picture galleries in Belgium gave me infinite pleasure, but
+are too well known to describe.
+
+Even the copyist in the Antwerp Gallery who, being armless, painted with
+his toes was an amusement, as much to my uncle, who loved freaks, as to
+myself. Ghent and Bruges were a revelation; and I was much entertained by
+the guide who took us up the Belfry of St. Nicholas (I think it was) at
+the former city and pointed triumphantly to the scenery as "bien beau,
+tout plat, pas de montagnes." He shared the old Anglo-Saxon conception of
+Paradise.
+
+  "Nor hills nor mountains there
+  Stand steep, nor strong cliffs
+  Tower high, as here with us; nor dells nor dales,
+  Nor mountain-caves, risings, nor hilly chains;
+  Nor thereon rests aught unsmooth,
+  But the noble field flourishes under the skies
+  With delights blooming."
+
+In the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, over the high altar, was an image of the
+saint with three children in a tub. My uncle asked a priest what he was
+doing with the children, but all the good man could say was that "St.
+Nicolas aimait beaucoup les enfants," quite ignorant of the miracle
+attributed to his own saint, namely, that he revived three martyred boys
+by putting them into a barrel of salt.
+
+Shortly after our return to England we moved to Portman Square for the
+season. At a dinner-party--I believe at Lord Camperdown's--I again met
+Lord Jersey, but fancied that he would have forgotten me, and subsequently
+ascertained that he had the same idea of my memory. So we did not speak to
+each other. Later on, however, my father told my mother that he had met
+Lord Jersey and would like him asked to dinner. The families had been
+friends in years gone by, but had drifted apart. My mother agreed, sent
+the invitation, which was accepted. In arranging how the guests were to
+sit I innocently remarked to my mother that it was no good counting Lord
+Jersey as a young man--or words to that effect--as "he would never speak
+to a girl"--and I was rather surprised when in the drawing-room after he
+came across to me and made a few remarks before the party broke up.
+
+After this events moved rapidly for me. Jersey, unexpectedly to many
+people, appeared at balls at Montagu House, Northumberland House (then
+still existing), and Grosvenor House. Also he came to luncheon once or
+twice in Portman Square. He did not dance at balls, but though
+"sitting-out" was not then the fashion we somehow found a pretext--such as
+looking at illuminations--for little walks. Then Lord Tollemache drove my
+mother and me to a garden-party at Syon, where I well recollect returning
+from another "little walk" across a lawn where my mother was sitting with
+what appeared to me to be a gallery of aunts.
+
+[Sidenote: ENGAGEMENT]
+
+We went to a last ball at the Howards of Glossop in Rutland Gate, and
+discovering that we were about to leave London Jersey took his courage in
+two hands and came to Portman Square, July 18th, and all was happily
+settled.
+
+I went next morning--it may have been the same evening--to tell Aunt
+Fanny, who was then laid up at a house not far from ours. I had been in
+the habit of paying her constant visits, so she had an idea of what might
+happen, and I found her mother, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, with her. One word was
+enough to enlighten my aunt, who then said, "May I tell my mother?" I
+assented, and she said, "This child has come to tell me of her
+engagement." Whereupon Mrs. Kemble demanded, with a tragical air worthy of
+her aunt Mrs. Siddons, "And are you very happy, young lady?" I cheerfully
+answered, "Oh yes"--and she looked as if she were going to cry. My aunt
+said afterwards that any marriage reminded her of her own unfortunate
+venture. Aunt Fanny was much amused when I confided to her that finding
+immediate slumber difficult the first night of my engagement I secured it
+by attempting the longest sum which I could find in Colenso's arithmetic.
+My brothers and sisters accepted the news with mixed feelings--but poor
+little Cordelia, who had been left at Stoneleigh, was quite upset. I wrote
+her a letter in which I said that Lord Jersey should be her brother and
+she should be bridesmaid. The nurse told me that she burst into tears on
+receiving it and said that he should not be her brother, and not take away
+Markie. She quite relented when she saw him, because she said that he had
+nice smooth light hair like Rowly--and as time went on, she suggested that
+if Aggy would only "marry or die" she should be "head girl and hear the
+boys their lessons." As the youngest "boy" was seven years older than
+herself this may be regarded as an exceptional claim for woman's supremacy
+in her family.
+
+My future mother-in-law, Jersey's mother, and his brothers welcomed me
+most kindly. As for his sisters, Lady Julia Wombwell and Lady Caroline
+Jenkins, I cannot say enough of their unvarying friendship and affection.
+
+[Sidenote: MARRIED TO LORD JERSEY]
+
+I was engaged about the middle of July, and shortly we returned to
+Stoneleigh. My mother was terribly busy afterwards, as my brother Gilbert
+came of age on the first of September and the occasion was celebrated with
+great festivities, including a Tenants' Ball, when the old gateway was
+illuminated as it had been for the Queen's visit. The ivy, however, had
+grown so rapidly in the intervening years that an iron framework had to be
+made outside it to hold the little lamps. There was a very large family
+party in the house, and naturally my affairs increased the general
+excitement and I shared with my brother addresses and presentations. As my
+mother said--it could never happen to her again to have a son come of age
+and a daughter married in the same month. She was to have launched the
+_Lady Leigh_ lifeboat in the middle of September, but my sister was
+commissioned to do it instead--and we returned to Portman Square for final
+preparations. Like most girls under similar circumstances I lived in a
+whirl during those days, and my only clear recollections are signing
+Settlements (in happy ignorance of their contents) and weeping bitterly
+the night before the wedding at the idea of parting from my family, being
+particularly upset by my brother Dudley's floods of fraternal tears.
+However, we were all fairly composed when the day--September 19th, 1872,
+dawned--and I was safely married by my Uncle Jimmy at St. Thomas's Church,
+Orchard Street. It was not our parish, but we had a special licence as it
+was more convenient. My bridesmaids were my two sisters, Frances
+Adderley, one of the Cholmondeleys, Minna Finch (daughter of my father's
+cousin Lady Aylesford), and Julia Wombwell's eldest little girl
+Julia--afterwards Lady Dartrey.
+
+When all was over and farewells and congratulations ended, Jersey and I
+went down for a short honeymoon at Fonthill, which my grandmother lent us.
+So ended a happy girlhood--so began a happy married life. I do not say
+that either was free from shadows, but looking back my prevailing feeling
+is thankfulness--and what troubles I have had have been mostly of my own
+making.
+
+My father was so good--my mother so wise. One piece of advice she gave me
+might well be given to most young wives. "Do not think that because you
+have seen things done in a particular way that is the only right one." I
+cannot resist ending with a few sentences from a charming letter which
+Aunt Fanny wrote me when I went to Stoneleigh after my engagement:
+
+    "I have thought of you unceasingly and prayed earnestly for you. I
+    could not love you as I do, did I not believe that you were true and
+    good and noble--and on that, more than on anything else, do I rest my
+    faith for your future. Oh, Marky my darling child, _cling_ to the good
+    that is in you. Never be false to yourself. I see your little boat
+    starting out on the sea of life, anxiously and tremblingly--for I know
+    full well however smooth the water may be now there must come rocks in
+    everyone's life large enough to wreck one. Do you call to mind, dear,
+    how you almost wished for such rocks to battle against a little time
+    ago, wearying of the tame, even stream down which you were floating?
+    God be with you when you do meet them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY MARRIED LIFE
+
+
+It is more difficult to write at all consecutively of my married life than
+of my girlhood, as I have less by which I can date its episodes and more
+years to traverse--but I must record what I can in such order as can be
+contrived.
+
+We did not stay long at Fonthill, and after a night or two in London came
+straight to our Oxfordshire home--Middleton Park.
+
+My husband's grandfather and father had both died in the same month
+(October 1859) when he was a boy of fourteen. He was called "Grandison"
+for the three weeks which intervened between their deaths, having been
+George Villiers before, so when he returned again to Eton after his father
+died, the boys said that he came back each time with a fresh name. His
+grandmother, however, the well-known Sarah, Lady Jersey, continued to
+reign at Middleton, for the largest share of the family fortune belonged
+to her as heiress of her grandfather Mr. Child--and, I suppose, in
+recognition of all he had enjoyed of hers, her husband left her the use of
+the Welsh property and she alone had the means to keep up Middleton. She
+was very fond of my husband, but when she died, soon after he came of age
+and inherited the place, he did not care to make many changes, and though
+his mother paid lengthened visits she had never really been mistress of
+the house. Therefore I seemed to have come straight upon the traces of a
+bygone generation. Even the china boxes on my dressing-table and the
+blotters on the writing-tables were much as Lady Jersey had left them--and
+there were bits of needlework and letters in the drawers which brought her
+personally vividly before me. The fear and awe of her seemed to overhang
+the village, and the children were still supposed to go to the Infant
+School at two years old because she had thought it a suitable age. She had
+been great at education, had built or arranged schools in the various
+villages belonging to her, and had endowed a small training school for
+servants in connection with a Girls' School at Middleton. Naturally the
+care of that school and other similar matters fell to my province, and I
+sometimes felt, as I am sure other young women must have done under
+similar circumstances, that a good deal of wisdom was expected from me at
+an age which I should have considered hardly sufficient for a second
+housemaid. Some of the schools of that date must have been quaint enough.
+An old lame woman still had charge of the Infant School at the
+neighbouring hamlet of Caulcot, whom we soon moved into the Almshouses. In
+after years one of her former pupils told me that she was very good at
+teaching them Scripture and a little reading, but there was no question of
+writing. If the old lady had occasion to write a letter on her own account
+she used a knitting-needle as a pen while my informant held the paper
+steady. If a child was naughty she made him or her stand crouched under
+the table as a punishment. She never put on a dress unless she knew that
+Lady Jersey was at the Park, and then, she being crippled with rheumatism,
+her pupil had to stand on a chair to fasten it up, lest the great lady
+should pay a surprise visit.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD JERSEY'S MOTHER]
+
+Sarah, Lady Jersey, had a great dislike to any cutting down or even
+lopping of trees. She had done much towards enlarging and planting the
+Park, and doubtless trees were to her precious children. Therefore the
+agent and woodmen, who realised the necessity of a certain amount of
+judicious thinning, used to wait until she had taken periodical drives of
+inspection amongst the woods, and then exercised some discretion in their
+operations, trusting to trees having branched out afresh or to her having
+forgotten their exact condition before she came again.
+
+In one school, Somerton, I was amused to find a printed copy of
+regulations for the conduct of the children, including injunctions never
+to forget their benefactress. But she was really exceedingly good to the
+poor people on the property and thoughtful as to their individual
+requirements. One old woman near her other place, Upton, told me how she
+had heard of her death soon after receiving a present from her, and added,
+"I thought she went straight to heaven for sending me that petticoat!"
+Also she built good cottages for the villagers before the practice was as
+universal as it became later on. The only drawback was that she would at
+times insist on the building being carried on irrespective of the weather,
+with the result that they were not always as dry as they should have been.
+
+Lady Jersey was well known in the world, admired for her beauty and lively
+conversation, and no doubt often flattered for her wealth, but she left a
+good record of charity and duties fulfilled in her own home.
+
+As for her beautiful daughter Lady Clementina, she was locally regarded
+as an angel, and I have heard that when she died the villagers resented
+her having been buried next to her grandmother, Frances Lady Jersey, as
+they thought her much too good to lie next to the lady who had won the
+fleeting affections of George IV.
+
+I soon found home and occupation at Middleton, but I confess that after
+being accustomed to a large and cheerful family I found the days and
+particularly the autumn evenings rather lonely when my husband was out
+hunting, a sport to which he was much addicted in those days. However, we
+had several visitors of his family and mine, and went to Stoneleigh for
+Christmas, which was a great delight to me.
+
+Soon after we went abroad, as it was thought desirable after my chest
+attack of the previous winter that I should not spend all the cold weather
+in England. We spent some time at Cannes, and I fancy that it really did
+my husband at least as much good as myself--anyhow he found that it suited
+him so well that we returned on various occasions.
+
+Sir Robert Gerard was then a great promoter of parties to the Ile Ste
+Marguerite and elsewhere, and the Duc de Vallombrosa and the Duchesse de
+Luynes helped to make things lively.
+
+[Sidenote: IN LONDON]
+
+I will not, however, dwell on scenes well known to so many people, and
+only say that after a short excursion to Genoa and Turin we returned in
+the early spring, or at the end of winter, to superintend a good deal of
+work which was then being done to renovate some of the rooms at Middleton.
+At the beginning of May we moved to 7 Norfolk Crescent--a house which we
+had taken from Mr. Charles Fane of Child's Bank--and my eldest son was
+born there on June 2nd, 1873. He had come into the world unduly
+soon--before he was expected--and inconveniently selected Whit Monday
+when the shops were shut and we were unable to supply certain deficiencies
+in the preparations. Nevertheless he was extremely welcome, and though
+very small on his arrival he soon made up for whatever he lacked in size,
+and, as everyone who knows him will testify, he is certainly of stature
+sufficient to please the most exacting.
+
+[Illustration: THE LIBRARY, MIDDLETON PARK.]
+
+[Illustration: MIDDLETON PARK. _From photographs by the present Countess
+of Jersey._]
+
+My mother-in-law and her second husband, Mr. Brandling, were among our
+frequent visitors. Mr. Brandling had a long beard and a loud voice, and a
+way of flinging open the doors into the dining-room when he came in in the
+morning which was distinctly startling. Apart from these peculiarities he
+did not leave much mark in the world. He was very fond of reading, and I
+used to suggest to him that he might occupy himself in reviewing books,
+but I do not think that he had much power of concentration. My
+mother-in-law was tactful with him, but he had a decided temper,
+especially when he played whist. As I did not play, this did not affect
+me.
+
+My younger sister-in-law, Caroline, and I were great friends. She had
+married Mr. Jenkins, who was well known as a sportsman and an amiable,
+genial man. His chief claim to fame, apart from his knowledge of horses
+and their training, was an expedition which he had made to avenge his
+sister's death in Abyssinia. His sister had married a Mr. Powell and she
+and her husband had been murdered by natives when travelling in that
+country. Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Powell's brother went to Egypt, collected
+followers, went into the territory where the murder had taken place,
+burned the village which sheltered the aggressors, and had the chief
+culprits handed over to them for execution. It was said that the fact
+that a couple of Englishmen would not leave their relatives' death
+unavenged produced more effect than the whole Abyssinian expedition.
+
+[Sidenote: ISOLA BELLA, CANNES]
+
+The winter after my boy's birth Caroline lost hers, who was a few months
+older than mine, and was herself very ill, so we invited her and Mr.
+Jenkins to join us at Cannes, where we had this season taken a
+villa--Isola Bella. We were the first people who inhabited it. It has
+since been greatly enlarged and its gardens so extended that it is now one
+of the finest houses in the place. Even then it was very pretty and
+attractive, and we enjoyed ourselves greatly.
+
+There was a quaint clergyman at that time who had known Caroline when she
+had been sent as a girl to Hyeres, where he then ministered, and where he
+had been famous for a head of hair almost too bushy to admit of being
+covered by a hat. He was anxious to re-claim acquaintance, but though
+civil she was not effusive. He was noted for paying long visits when he
+got into anyone's house. I heard of one occasion on which his name was
+announced to a young lady who was talking to a man cousin whom she knew
+well. The youth on hearing the name exclaimed that he must hide, and crept
+under the sofa. The visitor stayed on and on till the young man could
+stand his cramped position no longer and suddenly appeared. The parson was
+quite unmoved and unmovable by the apparition of what he took to be a
+lover, and merely remarked "Don't mind me!"
+
+We found this house so charming that we sent our courier back to England
+to bring out our boy. My aunt, Lady Agnes, and her husband, Dr. Frank,
+with their baby girl, lived not far off--they had found Isola Bella for us
+and were pleasant neighbours. My husband, Caroline, and myself found
+additional occupation in Italian lessons from a fiery little patriot whose
+name I forget, but who had fought in the war against the Austrians. Among
+other things he had a lurid story about his mother whose secrets in the
+Confessional had been betrayed by a priest, resulting in the arrest and I
+believe death of a relative. After which though the lady continued her
+prayers she--not unnaturally--declined to make further confessions.
+
+Our sojourn on this visit to Cannes was further brightened by Conservative
+triumphs in the 1874 elections. We used to sit after breakfast on a stone
+terrace in front of the villa, Mr. Jenkins smoking and Jersey doing
+crochet as a pastime--being no smoker; and morning after morning the
+postman would appear with English papers bringing further tidings of
+success.
+
+The Jenkinses returned to England rather before ourselves--we travelled
+back towards the end of April in singularly hot weather, and when we
+reached Dover Jersey left me there for a few days to rest while he went
+back to Middleton. Unfortunately the journey, or something, had been too
+much for me, and a little girl, who only lived for a day, appeared before
+her time at the Lord Warden Hotel. It was a great disappointment, and I
+had a somewhat tedious month at the hotel before migrating to 12
+Gloucester Square--the house which we had taken for the season.
+
+I have no special recollections of that season, though I think that it was
+that year that I met Lord Beaconsfield at the Duke of Buccleuch's. It is,
+however, impossible to fix exactly the years in which one dined in
+particular places and met particular people, nor is it at all important.
+
+[Sidenote: OXFORDSHIRE NEIGHBOURS]
+
+I would rather summarise our life in the country, where we had garden
+parties, cricket matches, and lawn tennis matches at which we were able to
+entertain our neighbours. Now, alas! the whole generation who lived near
+Middleton in those days has almost passed away. Our nearest neighbours
+were Sir Henry and Lady Dashwood at Kirtlington Park with a family of sons
+and daughters; Lord Valentia, who lived with his mother, Mrs. Devereux,
+and her husband the General at Bletchington; and the Drakes--old Mrs.
+Drake and her daughters at Bignell. Sir Henry's family had long lived at
+Kirtlington, which is a fine house, originally built by the same
+architect--Smith, of Warwick--who built the new portion of Stoneleigh
+early in the eighteenth century. Sir Henry was a stalwart, pleasant man,
+and a convinced teetotaller. Later on than the year of which I speak the
+Dashwoods came over to see some theatricals at Middleton in which my
+brothers and sisters and some Cholmondeley cousins took part. After the
+performance they gave a pressing invitation to the performers to go over
+on a following day to luncheon or tea. A detachment went accordingly, and
+were treated with great hospitality but rather like strolling players.
+"Where do you act next?" and so on, till finally Sir Henry burst out:
+"What an amusing family yours is! Not only all of you act, but your uncle
+Mr. James Leigh gives temperance lectures!" Sir Henry's son, Sir George
+Dashwood, had a large family of which three gallant boys lost their lives
+in the Great War. To universal regret he was obliged to sell Kirtlington.
+It was bought by Lord Leven, whose brother and heir has in turn sold it to
+Mr. Budgett. Not long before I married, the then owner of another
+neighbouring place--Sir Algernon Peyton, M.F.H., of Swift's House, had
+died. Lord Valentia took the Bicester hounds which he had hunted, for a
+time, rented Swift's from his widow, and ultimately did the wisest thing
+by marrying her (1878) and installing her at Bletchington. They are really
+the only remaining family of my contemporaries surviving--and, though they
+have occasionally let it, they do live now in their own house. They had
+two sons and six daughters--great friends of my children. The eldest son
+was killed in the Great War.
+
+Another neighbour was a droll old man called Rochfort Clarke, who lived at
+a house outside Chesterton village with an old sister-in-law whose name I
+forget (I think Miss Byrom)--but his wife being dead he was deeply
+attached to her sister. Soon after our marriage he came to call, and
+afterwards wrote a letter to congratulate us on our happiness and to say
+that had it not been for the iniquitous law forbidding marriage with a
+deceased wife's sister we should have seen a picture of equal domestic
+felicity in him and Miss ----. He was very anxious to convert Irish Roman
+Catholics to the ultra-Protestant faith, and he interpreted the Second
+Commandment to forbid _all_ pictures of any sort or kind. None were
+allowed in his house. Once he wrote a letter to the papers to protest
+against the ritualism embodied in a picture in Chesterton Church--an
+extremely evangelical place where Moody and Sankey hymns prevailed. Later
+on the clergyman took me into the church to show me the offending idol. It
+consisted of a diminutive figure--as far as I could see of a man--in a
+very small window high up over the west door. The most appalling shock was
+inflicted upon him by a visit to the Exhibition of 1851, where various
+statuary was displayed including Gibson's "Tinted Venus." This impelled
+him to break into a song of protest of which I imperfectly recollect four
+lines to this effect:
+
+  "Tell me, Victoria, can that borrowed grace
+  Compare with Albert's manly form and face?
+  And tell me, Albert, can that shameless jest
+  Compare with thy Victoria _clothed and dressed_?"
+
+The sister-in-law died not long after I knew him, and he then married a
+respectable maid-servant whom he brought to see us dressed in brown silk
+and white gloves. Shortly afterwards he himself departed this life and the
+property was bought by the popular Bicester banker Mr. Tubb, who married
+Miss Stratton--a second cousin of mine--built a good house, from which
+pictures were not barred, and had four nice daughters.
+
+I cannot name all the neighbours, but should not omit the old Warden of
+Merton, Mr. Marsham, who lived with his wife and sons at Caversfield. The
+eldest son, Charles Marsham, who succeeded to the place after his death,
+was a great character well known in the hunting and cricket fields. He was
+a good fellow with a hot temper which sometimes caused trying scenes.
+Towards the end of his life he developed a passion for guessing Vanity
+Fair acrostics, and when he saw you instead of "How d'ye do?" he greeted
+you with "Can you remember what begins with D and ends with F?" or words
+to that effect. There was a famous occasion when, as he with several
+others from Middleton were driving to Meet, one of my young brothers
+suggested some solution at which he absolutely scoffed. When the hounds
+threw off, however, Charlie Marsham disappeared and missed a first-class
+run. It was ultimately discovered that he had slipped away to a telegraph
+office to send off a solution embodying my brother's suggestion!
+
+[Sidenote: CAVERSFIELD CHURCH]
+
+Caversfield Church was a small building of considerable antiquity standing
+very close to the Squire's house. The present Lord North, now an old man,
+has told me that long ago when he was Master of Hounds he passed close to
+this church out cub-hunting at a very early hour, when the sound of most
+beautiful singing came from the tower, heard not only by himself but by
+the huntsmen and whips who were with him--so beautiful that they paused to
+listen. Next time he met the clergyman, who was another Marsham son, he
+said to him, "What an early service you had in your church on such a day!"
+"I had no weekday service," replied Mr. Marsham, and professed entire
+ignorance of the "angelic choir." I have never discovered any tradition
+connected with Caversfield Church which should have induced angels to come
+and sing their morning anthem therein, but it is a pretty tale, and Lord
+North was convinced that he had heard this music.
+
+One thing is certain, the tiny agricultural parish of Caversfield could
+not have produced songsters to chant Matins while the world at large was
+yet wrapped in slumber.
+
+Thinking of Caversfield Church, I recollect attending a service there when
+the Bishop of Oxford (Mackarness, I believe) preached at its reopening
+after restoration. In the course of his sermon he remarked that there had
+been times when a congregation instead of thinking of the preservation and
+beautifying of the sacred building only considered how they should make
+themselves comfortable therein. This, as reported by the local
+representative, appeared in the Bicester paper as an episcopal comment
+that in former days people had neglected to make themselves comfortable in
+church. However, my old Archdeacon uncle-by-marriage, Lord Saye and Sele,
+who was a distinctly unconventional thinker, once remarked to my mother
+that he had always heard church compared to heaven, and as heaven was
+certainly the most comfortable place possible he did not see why church
+should not be made comfortable. The old family pew at Middleton Church had
+been reseated with benches to look more or less like the rest of the
+church before I married, but was still a little raised and separated by
+partitions from the rest of the congregation. Later on it was levelled and
+the partitions removed. From the point of view of "comfort," and apart
+from all other considerations, I do think that the square "Squire's
+Pew"--as it still exists at Stoneleigh--where the occupants sit facing
+each other--is _not_ an ideal arrangement.
+
+At Broughton Castle--the old Saye and Sele home--one of the bedrooms had a
+little window from which you could look down into the chapel belonging to
+the house without the effort of descending. Once when we stayed there and
+my mother was not dressed in time for Morning Prayers she adopted this
+method of sharing in the family devotions.
+
+Broughton Castle, and Lord North's place, Wroxton Abbey (now for sale) are
+both near Banbury, which is about thirteen miles from Middleton--nothing
+in the days of motors, but a more serious consideration when visits had to
+be made with horses.
+
+[Sidenote: LIFE AT MIDDLETON]
+
+Mr. Cecil Bourke was clergyman at Middleton when I married and had two
+very nice sisters, but he migrated to Reading about two years later, and
+was succeeded by the Rev. W. H. Draper, who has been there ever since. He
+is an excellent man who has had a good wife and eleven children. Mrs.
+Draper died lately, to the sorrow of her many friends. Some of the
+children have also gone, but others are doing good work in various parts
+of the Empire. Old Lord Strathnairn, of Mutiny fame, was once staying with
+us at Middleton. He was extremely deaf and apt to be two or three periods
+behind in the conversation. Someone mentioned leprosy and its causes at
+dinner, and after two or three remarks that subject was dropped, and
+another took its place, in which connection I observed that our
+clergyman's wife had eleven children. Lord Strathnairn, with his mind
+still on "leprousy," turned to me and in his usual courteous manner
+remarked, "It is not catching, I believe?"
+
+Among other neighbours were Mr. and Mrs. Hibbert at Bucknell Manor, who
+had six well-behaved little daughters whom, though they treated them
+kindly, they regarded as quite secondary to their only son. On the other
+hand, Mr. and Mrs. Dewar at Cotmore were perfectly good to their four
+sons, but the only daughter distinctly ruled the roost. Moral: if a boy
+baby has any choice he had better select a family of sisters in which to
+be born, and the contrary advice should be tendered to a female infant.
+
+To return to our own affairs. The little girl whom we lost in April 1874
+was replaced, to our great pleasure, by another little daughter born at
+Middleton, October 8th, 1875, and christened Margaret like the baby who
+lay beneath a white marble cross in the churchyard. The new little
+Margaret became and has remained a constant treasure. Villiers' first
+words were "Hammer, hammer," which he picked up from hearing the constant
+hammering at the tank in the new water-tower. He was very pleased with his
+sister, but a trifle jealous of the attentions paid her by his nurse. A
+rather quaint incident took place at the baby's christening. When
+Villiers was born, old Lord Bathurst, then aged eighty-two, asked to come
+and see him as he had known my husband's great-grandmother Frances, Lady
+Jersey (the admired of George IV), and wanted to see the fifth generation.
+We asked him to stay at Middleton for the little girl's christening, and
+after dinner to propose the baby's health.
+
+He asked her name, and when I told him "Margaret" he murmured, "What
+memories that brings back!" and fell into a reverie. When he rose for the
+toast he confided to the family that her great-grandmother on my
+side--Margarette, Lady Leigh--had been his first love and repeated,
+"Maggie Willes, Maggie Willes, how I remember her walking down the streets
+of Cirencester!" He was a wonderful man for falling in love--even when he
+was quite old he was always fascinated by the youngest available girl--but
+he died unmarried. Perhaps one love drove out the other before either had
+time to secure a firm footing in his heart.
+
+Lord Bathurst told me that when he was a middle-aged man and friend of the
+family Sarah Lady Jersey was very anxious to secure Prince Nicholas
+Esterhazy for her eldest daughter Sarah (a marriage which came off in due
+course). She had asked him to stay at Middleton, and it was generally
+believed that if he accepted the match would be arranged. Lord Bathurst in
+November 1841 was riding into Oxford when he met Lady Jersey driving
+thence to Middleton. She put her head out of the carriage and called to
+him, "We have got our Prince!" At that time the Queen was expecting her
+second child, and Lord Bathurst, more occupied with Her Majesty's hopes
+than with those of Lady Jersey, at once assumed that this meant a Prince
+of Wales, and rode rapidly on to announce the joyful tidings. These were
+almost immediately verified, and he gained credit for very early
+intelligence. He was a gallant old man, and despite his years climbed a
+fence when staying at Middleton. He died between two and three years
+later.
+
+On a visit to the Exeters at Burghley, near Stamford, we had met Mr. and
+Mrs. Finch of Burley-on-the-Hill, near Oakham, and they asked us to stay
+with them soon after little Margaret's birth. I mention this because it
+was here that I met Lady Galloway, who became my great friend, and with
+whom later on I shared many delightful experiences. She was a handsome and
+fascinating woman a few months younger than myself.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. DISRAELI]
+
+It was in this year, May 18th, 1875, that Disraeli wrote to Jersey
+offering him the appointment of Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen--saying, "I
+think, also, my selection would be pleasing to Her Majesty, as many
+members of your family have been connected with the Court." On May 28th he
+notified the Queen's approval. (It is rather quaint that the first letter
+begins "My dear Jersey"--the second "My dear Villiers." My husband was
+never called "Villiers," but Disraeli knew his grandfather and father, who
+were both so called.) Jersey used to answer for Local Government in the
+House of Lords. The Queen was always very kind to him, as she had known
+his grandmother so well, and told me once that Lady Clementina had been
+her playfellow. She was his godmother; she records it if I remember
+rightly in the Life of the Prince Consort, or anyhow in a letter or Diary
+of the period, and says there that she became godmother as a token of
+friendship to Sir Robert Peel--his mother's father. She declared to us
+that she had held him in her arms at his christening, and of course it was
+not for us to contradict Her Majesty: but I think that she officiated by
+proxy. She gave him two or three of her books in which she wrote his name
+as "Victor Alexander," and again we accepted the nomenclature. As a matter
+of fact he was "Victor Albert George" and always called "George" in the
+family. He had, however, the greatest respect and affection for his royal
+godmother, and valued her beautiful christening cup. As Lord-in-Waiting he
+had to attend the House of Lords when in session, and spoke
+occasionally--he always sat near his old friend Lord de Ros, who was a
+permanent Lord-in-Waiting.
+
+I used to go fairly often to the House during the years which followed his
+appointment and before we went to Australia, and heard many interesting
+debates. Jersey and I always considered the late Duke of Argyll and the
+late Lord Cranbrook as two of the finest orators in the House. The Duke
+was really splendid, and with his fine head and hair thrown back he looked
+the true Highland Chieftain. Several much less effective speakers would
+sometimes persist in addressing the House. I remember Lord Houghton
+exciting much laughter on one occasion when he said of some point in his
+speech "and that reminds me," he paused and repeated "and that reminds
+me," but the impromptu would not spring forth till he shook his head and
+pulled a slip of paper, on which it was carefully written, out of his
+waistcoat pocket.
+
+I was told, though I was not present, of a house-party of which the Duke
+of Argyll and Lord Houghton both formed part. One evening--Sunday evening,
+I believe--Lord Houghton offered to read to the assembled company
+Froude's account of the "Pilgrimage of Grace" in his _History of England_.
+Most of them seem to have submitted more or less cheerfully, but the Duke,
+becoming bored, retired into the background with a book which he had taken
+from the table. Just when Lord Houghton had reached the most thrilling
+part and had lowered his voice to give due emphasis to the narrative, the
+Duke, who had completely forgotten what was going on, threw down his book
+and exclaimed, "What an extraordinary character of Nebuchadnezzar!"
+Whereupon Lord Houghton in turn threw down Froude and in wrathful accents
+cried, "One must be a Duke and a Cabinet Minister to be guilty of such
+rudeness!"
+
+Froude was rather a friend of ours--a pleasant though slightly cynical
+man. I recollect him at Lady Derby's one evening saying that books were
+objectionable; all books ought to be burnt. I ventured to suggest that he
+had written various books which I had read with pleasure--why did he write
+them if such was his opinion? He shrugged his shoulders and remarked, "Il
+faut vivre." When Lady Derby told this afterwards to Lord Derby he said
+that I ought to have given the classic reply, "Je n'en vois pas la
+necessite," but perhaps this would have been going a little far.
+
+[Sidenote: FROUDE AND KINGSLEY]
+
+Froude and Kingsley were brothers-in-law, having married two Misses
+Grenfell. On one occasion the former was giving a Rectorial Address at St.
+Andrews and remarked on the untrustworthiness of clerical statements.
+About the same time Kingsley gave a discourse at Cambridge in which he
+quoted a paradox of Walpole's to the effect that whatever else is true,
+history is not. Some epigrammists thereupon perpetrated the following
+lines. I quote from memory:
+
+  "Froude informs the Scottish youth
+  Parsons seldom speak the truth;
+  While at Cambridge Kingsley cries
+  'History is a pack of lies!'
+  Whence these judgments so malign?
+  A little thought will solve the mystery.
+  For Froude thinks Kingsley a divine
+  And Kingsley goes to Froude for history."
+
+The Galloways when we first made their acquaintance lived at 17 Upper
+Grosvenor Street. In 1875 we occupied 17_a_ Great Cumberland Street--and
+in 1876 a nice house belonging to Mr. Bassett in Charles Street--but in
+1877 we bought 3 Great Stanhope Street, being rather tired of taking
+houses for the season. My second (surviving) daughter Mary was born here
+on May 26th--a beautiful baby, god-daughter to Lady Galloway and Julia
+Wombwell. My third and youngest daughter, Beatrice, was born at Folkestone
+October 12th, 1880, and the family was completed three years later by
+Arthur, born November 24th, 1883, to our great joy, as it endowed us with
+a second son just before his elder brother went to Mr. Chignell's
+school--Castlemount--at Dover.
+
+In the same month, but just before Arthur was born, our tenant at
+Osterley, the old Duchess of Cleveland (Caroline), died. She was a fine
+old lady and an excellent tenant, caring for the house as if it had been
+her own. She had most generous instincts, and once when part of the
+stonework round the roof of Osterley had been destroyed by a storm she
+wrote to my husband saying that she had placed a considerable sum with his
+bankers to aid in its restoration. This was unexpected and certainly
+unsolicited, which made it all the more acceptable. We should never have
+thought of disturbing her during her lifetime, and even when she died our
+first idea was to relet the place to a suitable tenant. I had never lived
+there (though we once slept for a night during the Duchess's tenure), so
+had no associations with, and had never realised, the beauty of, the
+place. However, after her death we thought we would give one garden-party
+before reletting, which we did in 1884. The day was perfect, and an
+unexpected number of guests arrived. We were fascinated with the place and
+decided to keep it as a "suburban" home instead of letting, and it became
+the joy of my life and a great pleasure to my husband.
+
+[Sidenote: JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL]
+
+I will speak of some of our guests later on, but I must first mention some
+of those whom we knew at Great Stanhope Street and Middleton during the
+earlier years of our married life. One of our great friends was the
+American Minister Mr. Lowell. Looking through some of his letters, I
+recall his perfect charm of manner in speaking and in writing. The
+simplest occurrence, such as changing the date of a dinner-party in 1882,
+gave him the opportunity of words which might have befitted a courtier of
+old days:
+
+    "Her Majesty--long life to her--has gone and appointed Saturday, June
+    3rd, to be born on. After sixty-three years to learn wisdom in, she
+    can do nothing better than take my Saturday away from me--for I must
+    go to drink her health at the Foreign Office! 'Tis enough to make a
+    democrat of any Tory that ever was except you. I have moved on my poor
+    little dinner to 5th. I can make no other combination in the near
+    future, what with Her Majesty's engagements and mine, but that. Can
+    you come then? Or is my table to lose its pearl? If you can't, I shall
+    make another specially for you."
+
+Before I knew Mr. Lowell personally I was introduced to his works by Mr.
+Tom Hughes ("Tom Brown" of the "Schooldays") who stayed with us at
+Middleton at the beginning of 1880 and gave me a copy of Lowell's poems
+carefully marked with those he preferred. Four years later in August
+Lowell stayed with us there. It was a real hot summer, and he wrote into
+Hughes' gift these verses which certainly make the volume doubly precious:
+
+  "Turbid from London's noise and smoke,
+  Here found I air and quiet too,
+  Air filtered through the beech and oak,
+  Quiet that nothing harsher broke
+  Than stockdoves' meditative coo.
+
+  "So I turn Tory for the nonce
+  And find the Radical a bore
+  Who cannot see (thick-witted dunce!)
+  That what was good for people once
+  Must be as good for evermore.
+
+  "Sun, sink no deeper down the sky,
+  Nature, ne'er leave this summer mood,
+  Breeze, loiter thus for ever by,
+  Stir the dead leaf or let it lie,
+  Since I am happy, all is good!"
+
+[Sidenote: T. HUGHES AND J. R. LOWELL]
+
+This poem was afterwards republished under the title "The Optimist" in a
+collection called _Heartsease and Rue_. Lowell added four additional
+stanzas between the first and the last two, elaborating the description
+and the underlying idea. I think, however, that the three original ones
+are the best, particularly the gentle hit at the "Tory"--with whom he
+loved to identify me. The "stockdoves" were the woodpigeons whose cooing
+on our lawn soothed and delighted him. Mr. Hughes told me that he had
+first made Mr. Lowell's acquaintance by correspondence, having written to
+him to express his admiration of one of his works. I have just discovered
+that in an Introduction to his Collected Works published 1891 Hughes says
+that Truebner asked him in 1859 to write a preface to the English edition
+of the _Biglow Papers_ which gave him the long-desired opportunity of
+writing to the author. He also told me--which he also describes in the
+Introduction--how nervous he was when about at last to meet his unknown
+friend lest he should not come up to the ideal which he had formed, and
+how overjoyed he was to find him even more delightful than his letters. In
+a fit of generosity Hughes, quite unasked, gave me a very interesting
+letter which Lowell wrote him on his appointment to England in 1880. It is
+a long letter, some of it dealing with private matters, but one passage
+may be transcribed:
+
+    "I have been rather amused with some of the comments of your press
+    that have been sent me. They almost seem to think I shall come in a
+    hostile spirit, because I have commented sharply on the pretension and
+    incompetence of one or two British bookmakers! It is also more than
+    hinted that I said bitter things about England during our war. Well, I
+    hope none of my commentators will ever have as good reason to be
+    bitter. It is only Englishmen who have the happy privilege of speaking
+    frankly about their neighbours, and only they who are never satisfied
+    unless an outsider likes England _better_ than his own country. Thank
+    God I have spoken my mind at home too, when it would have been far
+    more comfortable to hold my tongue. Had I felt less kindly toward
+    England, perhaps I shouldn't have been so bitter, if bitter I was."
+
+Mr. Hughes records, again in the Introduction, that Lowell said in one of
+his letters during the American War, "We are all as cross as terriers with
+your kind of neutrality"--but he rejoices in the gradual increasing
+warmth of his feeling for England as he grew to know her better during the
+last years of his life.
+
+While I knew him he was always most friendly, and it is pleasant to recall
+him sitting in the garden at Osterley on peaceful summer evenings enjoying
+specially that blue haze peculiar to the Valley of the Thames which
+softens without obscuring the gentle English landscape.
+
+One more letter, including a copy of verses, I cannot resist copying. In
+July 1887 he endowed me with Omar Khayyam, and some months later I
+received this--dated "At sea, 2nd November 1887":
+
+    "Some verses have been beating their wings against the walls of my
+    brain ever since I gave you the Omar Khayyam. I don't think they will
+    improve their feathers by doing it longer. So I have caught and caged
+    them on the next leaf that you may if you like paste them into the
+    book. With kindest regards to Lord Jersey and in the pleasant hope of
+    seeing you again in the spring,
+        Faithfully yours,
+            J. R. LOWELL."
+
+    "With a copy of Omar Khayyam.
+
+      "These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,
+      Each softly lucent as a rounded moon:
+      The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
+      Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
+
+      "Fit rosary for a queen in shape and hue
+      When Contemplation tells her pensive beads
+      Of mortal thoughts for ever old and new:
+      Fit for a queen? Why, surely then, for you!
+
+      "The moral? When Doubt's eddies toss and twirl
+      Faith's slender shallop 'neath our reeling feet,
+      Plunge! If you find not peace beneath the whirl,
+      Groping, you may at least bring back a pearl."
+
+He adds beneath the lines: "My pen has danced to the dancing of the
+ship."
+
+The verses (of course not the covering letter) appeared in _Heartsease and
+Rue_.
+
+Mr. Lowell stayed with us at Osterley in the two summers following his
+return. He died in America just before we went to Australia.
+
+We knew Robert Browning pretty well, and I recollect one interesting
+conversation which I had with him on death and immortality. Of the former
+he had the rather curious idea that the soul's last sojourn in the body
+was just between the eyebrows. He said that he had seen several people
+die, and that the last movement was there. I cannot think that a quiver of
+the forehead proves it. For immortality, he said that he had embodied his
+feelings in the "Old Pictures in Florence" in the lines ending "I have had
+troubles enough for one." No one, however, can read his poems without
+realising his faith in the hereafter.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. GLADSTONE ON IMMORTALITY]
+
+How diverse are the views of great men on this mystery! Lady Galloway
+wrote to me once from Knowsley of a talk she had had with Mr. Gladstone
+which I think worth recording in her own words:
+
+    "The theory of Mr. Gladstone's that mostly interested me last night
+    was--that every soul was not _of necessity immortal_--that all the
+    Christian faith of the immortality of the soul and resurrection of the
+    body was a new doctrine introduced and revealed by our Lord in whom
+    alone, maybe, we receive _immortal life_. This he only _suggests_, you
+    understand--does not lay it down--but I don't think I have quite
+    grasped his idea of the mystery of death, which as far as I can
+    understand he thinks Man would not have been subject to but for the
+    Fall--not that Death did not exist before the Fall--but that it would
+    have been a different kind of thing. In fact that the connection
+    between Sin and Death meant that you lost immortality thro' Sin and
+    gained it thro' Christ."
+
+I might as well insert here part of a letter from Edwin Arnold, author of
+_The Light of Asia_, which he wrote me in January 1885 after reading an
+article which I had perpetrated in _The National Review_ on Buddhism. I
+had not known him previously, but he did me the honour to profess interest
+in my crude efforts and to regret what he considered a misconception of
+Gautama's fundamental idea. He continues:
+
+    "I remember more than one passage which seemed to show that you
+    considered _Nirvana_ to be annihilation; and the aim and _summum
+    bonum_ of the Buddhist to escape existence finally and utterly. Permit
+    me to invite you not to adopt this view too decidedly in spite of the
+    vast authority of men like Max Mueller, Rhys David, and others. My own
+    studies (which I am far from ranking with theirs, in regard of
+    industry and learning) convince me that it was, in every case, _the
+    embodied life_; _life_ as we know it and endure it, which Gautama
+    desired to be for ever done with.... I believe that when St. Paul
+    writes 'the things not seen are eternal,' he had attained much such a
+    height of insight and foresight as Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. I even
+    fancy that when Professor Tyndall lectures on the light-rays which are
+    invisible to our eyes, and the cosmical sounds which are inaudible to
+    ears of flesh and blood, he _approaches_ by a physical path the
+    confines of that infinite and enduring life of which Orientals dreamed
+    metaphysically."
+
+After this Mr. Arnold--afterwards Sir Edwin--became numbered among our
+friends, and was very kind in giving us introductions when we went to
+India, as I will record later.
+
+[Sidenote: THOUGHT-READING]
+
+Meantime I may mention a quaint bit of palmistry or thought-reading
+connected with him. We had a friend, Augusta Webb of Newstead, now Mrs.
+Fraser, who was an expert in this line. She was calling on me one day
+when I mentioned casually that I had met Mr. Arnold, whose _Light of Asia_
+she greatly admired. She expressed a great wish to meet him, so I said,
+"He is coming to dine this evening--you had better come also." She
+accepted with enthusiasm. He sat next to me, and to please her I put her
+on his other side. In the course of dinner something was said about
+favourite flowers, and I exclaimed, "Augusta, tell Mr. Arnold his
+favourite flower." She looked at his hand and said without hesitation, "I
+don't know its name, but I think it is a white flower rather like a rose
+and with a very strong scent." He remarked, astonished, "I wish I had
+written it down beforehand to show how right you are. It is an Indian
+flower." (I forget the name, which he said he had mentioned in _The Light
+of Asia_), "white and strong-smelling and something like a tuberose." It
+is impossible that Augusta could have known beforehand. Her sister told me
+later that she did occasionally perceive a person's thought and that this
+was one of the instances.
+
+To return to Thomas Hughes, who originally gave me Lowell's poems. He was
+an enthusiast and most conscientious. On the occasion when, as I said
+before, he stayed at Middleton he promised to tell my boy Villiers--then
+six and a half years old--a story. Having been prevented from doing so, he
+sent the story by post, carefully written out with this charming letter:
+
+    "_February 1st, 1880._
+
+    "MY DEAR LITTLE MAN,
+
+    "I was quite sorry this morning when you said to me, as we were going
+    away, 'Ah, but you have never told me about the King of the Cats, as
+    you promised.' I was always taught when I was a little fellow, smaller
+    than you, that I must never 'run word,' even if it cost me my knife
+    with three blades and a tweezer, or my ivory dog-whistle, which were
+    the two most precious things I had in the world. And my father and
+    mother not only told me that I must never 'run word,' for they knew
+    that boys are apt to forget what they are only told, but they never
+    'ran word' with me, which was a much surer way to fix what they told
+    me in my head; because boys find it hard to forget what they see the
+    old folk that they love do day by day.
+
+    "So I have tried all my long life never to 'run word,' and as I said I
+    would tell you the story about Rodilardus the King of the Cats, and as
+    I can't tell it you by word of mouth because you are down there in the
+    bright sunshine at Middleton, and I am up here in foggy old London, I
+    must tell it you in this way, though I am not sure that you will be
+    able to make it all out. I know you can read, for I heard you read the
+    psalm at prayers this morning very well; only as Mama was reading out
+    of the same book over your shoulder, perhaps you heard what she said,
+    and that helped you a little to keep up with all the rest of us. But a
+    boy may be able to read his psalms in his prayer book and yet not able
+    to read a long piece of writing like this, though I am making it as
+    clear as I can. So if you cannot make it all out you must just take it
+    off to Mama and get her to look over your shoulder and tell you what
+    it is all about. Well then, you know what I told you was, that I used
+    to think that some people could get to understand what cats said to
+    one another, and to wish very much that I could make out their talk
+    myself. But all this time I have never been able to make out a word of
+    it, and do not now think that anybody can. Only I am quite sure that
+    any boy or man who is fond of cats, and tries to make out what they
+    mean, and what they want, will learn a great many things that will
+    help to make him kind and wise. And when you asked me why I used to
+    think that I could learn cat-talk I said I would tell you that story
+    about the King of the Cats which was told to me when I was a very
+    little fellow about your age. And so here it is."
+
+The story itself is a variant, very picturesquely and graphically told, of
+an old folk-tale, which I think appears in Grimm, of a cat who,
+overhearing an account given by a human being of the imposing funeral of
+one of his race, exclaims, "Then I am King of the Cats!" and disappears up
+the chimney.
+
+[Sidenote: TOM HUGHES AND RUGBY, TENNESSEE]
+
+Tom Hughes, at the time of his visit to Middleton, was very keen about the
+town which he proposed to found on some kind of Christian-socialist
+principles, to be called "New Rugby," in Tennessee. It was to have one
+church, to be used by the various denominations, and to be what is now
+called "Pussyfoot." What happened about the church I know not, but I have
+heard as regards the teetotalism that drinks were buried by traders just
+outside the sacred boundaries and dug up secretly by the townsmen. Anyhow,
+I fear that the well-meant project resulted in a heavy loss to poor
+Hughes. I recollect that Lord Galloway's servant suggested that he would
+like to accompany Mr. Hughes to the States--"and I would valet you, sir."
+Hughes repudiated all idea of valeting, but was willing to accept the man
+as a comrade. All he got by his democratic offer was that the man told the
+other servants that Mr. Hughes did not understand real English
+aristocracy. Which reminds me of a pleasing definition given by the Matron
+of our Village Training School for Servants of the much-discussed word
+"gentleman." She told me one day that her sister had asked for one of our
+girls as servant. As we generally sent them to rather superior situations,
+I hesitated, though I did not like to refuse straight off, and asked,
+"What is your brother-in-law?" "He is a gentleman," was the answer.
+Observing that I looked somewhat surprised, the Matron hastened to add,
+"You see, my sister keeps a temperance hotel, and in such a case the
+husband does not work, only cleans the windows and boots and so on."
+Whereby I gather that not to work for regular wages is the hall-mark of a
+gentleman! But a girl was not provided for the place.
+
+I believe that Henry James was first introduced to us by Mr. Lowell, and
+became a frequent visitor afterwards. He was an intimate friend of my
+uncle the Dean of Hereford and of his mother-in-law Mrs. Kemble.
+
+Under the name of Summersoft he gives a delightful description of Osterley
+in his novel _The Lesson of the Master_. "It all went together and spoke
+in one voice--a rich English voice of the early part of the eighteenth
+century." The Gallery he calls "a cheerful upholstered avenue into the
+other century."
+
+[Sidenote: CARDINAL NEWMAN]
+
+One dinner at Norfolk House lingers specially in my memory; it was in the
+summer of 1880 and was to meet Dr. Newman not long after he had been
+promoted to the dignity of Cardinal--an honour which many people
+considered overdue. A large party was assembled and stood in a circle
+ready to receive the new "Prince of the Church," who was conducted into
+the room by the Duke. As soon as he entered a somewhat ancient lady, Mrs.
+W-- H--, who was a convert to "the Faith," went forward and grovelled
+before him on her knees, kissing his hand with much effusion, and I fancy
+embarrassing His Eminence considerably. My aunt, the Duchess of
+Westminster, who was very handsome but by no means slim, was standing next
+to me and whispered, "Margaret, shall we have to do that? because I should
+never be able to get up again!" However, none of the Roman Catholics
+present seemed to consider such extreme genuflections necessary. I think
+they made some reasonable kind of curtsy as he was taken round, and then
+we went in to dinner. Somewhat to my surprise and certainly to my
+pleasure, I found myself seated next to the Cardinal and found him very
+attractive. I asked him whether the "Gerontius" of the poem was a real
+person, and he smiled and said "No," but I think he was pleased that I had
+read it. I never met him again, but in October 1882 I was greatly
+surprised to receive a book with this charming letter written from
+Birmingham:
+
+    "MADAM,
+
+    "I have but one reason for venturing, as I do, to ask your Ladyship's
+    acceptance of a volume upon the Russian Church which I am publishing,
+    the work of a dear friend now no more. That reason is the desire I
+    feel of expressing in some way my sense of your kindness to me two
+    years ago, when I had the honour of meeting you at Norfolk House, and
+    the little probability there is, at my age, of my having any other
+    opportunity of doing so.
+
+    "I trust you will accept this explanation, and am
+
+        "Your Ladyship's faithful servant,
+            "JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN."
+
+The book was _Notes of a Visit to the Russian Church_ by Lord Selborne's
+brother, Mr. W. Palmer, edited and with a Preface by Cardinal Newman. I
+have never been able to understand what he considered my kindness, as I
+thought the Great Man so kind to me, a young female heretic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BERLIN AND THE JUBILEE OF 1887
+
+
+I find it difficult to recall all our foreign travels. In 1876 I
+paid--with my husband--my first visit to Switzerland, and three years
+later we went again--this time making the doubtful experiment of taking
+with us Villiers aged six and Margaret (called Markie) aged three. Somehow
+we conveyed these infants over glaciers and mountains to various places,
+including Zermatt. We contrived a sort of awning over a _chaise a
+porteurs_ carried by guides--but they did a good bit of walking also. I
+was really terrified on one occasion when we drove in a kind of dog-cart
+down precipitous roads along the edge of precipices. The children sat on
+either side of me--their little legs too short to reach the floor of the
+carriage. I had an arm round either, feeling--I believe justly--that if I
+let go for a moment the child would be flung into space. Jersey was
+walking--the maid, I suppose, with courier and luggage--anyhow I had sole
+responsibility for the time being. Our courier was excellent, and no
+matter where we arrived contrived to produce a rice-pudding on which the
+children insisted. It is unnecessary to describe the well-known scenes
+through which we passed. Switzerland impressed me, as it does all
+travellers, with its grandeur and beauty--but I never loved it as I did
+the South and, later on, the East.
+
+[Sidenote: SARAH BERNHARDT]
+
+Another winter we went--after Christmas--with Villiers only--to Biarritz;
+again I did not think it southern enough in sky and vegetation to rival
+the Riviera, though the pinewoods, and great billows rolling in from the
+sea, were attractive. Soon afterwards we embarked in a governess--a clever
+young woman called Ada Mason, who was recommended by Lady Derby. She had
+been a show pupil at the Liverpool Girls' College, and before we engaged
+her permanently she went to complete her French education in Paris. She
+stayed with us till she married in Australia. In March 1883 we took
+Villiers, Markie, and Miss Mason to the Riviera, Florence, and Venice. I
+do not know that there is anything exceptional to record. I observe in a
+short journal which I kept on this occasion that Jersey and I while in
+Paris went to the Vaudeville to see Sarah Bernhardt in _Fedora_. My
+comment is: "She acted wonderfully but I did not think much of the play.
+The great coup was supposed to be when the hero gave her a bang on the
+head, but as that used to make the ladies faint he contented himself with
+partially throttling her when we saw it." I suppose French ladies are more
+susceptible than English. Once in after years I went with a friend to see
+the divine Sarah in _La Tosca_. I thought the torture part horrid enough,
+but when La Tosca had killed the wicked Governor my companion observed
+plaintively, "We did not see any blood," as if it were not sufficiently
+realistic.
+
+On this same journey abroad we visited, as on various other occasions, the
+Ile St. Honorat and Ste Marguerite, a picnic party being given on the
+former by Lord Abercromby and Mr. Savile. The Duchesse de Vallombrosa
+brought Marshal McMahon, and special interest was excited on this occasion
+since Bazaine had lately escaped from what had been formerly the prison
+of the Masque de Fer. Jersey went with some of the party to Ste
+Marguerite, and Marshal McMahon told Mr. Savile that he did not connive at
+Bazaine's escape, but that Madame Bazaine came to him and asked when he
+would let her husband out. He replied, "In six years, or six months, if he
+is a _bon garcon_"; so she went out saying, "Then I shall know what to
+do," and slammed the door after her, with the evident purpose of unlocking
+another door, which she accomplished.
+
+Marshal McMahon must have been a fine fellow, but hardly possessed of
+French readiness of speech if this story which I have heard of him is
+true. He was to review the Cadets at a Military College--St. Cyr, I
+think--and was begged beforehand to say a special word of encouragement to
+a young Algerian who was in training there. When it came to the point the
+only happy remark which occurred to him was, "Ah--vous etes le negre--eh
+bien continuez le!"
+
+From Cannes we went to several other places, including Spezzia, Genoa,
+Venice, and Florence. We saw all the orthodox sights in each place and at
+Florence dined with Mr. John Meyer and his first wife, who, if I remember
+rightly, was a Fitzgerald. He was in the exceptional position of having no
+nationality--he was somehow connected with Germany and Russia (not to
+speak of Judaea) and had been in South America and Switzerland. He had been
+a Russian, but had lost that nationality as having been twenty-five years
+absent from that country. He wanted to become an Englishman, as his wife
+wanted to send her boy to school in England, but it would mean a
+lengthened residence or a private Act of Parliament costing L3,000. In the
+end the nice Mrs. Meyer who entertained us on this occasion died, and he
+bought an Italian Marquisate and turned into an Italian! He married as his
+second wife a beautiful Miss Fish, and I last saw them in their charming
+villa near Florence.
+
+The Meyers were pleasant hosts, and it was at the dinner which I have
+mentioned that I first made the acquaintance of a telephone. They had
+asked some people to come in after dinner, and to show how the instrument
+worked telephoned to invite an additional guest. I never encountered a
+telephone at a private house in London till long afterwards.
+
+Our younger children, Mary and Beatrice, stayed during our absence at our
+little Welsh home--Baglan House, near Briton Ferry--a place which all our
+children loved.
+
+[Sidenote: DEATH OF GILBERT LEIGH]
+
+In 1884 a great sorrow befell our family. My brother Gilbert, then M.P.
+for South Warwickshire, went in August of that year to America with Mr. W.
+H. Grenfell--now Lord Desborough--with the object of getting some
+bear-shooting in the Rockies. Towards the end of the month they began
+camping--but the hunting was not good, as Indians had previously driven
+the part of the country which they visited with the view of getting game
+for their side. Mr. Grenfell's journal records frost at the end of August
+and heavy snow on the night of September 1st. On September 12th they
+pitched a camp in the Big Horn Mountains on a charming spot close to a
+clear, rocky river with trees and high walls on either side. On Sunday the
+14th, a boiling hot day, they had an hour's wash in the river, and after
+luncheon Gillie started off down the Ten Sleeper canyon alone on his
+horse--he was never seen alive again. For a whole week Mr. Grenfell and
+the three men whom they had with them searched in every possible
+direction, and at last, on the 21st, they found my brother lying dead at
+the foot of a precipice from which he had evidently fallen and been
+instantaneously killed--"a terrible way," writes Mr. Grenfell, "to find a
+friend who had endeared himself to all--always cheery and ready to make
+the best of everything--nothing put him out"--"his simplicity, absence of
+self-assertion, and quaint humour made him a general favourite--whatever
+happened he never complained and did not know what fear was."
+
+The news did not reach England till some three days later, and it is
+impossible to dwell on the terrible sorrow of all who loved him so dearly.
+My brother Dudley was mercifully in the States at the time of the fatal
+accident, and my uncle James Leigh set off at once to bring the body home;
+but the long wait--till October 20th--was unspeakably trying most of all
+for my poor parents, who were broken-hearted. My mother put a bunch of
+white rosebuds on his coffin, for when a little boy he had said one day
+that his "idea of love was a bunch of roses."
+
+I will only add her verses on her firstborn son:
+
+  "He is gone, and gone for ever,
+  'Coming home again' now never--
+  If 'tis cold he feels it not,
+  Recks not if 'tis scorching hot,
+  But by children circled round
+  Roams the happy hunting-ground,
+  Pure in heart and face as they,
+  Gladsome in God's glorious day.
+
+  "If I see him once again
+  Will he tell me of his pain?
+  Did he shout or cry or call
+  When he saw that he must fall?
+  Feel one pang of mortal fear
+  When the fatal plunge was near?
+  Or to the last--to fear a stranger--
+  Think to triumph over danger?
+
+  "I think so--on his marble face
+  Fright and terror left no trace--
+  Still--as if at Stoneleigh sleeping,
+  There he lay--all the weeping
+  Broke in streams from other eyes
+          Far away.
+  But to him come not again
+  Cold or heat or grief or pain."
+
+Gilly was truly "to fear a stranger." He had, as Mr. Grenfell recounts,
+been six times before to the Rocky Mountain country and always had
+extraordinary adventures--once he rode his horse along a ledge till he
+could neither go forward nor turn, and had to slip over its tail and climb
+out, leaving the animal to shift for itself. Two cowboys roped and got the
+saddle and bridle off and left the horse, which somehow backed out and got
+down without injury.
+
+[Sidenote: IN ITALY, 1884]
+
+Earlier in the year 1884 Jersey, Lady Galloway, and I made a pleasant tour
+among the Italian Lakes, including a run to Milan for Easter Sunday, where
+we heard some of the splendid service in the Cathedral. We took with us
+Villiers, his last trip abroad before his regular schooldays. He had
+attended Miss Woodman's classes during two or three London seasons, and
+had had a visiting tutor from Oxford--Mr. Angel Smith--for the past year
+or so at Middleton; but on May 1st, after our return from the Lakes, he
+went to Mr. Chignell's, Castlemount, Dover, where he remained till he went
+to Eton three years later. He had an unvaryingly good record both for the
+lessons and conduct while at Castlemount.
+
+I have no special recollection of the two following years, so pass on to
+1887. That winter Lady Galloway was in Russia and was to stay in Berlin
+with the Ambassador, Sir Edward Malet, and his wife, Lady Ermyntrude, on
+her return. The Malets very kindly invited me to meet her and to spend a
+few days at the Embassy. I arrived there on February 21st, and found Lady
+Galloway and her sister-in-law Lady Isabel Stewart already installed. The
+following afternoon the routine of German court etiquette--now a thing of
+the past--began. Lady Ermyntrude took us to leave cards on the various
+members of the Corps Diplomatique and then proceeded to present Mrs.
+Talbot (now Lady Talbot) and myself to Graefin Perponcher, the Empress's
+Obermeisterin. She was a funny old soul in a wig, but regarded as next
+door to royalty, and it was therefore correct to make half a curtsy when
+introduced to her. It was a great thing to have anyone so kind, and yet so
+absolutely aware of all the shades of ceremonial, as Lady Ermyntrude, to
+steer us through the Teutonic pitfalls.
+
+[Sidenote: COURT BALL IN BERLIN]
+
+In the evening we were taken to the Carnival Court Ball, where we stood in
+a row behind Lady Ermyntrude to be presented to the Crown Prince and
+Princess as they came round. The Diplomatic people were on the left of the
+royal seats. The Weisser Saal was lighted partly with candles and partly
+with electric lights; one felt that either one or the other would have had
+a better effect, but no doubt that was all rectified in later years. We
+were presently taken into an outer room or gallery to be presented to the
+Empress Augusta, who was seated in a chair with a sort of Stonehenge of
+chairs in front. She was attired in what appeared to be royal robes heavy
+with gold embroidery and gigantic diamonds, but she looked almost like a
+resurrected corpse, except that her eyes were still large and wonderfully
+bright and glittering as if they had little torches behind them. I fancy
+that she had some preparation of belladonna dropped into them on these
+occasions. Her mouth was always a little open, giving the impression that
+she wanted to speak but could not; really, however, she talked fast
+enough, and was very gracious in sending messages to my grandmother
+Westminster. After our presentation we had to sit in Stonehenge for a few
+minutes. We had heard that when the Empress was a girl, her governess
+would place her in front of a circle of chairs, and make her go round and
+address a polite remark to each. We recognised the utility of the practice
+as Her Majesty made a neat little sentence to each of the circle seated
+before her this evening. Sir Edward and Lady Ermyntrude went home early,
+as they were in mourning, but when we tried to go in to supper with the
+Embassy Staff, we were seized on by Count Eulenberg and told to go into
+the royal supper-room. The Crown Prince and Princess came and talked to us
+very kindly, but I could not help thinking the latter rather indiscreet,
+as when I made a futile remark as to the fine sight presented by the
+Palace she returned, "A finer sight at Buckingham Palace," then, lowering
+her voice, "and prettier faces!" True enough, but a little risky addressed
+to a stranger with possible eavesdroppers.
+
+The old Emperor William was not at this ball, as he was not well
+enough--which distressed him, as he liked society; but two days later we
+were invited to a small concert at his own Palace. When we had made our
+curtsies to the Empress she desired that we should go round and be
+presented to His Majesty. I had been told previously that he was
+interested in the idea of seeing me, as he had been a great friend of my
+grandmother Westminster and they used to interchange presents on their
+birthdays. When we were taken up to him Graefin Perponcher reminded him of
+Jersey's grandmother and Lady Clementina Villiers, but he immediately
+asked if I were not also related to Lady Westminster. When I said that I
+was her granddaughter he asked, "Et etes-vous toujours en relation avec
+elle?" and on hearing that I wrote to her charged me with messages which
+she was afterwards very pleased to receive.
+
+During the singing we sat round little tables covered with red velvet
+table-covers, which seemed a funny arrangement, as it meant that some of
+the audience had their backs to the performers. There were five
+which--joining each other--ran down the centre of the room. The Empress
+sat at the head of the end one, and the Crown Princess presided at a round
+one in the middle of the room, at which Lady Galloway and I were seated.
+Princess Victoria (afterwards Schaumburg Lippe) sat between us--we found
+her lively, though not pretty. When the performance was over the Emperor
+came and talked to us again; he seemed very cheerful, though he put his
+hand on the back of a chair for, as he said, "un petit appui"! I told him
+that I had been with the crowd to see him when he looked out at the
+soldiers as he did every morning. "Quoi, Madame, vous avez fait la
+curieuse?" he said, and proceeded to tell us that he was now "devenu la
+mode," though formerly no one came to look at him. Finally some supper was
+brought and put on the tables where we had been sitting.
