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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/license - - -Title: The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward - -Author: Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -Release Date: July 24, 2012 [EBook #40319] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, University of Michigan Libraries -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -[Illustration: MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE] - -FROM A WATER-COLOUR PAINTING BY MRS A. H. JOHNSON] - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -BY HER DAUGHTER - -JANET PENROSE TREVELYAN - -Author of -"A Short History of the Italian People" - -NEW YORK -DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY -1923 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - - - -TO -DOROTHY MARY WARD - - - - -AUTHOR'S NOTE - - -My warmest thanks are due to the many friends who have helped me, -directly or indirectly, in the writing of this book, but especially to -all those who have sent me the letters they possessed from Mrs. Ward, or -who have given me leave to publish their own. Mr. Henry Gladstone kindly -looked out for me the letters written by Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone -during the _Robert Elsmere_ period; Mrs. Creighton did the same for the -long period covered by Mrs. Ward's correspondence with the Bishop and -with herself; Miss Arnold of Fox How sent me many valuable letters -belonging to the later years. So with Mrs. A. H. Johnson, Mrs. -Conybeare, Mrs. R. Vere O'Brien, Sir Robert Blair, Mr. Leonard Huxley, -Mrs. Reginald Smith, Lord Buxton, M. Chevrillon, Miss McKee, Mrs. -Turner, Miss Gertrude Wood, and many others, and although the letters -may not in all cases have been suitable for publication, they have given -me many valuable side-lights on Mrs. Ward's life and work. - -To Mrs. A. H. Johnson my special thanks are due for permission to -reproduce her water-colour portrait of Mrs. Ward, and to Mrs. T. H. -Green for much help in connexion with the Oxford portion of the book. - -No book at all, however, could have been produced, even from the -material so generously placed at my disposal, had it not been for the -constant collaboration of my father and sister, whose help in sifting -great masses of papers and in advising me in all difficulties has been -my greatest support throughout this task. - -J. P. T. - -BERKHAMSTEAD, - _July, 1923_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGES - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -Mary Arnold's Parentage--The Sorells--Thomas Arnold the -Younger--Marriage in Tasmania with Julia Sorell--Conversion -to Roman Catholicism--Return to England--The -Arnold Family--Mary Arnold's Childhood--Schools--Her -Father's Re-conversion--Removal to Oxford 1-16 - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD, 1867-1881 - -Oxford in the 'Sixties--Mark Pattison and Canon Liddon--Mary -Arnold and the Bodleian--First Attempts at Writing--Marriage -with Mr. T. Humphry Ward--Thomas Arnold's -Second Conversion--Oxford Friends--The Education of -Women--Foundation of Somerville Hall--_The Dictionary -of Christian Biography_--Pamphlet on "Unbelief and Sin" 17-34 - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT -ELSMERE_, 1881-1888 - -Mr. Ward takes work on _The Times_--Removal to London--The -House in Russell Square--London Life and Friends--Work -for John Morley--Letters--Writer's Cramp--_Miss -Bretherton_--Borough Farm--Amiel's _Journal Intime_--Beginnings -of _Robert Elsmere_--Long Struggle with the -Writing--Its Appearance, February 24, 1888--Death of -Mrs. Arnold 35-54 - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER, 1888-1889 - -Reviews--Mr. Gladstone's Interest--His Interview with Mrs. -Ward at Oxford--Their Correspondence--Article in the -_Nineteenth Century_--Circulation of _Robert Elsmere_--Letters--Visit -to Hawarden--_Quarterly_ Article--The Book -in America--"Pirate" Publishers--Letters--Mrs. Ward -at Hampden House--Schemes for a _New Brotherhood_ 55-80 - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL, _DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS," 1889-1892 - -Foundation of University Hall--Mr. Wicksteed as Warden--The -Opening--Lectures--Social Work at Marchmont Hall--Growing -Importance of the Latter--Mr. Passmore -Edwards Promises Help--Our House on Grayswood Hill--Sunday -Readings--The Writing of _David Grieve_--Visit -to Italy--Reception of the Book--Letters--Removal to -"Stocks" 81-103 - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR -GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE -EDWARDS SETTLEMENT, 1892-1897 - -Mrs. Ward much Crippled by Illness--The Writing of _Marcella_--Stocks -Cottage--Reception of the Book--Quarrel with -the Libraries--_The Story of Bessie Costrell_--Friends at -Stocks--Letter from John Morley--_Sir George Tressady_--Letters -from Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Rudyard Kipling--Renewed -attacks of Illness--The Building and Opening -of the Passmore Edwards Settlement 104-122 - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE -FOUNDATION OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S -SCHOOL, 1897-1899 - -Beginnings of the Work for Children--The Recreation School--The -Work for Adults--Finance--Mrs. Ward's interest -in Crippled Children--Plans for Organizing a School--She -obtains the help of the London School Board--Opening -of the Settlement School--The Children's Dinners--Extension -of the Work--Mrs. Ward's Inquiry and Report--Further -Schools opened by the School Board--After-care--Mrs. -Ward and the Children 123-142 - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ -AND THE VILLA BARBERINI, 1896-1900 - -Origins of _Helbeck_--Mrs. Ward at Levens Hall--Her Views on -Roman Catholicism--Creighton and Henry James--Reception -of _Helbeck_--Letter to Creighton--Mrs. Ward -and the Unitarians--Origins of _Eleanor_--Mrs. Ward takes -the Villa Barberini--Life at the Villa--Nemi--Her Feeling -for Italy 143-164 - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND -ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL, -1899-1904 - -Mrs. Ward and the Brontës--George Smith and Charlotte--The -Prefaces to the Brontë Novels--André Chevrillon--M. -Jusserand--Mrs. Ward in Italy and Paris--The Translation -of Jülicher--Death of Thomas Arnold--The South -African War--Death of Bishop Creighton and George -Smith--Dramatization of _Eleanor_--William Arnold--Mrs. -Ward and George Meredith--The Marriage of her -Daughter--The Vacation School at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement 165-186 - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE -CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES, 1904-1917 - -Mrs. Ward's Social Life--Her Physical Delicacy--Power of -Work--American Friends--F. W. Whitridge--Plans for -Extending Recreation Schools for Children to other Districts--Opening -of the first "Evening Play Centres"--The -"Mary Ward Clause"--Negotiations with the London -County Council--Efforts to raise Funds--No help from the -Government till 1917--Two more Vacation Schools--Organized -Playgrounds--_Fenwick's Career_--"Robin -Ghyll" 187-206 - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 1908 - -Invitations to visit America--Mr. and Mrs. Ward and Dorothy -sail in March, 1908--New York--Philadelphia--Washington--Mr. -Roosevelt--Boston--Canada--Lord Grey and -Sir William van Horne--Mrs. Ward at Ottawa--Toronto--Her -Journey West--Vancouver--The Rockies--Lord -Grey and Wolfe--_Canadian Born_ and _Daphne_ 207-223 - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - -Early Feeling against Women's Suffrage--The "Protest" in -the _Nineteenth Century_--Advent of the Suffragettes--Foundation -of the Anti-Suffrage League--Women in Local -Government--Speeches against the Suffrage--Debate with -Mrs. Fawcett--Deputations to Mr. Asquith--The "Conciliation -Bill"--The Government Franchise Bill--Withdrawal -of the Latter--_Delia Blanchflower_--The -"Joint Advisory Committee"--Women's Suffrage passed -by the House of Commons, 1917--Struggle in the House of -Lords--Lord Curzon's Speech 224-245 - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE -OUTBREAK OF WAR - -Rebuilding of Stocks--Mrs. Ward's Love for the Place--Her -Way of Life and Work--Greek Literature--Politics--The -General Elections of 1910--Visitors--Nephews and Nieces--Grandchildren--Death -of Theodore Trevelyan--The -"Westmorland Edition"--Sense of Humour--_The Case -of Richard Meynell_--Letters--Last Visit to Italy--_The -Coryston Family_--The Outbreak of War 246-263 - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO -JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about Germany--Letter to André -Chevrillon--Re-organization of the Passmore Edwards -Settlement--President Roosevelt's Letter--Talk with Sir -Edward Grey--Visits to Munition Centres--To the Fleet--To -France--Mrs. Ward near Neuve Chapelle and on the -Scherpenberg Hill--Return Home--_England's Effort_--Death -of F. W. Whitridge and of Reginald Smith--Second -Journey to France, 1917--The Bois de Bouvigny--The -Battle-field of the Ourcq--Lorraine--_Towards the Goal_ 264-287 - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - -Mrs. Ward at Stocks--Her _Recollections_--The Government -Grant for Play Centres--The Cripples Clause in Mr. Fisher's -Education Act--The War in 1918--Italy--The Armistice--Mrs. -Ward's third journey to France--Visit to British -Headquarters--Strasburg, Verdun and Rheims--Paris--Ill-health--The -Writing of _Fields of Victory_--The last -Summer at Stocks--Mrs. Ward and the "Enabling Bill"--Breakdown -in Health--Removal to London--Mr. -Ward's Operation--Her Death 288-309 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - TO FACE - PAGE - -Mary Ward at Twenty-five. From a water-colour painting by -Mrs. A. H. Johnson _Frontispiece_ - -Borough Farm. From a water-colour painting by Mrs. -Humphry Ward 45 - -Mrs. Ward in 1889. From a photograph by Bassano 82 - -Mrs. Ward in 1898. From a photograph by Miss Ethel M. -Arnold 149 - -Mrs. Ward and Henry James at Stocks. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 252 - -Mrs. Ward beside the Lake of Lucerne. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 262 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -1851-1867 - - -Is the study of heredity a science or a pure romance? For the unlearned -at least I like to think it is the latter, since no law that the -Professors ever formulated can explain the caprices of each little human -soul, bobbing up like a coracle over life's horizon and bringing with it -things gathered at random from an infinitely remote and varying -ancestry. It is, I believe, generally known that the subject of this -biography was a granddaughter of Arnold of Rugby, and therewith her -intellectual ability and the force of her character are thought to be -sufficiently explained. But what of her mother, the beautiful Julia -Sorell, of whom her sad husband said at her death that she had "the -nature of a queen," ever thwarted and rebuffed by circumstance? What of -the strain of Spanish Protestant blood that ran in the veins of the -Sorells: for although they were refugees from France after the Edict of -Nantes, it is most probable that they came of Spanish origin? What of -the strain brought in by the wild and forcible Kemps of Mount Vernon in -Tasmania? A daughter of Anthony Fenn Kemp (himself a "character" of a -remarkable kind) married William Sorell and so became the mother of -Julia and the grandmother of Mary Arnold; but the principal fact that is -known of her is that she deserted her three daughters after bringing -them to England for their education, went off with an army officer and -was hardly heard of more. An ungovernable temper seems to have marked -most of this family, and the recollections of her childhood were so -terrible to Julia Sorell that she wrote in after years to her husband, -"Few families have been blessed with such a home training as yours, and -certainly very few in our rank of life have been cursed with such as -mine." Yet although Julia inherited much of this violence and passion, -to her own constant misery, she had also "the nature of a queen," and -transmitted it in no small degree to her daughter Mary. - -The Sorells were descended from Colonel William Sorell, one of the early -Governors of Tasmania, who had been appointed to the post in 1816. Nine -years before, on his appointment as Adjutant-General at the Cape of Good -Hope, this Colonel Sorell had left behind him in England a woman to whom -he was legally married and by whom he had had several children, but whom -he never saw again after leaving these shores. He occupied himself, -indeed, with another lady, while the unfortunate wife at home struggled -to maintain his children on the very inadequate allowance which he had -granted her. Twice the allowance lapsed, with calamitous results for the -wife and children, and it was only on the active intervention of Lord -Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the payment -of her quarterly instalments was resumed in 1818. Meanwhile, her eldest -son William, a steady, hard-working lad, had been trying to support the -family from his own earnings of 12s. a week, and when he grew to man's -estate he applied to Lord Bathurst for permission to join his father in -Van Diemen's Land, hoping that so he might help to reconcile his -parents. Lord Bathurst gave him his passage out, but had in fact already -decided to recall Governor Sorell, so that when young Sorell arrived at -Hobart Town early in 1824 he found his father only awaiting the arrival -of his successor (the well-known Colonel Arthur), before quitting the -Colony for good. William, however, decided to remain there, accepted the -position of Registrar of Deeds from Colonel Arthur, and made his -permanent home in the island. He married the head-strong Miss Kemp, and -in his sad after-life suffered a reversal of the parts played by his own -father and mother. Long after his wife had deserted him he lived on in -Hobart Town, much respected and beloved, and remembered by his -granddaughter as a "gentle, affectionate, upright being, a gentleman of -an old, punctilious school, content with a small sphere and much loved -within it." - -His daughter Julia grew up as the favourite and pet of Hobart Town -society, much admired by the subalterns of the solitary battalion of -British troops that maintained our prestige among the convicts and the -"blacks" of that remote settlement. But for her Fate held other things -in store. Early in 1850 there appeared at Hobart Town a young man of -twenty-six, tall and romantic-looking, who bore a name well known even -in the southern seas--the name of Thomas Arnold. He was the second son -of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. He had left the Old World for the Newest three -years before on a genuine quest for the ideal life; had tried farming in -New Zealand, but in vain, and had then, after some adventures in -schoolmastering, come to Tasmania at the invitation of the Governor, Sir -William Denison, to organize the public education of the Colony. Fortune -seemed to smile upon the young Inspector of Schools, who as a -first-classman and an Arnold found a kind and ready welcome from those -who reigned in Tasmania, and when he met Julia Sorell a few weeks after -he landed and fell in love with her at first sight, no obstacles were -placed in his way. They were married on June 12, 1850--a love-match if -ever there was one, but a match that was too soon to be subjected to -that most fiery test of all, a religious struggle of the deepest and -most formidable kind. - -Thomas Arnold came of a family to whom religion was always a "concern," -as the Quakers call it; whether it was the great Doctor, with his making -of "Christian gentlemen" at Rugby and his fierce polemics against the -"Oxford malignants," or Matt, with his "Power, not ourselves, that makes -for righteousness," or William (a younger brother), with his religious -novel, _Oakfield_, about the temptations of Indian Army life; and Thomas -was by no means exempt from the tradition. A sentimental idealist by -nature, he was a friend of Clough and had already been immortalized as -"Philip" in the _Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich_.[1] He came now to the -Antipodes in rationalistic mood and in search of the nobler, freer life; -but soon the old beliefs reasserted themselves, yet brought no peace. -His mind was "hot for certainties in this our life," and he had not been -five years in Tasmania before he was seeing much of a certain Catholic -priest and feeling himself strongly drawn towards the ancient fold. His -poor wife, in whom her Huguenot ancestry had bred an instinctive and -invincible loathing for Catholicism, felt herself overtaken by a kind of -black doom; she made wild threats of leaving him, she shuddered at the -thought of what might happen to the children. Yet nothing that she or -any of his friends could say might avert the fatal step. Tom Arnold was -received into the Roman Catholic Church at Hobart Town on January 12, -1856. - -His prospects immediately darkened, for feeling ran high in the Colony -against Popery, and it soon became clear that he must give up his -appointment and return to England. Already three children had been born -to him and Julia, but the young wife was now plunged in preparations for -the uprooting of her household and the transport of the whole family -across the globe, to an unknown future and a world of unknown faces. The -voyage was accomplished in a sailing-ship of 400 tons, the _William -Brown_, so overrun by rats that the mother and nurse had to take turns -to watch over the children at night, lest their faces should be bitten; -but after more than three months of this existence the ship did finally -reach English waters and cast anchor in the Thames on October 17, 1856. -It was wet autumn weather and the little family huddled forlornly in a -small inn in Thames Street, but the next day a deliverer appeared in the -person of William Forster (the future Education Minister), who had -married Tom's eldest sister Jane a few years before and who now carried -off the whole family to better quarters in London, helped them in the -kindest way and finally saw off the mother and children to the friendly -shelter of Fox How--that beloved home among the Westmorland hills which -"the Doctor" had built to house his growing family and which was now to -play so great a part in the development of his latest descendant, the -little Mary Arnold. - -Mary Augusta had been born at Hobart Town on June 11, 1851. She was, of -course, the apple of her parents' eyes, and the descriptions which her -father wrote of her, in the long letters that went home to his mother at -Fox How by every available boat, give a curiously vivid picture of a -little creature richly endowed with fairy gifts, but above all with the -crowning gift of _life_. At first she is a "pretty little creature, with -a compact little face, good features and an uncommonly large forehead"; -then at eight months, "If you could but see our darling Mary! The vigour -of life, the animation, the activity of eye and hand that she displays -are astonishing. Her brown hair in its abundance is the admiration of -everybody." At a year old she is "passionate but not peevish, sensitive -to the least harshness in word or gesture, but usually full of merriment -and gladsomeness. She is like a sparkling fountain or a gay flower in -the house, filling it with light and freshness." She has many childish -ailments, but conquers them all in a manner strangely prophetic of her -later power of resisting illness. "I fear you will think she must be a -very sickly child," writes her father, "and she certainly is delicate -and easily put out of order; but I have much faith in the strength of -her constitution, for in all her ailments she has seemed to have a power -of battling against them, a vitality that pulls her through." As a -little thing of under two her feelings are terribly easily worked upon: -"The other evening it was raining very hard and I began to talk to her -about the poor people out in the rain who were getting wet and had no -warm fire to sit by and no nice dry clothes to put on. You cannot -imagine how this touched her. She kept on repeating over and over again, -'Poor people! Poor people! Out in the rain! Get warm! get warm!'" But as -she grows bigger she develops a will of her own that sorely troubles her -father, beset with all the ideas of his generation about "prompt -obedience"; at three and a half he writes: "Little Polly is as imitative -as a monkey and as mischievous; self-willed and resolute to take the -lead and have her own way, whenever her companions are anything -approaching to her own age. Not a very easy character to manage as you -will see, yet often to be led through her feelings, when it would be -difficult to drive her in defiance of her will." Soon he is having "a -regular pitched battle with her about once a day," and writes ruefully -home--as though he were having the worst of it--that Polly is "kind -enough where she can patronize, but her domineering spirit makes even -her kindness partake of oppression." Two little brothers, Willie and -Theodore, had already been added to the family by the time they made the -voyage home--playthings whom Mary alternately slapped and cuddled and in -whom she took an immense pride of possession. They were the first of a -long series of brothers and sisters to whom her kindness, in after -years, was certainly not of the kind that "partakes of oppression." - -Thus, at the age of five, this little spirit, passionate, self-willed -and tender-hearted, came within the direct orbit of the Arnold family. -During most of the four years that followed their arrival she was either -staying with her grandmother, the Doctor's widow, at Fox How, or else -living as a boarder at Miss Clough's little school at Eller How, near -Ambleside, and spending her Saturdays at Fox How. Her father meanwhile -took work under Newman in Dublin and earned a precarious subsistence for -his wife and family by teaching at the Catholic University there. They -were times of hardship and privation for Julia, who never ceased to be -in love with Tom and never ceased to curse the day of his conversion; -and as the babies increased and the income did not she was fain to allow -her eldest daughter to live more and more with the kind grandmother, who -asked no better than to have the child about the house. And, indeed, to -have this particular child about the house was not always a light -undertaking! She was wonderfully quick, clever and affectionate, but her -tempers sometimes shook her to pieces in storms of passion, and the -devoted "Aunt Fan," the Doctor's youngest daughter, who lived with her -mother at Fox How, was often sorely puzzled how to deal with her. Still, -by a judicious mixture of severity and tenderness she won the child's -affection, so that Mary was wont to say, looking slyly at her aunt, "I -like Aunt Fan--she's the master of me!" - -The Arnold atmosphere made indeed a very remarkable influence for any -impressionable child of Mary's age to live in; it supplied a deep-rooted -sense of calm and balance, an unalterable family affection and a sad -disapproval of tempers and excesses of all kinds which, as time went on, -had a marked effect on the Tasmanian child. From a Sorell by birth and -temperament, as I believe she was, she gradually became an Arnold by -environment. If she inherited from her mother those wilder springs of -energy and courage which impelled her, like some dæmon within, to be up -and doing in life's race, it was from the Arnolds that she learnt the -art of living, the art of harnessing the dæmon. They certainly made a -memorable group, the nine sons and daughters of Arnold of Rugby: all of -whom, except Fan, the youngest daughter, were scattered from the nest by -the time that "little Polly" came to Fox How, but all of whom maintained -for each other and for their mother the tenderest affection, so that -life at the Westmorland home was continually crossed and re-crossed by -their visits and their letters. In looking through these faded letters -the reader of to-day is struck by their seriousness and simplicity of -tone, by the intense family affection they display and by the very real -relation in which the writers stood towards the "indwelling presence of -God." Hardly a member of the family can be mentioned without the prefix -"dear" or "dearest," nor can anyone who is acquainted with the Arnold -temperament doubt that this was genuine. Birthdays are made the occasion -for rather solemn words of love or exhortation, and if any sorrow -strikes the family one may expect without fail to find a complete -reliance on the accustomed sources of consolation. Yet they are not -prigs, these brothers and sisters; their roots strike deep down to the -bed-rock of life, and though they are all (except poor Tom) in fairly -prosperous circumstances, they can be generous and open-handed to those -who are less so. Tom was, I think, the special darling of the family, -and his lapse to Catholicism a terrible trial to them, but none the less -did they labour for Tom's children in all simplicity of heart. - -The daughter who, next to "Aunt Fan," had most to do with little Mary -was Jane, the wife of William Forster; Mary was her godchild, and soon -conceived a kind of passion for this sweet-faced woman of thirty-five, -who, childless herself, returned the little girl's affection in no -ordinary degree. Mary would sometimes go to stay with her at -Burley-in-Wharfedale, where she looked with awe at the "great wheels" in -Uncle Forster's woollen mill and saw the children working -there--children untouched as yet by their master's schemes for their -welfare, or by the still remoter visions of their small observer. Then -there was Matt--Matt the sad poet and gay man of the world, who brought -with him on his rarer visits to Fox How the breath of London and of -great affairs, for was he not, in his sisters' eyes at least, the spoilt -darling of society, the diner-out, the frequenter of great houses? He -looked, we know, with unusual interest upon Tom's Polly, and in later -years was wont to say, with his whimsical smile, that she "got her -ability from her mother." Another aunt to whom the Tasmanian child -became much devoted was her namesake Mary, at that time Mrs. Hiley, a -woman whose rich, responsive nature and keen sense of humour endeared -her greatly to the few friends who knew her well, and whose early -rebellions and idealisms had given her a most human personality. It was -she among all the group who understood and sympathized most keenly with -Tom's wife, so that between Julia and Mary Hiley a bond was forged that -ended only with the former's death. Poor Julia! The Arnold atmosphere -was indeed sometimes a formidable one, and had little sympathy to give -to her own undisciplined and tempestuous nature, with its strange deeps -of feeling. Julia's temptations--to extravagance in money matters and to -passionate outbursts of temper--were not Arnold temptations, and she -often felt herself disapproved of in spite of much outward affection and -kindness. And then she would have morbid reactions in which the old -Calvinistic hell-fire of her forefathers seemed very near. Once when she -was staying at Fox How, ill and depressed, she wrote to her husband: -"The feeling grows upon me that I am one of those unhappy people whom -_God has abandoned_, and it is the effect of this feeling I am sure -which causes me to behave as I often do. Oh! it is an awful thing to -_despair_ about one's future state...." Probably she felt that in spite -of their undoubted humility, her in-laws never quite despaired about -theirs. - - * * * * * - -By the time that Mary was seven years old, that is in the autumn of -1858, it was decided that she should go as a boarder to Miss Anne -Clough's school at Ambleside, or rather at Eller How on the slopes of -Wansfell behind the town. Here she spent two years and more--happy on -the whole, often naughty and wilful, but usually held in awe by Miss -Clough's stately presence and power of commanding her small flock. -There was only one other boarder besides Mary, a girl named Sophie -Bellasis, whose recollections of those days were preserved and given to -the world long afterwards by her husband, the late Mr. T. C. Down, in an -article published by the _Cornhill Magazine_.[2] Miss Bellasis' -impressions of the queer little girl, Mary Arnold, who was her -fellow-boarder, make so vivid a picture that I may perhaps be forgiven -for reproducing them here: - - "Mary had a very decided character of her own, as well as a pretty - vivid imagination, for the odd things she used to say, merely on - the spur of the moment, would quite stagger me sometimes. Once when - we were going along the passage upstairs leading to the schoolroom, - she stopped at one of the gratings where the hot air came up from - the furnace, with holes in the pattern about the size of a - shilling, and told me that she knew a little boy whose head was so - small that he could put it through one of those holes: and after we - had gone to bed she would tell me the oddest stories in a whisper, - because it was against the rules to talk. I think now that her - fancy used to run riot with her, and, of course, she had to give - vent to it in any way that suggested itself. But I implicitly - believed whatever she chose to tell me, so that you see we both - enjoyed ourselves. Her energy and high spirits were something - wonderful; out of doors she was never still, but always running or - jumping or playing, and she invariably tired me out at this sort of - thing. Still, nothing came amiss to her in the way of amusement; - anything that entered her head would answer the purpose, and she - was never at a loss. I recollect she had a lovely doll, which her - aunt, Mrs. Forster, had given her, all made of wax. Once she was - annoyed with this doll for some reason or other and broke it up - into little bits. We put the bits into little saucepans, and melted - them over one of the gratings I told you of. Sometimes Willy Dolly - (that was the name we had for the general factotum) would let the - fire go down, and then the gratings were cold, and at other times - he would have a roaring fire, and then they would be so hot that - you couldn't touch them. So we melted the wax and moulded it into - dolls' puddings, and that was the last of her wax doll! - - "One day we were over at Fox How, which was a pretty house, with a - wide lawn and garden. One side of it was covered with a handsome - Virginia creeper, which was thought a great deal of, and, of - course, was not intended to be meddled with. Suddenly it occurred - to Mary that it would be first-rate fun to pick 'all those red - leaves,' and I obediently went and helped her. We cleared a great - bare space all along the wall as high as we could reach, but from - what Miss Arnold said when she came out and discovered what was - done, I gathered that she was not so pleased with our work as we - were ourselves." - -It was during these years, from six to nine, that the foundation was -laid of that passionate adoration for the fells, with their streams, -bogs and stone walls, which became one of Mary's most intimate -possessions and never deserted her in after years. In her -_Recollections_ she describes a walk up the valley to Sweden Bridge with -her father and Arthur Clough, the two men safely engaged in grown-up -talk while she, happy and alone, danced on in front or lingered behind, -all eyes and ears for the stream, the birds and the wind. It was a walk -of which she soon knew every inch, just as she knew every inch of the -Fox How garden, and I believe that the sights and sounds of that rough -northern valley came to be woven in with the very texture of her soul. -They appealed to something primitive and deep-down in her little heart, -some power that remained with her through life and that, as she once -said to me, "stands more rubs than anything else in our equipment." - -Then, when she was only nine and a half, she was transferred to a school -at Shiffnal in Shropshire, kept by a certain Miss Davies, whose sister -happened to be an old friend of Tom Arnold's and offered now to -undertake little Mary's maintenance if she were sent to this "Rock -Terrace School for Young Ladies." But the change seemed to call out all -the demon in Mary's composition; she fought blindly against the -restrictions and rules of this new community, felt herself at enmity -with all the world and broke out ever and anon in storms of passion. In -the first chapter of _Marcella_ it is all described--the "sulks, -quarrels and revolts" of Marcie Boyce (_alias_ Mary Arnold), the -getting up at half-past six on dark winter mornings, the cold ablutions -and dreary meals, and the occasional days in bed with senna-tea and -gruel when Miss Davies (at her wits' end, poor lady!) would try the -method of seclusion as a cure for Mary's tantrums. The poor little thing -suffered cruelly from headaches and bad colds, and laboured too under a -sore sense of poverty and disadvantage as compared with the other girls; -she was, in fact, paid for at a lower rate than most of the other -boarders, and was not allowed to forget it. Often she writes home to beg -for stamps, and once she says to her father: "Do send me some more -money. It was so tantalizing this morning, a woman came to the door with -twopenny baskets, so nice, and many of the other girls got them and I -couldn't." Another time she begs him to send her the threepence that she -has "earned," by writing out some lists of names for him. But on -Saturdays she had one joy, fiercely looked forward to all the week; a -"cake-woman" came to the school, and by hoarding up her tiny weekly -allowance she was able--usually--to buy a three-cornered jam puff. To a -rather starved and very lonely little girl of nine or ten this was--she -often said to us afterwards--the purest consolation of the week. - -But there were some compensations even in these unlovely surroundings. -The nice old German governess, Fräulein Gerecke, was always kind to her, -and tried in little unobtrusive ways to ease the lot which Mary found so -hard to bear. Once she made for her, surreptitiously, a white muslin -frock with blue ribbons and laid it on her bed in time for some little -function of the school for which Mary had received no "party frock" from -home. A gush of hot tears was the response, tears partly of gratitude, -partly of soreness at the need for it; but the muslin frock was worn -nevertheless, and entered from that moment into the substance of the -day-dreams and stories that she was for ever telling herself. Any child -who has a faculty for it will understand how great a consolation were -these self-told stories, in which she rioted especially on days of -senna-tea and gruel. Tales of the Princess of Wales and how she, Mary, -herself succeeded in stopping her runaway horses, with the divinity's -pale agitation and gratitude, filled the long hours, and the muslin -frock usually came into the story when Mary made her trembling -appearance "by command" at the palace afterwards. Gradually, too, these -tales came to weave themselves round more accessible mortals, for Mary's -heart and affections were waking up and she did not escape, any more -than the modern schoolgirl, her share of "adorations." At twelve years -old she fell headlong in love with the Vicar of Shiffnal and his wife, -Mr. and Mrs. Cunliffe; going to church--especially in the evenings, when -the Vicar preached--became a romance; seeing Mrs. Cunliffe pass by in -her pony-carriage lent a radiance to the day. The Vicar's wife, a gentle -Evangelical, felt genuinely drawn towards the untamed little being and -did her best to guide the wayward footsteps, while Mary on her side -wrote poems to her idol, keeping them fortunately locked within her -desk, and let her fancy run from ecstasy to ecstasy in the dreams that -she wove around her. What "dauntless child" among us does not know these -splendours, and the transforming effect that they have upon the prickly -hide of youth? Little Mary Arnold was destined to leave her mark upon -the world, partly by power of brain, but more by sheer power of love, -and the first human beings to unlock the unguessed stores of it within -her were these two kindly Evangelicals. - -Still, the demon was not quite exorcised, and "Aunt Fan" still found -Mary something of a handful when she stayed at Fox How, though now in a -different way. - - "She seems to me very much wanting in _humility_," she writes in - January, 1864, "which, with the knowledge she must have of her own - abilities, is not perhaps wonderful, but it is ungraceful to hear - her expressing strong opinions and holding her own, against elder - people, without certainly much sense of reverence. One thing, - however I will mention to show her desire to conquer herself. She - had no gloves to go to Ellergreen, and I objected to buying her - kid, but got her such as I wear myself, very nice cloth. She vowed - and protested she couldn't and shouldn't wear them, so I said I - should not make her, but if she wanted kid, she must buy them with - her own money. I talked quietly to her about it and said how - pleased I should be if she conquered this whim, and when she came - to say good-bye to me before starting for Ellergreen her last words - were--'I am going to put on the gloves, Auntie!'--and she has worn - them ever since, though I must say with some grumblings!" - -She stayed for four years at Miss Davies's, during which time her -parents moved (in 1862) from Dublin to Birmingham, where Tom Arnold was -offered work under Newman at the Oratory School. The change brought a -small increase in salary, but not enough to cover the needs of the still -growing family, and if it had not been for the help freely given during -these years by W. E. Forster, the struggling pair must almost have gone -down under their difficulties. One result of the change was that the -elder boys, Willie and Theodore, were themselves sent to the Oratory -School, and the thought of Arnold of Rugby's grandsons being pupils of -Newman gave rise to bitter reflections at Fox How. "I was very glad to -hear of Willy's having done so well in the examination of his class," -wrote Julia to her husband from the family home, "although I must -confess the thought of _our son_ being examined by Dr. Newman had -carried a pang to my heart. Your mother I found felt it in the same way; -she said (when I read out to her that part of your letter) with her eyes -full of tears, 'Oh! to think of _his_ grandson, _dearest Tom's son_, -being examined by Dr. Newman!'" Still, Julia was emphatically of opinion -that if priests were to have a hand in their education at all, she would -rather it were English than Irish priests.[3] - -Meanwhile, the shortcomings of the school at Shiffnal were becoming -evident to Mary's mother, and in the winter of 1864-5 she succeeded in -arranging that the child should be sent instead to another near Clifton, -kept by a certain Miss May, which was smaller and also more expensive -than Miss Davies's. Heaven knows how the payments were managed, but the -change answered extremely well, for after the first term Mary settled -down in complete happiness and soon developed such a devotion to Miss -May as made short work of her remaining tendencies to temper and -"contrariness." Miss May must have been exactly the type of -schoolmistress that Mary needed at this stage--kind and large-hearted, -with the understanding necessary to win the confidence of such an -uncommon little creature--so that it was not long before the child's -mind began to expand in every direction. Long afterwards she was wont to -say that the actual knowledge she acquired at school was worth next to -nothing--that she learnt no subject thoroughly and left school without -any "edged tools." But certainly by the time she was twelve she could -write a French letter such as not many of us could produce with all our -advantages, while the drawing and music that she learnt at school -encouraged certain natural talents in her that were to give her some of -the purest joys of her after-life. Still, no doubt her mind received no -systematic training, and at Miss Davies's I believe that _Mangnall's -Questions_ were still the common textbook! Though she learnt a little -German and Latin she always said that she had them to do all over again -when she needed them later for her work, while Greek, which became the -joy and consolation of her later years, was entirely a "grown-up" -acquisition. But whatever the imperfections of her nine years of school, -better times were at hand both for Mary and her mother. - -Whether it was that after two or three years of the Birmingham Oratory, -Tom Arnold's political radicalism (always a sturdy growth) began to make -him uneasy at the proceedings of Pio Nono--for 1864 was the year of the -Encyclical--or whether it was more particularly the Mortara case, as he -says in his autobiography,[4] at any rate his feeling towards the -Catholic Church had grown distinctly cool by the end of that year, and -he was meditating leaving the Oratory. Gradually the rumour spread among -his friends that Tom Arnold was turning against Rome, and in June, 1865, -a paragraph to this effect appeared in the papers. Little Mary, now a -girl of fourteen, heard the news while she was at Miss May's, and wrote -in ecstasy to her mother: - - "My precious Mother, I have indeed seen the paragraphs about Papa. - The L's showed them me on Saturday. You can imagine the excitement - I was in on Saturday night, not knowing whether it was true or not. - Your letter confirmed it this morning and Miss May, seeing I - suppose that I looked rather faint, sent me on a pretended errand - for her notebook to escape the breakfast-table. My darling Mother, - how thankful you must be! One feels as if one could do nothing but - thank Him." - -Her father's change opened indeed a new and happier chapter in their -lives, for it opened the road to Oxford. He had been seriously facing -the possibility of a second emigration, this time to Queensland, and had -been making inquiries about official work there, but his own -inclinations--and, of course, Julia's too--were in favour of trying to -make a living at Oxford by the taking of pupils. His old friends there -encouraged him, and by the autumn of 1865 they were established in a -house in St. Giles's and the venture had begun. Mary wrote in delight -that winter to her dear Mrs. Cunliffe: - - "Do you know that we are now living at Oxford? My father takes - pupils and has a history lectureship. We are happier there than we - have ever been before, I think. My father revels in the libraries, - and so do I when I am at home." - -A fragment of diary written in the Christmas holidays of 1865-6 reveals -how much she enjoyed being taken for a grown-up young lady by Oxford -friends. "Went to St. Mary Magdalen's in the morning and heard a droll -sermon on Convictional Sin. Met Sir Benjamin [Brodie] coming home. Miss -Arnold at home supposed to be seventeen, and Mary Arnold at school known -to be fourteen are two very different things." She is absorbed in -_Essays in Criticism_, but can still criticize the critic. "Read Uncle -Matt's Essay on Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment. Compares the -religious feeling of Pompeii and Theocritus with the religious feeling -of St. Francis and the German Reformation. Contrasts the religion of -sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity with the religion of sense, -giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight pre-eminence -over the latter." She does not like the famous _Preface_ at all. "The -_Preface_ is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, -that of being amusing. As for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight -charms and Romeo and Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly -inclined to ride the high horse whenever he approaches the subject." - -As the eldest of eight children she led a very strenuous life at home, -helping to teach the little ones and ever striving to avoid a clash -between her mother's temper and her own. The entries in the diary are -often sadly self-accusing: "These last three days I have not served -Christ at all. It has been nothing but self from beginning to end. -Prayer seems a task and it seems as if God would not receive me." - -But after another year and a half at Miss May's school these -difficulties vanished, and by the time that she came to live at home -altogether, in the summer of 1867, the rough edges had smoothed -themselves away in marvellous fashion. She was sixteen, and the world -was before her--the world of Oxford, which in spite of her criticisms of -the _Preface_ was indeed _her_ world. Her father seemed content with his -teaching work, and was planning the building of a larger house. She set -to work to be happy, and so indeed did her mother--happy in a great -reprieve, and in the reviving hopes of prosperity. But now and then -Julia would stop suddenly in her household tasks, hearing ominous sounds -from Tom's study. Was it the chanting of a Latin prayer? She put the -fear behind her and passed on. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD - -1867-1881 - - -When Tom Arnold settled with his family at Oxford, in 1865, the old -University was still labouring under the repercussions, the thrills and -counter-thrills, of the famous Movement set on foot in 1833 by Keble's -sermon on _National Apostasy_. Keble, indeed, was withdrawn from the -scene, but Newman's conversion to Rome (1845) had made so prodigious a -stir that even twenty years later the religious world of England still -took its colour from that event. In the words of Mark Pattison, "whereas -other reactions accomplished themselves by imperceptible degrees, in -1845 the darkness was dissipated and the light was let in in an instant, -as by the opening of the shutters in the chamber of a sick man who has -slept till mid-day." So at least the crisis appeared to the Liberal -world; the mask had been torn from the Tractarians and their Romanizing -tendencies stood revealed to all beholders. In the opposite camp the -consternation was proportionate, but the formidable figure of Pusey -rallied the doubters and brought them back in good order to the _Via -Media_ of the Anglican communion; while the tender poetry of Keble and -the far-famed eloquence of Liddon fortified and adorned the High Church -cause. But the sudden ending of the Tractarian controversy opened the -way for another movement, slower and less sensational than that of -Newman, yet destined to have an even deeper effect upon the religious -life of England. The freedom of the human mind began to be insisted -upon, not only in the realm of science, or where science clashed with -the Book of Genesis, but in the whole field of the Interpretation of -Scripture. Slowly the results of fifty years of patient study of the -Bible by German scholars and historians began to penetrate here, and -even Oxford, stronghold and citadel of the Laudian establishment, felt -the stir of a new interest, a new challenge to accepted forms. A Liberal -school of theologians arose, led by Jowett, Mark Pattison and other -writers in _Essays and Reviews_ (1860), for whom the old letter of -"inspiration" no longer existed, though they stoutly maintained their -orthodoxy as members and ministers of the Church of England. The Church, -they said, must broaden her base so as to make room for the results of -science and of historical criticism, or else she would be left high and -dry while the forces of democracy passed on their way without her. -Jowett, in his famous essay "On the Interpretation of Scripture," boldly -summed up his argument in the precept, "Interpret the Scripture like any -other book." "The first step is to know the meaning, and this can only -be done in the same careful and impartial way that we ascertain the -meaning of Sophocles or Plato." "Educated persons are beginning to ask, -not what Scripture may be made to mean, but what it does mean." - -The hubbub raised by these and similar expressions continued during the -three years of proceedings before the Court of Arches, the Judicial -Committee of the Privy Council, and finally Convocation, against two of -the contributors to _Essays and Reviews_, and had hardly died away when -the Arnolds came to take up their life in Oxford. And side by side with -the theoretical discussion went the insistent demand of the reforming -party, both at Oxford and in Parliament, for the abolition of the -disabilities that still weighed so heavily against Dissenters. For, -although the "Oxford University Act" of 1854 had admitted them to -matriculation and the B.A. degree, neither Fellowships nor the M.A. were -yet open to any save subscribers to the Thirty-nine Articles. All -through the 'sixties the battle raged, with an annual attempt in -Parliament to break down the defence of the guardians of tradition, and -not till 1871 was the "citadel taken."[5] Jowett and Arthur Stanley -stood forth among the Liberal champions at Oxford--the latter reckoning -himself always as carrying on the tradition of Arnold of Rugby, whose -pamphlet urging the inclusion of Dissenters in the National Church had -made so great a sensation in 1833. It was hardly possible, therefore, -for a little Arnold of Mary's temperament and traditions to escape the -atmosphere that surrounded her so closely, though we need not imagine -that at the age of sixteen she did more than imbibe it passively. But -there were certain things that were not passive in her memory--visions -of Dr. Newman in the streets of Edgbaston, passing gravely by upon his -business--business which the child so passionately resented because she -understood it to be responsible in some vague way for all the hardships -and misfortunes of her family. We may safely assume that if she was ever -taken into Oriel College and saw the many rows of portraits looking down -at her there, in Common-room and Hall, she would feel an instinctive -rallying to the standard of her grandfather rather than to that of his -mighty opponent. - -Two other remarkable figures who dominated the Oxford world of that day, -though from opposite camps, were the silver-tongued Dr. Liddon, "Select -Preacher" at the University Church, and Mark Pattison, Rector of -Lincoln, whom his contemporaries looked on with awe as one of the most -learned scholars in Europe in matters of pure erudition, but in religion -a sad sceptic, though twenty years before, they knew, he had been a -brand only barely plucked from Newman's burning. Both were to have their -influence upon Mary Arnold, the former superficial, the latter deep and -lasting, and it is curious to find a letter from her father, written in -1865, before he had definitely left the Catholic communion, in which he -describes hearing both men preach on the same day in the University -Church. - - "Pattison's sermon was certainly a most remarkable one," he writes; - "I could have sat another half-hour under him with pleasure. But he - has much more of the philosopher than the divine about him, and the - discourse had the effect of an able article in the _National_ or - _Edinburgh Review_, read to a cultivated audience in the academical - theatre, much more than of a sermon. In fact, the name either of - Jesus Christ or of one of the Apostles was not once mentioned - throughout. The subject was, the higher education; and the felicity - of the language accorded well with the clearness and beauty of the - thoughts. He condemned the Catholic system, and also the Positivist - system, and in speaking of the former he said, 'I cannot do better - than describe it in the words of one whose voice was once wont to - sound within these walls with thrilling power, but now, alas! can - never more be heard by us, who in his Treatise on University - Education--' and then he proceeded to quote at some length from Dr. - Newman. It was an extremely powerful sermon, but scandalized, I - think, the High Church and orthodox party. 'Do you often now,' I - asked Edwin Palmer with a smile, meeting him outside after it was - over, 'have University sermons in that style?' 'Oh dear no,' he - said, 'scarcely ever, except indeed from Pattison himself'; this - with some acidity of tone. I dined early; then thought I, in for a - penny, in for a pound, I'll go and hear the other University - sermon. I was punctual, but there was not a seat to be had, the - ladies mustered in overwhelming force. It was strange, but sermon - and preacher were now everything most opposite to those of the - morning. Liddon is a dark, black-haired little man--short, - straight, stubby hair--and with that shiny, glistening appearance - about his sallow complexion which one so often sees in Dissenting - ministers, and which the devotees no doubt consider a mark of - election. Liddon's whole sermon was an impassioned strain of - apologetic argument for the truth of the Resurrection, and of the - church doctrine generally. It was very clever certainly, but rather - too long, it extended to about an hour and twenty minutes. The tone - was earnest and devout; yet there were several sarcastic, one might - almost say irritable, flings at the liberal and rationalizing - party; and it was evident that he was thinking of the Oxford - congregation when he spoke pointedly of the 'educated sceptics who - at that time composed, or at any rate controlled, the Sanhedrin.' - These two," he continues, "were certainly sermons of more than - ordinary interest--each worthily representing a great stream of - thought and tendency, influential for good or evil at the present - moment upon millions of human beings." - -It was under such influences as these that Mary Arnold passed the four -impressionable years of her girlhood, from sixteen to twenty, that -elapsed between her leaving school and her engagement to Mr. Humphry -Ward, of Brasenose. She plunged with zest into the Oxford life, making -friends, helping her father at the Bodleian in his researches into -early English literature and studying music to very good purpose under -James Taylor, the future organist of New College. But she had no further -regular education, and was free to roam and devour at will in that city -of books, guided only by the advice of a few friends and by her own -innate literary instincts. The Mark Pattisons early befriended her, -frequently asking her to supper with them on Sunday evenings--suppers at -which she sat, shy and silent, in a high woollen dress, with her black, -wavy hair brushed very smoothly back, listening to every word of the -eager talk around her and drinking in, no doubt, the Rector's caustic -remarks about Oxford scholarship. These were the years of battle between -the champions of research and the champions of the Balliol ideal of -turning out good men for the public service, and in her ardent -admiration for the Rector Mary Arnold threw herself whole-heartedly into -the former camp. "Get to the bottom of something," he used to say to -her; "choose a subject and know _everything_ about it!" And so she -plunged into early Spanish literature and history, working at it in the -Bodleian with the fervour that comes from knowing that your subject is -your very own, or at least that it has only been traversed before by -dear, musty German scholars. There was hard practice here in the reading -of German and Latin, let alone the Spanish poems and chronicles -themselves, but after a couple of years of it there was little she did -not know about the _Poema del Cid_, or the Visigothic invasion, or the -reign of _Alfonso el Sabio_. Her friend, J. R. Green, the historian, was -so much impressed with her work that he recommended her when she was -only twenty to Edward Freeman as the best person he could suggest for -writing a volume on Spain in an historical series that the latter was -editing. Mr. Freeman duly invited her, but by that time she was already -deep in the preparations for her marriage and was obliged to decline the -offer. She maintained her allegiance to the subject, however, through -all the years that followed, until, as will be seen hereafter, Dean Wace -made her the momentous proposition that she should undertake the lives -of the early Spanish kings and ecclesiastics for the _Dictionary of -Christian Biography_. And there, in the four volumes of the -_Dictionary_, her articles stand to this day, a monument to an early -enthusiasm lightly kindled by a word from a great man, but pursued with -all the patience and intensity of the true historian. - -In the course of this work on the early Spaniards she developed an -extraordinary attachment to the Bodleian, with all the most secret -corners of which she soon became familiar, under the benevolent guidance -of the Librarian, Mr. Coxe. The charm of the noble building, with its -mellow lights and shades, its silences, its deep spaces of book-lined -walls, sank into her very soul and gave her that background of the love -of books and reading which became perhaps--next to her love of -nature--the strongest solace of her after-life. At the age of twenty she -wrote a little essay, called "A Morning in the Bodleian,"[6] which -reflects all the joy--nay, the pride--of her own long days of work among -the calf-bound volumes. - - "As you slip into the chair set ready for you," she writes, "a deep - repose steals over you--the repose, not of indolence but of - possession; the product of time, work and patient thought only. - Literature has no guerdon for 'bread-students,' to quote the - expressive German phrase; let not the young man reading for his - pass, the London copyist or the British Museum illuminator, hope to - enter within the enchanted ring of her benignest influences; only - to the silent ardour, the thirst, the disinterestedness of the true - learner, is she prodigal of all good gifts. To him she beckons, in - him she confides, till she has produced in him that wonderful - many-sidedness, that universal human sympathy which stamps the true - literary man, and which is more religious than any form of creed." - -A touch about the German students to be found there has its note of -prophecy: "In a small inner room are the Hebrew manuscripts; a German is -working there, another in shirt-sleeves is here--strange people of -innumerable tentacles, stretching all ways, from Genesis to the latest -form of the needle-gun." And in the last page we come upon her most -intimate reflections, the thoughts pressed together from her many months -of comradeship with those silent tomes, which show, better than any -letters, the quality of a mind but just emerging--as the years are -reckoned--from its teens:-- - - "Who can pass out of such a building without a feeling of profound - melancholy? The thought is almost too obvious to be dwelt upon; but - it is overpowering and inevitable. These shelves of mighty folios, - these cases of laboured manuscripts, these illuminated volumes of - which each may represent a life--the first, dominant impression - which they make cannot fail to be like that which a burial-ground - leaves--a Hamlet-like sense of 'the pity of it.' Which is the - sadder image, the dust of Alexander stopping a bung-hole, or the - brain and life-blood of a hundred monks cumbering the shelves of - the Bodleian? Not the former, for Alexander's dust matters little - where his work is considered, but these monks' work is in their - books; to their books they sacrificed their lives, and gave - themselves up as an offering to posterity. And posterity, - overburdened by its own concerns, passes them by without a look or - a word! Here and there, of course, is a volume which has made a - mark upon the world; but the mass are silent for ever, and zeal, - industry, talent, for once that they have had permanent results, - have a thousand times been sealed by failure. And yet men go on - writing, writing; and books are born under the shadow of the great - libraries just as children are born within sight of the tombs. It - seems as though Nature's law were universal as well as rigid in its - sphere--wide wastes of sand shut in the green oasis, many a seed - falls among thorns or by the wayside, many a bud must be sacrificed - before there comes the perfect flower, many a little life must - exhaust itself in a useless book before the great book is made - which is to remain a force for ever. And so we might as profitably - murmur at the withered buds, at the seed that takes no root, at the - stretch of desert, as at the unread folios. They are waste, it is - true; but it is the waste that is thrown off by Humanity in its - ceaseless process towards the fulfilment of its law." - -No doubt her life was not all books during these four years, though -books gave it its tone and background; she took her part in the gaieties -of Oxford, in Eights Week and Commem. and in river parties to the -Nuneham woods, and it is to be feared that her stout resistance to the -"seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and Juliet -character" was not of long duration. In one select Oxford pastime, the -game of croquet, she attained to real pre-eminence, becoming, after her -marriage, one of the moving spirits of the Oxford Croquet Club. But her -shyness made social events no special joy to her, and she was far -happier sitting at the feet of "Mark Pat" or helping "Mrs. Pat" with her -etching in the sitting-room upstairs than in making conversation with -the youth of Oxford. - -One charming glimpse of her, however, at a social function remains to us -in the letters of M. Taine. The great Frenchman had come over in the -very spring of the _Commune_ (1871) to give a course of lectures at -Oxford; he met her one evening at the Master of Balliol's, being -introduced to her by Jowett himself. "'A very clever girl,' said -Professor Jowett, as he was taking me towards her. She is about twenty, -very nice-looking and dressed with taste (rather a rare thing here: I -saw one lady imprisoned in a most curious sort of pink silk sheath). -Miss Arnold was born out in Australia, where she was brought up till the -age of five. She knows French, German and Italian, and during this last -year has been studying old Spanish of the time of the Cid; also Latin, -in order to be able to understand the mediæval chronicles. All her -mornings she spends at the Bodleian Library--a most intellectual lady, -but yet a simple, charming girl. By exercise of great tact, I finally -led her on to telling me of an article--her first--that she was writing -for _Macmillan's Magazine_ upon the oldest romances. In extenuation of -it she said, 'Everybody writes or lectures here, and one must follow the -fashion. Besides, it passes the time, and the library is so fine and so -convenient.' Not in the least pedantic!"[7] - -Mary's efforts at writing fiction, which had been many from her -school-days onwards, were far less successful at this stage than her -more serious essays; but she persisted in the attempt, for the pressure -on the family budget was always so great that she longed to make herself -independent of it by earning something with her pen. She sent one story, -at the age of eighteen, to Messrs. Smith & Elder, her future -publishers, but when it was politely declined by them she showed her -philosophy in the following note-- - - -LALEHAM, OXFORD. -_October 1, 1869._ - -DEAR SIRS,-- - - I beg to thank you for your courteous letter. "Ailie" is a juvenile - production and I am not sorry you decline to publish it. Had it - appeared in print I should probably have been ashamed of it by and - by. - -I remain, -Yours obediently, -MARY ARNOLD. - -But at length no less a veteran than Miss Charlotte Yonge, who was then -editing a blameless magazine named the _Churchman's Companion_, accepted -a tale from her called "A Westmorland Story," and Mary's joy and pride -were unbounded. But the tale shows no glimpse, I think, of her future -power, and is as far removed from "A Morning in the Bodleian" as water -is from wine. - -Sometimes the Forsters would invite her to stay with them in London, and -so it occurred that at the age of eighteen she was actually there, in -the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons, when her uncle brought in -his famous Education Bill. In after life she was always glad to recall -that day, and when in the fullness of time her own path led her among -the stunted lives of London's children she liked to think that she was -in a sense continuing her uncle's work. - -In the winter of 1870-71 she first met Mr. T. Humphry Ward, Fellow and -Tutor of Brasenose College, between whom and herself an instant -attraction became manifest. Mr. Ward was the son of the Rev. Henry Ward, -Vicar of St. Barnabas, King Square, E.C., while his mother was Jane -Sandwith, sister of the well-known Army surgeon at the siege of Kars, -Humphry Sandwith, and herself a woman of remarkable charm and beauty of -character. By an odd chance, J. R. Green, the historian, had been curate -to Mr. Henry Ward in London for two years, had made himself the devoted -friend of all his numerous children and has left in his published -Letters a striking tribute to the great qualities of Mrs. Ward.[8] But -she died at the age of forty-two, and Mary Arnold never knew her. The -course of true love ran smoothly through the spring of 1871, and on June -16, five days after Mary's twentieth birthday, they became engaged. -Never was happiness more golden, and when the pair of lovers went to -stay at Fox How and the young man was introduced to all the well-beloved -places--Sweden Bridge and Loughrigg, Rydal Water and the -stepping-stones--she was quite puzzled, as she wrote to him afterwards, -by the change that had come over the mountains, by the "new relations -between Westmorland and me!" It was simply, as she said, that the -mountains had become the frame, instead of being, as hitherto, the -picture. - -They were engaged for ten months, and then, on April 6, 1872, Dean -Stanley married them and they settled, a little later, in a house in -Bradmore Road (then No. 5, now 17), where they lived and worked for the -next nine years. - - * * * * * - -Strenuous and delightful years! In looking back over them her old -friends recall with amazement her intense vitality and energy, in spite -of many lapses of health; how she was always at work, writing articles -or reviewing books to eke out the family income, and how she seemed -besides to bear on her shoulders the cares of two families, her own and -her husband's. She was the eldest and he the third of a long string of -brothers and sisters, the younger of whom were still quite children and -much in need of shepherding. The house in Bradmore Road was always a -second home to them. Her own parents lived close by and she was much in -and out of their house, sharing in their anxieties and struggles and -helping whenever it was possible to help. For she was linked to her -father by a deep and instinctive devotion, much strengthened by these -years of companionship at Oxford, and to her mother by a more aching -sense of pity and longing. Tom Arnold was growing restless again in the -mid-'seventies, and when he went with his younger children to church at -St. Philip's they would nudge each other to hear him muttering under his -breath the Latin prayers of long ago--little thinking, poor babes, how -their very bread and butter might hang upon these mutterings! But in -1876 there came a day when his election to the Professorship of Early -English was almost a foregone conclusion; as the author of the standard -edition of Wycliffe's English Works he was by far the strongest -candidate in the field, and Julia looked forward eagerly to a time of -deliverance from their perpetual money troubles. For some months, -however, he had secretly made up his mind that he must re-enter the -Roman fold, and now that once more his worldly promotion depended on his -remaining outside it he decided that this was the moment to make his -re-conversion public. He announced it on the very eve of the election, -with the result that the majority of the electors decided against him. -Poor Mary heard the news early next morning and ran round in great -distress to her true friends, the T. H. Greens, pouring it out to them -with uncontrollable tears. And, indeed, it was the death-knell of the -Arnolds' prosperity at Oxford. Pupils came no longer to be taught by a -professing Catholic, and Julia was reduced to taking "boarders" in a -smaller house in Church Walk, while Tom earned what he could by -incessant writing and eventually took work again at the Catholic -University in Dublin. And then a still more terrible blow fell upon -Julia; she was discovered to have cancer, and an operation in the autumn -of 1877 left her a maimed and suffering invalid. All this could not fail -to leave a profound mark on the anxious and tender heart of her -daughter, in whom the capacity for human affection seemed to grow and -treble with the years; it made a dark background to her Oxford life, -otherwise so full to overflowing with the happiness of friends and home. - -In her _Recollections_ she has given us once and for all a picture of -the Oxford of her day which in its brilliance and charm is not to be -matched by any later comer. All that can be attempted here is to fill in -to some extent the only gap that she has left in it--the portrait of -herself. How did she move among that small but gifted community, where -Walter Pater revolutionized the taste of Oxford with his Morris papers -and blue china, shocked the Oxford world with his paganizing tendencies -and would, besides, keep his sisters laughing the whole evening, when -they were quite alone, with his spontaneous fun; where Mandell -Creighton was leading and stimulating the teaching of history, with J. -R. Green to help him as Examiner in the Modern History Schools; where T. -H. Green was inspiring the younger generation with his own robust -idealism and the doctrine of the "duty of work," and the more venerable -figures of Jowett and Mark Pattison, Ruskin and Matthew Arnold, Stubbs -and Freeman dominated the intellectual scene? The impression that she -made upon this circle of friends seems first of all to have been one of -extraordinary energy and power of work, of great personal charm veiled -by a crust of shyness, of intellectual powers for which they had the -respect of equals and co-workers, and of a warm and generous sympathy -which was yet free from "gush." One of her closest friends in these -early years, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, has allowed me to use certain extracts -from her journal, in which the figure of "Mary Ward" stands out with the -clearness of absolute simplicity. Mrs. Johnson, besides having the -public spirit which has since made her the President of the Oxford Home -Students' Society, was also a charming artist, and in 1876 painted -Mary's portrait in water-colour, using the opportunities which the -sittings gave her to explore her friend's mind to the uttermost: - -"July 22. Began her portrait. I was so excited that my head ached all -day afterwards. She talked of deep, most interesting subjects, and -attention to the arguments and drawing too was too much for one's head! -I was surprised at the full extent of her vague religion. Jowett is her -great admiration and Matt Arnold her guide for some things. She is great -on the rising Dutch and French and German school of religious thought, -very free criticism of the Bible, entire denial of miracle, our Lord -only a great teacher. I felt as if I had been beaten about, as I always -do after the excitement of such talks. And yet it is all a striving -after righteousness, sincerity, truth." Or, again: "Mary W. came to tea. -My visitor was charmed with her and truly she is a sweet, charming -person, full of gentleness and sympathy, with all her talent and -intelligence too. She had dined at the Pattisons' last night and had -felt appalled at the learning of Mrs. P. and Miss ----,' more in their -little fingers than I in my whole body!' But I felt that no one would -wish to change her for either of them." - -Her music was a constant joy to her friends, and Mrs. Johnson makes -frequent mention of her playing of Bach and of her wonderful reading. It -was a possession that remained with her, to a certain extent, all her -life, in spite of writer's cramp and of a total inability to find time -to "keep it up." But even twenty and thirty years later than this date, -her playing of Beethoven or Brahms--on the rare occasions when she would -allow herself such indulgence--would astonish the few friends who heard -it. - -Meanwhile the portrait prospered, and was at length presented to its -subject when she lay recovering from the birth of her second babe--a boy -whom they named Arnold--in November, 1876. "Humphry and I are full of -delight over the picture," writes Mary to Mrs. Johnson, "and of wonder -at the amount of true and delicate work you have put into it. It will be -a possession not only for us but for our children--see how easily the -new style comes!" These were prophetic words, for it is indeed the -portrait of her that still gives most pleasure to the beholder, though -in later years she was painted or drawn by many skilful hands. - -Her two babies, Dorothy and Arnold, naturally absorbed a great deal of -her time and thoughts in these years, although it was possible in those -spacious days to live comfortably and to keep as many little -nursery-maids as one required on £800 or £900 a year, which was about -the income that husband and wife jointly earned. Her natural talent for -"doctoring" showed itself very early in the skill with which she fed her -babies or cured them of their ills when they were sick. Nor was she -content with her domestic success, but in days before "Infant Welfare" -had ever been thought of she wrote a leaflet entitled "Plain Facts on -Infant Feeding" and circulated it in the slums of Oxford. We will not, -however, rescue it from oblivion, lest it should be found to contain -heretical matter! But there was still time for other pursuits, and since -both she and her husband did their writing mainly at night, from nine to -twelve, Mary began to show her practical powers in other directions, and -to take a leading part in the movement for the higher education of women -which was then absorbing some of the best minds of Oxford. As early as -the winter of 1873-4 a committee was formed among this group of friends, -with Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Creighton (followed, on the latter's departure, -by Mrs. T. H. Green) as joint secretaries, for organizing regular -"Lectures for Women"--not in any connection with the University, for -this was as yet impossible, but in order to satisfy the growing demand -among the women residents of Oxford for more serious instruction in -history, or modern languages, or Latin. The first series of lectures was -held in the early spring of 1874, in the Clarendon Buildings, with Mr. -A. H. Johnson as lecturer; it was an immediate success, and the large -sum of 5_s._ which each member of the Committee had put down as a -guarantee could be triumphantly refunded. Further courses were arranged -in each succeeding winter, till in 1877 the same committee expanded into -an "Association for the Education of Women" (again with Mrs. Ward as -secretary[9]), which undertook still more important work. The idea of -the founding of Women's Colleges was already in the air, for Girton and -Newnham had led the way at Cambridge, and all through 1878 plans were -being discussed to this end. In the next year a special committee was -formed for the raising of funds towards the foundation of a "Hall of -Residence"; Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Augustus Vernon Harcourt were joint -secretaries, but since the latter soon fell ill the whole burden of -correspondence fell upon Mary's shoulders. "There seems no end to the -things I have to do just now," she writes to her father in June, 1879. -"All the secretary's work for Somerville Hall falls on me now as my -colleague, Mrs. Harcourt, is laid up, and yesterday and the day before I -have had the house full of girls being examined for scholarship at the -Hall, and have had to copy out examination papers and look after them -generally. Our Lady Principal, Miss Shaw-Lefevre, is here and she came -to dinner to-night to talk business about furnishing, etc. I think we -are getting on. Did you see in _The Times_ that the Clothworkers' -Company have given us 100 guineas?" - -And thus the work went on, week after week, all through the year 1879. I -have before me a common-looking engagement-diary in which it is all -recorded, from the month of March to late in the month of October: all -the committee-meetings, all the letters written to newspapers, to -prospective students or to possible heads; the decision to purchase the -lease of "Walton House," "to be assigned to the President (Dr. Percival) -on August 1"; the builder's estimate for alterations ("£540 for raising -the roof and making twelve bedrooms"), the letters about drainage, or -cretonne, or armchairs and fenders, no less than the resolution passed -at Balliol on October 24 to "form a Company for the management of the -Hall under the Limited Liability Act of 1862, with a nominal capital of -£25,000." But by that time the Hall was already opened and the long -labour crowned; and a fortnight afterwards, on November 6, her youngest -child was born. It may be hoped that after this Mrs. Ward took a brief -holiday from the cares of Somerville. - -Mrs. Ward remained a member of the original Council of Somerville Hall -long after her departure from Oxford, and during her last two years -there continued to be largely responsible, as one of the most active -members of the Association for the Education of Women, for the -organization of the teaching. All the lectures were arranged by the -Association--in consultation, of course, with the Principal--for it was -not until 1884 that women students were admitted to the smallest of the -University examinations, or to lectures at a few of the Colleges. - -Thus had Mrs. Ward learnt her first lesson and won her first laurels in -the carrying out of a big piece of public work. It was an experience -that was to stand her in good stead in after years. But at this time her -ambitions were still largely historical, weaving themselves in dreams -and plans for the writing of that big book on the origins of modern -Spain of which she afterwards sketched the counterpart in Elsmere's -projected book on the origins of modern France. Very likely she would -have settled down to write it before the opening of Somerville, but as -early as October, 1877, she had received a very flattering offer from -Dean Wace, the general editor of the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_, to take a large share in writing the lives of the early -Spanish ecclesiastics for that monumental work. It was an offer that she -could not refuse, and she always spoke with gratitude of the years of -hard and exacting work that followed, although once or twice she almost -broke down under the strain of it. "Sheer, hard, brain-stretching work," -she calls it in her _Recollections_, and if anyone will look up her -articles on Joannes Biclarensis, or Idatius, or the Histories of Isidore -of Seville, they will see how triply justified she was in using the -term. "You have gone over the ground so thoroughly that there is no -gleaning left," wrote Mr. C. W. Boase, in those days one of the -best-known of Oxford history tutors, while Dean Wace himself, in the -many letters he wrote to her, showed by his kindness and consideration -how much he valued her contributions. Oxford began to think that she was -definitely committed to an historical career, when to its astonishment -she came out as the author of a children's story. "Milly and Olly" was -the record of her own "Holiday among the Mountains" with her children in -the summer of 1879, but the very simplicity of the tale has endeared it -to many generations of children and child-lovers, while the stories it -contains of Beowulf and the Spanish Queen give it a note of romance that -differentiates it from other nursery tales. She wrote it almost as a -relaxation in the summer of 1880; in the midst of her historical work it -showed that the story-telling instinct was already stirring within her. - -And indeed the Oxford historical school was to be disappointed in her -after all, for her labours on the early Spaniards were in reality to -lead her into far other fields. Her interest in the problems of -Christianity had only gathered strength with the years, and were now -greatly stimulated by these researches into the early history of the -Spanish Church. She began to feel the enormous importance to the -believer of the _historical testimony_ on which the whole fabric rested, -while her keen historical imagination enabled her to grasp the mentality -of those distant ages which produced for us the literature of the New -Testament. A feeling of revolt against the arrogance of the orthodox -party, as it was represented in Oxford by Christchurch and Dr. Pusey, -grew and increased in her mind, while at the same time she became more -and more attracted by the romance and mystery of Christianity when -stripped of the coating of legend which pious hands had given it. As -early as 1871 she had written to Mr. Ward (à propos of a somewhat -fatuous sermon to which she had been listening): "How will you make -Christianity into a _motive_?--that is the puzzle. Traditional and -conventional Christianity is worked out--certainly as far as the great -artisan and intelligent working-class in England is concerned, and all -those who are young and touched, ever so vaguely and uncertainly, with -the thought-atmosphere, thought-currents of the day. Is there a -substitute which shall still be Christianity? Yes surely, but it is not -to be arrived at by mere arbitrary remoulding and petulant upsetting as -Mr. Voysey seems to think." And two years later she writes to her -father: "Just now it seems to me that one cannot make one's belief too -simple or hold what one does believe too strongly. Of dogmatic -Christianity I can make nothing. Nothing is clear except the personal -character of Christ and that view of Him as the founder and lawgiver of -a new society which struck me years ago in _Ecce Homo_. And the more I -read and think over the New Testament the more impossible it seems to me -to accept what is ordinarily called the scheme of Christianity." - -But these reflections need never have led her in the direction of -writing _Robert Elsmere_ if it had not been for a personal incident. On -Sunday, March 6, 1881, she attended the first Bampton Lecture of the -Rev. John Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was on "the -present unsettlement in religion," and the speaker castigated the -holders of unorthodox views as being very definitely guilty of sin. -Something in the tone of the sermon set Mary's heart on fire within her. -She walked home in a tumult of feeling. That this man with his confident -phrases should dare thus to arraign the leaders of the Liberal host--men -of such noble lives as T. H. Green, thinkers like Jowett and Matt -Arnold! She sat down and wrote, within a very few days, a reply to Dr. -Wordsworth entitled "Unbelief and Sin: a Protest addressed to those who -attended the Bampton Lecture of Sunday, March 6." A little pamphlet cast -in the form of a dialogue between two Oxford men, it was put up for sale -in Slatter & Rose's window and attracted considerable attention. But -before it had been selling for many hours a certain ecclesiastic took -the bookseller aside and pointed out that the pamphlet bore no printer's -name, which made the sale illegal. He politely threatened proceedings, -and the bookseller in alarm withdrew it from circulation and sent the -unsold copies up to Bradmore Road with an apology, but a firm intimation -that no further copies could be sold. Mary laughed and submitted, and -sent her anonymous offspring round to various friends, among them the -redoubtable Rector of Lincoln. He replied to her as follows:-- - - "No, I did not guess your secret. It was whispered to me in the - street, and I fancy was no secret within the first week of - publication. - - "I admire your courage in attacking one of their strong places. The - doctrine of disbelief in Church principles being due to a - propensity to secret sins is one of the oldest tenets of the - Anglican party. It is also a fundamental principle of popular - Catholicism. I have heard it from the catholic pulpit so often that - it must have among them the character of a commonplace. - - "There is, as you admit, a certain basis of fact for it--just as - 'Patriotism' is often enough the trade of the egoist. 'Licence they - mean when they cry liberty.' - - "More interesting even than your argument against the psychological - dogma, was your constructive hint as to the 'Church of the future.' - I wish I could follow you there! But that is an 'argumentum non - unius horæ.' - - "Believe me, dear Mrs. Ward, to be - -"Yr. attached friend, -"MARK PATTISON." - -It was indeed an argument, not of a single hour, but of many long years. -But the spark had been set to a complex train of thought which was now -to work itself out through toil and stress towards its appointed end. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT ELSMERE_ - -1881-1888 - - -It was in the early summer of 1880 that Mr. Ward was first approached by -Mr. Chenery, the editor, with a suggestion that he should join the staff -of _The Times_. The proposal was in many ways an attractive one, in -spite of the love of both husband and wife for Oxford, for Mr. Ward was -becoming known to a wider world than that of Oxford by his _English -Poets_, which had appeared in this year, nor was he a novice in -journalism. His wife, too, had many links with London through her visits -to the Forsters and her journalistic work. The experiment began in a -tentative way in the winter of 1880-81, she remaining in Oxford with the -children, and he being "tried" for leader-writing while staying in -Bloomsbury lodgings. Within a very few months it proved itself a -success, and, after some pleasant interviews with Mr. John Walter, he -was retained on the permanent staff of the paper. They began seriously -to plan their removal and to look for a house, and found one at length -in that comfortable Bloomsbury region, which was then innocent of big -hotels and offices, and where the houses in Russell Square had not yet -suffered embellishment in the form of pink terra-cotta facings to their -windows. They found that the oldest house in the Square, No. 61, was to -let, and in spite of the dirt of years with which it was encrusted, -perceived its possibilities at once, and came to an agreement with its -owner. A charming old house, built in 1745, its prettiest feature was a -small square entrance-hall, with eighteenth-century stucco-work on the -walls, from which a wide staircase ascended to the drawing-room, giving -an impression of space rare in a _bourgeois_ London house. At the back -was a good-sized strip of garden shaded by tall old plane-trees and -running down to meet the gardens of Queen Square, for No. 61 stood on -the east side of the square and adjoined the first house of Southampton -Row. Little powder-closets jutted out at the back, one of which Mrs. -Ward used as her writing-room, and upstairs the bedroom floors seemed to -expand as you ascended, reaching only to a third story, but giving us -rooms enough even so for ourselves, our maids, and a German governess, -besides the various relations who were constantly coming to stay. Wholly -pleasant are the memories connected with that benign old house, to us -children as well as to our elders, save only that to the youngest of us -there were always two lurking horrors, one on the second floor landing, -where a dark alcove gave harbourage to a little old man in Scotch kilts, -who might, if your legs were not swift enough, come after you as you -toiled up the last flight, and one--still more disquieting--on the top -landing itself, where the taps dripped in a dreadful little boxroom, and -if the taps dripped you knew that the water-bogy, _who lives in taps_, -might at any moment escape and overwhelm you. Since no self-respecting -child ever imparts its terrors to its elders, these nightmares went -unknown until one night, when all the maids were downstairs at supper, -the child in question could not make up its mind to cross the landing, -past the dark mouth of that box-room, from the room where it undressed -to the room where it slept, and was found an hour later, fast asleep in -a chair, with towels pinned over every inch of its small body lest the -bogy should come out and catch hold. After this crisis I think the -terrors declined, and now, alas! taps and box-room and dark alcove have -all disappeared together, with the pleasant rooms downstairs and the -gravelled garden where one made so many persevering expeditions with the -salt-cellar, after the tails of London's sparrows--all swept away and -vanished, and the air that they enclosed parcelled out once more into -the rectangles of the Imperial Hotel! Peace be to the ghost of that poor -house, for it gave happiness in its latter days for nine long years to -the human folk who inhabited it, and it watched the unfolding of a human -heart and mind which were to have no mean influence upon the generation -that encompassed them. - -The house at Oxford was disposed of to the Henry Nettleships, at -Michaelmas, 1881, and in the following November the family moved in to -Russell Square. It was not without searchings of heart, I think, that -Mr. and Mrs. Ward embarked upon the larger venture, where all depended -on their retaining health and strength for their work; but they fondly -hoped that with the larger regular income from _The Times_ the burden on -both pairs of shoulders would be lessened. - - "All will be well with us yet," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband - three months before their move, "and if God is good to us there are - coming years of work indeed, but of less burden and strain. All - depends on you and me, and though I know the very thought depresses - us sometimes, it ought not to, for we have many good gifts within - and without, and a fair field, if not the fairest possible field to - use them in. It seems to me that all I want to be happy is to keep - my own heart and conscience clear, and to feel my way open into the - presence of God and the unseen. And surely to seek is to find." - -Years of less burden and strain! She had, indeed, forgotten the spirit -within, which was to drive her on to ever new and greater efforts in the -more stimulating atmosphere of London. Though her work for the -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_ was almost over, she had by this -time made the acquaintance of Mr. Morley, then editor of the _Pall Mall -Gazette_, and was doing much reviewing of French and Spanish books for -him, while she continued to write weekly articles for the Church -_Guardian_ and the _Oxford Chronicle_. Nor were the authorities of _The -Times_ long in finding out that she too could write, and by the autumn -of 1882 many foreign books reached her for review from Printing House -Square. She complains in her letters that she cannot get through them -quickly enough. "Three or four volumes of these books a week is about -all I can do, and that seems to go no way." The inevitable expenses of -London life did in fact weigh upon her heavily within a year of their -migration, and the sense of "burden and strain" was never long absent. -But she could not have lived otherwise. It was her fundamental instinct -to work herself to the bone and then to share her good times with others -less fortunate, and since this process made away with her earnings she -would work herself to the bone again. In this atmosphere of unremitting -toil interruptions were of course discouraged, but when they occurred in -spite of all defences she never showed the irritation which so -frequently accompanies overwork. And in the many interruptions caused by -the childish illnesses of her small family her tenderness and devotion -were beyond all words. How she dosed us with aconite and belladonna, -watching over us and compelling us to throw off our fevers and colds! -Nor was anything allowed to interfere with the befriending of all -members of the family who wished to come to Russell Square. Her brother -Willie, who had by this time been appointed to the staff of the -_Manchester Guardian_, was a frequent visitor, renewing with each -appearance his literary _camaraderie_ with her and delighting in the -friends whom she would ask to meet him. Matthew Arnold, too, was -sometimes to be caught for an evening--great occasions, those, for Mrs. -Ward's relations with him were already of the most affectionate. He -influenced her profoundly in literary and critical matters, for she -imbibed from him both her respect for German thoroughness and her -passion for French perfection. These, indeed, were the years when she -saw most of "Uncle Matt," for Pains' Hill Cottage, at Cobham, was not -too far away for a Sunday visit, so that she and Mr. Ward would -sometimes fly down there for an afternoon of talk. Usually, however, she -would return full of blasphemies about his precious dogs, who had -diverted their master's attention all through the walk and prevented the -flow of his wit and wisdom. Therefore she preferred to get him safely to -herself at Russell Square! - -Her two younger sisters, Julia and Ethel, were constantly in the house, -the elder of whom married in 1885 Mr. Leonard Huxley, and so brought -about a happy connection with the Professor and his wife, which gave -Mrs. Ward much joy for many years. Nor were her neighbours neglected. -When Christmas came round there was always a wonderful _Weihnachtsbaum_, -dressed with loving care by the good German governess, and by any uncles -and aunts who were within reach, and attended not only by all possible -relations and friends (including especially and always Mr. and Mrs. J. -R. Thursfield and their children), but also by the choirboys of St. -John's Church and by many of _their_ relations too. But behind all this -eager hospitality lay a far deeper longing. Her mother had, early in -1881, undergone a second operation for cancer, and though this gave her -a year's immunity from pain the malady returned. In March, 1882, she -wrote to her daughter with stoical courage that she foresaw what was in -store for her--"a hard ending to a hard life." Though she was devotedly -nursed by her youngest daughter, Ethel, her suffering overshadowed the -next six years of Mary's life like a cloud, but it became also Mrs. -Ward's keenest joy to be able to help her and to ease her path. Once -when she herself had been ill and suffering, she wrote her a few lines -which reveal her own inmost thoughts on the relation between pain and -faith: - - "I am _so_ sorry, dearest, for your own suffering. This is a weary - world,--but there is good behind it, 'a holy will,' as Amiel says, - 'at the root of nature and destiny,' and submission brings peace - because in submission the heart finds God and in God its rest. - There is no truth I believe in more profoundly." - -Yet in spite of the unceasing round of work, what compensations there -were in the London life! The making of new friends can never fail to be -a delightful process, and it very soon became apparent that Mrs. Ward -was to be adopted to the heart of that London world which thought about -books and politics and which incidentally was making history. London was -smaller then than now, and if a new-comer had brains and modesty, and -above all a gift of sympathy that won all hearts, there were few doors -that did not open to her or him in time. Her connection with the -Forsters and with "Uncle Matt" brought her many friends to start with, -while Mr. Ward's work on _The Times_ took them naturally both into the -world of painters (for after 1884 he joined art criticism to his -political and other writing) and into the world of affairs. A letter -written to Mrs. A. H. Johnson in May, 1885, gives a typical picture of -the social side of her life three years after the move to London. The -occasion is the marriage of Alfred Lyttelton and Laura Tennant: - - "The wedding function yesterday was very interesting. I am glad not - to have missed Gladstone's speech at the breakfast. What a wondrous - man it is! The intensity, the feeling of the speech were - extraordinary.... Life has been rather exciting lately in the way - of new friends, the latest acquisition being Mr. Goschen, to whom - I have quite lost my heart! There is a pliancy and a brilliancy - about him which make him one of the most delightful companions. We - dined there last Saturday and I have seldom had so much interesting - talk. Lord Arthur Russell, who sat next me, told me stories of how, - as a child at Geneva, he had met folk who in their youth had seen - Rousseau and known Voltaire, and had been intimate friends of Mme. - de Stael in middle life. And then, coming a little further down the - stream of time, he could describe to me having stayed at - Lamartine's château in the poet's old age, and so on. Mr. Goschen - is busy on a life of his grandfather, who was the publisher of - Goethe, Schiller and Wieland, and whose correspondence, which he is - now going through, covers the whole almost of the German literary - period,--so that after dinner the scene shifted to Germany, and we - talked away with an occasional raid into politics, till, to my - great regret, the evening was over." - -Her own little dinner-parties very soon began to make their mark, while -not long after their establishment in London, she began the practice of -being at home on Thursday afternoons, and though at first her natural -shyness and lack of small talk made her openings somewhat formidable, -she soon warmed to the task, till within a very few months her Thursdays -became a much-appreciated institution. Men, as well as women, came to -them, for they always liked to make her talk and to hear her eager views -on all the topics of the day, from Irish coercion to the literary -personalities of France, or the need for prodding the Universities to -open their examinations to women. She still called herself a good -Radical in these days, but her devotion to Mr. Forster--whom she had -visited in Dublin during his Chief Secretaryship--gave the first -reservations to her Liberal faith, for she took his part in the matter -of his resignation, and felt that he had not been sufficiently supported -by the Cabinet. It was a great grief to her that Mr. Morley, in the -_Pall Mall Gazette_, found it necessary to attack Mr. Forster's Irish -administration with such persistent energy, and once, towards the end of -1882, she summoned up the courage to write him a remonstrance in good -set terms. Mr. Morley's reply is characteristic: - - -_Dec. 13, 82._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have got your letter at last, and carefully read and digested it. - Need I say that its frank and direct vigour only increases my - respect for the writer? To answer it, as it deserves, is hardly - possible for me. It would take a day for me to set forth, with - proper reference to chapter and verse, all the reasons why I could - not follow Mr. Forster in his Irish administration. They were set - forth from time to time with almost tiresome iteration as events - moved forward. - - In all that you say about Mr. Forster's unselfishness, his - industry, his strenuous desire to do what was right and best, - nobody agrees more cordially than I do. Personally I have always - had--if it is not impertinent in me to say so--a great liking for - him. He was always very kind and obliging to me, and nothing has - been more painful to me than to know that I was writing what would - wound a family for whom I have such sincere respect as I have for - his. But the occasion was grave. I have been thinking about Ireland - all my life, and that fashion of governing it is odious and - intolerable. If Sir Charles Dilke or Mr. Chamberlain had been Chief - Secretary, and carried out the Coercion Act as Mr. Forster carried - it out, I could not have attacked either of them, but I should have - resigned my editorship rather than have connived by silence or - otherwise at such mischief. - - I may at times have seemed bitter and personal in my language about - Mr. Forster. One falls into this tone too readily, when fighting a - battle day after day, and writing without time for calm revision. - For that I am sorry, if it has been so, or seemed so. Mr. Forster's - friends--some of them--have been extremely unscrupulous in their - personalities against me, their charges of intrigue, conspiracy. - All that I do not care for one jot; my real regret, and it is a - very sincere one, is that I should seem unjust or vindictive to - people like you, who think honestly and calmly about politics, and - other things. - - I hope that it is over, and that I shall never have to say a word - about Mr. Forster's Irish policy again. - -Yours very sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Such a letter only served to strengthen friendship. Mrs. Ward's literary -comradeship with Mr. Morley remained unbroken in spite of widening -differences in politics, and when, a few months later, he assumed the -editorship of _Macmillan's Magazine_ he proposed to her that she should -virtually take over its literary criticism:-- - - -_March 22, 83._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - My reign over "Macmillan" will begin in May. I want to know whether - you can help me to a literary article once a month--in the shape of - a _compte rendu_ of some new books, English or French. It is highly - desirable that the subject should be as lively and readable as - possible--not erudite and academic, but literary, or - socio-literary, as Ste Beuve was. - - I don't see why a "causerie" from you once a month should not - become as marked a feature in our world, as Ste Beuve was to - France. In time, the articles would make matter for a volume, and - so you would strike the stars with your sublime head. - - I hope my suggestion will commend itself to you. I have been - counting upon you, and shall be horribly discouraged if you say No. - -Yours sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Flattered as she was by the suggestion, she was never able to carry out -his whole behest, yet between February, 1883, and June, 1885, she wrote -no less than twelve articles for _Macmillan's_, on subjects ranging from -the young Spanish Romanticist, Gustavo Becquer, to Keats, Jane Austen, -Renan and the "Literature of Introspection" (à propos of Amiel's -_Journal Intime_), while the series was ended by a full-dress review of -Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_. These articles did much to assure her -position in the world of pure literature, as her Dictionary articles had -assured it in the world of scholarship, and she never ceased to be -grateful to Mr. Morley for the opportunities he had given her in -inviting them, for the encouragement of his praise and the bracing of -his occasional criticism. - -But these articles were all written under the heaviest physical -disabilities. Early in 1883 she began to suffer from a violent form of -writer's cramp, which made her right hand almost useless at times, and -recurred at intervals all through her life, so that writing was usually -a far more arduous and painful process to her than it is to most of us. -Through the years 1883 and 1884 she was frequently reduced to writing -with her left hand, but she also dictated much to her young -sister-in-law, Gertrude Ward, who came to live with us at this time, and -became for the next eight years the prop and support of our household. -Many remedies were tried for the ailment, but nothing was really -effective until after two years a German "writing-master" came on the -scene, one Dr. Julius Wolff, who completely transformed her method of -writing by making her sit much higher than before, rest the whole -fore-arm on the table, and use an altogether different set of muscles. -Many curious exercises he gave her also, which she practised at -intervals for years afterwards, and by these means he succeeded in -giving her comparative immunity, though whenever she was specially -pressed with work the pain and weakness would recur. During the year -1884, however, before Dr. Wolff had appeared, her arm was practically -disabled, and she wore it much in a sling. - -Yet it was during this year that she began her translation of Amiel's -_Journal_ and wrote her first novel, _Miss Bretherton_. The idea of it -was suggested by her first sight of the beautiful actress, Mary -Anderson, though she always maintained that, once created, Isabel -Bretherton became to her an absolutely distinct personality. The manner -of its writing is told in a fragment of Miss Gertrude Ward's journal: - - "The book was written in about six weeks. She used to lie or sit - out of doors at Borough Farm, with a notebook and pencil, and - scrawl down what she could with her left hand; then she would come - in about twelve and dictate to me at a great rate for an hour or - more. In the afternoon and evening she would look over and correct - what was done, and I copied out the whole. The scene of Marie and - Kendal in his rooms was dictated in her bedroom; she lay on her - bed, and I sat by the window behind a screen." - -The book was published by Messrs. Macmillan and appeared in December, -1884. It attracted a good deal of attention. The general verdict was -that it was a fine and delicate piece of work, but on too limited, too -intellectual a scale. This view was admirably put by her old friend, Mr. -Creighton (then Emmanuel Professor at Cambridge): - - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have read _Miss Bretherton_ with much interest. It was hardly - fair on the book to know the plot beforehand, but I found myself - carried away by the delicate feeling with which the development of - character was traced. The Nuneham scene, the death-bed and the - final reconciliation were really touching and powerfully worked - out. - - [Illustration: Borough Farm.] - - At the same time it is not a novel of my sort. I demand that I - should have given me an entire slice of life, and that I should see - the mutual interaction of a number of characters. Your interest - centres entirely on one character: your characters all move in the - same region of ideas, and that a narrow one. Your book is dainty, - but it does not touch the great springs of life. Of course you - didn't mean it to do so: but I am putting before you what I - conceive to be the novelist's ideal. It seems to me that a novelist - must have seen much, must lay himself out to be conversant with - many sides of life, must have no line of his own, but must lend - himself to the life of those around him. This is the direct - opposite of the critic. I wonder if the two trades can be combined. - Have you ever read Sainte Beuve's solitary novel, _Volupté_? It is - instructive reading. You are a critic in your novel. Your object is - really to show how criticism can affect a nature capable of - receiving it. Now is this properly a subject of art? Is it not too - didactic? It is not so for me, for I am an old-fashioned moralist: - but the mass of people do not care for intellectual teaching in - novels. They want an emotional thrill. Remember that you have - deliberately put this aside. Kendal's love is not made to affect - his life, his character, his work. Miss Bretherton only feels so - far attracted to him as to listen to what he says.... I only say - this to show you what the book made me think, that you wrote as a - critic not as a creator. You threw into the form of a story many - critical judgments, and gave an excellent sketch of the possible - worth of criticism in an unregenerate world. This was worth doing - once: but if you are going on with novels you must throw criticism - to the winds and let yourself go as a partner of common joys, - common sorrows and common perplexities. There, I have told you what - I think just as I think it. I would not have done so to anyone else - save you, to whom I am always, - -Your most affectionate, -M. CREIGHTON. - -No doubt Mrs. Ward stored up this criticism for future use, for when she -next embarked upon a novel the canvas was indeed broad enough. - -They had not been settled in London for much more than a year before -Mrs. Ward began to feel the need for some quiet and remote country place -to which she might fly for peace and work when the strain of London -became too great. Fortune favoured the quest, for in the summer of 1882 -they took the rectory at Peper Harow, near Godalming (the "Murewell -Rectory" of _Robert Elsmere_), for a few weeks, and during that time -were taken by Lord Midleton, the owner of Peper Harow, to see a -delightful old farm in the heart of the lonely stretch of country that -lies between the Portsmouth Road and Elstead. They fell in love with it -at once, and during the following winter made an arrangement to take its -six or seven front rooms by the year. So from the summer of 1883 onwards -they possessed Borough Farm as a refuge and solace in the wilds, a -paradise for elders and children alike, where London and its turmoil -could be cast off and forgotten. It lay in a country of heather commons, -woods, rough meadows, streams and lakes--those "Hammer Ponds" which -remain as a relic of the iron-smelting days of Surrey, and in which we -children amused ourselves by the hour in fishing for perch with a bent -pin and a worm. Here Mrs. Ward would lie out whenever the sun shone in -the old sand-pit up the lane, where we had constructed a sort of terrace -for her long chair, or else under the ash-tree on the little hill, -writing or reading, while no sound came save the murmur of wind in the -gorse, or in the dry bells of the heather. If her physique had been -stronger she would, perhaps, have been too much tempted by the beauty of -the country ever to have lain still and worked for so many hours as she -did in that long chair; but she was never robust, she was extremely -susceptible to bad weather, cold winds and every form of chill, and her -longest expeditions were those which she took in a little pony-carriage -over Ryal or Bagmoor Commons to Peper Harow, or up the Portsmouth Road -to Thursley and Hindhead. - -Here a few friends came at intervals to share the solitude with us: -Laura Tennant, on a wonderful day in May, 1884, when she seemed to her -dazzled hostess the very incarnation of the spring; M. Edmond Scherer, -her earliest French friend, who, in 1884, was helping her with her -translation of Amiel's _Journal_; Henry James, whose visit laid the -foundation of a friendship that was to ripen into one of the most -precious of all Mrs. Ward's possessions; Mlle. Souvestre, foundress of -the well-known girls' school at Wimbledon, and one of the keenest -intellects of her time; and once, for a whole fortnight, Miss Eugénie -Sellers,[10] who had for many months been teaching the family their -classics, and who now came down to superintend their Greek a little and -to roam the commons with them much. It was in 1886, just before this -visit, that Mrs. Ward began seriously to read Greek, usually with her -ten-year-old son; she bought a Thucydides in Godalming one day and was -delighted to find it easier than she expected. It was a passion that -grew upon her with the years, as any reader of her later books will -clearly perceive. - -Then, though the solitude of the farm itself was profound, there were a -few, a very few, neighbours in the more eligible districts round about -who made it their pleasure sometimes to call upon us; there were the -Frederic Harrisons at Elstead, whose four boys dared us children to -horrid feats of jumping and climbing in the sand-pit, while our elders -were safely engaged elsewhere; John Morley also, for a few weeks in -1886, and in the other direction Lord and Lady Wolseley, who took a -house near Milford, and thence made their way occasionally down our -sandy track. But the neighbours who meant most to us were, after all, -our landlords, the Brodricks of Peper Harow; they were not only -endlessly kind, giving us leave to disport ourselves in all their -ponds, but took a sort of pride of possession, I believe, in their -pocket authoress, watching her struggles and her achievement with -paternal eyes. And when _Robert Elsmere_ at length appeared, old Lord -Midleton, pillar of Church and State as he was, came riding over to the -farm, sitting his horse squarely in spite of his white hairs and his -semi-blindness, and sent in word that the "Wicked Squire" was at the -gate! - -Two letters written to her father from Borough Farm during these years, -give glimpses of her browsings in many books, and of her thoughts on -Shakespeare, evolution and kindred matters: - - "I have been reading Joubert's _Pensées_ and _Correspondance_ - lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed - with the letters, and some of the _pensées_ are extraordinarily - acute. Now I am deep in Sénancour, and for miscellaneous reading I - have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good - deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and - stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a - great dramatist! There's a remark over which I trust you will draw - a fatherly veil! But one can only say what one feels, and I am more - oppressed than I used to be by his faults of construction, his - carelessness, his excrescences, while at the same time much more - sensitive to his preternatural power as a poet and as a - psychological analyst. He gets at the root of his characters in a - marvellous way, he envisages them separately as no one else can, - but it is when he comes to bring them into action to represent the - play of outward circumstance and the interaction of character on - character that he seems to me comparatively--only comparatively, of - course--to fail. I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, - and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the - magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic - bungling.... - - "As to Renan it would be too long to argue it, but I think he very - much saves himself in the passage you quote by the qualifying word - 'comme.' The Church is 'as it were' _un débris de l'Empire_. It is - only another way of putting what Harnack said in that article you - and I read at Sea View. 'The Empire built up the Church out of its - own substance, and destroyed itself in so doing,' or words to that - effect. I cannot help feeling that as far as organization and - institutions go it is very true, though I would never deny that God - was in the Church, as I believe He is in all human society, - moulding it to His will. Everything, from the critical and - scientific standpoint, seems to me so continuous and natural--no - sharp lines anywhere--one thing leading to another, event leading - to event, belief to belief--and God enwrapping and enfolding all. - But this is one general principle, and yours is quite another. I - quite agree that from your standpoint no explanation that Renan - could give of the Church can appear other than meagre or - grotesque." - -Her translation of Amiel's _Journal Intime_ was a long and exacting -piece of work, but she enjoyed the struggle with the precise meaning of -the French phrases and always maintained that she owed much to it, both -in her knowledge of French and of English. She had begun it, with the -benevolent approval of its French editor, M. Scherer, early in 1884, and -took it up again after _Miss Bretherton_ came out; found it indeed a far -more troublesome task than she had foreseen, and was still wrestling -with the Introduction in the summer of 1885, when her head was already -full of her new novel, and she was fretting to begin upon it. But the -book appeared at length in December, 1885, and very soon made its mark. -The wonderful language of the Swiss mystic appealed to a generation more -occupied than ours with the things of the soul, while Mrs. Ward's -introduction gave a masterly sketch of the writer's strange personality -and the development of his mind. As Jowett wrote to her, "Shall I tell -you the simple truth? It is wonderful to me how you could have thought -and known so much about so many things." Mr. Talbot, the Warden of Keble -(now Bishop of Winchester), wrote of the "almost breathless admiration -of the truth and penetration of his thought" with which he had read the -book, while Lord Arthur Russell reported that he had "met Mr. Gladstone, -who spoke with great interest of Amiel, asked me whether I had compared -the translation with the original, and said that a most interesting -small volume might be extracted, of _Pensées_, quite equal to Pascal." - -But it was, inevitably, "caviar to the general." Mrs. Ward's brother, -Willie Arnold, her close comrade and friend in all things literary, -wrote to her from Manchester a few months after its appearance: "I -served on a jury at the Assizes last week--two murder cases and general -horrors. I sat next to a Mr. Amiel--pronounced 'Aymiell'--a worthy -Manchester tradesman; no doubt his ancestor was a Huguenot refugee. I -had one of your vols. in my pocket, and showed him the passage about the -family. He was greatly interested, and borrowed it. Returned it next day -with the remark that it was 'too religious for him.' Alas, divine -philosophy!" - - * * * * * - -Ever since the previous winter the idea of a novel in which the clash -between the older and the younger types of Christianity should be worked -out in terms of human life, had been growing and fermenting in her mind. -_Miss Bretherton_ and Amiel's _Journal_ had given her a valuable -apprenticeship in the art of writing, while Amiel's luminous reflections -on the decadence and formalism of the churches had tended to confirm her -own passionate conviction that all was not well with the established -forms of religion. But the determining factor in the writing of _Robert -Elsmere_ was the close and continuous study which she had given ever -since her work for the _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ to the -problem of "Christian origins." She was fascinated by the intricacy and -difficulty of the whole subject, but more especially by such branches of -it as the Synoptic Problem, or the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the -rest; while the questions raised by the realization that the Books of -the New Testament were the products of an age steeped in miracle and -wholly uncritical of the records of it, struck her as vital to the whole -orthodox position. At the same time her immense tenderness for -Christianity, her belief that the life and teaching of the Founder were -still the "master-light of all our seeing," made her yearn for a -simplification of the creeds, so that the Message itself should once -more appeal to the masses without the intervention of formulæ that -perpetually challenged their reason. The argument of "Literature and -Dogma" culminates in the picture of mankind waiting for the lifting of -the burden of "Aberglaube" and dogmatism, with which the spirit of -Christianity had been crushed down for centuries, waiting for the -renewal that would come when the old coil was cast off. It was in that -spirit also that Mrs. Ward attacked the problem; her Robert was to her a -link in the chain of the liberators of all ages. Was her outlook too -intellectual? Did she overestimate the repugnance to obsolete forms that -possessed her generation? So it was said by many who rose up in startled -defence of those forms, many who had never felt the uttermost clash -between the things which they wished to believe and the things which -Truth allowed them to believe. Yet still the response of her generation -was to be greater than she ever dreamt. No doubt the renewal did not -come in the precise form in which she looked for it; creeds were to -prove tougher, the worship of the Risen Lord more vital than she -thought; yet still, in a hundred ways, the influence of the fermentation -caused by the ideas of _Robert Elsmere_ may be traced in the Church -to-day. "Biblical criticism" may now be out of fashion; but it is -because its victory has in reality been won. All this lay hidden from -the mind of the writer as she sat toiling over her task in the solitude -of Borough Farm, or in the little "powder-closet" overlooking the back -gardens of Russell Square; she wrote because she "could no other," and -only rarely did she allow herself to feel, with trembling, that the -_Zeitgeist_ might indeed be with her. - -The book was begun in the autumn of 1885, with every hope that it would -be finished in less than a year. It was offered, when a few chapters had -been written, to the Macmillans for publication, since they had -published both _Miss Bretherton_ and the _English Poets_, but to the sad -disappointment of its author they rejected it on the ground that the -subject was not likely to appeal to the British public. In this dilemma -Mrs. Ward bethought herself of Mr. George Murray Smith, the publisher of -Charlotte Brontë, and in some trepidation offered the book to him. Mr. -Smith had greater faith than the Macmillans and accepted it at once, -sealing the bargain by making an advance of £200 upon it in May, 1886. -So began Mrs. Ward's connection with "George Smith," as she always -familiarly spoke of him: a friend and counsellor indeed, to whom she -owed incalculable things in the years that followed. - -In the Preface to the "Westmorland Edition" of _Robert Elsmere_, issued -twenty-three years later, Mrs. Ward herself confessed to her models for -some of the principal characters--to the friend of her youth, Mark -Pattison, for the figure of the Squire (though not in his landowning -capacity!); to Thomas Hill Green, "the noblest and most persuasive -master of philosophic thought in modern Oxford," for that of Henry Grey; -and to Amiel himself, the hapless intellectual tortured by the paralysis -of will, for that of Langham. Both the Rector of Lincoln and Professor -Green had recently died, the latter in the prime of his life and work, -and Mrs. Ward sought both in the dedication and in her sketch of the -strong and lovable tutor of St. Anselm's, to express her lasting -admiration for this lost friend. But she claimed in each case the -artist's freedom to treat her creatures as her own, once they had -entered the little world of the novel: a thesis which she was to -maintain and develop in later years, when she occasionally went to the -past for her characters. Catherine was a more composite picture, drawn -from the "strong souls" she had known among her own kinswomen from -childhood up, and therefore, perhaps, more tenderly treated by the -author than the rules of artistic detachment would allow. She was a type -far more possible in the 'eighties than now, but it is perhaps -comforting to know that no single human being inspired her. As to the -scene in which these figures moved, it was on a sunny day at the end of -May, 1885, that Mrs. Ward's old friend, Mr. James Cropper, of -Ellergreen, took her for a drive up the valley of Long Sleddale, in a -lonely part of Westmorland. There she saw the farm at the head of the -dale, the vicarage, the Leyburns' house. Already her thoughts were busy -with her story, and from that day onwards she peopled the quiet valley -with her folk. - -At first she was full of hope that the book would be finished before the -summer of 1886, although she admits to her mother that "it is very -difficult to write and the further I get the harder it is." In March of -that year she writes to her sister-in-law: "I have made up my mind to -come here [Borough Farm] for the whole of April, so as to get _Robert -Elsmere done_! It must and shall be done by the end of April, if I -expire in the attempt." In April she did indeed work herself nearly to -death, writing sixteen, eighteen and even twenty pages of manuscript in -the day, and a sort of confidence began to grow up in her mind that the -book would not speak its message in vain. "I think this book _must_ -interest a certain number of people," she writes to her mother; "I -certainly feel as if I were writing parts of it with my heart's blood." -But the difficulties only increased, and actually it was the end of -October before even the first two volumes were finished. And then "the -more satisfied I become with the second volume the more discontented I -am with the first. It must be re-cast, alas!" Her arm was often -troublesome, especially in the autumn of this year, when she was staying -at the Forsters' house near Fox How, working very hard. "I am dreadfully -low about myself," she writes; "my arm has not been so bad since April, -when it took me practically a month's rest to get it right again. I have -been literally physically incapable of finishing my last chapter. And to -think of all the things I promised myself to do this week! And here I -have time, ideas, inclination, and I can do nothing. I will dictate if I -can to Gertrude, but I am so discouraged just at present I seem to have -no heart for it." Then a few days later it has taken a turn for the -better, and she is overjoyed: "The second volume was _finished_ last -night! The arm is _decidedly_ better, though still shaky. I sleep badly, -and rheumatism keeps flying about me, now here, now there, but I am not -at all doleful--indeed in excellent spirits now that the arm is better!" - -So, in spite of the distractions of London, she struggled on with the -third volume all through that winter (1886-7), flying for a week in -December to Borough Farm in order to get complete isolation for her -task. "Oh, the quiet, the blissful quiet of it! It helps me most in -thinking out the book. I can _write_ in London; I seem to be unable to -think." Sometimes, however, her head was utterly exhausted. Returning to -London, she wrote to her mother: "I did a splendid day's work yesterday, -but it was fighting against headache all day, and this morning I felt -quite incapable of writing and have been lying down, reading, though my -wretched head is hardly fit for reading. It is not exactly pain, but a -horrid feeling of tension and exhaustion, as if one hadn't slept for -ever so long, which I don't at all approve of." - -Often, when these fits of exhaustion came on, a small person would be -sent for from the schoolroom, in whose finger-tips a quaint form of -magic was believed to reside, and there she would sit for an hour, -stroking her mother's head, or her hands, or her feet, while the -"Jabberwock" on the Chinese cabinet curled his long tail at the pair in -silence. "Chatter to me," she used to say; but this was not always easy, -and a golden and friendly silence, peopled by many thoughts, usually lay -between the two. - -At length, on March 9, 1887, the last words of the third volume were -written, there in the little powder-closet behind the back drawing-room. -But this did not mean the end. She was already painfully aware that the -book was too long, and Mr. George Smith, best and truest of advisers, -firmly indicated to her that the limits even of a three-volume novel had -been overstepped. She herself had already admitted to her brother Willie -that it was "not a novel at all," and she now plunged bravely into the -task of cutting and revision, fondly hoping that it would take her no -more than a fortnight's hard work. Instead it took her the best part of -a year. Publication first in the summer season, then in the autumn, had -to be given up, while her own fatigue increased so that sometimes for -days together she could not touch the book. The few friends to whom she -showed it were indeed encouraging, and her brother Willie was the first -to prophesy that it would "make a great mark." After reading the first -volume he wrote to Mrs. Arnold, "You may look forward to finding -yourself the mother of a famous woman!" But the mood of this year was -one of depression, while Mrs. Arnold's illness became an ever-increasing -sorrow. In the Long Vacation Mrs. Ward took the empty Lady Margaret -Hall, at Oxford, for a few weeks, in order to be near her mother--a step -which brought her unexpectedly another pleasure. On the very day after -they arrived she wrote: "I have had a great pleasure to-day, for at -three o'clock arrived a note from Jowett saying that he was in Oxford -for a day and would I come to tea? So I went down at five, stayed an -hour, then he insisted on walking up here, and sat in the garden -watching the children play tennis till about seven. Dear old man! I have -the most lively and filial affection for him. We talked about all sorts -of things--Cornwall, politics, St. Paul--and when I wanted to go he -would not let me. I think he liked it, and certainly I did." - -Through the autumn and into the month of January, 1888, she struggled -with mountains of proofs, while Mr. Smith, though without much faith in -the popular prospects of the book, was always "kind and indulgent," as -she gratefully testifies in the _Recollections_. At length, towards the -end of January, she sent in the last batch, and on February 24 the book -appeared. - -Six weeks later, in the little house in Bradmore Road, which had -witnessed so many years of suffering indomitably borne, Julia Arnold lay -dying. Through pain and exhaustion unspeakable she had yet kept her -intense interest in the human scene, and now the last pleasure which she -enjoyed on earth was the news that reached her of the growing success of -her daughter's book. With a hand so weak that the pen kept falling from -her fingers, she wrote her an account of the Oxford gossip on it; she -asked her, with a flash of the old malice, to let her know at once -should she hear what any of her aunts were saying. Alas, Julia knew -better than anyone else on earth what the religious temperament of the -Arnolds might mean; but before the answer came her poor tormented spirit -was at rest for ever. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER - -1888-1889 - - -Three volumes, printed as closely as were those of _Robert Elsmere_, -penetrated somewhat slowly among the fraternity of reviewers. The -_Scotsman_ and the _Morning Post_ were the first to notice it on March -5, nine days after its appearance; the _British Weekly_ wept over it on -March 9; the _Academy_ compared it to _Adam Bede_ on the 17th; the -_Manchester Guardian_ gave it two columns on the 21st; the _Saturday_ -"slated" it on the 24th; while Walter Pater's article in the Church -_Guardian_ on the 28th, calling it a "_chef d'oeuvre_ of that kind of -quiet evolution of character through circumstance, introduced into -English literature by Miss Austen and carried to perfection in France by -George Sand," gave perhaps greater happiness to its author than any -other review. _The Times_ waited till April 7, being in no hurry to show -favour to one connected with its staff, but when it came the review duly -spoke of _Robert_ as "a clever attack upon revealed religion," and all -was well. By the end of March, however, the public interest in the book -had begun in earnest; the first edition of 500 copies was exhausted and -a second had appeared; this was sold out by the middle of April; a third -appeared on April 19 and was gone within a week; a fourth followed in -the same way. Matthew Arnold wrote from Wilton, the Pembrokes' house, a -week before his death (which occurred on April 15), that he found all -the guests there reading or intending to read it, and added, "George -Russell, who was staying at Aston Clinton with Gladstone, says it is all -true about his interest in the book. He talked of it incessantly and -said he thought he should review it for Knowles." - -As a matter of fact, Mr. Gladstone had already written the first draft -of his article and was corresponding with Lord Acton on the various -points which he wished to raise or to drive home. His biographer hints -that Acton's replies were not too encouraging. But the old giant was not -to be deterred. The book had moved him profoundly and he felt impelled -to combat the all too dangerous conclusions to which it pointed. "Mamma -and I," he wrote to his daughter in March, "are each of us still -separately engaged in a death-grapple with _Robert Elsmere_. I -complained of some of the novels you gave me to read as too stiff, but -they are nothing to this. It is wholly out of the common order. At -present I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything on it, -but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will be verified or -not. In any case it is a tremendous book." And to Lord Acton he wrote: -"It is not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the -labour and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one -could no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides." Early in April he -came to Oxford to stay with the Edward Talbots at Keble College, and -hearing that Mrs. Ward was also there, watching over her dying mother, -he expressed a desire to see her, and, if possible, to talk the book -over with her. She came on the day after her mother's death--April -8--towards evening, and waited for him alone in the Talbots' -drawing-room. That night she wrote down the following account of their -conversation: - - "I arrived at Keble at 7.10. Gladstone was not in the drawing-room. - I waited for about three minutes when I heard his slow step coming - downstairs. He came in with a candle in his hand which he put out, - then he came up most cordially and quickly. 'Mrs. Ward--this is - most good of you to come and see me! If you had not come, I should - myself have ventured to call and ask after yourself and Mr. - Arnold.' - - "Then he sat down, he on a small uncomfortable chair, where he - fidgeted greatly! He began to ask about Mamma. Had there been much - suffering? Was death peaceful? I told him. He said that though he - had seen many deaths, he had never seen any really peaceful. In all - there had been much struggle. So much so that 'I myself have - conceived what I will not call a terror of death, but a repugnance - from the idea of death. It is the rending asunder of body and soul, - the tearing apart of the two elements of our nature--for I hold the - body to be an essential element as well as the soul, not a mere - sheath or envelope.' He instanced the death of Sidney Herbert as an - exception. _He_ had said 'can this indeed be dying?'--death had - come so gently. - - "Then after a pause he began to speak of the knowledge of Oxford - shown by _Robert Elsmere_, and we went on to discuss the past and - present state of Oxford. He mentioned it 'as one of the few points - on which, outside Home Rule, I disagree with Hutton,'[11] that - Hutton had given it as his opinion that Cardinal Newman and Matthew - Arnold had had more influence than any other men on modern Oxford. - Newman's influence had been supreme up to 1845--nothing since, and - he gathered from Oxford men that Professor Jowett and Mr. Green had - counted for much more than Matthew Arnold. M.A.'s had been an - influence on the general public, not on the Universities. How - Oxford had been torn and rent, what a 'long agony of thought' she - had gone through! How different from Cambridge! - - "Then we talked again of Newman, how he had possessed the place, - his influence comparable only to that of Abelard on Paris--the - flatness after he left. I quoted Burne-Jones on the subject. Then I - spoke of Pattison's autobiography as illustrating Newman's hold. He - agreed, but said that Pattison's religious phase was so - disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. - He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he - understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if - he had seen Pattison's last 'Confession of Faith,' which Mrs. - Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no. Then he asked me - whether I had pleasant remembrances of Pattison. I warmly said yes, - and described how kind he had been to me as a girl. 'Ah!' he - said--'Church would never cast him off; and Church is almost the - only person of whom he really speaks kindly in the Memoirs.' - - "Then, from the state of Oxford, we passed to the state of the - country during the last half-century. 'It has been a _wonderful_ - half-century! I often tell the young men who are coming on that we - have had a better time than they can have, in the next - half-century. Take one thing only--the abolition of slavery in the - world (outside Africa I suppose he meant). You are too young to - realize what that means. But I draw a distinction between the first - twenty-five years of the period and the second; during the first, - steady advance throughout all classes, during the second, distinct - recession, and retrogression, in the highest class of all. That - testing point, _marriage_, very disquieting. The scandals about - marriage in the last twenty years unparallelled in the first half - of the period. I don't trust my own opinion, but I asked two of the - keenest social observers, and two of the coolest heads I ever - knew--Lord Granville and the late Lord Clanwilliam--to tell me what - they thought and they strongly confirmed my impression.' (Here one - of the Talbot boys came in and stood by the fire, and Gladstone - glanced at him once or twice, as though conversation on these - points was difficult while he was there.) I suggested that more was - made of scandals nowadays by the newspapers. But he would not have - it--'When I was a boy--I left Eton in 1827--there were two papers, - the _Age_ and the _Satirist_, worse than anything which exists now. - But they died out about 1830, and for about forty years there was - _nothing of the kind_. Then sprang up this odious and deplorable - crop of Society papers.' He thought the fact significant. - - "He talked of the modern girl. 'They tell me she is not what she - was--that she loves to be fast. I don't know. All I can bear - testimony to is the girl of my youth. _She_ was excellent!' - - "'But,' I asked him, 'in spite of all drawbacks, do you not see a - gradual growth and diffusion of earnestness, of the social passion - during the whole period?' He assented, and added, 'With the decline - of the Church and State spirit, with the slackening of State - religion, there has unquestionably come about a quickening of the - State conscience, of the _social_ conscience. I will not say what - inference should be drawn.' - - "Then we spoke of charity in London, and of the way in which the - rich districts had elbowed out their poor. And thereupon--perhaps - through talk of the _motives_ for charitable work--we came to - religion. 'I don't believe in any new system,' he said, smiling, - and with reference to _Robert Elsmere_; 'I cling to the old. The - great traditions are what attract me. I believe in a degeneracy of - man, in the Fall--in _sin_--in the intensity and virulence of sin. - No other religion but Christianity meets the sense of sin, and sin - is the great fact in the world to me.' - - "I suggested that though I did not wish for a moment to deny the - existence of moral evil, the more one thought of it the more plain - became its connection with physical and social and therefore - _removable_ conditions. He disagreed, saying that the worst forms - of evil seemed to him to belong to the highest and most favoured - class 'of _educated_ people'--with some emphasis. - - "I asked him whether it did not give him any confidence in 'a new - system'--i.e. a new construction of Christianity--to watch its - effect on such a life as T. H. Green's. He replied individuals were - no test; one must take the broad mass. Some men were born 'so that - sin never came near them. Such men never felt the need of - Christianity. They would be better if they were worse!' - - "And as to difficulties, the great difficulties of all lay in the - way of Theism. 'I am surprised at men who don't feel this--I am - surprised at you!' he said, smiling. Newman had put these - difficulties so powerfully in the _Apologia_. The Christian system - satisfied all the demands of the conscience; and as to the - intellectual difficulties--well there we came to the question of - miracles. - - "Here he restated the old argument against an _a priori_ - impossibility of miracles. Granted a God, it is absurd to limit the - scope and range of the _will_ of such a being. I agreed; then I - asked him to let me tell him how I had approached the - question--through a long immersion in documents of the early - Church, in critical and historical questions connected with - miracles. I had come to see how miracles arise, and to feel it - impossible to draw the line with any rigidity between one - miraculous story and another. - - "'The difficulty is'--he said slowly, 'if you sweep away miracles, - you sweep away _the Resurrection_! With regard to the other - miracles, I no longer feel as I once did that they are the most - essential evidence for Christianity. The evidence which now comes - _nearest_ to me is the evidence of Christian history, of the type - of character Christianity has produced----' - - "Here the Talbots' supper bell rang, and the clock struck eight. He - said in the most cordial way it was impossible it could be so late, - that he must not put the Warden's household out, but that our - conversation could not end there, and would I come again? We - settled 9.30 in the morning. He thanked me, came with me to the - hall and bade me a most courteous and friendly good-bye."[12] - -The next morning she duly presented herself after breakfast, and this -time they got to grips far more thoroughly than before with the question -of miracles and of New Testament criticism generally. In a letter to her -husband (published in the _Recollections_) she calls it "a battle royal -over the book and Christian evidences," and describes how "at times he -looked stern and angry and white to a degree, so that I wondered -sometimes how I had the courage to go on--the drawn brows were so -formidable!" But she stuck to her points and found, as she thought, that -for all his versatility he was not really familiar with the literature -of the subject, but took refuge instead in attacking her own Theistic -position, divested as it was of supernatural Christianity. "I do not say -or think you 'attack' Christianity," he wrote to her two days later, -"but in proposing a substitute for it, reached by reduction and -negation, I think (forgive me) you are dreaming the most visionary of -all human dreams." - -He enclosed a volume of his _Gleanings_, marking the article on "The -Courses of Religious Thought." Mrs. Ward replied to him as follows:-- - - -_April 15, 1888._ - -DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - Thank you very much for the volume of _Gleanings_ with its gracious - inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the - greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not - the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to - this--that to you the great fact in the world and in the history of - man, is _sin_--to me, _progress_? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks - of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two - orders of temperament. In myself I see a perpetual struggle, in the - world also, but through it all I feel the "Power that makes for - righteousness." In the life of conscience, in the play of physical - and moral law, I see the ordained means by which sin is gradually - scourged and weakened both in the individual and in the human - society. And as to that sense of _irreparableness_, that awful - burden of evil both on the self and outside it, for which all - religions have sought an anodyne in the ceremonies of propitiation - and sacrifice, I think the modern who believes in God and cherishes - the dear memory of a human Christ will learn humbly, as Amiel says, - even "to accept himself," and life, as they are, at God's hands. - Constant and recurrent experience teaches him that the baser self - can only be killed by constant and recurrent effort towards good; - the action of the higher self is governed by an even stronger and - more prevailing law of self-preservation than that of the lower; - evil finds its appointed punishment and deterrent in pain and - restlessness; and as the old certainty of the Christian heaven - fades it will become clear to him that his only hope of an - immortality worth having lies in the developing and maturing of - that diviner part in him which can conceive and share the divine - life--of the soul. And for the rest, he will trust in the - indulgence and pity of the power which brought forth this strangely - mingled world. - - So much for the minds capable of such ideas. For the masses, in the - future, it seems to me that charitable and social organization will - be all-important. If the simpler Christian ideas can clothe - themselves in such organization--and I believe they can and are - even now beginning to do it--their effect on the democracy may be - incalculable. If not, then God will fulfil Himself in other ways. - But "dream" as it may be, it seems to many of us, a dream worth - trying to realize in a world which contains your seven millions of - persons in France, who will have nothing to say to religious - beliefs, or the 200,000 persons in South London alone, amongst - whom, according to the _Record_, Christianity has practically no - existence. - -And the letter ends with a plea that the faith which animated T. H. -Green might fitly be described by the words of the Psalm, "my soul is -athirst for God, for the living God." - -To this Mr. Gladstone replied immediately: - - -ST. JAMES'S STREET. -_April 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I do not at all doubt that your conception of _Robert Elsmere_ - includes much of what is expressed in the opening verses of Psalm - 42. I am more than doubtful whether he could impart it to Elgood - St., and I wholly disbelieve that Elgood St. could hand it on from - generation to generation. You have much courage, but I doubt - whether even you are brave enough to think that, fourteen centuries - after its foundation, Elgood St. could have written the _Imitation - of Christ_. - - And my meaning about Mr. Green was to hint at what seems to me the - unutterable strangeness of his passionately beseeching philosophy - to open to him the communion for which he thirsted, when he had a - better source nearer hand. - - It is like a farmer under the agricultural difficulty who has to - migrate from England and plants himself in the middle of the - Sahara. - - But I must abstain from stimulating you. At Oxford I sought to - avoid pricking you and rather laid myself open--because I thought - it not fair to ask you for statements which might give me points - for reply. - -Mr. Gladstone evidently believed he had been as mild as milk--he knew -not the terror of his own "drawn brows!" - - -_Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone._ - - -_April 17, 1888._ - - I think I must write a few words in answer to your letter of - yesterday, in view of your approaching article which fills me with - so much interest and anxiety. If I put what I have to say badly or - abruptly, please forgive me. My thoughts are so full of this - terrible loss of my dear uncle Matthew Arnold, to whom I was deeply - attached, that it seems difficult to turn to anything else. - - And yet I feel a sort of responsibility laid upon me with regard to - Mr. Green, whom you may possibly mention in your article. There are - many people living who can explain his thought much better than I - can. But may I say with regard to your letter of yesterday, that in - turning to philosophy, that is to the labour of reason and thought, - for light on the question of man's whence and whither, Mr. Green as - I conceive it, only obeyed an urgent and painful necessity. "The - parting with the Christian mythology is the rending asunder of - bones and marrow"--words which I have put into Grey's mouth--were - words of Mr. Green's to me. It was the only thing of the sort I - ever heard him say--he was a man who never spoke of his - feelings--but it was said with a penetrating force and sincerity - which I still remember keenly. A long intellectual travail had - convinced him that the miraculous Christian story was untenable; - but speculatively he gave it up with grief and difficulty, and - practically, to his last hour, he clung to all the forms and - associations of the old belief with a wonderful affection. With - regard to conformity to Church usage and repression of individual - opinion he and I disagreed a good deal. - - If you do speak of him, will you look at his two Lay Sermons, of - which I enclose my copy?--particularly the second one, which was - written eight years after the first, and to my mind expresses his - thought more clearly. - - Some of the letters which have reached me lately about the book - have been curious and interesting. A vicar of a church in the East - End, who seems to have been working among the poor for forty years, - says, "I could not help writing; in your book you seemed to grasp - me by the hand and follow me right on through my own life - experiences." And an Owens College Professor, who appears to have - thought and read much of these things, writes to a third person, à - propos of Elsmere, that the book has grasped "the real force at - work in driving so many to give up the Christian creed. It is not - the scientific (in the loose modern sense of the word), still less - the philosophical difficulties, which influence them, but it is the - education of the historic sense which is disintegrating - faith."--Only the older forms of faith, as I hold, that the new may - rise! But I did not mean to speak of myself. - -When the famous article--entitled "Robert Elsmere and the Battle of -Belief"--appeared in the May _Nineteenth Century_, there was nothing but -courtesy between the two opponents. Mrs. Ward sent the G.O.M. a copy of -the book, with a picture of Catherine's valley bound into it, and he -replied that the volumes would "form a very pleasant recollection of -what I trust has been a 'tearless battle.'" Many of the papers now -reviewed both book and article together, and the _Pall Mall_ ironically -congratulated the Liberal Party on "Mr. Gladstone's new preoccupation." -"For two and a half years," it declared, the G.O.M. had been able to -think of nothing but Home Rule and Ireland. "But Mrs. Ward has changed -all that." The excitement among the reading public was very great. It -penetrated even to the streets, for one of us overheard a panting lady, -hugging a copy of the _Nineteenth Century_, saying to her companion as -she fought her way into an omnibus, "Oh, my dear, _have_ you read Weg on -Bobbie?" Naturally the sale received a fresh stimulus. Two more -three-volume editions disappeared during May, and a seventh and last -during June. Then there was a pause before the appearance of the Popular -or 6s. edition, which came out at the end of July with an impression of -5,000. It was immediately bought up; 7,000 more were disposed of during -August, and the sale went on till the end of the year at the rate of -about 4,000 a month. Even during 1889 it continued steadily, until by -January, 1890, 44,000 copies of the 6_s._ edition had been sold. But as -the sale had then slackened Mr. Smith decided to try the experiment of a -half-crown edition. 20,000 of this were sold by the following November, -but the drop had already set in and during 1891 the total only rose to -23,000. But even so, the sale of these three editions in the United -Kingdom alone had amounted to 70,500. - -All through the spring and summer of 1888 letters poured in upon Mrs. -Ward by the score and the hundred, both from known and unknown -correspondents, so that her husband and sister-in-law had almost to -build a hedge around her and to insist that she should not answer them -all herself. Those which the book provoked from her old friends, -however, especially those of more orthodox views than her own, were -often of poignant interest. The Warden of Keble wrote her six sheets of -friendly argument and remonstrance. Mr. Creighton wrote her a letter -full of closely reasoned criticism of Elsmere's position, to which she -made the following reply: - - -_March 13, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MAX,-- - - I have been deeply interested by your letter, and am very grateful - to you for the fairness and candour of it. Perhaps it is an - affectation to say always that one likes candour!--but I certainly - like it from you, and should be aggrieved if you did not give it - me. - - I think you only evade the whole issue raised by the book when you - say that Elsmere was never a Christian. Of course in the case of - every one who goes through such a change, it is easy to say this; - it is extremely difficult to prove it; and all probability is - against its being true in every case. What do you really fall back - upon when you say that if Elsmere had been a Christian he could not - have been influenced as he was? Surely on the "inward witness." But - the "inward witness," or as you call it "the supernatural life," - belongs to every religion that exists. The Andaman islander even - believes himself filled by his God, the devout Buddhist and - Mahommedan certainly believe themselves under divine and - supernatural direction, and have been inspired by the belief to - heroic efforts and sufferings. What is, in essence and - fundamentally, to distinguish your "inner witness" from theirs? And - if the critical observer maintains that this "supernatural life" is - in all cases really an intense life of the imagination, differently - peopled and conditioned, what answer have you? - - None, unless you appeal to the facts and _fruits_ of Christianity. - The Church has always done so. Only the Quaker or the Quietist can - stand mainly on the "inward witness." - - The fruits we are not concerned with. But it is as to the _facts_ - that Elsmere and, as I conceive, our whole modern time is really - troubled. An acute Scotch economist was talking to Humphry the - other day about the religious change in the Scotch lowlands. "It is - so pathetic," he said: "when I was young religion was the main - interest, the passionate occupation of the whole people. Now when I - go back there, as I constantly do, I find everything changed. The - old keenness is gone, the people's minds are turning to other - things; there is a restless consciousness, coming they know not - whence, but invading every stratum of life, that _the evidence is - not enough_." There, on another scale, is Elsmere's experience writ - large. Why is he to be called "very ill-trained," and his - impressions "accidental" because he undergoes it?... What convinced - _me_ finally and irrevocably was two years of close and constant - occupation with the materials of history in those centuries which - lie near to the birth of Christianity, and were the critical - centuries of its development. I then saw that to adopt the witness - of those centuries to matters of fact, without translating it at - every step into the historical language of our own day--a language - which the long education of time has brought closer to the - realities of things--would be to end by knowing nothing, actually - and truly, about their life. And if one is so to translate - Augustine and Jerome, nay even Suetonius and Tacitus, when they - talk to you of raisings from the dead, and making blind men to see, - why not St. Paul and the Synoptics? - - I don't think you have ever felt this pressure, though within the - limits of your own work I notice that you are always so translating - the language of the past. But those who have, cannot escape it by - any appeal to the "inward witness." They too, or many of them, - still cling to a religious life of the imagination, nay perhaps - they live for it, but it must be one where the expansive energies - of life and reason cannot be always disturbing and tormenting, - which is less vulnerable and offers less prey to the plunderer than - that which depends on the orthodox Christian story. - -Another old friend, Mrs. Edward Conybeare, wrote to contend that the -"mere life and death of the carpenter's son of Nazareth could never have -proved the vast historical influence for good which you allow it to be," -had that life ended in - - "nothing but a Syrian grave." - -Mrs. Ward replied to her as follows:-- - - -_May 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR FRANCES, - - It was very interesting to me to get your letter about _Robert - Elsmere_. I wish we could have a good talk about it. Writing is - very difficult to me, for the letters about it are overwhelming, - and I am always as you know more or less hampered by writer's - cramp. - - I am thinking of "A Conversation" for one of the summer numbers of - the _Nineteenth Century_, in which some of the questions which are - only suggested in the book may be carried a good deal further. For - the more I think and read the more plain the great lines of that - distant past become to me, the more clearly I see God at work - there, through the forms of thought, the beliefs, the capacities of - the first three centuries, as I see Him at work now, through the - forms of thought, the beliefs and capacities of our own. - Christianity was the result of many converging lines of thought and - development. The time was ripe for a moral revolution, and a great - personality, and the great personality came. That a life of - importance and far-reaching influence could have been lived within - the sphere of religion at that moment, or for centuries afterwards, - without undergoing a process of miraculous amplification, would, I - think, have been impossible. The generations before and the - generations after supply illustration after illustration of it. - That Jesus, our dear Master, partly shared this tendency of his - time and was partly bewildered and repelled by it, is very plain to - me. - - As to the belief in the Resurrection, I have many things to say - about it, and shall hope to say them in public when I have pondered - them long enough. But I long to say them not negatively, for - purposes of attack, but positively, for purposes of - reconstruction. It is about the new forms of faith and the new - grounds of combined action that I really care intensely. I want to - challenge those who live in doubt and indecision from year's end to - year's end, to think out the matter, and for their children's sake - to count up what remains to them, and to join frankly for purposes - of life and conduct with those who are their spiritual fellows. It - is the levity or the cowardice that will not think, or the - indolence and self-indulgence that is only too glad to throw off - restraints, which we have to fear. But in truth for religion, or - for the future, I have no fear at all. God is his own vindication - in human life. - -But apart from the religious argument, the characters in _Robert -Elsmere_ aroused the greatest possible interest, especially perhaps that -of Catherine. - - "As an observer of the human ant-hill, quite impartial by this - time," wrote Prof. Huxley, "I think your picture of one of the - deeper aspects of our troubled times admirable. You are very hard - on the philosophers: I do not know whether Langham or the Squire is - the more unpleasant--but I have a great deal of sympathy with the - latter, so I hope he is not the worse. - - "If I may say so, I think the picture of Catherine is the gem of - the book. She reminds me of her namesake of Siena--and would as - little have failed in any duty, however gruesome. You remember - Sodoma's picture?" - -The appreciation of her French friends was always very dear to Mrs. -Ward, and amongst them too the book was eagerly read by a small circle, -though, as Scherer warned her, the subject could never become a popular -one in France. But both he and M. Taine were greatly excited by it, -while M. André Michel of the Louvre, to whom she had entrusted the copy -which she desired to present to M. Taine, wrote her a delightful account -of his embassy: - - -PARIS. -_ce 31 janvier, 1889._ - -CHERE MADAME,-- - - Votre lettre m'a été une bien agréable surprise et une bien - intéressante lecture. Je l'ai immédiatement communiquée à M. - Taine, en lui remettant l'exemplaire que vous lui destiniez de - _Robert Elsmere_ et je vous avoue qu'en me rendant chez lui à cet - effet, je me _rengorgeais_ un peu, très-fier de servir - d'intermédiaire entre l'auteur de _Robert Elsmere_ et celui de la - _Littérature Anglaise_. L'âne portant des reliques chez son évêque - ne marchait pas plus solennellement! - - M. Taine a été très-touché de cet hommage venant de vous, et je - pense qu'il vous en a déjà remercié lui-même. J'aurais voulu que - vous eussiez pu entendre--incognito--avec quelle vivacité de - sympathie et d'admiration il parlait de votre livre. Pendant - plusieurs jours, il n'a pas été question d'autre chose chez lui. - -The cumulative effect of all these letters, both approving and -disapproving; of the preachings on Robert's opinions that began with Mr. -Haweis in May, and continued at intervals throughout the summer; of the -general atmosphere of celebrity that began to surround her, was -extremely upsetting to so sensitive a nature as Mrs. Ward's, and much of -it was and remained distasteful to her. But fame had its lighter sides. -There were the inevitable sonnets, beginning - - "I thank you, Lady, for your book so pure," - -or - - "Hail to thee, gentle leader, puissant knight!"-- - -there were inquiries as to the address of the "New Brotherhood of -Christ," "so that next time we are in London we may attend some of its -meetings," and there was a gentleman who demanded to know "the opus no. -of the Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven mentioned on p. 239, and of Hans -Sachs's Immortal Song quoted on p. 177. I am in want of a little fresh -music for one of my daughters and shall esteem your kind reply." And -finally there was the following letter, which must be transcribed in -full: - - -DEAR MADAM,-- - - Trusting to your Clemency, in seeking your advice, knowing my - sphere in life, to be so far below your's. My Mother, who is a - Cook-Housekeeper, but very fond of Literature, Poetry - ("unfortunately"), in her younger days brought out a small volume, - upon her own account, a copy of which Her Majesty graciously - accepted. Tennyson considered it most "meritorious," Caryle most - "creditable." But what I am asking your advice upon is her - "Autography," her Cook's Career, which has been a checquered one. - She feels quite sure, that if it were brought out by an abler hand, - it would be widely sought and read, at least by two classes "my - Ladies" and Cooks. The matter would be truth, names and places - strictously ficticious. With much admiration and respect, - -I am, Madam, -Yours Obediently, -A. A. - -History does not record what reply Mrs. Ward made to this interesting -proposal, but no doubt she took it all as part of the great and amusing -game that Fate was playing with her. As to that game--"I have still -constant letters and reviews," she wrote to her father on July 17, "and -have been more lionized this last month than ever.--But a little -lionizing goes a long way! One's sense of humour protests, not to speak -of anything more serious, and I shall be _very_ glad to get to Borough -next week. As to my work, it is all in uncertainty. For the present Miss -Sellers is coming to me in the country, and I shall work hard at Latin -and Greek, especially the Greek of the New Testament." - -And to her old friend, Mrs. Johnson, she wrote: "Being lionized, dear -Bertha, is the foolishest business on earth; I have just had five weeks -of it, and if I don't use it up in a novel some day it's a pity. The -book has been strangely, wonderfully successful and has made me many new -friends. But I love my old ones so much best!" This latter sentiment is -expressed again in a letter to Mr. Ward: "Strange how tenacious are -one's first friendships! No other friends can ever be to me quite like -Charlotte or Louise or Bertha or Clara.[13] They know all there is to -know, bad and good--and with them one is always at ease." - -That autumn they went off on a round of visits, staying first at -Merevale with Mrs. Dugdale, whose husband had been killed three years -before in his own mine near by--a story of simple heroism which moved -Mrs. Ward profoundly, so that years afterwards she used it in her own -tale of _George Tressady_. Then to Sir Robert and Lady Cunliffe, with -whom they went over to see the "old wizard" of Hawarden, and spent a -wonderful hour in his company. - -To her old friend, J. R. Thursfield (a staunch Home Ruler), she wrote -the following account of it: - - -_September 14, 1888._ - - "Where do you think we spent the afternoon of the day before - yesterday? You would have been _so_ much worthier of it than we! - The Cunliffes took us over to tea at Hawarden and the G.O.M. was - delightful. First of all he showed us the old Norman keep, skipping - up the steps in a way to make a Tory positively ill to see, talking - of every subject under the sun--Sir Edward Watkin and their new - line of railway, border castles, executions in the sixteenth - century, Villari's _Savonarola_, Damiens and his tortures--'all for - sticking half-an-inch of penknife into that beast Louis - XV!'--modern poetry, Tupper, Lewis Morris, Lord Houghton and Heaven - knows what besides, and all with a charm, a courtesy, an _élan_, an - eagle glance of eye that sent regretful shivers down one's Unionist - backbone. He showed us all his library--his literary table, and his - political table, and his new toy, the strong fire-proof room he has - just built to hold his 60,000 letters, the papers which will some - day be handed over to his biographer. His vigour both of mind and - body was astonishing--he may well talk, as he did, of 'the foolish - dogmatism which refuses to believe in centenarians.'" - -À propos of this last remark, Mrs. Ward filled in the tale on her return -by telling us how he turned upon her with flashing eye and demanded: -"Did it ever occur to you, Mrs. Ward, that Lord Palmerston was Prime -Minister at 81?" He himself was to surpass that record by returning to -power at 82. - -From the Cunliffes' they also made an expedition to the Peak country, -which Mrs. Ward wished to explore for purposes of her next book (_David -Grieve_), now already taking shape in her mind--and then travelled up to -Scotland to stay at a great house to whose mistress, Lady Wemyss, she -was devoted. From one who was afterwards to be known as the portrayer of -English country-house life the following impressions may be of interest: - - -_To Mrs. A. H. Johnson_ - -FOX GHYLL, AMBLESIDE, -_October 21, 1888_. - -...Yes, we had many visits and on the whole very pleasant ones. In - Derbyshire I saw a farm and a moorland which I shall try to make - the British public see some day. Then on we went to the Lyulph - Stanleys', saw them, and Castle Howard and Rivaulx, and journeyed - on by the coast to Redcar and the Hugh Bells. There we found Alice - Green, and had a merry time. Afterwards came a week at Gosford, - whereof the pleasure was mixed. Lady Wemyss I love more than ever, - but the party in the house was large and very smart, and with the - best will in the world on both sides it is difficult for plain - literary folk who don't belong to it to get much entertainment out - of a circle where everybody is cousin of everybody else, and on - Christian name terms, and where the women at any rate, though - pleasant enough, are taken up with "places," jewels and Society - with a big S. I don't mean to be unfair. Most of them are good and - kindly, and have often unsuspected "interests," but naturally the - paraphernalia of their position plays a large part in their lives, - and makes a sort of hedge round them through which it is hard to - get at the genuine human being. - - Perhaps our most delightful visit was a Saturday to Monday with Mr. - Balfour, at Whittinghame. There life is lived, intellectually, on - the widest and freest of all possible planes, and the master of it - all is one to whom nature has given a peculiar charm and magnetism, - in addition to all that he has made for himself by toil and - trouble. - -...I am a little disturbed by the announcement of a _Quarterly_ - article on _R.E._ It must be hostile--perhaps an attack in the old - _Quarterly_ fashion: well, if so I shall be in good company! But I - don't want to have to answer--I want to be free to think new - thoughts and imagine fresh things. - -When the _Quarterly_ article appeared a few days later she found it -courteous enough in tone, but its attitude of complacent superiority -towards the whole critical process, which it described as "a phase of -thought long ago lived through and practically dead," stung her to -action and made her feel that some reply--to this and Gladstone -together--was now unavoidable. She owed it to her own position--not as a -scholar, for she never claimed that title, but as an interpreter of -scholars and their work to the modern public. But "If I do reply," she -wrote to her husband, "I shall make it as substantive and constructive -as possible. All the attacking, destructive part is so distasteful to -me. I can only go through with it as a necessary element in a whole -which is not negative but positive." But she could not be induced even -by Mr. Knowles's persuasions to make it a regular "reply" to Mr. -Gladstone, whose name is not once mentioned throughout the article[14]; -she threw her argument instead into dialogue form, so keeping the -artistic ground which she had used in the novel, and replying to the -_Quarterly_ or to the G.O.M. rather by allusion than by direct argument. -The article was very widely read and certainly carried her cause a stage -further; it was felt that here was something that had come to stay, that -must be reckoned with, and her skilful use of the admissions made in the -Church Congress that year as to the date and authorship of certain books -of the Old Testament filled her readers with a vague feeling that -perhaps after all these things must be faced for the New Testament also. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile in America the hubbub produced by _Robert Elsmere_ had far -exceeded anything that occurred on this side of the Atlantic. Those were -the days before International Copyright, when any American publisher was -free to issue the works of British authors without their consent and -without payment, and when if an "authorized edition" was issued by some -reputable firm which had paid the author for his rights, it could be -undersold the next day by some adventurous "pirate." Messrs. Macmillan -had bought the American rights of _Robert Elsmere_ for a small sum and -had issued it at $1.50 in April, but as soon as it began to excite -attention, and especially after the appearance of Gladstone's article, -the pirate firms rushed in and raged furiously with each other and with -Macmillan's to get the book out at the lowest possible price. One -firm--Messrs. Lowell & Co.--which had sold tens of thousands of copies, -magnanimously sent the author a cheque for £100, but this was the only -payment which Mrs. Ward ever received for _Robert Elsmere_ from an -American publisher. Some of the incidents of the internecine war between -the pirates themselves for control of the _Robert Elsmere_ market are -still worth recording. They were summed up in a well-informed article in -the _Manchester Guardian_ in March, 1889, entitled _The "Book-Rats" of -the United States_: - - "In America the publisher's lot is not a happy one. If he is - honest, he pays his author, and upon the first assurance of success - sees nine-tenths of his lawful profits swept away by the incursions - of pirates. If he is dishonest, he does not pay his author, but in - hot haste reprints in cheap and nasty material, with one object - alone--to undersell the legitimate publisher. A host more follow - suit with new reprints in still cheaper and nastier material, till, - under the pretence of giving cheap literature to the million, the - culminating point is reached in the man who sells at a quarter of - cost price to drive his rivals out of the field. This is what - happened the other day in Boston over the sale of _Robert Elsmere_, - a book which has there achieved an unparalleled success, and - abundantly illustrates the inequality of the present system of no - copyright. In England between thirty and forty thousand copies have - already been sold in the nine months since it was published, and - the book is selling steadily at the rate of some 700 a week. In - America the sale is estimated at 200,000 copies, of which 150,000 - are in pirated editions. One honest pirate purges his conscience by - the magnificent gift of £100, which is likely to be the first and - last instalment of that 'handsome competence which the American - reading public,' says a Rhode Island newspaper, 'owes to Mrs. - Ward.' A hundred pounds, representing just one shilling and - fourpence per hundred copies upon all the pirated editions! And the - author must be thankful for such mercies; rights she has none over - her own creation, which pervades the States from end to end, and - is not only a library in itself, but has called into existence so - much polemical literature that a leading New York paper gives - solemn warning to contributors that for the future sermons on - _Robert Elsmere_ will only be published at the ordinary - advertisement rates. A Buffalo advertisement cries, 'Who has yet - touched _Robert Elsmere_ at ten cents?' only to be taken down by - Jordan Marsh and Co., the 'Whiteleys' of Boston, who offered the - book at four cents. Twopence for a book which extends over 400 - pages in close-printed octavo! The stroke told, almost too - successfully for its contrivers. It is said that next day the shop - doors were besieged by a crowd like the surging throng at the - entrance to the Lyceum pit on a first night. A queue extended - across the street. For three days the enterprising pirate had the - field to himself; then he raised his price again; he had lost some - ten cents on every copy, but he had crushed his rivals." - -The achievement of one still more enterprising firm, however, escaped -the notice of this correspondent. The Balsam Fir Soap Co., being anxious -to launch their new soap upon the market, made the following -announcement: - - -TO THE PUBLIC - - We beg to announce that we have purchased an edition of the Hyde - Park Company's _Robert Elsmere_, and also their edition of _Robert - Elsmere and the Battle of Belief_--a criticism by the Right Hon. W. - E. Gladstone, M.P. - - These two books will be presented to each purchaser of a single - cake of Balsam Fir Soap. - -Respectfully, -THE MAINE BALSAM FIR CO. - -Thus was poor Robert, with his doubts and dreams, his labours and his -faith, given away with a cake of soap! - -But this was not all, nor even the worst. When the boom was still at its -height, in the spring of 1889, Mrs. Ward was horrified to hear that a -full-blown dramatized version of the book, by William Gillette, had -actually been produced in Boston, with a "comedy element," as the -newspaper report described it, "involving an English exquisite and a -horsey husband," thrown in, the Squire and Grey eliminated, and Langham -"endowed with such nobility of character as ultimately to marry Rose." -She at once cabled her protest with some energy and succeeded in getting -the further performance of the play stopped; but hardly was this episode -ended than another followed on its heels. - - "A writer in the New York _Tribune_," wrote the _Glasgow Herald_ in - April, 1889, "exposes a most barefaced trick of trading upon Mrs. - Humphry Ward's name. A continuation, he says, of _Robert Elsmere_ - has already been begun by an American publisher, and advance - sheets, containing thrilling instalments of the romantic adventures - of _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, are being scattered broadcast over - the length and breadth of the United States. The industrious agents - of the publisher of this sheet have been busily engaged in - inserting sample chapters of this new novel under the doors of - houses all over New York. This, however, is not the worst feature - of the trick. From the title of the story the impression sought to - be conveyed is that Mrs. Humphry Ward, the authoress of _Robert - Elsmere_, is responsible, too, for _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, the - headings of the story being arranged in this specious shape: - '_Robert Elsmere's Daughter_--a companion story to _Robert - Elsmere_--by Mrs. Humphry Ward.'" - -It was no wonder that the scandal of these events was used by the -promoters of the International Copyright Bill then before Congress as -one of their most powerful arguments; for there were many honourable -publishing firms in America which abhorred these proceedings and were -only anxious to regularize their relations with British authors. Mr. -George Haven Putnam, head of the firm of G. P. Putnam's Sons, and the -International Copyright Committee which he formed, had already been -working in this direction for some years; but the opposition was -strenuous, and it was only in March, 1891, that the Copyright Bill which -was to have so great an effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes actually became -law in the United States. Even before that, however, very flattering -offers were made to her by American publishers--especially by Mr. S. S. -McClure, founder of the then youthful _McClure's Magazine_--for the -right of publishing the "authorized version" of her next book. Mr. -McClure tried to beguile her into writing him a "novelette," or a -"romance of Bible times," but Mrs. Ward was not to be moved. She had -already begun work upon her next book (_David Grieve_), and all she said -in writing to her sister (Mrs. Huxley) was: "This American, Mr. McClure, -is a wonderful man. He has offered me £1,000 for the serial rights of a -story as long as _Milly and Olly_! Naturally I am not going to do it, -but it is amusing." To her father she wrote in more serious mood about -the American boom: - - "It is a great moral strain, this extraordinary success. I feel - often as though it were a struggle to preserve one's full - individuality, and one's sense of truth and proportion in the teeth - of it. There is no help but to look away from oneself and - everything that pertains to self, to the Eternal and Divine things, - to live penetrated with the feebleness and poverty of self and the - greatness of God." - -Yet naturally she enjoyed the many letters from Americans of all ranks -and classes which reached her during the autumn and winter of 1888. The -veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to her in his most charming vein, -speaking of the book as a "medicated novel, which will do much to -improve the secretions and clear the obstructed channels of the decrepit -theological system." W. R. Thayer, afterwards the biographer of Cavour, -wrote: - - "The extraordinary popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ is a most - significant symptom of the spiritual conditions of this country. No - book since _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ has had so sudden and wide a - diffusion among all classes of readers; and I believe that no other - book of equal seriousness ever had so quick a hearing. I have seen - it in the hands of nursery-maids, and of shop-girls behind the - counter; of frivolous young women, who read every novel that is - talked about; of business men, professors, students, and even - schoolboys. The newspapers and periodicals are still discussing it, - and, perhaps the best sign of all, it has been preached against by - the foremost clergymen of all denominations." - -And a sturdy rationalist, Mr. W. D. Childs, thus recorded his protest: - - "I regret the popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ in this country. Our - western people are like sheep in such matters. They will not see - that the book was written for a people with a State Church on its - hands, that a gross exaggeration of the importance of religion was - necessary. It will revive interest in theology and retard the - progress of rationalism. - - "Am I not right in this? You surely cannot think it good for - individuals or for societies to take religion seriously, when there - is so much economic disorder in the world, when the mass of - physical and mental suffering is so obviously reducible only by - material means." - -It was very delightful, of course, to be making a little money from the -book, after so many years of strenuous work, and though the sum she had -earned was still a modest one (about £3,200 by January, 1889), it -enabled her and her husband to make plans for the future and to embark -on the purchase of some land for building in the still unspoilt country -to the east of Haslemere. Here, on Grayswood Hill, overlooking the vast -tangle of the Weald as far as Chanctonbury Ring and the South Downs, a -red-brick house of moderate size, cunningly designed by Mr. Robson, -gradually arose during 1889 and the first part of 1890; but while it was -still building a fortunate accident placed in our way the chance of -living for three months in a far different habitation--John Hampden's -wonderful old house near Great Missenden, which was then in a state of -interregnum, and might be rented for a small sum. - - "It will be quite an adventure," wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher - in July, 1889, "for in spite of the beauty and romance of the place - there is hardly enough furniture of a ramshackle kind in it to - enable us to camp for three months in tolerable comfort! But by - dint of sending down a truck load of baths, carpets and saucepans - from home we shall get on, and our expenses will be less than if we - took a villa at Westgate." - -And to Mrs. Johnson, of Oxford, who was coming with her whole family to -stay there, Mrs. Ward wrote three days after her arrival: - - "The furniture of the house is decrepit, scanty and decayed, but it - has breeding and refinement, and is a thousand times preferable to - any luxurious modern stuff. I am _perfectly_ happy here, and bless - the lucky chance which drew our attention to the advertisement. I - will not spoil the old house and gardens and park for you by - describing them--but they are a dream, and the out-at-elbowness of - everything is an additional charm." - -So for three months we stayed at Hampden, revelling in its beauty and -its spaciousness, learning to know the Chiltern country with its -chalk-downs and beech-woods, entertaining many visitors, including the -much-loved Professor Huxley, and watching anxiously for the ghost that -walked in the passage outside the tapestry-room on moonlight nights. It -never walked for us, though Mrs. Ward sat up many times to woo it, but -there were plenty of ghosts of another sort in a house that had -sheltered Queen Elizabeth on one of her "progresses," that still -possessed the chair in which John Hampden had sat when they came to -arrest him for ship-money, and that had guarded his body at the last, -when his Greencoats bore it thither from Thame to lie in the great hall -for one more night before its burial in the little church across the -garden. At first there were no lamps, and we groped about with stumps of -candles after dark, but gradually all the more glaring deficiencies were -remedied and Mrs. Ward settled down to a happy three months of work on -her new novel, _David Grieve_. But as she wrote of her two wild children -on the Derbyshire moors, or of young David and his books in Manchester, -the very different scene around her formed itself in her mind into a new -setting, from which arose in course of time _Marcella_. - -Meanwhile it was not Hampden's ghost but Elsmere's that still haunted -her, in the sense that the "New Brotherhood" with which the novel ended -would not die with it, but struggled dumbly in the author's mind for -expression in some living form. Some time before she had been deeply -impressed by a visit she had paid to Toynbee Hall with "Max Creighton," -as she wrote to her father, when she found that "in the library there -_R.E._ had been read to pieces, and in a workmen's club which had just -been started several ideas had been taken from the "New Brotherhood." -The experience had remained with her; she had brooded and dreamt over -it, and now when she returned to London in the autumn of 1889 she began -for the first time to try to work out the idea in consultation with -certain chosen friends. "Lord Carlisle came and had a long talk with M. -about a proposed Unitarian Toynbee somewhere in South London"--so wrote -the little sister-in-law (herself an orthodox Christian) in her journal -on November 11, 1889. And a little later: "Mr. Stopford Brooke came and -had a long talk with her about a 'New Brotherhood' they hope to start -with Lord Carlisle and a few others to help." - -Was it to be a new religion, or a re-vivifying of the old? The impulse -to build up, to re-create, was hot within her; could she not appeal to -her generation to help her in following out this impulse towards some -practical goal? Was there not room for another Toynbee, inspired still -more definitely than the first with the ideals of a simpler -Christianity? The dæmon drove; surely the very success of her book -showed that this was the need of the new age in which she lived. She -plunged into the task, and only time and Fate were to reveal that the -"new religion" was doomed to take no outward form, but to work itself -out in ways undreamt of as yet by the author of _Robert Elsmere_. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL--_DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS" - -1889-1892 - - -The conversations with Stopford Brooke and Lord Carlisle mentioned in -the last chapter contained the germ of all that public work which was to -claim henceforth so large a share of Mrs. Ward's life. Up to this point -she had hardly taken any part in London committees; indeed, those -spacious days were still comparatively free from them, and it is -remembered that when the first meeting of the group with whom she was -discussing her new scheme took place at Russell Square,[15] one -irreverent child in the schoolroom next door said to its fellow, "What's -a committee?" "Oh," said the elder, in the manner of one who imparts -information, "it's when the grown-ups get together, and first they -think, and then they talk, and then they think again." At the moment no -sound was audible through the wall. "They must be thinking now," said -the instructor carelessly, leaving his junior to the solemn belief, held -for many years, that a committee was a sort of prayer-meeting. - -That first group, who discussed and finally approved Mrs. Ward's draft -circular announcing the foundation of a "Hall for Residents" in London, -consisted of the following men and women besides herself: Dr. Martineau, -Dr. James Drummond, of Manchester College, Oxford, Mr. Stopford Brooke, -Lord Carlisle, Rev. W. Copeland Bowie, Dr. Estlin Carpenter, Mr. -Frederick Nettlefold, the Dowager Countess Russell, Miss Frances Power -Cobbe, and lastly, Dr. Blake Odgers, Q.C., who acted as Hon. Treasurer. -Mr. Copeland Bowie, who helped Mrs. Ward for several months as a "kind -of assistant secretary," has recorded his impressions of those crowded -days in an article which he wrote for the _Inquirer_ on April 3, 1920: - - "We met in the dining-room at Russell Square. Mrs. Ward was the - moving and executive force; the rest of us were simply admiring and - sympathetic spectators of her enterprise and zeal. It is delightful - to recall her abounding activity and enthusiasm. Difficulties were - overcome, criticisms were answered, work was carried on with - extraordinary devotion and skill. Several meetings were devoted to - the consideration of how to proceed, for the pathway was beset by - many difficulties. At last, early in March, 1890, a scheme for the - establishment of a Settlement at University Hall, Gordon Square, in - a part of the old building belonging to Dr. Williams's Trustees, - was agreed upon. The religious note is very prominent. University - Hall would encourage 'an improved popular teaching of the Bible and - the history of religion, in order to show the adaptability of the - faith of the past to the needs of the present.'" - -The aims of the new movement were, in fact, set forth in the original -circular in these words: - - "It has been determined to establish a Hall for residents in - London, somewhat on the lines of Toynbee Hall, with the following - objects in view: - - "1. To provide a fresh rallying point and enlarged means of common - religious action for all those to whom Christianity, whether by - inheritance or process of thought, has become a system of practical - conduct, based on faith in God, and on the inspiring memory of a - great teacher, rather than a system of dogma based on a unique - revelation. Such persons especially, who, while holding this point - of view, have not yet been gathered into any existing religious - organization, are often greatly in want of those helps towards the - religious life, whether in thought or action, which are so readily - afforded by the orthodox bodies to their own members. The first aim - of the new Hall will be a religious aim. - - [Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)] - - "2. The Hall will endeavour to promote an improved popular teaching - of the Bible and of the history of religion. To this end - continuous teaching will be attempted under its roof on such - subjects as Old and New Testament criticism, the history of - Christianity, and that of non-Christian religions. A special effort - will be made to establish Sunday teaching both at the Hall and, by - the help of the Hall residents, in other parts of London, for - children of all classes. The children of well-to-do parents are - often worse off in this matter of careful religious teaching than - those of their poorer neighbours. There can be little doubt that - many persons are deeply dissatisfied with the whole state of - popular religious teaching in England. Either it is purely - dogmatic, taking no account of the developments of modern thought - and criticism, or it is colourless and perfunctory, the result of a - compromise which satisfies and inspires nobody. Yet that a simpler - Christianity can be frankly and effectively taught, so as both to - touch the heart and direct the will, is the conviction and familiar - experience of many persons in England, America, France and Holland. - But the new teaching wants organizing, deepening and extending. It - should be the aim of the proposed Hall to work towards such an - end." - -It was natural that such ideals as these should appeal in a peculiar way -to the Unitarian community, and we find in fact that the first -subscription list, which guaranteed an income of about £700 to -University Hall for three years, contains a preponderance of Unitarian -names. Lord Carlisle and Mr. Stopford Brooke were in favour of calling -it frankly a Unitarian Settlement. "There is a life and spirit about the -things which are done by Dissenters," wrote Lord Carlisle, "which I -believe can never be got out of people who have a lingering feeling for -the Church of England." But the majority on the Committee, including -Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau, thought that this would be setting -unnecessary limits to the movement, which they rather intended to be a -leaven permeating the lump both of orthodoxy and of indifferentism. It -was therefore agreed not to use the word in the preliminary circular, -though all the world could see from the names on the Committee that the -tone of the new Settlement would be largely that of the younger and -freer Unitarianism which had founded Manchester College, Oxford. It was -one of Mrs. Ward's most characteristic achievements that while she -herself never sympathized with Unitarianism as an organization, she was -yet able to work closely with Unitarians in this her first great -enterprise, sharing with them their enthusiasm for the Christian message -and their austere devotion to truth, while herself cherishing that -"lingering feeling for the Church of England" which forbade her to -identify herself with any outside body while there was still hope of -influencing and widening the national Church. Yet for all practical -purposes the breach between the "new religion," as its critics -contemptuously dubbed it, and the Establishment was complete enough, and -the foundation of University Hall only confirmed the orthodox in their -disapproval of Mrs. Ward and all her works. - -Besides its definitely religious aim, the new Settlement was to have a -well-marked social side as well. This is set forth in another paragraph -of the circular: - - "It is intended that the Hall shall do its utmost to secure for its - residents opportunities for religious and social work, and for the - study of social problems, such as are possessed by the residents at - Toynbee Hall or those at Oxford House. There will be a certain - number of rooms in the Hall which can be used for social purposes, - for lectures, for recreative and continuation classes and so on. - Though the Hall itself is in one of the West Central Squares, it is - surrounded on three sides by districts crowded with poor. A room - could be taken for workers from the Hall in any of these districts - or in the Drury Lane neighbourhood. In addition, the Hall is close - to Gower Street Station, so that it would be comparatively easy for - the residents to take part in any of the organizations already - existing in the East or South of London, for the help of the poor - and the study of social problems." - -And in spite of the religious ardour of its founders, it was in this -aspect of the work of University Hall that the germ of future -developments really lay. But the future lay hidden as yet from Mrs. Ward -and her gifted band of associates and fellow-workers. - -Many difficulties were encountered in the appointment of a suitable -Warden, for a combination of qualities was required which was not easy -to find, especially in the limited circle of those whose views in -matters of faith agreed broadly with those of the Committee. Month after -month went by while Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau interviewed many -candidates, often assisted by Canon Barnett, of Toynbee, whose interest -in the new venture was as sincere as it was generous. Applications from -possible residents came in fast, showing that the work would not lack -support in that direction, but even in August the Warden was still to -seek. At length, however, in September, the ideal choice was made in Mr. -Philip Wicksteed, who was then holding the office of minister at the -Unitarian chapel in Little Portland Street. He was already beginning to -be widely known outside his regular work as a lecturer on Biblical -subjects and on Dante, and Mrs. Ward had already sounded him once or -twice in this matter of the Wardenship. But he had hitherto evaded it on -the ground that his election would identify the Hall with Unitarianism. -At last, however, Mrs. Ward won his acceptance at an interview she had -with him at Russell Square, in which she greeted him with the words "I -want to _wrestle_ with you!" He dealt frankly with her on the subject of -the religious aims of the Hall, and in a letter written to her a few -days after his acceptance said: - - "You remember when first you spoke to me on this matter how I told - you that I had never been clear as to the exact thing contemplated - in the Hall, and had never felt that it had any programme. Under - those circumstances I felt that it would be false to myself and in - reality false to you to allow myself to be overcome by your - splendid faith and enthusiasm and take it up without any true - inspiration in pity that so noble a 'quest' should find no - knight-errant to try it. - - "My work with you has considerably cleared my vision, and has - inspired me with growing _hopes_ for the institution, but I cannot - honestly say that it has given me any deep _faith_ in its success. - You know how anxious I have been throughout about our audience for - lectures, and how doubtful about the existence of any large public - seriously interested in Biblical studies. My fears are not allayed; - though I hope the result may put them to shame." - -With Mr. Wicksteed's acceptance of the Wardenship, the arrangements for -lectures and the preparations for the reception of Residents were -pushed on apace, while the Committee decided that a formal opening -ceremony must be held in order to plant the flag of the new Settlement's -faith and ideals. The Portman Rooms were taken for the purpose; the -venerable Dr. Martineau consented to be in the chair, and Mrs. Ward was -to make the principal speech. She had never spoken in public before, and -was genuinely terrified at the prospect (three years later she put into -_Marcella's_ experience in the East End her own horror of extempore -speaking); but she prepared her address with great care, and was -afterwards told that her voice carried to the farthest limits of the -room, packed as it was with a keenly expectant audience. Her plea was -that the time had come for a reconstruction of the basis of Christian -belief; that the results both of Darwinian inquiry and of historical -criticism must be faced, especially in the teaching of children, but -that when the "search for an exacter truth, which is the fate and -mission of humanity" had been met, a possibility of faith remained which -would be the future hope of the world. To the elucidation of this faith -the efforts of the Hall, on its teaching and lecturing side, would be -devoted. And in speaking of the "social and practical effort which is an -_essential_ part of our scheme," she pleaded that it was "yet not its -most distinctive nor its most vital part. The need of urging it on -public attention is recognized in all camps. Yet, meanwhile, there are -hundreds of men and women who spend themselves in these works of charity -and mercy who are all the time inwardly starved, crying for something -else, something more, if they could but get it. What matters to them, -first and foremost--what would give fresh life to all their -efforts--would be the provision of a new motive power, a new hope for -the individual life in God, a new respect for man's destiny. Let me -recall you for a moment from the gospel of works to the great Pauline -gospel of faith, and the inner life! It is in the bringing back of -_faith_--not the faith which confuses legend with history, or puts -authority in the place of knowledge, but the faith which springs from -moral and spiritual fact, and may be day after day, and hour after hour, -again verified by fact--that the great task of our generation lies." - -Thus was the new venture launched, amid a mingled chorus of admiration -and criticism from that section of the world which was affected by the -movement of ideas. The lecturing at University Hall was soon in full -swing, and was maintained at a very high level during the years 1891 and -1892, so that when Mrs. Ward went on a speaking tour to some of the -northern towns in the autumn of the latter year in order to appeal for -funds for a further period of three years (an appeal in which she was -completely successful), she was able to give a very remarkable account -of it. Many courses on both Old and New Testament criticism had been -given, by Mr. Wicksteed, by Dr. Estlin Carpenter, by M. Chavannes, of -Leyden; on the Fourth Gospel by that fine scholar, Mr. Charles Hargrove; -on Theism by Prof. Knight, and on the Gospel of St. Luke by Dr. -Martineau himself. These latter took place on Sunday afternoons during -the spring of 1891. "Sunday after Sunday," said Mrs. Ward, "the Hall of -Dr. Williams's Library was crowded to the doors, and, I believe by many -to whom the line of thought followed in the lectures was of quite fresh -help and service; and it will be long indeed before many of us forget -the last Sunday--the venerable form, the beautiful voice, the note of -unconquerable hope as to the future of faith, and yet of unconquerable -courage as to the rights of the mind! I at least shall always look back -to that hour as to a moment of consecration for our young Institution, -disclosing to us at once its opportunities and its responsibilities." In -the non-Biblical sphere Mrs. J. R. Green had given a series of lectures -on the development of the English towns[16]; Miss Beatrice Potter (soon -to become Mrs. Sidney Webb) a course on the Co-operative Movement, which -became the foundation of her great book on that subject; Mr. Graham -Wallas on "The English Citizen"; Mr. Stopford Brooke on "The English -Poets of the Nineteenth Century"; while the Warden lectured to large -audiences on Dante, and "ground away" (in his own words) at political -economy, thinking aloud before his band of students and "forging forward -on new lines." It was all very stimulating, very much alive; but -whether, as the months passed on, it was exactly carrying out the aims -and intentions of that opening day, some sympathetic observers began to -doubt. - - "I was uneasy all the time," wrote Mr. Wicksteed afterwards to J. - P. T., "because though I thought I was working honestly and in a - way usefully, yet I could never quite feel that the Settlement was - doing the work it set out to do, or that it was quite justifying - its subscription list. But I don't believe your mother, in spite of - a great measure of personal disappointment, ever had the smallest - doubt or misgiving in this matter. She thoroughly believed in the - significance and value of what _was_ being done, and cared for it - with a vivid faith and affection, and supported it with an - inventive enthusiasm, that have always seemed to me the expression - of a generosity and magnanimity of a type and quality that were - quite distinctive." - -An energetic attempt was made to interest the young men employed in the -big shops of Tottenham Court Road in the Hall's activities; but the -times were premature; not until the Great War had loosed the foundations -of our society did the young men of Tottenham Court Road find their way -into the Y.M.C.A. "The young men of Tottenham Court Road," wrote Mr. -Copeland Bowie, "gave no sign that they wished to partake of the food -provided for them at University Hall." Then, somewhat apart from the -lecturing scheme of the Hall, there grew up the body of Residents, young -men of divers attainments and tastes who were hard to mould into the -original scheme, some of whom were even greatly concerned to show that -they depended in no way for their ideas on the author of _Robert -Elsmere_. Occasionally there were difficult moments at the Council -meetings, when the Residents' views clashed with those of the older -members, but it was at those moments, and generally in her gift for -bowing to the inevitable when it came, that Mrs. Ward endeared herself -most to her fellow-workers by her rare great-heartedness. During their -first winter's work at the Hall the Residents had discovered, in the -squalid neighbourhood to the east of Tavistock Square, a dingy building -that went by the name of Marchmont Hall, which they decided to take as -the scene of their regular social activities. They raised a special fund -for its expenses, and under the leadership of a young solicitor, who -combined much shrewdness and ability with a glowing enthusiasm for the -service of his fellow-men, the late Mr. Alfred Robinson, the suspicions -of the neighbourhood were overcome and a fruitful programme of boys' -clubs, men's clubs, concerts and lectures launched by the autumn of -1891. Mrs. Ward was deeply interested in the experiment, and hoped -against hope that it might lead to those opportunities for Christian -teaching which still lay very near her heart. A year later she was able -to give the following account of their first attempts in that direction: - - "The Sunday evening lectures are preceded by half an hour's music, - and have been from the first more definitely ethical and religious - in tone than those given on Thursday. But it is only quite recently - we have felt that we could speak freely, without danger of - misunderstanding, upon those subjects which are generally - identified by the working-classes with sectarian and ecclesiastical - propaganda. Now that we are known we need have no fear; and on - November 12 the Warden, who had already spoken on the prophets of - Israel and other kindred topics, gave an address on the life and - character of Jesus. It was received with warm feeling, and more - lectures of the same kind have already been arranged for. Next term - we hope a class in the Gospels, already begun, may take larger - proportions. Among the boys and young men of the Hall, often - intelligent and well-educated as they are, there is an - extraordinary amount of sheer ignorance and indifference as to the - Christian story and literature, even when they have had their full - share of the usual Sunday School training. To some of us there - could be no more welcome task, to be undertaken at once with - eagerness and with trembling, than that of making old things new to - eyes and hearts still capable of that 'admiration, hope, and love' - by which alone we truly live." - -But the movement never developed, for in truth there was no Elsmere to -lead it; Mrs. Ward herself went three times to take a boy's class on -Sunday afternoons, but could not, in the midst of her other work, -maintain the effort; the Warden, versatile as he was, did not regard it -as his _first_ interest, while from the body of Residents came a dumb -sense of antagonism, not amounting to direct opposition, but just as -effective, which in the end prevailed. The "School" of Biblical studies -at University Hall continued as before, appealing to a definite class of -students and educated persons of the middle-class, but the attempt to -fuse it with the social work at Marchmont Hall was doomed to succeed as -little as the attempt to attract to it the half-educated shopmen of -Tottenham Court Road. Gradually the human interest of the experiment, -the sense of romance and adventure, went over from the lecturing side to -the work at Marchmont Hall, where the popular lectures and discussions, -the Saturday evening concerts and the Saturday morning "play-rooms" for -children were making a real mark on the life of the district. But Mrs. -Ward was fully able to recognize this, and accepted in an ungrudging -spirit the different direction which circumstances had given to her own -cherished dreams. - - "It will be seen readily enough," wrote Mr. Wicksteed in the - memorial pamphlet issued by the Passmore Edwards Settlement, "that - it was on the side of the School rather than on that of the - Residence that Mrs. Ward's ideals seemed to have the best chance of - fulfilling themselves. Yet in truth it was in the Residence that - the germ of future development lay. The greatness of Mrs. Ward's - character was shown in her recognition--painful and unwilling - sometimes, but always brave and loyal--of this fact. She could not - and did not relinquish her "Elsmerean" ideals. The romance of - _Richard Meynell_, published twenty-three years after _Robert - Elsmere_, shows them in unabated ardour. The failure of the - Residence to amalgamate with the School was the source of deep - distress to her. She sometimes suggested measures for overcoming it - that did not approve themselves to her colleagues, but throughout - she never suspected their loyalty, and never failed in her own. It - needed rare magnanimity. Patience seems too passive a word to apply - to so ardent a spirit, but something that did the work of patience - was very truly there. And as she came to recognize that with the - available material the Settlement could not be the embodiment of - her full ideal, she withdrew her vital energies from the attempt to - force a passage where none was possible, she steadily refused to - let blood flow through a wound that could be and should be healed, - and she threw all the strength of her inventive and resourceful - mind--and what is more the full stream of her affection and joy in - accomplished good--into the development of such branches of her - purpose as by that agency could be furthered." - -By the year 1893 the situation as between University Hall and Marchmont -Hall had become a curious one, since the former was too large and -expensive for its purpose and the latter not nearly large enough. Mrs. -Ward and her friends came to the conclusion that some scheme must be -devised for combining the activities of both institutions under one -roof; but since no suitable building existed anywhere in the -neighbourhood of Marchmont Hall, where deep roots had been struck in the -affections of the working population, it became obvious that the only -solution was to build. Through the early spring of 1894 Mrs. Ward -laboured to interest the old friends of University Hall in an appeal for -a Building Fund of £5,000; but it was uphill work; her health had -suffered greatly from the long strain, and there were moments when hope -sank very low. Then, one evening in May of that year, the postman's -knock sounded below, and one of us went down as usual to fetch the -letters. There was but a single dull-looking letter in an ordinary -"commercial envelope." "Only a bill," announced the bearer, as it was -placed in Mrs. Ward's hands. She opened it, glanced at the signature, -read it rapidly through, and then, with a little cry, exclaimed: "Mr. -Passmore Edwards is going to build us a Settlement!" - -She had written to him at last, knowing of him--as all that generation -knew--mainly as the generous founder of Free Libraries, but without much -hope that he would seriously take up the Marchmont Hall building scheme. -At that time the Committee were in favour of a site in Somers Town, -north of the Euston Road, the advantages of which Mrs. Ward had set -forth in her letter to Mr. Edwards. His answer ran as follows: - - -_May 30, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MADAM,-- - - Since I received your letter in Italy I have considered your - suggestion in reference to the extension in ampler premises of - University Hall Settlement, and thereby planting as you say a - Toynbee Hall in the Somers Town district. I have also visited the - district in and around Clarendon Sq., and am convinced that such an - Institution is as much wanted in North London as it was wanted in - East London. I therefore cheerfully respond to your appeal, and - undertake to provide the necessary building within the limits of - the sum you indicate, if somebody will provide a suitable site. The - vacant place in Clarendon Sq. would, I consider, be a convenient - spot for the Settlement. As a matter of course, provision must be - made that the building shall be permanently devoted to the purpose - now intended. In my opinion we have the two things most necessary - in the Somers Town district for a Toynbee Hall: we have a numerous - working population requiring educational assistance and advantages; - and we have in the neighbourhood many able and willing workers - ready to assist in works of intellectual, moral and social culture. - -I remain, -Yours faithfully, -J. PASSMORE EDWARDS. - -This was her first great victory on the road to the building of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. That road was still to be a long and -difficult one, but she was not to be discouraged, and where many lesser -souls would have fallen out by the wayside, wearied by ill-health and by -the multiplication of obstacles, she persisted, and won in the end a -vantage-ground in the fine buildings of the Settlement, whence, in the -course of time, she could pass on to new and various achievements. - -Heavy and exacting as the work of University Hall was during the first -three years of its existence, and glum as the face of our coachman was -wont to look at the reiterated orders to drive there (for he disapproved -of his horse being kept waiting in the street while people were just -talking), Mrs. Ward never allowed it to absorb her mind completely. -Indeed, these years saw the writing of her second three-volume novel, -_The History of David Grieve_, as well as many important developments in -our domestic affairs. The house on Grayswood Hill, near Haslemere, was -rising fast during the early months of 1890, while the principles of the -new Settlement were being thrashed out in the study at Russell Square, -and at length Mrs. Ward tore herself away from London, stipulating for a -six weeks' break from the affairs of University Hall, buried herself in -a neighbouring house named "Grayswood Beeches," wrote _David_ hard, and -kept a watchful eye on the plasterers and painters at work on "Lower -Grayswood" below. She took the keenest interest in every detail of the -new house, planning it out in daily letters to her husband, and yet as -it drew near completion she could not help rebelling at its very -newness, at the half-made garden and the plantations of birch and larch -and pine which covered much of the nine acres of ground, while of real -trees there was hardly one. Waves of longing would assail her for -Hampden House, with its silence and its spaciousness, its old lawns and -trees, and its complete absence of neighbours. "How I have been -hankering after Hampden lately!" she writes to her father in June, 1890, -and to her husband she confesses that she has been to the agent's to -inquire whether Hampden could be let for a term of years. "They don't -think so. I told them to inquire without mentioning our names at all." -Hampden, however, was not to be had, and when once she was established -in Lower Grayswood, Mrs. Ward took more kindly to the house, which had -from its windows one of the most astonishing views in all the South of -England. Yet still she wrote to her father: "I doubt whether I shall be -content ultimately without an old house and old trees! If one may covet -anything, I think one may covet this kind of inheritance from the past -to shelter one's own later life in. Life seems so short to make anything -quite fresh. Meanwhile, Lower Grayswood is very nice, and more than we -deserve!" - -The verdict of children and friends was indeed unanimous in praise of -the poor new house, whence endless fishing expeditions were made to -muddy little brooks in the plain below, almost compensating for the loss -of Forked Pond and the other barbarian delights of Borough Farm. But -even the children realized that there were "too many people about" for -the health of their mother's work. The pile of cards on the hall table -grew ominously thick. Americans walked in, taking no denial, and once in -mid-August, when the youngest child tactlessly won a junior race at the -Lythe Hill Sports, with all Haslemere looking on, there were paragraphs -in the evening papers. It would not do, and I think the house at -Haslemere was doomed from that day onwards. Still, for two years it -played its part delightfully in the web of Mrs. Ward's life, giving her -quiet, especially in the autumn and winter, for the writing of _David -Grieve_, giving her deep draughts of beauty which were not forgotten in -after years. The lodge was made a home for tired Londoners, whether boys -or mothers or factory-girls, and the house itself was never long empty -of guests. - -There, too, in the book-lined room which she had made her study, she -would on Sunday evenings carry out in practice those ideas on the -teaching of the Bible which she had striven to inculcate at University -Hall. The audience sat on low stools or lay on the floor, while she read -to them usually a part of the Gospels, making the scene live again, as -only she could make it, not only by her intimate knowledge of the times, -but by her gift of presentation. Systematically, making us use our minds -to follow her, she would work through a section of St. Mark or St. -Matthew, comparing each with the other, showing the touches of the -"later hand," taking us deep into the fascinating intricacies of the -Synoptic Problem. But all the time the central figure would grow clearer -and clearer, in simple majesty of parable or act of healing, while at -the greatest moments commentary fell away and only the old words broke -the stillness. She was immensely interested in the problem of the -Master's own view of himself and his mission, following him step by step -to the declaration at Cæsarea Philippi, then tracing the gathering -conviction that in himself was to be fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of the -Suffering Servant. She was inclined to reject the prophecies of the -Second Coming as showing too obviously the feeling of the second -generation, as being unworthy of him who said, "The Kingdom of God is -within you." But in later years she came to regard them as probably -based on utterances of his own, for was he not, after all, the child of -his time and country? With an episode like the Transfiguration she would -show us the elements of popular legend from which it was put together, -fitting piece into piece till the whole stood out with a new freshness, -throwing its light backwards over the age-long Jewish expectations of -the return of Moses and Elijah. So with the Resurrection stories; she -bade us always remember the teeming soil from which they sprang, in that -long-past childhood of the world; how none of them were written down -till forty years, most of them not till sixty and seventy years, had -passed since the Crucifixion; how the return from Hades on the third day -is at least as old as Alcestis. These things, she said, forbade us to -accept them as literal fact; but it was impossible to listen to her -reading of the Walk to Emmaus, or the finding of the empty tomb, without -coming under the spell of an emotion as deep as it was austere. For the -fact that we in these latter days had outgrown our childhood and must -distinguish truth from phantasy was no reason in her mind, why we should -renounce the poetic value of scenes and pictures woven into the very -fabric of our being. And so, Sunday after Sunday, our little minds drank -in a teaching which she would fain believe could have been spread -broadcast among our generation, could the ideals of University Hall but -reach the masses. She did not realize how unique her teaching was, nor -how few among her generation combined such knowledge as hers with such a -power of instilling it into other minds and hearts. - - * * * * * - -The writing of _David Grieve_ was a long-sustained effort, extending -over the best part of three years, and too often performed under the -handicap of writer's cramp and sleeplessness. But Mrs. Ward was at the -prime of her powers, and felt herself more thoroughly master of her -material in this book than she had done in the case of _Robert Elsmere_, -so that the revision, when it came, was a matter of weeks and not of -months. Her visits to Manchester and Derbyshire for the local colour of -the book had inspired her with a vivid faith in the working population -of the north, which finds expression in a letter written to her father -in September, 1890, in reply to criticisms which he, with his Catholic -prepossessions, had made on the unloveliness of their lives: - - "You and I would not agree about New Mills, I am afraid! At least, - if New Mills is like Bacup and the towns along the Irwell, as I - suppose it is. After seeing those mill-colonies among the moors, I - came home cheered and comforted in my mind for the future of - England--so differently may the same things affect different - people. Beatrice Potter told me that she had stayed for some time - incog. as one of themselves with a family of mill-hands at Bacup, - and that to her mind they were 'the salt of the earth,' so good and - kind to each other, so diligent, so God-fearing, so truly - unworldly. She attributed it to their religion, to those hideous - chapels, which develop in them the keenest individual sense of - responsibility to God and man, to their habit of combination for a - common end as in their Co-op. Societies and Unions, and to their - real sensitiveness to education and the things of the mind, up to a - certain point, of course. And certainly all that I saw last autumn - bore her out. I imagine that if you were to compare Lancashire with - any other manufacturing district in Europe, with Belgium, with - Lyons, with Catalonia, it would show favourably as regards the type - of human character developed. All the better men and women are - interested in the things that interested St. Paul--grace and - salvation, and the struggle of the spirit against the flesh, and - for the rest they work for their wives and children, and learn - gradually to respect those laws of health which are, after all, as - much 'set in the world,' to use Uncle Matt's phrase, as beauty and - charm, and in their own way as much a will and purpose of God. Read - the books about Lancashire life a hundred years ago, and see if - they have not improved--if they are not less brutal, less earthy, - nearer altogether to the intelligent type of life. That they have - far to go yet one cannot deny. But altogether, when London fills me - with despair, I often think of Lancashire and am comforted for the - future. I think of the people I had tea with at Bacup, all - mill-hands, but so refined, gentle and good; and I think of the - wonderful development of the civic sense in a town like Oldham, - with all its public institutions, its combinations of workpeople - for every possible object, and its generally happy and healthy - tone. I wish the streets were less ugly, but after all, our climate - is hard and drives people indoors three-parts of the year, and the - race has very little artistic gift." - -Meanwhile, the Copyright Committee was again hard at work in the United -States, arousing much anxious speculation in Mrs. Ward's mind as to -whether their Bill would be through Congress in time for her new book; -but in the end the victory came more easily and swiftly than was -expected. Congress passed it in November, 1890, and it became law in the -following March. The effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes was not long in -making itself felt. Mr. George Smith had been negotiating for her with -an American firm that offered good but not magnificent terms for _David -Grieve_; he was dissatisfied, and in his wise heart bethought him of her -old friends the Macmillans, who had an "American house." The sequel must -be told in his own words: - - -15, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. -_June 13, 1891._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I met Frederick Macmillan in the Park this morning. It flashed on - my mind that I would sell him the American copyright of your book, - and after a long talk (which made me late for breakfast) I promised - him that if he made me a firm offer of seven thousand pounds for - the American copyright, including Canada, before one o'clock - to-day, I would accept it on your behalf. He has just called here - and written the enclosed note. I am rather pleased with myself, and - I hope that you will not reproach me. I write in haste, for I shall - feel rather anxious until I have a line from you on the subject. - -Believe me, -Yours sincerely, -G. M. SMITH. - -Needless to say, the "line" was forthcoming, and Mrs. Ward was left to -contemplate, with some emotion, the fact that she was mistress of a -little fortune. Whether the Macmillans remained as contented with their -bargain as she was is, however, a point of some obscurity. Certainly -they desired her next book (_Marcella_), which amply made up to them for -any shortcomings on _David Grieve_, but during the negotiations for it -some uncomfortable tales leaked out. "Mr. Brett told me," wrote Mrs. -Ward to George Smith, eighteen months after the appearance of _David_, -"that owing to the description of profit-sharing in _David Grieve_ and -the interest roused by it in America, their American branch adopted it -last year for all their employés. Then in consequence of _David_ there -were no profits to divide! I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the -situation, and I am quite determined that if there are losses this time -I will share them." - -But as yet the prospect was unclouded, and the summer of 1891 was spent -in a hard wrestle with the remaining chapters of the book--with the -tragedy of Lucy and the sombre fate of Louie Grieve--but at length, on -September 24, the last words of _David Grieve_ were written, and on -October 16 she and Mr. Ward fled for nine weeks to Italy. - -It was not their first visit, for in the spring of 1889 they had spent -eight days in Rome, making their first Italian friendships and learning -something of the spell of that city of old magic. "In eight days one can -but scratch the surface of Rome," she had written to her father on that -occasion. "Still, I think Lord Acton was quite right when he said to us -at Cannes, 'If you have only three days, go!' To have walked into St. -Peter's, to have driven up on to the Janiculan and seen the view of -Rome, the Alban Hills, the Campagna and Soracte which you get from -there, to have wandered about the Forum and Colosseum and to have -climbed the Palatine and the Capitol, is something after all, even if -one never saw this marvellous place again." - -Now this second time she was so tired that they passed Rome by on the -outward journey and went instead to Naples, Amalfi and Ravello, where -the good Signora Palumbo, landlady of the famous little inn, tended her -as she lay quite fallow, browsing in books or gazing at sea and sky and -sunny coast. But a visit to Pompeii could still arouse all her -historical instincts: - - "To sit in the Forum there," she writes to her sister, Mrs. Leonard - Huxley, "or in one of the bright gaily painted houses, or - restaurants with the wine-jars still perfect in the marble - counters, and to think that people were chatting and laughing in - those very courts and under those very pictures while Jesus was - before Pilate, or Paul was landing at Puteoli, on the same coast - some twenty miles north, made an electric moment in life. It is so - seldom one actually _feels_ and _touches_ the past. After seeing - those temples with their sacrificial altars and _cellæ_, their - priests' sleeping-rooms and dining-rooms, I read this morning St. - Paul's directions to the Corinthians about meat offered to - idols--in fact, the whole first letter--with quite different eyes." - -To the same beloved sister she was indebted for the inimitable tales of -her small boy, Julian, which enliven the later pages of _David Grieve_; -for Sandy Grieve was taken direct from this little grandson of the -Professor--an "impet" indeed, in his mother's expressive phrase. "Your -stories of Julian have been killing," wrote Mrs. Ward from Naples; "I -was sorry one of them arrived too late for _David_. By the way, I have -not yet written to Willie to say that Sandy is merely an imperfect copy -of Julian. He writes 'We both _love_ Sandy.' And I am sure when the book -comes out that Sandy will be the making of some of the last part." - -A month after Mrs. Ward's return to England, that is on January 22, -1892, _David Grieve_ appeared, and was at once greeted with a chorus of -praise, criticism and general talk. "Were there ever such contradictory -judgments!" wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher when the book had been out -a week. "The Master of Balliol writes to me that it is 'the best novel -since George Eliot'--'extraordinarily pathetic and interesting'--and -that Louie is a sketch that Victor Hugo might have drawn. A sledgehammer -article in the _British Weekly_ to-night says 'it is an almost absolute -failure.' Mr. Henry Grenfell and Mr. Haldane have been glued to it till -they finished it. According to other people it is 'ordinary and -tedious.' Well, one must possess one's soul a little, I suppose, till -the real verdict emerges." The reviews were by no means all laudatory, -much criticism being bestowed on the "Paris episode" of David's -entanglement with Elise Delaunay, but the general verdict certainly was -that it showed a marked advance on _Robert Elsmere_ in artistic -treatment, as well as a power of character-drawing that had not been -seen since _Middlemarch_. This feeling was summed up in Walter Pater's -sentence: "It seems to me to have all the forces of its predecessor at -work in it, with perhaps a mellower kind of art--a more matured power of -blending disparate literary gifts in one." Letters poured in upon her -again, both from old friends and strangers. "Max Creighton," now Bishop -of Peterborough, who was never tired of poking fun at Mrs. Ward about -the "higher criticism," found time to dash off ten closely written -sheets of pseudo-solemn investigation into the authenticity of David's -life-story, beginning: "Though I am prepared to believe that David -Grieve was a real personage, it is clear that many mythical elements -have been incorporated into his history, and it is the function of -criticism to disentangle the real man from the legendary accretions -which have gathered round him." Mrs. Ward replied in suitable vein, and -confided to her friend that a few of the reviews had made her very sore. -"I am very sorry to hear," he replied, "that some criticism has been -ungenerous.... But I think that we all have to learn the responsibility -attached to undertaking the function of a teacher, and the inevitable -antagonism which the claim arouses. It has been so always. No amount of -rectitude or good intentions avail." - -But the warm admiration expressed by those for whose opinion she cared -amply made up for the hostility of these reviews. As she said of it in -her _Recollections_: "It has brought me correspondence from all parts -and all classes, more intimate and striking perhaps than in the case of -any other of my books." Many pages might be filled with these letters, -but at a distance of thirty years two only shall be saved from oblivion, -for the sake of that mere quality of delight which pervades them both -and which endeared their writers beyond other men to the company in -which they moved. The first is from Professor Huxley; the second from -Sir Edward Burne-Jones. - - -HODESLEA, STAVELEY ROAD, -EASTBOURNE. -_February 1, 1892._ - -MY DEAR MARY,-- - - You will think I have taken my time about thanking you for _David - Grieve_; but a virtuous resolution to stick to a piece of work I - have had on hand for a long time interfered with my finishing it - before last night. The temptation was severe, and as I do not often - stick to virtuous resolutions under these circumstances, I parade - the fact. - - I think the account of the Parisian episode of David's life the - strongest thing you have done yet. It is alive--every word of - it--and without note or comment produces its ethical effect after - the manner of that "gifted authoress," Dame Nature, who never - moralizes. - - Being "nobbut a heathen," I should have liked the rest to be in the - same vein--the picture of a man hoping nothing, rejecting all - speculative corks and bladders--strong only in the will "im Ganzen, - Guten, Wahren resolut zu leben," and accepting himself for more or - less a failure--yet battling to the end. But you are on the side of - the angels. - - We are very proud of Julian's apotheosis. He is a most delightful - imp, and the way in which he used to defy me, on occasion, when he - was here, was quite refreshing. The strength of his conviction that - people who interfere with his freedom are certainly foolish, - probably wicked, is quite Gladstonian. - -My wife joins in love. -Ever yours affectionately, -T. H. HUXLEY. - - * * * * * - - -THE GRANGE, - 49, NORTH END ROAD, - WEST KENSINGTON, W. - _Saturday morning._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The book has just come--and to my pride and delight with such a - pretty autograph: so that to-day I am mightily set up. I cannot - tell you how comforting the words read to me--and how sunny they - have made this grey day. By the messenger who takes this I send a - little drawing, done in gold, which for a whole year past I have - meant for you--it was to reach you by your last birthday, but I was - ill then with this vile plague that is devastating us, and after - that there seemed no reason for sending it one day more than - another, and as I looked at it again it didn't seem good enough, - and I thought one day you would come and choose a little souvenir - of friendship--one perhaps more to your liking--but this day has - never come, and all the year through illnesses big or little have - pursued me and nipped all plans. But will you take it with my - love--real grateful love; it's a kind of Urania sort of person, and - will be proud to live in your bower in the country. - - We are a poor lot--my wife kept to her room for about a month; Phil - imprisoned in a room with carbolic curtains round him as if he were - a leper, and I--too ignominious at present to be spoken - about--longing to go out and see an omnibus--I _should_ like to - see an omnibus again! - -My love to you all, -Yours, E. B. J. - - P.S.--The first day I can get out I shall call and take my chance - of seeing you. Don't dream of writing about the poor little - drawing; I should be ashamed, and you are full of work. - -The "kind of Urania sort of person" shed a radiance all her own over our -house from that day onwards, and was removed before long to a "country -bower" after Mrs. Ward's own heart. - -For early in 1892 her attention was drawn by her old friend, Mr. (now -Sir James) Thursfield, who lived near Berkhamsted, to the fact that some -five miles farther from London, in the heart of a district as rural and -unspoilt as any that could be found in England, stood a comfortable -eighteenth-century house of medium size which happened recently to have -come into the market. Sir Edward Grey had just inherited it through his -mother under the will of old James Adam Gordon, its possessor in the -'forties and 'fifties; but since the place was far from any trout-stream -he did not propose to live in it, but wished instead to find a tenant to -take it for a term of years. Its name was simply "Stocks," and though -the house itself was only 120 years old, a far older manor-house had -been pulled down to make way for it; while the little estate--"the -stokkes of the parish of Aldbury"--is mentioned in a fifteenth-century -charter as forming an outlying part of the huge diocese of Lincoln. Mr. -Thursfield persuaded Mr. and Mrs. Ward to come and see it, winter though -it was. They fell in love with it there and then, and within a few weeks -it was decided that Grayswood should be sold and Stocks taken for seven -years. Mrs. Ward felt that she had found at last the home she had been -seeking. - - "You know how we have always hankered after an old place with old - trees," she wrote to her brother Willie, "and when the Thursfields - made us come down and see the place and declared we must and should - take it we couldn't in the end resist! It has such an old walled - garden, such a beautiful lime avenue, such delicious old hollies - and oaks, such woods behind it and about it! The house is bigger in - the way of bedrooms than Haslemere, but otherwise not more - formidable, and though the inside has no particular features (the - outside is charming) we shall manage I think to make it habitable - and pretty. One great attraction to me is that it is so near Euston - and therefore to the Hall and all its works. I don't mean to say - that we are taking it on any but the most ordinary selfish - principles!--but still, I like to think that I can make Marchmont - Hall, and the people who congregate about it, free of it as I - cannot do of Haslemere, and that there is a hungry demand in that - part of London for the fruit and flowers with which the place must - overflow in the summer. I believe also that the change will help me - a good deal in my work, and that at Stocks I shall be able to see - something of the genuine English country life which I never could - at Haslemere. But we had got to love Haslemere all the same, and it - is an up-rooting." - -The little house on Grayswood Hill was indeed loath to let her go. She -went there alone at the end of February, when plain and hill lay steeped -in a flood of spring sunshine. "If only the place had not looked so -lovely yesterday and to-day!" she wrote. "We have been hung in infinite -air over the most ethereal of plains." But when Stocks finally received -her, at midsummer, 1892, she knew in her heart that all was well; that -"something" deep down in her nature "that stands more rubs than anything -else in our equipment" was satisfied--satisfied with the quiet lines of -the chalk hills, with the beechwoods that clothed their sides, and -stretched away, she knew, for miles beyond the horizon; with the -neighbourhood of that ancient life of the soil that surrounded her in -village and scattered farm. She had found her home; she was to live in -it and love it for eight-and-twenty years. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE -BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT - -1892-1897 - - -The acquisition of Stocks in the summer of 1892 was a landmark in Mrs. -Ward's life for more reasons than one, for it coincided with the advent -of a mysterious ailment, or disability, from which she was never to be -wholly free for the rest of her life. She had hardly been in the new -house a fortnight before she succumbed to a violent attack of internal -pain, showing symptoms of gastric catarrh, but also affecting the nerves -of the right leg. It crippled her for many weeks and exercised the minds -of both the local and the London doctors. Some believed that the cause -of it must be a "floating kidney," others that the pain was merely -neuralgic, while Mrs. Ward herself, with that keen interest in the human -organism and that instinct for self-doctoring which made her so -embarrassing a patient, watched the effect of each remedy and suggested -others with pathetic ingenuity. She had her better days, when she was -able to go down to the old walled kitchen-garden--about 300 yards from -the house--in a bath-chair, but whenever she tried to walk, even a -little, the pain returned in aggravated form. Only those who watched her -through those two summer months knew what heroic efforts she made to -master it and to throw herself into the writing of her new book, -_Marcella_, or how her "spirit grew" as the days of comparative relief -were followed ever and again by days of collapse. While she was still in -the thick of the struggle she received a visit from her American friend, -Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, whose impressions of the day were written -immediately to Mrs. Whitman, in Boston, and give a vivid picture of -Mrs. Ward as she appeared at that time to so shrewd and sympathetic an -observer.[17] (Aug. 20, 1892). - - "Yesterday we spent the day with Mrs. Humphry Ward, who has been - ill for a while and is just getting better. Somehow, she seemed so - much younger and more girlish than I expected. I long to have you - know Mrs. Ward. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, - brilliant and full of charm, and with a lovely simplicity and - sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection, and a - sacred expectation of what she is sure to do if she keeps strong, - and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life - burns with a very fierce flame, and she has not in the least done - all that she can do, but just now it seems to me that her vigour is - a good deal spent." - -The "spent vigour" was only another word for bodily illness, but some -weeks after Miss Jewett's visit the first signs of relief appeared. Her -London doctor introduced her to a new drug, phenacetin, which worked -wonders with the sore side and leg. Phenacetin and all its kindred -"tabloids" came into common use at Stocks from that time onwards, in -spite of the mockery of her friends. Mrs. Ward developed an -extraordinary skill in the use of these "little drugs," and would often -baffle her doctors by her theories of their effects. At any rate, they -bore a remarkable part in the complicated struggle between her work and -her health, which was to occupy the next few years, and Mrs. Ward always -staunchly believed in them. - -The improvement continued steadily, so that she was able, that autumn, -to undertake a speaking-tour in Lancashire and Yorkshire on behalf of -University Hall, finding wherever she went the most astonishing welcome. -At Manchester she went, after her own meetings were over, to a great -Unitarian gathering in the Free Trade Hall, stipulating that she was not -to speak; but at the end she was entrapped, nevertheless. Her husband -received the following account of it. - - "Then at the very end, to my sorrow, the chairman announced that - Mrs. Humphry Ward was present, and had been asked to speak, but - was not well enough to do so! Whereupon there were such groans from - the audience, and I felt it so absurd to be sitting there pleading - illness that I could only move up to the desk, wondering whether I - could possibly make myself heard in such a place. Then they all - rose, and such applause as you never heard! It was a good thing - that a certain number of people had left to catch early trains, or - it would have been still more overwhelming to me. I just managed to - say half a dozen words, and I think I said them with sufficient - ease, but whether they carried to the back of the hall I don't - know. It certainly must be very exciting to be able to speak easily - to such a responsive multitude." - -At Leeds the same kind of experience awaited her, though on a smaller -scale. "I should not have been mortal if I had not been deeply touched -by their feeling towards me and towards the books," she wrote. "And what -a strong independent world of its own all this north-country -Nonconformity is! I feel as though these experiences were invaluable to -me as a novelist. One never dreamt of all this at Oxford." - -The improvement in health, which had enabled her to face the strain of -this tour, was not of long duration. Many letters in the winter complain -of the "dragging pain" in the right leg, which prevents her from walking -more than fifty yards without being "brought up sharp till the pain and -stiffness have gone off again--which they do with resting." By the -following June (1893) she was as ill as ever she had been in the -preceding summer. The London doctor adopted the theory of the "shifting -kidney," but encouraged her to allow herself to be carried up and -downstairs at Stocks, so as to lie in the summer garden. "I am afraid -this tendency may mean times of pain for me in the future," she writes, -"but it is not dangerous, and need not prevent my working just as usual. -I _am_ so enjoying the sight of the flowers again, and this afternoon I -shall somehow get to the lime on the lawn. It had given me quite a pang -at my heart to think the lime-blossom would go and I not see it! One has -fewer years to waste now." - -She was hard at work on the writing of _Marcella_ throughout this year, -but the fact that she could not sit up at a table without bringing on a -"wild fit of pain," as she described it once, meant that she had to -cultivate the art of writing in bed or in her garden chair, a proceeding -which was very apt to produce attacks of writer's cramp. Elaborate -erections of writing-boards had to be built up around her, so as to -enable as many as possible of Dr. Wolff's precepts to be carried out, -but it was a weary business, and often the hand would drop lame for a -while, in spite of the author's longing to be "at" her characters. This -joy of creation was, however, her principal stay during these months of -pain and weakness. - - -_To Mr. George Murray Smith_. - -_September 8, 1893._ - - "I, alas! cannot get well, though I am no doubt somewhat better - than when you were here. The horrid ailment, whatever it is, will - not go away, and work is rather a struggle. Still it is also my - great stand-by and consolation,--by the help of it I manage to - avoid the depression which otherwise this long _malaise_ and - weakness must have brought with it. A walk to the kitchen-garden - and back yesterday gave me a bad night and fresh pain to-day, and I - cannot travel with any comfort. But I can get along, and soon we - shall be in London and I must try some fresh doctoring. Meanwhile I - have written nearly a volume since we came down, which is not so - bad." - -All through the autumn of this year she grew more and more absorbed in -her story, while her health improved slightly, though walking was still -an unattainable joy. The life of the little village of Aldbury, half a -mile from the house, which she wove into so many scenes of _Marcella_, -had an immense fascination for her. She would drive down in her -pony-carriage, whenever she could find time, to spend an hour with old -Mrs. Swabey or Mrs. Bradsell, or with Johnny Dolt, the postmaster, -gleaning from their old-world gossip the elemental life-story of the -country-side, or hearing the echoes of the bloody tragedy which had -convulsed the village just before we came to it, in December, 1891. For -while the old lady of Stocks (Mrs. Bright) lay dying, a murderous affray -had occurred in the wood, not a mile from the house, between the -gamekeeper and his lad on the one side, and a band of poachers on the -other. The keeper was shot dead, and the lad, who fled for his life into -the open, down towards a spreading beech in the hollow below, was -followed and beaten to death with the butt-end of a gun. No wonder that -Mrs. Ward took the tale and made it the dominating theme of her story, -weaving into it new threads that the sordid tragedy itself did not -possess--of the poacher Hurd, the dying child, the piteous little wife. -The village itself was somewhat agape, we used to think, over the -proceedings of the new mistress of Stocks, who would have "grand folks" -down from London to spend their Sundays with her, but who had also taken -a cottage on purpose for the reception of tired people from the back -streets, and who was constantly having parties down from "some place in -London" to enjoy the garden and the shady trees. The place in question -was Marchmont Hall, for whose cricket team we children preserved a -private but invincible contempt; but the elderly Associates became real -friends, and soon learnt to know Stocks and its environs with more than -a passing knowledge. Sometimes they would come down just for a day's -outing, but more often they, or the club-girls, or some ailing mother -and baby would stay for a fortnight at the Convalescent Cottage under -the care of the loquacious Mrs. Dell, whose memory must still be green -in many London hearts. A natural philosopher, reared on the Bible and -her own shrewd observation of life, Mrs. Dell was the ideal matron for -the London folk who were sent down to her; she took them all in under -her large embrace, though her opinion of their "draggled" faces when -they arrived was anything but complimentary. She was wont to express -herself, in fact, with considerable freedom about London life. Once one -of her guests--a working-man--had gone back to town for the week-end, -feeling bored in the country. "And pray what can 'e do in London?" she -asked with magnificent scorn. "Nothin' but titter-totter on the paves!" - -And besides the Convalescent Cottage, there stood on the same steep -slope of hill, just under the hanging wood, with its mixture of beech, -ash and wild cherry, another little house, known simply as Stocks -Cottage, which Mr. Ward acquired to round off the miniature estate early -in 1895. It became a source of unmixed joy to Mrs. Ward, for she could -lend or let it to many different friends, from Graham Wallas and Bernard -Shaw, who came to it during one of her absences abroad, and thence -roamed the downs with the daughter she had left behind, preaching -collectivism and Jaeger clothes--to the Neville Lytteltons, who spent -seven consecutive summers in the little place, from 1895 to 1901. The -Cottage, indeed, became a very intimate part of Mrs. Ward's life at -Stocks, and its mistress, Mrs. Lyttelton, one of her closest friends. - - * * * * * - -_Marcella_ was finished, after a long struggle against sleeplessness, -headache and a bad bout of writer's cramp, on January 31, 1894. A -characteristic passage occurred between the author and her publisher -immediately afterwards. Mr. Smith had sent her, according to promise, a -considerable sum in advance of royalty, setting forth at the same time, -with his habitual candour, the exact sum which his firm expected to make -from the same number of copies. Mrs. Ward thought it not enough, and -wrote at once to propose a decrease of royalty on the first 2,000 -copies. "I hardly know what to say," replied Mr. Smith. "It is not often -that a publisher receives such a letter from an author." But after -mutual bargainings--all of an inverted character--they arrived at a -satisfactory agreement. - -Mrs. Ward fled to Italy with husband and daughter to escape the -appearance of the book, and saw herself flaunted on the posters of the -English papers in the Piazza di Spagna early in April. It was indeed an -exhilarating time for her, for there were few harsh voices among the -reviewers on this occasion, while the many letters from her friends were -as kind as ever. A typical opinion was that of Sir Francis Jeune: "I was -charmed with sentence after sentence of perfect finish and point, such -as no other writer of fiction in the present day ever attempts and -certainly could not sustain. They are a delight in themselves, and the -care bestowed on them is the highest compliment to a reader. May I add -that I think the dramatic force of some scenes--I single out the morning -of Hurd's execution, and the death of Hallin, but there are several -more--is greatly in advance of anything even you have done, and touches -a very high point in comparison with any scenes in English fiction. I -think George Eliot never surpassed them." In her _Recollections_ Mrs. -Ward describes the coming out of _Marcella_ as "perhaps the happiest -date in my literary life," for it not only gave her unalloyed joy in -itself, but it coincided also with a comparative return to -health--though always with ups and downs. Yet the immense publicity -which the success of the book brought her was also a grievous burden, -and she gives vent to this feeling in a letter to Mr. Gladstone, written -in reply to his own words of thanks for the gift of the book: - - -25, GROSVENOR PLACE. -_May 6, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - It was charming of you to write to me,--one of those kindnesses - which, apart from all your greatness, win to you the hearts of so - many. I am so glad that the eyes are better for a time, and that - you have shaken off your influenza. - - We have just come back from a delightful seven weeks in Italy, at - Rome, Siena and Florence, and I am much rested, though still, I am - vexed to say, very lame and something of an invalid. The success of - _Marcella_, however, has been a most pleasant tonic, though I - always find the first few weeks after the appearance of a book an - agitating and trying time, however smoothly things go! The great - publicity which our modern conditions involve seems to wear one's - nerves; and I suppose it is inevitable that women should feel such - things more than men, who so often, through the training of school - and college and public life, get used to them from their childhood. - - Your phrase about "prospective work" gave me real delight. I have - been enjoying and pondering over the translations of Horace in the - _Nineteenth Century_. Horace is the one Latin poet whom I know - fairly well, and often read, though this year, in Italy, I think I - realized the spell of Virgil more than ever before. Will you go on, - I wonder, from the love-poems to a gathering from the others? I - wanted to claim of you three or four in particular, but as I turn - over the pages I see in two or three minutes at least twenty that - jostle each other to be named, so it is no good! - -Believe me, -Yours most sincerely, -MARY A. WARD. - -_Marcella_, like her two predecessors, first appeared in three-volume -form, but Mrs. Ward's quarrel with the big libraries for starving their -subscribers, which had been simmering ever since _David Grieve_, became -far more acute over the new book. She reported to George Smith on May 24 -that "Sir Henry Cunningham told us last night that he had made a -tremendous protest to Mudie's against their behaviour in the matter of -_Marcella_--which he seems to have told them he regarded as a fraud on -the public, or rather on their subscribers, whom they were _bound_ to -supply with new books!" This feud, together with the desire of the -American _Century Magazine_ to publish her next novel in serial form, -provided it were only half the length of _Marcella_, induced her to -consider seriously the question of writing shorter books. "It would be -difficult for me, with my tendency to interminableness," she admitted to -George Smith, "to promise to keep within such limits. However, it might -be good for me!" Soon afterwards the decision was made, and with it the -knell of the three-volume novel sounded, for other novelists soon -followed Mrs. Ward's example. The resulting brevity of modern novels -(always excepting Mr. William de Morgan and Mr. Conrad) is thus largely -due to the flaming up of an old quarrel between librarians on the one -side and publishers and authors on the other, as it occurred in the case -of Mrs. Ward's _Marcella_. - -The summer of 1894 was a period of comparative physical ease, during -which Mrs. Ward found that although she was still unable to walk more -than a very little, she could ride an old pony we possessed with much -profit and pleasure, of course at a foot pace. Thus she was enabled to -explore some of the woods and hill-sides around Stocks which she had -never yet visited, a pastime which gave her exquisite delight. But by -the following winter both her persistent plagues had reappeared in -aggravated form. "My hand is extremely troublesome, alas!" she wrote to -her father, "and the internal worry has been worse again lately. It is -so trying week after week never to feel well, or like other people! One -lives one's life, but it makes it all more of a struggle. And as there -is this organic cause for it, one can only look forward to being -sometimes better and less conscious of it than at others, but never to -being quite well. However, one needn't grumble, for I manage to enjoy my -life greatly in spite of it, and to fill the days pretty full." And to -her husband, who was away on a lecturing-tour in America, she wrote in -February, 1895: "Alas! for my hand. It is more seriously disabled than -it has been for months and months, and I really ought to give it a -month's complete rest. If it were not for the _Century_ I would!" - -This unusual disablement was due no doubt to the extraordinary -concentration of effort which she had just put forth in the writing of -her village tale of _Bessie Costrell_--a tale based on an actual -occurrence in the village of Aldbury, the tragic details of which -absorbed her so much as to amount almost to possession. She finished it -in fifteen days, and gave it to George Smith, who always cherished a -special affection for this "grimy little tale," as Mrs. Ward called it. - -When he had brought it out, the world devoured it with enthusiasm--so -much so that her true friend and mentor, Henry James, whose opinion she -valued more highly than any other, thought fit to address a friendly -admonition to her: - - "May 8, 1895. I think the tale very straight-forward and - powerful--very direct and vivid, full of the real and the _juste_. - I like your unalembicated rustics--they are a tremendous rest after - Hardy's--and the infallibility of your feeling for village life. - Likewise I heartily hope you will labour in this field and farm - again. _But_ I won't pretend to agree with one or two declarations - that have been wafted to me to the effect that this little tale is - "the best thing you've done." It has even been murmured to me that - _you_ think so. This I don't believe, and at any rate I find, for - myself, your best in your dealings with _data_ less simple, on a - plan less simple. This means, however, mainly, that I hope you - won't abandon _anything_ that you have shewn you can do, but only - go on with this _and_ that--and the other--especially the other! - -Yours, dear Mrs. Ward, -most truly, -HENRY JAMES." - -Meanwhile, in spite of the drawback of her continued ill-health, she -derived throughout these years an ever-increasing pleasure from the -friendships with which she was surrounded. Both in the London house, -which they had acquired early in 1891 (25 Grosvenor Place), and at -Stocks, she loved to gather many friends about her, though the effort of -entertaining them was often a sore tax upon her slender strength. Her -Sunday parties at Stocks brought together men and women from many -different worlds--political, literary and philanthropic--with whom the -talk ranged over all the questions and persons of the day from breakfast -till lunch, from lunch till tea, and from tea till dinner; but after -dinner, in sheer exhaustion, the party would usually take refuge in what -were known, derisively, as "intellectual games." Mrs. Ward herself was -not particularly good at these diversions, but she loved to watch the -efforts of others, and they did give a rest, after all, from the endless -talk! On one such occasion the game selected was the variety known as -"riddle game," in which a name and a thing are written down at random by -different players, and the next tries to give a reason why the person -should be like the thing. Lord Acton, who had that day devoured ten -books of Biblical criticism that Mrs. Ward had placed in his room, and -would infinitely have preferred to go on talking about them, found -himself confronted by the question: "Why is Lord Rothschild like a -poker?" For a long time he sat contemplating the paper, then scribbled -down in desperation: "Because he is upright," and retired impenetrably -behind an eleventh book. But Mr. Asquith made up for all deficiencies by -his ingenuity in this form of nonsense. "Why is Irving like a -wheelbarrow?" demanded one of the little papers that came round to him, -and while the rest of us floundered in heavy jokes Mr. Asquith found the -exact answer: "Because he serves to fill up the pit and carry away the -boxes." - -Politics were of absorbing interest to Mrs. Ward, and though her own -views remained decidedly Unionist on the Irish question, in home affairs -they were sufficiently mixed to make free discussion not only possible, -but delightful to her. She still retained her old friendship for Mr. -Morley, and probably the majority of her Parliamentary friends at this -time were of the Liberal persuasion. 1895 was the year of the "cordite -division" and the fall of Lord Rosebery's Government, involving many of -these friends in the catastrophe. Mr. Morley was defeated at Newcastle -and went to recover his serenity in the Highlands, whither Mrs. Ward -sent him a copy of _Bessie Costrell_, provoking the following letter -from her old friend and master: - - -_August 6, 1895._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - It was most pleasant to me to receive the little volume, in its - pretty dress, and with the friendly dedication. It will take its - place among my personal treasures, and I am truly grateful to you - for thinking of me. - - The story is full of interest to me, and in the vein of a true - realism, humanising instead of brutalising. The "severity" of the - poor dead woman's look, and the whole of that page, redeems with a - note of just pity all the sordid elements.... We are quartered in - one of the most glorious of highland glens, five and twenty miles - from a railway, and nearly as many hours from London. Now and then - my thoughts wander to Westminster, passing round by way of - Newcastle, but I quickly cast Satan behind me--and try to cultivate - a steady-eyed equanimity, which shall not be a stupid insensibility - to either one's personal catastrophe or to the detriment which the - commonwealth has just suffered. If life were not so short--I - sometimes think it is far too long--I should see some compensations - in the deluge that has come upon the Liberal party. It will do them - good to be sent to adjust their compasses. The steering had been - very blind in these latter days. Perhaps some will tell you that my - own bit of steering was the very blindest of all. I know that you - are disposed to agree with such folk, and I know that Irish - character (for which English government, by the way, is wholly - responsible), is difficult stuff to work with. But the policy was - right, and I beg you not to think--as I once told the H. of - C.--that the Irish sphinx is going to gather up her rags, and - depart from your gates in meekness. - -During these months another Liberal friend, Mr. Sydney Buxton, was -taking infinite pains to pilot Mrs. Ward through the intricacies of the -Parliamentary situation required for the book she was now writing, _Sir -George Tressady_--drawing her a coloured plan of the House and the -division-lobbies for the scene of Tressady's "ratting," and generally -supervising the details of Marcella Maxwell's Factory Bill. "I am sure -it is owing to you," wrote Mrs. Ward to him afterwards, "that the -political framework has not at any rate stood in the way of the book's -success, as I feared at one time it might." She herself had regularly -put herself to school to learn every detail of the system of sweated -homework prevalent in the East End of London at that time; wading -through piles of Blue-books, visiting the actual scenes under the care -of a Factory Inspector, or of Lord Rothschild's Jewish secretary; -learning much from her Fabian friends, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Graham -Wallas. - - "As to Maxwell's Bill itself," she wrote to Mr. Buxton, "after my - talk with you and Mr. Gerald Balfour, I took the final idea of it - from some evidence of Sidney Webb's before the Royal Commission. - There he says that he can perfectly well imagine, and would like to - see tried, a special Factory Act for East London, and I find the - same thing foreshadowed in various other things on Factory Law I - have been reading. And some weeks ago I talked over the idea with - Mr. Haldane, who thought it quite conceivable, and added that - 'London would bear quietly what would make Nottingham or Leeds - revolt.' If such a Bill is possible or plausible, that I think is - all a novelist wants. For of course one cannot describe _the real_, - and yet one wants something which is not merely fanciful, but might - be, under certain circumstances. The whole situation lies as it - were some ten years ahead, and I have made use of a remark of - Gerald Balfour's to me on the Terrace, when we had been talking - over the new Factory Bill. 'There is not much difference between - Parties,' he said, agreeing with you--'but I should not wonder if, - within the next few years, we saw some reaction in these matters,' - by which I suppose he meant if the Home Office power were - over-driven, or the Acts administered too vexatiously. - - "Do you see that they have lately been repealing some Factory - legislation concerning women's labour in France? We are not France, - but we might conceivably, don't you think, have a period of - discontent?" - -When the book at length appeared, in September, 1896, Mrs. Ward was -afraid that it would hardly float under the weight of its politics, but -this was not so, for it sold 15,000 copies within a week, and never, -perhaps, were the reviews more cordial. The relation between the two -women, Letty and Marcella, was universally felt to be one of the best -things she had ever attempted, while the greater compression of the book -was accepted with a sigh of relief. - - * * * * * - -"Mrs. Ward is wisely content," said the _Leeds Mercury_, "to take more -for granted, and with true artistic instinct to leave room for the play -of her readers' imagination; we are saved, consequently, tedious -details, and that over-elaboration of incident, if not of plot, which -was one of the most conspicuous blemishes in her previous works. She is -beginning also to believe that brevity is the soul of art, as well as of -wit, and therefore, without any sacrifice of the essential points in her -narrative, she has found it possible--by discarding padding--to state -all that she has to tell about 'Sir George Tressady' in considerably -less than six hundred pages, instead of making her old, unconscionable -demand for at least a thousand. It would not be true to say that Mrs. -Ward has lost all her literary mannerisms, or even affectations, but -they are falling rapidly into the background--one proof amongst many, -that she is mastering at length the secret of that blended strength and -simplicity of style which all writers envy, but to which few attain." - - * * * * * - -Two opinions, expressed by such opposite critics as Mrs. Sidney Webb and -Mr. Rudyard Kipling, may be of interest to this day: - - "The story is very touching," wrote Mrs. Webb, "and you have an - indescribable power of making your readers sympathize with all your - characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of - course, as a strict utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the - book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this - point of view it is the most useful bit of work that has been done - for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and - against factory legislation and a fixed standard of life with - admirable lucidity and picturesqueness--in a way that will make - them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical - knowledge. I especially admire your real intellectual impartiality - and capacity to give the best arguments on both sides, though - naturally I am glad to see that your sympathy is on the whole with - us on those questions. - - "Pray accept my thanks from a public as well as a personal point of - view for the gift of the book to the world and to myself." - -And Mr. Kipling wrote: - - -"DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I am delighted to have _Sir George Tressady_ from your hand. I have - followed him from month to month with the liveliest wonder as to - how the inevitable smash in his affairs was to fall, and now that I - have read the tale as a whole I see that of course there was but - one way. Like all human books it has the unpleasant power of making - you think and bother as one only bothers over real folk: but how - splendidly you have done the lighter relief-work! 'Fifteen out of a - possible twelve' has already been adopted as a household word by - us, who have two babies. - - "It will always be one of the darkest mysteries to me that any - human being can make a beginning, end _and_ middle to a really - truly long story. I can think them by scores, but I have not the - hand to work out the full frieze. It is just the difference between - the deep-sea steamer with twelve hundred people aboard, besides the - poor beggars sweating and scorching in the stoke-hold, and the - coastwise boat with a mixed cargo of 'notions.' And so, when the - liner sees fit to salute the coaster in passing, that small boat is - mightily encouraged." - -But the writing of _Sir George Tressady_ had been carried out against -greater handicaps of physical suffering and nervous strain than perhaps -any of Mrs. Ward's previous books. She had agreed to let the _Century -Magazine_ publish it serially from November 1, 1895, and had fully -intended to have it finished, at any rate in provisional form, by that -date. But ill-health and her absorption in the affairs of University -Hall retarded its progress, so that when November came there were still -eight or nine chapters to write, and those the most difficult and -critical of the book. The _Century_ cabled for more copy, but at the -same time Mrs. Ward fell a victim to "a new ailment," as she wrote to -her father, "and what with that and the perpetual struggle with the -hand, which will not let me write lying down, I hardly know how to get -through sometimes." She was advised to have what the surgeons assured -her would be a "slight" operation, but put it off until after a -Christmas month at Stocks, during which she devoted herself, crippled as -she was, to the writing of _Tressady_. Hardly would she have "got -through" these weeks at all--for by now the demands on her time, the -letters and requests to speak were endless--had she not discovered -during this winter a secretary, Miss Bessie Churcher, whose wonderful -qualities made her not only Mrs. Ward's closest helper and friend during -the whole remainder of her life, but have impressed themselves for good, -through many years' devotion, on the public work of London. - -When Mrs. Ward at last found time to put herself in the surgeons' hands, -the operation which ensued was clumsily performed, and left her with yet -another burden to carry through all her later life. After it she lay for -days in such pain as the doctors had neither foreseen nor prophesied, -while the nervous shock of the operation itself was aggravated, one -night, by the antics of a drunken nurse, who came into her room with a -lighted lamp in her hand and deposited it, swaying and lurching, upon -the floor. Fortunately help was at hand and the nurse removed, but the -terror of the moment did not forward Mrs. Ward's recovery. It was many -weeks before sleep came back to her, many weeks before she could sit up -with any comfort or move with ease. But the book must be finished, in -spite of aches and pains, and finished it was within ten weeks of the -operation (March 22, 1896). George Tressady's death in the dark -galleries of the mine "possessed" her as she had only been possessed by -the tale of Bessie Costrell, and helped her no doubt to master the host -of her physical ills. But when the strain was over she was fit for -nothing but to be taken out to Italy, there to recover, if she could, -under the stimulus of that magic light and air which appealed--so at -least we used to imagine--to something in her own far-off southern -blood. At Cadenabbia, on Lake Como, health began to return to her; at -Padua she was "doing more walking than she had dreamed of for four -years," and with the revival of her strength she wrote home in sheer joy -of spirit, "All Italy to me is enchanted ground!" But alas, it was too -early to rejoice. She came again to the Lake of Como to have a -fortnight's complete rest before returning home--staying at the Villa -Serbelloni, above Bellagio--and there unduly overtaxed her new-found -powers. She must make her way to the ruined tower of San Giovanni that -looks at you from its hill-top beyond the little town, and since the -path was _non-carrozzabile_ she would make the ascent on foot. The -adventure was pure joy to her, the views of the lake all the more -intoxicating for having been won by her own strength of limb. But the -next day a violent attack of her old and still unexplained trouble -declared itself. The journey homewards, via Lucerne, was performed under -conditions of crisis which still leave a haunting memory, and though a -clever Swiss doctor at Lucerne appeared to diagnose the disease more -surely than any previous medicine-man, he could suggest no practicable -remedy. Mrs. Ward continued to suffer from her obscure ailment to a -greater or less degree for the rest of her life, as well as from the -results of the operation; but on the whole the attacks became less -frequent, or less severe, as the years went on. She developed an -extraordinary skill in fighting them, by the aid of the thousand and one -little drugs before-mentioned, and often derived a keen pleasure from -the sense of having met and routed an old enemy. But the enemy was -always there, lying in wait for her if she walked more, say, than half a -mile at a time. It is well to remember that her life from 1892 onwards -was conducted under that constant handicap. - - * * * * * - -Yet it was during the years in which her illness was most acute that she -carried to a successful conclusion her labours for the foundation of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. - -When Mr. Edwards, in May, 1894, offered to provide £4,000 towards the -Building Fund of University Hall,[18] it was only the beginning of a -long struggle towards the accomplishment of this design. The next step -was to interest the Duke of Bedford--as the ground-landlord of that part -of London--in the scheme. This Mrs. Ward succeeded in doing during the -summer of 1894, thus laying the foundation of a co-operation that was to -ripen into a strong mutual regard. The Duke took a keen personal -interest in the finding of a suitable site for the new building, and -when such a site became available in Tavistock Place, offered it to the -Committee at less than its market value, and contributed £800 towards -the building fund. Oddly enough, however, this site--for which the -contract was actually signed in February, 1895--was not that on which -the Settlement stands to-day, but lay on the opposite side of the -street; the disadvantage to it being that there would have been a delay -of two years in obtaining possession, owing to existing tenants' rights. -When, therefore, an equally good site actually fell vacant in the same -street a few months later, the Duke willingly released the Committee -from their contract and made over to them the ground on which the -Settlement now stands on a 999 years' lease. In the meantime Mr. -Passmore Edwards had raised his original offer from £4,000 to £7,000, -and then to £10,000; the total fund stood at over £12,000, and Mr. -Norman Shaw agreed to preside over an architects' competition and to -judge between the various designs submitted. All connected with -University Hall rejoiced greatly when the award fell to two young -residents of the Hall, Messrs. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, whose -simple yet beautiful design far surpassed those of the other -competitors. But according to the instructions of the Committee itself -the building was to cost up to £12,000, while the price of the site was -£5,000, and a further sum would be required for furnishing. Mrs. Ward -set herself to the task of raising further funds with her accustomed -energy, but her illness during the winter of 1895-6 greatly hampered -her, and the fund rose all too slowly for her eager spirit. Meanwhile -the builders' tenders soared in the opposite direction. When she -returned from Italy and Lucerne in May, 1896, she found the situation -critical; either fresh plans of a far less ambitious nature must be -asked for, or a further sum of £3,500 must be raised at once. Mr. R. G. -Tatton, already one of the most active members of the Council, and soon -to be appointed Warden, believed that the only hope lay in Mr. Passmore -Edwards, but told Mrs. Ward plainly that the benefactor had said he -could do no more unless others showed a corresponding interest. Mr. -Tatton boldly asked Mrs. Ward herself to lay down £1,000. This she did; -a fortunate legacy of £500 came in at the same moment, and Mr. Edwards -gave an additional £2,000 with the best grace in the world. Yet once -more, on the night of the formal opening, nearly two years later, did he -come forward with a similar donation, making £14,000 in all. He showed -throughout a steadfast faith in the working ideals of the Settlement -that triumphed over all minor difficulties; Mrs. Ward described him once -as possessed by "the very passion of giving." No wonder that the -Committee decided, long before the new building was completed, to call -it by his name. - -Thus Mrs. Ward could have the happiness, during the years 1896 and 1897, -of seeing the beautiful building for which she had toiled so hard rise -and take bodily shape before her eyes. She became fast friends with the -two young architects, who had so decisively won the competition, and who -now devoted themselves indefatigably to the supervision of the work. She -formed, early in 1897, a General Committee for the new Settlement, the -wide and representative character of which showed how warm was the -sympathy entertained for the new venture not only in London, but also in -Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. And she devoted herself to the -formation of a Lectureship Committee, named after Benjamin Jowett, which -was to carry on, within the new organization, the religious ideals of -University Hall. The Settlement itself rested on a purely secular basis, -but the Council fully agreed to the inclusion of the following clause as -one of the "Objects" in the Memorandum of Association: "To promote the -study of the Bible and of the history of religion in the light of the -best available results of criticism and research." The Jowett -Lectureship Committee was established in order to carry out this clause, -and a sum of £100 per annum was placed at its disposal from the general -revenue of the Settlement--a small result, it may be argued, of all the -missionary effort put forth in the founding of University Hall seven -years before. But the Settlement itself stood there as the result of -that effort, and as Mrs. Ward looked down, on October 10, 1897, on the -packed audience that assembled in the new hall to hear her opening -address, she might well feel that her dreams had come to a more solid -fruition than she could ever have dared to hope. But even then she did -not know the whole. There sat the mothers and the fathers, with faces -eager and expectant, ready to throw themselves into this big experiment -that was opening out before them. Mrs. Ward welcomed them with her whole -heart; yet this was not all: the children were at the gates. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE FOUNDATION -OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S SCHOOL - -1897-1899 - - -For some two or three years before the opening of the new Settlement, a -Saturday morning "playroom" for children had been held at Marchmont -Hall, mainly under the direction of Miss Mary Neal, who, as the founder -of the Esperance Club for factory girls, and one of the "Sisters" -working under Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, had already made her name beloved -in the slums of St. Pancras. In that shabby little room she had taught -them Old English games and dances, till even the street outside grew -merry with the sound of their music, and many were the groups of -children seen playing "Old Roger is dead" or "Looby Loo" at street -corners during the other days of the week. Mrs. Ward had been much -attracted by the experiment, which was hampered, like everything else at -Marchmont Hall, by lack of space; and now that the fine new buildings -were available she was eager to transplant it and to carry it further. -My diary for Saturday, October 16, 1897, duly records that "D. and Miss -Churcher and I went to the Settlement at ten to superintend the -children's play-hour, which we are now going to have every Saturday in -the big hall. It was a perfect pandemonium this time, as we hadn't -prepared any sort of organization, and there were at least 120 children -to deal with. We also had to give each child a pair of list slippers to -put on over its own boots, and this was a tremendous business and took -over half an hour. Miss Neal made them a little speech before we began -the games, and then we all formed rings and played Looby Loo and others -of that stamp for nearly an hour more." - -From these unpromising beginnings sprang the whole of the "organized -recreation" for children which gradually arose at the new Settlement, -with the object of attracting the child population of the district away -from the streets after school hours. Mrs. Ward guided and inspired the -movement, though she left the actual carrying on of the classes to -younger and more robust members of her group; but she formed a special -committee (the Women's Work Committee), of which she was chairman, to -watch over it all, and generally supplied the motive force, the sense of -its being worth while, which inspired the ever-growing band of our -helpers. One class, too, she kept as her very own--a weekly reading -aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she -read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling, or brought them -photographs of her travels in Italy, or talked to them sometimes of the -events of the day. About thirty boys came regularly to these readings, -and always behaved well with her, while she on her side came to know -them individually and felt a strong affection for many of them. Where -are they now, those thirty boys? How many have left their bones in the -mud of Flanders, or on the heights that look towards Troas, across the -narrow sea? Mrs. Ward herself was often possessed with that thought -through the years of the Great War, but never, so far as I know, heard -any direct news of them. All were of that fatal age that Death reaped -with the least pity. - -After the Saturday morning play-rooms--which fortunately improved in -discipline after that first "pandemonium," and increased so much in -popularity that we had to divide them into two, taking in close upon 400 -children in a morning--we launched out into musical drill-classes for -bigger and smaller children, story-telling for the little ones, -gymnastic classes for girls and boys, a children's hour in the library, -dancing and acting classes, and finally history lectures with lantern -slides, designed to supplement the very meagre teaching of history that -the children received in the elementary schools around. How much one -learnt by hard experience, in the course of it all, of the art of -keeping the children's attention--whether in teaching them a new -singing-game on Saturdays, or in the story-telling to the "under -elevens," or in the exciting task of going over Oliver's battles with -the young ladies and gentlemen of the fifth to seventh standards! For -even these, if one lost their attention for a moment, were not above -calling out "Ole Krujer!" at a somewhat forbidding slide of Sir Thomas -Fairfax, while the "under elevens" would often be swept by gusts of -coughing and talk that fairly drowned the voice of the story-teller, if -she suffered them to lose the thread of the Princess's adventures by too -gorgeous a description of the dragon. But usually they were as good as -gold, sitting there packed tight on the rows of chairs (136 children on -seventy-six chairs was one of our records), while the "little mothers" -hugged their babies and no sound was to be heard save the sucking of -toffee or liquorice-sticks. - -All these occupations took place in the late afternoon, from 5.30 to 7, -during the hours when the children of London, discharged from school and -tea, drift aimlessly about the streets, often actually locked out from -home (in those days at least) owing to the long hours worked by mother -as well as father at "charing" or at the local factory. The instant -response made by the child-population of St. Pancras to Mrs. Ward's -piping showed that she had, as it were, stumbled upon a real and vital -need of our great cities, and as a larger and larger band of helpers was -drawn into our circle and more and more of the cheerful Settlement rooms -came into use, the attendances of the children went up by leaps and -bounds. One year after the opening they had grown to some 650 per week; -by October, 1899, to 900, and in the next three or four years they -touched the utmost capacity of the building by reaching 1,200. The -schools in the immediate neighbourhood co-operated eagerly in the new -effort, though the selection of children for our special classes often -involved extra labour for the teachers; but they rose to it with -enthusiasm, and would sometimes steal in to watch their children -enjoying the story-telling or the library, removed from the restraint of -day-school discipline, and yet "giving no trouble," as they wonderingly -recognized. Mrs. Ward made friends with many of these teachers, -especially with those from Manchester Street and Prospect Terrace -Schools, for it was her way to establish natural human relations with -every one with whom she came in contact, and the hard-working London -teacher always appealed to her in a peculiar way. An incident that gave -her special pleasure was the passing of a vote of thanks to the -Settlement by a neighbouring Board of Managers, "for the work done among -the children of this school." How she was loved and looked up to by -every one concerned--by helpers, teachers and, more dimly, by the -children themselves--is not, perhaps, for me to say; but this was the -note that underlay all the busy hum of the Settlement building in the -children's hour, as indeed in all the other hours of its day. - -Occasionally, however, some critic would observe, "Well, this is all -very fine for the children, but what do the parents say about it? What -becomes of _home influence_ when you encourage the children to come out -in this way at an hour when they ought to be at home?" The answer, of -course, was that the parents themselves, and especially the more anxious -and hard-working among them, were the foremost in blessing the -Settlement (or the "Passmore," as it was affectionately dubbed in the -neighbourhood) for the good care that it took of Sidney or Alf or Elsie; -that they knew, better than anyone else, how little they could do in the -miserable rooms that served them for a home for the growing boys and -girls, and yet that "the streets" were full of dangers from which they -longed to preserve their little ones. One or two of them became -voluntary helpers at the "Recreation School," as it came to be called; -many joined the "Parents' Guild" that Mrs. Ward formed from among them, -and that met periodically at the Settlement for music and rest, or for a -quiet talk with her about the children's doings; while all were to be -seen at the summer and winter "Displays" in the big hall or in the -garden, their tired faces beaming with pride at the performance of their -offspring. Perhaps indeed it is the bitterest reproach of all against -our civilization that in the homes of the poor, "where every process of -life and death," as Mrs. Ward once put it, "has to be carried on within -the same few cubic feet of space," there is no room for the growing -children, who, as baby follows baby in the crowded tenement, get pushed -out into the world almost before they can stand upon their feet. Mrs. -Ward knew only too well the conditions of life in the mean streets of -St. Pancras or the East End; her sister-in-law, Miss Gertrude Ward, who -had become a District Nurse after the eight years of her life with us, -had frequently taken her to certain typical dens where such "processes -of life and death" were going on, and her own researches for _Sir George -Tressady_ had done the rest. Add to this her intense power of -imagination and of realization acting like a fire within her, and the -children's work at the Passmore Edwards Settlement is all explained. She -yearned to them and longed to make them happy: that was all. - -Mr. Tatton, the Warden, would often say that the Recreation School was -growing to be the most important side of the Settlement work, and -himself, bachelor as he was, delighted to watch it; but Mrs. Ward would -not willingly have admitted this, even if it were true, for the many -developments of the normal work for adults were always immensely -interesting to her. Whenever she was in London (and often from Stocks -too!) she contrived, in spite of ill-health and the many claims upon her -time, to be at the Settlement three or four times a week, attending -Council meetings and committees, showing the building to friends, -talking to "Associates," old and new, or listening with delight to the -wonderful concerts that took place in the big hall on Saturday evenings. -For it had always been intended that music should play a very special -part in the life of the Settlement, and the Council had been fortunate -in securing as Musical Director Mr. Charles Williams, who, in -partnership with Miss Audrey Chapman's Ladies' Orchestra, gave concerts -of quite extraordinary merit there during the first year or two of the -Settlement's existence. He would take his audience into his confidence, -explaining, before the music began, the part of each instrument in the -whole symphony, and all with so happy a touch that even untrained -listeners felt transported into a world where they understood--for the -moment--what Beethoven or Mozart would be at. Those evenings remain in -memory as occasions of pure joy, and did much to reconcile the older -Associates of Marchmont Hall to the magnificence of the new building--a -magnificence which otherwise weighed rather sadly upon their spirits! -Some of them, amid the growing activity of the new life around them, -confessed that they could not help regretting the old shabby days of -pipe-sucking at Marchmont Hall, where the dingy premises were "a poor -thing, but mine own." Mrs. Ward was distressed by this feeling, and -sought to draw them in in every way to the life and government of the -place; but one of the unforeseen features of the work was that the new -Associates who joined the Settlement in considerable numbers were for -the most part young people, rather than the contemporaries and friends -of the Marchmont Hall Associates. Shop assistants and clerks were also -on the increase, desiring to take advantage of the many facilities, -social and educational, offered by the new building; and though the -new-comers were looked on with distrust by the older members, no -definite rule could be laid down excluding them. Admission to the -Associate body might be strictly reserved to "workmen and working women" -from a definite area, but it was difficult to prove that a shopman or a -clerk did not work. One thing, however, was insisted upon--that the new -candidates should read over and digest the confession of faith which -Mrs. Ward had drawn up in the early days of Marchmont Hall, a creed -which put in simple form the aspirations of the Settlement: - - "We believe that many changes in the conditions of life and labour - are needed, and are coming to pass; but we believe also that men, - without any change except in themselves and in their feelings - towards one another, might make this world a better and happier - place. - - "Therefore, with the same sympathies but different experiences of - life, we meet to exchange ideas and to discuss social questions, in - the hope that as we learn to know one another better, a feeling of - fellowship may arise among us." - -And though some of the younger candidates seemed to have joined the -Settlement rather to dance at the Social Evenings than to "exchange -ideas and to discuss social questions," let alone to attend the lectures -and classes, still the leaven worked, so that at the end of three years -the Warden could report that "an increasing number of Associates use the -opportunities of the Settlement to the utmost, and are always to the -front when service and help are needed. Such Associates, both men and -women, are a chief source of whatever power for good the Settlement may -exert." - -And indeed, with what life and movement the whole building hummed on any -evening of the week, in those first exciting years! Apart altogether -from the children's work, the attendances of adults during the busy -winter terms reached some 1,400 a week, and must surely have -represented, when translated into terms of human aspiration or -enjoyment, much lightening of the burdens and monotonies of life in the -dull streets that surrounded the Settlement. Mrs. Ward herself, in an -appeal in favour of the work issued in 1901, summed up in these words -her feeling on the place that Settlements might fill in the life of -London's workers: - - "Stand in the street now and look back at the 'Community - House'--the Settlement building and its surroundings. The high - windows shine; in and out pass men and women, boys and girls, going - to class, or concert, or drill, to play a game of chess or - billiards, or merely to sit in a pleasant and quiet room, well lit - and warmed, to read a book or listen to music. To your right - stretches the densely peopled district of King's Cross and Gray's - Inn Road, Clerkenwell. Behind the Settlement runs the busy Euston - Road, and the wilderness of Somers Town. Immediately beside you, if - you turn your head, you may see the opening of a narrow street and - the outline of a large block of model dwellings, whence many - frequenters of the Settlement have been drawn. Carry your minds - into the rooms of these old tenement houses which fill the streets - east of Marchmont Street, the streets, say, lying between you and - Prospect Terrace Board School. No doubt the aspect of these rooms - varies with the character of the occupants. But even at their best, - how cramped they are, how lacking in space, air, beauty, judged by - those standards which a richer class applies to its own dwellings - as a matter of course! and though we may hope that a reforming - legislation may yet do something for the dwellings of the London - working-class in the essential matters of air and sanitation, it is - not easy to foresee a time when the workman's house shall do more - than supply him with the simplest necessaries--with shelter, with - breathing-room, sleeping-room, food-room. Yet, as we fully realize, - the self-respecting and industrious artisan has instincts towards - the beauties and dignities of life. He likes spacious rooms, and - soft colour, and pictures to look at, as much as anyone else; he - wants society, art, music, a quiet chair after hard work, stimulus - for the brain after manual labour, amusement after effort, just - like his neighbour in Mayfair or Kensington. The young men and - maidens want decent places other than the streets and the - public-house in which to meet and dance and amuse each other. They - need--as we all need--contact with higher education and gentler - manners. They want--as we all ought to want--to set up a social - standard independent of money or occupation, determined by manners - in the best sense, by kindness, intelligence, mutual sympathy, work - for the commonweal. They want surroundings for their children after - school hours which, without loosening the home-tie, shall yet - supplement their own narrow and much-taxed accommodation; which - shall humanize, and soften, and discipline. They want more physical - exercise, more access to the country, more organization of - holidays. All these things are to be had in or through the House - Beautiful--through the Settlement, the 'Community' or 'Combination' - house of the future. The Socialist dreams of attaining them through - the Collectivist organization of the State. But at any rate he will - admit that his goal is far, far distant; probably he feels it more - distant now than he and his fellows thought it thirty years ago. - Let him, let all of us work meanwhile for something near our hands, - for the deepening and extension of the Settlement movement, for the - spread, that is, of knowledge of the higher pleasures, and of a - true social power among the English working-class." - -How instinct are these words with the idealisms of a bygone generation, -a generation that knew not Communism or Proletarian Schools! No doubt, -nowadays, we have gone beyond all that; we may not speak of the -"self-respecting and industrious artisan"; class-war is the word of -power instead of class-appeasement. So far on the onward road have we -travelled since 1901! - -For the rest, Mrs. Ward's main task during these early years was to use -her gifts of understanding, of patience and of human sympathy in keeping -all the workers at the Settlement together, in straightening out the -differences that would arise among so varied a crew of energetic people, -and in pushing forward the work in ever new directions. All difficulties -were referred to her by Residents, by Associates, by Warden and -Treasurer. On her also rested the responsibility for raising the -necessary money. Much helped by the Duke of Bedford, who remitted the -ground-rent, and also gave a considerable subscription, she prospered -beyond all rational probability in the latter task. Her many friends -were touched by her infectious enthusiasm, and gladly helped her to the -best of their ability, so that the deficits on each year's working -turned out to be far less than the prudent had expected. Such a letter -as the following was not uncommon--though the amount enclosed did not -always reach so round a figure:-- - - -_May 25, 1898._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I shall be very happy to dine with you on the 14th of June. - - You once said that the P. Edwards Settlement would not be - disdainful of subscriptions, and I had not anything to give at the - time. I can now send you with pleasure a cheque for £100. I am sure - you will find some good use for it. - -Yours very truly, -NORTHBROOK. - -The use found for Lord Northbrook's gift was in tidying and beautifying -the garden at the back of the Settlement--a piece of land, shaded by -fine old plane trees, which the Duke kept in his own hands, but allowed -the Settlement to use for a nominal fee. It was now laid down in grass, -and became a vital element in the carrying out of Mrs. Ward's further -schemes for the welfare of her London children. It was there that she -opened her first "Vacation School" in 1902 for children left to play and -quarrel in the streets during the August holiday, and there too that she -could see health returning to the faces of her cripples, after the -opening of the "Invalid Children's School" in February, 1899. - - * * * * * - -In looking back over the origin of Mrs. Ward's interest in crippled and -invalid children, the vision of our old house in Russell Square rises -once more before me, with its gravelled garden at the rear running back -to meet the Queen Square gardens to the east of us, for there, across -those old plane-shaded spaces, rose the modest buildings of the -"Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip"--or, as we used to call it -for short, the "Hip Hospital." What "Diseases of the Hip" exactly were -was an obscure point to our childish minds, but we knew that our mother -cared very much for the children lying there, that all our old toys went -to amuse them, and that sometimes a lame boy or girl would appear at the -cottage down the lane past Borough Farm, which was Mrs. Ward's earliest -attempt at a convalescent home for ailing Londoners. No doubt many -another Bloomsbury family did just as much as we for these helpless -little ones, but the sight of them kindled in her the spark of -imagination, of creative force or what you will, that would not accept -their condition passively, but after many years forged from time and -circumstance the opportunity for a fundamental improvement of their -lives. - -The opportunity presented itself in the tempting emptiness of the -Settlement rooms during the day-time. From five o'clock onwards they -were used to the uttermost, but all the morning and early afternoon they -stood tenantless, asking for occupation. Mrs. Ward had heard of a little -class for crippled children carried on at the Women's University -Settlement, Southwark, by Miss Sparkes, and of another in Stepney -organized by Mr. and Mrs. G. T. Pilcher, and before the new Settlement -was a year old she was already making inquiries from her friends on the -London School Board as to whether it might be possible to obtain the -Board's assistance in opening a small school for Crippled Children at -the Passmore Edwards Settlement. Already London possessed a few Special -Schools for the "mentally defective"; the Progressive party was in the -ascendant on the School Board, and among its chiefs were certain old -friends of Mrs. Ward's--Mr. Lyulph Stanley (now Lord Sheffield) and Mr. -Graham Wallas, who knew something of her powers and of the probability -that anything to which she set her hand in earnest would be carried -through. Mrs. Ward on her side believed that the number of crippled but -educable children scattered through London was far greater than anyone -supposed, and moreover that the policy of drafting them into the new -schools for the mentally defective (as was being done in some cases) was -fundamentally unsound. In the summer of 1898, therefore, she formed a -sub-committee of the Settlement Council, which undertook to carry out a -thorough inquiry in the neighbourhood of Tavistock Place into the -numbers of invalid children living at home and not attending ordinary -school, whose infirmities would yet permit them to attend a special -centre of the type that she had in mind. The help of all the -neighbouring hospitals was asked for and most ungrudgingly given, in the -supplying of lists of suitable children, while the Invalid Children's -Aid Association actively helped in the work of visiting, and the School -Board directed their Attendance Officers to assist Mrs. Ward by -providing the names of children exempted on the ground of ill-health -from attending school. Sad indeed were the secrets revealed by this -inquiry--of helpless children left at home all day, perhaps with a -little food within reach, while mother and father were out at work, with -_nothing on earth to do_, and only the irregular and occasional visits -of some kind-hearted neighbour to look forward to. - - "I have a vivid recollection," writes one of the most devoted - workers of the I.C.A.A., Mrs. Townsend, "of being asked by a - neighbour to visit two small boys in a particularly dirty and - unsavoury street. I found the door open, felt my way along a - pitch-dark passage, and found at the end of it a small dark room, - very barely furnished: in one corner was a bed, on which lay a boy - of ten with spinal trouble; in the other corner were two kitchen - chairs, on one of which sat a boy of seven, with hip disease, his - leg propped on the other. Between them stood a small table, and on - it a tumbler of water and a plate with slices of bread and jam. The - mother of these two was at work all day: at 6 a.m. she put their - food for the day on the table and went off, leaving them all alone - until she got home from work dead tired at 8 p.m. At least there - were two of them, which made it a little less dreary for them than - for another spinal case in the next street, who was left in the - same way and was dependent on a kindly but very busy neighbour for - any sight of human beings for fourteen hours of each day. I could - quote case after case of these types--the children untaught and - undisciplined, without hope or prospect in life, sometimes - neglected because mother's whole time was spent in trying to earn - enough to support them, more often spoilt and petted just because - they were cripples, with their disability continually before them, - and made the excuse for averting all the ordinary troubles of - life. The attempts to place such children when they grew up were - despairing--they were unused to using their hands and brains, - unused to looking after themselves, supremely conscious that they - were different from other people. The days before Special Schools - seem almost too bad to look back upon even!" - -From the reports on such cases which Mrs. Ward received from her helpers -throughout the summer of 1898 she formed the opinion that no school -could be successful unless it maintained a nurse to look after the -children's ailments, and an ambulance to convey them to and from their -homes. But she felt confident of being able to raise the money -(£200-£220 a year) for these purposes, if the School Board would provide -furniture and pay a teacher. Accordingly, by October, 1898, her -committee forwarded to the School Board a carefully-sifted schedule of -twenty-five names, together with a formal application that the Board -should take up the proposed class, provide it with a teacher, and supply -suitable furniture for the class-rooms, while the Settlement undertook -to provide rooms free of charge, to pay a nurse-superintendent, and to -maintain a special ambulance for the use of the school. Some -correspondence followed with the School Management Committee, of which -Mr. Graham Wallas was Chairman, and which was besieged at the same time -by those who thought such schools totally unnecessary, since all invalid -children whom it was possible to educate at all could attend the -Infants' (i.e. ground floor) departments of ordinary schools, where the -teachers would look after them. But Mrs. Ward collected much evidence to -show that this course could not possibly be pursued with any but the -slighter cases. "We have heard very pitiful things of the risks run by -these spinal and hip-disease cases in the ordinary schools," she wrote -to Mr. Stanley, "and of such children's terror of the hustling and -bustling of the playgrounds," and early in December she summed up the -arguments on this head in another memorandum to the Board. The -atmosphere was favourable, and indeed Mrs. Ward had marshalled her -evidence and put the case for the school so convincingly that no serious -opposition was possible. The School Board gave its consent early in -January, 1899; the approval of the Board of Education followed promptly, -and nothing remained but to provide the ambulance, and the set of -special furniture which was to fill the two rooms set aside for the -children at the Settlement. - -The ambulance was presented by no less a well-wisher than Sir Thomas -Barlow, the great physician, while Mrs. Burgwin, the Board's -Superintendent of Special Schools, and Miss McKee, a member of the -Board, busied themselves in procuring and ordering a set of ingenious -invalid furniture--little cane arm-chairs with sliding foot-rests, -couches for the spinal cases, a go-cart for the play-ground, and so -forth--such as no Public Education Authority had ever occupied itself -with before. Preparations were made at the Settlement for serving the -daily dinner, which was to be an integral part of the arrangements, and -which, in those happy days, was to cost the children no more than -three-halfpence a head. At last, on February 28, 1899, all was -ready--save indeed the ambulance, for which an omnibus with an -improvised couch had to be substituted during the first few weeks. The -nurse, too, had been taken ill, so that on this first day the children -were fetched and safely delivered at the Settlement by Mrs. Ward's -secretary, Miss Churcher. It was pitiful to see their excitement and -delight at the new adventure, their joy in the "ride" and their wonder -at the pretty, unfamiliar rooms, each with its open fire, its flowers -from Stocks, and its set of Caldecott pictures on the walls, which -greeted them at the end of their journey. Mrs. Ward was, of course, -among the small group of those who welcomed them. Two medical officers -from the Board were there to admit them officially, and after this -ceremony they were handed over to the care of Miss Milligan, their -teacher--a woman whose special gifts in the handling of these delicate -children were to be devoted to the service of this school for nearly -twenty years. It is to be feared that little in the way of direct -instruction was imparted to them on that first day. But there they now -were, safe within the benevolent shelter of that most human of -institutions, the London School Board, and in a fair way to -become--though few of us realized it fully then--useful members of a -community from which they had received little till then but capricious -petting or heart-rending neglect. - -The arrangements for the children's dinners and for the hour of -play-time afterwards were a subject of constant interest and delight to -Mrs. Ward. The housekeeper at the Settlement put all her ingenuity into -making the children's pence go as far as they could possibly be -stretched in covering the cost of a wholesome meal, and for a long time -the sum of 3_s._ 6_d._ a day was sufficient to pay for dinners of meat, -potatoes and pudding for twenty-five to thirty children. Their health -visibly improved, and the gratitude of their parents was touching to see -and hear. Nevertheless, Mrs. Ward was not satisfied. Some of the -children were very capricious in their appetites, and although most of -them did learn to eat milk puddings (at least when washed down with -treacle!), there were some who could hardly manage the plain wholesome -food, and others who could have eaten more than we had to give. It was -tempting to try the experiment of a larger and more varied dietary upon -them, and in days when the C.O.S. still reigned supreme, and the policy -of "free meals for necessitous children" was hardly breathed by the most -advanced, Mrs. Ward had the courage to carry it out. She described the -results in a letter to _The Times_, in September, 1901: - - "It was pointed out to the managers that a more liberal and varied - dietary might have marked effects upon the children's health. The - experiment was tried. More hot meat, more eggs, milk, cream, - vegetables and fruit were given. In consequence the children's - appetites largely increased, and the expenses naturally increased - with them. The children's pence in May amounted to £3 13_s._ 6_d._, - and the cost of food was £4 7_s._ 2_d._; in June, after the more - liberal scale had been adopted, the children's payments were still - £3 13_s._ 10_d._, but the expenses had risen to £5 7_s._ 8_d._ - Meanwhile, the physical and mental results of the increased - expenditure are already unmistakable. Partially paralysed children - have been recovering strength in hands and limbs with greater - rapidity than before. A child who last year often could not walk at - all, from rickets and extreme delicacy, and seemed to be fading - away--who in May was still languid and feeble--is now racing about - in the garden on his crutches; a boy who last year could only crawl - on hands and feet is now steadily and rapidly learning to walk, and - so on. The effect, indeed, is startling to those who have watched - the experiment. Meanwhile the teachers have entered in the - log-book of the school their testimony to the increased power of - work that the children have been showing since the new feeding has - been adopted. Hardly any child now wants to lie down during school - time, whereas applications to lie down used to be common; and the - children both learn and remember better." - -It may be added that while the minimum payment of 1-1/2_d._ for these -dinners was still maintained at the Settlement School, payments of 2_d._ -and even 3_d._ were asked from those who could afford it, and were in -many cases willingly given, while there were always a few children who -were excused all payment on the ground of poverty at home. - -Another element that contributed largely to the success of the school -from the very beginning was that of the "dinner-hour helpers"--a panel -of ladies who took it in turns to wait on the children at dinner and to -superintend their play-time afterwards. They came with remarkable -regularity, and became deeply attached, many of them, to their frail -little charges. When the School Board extended the Cripples' Schools to -other parts of London they were careful to copy this development of -ours, by insisting that local committees of managers, half of whom -should be women, must be attached to each school. Here, surely, in this -simple but effective institution, may be seen the germ of the Care -Committee of future days! - -The success of the school in Tavistock Place--the roll of which soon -increased to some forty children--naturally attracted a good deal of -attention, and it had hardly been running a year before the pros and -cons of setting up similar schools in other districts began to be -debated within the London School Board. Some members inevitably shied at -the prospect of the increasing expense to the rates, especially if the -whole cost of premises, ambulance and nurse were to be borne by the -public authority, and a definite movement arose, either for bringing the -crippled children into the ordinary schools, with some provision in the -way of special couches, etc., or for brigading the crippled and invalid -children with the "Mentally Defectives" in the special centres which had -already been opened for the latter. Much encouragement was given to this -latter view by the official report of one of the Medical Officers of the -School Board, who was instructed, in the spring of 1900, to examine and -report upon all cases of crippled children not attending school, and -submitted a report recommending that "those cases whom it is advisable -to permit to attend school at all" should be sent to the Mentally -Defective Centres, while neither nurse nor ambulance were, in the -opinion of the writer, required. - -Mrs. Ward and her friends on the School Board were obliged to fight very -strenuously against these views, which, if they had prevailed, would -have prevented the establishment of "Physically Defective Centres" as we -know them to-day. It is perhaps unprofitable to go into the details of -that long-past controversy, the echoes of which have so completely died -away; suffice it to say that a Special Conference appointed by the Board -to consider the Medical Officer's Report recommended, in October, 1900, -that "The Board do make provision for children who, by reason of -physical defect, are incapable of receiving proper benefit from the -instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools, but are not -incapable by reason of such defect of receiving benefit from instruction -in special classes or schools"; and "that children of normal -intelligence be not taught with mentally defective children." A little -later it recommended the provision of both ambulance and nurse. These -resolutions--which were accepted by the Board--cleared the way for the -establishment of new centres for "Physically Defective" children, as -they now began to be called; but in order to make her case invincible, -and to accelerate the work of the School Board, Mrs. Ward undertook, all -through the autumn and winter of 1900-1901, a complete investigation -into the numbers and condition of the invalid children not attending -school in some of the largest and poorest London boroughs. In -consultation with the trained workers whom she employed for the purpose, -she had special forms printed for use in the inquiry, and I remember -well her eager comments as the statistics came in, and her consternation -at the ever-increasing numbers of crippled children which the inquiry -revealed. Finally this investigation extended to nine out of the ten -School Board divisions of London, and embraced a total of some 1,800 -children, of whom 1,000, in round numbers, were recommended by her as -suitable for invalid schools. Of the rest, a substantial proportion were -reported as fit for ordinary school with a little additional care on -the part of teachers and managers; some were too ill for any school, and -some were both mentally and physically defective, and therefore -recommended for the "M.D." Centres. Meanwhile, the Special Schools -Sub-Committee of the School Board, under their Chairman, the Hon. Maude -Lawrence, had been at work since February, 1901, in making inquiries -into possible sites and buildings for the new schools, and by the middle -of March the Board were able to inform Mrs. Ward that sites for four -Centres had been agreed upon, while two more were to be located in -Kennington and Battersea "on the constitution of your returns, which -have now been marked on the map by the Divisional Superintendents." - -Four ambulances had also been ordered, and it was decided to appoint -nurses at each of the Centres at a salary of £75 a year. Kitchens were, -of course, to be provided at all the Centres, so that the hot midday -meal which had proved so successful at the Settlement might be supplied. - -The first two Centres to be opened by the School Board--in Paddington -and Bethnal Green--were ready by September, 1901, and both drew their -children entirely from those on Mrs. Ward's lists. It may be imagined -with what intense satisfaction she had followed every step taken by the -School Board towards this consummation. Finally she gathered up the -whole story of the Settlement School and of the School Board's adoption -of responsibility for London's crippled children in the letter to _The -Times_ mentioned above, pleading for the extension of the movement to -other large towns, and describing certain efforts made at the Settlement -School for the industrial and artistic training of the older children. -Her final paragraph ran as follows: - - "The happiness of the new schools is one of their most delightful - characteristics. Freed from the dread of being jostled on stairs or - knocked down in the crowd of the playground, with hours, food and - rest proportioned to their need, these maimed and fragile creatures - begin to expand and unfold like leaves in the sun. And small - wonder! They have either been battling with ordinary school on - terribly unequal terms, or else, in the intervals of hospital and - convalescent treatment, their not uncommon lot has been to be - locked up at home alone, while the normal members of the family - were at work. I can recall one case of a child, lame and - constantly falling, with brain irritation to boot--the result of - infant convulsions--locked up for hours alone while its mother was - at work; and another, of a poor little lad, whose back had been - injured by an accident, alone all day after his discharge from - hospital, feebly dragging himself about his room, in cold weather, - to find a few sticks for fire, with the tears running down his - cheeks from pain. His father and sister were at work, and he had no - mother. It could not be helped. But he has been gathered into one - of the new schools, where he has become another being. Scores of - children in as sore need as his will, I hope, be reached and - comforted by this latest undertaking of the Board. - - "And for some, all we shall be able to do, perhaps, will be to - gladden a few months or years before the little life goes out. From - them there will be no economic return, such as we may hope for in - the great majority of cases. But even so, will it not be worth - while?" - -As the efforts of the School Board and--after 1903--of the Education -Committee of the London County Council to spread the "Special Schools -for Physically Defective Children" over London grew more and more -effective, and the number of the new schools rose steadily, Mrs. Ward -and her principal helpers concentrated their attention mainly upon the -training of the children for suitable employment on their leaving -school. As early as 1900 a little committee was formed for this purpose -at the Settlement, which engaged special teachers of drawing and design -for the boys and of art needlework for the girls--for these delicate -children were often found to possess artistic aptitudes which made up to -them in a certain degree for their other disabilities. Presently this -committee developed into the "Crippled Children's Training and Dinner -Society," presided over by Miss Maude Lawrence, of the London School -Board, a Committee which did hard pioneer work in the organizing of -careers for these crippled children, whose numbers stood revealed beyond -all expectation as the Special Schools spread to every quarter of -London. By the year 1906 the numbers of schools had risen to -twenty-three, and of children on the rolls to 1,767; by 1909 the figures -were thirty and 2,452 respectively. The dark-brown ambulances conveying -their happy load of children to and from the schools became a familiar -sight of the London streets. But, though Mrs. Ward's experiment had -grown in these ten years with such astonishing rapidity, it had not lost -its original character. She had impressed it too deeply with her own -broad and sane humanity for the Special Schools Department of the L.C.C. -to become lost in red tape or officialdom, and under the wise reign of -Mrs. Burgwin and Miss Collard (Superintendents of Special Schools under -the Council) the traditions that had gathered round the first Invalid -Children's School were carried on and perpetuated. And to this day the -Boards of Managers that watch over the "P.D." Schools seem to be -inspired by a tenderer and more personal feeling than any other of the -multifarious committees that take thought for the children of the State. -The secret, in fact, of Mrs. Ward's success in this as in her other -public undertakings lay in the fact that her action was founded on a -real and urgent human need, and that she combined a power of presenting -and urging that need in forcible manner with an unfailing tenderness for -the individual child. As one of her colleagues expressed it once in -homely phrase: "The fact is, she had the brain of a man and the heart of -a woman." Nor did the heart dissolve itself in "gush," but showed its -quality rather in a disinterestedness that cared not where the _hudos_ -went, so long as the thing itself were done--in an eager desire to bring -others forward and to give them a full share of whatever credit were to -be had. - -The view of the School Board authorities was summed up long afterwards -in these sentences from the pen of Mr. Graham Wallas: "She brought to -the task not only imagination and sympathy, but a steady and systematic -industry, which is the most valuable of all qualities in public life. -She was never disheartened, and never procrastinated." - -What was felt of her spirit by those who worked with her more -intimately, who saw her week by week in contact with the children -themselves, is harder to put into words. Perhaps this little vision of -her, recorded by the teacher of the school, Miss Milligan, comes nearest -to saving what is, after all, an intangible essence, that once had form -and being and is now vanished into air: - -"But above and beyond all else Mrs. Ward was--what she was always called -amongst us--'The Fairy Godmother.' In the early days before the school -grew so big, every child knew this Fairy Godmother personally, and -loved her, and we remember how on the occasion of one Christmas Party -Mrs. Ward was unable to be present through illness, and the children -were so sad that even the Christmas tree could hardly console them. When -she had recovered and came again to see them, _they_ gave _her_ a -delightful little tea-party, even the poorest children giving half-pence -and farthings to buy a bunch of Parma violets, and a sponge-cake--having -first ascertained what sort of cake she liked. It was a pretty sight to -see them all clustering round her, and her kind, beautiful face whenever -she was amongst the children will haunt one for years." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ AND THE -VILLA BARBERINI - -1896-1900 - - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_ is probably that one among Mrs. Ward's books on -which her fame as a novelist will stand or fall. Though it sold less in -England and much less in America than her previous novels at the time of -its publication, it has outlasted all the others in the extent of its -circulation to-day. In this the opinion of those critics for whose word -she cared has been borne out, for they prophesied that it had in it, -more than her other books, the element of permanence. "I know not -another book that shows the classic fate so distinctly to view," wrote -George Meredith, and some years later, in a long talk with a younger -friend about Mrs. Ward's work, repeated his profound admiration for -_Helbeck_. "The hero, if hero he be, is as fresh a creation as -Ravenswood or Rochester," said another critic, Lord Crewe, "and what a -luxury it is to hang a new portrait on one's walls in this age of old -figures in patched garments! I have no idea yet how the story will end, -but though the atmosphere is so much less lurid and troubled, I have -something of the _Wuthering Heights_ sense of coming disaster. I think -the Brontës would have given your story the most valuable admiration of -all--that of writers who have succeeded in a rather similar, though by -no means the same, field." - -The theme of the book was, as all Mrs. Ward's readers know, the eternal -clash between the mediæval and the modern mind in the persons of Alan -Helbeck, the Catholic squire, and Laura Fountain, the child of science -and negation; while beyond and behind their tragic loves stands the -"army of unalterable law" in the austere northern hills, the bog-lands -of the estuary, the river in gentleness and flood. Almost, indeed, can -it be said that there are but three characters in _Helbeck_--Alan -himself, Laura, and the river, which in the end takes her tormented -spirit. The idea of such a novel had presented itself to Mrs. Ward -during a visit that she paid in the autumn of 1896 to her old friends, -Mr. James Cropper and his daughter, in that beautiful South Westmorland -country which she had known only less well than the Lake District itself -ever since her childhood. There the talk turned one day on the fortunes -of an old Catholic family (the Stricklands), who had owned Sizergh -Castle, near Sedgwick, for more than three centuries, steadfastly -enduring the persecutions of earlier days, and, now that persecutions -had ceased, fighting a sad and losing battle against poverty and -mortgages. "The vision of the old squire and the old house--of all the -long vicissitudes of obscure suffering, and dumb clinging to the faith, -of obstinate, half-conscious resistance to a modern world, that in the -end had stripped them of all their gear and possessions, save only this -'I will not' of the soul--haunted me when the conversation was -done."[19] By the end of the long railway-journey from Kendal to London -next day she had thought out her story. The deepest experiences of her -own life went to the making of it, for had she not been brought up with -a Catholic father, made aware from her earliest childhood of the -irremediable chasm there between two lovers? The situation in _Helbeck_ -was of course wholly different, but in the working out of it Mrs. Ward -had the advantage of a certain inborn familiarity with the Catholic -mind, which made the characters of this book peculiarly her own. - -All through the winter of 1896-7 Mrs. Ward was steeping herself in -Catholic literature; then in the early spring--again by the good offices -of Mr. Cropper--she became aware that Levens Hall, the wonderful old -Tudor house near the mouth of the Kent, which belonged to Capt. -Josceline Bagot, might be had for a few weeks or months. She determined -to migrate thither as soon as possible and to write her story amid the -very scenes which she had planned for it. How well do I remember the -grey spring evening (it was the 6th of March) on which--after delays and -confusions far beyond our small deserts--we drove up to the river front -of the old house; the hurried rush through glorious dark rooms, and a -half timid exploration of the garden, peopled with gaunt shapes of -clipped and tortured yews. Levens was to us just such another adventure -as Hampden House had been, eight years before, but this time there was -no bareness, no dilapidation, nothing but the ripe product of many -centuries of peaceful care. Yet Levens was famous for its crooked -descent, its curse and its "grey lady"--an accessory, this latter, of -sadly modern origin, as we found on inquiring into her local history. -Mrs. Ward, however, wove her skilfully into her story, as she wove the -fell-farm of the family of "statesmen" to whom Miss Cropper introduced -her, or the mournful peat-bogs of the estuary, or the daffodils crowding -up through the undergrowth in Brigsteer Wood, or covering with sheets of -gold the graves round Cartmel Fell Chapel. - -Yet Bannisdale itself is "a house of dream," as Mrs. Ward herself -described it[20]; neither wholly Levens nor wholly Sizergh, placed -somewhere in the recesses of Levens Park, and looking south over the -Kent. "And just as Bannisdale, in my eyes, is no mortal house, and if I -were to draw it, it would have outlines and features all its own, so the -story of the race inhabiting it, and of Helbeck its master, detached -itself wholly from that of any real person or persons, past or present. -Those who know Levens will recognize many a fragment here and there that -has been worked into Bannisdale: and so with Sizergh. But Helbeck's -house, as it stands in the book, is his and his alone. And in the same -way the details and vicissitudes of the Helbeck ancestry, and the -influences that went to build up Helbeck himself, were drawn from many -fields, then passed through the crucible of composition, and scarcely -anything now remains of those original facts from which the book -sprang." - -Many Catholic books, in which she browsed "with what thoughts," as -Carlyle would say, followed her to Levens, giving her that grip of -detail in matters of belief or ritual, without which she could not have -approached her subject, but which she had now learnt to absorb and -re-fashion far more skilfully than in the days of _Robert Elsmere_. She -loved to discuss these matters with her father, from whom she had no -secrets, in spite of their divergencies of view; when he came to visit -us at Levens--still a tall and beautiful figure, in spite of his -seventy-three years--they talked of them endlessly, and when he returned -to Dublin she wrote him such letters as the following: - - "One of the main impressions of this Catholic literature upon me is - to make me perceive the enormous intellectual pre-eminence of - Newman. Another impression--I know you will forgive me for saying - quite frankly what I feel--has been to fill me with a perfect - horror of asceticism, or rather of the austerities--or most of - them--which are indispensable to the Catholic ideal of a saint. We - must talk this over, for of course I realize that there is much to - be said on the other side. But the simple and rigid living which I - have seen, for various ideal purposes, in friends of my own--like - T. H. Green--seems to me both religious and reasonable, while I - cannot for the life of me see anything in the austerities, say of - the Blessed Mary Alacoque, but hysteria and self-murder. The Divine - Power occupies itself for age on age in the development of all the - fine nerve-processes of the body, with their infinite potencies for - good or evil. And instead of using them for good, the Catholic - mystic destroys them, injures her digestion and her brain, and is - then tortured by terrible diseases which she attributes to every - cause but the true one--her own deliberate act--and for which her - companions glorify her, instead of regarding them as - what--surely--they truly are, God's punishment. No doubt directors - are more careful nowadays than they were in the seventeenth - century, but her life is still published by authority, and the - ideal it contains is held up to young nuns. - - "Don't imagine, dearest, that I find myself in antagonism to all - this literature. The truth in many respects is quite the other way. - The deep personal piety of good Catholics, and the extent to which - their religion enters into their lives, are extraordinarily - attractive. How much we, who are outside, have to learn from them!" - -To an ex-Catholic friend, Mr. Addis, who had undertaken to look over -the manuscript for her, she wrote some time later, when the book was -nearly finished: - - "In my root-idea of him, Helbeck was to represent the old Catholic - crossed with that more mystical and enthusiastic spirit, brought in - by such converts as Ward and Faber, under Roman and Italian - influence. I gather, both from books and experience, that the more - fervent ideas and practices, which the old Catholics of the - 'forties disliked, have, as a matter of fact, obtained a large - ascendancy in the present practice of Catholics, just as Ritualism - has forced the hands of the older High Churchmen. And I thought one - might, in the matter of austerities, conceive a man directly - influenced by the daily reading of the Lives of the Saints, and - obtaining in middle life, after probation and under special - circumstances, as it were, leave to follow his inclinations. - - "I take note most gratefully of all your small corrections. What I - am really anxious about now is the points--in addition to pure - jealous misery--on which Laura's final breach with Helbeck would - turn. I _think_ on the terror of confession--on what would seem to - her the inevitable uncovering of the inner life and yielding of - personality that the Catholic system involves--and on the - foreignness of the whole idea of _sin_, with its relative, penance. - But I find it extremely hard to work out!" - -As the weeks of our stay at Levens passed by, while the sea-trout came -up the Kent and challenged the barbarian members of the family to many a -tussle in the Otter-pool, or the "turn-hole," or the bend of the river -just above the bridge, Mrs. Ward plunged ever deeper into her subject, -though the difficulties under which she laboured in the sheer writing of -her chapters were almost more disabling than ever. "For a week my arm -has been almost useless, alas!" she wrote in May; "I have had it in a -sling and bandaged up. I partly strained it in rubbing A., but I must -also have caught cold in it. Anyhow it has been very painful, and I have -been in quite low spirits, looking at Chapter III, which would not move! -The chairs and tables here don't suit it at all--the weather is -extremely cold--and altogether I believe I am pining for Stocks!" But -before we left the wonderful old house many friends had come to stay -with us there, renewing their own tired spirits in its beauty and -charm, and in the society of its temporary mistress. Henry James and the -Henry Butchers, Katharine Lyttelton and her Colonel, Bron Herbert and -Victor Lytton, fishers of sea-trout,--and, on Easter Monday, "Max -Creighton" himself, now Bishop of London, much worn by the antics of Mr. -Kensit and his friends, but otherwise only asking to "eat the long -miles" in walks along Scout Scar, or over the "seven bens and seven -fens" that lay between us and the lovely little Chapel of St. Anthony on -Cartmel Fell. Such talks as they had, he and Mrs. Ward, at all times -when she was not deliberately burying herself in her study to escape the -temptation! The rest of us would listen fascinated, watching for that -gesture of his, when he would throw back his head so that the under side -of his red beard appeared to view--a gesture of triumph over his -opponent, as he fondly thought, until her next remark showed him there -was still much to win. Henry James was more demure in his tastes, -walking beside the pony-tub when Mrs. Ward went for her afternoon drive -through Levens Park, or along the Brigsteer lane, and "letting fall -words of wisdom as we went" (for so it is recorded by the driver of the -tub). Ah, if those words could but have been gathered up and saved from -all-swallowing oblivion! Mr. James's friendship for Mrs. Ward had -already endured for ten or twelve years before this visit to Levens, but -these days in the old house gave it a deeper and more intimate tone, -which it never lost thenceforward. He never wholly approved of her art -as a novelist--how could he, when it differed so fundamentally from his -own?--but his admiration for her as a woman, his affection for her as a -friend, knew very few limits indeed. And her feeling for him was to grow -and deepen through another twenty years of happy friendship, ripening -towards that day when, in England's darkest time, he chose to make -himself a son of England, and then, soon afterwards, followed the many -lads whom he had loved "where track there is none." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1898 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD] - -Mrs. Ward finally quitted Levens before the end of her lease, owing to a -prolonged attack of influenza, which spoilt her last weeks there, but -she always looked back to her stay in the "Border Castle," as Mr. James -had dubbed it, as an enchanting episode, taking her back to the -fell-country and its people with an intimacy she had not known since -those long-past childish days, when she would dance up the path to -Sweden Bridge, the grown-ups loitering behind. For the remainder of this -year (1897) she was pressing on with her book, in spite of -ever-recurring waves of ill-health and of constant over-pressure with -the affairs of the Settlement. By the autumn, when the new buildings -were actually open, this pressure became so formidable that she was -obliged to take a small house at Brighton for three months, in order to -spend three days of each week there in complete seclusion. The book -prospered fairly well, but the formal opening of the Settlement, which -had been fixed for February 12, 1898, was very much on her mind--at -least until she had succeeded in persuading Mr. Morley to make the -principal speech. This, however, he consented to do with all the -graciousness inspired by his old friendship for its founder; and when -the ceremony was actually over Mrs. Ward retired to Stocks for a final -struggle with the last chapters of _Helbeck_. "Except, perhaps, in the -case of "Bessie Costrell," she wrote in her _Recollections_, "I was -never more possessed by a subject, more shut in by it from the outer -world." And in these last few weeks of the long effort she walked as in -a dream, though the dream was too often broken by cruel attacks of her -old illness. She fought them down, however, and emerged victorious on -March 25,--more dead than alive, in the rueful opinion of her family. -But the usual remedy of a flight to Italy was tried again with sovereign -effect, and at Cadenabbia on Lake Como, in Florence and on Maggiore, she -felt the flooding back of a sense of physical ease. The book did not -appear until the month of June, when both Press and friends received it -with so warm an enthusiasm as to "produce in me that curious mood, which -for the artist is much nearer dread than boasting--dread that the best -is over, and that one will never earn such sympathy again." One -discordant note was, however, struck by a review in the _Nineteenth -Century_ by a certain Father Clarke, violently attacking _Helbeck_ as a -caricature of Catholicism, and picking various small holes in its -technicalities of Catholic practice. The article was answered in the -next number of the _Nineteenth Century_ by another Catholic, Mr. St. -George Mivart, and Mrs. Ward's fairness to Catholicism vindicated; -indeed, many of the other reviews had accused her of making the ancient -faith too attractive in the person of Helbeck. Mr. C. E. Maurice wrote -to her to protest against Father Clarke's attack, remarking incidentally -that "if any religious body have cause of complaint against you for this -book, it is the Protestant Nonconformists" and asking her in the course -of his letter "what point you generally start from in deciding to write -a novel; whether from the wish to work out a special thesis, or from the -desire to deal with certain characters who have interested you, or from -being impressed by a special _story_, actual or possible?" Mrs. Ward -replied to him as follows: - - "I think a novel with me generally springs from the idea of a - situation involving two or three characters. _Helbeck_ arose from a - fragment of conversation heard in the North, and was purely human - and not controversial in its origin. It is in these conflicts - between old and new, as it has always seemed to me, that we moderns - find our best example of compelling fate,--and the weakness of the - personal life in the grip of great forces that regard it not, or - seem to regard it not, is just as attractive as ever it was to the - imagination--do you not think so? The forms are different, the - subject is the same." - -To Mr. Mivart himself she wrote: - - "I hear with great interest from Mr. Knowles that you are going to - break a lance with Father Clarke on poor _Helbeck's_ behalf in the - forthcoming _Nineteenth Century_. I need not say that I shall read - very diligently what you have to say. Meanwhile I am venturing to - send you these few Catholic reviews, as specimens of the very - different feelings that seem to have been awakened in many quarters - from those expressed by Father Clarke. It amuses me to put the - passages from Father Vaughan's sermon that concern Helbeck himself - side by side with Father Clarke's onslaught upon him. - - "The story that the orphan tells to Laura, which Father Clarke - calls 'detestable, extravagant and objectionable,' that no - instructed Catholic would dream of telling to his juniors, is told - by Father Law, S.J., to his younger brothers and sisters, and is - given in the very interesting _Life of Father Law_, by Ellis - Schreiber. I have only shortened it. - - "Father Clarke does not seem to have the dimmest notion of what is - meant by writing in character. I had a hearty laugh over his - really absurd remarks about Laura and St. Francis Borgia's - children." - -Some years later, when her feeling about the book's reception had -settled down and crystallized, she wrote in more meditative mood to her -son-in-law, George Trevelyan: - - "Yes, it was a good subject, and I shall hardly come across one - again so full both of intellectual and human interest.... I like - your 'dear and dreadful!' In my case it is quite true. Catholicism - has an enormous attraction for me,--yet I could no more be a - Catholic than a Mahometan. Only, never let us forget how much of - Catholicism is based, as Uncle Matt would have said, on 'Natural - truth'--truth of human nature, and truth of moral experience. The - visible, imperishable Society--the Kingdom of Heaven in our - midst--no greater idea, it seems to me, was ever thrown into the - world of men. Its counterpart is to be found in the Logos - conception from which all Liberalism descends, and which is the - perpetual corrective of the Catholic idea. But these things would - take us far!" - -Meanwhile, to Bishop Creighton, who had written to her far less -critically than usual of her new book, she replied with a long letter, -in which, after the first sheet, she reverted to the subjects which were -always of the deepest interest to this pair of friends--the barriers set -around the National Church, which Mrs. Ward complained kept out too many -of the faithful, or at least too many of those who, like herself, would -willingly proclaim their faith in a spiritual Christ. - - -STOCKS, TRING, -_August 9, 1898_. - -..."I have been desperately, perhaps disproportionately interested - in a meeting of Liberal Churchmen as to which I cannot get full - particulars--in which the great need of the day was said to be not - ritual, but 'the re-statement and re-interpretation of dogma in the - light of the knowledge and criticism of our day.' It makes me once - more conscious of all sorts of claims and cravings that I have - often wished to talk over with you--not as Bishop of London!--but - as one with whom, in old days at any rate, I used to talk quite - freely. If only the orthodox churchmen would allow us on our side a - little more freedom, I, at any rate, should be well content to let - the Ritualists do what they please! Every year I live I more and - more resent the injustice which excludes those who hold certain - historical and critical opinions from full membership in the - National Church, above all from participation in the Lord's Supper. - Why are we _all_ always to be bound by the formularies of a past - age, which avowedly represent a certain state of past opinion, a - certain balance of parties?--privately and personally I mean. The - public and ceremonial use of formularies is another matter where - clearly the will of the majority should decide. The minority may be - well content to accept the public and ceremonial use, if it may - accept it in its own way. But here the Church steps in with a - test--several tests--the Catechism, the Creed, the Confirmation - service. And the tendency of the last generation of churchpeople - has been all towards tightening these tests, probably under two - influences--a deepened Christian devotion, and the growing pressure - of the alternative view of Christianity. But is it not time the - alternative view were brought in and assimilated,--to the - strengthening of Christian love and fellowship? What _ought_ to - prevent anyone who accepts the Lord's own test of the 'two great - commandments,' or the Pauline test of 'all who love the Lord Jesus - Christ,' from breaking the bread and drinking the wine which - signify the headship and sacrifice, and mystical fellowship of - Christ? But such an one may hold it solemnly and sacredly - impossible to recite matters of supposed history such as 'born of - the Virgin Mary,' or 'on the third day He rose again--and ascended - to the Father,' as personally true of himself. He may be quite - wrong--that is not the point. Supposing that his historical - conscience is clearly and steadily convinced on the one side, and - on the other he only asks that he and his children may pass into - the national Christian family, and join hands with all who believe - in God, who 'love the Lord Jesus' and hope in immortality, what - should keep him out? Would it not be an immense strengthening of - the Church to include, on open and honourable terms, those who can - now only share in her Eucharist on terms of concealment and - evasion? Why should there not be an alternative baptismal and - confirmation service, to be claimed under a conscience clause by - those who desire it? At present no one can have his children - confirmed who is not prepared to accept, or see them accept, - certain historical statements, which he and they may perhaps not - believe. And except as a matter of private bargain and - sufferance--always liable to scandal--neither he nor they, unless - these tests have been passed, can join in the commemoration of - their Master's death, which should be to them the food and stimulus - of life. Nothing honestly remains to them but exclusion, and - hunger--or the falling back upon a Unitarianism, which has too - often unlearned Christ, and to which, at its best, they may not - naturally belong." - -Mrs. Ward might, perhaps, have added that what remains to the majority -of those whom these tests keep out, is a gradual _loss of hunger_--a -making up with other things, which cannot but be a fatal loss to the -National Church. But she was thinking of her own case, and to her, I -think, the "hunger" for admission to the Church (though always on her -own terms!) remained for long years a living force, leading her in the -end to write that best and most vivid among her later books, _The Case -of Richard Meynell_. Meanwhile her relations with Unitarianism, -mentioned in this letter, remained somewhat anomalous, for while -agreeing with its tenets, she was always impatient of its old-fashioned -isolation, and of its neglect to seize the opportunity presented to it -by the march of modern thought, which seemed to her to summon it to take -the lead in the movement towards a free Christian fellowship. She was -never so hard on the Unitarian body as Stopford Brooke, who once -exclaimed in a letter to her that "they cling to ancient uglinesses as -if they were sweethearts!" But Mrs. Ward had had a brush with them in -1893, when she wrote to the _Manchester Guardian_ after the opening of -Manchester College, Oxford, lamenting the bareness of the service, the -extempore prayers, the relics of old Puritanism, instead of the appeal -to colour and imagination and modern thought. Her letter provoked many -answers, both public and private, and to one of these, a kind and -generous argument from Dr. Estlin Carpenter, she replied with a fuller -explanation of her feeling: - - -_November 2, 1893._ - -..."My own feeling, the child of course of early habit and - tradition, is strongly on the side of ritual throughout, though I - would infinitely rather have _new_ ritual, like Dr. Martineau's two - services, than a modified edition of the Anglican prayers, such as - we have at Mr. Brooke's. But I don't think I should have ventured - to put forward the view I did so strongly as I did, with regard to - any other place in the world than Oxford. I knew Oxford intimately - for fifteen years, and still, of course, have many friends there. I - am convinced that Manchester College has a real mission towards an - Oxford which is not yet theirs, but which ought to become so. But I - am also certain that Oxford cannot be reached through the forms - that have been so far adopted. You may say, as Mr. ---- does in - effect, in a letter to me: 'Oxford must take us with our Puritanism - as we are, or leave us.' But surely to say this is to refuse a real - mission, a real call. It is the very opposite of St. Paul's spirit, - of making himself all things to all men, 'that I may by any means - gain some.' It is putting adherence to a form, about which there - is, after all, serious difference of opinion in your own body, - between you and a great future. At least that is how it looks to - me, and I think I have some means of judging. The religious - message, the thoughts, the conceptions that you have to give - Oxford, especially to the young men, not of your own body, who may - be attracted to you through the Chapel, are, it seems to me, the - all-important thing, and any fears of imitating the Church, or - dislike of abandoning Puritan tradition, which may hold you back - from the best means of bringing those thoughts and faiths into the - current life of Oxford, will be a disaster to us all. It is because - I have thought so much about this settlement of yours, in the place - where I myself often starved for lack of religious fellowship, that - I was drawn to write with the vehemence I did. But one had better - never be vehement!" - -In the following year the Unitarians forgave her and asked her to -deliver the "Essex Hall Lecture," which she did with a brilliant and -suggestive paper entitled "Unitarians and the Future." Her relations -with many Unitarians all through the period of University Hall were, as -we have seen, of the most intimate and friendly character, and now, -after the publication of _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, she showed her -goodwill to Unitarianism once more by journeying down to Norwich to give -an address in aid of the famous old Octagon Chapel there. The address -was typical of many others that she gave in these years of her -increasing fame; carefully and even elaborately prepared beforehand--for -she would never trust herself to speak extempore--it lived for long in -the memory of her hearers as a model of its kind, while the outspoken -opinions it expressed gave rise to a good deal of controversy in the -religious Press. The demands on her time for speeches and addresses in -aid of every possible good cause were by this time incessant. She -refused nineteen out of twenty, but the twentieth was usually so -persuasively put that she succumbed, and then she would live in an agony -of apprehension and of accumulated overwork, until the effort was safely -over. One of her most finished literary performances was the address she -gave in Glasgow in February, 1897, on "the Peasant in Literature"; while -her paper on the Transfiguration, entitled "Gospel Interpretation--a -Fragment," given at the Leicester Unitarian Conference in 1900, remains -to this day, with some of her audience, as a new and startling -revelation of the critical methods which had, for her, thrown so vivid a -light on the dark places of the Gospel story. All these -carefully-prepared essays--for such, indeed, they were--added enormously -to the burden of work which Mrs. Ward already carried, but she loved her -audiences and loved to feel that she had pleased and interested, or even -shocked them a little. "I want to poke them up," she would say -sometimes, with that flash of mischief or "trotzigkeit" (the word is -untranslatable), that endeared her so much to those who knew her well; -and poke them up she surely did whenever the subject of her address was -a religious one. - -But the pace at which she lived during this year (1898), when the work -of the Settlement was expanding in every direction, and the preparations -for the Invalid Children's School were going on throughout the winter, -led her to feel that in order to write her next book she must have a -complete change of scene and, if possible, a far more complete seclusion -than that of Stocks, with its accessibility to posts and telegrams. The -great subject of Catholicism still held her fascinated, but she was -tempted to explore it this second time rather from the artistic than the -religious point of view. She had been reading much of Châteaubriand and -Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled -by the relationship between the two; why should she not migrate to Rome -and there, in the ancient scene, weave anew the old tale of the conquest -of "outworn, buried age" by the forces of youth? So while the -preparations for the Cripples' School were hastening forward, in -February, 1899, negotiations were also going on with the owners of the -vast old Villa Barberini, at Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills, for -the taking of its first floor, and various friends in Rome were helping -us with advice as to how to make it habitable. It was just such an -adventure as Mrs. Ward loved with her whole heart, and when we finally -arrived at the little station overlooking the Alban Lake, on March 23, -packed ourselves and our luggage into three _vetture_ and drove up to -the somewhat forbidding entrance of the Villa, we felt that here, -indeed, was a new kingdom--a place to dream of, not to tell! - -Never, indeed, will those who took part in it forget the sensations of -that arrival--the floods of welcome poured upon us by the delightful -little butler, Alessandro, and his stately sister Vittoria, who had been -engaged to minister to our wants, our own faltering Italian, and the -procession across the gloomy entrance-hall and up the uncarpeted stone -staircase, to the rooms of our floor above. A dozen rooms clustering -round two huge central _saloni_, all with tiled floors, exiguous strips -of carpet, and wonderfully ugly wall-papers, formed our _appartamento_; -but at each end, east and west, were glorious balconies, the one -overlooking the Alban Lake and Monte Cavo, the other the vast sweep of -the Campagna, stretching from our falling olive-gardens to the sea. Long -we hung over those balconies, forgetting our unpacking, and when at last -we left our book-boxes behind and wandered out into the mile-long -garden, clothing the side of the hill on the Campagna side, it was only -to suffer fresh thrills of wonder and delight. For there, beyond the -ilex avenue, that led like a cool green tunnel to the further mysteries, -ran a great wall of _opus reticulatum_, banking up the hill on that side -and crowned by overhanging olives, which had formed part of the villa -built on this ridge by the Emperor Domitian, just eighteen hundred years -before. And there, to the right, on another substructure of Domitian's, -ran the balustraded terrace laid out by the rascally Barberini Pope, -Urban VIII (or more probably by one of his still more rascally nephews), -from which you beheld, rolling away to the sea, fold after fold of sad -Campagna, and far away to the north, between two stone pines, the white -dome of St. Peter's. Mrs. Ward thus described the scene, four days after -our arrival, in a letter to her son: - - -"VILLA BARBERINI," -_March 27, 1899_. - - "To-day, you never saw anything so enchanting in the world, as this - house and its outlook. At our feet, looking west, lies the rose and - green Campagna, melting into the sea on the horizon line, and as it - approaches the hills, climbing towards us through all imaginable - beauty of spreading olive-groves, and soaring pinewoods--brown - pinkish earth, just upturned by the white ploughing oxen,--here and - there on the spurs of the hills, great ruined strongholds of the - Savelli and Orsini, or fragments of Roman tombs: close below the - house a green sloping olive garden, white with daisies under the - grey mist of the olives--while if you lean out of window and crane - your neck a little, far to the north beyond the descending stone - pines, the æthereal sun-steeped plain takes here a consistence in - something, which is Rome. - - "We have just come in from wandering along the sunny hill-side - towards Albano, past ruins of the Domitian Villa, overgrown with - ilex and creepers, through long shady ilex-avenues, and then out - into the warmth of the olive-yards, where the cyclamen are coming - out and the grass is full of white and blue and pink anemones. Such - a deep draught of beauty--of _bien-être_ physical and mental--one - has not had for years. But only to-day! Two days ago we woke up to - find a world in snow, or rather all the hills white, the Alban Lake - lying like steel in its snowy ring, and the _silvæ laborantes_ - under the weight. And oh! the cold of these vast bare rooms at - night! We spent the day in Rome, where, of course, there was no - snow and much shelter, but when we came home, we sat and shivered - at dinner, and presently we all dragged the table up to the fire in - hope of cheating the draughts a little. Then the north wind howled - round us all night, and our spirits were low. But to-day the - transformation scene is complete!... We have put in baths and - stoves, and carpets and spring mattresses, bought some linen and - electro-plate, hired some armchairs--and here we are, not luxurious - certainly, but with a fair amount of English comfort about - us--quite enough, I fear, to make the Italians stare, who think we - must be mad, anyway, to come here in March, and still madder to - spend any money on an apartment that we take for three months! The - cook, a white-capped, white-jacketed gentleman whom I have only - seen once, sends us up excellent meals--except that on one occasion - he so far forgot himself as to offer us for dinner, first, pâté de - foie gras, and then "movietti," which, being explained, are small - birds, probably siskins. Father and I were too hungry to desist, - the poor little things being anyway fried and past praying for, but - J. sat by, starving and lofty. And _we_ were punished by finding - nothing to eat! So for many reasons, ideal and other, the cook will - have to be told to keep his hands off _movietti_." - -Here, then, we established ourselves, and here, either in the little -_salotto_ that we furnished for her, or walking up and down that -marvellous terrace, Mrs. Ward thought out her tale of _Eleanor_, -infusing into it strains old and new--Papal, Italian, English, -American--but, above all, steeping the whole scene in her own love for -the Italy of to-day, as well as for the old, the immemorial Italy. - -Those were the times--how far away they seem now, and how small the -troubles!