+
+[Sidenote: THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK]
+
+The following day we were invited to breakfast (or rather 12.30 luncheon)
+with the Crown Prince and Princess--only their three unmarried daughters
+besides Lady Galloway, Lady Isabel, and myself. The Crown Prince was a
+most fascinating man and particularly impressed us by his devotion to his
+wife, having even consulted a lady dentist by her desire! The three
+Princesses each had in front of her place at table a large collection of
+little silver objects given them on their respective birthdays. The
+parents again reverted to my grandmother, and on hearing of her immense
+number of children and grandchildren the Prince remarked, "What a number
+of birthday presents that must mean!"--which amused me, as with all
+grandmamma's kindness to me personally, she was far from troubling about
+the identity of all her grandchildren--life would not have been long
+enough.
+
+The Princess talked much of the hospitals at Berlin, and of her trouble in
+introducing anything like decent nursing into them. She said when she
+first married a Children's Ward would be shut up at night without any
+nurse whatever in charge, and several children found dead in the morning.
+I believe she did great things for the hospitals, but fear that discretion
+was not always the better part of her valour, and that she more than once
+gave offence by comparison with the superior method in England. After
+luncheon the Princesses departed and the parents took us through their own
+rooms, which were very pretty and comfortable. When we reached her Studio
+the Crown Princess did not want to take us in, as she said she must go off
+to see Princess William (the late ex-Kaiserin), but the Prince said, "You
+go, I shall take them"--for he was determined that we should see, and duly
+admire, his wife's artistic talents. We saw the Crown Princess again in
+the evening at the theatre, as she sent for Lady Galloway and me into her
+box and put Mary through a searching catechism about Russia.
+
+Saturday 26th till the following Tuesday we spent at Dresden, which we
+greatly admired. We saw the Galleries and Museums, and attended a Wagner
+opera--_Siegfried_; but I need not record sights and sentiments shared
+with so many other travellers. I had some experience at Dresden of the
+dangers of "Verboten." I ventured out for a short time alone and felt the
+risk of being arrested at least twice--once for walking on the wrong side
+of the bridge, once for standing in the wrong place in the principal
+church. I committed a third crime, but forget its nature.
+
+Two evenings after our return to Berlin we were invited to another royal
+concert, and on this occasion I sat at Prince William's table quite
+unconscious that he would be hereafter England's greatest foe! What
+impressed me most about him was the way in which he asked questions.
+Someone told him that I held a position in the Primrose League, and he at
+once wanted to know all about it. The impression left on my mind was that
+he thought that it brought women too prominently forward.
+
+Next day we visited the various palaces at Potsdam--the Crown Princess had
+kindly sent word to her gardener Mr. Walker, to meet us, and he proved an
+amiable and efficient guide. At the Stadt Schloss Frederick the Great's
+bedroom, with a silver balustrade, was being prepared for the baptism of
+Prince William's fourth son. We had been warned at the Embassy that this
+expedition would be one of difficulty if not of danger, but we
+accomplished all successfully save our return from the Wild Park Station
+at Berlin. Of course this was before the days of motors, so our journey to
+and from Potsdam was by train, and somehow we missed the Embassy carriage
+at the station. Innocently we took a fly, but at the Embassy it was
+discovered that this was a _second-class_ fly, which was considered a most
+disreputable proceeding. We had not known the various categories of Berlin
+vehicles.
+
+[Sidenote: PRINCE BISMARCK]
+
+We had one real piece of good fortune, due to Herbert Bismarck, whom we
+had known in England and met several times at Berlin. His father had not
+been present at the opening of the Reichstag which we attended, so we had
+asked Herbert if he were likely to speak on any following day, for we were
+anxious to see him and he did not often appear at entertainments or
+such-like gatherings.
+
+Herbert promised to let us know, but he did better, for he coached his
+mother what to do should we call, and Lady Ermyntrude took us to see the
+Princess on Saturday afternoon. Princess Bismarck was most gracious, said
+Herbert had asked every day if we had called; he was devoted to England
+and to his collection of photographs of English ladies, which he expected
+her to distinguish one from the other.
+
+[Sidenote: CONVERSATION WITH BISMARCK]
+
+Her sister, Countess Arnim, was also in the room. When we had been talking
+with them for a few minutes the Princess rang, and beckoned to the servant
+who answered to come close that she might whisper. Lady Galloway overheard
+her say in German, "Tell the Prince that the English ladies are here."
+After a short interval an inner door opened slowly, and the tall form of
+the Chancellor appeared. We all jumped up as the Princess announced "Mon
+Mari." He shook hands with Lady Ermyntrude, who introduced us each in
+turn. Hearing that Lady Galloway was "la soeur de Lord Salisbury," he was
+anxious to investigate whether she resembled him in face, but decided not
+very much, as "Lord Salisbury avait les traits tres masculins and le
+visage plus carre," which he emphasised rather in action than in words.
+Mary had to sit on one side of him facing the light in order that he might
+the better make these comparisons. I was at the end of a sofa on his other
+hand. Lady Galloway then remarked that he had been very kind to her nephew
+Lord Edward Cecil, who had been in Berlin in the spring of the previous
+year. Curiously enough, though he had had him to dinner, he did not seem
+to remember him, though he perfectly recollected Lord Cranborne, who had
+been with his father at the time of the Congress. Being informed that Lord
+Edward had been abroad in order to study German, he asked, "Eh bien,
+a-t-il eu de succes?" and remarked that German was a difficult language
+but less so for the English than for some other people, and that while the
+English often spoke French more fluently they grasped the German
+construction better as being more akin to their own. Mary agreed, saying
+we were of the same race, whereupon he politely thanked her for having
+recalled and acknowledged the fact. I then remarked that it had been
+suggested that he wished to change "les caracteres allemands," meaning the
+letters. He misunderstood me to mean the characters of the people, and
+said that he should hardly be capable of that, but added: "On m'accuse
+d'avoir change une nation de poetes en nation de politiques militaires,
+mais c'est parce que nous avons ete si longtemps l'enclume qu'il fallait
+le faire. Il faut toujours etre l'enclume ou le marteau, maintenant nous
+sommes le marteau. Nous etions l'enclume jusqu'a Leipzig et Waterloo." I
+suggested that at Waterloo "nous etions deux marteaux," and he answered,
+bowing, "J'espere que nous les serons encore ensemble." Little did he or I
+look on twenty-seven years! Bismarck then asked for the English of
+"enclume"--"car je ne suis pas forgeron," and when we told him he said
+that he only knew "l'anglais pour voyager, le russe pour la chasse et le
+francais pour les affaires," and went on to speak of his son, who, as we
+all agreed, knew English so well. Like the Princess, he said that Count
+Herbert was much attached to our country, and added that if he continued
+to do well and "si je peux guider sa destinee j'ai l'intention qu'il aille
+quelque jour en Angleterre": meantime he thought that Count Hatzfeldt was
+getting on all right. Lady Galloway said that he was very popular.
+Bismarck considered that he did better as Ambassador than in affairs at
+home, as though he could work well he lacked the power of sticking to his
+work. I then referred to Mr. Deichmann, a country neighbour of ours who
+had built a house near Bicester and married a Miss de Bunsen, widow of
+another German, who had been his friend. Mr. (afterwards Baron) Deichmann
+and his wife were undoubtedly friends (or henchmen?) of the Bismarcks, and
+Mr. Deichmann was very proud of a tankard which the Prince had given him.
+"He gave me a very good horse," returned the Prince, when I mentioned
+this, and described him as "bon enfant." In the light of after experience
+I feel sure that the Deichmanns were employed to report to the Prince on
+social matters in England and particularly in diplomatic circles. I do not
+at all mean that they were anti-English, but that they were "utilised."
+They were very intimate friends of the Muensters, and somehow kept in with
+the Crown Princess and her family, although the Princess certainly did not
+love Bismarck! I well recollect a dinner which (in years later than that
+of our interview with the great man) the Deichmanns gave at their house
+in London to reconcile the French and German Embassies. What had been the
+exact cause of friction I do not know, but the _ostensible_ one was that
+the then Ambassadress, Madame Waddington, had not worn mourning when some
+German princelet died. Anyhow, Madame Deichmann had Madame Waddington to
+dinner, and Marie Muenster to a party afterwards, and they were made to
+shake hands and be friends. It was clever of Madame Deichmann, and she
+well deserved the title of Baroness afterwards conferred upon her.
+However, I am not altogether sure that Bismarck appreciated the reference
+to his friends on this occasion--he may not have wished to be thought too
+intimate! He did not resent it though, and when we rose to take leave gave
+Lady Galloway many messages for Lord Salisbury, hoping to see him again in
+Germany or when he, Bismarck, came to England, which he seemed to regard
+as quite on the cards. He also asked Lady Ermyntrude affectionately after
+Sir Edward, whom he thought looking rather unwell when he last saw him,
+though quite himself again when he became excited.
+
+[Sidenote: BISMARCK AND LORD SALISBURY]
+
+Just as we were going away the Prince asked if we would like to see the
+room where the Congress had been held. Of course we were delighted, so
+that he took us in and showed us where they all sat, Lord Beaconsfield on
+his right hand, and Lord Salisbury, as he particularly pointed out to Lady
+Galloway, just round the corner. Then Gortschakoff, who, he said, did not
+take much part, next Schouvaloff, on whom the work fell, but he added in
+English, "Lord Salisbury _squeezed_ him." And there, he said, pointing to
+the other side of the table, "sat the victim of the Congress, the Turk."
+So little impression had the victim made upon him that he could not even
+remember his name--he thought, however, that it was Mehemet--Mehemet
+something--at last Princess Bismarck helped him out--Mehemet Ali. I
+believe the head Turk was Karatheodori Pasha, but presume that he was a
+nonentity; at all events neither Prince nor Princess Bismarck referred to
+him. Bismarck rather apologised for the bareness of the room, a fine,
+large, long apartment, and wished that he were equal to giving balls in
+it--this, with Emperor William's desire to go to balls, gave a cheerful
+impression of these old men.
+
+Little did we then realise what our feelings with regard to Germany would
+be twenty-seven years later! Though I feel ashamed now of the impression
+made upon me by Prince Bismarck, I cannot help recording that I was
+foolish enough to write some verses comparing him to Thor, the
+Scandinavian war-god, with his hammer and anvil, and to add them to my
+account of our interview.
+
+After our return to England Lord Salisbury told Lady Galloway that he
+should like to see this account, and when I met him again he said to me
+with great amusement, "So you have seen Thor?"
+
+Prince Bismarck had an undoubted admiration for Lord Salisbury. Not long
+after Sir Edward Malet's appointment to Berlin poor Lady Ermyntrude had a
+child who did not survive its birth. She was very ill. Some little time
+afterwards her father, the Duke of Bedford, told me that she had been very
+anxious to come over to England to be with her parents for her
+confinement. This was arranged, and then Sir Edward, anxious about her
+health, wanted to join her. He did not know whether he could rightfully
+leave his diplomatic duties, but Bismarck reassured him, telling him that
+so long as Lord Salisbury was in power he need have no apprehension as to
+the relations between England and the German Empire.
+
+I confess also to having been fascinated by the Crown Prince--afterwards
+the Emperor Frederick; but he was not in the least like a Prussian--he was
+like a very gentle knight. Poor man! He had already begun to suffer from
+the fatal malady to his throat. The last time I spoke with him he came
+into the box in which we were sitting at the theatre and said, "I cannot
+talk to you much, my throat is so bad."
+
+The next event which made a great impression on me in common with every
+other subject of the British Empire was the first Jubilee of Queen
+Victoria. Its excitements, its glories, have been told over and over
+again, but no one who did not live through it can grasp the thrill which
+ran from end to end of the nation, and no one who did live through it can
+pass it on to others. The Queen became a tradition while yet alive. When
+ten thousand children from the elementary schools were entertained in Hyde
+Park the proceedings concluded by the release of a balloon bearing the
+word "Victoria." As it ascended one child was heard gravely explaining to
+another that "that was the Queen going up to Heaven." A man (or woman)
+wrote to the paper that in the evening he had observed that the sunset
+colours had formed themselves into a distinct arrangement of red, white,
+and blue! I chanced the week before the Jubilee celebrations to express to
+a girl in a shop a hope for fine weather. In a tone of rebuke she replied,
+"Of course it will be fine: it is for the Queen!"--a sentiment more
+poetically expressed by the French Ambassador Baron de Courcel, who said
+to me on one rather doubtful day in the week preceding the Diamond
+Jubilee, "Le bon Dieu nettoie les cieux pour la Reine!" This confidence
+was fully justified: the weather was glorious. When traffic was stopped in
+the main thoroughfares, and all streets and houses had their usual
+dinginess hidden in glowing decorations, London looked like a fairy
+city--a fitting regal background for an imperial apotheosis--only
+perchance excelled by the Diamond Jubilee ten years later. "Mother's come
+home," I heard a stalwart policeman say on the day when the Queen arrived
+in Buckingham Palace. That was just it--Mother had come back to her joyous
+children.
+
+[Sidenote: THANKSGIVING SERVICE]
+
+The Dowager Lady Ampthill, one of her ladies-in-waiting, recounted an
+incident which I do not think appeared in any of the papers. When the
+royal train was coming down from Scotland Lady Ampthill awoke in the early
+summer dawn, and looked out of the carriage in which she had been
+sleeping. The world was not yet awake, but as the train rushed through the
+country amongst fields and meadows she was astonished to see numbers of
+men and women standing apparently silently gazing--simply waiting to see
+the passing of the Great Queen to her Jubilee. Perhaps the climax was the
+Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey.
+
+I cannot refrain from inserting here my mother's lines describing the
+final scene on that occasion:
+
+  "It was an hour of triumph, for a nation
+    Had gathered round the Monarch of their pride;
+  All that a people held of great or lovely,
+    The wise, the world-renowned, stood side by side.
+
+  "Lands famed in story sent their Kings and chieftains,
+    Isles scarcely recked of came our Queen to greet,
+  Princesses lent the tribute of their beauty,
+    And laid the flowers of welcome at her feet.
+
+  "The organs pealed, the trumpets gave their challenge,
+    A stormy shout of gladness rent the air,
+  All eyes beamed welcome, and all hearts bowed with her
+    When low she bent her royal head in prayer.
+
+  "She bent amid a haughty nation, knowing
+    No sun e'er set upon its widespread towers,
+  Though right and good had deemed that day the lion
+    To sheath its claws and robe itself in flowers.
+
+  "When Caesar kept high holiday, when Rome
+    Called forth her maidens to fill hours of ease,
+  Pale warriors darkly met in bloody ring
+    Or some Numidian giant died to please.
+
+  "But in that hour supreme when all eyes turned
+    Upon the Queen's kind face and gestures mild,
+  Bright tears unbidden rose, stern bosoms heaved,
+    They saw her stoop--she stooped to kiss her child.
+
+  "Children and children's children passed before her,
+    Each one 'fair History's mark' with stately grace;
+  Mother of many nations, Queen and Empress,
+    She drew them each within her fond embrace.
+
+  "Symbolic kiss--it spoke of early birthdays,
+    When little hearts had swelled with little joys,
+  It told of kisses given and counsels tender
+    To graceful maidens and to princely boys;
+
+  "Of fond caresses given in days of gladness
+    When Hope was young and blue the skies above,
+  Of kisses interchanged in hours of sorrow
+    When all seemed shattered save the bonds of love.
+
+  "And of that hour of dutiful surrender
+    Of hearts to Him who gives to Kings to be,
+  The memory of those kisses grave and tender
+    Shall knit our hearts, Victoria, still to thee.
+
+  "Sceptres outlasting long the hands that held them,
+    Thrones that have seated dynasties may fall:
+  Love never dies, his chain is linked to heaven,
+    The Lord, the friend, the comforter of all.
+
+  "Yes! of those hours so joyous and so glorious
+    When the tall fires prolonged the festal day,
+  The memory of those kisses gently given
+    Shall be the dearest we shall bear away."
+
+On July 2nd I recollect Lord and Lady Lathom coming to spend a Sunday with
+us at Osterley. He was then Lord Chamberlain--and the poor man seemed
+utterly exhausted by the strain of the Jubilee festivities though very
+happy at their success. He spoke among other things of the quaint
+applications which he had received for permission to attend the service at
+the Abbey. Amongst others he had one from a lady who said that if she did
+not obtain a seat a large class would be unrepresented--namely, the class
+of Old Maids. I think she had one. Even people like my father not
+connected with the Court were pestered to "use influence"--one lady wrote
+to him to try and get seats for herself and her father, and wanted them
+near the preacher as "papa was very deaf."
+
+[Sidenote: TRIALS OF COURT OFFICIALS]
+
+Lord Mount Edgcumbe--then Lord Steward--once told me of a trying
+experience which he had in connection with the Jubilee. There was a great
+banquet at Windsor and he had to order the seating of the guests, who
+included various foreign royalties. As is well known in dealing with
+foreigners the order in which they sit is far more important than the
+precedence in which they walk into the banqueting hall--if you put two
+princes or dignitaries one on the right, the other on the left of the
+table, and both are about equally important, you must take care to put the
+left-hand man one higher up at the table than the guest on the right.
+Well, Lord Mount Edgcumbe had ordered this feast of some thirty or forty
+notabilities or more to complete satisfaction, and had gone to his room
+to attire himself in all the glory of a High Steward. Just as he was
+getting into his breeches a message was brought him that two more German
+princelets had arrived who had to be included in the party. Poor man! he
+had to hasten to complete his toilet and to rush down and rearrange the
+whole table.
+
+Talking of German etiquette (I don't know how far it survives the fall of
+the Hohenzollerns), we had a most eccentric Teutonic specimen at Osterley
+that Jubilee summer. Our kind hostess at Berlin--Lady Ermyntrude
+Malet--introduced to us, by letter, a certain Count Seierstorpff--so we
+asked him to spend Whitsuntide. We had various other guests, including the
+Kintores and Lord and Lady Maud Wolmer (now Lord and Lady Selborne) and
+Lady Maud's sister, Lady Gwendolen Cecil. Count Seierstorpff's one form of
+conversation was to catechise everybody as to the rank of the company--how
+far they were "ebenbuertig." This culminated in his asking me what Lady
+Maud would be if Lord Wolmer were to die! I told Lord Wolmer this, and he
+said, "Couldn't you tell him that of two sisters in the house, both
+equally eligible, one is unmarried!"
+
+When on Whit-Monday we drove to see Ham House he kept jumping up on the
+seat of the landau in which he went with some of the party to inspect the
+surrounding country--spying, I suppose--and when we were sitting outside
+the house after dinner he suddenly disappeared and was found to have
+rushed wildly right round a portion of the grounds. Many years
+afterwards--1913, I believe--Jersey and I met him again at Cannes. He had
+grown into a fat, truculent Prussian, and had married a pleasant American
+wife. Poor people! After the War I asked what became of them. He and his
+two sons were killed in the War--she had lost money and relations by the
+sinking of the _Lusitania_--had gone mad and was in an asylum. I only
+wonder that _he_ had not gone mad, but suppose there was method in his
+Osterley madness.
+
+[Sidenote: THE NAVAL REVIEW]
+
+The last festivity in which I took part that summer was the Jubilee Naval
+Review at Spithead. Jersey went by invitation of the P. and O. Company on
+a ship of their fleet--the _Rome_ if I recollect rightly--but Lady
+Galloway and I with her stepfather Lord Derby were invited from Friday,
+July 22nd, for the Review on Saturday and to spend Sunday on board the
+_Mirror_, one of Sir John Pender's electric-cable ships. I never shared in
+a more amusing party. There was great confusion with the luggage at
+Waterloo. I think most people lost something. Lady Galloway and I each had
+two small boxes and each lost one, but it did not matter, as we were able
+to supplement each other's remaining articles. Sir William Russell the
+journalist lost all his luggage, but it was said that he invariably did
+so, and he did not seem to mind at all. Lord Wolseley, Lord Alcester, Lord
+Lymington (afterwards Portsmouth), and Sir William Des Voeux, who had been
+Governor of Fiji, Lady Tweeddale, and Countess Marie Muenster were among
+the guests, and our kind host did everything to make us happy. The
+_Mirror_, like the other unofficial ships, remained stationary during the
+Review, but Lady Galloway and I persuaded the Chairman, Sir John Pender,
+and the Captain to let a boat take us to the House of Lords ship, the
+_Euphrates_, for which we had tickets, and which was to follow the Queen's
+Yacht, the _Victoria and Albert_, down the lines. It was a magnificent
+sight. I will not attempt to describe it, as it has been far better
+recorded than any words of mine could achieve. One thing, however, I may
+note. The then biggest and finest ships were like rather ugly floating
+forts, and all, or almost all, different from each other. The graceful old
+men-of-war with long lines and pointed bows were considered obsolete. Ten
+years later when there was a Review for the second Jubilee all was changed
+again. I do not mean that the naval architects had reverted to the old
+models, but the general effect was a return to the old lines, and the
+fortress ships, almost sunk under the sea, had disappeared. Also they were
+later on built in classes, so that their fittings were interchangeable and
+the engineers from one ship could be easily transferred to another.
+
+To return to our personal experiences. The rest of the party had remained
+on the _Mirror_, and I rather fancy some of them got a little bored, as
+their time was less exciting than ours. Anyhow, one or two of the men
+became exceedingly anxious for our return as the dinner-hour approached,
+as of course the boat could not fetch us off from the _Euphrates_ till all
+the proceedings were over and the coast clear. We were told when we did
+get back, which I do not think was unduly late, that Lord Alcester had
+expressed a somewhat uncomplimentary opinion of women, emphasised with a
+capital D! However, everyone enjoyed the illumination of the ships, and
+particularly the searchlights--then somewhat of a novelty and in which the
+_Mirror_ specially distinguished herself. On Sunday morning our Chairman,
+Sir John Pender, was very properly anxious that his guests should enjoy
+"religious privileges"; and as everyone was content that he should have
+service on board instead of putting us on shore, it was arranged
+accordingly. There was a distinct rivalry as to who should officiate. We
+had not a Bishop nor even one of the lesser lights of the Church among our
+otherwise representative company--the Captain evidently considered that
+under these circumstances he was the proper person to read prayers, and he
+produced prayer-books--I suppose that they were provided by the Electric
+Company--and Sir John distinctly held that as Chairman it was for him,
+although a Nonconformist, to conduct the Anglican devotions--so he began.
+The Captain determined anyhow to act as prompter. They got on all
+right--till Sir John, a little man, stood up to read the First Lesson.
+This unfortunately began, "And Satan stood up"--still more unfortunately
+it appeared that it was the wrong lesson, and the Captain ruthlessly
+pulled him down. Nevertheless we somehow reached a happy conclusion.
+
+In the afternoon some of us, including Lord Derby, were offered a choice
+of cruising about among the ships or going over to see Lord and Lady De La
+Warr at a little house they had somewhere on the coast called Inchmery. We
+chose the latter, and were sent in a tug called the _Undaunted_. I tried
+to immortalise the expedition in a so-called poem of which I only quote a
+few verses--needless to say Lord Derby was the hero:
+
+  "There was an Earl--a noble Earl
+    Who would a sailor be,
+  And therefore asked two kindly dames
+    To take him out to sea....
+
+      *       *       *       *
+
+  "We've often heard of Inchmery,
+    Its charms and crabs are vaunted;
+  Bring round the tug and cast her off,
+    That splendid tug _Undaunted_!
+
+  "The splendid tug sailed fast and far,
+    She bore as fair a band
+  As ever dared the heaving deep
+    And sighed to gain the land.
+
+  "She bore our Only General,
+    Whose prowess must be granted,
+  For he can always go to sleep
+    And always wake when wanted.
+
+  "A great Colonial Governor
+    Who would have ruled the main,
+  Only emotions swelled his breast
+    Which he could not restrain."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As to the above, Lord Wolseley explained to us that he shared a
+characteristic with Napoleon and I rather think Wellington--namely, that
+he could always go to sleep in a minute when he so desired, and wake with
+equal celerity. He exemplified this by retiring into the little cabin of
+the launch when the waves became somewhat restive, and fell fast asleep
+immediately, seated on a bench. The poor Colonial Governor, Sir William
+Des Voeux, was less happy--he had to lie prostrate at the bottom of the
+launch during the short transit until we landed.
+
+The De La Warrs gave us an excellent tea, and we then strolled among the
+rocks on the shore, where it was supposed that the great Lord Derby wanted
+to find crabs:
+
+  "The time speeds on--and now at length,
+    By new-born terrors haunted,
+  Soldier and sage demand the tug--
+    'Where is the good _Undaunted_'?
+
+  "What object meets their straining eyes,
+    From aid and rescue far?
+  Dauntless perhaps, but useless quite,
+    She's stranded on the bar.
+
+  "The Captain smiles, 'It wasn't I,'
+    The General's out of reach,
+  The noble Earl sits down to play
+    Aunt Sally on the beach."
+
+It was a fine sight to see Lord Derby (uncle of the present Lord Derby),
+regarded by most people as an exceptionally solemn statesman, sitting
+tranquilly on the shore throwing stones--a sort of ducks and drakes--into
+the sea--quite unmoved by the tug's disaster.
+
+However, Lord De La Warr came to the rescue with a launch which took us
+safely back to the _Mirror_--minus Sir William, who had found the tug
+quite bad enough and declined to trust himself to the launch. He remained
+for the night at Inchmery, and I presume, like the rest of us, found his
+way back to London next day.
+
+[Sidenote: KNOWSLEY]
+
+The Lord Derby of this expedition was a great friend of mine. His wife,
+formerly Lady Salisbury, was Lady Galloway's mother, and I originally met
+her staying at Galloway House--after which she invited us several times to
+Knowsley. I think my first visit there was in 1879 when we met the
+Leckys--afterwards great friends--and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lowe (afterwards
+Lord Sherbrooke). He was an albino and chiefly remembered for his abortive
+attempt to tax matches, giving rise to the joke "ex luce lucellum." She
+was, I believe, a very good-natured woman, but it was funny to see the
+result of her excessive flow of conversation. She would begin with a
+circle round her, and person after person would gradually steal away,
+leaving her at length with only one victim whom amiability or good manners
+forbade to depart.
+
+I well recollect that Lady Derby won my heart on this occasion by coming
+to the front door to meet us on arrival, under the evident impression
+that as a young woman I might be shy coming to a very large house among
+those, including my host, who were mostly strangers. I dare say that I
+might have survived the shock, but I was much struck with the courtesy and
+thoughtfulness of a woman old enough to be my mother, and it was one of
+the first lessons, of which I have had many in life, of the great effect
+of the manner in which people originally receive their guests.
+
+Lady Derby was a remarkable woman in many ways. Her heart was first in her
+husband and children and then in politics. She could never take a
+lightsome view of life and let it carry her along. She always wished to
+manage and direct it. Her motives were invariably excellent, but
+occasionally things might have gone better had she taken less trouble
+about them. She did great things for her children, who adored her, but
+even with them it might sometimes have been well had their lives been left
+a little more to their own discretion. She was kindness itself to me, and
+I used greatly to enjoy going to Derby House, then in St. James's Square,
+where she was always at home to her particular friends at tea-time and
+where one always had the chance of meeting interesting people.
+
+[Sidenote: APOTHEOSIS OF THE QUEEN]
+
+To conclude my recollections of the Jubilee. I think that it was in the
+autumn of 1887, and not after the Diamond Jubilee, that we were staying
+with Lord and Lady Muncaster at their beautiful home in Cumberland. We
+went to the local church and an Archdeacon was preaching for some Society
+which involved a plea for missionary effort. He spoke to this effect (of
+course these are not the exact words): "There are black men, brown men,
+red men, and yellow men in the British Empire. We must not despise any of
+them, for we are all children of one Great----" I naturally expected
+"Father," but he added "Mother"! So far had Queen Victoria advanced in the
+tutelary rank! I was told after her death that the Tibetans had adopted
+her as a protecting deity--and that they attributed the invasion of their
+country to the fact that she had died, as we had never disturbed them in
+her lifetime. I record later on how natives in Madras did "poojah" to her
+statue, offering coconuts and such like tribute--but the Indians also did
+"poojah" to a steam-engine when they first saw it, so perhaps this was not
+an extraordinary token of reverence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GHOST STORIES AND TRAVELS IN GREECE
+
+
+To go a little back in recollections of the eighties one of our friends
+was Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor in 1868 and again from 1874 till, I
+believe, his death. Once when I was sitting near him at dinner, we were
+discussing ghost stories. He said that without giving them general
+credence he was impressed by one which had been told him by the wife of
+the Prussian Minister, Madame Bernstorff. (I think, though am not sure,
+that Bernstorff was Minister before there was a German Embassy.) The story
+was, briefly, that a man in Berlin had a dream, thrice repeated, in which
+a comrade appeared to him and said that he had been murdered, and that his
+dead body was being carried out of the city, covered with straw, by a
+certain gate. The man roused himself, told the police, the body was duly
+found and the murderers arrested. "Well," said I, "I think I have read
+that story in Dryden, and believe he took it from Chaucer." Sure enough I
+found the tale in "The Cock and the Fox," Dryden's modernised version of
+Chaucer's "Tale of the Nun's Priest"--but the amusing thing is that Dryden
+says,
+
+  "An ancient author, equal with the best,
+  Relates this tale of dreams among the rest"--
+
+and a note explains that the "ancient author" was Cicero, from whose
+treatise, _De Divinatione_, the story was taken. I sent the book to Lord
+Cairns, who answered (June 25th, 1883): "It is Madame Bernstorff's story
+to the letter! It was most kind of you to send it to me, and it is a fresh
+proof that there is nothing new under the sun! The 'catena' of
+Cicero--Chaucer--Dryden--Bernstorff is very amusing."
+
+[Sidenote: LORD HALSBURY'S GHOST STORY]
+
+Being a Lord Chancellor does not render a man immune from belief in
+ghosts. I have more than once heard the late Lord Halsbury relate his
+adventure in this line. As a young man he went to stay with a friend, who
+put him up for the night. After he had gone to bed, a figure entered his
+room, and taking it to be his host he spoke to it, but it made no reply
+and left as silently as it entered. At breakfast next morning he said to
+the master of the house--I suppose jokingly--"If you did come in my room
+last night I think you might have answered when I spoke to you." Both his
+hosts looked embarrassed, and then his friend said, "Well, to tell you the
+truth, that room is considered to be haunted; but it is our best room, and
+my wife thought that a hard-headed lawyer would not be liable to be
+disturbed, so we put you there." Mr. Giffard, as, Lord Halsbury then was,
+left without further incident, but some time after, meeting his friend
+again, he said, "Well, how's your ghost getting on?" "Oh, my dear fellow,"
+was the reply, "don't talk of my ghost. My aunt came to stay with me and
+we put her into that room. The ghost came in and tried to get into her
+bed, and she will never speak to me again!"
+
+Lord Halsbury also had a story about a ghost who haunted his brother's
+house in London. I think it was a little old woman, I cannot remember the
+details, but he certainly seemed to believe in it.
+
+Talking of dreams and apparitions, though I cannot remember the
+year--probably in the early nineties--I recollect a rather amusing
+instance of the explosion of one of such stories when thoroughly sifted.
+Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Knowles told me one day that the great object
+of Myers and Gurney and the founders of the Psychical Society was to
+obtain evidence of a genuine apparition seen by _two_ witnesses who would
+both bear such testimony as would stand cross-examination by a barrister.
+This was most sensible, as one person may honestly believe in an
+appearance, which may be an hallucination caused by circumstances, and
+affected by his own mental or bodily condition, but it is hardly possible
+that such conditions will enable two people to see the same spirit at the
+same moment unless it should actually appear. Mr. Knowles said that at
+last the Psychical Society had found a well-authenticated story in which
+two thoroughly credible witnesses had seen the ghost, and this was to come
+out in the forthcoming number of _The Nineteenth Century_.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GHOSTLY REPORTER]
+
+The witnesses were an English judge and his wife; to the best of my
+recollection they were Sir Edmund and Lady Hornby, and the scene of the
+apparition Shanghai. Anyhow, I perfectly recollect the story, which was as
+follows. The judge had been trying a case during the day, and he and his
+wife had retired to bed when a man (European, not native) entered their
+bedroom. They were much annoyed by this intrusion and asked what he
+wanted. He replied that he was a reporter who had been in court, but had
+been obliged to leave before the conclusion of the trial, and was
+extremely anxious that the judge should tell him what the verdict was that
+he might complete the report for his paper. The judge, to get rid of him,
+gave some answer that satisfied him, and the man departed. Next day the
+judge learnt that a reporter had been present who was taken ill and died
+before the conclusion of the trial, and he was convinced that this was his
+ghostly visitor. The weak point, said Mr. Knowles, was that the narrators
+would not allow themselves to be cross-examined by a barrister. They were
+very old, and nervous about the publication of the story in print, and the
+thought of cross-examination was quite too much for them. However, Mr.
+Knowles and the other investigators were fully satisfied as to their bona
+fides, and the tale duly appeared in an article in the Review. No sooner
+was it published than various people wrote pointing out that it was all a
+misapprehension. There had been no reporter who had suddenly died on the
+occasion specified, and various other details were disproved by officials
+and others who had been at the place at the time when the judge was by way
+of having presided over the trial and seen the ghost. (Sir Edmund was a
+judge of the Supreme Court of China and Japan.) Mr. Knowles came again and
+said, "There you see!" The story when subjected to the light of publicity
+fell to the ground. No doubt something had put the germ into the old
+people's heads and it had blossomed in the course of years.
+
+To return for a minute to the year 1887. In that year my husband was
+appointed Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire--an appointment which he held
+until his death. This is referred to in the following verses by Mr. Lionel
+Ashley, younger son of the great Lord Shaftesbury and a friend of my
+husband's and mine of long standing. Lady Galloway and I used to call him
+"the Bard," as he was fond of making verses about us. I insert these
+because they give such a happy idea of one of Osterley Saturday-to-Monday
+parties. They are dated June 19th, 1887, which I see by our Visitors' List
+was the Sunday.
+
+  "In a cot may be found, I have heard the remark,
+    More delight than in Castles with pillars.
+  But we find in the Palace of Osterley Park,
+    All the charms of suburban Villiers.
+
+  "A Sunday in Osterley Gardens and Halls,
+    That's a day to look on to and after.
+  Its pleasures my memory fondly recalls,
+    And the talk, with its wisdom and laughter.
+
+  "In a nice little church a grave sermon we heard,
+    Which reproved Christianity flabby,
+  And urged that in heaven a place be preferred
+    To a Jubilee seat in the Abbey.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "The Irish question, in masterly way,
+    Mr. Lowell made easy and clear.
+  We must make them content, without further delay,
+    But the method was not his affair.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Of the Queen's new Lieutenant, with pleasure we hail
+    The appointment, for now 'tis a mercy,
+  From cold shoulders in Oxfordshire never will fail
+    To protect her a glorious Jersey.
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Then may everyone of th' illustrious Brood
+    Learn to make the same excellent stand his own,
+  That not only the names, but the qualities good
+    May descend to each 'Child' and each 'Grandison.'"
+
+The last line was rather prophetic, as there was no "Grandison" apart from
+the family's Irish title at the time of writing. My husband, as already
+mentioned, bore the name for the three weeks between his grandfather's and
+father's death, but our elder son was always Villiers. Now _his_ son is
+Grandison and I think bids fair to inherit the "qualities good" of his
+grandfather--he could not do better.
+
+[Sidenote: A JUBILEE SERMON]
+
+The "nice little church" was that at Norwood Green, and the sermon,
+preached by a rather eccentric Irish clergyman, informed us that he had
+been studying history and found that in the days of George III's Jubilee
+"there was an old king and a ma-ad king. How would you have liked that?"
+And he continued to tell us of the death at that period of Sir John Moore
+commemorated by an Irish clergyman who "two years later was translated to
+the Kingdom of Heaven, for which his Irish curacy had so well prepared
+him."
+
+In addition to those above named by Mr. Ashley, we had staying with us
+Lord Rowton, Lord and Lady Galloway, Lady Lytton and her daughter Betty,
+Col. Charles Edgcumbe, my sister Cordelia, and my brother-in-law Reginald
+Villiers, to whom my husband was greatly attached. It is very pleasant to
+recall those happy days, but sad to think how few that shared them are
+left!
+
+I turn from our Osterley parties for the time being to record a most
+amusing journey which Lady Galloway and I made to Greece in 1888. Lord
+Jersey could not make up his mind to start with us, though we had hopes
+(which proved vain) that he might join us later. Our families were
+somewhat excited on learning our intention, as the recollection of the
+Marathon brigands who captured poor Mr. Vyner and the Muncasters still
+coloured the popular ideas of Greece.
+
+Our husbands, however, were--fortunately--confident in our own powers of
+taking care of ourselves. Lord Jersey calmly remarked, "If you are
+captured Galloway and I will come with an army to rescue you." Mr. Ashley,
+less trustful of the future, insisted on presenting each of us with a
+small revolver and box of cartridges. I forget what Mary did with hers,
+but my one object was to conceal the weapon from possible brigands. I
+regarded them rather like wasps, who are supposed not to sting if you let
+them alone, but I was certain that if I tried to shoot I should miss, and
+then they might be annoyed and I should suffer. I had to take the
+revolver, but I hid the cartridges in my luggage and put the weapon where
+it would not be seen.
+
+We were not absolutely certain till we reached Marseilles whether we
+should go to Greece after all, or to Algeria or elsewhere, but finding
+that we could get berths on a Messageries boat we ultimately carried out
+our original intention though we did not really mean to stay long in
+Athens or its neighbourhood, and imagined Marathon (the scene of the Vyner
+tragedy) to be quite "out of bounds."
+
+However, when on March 31st we reached the Piraeus early in the morning we
+soon found that we were in the happiest possible abode. Our constant
+friend and protector Sir Thomas (now Lord) Sanderson had written from the
+Foreign Office to Mr. William Haggard, the British Charge d'Affaires, to
+look after us in the absence of the Minister, and it is impossible to
+speak too highly of his kindness. The Greek Ministers were deeply
+impressed by the fact that Lady Galloway was (half) sister to the English
+Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and laid themselves out to make everything
+pleasant and delightful. Greece was still almost unknown to Cook's
+tourists. I think there was a Cook's Office, but I do not recall seeing
+any of his clients about the place--anyhow, not outside Athens itself. Mr.
+Haggard met us with a boat belonging to the Harbour Master's Office, and
+as soon as we had settled ourselves in the Hotel d'Angleterre at Athens (a
+very good hotel) he began to make all sorts of arrangements for us--so
+that instead of three days we stayed some three weeks in Athens and about
+a month altogether in Greece.
+
+[Sidenote: MARATHON]
+
+We told Mr. Haggard that our friends were very much afraid of our finding
+brigands at Marathon, or rather at their finding us. He assured us that
+after the tragedy--seventeen years previously--all the brigands had been
+killed and it was perfectly safe; anyhow, he took us to Marathon next day,
+and we were delighted with the scenery through which we passed and with
+the silent, desolate field where the battle had been waged, with wild
+flowers growing on the hillock pointed out as the soldiers' grave. Whether
+it still keeps its impressive solitude I know not. It is useless to
+attempt description of Greece, so well known to all either from personal
+experience or from hundreds of accounts both in prose and poetry, but I
+may just say that as my mother (who saw it as a girl) told me, the colours
+of the mountains were like those of a dove's neck, and the clearness of
+the atmosphere such that one felt as if one could see through the hills.
+
+An evening or two later we dined with Mr. Haggard and his wife, and we
+were soon introduced to the various notabilities, who from the King and
+Queen downwards were most kind and hospitable. To begin with their
+Majesties, who entertained us at breakfast at the Royal Kiosk at the
+Piraeus, and on more than one subsequent occasion at dinner, and whom we
+met on various other occasions: King George had much of the charm of his
+sister Queen Alexandra and was a distinctly astute monarch. As far as one
+could judge, he really liked his quaint little kingdom, and I remember his
+asserting with energy that they were a good people. The Queen, a Russian,
+was a kindly, pious woman and apparently happy with her children, to whom
+she was devoted. She then had six, but there were only three at home at
+the time--Princess Alexandra, a pretty, merry girl just grown-up, and two
+younger children, Marie and Andrew. Andrew was a dear little boy about six
+or seven years old. When I asked Princess Marie about his birthday she
+gravely replied that he was too young to have a birthday!
+
+Greece struck me as a singularly "democratic" country in the sense that
+there was really no "aristocracy" between the Sovereign and the people.
+What in other countries is commonly called "Society" was in Athens mainly
+composed of the Ministers, the Corps Diplomatique, and one or two rich
+merchants--particularly one called Syngros, who spent large sums on public
+works. One of these was the Academy, a large building with, as far as we
+could ascertain, nothing as yet inside it.
+
+The Mykenae Museum, which contained many of Schliemann's antiquities,
+discovered at Argos and elsewhere, was specially interesting; but the
+Greek newspaper which followed our movements and formulated our opinions
+for us said that when we visited the Academy "both ladies were
+enthusiastic at the sight of the building. They confessed that they never
+expected to find in Athens such a beautiful building; they speak with
+enthusiasm of Athens in general"--but evidently the Academy (of which I do
+not think we saw the inside) was "It."
+
+M. Tricoupi was then Prime Minister, Minister of War, and practically
+Dictator. He was undoubtedly a man of great ability and judgment, and was
+devoted to England. We saw him constantly and also his sister Miss
+Tricoupi, a wonderful old lady.
+
+[Sidenote: MISS TRICOUPI]
+
+She gave up her life to promoting her brother's interests in all respects.
+She appeared to me like a link with the past, as she had been with her
+brother in England early in the century, and then had taken to Sarah, Lady
+Jersey, as a present from King Otho, a water-colour drawing of a room in
+his Palace which always hung in my bedroom at Middleton. She also knew my
+grandmother and my mother's elder sisters. Whenever Parliament was sitting
+she sat at home from one o'clock in the afternoon till any hour of the
+night to which the debates happened to continue. Any of her brother's
+supporters, no matter of what rank, could come into the large room at one
+end of which she was seated. It did not appear to be necessary that she
+should speak to them, much less offer them refreshments. I saw some men
+who appeared to be sailors or fishermen enter and seat themselves at the
+far end of the room without speaking or apparently attracting any
+particular notice.
+
+When we went to see her she gave us tea and delicious little rolled-up
+pieces of bread-and-butter--this we were assured was an especial favour.
+Naturally she could not have fed the whole of Athens daily! Poor woman--I
+saw her again on our subsequent visit to Athens, and after that used to
+correspond for nearly thirty years. She wrote most interesting letters,
+though after her brother's death she lived mainly in retirement. During
+the war, however, her feelings became somewhat embittered towards the
+Allies; she ultimately died seated on her sofa--she never would give in to
+incapacity, though she must have been very old.
+
+One of the most amusing members of the Ministry was Theotoki, Minister of
+Marine, who went with us on more than one excursion and was most kind in
+providing gunboats for any destination which had to be reached by sea. I
+rather think that he was of Venetian descent--he had a nice, lively wife,
+and I should say that he was not averse to a little innocent flirtation.
+The bachelor Tricoupi embodied all his ideals of woman in his capable and
+devoted sister, and had very advanced Woman Suffrage views, more uncommon
+then than a quarter of a century later. He was all in favour of the
+appointment of women not only as Members of Parliament, but also as
+Ministers of the Crown. One day he and Theotoki were taking us somewhere
+by sea when a discussion arose on this point. Either Lady Galloway or I
+wickedly suggested that women, admitted to the Cabinet, might exercise
+undue influence on the minds of the male members. Tricoupi in perfect
+innocence thereupon replied that it might be arranged that only _married_
+men should hold such office, apparently convinced that matrimony would
+make them woman-proof! I shall never forget Theotoki's expressive glance.
+
+[Sidenote: NAUPLIA]
+
+Dragoumi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was one of those who gave a
+dinner-party in our honour, on which occasion he and M. Tricoupi and one
+of the other Ministers concocted an excellent programme to enable us to
+visit Nauplia and Argos and Mykenae. I wrote an account of this to my
+mother which she kept, so I may as well transcribe it, as it gives an
+account of places which have probably been much altered and brought up to
+date in the present day under the auspices of "Cook's Tours." I told my
+mother:
+
+    "We went with Bakhmeteff the Russian and Haggard the Englishman, who
+    each had a Greek servant, and we having a German courier made up a
+    tolerably mixed lot. You would have laughed to see the three Cabinet
+    Ministers sitting in solemn conclave at a party the night before to
+    settle all details of our expedition. Theotoki, the Minister of
+    Marine, had a ship ready to send to meet us anywhere we liked, and
+    Tricoupi ordered Dragoumis, the Foreign Minister, just to go down to
+    send off some further telegram, which Dragoumis--a white-haired
+    statesman--obediently trotted off to do. The Czar of all the Russias
+    is not a greater autocrat than Tricoupi. When we arrived at Nauplia we
+    found the M.P. for that district waiting for us at the station, and he
+    had received orders to have the hotel thoroughly cleaned and
+    prepared--no one had been allowed to inhabit it for four days before
+    our arrival. The landlord, as far as we could make out, was locked up
+    in a room, whence we heard coughs and groans, presumably because he
+    had found a clean dwelling such a ghastly thing, and we were waited on
+    by a very smart individual (who was a Parisian doctor of law!) and a
+    small Greek girl. When we woke up next morning we found by way of
+    variety that the ground was covered with snow and the coachman said he
+    could not possibly go to Epidaurus--however, Bakhmeteff sent for the
+    Prefect of Police, who told him he must, so with four horses in front
+    and one trotting behind we went a perfectly lovely drive through
+    splendid mountain country looking even more beautiful from the snow on
+    the hills. Perhaps you don't know about Epidaurus--an ancient temple
+    of Aesculapius is there, and near it has lately been discovered the
+    most perfect theatre in Greece, which could seat twenty-five thousand
+    people. Hardly a stone is out of place--we went up to the top row, and
+    an unfortunate 'Ephor of Antiquities' who had also been ordered up
+    from Athens to do us the honours stood on the stage and talked to
+    us--one could hear every word. The Ephor and all the inhabitants of
+    Nauplia (who are stated by the papers to have received us 'with
+    affection') thought us quite mad, not only for going in the snow, but
+    for going in an open carriage, a circumstance also carefully recorded
+    in the papers. A Greek would have shut up the carriage and both
+    windows. Thursday we returned (i.e. to Athens) by Tiryns, Argos and
+    Mykenae and saw Dr. Schliemann's excavations. The Treasury of Atreus is
+    a marvellous thing--a great cone-shaped chamber in a hill with an
+    inner chamber on one side and an enormous portal with projecting walls
+    in front with a gigantic slab over it. Metal plates are said to have
+    been fastened on the walls at one time, but how on earth the
+    prehistoric people arranged these stones curving inwards so as to keep
+    in place and how they lifted some of them at all passes the wit of man
+    to conceive."
+
+I continue in this letter to explain how much of all this Dr. Schliemann
+and his wife did and did not find, and also to describe the "Lion Gate"
+and the "Agora"--but all that is well-known and doubtless has been further
+explored since our visit.
+
+Among other dissipations at Athens we attended two balls--one at M.
+Syngros', the other at the Austrian Legation. After the former a
+correspondent of one of the Greek papers wrote:
+
+    "It is a curious phenomenon the gaiety with which the Prime Minister
+    is possessed this year. I have no doubt that he belongs to that
+    fortunate circle which sees with affection the setting on each day of
+    the Carnival. It appears that the presence of the two distinguished
+    English ladies who are receiving the hospitality of our town for some
+    days now has revived in him dormant feelings and reminiscences. M.
+    Tricoupi passed the years of his youth in England, and it was with the
+    English ladies that he enjoyed the sweet pleasure of dancing. This
+    evening he dances also with Lady Jersey. He frequently accompanied the
+    two distinguished ladies to the Buffet, and with very juvenile agility
+    he hastens to find for them their _sorties de bal_ with which the
+    noble English ladies are to protect their delicate bodies from the
+    indiscretion of that cold night."
+
+M. Bakhmeteff, who was one of our companions to Nauplia, was a typical
+Russian--very clever, knowing some eight or nine languages and all about
+Greece ancient and modern. We used to call him the "Courier," as he was
+invaluable on our various expeditions, and he seemed to enjoy his honorary
+post. Like many of his compatriots he had no real religious belief, but
+regarded religious observance as quite a good thing for women; he told me
+that a man looked rather ridiculous kneeling, but it was a becoming
+attitude for women--the folds of her dress fell so nicely! But he assured
+me that if I saw him on duty in Russia I should see him kissing the ikons
+with all reverence. Poor man! If still alive, I wonder what has happened
+to him. He lent me a capital Japanese costume for the ball at the Austrian
+Legation. Lady Galloway went as "Dresden china" or a "_bouquetiere_."
+
+[Sidenote: THE LAURIUM MINES]
+
+We made a very interesting expedition to the Laurium mines, of which I
+subsequently ventured to give an account in _The National Review_, but
+again I think it unnecessary here to describe a well-known enterprise--the
+revival in modern days of lead mines worked in classical times. We stayed
+the night at the house of the manager, M. Cordella. He and his wife were
+most kindly hosts, and everyone contributed to our enjoyment. One little
+domestic detail amused us. As we entered the substantial and comfortable
+house one of us exclaimed to the other, "Oh, there is a bath!"--a luxury
+not always found in our wanderings--but a second glance showed us that we
+should have to wait till our return to the hotel next day, as the bath was
+fixed in the well of the staircase!
+
+As for our sentiments about the mines I cannot do better than quote the
+words of the _N ea Ephemeris_, one of the papers which knew so well what
+we thought on each occasion:
+
+    "The eminently English spirit of the most ingenious and noble ladies
+    saw in all those works something like the positiveness of the spirit
+    that prevails in their own country and were delighted at it in Greece
+    which they loved so much. They had no words to express their
+    satisfaction to the true man possessed with the spirit of our century
+    whom they found in the person of M. Cordella, the director of the
+    works, and to his worthy wife, who tendered to them so many nice
+    attentions."
+
+This, the _Hora_, and the _Acropolis_, seem to have been the chief
+Government papers, and occasionally one of them would hold up to contempt
+a wretched Delyannis organ which basely ignored the presence of the
+English Prime Minister's sister!
+
+I cannot record all our excursions to Eleusis, Aegina, and elsewhere, but
+I will add a few lines describing the general appearance of the people at
+that time, also written to my mother, as probably they have greatly
+changed in over thirty years:
+
+    "The Peloponnesian shepherds look remarkably picturesque, as they wear
+    large white coats with peaked hoods over their heads. Further north
+    the coats are more often blue--near Athens black and a different
+    shape--near Eleusis the people are Albanians and wear Albanian
+    costumes, which are very bright with many colours. Almost all the
+    natives outside the towns wear costumes which make the villages look
+    like places in plays, and every little inn is a regular picture--but
+    the country is very thinly populated and you go for miles without
+    seeing a soul. It is most beautiful."
+
+[Sidenote: HADJI PETROS]
+
+One rather interesting character was the Lord Chamberlain, an old
+gentleman called Hadji Petros, son of the original brigand who was one of
+the husbands of Lady Ellenborough, and is the thinly disguised "Hadji
+Stavros" of About's novel _Le Roi des Montagnes_. Hadji Petros was
+supposed to be quite illiterate, but he _could_ sign his name, as he did
+so on a case of chocolate which he gave me. Anyway, "by royal permission"
+he took us over the Palace and down into the kitchens, where he showed us
+the correct method of making Turkish coffee. His son, we were told, was a
+very smart young officer who led cotillons at the Athenian balls--two
+generations from the original brigand.
+
+We left Athens on February 22nd, and were taken by ship from a port near
+Patras at the end of the Gulf of Corinth to Pyrgos. We went in a
+Government boat (the _Salaminia_, I believe), and it was arranged that we
+should stay with the Demarch (Mayor) and drive thence to see Olympia.
+
+Fortunately for us M. Bakhmeteff accompanied us, and the whole thing was
+very entertaining. The officers on the ship thought it too absurd that we
+should want to take off even hand luggage for the night, as they said we
+should find everything we wanted at the Demarch's. Sure enough we found
+three elaborate sitting-rooms adorned with photographs and chairs tied up
+with ribbons, a bedroom with two comfortable beds and plenty of
+pin-cushions, and a dressing-room provided with tooth-brushes, sponges,
+and dentifrice water, but as means of washing one small green glass jug
+and basin between us. However, we managed to borrow two large, red
+earthenware pans from the kitchen and got on nicely. The Demarch was more
+than kind and hospitable, but as he knew no language save his native Greek
+it was lucky that Bakhmeteff was there to interpret. We landed too late
+for Olympia that evening, so we were taken down to a most romantic and
+desolate spot, where Alpheus runs into the sea in full view of the
+Acroceraunian mountains where "Arethusa arose from her couch of snows." In
+addition to one or two officials we were guarded by a delightful gendarme
+and were introduced to a bare-legged giant in an oil-skin coat whose duty
+was to look after the fish in a kind of stew or watercourse running out of
+a lake. Whether the poachers had been busy lately I know not, but the
+efforts of the custodian, the gendarme, and the rest of the party to give
+us a fishing entertainment were singularly abortive. Their object appeared
+to be to capture a mullet, and at length a dead one was landed by the
+joint throwing of a small net and poking with Lady Galloway's parasol.
+With dauntless courage they returned to the charge, and when another small
+fish was seen the gendarme drew his sword and vainly tried to stab it.
+Ultimately the professional fishermen did catch it and gave it to the
+gendarme, who skipped about with glee. He had seen me put some shells in
+my pocket, and apparently thought we should like to do the same with the
+fish, so proceeded to _wash_ it--and naturally let it escape. Next day the
+Demarch told M. Bakhmeteff that he had ordered an open carriage for the
+ladies (knowing our lunatic tendencies) and that he would take him
+(Bakhmeteff) in a shut one. Bakhmeteff came to us in a frantic state of
+mind and begged our authority to say that English ladies could not
+possibly go in a carriage alone--so ultimately we three proceeded in the
+open carriage with our gendarme on the box, and the Demarch followed with
+his servant. All went well till it began to rain, when our gallant
+defender jumped off the box and into the shut carriage with the Demarch
+and the other man. They put up both windows and I believe smoked, only
+leaving a little breathing-hole in front. Doubtless they enjoyed
+themselves immensely--so did we.
+
+[Sidenote: OLYMPIA--ZANTE]
+
+As with other well-known places, I omit all description of Olympia,
+reached by a road concerning which we decided that it would be a
+compliment to compare it to a ploughed field. The drive took four hours
+each way. I dare say there are hotels and chars-a-bancs if not trams now,
+but I am very glad to recall Olympia, as we saw it in the wilds with ruins
+of temples and the newly excavated Gymnasium undisturbed by eager
+tourists. The Museum, containing the beautiful statue of Hermes with the
+Infant Bacchus, had not long been erected on the lines of a Greek temple.
+By way of an additional treat our hosts had roasted a lamb whole and
+brought it into the outer hall of the Museum on a stick regardless of the
+mess which it made. We made futile efforts to protect the floor with
+newspapers, but were obliged to eat some of the meat.
+
+From Pyrgos we went to the Island of Zante, where we spent Sunday. I wrote
+to my mother that it was a most lovely place--and told her:
+
+    "We took some luncheon up into an olive grove on the hills and lay on
+    cushions there in the most perfect air and warmth you can imagine,
+    with birds singing and the greenest grass thick with flowers just like
+    the Pre-Raphaelite pictures. A little higher up you could see the sea
+    on both sides. Cephalonia in one distance and the Acroceraunian
+    mountains in the other. This island is, as you know, famous for
+    flowers, and the nosegays the Consul sent us were so enormous that
+    after filling all the vases, etc., we could we had to fill two large
+    foot pans and put them on the balcony."
+
+Of Cephalonia, where we spent a few hours on our way to Corfu, my chief
+recollection is of wild mountainous country. The Consul (or Vice-Consul)
+who took us for a drive told us a thrilling tale--as yet unconcluded--of
+two rival families. The father of one married his daughter to a young man,
+whereas the other family wanted her and attacked the bridal party on the
+wedding day. I forget exactly how many people they killed, but I think the
+bridegroom was among the victims, and anyhow they carried off the young
+lady to the mountains, and she was still there at the time of our visit.
+
+Corfu was very delightful--but I recall no particular incident. There
+seemed to be a good many people who still regretted that Mr. Gladstone had
+handed it over to Greece.
+
+Our gunboat and M. Bakhmeteff had left us at Zante, and from Corfu we went
+by an Austrian Lloyd steamer to Brindisi; thence by train to Naples. There
+we found Lord Rowton and dined with him and one or two friends. We also
+spent a day with him in Rome, where he was a good deal amused by our
+evident feeling that Roman were not to be compared to Greek antiquities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+VOYAGE TO INDIA--HYDERABAD
+
+
+I must go back a little in these mixed memories to record our early
+acquaintance with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who afterwards became one of our
+great friends. I believe that I first met him at Lady St. Helier's (then
+Lady Jeune) at a luncheon or party in 1886. We asked him to dinner at 3
+Great Stanhope Street, and he accepted--and we also asked the Jeunes. Mr.
+Chamberlain, though this was about the time that he split with Gladstone
+over Home Rule, was still regarded as a dangerous Radical, and was by no
+means universally met in Conservative houses. As it happened he arrived at
+our dinner a little before the Jeunes. As they were announced I went to
+the drawing-room door to meet them and she stopped me, and said in a low
+voice before entering the room, "You are coming to dine with me on such a
+date--shall you mind meeting Mr. Chamberlain?" (She had quite forgotten
+our meeting at her house.) "He is in the house," was my reply--whereat she
+gasped and nearly fell backwards. I well recollect the stern disapproval
+of our old-fashioned Tory butler Freeman. He showed it in his manner,
+though he did not venture at the moment to put it into words--but a few
+days afterwards we had another dinner at which were present some of our
+regular--and I am sure highly respectable--friends. The following morning
+Freeman said to me solemnly, "We had a very nice dinner last night."
+"Yes," said I, "I think it went off very well." "_All very nice people_,"
+he added with marked emphasis, and left me to digest the unspoken rebuke.
+
+Freeman was a great character and his comments were apt to be amusing. The
+year after this incident Lord Robert Cecil spent a Sunday at Osterley, and
+after the party had left on Monday Freeman informed me that there was only
+one thing that had troubled him. In reply to my rather anxious inquiry as
+to what had gone wrong he said: "That fine young fellow Lord Salisbury's
+son did not hold himself up properly. I spoke to his servant about it, and
+he said it was his book. I said our young lord [Villiers] is very clever,
+but I hope he will hold himself up." Poor Freeman! he was rather a rough
+diamond in some respects, but one of the best and most faithful of
+servants. He caught a chill and died early in 1894, soon after our return
+from Australia.
+
+[Sidenote: HADJI PETROS]
+
+To return to Mr. Chamberlain. Though already twice a widower he was still
+regarded politically as a young man, and I remember the American Minister
+Mr. Phelps assuring me that he had watched in the House of Commons Mr.
+Gladstone snub Chamberlain in a way that he was convinced had a good deal
+to do with his breach with the Liberal party. I doubt that being more than
+a very secondary cause, but I perfectly recall the acrimonious tone in
+which Mr. Chamberlain early in our acquaintance commented on the way in
+which politicians were treated "because they were young." Anyhow, Mr.
+Chamberlain not only asserted himself as worthy of all consideration
+politically, but he rapidly discarded socially his stern views of those
+whom he had formerly stigmatised as "lilies of the field." The late Sir
+Cecil Spring Rice once told me that he and Mr. Chamberlain had been thrown
+together a good deal on some occasion in America, and the latter had
+confided to him that he had really believed that the so-called "upper
+classes" were, taken as a whole, the idle, selfish, self-indulgent, and
+generally pernicious people whom he had denounced, but that when he came
+to know them he realised that they were a very different set of
+individuals. I have always held that Mr. Chamberlain was an honest man,
+and that when people accused him of changing his coat his changes were the
+result of conviction. He once said to me that he had invariably held that
+the people ought to have what they really wanted, and that more than once
+he had discovered that he was mistaken in what he had previously imagined
+to be their desires, and that then he was willing to follow their lead.
+"For instance," he said, "I thought the country wanted Secular Education
+and therefore advocated it, but experience showed me that this was not the
+case and I therefore ceased to support it." Of course this principle may
+be pushed too far. A statesman ought to have some convictions from which
+he cannot and will not depart, but it would be absurd to say that a man
+entering political life is bound to have a cut-and-dried programme which
+nothing will make him modify. Moreover Mr. Chamberlain had grown up in a
+narrow commercial circle, and larger knowledge of men and manners was
+bound to widen his views. On the first occasion that he stayed with us at
+Osterley in June 1887 and June 1888 his daughter Miss Beatrice Chamberlain
+came with him. I see by our old Visitors' Book that we had some very good
+Conservatives to meet them--in 1888 Lady Lathom and her daughter Maud,
+George Curzon, Lord and Lady Kintore, Sir John Stirling Maxwell, and my
+husband's cousin, Prince Louis Esterhazy. I have been told that more than
+one person first saw Mr. Chamberlain rowing on the Lake at Osterley in a
+tall hat and with a pipe in his mouth! I rather think that it was at a
+garden party. In 1888 just after the death of the Emperor Frederick almost
+everyone appeared in mourning, which somebody said made it look like a
+funeral wake tempered with strawberries. Poor Beatrice Chamberlain,
+however, appeared in a sort of plaid gown which made her very unhappy. She
+confided to Lady Lathom that she had just returned from France and had not
+known that people were wearing mourning--moreover she belonged to some
+society in Birmingham (a very sensible one) which agreed not to wear
+mourning except for quite the nearest relatives. She was afraid we might
+think that her clothes were due to her Radical principles, which we
+certainly did not. She became a very talented and distinguished woman, and
+her death, a few years ago, was a loss to many good causes. I was much
+touched by a letter which she wrote me after my husband died in 1915 in
+which she said that he and I had been kind to her "particularly in the
+long-ago days when I, not so very young, but so very raw, was keeping
+house for papa and came with him into this strange, unknown, and uncharted
+world of London." We had done little enough, and it was very nice of her
+to preserve such a recollection for over a quarter of a century.
+
+Next year when Mr. Chamberlain stayed with us he had married the charming
+Miss Endicott, now Mrs. Carnegie, but I shall have more to say of them
+both later on.
+
+[Sidenote: DEPARTURE FOR INDIA]
+
+I must now record some recollections of the first of our three visits to
+India.
+
+The idea of such a journey arose from my seeing Mr. Robert Bourke in a
+hansom as I was driving late in the season of 1886. He waved to me and I
+stopped to hear what he had to say. "I want to talk to you and Jersey,"
+said he. "Very well," I said; "come down to Osterley and you will find us
+both at such a time." It was accordingly arranged, and he told us that
+Lord Salisbury had offered him the Government of Madras. He was somewhat
+upset, as he had been Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs when Lord
+Salisbury was Secretary of State for that Department, and when the latter
+became Prime Minister Mr. Bourke thought that he ought to have had higher
+promotion, and regarded this offer rather as exile. However, on talking it
+all over he began to paint the gubernatorial glories in more roseate hues,
+and my husband and I both recommended him to accept, as we neither of us
+thought in our hearts that he was likely to attain Cabinet rank in
+England. Then he said, "If I go, will you come out and stay with me?" It
+was a new but attractive project, and we gave a provisional promise which
+we fulfilled in the autumn of 1888. My parents undertook to keep an eye on
+the younger children and to have them at Stoneleigh for part of our
+absence--it was arranged that Villiers should join us when his Christmas
+holidays began, and the Eton authorities consented that he should miss the
+following term as it was thought that India would be equally educational.
+We accordingly took our passages on the P. and O. _Arcadia_, which left
+Marseilles on Friday, October 26th. My brother Dudley and Mr. Charles
+Buller sailed in the same ship, which was a new one and had improvements
+then reckoned very novel. For instance, it had electric light, which had
+not yet been installed in all the P. and O. fleet. There were about 240
+first-class passengers--some entertaining ones among them, including Sir
+Samuel and Lady Baker, Captain Hext, who was Director of Indian Marine,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Leigh. In the second saloon was the theosophist
+Colonel Olcott--an odd mixture of philanthropy and humbug--but discussions
+with him often served to pass the time. One was not allowed to ask a
+second-saloon passenger for meals, but we had permission for him to come
+and talk to us, and also to give two theosophical lectures in the
+first-class saloon. I shall have more to say of him at Madras--but the
+inner meaning of theosophy is so often discussed that I insert here the
+way in which he presented it as I noted in my journal after one of his
+lectures given when we were nearing Port Said:
+
+    "Colonel Olcott gave a lecture on the Theosophical Society of which he
+    is President. The Society has its headquarters in Madras"
+    (N.B.--really at Adyar near Madras) "and has three chief
+    objects--Universal Brotherhood, Study of ancient oriental texts,
+    Investigation of hidden psychical forces. It admits members of any
+    religion, but requires universal toleration. Practically its own
+    tenets are Buddhist, that being rather a philosophy than a religion.