--when things were not going happily for the new-made Italian -Kingdom, when the country still smarted under the misery and failure of -the Abyssinian campaign, and when English visitors were wont to express -themselves with insular frankness on the shortcomings of the New Italy, -whose squalid activities so impudently disturbed, in their eyes, the -shades of the Old. The glamour of the _Risorgimento_ had somehow -departed, in the forty years that followed Cavour's death, so that the -Englishman travelling for his pleasure in the former territories of the -Pope, was ready enough to criticize the defects of the new Government, -while forgetting that if they had remained under the Pope, he would have -found therein no Government, in the modern sense, at all. Many elderly -people still remained who could remember Rome before _Venti Settembre_, -when the Cardinals drove in state down the Corso, and Pio Nono could be -seen taking his part in the processions of _Corpus Domini_ or _San -Giovanni_. Sentimentalists wept at the vandalisms of the Savoyards, who -had built a new city, all in squares and rectangles, on the heights of -the Esquiline, away from the sights and smells of Old Rome, had put up a -huge "Palace of Finance" to record their yearly deficits, and were now -cleaning up the Colosseum and the Forum, so that no æsthetic tourist -would ever wish to set foot in them again. - -Mrs. Ward heard plenty of this sort of talk from English friends, who -came out to see us at the Villa, but she, by the simple process of -falling in love, headlong, with Italy and the Italians, avoided these -pitfalls and was enabled to see with a far truer eye than they the -essential soundness of Italian life, whether in town or country--the new -ever jostling the old, rudely sometimes, but with the rudeness of life -and growth, and the old still influencing and encompassing all things. - - "Nothing could be worse than the state of things here between - Liberals and Clericals," she wrote to her son, "yet people seem to - rub along and will, I believe, go on rubbing along in much the same - way for many a long year. We read the _Tribuna_ and the _Civiltà - Cattolica_, which on opposite sides breathe fire and flame. But - life goes on and insensibly certain links grow up, even between the - two extremes. For instance, there is a certain priest in Rome, - rector of San Lorenzo in Lucina, who has started charitable work - rather on the English pattern--no indiscriminate alms, careful - inquiry, provision of work, exercise, recreation, country holidays, - etc., in fine 'Settlement' style. And his workers include people of - all beliefs or none--Jews even. But as he is perfectly correct in - doctrine and observance, and does not meddle with any disputed - points, he is let alone, and the experiment produces a quiet but - very real effect. Yesterday our _parroco_, Padre Ruelli, came to - see us here, an enchanting little man, with something of the old - maid and the child and the poet all combined. He recited to us - Leopardi, and explained some poems in Roman dialect, with an ease, - a vivacity, a perfect simplicity, that charmed us all. Then he - remembered his function, and before he left gave us a discourse on - charity, containing a quotation from the Gospels, largely invented - by himself, and so departed." - -As the weeks went on in our bare, wind-swept _palazzo_, it became -impossible to resist a community in which everyone, from Alessandro to -this dear _padre parroco_, combined to show us that we were not only -tolerated, but _welcomed_. Our Italian was sadly to seek during those -first weeks, consisting largely in agonized consultations with Nutt's -Pocket Dictionary, and in practising its phrases over with Alessandro; -but his courtesy and patience never failed, so that before long our -sentences began to put forth wings and soar. But never, alas, to any -great heights, and even when Mrs. Ward was able to carry on animated -conversations with our drivers about the traditions of the Alban Hills, -she would find herself sitting tongue-tied and exasperated, or -descending into French, at luncheon-parties in Rome! - -Yet those luncheon-parties, and the visits which we persuaded the new -friends, whom we made there, to pay us on our heights, laid the -foundations of certain friendships which influenced Mrs. Ward's whole -attitude towards the new Italy, and gave her the conviction, which she -never lost in the years that followed, that there exists between the -best English and the best Italian minds a certain natural affinity, -which transcends the differences of habits and of speech more surely -than is the case between ourselves and any other of our Continental -neighbours. She put this feeling into the mouth of her ideal Ambassador -in _Eleanor_--that slight but charming sketch which was, I believe, -based upon the figure of Lord Dufferin--when he speaks to the American -Lucy of the Marchesa Fazzoleni, symbol and type of Italian womanhood. -"Look well at her," he says to Lucy, "she is one of the mothers of the -new Italy. She has all the practical sense of the north, and all the -subtlety of the south. She is one of the people who make me feel that -Italy and England have somehow mysterious affinities that will work -themselves out in history. It seems to me that I could understand all -her thoughts--and she mine, if it were worth her while. She is a modern -of the moderns; and yet there is in her some of the oldest stuff in the -world. She belongs, it is true, to a nation in the making--but that -nation, in its earlier forms, has already carried the whole weight of -European history!" - -Figures such as these began, when the storms of an inhospitable April -had passed away, to haunt the cool ilex avenue and the terrace beyond, -filling Mrs. Ward's eager mind with new impressions, new perceptions of -the infinite variety and delightsomeness of the human race; and the old -walls of Domitian's villa re-echoed to many an animated talk of Pope and -Kingdom, Church and State, as well as to Lanciani's full-voiced -exclamations on the buried treasures--nay, even Alba Longa itself!--that -must lie at our feet there, only a few yards below the surface! Then, -once or twice, we took these guests of ours further afield, to the Lake -of Nemi, in its circular crater-cup--"Lo Specchio di Diana"--with the -ruined walls of the Temple of Diana rising amid their beds of -strawberries at its further end. This was indeed a place of enchantment, -and readers of _Eleanor_ will remember how the _motif_ of the "Priest -who slew the slayer" is woven into the fabric of the story, while the -turning-point in the drama of the three--Eleanor, Lucy and Manisty--is -reached during an expedition to the Temple. Here it was that Count Ugo -Balzani, best of friends and mentors, bought from the strawberry-pickers -for a few francs a whole basketful of little terra-cotta heads--votive -offerings of the Tiberian age--and gave them to Mrs. Ward; and here that -Henry James, during the few precious days that he spent with us at the -Villa, found the peasant youth with the glorious name, Aristodemo, and -set him talking of Lord Savile's diggings, and of the marble head that -he himself had found--yes, he!--with nose and all complete, in his own -garden, while the sun sank lower towards the crater-rim, and the rest of -us sat spell-bound, listening to the dialogue. - -Naturally, however, with Rome only fifteen miles away, we did not always -remain upon our hill-top, and the days that Mrs. Ward spent in the city, -making new friends and seeing old sights, were probably among the -richest in her whole experience. The great ceremony in St. Peter's, when -Leo XIII celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his accession, is -too well described in _Eleanor_ to need any mention here, but there were -days of mere wandering about the streets, shopping, exploring old -churches and talking to the sacristans, when she breathed the very -spirit of Rome and let its beauty sink into her soul. And there was one -day when a kind and condescending Cardinal--_not_ an Italian--offered to -take her over the crypt of St. Peter's--a privilege not then easy to -obtain for ladies--and to show her the treasures it contained. Little, -however, did the poor Cardinal guess what a task he had undertaken. "The -very kind Cardinal knew nothing whatever about the crypt, which was a -little sad," wrote D. W. that evening, and Mrs. Ward herself thus -described it to her husband: "It was very funny! The Cardinal was very -kind, and astonishingly ignorant. Any English Bishop going over St. -Peter's would, I think, have known more about it, would have been -certainly more intelligent and probably more learned. You would have -laughed if you could have seen your demure spouse listening to the -Cardinal's explanations. But I said not a word--and came home and read -Harnack!" A lamentable result, surely, of His Eminence's courteous -efforts to grapple with the tombs of the Popes. - -Through April, May, and half through June we stayed at the Villa, till -the sun grew burning hot, and we were fain to adopt the customs of the -country, keeping windows and shutters closed against the fierce mid-day. -During the hot weather Mrs. Ward made an excursion, for purposes of -_Eleanor_, to the wonderful forest-country in the valley of the Paglia, -north of Orvieto, where the Marchese di Torre Alfina, a nephew of Mr. -Stillman, had placed his agent's house at her disposal, and charged his -people to look after her. There, with her husband and daughter, she -spent two or three days exploring the forest roads and the volcanic -torrent-bed, down which the Paglia rushes, learning all she could of the -life and traditions of the village and of the Maremma country beyond. -It was a district wholly unknown to her and full of attraction and -romance, which she has infused into the last chapters of _Eleanor_; it -gave her, too, a feeling of the inexhaustible wealth of the Italian soil -and race which reinforced her growing love for this land of her -adoption. As the chapters of _Eleanor_ swelled during the remainder of -this year, so its theme took form and presence in the writer's mind--the -eternal theme of the supplanting of the old by the young, whether in the -history of States or of persons. Steadily Mrs. Ward's faith in the -destiny of that vast Italy into whose life she had looked, if only for a -moment, grew and strengthened, till she put it into words in the mouth -of her Marchesa Fazzoleni, speaking to a group gathered in the Villa -Borghese garden: "I tell you, Mademoiselle," she says to Lucy, "that -what Italy has done in forty years is colossal--not to be believed! -Forty years--not quite--since Cavour died. And all that time Italy has -been like that cauldron--you remember?--into which they threw the -members of that old man who was to become young. There has been a -bubbling, and a fermenting! And the scum has come up--and up. And it -comes up still, and the brewing goes on. But in the end the young, -strong nation will step forth!" And Manisty himself, the upholder of the -Old against the New, the contemner of Governments and officials, admits -at last that Italy has defeated him, because, as he confesses to Lucy, -"your Italy is a witch." "As I have been going up and down this -country," so runs his recantation, "prating about their poverty, and -their taxes, their corruption, the incompetence of their leaders, the -folly of their quarrel with the Church; I have been finding myself -caught in the grip of things older and deeper--incredibly, primævally -old!--that still dominate everything, shape everything here. There are -forces in Italy, forces of land and soil and race, only now fully let -loose, that will re-make Church no less than State, as the generations -go by. Sometimes I have felt as though this country were the youngest in -Europe; with a future as fresh and teeming as the future of America. And -yet one thinks of it at other times as one vast graveyard; so thick it -is with the ashes and the bones of men." - -Thus Mrs. Ward wove into her book, as was her wont, all the rich -experience of her own mind, as she had gathered and brooded over it -during these months in Italy, and then, when all was finished, gave to -it the prophetic dedication which has made her name beloved by many an -Italian reader: - - "To Italy the beloved and beautiful, - Instructress of our past, - Delight of our present, - Comrade of our future-- - The heart of an Englishwoman - Offers this book." - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE -SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL - -1899-1904 - - -In spite of the close and continuous toil that she put into the writing -of _Eleanor_ during the year 1899, Mrs. Ward found time, in the course -of that year, for an effort of literary criticism to which she devoted -the best powers of her mind, but which has never, perhaps, received the -recognition it deserves. I refer to the Prefaces that she wrote to -Messrs. Smith & Elder's "Haworth Edition" of the Brontë novels. - -Mrs. Ward had always had a peculiarly vivid feeling for the genius and -tragedy of the Brontë sisters, so that when Mr. George Smith asked her -in 1898 to undertake these Prefaces she felt it impossible to resist a -task not only attractive in itself, but presented to her in persuasive -phrase by "Dr. John." For it is by this time a commonplace of Brontë -lore that Lucy Snowe's first friend in the wilderness of Villette is no -other than the young publisher who had first recognized Charlotte's -greatness, though the situation between Lucy and Dr. John bears no -resemblance to the actual friendship that arose between Mr. George Smith -and his client. Still, the letters which Mr. Smith placed at Mrs. Ward's -disposal for this task were sufficiently interesting to arouse her -curiosity (one of them even described how Charlotte and he had gone -together to the celebrated phrenologist, Dr. Brown, to have their heads -examined!), and, taking her courage in both hands, she boldly asked him -whether he had ever been in love with Charlotte Brontë? His reply is -delightful as ever: - - -_August 18, 1898._ - - MY DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - -...I was amused at your questions. No, I never was in the least bit - in love with Charlotte Brontë. I am afraid that the confession will - not raise me in your opinion, but the truth is, I never could have - loved any woman who had not some charm or grace of person, and - Charlotte Brontë had none. I liked her and was interested by her, - and I admired her--especially when she was in Yorkshire and I was - in London. I never was coxcomb enough to suppose that she was in - love with me. But I believe that my mother was at one time rather - alarmed. - -So with much toil and in the intervals of her other work, Mrs. Ward -accomplished the four admirable Prefaces to Charlotte's novels, enjoying -this return to her old critical work of the eighties and becoming more -and more deeply possessed by the strange power of the Haworth sisters. -Then in the winter she took up _Wuthering Heights_ and _Wildfell Hall_, -writing her introduction to the former under a stress of feeling so -profound as to produce in her, for the first and last time since -childhood, the desire to express herself in verse. Early one January -morning she reached out for pencil and paper and wrote down this sonnet, -sending it afterwards to George Smith to deal with as he would. He -printed it in the _Cornhill Magazine_ of February, 1900. - - CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTË. - - Pale sisters! reared amid the purple sea - Of windy moorland, where, remote, ye plied - All household arts, meek, passion-taught, and free, - Kinship your joy, and Fantasy your guide!-- - Ah! who again 'mid English heaths shall see - Such strength in frailest weakness, or so fierce - Behest on tender women laid, to pierce - The world's dull ear with burning poetry?-- - Whence was your spell?--and at what magic spring, - Under what guardian Muse, drank ye so deep - That still ye call, and we are listening; - That still ye plain to us, and we must weep?-- - Ask of the winds that haunt the moors, what breath - Blows in their storms, outlasting life and death! - -Her introductions duly appeared in the bulky volumes of the Haworth -Edition, and there, unfortunately, they lie buried. The edition was -doomed by its unwieldy _format_, and since the copyright had already -disappeared, these "library volumes" were soon displaced by the lighter -and handier productions of less stately publishing firms. But the -Prefaces had made their mark. The literary world was delighted to -welcome Mrs. Ward again among the critics, with whom she had earned her -earliest successes, and passages such as the following, which gives her -view of the ultimate position of women novelists and women poets, were -much quoted and discussed: - - "What may be said to be the main secret, the central cause, not - only of Charlotte's success, but, generally, of the success of - women in fiction, during the present century? In other fields of - art they are still either relatively amateurs, or their - performance, however good, awakens a kindly surprise. Their - position is hardly assured; they are still on sufferance. Whereas - in fiction the great names of the past, within their own sphere, - are the equals of all the world, accepted, discussed, analysed, by - the masculine critic, with precisely the same keenness and under - the same canons as he applies to Thackeray or Stevenson, to Balzac - or Loti. - - "The reason, perhaps, lies first in the fact that, whereas in all - other arts they are comparatively novices and strangers, having - still to find out the best way in which to appropriate traditions - and methods not created by women, in the art of speech, elegant, - fitting, familiar speech, women are and have long been at home. - They have practised it for generations, they have contributed - largely to its development. The arts of society and of - letter-writing pass naturally into the art of the novel. Madame de - Sévigné and Madame du Deffand are the precursors of George Sand; - they lay her foundations, and make her work possible. In the case - of poetry, one might imagine, a similar process is going on, but it - is not so far advanced. In proportion, however, as women's life and - culture widen, as the points of contact between them and the - manifold world multiply and develop, will Parnassus open before - them. At present those delicate and noble women who have entered - there look still a little strange to us. Mrs. Browning, George - Eliot, Emily Brontë, Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore--it is as though - they had wrested something that did not belong to them, by a kind - of splendid violence. As a rule, so far, women have been poets in - and through the novel--Cowper-like poets of the common life like - Miss Austen, or Mrs. Gaskell, or Mrs. Oliphant; Lucretian or - Virgilian observers of the many-coloured web like George Eliot, or, - in some phases, George Sand; romantic or lyrical artists like - George Sand again, or like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Here no one - questions their citizenship; no one is astonished by the place they - hold; they are here among the recognized masters of those who know. - - "Why? For, after all, women's range of material, even in the novel, - is necessarily limited. There are a hundred subjects and - experiences from which their mere sex debars them. Which is all - very true, but not to the point. For the one subject which they - have eternally at command, which is interesting to all the world, - and whereof large tracts are naturally and wholly their own, is the - subject of love--love of many kinds indeed, but pre-eminently the - love between man and woman. And being already free of the art and - tradition of words, their position in the novel is a strong one, - and their future probably very great." - -She sent her Prefaces to a few intimate friends, turning in this case -chiefly to those French friends who represented for her the ultimate -tribunal in literary matters. The older generation--Scherer, Taine, -Renan--were passing away by this time, but a younger had followed them, -of whom Paul Bourget, Brunetière of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, the -Gaston Paris, the Ribots, the Boutmys were among those whom Mrs. Ward -would always seek out during her almost annual visits to Paris in these -years. But among all her French acquaintance she came about this time to -regard M. André Chevrillon, nephew of Taine, traveller and generous -critic of English politics and literature, as the most sympathetic, for -he seemed to combine with an almost miraculous knowledge of English the -very essence of that _esprit français_ which she continued to adore to -the end of her life. He had first visited Mrs. Ward at Haslemere in -1891, as a "young French student lost in London," and he happened to be -with us at Stocks at the time of the publication of the Haworth Edition -(1900). A few days later Mrs. Ward received the following appreciation -from him: - - -MADAME,-- - - Je désire tout de suite vous remercier de votre gracieux accueil et - de la bonne journée que j'ai passée à Tring, mais je voudrais - surtout essayer de vous dire un peu l'impression, l'émotion durable - et qui me poursuit ici--que m'a donnée la lecture de vos admirables - articles sur les Brontë. Je n'ai pas su le faire tandis que j'étais - auprès de vous; ce n'est que ce matin que j'ai lu l'article sur - Charlotte et Jane Eyre et j'en suis encore tout hanté. Jamais âmes - de poètes et d'artistes n'ont été sondées d'un coup d'oeil plus - pénétrant, plus rapide, plus exercé et plus sûr. Vous avez su, en - quelques pages, montrer l'irréductible personnalité de ces âpres et - douloureuses jeunes femmes en même temps que vous expliquiez les - traits qui chez elles sont ethniques et généraux, la tendre, la - nostalgique âme celtique, farouchement repliée sur soi avec ses - pressentiments, ses divinisations magiques, sa faculté d'apercevoir - dans les couleurs du ciel, dans les formes et les lignes que - présente çà et là la nature des _signes_ chargés de sens mystérieux - et profond.... Enfin le dernier paragraphe où vous mettez Charlotte - à sa place dans la littérature européenne nous rappelle la sûre - _scholarship_, la puissance de généralisation auxquelles vous nous - avez habitués, la faculté philosophique qui aperçoit _les idées_ - comme des forces vivantes, dramatiques qui se croisent, se - combattent, moulent et façonnent les hommes, et sont les plus - vraies des réalités. - -M. Chevrillon shared, I think, with M. Jusserand and with M. Elie Halévy -the distinction of being the most profound and sympathetic among French -students of England at that time; all three were firm friends of Mrs. -Ward's, all charmed her into envious despair by their perfect command of -our language. M. Jusserand--who as a young man on the staff of the -French Embassy had been a constant visitor at Russell Square--would dash -off such notes as this: "Dear Mrs. Ward--Are you in town, or rather what -town is it you are in?" and now in this matter of the Brontë Prefaces he -wrote her his terrible confession: - - "I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay. - Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar - experience? I could never go beyond the terrible beginning of - _Shirley_--and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains - unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but - to Lady Jersey, who charged me to return it when I had finished - reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on - several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise - Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and - visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table - its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of - repulsive persons within. And yet I _can_ read. I have read with - delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of - Parliament, without missing a line. _Shirley_, I cannot. I must try - again, were it only for the sake of the editor of the series!" - -But in spite of these warm and in many cases lifelong friendships, Mrs. -Ward did not find the French atmosphere an easy one in such a year as -1900. The South African War had followed on the Dreyfus Case, the -Dreyfus Case on Fashoda, and the ties of friendship suffered an unkindly -strain. Mrs. Ward spent a few spring weeks in Rome, where all was golden -and delightful--forming new friendships every day, and passing into that -second stage of intimacy where first impressions are tested and were -not, for her, found wanting; then on the way home she lingered a little -in Paris, plunging into the gay confusions of the Great Exhibition. Her -literary friends offered her attentions and hospitalities as of old, but -she felt at once the difference of atmosphere, describing it vividly in -a letter to her brother Willie: - - -"PARIS, -"_May 16, 1900_. - - "We have had a delicious time in Rome, Dorothy and I, and now Paris - and the Exhibition are interesting and stimulating, but are not - Rome! I have come back more Italy-bewitched than ever. Rome was - bathed in the most glorious sunshine. Every breath was - life-giving--everything one saw was beauty. And the people are so - kind, so clever, so friendly--so different from this _France - malveillante_, between whom and us as it seems to me, Fashoda, - Dreyfus and the Transvaal have opened a gulf that it will take a - generation to fill. In Rome we saw many people and I had much - conversation that will be of use for the revision of _Eleanor_. The - country is progressing enormously, the _Anno Santo_ is a - comparative failure, and the Jesuit hatred of England flourishes - and abounds. The Harcourts were there and I had much talk with Sir - William about politics and much else. He is very broken in health, - but as amusing as ever. With him and Father Ehrle we went one - morning through the show treasures of the Vatican, turned over and - handled the Codex Vaticanus, the Michael Angelo letters, the - wonderful illuminated Dante and much else. One day with two friends - D. and I went to Viterbo, slept, and next day saw the two - Cinquecento villas, the Villa Lante and Caprarola. Caprarola was a - wonderful experience. Ten miles' drive into the mountains along a - ridge 3,000 feet high, commanding on one side the Lake of Vico, on - the other the whole valley of the Tiber from Assisi to Palestrina, - with Soracte in the middle distance, and the great rampart of the - Sabines half in snow and girdled with cloud. Between us and the - plain, slopes of chestnut and vine, and on either side of the road - delicious inlets of grass, starred thick with narcissus, running up - into continents of broom that by now must be all gold. Then the - great pentagonal palace of Caprarola, gloomy, magnificent, in an - incomparable position, frescoed inside from top to toe by the - Zuccheri, and containing in its great sala a series of portrait - groups of Charles V, Francis I, Henry II, Philip II, of the - greatest possible animation and brilliancy, and in almost perfect - preservation." - -After such delights the atmosphere of Paris must indeed have seemed -cold, but Mrs. Ward could always see the other side of such a -controversy, and took pleasure in reporting to her father a conversation -she had had, while in Paris, with "a charming old man, formerly -secretary of the Duc D'Aumale, and now curator of the Chantilly Museum." - - "We had," she wrote, "a very interesting talk about the War and - Dreyfus. 'Oh! I am all with the English,' he said--'they could not - let that state of things in the Transvaal continue--the struggle - was inevitable. But then I have lived in England. I love England, - and English people, and can look at matters calmly. As to the - treatment of English people in Paris, remember, Madame, that we are - just now a restless and discontented people. We are a disappointed - people--we have lost our great position in the world, and we don't - see how to get it back. That makes us rude and bitter. And then our - griefs against England go back to the Crimea. The English officers - then made themselves disliked--and in the great war of 1870, you - were not sympathetic--we thought you might have done something for - us, and you did nothing. Then you were much too violent about the - _Affaire_. The first trial was abominable, but by the second trial - we stand, we the _modérés_ who think ourselves honest fellows. But - you made no difference. The Press of both countries has done great - harm. All that explains the present state of things. It is not the - Boers--that is mainly a pretext, an opportunity." - -It is perhaps a curious fact that while German learning and German -methods of historical criticism had compelled Mrs. Ward's admiration -from her earliest years, no crop of personal friendships with Germans -had sprung from these sowings, as in the case of her French studies and -her Italian sojournings. Dear, homely German governesses were almost the -only children of the Fatherland with whom she had personal contact, her -relations with certain Biblical scholars and with the translators and -publishers of her books being confined to pen and ink. But there was one -German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy -correspondence--Dr. Adolf Jülicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on -the New Testament she presented one day, in a moment of enthusiasm, to -her younger daughter (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should -translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the -best part of the next three years to the task--only to find, when the -work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime -brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of -additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for -it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs. Ward -herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; -little indeed was left of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time -the process was complete. In vain we would point out to her that this -was the "Lower Criticism" and therefore unworthy of her serious -attention; she would merely make a face at us and plunge with -ardour--perhaps after a heavy day of writing--into the delightful task -of defacing poor Mr. Reginald Smith's clean page-proofs. For these were -the days when Mr. Reginald had practically taken over the business of -Smith & Elder's from his father-in-law, George Smith, and one of the -diversions that he allowed himself was to print Mrs. Ward's daughter's -translation free of all profit to the firm. The profits, indeed, if any, -were to go in full to the translator, but naturally the expenses of -proof-correction stood on the debit side of the account. Hence the -anxiety of the person who had once been seventeen whenever Mrs. Ward had -had a particularly energetic day with the proofs of Jülicher! - -_Eleanor_ had had a triumphal progress in the monthly numbers of -_Harper's Magazine_ throughout this year (1900), and appeared at length -in book-form on November 1. Mrs. Ward's pleasure in its reception was -much enhanced by the warm appreciation given to Mr. Albert Sterner's -illustrations--clever and charming drawings, which had wonderfully -caught the spirit of her characters and of the Italian scene, for Mr. -Sterner had spent two or three weeks with us at the Villa Barberini. He -and Mrs. Ward were fast friends, and it was always a matter of real -delight to her whenever he could be secured to illustrate one of her -subsequent novels. This was to be the case with _William Ashe_, -_Fenwick's Career_ and _The Case of Richard Meynell_. The publication of -_Eleanor_ coincided, however, with news of Mr. Arnold's serious illness -in Dublin, so that the chorus of delight in her "Italian novel" reached -Mrs. Ward's ears muffled by the presence of death. - -Thomas Arnold died on November 12, 1900, tended to the last by his -surviving children, and by the devoted second wife (Miss Josephine -Benison), whom he had married in 1889. Mrs. Ward's affection for him had -never wavered throughout these many years, as the letters which she -wrote him about all her doings, once or even twice in every week, attest -to this day; his mystical, child-like spirit attracted her invincibly. -Three days after his death she wrote to Bishop Creighton, over whom the -same summons was already hovering: - - -_November 15, 1900._ - -MY DEAR BISHOP,-- - - Many, many thanks. It was very dear of you to write to me, - especially at this time of illness, and I prize much all that you - say. My father's was a rare and _hidden_ nature. Among his papers - that have now come to me I have come across the most touching and - remarkable things--things that are a revelation even to his - children. The service yesterday in Newman's beautiful little - University Church, the early mass, the bright morning light on the - procession of friends and clergy through the cypress-lined paths of - Glasnevin, the last 'requiescat in pace,' answered by the Amen of - the little crowd--all made a fitting close to his gentle and - laborious life. He did not suffer much, I am thankful to say, and - he knew that we were all round him and smiled upon us to the last. - -And he on his side regarded her with an adoring affection that sometimes -found touching expression in his letters, as when, a few months after -the publication of _David Grieve_, he broke out in these words: - - "My own dearest Polly (let me call you for once what I often called - you when a child), God made you what you are, and those who love - you will be content to leave you to Him. He gave you that - wide-flashing, swiftly-combining wit, 'glancing from heaven to - earth, from earth to heaven'; He gave you also the power of turning - your thoughts, with deft and felicitous hand, into forms of beauty. - No one can divine what new problems will occupy you in time to - come, nor how you will solve them; but one may feel sure that with - you, as Emerson says, 'the future will be worthy of the past.'" - -Yet there was hardly a public question, especially in his later years, -on which Mrs. Ward and her father did not differ profoundly; for Tom -Arnold hated "Imperialism" and the modern world, especially such -manifestations of it as the Omdurman campaign and the South African War. -Mrs. Ward, on the other hand, watched the former with all the pride and -dread that comes from a personal stake in the adventure; for was not -Colonel Neville Lyttelton in command of a brigade, and had he not left -his wife and children under our care at Stocks Cottage? She had found a -task for Mrs. Lyttelton's quick mind, to while away the too-long hours -of that summer, in a translation into English of the "Pensées" of -Joubert; their consultations over the fine shades of his meaning, while -the bees hummed in the lime-tree on the lawn, became the light and -relaxation of her days, while, later on, the Introduction she -contributed to the book helped its appearance with the public. And when -Colonel Lyttelton came home, a happy soldier, and pegged out the -Omdurman campaign for us on the drawing-room floor with matches, how was -it possible not to rejoice with him in the overthrow of so dark a -tyranny as the Khalifa's? - -But the South African War was a matter of far more mingled feelings, -though on the whole Mrs. Ward was persuaded that we were right as -against President Kruger and his methods, and upheld this view in many a -letter to her father: - - "I am not without sympathy for the Boers," she wrote to him in - November, 1899, "and I often try to realize their case and how the - invasive unwelcome English power looks to them. But it seems to me - that history--which for me is God--makes very stern decisions - between nations. The Boers have had their chance of an ascendancy - which must have been theirs if they had known how to work for it - and deserve it; they have missed it, and the chance now passes to - England. If she is not worthy of it, it won't remain with her--that - one may be sure. But I must say that the loyalty of the other - colonies--especially of French-speaking Canada; the pacification - and good government of India, the noble development of Egypt, are - to me so many signs that at present we _are_ fit to rule, and are - meant to rule. But we shall rule only so long as we execute - righteous judgment and so long as it is for the good of the world - that we should rule." - -She would have liked to see peace made after Lord Roberts' early -victories, and was for a time in favour of such terms as would not have -involved annexation. But when this hope failed she settled down to -endure the thing, and in 1901 devoted much time and labour to the -improvement of the Boer women's and children's lot in the concentration -camps. She joined the committee of the Victoria League formed for this -purpose. And, as inevitably happens in all such controversies, the -passion felt by the other side contributed to the hardening of her own -opinion, so that the end of the war found her more staunch an -Imperialist, more definite a Conservative, than she would have admitted -herself to be before it. - -It was during the war-shadowed winter of 1900-1901 that Mrs. Ward -suffered a series of heavy personal losses in the death of many of her -oldest friends, beginning with Mr. James Cropper, of Ellergreen, her -quasi-uncle,[21] with whom she had been on the most affectionate terms -ever since her childhood. This occurred a bare month before her father's -death; then, two months later (January 14, 1901), came the blow that the -whole country felt as a catastrophe, the death of Bishop Creighton, and, -early in April, a loss that came home very sadly to Mrs. Ward, that of -her well-beloved publisher and friend, George Smith. "I never had a -truer friend or a wiser counsellor," she wrote of him, and indeed he -combined these qualities with so shrewd a humour and so unvarying a -kindness that Mrs. Ward might well count herself fortunate to have -enjoyed fourteen years of familiar intercourse with him. - - "His position as a publisher was very remarkable," she wrote to her - son. "He was the friend of his authors, their counsellor, banker - and domestic providence often--as Murray was to Byron. But nobody - would ever have dared to take the liberties with him that Byron did - with Murray." - -When he was gone, Mrs. Ward was fortunate enough to find in his -successor, Reginald Smith, an equally just and generous adviser, on -whose friendship she leant more and more until death took him too, in -the tragic winter of 1916. - - * * * * * - -The remarkable success of _Eleanor_ in the United States (where the -character of Lucy Foster won all hearts) led to inquiries being made -from certain theatrical quarters there as to whether Mrs. Ward would not -undertake to dramatize it. The suggestion attracted her at once, for -though she had never written anything for the stage she had, all her -life, been a keenly interested critic of plays and actors and a devoted -adherent of French methods as against the heavy English stage -conventions. But when she seriously confronted the problem she felt -herself too ignorant of stagecraft to undertake the task unaided, and -therefore called in to her counsels that delightful writer of light -comedy, Julian Sturgis, whom she persuaded to collaborate with her. -Could she have foreseen the play's delays, the insolence of box offices -and the manifold despairs that awaited her in this new path, probably -even her high courage would have turned aside, but the co-operation it -brought her with so rare a spirit as Julian Sturgis was at any rate a -very living compensation. In the spring of 1901 Mr. Sturgis came out to -stay with us in a villa we had taken (on the spur of the moment) on the -outskirts of Rapallo (not then celebrated as the scene of international -"pacts"), and together he and his hostess plunged with ardour into the -business of making their puppets move. The work was extraordinarily -hard, while the skies above our crimson villa behaved as though it were -Westmorland and the Mediterranean thundered on the sea-wall of our -garden; but Mrs. Ward enjoyed the stimulus and novelty of it immensely -and always declared that she owed much even for her novelist's art to -that week of "grind" with Mr. Sturgis. Nor was it quite all grind, for -one day, when the sun at last shone, we took our guest and his tall Eton -boy up the long pilgrimage-way to the Madonna di Montallegro, overtaking -a party of laden peasant-women as we went to whom Mr. Sturgis offered -some passing kindness. His advances were met by a torrent of words in -some uncouth dialect which none of us could understand, but he chose to -appropriate them to himself as a prayer offered to "Santo Giulio," and -"Santo Giulio" he remained to Mrs. Ward and all of us for the too-short -remnant of his life.[22] The play stood up and lived by the time his -visit was ended; but this was only the beginning of endless heartaches -and disappointments. At first there were hopes of the Duse, then of Mrs. -Pat; then Mr. Benson was to produce it with a clever and charming -amateur actress of our acquaintance in the role of Eleanor; then at -length a real promise was secured from a well-known actor-manager, and -all was fixed for May, 1902. But the promise was not an agreement, and -was therefore mortal; when it died Mr. Sturgis's only comment was: "My -dear Mrs. Ward, I am not a bit surprised. My deep distrust of the -theatrical world, wherein pretending gets into the blood, makes me -sceptical of any promises which are not stamped, signed and witnessed by -a legion of angels." - -Already, however, Miss Marion Terry, Miss Robins and Miss Lilian -Braithwaite had promised in no spirit of "pretending" to play the three -principal parts, so that with things so well advanced on that side Mrs. -Ward determined to go forward. Since the managers were timid she would -take a theatre and bear the risk herself. Finally all was settled with -the Court Theatre, and the delightful agony of the rehearsals began -(October, 1902). Miss Terry sprained a tendon in her leg, but gallantly -limped through her part, while the constant changes called for in the -words, the cuts and compressions, made a bewildering variety of versions -that left the lay onlooker gasping. Mrs. Ward, however, was equal to all -occasions--even to a last-minute change in the actor who played -Manisty[23]--until not one of the cast but was moved to astonishment and -admiration, not only by her versatility, but by her long-suffering. Add -to this her endless consideration for themselves--for their comfort, -their feelings or their clothes--and it is easy to understand the -feelings of real affection which grew up between author and actors as -the play went on. Yet all was of no avail, or, at least, it failed to -conquer the great heart of the British public. The cast was admirable, -the reviews were kind--though Mr. Walkley in _The Times_ perhaps gave -the key to the situation when he ended his article with the words, "But -then, who _could_ play Manisty?" Yet, somehow, the audience (after the -first day) failed to fill the seats. _Eleanor_ ran for only fifteen -matinées, October 30-November 15, and though much was said of a -revival, she only once again saw the footlights--in a couple of special -matinées given in aid of the Passmore Edwards Settlement. And yet--what -fun it had been! Though the financial loss made her rueful, Mrs. Ward -always looked back to those six weeks at the Court Theatre as a -breathless but happy episode, during which she had looked deep into the -technique of a new art and brought from it, not success indeed, but much -valuable experience which she might bring to bear upon her future work. -Certainly the two novels of these years, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and the -_Marriage of William Ashe_, gained much in sureness of touch, terseness -and finish from Mrs. Ward's dramatic studies; _Lady Rose_ was in fact -acclaimed by the critics as the book in which, at last, the writer -showed "the predominance of the artistic over the ethical instinct, the -subordination of the didactic to the artistic impulse." - -She never dramatized it, but a dramatized version of _William Ashe_, at -which Mrs. Ward toiled extremely hard, in collaboration with Miss -Margaret Mayo, during 1905, was accepted by an American "stock company" -and acquired a considerable reputation in the States. In London, -however, where it was performed by a semi-American cast in 1908, it fell -very flat, Mrs. Ward being fortunately spared the sight of it owing to -the fact that she herself was across the Atlantic at the time. The -actress who played Kitty, wishing to leave the author in no doubt as to -the cause of its failure, cabled to her after the first night, "Press -unfriendly to play--_my_ performance highly praised!" Even so, however, -the Manager decided to withdraw it after a three weeks' run, and no play -of Mrs. Ward's was ever afterwards performed in England. - -Among the most absorbed spectators of the first performance of -_Eleanor_, watching it from an arm-chair brought for his ease into the -author's box, was the pathetic figure of Mrs. Ward's eldest brother, -William Arnold. His health had broken down some years before, while he -was still assistant editor of the _Manchester Guardian_, and he had come -to live, with his wife, in a small house in Chelsea, where it was Mrs. -Ward's delight to find him, on his better days, and to discuss all -things in heaven and earth with him. No comradeship could ever have been -closer than was theirs, though intercourse with him would always end in -a strangling heartache for his state of health, for noble gifts -submerged by bodily pain, despite as gallant a fight as was ever waged -by suffering man. Mrs. Ward was for ever watching over him and helping -him; sending him abroad in search of sun and warmth; having him to stay -with her at Stocks, in London, or at some villa in Italy; encouraging -him to do what work he could. But most they loved their talks together. -Their tastes would usually agree on literary matters, and differ on -politics, but no matter what the subject, his flashes of mischief and -malice would light up the most ordinary topic, and no one loved better -to draw him out, and to set him railing or praising, than his sister. -How they would talk, sometimes, about the details of her craft, about -Jane Austen, or Trollope, or George Meredith! For this latter they both -had a feeling akin to adoration, based on a knowledge not only of his -novels but of his poems (then not a common accomplishment); and I -remember W. T. A. once saying to me that he thought the jolliest line in -English poetry was - - Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose. - -Mrs. Ward's feeling for the old giant of Box Hill led her on all -occasions to champion his right to be regarded as the greatest living -master of English--as may be seen from the following spirited letter -(January 19, 1902) addressed to the secretary of the Society of Authors, -when that body had, in her view, made the wrong decision in recommending -Herbert Spencer instead of Meredith for the Nobel Prize. - - "However eminent Mr. Spencer may be" (she wrote), "and however - important his contribution to English thought, there must be a - great many of us who will feel, when it is a question of - interrogating English opinion as to the most distinguished name - among us in pure literature, there can be only one answer--George - Meredith. It is no reply to say that the Swedish Academy will - probably know something of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and may know little - or nothing about Mr. Meredith. That is their affair, not ours. The - meaning and purpose of this prize has been illustrated by the - selection of M. Sully Prud'homme. Its recipient should be surely, - first and foremost, a man of letters, and, if possible, a - representative of what the Germans call 'Dichtung,' whether in - prose or verse. - - "If Mr. Meredith had written nothing but the love-scenes in - _Richard Feverel_; _The Egoist_; and certain passages of - description in _Vittoria_ and _Beauchamp's Career_, he would still - stand at the head of English 'Dichtung.' There is no critic now who - can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of - letters he is easily first; to compare Mr. Spencer's power of clear - statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be - absurd--in the literary field. And this is or should be a literary - award. - - "I trust that in writing thus I shall not be misunderstood. I am - not venturing to dispute Mr. Spencer's great position in the - history of English thought--I have neither the wish nor the - capacity for anything of the kind. But to be the philosopher of - evolution is one thing; to be our first man of letters is another. - I would submit that English opinion is asked to point out our most - distinguished man of letters, and that if we cannot unanimously say - 'George Meredith!' we are not worthy that Genius should come among - us at all." - -But only two years after this outburst (which I feel sure she showed -him) her comradeship with "Will" ended for ever, and his sufferings -ceased. He died on May 29, 1904.[24] - - * * * * * - -About the same time as she lost her beloved brother, Mrs. Ward acquired -a new member of the family in the person of her son-in-law, George -Macaulay Trevelyan, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. He and her younger -daughter became engaged at the Villa Bonaventura, Cadenabbia--which Mrs. -Ward had taken from Mr. Alfred Trench--in May, 1903--and ten months -later they were married at Oxford. Mrs. Ward soon became much devoted to -her son-in-law, whose ardent faiths and non-faiths challenged and -stimulated her, bringing her into touch with movements of thought that -ran parallel to, but had not yet mingled with, her own belief in a more -reasonable Christianity. The walls of her room at Stocks would re-echo, -during his visits, with the most fundamental discussions! Mr. -Chamberlain, too, was a disturbing element in those days, with his -Tariff Reform campaign, for what was Mrs. Ward to do when her son took -one side and her son-in-law the other--and when, moreover, her own -well-trained mind was perfectly capable of understanding the arguments -of each? But whatever the subject of these discussions, whether politics -or religion, they only served to increase the affection between the two, -which grew and deepened with every turn of fortune that the years might -bring. - -It is perhaps interesting to speculate what might have been the -development of Mrs. Ward's powers if her intellect had never been -captured by the dramatic spell, and if other sides of that -"wide-flashing" mind had been allowed to work themselves out unchecked. -For in the lull that followed the completion of _Eleanor_ she had -conceived the writing of a "Life of Christ" based on such a -re-interpretation of the Gospel story as she believed had been made -possible by the research of the last half-century. She brooded much over -this theme and even discussed it with her publishers. But whether it was -that her continued ill-health made her shrink from the heavy toil -involved by such a task--the re-reading and collating of all her -Germans, the study of an infinite amount of fresh material, and probably -a journey to Palestine--or whether the practical side of Christianity -had by now absorbed too large a share of her time and her powers, the -project never came to fruition, though it never ceased to attract her. - - * * * * * - -And indeed, Mrs. Ward's practical adventures in well-doing during these -years would have been enough to fill the lives of any three ordinary -individuals, without any such diversions as the writing of novels or the -hammering out of plays. The affairs of the Settlement were always on her -shoulders, not only as regards the financial burden of its maintenance, -but in all the personal questions that inevitably arose in such a busy -hive of humanity. If the nurse of the Invalid School had words with the -porter, the case was sure to come up to her for judgment, while any -misdemeanour among the young people themselves who frequented the -building would cause her the most anxious searchings of heart. But "it -does not do to start things and then let them drift," as she wrote in -these days to one of us, and she continued to cherish the Settlement, to -support the Warden (Mr. Tatton) in his difficulties and to beg for -money, with an extraordinary vitality as well as an extraordinary -patience. Yet in spite of all, the Settlement was far more of joy to her -than of burden, and on its children's side it never ceased to be pure -joy from the beginning. For was it not always possible to devise new -ways of making the children happy, as well as to continue the old? The -principal way in which Mrs. Ward's work extended itself at this time was -in the opening of the "Vacation School," designed to bring in from the -streets in large numbers the children left stranded during the August -holiday,--and if anyone will take the trouble to wander through the back -streets during that happy season, and to note what he sees, there will -be little doubt in his mind that such a school must be a real -deliverance. Mrs. Ward had taken the idea from an account by Mr. Henry -Curtis in _Harper's Magazine_ (early in 1902) of the first schools of -the kind started in New York, and her mind had at once grasped the -possibilities of such a scheme. There stood the Settlement with its fine -shady garden in the rear, empty and dumb through the holidays: surely it -would be a sin not to use it! - -She collected a special fund from a few old friends of the Settlement, -appointed an admirable director in the person of Mr. E. G. Holland, an -assistant master at the Highgate Secondary School, enlisted the help of -all the schools around to send us such children only as had no chance of -a country holiday, and then issued invitations to some 750, divided into -two batches, morning and afternoon. The result was an orderly and -delighted crowd which, owing to Miss Churcher's and Mr. Holland's -faultless organization, moved from class to class and from garden to -building without the smallest hitch, played and dug in the "waste -ground" beyond the garden, specially thrown open to the school by the -Duke of Bedford, and when rain came marched into the building and filled -its basement rooms and the pleasant library and class-rooms without any -confusion or squabbling. The occupations were much the same as those -already in use for the "Recreation School," and never failed to attract -and then to keep the children; while the spirit of good fellowship that -the atmosphere of the school engendered had a marked effect on their -manners as the four weeks of the school passed away. Here is Mrs. Ward's -own account of the contrast presented by the children as they were in -the Vacation School and as they could not help being in a mean street -only half a mile away:[25] - - "Last week a lady interested in the school was passing through one - of the slum streets to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Much good - work has been done there by many agencies. But in August most of - the workers are away. Dirty, ragged, fighting or querulous children - covered the pavement, or seemed to be bursting out of the grimy - houses. The street was filthy, the clothes of the children to - match. There was no occupation; the little souls were given up to - 'the weight of chance desires'; and whatever happiness there was - must have been of rather a perilous sort. The same spectator passed - on, and half a mile eastward entered the settlement building in - Tavistock Place. Here were nearly 300 children (the children of the - Evening Session), divided between house and garden, many of them - from quarters quite as poor as those she had just traversed. But - all was order, friendliness and enjoyment. Every child was clean - and neat, though the clothes might be poor; if a boy brushed past - the visitor, it would be with a pleasant 'Excuse me, Miss'; in the - manual training-room boys looked up from the benches with glee to - show the models they had made; the drawing-room of the settlement - was full of little ones busy with the unfamiliar delights of brush - or pencil; in the library boys were sitting hunched up over - _Masterman Ready_, or the ever-adored _Robinson Crusoe_; girls were - deep in _Anderson's Fairy Tales_ or _The Cuckoo Clock_, the little - ones were reading Mr. Stead's _Books for the Bairns_ or looking at - pictures; outside in the garden under the trees clay modelling and - kindergarten games were going on, while the sand-pit was crowded - with children enjoying themselves heartily without either shouting - or fighting. Meanwhile in the big hall parents were thronging in to - see the musical drill, the dancing or the acting, or to listen to - the singing; the fathers as proud as the mothers that Willie was - 'in the Shakespeare,' or Nellie 'in the Gavotte.' The visitor had - only to watch to see that the teachers were obeyed at a word, at a - glance, and that the children loved to obey. Everywhere was - discipline, good temper, pleasure. And next day the school broke up - with the joining of 600 voices in the old hymn 'O God, our help in - ages past.' Surely no contrast could be more complete." - -And in conclusion Mrs. Ward made her characteristic appeal: - - "Shall we not enter seriously on the movement and call on our - public authorities to take it up? Who can doubt the need of it, - even when all allowance is made for country holidays of all sorts? - Extend and develop country holidays as you will, London in the - summer vacation month will never be without its hundreds of - thousands of children for whom these Vacation Schools, properly - managed, would be almost a boon of fairyland." - -The Vacation School had indeed been watched with much interest by the -London School Board, which had also co-operated by the lending of -furniture and "stock," but the transference of its powers to the London -County Council made a bad atmosphere, just at this time, for the -adoption of new experiments, and the new "London Education Authority" -which arose in 1903 was only too glad to leave the carrying-on of the -Settlement Vacation School to Mrs. Ward. Every year it seemed to -increase in popularity. Mr. Holland remained director for thirteen -consecutive Augusts (1902-1914); the numbers of the school rose to 1,000 -per day in later years, when an additional building became available, -and Mrs. Ward could have no greater pleasure, when the pressure of her -literary work permitted, than to come up from Stocks for a day to watch -her holiday children. But in spite of the universally recognized success -of her experiment, this and the "Holiday School" organized by the -Browning Settlement from 1904 onwards remained practically the only -efforts of the kind carried on in London, until at length, in 1910, the -L.C.C. followed suit by opening six Vacation Schools in different parts -of the metropolis, housed in the ordinary school buildings and -playgrounds. They were an enormous boon to the children of those -districts, but the Council did not persist in its good deeds, for after -two years these Holiday Schools were allowed to drop, and have never, -unfortunately, been revived. Indeed, in June, 1921, a resolution was -passed, prohibiting any expenditure on Holiday Schools or Organized -Playgrounds. So does the London child pay its share of the War Debt. - -But the Vacation School at the Settlement has never lapsed, since the -first day that Mrs. Ward opened it in August, 1902, although in these -times of forced economy the numbers are less than of old. But there, -under the great plane-trees in the garden, the trestle-tables are still -set up and the children still congregate, bearing their laughing -testimony to the memory of one who knew their little hearts, and who, -seeing them shepherdless in the hot streets, could not rest until they -were gathered in. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES - -1904-1917 - - -Both _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and _The Marriage of William Ashe_, which -appeared in 1903 and 1905 respectively, are novels of London life, -reflecting in their minor characters, their talk and the incidents that -accompany the tale, that intimate aquaintance with the world of London -which Mrs. Ward had acquired during the many years that she had spent in -observing it, in working with it, and in sharing some of the rarer forms -of the rewards which it has to give. The central theme in each case is a -broadly human one, but the setting and the savour are those of -London--that all-devouring London which she loved so well, but from -which, after a few weeks of its turmoil, she was always so thankful to -escape. It was now twenty years and more since she and Mr. Ward had come -to live in the pretty old house in Russell Square where they had first -gathered their friends around them, and where her Thursdays had first -become an institution; but time had not dimmed her zest for friendship -and for talk, so that the Thursdays and the frequent dinner-parties -continued at Grosvenor Place through all the years that followed. She -would never have claimed that they amounted to a _salon_, for, in spite -of _Lady Rose's Daughter_, her belief was that a _salon_, properly -so-called, was not in the English tradition, and could hardly survive -outside Paris; yet I think that if one had taken the opinion of those -who frequented them they would have said that Mrs. Ward's afternoons or -evenings made a remarkable English equivalent. She herself did not -disguise the fact that she regarded good talk as an art, and enjoyed -nothing more than the play of mind on mind and the quick thrust and -parry that occasionally sweeps across a dinner-table; but she had no -illusions as to the natural inaptitude of the English for the art, and -would often quote the exasperated remark of her great friend in Rome, -Contessa Maria Pasolini, after an evening spent in entertaining English -visitors: "You English, you need so much winding up! Now, if I were -merely to tear up a piece of paper and throw it down among my French -friends, they would talk about it delightfully all the evening!" Hence -her injunctions to her children, when they began to take wing and go -forth to "social junketings" of their own, not to be stuck-up or blasé, -and above all "not to sit like a stuck pig when you get there!" To exert -one's wits to make a party go was part of one's social duty, just as -much as handing the tea-cake or opening the door, and she herself, in -spite of a natural absence of small talk which made her formidable -sometimes to new acquaintances, would faithfully follow her own -precepts. But with her the effort was second nature, for it sprang from -her inborn desire to place herself in sympathetic relations with her -neighbour, to draw out the best in him, to set him going. And so the -talk that was heard at Grosvenor Place, whether at her small -luncheon-parties, her Thursdays, or her dinners, always took from her -first and foremost the quality of reality; people talked--or made her -talk--of the things they knew or cared about, and since her range was so -wide, and there was always, as an old friend expressed it, "so much -tinder about" among her guests, the result was a certain vividness and -vitality that left their mark, and have been long remembered. And, as -one of those who knew her best said once on a public occasion,[26] she -had the secret of making you feel, as you left her house, that you were -a much finer fellow than you thought when you went in; she made you -believe in yourself, for she had, by some subtle magic--or perhaps by -the simplest of all--brought out gifts or powers in you which you hardly -knew that you possessed. - -As to the persons who came and went in that pretty room, looking out on -the garden of Buckingham Palace, how is it possible to number or name -them, or to recall the flavour of their long-vanished conversation? -Many have, like their hostess, passed into the unknown: figures like -Leslie Stephen, who wrote to her often, especially after his wife's -death, and came at intervals to Grosvenor Place for a long -_tête-à-tête_, sitting on the sofa beside Mrs. Ward, his ear-trumpet -between them; or like the much-loved Burne-Jones, who came at an earlier -stage and too soon ceased to come, for he died in 1898, leaving her only -a little bundle of letters which she affectionately treasured; or again, -like Lady Wemyss, the deep-voiced, queerly-dressed _grande dame_, whom -Mrs. Ward loved for her heart's sake, and of whom she has recorded a -suggestion, perhaps, in the Lady Winterbourne of _Marcella_; and ah! how -many more, of whom it would be unprofitable for the after-born to write. -Mrs. Ward has left in her novels the mirror of the world in which she -lived and moved, and in her _Recollections_ a more intimate picture of -her friends. To try to add to these records would be but to tempt the -Gods. - -But at what a cost in fatigue of body and mind even her entertaining was -carried on, those who passed their days with Mrs. Ward may at least -tell. It was always the same story. She put so much of herself into -whatever she was doing that the effort produced exhaustion. And so, -after her Thursdays, or perhaps after some gathering of Settlement -workers to whom she had been talking individually, she would collapse -upon the sofa, white and speechless, only fit to be "stroked" and left -to gather her forces again as best she might. There was one Thursday in -the month when, after her own "At Home," she was obliged to attend the -Settlement Council meeting at eight o'clock. This meant that there was -no time for recuperation between the two, but only for a hurried meal, -filled with hasty consultations as to the evening's notes, letters and -telephonings that must be done during her absence; then she would go -off, and some time towards eleven would return, worn out and crumpled, -though perhaps with the light of battle still in her eye over some point -well raised or some victory won. At the Settlement she would have given -no hint of any disability, and would have been the life and soul of the -meeting. Perhaps only her friend the Warden knew what a struggle against -physical pain and weakness her presence there had implied. We used to -chaff her sometimes about the physical ailments of her heroines, who, -according to our robust ideas, were too fond of turning white or of -letting their lips tremble, but this trick of her novels expressed only -too deep an experience of her own, since never, in all the years that -she was writing, did she know what it was to have a day of ordinary -physical strength. On many and many of her guests she made the illusion -of being a strong woman, but could they have seen her when the talk and -the excitement were over, they would have known that it was only her -spirit that had carried her through. The body was always dragged after, -a more or less protesting slave. - -Her way of life at Grosvenor Place was naturally one which involved a -good deal of expenditure. Sometimes she would have searchings of heart -over this, or even momentary spasms of economy, but it sprang in reality -from two fundamental causes--one her delight in beautiful things, -inherited even in her starved childhood from her mother, and shared to -the full in later years with her husband; the other this constant -ill-health, which made her incapable of "roughing it," and rendered a -certain amount of luxury indispensable if she was to get through her -daily task. Good pictures and the right kind of furniture gave her a -definite joy for their own sakes, while the arrangement of the chairs -and tables in the manner best calculated to encourage talk was always a -fascinating problem. Clothes, too, were not to be despised, and though -she liked to sit and work in some old rag that had seen better days, it -amused her also to go and plan some beautiful thing with her dressmaker, -Mrs. Kerr, and it amused her to wear the "creation" when it was -finished. Her faithful maid, Lizzie, who had been with us since the -early days of Russell Square, and who was often more nurse than maid to -her, cut and altered and renovated in her little workroom upstairs, -while every now and then Mrs. Ward would issue forth and make a raid -upon the shops, coming home either triumphant to face the criticism of -her family, or very low because she knew she had been beguiled into -buying something which she now positively hated. She was extremely -particular, too, about her daughters' clothes, nor could she make up her -mind, when they came out, to give them a dress allowance, being far too -much interested herself in the problem of how they looked; but even -when she was fully responsible for some luckless garment of theirs she -would often break out, on its first appearance, with the fatal words, -"Go upstairs, take that off, and let me _never_ see it again until it's -completely re-made!"--usually uttered amid helpless giggles, for this -had become, by long use, a stock phrase in our family. - -Strangers coming from afar with some claim upon her kindness found -always a ready welcome at her house. In addition to her French and -Italian friends, who would find their way to her door as soon as they -arrived in London, she had many warm friendships with Americans, -beginning with her much-loved cousin, Frederick W. Whitridge, who had -married Matthew Arnold's daughter Lucy, and had got Mr. Ward to build a -comely house for her within half a mile of Stocks. "Cousin Fred," with -his charming blue eyes and white moustache and beard, had been a truly -Olympian figure to us children even in the days of Russell Square, for -had he not deposited on our plates at breakfast, one golden morning, a -sovereign each for the two elders and half a sovereign for the youngest? -And as the years passed on, and he became the intimate friend of -Roosevelt and a recognized leader of the New York Bar, the friendship -between him and Mrs. Ward grew ever deeper, so that his shrewd wisdom -and inimitable humour, as well as his habit of spoiling the people he -was fond of, came to be looked for each summer as one of the true -pleasures of the year. His son was one of the first Americans to join -the British Army in 1914, but he himself, like Henry James, was not to -see the day for which both he and Roosevelt had toiled so hard. He died -in December, 1916, four months before America "came in." Mr. Lowell, the -American Ambassador during the 'eighties, had been a frequent visitor at -Russell Square, while his successors, Hay, Bayard and Choate, were all -on friendly terms with Mrs. Ward. Comrades in her own trade whom it -always pleased her to see were Mr. Gilder, editor of the _Century -Magazine_, welcome whether he came as publisher or friend; Mr. Godkin, -of the _Evening Post_, the most intellectual among American journalists; -Mr. S. S. McClure, who had first tracked down Mrs. Ward at Borough Farm, -and remained ever afterwards on cordial, not to say familiar, terms with -her; Charles Dudley Warner, Mrs. Wharton, the William James's, and many -more. But the most intimate of all were certain women: that inseparable -and delightful pair, Mrs. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett (the writer -of New England stories), who twice found their way to Stocks, and many -times to Grosvenor Place, and lastly that other Bostonian, Miss Sara -Norton, whose friendship for Dorothy made her almost as another daughter -during her visits to Stocks, to Levens, or to the Villa Bonaventura. - -But it was not by any means only for the "distinguished," whether from -home or abroad, that Grosvenor Place laid itself out. One of its -principal functions was that of making the head-quarters in London for -all the younger members of Mrs. Ward's own family, as well as for the -grandchildren who began about this time to find their way to her knee. -For to all such young people she was mother, fairy godmother and friend -rolled into one. Settlement workers and Associates, teachers and many -"dim" people of various professions would find her as accessible as her -strenuous hours of labour would allow. All she asked of those who came -to her house was that they should have something real to contribute--and -if possible that they should contribute it without egotism. Certainly -she did not suffer bores gladly; an ordinary bore was bad enough, but an -egotistic bore would produce a peculiar kind of nervous irritation in -her which we who watched could always detect, however manfully she -strove to conceal it. Nor could she ever bring herself to observe the -strict rules of London etiquette, so that to "go calling" was an unknown -occupation in her calendar, and in spite of two daughters and a -secretary her social lapses and forgetfulnesses sometimes plunged her in -black despair. When she had hopelessly missed Mrs. So-and-So's party, to -which she had fully meant to go, she would sorrowfully declare that the -motto of the Ward family ought to be: "Never went and never wrote." - -It is needless to point out how exhausting this London life became to -one who pressed so much into it as Mrs. Ward. For although she could -rarely write her books in London, being far too distracted by the -demands of the hungry world upon her time, it was mainly at Grosvenor -Place that she hammered out her schemes for the welfare of London's -children, talking them over with members of the School Board or the -County Council, driving about to some of the poorest districts to see -with her own eyes the conditions under which they lived, and planning -out the details in mornings of hard work with Miss Churcher. The -development of the Cripples' Schools, both in London and the Provinces, -was very much on her shoulders at this time, for she felt the imperative -need for extending them to other parts of the country, and undertook -many arduous missionary journeys on their behalf during the few years -that followed their establishment in London. There, as the schools grew -and spread under the fostering care of the L.C.C., it was the auxiliary -services of after-care, feeding and training that claimed the principal -share of her attention. But she had a very efficient committee to assist -her in these matters, under the chairmanship of Miss Maude Lawrence, so -that gradually her responsibility for the London cripples grew less -heavy, and she was able to turn to other schemes that now began to -simmer in her mind for the welfare of the whole as well as the halt -among London's children. - -For the remarkable success of the Children's Recreation School at the -Settlement, which by the year 1904 had attendances of some 1,700 -children a week (all, of course, wholly voluntary), led Mrs. Ward to -feel that some effort might be made to carry the civilizing effect of -such centres of play into the remoter and still more squalid regions of -the East and South. Already the Children's Happy Evenings' Association -held weekly or fortnightly "Evenings" in some eighty or ninety schools, -giving much pleasure to the children wherever they went, but Mrs. Ward's -plan was for something on a more intensive scale than this, something -that might exert a continuous influence over the lives of large numbers -of children in any given district, as the occupations and delights of -the "Passmore" did over the children of St. Pancras. She founded a small -committee, in October, 1904, to go into the matter and to lay proposals -before the Education Committee of the London County Council: proposals -to the effect that the "Play Centres Committee" should be allowed the -free use of certain schools after school hours on five evenings a week, -from 5.30 to 7.30, and also on Saturday mornings, for the purpose of -providing games, physical exercises and handwork occupations for the -children of that district. The Council readily gave its consent, and -Mrs. Ward applied herself to the task of raising sufficient funds for -the maintenance of eight "Evening Play Centres" in certain school -buildings, to be carried on for a year as an experiment. She obtained -promises amounting to nearly £800, largely from the same friends as had -watched her work at the Settlement, and with this she felt that she -could go forward. After careful inquiry, four schools in the East End -were selected, with one in Somers Town and two in Lambeth and Walworth -respectively, while Canon Barnett offered Toynbee Hall itself as the -scene of an eighth Centre. Mrs. Ward devoted special pains to the -selection of the eight Superintendents who were to have charge of these -Play Centres, for she rightly felt that on their wisdom and skill in -handling the large numbers of children who would pass through their -hands would largely depend the success of the adventure. Gymnastic -instructors, handwork teachers and many voluntary helpers were also -secured and assigned to the various Centres, so that the staff in each -case consisted of a _cadre_ of paid and professional workers, assisted -by as many volunteers as possible. Mrs. Ward's long experience at the -Settlement had convinced her that this nucleus of paid workers was -essential to the smooth and continuous working of any such scheme, since -although the best volunteers were invaluable in supplying an element of -initiative and originality in the working out of new ideas, still there -was also an element of irregularity in their attendance which detracted -much from their usefulness! And in proportion as the Centres succeeded -in their object of attracting the children from the streets, so much the -more disastrous would it be if large numbers of them were left -shepherdless on foggy evenings because Miss So-and-So had a bad cold. -Mrs. Ward was much criticized in certain quarters for bringing the -"professional element" into her Play Centres, but she knew better than -her critics how far the voluntary element might safely be trusted, and -how far it must be supplemented by the professional. She was playing all -the time for a _big thing_, with possibilities of expansion not only in -London but in the great industrial towns as well, besides which she -always hotly resented the suggestion that the paid worker must be -inferior in quality to the volunteer. On the contrary, it interested her -immensely to see how the professional teachers, both men and women, -would often reveal new and unsuspected qualities in the freer atmosphere -of the Play Centre, while the greater intimacy that they acquired with -their children was--as they often acknowledged--of the greatest value to -them in their day-school work. - -The first eight Play Centres opened their doors to the children on the -first Monday in February, 1905, and it may be imagined with what anxiety -and delight Mrs. Ward watched their development during these first -weeks. The children had been secured in the first instance by -invitations distributed through the Head Teachers to those who, in their -opinion, stood most in need of shelter and occupation after school -hours, i.e. principally to those whose parents were both out at work -till 7 or 8 o'clock; but after the ice was broken, Alf would bring 'Arry -and Edie would bring Maud, till the utmost capacity of the classes was -reached, and Mrs. Ward's heart was both gladdened and saddened by the -tale that her staff had as many children as they could possibly cope -with, and that many had of necessity been turned away. By the end of the -year the weekly attendance at the eight Centres amounted to nearly -6,000, and a year later, with ten Centres instead of eight, they had -risen to over 10,000. This meant that Mrs. Ward had struck upon a real -need of the wandering, loafing child-population of our greatest city--a -need that will in fact be perennial so long as the housing of the miles -upon miles of bricks and mortar that we call the working-class districts -remains what it is. "It all grows steadily beyond my hopes," wrote Mrs. -Ward to Mrs. Creighton in October, 1906, "and I believe that in three or -four years we shall see it developing into an ordinary part of -education, in the true sense. There is no difficulty about money--the -difficulty is to find the time and nerve-strength to carry it on, even -with such help as Bessie Churcher's." - -But the burden of raising the increasing sums required was, in truth, -very great, so that Mrs. Ward, with her belief in the future of the -movement, was already at work to get the Play Centre principle -recognized and embodied in an Act of Parliament. The opportunity arose -on Mr. Birrell's ill-fated Bill of 1906, but although Mrs. Ward's -clause, enabling any Local Education Authority "to provide for children -attending a public elementary school, Vacation Schools, Play Centres, or -means of recreation during their holidays or at such other times as the -Local Education Authority may prescribe," was accepted by the -Government, and passed the House of Lords in December, 1906, the Bill -itself was dropped soon afterwards, having been wrecked on the usual -rocks of sectarian passion. Fortunately, however, Mr. McKenna, who -succeeded Mr. Birrell at the Board of Education, was able to carry a -smaller measure, known as the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, -in the summer of the next year (1907). This Act duly contained the Play -Centres clause, as well as the provisions for the medical inspection and -treatment of school-children which have since borne such beneficent -fruit. Already in the previous summer, when the clause was first before -the House of Commons, Mr. Sydney Buxton had said at the opening of the -Settlement Vacation School that he felt sure it would go down to history -as the "Mary Ward Clause." - -But this victory had not been won except at the cost of considerable -friction with the only other body that attempted to cater in any -systematic fashion for the needs of London's children in the evening -hours--I mean the Children's Happy Evenings' Association. The -Association, which embodied the "voluntary principle" in its purest -form, could not tolerate the idea that the Public Education Authority -might in the future come to encroach upon a field which they regarded as -their own--even though their "Evenings" were avowedly held only once a -week, sometimes only once a fortnight, and could not touch more than the -barest fringe of the child population of each district. They disliked -the professional worker, and they abhorred the bare idea that public -money might eventually be spent upon the recreation of the -children--ignoring the experience of America, where the public authority -was doing more each year for the playtime of its children, and -forgetting, perhaps, that at the "preparatory schools" to which their -own little boys were sent, almost more time and thought were spent upon -their games than upon their "education" proper. And so they sent a -deputation to Mr. Birrell to oppose Mrs. Ward's clause, and their -workers attacked Mrs. Ward and her precious Play Centres in other ways -and on other occasions as well; but they found that she was a shrewd -fighter, for even though during the summer of 1906 she was laid low by -that most disabling complaint, a terrible attack of eczema, she -compelled herself to write from her bed a trenchant letter to _The -Times_ in defence of the professional worker, and also a very -conciliatory letter to her friend Lady Jersey, the President of the -Happy Evenings' Association. - - "It is most unwelcome to me," she wrote, "this dispute over a - public cause--especially when I see or dream what could be done by - co-operation. What I _wish_ is that you would join the Evening Play - Centres Committee, and see for yourself what it means. There is - nothing in our movement which is necessarily antagonistic to yours, - but I think we may claim that ours is more in sympathy with the - general ideas on the subject that are stirring people's minds than - yours." - -The affair ended in the acceptance by the Government of an amendment to -Mrs. Ward's clause, authorizing the Local Education Authorities to -"encourage and assist the continuance or establishment of Voluntary -Agencies" in any exercise of powers under the new Act. The two -associations--the Happy Evenings and the Play Centres--continued to -exist side by side until the inevitable march of events led, under the -stress of war, to the issue of Mr. Fisher's authoritative Memorandum -(January, 1917), admitting the obligation of the State in the matter of -the children's recreation, and announcing that in future the Board would -undertake half the "approved expenditure" of Evening Play Centre -committees. The Children's Happy Evenings' committee thereupon decided, -in dignified fashion, that their work was ended, and dissolved their -Association. Peace be to its ashes! It had given joy, much joy, to many -thousands of London children, as Mrs. Ward always most fully recognized, -and if in the end it stood in the way of the new and younger power which -was capable of giving an almost indefinite extension to the children's -pleasure, could it but have a free field, the reluctance of the -Association to cede any ground was only, after all, a very natural -affair. - -But once the new Act was passed, Mrs. Ward was to be disappointed in her -hopes that the London Education Authority would take advantage of the -powers conferred upon it in order to assist the movement financially. -Certain members of the Council elected in 1907 (in which the majority -was overwhelmingly Moderate) urged her to present an appeal to the -Education Committee, asking that the cost of the Handwork, Drill and -Gymnastic classes held at the Play Centres might be defrayed by the -Council; this she did in a statement which she drew up and presented in -October, 1907, weaving into it with all the practised skill that she -knew so well how to throw into such documents firstly a picture of the -child-life of such districts as Hoxton, Walworth and Notting Dale in the -winter evenings, when the children were too often "turned out after tea -into the streets and told not to come home till bedtime"; then a brief -account of the small beginnings and immense growth of the Children's -Recreation School at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, with its -offshoots, the ten Play Centres held in the London schools, and finally -a striking list of individual cases, showing how the Centres had already -attracted to themselves scores of boys and girls whose conditions of -life were leading them into idling and vagabondage of all sorts, through -the mere lack of anything to do in the dark hours. - - "Perhaps the most striking revelation of the whole work," wrote - Mrs. Ward, "has been the positive hunger for hand-occupation which - exists among the older children. The attendances at the handwork - classes drop off a little when June begins, and from June to - October they are better discontinued in favour of cricket, swimming - and outdoor games in general. But from October onwards through the - whole winter and up to the end of May, the demand for handwork - never slackens. Two or three times the number of children who are - now being taught would eagerly come to classes if they were opened. - Basket-work, wood-work and cobbling are unfailing delights, and it - is here that we ask most earnestly for the help of the County - Council. Rough boys, who would soon, if left to themselves, become - on leaving school a nuisance to the community and to the police, - can be got hold of through handwork, and in no other way. And when - once the taste has been acquired, there remains the strong - probability that after school is over they will be drawn into the - net of Evening Classes and Polytechnics, and so rescued for an - honest life." - -But the Education Committee, burdened as it was in that year with the -first arrangements for medical inspection and treatment, as well as with -the demand for the feeding of necessitous children, did not feel able to -undertake this further responsibility, although its reception of Mrs. -Ward's memorandum was extremely sympathetic. All that the Council would -do at this stage was to remit the charges previously made for cleaning -and caretaking of the schools during Play Centre hours, a concession -which amounted to a grant of about £20 a year per Centre. - -Mrs. Ward was therefore thrown back upon her own resources for the -financing of her great experiment. No thought of reduction or even of -standing still could be admitted, for with the growing fame of the -Centres, appeals began to come in from Care Committees, from School -Managers, from Clergy, and from hard-worked Magistrates, begging that -Centres might be opened in their districts, while the owner of a jam -factory in South London offered to pay part of the cost of a Centre if -it could be opened near his works, _because the children used to come -down to the factory gates in the evenings and cry till their mothers -came out_. Mr. Samuel's Children's Act of 1908 created the post of -Probation Officer for the supervision of "first offenders"; the first -two or three of these were appointed, on Mrs. Ward's recommendation, -from among her Play Centre Superintendents, since the intimate knowledge -they possessed of the children's lives gave them special qualifications -for their task. It soon became the practice of all Probation Officers to -refer their lawless little charges (often aged only nine or ten!) to the -nearest Play Centre as "every-night children," there to forget their -wild or thieving ways in the fascinations of cobbling, or wood-work, or -games, or military drill. But in order to respond to these growing -appeals Mrs. Ward had to undertake an ever-increasing burden of -financial responsibility, as well as of organization. In 1905 the first -eight Centres had cost a little over £900; in 1908, with twelve Centres -and total attendances of 620,000, the bill had risen to £3,000; in 1911, -with seventeen Centres and attendances of 1,170,000, it was £4,500; in -1913, with twenty Centres and attendances of 1,500,000, it was £5,700. -How she succeeded in raising these large sums in addition to her efforts -for the Settlement; how she found time, on the top of her literary work -and her many semi-political interests, for the close attention that she -gave, week in, week out, to the progress of each individual Centre and -the peculiarities of every Superintendent, will always remain a mystery. -Her unconquerable optimism, which became a more and more marked trait of -her character as the years went on, helped her through every crisis, -while her joy in the children's happiness acted both as a tonic and a -spur. Every winter she would issue her eloquent Report, sending it out -with irresistible personal letters to a large number of subscribers; -many a London landlord was made to stand and deliver for the children of -meaner streets than those which paid him rent; many a factory owner was -persuaded to follow the example of the jam-manufacturer above-mentioned. -Yet when all was done there would usually remain a deficit of several -hundred pounds, which must be wiped out in order to avert a bankers' -strike; then Mrs. Ward would gather up all the outstanding facts of the -year's work and present them in one of those remarkable letters to _The -Times_ of which she possessed the secret, charming the cheques for very -shame out of the pockets of the kind-hearted. And thus, with incredible -toil and with many moments of despair, the organization was kept going -and the indispensable funds supplied; but it was a labour of Hercules, -and her letters throughout these years bear witness to the exhausting -nature of the task. - -Once more, in 1913, Mrs. Ward hoped that the recognition of her long -effort was not far off, for both Government and County Council expressed -themselves, through the mouths of two distinguished leaders, as very -warmly in sympathy with it. She had organized an exhibition of Play -Centre hand-work at the Settlement--toy models of all sorts, baskets, -dolls, needlework, cobbled boots and shoes--and invited her old friend -Lord Haldane, then Lord Chancellor, and Mr. Cyril Cobb, Chairman of the -Education Committee, L.C.C., to speak at the opening ceremony. Both -speakers emphasized the fact that Mrs. Ward had now proved her case, and -that, as Lord Haldane said, the Play Centre movement had "reached a -stage in which it must be recognized as one, at least, of the elements -in a national system of education, as one of the things that must come -within the scope and observance of the Board of Education. Such a -movement must begin by voluntary effort. It has already reached a stage -in which I hope it is going to attract a great deal of official -attention." Such words could not but encourage Mrs. Ward to hope that -help was near, for by that time the Board of Education had already -inaugurated the system of giving aid to voluntary societies, if their -aims and methods were approved, by a proportional grant on their -expenditure. Yet 1913 passed away and nothing came of it. One may -perhaps shrewdly suspect, in looking back, that the authorities knew -well enough when a thing was a "going concern" and needed no effort of -theirs to help it up the hill. Mrs. Ward was their willing horse; they -continued, with the instinct of _laissez-faire_ which has so often -preserved the British Constitution, to let her pull her own load. But a -time was at hand when _laissez-faire_ and all other comfortable -doctrines were to be swept away in the shock that set the whole fabric -of our society reeling. The outbreak of war, which seemed at first to -threaten the very existence of such things as Play Centres, was in fact -to reveal and establish their necessity. After two more years of heroic -effort to keep them going amid the flood of war appeals, Mrs. Ward had -her reward at last in Mr. Fisher's Memorandum of January, 1917. The -State had recognized the principle that in the children lay the best -hope of England, and Mrs. Ward had her way. Thence-forward the Board of -Education undertook to pay half the "approved expenditure" of the -Evening Play Centres committee. - - * * * * * - -But the establishment and growth of the London Play Centres, heavy and -exacting as was the toil that it involved, did not by any means exhaust -Mrs. Ward's efforts to improve the lot of London's children during these -years. In 1908 she opened two additional Vacation Schools in the East -End; one in a school with a "roof-playground" in Bow, the other in an -ordinary school in Hoxton. - - "On Friday I had a field-day at the Bow Vacation School," she wrote - to J.P.T. in August, 1908. "The air on the roof-playground was like - Margate, and the children's happiness and good-temper delightful to - see. There were flowers all about, and sunny views over East - London to distant country, and round games, and little ones happy - with toys, and all sorts of nice things. Downstairs a splendid game - of hand-ball in the playground, and a cool hall full of boys - playing games and reading. As for the Settlement, it has never been - so enchanting. There are 1,150 children daily, and all the teachers - say it is better than ever. The Duke's sand-heap and the new - drinking-fountain are great additions. Hoxton goes to my heart! It - is _too_ crowded, and there is nothing but asphalt playgrounds, - with no shade till late. Yet the children swarm, and when you see - them sitting listlessly, doing absolutely nothing, in the broiling - dirty streets outside you can't wonder. I am having the playground - shelter scrubbed out with carbolic daily, lined with some flowers - in pots, and filled with small tables and chairs for the little - ones. They have 800 children, and we have been obliged to give - extra help." - -Then in the next year, besides maintaining the roof-playground, she -opened another experimental Holiday-school near by for a small number of -delicate and ailing children whose names were on the "necessitous" list, -and who were therefore eligible for free dinners. Mrs. Ward delighted in -continuing and improving the free dinners for these little waifs during -the holidays, as well as in providing suitable occupations for their -fingers, and it was with real pride that she returned them to their -regular school at the end of the holidays, thriving, and with a record -of increased weight in almost every case. But the very success of these -attempts, together with the ever-increasing size and attractiveness of -the Settlement Vacation School, filled her with distress at the wasted -opportunities presented by the empty playgrounds of the ordinary London -schools during the August holiday, for she well knew from her own -experience and from that of New York, which she had closely studied,[27] -that it only needed the presence of two or three active kindergarten -teachers and a supply of toys and materials to attract to these open -spaces all the hot and weary children from the neighbouring streets and -there to make them happy. Her fingers itched to do it, tired though -they were with so many other labours. It was not, however, till the -spring of 1911 that she was able to take this work in hand, but then she -addressed herself to it with all her usual energy, presenting a scheme -to the L.C.C. for the "organization" of both the boys' and the girls' -playgrounds at twenty-six London schools during the summer holiday. The -Council met her once more with complete confidence, lending all the -larger equipment required; Mrs. Ward raised a special fund of nearly -£1,000, and devoted much attention to the engagement of the -Superintendents for the girls' grounds and the Games Masters for the -boys'. Then, just before the end of term, notices were distributed in -the neighbouring schools announcing that such and such a playground -would be opened for games and quiet occupations during the holidays, and -the result was awaited with some quaking. Would there be a crowd or a -desert? and if the former, would the Superintendents be able to keep -order? The answer was not long in coming. "I let in 400 boys," wrote one -of the Games Masters after his first session, "and the street outside -was still black with them." But in spite of the eager crowds which -everywhere made their appearance, order _was_ kept most successfully. -Mrs. Ward herself visited the playgrounds constantly, and at the end of -the month wrote her joyous report to _The Times_: - - "Inside one came always upon a cheerful scene. In the girls' - playgrounds, during those hottest August days, one saw crowds of - girls and babies playing in the shade of the school buildings, or - forming happy groups for reading or sewing, or filling the trestle - tables under the shelters, where were picture-books to be looked - at, beads to thread, paints and paper to draw with, or wool for - knitting, or portable swings where the elder girls could swing the - little ones in turn. Then, if you asked the schoolkeeper to pass - you through a locked door, you were in the boys' playground, where - balls were whizzing, and the space was divided up by a clever - Superintendent between the cricket of the bigger boys--very near, - often, to the real thing--and the first efforts, not a whit less - energetic, of the younger ones. In one corner, also, there would be - mats and jumping-stands; in another a group playing tennis with a - chalked line instead of a net, while the shelters were full, as in - the girl's ground, of all kinds of quiet occupations. Management - was everything. It was wonderful what a Superintendent with a real - turn for the thing could make of his ground, what a hold he got - upon his boys, and how well, in such cases, the boys behaved. There - was a real loyalty and _esprit de corps_ in these grounds; and - when, in the last week, 'sports' and displays were organized for - the benefit of the parents, it was really astonishing to see with - what ease a competent man or woman could handle a crowded - playground, how eagerly the children obeyed, how courteous and - happy they were." - -The number of attendances had been prodigious--424,000 for the whole -month, or 106,000 per week--and the gratitude of the parents who had -pressed in to see the final displays was touching to hear. In the next -year Mrs. Ward persuaded the L.C.C. to share the experiment with her, -the Council opening "organized playgrounds" in twenty schools and she -herself in twenty more; this time the organization was in many points -improved, and the results still more satisfactory. But although the -Council gave her to understand that they would undertake to carry on the -experiment in future, being convinced of its necessity, no further -action was taken, and the playgrounds of London, in spite of Mrs. Ward's -object-lesson, have been suffered to relapse into that condition of -uselessness and sometimes of positive danger to the children's morals -from which her efforts in 1911 and 1912 had sought to rescue them. - - * * * * * - -The story of Mrs. Ward's activities for the welfare of London's children -has taken us far beyond the period of her life at which we had otherwise -arrived. To return briefly to her literary work, it may be said, I -think, that those two novels of London life, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and -_William Ashe_, had marked its highest point in sheer brilliance and -success; after these the long autumn of her novel-writing began, which, -like all mellow autumns, had its moments of more true and delicate -beauty than the full summer had possessed. The first of these autumn -novels, if I may use the term, was _Fenwick's Career_, which appeared in -May, 1906; it was not a great popular success, like the previous two, -but to those who read it in these after-times its sober excellence of -workmanship, as shown especially in the scenes at Versailles and at the -Westmorland cottage where husband and wife meet again after their long -separation, are perhaps more attractive than all the brilliance of poor -Kitty Bristol or of the shifting groups in Lady Henry's house in Bruton -Street. Mrs. Ward had been criticized in the case of these three novels -for having made use of the persons and incidents of the past without any -definite acknowledgment, but she defended herself vigorously, in a short -Preface to _Fenwick's Career_, in words that I cannot do better than -reproduce: - - "The artist, as I hold, may gather from any field, so long as he - sacredly respects what other artists have already made their own by - the transmuting processes of the mind. To draw on the conceptions - or the phrases that have once passed through the warm minting of - another's brain, is for us moderns at any rate, the literary crime - of crimes. But to the teller of stories, all that is recorded of - the real life of men, as well as all that his own eyes can see, is - offered for the enrichment of his tale. This is a clear and simple - principle; yet it has been often denied. To insist upon it is, in - my belief, to uphold the true flag of Imagination, and to defend - the wide borders of Romance." - -The cottage on the "shelf of fell" in Langdale, whence poor Phoebe -Fenwick set forth on her mad journey to London, had also a solid -existence of its own, though no "acknowledgment" is made to it in -Foreword or text. "Robin Ghyll" stands high above the road on the -fell-side, between a giant sycamore and an ancient yew, close by the -ghyll of "druid oaks" whence it takes its name--resisting with all the -force of the mountain stone of which it is built the hurricanes that -sweep down upon it from the central knot of those grim northern hills. -The view from its little lawn of Pikes, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell has -perhaps no equal in the Lake District. Sunshine and storm have passed -over it for 200 years or more, since the valley folk first built it as a -small statesman's farm or shepherd's cottage. At the time of which I -write the little place was occupied by a poetically minded resident who -had added two pleasant rooms. - -Mrs. Ward and her daughter Dorothy noticed Robin Ghyll as they drove up -Langdale with "Aunt Fan" one summer day in 1902, and fell in love with -it. Two years later it actually fell vacant, so that Mrs. Ward could -take it in the name of her daughter and share with her the joy of -furnishing and then inhabiting its seven rooms. But though Mrs. Ward -loved Robin Ghyll and fled to it occasionally for complete retirement, -it belonged in a more particular sense to her daughter, and derived from -her its charm. Thither she would go at Whitsuntide or in September, -refreshing body and mind by contact with its solitudes. Not often indeed -could she be spared from the absorbing life of Stocks, or Italy, or -Grosvenor Place, where so much depended upon her. But though life limped -at Stocks during Dorothy's brief absences, she always returned from -Robin Ghyll with strength redoubled for the arduous service of love -which she rendered to her mother all her life long, and from which both -giver and receiver derived a sacred happiness. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA - -1908 - - -Mrs. Ward had often been assured by her friends and admirers in the -United States that if she would but visit them she would find such a -welcome as would stagger all her previous ideas of hospitality. She -could not doubt it; it was, in fact, this thought, combined with the -frailness of her health, that had deterred her during the twenty years -that followed the publication of _Robert Elsmere_ from going to claim -the honours that awaited her. Her husband and daughter had already paid -two visits to the States, and had experienced in the kindness and warmth -of their reception an earnest of what would fall to Mrs. Ward's lot -should she venture across the Atlantic; nor had they merely whirled with -the passing show, but had made many lifelong friends. Mrs. Ward had, -however, resisted the pressure of these friends for many years, until at -length, in the spring of 1908, so strong a combination of circumstances -arose to tempt her that her resolution gave way. Her own health, which -had suffered a grievous and prolonged breakdown in 1906, had gradually -re-established itself, so that by the time of which we are speaking she -was perhaps in better case for such an adventure than she had been for -some years. Mr. and Mrs. Whitridge would hear of nothing but that she -should make their house her home during her stay in New York; Mr. Bryce -made the same demand for Washington; Earl Grey for Ottawa (where he was -at that time Governor-General), while Mr. Ward's acquaintance with Sir -William van Horne, Chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway--based on a -common enthusiasm for Old Masters--led to the irresistible offer of a -private car on the Line for Mrs. Ward and her party, at the Company's -expense, from Montreal to Vancouver and back. Such lures were hardly to -be withstood, but I doubt whether Mrs. Ward would have succumbed even to -them had it not been for her growing desire to see, with her own eyes, -the work which was being done in New York for the play-time of the -children. She knew that New York was far in advance of London in the -provision of Vacation Schools for the long summer holiday, and of -evening Recreation Centres for the children who had left school; but -Play Centres for the school-children themselves were as yet unknown -there, so that she felt much might be gained by an exchange of -experiences between herself and the "Playground Association of America." - -And so, on March 11, 1908, they sailed in the _Adriatic_--she and Mr. -Ward, and her daughter Dorothy, with the faithful Lizzie in attendance. -The great ship set her thinking of the only other long voyage that she -had ever made, over far other seas. "When I look at this ship," she -wrote, "and think of the cockleshell we came home in round the Horn in -'56, and the discomforts my mother must have suffered with three -children, one a young baby! Happiness, as we all know, and as the -copy-books tell us, does not depend on luxuries--but how she would have -responded to a little comfort, a little petting, if she had ever had it! -My heart often aches when I think of it." The comforts of the _Adriatic_ -were indeed colossal, and since the ocean was kindness itself, Mrs. Ward -took no ill from the voyage, but arrived in good spirits, and ready to -face the New World with that zest which was her cradle-gift. - -Mr. Whitridge's pleasant house in East Eleventh Street received Mr. and -Mrs. Ward, while Dorothy stayed with equally hospitable friends--Mrs. -Cadwalader Jones and her daughter--over the way. Avalanches of reporters -had to be faced and dealt with, all craving for five minutes' talk with -Mrs. Ward, but they were usually intercepted in the hall by Mr. -Whitridge, whose method of dealing with his country's newspapers was -somewhat drastic. If they passed this outer line of defence they were -received by Mr. or Miss Ward, who found them persistent indeed, but -always marvellously civil; and on the very few occasions when Mrs. Ward -did consent to be interviewed, she insisted on seeing the proof and -entirely re-writing what had been put into her mouth. The newspapers, -indeed, had reckoned without a mentality which intensely disliked this -kind of thing; it was unfortunate, perhaps, but inevitable! - -In all other respects, however, it was impossible for Mrs. Ward not to -be deeply moved by the kindness that was heaped upon her. "Life has been -a tremendous rush," wrote D. M. W. from New York, "but really a very -delightful one, and we are accumulating many happy and amusing memories. -The chief thing that stands out, of course, is the love and admiration -for M. and her books. When all's said and done, it really is pretty -stirring, the way they feel about her. And the things the quiet, unknown -people say to one about her books go to one's heart." ("We dined at a -house last night," wrote Mrs. Ward herself, "where everybody had a card -containing a quotation from my wretched works. Humphry bears up as well -as can be expected!") But on one occasion, at least, she came in for a -puff of unearned incense. At an afternoon tea, given in her honour by -Mrs. Whitridge, an elderly lady was overheard saying in awe-struck tones -to her neighbour, "To think that I should have lived to shake hands with -the authoress of _Little Lord Fauntleroy_!" - -Dinners, lunches, receptions, operas and theatres succeeded one another -in a dazzling rush, but New York knew quite well what was the main -purpose of Mrs. Ward's visit, and it was fitting that the principal -function arranged in her honour should have been a dinner given her at -the Waldorf-Astoria by the Playground Association of America. There were -900 persons present, and when Mrs. Ward stood up to address them every -man and woman in the room spontaneously rose to their feet to greet her. -It was a moment that would have touched a far harder heart than hers. - - "It was very moving--it really was," she wrote to J. P. - T.--"because of the evident kindness and sincerity of it. I got - through fairly well, though I don't feel that I have yet arrived at - the right speech for a public dinner.... I was most interested by - the speech of the City Superintendent of Education, Dr. Maxwell, an - _admirable_ man, who declared hotly in my favour as to Play - Centres, and has, since the dinner, given directions for the first - _afternoon_ Play Centre for school children in New York. Isn't that - jolly! - - "Well, and since, we have been lunching, dining and seeing sights - with the same vigour. I have been to schools and manual training - centres with Dr. Maxwell, and we went through the Natural History - Museum with its Director,[28] who gave us a _thrilling_ time.... - One afternoon I went down to a College Settlement and spoke to a - large gathering of workers about English ways. The day before - yesterday I spoke to about 900 boys and girls and their teachers, - in one of their _magnificent_ public schools. Dr. Maxwell took me, - and asked me to speak of Grandpapa. A great many of the elder boys - had read _Tom Brown_ and knew all about the 'Doctor'! I enjoyed it - greatly, and as to their saluting of the flag--these masses of - alien children--one may say what one will, but it is one of the - most thrilling things in the world, and we, as a nation, are the - poorer for not having it." - -Mrs. Ward had accepted four or five engagements to lecture while she was -in America, in aid of her London Play Centres, and accumulated, to her -intense satisfaction, the handsome sum of £250 from this source during -her tour. She gave her audiences of her best--the paper already -mentioned, on "The Peasant in Literature," which revealed her literary -craft in its most finished form, and although she was so much the rage -at the time that her admirers were not disposed to be critical, she was -yet genuinely gratified by the pleasure which this paper gave, -especially in so cultivated a centre as Philadelphia. Here Mrs. Ward and -her daughter were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Coates, and then of -the Bertram Lippincotts, in their charming house outside the town. -Independence Hall gave them the proper thrill of sympathy with a "nation -struggling to be free," while Mrs. Ward was delighted by the general -old-world look of many of the streets, no less than by the stately -river, on which, as she found to her astonishment, "the boat-crews -practise for Henley." During their short stay with Mrs. Coates, Mrs. -Ward made friends with Dr. Weir Mitchell, novelist and physician, and -with Miss Agnes Repplier, for whom she felt an instant attraction, -while Dorothy sat next to a Mr. Walter Smith, and talked to him -innocently about certain Modernist lectures that had been given at the -Settlement in London, discovering afterwards, to her dismay, that he was -a strong Catholic, and freely called in Philadelphia "Helbeck of -Bannisdale." "I noticed it fell a little flat!" - -From Philadelphia they moved on to Washington, to stay with their old -friends the Bryces, at the hospitable British Embassy. An invitation -from the President (Mr. Roosevelt) to dine with him at the White House, -had already reached them. Mrs. Ward described her impressions in a long -letter to her son: - - -"WASHINGTON, -"_April 13, 1908_. - - "Everybody here has been kindness itself, and we feel that we ought - to spend the rest of our days in trying to be nice to Americans in - London! First, as you know, we went to the Bryces. They asked a - great many people to meet us, but what I remember best is a quiet - hour with Mr. and Mrs. Root, who were smuggled into an inner - drawing-room away from the crowd, where one could listen to him in - peace, and above all, look at him! He is, I think, the most - attractive of all the Americans we have seen. He has been Secretary - of State now for some years, and is evidently, like Edward Grey, - absorbed in his own special work and not much concerned with - current politics. His subordinates speak of him with enthusiasm, - and he has a detached, humane, meditative face, with a slight - flicker of humour perpetually playing over it--as different as - possible from the hawk-like concentration of the New Yorkers. We - have seen most of the Cabinet and high officials, and I have - particularly liked Mr. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. - Metcalf, Secretary for the Navy, and Mr. Bacon, Assistant Secretary - of State. Saturday's dinner at the White House was delightful, only - surpassed by the little round-table dinner of eight last night at - Mr. Henry Adams's, where the President took me in and talk was fast - and free--altogether a memorable evening. At the White House I did - not sit near the President, everything being regulated by a - comparatively strict etiquette and precedence--but after dinner he - sent word that I was to sit by him in the ballroom, at the little - concert which followed, and when the music was over, he and I - plunged into all sorts of things, ending up with religion and - theology! Last night he talked politics, socialism, divorce, large - and small families, the Kaiser, Randolph Churchill, the future of - wealth in this country (he wants to _lop_ all the biggest fortunes - by some form of taxation--pollard them like trees)--the future of - marriage and a few other trifles of the same kind. He is, of - course, an egotist, but an extraordinarily well-meaning and able - one, with all the virtues and failings of his natural character and - original bringing-up, exaggerated now and produced on what one - might almost call a colossal scale, which strikes the American - imagination. He honestly doesn't want a third term, and has set his - mind on Taft for his successor, but it must be hard for such a man - to step down from such a post into the ordinary opportunities of - life. However, as he says, and apparently sincerely, 'we mustn't - break the Washington tradition.' - - "To-day we are going out to Mount Vernon, and to-night there is - another dinner-party. Washington is a most beautiful place--the - Capitol a really glorious building that any nation might be proud - of, and the shining White House, with its graceful pillared front, - among its flowering trees and shrubs, makes me think with shame of - that black abortion, Buckingham Palace!" - -It was a special pleasure to them also to see something of M. Jusserand, -the French Ambassador, and his charming wife, and to renew a friendship -which had endured since their early days in London. But above all it was -the leaders of American politics that impressed Mrs. Ward. - - "Root, Garfield, Taft," she wrote to Miss Arnold, of Fox How, - "these and several others of the leading men attracted and - impressed me greatly--beyond what I had expected. Indeed, I think - one of the main impressions of this visit has been the inaccuracy - of our common idea in England that American women of the upper - class are as a rule superior to the men. It may be true among a - certain section of the rich business class, but amongst the - professional, educated and political people it is not true at all." - -Boston, of course, claimed Mrs. Ward on her way to Canada, and adopted -her in whole-hearted fashion. She was by this time a little tired of -"receptions" of five and six hundred persons, all passing before her as -in a dream and shaking a hand which was never free from writer's cramp. -"But the touching thing is the distance people come--one lame lady came -300 miles!--it made me feel badly--and all the Unitarian ministers for -thirty miles round have been asked and are said to be coming on Tuesday -next!" When they came, Mrs. Ward enjoyed the occasion particularly, and -wrote home that she had "had to make a speech, but got through better -than usual by dint of talking of T. H. Green." An elderly bookseller -among them, who had written to her regularly about each of her books for -the last twenty years, now met her and spoke with her at last; he went -away contented. But the real delights of her stay at Boston were her -visits to Harvard and Radcliffe, and her intercourse with the Nortons at -Shady Hill, and with Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett at the former's house. -Here she met the fine old veteran, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the -"Battle-Hymn of the Republic," who had lately brought out her memoirs. -Mrs. Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the -latter: "Imagine Mrs. Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, -which a critic had declared to be 'in pitiable hexameters' (English, of -course), was not 'in hexameters at all--it was in pentameters of my own -make--I never followed any special school or rule!' I have been gurgling -over that in bed this morning." But when they met, Mrs. Ward -capitulated. "By the way, I retract about Mrs. Howe. Her book is rather -foolish, but she herself is an old dear--full of fun at ninety, and -adored here. She lunched with Mrs. Fields to-day _en petit comité_, and -was most amusing." - -The New England country, which she saw on a motor-trip to Concord and -Lexington, and again on a visit which she paid to Mr. and Mrs. Henry -Holt at their beautiful house overlooking Lake Champlain, fascinated -her, "with its miles and miles of young woods sprung up on the soil of -the slain forests of the past--its pools and lakes, its hills and dales, -its glorious Connecticut river, and its myriads of white, small wooden -houses, all on a nice Georgian pattern, with shady verandahs, scattered -fenceless over the open fields. There were no flowers to be seen--only -the scarlet blossom of the maples in the woods." - -Nor could she get away, in such an atmosphere, from the old, old problem -of the separation. - -"I have been reading Bancroft this morning, and shall read G. O. T. -to-night. We _were_ fools!--but really, I rather agree with H. G. Wells -that they make too much fuss about it! and with Mr. Bryce that it was a -great pity, for _them_ and us, that the link was broken. So they needn't -be so tremendously dithyrambic!" - -It was, however, with a heart full of gratitude for the unnumbered -kindnesses of her hosts that Mrs. Ward quitted American soil at the end -of April and crossed over into Canada. Here her peregrinations were to -be mainly under the auspices of Lord Grey, then Governor-General, and of -Sir William van Horne, lord of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at whose -house in Montreal she planned the details of her great journey to the -West. These two revealed themselves to Mrs. Ward in characteristic -fashion while she was still the guest of Sir William, at Montreal, for -the Governor-General, coming over from Ottawa for the great Horse Show, -stopped during his progress round the arena at the Van Horne's box, -spoke to Mrs. Ward with the greatest cordiality, and there and then -insisted that she must go to see the great new Agricultural College at -St. Anne's, near Montreal, on their way to Ottawa the next day. - -"He declared that M. could not possibly leave Canada without having seen -it," wrote D. M. W., "and then said, with a laugh and a wave of his hand -to Sir William, 'Ask him--_he'll_ arrange it all for you!'--and passed -on, leaving M. and me somewhat scared, for we had not wanted to bother -Sir William about _this_ journey at any rate! I could see that even he, -who is never perturbed, was a little taken aback, but he said, in his -quiet way, 'It can certainly be arranged,' and it _has_ been!" Then, _en -revanche_, the Governor-General, "being on the loose, so to speak, in -Montreal, with only one and the least vigilant of his A.D.C.'s," came -unexpectedly to the big evening party that the Van Hornes were giving -that night--"because, as he said, 'I like Van Horne, and I wanted to see -Mrs. Ward!'" But, once back in Ottawa, "his family and all his other -A.D.C.'s, are scolding him and wringing their hands, because he never -ought to have done it! It creates a precedent and offends 500 people, -while it pleases one. Such are the joys of his position." - -When the "command" journey to the Agricultural College had been safely -preformed, the students duly presented Mrs. Ward with a bouquet and sang -"For _she's_ a jolly good fellow." "The G.G. was delighted," wrote -Dorothy, "and led her out to smile her thanks, but there was fortunately -no time for her to be called upon for five minutes of uplift, as His -Excellency was, the last time he went there! That has now become a -household word in Government House." Mrs. Ward must, I think, almost -have been in at the birth of that hard-worked phrase. - -Mr. Ward had been obliged to return to England for his work on _The -Times_, so that his wife's Canadian experiences are recorded in letters -to him: - - -"GOVERNMENT HOUSE, OTTAWA, -"_May 14, 1908_. - -..."Well, we have had a _very_ pleasant time. Lord Grey is never - tired of doing kind things, and she also is charming. He has asked - everybody to meet us who he thought would be - interesting--Government and Opposition--Civil servants, - journalists, clergy--but no priests! The fact is that there is a - certain amount of anxiety about these plotting Catholics, and - always will be. They accept the _status quo_ because they must, and - because it would not help them as Catholics to fall into the hands - of either the United States or of France. But there is plenty of - almost seditious feeling about. And the ingratitude of it! I sat - last night at the Lauriers' between Sir Wilfrid and M. Lemieux, - Minister of Labour--both Catholics. Sir Wilfrid said to me, 'I am a - Roman Catholic, but all my life I have fought the priests--_le - cléricalisme, voilà l'ennemi_. Their power in Quebec is unbounded, - but Modernism will come some day--with a rush--in a violent - reaction.' On my left M. Lemieux described his meeting last week in - Quebec with fourteen bishops, one of whom said to him--'_Le Canada, - c'est le Paradis terrestre du Catholicisme!_' But as for the - educated Catholics, M. Lemieux went on, 'We are all Modernists!' - Both of them denounced the Pope and spoke with longing of Leo - XIII." - - * * * * * - - -"TORONTO, -"_May 18_. - - "Such nice people at Ottawa, and such interesting people. Also the - guiding ideas and influences are _English,_ the first time I have - felt it. The position of the Parliament buildings is splendid, and - some day it will be a great city. The Archives represent the birth - and future of Canadian history, and a Canadian patriotism--four - years' work, and already it is influencing ideas and politics, - among a young people who did not know they _had_ a history.[29] - - "Toronto is less exciting, though pleasant. We lunched yesterday - with Colonel George Denison, a great Loyalist and Preferentialist, - much in with Chamberlain. He cut Goldwin Smith twenty years - ago!--so it was piquant to go on from him to the Grange. The Grange - is an English eighteenth-century house, or early nineteenth--as one - might find in the suburbs of Manchester in a large English - garden--the remains of 1,000 acres--with beautiful trees. An old - man got up to meet me, old, but unmistakably Goldwin Smith, though - the black hair is grizzled--not white--and the face emaciated. But - he holds himself erect, and his mind is as clear, and his eye as - living, as ever--at 85. He still harps on his favourite theme--that - Canada must ultimately drop into the mouth of the United States and - should do so--and poured scorn on English Tariff Reformers and - English Home Rulers together. Naturally he is not very popular - here!" - -From Toronto Mrs. Ward made a flying trip to Buffalo and Niagara, where -she was shown the glories of the Falls by General Greene--a descendant -of the gallant Nathaniel Greene, hero of the S. Carolina campaign of -1781. Then, returning to Toronto, she found Sir William van Horne and -the promised private car awaiting her--not to mention the "Royal Suite" -at the Queen's Hotel, offered her by the management "free, gratis, for -nothing! Oh dear, how soon will the mighty fall!--after the 12th of June -next" (the date of her departure for home). But, for the present, "The -car is yours," said Sir William, "the railway is yours--do exactly as -you like and give your orders." - -They parted from their kind Providence on Saturday, May 23, but within -forty-eight hours the railway was providing them with quite an -unforeseen sensation. Six hours this side of Winnipeg (where all kinds -of engagements awaited her), part of the track that ran across a marsh -collapsed, with the result that Mrs. Ward's and many other trains were -held up for nearly twenty hours. - - -"VERMILION STATION, C.P.R., -"_May 25, 1908_. - - "Here we are, stranded at a tiny wayside station of the C.P.R., and - have been waiting _sixteen hours_, while eight miles ahead they are - repairing a bridge which has collapsed in a marsh owing to heavy - rain. Three trains are before us and about five behind. A complete - block on the great line. We arrived here at six this morning, and - here it is 9.50 p.m. - - "It has been a strange day--mostly very wet, with nothing to look - at but some scrubby woods and a bit of cutting. We captured a - Manitoba Senator and made him come and talk to us, but it did not - help us very far. Snell, our wonderful cook and factotum, being in - want of milk, went out and milked a cow!--asking the irate owner, - when the deed was done, how much he wanted. And various little - incidents happened, but nothing very enlivening. - - [_Later._]. "Here we are at the spot, a danger signal behind us, - and the one in front just lowered. Another stop! our engine is - detached and we see it vanishing to the rear. The track won't bear - it. How are we going to get over!--Here comes the engine back, and - the brakesman behind our car imagines we are to be pushed over, the - engine itself not venturing. - - "10.5. Safely over! The engine pushed us to the brink, and then, as - it was taken off, a voice asked for Mrs. Ward. It was the - Assistant Manager of the line, Mr. Jameson, who jumped on board in - order to cross with us and explain to me everything that had - happened. He had been working for hours and looked tired out. But - we went out to the observation-platform, he and I and Dorothy, and - the _trajet_ began--our train being attached to some light empty - cars, and an engine in front that was pulling us over. I thought - Mr. Jameson evidently nervous as we went slowly forward--we were - the first train over!--but he showed us as well as the darkness - allowed, the marshy place, the new bed made for the line (in the - morning the rails were hanging in air and an engine and two cars - went in!) and the black mud of the sink-hole pushed up into high - banks--trees on the top of them--on either side by the pressure of - the new filling put in--50,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel. On - either side of the line were crowds of dark figures, Galician and - Italian workmen, intently watching our progress. Altogether a - dramatic and interesting scene! We were all glad, including, - clearly, the assistant manager, when he said, 'Now we are over - it'--but there was no real danger, even if the train had partially - sunk, for it was only a causeway over a marsh and not a real - bridge. - - "Well, it is absurd to have only a day for Winnipeg, but this - accident makes it inevitable. The journey has been all of it - wonderful, and I am more thrilled by Canada than words can - describe!" - -After a breathless day in Winnipeg, very pleasantly spent, under the -care of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Evans, in endeavouring to overtake the -engagements lost in the "sink-hole," Mrs. Ward and her daughter resumed -their journey across the vast prairie, over the Rockies and the -Selkirks, and down into Vancouver. On her return she thus summed up her -impressions of it in a letter to "Aunt Fan": - - "Everybody was kindness itself, everywhere, and the wonderful - journey across Canada and back was something never to forget. To - see how a great railway can make and has made a country, to watch - all the stages of the prairie towns, from the first wooden huts - upwards to towns like Calgary and Regina, and the booming - prosperity of Winnipeg--to be able to linger a little in the - glorious Rockies, to rush down the Fraser Cañon, which Papa used to - talk to us about and show us pictures of when we were children--I - thought of him with tears and longing in the middle of it--and then - to find ourselves at the end beside the 'wide glimmering sea' of - the blue Pacific--all this was wonderful, a real enrichment of mind - and imagination. At least it ought to be!" - -In Vancouver they were under the chaperonage of Mr. F. C. Wade, now -Agent-General for British Columbia, and of Mr. Mackenzie King, the -future Prime Minister, whom they had already met at Ottawa, but with -whom Mrs. Ward had a far more intimate link than that, since about five -years before he had come to live as a Resident at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, and had made great friends with us all. He now acted as -guide, not only to the marvellous beauties of Vancouver, but also to the -recesses of the Chinese quarter, where he had many friends, owing to the -fact that he happened to be engaged in dealing out Government -compensation for the anti-Chinese riots of the year before. Mrs. Ward -was immensely interested in all the problems of Vancouver--racial, -financial and political--being especially impressed by the danger of its -"Americanization" through the buying up of its real estate by American -capital. She stayed long enough to lecture to the Canadian Club of -Vancouver in aid of Lord Grey's fund for the purchase of the Quebec -battlefields as a national memorial to Wolfe, and then set her face -definitely homewards. But she could not allow herself to hurry too -swiftly through the Rockies, where the snow was beginning to melt and -expeditions were becoming possible. From Field she drove to feast her -eyes on the Emerald Lake; from Laggan she pushed on to Lake Louise. - - -To T. H. W. - -"BANFF, -"_June 4, 1908_. - - "Since we left Vancouver we have had a delicious time, but - yesterday was the cream! We started at 8.30 from the very nice - Field Hotel, on a special train, just our car and an engine, - and--the car being in front--were pushed up the famous Kicking - Horse Pass, on a glorious morning. The Superintendent in charge of - the Laggan division of the line came up with us and explained the - construction of the new section of the line, which is to take the - place of the present dangerous and costly track down the pass. At - present there are no tunnels, nothing but a long hill, up and down - which extraordinary precautions have to be taken. Now they are to - have spiral tunnels, or rather one long one, on the St. Gotthard - plan. One won't see so much, but it will be safer, and far less - expensive to work. - - "The beauty of the snow peaks, the lateral valleys, the leaping - streams, the forests!--and the friendliness of everybody adds to - the charm. At Laggan we left the car and drove up--three miles--to - Lake Louise--a perfectly beautiful place, which I tried to - sketch--alack! It is, I think, more wonderful than any place of the - kind in Switzerland, because of the colour of the rocks, which hold - the gorgeous glacier and snow-peak. We spent the day there, looked - after by a charming Scotchwoman--Miss Mollison--one of three - sisters who run the C.P.R. hotels about here. About 6.30 we drove - down again to find Snell and George delighted to welcome us back to - the car. Then we came on to Banff, sitting on the platform of the - car, and looking back at a beautiful sunset among the mountains. We - shall part from the Rockies with a pang! Emerald Lake and Lake - Louise would certainly conjure one back again, if they were any - less than 6,000 miles from home! As it is, I suppose one's physical - eyes will never see them again, but it is something to have beheld - them once." - -At Field Mrs. Ward had met the eminent explorer, Mrs. Schäffer, who was -busy collecting guides and ponies for another expedition into the -unknown tracts of the Rockies. She and Mrs. Ward made great friends, and -some months later the latter was delighted to receive from her -photographs of a wonderful lake which she had discovered, and to which -she gave the name of Lake Maligne. Mrs. Ward could not resist weaving -the virgin lake into the last chapter of her story, _Canadian Born_. - -When at length the long journey was over and the faithful car landed her -safely at Montreal, Mrs. Ward still had one pleasant duty to -perform--the handing over of her earnings at Vancouver to Lord Grey, as -a thank-offering for all the good things that had fallen to her lot -since she had parted from him three weeks before. His reply delighted -her, especially since she had just ended her Canadian experiences by an -expedition up the Heights of Abraham, escorted by Col. Wood, the -Canadian military historian. - - -_June 12, 1908._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - You are _most_ kind! I have received no contribution to the Quebec - Battlefields that has given me greater pleasure. I value it partly - because it is yours and partly Vancouver's. Every cent that filters - through from B.C. and the Prairie Provinces is a joy to me. The - Canadian National Problem, the Imperial Problem, is how to link - B.C. and the Western Provinces more closely with the Maritime - Eastern Provinces--how to improve the transportation service, East - and West, and cause the great highroad of human traffic from Europe - to Asia to go via Montreal and Vancouver--that is the problem, and - that is why I rejoice over every Western Piccanin who subscribes - his few cents to Quebec. A feeling for Quebec will remain engraven - on his heart for all time. - -...I do not think the character of the debt owing in £ s. d. by the - British race to the Wolfe family has ever been put before the - public. Wolfe's father never could obtain the repayment from the - British Government of £16,000 advanced by him during the - Marlborough campaigns. The different Departments did the pass trick - with him--the first rule of departmental administration--played - battledore and shuttlecock with him until he desisted from pressing - his claim for fear of being considered a Dun! - - Then James Wolfe, our Quebec hero, never received the C. in C. - allowance of £10 per day. His mother claimed £3,000 from the - British Treasury as the amount owing to her son on September 13, - 1759--but the poor hard-up departments played battledore and - shuttlecock with her, and she, like her Wolfe relations, was too - great a gentleman to press for payment. When, however, she found - that James had left £10,000 to be distributed according to the - instructions of his will, and that his assets only realized £8,000, - the dear good lady did try and squeeze £2,000 out of the £19,000 - owing by the Government to the family, in order that she might - carry out her boy's wishes--but it was a hopeless, useless effort, - and the splendid dame heaped all the coals of fire she could on the - heads of the stony-hearted, perhaps because stony-broke, British - People, by leaving the whole of her fortune to the widows and - orphans of the officers who fell under Wolfe's command at Quebec. - Now I maintain that the whole Empire has a moral responsibility in - this matter, for have not the most energetic of the descendants of - the British People of 1759 emigrated into Greater Britain? The - story of how we recompensed Wolfe for giving us an immortal example - and half a continent has not, so far as I know, been told. - - Delighted to think you are going back to England a red-hot Canadian - missionary. Send out all the young people whom you know and believe - in, and who are receptive and sympathetic and appreciative, and - have sufficient imagination not to be stupidly critical. Send them - all over here. We shall be delighted to see them, although I fear - they cannot all get Private Cars! - -If Mrs. Ward did not, on her return to England, set up altogether as an -amateur emigration agent, she yet paid her debt to Canada by the -delightful enthusiasm for the young country with all its boundless -possibilities, combined with a shrewd appreciation of its difficulties, -which she threw into her novel, _Canadian Born_. Neither Canada nor Lord -Grey had any reason to complain of the devotion, both of heart and of -head, which she gave to the cause. To her American friends, on the other -hand, her impassioned attack in _Daphne_, or _Marriage à la Mode_, on -the divorce laws of the United States, came as something of a surprise, -for they had not realized, while she was with them, how deep an -impression these things had made on her, or how much her artistic -imagination had been captured by their tragic or sordid possibilities. -_Daphne_ is, indeed, little but a powerful tract, written under great -stress of feeling, but the Americans missed in it the happy touch that -had created Lucy Foster, and regretted that Mrs. Ward should have felt -bound to portray for their benefit so wholly disagreeable a young person -as Daphne Floyd. Time has, however, brought its revenges in the strong -movement that has now arisen in the United States for the unification of -the widely-differing divorce laws of the various States under one -Federal Law. - -Yet there were deeper forces at work in the writing of _Daphne_ than any -which Mrs. Ward's brief visit to America alone could have accounted for. -The growing disturbance which the Suffrage question was making in the -currents of English life had thrown Mrs. Ward's thoughts into these -channels for longer than her critics knew. _Daphne_ was one result of -this fermentation; another was what we should now call "direct action." -Within a month after her return from America Mrs. Ward wrote to Miss -Arnold of Fox How (herself an undaunted Suffragist at the age of -seventy-five): "You will see from the papers what it is that has been -taking all my time--the foundation of an Anti-Suffrage League." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - - -Mrs. Ward, as is well known, did not believe in Women's Suffrage. She -had heard the subject discussed from her earliest days at Oxford, ever -since the time when the first Women's Petition for the vote was brought -to the House of Commons by Miss Garrett and Miss Emily Davies in 1866, -and John Stuart Mill moved his amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867. But -it did not greatly interest her. Her mind was set in other directions, -responding to the intellectual stimulus of Oxford rather in the field of -historical and religious inquiry and leading her on, as we have seen, to -her memorable "revolt from awe" in the matter of the Interpretation of -the Scriptures. Her group of friends at Oxford were hardly touched by -the Suffrage agitation; the movement for the Higher Education of Women, -in which Mrs. Ward bore so distinguished a part, was wholly unconnected -with it. Indeed it was the very success of this movement that helped to -convince Mrs. Ward that the right lines for women's advance lay, not in -the political agitation for the Suffrage, but in the broadening of -education, so as to fit her sex for the many tasks which were opening -out before it. But she had also an inborn dislike and distaste for the -type of agitation which, even in those early days, the Suffragists -carried on; for the "anti-Man" feeling that ran through it, and for the -type of woman--the "New Woman" as she was called in the eighties--who -gravitated towards its ranks. Her scholarly mind rejected many of the -Suffragist arguments as shallow and unproven, especially those which -concerned the economic condition of women, while the practical -co-operation between men and women that she saw all round her, both in -Oxford and afterwards in London, gave her the conviction that the -remaining disabilities of women might and would be removed in due course -by this road, rather than by a political turmoil which would only serve -to embitter the relations between them. In her eyes women were neither -better nor worse than men, but different; so different that neither they -nor the State would really be served by this attempt to press them into -a political machine which owed its development solely to the male sex. -In later years she had many close friends in the Suffrage camp, nor did -she ever lose those of her earlier days who were converted, but to the -end there remained a profound antipathy between her and the "feminist" -type of mind, with its crudities and extravagances--the type that was to -manifest itself so disastrously in later years among the "Suffragettes." -It was not that she wished her sex to remain aloof from the toil and -dust of the world, as her Positivist friends would have liked; rather -she felt it to be the duty of all educated women to work themselves to -the bone for the uplifting of women and children less fortunate than -themselves, and so to repay their debt to the community; but clamour for -their own "rights" was a different thing: ugly in itself, and likely to -lead, in her opinion, to a sex-war of very dubious outcome. - -The first time that Mrs. Ward was drawn into the battle of the Suffrage -was on the occasion, early in 1889, of Lord Salisbury's much-trumpeted -conversion to it, when a Private Member's Bill[30] of the usual limited -type was before Parliament, and the Prime Minister's attitude appeared -to make it probable that the Bill might pass. Mrs. Creighton--then also -opposed to the Suffrage, though on somewhat different grounds from Mrs. -Ward's--Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Knowles, and Mrs. Ward united in -organizing a movement of protest. It was decided at a meeting held at -Mr. Harrison's house in May that the signatures of women eminent in the -world of education, literature and public service should be invited to a -"Protest against the extension of the Parliamentary Franchise to Women," -which Mrs. Ward had drawn up (with some assistance from Mrs. Creighton), -and which Mr. Knowles undertook to publish in the next month's -_Nineteenth Century_. - -The arguments advanced in this _Protest_ are interesting as showing the -position from which Mrs. Ward hardly moved in the next thirty years, -though many of her original allies who signed it fell away and joined -the Suffrage camp. There is first the emphasis on the essentially -different functions of men and women: - - "While desiring the fullest possible development of the powers, - energies and education of women, we believe that their work for the - State, and their responsibilities towards it, must always differ - essentially from those of men, and that therefore their share in - the working of the State machinery should be different from that - assigned to men." Women can never share in such labours as "the - working of the Army and Navy, all the heavy, laborious, fundamental - industries of the State, such as those of mines, metals and - railways, the management of commerce and finance, the service of - that merchant fleet on which our food supply depends.... Therefore - it is not just to give to women direct power of deciding questions - of Parliamentary policy, of war, of foreign or colonial affairs, of - commerce and finance equal to that possessed by men. We hold that - they already possess an influence on political matters fully - proportioned to the possible share of women in the political - activities of England." - -At the same time the recent extensions of women's responsibilities, such -as their admission to the municipal vote and to membership of School -Boards, Boards of Guardians, etc., is warmly welcomed, "since here it is -possible for them not only to decide but to help in carrying out, and -judgment is therefore weighted by a true responsibility." Then comes a -denial of any widespread demand among women themselves for the -franchise, "as is always the case if a grievance is real and reform -necessary," and finally an argument on which Mrs. Ward continued to lay -much stress in after years, that of the steady removal of the reasonable -grievances of women by the existing machinery of a male Parliament. - - "It is often urged that certain injustices of the law towards women - would be easily and quickly remedied were the political power of - the vote conceded to them; and that there are many wants, - especially among working women, which are now neglected, but which - the suffrage would enable them to press on public attention. We - reply that during the past half-century all the principal - injustices of the law towards women have been amended by means of - the existing constitutional machinery; and with regard to those - that remain, we see no signs of any unwillingness on the part of - Parliament to deal with them. On the contrary, we remark a growing - sensitiveness to the claims of women, and the rise of a new spirit - of justice and sympathy among men, answering to those advances made - by women in education, and the best kind of social influence, which - we have already noticed and welcomed. With regard to the business - or trade interests of women--here, again, we think it safer and - wiser to trust to organization and self-help on their own part, and - to the growth of a better public opinion among the men workers, - than to the exercise of a political right which may easily bring - women into direct and hasty conflict with men." - -This feeling was evidently uppermost in her thoughts at that time, for -she wrote as early as January, 1889, to her sister-in-law, Miss Agnes -Ward: - - "What _are_ these tremendous grievances women are still labouring - under, and for which the present Parliament is not likely to give - them redress? I believe in them as little as I believe now in the - grievances of the Irish tenant. There _were_ grievances, but by the - action of the parties concerned and their friends under the - existing system they have been practically removed. No doubt much - might be done to improve the condition of certain classes of women, - just as much might be done for that of certain classes of men, but - the world is indefinitely improveable, and I believe there is - little more chance of quickening the pace--wisely--with women's - suffrage than without it.... There is a great deal of championing - of women's suffrage going on which is not really serious. Mr. - Haldane, a Gladstonian member, said to me the other day, 'Oh, I - shall vote for it of course!--with this amendment, that it be - extended to married women, and in the intention of leading through - it to manhood suffrage.' But if many people treat it from this - point of view and avow it, the struggle is likely to be a good deal - hotter and tougher before we have done with it than it has ever - been yet. - - "I should like to know John Morley's mind on the matter. He began - as an enthusiast and has now decided strongly against. So have - several other people whose opinion means a good deal to me. And as - to women, whether their lives have been hard or soft, I imagine - that when the danger _really_ comes, we shall be able to raise a - protest which will be a surprise to the other side." - -In spite of the fact that the organizers of the _Protest_ were -handicapped by the natural reluctance of many of their warmest -supporters to take part in what seemed to them a "political agitation," -and so to let their names appear in print,[31] they worked to such -purpose during the ten days that elapsed between the meeting at Mr. -Frederic Harrison's house and the going to press of the _Nineteenth -Century_ that 104 signatures were secured. They were regarded by their -contemporaries as the signatures either of "eminent women" or of -"superior persons," according to the bias of those who contemplated the -list. Posterity may be interested to know that they included such future -supporters of the Suffrage as Miss Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb), -Mrs. Creighton and Mrs. T. H. Green, while among women distinguished -either through their own work or their husbands' in many fields occur -the names of Mrs. Goschen, Lady Stanley of Alderley, Lady Frederick -Cavendish, Mrs. T. H. Huxley, Mrs. J. R. Green, Mrs. Max Müller, Mrs. W. -E. Forster, and Mrs. Arnold Toynbee. - -Naturally the _Protest_ drew the Suffrage forces into the field. The -July number of the _Nineteenth Century_ contained two "Replies," from -Mrs. Fawcett and Mrs. Ashton Dilke, to which Mrs. Creighton in her turn -supplied a "Rejoinder." Meanwhile a form of signature to the _Protest_ -had been circulated with the Review, and was supplied in large numbers -on demand, so that in the August number Mr. Knowles was enabled to print -twenty-seven pages of signatures to the statement that "The -enfranchisement of women would be a measure distasteful to the great -majority of women of the country--unnecessary--and mischievous both to -themselves and to the State." Mrs. Creighton's "Rejoinder" was regarded -on the Anti-Suffrage side as a dignified and worthy close to the -discussion. "The question has been laid to rest," wrote Mr. Harrison to -her, "for this generation, I feel sure." Nearly thirty years were indeed -to pass before the question was "laid to rest," though in a different -sense from Mr. Harrison's. - -During the earlier part of that long period Mrs. Ward concerned herself -no further, in any public capacity, with the task of opposing the -Suffrage forces. Her own opinions were known and respected by her -friends of whatever party, while her growing interest in and knowledge -of social questions gave her an ever-increasing right to advocate them. -At Grosvenor Place the talk at luncheon or dinner-table would often play -round the dread subject in the freest manner, with a frequent appeal, in -those happy days, to ridicule as the deciding factor. Mrs. Ward was -particularly pleased with a dictum of John Morley's, "For Heaven's sake, -don't let us be the first to make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of -Europe!" which I remember hearing her quote from time to time; but on -this subject, as on all others, the atmosphere of the house was one of -liberty to all comers to air and express their opinions. Most of her own -family were of the Suffrage persuasion, especially her two sisters, -Julia and Ethel, but her children followed her lead--save one who, being -a member of a youthful debating society where the wisdom of nineteen ran -riot in speech and counter-speech, was told off one day to get up the -arguments in favour of Women's Suffrage and to open the debate; she got -them up with the energy of that terrible age, and remained a convert -ever afterwards. - -The question, in fact, did not enter the region of practical politics -until the advent to power of the Liberal Government in December, 1905. -It was on the occasion of Campbell-Bannerman's great meeting at the -Albert Hall, before the election, that the portent of the Suffragette -first manifested itself in the form of a young woman who put -inconvenient questions to "C.-B.," in a strident voice, from the -orchestra, and was unmercifully hustled out by indignant stewards. It -was the beginning of eight years of tribulation. Mrs. Ward watched -through 1906 and 1907 the growing violences of these women with mingled -horror and satisfaction: horror at the unloveliness of their -proceedings and satisfaction at the feeling that an outraged public -would never yield to such clamour what they had refused to yield to -argument. She did not yet know the uses of democracy. But the -constitutional agitation was also making way during these years, -especially since it was known that Campbell-Bannerman himself was a -Suffragist, and even after his death Mr. Asquith announced to a -deputation of Liberal M.P.'s, in May, 1908, that if when the -Government's proposed Reform Bill was introduced, an amendment for the -extension of the franchise to women on democratic lines were moved to -it, his Government as a Government would not oppose such an amendment. -This announcement brought Women's Suffrage very definitely within the -bounds of practical politics, so that those who believed that the change -would be disastrous felt bound to exert themselves in rallying the -forces of opposition. Mrs. Ward had hardly returned from America before -Lord Cromer and other prominent Anti-Suffragists approached her with -regard to the starting of a society pledged to oppose the movement. They -knew well enough that no such counter-movement had any chance of success -without her active support, and they shrewdly augured that, once -captured, she would become the life and soul of it. Mrs. Ward groaned -but acquiesced, and thus in July of this year (1908) was born the -"Women's National Anti-Suffrage League," inaugurated at a meeting held -at the Westminster Palace Hotel on July 21. - -In the long struggle that now opened it is easy to see that Mrs. Ward -was not really at her ease in conducting a movement of mere opposition -and denial. She did not enjoy it as she enjoyed her battles with the -L.C.C. for the pushing forward of her schemes for the children, yet she -felt that it was "laid upon her" and that there was no escape. "As -Gertrude says, it is all fiendish, but we feel we must do it," she wrote -after the inaugural meeting; but this feeling explains her imperative -desire to give a positive side to the movement by dwelling on the great -need for women's work on local bodies--a line of argument which was -mistrusted by many of her male supporters, one of whom, Lord James of -Hereford, had spoken passionately in the House of Lords against the Act -of 1907 for enabling women to sit on County or Borough Councils. But -Mrs. Ward had her way, so that when the programme of the Anti-Suffrage -League came out it was found to contain twin "Objects": - -(_a_) To resist the proposal to admit women to the Parliamentary -Franchise and to Parliament; and - -(_b_) To maintain the principle of the representation of women on -municipal and other bodies concerned with the domestic and social -affairs of the community. - -This second "Object" was indeed the keystone of Mrs. Ward's fabric for -the useful employment of the energies and gifts of women, in a manner -suited to their special experience as well as conducive to the real -interests of the State. She called it somewhere the "enlarged -housekeeping" of the nation, and maintained that the need for women's -work and influence here was unlimited, whereas in the special -Parliamentary fields of foreign affairs, war and finance, women might -indeed have opinions, but opinions unsubstantiated by experience and -unbacked by the sanction of physical force. It is interesting to observe -how she conducts her case for a "forward policy" as regards Local -Government before her own supporters in the _Anti-Suffrage Review_ -(July, 1910): - - "There is no doubt that the appointment of a Local Government - Sub-Committee marks a certain new and definite stage in the - programme of our League. By some, perhaps, that stage will be - watched with a certain anxiety; while others will see in it the - fulfilment--so far as it goes--of delayed hopes, and the promise of - new strength. The anxiety is natural. For the task before the - League is long and strenuous, and that task in its first and most - essential aspect is a task of fight, a task of opposition. We are - here primarily to resist the imposition on women of the burden of - the parliamentary vote. And it is easily intelligible that those - who realize keenly the struggle before us may feel some alarm lest - anything should divert the energies of the League from its first - object, or lest those who are primarily interested in the fight - against the franchise should find themselves expected willy-nilly - to throw themselves into work for which they are less fitted, and - for which they care less. - - "But if the anxiety is natural, the hope is natural too Many - members of the League believe that there are two ways of fighting - the franchise--a negative and a positive way. They believe that - while the more extreme and bigoted Suffragists can only be met by - an attitude of resolute and direct opposition to an unpatriotic - demand, there are in this country thousands of women, - Anti-Suffragist at heart, or still undecided, who may be attracted - to a positive and alternative programme, while they shrink from - meeting the Suffragist claim with a simple 'No.' Their mind and - judgment tell them that there are many things still to be done, - both for women, and the country, that women ought to be doing, and - if they are asked merely to acquiesce in the present state of - things, they rebel, and will in the end rather listen to Suffragist - persuasion and adopt Suffragist methods. But the recent action of - the executive opens to such women a new field of positive - action--without any interference with the old. How immeasurably - would the strength of the League be increased, say the advocates of - what has been called 'the forward policy,' if in every town or - district, where we have a branch, we had also a Local Government - Committee, affiliated not to the present W.L.G.S., which is a - simple branch of the Suffrage propaganda, but to the Women's - National Anti-Suffrage League! The women's local government - movement, which has been almost killed in the last two years by - Suffragist excesses and the wrath provoked by them in the nation, - would then pass over into the hands of those better able to use - without abusing it. Anti-Suffrage would profit, and the nation - also." - -Mrs. Ward looked forward, indeed, to the regular organization of women's -work and influence on these lines, culminating in the election, by the -women members of local bodies, of a central committee in London which -would inevitably acquire immense influence on legislation as well as -administration in all matters affecting women and children. "Such a -Committee," she said to an American audience in 1908, "might easily be -strengthened by the addition to it of representatives from those -government offices most closely concerned with the administration of -laws concerning women and children; and no Government, in the case of -any new Bill before the House of Commons, could possibly afford to -ignore the strongly expressed opinion of such a committee, backed up as -it could easily be by agitation in the country. In this way, it seems to -me, all those questions of factory and sanitary legislation, which are -now being put forward as stalking-horses by the advocates of the -franchise, could be amply dealt with, without rushing us into the -dangers and the risks, in which the extension of the suffrage to women, -on the same terms as men, must ultimately land us." - -This passage shows very clearly Mrs. Ward's belief in the duty of -educated women to work for their fellows. She did not by any means wish -them to sit at home all day with their embroidery frames, but looked -forward instead to the steady development of what she called women's -"legitimate influence" in politics--the influence of a sane and informed -opinion, working in collaboration with Parliament, which should not only -remove the remaining grievances and disabilities of women, but hold a -watching brief on all future legislation affecting their interests. -Decidedly Mrs. Ward was no democrat. She was willing to wear herself out -for Mrs. Smith, of Peabody Buildings, and her children, but she could -not believe that it would do Mrs. Smith any good to become the prey of -the political agitator. - -Her activity in carrying on the Anti-Suffrage campaign from 1908 to 1914 -was astonishing, considering how heavily burdened she was at the same -time with her literary work and with the constant pressure of her Play -Centres and Vacation Schools. She was practically the only woman speaker -of the first rank on her own side, except for the rare appearances in -public of Miss Violet Markham, so that the Branches of the Anti-Suffrage -League formed in the great towns were all anxious to have her to speak, -and she felt bound to accept a certain number of such invitations. She -went to Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield in 1909; she led a -deputation to Mr. Asquith in 1910 and another at a more critical moment -in December, 1911; she wrote a series of articles in the _Standard_ on -"The Case against Women's Suffrage" in October, 1911, besides carrying -on an active correspondence in _The Times_, as occasion arose, against -Lady Maclaren, Mrs. Fawcett, or Mr. Zangwill; she spoke at Newcastle, -Bristol and Oxford early in 1912, and at a great meeting in the Queen's -Hall, just before the fiasco of the Liberal Reform Bill, in January, -1913. At all these meetings the prospect of Suffragette interruptions -weighed upon her like a nightmare. The militant agitation was, however, -a very potent source of reinforcement to the Anti-Suffrage ranks -throughout this period, so that although Mrs. Ward groaned as a citizen -at every new device the Militants put forth for plaguing the community, -she rejoiced as an Anti-Suffragist. The most definite annoyance to which -she herself was subjected by the Suffragettes occurred at Bristol, where -she addressed a huge meeting in February, 1912, in company with Lord -Cromer and Mr. Charles Hobhouse, M.P. A devoted lady had found a place -of concealment among the organ-pipes behind the platform, from which -post of vantage, as the _Bristol Times_ put it, "she heard an excellent -recital of music at close quarters, and for a few minutes addressed a -vast meeting in a muffled voice which uttered indistinguishable words." -She and a number of her fellows were ejected after the usual unhappy -scrimmage, and Mrs. Ward and Mr. Hobhouse were allowed to proceed. But -whether in consequence of this or as a mere coincidence, the Bristol -Branch became one of the strongest of the League's off-shoots, devoting -itself, to Mrs. Ward's intense satisfaction, to much useful work on -local and municipal bodies. - -Her opposition to Mrs. Fawcett's organization was, of course, conducted -on very different lines from this. Quite early in the campaign, in -February, 1909, a debate was arranged to take place at the Passmore -Edwards Settlement (under the auspices of the St. Pancras Branch of the -Women's Suffrage Society) between the two protagonists, Mrs. Ward and -Mrs. Fawcett. The organizers of the meeting were besieged with -applications for seats. Mrs. Ward reserved 150 for herself and the -Anti-Suffrage League, while about 300 went to the Suffrage Society, so -that the voting was a foregone conclusion; but the debate itself reached -a high level of excellence, though it suffered from the usual fault -which besets such tournaments--that the champions did not really _meet_ -each other's arguments, but cantered on into the void, discharging their -ammunition and returning gracefully to their starting-points when time -was called. - - "Surely," wrote Mrs. Ward afterwards to her old friend, Miss McKee, - the Chairman of the St. Pancras Suffrage Society, "surely you - don't think that Mrs. Fawcett answered my main contentions! Does - anyone deny the inequality of wage?--but what Mrs. Fawcett never - attempted to prove was how the vote could affect it. And why - compare doctor and nurse? Does not the doctor pay for a long and - costly training, while the nurse is paid her living at least from - the beginning? Would it not have been fairer to compare woman - doctor with man doctor, and then to show that under the L.C.C. at - the present moment medical appointments are open to both women and - men, and the salaries are equal?" - -It could not be expected that such combatants would influence each -other, but Mrs. Ward's campaign went far to influence the doubting -multitude, torn by conflicting counsels, harassed by the Militants, -worried by accounts of prison tortures suffered by the "martyrettes," -and generally bothered by the obscuring of the good old fight between -Liberals and Tories which the importation of the Suffrage into every -by-election caused. The Suffrage battle was indeed waged upon and around -the vile body of the Liberal Party in a very special degree from 1908 to -1914, for Mr. Asquith was Prime Minister, and Mr. Asquith--encouraged -thereto by every device of provocation and exasperation which the -Militants could spring upon him--was an Anti-Suffragist. Yet the -influence of his Suffragist colleagues and of the constitutional -agitation throughout the country was sufficient to induce him, in -November, 1911, to give a very favourable answer to a deputation -introduced by Mrs. Fawcett, who put to him a series of questions with -regard to the Reform Bill announced by the Government for the Session of -1912 and the possibility of adding Suffrage amendments to it. The -Suffragists withdrew with high hopes of a real measure of -enfranchisement in the ensuing year. But less than a month later Mr. -Asquith was receiving a similar deputation from the Anti-Suffrage -League, introduced by Lord Curzon and including Mrs. Ward, Miss Violet -Markham and Mr. McCallum Scott. His reply showed unmistakably that he -was exceedingly glad to have his hands strengthened by the "Antis" in -his own domestic camp, and he only begged them to carry on their crusade -with the utmost vigour, since "as an individual I am in entire agreement -with you that the grant of the parliamentary suffrage to women in this -country would be a political mistake of a very disastrous kind." - -When the Session of 1912 opened it was evident that very strong -influences were at work within the walls of Parliament for the defeat of -the "Conciliation Bill," which was due to come up for Second Reading at -the end of March, and it is significant that Mrs. Ward was able to say, -at a meeting of the Oxford Branch of the Anti-Suffrage League held on -March 15, that "Woman Suffrage is in all probability killed for this -Session and this Parliament." The prophecy was partly fulfilled; like -the prayers of Homer's heroes, Zeus "heard part, and part he scattered -to the winds." At any rate, in the Session of 1912, not only was the -Conciliation Bill defeated on March 28, by fourteen votes (after its -very striking victory the year before), but the Suffrage amendments to -the Reform Bill never even came up for consideration. At the very end of -a long Session, that is in January, 1913, the Speaker ruled that the -Bill had been so seriously altered by the amendments regarding male -franchise already passed that it was not, in fact, the same Bill as had -received Second Reading, while there were also "other amendments -regarding female suffrage" to come which would make it still more -vitally different. For these reasons he directed the withdrawal of the -Bill. The fury of the Suffragists at the "trick" which had been played -them may be imagined, but apart from the sanctity of Mr. Speaker's -rulings I think it is evident that the lassitude and discouragement -about the Suffrage which pervaded the House of Commons at that time, and -which contributed to the withdrawal of the Bill, was largely due to the -recognition that there _was_ a considerable body of Anti-Suffrage -opinion in the country, both amongst men and women, the strength of -which had not been realized before Mrs. Ward began her campaign. Well -might she draw attention to this at a great meeting held at the Queen's -Hall on January 20, when it was still expected that the Suffrage -amendments would be moved: - - "Naturally, I am reminded as I stand here, of all that has happened - in the four and a half years since our League was founded. All I - can tell you is, that we have put up a good fight; and I am amazed - at what we have been able to do. Just throw your minds back to - 1908. The militant organization was fast over-running the country; - the cause of Women Suffrage had undoubtedly been pushed to the - front, and for the moment benefited by the immense advertisement it - had received; our ears were deafened by the noise and the shouting; - and it looked as though the Suffrage might suddenly be carried - before the country, the real country, had taken it seriously at - all. The Second Readings of various Franchise Bills had been - passed, and were still to be passed, by large majorities. There was - no organized opposition. Suffragist opinions were entrenched in the - universities and the schools, and between the ardour of the - Suffragists and the apathy of the nation generally the situation - was full of danger. - - "What has happened since? An opposition, steadily growing in - importance and strength, has spread itself over the United Kingdom. - Men and women who had formerly supported the Suffrage, looked it in - the face, thought again and withdrew. Every item in the Suffragist - claim has been contested; every point in the Suffragist argument - has been investigated, and, as I think, overthrown. It is a great - deal more difficult to-day than it was then to go about vaguely and - passionately preaching that votes will raise wages in the ordinary - market--that nothing can be done for the parasitic trades and - sweated women without the women's vote--for what about the Trade - Boards Bill? or that nothing can be done to put down organized vice - without the women's vote--for what about the Criminal Law Amendment - Bill? or that nothing can be done to help and protect children, - without women's votes--for what about the Children's Act, the First - Offenders' Act, the new Children's Courts and the Children's - Probationary Officers, the vast growth of the Care Committees, and - all their beneficent work, due initially to the work of a woman, - Miss Margaret Frere? - - "Witness, too, the increasing number of women on important - Commissions: University--Divorce--Insurance; the increasing respect - paid to women's opinions; the strengthening of trade unionism among - women; the steady rise in the average wage. - - "No, the Suffragist argument that women are trampled on and - oppressed, and can do nothing without the vote, has crumbled in - their hands. It had but to be examined to be defeated. - - "Meanwhile, the outrages and the excitement of the extreme - Suffragist campaign gave many people pause. Was it to this we were - committing English politics? Did not the whole development throw a - new and startling light on the effect of party politics--politics - so exciting as politics are bound to be in such a country as - England--on the nerves of women? Women as advisers, as auxiliaries, - as the disinterested volunteers of politics, we all know, and as - far as I am concerned, cordially welcome. But women fighting for - their own hands--fighting ultimately for the political control of - men in men's affairs--women in fierce and direct opposition to - men--that was new--that gave us, as the French say, furiously to - think! - - "And now, the coming week will be critical enough, anxious enough; - but we all know that if any Suffrage amendment is carried in the - House, it can only be by a handful of votes--none of your - majorities of 160 or 170 as in the past. - - "And our high _hope_ is that none will pass, that every Suffrage - amendment will be defeated. - - "That state of things is the exact measure of what has been done by - us, the Anti-Suffrage party, to meet the Suffragist arguments and - to make the nation understand what such a revolution really - means--though I admit that Mrs. Pankhurst has done a good deal! It - is the exact measure of the national recoil since 1908, and if - fortune is on our side next week, we have only to carry on the - fight resolutely and steadily to the end in order finally to - convince the nation." - -After the collapse of the Government Reform Bill just described, the -deadlock in the Parliamentary situation as regards Women's Suffrage -continued right down to the outbreak of the War. Mrs. Fawcett -transferred the allegiance of the National Union of Women's Suffrage -Societies to the Labour Party, the only party which was prepared to back -the principle of women's votes through thick and thin; the Militants -continually increased in numbers, agitation and violence, and Mrs. Ward -and her friends concentrated their energies more and more on the -positive side of their programme, that is on the active development of -women's work in Local Government. But it was a heavy burden. Mrs. Ward -felt, as she said in a speech at Oxford in 1912, that "it is a profound -saying that nothing is conquered until it is replaced. Before the -Suffrage movement can be finally defeated, or rather transformed, we who -are its opponents must not only have beaten and refuted the Suffrage -argument, but we must have succeeded in showing that there is a more -excellent way towards everything that the moderate Suffragist desires, -and we must have kindled in the minds, especially of the young, hopes -and ideals for women which may efface and supersede those which have -been held out to them by the leaders of the Suffrage army." - -Her artistic imagination was already at work on the problem, for in 1913 -she wrote her Suffrage novel, _Delia Blanchflower_, in which the reader -of to-day may still enjoy her closely observed study of the militant -temperament, in Gertrude Marvell and her village followers, while on -Delia herself, an ardent militant when the story opens, the gradual -effect is traced of the English traditions of quiet public service, as -exemplified--naturally!--in the person of the hero. Incidentally it may -here be remarked that Mrs. Ward always believed that her Anti-Suffrage -activities, culminating in the writing of this novel, had a markedly bad -effect on the circulation of her books. Certainly she was prepared to -suffer for her opinions, for the task of diverting and of carrying -forward the Women's Movement into other lines than those which led to -Westminster was one that was to wear her out prematurely, though her -gallant spirit never recognized its hopelessness. - -Her organized attempt to give effect to these aspirations, in the -foundation (early in 1914) of the "Joint Advisory Council" between -Members of Parliament and Women Social Workers, arose out of the stand -which she made within the National Union of Women Workers[32] for the -neutrality of that body on the Suffrage question. The National Union was -bound by its constitution to favour "no one policy" in national affairs, -and many moderate Suffragists agreed with Mrs. Ward that sufficient _ad -hoc_ Societies existed already for carrying on the Suffrage campaign, -and that it would have been wiser for the National Union to remain -aloof from it altogether. But the feeling among the rank and file of the -Union was too strong for the Executive, so that in the autumn of 1912 a -Suffrage resolution was passed and sent up to the Prime Minister and all -Members of the House of Commons. Mrs. Ward protested, but suspended her -resignation until the next Annual Conference, which met at Hull in -October, 1913. There Mrs. Ward's resolutions were all voted down by the -Suffragist majority, so that she and some of her friends felt that they -had no choice but to secede from the Union, on the ground that its -original constitution had been violated. They drew up and sent to the -Press a Manifesto in which the following passage occurred: - - "Under these circumstances it is proposed to enlarge and strengthen - the protest movement, and to provide it, if possible, with a new - centre and rallying-point for social work involving, probably, - active co-operation with a certain number of Members of Parliament, - who, on wholly neutral ground from which the question of Suffrage, - for or against, has been altogether excluded, desire the help and - advice of women in such legislation." - -Mrs. Ward had, throughout the controversy, carried on an active and most -amicable correspondence with her old friend, Mrs. Creighton, the -President of the National Union of Women Workers, who had for some years -been a convert to Women's Suffrage, on the ground that, since women had -already, for good or ill, entered the political arena with their various -Party Associations, it would be more straight-forward to have them -inside than outside the political machine. Mrs. Ward now wrote to tell -her of the progress of her idea for a "Joint Advisory Committee": - - -"STOCKS, -"_December 18, 1913_. - -..."The scheme has been shaping beyond my hopes, and will I hope, - be ready for publication before Parliament meets. What we have been - aiming at is a kind of Standing Committee composed equally of - Members from all parts of the House of Commons, and both sides of - the Suffrage question--and women of experience in social work. I do - not, I hope, at all disguise from myself the difficulties of the - project, and yet I feel that it _ought_ to be very useful, and to - develop into a permanent adjunct of the House of Commons. From this - Joint Committee the Suffrage question will be excluded, but it will - contain a dozen of the leading Suffragists in the House, which - ought, I think, to make it clear that it is no _Anti_ - conspiracy!--but a bona-fide attempt to get Antis and Pros to work - together on really equal terms." - -She was much gratified by the cordial response to her invitation on the -part of M.P.'s of all shades of opinion, while some seventy women--both -Suffragists and "Antis"--representing every field of social work, -presently joined the Committee. Naturally the reproach levelled against -it by those who did not believe in it was that the Committee was wholly -self-appointed, but Mrs. Ward replied that, self-appointed or not, it -was an instrument for _getting things done_, and that it would soon -prove its usefulness. Under the Chairmanship of Sir Charles Nicholson, -M.P., the Committee had held four meetings at the House of Commons -between April and July, 1914, and had got through a great deal of -practical work in the drafting of various amendments to Bills then -before the House, when the curtain was rung down on all such fruitful -and peaceable activities. Henceforth the guns were to speak, and such -things as the education of crippled children, or the pressing of a wider -qualification for women members of local bodies, were to disappear -within the shadow that fell over the whole country. So at least it -appeared at the time, but the Joint Advisory Council, like all really -practical bodies, survived the shock, and lived to devote to the special -questions arising from the War the experience gained in these first -meetings. - - * * * * * - -The last act in the drama of Women's Suffrage found Mrs. Ward, as usual, -active and on the alert, and still unconvinced of the necessity for the -measure, or, still more, of the competence of the Parliament of 1917 to -deal with it. It will be remembered that the question arose again on the -"Representation of the People Bill" which the Government felt bound to -bring in before the death of the existing Parliament in order to remedy -the crying injustices of registration which deprived most of the -fighting men and many of the munition workers of their votes. The -opportunity was seized by the Suffragists to press the claims of women -once more upon Parliament and public, and this time the response was -overwhelmingly favourable. The pluck and endurance shown by women in all -the multifarious activities of the War had brought the public round to -their side; the men at the front were believed to be in favour of it, -the militant outrages had ceased, and, last but not least, there was now -a lifelong Suffragist at the head of affairs. The Speaker's Conference, -which reported on January 27, 1917, decided "by a majority" that "some -measure of women's suffrage should be conferred." It was evident that -the current of opinion was setting strongly in favour of the women's -claim, but Mrs. Ward still felt it to be her duty to protest, and to -organize the latent opposition which certainly existed in the country. -She wrote an eloquent letter to _The Times_ in May, pointing out the -obvious truth that the country had not been consulted, that the existing -Parliament had twice rejected the measure and was now a mere rump, with -some 200 Members absent on war service; she denied in a passage of great -force the plea based on "equality of service" between men and women, -appealing to the grave-yards in France and Flanders which she had seen -with her own eyes, as evidence of the eternal _in_equality, and finally -she pleaded for a large extension of the women's _municipal_ vote, in -order to provide an electorate which might be consulted by Referendum. -The Referendum was in fact adopted by the now dwindling Anti-Suffrage -party in Parliament as their policy; but the House of Commons would have -none of it, and the Second Reading of the Bill, which included the -Suffrage clause, was carried by 329 to 40. It is obvious, of course, -that in an elective Assembly, when the members are once convinced that a -large increase in the electorate is about to be made, anxiety for their -seats will make them very chary of voting against the new electors. -Hence Mrs. Ward had to bewail many desertions. The Bill was finally -passed by the House of Commons on December 7; but there still remained -the Lords. Here the opposition was likely to be far more formidable, for -the Lords had no hungry electors waiting for them, nor were they so -susceptible as the Lower House to waves of sentiment such as that which -had overspread press and public in favour of Women's Suffrage. It was -here, therefore, that Mrs. Ward organized her last resistance. The -January _Nineteenth Century_ appeared with an article by her entitled -"Let Women Say," appealing to the Lords to insist on a Referendum, while -in the first week of January she (acting as Chairman of the National -League for Opposing Women's Suffrage) issued a Memorial to which she had -obtained the signatures of about 2,000 women war-workers, and sent it to -the press and to the Members of the House of Lords. - -Lord Bryce wrote to her in response (January 8, 1918): - - -"MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - Thank you for your admirable article and for the copy of the - Memorial, an effective reply to that of the Suffragist ladies. It - is an achievement to have secured so many signatures so - quickly--and this may be used effectively by Lord Balfour of - Burleigh, when he moves his Referendum Amendment. No one can yet - predict the result. Lord Loreburn will move the omission of the - earlier part of Clause IV to-morrow; and I suppose that if it is - defeated the Referendum issue will come next." - -There were a large number of distinguished Peers, including Lords -Loreburn, Weardale, Halsbury, Plymouth, and Finlay, who were pledged to -oppose "Clause IV," but the rock on whom the Anti-Suffragists chiefly -relied was Lord Curzon. He was President of the National League for -Opposing Women's Suffrage. He was an important member of the Government. -His advice would sway the votes of large numbers of docile Peers. He -had, however, sent Mrs. Ward a verbal message through her son, whom he -met in the House on December 18, that his position in the Government -would make it impossible for him to _vote_ against the Clause: he would -be obliged to abstain. Still he continued in active communication with -Mrs. Ward, giving advice on the tactics to be pursued, and on December -30, 1917, wrote her a letter in which, after expressing admiration for -her _Nineteenth Century_ article, he added the words: "A letter (if -possible with the article) to the Peers a few days before the Clause -comes under consideration may bring up a good many to vote, and after -all that is what you want for the moment." - -Lord Curzon gave no further warning to the Committee of the League that -he intended to pursue any different line of action from that recommended -here. It was still a question of "bringing the Peers up to vote," though -the Committee knew by this time that his own vote--on the formal ground -of his being Leader of the House of Lords--could not be given against -the Clause. What, then, was their astonishment, when on the decisive -day, January 10, 1918, after a speech in which Lord Curzon condemned the -principle of Women's Suffrage in unmeasured terms and announced that his -opposition to it was as strong as ever, he then turned to their -Lordships and advised them not to reject the Clause because it would -lead to a conflict with the other House "from which your Lordships would -not emerge with credit." The effect of the appeal was decisive; the -Clause passed the House of Lords by a majority of sixty-three. - -Thus fell the Anti-Suffrage edifice, and Mrs. Ward and her friends were -left to nurse their wrath against their leader. A somewhat lengthy -correspondence in the _Morning Post_ followed, the echoes of which have -long since died away, and Mrs. Ward retired soon afterwards to Stocks. -Thence she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, on March 14, her little valediction -on the Suffrage question: - - "Yes, I have had rather a bad time of headache and weariness - lately. The last lap of the Suffrage struggle was rather too much - for me. But I felt bound, under all the circumstances (I should not - have felt bound if the decision had been postponed till after the - War) as a patriot--or what I conceive to be a patriot--to fight to - the end, and I actually drafted the last amendment on which the - House of Lords voted. Well now, thank goodness, it is over, for a - while, though I see Mrs. Fawcett is still proposing to go on. Now - the question is what the women will do with their vote. I can only - hope that you and Mrs. Fawcett are right and that I am wrong." - -Nine months later, the General Election of December, 1918, gave women -the opportunity of echoing their Prime Minister's sentiments that the -Kaiser should be brought to trial and that Germany should pay for the -cost of the War. Mrs. Ward did not record her vote, for purely local -reasons, but she had by this time adopted an attitude of quite -benevolent neutrality on the merits of the question. She had fought her -fight squarely and openly, and had finally been defeated by a -combination of circumstances to which no combatant need have been -ashamed of succumbing. To some of those who worked with her and who -watched her endless consideration for friend and foe alike, in office -and committee-room, who admired the breadth and versatility of her mind -and who shared her belief in the "alternative policy" for which she so -eloquently pleaded, it seemed that the failure of the Anti-Suffrage -campaign lay at the door of those who obstructed her within her own -walls, who could not understand her call to women to be up and doing, -and who opposed a mere blind _No_ to the youth and hope of the Suffrage -crusade. - -Be that as it may, Mrs. Ward had no reason, in looking back, to be -otherwise than proud of her contribution to the great cause of women's -work and freedom in this country. From her earliest days she had -forwarded the cause of women's education. As her experience of life grew -ever richer and more pitiful she had pleaded with her sex, using all her -varied gifts of pen and speech, to give themselves, each in her degree, -to the service of her fellows, and of the children. Her own example was -never lacking to enforce the plea. Service, not "rights," was in effect -her watch-word. If she disbelieved in the efficacy of the vote to -achieve miracles, it was because she believed far more in the gradual -growth and efficacy of spiritual forces. The rule of the mob did not -attract her, especially if it were a female mob; she would have offered -it, instead, its fill of work and service. Perhaps it was too austere a -gospel for our day, and in the end she watched her country choose the -opposite path without bitterness, and even with some degree of hope. At -any rate she had done her part in laying before her countrywomen a -different ideal. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE OUTBREAK -OF WAR - - -Stocks, during the first sixteen years that Mrs. Ward inhabited it, was -a dear but provoking house. Built in 1772 by the Duncombe family, at the -expense of the earlier manor-house at the foot of the hill, it had been -added to in the mid-nineteenth century in a spirit of small economy, so -that the visitor as he drove up beheld an unlovely eastern side, with a -squalid porch jutting out into the drive and a mean little block of -"bachelors' rooms" joined on to the main Georgian building. Though Mrs. -Ward loved the southern and western sides of the house, the eastern side -was always an offence to her; she longed to tear down the porch and to -plan some simple scheme for unifying its whole aspect. After many -hesitations, the plunge was finally made in 1907. The family retired to -Stocks Cottage, the little house among the steep hanging woods of -Moneybury Hill where the Neville Lytteltons had stayed so many summers, -and thence watched the slow disintegration and rebuilding of the "big -house." For, of course, once the process was begun, three-quarters of -the Georgian structure was found to be in a state of decomposition, with -floors and ceilings that would have crumbled at another touch, so that -long before it was finished the visit to America had come and gone and -the Anti-Suffrage campaign was launched. When at length the new Stocks -could be inhabited, in the autumn of 1908, the alterations were -beautiful indeed, but had been expensive. There was thenceforward an -unknown burden in the way of upkeep which at times oppressed even Mrs. -Ward's buoyant spirit. - -And yet how she loved every inch of the place--house and garden -together--especially after this rebuilding, which stamped it so clearly -as her and her husband's twin possession. Whether in solitude or in -company, Stocks was to her the place of consolation which repaid her for -all the fatigues and troubles of her life. Not that she went to it for -rest, for the day's work there was often harder than it was in London, -but the little walks that she could take in the intervals of work, down -to the kitchen-garden, or up and down the lime-avenue, or through the -wood behind the house, brought refreshment to her spirit and helped her -to surmount the labours that for ever weighed upon her. Here it was that -the near neighbourhood of her cousins of "Barley End"--Mr. and Mrs. -Whitridge in summer and Lord and Lady Sandhurst in winter--meant so much -to her, for they could share these brief half-hours of leisure and give -her, in the precious intimacy of gossip, that relaxation which her mind -so sorely needed. Then, in summer, there were certain spots in the long -grass under the scattered beeches where wild strawberries grew and -multiplied; these gave her exquisite delight, bringing back to her the -hungry joys of her childhood, when she would seek and find the secret -strawberry-beds that grew on the outcrop of rock in Fox How garden. But -the more sybaritic delights of Stocks were very dear to her too--the -scent of hyacinths and narcissus that greeted her as she entered the -house at Christmas-time, or the banks of azalea placed there by Mr. -Keen, the incomparable head-gardener. Keen had already been at Stocks -for fifteen years before we came to it in 1892, and he lived to gather -the branches of wild cherry that decked his mistress's grave in 1920. In -summer he would work for fifteen hours a day, in spite of all that Mrs. -Ward could say to him; his simple answer was that he could not bear to -see his plants die for lack of watering. So Keen toiled at his garden, -and Mrs. Ward toiled at her books, her speeches and her correspondence, -each holding for the other the respect that only the toilers of this -world can know. - -Her habits of work when she was settled at Stocks were somewhat -peculiar, for method was not her strong point, and it often seemed as -though the day's quota was accomplished in a series of rushes rather -than in a steady approach and fulfilment. No breakfast downstairs at -8.30 and then a solid morning's work for her, but a morning beginning -often at 5.30 a.m., with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or -much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest -solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's -_Dix-huitième Siècle_," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton in August, 1908, -"comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary -with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as -usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should -be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough--and -there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before." - -Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and -though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before -breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, -or the _Agamemnon_, became gradually more precious to her than any other -fraction of the day. She was of course no scholar, in the ordinary -sense, and her "quantities" both in Greek and Latin frequently produced -a raucous cry from her husband, to whom the correct thing was, somehow, -second nature; but the literary sense in her responded with a thrill -both to the glories and the restraints of Greek verse, so that such a -passage as Clytemnestra's description of the beacons moved her with a -power that she could hardly explain to herself. The influence which -Greek tragedy had obtained upon her thought is well seen in the opening -chapter of _Diana Mallory_. - -Then, at eight o'clock, would come breakfast and post, and, with the -post, the first visits from the rest of us and the planning of the day's -events. Usually she did not appear downstairs till after ten, and if, as -so often happened, there were friends or relations staying in the house -she would linger talking with them for another half-hour before -disappearing finally into her writing-room. Then there would be a short -but intensive morning's work--sometimes wasted on Anti-Suffrage, as she -would wrathfully confess!--lunch and a brief interval for driving on the -Common or in Ashridge Park, after which work would begin again before -four o'clock and continue, with only a nominal break for tea, till well -after eight. She rarely returned to her task after dinner, for this -would infallibly bring on a bad night, and indeed the long spell in the -afternoon left her with little energy for anything but talk or silence -in the evening. - -Such, in approximate outline, was her day when nothing from outside -caused an unusual interruption, but life at Stocks seemed often fated to -consist of interruptions. First and foremost there might be guests in -the house, who must be taken for a picnic on the Ivinghoe Downs or on -Ringshall Common, or else there might be visitors from town on -business--the Warden of the Settlement, an American publisher, a -theatrical manager; telegrams would come up the drive from the little -village post-office (for the telephone was not installed till 1914), -while always and ever there was the tyranny of the post. One Sunday the -contribution of Stocks to the village post-bag was duly certified at -eighty-five letters, while forty to fifty was a very usual number. The -evening post left at 6.30, and not till this was out of the way could -Mrs. Ward enjoy that fragment of the day which she regarded as the best -for real work, when letters and all other interruptions were cleared -from the horizon. Her sitting-room was always a mass of papers, -wonderfully kept in order by Dorothy or Miss Churcher; but in spite of -the neatness of the packets, there would come days when the one letter -or sheet of manuscript that she wanted could _not_ be found, and the -house would resound with the clamour of the searchers. Indeed Mrs. Ward -could never be trusted to keep her small possessions, unaided, for very -long, for being entirely without pockets she was reduced to the -inevitable "little bag," which naturally spent much of its time down -cracks of chairs and in other occult places. When her advancing years -made spectacles necessary for reading and writing, these added another -complication to life, but fortunately there was always some willing -slave at hand to aid in recovering the lost--or rather her family would -half unconsciously arrange their days so that there should be some one. -Once she declared with pride to a friend that she had travelled home -_alone_ from Paris to London without mishap, but on inquiry it was found -that "alone" included the faithful Lizzie, and only meant that, for -once, neither husband nor daughter had accompanied her. - -Her letters to Mrs. Creighton during these years give many glimpses of -her life. - - "I am writing to you very early in the morning--6.30--," she wrote - on August 4, 1910, "a time when I often find one can get a _real_ - letter done, or a difficult bit of work. These weeks since the - middle of June have been unusually strenuous for me. Anti-Suffrage - has been a heavy burden, especially the effort to give the movement - a more constructive and positive side. Play Centres have been - steadily increasing, and there were three Vacation Schools to - organize. The Care Committees under the L.C.C. are beginning to - wake up to Play Centres, and lately I have had three applications - to start Centres in one week. Then I have also begun a new book - [_The Case of Richard Meynell_] and even completed and sent off the - first number. But I am very harassed about the book, which does not - lie clear before me by any means. Still, I have been able to read a - good deal--William James, and Tyrrell, and Claude Montefiore's book - on the Synoptics, and some other theology and history. - - "Life is _too_ crowded!--don't you feel it so? Every year brings - its fresh interests and claims, and one can't let go the old. Yet I - hope there may be time left for some resting, watching years at the - end of it all--when one may sit in the chimney corner, look on--and - think!" - -"Some resting, watching years"! The gods were indeed asleep when Mrs. -Ward breathed this prayer, or was it that they knew, better than she, -that life without toil would have been no life to her? - -Among the self-imposed labours which Mrs. Ward added to her burden -during the year 1910, was that of taking an active part in the two -General Elections of that _annus mirabilis_. Her son had been adopted as -Unionist candidate for the West Herts Division, in which Stocks lay, and -Mrs. Ward was so disgusted by what she conceived to be the violence and -unfairness of the leaflets issued by both sides that she decided to sit -down and write a series of her own, intended primarily for the villages -round Stocks and written in simple but persuasive language. These -"Letters to my Neighbours," as they were entitled, dealt with all the -burning questions of the day--the rejection of the Budget by the House -of Lords, Tariff Reform, the new Land Taxes, Home Rule for Ireland and -so forth; but their fame did not remain confined to the villages of West -Herts, but spread first to Sheffield and thence to many other great -towns and county divisions. Mrs. Ward was by this time a convinced -Tariff Reformer, and set forth the case in favour of Protection in lucid -and attractive style; she had learnt the way to do this in the course of -certain "Talks with Voters" which she had held in the little village -schoolroom at Aldbury and in which she had penetrated with her usual -sympathy and directness into the recesses of the rustic mind. The whole -thing was, of course, a direct attempt to influence public opinion on a -political issue, on the part of one who had no vote, and as such was not -missed by the sharp eye of Mrs. Fawcett. The Suffrage leader twitted -Mrs. Ward with her inconsistency in a speech to a Women's Congress in -the summer of 1910, drawing from Mrs. Ward a reply in _The Times_ which -showed that her withers were quite unwrung. Her contention was, in fact, -that the minority of women who cared about politics had as good a right -as anyone else to influence opinion, _if they could_, and would succeed -"as men succeed, in proportion to their knowledge, their energy and -their patience.... That a woman member of the National Union of -Teachers, that the wives and daughters of professional and working men, -that educated women generally, should try to influence the votes of male -voters towards causes in which they believe, seems to me only part of -the general national process of making and enforcing opinion." At any -rate in the village of Aldbury and far outside it, Mrs. Ward was -accepted as a "maker of opinion" because the people loved her, and -because at the end of her little "Talks with Voters" she never failed to -remind her hearers that the ballot was secret. Her son was duly elected -for West Herts--a result which Mrs. Ward could not be expected to take -with as much philosophy as Mrs. Dell, our village oracle, whose only -remark was, "Lumme, sech a fustle and a bustle! And when all's say and -do one's out and the other's in!" - -The election made Mrs. Ward more intimate than she had been before with -the village folk and with her county neighbours--amongst whom she had -many close friends--but her real delight still was to receive her -relations and friends, to stay in the house, and there to make much of -them. Among these her sister Ethel was a constant visitor, together with -her great friend Miss Williams-Freeman, whose knowledge of France and of -French people was always a delight to Mrs. Ward. Then there were those -whom she would beguile from London on shorter visits--so far as she -could afford the time to entertain them! Not every Sunday, by any means, -could she allow herself this pleasure, but her instinct for hospitality -was so strong that she stretched many points in this direction, paying -for her indulgence afterwards by a still harder "grind." There were -red-letter days when she persuaded her oldest friends of all, Mrs. T. H. -Green or the Arthur Johnsons, to uproot themselves from Oxford and come -to talk of all things in heaven and earth with her; Mrs. Creighton was -an annual visitor, usually for several days in the autumn; Miss Cropper, -of Kendal, and the Hugh Bells, of Rounton, were among the few whom Mrs. -Ward not only loved to have at Stocks, but with whom she in her turn -would go to stay, reviving in Westmorland and Yorkshire her love for the -North. Then there was Henry James, whose rarer visits made him each time -the more beloved, and with whom Mrs. Ward maintained all through these -years a correspondence which might have delighted posterity, but of -which he, alas, destroyed her share before he died. Many, too, were the -friends from the world of politics or journalism who found their way to -Stocks: Mr. Haldane and Alfred Lyttelton; Oakeley Arnold-Forster, her -cousin, whose career in the Unionist Cabinet was cut short by death in -1909; Sir Donald Wallace, the George Protheros and Mr. Chirol, and ever -and anon some friend from Italy or France--Count Ugo Balzani and his -daughters, Carlo Segrè or André Chevrillon, whose presence only made the -talk leap faster and more joyously. The sound and the flavour of their -talk is gone for ever, but the memory of those days, and of their -hostess, must still be green in the hearts of many. - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Young people, too, were always welcomed by Mrs. Ward, especially the -many nieces and nephews who were now growing up around her and who were -accustomed to look to Stocks almost as to a second home. Amongst these -were the whole Selwyn family, children of her sister Lucy, who had died -in 1894; both children and father (Dr. E. C. Selwyn, Headmaster of -Uppingham School) were very dear to Mrs. Ward and frequently came to -fill the house at Stocks. Two splendid sons of this family, Arthur -and Christopher, were to give up their lives in the War. Their -stepmother, who had been Mrs. Ward's favourite cousin on the Sorell -side, Miss Maud Dunn, occupied after her marriage a still more intimate -place in her affections. One little boy she had, George, to whom Mrs. -Ward was much attached for his quaint and serious character, but he too -was doomed to die in France, of influenza, in the last month of the War. - -That member of her own family, however, to whom Mrs. Ward was most -deeply attached, her sister Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), fell a victim -in the year 1908, at the age of only 46, to a swift and terrible form of -malignant disease. With her perished not only the gifted foundress of -the great girls' school at Priors' Field, but Mrs. Ward's most intimate -friend--the person with whom she shared all joys and sorrows, and whom -it was an ever-new delight to receive at Stocks, with her brood of -brilliant children. She had been amongst the first guests to visit the -house in 1892; she was there within two months of her death in 1908. -Such a shock went very deep with Mrs. Ward, but she spent herself all -the more in devotion to "Judy's" children, whom she loved next to her -own and who had always, since their babyhood, spent a large part of each -year's holidays at Stocks. And they on their side were not ashamed to -return her affection. Julian and Trevenen, Aldous and Margaret became to -her almost a second family, leaning on her and loving and chaffing her -as only the keen-witted children of a house know how to do. - -For if Stocks was a Paradise to the tired week-end visitor from London, -or to the stalwart young ones who could play cricket or tennis on its -lawns, it was still more the Paradise of little children. Mrs. Ward was -never really happy unless there were children in the house, the younger -the better, and one of the joys of the re-building was that it provided -her, on the transformed eastern side, with a pair of nurseries which -only asked thenceforward to be tenanted. Her grandchildren, Mary, -Theodore and Humphry, were naturally the most frequent tenants, and -there accumulated a store of ancient treasures to which they looked -forward with unfailing joy each time that they returned. Usually, too, -they found that "Gunny" (as they had early christened her) had -surreptitiously added to the store during their absence, which was -unorthodox, but pleasant. How she loved to fill their red mouths with -strawberries or grapes, to hear their voices on the stairs, or their -shrill shrieks as they played hide-and-seek on the lawn with some -captive grown-up! The two elders, Mary and Theodore, paid her a visit -every morning, with the regularity of clockwork, just as her -breakfast-tray arrived, and then sat on the bed, with sly, expectant -faces, waiting for the execution of the egg--a drama that was performed -each day with a prescribed ritual, varying only in the intensity of the -egg's protests against decapitation. The invaders usually ended by -consuming far more than their share of Gunny's breakfast. And as they -grew in stature and delightsomeness, Mrs. Ward became only the more -devoted to them, till when Theo was four and Mary five and a half, they -would pay for their 'bits of egg' by show performances of _Horatius_, -declaiming it there on the big bed till the room re-echoed with their -noise. Or else they would act the coming of King Charles into the House -of Commons in search of the five members, Mary being the Speaker and -Theo the disgruntled King, or, now and then, descend to modern politics -by singing her derisive ditties such as-- - - "Tariff Reform means work for all, - Work for all, work for all; - Tariff Reform means work for all, - Chopping up wood in the Workhouse." - -"Gunny" would become quite limp with laughing at the wickedness and -point which Theodore would throw into the singing of this song, for the -rascal knew full well that she had succumbed to what Mrs. Dell, after a -village meeting, had christened "Tarridy-form." - -Whenever one of their long visits to Stocks came to an end, Mrs. Ward -would be most disconsolate. "_How_ I miss the children," she wrote to J. -P. T. in January, 1911, "--it is quite foolish. I can never pass the -nursery door without a pang." Three months later, while she was staying -at an Italian villa in the Lucchese hills, the news fell upon her that -the beloved grandson whose every look and gesture was to her "an -embodied joy," would be hers no longer. He had died beside the sea, - -[Greek: ...philê en patridi gaiê], - -and the fells which stand around the little church in the Langdale -valley looked down upon another grave. - -It was long before Mrs. Ward could surmount this grief. That summer -(1911) she was busied with the organization of her Playgrounds for the -thousands upon thousands of London children who had no Stocks to play -in. - - "Sometimes," she wrote, "when I think of the masses of London - children I have been going through I seem to imagine him beside me, - his eager little hand in mine, looking at the dockers' children, - ragged, half-starved, disfigured, with his grave sweet eyes, eyes - so full already of humanity and pity. Is it so that his spirit - lives with us--the beloved one--part for ever of all that is best - in us, all that is nearest to God, in whom, I must believe, he - lives." - -During these years between her visit to America and the outbreak of War, -Mrs. Ward produced no less than six novels, including the two on America -and Canada which we have already mentioned. She also issued, in the -autumn of 1911, with Mr. Reginald Smith's help and guidance, the -"Westmorland Edition" of her earlier books (from _Miss Bretherton_ to -_Canadian Born_), contributing to them a series of critical and -autobiographical Prefaces which, as the _Oxford Chronicle_ said, "to a -great extent disarm criticism because in them Mrs. Ward appears as her -own best critic." Time and again, in these Introductions, we find her -seizing upon the weak point in her characters or her constructions: how -_Robert Elsmere_ "lacks irony and detachment," how _David Grieve_ is -"didactic in some parts and amateurish in others," how in _Sir George -Tressady_ Marcella "hovers incorporate and only very rarely finds her -feet." This candour made the new edition all the more acceptable to her -old admirers, and set the critics arguing once more on their old theme, -as to whether Mrs. Ward possessed or not a sense of humour. If it may be -permitted to one so near to her to venture an opinion on this point, it -is that Mrs. Ward, like all those who possess the ardent temperament, -the will to move the world, worked first and foremost by the methods of -direct attack rather than by the subtler shafts of humour; but no one -could live beside her, especially in these years of her maturity, -without falling under the spell of something which, if not humour, was -at least a vivid gift of "irony and detachment," asserting itself -constantly at the expense of herself and her doings and finding its way, -surely, into so many of her later books. Her minor characters are -usually instinct with it; they form the chorus, or the "volley of -silvery laughter" for ever threatening her too ardent heroes from the -Meredithian "spirit up aloft," and show that she herself is by no means -totally carried away by the ardours she creates. My own feeling is that -this gift of "irony and detachment" grew stronger with the years, -perhaps as the original motive force grew weaker, and though she -maintained to the end her unconquerable fighting spirit, as shown in her -struggle against the Suffrage and her keen interest in politics, these -things were crossed more frequently by humorous returns upon herself -which made her all the more delightful to those who knew her well. And -in the little things of life, no one was ever more easy to move to -helpless laughter over her own foibles. When she had bought no less than -five hats for her daughter on a motor-drive from Stocks to London--"on -spec, darling, at horrid little cheap shops in the Edgware Road"--or -when at Cadenabbia, she had actually sallied forth _unattended_ in order -to buy a pair of the peasants' string shoes, and had gone through a -series of harrowing adventures, no one who heard her tell the tale could -doubt that she was richly endowed with the power of laughing at herself. -In her writings she was, perhaps, a little sensitive about the point. - - "_Am_ I so devoid of humour?" she wrote to Mr. Reginald Smith, in - September, 1911. "I was looking at _David Grieve_ again the other - day--surely there is a good deal that is humorous there. And if I - may be egotistical and repeat them, I heard such pleasing things - about _David_ from Lord Arran in Dublin the other day. He knows it - absolutely by heart, and he says that when he was campaigning in - South Africa two battered copies of _David_ were read to pieces by - him and his brother-officers, and every night they discussed it - round the camp fires." - -The inference being, no doubt, that a set of hard-bitten British -officers would hardly have wasted their scanty leisure on a book that -totally lacked the indispensable national ingredient. - -The last novel with a definitely religious tendency to which Mrs. Ward -set her hand was her well-known sequel to _Robert Elsmere_, the "Case" -of the Modernist clergyman, Richard Meynell. It was by far the most -considerable work of her later years and represented the fruit of her -ripest meditations on the evolution of religious thought and practice in -the twenty years that had elapsed since _Robert's_ day. Ever since the -Loisy case she had been deeply possessed by the literature of Modernism, -seeing in it the force which would, she believed, in the end regenerate -the churches. - - "What interests and touches me most, in religion, at the present - moment," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, in September, 1907, "is - Liberal Catholicism. It has a bolder freedom than anything in the - Anglican Church, and a more philosophic and poetic outlook. It - seems to me at any rate to combine the mystical and scientific - powers in a wonderful degree. If I only could believe that it would - last, and had a future!" - -She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrell, of Bergson and of -William James during these years, but while she allowed herself, -perhaps, as time went on, a more mystical interpretation of the Gospel -narratives, she was still as convinced as ever of the necessity for -historical criticism. - - -_To J. P. T._ - -"VALESCURE, -"_Easter Day, 1910_. - -..."It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been - reading William James on this very point--the worth of being - alive--and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the - Maries. I more and more believe that the whole resurrection story, - as a story, arose from the transference of the body by the - Romans--at Jewish bidding, no doubt--to a hidden sepulchre to avoid - a local cult. The vacant grave seems to me historic fact,--next to - it, the visions in Galilee, perhaps springing from _one_ vivid - dream of a disciple such as I had both of my father and mother - after their deaths--and then theology, and poetry, environment and - inherited belief did the rest. Yet what an amazing thing the rest - is, and how impossible to suppose that it--or any other great - religion--means nothing in the scheme of things." - -She had been much excited, also, by the instances of revolt in a Liberal -direction which were occurring at this time within the English Church, -such as that of Mr. Thompson of Magdalen; and so, out of these various -elements, she wove her tale of _Richard Meynell_. When she was already -deep in the writing of the book she came, quite by chance, upon a -country parish in Cheshire where a similar drama was going on. - - -_To Reginald Smith_ - -"STOCKS, -"_October 11, 1910_. - -..."I have returned home a great deal better than when I went, I am - glad to say. And on Sunday I heard Meynell preach!--in Alderley - church, in the person of Mr. Hudson Shaw. An astonishing sermon, - and a crowded congregation. 'I shall not in future read the - Athanasian Creed, or the cursing psalms or the Ten Commandments, or - the Exhortation at the beginning of the Marriage Service--and I - shall take the consequences. The Baptismal Service ought to be - altered--so ought the Burial Service. And how you, the laity, can - tolerate us--the clergy--standing up Sunday after Sunday and saying - these things to you, I cannot understand. But I for one will do it - no more, happen what may.' - - "I really felt that _Richard Meynell_ was likely to be in the - movement!" - -Richard Meynell, as the readers of this book will remember, makes -himself the leader of a crusade for modernizing and re-vivifying the -services of the Church, in accordance with the new preaching of "the -Christ of to-day,"--finds his message taken up by hundreds of his fellow -priests and hundreds of thousands of eager souls throughout the -country,--comes into collision with the higher powers of the Church, -takes his trial in the Court of Arches, and, when the inevitable -judgment goes against him, leaves us, on a note of hope, carrying his -appeal to the Privy Council, to Parliament and to the people of England. -The whole book is written in a vein of passionate inspiration--save for -the few touches, here and there, which convey the note of irony or -contemplation--; the reader may disagree, but he cannot help being -carried away, for the time at least, by the infectious enthusiasm of -Meynell and his movement. - - * * * * * - -"Perhaps the strongest impression," declared one of the reviewers, "at -once the most striking and the most profound, created by _The Case of -Richard Meynell_, is its religious optimism. One finds oneself -marvelling how any writer, in so sceptical an age as this, can picture a -Modernist religious movement with so inspired, so fervent a pen, as to -kindle a factitious flame even in hearts grown cold to religious -inspiration and to religious hope." - - * * * * * - -Others, again, pronounced the book to be, on the whole, a failure. "And -yet," said the _Dublin Review_, "there is a certain force in Mrs. -Humphry Ward that enables her to push her defective machine into motion; -_Richard Meynell_ is the work of a forcible, if tired, imagination. This -fact may be wrong, and that detail ugly, and another phrase offensive to -the sense of the ridiculous; but as a whole it ranks higher than many -and many a production that is lightly touched in and delicately edged -with satire. Spiritual sufferings, a yearning after truth, -self-restraint, revolt, the helpless wish to aid those who will not be -helped, the texture of fine souls, such things are brought home to us in -_Richard Meynell_. This is not done by the vitality of the author's -personages, for they never wholly escape from bondage to the main -intention of the book, but it is done by contact with a remarkable mind -tuned to fine issues." - -The reappearance of Catherine Elsmere, far less overwhelming and more -attractive than in the earlier book, endeared this tale to all who -remembered Robert's wife; her death in the little house in Long Sleddale -where Robert had first found her was felt to be a masterpiece that Mrs. -Ward had never surpassed. - -The writer did not disguise from herself and her friends that she looked -forward with unusual interest to the reception of this book. Would it in -truth find itself "in the movement"? Would it kindle into a flame the -dull embers of religious faith and freedom? - - "What I should like to do this winter," she wrote to Mrs. - Creighton, in September, 1911 (six weeks before the book's - appearance), "is to write a volume of imaginary 'Sermons and - Journals of Richard Meynell,' going in detail into many of the - points only touched in the book. If the book has the great success - the publishers predict, I could devote myself to handling in - another form some of the subjects that have been long in my mind. - But of course it may have no such success at all. I sometimes think - that, as Mr. Holmes maintains in his extraordinarily interesting - book,[33] the church teaching of the last twenty years has gone a - long way towards paganizing England--together of course with the - increase of wealth and hurry." - -These "Sermons and Journals of Richard Meynell" were, however, never -written. The book certainly aroused interest and even controversy in -England, but it did not sweep the country and set all tongues wagging, -as _Elsmere_ had done, while in America the populace refused to be -roused by what they regarded as the domestic affairs of the English -Church. Mrs. Ward never spoke of Meynell's reception as a -disappointment, but she must have felt it so, and within six months of -its appearance she was at work, as usual, upon its successor. - -Yet a piece of work which brought her two such letters as the following -(amongst many others) cannot be said to have gone unrewarded:-- - - -_From Frederic Harrison_ - - "I am one of those to whom your book specially appeals, as I know - so much of the literature, the persons, the questions it dealt - with. It has given me the most lively interest both as romance--as - fine as anything since _Adam Bede_--and also as controversy--as - important as anything since _Essays and Reviews_. Meynell seems to - me a far higher type than Elsmere, both as a man and as a book, and - I am sure will have a greater permanent value--even if its - popularity for the hour is not so rapid--for it appeals to a higher - order of reader, and is of a larger kind of art." - - -_From André Chevrillon_ - - "On est heureux d'y retrouver ce qui nous a paru si longtemps une - des principales caractéristiques de la littérature anglaise: ce - sentiment de la beauté morale, cette émotion devant la qualité de - la conduite qui prennent par leur intensité même une valeur - esthétique. C'est la tradition de vos écrivains les plus anglais, - celle des Browning, des Tennyson, des George Eliot. Elle fait la - portée et l'originalité des oeuvres de cette époque victorienne, - contre laquelle on a l'air, malheureusement, d'être en réaction en - Angleterre aujourd'hui--réaction que je ne crois pas durable--qui - cessera dès que le recule sera suffisant pour que la force et la - grandeur de cette littérature apparaisse. - - "Le problème religieux que vous posez là est vital, et la solution - que vous y prévoyez dans votre pays, cette possibilité d'un - christianisme évolué, adapté, qui conserverait les formes anciennes - avec leur puissance si efficace de prestige, tout en attribuant de - plus en plus aux vieilles formules, aux vieux rites une valeur de - symbole--cette solution est celle que l'on peut espérer du - protestantisme, lequel est relativement peu cristalisé et peut - encore évoluer. Même dans l'anglicanisme la part de - l'interprétation personnelle a toujours été assez grande. J'ai peur - que l'avenir de la religion soit plus douteux dans ceux des pays - catholiques où la culture est avancée. Nous sommes là comme des - vivants liés à des cadavres, ou comme des grandes personnes que - l'on astreindrait au régime de la _nursery_. Les mêmes formules, - les mêmes articles de foi, le même catéchisme, les mêmes - interprétations, doivent servir à la fois à des peuple de mentalité - encore primitive et semi-païenne et à des sociétés aussi - intellectuelles et civilisées que la nôtre. Nous n'avons le choix - qu'entre le culte des reliques, la foi aux eaux miraculeuses, et - l'agnosticisme pur, ou du moins, une religiosité amorphe, sans - système ni discipline." - -The writing of _Richard Meynell_ left Mrs. Ward very tired, and all the -next year (1912) she "puddled along" as Mrs. Dell would have put it, -accomplishing her tasks with all her old devotion, but suffering from -sleeplessness and knowing that the novel of that year, _The Mating of -Lydia_, was not really up to standard. Mr. Ward, too, fell ill, and -remained in precarious health for the next four years, which gravely -added to his wife's anxieties. The burdens of life pressed upon her, -while the maintenance of her Play Centres seemed sometimes an almost -impossible addition. Italy was still the best restorative for all these -ills. Every spring she fled across the Alps, enjoying a week or two of -holiday and then settling, with her daughter, in some Villa where she -might work undisturbed. In 1909 she went for the last time to the Villa -Bonaventura at Cadenabbia, the place which was to her, I think, the -high-water mark of earthly bliss. This time her stay was marked by one -long-remembered day--a flying visit paid her from Milan by Contessa -Maria Pasolini, the friend for whom, amongst all her Italian -aquaintance, Mrs Ward felt the strongest devotion. She could watch her, -or listen to her talk, for hours with unfailing delight; for she seemed -to embody in herself both the wisdom and the charm, the age and the -youth, of Italy. It was a friendship worthy of two noble spirits. Never -again was Mrs. Ward able to rise to the Villa Bonaventura, but she -explored other parts of Italy with almost equal delight, settling at the -Villa Pazzi, outside Florence, in April, 1910, at a bare but fascinating -Villa in the Lucchese hills in the next year, and in a fragment of a -palace on the Grand Canal in 1912. It was during this stay in Venice -that Mr. Reginald Smith obtained for her, from Mr. Pen Browning, -permission to camp and work in the empty Rezzonico Palace, a privilege -which she greatly valued and which gave her many romantic hours. While -savouring thus the delights of Venice she was enabled, too, to witness -the formal inauguration of the new-built Campanile, watching the -splendid ceremony from a seat in the Piazzetta. - - "Venice has been delirious to-day," she wrote to Reginald Smith on - St. Mark's Day, April 25, "and the inauguration of the Campanile - was really a most moving sight. 'Il Campanile è morto--viva il - Campanile!' The letting loose of the pigeons--the first sound of - the glorious bells after these ten years of silence--the thousands - of children's voices--the extraordinary beauty of the setting--the - splendour of the day--it was all perfect, and one feels that Italy - may well be proud." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Her great relaxation during all these sojourns, but especially during a -stay of six weeks at Rydal Mount during the autumn of 1911, was to play -with brushes and paint, for she had skill enough in the problems of -colour and line to throw off all other cares in their pursuit, while her -inevitable imperfections only spurred her to fresh efforts. Dorothy -would call it her "public-house," for she could not keep away from it -and would exhaust herself, sometimes, in the pursuit of the ideal, -but the results were full of charm and are much treasured by their few -possessors. - - * * * * * - -In 1913, as though to confound her critics, Mrs. Ward produced the book -which contained, perhaps, the most brilliant character-drawing that she -had ever attempted--_The Coryston Family_. She was pleased with its -success, which was indeed needed to reassure her, for at this time -occurred some serious losses, not of her making, which had to be faced, -and, if possible, repaired. She was already sixty-two and her health, as -we know, was more than precarious, but she set herself to work perhaps -harder than ever. "Courage!" she wrote in July 1913, "and perhaps this -time next year, if we are all well, the clouds will have rolled away." - -When that time came, when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand had been -murdered at Serajevo and we in England, no less than the Serbian peasant -and the French _piou-piou_, found ourselves face to face with a horror -never known before, the crisis found Mrs. Ward at a low ebb of health -and spirits. Attacks of giddiness led the doctors to pronounce that she -was suffering from "heart fatigue." Mr. Ward's illness had increased -rather than diminished; Stocks was abandoned for a time (though to a -charming tenant and a sister novelist, Mrs. Wharton), and the three had -migrated to a small and unattractive house in Fifeshire, where Mrs. Ward -applied herself once more to writing. There the blow fell. Her first -reaction to it was one of mere revolt, a cry of blind human misery. -"What madness is it that drives men to such horrors?--not for great -causes, but for dark diplomatic and military motives only understood by -the ruling class, and for which hundreds of thousands will be sent to -their death like sheep to the slaughter! Germany, Russia and Austria -seem to me all equally criminal." Then, as the news came rolling in, -from the "dark motives" there seemed to detach itself one clear, -stabbing thought. France! France invaded, perhaps overwhelmed! - -"To me she is still the France of Taine, and Renan, and Pasteur, of an -immortal literature, and a history that, blood-stained as it is, makes a -page that humanity could ill spare. No, I am with her, heart and soul, -and to see her wiped out by Germany would put out for me one of the -world's great lights." - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about the Germans, before the thunderbolt of 1914, -had been one of sincere respect and admiration for a nation of patient -brain-workers who, she believed, were honest with the truth, and had -delved farther into certain obscure fields of history in which she -herself was deeply interested than any of their contemporaries. But her -acquaintance with Germany was a book-acquaintance only. She had indeed -paid one or two visits to the Rhine and to South Germany during her -married life, and had been astonished to mark, in 1900, the growth of -wealth and prosperity in the Rhine towns, due, she was told, to -scientific protection and to the skilful use of the French indemnity. -But she had no personal friendships with Germans, and her knowledge of -their state of mind was derived only from books and newspapers and the -reports of others. Still, these had become disquieting enough, as all -the world remembers, between 1911 and 1914, but Mrs. Ward clung to the -optimistic view that the hatred and envy of England, so apparent in -German newspaper writing, was but the creed of a clique, and that the -heart of the laborious and thrifty German people was still sound. In -April, 1913, a delegation of German Professors came over to London to -take part in a historical congress; Mrs. Ward willingly assisted in -entertaining them, giving a large evening party in their honour at -Grosvenor Place. Perhaps the atmosphere was already a little strained, -but we mustered our forgotten German as best we might, and flattered -ourselves at the end that things had not gone badly. Little more than a -year afterwards the names of nearly all our guests were to be found in -the manifesto of the ninety-three German Professors--the pronouncement -which above all others in those grim days stirred Mrs. Ward's -indignation. She expressed her sense of the "bitter personal -disillusionment which I, and so many Englishmen and Englishwomen, have -suffered since this war began," in a Preface which she wrote, in 1916, -to the German edition of _England's Effort_--an edition which was -intended for circulation in German Switzerland, but found its way also, -as we afterwards heard, to a good many centres within Germany itself: - - "We were lifelong lovers and admirers of a Germany which, it seems - now, never really existed except in our dreams. In the article 'A - New Reformation,' which I published in the _Nineteenth Century_ in - 1889, in answer to Mr. Gladstone's critique of _Robert Elsmere_, - and in many later utterances, I have rendered whole-hearted homage - to that critical and philosophical Germany which I took to be the - real Germany, and hailed as the home of liberal and humane ideas. - And now! In that amazing manifesto of the German Professors at the - opening of the War, there were names of men--that of Adolf Harnack, - for instance--which had never been mentioned in English scholarly - circles before August, 1914, except with sympathy and admiration, - even by those who sharply differed from the views they represented. - We held them to be servants of truth, incapable therefore of - acquiescence in a tyrannous lie. We held them also to be scholars, - incapable therefore of falsifying facts and ignoring documents in - their own interest. But in that astonishing manifesto, not only was - the cry of Belgium wholly repulsed, but those very men who had - taught Europe to respect evidence and to deal scrupulously with - documents, when it was a question of Classical antiquity, or early - Christianity, now, when it was a question of justifying the crime - of their country, of defending the Government of which they were - the salaried officials, threw evidence and documents to the winds. - How many of those who signed the professorial manifesto had ever - read the British White Paper, and the French Yellow Book, or, if - they had read them, had ever given to those damning records of - Germany's attack on Europe, and of the vain efforts of the Allies - to hold her back, one fraction of that honest and impartial study - of which a newly discovered Greek inscription, or a fragment of a - lost Gospel, would have been certain at their hands?" - -It was this feeling of the betrayal of high standards and ideals which -had meant much to her in earlier life, coupled with the emergence of a -native ferocity unguessed before (for _we_ had not lived through 1870), -that went so deep with Mrs. Ward. But there were at least no personal -friendships to break. With France, on the other hand, her ties had, as -we know, been close and intimate from the beginning, so that her heart -went out to the trials and agonies of her French friends with a peculiar -poignancy. M. Chevrillon, her principal correspondent, gave her in a -series of letters, from November, 1914, onwards, a wonderful picture of -the sufferings, the heroisms and the moods of France; she replied--to -this lover of Meredith!--with her reading of the English scene: - - -"STOCKS, -"_November 23, 1914_. - - "We are indeed no less absorbed in the War than you. And yet, - perhaps, there is not that _unrelenting_ pressure on nerve and - recollection in this country, 'set in the silver sea' and so far - inviolate, which there must be for you, who have this cruel and - powerful enemy at your gates and in your midst, and can never - forget the fact for a moment. That, of course, is the explanation - of the recent slackening of recruiting here. The classes to whom - education and social life have taught imagination are miserable and - shamed before these great football gatherings, which bring no - recruits--'but my people do not understand, and Israel doth not - consider. They have eyes and see not; ears have they but they hear - not.' One little raid on the East Coast--a village burnt, a few - hundred men killed on English soil--then indeed we should see an - England in arms. Meanwhile, compared with any England we have ever - seen, it _is_ an England in arms. Every town of any size has its - camp, the roads are full of soldiers, and they are billeted in our - houses. No such sight, of course, has ever been seen in our day. - And yet how quickly one accustoms oneself to it, and to all the - other accompaniments of war! The new recruits are mostly excellent - material. Dorothy and I motored over early one morning last week to - Aston Clinton Park to see the King inspect a large gathering of - recruits. It was a beautiful morning, with the misty Chilterns - looking down upon the wide stretches of the park, and the bodies of - drilling men. The King must have been up early, for he had - inspected the camp at ten (thirty-five miles from London) and was - in the park by eleven. There was no ceremony whatever, and only a - few neighbours and children looking on. It had been elaborately - announced that he would inspect troops that day in Norfolk! The men - were only in the early stages, but they were mostly of fine - physique--miners from Northumberland a great many of them. The - difficulty is officers. They have to accept them now, either so - young, or so elderly! And these well-to-do workmen of twenty-five - or thirty don't like being ordered about by lads of nineteen. But - the lads of nineteen are shaping, too, very fast. - - "We are so sorry for your poor niece, and for all the other - sufferers you tell us of. I have five nephews fighting, and of - course innumerable friends. Arnold is in Egypt with his Yeomanry. - One dreads to open _The Times_, day after day. The most tragic loss - I know so far is that of the Edward Cecils' only boy--grandson of - the late Lord Salisbury, and Admiral Maxse, the Beauchamp of - _Beauchamp's Career_. I saw him last as a delightful chattering boy - of eleven--so clever, so handsome, just what Beauchamp might have - been at his age! He was missing on September 2, and was only - announced as killed two days ago." - -The first year and a half of the War was a time of great anxiety and -strain for Mrs. Ward, both in the literary and the practical fields. -Besides her unremitting literary work she pushed through, by means of -the "Joint Advisory Committee," an exhaustive inquiry into the working -of the existing system of soldiers' pensions and pressed certain -recommendations, as a result, upon the War Office; she was confronted by -a partial falling-off in the subscriptions to her Play Centres, and was -obliged to introduce economies and curtailments which cost her much -anxious thought; she converted the Settlement into a temporary hostel -for Belgian Refugees; and, above all, she carried through, between -October, 1914, and the summer of 1915, a complete reorganization of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement, converting it from a men's into a women's -settlement. There were many reasons, even apart from the growing -pressure on men of military age to enlist in the New Armies, which had -for some time made such a change desirable in the eyes of Mrs. Ward and -of a majority of the Council; chief among these being the need for a -body of trained voluntary workers to carry out, for St. Pancras, the -mass of social legislation that had been passed since the foundation of -the Settlement, and to take their part in the work of School Care -Committees, Schools for Mothers and so forth. Male Residents, being -occupied with their own work during the day, were not available for such -things; but amongst women it was believed that a body possessing -sufficient leisure and enthusiasm for social service to make a real mark -in the life of the neighbourhood, would not be difficult to find. The -change was not accomplished without strenuous opposition from the -existing Warden and some of the Residents, but Mrs. Ward went -methodically to work, getting the Council to appoint a Committee with -powers to inquire and report. She found also that her old friend and -supporter, the Duke of Bedford, was strongly in favour of the change, -and would be ready to provide, for three years, about two-thirds of the -annual sum required for the maintenance of a Women's Settlement. This -argument was decisive, and the Council finally adopted the Report of the -Special Committee in May, 1915. Mrs. Ward had the happiness of seeing, -during the remaining years of the War, her hopes for the usefulness of -the new venture very largely fulfilled, under the able guidance of Miss -Hilda Oakeley, who was appointed Warden of the Settlement in August, -1915. - -Meanwhile, Mrs. Ward felt herself in danger of seeing her usual means of -livelihood cut from beneath her feet during this first period of the -War. For one result of the vast upheaval in our social conditions was -that the circulation of all novels went down with a run, and it was not -until the War had made a certain dismal routine of its own, in the needs -of hospitals, munition-centres, soldiers' and officers' clubs and the -like, that the national taste for the reading of fiction reasserted -itself. Till then Mrs. Ward relied mainly on her American public, which -was still untouched; but the pressure of work was never for an instant -relaxed, and fortunately she still found her greatest solace and relief -from present cares in the writing of books. "I never felt more inclined -to spin tales, which is a great comfort," she wrote in January, 1915, -but as yet she could not face the thought of weaving the War into their -fabric, and took refuge instead in the summer of that year in the making -of a story of Oxford life, as she had known it in her youth--an -occupation that gave her a quiet joy, providing a "wind-warm space" into -which she could retreat from the horrors of the outer world. The -compulsory retrenchments of the War years came also to her aid, in -reducing the _personnel_ employed at Stocks, while Stocks itself was -usually let in the summer and Grosvenor Place in the winter; but still -the struggle was an arduous one, leaving its mark upon her in the -growing whiteness of her hair, the growing fragility and pallor of her -look. Sleeplessness became an ever greater difficulty in these years, -but on the other hand her old complaint in the right side had grown less -troublesome, so that standing and walking were more possible than of -old. Had it not been for this improvement she would have been physically -incapable of carrying out the task laid upon her, swiftly and -unexpectedly, in January, 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt wrote to her -from Oyster Bay to beg her to tell America what England was doing in the -War. - - -_December 27, 1915._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The War has been, on the whole, well presented in America from the - French side. We do not think justice has been done to the English - side. I attribute this in part to the rather odd working of the - censorship in hands not accustomed to the censorship. I wish that - some writer like yourself could, in a series of articles, put - vividly before our people what the English people are doing, what - the actual life of the men in the trenches is, what is actually - being done by the straight and decent capitalist, who is not - concerned with making a profit, but with serving his country, and - by the straight and decent labouring man, who is not thinking of - striking for higher wages, but is trying to help his comrades in - the trenches. What I would like our people to visualize is the - effort, the resolution and the self-sacrifice of the English men - and women who are determined to see this war through. Just at - present England is in much the same strait that we were in in our - Civil War toward the end of 1862, and during the opening months of - 1863. That was the time when we needed to have our case put before - the people of England--when men as diverse as Gladstone, Carlyle - and the after-time Marquis of Salisbury were all strongly against - us. There is not a human being more fitted to present this matter - as it should be presented than you are. I do hope you will - undertake the task. - -Faithfully yours, -THEODORE ROOSEVELT. - -The letter reached Mrs. Ward at Stocks on Monday, January 10, 1916, by -the evening post. She felt at once that she must respond to such a call, -though the manner of doing so was still dim to her. But she consulted -her friends, C. F. G. Masterman and Sir Gilbert Parker, at "Wellington -House" (at that time the Government Propaganda Department), and found -that they took Mr. Roosevelt's letter quite as seriously as she did -herself. They showed her specimens of what the American papers were -saying about England, her blunders, her slackers and her shirkers, till -Mrs. Ward thrilled to the task and felt a longing to be up and at it. -The next step was to see Sir Edward Grey (then Foreign Minister), to -whom she had also sent a copy of the letter. He asked her to come to his -house in Eccleston Square, whither accordingly she went early on January -20. - - "They showed me into the dining-room," she wrote to J. P. T., "and - he came down to say that he had asked Lord Robert Cecil and Sir - Arthur Nicolson to come too, and that they were upstairs. So then - we went into his library sitting-room, a charming room full of - books, and there were the other two. They all took Roosevelt's - letter very seriously, and there is no question but that I must do - my best to carry it out. I simply felt after Edward Grey had spoken - his mind that, money or no money, strength or fatigue, I was under - orders and must just go on. I said that I should like to go to - France, just for the sake of giving some life and colour to the - articles--and that a novelist could not work from films, however - good. They agreed. - - "'And would you like to have a look at the Fleet?' said Lord - Robert. - - "I said that I had not ventured to suggest it, but that of course - anything that gave picturesqueness and novelty--i.e. a woman being - allowed to visit the Fleet--would help the articles. - - "I gave a little outline of what I proposed, beginning with the - unpreparedness of England. On that Edward Grey spoke at some - length--the utter absence of any wish for war in this country, or - thought of war. Even those centres that had suffered most from - German competition had never thought of war. No one wished for it. - I thought of his long, long struggle for peace. It was pathetic to - hear him talking so simply--with such complete conviction. - - "I was rather more than half an hour with them. Sir Edward took me - downstairs, said it was 'good of me' to be willing to undertake it, - and I went off feeling the die was cast." - -A luncheon with Mr. Lloyd George--then Minister of Munitions--who gladly -offered her every possible facility for seeing the great -munition-centres that had by that time altered the face of England, and -the plan for carrying out her task began to shape itself in her mind. A -tour of ten days or so through the principal munition-works, ranging -from Birmingham to the Clyde, then a dash to the Fleet, lying in the -Firth of Cromarty, then south once more and across the Straits to see -the "back of the Army" in France. It may be imagined what busy -co-ordination of arrangements was necessary between the Ministry of -Munitions, the Admiralty and the War Office, before all the details of -the tour were settled, but by the aid of "Wellington House" all was -hustled through in a short time, so that Mrs. Ward was off on her round -of the great towns by January 31. To her, of course, the human interest -of the scene was the all-important thing--the spectacle of the mixture -of classes in the vast factories, the high-school mistresses, the -parsons, the tailors' and drapers' assistants handling their machines -as lovingly as the born engineers--the enormous sheds-full of women and -girls of many diverse types working together with one common impulse, -and protesting against the cutting down of their twelve hours' day! She -was taken everywhere and shown everything (accompanied this time by Miss -Churcher), seeing in the space of ten days the munition-works at -Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and -the Clyde. Then she returned home for a few days, to fix her impressions -in an ordered mass of notes, before leaving again on February 15 for the -far north, armed with an Admiralty permit and an invitation from Sir -John Jellicoe to spend a couple of nights in his house at Invergordon. - -It was, of course, an unheard-of thing for a woman to visit the Fleet in -war-time, but, once the barriers passed, the sailors were so glad to see -her! Withdrawn from the common life in their iron, sleepless world, they -welcomed this break in their routine as much as she did the chance it -gave her of a wholly unique experience. She told the tale of her -adventures both in a letter to Mr. Ward and in notes written down at the -time: - - -"_February 16, 1916._ - - "Such a journey! Heavy snow-storm in the night, and we were held up - for three hours on the highest part of the line between Kingussie - and Aviemore. But at Invergordon a group of naval officers - appeared. A great swell [Sir Thomas Jerram] detached himself and - came up to me. 'Mrs. Ward? Sir John has asked me to look after - you.' We twinkled at each other, both seeing the comedy of the - situation. 'Now then, what can I do for you? Will you be at - Invergordon pier to-morrow at eleven? and come and lunch with me on - the Flagship? Then afterwards you shall see the destroyers come in - and anything else we can show you. Will that suit you?' So he - disappears and I journey on to Kildary, five miles, with a jolly - young sailor just returned from catching contraband in the North - Sea, and going up to Thurso in charge of the mail." - -She spent a quiet evening at Sir John Jellicoe's house (the Admiral -himself being away). Her notes continue the story: - - "Looked out into the snowy moonlight--the Frith steely grey--the - hills opposite black and white--a pale sky--black shapes on the - water--no lights except from a ship on the inlet (the hospital - ship). - - "Next day--an open car--bitterly cold--through the snow and wind. - At the pier--a young officer, Admiral Jerram's Flag Lieutenant. - 'The Admiral wished to know if you would like him to take you round - the Fleet. If so, we will pick him up at the Flagship.' The - barge--very comfortable--with a cabin--and an outer seat--sped - through the water. We stopped at the Flagship and the Admiral - stepped in. We sped on past the _Erin_--one of the Turkish cruisers - impounded at the beginning of the war--the _Iron Duke_, the - _Centurion_, _Monarch_, _Thunderer_--to the hospital ship _China_. - The Admiral pointed out the three cruisers near the entrance to the - harbour--under Sir Robert Arbuthnot--also the hull of the poor - _Natal_--with buoys at either end--two men walking on her. - - "At luncheon--Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Jerram on my left, Sir Robert - Arbuthnot, commanding the cruiser squadron, on my right. Captain - Field and Mrs. Field. Commander Goldie--Flag Lieutenant Boissier, - and a couple of other officers and their wives. - - "In the barge I had shown the Admiral Roosevelt's letter. Sir - Robert Arbuthnot spoke to me about it at luncheon, and very kindly. - They all seemed to feel that it was a tough task, not of my - seeking, and showed wonderful sympathy and understanding. After - lunch Captain Field was told off to show me the ship. Thrilling to - see a ship in war-time, that might be in action any moment. The - loading of the guns--the wireless rooms--the look down to the - engine deck--the anchor held by the three great chains--the - middies' quarters--the officers' ward-room. The brains of the - ship--men trained to transmit signals from the fire-control above - to all parts of the ship, directing the guns. The middies' - chests--great black and grey boxes--holding all a middy's worldly - goods. He opens one--shows the photos inside.--The senior middy, a - fair-haired boy, like Humphry Sandwith--the others younger. Their - pleasant room, with its pictures, magazines and books. Spaces where - the wounded can be temporarily placed during action. - - "The chart of the North Sea, and the ship-stations. Lines radiating - out in all directions--every dot on them a ship. - - "After going through the ship we went to look at the destroyer - which the Admiral had ordered alongside. Commanded by Mr. - Leveson-Gower, son of the Lord Granville who was Foreign Secretary, - and nephew of 'Freddy.' The two torpedo tubes on the destroyer are - moved to the side, so that we see how it discharges them. The guns - very small--the whole ship, which carries 100 men, seems almost on - the water-line--is constantly a-wash except for the cabin and the - bridge. But on a dark night in the high seas, 'we are always so - glad to see them!--they are the guards of the big ships--or we are - the hens, and they are the chickens.' - - "Naval character--the close relations between officers and men - necessitated by the ship's life. 'The men are splendid.' How good - they are to the officers--'have a cup of coffee, sir, and lie down - a bit.'--Splendidly healthy--in spite of the habitually broken - sleep. Thursday afternoons (making and mending)--practically the - naval half-holiday. - - "Talk at tea with Captain and Mrs. Field and Boissier and Commander - Goldie. They praise the book, _Naval Occasions_. No sentiment - possible in the Navy--_in speech_. The life could not be endured - often, unless it were _jested through_. Men meet and part with a - laugh--absurdity of sentimental accounts. Life on a - destroyer--these young fellows absolute masters--their talk when - they come in--'By Jove, I nearly lost the ship last night--awful - sea--I was right on the rocks.'--Their life is always in their - hands." - -Writing a week later to "Aunt Fan," she added one further remark about -the Captain of the ship--"so quietly full of care for his men--and so -certain, one could see, that Germany would never actually give in -without trying something desperate against our fleet." Little more than -three months later, Germany tried her desperate stroke, tried it and -lost, but at what a cost to English sailormen! The noble officer who had -sat next to Mrs. Ward at luncheon in the Admiral's flagship, Sir Robert -Arbuthnot, went down with his battle-cruiser, while on either side of -him occurred the losses which shook, for one terrible day, England's -faith in her fleet. Mrs. Ward wrote on June 6 to Katharine Lyttelton: - - "Yes, indeed, Sir Robert Arbuthnot's cruiser squadron was at - Cromarty when I was there, and he sat next me at luncheon on the - Flagship. I _particularly_ liked him--one of those modest, - efficient naval men whose absolute courage and nerve, no less than - their absolute humanity, one would trust in any emergency. I - remember Sir Thomas Jerram, on my other side, saying in my - ear--'The man to your right is one of the most rising men in the - Navy.' And the line of cruisers in front of the Dreadnoughts, as I - saw them in the February dawn, stretching towards the harbour - entrance, will always remain with me." - -Meanwhile the preparations for her journey to France had been pushed -forward by "Wellington House," so that only four days after her return -from Invergordon all was ready for her departure for Le Havre. She went -(this time with Dorothy) as the guest of the Foreign Office, recommended -by them to the good offices of the Army. She was first to be given some -idea of the vast organization of the Base at Le Havre, and then sent on -by motor to Rouen, Abbeville, Étaples and Boulogne. A programme -representing almost every branch of the unending activities of the "Back -of the Army" had been worked out for her, but she was warned that she -could not be allowed to enter the "War Zone." Once in France, however, -it was not long before this prohibition broke down, though not through -any importunity of hers. - -The marvellous spectacle unrolled itself before her, quietly and -methodically, while her guides expounded to her the meaning of what she -saw and the bearing of every movement at the Base upon the lives of the -men in the front line. General Asser himself, commanding at Le Havre, -devoted a whole afternoon to taking her through the docks and -store-sheds of the port, "so that one had a dim idea," as she wrote to -her husband, "of the amazing organization that has sprung up here. It -explains a good deal, too, of the five millions a day!" But as a matter -of fact, the thing which impressed her most at Le Havre was the -'make-over department,' where all the rubbish brought down from the -Front, from bully-beef tins to broken boots, was collected together and -boiled down (metaphorically speaking) into something useful, so that -many thousands a week were thus saved to the taxpayer at home. "All the -creation of Colonel Davies, who has saved the Government thousands and -thousands of pounds. Such a thing has never been done before!" -Similarly, at Rouen (whither she drove on February 26--fifty -miles--through blinding snow) she was fascinated by the motor-transport -department--"the biggest thing of its kind in France--the creation of -one man, Colonel Barnes, who started with 'two balls of string and a -packet of nails,' and is now dealing with 40,000 vehicles." - -Another snowy and Arctic drive from Rouen to Dieppe, and on to -Abbeville, where a wonderful piece of news awaited them. - - -_To T. H. W._ - - -"_February 29, 1916._ - -..."After lunch Colonel Schofield [their guide] went out to find - the British Headquarters and report. Dorothy and I went up to the - cathedral, and on emerging from it met the Colonel with another - officer, who introduced himself as Colonel Dalrymple White, M.P. 'I - have news for you, Mrs. Ward, which I think will change your - plans!' I looked at him rather aghast, wondering if I was to be - suddenly sent home! 'There is an invitation for you from G.H.Q., - and we have been telephoning about, trying to find you. Great luck - that Colonel Schofield looked in just now.' Whereupon it appeared - that 'by the wish of the Foreign Office,' G.H.Q. had invited me for - two days, and that an officer would call for me at Boulogne on - Wednesday morning, and take me to the place which no one here - mentions but with bated breath, and which I will not write! [St. - Omer.] I was naturally thrilled, but I confess I am in terror of - being in their way, and also of not being able to write anything - the least adequate to such an opportunity. However it could not of - course be refused." - -A long day at Étaples intervened between this little scene and the -arrival at G.H.Q.--a day devoted not only to an inspection of some of -the great hospitals, but also to a more unusual experience. Étaples was -the scene of a huge training-camp where troops from England received -their final "polish" before going up to the Front; amongst other -things, they were taught how to throw bombs, and Mrs. Ward was taken to -see them do it. "We climb to the very top of the slope," she wrote in -her journal at the time, "and over its crest to see some live -bomb-practice. A hollow in the sand, three dummy figures twenty yards -away--a parapet and a young soldier with three different bombs, that -explode by a time-fuse. He throws--we crouch low behind the parapet of -sand-bags--a few seconds, then a fierce report. We rise. One of the -dummy figures is half wrecked, only a few fragments of the bomb -surviving. One thinks of it descending in a group of men, and one -remembers the huge hospitals behind us. War begins to seem to me more -and more horrible and intolerable." - -The next day, March 1, they were taken in charge at Boulogne by Captain -H. C. Roberts, sent thither by G.H.Q. to fetch them, and motored through -a more spring-like land to St. Omer, where they took up their quarters -for two nights in the "Visitors' Château" (the Château de la Tour -Blanche). Captain Roberts said that his orders were to take them as near -to the battle-line as he safely could, and accordingly they started out -early in the afternoon in the direction of Richebourg St. Vaast, calling -on the way at Merville, the headquarters of General Pinney and the 35th -Division. The General came out to see his visitors and said that, having -an hour to spare, he would take them to the Line himself. He and Mrs. -Ward went ahead in the General's car, Dorothy and Captain Roberts -following behind. At Richebourg St. Vaast the road became so much broken -by shell-holes that they got out and walked, and General Pinney informed -Mrs. Ward calmly that she was now "actually in the battle," for the -British guns were bellowing from behind them. Early the next morning she -wrote down the following notes of what ensued: - - "Richebourg St. Vaast--a ruined village, the church in fragments--a - few walls and arches standing. The crucifix on a bit of wall - untouched. Just beyond, General Pinney captured a gunner and heard - that a battery was close by to our right. We were led there through - seas of mud. Two bright-faced young officers. One gives me a hand - through the mud, and down into the dug-out of the gun. There it - is--its muzzle just showing in the dark, nine or ten shells lying - in front of it. One is put in. We stand back and put our fingers in - our ears. An old artillery-man says 'Look straight at the gun, - ma'am.' It fires--the cartridge-case drops out. The shock not so - great as I had imagined. Has the shell fallen on a German trench, - and with what result! They give us the cartridge-case to take home. - - "After firing the gun we walked on along the road. General Pinney - talks of taking us to the entrance of the communication-trench. But - Captain Roberts is obviously nervous. The battery we have just left - crashes away behind us, and the firing generally seems to grow - hotter. I suggest turning back, and Captain Roberts approves. 'You - have been nearer the actual fighting than any woman has been in - this war--not even a nurse has been so close,' says the General. - Neuve Chapelle a mile and a half away to the north behind some tall - poplars. In front within a mile, first some ruined - buildings--immediately beyond them our trenches--then the Germans, - within a hundred yards of each other. - - "As we were going up, we had seen parties of men sitting along the - edge of the fields, with their rifles and field kit beside them, - waiting for sunset. Now, as we return, and the sun is sinking fast - to the horizon, we pass them--platoon after platoon--at - intervals--going up towards the trenches. The spacing of these - groups along the road, and the timing of them, is a difficult piece - of staff-work. The faces of the men quiet and cheerful, a little - subdued whistling here and there--but generally serious. And how - young! 'War,' says the General beside me, 'is crass folly! _crass_ - folly! nothing else. We want new forms of religion--the old seem to - have failed us. Miracle and dogma are no use. We want a new - prophet, a new Messiah!'" - -Mrs. Ward left her new friend with a feeling of astonishment at having -found so kindred a spirit in so strange a scene. - -The next day they were up betimes and on their way to Cassel and -Westoutre, there to obtain permits, at the Canadian headquarters, for -the ascent of the Scherpenberg Hill, in order that Mrs. Ward might -behold Ypres and the Salient. There had been a British attack, that -morning, in the region of the Ypres-Comines Canal; it had succeeded, -and there was a sense of elation in the air. But, by an ironic chance, -Mrs. Ward had heard by the mail that reached the Château a far different -piece of news, and as she drove through the ruined Belgian -villages--through Poperinghe and Locre--dodging and turning so as to -avoid roads recently shelled, her mind was filled with one overmastering -thought--the death of Henry James, her countryman.[34] - -But now they are at the foot of the Scherpenberg Hill. Her journal -continues: - - "A picket of soldiers belonging to the Canadian Division stops us, - and we show our passes. Then we begin to mount the hill (about as - steep as that above Stocks Cottage), but Captain Roberts pulls me - up, and with various halts at last we are on the top, passing a - dug-out for shelter in case of shells on the way. At the top a - windmill--some Tommies playing football. Two stout lasses driving a - rustic cart with two horses. We go to the windmill and, sheltering - behind its supports (for nobody must be seen on the sky-line), look - out north-east and east. Far away on the horizon the mists lift for - a moment, and a great ghost looks out--the ruined tower of Ypres. - You see that half its top is torn away. A flash! from what seem to - be the ruins at its base. Another! It is the English guns speaking - from the lines between us and Ypres--and as we watch, we see the - columns of white smoke rising from the German lines as they burst. - Then it is the German turn, and we see a couple of their shells - bursting on our lines, between Vlamertinghe and Dickebusch. - Hark--the rattle of the machine-guns from, as it were, a point just - below us to the left, and again the roar of the howitzers. There, - on the horizon, is the ridge of Messines, Wytschoete, and near by - the hill and village of Kemmel, which has been shelled to bits. - Along that distant ridge run the German trenches, line upon line. - One can see them plainly without a glass. At last we are within - actual sight of the _Great Aggression_--the nation and the army - which have defied the laws of God and man, and left their fresh and - damning mark to all time on the history of Europe and on this old, - old land on which we are looking. In front of us the Zillebeke - Lake, beyond it Hooge--Hill 60 lost in the shadows, and that famous - spot where, on the afternoon of November 11, the 'thin red line' - withstood the onset of the Prussian Guard. The Salient lies there - before us, and one's heart trembles thinking of all the gallant - life laid down there, and all the issues that have hung upon the - fight for it." - -So, with gas-helmets in hand, they retraced their steps down the hill, -finding at the bottom that the kind Canadian sentries had cut steps for -Mrs. Ward down the steep, slippery bank, and on to see General Plumer at -Cassel. With him and with Lord Cavan--the future heroes of the Italian -War--Mrs. Ward had half an hour's memorable talk, returning afterwards -to the Visitors' Château in time to pack and depart that same evening -for Boulogne. Next day they sailed in the "Leave boat"--"all swathed in -life-belts, and the good boat escorted (so wrote D. M. W.) by a -destroyer and a torpedo-boat, and ringed round with mine-sweepers!" In -such pomp of modern war did Mrs. Ward return. - -It now remained for her to put into shape the impressions gathered in -these five breathless weeks, and this she did during some forty-five -days of work at very high pressure, putting what she had to say into the -form of "Letters to an American Friend." The Letters were sent hot to -the Press on the American side as quickly as Mrs. Ward could mail them, -appearing in a number of newspapers controlled by one of the great -"Syndicates"; then Scribner's published them in book form at the end of -May, with a preface by Mr. Choate. Here, with a little more leisure for -revision, the little book, under the title of _England's Effort_, came -out on June 8, incidentally giving to Mrs. Ward the pleasant opportunity -of a renewal of her old acquaintance with Lord Rosebery, whom she had -invited to write a preface to it. She went over, full of doubt, to -Mentmore one May afternoon, having heard that he was there, "quite -alone" (as she wrote to M. Chevrillon), "driving about in a high -mid-Victorian phaeton, with a postilion!" Knowing that he was never -strong, she fully expected a refusal, but found instead that he had -already done what she asked, being deeply moved by the proofs that she -had sent him. She was much touched, and the friendship was cemented, a -few days later, by a return visit that he paid to Stocks, all in its May -green, when he could not contain himself on the beauty of the place, or -the incomparable advantages it possessed over "such a British Museum as -Mentmore!" - -_England's Effort_ reached a dejected world in the nick of time. Our -national habit of "grousing" in public, and of hanging our dirty linen -on every possible clothes-line, had naturally disposed both ourselves -and the outer world to under-estimate our vast achievements. This little -book set us right both with the home front and with our foreign critics. -It penetrated into every corner of the world and was translated into -every civilized language, while Mrs. Ward constantly received letters -about it, not only from friends, but from total strangers--from dwellers -in Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and India, not to mention -France and Italy, thanking her for her immense service, and expressing -astonishment at the facts that she had brought to light. The -_Preussische Jahrbücher_ reviewed it with great respect; the Japanese -Ambassador, Viscount Chinda, was urgently recommended by King George to -read it, and afterwards contributed a preface to the Japanese edition. -And, as Principal Heberden of Brasenose reported to her, the burden of -comment among his friends always ended with the feeling that "the most -remarkable fact about the book is Mrs. Humphry Ward's own astonishing -effort. Certainly the nation owes her much, for no other author could -have attracted so much attention in America." A year later, it was -asserted by many Americans, with every accent of conviction, that but -for _England's Effort_ and the public opinion that it stirred, President -Wilson might have delayed still longer than he did in bringing America -in. - -In all the business arrangements made for the "little book" in America, -Mrs. Ward had had the constant help and support of her beloved cousin, -Fred Whitridge, while in England not only the publication, but the -voluminous arrangements for translation, were in the hands of Reginald -Smith. By a cruel stroke of fate, both these devoted friends were taken -from her in the same week--the last week of December, 1916--and Mrs. -Ward was left to carry on as best she might, without "the tender humour -and the fire of sense" in the "good eyes" of the one, or the wisdom, -strength and kindness that had always been her portion in so rich a -measure from the other. To Mrs. Smith (herself the daughter of George -Murray Smith), she wrote after the funeral of "Mr. Reginald": - - "I watched in Oxford Street, till the car had passed northwards out - of sight, and said good-bye with tears to that good man and - faithful friend it bore away.... Your husband has been to me - shelter and comfort, advice and help, through many years. I feel as - if a great tree had fallen under whose boughs I had sheltered...." - -Never was the writing of books the same joy to Mrs. Ward after this. -Other publishers arose with whom she established, as was her wont, good -and friendly relations, but with the death of Reginald Smith it was as -if a veil had descended between her and this chief solace of her -declining years. - - * * * * * - -Already, in the autumn of 1916, Mrs. Ward was thinking--in consultation -with Wellington House--of a possible return to France, mainly in order, -this time, to visit some of the regions behind the French front which -had suffered most cruelly in 1914. She wished to bring home to the -English-speaking world, which was apt to forget such things, some of the -undying wrongs of France. M. Chevrillon obtained for her the ear of the -French War Office, and meanwhile Mrs. Ward applied once more to Sir -Edward Grey and to General Charteris, head of the British Intelligence -Department in France (with whom she had made friends on her first -journey) for permission to spend another two or three days behind the -British front. Here, however, the difficulty arose that since Mrs. -Ward's first visit, some other ladies, reading _England's Effort_, had -been clamorous for the same privileges, so that the much-tried War -Office had been obliged to lay down a rigid rule against the admission -of "any more ladies," as Sir Edward Grey wrote, "within the military -zone of the British Armies." Sir Edward did not think that any exception -could be made, but not so General Charteris. On November 9, Lord Onslow, -then serving in the War Office, wrote to Mrs. Ward that: - - "General Charteris fully recognizes the valuable effect which your - first book produced upon the public, and would consequently expect - similar results from a further work of yours. He is, therefore, - disposed to do everything in his power to assist you, and he thinks - it possible that perhaps an exception to the general rule might be - made on public grounds. But it would have to be clearly understood - that in the event of your being allowed to go, it would not - constitute a precedent as regards any other ladies." - -Permits, in the form of "Adjutant-General's Passes," were therefore -issued to Mrs. Ward and her daughter for a visit to the British Military -Zone from February 28 to March 4, 1917. They crossed direct to Boulogne, -and were the guests of General Headquarters from the moment that they -set foot in France. - -Since their last visit, the Battle of the Somme had come and gone, and -the German Army was in the act of retreating across that tortured belt -of territory to the safe shelter of the Hindenburg Line, there to resist -our pressure for another year. But, in these weeks of early spring, the -elation of movement had gripped our Army; the Boche was in retreat; this -must, this _should_ be the deciding year! Mrs. Ward's letters from the -war zone are full of this spirit of hopefulness; not yet had Russia -crumbled in pieces, not yet had the strength of the shortened German -line revealed itself. Once more she was sent on two memorable days, from -the Visitors' Château at Agincourt, to points of vital interest on our -line, first through St. Pol, Divion and Ranchicourt, to the wooded slope -of the Bois de Bouvigny, whence she could gaze across at the Vimy Ridge, -not yet stormed by the Canadians; then, on the second day, to the very -centre of the Somme battlefield, where she stood in the midst of the -world's uttermost scene of desolation. Of the Bois de Bouvigny, -Dorothy's narrative, written down the same night, gives the following -picture: - - "The car bumped slowly along a very rough track into the heart of - the wood, and stopped when it could go no farther. We got out and - walked on till soon we came to an open piece of grass-land, a - rectangular wedge, as it were, driven from the eastern edge of the - hill into the heart of the wood. We walked across it, facing east, - and saw it was pitted with shell-holes, mostly old--but not all. - In particular, one very large one had fresh moist earth cast up all - round it. Captain Fowler [their guide] asked Captain Bell a - question about it, lightly, yet with a significant _appui_ in his - tone--but the young man laughed off the question and implied that - the Boches had grown tired of troubling that particular place. - Meanwhile, the firing of our own guns behind and to the side of us - was becoming more frequent, the noise greater. Just ahead, and to - the right, the ground sloped to a valley, which we could not see, - and where we were told lay Ablain St. Nazaire and Carençy. From - this direction came the short, abrupt, but quite formidable reports - of trench-mortars. Over against us, and slightly to the right, - three or four ridges and folds of hill lay clearly - distinguishable--of which the middle back was the famous _Vimy - Ridge_, partly held to this day by the Germans. Captain Bell, - however, would not let us advance quite to the edge of the plateau, - so that we never saw exactly how the ground dropped to the lower - ground, neither did we see the crucifix of Notre Dame de Lorette at - the end of the spur. All this bit had been the scene of terrific - fighting in 1915, when it still formed part of the French line; it - had been a fight at close quarters in the beautiful wood that - closed in the open ground on which we stood, and we were told that - many bodies of poor French soldiers still lay unburied in the wood. - We turned soon to recross the bare space again, and as we did so, - fresh guns of our own opened fire, and once more I heard that - long-drawn scream of the shells over our heads that I got to know - last year." - -On both these days, the "things seen," unforgettable as they were, were -filled out by most interesting conversations with two of our Army -Commanders--first with General Horne and then with Sir Henry Rawlinson, -who entertained Mrs. Ward and her daughter with a kindness that had in -it an element of pathos. Not often, in those stern days, did anyone of -the gentler sex make and pour out their tea! And in the Chauffeurs' -Mess, the Scotch chauffeur, Sloan, who for the second time was in charge -of Mrs. Ward, found himself the object of universal curiosity. "He told -Captain Fowler," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband, "that they asked him -innumerable questions about the two ladies--no one having ever seen -such a phenomenon in these parts before. 'They were varra puzzled,' said -Sloan, 'they couldna mak' it out. But I didna tell them. I left them -thinkin'!'" - -Mrs. Ward left the British zone for Paris on March 4, and after three -days of comparative rest there--renewing old acquaintance under strange -new conditions--she put herself under the charge of a kind and energetic -official of the "Maison de la Presse," M. Ponsot, for her long-planned -visit to the devastated regions of the Centre and East. Soissons, Reims -and Verdun were pronounced too dangerous for her, but she went north to -the ruins of Senlis, and heard from the lips of the old curé the -horrible tale of the German panic there, in the early days of September, -1914, the burning of the town, the murder of the Maire and the other -hostages, and of the frantic, insane excitement under which many of the -German officers seemed to be labouring. Then it was the battlefield of -the Ourcq, the scene of Maunoury's fateful flank attack, which forced -Von Kluck to halt and give battle at the Marne; a string of famous -villages--Marcilly, Barcy, Etrépilly, Vareddes--seen, alas, under a -blinding snow-storm, and at length the vision of the Marne itself, -"winding, steely-grey, through the white landscape." Mrs. Ward has -described it all, in inimitable fashion, in the seventh and eighth -Letters of _Towards the Goal_, and has there told also the ghastly tale -of the Hostages of Vareddes, which burnt itself upon her mind with the -sharpness that only the sight of the actual scene could give. Then, -leaving Paris by train for Nancy, she spent two days--seeing much of the -stout-hearted Préfet, M. Mirman--in visiting the regions overwhelmed by -the German invasion between August 20 and September 10, 1914--a period -and a theatre of the War of which we English usually have but the -dimmest idea. From the ruined farm of Léaumont she was shown, by a -French staff officer, the whole scene of these operations, spread like a -map before her, and became absorbed in the thrilling tale of the driving -back of the Bavarians by General Castelnau and the First French Army. -Then southward through the region from which the German wave had -receded, but which still bore indelible marks of the invaders' savage -fear and hatred. In _Towards the Goal_ Mrs. Ward has told the tale of -Gerbévillers and of the heroic Soeur Julie, who saved her "gros -blessés" in the teeth of some demoralized German officers, who forced -their way into the hospital. Here we can but give her general -impressions of the scene, as she recorded them in a letter to Miss -Arnold, written from Paris immediately afterwards: - - "Lorraine was in some ways a spectacle to wring one's heart, the - ruined villages, the _réfugiés_ everywhere, and the faces of men - and women who had lost their all and seen the worst horrors of - human nature face to face. But there were many beautiful and - consoling things. The marvellous view from a point near Lunéville - of the eastern frontier, the French lines and the German, near the - Forêt de Paroy--a group of some hundreds of French soldiers, near - another point of the frontier, who, finding out that we were two - English ladies, cheered us vigorously as we passed through - them--the already famous Soeur Julie, of Gerbévillers, who had - been a witness of all the German crimes there, and told the story - inimitably, with native wit and Christian feeling--the beautiful - return from Nancy on a spring day across France, from East to West, - passing the great rivers, Meurthe, Meuse, Moselle, Marne--the warm - welcome of the Lorrainers--these things we shall never forget." - -A rapid return to England and then, in order that her impressions of the -Fleet might not be behindhand, she was sent by special arrangement to -see Commodore Tyrwhitt, at Harwich, there to realize the immense -development of the smaller craft of the Navy, and to go "creeping and -climbing," as she describes it in _Towards the Goal_, about a submarine. -Returning to Stocks to write her second series of "Letters"--now -addressed without disguise to Mr. Roosevelt--it was not long before the -news of America's Declaration of War came in to cheer her, with an eager -telephone-message from a daughter, left in London, that "Old Glory" was -to be seen waving side by side with the Union Jack from the tower of the -House of Lords. Now surely, the happy prophecies of her soldier-friends -in France would be fulfilled: this _must_ be the deciding year! But the -months passed on; Vimy and Messines were ours, yet nothing followed, and -in August, September, October, the agonizing struggle in the mud of -Passchendæle sapped the endurance of the watchers at home more -miserably than any other three months of the War. And there, on October -11, perished a lad of twenty, bearing a name that was heart of her heart -to Mrs. Ward, Tom Arnold, the elder son of her brother, Dr. F. S. -Arnold. He had lain wounded all night in a shell-hole, and when at -length they bore him back to the Casualty Clearing-station, the little -flame of life, though it flickered and shot upwards in hope, sank again -into darkness. Tom was a lad to whose gentle soul all war was utterly -abhorrent, yet he had "joined up" without question on the earliest -possible day. Already Christopher and Arthur Selwyn, the splendid twins, -were gone, and the sons of so many friends and neighbours, gentle and -simple! About this time General Horne had invited her to come once more -to France. "But it is not at all likely I shall go (she wrote)--though, -perhaps, in the spring it might be, if the War goes on. Horrible, -horrible thought! I am more and more conscious of its horror and -hideousness every day. And yet after so much--after all these lives laid -down--not to achieve the end, and a real 'peace upon Israel'--would not -that be worst of all?" - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - - [Greek: antar emeu schedothen moros Istatai; hôs ophelon ge - cheiri philên tên sên cheira labousa thanein].[35] - DAMAGETUS. - - -Those who visited Mrs. Ward at Stocks during the later years of the War -were wont to fasten upon any younger members of the family who happened -to be there, to declare that Mrs. Ward was working herself to death and -to plead that something must be done to stop her. And even as they said -it they knew that their words were vain, for besides the perennial need -to make a living, was not her country at war and were not the young men -dying every day? Mrs. Ward was not of the temperament that forgot such -things; hence her desire to throw her very best work into her "War -books"--which owing to their low price and the special terms on which -she allowed the Government to use them could never bring her anything -like the same return as her novels.[36] She regarded them therefore -almost as an extra on her ordinary work, so that the pressure on her -time was increased rather than diminished as the War years went on and -her own age advanced. And the last of the series, _Fields of Victory_, -was to make on her time and strength the greatest demands of all. - -But the lighter side of her War labours was the intense and meticulous -interest she took in the "War economies" devised by herself and Dorothy -at Stocks. How they schemed and planned about the cutting of timber, the -growing of potatoes, the making of jam and the sharing of the garden -fruit with the village! Labour in the garden was reduced to a minimum, -so that all the family must take their turn at planting out violas and -verbenas, if the poor things were to be saved for use at all, while Mr. -Wilkin, the well-beloved butler who had been with us for twenty years, -mowed the lawn and split wood and performed many other unorthodox tasks -until he too was called up, at 47, in the summer of 1918. Mrs. Ward -could not plant verbenas, but she armed herself with a spud and might -often be seen of an afternoon valiantly attacking the weeds in the -rose-beds and paths. The links between her and the little estate seemed -to grow ever stronger as she came to depend more and more directly on -the produce of the soil, and when, in 1918, she established a cow on -what had once been the cricket-ground her joy and pride in the -productiveness of her new creature were a delight to all beholders. Her -daughter Dorothy was at this time deep in the organisation of "Women on -the Land"--a movement of considerable importance in Hertfordshire--, so -that Mrs. Ward could study it at first hand and had many an absorbing -conversation with one of the "gang-leaders," Mrs. Bentwich, who made -Stocks her headquarters for a time and delighted her hostess by her -many-sided ability and by the picturesqueness of her attire. All this -gave her many ideas for her four War novels--_Missing_, _The War and -Elizabeth_, _Cousin Philip_ and _Harvest_, the last of which was to -close the long list of her books. _Missing_ had a considerable popular -success, for it sold 21,000 in America in the first two months of its -appearance, but _Elizabeth_ and _Cousin Philip_ were, I think, felt to -be the most interesting of this series, owing to the admirable studies -they presented of the type of young woman thrown up and moulded by the -War. Mrs. Ward was by no means ashamed of her hard work as a novelist in -these days. - - "I have just finished a book," she wrote to her nephew, Julian - Huxley, in April 1918, "and am beginning another--as usual! But I - should be lost without it, and it is what my betters, George Sand - and Balzac--and Scott!--did before me. Literature is an honourable - profession, and I am no ways ashamed of it--as a profession. And - indeed I feel that novels have a special function nowadays--when - one sees the great demand for them as a _délassement_ and - refreshment. I wish with all my heart I could write a good - detective--or mystery--novel! That is what the wounded and the - tired love." - -But, side by side with this immense output of writing, Mrs. Ward never -allowed the springs of thought to grow dry for lack of reading. The one -advantage that she gained from her short nights--for her hours of sleep -were rarely more and often less than six--was that the long hours of -wakefulness in the early morning gave her time for the reading of many -books and of poetry. "There is nothing like it for keeping the streams -of life fresh," she wrote to one of us. "At least that is my feeling now -that I am beginning to grow old. All things pass, but thought and -feeling! And to grow cold to poetry is to let that which is most vital -in our being decay. I seem to trace in the men and women I see whether -they keep their ideals and whether they still turn to imagination, -whether through art or poetry. And I believe for thousands it is the -difference between being happy and unhappy--between being 'dans l'ordre' -or at variance with the world." - -In addition to her novels and her two first War books, Mrs. Ward had -been writing at intervals, ever since the summer of 1916, her -_Recollections_, and brought them out at length in October 1918. They -covered the period of her life down to the year 1900, giving a picture -of things seen and heard, of friends loved and enjoyed and lost, of -long-past Oxford days, of London, Rome, and the Alban Hills, such as -only a woman of her manifold experience could offer to a tired -generation. The reception given to the book touched her profoundly, for -it showed her, beyond the possibility of doubt, that her long life's -work had earned her not only the admiration but the love of her -fellow-countrymen. As an old friend, Mrs. Halsey, wrote to Dorothy, "I -remember Mlle Souvestre saying more than thirty years ago, 'Ah! the -books I admire--but it's the woman Mary Ward that I love.'" "Mrs. Ward's -Recollections are of priceless value," said the _Contemporary Review_; -"all the famous names are here, but that is nothing; the people -themselves are here moving about and veritably alive--great men and -women of whom posterity will long to hear." And another reviewer dwelt -on a different aspect: "She has lived to see the first social studies -and efforts of her Oxford days grow into the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, the Schools for the Physically Defective, the Play Centres -and a great deal else in which she has reaped a harvest for the England -of to-day or sown a seed for the England of to-morrow." The reviews -generally ended on a note of hope for a second volume, to complete the -story--, but the story remained, and will always remain, uncompleted. - -Perhaps part of the affectionate admiration with which her -_Recollections_ were received was due to the wider knowledge which the -public at last possessed of all that she had been able to accomplish, -through twenty years of toil, for the children of England. For it so -happened that during the two years that preceded the appearance of her -_Recollections_--years of war and difficulty of all kinds as they -were--Mrs. Ward had seen her labours for the play-time of London's -children crowned by that State recognition towards which she had always -worked, and her hopes for the extension of Special Schools for crippled -children to the provinces as well as London very largely realised. After -an immensely up-hill struggle to maintain the funds for her Play Centres -during the first two years of the War, it was at length the War -conditions themselves that convinced the authorities that all was not -well with the child-population of our big cities and that such efforts -as Mrs. Ward's must be encouraged and assisted in the fullest possible -way. "Juvenile crime"--that comprehensive phrase that covers everything -from pilfering at street corners to the formation of "Black-Hand-Gangs" -under some adventurous spirit of ten or eleven, gloriously devoted to -terrorising the back streets after dark--was the portent that convinced -Whitehall, that set the Home Office complaining to the Board of -Education and the Board of Education consulting Mrs. Ward. The result of -these consultations, carried on in the winter of 1916-17 between Mrs. -Ward, Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge (the Permanent Secretary), Mr. Pease the -outgoing and Mr. Fisher the incoming President of the Board, was that on -Jan. 26, 1917, an official announcement appeared in _The Times_ to the -effect that "Grants from the Board of Education will shortly be -available in aid of the cost of carrying on Play Centres.... Hitherto -Centres have been established only by voluntary bodies, mostly in -London, where the Local Education Authority has granted the free use of -school buildings. It is hoped that the powers which education -authorities already possess of establishing and aiding such centres will -be more freely exercised in future." - -To which _The Times_ added the following note:--"The announcement that -the Treasury has approved the principle of play centres and will signify -its approval in the usual manner, forms a fitting and characteristic -climax to twenty years of voluntary effort on the part of Mrs. Humphry -Ward and a devoted circle of workers." - -There was general rejoicing among the higher officials of the Board, who -had watched Mrs. Ward's work for so long, when the Treasury at length -announced its consent to the Grant. Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge wrote to her -in the following terms: - - "Allow me to congratulate you most heartily on having induced the - State to take under its wing and aid the enterprise of which you - have been the pioneer and which you have carried on unaided for so - many years with such admirable results. - - "I do not think you are one of those who are nervous about State - intervention or share the apprehension which is sometimes expressed - that a free spirit of voluntary enterprise may be hampered or - circumscribed by the existence of State aid. However this may be, I - think you may feel sure that our grants and regulations will be - administered in a sympathetic spirit and with full recognition that - it is necessary to secure and retain the willing co-operation of - people of all kinds who are anxious to devote their time and - energy to public service. It is a source of great pleasure to me - that I have been the humble instrument of furthering the enterprise - of which you have been the guiding spirit." - -As a matter of fact, the Board's regulations were largely drawn up by -Mrs. Ward herself, and her relations with both officials and President -continued close and cordial--nay, almost affectionate!--down to the last -day of her life. Nor was the London County Council left long behindhand. -The Treasury Grant amounted to 50 per cent. of the "approved -expenditure" of any voluntary committee or Education Authority which -carried on Play Centres according to the Board's regulations, so that it -was not long before some fifty great towns all over England were opening -Play Centres of their own, under the Act of 1907, and London was in -danger of being left behind. In the summer of 1919, however, Mrs. Ward's -edifice was crowned by the Council's deciding to take over another -quarter of the cost of her Centres, so that she was left with only one -quarter to raise in voluntary funds. The whole of the organisation, -however--which had long been perfected by the contriving brain of Miss -Churcher--was left in Mrs. Ward's hands, subject only to inspection by -the Council, for the Education Committee knew better than to disturb the -result of so many years of specialised care and study. The additional -funds available made it possible for Mrs. Ward, in the last three years -of her life, to add ten new Centres in London to the twenty-two that she -was maintaining before the advent of the Grant. It may be imagined what -joy this gave to her, and how, in the winter of 1917-18, in spite of the -cruelly-darkened streets and the danger of air-raids, she managed to -make her way to many of these new Centres, lingering there in complete -content to watch her singing children. The last phase of the Play Centre -movement, as far as Mrs. Ward was concerned, was the publication by her -daughter, in February 1920, of a little book describing their origin and -growth,[37] with a preface written by Mrs. Ward herself. This she sent -to Mr. Fisher, and received from him, a month before her death, a letter -which deserves to be quoted here as a fitting epitaph on her work. Mr. -Fisher and she had recently visited Oxford together, to speak at the -opening of the "Arlosh Hall" at Manchester College. - - "Albert Dicey spoke to us, as you will remember," wrote Mr. Fisher, - "of the abolition of religious tests in the Universities as - belonging to that small category of reforms to which no discernible - disadvantages attach and I am convinced that the same high and - unusual compliment may be paid without a suspicion of extravagance - to the Evening Play Centres. Here there are no drawbacks, nothing - but positive and far-reaching good." - -In the same way Mrs. Ward succeeded, in the spring of 1918, in -persuading the House of Commons to add a clause to Mr. Fisher's great -Education Bill, making it compulsory for Education Authorities -throughout the country to "make arrangements" for the education of their -physically defective children. She used for this purpose the machinery -of the "Joint Parliamentary Advisory Council" which she had founded in -1913,[38] but the bulk of the work--involving as it did the sending out -of circular letters to ninety-five Education Authorities, the sifting -and printing of the replies and the forwarding of these to every Member -of Parliament--was carried out from Stocks, causing a heavy strain--long -remembered!--on the secretarial resources of the house. It may be noted -too, that all this took place during those agonising weeks when the -British Armies were being hurled back in France and Flanders, and when -Mrs. Ward, of all people, realised only too clearly the peril we were -in. But the task was accomplished and the clause added to the Bill, so -that a new charter was thus provided for the 30,000 or so of crippled -and invalid children who still remained throughout the country -uneducated and uncared for.[39] A little later, the movement initiated -by Sir Robert Jones and the Central Committee for the Care of Cripples, -for converting some of the War Hospitals into Homes for the scientific -treatment of crippled children received Mrs. Ward's warm support, her -special contribution to the movement being a successful campaign for the -provision of educational facilities for the children lying for many -months within the hospital walls. The beautiful War-hospital at Calgarth -on Lake Windermere (the Ethel Hedley Hospital) was converted to this use -in the spring of 1920, and one of the last pleasures which Mrs. Ward -enjoyed was her correspondence with the Governors of the hospital, who -described to her their plan for the conversion and invoked her blessing -upon it. Mrs. Ward was never able to visit Calgarth, but the love she -bore to the fells and waters of the North which surrounded it have -linked her memory very specially with this delightful place, where -children who, even ten years before, would have been deemed hopeless -cases, recover straightness and strength. Her connection with this -enterprise made a gentle ending to her long labour for these waifs of -our educational system. - - * * * * * - -Who that lived through the year 1918 will ever lose the memory of its -gigantic vicissitudes? Mrs. Ward, with her actual knowledge of so much -of the ground over which the battles of March and April raged, was -certainly not among those who could shut their eyes to the national -danger they involved. She tried to maintain her characteristic optimism -throughout the blackest times, and was in the end justified. But I -remember one afternoon at Grosvenor Place when a friend who thought that -he was much "in the know" informed us confidentially that we were "out -of Ypres--been out for the last two days, but they don't want to tell -us," and hope sank very low. When the battle rolled up to the foot of -her own Scherpenberg Hill she longed, I believe, to be there with a -pike, but victory was ours that day and she felt a special lifting of -the heart at the news. As the terrible pageant of the year unrolled -itself, her heart went out to France in her losing struggle north of the -Marne; to Italy in those anxious days of June, when after a first recoil -she swept the Austrians permanently back over the Piave; to France again -in the first great return towards Soissons and the Aisne. Was it the -real turn of the tide? Hardly could we dare to believe it, but in the -light of later events it became evident that the Italian stand on the -Piave had indeed marked the turn for the whole Allied front. Mrs. Ward -always thought of this with peculiar satisfaction, for she was kept in -constant touch with the situation out there by her son-in-law, George -Trevelyan, who was in command of a British Red Cross Unit on the Italian -front, and the disaster of Caporetto had very sadly affected her. Now -all was well once more and Mrs. Ward, who had been no fair-weather -friend to Italy, rejoiced with all her heart. There was much talk during -the summer of a possible visit of hers, that autumn, to the Italian -front, but events were destined to move too fast, and Mrs. Ward never -again beheld the Lombard Plain. - -But when the incredible hope had at last become solid fact--when the -British Armies had stormed the Hindenburg Line and how much else beside, -when the Americans had won through the forest of the Argonne and the -French had pressed on to their ancient frontier; when Stocks had been -illuminated on Armistice Night and we had all settled down to -speculation, more or less sober, on the remaking of the world, Mrs. Ward -began to enquire from the authorities as to the possibility of a third -and final journey to France. For she wished with almost passionate -eagerness to write a third and final book on the last phase of -"England's Effort." She was met once more with the greatest cordiality. -Sir Douglas Haig expressed a desire to see her; General Horne promised -to send her over the battlefield of Vimy; Lille, Lens and Cambrai were -to reveal to her the tale of their four years of servitude. And, on -their part, the French promised to convey her to Metz and Strasburg and -to show her Verdun and Rheims on her return, while Paris was to be made -easy for her by the hospitality of a delightful young couple, her -cousins, Arnold Whitridge and his wife, who had the good fortune to -possess a house there amid the rush and pressure of all the nations of -the world. - -So everything was planned and settled during the month of December 1918, -but before she left England on her last mission Mrs. Ward was able to -enjoy that strange Peace Christmas which, in spite of its superficial -note of thanksgiving, seemed to ring for so many the final knell of joy. -Just two months before, Mrs. Ward had lost, from the influenza scourge, -yet another soldier-nephew, the youngest Selwyn boy, while sorrow had -come to the house itself in the death at a training camp of her butler's -only son--a lad of 17 who had been the playmate of her grandchildren on -many a golden afternoon in the days gone by. But if the elders could not -forget these things, the children at least could be made an excuse for -rejoicing! And so her two grandchildren, Mary and Humphry, came once -more to Stocks as they had come for every Christmas since they entered -this world; they mounted the big bed as of old and played the egg-game -with solemn attention to detail, and then on the last day of the year -Stocks opened its doors to the children from far and near, coming in -fancy dress to dance out the Year of Miracles. Mrs. Ward, who had that -very morning finished the writing of a novel, moved among the groups -with a face the pallor of which, though we did not know it, was already -a premonition of the end. She drank in the beauty of the scene in deep -draughts of refreshment. That little boy attired as feathered -Mercury--that slender Rosalind with the glorious bush of hair--they -caught at her heart! From certain fragments of talk that she let fall -during the evening one gathered that the sight had meant more to her -than a mere joyous spectacle. To these would be the new world: let the -elders leave it them in faith. "Green earth forgets." - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward's third journey to France was of longer duration (it lasted -over three weeks, Jan. 7-30) than either of the others, and save that -the conditions of danger created by the actual fighting were eliminated -it was of a still more arduous nature, while it afforded her even -greater opportunities than the others had done of realising and summing -up the proportionate achievements of the three great armies--French, -American and British. For the object of this final pilgrimage was no -less than to bring out, by a careful analysis of all the available -facts, the overwhelming part played by the British Armies in France in -the last year of the War, and so to do her part in silencing the -extraordinary misconceptions that were still current, especially in -America, as to the share that the British Armies had had in the final -breaking of the German resistance. A Canadian girl working at an -American Y.M.C.A. in France had written to her in the previous August, -imploring her to bring _England's Effort_ up to date and to distribute -it by the thousand among the American troops. - - "I see hundreds of the finest remaining white men on earth every - week," continued this witness. "They are wonderful military - material and _very_ attractive and lovable boys, but it discourages - all one's hopes for future unity and friendship between us all to - realize, as I have done the last few months, that the majority of - these men are entering the fight firmly believing that 'England has - not done her share,' 'the colonials have done all the hard - fighting'--'France has borne all,' etc. This from not one or two, - but _hundreds_. The men I speak of come principally from Kansas, - Illinois, Iowa--that wonderful Valley of Democracy that I sometimes - compare in my mind (with its safety and isolation from the outside - world) to those words of Kipling--'Ringed by your careful seas, - long have you waked in quiet and long lain down at ease'--To these - boys away from the sheltered country for the first time in - _generations_, England is a foreign and a somewhat mistrusted - country, and four or five days rush through it gives them neither - opportunity nor a fair chance of judging the people--beyond the - fact that war-time restrictions annoy them. It is a crying shame - that the _only_ knowledge these splendid men have of England's - share in the war is drawn from the belittling reports of pro-German - papers. This attitude will mar all attempts at friendship between - the troops, and, I believe, seriously jeopardise future friendship - between the countries." - -This first-hand evidence has recently received a very striking -corroboration in Mr. Walter Page's Letters, and was amply borne out at -the time by our Ministry of Information at home. Moreover, since August, -Great Britain had indeed added another chapter to her previous record! -So Mrs. Ward was received by Sir Douglas Haig, at his little château -near Montreuil, on January 8, 1919, and there had a most illuminating -talk with him, illustrated by his wonderful series of charts and maps; -she went through the desolation of Ypres, and Lens, and Arras; she -visited General Birdwood at Lille and General Horne at Valenciennes, -renewing her friendship with the latter and making the aquaintance of -his Chief of Staff, General Hastings Anderson, "a delightful, witty -person, full of fun," who told her many things. She climbed the Vimy -Ridge, "scrambling up over trenches and barbed wire and other _débris_ -to the top," assisted by Dorothy and Lieut. Farrer, their guide; she -crossed the Hindenburg Line in both directions, the second time at the -Canal du Nord, where she got out in the January twilight to study the -marvellous German trench system and the tracks of two tanks that had led -the attack of the First Army on September 27; she saw the area of open -fighting beyond Cambrai, and, returning by the Cambrai-Bapaume road to -Amiens, passed through a heap of shapeless ruins "where only a signboard -told us that this had once been Bapaume." From Amiens she passed on to -Paris, and thence to Metz and Strasburg, realising something, at Metz, -of the difficulty confronting the French Government in the large German -population, and at Strasburg passing a wholly delightful evening with -General Gouraud--hero both of Gallipoli and of Champagne. Armed with -General Gouraud's maps and passes she then returned via Nancy to Verdun -and spent an unforgettable afternoon, first in inspecting the -subterranean labyrinth under the old fortress which had given sleep to -so many weary soldiers during the siege, and then in motoring slowly -through the battlefield itself. It may be imagined how such names as -Vaux, Douaumont, the Mort Homme, the Mont des Corbeils and the rest made -her heart leap, how they stirred the vivid historic imagination in her -which always enabled her to visualise, beyond her fellows, the actual -movement of events and of the men who played their part in them. The -sight of Verdun certainly affected her more deeply than anything, I -think, save the Salient with its hundred thousand British graves. Then, -sleeping at Châlons, she moved on to Rheims, arriving in the _Place_ -before what had once been the Cathedral in time to see the Prime -Minister of England--a Sunday visitor from the Conference--standing -before the battered façade in animated talk with Cardinal Luçon. Mrs. -Ward stood aside to let them pass, watching the retreating figure of Mr. -Lloyd George "with what thoughts." _This_ was Rheims; what remedy for it -would the Conference find? - -Nor did Mrs. Ward neglect the American battle-fields, for on her way to -Verdun she had passed through the St. Mihiel salient and studied the -ground there; she had seen the Forêt de l'Argonne in the winter dusk -after leaving Verdun, and now on her way to Paris she spent a cheerful -hour at Château Thierry, mingling with the American boys on the scene -of their first and perhaps most memorable triumph. For actually to have -helped by hard fighting, man to man, to keep the Boche from Paris, that -was something for which to have crossed the Atlantic! St. Mihiel and the -Argonne were all part of the great plan, but this, this was history! So -at least Mrs. Ward felt as she crossed the sacred ground from Dormans to -Château Thierry where the Germans had made their formidable push for -Montmirail and Paris, and where an American regiment of marines had said -them nay. - -After her long pilgrimage Mrs. Ward spent a week in Paris, much absorbed -in the pursuit of accurate information for the book that she had still -to write. But there was also time for the seeing of many of those famous -figures who, with the best intentions, filled the French stage for half -a year and, at the end, gave us the world in which, _tant bien que mal_, -we live. She went to consult with our ambassador, Lord Derby, on certain -aspects of her work; she revived her old friendship with M. Jusserand; -she saw General Pershing and Mr. Hoover, and, on the very day when the -League of Nations resolution had been passed, President Wilson himself. -Of this she has left a lively account in the first chapter of _Fields of -Victory_. - -Mrs. Ward should, by all the rules, have returned straight home from -Paris, for she had already begun to suffer from bronchial catarrh and -the weather had turned colder. But she was bent on seeing certain -British officers at Amiens who had prepared some special information for -her and therefore broke her journey there and also at the little -"Visitors' Château" at Agincourt. Here, struggling against the intense -cold and her own increasing illness, she exhausted herself in long -conversations, though all that she heard was of deep interest to her -task. But she was obliged to give up a visit to the battle-field of -August 8 which her hosts had planned for her, and to return instead, -while she still might, to England. When at last she reached home she was -pronounced to have tonsilitis and to be within an inch of bronchitis -too, and was kept in bed for many days. But it was many weeks before the -bronchial catarrh left her, nor did she ever, during this last year of -her life, regain the level of health at which she had started for France -in the first week of the year. Yet none the less must her articles be -written, for time pressed if she was to catch the right moment for the -book's appearance. She was ably and generously helped by various -officers, especially by General Sir John Davidson, who brought with him -to Grosvenor Place one day a reduced-scale version of the great chart at -which she had gazed fascinated at Montreuil, and which she afterwards -obtained leave to reproduce in her book. "It was amusing," wrote Dorothy -that night, "to see Mother and Lady Selborne and Sir John Davidson all -on the floor, poring over his wonderful chart of the War." - -But in spite of the willingness to help of the authorities, the labour -of studying and digesting the mass of material placed at her -disposal--stiff and intractable stuff as it was--and of forming from it -a harmonious and artistic whole was something far harder than she had -expected. It required real historical method, and carried her back in -memory to the days of the West Goths and the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_. But she would not be beaten, either by the difficulty of the -task or by the necessity of getting it done within a certain time. One -day in April, just after she had returned from Grosvenor Place to -Stocks, it became necessary to send one of her articles, type-written, -up to London in time to catch the Foreign Office bag for New York; the -necessary train left Tring Station at 12.37. Mrs. Ward finished writing -the article at 12.22; Miss Churcher, who had followed page by page with -the type-writer, finished the last page at 12.30; Dorothy flew to the -station with it and caught the train. - -Besides the initial difficulty of the work, however, the necessity of -submitting what she had written to two or three different authorities -caused inevitable delays, while a printers' strike in Glasgow at the -critical moment again deferred the book's publication. When, therefore, -_Fields of Victory_ at length appeared, the psychological moment had -passed by, the world was far more concerned with the future than with -the past, and only a moderate number of the book were sold. Mrs. Ward -was of course somewhat disappointed, but there was much consolation to -be had in the note of astonishment, combined with admiration, which the -book called forth among those for whose opinion she really cared, -whether in England, France or America. This feeling was summed up in a -letter written by General Hastings Anderson--then holding a high -appointment on the Staff of the Army--to Miss Ward, after her mother's -death. - - "The book will be a very prized memento, not only of a gifted - writer who did so much to bring home to the ignorant the whole - significance of our effort in the war; but also of a great - Englishwoman, and of the happy breaks in our work marked by her - visits to the First Army in France. - - "What strikes me most in your mother's book is her marvellous - insight into the way of thinking of the soldiers--I mean those who - knew most of what was really happening--who were actually engaged - in the great struggle. One would say the book was written by one - who had played a prominent part in the War in France, and with - knowledge of the thoughts of the high directing staffs. This is no - compliment; it can only come from the trained expression of a very - deep sympathy, and complete understanding of the thoughts and views - which were expressed to her by those high in command. - - "I can well understand what a strain such intense concentration of - thought must have meant, when combined with the fatigues of travel - over great distances on the French roads, and the regrets and - delays in publication. But the completed book and its predecessors - are a very precious legacy, especially to those of us who saw the - whole long struggle in France." - -Mrs. Ward's health improved to a certain extent during the summer of -this year (1919), so that she was able to enjoy on Peace Day (July 19) -the great procession of Victory, watching it from the enclosure outside -Buckingham Palace. "Foch saluting was a sight not to be forgotten," she -wrote. "A paladin on horseback, saluting with a certain melancholy -dignity--a figure of romance." But she was mainly at Stocks during all -this summer, basking in the golden weather of that year, delighting in a -few Sunday gatherings of friends and in the weekly visits of her -grandchildren, who were now domiciled at Berkhamsted, five miles away, -and whom nothing could keep away, on Sundays, from Stocks, with its -tennis-court, its strawberries--and "Gunny"! - -..."I shall always think of her particularly," wrote Mrs. Robert - Crawshay afterwards, "sitting in her garden that last beautiful - summer at Stocks, with her wonderful expression of wisdom and the - kindness that prevented anyone feeling rebuked by her being on a - much higher level than themselves--her interest so generously - given, her pain never mentioned, her eyes lighting up with love as - the children came across the lawn, an atmosphere of beauty and - peace all around her." - -Much talk was heard on the lawn, as the summer passed on, about the -peace terms and the prospects of any recovery in Europe, and it is -recorded that although Mrs. Ward approved on the whole of the terms she -thought it the height of unwisdom to have allowed the Germans no voice -in discussing them before the signature. In Russia her heart was -passionately with the various rebels who arose to dispute the tyranny of -the Soviets, and as each hope faded she felt the horrors of that tragic -land more acutely. But most of all did she feel the tragedy of the -children of Austria and Central Europe, so that one of her last speeches -was devoted to pleading, at Berkhamsted, the cause of the Save the -Children Fund.[40] It was noticed that day how white and frail was her -look, but all the more for that did her appeal find its way to the -hearts of her audience. The children of Germany must be fed as well as -the rest, she said; "we have no war with children," and she recalled the -lovely lines of Blake which describe the angels moving through the -night: - - "If they see any weeping - That should have been sleeping - They pour sleep on their head - And sit down by their bed." - -"There are hundreds of thousands of children at this moment who on these -beautiful October nights 'are weeping that should have been -sleeping'--It is for this country, it is for you and me, to play the -part of angels of succour to these poor little ones wherever they may -be, to feed and clothe and cherish them in the name of our common -humanity and our common faith." - -In the meantime the unrelenting pressure of war taxation on her own -income had made it imperative, at last, to give up the house in -Grosvenor Place which had been her London home for nearly thirty years. -Mrs. Ward slept there for the last time on August 29, 1919, and wrote of -her parting from it the next day to J. P. T. - - "The poor old house begins to look dismantled. I had many thoughts - about it that last night there--of the people who had dined and - talked in it--Henry James, and Burne-Jones, Stopford Brooke, - Martineau, Watts, Tadema, Lowell, Roosevelt, Page, Northbrook, - Goschen and so many more--of one's own good times, and follies and - mistakes--everything passing at last into the words, 'He knoweth - whereof we are made, He remembereth that we are but dust.'" - -Then, in September, Mrs. Ward went for the last time to the Lake -District, motoring there via Stratford-on-Avon in her "little car"--a -cheap post-war purchase which spent most of its time in the repairing -shop, but which, for this occasion, put forth a supreme effort and -actually brought Mrs. Ward safely home through the midst of the railway -strike. She made her headquarters at Grasmere, for which she had -developed a special affection during two recent summers when she had -taken "Kelbarrow" and had watched from its lawn every passing mood of -the little lake. She visited Fox How and "Aunt Fan" almost every day; -she renewed her friendship with Canon and Mrs. Rawnsley and her -life-long intimacy with Gordon Wordsworth. And, on the Langdale side of -the fell, she visited a little grave to which her heart always yearned -afresh. - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward was deeply interested, during these last months of her life, -in the attempts made by the Liberal element in the Church to modify or -retard the "Enabling Bill," or as it is now known, the Church Assembly -Act. All her fighting spirit was aroused by the claim made by the Bill -to lay down tests and distinctions between member and member of the -National Church, especially by the imposition of the test of Holy -Communion on all candidates for the new Church bodies. She feared, in -the words of the Bishop of Carlisle (who saw eye to eye with her in this -matter) "that the declaration required as a condition of membership of -the Church of England will go a long way towards de-nationalising the -Church and reducing it to the status of a sect." She organised, early -in December, a letter to _The Times_ which was signed by all the most -prominent names in Liberal Churchmanship, protesting against the scanty -opportunities for debate which, owing to a ruling of the Speaker's, the -measure was to have in the House of Commons. But, when it became law -_quand même_, she turned her thoughts and her remaining energies to a -constructive movement which might rally the scattered Liberal forces of -the Church and assert for them the right, after due notice given of -their opinions, to participate without dishonesty in the rite of Holy -Communion. In a leaflet issued from Stocks to various private -sympathisers in January 1920, Mrs. Ward pointed out that the difficulty -which had confronted the Church sixty years before with regard to the -Thirty-nine Articles had now passed on to the Creeds, and that to many -who were convinced believers in the God within us, the following of -Christ and the practical realisation of the Kingdom, the Nicene Creed -was yet, "to quote a recent phrase, 'no more than the majority opinion -of a Committee held 1,600 years ago.'" She therefore appealed for the -formation of a "Faith and Freedom Association," the members of which -might claim to take their part in the new Councils and Assemblies while -openly stating their dissent from, or their right to re-interpret the -Creeds; only so could the Church continue to include that Modernist -element which was essential to its healthy development. - -Mrs. Ward received a good deal of sympathy and encouragement from those -to whom she sent her leaflet, and dreamt, in her indomitable way, of -summoning a meeting later on if the response were sufficient. But she -knew in her heart that her own strength would no longer suffice to lead -such a crusade, and she appealed with a certain wistfulness to the young -"to pour into it their life, their courage and their love." It troubled -her that no young person or group arose to take the burden from her -shoulders. But in truth she was still the youngest in heart of all her -generation, or the next, and if it were not that the poor body was -outworn she might yet have exerted the influence she longed for on the -religious life of her country. - -But it was too late. Mrs. Ward's health definitely gave way about -Christmas-time, 1919, the breakdown taking the form of a violent attack -of neuritis in the shoulders and arms. Although she would not yet -acknowledge it, but tried to continue the old round of work, increasing -weakness made it plain to her, at length, that she must not, for the -present at least, go crusading. But how she hoped and strove for better -times! Her devoted doctor-brother, Frank Arnold, to whom she turned -again and again with pathetic trust, knowing his ingenuity in the -devising of remedies, tended her with a skill born of a life-long -knowledge of her; but the malady was too deep-seated. At the end of -January she moved to London in order to try a certain course of -treatment, taking up her abode in a little house in Connaught Square -which her husband and Dorothy had found for her. She liked the little -place, especially on the days when flowers from Stocks arrived to make a -bower of it, and there, in the midst of a fruitless round of -"treatments" which did nothing but sap her remaining strength, she -passed the last weeks of her life. Old friends came once more to visit -her; her son and her daughters took turns in reading to her the poets -that she loved; Miss Churcher brought for her delight the latest stories -from the Play Centres. She still went downstairs and even, sometimes, -out of doors, but those who came to the house to sit with her left it, -usually, with aching hearts. Then, on March 11, another blow fell. Mr. -Ward became dangerously ill, and an immediate operation was found to be -necessary. The doctors carried him off to a nursing home not far away -and performed it, successfully, that night, while Mrs. Ward sat below in -the waiting-room in an agony of anxiety. The next day, and the next, she -was still able to go to him, the porters carrying her upstairs to his -room, but on Sunday, March 14, signs of bronchitis showed themselves, -together with a grave condition of the heart. The doctors would not -hear, after this, of her leaving the house. - -So for ten days she lay in the little London bedroom, looking out over -London trees, her heart pining for the day--the spring day which would -surely come--when she and he would return to Stocks together and their -ills would be forgotten. "Ah," she wrote to him in his nursing home on -March 18, "it is too trying this imprisonment--but it ought only to be a -few days more!" - -And indeed, her release was nearer than she knew. Did she not know it? -In mortal illness there are secrets of the inner consciousness which -those who tend, however lovingly, can never wholly penetrate, but as her -mind advanced ever nearer to the verge, one felt that it was swept, ever -and anon, by far-off gusts of poetry, finding expression in words and -fragments long possessed and intimately loved. Such were the "Last -Lines" of Emily Brontë, of which, two days before the end, she repeated -the great second verse to Dorothy, saying with the old passionate -gesture of the hands, "_That's_ what I am thinking of!" - - O God within my breast, - Almighty, ever-present Deity! - Life--that in me has rest, - As I--undying Life--have power in thee! - -Then, early on the morning of the 24th, there came an hour of crisis, -when life fought with death for victory; but, before the end, "she -opened her dear eyes wide, her dear brown eyes, like the eyes of a young -woman, and looked out into the unknown with a most wonderful look on her -face. I think that at that moment her soul crossed the bar." So wrote -Dorothy, the only witness of that look; she will carry the memory of it -in her heart to the end. - - * * * * * - -We buried her in the quiet churchyard at Aldbury, within sight of the -long sweep of hill and the beechwoods that she had loved so well. Her -old friend the Rector, Canon Wood, laid her to rest, while another -friend for whom she had had a deep regard, Dean Inge, spoke of her in -simple and moving words, naming her before us all as "perhaps the -greatest Englishwoman of our time." - -There were not wanting, indeed, signs that many in England so regarded -her. It was as though she had lived through the period, some ten years -before, when the public had tired somewhat of her books and younger -writers had to a large extent supplanted her, until, towards the end, -she found herself taken to the heart of her countrymen in a manner that -had hardly been her lot in the years of her greatest literary fame. They -loved her not only for all that she had done, but for what she was, -divining in her, besides her intellectual gifts, besides even the -tenderness and sympathy of her character, that indomitable courage that -carried her through to the end, over difficulties and obstacles at -which they only dimly guessed. They loved her for wearing herself out, -at sixty-seven, in visits to the battle-fields of France, that she might -bear her witness to her country's deeds; they loved her for all the joy -that she had given to little children. Two months before her death the -Lord Chancellor, making himself the mouthpiece of this feeling, had -asked her to act as one of the first seven women magistrates of England, -and later still, when she was already nearing the end, the University of -Edinburgh invited her to receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D. These acts -of recognition gave her a passing pleasure, and when she herself was -beyond the reach of pleasure, or of pain, it stirred the hearts of those -who went with her, for the last time, to the little village graveyard to -see awaiting her, at the drive gate, a file of stalwart police, claiming -their right to escort the coffin of a Justice of the Peace. - -Many indeed were the tributes paid to her memory, whether in the letters -received after her death or in the words uttered by Lord Milner and -other old friends at the unveiling of her medallion in the Hall of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement[41] (July 1922). Of these one only shall be -quoted here, from a letter written to Mr. Ward by her dear and intimate -friend of so many years' standing, André Chevrillon: - -..."I had no friend in England whom I loved and respected more, - none to whom I owed so much. I have often thought that if I love - your country as I do--and indeed I have sometimes been accused of - being biassed in my views of England--it was partly due to the - personal gratitude which I always felt for the kindness of her - greeting and hospitality when I came to England as a young man. The - same generous welcome was extended to other young Frenchmen who - have since written on England, and there is no doubt that it has - helped to create long before the War a bond between our two - countries. - - "We all felt the spell of her noble and generous spirit. She struck - one as the most perfect example of the English lady of the old - admirable governing class, with her ever-active and efficient - public spirit--of the highest English moral and intellectual - culture. Though I had come to England several times before I met - her--some thirty years ago--I had not yet formed a true idea of - what that culture would be--though I had read of it in my uncle - Taine's _Notes on England_. It was a revelation, though I must say - I have never met one since with quite so complete a mental - equipment, and that showed quite to the same degree those wonderful - and, to others, beneficent qualities of radiant vitality, spirit - and generosity. (It seems that these words must recur again and - again when one speaks of her). She was one of those of whom a - nation may well be proud. - - "I remember our impression when her first great book came to us in - Paris. Here was the true successor of George Eliot; she continued - the great English tradition of insight into the spiritual world. - The events in her novels were those of the soul--how remote from - those which can be adapted from other writers' novels for the - cinema!--The main forces that drove the characters like Fate were - Ideas. She could _dramatise_ ideas. I do not know of any novelist - that gives one to the same degree the feeling that Ideas are living - forces, more enduring than men, and in a sense more real than - men--forces that move through them, taking hold of them and driving - them like an unseen, higher Power." - -On her tombstone we inscribed the lines of Clough, which she herself had -written on the last page of _Robert Elsmere_: - - Others, I doubt not, if not we, - The issue of our toils shall see, - And, they forgotten and unknown, - Young children gather as their own - The harvest that the dead had sown. - - - - -THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - - -_Title._ _Date of Publication._ - -Milly and Olly, or A Holiday among the Mountains May, 1881 - -Miss Bretherton November, 1884 - -Amiel's Journal December, 1885 - -Robert Elsmere February, 1888 - -The History of David Grieve January, 1892 - -Marcella April, 1894 - -The Story of Bessie Costrell July, 1895 - -Sir George Tressady September, 1896 - -Helbeck of Bannisdale June, 1898 - -Eleanor November, 1900 - -Lady Rose's Daughter March, 1903 - -The Marriage of William Ashe February, 1905 - -Fenwick's Career May, 1906 - -The Testing of Diana Mallory September, 1908 - -Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode May, 1909 - -Canadian Born April, 1910 - -The Case of Richard Meynell October, 1911 - -The Mating of Lydia March, 1913 - -The Coryston Family October, 1913 - -Delia Blanchflower January, 1915 - -Eltham House October, 1915 - -A Great Success March, 1916 - -England's Effort June, 1916 - -Lady Connie November, 1916 - -Towards the Goal June, 1917 - -Missing October, 1917 - -A Writer's Recollections October, 1918 - -The War and Elizabeth November, 1918 - -Fields of Victory July, 1919 - -Cousin Philip November, 1919 - -Harvest April, 1920 - - - - -INDEX - - -Acton, Lord, 56, 98, 113 - -Adams, Henry, 211 - -Addis, W. E., 146 - -Amiel's _Journal Intime_, 42, 43, 46, 48-49 - -Anderson, General Sir Hastings, 298, 302 - -Anderson, Mary, 43 - -Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 273-275 - -Arnold, Eleanor (Viscountess Sandhurst), 247 - -Arnold, Miss Ethel, 38, 39, 229, 251 - -Arnold family, the, 6 - -Arnold, Frances (Fan), 6, 7, 10, 12, 212, 218, 223, 274, 304 - -Arnold, Dr. Francis Sorell, 287, 306 - -Arnold, Jane (Mrs. W. E. Forster), 4, 7, 9, 228 - -Arnold, Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), 38, 77, 98, 229, 253 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 252 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. F. W. Whitridge), 191, 209, 247 - -Arnold, Mary (Mrs. Hiley), 8 - -Arnold, Matthew, 3, 15, 28, 33, 38, 55, 57, 63, 151, 191 - -Arnold, Theodore, 6, 13 - -Arnold, Thomas, Headmaster of Rugby, 1, 3, 18, 210 - -Arnold, Thomas, the younger, 3-7, 13, 14, 15, 19, - 26, 27, 47, 95, 146, 173-174, 219 - -Arnold, Lieut. Thomas Sorell, 287 - -Arnold, William T., 6, 13, 38, 48, 53, 99, 170, 179-181 - -Arnold-Forster, Oakeley, 252 - -Arran, Earl of, 256 - -Arthur, Colonel, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 113, 230, 233, 235 - -Asser, General, 275 - - -Bagot, Capt. Josceline, 144 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James (Earl), 72 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald, 115 - -Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 243 - -Balzani, Count Ugo, 161, 252 - -Barberini, the Villa, 156-158, 161-162, 173 - -Barlow, Sir Thomas, 135 - -Barnes, Colonel, 276 - -Barnett, Canon Samuel, 85, 194 - -Bathurst, Lord, 2 - -Bayard, American Ambassador, 191 - -Bedford, Duke of, 120, 131, 183, 268 - -Bell, Capt., 284 - -Bell, Sir Hugh, 72, 188 _note_, 252 - -Bellasis, Sophie, 9 - -Benison, Miss Josephine, 173 - -Bentwich, Mrs., 289 - -_Bessie Costrell_, _the Story of_, 112, 114, 118 - -Birdwood, General, 298 - -Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine, 195-196 - -Boase, C. W., 32 - -Boissier, Lieut., R.N., 273-274 - -Bonaventura, the Villa, 181, 192, 262 - -Borough Farm, 45-47, 51, 52, 93, 132 - -Bourget, Paul, 168 - -Boutmy, Emile, 168 - -Bowie, Rev. W. Copeland, 81, 82, 88 - -Braithwaite, Miss Lilian, 178 - -Brewer, Cecil, 120-121 - -Bright, Mrs., 107 - -Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 15 - -Brontë, Charlotte, 165-168 - -Brontë, Emily, 166-168, 307 - -_Brontë Prefaces_, the, 165-169 - -Brooke, Stopford A., 80, 81, 83, 87, 153, 304 - -Browning, Pen, 262 - -Brunetière, F., 168 - -Bryce, Rt. Hon. James (Viscount), 207, 211, 214, 243 - -Buchan, Lt.-Col. John, 288 - -Burgwin, Mrs., 135, 141 - -Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 100, 102, 189, 304 - -Butcher, S. H., 30 _footnote_, 148 - -Buxton, Sydney (Earl), 115, 196 - - -Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 229, 230 - -_Canadian Born_, 222, 255 - -Carlisle, Earl of, 80, 81, 83 - -Carpenter, J. Estlin, D.D., 81, 87, 154 - -Cavan, General the Earl of, 280 - -Cavendish, Lady Frederick, 228 - -Cecil, Lord Edward, 267 - -Cecil, Lord Robert, 270-271 - -Chapman, Audrey, 127 - -Charteris, General, 282 - -Chavannes, Dr., 87 - -Chevrillon, André, 168-169, 252, 260, 266, 280, 282, 308 - -Children's Happy Evenings Association, 193, 196-197 - -Childs, W. D., 77 - -Chinda, Viscount, 281 - -Chirol, Sir Valentine, 252 - -Choate, Joseph, American Ambassador, 191, 280 - -Churcher, Miss Bessie, 118, 123, 135, 192, 195, 249, 272, 293, 306 - -Churchill, Lord Randolph, 212 - -Clarke, Father, 149-150 - -Clough, Miss Anne, 8 - -Clough, Arthur Hugh, 3, 10, 309 - -Coates, Mrs. Earle, 210 - -Cobb, Sir Cyril, 200 - -Cobbe, Frances Power, 81 - -Collard, Miss M.L., 141 - -Conybeare, Mrs. Edward, 66 - -_Coryston Family_, _The_, 263 - -_Cousin Philip_, 289-290 - -Crawshay, Mrs. Robert, 303 - -Creighton, Mandell, Bishop of London, 28, 44, 65, 79, 99, 148, 151, 174, 176 - -Creighton, Mrs., 29, 195, 225, 228, 240, 244, 248, 249, 252, 257, 259 - -Crewe, Marquess of, 143 - -Cromer, Earl of, 230, 234 - -Cropper, James, 51, 144, 176 - -Cropper, Miss Mary, 144, 145, 252 - -Cunliffe, Mrs., 12, 15 - -Cunliffe, Sir Robert, 71 - -Cunningham, Sir Henry, 111 - -Curtis, Henry, 183 - -Curzon of Kedleston, Marquess, 235, 243-244 - - -_Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode_, 222-223 - -_David Grieve_, _The History of_, 71, 79, 92, 95, 97-99, 255, 256 - -Davidson, Sir John, 301 - -Davies, Colonel, 276 - -Davies, Miss, 10-14 - -Davies, Miss Emily, 224 - -_Delia Blanchflower_, 239 - -Dell, Mrs., 108, 251, 254, 261 - -Denison, Col. George, 216 - -Denison, Sir William, Governor of Tasmania, 3 - -Dicey, Albert, 294 - -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_, _The_, 21, 31, 37, 49 - -_Diana Mallory_, _The Testing of_, 248 - -Dilke, Mrs. Ashton, 228 - -Drummond, James, D.D., 81 - -Dufferin and Ava, Marquis of, 160 - -Dugdale, Mrs. Alice, 70 - -Dunn, Miss Maud (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 253 - - -Ehrle, Father, 171 - -_Eleanor_, 158-164, 173; - dramatisation of, 176-179 - -_England's Effort_, 265, 280-282, 297 - -Evans, Sanford, 218 - - -Fawcett, Mrs., 228, 233-235, 238, 244, 251 - -_Fenwick's Career_, 173, 204-205 - -Field, Capt., R.N., 273 - -Fields, Mrs. Annie, 105 _note_, 192, 213 - -_Fields of Victory_, 289, 300-301 - -Finlay, Lord, 243 - -Fisher, Rt. Hon. H. A. L., 197, 292-294 - -Foch, Marshal, 302 - -Forster, W. E., 4, 25, 40-41 - -Fowler, Capt., 284 - -Fox How, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 26, 247, 304 - -Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 263 - -Freeman, Edward, 21, 28 - -Frere, Miss Margaret, 237 - - -Garrett, Miss, 224 - -Gerecke, Fräulein, 11 - -Gilder, R.W., 191 - -Gladstone, William Ewart, 39, 48, 55-64, 71, 73, 110 - -Godkin, E. L., 191 - -Gordon, James Adam, 102 - -Goschen, George (Lord), 40, 304 - -Goschen, Mrs., 228 - -Gouraud, General, 299 - -Grayswood Hill, Mrs. Ward's house on, 78, 92-94, 103 - -Green, John Richard, 21, 25, 28 - -Green, Mrs. J. R., 87, 228 - -Green, Thomas Hill, 27, 28, 33, 51, 62, 63, 213 - -Green, Mrs. T. H., 30, 228, 252 - -Greene, General, 216 - -Grey, Earl, 207, 214-215, 219, 221-222 - -Grey, Sir Edward (Viscount), 102, 211, 270-271, 282 - -Grosvenor Place, No. 25, 113, 190-192, 304 - - -Haldane, R. B. (Lord), 99, 115, 200, 227, 252 - -Halévy, Elie, 169 - -Halsbury, Lord, 243 - -Halsey, Mrs., 291 - -Hampden House, 78-79 - -Harcourt, Mrs. Augustus Vernon, 30 - -Harcourt, Sir William, 171 - -Hargrove, Charles, 87 - -Harnack, Adolf, 265 - -Harrison, Frederic, 46, 225, 228-229, 260 - -_Harvest_, 289 - -Hay, American Ambassador, 191 - -Heberden, Principal, 281 - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_, 143-151 - -Herbert, Bron (Lord Lucas), 148 - -Hobhouse, Charles, 234 - -Holland, E. G., 183, 185 - -Holmes, Edmond, 260 - -Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 77 - -Holt, Henry, 213 - -Horne, General Lord, 284, 287, 296, 298 - -Horne, Sir William van, 207, 214, 216-217 - -Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, 213 - -Hughes, Rev. Hugh Price, 123 - -Huxley, Aldous, 253 - -Huxley, Julian, 98, 99, 253, 290 - -Huxley, Leonard, 38 - -Huxley, Margaret, 253 - -Huxley, Prof. T. H., 38, 68, 79, 100 - -Huxley, Mrs. T. H., 228 - -Huxley, Trevenen, 253 - - -Inge, W. R., Dean of St. Paul's, 307 - - -James, Henry, 46, 112, 148, 161, 191, 252, 279 - -James, William, 192, 250, 257 - -James of Hereford, Lord, 230 - -Jellicoe, Sir John, 272 - -Jerram, Admiral Sir Thomas, 272-273 - -Jersey, Countess of, 170, 197 - -Jeune, Sir Francis, 109 - -Jewett, Miss Sarah Orne, 104-105, 192, 213 - -Johnson, A. H., 30, 252 - -Johnson, Mrs. A. H., 28, 29, 39, 70, 72, 78, 252 - -Jones, Mrs. Cadwalader, 208 - -Jones, Sir Robert, 294 - -Jowett, Benjamin, Master of Balliol, 18, 24, 28, 33, 48, 53, 99, 121 - -Jülicher, Dr. Adolf, 172 - -Julie, Soeur, 286 - -Jusserand, J. J., 169-170, 212, 300 - - -Keble, John, 17 - -Keen, Daniel, 247 - -Kemp, Anthony Fenn, 1 - -Kemp, Miss, 2 - -Kensit, John, 148 - -King, Mackenzie, 219 - -Kipling, Rudyard, 116-117, 124 - -Knight, Prof., 87 - -Kruger, President, 175 - -Knowles, James, 55, 73, 150, 225, 228 - - -_Lady Rose's Daughter_, 179, 187, 204 - -Lanciani, Senator Rodolfo, 161 - -Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 215 - -Lawrence, Hon. Maude, 139, 140, 193 - -Lemieux, M., 215 - -Leo XIII., Pope, 162, 216 - -Levens Hall, 144-148 - -Liddon, Canon H.P., 17, 19, 20 - -Lippincott, Bertram, 210 - -"Lizzie," Miss H. E. Smith, 190, 208, 249 - -Lloyd George, Rt. Hon. David, 271, 299 - -Loreburn, Lord, 243 - -Lowell, American Ambassador, 191, 304 - -_Lydia_, _the Mating of_, 261 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 39, 252 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Sir Neville, 109, 148, 174-175, 247 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Neville (Lady), 109, 148, 175, 274 - -Lytton, Victor (Earl of), 148 - - -Maclaren, Lady, 233 - -McClure, S. S., 76, 191 - -McKee, Miss Ellen, 135, 234 - -McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, 196 - -Macmillan, Sir Frederick, 97 - -Macmillan, Messrs., 43, 50, 73 - -_Marcella_, 79, 97, 106-111, 189 - -Markham, Miss Violet, 233, 235 - -Martineau, James, D.D., 81-87, 154, 304 - -Masterman, C. F. G., 270 - -Maurice, C. E., 149 - -Maxse, Admiral, 267 - -Maxwell, Dr., 209-210 - -May, Miss, 13, 14, 16 - -Meredith, George, 143, 180-181, 266 - -Michel, André, 68 - -Midleton, Lord, 45, 47 - -Mill, John Stuart, 224 - -Milligan, Miss, 135, 141 - -_Milly and Olly_, 32 - -Milner, Viscount, 308 - -Mirman, M., 285 - -_Miss Bretherton_, 43, 44, 48, 255 - -_Missing_, 289 - -Mitchell, Dr. Weir, 210 - -Mivart, St. George, 149 - -Mollison, Miss, 220 - -Morley, John (Viscount), 37, 40-42, 46, 114, 149, 228, 229 - -Mudie's Library, 111 - -Müller, Mrs. Max, 228 - - -Neal, Mary, 123 - -Nettlefold, Frederick, 81 - -Newman, Cardinal, 13, 17, 19, 57 - -Nicholson, Sir Charles, 241 - -Nicolson, Sir Arthur, 270 - -Northbrook, Lord, 131, 304 - -Norton, Miss Sara, 192, 213 - - -Oakeley, Miss Hilda, 268 - -Odgers, Dr. Blake, 81 - -Onslow, Earl of, 282 - -Osborn, Fairfield, 210 _note_ - - -Page, Walter Hines, 298, 304 - -Palmer, Edwin, 20 - -Pankhurst, Mrs., 238 - -Paris, Gaston, 168 - -Parker, Sir Gilbert, 270 - -Pasolini, Contessa Maria, 188, 262 - -Passmore Edwards, J., 91, 120-121 - -Passmore Edwards Settlement, the, 90, 92, 119-122, - 130-131, 182-183, 186, 189, 219, 234, 268 - -Pater, Walter, 27, 42, 99 - -Pattison, Mark, Rector of Lincoln, 17, 19-21, 24, 28, 34, 51, 57 - -_Peasant in Literature_, _The_, 155, 210 - -Pease, Rt. Hon. J. (Lord Gainford), 292 - -Percival, Dr., Bishop of Hereford, 31 - -Pilcher, G. T., 132 - -Pinney, General, 277 - -Plumer, General Lord, 280 - -Plymouth, Earl of, 243 - -Ponsot, M., 285 - -Potter, Beatrice (Mrs. Sidney Webb), 87, 95, 115, 116, 228 - -Prothero, Sir George, 252 - -Pusey, Edward Bouverie, D.D., 32 - -Putnam, George Haven, 76 - - -Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, 284 - -Rawnsley, Rev. Canon H. D., 304 - -Renan, Ernest, 47, 168 - -Repplier, Miss Agnes, 210 - -Ribot, Alexandre, 168 - -_Richard Meynell_, _The Case of_, 90, 153, 173, 250, 257-261 - -Roberts, Earl, 175 - -Roberts, Capt. H. C., 277 - -_Robert Elsmere_, 33, 47, 49-54; - publication, 54-55; - Mr. Gladstone on, 55-64; - circulation of, 64; - _Quarterly_ article on, 72-73; - in America, 73-78, 255, 309 - -"Robin Ghyll," 205-206 - -Robins, Miss Elizabeth, 178 - -Robinson, Alfred, 88 - -Rodd, Sir Rennell, 288 _note_ - -Roosevelt, Theodore, 191, 211-212, 269-270, 286, 304 - -Root, Elihu, 211-212 - -Rosebery, Earl of, 114, 280 - -Rothschild, Lord, 112, 115 - -Ruelli, Padre, 160 - -Ruskin, John, 28 - -Russell, Lord Arthur, 40, 48 - -Russell, Dowager Countess, 81 - -Russell, George W. E., 55 - -Russell Square, No. 61, 35-36, 131, 191 - - -Salisbury, Marquis of, 225, 266 - -Sandwith, Humphry, 25 - -Sandwith, Lieut. Humphry, R.N., 273 - -Sandwith, Jane, wife of Henry Ward, 25 - -Samuel, Rt. Hon. Herbert, 199 - -Sandhurst, Viscount, 247 - -Savile, Lord, 161 - -Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - -Scherer, Edmond, 46, 48, 168 - -Schofield, Colonel, 276 - -Scott, McCallum, 235 - -Segrè, Carlo, 252 - -Selborne, Countess of, 301 - -Selby-Bigge, Sir Amherst, 292 - -Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs. Arthur Strong), 46, 70 - -Selwyn, Arthur, Christopher and George, 253, 287, 296 - -Selwyn, Rev. Dr. E. C., 252 - -Shakespeare, 47 - -Shaw, Bernard, 109 - -Shaw, Norman, 120 - -Shaw-Lefevre, Miss, 30 - -_Sir George Tressady_, 115-118, 127, 255 - -Smith, Dunbar, 120-121 - -Smith, George Murray, 50, 53, 96, 97, 107, 109, 112, 165-166, 176, 282 - -Smith, Goldwin, 216 - -Smith, Reginald J., 173, 176, 255, 256, 258, 262, 281-282 - -Smith, Walter, 211 - -Smith & Elder, publishers, 24, 165 - -Somerville Hall, foundation of, 30-31 - -Sorell, Julia, wife of Thomas Arnold, 1-4, 6, 8, 13, 16, 27, 53, 54, 208 - -Sorell, Colonel William, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Sorell, William, 2 - -Souvestre, Marie, 46, 291 - -Sparkes, Miss, 132 - -Spencer, Herbert, 180-181 - -Stanley, Arthur, Dean of Westminster, 18, 26 - -Stanley, Hon. Lyulph (Lord Sheffield), 72, 132, 134 - -Stanley of Alderley, Lady, 228 - -Stephen, Leslie, 189 - -Sterner, Albert, 173 - -"Stocks," 102, 103, 107-109, 113, 246-254, 297, 302-303, 306 - -Stubbs, William, Bp. of Oxford, 28 - -Sturgis, Julian, 177 - - -Taine, H., 24, 68-69, 168 - -Talbot, Edward, Warden of Keble and Bp. of Winchester, 48, 56, 65 - -Tatton, R. G., 121, 127, 128, 189 - -Taylor, James, 21 - -Tennant, Laura, 39, 46 - -Terry, Miss Marion, 178 - -Thayer, W. R., 77 - -Thursfield, J. R., 38, 71, 102 - -Torre Alfina, Marchese di, 162 - -_Towards the Goal_, 285-286 - -Townsend, Mrs., 133 - -Toynbee, Mrs. Arnold, 228 - -Trench, Alfred Chevenix, 181 - -Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 151, 181-182, 296 - -Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, 181, 214 - -Trevelyan, Humphry, 253, 297 - -Trevelyan, Mary, 253-254, 297 - -Trevelyan, Theodore Macaulay, 253-255 - -Tyrrell, Father, 250, 257 - -Tyrwhitt, Commodore, 286 - - -_Unitarians and the Future_, 155 - - -Voysey, Charles, 33 - - -Wace, Henry, Dean of Canterbury, 21, 31, 32 - -Wade, F. C., 219 - -Walkley, A. B., 178 - -Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 252 - -Wallas, Graham, 87, 109, 115, 132, 134, 141 - -Walter, John, 35 - -_War and Elizabeth_, _The_, 289-290 - -Ward, Miss Agnes (Mrs. Turner), 227 - -Ward, Dorothy Mary, 29, 205-206, 208-209, 211, - 214-215, 249, 275-280, 283-285, 289, 299, 301, 306-307 - -Ward, Miss Gertrude, 43, 126, 230 - -Ward, Rev. Henry, 25 - -Ward, Thomas Humphry, 20, 25, 35, 105, 112, 207-209, 215, 247, 248, 306, 308 - -Warner, Charles Dudley, 191 - -Weardale, Lord, 243 - -Wells, H. G., 214 - -Wemyss, The Countess of, 71-72, 189 - -Wharton, Mrs., 192, 263 - -Whitridge, Arnold, 296 - -Whitridge, Frederick W., 191, 207-208, 247, 281 - -Wicksteed, Philip, 85, 87, 88, 90 - -Wilkin, Charles, 289 - -_William Ashe_, _The Marriage of_, 173, 179, 187, 204 - -Williams, Charles, 127 - -Williams-Freeman, Miss, 251 - -Wilson, President, 281, 300 - -Wolfe, General James, 221 - -Wolff, Dr. Julius, 43, 107 - -Wolseley, Lord, 46 - -Wood, Rev. Canon H. T., 307 - -Wood, Col. William, 221 - -Wordsworth, Gordon, 304 - -Wordsworth, John, Bp. of Salisbury, 33 - -_Writer's Recollections_, _A_, 27, 31, 189, 290-291 - - -Yonge, Miss Charlotte, 25 - - -Zangwill, Israel, 233 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner, Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by etext transcriber: - -reliques chez son évèque=>reliques chez son évêque - -The matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticous=>The -matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticious - -Yours Obiediently=>Yours Obediently - -extents over 400 pages=>extends over 400 pages - -présente ça et là la nature=>présente çà et là la nature - -as a thankoffering=>as a thank-offering - -agitatiion and violence=>agitation and violence - -Opposing Woman Suffrage=>Opposing Women's Suffrage {243} - -Dix-huitième Siécle=>Dix-huitième Siècle - -processs of making=>process of making - -War conditions themsleves that convinced=>War conditions themselves that -convinced {291} - -women are and and have long been at home=>women are and have long been -at home - -Schaffer, Mrs., 220=>Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - - * * * * * - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The following is a letter written long afterwards by Tom Arnold to -his sister Fan, with reference to Clough: "I loved him, oh! so well: and -also respected him more profoundly than any man, anywhere near my own -age, whom I ever met. His pure soul was without stain: he seemed -incapable of being inflamed by wrath, or tempted to vice, or enslaved by -any unworthy passion of any sort. As to 'Philip' something that he saw -in me helped to suggest the character, that was all. There is much in -Philip that is Clough himself and there is a dialectic force in him that -certainly was never in me." - -_December 21, 1895._ - - -[2] "School-days with Miss Clough." By T. C. Down. _Cornhill_, June, -1920. - -[3] According to the universal understanding of those days, in the case -of a mixed marriage the boys followed the father's faith and the girls -the mother's. Tom Arnold's boys were, therefore, brought up as Catholics -until their father's reversion to Anglicanism in 1864. - -[4] _Passages in a Wandering Life_ (T. Arnold), p. 185. - -[5] Jowett to Lewis Campbell, June, 1871. - -[6] Privately printed. - -[7] _Life and Letters of H. Taine._ Trans. by E. Sparrel-Bayly, Vol. -III, p. 58. - -[8] He called her "the greatest and best person I have ever met, or -shall ever meet, in this world."--_Letters of J. R. Green._ Ed. Leslie -Stephen, p. 284. - -[9] After the foundation of Somerville Hall Mrs. Ward was succeeded in -the Secretaryship by Mrs. T. H. Green and Mr. Henry Butcher. - -[10] Now Mrs. Arthur Strong, Assistant Director of the British School at -Rome. - -[11] The Editor of the _Spectator_. - -[12] This conversation has already appeared once in print, as an -Appendix to the Westmorland Edition of _Robert Elsmere_. - -[13] Mrs. T. H. Green; Mrs. Creighton; Mrs. A. H. Johnson; Miss Pater. - -[14] "The New Reformation," _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1889. - -[15] On February 3, 1890. - -[16] Afterwards embodied in her book, _Town Life in the Fifteenth -Century_. - -[17] _Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett_, edited by Annie Fields, p. 95. - -[18] See p. 91. - -[19] Introduction to _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, Autograph Edition, -Houghton Mifflin & Co. - -[20] Introduction to the Autograph Edition. - -[21] Mr. Cropper's brother had married Susan Arnold, sister of Tom. - -[22] He died in April, 1904. - -[23] _Eleanor_ was finally played with the following cast: - - Edward Manisty Mr. CHARLES QUARTERMAINE - Father Benecke Mr. STEPHEN POWYS - Reggie Brooklyn Mr. LESLIE FABER - Alfredo Mr. VICTOR BRIDGES - Lucy Foster Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE - Madame Variani Miss ROSINA FILIPPI - Alice Manisty Miss ELIZABETH ROBINS - Marie Miss MABEL ARCHDALL - Dalgetty Miss BEATRIX DE BURGH - and - Eleanor Burgoyne Miss MARION TERRY - - -[24] See the _Memoir of W. T. Arnold_, by Mrs. Ward and C. E. Montague. - -[25] From _The Associate_, the quarterly magazine of the Passmore -Edwards Settlement, for October, 1902. - -[26] Sir Hugh Bell at the unveiling of the memorial to Mrs. Ward at the -Mary Ward Settlement, July, 1922. - -[27] In 1907 the City Education Authority of New York had no less than -100 school playgrounds equipped and opened under its own supervision. - -[28] Mr. Fairfield Osborn. - -[29] Mrs. Ward had spent a morning in the Parliamentary Library with Mr. -Martin, the librarian, delighting in his detailed knowledge of Canadian -history. - -[30] Mr. Woodall's. - -[31] Mr. Harrison also deprecated the formation of a definite League. -"It is to do the very thing that we are protesting against," he wrote, -"which is to accustom women to the mechanical artifices of political -agitation." - -[32] Now the National Council of Women. - -[33] _What Is and What Might Be._ By Edmond Holmes. - -[34] Henry James had become a naturalized British subject in July, 1915. - -[35] - - My doom hath come upon me, and would to God that I - Had felt my hand in thy dear hand on the day I had to die. - - Sir Rennell Rodd's translation, in - _Love, Worship and Death_. - - -[36] Col. John Buchan, Director of the Ministry of Information, wrote to -her in December 1918, as follows: - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD, - -As the Ministry of Information ceases its operations on Dec. 31st, I am -taking this opportunity of writing to express to you, on behalf of the -Ministry, our very cordial gratitude for the help which you have given -so generously. It would have been almost impossible to essay the great -task of enlightening foreign countries as to the justice of the Allied -cause and the magnitude of the British effort without the co-operation -of our leading writers, and we have been most fortunate in receiving -that co-operation in full and ungrudged measure. To you in particular we -are indebted for generous concessions with regard to the use of your -books and writings, and I beg that you will accept this message of -gratitude from myself and from the other members of the Staff. - -[37] _Evening Play Centres for Children_, by Janet Penrose Trevelyan. -Methuen & Co. - -[38] See p. 241. - -[39] Sir Robert Jones, F.R.C.S., Chairman of the Central Committee for -the care of Cripples, wrote to Miss Ward after her mother's death: "One -of the last pieces of work accomplished by Mrs. Ward for cripples was -the insertion of the P.D. clause in the Fisher Education Act, and the -reports obtained for that purpose are largely the groundwork and origin -of this Committee, in whose work she took a deep interest." - -[40] On October 23, 1919. - -[41] Now named, after its founder, the Mary Ward Settlement. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by -Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. 