+    It professes, however, to assist its members to the better
+    comprehension of the esoteric or underlying significations of their
+    respective religions."
+
+Colonel Olcott himself was a Buddhist, and moreover laid claim to certain
+powers of healing, which I should imagine, in so far as they were
+effectual, were a kind of faith healing; he went beyond M. Coue, as he
+declared that he had healed a blind man! Mrs. Gerard Leigh gravely asked
+him one day whether he could give her something to protect her against
+spooks, as she often had to stay in a house which she believed to be
+haunted. "Give me something you are accustomed to wear," he said, and she
+handed him a ring. He stared at it, and said, "If you could see--you would
+see two rays" (blue rays I think he said) "going from my eyes into this
+ring." "What will it do?" she asked. "Well," was the answer, "it will be
+like a hand laid on your head to protect you." If she remembered it next
+time a spook was about, I feel sure that it was most effectual. "Your
+ring," he said to one of us, "came out of a jeweller's shop--mine came out
+of a rose," and told us a pleasing legend of how his sister held a rose
+and Madame Blavatsky conjured a ring out of it.
+
+[Sidenote: COL. OLCOTT AND PROF. MAX MULLER]
+
+He had very exalted philanthropic views, and long afterwards, when he was
+in England, Professor Max Mueller told me that he had said to him, "Colonel
+Olcott, with all your fine ideas for doing good how can you lend yourself
+to that nonsense of broken tea-cups and so on?" "And," continued Max
+Mueller, "he looked down through his funny blue spectacles and answered,
+'All religions must be manured'--which surely gave away the whole show."
+
+Colonel Olcott was extremely anxious to enlist me as a member of the
+Theosophical Society, assuring me that he only wanted my signature to a
+document which he would keep privately, "not for publication." What good
+it would do him in that case is not very apparent, but the net was spread
+in vain in the sight of the bird as far as I was concerned. Years
+afterwards he reappeared at Sydney and renewed his appeal in the following
+pathetic--but still unsuccessful--verses:
+
+  "_To our Lady of Leigh_
+  Only a paper,
+  A very short paper,
+  An innocent paper,
+  My lady, to sign,
+  Expressing your int'rest,
+  Your broad-minded int'rest,
+  Your psychical int'rest,
+  In this work of mine.
+  Sign: I entreat you,
+  Bishops will greet you,
+  Clergy beseech you,
+  Lady, to join
+  This league confraternal
+  To seek the eternal--
+  _Not_ the infernal--
+  Basis of truth!
+                            H. S. O."
+
+  SYDNEY, 7th May 1891.
+
+Another, still more generally interesting, fellow-voyager on the _Arcadia_
+was, as already mentioned, Sir Samuel Baker, who, with his intrepid wife,
+was making one of his frequent journeys to India. He enlivened many hours
+which might have proved tedious by stories of his African adventures, and
+was always surrounded by an interested circle of listeners. He told how on
+his expedition to the sources of the White Nile he had met two tattered
+figures which proved to be Speke and Grant coming back from tracing that
+part of the river which flowed from the Victoria Nyanza. They urged him to
+continue his undertaking as they said that if he also found the source he
+was seeking "England will have done it"--and she did. He asked them to
+come into his camp--but they hung back--and when he asked why they
+explained that they heard he had Mrs. Baker with him, and were in such
+rags that they did not like to present themselves before a lady!
+Nevertheless they were induced not to treat the desert like a London
+drawing-room, and the lady laughed and mended their clothes for them. Sir
+Samuel loved to tell stories of his wife's heroism and self-possession in
+more than one critical juncture. With all her adventures she had remained
+a very simple and charming woman.
+
+[Sidenote: SIR SAMUEL BAKER]
+
+When we were passing the Arabian Coast of the Gulf of Suez Sir Samuel
+Baker pointed out Mount Sinai, though some people pretend that you can
+only see its whereabouts--not the Mountain itself. He told us a great deal
+of Moses' adventures--from Josephus, I believe--but he also said that he
+himself had seen all the Plagues of Egypt, though he said that for "lice"
+one should read "ticks"! We asked how about the Darkness? He said he had
+been in a Khamsin wind when for twenty minutes you could not see the flame
+of a candle close by; and as for the "first-born," when plague or cholera
+swept off families they only cared about the first-born, the second- or
+third-born did not count. He and Lady Baker were also very amusing about
+the visits to Egypt of the Princess of Wales and the Empress Eugenie
+respectively.
+
+We had a mild excitement in the Gulf of Aden when a man played the
+"Boulanger" hymn during dinner. No one now would recognise the "Boulanger"
+hymn, as the hero of the black horse is forgotten, but then the Germans
+hissed and the French applauded. The captain was appealed to, and sent
+word to "tell the man to stop that noise"--a message which the steward
+delivered too accurately to please the performer!
+
+I do not describe any of the sights which we saw either at the Ports or at
+sea, much as they thrilled such unaccustomed oriental travellers as
+ourselves. Most people now are familiar with the voyage either from
+personal experience or from oral or written descriptions. I have made it
+several times since, and, bad sailor as I am, only wish I were young
+enough to undertake it again. Our cicerones treated us mercifully, but I
+believe some greenhorns are not so fortunate. I heard of one youth who was
+warned in advance that the sailors and others were sure to try to take
+him in. He was told several facts concerning the places and people which
+they passed--these he absolutely refused to believe. At last someone
+pointed out rocks in the sea near Suez and said, "Those are the wheels of
+Pharaoh's chariots." "Ah, that I know is true," said the youth, "for it's
+in the Bible."
+
+We arrived at Bombay on the morning of November 10th, and were as
+delighted as are most visitors with the glitter and glow of the city with
+its swarming and varied population. The Yacht Club was a cool and pleasant
+resort--and we visited the Arab horse-market, the Towers of Silence, and
+other well known sights. Particularly were we impressed with the curious
+Caverns on the Island of Elephanta, with the gigantic figures carved in
+high relief. Few could help being awed by the three immense heads joined
+together in the Central Division of the great Central Hall, representing
+Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu. I was specially interested in the designs
+representing the story of the favourite Hindu deity Ganpati or Ganesha.
+You see the marriage of his parents Siva and Parvati, his birth, and a
+battle among the gods and demons in the course of which he had his head
+cut off. His irate mother substituted an elephant's head and declared that
+she, the Mother of Nature, would upset everything unless gods and men
+worshipped him in this guise--and he now appears as God of Wisdom. Another
+version is that Siva himself cut off his son's head, mistaking him for an
+intruder in his mother's apartments. However that may be, the lower class
+of Hindu have adopted him as a favourite deity, and we were told of a
+great festival in February when they flock to the Caves with offerings of
+coco-nuts, rice, and leaves.
+
+Our travelling-companion Captain Hext was most kind to us in Bombay, and a
+Parsee, Mr. Allbless, showed us something of the life of that community.
+
+[Sidenote: MAHABLESHWAR]
+
+From Bombay, after a night at Poona, we went to Mahableshwar to stay with
+our kind friends, Lord and Lady Reay, he being at that time Governor of
+the Bombay Presidency. We left the train at Wathar and a drive of about
+five hours through magnificent scenery brought us to our destination soon
+after seven in the evening of November 14th. We were greatly struck by the
+huge square-topped mountains towering in giant terraces above fertile,
+well-watered valleys. The soil was generally deep brown or deep red. As
+darkness came on we saw quantities of fire-flies amongst the luxuriant
+vegetation. Next morning the view from the house across the valley to a
+gigantic square-topped mountain beyond was so dazzling as almost to take
+away one's breath. Few things are so impressive as to arrive after dark at
+an unknown dwelling, and to awaken in the morning to a new world of
+glorious scenery quivering in sunshine and colour. I recall two instances
+of the same awaking to the joy of natural beauty previously
+unsuspected--once at Glengariff and once at Mahableshwar. The soft
+radiance of Southern Ireland was very different from the almost violent
+colouring of India, but the sudden delight was the same.
+
+We spent a very happy six days at Mahableshwar and saw all sorts of
+interesting people and places, including the haunts of the great Mahratta
+Chieftain Sivaji. Our introduction to Indian hill-life could not have been
+made under pleasanter auspices nor with kinder hosts.
+
+The Duke of Connaught was then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay
+Presidency troops. H.R.H. and the Duchess lived near the Reays, and they
+were also very good to us. Lady Patricia Ramsay was then a most attractive
+little girl of two years old. The older children were in England. The
+Duke, here as elsewhere, had a great reputation as a soldier.
+
+When we visited Pertab Ghur, one of Sivaji's thirty-one mountain
+fortresses, we were told with amazement that the Duke and his officers had
+lately brought a battery of mule artillery up the steep hill leading
+thereto. This fort had an arched gateway almost concealed in the
+hill-side, with a door covered with iron spikes. About fifty people live
+in the fort, and when they saw the battery approaching they took the
+soldiers for dacoits and shut the gates against them.
+
+[Sidenote: H.H. THE AGA KHAN]
+
+One visitor to Lord and Lady Reay while we were with them was the Aga
+Khan, since so widely known, but then a boy of about thirteen who was
+brought by his uncle to pay his respects to the Governor. The story of his
+ancestry as told to me at the time was as follows. Some generations ago a
+Hindu announced a tenth Avatar, or Incarnation, of Vishnu, and persuaded a
+number of people to give him offerings for the Avatar. At last, however,
+the devotees became tired of parting with their goods for an unseen deity
+and insisted that the Avatar should be shown to his disciples. The Hindu
+agreed, and selected a deputation of two hundred, whom he conducted on a
+sort of pilgrimage through Northern India seeking for a suitable
+representative who would consent to play the required part. At last they
+reached the borders of Persia, and there he heard of a holy man belonging
+to the then Royal Family who would, he thought, fulfil all the
+requirements. Before introducing his followers he contrived a private
+interview with the Imaun (as I believe he was called) and offered to hand
+over to him all the disciples and their future offerings if he would
+assume the character of an Avatar and pretend to have received those
+already given. The Princely Saint consented on condition that the Hindu
+believers should become Mohammedans--no doubt this wholesale conversion to
+the true faith overcame any scruples which he may have felt concerning the
+requisite trivial deception. Thus arose the sect of the Khojahs, Hindu--or
+at least Indian--Mohammedans, acknowledging the spiritual headship of this
+Persian Avatar and his descendants. Some say that this Imaun was one of
+the tribe or order of the Assassins of whom the Old Man of the Mountains
+was chief in the time of the Crusades. It was declared that each head of
+Aga Khan's family was assassinated in turn, and that his life would be
+sacrificed in due course to make way for his successor. However, I hope
+that is not true, as I have known him for over thirty years and saw him
+very much alive not long ago.
+
+When we met at Mahableshwar he was a stout youth with dark eyes and hair
+and a very composed manner. His father, who had died before our interview,
+did not want the boy in childhood to know of his semi-divine character as
+he justly thought that it would not be very good for him, but the boy was
+too acute to be kept in the dark. His mother was a Persian princess, and
+he is immensely rich from offerings made to himself and his ancestors.
+Even in boyhood he was called "His Highness," that title having been given
+him in 1896--but the rank and salute of a chief of the Bombay Presidency
+was not granted till 1916, as he is not a territorial prince, but owes his
+wealth and immense influence to the large numbers both in India and
+Zanzibar who acknowledge his spiritual sway.
+
+We were told that he sometimes had a milk bath and that his followers were
+then allowed to drink the milk in which he had bathed! Lord Reay asked
+whether he would have to fast in Ramadan, but he said not till he was
+fifteen. I asked what was done to people if they did not keep the fast. He
+said nothing in India, but in Persia the Moollahs beat defaulters.
+
+When Aga Khan grew up he managed to reconcile his followers to the
+orthodox Mohammedan faith. He traces his descent from Mohammed's
+son-in-law Ali. What his private religious views may have been is
+impossible to say; I should think he was really a Mohammedan, but
+considered it necessary to allow his followers to regard him as
+semi-divine. He was supposed in after years to have said to his friends
+that he could drink wine if he liked because his devotees were made to
+believe that his throat was so holy that it changed to water on touching
+it--and he added that "being a god was not all beer and skittles!" I must
+say that when he sat near me at dinner at Osterley he did not drink wine.
+He was once dining there when in England for King Edward's coronation, and
+I told him that the Sikh High-Priest was reported to have said that he did
+not like to be mixed up with "these secular persons" and wanted to hold
+the robe of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the occasion. Aga Khan
+comically protested against such an invasion of his ecclesiastical status,
+and said in that case he should complain to the King and go back to India!
+
+From Mahableshwar a journey of two days and a night brought us to
+Hyderabad (Deccan)--where we stayed at the Residency with the
+Acting-Resident Mr. Howell and his wife. We were enchanted with
+Hyderabad--a real typical Native State and extraordinarily picturesque. We
+saw various interesting examples of native life and tradition both in the
+pauses on our journey and from the train. As we drew near Hyderabad there
+were numbers of immense syenite stones piled on each other or scattered
+over the plain. Legend says that when Rama was pursuing the giant Ravana
+who had carried off Siva he enlisted the aid of the monkey-god Hanuman and
+his army to make a bridge to Ceylon. The monkeys carried rocks from the
+Himalayas, but not unnaturally became pretty tired by the time they
+reached the Deccan and let a good many fall, which may still be seen
+scattered about.
+
+[Sidenote: RACES AT HYDERABAD]
+
+Hyderabad is largely Mohammedan, and the Nizam has a considerable army,
+including a regiment of negro cavalry and a good many Arabs. We were
+fortunate in seeing a race-meeting the day after our arrival, and this
+gathering of natives in all their variety of costume and colour was
+dazzling to our unaccustomed eyes. The populace swarmed in the trees and
+clustered round the boundary of the course, but even more brilliant were
+the garments of the native nobles and gentlemen who walked about in the
+ring and gathered in the grandstand. They wore long coats of every
+conceivable hue and of rich materials, flowered red and green and gold
+silk, purple velvet or embroidered white, with gold-worked belts, bright
+turbans, and sometimes swords. There were little boys gaily dressed like
+their fathers, riders in white muslin with black and gold turbans, on
+prancing horses with tails dyed pink, others carrying little flags at the
+end of spears; Arabs of the Nizam's bodyguard with high boots and green,
+red, dark-blue, and gold costumes and striped floating round their heads,
+and the Nizam's syces in yellow and blue.
+
+The Nizam himself, an effete individual, had a red fez, a pearl
+watch-chain, and dazzling emerald rings, but was otherwise in European
+dress. Around him were the gentlemen of his Court, salaaming to him and to
+each other with strictly Oriental etiquette, and mingled with them English
+officers, ladies and civilians. Flags were flying surmounted by the Union
+Jack, and a band played, ending up with "God save the Queen." The jockeys
+were some English and some native, the owners English, Parsee, and
+Mohammedan.
+
+A hot Indian sun made the scene glow with golden warmth during the
+afternoon and with rosy pink as it set in the evening with the unexpected
+rapidity which is almost startling until use has made it familiar. I was
+talking a few days later to an Indian gentleman about his visit to
+England, and he said what he did not like was the light, which interfered
+with his sleeping. Light is the last thing of which I should have expected
+England to be accused, but there is in India no great variety in the
+length of night and day all the year round, so my friend was unaccustomed
+to the very early dawn of an English summer day. Not long ago I heard of
+an English coachman employed in America. He, on being asked his opinion of
+the States, said he did not like two things--they had no twilight and said
+the Lord's Prayer wrong (i.e. "Who art" instead of "Which art"). It is
+difficult to satisfy the physical and theological prejudices of an alien
+in any land.
+
+[Sidenote: H.H. THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD]
+
+Jersey had been introduced to the Nizam the day following our arrival; I
+made his acquaintance at the races, but found him singularly lacking in
+animation. The only occasion on which I saw him aroused to anything like
+interest was when we went to the Palace to see his jewels. He had
+wonderful strings of pearls and emeralds, something like a tiara of
+diamonds for the front of a turban, large single diamonds in rings, one
+remarkable ruby engraved with the seals of the Moghul emperors, and an
+uncut diamond valued at L720,000 which was as uninteresting to look at as
+a pebble picked up on a beach. If I recollect rightly that diamond
+afterwards played a part in a lawsuit. Jersey said something about black
+pearls, which he happened to admire. The Nizam did not appear to notice
+the remark, which was translated to him, but presently made a slight sign,
+and with the ghost of a smile produced a little calico bag from which he
+extracted a couple of these gems.
+
+Poor man--he had _four thousand_ women shut up in his Zenana. That
+included his father's wives and women servants as well as his own. Every
+woman who becomes his wife begins with a monthly pension of 35 rupees,
+which can, of course, be increased by his favour. There was a story going
+when we were at Hyderabad that the women had, shortly before, inveigled
+the Nizam into the depths of the Zenana and given him a good flogging! No
+doubt strange things may happen in remote apartments where no male except
+eunuchs may enter. The present Nizam is, I believe, an enlightened and
+loyal ruler.
+
+The City of Hyderabad was about eight miles in circumference, and as a
+quarter was occupied by the Nizam's palatial buildings there was room and
+to spare both for ladies and Court officials. The Nizam is of course
+semi-independent, but the British Government exercises the ultimate
+control. Fortunately, though the Nizam did not shine intellectually, he
+had some very intelligent Ministers, notably Sir Salar Jung, who
+exercised the chief control, and the very enlightened Director of
+Education, Syed Hossain Bilgrami, who with his brother Seyd Ali had
+originally come from Bengal and contrived to establish an intellectual
+standard distinctly superior to that of many Native States. Amongst other
+things Syed Hossain had set up a Zenana School for "purdah" girls of the
+upper classes, which was at that time quite a new experiment in India.
+When we saw it the head mistress was a Mrs. Littledale, a Christian Hindu
+lady married to an Englishman. The main idea was that the young ladies
+should be sufficiently educated to be real companions to the men whom they
+were ultimately to marry. One of the pupils on the occasion of our visit
+was a cousin of the Bilgramis engaged to one of Syed Hossain's sons. The
+young man in question was then at Oxford, and understood to be anxious for
+the education of his lady-love. The whole question of the higher education
+of Indian women, particularly of those of the upper classes, bristles with
+difficulties. It has much advanced in the thirty-three years which have
+elapsed since our first visit to Hyderabad, but the problems have not yet
+been by any means completely solved. If young women are educated up to
+anything like a European standard they can hardly fail to be discontented
+with continuous seclusion. On the other hand, if they are allowed to come
+out of purdah and to mix freely with others of both sexes they will be
+looked down upon by large sections of the community, and in many cases,
+particularly among the ruling families, it will be difficult to arrange
+suitable marriages for them. One sometimes wonders whether such complete
+freedom as prevails in Western and Northern lands has been altogether
+beneficial to their women, and the climate of India might make
+unrestrained intercourse even more difficult. However, Parsee women are
+not secluded, nor are the women of the quite low Indian castes.
+
+[Sidenote: PURDAH LADIES]
+
+As far as I could make out, opinions differed among the ladies themselves
+as to whether they should or should not prefer to come out of purdah. Some
+certainly considered that for husbands to allow it would be to show that
+they did not properly value their wives. For instance, the Nizam's
+aide-de-camp Ali Bey, a very active, intelligent soldier, told us that he
+would not at all mind his wife seeing men or going about, but that she
+would not wish it. On one occasion when the fort at Secunderabad was
+brilliantly illuminated with electric lights for some festivity he offered
+to drive her out late, when the people had gone, to see the effect, but
+she declined. On the other hand, when we dined with the Financial
+Secretary Mehdi Ali, and the ladies went afterwards into an inner
+drawing-room to see Mrs. Mehdi Ali, she rather pathetically said to me in
+perfect English: "I cannot go to call upon you, Lady Jersey. I am not a
+woman, but a bird in a cage." It seemed rather absurd that she should be
+secluded, for she was evidently highly educated, and I understood read
+French as well as English. Her costume was somewhat interesting. Most of
+the Moslem ladies wore trousers and were enveloped in a sari. Mrs. Mehdi
+Ali had a gorgeous brocade garment specially designed by Howell & James,
+which at a casual glance looked like an ordinary gown but somehow embraced
+a "divided skirt."
+
+I had an amusing breakfast with the sisters of Sir Salar Jung and his
+brother the Munir-ul-Mulk. We had dined the previous evening at a gorgeous
+banquet with the brothers, and the ladies of the party, including Lady
+Galway, Mrs. Howell, and five others, were invited for eleven o'clock the
+following morning to the Zenana in the same Palace. Of course brothers may
+be present with their sisters. With a truly Oriental disregard of time the
+Munir appeared about 11.25, the ladies still later. The Munir was attired
+in an azure blue coat embroidered with silver. The materials of the most
+gorgeous men's coats were imported from Paris--and their fezes chiefly
+came from Lincoln & Bennett's in London.
+
+As for the ladies, they generally wore stockings and over them long
+drawers or breeches, fitting tightly to the lower part of the leg and very
+full above. They had jackets and voluminous scarves called "chuddars." I
+believe the breeches were sewn on! One of the sisters wore yellow as a
+prevailing colour, and had bare arms and feet. The other had a magnificent
+gold embroidered crimson velvet jacket, a green chuddar, and pink
+stockings. These ladies were both married, but the husband of one was in a
+lunatic asylum. There was also present a female cousin, but she, being a
+widow, was all in white and wore no jewels except one or two armlets.
+
+[Sidenote: BREAKFAST IN A ZENANA]
+
+Our breakfast was spread on a long table under the colonnade where we had
+dined the previous night. We had then sat on chairs at a regular
+dining-table, but this was only raised a few inches from the ground and we
+sat on the floor, which was covered with a white cloth. The table was
+thickly covered with piled-up dishes containing principally all kinds of
+curry and rice cooked in different ways. Water was the main drink, but
+anyone who liked could ask for coffee. Everyone had plates, and the
+Englishwomen were provided with spoons and forks, but the Indian ladies
+ate (very tidily) with their fingers, over which attendants poured water
+after breakfast. The two sisters (half-sisters really) sat side by side,
+and laughed and chattered incessantly. Miss White, a lady doctor who was
+present, interpreted anything they had to say, but they were just merry,
+talkative children with no real interest in anything beyond their clothes,
+food, and jewels. Miss White said that they knew, and taught their
+children, nothing. I should say that they were the most ignorant of all
+the native ladies whom I have met in India, but certainly not the least
+happy, and apparently quite contented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MADRAS, CALCUTTA, AND BENARES
+
+
+From Hyderabad we went to Madras to fulfil our promise of paying a visit
+to Mr. Bourke, who had now become Lord Connemara. We stayed there for over
+three weeks and became much interested in the Presidency. Being rather
+remote from the usual routes of visitors it is perhaps less known, and has
+been called the "Benighted Presidency," but many of the natives are
+exceptionally intelligent, and there appears to be more opportunity than
+in some other parts of India of seeing the Hindu faith in working order
+and less affected than elsewhere by the influence of the Mohammedan
+conquerors. Lord Connemara's Private Secretary, Mr. Rees (afterwards Sir
+John Rees, so sadly killed by falling from a train) was very kind in
+securing two Brahmins of different varieties of the Hindu faith to come
+and talk to me and explain their views--both spoke excellent English. One
+was a Munshi who belonged to the "Advaita" sect, which holds that
+everything is part of the Divinity; the other--an ascetic--held a refined
+form of what is called the "Sankhya" philosophy, which presupposes eternal
+matter with which the Eternal Mind unites itself. After all, such fine
+drawn distinctions are quite congenial to the spirit of the early
+Gnostics, the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, and even to Christians of
+to-day who are ready to start fresh communities from differences on
+tenets which seem to the ordinary mind without practical bearing on the
+Two Great Commandments.
+
+[Sidenote: BRAHMIN PHILOSOPHERS]
+
+To return to my Brahmin friends. Both those here mentioned and others to
+whom I have spoken claim a faith certainly different from the vast mass of
+the Indian peoples. They claim to believe in One God, and say that all
+proceed from Him and that all effort should be directed to reabsorption
+into Him. Good acts tend to this result by the gradual purification in
+successive incarnations of "Karma," which may perhaps be described as the
+residuum of unconquered passions and unexpiated sins after death. When the
+Munshi was explaining this theory of upward progress Mr. Rees asked him
+what happened to devil-worshippers and such like out-caste races. "They go
+to hell," was the prompt reply. Observing my look of surprise, Ramiah
+hastened to add, "Oh, we have plenty of hells, twenty, thirty,
+forty"--evidently thinking that I was astounded not at the sweeping
+perdition of his countrymen, but at the probably overcrowded condition of
+the infernal regions.
+
+Shiva, Vishnu, and the other gods and goddesses adored by the populace
+were regarded by the illuminati as embodiments of various divine
+attributes, or incarnations to reveal the divine will and to deliver men
+from evil. There seemed no unwillingness to accept Christ in some such way
+as this. As one said to me, "I do not know His history as well as I know
+my own sacred books, but if what is told of Him is true, I believe that he
+must have been a saint, if not a Divine Incarnation." Another thought that
+each race had its own revelation. "We," he said, "have Krishna, you have
+Christ. You say that your Christ was crucified--our Krishna was shot."
+
+To an inquiry why if their own faith was so elevated they left the masses
+to idol-worship I had the crushing reply: "Ignorant people and _females_
+cannot at once comprehend the universal presence. We teach them first that
+God is in the image--so He is, for He is everywhere--and from that we go
+on to explain that He pervades the universe." I asked my ascetic friend,
+Parthasaradi, whether in that case they might find the deity in the leg of
+a table--to which he retorted with Tyndall's views about the mutability of
+atoms, from which he deduced that being everywhere He was certainly also
+in the leg of the table--and he cited Roman Catholic teaching on his side
+as justifying idol-worship. Parthasaradi had a marvellous store of
+quotations from Tyndall, Leibnitz, Matthew Arnold, and others at his
+fingers' ends. He kindly said that if I were as good as my creed he would
+be satisfied, and hoped that I would be content if he were as good as his.
+He had catechised Mr. Rees about me before he would condescend to talk to
+me, as he did not think that "European females" were generally
+sufficiently interested in Hindu religion to make them worthy of his
+expositions. He had been a Vakil of the High Court, but had given up his
+position to embrace an ascetic life, and had devoted his property to
+founding a library, only reserving enough for himself and his wife to live
+upon. His wife had become a sort of nun. He was a curious-looking man with
+long shaggy black hair and very white teeth--rather handsome. His costume
+consisted of a cotton dhoti (cloth) of doubtful whiteness wrapped round
+his legs and a green shawl twisted about his body. There is no doubt that
+he was very earnest in his faith in the Almighty, and I was really touched
+by his appeal one day to Mr. Rees, who chanced to be present at a visit
+which he paid me. Mr. Rees told him that he was so eloquent that he almost
+converted him to the need for greater religion. Whereupon said the
+ascetic, with evident emotion: "Why don't you come at once? You need not
+wait for an invitation as to a _Governor's breakfast_." He spoke just like
+a member of the Salvation Army, and I am sure with an equally genuine
+feeling. It would be absurd to generalise from a superficial acquaintance
+with India, but it seemed to me from conversation with these and other
+educated Indians that, while quite willing to accept the high Christian
+morality and also to profit from the education in Christian schools,
+working out a man's own salvation appealed to them more than the doctrine
+of Atonement.
+
+[Sidenote: FAITH OF EDUCATED HINDUS]
+
+The Dewan Rao Behadur Kanta Chunder, a highly intelligent man whom we met
+later on at Jeypore, allowed that the Atonement was his stumbling-block.
+He had been educated in a Mission School and had a great respect and
+affection for the Principal, but he was not a professing Christian. He
+said that he believed in one God, but was obliged to continue
+Shiva-worship to please his mother. I hope that he received the same
+dispensation as Naaman! He further said that he believed in the
+transmigration of souls, but thought that all spirits would ultimately
+return to the Great Spirit whence they came.
+
+I asked this Dewan about a point on which I was curious--namely, whether
+as a child, before he came under Mission influence, his Hindu faith had a
+practical influence on his daily conduct. "Oh, yes," he said; "if I did
+anything wrong I was quite frightened of the images of the gods in the
+house"--so I suppose they have a real effect, but no one seemed to think
+that anything made the native Indian truthful! However, it is to be
+feared that with the majority even of Christians truth is not a primary
+virtue.
+
+To return to Madras and our adventures there. I do not attempt
+descriptions of the cities or scenery which we visited. Much as we enjoyed
+such sights, they are fully described in guide books, and I keep to our
+personal experiences. The length of our visit to Madras was partly due to
+unfortunate circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail at length,
+though they have since in broad outline become public property. Briefly,
+shortly after our arrival Lady Connemara, who had been staying at
+Ootacamund, arrived at Government House accompanied by the doctor and one
+of the staff. The following day she migrated to an hotel just as a large
+dinner-party was arriving, and we had to conceal her absence on plea of
+indisposition.
+
+After several days' absence and much negotiation she consented to
+return--but Lord Connemara implored us to remain while she was away, and
+even after she came back, to help him look after his guests, particularly
+some who came to stay in the house. We were rather amused, when later on
+we visited the Prendergasts at Baroda, to discover that Sir Harry
+Prendergast and his daughters, who had stayed at Government House in the
+midst of the trouble, had never discovered that Lady Connemara was not
+there, but thought that she was ill in her own rooms all the time! I
+cannot help thinking that some of us must have been rather like the
+policeman before the magistrate of whom the cabman said "I won't go for to
+say that the gentleman is telling a lie, but he handles the truth rather
+carelessly." I fear that we must have handled the truth rather
+carelessly.
+
+Fortunately the native servants could not speak English, and the better
+class natives in the city behaved extraordinarily well in wishing to keep
+things quiet as far as possible. Anyhow, Lady Connemara came back for a
+time, and ultimately--some time in the following year, I think--returned
+to England. The end, as is well known, was a divorce. She married the
+doctor, and Lord Connemara a rich widow--a Mrs. Coleman. They are all dead
+now and the causes of dispute do not matter; they may be summed up with
+the old formula, "Faults on both sides."
+
+The delay was rather tiresome for us, as we had planned to get to Calcutta
+well before Christmas, but on the other hand it enabled us to see a good
+deal that we could not have done in the short time which we had originally
+destined to the Presidency, and Lord Connemara and his staff did
+everything for our entertainment.
+
+[Sidenote: THEOSOPHISTS AT ADYAR]
+
+Among other excursions we had an amusing visit to our ship acquaintance,
+Colonel Olcott, at the headquarters, or Library, of the Theosophical
+Society at Adyar. Adyar is a pretty place, and there are nice shady drives
+near it with banyan, tamarind, and other trees. As we approached we saw a
+large bungalow on the top of a small hill, and noticed a number of people
+seated in the verandah. It was evident that they saw us from their
+elevation, but it did not seem to have struck them that we could also see
+them from below. When we arrived at the door everyone had disappeared
+except Colonel Olcott, who was seated in an attitude of abstraction, but
+jumped up holding out his hands and expressing great pleasure at our
+visit.
+
+We were taken into a long hall, hung round with the shields of the various
+theosophical Lodges in India and elsewhere. There were several rooms, and
+as we were shown into them the people whom we had seen on the verandah
+were either "discovered" or "entered" like actors on a stage, and duly
+introduced: "A Russian Countess"--the "Countess of Jersey"; "a Japanese
+nobleman"--the "Earl of Jersey." We were shown the doors of Kathiawar wood
+rather well carved, and beyond there was a kind of Sanctuary with two
+large paintings of Mahatmas behind doors like those of a Roman Catholic
+altarpiece. I believe that it was behind those doors that Madame Blavatsky
+was supposed to have performed a miracle with broken tea-cups, but I am
+not clear as to details and Colonel Olcott was too cute to attempt to
+foist the story upon us. What he did tell us was that the artist
+Schmiechen painted the Mahatmas without having seen them, implying some
+kind of inspiration. We happened to know Schmiechen, as he had painted
+several of our family, so when we were back in England I remarked that I
+had seen the pictures which he had painted without having seen the
+subjects. "Yes," said he, "but I had very good photographs of them!"
+
+Olcott told us that he intended to have portraits of the Founders of all
+religions in this Sanctuary, but so far the only companion of the Mahatmas
+was a photograph of Paracelsus. He, however, produced another photograph
+from somewhere and bade me prepare to respect a bishop. The bishop proved
+to be black! Poor Olcott! He made another attempt to convert me while at
+Madras by lending me copies of a rather colourless magazine--always
+assuring me that his Society was in no sense anti-Christian. When he
+called to see the effect which this publication had had upon me I remarked
+that I had read not only the magazine, but its advertisements, which
+advertised distinctly anti-Christian books. He turned the colour of
+beetroot, for he had never thought of the advertisements.
+
+[Sidenote: THE RANEES OF TRAVANCORE]
+
+While we were at Madras the then Maharajah of Travancore was invested with
+the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Star of India. He was a gorgeous
+figure wearing over a long coat of cloth-of-gold with small green spangles
+the pale-blue satin cloak of the Order, which cost him two thousand rupees
+at Calcutta. His white turban was adorned with beautiful emeralds. The
+right of succession in Travancore is peculiar, being transmitted to males
+through females. As there were no directly royal females in 1857, this
+Maharajah's uncle adopted two Ranees to be "Mothers of Princes." The elder
+Ranee was charming and highly educated, but unfortunately had no children,
+and her husband, though a clever man (perhaps too clever!) got into
+difficulties and was banished. The Ranee declined all the suggestions of
+her friends that she should divorce him, and her constancy was rewarded by
+his recall to her side. This marital fidelity pleased Queen Victoria so
+much that she sent the Princess a decoration.
+
+The younger Ranee had two sons, of whom one, called the First Prince, was
+considered Heir Presumptive and was present at the Investiture. He did not
+strike me as much of a man, and he and the Maharajah were reported not to
+be on friendly terms. Ladies marry in Travancore by accepting a cloth
+(i.e. sari) from a man--if they do not like him they have only to send it
+back, which constitutes a divorce.
+
+Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff, when Governor of Madras, was admiring the
+embroidered cloth of one of these Travancore ladies and innocently said
+that he would like to send her a cloth from Madras as a specimen of the
+handiwork executed there, to which she promptly retorted that she was much
+obliged, but that she was quite satisfied with her present husband.
+
+Although I refrain from descriptions in a general way, I must include some
+reference to a journey in the southern part of the Presidency which Lord
+Connemara kindly arranged for us, as it is less well known than Madras
+itself and other cities generally visited. Also this part of the country
+will doubtless change rapidly, if it has not already done so.
+
+A long day's journey took us to Tanjore, where the temporary District
+Judge, Mr. Fawcett, was good enough to receive us in his bungalow
+and show us the sights. The great Temple rejoices in the name of
+Bahadeeswara-swami-kovil and is said to have been built in the eleventh
+century. The Gopuram or great pyramidical tower, 216 feet from the base to
+the top of the gilded Kalasum, which takes the place of our Cross, is most
+imposing. It is covered with carvings, and amongst them we were shown the
+head and bust of an Englishman in a round hat commonly called "John
+Bright." The attendants point to this with pride, saying that it was put
+there when the temple was originally built, on account of a prophecy that
+the English would one day possess the land. We were struck by the
+wonderful foresight of the Hindu prophets in the time of William the
+Conqueror, as they foretold not only the advent of the English, but also
+their costume 800 years after the date of the prophecy.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PRINCESSES OF TANJORE]
+
+The Sivajee dynasty had ruled that part of the country till a Rajah called
+Serfojee ceded his territory to the British. His granddaughter, the senior
+lady of his son Sevajee, was the last real Princess of the family. She
+was dead before the date of our visit, but some ladies of the zenana still
+lingered on in the Palace. Some years after our visit Lord Dufferin told
+me of his experiences at Tanjore. As Viceroy he was admitted to the
+zenana, though of course other men could not enter. He was shown into a
+large, dimly lighted room at the end of which was a Chair of State covered
+with red cloth. The attendants made signs for him to approach the chair,
+and he was just about to take his seat upon it when he suddenly perceived
+a small figure wrapped in the red cloth. He had been about to sit down on
+the Princess!
+
+We did not see the ladies, but we visited the large rambling Palace, in
+which were three very fine halls. One was rather like a church, with a
+nave and two narrow side aisles, and two rows of dim windows one above the
+other. This appeared to be utilised as a Museum with very miscellaneous
+contents. There was a silver-plated canopy intended to be held over bridal
+pairs--and a divan on which were placed portraits of Queen Victoria and
+the late Ranee attended by large dolls or figures presumably representing
+members of the Sivajee family. All about the halls were cheap ornaments,
+photographs, and, carefully framed, an advertisement of Coats' sewing
+cotton! Another hall contained a fine statue of Serfojee by Flaxman, a
+bust of Nelson, and a picture representing the head of Clive with mourners
+for his death.
+
+There was also an interesting library with many Sanscrit and other
+manuscripts. One book in particular, full of paintings of elephants
+executed for Serfojee, was really amusing. Towards the beginning was a
+picture of angelic white elephants, and other black, red, and purple
+elephants all with wings. An attendant declared that elephants supported
+the various quarters of the globe and used to have wings, but one day in
+flying they fell down upon a Rishi (Saint) and disturbed his devotions,
+whereupon he induced the gods to deprive them of their flying powers. It
+is always dangerous to offend Saints.
+
+From Tanjore a night's journey took us to Madura, where we stayed with Mr.
+Turner, the Collector of the District, in an interesting and remarkable
+house. At the time of our visit it belonged to the Johnston family, but
+they let it to the Government that the rent might pay for a Scholarship at
+the Madras College. The principal living-room was rather like a church,
+having forty columns in it, and, the floor being on different levels and
+divided in various ways, it served for sitting-room, dining-, and
+billiard-room. From one corner a winding staircase led to a terrace from
+which opened bedrooms. Below the living-room were vaults or dungeons where
+wild beasts and prisoners were confined in the old days when the house was
+a sort of Summer Palace. In one of these vaults tradition said that a
+queen was starved to death.
+
+[Sidenote: "THE HEART OF MONTROSE"]
+
+My bedroom, a very large room, was rendered additionally attractive as
+having been the temporary resting-place of the heart of Montrose, enclosed
+in a little steel case made of the blade of his sword. Lord Napier of
+Merchiston, descended from Montrose's nephew, gave this to his daughter
+(afterwards Mrs. Johnston) on his death-bed, 1773, in a gold filigree box
+of Venetian workmanship. When Mr. and Mrs. Johnston were on their way to
+India their ship was attacked by a French frigate and Mr. Johnston with
+the captain's permission took charge of four quarter-deck guns. Mrs.
+Johnston refused to leave her husband and remained on deck holding her
+son, aged five, by one hand and in the other a large velvet reticule
+including, with several treasures, the gold filigree box. A shot wounded
+the lady's arm, bruised the child's hand, knocked down the father, and
+shattered the filigree box, but the steel case with the heart resisted the
+blow.
+
+Arrived at Madura Mrs. Johnston employed a native goldsmith to make a
+filigree box after the pattern of that which was damaged, and also a
+silver urn in which it was placed and which stood on an ebony table in the
+then drawing-room. The natives soon started a legend that the urn
+contained a talisman, and that whoever possessed it could never be wounded
+in battle or taken prisoner. Owing to this report it was stolen, and for
+some time could not be traced, but at last Mrs. Johnston learnt that it
+had been purchased by a neighbouring chief for a large sum of money.
+
+Mr. A. Johnston, her son, in a letter to his daughters dated 1836 and
+published as an appendix to Napier's _Life of Montrose_, relates the
+particulars which he had heard from his mother, and further his own
+experiences, which give an impression of very familiar friendship between
+English and natives in days when the former were largely isolated from
+intercourse with home.
+
+Young Alexander Johnston was sent each year by his father during the
+hunting season to stay with one or other of the neighbouring chiefs for
+four months together to acquire the different languages and native
+gymnastic exercises. On one occasion he was hunting in company with the
+chief who was supposed to have the urn, and distinguished himself by so
+wounding a wild hog that his companion was enabled to dispatch it.
+Complimenting the youth on his bravery, the chief asked in what way he
+could recognise his prowess.
+
+Young Johnston thereupon told the history of the urn and its contents, and
+begged the great favour of its restoration to his mother if it were really
+in his friend's possession. The chivalrous native replied that he had
+indeed purchased it for a large sum, not knowing that it was stolen from
+Mrs. Johnston, and added that one brave man should always attend to the
+wishes of another brave man no matter of what country or religion, and
+that he felt it a duty to carry out that brave man's wish who desired that
+his heart should be kept by his descendants. With Oriental magnanimity he
+accompanied the restored heart with rich presents to the youth and his
+mother.
+
+In after years this chief rebelled against the authority of the Nabob of
+Arcot, was conquered by the aid of English troops, and executed with many
+members of his family. He behaved with undaunted courage, and on hearing
+that he was to die, at once alluded to the story of the urn and expressed
+the hope that his heart would be preserved by those who cared for him, in
+the same way as that of the European warrior.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Johnston returned to Europe in 1792, and being in France when
+the Revolutionary Government required the surrender of all gold and silver
+articles in private possession, they entrusted the urn and its contents to
+an Englishwoman at Boulogne, who promised to secrete it. Unfortunately she
+died shortly afterwards, and the Johnstons were never able to trace the
+lost treasure.
+
+Mr. Alexander Johnston adds that he ultimately received from the French
+Government the value of the plate and jewels which his parents had been
+compelled to give up to the Calais municipality. It is, however, unlikely
+that he would have recovered the heart thirty or forty years
+afterwards--unless indeed Mrs. Johnston had kept it in its little steel
+case and surrendered the urn.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PALACE OF MADURA]
+
+The old Palace at Madura is a fine building, now used for a court of
+justice. At the time of our visit recollections of the Prince of Wales
+(Edward VII) still prevailed. When he arrived at the Palace a row of
+elephants was stationed on either side of the court on to which the
+principal buildings opened. All the elephants duly salaamed at a given
+signal except one--perhaps inoculated with Bolshevik principles. Whereupon
+the stage-manager of the proceedings called out in Tamil to the mahout of
+the recalcitrant animal, "I fine you five rupees!"
+
+One of the purdah Ranees still occupied a side room of the Palace, and our
+host Mr. Turner with another man was stationed to guard the door. The
+Prince, however, feeling that "nice customs curtsy to great kings," put
+them aside and entered the apartment with all his suite. The Ranee was
+much flurried at first, but finally fascinated, and afterwards gave him a
+handsome necklace.
+
+From delightful terraces on the Palace roof you get an extensive view of
+the town and surrounding country. There are two fine hills, one called
+Secundermullai, as Alexander the Great is supposed to have camped there,
+the other Elephantmullai, from a legend that the Chola (Tanjore) King's
+magician made him a gigantic elephant, but the Pandyan (Madura) King's
+magician changed it into a mountain. As the mountain bears a decided
+resemblance to an elephant, who will doubt the tale?
+
+The most striking feature of Madura is the immense Temple, of which the
+size, the decorations, and the wealth displayed are impressive evidence of
+the vitality of the Hindu faith. Four gopurams or towers guard the
+entrances to the halls, galleries, arcades, and courts within the sacred
+precincts. One hall is called the Hall of a Thousand Pillars and is said
+really to contain 997. In the galleries are colossal figures of dragons,
+gods, goddesses, and heroes, groups being often carved out of one gigantic
+monolith.
+
+The presiding deity is Minachi, the old Dravidian fish-goddess adopted by
+the Brahmins as identical with Parvati, wife of Siva. The Brahmins
+constantly facilitated the conversion of the lower races to their faith by
+admitting their tutelar deities to the Hindu Pantheon. The great
+flag-staff of Minachi (alias Parvati) is overlaid with gold. There are a
+thousand Brahmins and attendants employed about the Temple, which has an
+annual income of 70,000 rupees, and shortly before our visit the
+Nattukottai Chetties or native money-lenders had spent 40,000 rupees on
+the fabric.
+
+The Treasury contains stores of jewels, particularly sapphires, and
+"vehicles" for the gods in the form of elephants, cows, lions, or peacocks
+constructed of, or overlaid with, gold or silver of fine workmanship. Two
+cows, late additions, were pointed out to us as having cost 17,000 rupees.
+
+The Chetties are an immensely wealthy caste, and lavish money in building
+both temples and commodious houses for themselves. At one corner of the
+latter they put a large figure of an Englishman attended by a small
+native, at another an Englishwoman in a crinoline and with rather short
+petticoat. They evidently like to propitiate the powers both seen and
+unseen.
+
+Before the Prince of Wales's visit the Collector asked them to contribute
+a specified sum towards the fund being raised for his entertainment. They
+refused, but offered so much less. They were then shut up in a place
+enclosed with palisades, while a series of notes and messages was
+interchanged with them. They were much amused by the proceedings, which
+they evidently regarded as the proper method of negotiation, and kept
+refusing with roars of laughter, till feeling that they had played the
+game long enough, they consented to give the sum originally asked and were
+released.
+
+[Sidenote: ROUS PETER'S SACRED DOOR]
+
+Among the many objects of interest in the temple one of the quaintest was
+a _door_ dedicated to a former Collector called Rous Peter. He used to
+worship Minachi in order to obtain any money that he wanted from the
+Pagoda Treasury for the repair of the roads and other public purposes.
+
+After his death the Brahmins placed him among their devils, and used to
+light little lamps round the door in his honour. A devil was quite as much
+respected as a beneficent deity, indeed it was even more necessary to keep
+him in a good humour. Mr. Peter unfortunately did not always distinguish
+between his own and the public funds and finally poisoned himself.
+
+He had a great friend, one Colonel Fisher, who married a native woman, and
+he and Peter were buried side by side near the Pagoda. Colonel Fisher's
+family were, however, not satisfied with this semi-heathen arrangement and
+later on built a Christian church destined to include their remains. There
+was some little difficulty with the Christian authorities about this, but
+ultimately it was amicably settled. When we were at Madura a screen behind
+the altar shut off from the rest of the church the part where they were
+buried, to which the natives came with garlands to place on Peter's tomb.
+
+As is well known, such semi-deification of Europeans who had captivated
+Indian imagination was not uncommon. We heard of a colonel buried in
+another part of the Presidency on whose grave the natives offered brandy
+and cheroots as a fitting tribute to his tastes.
+
+A twenty-three hours' journey brought us back to Madras on the afternoon
+of December 16th. We had greatly enjoyed our few days in the new world of
+Southern India, and were impressed with the hold that the Hindu faith
+still had on the population.
+
+During the whole of our stay at Madras Lord Connemara and his staff made
+every effort for our enjoyment. Mr. Rees (Private Secretary) was
+especially kind in arranging that I should see, not only the Public
+Museums and other Institutions, but also some of the private houses to
+which Europeans were not generally admitted. Among the excellent
+representatives of the British Government were the Minister of Education,
+Mr. Grigg, and Mrs. Grigg. Madras owes much to them both--the native girls
+particularly to Mrs. Grigg. Their son, who acted as one of Lord
+Connemara's pages at the Investiture of the Maharajah of Travancore, is
+now Sir Edward Grigg, whose knowledge of the Empire has been invaluable to
+the Prince of Wales, and who is now Secretary to the Prime Minister.
+
+One of the most prominent educational institutions at Madras was the
+Scottish Free Church Mission which had a College for boys and Schools for
+girls of different castes. These included some Christians, but there was
+no claim to any large number of conversions. All scholars learnt to read
+the Bible, and no doubt a good system of morality was inculcated. I
+believe that had we gone to Trichinopoly we should have found many more
+Christians. It is much easier to convert pariahs and low-caste natives,
+numerous in Southern India, than those of the higher castes, who have to
+give up social position and worldly advantage if they change their faith.
+Lord Connemara often received very amusing correspondence. One letter was
+from a luckless husband who wrote: "Nothing is more unsuitable than for a
+man to have more than one wife. I have three, and I pray your Excellency
+to banish whichever two you please to the Andaman Islands or some other
+distant country."
+
+[Sidenote: LOYALTY OF NATIVE INDIANS]
+
+When we first visited India at all events the natives had implicit faith
+in English power and justice even when their loyalty left something to be
+desired. An Englishman was talking to a man suspected of pro-Russian
+sympathies, and pointed out to him the way in which Russians treated their
+own subjects. "If Russia took India," he said, "what would you do if a
+Russian tried to confiscate your property?" "In that case," was the prompt
+reply, "I should appeal to the High Court." For the most part, however,
+they were intensely loyal to the person of the Sovereign.
+
+When Queen Victoria's statue was unveiled at the time of the First Jubilee
+the natives came in thousands to visit it, and to "do poojah," presenting
+offerings of cocoa-nuts, etc. The statue was in bronze, and they expressed
+great pleasure in finding that their Mother was brown after all; they had
+hitherto imagined her to be white!
+
+We had arranged to sail from Madras to Calcutta by a British India named
+the _Pundua_, which ought to have landed us there in good time for
+Christmas, but our voyage had many checks. First the hydraulic unloading
+machinery of that "perfidious bark" went wrong, and we were only taken on
+board three days later than the scheduled time for starting. Starting at
+all from Madras was not particularly easy in those days, for the harbour
+had been constructed on a somewhat doubtful principle; nature had not done
+much for it, and the results of science and engineering had been seriously
+damaged by a cyclone. As Sir Mount Stuart Grant Duff had sagely remarked,
+"Any plan is a good one if you stick to it," but the damaged walls were
+being rebuilt somewhat tentatively and there was no conviction as to the
+ultimate outcome. Probably there is now a satisfactory structure, but in
+our time there was not much protection for the boat which carried us to
+the _Pundua_. Mr. Rees was to accompany us to Calcutta, and Lord Connemara
+and Lord Marsham took us on board. We had taken tender farewells of all
+our friends ashore and afloat--the Governor had gone back in his boat,
+when we heard an explosion followed by a fizzing. A few minutes later the
+captain came up and said, "Very sorry, but we cannot start to-day." "What
+has happened?" "The top of the cylinder has blown off." Much humiliated we
+had to return with our luggage to Government House, and to appear at what
+was called "The Dignity Ball" in the evening.
+
+Next day (December 22nd) we really did get off; the wretched _Pundua_
+possessed three cylinders, so one was disconnected, and she arranged to
+proceed at two-third speed with the others. This meant something over nine
+knots an hour, and, after sticking on a sandbank near the mouth of the
+Hoogli, we ultimately reached the neighbourhood of Diamond Harbour on
+December 26th, and by means of a Post Office boat, and train, reached
+Calcutta and Government House late that evening.
+
+[Sidenote: PASSENGERS ON THE "PUNDUA"]
+
+When I went on board the _Pundua_ I was shown into the good-sized "Ladies
+Cabin" and told that I could have that and the adjoining bathroom to
+myself. In reply to my inquiry as to whether the other ladies on board
+would not want it, I was told that there was only one other lady and she
+was not in the habit of using the bath! This seemed queer, till I
+discovered that she was the heroine of one of the tragedies which
+sometimes occur in the East. She was the daughter of a family of mixed
+European and Indian parentage. The other children were dusky but
+respectable. She was white, and rather handsome, and fascinated a luckless
+young Englishman of good family, who married her, only to discover that
+she was extravagant and given to flirtation. They were on their way to a
+post--tea-planting if I remember aright--somewhere to the North of India.
+When they first left England the husband was very sea-sick, and the wife
+carried on a violent flirtation with another passenger and was also
+described as swearing and drinking. When the husband recovered she
+insisted on his shooting her admirer, and on his declining tried to shoot
+her husband. The captain, however, seized the revolver and shut her up in
+a second-class cabin. She was only allowed to dine with the first-class
+passengers on Christmas evening. Poor husband! I believe that he was quite
+a good fellow, but I do not know their subsequent fate.
+
+We also had on board an orchid-hunter who had given up the destination
+which he had originally proposed to himself, because he discovered that a
+rival was going to some new field for exploration, and as he could not let
+him have the sole chance of discovering the beautiful unknown flower of
+which there were rumours, he set off to hunt _him_. All the material for a
+novel, if only the lady with the revolver had formed an alliance,
+offensive and defensive, with the orchid-hunter. Unfortunately we did not
+learn the after-history of any of these fellow-passengers.
+
+We were warmly welcomed at Government House, Calcutta, by Lord and Lady
+Lansdowne. Lord Lansdowne, an old school and college friend of Jersey's,
+had just taken over the reins of Government from Lord Dufferin. Lord
+William Beresford, another old friend of my husband's, was Military
+Secretary, and Colonel Ardagh Private Secretary. Sir Donald Mackenzie
+Wallace, who had been so eminently successful as Private Secretary to the
+late Viceroy, was staying on for a short time to place his experience at
+the service of the new rulers. The aides-de-camp were Major Rowan
+Hamilton, Captain Streatfeild, Captain Arthur Pakenham, Captain Harbord,
+and Lord Bingham.
+
+We found that the tardy arrival of our unfortunate _Pundua_ had not only
+been a disappointment to ourselves, but, alas! a great grief to many of
+the Calcutta ladies, as it was bringing out their new frocks for the
+Viceroy's Christmas Ball. I hope that it proved a consolation to many that
+the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal gave a ball at Belvedere two days after
+the ship came in, when no doubt the dresses were unpacked. Lady
+Lansdowne's pretty daughter, now Duchess of Devonshire, was just out and
+therefore able to attend this ball.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BRAHMO SOMAJ]
+
+We spent a few very pleasant days at Calcutta and met various interesting
+people. Amongst them was Protap Chunder Mozoondar, Head of the Brahmo
+Somaj (i.e. Society Seeking God). He paid me a special visit to expound
+the tenets of his Society, which, as is well known, was founded by Babu
+Chunder Sen, father of the (Dowager) Maharanee of Kuch Behar. Briefly, the
+ideas of the Society are based on natural theology, or the human instinct,
+which tells almost all men that there is a God. The Brahmo Somaj accepts a
+large portion of the Holy Books of all nations, especially the Vedas and
+the Bible. It acknowledges Christ as a Divine Incarnation and Teacher of
+Righteousness, but again it does not regard His atonement as necessary to
+salvation. My informant's view was that Christian missionaries did not
+sufficiently take into account Hindu feelings, and enforced unnecessary
+uniformity in dress, food, and outward ceremonies. This is quite possible,
+but it would be difficult for a Christian missionary not to insist on the
+Sacraments, which form no essential part of the Brahmo Somaj ritual.
+
+Babu Chunder Sen's own sermons or discourses in England certainly go
+beyond a mere acknowledgment of Christ as a Teacher and express deep
+personal devotion to him and acceptance of His atonement in the sense of
+at-one-ment, or bringing together the whole human race, and he regards the
+Sacraments as a mystical sanctification of the ordinary acts of
+bathing--so congenial to the Indian--and eating. However, in some such way
+Protap Chunder Mozoondar seemed to think that a kind of Hinduised
+Christianity would ultimately prevail in India.
+
+It is impossible for an ordinary traveller to form an opinion worth having
+on such a point, but the Brahmo Somaj, like most religious bodies, has
+been vexed by schism. Babu Chunder Sen among other reforms laid down that
+girls should not be given in marriage before the age of fourteen, but his
+own daughter was married to the wealthy young Maharajah Kuch Behar before
+that age. This created some prejudice, though the marriage was a
+successful one, and she was a highly educated and attractive woman. She
+had a great reverence for her father, and in after years gave me some of
+his works. Another pundit, later on, started another Brahmo Somaj
+community of his own. The explanation of this given to me by Kuch Behar
+himself was that he was a "Parti" and that this other teacher (whose name
+I have forgotten) wanted him to marry his daughter, but he chose Miss Sen
+instead! I fear that this is not a unique example of church history
+affected by social considerations.
+
+While at Calcutta we received a telegram to say that Villiers had reached
+Bombay and we met him at Benares on New Year's Day, 1889. He had come out
+escorted by a Mr. Ormond, who wanted to come to India with a view to work
+there and was glad to be engaged as Villiers's travelling companion.
+Rather a curious incident was connected with their voyage. A young Mr. S.
+C. had come out on our ship the _Arcadia_--on Villiers's ship a youth
+travelled who impersonated this same man. The amusing part was that a very
+excellent couple, Lord and Lady W. (both now dead), were on the same ship.
+Lady W. was an old friend of Mrs. S. C.--the real man's mother--but, as it
+happened, had not seen the son since his boyhood. Naturally she accepted
+him under the name he had assumed, and effusively said that she had nursed
+him on her knee as a child. The other passengers readily accepted him as
+the boy who had been nursed on Lady W.'s knee, and it was not until he had
+landed in India that suspicion became excited by the fact that there were
+_two_ S. C.'s in the field and that number Two wished to raise funds on
+his personality. This assumption of someone else's name is common enough,
+and every traveller must have come across instances, but it was rather
+funny that our son and ourselves should have travelled with the respective
+claimants.
+
+[Sidenote: MAHARAJAH OF BENARES]
+
+At Benares we were taken in hand by a retired official--a Jain--rejoicing
+in the name of Rajah Shiva Prashad. We stayed at Clark's Hotel, while
+Shiva Prashad showed us all the well-known sights of the Holy City, and
+also took us to pay a formal visit to the "Maharajah _of the people_ of
+Benares." It is curious that the Maharajah should have adopted that name,
+just as Louis Philippe called himself "King of the French" rather than "of
+France" to indicate less absolute power. The Maharajah's modesty was due
+to the fact that Shiva is supposed to uphold Benares on his trident, and
+bears the name of "Mahadeva"--Great God, or Ruler of the City--so the
+earthly potentate can only look after the people--not claim the city
+itself.
+
+The Maharajah's Palace was on the river in a kind of suburb called
+Ramnagar, to which we were taken on a barge. We were received at the
+water-steps by a Babu seneschal, at the Castle steps by the Maharajah's
+grandson, and at the door of a hall, or outer room, by the Maharajah
+himself--a fine old man with spectacles. It was all very feudal; we were
+seated in due state in the drawing-room, and after some polite
+conversation, translated by our friend the Rajah, who squatted on the
+floor at the Maharajah's feet, we were entertained with native music and
+nautch-dancing. After we had taken leave of our host we inspected his
+tigers, kept, I suppose, as an emblem of his rank. Shiva Prashad told us a
+romantic tale of his own life, according to which he first entered the
+service of the Maharajah of Bhurtpore, but was disgusted by the cruelty
+which he saw exercised--prisoners thrown into miserable pits, and only
+given water mixed with salt to drink. He left the Maharajah, and thought
+of becoming an ascetic, but being taunted by his relatives for his failure
+in life, he (rather like St. Christopher) determined to enter the service
+of someone "greater than the Maharajah." He discovered this superior power
+in the British Government, which gave him an appointment in the Persian
+Department.
+
+While there he somehow found himself with Lord Hardinge and three thousand
+men arrayed against sixty thousand Sikhs. The Council of War recommended
+falling back and waiting for reinforcements, "but Lord Hardinge pronounced
+these memorable words--'We must fight and conquer or fall here.'" They
+fought--and first one three thousand, then another three thousand friendly
+troops joined in, so the Homeric combat ended in their favour, and Prashad
+himself was employed as a spy. Afterwards he retired to the more peaceful
+occupation of School Inspector, and when we knew him enjoyed a pension and
+landed property.
+
+[Sidenote: MARRIAGES OF INFANTS AND WIDOWS]
+
+He posed as a perfect specimen of a happy and contented man, and had much
+to say about the excellence of the British Raj and the ignorance and
+prejudice of his own countrymen, whom he said we could not understand as
+we persisted in comparing them with Europeans--that is, with reasonable
+beings, whereas they had not so much sense as animals! All the same I
+think a good deal of this contempt for the Hindu was assumed for our
+benefit, particularly as the emancipation of women evidently formed no
+part of his programme. He gave an entertaining account of a visit paid by
+Miss Carpenter to his wife and widowed sister. Miss Carpenter was a
+philanthropic lady of about fifty, with hair beginning to grizzle, who
+carried on a crusade against infant marriage and the prohibition of the
+remarriage of widows. "Well," was the comment of Mrs. Prashad, "I married
+when I was seven and my husband nine and I have been happy. How is it that
+this lady has remained unmarried till her hair is growing grey? Has no one
+asked her? There ought to be a law in England that no one shall remain
+unmarried after a certain age!" The sister countered an inquiry as to her
+continued widowhood with the question, "Why does not the Empress marry
+again?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+NORTHERN INDIA AND JOURNEY HOME
+
+
+From Benares we went to Lucknow, where we had the good fortune to meet Sir
+Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts, and Lady Roberts, who were
+exceedingly kind to us during our stay. We had one most interesting
+expedition under their auspices. We and some others met them by
+appointment at Dilkusha, a suburban, ruined house of the former King of
+Oude from which Sir Colin Campbell had started to finally relieve Outram
+and Havelock in November 1857. Roberts, then a young subaltern, was, as is
+well known, of the party, and he took us as nearly as possible over the
+ground which they had traversed. Havelock, who had previously brought
+relief to the garrison, but not enough to raise the siege of Lucknow, had
+sent word to Sir Colin not to come the same way that he had, as it
+entailed too much fighting and loss to break right through the houses held
+by the rebels, but to keep more to the right. Sir Frederick pointed out
+the scenes of several encounters with the enemy, and one spot where he,
+sent on a message, was nearly lost--also Secunderabagh, a place with a
+strong wall all round it, where the British found and killed two thousand
+rebels, the British shouting "Remember Cawnpore!" to each man as they
+killed him.
+
+[Sidenote: THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW]
+
+Each party--Campbell's, and Havelock's who advanced to join them--put
+flags on the buildings they captured as signals to their friends. At last
+they respectively reached the Moti Mahal or Pearl Palace. Here Sir
+Frederick showed us the wall on which the two parties, one on either side,
+worked till they effected a breach and met each other. Then Sir Colin
+Campbell, who was at the Mess House just across the road, came forward and
+was greeted by Generals Outram and Havelock--and the relief was complete.
+
+Sir Frederick had not seen the wall since the breach had been built up
+again, but he pointed out its whereabouts, and Jersey found the new
+masonry which identified the spot. Colonel May, who had come with us from
+Dilkusha, then took us over the Residency in which he, then a young
+engineer, had been shut up during the whole of the siege. It was amazing
+to see the low walls which the besieged had managed to defend for so long,
+particularly as they were then overlooked by comparatively high houses
+held by the rebels which had since been levelled to the ground. Colonel
+May indicated all the posts, and the places of greatest danger, but there
+was danger everywhere, except perhaps in the underground rooms in which
+250 women and children of the 32nd were lodged. Cannon-balls were always
+flying about--he told us of one lady the back of whose chair was blown
+away while she was sitting talking to him just outside the house, and of a
+cannon-ball which passed between the knees of a Mrs. Kavanagh, while she
+was in the verandah, without injuring her. We also saw the place where the
+rebels twice assembled in thousands crying "Give us Gubbins Sahib and we
+will go away." They particularly hated Mr. Gubbins, as he was Financial
+Commissioner.
+
+Sir Frederick said the ladies seemed quite dazed as they came out, and
+told us of one whom he knew who came out with two children, but
+subsequently lost her baby, while her husband was killed in the Mutiny.
+She, he said, never fully recovered her senses. No wonder, poor woman! One
+quaint thing we were told was that the rebels played themselves into
+quarters every evening with "God save the Queen."
+
+One unfortunate incident marred an otherwise delightful time at Lucknow. A
+sham fight took place, and Sir Frederick Roberts was good enough to lend a
+horse to Jersey and a beautiful pony to Villiers in order that they might
+witness it. Villiers, boylike, tried to ride his pony up the steep bank of
+a nullah. It fell back with him, and he suffered what was called a "green
+fracture," the bones of his forearm being bent near the wrist. They had to
+be straightened under chloroform. We were able to leave Lucknow two days
+later, but the arm rather hampered him during the rest of our journey.