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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/40319-8.zip b/40319-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e1c94f7..0000000 --- a/40319-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/40319-h.zip b/40319-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9262ea2..0000000 --- a/40319-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/40319-0.txt b/old/40319-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8ea2812..0000000 --- a/old/40319-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13144 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -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/license - - -Title: The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward - -Author: Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -Release Date: July 24, 2012 [EBook #40319] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, University of Michigan Libraries -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -[Illustration: MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE] - -FROM A WATER-COLOUR PAINTING BY MRS A. H. JOHNSON] - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -BY HER DAUGHTER - -JANET PENROSE TREVELYAN - -Author of -"A Short History of the Italian People" - -NEW YORK -DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY -1923 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - - - -TO -DOROTHY MARY WARD - - - - -AUTHOR'S NOTE - - -My warmest thanks are due to the many friends who have helped me, -directly or indirectly, in the writing of this book, but especially to -all those who have sent me the letters they possessed from Mrs. Ward, or -who have given me leave to publish their own. Mr. Henry Gladstone kindly -looked out for me the letters written by Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone -during the _Robert Elsmere_ period; Mrs. Creighton did the same for the -long period covered by Mrs. Ward's correspondence with the Bishop and -with herself; Miss Arnold of Fox How sent me many valuable letters -belonging to the later years. So with Mrs. A. H. Johnson, Mrs. -Conybeare, Mrs. R. Vere O'Brien, Sir Robert Blair, Mr. Leonard Huxley, -Mrs. Reginald Smith, Lord Buxton, M. Chevrillon, Miss McKee, Mrs. -Turner, Miss Gertrude Wood, and many others, and although the letters -may not in all cases have been suitable for publication, they have given -me many valuable side-lights on Mrs. Ward's life and work. - -To Mrs. A. H. Johnson my special thanks are due for permission to -reproduce her water-colour portrait of Mrs. Ward, and to Mrs. T. H. -Green for much help in connexion with the Oxford portion of the book. - -No book at all, however, could have been produced, even from the -material so generously placed at my disposal, had it not been for the -constant collaboration of my father and sister, whose help in sifting -great masses of papers and in advising me in all difficulties has been -my greatest support throughout this task. - -J. P. T. - -BERKHAMSTEAD, - _July, 1923_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGES - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -Mary Arnold's Parentage--The Sorells--Thomas Arnold the -Younger--Marriage in Tasmania with Julia Sorell--Conversion -to Roman Catholicism--Return to England--The -Arnold Family--Mary Arnold's Childhood--Schools--Her -Father's Re-conversion--Removal to Oxford 1-16 - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD, 1867-1881 - -Oxford in the 'Sixties--Mark Pattison and Canon Liddon--Mary -Arnold and the Bodleian--First Attempts at Writing--Marriage -with Mr. T. Humphry Ward--Thomas Arnold's -Second Conversion--Oxford Friends--The Education of -Women--Foundation of Somerville Hall--_The Dictionary -of Christian Biography_--Pamphlet on "Unbelief and Sin" 17-34 - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT -ELSMERE_, 1881-1888 - -Mr. Ward takes work on _The Times_--Removal to London--The -House in Russell Square--London Life and Friends--Work -for John Morley--Letters--Writer's Cramp--_Miss -Bretherton_--Borough Farm--Amiel's _Journal Intime_--Beginnings -of _Robert Elsmere_--Long Struggle with the -Writing--Its Appearance, February 24, 1888--Death of -Mrs. Arnold 35-54 - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER, 1888-1889 - -Reviews--Mr. Gladstone's Interest--His Interview with Mrs. -Ward at Oxford--Their Correspondence--Article in the -_Nineteenth Century_--Circulation of _Robert Elsmere_--Letters--Visit -to Hawarden--_Quarterly_ Article--The Book -in America--"Pirate" Publishers--Letters--Mrs. Ward -at Hampden House--Schemes for a _New Brotherhood_ 55-80 - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL, _DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS," 1889-1892 - -Foundation of University Hall--Mr. Wicksteed as Warden--The -Opening--Lectures--Social Work at Marchmont Hall--Growing -Importance of the Latter--Mr. Passmore -Edwards Promises Help--Our House on Grayswood Hill--Sunday -Readings--The Writing of _David Grieve_--Visit -to Italy--Reception of the Book--Letters--Removal to -"Stocks" 81-103 - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR -GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE -EDWARDS SETTLEMENT, 1892-1897 - -Mrs. Ward much Crippled by Illness--The Writing of _Marcella_--Stocks -Cottage--Reception of the Book--Quarrel with -the Libraries--_The Story of Bessie Costrell_--Friends at -Stocks--Letter from John Morley--_Sir George Tressady_--Letters -from Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Rudyard Kipling--Renewed -attacks of Illness--The Building and Opening -of the Passmore Edwards Settlement 104-122 - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE -FOUNDATION OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S -SCHOOL, 1897-1899 - -Beginnings of the Work for Children--The Recreation School--The -Work for Adults--Finance--Mrs. Ward's interest -in Crippled Children--Plans for Organizing a School--She -obtains the help of the London School Board--Opening -of the Settlement School--The Children's Dinners--Extension -of the Work--Mrs. Ward's Inquiry and Report--Further -Schools opened by the School Board--After-care--Mrs. -Ward and the Children 123-142 - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ -AND THE VILLA BARBERINI, 1896-1900 - -Origins of _Helbeck_--Mrs. Ward at Levens Hall--Her Views on -Roman Catholicism--Creighton and Henry James--Reception -of _Helbeck_--Letter to Creighton--Mrs. Ward -and the Unitarians--Origins of _Eleanor_--Mrs. Ward takes -the Villa Barberini--Life at the Villa--Nemi--Her Feeling -for Italy 143-164 - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND -ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL, -1899-1904 - -Mrs. Ward and the Brontës--George Smith and Charlotte--The -Prefaces to the Brontë Novels--André Chevrillon--M. -Jusserand--Mrs. Ward in Italy and Paris--The Translation -of Jülicher--Death of Thomas Arnold--The South -African War--Death of Bishop Creighton and George -Smith--Dramatization of _Eleanor_--William Arnold--Mrs. -Ward and George Meredith--The Marriage of her -Daughter--The Vacation School at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement 165-186 - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE -CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES, 1904-1917 - -Mrs. Ward's Social Life--Her Physical Delicacy--Power of -Work--American Friends--F. W. Whitridge--Plans for -Extending Recreation Schools for Children to other Districts--Opening -of the first "Evening Play Centres"--The -"Mary Ward Clause"--Negotiations with the London -County Council--Efforts to raise Funds--No help from the -Government till 1917--Two more Vacation Schools--Organized -Playgrounds--_Fenwick's Career_--"Robin -Ghyll" 187-206 - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 1908 - -Invitations to visit America--Mr. and Mrs. Ward and Dorothy -sail in March, 1908--New York--Philadelphia--Washington--Mr. -Roosevelt--Boston--Canada--Lord Grey and -Sir William van Horne--Mrs. Ward at Ottawa--Toronto--Her -Journey West--Vancouver--The Rockies--Lord -Grey and Wolfe--_Canadian Born_ and _Daphne_ 207-223 - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - -Early Feeling against Women's Suffrage--The "Protest" in -the _Nineteenth Century_--Advent of the Suffragettes--Foundation -of the Anti-Suffrage League--Women in Local -Government--Speeches against the Suffrage--Debate with -Mrs. Fawcett--Deputations to Mr. Asquith--The "Conciliation -Bill"--The Government Franchise Bill--Withdrawal -of the Latter--_Delia Blanchflower_--The -"Joint Advisory Committee"--Women's Suffrage passed -by the House of Commons, 1917--Struggle in the House of -Lords--Lord Curzon's Speech 224-245 - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE -OUTBREAK OF WAR - -Rebuilding of Stocks--Mrs. Ward's Love for the Place--Her -Way of Life and Work--Greek Literature--Politics--The -General Elections of 1910--Visitors--Nephews and Nieces--Grandchildren--Death -of Theodore Trevelyan--The -"Westmorland Edition"--Sense of Humour--_The Case -of Richard Meynell_--Letters--Last Visit to Italy--_The -Coryston Family_--The Outbreak of War 246-263 - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO -JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about Germany--Letter to André -Chevrillon--Re-organization of the Passmore Edwards -Settlement--President Roosevelt's Letter--Talk with Sir -Edward Grey--Visits to Munition Centres--To the Fleet--To -France--Mrs. Ward near Neuve Chapelle and on the -Scherpenberg Hill--Return Home--_England's Effort_--Death -of F. W. Whitridge and of Reginald Smith--Second -Journey to France, 1917--The Bois de Bouvigny--The -Battle-field of the Ourcq--Lorraine--_Towards the Goal_ 264-287 - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - -Mrs. Ward at Stocks--Her _Recollections_--The Government -Grant for Play Centres--The Cripples Clause in Mr. Fisher's -Education Act--The War in 1918--Italy--The Armistice--Mrs. -Ward's third journey to France--Visit to British -Headquarters--Strasburg, Verdun and Rheims--Paris--Ill-health--The -Writing of _Fields of Victory_--The last -Summer at Stocks--Mrs. Ward and the "Enabling Bill"--Breakdown -in Health--Removal to London--Mr. -Ward's Operation--Her Death 288-309 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - TO FACE - PAGE - -Mary Ward at Twenty-five. From a water-colour painting by -Mrs. A. H. Johnson _Frontispiece_ - -Borough Farm. From a water-colour painting by Mrs. -Humphry Ward 45 - -Mrs. Ward in 1889. From a photograph by Bassano 82 - -Mrs. Ward in 1898. From a photograph by Miss Ethel M. -Arnold 149 - -Mrs. Ward and Henry James at Stocks. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 252 - -Mrs. Ward beside the Lake of Lucerne. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 262 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -1851-1867 - - -Is the study of heredity a science or a pure romance? For the unlearned -at least I like to think it is the latter, since no law that the -Professors ever formulated can explain the caprices of each little human -soul, bobbing up like a coracle over life's horizon and bringing with it -things gathered at random from an infinitely remote and varying -ancestry. It is, I believe, generally known that the subject of this -biography was a granddaughter of Arnold of Rugby, and therewith her -intellectual ability and the force of her character are thought to be -sufficiently explained. But what of her mother, the beautiful Julia -Sorell, of whom her sad husband said at her death that she had "the -nature of a queen," ever thwarted and rebuffed by circumstance? What of -the strain of Spanish Protestant blood that ran in the veins of the -Sorells: for although they were refugees from France after the Edict of -Nantes, it is most probable that they came of Spanish origin? What of -the strain brought in by the wild and forcible Kemps of Mount Vernon in -Tasmania? A daughter of Anthony Fenn Kemp (himself a "character" of a -remarkable kind) married William Sorell and so became the mother of -Julia and the grandmother of Mary Arnold; but the principal fact that is -known of her is that she deserted her three daughters after bringing -them to England for their education, went off with an army officer and -was hardly heard of more. An ungovernable temper seems to have marked -most of this family, and the recollections of her childhood were so -terrible to Julia Sorell that she wrote in after years to her husband, -"Few families have been blessed with such a home training as yours, and -certainly very few in our rank of life have been cursed with such as -mine." Yet although Julia inherited much of this violence and passion, -to her own constant misery, she had also "the nature of a queen," and -transmitted it in no small degree to her daughter Mary. - -The Sorells were descended from Colonel William Sorell, one of the early -Governors of Tasmania, who had been appointed to the post in 1816. Nine -years before, on his appointment as Adjutant-General at the Cape of Good -Hope, this Colonel Sorell had left behind him in England a woman to whom -he was legally married and by whom he had had several children, but whom -he never saw again after leaving these shores. He occupied himself, -indeed, with another lady, while the unfortunate wife at home struggled -to maintain his children on the very inadequate allowance which he had -granted her. Twice the allowance lapsed, with calamitous results for the -wife and children, and it was only on the active intervention of Lord -Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the payment -of her quarterly instalments was resumed in 1818. Meanwhile, her eldest -son William, a steady, hard-working lad, had been trying to support the -family from his own earnings of 12s. a week, and when he grew to man's -estate he applied to Lord Bathurst for permission to join his father in -Van Diemen's Land, hoping that so he might help to reconcile his -parents. Lord Bathurst gave him his passage out, but had in fact already -decided to recall Governor Sorell, so that when young Sorell arrived at -Hobart Town early in 1824 he found his father only awaiting the arrival -of his successor (the well-known Colonel Arthur), before quitting the -Colony for good. William, however, decided to remain there, accepted the -position of Registrar of Deeds from Colonel Arthur, and made his -permanent home in the island. He married the head-strong Miss Kemp, and -in his sad after-life suffered a reversal of the parts played by his own -father and mother. Long after his wife had deserted him he lived on in -Hobart Town, much respected and beloved, and remembered by his -granddaughter as a "gentle, affectionate, upright being, a gentleman of -an old, punctilious school, content with a small sphere and much loved -within it." - -His daughter Julia grew up as the favourite and pet of Hobart Town -society, much admired by the subalterns of the solitary battalion of -British troops that maintained our prestige among the convicts and the -"blacks" of that remote settlement. But for her Fate held other things -in store. Early in 1850 there appeared at Hobart Town a young man of -twenty-six, tall and romantic-looking, who bore a name well known even -in the southern seas--the name of Thomas Arnold. He was the second son -of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. He had left the Old World for the Newest three -years before on a genuine quest for the ideal life; had tried farming in -New Zealand, but in vain, and had then, after some adventures in -schoolmastering, come to Tasmania at the invitation of the Governor, Sir -William Denison, to organize the public education of the Colony. Fortune -seemed to smile upon the young Inspector of Schools, who as a -first-classman and an Arnold found a kind and ready welcome from those -who reigned in Tasmania, and when he met Julia Sorell a few weeks after -he landed and fell in love with her at first sight, no obstacles were -placed in his way. They were married on June 12, 1850--a love-match if -ever there was one, but a match that was too soon to be subjected to -that most fiery test of all, a religious struggle of the deepest and -most formidable kind. - -Thomas Arnold came of a family to whom religion was always a "concern," -as the Quakers call it; whether it was the great Doctor, with his making -of "Christian gentlemen" at Rugby and his fierce polemics against the -"Oxford malignants," or Matt, with his "Power, not ourselves, that makes -for righteousness," or William (a younger brother), with his religious -novel, _Oakfield_, about the temptations of Indian Army life; and Thomas -was by no means exempt from the tradition. A sentimental idealist by -nature, he was a friend of Clough and had already been immortalized as -"Philip" in the _Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich_.[1] He came now to the -Antipodes in rationalistic mood and in search of the nobler, freer life; -but soon the old beliefs reasserted themselves, yet brought no peace. -His mind was "hot for certainties in this our life," and he had not been -five years in Tasmania before he was seeing much of a certain Catholic -priest and feeling himself strongly drawn towards the ancient fold. His -poor wife, in whom her Huguenot ancestry had bred an instinctive and -invincible loathing for Catholicism, felt herself overtaken by a kind of -black doom; she made wild threats of leaving him, she shuddered at the -thought of what might happen to the children. Yet nothing that she or -any of his friends could say might avert the fatal step. Tom Arnold was -received into the Roman Catholic Church at Hobart Town on January 12, -1856. - -His prospects immediately darkened, for feeling ran high in the Colony -against Popery, and it soon became clear that he must give up his -appointment and return to England. Already three children had been born -to him and Julia, but the young wife was now plunged in preparations for -the uprooting of her household and the transport of the whole family -across the globe, to an unknown future and a world of unknown faces. The -voyage was accomplished in a sailing-ship of 400 tons, the _William -Brown_, so overrun by rats that the mother and nurse had to take turns -to watch over the children at night, lest their faces should be bitten; -but after more than three months of this existence the ship did finally -reach English waters and cast anchor in the Thames on October 17, 1856. -It was wet autumn weather and the little family huddled forlornly in a -small inn in Thames Street, but the next day a deliverer appeared in the -person of William Forster (the future Education Minister), who had -married Tom's eldest sister Jane a few years before and who now carried -off the whole family to better quarters in London, helped them in the -kindest way and finally saw off the mother and children to the friendly -shelter of Fox How--that beloved home among the Westmorland hills which -"the Doctor" had built to house his growing family and which was now to -play so great a part in the development of his latest descendant, the -little Mary Arnold. - -Mary Augusta had been born at Hobart Town on June 11, 1851. She was, of -course, the apple of her parents' eyes, and the descriptions which her -father wrote of her, in the long letters that went home to his mother at -Fox How by every available boat, give a curiously vivid picture of a -little creature richly endowed with fairy gifts, but above all with the -crowning gift of _life_. At first she is a "pretty little creature, with -a compact little face, good features and an uncommonly large forehead"; -then at eight months, "If you could but see our darling Mary! The vigour -of life, the animation, the activity of eye and hand that she displays -are astonishing. Her brown hair in its abundance is the admiration of -everybody." At a year old she is "passionate but not peevish, sensitive -to the least harshness in word or gesture, but usually full of merriment -and gladsomeness. She is like a sparkling fountain or a gay flower in -the house, filling it with light and freshness." She has many childish -ailments, but conquers them all in a manner strangely prophetic of her -later power of resisting illness. "I fear you will think she must be a -very sickly child," writes her father, "and she certainly is delicate -and easily put out of order; but I have much faith in the strength of -her constitution, for in all her ailments she has seemed to have a power -of battling against them, a vitality that pulls her through." As a -little thing of under two her feelings are terribly easily worked upon: -"The other evening it was raining very hard and I began to talk to her -about the poor people out in the rain who were getting wet and had no -warm fire to sit by and no nice dry clothes to put on. You cannot -imagine how this touched her. She kept on repeating over and over again, -'Poor people! Poor people! Out in the rain! Get warm! get warm!'" But as -she grows bigger she develops a will of her own that sorely troubles her -father, beset with all the ideas of his generation about "prompt -obedience"; at three and a half he writes: "Little Polly is as imitative -as a monkey and as mischievous; self-willed and resolute to take the -lead and have her own way, whenever her companions are anything -approaching to her own age. Not a very easy character to manage as you -will see, yet often to be led through her feelings, when it would be -difficult to drive her in defiance of her will." Soon he is having "a -regular pitched battle with her about once a day," and writes ruefully -home--as though he were having the worst of it--that Polly is "kind -enough where she can patronize, but her domineering spirit makes even -her kindness partake of oppression." Two little brothers, Willie and -Theodore, had already been added to the family by the time they made the -voyage home--playthings whom Mary alternately slapped and cuddled and in -whom she took an immense pride of possession. They were the first of a -long series of brothers and sisters to whom her kindness, in after -years, was certainly not of the kind that "partakes of oppression." - -Thus, at the age of five, this little spirit, passionate, self-willed -and tender-hearted, came within the direct orbit of the Arnold family. -During most of the four years that followed their arrival she was either -staying with her grandmother, the Doctor's widow, at Fox How, or else -living as a boarder at Miss Clough's little school at Eller How, near -Ambleside, and spending her Saturdays at Fox How. Her father meanwhile -took work under Newman in Dublin and earned a precarious subsistence for -his wife and family by teaching at the Catholic University there. They -were times of hardship and privation for Julia, who never ceased to be -in love with Tom and never ceased to curse the day of his conversion; -and as the babies increased and the income did not she was fain to allow -her eldest daughter to live more and more with the kind grandmother, who -asked no better than to have the child about the house. And, indeed, to -have this particular child about the house was not always a light -undertaking! She was wonderfully quick, clever and affectionate, but her -tempers sometimes shook her to pieces in storms of passion, and the -devoted "Aunt Fan," the Doctor's youngest daughter, who lived with her -mother at Fox How, was often sorely puzzled how to deal with her. Still, -by a judicious mixture of severity and tenderness she won the child's -affection, so that Mary was wont to say, looking slyly at her aunt, "I -like Aunt Fan--she's the master of me!" - -The Arnold atmosphere made indeed a very remarkable influence for any -impressionable child of Mary's age to live in; it supplied a deep-rooted -sense of calm and balance, an unalterable family affection and a sad -disapproval of tempers and excesses of all kinds which, as time went on, -had a marked effect on the Tasmanian child. From a Sorell by birth and -temperament, as I believe she was, she gradually became an Arnold by -environment. If she inherited from her mother those wilder springs of -energy and courage which impelled her, like some dæmon within, to be up -and doing in life's race, it was from the Arnolds that she learnt the -art of living, the art of harnessing the dæmon. They certainly made a -memorable group, the nine sons and daughters of Arnold of Rugby: all of -whom, except Fan, the youngest daughter, were scattered from the nest by -the time that "little Polly" came to Fox How, but all of whom maintained -for each other and for their mother the tenderest affection, so that -life at the Westmorland home was continually crossed and re-crossed by -their visits and their letters. In looking through these faded letters -the reader of to-day is struck by their seriousness and simplicity of -tone, by the intense family affection they display and by the very real -relation in which the writers stood towards the "indwelling presence of -God." Hardly a member of the family can be mentioned without the prefix -"dear" or "dearest," nor can anyone who is acquainted with the Arnold -temperament doubt that this was genuine. Birthdays are made the occasion -for rather solemn words of love or exhortation, and if any sorrow -strikes the family one may expect without fail to find a complete -reliance on the accustomed sources of consolation. Yet they are not -prigs, these brothers and sisters; their roots strike deep down to the -bed-rock of life, and though they are all (except poor Tom) in fairly -prosperous circumstances, they can be generous and open-handed to those -who are less so. Tom was, I think, the special darling of the family, -and his lapse to Catholicism a terrible trial to them, but none the less -did they labour for Tom's children in all simplicity of heart. - -The daughter who, next to "Aunt Fan," had most to do with little Mary -was Jane, the wife of William Forster; Mary was her godchild, and soon -conceived a kind of passion for this sweet-faced woman of thirty-five, -who, childless herself, returned the little girl's affection in no -ordinary degree. Mary would sometimes go to stay with her at -Burley-in-Wharfedale, where she looked with awe at the "great wheels" in -Uncle Forster's woollen mill and saw the children working -there--children untouched as yet by their master's schemes for their -welfare, or by the still remoter visions of their small observer. Then -there was Matt--Matt the sad poet and gay man of the world, who brought -with him on his rarer visits to Fox How the breath of London and of -great affairs, for was he not, in his sisters' eyes at least, the spoilt -darling of society, the diner-out, the frequenter of great houses? He -looked, we know, with unusual interest upon Tom's Polly, and in later -years was wont to say, with his whimsical smile, that she "got her -ability from her mother." Another aunt to whom the Tasmanian child -became much devoted was her namesake Mary, at that time Mrs. Hiley, a -woman whose rich, responsive nature and keen sense of humour endeared -her greatly to the few friends who knew her well, and whose early -rebellions and idealisms had given her a most human personality. It was -she among all the group who understood and sympathized most keenly with -Tom's wife, so that between Julia and Mary Hiley a bond was forged that -ended only with the former's death. Poor Julia! The Arnold atmosphere -was indeed sometimes a formidable one, and had little sympathy to give -to her own undisciplined and tempestuous nature, with its strange deeps -of feeling. Julia's temptations--to extravagance in money matters and to -passionate outbursts of temper--were not Arnold temptations, and she -often felt herself disapproved of in spite of much outward affection and -kindness. And then she would have morbid reactions in which the old -Calvinistic hell-fire of her forefathers seemed very near. Once when she -was staying at Fox How, ill and depressed, she wrote to her husband: -"The feeling grows upon me that I am one of those unhappy people whom -_God has abandoned_, and it is the effect of this feeling I am sure -which causes me to behave as I often do. Oh! it is an awful thing to -_despair_ about one's future state...." Probably she felt that in spite -of their undoubted humility, her in-laws never quite despaired about -theirs. - - * * * * * - -By the time that Mary was seven years old, that is in the autumn of -1858, it was decided that she should go as a boarder to Miss Anne -Clough's school at Ambleside, or rather at Eller How on the slopes of -Wansfell behind the town. Here she spent two years and more--happy on -the whole, often naughty and wilful, but usually held in awe by Miss -Clough's stately presence and power of commanding her small flock. -There was only one other boarder besides Mary, a girl named Sophie -Bellasis, whose recollections of those days were preserved and given to -the world long afterwards by her husband, the late Mr. T. C. Down, in an -article published by the _Cornhill Magazine_.[2] Miss Bellasis' -impressions of the queer little girl, Mary Arnold, who was her -fellow-boarder, make so vivid a picture that I may perhaps be forgiven -for reproducing them here: - - "Mary had a very decided character of her own, as well as a pretty - vivid imagination, for the odd things she used to say, merely on - the spur of the moment, would quite stagger me sometimes. Once when - we were going along the passage upstairs leading to the schoolroom, - she stopped at one of the gratings where the hot air came up from - the furnace, with holes in the pattern about the size of a - shilling, and told me that she knew a little boy whose head was so - small that he could put it through one of those holes: and after we - had gone to bed she would tell me the oddest stories in a whisper, - because it was against the rules to talk. I think now that her - fancy used to run riot with her, and, of course, she had to give - vent to it in any way that suggested itself. But I implicitly - believed whatever she chose to tell me, so that you see we both - enjoyed ourselves. Her energy and high spirits were something - wonderful; out of doors she was never still, but always running or - jumping or playing, and she invariably tired me out at this sort of - thing. Still, nothing came amiss to her in the way of amusement; - anything that entered her head would answer the purpose, and she - was never at a loss. I recollect she had a lovely doll, which her - aunt, Mrs. Forster, had given her, all made of wax. Once she was - annoyed with this doll for some reason or other and broke it up - into little bits. We put the bits into little saucepans, and melted - them over one of the gratings I told you of. Sometimes Willy Dolly - (that was the name we had for the general factotum) would let the - fire go down, and then the gratings were cold, and at other times - he would have a roaring fire, and then they would be so hot that - you couldn't touch them. So we melted the wax and moulded it into - dolls' puddings, and that was the last of her wax doll! - - "One day we were over at Fox How, which was a pretty house, with a - wide lawn and garden. One side of it was covered with a handsome - Virginia creeper, which was thought a great deal of, and, of - course, was not intended to be meddled with. Suddenly it occurred - to Mary that it would be first-rate fun to pick 'all those red - leaves,' and I obediently went and helped her. We cleared a great - bare space all along the wall as high as we could reach, but from - what Miss Arnold said when she came out and discovered what was - done, I gathered that she was not so pleased with our work as we - were ourselves." - -It was during these years, from six to nine, that the foundation was -laid of that passionate adoration for the fells, with their streams, -bogs and stone walls, which became one of Mary's most intimate -possessions and never deserted her in after years. In her -_Recollections_ she describes a walk up the valley to Sweden Bridge with -her father and Arthur Clough, the two men safely engaged in grown-up -talk while she, happy and alone, danced on in front or lingered behind, -all eyes and ears for the stream, the birds and the wind. It was a walk -of which she soon knew every inch, just as she knew every inch of the -Fox How garden, and I believe that the sights and sounds of that rough -northern valley came to be woven in with the very texture of her soul. -They appealed to something primitive and deep-down in her little heart, -some power that remained with her through life and that, as she once -said to me, "stands more rubs than anything else in our equipment." - -Then, when she was only nine and a half, she was transferred to a school -at Shiffnal in Shropshire, kept by a certain Miss Davies, whose sister -happened to be an old friend of Tom Arnold's and offered now to -undertake little Mary's maintenance if she were sent to this "Rock -Terrace School for Young Ladies." But the change seemed to call out all -the demon in Mary's composition; she fought blindly against the -restrictions and rules of this new community, felt herself at enmity -with all the world and broke out ever and anon in storms of passion. In -the first chapter of _Marcella_ it is all described--the "sulks, -quarrels and revolts" of Marcie Boyce (_alias_ Mary Arnold), the -getting up at half-past six on dark winter mornings, the cold ablutions -and dreary meals, and the occasional days in bed with senna-tea and -gruel when Miss Davies (at her wits' end, poor lady!) would try the -method of seclusion as a cure for Mary's tantrums. The poor little thing -suffered cruelly from headaches and bad colds, and laboured too under a -sore sense of poverty and disadvantage as compared with the other girls; -she was, in fact, paid for at a lower rate than most of the other -boarders, and was not allowed to forget it. Often she writes home to beg -for stamps, and once she says to her father: "Do send me some more -money. It was so tantalizing this morning, a woman came to the door with -twopenny baskets, so nice, and many of the other girls got them and I -couldn't." Another time she begs him to send her the threepence that she -has "earned," by writing out some lists of names for him. But on -Saturdays she had one joy, fiercely looked forward to all the week; a -"cake-woman" came to the school, and by hoarding up her tiny weekly -allowance she was able--usually--to buy a three-cornered jam puff. To a -rather starved and very lonely little girl of nine or ten this was--she -often said to us afterwards--the purest consolation of the week. - -But there were some compensations even in these unlovely surroundings. -The nice old German governess, Fräulein Gerecke, was always kind to her, -and tried in little unobtrusive ways to ease the lot which Mary found so -hard to bear. Once she made for her, surreptitiously, a white muslin -frock with blue ribbons and laid it on her bed in time for some little -function of the school for which Mary had received no "party frock" from -home. A gush of hot tears was the response, tears partly of gratitude, -partly of soreness at the need for it; but the muslin frock was worn -nevertheless, and entered from that moment into the substance of the -day-dreams and stories that she was for ever telling herself. Any child -who has a faculty for it will understand how great a consolation were -these self-told stories, in which she rioted especially on days of -senna-tea and gruel. Tales of the Princess of Wales and how she, Mary, -herself succeeded in stopping her runaway horses, with the divinity's -pale agitation and gratitude, filled the long hours, and the muslin -frock usually came into the story when Mary made her trembling -appearance "by command" at the palace afterwards. Gradually, too, these -tales came to weave themselves round more accessible mortals, for Mary's -heart and affections were waking up and she did not escape, any more -than the modern schoolgirl, her share of "adorations." At twelve years -old she fell headlong in love with the Vicar of Shiffnal and his wife, -Mr. and Mrs. Cunliffe; going to church--especially in the evenings, when -the Vicar preached--became a romance; seeing Mrs. Cunliffe pass by in -her pony-carriage lent a radiance to the day. The Vicar's wife, a gentle -Evangelical, felt genuinely drawn towards the untamed little being and -did her best to guide the wayward footsteps, while Mary on her side -wrote poems to her idol, keeping them fortunately locked within her -desk, and let her fancy run from ecstasy to ecstasy in the dreams that -she wove around her. What "dauntless child" among us does not know these -splendours, and the transforming effect that they have upon the prickly -hide of youth? Little Mary Arnold was destined to leave her mark upon -the world, partly by power of brain, but more by sheer power of love, -and the first human beings to unlock the unguessed stores of it within -her were these two kindly Evangelicals. - -Still, the demon was not quite exorcised, and "Aunt Fan" still found -Mary something of a handful when she stayed at Fox How, though now in a -different way. - - "She seems to me very much wanting in _humility_," she writes in - January, 1864, "which, with the knowledge she must have of her own - abilities, is not perhaps wonderful, but it is ungraceful to hear - her expressing strong opinions and holding her own, against elder - people, without certainly much sense of reverence. One thing, - however I will mention to show her desire to conquer herself. She - had no gloves to go to Ellergreen, and I objected to buying her - kid, but got her such as I wear myself, very nice cloth. She vowed - and protested she couldn't and shouldn't wear them, so I said I - should not make her, but if she wanted kid, she must buy them with - her own money. I talked quietly to her about it and said how - pleased I should be if she conquered this whim, and when she came - to say good-bye to me before starting for Ellergreen her last words - were--'I am going to put on the gloves, Auntie!'--and she has worn - them ever since, though I must say with some grumblings!" - -She stayed for four years at Miss Davies's, during which time her -parents moved (in 1862) from Dublin to Birmingham, where Tom Arnold was -offered work under Newman at the Oratory School. The change brought a -small increase in salary, but not enough to cover the needs of the still -growing family, and if it had not been for the help freely given during -these years by W. E. Forster, the struggling pair must almost have gone -down under their difficulties. One result of the change was that the -elder boys, Willie and Theodore, were themselves sent to the Oratory -School, and the thought of Arnold of Rugby's grandsons being pupils of -Newman gave rise to bitter reflections at Fox How. "I was very glad to -hear of Willy's having done so well in the examination of his class," -wrote Julia to her husband from the family home, "although I must -confess the thought of _our son_ being examined by Dr. Newman had -carried a pang to my heart. Your mother I found felt it in the same way; -she said (when I read out to her that part of your letter) with her eyes -full of tears, 'Oh! to think of _his_ grandson, _dearest Tom's son_, -being examined by Dr. Newman!'" Still, Julia was emphatically of opinion -that if priests were to have a hand in their education at all, she would -rather it were English than Irish priests.[3] - -Meanwhile, the shortcomings of the school at Shiffnal were becoming -evident to Mary's mother, and in the winter of 1864-5 she succeeded in -arranging that the child should be sent instead to another near Clifton, -kept by a certain Miss May, which was smaller and also more expensive -than Miss Davies's. Heaven knows how the payments were managed, but the -change answered extremely well, for after the first term Mary settled -down in complete happiness and soon developed such a devotion to Miss -May as made short work of her remaining tendencies to temper and -"contrariness." Miss May must have been exactly the type of -schoolmistress that Mary needed at this stage--kind and large-hearted, -with the understanding necessary to win the confidence of such an -uncommon little creature--so that it was not long before the child's -mind began to expand in every direction. Long afterwards she was wont to -say that the actual knowledge she acquired at school was worth next to -nothing--that she learnt no subject thoroughly and left school without -any "edged tools." But certainly by the time she was twelve she could -write a French letter such as not many of us could produce with all our -advantages, while the drawing and music that she learnt at school -encouraged certain natural talents in her that were to give her some of -the purest joys of her after-life. Still, no doubt her mind received no -systematic training, and at Miss Davies's I believe that _Mangnall's -Questions_ were still the common textbook! Though she learnt a little -German and Latin she always said that she had them to do all over again -when she needed them later for her work, while Greek, which became the -joy and consolation of her later years, was entirely a "grown-up" -acquisition. But whatever the imperfections of her nine years of school, -better times were at hand both for Mary and her mother. - -Whether it was that after two or three years of the Birmingham Oratory, -Tom Arnold's political radicalism (always a sturdy growth) began to make -him uneasy at the proceedings of Pio Nono--for 1864 was the year of the -Encyclical--or whether it was more particularly the Mortara case, as he -says in his autobiography,[4] at any rate his feeling towards the -Catholic Church had grown distinctly cool by the end of that year, and -he was meditating leaving the Oratory. Gradually the rumour spread among -his friends that Tom Arnold was turning against Rome, and in June, 1865, -a paragraph to this effect appeared in the papers. Little Mary, now a -girl of fourteen, heard the news while she was at Miss May's, and wrote -in ecstasy to her mother: - - "My precious Mother, I have indeed seen the paragraphs about Papa. - The L's showed them me on Saturday. You can imagine the excitement - I was in on Saturday night, not knowing whether it was true or not. - Your letter confirmed it this morning and Miss May, seeing I - suppose that I looked rather faint, sent me on a pretended errand - for her notebook to escape the breakfast-table. My darling Mother, - how thankful you must be! One feels as if one could do nothing but - thank Him." - -Her father's change opened indeed a new and happier chapter in their -lives, for it opened the road to Oxford. He had been seriously facing -the possibility of a second emigration, this time to Queensland, and had -been making inquiries about official work there, but his own -inclinations--and, of course, Julia's too--were in favour of trying to -make a living at Oxford by the taking of pupils. His old friends there -encouraged him, and by the autumn of 1865 they were established in a -house in St. Giles's and the venture had begun. Mary wrote in delight -that winter to her dear Mrs. Cunliffe: - - "Do you know that we are now living at Oxford? My father takes - pupils and has a history lectureship. We are happier there than we - have ever been before, I think. My father revels in the libraries, - and so do I when I am at home." - -A fragment of diary written in the Christmas holidays of 1865-6 reveals -how much she enjoyed being taken for a grown-up young lady by Oxford -friends. "Went to St. Mary Magdalen's in the morning and heard a droll -sermon on Convictional Sin. Met Sir Benjamin [Brodie] coming home. Miss -Arnold at home supposed to be seventeen, and Mary Arnold at school known -to be fourteen are two very different things." She is absorbed in -_Essays in Criticism_, but can still criticize the critic. "Read Uncle -Matt's Essay on Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment. Compares the -religious feeling of Pompeii and Theocritus with the religious feeling -of St. Francis and the German Reformation. Contrasts the religion of -sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity with the religion of sense, -giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight pre-eminence -over the latter." She does not like the famous _Preface_ at all. "The -_Preface_ is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, -that of being amusing. As for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight -charms and Romeo and Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly -inclined to ride the high horse whenever he approaches the subject." - -As the eldest of eight children she led a very strenuous life at home, -helping to teach the little ones and ever striving to avoid a clash -between her mother's temper and her own. The entries in the diary are -often sadly self-accusing: "These last three days I have not served -Christ at all. It has been nothing but self from beginning to end. -Prayer seems a task and it seems as if God would not receive me." - -But after another year and a half at Miss May's school these -difficulties vanished, and by the time that she came to live at home -altogether, in the summer of 1867, the rough edges had smoothed -themselves away in marvellous fashion. She was sixteen, and the world -was before her--the world of Oxford, which in spite of her criticisms of -the _Preface_ was indeed _her_ world. Her father seemed content with his -teaching work, and was planning the building of a larger house. She set -to work to be happy, and so indeed did her mother--happy in a great -reprieve, and in the reviving hopes of prosperity. But now and then -Julia would stop suddenly in her household tasks, hearing ominous sounds -from Tom's study. Was it the chanting of a Latin prayer? She put the -fear behind her and passed on. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD - -1867-1881 - - -When Tom Arnold settled with his family at Oxford, in 1865, the old -University was still labouring under the repercussions, the thrills and -counter-thrills, of the famous Movement set on foot in 1833 by Keble's -sermon on _National Apostasy_. Keble, indeed, was withdrawn from the -scene, but Newman's conversion to Rome (1845) had made so prodigious a -stir that even twenty years later the religious world of England still -took its colour from that event. In the words of Mark Pattison, "whereas -other reactions accomplished themselves by imperceptible degrees, in -1845 the darkness was dissipated and the light was let in in an instant, -as by the opening of the shutters in the chamber of a sick man who has -slept till mid-day." So at least the crisis appeared to the Liberal -world; the mask had been torn from the Tractarians and their Romanizing -tendencies stood revealed to all beholders. In the opposite camp the -consternation was proportionate, but the formidable figure of Pusey -rallied the doubters and brought them back in good order to the _Via -Media_ of the Anglican communion; while the tender poetry of Keble and -the far-famed eloquence of Liddon fortified and adorned the High Church -cause. But the sudden ending of the Tractarian controversy opened the -way for another movement, slower and less sensational than that of -Newman, yet destined to have an even deeper effect upon the religious -life of England. The freedom of the human mind began to be insisted -upon, not only in the realm of science, or where science clashed with -the Book of Genesis, but in the whole field of the Interpretation of -Scripture. Slowly the results of fifty years of patient study of the -Bible by German scholars and historians began to penetrate here, and -even Oxford, stronghold and citadel of the Laudian establishment, felt -the stir of a new interest, a new challenge to accepted forms. A Liberal -school of theologians arose, led by Jowett, Mark Pattison and other -writers in _Essays and Reviews_ (1860), for whom the old letter of -"inspiration" no longer existed, though they stoutly maintained their -orthodoxy as members and ministers of the Church of England. The Church, -they said, must broaden her base so as to make room for the results of -science and of historical criticism, or else she would be left high and -dry while the forces of democracy passed on their way without her. -Jowett, in his famous essay "On the Interpretation of Scripture," boldly -summed up his argument in the precept, "Interpret the Scripture like any -other book." "The first step is to know the meaning, and this can only -be done in the same careful and impartial way that we ascertain the -meaning of Sophocles or Plato." "Educated persons are beginning to ask, -not what Scripture may be made to mean, but what it does mean." - -The hubbub raised by these and similar expressions continued during the -three years of proceedings before the Court of Arches, the Judicial -Committee of the Privy Council, and finally Convocation, against two of -the contributors to _Essays and Reviews_, and had hardly died away when -the Arnolds came to take up their life in Oxford. And side by side with -the theoretical discussion went the insistent demand of the reforming -party, both at Oxford and in Parliament, for the abolition of the -disabilities that still weighed so heavily against Dissenters. For, -although the "Oxford University Act" of 1854 had admitted them to -matriculation and the B.A. degree, neither Fellowships nor the M.A. were -yet open to any save subscribers to the Thirty-nine Articles. All -through the 'sixties the battle raged, with an annual attempt in -Parliament to break down the defence of the guardians of tradition, and -not till 1871 was the "citadel taken."[5] Jowett and Arthur Stanley -stood forth among the Liberal champions at Oxford--the latter reckoning -himself always as carrying on the tradition of Arnold of Rugby, whose -pamphlet urging the inclusion of Dissenters in the National Church had -made so great a sensation in 1833. It was hardly possible, therefore, -for a little Arnold of Mary's temperament and traditions to escape the -atmosphere that surrounded her so closely, though we need not imagine -that at the age of sixteen she did more than imbibe it passively. But -there were certain things that were not passive in her memory--visions -of Dr. Newman in the streets of Edgbaston, passing gravely by upon his -business--business which the child so passionately resented because she -understood it to be responsible in some vague way for all the hardships -and misfortunes of her family. We may safely assume that if she was ever -taken into Oriel College and saw the many rows of portraits looking down -at her there, in Common-room and Hall, she would feel an instinctive -rallying to the standard of her grandfather rather than to that of his -mighty opponent. - -Two other remarkable figures who dominated the Oxford world of that day, -though from opposite camps, were the silver-tongued Dr. Liddon, "Select -Preacher" at the University Church, and Mark Pattison, Rector of -Lincoln, whom his contemporaries looked on with awe as one of the most -learned scholars in Europe in matters of pure erudition, but in religion -a sad sceptic, though twenty years before, they knew, he had been a -brand only barely plucked from Newman's burning. Both were to have their -influence upon Mary Arnold, the former superficial, the latter deep and -lasting, and it is curious to find a letter from her father, written in -1865, before he had definitely left the Catholic communion, in which he -describes hearing both men preach on the same day in the University -Church. - - "Pattison's sermon was certainly a most remarkable one," he writes; - "I could have sat another half-hour under him with pleasure. But he - has much more of the philosopher than the divine about him, and the - discourse had the effect of an able article in the _National_ or - _Edinburgh Review_, read to a cultivated audience in the academical - theatre, much more than of a sermon. In fact, the name either of - Jesus Christ or of one of the Apostles was not once mentioned - throughout. The subject was, the higher education; and the felicity - of the language accorded well with the clearness and beauty of the - thoughts. He condemned the Catholic system, and also the Positivist - system, and in speaking of the former he said, 'I cannot do better - than describe it in the words of one whose voice was once wont to - sound within these walls with thrilling power, but now, alas! can - never more be heard by us, who in his Treatise on University - Education--' and then he proceeded to quote at some length from Dr. - Newman. It was an extremely powerful sermon, but scandalized, I - think, the High Church and orthodox party. 'Do you often now,' I - asked Edwin Palmer with a smile, meeting him outside after it was - over, 'have University sermons in that style?' 'Oh dear no,' he - said, 'scarcely ever, except indeed from Pattison himself'; this - with some acidity of tone. I dined early; then thought I, in for a - penny, in for a pound, I'll go and hear the other University - sermon. I was punctual, but there was not a seat to be had, the - ladies mustered in overwhelming force. It was strange, but sermon - and preacher were now everything most opposite to those of the - morning. Liddon is a dark, black-haired little man--short, - straight, stubby hair--and with that shiny, glistening appearance - about his sallow complexion which one so often sees in Dissenting - ministers, and which the devotees no doubt consider a mark of - election. Liddon's whole sermon was an impassioned strain of - apologetic argument for the truth of the Resurrection, and of the - church doctrine generally. It was very clever certainly, but rather - too long, it extended to about an hour and twenty minutes. The tone - was earnest and devout; yet there were several sarcastic, one might - almost say irritable, flings at the liberal and rationalizing - party; and it was evident that he was thinking of the Oxford - congregation when he spoke pointedly of the 'educated sceptics who - at that time composed, or at any rate controlled, the Sanhedrin.' - These two," he continues, "were certainly sermons of more than - ordinary interest--each worthily representing a great stream of - thought and tendency, influential for good or evil at the present - moment upon millions of human beings." - -It was under such influences as these that Mary Arnold passed the four -impressionable years of her girlhood, from sixteen to twenty, that -elapsed between her leaving school and her engagement to Mr. Humphry -Ward, of Brasenose. She plunged with zest into the Oxford life, making -friends, helping her father at the Bodleian in his researches into -early English literature and studying music to very good purpose under -James Taylor, the future organist of New College. But she had no further -regular education, and was free to roam and devour at will in that city -of books, guided only by the advice of a few friends and by her own -innate literary instincts. The Mark Pattisons early befriended her, -frequently asking her to supper with them on Sunday evenings--suppers at -which she sat, shy and silent, in a high woollen dress, with her black, -wavy hair brushed very smoothly back, listening to every word of the -eager talk around her and drinking in, no doubt, the Rector's caustic -remarks about Oxford scholarship. These were the years of battle between -the champions of research and the champions of the Balliol ideal of -turning out good men for the public service, and in her ardent -admiration for the Rector Mary Arnold threw herself whole-heartedly into -the former camp. "Get to the bottom of something," he used to say to -her; "choose a subject and know _everything_ about it!" And so she -plunged into early Spanish literature and history, working at it in the -Bodleian with the fervour that comes from knowing that your subject is -your very own, or at least that it has only been traversed before by -dear, musty German scholars. There was hard practice here in the reading -of German and Latin, let alone the Spanish poems and chronicles -themselves, but after a couple of years of it there was little she did -not know about the _Poema del Cid_, or the Visigothic invasion, or the -reign of _Alfonso el Sabio_. Her friend, J. R. Green, the historian, was -so much impressed with her work that he recommended her when she was -only twenty to Edward Freeman as the best person he could suggest for -writing a volume on Spain in an historical series that the latter was -editing. Mr. Freeman duly invited her, but by that time she was already -deep in the preparations for her marriage and was obliged to decline the -offer. She maintained her allegiance to the subject, however, through -all the years that followed, until, as will be seen hereafter, Dean Wace -made her the momentous proposition that she should undertake the lives -of the early Spanish kings and ecclesiastics for the _Dictionary of -Christian Biography_. And there, in the four volumes of the -_Dictionary_, her articles stand to this day, a monument to an early -enthusiasm lightly kindled by a word from a great man, but pursued with -all the patience and intensity of the true historian. - -In the course of this work on the early Spaniards she developed an -extraordinary attachment to the Bodleian, with all the most secret -corners of which she soon became familiar, under the benevolent guidance -of the Librarian, Mr. Coxe. The charm of the noble building, with its -mellow lights and shades, its silences, its deep spaces of book-lined -walls, sank into her very soul and gave her that background of the love -of books and reading which became perhaps--next to her love of -nature--the strongest solace of her after-life. At the age of twenty she -wrote a little essay, called "A Morning in the Bodleian,"[6] which -reflects all the joy--nay, the pride--of her own long days of work among -the calf-bound volumes. - - "As you slip into the chair set ready for you," she writes, "a deep - repose steals over you--the repose, not of indolence but of - possession; the product of time, work and patient thought only. - Literature has no guerdon for 'bread-students,' to quote the - expressive German phrase; let not the young man reading for his - pass, the London copyist or the British Museum illuminator, hope to - enter within the enchanted ring of her benignest influences; only - to the silent ardour, the thirst, the disinterestedness of the true - learner, is she prodigal of all good gifts. To him she beckons, in - him she confides, till she has produced in him that wonderful - many-sidedness, that universal human sympathy which stamps the true - literary man, and which is more religious than any form of creed." - -A touch about the German students to be found there has its note of -prophecy: "In a small inner room are the Hebrew manuscripts; a German is -working there, another in shirt-sleeves is here--strange people of -innumerable tentacles, stretching all ways, from Genesis to the latest -form of the needle-gun." And in the last page we come upon her most -intimate reflections, the thoughts pressed together from her many months -of comradeship with those silent tomes, which show, better than any -letters, the quality of a mind but just emerging--as the years are -reckoned--from its teens:-- - - "Who can pass out of such a building without a feeling of profound - melancholy? The thought is almost too obvious to be dwelt upon; but - it is overpowering and inevitable. These shelves of mighty folios, - these cases of laboured manuscripts, these illuminated volumes of - which each may represent a life--the first, dominant impression - which they make cannot fail to be like that which a burial-ground - leaves--a Hamlet-like sense of 'the pity of it.' Which is the - sadder image, the dust of Alexander stopping a bung-hole, or the - brain and life-blood of a hundred monks cumbering the shelves of - the Bodleian? Not the former, for Alexander's dust matters little - where his work is considered, but these monks' work is in their - books; to their books they sacrificed their lives, and gave - themselves up as an offering to posterity. And posterity, - overburdened by its own concerns, passes them by without a look or - a word! Here and there, of course, is a volume which has made a - mark upon the world; but the mass are silent for ever, and zeal, - industry, talent, for once that they have had permanent results, - have a thousand times been sealed by failure. And yet men go on - writing, writing; and books are born under the shadow of the great - libraries just as children are born within sight of the tombs. It - seems as though Nature's law were universal as well as rigid in its - sphere--wide wastes of sand shut in the green oasis, many a seed - falls among thorns or by the wayside, many a bud must be sacrificed - before there comes the perfect flower, many a little life must - exhaust itself in a useless book before the great book is made - which is to remain a force for ever. And so we might as profitably - murmur at the withered buds, at the seed that takes no root, at the - stretch of desert, as at the unread folios. They are waste, it is - true; but it is the waste that is thrown off by Humanity in its - ceaseless process towards the fulfilment of its law." - -No doubt her life was not all books during these four years, though -books gave it its tone and background; she took her part in the gaieties -of Oxford, in Eights Week and Commem. and in river parties to the -Nuneham woods, and it is to be feared that her stout resistance to the -"seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and Juliet -character" was not of long duration. In one select Oxford pastime, the -game of croquet, she attained to real pre-eminence, becoming, after her -marriage, one of the moving spirits of the Oxford Croquet Club. But her -shyness made social events no special joy to her, and she was far -happier sitting at the feet of "Mark Pat" or helping "Mrs. Pat" with her -etching in the sitting-room upstairs than in making conversation with -the youth of Oxford. - -One charming glimpse of her, however, at a social function remains to us -in the letters of M. Taine. The great Frenchman had come over in the -very spring of the _Commune_ (1871) to give a course of lectures at -Oxford; he met her one evening at the Master of Balliol's, being -introduced to her by Jowett himself. "'A very clever girl,' said -Professor Jowett, as he was taking me towards her. She is about twenty, -very nice-looking and dressed with taste (rather a rare thing here: I -saw one lady imprisoned in a most curious sort of pink silk sheath). -Miss Arnold was born out in Australia, where she was brought up till the -age of five. She knows French, German and Italian, and during this last -year has been studying old Spanish of the time of the Cid; also Latin, -in order to be able to understand the mediæval chronicles. All her -mornings she spends at the Bodleian Library--a most intellectual lady, -but yet a simple, charming girl. By exercise of great tact, I finally -led her on to telling me of an article--her first--that she was writing -for _Macmillan's Magazine_ upon the oldest romances. In extenuation of -it she said, 'Everybody writes or lectures here, and one must follow the -fashion. Besides, it passes the time, and the library is so fine and so -convenient.' Not in the least pedantic!"[7] - -Mary's efforts at writing fiction, which had been many from her -school-days onwards, were far less successful at this stage than her -more serious essays; but she persisted in the attempt, for the pressure -on the family budget was always so great that she longed to make herself -independent of it by earning something with her pen. She sent one story, -at the age of eighteen, to Messrs. Smith & Elder, her future -publishers, but when it was politely declined by them she showed her -philosophy in the following note-- - - -LALEHAM, OXFORD. -_October 1, 1869._ - -DEAR SIRS,-- - - I beg to thank you for your courteous letter. "Ailie" is a juvenile - production and I am not sorry you decline to publish it. Had it - appeared in print I should probably have been ashamed of it by and - by. - -I remain, -Yours obediently, -MARY ARNOLD. - -But at length no less a veteran than Miss Charlotte Yonge, who was then -editing a blameless magazine named the _Churchman's Companion_, accepted -a tale from her called "A Westmorland Story," and Mary's joy and pride -were unbounded. But the tale shows no glimpse, I think, of her future -power, and is as far removed from "A Morning in the Bodleian" as water -is from wine. - -Sometimes the Forsters would invite her to stay with them in London, and -so it occurred that at the age of eighteen she was actually there, in -the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons, when her uncle brought in -his famous Education Bill. In after life she was always glad to recall -that day, and when in the fullness of time her own path led her among -the stunted lives of London's children she liked to think that she was -in a sense continuing her uncle's work. - -In the winter of 1870-71 she first met Mr. T. Humphry Ward, Fellow and -Tutor of Brasenose College, between whom and herself an instant -attraction became manifest. Mr. Ward was the son of the Rev. Henry Ward, -Vicar of St. Barnabas, King Square, E.C., while his mother was Jane -Sandwith, sister of the well-known Army surgeon at the siege of Kars, -Humphry Sandwith, and herself a woman of remarkable charm and beauty of -character. By an odd chance, J. R. Green, the historian, had been curate -to Mr. Henry Ward in London for two years, had made himself the devoted -friend of all his numerous children and has left in his published -Letters a striking tribute to the great qualities of Mrs. Ward.[8] But -she died at the age of forty-two, and Mary Arnold never knew her. The -course of true love ran smoothly through the spring of 1871, and on June -16, five days after Mary's twentieth birthday, they became engaged. -Never was happiness more golden, and when the pair of lovers went to -stay at Fox How and the young man was introduced to all the well-beloved -places--Sweden Bridge and Loughrigg, Rydal Water and the -stepping-stones--she was quite puzzled, as she wrote to him afterwards, -by the change that had come over the mountains, by the "new relations -between Westmorland and me!" It was simply, as she said, that the -mountains had become the frame, instead of being, as hitherto, the -picture. - -They were engaged for ten months, and then, on April 6, 1872, Dean -Stanley married them and they settled, a little later, in a house in -Bradmore Road (then No. 5, now 17), where they lived and worked for the -next nine years. - - * * * * * - -Strenuous and delightful years! In looking back over them her old -friends recall with amazement her intense vitality and energy, in spite -of many lapses of health; how she was always at work, writing articles -or reviewing books to eke out the family income, and how she seemed -besides to bear on her shoulders the cares of two families, her own and -her husband's. She was the eldest and he the third of a long string of -brothers and sisters, the younger of whom were still quite children and -much in need of shepherding. The house in Bradmore Road was always a -second home to them. Her own parents lived close by and she was much in -and out of their house, sharing in their anxieties and struggles and -helping whenever it was possible to help. For she was linked to her -father by a deep and instinctive devotion, much strengthened by these -years of companionship at Oxford, and to her mother by a more aching -sense of pity and longing. Tom Arnold was growing restless again in the -mid-'seventies, and when he went with his younger children to church at -St. Philip's they would nudge each other to hear him muttering under his -breath the Latin prayers of long ago--little thinking, poor babes, how -their very bread and butter might hang upon these mutterings! But in -1876 there came a day when his election to the Professorship of Early -English was almost a foregone conclusion; as the author of the standard -edition of Wycliffe's English Works he was by far the strongest -candidate in the field, and Julia looked forward eagerly to a time of -deliverance from their perpetual money troubles. For some months, -however, he had secretly made up his mind that he must re-enter the -Roman fold, and now that once more his worldly promotion depended on his -remaining outside it he decided that this was the moment to make his -re-conversion public. He announced it on the very eve of the election, -with the result that the majority of the electors decided against him. -Poor Mary heard the news early next morning and ran round in great -distress to her true friends, the T. H. Greens, pouring it out to them -with uncontrollable tears. And, indeed, it was the death-knell of the -Arnolds' prosperity at Oxford. Pupils came no longer to be taught by a -professing Catholic, and Julia was reduced to taking "boarders" in a -smaller house in Church Walk, while Tom earned what he could by -incessant writing and eventually took work again at the Catholic -University in Dublin. And then a still more terrible blow fell upon -Julia; she was discovered to have cancer, and an operation in the autumn -of 1877 left her a maimed and suffering invalid. All this could not fail -to leave a profound mark on the anxious and tender heart of her -daughter, in whom the capacity for human affection seemed to grow and -treble with the years; it made a dark background to her Oxford life, -otherwise so full to overflowing with the happiness of friends and home. - -In her _Recollections_ she has given us once and for all a picture of -the Oxford of her day which in its brilliance and charm is not to be -matched by any later comer. All that can be attempted here is to fill in -to some extent the only gap that she has left in it--the portrait of -herself. How did she move among that small but gifted community, where -Walter Pater revolutionized the taste of Oxford with his Morris papers -and blue china, shocked the Oxford world with his paganizing tendencies -and would, besides, keep his sisters laughing the whole evening, when -they were quite alone, with his spontaneous fun; where Mandell -Creighton was leading and stimulating the teaching of history, with J. -R. Green to help him as Examiner in the Modern History Schools; where T. -H. Green was inspiring the younger generation with his own robust -idealism and the doctrine of the "duty of work," and the more venerable -figures of Jowett and Mark Pattison, Ruskin and Matthew Arnold, Stubbs -and Freeman dominated the intellectual scene? The impression that she -made upon this circle of friends seems first of all to have been one of -extraordinary energy and power of work, of great personal charm veiled -by a crust of shyness, of intellectual powers for which they had the -respect of equals and co-workers, and of a warm and generous sympathy -which was yet free from "gush." One of her closest friends in these -early years, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, has allowed me to use certain extracts -from her journal, in which the figure of "Mary Ward" stands out with the -clearness of absolute simplicity. Mrs. Johnson, besides having the -public spirit which has since made her the President of the Oxford Home -Students' Society, was also a charming artist, and in 1876 painted -Mary's portrait in water-colour, using the opportunities which the -sittings gave her to explore her friend's mind to the uttermost: - -"July 22. Began her portrait. I was so excited that my head ached all -day afterwards. She talked of deep, most interesting subjects, and -attention to the arguments and drawing too was too much for one's head! -I was surprised at the full extent of her vague religion. Jowett is her -great admiration and Matt Arnold her guide for some things. She is great -on the rising Dutch and French and German school of religious thought, -very free criticism of the Bible, entire denial of miracle, our Lord -only a great teacher. I felt as if I had been beaten about, as I always -do after the excitement of such talks. And yet it is all a striving -after righteousness, sincerity, truth." Or, again: "Mary W. came to tea. -My visitor was charmed with her and truly she is a sweet, charming -person, full of gentleness and sympathy, with all her talent and -intelligence too. She had dined at the Pattisons' last night and had -felt appalled at the learning of Mrs. P. and Miss ----,' more in their -little fingers than I in my whole body!' But I felt that no one would -wish to change her for either of them." - -Her music was a constant joy to her friends, and Mrs. Johnson makes -frequent mention of her playing of Bach and of her wonderful reading. It -was a possession that remained with her, to a certain extent, all her -life, in spite of writer's cramp and of a total inability to find time -to "keep it up." But even twenty and thirty years later than this date, -her playing of Beethoven or Brahms--on the rare occasions when she would -allow herself such indulgence--would astonish the few friends who heard -it. - -Meanwhile the portrait prospered, and was at length presented to its -subject when she lay recovering from the birth of her second babe--a boy -whom they named Arnold--in November, 1876. "Humphry and I are full of -delight over the picture," writes Mary to Mrs. Johnson, "and of wonder -at the amount of true and delicate work you have put into it. It will be -a possession not only for us but for our children--see how easily the -new style comes!" These were prophetic words, for it is indeed the -portrait of her that still gives most pleasure to the beholder, though -in later years she was painted or drawn by many skilful hands. - -Her two babies, Dorothy and Arnold, naturally absorbed a great deal of -her time and thoughts in these years, although it was possible in those -spacious days to live comfortably and to keep as many little -nursery-maids as one required on £800 or £900 a year, which was about -the income that husband and wife jointly earned. Her natural talent for -"doctoring" showed itself very early in the skill with which she fed her -babies or cured them of their ills when they were sick. Nor was she -content with her domestic success, but in days before "Infant Welfare" -had ever been thought of she wrote a leaflet entitled "Plain Facts on -Infant Feeding" and circulated it in the slums of Oxford. We will not, -however, rescue it from oblivion, lest it should be found to contain -heretical matter! But there was still time for other pursuits, and since -both she and her husband did their writing mainly at night, from nine to -twelve, Mary began to show her practical powers in other directions, and -to take a leading part in the movement for the higher education of women -which was then absorbing some of the best minds of Oxford. As early as -the winter of 1873-4 a committee was formed among this group of friends, -with Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Creighton (followed, on the latter's departure, -by Mrs. T. H. Green) as joint secretaries, for organizing regular -"Lectures for Women"--not in any connection with the University, for -this was as yet impossible, but in order to satisfy the growing demand -among the women residents of Oxford for more serious instruction in -history, or modern languages, or Latin. The first series of lectures was -held in the early spring of 1874, in the Clarendon Buildings, with Mr. -A. H. Johnson as lecturer; it was an immediate success, and the large -sum of 5_s._ which each member of the Committee had put down as a -guarantee could be triumphantly refunded. Further courses were arranged -in each succeeding winter, till in 1877 the same committee expanded into -an "Association for the Education of Women" (again with Mrs. Ward as -secretary[9]), which undertook still more important work. The idea of -the founding of Women's Colleges was already in the air, for Girton and -Newnham had led the way at Cambridge, and all through 1878 plans were -being discussed to this end. In the next year a special committee was -formed for the raising of funds towards the foundation of a "Hall of -Residence"; Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Augustus Vernon Harcourt were joint -secretaries, but since the latter soon fell ill the whole burden of -correspondence fell upon Mary's shoulders. "There seems no end to the -things I have to do just now," she writes to her father in June, 1879. -"All the secretary's work for Somerville Hall falls on me now as my -colleague, Mrs. Harcourt, is laid up, and yesterday and the day before I -have had the house full of girls being examined for scholarship at the -Hall, and have had to copy out examination papers and look after them -generally. Our Lady Principal, Miss Shaw-Lefevre, is here and she came -to dinner to-night to talk business about furnishing, etc. I think we -are getting on. Did you see in _The Times_ that the Clothworkers' -Company have given us 100 guineas?" - -And thus the work went on, week after week, all through the year 1879. I -have before me a common-looking engagement-diary in which it is all -recorded, from the month of March to late in the month of October: all -the committee-meetings, all the letters written to newspapers, to -prospective students or to possible heads; the decision to purchase the -lease of "Walton House," "to be assigned to the President (Dr. Percival) -on August 1"; the builder's estimate for alterations ("£540 for raising -the roof and making twelve bedrooms"), the letters about drainage, or -cretonne, or armchairs and fenders, no less than the resolution passed -at Balliol on October 24 to "form a Company for the management of the -Hall under the Limited Liability Act of 1862, with a nominal capital of -£25,000." But by that time the Hall was already opened and the long -labour crowned; and a fortnight afterwards, on November 6, her youngest -child was born. It may be hoped that after this Mrs. Ward took a brief -holiday from the cares of Somerville. - -Mrs. Ward remained a member of the original Council of Somerville Hall -long after her departure from Oxford, and during her last two years -there continued to be largely responsible, as one of the most active -members of the Association for the Education of Women, for the -organization of the teaching. All the lectures were arranged by the -Association--in consultation, of course, with the Principal--for it was -not until 1884 that women students were admitted to the smallest of the -University examinations, or to lectures at a few of the Colleges. - -Thus had Mrs. Ward learnt her first lesson and won her first laurels in -the carrying out of a big piece of public work. It was an experience -that was to stand her in good stead in after years. But at this time her -ambitions were still largely historical, weaving themselves in dreams -and plans for the writing of that big book on the origins of modern -Spain of which she afterwards sketched the counterpart in Elsmere's -projected book on the origins of modern France. Very likely she would -have settled down to write it before the opening of Somerville, but as -early as October, 1877, she had received a very flattering offer from -Dean Wace, the general editor of the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_, to take a large share in writing the lives of the early -Spanish ecclesiastics for that monumental work. It was an offer that she -could not refuse, and she always spoke with gratitude of the years of -hard and exacting work that followed, although once or twice she almost -broke down under the strain of it. "Sheer, hard, brain-stretching work," -she calls it in her _Recollections_, and if anyone will look up her -articles on Joannes Biclarensis, or Idatius, or the Histories of Isidore -of Seville, they will see how triply justified she was in using the -term. "You have gone over the ground so thoroughly that there is no -gleaning left," wrote Mr. C. W. Boase, in those days one of the -best-known of Oxford history tutors, while Dean Wace himself, in the -many letters he wrote to her, showed by his kindness and consideration -how much he valued her contributions. Oxford began to think that she was -definitely committed to an historical career, when to its astonishment -she came out as the author of a children's story. "Milly and Olly" was -the record of her own "Holiday among the Mountains" with her children in -the summer of 1879, but the very simplicity of the tale has endeared it -to many generations of children and child-lovers, while the stories it -contains of Beowulf and the Spanish Queen give it a note of romance that -differentiates it from other nursery tales. She wrote it almost as a -relaxation in the summer of 1880; in the midst of her historical work it -showed that the story-telling instinct was already stirring within her. - -And indeed the Oxford historical school was to be disappointed in her -after all, for her labours on the early Spaniards were in reality to -lead her into far other fields. Her interest in the problems of -Christianity had only gathered strength with the years, and were now -greatly stimulated by these researches into the early history of the -Spanish Church. She began to feel the enormous importance to the -believer of the _historical testimony_ on which the whole fabric rested, -while her keen historical imagination enabled her to grasp the mentality -of those distant ages which produced for us the literature of the New -Testament. A feeling of revolt against the arrogance of the orthodox -party, as it was represented in Oxford by Christchurch and Dr. Pusey, -grew and increased in her mind, while at the same time she became more -and more attracted by the romance and mystery of Christianity when -stripped of the coating of legend which pious hands had given it. As -early as 1871 she had written to Mr. Ward (à propos of a somewhat -fatuous sermon to which she had been listening): "How will you make -Christianity into a _motive_?--that is the puzzle. Traditional and -conventional Christianity is worked out--certainly as far as the great -artisan and intelligent working-class in England is concerned, and all -those who are young and touched, ever so vaguely and uncertainly, with -the thought-atmosphere, thought-currents of the day. Is there a -substitute which shall still be Christianity? Yes surely, but it is not -to be arrived at by mere arbitrary remoulding and petulant upsetting as -Mr. Voysey seems to think." And two years later she writes to her -father: "Just now it seems to me that one cannot make one's belief too -simple or hold what one does believe too strongly. Of dogmatic -Christianity I can make nothing. Nothing is clear except the personal -character of Christ and that view of Him as the founder and lawgiver of -a new society which struck me years ago in _Ecce Homo_. And the more I -read and think over the New Testament the more impossible it seems to me -to accept what is ordinarily called the scheme of Christianity." - -But these reflections need never have led her in the direction of -writing _Robert Elsmere_ if it had not been for a personal incident. On -Sunday, March 6, 1881, she attended the first Bampton Lecture of the -Rev. John Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was on "the -present unsettlement in religion," and the speaker castigated the -holders of unorthodox views as being very definitely guilty of sin. -Something in the tone of the sermon set Mary's heart on fire within her. -She walked home in a tumult of feeling. That this man with his confident -phrases should dare thus to arraign the leaders of the Liberal host--men -of such noble lives as T. H. Green, thinkers like Jowett and Matt -Arnold! She sat down and wrote, within a very few days, a reply to Dr. -Wordsworth entitled "Unbelief and Sin: a Protest addressed to those who -attended the Bampton Lecture of Sunday, March 6." A little pamphlet cast -in the form of a dialogue between two Oxford men, it was put up for sale -in Slatter & Rose's window and attracted considerable attention. But -before it had been selling for many hours a certain ecclesiastic took -the bookseller aside and pointed out that the pamphlet bore no printer's -name, which made the sale illegal. He politely threatened proceedings, -and the bookseller in alarm withdrew it from circulation and sent the -unsold copies up to Bradmore Road with an apology, but a firm intimation -that no further copies could be sold. Mary laughed and submitted, and -sent her anonymous offspring round to various friends, among them the -redoubtable Rector of Lincoln. He replied to her as follows:-- - - "No, I did not guess your secret. It was whispered to me in the - street, and I fancy was no secret within the first week of - publication. - - "I admire your courage in attacking one of their strong places. The - doctrine of disbelief in Church principles being due to a - propensity to secret sins is one of the oldest tenets of the - Anglican party. It is also a fundamental principle of popular - Catholicism. I have heard it from the catholic pulpit so often that - it must have among them the character of a commonplace. - - "There is, as you admit, a certain basis of fact for it--just as - 'Patriotism' is often enough the trade of the egoist. 'Licence they - mean when they cry liberty.' - - "More interesting even than your argument against the psychological - dogma, was your constructive hint as to the 'Church of the future.' - I wish I could follow you there! But that is an 'argumentum non - unius horæ.' - - "Believe me, dear Mrs. Ward, to be - -"Yr. attached friend, -"MARK PATTISON." - -It was indeed an argument, not of a single hour, but of many long years. -But the spark had been set to a complex train of thought which was now -to work itself out through toil and stress towards its appointed end. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT ELSMERE_ - -1881-1888 - - -It was in the early summer of 1880 that Mr. Ward was first approached by -Mr. Chenery, the editor, with a suggestion that he should join the staff -of _The Times_. The proposal was in many ways an attractive one, in -spite of the love of both husband and wife for Oxford, for Mr. Ward was -becoming known to a wider world than that of Oxford by his _English -Poets_, which had appeared in this year, nor was he a novice in -journalism. His wife, too, had many links with London through her visits -to the Forsters and her journalistic work. The experiment began in a -tentative way in the winter of 1880-81, she remaining in Oxford with the -children, and he being "tried" for leader-writing while staying in -Bloomsbury lodgings. Within a very few months it proved itself a -success, and, after some pleasant interviews with Mr. John Walter, he -was retained on the permanent staff of the paper. They began seriously -to plan their removal and to look for a house, and found one at length -in that comfortable Bloomsbury region, which was then innocent of big -hotels and offices, and where the houses in Russell Square had not yet -suffered embellishment in the form of pink terra-cotta facings to their -windows. They found that the oldest house in the Square, No. 61, was to -let, and in spite of the dirt of years with which it was encrusted, -perceived its possibilities at once, and came to an agreement with its -owner. A charming old house, built in 1745, its prettiest feature was a -small square entrance-hall, with eighteenth-century stucco-work on the -walls, from which a wide staircase ascended to the drawing-room, giving -an impression of space rare in a _bourgeois_ London house. At the back -was a good-sized strip of garden shaded by tall old plane-trees and -running down to meet the gardens of Queen Square, for No. 61 stood on -the east side of the square and adjoined the first house of Southampton -Row. Little powder-closets jutted out at the back, one of which Mrs. -Ward used as her writing-room, and upstairs the bedroom floors seemed to -expand as you ascended, reaching only to a third story, but giving us -rooms enough even so for ourselves, our maids, and a German governess, -besides the various relations who were constantly coming to stay. Wholly -pleasant are the memories connected with that benign old house, to us -children as well as to our elders, save only that to the youngest of us -there were always two lurking horrors, one on the second floor landing, -where a dark alcove gave harbourage to a little old man in Scotch kilts, -who might, if your legs were not swift enough, come after you as you -toiled up the last flight, and one--still more disquieting--on the top -landing itself, where the taps dripped in a dreadful little boxroom, and -if the taps dripped you knew that the water-bogy, _who lives in taps_, -might at any moment escape and overwhelm you. Since no self-respecting -child ever imparts its terrors to its elders, these nightmares went -unknown until one night, when all the maids were downstairs at supper, -the child in question could not make up its mind to cross the landing, -past the dark mouth of that box-room, from the room where it undressed -to the room where it slept, and was found an hour later, fast asleep in -a chair, with towels pinned over every inch of its small body lest the -bogy should come out and catch hold. After this crisis I think the -terrors declined, and now, alas! taps and box-room and dark alcove have -all disappeared together, with the pleasant rooms downstairs and the -gravelled garden where one made so many persevering expeditions with the -salt-cellar, after the tails of London's sparrows--all swept away and -vanished, and the air that they enclosed parcelled out once more into -the rectangles of the Imperial Hotel! Peace be to the ghost of that poor -house, for it gave happiness in its latter days for nine long years to -the human folk who inhabited it, and it watched the unfolding of a human -heart and mind which were to have no mean influence upon the generation -that encompassed them. - -The house at Oxford was disposed of to the Henry Nettleships, at -Michaelmas, 1881, and in the following November the family moved in to -Russell Square. It was not without searchings of heart, I think, that -Mr. and Mrs. Ward embarked upon the larger venture, where all depended -on their retaining health and strength for their work; but they fondly -hoped that with the larger regular income from _The Times_ the burden on -both pairs of shoulders would be lessened. - - "All will be well with us yet," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband - three months before their move, "and if God is good to us there are - coming years of work indeed, but of less burden and strain. All - depends on you and me, and though I know the very thought depresses - us sometimes, it ought not to, for we have many good gifts within - and without, and a fair field, if not the fairest possible field to - use them in. It seems to me that all I want to be happy is to keep - my own heart and conscience clear, and to feel my way open into the - presence of God and the unseen. And surely to seek is to find." - -Years of less burden and strain! She had, indeed, forgotten the spirit -within, which was to drive her on to ever new and greater efforts in the -more stimulating atmosphere of London. Though her work for the -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_ was almost over, she had by this -time made the acquaintance of Mr. Morley, then editor of the _Pall Mall -Gazette_, and was doing much reviewing of French and Spanish books for -him, while she continued to write weekly articles for the Church -_Guardian_ and the _Oxford Chronicle_. Nor were the authorities of _The -Times_ long in finding out that she too could write, and by the autumn -of 1882 many foreign books reached her for review from Printing House -Square. She complains in her letters that she cannot get through them -quickly enough. "Three or four volumes of these books a week is about -all I can do, and that seems to go no way." The inevitable expenses of -London life did in fact weigh upon her heavily within a year of their -migration, and the sense of "burden and strain" was never long absent. -But she could not have lived otherwise. It was her fundamental instinct -to work herself to the bone and then to share her good times with others -less fortunate, and since this process made away with her earnings she -would work herself to the bone again. In this atmosphere of unremitting -toil interruptions were of course discouraged, but when they occurred in -spite of all defences she never showed the irritation which so -frequently accompanies overwork. And in the many interruptions caused by -the childish illnesses of her small family her tenderness and devotion -were beyond all words. How she dosed us with aconite and belladonna, -watching over us and compelling us to throw off our fevers and colds! -Nor was anything allowed to interfere with the befriending of all -members of the family who wished to come to Russell Square. Her brother -Willie, who had by this time been appointed to the staff of the -_Manchester Guardian_, was a frequent visitor, renewing with each -appearance his literary _camaraderie_ with her and delighting in the -friends whom she would ask to meet him. Matthew Arnold, too, was -sometimes to be caught for an evening--great occasions, those, for Mrs. -Ward's relations with him were already of the most affectionate. He -influenced her profoundly in literary and critical matters, for she -imbibed from him both her respect for German thoroughness and her -passion for French perfection. These, indeed, were the years when she -saw most of "Uncle Matt," for Pains' Hill Cottage, at Cobham, was not -too far away for a Sunday visit, so that she and Mr. Ward would -sometimes fly down there for an afternoon of talk. Usually, however, she -would return full of blasphemies about his precious dogs, who had -diverted their master's attention all through the walk and prevented the -flow of his wit and wisdom. Therefore she preferred to get him safely to -herself at Russell Square! - -Her two younger sisters, Julia and Ethel, were constantly in the house, -the elder of whom married in 1885 Mr. Leonard Huxley, and so brought -about a happy connection with the Professor and his wife, which gave -Mrs. Ward much joy for many years. Nor were her neighbours neglected. -When Christmas came round there was always a wonderful _Weihnachtsbaum_, -dressed with loving care by the good German governess, and by any uncles -and aunts who were within reach, and attended not only by all possible -relations and friends (including especially and always Mr. and Mrs. J. -R. Thursfield and their children), but also by the choirboys of St. -John's Church and by many of _their_ relations too. But behind all this -eager hospitality lay a far deeper longing. Her mother had, early in -1881, undergone a second operation for cancer, and though this gave her -a year's immunity from pain the malady returned. In March, 1882, she -wrote to her daughter with stoical courage that she foresaw what was in -store for her--"a hard ending to a hard life." Though she was devotedly -nursed by her youngest daughter, Ethel, her suffering overshadowed the -next six years of Mary's life like a cloud, but it became also Mrs. -Ward's keenest joy to be able to help her and to ease her path. Once -when she herself had been ill and suffering, she wrote her a few lines -which reveal her own inmost thoughts on the relation between pain and -faith: - - "I am _so_ sorry, dearest, for your own suffering. This is a weary - world,--but there is good behind it, 'a holy will,' as Amiel says, - 'at the root of nature and destiny,' and submission brings peace - because in submission the heart finds God and in God its rest. - There is no truth I believe in more profoundly." - -Yet in spite of the unceasing round of work, what compensations there -were in the London life! The making of new friends can never fail to be -a delightful process, and it very soon became apparent that Mrs. Ward -was to be adopted to the heart of that London world which thought about -books and politics and which incidentally was making history. London was -smaller then than now, and if a new-comer had brains and modesty, and -above all a gift of sympathy that won all hearts, there were few doors -that did not open to her or him in time. Her connection with the -Forsters and with "Uncle Matt" brought her many friends to start with, -while Mr. Ward's work on _The Times_ took them naturally both into the -world of painters (for after 1884 he joined art criticism to his -political and other writing) and into the world of affairs. A letter -written to Mrs. A. H. Johnson in May, 1885, gives a typical picture of -the social side of her life three years after the move to London. The -occasion is the marriage of Alfred Lyttelton and Laura Tennant: - - "The wedding function yesterday was very interesting. I am glad not - to have missed Gladstone's speech at the breakfast. What a wondrous - man it is! The intensity, the feeling of the speech were - extraordinary.... Life has been rather exciting lately in the way - of new friends, the latest acquisition being Mr. Goschen, to whom - I have quite lost my heart! There is a pliancy and a brilliancy - about him which make him one of the most delightful companions. We - dined there last Saturday and I have seldom had so much interesting - talk. Lord Arthur Russell, who sat next me, told me stories of how, - as a child at Geneva, he had met folk who in their youth had seen - Rousseau and known Voltaire, and had been intimate friends of Mme. - de Stael in middle life. And then, coming a little further down the - stream of time, he could describe to me having stayed at - Lamartine's château in the poet's old age, and so on. Mr. Goschen - is busy on a life of his grandfather, who was the publisher of - Goethe, Schiller and Wieland, and whose correspondence, which he is - now going through, covers the whole almost of the German literary - period,--so that after dinner the scene shifted to Germany, and we - talked away with an occasional raid into politics, till, to my - great regret, the evening was over." - -Her own little dinner-parties very soon began to make their mark, while -not long after their establishment in London, she began the practice of -being at home on Thursday afternoons, and though at first her natural -shyness and lack of small talk made her openings somewhat formidable, -she soon warmed to the task, till within a very few months her Thursdays -became a much-appreciated institution. Men, as well as women, came to -them, for they always liked to make her talk and to hear her eager views -on all the topics of the day, from Irish coercion to the literary -personalities of France, or the need for prodding the Universities to -open their examinations to women. She still called herself a good -Radical in these days, but her devotion to Mr. Forster--whom she had -visited in Dublin during his Chief Secretaryship--gave the first -reservations to her Liberal faith, for she took his part in the matter -of his resignation, and felt that he had not been sufficiently supported -by the Cabinet. It was a great grief to her that Mr. Morley, in the -_Pall Mall Gazette_, found it necessary to attack Mr. Forster's Irish -administration with such persistent energy, and once, towards the end of -1882, she summoned up the courage to write him a remonstrance in good -set terms. Mr. Morley's reply is characteristic: - - -_Dec. 13, 82._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have got your letter at last, and carefully read and digested it. - Need I say that its frank and direct vigour only increases my - respect for the writer? To answer it, as it deserves, is hardly - possible for me. It would take a day for me to set forth, with - proper reference to chapter and verse, all the reasons why I could - not follow Mr. Forster in his Irish administration. They were set - forth from time to time with almost tiresome iteration as events - moved forward. - - In all that you say about Mr. Forster's unselfishness, his - industry, his strenuous desire to do what was right and best, - nobody agrees more cordially than I do. Personally I have always - had--if it is not impertinent in me to say so--a great liking for - him. He was always very kind and obliging to me, and nothing has - been more painful to me than to know that I was writing what would - wound a family for whom I have such sincere respect as I have for - his. But the occasion was grave. I have been thinking about Ireland - all my life, and that fashion of governing it is odious and - intolerable. If Sir Charles Dilke or Mr. Chamberlain had been Chief - Secretary, and carried out the Coercion Act as Mr. Forster carried - it out, I could not have attacked either of them, but I should have - resigned my editorship rather than have connived by silence or - otherwise at such mischief. - - I may at times have seemed bitter and personal in my language about - Mr. Forster. One falls into this tone too readily, when fighting a - battle day after day, and writing without time for calm revision. - For that I am sorry, if it has been so, or seemed so. Mr. Forster's - friends--some of them--have been extremely unscrupulous in their - personalities against me, their charges of intrigue, conspiracy. - All that I do not care for one jot; my real regret, and it is a - very sincere one, is that I should seem unjust or vindictive to - people like you, who think honestly and calmly about politics, and - other things. - - I hope that it is over, and that I shall never have to say a word - about Mr. Forster's Irish policy again. - -Yours very sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Such a letter only served to strengthen friendship. Mrs. Ward's literary -comradeship with Mr. Morley remained unbroken in spite of widening -differences in politics, and when, a few months later, he assumed the -editorship of _Macmillan's Magazine_ he proposed to her that she should -virtually take over its literary criticism:-- - - -_March 22, 83._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - My reign over "Macmillan" will begin in May. I want to know whether - you can help me to a literary article once a month--in the shape of - a _compte rendu_ of some new books, English or French. It is highly - desirable that the subject should be as lively and readable as - possible--not erudite and academic, but literary, or - socio-literary, as Ste Beuve was. - - I don't see why a "causerie" from you once a month should not - become as marked a feature in our world, as Ste Beuve was to - France. In time, the articles would make matter for a volume, and - so you would strike the stars with your sublime head. - - I hope my suggestion will commend itself to you. I have been - counting upon you, and shall be horribly discouraged if you say No. - -Yours sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Flattered as she was by the suggestion, she was never able to carry out -his whole behest, yet between February, 1883, and June, 1885, she wrote -no less than twelve articles for _Macmillan's_, on subjects ranging from -the young Spanish Romanticist, Gustavo Becquer, to Keats, Jane Austen, -Renan and the "Literature of Introspection" (à propos of Amiel's -_Journal Intime_), while the series was ended by a full-dress review of -Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_. These articles did much to assure her -position in the world of pure literature, as her Dictionary articles had -assured it in the world of scholarship, and she never ceased to be -grateful to Mr. Morley for the opportunities he had given her in -inviting them, for the encouragement of his praise and the bracing of -his occasional criticism. - -But these articles were all written under the heaviest physical -disabilities. Early in 1883 she began to suffer from a violent form of -writer's cramp, which made her right hand almost useless at times, and -recurred at intervals all through her life, so that writing was usually -a far more arduous and painful process to her than it is to most of us. -Through the years 1883 and 1884 she was frequently reduced to writing -with her left hand, but she also dictated much to her young -sister-in-law, Gertrude Ward, who came to live with us at this time, and -became for the next eight years the prop and support of our household. -Many remedies were tried for the ailment, but nothing was really -effective until after two years a German "writing-master" came on the -scene, one Dr. Julius Wolff, who completely transformed her method of -writing by making her sit much higher than before, rest the whole -fore-arm on the table, and use an altogether different set of muscles. -Many curious exercises he gave her also, which she practised at -intervals for years afterwards, and by these means he succeeded in -giving her comparative immunity, though whenever she was specially -pressed with work the pain and weakness would recur. During the year -1884, however, before Dr. Wolff had appeared, her arm was practically -disabled, and she wore it much in a sling. - -Yet it was during this year that she began her translation of Amiel's -_Journal_ and wrote her first novel, _Miss Bretherton_. The idea of it -was suggested by her first sight of the beautiful actress, Mary -Anderson, though she always maintained that, once created, Isabel -Bretherton became to her an absolutely distinct personality. The manner -of its writing is told in a fragment of Miss Gertrude Ward's journal: - - "The book was written in about six weeks. She used to lie or sit - out of doors at Borough Farm, with a notebook and pencil, and - scrawl down what she could with her left hand; then she would come - in about twelve and dictate to me at a great rate for an hour or - more. In the afternoon and evening she would look over and correct - what was done, and I copied out the whole. The scene of Marie and - Kendal in his rooms was dictated in her bedroom; she lay on her - bed, and I sat by the window behind a screen." - -The book was published by Messrs. Macmillan and appeared in December, -1884. It attracted a good deal of attention. The general verdict was -that it was a fine and delicate piece of work, but on too limited, too -intellectual a scale. This view was admirably put by her old friend, Mr. -Creighton (then Emmanuel Professor at Cambridge): - - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have read _Miss Bretherton_ with much interest. It was hardly - fair on the book to know the plot beforehand, but I found myself - carried away by the delicate feeling with which the development of - character was traced. The Nuneham scene, the death-bed and the - final reconciliation were really touching and powerfully worked - out. - - [Illustration: Borough Farm.] - - At the same time it is not a novel of my sort. I demand that I - should have given me an entire slice of life, and that I should see - the mutual interaction of a number of characters. Your interest - centres entirely on one character: your characters all move in the - same region of ideas, and that a narrow one. Your book is dainty, - but it does not touch the great springs of life. Of course you - didn't mean it to do so: but I am putting before you what I - conceive to be the novelist's ideal. It seems to me that a novelist - must have seen much, must lay himself out to be conversant with - many sides of life, must have no line of his own, but must lend - himself to the life of those around him. This is the direct - opposite of the critic. I wonder if the two trades can be combined. - Have you ever read Sainte Beuve's solitary novel, _Volupté_? It is - instructive reading. You are a critic in your novel. Your object is - really to show how criticism can affect a nature capable of - receiving it. Now is this properly a subject of art? Is it not too - didactic? It is not so for me, for I am an old-fashioned moralist: - but the mass of people do not care for intellectual teaching in - novels. They want an emotional thrill. Remember that you have - deliberately put this aside. Kendal's love is not made to affect - his life, his character, his work. Miss Bretherton only feels so - far attracted to him as to listen to what he says.... I only say - this to show you what the book made me think, that you wrote as a - critic not as a creator. You threw into the form of a story many - critical judgments, and gave an excellent sketch of the possible - worth of criticism in an unregenerate world. This was worth doing - once: but if you are going on with novels you must throw criticism - to the winds and let yourself go as a partner of common joys, - common sorrows and common perplexities. There, I have told you what - I think just as I think it. I would not have done so to anyone else - save you, to whom I am always, - -Your most affectionate, -M. CREIGHTON. - -No doubt Mrs. Ward stored up this criticism for future use, for when she -next embarked upon a novel the canvas was indeed broad enough. - -They had not been settled in London for much more than a year before -Mrs. Ward began to feel the need for some quiet and remote country place -to which she might fly for peace and work when the strain of London -became too great. Fortune favoured the quest, for in the summer of 1882 -they took the rectory at Peper Harow, near Godalming (the "Murewell -Rectory" of _Robert Elsmere_), for a few weeks, and during that time -were taken by Lord Midleton, the owner of Peper Harow, to see a -delightful old farm in the heart of the lonely stretch of country that -lies between the Portsmouth Road and Elstead. They fell in love with it -at once, and during the following winter made an arrangement to take its -six or seven front rooms by the year. So from the summer of 1883 onwards -they possessed Borough Farm as a refuge and solace in the wilds, a -paradise for elders and children alike, where London and its turmoil -could be cast off and forgotten. It lay in a country of heather commons, -woods, rough meadows, streams and lakes--those "Hammer Ponds" which -remain as a relic of the iron-smelting days of Surrey, and in which we -children amused ourselves by the hour in fishing for perch with a bent -pin and a worm. Here Mrs. Ward would lie out whenever the sun shone in -the old sand-pit up the lane, where we had constructed a sort of terrace -for her long chair, or else under the ash-tree on the little hill, -writing or reading, while no sound came save the murmur of wind in the -gorse, or in the dry bells of the heather. If her physique had been -stronger she would, perhaps, have been too much tempted by the beauty of -the country ever to have lain still and worked for so many hours as she -did in that long chair; but she was never robust, she was extremely -susceptible to bad weather, cold winds and every form of chill, and her -longest expeditions were those which she took in a little pony-carriage -over Ryal or Bagmoor Commons to Peper Harow, or up the Portsmouth Road -to Thursley and Hindhead. - -Here a few friends came at intervals to share the solitude with us: -Laura Tennant, on a wonderful day in May, 1884, when she seemed to her -dazzled hostess the very incarnation of the spring; M. Edmond Scherer, -her earliest French friend, who, in 1884, was helping her with her -translation of Amiel's _Journal_; Henry James, whose visit laid the -foundation of a friendship that was to ripen into one of the most -precious of all Mrs. Ward's possessions; Mlle. Souvestre, foundress of -the well-known girls' school at Wimbledon, and one of the keenest -intellects of her time; and once, for a whole fortnight, Miss Eugénie -Sellers,[10] who had for many months been teaching the family their -classics, and who now came down to superintend their Greek a little and -to roam the commons with them much. It was in 1886, just before this -visit, that Mrs. Ward began seriously to read Greek, usually with her -ten-year-old son; she bought a Thucydides in Godalming one day and was -delighted to find it easier than she expected. It was a passion that -grew upon her with the years, as any reader of her later books will -clearly perceive. - -Then, though the solitude of the farm itself was profound, there were a -few, a very few, neighbours in the more eligible districts round about -who made it their pleasure sometimes to call upon us; there were the -Frederic Harrisons at Elstead, whose four boys dared us children to -horrid feats of jumping and climbing in the sand-pit, while our elders -were safely engaged elsewhere; John Morley also, for a few weeks in -1886, and in the other direction Lord and Lady Wolseley, who took a -house near Milford, and thence made their way occasionally down our -sandy track. But the neighbours who meant most to us were, after all, -our landlords, the Brodricks of Peper Harow; they were not only -endlessly kind, giving us leave to disport ourselves in all their -ponds, but took a sort of pride of possession, I believe, in their -pocket authoress, watching her struggles and her achievement with -paternal eyes. And when _Robert Elsmere_ at length appeared, old Lord -Midleton, pillar of Church and State as he was, came riding over to the -farm, sitting his horse squarely in spite of his white hairs and his -semi-blindness, and sent in word that the "Wicked Squire" was at the -gate! - -Two letters written to her father from Borough Farm during these years, -give glimpses of her browsings in many books, and of her thoughts on -Shakespeare, evolution and kindred matters: - - "I have been reading Joubert's _Pensées_ and _Correspondance_ - lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed - with the letters, and some of the _pensées_ are extraordinarily - acute. Now I am deep in Sénancour, and for miscellaneous reading I - have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good - deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and - stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a - great dramatist! There's a remark over which I trust you will draw - a fatherly veil! But one can only say what one feels, and I am more - oppressed than I used to be by his faults of construction, his - carelessness, his excrescences, while at the same time much more - sensitive to his preternatural power as a poet and as a - psychological analyst. He gets at the root of his characters in a - marvellous way, he envisages them separately as no one else can, - but it is when he comes to bring them into action to represent the - play of outward circumstance and the interaction of character on - character that he seems to me comparatively--only comparatively, of - course--to fail. I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, - and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the - magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic - bungling.... - - "As to Renan it would be too long to argue it, but I think he very - much saves himself in the passage you quote by the qualifying word - 'comme.' The Church is 'as it were' _un débris de l'Empire_. It is - only another way of putting what Harnack said in that article you - and I read at Sea View. 'The Empire built up the Church out of its - own substance, and destroyed itself in so doing,' or words to that - effect. I cannot help feeling that as far as organization and - institutions go it is very true, though I would never deny that God - was in the Church, as I believe He is in all human society, - moulding it to His will. Everything, from the critical and - scientific standpoint, seems to me so continuous and natural--no - sharp lines anywhere--one thing leading to another, event leading - to event, belief to belief--and God enwrapping and enfolding all. - But this is one general principle, and yours is quite another. I - quite agree that from your standpoint no explanation that Renan - could give of the Church can appear other than meagre or - grotesque." - -Her translation of Amiel's _Journal Intime_ was a long and exacting -piece of work, but she enjoyed the struggle with the precise meaning of -the French phrases and always maintained that she owed much to it, both -in her knowledge of French and of English. She had begun it, with the -benevolent approval of its French editor, M. Scherer, early in 1884, and -took it up again after _Miss Bretherton_ came out; found it indeed a far -more troublesome task than she had foreseen, and was still wrestling -with the Introduction in the summer of 1885, when her head was already -full of her new novel, and she was fretting to begin upon it. But the -book appeared at length in December, 1885, and very soon made its mark. -The wonderful language of the Swiss mystic appealed to a generation more -occupied than ours with the things of the soul, while Mrs. Ward's -introduction gave a masterly sketch of the writer's strange personality -and the development of his mind. As Jowett wrote to her, "Shall I tell -you the simple truth? It is wonderful to me how you could have thought -and known so much about so many things." Mr. Talbot, the Warden of Keble -(now Bishop of Winchester), wrote of the "almost breathless admiration -of the truth and penetration of his thought" with which he had read the -book, while Lord Arthur Russell reported that he had "met Mr. Gladstone, -who spoke with great interest of Amiel, asked me whether I had compared -the translation with the original, and said that a most interesting -small volume might be extracted, of _Pensées_, quite equal to Pascal." - -But it was, inevitably, "caviar to the general." Mrs. Ward's brother, -Willie Arnold, her close comrade and friend in all things literary, -wrote to her from Manchester a few months after its appearance: "I -served on a jury at the Assizes last week--two murder cases and general -horrors. I sat next to a Mr. Amiel--pronounced 'Aymiell'--a worthy -Manchester tradesman; no doubt his ancestor was a Huguenot refugee. I -had one of your vols. in my pocket, and showed him the passage about the -family. He was greatly interested, and borrowed it. Returned it next day -with the remark that it was 'too religious for him.' Alas, divine -philosophy!" - - * * * * * - -Ever since the previous winter the idea of a novel in which the clash -between the older and the younger types of Christianity should be worked -out in terms of human life, had been growing and fermenting in her mind. -_Miss Bretherton_ and Amiel's _Journal_ had given her a valuable -apprenticeship in the art of writing, while Amiel's luminous reflections -on the decadence and formalism of the churches had tended to confirm her -own passionate conviction that all was not well with the established -forms of religion. But the determining factor in the writing of _Robert -Elsmere_ was the close and continuous study which she had given ever -since her work for the _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ to the -problem of "Christian origins." She was fascinated by the intricacy and -difficulty of the whole subject, but more especially by such branches of -it as the Synoptic Problem, or the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the -rest; while the questions raised by the realization that the Books of -the New Testament were the products of an age steeped in miracle and -wholly uncritical of the records of it, struck her as vital to the whole -orthodox position. At the same time her immense tenderness for -Christianity, her belief that the life and teaching of the Founder were -still the "master-light of all our seeing," made her yearn for a -simplification of the creeds, so that the Message itself should once -more appeal to the masses without the intervention of formulæ that -perpetually challenged their reason. The argument of "Literature and -Dogma" culminates in the picture of mankind waiting for the lifting of -the burden of "Aberglaube" and dogmatism, with which the spirit of -Christianity had been crushed down for centuries, waiting for the -renewal that would come when the old coil was cast off. It was in that -spirit also that Mrs. Ward attacked the problem; her Robert was to her a -link in the chain of the liberators of all ages. Was her outlook too -intellectual? Did she overestimate the repugnance to obsolete forms that -possessed her generation? So it was said by many who rose up in startled -defence of those forms, many who had never felt the uttermost clash -between the things which they wished to believe and the things which -Truth allowed them to believe. Yet still the response of her generation -was to be greater than she ever dreamt. No doubt the renewal did not -come in the precise form in which she looked for it; creeds were to -prove tougher, the worship of the Risen Lord more vital than she -thought; yet still, in a hundred ways, the influence of the fermentation -caused by the ideas of _Robert Elsmere_ may be traced in the Church -to-day. "Biblical criticism" may now be out of fashion; but it is -because its victory has in reality been won. All this lay hidden from -the mind of the writer as she sat toiling over her task in the solitude -of Borough Farm, or in the little "powder-closet" overlooking the back -gardens of Russell Square; she wrote because she "could no other," and -only rarely did she allow herself to feel, with trembling, that the -_Zeitgeist_ might indeed be with her. - -The book was begun in the autumn of 1885, with every hope that it would -be finished in less than a year. It was offered, when a few chapters had -been written, to the Macmillans for publication, since they had -published both _Miss Bretherton_ and the _English Poets_, but to the sad -disappointment of its author they rejected it on the ground that the -subject was not likely to appeal to the British public. In this dilemma -Mrs. Ward bethought herself of Mr. George Murray Smith, the publisher of -Charlotte Brontë, and in some trepidation offered the book to him. Mr. -Smith had greater faith than the Macmillans and accepted it at once, -sealing the bargain by making an advance of £200 upon it in May, 1886. -So began Mrs. Ward's connection with "George Smith," as she always -familiarly spoke of him: a friend and counsellor indeed, to whom she -owed incalculable things in the years that followed. - -In the Preface to the "Westmorland Edition" of _Robert Elsmere_, issued -twenty-three years later, Mrs. Ward herself confessed to her models for -some of the principal characters--to the friend of her youth, Mark -Pattison, for the figure of the Squire (though not in his landowning -capacity!); to Thomas Hill Green, "the noblest and most persuasive -master of philosophic thought in modern Oxford," for that of Henry Grey; -and to Amiel himself, the hapless intellectual tortured by the paralysis -of will, for that of Langham. Both the Rector of Lincoln and Professor -Green had recently died, the latter in the prime of his life and work, -and Mrs. Ward sought both in the dedication and in her sketch of the -strong and lovable tutor of St. Anselm's, to express her lasting -admiration for this lost friend. But she claimed in each case the -artist's freedom to treat her creatures as her own, once they had -entered the little world of the novel: a thesis which she was to -maintain and develop in later years, when she occasionally went to the -past for her characters. Catherine was a more composite picture, drawn -from the "strong souls" she had known among her own kinswomen from -childhood up, and therefore, perhaps, more tenderly treated by the -author than the rules of artistic detachment would allow. She was a type -far more possible in the 'eighties than now, but it is perhaps -comforting to know that no single human being inspired her. As to the -scene in which these figures moved, it was on a sunny day at the end of -May, 1885, that Mrs. Ward's old friend, Mr. James Cropper, of -Ellergreen, took her for a drive up the valley of Long Sleddale, in a -lonely part of Westmorland. There she saw the farm at the head of the -dale, the vicarage, the Leyburns' house. Already her thoughts were busy -with her story, and from that day onwards she peopled the quiet valley -with her folk. - -At first she was full of hope that the book would be finished before the -summer of 1886, although she admits to her mother that "it is very -difficult to write and the further I get the harder it is." In March of -that year she writes to her sister-in-law: "I have made up my mind to -come here [Borough Farm] for the whole of April, so as to get _Robert -Elsmere done_! It must and shall be done by the end of April, if I -expire in the attempt." In April she did indeed work herself nearly to -death, writing sixteen, eighteen and even twenty pages of manuscript in -the day, and a sort of confidence began to grow up in her mind that the -book would not speak its message in vain. "I think this book _must_ -interest a certain number of people," she writes to her mother; "I -certainly feel as if I were writing parts of it with my heart's blood." -But the difficulties only increased, and actually it was the end of -October before even the first two volumes were finished. And then "the -more satisfied I become with the second volume the more discontented I -am with the first. It must be re-cast, alas!" Her arm was often -troublesome, especially in the autumn of this year, when she was staying -at the Forsters' house near Fox How, working very hard. "I am dreadfully -low about myself," she writes; "my arm has not been so bad since April, -when it took me practically a month's rest to get it right again. I have -been literally physically incapable of finishing my last chapter. And to -think of all the things I promised myself to do this week! And here I -have time, ideas, inclination, and I can do nothing. I will dictate if I -can to Gertrude, but I am so discouraged just at present I seem to have -no heart for it." Then a few days later it has taken a turn for the -better, and she is overjoyed: "The second volume was _finished_ last -night! The arm is _decidedly_ better, though still shaky. I sleep badly, -and rheumatism keeps flying about me, now here, now there, but I am not -at all doleful--indeed in excellent spirits now that the arm is better!" - -So, in spite of the distractions of London, she struggled on with the -third volume all through that winter (1886-7), flying for a week in -December to Borough Farm in order to get complete isolation for her -task. "Oh, the quiet, the blissful quiet of it! It helps me most in -thinking out the book. I can _write_ in London; I seem to be unable to -think." Sometimes, however, her head was utterly exhausted. Returning to -London, she wrote to her mother: "I did a splendid day's work yesterday, -but it was fighting against headache all day, and this morning I felt -quite incapable of writing and have been lying down, reading, though my -wretched head is hardly fit for reading. It is not exactly pain, but a -horrid feeling of tension and exhaustion, as if one hadn't slept for -ever so long, which I don't at all approve of." - -Often, when these fits of exhaustion came on, a small person would be -sent for from the schoolroom, in whose finger-tips a quaint form of -magic was believed to reside, and there she would sit for an hour, -stroking her mother's head, or her hands, or her feet, while the -"Jabberwock" on the Chinese cabinet curled his long tail at the pair in -silence. "Chatter to me," she used to say; but this was not always easy, -and a golden and friendly silence, peopled by many thoughts, usually lay -between the two. - -At length, on March 9, 1887, the last words of the third volume were -written, there in the little powder-closet behind the back drawing-room. -But this did not mean the end. She was already painfully aware that the -book was too long, and Mr. George Smith, best and truest of advisers, -firmly indicated to her that the limits even of a three-volume novel had -been overstepped. She herself had already admitted to her brother Willie -that it was "not a novel at all," and she now plunged bravely into the -task of cutting and revision, fondly hoping that it would take her no -more than a fortnight's hard work. Instead it took her the best part of -a year. Publication first in the summer season, then in the autumn, had -to be given up, while her own fatigue increased so that sometimes for -days together she could not touch the book. The few friends to whom she -showed it were indeed encouraging, and her brother Willie was the first -to prophesy that it would "make a great mark." After reading the first -volume he wrote to Mrs. Arnold, "You may look forward to finding -yourself the mother of a famous woman!" But the mood of this year was -one of depression, while Mrs. Arnold's illness became an ever-increasing -sorrow. In the Long Vacation Mrs. Ward took the empty Lady Margaret -Hall, at Oxford, for a few weeks, in order to be near her mother--a step -which brought her unexpectedly another pleasure. On the very day after -they arrived she wrote: "I have had a great pleasure to-day, for at -three o'clock arrived a note from Jowett saying that he was in Oxford -for a day and would I come to tea? So I went down at five, stayed an -hour, then he insisted on walking up here, and sat in the garden -watching the children play tennis till about seven. Dear old man! I have -the most lively and filial affection for him. We talked about all sorts -of things--Cornwall, politics, St. Paul--and when I wanted to go he -would not let me. I think he liked it, and certainly I did." - -Through the autumn and into the month of January, 1888, she struggled -with mountains of proofs, while Mr. Smith, though without much faith in -the popular prospects of the book, was always "kind and indulgent," as -she gratefully testifies in the _Recollections_. At length, towards the -end of January, she sent in the last batch, and on February 24 the book -appeared. - -Six weeks later, in the little house in Bradmore Road, which had -witnessed so many years of suffering indomitably borne, Julia Arnold lay -dying. Through pain and exhaustion unspeakable she had yet kept her -intense interest in the human scene, and now the last pleasure which she -enjoyed on earth was the news that reached her of the growing success of -her daughter's book. With a hand so weak that the pen kept falling from -her fingers, she wrote her an account of the Oxford gossip on it; she -asked her, with a flash of the old malice, to let her know at once -should she hear what any of her aunts were saying. Alas, Julia knew -better than anyone else on earth what the religious temperament of the -Arnolds might mean; but before the answer came her poor tormented spirit -was at rest for ever. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER - -1888-1889 - - -Three volumes, printed as closely as were those of _Robert Elsmere_, -penetrated somewhat slowly among the fraternity of reviewers. The -_Scotsman_ and the _Morning Post_ were the first to notice it on March -5, nine days after its appearance; the _British Weekly_ wept over it on -March 9; the _Academy_ compared it to _Adam Bede_ on the 17th; the -_Manchester Guardian_ gave it two columns on the 21st; the _Saturday_ -"slated" it on the 24th; while Walter Pater's article in the Church -_Guardian_ on the 28th, calling it a "_chef d'Å“uvre_ of that kind of -quiet evolution of character through circumstance, introduced into -English literature by Miss Austen and carried to perfection in France by -George Sand," gave perhaps greater happiness to its author than any -other review. _The Times_ waited till April 7, being in no hurry to show -favour to one connected with its staff, but when it came the review duly -spoke of _Robert_ as "a clever attack upon revealed religion," and all -was well. By the end of March, however, the public interest in the book -had begun in earnest; the first edition of 500 copies was exhausted and -a second had appeared; this was sold out by the middle of April; a third -appeared on April 19 and was gone within a week; a fourth followed in -the same way. Matthew Arnold wrote from Wilton, the Pembrokes' house, a -week before his death (which occurred on April 15), that he found all -the guests there reading or intending to read it, and added, "George -Russell, who was staying at Aston Clinton with Gladstone, says it is all -true about his interest in the book. He talked of it incessantly and -said he thought he should review it for Knowles." - -As a matter of fact, Mr. Gladstone had already written the first draft -of his article and was corresponding with Lord Acton on the various -points which he wished to raise or to drive home. His biographer hints -that Acton's replies were not too encouraging. But the old giant was not -to be deterred. The book had moved him profoundly and he felt impelled -to combat the all too dangerous conclusions to which it pointed. "Mamma -and I," he wrote to his daughter in March, "are each of us still -separately engaged in a death-grapple with _Robert Elsmere_. I -complained of some of the novels you gave me to read as too stiff, but -they are nothing to this. It is wholly out of the common order. At -present I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything on it, -but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will be verified or -not. In any case it is a tremendous book." And to Lord Acton he wrote: -"It is not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the -labour and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one -could no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides." Early in April he -came to Oxford to stay with the Edward Talbots at Keble College, and -hearing that Mrs. Ward was also there, watching over her dying mother, -he expressed a desire to see her, and, if possible, to talk the book -over with her. She came on the day after her mother's death--April -8--towards evening, and waited for him alone in the Talbots' -drawing-room. That night she wrote down the following account of their -conversation: - - "I arrived at Keble at 7.10. Gladstone was not in the drawing-room. - I waited for about three minutes when I heard his slow step coming - downstairs. He came in with a candle in his hand which he put out, - then he came up most cordially and quickly. 'Mrs. Ward--this is - most good of you to come and see me! If you had not come, I should - myself have ventured to call and ask after yourself and Mr. - Arnold.' - - "Then he sat down, he on a small uncomfortable chair, where he - fidgeted greatly! He began to ask about Mamma. Had there been much - suffering? Was death peaceful? I told him. He said that though he - had seen many deaths, he had never seen any really peaceful. In all - there had been much struggle. So much so that 'I myself have - conceived what I will not call a terror of death, but a repugnance - from the idea of death. It is the rending asunder of body and soul, - the tearing apart of the two elements of our nature--for I hold the - body to be an essential element as well as the soul, not a mere - sheath or envelope.' He instanced the death of Sidney Herbert as an - exception. _He_ had said 'can this indeed be dying?'--death had - come so gently. - - "Then after a pause he began to speak of the knowledge of Oxford - shown by _Robert Elsmere_, and we went on to discuss the past and - present state of Oxford. He mentioned it 'as one of the few points - on which, outside Home Rule, I disagree with Hutton,'[11] that - Hutton had given it as his opinion that Cardinal Newman and Matthew - Arnold had had more influence than any other men on modern Oxford. - Newman's influence had been supreme up to 1845--nothing since, and - he gathered from Oxford men that Professor Jowett and Mr. Green had - counted for much more than Matthew Arnold. M.A.'s had been an - influence on the general public, not on the Universities. How - Oxford had been torn and rent, what a 'long agony of thought' she - had gone through! How different from Cambridge! - - "Then we talked again of Newman, how he had possessed the place, - his influence comparable only to that of Abelard on Paris--the - flatness after he left. I quoted Burne-Jones on the subject. Then I - spoke of Pattison's autobiography as illustrating Newman's hold. He - agreed, but said that Pattison's religious phase was so - disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. - He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he - understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if - he had seen Pattison's last 'Confession of Faith,' which Mrs. - Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no. Then he asked me - whether I had pleasant remembrances of Pattison. I warmly said yes, - and described how kind he had been to me as a girl. 'Ah!' he - said--'Church would never cast him off; and Church is almost the - only person of whom he really speaks kindly in the Memoirs.' - - "Then, from the state of Oxford, we passed to the state of the - country during the last half-century. 'It has been a _wonderful_ - half-century! I often tell the young men who are coming on that we - have had a better time than they can have, in the next - half-century. Take one thing only--the abolition of slavery in the - world (outside Africa I suppose he meant). You are too young to - realize what that means. But I draw a distinction between the first - twenty-five years of the period and the second; during the first, - steady advance throughout all classes, during the second, distinct - recession, and retrogression, in the highest class of all. That - testing point, _marriage_, very disquieting. The scandals about - marriage in the last twenty years unparallelled in the first half - of the period. I don't trust my own opinion, but I asked two of the - keenest social observers, and two of the coolest heads I ever - knew--Lord Granville and the late Lord Clanwilliam--to tell me what - they thought and they strongly confirmed my impression.' (Here one - of the Talbot boys came in and stood by the fire, and Gladstone - glanced at him once or twice, as though conversation on these - points was difficult while he was there.) I suggested that more was - made of scandals nowadays by the newspapers. But he would not have - it--'When I was a boy--I left Eton in 1827--there were two papers, - the _Age_ and the _Satirist_, worse than anything which exists now. - But they died out about 1830, and for about forty years there was - _nothing of the kind_. Then sprang up this odious and deplorable - crop of Society papers.' He thought the fact significant. - - "He talked of the modern girl. 'They tell me she is not what she - was--that she loves to be fast. I don't know. All I can bear - testimony to is the girl of my youth. _She_ was excellent!' - - "'But,' I asked him, 'in spite of all drawbacks, do you not see a - gradual growth and diffusion of earnestness, of the social passion - during the whole period?' He assented, and added, 'With the decline - of the Church and State spirit, with the slackening of State - religion, there has unquestionably come about a quickening of the - State conscience, of the _social_ conscience. I will not say what - inference should be drawn.' - - "Then we spoke of charity in London, and of the way in which the - rich districts had elbowed out their poor. And thereupon--perhaps - through talk of the _motives_ for charitable work--we came to - religion. 'I don't believe in any new system,' he said, smiling, - and with reference to _Robert Elsmere_; 'I cling to the old. The - great traditions are what attract me. I believe in a degeneracy of - man, in the Fall--in _sin_--in the intensity and virulence of sin. - No other religion but Christianity meets the sense of sin, and sin - is the great fact in the world to me.' - - "I suggested that though I did not wish for a moment to deny the - existence of moral evil, the more one thought of it the more plain - became its connection with physical and social and therefore - _removable_ conditions. He disagreed, saying that the worst forms - of evil seemed to him to belong to the highest and most favoured - class 'of _educated_ people'--with some emphasis. - - "I asked him whether it did not give him any confidence in 'a new - system'--i.e. a new construction of Christianity--to watch its - effect on such a life as T. H. Green's. He replied individuals were - no test; one must take the broad mass. Some men were born 'so that - sin never came near them. Such men never felt the need of - Christianity. They would be better if they were worse!' - - "And as to difficulties, the great difficulties of all lay in the - way of Theism. 'I am surprised at men who don't feel this--I am - surprised at you!' he said, smiling. Newman had put these - difficulties so powerfully in the _Apologia_. The Christian system - satisfied all the demands of the conscience; and as to the - intellectual difficulties--well there we came to the question of - miracles. - - "Here he restated the old argument against an _a priori_ - impossibility of miracles. Granted a God, it is absurd to limit the - scope and range of the _will_ of such a being. I agreed; then I - asked him to let me tell him how I had approached the - question--through a long immersion in documents of the early - Church, in critical and historical questions connected with - miracles. I had come to see how miracles arise, and to feel it - impossible to draw the line with any rigidity between one - miraculous story and another. - - "'The difficulty is'--he said slowly, 'if you sweep away miracles, - you sweep away _the Resurrection_! With regard to the other - miracles, I no longer feel as I once did that they are the most - essential evidence for Christianity. The evidence which now comes - _nearest_ to me is the evidence of Christian history, of the type - of character Christianity has produced----' - - "Here the Talbots' supper bell rang, and the clock struck eight. He - said in the most cordial way it was impossible it could be so late, - that he must not put the Warden's household out, but that our - conversation could not end there, and would I come again? We - settled 9.30 in the morning. He thanked me, came with me to the - hall and bade me a most courteous and friendly good-bye."[12] - -The next morning she duly presented herself after breakfast, and this -time they got to grips far more thoroughly than before with the question -of miracles and of New Testament criticism generally. In a letter to her -husband (published in the _Recollections_) she calls it "a battle royal -over the book and Christian evidences," and describes how "at times he -looked stern and angry and white to a degree, so that I wondered -sometimes how I had the courage to go on--the drawn brows were so -formidable!" But she stuck to her points and found, as she thought, that -for all his versatility he was not really familiar with the literature -of the subject, but took refuge instead in attacking her own Theistic -position, divested as it was of supernatural Christianity. "I do not say -or think you 'attack' Christianity," he wrote to her two days later, -"but in proposing a substitute for it, reached by reduction and -negation, I think (forgive me) you are dreaming the most visionary of -all human dreams." - -He enclosed a volume of his _Gleanings_, marking the article on "The -Courses of Religious Thought." Mrs. Ward replied to him as follows:-- - - -_April 15, 1888._ - -DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - Thank you very much for the volume of _Gleanings_ with its gracious - inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the - greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not - the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to - this--that to you the great fact in the world and in the history of - man, is _sin_--to me, _progress_? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks - of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two - orders of temperament. In myself I see a perpetual struggle, in the - world also, but through it all I feel the "Power that makes for - righteousness." In the life of conscience, in the play of physical - and moral law, I see the ordained means by which sin is gradually - scourged and weakened both in the individual and in the human - society. And as to that sense of _irreparableness_, that awful - burden of evil both on the self and outside it, for which all - religions have sought an anodyne in the ceremonies of propitiation - and sacrifice, I think the modern who believes in God and cherishes - the dear memory of a human Christ will learn humbly, as Amiel says, - even "to accept himself," and life, as they are, at God's hands. - Constant and recurrent experience teaches him that the baser self - can only be killed by constant and recurrent effort towards good; - the action of the higher self is governed by an even stronger and - more prevailing law of self-preservation than that of the lower; - evil finds its appointed punishment and deterrent in pain and - restlessness; and as the old certainty of the Christian heaven - fades it will become clear to him that his only hope of an - immortality worth having lies in the developing and maturing of - that diviner part in him which can conceive and share the divine - life--of the soul. And for the rest, he will trust in the - indulgence and pity of the power which brought forth this strangely - mingled world. - - So much for the minds capable of such ideas. For the masses, in the - future, it seems to me that charitable and social organization will - be all-important. If the simpler Christian ideas can clothe - themselves in such organization--and I believe they can and are - even now beginning to do it--their effect on the democracy may be - incalculable. If not, then God will fulfil Himself in other ways. - But "dream" as it may be, it seems to many of us, a dream worth - trying to realize in a world which contains your seven millions of - persons in France, who will have nothing to say to religious - beliefs, or the 200,000 persons in South London alone, amongst - whom, according to the _Record_, Christianity has practically no - existence. - -And the letter ends with a plea that the faith which animated T. H. -Green might fitly be described by the words of the Psalm, "my soul is -athirst for God, for the living God." - -To this Mr. Gladstone replied immediately: - - -ST. JAMES'S STREET. -_April 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I do not at all doubt that your conception of _Robert Elsmere_ - includes much of what is expressed in the opening verses of Psalm - 42. I am more than doubtful whether he could impart it to Elgood - St., and I wholly disbelieve that Elgood St. could hand it on from - generation to generation. You have much courage, but I doubt - whether even you are brave enough to think that, fourteen centuries - after its foundation, Elgood St. could have written the _Imitation - of Christ_. - - And my meaning about Mr. Green was to hint at what seems to me the - unutterable strangeness of his passionately beseeching philosophy - to open to him the communion for which he thirsted, when he had a - better source nearer hand. - - It is like a farmer under the agricultural difficulty who has to - migrate from England and plants himself in the middle of the - Sahara. - - But I must abstain from stimulating you. At Oxford I sought to - avoid pricking you and rather laid myself open--because I thought - it not fair to ask you for statements which might give me points - for reply. - -Mr. Gladstone evidently believed he had been as mild as milk--he knew -not the terror of his own "drawn brows!" - - -_Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone._ - - -_April 17, 1888._ - - I think I must write a few words in answer to your letter of - yesterday, in view of your approaching article which fills me with - so much interest and anxiety. If I put what I have to say badly or - abruptly, please forgive me. My thoughts are so full of this - terrible loss of my dear uncle Matthew Arnold, to whom I was deeply - attached, that it seems difficult to turn to anything else. - - And yet I feel a sort of responsibility laid upon me with regard to - Mr. Green, whom you may possibly mention in your article. There are - many people living who can explain his thought much better than I - can. But may I say with regard to your letter of yesterday, that in - turning to philosophy, that is to the labour of reason and thought, - for light on the question of man's whence and whither, Mr. Green as - I conceive it, only obeyed an urgent and painful necessity. "The - parting with the Christian mythology is the rending asunder of - bones and marrow"--words which I have put into Grey's mouth--were - words of Mr. Green's to me. It was the only thing of the sort I - ever heard him say--he was a man who never spoke of his - feelings--but it was said with a penetrating force and sincerity - which I still remember keenly. A long intellectual travail had - convinced him that the miraculous Christian story was untenable; - but speculatively he gave it up with grief and difficulty, and - practically, to his last hour, he clung to all the forms and - associations of the old belief with a wonderful affection. With - regard to conformity to Church usage and repression of individual - opinion he and I disagreed a good deal. - - If you do speak of him, will you look at his two Lay Sermons, of - which I enclose my copy?--particularly the second one, which was - written eight years after the first, and to my mind expresses his - thought more clearly. - - Some of the letters which have reached me lately about the book - have been curious and interesting. A vicar of a church in the East - End, who seems to have been working among the poor for forty years, - says, "I could not help writing; in your book you seemed to grasp - me by the hand and follow me right on through my own life - experiences." And an Owens College Professor, who appears to have - thought and read much of these things, writes to a third person, à - propos of Elsmere, that the book has grasped "the real force at - work in driving so many to give up the Christian creed. It is not - the scientific (in the loose modern sense of the word), still less - the philosophical difficulties, which influence them, but it is the - education of the historic sense which is disintegrating - faith."--Only the older forms of faith, as I hold, that the new may - rise! But I did not mean to speak of myself. - -When the famous article--entitled "Robert Elsmere and the Battle of -Belief"--appeared in the May _Nineteenth Century_, there was nothing but -courtesy between the two opponents. Mrs. Ward sent the G.O.M. a copy of -the book, with a picture of Catherine's valley bound into it, and he -replied that the volumes would "form a very pleasant recollection of -what I trust has been a 'tearless battle.'" Many of the papers now -reviewed both book and article together, and the _Pall Mall_ ironically -congratulated the Liberal Party on "Mr. Gladstone's new preoccupation." -"For two and a half years," it declared, the G.O.M. had been able to -think of nothing but Home Rule and Ireland. "But Mrs. Ward has changed -all that." The excitement among the reading public was very great. It -penetrated even to the streets, for one of us overheard a panting lady, -hugging a copy of the _Nineteenth Century_, saying to her companion as -she fought her way into an omnibus, "Oh, my dear, _have_ you read Weg on -Bobbie?" Naturally the sale received a fresh stimulus. Two more -three-volume editions disappeared during May, and a seventh and last -during June. Then there was a pause before the appearance of the Popular -or 6s. edition, which came out at the end of July with an impression of -5,000. It was immediately bought up; 7,000 more were disposed of during -August, and the sale went on till the end of the year at the rate of -about 4,000 a month. Even during 1889 it continued steadily, until by -January, 1890, 44,000 copies of the 6_s._ edition had been sold. But as -the sale had then slackened Mr. Smith decided to try the experiment of a -half-crown edition. 20,000 of this were sold by the following November, -but the drop had already set in and during 1891 the total only rose to -23,000. But even so, the sale of these three editions in the United -Kingdom alone had amounted to 70,500. - -All through the spring and summer of 1888 letters poured in upon Mrs. -Ward by the score and the hundred, both from known and unknown -correspondents, so that her husband and sister-in-law had almost to -build a hedge around her and to insist that she should not answer them -all herself. Those which the book provoked from her old friends, -however, especially those of more orthodox views than her own, were -often of poignant interest. The Warden of Keble wrote her six sheets of -friendly argument and remonstrance. Mr. Creighton wrote her a letter -full of closely reasoned criticism of Elsmere's position, to which she -made the following reply: - - -_March 13, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MAX,-- - - I have been deeply interested by your letter, and am very grateful - to you for the fairness and candour of it. Perhaps it is an - affectation to say always that one likes candour!--but I certainly - like it from you, and should be aggrieved if you did not give it - me. - - I think you only evade the whole issue raised by the book when you - say that Elsmere was never a Christian. Of course in the case of - every one who goes through such a change, it is easy to say this; - it is extremely difficult to prove it; and all probability is - against its being true in every case. What do you really fall back - upon when you say that if Elsmere had been a Christian he could not - have been influenced as he was? Surely on the "inward witness." But - the "inward witness," or as you call it "the supernatural life," - belongs to every religion that exists. The Andaman islander even - believes himself filled by his God, the devout Buddhist and - Mahommedan certainly believe themselves under divine and - supernatural direction, and have been inspired by the belief to - heroic efforts and sufferings. What is, in essence and - fundamentally, to distinguish your "inner witness" from theirs? And - if the critical observer maintains that this "supernatural life" is - in all cases really an intense life of the imagination, differently - peopled and conditioned, what answer have you? - - None, unless you appeal to the facts and _fruits_ of Christianity. - The Church has always done so. Only the Quaker or the Quietist can - stand mainly on the "inward witness." - - The fruits we are not concerned with. But it is as to the _facts_ - that Elsmere and, as I conceive, our whole modern time is really - troubled. An acute Scotch economist was talking to Humphry the - other day about the religious change in the Scotch lowlands. "It is - so pathetic," he said: "when I was young religion was the main - interest, the passionate occupation of the whole people. Now when I - go back there, as I constantly do, I find everything changed. The - old keenness is gone, the people's minds are turning to other - things; there is a restless consciousness, coming they know not - whence, but invading every stratum of life, that _the evidence is - not enough_." There, on another scale, is Elsmere's experience writ - large. Why is he to be called "very ill-trained," and his - impressions "accidental" because he undergoes it?... What convinced - _me_ finally and irrevocably was two years of close and constant - occupation with the materials of history in those centuries which - lie near to the birth of Christianity, and were the critical - centuries of its development. I then saw that to adopt the witness - of those centuries to matters of fact, without translating it at - every step into the historical language of our own day--a language - which the long education of time has brought closer to the - realities of things--would be to end by knowing nothing, actually - and truly, about their life. And if one is so to translate - Augustine and Jerome, nay even Suetonius and Tacitus, when they - talk to you of raisings from the dead, and making blind men to see, - why not St. Paul and the Synoptics? - - I don't think you have ever felt this pressure, though within the - limits of your own work I notice that you are always so translating - the language of the past. But those who have, cannot escape it by - any appeal to the "inward witness." They too, or many of them, - still cling to a religious life of the imagination, nay perhaps - they live for it, but it must be one where the expansive energies - of life and reason cannot be always disturbing and tormenting, - which is less vulnerable and offers less prey to the plunderer than - that which depends on the orthodox Christian story. - -Another old friend, Mrs. Edward Conybeare, wrote to contend that the -"mere life and death of the carpenter's son of Nazareth could never have -proved the vast historical influence for good which you allow it to be," -had that life ended in - - "nothing but a Syrian grave." - -Mrs. Ward replied to her as follows:-- - - -_May 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR FRANCES, - - It was very interesting to me to get your letter about _Robert - Elsmere_. I wish we could have a good talk about it. Writing is - very difficult to me, for the letters about it are overwhelming, - and I am always as you know more or less hampered by writer's - cramp. - - I am thinking of "A Conversation" for one of the summer numbers of - the _Nineteenth Century_, in which some of the questions which are - only suggested in the book may be carried a good deal further. For - the more I think and read the more plain the great lines of that - distant past become to me, the more clearly I see God at work - there, through the forms of thought, the beliefs, the capacities of - the first three centuries, as I see Him at work now, through the - forms of thought, the beliefs and capacities of our own. - Christianity was the result of many converging lines of thought and - development. The time was ripe for a moral revolution, and a great - personality, and the great personality came. That a life of - importance and far-reaching influence could have been lived within - the sphere of religion at that moment, or for centuries afterwards, - without undergoing a process of miraculous amplification, would, I - think, have been impossible. The generations before and the - generations after supply illustration after illustration of it. - That Jesus, our dear Master, partly shared this tendency of his - time and was partly bewildered and repelled by it, is very plain to - me. - - As to the belief in the Resurrection, I have many things to say - about it, and shall hope to say them in public when I have pondered - them long enough. But I long to say them not negatively, for - purposes of attack, but positively, for purposes of - reconstruction. It is about the new forms of faith and the new - grounds of combined action that I really care intensely. I want to - challenge those who live in doubt and indecision from year's end to - year's end, to think out the matter, and for their children's sake - to count up what remains to them, and to join frankly for purposes - of life and conduct with those who are their spiritual fellows. It - is the levity or the cowardice that will not think, or the - indolence and self-indulgence that is only too glad to throw off - restraints, which we have to fear. But in truth for religion, or - for the future, I have no fear at all. God is his own vindication - in human life. - -But apart from the religious argument, the characters in _Robert -Elsmere_ aroused the greatest possible interest, especially perhaps that -of Catherine. - - "As an observer of the human ant-hill, quite impartial by this - time," wrote Prof. Huxley, "I think your picture of one of the - deeper aspects of our troubled times admirable. You are very hard - on the philosophers: I do not know whether Langham or the Squire is - the more unpleasant--but I have a great deal of sympathy with the - latter, so I hope he is not the worse. - - "If I may say so, I think the picture of Catherine is the gem of - the book. She reminds me of her namesake of Siena--and would as - little have failed in any duty, however gruesome. You remember - Sodoma's picture?" - -The appreciation of her French friends was always very dear to Mrs. -Ward, and amongst them too the book was eagerly read by a small circle, -though, as Scherer warned her, the subject could never become a popular -one in France. But both he and M. Taine were greatly excited by it, -while M. André Michel of the Louvre, to whom she had entrusted the copy -which she desired to present to M. Taine, wrote her a delightful account -of his embassy: - - -PARIS. -_ce 31 janvier, 1889._ - -CHERE MADAME,-- - - Votre lettre m'a été une bien agréable surprise et une bien - intéressante lecture. Je l'ai immédiatement communiquée à M. - Taine, en lui remettant l'exemplaire que vous lui destiniez de - _Robert Elsmere_ et je vous avoue qu'en me rendant chez lui à cet - effet, je me _rengorgeais_ un peu, très-fier de servir - d'intermédiaire entre l'auteur de _Robert Elsmere_ et celui de la - _Littérature Anglaise_. L'âne portant des reliques chez son évêque - ne marchait pas plus solennellement! - - M. Taine a été très-touché de cet hommage venant de vous, et je - pense qu'il vous en a déjà remercié lui-même. J'aurais voulu que - vous eussiez pu entendre--incognito--avec quelle vivacité de - sympathie et d'admiration il parlait de votre livre. Pendant - plusieurs jours, il n'a pas été question d'autre chose chez lui. - -The cumulative effect of all these letters, both approving and -disapproving; of the preachings on Robert's opinions that began with Mr. -Haweis in May, and continued at intervals throughout the summer; of the -general atmosphere of celebrity that began to surround her, was -extremely upsetting to so sensitive a nature as Mrs. Ward's, and much of -it was and remained distasteful to her. But fame had its lighter sides. -There were the inevitable sonnets, beginning - - "I thank you, Lady, for your book so pure," - -or - - "Hail to thee, gentle leader, puissant knight!"-- - -there were inquiries as to the address of the "New Brotherhood of -Christ," "so that next time we are in London we may attend some of its -meetings," and there was a gentleman who demanded to know "the opus no. -of the Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven mentioned on p. 239, and of Hans -Sachs's Immortal Song quoted on p. 177. I am in want of a little fresh -music for one of my daughters and shall esteem your kind reply." And -finally there was the following letter, which must be transcribed in -full: - - -DEAR MADAM,-- - - Trusting to your Clemency, in seeking your advice, knowing my - sphere in life, to be so far below your's. My Mother, who is a - Cook-Housekeeper, but very fond of Literature, Poetry - ("unfortunately"), in her younger days brought out a small volume, - upon her own account, a copy of which Her Majesty graciously - accepted. Tennyson considered it most "meritorious," Caryle most - "creditable." But what I am asking your advice upon is her - "Autography," her Cook's Career, which has been a checquered one. - She feels quite sure, that if it were brought out by an abler hand, - it would be widely sought and read, at least by two classes "my - Ladies" and Cooks. The matter would be truth, names and places - strictously ficticious. With much admiration and respect, - -I am, Madam, -Yours Obediently, -A. A. - -History does not record what reply Mrs. Ward made to this interesting -proposal, but no doubt she took it all as part of the great and amusing -game that Fate was playing with her. As to that game--"I have still -constant letters and reviews," she wrote to her father on July 17, "and -have been more lionized this last month than ever.--But a little -lionizing goes a long way! One's sense of humour protests, not to speak -of anything more serious, and I shall be _very_ glad to get to Borough -next week. As to my work, it is all in uncertainty. For the present Miss -Sellers is coming to me in the country, and I shall work hard at Latin -and Greek, especially the Greek of the New Testament." - -And to her old friend, Mrs. Johnson, she wrote: "Being lionized, dear -Bertha, is the foolishest business on earth; I have just had five weeks -of it, and if I don't use it up in a novel some day it's a pity. The -book has been strangely, wonderfully successful and has made me many new -friends. But I love my old ones so much best!" This latter sentiment is -expressed again in a letter to Mr. Ward: "Strange how tenacious are -one's first friendships! No other friends can ever be to me quite like -Charlotte or Louise or Bertha or Clara.[13] They know all there is to -know, bad and good--and with them one is always at ease." - -That autumn they went off on a round of visits, staying first at -Merevale with Mrs. Dugdale, whose husband had been killed three years -before in his own mine near by--a story of simple heroism which moved -Mrs. Ward profoundly, so that years afterwards she used it in her own -tale of _George Tressady_. Then to Sir Robert and Lady Cunliffe, with -whom they went over to see the "old wizard" of Hawarden, and spent a -wonderful hour in his company. - -To her old friend, J. R. Thursfield (a staunch Home Ruler), she wrote -the following account of it: - - -_September 14, 1888._ - - "Where do you think we spent the afternoon of the day before - yesterday? You would have been _so_ much worthier of it than we! - The Cunliffes took us over to tea at Hawarden and the G.O.M. was - delightful. First of all he showed us the old Norman keep, skipping - up the steps in a way to make a Tory positively ill to see, talking - of every subject under the sun--Sir Edward Watkin and their new - line of railway, border castles, executions in the sixteenth - century, Villari's _Savonarola_, Damiens and his tortures--'all for - sticking half-an-inch of penknife into that beast Louis - XV!'--modern poetry, Tupper, Lewis Morris, Lord Houghton and Heaven - knows what besides, and all with a charm, a courtesy, an _élan_, an - eagle glance of eye that sent regretful shivers down one's Unionist - backbone. He showed us all his library--his literary table, and his - political table, and his new toy, the strong fire-proof room he has - just built to hold his 60,000 letters, the papers which will some - day be handed over to his biographer. His vigour both of mind and - body was astonishing--he may well talk, as he did, of 'the foolish - dogmatism which refuses to believe in centenarians.'" - -À propos of this last remark, Mrs. Ward filled in the tale on her return -by telling us how he turned upon her with flashing eye and demanded: -"Did it ever occur to you, Mrs. Ward, that Lord Palmerston was Prime -Minister at 81?" He himself was to surpass that record by returning to -power at 82. - -From the Cunliffes' they also made an expedition to the Peak country, -which Mrs. Ward wished to explore for purposes of her next book (_David -Grieve_), now already taking shape in her mind--and then travelled up to -Scotland to stay at a great house to whose mistress, Lady Wemyss, she -was devoted. From one who was afterwards to be known as the portrayer of -English country-house life the following impressions may be of interest: - - -_To Mrs. A. H. Johnson_ - -FOX GHYLL, AMBLESIDE, -_October 21, 1888_. - -...Yes, we had many visits and on the whole very pleasant ones. In - Derbyshire I saw a farm and a moorland which I shall try to make - the British public see some day. Then on we went to the Lyulph - Stanleys', saw them, and Castle Howard and Rivaulx, and journeyed - on by the coast to Redcar and the Hugh Bells. There we found Alice - Green, and had a merry time. Afterwards came a week at Gosford, - whereof the pleasure was mixed. Lady Wemyss I love more than ever, - but the party in the house was large and very smart, and with the - best will in the world on both sides it is difficult for plain - literary folk who don't belong to it to get much entertainment out - of a circle where everybody is cousin of everybody else, and on - Christian name terms, and where the women at any rate, though - pleasant enough, are taken up with "places," jewels and Society - with a big S. I don't mean to be unfair. Most of them are good and - kindly, and have often unsuspected "interests," but naturally the - paraphernalia of their position plays a large part in their lives, - and makes a sort of hedge round them through which it is hard to - get at the genuine human being. - - Perhaps our most delightful visit was a Saturday to Monday with Mr. - Balfour, at Whittinghame. There life is lived, intellectually, on - the widest and freest of all possible planes, and the master of it - all is one to whom nature has given a peculiar charm and magnetism, - in addition to all that he has made for himself by toil and - trouble. - -...I am a little disturbed by the announcement of a _Quarterly_ - article on _R.E._ It must be hostile--perhaps an attack in the old - _Quarterly_ fashion: well, if so I shall be in good company! But I - don't want to have to answer--I want to be free to think new - thoughts and imagine fresh things. - -When the _Quarterly_ article appeared a few days later she found it -courteous enough in tone, but its attitude of complacent superiority -towards the whole critical process, which it described as "a phase of -thought long ago lived through and practically dead," stung her to -action and made her feel that some reply--to this and Gladstone -together--was now unavoidable. She owed it to her own position--not as a -scholar, for she never claimed that title, but as an interpreter of -scholars and their work to the modern public. But "If I do reply," she -wrote to her husband, "I shall make it as substantive and constructive -as possible. All the attacking, destructive part is so distasteful to -me. I can only go through with it as a necessary element in a whole -which is not negative but positive." But she could not be induced even -by Mr. Knowles's persuasions to make it a regular "reply" to Mr. -Gladstone, whose name is not once mentioned throughout the article[14]; -she threw her argument instead into dialogue form, so keeping the -artistic ground which she had used in the novel, and replying to the -_Quarterly_ or to the G.O.M. rather by allusion than by direct argument. -The article was very widely read and certainly carried her cause a stage -further; it was felt that here was something that had come to stay, that -must be reckoned with, and her skilful use of the admissions made in the -Church Congress that year as to the date and authorship of certain books -of the Old Testament filled her readers with a vague feeling that -perhaps after all these things must be faced for the New Testament also. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile in America the hubbub produced by _Robert Elsmere_ had far -exceeded anything that occurred on this side of the Atlantic. Those were -the days before International Copyright, when any American publisher was -free to issue the works of British authors without their consent and -without payment, and when if an "authorized edition" was issued by some -reputable firm which had paid the author for his rights, it could be -undersold the next day by some adventurous "pirate." Messrs. Macmillan -had bought the American rights of _Robert Elsmere_ for a small sum and -had issued it at $1.50 in April, but as soon as it began to excite -attention, and especially after the appearance of Gladstone's article, -the pirate firms rushed in and raged furiously with each other and with -Macmillan's to get the book out at the lowest possible price. One -firm--Messrs. Lowell & Co.--which had sold tens of thousands of copies, -magnanimously sent the author a cheque for £100, but this was the only -payment which Mrs. Ward ever received for _Robert Elsmere_ from an -American publisher. Some of the incidents of the internecine war between -the pirates themselves for control of the _Robert Elsmere_ market are -still worth recording. They were summed up in a well-informed article in -the _Manchester Guardian_ in March, 1889, entitled _The "Book-Rats" of -the United States_: - - "In America the publisher's lot is not a happy one. If he is - honest, he pays his author, and upon the first assurance of success - sees nine-tenths of his lawful profits swept away by the incursions - of pirates. If he is dishonest, he does not pay his author, but in - hot haste reprints in cheap and nasty material, with one object - alone--to undersell the legitimate publisher. A host more follow - suit with new reprints in still cheaper and nastier material, till, - under the pretence of giving cheap literature to the million, the - culminating point is reached in the man who sells at a quarter of - cost price to drive his rivals out of the field. This is what - happened the other day in Boston over the sale of _Robert Elsmere_, - a book which has there achieved an unparalleled success, and - abundantly illustrates the inequality of the present system of no - copyright. In England between thirty and forty thousand copies have - already been sold in the nine months since it was published, and - the book is selling steadily at the rate of some 700 a week. In - America the sale is estimated at 200,000 copies, of which 150,000 - are in pirated editions. One honest pirate purges his conscience by - the magnificent gift of £100, which is likely to be the first and - last instalment of that 'handsome competence which the American - reading public,' says a Rhode Island newspaper, 'owes to Mrs. - Ward.' A hundred pounds, representing just one shilling and - fourpence per hundred copies upon all the pirated editions! And the - author must be thankful for such mercies; rights she has none over - her own creation, which pervades the States from end to end, and - is not only a library in itself, but has called into existence so - much polemical literature that a leading New York paper gives - solemn warning to contributors that for the future sermons on - _Robert Elsmere_ will only be published at the ordinary - advertisement rates. A Buffalo advertisement cries, 'Who has yet - touched _Robert Elsmere_ at ten cents?' only to be taken down by - Jordan Marsh and Co., the 'Whiteleys' of Boston, who offered the - book at four cents. Twopence for a book which extends over 400 - pages in close-printed octavo! The stroke told, almost too - successfully for its contrivers. It is said that next day the shop - doors were besieged by a crowd like the surging throng at the - entrance to the Lyceum pit on a first night. A queue extended - across the street. For three days the enterprising pirate had the - field to himself; then he raised his price again; he had lost some - ten cents on every copy, but he had crushed his rivals." - -The achievement of one still more enterprising firm, however, escaped -the notice of this correspondent. The Balsam Fir Soap Co., being anxious -to launch their new soap upon the market, made the following -announcement: - - -TO THE PUBLIC - - We beg to announce that we have purchased an edition of the Hyde - Park Company's _Robert Elsmere_, and also their edition of _Robert - Elsmere and the Battle of Belief_--a criticism by the Right Hon. W. - E. Gladstone, M.P. - - These two books will be presented to each purchaser of a single - cake of Balsam Fir Soap. - -Respectfully, -THE MAINE BALSAM FIR CO. - -Thus was poor Robert, with his doubts and dreams, his labours and his -faith, given away with a cake of soap! - -But this was not all, nor even the worst. When the boom was still at its -height, in the spring of 1889, Mrs. Ward was horrified to hear that a -full-blown dramatized version of the book, by William Gillette, had -actually been produced in Boston, with a "comedy element," as the -newspaper report described it, "involving an English exquisite and a -horsey husband," thrown in, the Squire and Grey eliminated, and Langham -"endowed with such nobility of character as ultimately to marry Rose." -She at once cabled her protest with some energy and succeeded in getting -the further performance of the play stopped; but hardly was this episode -ended than another followed on its heels. - - "A writer in the New York _Tribune_," wrote the _Glasgow Herald_ in - April, 1889, "exposes a most barefaced trick of trading upon Mrs. - Humphry Ward's name. A continuation, he says, of _Robert Elsmere_ - has already been begun by an American publisher, and advance - sheets, containing thrilling instalments of the romantic adventures - of _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, are being scattered broadcast over - the length and breadth of the United States. The industrious agents - of the publisher of this sheet have been busily engaged in - inserting sample chapters of this new novel under the doors of - houses all over New York. This, however, is not the worst feature - of the trick. From the title of the story the impression sought to - be conveyed is that Mrs. Humphry Ward, the authoress of _Robert - Elsmere_, is responsible, too, for _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, the - headings of the story being arranged in this specious shape: - '_Robert Elsmere's Daughter_--a companion story to _Robert - Elsmere_--by Mrs. Humphry Ward.'" - -It was no wonder that the scandal of these events was used by the -promoters of the International Copyright Bill then before Congress as -one of their most powerful arguments; for there were many honourable -publishing firms in America which abhorred these proceedings and were -only anxious to regularize their relations with British authors. Mr. -George Haven Putnam, head of the firm of G. P. Putnam's Sons, and the -International Copyright Committee which he formed, had already been -working in this direction for some years; but the opposition was -strenuous, and it was only in March, 1891, that the Copyright Bill which -was to have so great an effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes actually became -law in the United States. Even before that, however, very flattering -offers were made to her by American publishers--especially by Mr. S. S. -McClure, founder of the then youthful _McClure's Magazine_--for the -right of publishing the "authorized version" of her next book. Mr. -McClure tried to beguile her into writing him a "novelette," or a -"romance of Bible times," but Mrs. Ward was not to be moved. She had -already begun work upon her next book (_David Grieve_), and all she said -in writing to her sister (Mrs. Huxley) was: "This American, Mr. McClure, -is a wonderful man. He has offered me £1,000 for the serial rights of a -story as long as _Milly and Olly_! Naturally I am not going to do it, -but it is amusing." To her father she wrote in more serious mood about -the American boom: - - "It is a great moral strain, this extraordinary success. I feel - often as though it were a struggle to preserve one's full - individuality, and one's sense of truth and proportion in the teeth - of it. There is no help but to look away from oneself and - everything that pertains to self, to the Eternal and Divine things, - to live penetrated with the feebleness and poverty of self and the - greatness of God." - -Yet naturally she enjoyed the many letters from Americans of all ranks -and classes which reached her during the autumn and winter of 1888. The -veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to her in his most charming vein, -speaking of the book as a "medicated novel, which will do much to -improve the secretions and clear the obstructed channels of the decrepit -theological system." W. R. Thayer, afterwards the biographer of Cavour, -wrote: - - "The extraordinary popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ is a most - significant symptom of the spiritual conditions of this country. No - book since _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ has had so sudden and wide a - diffusion among all classes of readers; and I believe that no other - book of equal seriousness ever had so quick a hearing. I have seen - it in the hands of nursery-maids, and of shop-girls behind the - counter; of frivolous young women, who read every novel that is - talked about; of business men, professors, students, and even - schoolboys. The newspapers and periodicals are still discussing it, - and, perhaps the best sign of all, it has been preached against by - the foremost clergymen of all denominations." - -And a sturdy rationalist, Mr. W. D. Childs, thus recorded his protest: - - "I regret the popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ in this country. Our - western people are like sheep in such matters. They will not see - that the book was written for a people with a State Church on its - hands, that a gross exaggeration of the importance of religion was - necessary. It will revive interest in theology and retard the - progress of rationalism. - - "Am I not right in this? You surely cannot think it good for - individuals or for societies to take religion seriously, when there - is so much economic disorder in the world, when the mass of - physical and mental suffering is so obviously reducible only by - material means." - -It was very delightful, of course, to be making a little money from the -book, after so many years of strenuous work, and though the sum she had -earned was still a modest one (about £3,200 by January, 1889), it -enabled her and her husband to make plans for the future and to embark -on the purchase of some land for building in the still unspoilt country -to the east of Haslemere. Here, on Grayswood Hill, overlooking the vast -tangle of the Weald as far as Chanctonbury Ring and the South Downs, a -red-brick house of moderate size, cunningly designed by Mr. Robson, -gradually arose during 1889 and the first part of 1890; but while it was -still building a fortunate accident placed in our way the chance of -living for three months in a far different habitation--John Hampden's -wonderful old house near Great Missenden, which was then in a state of -interregnum, and might be rented for a small sum. - - "It will be quite an adventure," wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher - in July, 1889, "for in spite of the beauty and romance of the place - there is hardly enough furniture of a ramshackle kind in it to - enable us to camp for three months in tolerable comfort! But by - dint of sending down a truck load of baths, carpets and saucepans - from home we shall get on, and our expenses will be less than if we - took a villa at Westgate." - -And to Mrs. Johnson, of Oxford, who was coming with her whole family to -stay there, Mrs. Ward wrote three days after her arrival: - - "The furniture of the house is decrepit, scanty and decayed, but it - has breeding and refinement, and is a thousand times preferable to - any luxurious modern stuff. I am _perfectly_ happy here, and bless - the lucky chance which drew our attention to the advertisement. I - will not spoil the old house and gardens and park for you by - describing them--but they are a dream, and the out-at-elbowness of - everything is an additional charm." - -So for three months we stayed at Hampden, revelling in its beauty and -its spaciousness, learning to know the Chiltern country with its -chalk-downs and beech-woods, entertaining many visitors, including the -much-loved Professor Huxley, and watching anxiously for the ghost that -walked in the passage outside the tapestry-room on moonlight nights. It -never walked for us, though Mrs. Ward sat up many times to woo it, but -there were plenty of ghosts of another sort in a house that had -sheltered Queen Elizabeth on one of her "progresses," that still -possessed the chair in which John Hampden had sat when they came to -arrest him for ship-money, and that had guarded his body at the last, -when his Greencoats bore it thither from Thame to lie in the great hall -for one more night before its burial in the little church across the -garden. At first there were no lamps, and we groped about with stumps of -candles after dark, but gradually all the more glaring deficiencies were -remedied and Mrs. Ward settled down to a happy three months of work on -her new novel, _David Grieve_. But as she wrote of her two wild children -on the Derbyshire moors, or of young David and his books in Manchester, -the very different scene around her formed itself in her mind into a new -setting, from which arose in course of time _Marcella_. - -Meanwhile it was not Hampden's ghost but Elsmere's that still haunted -her, in the sense that the "New Brotherhood" with which the novel ended -would not die with it, but struggled dumbly in the author's mind for -expression in some living form. Some time before she had been deeply -impressed by a visit she had paid to Toynbee Hall with "Max Creighton," -as she wrote to her father, when she found that "in the library there -_R.E._ had been read to pieces, and in a workmen's club which had just -been started several ideas had been taken from the "New Brotherhood." -The experience had remained with her; she had brooded and dreamt over -it, and now when she returned to London in the autumn of 1889 she began -for the first time to try to work out the idea in consultation with -certain chosen friends. "Lord Carlisle came and had a long talk with M. -about a proposed Unitarian Toynbee somewhere in South London"--so wrote -the little sister-in-law (herself an orthodox Christian) in her journal -on November 11, 1889. And a little later: "Mr. Stopford Brooke came and -had a long talk with her about a 'New Brotherhood' they hope to start -with Lord Carlisle and a few others to help." - -Was it to be a new religion, or a re-vivifying of the old? The impulse -to build up, to re-create, was hot within her; could she not appeal to -her generation to help her in following out this impulse towards some -practical goal? Was there not room for another Toynbee, inspired still -more definitely than the first with the ideals of a simpler -Christianity? The dæmon drove; surely the very success of her book -showed that this was the need of the new age in which she lived. She -plunged into the task, and only time and Fate were to reveal that the -"new religion" was doomed to take no outward form, but to work itself -out in ways undreamt of as yet by the author of _Robert Elsmere_. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL--_DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS" - -1889-1892 - - -The conversations with Stopford Brooke and Lord Carlisle mentioned in -the last chapter contained the germ of all that public work which was to -claim henceforth so large a share of Mrs. Ward's life. Up to this point -she had hardly taken any part in London committees; indeed, those -spacious days were still comparatively free from them, and it is -remembered that when the first meeting of the group with whom she was -discussing her new scheme took place at Russell Square,[15] one -irreverent child in the schoolroom next door said to its fellow, "What's -a committee?" "Oh," said the elder, in the manner of one who imparts -information, "it's when the grown-ups get together, and first they -think, and then they talk, and then they think again." At the moment no -sound was audible through the wall. "They must be thinking now," said -the instructor carelessly, leaving his junior to the solemn belief, held -for many years, that a committee was a sort of prayer-meeting. - -That first group, who discussed and finally approved Mrs. Ward's draft -circular announcing the foundation of a "Hall for Residents" in London, -consisted of the following men and women besides herself: Dr. Martineau, -Dr. James Drummond, of Manchester College, Oxford, Mr. Stopford Brooke, -Lord Carlisle, Rev. W. Copeland Bowie, Dr. Estlin Carpenter, Mr. -Frederick Nettlefold, the Dowager Countess Russell, Miss Frances Power -Cobbe, and lastly, Dr. Blake Odgers, Q.C., who acted as Hon. Treasurer. -Mr. Copeland Bowie, who helped Mrs. Ward for several months as a "kind -of assistant secretary," has recorded his impressions of those crowded -days in an article which he wrote for the _Inquirer_ on April 3, 1920: - - "We met in the dining-room at Russell Square. Mrs. Ward was the - moving and executive force; the rest of us were simply admiring and - sympathetic spectators of her enterprise and zeal. It is delightful - to recall her abounding activity and enthusiasm. Difficulties were - overcome, criticisms were answered, work was carried on with - extraordinary devotion and skill. Several meetings were devoted to - the consideration of how to proceed, for the pathway was beset by - many difficulties. At last, early in March, 1890, a scheme for the - establishment of a Settlement at University Hall, Gordon Square, in - a part of the old building belonging to Dr. Williams's Trustees, - was agreed upon. The religious note is very prominent. University - Hall would encourage 'an improved popular teaching of the Bible and - the history of religion, in order to show the adaptability of the - faith of the past to the needs of the present.'" - -The aims of the new movement were, in fact, set forth in the original -circular in these words: - - "It has been determined to establish a Hall for residents in - London, somewhat on the lines of Toynbee Hall, with the following - objects in view: - - "1. To provide a fresh rallying point and enlarged means of common - religious action for all those to whom Christianity, whether by - inheritance or process of thought, has become a system of practical - conduct, based on faith in God, and on the inspiring memory of a - great teacher, rather than a system of dogma based on a unique - revelation. Such persons especially, who, while holding this point - of view, have not yet been gathered into any existing religious - organization, are often greatly in want of those helps towards the - religious life, whether in thought or action, which are so readily - afforded by the orthodox bodies to their own members. The first aim - of the new Hall will be a religious aim. - - [Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)] - - "2. The Hall will endeavour to promote an improved popular teaching - of the Bible and of the history of religion. To this end - continuous teaching will be attempted under its roof on such - subjects as Old and New Testament criticism, the history of - Christianity, and that of non-Christian religions. A special effort - will be made to establish Sunday teaching both at the Hall and, by - the help of the Hall residents, in other parts of London, for - children of all classes. The children of well-to-do parents are - often worse off in this matter of careful religious teaching than - those of their poorer neighbours. There can be little doubt that - many persons are deeply dissatisfied with the whole state of - popular religious teaching in England. Either it is purely - dogmatic, taking no account of the developments of modern thought - and criticism, or it is colourless and perfunctory, the result of a - compromise which satisfies and inspires nobody. Yet that a simpler - Christianity can be frankly and effectively taught, so as both to - touch the heart and direct the will, is the conviction and familiar - experience of many persons in England, America, France and Holland. - But the new teaching wants organizing, deepening and extending. It - should be the aim of the proposed Hall to work towards such an - end." - -It was natural that such ideals as these should appeal in a peculiar way -to the Unitarian community, and we find in fact that the first -subscription list, which guaranteed an income of about £700 to -University Hall for three years, contains a preponderance of Unitarian -names. Lord Carlisle and Mr. Stopford Brooke were in favour of calling -it frankly a Unitarian Settlement. "There is a life and spirit about the -things which are done by Dissenters," wrote Lord Carlisle, "which I -believe can never be got out of people who have a lingering feeling for -the Church of England." But the majority on the Committee, including -Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau, thought that this would be setting -unnecessary limits to the movement, which they rather intended to be a -leaven permeating the lump both of orthodoxy and of indifferentism. It -was therefore agreed not to use the word in the preliminary circular, -though all the world could see from the names on the Committee that the -tone of the new Settlement would be largely that of the younger and -freer Unitarianism which had founded Manchester College, Oxford. It was -one of Mrs. Ward's most characteristic achievements that while she -herself never sympathized with Unitarianism as an organization, she was -yet able to work closely with Unitarians in this her first great -enterprise, sharing with them their enthusiasm for the Christian message -and their austere devotion to truth, while herself cherishing that -"lingering feeling for the Church of England" which forbade her to -identify herself with any outside body while there was still hope of -influencing and widening the national Church. Yet for all practical -purposes the breach between the "new religion," as its critics -contemptuously dubbed it, and the Establishment was complete enough, and -the foundation of University Hall only confirmed the orthodox in their -disapproval of Mrs. Ward and all her works. - -Besides its definitely religious aim, the new Settlement was to have a -well-marked social side as well. This is set forth in another paragraph -of the circular: - - "It is intended that the Hall shall do its utmost to secure for its - residents opportunities for religious and social work, and for the - study of social problems, such as are possessed by the residents at - Toynbee Hall or those at Oxford House. There will be a certain - number of rooms in the Hall which can be used for social purposes, - for lectures, for recreative and continuation classes and so on. - Though the Hall itself is in one of the West Central Squares, it is - surrounded on three sides by districts crowded with poor. A room - could be taken for workers from the Hall in any of these districts - or in the Drury Lane neighbourhood. In addition, the Hall is close - to Gower Street Station, so that it would be comparatively easy for - the residents to take part in any of the organizations already - existing in the East or South of London, for the help of the poor - and the study of social problems." - -And in spite of the religious ardour of its founders, it was in this -aspect of the work of University Hall that the germ of future -developments really lay. But the future lay hidden as yet from Mrs. Ward -and her gifted band of associates and fellow-workers. - -Many difficulties were encountered in the appointment of a suitable -Warden, for a combination of qualities was required which was not easy -to find, especially in the limited circle of those whose views in -matters of faith agreed broadly with those of the Committee. Month after -month went by while Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau interviewed many -candidates, often assisted by Canon Barnett, of Toynbee, whose interest -in the new venture was as sincere as it was generous. Applications from -possible residents came in fast, showing that the work would not lack -support in that direction, but even in August the Warden was still to -seek. At length, however, in September, the ideal choice was made in Mr. -Philip Wicksteed, who was then holding the office of minister at the -Unitarian chapel in Little Portland Street. He was already beginning to -be widely known outside his regular work as a lecturer on Biblical -subjects and on Dante, and Mrs. Ward had already sounded him once or -twice in this matter of the Wardenship. But he had hitherto evaded it on -the ground that his election would identify the Hall with Unitarianism. -At last, however, Mrs. Ward won his acceptance at an interview she had -with him at Russell Square, in which she greeted him with the words "I -want to _wrestle_ with you!" He dealt frankly with her on the subject of -the religious aims of the Hall, and in a letter written to her a few -days after his acceptance said: - - "You remember when first you spoke to me on this matter how I told - you that I had never been clear as to the exact thing contemplated - in the Hall, and had never felt that it had any programme. Under - those circumstances I felt that it would be false to myself and in - reality false to you to allow myself to be overcome by your - splendid faith and enthusiasm and take it up without any true - inspiration in pity that so noble a 'quest' should find no - knight-errant to try it. - - "My work with you has considerably cleared my vision, and has - inspired me with growing _hopes_ for the institution, but I cannot - honestly say that it has given me any deep _faith_ in its success. - You know how anxious I have been throughout about our audience for - lectures, and how doubtful about the existence of any large public - seriously interested in Biblical studies. My fears are not allayed; - though I hope the result may put them to shame." - -With Mr. Wicksteed's acceptance of the Wardenship, the arrangements for -lectures and the preparations for the reception of Residents were -pushed on apace, while the Committee decided that a formal opening -ceremony must be held in order to plant the flag of the new Settlement's -faith and ideals. The Portman Rooms were taken for the purpose; the -venerable Dr. Martineau consented to be in the chair, and Mrs. Ward was -to make the principal speech. She had never spoken in public before, and -was genuinely terrified at the prospect (three years later she put into -_Marcella's_ experience in the East End her own horror of extempore -speaking); but she prepared her address with great care, and was -afterwards told that her voice carried to the farthest limits of the -room, packed as it was with a keenly expectant audience. Her plea was -that the time had come for a reconstruction of the basis of Christian -belief; that the results both of Darwinian inquiry and of historical -criticism must be faced, especially in the teaching of children, but -that when the "search for an exacter truth, which is the fate and -mission of humanity" had been met, a possibility of faith remained which -would be the future hope of the world. To the elucidation of this faith -the efforts of the Hall, on its teaching and lecturing side, would be -devoted. And in speaking of the "social and practical effort which is an -_essential_ part of our scheme," she pleaded that it was "yet not its -most distinctive nor its most vital part. The need of urging it on -public attention is recognized in all camps. Yet, meanwhile, there are -hundreds of men and women who spend themselves in these works of charity -and mercy who are all the time inwardly starved, crying for something -else, something more, if they could but get it. What matters to them, -first and foremost--what would give fresh life to all their -efforts--would be the provision of a new motive power, a new hope for -the individual life in God, a new respect for man's destiny. Let me -recall you for a moment from the gospel of works to the great Pauline -gospel of faith, and the inner life! It is in the bringing back of -_faith_--not the faith which confuses legend with history, or puts -authority in the place of knowledge, but the faith which springs from -moral and spiritual fact, and may be day after day, and hour after hour, -again verified by fact--that the great task of our generation lies." - -Thus was the new venture launched, amid a mingled chorus of admiration -and criticism from that section of the world which was affected by the -movement of ideas. The lecturing at University Hall was soon in full -swing, and was maintained at a very high level during the years 1891 and -1892, so that when Mrs. Ward went on a speaking tour to some of the -northern towns in the autumn of the latter year in order to appeal for -funds for a further period of three years (an appeal in which she was -completely successful), she was able to give a very remarkable account -of it. Many courses on both Old and New Testament criticism had been -given, by Mr. Wicksteed, by Dr. Estlin Carpenter, by M. Chavannes, of -Leyden; on the Fourth Gospel by that fine scholar, Mr. Charles Hargrove; -on Theism by Prof. Knight, and on the Gospel of St. Luke by Dr. -Martineau himself. These latter took place on Sunday afternoons during -the spring of 1891. "Sunday after Sunday," said Mrs. Ward, "the Hall of -Dr. Williams's Library was crowded to the doors, and, I believe by many -to whom the line of thought followed in the lectures was of quite fresh -help and service; and it will be long indeed before many of us forget -the last Sunday--the venerable form, the beautiful voice, the note of -unconquerable hope as to the future of faith, and yet of unconquerable -courage as to the rights of the mind! I at least shall always look back -to that hour as to a moment of consecration for our young Institution, -disclosing to us at once its opportunities and its responsibilities." In -the non-Biblical sphere Mrs. J. R. Green had given a series of lectures -on the development of the English towns[16]; Miss Beatrice Potter (soon -to become Mrs. Sidney Webb) a course on the Co-operative Movement, which -became the foundation of her great book on that subject; Mr. Graham -Wallas on "The English Citizen"; Mr. Stopford Brooke on "The English -Poets of the Nineteenth Century"; while the Warden lectured to large -audiences on Dante, and "ground away" (in his own words) at political -economy, thinking aloud before his band of students and "forging forward -on new lines." It was all very stimulating, very much alive; but -whether, as the months passed on, it was exactly carrying out the aims -and intentions of that opening day, some sympathetic observers began to -doubt. - - "I was uneasy all the time," wrote Mr. Wicksteed afterwards to J. - P. T., "because though I thought I was working honestly and in a - way usefully, yet I could never quite feel that the Settlement was - doing the work it set out to do, or that it was quite justifying - its subscription list. But I don't believe your mother, in spite of - a great measure of personal disappointment, ever had the smallest - doubt or misgiving in this matter. She thoroughly believed in the - significance and value of what _was_ being done, and cared for it - with a vivid faith and affection, and supported it with an - inventive enthusiasm, that have always seemed to me the expression - of a generosity and magnanimity of a type and quality that were - quite distinctive." - -An energetic attempt was made to interest the young men employed in the -big shops of Tottenham Court Road in the Hall's activities; but the -times were premature; not until the Great War had loosed the foundations -of our society did the young men of Tottenham Court Road find their way -into the Y.M.C.A. "The young men of Tottenham Court Road," wrote Mr. -Copeland Bowie, "gave no sign that they wished to partake of the food -provided for them at University Hall." Then, somewhat apart from the -lecturing scheme of the Hall, there grew up the body of Residents, young -men of divers attainments and tastes who were hard to mould into the -original scheme, some of whom were even greatly concerned to show that -they depended in no way for their ideas on the author of _Robert -Elsmere_. Occasionally there were difficult moments at the Council -meetings, when the Residents' views clashed with those of the older -members, but it was at those moments, and generally in her gift for -bowing to the inevitable when it came, that Mrs. Ward endeared herself -most to her fellow-workers by her rare great-heartedness. During their -first winter's work at the Hall the Residents had discovered, in the -squalid neighbourhood to the east of Tavistock Square, a dingy building -that went by the name of Marchmont Hall, which they decided to take as -the scene of their regular social activities. They raised a special fund -for its expenses, and under the leadership of a young solicitor, who -combined much shrewdness and ability with a glowing enthusiasm for the -service of his fellow-men, the late Mr. Alfred Robinson, the suspicions -of the neighbourhood were overcome and a fruitful programme of boys' -clubs, men's clubs, concerts and lectures launched by the autumn of -1891. Mrs. Ward was deeply interested in the experiment, and hoped -against hope that it might lead to those opportunities for Christian -teaching which still lay very near her heart. A year later she was able -to give the following account of their first attempts in that direction: - - "The Sunday evening lectures are preceded by half an hour's music, - and have been from the first more definitely ethical and religious - in tone than those given on Thursday. But it is only quite recently - we have felt that we could speak freely, without danger of - misunderstanding, upon those subjects which are generally - identified by the working-classes with sectarian and ecclesiastical - propaganda. Now that we are known we need have no fear; and on - November 12 the Warden, who had already spoken on the prophets of - Israel and other kindred topics, gave an address on the life and - character of Jesus. It was received with warm feeling, and more - lectures of the same kind have already been arranged for. Next term - we hope a class in the Gospels, already begun, may take larger - proportions. Among the boys and young men of the Hall, often - intelligent and well-educated as they are, there is an - extraordinary amount of sheer ignorance and indifference as to the - Christian story and literature, even when they have had their full - share of the usual Sunday School training. To some of us there - could be no more welcome task, to be undertaken at once with - eagerness and with trembling, than that of making old things new to - eyes and hearts still capable of that 'admiration, hope, and love' - by which alone we truly live." - -But the movement never developed, for in truth there was no Elsmere to -lead it; Mrs. Ward herself went three times to take a boy's class on -Sunday afternoons, but could not, in the midst of her other work, -maintain the effort; the Warden, versatile as he was, did not regard it -as his _first_ interest, while from the body of Residents came a dumb -sense of antagonism, not amounting to direct opposition, but just as -effective, which in the end prevailed. The "School" of Biblical studies -at University Hall continued as before, appealing to a definite class of -students and educated persons of the middle-class, but the attempt to -fuse it with the social work at Marchmont Hall was doomed to succeed as -little as the attempt to attract to it the half-educated shopmen of -Tottenham Court Road. Gradually the human interest of the experiment, -the sense of romance and adventure, went over from the lecturing side to -the work at Marchmont Hall, where the popular lectures and discussions, -the Saturday evening concerts and the Saturday morning "play-rooms" for -children were making a real mark on the life of the district. But Mrs. -Ward was fully able to recognize this, and accepted in an ungrudging -spirit the different direction which circumstances had given to her own -cherished dreams. - - "It will be seen readily enough," wrote Mr. Wicksteed in the - memorial pamphlet issued by the Passmore Edwards Settlement, "that - it was on the side of the School rather than on that of the - Residence that Mrs. Ward's ideals seemed to have the best chance of - fulfilling themselves. Yet in truth it was in the Residence that - the germ of future development lay. The greatness of Mrs. Ward's - character was shown in her recognition--painful and unwilling - sometimes, but always brave and loyal--of this fact. She could not - and did not relinquish her "Elsmerean" ideals. The romance of - _Richard Meynell_, published twenty-three years after _Robert - Elsmere_, shows them in unabated ardour. The failure of the - Residence to amalgamate with the School was the source of deep - distress to her. She sometimes suggested measures for overcoming it - that did not approve themselves to her colleagues, but throughout - she never suspected their loyalty, and never failed in her own. It - needed rare magnanimity. Patience seems too passive a word to apply - to so ardent a spirit, but something that did the work of patience - was very truly there. And as she came to recognize that with the - available material the Settlement could not be the embodiment of - her full ideal, she withdrew her vital energies from the attempt to - force a passage where none was possible, she steadily refused to - let blood flow through a wound that could be and should be healed, - and she threw all the strength of her inventive and resourceful - mind--and what is more the full stream of her affection and joy in - accomplished good--into the development of such branches of her - purpose as by that agency could be furthered." - -By the year 1893 the situation as between University Hall and Marchmont -Hall had become a curious one, since the former was too large and -expensive for its purpose and the latter not nearly large enough. Mrs. -Ward and her friends came to the conclusion that some scheme must be -devised for combining the activities of both institutions under one -roof; but since no suitable building existed anywhere in the -neighbourhood of Marchmont Hall, where deep roots had been struck in the -affections of the working population, it became obvious that the only -solution was to build. Through the early spring of 1894 Mrs. Ward -laboured to interest the old friends of University Hall in an appeal for -a Building Fund of £5,000; but it was uphill work; her health had -suffered greatly from the long strain, and there were moments when hope -sank very low. Then, one evening in May of that year, the postman's -knock sounded below, and one of us went down as usual to fetch the -letters. There was but a single dull-looking letter in an ordinary -"commercial envelope." "Only a bill," announced the bearer, as it was -placed in Mrs. Ward's hands. She opened it, glanced at the signature, -read it rapidly through, and then, with a little cry, exclaimed: "Mr. -Passmore Edwards is going to build us a Settlement!" - -She had written to him at last, knowing of him--as all that generation -knew--mainly as the generous founder of Free Libraries, but without much -hope that he would seriously take up the Marchmont Hall building scheme. -At that time the Committee were in favour of a site in Somers Town, -north of the Euston Road, the advantages of which Mrs. Ward had set -forth in her letter to Mr. Edwards. His answer ran as follows: - - -_May 30, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MADAM,-- - - Since I received your letter in Italy I have considered your - suggestion in reference to the extension in ampler premises of - University Hall Settlement, and thereby planting as you say a - Toynbee Hall in the Somers Town district. I have also visited the - district in and around Clarendon Sq., and am convinced that such an - Institution is as much wanted in North London as it was wanted in - East London. I therefore cheerfully respond to your appeal, and - undertake to provide the necessary building within the limits of - the sum you indicate, if somebody will provide a suitable site. The - vacant place in Clarendon Sq. would, I consider, be a convenient - spot for the Settlement. As a matter of course, provision must be - made that the building shall be permanently devoted to the purpose - now intended. In my opinion we have the two things most necessary - in the Somers Town district for a Toynbee Hall: we have a numerous - working population requiring educational assistance and advantages; - and we have in the neighbourhood many able and willing workers - ready to assist in works of intellectual, moral and social culture. - -I remain, -Yours faithfully, -J. PASSMORE EDWARDS. - -This was her first great victory on the road to the building of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. That road was still to be a long and -difficult one, but she was not to be discouraged, and where many lesser -souls would have fallen out by the wayside, wearied by ill-health and by -the multiplication of obstacles, she persisted, and won in the end a -vantage-ground in the fine buildings of the Settlement, whence, in the -course of time, she could pass on to new and various achievements. - -Heavy and exacting as the work of University Hall was during the first -three years of its existence, and glum as the face of our coachman was -wont to look at the reiterated orders to drive there (for he disapproved -of his horse being kept waiting in the street while people were just -talking), Mrs. Ward never allowed it to absorb her mind completely. -Indeed, these years saw the writing of her second three-volume novel, -_The History of David Grieve_, as well as many important developments in -our domestic affairs. The house on Grayswood Hill, near Haslemere, was -rising fast during the early months of 1890, while the principles of the -new Settlement were being thrashed out in the study at Russell Square, -and at length Mrs. Ward tore herself away from London, stipulating for a -six weeks' break from the affairs of University Hall, buried herself in -a neighbouring house named "Grayswood Beeches," wrote _David_ hard, and -kept a watchful eye on the plasterers and painters at work on "Lower -Grayswood" below. She took the keenest interest in every detail of the -new house, planning it out in daily letters to her husband, and yet as -it drew near completion she could not help rebelling at its very -newness, at the half-made garden and the plantations of birch and larch -and pine which covered much of the nine acres of ground, while of real -trees there was hardly one. Waves of longing would assail her for -Hampden House, with its silence and its spaciousness, its old lawns and -trees, and its complete absence of neighbours. "How I have been -hankering after Hampden lately!" she writes to her father in June, 1890, -and to her husband she confesses that she has been to the agent's to -inquire whether Hampden could be let for a term of years. "They don't -think so. I told them to inquire without mentioning our names at all." -Hampden, however, was not to be had, and when once she was established -in Lower Grayswood, Mrs. Ward took more kindly to the house, which had -from its windows one of the most astonishing views in all the South of -England. Yet still she wrote to her father: "I doubt whether I shall be -content ultimately without an old house and old trees! If one may covet -anything, I think one may covet this kind of inheritance from the past -to shelter one's own later life in. Life seems so short to make anything -quite fresh. Meanwhile, Lower Grayswood is very nice, and more than we -deserve!" - -The verdict of children and friends was indeed unanimous in praise of -the poor new house, whence endless fishing expeditions were made to -muddy little brooks in the plain below, almost compensating for the loss -of Forked Pond and the other barbarian delights of Borough Farm. But -even the children realized that there were "too many people about" for -the health of their mother's work. The pile of cards on the hall table -grew ominously thick. Americans walked in, taking no denial, and once in -mid-August, when the youngest child tactlessly won a junior race at the -Lythe Hill Sports, with all Haslemere looking on, there were paragraphs -in the evening papers. It would not do, and I think the house at -Haslemere was doomed from that day onwards. Still, for two years it -played its part delightfully in the web of Mrs. Ward's life, giving her -quiet, especially in the autumn and winter, for the writing of _David -Grieve_, giving her deep draughts of beauty which were not forgotten in -after years. The lodge was made a home for tired Londoners, whether boys -or mothers or factory-girls, and the house itself was never long empty -of guests. - -There, too, in the book-lined room which she had made her study, she -would on Sunday evenings carry out in practice those ideas on the -teaching of the Bible which she had striven to inculcate at University -Hall. The audience sat on low stools or lay on the floor, while she read -to them usually a part of the Gospels, making the scene live again, as -only she could make it, not only by her intimate knowledge of the times, -but by her gift of presentation. Systematically, making us use our minds -to follow her, she would work through a section of St. Mark or St. -Matthew, comparing each with the other, showing the touches of the -"later hand," taking us deep into the fascinating intricacies of the -Synoptic Problem. But all the time the central figure would grow clearer -and clearer, in simple majesty of parable or act of healing, while at -the greatest moments commentary fell away and only the old words broke -the stillness. She was immensely interested in the problem of the -Master's own view of himself and his mission, following him step by step -to the declaration at Cæsarea Philippi, then tracing the gathering -conviction that in himself was to be fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of the -Suffering Servant. She was inclined to reject the prophecies of the -Second Coming as showing too obviously the feeling of the second -generation, as being unworthy of him who said, "The Kingdom of God is -within you." But in later years she came to regard them as probably -based on utterances of his own, for was he not, after all, the child of -his time and country? With an episode like the Transfiguration she would -show us the elements of popular legend from which it was put together, -fitting piece into piece till the whole stood out with a new freshness, -throwing its light backwards over the age-long Jewish expectations of -the return of Moses and Elijah. So with the Resurrection stories; she -bade us always remember the teeming soil from which they sprang, in that -long-past childhood of the world; how none of them were written down -till forty years, most of them not till sixty and seventy years, had -passed since the Crucifixion; how the return from Hades on the third day -is at least as old as Alcestis. These things, she said, forbade us to -accept them as literal fact; but it was impossible to listen to her -reading of the Walk to Emmaus, or the finding of the empty tomb, without -coming under the spell of an emotion as deep as it was austere. For the -fact that we in these latter days had outgrown our childhood and must -distinguish truth from phantasy was no reason in her mind, why we should -renounce the poetic value of scenes and pictures woven into the very -fabric of our being. And so, Sunday after Sunday, our little minds drank -in a teaching which she would fain believe could have been spread -broadcast among our generation, could the ideals of University Hall but -reach the masses. She did not realize how unique her teaching was, nor -how few among her generation combined such knowledge as hers with such a -power of instilling it into other minds and hearts. - - * * * * * - -The writing of _David Grieve_ was a long-sustained effort, extending -over the best part of three years, and too often performed under the -handicap of writer's cramp and sleeplessness. But Mrs. Ward was at the -prime of her powers, and felt herself more thoroughly master of her -material in this book than she had done in the case of _Robert Elsmere_, -so that the revision, when it came, was a matter of weeks and not of -months. Her visits to Manchester and Derbyshire for the local colour of -the book had inspired her with a vivid faith in the working population -of the north, which finds expression in a letter written to her father -in September, 1890, in reply to criticisms which he, with his Catholic -prepossessions, had made on the unloveliness of their lives: - - "You and I would not agree about New Mills, I am afraid! At least, - if New Mills is like Bacup and the towns along the Irwell, as I - suppose it is. After seeing those mill-colonies among the moors, I - came home cheered and comforted in my mind for the future of - England--so differently may the same things affect different - people. Beatrice Potter told me that she had stayed for some time - incog. as one of themselves with a family of mill-hands at Bacup, - and that to her mind they were 'the salt of the earth,' so good and - kind to each other, so diligent, so God-fearing, so truly - unworldly. She attributed it to their religion, to those hideous - chapels, which develop in them the keenest individual sense of - responsibility to God and man, to their habit of combination for a - common end as in their Co-op. Societies and Unions, and to their - real sensitiveness to education and the things of the mind, up to a - certain point, of course. And certainly all that I saw last autumn - bore her out. I imagine that if you were to compare Lancashire with - any other manufacturing district in Europe, with Belgium, with - Lyons, with Catalonia, it would show favourably as regards the type - of human character developed. All the better men and women are - interested in the things that interested St. Paul--grace and - salvation, and the struggle of the spirit against the flesh, and - for the rest they work for their wives and children, and learn - gradually to respect those laws of health which are, after all, as - much 'set in the world,' to use Uncle Matt's phrase, as beauty and - charm, and in their own way as much a will and purpose of God. Read - the books about Lancashire life a hundred years ago, and see if - they have not improved--if they are not less brutal, less earthy, - nearer altogether to the intelligent type of life. That they have - far to go yet one cannot deny. But altogether, when London fills me - with despair, I often think of Lancashire and am comforted for the - future. I think of the people I had tea with at Bacup, all - mill-hands, but so refined, gentle and good; and I think of the - wonderful development of the civic sense in a town like Oldham, - with all its public institutions, its combinations of workpeople - for every possible object, and its generally happy and healthy - tone. I wish the streets were less ugly, but after all, our climate - is hard and drives people indoors three-parts of the year, and the - race has very little artistic gift." - -Meanwhile, the Copyright Committee was again hard at work in the United -States, arousing much anxious speculation in Mrs. Ward's mind as to -whether their Bill would be through Congress in time for her new book; -but in the end the victory came more easily and swiftly than was -expected. Congress passed it in November, 1890, and it became law in the -following March. The effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes was not long in -making itself felt. Mr. George Smith had been negotiating for her with -an American firm that offered good but not magnificent terms for _David -Grieve_; he was dissatisfied, and in his wise heart bethought him of her -old friends the Macmillans, who had an "American house." The sequel must -be told in his own words: - - -15, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. -_June 13, 1891._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I met Frederick Macmillan in the Park this morning. It flashed on - my mind that I would sell him the American copyright of your book, - and after a long talk (which made me late for breakfast) I promised - him that if he made me a firm offer of seven thousand pounds for - the American copyright, including Canada, before one o'clock - to-day, I would accept it on your behalf. He has just called here - and written the enclosed note. I am rather pleased with myself, and - I hope that you will not reproach me. I write in haste, for I shall - feel rather anxious until I have a line from you on the subject. - -Believe me, -Yours sincerely, -G. M. SMITH. - -Needless to say, the "line" was forthcoming, and Mrs. Ward was left to -contemplate, with some emotion, the fact that she was mistress of a -little fortune. Whether the Macmillans remained as contented with their -bargain as she was is, however, a point of some obscurity. Certainly -they desired her next book (_Marcella_), which amply made up to them for -any shortcomings on _David Grieve_, but during the negotiations for it -some uncomfortable tales leaked out. "Mr. Brett told me," wrote Mrs. -Ward to George Smith, eighteen months after the appearance of _David_, -"that owing to the description of profit-sharing in _David Grieve_ and -the interest roused by it in America, their American branch adopted it -last year for all their employés. Then in consequence of _David_ there -were no profits to divide! I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the -situation, and I am quite determined that if there are losses this time -I will share them." - -But as yet the prospect was unclouded, and the summer of 1891 was spent -in a hard wrestle with the remaining chapters of the book--with the -tragedy of Lucy and the sombre fate of Louie Grieve--but at length, on -September 24, the last words of _David Grieve_ were written, and on -October 16 she and Mr. Ward fled for nine weeks to Italy. - -It was not their first visit, for in the spring of 1889 they had spent -eight days in Rome, making their first Italian friendships and learning -something of the spell of that city of old magic. "In eight days one can -but scratch the surface of Rome," she had written to her father on that -occasion. "Still, I think Lord Acton was quite right when he said to us -at Cannes, 'If you have only three days, go!' To have walked into St. -Peter's, to have driven up on to the Janiculan and seen the view of -Rome, the Alban Hills, the Campagna and Soracte which you get from -there, to have wandered about the Forum and Colosseum and to have -climbed the Palatine and the Capitol, is something after all, even if -one never saw this marvellous place again." - -Now this second time she was so tired that they passed Rome by on the -outward journey and went instead to Naples, Amalfi and Ravello, where -the good Signora Palumbo, landlady of the famous little inn, tended her -as she lay quite fallow, browsing in books or gazing at sea and sky and -sunny coast. But a visit to Pompeii could still arouse all her -historical instincts: - - "To sit in the Forum there," she writes to her sister, Mrs. Leonard - Huxley, "or in one of the bright gaily painted houses, or - restaurants with the wine-jars still perfect in the marble - counters, and to think that people were chatting and laughing in - those very courts and under those very pictures while Jesus was - before Pilate, or Paul was landing at Puteoli, on the same coast - some twenty miles north, made an electric moment in life. It is so - seldom one actually _feels_ and _touches_ the past. After seeing - those temples with their sacrificial altars and _cellæ_, their - priests' sleeping-rooms and dining-rooms, I read this morning St. - Paul's directions to the Corinthians about meat offered to - idols--in fact, the whole first letter--with quite different eyes." - -To the same beloved sister she was indebted for the inimitable tales of -her small boy, Julian, which enliven the later pages of _David Grieve_; -for Sandy Grieve was taken direct from this little grandson of the -Professor--an "impet" indeed, in his mother's expressive phrase. "Your -stories of Julian have been killing," wrote Mrs. Ward from Naples; "I -was sorry one of them arrived too late for _David_. By the way, I have -not yet written to Willie to say that Sandy is merely an imperfect copy -of Julian. He writes 'We both _love_ Sandy.' And I am sure when the book -comes out that Sandy will be the making of some of the last part." - -A month after Mrs. Ward's return to England, that is on January 22, -1892, _David Grieve_ appeared, and was at once greeted with a chorus of -praise, criticism and general talk. "Were there ever such contradictory -judgments!" wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher when the book had been out -a week. "The Master of Balliol writes to me that it is 'the best novel -since George Eliot'--'extraordinarily pathetic and interesting'--and -that Louie is a sketch that Victor Hugo might have drawn. A sledgehammer -article in the _British Weekly_ to-night says 'it is an almost absolute -failure.' Mr. Henry Grenfell and Mr. Haldane have been glued to it till -they finished it. According to other people it is 'ordinary and -tedious.' Well, one must possess one's soul a little, I suppose, till -the real verdict emerges." The reviews were by no means all laudatory, -much criticism being bestowed on the "Paris episode" of David's -entanglement with Elise Delaunay, but the general verdict certainly was -that it showed a marked advance on _Robert Elsmere_ in artistic -treatment, as well as a power of character-drawing that had not been -seen since _Middlemarch_. This feeling was summed up in Walter Pater's -sentence: "It seems to me to have all the forces of its predecessor at -work in it, with perhaps a mellower kind of art--a more matured power of -blending disparate literary gifts in one." Letters poured in upon her -again, both from old friends and strangers. "Max Creighton," now Bishop -of Peterborough, who was never tired of poking fun at Mrs. Ward about -the "higher criticism," found time to dash off ten closely written -sheets of pseudo-solemn investigation into the authenticity of David's -life-story, beginning: "Though I am prepared to believe that David -Grieve was a real personage, it is clear that many mythical elements -have been incorporated into his history, and it is the function of -criticism to disentangle the real man from the legendary accretions -which have gathered round him." Mrs. Ward replied in suitable vein, and -confided to her friend that a few of the reviews had made her very sore. -"I am very sorry to hear," he replied, "that some criticism has been -ungenerous.... But I think that we all have to learn the responsibility -attached to undertaking the function of a teacher, and the inevitable -antagonism which the claim arouses. It has been so always. No amount of -rectitude or good intentions avail." - -But the warm admiration expressed by those for whose opinion she cared -amply made up for the hostility of these reviews. As she said of it in -her _Recollections_: "It has brought me correspondence from all parts -and all classes, more intimate and striking perhaps than in the case of -any other of my books." Many pages might be filled with these letters, -but at a distance of thirty years two only shall be saved from oblivion, -for the sake of that mere quality of delight which pervades them both -and which endeared their writers beyond other men to the company in -which they moved. The first is from Professor Huxley; the second from -Sir Edward Burne-Jones. - - -HODESLEA, STAVELEY ROAD, -EASTBOURNE. -_February 1, 1892._ - -MY DEAR MARY,-- - - You will think I have taken my time about thanking you for _David - Grieve_; but a virtuous resolution to stick to a piece of work I - have had on hand for a long time interfered with my finishing it - before last night. The temptation was severe, and as I do not often - stick to virtuous resolutions under these circumstances, I parade - the fact. - - I think the account of the Parisian episode of David's life the - strongest thing you have done yet. It is alive--every word of - it--and without note or comment produces its ethical effect after - the manner of that "gifted authoress," Dame Nature, who never - moralizes. - - Being "nobbut a heathen," I should have liked the rest to be in the - same vein--the picture of a man hoping nothing, rejecting all - speculative corks and bladders--strong only in the will "im Ganzen, - Guten, Wahren resolut zu leben," and accepting himself for more or - less a failure--yet battling to the end. But you are on the side of - the angels. - - We are very proud of Julian's apotheosis. He is a most delightful - imp, and the way in which he used to defy me, on occasion, when he - was here, was quite refreshing. The strength of his conviction that - people who interfere with his freedom are certainly foolish, - probably wicked, is quite Gladstonian. - -My wife joins in love. -Ever yours affectionately, -T. H. HUXLEY. - - * * * * * - - -THE GRANGE, - 49, NORTH END ROAD, - WEST KENSINGTON, W. - _Saturday morning._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The book has just come--and to my pride and delight with such a - pretty autograph: so that to-day I am mightily set up. I cannot - tell you how comforting the words read to me--and how sunny they - have made this grey day. By the messenger who takes this I send a - little drawing, done in gold, which for a whole year past I have - meant for you--it was to reach you by your last birthday, but I was - ill then with this vile plague that is devastating us, and after - that there seemed no reason for sending it one day more than - another, and as I looked at it again it didn't seem good enough, - and I thought one day you would come and choose a little souvenir - of friendship--one perhaps more to your liking--but this day has - never come, and all the year through illnesses big or little have - pursued me and nipped all plans. But will you take it with my - love--real grateful love; it's a kind of Urania sort of person, and - will be proud to live in your bower in the country. - - We are a poor lot--my wife kept to her room for about a month; Phil - imprisoned in a room with carbolic curtains round him as if he were - a leper, and I--too ignominious at present to be spoken - about--longing to go out and see an omnibus--I _should_ like to - see an omnibus again! - -My love to you all, -Yours, E. B. J. - - P.S.--The first day I can get out I shall call and take my chance - of seeing you. Don't dream of writing about the poor little - drawing; I should be ashamed, and you are full of work. - -The "kind of Urania sort of person" shed a radiance all her own over our -house from that day onwards, and was removed before long to a "country -bower" after Mrs. Ward's own heart. - -For early in 1892 her attention was drawn by her old friend, Mr. (now -Sir James) Thursfield, who lived near Berkhamsted, to the fact that some -five miles farther from London, in the heart of a district as rural and -unspoilt as any that could be found in England, stood a comfortable -eighteenth-century house of medium size which happened recently to have -come into the market. Sir Edward Grey had just inherited it through his -mother under the will of old James Adam Gordon, its possessor in the -'forties and 'fifties; but since the place was far from any trout-stream -he did not propose to live in it, but wished instead to find a tenant to -take it for a term of years. Its name was simply "Stocks," and though -the house itself was only 120 years old, a far older manor-house had -been pulled down to make way for it; while the little estate--"the -stokkes of the parish of Aldbury"--is mentioned in a fifteenth-century -charter as forming an outlying part of the huge diocese of Lincoln. Mr. -Thursfield persuaded Mr. and Mrs. Ward to come and see it, winter though -it was. They fell in love with it there and then, and within a few weeks -it was decided that Grayswood should be sold and Stocks taken for seven -years. Mrs. Ward felt that she had found at last the home she had been -seeking. - - "You know how we have always hankered after an old place with old - trees," she wrote to her brother Willie, "and when the Thursfields - made us come down and see the place and declared we must and should - take it we couldn't in the end resist! It has such an old walled - garden, such a beautiful lime avenue, such delicious old hollies - and oaks, such woods behind it and about it! The house is bigger in - the way of bedrooms than Haslemere, but otherwise not more - formidable, and though the inside has no particular features (the - outside is charming) we shall manage I think to make it habitable - and pretty. One great attraction to me is that it is so near Euston - and therefore to the Hall and all its works. I don't mean to say - that we are taking it on any but the most ordinary selfish - principles!--but still, I like to think that I can make Marchmont - Hall, and the people who congregate about it, free of it as I - cannot do of Haslemere, and that there is a hungry demand in that - part of London for the fruit and flowers with which the place must - overflow in the summer. I believe also that the change will help me - a good deal in my work, and that at Stocks I shall be able to see - something of the genuine English country life which I never could - at Haslemere. But we had got to love Haslemere all the same, and it - is an up-rooting." - -The little house on Grayswood Hill was indeed loath to let her go. She -went there alone at the end of February, when plain and hill lay steeped -in a flood of spring sunshine. "If only the place had not looked so -lovely yesterday and to-day!" she wrote. "We have been hung in infinite -air over the most ethereal of plains." But when Stocks finally received -her, at midsummer, 1892, she knew in her heart that all was well; that -"something" deep down in her nature "that stands more rubs than anything -else in our equipment" was satisfied--satisfied with the quiet lines of -the chalk hills, with the beechwoods that clothed their sides, and -stretched away, she knew, for miles beyond the horizon; with the -neighbourhood of that ancient life of the soil that surrounded her in -village and scattered farm. She had found her home; she was to live in -it and love it for eight-and-twenty years. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE -BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT - -1892-1897 - - -The acquisition of Stocks in the summer of 1892 was a landmark in Mrs. -Ward's life for more reasons than one, for it coincided with the advent -of a mysterious ailment, or disability, from which she was never to be -wholly free for the rest of her life. She had hardly been in the new -house a fortnight before she succumbed to a violent attack of internal -pain, showing symptoms of gastric catarrh, but also affecting the nerves -of the right leg. It crippled her for many weeks and exercised the minds -of both the local and the London doctors. Some believed that the cause -of it must be a "floating kidney," others that the pain was merely -neuralgic, while Mrs. Ward herself, with that keen interest in the human -organism and that instinct for self-doctoring which made her so -embarrassing a patient, watched the effect of each remedy and suggested -others with pathetic ingenuity. She had her better days, when she was -able to go down to the old walled kitchen-garden--about 300 yards from -the house--in a bath-chair, but whenever she tried to walk, even a -little, the pain returned in aggravated form. Only those who watched her -through those two summer months knew what heroic efforts she made to -master it and to throw herself into the writing of her new book, -_Marcella_, or how her "spirit grew" as the days of comparative relief -were followed ever and again by days of collapse. While she was still in -the thick of the struggle she received a visit from her American friend, -Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, whose impressions of the day were written -immediately to Mrs. Whitman, in Boston, and give a vivid picture of -Mrs. Ward as she appeared at that time to so shrewd and sympathetic an -observer.[17] (Aug. 20, 1892). - - "Yesterday we spent the day with Mrs. Humphry Ward, who has been - ill for a while and is just getting better. Somehow, she seemed so - much younger and more girlish than I expected. I long to have you - know Mrs. Ward. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, - brilliant and full of charm, and with a lovely simplicity and - sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection, and a - sacred expectation of what she is sure to do if she keeps strong, - and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life - burns with a very fierce flame, and she has not in the least done - all that she can do, but just now it seems to me that her vigour is - a good deal spent." - -The "spent vigour" was only another word for bodily illness, but some -weeks after Miss Jewett's visit the first signs of relief appeared. Her -London doctor introduced her to a new drug, phenacetin, which worked -wonders with the sore side and leg. Phenacetin and all its kindred -"tabloids" came into common use at Stocks from that time onwards, in -spite of the mockery of her friends. Mrs. Ward developed an -extraordinary skill in the use of these "little drugs," and would often -baffle her doctors by her theories of their effects. At any rate, they -bore a remarkable part in the complicated struggle between her work and -her health, which was to occupy the next few years, and Mrs. Ward always -staunchly believed in them. - -The improvement continued steadily, so that she was able, that autumn, -to undertake a speaking-tour in Lancashire and Yorkshire on behalf of -University Hall, finding wherever she went the most astonishing welcome. -At Manchester she went, after her own meetings were over, to a great -Unitarian gathering in the Free Trade Hall, stipulating that she was not -to speak; but at the end she was entrapped, nevertheless. Her husband -received the following account of it. - - "Then at the very end, to my sorrow, the chairman announced that - Mrs. Humphry Ward was present, and had been asked to speak, but - was not well enough to do so! Whereupon there were such groans from - the audience, and I felt it so absurd to be sitting there pleading - illness that I could only move up to the desk, wondering whether I - could possibly make myself heard in such a place. Then they all - rose, and such applause as you never heard! It was a good thing - that a certain number of people had left to catch early trains, or - it would have been still more overwhelming to me. I just managed to - say half a dozen words, and I think I said them with sufficient - ease, but whether they carried to the back of the hall I don't - know. It certainly must be very exciting to be able to speak easily - to such a responsive multitude." - -At Leeds the same kind of experience awaited her, though on a smaller -scale. "I should not have been mortal if I had not been deeply touched -by their feeling towards me and towards the books," she wrote. "And what -a strong independent world of its own all this north-country -Nonconformity is! I feel as though these experiences were invaluable to -me as a novelist. One never dreamt of all this at Oxford." - -The improvement in health, which had enabled her to face the strain of -this tour, was not of long duration. Many letters in the winter complain -of the "dragging pain" in the right leg, which prevents her from walking -more than fifty yards without being "brought up sharp till the pain and -stiffness have gone off again--which they do with resting." By the -following June (1893) she was as ill as ever she had been in the -preceding summer. The London doctor adopted the theory of the "shifting -kidney," but encouraged her to allow herself to be carried up and -downstairs at Stocks, so as to lie in the summer garden. "I am afraid -this tendency may mean times of pain for me in the future," she writes, -"but it is not dangerous, and need not prevent my working just as usual. -I _am_ so enjoying the sight of the flowers again, and this afternoon I -shall somehow get to the lime on the lawn. It had given me quite a pang -at my heart to think the lime-blossom would go and I not see it! One has -fewer years to waste now." - -She was hard at work on the writing of _Marcella_ throughout this year, -but the fact that she could not sit up at a table without bringing on a -"wild fit of pain," as she described it once, meant that she had to -cultivate the art of writing in bed or in her garden chair, a proceeding -which was very apt to produce attacks of writer's cramp. Elaborate -erections of writing-boards had to be built up around her, so as to -enable as many as possible of Dr. Wolff's precepts to be carried out, -but it was a weary business, and often the hand would drop lame for a -while, in spite of the author's longing to be "at" her characters. This -joy of creation was, however, her principal stay during these months of -pain and weakness. - - -_To Mr. George Murray Smith_. - -_September 8, 1893._ - - "I, alas! cannot get well, though I am no doubt somewhat better - than when you were here. The horrid ailment, whatever it is, will - not go away, and work is rather a struggle. Still it is also my - great stand-by and consolation,--by the help of it I manage to - avoid the depression which otherwise this long _malaise_ and - weakness must have brought with it. A walk to the kitchen-garden - and back yesterday gave me a bad night and fresh pain to-day, and I - cannot travel with any comfort. But I can get along, and soon we - shall be in London and I must try some fresh doctoring. Meanwhile I - have written nearly a volume since we came down, which is not so - bad." - -All through the autumn of this year she grew more and more absorbed in -her story, while her health improved slightly, though walking was still -an unattainable joy. The life of the little village of Aldbury, half a -mile from the house, which she wove into so many scenes of _Marcella_, -had an immense fascination for her. She would drive down in her -pony-carriage, whenever she could find time, to spend an hour with old -Mrs. Swabey or Mrs. Bradsell, or with Johnny Dolt, the postmaster, -gleaning from their old-world gossip the elemental life-story of the -country-side, or hearing the echoes of the bloody tragedy which had -convulsed the village just before we came to it, in December, 1891. For -while the old lady of Stocks (Mrs. Bright) lay dying, a murderous affray -had occurred in the wood, not a mile from the house, between the -gamekeeper and his lad on the one side, and a band of poachers on the -other. The keeper was shot dead, and the lad, who fled for his life into -the open, down towards a spreading beech in the hollow below, was -followed and beaten to death with the butt-end of a gun. No wonder that -Mrs. Ward took the tale and made it the dominating theme of her story, -weaving into it new threads that the sordid tragedy itself did not -possess--of the poacher Hurd, the dying child, the piteous little wife. -The village itself was somewhat agape, we used to think, over the -proceedings of the new mistress of Stocks, who would have "grand folks" -down from London to spend their Sundays with her, but who had also taken -a cottage on purpose for the reception of tired people from the back -streets, and who was constantly having parties down from "some place in -London" to enjoy the garden and the shady trees. The place in question -was Marchmont Hall, for whose cricket team we children preserved a -private but invincible contempt; but the elderly Associates became real -friends, and soon learnt to know Stocks and its environs with more than -a passing knowledge. Sometimes they would come down just for a day's -outing, but more often they, or the club-girls, or some ailing mother -and baby would stay for a fortnight at the Convalescent Cottage under -the care of the loquacious Mrs. Dell, whose memory must still be green -in many London hearts. A natural philosopher, reared on the Bible and -her own shrewd observation of life, Mrs. Dell was the ideal matron for -the London folk who were sent down to her; she took them all in under -her large embrace, though her opinion of their "draggled" faces when -they arrived was anything but complimentary. She was wont to express -herself, in fact, with considerable freedom about London life. Once one -of her guests--a working-man--had gone back to town for the week-end, -feeling bored in the country. "And pray what can 'e do in London?" she -asked with magnificent scorn. "Nothin' but titter-totter on the paves!" - -And besides the Convalescent Cottage, there stood on the same steep -slope of hill, just under the hanging wood, with its mixture of beech, -ash and wild cherry, another little house, known simply as Stocks -Cottage, which Mr. Ward acquired to round off the miniature estate early -in 1895. It became a source of unmixed joy to Mrs. Ward, for she could -lend or let it to many different friends, from Graham Wallas and Bernard -Shaw, who came to it during one of her absences abroad, and thence -roamed the downs with the daughter she had left behind, preaching -collectivism and Jaeger clothes--to the Neville Lytteltons, who spent -seven consecutive summers in the little place, from 1895 to 1901. The -Cottage, indeed, became a very intimate part of Mrs. Ward's life at -Stocks, and its mistress, Mrs. Lyttelton, one of her closest friends. - - * * * * * - -_Marcella_ was finished, after a long struggle against sleeplessness, -headache and a bad bout of writer's cramp, on January 31, 1894. A -characteristic passage occurred between the author and her publisher -immediately afterwards. Mr. Smith had sent her, according to promise, a -considerable sum in advance of royalty, setting forth at the same time, -with his habitual candour, the exact sum which his firm expected to make -from the same number of copies. Mrs. Ward thought it not enough, and -wrote at once to propose a decrease of royalty on the first 2,000 -copies. "I hardly know what to say," replied Mr. Smith. "It is not often -that a publisher receives such a letter from an author." But after -mutual bargainings--all of an inverted character--they arrived at a -satisfactory agreement. - -Mrs. Ward fled to Italy with husband and daughter to escape the -appearance of the book, and saw herself flaunted on the posters of the -English papers in the Piazza di Spagna early in April. It was indeed an -exhilarating time for her, for there were few harsh voices among the -reviewers on this occasion, while the many letters from her friends were -as kind as ever. A typical opinion was that of Sir Francis Jeune: "I was -charmed with sentence after sentence of perfect finish and point, such -as no other writer of fiction in the present day ever attempts and -certainly could not sustain. They are a delight in themselves, and the -care bestowed on them is the highest compliment to a reader. May I add -that I think the dramatic force of some scenes--I single out the morning -of Hurd's execution, and the death of Hallin, but there are several -more--is greatly in advance of anything even you have done, and touches -a very high point in comparison with any scenes in English fiction. I -think George Eliot never surpassed them." In her _Recollections_ Mrs. -Ward describes the coming out of _Marcella_ as "perhaps the happiest -date in my literary life," for it not only gave her unalloyed joy in -itself, but it coincided also with a comparative return to -health--though always with ups and downs. Yet the immense publicity -which the success of the book brought her was also a grievous burden, -and she gives vent to this feeling in a letter to Mr. Gladstone, written -in reply to his own words of thanks for the gift of the book: - - -25, GROSVENOR PLACE. -_May 6, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - It was charming of you to write to me,--one of those kindnesses - which, apart from all your greatness, win to you the hearts of so - many. I am so glad that the eyes are better for a time, and that - you have shaken off your influenza. - - We have just come back from a delightful seven weeks in Italy, at - Rome, Siena and Florence, and I am much rested, though still, I am - vexed to say, very lame and something of an invalid. The success of - _Marcella_, however, has been a most pleasant tonic, though I - always find the first few weeks after the appearance of a book an - agitating and trying time, however smoothly things go! The great - publicity which our modern conditions involve seems to wear one's - nerves; and I suppose it is inevitable that women should feel such - things more than men, who so often, through the training of school - and college and public life, get used to them from their childhood. - - Your phrase about "prospective work" gave me real delight. I have - been enjoying and pondering over the translations of Horace in the - _Nineteenth Century_. Horace is the one Latin poet whom I know - fairly well, and often read, though this year, in Italy, I think I - realized the spell of Virgil more than ever before. Will you go on, - I wonder, from the love-poems to a gathering from the others? I - wanted to claim of you three or four in particular, but as I turn - over the pages I see in two or three minutes at least twenty that - jostle each other to be named, so it is no good! - -Believe me, -Yours most sincerely, -MARY A. WARD. - -_Marcella_, like her two predecessors, first appeared in three-volume -form, but Mrs. Ward's quarrel with the big libraries for starving their -subscribers, which had been simmering ever since _David Grieve_, became -far more acute over the new book. She reported to George Smith on May 24 -that "Sir Henry Cunningham told us last night that he had made a -tremendous protest to Mudie's against their behaviour in the matter of -_Marcella_--which he seems to have told them he regarded as a fraud on -the public, or rather on their subscribers, whom they were _bound_ to -supply with new books!" This feud, together with the desire of the -American _Century Magazine_ to publish her next novel in serial form, -provided it were only half the length of _Marcella_, induced her to -consider seriously the question of writing shorter books. "It would be -difficult for me, with my tendency to interminableness," she admitted to -George Smith, "to promise to keep within such limits. However, it might -be good for me!" Soon afterwards the decision was made, and with it the -knell of the three-volume novel sounded, for other novelists soon -followed Mrs. Ward's example. The resulting brevity of modern novels -(always excepting Mr. William de Morgan and Mr. Conrad) is thus largely -due to the flaming up of an old quarrel between librarians on the one -side and publishers and authors on the other, as it occurred in the case -of Mrs. Ward's _Marcella_. - -The summer of 1894 was a period of comparative physical ease, during -which Mrs. Ward found that although she was still unable to walk more -than a very little, she could ride an old pony we possessed with much -profit and pleasure, of course at a foot pace. Thus she was enabled to -explore some of the woods and hill-sides around Stocks which she had -never yet visited, a pastime which gave her exquisite delight. But by -the following winter both her persistent plagues had reappeared in -aggravated form. "My hand is extremely troublesome, alas!" she wrote to -her father, "and the internal worry has been worse again lately. It is -so trying week after week never to feel well, or like other people! One -lives one's life, but it makes it all more of a struggle. And as there -is this organic cause for it, one can only look forward to being -sometimes better and less conscious of it than at others, but never to -being quite well. However, one needn't grumble, for I manage to enjoy my -life greatly in spite of it, and to fill the days pretty full." And to -her husband, who was away on a lecturing-tour in America, she wrote in -February, 1895: "Alas! for my hand. It is more seriously disabled than -it has been for months and months, and I really ought to give it a -month's complete rest. If it were not for the _Century_ I would!" - -This unusual disablement was due no doubt to the extraordinary -concentration of effort which she had just put forth in the writing of -her village tale of _Bessie Costrell_--a tale based on an actual -occurrence in the village of Aldbury, the tragic details of which -absorbed her so much as to amount almost to possession. She finished it -in fifteen days, and gave it to George Smith, who always cherished a -special affection for this "grimy little tale," as Mrs. Ward called it. - -When he had brought it out, the world devoured it with enthusiasm--so -much so that her true friend and mentor, Henry James, whose opinion she -valued more highly than any other, thought fit to address a friendly -admonition to her: - - "May 8, 1895. I think the tale very straight-forward and - powerful--very direct and vivid, full of the real and the _juste_. - I like your unalembicated rustics--they are a tremendous rest after - Hardy's--and the infallibility of your feeling for village life. - Likewise I heartily hope you will labour in this field and farm - again. _But_ I won't pretend to agree with one or two declarations - that have been wafted to me to the effect that this little tale is - "the best thing you've done." It has even been murmured to me that - _you_ think so. This I don't believe, and at any rate I find, for - myself, your best in your dealings with _data_ less simple, on a - plan less simple. This means, however, mainly, that I hope you - won't abandon _anything_ that you have shewn you can do, but only - go on with this _and_ that--and the other--especially the other! - -Yours, dear Mrs. Ward, -most truly, -HENRY JAMES." - -Meanwhile, in spite of the drawback of her continued ill-health, she -derived throughout these years an ever-increasing pleasure from the -friendships with which she was surrounded. Both in the London house, -which they had acquired early in 1891 (25 Grosvenor Place), and at -Stocks, she loved to gather many friends about her, though the effort of -entertaining them was often a sore tax upon her slender strength. Her -Sunday parties at Stocks brought together men and women from many -different worlds--political, literary and philanthropic--with whom the -talk ranged over all the questions and persons of the day from breakfast -till lunch, from lunch till tea, and from tea till dinner; but after -dinner, in sheer exhaustion, the party would usually take refuge in what -were known, derisively, as "intellectual games." Mrs. Ward herself was -not particularly good at these diversions, but she loved to watch the -efforts of others, and they did give a rest, after all, from the endless -talk! On one such occasion the game selected was the variety known as -"riddle game," in which a name and a thing are written down at random by -different players, and the next tries to give a reason why the person -should be like the thing. Lord Acton, who had that day devoured ten -books of Biblical criticism that Mrs. Ward had placed in his room, and -would infinitely have preferred to go on talking about them, found -himself confronted by the question: "Why is Lord Rothschild like a -poker?" For a long time he sat contemplating the paper, then scribbled -down in desperation: "Because he is upright," and retired impenetrably -behind an eleventh book. But Mr. Asquith made up for all deficiencies by -his ingenuity in this form of nonsense. "Why is Irving like a -wheelbarrow?" demanded one of the little papers that came round to him, -and while the rest of us floundered in heavy jokes Mr. Asquith found the -exact answer: "Because he serves to fill up the pit and carry away the -boxes." - -Politics were of absorbing interest to Mrs. Ward, and though her own -views remained decidedly Unionist on the Irish question, in home affairs -they were sufficiently mixed to make free discussion not only possible, -but delightful to her. She still retained her old friendship for Mr. -Morley, and probably the majority of her Parliamentary friends at this -time were of the Liberal persuasion. 1895 was the year of the "cordite -division" and the fall of Lord Rosebery's Government, involving many of -these friends in the catastrophe. Mr. Morley was defeated at Newcastle -and went to recover his serenity in the Highlands, whither Mrs. Ward -sent him a copy of _Bessie Costrell_, provoking the following letter -from her old friend and master: - - -_August 6, 1895._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - It was most pleasant to me to receive the little volume, in its - pretty dress, and with the friendly dedication. It will take its - place among my personal treasures, and I am truly grateful to you - for thinking of me. - - The story is full of interest to me, and in the vein of a true - realism, humanising instead of brutalising. The "severity" of the - poor dead woman's look, and the whole of that page, redeems with a - note of just pity all the sordid elements.... We are quartered in - one of the most glorious of highland glens, five and twenty miles - from a railway, and nearly as many hours from London. Now and then - my thoughts wander to Westminster, passing round by way of - Newcastle, but I quickly cast Satan behind me--and try to cultivate - a steady-eyed equanimity, which shall not be a stupid insensibility - to either one's personal catastrophe or to the detriment which the - commonwealth has just suffered. If life were not so short--I - sometimes think it is far too long--I should see some compensations - in the deluge that has come upon the Liberal party. It will do them - good to be sent to adjust their compasses. The steering had been - very blind in these latter days. Perhaps some will tell you that my - own bit of steering was the very blindest of all. I know that you - are disposed to agree with such folk, and I know that Irish - character (for which English government, by the way, is wholly - responsible), is difficult stuff to work with. But the policy was - right, and I beg you not to think--as I once told the H. of - C.--that the Irish sphinx is going to gather up her rags, and - depart from your gates in meekness. - -During these months another Liberal friend, Mr. Sydney Buxton, was -taking infinite pains to pilot Mrs. Ward through the intricacies of the -Parliamentary situation required for the book she was now writing, _Sir -George Tressady_--drawing her a coloured plan of the House and the -division-lobbies for the scene of Tressady's "ratting," and generally -supervising the details of Marcella Maxwell's Factory Bill. "I am sure -it is owing to you," wrote Mrs. Ward to him afterwards, "that the -political framework has not at any rate stood in the way of the book's -success, as I feared at one time it might." She herself had regularly -put herself to school to learn every detail of the system of sweated -homework prevalent in the East End of London at that time; wading -through piles of Blue-books, visiting the actual scenes under the care -of a Factory Inspector, or of Lord Rothschild's Jewish secretary; -learning much from her Fabian friends, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Graham -Wallas. - - "As to Maxwell's Bill itself," she wrote to Mr. Buxton, "after my - talk with you and Mr. Gerald Balfour, I took the final idea of it - from some evidence of Sidney Webb's before the Royal Commission. - There he says that he can perfectly well imagine, and would like to - see tried, a special Factory Act for East London, and I find the - same thing foreshadowed in various other things on Factory Law I - have been reading. And some weeks ago I talked over the idea with - Mr. Haldane, who thought it quite conceivable, and added that - 'London would bear quietly what would make Nottingham or Leeds - revolt.' If such a Bill is possible or plausible, that I think is - all a novelist wants. For of course one cannot describe _the real_, - and yet one wants something which is not merely fanciful, but might - be, under certain circumstances. The whole situation lies as it - were some ten years ahead, and I have made use of a remark of - Gerald Balfour's to me on the Terrace, when we had been talking - over the new Factory Bill. 'There is not much difference between - Parties,' he said, agreeing with you--'but I should not wonder if, - within the next few years, we saw some reaction in these matters,' - by which I suppose he meant if the Home Office power were - over-driven, or the Acts administered too vexatiously. - - "Do you see that they have lately been repealing some Factory - legislation concerning women's labour in France? We are not France, - but we might conceivably, don't you think, have a period of - discontent?" - -When the book at length appeared, in September, 1896, Mrs. Ward was -afraid that it would hardly float under the weight of its politics, but -this was not so, for it sold 15,000 copies within a week, and never, -perhaps, were the reviews more cordial. The relation between the two -women, Letty and Marcella, was universally felt to be one of the best -things she had ever attempted, while the greater compression of the book -was accepted with a sigh of relief. - - * * * * * - -"Mrs. Ward is wisely content," said the _Leeds Mercury_, "to take more -for granted, and with true artistic instinct to leave room for the play -of her readers' imagination; we are saved, consequently, tedious -details, and that over-elaboration of incident, if not of plot, which -was one of the most conspicuous blemishes in her previous works. She is -beginning also to believe that brevity is the soul of art, as well as of -wit, and therefore, without any sacrifice of the essential points in her -narrative, she has found it possible--by discarding padding--to state -all that she has to tell about 'Sir George Tressady' in considerably -less than six hundred pages, instead of making her old, unconscionable -demand for at least a thousand. It would not be true to say that Mrs. -Ward has lost all her literary mannerisms, or even affectations, but -they are falling rapidly into the background--one proof amongst many, -that she is mastering at length the secret of that blended strength and -simplicity of style which all writers envy, but to which few attain." - - * * * * * - -Two opinions, expressed by such opposite critics as Mrs. Sidney Webb and -Mr. Rudyard Kipling, may be of interest to this day: - - "The story is very touching," wrote Mrs. Webb, "and you have an - indescribable power of making your readers sympathize with all your - characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of - course, as a strict utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the - book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this - point of view it is the most useful bit of work that has been done - for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and - against factory legislation and a fixed standard of life with - admirable lucidity and picturesqueness--in a way that will make - them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical - knowledge. I especially admire your real intellectual impartiality - and capacity to give the best arguments on both sides, though - naturally I am glad to see that your sympathy is on the whole with - us on those questions. - - "Pray accept my thanks from a public as well as a personal point of - view for the gift of the book to the world and to myself." - -And Mr. Kipling wrote: - - -"DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I am delighted to have _Sir George Tressady_ from your hand. I have - followed him from month to month with the liveliest wonder as to - how the inevitable smash in his affairs was to fall, and now that I - have read the tale as a whole I see that of course there was but - one way. Like all human books it has the unpleasant power of making - you think and bother as one only bothers over real folk: but how - splendidly you have done the lighter relief-work! 'Fifteen out of a - possible twelve' has already been adopted as a household word by - us, who have two babies. - - "It will always be one of the darkest mysteries to me that any - human being can make a beginning, end _and_ middle to a really - truly long story. I can think them by scores, but I have not the - hand to work out the full frieze. It is just the difference between - the deep-sea steamer with twelve hundred people aboard, besides the - poor beggars sweating and scorching in the stoke-hold, and the - coastwise boat with a mixed cargo of 'notions.' And so, when the - liner sees fit to salute the coaster in passing, that small boat is - mightily encouraged." - -But the writing of _Sir George Tressady_ had been carried out against -greater handicaps of physical suffering and nervous strain than perhaps -any of Mrs. Ward's previous books. She had agreed to let the _Century -Magazine_ publish it serially from November 1, 1895, and had fully -intended to have it finished, at any rate in provisional form, by that -date. But ill-health and her absorption in the affairs of University -Hall retarded its progress, so that when November came there were still -eight or nine chapters to write, and those the most difficult and -critical of the book. The _Century_ cabled for more copy, but at the -same time Mrs. Ward fell a victim to "a new ailment," as she wrote to -her father, "and what with that and the perpetual struggle with the -hand, which will not let me write lying down, I hardly know how to get -through sometimes." She was advised to have what the surgeons assured -her would be a "slight" operation, but put it off until after a -Christmas month at Stocks, during which she devoted herself, crippled as -she was, to the writing of _Tressady_. Hardly would she have "got -through" these weeks at all--for by now the demands on her time, the -letters and requests to speak were endless--had she not discovered -during this winter a secretary, Miss Bessie Churcher, whose wonderful -qualities made her not only Mrs. Ward's closest helper and friend during -the whole remainder of her life, but have impressed themselves for good, -through many years' devotion, on the public work of London. - -When Mrs. Ward at last found time to put herself in the surgeons' hands, -the operation which ensued was clumsily performed, and left her with yet -another burden to carry through all her later life. After it she lay for -days in such pain as the doctors had neither foreseen nor prophesied, -while the nervous shock of the operation itself was aggravated, one -night, by the antics of a drunken nurse, who came into her room with a -lighted lamp in her hand and deposited it, swaying and lurching, upon -the floor. Fortunately help was at hand and the nurse removed, but the -terror of the moment did not forward Mrs. Ward's recovery. It was many -weeks before sleep came back to her, many weeks before she could sit up -with any comfort or move with ease. But the book must be finished, in -spite of aches and pains, and finished it was within ten weeks of the -operation (March 22, 1896). George Tressady's death in the dark -galleries of the mine "possessed" her as she had only been possessed by -the tale of Bessie Costrell, and helped her no doubt to master the host -of her physical ills. But when the strain was over she was fit for -nothing but to be taken out to Italy, there to recover, if she could, -under the stimulus of that magic light and air which appealed--so at -least we used to imagine--to something in her own far-off southern -blood. At Cadenabbia, on Lake Como, health began to return to her; at -Padua she was "doing more walking than she had dreamed of for four -years," and with the revival of her strength she wrote home in sheer joy -of spirit, "All Italy to me is enchanted ground!" But alas, it was too -early to rejoice. She came again to the Lake of Como to have a -fortnight's complete rest before returning home--staying at the Villa -Serbelloni, above Bellagio--and there unduly overtaxed her new-found -powers. She must make her way to the ruined tower of San Giovanni that -looks at you from its hill-top beyond the little town, and since the -path was _non-carrozzabile_ she would make the ascent on foot. The -adventure was pure joy to her, the views of the lake all the more -intoxicating for having been won by her own strength of limb. But the -next day a violent attack of her old and still unexplained trouble -declared itself. The journey homewards, via Lucerne, was performed under -conditions of crisis which still leave a haunting memory, and though a -clever Swiss doctor at Lucerne appeared to diagnose the disease more -surely than any previous medicine-man, he could suggest no practicable -remedy. Mrs. Ward continued to suffer from her obscure ailment to a -greater or less degree for the rest of her life, as well as from the -results of the operation; but on the whole the attacks became less -frequent, or less severe, as the years went on. She developed an -extraordinary skill in fighting them, by the aid of the thousand and one -little drugs before-mentioned, and often derived a keen pleasure from -the sense of having met and routed an old enemy. But the enemy was -always there, lying in wait for her if she walked more, say, than half a -mile at a time. It is well to remember that her life from 1892 onwards -was conducted under that constant handicap. - - * * * * * - -Yet it was during the years in which her illness was most acute that she -carried to a successful conclusion her labours for the foundation of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. - -When Mr. Edwards, in May, 1894, offered to provide £4,000 towards the -Building Fund of University Hall,[18] it was only the beginning of a -long struggle towards the accomplishment of this design. The next step -was to interest the Duke of Bedford--as the ground-landlord of that part -of London--in the scheme. This Mrs. Ward succeeded in doing during the -summer of 1894, thus laying the foundation of a co-operation that was to -ripen into a strong mutual regard. The Duke took a keen personal -interest in the finding of a suitable site for the new building, and -when such a site became available in Tavistock Place, offered it to the -Committee at less than its market value, and contributed £800 towards -the building fund. Oddly enough, however, this site--for which the -contract was actually signed in February, 1895--was not that on which -the Settlement stands to-day, but lay on the opposite side of the -street; the disadvantage to it being that there would have been a delay -of two years in obtaining possession, owing to existing tenants' rights. -When, therefore, an equally good site actually fell vacant in the same -street a few months later, the Duke willingly released the Committee -from their contract and made over to them the ground on which the -Settlement now stands on a 999 years' lease. In the meantime Mr. -Passmore Edwards had raised his original offer from £4,000 to £7,000, -and then to £10,000; the total fund stood at over £12,000, and Mr. -Norman Shaw agreed to preside over an architects' competition and to -judge between the various designs submitted. All connected with -University Hall rejoiced greatly when the award fell to two young -residents of the Hall, Messrs. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, whose -simple yet beautiful design far surpassed those of the other -competitors. But according to the instructions of the Committee itself -the building was to cost up to £12,000, while the price of the site was -£5,000, and a further sum would be required for furnishing. Mrs. Ward -set herself to the task of raising further funds with her accustomed -energy, but her illness during the winter of 1895-6 greatly hampered -her, and the fund rose all too slowly for her eager spirit. Meanwhile -the builders' tenders soared in the opposite direction. When she -returned from Italy and Lucerne in May, 1896, she found the situation -critical; either fresh plans of a far less ambitious nature must be -asked for, or a further sum of £3,500 must be raised at once. Mr. R. G. -Tatton, already one of the most active members of the Council, and soon -to be appointed Warden, believed that the only hope lay in Mr. Passmore -Edwards, but told Mrs. Ward plainly that the benefactor had said he -could do no more unless others showed a corresponding interest. Mr. -Tatton boldly asked Mrs. Ward herself to lay down £1,000. This she did; -a fortunate legacy of £500 came in at the same moment, and Mr. Edwards -gave an additional £2,000 with the best grace in the world. Yet once -more, on the night of the formal opening, nearly two years later, did he -come forward with a similar donation, making £14,000 in all. He showed -throughout a steadfast faith in the working ideals of the Settlement -that triumphed over all minor difficulties; Mrs. Ward described him once -as possessed by "the very passion of giving." No wonder that the -Committee decided, long before the new building was completed, to call -it by his name. - -Thus Mrs. Ward could have the happiness, during the years 1896 and 1897, -of seeing the beautiful building for which she had toiled so hard rise -and take bodily shape before her eyes. She became fast friends with the -two young architects, who had so decisively won the competition, and who -now devoted themselves indefatigably to the supervision of the work. She -formed, early in 1897, a General Committee for the new Settlement, the -wide and representative character of which showed how warm was the -sympathy entertained for the new venture not only in London, but also in -Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. And she devoted herself to the -formation of a Lectureship Committee, named after Benjamin Jowett, which -was to carry on, within the new organization, the religious ideals of -University Hall. The Settlement itself rested on a purely secular basis, -but the Council fully agreed to the inclusion of the following clause as -one of the "Objects" in the Memorandum of Association: "To promote the -study of the Bible and of the history of religion in the light of the -best available results of criticism and research." The Jowett -Lectureship Committee was established in order to carry out this clause, -and a sum of £100 per annum was placed at its disposal from the general -revenue of the Settlement--a small result, it may be argued, of all the -missionary effort put forth in the founding of University Hall seven -years before. But the Settlement itself stood there as the result of -that effort, and as Mrs. Ward looked down, on October 10, 1897, on the -packed audience that assembled in the new hall to hear her opening -address, she might well feel that her dreams had come to a more solid -fruition than she could ever have dared to hope. But even then she did -not know the whole. There sat the mothers and the fathers, with faces -eager and expectant, ready to throw themselves into this big experiment -that was opening out before them. Mrs. Ward welcomed them with her whole -heart; yet this was not all: the children were at the gates. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE FOUNDATION -OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S SCHOOL - -1897-1899 - - -For some two or three years before the opening of the new Settlement, a -Saturday morning "playroom" for children had been held at Marchmont -Hall, mainly under the direction of Miss Mary Neal, who, as the founder -of the Esperance Club for factory girls, and one of the "Sisters" -working under Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, had already made her name beloved -in the slums of St. Pancras. In that shabby little room she had taught -them Old English games and dances, till even the street outside grew -merry with the sound of their music, and many were the groups of -children seen playing "Old Roger is dead" or "Looby Loo" at street -corners during the other days of the week. Mrs. Ward had been much -attracted by the experiment, which was hampered, like everything else at -Marchmont Hall, by lack of space; and now that the fine new buildings -were available she was eager to transplant it and to carry it further. -My diary for Saturday, October 16, 1897, duly records that "D. and Miss -Churcher and I went to the Settlement at ten to superintend the -children's play-hour, which we are now going to have every Saturday in -the big hall. It was a perfect pandemonium this time, as we hadn't -prepared any sort of organization, and there were at least 120 children -to deal with. We also had to give each child a pair of list slippers to -put on over its own boots, and this was a tremendous business and took -over half an hour. Miss Neal made them a little speech before we began -the games, and then we all formed rings and played Looby Loo and others -of that stamp for nearly an hour more." - -From these unpromising beginnings sprang the whole of the "organized -recreation" for children which gradually arose at the new Settlement, -with the object of attracting the child population of the district away -from the streets after school hours. Mrs. Ward guided and inspired the -movement, though she left the actual carrying on of the classes to -younger and more robust members of her group; but she formed a special -committee (the Women's Work Committee), of which she was chairman, to -watch over it all, and generally supplied the motive force, the sense of -its being worth while, which inspired the ever-growing band of our -helpers. One class, too, she kept as her very own--a weekly reading -aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she -read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling, or brought them -photographs of her travels in Italy, or talked to them sometimes of the -events of the day. About thirty boys came regularly to these readings, -and always behaved well with her, while she on her side came to know -them individually and felt a strong affection for many of them. Where -are they now, those thirty boys? How many have left their bones in the -mud of Flanders, or on the heights that look towards Troas, across the -narrow sea? Mrs. Ward herself was often possessed with that thought -through the years of the Great War, but never, so far as I know, heard -any direct news of them. All were of that fatal age that Death reaped -with the least pity. - -After the Saturday morning play-rooms--which fortunately improved in -discipline after that first "pandemonium," and increased so much in -popularity that we had to divide them into two, taking in close upon 400 -children in a morning--we launched out into musical drill-classes for -bigger and smaller children, story-telling for the little ones, -gymnastic classes for girls and boys, a children's hour in the library, -dancing and acting classes, and finally history lectures with lantern -slides, designed to supplement the very meagre teaching of history that -the children received in the elementary schools around. How much one -learnt by hard experience, in the course of it all, of the art of -keeping the children's attention--whether in teaching them a new -singing-game on Saturdays, or in the story-telling to the "under -elevens," or in the exciting task of going over Oliver's battles with -the young ladies and gentlemen of the fifth to seventh standards! For -even these, if one lost their attention for a moment, were not above -calling out "Ole Krujer!" at a somewhat forbidding slide of Sir Thomas -Fairfax, while the "under elevens" would often be swept by gusts of -coughing and talk that fairly drowned the voice of the story-teller, if -she suffered them to lose the thread of the Princess's adventures by too -gorgeous a description of the dragon. But usually they were as good as -gold, sitting there packed tight on the rows of chairs (136 children on -seventy-six chairs was one of our records), while the "little mothers" -hugged their babies and no sound was to be heard save the sucking of -toffee or liquorice-sticks. - -All these occupations took place in the late afternoon, from 5.30 to 7, -during the hours when the children of London, discharged from school and -tea, drift aimlessly about the streets, often actually locked out from -home (in those days at least) owing to the long hours worked by mother -as well as father at "charing" or at the local factory. The instant -response made by the child-population of St. Pancras to Mrs. Ward's -piping showed that she had, as it were, stumbled upon a real and vital -need of our great cities, and as a larger and larger band of helpers was -drawn into our circle and more and more of the cheerful Settlement rooms -came into use, the attendances of the children went up by leaps and -bounds. One year after the opening they had grown to some 650 per week; -by October, 1899, to 900, and in the next three or four years they -touched the utmost capacity of the building by reaching 1,200. The -schools in the immediate neighbourhood co-operated eagerly in the new -effort, though the selection of children for our special classes often -involved extra labour for the teachers; but they rose to it with -enthusiasm, and would sometimes steal in to watch their children -enjoying the story-telling or the library, removed from the restraint of -day-school discipline, and yet "giving no trouble," as they wonderingly -recognized. Mrs. Ward made friends with many of these teachers, -especially with those from Manchester Street and Prospect Terrace -Schools, for it was her way to establish natural human relations with -every one with whom she came in contact, and the hard-working London -teacher always appealed to her in a peculiar way. An incident that gave -her special pleasure was the passing of a vote of thanks to the -Settlement by a neighbouring Board of Managers, "for the work done among -the children of this school." How she was loved and looked up to by -every one concerned--by helpers, teachers and, more dimly, by the -children themselves--is not, perhaps, for me to say; but this was the -note that underlay all the busy hum of the Settlement building in the -children's hour, as indeed in all the other hours of its day. - -Occasionally, however, some critic would observe, "Well, this is all -very fine for the children, but what do the parents say about it? What -becomes of _home influence_ when you encourage the children to come out -in this way at an hour when they ought to be at home?" The answer, of -course, was that the parents themselves, and especially the more anxious -and hard-working among them, were the foremost in blessing the -Settlement (or the "Passmore," as it was affectionately dubbed in the -neighbourhood) for the good care that it took of Sidney or Alf or Elsie; -that they knew, better than anyone else, how little they could do in the -miserable rooms that served them for a home for the growing boys and -girls, and yet that "the streets" were full of dangers from which they -longed to preserve their little ones. One or two of them became -voluntary helpers at the "Recreation School," as it came to be called; -many joined the "Parents' Guild" that Mrs. Ward formed from among them, -and that met periodically at the Settlement for music and rest, or for a -quiet talk with her about the children's doings; while all were to be -seen at the summer and winter "Displays" in the big hall or in the -garden, their tired faces beaming with pride at the performance of their -offspring. Perhaps indeed it is the bitterest reproach of all against -our civilization that in the homes of the poor, "where every process of -life and death," as Mrs. Ward once put it, "has to be carried on within -the same few cubic feet of space," there is no room for the growing -children, who, as baby follows baby in the crowded tenement, get pushed -out into the world almost before they can stand upon their feet. Mrs. -Ward knew only too well the conditions of life in the mean streets of -St. Pancras or the East End; her sister-in-law, Miss Gertrude Ward, who -had become a District Nurse after the eight years of her life with us, -had frequently taken her to certain typical dens where such "processes -of life and death" were going on, and her own researches for _Sir George -Tressady_ had done the rest. Add to this her intense power of -imagination and of realization acting like a fire within her, and the -children's work at the Passmore Edwards Settlement is all explained. She -yearned to them and longed to make them happy: that was all. - -Mr. Tatton, the Warden, would often say that the Recreation School was -growing to be the most important side of the Settlement work, and -himself, bachelor as he was, delighted to watch it; but Mrs. Ward would -not willingly have admitted this, even if it were true, for the many -developments of the normal work for adults were always immensely -interesting to her. Whenever she was in London (and often from Stocks -too!) she contrived, in spite of ill-health and the many claims upon her -time, to be at the Settlement three or four times a week, attending -Council meetings and committees, showing the building to friends, -talking to "Associates," old and new, or listening with delight to the -wonderful concerts that took place in the big hall on Saturday evenings. -For it had always been intended that music should play a very special -part in the life of the Settlement, and the Council had been fortunate -in securing as Musical Director Mr. Charles Williams, who, in -partnership with Miss Audrey Chapman's Ladies' Orchestra, gave concerts -of quite extraordinary merit there during the first year or two of the -Settlement's existence. He would take his audience into his confidence, -explaining, before the music began, the part of each instrument in the -whole symphony, and all with so happy a touch that even untrained -listeners felt transported into a world where they understood--for the -moment--what Beethoven or Mozart would be at. Those evenings remain in -memory as occasions of pure joy, and did much to reconcile the older -Associates of Marchmont Hall to the magnificence of the new building--a -magnificence which otherwise weighed rather sadly upon their spirits! -Some of them, amid the growing activity of the new life around them, -confessed that they could not help regretting the old shabby days of -pipe-sucking at Marchmont Hall, where the dingy premises were "a poor -thing, but mine own." Mrs. Ward was distressed by this feeling, and -sought to draw them in in every way to the life and government of the -place; but one of the unforeseen features of the work was that the new -Associates who joined the Settlement in considerable numbers were for -the most part young people, rather than the contemporaries and friends -of the Marchmont Hall Associates. Shop assistants and clerks were also -on the increase, desiring to take advantage of the many facilities, -social and educational, offered by the new building; and though the -new-comers were looked on with distrust by the older members, no -definite rule could be laid down excluding them. Admission to the -Associate body might be strictly reserved to "workmen and working women" -from a definite area, but it was difficult to prove that a shopman or a -clerk did not work. One thing, however, was insisted upon--that the new -candidates should read over and digest the confession of faith which -Mrs. Ward had drawn up in the early days of Marchmont Hall, a creed -which put in simple form the aspirations of the Settlement: - - "We believe that many changes in the conditions of life and labour - are needed, and are coming to pass; but we believe also that men, - without any change except in themselves and in their feelings - towards one another, might make this world a better and happier - place. - - "Therefore, with the same sympathies but different experiences of - life, we meet to exchange ideas and to discuss social questions, in - the hope that as we learn to know one another better, a feeling of - fellowship may arise among us." - -And though some of the younger candidates seemed to have joined the -Settlement rather to dance at the Social Evenings than to "exchange -ideas and to discuss social questions," let alone to attend the lectures -and classes, still the leaven worked, so that at the end of three years -the Warden could report that "an increasing number of Associates use the -opportunities of the Settlement to the utmost, and are always to the -front when service and help are needed. Such Associates, both men and -women, are a chief source of whatever power for good the Settlement may -exert." - -And indeed, with what life and movement the whole building hummed on any -evening of the week, in those first exciting years! Apart altogether -from the children's work, the attendances of adults during the busy -winter terms reached some 1,400 a week, and must surely have -represented, when translated into terms of human aspiration or -enjoyment, much lightening of the burdens and monotonies of life in the -dull streets that surrounded the Settlement. Mrs. Ward herself, in an -appeal in favour of the work issued in 1901, summed up in these words -her feeling on the place that Settlements might fill in the life of -London's workers: - - "Stand in the street now and look back at the 'Community - House'--the Settlement building and its surroundings. The high - windows shine; in and out pass men and women, boys and girls, going - to class, or concert, or drill, to play a game of chess or - billiards, or merely to sit in a pleasant and quiet room, well lit - and warmed, to read a book or listen to music. To your right - stretches the densely peopled district of King's Cross and Gray's - Inn Road, Clerkenwell. Behind the Settlement runs the busy Euston - Road, and the wilderness of Somers Town. Immediately beside you, if - you turn your head, you may see the opening of a narrow street and - the outline of a large block of model dwellings, whence many - frequenters of the Settlement have been drawn. Carry your minds - into the rooms of these old tenement houses which fill the streets - east of Marchmont Street, the streets, say, lying between you and - Prospect Terrace Board School. No doubt the aspect of these rooms - varies with the character of the occupants. But even at their best, - how cramped they are, how lacking in space, air, beauty, judged by - those standards which a richer class applies to its own dwellings - as a matter of course! and though we may hope that a reforming - legislation may yet do something for the dwellings of the London - working-class in the essential matters of air and sanitation, it is - not easy to foresee a time when the workman's house shall do more - than supply him with the simplest necessaries--with shelter, with - breathing-room, sleeping-room, food-room. Yet, as we fully realize, - the self-respecting and industrious artisan has instincts towards - the beauties and dignities of life. He likes spacious rooms, and - soft colour, and pictures to look at, as much as anyone else; he - wants society, art, music, a quiet chair after hard work, stimulus - for the brain after manual labour, amusement after effort, just - like his neighbour in Mayfair or Kensington. The young men and - maidens want decent places other than the streets and the - public-house in which to meet and dance and amuse each other. They - need--as we all need--contact with higher education and gentler - manners. They want--as we all ought to want--to set up a social - standard independent of money or occupation, determined by manners - in the best sense, by kindness, intelligence, mutual sympathy, work - for the commonweal. They want surroundings for their children after - school hours which, without loosening the home-tie, shall yet - supplement their own narrow and much-taxed accommodation; which - shall humanize, and soften, and discipline. They want more physical - exercise, more access to the country, more organization of - holidays. All these things are to be had in or through the House - Beautiful--through the Settlement, the 'Community' or 'Combination' - house of the future. The Socialist dreams of attaining them through - the Collectivist organization of the State. But at any rate he will - admit that his goal is far, far distant; probably he feels it more - distant now than he and his fellows thought it thirty years ago. - Let him, let all of us work meanwhile for something near our hands, - for the deepening and extension of the Settlement movement, for the - spread, that is, of knowledge of the higher pleasures, and of a - true social power among the English working-class." - -How instinct are these words with the idealisms of a bygone generation, -a generation that knew not Communism or Proletarian Schools! No doubt, -nowadays, we have gone beyond all that; we may not speak of the -"self-respecting and industrious artisan"; class-war is the word of -power instead of class-appeasement. So far on the onward road have we -travelled since 1901! - -For the rest, Mrs. Ward's main task during these early years was to use -her gifts of understanding, of patience and of human sympathy in keeping -all the workers at the Settlement together, in straightening out the -differences that would arise among so varied a crew of energetic people, -and in pushing forward the work in ever new directions. All difficulties -were referred to her by Residents, by Associates, by Warden and -Treasurer. On her also rested the responsibility for raising the -necessary money. Much helped by the Duke of Bedford, who remitted the -ground-rent, and also gave a considerable subscription, she prospered -beyond all rational probability in the latter task. Her many friends -were touched by her infectious enthusiasm, and gladly helped her to the -best of their ability, so that the deficits on each year's working -turned out to be far less than the prudent had expected. Such a letter -as the following was not uncommon--though the amount enclosed did not -always reach so round a figure:-- - - -_May 25, 1898._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I shall be very happy to dine with you on the 14th of June. - - You once said that the P. Edwards Settlement would not be - disdainful of subscriptions, and I had not anything to give at the - time. I can now send you with pleasure a cheque for £100. I am sure - you will find some good use for it. - -Yours very truly, -NORTHBROOK. - -The use found for Lord Northbrook's gift was in tidying and beautifying -the garden at the back of the Settlement--a piece of land, shaded by -fine old plane trees, which the Duke kept in his own hands, but allowed -the Settlement to use for a nominal fee. It was now laid down in grass, -and became a vital element in the carrying out of Mrs. Ward's further -schemes for the welfare of her London children. It was there that she -opened her first "Vacation School" in 1902 for children left to play and -quarrel in the streets during the August holiday, and there too that she -could see health returning to the faces of her cripples, after the -opening of the "Invalid Children's School" in February, 1899. - - * * * * * - -In looking back over the origin of Mrs. Ward's interest in crippled and -invalid children, the vision of our old house in Russell Square rises -once more before me, with its gravelled garden at the rear running back -to meet the Queen Square gardens to the east of us, for there, across -those old plane-shaded spaces, rose the modest buildings of the -"Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip"--or, as we used to call it -for short, the "Hip Hospital." What "Diseases of the Hip" exactly were -was an obscure point to our childish minds, but we knew that our mother -cared very much for the children lying there, that all our old toys went -to amuse them, and that sometimes a lame boy or girl would appear at the -cottage down the lane past Borough Farm, which was Mrs. Ward's earliest -attempt at a convalescent home for ailing Londoners. No doubt many -another Bloomsbury family did just as much as we for these helpless -little ones, but the sight of them kindled in her the spark of -imagination, of creative force or what you will, that would not accept -their condition passively, but after many years forged from time and -circumstance the opportunity for a fundamental improvement of their -lives. - -The opportunity presented itself in the tempting emptiness of the -Settlement rooms during the day-time. From five o'clock onwards they -were used to the uttermost, but all the morning and early afternoon they -stood tenantless, asking for occupation. Mrs. Ward had heard of a little -class for crippled children carried on at the Women's University -Settlement, Southwark, by Miss Sparkes, and of another in Stepney -organized by Mr. and Mrs. G. T. Pilcher, and before the new Settlement -was a year old she was already making inquiries from her friends on the -London School Board as to whether it might be possible to obtain the -Board's assistance in opening a small school for Crippled Children at -the Passmore Edwards Settlement. Already London possessed a few Special -Schools for the "mentally defective"; the Progressive party was in the -ascendant on the School Board, and among its chiefs were certain old -friends of Mrs. Ward's--Mr. Lyulph Stanley (now Lord Sheffield) and Mr. -Graham Wallas, who knew something of her powers and of the probability -that anything to which she set her hand in earnest would be carried -through. Mrs. Ward on her side believed that the number of crippled but -educable children scattered through London was far greater than anyone -supposed, and moreover that the policy of drafting them into the new -schools for the mentally defective (as was being done in some cases) was -fundamentally unsound. In the summer of 1898, therefore, she formed a -sub-committee of the Settlement Council, which undertook to carry out a -thorough inquiry in the neighbourhood of Tavistock Place into the -numbers of invalid children living at home and not attending ordinary -school, whose infirmities would yet permit them to attend a special -centre of the type that she had in mind. The help of all the -neighbouring hospitals was asked for and most ungrudgingly given, in the -supplying of lists of suitable children, while the Invalid Children's -Aid Association actively helped in the work of visiting, and the School -Board directed their Attendance Officers to assist Mrs. Ward by -providing the names of children exempted on the ground of ill-health -from attending school. Sad indeed were the secrets revealed by this -inquiry--of helpless children left at home all day, perhaps with a -little food within reach, while mother and father were out at work, with -_nothing on earth to do_, and only the irregular and occasional visits -of some kind-hearted neighbour to look forward to. - - "I have a vivid recollection," writes one of the most devoted - workers of the I.C.A.A., Mrs. Townsend, "of being asked by a - neighbour to visit two small boys in a particularly dirty and - unsavoury street. I found the door open, felt my way along a - pitch-dark passage, and found at the end of it a small dark room, - very barely furnished: in one corner was a bed, on which lay a boy - of ten with spinal trouble; in the other corner were two kitchen - chairs, on one of which sat a boy of seven, with hip disease, his - leg propped on the other. Between them stood a small table, and on - it a tumbler of water and a plate with slices of bread and jam. The - mother of these two was at work all day: at 6 a.m. she put their - food for the day on the table and went off, leaving them all alone - until she got home from work dead tired at 8 p.m. At least there - were two of them, which made it a little less dreary for them than - for another spinal case in the next street, who was left in the - same way and was dependent on a kindly but very busy neighbour for - any sight of human beings for fourteen hours of each day. I could - quote case after case of these types--the children untaught and - undisciplined, without hope or prospect in life, sometimes - neglected because mother's whole time was spent in trying to earn - enough to support them, more often spoilt and petted just because - they were cripples, with their disability continually before them, - and made the excuse for averting all the ordinary troubles of - life. The attempts to place such children when they grew up were - despairing--they were unused to using their hands and brains, - unused to looking after themselves, supremely conscious that they - were different from other people. The days before Special Schools - seem almost too bad to look back upon even!" - -From the reports on such cases which Mrs. Ward received from her helpers -throughout the summer of 1898 she formed the opinion that no school -could be successful unless it maintained a nurse to look after the -children's ailments, and an ambulance to convey them to and from their -homes. But she felt confident of being able to raise the money -(£200-£220 a year) for these purposes, if the School Board would provide -furniture and pay a teacher. Accordingly, by October, 1898, her -committee forwarded to the School Board a carefully-sifted schedule of -twenty-five names, together with a formal application that the Board -should take up the proposed class, provide it with a teacher, and supply -suitable furniture for the class-rooms, while the Settlement undertook -to provide rooms free of charge, to pay a nurse-superintendent, and to -maintain a special ambulance for the use of the school. Some -correspondence followed with the School Management Committee, of which -Mr. Graham Wallas was Chairman, and which was besieged at the same time -by those who thought such schools totally unnecessary, since all invalid -children whom it was possible to educate at all could attend the -Infants' (i.e. ground floor) departments of ordinary schools, where the -teachers would look after them. But Mrs. Ward collected much evidence to -show that this course could not possibly be pursued with any but the -slighter cases. "We have heard very pitiful things of the risks run by -these spinal and hip-disease cases in the ordinary schools," she wrote -to Mr. Stanley, "and of such children's terror of the hustling and -bustling of the playgrounds," and early in December she summed up the -arguments on this head in another memorandum to the Board. The -atmosphere was favourable, and indeed Mrs. Ward had marshalled her -evidence and put the case for the school so convincingly that no serious -opposition was possible. The School Board gave its consent early in -January, 1899; the approval of the Board of Education followed promptly, -and nothing remained but to provide the ambulance, and the set of -special furniture which was to fill the two rooms set aside for the -children at the Settlement. - -The ambulance was presented by no less a well-wisher than Sir Thomas -Barlow, the great physician, while Mrs. Burgwin, the Board's -Superintendent of Special Schools, and Miss McKee, a member of the -Board, busied themselves in procuring and ordering a set of ingenious -invalid furniture--little cane arm-chairs with sliding foot-rests, -couches for the spinal cases, a go-cart for the play-ground, and so -forth--such as no Public Education Authority had ever occupied itself -with before. Preparations were made at the Settlement for serving the -daily dinner, which was to be an integral part of the arrangements, and -which, in those happy days, was to cost the children no more than -three-halfpence a head. At last, on February 28, 1899, all was -ready--save indeed the ambulance, for which an omnibus with an -improvised couch had to be substituted during the first few weeks. The -nurse, too, had been taken ill, so that on this first day the children -were fetched and safely delivered at the Settlement by Mrs. Ward's -secretary, Miss Churcher. It was pitiful to see their excitement and -delight at the new adventure, their joy in the "ride" and their wonder -at the pretty, unfamiliar rooms, each with its open fire, its flowers -from Stocks, and its set of Caldecott pictures on the walls, which -greeted them at the end of their journey. Mrs. Ward was, of course, -among the small group of those who welcomed them. Two medical officers -from the Board were there to admit them officially, and after this -ceremony they were handed over to the care of Miss Milligan, their -teacher--a woman whose special gifts in the handling of these delicate -children were to be devoted to the service of this school for nearly -twenty years. It is to be feared that little in the way of direct -instruction was imparted to them on that first day. But there they now -were, safe within the benevolent shelter of that most human of -institutions, the London School Board, and in a fair way to -become--though few of us realized it fully then--useful members of a -community from which they had received little till then but capricious -petting or heart-rending neglect. - -The arrangements for the children's dinners and for the hour of -play-time afterwards were a subject of constant interest and delight to -Mrs. Ward. The housekeeper at the Settlement put all her ingenuity into -making the children's pence go as far as they could possibly be -stretched in covering the cost of a wholesome meal, and for a long time -the sum of 3_s._ 6_d._ a day was sufficient to pay for dinners of meat, -potatoes and pudding for twenty-five to thirty children. Their health -visibly improved, and the gratitude of their parents was touching to see -and hear. Nevertheless, Mrs. Ward was not satisfied. Some of the -children were very capricious in their appetites, and although most of -them did learn to eat milk puddings (at least when washed down with -treacle!), there were some who could hardly manage the plain wholesome -food, and others who could have eaten more than we had to give. It was -tempting to try the experiment of a larger and more varied dietary upon -them, and in days when the C.O.S. still reigned supreme, and the policy -of "free meals for necessitous children" was hardly breathed by the most -advanced, Mrs. Ward had the courage to carry it out. She described the -results in a letter to _The Times_, in September, 1901: - - "It was pointed out to the managers that a more liberal and varied - dietary might have marked effects upon the children's health. The - experiment was tried. More hot meat, more eggs, milk, cream, - vegetables and fruit were given. In consequence the children's - appetites largely increased, and the expenses naturally increased - with them. The children's pence in May amounted to £3 13_s._ 6_d._, - and the cost of food was £4 7_s._ 2_d._; in June, after the more - liberal scale had been adopted, the children's payments were still - £3 13_s._ 10_d._, but the expenses had risen to £5 7_s._ 8_d._ - Meanwhile, the physical and mental results of the increased - expenditure are already unmistakable. Partially paralysed children - have been recovering strength in hands and limbs with greater - rapidity than before. A child who last year often could not walk at - all, from rickets and extreme delicacy, and seemed to be fading - away--who in May was still languid and feeble--is now racing about - in the garden on his crutches; a boy who last year could only crawl - on hands and feet is now steadily and rapidly learning to walk, and - so on. The effect, indeed, is startling to those who have watched - the experiment. Meanwhile the teachers have entered in the - log-book of the school their testimony to the increased power of - work that the children have been showing since the new feeding has - been adopted. Hardly any child now wants to lie down during school - time, whereas applications to lie down used to be common; and the - children both learn and remember better." - -It may be added that while the minimum payment of 1-1/2_d._ for these -dinners was still maintained at the Settlement School, payments of 2_d._ -and even 3_d._ were asked from those who could afford it, and were in -many cases willingly given, while there were always a few children who -were excused all payment on the ground of poverty at home. - -Another element that contributed largely to the success of the school -from the very beginning was that of the "dinner-hour helpers"--a panel -of ladies who took it in turns to wait on the children at dinner and to -superintend their play-time afterwards. They came with remarkable -regularity, and became deeply attached, many of them, to their frail -little charges. When the School Board extended the Cripples' Schools to -other parts of London they were careful to copy this development of -ours, by insisting that local committees of managers, half of whom -should be women, must be attached to each school. Here, surely, in this -simple but effective institution, may be seen the germ of the Care -Committee of future days! - -The success of the school in Tavistock Place--the roll of which soon -increased to some forty children--naturally attracted a good deal of -attention, and it had hardly been running a year before the pros and -cons of setting up similar schools in other districts began to be -debated within the London School Board. Some members inevitably shied at -the prospect of the increasing expense to the rates, especially if the -whole cost of premises, ambulance and nurse were to be borne by the -public authority, and a definite movement arose, either for bringing the -crippled children into the ordinary schools, with some provision in the -way of special couches, etc., or for brigading the crippled and invalid -children with the "Mentally Defectives" in the special centres which had -already been opened for the latter. Much encouragement was given to this -latter view by the official report of one of the Medical Officers of the -School Board, who was instructed, in the spring of 1900, to examine and -report upon all cases of crippled children not attending school, and -submitted a report recommending that "those cases whom it is advisable -to permit to attend school at all" should be sent to the Mentally -Defective Centres, while neither nurse nor ambulance were, in the -opinion of the writer, required. - -Mrs. Ward and her friends on the School Board were obliged to fight very -strenuously against these views, which, if they had prevailed, would -have prevented the establishment of "Physically Defective Centres" as we -know them to-day. It is perhaps unprofitable to go into the details of -that long-past controversy, the echoes of which have so completely died -away; suffice it to say that a Special Conference appointed by the Board -to consider the Medical Officer's Report recommended, in October, 1900, -that "The Board do make provision for children who, by reason of -physical defect, are incapable of receiving proper benefit from the -instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools, but are not -incapable by reason of such defect of receiving benefit from instruction -in special classes or schools"; and "that children of normal -intelligence be not taught with mentally defective children." A little -later it recommended the provision of both ambulance and nurse. These -resolutions--which were accepted by the Board--cleared the way for the -establishment of new centres for "Physically Defective" children, as -they now began to be called; but in order to make her case invincible, -and to accelerate the work of the School Board, Mrs. Ward undertook, all -through the autumn and winter of 1900-1901, a complete investigation -into the numbers and condition of the invalid children not attending -school in some of the largest and poorest London boroughs. In -consultation with the trained workers whom she employed for the purpose, -she had special forms printed for use in the inquiry, and I remember -well her eager comments as the statistics came in, and her consternation -at the ever-increasing numbers of crippled children which the inquiry -revealed. Finally this investigation extended to nine out of the ten -School Board divisions of London, and embraced a total of some 1,800 -children, of whom 1,000, in round numbers, were recommended by her as -suitable for invalid schools. Of the rest, a substantial proportion were -reported as fit for ordinary school with a little additional care on -the part of teachers and managers; some were too ill for any school, and -some were both mentally and physically defective, and therefore -recommended for the "M.D." Centres. Meanwhile, the Special Schools -Sub-Committee of the School Board, under their Chairman, the Hon. Maude -Lawrence, had been at work since February, 1901, in making inquiries -into possible sites and buildings for the new schools, and by the middle -of March the Board were able to inform Mrs. Ward that sites for four -Centres had been agreed upon, while two more were to be located in -Kennington and Battersea "on the constitution of your returns, which -have now been marked on the map by the Divisional Superintendents." - -Four ambulances had also been ordered, and it was decided to appoint -nurses at each of the Centres at a salary of £75 a year. Kitchens were, -of course, to be provided at all the Centres, so that the hot midday -meal which had proved so successful at the Settlement might be supplied. - -The first two Centres to be opened by the School Board--in Paddington -and Bethnal Green--were ready by September, 1901, and both drew their -children entirely from those on Mrs. Ward's lists. It may be imagined -with what intense satisfaction she had followed every step taken by the -School Board towards this consummation. Finally she gathered up the -whole story of the Settlement School and of the School Board's adoption -of responsibility for London's crippled children in the letter to _The -Times_ mentioned above, pleading for the extension of the movement to -other large towns, and describing certain efforts made at the Settlement -School for the industrial and artistic training of the older children. -Her final paragraph ran as follows: - - "The happiness of the new schools is one of their most delightful - characteristics. Freed from the dread of being jostled on stairs or - knocked down in the crowd of the playground, with hours, food and - rest proportioned to their need, these maimed and fragile creatures - begin to expand and unfold like leaves in the sun. And small - wonder! They have either been battling with ordinary school on - terribly unequal terms, or else, in the intervals of hospital and - convalescent treatment, their not uncommon lot has been to be - locked up at home alone, while the normal members of the family - were at work. I can recall one case of a child, lame and - constantly falling, with brain irritation to boot--the result of - infant convulsions--locked up for hours alone while its mother was - at work; and another, of a poor little lad, whose back had been - injured by an accident, alone all day after his discharge from - hospital, feebly dragging himself about his room, in cold weather, - to find a few sticks for fire, with the tears running down his - cheeks from pain. His father and sister were at work, and he had no - mother. It could not be helped. But he has been gathered into one - of the new schools, where he has become another being. Scores of - children in as sore need as his will, I hope, be reached and - comforted by this latest undertaking of the Board. - - "And for some, all we shall be able to do, perhaps, will be to - gladden a few months or years before the little life goes out. From - them there will be no economic return, such as we may hope for in - the great majority of cases. But even so, will it not be worth - while?" - -As the efforts of the School Board and--after 1903--of the Education -Committee of the London County Council to spread the "Special Schools -for Physically Defective Children" over London grew more and more -effective, and the number of the new schools rose steadily, Mrs. Ward -and her principal helpers concentrated their attention mainly upon the -training of the children for suitable employment on their leaving -school. As early as 1900 a little committee was formed for this purpose -at the Settlement, which engaged special teachers of drawing and design -for the boys and of art needlework for the girls--for these delicate -children were often found to possess artistic aptitudes which made up to -them in a certain degree for their other disabilities. Presently this -committee developed into the "Crippled Children's Training and Dinner -Society," presided over by Miss Maude Lawrence, of the London School -Board, a Committee which did hard pioneer work in the organizing of -careers for these crippled children, whose numbers stood revealed beyond -all expectation as the Special Schools spread to every quarter of -London. By the year 1906 the numbers of schools had risen to -twenty-three, and of children on the rolls to 1,767; by 1909 the figures -were thirty and 2,452 respectively. The dark-brown ambulances conveying -their happy load of children to and from the schools became a familiar -sight of the London streets. But, though Mrs. Ward's experiment had -grown in these ten years with such astonishing rapidity, it had not lost -its original character. She had impressed it too deeply with her own -broad and sane humanity for the Special Schools Department of the L.C.C. -to become lost in red tape or officialdom, and under the wise reign of -Mrs. Burgwin and Miss Collard (Superintendents of Special Schools under -the Council) the traditions that had gathered round the first Invalid -Children's School were carried on and perpetuated. And to this day the -Boards of Managers that watch over the "P.D." Schools seem to be -inspired by a tenderer and more personal feeling than any other of the -multifarious committees that take thought for the children of the State. -The secret, in fact, of Mrs. Ward's success in this as in her other -public undertakings lay in the fact that her action was founded on a -real and urgent human need, and that she combined a power of presenting -and urging that need in forcible manner with an unfailing tenderness for -the individual child. As one of her colleagues expressed it once in -homely phrase: "The fact is, she had the brain of a man and the heart of -a woman." Nor did the heart dissolve itself in "gush," but showed its -quality rather in a disinterestedness that cared not where the _hudos_ -went, so long as the thing itself were done--in an eager desire to bring -others forward and to give them a full share of whatever credit were to -be had. - -The view of the School Board authorities was summed up long afterwards -in these sentences from the pen of Mr. Graham Wallas: "She brought to -the task not only imagination and sympathy, but a steady and systematic -industry, which is the most valuable of all qualities in public life. -She was never disheartened, and never procrastinated." - -What was felt of her spirit by those who worked with her more -intimately, who saw her week by week in contact with the children -themselves, is harder to put into words. Perhaps this little vision of -her, recorded by the teacher of the school, Miss Milligan, comes nearest -to saving what is, after all, an intangible essence, that once had form -and being and is now vanished into air: - -"But above and beyond all else Mrs. Ward was--what she was always called -amongst us--'The Fairy Godmother.' In the early days before the school -grew so big, every child knew this Fairy Godmother personally, and -loved her, and we remember how on the occasion of one Christmas Party -Mrs. Ward was unable to be present through illness, and the children -were so sad that even the Christmas tree could hardly console them. When -she had recovered and came again to see them, _they_ gave _her_ a -delightful little tea-party, even the poorest children giving half-pence -and farthings to buy a bunch of Parma violets, and a sponge-cake--having -first ascertained what sort of cake she liked. It was a pretty sight to -see them all clustering round her, and her kind, beautiful face whenever -she was amongst the children will haunt one for years." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ AND THE -VILLA BARBERINI - -1896-1900 - - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_ is probably that one among Mrs. Ward's books on -which her fame as a novelist will stand or fall. Though it sold less in -England and much less in America than her previous novels at the time of -its publication, it has outlasted all the others in the extent of its -circulation to-day. In this the opinion of those critics for whose word -she cared has been borne out, for they prophesied that it had in it, -more than her other books, the element of permanence. "I know not -another book that shows the classic fate so distinctly to view," wrote -George Meredith, and some years later, in a long talk with a younger -friend about Mrs. Ward's work, repeated his profound admiration for -_Helbeck_. "The hero, if hero he be, is as fresh a creation as -Ravenswood or Rochester," said another critic, Lord Crewe, "and what a -luxury it is to hang a new portrait on one's walls in this age of old -figures in patched garments! I have no idea yet how the story will end, -but though the atmosphere is so much less lurid and troubled, I have -something of the _Wuthering Heights_ sense of coming disaster. I think -the Brontës would have given your story the most valuable admiration of -all--that of writers who have succeeded in a rather similar, though by -no means the same, field." - -The theme of the book was, as all Mrs. Ward's readers know, the eternal -clash between the mediæval and the modern mind in the persons of Alan -Helbeck, the Catholic squire, and Laura Fountain, the child of science -and negation; while beyond and behind their tragic loves stands the -"army of unalterable law" in the austere northern hills, the bog-lands -of the estuary, the river in gentleness and flood. Almost, indeed, can -it be said that there are but three characters in _Helbeck_--Alan -himself, Laura, and the river, which in the end takes her tormented -spirit. The idea of such a novel had presented itself to Mrs. Ward -during a visit that she paid in the autumn of 1896 to her old friends, -Mr. James Cropper and his daughter, in that beautiful South Westmorland -country which she had known only less well than the Lake District itself -ever since her childhood. There the talk turned one day on the fortunes -of an old Catholic family (the Stricklands), who had owned Sizergh -Castle, near Sedgwick, for more than three centuries, steadfastly -enduring the persecutions of earlier days, and, now that persecutions -had ceased, fighting a sad and losing battle against poverty and -mortgages. "The vision of the old squire and the old house--of all the -long vicissitudes of obscure suffering, and dumb clinging to the faith, -of obstinate, half-conscious resistance to a modern world, that in the -end had stripped them of all their gear and possessions, save only this -'I will not' of the soul--haunted me when the conversation was -done."[19] By the end of the long railway-journey from Kendal to London -next day she had thought out her story. The deepest experiences of her -own life went to the making of it, for had she not been brought up with -a Catholic father, made aware from her earliest childhood of the -irremediable chasm there between two lovers? The situation in _Helbeck_ -was of course wholly different, but in the working out of it Mrs. Ward -had the advantage of a certain inborn familiarity with the Catholic -mind, which made the characters of this book peculiarly her own. - -All through the winter of 1896-7 Mrs. Ward was steeping herself in -Catholic literature; then in the early spring--again by the good offices -of Mr. Cropper--she became aware that Levens Hall, the wonderful old -Tudor house near the mouth of the Kent, which belonged to Capt. -Josceline Bagot, might be had for a few weeks or months. She determined -to migrate thither as soon as possible and to write her story amid the -very scenes which she had planned for it. How well do I remember the -grey spring evening (it was the 6th of March) on which--after delays and -confusions far beyond our small deserts--we drove up to the river front -of the old house; the hurried rush through glorious dark rooms, and a -half timid exploration of the garden, peopled with gaunt shapes of -clipped and tortured yews. Levens was to us just such another adventure -as Hampden House had been, eight years before, but this time there was -no bareness, no dilapidation, nothing but the ripe product of many -centuries of peaceful care. Yet Levens was famous for its crooked -descent, its curse and its "grey lady"--an accessory, this latter, of -sadly modern origin, as we found on inquiring into her local history. -Mrs. Ward, however, wove her skilfully into her story, as she wove the -fell-farm of the family of "statesmen" to whom Miss Cropper introduced -her, or the mournful peat-bogs of the estuary, or the daffodils crowding -up through the undergrowth in Brigsteer Wood, or covering with sheets of -gold the graves round Cartmel Fell Chapel. - -Yet Bannisdale itself is "a house of dream," as Mrs. Ward herself -described it[20]; neither wholly Levens nor wholly Sizergh, placed -somewhere in the recesses of Levens Park, and looking south over the -Kent. "And just as Bannisdale, in my eyes, is no mortal house, and if I -were to draw it, it would have outlines and features all its own, so the -story of the race inhabiting it, and of Helbeck its master, detached -itself wholly from that of any real person or persons, past or present. -Those who know Levens will recognize many a fragment here and there that -has been worked into Bannisdale: and so with Sizergh. But Helbeck's -house, as it stands in the book, is his and his alone. And in the same -way the details and vicissitudes of the Helbeck ancestry, and the -influences that went to build up Helbeck himself, were drawn from many -fields, then passed through the crucible of composition, and scarcely -anything now remains of those original facts from which the book -sprang." - -Many Catholic books, in which she browsed "with what thoughts," as -Carlyle would say, followed her to Levens, giving her that grip of -detail in matters of belief or ritual, without which she could not have -approached her subject, but which she had now learnt to absorb and -re-fashion far more skilfully than in the days of _Robert Elsmere_. She -loved to discuss these matters with her father, from whom she had no -secrets, in spite of their divergencies of view; when he came to visit -us at Levens--still a tall and beautiful figure, in spite of his -seventy-three years--they talked of them endlessly, and when he returned -to Dublin she wrote him such letters as the following: - - "One of the main impressions of this Catholic literature upon me is - to make me perceive the enormous intellectual pre-eminence of - Newman. Another impression--I know you will forgive me for saying - quite frankly what I feel--has been to fill me with a perfect - horror of asceticism, or rather of the austerities--or most of - them--which are indispensable to the Catholic ideal of a saint. We - must talk this over, for of course I realize that there is much to - be said on the other side. But the simple and rigid living which I - have seen, for various ideal purposes, in friends of my own--like - T. H. Green--seems to me both religious and reasonable, while I - cannot for the life of me see anything in the austerities, say of - the Blessed Mary Alacoque, but hysteria and self-murder. The Divine - Power occupies itself for age on age in the development of all the - fine nerve-processes of the body, with their infinite potencies for - good or evil. And instead of using them for good, the Catholic - mystic destroys them, injures her digestion and her brain, and is - then tortured by terrible diseases which she attributes to every - cause but the true one--her own deliberate act--and for which her - companions glorify her, instead of regarding them as - what--surely--they truly are, God's punishment. No doubt directors - are more careful nowadays than they were in the seventeenth - century, but her life is still published by authority, and the - ideal it contains is held up to young nuns. - - "Don't imagine, dearest, that I find myself in antagonism to all - this literature. The truth in many respects is quite the other way. - The deep personal piety of good Catholics, and the extent to which - their religion enters into their lives, are extraordinarily - attractive. How much we, who are outside, have to learn from them!" - -To an ex-Catholic friend, Mr. Addis, who had undertaken to look over -the manuscript for her, she wrote some time later, when the book was -nearly finished: - - "In my root-idea of him, Helbeck was to represent the old Catholic - crossed with that more mystical and enthusiastic spirit, brought in - by such converts as Ward and Faber, under Roman and Italian - influence. I gather, both from books and experience, that the more - fervent ideas and practices, which the old Catholics of the - 'forties disliked, have, as a matter of fact, obtained a large - ascendancy in the present practice of Catholics, just as Ritualism - has forced the hands of the older High Churchmen. And I thought one - might, in the matter of austerities, conceive a man directly - influenced by the daily reading of the Lives of the Saints, and - obtaining in middle life, after probation and under special - circumstances, as it were, leave to follow his inclinations. - - "I take note most gratefully of all your small corrections. What I - am really anxious about now is the points--in addition to pure - jealous misery--on which Laura's final breach with Helbeck would - turn. I _think_ on the terror of confession--on what would seem to - her the inevitable uncovering of the inner life and yielding of - personality that the Catholic system involves--and on the - foreignness of the whole idea of _sin_, with its relative, penance. - But I find it extremely hard to work out!" - -As the weeks of our stay at Levens passed by, while the sea-trout came -up the Kent and challenged the barbarian members of the family to many a -tussle in the Otter-pool, or the "turn-hole," or the bend of the river -just above the bridge, Mrs. Ward plunged ever deeper into her subject, -though the difficulties under which she laboured in the sheer writing of -her chapters were almost more disabling than ever. "For a week my arm -has been almost useless, alas!" she wrote in May; "I have had it in a -sling and bandaged up. I partly strained it in rubbing A., but I must -also have caught cold in it. Anyhow it has been very painful, and I have -been in quite low spirits, looking at Chapter III, which would not move! -The chairs and tables here don't suit it at all--the weather is -extremely cold--and altogether I believe I am pining for Stocks!" But -before we left the wonderful old house many friends had come to stay -with us there, renewing their own tired spirits in its beauty and -charm, and in the society of its temporary mistress. Henry James and the -Henry Butchers, Katharine Lyttelton and her Colonel, Bron Herbert and -Victor Lytton, fishers of sea-trout,--and, on Easter Monday, "Max -Creighton" himself, now Bishop of London, much worn by the antics of Mr. -Kensit and his friends, but otherwise only asking to "eat the long -miles" in walks along Scout Scar, or over the "seven bens and seven -fens" that lay between us and the lovely little Chapel of St. Anthony on -Cartmel Fell. Such talks as they had, he and Mrs. Ward, at all times -when she was not deliberately burying herself in her study to escape the -temptation! The rest of us would listen fascinated, watching for that -gesture of his, when he would throw back his head so that the under side -of his red beard appeared to view--a gesture of triumph over his -opponent, as he fondly thought, until her next remark showed him there -was still much to win. Henry James was more demure in his tastes, -walking beside the pony-tub when Mrs. Ward went for her afternoon drive -through Levens Park, or along the Brigsteer lane, and "letting fall -words of wisdom as we went" (for so it is recorded by the driver of the -tub). Ah, if those words could but have been gathered up and saved from -all-swallowing oblivion! Mr. James's friendship for Mrs. Ward had -already endured for ten or twelve years before this visit to Levens, but -these days in the old house gave it a deeper and more intimate tone, -which it never lost thenceforward. He never wholly approved of her art -as a novelist--how could he, when it differed so fundamentally from his -own?--but his admiration for her as a woman, his affection for her as a -friend, knew very few limits indeed. And her feeling for him was to grow -and deepen through another twenty years of happy friendship, ripening -towards that day when, in England's darkest time, he chose to make -himself a son of England, and then, soon afterwards, followed the many -lads whom he had loved "where track there is none." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1898 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD] - -Mrs. Ward finally quitted Levens before the end of her lease, owing to a -prolonged attack of influenza, which spoilt her last weeks there, but -she always looked back to her stay in the "Border Castle," as Mr. James -had dubbed it, as an enchanting episode, taking her back to the -fell-country and its people with an intimacy she had not known since -those long-past childish days, when she would dance up the path to -Sweden Bridge, the grown-ups loitering behind. For the remainder of this -year (1897) she was pressing on with her book, in spite of -ever-recurring waves of ill-health and of constant over-pressure with -the affairs of the Settlement. By the autumn, when the new buildings -were actually open, this pressure became so formidable that she was -obliged to take a small house at Brighton for three months, in order to -spend three days of each week there in complete seclusion. The book -prospered fairly well, but the formal opening of the Settlement, which -had been fixed for February 12, 1898, was very much on her mind--at -least until she had succeeded in persuading Mr. Morley to make the -principal speech. This, however, he consented to do with all the -graciousness inspired by his old friendship for its founder; and when -the ceremony was actually over Mrs. Ward retired to Stocks for a final -struggle with the last chapters of _Helbeck_. "Except, perhaps, in the -case of "Bessie Costrell," she wrote in her _Recollections_, "I was -never more possessed by a subject, more shut in by it from the outer -world." And in these last few weeks of the long effort she walked as in -a dream, though the dream was too often broken by cruel attacks of her -old illness. She fought them down, however, and emerged victorious on -March 25,--more dead than alive, in the rueful opinion of her family. -But the usual remedy of a flight to Italy was tried again with sovereign -effect, and at Cadenabbia on Lake Como, in Florence and on Maggiore, she -felt the flooding back of a sense of physical ease. The book did not -appear until the month of June, when both Press and friends received it -with so warm an enthusiasm as to "produce in me that curious mood, which -for the artist is much nearer dread than boasting--dread that the best -is over, and that one will never earn such sympathy again." One -discordant note was, however, struck by a review in the _Nineteenth -Century_ by a certain Father Clarke, violently attacking _Helbeck_ as a -caricature of Catholicism, and picking various small holes in its -technicalities of Catholic practice. The article was answered in the -next number of the _Nineteenth Century_ by another Catholic, Mr. St. -George Mivart, and Mrs. Ward's fairness to Catholicism vindicated; -indeed, many of the other reviews had accused her of making the ancient -faith too attractive in the person of Helbeck. Mr. C. E. Maurice wrote -to her to protest against Father Clarke's attack, remarking incidentally -that "if any religious body have cause of complaint against you for this -book, it is the Protestant Nonconformists" and asking her in the course -of his letter "what point you generally start from in deciding to write -a novel; whether from the wish to work out a special thesis, or from the -desire to deal with certain characters who have interested you, or from -being impressed by a special _story_, actual or possible?" Mrs. Ward -replied to him as follows: - - "I think a novel with me generally springs from the idea of a - situation involving two or three characters. _Helbeck_ arose from a - fragment of conversation heard in the North, and was purely human - and not controversial in its origin. It is in these conflicts - between old and new, as it has always seemed to me, that we moderns - find our best example of compelling fate,--and the weakness of the - personal life in the grip of great forces that regard it not, or - seem to regard it not, is just as attractive as ever it was to the - imagination--do you not think so? The forms are different, the - subject is the same." - -To Mr. Mivart himself she wrote: - - "I hear with great interest from Mr. Knowles that you are going to - break a lance with Father Clarke on poor _Helbeck's_ behalf in the - forthcoming _Nineteenth Century_. I need not say that I shall read - very diligently what you have to say. Meanwhile I am venturing to - send you these few Catholic reviews, as specimens of the very - different feelings that seem to have been awakened in many quarters - from those expressed by Father Clarke. It amuses me to put the - passages from Father Vaughan's sermon that concern Helbeck himself - side by side with Father Clarke's onslaught upon him. - - "The story that the orphan tells to Laura, which Father Clarke - calls 'detestable, extravagant and objectionable,' that no - instructed Catholic would dream of telling to his juniors, is told - by Father Law, S.J., to his younger brothers and sisters, and is - given in the very interesting _Life of Father Law_, by Ellis - Schreiber. I have only shortened it. - - "Father Clarke does not seem to have the dimmest notion of what is - meant by writing in character. I had a hearty laugh over his - really absurd remarks about Laura and St. Francis Borgia's - children." - -Some years later, when her feeling about the book's reception had -settled down and crystallized, she wrote in more meditative mood to her -son-in-law, George Trevelyan: - - "Yes, it was a good subject, and I shall hardly come across one - again so full both of intellectual and human interest.... I like - your 'dear and dreadful!' In my case it is quite true. Catholicism - has an enormous attraction for me,--yet I could no more be a - Catholic than a Mahometan. Only, never let us forget how much of - Catholicism is based, as Uncle Matt would have said, on 'Natural - truth'--truth of human nature, and truth of moral experience. The - visible, imperishable Society--the Kingdom of Heaven in our - midst--no greater idea, it seems to me, was ever thrown into the - world of men. Its counterpart is to be found in the Logos - conception from which all Liberalism descends, and which is the - perpetual corrective of the Catholic idea. But these things would - take us far!" - -Meanwhile, to Bishop Creighton, who had written to her far less -critically than usual of her new book, she replied with a long letter, -in which, after the first sheet, she reverted to the subjects which were -always of the deepest interest to this pair of friends--the barriers set -around the National Church, which Mrs. Ward complained kept out too many -of the faithful, or at least too many of those who, like herself, would -willingly proclaim their faith in a spiritual Christ. - - -STOCKS, TRING, -_August 9, 1898_. - -..."I have been desperately, perhaps disproportionately interested - in a meeting of Liberal Churchmen as to which I cannot get full - particulars--in which the great need of the day was said to be not - ritual, but 'the re-statement and re-interpretation of dogma in the - light of the knowledge and criticism of our day.' It makes me once - more conscious of all sorts of claims and cravings that I have - often wished to talk over with you--not as Bishop of London!--but - as one with whom, in old days at any rate, I used to talk quite - freely. If only the orthodox churchmen would allow us on our side a - little more freedom, I, at any rate, should be well content to let - the Ritualists do what they please! Every year I live I more and - more resent the injustice which excludes those who hold certain - historical and critical opinions from full membership in the - National Church, above all from participation in the Lord's Supper. - Why are we _all_ always to be bound by the formularies of a past - age, which avowedly represent a certain state of past opinion, a - certain balance of parties?--privately and personally I mean. The - public and ceremonial use of formularies is another matter where - clearly the will of the majority should decide. The minority may be - well content to accept the public and ceremonial use, if it may - accept it in its own way. But here the Church steps in with a - test--several tests--the Catechism, the Creed, the Confirmation - service. And the tendency of the last generation of churchpeople - has been all towards tightening these tests, probably under two - influences--a deepened Christian devotion, and the growing pressure - of the alternative view of Christianity. But is it not time the - alternative view were brought in and assimilated,--to the - strengthening of Christian love and fellowship? What _ought_ to - prevent anyone who accepts the Lord's own test of the 'two great - commandments,' or the Pauline test of 'all who love the Lord Jesus - Christ,' from breaking the bread and drinking the wine which - signify the headship and sacrifice, and mystical fellowship of - Christ? But such an one may hold it solemnly and sacredly - impossible to recite matters of supposed history such as 'born of - the Virgin Mary,' or 'on the third day He rose again--and ascended - to the Father,' as personally true of himself. He may be quite - wrong--that is not the point. Supposing that his historical - conscience is clearly and steadily convinced on the one side, and - on the other he only asks that he and his children may pass into - the national Christian family, and join hands with all who believe - in God, who 'love the Lord Jesus' and hope in immortality, what - should keep him out? Would it not be an immense strengthening of - the Church to include, on open and honourable terms, those who can - now only share in her Eucharist on terms of concealment and - evasion? Why should there not be an alternative baptismal and - confirmation service, to be claimed under a conscience clause by - those who desire it? At present no one can have his children - confirmed who is not prepared to accept, or see them accept, - certain historical statements, which he and they may perhaps not - believe. And except as a matter of private bargain and - sufferance--always liable to scandal--neither he nor they, unless - these tests have been passed, can join in the commemoration of - their Master's death, which should be to them the food and stimulus - of life. Nothing honestly remains to them but exclusion, and - hunger--or the falling back upon a Unitarianism, which has too - often unlearned Christ, and to which, at its best, they may not - naturally belong." - -Mrs. Ward might, perhaps, have added that what remains to the majority -of those whom these tests keep out, is a gradual _loss of hunger_--a -making up with other things, which cannot but be a fatal loss to the -National Church. But she was thinking of her own case, and to her, I -think, the "hunger" for admission to the Church (though always on her -own terms!) remained for long years a living force, leading her in the -end to write that best and most vivid among her later books, _The Case -of Richard Meynell_. Meanwhile her relations with Unitarianism, -mentioned in this letter, remained somewhat anomalous, for while -agreeing with its tenets, she was always impatient of its old-fashioned -isolation, and of its neglect to seize the opportunity presented to it -by the march of modern thought, which seemed to her to summon it to take -the lead in the movement towards a free Christian fellowship. She was -never so hard on the Unitarian body as Stopford Brooke, who once -exclaimed in a letter to her that "they cling to ancient uglinesses as -if they were sweethearts!" But Mrs. Ward had had a brush with them in -1893, when she wrote to the _Manchester Guardian_ after the opening of -Manchester College, Oxford, lamenting the bareness of the service, the -extempore prayers, the relics of old Puritanism, instead of the appeal -to colour and imagination and modern thought. Her letter provoked many -answers, both public and private, and to one of these, a kind and -generous argument from Dr. Estlin Carpenter, she replied with a fuller -explanation of her feeling: - - -_November 2, 1893._ - -..."My own feeling, the child of course of early habit and - tradition, is strongly on the side of ritual throughout, though I - would infinitely rather have _new_ ritual, like Dr. Martineau's two - services, than a modified edition of the Anglican prayers, such as - we have at Mr. Brooke's. But I don't think I should have ventured - to put forward the view I did so strongly as I did, with regard to - any other place in the world than Oxford. I knew Oxford intimately - for fifteen years, and still, of course, have many friends there. I - am convinced that Manchester College has a real mission towards an - Oxford which is not yet theirs, but which ought to become so. But I - am also certain that Oxford cannot be reached through the forms - that have been so far adopted. You may say, as Mr. ---- does in - effect, in a letter to me: 'Oxford must take us with our Puritanism - as we are, or leave us.' But surely to say this is to refuse a real - mission, a real call. It is the very opposite of St. Paul's spirit, - of making himself all things to all men, 'that I may by any means - gain some.' It is putting adherence to a form, about which there - is, after all, serious difference of opinion in your own body, - between you and a great future. At least that is how it looks to - me, and I think I have some means of judging. The religious - message, the thoughts, the conceptions that you have to give - Oxford, especially to the young men, not of your own body, who may - be attracted to you through the Chapel, are, it seems to me, the - all-important thing, and any fears of imitating the Church, or - dislike of abandoning Puritan tradition, which may hold you back - from the best means of bringing those thoughts and faiths into the - current life of Oxford, will be a disaster to us all. It is because - I have thought so much about this settlement of yours, in the place - where I myself often starved for lack of religious fellowship, that - I was drawn to write with the vehemence I did. But one had better - never be vehement!" - -In the following year the Unitarians forgave her and asked her to -deliver the "Essex Hall Lecture," which she did with a brilliant and -suggestive paper entitled "Unitarians and the Future." Her relations -with many Unitarians all through the period of University Hall were, as -we have seen, of the most intimate and friendly character, and now, -after the publication of _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, she showed her -goodwill to Unitarianism once more by journeying down to Norwich to give -an address in aid of the famous old Octagon Chapel there. The address -was typical of many others that she gave in these years of her -increasing fame; carefully and even elaborately prepared beforehand--for -she would never trust herself to speak extempore--it lived for long in -the memory of her hearers as a model of its kind, while the outspoken -opinions it expressed gave rise to a good deal of controversy in the -religious Press. The demands on her time for speeches and addresses in -aid of every possible good cause were by this time incessant. She -refused nineteen out of twenty, but the twentieth was usually so -persuasively put that she succumbed, and then she would live in an agony -of apprehension and of accumulated overwork, until the effort was safely -over. One of her most finished literary performances was the address she -gave in Glasgow in February, 1897, on "the Peasant in Literature"; while -her paper on the Transfiguration, entitled "Gospel Interpretation--a -Fragment," given at the Leicester Unitarian Conference in 1900, remains -to this day, with some of her audience, as a new and startling -revelation of the critical methods which had, for her, thrown so vivid a -light on the dark places of the Gospel story. All these -carefully-prepared essays--for such, indeed, they were--added enormously -to the burden of work which Mrs. Ward already carried, but she loved her -audiences and loved to feel that she had pleased and interested, or even -shocked them a little. "I want to poke them up," she would say -sometimes, with that flash of mischief or "trotzigkeit" (the word is -untranslatable), that endeared her so much to those who knew her well; -and poke them up she surely did whenever the subject of her address was -a religious one. - -But the pace at which she lived during this year (1898), when the work -of the Settlement was expanding in every direction, and the preparations -for the Invalid Children's School were going on throughout the winter, -led her to feel that in order to write her next book she must have a -complete change of scene and, if possible, a far more complete seclusion -than that of Stocks, with its accessibility to posts and telegrams. The -great subject of Catholicism still held her fascinated, but she was -tempted to explore it this second time rather from the artistic than the -religious point of view. She had been reading much of Châteaubriand and -Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled -by the relationship between the two; why should she not migrate to Rome -and there, in the ancient scene, weave anew the old tale of the conquest -of "outworn, buried age" by the forces of youth? So while the -preparations for the Cripples' School were hastening forward, in -February, 1899, negotiations were also going on with the owners of the -vast old Villa Barberini, at Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills, for -the taking of its first floor, and various friends in Rome were helping -us with advice as to how to make it habitable. It was just such an -adventure as Mrs. Ward loved with her whole heart, and when we finally -arrived at the little station overlooking the Alban Lake, on March 23, -packed ourselves and our luggage into three _vetture_ and drove up to -the somewhat forbidding entrance of the Villa, we felt that here, -indeed, was a new kingdom--a place to dream of, not to tell! - -Never, indeed, will those who took part in it forget the sensations of -that arrival--the floods of welcome poured upon us by the delightful -little butler, Alessandro, and his stately sister Vittoria, who had been -engaged to minister to our wants, our own faltering Italian, and the -procession across the gloomy entrance-hall and up the uncarpeted stone -staircase, to the rooms of our floor above. A dozen rooms clustering -round two huge central _saloni_, all with tiled floors, exiguous strips -of carpet, and wonderfully ugly wall-papers, formed our _appartamento_; -but at each end, east and west, were glorious balconies, the one -overlooking the Alban Lake and Monte Cavo, the other the vast sweep of -the Campagna, stretching from our falling olive-gardens to the sea. Long -we hung over those balconies, forgetting our unpacking, and when at last -we left our book-boxes behind and wandered out into the mile-long -garden, clothing the side of the hill on the Campagna side, it was only -to suffer fresh thrills of wonder and delight. For there, beyond the -ilex avenue, that led like a cool green tunnel to the further mysteries, -ran a great wall of _opus reticulatum_, banking up the hill on that side -and crowned by overhanging olives, which had formed part of the villa -built on this ridge by the Emperor Domitian, just eighteen hundred years -before. And there, to the right, on another substructure of Domitian's, -ran the balustraded terrace laid out by the rascally Barberini Pope, -Urban VIII (or more probably by one of his still more rascally nephews), -from which you beheld, rolling away to the sea, fold after fold of sad -Campagna, and far away to the north, between two stone pines, the white -dome of St. Peter's. Mrs. Ward thus described the scene, four days after -our arrival, in a letter to her son: - - -"VILLA BARBERINI," -_March 27, 1899_. - - "To-day, you never saw anything so enchanting in the world, as this - house and its outlook. At our feet, looking west, lies the rose and - green Campagna, melting into the sea on the horizon line, and as it - approaches the hills, climbing towards us through all imaginable - beauty of spreading olive-groves, and soaring pinewoods--brown - pinkish earth, just upturned by the white ploughing oxen,--here and - there on the spurs of the hills, great ruined strongholds of the - Savelli and Orsini, or fragments of Roman tombs: close below the - house a green sloping olive garden, white with daisies under the - grey mist of the olives--while if you lean out of window and crane - your neck a little, far to the north beyond the descending stone - pines, the æthereal sun-steeped plain takes here a consistence in - something, which is Rome. - - "We have just come in from wandering along the sunny hill-side - towards Albano, past ruins of the Domitian Villa, overgrown with - ilex and creepers, through long shady ilex-avenues, and then out - into the warmth of the olive-yards, where the cyclamen are coming - out and the grass is full of white and blue and pink anemones. Such - a deep draught of beauty--of _bien-être_ physical and mental--one - has not had for years. But only to-day! Two days ago we woke up to - find a world in snow, or rather all the hills white, the Alban Lake - lying like steel in its snowy ring, and the _silvæ laborantes_ - under the weight. And oh! the cold of these vast bare rooms at - night! We spent the day in Rome, where, of course, there was no - snow and much shelter, but when we came home, we sat and shivered - at dinner, and presently we all dragged the table up to the fire in - hope of cheating the draughts a little. Then the north wind howled - round us all night, and our spirits were low. But to-day the - transformation scene is complete!... We have put in baths and - stoves, and carpets and spring mattresses, bought some linen and - electro-plate, hired some armchairs--and here we are, not luxurious - certainly, but with a fair amount of English comfort about - us--quite enough, I fear, to make the Italians stare, who think we - must be mad, anyway, to come here in March, and still madder to - spend any money on an apartment that we take for three months! The - cook, a white-capped, white-jacketed gentleman whom I have only - seen once, sends us up excellent meals--except that on one occasion - he so far forgot himself as to offer us for dinner, first, pâté de - foie gras, and then "movietti," which, being explained, are small - birds, probably siskins. Father and I were too hungry to desist, - the poor little things being anyway fried and past praying for, but - J. sat by, starving and lofty. And _we_ were punished by finding - nothing to eat! So for many reasons, ideal and other, the cook will - have to be told to keep his hands off _movietti_." - -Here, then, we established ourselves, and here, either in the little -_salotto_ that we furnished for her, or walking up and down that -marvellous terrace, Mrs. Ward thought out her tale of _Eleanor_, -infusing into it strains old and new--Papal, Italian, English, -American--but, above all, steeping the whole scene in her own love for -the Italy of to-day, as well as for the old, the immemorial Italy. - -Those were the times--how far away they seem now, and how small the -troubles!