+
+Delhi was our next stopping-place, where we had a most interesting time,
+being entertained by the Officer Commanding, Colonel Hanna--who had during
+the siege been employed in helping to keep open the lines of communication
+so as to supply food and munitions to the troops on the Ridge. He was
+therefore able to show us from personal knowledge all the scenes of the
+fighting and relief, as well as all the well-known marvels of architecture
+and the glories left by the great Moghuls. His house was near the old
+fortifications, which I believe are now demolished for sanitary reasons,
+but it was then a joy to look out of the windows, and see the little
+golden-brown squirrels which frequented the old moat, with the two marks
+on their backs left by Krishna's fingers when he caressed their
+progenitors.
+
+We were thrilled by his stories of events of which he had been an
+eye-witness, culminating in his account of the three days during which
+the British troops were permitted to sack the reconquered city. My husband
+remarked that he would not have stopped them at the end of three days.
+"Yes, you would, had you been there," said Colonel Hanna. It must be very
+hard to restrain men maddened by weeks of hardship and the recollection of
+atrocities perpetrated by their foes, if they are once let loose in the
+stronghold of their enemies. The troops camped on the Ridge, and losing
+their bravest from hour to hour seem to have had at least one advantage
+over the defenders of Lucknow--they did not suffer from the terrible
+shortage of water.
+
+[Sidenote: VIEW FROM THE KOTAB MINAR]
+
+Without attempting an account of all the palaces, tombs, and mosques which
+we saw, I must just say that nothing that I have ever seen is so
+impressive in its way as the view from the Kotab Minar after you have
+scaled the 375 steps to its tapering summit. Over the great plain are
+scattered the vestiges of deserted cities built by the conquerors and
+emperors of two thousand years, a history culminating on the Ridge of
+Delhi, where Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress, and where her grandson
+received in person the homage of the feudatory princes and chiefs over
+whom he was destined to rule. Even the Campagna of Rome has not that array
+of skeletons of past and bygone cities actually displayed before the eyes
+of the beholder, each bearing the name of some ruler whose name and deeds
+are half remembered although his dynasty has passed away.
+
+One of these cities is Tughlakabad, with the tomb of Tughlak and his son
+Juna. The latter was a horrid tyrant who maimed and ill-treated many
+victims. His cousin and successor Feroz seems to have been a merciful and
+pious ruler: he compensated the injured as far as possible and got them to
+write deeds of indemnity, which he placed in Juna's tomb that the latter
+might present them on the day of judgment. One cannot help thinking that
+Feroz rather than Juna may benefit from this action at the Great Assize.
+
+On January 12th we went to spend Saturday to Monday with Major and Mrs.
+Paley at Meerut. Our nephew George Wombwell was laid up at Colonel
+Morris's house there with typhoid fever. He seemed to be recovering, and
+after making arrangements for a nurse and every attention we returned to
+Delhi on Monday. We were afraid to keep Villiers in a cantonment station
+with illness about. Alas! Jersey was summoned back a few days later, when
+we were at Agra, as George became worse, and died. It was very sad.
+
+At Agra we went first to Lauri's Hotel, but Sir John Tyler, Superintendent
+of the Jail, persuaded us to come and stay with him, which was really a
+great thing, as Villiers had by no means completely recovered from the
+effect of his accident, and Sir John being a surgeon was able to look
+after him. Needless to say we visited the famous Taj by moonlight and by
+day, each time finding fresh beauties. I venture to quote a sentence about
+it from an article which I wrote concerning India published in _The
+Nineteenth Century_, because Sir Edwin Arnold was polite enough to say
+that I had discovered a fault which had escaped the observation of himself
+and his fellows:
+
+    "The Taj, that fairy palace of a love stronger than death, sprung from
+    sunset clouds and silvered by the moon, has but one fault--it is too
+    perfect. Nothing is left to the imagination. There are no mysterious
+    arches, no unfinished columns, nothing is there that seems to speak of
+    human longing and unfulfilled aspiration; you feel that a conqueror
+    has made Art his slave, and the work is complete; you can demand
+    nothing more exquisite in this world."
+
+[Sidenote: SEKUNDRA AND FUTTEHPORE-SEKREE]
+
+Among the many wonders of Agra and its neighbourhood I was specially
+impressed by the Tomb of the Great Akbar at Sekundra. As in the case of
+the Taj, the real tomb is underneath the building, but in the Taj the Show
+Tomb is simply in a raised chamber something like a chapel, whereas
+Akbar's Show Tomb is on a platform at the summit of a series of red
+sandstone buildings piled on each other and gradually diminishing in size.
+The tomb, most beautifully carved, is surrounded by a finely worked marble
+palisade and arcade running round the platform. Presumptuously, I took
+this mighty erection as an ideal for a scene in a child's story, _Eric,
+Prince of Lorlonia_.
+
+We were also delighted with Futtehpore-Sekree, the great city which Akbar
+built and then deserted because it had no water. It reminded us of
+Pompeii, though perhaps it had less human interest it had a greater
+imprint of grandeur. The great Archway or High Gate, erected 1602 to
+commemorate Akbar's conquests in the Deccan, has a striking Arabic
+inscription, concluding with the words:
+
+    "Said Jesus on whom be peace! The world is a bridge; pass over it, but
+    build no house there: he who hopeth for an hour may hope for eternity:
+    the world is but an hour; spend it in devotion: the rest is unseen."
+
+The greatest possible art has been lavished on the tomb of the hermit
+Sheikh Suleem. This holy man had a baby six months old when Akbar paid him
+a visit. Seeing his father look depressed instead of elated by the honour,
+the precocious infant asked the cause. The hermit must have been too much
+absorbed in religious meditation to study the habits of babies, for
+instead of being startled by the loquacity of his offspring he confided to
+him that he grieved that the Emperor could not have an heir unless some
+other person sacrificed his child. "By your worship's leave," said baby,
+"I will die that a Prince may be born," and before the father had time to
+remonstrate calmly expired. As a result of this devotion Jehanghir was
+born, and Akbar built Futtehpore-Sekree in the neighbourhood of the
+hermit's abode.
+
+When Sheikh Suleem died he was honoured with a splendid tomb inlaid with
+mother-of-pearl and enclosed in a marble summer-house with a beautifully
+carved screen to which people who want children tie little pieces of wool.
+Apparently a little addition to the offering of wool is desirable, as the
+priest who acted as guide assured us that an English officer who had a
+blind child tied on the wool, but also promised our informant a hundred
+rupees if the next was all right. The next was a boy with perfect eyesight
+and the priest had his reward.
+
+Beside the baby's tomb, which is in an outer cemetery, we saw a little
+tomb erected by a woman whose husband was killed in the Afghan War over
+one of his old teeth!
+
+We were fortunate in having Sir John Tyler as our host at Agra, for as
+Superintendent of the Jail he was able to ensure that we should have the
+best possible carpets, which we wanted for Osterley, made there. They were
+a long time coming, but they were well worth it. Abdul Kerim, Queen
+Victoria's Munshi, was a friend of his, in fact I believe that Sir John
+had selected him for his distinguished post. He was on leave at Agra at
+the time of our visit, and we went to a Nautch given at his father's
+house in honour of the Bismillah ceremony of his nephew.
+
+From Agra we visited Muttra, where we were the guests of the Seth Lachman
+Das--a very rich and charitable old man of the Bunyah (banker and
+money-lender) caste. He lodged us in a bungalow generally let to some
+English officers who were temporarily absent, and he and his nephew did
+all in their power to show us the sights at Muttra and in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BIRTHPLACE OF KRISHNA]
+
+Amongst other sacred spots we were taken to Krishna's birthplace. It was
+curious that though, throughout India, there are magnificent temples and
+rock-carvings in honour of Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna, his
+birthplace was only marked by a miserable little building with two dolls
+representing Krishna's father and mother.
+
+The legend of Krishna's babyhood is a curious echo of the birth of our
+Lord and the crossing of the Red Sea combined. It seems that a wicked
+Tyrant wanted to kill the child but his foster-father carried him over the
+river near Muttra, and as soon as the water touched the infant's feet it
+receded and they passed over dry shod. In memory of this event little
+brass basins are sold with an image within of the man carrying the child
+in his arms. The child's foot projects, and if one pours water into the
+basin it runs away as soon as it touches the toe. I do not know what may
+be the hydraulic trick, but certainly it is necessary to put the brass
+basin into a larger one before trying the experiment to receive the water
+which runs out at the bottom. The little birthplace building was in the
+courtyard of a mosque--part of which was reserved for the Hindus.
+
+The Seth had built a temple in Muttra itself, where he annually expended
+large sums in feeding the poor, and he and his family had erected a still
+finer one at Brindaban, a famous place of pilgrimage in the neighbourhood,
+where they had set up a flag-staff 120 feet high overlaid with real gold.
+Seth Lachman Das maintained at his own expense twenty-five priests and
+fifteen attendants besides fifty boys who were fed and instructed in the
+Shastras. As at Madura, we were struck by these rich men's apparent faith
+in their own religion.
+
+After visiting Deeg and Bhurtpore, we reached the pretty Italian-looking
+town of Ulwar. The Maharajah, who was an enlightened potentate, had
+unfortunately gone into camp, but we were interested in the many tokens of
+his care for his subjects and of his artistic tastes. He kept men
+executing illuminations like the old monks.
+
+When we visited the jail I was admitted to the quarters of the female
+prisoners, who seemed quite as anxious to show the labels which they
+carried recording their crimes, as schoolchildren are to display their
+exercises or needlework when one visits a school. One smiling woman
+brought me a label inscribed "Bigamy," which struck me as rather ludicrous
+considering the circumstances, and also a little unfair to the criminal.
+Indian men are allowed several wives--why was she punished for having more
+than one husband? Probably, however, she was safer locked up in prison
+than left at the mercy of two husbands, one of whom would almost certainly
+have cut off her nose if he had an access of jealousy.
+
+After Ulwar we spent a few days at that most attractive city, Jeypore,
+called by Sir Edwin Arnold the "City of Victory," a victorious Maharajah
+having transferred his capital there from the former picturesque town of
+Amber. The principal street of Jeypore has houses on either side painted
+pink, which has a brilliant effect in the sunlight, but when we were there
+the paint certainly wanted renewing. The Maharajah was a rarely
+intelligent man, and he had a particularly clever and agreeable Dewan--or
+Prime Minister. We made great friends with the English doctor--Dr.
+Hendley--who not only attended some of the native nobles, but also was
+able to superintend the English lady doctor and thereby help the native
+ladies. Formerly when a child was born a live goat was waved over its head
+and the blood of a cock sprinkled on it and its mother. Mother and child
+were then kept for a fortnight without air, and with a charcoal fire
+constantly burning, more charcoal being added if the child cried.
+Mercifully the younger ladies and their husbands were beginning to realise
+the comfort of English treatment on these occasions.
+
+[Sidenote: THE JAINS]
+
+On our way from Muttra to Ahmedabad we slept at the Rajpootana Hotel,
+about sixteen miles from Mount Abu Station, in order to visit the Dilwarra
+Temples of the Jains. The Jains are a sect of very strict
+Buddhists--almost the only representatives of the Buddhists left in
+Hindustan proper. Ceylon and Burmah are Buddhist, so are some of the lands
+on the Northern Frontier, but the Brahmins contrived to exterminate
+Buddhism in the great Peninsula in the eighth century after it had spread
+and flourished there for about a thousand years. These Dilwarra temples
+are well worth a visit. The pious founder is said to have bought the land
+for as many pieces of silver as would cover it, and to have paid
+L18,000,000 sterling for building, besides L560,000 for levelling the site
+on the steep hill.
+
+Without attempting to guarantee the accuracy of these figures, it may
+safely be said that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find any
+buildings in the world of which the interiors present an equal amount of
+highly finished artistic labour. Outside the temples are low and not
+imposing, inside they are one mass of minute and elaborate sculpture. You
+stand beneath a dome with saints or angels worthy of a Gothic cathedral
+rising to its central point. Around are arcades with pillars and arches,
+beyond which are numerous small chapels or shrines, each with the figure
+of a large cross-legged Rishi or Saint with little rishis in attendance.
+Every inch of arch, arcade, and ceiling is adorned with marvellous carving
+of ornaments, or of men, ships, and animals. We were told that the central
+figure in each temple was "Of the Almighty," who seemed to exact as
+tribute to his power a fearful noise of cymbals and tomtoms. He appeared
+to be not exactly a deity, but a divine emanation. The really perfect Jain
+wore a piece of muslin over his mouth to avoid destroying the life of even
+invisible insects, but such extreme virtue was, I fancy, rare and must
+have been highly uncomfortable.
+
+[Sidenote: THE MAHARAJAH OF BHOWNUGGER]
+
+From Ahmedabad we went to Bhownugger, where we were received in great
+state by the young Maharajah symptuously attired in green velvet and the
+Star of India, and attended by his high officials and a guard of honour.
+We felt very dirty and dusty after a hot journey (thermometer in railway
+carriages nearly 100 deg.) when received with so much splendour, but we
+liked the Maharajah immensely and he became devoted to my husband.
+
+He gave us a splendid time with all sorts of "tamashas" while we were his
+guests, but we were specially interested in his personality. He had been
+educated in the college for young chiefs at Ajmere and had acquired a very
+high standard of ideas of right and wrong and of his duty to his people. I
+expect that, like the rest of us, he often found it hard to carry his
+theories into practice, and it was rather pathetic when, speaking of what
+he wished to do, he added, "We must do the best we can and leave the rest
+to God"--then, looking up at the chandelier hanging in the bungalow in
+which he entertained us, he continued, "God is like that light, and the
+different religions are the different colours through which He shines."
+
+One of his difficulties, poor man, was in his matrimonial arrangements. He
+had married two or three ladies of high rank, as considered suitable by
+the Brahmins, but he had also married to please himself a fair maiden of
+lower caste. He then learnt that if he did not get rid of _her_ the
+Brahmins meant to get rid of _him_. Thereupon he took the Political
+Officer of that part of the country, Captain Ferris, into the middle of
+the tennis ground, as the only spot free from the risk of spies, and
+poured his griefs into the Englishman's sympathetic bosom. Captain
+Ferris's solution was that Mrs. Ferris should call upon the despised Rani,
+as she did on the more orthodox wives, and that the Maharajah should cling
+to his English adviser for several days, driving about with him and never
+leaving him, which would for the time being prevent attempts at
+assassination. What was to happen afterwards I do not know. Perhaps the
+Brahmins became aware that any foul play would bring the English raj down
+upon them. Anyhow, the Maharajah lived to pay a visit to England and came
+to see us there--though he did not attain old age.
+
+We heard a good deal of the harm resulting from the great expense of
+native marriages, including the temptation to infanticide. In the district
+about Ahmedabad the lower castes do not forbid second marriages, and these
+are less expensive than the first. Therefore a girl was sometimes married
+to _a bunch of flowers_, which was then thrown down a well. The husband
+thus disposed of, the widow could contract a second alliance quite
+cheaply.
+
+We then spent two nights as guests of the Thakur Sahib of Limbdi, who,
+like the other Kathiawar Princes of Morvi and Gondal, had been in England
+for the Jubilee, and whom we had known there. All three, particularly
+Limbdi and Gondal, were enlightened men, with various schemes for
+promoting the welfare of their subjects. The life of many of these Indian
+Chiefs recalls the days of Scottish Clans. When we were driving with
+Limbdi he would point out labouring men who saluted as he passed as his
+"cousins," and finally told us that he had six thousand blood relations.
+
+[Sidenote: BARODA]
+
+On February 14th we arrived at Baroda, where we were most hospitably
+entertained by Sir Harry and Lady Prendergast. Baroda, like so many Indian
+cities, offered a picture of transition, or at least blending of East and
+West. As is well known, the late Gaikwar poisoned the British Resident. He
+was tried by a Tribunal of three Indians and three British. The former
+acquitted, the latter condemned him. He was deposed and three boys of the
+family were selected of whom the Maharanee was allowed to adopt one as
+heir. She chose the present Gaikwar, who was educated under British
+auspices, but has not always been happy in his relations with the British
+Government. He however proved quite loyal during the late war. When we
+were at Baroda he had been decorating his Palace in an inferior European
+style. He had bought some fair pictures, but would only give an average of
+L100, as he said that neither he nor his subjects were capable of
+appreciating really good ones. In contrast to these modern arrangements we
+saw the "Chattries" of former Gaikwars. These were funny little rooms,
+something like small loose boxes in a garden surrounding a shrine. In one
+was a doll, representing Kunda Rao's grandfather, in another the ashes of
+his father under a turban with his photograph behind, in yet a third the
+turbans of his mother and two other sons. In each room there were a bed,
+water and other vessels, and little lights burning, the idea being that
+all should be kept in readiness lest the spirits should return to occupy
+the apartments. After all, the rooms of the late Queen of Hanover were
+until lately, perhaps are still, kept as in her lifetime, provided with
+flowers and with a lady-in-waiting in daily attendance; so East and West
+are much alike in their views of honour due to the departed.
+
+Back to Bombay for yet five happy days with our dear friends Lord and Lady
+Reay before saying farewell to India on February 22nd. We had had a truly
+interesting experience during our three and a half months in the Eastern
+Empire, and were deeply impressed by the manner in which so many races
+were knit together under British rule. How far all this may endure under
+the new attempts at Constitution-making by Occidentals for Orientals
+remains to be seen. When we paid this first of our visits to India it was
+perfectly evident that the idea of the Queen-Empress was the corner-stone
+of government. My husband talked to many natives, Maharajahs and
+officials, and would sometimes refer to the leaders of the great English
+political parties. Their names seemed to convey nothing to the Indians,
+but they always brought the conversation back to "The Empress." Disraeli
+was criticised in England for having bestowed that title on his Mistress,
+but we had constant opportunities of seeing its hold upon the Oriental
+mind. "Give my best respects to the Empress," was a favourite mission
+given to Jersey by his Maharajah friends. He conscientiously tried to
+acquit himself thereof when we saw the Queen, who was a good deal amused
+when he painstakingly pronounced their titles and names.
+
+I once heard a story which shows the effect of the Royal ideal on quite a
+different class. A census was in progress and a large number of
+hill-tribes had to be counted. These people had been told a legend that
+the reason for this reckoning was that the climate in England had become
+so hot that a large number of the women were to be transported there to
+act as slaves and fan the Queen--also the men were to be carried off for
+some other servile purpose. Consequently the mass of the people hid
+themselves, to the great embarrassment of the officials. One extremely
+capable man, however, knew the people well and how to deal with them. He
+contrived to induce the leading tribesmen to come and see him. In reply to
+his inquiry they confessed their apprehensions. "You fools," said the
+Englishman, "it is nothing of the sort. I will tell you the reason. You
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Hind?" Yes--they had heard of her. "And you
+have heard of the Kaiser-i-Roum?" (the Czar). They had also heard of him.
+"Well, the Kaiser-i-Roum paid a visit to the Kaiser-i-Hind, and when they
+had finished their curry and rice they began talking. He said he had more
+subjects than she, the Kaiser-i-Hind said she had most. To settle the
+matter they laid a heavy bet and both sent orders to count their people.
+If you don't let yourselves be counted the Kaiser-i-Hind will lose the bet
+and your faces will be blackened." The tale of the bet appealed to their
+sporting instincts. All difficulties disappeared. The tribesmen rushed to
+be counted--probably two or three times over.
+
+[Sidenote: ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA]
+
+Again, it was curious to notice how the English language was weaving its
+net over India.
+
+At Jeypore an English-speaking native official had been told off to take
+us about during our stay. When we were thanking him and saying good-bye,
+he remarked that the next person whom he was to conduct was a judge from
+Southern India. The judge was a native Indian, but as he did not know the
+language of the Jeypore State he had sent in advance to ask to be provided
+with a guide who could speak English. Formerly the _lingua franca_ of the
+upper, or educated, classes was Persian, of the lower ones Urdu--the kind
+of Hindustani spoken by the Mohammedan, and afterwards by the English
+army. Of course both languages still prevail, but all educated Indians
+learn English in addition to two or three of the hundred-odd languages
+spoken in the Peninsula. On a later visit a Hyderabad noble was taking my
+daughter and me to see various sights. I noticed that he talked to a good
+many natives in the course of our excursion, and as they appeared to be of
+different castes and occupations, I asked him at last how many languages
+he had talked during the day. After a little reflection he reckoned up
+six. It will not be such a very easy matter to get all these people into
+the category of enlightened electors.
+
+On our voyage home I occupied myself by writing the article already
+mentioned as appearing in _The Nineteenth Century_--from which I extract
+the following supplement to my recollections:
+
+    "Caste is the ruling note in India. The story which tells how the
+    level plains of Kathiawar were reclaimed from the sea illustrates
+    this. The egrets laid their eggs on the former ocean-line and the wave
+    swept them away. The egrets swore that the sea should be filled up
+    until she surrendered the eggs. They summoned the other birds to help
+    them, and all obeyed their call except the eagle. He was the favourite
+    steed of Vishnu, so thought himself exonerated from mundane duties.
+    But Vishnu looked askance at him and said that he should be put out of
+    caste unless he went to help his fellows. Back he flew to Kathiawar,
+    and when the sea saw that the royal bird had joined the ranks of her
+    opponents she succumbed and gave back the eggs.
+
+    "Hindu respect for animal life entails consequences which make one
+    wonder how the earth can provide not only for the swarms of human
+    inhabitants, including unproductive religious mendicants, but also for
+    such numbers of mischievous beasts. Some castes will kill no animals
+    at all, and all Hindus hold so many as sacred that peacocks, monkeys,
+    and pigeons may be seen everywhere, destroying crops and eating people
+    out of house and home. The people of a town, driven to desperation,
+    may be induced to catch the monkeys, fill a train with them, and
+    dispatch it to discharge its cargo at some desolate spot; but woe
+    betide a simicide! The monkeys in any given street will resent and
+    lament the capture of a comrade, but do not care at all if a stranger
+    is carried off. He is not of their caste."
+
+[Sidenote: MEDITATIONS OF A WESTERN WANDERER]
+
+In May 1889--_The National Review_ also published the following verses,
+which I wrote after reading Sir Alfred Lyall's "Meditations of a Hindu
+Prince." I called them "Meditations of a Western Wanderer":
+
+  "All the world over, meseemeth, wherever my footsteps have trod,
+  The nations have builded them temples, and in them have imaged their God.
+  Of the temples the Nature around them has fashioned and moulded the plan,
+  And the gods took their life and their being from the visions and
+      longings of man.
+
+  "So the Greek bade his marble be instinct with curves of the rock-riven
+      foam,
+  Within it enshrining the Beauty and the Lore of his sunlitten home;
+  And the Northman hewed deep in the mountain and reared his huge pillars
+      on high,
+  And drank to the strength of the thunder and the force flashing keen
+      from the sky.
+
+  "But they knew, did those builders of old time, that wisdom and courage
+      are vain,
+  That Persephone rises in springtide to sink in the winter again,
+  That the revelling halls of Walhalla shall crumble when ages have rolled
+  O'er the deep-rooted stem of the World-ash and the hardly-won Treasure
+      of gold.
+
+  "I turn to thee, mystical India, I ask ye, ye Dreamers of earth,
+  Of the Whence and the Whither of spirit, of the tale of its birth and
+      rebirth.
+  For the folks ye have temples and legends and dances to heroes and kings,
+  But ye sages know more, would ye tell it, of the soul with her god-given
+      wings.
+
+  "Ah, nations have broken your barriers; ah, empires have drunk of your
+      stream,
+  And each ere it passed bore its witness, and left a new thought for your
+      dream:
+  The Moslem saith, 'One is the Godhead,' the Brahmin 'Inspiring all,'
+  The Buddhist, 'The Law is Almighty, by which ye shall stand or shall
+      fall.'
+
+  "Yea, verily One the All-Father; yea, Brahmin, all life is from Him,
+  And Righteous the Law of the Buddha, but the path of attainment is dim.
+  Is God not afar from His creature--the Law over-hard to obey?
+  Wherein shall the Life be of profit to man seeing evil bear sway?
+
+  "Must I ask of the faith which to children and not to the wise is
+      revealed?
+  By it shall the mist be uplifted? By it shall the shrine be unsealed?
+  Must I take it, the often-forgotten yet echoing answer of youth--
+  ''Tis I,' saith the Word of the Father, 'am the Way and the Life and the
+      Truth'?
+
+  "The Truth dwelleth ay with the peoples, let priests hide its light as
+      they will;
+  'Tis spirit to spirit that speaketh, and spirit aspireth still;
+  Wherever I seek I shall find it, that infinite longing of man
+  To rise to the house of his Father, to end where his being began.
+
+  "And the secret that gives him the power, the message that shows him the
+      way,
+  Is the Light he will struggle to follow, the Word he perforce will obey.
+  It is not the voice of the whirlwind, nor bolt from the storm-kindled
+      dome;
+  'Tis stillness that bringeth the tidings--the child knows the accents of
+      home."
+
+We had a calm voyage to Suez in the _Bengal_. It was fortunate that it was
+calm--for the _Bengal_ was quite an old-fashioned ship. I think only
+something over 3,000 tons--different from the _Arcadia_, then the
+show-ship of the P. and O. fleet. I was amused once to come across an
+account by Sir Richard Burton of a voyage which he took in the _Bengal_
+years before, when he described the P. and O. as having done away with the
+terrors of ocean travel by having provided such a magnificent vessel.
+
+We spent nine days at Cairo and Alexandria and saw the usual sights, then
+quite new to us; but it is generally a mistake to visit one great land
+with a history and antiquities of its own when the mind has just been
+captured by another. Anyhow, we were so full of the glories of India that
+Egypt failed to make the appeal to us which she would otherwise have done,
+and which she did on subsequent visits. The mosques in particular seemed
+to us inferior to the marble dreams of Delhi and Agra. Moreover on this
+occasion we did not ascend the Nile and see the wonderful temples. The one
+thing which really impressed me was the Sphinx, though I regret to say
+that my husband and son entirely declined to share my feelings. Lord
+Kitchener was then, as Adjutant to Sir Francis Grenfell, Colonel
+Kitchener. He afterwards became a great friend of ours, but we first made
+his acquaintance on this visit to Cairo. We had a most interesting
+inspection of the Barrage works under the guidance of Sir Colin Moncrieff
+and dined with the Khedive, and at the British Agency.
+
+From Alexandria we went by an Egyptian steamer--at least a steamer
+belonging to an Egyptian line--to Athens, which we reached on March 15th,
+accompanied by Lady Galloway. On this voyage I performed the one heroic
+deed of my life, with which bad sailors like myself will sympathise. The
+crew of this ship was mainly Turkish--the native Egyptians being no good
+as seamen, but the captain, Losco by name, was a Maltese and exceedingly
+proud of being a British subject.
+
+[Sidenote: AN ENGLISH PLUM-PUDDING]
+
+The first day of our voyage on the _Behera_ was calm, and we sat
+cheerfully at dinner listening to his conversation. He was particularly
+emphatic in his assertions that he understood something of English
+cuisine, I believe taught by his mother, and above all he understood the
+concoction of an English plum-pudding and that it must be boiled for
+twenty-four hours. Said he, "You shall have a plum-pudding for dinner
+tomorrow." Then and there he sent for the steward and gave him full
+instructions. Next evening the plum-pudding duly appeared, but meantime
+the wind had freshened and the sea had risen. Under such conditions I am
+in the habit of retiring to my cabin and remaining prostrate until happier
+hours dawn--but was I to shake, if not shatter, the allegiance of this
+British subject by failing in my duty to a British pudding? I did not
+flinch. I sat through the courses until the pudding was on the table. I
+ate and praised, and then retired.
+
+We reached Athens early on the following morning and forgot rough seas and
+plum-puddings in the pleasure of revisiting our former haunts and showing
+them to Jersey and Villiers. The King and Queen were again good enough to
+ask us to luncheon and dinner, and this time we also found the British
+Minister, Sir Edmund Monson, who had been absent on our previous visit. He
+kindly included Villiers, though barely sixteen years old, in an
+invitation to dinner, and much amusement was caused in diplomatic circles
+by the very pretty daughter of the American Minister, Clarice Fearn. She
+was about seventeen and had evidently been almost deprived of young
+companionship during her sojourn at Athens. She was seated at the British
+Legation between Villiers and a French Secretary no longer in his first
+youth, so she promptly turned to the latter and said, "I am not going to
+talk to you, I am going to talk to Lord Villiers"; result, an animated
+conversation between the youngsters throughout dinner. She at once
+acquired the nickname of "La belle-fille de l'avenir," and long afterwards
+a man who had been at the British Legation some time subsequent to our
+visit said that he had always heard her called this, though he had never
+known the reason. I need hardly add that "Society" at Athens was very
+small and easily amused. Poor "belle-fille de l'avenir," I saw her again
+when she and her sister stayed for a time at Somerville College at
+Oxford, but she died quite young. Her sister, Mrs. Barton French, still
+lives.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GREEK ROYAL FAMILY]
+
+For the rest I need not recapitulate Greek experiences beyond transcribing
+part of a letter to my mother which contains an account of the domestic
+life of the Greek Royal Family in those bygone days:
+
+    "Despite the weather we have been very comfortable here and found
+    almost all our old friends. The Queen has a new baby since last year,
+    to whom she is quite devoted. It is number seven, but you might think
+    they had never had a baby before. The first time we had luncheon there
+    we all migrated to the nursery, and the Duke of Sparta who is going to
+    marry Princess Sophie of Germany, almost resented George's suggestion
+    that some beautiful gold things of his might be moved out of the
+    nursery cupboard, as he said 'they have always been there.' Last
+    Sunday we had luncheon there again, and this time the baby was brought
+    downstairs and his brothers and sisters competed for the honour of
+    nursing him, the Queen and several of us finally seating ourselves on
+    the floor in order that the infant prince might more conveniently play
+    with the _head_ of his next youngest brother, who lay down with it on
+    a cushion for the purpose. It makes one almost sad to see the eldest
+    Princess, brought up like this--a perfectly innocent girl always in
+    fits of laughter--going to be married to one of the Czar's brothers;
+    she will find it so different in that Russian Court, poor thing."
+
+Further on in the same letter I write:
+
+    "Everyone has a different story about the Rudolph-Stephanie affair. I
+    have met several people who knew the Baroness and say she was very
+    lovely. Some disbelieve suicide, as he was shot through the back of
+    his head and she through the small of her back, but, as the Austrian
+    Minister here says, no one knows or ever will know the real truth. I
+    think the tragedies in those three imperial houses, Russia, Germany,
+    and Austria, surpass any the world has ever seen," and I cite the wise
+    man's prayer for "neither poverty nor riches" as "about right."
+
+My mother sent the long letter of which this formed part to my aunt
+Theodora Guest, who made a characteristic comment. She allowed the wisdom
+of the prayer, but continued--"but in praying for neither poverty nor
+riches, I should be careful to add 'especially not the former,' for I
+don't see that poverty ensures peace, or security from murder--and it
+would be hard to be poor all one's life _and_ be murdered at the end!
+Better be rich and comfortable if only for a time. Still I would not be
+Empress of _Russia_ for something, and that poor innocent Grecian princess
+_is_ to be pitied."
+
+This was written April 1889. What would my mother, my aunt, or myself have
+said now?
+
+The baby of our luncheon party was Christopher, now the husband of Mrs.
+Leeds. The poor little Princess whose doom we feared had a more merciful
+one than many of her relations. She married the Grand Duke Paul later in
+1889 and died in 1891 after the birth of her second child. Taken indeed
+from the evil to come. Her children were adopted by the Grand Duchess
+Serge, who I believe has been murdered in the late Terror--but I do not
+know what has happened to the children.
+
+[Sidenote: ORIGINAL DERIVATIONS]
+
+To turn to something more cheerful. A delightful woman, a real Mrs.
+Malaprop, had lately been at Athens and much enlivened the British
+Legation both by her remarks and her credulity. With her the Parthenon was
+the "Parthian," the Odeum (an ancient theatre) the "Odium," Tanagra became
+"Tangiers," and so on. She told Mr. Haggard that she did not like the
+"Parthian," it was too big. "Oh," he said, "you ought to like it, for you
+have heard of the Parthian shafts--those" (pointing to the columns) "are
+the original Parthian shafts." "How very interesting!" said she. He then
+proceeded to inform her that the Odeum was used for music (which was
+true), but added that the music was so bad that they all hated it, and
+therefore the place was called the "Odium"--also "very interesting." She
+was taken for an excursion in Thessaly, where there were sheep-pens on the
+mountains, and one happened to be fenced in a shape something like an
+irregular figure 8. Another lady pointed this out and gravely informed her
+that that was how the Pelasgians _numbered their mountains_. "Oh,
+Charles," shouted the victim to her husband, "do look--the Pelasgians
+numbered their hills--one, two, three--there is number eight!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WINDSOR--EGYPT AND SYRIA
+
+
+After our return to London in the spring I was greatly surprised when on
+meeting Sir Henry Ponsonby one day at a party he desired me to send my
+article on India to the Queen. He was at that time her Private Secretary
+and knew her deep interest in all things concerning India, but I never
+imagined that anything which I had written was sufficiently important to
+be worth her notice. However, I could but do as I was ordered, and I was
+still more surprised a little later at the result, which was a command
+that Jersey and I should dine and sleep at Windsor. Jersey had been there
+before, but it was novel to me and very interesting.
+
+We were taken on arrival to a very nice set of rooms overlooking the Long
+Walk, up which we presently saw the Queen returning from her afternoon
+drive. An excellent tea was brought us and Lord Edward Clinton came to
+look after us--also another member of the Household, I forget who it was,
+but I recollect that an animated discussion took place in our sitting-room
+as to an omission on the part of somebody to send to meet the Speaker
+(Arthur Peel) at the station! It is always rather a comfort to ordinary
+mortals to find that even in the most exalted establishments mistakes do
+sometimes occur. We were told that dinner would be at a nominal 8.30, and
+that a page would take us down when we were ready. Of course we were
+dressed in excellent time, but just as I had finished my toilet Jersey
+came into my room in great agitation. He was expected to wear what we
+called "the funny trousers"--not knee-breeches, but trousers fastened just
+below the calf of the leg and showing the socks. Unfortunately his black
+silk socks were marked in white, and he said I must pick out the
+marking--which was impossible all in a minute, and the rooms somewhat
+dimly lit. However, my maid suggested inking over the marks, to my immense
+relief--and all was well.
+
+[Sidenote: DINNER AT WINDSOR]
+
+When we went downstairs the Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Southampton, showed us a
+plan of the table, and it was explained that when the Queen went in to
+dinner we all followed--were not sent in with a man--and seated ourselves
+as directed. Then as time approached we were drawn up on either side of
+the door by which the Queen entered. She greeted each in turn kindly but
+quickly, and went straight in. It was not really stiff or formidable when
+we were once seated. After dinner the Queen established herself in a chair
+in the Long Gallery and each guest was called up in turn for a little
+conversation. She talked to me about India, and said that it was only her
+great age and the fact that she was a very bad sailor that prevented her
+going there. She was much interested in our having seen her Munshi at
+Agra, and he always formed a link between Her Majesty and ourselves. She
+had us to Windsor two or three times altogether, and always spoke of him
+and arranged that we should see him. He was quite a modest humble man to
+begin with, but I fear that his head was rather turned later on.
+
+Two pieces of advice Her Majesty bestowed upon me, to keep a Journal, and
+wherever I travelled never to forget England.
+
+This school term we were greatly pleased at Villiers winning the Junior
+Oppidan Exhibition at Eton. He had not even told us that he was going in
+for it, and we saw the first announcement in _The Times_. His master, Mr.
+Donaldson, wrote that he took it "in his stride without quickening his
+space at all or making any special preparation for it." It was certainly a
+creditable performance after missing a whole term while in India.
+
+In February 1890 Lady Galloway and I set off on a fresh expedition. Jersey
+was anxious that I should escape the cold, and held out
+hopes--unfortunately not fulfilled--of joining us later. We went by a
+Messageries steamer--the _Congo_--to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo,
+where we found various friends, including Colonel Kitchener, who had
+meantime stayed at Osterley and who looked after us splendidly. He was
+very amusing, and when there was a difficulty about our cabins on the Nile
+boat he went off with us to Cook's Office and said that we _must_ have two
+cabins instead of two berths with which, despite our orders given in
+London, they tried to put us off. No one in Egypt could ever resist
+Kitchener's orders. He declared that we represented two aunts whom he
+expected. I do not mean that he told Cook this.
+
+He told us how he and other officers had looked after Mr. Chamberlain on a
+late journey up the Nile and how he felt sure that they had enlightened
+him a good deal. It was very shortly after this that Mr. Chamberlain made
+a famous speech in Birmingham wherein he said that he had seen enough of
+Egypt to realise that England could not abandon the country in its present
+condition. I do not remember the words, but that was what they conveyed,
+quite different from former Radical pronouncements. That was the great
+thing with Mr. Chamberlain. As I have already maintained, he had an open
+mind, and was ready to learn from facts and experience.
+
+[Sidenote: VOYAGE UP THE NILE]
+
+To return to our Egyptian experiences. We went to Luxor on the post boat,
+and spent about a week at the hotel there. We found all sorts of friends
+on dahabyahs and in other places, and were duly impressed by the mighty
+temples and tombs of the kings. I do not attempt any description of these
+marvels, never to be forgotten by those who have seen them.
+
+While we were at Luxor the Sirdar, Sir Francis Grenfell, arrived on a tour
+of inspection with Lady Grenfell and others. We joined the same steamer,
+the _Rameses_, and having so many friends on board made the voyage as far
+as Assouan additionally pleasant. The direct military jurisdiction at that
+time began near Edfou, and a force of Ababdeh, or native guerilla police
+who were paid to guard the wells, came to receive the Sirdar on his
+reaching this territory. A number mounted on camels led by their Sheikh on
+horseback galloped along the bank as the ship steamed on. At Edfou itself
+there was a great reception of native infantry and others mounted on
+camels and horses.
+
+On this trip we saw beautiful Philae in perfection; and also had the
+experience, while at Assouan, of shooting the cataract, really a
+succession of rapids among rocks. The boatmen took care to make this
+appear quite dangerous by getting close to a rock and then just avoiding
+it with loud shouts. An Austrian, Prince Schwarzenberg, who was one of our
+fellow-passengers, looked pretty anxious during the process, but there was
+no real cause for alarm. Last time we visited Egypt the Dam, though of
+enormous benefit to the country, had destroyed much of the charm of Philae
+and of the excitement of the cataract.
+
+From Assouan the Grenfells and their party went on to Wady Halfa, and Lady
+Galloway, Mr. Clarke of the British Agency, and I set off on our return
+journey to Cairo. Prince Schwarzenberg and his friend Count Westfahlen
+were our fellow-passengers. The Prince was very melancholy, having lost a
+young wife to whom he was devoted; also he was very religious. Count
+Westfahlen admired him greatly. The Prince was quite interesting and
+cheered up considerably in the course of our voyage. He was a good deal
+impressed by the ordinary fact, as it seemed to us, that the English on
+board the steamer had left a portion of the deck undisturbed for the
+Sirdar's party without having been officially requested to do so.
+According to him, Austrians of the middle-class would not have done so
+under similar circumstances. On the other hand, he was astonished to learn
+that English boys of our own families were in the habit of playing games
+with the villagers. If his views of Bohemian society were correct,
+"democracy" for good and for evil was at a distinct discount!
+
+Meantime the most amusing part of our down-river voyage occurred at
+Assiout, where the steamer anchored, and where we spent the afternoon with
+the Mudir Choucry Pasha and dined with him in the evening. He received us
+with a splendid cortege of donkeys (quite superior to the ordinary race)
+and attendants; and showed us the hospital--where there were some women
+among others who had been wounded at Toski--the prison, and American
+schools. What entertained us most, however, was an Italian Franciscan
+convent where the nuns trained girls. The Prince was quite scandalised
+because, he said, they ought to have been strictly cloistered--whereas
+they admitted him, Mr. Clarke, and the Mudir, whom they declared was "un
+bon papa"; and one of the nuns played "Il Bacio" and the Boulanger Hymn
+for our amusement.
+
+[Sidenote: CHOUCRY PASHA.]
+
+Choucry Pasha then took Lady Galloway and me to visit his wife and married
+daughter, who, though their charms were by no means dangerous, were much
+more particular in secluding themselves than the nuns, for the men of our
+party had to keep out of the way until our interview was over and they had
+retired. Then the Mudir sent a messenger to ask the Prince and Mr. Clarke
+to join us. They declared that they were taken aback when the black
+servant conveyed the summons thus: "Pasha, ladies, harem," not feeling
+sure but that they would have to rescue us from an unknown fate. What they
+did find in the house was the dusky host on his knees unpacking his
+portmanteau before us in order to produce for our inspection some
+antiquities which he had stowed away amongst his socks and other garments!
+
+The dinner, later in the evening, consisted of various oriental dishes,
+and a large turkey appearing after sweet pastry.
+
+[Sidenote: PRINCESS NAZLI]
+
+While at Cairo we paid a visit to the well-known Princess Nazli, a
+relation of the Khedive's who received Europeans, both men and ladies, but
+not altogether with the approval of her vice-regal relatives. She said
+that the doctor wanted her to go to the Kissingen baths, but the Khedive
+did not like her to go alone, would prefer that she should marry someone.
+The Khedive had told her in speaking of some other relations that Sir
+Evelyn Baring might interfere with anything else but not with the members
+of his family. She had retorted, "You had better let him interfere with
+the family, as then he will resign in three weeks."
+
+She told us of the cruelties which she knew were inflicted on their slaves
+by the old ladies of Ibrahim Pasha's and Mehemet Ali's family, and of how
+her English governess would send her to try to obtain mercy when the
+screams of the victims were heard. She remembered when she was a child how
+the ladies taught their attendants to use the kourbash, and how she saw
+the poor women covered with blood.
+
+Among other notable people then in Cairo was the explorer Henry Stanley
+(afterwards Sir Henry), who had not long returned from his expedition to
+relieve Emin Pasha, and had visited the Pigmies. We met him at dinner at
+Colonel Kitchener's, and as I sat near him we talked a good deal. My
+impression was that he did not easily begin a conversation, but was fluent
+when once launched. He was engaged on his book, _In Darkest Africa_, in
+which he declared that there were to be three pages devoted to a beautiful
+white lady fragrant with the odours of Araby whom he met under the
+Equator! If I subsequently identified her I fear that I have now forgotten
+her.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PIGMIES]
+
+I remarked on the loss of my brother-in-law's relative Mr. Powell, who had
+gone up in a balloon and never been heard of again, whereat Stanley's
+comment was, "That would be someone to look for!" We had already met his
+companion, Dr. Parkes, at the Citadel, who had shown some of us the little
+darts used by the dwarfs. Years later Mr. James Harrison brought several
+of the Pigmy men and women to England, and they performed at the
+Hippodrome. He kindly offered to bring them down to one of our Osterley
+garden parties, where they created great interest and amusement. They
+were about as big as children five to seven years old, and quite willing
+to be led by the hand. We had a long, low table arranged for them on the
+lawn near some tall trees, and one of the little men said, through the
+interpreter, that he thought that "there must be good shooting in this
+forest." We gave them some children's toys; when the little woman first
+saw a doll she shrank away quite frightened, but was subsequently much
+pleased. The chief little man appropriated a skipping-rope, and appeared
+with it tied round his waist at the Hippodrome that evening. We were told
+that the price of a wife among them was two arrows, and one who had
+previously lost an arrow was distressed at having lost "half a wife." The
+Pigmies did not seem to mind the company, but when one rather big man had
+inspected a little woman more closely than pleased her she waited till he
+had turned his back and then put out her tongue at him!
+
+To return to our travels in 1890. We left Port Said on a Russian boat on
+the afternoon of March 19th and reached Jaffa early the following morning
+and Jerusalem the same evening. It was very thrilling, and I am always
+glad that we were there before the days of railways. The whole place was
+pervaded with Russian pilgrims, many of whom arrived on our boat.
+Jerusalem has inspired painters, scribes, and poets for hundreds of years,
+so I will only mention one or two of the scenes which struck us most.
+
+Naturally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre made a deep impression upon us.
+The Sepulchre may or may not have been the original tomb in which our Lord
+was laid, but it has been consecrated by the vows and prayers of countless
+generations, thousands have shed their blood to win that spot from the
+infidel, and if warring Churches have built their chapels around it at
+least they cluster under the same roof and bow to the same Lord. The then
+Anglican Bishop, Dr. Blyth, took us over the church. We entered by the
+Chapel of the Angels into the little chapel or shrine containing the
+Sepulchre. There indeed it was impossible to forget the divisions of
+Christendom, as the altar over the Holy Tomb was divided into two
+portions, one decorated with images to suit the Latins, the other with a
+picture to meet the views of the Orthodox Church. Other chapels of the
+Roman and various Eastern Churches surround the Sanctuary, the finest
+being that of the Greeks, who seemed when we were there to exercise the
+chief authority over the whole building. The Greek Patriarch was a great
+friend of Bishop Blyth, and had allowed one or two English and American
+clergymen to celebrate in Abraham's Chapel, a curious little chapel in an
+upper part of the mass of buildings included in the church. Near it was
+the bush in which the ram substituted for Isaac was supposed to have been
+caught.
+
+Comprised in the church building are the steps up to Calvary, the place of
+the Crucifixion, and the cleft made by the earthquake in the rock.
+
+The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is also very interesting. The
+Grotto, said to be on the site of the Stable, is under the church and the
+place of our Lord's Birth is marked by a silver star let into the
+pavement. Beyond are caves formerly inhabited by St. Jerome, dark places
+in which to have translated the Bible. As usual there are chapels for the
+different sects, and blackened marks on the wall of a cave showed where
+they set it on fire in one of their quarrels. While we were in the church
+a procession passed from the Latin Chapel to the Grotto, and a Turkish
+soldier was standing with a fixed bayonet opposite the Armenian Chapel to
+keep the peace as it went by. The Armenians had been forced to fold a
+corner of the carpet before their altar slanting instead of square, that
+the Latin processions might have no pretext for treading on it. I suppose
+Indian Mohammedans are now enlisted as ecclesiastical police, unless
+indeed the warring Churches trust to the impartiality of English Tommies.
+
+[Sidenote: INN OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN]
+
+From Jerusalem we had a delightful excursion to Jericho. A carriage road
+over the mountain pass was in course of construction, but we had to ride
+horses as it was not yet ready for vehicles. On the way we passed the
+usual Russian pilgrims with their greasy ringlets, plodding on foot, but
+the most interesting party was one we saw at the Khan or Inn at the top of
+the pass. This Inn was no doubt on the site of that where the Good
+Samaritan left the traveller whom he had treated as a neighbour. Even if
+our Lord was only relating a parable, not an historic incident, this must
+have been the Inn which He had in mind, as it is the one natural
+stopping-place for travellers between Jerusalem and Jericho. While we were
+seated in the courtyard resting awhile in the open-air in preference to
+the primitive room within, there rode in a group exactly like the pictures
+of the Flight into Egypt--a man leading a donkey or mule (I forget which)
+on which was seated a woman carrying a baby, evidently taking it to
+baptize in Jordan. "The Madonna and Child," exclaimed Lady Galloway, and
+we felt thrilled to see a living Bible picture before our eyes.
+
+As to falling among thieves, we had been assured that there was every
+chance of our doing so unless we paid the Sheikh of an Arab tribe to
+accompany us as escort. This was a simple and generally accepted form of
+blackmail. The plundering Arabs agreed among themselves that any tourist
+giving a fixed sum to one of their leaders should be guaranteed against
+the unwelcome attentions of the rest. As a special tribute to "Lord
+Salisbury's sister," we were also provided with a Turkish soldier, but I
+doubt his utility. Anyhow the Arab was more picturesque and probably a
+more effectual guardian.
+
+We had also with us our dragoman Nicholas, whom we had brought on from
+Egypt. I do not think that he knew much about Palestine, but he was always
+ready with an answer, and generally asserted that any spot we asked for
+was "just round the corner" of the nearest hill. I maliciously asked for
+Mount Carmel, knowing that it was far to the north. With a wave of his
+hand he declared, "Just round there." When we reached the bituminous
+desert land surrounding the Dead Sea I gravely asked for Lot's wife.
+"Lot's wife?" said Nicholas, hopelessly perplexed. "Don't you know,
+Nicholas?" said Lady Galloway. "She was turned into a pillar of salt." "Oh
+yes," he replied pointing to the nearest salt-like hillock, "there she
+is." No doubt if he ever took later travellers to those parts they had the
+benefit of our identification.
+
+We stopped for luncheon at Jericho, and having inspected the strange land
+surrounding the Dead Sea, we went on to the Jordan, a small, rapid river
+flowing among alders and rushes. There we washed our rings and bracelets
+and then returned to the Jordan Hotel at Jericho, a solitary building kept
+by a Hungarian, very comfortable in a simple way--though possessing a
+perfect farmyard of noisy animals. As is well known the Dead Sea lies over
+1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean and the Jordan discharges
+its water into it, without any outlet on the other side. Hence evaporation
+leaves all the saline deposits of the river in this inland Sea and causes
+its weird dead appearance and the heavy, forbidding nature of its waters.
+
+[Sidenote: THE HOLY CITY]
+
+It is impossible to dwell on all the spots named as scenes of Gospel
+history and tradition. As Lady Galloway truly remarked, the difference
+between the story as simply told by the Evangelists, and the aggregation
+of subsequent legend, deepened our conviction of the truth which we had
+learnt in childhood. For myself I had heard so much of the disappointment
+which I should probably feel at finding Jerusalem so small and thronged
+with so much that was tawdry and counter to all our instincts, that I was
+relieved to find the city and its surroundings far more beautiful and
+impressive than I had expected. To look from the Mount of Olives across
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat to where the Mosque of Omar rises on Mount Zion
+is in itself a revelation of all that stirred the souls of men of three
+Faiths who fought and died to win the Holy City. On the wall of rock on
+the city side of the Valley a spot was pointed out to us on which
+Mohammedan tradition foretold that Jesus would stand to judge mankind at
+the Last Day. I asked why Mohammedans should believe that our Lord would
+be the Judge. My informant hesitatingly replied that "He would judge the
+world for not believing in Mohammed"--but I think that the answer was only
+invented on the spur of the moment.
+
+The one sacred spot inside the city about which there appeared to be no
+dispute was Pilate's House, as from time immemorial this building had been
+the abode of the Roman Governor. When we saw it it formed part of the
+Convent of the Sisters of Zion, very nice women who educated orphans and
+carried on a day school. In a basement was the old pavement with marks of
+some kind of chess or draught board on which the Roman soldiers played a
+game. One of the arches of the court, now included in the Convent Chapel,
+is called the Ecce Homo Arch, as it is probable that our Lord stood under
+it when Pilate said "Behold the Man."
+
+On our way back to Jaffa we slept at Ramleh and again embarked on a
+Russian steamer, which sailed on the evening of March 25th and reached
+Beyrout on the following morning. Jaffa was known as a very difficult port
+in rough weather, but we were lucky both in landing and embarking. One of
+the rocks which impeded the entrance to the port was believed to have been
+the monster which Perseus petrified with the head of Medusa. I only hope
+that no engineer has blown up this classic rock for the sake of any
+improvement to the harbour!
+
+Palestine must have entirely changed since we were there thirty-one years
+ago, and it is curious to look back on the problems exercising men's minds
+at that time. The Jewish population was then stated to have nearly trebled
+itself in ten years. We were rather entertained by a sermon delivered by a
+very vehement cleric in the English Church. He prophesied that the Empire
+of Israel was bound to attain its ancient magnificent limits, but he said
+that he was not asking his congregation to contribute to this achievement
+(though he gave them the opportunity), as it was certain to be effected;
+only any of us who held back would not share in the ultimate triumph. I do
+not know what he would have said now, but if alive and holding the same
+views he must be a kind of Zionist.
+
+The Sultan had given the old Church of the Knights of St. John of
+Jerusalem to the Emperor Frederick for the Germans, and the performances
+of his son are only too familiar, but in our day the fear was of Russian
+machinations. Russian pilgrims, as a pious act, were carrying stones to
+assist in building the Russian church, of which the tall minaret dominated
+the Mount of Olives, and the Russian Government was erecting large
+buildings for pilgrims just outside the city walls which, as we were
+significantly told, would be equally available for troops.
+
+[Sidenote: BALBEC]
+
+From Beyrout we had a two days' drive, sleeping at Shtora on the way to
+Balbec. The road was over Lebanon, and a wonderful piece of French
+engineering. The Hotel de Palmyra at Balbec was very comfortable. We found
+close by some of the first tourists of the season in tents supplied by
+Cook. They were very cheerful, but I think must have been rather cold, as
+March is full early for camping out in those regions and there was plenty
+of snow on the mountain tops. The women in that region wear a kind of
+patten in winter to keep them above the snow. It is a wooden over-shoe
+with raised sole and high wooden heel instead of the iron ring under
+English pattens. We were amazed at the splendour of the ruined Temples of
+Balbec, where the Sun was worshipped at different periods of ancient
+history as Baal or Jupiter. Most astonishing of all was the enormous
+Phoenician platform or substructure of great stones, three of which are
+each well over 60 feet long. In a quarry near by is another stone, 68 feet
+long, hewn but not cut away from the rock.
+
+From Balbec we drove to Damascus, and met on the way an escort sent to
+meet Lady Galloway. We did not take the escort beyond Shtora, where we
+had luncheon, but at Hemeh we found the Vice-Consul, Mr. Meshaka, and a
+carriage and guard of honour sent by the Governor, so we drove into the
+town in state.
+
+The result of these attentions to "the Prime Minister's sister" was comic.
+A weird female had, it appears, seen us at Jerusalem and followed our
+traces to Damascus. We saw her once coming into the restaurant smoking a
+big cigar, and heard that she drank. She was reported to have had a
+difference with her late husband's trustees on the subject of his
+cremation. Whether he, or she, or the trustees wanted him cremated I
+forget, and am uncertain whether she was carrying about his ashes, but
+anyhow she had vowed vengeance against Lady Galloway because we had been
+provided with an escort on more than one occasion and she had not. The
+maids said that this woman had armed herself with a revolver and sworn to
+shoot her rival! I will record our further meeting in due course.
+
+Meantime we were delighted with Damascus, one of the most beautiful cities
+I have ever seen, standing amidst orchards then flowering with blossom,
+among which run Abana and Pharpar, so picturesque in their windings that
+we were inclined to forgive Naaman for vaunting them as "better than all
+the waters of Israel." The men wore long quilted coats of brilliant
+colours, red, green, and yellow, and the women brightly coloured cotton
+garments. The whole effect was cheerful and gay.
+
+Being an Oriental city, it was naturally full of intrigue and various
+citizens, notably the Jews, tried to claim European nationality so as to
+evade the exactions of the Turkish Government, but as far as we could
+judge they seemed very prosperous. We visited several houses, Turkish,
+Christian, and Jewish, very pretty, built round courts with orange trees
+and basins of water in the centre. The rooms were painted, or inlaid with
+marble--one of the Jewish houses quite gorgeous with inlaying,
+mother-of-pearl work, and carved marble; in one room a marble tree, white,
+with a yellow canary-bird perching in its branches. I think it was this
+house which boasted a fresco of the Crystal Palace to show that its owner
+lived under the "High Protection of the British Government." Perhaps the
+family has now substituted a painting of the Eiffel Tower to propitiate
+the French.
+
+We went to a mountain-spot overlooking the town below the platform called
+Paradise, from which tradition says that Mohammed looked down on the city,
+but thought it so beautiful that he refrained from entering it lest having
+enjoyed Paradise in this life he should forfeit a right to it hereafter.
+It is a pretty story, but I fear that history records that he did visit
+Damascus, for which I trust that he was forgiven, as the temptation must
+have been great.
+
+[Sidenote: DAMASCUS. LADY ELLENBOROUGH]
+
+We were much interested while at Damascus in hearing more about Lady
+Ellenborough, who had lived in the house occupied by the Consul, Mr.
+Dickson, who was very kind to us during our stay.
+
+Lady Ellenborough was quite as adventurous a lady as Lady Hester Stanhope,
+and her existence on the whole more varied. She was the daughter of
+Admiral Sir Henry Digby, and when quite a young girl married Lord
+Ellenborough, then a widower. After six years' experience of matrimony she
+was divorced, it was said in consequence of her flirtations with the then
+Prince Schwarzenberg. However, that may have been, she was at one time
+married to a Bavarian Baron Venningen. How she got rid of him I do not
+know, but she was well known as the "wife" of Hadji Petros the brigand,
+whose son I have mentioned as among our friends at Athens. While in Greece
+she fell a victim to the fascination of the handsome Sheikh Mejmel el
+Mazrab, who had brought over Arab horses for sale. She went off with him,
+and her marriage to him is duly recorded in Burke's Peerage. She lived
+with him partly at Damascus and partly in the desert, evidently much
+respected by her neighbours, who called her "Lady Digby" or "Mrs. Digby"
+as being sister of Lord Digby. She was a good artist and is said to have
+been very clever and pleasant. She dressed like a Bedouin woman, and when
+she attended the English church service came wrapped in her burnous; but
+Mr. Dickson's father, who was then the clergyman, always knew when she had
+been there by finding a sovereign in the plate. She died in 1881. I never
+heard that she had a child by any of her husbands.
+
+Among the glories of Damascus is the great Mosque, once a Christian
+church, and hallowed by both Christian and Moslem relics. When we were
+there it still had an inscription high up, I think in Greek characters,
+stating that the Kingdoms of this World should become the Kingdoms of
+Christ. There was a fire some time after we saw it, but I trust that the
+inscription is still intact. Among the many other places which we saw was
+the wall down which St. Paul escaped in a basket, and as we looked thence
+into the desert Mr. Dickson told us that until a short time before, a
+camel post started regularly from a gate near by, bearing an Indian mail
+to go by way of Bagdad. Before the Overland Route was opened this was one
+of the speediest routes, and was continued long after the necessity had
+ceased to exist.
+
+[Sidenote: ORIENTAL METHODS OF TRADE]
+
+Time was some difficulty in Damascus, as Europeans generally reckoned by
+the usual clock, while the natives, Syrians and Arabs, counted, as in
+Biblical days, from sunrise to sunset and their hours varied from day to
+day--not that punctuality worried them much. In making an appointment,
+however, in which men of East and West were both involved it was necessary
+to specify which sort of time was approximately intended. Mr. Meshaka
+kindly took us to make some purchases, and he introduced us to one shop in
+which the proprietor--an Oriental, but I forget of exactly what
+nationality--had really established fixed prices on a reasonable scale.
+While we were looking round some Americans came in and began asking
+prices. The shopkeeper told them his principle of trade, whereupon said
+one of them: "That will not do at all. You must say so much more than you
+want and I must offer so much less. Then we must bargain until we come to
+an agreement."
+
+While they were considering their purchases I asked the price of some tiny
+models, in Damascus ware, of the women's snow-shoes. The man answered me
+aloud, and then came up and whispered that they were a fifth of the price,
+but he was obliged to put it on nominally "because of those people"! How
+can dealers remain honest with such inducements to "profiteering"?
+However, there is not much risk of their abandoning their ancient methods
+of trade. I recollect Captain Hext (our P. and O. fellow-traveller)
+telling me of one of his experiences somewhere in the Levant. While his
+ship stopped at a port one of the usual local hawkers came on board and
+showed him a curio which he wished to possess. Captain Hext and the man
+were in a cabin, and the man reiterated that the object in question was
+worth a considerable sum, which he named. While Captain Hext was
+hesitating a note for him was dropped through the cabin-window by a friend
+well versed in the habits of those regions. Acting on the advice which it
+contained, he said to the hawker, "By the head of your grandmother is this
+worth so much?" The man turned quite pale, and replied, "By the head of my
+grandmother it is worth"--naming a much lower sum--which he accepted, but
+asked Captain Hext how he had learnt this formula (which of course he did
+not reveal) and implored him to tell no one else or he would be ruined. I
+am not quite sure whether it was the "head" or the "soul" of his
+grandmother by which he had to swear, but I think head.
+
+We drove back from Damascus via Shtora to Beyrout, where the Consul told
+us of the strange requirements of visitors. One told him that he had been
+directed to pray for some forty days in a cave--and expected the Consul to
+find him the cave!
+
+[Sidenote: SMYRNA]
+
+At Beyrout we took an Austrian boat and had a most interesting voyage,
+stopping at Larnaca (Cyprus) and at Rhodes, where I had just time to run
+up the Street of the Knights. Early on Easter Eve we reached Smyrna, where
+we stayed at the British Consulate with Mr. Holmwood till the following
+afternoon. There was a considerable population of mixed nationalities,
+amongst them English whose children had never been in England. Some of the
+young women whom we saw in church on Easter Sunday were plump,
+white-skinned, and dark-eyed like Orientals. Mr. Holmwood said that many
+were sent for education to Constantinople, and apparently an Eastern
+life, necessarily with little exercise or occupation, had even affected
+their appearance.
+
+It was by no means safe in those days to venture far outside the town, for
+brigands were dreaded, and only some two years previously had carried off
+the sons of one of the principal English merchants and held them to
+ransom. They sent word that they would let them go free if the father
+would come unarmed and unattended to a certain spot and bring L500. On his
+undertaking to do so they liberated the boys without waiting for the
+actual money, but the youngest died from the effects of exposure, their
+captors having had constantly to move to avoid pursuit. Mr. Holmwood would
+not let us out of the sight of himself and his dragoman, for he said that
+the Turks, unlike the Greeks, had no respect for women.
+
+A Canon Cazenove who was in our ship officiated on Easter Sunday. The
+British Government having ceased to subsidise a chaplain for the Consular
+Church, there was only service when a travelling clergyman could be
+annexed, but the congregation rolled up joyfully at short notice. While we
+were in church we heard cannon discharged outside in honour of the
+Sultan's birthday, and the impression was somewhat strange--an English
+service in the precincts of one of the Seven Churches of the Revelation, a
+congregation partly of travelling, partly of orientalised British, and
+without the echoes of Mohammedan rule. Poor Smyrna! still the battleground
+of warring races.
+
+We resumed our voyage and I was thrilled when we passed Tenedos, touching
+at Besika Bay and seeing in the distance the Plains of Troy. We entered
+the Dardanelles in rain and mist, and I think it was fortunate that we got
+through safely, as our Austrian captain, though a mild lover of little
+birds, was also credited with an affection for drink. A fine morning
+followed the wet evening; Sir Edgar Vincent sent a boat from the Bank to
+meet us, and received us most hospitably in his charming house. During a
+delightful week at Constantinople we saw all the "lions" of that wonderful
+city, under his auspices.
+
+Despite its unrivalled position and the skill and wealth lavished upon it
+by Christendom and Islam, I do not think that Constantinople takes the
+same hold upon one's affection as Athens or Rome. Many of the buildings
+seem to have been "run up" for the glory of some ruler rather than grown
+up out of the deep-rooted religion or patriotism of a race. St. Sophia is
+glorious with its cupola and its varied marble columns, but greatly spoilt
+by the flaunting green shields with the names of the companions of the
+Prophet; and the whole effect is distorted because the prayer carpets
+covering the pavement have to slant towards the Kebla, the niche or tablet
+indicating the direction of Mecca; whereas the Mosque, having been built
+as a Christian church, was destined to look towards Jerusalem--at least it
+was built so that the congregation should turn to the East.
+
+There was, however, one beautiful object which we were delighted to have
+seen while it retained a brilliance which it has since lost. There were in
+a new building in process of erection opposite the Museum four tombs which
+had lately been discovered near Sidon and brought to Constantinople by
+Hampdi Bey, Director of the School of Art. All were fine, but the finest
+was that dignified by the name of Alexander's Tomb. The attribution was
+doubtful, but not the beauty. They had been covered up while the building
+was in progress, but were just uncovered and we were allowed to see them.
+The unrivalled reliefs on "Alexander's Tomb" represented Greeks and
+Persians first as fighting, and then as having made friends. The two
+nations were easily distinguished, as the Greeks had hardly any garments,
+while the Persians were fully clothed. The tombs having long been buried
+in the sand, the vivid colours, and particularly the purple worn by the
+Persians, had been perfectly preserved, but I understand that, exposed to
+the light, all soon faded away.
+
+[Sidenote: CONSTANTINOPLE]
+
+The streets of Constantinople were not nearly so gay as those of Cairo or
+of many other Eastern towns which I have seen. Things may have altered
+now, but during our visit hardly any women walked about the city, and the
+men were mostly dressed in dark European clothes with red fezes, not at
+all picturesque. At the Sweet Waters, a stream in a valley rather like
+Richmond, where we drove on Friday afternoon, it was different. The ladies
+celebrated their Sabbath by driving in shut carriages, or walking about
+near the water, in gay-coloured mantles, often with parasols to match, and
+with transparent veils which did not at all conceal their very evident
+charms.
+
+Sir William White was then Ambassador, and he and his wife were very kind
+to us. Among other things Lady White invited us to join a party going over
+to Kadikeui on the Scutari side of the Bosphorus. It was a quaint
+expedition. The Embassy launch and the French launch each carried guests.
+The French launch, "mouche" as they called it, started first, but the sea
+was rapidly rising, and the few minutes which elapsed before we followed
+meant that the waves were almost dangerous. It was impossible, however,
+that the British should show the white feather when France led the way.
+Lady Galloway and I sat silent, one or two foreign ladies, Belgians, I
+think, screamed and ejaculated; the Swedish Minister sat on the prow like
+a hardy Norseman and encouraged the rest of us, but the Persian Minister
+wept hot tears, while Lady White stood over him and tried to console him
+with a lace-trimmed handkerchief and a bottle of eau de Cologne.
+
+Having landed as best we could, Sir Edgar Vincent, Lady Galloway and I
+drove to Scutari, where we saw the howling dervishes. There was a band of
+little children who were to lie on the floor for the chief, and specially
+holy, dervish to walk upon at the conclusion of the howling ceremony. The
+building where this took place was so hot and crowded that I soon went
+outside to wait for my companions. Immediately a number of dishevelled
+inhabitants began to gather round me, but I dispersed them with my one
+word of Turkish pronounced in a loud and indignant tone. I do not know how
+it is spelt, but it is pronounced "Haiti" and means "go away." I make it a
+point in any fresh country to learn if possible the equivalent for the
+words "hot water" and "go away." I suppose as we were not in an hotel I
+found the Turkish for "hot water" unnecessary, but "go away" is always
+useful.
+
+Among the people we met in Constantinople was a venerable Pasha called
+Ahmed Vefyk, who used to govern Brusa and part of Asia Minor, and was
+noted for his honest energy, and for doing what he thought right
+irrespective of the Sultan. He talked English well, and his reminiscences
+were amusing. He told us that fifty-five years previously he had taken
+thirty-nine days to travel from Paris to Constantinople and then everyone
+came to see him as a curiosity. He introduced us to his fat wife and to a
+daughter, and offered to make all arrangements for us if we would visit
+his former Government.
+
+[Sidenote: THE SELAMLIK]
+
+Alas! time did not admit, neither could we wait to dine with the Sultan,
+though we received messages desiring that we should do so. We were told,
+however, that the Sultan always wished to retain known visitors in
+Constantinople, and to effect this would ask them to dine and then keep
+postponing the date so as to delay their departure. We could not chance
+this, so were obliged to leave without having seen more of His Majesty
+than his arrival at the ceremony of the Selamlik--a very pretty sight, but
+one which has often been described. We were at a window just opposite the
+Mosque and were edified, among other incidents, by the way in which the
+ladies of the harem had to perform their devotions. They were driven up in
+closed carriages, their horses (not themselves) were taken out, and they
+remained seated in the vehicles for the duration of the service, which
+lasted about three-quarters of an hour. Imagine Miss Maud Royden left in a
+taxi outside a church while the ministers officiated within! The Sultan
+was driven up with brown horses, and drove himself away in another
+carriage with white ones. I do not know if this had any symbolic
+significance.
+
+[Sidenote: THE ORIENT EXPRESS]
+
+We left Constantinople by the Orient Express on the evening of April 14th,
+and had quite an exciting journey to Vienna, which we reached on the
+afternoon of the 16th. Sir Edgar Vincent accompanied us, and there was
+also on the train Captain Waller, a Queen's Messenger, and these were each
+bound to have a separate sleeping compartment. There were various
+passengers of different nationalities, including our maids.
+
+A compartment with four berths had been reserved for Lady Galloway and
+myself--but when the maids looked in to arrange it they came back in
+alarm, announcing that our Damascus foewoman of the revolver and the cigar
+had installed herself in our compartment and refused to move! Of course
+Sir Edgar, being Governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, was all-powerful
+and the lady had to give way--but there was another sufferer. Later on a
+Greek who shared a compartment with a German wanted to fight him; they had
+to be forcibly separated and the Greek shut up for Tuesday night in the
+saloon while the German was left in possession--which further reduced the
+accommodation. When we stopped at Budapest, about midnight, the sister of
+the Queen of Servia was escorted into the train with flowers and courtesy,
+but the poor woman had to spend the night in the passage, as the
+alternatives were sharing the compartment of the revolver woman, who, we
+were told in the morning, terrified her by barking like a dog, or going
+into the saloon with the Greek, equally uncomfortable.
+
+These were not all the excitements. Previously, at Sofia, Prince Ferdinand
+of Bulgaria got into the train accompanied by an imposing-looking man who
+we thought was Stambuloff, the Prime Minister afterwards assassinated. It
+appeared that Prince Ferdinand's pastime was to join the train in this
+way, have his _dejeuner_ on board, get out at the frontier, and return to
+his capital by the next train. It seemed a curious mode of enjoyment, but
+probably Bulgaria was less lively than it has become since. We heard
+afterwards that he was annoyed because Sir Edgar and ourselves had not
+been presented to him, but he might have given a hint had he wished it.
+
+Anyhow, we presently saw some apricot omelettes walking about and asked
+for some, but were told that this was a _dejeuner commande_ and we could
+not share it, to which deprivation we resigned ourselves. When the repast
+was over, however, an American solemnly addressed Sir Edgar saying, "Did
+you, who were near the royal circle, have any of that asparagus?" (I think
+it was asparagus--may have been French beans.) "No," replied Sir Edgar.
+"Very well then," said the Yankee; "since you had none I will not protest,
+but we were refused it, and if you had had any I should certainly have
+made a row." It was lucky that we had not shared any of the Princely fare,
+for there was hardly space for more rows on that train.
+
+At Vienna Lady Galloway and I parted. She went to her relatives at Berlin,
+and I returned via Cologne and Flushing to England, where I was very glad
+to rejoin my family after these long wanderings.
+
+We had some very happy parties at Osterley during the succeeding summer. I
+have already mentioned Mr. Henry James's description of the place. Our
+great friend Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his novel _Sir Lucian Elphin_, also
+adopted it under another name as the background of one of his scenes, and
+I have quoted Mr. Ashley's verses written in 1887. I love the place and
+its memories so dearly that I cannot resist adding the testimony of
+another friend, Mr. Augustus Hare. He knew it well both in the days of the
+Duchess of Cleveland and after we had taken up our abode there, and
+mentions it several times in _The Story of my Life_, but he tells, in an
+account of a visit to us including the Bank Holiday of August 1890, of our
+last party before we went to Australia. From that I extract a few lines,
+omitting the over-kindly portraits of ourselves which he was apt to draw
+of his friends:
+
+    "I went to Osterley, which looked bewitching, with its swans floating
+    in sunshine beyond the shade of the old cedars. Those radiant gardens
+    will now bloom through five years unseen, for Lord Jersey has accepted
+    the Governorship of New South Wales, which can only be from a sense of
+    duty, as it is an immense self-sacrifice.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    "The weather was really hot enough for the luxury of open windows
+    everywhere and for sitting out all day. The party was a most pleasant
+    one. M. de Stael, the Russian Ambassador; Lady Crawford, still lovely
+    as daylight, and her nice daughter Lady Evelyn; Lady Galloway,
+    brimming with cleverness; M. de Montholon, French Minister at Athens;
+    Mr. and Mrs. Frank Parker, most amusing and cheery; Sir Philip Currie,
+    General Feilding, etc. Everything was most unostentatiously sumptuous
+    and most enjoyable. On Monday we were sent in three carriages to
+    Richmond, where we saw Sir Francis Cook's collection, very curious and
+    worth seeing as it is, but which, if his pictures deserved the names
+    they bear, would be one of the finest collections in the world. Then
+    after a luxurious luncheon at the Star and Garter we went on to Ham
+    House, where Lady Huntingtower showed the curiosities, including all
+    the old dresses kept in a chest in the long gallery. Finally I told
+    the Jersey children--splendid audience--a long story in a glade of the
+    Osterley garden, where the scene might have recalled the _Decameron_.
+    I was very sorry to leave these kind friends, and to know it would be
+    so long before I saw them again."
+
+[Illustration: OSTERLEY PARK. _From a photograph by W. H. Grove._]
+
+[Sidenote: STORY OF A PICTURE]
+
+Sir Francis Cook--Viscount Monserrate in Portugal--had a wonderful
+collection both of pictures and _objets d'art_ which he was always ready
+to show to our friends and ourselves. I am not expert enough to know
+whether all the names attributed to the pictures could be verified, but I
+can answer for one which we saw on an occasion when we took Lord Rowton
+over with some others. It was a large circular painting of the
+Adoration of the Magi by Filippo Lippi. Lord Rowton expressed the
+greatest interest in seeing it, as he said that Lord Beaconsfield and
+himself had hesitated greatly whether to utilise the money received for
+_Endymion_ to purchase this beautiful picture, which was then in the
+market, or to buy the house in Curzon Street. I should think the decision
+to buy the house was a wise one under the circumstances, but the picture
+is a magnificent one. I saw it not long ago at an exhibition of the
+Burlington Fine Arts Club lent by the son--or grandson--of Sir Francis
+Cook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA
+
+
+Mr. Hare's account of our August Party in 1890 mentions the reason of its
+being the last for some time. My husband had been already offered the
+Governorship of Bombay and would have liked it for many reasons, but was
+obliged to decline as the climate might have been injurious after an
+attack of typhoid fever from which he had not long recovered. He was then
+appointed Paymaster-General, an unpaid office which he held for about a
+year. The principal incident which I recollect in this connection was a
+lengthened dispute between his Department and the Treasury over a sum of
+either two pounds or two shillings--I think the latter--which had gone
+wrong in an expenditure of thirty-five millions. In the end Jersey came to
+me and triumphantly announced that the Paymaster-General's Department had
+been proved to be in the right. How much paper, ink, and Secretary's time
+had gone to this conclusion I cannot say. Postage being "On Her Majesty's
+Service" would not come into the reckoning.
+
+[Sidenote: WAR OFFICE RED TAPE]
+
+We had one other experience of pre-war War Office methods, but that was
+many years later. A rumour arrived in Middleton village that the soldier
+son of one of our labourers had had his head blown off. As there was no
+war proceeding at the time, we could not think how this accident had
+happened, and went to ask the parents where their son was stationed. They
+had no clear idea, but after a long talk remembered that they had
+received a photograph of his regiment with the Pyramids in the background.
+Armed with this information we approached the War Office and ultimately
+elicited that the poor youth had not lost his head, but had died of fever
+in Egypt, when arose the question of certain pay due to him. The War
+Office, with an insatiable thirst for information, would pay nothing until
+elaborate forms were filled up with the names and addresses of all the
+brothers and sisters. These proved to be scattered over the face of the
+Empire, and as the parents could neither read nor write, endless visits to
+them were necessary before we could find out enough to fill in the forms.
+Before this was accomplished I had to leave home and one of my daughters
+took charge.
+
+At last she wrote that the money was really being paid to the old father
+and would be deposited in the Post Office. Knowing that he was very shaky,
+I wrote back begging that she would get him to sign a paper naming his
+heir, but before this was done he suddenly fell down dead, leaving the
+money in the Post Office, and my daughter corresponded on alternate days
+with the General Post Office and the War Office before she could get it
+out. Then some more money was found to be due, and the War Office said
+they could not pay it until they had certificates from the sexton and the
+undertaker who had buried the poor old man. I was back by the time these
+were procured, and lo and behold! one spelt his name Hitchcox and one
+Hitchcocks. Foreseeing another lengthened correspondence, I enclosed the
+form with a letter in Jersey's name vouching for the fact that they
+referred to the same person but that the villagers spelt the name in two
+different ways. Fortunately the War Office felt that they were now
+sufficiently acquainted with the family biography and paid up. No wonder a
+plethora of clerks was needed even in pre-war days.
+
+To return to our own affairs. The late Lord Knutsford, then Colonial
+Secretary, in the summer of 1890 asked my husband if he would accept the
+Governorship of New South Wales, and he consented. Great stress was laid
+on our not telling anyone before the Queen had approved, and we were most
+conscientious, though I do not believe that other people keep such offers
+equally secret from all their friends and relatives. It was rather
+inconvenient as we wanted to invite my brother Rupert to accompany us as
+A.D.C. and he was already committed to another appointment abroad. As soon
+as the telegram announcing the Queen's approval arrived, I sent a footman
+to look for him at two or three addresses saying that he must find Captain
+Leigh somehow. He brought him back in triumph, having caught him in the
+street. Lord Ancram and my cousin Harry Cholmondeley were the other
+A.D.C.s, and George Goschen, now Lord Goschen, Private Secretary.
+
+[Sidenote: BALMORAL]
+
+Just before we were due to start, the Queen sent for us to Balmoral to say
+good-bye. We there met amongst others the Duke of Clarence, the only time
+I ever saw him, and I thought him a singularly gentle, modest young man.
+Some old gentleman had lately left him a long gold and turquoise chain
+which had belonged to Marie Antoinette. He told the Queen about it, and,
+with genuine surprise, said he could not think why it had been left to
+him. Her Majesty expressed the greatest interest in anything which had
+belonged to Marie Antoinette, so he ran upstairs and brought it down for
+his grandmother's inspection. He talked of his voyage to Australia, and
+said he was sorry that he had been too young to appreciate all he had seen
+as he should have done. I remember the late Admiral Lord Clanwilliam, who
+had the supervision of the young Princes when they were on board the
+_Bacchante_, saying that no boys had ever given him less trouble, and that
+Prince George (the present King) was equal to boys a year older than
+himself.
+
+When we went to Australia Lord Hopetoun was already there as Governor of
+Victoria, and Lord Kintore as Governor of South Australia, while Lord
+Onslow reigned in New Zealand. These, like Jersey, had all previously been
+Lords-in-Waiting to the Queen, and Her Majesty said to us, "As soon as I
+get a nice Lord-in-Waiting Lord Salisbury sends him off to govern a
+Colony"; to which my husband aptly replied, "You see, Ma'am, how well you
+brought us up!" A remark rewarded by a gracious smile.
+
+The Queen was indeed more than kind, and was very much upset when our
+departure was delayed, just when all preparations were made, by my being
+seized with an attack of typhoid fever. She telegraphed constantly, and
+when the Court returned to Windsor sent a messenger daily to inquire. We
+were told that her kind heart led her to imagine that my illness was
+either caused or intensified by our having been summoned to Balmoral just
+at the last minute, because she had forgotten that we were starting so
+soon. Of course it had nothing to do with it, but the Queen was well aware
+what typhoid fever meant. As she wrote to Jersey, she was "but too well
+acquainted with this terrible illness not to feel anxious whenever any
+relations or friends are suffering from it."
+
+The result was that when I was convalescent Jersey had to start alone,
+and I went with my children to spend Christmas at Stoneleigh, following
+him in January. Lady Galloway was a true friend, for since our London
+house was let she took me from Claridge's Hotel, where I was taken ill, to
+her house in Upper Grosvenor Street and nursed me there for weeks.
+Everyone was kind, Lady Northcote offering that I should take possession
+of her house and have Lady Galloway there to look after me, but in the end
+I stayed in Upper Grosvenor Street till I could move to Stoneleigh.
+Christmas at Stoneleigh was an unexpected pleasure, and my parents,
+brothers, and sisters did all they could to further my convalescence. An
+addition to the family party was my brother Dudley's charming new American
+wife, of whom he was intensely proud. When we greeted them or drank their
+healths, however, in the course of the festivities he invariably prefaced
+his words of thanks with "I and my wife" despite the laughing protests of
+his auditors. On Twelfth Night we drew characters, with the
+result--perhaps not quite fortuitous--that my eldest girl Margaret and her
+youngest brother Arthur, aged seven, were Queen and King. Their healths
+were duly drunk, and Arthur eagerly and emphatically responded, beginning
+"My wife and I!"
+
+Mrs. Dudley Leigh had been in her girlhood much admired in the Court of
+Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie. She was greatly attached to the
+Empress and was one of the young ladies recorded in Filon's _Memoirs_ as
+having helped to cheer the deposed monarchs in the first part of their
+exile when they resided at Cowes.
+
+Helene Leigh (then Beckwith) told me that she and her sister often went to
+spend an evening with the Empress, who, as is well known, had a leaning
+towards spiritualism and table-turning. The Emperor disliked the
+experiments, and on one occasion begged them to stop. Presently he went to
+bed and then Eugenie determined to resume. The table moved, and rapped out
+"Janvier." The Empress asked what the date implied, and the answer came
+"La Mort." In the following January the Emperor died. Personally none of
+these coincidences convince me, as I have known automatic and other
+prophecies which did not "come off." The Emperor was very ill and his
+death must have seemed imminent to many present, but I allow that it is
+curious that the date as remembered by my sister-in-law should have proved
+accurate.
+
+[Sidenote: FAREWELL TO ENGLAND]
+
+At last I was considered well enough to start, and went off accompanied by
+four children, two governesses and three servants, the rest of the
+household having preceded us. We had a bitterly cold journey, and Lady
+Galloway, who joined us in London and went with us across France and
+Italy, had her work cut out to keep us warm and fed. She then went to stay
+with some of her friends, having promised to visit us later in Australia.
+
+It was very sad leaving all my family, and particularly my eldest boy
+Villiers. He had to finish his time at Eton and was then to come to us
+before going to Oxford. Everyone who has to leave children behind--and,
+alas! that is the lot of only too many English parents--knows what it
+means, and I will not dwell upon it.
+
+All our friends were most sympathetic and helpful, and I was particularly
+touched by Lord Derby's thoughtfulness. In his first letter on hearing of
+the appointment he wrote: "You are a queen and an exile. Are you to be
+congratulated or condoled with?..." He went on with serious words of
+encouragement, and a little later took the trouble voluntarily to write
+out for our use notes on Australia "founded on the reports of many friends
+and on some experience of C. O."
+
+Among his very shrewd remarks was:
+
+    "Distrust all informants who have been long away; things change
+    rapidly in those parts. And remember that the enriched colonist who
+    comes back with L10,000 a year to live in England does not in the
+    least represent the country in which his money was made."
+
+Again he says that the Governor--
+
+    "Must spend his whole salary and something over. But it is a mistake
+    to suppose that mere outlay and splendid festivities will conciliate
+    goodwill--though they go a long way towards it. What the colonists
+    really wish and like is that the Governor should appreciate them, mix
+    in their amusements and apparently like to be among them."
+
+Fortunately Jersey always liked to be among his fellow-men and understood
+them, and the Australians soon found that out, and never forgot it. Also
+Lord Derby truly said:
+
+    "The less a Governor interferes directly, the better; if his ministers
+    come to think that he desires so to do, they will tell him nothing; if
+    relieved from this fear, they will be glad enough to profit by his
+    experience and impartiality."
+
+Many of Lord Derby's further comments are much to the point, but I only
+cite one which is somewhat of a forecast:
+
+    "Schemes of imperial federation are not treated seriously by anybody,
+    but intercolonial federation is a growing idea, and likely to be
+    worked out, though still much opposed."
+
+During our absence Lord Derby was an excellent correspondent and I may
+refer to his letters later on.
+
+[Sidenote: VOYAGE ON THE "ARCADIA"]
+
+We sailed in the _Arcadia_, the same ship which had taken us to India,
+with the same Captain Andrewes. The usual incidents of a long voyage were
+not wanting--the natural effect on young men and women was exemplified in
+the growing attachment of a very clever Australian Professor to our
+English governess--an attachment which ultimately ripened to a wedding in
+Australia, when Miss Mason became Mrs. Harry Allen. She is now Lady Allen,
+and when the Prince of Wales visited Australia she sat at a banquet
+between H.R.H. and the Governor-General, so our Australian experiences
+were quite successful as far as she was concerned.
+
+I do not recollect much of the other events on board ship, for I was still
+not very strong and lived mostly with my children, in a nice large cabin
+which the P. and O. had arranged for me. There was, however, one couple
+who excited considerable interest--a youth who always appeared in spotless
+white and a coloured sash, and a girl who wore white frocks, displaying
+varied ribbons to match her admirer's. When we reached Ceylon passengers
+were forbidden to send any washing ashore, as there was small-pox in
+Colombo, and the young man went nearly frantic at being unable to refresh
+his wardrobe. His fellow-passengers cruelly ragged him, and he was
+reported to have run up and down in front of his cabin with a drawn sword.
+
+I suppose the small-pox was only in the native quarters, for we were
+allowed to land, to our great joy, had a delightful drive to Mount
+Lavinia, where we saw the mango trick--not very impressive--had dinner at
+the Colombo Hotel, and re-embarked for the longest and dullest part of our
+voyage. The monotony of the nine days between Ceylon and Australia was
+relieved in a manner more stirring than pleasant. We were met by a
+cyclone, and had to go considerably out of our course to avoid its full
+fury, but what we did encounter was quite bad enough and we were very
+thankful when we sighted Australia.
+
+We were fortunate during our sojourn in having the old friends whom I
+previously mentioned, and their wives, as colleagues. Lady Hopetoun and
+Lady Kintore were away when we landed, having been on a trip home; but
+Lord Kintore met us at Adelaide and took us up for the day to his
+beautiful house in the Mountains--Marble Hill--while Lord Hopetoun looked
+after us with equal hospitality at Melbourne. We only stayed a few hours
+at each place, as our great object was to reach our destination, which was
+primarily the Governor's little country house, Hill View, situated in the
+hills. Here I spent about a fortnight to rest and revive before going down
+for the assembling of the Federation Convention at Sydney.
+
+This was a very stirring introduction to Colonial life. (The words
+"Colony" and "Colonial" are now taboo, but before Federation the present
+Australian States were called "Colonies," and "Colonial" was freely used
+by everyone!)
+
+[Sidenote: THE FEDERATION CONVENTION]
+
+Delegates from all the States were assembled in Sydney and most of them
+had brought wives, so it was somewhat confusing to a new-comer to be at
+once introduced to a number of people, however kindly disposed towards
+her, whom she had never seen before, in totally novel surroundings. As far
+as I recollect the initial banquet took place on the evening of my
+arrival, March 1st, 1891. It was given in the Town Hall, a really fine
+building in which we afterwards attended endless functions of all
+descriptions. It was arranged that Lady Innes, wife of Sir George Innes, a
+judge, should dine alone with me and accompany me to the Gallery to hear
+the speeches after the banquet. All the guests courteously rose on my
+arrival; my cousin Harry Cholmondeley escorted me, very magnificent in his
+A.D.C.'s uniform. As the Cholmondeleys had been in the habit of acting
+with us at Middleton, I felt very much as if I were taking part in private
+theatricals.
+
+The principal speeches were made by Jersey and the New South Wales
+Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, who was the main promotor of Federation. Sir
+Henry was a remarkable character in his way. He was the son of a small
+farmer on my grandmother's property at Stoneleigh, where he attended the
+village school, and his first pair of breeches was made by the village
+tailor (the same parish clerk who made me find his places in church).
+Henry Parkes emigrated to Australia, and a lady there told me how he kept
+a sort of toy-shop and "fancy repository" where she could take her
+umbrella to be mended. He became a Member of Parliament and almost an
+autocrat. He had a fine head, like a shaggy lion, and was a good speaker,
+though I fear that the education given him in Stoneleigh School had not
+altogether overcome a certain difficulty with his "h's," and in the
+transaction of business he was somewhat slow in thought. He was, however,
+undoubtedly able and tenacious, and did a great deal for his growing
+country. He was a trifle like the German Kaiser in his desire for his
+city's progress in art, and had filled the National Park and the Botanic
+Gardens with statues and busts more notable for quantity than
+quality--but the intention was good, though the expenditure was large. I
+believe that he had originated the motto of the Federation: "One People,
+One Destiny."
+
+Jersey's speech was extremely well received, though his reference to the
+Union of the Saxon Heptarchy as precursor to that of the Australian States
+enabled one of the papers to indulge next day in witticisms. It declared
+that it had greatly perplexed the audience, some thinking that "Heptarchy"
+was the name of one of His Excellency's ancestors who had fought at
+Crecy--others that it was a kind of cake!
+
+[Sidenote: THE DELEGATES]
+
+Next day began the serious work of the Convention. Delegates were present
+from the six Australian Colonies; there were also three New Zealanders,
+including the celebrated Sir George Grey, who held a "watching brief" to
+see what the Australians were doing, though New Zealand had no intention
+of federating with the others. She was quite right, for although in those
+days people were apt to think of New Zealand as part of "Australasia," she
+is too far off and too different in origin and natural conditions to form
+a portion of what is a very distinct continent.
+
+No doubt the most intellectual and probably efficient member of the
+Convention was the President, Sir Samuel Griffith, Chief Justice of
+Queensland and afterwards Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. It
+is not for me to attempt a summary of the debates and of all the questions
+to which they gave rise, naturally the most difficult being the relations
+between the States. No doubt the result ultimately achieved did credit to
+the statesmanship of many who took part. Probably the weakest point was
+leaving to the separate States every power not expressly transferred to
+the Commonwealth; in Canada everything not expressly reserved to the
+Provinces went to the Dominion, which certainly tends to closer union.
+However, this is looking a good deal ahead.
+
+One of the points which seemed to add interest, perhaps dignity, to the
+convention was the great size of the delegates. They averaged over six
+feet in height, and I really forget how many pounds avoirdupois in
+weight--but something quite remarkable. Australian legislators were
+undoubtedly of sturdy growth, and whatever else they favoured had a great
+predilection for tea. I sometimes attended debates in New South Wales
+Parliament. My husband was precluded from doing so, but members seemed to
+think it rather a compliment that I should be present. However exciting
+the discussion, and whoever the orator, as sure as six o'clock struck a
+cry of "Tea, tea, tea!" arose from all sides of the house, and out rushed
+everybody to refresh himself before returning to duty.
+
+The great antagonist to Sir Henry Parkes was Mr., afterwards Sir George,
+Dibbs. He was an immense man, who had had a varied career, but was
+generally esteemed for his direct and downright honesty. When in his turn
+he became head of the Government he was noted as the first Australian-born
+Premier. When we first arrived in the Colony he was supposed to have
+Republican tendencies, but these seemed gradually, indeed rapidly, to
+evaporate. While we were in Australia he paid his first visit to England,
+where many prominent people, including our family and friends, paid him
+much attention. The final touch was put by the Prince of Wales (afterwards
+King Edward), who had discovered his liking for a big cigar, and with
+unfailing tact he gave him one to smoke. Dibbs said, "No, he should keep
+it," whereupon the Prince replied that he was to smoke that, and he would
+give him another. Of course this got into the Sydney papers, and when the
+traveller returned the street boys used to shout out, "Geordie, where's
+the cigar the Prince of Wales gave you?"
+
+The papers afforded us endless amusement during his trip. They used to
+come out with heavy headlines. "Dibbs meets one King--several Princes,"
+etc. "Dibbs visits the Queen," and on one occasion, mixed up with it all,
+"Lady Leigh desires that Dibbs should bring out Lord Jersey's son." _The
+Bulletin_ had a wicked page of drawings caricaturing Parkes' wrath as he
+read these items.
+
+Dibbs returned a rabid imperialist. I said to him one day, "I suppose that
+talk of republicanism was only your fun?" "Only my fun," was his hasty
+reply.
+
+The Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Darley, and his delightful wife and
+family were among our greatest friends. Sir Frederick was a tall, handsome
+man; his resemblance to my father was often noticed by those who knew them
+both. Lady Darley was a very cultivated woman, sister to Rolf Boldrewood,
+author of _Robbery under Arms_, whose real name was Thomas Browne.
+
+Lady Darley was great at "spirit-drawing"--a power in which she quite
+honestly believed. It was curious, but I think instinctive. She would take
+a pencil between her fingers, and talk and look about the room while the
+pencil drew shading on a sheet of paper. Ultimately the shading would
+evolve a large head with no outline but the shadow. Once when in after
+years the Darleys were staying at Middleton Lady Darley showed her powers
+at my request, and another lady who was among our guests confided to me
+afterwards that she had produced an exact portrait of a relative long
+since dead who had held my friend in great affection. I am certain that
+Lady Darley did not know of this person's existence--the result must be
+left between telepathy and imagination! Anyhow, these mystic powers never
+interfered with Lady Darley's care for her family and for her duties to
+the community--she was a real influence for good. She and Sir Frederick
+have now passed away, but some of their daughters live in England and are
+still among our friends.
+
+[Sidenote: THE BLUE MOUNTAINS]
+
+Sir Frederick had built a charming house in the Blue Mountains called
+Lilianfels after a daughter who had died in youth. It was situated on a
+high plateau among most romantic scenery--deep ravines and almost
+inaccessible, thickly wooded valleys. One of these valleys plays a leading
+part in _Robbery under Arms_, the bushranging hero Starlight having his
+lair among the rocks. A railway had been made to this high ground,
+twisting and turning in extraordinary fashion, tradition said because the
+engineer wanted to pay constant visits to an innkeeper's daughter at a
+house somewhere on the way. Once at Katoomba, beyond which lay Lilianfels,
+the difficulty for the pedestrian would not be to scale mountains, but to
+descend into the valleys, and in our time not many people attempted it.
+Tourists, however, came up to admire the splendid views and the
+picturesque waterfalls, and to visit the famous Jenolan caves in the same
+neighbourhood.
+
+The whole formation of the valleys and caves showed that this part of the
+mountain-range had been in bygone ages cliffs washed by the sea. The
+Jenolan caves were long labyrinths full of stalactites and stalagmites of
+wonderful forms and colours. About two miles had been opened up when we
+were there, doubtless much more has since become accessible. Some of us
+climbed down a primitive iron ladder to view a mystical underground river,
+source unknown. I seized on it with joy for a child's story which I
+published later on.
+
+I believe that there is now a fine hotel near the caves, but when we spent
+a night there we found a very primitive hostelry; and as we were a party
+of nine, including the Duchess of Buckingham and her cousin Miss Murray, I
+am afraid we left little accommodation for other arrivals. We were
+unconscious of the inconvenience to which we were putting them until some
+time afterwards, when a little publication was sent us anonymously. It
+appears that a public room which had been allotted to us as a dining-room
+had been turned into a bedroom for two travellers after we had retired.
+Now this hotel was strictly Pussyfoot, and my husband, having been warned,
+had brought his own wine for our Party. He left two bottles in the room,
+and our successors frankly confessed that they had carried them off in
+triumph and shared the contents with their companions without saying where
+they had found them. The writer in the account sent us said that he did
+not imagine that the Governor knew how he had hampered the other guests
+and did not suppose that he realised the fate of his wine until he read
+this account. I must say that we were more amused than annoyed! All this
+happened long after our landing in the country, but thinking of the
+Darleys recalls our visit to my memory.
+
+[Sidenote: SIR ALFRED STEPHEN]
+
+The Chief Justice in each Colony was a great personality, and in due
+course Sir Frederick became in addition Lieutenant-Governor, succeeding in
+that office dear old Sir Alfred Stephen, who held it when we arrived. Sir
+Alfred was a member of the English family which has given so many
+distinguished luminaries to the Bar, and he worthily upheld their
+traditions at the Antipodes. He had been in Tasmania before settling in
+New South Wales, had been twice married, and had had nine children by each
+wife, nine born in each Colony, and, if I remember rightly, nine sons and
+nine daughters in all. With sons, daughters, sons-in-law,
+daughters-in-law, and other relatives his connections played such a
+prominent part in Sydney society that my A.D.C. brother found it advisable
+to devote certain pages in the Government House invitation book to "Sir
+Alfred Stephen's family," instead of entering them in the usual
+alphabetical lists.
+
+Sir Alfred was a delightful and intellectual man with great devotion to
+philanthropic schemes. On one point only I was disposed to differ from
+him--namely, he was extremely anxious to facilitate divorce and was much
+too serious in the matter to see the comic side of some of the American
+reasons for separation. Quite late in life, after being nearly bald his
+hair began to grow again, and he proudly called attention to his newly
+flowing locks.
+
+I cannot name all the Ministers. Some had (much to their credit) risen
+from quite lowly positions; others like Sir Frank Suttor, belonged to old
+Australian families--indeed while we were in Australia a child of the
+sixth generation was born to the Suttors, quite a record in such a young
+country.
+
+The general rule was while in Sydney the Governor and his wife could only
+receive private hospitality from the Chief Justice, Lieutenant-Governor,
+Admiral commanding the Station, and the Anglican and Roman Catholic
+Primates. Apart from these they could attend any ball or function given
+by, I think, six joint hosts--as for instance the Squatters' Ball, a Club
+dinner, or a Charity Entertainment. It was a wise rule on the whole, as it
+would have been exceedingly difficult to discriminate among hosts and
+hostesses without giving offence; and personally I was very glad that the
+Ministers and their wives should not have been even indirectly called upon
+to entertain us, as most of them were anything but rich, and yet had one
+begun the custom others might have felt bound to follow. Up the country it
+was different--when we visited the different Districts for agricultural
+shows, opening of school buildings, or general inspections, it was fully
+recognised that prominent people should receive us, and I cannot say
+enough of their kindness and hospitality.
+
+Indeed, open-handed hospitality was the rule in Australia, and the
+squatters and landowners, such as Mr. and Mrs. Osborne, Dr. and Mrs. Hay,
+and many others of our hosts and friends, seemed never to regard their own
+convenience if they could make their guests happy.
+
+Among the oldest families was that of Mrs. Macarthur Onslow, whose
+ancestor had introduced merino sheep into New South Wales, and who
+was--and is--universally respected in the State.
+
+[Sidenote: DOMESTIC CONDITIONS]
+
+Looking back on our various expeditions, I realise that our visits must
+often have been no small tax in remote places and in houses where servants
+were necessarily few. Quite rich people, having to our knowledge lands and
+flocks bringing in thousands a year, would have only three or four
+servants--the daughters of the house would do much of the work, and
+visitors would be quite prepared to help in making butter and cakes. A
+good deal that had been said in England about the splendid times which
+servants had overseas struck me on nearer observation as capable of being
+looked at from quite another point of view. For instance, much was made at
+one time of maid-servants having horses to ride. When the nearest town was
+perhaps fifteen or twenty miles off, when a horse cost L5 or L10, was
+never groomed, and when the rider himself or herself caught and saddled
+him as wanted, riding was not such an exceptional privilege.
+
+Again, it was true that wages were about double what they were in England,
+but accommodation was much rougher, and servants were expected to help in
+every department as required--no question of saying "that is not my
+place." I am speaking of nearly thirty years ago, but certainly almost all
+the servants whom we took out returned with us to England.
+
+This also applies to any remarks about social conditions. As I said
+before, Lord Derby was most regular in writing, and begged for any news
+which I could send him. Having been Colonial Secretary, he retained great
+interest in the Dominions. He told me in one letter that he was keeping
+mine, as he thought they might be of use hereafter, and after his death a
+number were returned to me. I have also preserved many of his; but looking
+through them, both his and mine refer so largely to topics of the day in
+both hemispheres that I hardly think that voluminous extracts can be of
+much present interest.
+
+[Sidenote: CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD DERBY]
+
+I, however, quote a few. In one of his first letters he says:
+
+    "Writing to Australia is no easy matter. What can one say to a friend
+    who has met with reverses? And surely there is no greater reverse in
+    life than being turned upside down. Does it pay to be a constitutional
+    monarch turned wrong-side up?"
+
+To which I replied:
+
+    "Your reversed friend was delighted to get your letter; though, as my
+    little boy says when told that he is upside down, 'No, we are standing
+    straight, it is the people in England who are standing on their heads
+    now,' which shows that he is rapidly imbibing Australian theories, and
+    believes that whatever be the follies of the Old World, we in New
+    South Wales must be all right."
+
+I do not think that I felt upside down, but nevertheless I had from time
+to time the feeling of having been buried and dug up again. Born and
+brought up in a very old house, and having both lived and travelled almost
+entirely among what was ancient, it was a strange experience to live where
+there were no relics of an Old World, and hardly any spot where history
+had been made in the long ago. On the other hand, Australia looked bravely
+forward, and was, and is, building for the future. As Lord Derby put it in
+another letter:
+
+    "I trust you enjoy colonial society and antipodean politics which at
+    least have the charm of greater hopefulness than we can indulge in in
+    this used up old country."
+
+Some of his accounts might almost have been written to-day; for instance,
+July 1891:
+
+    "The Labour party seems quite as lively with you as it is here.
+    Questions of that class will play a considerable part at the coming
+    elections, and many candidates who call themselves conservative will
+    swallow pledges more than half socialistic."
+
+And again in November:
+
+    "Speeches are constantly made but seldom read. England is sick of the
+    Irish question (!) but has no other ready to put in its place. Claims
+    for shorter hours and higher wages are rising in every trade and
+    business, and this is the only subject that really touches public
+    opinion; it is not, however, an easy one for candidates to make
+    capital out of, for opinion in the electoral masses has not pronounced
+    in favour of or against a compulsory eight hours; which is the main
+    question in dispute. The cat has not jumped yet, when it does pledges
+    and opinions will be swallowed, and a dishonest scramble will follow."
+
+Many cats have jumped since then, but the main outlines of politics are
+not essentially different.
+
+I confess that I was impressed by the extent to which the problem of the
+unemployed existed in a country with apparently limitless possibilities.
+Meetings of these men took place constantly near the Queen's Statue during
+1892, and perhaps a portion of a letter which I wrote to Lord Derby may be
+worth recording as at least a first-hand impression of what took place at
+the time.
+
+    "As to the unemployed, they present the usual features of the class,
+    somewhat intensified by local colour. A kind Government not only
+    provides a free Labour Bureau to meet their case, but has obtained for
+    them certain buildings belonging to the Municipality as sleeping and
+    smoking-rooms, and to the 'married destitute' is now distributing
+    orders for free rations. I understand that about 9,000 entered their
+    names on the books of the Labour Bureau, but only some 200 have so far
+    proved themselves qualified for free rations. What I am, however,
+    trying hard to make out is why, when everyone tells you 'there is work
+    for everyone in this country if he likes'--'everyone can make money
+    here'--'this is the working-man's paradise,' etc., etc., there should
+    be such numbers of men out of work and undoubtedly so much real
+    destitution. Possibly two incidents which have occurred lately may
+    assist in the solution of the problem. A contractor took a number of
+    men from the Labour Bureau to do certain works near the Harbour. He
+    tried to sort them with a view to giving the less efficient 6_s._ a
+    day, the others to have 7_s._ or 8_s._ a day when proved capable of
+    earning it. They all struck, and even the Minister for Works backed
+    them up, saying the contractor must not do that--he must give all the
+    men standard wages, but might send away the inefficient ones and have
+    others in their place."
+
+Of course the wages in Australia have risen enormously in the last
+twenty-five years. At the time I wrote, as far as I recollect, miners had
+about 14_s._ a day and other skilled labourers somewhere from 10_s._ to
+13_s._ The men employed by the contractor were probably unskilled. I
+continue my letter:
+
+    "Yesterday I visited a large Government Asylum for women ... no poor
+    law here. It comes to exactly the same thing, only, instead of the
+    rates, Government supports the institution. But the interesting thing
+    was this--connected with this women's asylum is a farm, and the
+    Matron's husband (an ex P. & O. captain) has voluntarily taken it in
+    hand. He wanted labour, and observed that in a neighbouring Government
+    Asylum for men there are numbers of men capable of doing plenty of
+    work, but not up to the 7_s._ to 10_s._ a day standard. He asked
+    permission to have some of these men, and has now about 40 employed
+    about the farm, giving them board and lodging at this Women's Asylum
+    and from 3_d._ to 1_s._ a day. I saw some at 3_d._ doing 4ft.
+    draining, and I talked to one, a bricklayer, who was doing excellent
+    work for 1_s._ a day. I calculated with the Master what his board and
+    lodging were worth (meat about 2-1/2_d._ lb.) and it came to about
+    1_s._ a day, so with 1_s._ wages on six days that was about 13_s._ a
+    week."
+
+I remark that had Trade Unions found out that these men, whom masters
+would not employ at full rates, were working instead of sitting with
+folded hands, it would doubtless have been stopped. Meantime, though
+ancient history, this is not altogether unenlightening.
+
+[Sidenote: LABOUR LEGISLATION]
+
+One rather amusing incident took place in Parliament. "Eight hours" was
+the Trade Union rule, but was not enforced by law at the time of which I
+write. A measure was brought into the Legislative Assembly (the Lower
+House) to make it legally obligatory. First came the preamble, which was
+accepted, then Clause Two stating that Eight Hours should be the legal
+working-day, which was passed with acclamation, then the various clauses
+with penalties attached which would oblige employers and employed to abide
+by the new law. All these were promptly negatived. It seems to have struck
+somebody that two clauses expressing an academic opinion looked a little
+isolated, so a member brought forward a third clause stating that nobody
+was to be obliged to work eight hours if he did not want to do so. This
+was accepted with equal unanimity, and the Bill stood practically thus:
+1st. Name. 2nd. Eight hours is a legal working-day. 3rd. No one is obliged
+to work eight hours. I believe that the whole thing evaporated in a burst
+of laughter and never went to the Upper House, but of course every sort of
+stringent regulation as to working-hours has come in since.
+
+However, the immediate sequel of this legislative effort deserves record.
+A ship came into Sydney Harbour and stevedores were enlisted to unload it.
+After eight hours' work they wanted to go on so as to get overtime pay.
+"Not at all," said the captain, "I am in no hurry. Eight hours is a legal
+working-day, and I am not going to break the law." Whereupon they all
+struck because they were not allowed to work overtime! This is enough on
+this burning question, which is certainly not peculiar to Australia.
+
+Before leaving Lord Derby's letters a few extracts with regard to European
+foreign affairs may be of interest. In March '91 he writes:
+
+    "Every thing and person on the Continent is quiet; even the German
+    Emperor. At least he has not been emitting any oracles lately. He is
+    said to have grown tired of Caprivi, and another change is talked of.
+    There is a vague idea about that he is 'going queer.' I don't know
+    that it rests on any authority."
+
+In the same letter, though this did not then concern foreign politics, he
+says:
+
+    "The only rising man I hear of is on the Gladstonian side--young Sir
+    Edward Grey, grandson of old Sir George, once Home Secretary. He is
+    making a name as an effective debater."
+
+Even Lord Derby could not foresee under what circumstances these two men,
+the Kaiser and Sir Edward, would become protagonists twenty-three years
+later! He also speaks of the "rising celebrity," Rudyard Kipling. In the
+following May he says:
+
+    "Foreign affairs seem quiet all over Europe; I am not behind the
+    scenes, but I know that the diplomatists expect no early disturbance.
+    The Czar would scarcely indulge in the pleasing pastime of baiting his
+    Jews, if he looked forward to wanting a loan. Besides, he hates
+    soldiering, and takes some interest in finance. The German Emperor has
+    been making a fool of himself, which is nothing new; he delivered a
+    speech the other day, in which he praised the beer-swilling and
+    duelling of German students as being the most effective influences to
+    keep up the true German character! He is an energetic young savage,
+    and that is the best one can say."
+
+It should be remembered that the Czar who indulged in "the pleasing
+pastime of Jew baiting" was not the luckless Nicholas II so brutally
+murdered--a victim, say some, to the baited Jews--but his father,
+Alexander III, whom he succeeded in 1894.
+
+[Sidenote: THE EX-KAISER]
+
+In July Lord Derby refers to the visit of the German Emperor at the
+beginning of the month:
+
+    "He has been ramping up and down, seeing everything, questioning
+    everybody, intent on making the most of his time, and keeping all the
+    world in the condition of fuss and bustle which is the element in
+    which he lives. It is almost too soon to judge the effect of his
+    visit. I should say that he was popular rather than otherwise; not
+    from his manners, which are queer and rather blunt; but there is a
+    certain simplicity about him which pleases, as when he told the
+    Windsor people, in answer to an address, that he had come 'to see his
+    grandmamma, who had always been kind to him.' He had a good reception
+    in the city, though not so enthusiastic as the press makes out. There
+    was about as much interest shown in his state entry as in an ordinary
+    Lord Mayor's Show. He is understood to be well satisfied, and the
+    visit has given people a subject to talk about, which they were
+    beginning to want. None now lasts longer than a week. By that time,
+    journalistic enterprise has said whatever is to be said, and the
+    public grows weary. I am afraid one effect of this German visit will
+    be to put the French in a bad humour, though with no good reason. But
+    that cannot be helped."
+
+Lord Derby seems to have been somewhat reassured, as in August, after
+touching on home affairs, he writes:
+
+    "The other event is more important: the visit of the French fleet to
+    Portsmouth, where it has been reviewed by the Queen, and civilities of
+    every kind have been exchanged. I call the matter important, because
+    the visit of the German Emperor made a great feeling of soreness in
+    France, and led to endless talk about England having joined the
+    anti-gallican alliance. All that nonsense is ended by the courtesy
+    shown to French officers: and the relations of the two countries, if
+    not absolutely cordial, are again comfortable. The business was well
+    managed and does credit to the people in Downing Street."
+
+Lord Derby continued to send most interesting news, but unfortunately some
+of his later letters are missing, and alas! he died in the spring of 1893,
+so I never saw my kind and constant friend again.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD DERBY'S POEM]
+
+I never saw the following lines published. They were given me by Lady
+Galloway, who told me that Lord Derby believed that he had composed them,
+as he could not remember having heard or read them when he woke with them
+in his mind. She wrote down what he said with regard to them.
+
+    "Lines made, as I believe, in sleep, in the course of a dream, in
+    which some fellow-student had asked me to complete a poem which he was
+    sending in:
+
+      "We judge but acts--not ours to look within:
+      The crime we censure, but ignore the sin:
+      For who tho' versed in every legal art
+      Can trace the mazes of the human heart,
+      Allow for nature, training, faults of race
+      And friendships such as make us brave or base,
+      Or judge how long yon felon in his cell
+      Resisted, struggled--conquered ere he fell?
+      Our judgments skim the surface of the seas,
+      We have no sounding-line for depths like these.
+                                    Jan. 1893, 5 to 7 a.m."
+
+One or two imperfect lines follow. The idea recalls Burns's "Address to
+the Unco' Guid":
+
+  "Then at the balance let's be mute,
+    We never can adjust it;
+  What's done we partly may compute,
+    But know not what's resisted."
+
+Lord Derby, however, goes deeper into the springs of action. Verses
+composed in sleep are by no means uncommon, but apart from Coleridge's
+"Kubla Khan," are perhaps seldom as consecutive as these.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FURTHER AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSIONS--NEW ZEALAND AND NEW CALEDONIA
+
+
+Lady Galloway came out to us towards the end of 1891, and in January she
+accompanied us on one of our amusing expeditions. This time it was about
+three days' tour through a hilly--indeed mountainous country. The hills in
+Australia do not, as a rule, attain great height; it is because they are
+so ancient in the world's history that they have been worn down by the
+storms of ages and the ravages of time. We went, however, to open another
+range of caverns of the same kind as the Jenolan Caves. These, the
+Yarrangobilly Caves, had been explored, and to a certain extent excavated,
+within more recent years, and were now to be made accessible to tourists.
+
+Mr. Dibbs and other officials and Members of Parliament, notably some
+Labour Members, came also; and a mixed multitude, said to amount to about
+five hundred people in all, took part more or less in what was called "The
+Governor's Picnic."
+
+[Sidenote: YARRANGOBILLY CAVES]
+
+These did not follow us all through the hills, but camped in the valley
+near the caves. Here a comic incident occurred. For the first part of the
+tour we were in one district, for the last in another, but somehow in the
+middle we fell between two stools. In Number One and Number Three we were
+entertained by hosts who displayed the usual lavish hospitality, and all
+the way we were conveyed by kindly charioteers, and accompanied by a
+splendid voluntary mounted escort, but in Number Two, the valley near the
+caves, something had gone wrong. A wooden hut with several rooms had been
+prepared for our reception, but no food! It was a sort of debatable
+ground, and either through misunderstanding or, as was hinted, through
+local jealousy, it was nobody's business to act host on the border land.
+
+The poor Premier and other officials were desperate when they discovered
+our plight, and in the end Dibbs possessed himself of one of the troopers'
+swords and rushed off to a party of picnickers who were innocently sitting
+down to enjoy the supper which they had brought with them, asking what
+they meant by eating cold mutton while the Governor and his party were
+destitute!
+
+He returned triumphant with a joint. Meantime someone had produced a
+packet believed to contain Brand's Essence. Lady Galloway claimed that she
+knew how to make soup, so it was handed over to her. She upset it all into
+a soup plate full of water, and then, and not till then, it was discovered
+to be tea! However, one way and another, we were provided with sufficient
+food, and duly inaugurated the caves.
+
+They were beautiful, but never have I been so hard pressed for adjectives.
+The old guide whom we also met in the Jenolan Caves had been put on duty
+at the Yarrangobilly excavations for the occasion. He stopped our party of
+six or seven people before each particular stalagmite or stalactite, and
+would not move on till each of us in turn had ejaculated "beautiful,"
+"magnificent," "stupendous," or some other such laudatory word as
+suppressed laughter enabled us to utter, for it became a sort of game not
+to repeat what our companions had said.
+
+The following day an early start took us to Tumut, where we had a great
+reception and excellent entertainment. We were, however, not allowed to
+enter the town for our first greetings. As we drew near it, about 9 a.m.
+we perceived a table with a white cloth and several men standing round it
+in a field ("paddock" is the correct term in Australia). The wagonette was
+stopped, we were requested to get out, and we found that the magistrates
+of the district were waiting there with champagne, forestalling the
+reception prepared for us by the Municipality!
+
+Shortly after our return to Hill View, our summer's home, Lady Galloway,
+my brother Rupert, and I set off on a trip to New Zealand. In the
+intervening time the whole of Australia was deeply moved by the terrible
+news of the death of the Duke of Clarence. The fact of his recent
+engagement brought home to every household the full force of the tragedy.
+Addresses of condolence poured in, and the staff was fully occupied in
+acknowledging them and forwarding them to England.
+
+We sailed from Melbourne, staying for a day at Hobart in Tasmania, where
+Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir Robert Hamilton the Governor, who was then
+absent, took excellent care of us. Tasmania appeared to be a happy,
+friendly little place, but naturally we had no time to see much. The
+harbour is fine, and the vegetation in the neighbourhood of the city was
+rich and green with quite an English aspect.
+
+We then took ship for Dunedin, quite in the south of the South Island. It
+took us about four days and the sea was by no means calm.
+
+[Sidenote: DUNEDIN]
+
+Dunedin is a very interesting place and quite lives up to its name, for
+it is a small edition of Edinburgh. Scotch names over most of the shops,
+and as we walked past the open door of a boys' school we heard
+instructions being given in a very decided Scottish accent. There is a
+hill which recalls the Castle Hill, and even a manufacture of a very good
+woollen fabric with a distinctly plaid character. No doubt all this has
+greatly developed, but I trust it remains true to its Scottish origin. It
+was founded in 1848 by emigrants representing the Free Kirk of Scotland
+who left after the separation from the Established Church. There is a
+story that some of the first settlers put up a notice on their land to the
+effect that their co-religionists might help themselves to wood but that
+all others were to pay for it. True fraternal feeling, but it is hardly
+consonant with usual Scottish shrewdness that they should have expected
+the other wood-gatherers to volunteer payment.
+
+From Dunedin we went on to Invercargill, the extreme southern point, where
+the Governor, Lord Onslow, had invited us to join him on the Government
+yacht, the _Hinemoa_, and there we found Lady Onslow awaiting us.
+
+We were indeed fortunate in sharing in this expedition. The Onslows, who
+were on the point of returning to England, had arranged a trip to the
+Sounds for which they had not previously found time, and it was only in
+their yacht that we could have fully enjoyed the wonders of these fiords
+of the Southern Hemisphere. I do not know how it is now, but then
+excursion steamers only went about four times a year, were very crowded,
+and entered a limited number of Sounds. Lord Onslow took us into one after
+another, each more imposing than the last. I was particularly impressed by
+the desolate grandeur of one said not to have been entered for
+twenty-five years. The mountainous steeps which guarded it were in great
+part simply rocky slopes, and it seemed as if the spirits of the place
+resented our intrusion. In most of the other Sounds the precipitous
+mountain sides were clad with wildly luxuriant foliage, and land and water
+were alive with birds, particularly water-fowl. Amongst these were the
+lovely black-and-white Paradise ducks, which could be caught with
+long-handled nets something like gigantic butterfly nets.
+
+The precipices enclosing the Sounds rise in some cases five or six
+thousand feet from the water's edge, their tops are snow-clad, and great
+waterfalls thunder into the calm sea-inlets below. The most famous fiord
+is Milford Sound, where is the great Bowen Fall. So thick is the
+vegetation that one fallen tree was pointed out to us on which we were
+assured that 500 different specimens of ferns, creepers, etc., might be
+counted. We had no time to verify this statement, but a hasty inspection
+made it seem not at all impossible. One thing is certain--the
+mountain-side with its impenetrable forest descends so precipitously into
+the waters below that our yacht of 500 tons was tied up to an overhanging
+tree and had no need to cast anchor. I think that there are seventeen
+Sounds in all (I do not mean that we saw so many), but Milford Sound is
+the only one which could be reached from the land, and even that was, in
+our time, a matter of great difficulty. For a long time the only
+inhabitant had been a man called Sutherland, who was considered a hermit
+and periodically supplied with food. He had discovered about fourteen
+miles inland the great Sutherland waterfall, which is much higher than
+Niagara though not nearly so broad.
+
+[Sidenote: THE NEW ZEALAND SOUNDS]
+
+When we were in Milford Sound we found a small band of convicts who had
+been lately established there for the purpose of making a road to the
+Fall. I do not think that they were working very hard, but they had
+cleared about two miles of footpath through the thicket along which we
+walked, and a lovely walk it was. Tea at the end, however, was
+considerably disturbed by sandflies which came round us in a perfect
+cloud, so that we could only push our cups up under our veils.
+
+New Zealand sandflies are a peculiarly virulent species--a large blister
+rises directly they bite you, but they have the saving grace that they
+stop the moment the sun sets. They were, however, the only drawback to
+this most delightful of trips. While we were fighting them my brother and
+Lord Onslow's A.D.C., Captain Guthrie, tried to push on to the Fall. As
+far as I remember, they got a distant view but had not time to reach
+it.[1]
+
+Lord Onslow was a most considerate nautical host. We cruised from Sound to
+Sound by night as a rule, so that we might lie prostrate and asleep on the
+rough waves which are apt to surround those shores, and during the day we
+enjoyed the calm waters of the fiord.
+
+We parted from the yacht and from our kind hosts with regret, having
+arranged to be again their guests at Wellington. Meantime we saw something
+of the South Island, which, by the way, bears the alternative name of
+Middle Island. New Zealand is really composed of three islands--North
+Island, the South or Middle Island, and a little one at the foot named
+Stewart Island. New Zealand claims dominion over a large number of small
+islands in the Pacific, to which happily two of the Samoan group over
+which it exercises a "mandate" have been added since the war. Lord Onslow
+told us that shortly before our visit he had been to settle the claims of
+certain rival Queens of Raratonga, one of these dependencies. Having
+decided in favour of one of these royal ladies, he endowed her with a
+sundial, as a sign of supremacy, as he thought she could well assert
+herself by "setting the time of day." The South Island is full of beauty.
+We went in a steamer up Lake Wakatipu. I cannot attempt a description of
+all the charms of this lake and its neighbourhood. Naturally it differed
+from the Italian Lakes in the absence of picturesque villages (now, by the
+way, almost swallowed up by the rows of villas which skirt Como and
+Maggiore), but on the other hand there was the fascination of radiant
+nature little touched by the hand of man. Probably now there is a happy
+and growing population near Lake Wakatipu.
+
+Before we left South Island we stayed for a night or two with my cousin,
+Edmund Parker, a member of Dalgetty's firm, who then lived at
+Christchurch. It is curious that whereas Dunedin owed its origin to the
+Scotch Free Kirk, Christchurch, founded two years later, was a child of
+the "Canterbury Association," which, under the auspices of the Archbishop
+of Canterbury, Lord Lyttelton, and others, sent out a body of settlers
+largely drawn from Oxford and strictly members of the Church of England.
+They took up a tract of land and sold it in portions, devoting ten
+shillings out of every pound received to church and schools; their city
+was named Christchurch after the Cathedral and College in Oxford, and the
+surrounding district bears the name of Canterbury. It stands upon the
+river Avon, the banks of which are planted with willows said to have been
+originally brought from Napoleon's Tomb at St. Helena. There is a fine
+cathedral copied from Caen Cathedral in Normandy, and the whole place
+recalls some city of the Old World transplanted to a newer and brighter
+land.
+
+The story goes that some of the original settlers, importing classics into
+agriculture, "swore at their oxen in Greek"--perhaps someone who heard
+them quoting Virgil's Georgics took any foreign tongue for Greek oaths.
+
+[Sidenote: HOT SPRINGS OF NEW ZEALAND]
+
+After crossing to Wellington and spending a day or two with the Onslows
+there, we set off again to visit the famous hot-lake district in the
+Northern Island. Our headquarters were at Rotorua and Whakarewarewa, from
+both of which we visited the marvellous geysers, springs, and hot lakes
+with which the district abounds.
+
+The great Pink and White Terraces had been destroyed by a mud volcano some
+years before our visit, but we saw in many places how similar formations
+were being reproduced by the chemical substances thrown up by the springs,
+making polished pink-and-white pavements and even terraces on a small
+scale. To see the natural hot fountains starting up from the pools among
+the rocks was entrancing. Some of the columns play at regular intervals,
+some only occasionally; one irregular performer shoots up a column of
+boiling water to a height sometimes attaining 100 feet. One was called the
+Prince of Wales's Feathers, as the water sprang up in that form.
+
+New Zealand is far more prolific in legends than Australia; the Maoris
+being of a higher type than the Australian aboriginal, naturally handed
+down semi-historical, semi-mythical traditions of their ancestors. Among
+the prettiest and best-known tales is that of Hinemoa. This young lady was
+the daughter of the chief of a powerful tribe whose headquarters was at
+Whakarewarewa. Among the many suitors attracted by her beauty she
+preferred a youth named Tutaneki; but though his mother was the daughter
+of the chief of the Island of Mokoia, situated in the centre of the Lake
+of Rotorua, his father was a commoner, and Hinemoa's father was furious at
+the idea of a _mesalliance_. He dared Tutaneki again to set foot on the
+mainland, and caused all the canoes to be hauled up on the beach to keep
+Hinemoa from attempting to join her lover. Tutaneki, however, was an
+accomplished musician, and every evening the strains of his lute floated
+so sweetly over the waters of the lake that Hinemoa could no longer stand
+separation. Taking six empty gourds as an improvised life-belt, she swam
+the three miles dividing her from music and love. Fortunately, though
+numbed by her exertions, she landed on the island where a hot spring,
+still called Hinemoa's Bath, wells up near the beach, and a plunge into it
+soon revived her. More successful than Leander, she was united to her
+lover and lived with him peacefully on Mokoia. Her father appears to have
+reconciled himself to the inevitable.
+
+At one moment we almost thought that we should have, in a minor degree, to
+emulate the performance of Hinemoa. We arranged to row across the Lake to
+a spot on the shore opposite our hotel, where we were to be met by a
+"coach" (as the ordinary vehicles were called) bringing our luncheon.
+Somehow first our rudder broke away and then the boatman seemed to lose
+his head--and anyhow lost one of his oars. We were thereby left
+helplessly floating at no great distance from the beach, and, what was
+worse, with no apparent possibility of securing our luncheon. However, my
+brother, bolder than Tutaneki, saved Lady Galloway and myself from
+imitating Hinemoa. He plunged into the water and managed to wade ashore,
+and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing him return carrying the
+luncheon basket on his head, and having sent a messenger to summon another
+boat to our rescue.
+
+One particularly fascinating feature in the Hot Lakes District was the
+charm of open-air hot baths. Certain pools were surrounded by high
+palisades rendering them absolutely private. You secured a key and locked
+yourself in, when you could disport yourself in natural hot water and wade
+about under the trees to your heart's content. The water was of a
+delightful temperature, but certainly impregnated with chemicals, as I
+found the skin peeling off my feet after two or three such baths.
+
+[Sidenote: HUIA ONSLOW]
+
+We arrived at Auckland in time to witness the final send-off of that most
+popular Governor, Lord Onslow, with special tributes to Lady Onslow and
+her baby son Huia, who, having been born during his parents' tenure of
+office, had been endowed with the Maori chieftain's distinctive badge, the
+feather of the Huia, and was christened by that name. Whenever he appeared
+the Maoris shouted "Huia! Huia!" and, most tactfully, the child showed a
+preference for brown men over white. Poor Huia grew into a splendid and
+talented youth, but was disabled by an accident while diving. Despite his
+crippled condition he gallantly pursued his scientific studies till
+released by death in 1922.
+
+Of all Rudyard Kipling's Songs of the Cities I think the Song of Auckland
+best conveys the claim of that vision of beauty:
+
+  "Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart--
+  On us, on us the unswerving season smiles,
+  Who wonder 'mid our fern why men depart
+  To seek the Happy Isles!"
+
+Truly, New Zealand must have waited while Providence bestowed gifts on
+many lands, and have then received a special bounty from each store of
+blessing. The strength of the mountain pass, the plunge of the waterfall,
+the calm mirror of the lake, the awe of the forest, the glow of the
+flowers, the fertile pasture for the flock, the rich plains for the
+corn--gold, coal, and Kauri gum, the marvels of her springs--all these and
+much more are given to her children, together with one of the most perfect
+climates on the face of the earth. She has but one drawback--namely, that
+she is ringed round by some of the stormiest oceans known to man. Perhaps
+were it not so too many eager pilgrims would seek this far-off Paradise!
+
+Lord and Lady Onslow returned with us to Sydney Government House, and soon
+after left with their family for England. Lady Galloway in turn sailed in
+the spring (Australian autumn), to my great regret. She made the voyage in
+a Messageries boat, accompanied by the very pretty daughters of Lord
+Southesk, Helena and Dora Carnegie.
+
+In July of this year (1892) my husband and I were fortunately able to make
+a most interesting journey to the French Colony of New Caledonia. As is
+well known, certain questions had arisen from time to time between
+Australia and New Caledonia, as the former Government asserted that
+convicts escaped from the French penal colony were apt to take refuge on
+Australian shores; and since the total cessation of convict transportation
+from Great Britain Australians were, not unnaturally, additionally
+sensitive to their arrival from any other quarter.
+
+[Sidenote: NOUMEA]
+
+Apart from this, however, the relations between the British and French
+"outposts of Empire" were very friendly and a good many Australians had
+established themselves as free settlers in Noumea, the capital of New
+Caledonia; and when the French Government heard that Jersey contemplated a
+visit they sent word (as we learnt later on) that a generous sum was to be
+spent on the reception of the first Australian Governor to undertake the
+voyage. Owing to the fact that he had to await permission from home before
+absenting himself from New South Wales, and as there was then no cable to
+Noumea, we were unable to name an exact date for our arrival, which after
+some three days' voyage took place on July 13th. We sailed in a
+Messageries boat, the _Armand Behic_, very luxurious and with most
+obliging officers, but much too narrow in proportion to its length, which
+caused it to roll even when the sea was perfectly calm. This was a common
+fault with Messageries boats in those days. Probably also it was deficient
+in cargo, as, despite a large Government subsidy, this line was run to New
+Caledonia at a considerable loss. I wrote to my mother describing our
+arrival as follows:
+
+    "We were received" (at Noumea) "with a tremendous salute of guns,
+    after which the Conseil de Sante promptly put the ship and all its
+    company into quarantine for 24 hours! We (including Private Secretary
+    and servants) were allowed to stay on board, where we were perfectly
+    comfortable, but all the other passengers from the _Armand Behic_ and
+    another ship arriving from Sydney at about the same time, were bundled
+    off to the quarantine island. There were about 180 of them and
+    accommodation for about 25. What the rhyme or reason of 24 _hours'_
+    quarantine was in a question of small-pox which might appear, if at
+    all, in 21 days, we at first failed to discover, but the solution--and
+    I fancy the true one--ultimately offered was that when our ship
+    arrived with the British Ensign flying there was an awful hullabaloo.