--when things were not going happily for the new-made Italian -Kingdom, when the country still smarted under the misery and failure of -the Abyssinian campaign, and when English visitors were wont to express -themselves with insular frankness on the shortcomings of the New Italy, -whose squalid activities so impudently disturbed, in their eyes, the -shades of the Old. The glamour of the _Risorgimento_ had somehow -departed, in the forty years that followed Cavour's death, so that the -Englishman travelling for his pleasure in the former territories of the -Pope, was ready enough to criticize the defects of the new Government, -while forgetting that if they had remained under the Pope, he would have -found therein no Government, in the modern sense, at all. Many elderly -people still remained who could remember Rome before _Venti Settembre_, -when the Cardinals drove in state down the Corso, and Pio Nono could be -seen taking his part in the processions of _Corpus Domini_ or _San -Giovanni_. Sentimentalists wept at the vandalisms of the Savoyards, who -had built a new city, all in squares and rectangles, on the heights of -the Esquiline, away from the sights and smells of Old Rome, had put up a -huge "Palace of Finance" to record their yearly deficits, and were now -cleaning up the Colosseum and the Forum, so that no æsthetic tourist -would ever wish to set foot in them again. - -Mrs. Ward heard plenty of this sort of talk from English friends, who -came out to see us at the Villa, but she, by the simple process of -falling in love, headlong, with Italy and the Italians, avoided these -pitfalls and was enabled to see with a far truer eye than they the -essential soundness of Italian life, whether in town or country--the new -ever jostling the old, rudely sometimes, but with the rudeness of life -and growth, and the old still influencing and encompassing all things. - - "Nothing could be worse than the state of things here between - Liberals and Clericals," she wrote to her son, "yet people seem to - rub along and will, I believe, go on rubbing along in much the same - way for many a long year. We read the _Tribuna_ and the _Civiltà - Cattolica_, which on opposite sides breathe fire and flame. But - life goes on and insensibly certain links grow up, even between the - two extremes. For instance, there is a certain priest in Rome, - rector of San Lorenzo in Lucina, who has started charitable work - rather on the English pattern--no indiscriminate alms, careful - inquiry, provision of work, exercise, recreation, country holidays, - etc., in fine 'Settlement' style. And his workers include people of - all beliefs or none--Jews even. But as he is perfectly correct in - doctrine and observance, and does not meddle with any disputed - points, he is let alone, and the experiment produces a quiet but - very real effect. Yesterday our _parroco_, Padre Ruelli, came to - see us here, an enchanting little man, with something of the old - maid and the child and the poet all combined. He recited to us - Leopardi, and explained some poems in Roman dialect, with an ease, - a vivacity, a perfect simplicity, that charmed us all. Then he - remembered his function, and before he left gave us a discourse on - charity, containing a quotation from the Gospels, largely invented - by himself, and so departed." - -As the weeks went on in our bare, wind-swept _palazzo_, it became -impossible to resist a community in which everyone, from Alessandro to -this dear _padre parroco_, combined to show us that we were not only -tolerated, but _welcomed_. Our Italian was sadly to seek during those -first weeks, consisting largely in agonized consultations with Nutt's -Pocket Dictionary, and in practising its phrases over with Alessandro; -but his courtesy and patience never failed, so that before long our -sentences began to put forth wings and soar. But never, alas, to any -great heights, and even when Mrs. Ward was able to carry on animated -conversations with our drivers about the traditions of the Alban Hills, -she would find herself sitting tongue-tied and exasperated, or -descending into French, at luncheon-parties in Rome! - -Yet those luncheon-parties, and the visits which we persuaded the new -friends, whom we made there, to pay us on our heights, laid the -foundations of certain friendships which influenced Mrs. Ward's whole -attitude towards the new Italy, and gave her the conviction, which she -never lost in the years that followed, that there exists between the -best English and the best Italian minds a certain natural affinity, -which transcends the differences of habits and of speech more surely -than is the case between ourselves and any other of our Continental -neighbours. She put this feeling into the mouth of her ideal Ambassador -in _Eleanor_--that slight but charming sketch which was, I believe, -based upon the figure of Lord Dufferin--when he speaks to the American -Lucy of the Marchesa Fazzoleni, symbol and type of Italian womanhood. -"Look well at her," he says to Lucy, "she is one of the mothers of the -new Italy. She has all the practical sense of the north, and all the -subtlety of the south. She is one of the people who make me feel that -Italy and England have somehow mysterious affinities that will work -themselves out in history. It seems to me that I could understand all -her thoughts--and she mine, if it were worth her while. She is a modern -of the moderns; and yet there is in her some of the oldest stuff in the -world. She belongs, it is true, to a nation in the making--but that -nation, in its earlier forms, has already carried the whole weight of -European history!" - -Figures such as these began, when the storms of an inhospitable April -had passed away, to haunt the cool ilex avenue and the terrace beyond, -filling Mrs. Ward's eager mind with new impressions, new perceptions of -the infinite variety and delightsomeness of the human race; and the old -walls of Domitian's villa re-echoed to many an animated talk of Pope and -Kingdom, Church and State, as well as to Lanciani's full-voiced -exclamations on the buried treasures--nay, even Alba Longa itself!--that -must lie at our feet there, only a few yards below the surface! Then, -once or twice, we took these guests of ours further afield, to the Lake -of Nemi, in its circular crater-cup--"Lo Specchio di Diana"--with the -ruined walls of the Temple of Diana rising amid their beds of -strawberries at its further end. This was indeed a place of enchantment, -and readers of _Eleanor_ will remember how the _motif_ of the "Priest -who slew the slayer" is woven into the fabric of the story, while the -turning-point in the drama of the three--Eleanor, Lucy and Manisty--is -reached during an expedition to the Temple. Here it was that Count Ugo -Balzani, best of friends and mentors, bought from the strawberry-pickers -for a few francs a whole basketful of little terra-cotta heads--votive -offerings of the Tiberian age--and gave them to Mrs. Ward; and here that -Henry James, during the few precious days that he spent with us at the -Villa, found the peasant youth with the glorious name, Aristodemo, and -set him talking of Lord Savile's diggings, and of the marble head that -he himself had found--yes, he!--with nose and all complete, in his own -garden, while the sun sank lower towards the crater-rim, and the rest of -us sat spell-bound, listening to the dialogue. - -Naturally, however, with Rome only fifteen miles away, we did not always -remain upon our hill-top, and the days that Mrs. Ward spent in the city, -making new friends and seeing old sights, were probably among the -richest in her whole experience. The great ceremony in St. Peter's, when -Leo XIII celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his accession, is -too well described in _Eleanor_ to need any mention here, but there were -days of mere wandering about the streets, shopping, exploring old -churches and talking to the sacristans, when she breathed the very -spirit of Rome and let its beauty sink into her soul. And there was one -day when a kind and condescending Cardinal--_not_ an Italian--offered to -take her over the crypt of St. Peter's--a privilege not then easy to -obtain for ladies--and to show her the treasures it contained. Little, -however, did the poor Cardinal guess what a task he had undertaken. "The -very kind Cardinal knew nothing whatever about the crypt, which was a -little sad," wrote D. W. that evening, and Mrs. Ward herself thus -described it to her husband: "It was very funny! The Cardinal was very -kind, and astonishingly ignorant. Any English Bishop going over St. -Peter's would, I think, have known more about it, would have been -certainly more intelligent and probably more learned. You would have -laughed if you could have seen your demure spouse listening to the -Cardinal's explanations. But I said not a word--and came home and read -Harnack!" A lamentable result, surely, of His Eminence's courteous -efforts to grapple with the tombs of the Popes. - -Through April, May, and half through June we stayed at the Villa, till -the sun grew burning hot, and we were fain to adopt the customs of the -country, keeping windows and shutters closed against the fierce mid-day. -During the hot weather Mrs. Ward made an excursion, for purposes of -_Eleanor_, to the wonderful forest-country in the valley of the Paglia, -north of Orvieto, where the Marchese di Torre Alfina, a nephew of Mr. -Stillman, had placed his agent's house at her disposal, and charged his -people to look after her. There, with her husband and daughter, she -spent two or three days exploring the forest roads and the volcanic -torrent-bed, down which the Paglia rushes, learning all she could of the -life and traditions of the village and of the Maremma country beyond. -It was a district wholly unknown to her and full of attraction and -romance, which she has infused into the last chapters of _Eleanor_; it -gave her, too, a feeling of the inexhaustible wealth of the Italian soil -and race which reinforced her growing love for this land of her -adoption. As the chapters of _Eleanor_ swelled during the remainder of -this year, so its theme took form and presence in the writer's mind--the -eternal theme of the supplanting of the old by the young, whether in the -history of States or of persons. Steadily Mrs. Ward's faith in the -destiny of that vast Italy into whose life she had looked, if only for a -moment, grew and strengthened, till she put it into words in the mouth -of her Marchesa Fazzoleni, speaking to a group gathered in the Villa -Borghese garden: "I tell you, Mademoiselle," she says to Lucy, "that -what Italy has done in forty years is colossal--not to be believed! -Forty years--not quite--since Cavour died. And all that time Italy has -been like that cauldron--you remember?--into which they threw the -members of that old man who was to become young. There has been a -bubbling, and a fermenting! And the scum has come up--and up. And it -comes up still, and the brewing goes on. But in the end the young, -strong nation will step forth!" And Manisty himself, the upholder of the -Old against the New, the contemner of Governments and officials, admits -at last that Italy has defeated him, because, as he confesses to Lucy, -"your Italy is a witch." "As I have been going up and down this -country," so runs his recantation, "prating about their poverty, and -their taxes, their corruption, the incompetence of their leaders, the -folly of their quarrel with the Church; I have been finding myself -caught in the grip of things older and deeper--incredibly, primævally -old!--that still dominate everything, shape everything here. There are -forces in Italy, forces of land and soil and race, only now fully let -loose, that will re-make Church no less than State, as the generations -go by. Sometimes I have felt as though this country were the youngest in -Europe; with a future as fresh and teeming as the future of America. And -yet one thinks of it at other times as one vast graveyard; so thick it -is with the ashes and the bones of men." - -Thus Mrs. Ward wove into her book, as was her wont, all the rich -experience of her own mind, as she had gathered and brooded over it -during these months in Italy, and then, when all was finished, gave to -it the prophetic dedication which has made her name beloved by many an -Italian reader: - - "To Italy the beloved and beautiful, - Instructress of our past, - Delight of our present, - Comrade of our future-- - The heart of an Englishwoman - Offers this book." - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE -SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL - -1899-1904 - - -In spite of the close and continuous toil that she put into the writing -of _Eleanor_ during the year 1899, Mrs. Ward found time, in the course -of that year, for an effort of literary criticism to which she devoted -the best powers of her mind, but which has never, perhaps, received the -recognition it deserves. I refer to the Prefaces that she wrote to -Messrs. Smith & Elder's "Haworth Edition" of the Brontë novels. - -Mrs. Ward had always had a peculiarly vivid feeling for the genius and -tragedy of the Brontë sisters, so that when Mr. George Smith asked her -in 1898 to undertake these Prefaces she felt it impossible to resist a -task not only attractive in itself, but presented to her in persuasive -phrase by "Dr. John." For it is by this time a commonplace of Brontë -lore that Lucy Snowe's first friend in the wilderness of Villette is no -other than the young publisher who had first recognized Charlotte's -greatness, though the situation between Lucy and Dr. John bears no -resemblance to the actual friendship that arose between Mr. George Smith -and his client. Still, the letters which Mr. Smith placed at Mrs. Ward's -disposal for this task were sufficiently interesting to arouse her -curiosity (one of them even described how Charlotte and he had gone -together to the celebrated phrenologist, Dr. Brown, to have their heads -examined!), and, taking her courage in both hands, she boldly asked him -whether he had ever been in love with Charlotte Brontë? His reply is -delightful as ever: - - -_August 18, 1898._ - - MY DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - -...I was amused at your questions. No, I never was in the least bit - in love with Charlotte Brontë. I am afraid that the confession will - not raise me in your opinion, but the truth is, I never could have - loved any woman who had not some charm or grace of person, and - Charlotte Brontë had none. I liked her and was interested by her, - and I admired her--especially when she was in Yorkshire and I was - in London. I never was coxcomb enough to suppose that she was in - love with me. But I believe that my mother was at one time rather - alarmed. - -So with much toil and in the intervals of her other work, Mrs. Ward -accomplished the four admirable Prefaces to Charlotte's novels, enjoying -this return to her old critical work of the eighties and becoming more -and more deeply possessed by the strange power of the Haworth sisters. -Then in the winter she took up _Wuthering Heights_ and _Wildfell Hall_, -writing her introduction to the former under a stress of feeling so -profound as to produce in her, for the first and last time since -childhood, the desire to express herself in verse. Early one January -morning she reached out for pencil and paper and wrote down this sonnet, -sending it afterwards to George Smith to deal with as he would. He -printed it in the _Cornhill Magazine_ of February, 1900. - - CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTË. - - Pale sisters! reared amid the purple sea - Of windy moorland, where, remote, ye plied - All household arts, meek, passion-taught, and free, - Kinship your joy, and Fantasy your guide!-- - Ah! who again 'mid English heaths shall see - Such strength in frailest weakness, or so fierce - Behest on tender women laid, to pierce - The world's dull ear with burning poetry?-- - Whence was your spell?--and at what magic spring, - Under what guardian Muse, drank ye so deep - That still ye call, and we are listening; - That still ye plain to us, and we must weep?-- - Ask of the winds that haunt the moors, what breath - Blows in their storms, outlasting life and death! - -Her introductions duly appeared in the bulky volumes of the Haworth -Edition, and there, unfortunately, they lie buried. The edition was -doomed by its unwieldy _format_, and since the copyright had already -disappeared, these "library volumes" were soon displaced by the lighter -and handier productions of less stately publishing firms. But the -Prefaces had made their mark. The literary world was delighted to -welcome Mrs. Ward again among the critics, with whom she had earned her -earliest successes, and passages such as the following, which gives her -view of the ultimate position of women novelists and women poets, were -much quoted and discussed: - - "What may be said to be the main secret, the central cause, not - only of Charlotte's success, but, generally, of the success of - women in fiction, during the present century? In other fields of - art they are still either relatively amateurs, or their - performance, however good, awakens a kindly surprise. Their - position is hardly assured; they are still on sufferance. Whereas - in fiction the great names of the past, within their own sphere, - are the equals of all the world, accepted, discussed, analysed, by - the masculine critic, with precisely the same keenness and under - the same canons as he applies to Thackeray or Stevenson, to Balzac - or Loti. - - "The reason, perhaps, lies first in the fact that, whereas in all - other arts they are comparatively novices and strangers, having - still to find out the best way in which to appropriate traditions - and methods not created by women, in the art of speech, elegant, - fitting, familiar speech, women are and have long been at home. - They have practised it for generations, they have contributed - largely to its development. The arts of society and of - letter-writing pass naturally into the art of the novel. Madame de - Sévigné and Madame du Deffand are the precursors of George Sand; - they lay her foundations, and make her work possible. In the case - of poetry, one might imagine, a similar process is going on, but it - is not so far advanced. In proportion, however, as women's life and - culture widen, as the points of contact between them and the - manifold world multiply and develop, will Parnassus open before - them. At present those delicate and noble women who have entered - there look still a little strange to us. Mrs. Browning, George - Eliot, Emily Brontë, Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore--it is as though - they had wrested something that did not belong to them, by a kind - of splendid violence. As a rule, so far, women have been poets in - and through the novel--Cowper-like poets of the common life like - Miss Austen, or Mrs. Gaskell, or Mrs. Oliphant; Lucretian or - Virgilian observers of the many-coloured web like George Eliot, or, - in some phases, George Sand; romantic or lyrical artists like - George Sand again, or like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Here no one - questions their citizenship; no one is astonished by the place they - hold; they are here among the recognized masters of those who know. - - "Why? For, after all, women's range of material, even in the novel, - is necessarily limited. There are a hundred subjects and - experiences from which their mere sex debars them. Which is all - very true, but not to the point. For the one subject which they - have eternally at command, which is interesting to all the world, - and whereof large tracts are naturally and wholly their own, is the - subject of love--love of many kinds indeed, but pre-eminently the - love between man and woman. And being already free of the art and - tradition of words, their position in the novel is a strong one, - and their future probably very great." - -She sent her Prefaces to a few intimate friends, turning in this case -chiefly to those French friends who represented for her the ultimate -tribunal in literary matters. The older generation--Scherer, Taine, -Renan--were passing away by this time, but a younger had followed them, -of whom Paul Bourget, Brunetière of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, the -Gaston Paris, the Ribots, the Boutmys were among those whom Mrs. Ward -would always seek out during her almost annual visits to Paris in these -years. But among all her French acquaintance she came about this time to -regard M. André Chevrillon, nephew of Taine, traveller and generous -critic of English politics and literature, as the most sympathetic, for -he seemed to combine with an almost miraculous knowledge of English the -very essence of that _esprit français_ which she continued to adore to -the end of her life. He had first visited Mrs. Ward at Haslemere in -1891, as a "young French student lost in London," and he happened to be -with us at Stocks at the time of the publication of the Haworth Edition -(1900). A few days later Mrs. Ward received the following appreciation -from him: - - -MADAME,-- - - Je désire tout de suite vous remercier de votre gracieux accueil et - de la bonne journée que j'ai passée à Tring, mais je voudrais - surtout essayer de vous dire un peu l'impression, l'émotion durable - et qui me poursuit ici--que m'a donnée la lecture de vos admirables - articles sur les Brontë. Je n'ai pas su le faire tandis que j'étais - auprès de vous; ce n'est que ce matin que j'ai lu l'article sur - Charlotte et Jane Eyre et j'en suis encore tout hanté. Jamais âmes - de poètes et d'artistes n'ont été sondées d'un coup d'Å“il plus - pénétrant, plus rapide, plus exercé et plus sûr. Vous avez su, en - quelques pages, montrer l'irréductible personnalité de ces âpres et - douloureuses jeunes femmes en même temps que vous expliquiez les - traits qui chez elles sont ethniques et généraux, la tendre, la - nostalgique âme celtique, farouchement repliée sur soi avec ses - pressentiments, ses divinisations magiques, sa faculté d'apercevoir - dans les couleurs du ciel, dans les formes et les lignes que - présente çà et là la nature des _signes_ chargés de sens mystérieux - et profond.... Enfin le dernier paragraphe où vous mettez Charlotte - à sa place dans la littérature européenne nous rappelle la sûre - _scholarship_, la puissance de généralisation auxquelles vous nous - avez habitués, la faculté philosophique qui aperçoit _les idées_ - comme des forces vivantes, dramatiques qui se croisent, se - combattent, moulent et façonnent les hommes, et sont les plus - vraies des réalités. - -M. Chevrillon shared, I think, with M. Jusserand and with M. Elie Halévy -the distinction of being the most profound and sympathetic among French -students of England at that time; all three were firm friends of Mrs. -Ward's, all charmed her into envious despair by their perfect command of -our language. M. Jusserand--who as a young man on the staff of the -French Embassy had been a constant visitor at Russell Square--would dash -off such notes as this: "Dear Mrs. Ward--Are you in town, or rather what -town is it you are in?" and now in this matter of the Brontë Prefaces he -wrote her his terrible confession: - - "I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay. - Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar - experience? I could never go beyond the terrible beginning of - _Shirley_--and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains - unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but - to Lady Jersey, who charged me to return it when I had finished - reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on - several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise - Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and - visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table - its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of - repulsive persons within. And yet I _can_ read. I have read with - delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of - Parliament, without missing a line. _Shirley_, I cannot. I must try - again, were it only for the sake of the editor of the series!" - -But in spite of these warm and in many cases lifelong friendships, Mrs. -Ward did not find the French atmosphere an easy one in such a year as -1900. The South African War had followed on the Dreyfus Case, the -Dreyfus Case on Fashoda, and the ties of friendship suffered an unkindly -strain. Mrs. Ward spent a few spring weeks in Rome, where all was golden -and delightful--forming new friendships every day, and passing into that -second stage of intimacy where first impressions are tested and were -not, for her, found wanting; then on the way home she lingered a little -in Paris, plunging into the gay confusions of the Great Exhibition. Her -literary friends offered her attentions and hospitalities as of old, but -she felt at once the difference of atmosphere, describing it vividly in -a letter to her brother Willie: - - -"PARIS, -"_May 16, 1900_. - - "We have had a delicious time in Rome, Dorothy and I, and now Paris - and the Exhibition are interesting and stimulating, but are not - Rome! I have come back more Italy-bewitched than ever. Rome was - bathed in the most glorious sunshine. Every breath was - life-giving--everything one saw was beauty. And the people are so - kind, so clever, so friendly--so different from this _France - malveillante_, between whom and us as it seems to me, Fashoda, - Dreyfus and the Transvaal have opened a gulf that it will take a - generation to fill. In Rome we saw many people and I had much - conversation that will be of use for the revision of _Eleanor_. The - country is progressing enormously, the _Anno Santo_ is a - comparative failure, and the Jesuit hatred of England flourishes - and abounds. The Harcourts were there and I had much talk with Sir - William about politics and much else. He is very broken in health, - but as amusing as ever. With him and Father Ehrle we went one - morning through the show treasures of the Vatican, turned over and - handled the Codex Vaticanus, the Michael Angelo letters, the - wonderful illuminated Dante and much else. One day with two friends - D. and I went to Viterbo, slept, and next day saw the two - Cinquecento villas, the Villa Lante and Caprarola. Caprarola was a - wonderful experience. Ten miles' drive into the mountains along a - ridge 3,000 feet high, commanding on one side the Lake of Vico, on - the other the whole valley of the Tiber from Assisi to Palestrina, - with Soracte in the middle distance, and the great rampart of the - Sabines half in snow and girdled with cloud. Between us and the - plain, slopes of chestnut and vine, and on either side of the road - delicious inlets of grass, starred thick with narcissus, running up - into continents of broom that by now must be all gold. Then the - great pentagonal palace of Caprarola, gloomy, magnificent, in an - incomparable position, frescoed inside from top to toe by the - Zuccheri, and containing in its great sala a series of portrait - groups of Charles V, Francis I, Henry II, Philip II, of the - greatest possible animation and brilliancy, and in almost perfect - preservation." - -After such delights the atmosphere of Paris must indeed have seemed -cold, but Mrs. Ward could always see the other side of such a -controversy, and took pleasure in reporting to her father a conversation -she had had, while in Paris, with "a charming old man, formerly -secretary of the Duc D'Aumale, and now curator of the Chantilly Museum." - - "We had," she wrote, "a very interesting talk about the War and - Dreyfus. 'Oh! I am all with the English,' he said--'they could not - let that state of things in the Transvaal continue--the struggle - was inevitable. But then I have lived in England. I love England, - and English people, and can look at matters calmly. As to the - treatment of English people in Paris, remember, Madame, that we are - just now a restless and discontented people. We are a disappointed - people--we have lost our great position in the world, and we don't - see how to get it back. That makes us rude and bitter. And then our - griefs against England go back to the Crimea. The English officers - then made themselves disliked--and in the great war of 1870, you - were not sympathetic--we thought you might have done something for - us, and you did nothing. Then you were much too violent about the - _Affaire_. The first trial was abominable, but by the second trial - we stand, we the _modérés_ who think ourselves honest fellows. But - you made no difference. The Press of both countries has done great - harm. All that explains the present state of things. It is not the - Boers--that is mainly a pretext, an opportunity." - -It is perhaps a curious fact that while German learning and German -methods of historical criticism had compelled Mrs. Ward's admiration -from her earliest years, no crop of personal friendships with Germans -had sprung from these sowings, as in the case of her French studies and -her Italian sojournings. Dear, homely German governesses were almost the -only children of the Fatherland with whom she had personal contact, her -relations with certain Biblical scholars and with the translators and -publishers of her books being confined to pen and ink. But there was one -German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy correspondence--Dr. -Adolf Jülicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on the New Testament -she presented one day, in a moment of enthusiasm, to her younger -daughter (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should translate it into -English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the best part of the -next three years to the task--only to find, when the work was all but -finished, that the German professor had in the meantime brought out a -new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of additional matter. -Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for it: the additional -100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs. Ward herself seized on the -proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; little indeed was left -of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time the process was -complete. In vain we would point out to her that this was the "Lower -Criticism" and therefore unworthy of her serious attention; she would -merely make a face at us and plunge with ardour--perhaps after a heavy -day of writing--into the delightful task of defacing poor Mr. Reginald -Smith's clean page-proofs. For these were the days when Mr. Reginald had -practically taken over the business of Smith & Elder's from his -father-in-law, George Smith, and one of the diversions that he allowed -himself was to print Mrs. Ward's daughter's translation free of all -profit to the firm. The profits, indeed, if any, were to go in full to -the translator, but naturally the expenses of proof-correction stood on -the debit side of the account. Hence the anxiety of the person who had -once been seventeen whenever Mrs. Ward had had a particularly energetic -day with the proofs of Jülicher! - -_Eleanor_ had had a triumphal progress in the monthly numbers of -_Harper's Magazine_ throughout this year (1900), and appeared at length -in book-form on November 1. Mrs. Ward's pleasure in its reception was -much enhanced by the warm appreciation given to Mr. Albert Sterner's -illustrations--clever and charming drawings, which had wonderfully -caught the spirit of her characters and of the Italian scene, for Mr. -Sterner had spent two or three weeks with us at the Villa Barberini. He -and Mrs. Ward were fast friends, and it was always a matter of real -delight to her whenever he could be secured to illustrate one of her -subsequent novels. This was to be the case with _William Ashe_, -_Fenwick's Career_ and _The Case of Richard Meynell_. The publication of -_Eleanor_ coincided, however, with news of Mr. Arnold's serious illness -in Dublin, so that the chorus of delight in her "Italian novel" reached -Mrs. Ward's ears muffled by the presence of death. - -Thomas Arnold died on November 12, 1900, tended to the last by his -surviving children, and by the devoted second wife (Miss Josephine -Benison), whom he had married in 1889. Mrs. Ward's affection for him had -never wavered throughout these many years, as the letters which she -wrote him about all her doings, once or even twice in every week, attest -to this day; his mystical, child-like spirit attracted her invincibly. -Three days after his death she wrote to Bishop Creighton, over whom the -same summons was already hovering: - - -_November 15, 1900._ - -MY DEAR BISHOP,-- - - Many, many thanks. It was very dear of you to write to me, - especially at this time of illness, and I prize much all that you - say. My father's was a rare and _hidden_ nature. Among his papers - that have now come to me I have come across the most touching and - remarkable things--things that are a revelation even to his - children. The service yesterday in Newman's beautiful little - University Church, the early mass, the bright morning light on the - procession of friends and clergy through the cypress-lined paths of - Glasnevin, the last 'requiescat in pace,' answered by the Amen of - the little crowd--all made a fitting close to his gentle and - laborious life. He did not suffer much, I am thankful to say, and - he knew that we were all round him and smiled upon us to the last. - -And he on his side regarded her with an adoring affection that sometimes -found touching expression in his letters, as when, a few months after -the publication of _David Grieve_, he broke out in these words: - - "My own dearest Polly (let me call you for once what I often called - you when a child), God made you what you are, and those who love - you will be content to leave you to Him. He gave you that - wide-flashing, swiftly-combining wit, 'glancing from heaven to - earth, from earth to heaven'; He gave you also the power of turning - your thoughts, with deft and felicitous hand, into forms of beauty. - No one can divine what new problems will occupy you in time to - come, nor how you will solve them; but one may feel sure that with - you, as Emerson says, 'the future will be worthy of the past.'" - -Yet there was hardly a public question, especially in his later years, -on which Mrs. Ward and her father did not differ profoundly; for Tom -Arnold hated "Imperialism" and the modern world, especially such -manifestations of it as the Omdurman campaign and the South African War. -Mrs. Ward, on the other hand, watched the former with all the pride and -dread that comes from a personal stake in the adventure; for was not -Colonel Neville Lyttelton in command of a brigade, and had he not left -his wife and children under our care at Stocks Cottage? She had found a -task for Mrs. Lyttelton's quick mind, to while away the too-long hours -of that summer, in a translation into English of the "Pensées" of -Joubert; their consultations over the fine shades of his meaning, while -the bees hummed in the lime-tree on the lawn, became the light and -relaxation of her days, while, later on, the Introduction she -contributed to the book helped its appearance with the public. And when -Colonel Lyttelton came home, a happy soldier, and pegged out the -Omdurman campaign for us on the drawing-room floor with matches, how was -it possible not to rejoice with him in the overthrow of so dark a -tyranny as the Khalifa's? - -But the South African War was a matter of far more mingled feelings, -though on the whole Mrs. Ward was persuaded that we were right as -against President Kruger and his methods, and upheld this view in many a -letter to her father: - - "I am not without sympathy for the Boers," she wrote to him in - November, 1899, "and I often try to realize their case and how the - invasive unwelcome English power looks to them. But it seems to me - that history--which for me is God--makes very stern decisions - between nations. The Boers have had their chance of an ascendancy - which must have been theirs if they had known how to work for it - and deserve it; they have missed it, and the chance now passes to - England. If she is not worthy of it, it won't remain with her--that - one may be sure. But I must say that the loyalty of the other - colonies--especially of French-speaking Canada; the pacification - and good government of India, the noble development of Egypt, are - to me so many signs that at present we _are_ fit to rule, and are - meant to rule. But we shall rule only so long as we execute - righteous judgment and so long as it is for the good of the world - that we should rule." - -She would have liked to see peace made after Lord Roberts' early -victories, and was for a time in favour of such terms as would not have -involved annexation. But when this hope failed she settled down to -endure the thing, and in 1901 devoted much time and labour to the -improvement of the Boer women's and children's lot in the concentration -camps. She joined the committee of the Victoria League formed for this -purpose. And, as inevitably happens in all such controversies, the -passion felt by the other side contributed to the hardening of her own -opinion, so that the end of the war found her more staunch an -Imperialist, more definite a Conservative, than she would have admitted -herself to be before it. - -It was during the war-shadowed winter of 1900-1901 that Mrs. Ward -suffered a series of heavy personal losses in the death of many of her -oldest friends, beginning with Mr. James Cropper, of Ellergreen, her -quasi-uncle,[21] with whom she had been on the most affectionate terms -ever since her childhood. This occurred a bare month before her father's -death; then, two months later (January 14, 1901), came the blow that the -whole country felt as a catastrophe, the death of Bishop Creighton, and, -early in April, a loss that came home very sadly to Mrs. Ward, that of -her well-beloved publisher and friend, George Smith. "I never had a -truer friend or a wiser counsellor," she wrote of him, and indeed he -combined these qualities with so shrewd a humour and so unvarying a -kindness that Mrs. Ward might well count herself fortunate to have -enjoyed fourteen years of familiar intercourse with him. - - "His position as a publisher was very remarkable," she wrote to her - son. "He was the friend of his authors, their counsellor, banker - and domestic providence often--as Murray was to Byron. But nobody - would ever have dared to take the liberties with him that Byron did - with Murray." - -When he was gone, Mrs. Ward was fortunate enough to find in his -successor, Reginald Smith, an equally just and generous adviser, on -whose friendship she leant more and more until death took him too, in -the tragic winter of 1916. - - * * * * * - -The remarkable success of _Eleanor_ in the United States (where the -character of Lucy Foster won all hearts) led to inquiries being made -from certain theatrical quarters there as to whether Mrs. Ward would not -undertake to dramatize it. The suggestion attracted her at once, for -though she had never written anything for the stage she had, all her -life, been a keenly interested critic of plays and actors and a devoted -adherent of French methods as against the heavy English stage -conventions. But when she seriously confronted the problem she felt -herself too ignorant of stagecraft to undertake the task unaided, and -therefore called in to her counsels that delightful writer of light -comedy, Julian Sturgis, whom she persuaded to collaborate with her. -Could she have foreseen the play's delays, the insolence of box offices -and the manifold despairs that awaited her in this new path, probably -even her high courage would have turned aside, but the co-operation it -brought her with so rare a spirit as Julian Sturgis was at any rate a -very living compensation. In the spring of 1901 Mr. Sturgis came out to -stay with us in a villa we had taken (on the spur of the moment) on the -outskirts of Rapallo (not then celebrated as the scene of international -"pacts"), and together he and his hostess plunged with ardour into the -business of making their puppets move. The work was extraordinarily -hard, while the skies above our crimson villa behaved as though it were -Westmorland and the Mediterranean thundered on the sea-wall of our -garden; but Mrs. Ward enjoyed the stimulus and novelty of it immensely -and always declared that she owed much even for her novelist's art to -that week of "grind" with Mr. Sturgis. Nor was it quite all grind, for -one day, when the sun at last shone, we took our guest and his tall Eton -boy up the long pilgrimage-way to the Madonna di Montallegro, overtaking -a party of laden peasant-women as we went to whom Mr. Sturgis offered -some passing kindness. His advances were met by a torrent of words in -some uncouth dialect which none of us could understand, but he chose to -appropriate them to himself as a prayer offered to "Santo Giulio," and -"Santo Giulio" he remained to Mrs. Ward and all of us for the too-short -remnant of his life.[22] The play stood up and lived by the time his -visit was ended; but this was only the beginning of endless heartaches -and disappointments. At first there were hopes of the Duse, then of Mrs. -Pat; then Mr. Benson was to produce it with a clever and charming -amateur actress of our acquaintance in the role of Eleanor; then at -length a real promise was secured from a well-known actor-manager, and -all was fixed for May, 1902. But the promise was not an agreement, and -was therefore mortal; when it died Mr. Sturgis's only comment was: "My -dear Mrs. Ward, I am not a bit surprised. My deep distrust of the -theatrical world, wherein pretending gets into the blood, makes me -sceptical of any promises which are not stamped, signed and witnessed by -a legion of angels." - -Already, however, Miss Marion Terry, Miss Robins and Miss Lilian -Braithwaite had promised in no spirit of "pretending" to play the three -principal parts, so that with things so well advanced on that side Mrs. -Ward determined to go forward. Since the managers were timid she would -take a theatre and bear the risk herself. Finally all was settled with -the Court Theatre, and the delightful agony of the rehearsals began -(October, 1902). Miss Terry sprained a tendon in her leg, but gallantly -limped through her part, while the constant changes called for in the -words, the cuts and compressions, made a bewildering variety of versions -that left the lay onlooker gasping. Mrs. Ward, however, was equal to all -occasions--even to a last-minute change in the actor who played -Manisty[23]--until not one of the cast but was moved to astonishment and -admiration, not only by her versatility, but by her long-suffering. Add -to this her endless consideration for themselves--for their comfort, -their feelings or their clothes--and it is easy to understand the -feelings of real affection which grew up between author and actors as -the play went on. Yet all was of no avail, or, at least, it failed to -conquer the great heart of the British public. The cast was admirable, -the reviews were kind--though Mr. Walkley in _The Times_ perhaps gave -the key to the situation when he ended his article with the words, "But -then, who _could_ play Manisty?" Yet, somehow, the audience (after the -first day) failed to fill the seats. _Eleanor_ ran for only fifteen -matinées, October 30-November 15, and though much was said of a -revival, she only once again saw the footlights--in a couple of special -matinées given in aid of the Passmore Edwards Settlement. And yet--what -fun it had been! Though the financial loss made her rueful, Mrs. Ward -always looked back to those six weeks at the Court Theatre as a -breathless but happy episode, during which she had looked deep into the -technique of a new art and brought from it, not success indeed, but much -valuable experience which she might bring to bear upon her future work. -Certainly the two novels of these years, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and the -_Marriage of William Ashe_, gained much in sureness of touch, terseness -and finish from Mrs. Ward's dramatic studies; _Lady Rose_ was in fact -acclaimed by the critics as the book in which, at last, the writer -showed "the predominance of the artistic over the ethical instinct, the -subordination of the didactic to the artistic impulse." - -She never dramatized it, but a dramatized version of _William Ashe_, at -which Mrs. Ward toiled extremely hard, in collaboration with Miss -Margaret Mayo, during 1905, was accepted by an American "stock company" -and acquired a considerable reputation in the States. In London, -however, where it was performed by a semi-American cast in 1908, it fell -very flat, Mrs. Ward being fortunately spared the sight of it owing to -the fact that she herself was across the Atlantic at the time. The -actress who played Kitty, wishing to leave the author in no doubt as to -the cause of its failure, cabled to her after the first night, "Press -unfriendly to play--_my_ performance highly praised!" Even so, however, -the Manager decided to withdraw it after a three weeks' run, and no play -of Mrs. Ward's was ever afterwards performed in England. - -Among the most absorbed spectators of the first performance of -_Eleanor_, watching it from an arm-chair brought for his ease into the -author's box, was the pathetic figure of Mrs. Ward's eldest brother, -William Arnold. His health had broken down some years before, while he -was still assistant editor of the _Manchester Guardian_, and he had come -to live, with his wife, in a small house in Chelsea, where it was Mrs. -Ward's delight to find him, on his better days, and to discuss all -things in heaven and earth with him. No comradeship could ever have been -closer than was theirs, though intercourse with him would always end in -a strangling heartache for his state of health, for noble gifts -submerged by bodily pain, despite as gallant a fight as was ever waged -by suffering man. Mrs. Ward was for ever watching over him and helping -him; sending him abroad in search of sun and warmth; having him to stay -with her at Stocks, in London, or at some villa in Italy; encouraging -him to do what work he could. But most they loved their talks together. -Their tastes would usually agree on literary matters, and differ on -politics, but no matter what the subject, his flashes of mischief and -malice would light up the most ordinary topic, and no one loved better -to draw him out, and to set him railing or praising, than his sister. -How they would talk, sometimes, about the details of her craft, about -Jane Austen, or Trollope, or George Meredith! For this latter they both -had a feeling akin to adoration, based on a knowledge not only of his -novels but of his poems (then not a common accomplishment); and I -remember W. T. A. once saying to me that he thought the jolliest line in -English poetry was - - Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose. - -Mrs. Ward's feeling for the old giant of Box Hill led her on all -occasions to champion his right to be regarded as the greatest living -master of English--as may be seen from the following spirited letter -(January 19, 1902) addressed to the secretary of the Society of Authors, -when that body had, in her view, made the wrong decision in recommending -Herbert Spencer instead of Meredith for the Nobel Prize. - - "However eminent Mr. Spencer may be" (she wrote), "and however - important his contribution to English thought, there must be a - great many of us who will feel, when it is a question of - interrogating English opinion as to the most distinguished name - among us in pure literature, there can be only one answer--George - Meredith. It is no reply to say that the Swedish Academy will - probably know something of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and may know little - or nothing about Mr. Meredith. That is their affair, not ours. The - meaning and purpose of this prize has been illustrated by the - selection of M. Sully Prud'homme. Its recipient should be surely, - first and foremost, a man of letters, and, if possible, a - representative of what the Germans call 'Dichtung,' whether in - prose or verse. - - "If Mr. Meredith had written nothing but the love-scenes in - _Richard Feverel_; _The Egoist_; and certain passages of - description in _Vittoria_ and _Beauchamp's Career_, he would still - stand at the head of English 'Dichtung.' There is no critic now who - can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of - letters he is easily first; to compare Mr. Spencer's power of clear - statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be - absurd--in the literary field. And this is or should be a literary - award. - - "I trust that in writing thus I shall not be misunderstood. I am - not venturing to dispute Mr. Spencer's great position in the - history of English thought--I have neither the wish nor the - capacity for anything of the kind. But to be the philosopher of - evolution is one thing; to be our first man of letters is another. - I would submit that English opinion is asked to point out our most - distinguished man of letters, and that if we cannot unanimously say - 'George Meredith!' we are not worthy that Genius should come among - us at all." - -But only two years after this outburst (which I feel sure she showed -him) her comradeship with "Will" ended for ever, and his sufferings -ceased. He died on May 29, 1904.[24] - - * * * * * - -About the same time as she lost her beloved brother, Mrs. Ward acquired -a new member of the family in the person of her son-in-law, George -Macaulay Trevelyan, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. He and her younger -daughter became engaged at the Villa Bonaventura, Cadenabbia--which Mrs. -Ward had taken from Mr. Alfred Trench--in May, 1903--and ten months -later they were married at Oxford. Mrs. Ward soon became much devoted to -her son-in-law, whose ardent faiths and non-faiths challenged and -stimulated her, bringing her into touch with movements of thought that -ran parallel to, but had not yet mingled with, her own belief in a more -reasonable Christianity. The walls of her room at Stocks would re-echo, -during his visits, with the most fundamental discussions! Mr. -Chamberlain, too, was a disturbing element in those days, with his -Tariff Reform campaign, for what was Mrs. Ward to do when her son took -one side and her son-in-law the other--and when, moreover, her own -well-trained mind was perfectly capable of understanding the arguments -of each? But whatever the subject of these discussions, whether politics -or religion, they only served to increase the affection between the two, -which grew and deepened with every turn of fortune that the years might -bring. - -It is perhaps interesting to speculate what might have been the -development of Mrs. Ward's powers if her intellect had never been -captured by the dramatic spell, and if other sides of that -"wide-flashing" mind had been allowed to work themselves out unchecked. -For in the lull that followed the completion of _Eleanor_ she had -conceived the writing of a "Life of Christ" based on such a -re-interpretation of the Gospel story as she believed had been made -possible by the research of the last half-century. She brooded much over -this theme and even discussed it with her publishers. But whether it was -that her continued ill-health made her shrink from the heavy toil -involved by such a task--the re-reading and collating of all her -Germans, the study of an infinite amount of fresh material, and probably -a journey to Palestine--or whether the practical side of Christianity -had by now absorbed too large a share of her time and her powers, the -project never came to fruition, though it never ceased to attract her. - - * * * * * - -And indeed, Mrs. Ward's practical adventures in well-doing during these -years would have been enough to fill the lives of any three ordinary -individuals, without any such diversions as the writing of novels or the -hammering out of plays. The affairs of the Settlement were always on her -shoulders, not only as regards the financial burden of its maintenance, -but in all the personal questions that inevitably arose in such a busy -hive of humanity. If the nurse of the Invalid School had words with the -porter, the case was sure to come up to her for judgment, while any -misdemeanour among the young people themselves who frequented the -building would cause her the most anxious searchings of heart. But "it -does not do to start things and then let them drift," as she wrote in -these days to one of us, and she continued to cherish the Settlement, to -support the Warden (Mr. Tatton) in his difficulties and to beg for -money, with an extraordinary vitality as well as an extraordinary -patience. Yet in spite of all, the Settlement was far more of joy to her -than of burden, and on its children's side it never ceased to be pure -joy from the beginning. For was it not always possible to devise new -ways of making the children happy, as well as to continue the old? The -principal way in which Mrs. Ward's work extended itself at this time was -in the opening of the "Vacation School," designed to bring in from the -streets in large numbers the children left stranded during the August -holiday,--and if anyone will take the trouble to wander through the back -streets during that happy season, and to note what he sees, there will -be little doubt in his mind that such a school must be a real -deliverance. Mrs. Ward had taken the idea from an account by Mr. Henry -Curtis in _Harper's Magazine_ (early in 1902) of the first schools of -the kind started in New York, and her mind had at once grasped the -possibilities of such a scheme. There stood the Settlement with its fine -shady garden in the rear, empty and dumb through the holidays: surely it -would be a sin not to use it! - -She collected a special fund from a few old friends of the Settlement, -appointed an admirable director in the person of Mr. E. G. Holland, an -assistant master at the Highgate Secondary School, enlisted the help of -all the schools around to send us such children only as had no chance of -a country holiday, and then issued invitations to some 750, divided into -two batches, morning and afternoon. The result was an orderly and -delighted crowd which, owing to Miss Churcher's and Mr. Holland's -faultless organization, moved from class to class and from garden to -building without the smallest hitch, played and dug in the "waste -ground" beyond the garden, specially thrown open to the school by the -Duke of Bedford, and when rain came marched into the building and filled -its basement rooms and the pleasant library and class-rooms without any -confusion or squabbling. The occupations were much the same as those -already in use for the "Recreation School," and never failed to attract -and then to keep the children; while the spirit of good fellowship that -the atmosphere of the school engendered had a marked effect on their -manners as the four weeks of the school passed away. Here is Mrs. Ward's -own account of the contrast presented by the children as they were in -the Vacation School and as they could not help being in a mean street -only half a mile away:[25] - - "Last week a lady interested in the school was passing through one - of the slum streets to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Much good - work has been done there by many agencies. But in August most of - the workers are away. Dirty, ragged, fighting or querulous children - covered the pavement, or seemed to be bursting out of the grimy - houses. The street was filthy, the clothes of the children to - match. There was no occupation; the little souls were given up to - 'the weight of chance desires'; and whatever happiness there was - must have been of rather a perilous sort. The same spectator passed - on, and half a mile eastward entered the settlement building in - Tavistock Place. Here were nearly 300 children (the children of the - Evening Session), divided between house and garden, many of them - from quarters quite as poor as those she had just traversed. But - all was order, friendliness and enjoyment. Every child was clean - and neat, though the clothes might be poor; if a boy brushed past - the visitor, it would be with a pleasant 'Excuse me, Miss'; in the - manual training-room boys looked up from the benches with glee to - show the models they had made; the drawing-room of the settlement - was full of little ones busy with the unfamiliar delights of brush - or pencil; in the library boys were sitting hunched up over - _Masterman Ready_, or the ever-adored _Robinson Crusoe_; girls were - deep in _Anderson's Fairy Tales_ or _The Cuckoo Clock_, the little - ones were reading Mr. Stead's _Books for the Bairns_ or looking at - pictures; outside in the garden under the trees clay modelling and - kindergarten games were going on, while the sand-pit was crowded - with children enjoying themselves heartily without either shouting - or fighting. Meanwhile in the big hall parents were thronging in to - see the musical drill, the dancing or the acting, or to listen to - the singing; the fathers as proud as the mothers that Willie was - 'in the Shakespeare,' or Nellie 'in the Gavotte.' The visitor had - only to watch to see that the teachers were obeyed at a word, at a - glance, and that the children loved to obey. Everywhere was - discipline, good temper, pleasure. And next day the school broke up - with the joining of 600 voices in the old hymn 'O God, our help in - ages past.' Surely no contrast could be more complete." - -And in conclusion Mrs. Ward made her characteristic appeal: - - "Shall we not enter seriously on the movement and call on our - public authorities to take it up? Who can doubt the need of it, - even when all allowance is made for country holidays of all sorts? - Extend and develop country holidays as you will, London in the - summer vacation month will never be without its hundreds of - thousands of children for whom these Vacation Schools, properly - managed, would be almost a boon of fairyland." - -The Vacation School had indeed been watched with much interest by the -London School Board, which had also co-operated by the lending of -furniture and "stock," but the transference of its powers to the London -County Council made a bad atmosphere, just at this time, for the -adoption of new experiments, and the new "London Education Authority" -which arose in 1903 was only too glad to leave the carrying-on of the -Settlement Vacation School to Mrs. Ward. Every year it seemed to -increase in popularity. Mr. Holland remained director for thirteen -consecutive Augusts (1902-1914); the numbers of the school rose to 1,000 -per day in later years, when an additional building became available, -and Mrs. Ward could have no greater pleasure, when the pressure of her -literary work permitted, than to come up from Stocks for a day to watch -her holiday children. But in spite of the universally recognized success -of her experiment, this and the "Holiday School" organized by the -Browning Settlement from 1904 onwards remained practically the only -efforts of the kind carried on in London, until at length, in 1910, the -L.C.C. followed suit by opening six Vacation Schools in different parts -of the metropolis, housed in the ordinary school buildings and -playgrounds. They were an enormous boon to the children of those -districts, but the Council did not persist in its good deeds, for after -two years these Holiday Schools were allowed to drop, and have never, -unfortunately, been revived. Indeed, in June, 1921, a resolution was -passed, prohibiting any expenditure on Holiday Schools or Organized -Playgrounds. So does the London child pay its share of the War Debt. - -But the Vacation School at the Settlement has never lapsed, since the -first day that Mrs. Ward opened it in August, 1902, although in these -times of forced economy the numbers are less than of old. But there, -under the great plane-trees in the garden, the trestle-tables are still -set up and the children still congregate, bearing their laughing -testimony to the memory of one who knew their little hearts, and who, -seeing them shepherdless in the hot streets, could not rest until they -were gathered in. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES - -1904-1917 - - -Both _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and _The Marriage of William Ashe_, which -appeared in 1903 and 1905 respectively, are novels of London life, -reflecting in their minor characters, their talk and the incidents that -accompany the tale, that intimate aquaintance with the world of London -which Mrs. Ward had acquired during the many years that she had spent in -observing it, in working with it, and in sharing some of the rarer forms -of the rewards which it has to give. The central theme in each case is a -broadly human one, but the setting and the savour are those of -London--that all-devouring London which she loved so well, but from -which, after a few weeks of its turmoil, she was always so thankful to -escape. It was now twenty years and more since she and Mr. Ward had come -to live in the pretty old house in Russell Square where they had first -gathered their friends around them, and where her Thursdays had first -become an institution; but time had not dimmed her zest for friendship -and for talk, so that the Thursdays and the frequent dinner-parties -continued at Grosvenor Place through all the years that followed. She -would never have claimed that they amounted to a _salon_, for, in spite -of _Lady Rose's Daughter_, her belief was that a _salon_, properly -so-called, was not in the English tradition, and could hardly survive -outside Paris; yet I think that if one had taken the opinion of those -who frequented them they would have said that Mrs. Ward's afternoons or -evenings made a remarkable English equivalent. She herself did not -disguise the fact that she regarded good talk as an art, and enjoyed -nothing more than the play of mind on mind and the quick thrust and -parry that occasionally sweeps across a dinner-table; but she had no -illusions as to the natural inaptitude of the English for the art, and -would often quote the exasperated remark of her great friend in Rome, -Contessa Maria Pasolini, after an evening spent in entertaining English -visitors: "You English, you need so much winding up! Now, if I were -merely to tear up a piece of paper and throw it down among my French -friends, they would talk about it delightfully all the evening!" Hence -her injunctions to her children, when they began to take wing and go -forth to "social junketings" of their own, not to be stuck-up or blasé, -and above all "not to sit like a stuck pig when you get there!" To exert -one's wits to make a party go was part of one's social duty, just as -much as handing the tea-cake or opening the door, and she herself, in -spite of a natural absence of small talk which made her formidable -sometimes to new acquaintances, would faithfully follow her own -precepts. But with her the effort was second nature, for it sprang from -her inborn desire to place herself in sympathetic relations with her -neighbour, to draw out the best in him, to set him going. And so the -talk that was heard at Grosvenor Place, whether at her small -luncheon-parties, her Thursdays, or her dinners, always took from her -first and foremost the quality of reality; people talked--or made her -talk--of the things they knew or cared about, and since her range was so -wide, and there was always, as an old friend expressed it, "so much -tinder about" among her guests, the result was a certain vividness and -vitality that left their mark, and have been long remembered. And, as -one of those who knew her best said once on a public occasion,[26] she -had the secret of making you feel, as you left her house, that you were -a much finer fellow than you thought when you went in; she made you -believe in yourself, for she had, by some subtle magic--or perhaps by -the simplest of all--brought out gifts or powers in you which you hardly -knew that you possessed. - -As to the persons who came and went in that pretty room, looking out on -the garden of Buckingham Palace, how is it possible to number or name -them, or to recall the flavour of their long-vanished conversation? -Many have, like their hostess, passed into the unknown: figures like -Leslie Stephen, who wrote to her often, especially after his wife's -death, and came at intervals to Grosvenor Place for a long -_tête-à -tête_, sitting on the sofa beside Mrs. Ward, his ear-trumpet -between them; or like the much-loved Burne-Jones, who came at an earlier -stage and too soon ceased to come, for he died in 1898, leaving her only -a little bundle of letters which she affectionately treasured; or again, -like Lady Wemyss, the deep-voiced, queerly-dressed _grande dame_, whom -Mrs. Ward loved for her heart's sake, and of whom she has recorded a -suggestion, perhaps, in the Lady Winterbourne of _Marcella_; and ah! how -many more, of whom it would be unprofitable for the after-born to write. -Mrs. Ward has left in her novels the mirror of the world in which she -lived and moved, and in her _Recollections_ a more intimate picture of -her friends. To try to add to these records would be but to tempt the -Gods. - -But at what a cost in fatigue of body and mind even her entertaining was -carried on, those who passed their days with Mrs. Ward may at least -tell. It was always the same story. She put so much of herself into -whatever she was doing that the effort produced exhaustion. And so, -after her Thursdays, or perhaps after some gathering of Settlement -workers to whom she had been talking individually, she would collapse -upon the sofa, white and speechless, only fit to be "stroked" and left -to gather her forces again as best she might. There was one Thursday in -the month when, after her own "At Home," she was obliged to attend the -Settlement Council meeting at eight o'clock. This meant that there was -no time for recuperation between the two, but only for a hurried meal, -filled with hasty consultations as to the evening's notes, letters and -telephonings that must be done during her absence; then she would go -off, and some time towards eleven would return, worn out and crumpled, -though perhaps with the light of battle still in her eye over some point -well raised or some victory won. At the Settlement she would have given -no hint of any disability, and would have been the life and soul of the -meeting. Perhaps only her friend the Warden knew what a struggle against -physical pain and weakness her presence there had implied. We used to -chaff her sometimes about the physical ailments of her heroines, who, -according to our robust ideas, were too fond of turning white or of -letting their lips tremble, but this trick of her novels expressed only -too deep an experience of her own, since never, in all the years that -she was writing, did she know what it was to have a day of ordinary -physical strength. On many and many of her guests she made the illusion -of being a strong woman, but could they have seen her when the talk and -the excitement were over, they would have known that it was only her -spirit that had carried her through. The body was always dragged after, -a more or less protesting slave. - -Her way of life at Grosvenor Place was naturally one which involved a -good deal of expenditure. Sometimes she would have searchings of heart -over this, or even momentary spasms of economy, but it sprang in reality -from two fundamental causes--one her delight in beautiful things, -inherited even in her starved childhood from her mother, and shared to -the full in later years with her husband; the other this constant -ill-health, which made her incapable of "roughing it," and rendered a -certain amount of luxury indispensable if she was to get through her -daily task. Good pictures and the right kind of furniture gave her a -definite joy for their own sakes, while the arrangement of the chairs -and tables in the manner best calculated to encourage talk was always a -fascinating problem. Clothes, too, were not to be despised, and though -she liked to sit and work in some old rag that had seen better days, it -amused her also to go and plan some beautiful thing with her dressmaker, -Mrs. Kerr, and it amused her to wear the "creation" when it was -finished. Her faithful maid, Lizzie, who had been with us since the -early days of Russell Square, and who was often more nurse than maid to -her, cut and altered and renovated in her little workroom upstairs, -while every now and then Mrs. Ward would issue forth and make a raid -upon the shops, coming home either triumphant to face the criticism of -her family, or very low because she knew she had been beguiled into -buying something which she now positively hated. She was extremely -particular, too, about her daughters' clothes, nor could she make up her -mind, when they came out, to give them a dress allowance, being far too -much interested herself in the problem of how they looked; but even -when she was fully responsible for some luckless garment of theirs she -would often break out, on its first appearance, with the fatal words, -"Go upstairs, take that off, and let me _never_ see it again until it's -completely re-made!"--usually uttered amid helpless giggles, for this -had become, by long use, a stock phrase in our family. - -Strangers coming from afar with some claim upon her kindness found -always a ready welcome at her house. In addition to her French and -Italian friends, who would find their way to her door as soon as they -arrived in London, she had many warm friendships with Americans, -beginning with her much-loved cousin, Frederick W. Whitridge, who had -married Matthew Arnold's daughter Lucy, and had got Mr. Ward to build a -comely house for her within half a mile of Stocks. "Cousin Fred," with -his charming blue eyes and white moustache and beard, had been a truly -Olympian figure to us children even in the days of Russell Square, for -had he not deposited on our plates at breakfast, one golden morning, a -sovereign each for the two elders and half a sovereign for the youngest? -And as the years passed on, and he became the intimate friend of -Roosevelt and a recognized leader of the New York Bar, the friendship -between him and Mrs. Ward grew ever deeper, so that his shrewd wisdom -and inimitable humour, as well as his habit of spoiling the people he -was fond of, came to be looked for each summer as one of the true -pleasures of the year. His son was one of the first Americans to join -the British Army in 1914, but he himself, like Henry James, was not to -see the day for which both he and Roosevelt had toiled so hard. He died -in December, 1916, four months before America "came in." Mr. Lowell, the -American Ambassador during the 'eighties, had been a frequent visitor at -Russell Square, while his successors, Hay, Bayard and Choate, were all -on friendly terms with Mrs. Ward. Comrades in her own trade whom it -always pleased her to see were Mr. Gilder, editor of the _Century -Magazine_, welcome whether he came as publisher or friend; Mr. Godkin, -of the _Evening Post_, the most intellectual among American journalists; -Mr. S. S. McClure, who had first tracked down Mrs. Ward at Borough Farm, -and remained ever afterwards on cordial, not to say familiar, terms with -her; Charles Dudley Warner, Mrs. Wharton, the William James's, and many -more. But the most intimate of all were certain women: that inseparable -and delightful pair, Mrs. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett (the writer -of New England stories), who twice found their way to Stocks, and many -times to Grosvenor Place, and lastly that other Bostonian, Miss Sara -Norton, whose friendship for Dorothy made her almost as another daughter -during her visits to Stocks, to Levens, or to the Villa Bonaventura. - -But it was not by any means only for the "distinguished," whether from -home or abroad, that Grosvenor Place laid itself out. One of its -principal functions was that of making the head-quarters in London for -all the younger members of Mrs. Ward's own family, as well as for the -grandchildren who began about this time to find their way to her knee. -For to all such young people she was mother, fairy godmother and friend -rolled into one. Settlement workers and Associates, teachers and many -"dim" people of various professions would find her as accessible as her -strenuous hours of labour would allow. All she asked of those who came -to her house was that they should have something real to contribute--and -if possible that they should contribute it without egotism. Certainly -she did not suffer bores gladly; an ordinary bore was bad enough, but an -egotistic bore would produce a peculiar kind of nervous irritation in -her which we who watched could always detect, however manfully she -strove to conceal it. Nor could she ever bring herself to observe the -strict rules of London etiquette, so that to "go calling" was an unknown -occupation in her calendar, and in spite of two daughters and a -secretary her social lapses and forgetfulnesses sometimes plunged her in -black despair. When she had hopelessly missed Mrs. So-and-So's party, to -which she had fully meant to go, she would sorrowfully declare that the -motto of the Ward family ought to be: "Never went and never wrote." - -It is needless to point out how exhausting this London life became to -one who pressed so much into it as Mrs. Ward. For although she could -rarely write her books in London, being far too distracted by the -demands of the hungry world upon her time, it was mainly at Grosvenor -Place that she hammered out her schemes for the welfare of London's -children, talking them over with members of the School Board or the -County Council, driving about to some of the poorest districts to see -with her own eyes the conditions under which they lived, and planning -out the details in mornings of hard work with Miss Churcher. The -development of the Cripples' Schools, both in London and the Provinces, -was very much on her shoulders at this time, for she felt the imperative -need for extending them to other parts of the country, and undertook -many arduous missionary journeys on their behalf during the few years -that followed their establishment in London. There, as the schools grew -and spread under the fostering care of the L.C.C., it was the auxiliary -services of after-care, feeding and training that claimed the principal -share of her attention. But she had a very efficient committee to assist -her in these matters, under the chairmanship of Miss Maude Lawrence, so -that gradually her responsibility for the London cripples grew less -heavy, and she was able to turn to other schemes that now began to -simmer in her mind for the welfare of the whole as well as the halt -among London's children. - -For the remarkable success of the Children's Recreation School at the -Settlement, which by the year 1904 had attendances of some 1,700 -children a week (all, of course, wholly voluntary), led Mrs. Ward to -feel that some effort might be made to carry the civilizing effect of -such centres of play into the remoter and still more squalid regions of -the East and South. Already the Children's Happy Evenings' Association -held weekly or fortnightly "Evenings" in some eighty or ninety schools, -giving much pleasure to the children wherever they went, but Mrs. Ward's -plan was for something on a more intensive scale than this, something -that might exert a continuous influence over the lives of large numbers -of children in any given district, as the occupations and delights of -the "Passmore" did over the children of St. Pancras. She founded a small -committee, in October, 1904, to go into the matter and to lay proposals -before the Education Committee of the London County Council: proposals -to the effect that the "Play Centres Committee" should be allowed the -free use of certain schools after school hours on five evenings a week, -from 5.30 to 7.30, and also on Saturday mornings, for the purpose of -providing games, physical exercises and handwork occupations for the -children of that district. The Council readily gave its consent, and -Mrs. Ward applied herself to the task of raising sufficient funds for -the maintenance of eight "Evening Play Centres" in certain school -buildings, to be carried on for a year as an experiment. She obtained -promises amounting to nearly £800, largely from the same friends as had -watched her work at the Settlement, and with this she felt that she -could go forward. After careful inquiry, four schools in the East End -were selected, with one in Somers Town and two in Lambeth and Walworth -respectively, while Canon Barnett offered Toynbee Hall itself as the -scene of an eighth Centre. Mrs. Ward devoted special pains to the -selection of the eight Superintendents who were to have charge of these -Play Centres, for she rightly felt that on their wisdom and skill in -handling the large numbers of children who would pass through their -hands would largely depend the success of the adventure. Gymnastic -instructors, handwork teachers and many voluntary helpers were also -secured and assigned to the various Centres, so that the staff in each -case consisted of a _cadre_ of paid and professional workers, assisted -by as many volunteers as possible. Mrs. Ward's long experience at the -Settlement had convinced her that this nucleus of paid workers was -essential to the smooth and continuous working of any such scheme, since -although the best volunteers were invaluable in supplying an element of -initiative and originality in the working out of new ideas, still there -was also an element of irregularity in their attendance which detracted -much from their usefulness! And in proportion as the Centres succeeded -in their object of attracting the children from the streets, so much the -more disastrous would it be if large numbers of them were left -shepherdless on foggy evenings because Miss So-and-So had a bad cold. -Mrs. Ward was much criticized in certain quarters for bringing the -"professional element" into her Play Centres, but she knew better than -her critics how far the voluntary element might safely be trusted, and -how far it must be supplemented by the professional. She was playing all -the time for a _big thing_, with possibilities of expansion not only in -London but in the great industrial towns as well, besides which she -always hotly resented the suggestion that the paid worker must be -inferior in quality to the volunteer. On the contrary, it interested her -immensely to see how the professional teachers, both men and women, -would often reveal new and unsuspected qualities in the freer atmosphere -of the Play Centre, while the greater intimacy that they acquired with -their children was--as they often acknowledged--of the greatest value to -them in their day-school work. - -The first eight Play Centres opened their doors to the children on the -first Monday in February, 1905, and it may be imagined with what anxiety -and delight Mrs. Ward watched their development during these first -weeks. The children had been secured in the first instance by -invitations distributed through the Head Teachers to those who, in their -opinion, stood most in need of shelter and occupation after school -hours, i.e. principally to those whose parents were both out at work -till 7 or 8 o'clock; but after the ice was broken, Alf would bring 'Arry -and Edie would bring Maud, till the utmost capacity of the classes was -reached, and Mrs. Ward's heart was both gladdened and saddened by the -tale that her staff had as many children as they could possibly cope -with, and that many had of necessity been turned away. By the end of the -year the weekly attendance at the eight Centres amounted to nearly -6,000, and a year later, with ten Centres instead of eight, they had -risen to over 10,000. This meant that Mrs. Ward had struck upon a real -need of the wandering, loafing child-population of our greatest city--a -need that will in fact be perennial so long as the housing of the miles -upon miles of bricks and mortar that we call the working-class districts -remains what it is. "It all grows steadily beyond my hopes," wrote Mrs. -Ward to Mrs. Creighton in October, 1906, "and I believe that in three or -four years we shall see it developing into an ordinary part of -education, in the true sense. There is no difficulty about money--the -difficulty is to find the time and nerve-strength to carry it on, even -with such help as Bessie Churcher's." - -But the burden of raising the increasing sums required was, in truth, -very great, so that Mrs. Ward, with her belief in the future of the -movement, was already at work to get the Play Centre principle -recognized and embodied in an Act of Parliament. The opportunity arose -on Mr. Birrell's ill-fated Bill of 1906, but although Mrs. Ward's -clause, enabling any Local Education Authority "to provide for children -attending a public elementary school, Vacation Schools, Play Centres, or -means of recreation during their holidays or at such other times as the -Local Education Authority may prescribe," was accepted by the -Government, and passed the House of Lords in December, 1906, the Bill -itself was dropped soon afterwards, having been wrecked on the usual -rocks of sectarian passion. Fortunately, however, Mr. McKenna, who -succeeded Mr. Birrell at the Board of Education, was able to carry a -smaller measure, known as the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, -in the summer of the next year (1907). This Act duly contained the Play -Centres clause, as well as the provisions for the medical inspection and -treatment of school-children which have since borne such beneficent -fruit. Already in the previous summer, when the clause was first before -the House of Commons, Mr. Sydney Buxton had said at the opening of the -Settlement Vacation School that he felt sure it would go down to history -as the "Mary Ward Clause." - -But this victory had not been won except at the cost of considerable -friction with the only other body that attempted to cater in any -systematic fashion for the needs of London's children in the evening -hours--I mean the Children's Happy Evenings' Association. The -Association, which embodied the "voluntary principle" in its purest -form, could not tolerate the idea that the Public Education Authority -might in the future come to encroach upon a field which they regarded as -their own--even though their "Evenings" were avowedly held only once a -week, sometimes only once a fortnight, and could not touch more than the -barest fringe of the child population of each district. They disliked -the professional worker, and they abhorred the bare idea that public -money might eventually be spent upon the recreation of the -children--ignoring the experience of America, where the public authority -was doing more each year for the playtime of its children, and -forgetting, perhaps, that at the "preparatory schools" to which their -own little boys were sent, almost more time and thought were spent upon -their games than upon their "education" proper. And so they sent a -deputation to Mr. Birrell to oppose Mrs. Ward's clause, and their -workers attacked Mrs. Ward and her precious Play Centres in other ways -and on other occasions as well; but they found that she was a shrewd -fighter, for even though during the summer of 1906 she was laid low by -that most disabling complaint, a terrible attack of eczema, she -compelled herself to write from her bed a trenchant letter to _The -Times_ in defence of the professional worker, and also a very -conciliatory letter to her friend Lady Jersey, the President of the -Happy Evenings' Association. - - "It is most unwelcome to me," she wrote, "this dispute over a - public cause--especially when I see or dream what could be done by - co-operation. What I _wish_ is that you would join the Evening Play - Centres Committee, and see for yourself what it means. There is - nothing in our movement which is necessarily antagonistic to yours, - but I think we may claim that ours is more in sympathy with the - general ideas on the subject that are stirring people's minds than - yours." - -The affair ended in the acceptance by the Government of an amendment to -Mrs. Ward's clause, authorizing the Local Education Authorities to -"encourage and assist the continuance or establishment of Voluntary -Agencies" in any exercise of powers under the new Act. The two -associations--the Happy Evenings and the Play Centres--continued to -exist side by side until the inevitable march of events led, under the -stress of war, to the issue of Mr. Fisher's authoritative Memorandum -(January, 1917), admitting the obligation of the State in the matter of -the children's recreation, and announcing that in future the Board would -undertake half the "approved expenditure" of Evening Play Centre -committees. The Children's Happy Evenings' committee thereupon decided, -in dignified fashion, that their work was ended, and dissolved their -Association. Peace be to its ashes! It had given joy, much joy, to many -thousands of London children, as Mrs. Ward always most fully recognized, -and if in the end it stood in the way of the new and younger power which -was capable of giving an almost indefinite extension to the children's -pleasure, could it but have a free field, the reluctance of the -Association to cede any ground was only, after all, a very natural -affair. - -But once the new Act was passed, Mrs. Ward was to be disappointed in her -hopes that the London Education Authority would take advantage of the -powers conferred upon it in order to assist the movement financially. -Certain members of the Council elected in 1907 (in which the majority -was overwhelmingly Moderate) urged her to present an appeal to the -Education Committee, asking that the cost of the Handwork, Drill and -Gymnastic classes held at the Play Centres might be defrayed by the -Council; this she did in a statement which she drew up and presented in -October, 1907, weaving into it with all the practised skill that she -knew so well how to throw into such documents firstly a picture of the -child-life of such districts as Hoxton, Walworth and Notting Dale in the -winter evenings, when the children were too often "turned out after tea -into the streets and told not to come home till bedtime"; then a brief -account of the small beginnings and immense growth of the Children's -Recreation School at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, with its -offshoots, the ten Play Centres held in the London schools, and finally -a striking list of individual cases, showing how the Centres had already -attracted to themselves scores of boys and girls whose conditions of -life were leading them into idling and vagabondage of all sorts, through -the mere lack of anything to do in the dark hours. - - "Perhaps the most striking revelation of the whole work," wrote - Mrs. Ward, "has been the positive hunger for hand-occupation which - exists among the older children. The attendances at the handwork - classes drop off a little when June begins, and from June to - October they are better discontinued in favour of cricket, swimming - and outdoor games in general. But from October onwards through the - whole winter and up to the end of May, the demand for handwork - never slackens. Two or three times the number of children who are - now being taught would eagerly come to classes if they were opened. - Basket-work, wood-work and cobbling are unfailing delights, and it - is here that we ask most earnestly for the help of the County - Council. Rough boys, who would soon, if left to themselves, become - on leaving school a nuisance to the community and to the police, - can be got hold of through handwork, and in no other way. And when - once the taste has been acquired, there remains the strong - probability that after school is over they will be drawn into the - net of Evening Classes and Polytechnics, and so rescued for an - honest life." - -But the Education Committee, burdened as it was in that year with the -first arrangements for medical inspection and treatment, as well as with -the demand for the feeding of necessitous children, did not feel able to -undertake this further responsibility, although its reception of Mrs. -Ward's memorandum was extremely sympathetic. All that the Council would -do at this stage was to remit the charges previously made for cleaning -and caretaking of the schools during Play Centre hours, a concession -which amounted to a grant of about £20 a year per Centre. - -Mrs. Ward was therefore thrown back upon her own resources for the -financing of her great experiment. No thought of reduction or even of -standing still could be admitted, for with the growing fame of the -Centres, appeals began to come in from Care Committees, from School -Managers, from Clergy, and from hard-worked Magistrates, begging that -Centres might be opened in their districts, while the owner of a jam -factory in South London offered to pay part of the cost of a Centre if -it could be opened near his works, _because the children used to come -down to the factory gates in the evenings and cry till their mothers -came out_. Mr. Samuel's Children's Act of 1908 created the post of -Probation Officer for the supervision of "first offenders"; the first -two or three of these were appointed, on Mrs. Ward's recommendation, -from among her Play Centre Superintendents, since the intimate knowledge -they possessed of the children's lives gave them special qualifications -for their task. It soon became the practice of all Probation Officers to -refer their lawless little charges (often aged only nine or ten!) to the -nearest Play Centre as "every-night children," there to forget their -wild or thieving ways in the fascinations of cobbling, or wood-work, or -games, or military drill. But in order to respond to these growing -appeals Mrs. Ward had to undertake an ever-increasing burden of -financial responsibility, as well as of organization. In 1905 the first -eight Centres had cost a little over £900; in 1908, with twelve Centres -and total attendances of 620,000, the bill had risen to £3,000; in 1911, -with seventeen Centres and attendances of 1,170,000, it was £4,500; in -1913, with twenty Centres and attendances of 1,500,000, it was £5,700. -How she succeeded in raising these large sums in addition to her efforts -for the Settlement; how she found time, on the top of her literary work -and her many semi-political interests, for the close attention that she -gave, week in, week out, to the progress of each individual Centre and -the peculiarities of every Superintendent, will always remain a mystery. -Her unconquerable optimism, which became a more and more marked trait of -her character as the years went on, helped her through every crisis, -while her joy in the children's happiness acted both as a tonic and a -spur. Every winter she would issue her eloquent Report, sending it out -with irresistible personal letters to a large number of subscribers; -many a London landlord was made to stand and deliver for the children of -meaner streets than those which paid him rent; many a factory owner was -persuaded to follow the example of the jam-manufacturer above-mentioned. -Yet when all was done there would usually remain a deficit of several -hundred pounds, which must be wiped out in order to avert a bankers' -strike; then Mrs. Ward would gather up all the outstanding facts of the -year's work and present them in one of those remarkable letters to _The -Times_ of which she possessed the secret, charming the cheques for very -shame out of the pockets of the kind-hearted. And thus, with incredible -toil and with many moments of despair, the organization was kept going -and the indispensable funds supplied; but it was a labour of Hercules, -and her letters throughout these years bear witness to the exhausting -nature of the task. - -Once more, in 1913, Mrs. Ward hoped that the recognition of her long -effort was not far off, for both Government and County Council expressed -themselves, through the mouths of two distinguished leaders, as very -warmly in sympathy with it. She had organized an exhibition of Play -Centre hand-work at the Settlement--toy models of all sorts, baskets, -dolls, needlework, cobbled boots and shoes--and invited her old friend -Lord Haldane, then Lord Chancellor, and Mr. Cyril Cobb, Chairman of the -Education Committee, L.C.C., to speak at the opening ceremony. Both -speakers emphasized the fact that Mrs. Ward had now proved her case, and -that, as Lord Haldane said, the Play Centre movement had "reached a -stage in which it must be recognized as one, at least, of the elements -in a national system of education, as one of the things that must come -within the scope and observance of the Board of Education. Such a -movement must begin by voluntary effort. It has already reached a stage -in which I hope it is going to attract a great deal of official -attention." Such words could not but encourage Mrs. Ward to hope that -help was near, for by that time the Board of Education had already -inaugurated the system of giving aid to voluntary societies, if their -aims and methods were approved, by a proportional grant on their -expenditure. Yet 1913 passed away and nothing came of it. One may -perhaps shrewdly suspect, in looking back, that the authorities knew -well enough when a thing was a "going concern" and needed no effort of -theirs to help it up the hill. Mrs. Ward was their willing horse; they -continued, with the instinct of _laissez-faire_ which has so often -preserved the British Constitution, to let her pull her own load. But a -time was at hand when _laissez-faire_ and all other comfortable -doctrines were to be swept away in the shock that set the whole fabric -of our society reeling. The outbreak of war, which seemed at first to -threaten the very existence of such things as Play Centres, was in fact -to reveal and establish their necessity. After two more years of heroic -effort to keep them going amid the flood of war appeals, Mrs. Ward had -her reward at last in Mr. Fisher's Memorandum of January, 1917. The -State had recognized the principle that in the children lay the best -hope of England, and Mrs. Ward had her way. Thence-forward the Board of -Education undertook to pay half the "approved expenditure" of the -Evening Play Centres committee. - - * * * * * - -But the establishment and growth of the London Play Centres, heavy and -exacting as was the toil that it involved, did not by any means exhaust -Mrs. Ward's efforts to improve the lot of London's children during these -years. In 1908 she opened two additional Vacation Schools in the East -End; one in a school with a "roof-playground" in Bow, the other in an -ordinary school in Hoxton. - - "On Friday I had a field-day at the Bow Vacation School," she wrote - to J.P.T. in August, 1908. "The air on the roof-playground was like - Margate, and the children's happiness and good-temper delightful to - see. There were flowers all about, and sunny views over East - London to distant country, and round games, and little ones happy - with toys, and all sorts of nice things. Downstairs a splendid game - of hand-ball in the playground, and a cool hall full of boys - playing games and reading. As for the Settlement, it has never been - so enchanting. There are 1,150 children daily, and all the teachers - say it is better than ever. The Duke's sand-heap and the new - drinking-fountain are great additions. Hoxton goes to my heart! It - is _too_ crowded, and there is nothing but asphalt playgrounds, - with no shade till late. Yet the children swarm, and when you see - them sitting listlessly, doing absolutely nothing, in the broiling - dirty streets outside you can't wonder. I am having the playground - shelter scrubbed out with carbolic daily, lined with some flowers - in pots, and filled with small tables and chairs for the little - ones. They have 800 children, and we have been obliged to give - extra help." - -Then in the next year, besides maintaining the roof-playground, she -opened another experimental Holiday-school near by for a small number of -delicate and ailing children whose names were on the "necessitous" list, -and who were therefore eligible for free dinners. Mrs. Ward delighted in -continuing and improving the free dinners for these little waifs during -the holidays, as well as in providing suitable occupations for their -fingers, and it was with real pride that she returned them to their -regular school at the end of the holidays, thriving, and with a record -of increased weight in almost every case. But the very success of these -attempts, together with the ever-increasing size and attractiveness of -the Settlement Vacation School, filled her with distress at the wasted -opportunities presented by the empty playgrounds of the ordinary London -schools during the August holiday, for she well knew from her own -experience and from that of New York, which she had closely studied,[27] -that it only needed the presence of two or three active kindergarten -teachers and a supply of toys and materials to attract to these open -spaces all the hot and weary children from the neighbouring streets and -there to make them happy. Her fingers itched to do it, tired though -they were with so many other labours. It was not, however, till the -spring of 1911 that she was able to take this work in hand, but then she -addressed herself to it with all her usual energy, presenting a scheme -to the L.C.C. for the "organization" of both the boys' and the girls' -playgrounds at twenty-six London schools during the summer holiday. The -Council met her once more with complete confidence, lending all the -larger equipment required; Mrs. Ward raised a special fund of nearly -£1,000, and devoted much attention to the engagement of the -Superintendents for the girls' grounds and the Games Masters for the -boys'. Then, just before the end of term, notices were distributed in -the neighbouring schools announcing that such and such a playground -would be opened for games and quiet occupations during the holidays, and -the result was awaited with some quaking. Would there be a crowd or a -desert? and if the former, would the Superintendents be able to keep -order? The answer was not long in coming. "I let in 400 boys," wrote one -of the Games Masters after his first session, "and the street outside -was still black with them." But in spite of the eager crowds which -everywhere made their appearance, order _was_ kept most successfully. -Mrs. Ward herself visited the playgrounds constantly, and at the end of -the month wrote her joyous report to _The Times_: - - "Inside one came always upon a cheerful scene. In the girls' - playgrounds, during those hottest August days, one saw crowds of - girls and babies playing in the shade of the school buildings, or - forming happy groups for reading or sewing, or filling the trestle - tables under the shelters, where were picture-books to be looked - at, beads to thread, paints and paper to draw with, or wool for - knitting, or portable swings where the elder girls could swing the - little ones in turn. Then, if you asked the schoolkeeper to pass - you through a locked door, you were in the boys' playground, where - balls were whizzing, and the space was divided up by a clever - Superintendent between the cricket of the bigger boys--very near, - often, to the real thing--and the first efforts, not a whit less - energetic, of the younger ones. In one corner, also, there would be - mats and jumping-stands; in another a group playing tennis with a - chalked line instead of a net, while the shelters were full, as in - the girl's ground, of all kinds of quiet occupations. Management - was everything. It was wonderful what a Superintendent with a real - turn for the thing could make of his ground, what a hold he got - upon his boys, and how well, in such cases, the boys behaved. There - was a real loyalty and _esprit de corps_ in these grounds; and - when, in the last week, 'sports' and displays were organized for - the benefit of the parents, it was really astonishing to see with - what ease a competent man or woman could handle a crowded - playground, how eagerly the children obeyed, how courteous and - happy they were." - -The number of attendances had been prodigious--424,000 for the whole -month, or 106,000 per week--and the gratitude of the parents who had -pressed in to see the final displays was touching to hear. In the next -year Mrs. Ward persuaded the L.C.C. to share the experiment with her, -the Council opening "organized playgrounds" in twenty schools and she -herself in twenty more; this time the organization was in many points -improved, and the results still more satisfactory. But although the -Council gave her to understand that they would undertake to carry on the -experiment in future, being convinced of its necessity, no further -action was taken, and the playgrounds of London, in spite of Mrs. Ward's -object-lesson, have been suffered to relapse into that condition of -uselessness and sometimes of positive danger to the children's morals -from which her efforts in 1911 and 1912 had sought to rescue them. - - * * * * * - -The story of Mrs. Ward's activities for the welfare of London's children -has taken us far beyond the period of her life at which we had otherwise -arrived. To return briefly to her literary work, it may be said, I -think, that those two novels of London life, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and -_William Ashe_, had marked its highest point in sheer brilliance and -success; after these the long autumn of her novel-writing began, which, -like all mellow autumns, had its moments of more true and delicate -beauty than the full summer had possessed. The first of these autumn -novels, if I may use the term, was _Fenwick's Career_, which appeared in -May, 1906; it was not a great popular success, like the previous two, -but to those who read it in these after-times its sober excellence of -workmanship, as shown especially in the scenes at Versailles and at the -Westmorland cottage where husband and wife meet again after their long -separation, are perhaps more attractive than all the brilliance of poor -Kitty Bristol or of the shifting groups in Lady Henry's house in Bruton -Street. Mrs. Ward had been criticized in the case of these three novels -for having made use of the persons and incidents of the past without any -definite acknowledgment, but she defended herself vigorously, in a short -Preface to _Fenwick's Career_, in words that I cannot do better than -reproduce: - - "The artist, as I hold, may gather from any field, so long as he - sacredly respects what other artists have already made their own by - the transmuting processes of the mind. To draw on the conceptions - or the phrases that have once passed through the warm minting of - another's brain, is for us moderns at any rate, the literary crime - of crimes. But to the teller of stories, all that is recorded of - the real life of men, as well as all that his own eyes can see, is - offered for the enrichment of his tale. This is a clear and simple - principle; yet it has been often denied. To insist upon it is, in - my belief, to uphold the true flag of Imagination, and to defend - the wide borders of Romance." - -The cottage on the "shelf of fell" in Langdale, whence poor PhÅ“be -Fenwick set forth on her mad journey to London, had also a solid -existence of its own, though no "acknowledgment" is made to it in -Foreword or text. "Robin Ghyll" stands high above the road on the -fell-side, between a giant sycamore and an ancient yew, close by the -ghyll of "druid oaks" whence it takes its name--resisting with all the -force of the mountain stone of which it is built the hurricanes that -sweep down upon it from the central knot of those grim northern hills. -The view from its little lawn of Pikes, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell has -perhaps no equal in the Lake District. Sunshine and storm have passed -over it for 200 years or more, since the valley folk first built it as a -small statesman's farm or shepherd's cottage. At the time of which I -write the little place was occupied by a poetically minded resident who -had added two pleasant rooms. - -Mrs. Ward and her daughter Dorothy noticed Robin Ghyll as they drove up -Langdale with "Aunt Fan" one summer day in 1902, and fell in love with -it. Two years later it actually fell vacant, so that Mrs. Ward could -take it in the name of her daughter and share with her the joy of -furnishing and then inhabiting its seven rooms. But though Mrs. Ward -loved Robin Ghyll and fled to it occasionally for complete retirement, -it belonged in a more particular sense to her daughter, and derived from -her its charm. Thither she would go at Whitsuntide or in September, -refreshing body and mind by contact with its solitudes. Not often indeed -could she be spared from the absorbing life of Stocks, or Italy, or -Grosvenor Place, where so much depended upon her. But though life limped -at Stocks during Dorothy's brief absences, she always returned from -Robin Ghyll with strength redoubled for the arduous service of love -which she rendered to her mother all her life long, and from which both -giver and receiver derived a sacred happiness. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA - -1908 - - -Mrs. Ward had often been assured by her friends and admirers in the -United States that if she would but visit them she would find such a -welcome as would stagger all her previous ideas of hospitality. She -could not doubt it; it was, in fact, this thought, combined with the -frailness of her health, that had deterred her during the twenty years -that followed the publication of _Robert Elsmere_ from going to claim -the honours that awaited her. Her husband and daughter had already paid -two visits to the States, and had experienced in the kindness and warmth -of their reception an earnest of what would fall to Mrs. Ward's lot -should she venture across the Atlantic; nor had they merely whirled with -the passing show, but had made many lifelong friends. Mrs. Ward had, -however, resisted the pressure of these friends for many years, until at -length, in the spring of 1908, so strong a combination of circumstances -arose to tempt her that her resolution gave way. Her own health, which -had suffered a grievous and prolonged breakdown in 1906, had gradually -re-established itself, so that by the time of which we are speaking she -was perhaps in better case for such an adventure than she had been for -some years. Mr. and Mrs. Whitridge would hear of nothing but that she -should make their house her home during her stay in New York; Mr. Bryce -made the same demand for Washington; Earl Grey for Ottawa (where he was -at that time Governor-General), while Mr. Ward's acquaintance with Sir -William van Horne, Chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway--based on a -common enthusiasm for Old Masters--led to the irresistible offer of a -private car on the Line for Mrs. Ward and her party, at the Company's -expense, from Montreal to Vancouver and back. Such lures were hardly to -be withstood, but I doubt whether Mrs. Ward would have succumbed even to -them had it not been for her growing desire to see, with her own eyes, -the work which was being done in New York for the play-time of the -children. She knew that New York was far in advance of London in the -provision of Vacation Schools for the long summer holiday, and of -evening Recreation Centres for the children who had left school; but -Play Centres for the school-children themselves were as yet unknown -there, so that she felt much might be gained by an exchange of -experiences between herself and the "Playground Association of America." - -And so, on March 11, 1908, they sailed in the _Adriatic_--she and Mr. -Ward, and her daughter Dorothy, with the faithful Lizzie in attendance. -The great ship set her thinking of the only other long voyage that she -had ever made, over far other seas. "When I look at this ship," she -wrote, "and think of the cockleshell we came home in round the Horn in -'56, and the discomforts my mother must have suffered with three -children, one a young baby! Happiness, as we all know, and as the -copy-books tell us, does not depend on luxuries--but how she would have -responded to a little comfort, a little petting, if she had ever had it! -My heart often aches when I think of it." The comforts of the _Adriatic_ -were indeed colossal, and since the ocean was kindness itself, Mrs. Ward -took no ill from the voyage, but arrived in good spirits, and ready to -face the New World with that zest which was her cradle-gift. - -Mr. Whitridge's pleasant house in East Eleventh Street received Mr. and -Mrs. Ward, while Dorothy stayed with equally hospitable friends--Mrs. -Cadwalader Jones and her daughter--over the way. Avalanches of reporters -had to be faced and dealt with, all craving for five minutes' talk with -Mrs. Ward, but they were usually intercepted in the hall by Mr. -Whitridge, whose method of dealing with his country's newspapers was -somewhat drastic. If they passed this outer line of defence they were -received by Mr. or Miss Ward, who found them persistent indeed, but -always marvellously civil; and on the very few occasions when Mrs. Ward -did consent to be interviewed, she insisted on seeing the proof and -entirely re-writing what had been put into her mouth. The newspapers, -indeed, had reckoned without a mentality which intensely disliked this -kind of thing; it was unfortunate, perhaps, but inevitable! - -In all other respects, however, it was impossible for Mrs. Ward not to -be deeply moved by the kindness that was heaped upon her. "Life has been -a tremendous rush," wrote D. M. W. from New York, "but really a very -delightful one, and we are accumulating many happy and amusing memories. -The chief thing that stands out, of course, is the love and admiration -for M. and her books. When all's said and done, it really is pretty -stirring, the way they feel about her. And the things the quiet, unknown -people say to one about her books go to one's heart." ("We dined at a -house last night," wrote Mrs. Ward herself, "where everybody had a card -containing a quotation from my wretched works. Humphry bears up as well -as can be expected!") But on one occasion, at least, she came in for a -puff of unearned incense. At an afternoon tea, given in her honour by -Mrs. Whitridge, an elderly lady was overheard saying in awe-struck tones -to her neighbour, "To think that I should have lived to shake hands with -the authoress of _Little Lord Fauntleroy_!" - -Dinners, lunches, receptions, operas and theatres succeeded one another -in a dazzling rush, but New York knew quite well what was the main -purpose of Mrs. Ward's visit, and it was fitting that the principal -function arranged in her honour should have been a dinner given her at -the Waldorf-Astoria by the Playground Association of America. There were -900 persons present, and when Mrs. Ward stood up to address them every -man and woman in the room spontaneously rose to their feet to greet her. -It was a moment that would have touched a far harder heart than hers. - - "It was very moving--it really was," she wrote to J. P. - T.--"because of the evident kindness and sincerity of it. I got - through fairly well, though I don't feel that I have yet arrived at - the right speech for a public dinner.... I was most interested by - the speech of the City Superintendent of Education, Dr. Maxwell, an - _admirable_ man, who declared hotly in my favour as to Play - Centres, and has, since the dinner, given directions for the first - _afternoon_ Play Centre for school children in New York. Isn't that - jolly! - - "Well, and since, we have been lunching, dining and seeing sights - with the same vigour. I have been to schools and manual training - centres with Dr. Maxwell, and we went through the Natural History - Museum with its Director,[28] who gave us a _thrilling_ time.... - One afternoon I went down to a College Settlement and spoke to a - large gathering of workers about English ways. The day before - yesterday I spoke to about 900 boys and girls and their teachers, - in one of their _magnificent_ public schools. Dr. Maxwell took me, - and asked me to speak of Grandpapa. A great many of the elder boys - had read _Tom Brown_ and knew all about the 'Doctor'! I enjoyed it - greatly, and as to their saluting of the flag--these masses of - alien children--one may say what one will, but it is one of the - most thrilling things in the world, and we, as a nation, are the - poorer for not having it." - -Mrs. Ward had accepted four or five engagements to lecture while she was -in America, in aid of her London Play Centres, and accumulated, to her -intense satisfaction, the handsome sum of £250 from this source during -her tour. She gave her audiences of her best--the paper already -mentioned, on "The Peasant in Literature," which revealed her literary -craft in its most finished form, and although she was so much the rage -at the time that her admirers were not disposed to be critical, she was -yet genuinely gratified by the pleasure which this paper gave, -especially in so cultivated a centre as Philadelphia. Here Mrs. Ward and -her daughter were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Coates, and then of -the Bertram Lippincotts, in their charming house outside the town. -Independence Hall gave them the proper thrill of sympathy with a "nation -struggling to be free," while Mrs. Ward was delighted by the general -old-world look of many of the streets, no less than by the stately -river, on which, as she found to her astonishment, "the boat-crews -practise for Henley." During their short stay with Mrs. Coates, Mrs. -Ward made friends with Dr. Weir Mitchell, novelist and physician, and -with Miss Agnes Repplier, for whom she felt an instant attraction, -while Dorothy sat next to a Mr. Walter Smith, and talked to him -innocently about certain Modernist lectures that had been given at the -Settlement in London, discovering afterwards, to her dismay, that he was -a strong Catholic, and freely called in Philadelphia "Helbeck of -Bannisdale." "I noticed it fell a little flat!" - -From Philadelphia they moved on to Washington, to stay with their old -friends the Bryces, at the hospitable British Embassy. An invitation -from the President (Mr. Roosevelt) to dine with him at the White House, -had already reached them. Mrs. Ward described her impressions in a long -letter to her son: - - -"WASHINGTON, -"_April 13, 1908_. - - "Everybody here has been kindness itself, and we feel that we ought - to spend the rest of our days in trying to be nice to Americans in - London! First, as you know, we went to the Bryces. They asked a - great many people to meet us, but what I remember best is a quiet - hour with Mr. and Mrs. Root, who were smuggled into an inner - drawing-room away from the crowd, where one could listen to him in - peace, and above all, look at him! He is, I think, the most - attractive of all the Americans we have seen. He has been Secretary - of State now for some years, and is evidently, like Edward Grey, - absorbed in his own special work and not much concerned with - current politics. His subordinates speak of him with enthusiasm, - and he has a detached, humane, meditative face, with a slight - flicker of humour perpetually playing over it--as different as - possible from the hawk-like concentration of the New Yorkers. We - have seen most of the Cabinet and high officials, and I have - particularly liked Mr. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. - Metcalf, Secretary for the Navy, and Mr. Bacon, Assistant Secretary - of State. Saturday's dinner at the White House was delightful, only - surpassed by the little round-table dinner of eight last night at - Mr. Henry Adams's, where the President took me in and talk was fast - and free--altogether a memorable evening. At the White House I did - not sit near the President, everything being regulated by a - comparatively strict etiquette and precedence--but after dinner he - sent word that I was to sit by him in the ballroom, at the little - concert which followed, and when the music was over, he and I - plunged into all sorts of things, ending up with religion and - theology! Last night he talked politics, socialism, divorce, large - and small families, the Kaiser, Randolph Churchill, the future of - wealth in this country (he wants to _lop_ all the biggest fortunes - by some form of taxation--pollard them like trees)--the future of - marriage and a few other trifles of the same kind. He is, of - course, an egotist, but an extraordinarily well-meaning and able - one, with all the virtues and failings of his natural character and - original bringing-up, exaggerated now and produced on what one - might almost call a colossal scale, which strikes the American - imagination. He honestly doesn't want a third term, and has set his - mind on Taft for his successor, but it must be hard for such a man - to step down from such a post into the ordinary opportunities of - life. However, as he says, and apparently sincerely, 'we mustn't - break the Washington tradition.' - - "To-day we are going out to Mount Vernon, and to-night there is - another dinner-party. Washington is a most beautiful place--the - Capitol a really glorious building that any nation might be proud - of, and the shining White House, with its graceful pillared front, - among its flowering trees and shrubs, makes me think with shame of - that black abortion, Buckingham Palace!" - -It was a special pleasure to them also to see something of M. Jusserand, -the French Ambassador, and his charming wife, and to renew a friendship -which had endured since their early days in London. But above all it was -the leaders of American politics that impressed Mrs. Ward. - - "Root, Garfield, Taft," she wrote to Miss Arnold, of Fox How, - "these and several others of the leading men attracted and - impressed me greatly--beyond what I had expected. Indeed, I think - one of the main impressions of this visit has been the inaccuracy - of our common idea in England that American women of the upper - class are as a rule superior to the men. It may be true among a - certain section of the rich business class, but amongst the - professional, educated and political people it is not true at all." - -Boston, of course, claimed Mrs. Ward on her way to Canada, and adopted -her in whole-hearted fashion. She was by this time a little tired of -"receptions" of five and six hundred persons, all passing before her as -in a dream and shaking a hand which was never free from writer's cramp. -"But the touching thing is the distance people come--one lame lady came -300 miles!--it made me feel badly--and all the Unitarian ministers for -thirty miles round have been asked and are said to be coming on Tuesday -next!" When they came, Mrs. Ward enjoyed the occasion particularly, and -wrote home that she had "had to make a speech, but got through better -than usual by dint of talking of T. H. Green." An elderly bookseller -among them, who had written to her regularly about each of her books for -the last twenty years, now met her and spoke with her at last; he went -away contented. But the real delights of her stay at Boston were her -visits to Harvard and Radcliffe, and her intercourse with the Nortons at -Shady Hill, and with Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett at the former's house. -Here she met the fine old veteran, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the -"Battle-Hymn of the Republic," who had lately brought out her memoirs. -Mrs. Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the -latter: "Imagine Mrs. Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, -which a critic had declared to be 'in pitiable hexameters' (English, of -course), was not 'in hexameters at all--it was in pentameters of my own -make--I never followed any special school or rule!' I have been gurgling -over that in bed this morning." But when they met, Mrs. Ward -capitulated. "By the way, I retract about Mrs. Howe. Her book is rather -foolish, but she herself is an old dear--full of fun at ninety, and -adored here. She lunched with Mrs. Fields to-day _en petit comité_, and -was most amusing." - -The New England country, which she saw on a motor-trip to Concord and -Lexington, and again on a visit which she paid to Mr. and Mrs. Henry -Holt at their beautiful house overlooking Lake Champlain, fascinated -her, "with its miles and miles of young woods sprung up on the soil of -the slain forests of the past--its pools and lakes, its hills and dales, -its glorious Connecticut river, and its myriads of white, small wooden -houses, all on a nice Georgian pattern, with shady verandahs, scattered -fenceless over the open fields. There were no flowers to be seen--only -the scarlet blossom of the maples in the woods." - -Nor could she get away, in such an atmosphere, from the old, old problem -of the separation. - -"I have been reading Bancroft this morning, and shall read G. O. T. -to-night. We _were_ fools!--but really, I rather agree with H. G. Wells -that they make too much fuss about it! and with Mr. Bryce that it was a -great pity, for _them_ and us, that the link was broken. So they needn't -be so tremendously dithyrambic!" - -It was, however, with a heart full of gratitude for the unnumbered -kindnesses of her hosts that Mrs. Ward quitted American soil at the end -of April and crossed over into Canada. Here her peregrinations were to -be mainly under the auspices of Lord Grey, then Governor-General, and of -Sir William van Horne, lord of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at whose -house in Montreal she planned the details of her great journey to the -West. These two revealed themselves to Mrs. Ward in characteristic -fashion while she was still the guest of Sir William, at Montreal, for -the Governor-General, coming over from Ottawa for the great Horse Show, -stopped during his progress round the arena at the Van Horne's box, -spoke to Mrs. Ward with the greatest cordiality, and there and then -insisted that she must go to see the great new Agricultural College at -St. Anne's, near Montreal, on their way to Ottawa the next day. - -"He declared that M. could not possibly leave Canada without having seen -it," wrote D. M. W., "and then said, with a laugh and a wave of his hand -to Sir William, 'Ask him--_he'll_ arrange it all for you!'--and passed -on, leaving M. and me somewhat scared, for we had not wanted to bother -Sir William about _this_ journey at any rate! I could see that even he, -who is never perturbed, was a little taken aback, but he said, in his -quiet way, 'It can certainly be arranged,' and it _has_ been!" Then, _en -revanche_, the Governor-General, "being on the loose, so to speak, in -Montreal, with only one and the least vigilant of his A.D.C.'s," came -unexpectedly to the big evening party that the Van Hornes were giving -that night--"because, as he said, 'I like Van Horne, and I wanted to see -Mrs. Ward!'" But, once back in Ottawa, "his family and all his other -A.D.C.'s, are scolding him and wringing their hands, because he never -ought to have done it! It creates a precedent and offends 500 people, -while it pleases one. Such are the joys of his position." - -When the "command" journey to the Agricultural College had been safely -preformed, the students duly presented Mrs. Ward with a bouquet and sang -"For _she's_ a jolly good fellow." "The G.G. was delighted," wrote -Dorothy, "and led her out to smile her thanks, but there was fortunately -no time for her to be called upon for five minutes of uplift, as His -Excellency was, the last time he went there! That has now become a -household word in Government House." Mrs. Ward must, I think, almost -have been in at the birth of that hard-worked phrase. - -Mr. Ward had been obliged to return to England for his work on _The -Times_, so that his wife's Canadian experiences are recorded in letters -to him: - - -"GOVERNMENT HOUSE, OTTAWA, -"_May 14, 1908_. - -..."Well, we have had a _very_ pleasant time. Lord Grey is never - tired of doing kind things, and she also is charming. He has asked - everybody to meet us who he thought would be - interesting--Government and Opposition--Civil servants, - journalists, clergy--but no priests! The fact is that there is a - certain amount of anxiety about these plotting Catholics, and - always will be. They accept the _status quo_ because they must, and - because it would not help them as Catholics to fall into the hands - of either the United States or of France. But there is plenty of - almost seditious feeling about. And the ingratitude of it! I sat - last night at the Lauriers' between Sir Wilfrid and M. Lemieux, - Minister of Labour--both Catholics. Sir Wilfrid said to me, 'I am a - Roman Catholic, but all my life I have fought the priests--_le - cléricalisme, voilà l'ennemi_. Their power in Quebec is unbounded, - but Modernism will come some day--with a rush--in a violent - reaction.' On my left M. Lemieux described his meeting last week in - Quebec with fourteen bishops, one of whom said to him--'_Le Canada, - c'est le Paradis terrestre du Catholicisme!_' But as for the - educated Catholics, M. Lemieux went on, 'We are all Modernists!' - Both of them denounced the Pope and spoke with longing of Leo - XIII." - - * * * * * - - -"TORONTO, -"_May 18_. - - "Such nice people at Ottawa, and such interesting people. Also the - guiding ideas and influences are _English,_ the first time I have - felt it. The position of the Parliament buildings is splendid, and - some day it will be a great city. The Archives represent the birth - and future of Canadian history, and a Canadian patriotism--four - years' work, and already it is influencing ideas and politics, - among a young people who did not know they _had_ a history.[29] - - "Toronto is less exciting, though pleasant. We lunched yesterday - with Colonel George Denison, a great Loyalist and Preferentialist, - much in with Chamberlain. He cut Goldwin Smith twenty years - ago!--so it was piquant to go on from him to the Grange. The Grange - is an English eighteenth-century house, or early nineteenth--as one - might find in the suburbs of Manchester in a large English - garden--the remains of 1,000 acres--with beautiful trees. An old - man got up to meet me, old, but unmistakably Goldwin Smith, though - the black hair is grizzled--not white--and the face emaciated. But - he holds himself erect, and his mind is as clear, and his eye as - living, as ever--at 85. He still harps on his favourite theme--that - Canada must ultimately drop into the mouth of the United States and - should do so--and poured scorn on English Tariff Reformers and - English Home Rulers together. Naturally he is not very popular - here!" - -From Toronto Mrs. Ward made a flying trip to Buffalo and Niagara, where -she was shown the glories of the Falls by General Greene--a descendant -of the gallant Nathaniel Greene, hero of the S. Carolina campaign of -1781. Then, returning to Toronto, she found Sir William van Horne and -the promised private car awaiting her--not to mention the "Royal Suite" -at the Queen's Hotel, offered her by the management "free, gratis, for -nothing! Oh dear, how soon will the mighty fall!--after the 12th of June -next" (the date of her departure for home). But, for the present, "The -car is yours," said Sir William, "the railway is yours--do exactly as -you like and give your orders." - -They parted from their kind Providence on Saturday, May 23, but within -forty-eight hours the railway was providing them with quite an -unforeseen sensation. Six hours this side of Winnipeg (where all kinds -of engagements awaited her), part of the track that ran across a marsh -collapsed, with the result that Mrs. Ward's and many other trains were -held up for nearly twenty hours. - - -"VERMILION STATION, C.P.R., -"_May 25, 1908_. - - "Here we are, stranded at a tiny wayside station of the C.P.R., and - have been waiting _sixteen hours_, while eight miles ahead they are - repairing a bridge which has collapsed in a marsh owing to heavy - rain. Three trains are before us and about five behind. A complete - block on the great line. We arrived here at six this morning, and - here it is 9.50 p.m. - - "It has been a strange day--mostly very wet, with nothing to look - at but some scrubby woods and a bit of cutting. We captured a - Manitoba Senator and made him come and talk to us, but it did not - help us very far. Snell, our wonderful cook and factotum, being in - want of milk, went out and milked a cow!--asking the irate owner, - when the deed was done, how much he wanted. And various little - incidents happened, but nothing very enlivening. - - [_Later._]. "Here we are at the spot, a danger signal behind us, - and the one in front just lowered. Another stop! our engine is - detached and we see it vanishing to the rear. The track won't bear - it. How are we going to get over!--Here comes the engine back, and - the brakesman behind our car imagines we are to be pushed over, the - engine itself not venturing. - - "10.5. Safely over! The engine pushed us to the brink, and then, as - it was taken off, a voice asked for Mrs. Ward. It was the - Assistant Manager of the line, Mr. Jameson, who jumped on board in - order to cross with us and explain to me everything that had - happened. He had been working for hours and looked tired out. But - we went out to the observation-platform, he and I and Dorothy, and - the _trajet_ began--our train being attached to some light empty - cars, and an engine in front that was pulling us over. I thought - Mr. Jameson evidently nervous as we went slowly forward--we were - the first train over!--but he showed us as well as the darkness - allowed, the marshy place, the new bed made for the line (in the - morning the rails were hanging in air and an engine and two cars - went in!) and the black mud of the sink-hole pushed up into high - banks--trees on the top of them--on either side by the pressure of - the new filling put in--50,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel. On - either side of the line were crowds of dark figures, Galician and - Italian workmen, intently watching our progress. Altogether a - dramatic and interesting scene! We were all glad, including, - clearly, the assistant manager, when he said, 'Now we are over - it'--but there was no real danger, even if the train had partially - sunk, for it was only a causeway over a marsh and not a real - bridge. - - "Well, it is absurd to have only a day for Winnipeg, but this - accident makes it inevitable. The journey has been all of it - wonderful, and I am more thrilled by Canada than words can - describe!" - -After a breathless day in Winnipeg, very pleasantly spent, under the -care of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Evans, in endeavouring to overtake the -engagements lost in the "sink-hole," Mrs. Ward and her daughter resumed -their journey across the vast prairie, over the Rockies and the -Selkirks, and down into Vancouver. On her return she thus summed up her -impressions of it in a letter to "Aunt Fan": - - "Everybody was kindness itself, everywhere, and the wonderful - journey across Canada and back was something never to forget. To - see how a great railway can make and has made a country, to watch - all the stages of the prairie towns, from the first wooden huts - upwards to towns like Calgary and Regina, and the booming - prosperity of Winnipeg--to be able to linger a little in the - glorious Rockies, to rush down the Fraser Cañon, which Papa used to - talk to us about and show us pictures of when we were children--I - thought of him with tears and longing in the middle of it--and then - to find ourselves at the end beside the 'wide glimmering sea' of - the blue Pacific--all this was wonderful, a real enrichment of mind - and imagination. At least it ought to be!" - -In Vancouver they were under the chaperonage of Mr. F. C. Wade, now -Agent-General for British Columbia, and of Mr. Mackenzie King, the -future Prime Minister, whom they had already met at Ottawa, but with -whom Mrs. Ward had a far more intimate link than that, since about five -years before he had come to live as a Resident at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, and had made great friends with us all. He now acted as -guide, not only to the marvellous beauties of Vancouver, but also to the -recesses of the Chinese quarter, where he had many friends, owing to the -fact that he happened to be engaged in dealing out Government -compensation for the anti-Chinese riots of the year before. Mrs. Ward -was immensely interested in all the problems of Vancouver--racial, -financial and political--being especially impressed by the danger of its -"Americanization" through the buying up of its real estate by American -capital. She stayed long enough to lecture to the Canadian Club of -Vancouver in aid of Lord Grey's fund for the purchase of the Quebec -battlefields as a national memorial to Wolfe, and then set her face -definitely homewards. But she could not allow herself to hurry too -swiftly through the Rockies, where the snow was beginning to melt and -expeditions were becoming possible. From Field she drove to feast her -eyes on the Emerald Lake; from Laggan she pushed on to Lake Louise. - - -To T. H. W. - -"BANFF, -"_June 4, 1908_. - - "Since we left Vancouver we have had a delicious time, but - yesterday was the cream! We started at 8.30 from the very nice - Field Hotel, on a special train, just our car and an engine, - and--the car being in front--were pushed up the famous Kicking - Horse Pass, on a glorious morning. The Superintendent in charge of - the Laggan division of the line came up with us and explained the - construction of the new section of the line, which is to take the - place of the present dangerous and costly track down the pass. At - present there are no tunnels, nothing but a long hill, up and down - which extraordinary precautions have to be taken. Now they are to - have spiral tunnels, or rather one long one, on the St. Gotthard - plan. One won't see so much, but it will be safer, and far less - expensive to work. - - "The beauty of the snow peaks, the lateral valleys, the leaping - streams, the forests!--and the friendliness of everybody adds to - the charm. At Laggan we left the car and drove up--three miles--to - Lake Louise--a perfectly beautiful place, which I tried to - sketch--alack! It is, I think, more wonderful than any place of the - kind in Switzerland, because of the colour of the rocks, which hold - the gorgeous glacier and snow-peak. We spent the day there, looked - after by a charming Scotchwoman--Miss Mollison--one of three - sisters who run the C.P.R. hotels about here. About 6.30 we drove - down again to find Snell and George delighted to welcome us back to - the car. Then we came on to Banff, sitting on the platform of the - car, and looking back at a beautiful sunset among the mountains. We - shall part from the Rockies with a pang! Emerald Lake and Lake - Louise would certainly conjure one back again, if they were any - less than 6,000 miles from home! As it is, I suppose one's physical - eyes will never see them again, but it is something to have beheld - them once." - -At Field Mrs. Ward had met the eminent explorer, Mrs. Schäffer, who was -busy collecting guides and ponies for another expedition into the -unknown tracts of the Rockies. She and Mrs. Ward made great friends, and -some months later the latter was delighted to receive from her -photographs of a wonderful lake which she had discovered, and to which -she gave the name of Lake Maligne. Mrs. Ward could not resist weaving -the virgin lake into the last chapter of her story, _Canadian Born_. - -When at length the long journey was over and the faithful car landed her -safely at Montreal, Mrs. Ward still had one pleasant duty to -perform--the handing over of her earnings at Vancouver to Lord Grey, as -a thank-offering for all the good things that had fallen to her lot -since she had parted from him three weeks before. His reply delighted -her, especially since she had just ended her Canadian experiences by an -expedition up the Heights of Abraham, escorted by Col. Wood, the -Canadian military historian. - - -_June 12, 1908._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - You are _most_ kind! I have received no contribution to the Quebec - Battlefields that has given me greater pleasure. I value it partly - because it is yours and partly Vancouver's. Every cent that filters - through from B.C. and the Prairie Provinces is a joy to me. The - Canadian National Problem, the Imperial Problem, is how to link - B.C. and the Western Provinces more closely with the Maritime - Eastern Provinces--how to improve the transportation service, East - and West, and cause the great highroad of human traffic from Europe - to Asia to go via Montreal and Vancouver--that is the problem, and - that is why I rejoice over every Western Piccanin who subscribes - his few cents to Quebec. A feeling for Quebec will remain engraven - on his heart for all time. - -...I do not think the character of the debt owing in £ s. d. by the - British race to the Wolfe family has ever been put before the - public. Wolfe's father never could obtain the repayment from the - British Government of £16,000 advanced by him during the - Marlborough campaigns. The different Departments did the pass trick - with him--the first rule of departmental administration--played - battledore and shuttlecock with him until he desisted from pressing - his claim for fear of being considered a Dun! - - Then James Wolfe, our Quebec hero, never received the C. in C. - allowance of £10 per day. His mother claimed £3,000 from the - British Treasury as the amount owing to her son on September 13, - 1759--but the poor hard-up departments played battledore and - shuttlecock with her, and she, like her Wolfe relations, was too - great a gentleman to press for payment. When, however, she found - that James had left £10,000 to be distributed according to the - instructions of his will, and that his assets only realized £8,000, - the dear good lady did try and squeeze £2,000 out of the £19,000 - owing by the Government to the family, in order that she might - carry out her boy's wishes--but it was a hopeless, useless effort, - and the splendid dame heaped all the coals of fire she could on the - heads of the stony-hearted, perhaps because stony-broke, British - People, by leaving the whole of her fortune to the widows and - orphans of the officers who fell under Wolfe's command at Quebec. - Now I maintain that the whole Empire has a moral responsibility in - this matter, for have not the most energetic of the descendants of - the British People of 1759 emigrated into Greater Britain? The - story of how we recompensed Wolfe for giving us an immortal example - and half a continent has not, so far as I know, been told. - - Delighted to think you are going back to England a red-hot Canadian - missionary. Send out all the young people whom you know and believe - in, and who are receptive and sympathetic and appreciative, and - have sufficient imagination not to be stupidly critical. Send them - all over here. We shall be delighted to see them, although I fear - they cannot all get Private Cars! - -If Mrs. Ward did not, on her return to England, set up altogether as an -amateur emigration agent, she yet paid her debt to Canada by the -delightful enthusiasm for the young country with all its boundless -possibilities, combined with a shrewd appreciation of its difficulties, -which she threw into her novel, _Canadian Born_. Neither Canada nor Lord -Grey had any reason to complain of the devotion, both of heart and of -head, which she gave to the cause. To her American friends, on the other -hand, her impassioned attack in _Daphne_, or _Marriage à la Mode_, on -the divorce laws of the United States, came as something of a surprise, -for they had not realized, while she was with them, how deep an -impression these things had made on her, or how much her artistic -imagination had been captured by their tragic or sordid possibilities. -_Daphne_ is, indeed, little but a powerful tract, written under great -stress of feeling, but the Americans missed in it the happy touch that -had created Lucy Foster, and regretted that Mrs. Ward should have felt -bound to portray for their benefit so wholly disagreeable a young person -as Daphne Floyd. Time has, however, brought its revenges in the strong -movement that has now arisen in the United States for the unification of -the widely-differing divorce laws of the various States under one -Federal Law. - -Yet there were deeper forces at work in the writing of _Daphne_ than any -which Mrs. Ward's brief visit to America alone could have accounted for. -The growing disturbance which the Suffrage question was making in the -currents of English life had thrown Mrs. Ward's thoughts into these -channels for longer than her critics knew. _Daphne_ was one result of -this fermentation; another was what we should now call "direct action." -Within a month after her return from America Mrs. Ward wrote to Miss -Arnold of Fox How (herself an undaunted Suffragist at the age of -seventy-five): "You will see from the papers what it is that has been -taking all my time--the foundation of an Anti-Suffrage League." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - - -Mrs. Ward, as is well known, did not believe in Women's Suffrage. She -had heard the subject discussed from her earliest days at Oxford, ever -since the time when the first Women's Petition for the vote was brought -to the House of Commons by Miss Garrett and Miss Emily Davies in 1866, -and John Stuart Mill moved his amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867. But -it did not greatly interest her. Her mind was set in other directions, -responding to the intellectual stimulus of Oxford rather in the field of -historical and religious inquiry and leading her on, as we have seen, to -her memorable "revolt from awe" in the matter of the Interpretation of -the Scriptures. Her group of friends at Oxford were hardly touched by -the Suffrage agitation; the movement for the Higher Education of Women, -in which Mrs. Ward bore so distinguished a part, was wholly unconnected -with it. Indeed it was the very success of this movement that helped to -convince Mrs. Ward that the right lines for women's advance lay, not in -the political agitation for the Suffrage, but in the broadening of -education, so as to fit her sex for the many tasks which were opening -out before it. But she had also an inborn dislike and distaste for the -type of agitation which, even in those early days, the Suffragists -carried on; for the "anti-Man" feeling that ran through it, and for the -type of woman--the "New Woman" as she was called in the eighties--who -gravitated towards its ranks. Her scholarly mind rejected many of the -Suffragist arguments as shallow and unproven, especially those which -concerned the economic condition of women, while the practical -co-operation between men and women that she saw all round her, both in -Oxford and afterwards in London, gave her the conviction that the -remaining disabilities of women might and would be removed in due course -by this road, rather than by a political turmoil which would only serve -to embitter the relations between them. In her eyes women were neither -better nor worse than men, but different; so different that neither they -nor the State would really be served by this attempt to press them into -a political machine which owed its development solely to the male sex. -In later years she had many close friends in the Suffrage camp, nor did -she ever lose those of her earlier days who were converted, but to the -end there remained a profound antipathy between her and the "feminist" -type of mind, with its crudities and extravagances--the type that was to -manifest itself so disastrously in later years among the "Suffragettes." -It was not that she wished her sex to remain aloof from the toil and -dust of the world, as her Positivist friends would have liked; rather -she felt it to be the duty of all educated women to work themselves to -the bone for the uplifting of women and children less fortunate than -themselves, and so to repay their debt to the community; but clamour for -their own "rights" was a different thing: ugly in itself, and likely to -lead, in her opinion, to a sex-war of very dubious outcome. - -The first time that Mrs. Ward was drawn into the battle of the Suffrage -was on the occasion, early in 1889, of Lord Salisbury's much-trumpeted -conversion to it, when a Private Member's Bill[30] of the usual limited -type was before Parliament, and the Prime Minister's attitude appeared -to make it probable that the Bill might pass. Mrs. Creighton--then also -opposed to the Suffrage, though on somewhat different grounds from Mrs. -Ward's--Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Knowles, and Mrs. Ward united in -organizing a movement of protest. It was decided at a meeting held at -Mr. Harrison's house in May that the signatures of women eminent in the -world of education, literature and public service should be invited to a -"Protest against the extension of the Parliamentary Franchise to Women," -which Mrs. Ward had drawn up (with some assistance from Mrs. Creighton), -and which Mr. Knowles undertook to publish in the next month's -_Nineteenth Century_. - -The arguments advanced in this _Protest_ are interesting as showing the -position from which Mrs. Ward hardly moved in the next thirty years, -though many of her original allies who signed it fell away and joined -the Suffrage camp. There is first the emphasis on the essentially -different functions of men and women: - - "While desiring the fullest possible development of the powers, - energies and education of women, we believe that their work for the - State, and their responsibilities towards it, must always differ - essentially from those of men, and that therefore their share in - the working of the State machinery should be different from that - assigned to men." Women can never share in such labours as "the - working of the Army and Navy, all the heavy, laborious, fundamental - industries of the State, such as those of mines, metals and - railways, the management of commerce and finance, the service of - that merchant fleet on which our food supply depends.... Therefore - it is not just to give to women direct power of deciding questions - of Parliamentary policy, of war, of foreign or colonial affairs, of - commerce and finance equal to that possessed by men. We hold that - they already possess an influence on political matters fully - proportioned to the possible share of women in the political - activities of England." - -At the same time the recent extensions of women's responsibilities, such -as their admission to the municipal vote and to membership of School -Boards, Boards of Guardians, etc., is warmly welcomed, "since here it is -possible for them not only to decide but to help in carrying out, and -judgment is therefore weighted by a true responsibility." Then comes a -denial of any widespread demand among women themselves for the -franchise, "as is always the case if a grievance is real and reform -necessary," and finally an argument on which Mrs. Ward continued to lay -much stress in after years, that of the steady removal of the reasonable -grievances of women by the existing machinery of a male Parliament. - - "It is often urged that certain injustices of the law towards women - would be easily and quickly remedied were the political power of - the vote conceded to them; and that there are many wants, - especially among working women, which are now neglected, but which - the suffrage would enable them to press on public attention. We - reply that during the past half-century all the principal - injustices of the law towards women have been amended by means of - the existing constitutional machinery; and with regard to those - that remain, we see no signs of any unwillingness on the part of - Parliament to deal with them. On the contrary, we remark a growing - sensitiveness to the claims of women, and the rise of a new spirit - of justice and sympathy among men, answering to those advances made - by women in education, and the best kind of social influence, which - we have already noticed and welcomed. With regard to the business - or trade interests of women--here, again, we think it safer and - wiser to trust to organization and self-help on their own part, and - to the growth of a better public opinion among the men workers, - than to the exercise of a political right which may easily bring - women into direct and hasty conflict with men." - -This feeling was evidently uppermost in her thoughts at that time, for -she wrote as early as January, 1889, to her sister-in-law, Miss Agnes -Ward: - - "What _are_ these tremendous grievances women are still labouring - under, and for which the present Parliament is not likely to give - them redress? I believe in them as little as I believe now in the - grievances of the Irish tenant. There _were_ grievances, but by the - action of the parties concerned and their friends under the - existing system they have been practically removed. No doubt much - might be done to improve the condition of certain classes of women, - just as much might be done for that of certain classes of men, but - the world is indefinitely improveable, and I believe there is - little more chance of quickening the pace--wisely--with women's - suffrage than without it.... There is a great deal of championing - of women's suffrage going on which is not really serious. Mr. - Haldane, a Gladstonian member, said to me the other day, 'Oh, I - shall vote for it of course!--with this amendment, that it be - extended to married women, and in the intention of leading through - it to manhood suffrage.' But if many people treat it from this - point of view and avow it, the struggle is likely to be a good deal - hotter and tougher before we have done with it than it has ever - been yet. - - "I should like to know John Morley's mind on the matter. He began - as an enthusiast and has now decided strongly against. So have - several other people whose opinion means a good deal to me. And as - to women, whether their lives have been hard or soft, I imagine - that when the danger _really_ comes, we shall be able to raise a - protest which will be a surprise to the other side." - -In spite of the fact that the organizers of the _Protest_ were -handicapped by the natural reluctance of many of their warmest -supporters to take part in what seemed to them a "political agitation," -and so to let their names appear in print,[31] they worked to such -purpose during the ten days that elapsed between the meeting at Mr. -Frederic Harrison's house and the going to press of the _Nineteenth -Century_ that 104 signatures were secured. They were regarded by their -contemporaries as the signatures either of "eminent women" or of -"superior persons," according to the bias of those who contemplated the -list. Posterity may be interested to know that they included such future -supporters of the Suffrage as Miss Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb), -Mrs. Creighton and Mrs. T. H. Green, while among women distinguished -either through their own work or their husbands' in many fields occur -the names of Mrs. Goschen, Lady Stanley of Alderley, Lady Frederick -Cavendish, Mrs. T. H. Huxley, Mrs. J. R. Green, Mrs. Max Müller, Mrs. W. -E. Forster, and Mrs. Arnold Toynbee. - -Naturally the _Protest_ drew the Suffrage forces into the field. The -July number of the _Nineteenth Century_ contained two "Replies," from -Mrs. Fawcett and Mrs. Ashton Dilke, to which Mrs. Creighton in her turn -supplied a "Rejoinder." Meanwhile a form of signature to the _Protest_ -had been circulated with the Review, and was supplied in large numbers -on demand, so that in the August number Mr. Knowles was enabled to print -twenty-seven pages of signatures to the statement that "The -enfranchisement of women would be a measure distasteful to the great -majority of women of the country--unnecessary--and mischievous both to -themselves and to the State." Mrs. Creighton's "Rejoinder" was regarded -on the Anti-Suffrage side as a dignified and worthy close to the -discussion. "The question has been laid to rest," wrote Mr. Harrison to -her, "for this generation, I feel sure." Nearly thirty years were indeed -to pass before the question was "laid to rest," though in a different -sense from Mr. Harrison's. - -During the earlier part of that long period Mrs. Ward concerned herself -no further, in any public capacity, with the task of opposing the -Suffrage forces. Her own opinions were known and respected by her -friends of whatever party, while her growing interest in and knowledge -of social questions gave her an ever-increasing right to advocate them. -At Grosvenor Place the talk at luncheon or dinner-table would often play -round the dread subject in the freest manner, with a frequent appeal, in -those happy days, to ridicule as the deciding factor. Mrs. Ward was -particularly pleased with a dictum of John Morley's, "For Heaven's sake, -don't let us be the first to make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of -Europe!" which I remember hearing her quote from time to time; but on -this subject, as on all others, the atmosphere of the house was one of -liberty to all comers to air and express their opinions. Most of her own -family were of the Suffrage persuasion, especially her two sisters, -Julia and Ethel, but her children followed her lead--save one who, being -a member of a youthful debating society where the wisdom of nineteen ran -riot in speech and counter-speech, was told off one day to get up the -arguments in favour of Women's Suffrage and to open the debate; she got -them up with the energy of that terrible age, and remained a convert -ever afterwards. - -The question, in fact, did not enter the region of practical politics -until the advent to power of the Liberal Government in December, 1905. -It was on the occasion of Campbell-Bannerman's great meeting at the -Albert Hall, before the election, that the portent of the Suffragette -first manifested itself in the form of a young woman who put -inconvenient questions to "C.-B.," in a strident voice, from the -orchestra, and was unmercifully hustled out by indignant stewards. It -was the beginning of eight years of tribulation. Mrs. Ward watched -through 1906 and 1907 the growing violences of these women with mingled -horror and satisfaction: horror at the unloveliness of their -proceedings and satisfaction at the feeling that an outraged public -would never yield to such clamour what they had refused to yield to -argument. She did not yet know the uses of democracy. But the -constitutional agitation was also making way during these years, -especially since it was known that Campbell-Bannerman himself was a -Suffragist, and even after his death Mr. Asquith announced to a -deputation of Liberal M.P.'s, in May, 1908, that if when the -Government's proposed Reform Bill was introduced, an amendment for the -extension of the franchise to women on democratic lines were moved to -it, his Government as a Government would not oppose such an amendment. -This announcement brought Women's Suffrage very definitely within the -bounds of practical politics, so that those who believed that the change -would be disastrous felt bound to exert themselves in rallying the -forces of opposition. Mrs. Ward had hardly returned from America before -Lord Cromer and other prominent Anti-Suffragists approached her with -regard to the starting of a society pledged to oppose the movement. They -knew well enough that no such counter-movement had any chance of success -without her active support, and they shrewdly augured that, once -captured, she would become the life and soul of it. Mrs. Ward groaned -but acquiesced, and thus in July of this year (1908) was born the -"Women's National Anti-Suffrage League," inaugurated at a meeting held -at the Westminster Palace Hotel on July 21. - -In the long struggle that now opened it is easy to see that Mrs. Ward -was not really at her ease in conducting a movement of mere opposition -and denial. She did not enjoy it as she enjoyed her battles with the -L.C.C. for the pushing forward of her schemes for the children, yet she -felt that it was "laid upon her" and that there was no escape. "As -Gertrude says, it is all fiendish, but we feel we must do it," she wrote -after the inaugural meeting; but this feeling explains her imperative -desire to give a positive side to the movement by dwelling on the great -need for women's work on local bodies--a line of argument which was -mistrusted by many of her male supporters, one of whom, Lord James of -Hereford, had spoken passionately in the House of Lords against the Act -of 1907 for enabling women to sit on County or Borough Councils. But -Mrs. Ward had her way, so that when the programme of the Anti-Suffrage -League came out it was found to contain twin "Objects": - -(_a_) To resist the proposal to admit women to the Parliamentary -Franchise and to Parliament; and - -(_b_) To maintain the principle of the representation of women on -municipal and other bodies concerned with the domestic and social -affairs of the community. - -This second "Object" was indeed the keystone of Mrs. Ward's fabric for -the useful employment of the energies and gifts of women, in a manner -suited to their special experience as well as conducive to the real -interests of the State. She called it somewhere the "enlarged -housekeeping" of the nation, and maintained that the need for women's -work and influence here was unlimited, whereas in the special -Parliamentary fields of foreign affairs, war and finance, women might -indeed have opinions, but opinions unsubstantiated by experience and -unbacked by the sanction of physical force. It is interesting to observe -how she conducts her case for a "forward policy" as regards Local -Government before her own supporters in the _Anti-Suffrage Review_ -(July, 1910): - - "There is no doubt that the appointment of a Local Government - Sub-Committee marks a certain new and definite stage in the - programme of our League. By some, perhaps, that stage will be - watched with a certain anxiety; while others will see in it the - fulfilment--so far as it goes--of delayed hopes, and the promise of - new strength. The anxiety is natural. For the task before the - League is long and strenuous, and that task in its first and most - essential aspect is a task of fight, a task of opposition. We are - here primarily to resist the imposition on women of the burden of - the parliamentary vote. And it is easily intelligible that those - who realize keenly the struggle before us may feel some alarm lest - anything should divert the energies of the League from its first - object, or lest those who are primarily interested in the fight - against the franchise should find themselves expected willy-nilly - to throw themselves into work for which they are less fitted, and - for which they care less. - - "But if the anxiety is natural, the hope is natural too Many - members of the League believe that there are two ways of fighting - the franchise--a negative and a positive way. They believe that - while the more extreme and bigoted Suffragists can only be met by - an attitude of resolute and direct opposition to an unpatriotic - demand, there are in this country thousands of women, - Anti-Suffragist at heart, or still undecided, who may be attracted - to a positive and alternative programme, while they shrink from - meeting the Suffragist claim with a simple 'No.' Their mind and - judgment tell them that there are many things still to be done, - both for women, and the country, that women ought to be doing, and - if they are asked merely to acquiesce in the present state of - things, they rebel, and will in the end rather listen to Suffragist - persuasion and adopt Suffragist methods. But the recent action of - the executive opens to such women a new field of positive - action--without any interference with the old. How immeasurably - would the strength of the League be increased, say the advocates of - what has been called 'the forward policy,' if in every town or - district, where we have a branch, we had also a Local Government - Committee, affiliated not to the present W.L.G.S., which is a - simple branch of the Suffrage propaganda, but to the Women's - National Anti-Suffrage League! The women's local government - movement, which has been almost killed in the last two years by - Suffragist excesses and the wrath provoked by them in the nation, - would then pass over into the hands of those better able to use - without abusing it. Anti-Suffrage would profit, and the nation - also." - -Mrs. Ward looked forward, indeed, to the regular organization of women's -work and influence on these lines, culminating in the election, by the -women members of local bodies, of a central committee in London which -would inevitably acquire immense influence on legislation as well as -administration in all matters affecting women and children. "Such a -Committee," she said to an American audience in 1908, "might easily be -strengthened by the addition to it of representatives from those -government offices most closely concerned with the administration of -laws concerning women and children; and no Government, in the case of -any new Bill before the House of Commons, could possibly afford to -ignore the strongly expressed opinion of such a committee, backed up as -it could easily be by agitation in the country. In this way, it seems to -me, all those questions of factory and sanitary legislation, which are -now being put forward as stalking-horses by the advocates of the -franchise, could be amply dealt with, without rushing us into the -dangers and the risks, in which the extension of the suffrage to women, -on the same terms as men, must ultimately land us." - -This passage shows very clearly Mrs. Ward's belief in the duty of -educated women to work for their fellows. She did not by any means wish -them to sit at home all day with their embroidery frames, but looked -forward instead to the steady development of what she called women's -"legitimate influence" in politics--the influence of a sane and informed -opinion, working in collaboration with Parliament, which should not only -remove the remaining grievances and disabilities of women, but hold a -watching brief on all future legislation affecting their interests. -Decidedly Mrs. Ward was no democrat. She was willing to wear herself out -for Mrs. Smith, of Peabody Buildings, and her children, but she could -not believe that it would do Mrs. Smith any good to become the prey of -the political agitator. - -Her activity in carrying on the Anti-Suffrage campaign from 1908 to 1914 -was astonishing, considering how heavily burdened she was at the same -time with her literary work and with the constant pressure of her Play -Centres and Vacation Schools. She was practically the only woman speaker -of the first rank on her own side, except for the rare appearances in -public of Miss Violet Markham, so that the Branches of the Anti-Suffrage -League formed in the great towns were all anxious to have her to speak, -and she felt bound to accept a certain number of such invitations. She -went to Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield in 1909; she led a -deputation to Mr. Asquith in 1910 and another at a more critical moment -in December, 1911; she wrote a series of articles in the _Standard_ on -"The Case against Women's Suffrage" in October, 1911, besides carrying -on an active correspondence in _The Times_, as occasion arose, against -Lady Maclaren, Mrs. Fawcett, or Mr. Zangwill; she spoke at Newcastle, -Bristol and Oxford early in 1912, and at a great meeting in the Queen's -Hall, just before the fiasco of the Liberal Reform Bill, in January, -1913. At all these meetings the prospect of Suffragette interruptions -weighed upon her like a nightmare. The militant agitation was, however, -a very potent source of reinforcement to the Anti-Suffrage ranks -throughout this period, so that although Mrs. Ward groaned as a citizen -at every new device the Militants put forth for plaguing the community, -she rejoiced as an Anti-Suffragist. The most definite annoyance to which -she herself was subjected by the Suffragettes occurred at Bristol, where -she addressed a huge meeting in February, 1912, in company with Lord -Cromer and Mr. Charles Hobhouse, M.P. A devoted lady had found a place -of concealment among the organ-pipes behind the platform, from which -post of vantage, as the _Bristol Times_ put it, "she heard an excellent -recital of music at close quarters, and for a few minutes addressed a -vast meeting in a muffled voice which uttered indistinguishable words." -She and a number of her fellows were ejected after the usual unhappy -scrimmage, and Mrs. Ward and Mr. Hobhouse were allowed to proceed. But -whether in consequence of this or as a mere coincidence, the Bristol -Branch became one of the strongest of the League's off-shoots, devoting -itself, to Mrs. Ward's intense satisfaction, to much useful work on -local and municipal bodies. - -Her opposition to Mrs. Fawcett's organization was, of course, conducted -on very different lines from this. Quite early in the campaign, in -February, 1909, a debate was arranged to take place at the Passmore -Edwards Settlement (under the auspices of the St. Pancras Branch of the -Women's Suffrage Society) between the two protagonists, Mrs. Ward and -Mrs. Fawcett. The organizers of the meeting were besieged with -applications for seats. Mrs. Ward reserved 150 for herself and the -Anti-Suffrage League, while about 300 went to the Suffrage Society, so -that the voting was a foregone conclusion; but the debate itself reached -a high level of excellence, though it suffered from the usual fault -which besets such tournaments--that the champions did not really _meet_ -each other's arguments, but cantered on into the void, discharging their -ammunition and returning gracefully to their starting-points when time -was called. - - "Surely," wrote Mrs. Ward afterwards to her old friend, Miss McKee, - the Chairman of the St. Pancras Suffrage Society, "surely you - don't think that Mrs. Fawcett answered my main contentions! Does - anyone deny the inequality of wage?--but what Mrs. Fawcett never - attempted to prove was how the vote could affect it. And why - compare doctor and nurse? Does not the doctor pay for a long and - costly training, while the nurse is paid her living at least from - the beginning? Would it not have been fairer to compare woman - doctor with man doctor, and then to show that under the L.C.C. at - the present moment medical appointments are open to both women and - men, and the salaries are equal?" - -It could not be expected that such combatants would influence each -other, but Mrs. Ward's campaign went far to influence the doubting -multitude, torn by conflicting counsels, harassed by the Militants, -worried by accounts of prison tortures suffered by the "martyrettes," -and generally bothered by the obscuring of the good old fight between -Liberals and Tories which the importation of the Suffrage into every -by-election caused. The Suffrage battle was indeed waged upon and around -the vile body of the Liberal Party in a very special degree from 1908 to -1914, for Mr. Asquith was Prime Minister, and Mr. Asquith--encouraged -thereto by every device of provocation and exasperation which the -Militants could spring upon him--was an Anti-Suffragist. Yet the -influence of his Suffragist colleagues and of the constitutional -agitation throughout the country was sufficient to induce him, in -November, 1911, to give a very favourable answer to a deputation -introduced by Mrs. Fawcett, who put to him a series of questions with -regard to the Reform Bill announced by the Government for the Session of -1912 and the possibility of adding Suffrage amendments to it. The -Suffragists withdrew with high hopes of a real measure of -enfranchisement in the ensuing year. But less than a month later Mr. -Asquith was receiving a similar deputation from the Anti-Suffrage -League, introduced by Lord Curzon and including Mrs. Ward, Miss Violet -Markham and Mr. McCallum Scott. His reply showed unmistakably that he -was exceedingly glad to have his hands strengthened by the "Antis" in -his own domestic camp, and he only begged them to carry on their crusade -with the utmost vigour, since "as an individual I am in entire agreement -with you that the grant of the parliamentary suffrage to women in this -country would be a political mistake of a very disastrous kind." - -When the Session of 1912 opened it was evident that very strong -influences were at work within the walls of Parliament for the defeat of -the "Conciliation Bill," which was due to come up for Second Reading at -the end of March, and it is significant that Mrs. Ward was able to say, -at a meeting of the Oxford Branch of the Anti-Suffrage League held on -March 15, that "Woman Suffrage is in all probability killed for this -Session and this Parliament." The prophecy was partly fulfilled; like -the prayers of Homer's heroes, Zeus "heard part, and part he scattered -to the winds." At any rate, in the Session of 1912, not only was the -Conciliation Bill defeated on March 28, by fourteen votes (after its -very striking victory the year before), but the Suffrage amendments to -the Reform Bill never even came up for consideration. At the very end of -a long Session, that is in January, 1913, the Speaker ruled that the -Bill had been so seriously altered by the amendments regarding male -franchise already passed that it was not, in fact, the same Bill as had -received Second Reading, while there were also "other amendments -regarding female suffrage" to come which would make it still more -vitally different. For these reasons he directed the withdrawal of the -Bill. The fury of the Suffragists at the "trick" which had been played -them may be imagined, but apart from the sanctity of Mr. Speaker's -rulings I think it is evident that the lassitude and discouragement -about the Suffrage which pervaded the House of Commons at that time, and -which contributed to the withdrawal of the Bill, was largely due to the -recognition that there _was_ a considerable body of Anti-Suffrage -opinion in the country, both amongst men and women, the strength of -which had not been realized before Mrs. Ward began her campaign. Well -might she draw attention to this at a great meeting held at the Queen's -Hall on January 20, when it was still expected that the Suffrage -amendments would be moved: - - "Naturally, I am reminded as I stand here, of all that has happened - in the four and a half years since our League was founded. All I - can tell you is, that we have put up a good fight; and I am amazed - at what we have been able to do. Just throw your minds back to - 1908. The militant organization was fast over-running the country; - the cause of Women Suffrage had undoubtedly been pushed to the - front, and for the moment benefited by the immense advertisement it - had received; our ears were deafened by the noise and the shouting; - and it looked as though the Suffrage might suddenly be carried - before the country, the real country, had taken it seriously at - all. The Second Readings of various Franchise Bills had been - passed, and were still to be passed, by large majorities. There was - no organized opposition. Suffragist opinions were entrenched in the - universities and the schools, and between the ardour of the - Suffragists and the apathy of the nation generally the situation - was full of danger. - - "What has happened since? An opposition, steadily growing in - importance and strength, has spread itself over the United Kingdom. - Men and women who had formerly supported the Suffrage, looked it in - the face, thought again and withdrew. Every item in the Suffragist - claim has been contested; every point in the Suffragist argument - has been investigated, and, as I think, overthrown. It is a great - deal more difficult to-day than it was then to go about vaguely and - passionately preaching that votes will raise wages in the ordinary - market--that nothing can be done for the parasitic trades and - sweated women without the women's vote--for what about the Trade - Boards Bill? or that nothing can be done to put down organized vice - without the women's vote--for what about the Criminal Law Amendment - Bill? or that nothing can be done to help and protect children, - without women's votes--for what about the Children's Act, the First - Offenders' Act, the new Children's Courts and the Children's - Probationary Officers, the vast growth of the Care Committees, and - all their beneficent work, due initially to the work of a woman, - Miss Margaret Frere? - - "Witness, too, the increasing number of women on important - Commissions: University--Divorce--Insurance; the increasing respect - paid to women's opinions; the strengthening of trade unionism among - women; the steady rise in the average wage. - - "No, the Suffragist argument that women are trampled on and - oppressed, and can do nothing without the vote, has crumbled in - their hands. It had but to be examined to be defeated. - - "Meanwhile, the outrages and the excitement of the extreme - Suffragist campaign gave many people pause. Was it to this we were - committing English politics? Did not the whole development throw a - new and startling light on the effect of party politics--politics - so exciting as politics are bound to be in such a country as - England--on the nerves of women? Women as advisers, as auxiliaries, - as the disinterested volunteers of politics, we all know, and as - far as I am concerned, cordially welcome. But women fighting for - their own hands--fighting ultimately for the political control of - men in men's affairs--women in fierce and direct opposition to - men--that was new--that gave us, as the French say, furiously to - think! - - "And now, the coming week will be critical enough, anxious enough; - but we all know that if any Suffrage amendment is carried in the - House, it can only be by a handful of votes--none of your - majorities of 160 or 170 as in the past. - - "And our high _hope_ is that none will pass, that every Suffrage - amendment will be defeated. - - "That state of things is the exact measure of what has been done by - us, the Anti-Suffrage party, to meet the Suffragist arguments and - to make the nation understand what such a revolution really - means--though I admit that Mrs. Pankhurst has done a good deal! It - is the exact measure of the national recoil since 1908, and if - fortune is on our side next week, we have only to carry on the - fight resolutely and steadily to the end in order finally to - convince the nation." - -After the collapse of the Government Reform Bill just described, the -deadlock in the Parliamentary situation as regards Women's Suffrage -continued right down to the outbreak of the War. Mrs. Fawcett -transferred the allegiance of the National Union of Women's Suffrage -Societies to the Labour Party, the only party which was prepared to back -the principle of women's votes through thick and thin; the Militants -continually increased in numbers, agitation and violence, and Mrs. Ward -and her friends concentrated their energies more and more on the -positive side of their programme, that is on the active development of -women's work in Local Government. But it was a heavy burden. Mrs. Ward -felt, as she said in a speech at Oxford in 1912, that "it is a profound -saying that nothing is conquered until it is replaced. Before the -Suffrage movement can be finally defeated, or rather transformed, we who -are its opponents must not only have beaten and refuted the Suffrage -argument, but we must have succeeded in showing that there is a more -excellent way towards everything that the moderate Suffragist desires, -and we must have kindled in the minds, especially of the young, hopes -and ideals for women which may efface and supersede those which have -been held out to them by the leaders of the Suffrage army." - -Her artistic imagination was already at work on the problem, for in 1913 -she wrote her Suffrage novel, _Delia Blanchflower_, in which the reader -of to-day may still enjoy her closely observed study of the militant -temperament, in Gertrude Marvell and her village followers, while on -Delia herself, an ardent militant when the story opens, the gradual -effect is traced of the English traditions of quiet public service, as -exemplified--naturally!--in the person of the hero. Incidentally it may -here be remarked that Mrs. Ward always believed that her Anti-Suffrage -activities, culminating in the writing of this novel, had a markedly bad -effect on the circulation of her books. Certainly she was prepared to -suffer for her opinions, for the task of diverting and of carrying -forward the Women's Movement into other lines than those which led to -Westminster was one that was to wear her out prematurely, though her -gallant spirit never recognized its hopelessness. - -Her organized attempt to give effect to these aspirations, in the -foundation (early in 1914) of the "Joint Advisory Council" between -Members of Parliament and Women Social Workers, arose out of the stand -which she made within the National Union of Women Workers[32] for the -neutrality of that body on the Suffrage question. The National Union was -bound by its constitution to favour "no one policy" in national affairs, -and many moderate Suffragists agreed with Mrs. Ward that sufficient _ad -hoc_ Societies existed already for carrying on the Suffrage campaign, -and that it would have been wiser for the National Union to remain -aloof from it altogether. But the feeling among the rank and file of the -Union was too strong for the Executive, so that in the autumn of 1912 a -Suffrage resolution was passed and sent up to the Prime Minister and all -Members of the House of Commons. Mrs. Ward protested, but suspended her -resignation until the next Annual Conference, which met at Hull in -October, 1913. There Mrs. Ward's resolutions were all voted down by the -Suffragist majority, so that she and some of her friends felt that they -had no choice but to secede from the Union, on the ground that its -original constitution had been violated. They drew up and sent to the -Press a Manifesto in which the following passage occurred: - - "Under these circumstances it is proposed to enlarge and strengthen - the protest movement, and to provide it, if possible, with a new - centre and rallying-point for social work involving, probably, - active co-operation with a certain number of Members of Parliament, - who, on wholly neutral ground from which the question of Suffrage, - for or against, has been altogether excluded, desire the help and - advice of women in such legislation." - -Mrs. Ward had, throughout the controversy, carried on an active and most -amicable correspondence with her old friend, Mrs. Creighton, the -President of the National Union of Women Workers, who had for some years -been a convert to Women's Suffrage, on the ground that, since women had -already, for good or ill, entered the political arena with their various -Party Associations, it would be more straight-forward to have them -inside than outside the political machine. Mrs. Ward now wrote to tell -her of the progress of her idea for a "Joint Advisory Committee": - - -"STOCKS, -"_December 18, 1913_. - -..."The scheme has been shaping beyond my hopes, and will I hope, - be ready for publication before Parliament meets. What we have been - aiming at is a kind of Standing Committee composed equally of - Members from all parts of the House of Commons, and both sides of - the Suffrage question--and women of experience in social work. I do - not, I hope, at all disguise from myself the difficulties of the - project, and yet I feel that it _ought_ to be very useful, and to - develop into a permanent adjunct of the House of Commons. From this - Joint Committee the Suffrage question will be excluded, but it will - contain a dozen of the leading Suffragists in the House, which - ought, I think, to make it clear that it is no _Anti_ - conspiracy!