+    They did not know we were coming by this ship, and neither Government
+    House nor anything else was ready, so they cried, "Whatever shall we
+    do? Happy thought! Small-pox at Sydney--let us quarantine them till we
+    have had time to prepare," (Here let me remark that as a rule
+    Australia was absolutely free from small-pox, but a few cases had
+    lately been brought by a ship, and of course relegated to the New
+    South Wales remote quarantine stations.)
+
+To resume my letter:
+
+    "It mattered very little to us, but was awfully hard on the other
+    victims, particularly as they put all their worn linen into some
+    concoction of chemicals which utterly spoilt it. Meantime we went off
+    to the quarantine island for a walk and went up a hill whence we had a
+    beautiful view of the harbour which is _lovely_ ... high hills of
+    charming shapes round it ... the real glow of vivid green, red, and
+    blue which one imagines in the South Pacific.... Well, next morning,
+    at 9 a.m., we were allowed to land in great honour and glory, and were
+    received by the Mayor, girt with his tricolour sash, and all the
+    Municipal Council, and then escorted to Government House, where
+    everything had been prepared, down to unlimited scent-bottles,
+    tooth-brushes, and splendidly bound copies of Byron and Milton, to
+    make us feel at home. The only drawback was that having once
+    established us, and apparently cleaned up the house for our arrival,
+    nobody ever attempted to dust or clean in any way again--and as it
+    rained all the time after the first day, and everyone walked
+    everywhere, including in the ball-room, in muddy boots, the effect was
+    peculiar. Every place was, however, decorated with flowers and flags,
+    which are no doubt excellent substitutes for dusters and dustpans."
+
+[Sidenote: THE GOVERNOR OF NEW CALEDONIA]
+
+I shall not easily forget that household. It is hardly necessary to say
+that the Governor, M. Laffon, was a bachelor, a young man, clever and
+charming but evidently unaccustomed to domestic details. I believe that he
+was appointed through the influence of the Paris Rothschild, who was a
+friend of his father, and who had a predominating share in the nickel
+mines which constitute the great wealth of New Caledonia. He, however, was
+a civilian and had no voice in the appointment of the Private Secretary
+and Military A.D.C. who constituted his staff, and who treated their Chief
+with a profound disregard which scandalised our Private Secretary, George
+Goschen.
+
+M. Laffon got up at any hour in the morning to take us to "objects of
+interest" before the heat of the day, but the staff did not trouble
+themselves to appear till about noon, and when a ceremonious _dejeuner_
+was given we found that the Minister of the Interior was running round to
+put the name-cards on the places of the guests. These young men told Mr.
+Goschen that when they did not want to go anywhere they pleaded headache
+and wondered if their Governor were surprised at the frequency of these
+ailments. "But don't you have a headache?" added one of them. "An A.D.C.,"
+retorted our virtuous Briton, "never has a headache." "But you have
+sentiments?" "An A.D.C.," was the reply, "has no feelings." "You must feel
+unwell sometimes?" "Never more than one out of four of us at a time."
+
+Poor George Goschen was nearly crippled with rheumatism while at Noumea,
+but would rather have died on the spot than have omitted to set a good
+example by following us everywhere in a pelting rain. Nevertheless when
+they deigned to accompany us the two Frenchmen made themselves very
+agreeable.
+
+Our English footman, originally a boy from Middleton village, was
+considerably taken aback when he found that the only attendance in our
+rooms was the sudden inroad of a party of kanakas (natives) who ran in
+with feather brushes, stirred up a little dust, and rapidly disappeared.
+"Well, Henry," said Mr. Goschen, "either you or I will have to make His
+Excellency's bed." And, stimulated by this and by my maid's example, Henry
+turned to, and we were made perfectly comfortable.
+
+Fortunately for the peace of mind of our kind hosts, the Government and
+Municipality, we came in for the Fetes de Juillet, so though they could
+not carry out the special entertainments projected for us, they had three
+balls, and some races, already arranged. It was rather strange to have the
+music supplied by a Convict Band in their penal garb, but it was very
+good.
+
+In the middle of one of the balls we were summoned to witness a
+"pilou-pilou," that is a native dance by the kanakas--merry-looking people
+with tremendous heads of wool standing straight up. They danced a kind of
+ballet with much swaying of their bodies and swinging of their weapons,
+which they afterwards presented to me. I did not much like taking them,
+but was assured that it was the custom.
+
+These kanakas were darker and of a more negro type than the Samoans whom
+we afterwards visited, but not so dark as the Australian aboriginals, nor
+so savage as the inhabitants of the New Hebrides or New Ireland.
+
+We saw two of their villages, and their system of irrigation by little
+watercourses on the hill-side, which showed considerable capacity for
+agriculture. The Roman Catholic missionaries claimed to have converted
+about ten thousand of them, and it was curious to find in a dark little
+hut of bark and reeds, with little inside except mats and smoke, two or
+three Mass books and a crucifix. Some of the priests whom we met had gone
+into the wilds of New Caledonia before the French annexed it in 1853, and
+regardless of danger had worked there ever since.
+
+[Sidenote: THE CONVICT SETTLEMENT]
+
+We were taken to see the chief buildings of the Convict Settlement, which
+appeared to be large and well planned, but one had rather a painful shock
+when the first object pointed out was the site of the guillotine.
+Naturally the convicts were divided into different classes. We entered one
+long building where a number were confined in common, and seemed fairly
+cheerful, but others were in little separate cells from which they were
+only brought out, and then alone, for a very short time each day. Some had
+only a brief period of such solitary confinement, but in one small cell we
+found a very big man who almost seemed to fill it with his body when he
+stood up at our entrance. He had been condemned to seven years of this
+penance for having assaulted a waiter. He implored the Governor either to
+have him executed at once, or to allow him a little more liberty. I backed
+up his plea, and M. Laffon promised some consideration, which I trust was
+effectual.
+
+The worst thing we saw was the lunatics' prison, inhabited by men who had
+gone mad since their arrival in the Island. One man had a most refined and
+intellectual head; he had been a distinguished lawyer at Lyons and was
+transported for having killed a man who, if I recollect rightly, had been
+his sister's lover. No wonder that shame, exile, and his surroundings had
+driven him mad. Another was much happier; he was quite harmless, and was
+allowed to wander about and indulge his mania, which was the decoration of
+the little chapel. I have no reason at all to think that the convicts were
+ill-treated, but we did not see the place where the worst criminals were
+confined, and one of the French ladies mysteriously remarked, "Ils ont des
+temps durs ceux-la."
+
+I always feel, however, that philanthropists who are ready to condemn the
+treatment of convicts in any part of the world fail to realise the
+difficulty of keeping order amongst large bodies of men, most of whom, at
+all events, have criminal instincts. The heroes of novels and plays who
+undergo such imprisonment are almost invariably represented as unjustly
+convicted, probably scapegoats for real criminals, and all our sympathy is
+evoked on their behalf. No doubt, particularly in the early days of
+Australia, there were many cruelties and much undue severity, but the
+comparatively few officers and men who were put to guard and govern masses
+of criminals had no easy task. They were far removed from any possibility
+of summoning help in cases of mutiny, and probably many of them
+deteriorated mentally and physically through much anxiety and the
+hardships which they themselves had to encounter.
+
+[Sidenote: CONVICTS IN FORMER DAYS]
+
+On the other hand, I heard many authentic stories in Australia of the kind
+treatment and good behaviour of the convicts who were sent out from
+England for slight offences, and who became steady and law-abiding
+settlers, and were particularly careful in the education and upbringing of
+their children. One gentleman told me of a dentist who refused a fee for
+treating him because his father, who had been an official in convict days,
+had been so good to the dentist's ticket-of-leave family. Of course it
+seems very hard of our ancestors to have transported men and women for
+stealing bread or poaching, and I am not justifying the penal laws of the
+eighteenth century, but being what they were I am not at all sure that the
+majority of those who were sent to Australia were not better off than they
+would have been shut up in the prisons of those days in England, and
+certainly their children had a much better start in life. I believe that
+the great hardship was the voyage out in a slow sailing ship, overcrowded,
+with little fresh air and the constant risk of food and water running
+short. Once landed, there were many chances of prosperity for the
+well-behaved. I say nothing of the real black sheep who were relegated to
+Port Arthur or Norfolk Island. It is a mercy to think that those days are
+past and over.
+
+To return to New Caledonia. There were elaborate arrangements for work in
+the nickel mines, and as assigned servants to free settlers whom the
+French Government were very anxious to plant on the land. I do not think
+that they were very successful in inducing large numbers to undertake the
+long voyage, though there were a few Bretons on our ship. A good many
+Australians, however, were established in trade in Noumea.
+
+Words fail to do justice to the kindness of the New Caledonian
+French--they made every exertion to render us happy, and completely
+succeeded. When we left they robbed their Museum of a whole collection of
+native curiosities which they put on board ship with us, despite our
+protestations. One quaint incident perhaps deserves record. Just as we
+departed I received an imposing-looking missive written in flowery
+English, which proved to be a letter from a French poilu. He informed me
+that he had been in Australia and had there married a girl whose name he
+gave me. She was then living in Victoria, and if I remember rightly was
+half Belgian, half British. A small child had been the offspring of the
+union, but "France had called on him to serve," and though his time of
+service overseas was nearly up, and though he wished to return to
+Australia to "stand by his wife," France saw otherwise and proposed to
+ship him back to Marseilles; he was in despair until I had appeared "like
+a star of hope upon the horizon."
+
+When we were back at Sydney I wrote to the Charity Organization at
+Melbourne asking if they could find out anything about the lady. Oddly
+enough she was actually employed in the C.O.S. Office, and was said to be
+quite respectable, though there appeared to have been a little informality
+about the "marriage lines."
+
+I then wrote to the very amiable French Colonel at Noumea and asked
+whether under the circumstances he could see his way to letting the
+lovelorn swain return to Australia instead of to France. With prompt
+courtesy he granted my request, and named some approximate date for the
+man's arrival in Melbourne. Thereupon I wrote a further letter to the
+C.O.S., asking that they would be prepared for a marriage ceremony about
+which there should, this time, be no mistake. The end of the romance, at
+all events of this chapter, was that I received a gushing epistle of
+gratitude signed by "two young hearts," or words to that effect, "made for
+ever happy." I never saw the youth and maiden whom I had thus been
+instrumental in launching among the eddies and currents of matrimony, but
+I trust that the little girl was sufficient to justify a somewhat blind
+experiment.
+
+[Sidenote: DEATH OF LORD ANCRAM]
+
+A great tragedy threw a shadow over our sojourn in N.S.W.
+
+One of our aides-de-camp was Lord Ancram, elder son of Lord Lothian, and a
+particularly attractive young man. He was a great favourite in Sydney and
+much in request at gatherings of every description, being good-looking and
+having charming manners. In June 1892 he and my brother were invited to
+join a shooting party in the country. He went off in high spirits, and
+when he came to say good-bye to me, knowing him to be rather delicate, I
+cautioned him to be sure and put some kind of bedding under as well as
+over him if sleeping out at night. This he promised to do. I never saw him
+again. It was customary in Australia to shoot riding. He and his
+companions got off their horses for luncheon, and put their guns on the
+ground. On remounting one of the party seems to have picked up a loaded
+gun in mistake for his own which he had discharged. Handled incautiously
+this gun went off, and poor Ancram was shot through the head, dying
+instantaneously. I shall never forget the universal sorrow not only in
+Government House, but among the whole warm-hearted community of New South
+Wales. It was some comfort that the Admiral commanding the Station, Lord
+Charles Scott, was Ancram's uncle, and he and his nice wife were able to
+help, and advise as to the best means of breaking the news to the poor
+parents and relatives in England.
+
+Poor George Goschen, who was devoted to Ancram, was almost prostrated by
+grief. It was rather curious that not very long before the accident Ancram
+told me that he had dreamt that he found himself back in his old home, but
+that his brother had taken his place and that nobody recognised him or
+took any notice of him!
+
+Treasures of the Old World are sometimes found at the Antipodes. On one of
+our tours, at a township called Bungendore, a large wooden box appeared
+unexpectedly in our private railway car. Opened, it was found to contain a
+letter from a Mr. Harold Mapletoft Davis explaining that he confided to
+our care relics from Little Gidding, brought from England long before by
+his parents. His mother, Miss Mapletoft, was directly descended from Dr.
+Mapletoft and from his wife, the only Miss Colet who married. In the box
+were a copy of the famous _Harmonies_, and bound volumes of manuscript
+writings by Mary Colet and her sisters. The fine binding of _The
+Harmonies_, now in the British Museum, was said to have been executed by
+Mary Colet herself; she did not die young as represented in "John
+Inglesant," but lived to a good old age. There was also a lovely Charles I
+embroidered miniature chest of drawers, containing a boar's tooth, a
+handkerchief with the royal monogram, and other relics. Charles I left
+this at Little Gidding during his troubles. It was ultimately purchased by
+Queen Victoria, and is now at Windsor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TONGA AND SAMOA
+
+
+Not long after our return from New Caledonia I set sail again, this time
+to take advantage of an invitation from the Britannic Land Commissioner to
+stay with him at his house in Samoa. My brother Rupert Leigh and my
+daughter Margaret accompanied me on the Norddeutscher Lloyd mail-ship
+_Lubeck_. The Germans subsidised the line, but it was, I understood, run
+at a regular loss. We left on August 3rd, and encountered very rough
+weather, seas sweeping over the bridge, and even invading our cabins.
+Captain Mentz was very kind, installed us in his own quarters, and did his
+best to find food which Margaret and I could eat despite sea-sickness. I
+must say this for him, although he was a German!
+
+We passed Norfolk Island, but did not land anywhere until we reached
+Nekualofa, the chief town of the Tongan group, which consists of about 100
+islands and atolls. Tonga, like every island in the Pacific of which I
+ever heard, has its own particular quarrels and politics. It was governed
+at the time of our visit by an ancient potentate called King George, after
+George III of England. His wife had been Queen Charlotte, but she had
+died.
+
+The hero, or rather villain, of recent Tongan history was one Shirley
+Baker, a Wesleyan missionary with the aspirations of a Richelieu or
+Mazarin. He belonged to the Wesleyan Church of Australia, which had
+previously become independent of the Mother Church in England. Shirley
+Baker, however, having made himself Prime Minister of Tonga, did not care
+to take orders even from Australia, but persuaded the dusky monarch that
+the right and proper thing was to have a Free Methodist Church of his own.
+This would not have mattered, but the inhabitants were all compelled to
+belong to this new connexion, and beaten and imprisoned if they wished to
+adhere to what was presumably the Church of their baptism. Other trifling
+accusations, such as of poisoning, were brought against this
+ecclesiastical Prime Minister, and ultimately the British High
+Commissioner from Fiji had to come down and deport him to New Zealand.
+Still, however, as far as we could learn during a brief stay of some
+twenty-four hours, though there was surface peace, intrigue and suspicion
+were still rampant.
+
+Even before we landed my brother came to me and said that one of our
+fellow-passengers had warned him that if we paid a visit to King George
+the missionary interpreter in attendance would probably misrepresent what
+we had to say to the monarch. "But," added Rupert, "I don't think that we
+have anything particular to say, have we?" I agreed that I did not think
+that our communications would vitally affect the peace of the world, or
+even of the Pacific, so we ventured to enter the royal precincts.
+
+The Palace was a comfortable-looking villa, of which the most striking
+adornment was a full-length oil-painting of the old German Emperor
+William, presented to the King for having declared the neutrality of Tonga
+in the Franco-German War of 1870. The High Commissioner of Fiji had
+countered this propaganda by presenting an engraving of Queen Victoria,
+but we were bound to confess, that, being merely head and shoulders, our
+Sovereign Lady was placed at a disadvantage in the artistic competition.
+
+[Sidenote: TONGAN LADIES]
+
+The Tongan ladies were celebrated for their beauty, and we were told that
+when the Duke of Edinburgh, as Prince Alfred, visited Australia and some
+places in the Pacific, Tonga was much disappointed because he failed to
+land on its shores. The inhabitants, however, found balm for their wounded
+feelings in two explanations offered: first, Queen Victoria was so
+impressed by the importance of the group that had she sent a
+representative it must have been her eldest, not her second son; secondly,
+she had heard so much of the charms of the ladies that she feared lest the
+Prince should bring back a dusky daughter-in-law if exposed to their
+wiles. One only wonders why they thought that she should object. The King
+was a fine old man, and we had no reason to believe that a rather
+weak-looking missionary gave any serious misconstruction of our
+conventional remarks. They dealt a good deal with our Queen, and at all
+events he introduced her name at the right place!
+
+We had a very pretty drive in a vividly green lane, had tea at the hotel,
+and returned to sleep on board. The real joy, however, was our departure
+at sunrise next morning. Never before or since have I seen such a glory of
+colour--St. John may have witnessed something like it when he wrote the
+Revelation, but I cannot believe that earth contains a rival.
+
+The sun struck the coral reefs through an absolutely calm sea, and its
+beams were broken up into streams and rivers of crimson, blue, green, and
+purple, as if a rainbow or the tail of an angelic peacock or bird of
+paradise had fallen into the ocean; nor did the rivers remain unchanged.
+At one moment a flood of crimson passed by, and if we ran to the other
+side of the ship, we found that the waters were turning to emerald; they
+parted and mingled and parted again till we seemed in a fairy world of
+magic.
+
+We spent much time in the lagoons of Samoa and saw beautiful hues,
+particularly deep purples, there, but never again the extraordinary beauty
+of the Tongan archipelago. Behind the ever-changing sea rose a myriad
+islands crowned with palms and floating in light. My brother asked me if I
+remembered the little picture in our old Ballantyne's _Coral Island_ of
+schoolroom days. I had already thought of it, and gratefully felt that at
+least one dream of childhood had been fulfilled, that I had seen something
+of what our books had told, though not as the sailor which I had sighed to
+be.
+
+King George died in the spring after we had made his acquaintance. A
+prominent resident whom we had met at Nukualofa, Mr. Parker, wrote to
+describe the honours paid to his memory. He said that he had been for so
+many years "a leading character for good and bad that his sudden, but on
+account of his age not unexpected, death caused much commotion."
+
+    "However much some of his subjects may have disliked him (or rather
+    his regime) when alive, and with much reason there were many, now that
+    he is dead the respect they show is very striking. The place both day
+    and night is as silent as death, though there is plenty of movement."
+    On a low white wall surrounding the premises, "at intervals of about
+    one foot there is a lamp placed on the top; and at every few yards of
+    the road a camp of people squat down with torches, and patiently wait
+    for daylight as a sign of respect, and also in all probability to keep
+    evil spirits away, though if asked the watchers would not say so."
+
+The house itself was brilliantly illuminated with hundreds of coloured
+lamps and paper lanthorns, and within, mats, flowers, and sandal-wood
+powder were lavished on the dead monarch. Meantime I must return to our
+voyage.
+
+[Sidenote: ARRIVAL AT APIA]
+
+We landed at Apia, the capital of Samoa, on August 13th, by Sydney
+calendar. (Samoan was different, as we had crossed 180 deg. longitude,
+but this is unimportant.) We were met by our kindest of hosts, Mr. Bazett
+Michael Haggard, with the boat of the British Commission rowed by a fine
+crew of natives in white shirts and red lava-lavas or kilts. These, like
+other Samoan men, were tattooed from the waist to the knee rather as if
+they wore tight breeches under their kilts. We were taken to Haggard's
+quarters, a two-storied house called Ruge's Buildings, embowered in trees,
+containing a fine long reception room upstairs, with bedrooms off it for
+my daughter, myself, and my maid. Below were the servants' quarters, the
+staff being a very intelligent Indian and two Samoan boys; behind was a
+courtyard with rooms beyond for Mr. Haggard and my brother. The whole had
+been the property of a commercial company. Mr. Haggard in his anxiety for
+our safety used to lock us women in at night, but I do not know what
+danger he apprehended.
+
+Ruge's Buildings were situated on the principal road of Apia, not far from
+the harbour which was the scene of the famous hurricane in which the
+English ship _Calliope_ outrode the storm and escaped, while the German
+_Adler_ was wrecked against the reefs. Her mast still rose above her
+shattered remains, marking the spot where she lay.
+
+The Samoan group consisted of three principal and several outlying
+islands. Tutuila, which possesses the best harbour, was held by the
+Americans, while Upolu, site of the capital, and Savaii, a mountainous
+isle, were more or less in dispute between the Germans and the British.
+The politics of the whole group were involved to a degree, and certainly
+hold little interest for anyone at this time of day. The League of Nations
+did not exist in 1892, but Samoa would have afforded a splendid field for
+its discussions, not to say a happy hunting-ground for commissions and
+expenditure.
+
+The main points of difference in 1892 may be summarised thus: There were
+two kings, Malietoa Laupepa, acknowledged by the European Powers, and a
+rebel, Mataafa, fortified in the mountains. There was another monarch,
+Tamasese, but he was not then counted among the royal claimants, though
+son of a chief called the "German King," because his father had once upon
+a time been acknowledged by the Germans, who gave him a uniform.
+
+Also there were three Land Commissioners and three Consuls, English,
+American, and German; a German Prime Minister; Mabon, Secretary of
+State--I think American--and a Swedish Chief Justice. The last-named was
+appointed to settle any matters of difference which might arise between
+the Land Commissioners of the three Great Powers, and they were to decide
+the disputes between the various claimants to land.
+
+The Europeans had often tried to induce the natives to sell them land far
+below its value, and the natives were not altogether behindhand in the
+game, as they would sell the same land to two or three different
+purchasers. Result, far more claims to land than acres existing to satisfy
+the claimants. The Swedish Chief Justice, a man called Cedercrantz, with a
+squint, did not know English when appointed, and had to go to Fiji to
+learn it.
+
+To add to the complications there were three sets of missionaries in
+Upolu, London missionaries and Wesleyans, with a standing feud between
+them, and Roman Catholics of course violently opposed to both. All this
+for a population well under a hundred thousand! However, despite all these
+quarrels, and the consequent excitements, the natives seemed a singularly
+contented and easy-going community, and everyone whom we met vied with all
+others in making us happy.
+
+The Samoans are fairer than the New Caledonians and their hair less
+woolly; they approached nearer to the Malay type. We found they did not in
+the least want to work in the cocoa-nut plantations set on foot by the
+Germans, and why should they. Fishing one day a week and cultivating a few
+yams and taros on another day would supply their food, and the women made
+tappa for their few garments out of the bark of trees.
+
+[Sidenote: GERMAN PLANTATIONS]
+
+The Germans imported workmen of the dusky negro type from the New Hebrides
+and New Ireland, but the English settlers were not allowed to do this, and
+the consequence in our time was that the Germans owned the plantations,
+but otherwise trade and population accrued largely to New Zealanders and
+other British subjects.
+
+Our host, Bazett Haggard, brother to Rider Haggard and to William Haggard
+whom we had known in Athens, was a great character. When he visited Sydney
+he was known as "Samoa," for he never talked of anything else, which was
+perhaps not surprising under the circumstances.
+
+A lawyer by profession, on appointment as Land Commissioner he had been
+endowed with a Foreign Office uniform and a Red Box which were sources of
+infinite gratification and innocent pride. An Australian young lady asked
+in awed tones, "Have you seen the beautiful box which Lord Salisbury gave
+Mr. Haggard?" Previous to a ball at Government House he asked with all the
+solemnity appropriate to a budding diplomat whether I would dance with him
+as first representative of the Foreign Office at Sydney. After the dance
+he laid aside his sword for the rest of the evening, assuring me that this
+was the proper etiquette, to dance the State dance wearing the sword and
+subsequent ones without it. No doubt he was right.
+
+Apart from Samoa the universe for him revolved round his native county,
+Norfolk, whence sprang all that was finest in the British race,
+particularly the Haggard brothers. I forget how many there were, but they
+had, he said, all loud voices, and on some occasion won a contested
+election by the simple process of shouting.
+
+Apart from this quaint strain of simple satisfaction with himself and his
+surroundings he was the kindest of men, and I was assured that when it
+came to his legal work all his oddities were cast aside and that he was an
+excellent and capable Commissioner.
+
+[Sidenote: R. L. STEVENSON]
+
+On the evening following our arrival he invited Robert Louis Stevenson and
+Mrs. Stevenson to dinner, and if we had already felt the fascination of
+Utopia we then fell under the spell of the Enchanter who evoked all the
+magic woven round its land and sea. I shall never forget the moment when I
+first saw him and his wife standing at the door of the long, wood-panelled
+room in Ruge's Building. A slim, dark-haired, bright-eyed figure in a
+loose, black velvet jacket over his white vest and trousers, and a
+scarlet silk sash round his waist. By his side the short, dark woman with
+cropped, curly hair and the strange piercing glance which had won for her
+the name in native tongue, "The Witch Woman of the Mountain."
+
+Stevenson was never one to keep all the treasures of his imagination and
+humour for his books. Every word, every gesture revealed the man, and he
+gave one the impression that life was for him a game to be shared with his
+friends and played nobly to the end. I think that Matthew Arnold's
+"Empedocles on Etna" expressed him when he sang:
+
+  "Is it so small a thing
+  To have enjoy'd the sun,
+  To have lived light in the spring,
+  To have loved, to have thought, to have done;
+  To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes?"
+
+But Stevenson, braver to confront life than Empedocles, would not have
+leapt into the crater!
+
+At that dinner, which inaugurated our friendship, a very merry talk
+somehow turned on publishers and publishing. It began, if I remember
+rightly, with a reference to Mrs. Humphry Ward's latest book, for which
+she was reported to have received a number of thousands which both
+Stevenson and Haggard pronounced to be incredible, Haggard speaking from
+his brother's experience and Stevenson from his own. Thereupon it was
+suggested by someone, and carried unanimously, that we should form an
+"Apia Publishing Company"; and later on in Haggard's absence the rest of
+us determined to write a story of which our host should be hero, and the
+name, suggested, I think, by Stevenson, was to be _An Object of Pity, or
+the Man Haggard_.
+
+Before this was completed various incidents occurred which were
+incorporated into the tale. Another friend of Mr. Haggard was the British
+Consul, Mr. Cusack Smith, and he took us to tea with him and his pretty
+wife on the Sunday afternoon following our arrival. They lived in a
+pleasant bungalow of which the compound--or lawn--was enlivened by a
+good-sized turtle tied to a post, which was being kept ready to be
+slaughtered and cooked when we came to dine with them!
+
+The question of fresh meat was not altogether easy to solve in Samoa. We,
+knowing that there were certain difficulties, had brought with us a
+provision of tongues and similar preserved foods, also of champagne, but
+there were few cows and oxen, and sheep were impossible to rear on the
+island--at least so far means had not been found to feed them amongst the
+luxuriant tangle of tropical vegetation. Preserved provisions, including
+butter, were mostly brought from New Zealand. Samoa itself provided skinny
+chickens, some kind of pigeon, yams, taros, and of course fish.
+
+The occasional great treat was pig cooked in the native oven, an excellent
+kitchen arrangement. A hole was dug in the ground, the object to be cooked
+was wrapped up in leaves and placed between hot stones; the whole was then
+covered up with earth and left long enough for the meat to be thoroughly
+soft and cooked through; when opened nothing could be more tender.
+
+[Sidenote: KING MALIETOA]
+
+Among other entertainments we were invited to dine by King Malietoa, to
+whom we had already paid a formal visit of ceremony. The banquet, which
+took place about three in the afternoon, was laid on a long cloth spread
+on the ground and consisted of all sorts of native delicacies, including
+a dish of a peculiar kind of worm, and, besides pig and pigeon, of
+vegetables cooked in various ways. The staff of the monarch included an
+orator or "Talking Man," and a jester, thereby recalling the attendants of
+the Duke of Austria in _The Talisman_.
+
+The Talking Man, whose badge of office was a fly-whisk, carried over his
+shoulder, had had his innings at our formal reception, but the jester came
+in very useful at the banquet. We were told that one of his most
+successful jokes was to snatch away pieces of the food placed before the
+King. On this occasion he was crouched just behind Malietoa and myself.
+Part of the regal etiquette was for the monarch to give me a piece of any
+delicacy in his fingers, but he always tactfully looked the other way when
+he had done so, thereby giving me the chance of slipping it into the hands
+of the jester, who consumed it chuckling with glee.
+
+Malietoa was a gentle, amiable being who seemed rather oppressed by the
+position into which he had been thrust by the Powers. His rival Mataafa
+was undoubtedly the stronger character of the two, and appealed to the
+romantic instincts of Stevenson, who was his personal friend.
+
+Stevenson and Haggard between them therefore concocted a plot whereby I
+was to visit incognita the camp in the mountains of the rebel potentate.
+As it would not do to keep my own name, my husband being then Governor of
+New South Wales, I was to become Stevenson's cousin, Amelia Balfour, and
+he wrote beforehand to ask that accommodation should be provided for me
+with the ladies of this royal house, as I was not well accustomed to
+Island customs.
+
+This is how Stevenson later on described the encounter in the very
+fragmentary "Samoid":
+
+  "Two were the troops that encountered; one from the way of the shore,
+  And the house where at night, by the timid, the Judge[2] may be heard
+      to roar,
+  And one from the side of the mountain. Now these at the trysting spot
+  Arrived and lay in the shade. Nor let their names be forgot.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  So these in the shade awaited the hour, and the hour went by;
+  And ever they watched the ford of the stream with an anxious eye;
+  And care, in the shade of the grove, consumed them, a doubtful crew,
+  As they harboured close from the bands of the men of Mulinuu
+  But the heart of the Teller of Tales (Tusitala) at length could endure
+      no more,
+  He loosed his steed from the thicket, and passed to the nearer shore,
+  And back through the land of his foes, steering his steed, and still
+  Scouting for enemies hidden. And lo! under Vaca Hill
+  At the crook of the road a clatter of hoofs and a glitter of white!
+  And there came the band from the seaward, swift as a pigeon's flight.
+  Two were but there to return: the Judge of the Titles of land;
+  He of the lion's hair, bearded, boisterous, bland;
+  And the maid that was named for the pearl,[3] a maid of another isle,
+  Light as a daisy rode, and gave us the light of her smile.
+  But two to pursue the adventure: one that was called the Queen
+  Light as the maid, her daughter, rode with us veiled in green,
+  And deep in the cloud of the veil, like a deer's in a woodland place,
+  The fire of the two dark eyes, in the field of the unflushed face.
+  And one her brother[4] that bore the name of a knight of old,
+  Rode at her heels unmoved; and the glass in his eye was cold.
+  Bright is the sun in the brook; bright are the winter stars,
+  Brighter the glass in the eye of that captain of hussars."
+
+The adventurous party consisted of R.L.S., his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, his
+stepdaughter Mrs. Strong (nee Osbourne), and a young native chief Henry
+Simele, my brother, and myself. It was arranged with infinite, but
+somewhat futile, secrecy that Mr. Haggard, my daughter and I, with Rupert
+should ride out in the afternoon and find the Vailima party awaiting us at
+the Gasi-gasi Ford. This duly came off; we were rather late, and found our
+companions crouching, excited, at the appointed spot in the attitude
+proper for conspirators.
+
+[Sidenote: THE ENCHANTED FOREST]
+
+Haggard and my daughter thereupon returned to Ruge's Buildings, and the
+rest of us pursued our way through the enchanted forest, past groves of
+bananas, and up the mountain. From time to time little stiles barring the
+narrow paths had to be negotiated; some Europeans explorers had imagined
+that these were a kind of fortification to protect Mataafa's quarters, but
+really they were nothing more romantic than fences to keep pigs from
+wandering.
+
+Nature in Samoa everywhere erected natural screens for those who desired
+concealment in the extraordinary luxuriance of her tangled vegetation:
+overhead, broad-leaved forest trees interlacing their branches so that it
+was possible to ride even at midday under a tropical sun; below, the long
+and varied creeping plants which went under the general name of "vines,"
+and which rendered progress difficult except where narrow tracks had been
+cleared leading from one little village to another. Mostly, however, the
+villagers were within easy reach of the seashore, partly for convenience
+of fishing, partly as being accessible in boats. The villagers loved to
+visit their friends, rowing pleasantly from place to place within the
+lagoons which circled the Island.
+
+To return to our journey. Among other instances of tropical luxuriance, we
+passed a quantity of sensitive plant. The original plant had been placed
+by a member of a German firm on his child's grave, thence it had quickly
+spread and had become a perfect pest in the surrounding districts. My
+horse was an extremely lanky and skinny animal which Mr. Haggard had
+procured for my use, and which alternately rejoiced in the names of
+"Pedigree" and "Starvation," the latter seeming more appropriate. R.L.S.
+rode a fat little pony. Mrs. Strong subsequently caricatured our progress
+by representing me very tall with an extremely tight waistband, and
+Stevenson looking upward from his diminutive steed.
+
+Mrs. Strong, be it understood, regarded any kind of fitting garment as a
+foolish superfluity. On this occasion she had donned corsets for the
+convenience of a long ride, but when, in the twilight, we neared our
+destination she slipped them off and gave them to an attendant, bidding
+him be a good boy and carry them for her.
+
+[Sidenote: KING MATAAFA]
+
+As we approached the royal abode we were met first by a man beating a
+drum, then by the whole population, and heard many remarks interchanged in
+low tones; my companions told me that they referred to the "Tamaiti Sili"
+or "Great Lady," showing how singularly ineffectual was my disguise. If
+any proof of this were needed it was soon supplied. Mataafa, a very fine
+old man, received us most courteously, attended specially by a remarkable
+old gentleman called Popo, who had curiously aquiline features quite
+unlike the ordinary native. Stevenson thus described him:
+
+  "He who had worshipped feathers and shells and wood,
+  As a pillar alone in the desert that points where a city stood,
+  Survived the world that was his, playmates and gods and tongue--
+  For even the speech of his race had altered since Popo was young.
+  And ages of time and epochs of changing manners bowed,
+  And the silent hosts of the dead wondered and muttered aloud
+  With him, as he bent and marvelled, a man of the time of the Ark,
+  And saluted the ungloved hand of the Lady of Osterley Park."
+
+We were first presented with refreshing cocoa-nuts, and after profuse
+compliments, conveyed through the interpreter, dinner, or supper, was
+prepared on a small wooden table in the background. It consisted of
+pigeon, chickens, taros, and yams, but poor Mataafa, who had previously
+adjourned for evening service, could not share the birds because it was a
+fast day. He was a Roman Catholic--another point of difference between him
+and Malietoa, who was a Protestant.
+
+After the evening repast came the kava ceremony. As is well known, kava is
+a drink made from the roots of the pepper-tree, chewed by young persons
+(who have first carefully washed their teeth), and then soaked in water.
+To me it always tasted rather like soapy water, but it is most popular
+with the natives, who will sit at festivities drinking large quantities.
+It is said to have no effect on the head, but to numb the lower limbs if
+too much is imbibed.
+
+At special ceremonies, however, it is somewhat in the nature of a
+loving-cup, only each guest has a cocoa-nut shell refilled from the
+general wooden-legged bowl for his benefit. The kava is always given in
+strict order of precedence, and the interest was to see whether Mataafa
+would give the first cup to Stevenson as a man, and head of the family, or
+to me, a mere woman and ostensibly a female relative, as in the latter
+case it would show that he saw through my cousinly pretensions. It was
+rather a curious scene in the dimly lighted native house--chairs for the
+King and his European guests, while the interpreter, Henry Simele, and
+the native henchmen squatted near-by. With an indescribable expression of
+suppressed amusement Mataafa handed the cup to me, whereupon Stevenson,
+with a delightful twinkle of his eye, exclaimed, "Oh, Amelia, you're a
+very bad conspirator!"
+
+Stevenson and my brother were then taken off to another house, while Mrs.
+Strong and I were escorted to the couch prepared for us--a large pile of
+soft mats enclosed in a mosquito curtain, with two pillows side by side at
+the head.
+
+A native house has often been described. It is generally a roof shaped
+like an inverted boat of wooden beams supported on posts and thatched with
+palm-leaves. Its size varies greatly according to the position and wealth
+of the owner. Mataafa's was a large one and his mats were beautiful. There
+was only one room, and in a general way no one would have demurred at
+sleeping all together. However, in this case a large tappa curtain was let
+down in the centre; the King and his warriors slept on one side, and the
+other formed the apartment of Mrs. Strong and myself.
+
+Mrs. Strong was a most entertaining companion, and told me stories of
+American experience before we both composed ourselves to sleep. She was
+much amused by my one preparation for evening toilet, which was a
+toothbrush; but I had to go outside the matting curtains suspended between
+the posts to use it, as all cooking and washing was bound to take place
+where nothing should spoil the beautiful mats carpeting the house proper.
+I found guards outside waiting in the darkness, and when he heard of my
+excursion Stevenson declared that my teeth would become historic. It is
+not to be supposed that the natives neglect cleanliness--they constantly
+bathe in the sea and in streams, but all washing takes place outside, not
+inside, their houses.
+
+[Sidenote: THE KAVA CEREMONY]
+
+Next morning we adjourned from the private abode to Mataafa's large new
+Parliament House, where all his chiefs were assembled for public or King's
+kava. They sat round in a sort of circle, each representing one of the
+royal "names" or tribes.
+
+Without going into the intricacies of Samoan genealogy it may be explained
+that no Prince could properly be King of the whole group unless he could
+prove his title to rule over all the "names." As it seemed that neither
+Malietoa nor Mataafa could do this, their quarrel was unlikely ever to be
+decided except by force and by the support given to one or the other from
+outside. Anyhow, a great number of "names" were represented on this
+occasion and the scene was very interesting.
+
+This Parliament House was said to be the largest native building in Samoa,
+and was certainly fine and well constructed. On the cross-beams of the
+central "roof-tree" were three painted wooden birds, emblems of the King's
+house, as his father had been called "King of the Birds."
+
+The King and his guests again sat on chairs, the chiefs squatted on the
+ground. This time, being public, the King, with true courtesy, accepted my
+ostensible position, and gave the kava first to R.L.S.; after the rest of
+us had drunk, it was carried to each chief in turn, and in several cases
+curious rites accompanied their acceptance of the cup. In one case an old
+man had to lie down and be massaged for an imaginary ailment, in another
+the kava was poured over a _stone_ which stood for one of the "names"
+whose human representative was lacking. The most dramatic incident was
+when a fine-looking chief, who was a sort of War Lord in Mataafa's army,
+five times refused the cup with a very haughty air before condescending to
+drink, which he then had to do five times. We were told that this was in
+memory of an ancestor who had refused water when no supply could be
+obtained for his king, recalling the story of David pouring out the water
+obtained at the risk of his captains' lives.
+
+When all was over some of the chiefs were presented to us, particularly
+the War Lord, who had laid by his truculent manners and was very smiling
+and amiable. He had had two drinks, first as Head of the Forces, later on
+as Headman of his Village--so was in great form.
+
+Poor Mataafa! After we left the Islands war broke out again, his forces
+were finally defeated, and I believe that he died in exile. My stolen
+visit to him will, however, be always a most delightful recollection.
+
+We also paid our respects to Tamasese, son of the "German King," previous
+to spending a night with the Wesleyan Missionary and his wife. Tamasese
+was out when we arrived, as he did not expect us so early. We had started
+in the Commissioner's boat at 4 a.m., and saw the sun rise over the locked
+lagoon. We were, however, most courteously received by his handsome wife
+Viti, who besides her tappa lava-lava wore a kind of double bib or
+sleeveless jumper falling to the waist before and behind, with a hole in
+the middle for her head to go through. This ingenious garment was made of
+cotton pocket-handkerchiefs not yet cut apart for sale and printed with
+portraits of prize-fighters.
+
+Tamasese, when he entered the house, proved to be the finest native whom
+we had yet seen, with the square head and broad limbs of a Roman emperor.
+In addition to the lava-lava both men and women loved to decorate
+themselves and their guests with garlands of flowers worn either on their
+heads or hung round their necks. I have a vivid recollection of my brother
+seated on a box in Tamasese's hospitable house with a wreath of flowers on
+his head, surrounded by an admiring crowd of young women, including the
+handsome Viti, a young cousin or adopted daughter, and the Taupau or Maid
+of the Village, a girl selected for her beauty and charm to represent the
+community in the receptions and merry-makings which are a prominent
+feature in Samoan life.
+
+[Sidenote: A NATIVE DANCE]
+
+Later in the day we were present at a native dance, if dance it can be
+called, when the performers sat for the most part on the ground, and the
+action took place by girls swinging their arms and bodies while the men
+contributed the music. The girls did not confine themselves to rhythmic
+movements, but also gave a kind of comic dramatic performance, mimicking
+amongst other things the manners and customs of white people with much
+laughter and enjoyment. They threw bunches of leaves about by way of
+cricket balls--got up and walked in peculiar manners, with explanations
+which were translated to us as "German style," "English style," and so on;
+and when they sang a kind of song or recitative, concerning a college for
+native girls about to be established by the missionaries, they made the
+very sensible suggestion that one or two of them should go and try what
+the life was like before they entered in any number.
+
+Tamasese paid us a return visit at Apia. It was curious to see him seated
+on a chair having luncheon with us, dressed solely in a white lava-lava
+and a large garland of leaves and flowers or berries. He also attended an
+evening party at Ruge's Buildings; on that occasion he added a white linen
+coat to his costume at Haggard's request, simply because the cocoa-nut oil
+with which natives anoint their bodies might have come off on the ladies'
+dresses in a crowd.
+
+The truth is that a lava-lava and a coating of oil are much the most
+healthy and practical costume in a tropical climate. When a shower of rain
+comes on it does so with such force that any ordinary garment is soaked
+through in a few minutes. It is impossible for natives to be always
+running home to change their clothes even if their wardrobes permitted,
+and remaining in these wet garments is surely provocative of the
+consumption which so often carries them off.
+
+Shirley Baker in Tonga made it a law that everyone should wear an upper
+and a nether garment; in Samoa it was not a legal question, but the
+missionaries made doubtless well-intentioned efforts to enforce the
+addition of white shirts to the male, and overalls to the female costume,
+which really seemed unnecessary with their nice brown skins.
+
+It is difficult for a casual visitor to judge fairly the influence of
+missionaries on natives, but on the whole, as far as I have seen missions
+in different lands, despite mistakes and narrow-mindedness, it seems to be
+for good. There is an enormous difference between missions to ancient
+civilisations such as those of India and China, and to children of nature
+such as the population of the Pacific. I do not forget the command "Go ye
+and teach all nations," an authority which no Christian can dispute; I am
+thinking only of _how_ this has been done, and with what effect on the
+"nations."
+
+It is pretty evident that when the nations have an elaborate ritual of
+their own, and when the educated classes among them have a decided
+tendency to metaphysics, a ritual such as that of the Roman Catholics is
+apt to appeal to them, and the men sent to teach them must be prepared to
+enter into their difficulties and discussions. When, however, the
+populations to be approached are merely inclined to deify the forces of
+nature, and to believe in the power of spirits, if a man of some education
+comes among them, helps them in illness, and proves his superiority in
+agriculture and in the arts of daily life, they are very ready to accept
+his authority and obey his injunctions.
+
+[Sidenote: MISSIONARIES]
+
+In the case of the South Sea Islanders there is no doubt that the
+missionaries have afforded them protection against the tyranny and vices
+introduced by many of the low-class traders and beachcombers who exploited
+them in every possible way. The missionaries have done their best to stop
+their drinking the horrible spirits received from such men, in return for
+forced labour and the produce of their land. They have done much to
+eradicate cannibalism and other evil customs. Their error seems to have
+been the attempt to put down dances and festivities of all kinds on the
+plea that these were connected with heathen rites, instead of encouraging
+them under proper restrictions. Even when we were in the Islands, however,
+many of the more enlightened missionaries had already realised that human
+nature must have play, and that, as St. John told the huntsman who found
+him playing with a partridge, you cannot keep the bow always bent.
+Probably by now the Christian Churches in the Pacific have learnt much
+wisdom by experience.
+
+As before remarked, there were, in 1892, three sets of missionaries in
+Samoa. Apart from the Roman Catholics, the most important were the London
+Missionaries, whose founders had been men of high education and who had
+settled in the Islands about the time of Queen Victoria's accession. The
+Wesleyans had also made many converts.
+
+Some years before our visit a sort of concordat had been arranged between
+the various Anglican and Protestant Churches working in the Pacific. The
+Church of England clergy were to work in the Islands commonly called
+Melanesia; the Wesleyans, whose great achievements had been in Fiji, were
+to take that group, Tonga, and other offshoots of their special missions;
+the London missionaries were to have Samoa and other fields of labour
+where their converts predominated. Under this agreement the Wesleyan
+missionaries left Samoa, but alas! after a time they came back, to the not
+unnatural indignation of the London missionaries. Their plea was that
+their flock begged them to return. An outsider cannot pronounce on the
+rights and wrongs of the question, but the feeling engendered was evident
+to the most casual observer.
+
+As for the Roman Catholics, we were sitting one evening with a London
+missionary, when a native servant ran in to inform him that the R.C.
+priest was showing a magic-lantern in which our host and one of his
+colleagues were represented in hell!
+
+I should add that I noticed that in a course of lectures given to their
+students by the London missionaries was one "on the errors of the Roman
+Church," but that was not as drastic, nor, I presume, so exciting, as the
+ocular argument offered by the priest.
+
+[Sidenote: SAMOAN MYTHOLOGY]
+
+The mythology of the Samoans was much like that of other primitive
+nations, and as in similar cases their gods and heroes were closely
+connected. The chief deity was a certain Tangoloalangi or
+"god-of-heaven." He had a son called Pilibuu, who came down to earth,
+settled in Samoa, and planted kava and sugar-cane. He also made a
+fishing-net and selected as his place of abode a spot on Upolu large
+enough to enable him to spread it out. Pilibuu had four sons to whom he
+allotted various offices; one was to look after the plantations, another
+to carry the walking-stick and fly-whisk to "do the talking," a third as
+warrior carried the spear and club, while the youngest had charge of the
+canoes. To all he gave the excellent advice, "When you wish to work, work;
+when you wish to talk, talk; when you wish to fight, fight." The second
+injunction struck me as that most congenial to his descendants.
+
+The Samoans had legends connected with their mats, those of fine texture
+being valued as jewels are in Western lands. One was told me at great
+length about a mat made by a woman who was a spirit, who worked at
+different times under the vines, under a canoe, and on the sea-shore.
+Either her personal charms or her industry captivated Tangoloalangi, and
+he took her up to heaven and made her his wife. Her first child, a
+daughter, was endowed with the mat, and looking down from heaven she was
+fascinated by the appearance of a fine man attired in a lava-lava of red
+bird-of-paradise feathers. She descended in a shower of rain, but her
+Endymion, mistaking her mode of transit for an ordinary storm, took off
+his plumes for fear they should get wet. Arrived on earth she went up to
+him and said, "Where is the man I saw from heaven wearing a fine
+lava-lava?" "I am he," replied the swain. Incredulous, she retorted, "I
+saw a man not so ugly as you." "I am the same as before, but you saw me
+from a distance with a red lava-lava on." In vain he resumed his
+adornment; the charm was broken and she would none of him. Instead of
+returning to the skies she wandered to another village and had further
+adventures with the mat, which she gave to her daughter by the earthly
+husband whom she ultimately selected. She told the girl that on any day on
+which she took the mat out to dry in the sun there would be darkness,
+rain, and hurricane. The mat was still preserved in the family of the man
+who told me the story, and was never taken out to dry in the sun.
+
+The Samoans, like other races, had a story of the Flood, and one
+derivation (there are several) of the name of the Group is Sa = sacred or
+preserved, Moa = fowl, as they say that one of their gods preserved his
+fowls on these islands during the deluge.
+
+They had sacred symbols, such as sticks, leaves, and stones, and a general
+belief in spirits, but I never heard of any special ritual, nor were there
+any traces of temples on the Islands. They seemed a gentle, amiable
+people, not fierce like the natives of New Ireland, the New Hebrides, and
+others of negroid type.
+
+The constant joy of the natives is to go for a malanga or boat expedition
+to visit neighbouring villages, and we quite realised the fascination of
+this mode of progress when we were rowed through the quiet lagoons in
+early morning or late evening, the rising or setting sun striking colours
+from the barrier reefs, and our boatmen chanting native songs as they bent
+to their oars. Once a little girl was thrown into our boat to attend us
+when we were going to sleep in a native teacher's house. She lay down at
+the bottom with a tappa cloth covering her from the sun. We were amused,
+when the men began to sing, to hear her little voice from under the cloth
+joining in the melody.
+
+[Sidenote: DESIRE FOR ENGLISH PROTECTION]
+
+On this occasion we visited one or two stations of the London
+missionaries and inspected a number of young chief students. I noticed one
+youth who seemed particularly pleased by something said to him by the
+missionary. I asked what had gratified him, and Mr. Hills said that he had
+told him that the Island from which he came (I think one of the Ellice
+Islands) had just been annexed by the British, and they were so afraid of
+being taken by the Germans! That well represented the general feeling.
+Once as we were rowing in our boat a large native canoe passed us, and the
+men in it shouted some earnest supplication. I asked what it was, and was
+told that they were imploring "by Jesus Christ" that we should beg the
+British Government to take the Island.
+
+Poor things, not long after we left, the agreement was made by which
+England assumed the Protectorate of Tonga and Germany that of Upolu and
+Savaii of the Samoan group. Since the war New Zealand has the "mandate" to
+govern them, and I hope they are happy. I never heard that they were
+ill-treated by the Germans during their protectorate, but they had
+certainly seen enough of the forced labour on German plantations to make
+them terribly afraid of their possible fate.
+
+The London missionaries had stations not only on the main Island, but also
+on the outlying islets of Manono and Apolima which they were anxious that
+we should visit. The latter was a small but romantic spot. The only
+practicable landing-place was between two high projecting rocks, and we
+were told that any party of natives taking refuge there could guarantee
+themselves against pursuit by tying a rope across from rock to rock and
+upsetting any hostile canoe into the sea.
+
+Ocean itself, not the inhabitants, expressed an objection to our presence
+on this occasion. There was no sheltering lagoon to receive us, the sea
+was so rough and the surf so violent that our crew assured us that it was
+impossible to land, and we had to retreat to Manono. Mr. Haggard sent a
+message thence to the Apolima chiefs assuring them of our great regret,
+and promising that I would send my portrait to hang in their village
+guest-house. I told this to the head missionary's wife when I saw her
+again, and she exclaimed with much earnestness, "Oh, do send the
+photograph or they will all turn Wesleyans!" To avert this catastrophe a
+large, elaborately framed photograph was duly sent from Sydney and
+formally presented by Mr. Haggard. I trust that it kept the score or so of
+Islanders in the true faith. A subsequent visitor found it hanging upside
+down in the guest-house, and the last I heard of it was that the chiefs
+had fled with it to the hills after some fighting in which they were
+defeated. I seem to have been an inefficient fetish, but I do not know
+whose quarrel they had embraced.
+
+We had one delightful picnic, not by boat, but riding inland to a
+waterfall some twenty or thirty feet high. Our meal was spread on rocks in
+the little river into which it fell, and after our luncheon the native
+girls who accompanied us sat on the top of the fall and let themselves be
+carried by the water into the deep pool below. My daughter and I envied,
+though we could not emulate them, but my brother divested himself of his
+outer garments and clad in pyjamas let two girls take him by either arm
+and shot with them down into the clear cool water. One girl who joined the
+entertainment was said to be a spirit, but there was no outward sign to
+show wherein she differed from a mortal. Mortals or spirits, they were a
+cheery, light-hearted race.
+
+[Sidenote: VISIT FROM TAMASESE]
+
+I must mention Tamasese's farewell visit to us accompanied by one or two
+followers. Mr. Haggard donned his uniform for the occasion, and as usual
+we English sat in a row on chairs, while the Samoans squatted on the floor
+in front. We had as interpreter a half-caste called Yandall, who had some
+shadowy claim to the royal blood of England in his veins. How or why I
+never understood, but he was held in vague esteem on that account.
+
+At this visit, after various polite phrases had been interchanged, Haggard
+premised his oration by enjoining on Yandall to interpret his words
+exactly. He first dilated in flowery language on the importance of my
+presence in Samoa, on which our guests interjected murmurs of pleased
+assent. He then went on to foreshadow our imminent departure--mournful
+"yahs" came in here--and then wound up with words to this effect:
+"Partings must always occur on earth; there is but one place where there
+will be no more partings, and that is the Kingdom of heaven, _where Lady
+Jersey will be very pleased to see all present_"! Imagine the joy of the
+Stevenson family when this gem of rhetoric was reported to them.
+
+I have already referred to the story, _An Object of Pity, or the Man
+Haggard_, which was written by my brother and myself in collaboration with
+the Stevensons. The idea was that each author should describe his or her
+own character, that Haggard should be the hero of a romance running
+through the whole, and that we should all imitate the style of Ouida, to
+whom the booklet was inscribed in a delightful dedication afterwards
+written by Stevenson, from which I venture to cull a few extracts:
+
+    "Lady Ouida,--Many besides yourself have exulted to collect Olympian
+    polysyllables and to sling ink not Wisely but too Well. They are
+    forgotten, you endure. Many have made it their goal and object to
+    Exceed; and who else has been so Excessive?... It is therefore, with a
+    becoming diffidence that we profit by an unusual circumstance to
+    approach and to address you.
+
+    "We, undersigned, all persons of ability and good character, were
+    suddenly startled to find ourselves walking in broad day in the halls
+    of one of your romances. We looked about us with embarrassment, we
+    instinctively spoke low; and you were good enough not to perceive the
+    intrusion or to affect unconsciousness. But we were there; we have
+    inhabited your tropical imagination; we have lived in the reality that
+    which you have but dreamed of in your studio. And the Man Haggard
+    above all. The house he dwells in was not built by any carpenter, you
+    wrote it with your pen; the friends with which he has surrounded
+    himself are the mere spirit of your nostrils; and those who look on at
+    his career are kept in a continual twitter lest he should fall out of
+    the volume; in which case, I suppose he must infallibly injure himself
+    beyond repair; and the characters in the same novel, what would become
+    of them?... The present volume has been written slavishly from your
+    own gorgeous but peculiar point of view. Your touch of complaisance in
+    observation, your genial excess of epithet, and the grace of your
+    antiquarian allusions, have been cultivated like the virtues. Could we
+    do otherwise? When nature and life had caught the lyre from your
+    burning hands who were we to affect a sterner independence?"
+
+There follow humorous comments on the contents of the chapters, and the
+Dedication ends with the signatures of "Your fond admirers" in Samoan with
+English translations. Mrs. Stevenson, for instance, was "O Le Fafine
+Mamana O I Le Maunga, The Witch-Woman of the Mountain"; and the rest of us
+bore like fanciful designations. It was of course absurd daring on the
+part of Rupert and myself to write the initial chapters, which dealt with
+an imaginary conspiracy typical of the jealousies among various
+inhabitants of the Islands, and with our expedition to Malie (Mataafa's
+Camp); but we were honoured by the addition of four amusing chapters
+written by Stevenson, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Strong, and their cousin Graham
+(now Sir Graham) Balfour. The Stevensons gave a lurid account of Haggard's
+evening party at Ruge's Buildings, and Mr. Balfour projected himself into
+the future and imagined Haggard old and historic surrounded by friends and
+evolving memories of the past.
+
+[Sidenote: "AN OBJECT OF PITY"]
+
+We had kept him in ignorance of what was on foot, but when all was
+complete the Stevensons gave us luncheon at Vailima with the best of
+native dishes, Lloyd Osbourne, adorned with leaves and flowers in native
+fashion, officiating as butler. When the banquet was over a garland of
+flowers was hung round Haggard's neck, a tankard of ale was placed before
+him, and Stevenson read aloud the MSS. replete with allusions to, and
+jokes about, his various innocent idiosyncrasies. So far from being
+annoyed, the good-natured hero was quite delighted, and kept on saying,
+"What a compliment all you people are paying me!" In the end we posed as a
+group, Mrs. Strong lying on the ground and holding up an apple while the
+rest of us knelt or bent in various attitudes of adoration round the erect
+form and smiling countenance of Haggard. The photograph taken did not come
+out very well, but sufficiently for my mother later on to make a coloured
+sketch for me to keep as a frontispiece for my special copy of _An Object
+of Pity_. It was indeed a happy party--looking back it is sad to think how
+few of those present now survive, but it was pleasure unalloyed while it
+lasted.
+
+As for the booklet, with general agreement of the authors I had it
+privately printed at Sydney, the copies being distributed amongst us. Some
+years after Stevenson's death Mr. Blaikie asked leave to print twenty-five
+presentation copies in the same form as the Edinburgh edition, to which
+Mrs. Stevenson consented. I wrote an explanatory Preface, and lent for
+reproduction the clever little book of coloured sketches by Mrs. Strong,
+with Stevenson's verses underneath to which I have already alluded.
+
+We had arranged to return to Australia by the American mail-ship, the
+_Mariposa_, so after three of the happiest weeks of my life we had to
+embark on board her on the evening of September 2nd, when she entered the
+harbour of Apia.
+
+Regret at leaving Samoa was, however, much allayed by meeting my son,
+Villiers, who had come across America from England in the charge of Sir
+George Dibbs, our New South Wales Premier, whose visit to the mother-land
+I have already described. Villiers had grown very tall since we parted, he
+had finished his Eton career and joined us to spend some months in
+Australia before going to Oxford. We were amused by an "interview" with
+him and Dibbs in one of the American papers, in which he was described as
+son of the Governor of New South Wales, but more like a young Englishman
+than a young Australian, which was hardly surprising considering that he
+had at that time never set foot in Australia. This reminds me of some
+French people who seeing a Maharajah in Paris at the time of Lord Minto's
+appointment to India, thought that the dignified and turbaned Indian must
+be the new Viceroy--the Earl of Minto.
+
+[Sidenote: COURAGE OF R. L. STEVENSON]
+
+Poor Robert Louis Stevenson--he died not long after our visit; his life,
+death, and funeral have been recorded in many books and by many able pens.
+His life, with all its struggles and despite constant ill-health, was, I
+hope and believe, a happy one. Perhaps we most of us fail to weigh fairly
+the compensating joy of overcoming when confronted with adversity of any
+kind. He told me once how he had had a MS. refused just at the time when
+he had undertaken the cares of a family represented by a wife and her
+children, but I am sure that the pleasure of the success which he won was
+greater to his buoyant nature than any depression caused by temporary
+failure.
+
+He loved his Island home, though he had from time to time a sense of
+isolation. He let this appear once when he said how he should feel our
+departure, and how sorry he should be when he should also lose the
+companionship of Haggard.
+
+There has lately been some correspondence in the papers about misprints in
+his books. This may be due in part to the necessity of leaving the
+correction of his proofs to others when he was residing or travelling in
+distant climes. When we were in Samoa, _Una, or the Beach of Falesa_, was
+appearing as a serial in an illustrated paper of which I received a copy.
+Stevenson had not seen it in print until I showed it to him, and was much
+vexed to find that some verbal alteration had been made in the text. At
+his request when we left the Island I took a cable to send off from
+Auckland, where our ship touched, with strict injunctions to "follow Una
+line by line." There was no cable then direct from Samoa, and apparently
+no arrangement had been made to let the author see his own work while in
+progress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+DEPARTURE FROM AUSTRALIA--CHINA AND JAPAN
+
+
+Early in 1893 my husband was obliged to resign his Governorship, as our
+Welsh agent had died and there were many urgent calls for his presence in
+England. The people of New South Wales were most generous in their
+expressions of regret, and I need not dwell on all the banquets and
+farewells which marked our departure. I feel that all I have said of
+Australia and of our many friends there is most inadequate; but though the
+people and places offered much variety in fact, in description it would be
+most difficult to avoid repetition were I to attempt an account of the
+townships and districts which we visited and of the welcome which we
+received from hospitable hosts in every place. There were mining centres
+like Newcastle where the coal was so near the surface that we walked into
+a large mine through a sloping tunnel instead of descending in a cage;
+there was the beautiful scenery of the Hawkesbury River, the rich lands
+round Bathurst and Armidale and other stations where we passed most
+enjoyable days with squatters whose fathers had rescued these lands and
+made "the wilderness to blossom like a rose." It often seemed to me that
+one special reason why Englishmen in Colonial life succeeded where other
+nations equally intelligent and enterprising failed to take permanent root
+was the way in which Englishwomen would adapt themselves to isolation. We
+all know the superiority of many Frenchwomen in domestic arts, but it is
+difficult to imagine a Frenchwoman living in the conditions accepted by
+English ladies in all parts of the Empire.
+
+One lady in New South Wales lived fifteen miles from the nearest
+neighbour, and her one relaxation after a hard day's work was to hear that
+neighbour playing down the telephone on a violin. That, however, was
+living in the world compared to the fate of another friend! The husband of
+the latter lady was, when we met, a very rich man who drove a four-in-hand
+and sent his son to Eton. When they first started Colonial life they lived
+for five years a hundred miles from any other white woman. The lady had a
+white maid-servant of some kind for a short time at the beginning of their
+career, but she soon left, and after that she had only black "gins"
+(women). I was told that one of her children had been burnt in a bush
+fire, and her brother-in-law was killed by the blacks. Naturally I did not
+refer to those tragedies, but I asked whether she did not find the
+isolation very trying, particularly the evenings. She said, oh no, she was
+so occupied during the day and so tired when the work was over that she
+had no time to wish for anything but rest. She was a very quiet, pleasant
+woman, a lady in every sense of the word, and one could not but admire the
+way in which she had passed through those hard and trying years and
+resumed completely civilised existence.
+
+[Sidenote: BUSHRANGERS]
+
+We heard many tales of bushrangers from those who had encountered them or
+heard of their performances from friends. It is not very astonishing that
+a population largely recruited in early days from convicts should have
+provided a contingent of highwaymen. Their two main sources of income
+were the oxen and horses which they stole and sold again after
+scientifically "faking" the brands, and the gold which they robbed as it
+was being conveyed to distant banks.
+
+I have referred to Rolf Boldrewood's hero "Starlight." Certain incidents
+of his career were adapted from the life of the most prominent bushranger
+Kelly, but whereas Starlight, for the purpose of the story, is endowed
+with some of the traits of a fallen angel, Kelly seems to have been a
+common sort of villain in most respects, only gifted with exceptional
+daring and with that power over other men which is potent for good or
+evil. He was described as wearing "armour"; I believe that he protected
+himself with certain kitchen utensils under his clothes. In the end, when
+hotly pursued by the police, he and his band underwent a regular siege in
+a house, but by that time the police were able to bring up reinforcements
+by rail, the gang was forced to surrender, and Kelly and others were
+executed.
+
+A sordid incident was that on the very night of his execution Kelly's
+brother and sister appeared, for money, on the stage in a theatre at
+Melbourne!
+
+The railroad was the effectual means of stopping bushranging, both by
+facilitating the movements of the police and by enabling gold to be
+transported without the risks attendant on coaches, or horsemen who were
+sometimes sent by their employers to carry it from place to place. A
+gentleman told me how he had been thus commissioned, and being attacked by
+a solitary bushranger in a wayside inn, dodged his assailant round and
+round a stove and ultimately got off safely.
+
+Bushranging was extinct before our arrival in New South Wales, but Jersey
+had one rather curious experience of its aftermath. An old man had
+murdered his wife, and, in accordance with the then custom, the capital
+sentence pronounced upon him by the judge came before the Governor in
+Council for confirmation. Jersey asked the advice of each member in turn,
+and all concurred in the verdict except one man, who declined to give an
+opinion. After the Council he took my husband aside and told him that he
+had not liked to join in the condemnation as he knew the criminal
+personally. He added this curious detail. The murderer had formerly been
+connected with a gang of bushrangers; he had not actually shared in their
+depredations, but he had received the animals they stole, and it was his
+job to fake the brands--namely, to efface the names or marks of the proper
+owners and to substitute others so that the horses or cattle could not be
+identified. The gang was captured and broken up, the members being all
+sentenced to death or other severe punishment, but this man escaped, as
+his crimes could not be proved against him. Nemesis, however, awaited him
+in another form. He kept his faking iron; and when his wife was found
+murdered, the fatal wound was identified as having been inflicted with
+this weapon, and he was thereby convicted.
+
+[Sidenote: CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE]
+
+Another story of those bygone days, though unconnected with bushranging,
+seems worth preservation. A man was found lying dead in the streets of
+Brisbane (or some other town in Queensland), and there was no evidence
+whatever to show how he had come by this fate, though the fact that his
+watch was missing pointed to violence on the part of some person unknown.
+A considerable time afterwards certain poor houses were demolished, with
+the view presumably to building better ones in their place. Behind a brick
+in the chimney of one of these houses was found the missing watch. A
+workman who had inhabited the house at the time of the murder was
+thereupon arrested, and brought before a judge who had come on circuit.
+The workman protested his innocence, saying that he had seen the man lying
+in the street and, finding that he was quite dead, appropriated his watch
+and took it home to his wife. The woman had told him that he was very
+foolish, as if the watch were found in his possession he might be accused
+of killing the man, and yielding to her persuasions instead of trying to
+sell or wearing it he hid it behind the chimney where it was found. The
+story sounded thin, but on hearing the details of place and date the
+presiding judge exclaimed that it was true. When a young barrister he
+himself had been in the same town, and was running to catch the train when
+a man, apparently drunk, lurched against him; he pushed him aside and saw
+him fall, but had no idea that he was injured, and hurried on. The workman
+was acquitted, and I suppose that the judge acquitted himself!
+
+Space has not admitted any record of our visitors at Sydney, but I must
+mention the pleasure which we had in welcoming Miss Shaw who came on
+behalf of _The Times_ to examine and report on the Kanaka question. It was
+universally allowed that _The Times_ had been very well advised in sending
+out so charming and capable a lady. She won the hearts of the Queensland
+planters, who introduced her to many sides of plantation life which they
+would never have troubled themselves to show a mere man. We gladly
+continued in England a friendship thus begun at the Antipodes, none the
+less gladly when Miss Shaw became the wife of an equally talented servant
+of the Empire, Sir Frederick Lugard.
+
+One year we entertained at Osterley a number of foreign Colonial delegates
+and asked representative English people to meet them.
+
+Among our guests were Sir Frederick and Lady Lugard. The latter was seated
+between a Belgian, interested in the Congo, and I think a Dutchman. After
+dinner these gentlemen asked me in somewhat agitated tones, "Qui etait
+cette dame qui etait si forte dans la question de l'Afrique?" and one said
+to the other, "Elle vous a bien roule, mon cher."
+
+I explained that it was Lady Lugard, formerly Miss Flora Shaw.
+
+"Quoi--la grande Miss Shaw! Alors cela s'explique," was the reply in a
+voice of awe.
+
+In February 1893 Villiers and our younger children left in the _Ophir_
+direct for England, accompanied by Harry Cholmondeley, the German
+governess, and the servants. My brother remained on the staff of our
+successor, Sir Robert Duff. Our eldest daughter, Margaret, stayed with us,
+as we contemplated a visit to Japan and a trip across Canada and to
+Chicago on our way back, and wished for her company.
+
+We travelled by train to Toowoomba in Queensland, where we slept one
+night, and then went on to Brisbane, where we embarked on board the
+Eastern Australian ship the _Catterthun_. Brisbane was still suffering
+from the after-effects of great floods, and it was curious, particularly
+in the suburbs, to see many houses, which had been built on piles to avoid
+the depredation of ants, overturned, and lying on their sides like houses
+thrown out of a child's box of toys. Nevertheless Brisbane struck us as a
+cheerful and prosperous city during our few hours' stay.
+
+[Sidenote: THE GREAT BARRIER REEF]
+
+The voyage through the lagoon of the Great Barrier Reef, though hot, was
+most enjoyable. As is well known this great coral reef extends for over
+twelve hundred miles in the ocean washing the north-east coast of
+Australia. In the wide expanse of sea between it and the mainland ships
+can generally sail unvexed by storms, and from a few hours after we left
+Brisbane till we reached the mouth of the North Continent that was our
+happy condition.
+
+We stopped at one or two coast towns and passed through the very pretty
+Albany Passage to the Gulf of Carpentaria, across which we had a perfectly
+smooth passage. We then spent a night or two with Mr. Dashwood at Port
+Darwin, where we were much interested in the population, partly officials
+of the Eastern Extension Cable Company and partly Chinese. Everything has
+doubtless changed greatly in the years which have intervened since our
+visit. Port Darwin was then the chief town of the Northern Territory of
+South Australia--now the Northern Territory has been taken over by the
+Commonwealth Government, which appoints an Administrator and encourages
+settlement. I hope the settlers will succeed, but Port Darwin remains in
+my memory as a very hot place and the European inhabitants as of somewhat
+yellow complexion.
+
+The Chinese had a temple or Joss house, attached to which was a sort of
+hall in which were stored numerous jars recalling those of the Forty
+Thieves, but containing the bones of dead Chinamen awaiting transport to
+their own country.
+
+While at Port Darwin Mr. Dashwood very kindly arranged a Corroboree for
+us. We were told that this was one of the few places where such an
+entertainment was possible. In parts of Australia farther south the
+aboriginals have become too civilised, and in the wilder places they were
+too shy and would not perform before white men.
+
+The whole thing was well worth seeing. The men were almost naked, and had
+with their own blood stuck wool in patterns on their black bodies. They
+had tall hats or mitres of bamboo on their heads and carried long spears.
+The Corroboree began after dark, and the men shouted, danced, and carried
+on a mimic war to the glare of blazing bonfires. A sort of music or
+rhythmic noise accompanied the performance caused by weird figures painted
+with stripes of white paint who were striking their thighs with their
+hands. They looked so uncanny that I could not at first make out what they
+were, but was told that they were the women or "gins." The scene might
+have come out of the infernal regions or of a Witches' Walpurgis Night.
+
+Next morning my husband wanted to give the performers presents; he was
+begged not to give them money, as they would spend it in drink, but he was
+allowed to purchase tobacco and tea and distribute packets of these. Most
+peaceable quiet men and women tidily dressed came up to receive them, and
+it was hardly possible to believe that these were the demoniac warriors
+who had thrilled us the night before.
+
+While at Port Darwin we visited the prison, and seven or eight Malays,
+under sentence of death for piracy or some similar crime, were paraded for
+our inspection. I thought this somewhat hard upon them, but we were
+assured that such notice would be rather pleasing to them than otherwise,
+and their smiling countenances certainly conveyed that impression. One odd
+bit of red-tape was connected with this. Every death-sentence had to go to
+Adelaide, then headquarters of the Northern Territory Government, to be
+confirmed, but because when Port Darwin was first established it took
+many weeks for any communication to go to and fro, no criminal could be
+executed till that number of weeks had elapsed, although telegraph or post
+could have reported the sentence and received confirmation in days if not
+in hours. No doubt all is now different, but I do not suppose that the
+criminals objected to the delay.
+
+[Sidenote: COLOURED LABOUR]
+
+Here, as elsewhere in the semi-tropical parts of Australia, the burning
+question of coloured labour arose--one wondered, for instance, whether
+such labour would not have largely facilitated the introduction of rubber.
+Still Australia must, and will, decide this and similar problems for
+herself; and if even strictly regulated Indian or kanaka labour would
+infringe the ideal of "White Australia," the barrier must be maintained.
+
+Of course our officers on board the _Catterthun_ were white, but the crew
+were Chinese. At one time an attempt had been made to prevent their
+employment--very much to Captain Shannon's distress, as he loved his
+Chinamen. This veto, however, was not in force when we made the voyage,
+though the men were not allowed on shore. We had a Chinese Wesleyan
+missionary on board, and we were told that when his Wesleyan friends
+wanted him to visit them at Melbourne or Sydney (the former, I think) they
+had to deposit L100, to be refunded when he returned to the ship, as a
+guarantee against his remaining in the country.
+
+At Port Darwin we said a final farewell to Australia and sailed for
+Hong-Kong. Our one port of call during this voyage was at Dilli, port of
+the Portuguese Colony of Timor. The southern portion of Timor belongs to
+the Dutch, but our company was under contract to call at the Portuguese
+port, and we suffered acutely in consequence. The Portuguese had owned a
+gunboat for five years, during which time they had contrived to knock some
+forty-nine holes in its boiler. They had had it once repaired by the
+Dutch, but it was past local efforts, so we had to tow the wretched thing
+to Hong-Kong, which seriously impeded our progress. The Portuguese could
+not even tie it on straight, so after we had gone some distance we had to
+send an officer and a carpenter on board. They found the three officers of
+the Portuguese Navy who had it in charge prostrate with sea-sickness (not
+surprising from the way they were tossing about), so they tied the vessel
+properly behind us, left a card, and returned.
+
+Timor was a picturesque mountainous island, but its commerce as far as we
+could learn consisted of Timor ponies--sturdy little beasts--and postage
+stamps. Of course everyone on board rushed off to purchase the latter for
+their collections.
+
+I rode up with one or two companions to a Portuguese monastery on the top
+of a hill, where the Father Superior entertained us with exceptionally
+good port wine. He said that he and his community educated young native
+chiefs. We tried politely to ascertain whether the education was gratis.
+The Reverend Father said that the youths did not pay, but each brought
+several natives who cultivated the plantations belonging to the monastery
+as an equivalent. Presumably this was not slavery, but what a convenient
+way of paying school fees! An improvement on Squeers--the scholars learnt,
+and their attendants toiled, for the public good.
+
+Timor provided an interesting addition to our passengers in the person of
+a Portuguese Archbishop with his attendant priests. I believe that his
+Grace had got into some kind of ecclesiastical hot-water and was going to
+Macao for inquiry, but I do not know particulars. However, on the Sunday
+following our departure from Timor I learnt that our captain would read
+the English service and the Chinese Wesleyan would hold one for the crew
+on the lower deck. I suggested to the first officer that he should offer
+the Portuguese priests facilities for their rites, as it seemed only
+proper that all creeds should take part. This was gratefully accepted, but
+when a few days later I sent my friend again to propose a service on March
+25th (the Annunciation) the padre was quite annoyed, and asked what he
+knew about it! My officer piously declared that we knew all about it, but
+the Archbishop would have nothing to say to it.
+
+[Sidenote: HONG-KONG]
+
+The only rough part of our whole voyage was some twenty-four hours before
+reaching Hong-Kong, and if we had not had the gunboat dragging behind we
+should probably have landed before the storm. I was greatly surprised by
+the beauty of Hong-Kong. Its depth of colour is astonishing and the
+variety of craft and constant movement in the harbour most fascinating. As
+viewed from the Peak, it was like a scene from a world-drama in which
+modern civilisation and traffic were ever invading the strange and ancient
+life of the China beyond. There were the great men-of-war and merchant
+ships of the West side by side with the sampans on which thousands of
+Chinese made their homes, lived and moved and had their being. To the
+roofs of the sampans the babies were tied by long cords so that they might
+play on deck without falling into the water. Anyhow, the boys were
+securely tied--there seemed some little doubt about the knots in the case
+of girls. Then behind the city were the great red-peaked hills which one
+sees on screens--I had always thought that they were the convention of the
+artist, but no, they were exact transcripts from nature.
+
+Across the harbour lay the British mainland possession, Kowloon, to which
+we paid an amusing visit. We were taken by the Commodore of the Station,
+and as I believe we did something unauthorised, gratitude forbids me to
+mention his name. We entered a Chinese gambling-house, which was very
+quaint. There was a high hall with a gallery or galleries running
+round--behind were some little rooms with men smoking, I imagine opium. In
+the gallery in which we took seats were several people, including Chinese
+ladies. On the floor of the hall was a table at which sat two or three
+Chinamen who appeared to be playing some game of their own--probably
+fan-tan. We were given little baskets with strings in which to let down
+our stakes. As we did not know the game and had no idea what we were
+backing, we put in some small coins for the fun of the thing, and when we
+drew them up again found them agreeably multiplied. I had a shrewd
+suspicion that the heathen Chinee recognised our escort and took good care
+that we were not fleeced.
+
+The climate of Hong-Kong is said to be very trying, and our brief
+experience bore this out. We spent Easter Sunday there, and it was so hot
+that attendance in the Cathedral was a distinct effort. A few days later
+we went on an expedition to the Happy Valley, and it was so cold that our
+hosts handed round orange brandy to keep the party alive.
+
+While we were there our daughter Margaret attended her first "come-out"
+ball, and we felt that it was quite an original performance for a
+debutante to be carried to Government House in a Chinese chair.
+
+Hong-Kong should be a paradise for the young--there were only nine English
+girls in the Colony of age to be invited, and any number of young men from
+ships and offices.
+
+[Sidenote: CANTON]
+
+Even more interesting than Hong-Kong was our brief visit to Canton. The
+railway from Kowloon to Canton was not then built, and we went by boat up
+the Pearl River. Everything was novel to us, including the pagodas on the
+banks of the river, erected to propitiate some kind of deities or spirits,
+but once there remaining unused, and generally falling into decay. We
+reached Canton at daybreak, and if Hong-Kong was a revelation Canton was
+still more surprising. The wide river was packed with native vessels. How
+they could move at all was a problem: some were propelled by wheels like
+water wheels, only the motive power was men who worked a perpetual
+tread-mill; the majority were inhabited by a large river population called
+the Tankers, who ages before had taken up their abode on boats when driven
+by nature or man from land. We were told that they never willingly went
+ashore, and when compelled to do so by business, ran till they regained
+their floating homes. But not the river alone, the vast city with its
+teeming population was so exactly what you see in Chinese pictures that it
+appeared quite unreal; for a moment I felt as if it had been built up to
+deceive the Western traveller, as houses were erected and peasants dressed
+up in the eighteenth century to make Catherine the Great believe in a
+prosperous population where none existed.
+
+However, Canton was real, and the more we saw during our short stay the
+more were we astonished by pictures awakened to life. We visited a rich
+merchant, and his house and enclosed garden, with little bridges,
+quaintly trimmed shrubs, and summer-houses in which were seated portly
+gentlemen in silk garments and round hats with buttons on the top, had
+been transported bodily from the old Chinese wall-paper in my nursery at
+Stoneleigh. His wife was escorted into his hall by attendant maidens, but
+so thick was the paint on her face and mouth that for her utterance was as
+difficult as walking on her tiny feet.
+
+The merchant spoke a little English, but was not very easy to understand.
+He showed the charmingly decorated apartments of his "Number One Wife,"
+but I am uncertain whether that was the lady we saw or a predecessor, and
+in the garden we were introduced to "my Old Brother." We were entertained
+with super-fine tea and also presented with some in packets, but we did
+not find that pure Chinese tea was altogether appreciated by our friends
+in England. We stayed at the Consulate with Mr. Watters; a most
+interesting man who, having spent a large portion of his life in China,
+had become imbued with much of their idealism, and esteemed them highly in
+many respects. The Consulates of the various European Powers were all
+situated in a fortified enclosure called the Shameen, outside the city
+proper. It was very pretty and pleasant, with green grass and nice
+gardens. Soup made of birds' nests duly appeared at dinner. As is well
+known, these nests are made by the birds themselves of a kind of gum, not
+of twigs and leaves. The birds are a species of sea-swallow which builds
+in cliffs and rocks. The nests come chiefly from Java, Sumatra, and the
+coasts of Malacca. Our kind host also provided sharks' fins, another
+much-esteemed luxury.
+
+The wonderful streets of Canton with their gaily painted signs and shops
+teeming with goods of all descriptions, the temples, Examination Hall,
+and Prison have been described by so many travellers that I will not dwell
+upon them. We were carried to all the sights in chairs, and under the
+auspices of Mr. Watters were treated with every civility, though I cannot
+of course say whether any insulting remarks were made in the vernacular.
+
+[Sidenote: THE VICEROY OF CANTON]
+
+Our constant friend, Sir Thomas Sanderson, had written in advance to
+ensure that Jersey should be treated with every respect by the then
+Viceroy of Canton, who was Li-Hung Chang's brother. It was arranged that
+guards belonging to the Consulate should accompany my husband when he went
+to pay his ceremonial call so that he might appear sufficiently important.
+He was very courteously received, and took the opportunity of hinting to
+the interpreter that when His Excellency returned the visit my daughter
+and I would like to see him. Directly he arrived at the Consulate he
+expressed a wish that we should appear, and we gladly obeyed the summons.
+We discovered afterwards that this was quite an innovation, as the Viceroy
+had never before seen a white woman. Anyhow, he seemed just as amused at
+seeing us as we were at seeing him, and asked every sort of question both
+about public matters in England and about our domestic affairs.
+
+He wanted to know what would be done with my jewellery when I died and why
+I did not wear ear-rings. Of course he inquired about the Queen, also
+about the British Parliament. Concerning the latter the interpreter
+translated the pertinent question, "His Excellency wants to know how five
+hundred men can ever settle anything"--I fear that my husband could only
+laugh in reply.
+
+The Viceroy and his attendants remained for about an hour. We were seated
+at a long table facing the Great Man, and Mr. Watters and the Vice-Consul
+at either end. When our guest and his followers had departed Mr. Watters
+told us that they had been carefully watching lest anything should have
+been said in Chinese which could have been construed as derogatory to the
+British. Only once, he said, had a term been used with regard to the
+Queen's sons which was not absolutely the highest properly applied to
+Princes. The Viceroy was, however, in such a good temper and the whole
+interview went off so well that they thought it wiser to take no notice of
+this single lapse from diplomatic courtesy.
+
+It was, probably still is, necessary to keep eyes and ears open in dealing
+with the "childlike and bland" race. The late Lord Loch once described to
+me a typical scene which took place when he was Governor of Hong-Kong. A
+great review of British troops was being held at which a prominent Chinese
+Governor or General (I forget which) was present and a number of Chinese
+were onlookers. The Chinese official was exceedingly anxious to edge out
+of his allotted position to one a little in front of Lord Loch, who was of
+course taking the salute. If he had succeeded in doing so his countrymen
+would have at once believed in the Chinese claim that all foreign nations
+were tributary to the Son of Heaven and have accepted the salute as a
+recognition of the fact. Lord Loch therefore stepped a little in advance
+each time that his guest moved forward, and this continued till both,
+becoming aware of the absurdity of the situation, burst out laughing and
+the gentleman with the pigtail perforce resigned his "push."
+
+Thanks to Mr. Watters we were able to buy some exceptionally good
+Mandarins' coats and embroideries, as he found dealers who had really fine
+things and made them understand that Jersey meant business.
+
+From Hong-Kong we sailed in an American ship for Japan, and landed at Kobe
+towards the middle of April. We had a very pleasant captain, who amused me
+by the plaintive way in which he spoke of the cross-examination to which
+he was subjected by many passengers. One man was much annoyed by the day
+lost in crossing 170 deg. longitude. "I tried to explain as courteously as
+I could," said the captain, "but at last he exclaimed, 'I don't believe you
+know anything about it, but I have a brother-in-law in a bank in New York
+and I shall write and ask him!'"--as if they kept the missing day in the
+bank.
+
+[Sidenote: JAPANESE SCENERY]
+
+Kobe is approached through the beautiful inland sea, but unfortunately it
+was foggy as we passed through, so we lost the famous panorama, but we
+soon had every opportunity of admiring the charms of Nature in Japan. We
+had always heard of the quaint houses and people, of their valour and
+their art, but somehow no one had told us of the beauty of the scenery,
+and it was quite a revelation to us.
+
+I do not attempt any account of the wonderful towns, tombs, and temples
+which we saw during our month's sojourn in the country, as travellers and
+historians have described them again and again, and Lafcadio Hearn and
+others who knew the people well have written of the spirit and devotion of
+the Japanese; but I venture to transcribe a few words from an article
+which I wrote just after our visit for _The Nineteenth Century_, giving my
+impressions of the landscape in spring:
+
+    "Japanese scenery looks as if it ought to be etched. Large broad
+    masses of light and shade would fail to convey the full effect.
+    Between trees varied in colouring and delicate in tracery peep the
+    thatched cottage roofs and the neat grey rounded tiles of little
+    wooden houses standing in gardens gay with peach blossom and wisteria;
+    while the valleys are mapped out into minute patches of green young
+    corn or flooded paddy-fields interspersed here and there with
+    trellises over which are trained the spreading white branches of the
+    pear. Everywhere are broad river-courses and rushing mountain streams,
+    and now and again some stately avenue of the sacred cryptomeria leads
+    to a temple, monastery, or tomb. Nothing more magnificent than these
+    avenues can be conceived. The tall madder-pink stems rear their tufted
+    crests in some cases seventy or eighty feet into the air, and the
+    ground below is carpeted with red pyrus japonica, violets, ferns, and,
+    near the romantic monastery of Doryo-San, with a kind of lily or iris
+    whose white petals are marked with lilac and yellow. The avenue
+    leading to Nikko extends in an almost unbroken line for over fifteen
+    miles, the trees being known as the offering of a daimio who was too
+    poor to present the usual stone or bronze lantern at the tomb of the
+    great Shogun Ieyasu."
+
+At Tokyo we were hospitably entertained at the Legation by Mr. (now Sir
+Maurice) de Bunsen, Charge d'Affaires, in the absence of the Minister. The
+Secretary of Legation, Mr. Spring Rice (afterwards Sir Cecil), added
+greatly to our pleasure by his knowledge of things Japanese and the
+trouble he took to explain them.
+
+A letter to my mother, dated April 1893, resumes many of my impressions of
+a Japan of nearly thirty years ago when it was still only emerging from
+its century-long seclusion.
+
+    "You cannot imagine what a delightful country Japan is. Not only is it
+    so pretty, but it is so full of real interest. I had imagined that it
+    was rather a joke full of toy-houses and toy-people--on the contrary
+    one finds great feudal castles with moats and battlements, gigantic
+    stones fifteen feet long, and the whole place full of legends of
+    knights and their retainers, ghosts and witches and enchantments....
+    The Clan-system here was in full-swing till just the other day, when
+    Sir Harry Parkes routed out the Mikado, and the Shoguns (Tycoons) or
+    Great War Lords, who had ruled the country for centuries, had at last
+    to give way.
+
+    "Even now the representatives of the greatest clans hold chief places
+    in the Ministry and Naval and Military Departments, and the question
+    in Parliament here is whether the radical opposition can break up the
+    clan-system and distribute the loaves and fishes of Government
+    patronage evenly amongst the people. Meantime I doubt if the Mikado,
+    or Emperor as it is most proper to call him, is very happy in his new
+    life. He thinks it correct to adapt himself to 'Western civilisation,'
+    but very evidently prefers the seclusion of his ancestors and has
+    credit for hating seeing people. There was to have been a garden
+    party--the Cherry Blossom Party--at the Palace last Friday, but
+    unfortunately it pelted, so it was promptly given up and everyone said
+    that His Imperial Majesty was very glad not to have to 'show.'
+
+[Sidenote: INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPRESS]
+
+    "However G. had an audience with him yesterday and all of us with the
+    Empress. It was rather funny. In the first place there was great
+    discussion about our clothes. G. went in uniform, but the official
+    documents granting audience specified that the ladies were to appear
+    at 10 a.m., in high gowns--and in the middle of the Japanese
+    characters came the French words 'robes en traine.' The wife of the
+    Vice-Chamberlain--an Englishwoman--also wrote to explain that we must
+    come without bonnets and with high gowns with trains! So we had to
+    write back and explain that my latest Paris morning frock had but a
+    short train and M's smartest ditto none at all.
+
+    "However, they promised to explain this to the Empress, and we arrived
+    at the Palace, which we found swarming with gold-laced officials,
+    chamberlains, vice-chamberlains, and pages, and ladies in their
+    regulation costume--high silk gowns just like afternoon garments but
+    with long tails of the same material, about as long as for
+    drawing-rooms--how they could have expected the passing voyager to be
+    prepared with this peculiar fashion at twenty-four hours' notice I
+    know not, and I think it was lucky that I had a flowered brocade with
+    some kind of train to it.
+
+    "The saloons were very magnificent--built five years ago--all that was
+    Japanese in them first-class--the European decorations a German
+    imitation of something between Louis XV and Empire, which I leave to
+    your imagination. G. was carried off in one direction whilst we were
+    left to a trained little lady who fortunately spoke a little English,
+    and after a bit we were taken to a corridor where we rejoined G. and
+    Mr. de Bunsen and were led through more passages to a little room
+    where a little lady stood bolt upright in a purple gown with a small
+    pattern of gold flowers and an order--Japanese, I believe. She had a
+    lady to interpret on her right, and two more, maids of honour, I
+    suppose, in the background. The interpreting lady appeared to be
+    alive--the vitality of the others was doubtful. We all bowed and
+    curtsied, and I was told to go up to the Empress, which I did, and
+    when I was near enough to avoid the possibility of her moving, she
+    shook hands and said something almost in a whisper, interpreted to
+    mean that she was very glad to see me for the first time. I expressed
+    proper gratification, then she asked as to the length of our stay, and
+    finally said how sorry she was for the postponement of the garden
+    party, to which I responded with, I trust, true Eastern hyperbole that
+    Her Majesty's kindness in receiving us repaid me for the
+    disappointment. This seemed to please her, and then she shook hands
+    again, and went through her little formulae with M. and G., giving one
+    sentence to the former and two to the latter, after which with a great
+    deal more bowing and curtsying we got out of the room and were shown
+    through the other apartments. I heard afterwards that Her Majesty was
+    very pleased with the interview, so she must be easily gratified, poor
+    dear. I am told 'by those who know' that she is an excellent woman,
+    does a great deal for schools and hospitals to the extent on at least
+    one occasion of giving away all her pocket-money for the year and
+    leaving herself with none. The poor woman has no children, but the
+    Emperor is allowed other inferior spouses--with no recognised
+    position--to the number of ten. I do not know how many ladies he has,
+    but he has one little boy and two or three girls. The little boy is
+    thirteen and goes to a day-school, so is expected to be of much more
+    social disposition than his papa."
+
+[Sidenote: THE SACRED MIRROR OF THE SUN-GODDESS]
+
+The boy in question is now Emperor and has unfortunately broken down in
+health. Mrs. Sannomya (afterwards Baroness), wife of the Vice-Chamberlain,
+told me that he was very intelligent, and that the Empress, who adopted
+him in accordance with Japanese custom, was fond of him. She also told me
+that the secondary wives were about the Court, but that it was not
+generally known which were the mothers of the Prince and Princesses. Mrs.
+Sannomya personally knew which they were, but the children were to be
+considered as belonging to the Emperor and Empress, the individual mothers
+had no recognised claim upon them. I believe that this Oriental "zenana"
+arrangement no longer exists, but meanwhile it assured the unbroken
+descent of the Imperial rulers from the Sun-goddess. We were assured that
+the reigning Emperor still possessed the divine sword, the ball or jewel,
+and the mirror with which she endowed her progeny. The mirror is the
+symbol of Shinto, the orthodox faith of Japan, and it derives its sanctity
+from the incident that it was used to attract the Sun-goddess from a cave
+whither she had retired in high dudgeon after a quarrel with another
+deity. In fact it seems to have acted as a pre-historic heliograph. By the
+crowing of a cock and the flashing of the mirror Ten sho dai jin was
+induced to think that morning had dawned, and once more to irradiate the
+universe with her beams.
+
+Though Shintoism, the ancient ancestral creed, was re-established when the
+Emperor issued from his long seclusion, the mass of the population no
+doubt prefer the less abstract and more ritualistic Buddhism of China and
+Japan. What the educated classes really believe is exceedingly hard to
+discover. A very charming Japanese diplomatic lady remarked to me one
+Sunday at Osterley in connection with church-going that "it must be very
+nice to have a religion." Viscount Hayashi summed up the popular creed, in
+answer to an inquiry on my part, as "the ethics of Confucius with the
+religious sanction of Buddhism": perhaps that is as good a definition as
+any other.
+
+It seems doubtful whether Christianity has made solid progress, though
+treated with due respect by the Government. Mr. Max Mueller told me that
+when the Japanese were sending emissaries to the various Western Powers
+with instructions to investigate their methods both in war and peace, two
+of these envoys visited him and asked him to supply them with a suitable
+creed. "I told them," said he, "'Be good Buddhists first and I will think
+of something for you.'" An English lady long resident in Japan threw some
+further light on the Japanese view of ready-made religious faith. At the
+time when foreign instructors were employed to start Japan with her face
+turned westward, a German was enlisted to teach court etiquette, no doubt
+including "robes montantes en traine." While still in this service a Court
+official requested him to supply the full ceremonial of a Court
+_Christening_. "But," returned the Teuton, "you are not Christians, so how
+can I provide you with a Christening ceremony?" "Never mind," was the
+reply, "you had better give it us now that you are here; we never know
+when we may want it."
+
+[Sidenote: CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN]
+
+St. Francis Xavier, who preached Christianity to the Japanese in the
+sixteenth century, records the testimony of his Japanese secretary, whom
+he found and converted at Goa, as to the effect likely to be produced on
+his fellow-countrymen by the saintly missionary. "His people," said Anjiro
+of Satsuma, "would not immediately assent to what might be said to them,
+but they would investigate what I might affirm respecting religion by a
+multitude of questions, and above all by observing whether my conduct
+agreed with my words. This done, the King, the nobility, and adult
+population would flock to Christ, being a nation which always follows
+reason as a guide."
+
+Whether convinced by reason or example it is certain that the Japanese of
+the day accepted Christianity in large numbers, and that many held firm in
+the terrible persecution which raged later on. Nevertheless the Christian
+faith was almost exterminated at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
+only a few lingering traces being found when the country was reopened to
+missions in the latter half of the nineteenth.
+
+Nowadays the Japanese idea unfortunately appears to be that Christianity
+has not much influence on the statesmanship of foreign countries, and
+their leading men in competition with the West seem too keen on pushing to
+the front in material directions to trouble much about abstract doctrines.
+Belief in a spirit-world, however, certainly prevailed among the masses of
+the people whom we saw frequenting temples and joining in cheerful
+pilgrimages.
+
+The great interests of our visit from a social and political point of view
+was finding an acute and active-minded race in a deliberate and determined
+state of transition from a loyal and chivalrous past to an essentially
+modern but still heroic future. Neither the war with China nor that with
+Russia had then taken place, but foundations were being laid which were to
+ensure victory in both cases. The Daimios had surrendered their land to
+the Emperor and received in return modern titles of nobility, and incomes
+calculated on their former revenues. The tillers of the soil were secured
+on their former holdings and instead of rent paid land-tax. Naturally
+everything was not settled without much discontent, particularly on the
+part of the peasants, who thought, as in other countries, that any sort of
+revolution ought to result in their having the land in fee-simple. Much
+water, however, has flowed under the Sacred Bridges of Japan since we were
+there, and I do not attempt to tread the labyrinths of the agrarian or
+other problems with which the statesmen of New Japan had or have to deal.
+
+[Sidenote: DAIMIOS OF OLD JAPAN]
+
+One thing, however, was evident even to those who, like ourselves, spent
+but a short time in the country. The younger nobles gained more than they
+lost in many ways by the abandonment of their feudal prominence. Their
+fathers had been more subservient to the Shoguns than the French nobility
+to Louis XIV. The third of the Tokugawa line, who lived in the seventeenth
+century, decreed that the daimios were to spend half the year at Yedo (the
+modern Tokyo), and even when they were allowed to return to their own
+estates they were obliged to leave their wives and families in the
+capital as hostages. The mountain passes were strictly guarded, and all
+persons traversing them rigidly searched, crucifixion being the punishment
+meted out to such as left the Shogun's territory without a permit. On the
+shores of the beautiful Lake Hakone at the foot of the main pass villas
+were still pointed out where the daimios rested on their journey, and we
+were told that a neighbouring town was in other times largely populated by
+hair-dressers, who had to rearrange the elaborate coiffures of the ladies
+who were forced to take their hair down before passing the Hakone Bar.
+True, the daimios lived and travelled with great state and had armies of
+retainers, but at least one great noble confessed to me that the freedom
+which he then enjoyed fully compensated him for the loss of former
+grandeur.
+
+My daughter who "came out" at Hong-Kong had quite a gay little season at
+Tokyo, as we were hospitably entertained by both Japanese and diplomats,
+and amongst other festivities we thoroughly enjoyed a splendid ball given
+by Marquis Naboshima, the Emperor's Master of Ceremonies.
+
+We were also fortunate in seeing the actor Danjolo, commonly called the
+"Irving of Japan," in one of his principal characters. The floor of the
+theatre was divided into little square boxes in which knelt the audience,
+men, women, and children. From the main entrance of the house to the stage
+ran a gangway, somewhat elevated above the floor; this was called the
+Flowery Path, and served not only as a means of access to the boxes on
+either side, but also as an approach by which some of the principal actors
+made a sensational entrance on the scene. A large gallery, divided like
+the parterre, ran round three sides of the house and was reached from an
+outside balcony. European spectators taking seats in the gallery were
+accommodated with chairs.
+
+The main feature wherein the Japanese differed from an English stage was
+that the whole central part of the former was round and turned on a pivot.
+The scenery, simple but historically correct, ran across the diameter of
+the reversible part; so while one scenic background was before the
+audience another was prepared behind and wheeled round when wanted. To
+remove impedimenta at the sides or anything which had to be taken away
+during the progress of a scene, little black figures with black veils over
+their faces, like familiars of the Inquisition, came in, and Japanese
+politeness accepted them as invisible.
+
+Danjolo, who acted the part of a wicked uncle, proved himself worthy of
+his reputation and was excellently supported by his company. All the parts
+were taken by men; some plays were in those days acted by women, but it
+was not then customary for the two sexes to perform together. Now I
+believe that the barrier has been broken down and that they do so freely.
+
+When we had a Japanese dinner at the Club the charming little waitresses
+gave dramatic performances in intervals between the courses.
+
+Certainly the Japanese are prompt in emergency. A Japanese of high rank
+once told me how the Rising Sun came to be the National Flag. A Japanese
+ship arrived at an American port and the harbour authorities demanded to
+know under what flag she sailed. This was before the days when Japan had
+entered freely into commercial relations with other lands, and the captain
+had no idea of a national ensign. Not to be outdone by other mariners, he
+secured a large piece of white linen and painted upon it a large red orb.
+This was offered and accepted as the National Flag of Japan, and is still
+the flag of her merchant fleet. With rays darting from it, it has become
+the ensign of her warships, and, as a gold chrysanthemum on a red ground,
+represents the Rising Sun in the Imperial Standard. According to my
+informant, who told me the tale at a dinner-party in London, the whole
+idea sprang from the merchant captain's readiness of resource.
+
+Whatever changes Japan may undergo, it must still retain the charm of its
+pure, transparent atmosphere with the delicate hues which I never saw
+elsewhere except in Greece. In some respects, unlike as they are
+physically, the Japanese recall the quick-witted, art-loving Greeks.
+Again, Japan, with its lovely lakes and mountains and its rich vegetation,
+has something in common with New Zealand, and, like those happy Islands,
+it has the luxury of natural hot springs. I shall never forget the hotel
+at Miyanoshita where the large bathrooms on the ground-floor were supplied
+with unlimited hot and cold water conducted in simple bamboo pipes direct
+from springs in a hill just behind the house.
+
+[Sidenote: JAPANESE FRIENDS]
+
+Still more vividly do I recall the Japanese who did so much for our
+enjoyment at Tokyo. Amongst others was the delightful Mrs. Inouye, whose
+husband, as Marquis Inouye, has since been Ambassador in London.
+Marchioness Inouye has remained a real friend, and constantly sends me
+news from the Island Empire. Nor must I forget how much we saw under the
+guidance of my cousin, the Rev. Lionel Cholmondeley, for many years a
+missionary in Japan, and Chaplain to the British Embassy there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+JOURNEY HOME--THE NILE--LORD KITCHENER
+
+
+Our sojourn in Japan was all too short, and we sailed from Yokohama in a
+ship of the Empress Line on May 12. Capturing a spare day at 170 deg.
+longitude, we reached Vancouver on the Queen's Birthday. Our thirteen
+days' voyage was somewhat tedious, as I do not think that we passed a
+single ship on the whole transit. The weather was dull and grey, and there
+was a continuous rolling sea, but I must say for our ship that no one
+suffered from sea-sickness. She lived up to the repute which we had heard
+concerning these liners; they were broad and steady, and I for one was
+duly grateful.
+
+[Sidenote: THE WELL-FORGED LINK OF EMPIRE]
+
+We had some pleasant fellow-passengers, including Orlando Bridgeman (now
+Lord Bradford) and his cousin Mr. William Bridgeman (now a prominent
+politician). A voyage otherwise singularly devoid of excitement was
+agitated by the discovery of one or more cases of small-pox among the
+Chinese on board. Every effort was made to keep this dark, but when the
+ukase went forth that every passenger who had not been vaccinated recently
+must undergo the operation, no doubt remained as to the truth of the
+rumours current. Fortunately my husband, my daughter, myself, and my maid
+had all been vaccinated just before leaving Sydney, but we still felt
+anxious about possible quarantine at Victoria--the port on the Island of
+Vancouver--the town being on the mainland. Nothing happened, however, and
+_if_ the ship's doctor perjured himself, and _if_ the captain did not
+contradict him, I trust that the Recording Angel did not set it down, as
+the relief of the passengers was indeed great.
+
+The truth afterwards so forcibly expressed by Rudyard Kipling was brought
+home to us when landing on Canadian shores:
+
+  "Take 'old of the Wings o' the mornin',
+  An' flop round the earth till you're dead;
+  But you won't get away from the tune that they play
+  To the bloomin' old rag over'ead."
+
+Every morning at Sydney we were aroused by "God Save the Queen" from the
+men-of-war in the harbour just below Government House, and at Vancouver we
+found the whole population busy celebrating Queen Victoria's Birthday. At
+the hotel nobody was left in charge but a boy of fourteen, a most
+intelligent youth who somehow lodged and fed us. Next day we were anxious
+to find him and recognise his kind attentions before leaving, but
+evidently in his case sport outweighed possible tips, for he had gone to
+the races without giving us a chance.
+
+Vancouver had a curiously unfinished appearance when we saw it, houses
+just arising and streets laid out but not completed. I have heard, and
+fully believe, that it has since become a very fine city, rising as it
+does just within the Gateway to the Pacific, though it is of Victoria that
+Rudyard Kipling (to quote him again) sings:
+
+  "From East to West the tested chain holds fast,
+  The well-forged link rings true."
+
+The Directors of the Canadian Pacific had most kindly assigned a private
+car to our use, but we had arrived a little before we had been expected,
+and as our time was limited we travelled in the ordinary train as far as
+Glacier, where we slept and the car caught us up.
+
+Glacier in the Rockies well deserved its name, as we found ourselves once
+more in the midst of ice and frozen snow such as we had not seen except on
+distant mountains for over two years. We were allowed to attach the car to
+the through trains, and detach it to wait for another, as desired, which
+gave us the chance of seeing not only the great mountains and waterfalls
+as we flew by, but also of admiring at leisure some of the more famous
+places.
+
+From Winnipeg our luxurious car with its bedrooms and living-rooms all
+complete took us down as far as St. Paul in the States, where we joined
+the ordinary train for Chicago. I think that it was at St. Paul that we
+had our first aggravating experience of American independence, which
+contrasted with the courtesy of Japan. A number of passengers had some
+twenty-five minutes to secure luncheon (or dinner, I forget which) before
+the departure of the next train. Unfortunately they depended almost
+entirely on the ministrations of a tall and gaily attired young woman;
+still more unfortunately one or two of them rashly requested her to make
+haste. Her vengeance was tranquil but sure. She slowly and deliberately
+walked round, placing a glass of iced water near each guest. It was hot
+enough to render iced water acceptable, but not to the exclusion of other
+food.
+
+[Sidenote: COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA]
+
+We included Chicago in our wanderings for the purpose of seeing the great
+Exhibition which was by way of celebrating the fourth centenary of
+Columbus's discovery of America. A schoolboy once described the life and
+exploits of Columbus to this effect: "Columbus was a man who could make
+an egg stand on end without breaking it. He landed in America and saw a
+Chief and a party of men and said to them, 'Are you the savages?' 'Yes,'
+said the Chief; 'are you Columbus?' 'Yes,' said Columbus. Then the Chief
+turned to his men and said, 'It's of no use; we're discovered at last.'"
+Whether Columbus would have taken the trouble to discover America if he
+could have seen in a vision New York, Niagara, and a few other phenomena I
+know not, but I am sure he would have never gone out of his way to
+discover Chicago.
+
+My sister-in-law, Mrs. Rowland Leigh, has told me that her grandfather
+sold a great part of the land on which Chicago now stands for a pony for
+her grandmother to ride upon. With all due respect he made a great mistake
+in facilitating the erection of this overgrown, bumptious, and obtrusive
+city. It may have improved in the past thirty years, but I can conceive of
+no way in which it could have become attractive.
+
+It was horribly hot when we arrived, but a chilling and unhealthy wind
+blew from Lake Michigan, on which it stands, which gave us all chest
+colds, and we heard that these were prevalent throughout the city. Then
+the streets were badly laid and dirty. I think that the inhabitants burnt
+some peculiar kind of smoky fuel. They were very proud of this Exhibition,
+which looked well, on the lines of the White City at Shepherd's Bush. It
+was made of _Phormium tenax_ (New Zealand flax) plastered over with white
+composition, and as it stood near some part of the Lake which had been
+arranged to accommodate it the white buildings reflected in the blue water
+had a picturesque effect. The only part of the interior which really
+impressed me was a building (not white) representing the old monastery
+where Columbus had lived for some time in Spain. This was filled with a
+very interesting loan collection of objects connected with his life and
+times.
+
+The citizens of Chicago had invited a large variety of crowned heads and
+princely personages to attend the Exhibition as their guests, but previous
+engagements had been more prevalent than acceptances. They had succeeded
+in securing a Spanish Duke who was a lineal descendant of Columbus, and he
+and his family had been the prominent features of their ceremonies to
+date. Shortly before we came great excitement had arisen because it was
+announced that the Infanta Eulalia, aunt of the King of Spain, and a real
+genuine Princess, would honour the city and Exhibition with her royal
+presence. Two problems had thereupon to be solved. What would they do with
+the Duke? They no longer wanted a minor luminary when a star of the first
+magnitude was about to dawn above their horizon. That was promptly
+settled. They put the poor grandee into a train for New York on a Friday
+and told him that they would continue to frank him until the Monday, after
+which date he would be "on his own." He was said to have declared himself
+highly satisfied with the arrangement, as this would leave him free to
+enjoy himself after his own fashion during the remainder of his sojourn in
+America. I only hope that they had paid his return tickets by steamboat,
+but I never heard how that was managed.
+
+[Sidenote: THE MAYOR CUTS HIS HAIR]
+
+The Duke being thus disposed of, problem two required far more serious
+consideration. The Mayor of Chicago was a "man of the people" and had
+never condescended to wear a tall hat, in fact he had such a bush of hair
+that he could not have got one on to his head; and as a sort of socialist
+Samson whose political strength lay in his locks, he had steadily
+declined to cut it. So day by day the Chicago papers came out with: "Will
+H. [I forget his exact name] cut his hair?" "Will he wear a tall hat?" And
+when the great day came and the Infanta was met at the station by the
+Conscript Fathers, a paean of joy found voice in print: "He wore a tall
+hat." "He has cut his hair." I cannot say whether the pillars of the
+municipal house fell upon him at the next election.
+
+I do not feel sure of the official designation of the sturdy citizens who
+ultimately received the Infanta. They may have constituted the
+Municipality or the Council of the Exhibition, very likely both combined.
+One thing, however, is certain: no Princess of Romance was more jealously
+guarded by father, enchanter, giant, or dwarf than Eulalia by her Chicago
+hosts. The first knight-errant to meet his fate was our old Athens friend,
+Mr. Fearn. He was Head of the Foreign Section of the Exhibition, a highly
+cultured man, had held a diplomatic post in Spain, where he had known the
+Infanta, and could speak Spanish. When he heard that she was coming he
+engaged sixteen rooms at the Virginia Hotel (where we were staying) and
+arranged to give her a reception. Could this be allowed? Oh, no! Mr. Fearn
+could converse with her in her own tongue and no one else would be able to
+understand what was said--the party had to be cancelled.
+
+Then H.R.H. was to visit the Foreign Section, and Mr. Fearn, who naturally
+expected to be on duty, invited various friends, including ourselves, to
+be present in the Gallery of the rather fine Entrance Hall. Mr. Fearn,
+Head of the Section, to receive the Princess on arrival? Not at all--why,
+she might think that he was the most important person present. Mr. Fearn
+might hide where he pleased, but was to form no part of the Reception
+Committee.
+
+They wanted to take away his Gallery, but there he put his foot down. His
+friends were coming and must have their seats. So he sat with us and we
+watched the proceedings from above. I must say that they were singularly
+unimpressive. The Infanta arrived escorted by some big,
+uncomfortable-looking men, while a few little girls strewed a few small
+flowers on the pavement in front of her. I heard afterwards that H.R.H.,
+who was distinctly a lady of spirit, was thoroughly bored with her escort,
+and instead of spending the hours which they would have desired in gazing
+on tinned pork, jam-pots, and machinery, insisted on disporting herself in
+a kind of fair called, I think, the Midway Pleasance, where there were
+rows of little shops and a beer-garden. She forced her cortege to
+accompany her into the latter and to sit down and drink beer there. They
+were duly scandalised, but could not protest. The Infanta was put up at
+the P---- Hotel owned by a couple of the same name. The husband had
+avowedly risen from the ranks, and the wife, being very pretty and having
+great social aspirations, had left Mr. P. at home when she journeyed to
+Europe. They were very rich and had a house in Chicago in the most
+fashionable quarter on the shores of the Lake, and gave a great party for
+the Princess to which were bidden all the elite of the city.
+
+It appeared, however, that the royal guest did not discover till just as
+she was setting forth that her hosts were identical with her innkeepers,
+and the blue blood of Spain did not at all approve the combination. It was
+too late to back out of the engagement, but her attitude at the party
+induced rather a frost, and her temper was not improved by the fact that
+a cup of coffee was upset over her gown.
+
+[Sidenote: THE PAGEANT "AMERICA"]
+
+I cannot say that I saw this, for, though we received a card for the
+entertainment, it came so late that we did not feel called upon to make an
+effort to attend. The lady's sense of humour, however, was quite
+sufficient to enable her to see the quaint side of her reception
+generally, in fact I chanced to hear when back in England that she had
+given to some of our royal family much the same account that is here
+recorded. It is not to be assumed, nevertheless, that Chicago Society does
+not include charming and kindly people. Among the most prominent were, and
+doubtless are, the McCormicks, some of whom we had known in London, and
+who exerted themselves to show us hospitality. Mrs. McCormick, head of the
+clan, gave us a noble luncheon, previous to which we were introduced to
+about thirty McCormicks by birth or marriage. "I guess you've got right
+round," said one when we had shaken hands with them all. Mrs. McCormick
+Goodhart took us to see a great spectacle called "America," arranged at a
+large theatre by Imre Kiralfy, subsequently of White City fame.
+
+The colour scheme was excellent. The historical scenes presented might be
+called eclectic. The Discovery of America was conducted by a page in white
+satin who stood on the prow of Columbus's ship and pointed with his hand
+to the shore. Behind him in the vessel were grouped men-at-arms whose gold
+helmets were quite untarnished by sea-spray. Perhaps they had been kept in
+air-tight boxes till the Discovery was imminent and then brought out to do
+honour to the occasion. The next scene which I recollect was the arrival
+of the Pilgrim Fathers in an Indian village. The Fathers, in square-cut
+coats and Puritan headgear, stood round the village green, and did not
+turn a hair, while young women danced a ballet in front of them. After
+all, I saw a ballet danced in after years at the Church Pageant at Fulham,
+so there is no reason why the Pilgrim Fathers should not have enjoyed one
+when it came their way. The final climax, however, was a grand
+agricultural spectacle with a great dance of young persons with
+reaping-hooks. This was a just tribute to the McCormick family, who were
+the great manufacturers of agricultural implements and thereby promoted
+the prosperity of Chicago.
+
+On leaving Chicago we wended our way to Niagara. I am free to confess that
+we had seen so much grandeur and beauty, and particularly such picturesque
+waterfalls, in Japan, that we did not approach any scene in the New World
+with the thrill of expectation which we might have nursed had we come
+fresh from more prosaic surroundings, but Niagara swept away any vestige
+of indifference or sight-weariness. It is not for me to describe it. I can
+only say that we were awe-struck by the unending waters rushing with their
+mighty volume between the rocks and beneath the sun. When we sometimes
+tried to select the sights which we had seen most worthy of inclusion in
+the Nine Wonders of the World, neither my husband nor I ever hesitated to
+place Niagara among the foremost.
+
+At New York we stayed two or three nights waiting for our ship. It was
+very hot, and most of our American friends away at the seaside or in the
+country. My chief impressions were that the waiting at the otherwise
+comfortable Waldorf Hotel was the slowest I had ever come across; and that
+the amount of things "verboten" in the Central Park was worthy of Berlin.
+In one place you might not drive, in another you might not ride, in a
+third mounted police were prepared to arrest you if you tried to walk.
+Really, except in wartime, England is the one place where you can do as
+you like. However, I am sure that New York had many charms if we had had
+time and opportunity to find them out.
+
+We sailed in the White Star ship _Majestic_, and after a pleasant crossing
+reached England towards the end of June 1893. The country was terribly
+burnt up after a hot and dry spell, but we were very happy to be at home
+again, and to find our friends and relations awaiting us at Euston.
+
+[Sidenote: BACK AT OSTERLEY]
+
+My daughter was just in time for two or three balls at the end of the
+London season, the first being at Bridgewater House. She and I were both
+delighted to find that our friends had not forgotten us, and that she had
+no lack of partners on her somewhat belated "coming out." We were also in
+time to welcome our friends at a garden party at Osterley, and to
+entertain some of them from Saturdays to Mondays in July.
+
+Then began many pleasant summers when friends young and old came to our
+garden parties, and also to spend Sundays with us at Osterley, or to stay
+with us in the autumn and winter at Middleton. Looking back at their names
+in our Visitors' Book, it is at once sad to feel how many have passed away
+and consoling to think of the happy days in which they shared, and
+particularly to remember how some, now married and proud parents of
+children, found their fate in the gardens at Osterley or in the boat on
+the Lake.
+
+It would be difficult to say much of individuals, but I could not omit
+recording that among our best and dearest friends were Lord and Lady
+Northcote. I find their names first in the list of those who stayed with
+us July 1st-3rd, 1893, and their friendship never failed us--his lasted
+till death and hers is with me still.
+
+Before, however, I attempt any reminiscences of our special friends, I
+would mention yet two more expeditions which had incidents of some
+interest.
+
+In 1895 Lady Galloway and I were again in Rome, and I believe that it was
+on this occasion that we were received by Queen Margaret, whose husband
+King Umberto was still alive. She was a charming and beautiful woman with
+masses of auburn hair. She spoke English perfectly and told us how much
+she admired English literature, but I was rather amused by her expressing
+particular preference for _The Strand Magazine_--quite comprehensible
+really, as even when one knows a foreign tongue fairly well, it is always
+easier to read short stories and articles in it than profounder works. She
+also liked much of Rudyard Kipling, but found some of his writings too
+difficult. Later on I sent Her Majesty the "Recessional," and her
+lady-in-waiting wrote to say that she had read and re-read the beautiful
+verses.
+
+A former Italian Ambassador told me that when the present King was still
+quite young some members of the Government wanted him removed from the
+care of women and his education confided to men. The Queen, however, said,
+"Leave him to me, and I will make a man of him." "And," added my
+informant, "she did!"
+
+[Sidenote: THE DAHABYAH "HERODOTUS"]
+
+Later in the year my husband engaged a dahabyah, the _Herodotus_, to take
+us up the Nile, and we left England on January 22nd, 1896, to join it.
+Margaret and Mary went with us, and we sailed from Marseilles for
+Alexandria in the _Senegal_, a Messageries boat which was one of the most
+wretched old tubs that I have ever encountered. How it contrived to reach
+Alexandria in a storm was a mystery, the solution of which reflects great
+credit on its captain. We had a peculiar lady among our fellow-passengers,
+who, when Columbus was mentioned, remarked that he was the man who went to
+sea in a sack. We believe that she confused him with Monte Cristo.
+
+Anyhow we reached Cairo at last, where we were joined by Lady Galloway,
+who had been staying with Lord and Lady Cromer at the Agency, and we
+joined our dahabyah--a very comfortable one--at Gingeh on February 4th. As
+we had a steam-tug attached, we were happily independent of wind and
+current, and could stop when we pleased--no small consideration. We
+realised this when, reaching Luxor three days later, we met with friends
+who had been toiling upstream for a month, unable to visit any antiquities
+on the way, as whenever they wanted to do so the wind, or other phenomena,
+became favourable to progress. I ought not to omit having met Nubar Pasha,
+the Egyptian statesman, at Cairo, a dear old man, with a high esteem for
+the English, who, he said, had a great respect for themselves, and for
+public opinion. At first sight those two sentiments seem not altogether
+compatible, but on thinking over his remark one perceives how they balance
+each other.
+
+At El Ballianeh, another stopping-place on our voyage to Luxor, we found
+the town decorated in honour of the Khedive's lately married sister, who
+was making an expedition up the Nile. Her husband, having modern
+tendencies, was anxious that she should ride like the English ladies, and
+had ordered a riding-habit for her, but only one boot, as he only saw one
+of the Englishwomen's feet. Had he lived in the present year of grace his
+vision would not have been so limited.
+
+Near Karnak, E. F. Benson and his sister were busy excavating the Temple
+of Mant. Miss Benson had a concession and excavated many treasures, while
+her brother no doubt drew out of the desert his inspiration for _The Image
+in the Sand_, published some years later.
+
+In pre-war days we used to say that the Nile was like Piccadilly and Luxor
+resembled the Bachelors' Club, so many friends and acquaintances passed up
+and down the river, but on this particular voyage the aspect which most
+impressed my husband and myself was the dominating influence of the
+Sirdar, Lord Kitchener. We only saw him personally for a few minutes, as
+he was with his staff on a tour of inspection, but wherever we met
+officers of any description there was an alertness, and a constant
+reference to "The Sirdar!" "The Sirdar has ordered," "The Sirdar wishes."
+A state of tension was quite evident, and soon proved to be justified.
+
+No one quite knew when and where the Mahdi would attack, everybody was on
+the look-out for hidden Dervishes. At Assouan we had luncheon with the
+officers stationed there, Major Jackson (now Sir Herbert) and others, who
+were most hospitable and amusing. I must confess that though they were
+more than ready for the Dervishes, they were specially hot against the
+French. Of course at that time the feeling on both sides was very bitter;
+it was long before the days of the entente, and any French officer who
+made friends with an Englishman had a very bad mark put against his name
+by his superiors.
+
+Either at Assouan or Philae, where Captain Lyons entertained us, we heard a
+comical story of a tall Englishman in a cafe at Cairo. He was alone, and
+three or four French officers who were sitting at a little table began to
+make insulting remarks about the English. This man kept silent until one
+of them put out his foot as he passed, plainly intending to trip him up.
+Thereupon he seized his assailant and used him as a kind of cudgel or
+flail wherewith to belabour his companions. Naturally the others jumped up
+and attacked in their turn, and the Englishman, outnumbered, must have had
+the worst of it had not the girl behind the counter suddenly taken his
+part and aimed a well-directed shower of empty bottles at the Frenchmen,
+who thereupon found discretion the better part of valour and retreated.
+
+[Sidenote: ESCAPE OF SLATIN PASHA]
+
+Major Jackson gave us a graphic account of the arrival of Slatin Pasha
+after his escape from Omdurman after eleven years' captivity. He said that
+a dirty little Arab merchant arrived at his quarters claiming to be Slatin
+Pasha. He knew that Slatin had been prisoner, but did not know of his
+escape, and felt doubtful of his identity. "However," said he, "I put him
+into a bedroom and gave him some clothes and a cake of Sunlight Soap, and
+there came out a neat little Austrian gentleman." I have always thought
+what a large bakshish Major Jackson might have received from the
+proprietor of Sunlight Soap had he given them that tale for publication. I
+believe that Major Burnaby had L100 for mentioning the effect of Cockle's
+Pills on some native chief in his _Ride to Khiva_. However, Slatin managed
+to convince his hosts that he was himself, despite that he had almost
+forgotten European customs and languages during his long slavery. At
+Assouan we were obliged to abandon our nice dahabyah and transfer
+ourselves to a shaky and hot stern-wheeler called the _Tanjore_, as the
+large dahabyah could not travel above the First Cataract and we wanted to
+go to Wady Halfa. There was some doubt as to whether we could go at all,
+and the stern-wheeler had to form one of a fleet of four which were bound
+to keep together and each to carry an escort of six or seven Soudanese
+soldiers for protection. What would have happened had a strong force of
+dervishes attacked us I do not know, but fortunately we were unmolested.
+Of the other three stern-wheelers one was taken by the Bradley Martins,
+Cravens, and Mrs. Sherman, and the other two were public.
+
+We had an object-lesson on the advantages of a reputation for being
+unamiable. On board one of the public stern-wheelers was a certain F. R.,
+author and journalist, with his wife and daughter. Jersey overheard Cook's
+representative giving special injunctions to the agent in charge of this
+boat to keep F. R. in good humour, as he might make himself very
+disagreeable. Whether he did anything to damage the firm I know not, but I
+know that he bored his fellow-passengers so much that on the return
+journey they either transferred themselves to the fourth boat or waited
+for another, anything rather than travel back with the R.'s. So the R.'s
+secured a whole stern-wheeler to themselves.
+
+I have carefully refrained from any description of the well-known temples
+and tombs, which record the past glories of the cities of the Nile, but I
+must say a word of the wonderful rock temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbal,
+close on the river banks. We saw it by moonlight, which added much to the
+effect of the great pylon cut in the rock with its four sitting figures of
+the king, each 66 feet high. Small figures stand by the knees of the
+colossi, who look solemnly out over the river unmoved by the passing
+centuries. Inside the rock is a large corridor with eight great Osiride
+figures guarding its columns, and within are smaller chambers with
+sculptured walls.
+
+[Sidenote: HOW A KING AND AN ARAB EVADED ORDERS]
+
+I would also recall among the less important relics of the past the small
+ruined Temple of Dakkeh. It was built in Ptolemaic times by an Ethiopian
+monarch singularly free from superstition. It was the custom of these
+kings to kill themselves when ordered to do so by the priests in the name
+of the gods, but when his spiritual advisers ventured to send such a
+message to King Erzamenes, he went with his soldiers and killed the
+priests instead.
+
+I do not know whether the story lingered on the banks of the Nile till our
+times, but the instinct of this king seems to have been reincarnated in an
+Arab, or Egyptian, soldier who related to an English officer his first
+experience of an aeroplane during the late war. This man was enlisted by
+the Turks during their invasion of Egypt and afterwards captured by the
+British. Said he, "I saw a bird, oh, such a beautiful bird, flying in the
+sky. My officer told me to shoot it, but I did not want to kill that
+beautiful bird, so I killed my officer." Certainly if one wished to
+disobey an unreasonable order it was the simplest method of escaping
+punishment.
+
+At Wady Halfa we were delightfully entertained at tea and dinner by
+Colonel Hunter (now Sir Archibald). Dinner in his pretty garden was indeed
+a pleasant change from our jolting stern-wheeler. Previously he took us to
+see the 500 camels--riding and baggage--of the camel-corps. All were
+absolutely ready for action. Like the horses of Branksome Hall in the "Lay
+of the Last Minstrel," who "ready and wight stood saddled in stable day
+and night," these camels lay in rows with all their kit on or near
+them--nothing to be done when the order of advance should be given except
+to fill their water-flasks. All this with the shadow of the Sirdar
+pointing towards them--to fall even sooner than the officers perchance
+anticipated.
+
+While our boat waited at Wady Halfa we made a short expedition, two hours
+by train on a local military railway, to Sarras, which was then the
+Egyptian frontier. Egyptian officers showed us the Fort on a hill with two
+Krupp and two Maxim guns. There were one or two other little forts on
+heights, and below was the camp with tents, huts, camels, and horses. From
+the hill we looked out at the country beyond, a mass of small hills rising
+from a sandy desert, all barren and arid. It gave a weird impression to
+stand thus on the uttermost outpost of civilisation wondering what of
+death and terror lay beyond.
+
+[Sidenote: THE DERVISHES]
+
+Seven years previously, in July 1889, Sir Herbert Kitchener (as he then
+was) had written to my husband from the Egyptian Headquarters at Assouan,
+and thus described the Dervishes:
+
+    "I leave for the South to-morrow and shall then have an opportunity of
+    seeing the Dervish camp. It is most extraordinary that they have been
+    able to invade Egypt in the way they have done without any supplies or
+    transport. I have talked to numbers of prisoners and they say they are
+    just as fanatical as ever; their intention is to march on Cairo,
+    killing all who do not accept their faith, and they do not care in the
+    least how many lives they lose in the attempt, as all that die in
+    their belief go straight to heaven. They have brought all their women
+    and children with them, and seem to have no feeling whatever for the
+    sufferings they make them undergo. We have rescued almost thousands
+    and fed and clothed them; they come in the most awful state of
+    emaciation. I expect we shall have a fight shortly with the strong men
+    of the party who now keep all the food for themselves, leaving the
+    women and children to die of starvation."
+
+There was certainly real anxiety about them even during our expedition,
+and it was thought better for our stern-wheelers to anchor in the middle
+of the stream at night, when far from barracks, for fear of attack. I
+think, however, that it was at Assouan, a well-guarded centre, that the
+Bradley Martins came to implore Jersey to come and reassure poor Mrs.
+Sherman, Mrs. Bradley Martin's kind old mother. She had heard some firing
+in connection with Ramadan, and told her family that she knew that their
+dahabyah had been captured by dervishes and that they were keeping it from
+her. Why she thought that the dervishes were considerate enough to keep
+out of her cabin I do not know, nor why she consented to believe my
+husband and not her own children. However, it is not uncommon for people
+to attach more weight to the opinion of an outsider than to that of the
+relatives whom they see every day.
+
+Before returning to Cairo we tied up near Helouan and rode there along a
+good road with trees on either side. Helouan itself struck us as
+resembling the modern part of a Riviera town pitched in the desert.
+Neither trees nor verandahs mitigated the glare of the sun, unless a few
+clumps near the sulphur baths did duty as shade for the whole place. There
+were numerous hotels and boarding-houses, though I recorded the opinion,
+which I saw no reason to modify on a visit some years later, that there
+seemed no particular reason for people to go there unless preparatory to
+committing suicide. However, I suppose that the Races and the Baths
+constituted the attraction, and it may have become more adapted to a
+semi-tropical climate since we saw it.
+
+Before we said farewell to the _Herodotus_ the crew gave us a "musical and
+dramatic" entertainment. The comic part was largely supplied by the cook's
+boy, who represented a European clad in a remarkably battered suit and
+ordered about a luckless native workman. The great joke was repeatedly to
+offer him as a seat the ship's mallet (with which posts for tying up were
+driven into the bank) and to withdraw it the moment he tried to sit down.
+His face, and subsequent flogging of the joker, were hailed with shrieks
+of laughter. Similar pranks interspersed with singing, dancing, and
+tambourine playing were witnessed by an appreciative audience, including
+eight or ten native friends of the sailors, who were supplied with coffee
+and cigarettes.
+
+On March 12th we reached Cairo and, with regret, left our comfortable
+dahabyah for the Ghezireh Palace Hotel. On the 14th came the rumour that
+orders had come from England that troops should advance on Dongola. There
+was the more excitement as it was asserted, and I believe truly, that the
+Government had taken this decisive step without previous consultation with
+either Lord Cromer or the Sirdar. However, all was ready, and the climax
+came when in September 1898 the Dervishes were defeated by Sir Herbert
+Kitchener, the Mahdi slain, and Gordon avenged.
+
+On October 7th of that year Sir Herbert wrote from Cairo, in answer to my
+congratulations:
+
+    "I am indeed thankful all went off without a hitch. I see the ----
+    says we kill all the wounded, but when I left Omdurman there were
+    between six and seven thousand wounded dervishes in hospital there.
+    The work was so hard on the Doctors that I had to call on the
+    released Egyptian doctors from prison to help; two of them were well
+    educated, had diplomas, and were and are very useful. We ran out of
+    bandages and had to use our first field dressing which every man
+    carries with him."
+
+[Sidenote: LORD KITCHENER]
+
+How unjust were newspaper attacks on a man unfailingly humane! Kitchener's
+reception in England towards the end of the year was a wild triumph--more
+than he appreciated, for he complained to me of the way in which the
+populace mobbed him at Charing Cross Station and pulled at his clothes. I
+remember at Dover, either that year or on his return from South Africa,
+meeting the mistress of an Elementary School whom I knew who was taking
+her scholars to see him land "as an object lesson," an object lesson being
+permitted in school hours. The children might certainly have had many less
+useful lessons.
+
+Lord Kitchener (as he had then become) spent a Sunday with us at Osterley,
+June 17-19th, 1899. I well recollect a conversation which I had with him
+on that occasion. He expressed his dissatisfaction at his military work
+being ended. "I should like to begin again as a simple captain if I could
+have something fresh to do." "Why," said I, "you are Governor-General of
+the Soudan, surely there is great work to do there." No, that was not the
+sort of job he wanted. "Well," I told him, "you need not worry yourself,
+you are sure to be wanted soon for something else."
+
+Little did he think, still less did I, that exactly six months later, on
+December 18th, orders would reach him at Khartum to join Lord Roberts as
+Chief of the Staff, in South Africa. He started at once, and met his
+Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar on 27th. Indeed a fresh and stirring act
+in the drama of his life opened before him. Later on, when he had
+succeeded Lord Roberts in the supreme command, he wrote (January 1902)
+thanking me for a little diary which I had sent him, and continued:
+
+    "We are all still hard at it, and I really think the end at last
+    cannot be far off. Still in this enormous country and with the enemy
+    we have to contend with there is no saying how long some roving bands
+    may not continue in the field, living like robbers in the hills and
+    making occasional raids that are difficult to meet.
+
+    "It will be a joyful day when it is over, but however long it may be
+    in coming, we shall all stick to it.
+
+    "The Boers are simply senseless idiots to go on destroying their
+    country."
+
+What would he have said of the Irish of twenty years later?
+
+After his return from South Africa I was much amused by the account he
+gave us of receiving the O.M. medal from King Edward, who was ill at the
+time. When he arrived at Buckingham Palace he was taken to the King's
+bedroom, but kept waiting behind a large screen at the entrance in company
+with Queen Alexandra, who kept exclaiming, "This is most extraordinary!"
+At last they were admitted to the royal presence, when the King drew out
+the order from under his pillow. The recipient had evidently been kept
+waiting while somebody went to fetch it.
+
+I have other recollections of Lord Kitchener at Osterley, though I cannot
+exactly date them. One Sunday some of us had been to church, and on our
+return found George Peel extended in a garden chair, looking positively
+white with anxiety. He confided to us that Kitchener and M. Jusserand of
+the French Embassy had been marching up and down near the Lake at the
+bottom of the garden violently discussing Egypt and Fashoda, and he was
+afraid lest the Englishman should throw the Frenchman into the
+Lake--which, considering their respective sizes, would not have been
+difficult. They certainly parted friends, and Kitchener mentions in one of
+his letters: "I saw Jusserand in Paris, but he said nothing to me about
+his engagement. I must write to him."
+
+[Sidenote: KITCHENER AND MRS. BOTHA]
+
+Another meeting which took place at one of our garden parties was with
+Mrs. Louis Botha. I was walking with the General when I saw her coming
+down the steps from the house. He and I went forward to meet her, and it
+was really touching to see the evident pleasure with which she responded
+to the warm greetings of her husband's former opponent. She, like her
+husband, knew the generous nature of the man.
+
+Lord Kitchener certainly knew what he wanted even in little things, but
+even he could not always get it.
+
+Just when he was appointed to the Mediterranean Command (which I am sure
+that he had no intention of taking up) he came down to see us one
+afternoon, and amused himself by sorting our Chinese from our Japanese
+china, the latter kind being in his eyes "no good." Tired of this, he
+suddenly said, "Now, let us go into the garden and pick strawberries."
+"But," said I, "there are no strawberries growing out-of-doors in May."
+"Oh," he exclaimed, "I thought when we came to Osterley we _always_ picked
+strawberries." Fortunately I had some hot-house ones ready at tea.
+
+At King Edward's Durbar at Delhi Lord Kitchener's camp adjoined that of
+the Governor of Bombay, Lord Northcote, with whom we were staying. He
+arrived a day or two after we did, came over to see us, and took me back
+to inspect the arrangements of his camp, including the beautiful plate
+with which he had been presented. He was extremely happy, and most anxious
+to make me avow the superiority of his establishment to ours, which I
+would not admit. At last in triumph he showed me a fender-seat and said,
+"Anyhow, Lady Northcote has not a fender-seat." But I finally crushed him
+with, "No, but we have a billiard-table!"
+
+I must allow that there was a general suspicion that all would not go
+smoothly between two such master minds as his and the Viceroy's. Those are
+high politics with which I would not deal beyond saying that the
+impression of most people who know India is that the power ultimately
+given to the Commander-in-Chief was well as long as Lord Kitchener held
+it, but too much for a weaker successor in a day of world-upheaval.
+
+The last time I saw him was in the July before the Great War, when he came
+down to tea, and talked cheerfully of all he was doing at Broome Park, and
+of the trees he intended to plant, and how I must come over from Lady
+Northcote's at Eastwell Park and see his improvements. He certainly then
+had no idea of what lay before him. In a last letter written from the War
+Office (I think in 1915, but it is only dated "25th") he speaks of trying
+to motor down some evening, but naturally never had time.
+
+The final tragedy ended a great life, but he had done his work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DIAMOND JUBILEE--INDIA--THE PASSING OF THE GREAT QUEEN
+
+
+I realise that in the foregoing pages I have dwelt more on foreign lands
+than on our own country. This only means that they offered more novelty,
+not that England was less interesting to my husband and myself.
+
+The great Lord Shaftesbury used to say that his was a generation which
+served God less and man more. I trust that only the latter half of this
+dictum has proved true, but certainly throughout Queen Victoria's reign
+men and women seemed increasingly awake to their duty to their fellows and
+particularly to children.
+
+Without touching on well-known philanthropic movements, I should like to
+mention one, unostentatious but typical of many others--namely, the
+"Children's Happy Evenings Association," founded by Miss Ada Heather-Bigg
+and inspired throughout its existence by the energy of her sister, Lady
+Bland-Sutton. This was the pioneer Society for organised play in the
+Board, now "County," Schools. It owed much to the work of many of my
+friends, and was specially fortunate in the personal interest of its
+patron, now Queen Mary. Though the exigencies of the new Education Act
+compelled it to cease its voluntary work after the Great War, during
+thirty years it brought happiness into the lives of thousands of poor
+children.
+
+To return to our Osterley experiences.
+
+We had one specially interesting Sunday in June 1895. Among others staying
+with us from Saturday to Monday were Lord and Lady George Hamilton and Sir
+Stafford and Lady Northcote. Mr. Arthur Balfour came down on Sunday to
+dine and spend the night, and he and Lord George were busy with a game of
+lawn tennis on the garden front of the house. Several of us were in
+another part of the grounds under the cedars overlooking the Lake,
+enjoying the fine warm afternoon.
+
+All at once a very hot and dusty figure appeared through the little gate
+near the portico and revealed itself as Schomberg--commonly called
+"Pom"--McDonnell, then Lord Salisbury's Private Secretary. I went to meet
+him, offering tea, dinner, or whatever hospitality he preferred. All he
+would say in breathless and very serious tones was, "Give me an egg beat
+up in brandy and find me Arthur Balfour."
+
+The desired refreshment and the statesman were produced in due course. It
+appeared on further inquiry that Mr. McDonnell had bicycled from Hatfield
+to London in search of Mr. Balfour, and not finding him in Carlton Gardens
+had pursued him to Osterley. Such were the exigencies of pre-motor days.
+The interview over, the messenger retreated as swiftly as he had come.
+
+We were not allowed to know the message till next morning when the papers
+came with the thrilling announcement, "Resignation of the Government"! Mr.
+Balfour said to me, "I might quite well have told you, but Pom was so very
+determined that I should not."
+
+The only recipient of the secret was Lord George Hamilton.
+
+When Mr. Balfour returned to the lawn-tennis ground he said very quietly
+to Lord George between the sets, "The Government have resigned"; and
+then continued his game as if nothing had happened.
+
+[Illustration: GROUP AT MIDDLETON PARK, CHRISTMAS, 1904
+
+  Viscount Villiers
+  Hon. Arthur Villiers
+  Hon. Walter Rice
+  Lord Dunsany
+  Imogen Rice
+  Earl of Jersey
+  Col. Earl of Longford
+  Countess of Longford
+  Lady Margaret Rice
+  Countess of Jersey
+  Lord Silchester
+  Lady Pansy
+  Lady Dunsany
+  Charles Rice
+  Pakenham
+  Elwyn Rice]
+
+Lord Rosebery's Government had been defeated a few days previously on the
+cordite vote, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman having been Secretary of State
+for War. Of course there was great excitement. Mr. St. John Brodrick spent
+the next Sunday with us, and was summoned to London by Lord Salisbury
+early on the Monday morning, when he was offered, and accepted, the post
+of Under-Secretary of State for War.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. CHAMBERLAIN, COLONIAL SECRETARY]
+
+There was a prevalent idea that Mr. Chamberlain would become Secretary of
+State for War, but I felt sure that he would obtain the Colonies, knowing
+what a deep interest he took in the Overseas Empire. We had once had a
+long conversation about it at a dinner at Greenwich. When the appointment
+was made I wrote to congratulate him, and he said in his reply, "I hope I
+may be able to do something to promote the closer union of our Empire"--a
+hope amply fulfilled.
+
+I have many recollections of Mr. Chamberlain at Osterley. He was a
+charming guest, always ready to take his share in any amusement or
+discussion. It was comical to see him on one occasion making his way in a
+sort of trot down the Gallery with a serious expression on his face, and
+his arm extended at full length holding a poker towards him, which the
+game somehow entailed his keeping clear of his nose.
+
+He loved to sit on the platform on the top of the double flight of steps
+leading to the garden after dinner on hot nights, smoking and talking. I
+remember that he told us a good ghost story, but am sorry that I forget
+the details. The last time I saw him before his sad illness I sat next to
+him at dinner at his own house. He had then taken up Protection (which I
+always wished he had called "Preference"). I said to him: "You know, Mr.
+Chamberlain, I am a Free Trader?"
+
+"Yes," he said, "I know, but you will give an old friend credit for being
+honest."
+
+"Certainly," I replied, and I said that truthfully with my whole heart.
+
+In later years we were neighbours at Cannes, as we had the Villa Luynes
+for four seasons, not far from the Villa Victoria where he took up his
+winter abode. Everyone bore witness to Mrs. Chamberlain's devotion, and it
+was splendid to see how she encouraged him, and helped him to retain his
+interest in the outer world in which he could no longer play an active
+part.
+
+Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was marked by even greater
+enthusiasm than the celebrations of 1887. Ten years of that life of
+devotion to her Empire had drawn ever closer the links between her and her
+people. They had shared with her yet more sorrows and yet more joys,
+especially the death of the Duke of Clarence, the marriage of our present
+King, and the births of our Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.
+
+I think the Prince of Wales began his inroad into the hearts of the
+populace on this occasion. When the Queen returned from her triumphal
+procession to St. Paul's the two little Princes were taken out on to a
+balcony to see and be seen by the throng below. The infant Prince Albert
+danced in his nurse's arms, but Prince Edward, or, as he was always
+called, Prince David, solemnly and correctly saluted in return for the
+ringing cheers with which he was greeted. An eye-witness recounted at the
+time that still the spectators cheered, and again and again the boy
+saluted, till at length as they would not stop he evidently felt that
+something more was required, and saluted _with both hands_.
+
+[Sidenote: THE QUEEN AT TEMPLE BAR]
+
+We had an exciting time, as the custom has always been that when the Lord
+Mayor receives the Sovereign at Temple Bar he should await his or her
+arrival at Child's Bank, which is No. 1 Fleet Street. We accordingly went
+there with our family and particular friends, including my father and
+mother. My father's ancestor, Sir Thomas Leigh, was Lord Mayor when Queen
+Elizabeth visited the city on her accession and presented it with the
+Pearl Sword; and two of my husband's ancestors, Sir Francis Child and his
+son bearing the same name, who were Lords Mayor in the eighteenth century,
+are represented in their portraits at Osterley as holding this sword.
+
+The Lord Mayor of the Diamond Jubilee, Sir George Faudel-Phillips, brought
+this same sword to the Bank and showed it to us, realising our special
+interest, as the representatives of both our families had had charge of
+the sword in bygone years, and were present to see it offered to Queen
+Victoria.
+
+This ceremony took place exactly opposite the Bank, and was certainly a
+trying one for the Lord Mayor, as he had to offer the sword to her
+Majesty, receive it back, and then in his flowing robes leap to his horse
+and still bearing the weapon ride before her carriage to St. Paul's.
+
+It was impossible not to recall pictures of John Gilpin when one saw his
+mantle flying in the air, but I must say that Sir George displayed
+excellent horsemanship and carried through his part without a hitch.
+
+I never saw the Queen more beaming than on this occasion, and no wonder,
+for she fully realised that the wild acclamations of the people came
+straight from their hearts. When we were again at Windsor in the
+following May I ventured to hope that Her Majesty had not been overtired.
+She said, "No--not on the day, but when the celebrations had gone on for a
+month she was rather tired."
+
+Rather an amusing incident occurred during the procession. Lady Northcote
+and her father, Lord Mount Stephen, were among our guests at the Bank. A
+few days previously Lady Northcote had met Lord Roberts, Sir Donald
+Stewart, and Sir Redvers Buller, and had said jokingly: "What is the good
+of knowing Field Marshals if they do not salute one on such an occasion?"
+As a result all three saluted her--Lord Roberts in particular was riding
+at the head of the Colonial and Asiatic troops on the little white Arab
+horse which he had ridden all through the Afghan War, and all the time
+when he was Commander-in-Chief in Madras and in India. The horse wore the
+Afghan medal and the Kandahar Star given him by Queen Victoria. When Lord
+Roberts was opposite Child's, he duly reined his charger round and
+solemnly saluted. An evening paper gravely asserted that he had saluted
+the city and that it was "a fine thing finely done." It was finely done,
+but the salute was to a lady, not to the city!
+
+In the following year our eldest daughter Margaret married Lord Dynevor's
+son, Walter Rice, and in 1899 our second daughter Mary married Lord
+Longford. These proved the happiest possible marriages, and our
+grandchildren as delightful as their parents. Both these weddings took
+place from 25 St. James's Place by the extreme kindness of Lady Northcote,
+who provided the whole of the entertainments, including putting us all up
+for the two occasions.
+
+My brother Rowland in 1898 married in America the daughter of General
+Gordon of Savannah, who was warmly welcomed in our family.
+
+In March 1899 Lady Northcote and I had a short but delightful tour in
+Holland and Belgium.
+
+Soon after this came the black shadows of the African War, in which
+Longford took a distinguished part, serving with the 2nd Life Guards and
+with the Imperial Yeomanry, and, at Lord Robert's desire, raising the
+Irish Horse. Though he was wounded at Lindley he returned safely--but,
+alas! in the European War he was killed at Suvla Bay--one of the best and
+bravest of men.
+
+Lord Northcote having been appointed Governor of Bombay, he and Lady
+Northcote left England early in 1900. My remaining daughter Beatrice and I
+travelled with them as far as Marseilles, where they joined their ship and
+we went on to North Italy.
+
+[Sidenote: THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR]
+
+The war was still raging in South Africa and we lived in a state of
+constant anxiety. While we were in Florence, however, the news came of the
+relief of Kimberley. I shall always recollect the arrival of a brief
+telegram to the effect that "General French had ridden into Kimberley,"
+quite sufficient to induce total strangers to address each other in the
+tea-shop, which was a common resort, and to exchange happy speculations as
+to the truth of the news.
+
+In Paris on our way back we had the further tidings of the surrender of
+Cronje, and the relief of Ladysmith, which I regret to say did not improve
+the temper of the French or their manners towards English travellers--but
+perhaps all this is better now forgotten. We had found the Italians
+perfectly amiable.
+
+One great difference between the Boer War and that which has since
+devastated the world was that the former did not in any way interfere
+with ocean travel, and in the autumn following the departure of our
+friends, Jersey, Beatrice, and myself set off again to join them in India.
+They were on tour when we first reached Bombay, so we went to see some of
+our former haunts and a few places which we had not previously visited.
+
+I have already written so much of India that I will only very briefly
+mention some incidents which particularly struck me on this occasion. I
+pass over the wonderful Caves of Ellora, for, marvellous as they are, they
+are fully described in guide-books. We paid a second visit to Hyderabad,
+and it was curious there to note the strong contrast between the modern
+education of the girls of the higher classes and the conservative attitude
+of some of the old ladies.
+
+We attended a large dinner given by the Vikar, or Prime Minister, who was
+married to the Nizam's sister, and after dinner he expressed a wish that I
+should pay a visit to his wife, who lived in a palace near the hall in
+which we had dined. The Resident's wife kindly accompanied me, though she
+had not hitherto made the lady's acquaintance.
+
+It was the weirdest visit I ever paid. Darkness had fallen, and we were
+received at the entrance of the Palace by a number of wild-looking females
+bearing torches and wrapped in red saris. They reminded me of an old print
+representing a beldame with a flaming torch at the Gate of Tartarus, with
+Cerberus and other monsters in the background: rather a libel on the
+women, who were doubtless excellent in private life, but who seemed to be
+guarding a fatal portal on this occasion. They conducted us to a vast,
+dimly lighted chamber with pillars and arches; which might have been the
+Hall of Eblis.
+
+[Sidenote: INDIAN PRINCESSES]
+
+What was happening in its recesses I could not see, but in the middle, on
+an ordinary-looking chair, sat the Princess, her destined daughter-in-law
+squatting at her feet and attendants in the background. She was wrapped in
+a gorgeous green-and-gold sari and covered with jewels on neck, arms, and
+ankles, but her bare feet projected in an uncomfortable manner; she looked
+as if a cushion on the floor would have suited her much better than her
+stiff seat. Near her, looking singularly incongruous, stood her son, and a
+stepson whose existence scandal said she resented. The young men were
+attired in immaculate European dress-clothes, and might had walked out of
+the Bachelors' Club except that they wore on their heads curious
+mitre-shaped hats which indicated their connection with the Nizam's house.
+They both spoke English perfectly. Our conversation with the lady was
+naturally limited to translated platitudes, but I was interested to see
+the heroine, who was reckoned very clever but not over-scrupulous.
+
+At the great fortress city of Gwalior we visited very different
+ladies--the mother and wife of Scindia, who received us in pleasant
+apartments, well-furnished, light and airy. The old lady might have been
+an English dowager--she was extremely talkative and full of her son the
+Maharajah, who was expected back immediately from the Boxer War. The
+little wife was in the charge of an English governess and seemed anxious
+to remain in another room out of her mother-in-law's way. She was about
+eighteen, and was much amused at the height of my daughter who was her
+contemporary. Unfortunately the poor young thing had no child, though she
+had been married for some years. The Maharajah was devoted to her and
+wanted to avoid a second marriage, but later on was obliged to consent to
+taking another wife with a view to providing an heir.
+
+I do not know what ceremonies were then necessary, but when he married our
+young friend certain difficulties had arisen. The wife of Scindia had to
+be chosen from a very limited caste, and the only eligible young lady at
+the moment was the daughter of a quite middle-class family somewhere near
+Bombay or Poona. Now if the lady had been his equal by birth it would have
+been proper for the Maharajah to ride to her residence in order to bring
+her home, but he could not have gone to a comparatively humble abode. As a
+compromise he had to ride the same number of days which it would have
+taken him to reach his bride, but it was arranged that he should do this
+in his own dominions, sleeping each night at the house of one of his
+Sirdars.
+
+At Lahore we saw the College for young Chiefs, modelled as far as possible
+on the lines of an English Public School and, like the Mayo College at
+Ajmere, intended to bring up a manly race of rulers without the risks
+attendant on sending them to England. The majority of the youths whom we
+saw were Mohammedans or Sikhs. The Mohammedans would mess together, but,
+though the Sikhs are by way of disregarding caste, in practice it was
+found that each youth preferred to eat in private. This may have been
+partly a question of dignity, as these young northern chiefs came attended
+with personal servants.
+
+Their private rooms, with occupant's name outside, were not unlike those
+of Eton boys, and each contained a little illuminated card calling
+attention to the special observances of the scholar's own faith, and
+saying that the Directors of the College were anxious that the students
+should attend to their religious obligations.
+
+I noticed outside one door "Granth Sahib," and wondered what Scotsman had
+entered himself as pupil with such companions. On inquiry it proved that
+this was the shrine or chapel of the "Granth" or Sacred Book of the Sikhs,
+the one symbol allowed in their worship. We went into the room where it
+was kept, and found a large volume lying on the floor, with flowers thrown
+upon it, evidently the offering of some devotee who had performed "poojah"
+or worship.
+
+At beautiful Amritsar, now a home of sad memories, in the Golden Temple in
+the Lake, we saw a far more gorgeous shrine, but still with the Granth as
+its centre of worship.
+
+[Sidenote: LORD AND LADY NORTHCOTE]
+
+I must not linger over these scenes, though every part of India offers a
+fresh temptation to dwell on its manifold races, its historic temples and
+palaces, but must hasten to our sojourn at Bombay, where Lord and Lady
+Northcote gave us some of the most delightful weeks of our lives,
+including a truly cheerful Christmas in a home away from home.
+
+Every day brought something of interest seen under the best possible
+auspices, and every evening a happy time with our friends. It was a joy
+also to find how they had rooted themselves in the esteem and affection of
+both English and Indians in the Presidency.
+
+Just before we sailed for England came the news of Queen Victoria's
+serious illness. Everyone knew, though no one liked to acknowledge, that
+recovery was problematical. Wireless telegraphy was still in its infancy,
+so we had no news between Bombay and Aden, where we arrived in the middle
+of the night. I was asleep in my berth when our ship anchored, and I shall
+never forget waking in the early dawn and hearing a man's voice saying to
+a friend just outside my cabin, "She went off very quietly." No need to
+ask who it was whose passing from earth had wrung the hearts of many
+nations, and not least of those who go down to the sea in ships.
+
+People who remember those winter days need no description of their import,
+and those who are too young to recall them can never realise what it meant
+to feel as if a whole Empire had become one great orphaned family.
+Statesmen and soldiers had given place to their successors, poets,
+philosophers, and men of science had passed away, but for over sixty years
+the Queen had been the unchanging centre of our national life, and it
+seemed incredible that even she had laid down the burden of sovereignty,
+and would no longer share the joys and sorrows of her people.
+
+And here I would end these wandering reminiscences, but must just record
+one tribute to her memory in which I was privileged to take part.
+
+In the following May a number of women dressed in deep mourning assembled
+at 10 Downing Street, then the dwelling of the Prime Minister, Mr. Arthur
+Balfour. His sister Miss Balfour, Miss Georgina Frere, daughter of the
+late Sir Bartle Frere, and Lady Edward Cecil (now Lady Milner) had
+assembled us in order that we might establish a society for knitting more
+closely together British subjects dwelling in various parts of the Empire.
+
+[Sidenote: THE VICTORIA LEAGUE]
+
+We called it the Victoria League in memory of the great Queen-Empress
+under whose sway that Empire had extended to "regions Caesar never knew."
+The executive committee then elected was composed of the wives and sisters
+of Cabinet Ministers, of wives of leaders of the Opposition, and other
+representative ladies. Most unexpectedly, just before the meeting Lady
+Rayleigh (Mr. Balfour's sister) informed me that I was to take the chair
+and that it was intended to appoint me first President. My breath was
+quite taken away, but there was neither time nor opportunity for
+remonstrance, and I concluded that I was chosen because one great object
+of the founders being to emphasise "no party politics," it was thought
+wiser not to select a President whose husband was of Cabinet rank, and
+that though a Conservative I had the qualification of overseas experience.
+
+The late Lady Tweedmouth, a Liberal, was appointed Vice-President, and
+shortly afterwards Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, representing the Liberal
+Unionists, became Honorary Secretary. Later on Miss Talbot, now Dame
+Meriel, took the post of Secretary, which she held for fifteen years, and
+Mrs. Maurice Macmillan succeeded Miss Georgina Frere as Honorary
+Treasurer, a position which she still holds. Miss Drayton, O.B.E., is now
+our most efficient Secretary.
+
+For myself I have been President for twenty-one years, and, thanks to the
+extraordinary kindness and capacity of my colleagues, those years have
+been full of interest and unshadowed by any disputes, despite the
+divergent politics of the directing committees. We have always borne in
+mind the purpose of the League so well summed up by Rudyard Kipling on its
+foundation, "the first attempt to organise sympathy."
+
+We have now 38 British Branches and 22 Overseas Affiliated Leagues,
+besides Allied Associations, and we are honoured by having the King and
+Queen as Patrons and the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal
+Family as Vice-Patrons.
+
+Men were soon added to our Councils, and we had two splendid Deputy
+Presidents in Sir Edward Cook and Sir James Dunlop-Smith, now, alas! both
+taken from us. But the twenty-one years of the League's work lie outside
+the limits of these wandering recollections.
+
+[Sidenote: MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S LETTER]
+
+I would, however, like to insert the wise words which Mr. Chamberlain
+wrote on March 16th, 1902, in reply to a request sent by desire of our
+Committee for some official recognition. After acknowledging my letter he
+continues:
+
+    "I heartily approve of the efforts you are making to draw closer the
+    ties between our Colonial kinsfolk and ourselves. I believe that the
+    questions of sentiment enter more largely into these things than the
+    average man is willing to admit, and that we have lost much in the
+    past by the absence of personal intercourse with those whose support
+    and friendship are daily becoming more important to us as a Nation.
+    The Colonials are especially sensitive to these personal
+    considerations. They find it difficult to understand our
+    preoccupations and the impossibility of returning the hospitality they
+    so freely offer when we visit them.
+
+    "No Government can set this matter right, as it is not a question of
+    official recognition, but of private and personal courtesy.
+
+    "I look therefore with the greatest hope to the work of such
+    associations as yours which may help to make our Colonists feel that
+    we appreciate their affection and desire as far as in us lies to
+    reciprocate it."
+
+He then proceeds to explain the view which he says he has already
+discussed with Mr. Alfred Lyttelton--namely, that it is wiser to refrain
+from giving official colour to a work which had better maintain a "private
+and personal character." He continues:
+
+    "I cannot dissociate myself from my office, and I do not think that it
+    would be wise or desirable that I should extend the vast field of
+    responsibility which that office already covers by associating myself
+    publicly with these private Associations."
+
+He expresses himself as ready at any time to give such assistance as
+obtaining special privileges for the guests we represent at the Coronation
+or other functions, and then says:
+
+    "But I feel that, except in such ways, I had better stand apart, and
+    that the great value of these associations lies in their non-official
+    character. I represent the Government--you represent the people, and I
+    think it is most important that this distinction should be carefully
+    preserved.
+
+    "I am open to conviction, but I think I am right in begging you to
+    accept my reasons and to excuse me from accepting a request which as a
+    private individual I should have been proud to comply with."
+
+Naturally we felt the justice of views so fully and courteously explained.
+
+And now I must end. The years spent under the rule of two great Kings, and
+the guidance of two gracious Queens, have had their joys and sorrows,
+public and private, but they lie too near our day for a woman to attempt
+even a personal record of what they have brought under her ken.
+
+The happy marriages of my eldest son to the beloved daughter of Lord
+Kilmorey, of my youngest daughter to Lord Dunsany, and of my brother
+Rupert to Miss Dudley Smith belong to the present century.
+
+I can only say how grateful I am for the affection of many friends, and
+the love of my children and grandchildren, which have softened the sorrows
+and heightened the joys of these latter years.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Abdul Kerim, Queen Victoria's Munshi, 194-195, 213
+
+  Abingdon, Earl of, 35
+
+  Abu Simbal, 360, 361
+
+  Adderley, Sir Charles, and Hon. Lady, nee Leigh, 21
+
+  Adderley Cousins at Hams Hall, 21, 64
+
+  Adyar, Theosophist Headquarters, 167, 168
+
+  Aga Khan, H.H., the, 152-154
+
+  Akbar, his Tomb, 193;
+    why he built Futtehpore-Sekree, 194
+
+  Albert Edward, H.R.H. Prince of Wales (Edward VII), gives cigar to Mr.
+      Dibbs, 251, 252
+
+  Alcester, Admiral Lord, 115
+
+  Alexandra, H.R.H., Princess of Wales (afterwards Queen), gown woven for,
+       23;
+    fete given for her marriage at Mentone, 25, 26;
+    Prince William at her wedding, 26;
+    at Marlborough House, 36, 366
+
+  Alexandra, Princess, of Greece, 209-210
+
+  Ali Beg, 159
+
+  Ampthill, Dowager Lady, 111
+
+  Ancram, Earl of, A.D.C., accidentally killed, 285
+
+  Andrew, Prince, of Greece, 130
+
+  Antwerp, 60
+
+  Apia, capital of Samoa, 291
+
+  _Arcadia_, s.s., 145, 247
+
+  Ardagh, Col. Sir John, 182
+
+  Ardgowan, 16
+
+  Argyll, 8th Duke of, 80, 81
+
+  _Armand Behic_, Messageries s.s., 277
+
+  Arnold, Sir Edwin, 88, 89
+
+  Arran, Isle of, 35, 36
+
+  Ashley, Hon. Lionel, 125, 126, 127
+
+  Assiout and its Mudir, 216-217
+
+  Assouan, 214, 358, 359, 363
+
+  Athens, 127
+
+  Auckland, 275
+
+  Augusta, Empress, 100-101
+
+  Australia, voyage to, 247, 248
+
+  Avon, River, at Stoneleigh, 17
+
+  Avon, River, at Christchurch, N.Z., 273
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baker, Sir Samuel and Lady, 148, 149
+
+  Baker, Shirley, Wesleyan Missionary, 287, 288
+
+  Bakmeteff, Russian diplomat, 132, 135, 137, 138, 140
+
+  Bathurst, William, 5th Earl, 78, 79
+
+  Bazaine, Marshal, his escape from Ste. Marguerite, 96
+
+  Beaconsfield, Lord, 71, 79
+
+  Beckford, William, of Fonthill Abbey, 58, 59
+
+  Bedford, Hastings, Duke of, 109
+
+  Benadadda, Scotch giant, 48, 49
+
+  Benson, Mr. E. F. and Miss, Excavations in Egypt, 358
+
+  Beresford, Lord William, 182
+
+  Berlin, visit to, 100-110
+
+  Bernhardt, Sarah, 95
+
+  Bernstorff, Madame, her ghost story, 122, 123
+
+  Bhownuggar, Maharajah of, his aims and difficulties, 198, 199
+
+  Biarritz, 95
+
+  Bilgrami, Syed Hossain, C.S.I., 158
+
+  Bismarck, Prince, 105-110
+
+  Bismarck, Princess, 105
+
+  Bismarck, Count Herbert, 105
+
+  Blyth, Dr., Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem, 220
+
+  Bombay, 150
+
+  Bourke, Rev. Cecil, 76
+
+  Brahmo-Somaj, 182-184
+
+  Brandling, Mr. Charles, 69
+
+  Brisbane, 324
+
+  Brough (Irish Guide), 41-42
+
+  Brougham, 1st Lord, Lord Chancellor, 24
+
+  Broughton Castle, 76
+
+  Browne, Thomas (Rolf Boldrewood), 252
+
+  Browning, Robert, 76
+
+  Buckingham, Duchess of, 254
+
+  Buller, Mr. Charles, 145
+
+  Buller, F.M. Sir Redvers, 374
+
+  Burley-on-the-Hill, 79
+
+  Bute, Dowager Marchioness of, nee Howard, 57
+
+
+  C
+
+  Cairns, 1st Earl, Lord Chancellor, his ghost story, 122
+
+  Cairo, 357
+
+  Calcutta, 182-184
+
+  Campbell, Lady Agnes: _see_ Frank
+
+  Campbell, Sir Archibald, 27
+
+  Campbell, Sir Colin, 188, 189
+
+  Canadian Pacific Railway, 347-348
+
+  Cannes, 24, 68, 372
+
+  Canton, Viceroy of, 333, 334
+
+  Carnegie, Ladies Helena and Dora, 276
+
+  Carpenter, Miss, philanthropist, 186, 187
+
+  Caulcot Infant School, 66, 67
+
+  Caversfield, _The Angelic Choir_, 75
+
+  Cazenove, Canon, 231
+
+  Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, 114
+
+  Cecil, Lord Robert, 142
+
+  Cedercrantz, Swedish Chief Justice in Samoa, 292
+
+  Cephalonia and its brigands, 139, 140
+
+  Ceylon, 247
+
+  Chamberlain, Miss Beatrice, 144
+
+  Chamberlain, Mrs., nee Endicott, 144, 372
+
+  Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, first acquaintance with, 140;
+    his political creed, 143, 372;
+    at Osterley, 143, 144, 371;
+    in Egypt, 214, 215;
+    letter concerning Victoria League, 352, 383
+
+  Chandar Ras Behadur Khanha, 165
+
+  Chicago, 348-354
+
+  Cholmondeley, Captain Harry, A.D.C., 242, 249
+
+  Cholmondeley, Rev. Lionel, 345
+
+  Cholmondeley, Hon. Mrs., nee Leigh, 21
+
+  Christchurch, N.Z., 272
+
+  Christian, H.R.H., Princess, 39
+
+  Christmas at Stoneleigh Abbey, 20, 21
+
+  Chunder Sen Babu, 183
+
+  Clarence, H.R.H., Duke of, 242;
+    death of, 268
+
+  Clarke, Mr. Frederick, 216, 217
+
+  Clarke, Mr. Rochfort and pictures, 73, 74
+
+  Cleveland, Caroline, Duchess of, 82
+
+  Clinton, Lord Edward, 212
+
+  Colombo, 247
+
+  Columbus, Christopher, how he discovered America, 348, 349
+
+  Connaught, T.R.H. Duke and Duchess, 151, 152
+
+  Connemara, Lord, 145, 162, 166, 167, 180
+
+  Consort, H.R.H. Prince, 11, 12, 13
+
+  Constantine, Duke of Sparta ("Tino"), 209
+
+  Constantine, Grand Duke (Romanoff), 6
+
+  Constantinople, 232, 233
+
+  Cook, Sir Edward, 382
+
+  Cook, Sir Francis, collection at Richmond, 238
+
+  Crawford, Emily, Countess of, 238
+
+  Crimean War, 4
+
+  Cromer, Earl and Countess of, 357
+
+  Crystal Palace, 2, 3
+
+  Curzon, Hon. George, afterwards Marquis, 127
+
+  Cusack-Smith, Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) and Mrs., 296
+
+  Custarde, Miss, Governess, 6-8
+
+
+  D
+
+  Damascus, 226-230
+
+  Darley, Sir Frederick, Chief Justice, N.S.W., and Lady, 251-253
+
+  Dartrey, Countess of, 64
+
+  Dashwood, Sir George, 72
+
+  Dashwood, Sir Henry and Lady, 72
+
+  Davis, Jefferson, ex-President, 36
+
+  de Bunsen, Sir Maurice, 336
+
+  Deichmann, Baron and Baroness, 107, 108
+
+  De La Warr, Earl and Countess of, 117-119
+
+  Derby, Edward, 15th Earl of, at the Spithead Naval Review, 115, 117-119;
+    letters from, 245-247, 257-264;
+    poem composed in sleep, 264-265;
+    death of, 264
+
+  Derby, Mary, Countess of, 119, 120
+
+  de Ros, Lord, 80
+
+  Des Voeux, Sir William, 118-119
+
+  Devereux, General and Hon. Mrs., 72
+
+  Devonshire, Duchess of, 182
+
+  Dewar, Mr. and Mrs., 77
+
+  Dibbs, Sir George, First Australian-born Premier, 251, 252
+
+  Dickson, Mr., Consul, at Damascus, 227, 228
+
+  Dieppe, 5
+
+  Dragoumis, Greek Foreign Minister, 132, 133
+
+  Draper, Rev. W. H. and Mrs., 76, 77
+
+  Drayton, Miss, O.B.E., 381
+
+  Duff, Sir Robert, 324
+
+  Dufferin, Marquis of, Viceroy, 171
+
+  Dunedin, N.Z., 268, 269
+
+  Dunlop-Smith, Sir James, 382
+
+  Dynevor, Lord (Hon. W. Rice), 374
+
+
+  E
+
+  East, Sir James, 35
+
+  Eaton Hall, 33
+
+  Edgcumbe, Col. Hon. Charles, 127
+
+  Edgehill, "The Sunrising,", 56
+
+  Edinburgh, H.R.H. Duke of, 289;
+    at Melbourne, 247
+
+  Edward, Prince of Wales, his first public appearance, 372, 373
+
+  Elephanta, Caves of, 150
+
+  Ellenborough, Lady, her romantic life, 227, 228
+
+  Endicott, Miss: _see_ Chamberlain
+
+  Epidaurus Amphitheatre, 133
+
+  Esterhazy, Prince Louis, 143
+
+  Esterhazy, Prince Nicholas, 78
+
+  Eugenie, Empress, 245
+
+  Eulalia, Infanta, 350-354
+
+  Eulenberg, Count, 101
+
+
+  F
+
+  Faudel-Phillips, Sir George, Lord Mayor at Temple Bar, 373
+
+  Fawcett, Mr., Judge at Tanjore, 170
+
+  Fearn, Clarice, 208
+
+  Fearn, Mr., American diplomat, 208
+
+  Ferdinand of Bulgaria, 236
+
+  Ferris, Captain, British Agent at Bhownuggar, 199
+
+  Fiji, High Commissioner, 288
+
+  Fin, McCoul (Fingal), Irish Giant, 48
+
+  Fonthill Abbey, 57, 58, 64
+
+  Frank, Dr., 28
+
+  Frank, Lady Agnes, 27, 28, 70
+
+  Frederick, Crown Prince, afterwards Emperor, 102, 103, 110
+
+  Frederick, Crown Princess, afterwards Empress, 102, 103, 104
+
+  Free Kirk Settlers in New Zealand, 269
+
+  Freeman, family butler, 141, 142
+
+  Frere, Miss Georgina, 381
+
+  Froude, J. A., 81;
+    epigram on him and Kingsley, 82
+
+  Futtehpore-Sekree, 193
+
+
+  G
+
+  Gailey, Mrs., nurse at Stoneleigh, 9, 10
+
+  Galloway, Mary, Countess of, first acquaintance with, 79, 82;
+    letter from, 87;
+    with her in Italy, 99;
+    in Berlin, 100-109;
+    at the Naval Review, 115-119;
+    in Greece, 127-140;
+    meeting at Cairo and return to Greece, 207;
+    journey with her through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Constantinople and
+      Vienna, 214-237;
+    nurses Lady Jersey in Upper Grosvenor Street, 244;
+    visits Australia and New Zealand, 266-276
+
+  Garibaldi Hymn, 25;
+    prison, 28
+
+  Genoa, 27
+
+  George V, H.M. King, as an infant, 36;
+    on the _Bacchante_, 243
+
+  George, King of Greece, 129, 208
+
+  George, King of Tonga, 287-290
+
+  Gerard, Sir Robert, 68
+
+  Ghent, 60
+
+  Giant's Causeway, its legend, 48, 49
+
+  Gladstone, Mr., his theory of immortality, 87
+
+  Glendalough and its legends, 41, 42
+
+  Glengariff, 43
+
+  Goschen, Hon. George, afterwards Viscount, Private Secretary, 279, 280,
+      286
+
+  Grandison, Viscount, Irish title of Jersey family, 65, 126
+
+  Grant Duff, Sir Mount Stuart, offers a cloth to the Ranee, 169;
+    views on Madras Harbour, 180
+
+  Greenwich Hospital, 29
+
+  Grenfell, Sir Francis Sirdar, afterwards Lord Grenfell, 215, 216
+
+  Grenfell, Mr. W. H., afterwards Lord Desborough, 97, 98
+
+  Grey, Sir George, of New Zealand, 250
+
+  Griffith, Sir Samuel, Australian statesman, 250
+
+  Grigg, Mr., Madras Minister of Education, and Mrs., 178
+
+  Grigg, Sir Edward as a boy at Madras, 178
+
+  Grosvenor House, 3, 4, 61
+
+  Gubbins, Sahib, Financial Commissioner at Lucknow, 189
+
+  Guest, Lady Theodore, 32, 210
+
+  Gwalior, 377
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hadji Petros, Greek Lord Chamberlain, 137
+
+  Hadji Petros, brigand, a husband of Lady Ellenborough, 228
+
+  Haggard, Bazett Michael, 291, 293, 294
+
+  Haggard, William, charge d'affaires in Athens, 128;
+    and Mrs., 129-210
+
+  Hakone, Lake, 343
+
+  Halsbury, 1st Earl of, Lord Chancellor, and the ghost, 123
+
+  Hamilton, Lady, wife of Governor of Tasmania, 268
+
+  Hamilton, Lord and Lady George, 376
+
+  Hanna, Colonel Commanding at Delhi, 190;
+    his stories of the siege, 191
+
+  Hare, Augustus, his account of Osterley, 237, 238
+
+  Havelock, Sir Henry, and the Relief of Lucknow, 188
+
+  Hay, Dr. and Mrs., 256
+
+  Hayashi, Viscount, on Japanese religion, 340
+
+  Heather-Bigg, Miss Ada, foundress Children's Happy Evenings, 369
+
+  Helouan, 363
+
+  Hendley, Doctor, 197
+
+  Hext, Captain, Director of Indian Marine, 146, 151, 229, 230
+
+  Higginson, Sir George, Story of Crimea, 4
+
+  Hinemoa, Maori heroine, 274
+
+  _Hinemoa_, New Zealand Government yacht, 269
+
+  Hobart, 268
+
+  Holmwood, Mr., British Consul at Smyrna, 230
+
+  Hong-Kong, 329, 330, 331
+
+  Hood, Lady Maria, nee Fox-Strangways, 57
+
+  Hopetoun, Lord, afterwards Marquis of Linlithgow, 248
+
+  Hornby, Sir Ed. and Lady, apparition to at Shanghai, 124, 125
+
+  Houghton, Lord, 80, 81
+
+  Hughes, Thomas, gives Lowell's works to Lady Jersey, 85;
+    writes story for her son, 89-91;
+    founds "New Rugby," 91
+
+  Hunter, Colonel, afterwards General Sir Archibald, 361
+
+  Hyderabad, 155-161, and 376, 377
+
+
+  I
+
+  Inchmery, 117-119
+
+  India, visits to, 145-204;
+    poem inspired by, 205
+
+  Innes, Sir George and Lady, 249
+
+  Inouye, Marquis and Marchioness, 345
+
+  Invercargill, 269
+
+  Ireland and its legends, 41-50
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, Major, afterwards Sir Herbert, at Assouan, 358, 359
+
+  Jains, the, and the Dilwarra Temples, 197-198
+
+  James, Henry, 92
+
+  Japan, Emperor of, 337-340
+
+  Japan, Empress of, 337-339
+
+  Jeacock, Job, Parish Clerk at Stoneleigh, 20;
+    made Sir H. Parkes's first breeches, 249
+
+  Jenkins, W. H. 69 and 70
+
+  Jenkins, Lady Caroline, nee Villiers, 63, 69-71
+
+  Jenolan Caves, N.S.W., 253, 254
+
+  Jersey, 7th Earl of, as a boy, 56;
+    engagement and marriage, 61-64;
+    Lord-in-Waiting, 79;
+    Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 125;
+    at Windsor, 212-213;
+    Travels in France, 68, 95, 96;
+    in Italy, 94, 96, 97;
+    in Switzerland, 94;
+    in India, 145-205;
+    in Egypt, 206-7, 356-364;
+    in Greece, 208-11;
+    Paymaster-General, 240;
+    appointed Governor of New South Wales, 242;
+    at Balmoral, 242, 243;
+    life in Australia, 249-257, 267, 268;
+    visits New Caledonia, 276-284;
+    in China, 329-335;
+    in Japan, 335-345, 376-379;
+    through Canada, 347-348;
+    in United States, 343-345;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Jersey, Frances, Countess of, nee Twysden, 68, 78
+
+  Jersey, Julia, Countess of, nee Peel, 62, 69
+
+  Jersey, Margaret Elizabeth, Countess of, nee Leigh, birth, 1;
+    journey with parents to France, 4-5;
+    to Scotland, 14, 15;
+    to France and Italy, 23-29, 36;
+    to Ireland, 40-50;
+    with Rev. J. and Mrs. Leigh to Holland and Belgium, 60;
+    marriage, 61-64;
+    country neighbours, 72-77;
+    other friends, 81-93;
+    after marriage, travels in France, 68, 95, 96;
+    in Italy, 94, 96, 97, 356, 375;
+    in Switzerland, 94;
+    in Germany, 100-109;
+    at the Naval Review, 116-119;
+    travels in India, 146-205, 376-379;
+    at Windsor, 212, 213;
+    travels in Greece, 127-140, 208-211;
+    in Egypt, 206-7, 214-218, 356-364;
+    Palestine, 219-225;
+    Syria, 225-230;
+    Constantinople, 232-235;
+    in Australia, 249-257, 267, 268;
+    visits New Zealand, 268-276, 319-323;
+    New Caledonia, 276-284;
+    Tonga, 287-291;
+    Samoa, 291-318;
+    President Victoria League, 381
+
+  Jersey, Sarah, Countess of, nee Fane, 65-67, 78
+
+  Jeypore, City of Victory, 196
+
+  Johnston, Mr. and Mrs., and the Heart of Montrose, 172-175
+
+  Jung, Sir Salar, and his sisters, 159-161
+
+  Jusserand, Monsieur, 366-367
+
+
+  K
+
+  Karnak, 358
+
+  Katoomba, 253
+
+  Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, 53, 62
+
+  Killarney Lakes, 43-45
+
+  Kingsley, Charles: _see_ Froude, J. A.
+
+  Kintore, Earl, 248
+
+  Kipling, Rudyard, "rising celebrity," 262;
+    quoted, 19, 276, 347;
+    his "Recessional," 356
+
+  Kitchener, Earl, in Egypt, 207, 214, 358;
+    visits to Osterley, 214, 365-367, 368;
+    letters from, 362, 363, 364-365, 366;
+    at Delhi, 367-368
+
+  Knowles, Sir James and _Nineteenth Century_, 124, 125
+
+  Kobe, 335
+
+  Kotab Minar, the, 191
+
+  Kowloon, 330
+
+  Krishna, Brahmin worship of, his birthplace, 195
+
+  Kuch Behar, Maharajah of, 183, 184
+
+
+  L
+
+  Lachman Das, Seth, 195-196
+
+  Laffon, Monsieur, Governor of New Caledonia, 279, 281
+
+  Lahore, 378, 379
+
+  Lansdowne, Marquis and Marchioness of, 182
+
+  Lathom, Earl and Countess of, 113, 144
+
+  Laurium Mines, 135, 136
+
+  Lecky, Mr. and Mrs., 119
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Agnes, 4, 12, 13, 14, 34, 40
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Augusta, 17
+
+  Leigh, Caroline, Lady, nee Grosvenor, 2;
+    devotion of children, 8, 9;
+    advice on daughter's marriage, 64;
+    letters of daughter to, 209, 210, 133-134, 336-339;
+    poems by, 15, 16, 98, 99, 111-113;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Leigh, Chandos, 1st Lord, 2
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Sir Chandos, K.C., 22, 52, 53
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Lady Chandos, nee Rigby, 52, 53
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mary Cordelia, 30, 40, 62, 127
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Dudley, afterwards 3rd Lord Leigh, 12, 13, 14, 40, 63, 145,
+      244
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Dudley, nee Beckwith, 244, 245
+
+  Leigh, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard, 146, 147
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Gilbert, M.P., 4, 12, 13, 14, 54;
+    death of, 97-99
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. James, nee Butler, 53, 54, 60, 62;
+    letter from, 64
+
+  Leigh, Margarette, Lady, nee Willes, 16, 78
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Rowland, 40, 375
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rowland, nee Gordon, 349, 375
+
+  Leigh, Major Hon. Rupert, 12, 40;
+    A.D.C., 242;
+    accompanies Lady Jersey on s.s. _Luebeck_, 287;
+    in Tonga, 288, 289;
+    in Samoa, 298;
+    writes in _An Object of Pity_, 315;
+    joins Staff of Sir Robert Duff, 324;
+    marriage, 383
+
+  Leigh, Hon. Mrs. Rupert, nee Dudley Smith, 383
+
+  Leigh, Hon. and Rev. J. W. (Dean of Hereford), 20, 21, 53
+
+  Leigh, William Henry, 2nd Lord, entertains North Warwickshire Hunt, 1;
+    marriage, 2;
+    travels with his children, 4, 5, 14, 15, 23-29, 36;
+    receives Queen Victoria at Stoneleigh, 11-13;
+    takes moors in Scotland, 14, 15;
+    talks with Nelson's servant, 29;
+    visits Ireland, 41-50;
+    at Child's Bank, 373
+
+  Leveson-Gower, Hon. Mrs., nee Leigh, 22
+
+  Littledale, Mrs., School for Indian ladies, 158
+
+  Lloyd. Mr. and Mrs., 31, 32
+
+  Loch, 1st Lord, 334
+
+  Longford, Colonel, Earl of, 374, 375
+
+  Lowe, Robert, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, and Mrs., 119
+
+  Lowell, Mr. J. R., letters from, 83, 86;
+    poems by, 84, 86
+
+  Lucknow, 188
+
+  Lugard, Sir Frederick and Lady, 323, 324
+
+  Lyons Silk Manufactory, 23
+
+  Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Alfred, 381
+
+  Lyttelton, Lord, and the Canterbury Association, 282
+
+  Lytton, Countess of, and Lady Betty, 127
+
+
+  M
+
+  Macclesfield, Mary, Countess of, nee Grosvenor, her story of ex-Kaiser,
+      26, 27;
+    mentioned, 31, 36
+
+  McDonnell, Sir Schomberg, 370
+
+  MacMahon, Marshal, 96
+
+  Macmillan, Mrs. Maurice, 381
+
+  Madras, 162 et seq.;
+    Harbour, 180
+
+  Madura,172-177
+
+  Mahableshwar, 151
+
+  Malet, Sir Edward, 100, 101, 109
+
+  Malet, Lady Ermyntrude, 100, 101, 105, 109
+
+  Malietoa Laupepa, King of Samoa, 292;
+    dinner with, 296-297
+
+  Marathon and its brigands, 31, 32;
+    visited, 129
+
+  Marie, Princess, of Greece, 130
+
+  Margaret, Queen of Italy, 356
+
+  Marsham, Charles, 74
+
+  Mary, H.M. Queen, interest in "Children's Happy Evenings Association,"
+      369
+
+  Mason, Miss (Lady Allen), 247
+
+  Mataafa, rival King of Samoa, 292, 297-304
+
+  Max Mueller, Professor, 147, 340
+
+  Maxwell, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., 237
+
+  May, Colonel, at Lucknow, 189
+
+  Mehdi Ali, Mrs., 159
+
+  Mentone, 5;
+    marriage celebrations at for Prince of Wales, 25, 26
+
+  Meshaka, Mr., Vice-Consul at Damascus, 226-229
+
+  Meyer, Mr. and Mrs. John, 96, 97
+
+  Middleton Park, 65, 66, 71, 72
+
+  Milford Sound, 270
+
+  Miyanoshita, hot baths, 345
+
+  Molyneux, Hon. Mrs. Caryl, nee Lawley, 56
+
+  Morrison, Mr. Alfred, 58, 59
+
+  Mount Abu, Jain temples on, 197, 198
+
+  Mount Stephen, Lord, 374
+
+  "Mrs. Malaprop," a modern, 210, 211
+
+  Muncaster, Lady, nee Grosvenor, 31;
+    marries Hon. H. Lindsay, 32
+
+  Muncaster, Lord and Lady, 31, 32, 120
+
+
+  N
+
+  Nabeshima, Marquis, 345
+
+  Napier of Merchiston, Lord, 172
+
+  Nauplia, 132, 133
+
+  Nazli, Princess, 217, 218
+
+  Nekualofa in Tonga, 287
+
+  Newdegate, Sir Frank, 17
+
+  Newdigate, Hon. Mrs., nee Leigh, 16, 17
+
+  New Caledonia, voyage to, 276, 277
+
+  Newcastle in Australia, 319
+
+  Newman, Cardinal, 92, 93
+
+  New York, 354, 355
+
+  New Zealand, 268-276
+
+  Niagara, 354
+
+  Nikko, 336
+
+  Nile, the, 215, 216, 356-364
+
+  Nizam, H.H. the late, 155-157, 376, 377
+
+  Nizam, His Exalted Highness the present, 377
+
+  Norfolk, Duchess of, nee Lyons, 9
+
+  Norfolk, Henry, Duke of, as Lord Maltravers, 9;
+    at Norfolk House, 92
+
+  Norfolk Island, 217
+
+  North, Lord, 75
+
+  Northcote, Lady, 244, 355, 356, 370, 374, 375, 379
+
+  Northcote, Sir Stafford (afterwards Lord), 355, 356, 370, 375, 379
+
+  Northumberland, Eleanor, Duchess of, nee Grosvenor, 30, 31
+
+  Noumea, 277, 278
+
+  Nubar Pasha on the English, 357
+
+
+  O
+
+  O'Donoghue, the, 44-46
+
+  Olcott, Colonel, Theosophist, 146-148;
+    at Adyar, 167-169
+
+  Olga, Queen of Greece, 127-128, 209
+
+  Olympia, 139
+
+  "One People, One Destiny," 250
+
+  Onslow, Countess, 269, 275, 276
+
+  Onslow, Earl, 269, 271, 272, 275, 276
+
+  Onslow, Hon. Huia. Maori Chieftain, after years of, 275
+
+  Onslow, Mrs. MacArthur, 256
+
+  Orient Express, 235
+
+  Osborne, Mr. and Mrs., 256
+
+  Osbourne, Lloyd, 298, 315
+
+  Osterley Park, 82, 83, 86, 143, 144, 237, 238, 355
+
+
+  P
+
+  Parker, Hon. Edmund, 272
+
+  Parker, Mr., of Tonga, 290
+
+  Parkes, Sir Henry, Premier of New South Wales, 249-251
+
+  Paley, Major and Mrs., 192
+
+  Peel, Hon. George, 366
+
+  Pender, Sir John, 115-117
+
+  Perponcher, Graefin, 100
+
+  Phelps, Mr., American Minister, 142
+
+  Pigmies, African, 218, 219
+
+  Ponsonby, Sir Henry, 212
+
+  Port Darwin, 325-327
+
+  Popo, Samoan native, 300
+
+  Prendergast, Sir Harry, 166;
+    and Lady, 200
+
+  Protap, Chunder Mozoondar, 182, 183
+
+  _Pundua_, s.s., 180, 181, 182
+
+  Pyrgos, 137, 139
+
+
+  R
+
+  Raglan, Lord, 57
+
+  Ramsay, Lady Patricia, as a child, 152
+
+  Raratonga Island and its Queens, 272
+
+  Reay, Lord and Lady, 151, 152, 201
+
+  Rees, Sir John, 162, 163, 178, 180
+
+  _Robbery under Arms_, 253
+
+  Roberts, F.M. Earl, at Lucknow, 188-190;
+    at Child's Bank, 374
+
+  Rome, 140, 356
+
+  Rotorua, 273;
+    Lake of, 274, 275
+
+  Rowton, Lord, 127, 140;
+    his anecdote of a picture, 239
+
+  Ruge's Buildings, 27
+
+  Russell, Sir William, 115
+
+
+  S
+
+  St. Helier, Lady, 140
+
+  St. Kevin at Glendalough, 41, 42
+
+  Salisbury, Marquis of, Prime Minister, Bismarck's esteem for, 105, 106,
+      108, 109
+
+  Samoa, 291 et seq.
+
+  Sanderson, Lord, 128, 333
+
+  Sannomiya, Baroness, 337, 339
+
+  Savaii, Samoan Island, 292
+
+  Schwarzenberg, Prince, 215, 216
+
+  Scott, Lord and Lady Charles, 285
+
+  Seierstorpff, Count, 114
+
+  Serfojee, Rajah of Tanjore, 170, 171
+
+  Sivajee, Princess at Tanjore, 171
+
+  Shaftesbury, Earl of, dictum on his generation, 369
+
+  Shaw-Stewart, Sir Hugh, 57
+
+  Shaw-Stewart, Sir Michael and Lady Octavia, nee Grosvenor, 16, 38, 57
+
+  Shintoism, 339, 340
+
+  Shiva Prashad, Rajah, 185-187
+
+  Simele, Henry, Samoan Chief, 298, 302
+
+  Slatin Pasha, his escape from Omdurman, 359
+
+  Smyrna, 230, 231
+
+  Somerton School, 67
+
+  Southampton, Lady, Lady-in-Waiting, 213
+
+  Speke and Grant, their meeting with Sir S. Baker, 148
+
+  Spezia, 28, 29
+
+  Spring Rice, Sir Cecil, 336
+
+  Stalbridge, Lord, 34
+
+  Stanley, Sir Henry, Explorer, 218
+
+  Stephen, Sir Alfred, Lieutenant-Governor, N.S.W., 255
+
+  Stevenson, R. L., 25, 294, 295;
+    visit to rebel camp with, 297-303;
+    chief author of _An Object of Pity_, 313-316
+
+  Stevenson, Mrs. R. L., 294, 315, 316
+
+  Stewart, F.M. Sir Donald, 374
+
+  Strathnairn, F.M. Lord, 77
+
+  Strong, Mrs., 298, 300, 302, 315
+
+  Suleem Sheikh and his infant son, 193, 194
+
+  Sutherland, discoverer of Sutherland Falls, N.Z., 270
+
+  Suttor, Sir Frank, 255
+
+  Switzerland, expedition to, with children, 94
+
+  Sydney, arrival at, 248
+
+  Syon House, 61
+
+
+  T
+
+  Talbot, Dame Meriel, O.B.E., 381
+
+  Tamasese, Samoan Chief, 292, 304-306
+
+  Tanjore, 170
+
+  Theotoki, Greek Minister, 131-133
+
+  Timor, island of, 327-329
+
+  Toowoomba, Queensland, 324
+
+  Tricoupi, Greek Prime Minister, 130, 131
+
+  Tricoupi, Miss, 130, 131, 133, 134
+
+  Trafalgar seamen, 29
+
+  Travancore, Maharajah and Ranees of, 169, 170
+
+  Tonga, islands of, 287-291
+
+  Tubb, Mr. and Mrs., 74
+
+  Tughlakabad and its rulers, 191, 192
+
+  Tumut, N.S.W., reception at, 268
+
+  Turner, Mr., Collector of Madura, 172
+
+  Tutuila, Samoan Island, 291, 292
+
+  Tweedmouth, Fanny, Lady, 381
+
+  Tyler, Sir John, of Agra, 192, 194
+
+
+  U
+
+  Ulwar, 196
+
+  Upton House, 56
+
+  Upolu, chief Samoan island, 292
+
+
+  V
+
+  Vailima, R. L. Stevenson's home, 315
+
+  Valentia, Viscount and Viscountess, 72, 73
+
+  Vancouver, arrival at, 346, 347
+
+  Vetyk Ahmed Pasha, his reminiscences, 234
+
+  Victoria, H.M. Queen, at Stoneleigh Abbey, 12, 13;
+    anecdote of her childhood, 13, 14;
+    in Ireland, 50;
+    devotion to Prince Consort's memory, 39;
+    first Jubilee, 110-113, 120, 121;
+    reverence for in India, 179, 201-203;
+    receives Lord and Lady Jersey at Windsor, 212, 213;
+    Diamond Jubilee, 372-374;
+    her death, 379, 380
+
+  Victoria League founded, 380-382
+
+  Villiers, Hon. Arthur, birth, 82
+
+  Villiers, Lady Beatrice, 82;
+    in Italy, 373;
+    in India, 376, 377;
+    marries Lord Dunsany, 383
+
+  Villiers, Lady Clementina, 67, 68, 79
+
+  Villiers, Lady Margaret, 77, 98;
+    in Switzerland and Italy, 94, 95;
+    in Tonga and in Samoa, 287, 291, 298, 299;
+    leaves Australia with parents, 324;
+    at Hong-Kong, 330;
+    at Canton, 333;
+    in Japan, 337, 338, 343;
+    in London, 355;
+    in Egypt, 356;
+    marries Hon. Walter Rice, 374
+
+  Villiers, Lady Mary, 82, 97, 356;
+    marries Earl of Longford, 374
+
+  Villiers, Hon. Reginald, 127
+
+  Villiers, Viscount (now 8th Earl of Jersey), birth, 68, 69;
+    at Castlemount School, Dover, 82;
+    story written for by Tom Hughes, 89-91;
+    in Switzerland, at Biarritz and in Italy, 94, 95;
+    in India and Greece, 184-209;
+    wins Junior Oppidan Scholarship at Eton, 214;
+    remains in England when Lady Jersey at Apia, his experience with
+      American reporter, 316;
+    marriage with Lady Cynthia Needham, 383
+
+  Vincent, Sir Edgar, afterwards Lord d'Abernon, at Constantinople, 232;
+    on the Orient Express, 235-237
+
+  Viti, Samoan lady, her dress, 304-305
+
+
+  W
+
+  Wady Haifa, 361, 362
+
+  Wakatipu Lake, 272
+
+  Wallace, Mrs., housekeeper, 10, 11
+
+  Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 182
+
+  Watters, Mr., Acting Consul at Canton, 332, 333
+
+  Whakarewarewa hot springs, 273
+
+  Wenlock, Elizabeth, Lady, nee Grosvenor, 31, 56
+
+  Wellington, Arthur, Duke of, 3
+
+  Wellington in New Zealand, 273
+
+  Westfahlen, Count, 216
+
+  Westminster, Constance, Duchess of, 92
+
+  Westminster, 1st Duke of, 33
+
+  Westminster, Marchioness of, 19, 33
+
+  Westminster, Marquis of, 5, 32, 33
+
+  White, Miss, lady doctor at Hyderabad, 161
+
+  White, Sir William and Lady, 233, 234
+
+  William I, Emperor, 101, 102;
+    his picture in Tonga, 288
+
+  William, Prince, afterwards William II, 26, 27, 104
+
+  Willes, Mr. and Mrs. Charles, their New Year's Party, 54-56
+
+  Wister, Owen, American author, 53
+
+  Wolmer, Lord and Lady, afterwards Earl and Countess of Selborne, 114
+
+  Wolseley, F.M. Viscount, 115, 118
+
+  Wombwell, George, death of, 172
+
+  Wombwell, Lady Julia, 63
+
+
+  X
+
+  Xavier, St. Francis, in Japan, 341
+
+
+  Y
+
+  Yandall, Samoan interpreter, 313
+
+  Yarrangobilly Caves, 266-268
+
+  Yokohama, 346
+
+
+  Z
+
+  Zante, island of, 139, 140
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I learn that since our time a hut has been erected between Sutherland
+Falls and Milford Sound called Sandfly Hut. The guide-book says with
+consoling candour that it "is well named, but this pest is no less
+noticeable at any of the other stopping-places."
+
+[2] Haggard, who had described to us the loud voices of himself and his
+brothers.
+
+[3] Margaret Villiers.
+
+[4] Captain Rupert Leigh.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY-ONE YEARS OF VICTORIAN LIFE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 38569.txt or 38569.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/5/6/38569
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/38569.zip b/38569.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fe0f81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38569.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..70e3a41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #38569 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38569)