--but a bona-fide attempt to get Antis and Pros to work - together on really equal terms." - -She was much gratified by the cordial response to her invitation on the -part of M.P.'s of all shades of opinion, while some seventy women--both -Suffragists and "Antis"--representing every field of social work, -presently joined the Committee. Naturally the reproach levelled against -it by those who did not believe in it was that the Committee was wholly -self-appointed, but Mrs. Ward replied that, self-appointed or not, it -was an instrument for _getting things done_, and that it would soon -prove its usefulness. Under the Chairmanship of Sir Charles Nicholson, -M.P., the Committee had held four meetings at the House of Commons -between April and July, 1914, and had got through a great deal of -practical work in the drafting of various amendments to Bills then -before the House, when the curtain was rung down on all such fruitful -and peaceable activities. Henceforth the guns were to speak, and such -things as the education of crippled children, or the pressing of a wider -qualification for women members of local bodies, were to disappear -within the shadow that fell over the whole country. So at least it -appeared at the time, but the Joint Advisory Council, like all really -practical bodies, survived the shock, and lived to devote to the special -questions arising from the War the experience gained in these first -meetings. - - * * * * * - -The last act in the drama of Women's Suffrage found Mrs. Ward, as usual, -active and on the alert, and still unconvinced of the necessity for the -measure, or, still more, of the competence of the Parliament of 1917 to -deal with it. It will be remembered that the question arose again on the -"Representation of the People Bill" which the Government felt bound to -bring in before the death of the existing Parliament in order to remedy -the crying injustices of registration which deprived most of the -fighting men and many of the munition workers of their votes. The -opportunity was seized by the Suffragists to press the claims of women -once more upon Parliament and public, and this time the response was -overwhelmingly favourable. The pluck and endurance shown by women in all -the multifarious activities of the War had brought the public round to -their side; the men at the front were believed to be in favour of it, -the militant outrages had ceased, and, last but not least, there was now -a lifelong Suffragist at the head of affairs. The Speaker's Conference, -which reported on January 27, 1917, decided "by a majority" that "some -measure of women's suffrage should be conferred." It was evident that -the current of opinion was setting strongly in favour of the women's -claim, but Mrs. Ward still felt it to be her duty to protest, and to -organize the latent opposition which certainly existed in the country. -She wrote an eloquent letter to _The Times_ in May, pointing out the -obvious truth that the country had not been consulted, that the existing -Parliament had twice rejected the measure and was now a mere rump, with -some 200 Members absent on war service; she denied in a passage of great -force the plea based on "equality of service" between men and women, -appealing to the grave-yards in France and Flanders which she had seen -with her own eyes, as evidence of the eternal _in_equality, and finally -she pleaded for a large extension of the women's _municipal_ vote, in -order to provide an electorate which might be consulted by Referendum. -The Referendum was in fact adopted by the now dwindling Anti-Suffrage -party in Parliament as their policy; but the House of Commons would have -none of it, and the Second Reading of the Bill, which included the -Suffrage clause, was carried by 329 to 40. It is obvious, of course, -that in an elective Assembly, when the members are once convinced that a -large increase in the electorate is about to be made, anxiety for their -seats will make them very chary of voting against the new electors. -Hence Mrs. Ward had to bewail many desertions. The Bill was finally -passed by the House of Commons on December 7; but there still remained -the Lords. Here the opposition was likely to be far more formidable, for -the Lords had no hungry electors waiting for them, nor were they so -susceptible as the Lower House to waves of sentiment such as that which -had overspread press and public in favour of Women's Suffrage. It was -here, therefore, that Mrs. Ward organized her last resistance. The -January _Nineteenth Century_ appeared with an article by her entitled -"Let Women Say," appealing to the Lords to insist on a Referendum, while -in the first week of January she (acting as Chairman of the National -League for Opposing Women's Suffrage) issued a Memorial to which she had -obtained the signatures of about 2,000 women war-workers, and sent it to -the press and to the Members of the House of Lords. - -Lord Bryce wrote to her in response (January 8, 1918): - - -"MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - Thank you for your admirable article and for the copy of the - Memorial, an effective reply to that of the Suffragist ladies. It - is an achievement to have secured so many signatures so - quickly--and this may be used effectively by Lord Balfour of - Burleigh, when he moves his Referendum Amendment. No one can yet - predict the result. Lord Loreburn will move the omission of the - earlier part of Clause IV to-morrow; and I suppose that if it is - defeated the Referendum issue will come next." - -There were a large number of distinguished Peers, including Lords -Loreburn, Weardale, Halsbury, Plymouth, and Finlay, who were pledged to -oppose "Clause IV," but the rock on whom the Anti-Suffragists chiefly -relied was Lord Curzon. He was President of the National League for -Opposing Women's Suffrage. He was an important member of the Government. -His advice would sway the votes of large numbers of docile Peers. He -had, however, sent Mrs. Ward a verbal message through her son, whom he -met in the House on December 18, that his position in the Government -would make it impossible for him to _vote_ against the Clause: he would -be obliged to abstain. Still he continued in active communication with -Mrs. Ward, giving advice on the tactics to be pursued, and on December -30, 1917, wrote her a letter in which, after expressing admiration for -her _Nineteenth Century_ article, he added the words: "A letter (if -possible with the article) to the Peers a few days before the Clause -comes under consideration may bring up a good many to vote, and after -all that is what you want for the moment." - -Lord Curzon gave no further warning to the Committee of the League that -he intended to pursue any different line of action from that recommended -here. It was still a question of "bringing the Peers up to vote," though -the Committee knew by this time that his own vote--on the formal ground -of his being Leader of the House of Lords--could not be given against -the Clause. What, then, was their astonishment, when on the decisive -day, January 10, 1918, after a speech in which Lord Curzon condemned the -principle of Women's Suffrage in unmeasured terms and announced that his -opposition to it was as strong as ever, he then turned to their -Lordships and advised them not to reject the Clause because it would -lead to a conflict with the other House "from which your Lordships would -not emerge with credit." The effect of the appeal was decisive; the -Clause passed the House of Lords by a majority of sixty-three. - -Thus fell the Anti-Suffrage edifice, and Mrs. Ward and her friends were -left to nurse their wrath against their leader. A somewhat lengthy -correspondence in the _Morning Post_ followed, the echoes of which have -long since died away, and Mrs. Ward retired soon afterwards to Stocks. -Thence she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, on March 14, her little valediction -on the Suffrage question: - - "Yes, I have had rather a bad time of headache and weariness - lately. The last lap of the Suffrage struggle was rather too much - for me. But I felt bound, under all the circumstances (I should not - have felt bound if the decision had been postponed till after the - War) as a patriot--or what I conceive to be a patriot--to fight to - the end, and I actually drafted the last amendment on which the - House of Lords voted. Well now, thank goodness, it is over, for a - while, though I see Mrs. Fawcett is still proposing to go on. Now - the question is what the women will do with their vote. I can only - hope that you and Mrs. Fawcett are right and that I am wrong." - -Nine months later, the General Election of December, 1918, gave women -the opportunity of echoing their Prime Minister's sentiments that the -Kaiser should be brought to trial and that Germany should pay for the -cost of the War. Mrs. Ward did not record her vote, for purely local -reasons, but she had by this time adopted an attitude of quite -benevolent neutrality on the merits of the question. She had fought her -fight squarely and openly, and had finally been defeated by a -combination of circumstances to which no combatant need have been -ashamed of succumbing. To some of those who worked with her and who -watched her endless consideration for friend and foe alike, in office -and committee-room, who admired the breadth and versatility of her mind -and who shared her belief in the "alternative policy" for which she so -eloquently pleaded, it seemed that the failure of the Anti-Suffrage -campaign lay at the door of those who obstructed her within her own -walls, who could not understand her call to women to be up and doing, -and who opposed a mere blind _No_ to the youth and hope of the Suffrage -crusade. - -Be that as it may, Mrs. Ward had no reason, in looking back, to be -otherwise than proud of her contribution to the great cause of women's -work and freedom in this country. From her earliest days she had -forwarded the cause of women's education. As her experience of life grew -ever richer and more pitiful she had pleaded with her sex, using all her -varied gifts of pen and speech, to give themselves, each in her degree, -to the service of her fellows, and of the children. Her own example was -never lacking to enforce the plea. Service, not "rights," was in effect -her watch-word. If she disbelieved in the efficacy of the vote to -achieve miracles, it was because she believed far more in the gradual -growth and efficacy of spiritual forces. The rule of the mob did not -attract her, especially if it were a female mob; she would have offered -it, instead, its fill of work and service. Perhaps it was too austere a -gospel for our day, and in the end she watched her country choose the -opposite path without bitterness, and even with some degree of hope. At -any rate she had done her part in laying before her countrywomen a -different ideal. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE OUTBREAK -OF WAR - - -Stocks, during the first sixteen years that Mrs. Ward inhabited it, was -a dear but provoking house. Built in 1772 by the Duncombe family, at the -expense of the earlier manor-house at the foot of the hill, it had been -added to in the mid-nineteenth century in a spirit of small economy, so -that the visitor as he drove up beheld an unlovely eastern side, with a -squalid porch jutting out into the drive and a mean little block of -"bachelors' rooms" joined on to the main Georgian building. Though Mrs. -Ward loved the southern and western sides of the house, the eastern side -was always an offence to her; she longed to tear down the porch and to -plan some simple scheme for unifying its whole aspect. After many -hesitations, the plunge was finally made in 1907. The family retired to -Stocks Cottage, the little house among the steep hanging woods of -Moneybury Hill where the Neville Lytteltons had stayed so many summers, -and thence watched the slow disintegration and rebuilding of the "big -house." For, of course, once the process was begun, three-quarters of -the Georgian structure was found to be in a state of decomposition, with -floors and ceilings that would have crumbled at another touch, so that -long before it was finished the visit to America had come and gone and -the Anti-Suffrage campaign was launched. When at length the new Stocks -could be inhabited, in the autumn of 1908, the alterations were -beautiful indeed, but had been expensive. There was thenceforward an -unknown burden in the way of upkeep which at times oppressed even Mrs. -Ward's buoyant spirit. - -And yet how she loved every inch of the place--house and garden -together--especially after this rebuilding, which stamped it so clearly -as her and her husband's twin possession. Whether in solitude or in -company, Stocks was to her the place of consolation which repaid her for -all the fatigues and troubles of her life. Not that she went to it for -rest, for the day's work there was often harder than it was in London, -but the little walks that she could take in the intervals of work, down -to the kitchen-garden, or up and down the lime-avenue, or through the -wood behind the house, brought refreshment to her spirit and helped her -to surmount the labours that for ever weighed upon her. Here it was that -the near neighbourhood of her cousins of "Barley End"--Mr. and Mrs. -Whitridge in summer and Lord and Lady Sandhurst in winter--meant so much -to her, for they could share these brief half-hours of leisure and give -her, in the precious intimacy of gossip, that relaxation which her mind -so sorely needed. Then, in summer, there were certain spots in the long -grass under the scattered beeches where wild strawberries grew and -multiplied; these gave her exquisite delight, bringing back to her the -hungry joys of her childhood, when she would seek and find the secret -strawberry-beds that grew on the outcrop of rock in Fox How garden. But -the more sybaritic delights of Stocks were very dear to her too--the -scent of hyacinths and narcissus that greeted her as she entered the -house at Christmas-time, or the banks of azalea placed there by Mr. -Keen, the incomparable head-gardener. Keen had already been at Stocks -for fifteen years before we came to it in 1892, and he lived to gather -the branches of wild cherry that decked his mistress's grave in 1920. In -summer he would work for fifteen hours a day, in spite of all that Mrs. -Ward could say to him; his simple answer was that he could not bear to -see his plants die for lack of watering. So Keen toiled at his garden, -and Mrs. Ward toiled at her books, her speeches and her correspondence, -each holding for the other the respect that only the toilers of this -world can know. - -Her habits of work when she was settled at Stocks were somewhat -peculiar, for method was not her strong point, and it often seemed as -though the day's quota was accomplished in a series of rushes rather -than in a steady approach and fulfilment. No breakfast downstairs at -8.30 and then a solid morning's work for her, but a morning beginning -often at 5.30 a.m., with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or -much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest -solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's -_Dix-huitième Siècle_," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton in August, 1908, -"comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary -with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as -usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should -be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough--and -there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before." - -Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and -though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before -breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, -or the _Agamemnon_, became gradually more precious to her than any other -fraction of the day. She was of course no scholar, in the ordinary -sense, and her "quantities" both in Greek and Latin frequently produced -a raucous cry from her husband, to whom the correct thing was, somehow, -second nature; but the literary sense in her responded with a thrill -both to the glories and the restraints of Greek verse, so that such a -passage as Clytemnestra's description of the beacons moved her with a -power that she could hardly explain to herself. The influence which -Greek tragedy had obtained upon her thought is well seen in the opening -chapter of _Diana Mallory_. - -Then, at eight o'clock, would come breakfast and post, and, with the -post, the first visits from the rest of us and the planning of the day's -events. Usually she did not appear downstairs till after ten, and if, as -so often happened, there were friends or relations staying in the house -she would linger talking with them for another half-hour before -disappearing finally into her writing-room. Then there would be a short -but intensive morning's work--sometimes wasted on Anti-Suffrage, as she -would wrathfully confess!--lunch and a brief interval for driving on the -Common or in Ashridge Park, after which work would begin again before -four o'clock and continue, with only a nominal break for tea, till well -after eight. She rarely returned to her task after dinner, for this -would infallibly bring on a bad night, and indeed the long spell in the -afternoon left her with little energy for anything but talk or silence -in the evening. - -Such, in approximate outline, was her day when nothing from outside -caused an unusual interruption, but life at Stocks seemed often fated to -consist of interruptions. First and foremost there might be guests in -the house, who must be taken for a picnic on the Ivinghoe Downs or on -Ringshall Common, or else there might be visitors from town on -business--the Warden of the Settlement, an American publisher, a -theatrical manager; telegrams would come up the drive from the little -village post-office (for the telephone was not installed till 1914), -while always and ever there was the tyranny of the post. One Sunday the -contribution of Stocks to the village post-bag was duly certified at -eighty-five letters, while forty to fifty was a very usual number. The -evening post left at 6.30, and not till this was out of the way could -Mrs. Ward enjoy that fragment of the day which she regarded as the best -for real work, when letters and all other interruptions were cleared -from the horizon. Her sitting-room was always a mass of papers, -wonderfully kept in order by Dorothy or Miss Churcher; but in spite of -the neatness of the packets, there would come days when the one letter -or sheet of manuscript that she wanted could _not_ be found, and the -house would resound with the clamour of the searchers. Indeed Mrs. Ward -could never be trusted to keep her small possessions, unaided, for very -long, for being entirely without pockets she was reduced to the -inevitable "little bag," which naturally spent much of its time down -cracks of chairs and in other occult places. When her advancing years -made spectacles necessary for reading and writing, these added another -complication to life, but fortunately there was always some willing -slave at hand to aid in recovering the lost--or rather her family would -half unconsciously arrange their days so that there should be some one. -Once she declared with pride to a friend that she had travelled home -_alone_ from Paris to London without mishap, but on inquiry it was found -that "alone" included the faithful Lizzie, and only meant that, for -once, neither husband nor daughter had accompanied her. - -Her letters to Mrs. Creighton during these years give many glimpses of -her life. - - "I am writing to you very early in the morning--6.30--," she wrote - on August 4, 1910, "a time when I often find one can get a _real_ - letter done, or a difficult bit of work. These weeks since the - middle of June have been unusually strenuous for me. Anti-Suffrage - has been a heavy burden, especially the effort to give the movement - a more constructive and positive side. Play Centres have been - steadily increasing, and there were three Vacation Schools to - organize. The Care Committees under the L.C.C. are beginning to - wake up to Play Centres, and lately I have had three applications - to start Centres in one week. Then I have also begun a new book - [_The Case of Richard Meynell_] and even completed and sent off the - first number. But I am very harassed about the book, which does not - lie clear before me by any means. Still, I have been able to read a - good deal--William James, and Tyrrell, and Claude Montefiore's book - on the Synoptics, and some other theology and history. - - "Life is _too_ crowded!--don't you feel it so? Every year brings - its fresh interests and claims, and one can't let go the old. Yet I - hope there may be time left for some resting, watching years at the - end of it all--when one may sit in the chimney corner, look on--and - think!" - -"Some resting, watching years"! The gods were indeed asleep when Mrs. -Ward breathed this prayer, or was it that they knew, better than she, -that life without toil would have been no life to her? - -Among the self-imposed labours which Mrs. Ward added to her burden -during the year 1910, was that of taking an active part in the two -General Elections of that _annus mirabilis_. Her son had been adopted as -Unionist candidate for the West Herts Division, in which Stocks lay, and -Mrs. Ward was so disgusted by what she conceived to be the violence and -unfairness of the leaflets issued by both sides that she decided to sit -down and write a series of her own, intended primarily for the villages -round Stocks and written in simple but persuasive language. These -"Letters to my Neighbours," as they were entitled, dealt with all the -burning questions of the day--the rejection of the Budget by the House -of Lords, Tariff Reform, the new Land Taxes, Home Rule for Ireland and -so forth; but their fame did not remain confined to the villages of West -Herts, but spread first to Sheffield and thence to many other great -towns and county divisions. Mrs. Ward was by this time a convinced -Tariff Reformer, and set forth the case in favour of Protection in lucid -and attractive style; she had learnt the way to do this in the course of -certain "Talks with Voters" which she had held in the little village -schoolroom at Aldbury and in which she had penetrated with her usual -sympathy and directness into the recesses of the rustic mind. The whole -thing was, of course, a direct attempt to influence public opinion on a -political issue, on the part of one who had no vote, and as such was not -missed by the sharp eye of Mrs. Fawcett. The Suffrage leader twitted -Mrs. Ward with her inconsistency in a speech to a Women's Congress in -the summer of 1910, drawing from Mrs. Ward a reply in _The Times_ which -showed that her withers were quite unwrung. Her contention was, in fact, -that the minority of women who cared about politics had as good a right -as anyone else to influence opinion, _if they could_, and would succeed -"as men succeed, in proportion to their knowledge, their energy and -their patience.... That a woman member of the National Union of -Teachers, that the wives and daughters of professional and working men, -that educated women generally, should try to influence the votes of male -voters towards causes in which they believe, seems to me only part of -the general national process of making and enforcing opinion." At any -rate in the village of Aldbury and far outside it, Mrs. Ward was -accepted as a "maker of opinion" because the people loved her, and -because at the end of her little "Talks with Voters" she never failed to -remind her hearers that the ballot was secret. Her son was duly elected -for West Herts--a result which Mrs. Ward could not be expected to take -with as much philosophy as Mrs. Dell, our village oracle, whose only -remark was, "Lumme, sech a fustle and a bustle! And when all's say and -do one's out and the other's in!" - -The election made Mrs. Ward more intimate than she had been before with -the village folk and with her county neighbours--amongst whom she had -many close friends--but her real delight still was to receive her -relations and friends, to stay in the house, and there to make much of -them. Among these her sister Ethel was a constant visitor, together with -her great friend Miss Williams-Freeman, whose knowledge of France and of -French people was always a delight to Mrs. Ward. Then there were those -whom she would beguile from London on shorter visits--so far as she -could afford the time to entertain them! Not every Sunday, by any means, -could she allow herself this pleasure, but her instinct for hospitality -was so strong that she stretched many points in this direction, paying -for her indulgence afterwards by a still harder "grind." There were -red-letter days when she persuaded her oldest friends of all, Mrs. T. H. -Green or the Arthur Johnsons, to uproot themselves from Oxford and come -to talk of all things in heaven and earth with her; Mrs. Creighton was -an annual visitor, usually for several days in the autumn; Miss Cropper, -of Kendal, and the Hugh Bells, of Rounton, were among the few whom Mrs. -Ward not only loved to have at Stocks, but with whom she in her turn -would go to stay, reviving in Westmorland and Yorkshire her love for the -North. Then there was Henry James, whose rarer visits made him each time -the more beloved, and with whom Mrs. Ward maintained all through these -years a correspondence which might have delighted posterity, but of -which he, alas, destroyed her share before he died. Many, too, were the -friends from the world of politics or journalism who found their way to -Stocks: Mr. Haldane and Alfred Lyttelton; Oakeley Arnold-Forster, her -cousin, whose career in the Unionist Cabinet was cut short by death in -1909; Sir Donald Wallace, the George Protheros and Mr. Chirol, and ever -and anon some friend from Italy or France--Count Ugo Balzani and his -daughters, Carlo Segrè or André Chevrillon, whose presence only made the -talk leap faster and more joyously. The sound and the flavour of their -talk is gone for ever, but the memory of those days, and of their -hostess, must still be green in the hearts of many. - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Young people, too, were always welcomed by Mrs. Ward, especially the -many nieces and nephews who were now growing up around her and who were -accustomed to look to Stocks almost as to a second home. Amongst these -were the whole Selwyn family, children of her sister Lucy, who had died -in 1894; both children and father (Dr. E. C. Selwyn, Headmaster of -Uppingham School) were very dear to Mrs. Ward and frequently came to -fill the house at Stocks. Two splendid sons of this family, Arthur -and Christopher, were to give up their lives in the War. Their -stepmother, who had been Mrs. Ward's favourite cousin on the Sorell -side, Miss Maud Dunn, occupied after her marriage a still more intimate -place in her affections. One little boy she had, George, to whom Mrs. -Ward was much attached for his quaint and serious character, but he too -was doomed to die in France, of influenza, in the last month of the War. - -That member of her own family, however, to whom Mrs. Ward was most -deeply attached, her sister Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), fell a victim -in the year 1908, at the age of only 46, to a swift and terrible form of -malignant disease. With her perished not only the gifted foundress of -the great girls' school at Priors' Field, but Mrs. Ward's most intimate -friend--the person with whom she shared all joys and sorrows, and whom -it was an ever-new delight to receive at Stocks, with her brood of -brilliant children. She had been amongst the first guests to visit the -house in 1892; she was there within two months of her death in 1908. -Such a shock went very deep with Mrs. Ward, but she spent herself all -the more in devotion to "Judy's" children, whom she loved next to her -own and who had always, since their babyhood, spent a large part of each -year's holidays at Stocks. And they on their side were not ashamed to -return her affection. Julian and Trevenen, Aldous and Margaret became to -her almost a second family, leaning on her and loving and chaffing her -as only the keen-witted children of a house know how to do. - -For if Stocks was a Paradise to the tired week-end visitor from London, -or to the stalwart young ones who could play cricket or tennis on its -lawns, it was still more the Paradise of little children. Mrs. Ward was -never really happy unless there were children in the house, the younger -the better, and one of the joys of the re-building was that it provided -her, on the transformed eastern side, with a pair of nurseries which -only asked thenceforward to be tenanted. Her grandchildren, Mary, -Theodore and Humphry, were naturally the most frequent tenants, and -there accumulated a store of ancient treasures to which they looked -forward with unfailing joy each time that they returned. Usually, too, -they found that "Gunny" (as they had early christened her) had -surreptitiously added to the store during their absence, which was -unorthodox, but pleasant. How she loved to fill their red mouths with -strawberries or grapes, to hear their voices on the stairs, or their -shrill shrieks as they played hide-and-seek on the lawn with some -captive grown-up! The two elders, Mary and Theodore, paid her a visit -every morning, with the regularity of clockwork, just as her -breakfast-tray arrived, and then sat on the bed, with sly, expectant -faces, waiting for the execution of the egg--a drama that was performed -each day with a prescribed ritual, varying only in the intensity of the -egg's protests against decapitation. The invaders usually ended by -consuming far more than their share of Gunny's breakfast. And as they -grew in stature and delightsomeness, Mrs. Ward became only the more -devoted to them, till when Theo was four and Mary five and a half, they -would pay for their 'bits of egg' by show performances of _Horatius_, -declaiming it there on the big bed till the room re-echoed with their -noise. Or else they would act the coming of King Charles into the House -of Commons in search of the five members, Mary being the Speaker and -Theo the disgruntled King, or, now and then, descend to modern politics -by singing her derisive ditties such as-- - - "Tariff Reform means work for all, - Work for all, work for all; - Tariff Reform means work for all, - Chopping up wood in the Workhouse." - -"Gunny" would become quite limp with laughing at the wickedness and -point which Theodore would throw into the singing of this song, for the -rascal knew full well that she had succumbed to what Mrs. Dell, after a -village meeting, had christened "Tarridy-form." - -Whenever one of their long visits to Stocks came to an end, Mrs. Ward -would be most disconsolate. "_How_ I miss the children," she wrote to J. -P. T. in January, 1911, "--it is quite foolish. I can never pass the -nursery door without a pang." Three months later, while she was staying -at an Italian villa in the Lucchese hills, the news fell upon her that -the beloved grandson whose every look and gesture was to her "an -embodied joy," would be hers no longer. He had died beside the sea, - - ...φἱη ἑν πατÏἱδι γαἱη, - -and the fells which stand around the little church in the Langdale -valley looked down upon another grave. - -It was long before Mrs. Ward could surmount this grief. That summer -(1911) she was busied with the organization of her Playgrounds for the -thousands upon thousands of London children who had no Stocks to play -in. - - "Sometimes," she wrote, "when I think of the masses of London - children I have been going through I seem to imagine him beside me, - his eager little hand in mine, looking at the dockers' children, - ragged, half-starved, disfigured, with his grave sweet eyes, eyes - so full already of humanity and pity. Is it so that his spirit - lives with us--the beloved one--part for ever of all that is best - in us, all that is nearest to God, in whom, I must believe, he - lives." - -During these years between her visit to America and the outbreak of War, -Mrs. Ward produced no less than six novels, including the two on America -and Canada which we have already mentioned. She also issued, in the -autumn of 1911, with Mr. Reginald Smith's help and guidance, the -"Westmorland Edition" of her earlier books (from _Miss Bretherton_ to -_Canadian Born_), contributing to them a series of critical and -autobiographical Prefaces which, as the _Oxford Chronicle_ said, "to a -great extent disarm criticism because in them Mrs. Ward appears as her -own best critic." Time and again, in these Introductions, we find her -seizing upon the weak point in her characters or her constructions: how -_Robert Elsmere_ "lacks irony and detachment," how _David Grieve_ is -"didactic in some parts and amateurish in others," how in _Sir George -Tressady_ Marcella "hovers incorporate and only very rarely finds her -feet." This candour made the new edition all the more acceptable to her -old admirers, and set the critics arguing once more on their old theme, -as to whether Mrs. Ward possessed or not a sense of humour. If it may be -permitted to one so near to her to venture an opinion on this point, it -is that Mrs. Ward, like all those who possess the ardent temperament, -the will to move the world, worked first and foremost by the methods of -direct attack rather than by the subtler shafts of humour; but no one -could live beside her, especially in these years of her maturity, -without falling under the spell of something which, if not humour, was -at least a vivid gift of "irony and detachment," asserting itself -constantly at the expense of herself and her doings and finding its way, -surely, into so many of her later books. Her minor characters are -usually instinct with it; they form the chorus, or the "volley of -silvery laughter" for ever threatening her too ardent heroes from the -Meredithian "spirit up aloft," and show that she herself is by no means -totally carried away by the ardours she creates. My own feeling is that -this gift of "irony and detachment" grew stronger with the years, -perhaps as the original motive force grew weaker, and though she -maintained to the end her unconquerable fighting spirit, as shown in her -struggle against the Suffrage and her keen interest in politics, these -things were crossed more frequently by humorous returns upon herself -which made her all the more delightful to those who knew her well. And -in the little things of life, no one was ever more easy to move to -helpless laughter over her own foibles. When she had bought no less than -five hats for her daughter on a motor-drive from Stocks to London--"on -spec, darling, at horrid little cheap shops in the Edgware Road"--or -when at Cadenabbia, she had actually sallied forth _unattended_ in order -to buy a pair of the peasants' string shoes, and had gone through a -series of harrowing adventures, no one who heard her tell the tale could -doubt that she was richly endowed with the power of laughing at herself. -In her writings she was, perhaps, a little sensitive about the point. - - "_Am_ I so devoid of humour?" she wrote to Mr. Reginald Smith, in - September, 1911. "I was looking at _David Grieve_ again the other - day--surely there is a good deal that is humorous there. And if I - may be egotistical and repeat them, I heard such pleasing things - about _David_ from Lord Arran in Dublin the other day. He knows it - absolutely by heart, and he says that when he was campaigning in - South Africa two battered copies of _David_ were read to pieces by - him and his brother-officers, and every night they discussed it - round the camp fires." - -The inference being, no doubt, that a set of hard-bitten British -officers would hardly have wasted their scanty leisure on a book that -totally lacked the indispensable national ingredient. - -The last novel with a definitely religious tendency to which Mrs. Ward -set her hand was her well-known sequel to _Robert Elsmere_, the "Case" -of the Modernist clergyman, Richard Meynell. It was by far the most -considerable work of her later years and represented the fruit of her -ripest meditations on the evolution of religious thought and practice in -the twenty years that had elapsed since _Robert's_ day. Ever since the -Loisy case she had been deeply possessed by the literature of Modernism, -seeing in it the force which would, she believed, in the end regenerate -the churches. - - "What interests and touches me most, in religion, at the present - moment," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, in September, 1907, "is - Liberal Catholicism. It has a bolder freedom than anything in the - Anglican Church, and a more philosophic and poetic outlook. It - seems to me at any rate to combine the mystical and scientific - powers in a wonderful degree. If I only could believe that it would - last, and had a future!" - -She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrell, of Bergson and of -William James during these years, but while she allowed herself, -perhaps, as time went on, a more mystical interpretation of the Gospel -narratives, she was still as convinced as ever of the necessity for -historical criticism. - - -_To J. P. T._ - -"VALESCURE, -"_Easter Day, 1910_. - -..."It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been - reading William James on this very point--the worth of being - alive--and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the - Maries. I more and more believe that the whole resurrection story, - as a story, arose from the transference of the body by the - Romans--at Jewish bidding, no doubt--to a hidden sepulchre to avoid - a local cult. The vacant grave seems to me historic fact,--next to - it, the visions in Galilee, perhaps springing from _one_ vivid - dream of a disciple such as I had both of my father and mother - after their deaths--and then theology, and poetry, environment and - inherited belief did the rest. Yet what an amazing thing the rest - is, and how impossible to suppose that it--or any other great - religion--means nothing in the scheme of things." - -She had been much excited, also, by the instances of revolt in a Liberal -direction which were occurring at this time within the English Church, -such as that of Mr. Thompson of Magdalen; and so, out of these various -elements, she wove her tale of _Richard Meynell_. When she was already -deep in the writing of the book she came, quite by chance, upon a -country parish in Cheshire where a similar drama was going on. - - -_To Reginald Smith_ - -"STOCKS, -"_October 11, 1910_. - -..."I have returned home a great deal better than when I went, I am - glad to say. And on Sunday I heard Meynell preach!--in Alderley - church, in the person of Mr. Hudson Shaw. An astonishing sermon, - and a crowded congregation. 'I shall not in future read the - Athanasian Creed, or the cursing psalms or the Ten Commandments, or - the Exhortation at the beginning of the Marriage Service--and I - shall take the consequences. The Baptismal Service ought to be - altered--so ought the Burial Service. And how you, the laity, can - tolerate us--the clergy--standing up Sunday after Sunday and saying - these things to you, I cannot understand. But I for one will do it - no more, happen what may.' - - "I really felt that _Richard Meynell_ was likely to be in the - movement!" - -Richard Meynell, as the readers of this book will remember, makes -himself the leader of a crusade for modernizing and re-vivifying the -services of the Church, in accordance with the new preaching of "the -Christ of to-day,"--finds his message taken up by hundreds of his fellow -priests and hundreds of thousands of eager souls throughout the -country,--comes into collision with the higher powers of the Church, -takes his trial in the Court of Arches, and, when the inevitable -judgment goes against him, leaves us, on a note of hope, carrying his -appeal to the Privy Council, to Parliament and to the people of England. -The whole book is written in a vein of passionate inspiration--save for -the few touches, here and there, which convey the note of irony or -contemplation--; the reader may disagree, but he cannot help being -carried away, for the time at least, by the infectious enthusiasm of -Meynell and his movement. - - * * * * * - -"Perhaps the strongest impression," declared one of the reviewers, "at -once the most striking and the most profound, created by _The Case of -Richard Meynell_, is its religious optimism. One finds oneself -marvelling how any writer, in so sceptical an age as this, can picture a -Modernist religious movement with so inspired, so fervent a pen, as to -kindle a factitious flame even in hearts grown cold to religious -inspiration and to religious hope." - - * * * * * - -Others, again, pronounced the book to be, on the whole, a failure. "And -yet," said the _Dublin Review_, "there is a certain force in Mrs. -Humphry Ward that enables her to push her defective machine into motion; -_Richard Meynell_ is the work of a forcible, if tired, imagination. This -fact may be wrong, and that detail ugly, and another phrase offensive to -the sense of the ridiculous; but as a whole it ranks higher than many -and many a production that is lightly touched in and delicately edged -with satire. Spiritual sufferings, a yearning after truth, -self-restraint, revolt, the helpless wish to aid those who will not be -helped, the texture of fine souls, such things are brought home to us in -_Richard Meynell_. This is not done by the vitality of the author's -personages, for they never wholly escape from bondage to the main -intention of the book, but it is done by contact with a remarkable mind -tuned to fine issues." - -The reappearance of Catherine Elsmere, far less overwhelming and more -attractive than in the earlier book, endeared this tale to all who -remembered Robert's wife; her death in the little house in Long Sleddale -where Robert had first found her was felt to be a masterpiece that Mrs. -Ward had never surpassed. - -The writer did not disguise from herself and her friends that she looked -forward with unusual interest to the reception of this book. Would it in -truth find itself "in the movement"? Would it kindle into a flame the -dull embers of religious faith and freedom? - - "What I should like to do this winter," she wrote to Mrs. - Creighton, in September, 1911 (six weeks before the book's - appearance), "is to write a volume of imaginary 'Sermons and - Journals of Richard Meynell,' going in detail into many of the - points only touched in the book. If the book has the great success - the publishers predict, I could devote myself to handling in - another form some of the subjects that have been long in my mind. - But of course it may have no such success at all. I sometimes think - that, as Mr. Holmes maintains in his extraordinarily interesting - book,[33] the church teaching of the last twenty years has gone a - long way towards paganizing England--together of course with the - increase of wealth and hurry." - -These "Sermons and Journals of Richard Meynell" were, however, never -written. The book certainly aroused interest and even controversy in -England, but it did not sweep the country and set all tongues wagging, -as _Elsmere_ had done, while in America the populace refused to be -roused by what they regarded as the domestic affairs of the English -Church. Mrs. Ward never spoke of Meynell's reception as a -disappointment, but she must have felt it so, and within six months of -its appearance she was at work, as usual, upon its successor. - -Yet a piece of work which brought her two such letters as the following -(amongst many others) cannot be said to have gone unrewarded:-- - - -_From Frederic Harrison_ - - "I am one of those to whom your book specially appeals, as I know - so much of the literature, the persons, the questions it dealt - with. It has given me the most lively interest both as romance--as - fine as anything since _Adam Bede_--and also as controversy--as - important as anything since _Essays and Reviews_. Meynell seems to - me a far higher type than Elsmere, both as a man and as a book, and - I am sure will have a greater permanent value--even if its - popularity for the hour is not so rapid--for it appeals to a higher - order of reader, and is of a larger kind of art." - - -_From André Chevrillon_ - - "On est heureux d'y retrouver ce qui nous a paru si longtemps une - des principales caractéristiques de la littérature anglaise: ce - sentiment de la beauté morale, cette émotion devant la qualité de - la conduite qui prennent par leur intensité même une valeur - esthétique. C'est la tradition de vos écrivains les plus anglais, - celle des Browning, des Tennyson, des George Eliot. Elle fait la - portée et l'originalité des Å“uvres de cette époque victorienne, - contre laquelle on a l'air, malheureusement, d'être en réaction en - Angleterre aujourd'hui--réaction que je ne crois pas durable--qui - cessera dès que le recule sera suffisant pour que la force et la - grandeur de cette littérature apparaisse. - - "Le problème religieux que vous posez là est vital, et la solution - que vous y prévoyez dans votre pays, cette possibilité d'un - christianisme évolué, adapté, qui conserverait les formes anciennes - avec leur puissance si efficace de prestige, tout en attribuant de - plus en plus aux vieilles formules, aux vieux rites une valeur de - symbole--cette solution est celle que l'on peut espérer du - protestantisme, lequel est relativement peu cristalisé et peut - encore évoluer. Même dans l'anglicanisme la part de - l'interprétation personnelle a toujours été assez grande. J'ai peur - que l'avenir de la religion soit plus douteux dans ceux des pays - catholiques où la culture est avancée. Nous sommes là comme des - vivants liés à des cadavres, ou comme des grandes personnes que - l'on astreindrait au régime de la _nursery_. Les mêmes formules, - les mêmes articles de foi, le même catéchisme, les mêmes - interprétations, doivent servir à la fois à des peuple de mentalité - encore primitive et semi-païenne et à des sociétés aussi - intellectuelles et civilisées que la nôtre. Nous n'avons le choix - qu'entre le culte des reliques, la foi aux eaux miraculeuses, et - l'agnosticisme pur, ou du moins, une religiosité amorphe, sans - système ni discipline." - -The writing of _Richard Meynell_ left Mrs. Ward very tired, and all the -next year (1912) she "puddled along" as Mrs. Dell would have put it, -accomplishing her tasks with all her old devotion, but suffering from -sleeplessness and knowing that the novel of that year, _The Mating of -Lydia_, was not really up to standard. Mr. Ward, too, fell ill, and -remained in precarious health for the next four years, which gravely -added to his wife's anxieties. The burdens of life pressed upon her, -while the maintenance of her Play Centres seemed sometimes an almost -impossible addition. Italy was still the best restorative for all these -ills. Every spring she fled across the Alps, enjoying a week or two of -holiday and then settling, with her daughter, in some Villa where she -might work undisturbed. In 1909 she went for the last time to the Villa -Bonaventura at Cadenabbia, the place which was to her, I think, the -high-water mark of earthly bliss. This time her stay was marked by one -long-remembered day--a flying visit paid her from Milan by Contessa -Maria Pasolini, the friend for whom, amongst all her Italian -aquaintance, Mrs Ward felt the strongest devotion. She could watch her, -or listen to her talk, for hours with unfailing delight; for she seemed -to embody in herself both the wisdom and the charm, the age and the -youth, of Italy. It was a friendship worthy of two noble spirits. Never -again was Mrs. Ward able to rise to the Villa Bonaventura, but she -explored other parts of Italy with almost equal delight, settling at the -Villa Pazzi, outside Florence, in April, 1910, at a bare but fascinating -Villa in the Lucchese hills in the next year, and in a fragment of a -palace on the Grand Canal in 1912. It was during this stay in Venice -that Mr. Reginald Smith obtained for her, from Mr. Pen Browning, -permission to camp and work in the empty Rezzonico Palace, a privilege -which she greatly valued and which gave her many romantic hours. While -savouring thus the delights of Venice she was enabled, too, to witness -the formal inauguration of the new-built Campanile, watching the -splendid ceremony from a seat in the Piazzetta. - - "Venice has been delirious to-day," she wrote to Reginald Smith on - St. Mark's Day, April 25, "and the inauguration of the Campanile - was really a most moving sight. 'Il Campanile è morto--viva il - Campanile!' The letting loose of the pigeons--the first sound of - the glorious bells after these ten years of silence--the thousands - of children's voices--the extraordinary beauty of the setting--the - splendour of the day--it was all perfect, and one feels that Italy - may well be proud." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Her great relaxation during all these sojourns, but especially during a -stay of six weeks at Rydal Mount during the autumn of 1911, was to play -with brushes and paint, for she had skill enough in the problems of -colour and line to throw off all other cares in their pursuit, while her -inevitable imperfections only spurred her to fresh efforts. Dorothy -would call it her "public-house," for she could not keep away from it -and would exhaust herself, sometimes, in the pursuit of the ideal, -but the results were full of charm and are much treasured by their few -possessors. - - * * * * * - -In 1913, as though to confound her critics, Mrs. Ward produced the book -which contained, perhaps, the most brilliant character-drawing that she -had ever attempted--_The Coryston Family_. She was pleased with its -success, which was indeed needed to reassure her, for at this time -occurred some serious losses, not of her making, which had to be faced, -and, if possible, repaired. She was already sixty-two and her health, as -we know, was more than precarious, but she set herself to work perhaps -harder than ever. "Courage!" she wrote in July 1913, "and perhaps this -time next year, if we are all well, the clouds will have rolled away." - -When that time came, when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand had been -murdered at Serajevo and we in England, no less than the Serbian peasant -and the French _piou-piou_, found ourselves face to face with a horror -never known before, the crisis found Mrs. Ward at a low ebb of health -and spirits. Attacks of giddiness led the doctors to pronounce that she -was suffering from "heart fatigue." Mr. Ward's illness had increased -rather than diminished; Stocks was abandoned for a time (though to a -charming tenant and a sister novelist, Mrs. Wharton), and the three had -migrated to a small and unattractive house in Fifeshire, where Mrs. Ward -applied herself once more to writing. There the blow fell. Her first -reaction to it was one of mere revolt, a cry of blind human misery. -"What madness is it that drives men to such horrors?--not for great -causes, but for dark diplomatic and military motives only understood by -the ruling class, and for which hundreds of thousands will be sent to -their death like sheep to the slaughter! Germany, Russia and Austria -seem to me all equally criminal." Then, as the news came rolling in, -from the "dark motives" there seemed to detach itself one clear, -stabbing thought. France! France invaded, perhaps overwhelmed! - -"To me she is still the France of Taine, and Renan, and Pasteur, of an -immortal literature, and a history that, blood-stained as it is, makes a -page that humanity could ill spare. No, I am with her, heart and soul, -and to see her wiped out by Germany would put out for me one of the -world's great lights." - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about the Germans, before the thunderbolt of 1914, -had been one of sincere respect and admiration for a nation of patient -brain-workers who, she believed, were honest with the truth, and had -delved farther into certain obscure fields of history in which she -herself was deeply interested than any of their contemporaries. But her -acquaintance with Germany was a book-acquaintance only. She had indeed -paid one or two visits to the Rhine and to South Germany during her -married life, and had been astonished to mark, in 1900, the growth of -wealth and prosperity in the Rhine towns, due, she was told, to -scientific protection and to the skilful use of the French indemnity. -But she had no personal friendships with Germans, and her knowledge of -their state of mind was derived only from books and newspapers and the -reports of others. Still, these had become disquieting enough, as all -the world remembers, between 1911 and 1914, but Mrs. Ward clung to the -optimistic view that the hatred and envy of England, so apparent in -German newspaper writing, was but the creed of a clique, and that the -heart of the laborious and thrifty German people was still sound. In -April, 1913, a delegation of German Professors came over to London to -take part in a historical congress; Mrs. Ward willingly assisted in -entertaining them, giving a large evening party in their honour at -Grosvenor Place. Perhaps the atmosphere was already a little strained, -but we mustered our forgotten German as best we might, and flattered -ourselves at the end that things had not gone badly. Little more than a -year afterwards the names of nearly all our guests were to be found in -the manifesto of the ninety-three German Professors--the pronouncement -which above all others in those grim days stirred Mrs. Ward's -indignation. She expressed her sense of the "bitter personal -disillusionment which I, and so many Englishmen and Englishwomen, have -suffered since this war began," in a Preface which she wrote, in 1916, -to the German edition of _England's Effort_--an edition which was -intended for circulation in German Switzerland, but found its way also, -as we afterwards heard, to a good many centres within Germany itself: - - "We were lifelong lovers and admirers of a Germany which, it seems - now, never really existed except in our dreams. In the article 'A - New Reformation,' which I published in the _Nineteenth Century_ in - 1889, in answer to Mr. Gladstone's critique of _Robert Elsmere_, - and in many later utterances, I have rendered whole-hearted homage - to that critical and philosophical Germany which I took to be the - real Germany, and hailed as the home of liberal and humane ideas. - And now! In that amazing manifesto of the German Professors at the - opening of the War, there were names of men--that of Adolf Harnack, - for instance--which had never been mentioned in English scholarly - circles before August, 1914, except with sympathy and admiration, - even by those who sharply differed from the views they represented. - We held them to be servants of truth, incapable therefore of - acquiescence in a tyrannous lie. We held them also to be scholars, - incapable therefore of falsifying facts and ignoring documents in - their own interest. But in that astonishing manifesto, not only was - the cry of Belgium wholly repulsed, but those very men who had - taught Europe to respect evidence and to deal scrupulously with - documents, when it was a question of Classical antiquity, or early - Christianity, now, when it was a question of justifying the crime - of their country, of defending the Government of which they were - the salaried officials, threw evidence and documents to the winds. - How many of those who signed the professorial manifesto had ever - read the British White Paper, and the French Yellow Book, or, if - they had read them, had ever given to those damning records of - Germany's attack on Europe, and of the vain efforts of the Allies - to hold her back, one fraction of that honest and impartial study - of which a newly discovered Greek inscription, or a fragment of a - lost Gospel, would have been certain at their hands?" - -It was this feeling of the betrayal of high standards and ideals which -had meant much to her in earlier life, coupled with the emergence of a -native ferocity unguessed before (for _we_ had not lived through 1870), -that went so deep with Mrs. Ward. But there were at least no personal -friendships to break. With France, on the other hand, her ties had, as -we know, been close and intimate from the beginning, so that her heart -went out to the trials and agonies of her French friends with a peculiar -poignancy. M. Chevrillon, her principal correspondent, gave her in a -series of letters, from November, 1914, onwards, a wonderful picture of -the sufferings, the heroisms and the moods of France; she replied--to -this lover of Meredith!--with her reading of the English scene: - - -"STOCKS, -"_November 23, 1914_. - - "We are indeed no less absorbed in the War than you. And yet, - perhaps, there is not that _unrelenting_ pressure on nerve and - recollection in this country, 'set in the silver sea' and so far - inviolate, which there must be for you, who have this cruel and - powerful enemy at your gates and in your midst, and can never - forget the fact for a moment. That, of course, is the explanation - of the recent slackening of recruiting here. The classes to whom - education and social life have taught imagination are miserable and - shamed before these great football gatherings, which bring no - recruits--'but my people do not understand, and Israel doth not - consider. They have eyes and see not; ears have they but they hear - not.' One little raid on the East Coast--a village burnt, a few - hundred men killed on English soil--then indeed we should see an - England in arms. Meanwhile, compared with any England we have ever - seen, it _is_ an England in arms. Every town of any size has its - camp, the roads are full of soldiers, and they are billeted in our - houses. No such sight, of course, has ever been seen in our day. - And yet how quickly one accustoms oneself to it, and to all the - other accompaniments of war! The new recruits are mostly excellent - material. Dorothy and I motored over early one morning last week to - Aston Clinton Park to see the King inspect a large gathering of - recruits. It was a beautiful morning, with the misty Chilterns - looking down upon the wide stretches of the park, and the bodies of - drilling men. The King must have been up early, for he had - inspected the camp at ten (thirty-five miles from London) and was - in the park by eleven. There was no ceremony whatever, and only a - few neighbours and children looking on. It had been elaborately - announced that he would inspect troops that day in Norfolk! The men - were only in the early stages, but they were mostly of fine - physique--miners from Northumberland a great many of them. The - difficulty is officers. They have to accept them now, either so - young, or so elderly! And these well-to-do workmen of twenty-five - or thirty don't like being ordered about by lads of nineteen. But - the lads of nineteen are shaping, too, very fast. - - "We are so sorry for your poor niece, and for all the other - sufferers you tell us of. I have five nephews fighting, and of - course innumerable friends. Arnold is in Egypt with his Yeomanry. - One dreads to open _The Times_, day after day. The most tragic loss - I know so far is that of the Edward Cecils' only boy--grandson of - the late Lord Salisbury, and Admiral Maxse, the Beauchamp of - _Beauchamp's Career_. I saw him last as a delightful chattering boy - of eleven--so clever, so handsome, just what Beauchamp might have - been at his age! He was missing on September 2, and was only - announced as killed two days ago." - -The first year and a half of the War was a time of great anxiety and -strain for Mrs. Ward, both in the literary and the practical fields. -Besides her unremitting literary work she pushed through, by means of -the "Joint Advisory Committee," an exhaustive inquiry into the working -of the existing system of soldiers' pensions and pressed certain -recommendations, as a result, upon the War Office; she was confronted by -a partial falling-off in the subscriptions to her Play Centres, and was -obliged to introduce economies and curtailments which cost her much -anxious thought; she converted the Settlement into a temporary hostel -for Belgian Refugees; and, above all, she carried through, between -October, 1914, and the summer of 1915, a complete reorganization of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement, converting it from a men's into a women's -settlement. There were many reasons, even apart from the growing -pressure on men of military age to enlist in the New Armies, which had -for some time made such a change desirable in the eyes of Mrs. Ward and -of a majority of the Council; chief among these being the need for a -body of trained voluntary workers to carry out, for St. Pancras, the -mass of social legislation that had been passed since the foundation of -the Settlement, and to take their part in the work of School Care -Committees, Schools for Mothers and so forth. Male Residents, being -occupied with their own work during the day, were not available for such -things; but amongst women it was believed that a body possessing -sufficient leisure and enthusiasm for social service to make a real mark -in the life of the neighbourhood, would not be difficult to find. The -change was not accomplished without strenuous opposition from the -existing Warden and some of the Residents, but Mrs. Ward went -methodically to work, getting the Council to appoint a Committee with -powers to inquire and report. She found also that her old friend and -supporter, the Duke of Bedford, was strongly in favour of the change, -and would be ready to provide, for three years, about two-thirds of the -annual sum required for the maintenance of a Women's Settlement. This -argument was decisive, and the Council finally adopted the Report of the -Special Committee in May, 1915. Mrs. Ward had the happiness of seeing, -during the remaining years of the War, her hopes for the usefulness of -the new venture very largely fulfilled, under the able guidance of Miss -Hilda Oakeley, who was appointed Warden of the Settlement in August, -1915. - -Meanwhile, Mrs. Ward felt herself in danger of seeing her usual means of -livelihood cut from beneath her feet during this first period of the -War. For one result of the vast upheaval in our social conditions was -that the circulation of all novels went down with a run, and it was not -until the War had made a certain dismal routine of its own, in the needs -of hospitals, munition-centres, soldiers' and officers' clubs and the -like, that the national taste for the reading of fiction reasserted -itself. Till then Mrs. Ward relied mainly on her American public, which -was still untouched; but the pressure of work was never for an instant -relaxed, and fortunately she still found her greatest solace and relief -from present cares in the writing of books. "I never felt more inclined -to spin tales, which is a great comfort," she wrote in January, 1915, -but as yet she could not face the thought of weaving the War into their -fabric, and took refuge instead in the summer of that year in the making -of a story of Oxford life, as she had known it in her youth--an -occupation that gave her a quiet joy, providing a "wind-warm space" into -which she could retreat from the horrors of the outer world. The -compulsory retrenchments of the War years came also to her aid, in -reducing the _personnel_ employed at Stocks, while Stocks itself was -usually let in the summer and Grosvenor Place in the winter; but still -the struggle was an arduous one, leaving its mark upon her in the -growing whiteness of her hair, the growing fragility and pallor of her -look. Sleeplessness became an ever greater difficulty in these years, -but on the other hand her old complaint in the right side had grown less -troublesome, so that standing and walking were more possible than of -old. Had it not been for this improvement she would have been physically -incapable of carrying out the task laid upon her, swiftly and -unexpectedly, in January, 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt wrote to her -from Oyster Bay to beg her to tell America what England was doing in the -War. - - -_December 27, 1915._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The War has been, on the whole, well presented in America from the - French side. We do not think justice has been done to the English - side. I attribute this in part to the rather odd working of the - censorship in hands not accustomed to the censorship. I wish that - some writer like yourself could, in a series of articles, put - vividly before our people what the English people are doing, what - the actual life of the men in the trenches is, what is actually - being done by the straight and decent capitalist, who is not - concerned with making a profit, but with serving his country, and - by the straight and decent labouring man, who is not thinking of - striking for higher wages, but is trying to help his comrades in - the trenches. What I would like our people to visualize is the - effort, the resolution and the self-sacrifice of the English men - and women who are determined to see this war through. Just at - present England is in much the same strait that we were in in our - Civil War toward the end of 1862, and during the opening months of - 1863. That was the time when we needed to have our case put before - the people of England--when men as diverse as Gladstone, Carlyle - and the after-time Marquis of Salisbury were all strongly against - us. There is not a human being more fitted to present this matter - as it should be presented than you are. I do hope you will - undertake the task. - -Faithfully yours, -THEODORE ROOSEVELT. - -The letter reached Mrs. Ward at Stocks on Monday, January 10, 1916, by -the evening post. She felt at once that she must respond to such a call, -though the manner of doing so was still dim to her. But she consulted -her friends, C. F. G. Masterman and Sir Gilbert Parker, at "Wellington -House" (at that time the Government Propaganda Department), and found -that they took Mr. Roosevelt's letter quite as seriously as she did -herself. They showed her specimens of what the American papers were -saying about England, her blunders, her slackers and her shirkers, till -Mrs. Ward thrilled to the task and felt a longing to be up and at it. -The next step was to see Sir Edward Grey (then Foreign Minister), to -whom she had also sent a copy of the letter. He asked her to come to his -house in Eccleston Square, whither accordingly she went early on January -20. - - "They showed me into the dining-room," she wrote to J. P. T., "and - he came down to say that he had asked Lord Robert Cecil and Sir - Arthur Nicolson to come too, and that they were upstairs. So then - we went into his library sitting-room, a charming room full of - books, and there were the other two. They all took Roosevelt's - letter very seriously, and there is no question but that I must do - my best to carry it out. I simply felt after Edward Grey had spoken - his mind that, money or no money, strength or fatigue, I was under - orders and must just go on. I said that I should like to go to - France, just for the sake of giving some life and colour to the - articles--and that a novelist could not work from films, however - good. They agreed. - - "'And would you like to have a look at the Fleet?' said Lord - Robert. - - "I said that I had not ventured to suggest it, but that of course - anything that gave picturesqueness and novelty--i.e. a woman being - allowed to visit the Fleet--would help the articles. - - "I gave a little outline of what I proposed, beginning with the - unpreparedness of England. On that Edward Grey spoke at some - length--the utter absence of any wish for war in this country, or - thought of war. Even those centres that had suffered most from - German competition had never thought of war. No one wished for it. - I thought of his long, long struggle for peace. It was pathetic to - hear him talking so simply--with such complete conviction. - - "I was rather more than half an hour with them. Sir Edward took me - downstairs, said it was 'good of me' to be willing to undertake it, - and I went off feeling the die was cast." - -A luncheon with Mr. Lloyd George--then Minister of Munitions--who gladly -offered her every possible facility for seeing the great -munition-centres that had by that time altered the face of England, and -the plan for carrying out her task began to shape itself in her mind. A -tour of ten days or so through the principal munition-works, ranging -from Birmingham to the Clyde, then a dash to the Fleet, lying in the -Firth of Cromarty, then south once more and across the Straits to see -the "back of the Army" in France. It may be imagined what busy -co-ordination of arrangements was necessary between the Ministry of -Munitions, the Admiralty and the War Office, before all the details of -the tour were settled, but by the aid of "Wellington House" all was -hustled through in a short time, so that Mrs. Ward was off on her round -of the great towns by January 31. To her, of course, the human interest -of the scene was the all-important thing--the spectacle of the mixture -of classes in the vast factories, the high-school mistresses, the -parsons, the tailors' and drapers' assistants handling their machines -as lovingly as the born engineers--the enormous sheds-full of women and -girls of many diverse types working together with one common impulse, -and protesting against the cutting down of their twelve hours' day! She -was taken everywhere and shown everything (accompanied this time by Miss -Churcher), seeing in the space of ten days the munition-works at -Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and -the Clyde. Then she returned home for a few days, to fix her impressions -in an ordered mass of notes, before leaving again on February 15 for the -far north, armed with an Admiralty permit and an invitation from Sir -John Jellicoe to spend a couple of nights in his house at Invergordon. - -It was, of course, an unheard-of thing for a woman to visit the Fleet in -war-time, but, once the barriers passed, the sailors were so glad to see -her! Withdrawn from the common life in their iron, sleepless world, they -welcomed this break in their routine as much as she did the chance it -gave her of a wholly unique experience. She told the tale of her -adventures both in a letter to Mr. Ward and in notes written down at the -time: - - -"_February 16, 1916._ - - "Such a journey! Heavy snow-storm in the night, and we were held up - for three hours on the highest part of the line between Kingussie - and Aviemore. But at Invergordon a group of naval officers - appeared. A great swell [Sir Thomas Jerram] detached himself and - came up to me. 'Mrs. Ward? Sir John has asked me to look after - you.' We twinkled at each other, both seeing the comedy of the - situation. 'Now then, what can I do for you? Will you be at - Invergordon pier to-morrow at eleven? and come and lunch with me on - the Flagship? Then afterwards you shall see the destroyers come in - and anything else we can show you. Will that suit you?' So he - disappears and I journey on to Kildary, five miles, with a jolly - young sailor just returned from catching contraband in the North - Sea, and going up to Thurso in charge of the mail." - -She spent a quiet evening at Sir John Jellicoe's house (the Admiral -himself being away). Her notes continue the story: - - "Looked out into the snowy moonlight--the Frith steely grey--the - hills opposite black and white--a pale sky--black shapes on the - water--no lights except from a ship on the inlet (the hospital - ship). - - "Next day--an open car--bitterly cold--through the snow and wind. - At the pier--a young officer, Admiral Jerram's Flag Lieutenant. - 'The Admiral wished to know if you would like him to take you round - the Fleet. If so, we will pick him up at the Flagship.' The - barge--very comfortable--with a cabin--and an outer seat--sped - through the water. We stopped at the Flagship and the Admiral - stepped in. We sped on past the _Erin_--one of the Turkish cruisers - impounded at the beginning of the war--the _Iron Duke_, the - _Centurion_, _Monarch_, _Thunderer_--to the hospital ship _China_. - The Admiral pointed out the three cruisers near the entrance to the - harbour--under Sir Robert Arbuthnot--also the hull of the poor - _Natal_--with buoys at either end--two men walking on her. - - "At luncheon--Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Jerram on my left, Sir Robert - Arbuthnot, commanding the cruiser squadron, on my right. Captain - Field and Mrs. Field. Commander Goldie--Flag Lieutenant Boissier, - and a couple of other officers and their wives. - - "In the barge I had shown the Admiral Roosevelt's letter. Sir - Robert Arbuthnot spoke to me about it at luncheon, and very kindly. - They all seemed to feel that it was a tough task, not of my - seeking, and showed wonderful sympathy and understanding. After - lunch Captain Field was told off to show me the ship. Thrilling to - see a ship in war-time, that might be in action any moment. The - loading of the guns--the wireless rooms--the look down to the - engine deck--the anchor held by the three great chains--the - middies' quarters--the officers' ward-room. The brains of the - ship--men trained to transmit signals from the fire-control above - to all parts of the ship, directing the guns. The middies' - chests--great black and grey boxes--holding all a middy's worldly - goods. He opens one--shows the photos inside.--The senior middy, a - fair-haired boy, like Humphry Sandwith--the others younger. Their - pleasant room, with its pictures, magazines and books. Spaces where - the wounded can be temporarily placed during action. - - "The chart of the North Sea, and the ship-stations. Lines radiating - out in all directions--every dot on them a ship. - - "After going through the ship we went to look at the destroyer - which the Admiral had ordered alongside. Commanded by Mr. - Leveson-Gower, son of the Lord Granville who was Foreign Secretary, - and nephew of 'Freddy.' The two torpedo tubes on the destroyer are - moved to the side, so that we see how it discharges them. The guns - very small--the whole ship, which carries 100 men, seems almost on - the water-line--is constantly a-wash except for the cabin and the - bridge. But on a dark night in the high seas, 'we are always so - glad to see them!--they are the guards of the big ships--or we are - the hens, and they are the chickens.' - - "Naval character--the close relations between officers and men - necessitated by the ship's life. 'The men are splendid.' How good - they are to the officers--'have a cup of coffee, sir, and lie down - a bit.'--Splendidly healthy--in spite of the habitually broken - sleep. Thursday afternoons (making and mending)--practically the - naval half-holiday. - - "Talk at tea with Captain and Mrs. Field and Boissier and Commander - Goldie. They praise the book, _Naval Occasions_. No sentiment - possible in the Navy--_in speech_. The life could not be endured - often, unless it were _jested through_. Men meet and part with a - laugh--absurdity of sentimental accounts. Life on a - destroyer--these young fellows absolute masters--their talk when - they come in--'By Jove, I nearly lost the ship last night--awful - sea--I was right on the rocks.'--Their life is always in their - hands." - -Writing a week later to "Aunt Fan," she added one further remark about -the Captain of the ship--"so quietly full of care for his men--and so -certain, one could see, that Germany would never actually give in -without trying something desperate against our fleet." Little more than -three months later, Germany tried her desperate stroke, tried it and -lost, but at what a cost to English sailormen! The noble officer who had -sat next to Mrs. Ward at luncheon in the Admiral's flagship, Sir Robert -Arbuthnot, went down with his battle-cruiser, while on either side of -him occurred the losses which shook, for one terrible day, England's -faith in her fleet. Mrs. Ward wrote on June 6 to Katharine Lyttelton: - - "Yes, indeed, Sir Robert Arbuthnot's cruiser squadron was at - Cromarty when I was there, and he sat next me at luncheon on the - Flagship. I _particularly_ liked him--one of those modest, - efficient naval men whose absolute courage and nerve, no less than - their absolute humanity, one would trust in any emergency. I - remember Sir Thomas Jerram, on my other side, saying in my - ear--'The man to your right is one of the most rising men in the - Navy.' And the line of cruisers in front of the Dreadnoughts, as I - saw them in the February dawn, stretching towards the harbour - entrance, will always remain with me." - -Meanwhile the preparations for her journey to France had been pushed -forward by "Wellington House," so that only four days after her return -from Invergordon all was ready for her departure for Le Havre. She went -(this time with Dorothy) as the guest of the Foreign Office, recommended -by them to the good offices of the Army. She was first to be given some -idea of the vast organization of the Base at Le Havre, and then sent on -by motor to Rouen, Abbeville, Étaples and Boulogne. A programme -representing almost every branch of the unending activities of the "Back -of the Army" had been worked out for her, but she was warned that she -could not be allowed to enter the "War Zone." Once in France, however, -it was not long before this prohibition broke down, though not through -any importunity of hers. - -The marvellous spectacle unrolled itself before her, quietly and -methodically, while her guides expounded to her the meaning of what she -saw and the bearing of every movement at the Base upon the lives of the -men in the front line. General Asser himself, commanding at Le Havre, -devoted a whole afternoon to taking her through the docks and -store-sheds of the port, "so that one had a dim idea," as she wrote to -her husband, "of the amazing organization that has sprung up here. It -explains a good deal, too, of the five millions a day!" But as a matter -of fact, the thing which impressed her most at Le Havre was the -'make-over department,' where all the rubbish brought down from the -Front, from bully-beef tins to broken boots, was collected together and -boiled down (metaphorically speaking) into something useful, so that -many thousands a week were thus saved to the taxpayer at home. "All the -creation of Colonel Davies, who has saved the Government thousands and -thousands of pounds. Such a thing has never been done before!" -Similarly, at Rouen (whither she drove on February 26--fifty -miles--through blinding snow) she was fascinated by the motor-transport -department--"the biggest thing of its kind in France--the creation of -one man, Colonel Barnes, who started with 'two balls of string and a -packet of nails,' and is now dealing with 40,000 vehicles." - -Another snowy and Arctic drive from Rouen to Dieppe, and on to -Abbeville, where a wonderful piece of news awaited them. - - -_To T. H. W._ - - -"_February 29, 1916._ - -..."After lunch Colonel Schofield [their guide] went out to find - the British Headquarters and report. Dorothy and I went up to the - cathedral, and on emerging from it met the Colonel with another - officer, who introduced himself as Colonel Dalrymple White, M.P. 'I - have news for you, Mrs. Ward, which I think will change your - plans!' I looked at him rather aghast, wondering if I was to be - suddenly sent home! 'There is an invitation for you from G.H.Q., - and we have been telephoning about, trying to find you. Great luck - that Colonel Schofield looked in just now.' Whereupon it appeared - that 'by the wish of the Foreign Office,' G.H.Q. had invited me for - two days, and that an officer would call for me at Boulogne on - Wednesday morning, and take me to the place which no one here - mentions but with bated breath, and which I will not write! [St. - Omer.] I was naturally thrilled, but I confess I am in terror of - being in their way, and also of not being able to write anything - the least adequate to such an opportunity. However it could not of - course be refused." - -A long day at Étaples intervened between this little scene and the -arrival at G.H.Q.--a day devoted not only to an inspection of some of -the great hospitals, but also to a more unusual experience. Étaples was -the scene of a huge training-camp where troops from England received -their final "polish" before going up to the Front; amongst other -things, they were taught how to throw bombs, and Mrs. Ward was taken to -see them do it. "We climb to the very top of the slope," she wrote in -her journal at the time, "and over its crest to see some live -bomb-practice. A hollow in the sand, three dummy figures twenty yards -away--a parapet and a young soldier with three different bombs, that -explode by a time-fuse. He throws--we crouch low behind the parapet of -sand-bags--a few seconds, then a fierce report. We rise. One of the -dummy figures is half wrecked, only a few fragments of the bomb -surviving. One thinks of it descending in a group of men, and one -remembers the huge hospitals behind us. War begins to seem to me more -and more horrible and intolerable." - -The next day, March 1, they were taken in charge at Boulogne by Captain -H. C. Roberts, sent thither by G.H.Q. to fetch them, and motored through -a more spring-like land to St. Omer, where they took up their quarters -for two nights in the "Visitors' Château" (the Château de la Tour -Blanche). Captain Roberts said that his orders were to take them as near -to the battle-line as he safely could, and accordingly they started out -early in the afternoon in the direction of Richebourg St. Vaast, calling -on the way at Merville, the headquarters of General Pinney and the 35th -Division. The General came out to see his visitors and said that, having -an hour to spare, he would take them to the Line himself. He and Mrs. -Ward went ahead in the General's car, Dorothy and Captain Roberts -following behind. At Richebourg St. Vaast the road became so much broken -by shell-holes that they got out and walked, and General Pinney informed -Mrs. Ward calmly that she was now "actually in the battle," for the -British guns were bellowing from behind them. Early the next morning she -wrote down the following notes of what ensued: - - "Richebourg St. Vaast--a ruined village, the church in fragments--a - few walls and arches standing. The crucifix on a bit of wall - untouched. Just beyond, General Pinney captured a gunner and heard - that a battery was close by to our right. We were led there through - seas of mud. Two bright-faced young officers. One gives me a hand - through the mud, and down into the dug-out of the gun. There it - is--its muzzle just showing in the dark, nine or ten shells lying - in front of it. One is put in. We stand back and put our fingers in - our ears. An old artillery-man says 'Look straight at the gun, - ma'am.' It fires--the cartridge-case drops out. The shock not so - great as I had imagined. Has the shell fallen on a German trench, - and with what result! They give us the cartridge-case to take home. - - "After firing the gun we walked on along the road. General Pinney - talks of taking us to the entrance of the communication-trench. But - Captain Roberts is obviously nervous. The battery we have just left - crashes away behind us, and the firing generally seems to grow - hotter. I suggest turning back, and Captain Roberts approves. 'You - have been nearer the actual fighting than any woman has been in - this war--not even a nurse has been so close,' says the General. - Neuve Chapelle a mile and a half away to the north behind some tall - poplars. In front within a mile, first some ruined - buildings--immediately beyond them our trenches--then the Germans, - within a hundred yards of each other. - - "As we were going up, we had seen parties of men sitting along the - edge of the fields, with their rifles and field kit beside them, - waiting for sunset. Now, as we return, and the sun is sinking fast - to the horizon, we pass them--platoon after platoon--at - intervals--going up towards the trenches. The spacing of these - groups along the road, and the timing of them, is a difficult piece - of staff-work. The faces of the men quiet and cheerful, a little - subdued whistling here and there--but generally serious. And how - young! 'War,' says the General beside me, 'is crass folly! _crass_ - folly! nothing else. We want new forms of religion--the old seem to - have failed us. Miracle and dogma are no use. We want a new - prophet, a new Messiah!'" - -Mrs. Ward left her new friend with a feeling of astonishment at having -found so kindred a spirit in so strange a scene. - -The next day they were up betimes and on their way to Cassel and -Westoutre, there to obtain permits, at the Canadian headquarters, for -the ascent of the Scherpenberg Hill, in order that Mrs. Ward might -behold Ypres and the Salient. There had been a British attack, that -morning, in the region of the Ypres-Comines Canal; it had succeeded, -and there was a sense of elation in the air. But, by an ironic chance, -Mrs. Ward had heard by the mail that reached the Château a far different -piece of news, and as she drove through the ruined Belgian -villages--through Poperinghe and Locre--dodging and turning so as to -avoid roads recently shelled, her mind was filled with one overmastering -thought--the death of Henry James, her countryman.[34] - -But now they are at the foot of the Scherpenberg Hill. Her journal -continues: - - "A picket of soldiers belonging to the Canadian Division stops us, - and we show our passes. Then we begin to mount the hill (about as - steep as that above Stocks Cottage), but Captain Roberts pulls me - up, and with various halts at last we are on the top, passing a - dug-out for shelter in case of shells on the way. At the top a - windmill--some Tommies playing football. Two stout lasses driving a - rustic cart with two horses. We go to the windmill and, sheltering - behind its supports (for nobody must be seen on the sky-line), look - out north-east and east. Far away on the horizon the mists lift for - a moment, and a great ghost looks out--the ruined tower of Ypres. - You see that half its top is torn away. A flash! from what seem to - be the ruins at its base. Another! It is the English guns speaking - from the lines between us and Ypres--and as we watch, we see the - columns of white smoke rising from the German lines as they burst. - Then it is the German turn, and we see a couple of their shells - bursting on our lines, between Vlamertinghe and Dickebusch. - Hark--the rattle of the machine-guns from, as it were, a point just - below us to the left, and again the roar of the howitzers. There, - on the horizon, is the ridge of Messines, WytschÅ“te, and near by - the hill and village of Kemmel, which has been shelled to bits. - Along that distant ridge run the German trenches, line upon line. - One can see them plainly without a glass. At last we are within - actual sight of the _Great Aggression_--the nation and the army - which have defied the laws of God and man, and left their fresh and - damning mark to all time on the history of Europe and on this old, - old land on which we are looking. In front of us the Zillebeke - Lake, beyond it Hooge--Hill 60 lost in the shadows, and that famous - spot where, on the afternoon of November 11, the 'thin red line' - withstood the onset of the Prussian Guard. The Salient lies there - before us, and one's heart trembles thinking of all the gallant - life laid down there, and all the issues that have hung upon the - fight for it." - -So, with gas-helmets in hand, they retraced their steps down the hill, -finding at the bottom that the kind Canadian sentries had cut steps for -Mrs. Ward down the steep, slippery bank, and on to see General Plumer at -Cassel. With him and with Lord Cavan--the future heroes of the Italian -War--Mrs. Ward had half an hour's memorable talk, returning afterwards -to the Visitors' Château in time to pack and depart that same evening -for Boulogne. Next day they sailed in the "Leave boat"--"all swathed in -life-belts, and the good boat escorted (so wrote D. M. W.) by a -destroyer and a torpedo-boat, and ringed round with mine-sweepers!" In -such pomp of modern war did Mrs. Ward return. - -It now remained for her to put into shape the impressions gathered in -these five breathless weeks, and this she did during some forty-five -days of work at very high pressure, putting what she had to say into the -form of "Letters to an American Friend." The Letters were sent hot to -the Press on the American side as quickly as Mrs. Ward could mail them, -appearing in a number of newspapers controlled by one of the great -"Syndicates"; then Scribner's published them in book form at the end of -May, with a preface by Mr. Choate. Here, with a little more leisure for -revision, the little book, under the title of _England's Effort_, came -out on June 8, incidentally giving to Mrs. Ward the pleasant opportunity -of a renewal of her old acquaintance with Lord Rosebery, whom she had -invited to write a preface to it. She went over, full of doubt, to -Mentmore one May afternoon, having heard that he was there, "quite -alone" (as she wrote to M. Chevrillon), "driving about in a high -mid-Victorian phaeton, with a postilion!" Knowing that he was never -strong, she fully expected a refusal, but found instead that he had -already done what she asked, being deeply moved by the proofs that she -had sent him. She was much touched, and the friendship was cemented, a -few days later, by a return visit that he paid to Stocks, all in its May -green, when he could not contain himself on the beauty of the place, or -the incomparable advantages it possessed over "such a British Museum as -Mentmore!" - -_England's Effort_ reached a dejected world in the nick of time. Our -national habit of "grousing" in public, and of hanging our dirty linen -on every possible clothes-line, had naturally disposed both ourselves -and the outer world to under-estimate our vast achievements. This little -book set us right both with the home front and with our foreign critics. -It penetrated into every corner of the world and was translated into -every civilized language, while Mrs. Ward constantly received letters -about it, not only from friends, but from total strangers--from dwellers -in Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and India, not to mention -France and Italy, thanking her for her immense service, and expressing -astonishment at the facts that she had brought to light. The -_Preussische Jahrbücher_ reviewed it with great respect; the Japanese -Ambassador, Viscount Chinda, was urgently recommended by King George to -read it, and afterwards contributed a preface to the Japanese edition. -And, as Principal Heberden of Brasenose reported to her, the burden of -comment among his friends always ended with the feeling that "the most -remarkable fact about the book is Mrs. Humphry Ward's own astonishing -effort. Certainly the nation owes her much, for no other author could -have attracted so much attention in America." A year later, it was -asserted by many Americans, with every accent of conviction, that but -for _England's Effort_ and the public opinion that it stirred, President -Wilson might have delayed still longer than he did in bringing America -in. - -In all the business arrangements made for the "little book" in America, -Mrs. Ward had had the constant help and support of her beloved cousin, -Fred Whitridge, while in England not only the publication, but the -voluminous arrangements for translation, were in the hands of Reginald -Smith. By a cruel stroke of fate, both these devoted friends were taken -from her in the same week--the last week of December, 1916--and Mrs. -Ward was left to carry on as best she might, without "the tender humour -and the fire of sense" in the "good eyes" of the one, or the wisdom, -strength and kindness that had always been her portion in so rich a -measure from the other. To Mrs. Smith (herself the daughter of George -Murray Smith), she wrote after the funeral of "Mr. Reginald": - - "I watched in Oxford Street, till the car had passed northwards out - of sight, and said good-bye with tears to that good man and - faithful friend it bore away.... Your husband has been to me - shelter and comfort, advice and help, through many years. I feel as - if a great tree had fallen under whose boughs I had sheltered...." - -Never was the writing of books the same joy to Mrs. Ward after this. -Other publishers arose with whom she established, as was her wont, good -and friendly relations, but with the death of Reginald Smith it was as -if a veil had descended between her and this chief solace of her -declining years. - - * * * * * - -Already, in the autumn of 1916, Mrs. Ward was thinking--in consultation -with Wellington House--of a possible return to France, mainly in order, -this time, to visit some of the regions behind the French front which -had suffered most cruelly in 1914. She wished to bring home to the -English-speaking world, which was apt to forget such things, some of the -undying wrongs of France. M. Chevrillon obtained for her the ear of the -French War Office, and meanwhile Mrs. Ward applied once more to Sir -Edward Grey and to General Charteris, head of the British Intelligence -Department in France (with whom she had made friends on her first -journey) for permission to spend another two or three days behind the -British front. Here, however, the difficulty arose that since Mrs. -Ward's first visit, some other ladies, reading _England's Effort_, had -been clamorous for the same privileges, so that the much-tried War -Office had been obliged to lay down a rigid rule against the admission -of "any more ladies," as Sir Edward Grey wrote, "within the military -zone of the British Armies." Sir Edward did not think that any exception -could be made, but not so General Charteris. On November 9, Lord Onslow, -then serving in the War Office, wrote to Mrs. Ward that: - - "General Charteris fully recognizes the valuable effect which your - first book produced upon the public, and would consequently expect - similar results from a further work of yours. He is, therefore, - disposed to do everything in his power to assist you, and he thinks - it possible that perhaps an exception to the general rule might be - made on public grounds. But it would have to be clearly understood - that in the event of your being allowed to go, it would not - constitute a precedent as regards any other ladies." - -Permits, in the form of "Adjutant-General's Passes," were therefore -issued to Mrs. Ward and her daughter for a visit to the British Military -Zone from February 28 to March 4, 1917. They crossed direct to Boulogne, -and were the guests of General Headquarters from the moment that they -set foot in France. - -Since their last visit, the Battle of the Somme had come and gone, and -the German Army was in the act of retreating across that tortured belt -of territory to the safe shelter of the Hindenburg Line, there to resist -our pressure for another year. But, in these weeks of early spring, the -elation of movement had gripped our Army; the Boche was in retreat; this -must, this _should_ be the deciding year! Mrs. Ward's letters from the -war zone are full of this spirit of hopefulness; not yet had Russia -crumbled in pieces, not yet had the strength of the shortened German -line revealed itself. Once more she was sent on two memorable days, from -the Visitors' Château at Agincourt, to points of vital interest on our -line, first through St. Pol, Divion and Ranchicourt, to the wooded slope -of the Bois de Bouvigny, whence she could gaze across at the Vimy Ridge, -not yet stormed by the Canadians; then, on the second day, to the very -centre of the Somme battlefield, where she stood in the midst of the -world's uttermost scene of desolation. Of the Bois de Bouvigny, -Dorothy's narrative, written down the same night, gives the following -picture: - - "The car bumped slowly along a very rough track into the heart of - the wood, and stopped when it could go no farther. We got out and - walked on till soon we came to an open piece of grass-land, a - rectangular wedge, as it were, driven from the eastern edge of the - hill into the heart of the wood. We walked across it, facing east, - and saw it was pitted with shell-holes, mostly old--but not all. - In particular, one very large one had fresh moist earth cast up all - round it. Captain Fowler [their guide] asked Captain Bell a - question about it, lightly, yet with a significant _appui_ in his - tone--but the young man laughed off the question and implied that - the Boches had grown tired of troubling that particular place. - Meanwhile, the firing of our own guns behind and to the side of us - was becoming more frequent, the noise greater. Just ahead, and to - the right, the ground sloped to a valley, which we could not see, - and where we were told lay Ablain St. Nazaire and Carençy. From - this direction came the short, abrupt, but quite formidable reports - of trench-mortars. Over against us, and slightly to the right, - three or four ridges and folds of hill lay clearly - distinguishable--of which the middle back was the famous _Vimy - Ridge_, partly held to this day by the Germans. Captain Bell, - however, would not let us advance quite to the edge of the plateau, - so that we never saw exactly how the ground dropped to the lower - ground, neither did we see the crucifix of Notre Dame de Lorette at - the end of the spur. All this bit had been the scene of terrific - fighting in 1915, when it still formed part of the French line; it - had been a fight at close quarters in the beautiful wood that - closed in the open ground on which we stood, and we were told that - many bodies of poor French soldiers still lay unburied in the wood. - We turned soon to recross the bare space again, and as we did so, - fresh guns of our own opened fire, and once more I heard that - long-drawn scream of the shells over our heads that I got to know - last year." - -On both these days, the "things seen," unforgettable as they were, were -filled out by most interesting conversations with two of our Army -Commanders--first with General Horne and then with Sir Henry Rawlinson, -who entertained Mrs. Ward and her daughter with a kindness that had in -it an element of pathos. Not often, in those stern days, did anyone of -the gentler sex make and pour out their tea! And in the Chauffeurs' -Mess, the Scotch chauffeur, Sloan, who for the second time was in charge -of Mrs. Ward, found himself the object of universal curiosity. "He told -Captain Fowler," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband, "that they asked him -innumerable questions about the two ladies--no one having ever seen -such a phenomenon in these parts before. 'They were varra puzzled,' said -Sloan, 'they couldna mak' it out. But I didna tell them. I left them -thinkin'!'" - -Mrs. Ward left the British zone for Paris on March 4, and after three -days of comparative rest there--renewing old acquaintance under strange -new conditions--she put herself under the charge of a kind and energetic -official of the "Maison de la Presse," M. Ponsot, for her long-planned -visit to the devastated regions of the Centre and East. Soissons, Reims -and Verdun were pronounced too dangerous for her, but she went north to -the ruins of Senlis, and heard from the lips of the old curé the -horrible tale of the German panic there, in the early days of September, -1914, the burning of the town, the murder of the Maire and the other -hostages, and of the frantic, insane excitement under which many of the -German officers seemed to be labouring. Then it was the battlefield of -the Ourcq, the scene of Maunoury's fateful flank attack, which forced -Von Kluck to halt and give battle at the Marne; a string of famous -villages--Marcilly, Barcy, Etrépilly, Vareddes--seen, alas, under a -blinding snow-storm, and at length the vision of the Marne itself, -"winding, steely-grey, through the white landscape." Mrs. Ward has -described it all, in inimitable fashion, in the seventh and eighth -Letters of _Towards the Goal_, and has there told also the ghastly tale -of the Hostages of Vareddes, which burnt itself upon her mind with the -sharpness that only the sight of the actual scene could give. Then, -leaving Paris by train for Nancy, she spent two days--seeing much of the -stout-hearted Préfet, M. Mirman--in visiting the regions overwhelmed by -the German invasion between August 20 and September 10, 1914--a period -and a theatre of the War of which we English usually have but the -dimmest idea. From the ruined farm of Léaumont she was shown, by a -French staff officer, the whole scene of these operations, spread like a -map before her, and became absorbed in the thrilling tale of the driving -back of the Bavarians by General Castelnau and the First French Army. -Then southward through the region from which the German wave had -receded, but which still bore indelible marks of the invaders' savage -fear and hatred. In _Towards the Goal_ Mrs. Ward has told the tale of -Gerbévillers and of the heroic SÅ“ur Julie, who saved her "gros -blessés" in the teeth of some demoralized German officers, who forced -their way into the hospital. Here we can but give her general -impressions of the scene, as she recorded them in a letter to Miss -Arnold, written from Paris immediately afterwards: - - "Lorraine was in some ways a spectacle to wring one's heart, the - ruined villages, the _réfugiés_ everywhere, and the faces of men - and women who had lost their all and seen the worst horrors of - human nature face to face. But there were many beautiful and - consoling things. The marvellous view from a point near Lunéville - of the eastern frontier, the French lines and the German, near the - Forêt de Paroy--a group of some hundreds of French soldiers, near - another point of the frontier, who, finding out that we were two - English ladies, cheered us vigorously as we passed through - them--the already famous SÅ“ur Julie, of Gerbévillers, who had - been a witness of all the German crimes there, and told the story - inimitably, with native wit and Christian feeling--the beautiful - return from Nancy on a spring day across France, from East to West, - passing the great rivers, Meurthe, Meuse, Moselle, Marne--the warm - welcome of the Lorrainers--these things we shall never forget." - -A rapid return to England and then, in order that her impressions of the -Fleet might not be behindhand, she was sent by special arrangement to -see Commodore Tyrwhitt, at Harwich, there to realize the immense -development of the smaller craft of the Navy, and to go "creeping and -climbing," as she describes it in _Towards the Goal_, about a submarine. -Returning to Stocks to write her second series of "Letters"--now -addressed without disguise to Mr. Roosevelt--it was not long before the -news of America's Declaration of War came in to cheer her, with an eager -telephone-message from a daughter, left in London, that "Old Glory" was -to be seen waving side by side with the Union Jack from the tower of the -House of Lords. Now surely, the happy prophecies of her soldier-friends -in France would be fulfilled: this _must_ be the deciding year! But the -months passed on; Vimy and Messines were ours, yet nothing followed, and -in August, September, October, the agonizing struggle in the mud of -Passchendæle sapped the endurance of the watchers at home more -miserably than any other three months of the War. And there, on October -11, perished a lad of twenty, bearing a name that was heart of her heart -to Mrs. Ward, Tom Arnold, the elder son of her brother, Dr. F. S. -Arnold. He had lain wounded all night in a shell-hole, and when at -length they bore him back to the Casualty Clearing-station, the little -flame of life, though it flickered and shot upwards in hope, sank again -into darkness. Tom was a lad to whose gentle soul all war was utterly -abhorrent, yet he had "joined up" without question on the earliest -possible day. Already Christopher and Arthur Selwyn, the splendid twins, -were gone, and the sons of so many friends and neighbours, gentle and -simple! About this time General Horne had invited her to come once more -to France. "But it is not at all likely I shall go (she wrote)--though, -perhaps, in the spring it might be, if the War goes on. Horrible, -horrible thought! I am more and more conscious of its horror and -hideousness every day. And yet after so much--after all these lives laid -down--not to achieve the end, and a real 'peace upon Israel'--would not -that be worst of all?" - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - - αὑτá¼Ï ἑμεὑ σχεδá½Î¸ÎµÎ½ μá½Ïος Ισταται ὡς á½Ï†ÎµÎ»á½Î½ γε - χεÏá¼± φἱλην τἡν σἡν χεἱÏα λαβοὑσα θανεἱν.[35] - DAMAGETUS. - - -Those who visited Mrs. Ward at Stocks during the later years of the War -were wont to fasten upon any younger members of the family who happened -to be there, to declare that Mrs. Ward was working herself to death and -to plead that something must be done to stop her. And even as they said -it they knew that their words were vain, for besides the perennial need -to make a living, was not her country at war and were not the young men -dying every day? Mrs. Ward was not of the temperament that forgot such -things; hence her desire to throw her very best work into her "War -books"--which owing to their low price and the special terms on which -she allowed the Government to use them could never bring her anything -like the same return as her novels.[36] She regarded them therefore -almost as an extra on her ordinary work, so that the pressure on her -time was increased rather than diminished as the War years went on and -her own age advanced. And the last of the series, _Fields of Victory_, -was to make on her time and strength the greatest demands of all. - -But the lighter side of her War labours was the intense and meticulous -interest she took in the "War economies" devised by herself and Dorothy -at Stocks. How they schemed and planned about the cutting of timber, the -growing of potatoes, the making of jam and the sharing of the garden -fruit with the village! Labour in the garden was reduced to a minimum, -so that all the family must take their turn at planting out violas and -verbenas, if the poor things were to be saved for use at all, while Mr. -Wilkin, the well-beloved butler who had been with us for twenty years, -mowed the lawn and split wood and performed many other unorthodox tasks -until he too was called up, at 47, in the summer of 1918. Mrs. Ward -could not plant verbenas, but she armed herself with a spud and might -often be seen of an afternoon valiantly attacking the weeds in the -rose-beds and paths. The links between her and the little estate seemed -to grow ever stronger as she came to depend more and more directly on -the produce of the soil, and when, in 1918, she established a cow on -what had once been the cricket-ground her joy and pride in the -productiveness of her new creature were a delight to all beholders. Her -daughter Dorothy was at this time deep in the organisation of "Women on -the Land"--a movement of considerable importance in Hertfordshire--, so -that Mrs. Ward could study it at first hand and had many an absorbing -conversation with one of the "gang-leaders," Mrs. Bentwich, who made -Stocks her headquarters for a time and delighted her hostess by her -many-sided ability and by the picturesqueness of her attire. All this -gave her many ideas for her four War novels--_Missing_, _The War and -Elizabeth_, _Cousin Philip_ and _Harvest_, the last of which was to -close the long list of her books. _Missing_ had a considerable popular -success, for it sold 21,000 in America in the first two months of its -appearance, but _Elizabeth_ and _Cousin Philip_ were, I think, felt to -be the most interesting of this series, owing to the admirable studies -they presented of the type of young woman thrown up and moulded by the -War. Mrs. Ward was by no means ashamed of her hard work as a novelist in -these days. - - "I have just finished a book," she wrote to her nephew, Julian - Huxley, in April 1918, "and am beginning another--as usual! But I - should be lost without it, and it is what my betters, George Sand - and Balzac--and Scott!--did before me. Literature is an honourable - profession, and I am no ways ashamed of it--as a profession. And - indeed I feel that novels have a special function nowadays--when - one sees the great demand for them as a _délassement_ and - refreshment. I wish with all my heart I could write a good - detective--or mystery--novel! That is what the wounded and the - tired love." - -But, side by side with this immense output of writing, Mrs. Ward never -allowed the springs of thought to grow dry for lack of reading. The one -advantage that she gained from her short nights--for her hours of sleep -were rarely more and often less than six--was that the long hours of -wakefulness in the early morning gave her time for the reading of many -books and of poetry. "There is nothing like it for keeping the streams -of life fresh," she wrote to one of us. "At least that is my feeling now -that I am beginning to grow old. All things pass, but thought and -feeling! And to grow cold to poetry is to let that which is most vital -in our being decay. I seem to trace in the men and women I see whether -they keep their ideals and whether they still turn to imagination, -whether through art or poetry. And I believe for thousands it is the -difference between being happy and unhappy--between being 'dans l'ordre' -or at variance with the world." - -In addition to her novels and her two first War books, Mrs. Ward had -been writing at intervals, ever since the summer of 1916, her -_Recollections_, and brought them out at length in October 1918. They -covered the period of her life down to the year 1900, giving a picture -of things seen and heard, of friends loved and enjoyed and lost, of -long-past Oxford days, of London, Rome, and the Alban Hills, such as -only a woman of her manifold experience could offer to a tired -generation. The reception given to the book touched her profoundly, for -it showed her, beyond the possibility of doubt, that her long life's -work had earned her not only the admiration but the love of her -fellow-countrymen. As an old friend, Mrs. Halsey, wrote to Dorothy, "I -remember Mlle Souvestre saying more than thirty years ago, 'Ah! the -books I admire--but it's the woman Mary Ward that I love.'" "Mrs. Ward's -Recollections are of priceless value," said the _Contemporary Review_; -"all the famous names are here, but that is nothing; the people -themselves are here moving about and veritably alive--great men and -women of whom posterity will long to hear." And another reviewer dwelt -on a different aspect: "She has lived to see the first social studies -and efforts of her Oxford days grow into the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, the Schools for the Physically Defective, the Play Centres -and a great deal else in which she has reaped a harvest for the England -of to-day or sown a seed for the England of to-morrow." The reviews -generally ended on a note of hope for a second volume, to complete the -story--, but the story remained, and will always remain, uncompleted. - -Perhaps part of the affectionate admiration with which her -_Recollections_ were received was due to the wider knowledge which the -public at last possessed of all that she had been able to accomplish, -through twenty years of toil, for the children of England. For it so -happened that during the two years that preceded the appearance of her -_Recollections_--years of war and difficulty of all kinds as they -were--Mrs. Ward had seen her labours for the play-time of London's -children crowned by that State recognition towards which she had always -worked, and her hopes for the extension of Special Schools for crippled -children to the provinces as well as London very largely realised. After -an immensely up-hill struggle to maintain the funds for her Play Centres -during the first two years of the War, it was at length the War -conditions themselves that convinced the authorities that all was not -well with the child-population of our big cities and that such efforts -as Mrs. Ward's must be encouraged and assisted in the fullest possible -way. "Juvenile crime"--that comprehensive phrase that covers everything -from pilfering at street corners to the formation of "Black-Hand-Gangs" -under some adventurous spirit of ten or eleven, gloriously devoted to -terrorising the back streets after dark--was the portent that convinced -Whitehall, that set the Home Office complaining to the Board of -Education and the Board of Education consulting Mrs. Ward. The result of -these consultations, carried on in the winter of 1916-17 between Mrs. -Ward, Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge (the Permanent Secretary), Mr. Pease the -outgoing and Mr. Fisher the incoming President of the Board, was that on -Jan. 26, 1917, an official announcement appeared in _The Times_ to the -effect that "Grants from the Board of Education will shortly be -available in aid of the cost of carrying on Play Centres.... Hitherto -Centres have been established only by voluntary bodies, mostly in -London, where the Local Education Authority has granted the free use of -school buildings. It is hoped that the powers which education -authorities already possess of establishing and aiding such centres will -be more freely exercised in future." - -To which _The Times_ added the following note:--"The announcement that -the Treasury has approved the principle of play centres and will signify -its approval in the usual manner, forms a fitting and characteristic -climax to twenty years of voluntary effort on the part of Mrs. Humphry -Ward and a devoted circle of workers." - -There was general rejoicing among the higher officials of the Board, who -had watched Mrs. Ward's work for so long, when the Treasury at length -announced its consent to the Grant. Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge wrote to her -in the following terms: - - "Allow me to congratulate you most heartily on having induced the - State to take under its wing and aid the enterprise of which you - have been the pioneer and which you have carried on unaided for so - many years with such admirable results. - - "I do not think you are one of those who are nervous about State - intervention or share the apprehension which is sometimes expressed - that a free spirit of voluntary enterprise may be hampered or - circumscribed by the existence of State aid. However this may be, I - think you may feel sure that our grants and regulations will be - administered in a sympathetic spirit and with full recognition that - it is necessary to secure and retain the willing co-operation of - people of all kinds who are anxious to devote their time and - energy to public service. It is a source of great pleasure to me - that I have been the humble instrument of furthering the enterprise - of which you have been the guiding spirit." - -As a matter of fact, the Board's regulations were largely drawn up by -Mrs. Ward herself, and her relations with both officials and President -continued close and cordial--nay, almost affectionate!--down to the last -day of her life. Nor was the London County Council left long behindhand. -The Treasury Grant amounted to 50 per cent. of the "approved -expenditure" of any voluntary committee or Education Authority which -carried on Play Centres according to the Board's regulations, so that it -was not long before some fifty great towns all over England were opening -Play Centres of their own, under the Act of 1907, and London was in -danger of being left behind. In the summer of 1919, however, Mrs. Ward's -edifice was crowned by the Council's deciding to take over another -quarter of the cost of her Centres, so that she was left with only one -quarter to raise in voluntary funds. The whole of the organisation, -however--which had long been perfected by the contriving brain of Miss -Churcher--was left in Mrs. Ward's hands, subject only to inspection by -the Council, for the Education Committee knew better than to disturb the -result of so many years of specialised care and study. The additional -funds available made it possible for Mrs. Ward, in the last three years -of her life, to add ten new Centres in London to the twenty-two that she -was maintaining before the advent of the Grant. It may be imagined what -joy this gave to her, and how, in the winter of 1917-18, in spite of the -cruelly-darkened streets and the danger of air-raids, she managed to -make her way to many of these new Centres, lingering there in complete -content to watch her singing children. The last phase of the Play Centre -movement, as far as Mrs. Ward was concerned, was the publication by her -daughter, in February 1920, of a little book describing their origin and -growth,[37] with a preface written by Mrs. Ward herself. This she sent -to Mr. Fisher, and received from him, a month before her death, a letter -which deserves to be quoted here as a fitting epitaph on her work. Mr. -Fisher and she had recently visited Oxford together, to speak at the -opening of the "Arlosh Hall" at Manchester College. - - "Albert Dicey spoke to us, as you will remember," wrote Mr. Fisher, - "of the abolition of religious tests in the Universities as - belonging to that small category of reforms to which no discernible - disadvantages attach and I am convinced that the same high and - unusual compliment may be paid without a suspicion of extravagance - to the Evening Play Centres. Here there are no drawbacks, nothing - but positive and far-reaching good." - -In the same way Mrs. Ward succeeded, in the spring of 1918, in -persuading the House of Commons to add a clause to Mr. Fisher's great -Education Bill, making it compulsory for Education Authorities -throughout the country to "make arrangements" for the education of their -physically defective children. She used for this purpose the machinery -of the "Joint Parliamentary Advisory Council" which she had founded in -1913,[38] but the bulk of the work--involving as it did the sending out -of circular letters to ninety-five Education Authorities, the sifting -and printing of the replies and the forwarding of these to every Member -of Parliament--was carried out from Stocks, causing a heavy strain--long -remembered!--on the secretarial resources of the house. It may be noted -too, that all this took place during those agonising weeks when the -British Armies were being hurled back in France and Flanders, and when -Mrs. Ward, of all people, realised only too clearly the peril we were -in. But the task was accomplished and the clause added to the Bill, so -that a new charter was thus provided for the 30,000 or so of crippled -and invalid children who still remained throughout the country -uneducated and uncared for.[39] A little later, the movement initiated -by Sir Robert Jones and the Central Committee for the Care of Cripples, -for converting some of the War Hospitals into Homes for the scientific -treatment of crippled children received Mrs. Ward's warm support, her -special contribution to the movement being a successful campaign for the -provision of educational facilities for the children lying for many -months within the hospital walls. The beautiful War-hospital at Calgarth -on Lake Windermere (the Ethel Hedley Hospital) was converted to this use -in the spring of 1920, and one of the last pleasures which Mrs. Ward -enjoyed was her correspondence with the Governors of the hospital, who -described to her their plan for the conversion and invoked her blessing -upon it. Mrs. Ward was never able to visit Calgarth, but the love she -bore to the fells and waters of the North which surrounded it have -linked her memory very specially with this delightful place, where -children who, even ten years before, would have been deemed hopeless -cases, recover straightness and strength. Her connection with this -enterprise made a gentle ending to her long labour for these waifs of -our educational system. - - * * * * * - -Who that lived through the year 1918 will ever lose the memory of its -gigantic vicissitudes? Mrs. Ward, with her actual knowledge of so much -of the ground over which the battles of March and April raged, was -certainly not among those who could shut their eyes to the national -danger they involved. She tried to maintain her characteristic optimism -throughout the blackest times, and was in the end justified. But I -remember one afternoon at Grosvenor Place when a friend who thought that -he was much "in the know" informed us confidentially that we were "out -of Ypres--been out for the last two days, but they don't want to tell -us," and hope sank very low. When the battle rolled up to the foot of -her own Scherpenberg Hill she longed, I believe, to be there with a -pike, but victory was ours that day and she felt a special lifting of -the heart at the news. As the terrible pageant of the year unrolled -itself, her heart went out to France in her losing struggle north of the -Marne; to Italy in those anxious days of June, when after a first recoil -she swept the Austrians permanently back over the Piave; to France again -in the first great return towards Soissons and the Aisne. Was it the -real turn of the tide? Hardly could we dare to believe it, but in the -light of later events it became evident that the Italian stand on the -Piave had indeed marked the turn for the whole Allied front. Mrs. Ward -always thought of this with peculiar satisfaction, for she was kept in -constant touch with the situation out there by her son-in-law, George -Trevelyan, who was in command of a British Red Cross Unit on the Italian -front, and the disaster of Caporetto had very sadly affected her. Now -all was well once more and Mrs. Ward, who had been no fair-weather -friend to Italy, rejoiced with all her heart. There was much talk during -the summer of a possible visit of hers, that autumn, to the Italian -front, but events were destined to move too fast, and Mrs. Ward never -again beheld the Lombard Plain. - -But when the incredible hope had at last become solid fact--when the -British Armies had stormed the Hindenburg Line and how much else beside, -when the Americans had won through the forest of the Argonne and the -French had pressed on to their ancient frontier; when Stocks had been -illuminated on Armistice Night and we had all settled down to -speculation, more or less sober, on the remaking of the world, Mrs. Ward -began to enquire from the authorities as to the possibility of a third -and final journey to France. For she wished with almost passionate -eagerness to write a third and final book on the last phase of -"England's Effort." She was met once more with the greatest cordiality. -Sir Douglas Haig expressed a desire to see her; General Horne promised -to send her over the battlefield of Vimy; Lille, Lens and Cambrai were -to reveal to her the tale of their four years of servitude. And, on -their part, the French promised to convey her to Metz and Strasburg and -to show her Verdun and Rheims on her return, while Paris was to be made -easy for her by the hospitality of a delightful young couple, her -cousins, Arnold Whitridge and his wife, who had the good fortune to -possess a house there amid the rush and pressure of all the nations of -the world. - -So everything was planned and settled during the month of December 1918, -but before she left England on her last mission Mrs. Ward was able to -enjoy that strange Peace Christmas which, in spite of its superficial -note of thanksgiving, seemed to ring for so many the final knell of joy. -Just two months before, Mrs. Ward had lost, from the influenza scourge, -yet another soldier-nephew, the youngest Selwyn boy, while sorrow had -come to the house itself in the death at a training camp of her butler's -only son--a lad of 17 who had been the playmate of her grandchildren on -many a golden afternoon in the days gone by. But if the elders could not -forget these things, the children at least could be made an excuse for -rejoicing! And so her two grandchildren, Mary and Humphry, came once -more to Stocks as they had come for every Christmas since they entered -this world; they mounted the big bed as of old and played the egg-game -with solemn attention to detail, and then on the last day of the year -Stocks opened its doors to the children from far and near, coming in -fancy dress to dance out the Year of Miracles. Mrs. Ward, who had that -very morning finished the writing of a novel, moved among the groups -with a face the pallor of which, though we did not know it, was already -a premonition of the end. She drank in the beauty of the scene in deep -draughts of refreshment. That little boy attired as feathered -Mercury--that slender Rosalind with the glorious bush of hair--they -caught at her heart! From certain fragments of talk that she let fall -during the evening one gathered that the sight had meant more to her -than a mere joyous spectacle. To these would be the new world: let the -elders leave it them in faith. "Green earth forgets." - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward's third journey to France was of longer duration (it lasted -over three weeks, Jan. 7-30) than either of the others, and save that -the conditions of danger created by the actual fighting were eliminated -it was of a still more arduous nature, while it afforded her even -greater opportunities than the others had done of realising and summing -up the proportionate achievements of the three great armies--French, -American and British. For the object of this final pilgrimage was no -less than to bring out, by a careful analysis of all the available -facts, the overwhelming part played by the British Armies in France in -the last year of the War, and so to do her part in silencing the -extraordinary misconceptions that were still current, especially in -America, as to the share that the British Armies had had in the final -breaking of the German resistance. A Canadian girl working at an -American Y.M.C.A. in France had written to her in the previous August, -imploring her to bring _England's Effort_ up to date and to distribute -it by the thousand among the American troops. - - "I see hundreds of the finest remaining white men on earth every - week," continued this witness. "They are wonderful military - material and _very_ attractive and lovable boys, but it discourages - all one's hopes for future unity and friendship between us all to - realize, as I have done the last few months, that the majority of - these men are entering the fight firmly believing that 'England has - not done her share,' 'the colonials have done all the hard - fighting'--'France has borne all,' etc. This from not one or two, - but _hundreds_. The men I speak of come principally from Kansas, - Illinois, Iowa--that wonderful Valley of Democracy that I sometimes - compare in my mind (with its safety and isolation from the outside - world) to those words of Kipling--'Ringed by your careful seas, - long have you waked in quiet and long lain down at ease'--To these - boys away from the sheltered country for the first time in - _generations_, England is a foreign and a somewhat mistrusted - country, and four or five days rush through it gives them neither - opportunity nor a fair chance of judging the people--beyond the - fact that war-time restrictions annoy them. It is a crying shame - that the _only_ knowledge these splendid men have of England's - share in the war is drawn from the belittling reports of pro-German - papers. This attitude will mar all attempts at friendship between - the troops, and, I believe, seriously jeopardise future friendship - between the countries." - -This first-hand evidence has recently received a very striking -corroboration in Mr. Walter Page's Letters, and was amply borne out at -the time by our Ministry of Information at home. Moreover, since August, -Great Britain had indeed added another chapter to her previous record! -So Mrs. Ward was received by Sir Douglas Haig, at his little château -near Montreuil, on January 8, 1919, and there had a most illuminating -talk with him, illustrated by his wonderful series of charts and maps; -she went through the desolation of Ypres, and Lens, and Arras; she -visited General Birdwood at Lille and General Horne at Valenciennes, -renewing her friendship with the latter and making the aquaintance of -his Chief of Staff, General Hastings Anderson, "a delightful, witty -person, full of fun," who told her many things. She climbed the Vimy -Ridge, "scrambling up over trenches and barbed wire and other _débris_ -to the top," assisted by Dorothy and Lieut. Farrer, their guide; she -crossed the Hindenburg Line in both directions, the second time at the -Canal du Nord, where she got out in the January twilight to study the -marvellous German trench system and the tracks of two tanks that had led -the attack of the First Army on September 27; she saw the area of open -fighting beyond Cambrai, and, returning by the Cambrai-Bapaume road to -Amiens, passed through a heap of shapeless ruins "where only a signboard -told us that this had once been Bapaume." From Amiens she passed on to -Paris, and thence to Metz and Strasburg, realising something, at Metz, -of the difficulty confronting the French Government in the large German -population, and at Strasburg passing a wholly delightful evening with -General Gouraud--hero both of Gallipoli and of Champagne. Armed with -General Gouraud's maps and passes she then returned via Nancy to Verdun -and spent an unforgettable afternoon, first in inspecting the -subterranean labyrinth under the old fortress which had given sleep to -so many weary soldiers during the siege, and then in motoring slowly -through the battlefield itself. It may be imagined how such names as -Vaux, Douaumont, the Mort Homme, the Mont des Corbeils and the rest made -her heart leap, how they stirred the vivid historic imagination in her -which always enabled her to visualise, beyond her fellows, the actual -movement of events and of the men who played their part in them. The -sight of Verdun certainly affected her more deeply than anything, I -think, save the Salient with its hundred thousand British graves. Then, -sleeping at Châlons, she moved on to Rheims, arriving in the _Place_ -before what had once been the Cathedral in time to see the Prime -Minister of England--a Sunday visitor from the Conference--standing -before the battered façade in animated talk with Cardinal Luçon. Mrs. -Ward stood aside to let them pass, watching the retreating figure of Mr. -Lloyd George "with what thoughts." _This_ was Rheims; what remedy for it -would the Conference find? - -Nor did Mrs. Ward neglect the American battle-fields, for on her way to -Verdun she had passed through the St. Mihiel salient and studied the -ground there; she had seen the Forêt de l'Argonne in the winter dusk -after leaving Verdun, and now on her way to Paris she spent a cheerful -hour at Château Thierry, mingling with the American boys on the scene -of their first and perhaps most memorable triumph. For actually to have -helped by hard fighting, man to man, to keep the Boche from Paris, that -was something for which to have crossed the Atlantic! St. Mihiel and the -Argonne were all part of the great plan, but this, this was history! So -at least Mrs. Ward felt as she crossed the sacred ground from Dormans to -Château Thierry where the Germans had made their formidable push for -Montmirail and Paris, and where an American regiment of marines had said -them nay. - -After her long pilgrimage Mrs. Ward spent a week in Paris, much absorbed -in the pursuit of accurate information for the book that she had still -to write. But there was also time for the seeing of many of those famous -figures who, with the best intentions, filled the French stage for half -a year and, at the end, gave us the world in which, _tant bien que mal_, -we live. She went to consult with our ambassador, Lord Derby, on certain -aspects of her work; she revived her old friendship with M. Jusserand; -she saw General Pershing and Mr. Hoover, and, on the very day when the -League of Nations resolution had been passed, President Wilson himself. -Of this she has left a lively account in the first chapter of _Fields of -Victory_. - -Mrs. Ward should, by all the rules, have returned straight home from -Paris, for she had already begun to suffer from bronchial catarrh and -the weather had turned colder. But she was bent on seeing certain -British officers at Amiens who had prepared some special information for -her and therefore broke her journey there and also at the little -"Visitors' Château" at Agincourt. Here, struggling against the intense -cold and her own increasing illness, she exhausted herself in long -conversations, though all that she heard was of deep interest to her -task. But she was obliged to give up a visit to the battle-field of -August 8 which her hosts had planned for her, and to return instead, -while she still might, to England. When at last she reached home she was -pronounced to have tonsilitis and to be within an inch of bronchitis -too, and was kept in bed for many days. But it was many weeks before the -bronchial catarrh left her, nor did she ever, during this last year of -her life, regain the level of health at which she had started for France -in the first week of the year. Yet none the less must her articles be -written, for time pressed if she was to catch the right moment for the -book's appearance. She was ably and generously helped by various -officers, especially by General Sir John Davidson, who brought with him -to Grosvenor Place one day a reduced-scale version of the great chart at -which she had gazed fascinated at Montreuil, and which she afterwards -obtained leave to reproduce in her book. "It was amusing," wrote Dorothy -that night, "to see Mother and Lady Selborne and Sir John Davidson all -on the floor, poring over his wonderful chart of the War." - -But in spite of the willingness to help of the authorities, the labour -of studying and digesting the mass of material placed at her -disposal--stiff and intractable stuff as it was--and of forming from it -a harmonious and artistic whole was something far harder than she had -expected. It required real historical method, and carried her back in -memory to the days of the West Goths and the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_. But she would not be beaten, either by the difficulty of the -task or by the necessity of getting it done within a certain time. One -day in April, just after she had returned from Grosvenor Place to -Stocks, it became necessary to send one of her articles, type-written, -up to London in time to catch the Foreign Office bag for New York; the -necessary train left Tring Station at 12.37. Mrs. Ward finished writing -the article at 12.22; Miss Churcher, who had followed page by page with -the type-writer, finished the last page at 12.30; Dorothy flew to the -station with it and caught the train. - -Besides the initial difficulty of the work, however, the necessity of -submitting what she had written to two or three different authorities -caused inevitable delays, while a printers' strike in Glasgow at the -critical moment again deferred the book's publication. When, therefore, -_Fields of Victory_ at length appeared, the psychological moment had -passed by, the world was far more concerned with the future than with -the past, and only a moderate number of the book were sold. Mrs. Ward -was of course somewhat disappointed, but there was much consolation to -be had in the note of astonishment, combined with admiration, which the -book called forth among those for whose opinion she really cared, -whether in England, France or America. This feeling was summed up in a -letter written by General Hastings Anderson--then holding a high -appointment on the Staff of the Army--to Miss Ward, after her mother's -death. - - "The book will be a very prized memento, not only of a gifted - writer who did so much to bring home to the ignorant the whole - significance of our effort in the war; but also of a great - Englishwoman, and of the happy breaks in our work marked by her - visits to the First Army in France. - - "What strikes me most in your mother's book is her marvellous - insight into the way of thinking of the soldiers--I mean those who - knew most of what was really happening--who were actually engaged - in the great struggle. One would say the book was written by one - who had played a prominent part in the War in France, and with - knowledge of the thoughts of the high directing staffs. This is no - compliment; it can only come from the trained expression of a very - deep sympathy, and complete understanding of the thoughts and views - which were expressed to her by those high in command. - - "I can well understand what a strain such intense concentration of - thought must have meant, when combined with the fatigues of travel - over great distances on the French roads, and the regrets and - delays in publication. But the completed book and its predecessors - are a very precious legacy, especially to those of us who saw the - whole long struggle in France." - -Mrs. Ward's health improved to a certain extent during the summer of -this year (1919), so that she was able to enjoy on Peace Day (July 19) -the great procession of Victory, watching it from the enclosure outside -Buckingham Palace. "Foch saluting was a sight not to be forgotten," she -wrote. "A paladin on horseback, saluting with a certain melancholy -dignity--a figure of romance." But she was mainly at Stocks during all -this summer, basking in the golden weather of that year, delighting in a -few Sunday gatherings of friends and in the weekly visits of her -grandchildren, who were now domiciled at Berkhamsted, five miles away, -and whom nothing could keep away, on Sundays, from Stocks, with its -tennis-court, its strawberries--and "Gunny"! - -..."I shall always think of her particularly," wrote Mrs. Robert - Crawshay afterwards, "sitting in her garden that last beautiful - summer at Stocks, with her wonderful expression of wisdom and the - kindness that prevented anyone feeling rebuked by her being on a - much higher level than themselves--her interest so generously - given, her pain never mentioned, her eyes lighting up with love as - the children came across the lawn, an atmosphere of beauty and - peace all around her." - -Much talk was heard on the lawn, as the summer passed on, about the -peace terms and the prospects of any recovery in Europe, and it is -recorded that although Mrs. Ward approved on the whole of the terms she -thought it the height of unwisdom to have allowed the Germans no voice -in discussing them before the signature. In Russia her heart was -passionately with the various rebels who arose to dispute the tyranny of -the Soviets, and as each hope faded she felt the horrors of that tragic -land more acutely. But most of all did she feel the tragedy of the -children of Austria and Central Europe, so that one of her last speeches -was devoted to pleading, at Berkhamsted, the cause of the Save the -Children Fund.[40] It was noticed that day how white and frail was her -look, but all the more for that did her appeal find its way to the -hearts of her audience. The children of Germany must be fed as well as -the rest, she said; "we have no war with children," and she recalled the -lovely lines of Blake which describe the angels moving through the -night: - - "If they see any weeping - That should have been sleeping - They pour sleep on their head - And sit down by their bed." - -"There are hundreds of thousands of children at this moment who on these -beautiful October nights 'are weeping that should have been -sleeping'--It is for this country, it is for you and me, to play the -part of angels of succour to these poor little ones wherever they may -be, to feed and clothe and cherish them in the name of our common -humanity and our common faith." - -In the meantime the unrelenting pressure of war taxation on her own -income had made it imperative, at last, to give up the house in -Grosvenor Place which had been her London home for nearly thirty years. -Mrs. Ward slept there for the last time on August 29, 1919, and wrote of -her parting from it the next day to J. P. T. - - "The poor old house begins to look dismantled. I had many thoughts - about it that last night there--of the people who had dined and - talked in it--Henry James, and Burne-Jones, Stopford Brooke, - Martineau, Watts, Tadema, Lowell, Roosevelt, Page, Northbrook, - Goschen and so many more--of one's own good times, and follies and - mistakes--everything passing at last into the words, 'He knoweth - whereof we are made, He remembereth that we are but dust.'" - -Then, in September, Mrs. Ward went for the last time to the Lake -District, motoring there via Stratford-on-Avon in her "little car"--a -cheap post-war purchase which spent most of its time in the repairing -shop, but which, for this occasion, put forth a supreme effort and -actually brought Mrs. Ward safely home through the midst of the railway -strike. She made her headquarters at Grasmere, for which she had -developed a special affection during two recent summers when she had -taken "Kelbarrow" and had watched from its lawn every passing mood of -the little lake. She visited Fox How and "Aunt Fan" almost every day; -she renewed her friendship with Canon and Mrs. Rawnsley and her -life-long intimacy with Gordon Wordsworth. And, on the Langdale side of -the fell, she visited a little grave to which her heart always yearned -afresh. - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward was deeply interested, during these last months of her life, -in the attempts made by the Liberal element in the Church to modify or -retard the "Enabling Bill," or as it is now known, the Church Assembly -Act. All her fighting spirit was aroused by the claim made by the Bill -to lay down tests and distinctions between member and member of the -National Church, especially by the imposition of the test of Holy -Communion on all candidates for the new Church bodies. She feared, in -the words of the Bishop of Carlisle (who saw eye to eye with her in this -matter) "that the declaration required as a condition of membership of -the Church of England will go a long way towards de-nationalising the -Church and reducing it to the status of a sect." She organised, early -in December, a letter to _The Times_ which was signed by all the most -prominent names in Liberal Churchmanship, protesting against the scanty -opportunities for debate which, owing to a ruling of the Speaker's, the -measure was to have in the House of Commons. But, when it became law -_quand même_, she turned her thoughts and her remaining energies to a -constructive movement which might rally the scattered Liberal forces of -the Church and assert for them the right, after due notice given of -their opinions, to participate without dishonesty in the rite of Holy -Communion. In a leaflet issued from Stocks to various private -sympathisers in January 1920, Mrs. Ward pointed out that the difficulty -which had confronted the Church sixty years before with regard to the -Thirty-nine Articles had now passed on to the Creeds, and that to many -who were convinced believers in the God within us, the following of -Christ and the practical realisation of the Kingdom, the Nicene Creed -was yet, "to quote a recent phrase, 'no more than the majority opinion -of a Committee held 1,600 years ago.'" She therefore appealed for the -formation of a "Faith and Freedom Association," the members of which -might claim to take their part in the new Councils and Assemblies while -openly stating their dissent from, or their right to re-interpret the -Creeds; only so could the Church continue to include that Modernist -element which was essential to its healthy development. - -Mrs. Ward received a good deal of sympathy and encouragement from those -to whom she sent her leaflet, and dreamt, in her indomitable way, of -summoning a meeting later on if the response were sufficient. But she -knew in her heart that her own strength would no longer suffice to lead -such a crusade, and she appealed with a certain wistfulness to the young -"to pour into it their life, their courage and their love." It troubled -her that no young person or group arose to take the burden from her -shoulders. But in truth she was still the youngest in heart of all her -generation, or the next, and if it were not that the poor body was -outworn she might yet have exerted the influence she longed for on the -religious life of her country. - -But it was too late. Mrs. Ward's health definitely gave way about -Christmas-time, 1919, the breakdown taking the form of a violent attack -of neuritis in the shoulders and arms. Although she would not yet -acknowledge it, but tried to continue the old round of work, increasing -weakness made it plain to her, at length, that she must not, for the -present at least, go crusading. But how she hoped and strove for better -times! Her devoted doctor-brother, Frank Arnold, to whom she turned -again and again with pathetic trust, knowing his ingenuity in the -devising of remedies, tended her with a skill born of a life-long -knowledge of her; but the malady was too deep-seated. At the end of -January she moved to London in order to try a certain course of -treatment, taking up her abode in a little house in Connaught Square -which her husband and Dorothy had found for her. She liked the little -place, especially on the days when flowers from Stocks arrived to make a -bower of it, and there, in the midst of a fruitless round of -"treatments" which did nothing but sap her remaining strength, she -passed the last weeks of her life. Old friends came once more to visit -her; her son and her daughters took turns in reading to her the poets -that she loved; Miss Churcher brought for her delight the latest stories -from the Play Centres. She still went downstairs and even, sometimes, -out of doors, but those who came to the house to sit with her left it, -usually, with aching hearts. Then, on March 11, another blow fell. Mr. -Ward became dangerously ill, and an immediate operation was found to be -necessary. The doctors carried him off to a nursing home not far away -and performed it, successfully, that night, while Mrs. Ward sat below in -the waiting-room in an agony of anxiety. The next day, and the next, she -was still able to go to him, the porters carrying her upstairs to his -room, but on Sunday, March 14, signs of bronchitis showed themselves, -together with a grave condition of the heart. The doctors would not -hear, after this, of her leaving the house. - -So for ten days she lay in the little London bedroom, looking out over -London trees, her heart pining for the day--the spring day which would -surely come--when she and he would return to Stocks together and their -ills would be forgotten. "Ah," she wrote to him in his nursing home on -March 18, "it is too trying this imprisonment--but it ought only to be a -few days more!" - -And indeed, her release was nearer than she knew. Did she not know it? -In mortal illness there are secrets of the inner consciousness which -those who tend, however lovingly, can never wholly penetrate, but as her -mind advanced ever nearer to the verge, one felt that it was swept, ever -and anon, by far-off gusts of poetry, finding expression in words and -fragments long possessed and intimately loved. Such were the "Last -Lines" of Emily Brontë, of which, two days before the end, she repeated -the great second verse to Dorothy, saying with the old passionate -gesture of the hands, "_That's_ what I am thinking of!" - - O God within my breast, - Almighty, ever-present Deity! - Life--that in me has rest, - As I--undying Life--have power in thee! - -Then, early on the morning of the 24th, there came an hour of crisis, -when life fought with death for victory; but, before the end, "she -opened her dear eyes wide, her dear brown eyes, like the eyes of a young -woman, and looked out into the unknown with a most wonderful look on her -face. I think that at that moment her soul crossed the bar." So wrote -Dorothy, the only witness of that look; she will carry the memory of it -in her heart to the end. - - * * * * * - -We buried her in the quiet churchyard at Aldbury, within sight of the -long sweep of hill and the beechwoods that she had loved so well. Her -old friend the Rector, Canon Wood, laid her to rest, while another -friend for whom she had had a deep regard, Dean Inge, spoke of her in -simple and moving words, naming her before us all as "perhaps the -greatest Englishwoman of our time." - -There were not wanting, indeed, signs that many in England so regarded -her. It was as though she had lived through the period, some ten years -before, when the public had tired somewhat of her books and younger -writers had to a large extent supplanted her, until, towards the end, -she found herself taken to the heart of her countrymen in a manner that -had hardly been her lot in the years of her greatest literary fame. They -loved her not only for all that she had done, but for what she was, -divining in her, besides her intellectual gifts, besides even the -tenderness and sympathy of her character, that indomitable courage that -carried her through to the end, over difficulties and obstacles at -which they only dimly guessed. They loved her for wearing herself out, -at sixty-seven, in visits to the battle-fields of France, that she might -bear her witness to her country's deeds; they loved her for all the joy -that she had given to little children. Two months before her death the -Lord Chancellor, making himself the mouthpiece of this feeling, had -asked her to act as one of the first seven women magistrates of England, -and later still, when she was already nearing the end, the University of -Edinburgh invited her to receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D. These acts -of recognition gave her a passing pleasure, and when she herself was -beyond the reach of pleasure, or of pain, it stirred the hearts of those -who went with her, for the last time, to the little village graveyard to -see awaiting her, at the drive gate, a file of stalwart police, claiming -their right to escort the coffin of a Justice of the Peace. - -Many indeed were the tributes paid to her memory, whether in the letters -received after her death or in the words uttered by Lord Milner and -other old friends at the unveiling of her medallion in the Hall of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement[41] (July 1922). Of these one only shall be -quoted here, from a letter written to Mr. Ward by her dear and intimate -friend of so many years' standing, André Chevrillon: - -..."I had no friend in England whom I loved and respected more, - none to whom I owed so much. I have often thought that if I love - your country as I do--and indeed I have sometimes been accused of - being biassed in my views of England--it was partly due to the - personal gratitude which I always felt for the kindness of her - greeting and hospitality when I came to England as a young man. The - same generous welcome was extended to other young Frenchmen who - have since written on England, and there is no doubt that it has - helped to create long before the War a bond between our two - countries. - - "We all felt the spell of her noble and generous spirit. She struck - one as the most perfect example of the English lady of the old - admirable governing class, with her ever-active and efficient - public spirit--of the highest English moral and intellectual - culture. Though I had come to England several times before I met - her--some thirty years ago--I had not yet formed a true idea of - what that culture would be--though I had read of it in my uncle - Taine's _Notes on England_. It was a revelation, though I must say - I have never met one since with quite so complete a mental - equipment, and that showed quite to the same degree those wonderful - and, to others, beneficent qualities of radiant vitality, spirit - and generosity. (It seems that these words must recur again and - again when one speaks of her). She was one of those of whom a - nation may well be proud. - - "I remember our impression when her first great book came to us in - Paris. Here was the true successor of George Eliot; she continued - the great English tradition of insight into the spiritual world. - The events in her novels were those of the soul--how remote from - those which can be adapted from other writers' novels for the - cinema!--The main forces that drove the characters like Fate were - Ideas. She could _dramatise_ ideas. I do not know of any novelist - that gives one to the same degree the feeling that Ideas are living - forces, more enduring than men, and in a sense more real than - men--forces that move through them, taking hold of them and driving - them like an unseen, higher Power." - -On her tombstone we inscribed the lines of Clough, which she herself had -written on the last page of _Robert Elsmere_: - - Others, I doubt not, if not we, - The issue of our toils shall see, - And, they forgotten and unknown, - Young children gather as their own - The harvest that the dead had sown. - - - - -THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - - -_Title._ _Date of Publication._ - -Milly and Olly, or A Holiday among the Mountains May, 1881 - -Miss Bretherton November, 1884 - -Amiel's Journal December, 1885 - -Robert Elsmere February, 1888 - -The History of David Grieve January, 1892 - -Marcella April, 1894 - -The Story of Bessie Costrell July, 1895 - -Sir George Tressady September, 1896 - -Helbeck of Bannisdale June, 1898 - -Eleanor November, 1900 - -Lady Rose's Daughter March, 1903 - -The Marriage of William Ashe February, 1905 - -Fenwick's Career May, 1906 - -The Testing of Diana Mallory September, 1908 - -Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode May, 1909 - -Canadian Born April, 1910 - -The Case of Richard Meynell October, 1911 - -The Mating of Lydia March, 1913 - -The Coryston Family October, 1913 - -Delia Blanchflower January, 1915 - -Eltham House October, 1915 - -A Great Success March, 1916 - -England's Effort June, 1916 - -Lady Connie November, 1916 - -Towards the Goal June, 1917 - -Missing October, 1917 - -A Writer's Recollections October, 1918 - -The War and Elizabeth November, 1918 - -Fields of Victory July, 1919 - -Cousin Philip November, 1919 - -Harvest April, 1920 - - - - -INDEX - - -Acton, Lord, 56, 98, 113 - -Adams, Henry, 211 - -Addis, W. E., 146 - -Amiel's _Journal Intime_, 42, 43, 46, 48-49 - -Anderson, General Sir Hastings, 298, 302 - -Anderson, Mary, 43 - -Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 273-275 - -Arnold, Eleanor (Viscountess Sandhurst), 247 - -Arnold, Miss Ethel, 38, 39, 229, 251 - -Arnold family, the, 6 - -Arnold, Frances (Fan), 6, 7, 10, 12, 212, 218, 223, 274, 304 - -Arnold, Dr. Francis Sorell, 287, 306 - -Arnold, Jane (Mrs. W. E. Forster), 4, 7, 9, 228 - -Arnold, Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), 38, 77, 98, 229, 253 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 252 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. F. W. Whitridge), 191, 209, 247 - -Arnold, Mary (Mrs. Hiley), 8 - -Arnold, Matthew, 3, 15, 28, 33, 38, 55, 57, 63, 151, 191 - -Arnold, Theodore, 6, 13 - -Arnold, Thomas, Headmaster of Rugby, 1, 3, 18, 210 - -Arnold, Thomas, the younger, 3-7, 13, 14, 15, 19, - 26, 27, 47, 95, 146, 173-174, 219 - -Arnold, Lieut. Thomas Sorell, 287 - -Arnold, William T., 6, 13, 38, 48, 53, 99, 170, 179-181 - -Arnold-Forster, Oakeley, 252 - -Arran, Earl of, 256 - -Arthur, Colonel, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 113, 230, 233, 235 - -Asser, General, 275 - - -Bagot, Capt. Josceline, 144 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James (Earl), 72 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald, 115 - -Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 243 - -Balzani, Count Ugo, 161, 252 - -Barberini, the Villa, 156-158, 161-162, 173 - -Barlow, Sir Thomas, 135 - -Barnes, Colonel, 276 - -Barnett, Canon Samuel, 85, 194 - -Bathurst, Lord, 2 - -Bayard, American Ambassador, 191 - -Bedford, Duke of, 120, 131, 183, 268 - -Bell, Capt., 284 - -Bell, Sir Hugh, 72, 188 _note_, 252 - -Bellasis, Sophie, 9 - -Benison, Miss Josephine, 173 - -Bentwich, Mrs., 289 - -_Bessie Costrell_, _the Story of_, 112, 114, 118 - -Birdwood, General, 298 - -Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine, 195-196 - -Boase, C. W., 32 - -Boissier, Lieut., R.N., 273-274 - -Bonaventura, the Villa, 181, 192, 262 - -Borough Farm, 45-47, 51, 52, 93, 132 - -Bourget, Paul, 168 - -Boutmy, Emile, 168 - -Bowie, Rev. W. Copeland, 81, 82, 88 - -Braithwaite, Miss Lilian, 178 - -Brewer, Cecil, 120-121 - -Bright, Mrs., 107 - -Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 15 - -Brontë, Charlotte, 165-168 - -Brontë, Emily, 166-168, 307 - -_Brontë Prefaces_, the, 165-169 - -Brooke, Stopford A., 80, 81, 83, 87, 153, 304 - -Browning, Pen, 262 - -Brunetière, F., 168 - -Bryce, Rt. Hon. James (Viscount), 207, 211, 214, 243 - -Buchan, Lt.-Col. John, 288 - -Burgwin, Mrs., 135, 141 - -Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 100, 102, 189, 304 - -Butcher, S. H., 30 _footnote_, 148 - -Buxton, Sydney (Earl), 115, 196 - - -Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 229, 230 - -_Canadian Born_, 222, 255 - -Carlisle, Earl of, 80, 81, 83 - -Carpenter, J. Estlin, D.D., 81, 87, 154 - -Cavan, General the Earl of, 280 - -Cavendish, Lady Frederick, 228 - -Cecil, Lord Edward, 267 - -Cecil, Lord Robert, 270-271 - -Chapman, Audrey, 127 - -Charteris, General, 282 - -Chavannes, Dr., 87 - -Chevrillon, André, 168-169, 252, 260, 266, 280, 282, 308 - -Children's Happy Evenings Association, 193, 196-197 - -Childs, W. D., 77 - -Chinda, Viscount, 281 - -Chirol, Sir Valentine, 252 - -Choate, Joseph, American Ambassador, 191, 280 - -Churcher, Miss Bessie, 118, 123, 135, 192, 195, 249, 272, 293, 306 - -Churchill, Lord Randolph, 212 - -Clarke, Father, 149-150 - -Clough, Miss Anne, 8 - -Clough, Arthur Hugh, 3, 10, 309 - -Coates, Mrs. Earle, 210 - -Cobb, Sir Cyril, 200 - -Cobbe, Frances Power, 81 - -Collard, Miss M.L., 141 - -Conybeare, Mrs. Edward, 66 - -_Coryston Family_, _The_, 263 - -_Cousin Philip_, 289-290 - -Crawshay, Mrs. Robert, 303 - -Creighton, Mandell, Bishop of London, 28, 44, 65, 79, 99, - 148, 151, 174, 176 - -Creighton, Mrs., 29, 195, 225, 228, 240, 244, 248, 249, 252, 257, 259 - -Crewe, Marquess of, 143 - -Cromer, Earl of, 230, 234 - -Cropper, James, 51, 144, 176 - -Cropper, Miss Mary, 144, 145, 252 - -Cunliffe, Mrs., 12, 15 - -Cunliffe, Sir Robert, 71 - -Cunningham, Sir Henry, 111 - -Curtis, Henry, 183 - -Curzon of Kedleston, Marquess, 235, 243-244 - - -_Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode_, 222-223 - -_David Grieve_, _The History of_, 71, 79, 92, 95, 97-99, 255, 256 - -Davidson, Sir John, 301 - -Davies, Colonel, 276 - -Davies, Miss, 10-14 - -Davies, Miss Emily, 224 - -_Delia Blanchflower_, 239 - -Dell, Mrs., 108, 251, 254, 261 - -Denison, Col. George, 216 - -Denison, Sir William, Governor of Tasmania, 3 - -Dicey, Albert, 294 - -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_, _The_, 21, 31, 37, 49 - -_Diana Mallory_, _The Testing of_, 248 - -Dilke, Mrs. Ashton, 228 - -Drummond, James, D.D., 81 - -Dufferin and Ava, Marquis of, 160 - -Dugdale, Mrs. Alice, 70 - -Dunn, Miss Maud (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 253 - - -Ehrle, Father, 171 - -_Eleanor_, 158-164, 173; - dramatisation of, 176-179 - -_England's Effort_, 265, 280-282, 297 - -Evans, Sanford, 218 - - -Fawcett, Mrs., 228, 233-235, 238, 244, 251 - -_Fenwick's Career_, 173, 204-205 - -Field, Capt., R.N., 273 - -Fields, Mrs. Annie, 105 _note_, 192, 213 - -_Fields of Victory_, 289, 300-301 - -Finlay, Lord, 243 - -Fisher, Rt. Hon. H. A. L., 197, 292-294 - -Foch, Marshal, 302 - -Forster, W. E., 4, 25, 40-41 - -Fowler, Capt., 284 - -Fox How, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 26, 247, 304 - -Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 263 - -Freeman, Edward, 21, 28 - -Frere, Miss Margaret, 237 - - -Garrett, Miss, 224 - -Gerecke, Fräulein, 11 - -Gilder, R.W., 191 - -Gladstone, William Ewart, 39, 48, 55-64, 71, 73, 110 - -Godkin, E. L., 191 - -Gordon, James Adam, 102 - -Goschen, George (Lord), 40, 304 - -Goschen, Mrs., 228 - -Gouraud, General, 299 - -Grayswood Hill, Mrs. Ward's house on, 78, 92-94, 103 - -Green, John Richard, 21, 25, 28 - -Green, Mrs. J. R., 87, 228 - -Green, Thomas Hill, 27, 28, 33, 51, 62, 63, 213 - -Green, Mrs. T. H., 30, 228, 252 - -Greene, General, 216 - -Grey, Earl, 207, 214-215, 219, 221-222 - -Grey, Sir Edward (Viscount), 102, 211, 270-271, 282 - -Grosvenor Place, No. 25, 113, 190-192, 304 - - -Haldane, R. B. (Lord), 99, 115, 200, 227, 252 - -Halévy, Elie, 169 - -Halsbury, Lord, 243 - -Halsey, Mrs., 291 - -Hampden House, 78-79 - -Harcourt, Mrs. Augustus Vernon, 30 - -Harcourt, Sir William, 171 - -Hargrove, Charles, 87 - -Harnack, Adolf, 265 - -Harrison, Frederic, 46, 225, 228-229, 260 - -_Harvest_, 289 - -Hay, American Ambassador, 191 - -Heberden, Principal, 281 - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_, 143-151 - -Herbert, Bron (Lord Lucas), 148 - -Hobhouse, Charles, 234 - -Holland, E. G., 183, 185 - -Holmes, Edmond, 260 - -Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 77 - -Holt, Henry, 213 - -Horne, General Lord, 284, 287, 296, 298 - -Horne, Sir William van, 207, 214, 216-217 - -Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, 213 - -Hughes, Rev. Hugh Price, 123 - -Huxley, Aldous, 253 - -Huxley, Julian, 98, 99, 253, 290 - -Huxley, Leonard, 38 - -Huxley, Margaret, 253 - -Huxley, Prof. T. H., 38, 68, 79, 100 - -Huxley, Mrs. T. H., 228 - -Huxley, Trevenen, 253 - - -Inge, W. R., Dean of St. Paul's, 307 - - -James, Henry, 46, 112, 148, 161, 191, 252, 279 - -James, William, 192, 250, 257 - -James of Hereford, Lord, 230 - -Jellicoe, Sir John, 272 - -Jerram, Admiral Sir Thomas, 272-273 - -Jersey, Countess of, 170, 197 - -Jeune, Sir Francis, 109 - -Jewett, Miss Sarah Orne, 104-105, 192, 213 - -Johnson, A. H., 30, 252 - -Johnson, Mrs. A. H., 28, 29, 39, 70, 72, 78, 252 - -Jones, Mrs. Cadwalader, 208 - -Jones, Sir Robert, 294 - -Jowett, Benjamin, Master of Balliol, 18, 24, 28, 33, 48, 53, 99, 121 - -Jülicher, Dr. Adolf, 172 - -Julie, SÅ“ur, 286 - -Jusserand, J. J., 169-170, 212, 300 - - -Keble, John, 17 - -Keen, Daniel, 247 - -Kemp, Anthony Fenn, 1 - -Kemp, Miss, 2 - -Kensit, John, 148 - -King, Mackenzie, 219 - -Kipling, Rudyard, 116-117, 124 - -Knight, Prof., 87 - -Kruger, President, 175 - -Knowles, James, 55, 73, 150, 225, 228 - - -_Lady Rose's Daughter_, 179, 187, 204 - -Lanciani, Senator Rodolfo, 161 - -Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 215 - -Lawrence, Hon. Maude, 139, 140, 193 - -Lemieux, M., 215 - -Leo XIII., Pope, 162, 216 - -Levens Hall, 144-148 - -Liddon, Canon H.P., 17, 19, 20 - -Lippincott, Bertram, 210 - -"Lizzie," Miss H. E. Smith, 190, 208, 249 - -Lloyd George, Rt. Hon. David, 271, 299 - -Loreburn, Lord, 243 - -Lowell, American Ambassador, 191, 304 - -_Lydia_, _the Mating of_, 261 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 39, 252 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Sir Neville, 109, 148, 174-175, 247 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Neville (Lady), 109, 148, 175, 274 - -Lytton, Victor (Earl of), 148 - - -Maclaren, Lady, 233 - -McClure, S. S., 76, 191 - -McKee, Miss Ellen, 135, 234 - -McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, 196 - -Macmillan, Sir Frederick, 97 - -Macmillan, Messrs., 43, 50, 73 - -_Marcella_, 79, 97, 106-111, 189 - -Markham, Miss Violet, 233, 235 - -Martineau, James, D.D., 81-87, 154, 304 - -Masterman, C. F. G., 270 - -Maurice, C. E., 149 - -Maxse, Admiral, 267 - -Maxwell, Dr., 209-210 - -May, Miss, 13, 14, 16 - -Meredith, George, 143, 180-181, 266 - -Michel, André, 68 - -Midleton, Lord, 45, 47 - -Mill, John Stuart, 224 - -Milligan, Miss, 135, 141 - -_Milly and Olly_, 32 - -Milner, Viscount, 308 - -Mirman, M., 285 - -_Miss Bretherton_, 43, 44, 48, 255 - -_Missing_, 289 - -Mitchell, Dr. Weir, 210 - -Mivart, St. George, 149 - -Mollison, Miss, 220 - -Morley, John (Viscount), 37, 40-42, 46, 114, 149, 228, 229 - -Mudie's Library, 111 - -Müller, Mrs. Max, 228 - - -Neal, Mary, 123 - -Nettlefold, Frederick, 81 - -Newman, Cardinal, 13, 17, 19, 57 - -Nicholson, Sir Charles, 241 - -Nicolson, Sir Arthur, 270 - -Northbrook, Lord, 131, 304 - -Norton, Miss Sara, 192, 213 - - -Oakeley, Miss Hilda, 268 - -Odgers, Dr. Blake, 81 - -Onslow, Earl of, 282 - -Osborn, Fairfield, 210 _note_ - - -Page, Walter Hines, 298, 304 - -Palmer, Edwin, 20 - -Pankhurst, Mrs., 238 - -Paris, Gaston, 168 - -Parker, Sir Gilbert, 270 - -Pasolini, Contessa Maria, 188, 262 - -Passmore Edwards, J., 91, 120-121 - -Passmore Edwards Settlement, the, 90, 92, 119-122, - 130-131, 182-183, 186, 189, 219, 234, 268 - -Pater, Walter, 27, 42, 99 - -Pattison, Mark, Rector of Lincoln, 17, 19-21, 24, 28, 34, 51, 57 - -_Peasant in Literature_, _The_, 155, 210 - -Pease, Rt. Hon. J. (Lord Gainford), 292 - -Percival, Dr., Bishop of Hereford, 31 - -Pilcher, G. T., 132 - -Pinney, General, 277 - -Plumer, General Lord, 280 - -Plymouth, Earl of, 243 - -Ponsot, M., 285 - -Potter, Beatrice (Mrs. Sidney Webb), 87, 95, 115, 116, 228 - -Prothero, Sir George, 252 - -Pusey, Edward Bouverie, D.D., 32 - -Putnam, George Haven, 76 - - -Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, 284 - -Rawnsley, Rev. Canon H. D., 304 - -Renan, Ernest, 47, 168 - -Repplier, Miss Agnes, 210 - -Ribot, Alexandre, 168 - -_Richard Meynell_, _The Case of_, 90, 153, 173, 250, 257-261 - -Roberts, Earl, 175 - -Roberts, Capt. H. C., 277 - -_Robert Elsmere_, 33, 47, 49-54; - publication, 54-55; - Mr. Gladstone on, 55-64; - circulation of, 64; - _Quarterly_ article on, 72-73; - in America, 73-78, 255, 309 - -"Robin Ghyll," 205-206 - -Robins, Miss Elizabeth, 178 - -Robinson, Alfred, 88 - -Rodd, Sir Rennell, 288 _note_ - -Roosevelt, Theodore, 191, 211-212, 269-270, 286, 304 - -Root, Elihu, 211-212 - -Rosebery, Earl of, 114, 280 - -Rothschild, Lord, 112, 115 - -Ruelli, Padre, 160 - -Ruskin, John, 28 - -Russell, Lord Arthur, 40, 48 - -Russell, Dowager Countess, 81 - -Russell, George W. E., 55 - -Russell Square, No. 61, 35-36, 131, 191 - - -Salisbury, Marquis of, 225, 266 - -Sandwith, Humphry, 25 - -Sandwith, Lieut. Humphry, R.N., 273 - -Sandwith, Jane, wife of Henry Ward, 25 - -Samuel, Rt. Hon. Herbert, 199 - -Sandhurst, Viscount, 247 - -Savile, Lord, 161 - -Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - -Scherer, Edmond, 46, 48, 168 - -Schofield, Colonel, 276 - -Scott, McCallum, 235 - -Segrè, Carlo, 252 - -Selborne, Countess of, 301 - -Selby-Bigge, Sir Amherst, 292 - -Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs. Arthur Strong), 46, 70 - -Selwyn, Arthur, Christopher and George, 253, 287, 296 - -Selwyn, Rev. Dr. E. C., 252 - -Shakespeare, 47 - -Shaw, Bernard, 109 - -Shaw, Norman, 120 - -Shaw-Lefevre, Miss, 30 - -_Sir George Tressady_, 115-118, 127, 255 - -Smith, Dunbar, 120-121 - -Smith, George Murray, 50, 53, 96, 97, 107, 109, 112, 165-166, 176, 282 - -Smith, Goldwin, 216 - -Smith, Reginald J., 173, 176, 255, 256, 258, 262, 281-282 - -Smith, Walter, 211 - -Smith & Elder, publishers, 24, 165 - -Somerville Hall, foundation of, 30-31 - -Sorell, Julia, wife of Thomas Arnold, 1-4, 6, 8, 13, 16, 27, 53, 54, 208 - -Sorell, Colonel William, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Sorell, William, 2 - -Souvestre, Marie, 46, 291 - -Sparkes, Miss, 132 - -Spencer, Herbert, 180-181 - -Stanley, Arthur, Dean of Westminster, 18, 26 - -Stanley, Hon. Lyulph (Lord Sheffield), 72, 132, 134 - -Stanley of Alderley, Lady, 228 - -Stephen, Leslie, 189 - -Sterner, Albert, 173 - -"Stocks," 102, 103, 107-109, 113, 246-254, 297, 302-303, 306 - -Stubbs, William, Bp. of Oxford, 28 - -Sturgis, Julian, 177 - - -Taine, H., 24, 68-69, 168 - -Talbot, Edward, Warden of Keble and Bp. of Winchester, 48, 56, 65 - -Tatton, R. G., 121, 127, 128, 189 - -Taylor, James, 21 - -Tennant, Laura, 39, 46 - -Terry, Miss Marion, 178 - -Thayer, W. R., 77 - -Thursfield, J. R., 38, 71, 102 - -Torre Alfina, Marchese di, 162 - -_Towards the Goal_, 285-286 - -Townsend, Mrs., 133 - -Toynbee, Mrs. Arnold, 228 - -Trench, Alfred Chevenix, 181 - -Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 151, 181-182, 296 - -Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, 181, 214 - -Trevelyan, Humphry, 253, 297 - -Trevelyan, Mary, 253-254, 297 - -Trevelyan, Theodore Macaulay, 253-255 - -Tyrrell, Father, 250, 257 - -Tyrwhitt, Commodore, 286 - - -_Unitarians and the Future_, 155 - - -Voysey, Charles, 33 - - -Wace, Henry, Dean of Canterbury, 21, 31, 32 - -Wade, F. C., 219 - -Walkley, A. B., 178 - -Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 252 - -Wallas, Graham, 87, 109, 115, 132, 134, 141 - -Walter, John, 35 - -_War and Elizabeth_, _The_, 289-290 - -Ward, Miss Agnes (Mrs. Turner), 227 - -Ward, Dorothy Mary, 29, 205-206, 208-209, 211, - 214-215, 249, 275-280, 283-285, 289, 299, 301, 306-307 - -Ward, Miss Gertrude, 43, 126, 230 - -Ward, Rev. Henry, 25 - -Ward, Thomas Humphry, 20, 25, 35, 105, 112, 207-209, 215, 247, 248, 306, 308 - -Warner, Charles Dudley, 191 - -Weardale, Lord, 243 - -Wells, H. G., 214 - -Wemyss, The Countess of, 71-72, 189 - -Wharton, Mrs., 192, 263 - -Whitridge, Arnold, 296 - -Whitridge, Frederick W., 191, 207-208, 247, 281 - -Wicksteed, Philip, 85, 87, 88, 90 - -Wilkin, Charles, 289 - -_William Ashe_, _The Marriage of_, 173, 179, 187, 204 - -Williams, Charles, 127 - -Williams-Freeman, Miss, 251 - -Wilson, President, 281, 300 - -Wolfe, General James, 221 - -Wolff, Dr. Julius, 43, 107 - -Wolseley, Lord, 46 - -Wood, Rev. Canon H. T., 307 - -Wood, Col. William, 221 - -Wordsworth, Gordon, 304 - -Wordsworth, John, Bp. of Salisbury, 33 - -_Writer's Recollections_, _A_, 27, 31, 189, 290-291 - - -Yonge, Miss Charlotte, 25 - - -Zangwill, Israel, 233 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner, Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by etext transcriber: - -reliques chez son évèque=>reliques chez son évêque - -The matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticous=>The -matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticious - -Yours Obiediently=>Yours Obediently - -extents over 400 pages=>extends over 400 pages - -présente ça et là la nature=>présente çà et là la nature - -as a thankoffering=>as a thank-offering - -agitatiion and violence=>agitation and violence - -Opposing Woman Suffrage=>Opposing Women's Suffrage {243} - -Dix-huitième Siécle=>Dix-huitième Siècle - -processs of making=>process of making - -War conditions themsleves that convinced=>War conditions themselves that -convinced {291} - -women are and and have long been at home=>women are and have long been -at home - -Schaffer, Mrs., 220=>Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - - * * * * * - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The following is a letter written long afterwards by Tom Arnold to -his sister Fan, with reference to Clough: "I loved him, oh! so well: and -also respected him more profoundly than any man, anywhere near my own -age, whom I ever met. His pure soul was without stain: he seemed -incapable of being inflamed by wrath, or tempted to vice, or enslaved by -any unworthy passion of any sort. As to 'Philip' something that he saw -in me helped to suggest the character, that was all. There is much in -Philip that is Clough himself and there is a dialectic force in him that -certainly was never in me." - -_December 21, 1895._ - - -[2] "School-days with Miss Clough." By T. C. Down. _Cornhill_, June, -1920. - -[3] According to the universal understanding of those days, in the case -of a mixed marriage the boys followed the father's faith and the girls -the mother's. Tom Arnold's boys were, therefore, brought up as Catholics -until their father's reversion to Anglicanism in 1864. - -[4] _Passages in a Wandering Life_ (T. Arnold), p. 185. - -[5] Jowett to Lewis Campbell, June, 1871. - -[6] Privately printed. - -[7] _Life and Letters of H. Taine._ Trans. by E. Sparrel-Bayly, Vol. -III, p. 58. - -[8] He called her "the greatest and best person I have ever met, or -shall ever meet, in this world."--_Letters of J. R. Green._ Ed. Leslie -Stephen, p. 284. - -[9] After the foundation of Somerville Hall Mrs. Ward was succeeded in -the Secretaryship by Mrs. T. H. Green and Mr. Henry Butcher. - -[10] Now Mrs. Arthur Strong, Assistant Director of the British School at -Rome. - -[11] The Editor of the _Spectator_. - -[12] This conversation has already appeared once in print, as an -Appendix to the Westmorland Edition of _Robert Elsmere_. - -[13] Mrs. T. H. Green; Mrs. Creighton; Mrs. A. H. Johnson; Miss Pater. - -[14] "The New Reformation," _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1889. - -[15] On February 3, 1890. - -[16] Afterwards embodied in her book, _Town Life in the Fifteenth -Century_. - -[17] _Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett_, edited by Annie Fields, p. 95. - -[18] See p. 91. - -[19] Introduction to _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, Autograph Edition, -Houghton Mifflin & Co. - -[20] Introduction to the Autograph Edition. - -[21] Mr. Cropper's brother had married Susan Arnold, sister of Tom. - -[22] He died in April, 1904. - -[23] _Eleanor_ was finally played with the following cast: - - Edward Manisty Mr. CHARLES QUARTERMAINE - Father Benecke Mr. STEPHEN POWYS - Reggie Brooklyn Mr. LESLIE FABER - Alfredo Mr. VICTOR BRIDGES - Lucy Foster Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE - Madame Variani Miss ROSINA FILIPPI - Alice Manisty Miss ELIZABETH ROBINS - Marie Miss MABEL ARCHDALL - Dalgetty Miss BEATRIX DE BURGH - and - Eleanor Burgoyne Miss MARION TERRY - - -[24] See the _Memoir of W. T. Arnold_, by Mrs. Ward and C. E. Montague. - -[25] From _The Associate_, the quarterly magazine of the Passmore -Edwards Settlement, for October, 1902. - -[26] Sir Hugh Bell at the unveiling of the memorial to Mrs. Ward at the -Mary Ward Settlement, July, 1922. - -[27] In 1907 the City Education Authority of New York had no less than -100 school playgrounds equipped and opened under its own supervision. - -[28] Mr. Fairfield Osborn. - -[29] Mrs. Ward had spent a morning in the Parliamentary Library with Mr. -Martin, the librarian, delighting in his detailed knowledge of Canadian -history. - -[30] Mr. Woodall's. - -[31] Mr. Harrison also deprecated the formation of a definite League. -"It is to do the very thing that we are protesting against," he wrote, -"which is to accustom women to the mechanical artifices of political -agitation." - -[32] Now the National Council of Women. - -[33] _What Is and What Might Be._ By Edmond Holmes. - -[34] Henry James had become a naturalized British subject in July, 1915. - -[35] - - My doom hath come upon me, and would to God that I - Had felt my hand in thy dear hand on the day I had to die. - - Sir Rennell Rodd's translation, in - _Love, Worship and Death_. - - -[36] Col. John Buchan, Director of the Ministry of Information, wrote to -her in December 1918, as follows: - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD, - -As the Ministry of Information ceases its operations on Dec. 31st, I am -taking this opportunity of writing to express to you, on behalf of the -Ministry, our very cordial gratitude for the help which you have given -so generously. It would have been almost impossible to essay the great -task of enlightening foreign countries as to the justice of the Allied -cause and the magnitude of the British effort without the co-operation -of our leading writers, and we have been most fortunate in receiving -that co-operation in full and ungrudged measure. To you in particular we -are indebted for generous concessions with regard to the use of your -books and writings, and I beg that you will accept this message of -gratitude from myself and from the other members of the Staff. - -[37] _Evening Play Centres for Children_, by Janet Penrose Trevelyan. -Methuen & Co. - -[38] See p. 241. - -[39] Sir Robert Jones, F.R.C.S., Chairman of the Central Committee for -the care of Cripples, wrote to Miss Ward after her mother's death: "One -of the last pieces of work accomplished by Mrs. Ward for cripples was -the insertion of the P.D. clause in the Fisher Education Act, and the -reports obtained for that purpose are largely the groundwork and origin -of this Committee, in whose work she took a deep interest." - -[40] On October 23, 1919. - -[41] Now named, after its founder, the Mary Ward Settlement. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by -Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. 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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/license - - -Title: The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward - -Author: Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -Release Date: July 24, 2012 [EBook #40319] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, University of Michigan Libraries -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -[Illustration: MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE] - -FROM A WATER-COLOUR PAINTING BY MRS A. H. JOHNSON] - - - - -THE LIFE OF -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - -BY HER DAUGHTER - -JANET PENROSE TREVELYAN - -Author of -"A Short History of the Italian People" - -NEW YORK -DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY -1923 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - - - -TO -DOROTHY MARY WARD - - - - -AUTHOR'S NOTE - - -My warmest thanks are due to the many friends who have helped me, -directly or indirectly, in the writing of this book, but especially to -all those who have sent me the letters they possessed from Mrs. Ward, or -who have given me leave to publish their own. Mr. Henry Gladstone kindly -looked out for me the letters written by Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone -during the _Robert Elsmere_ period; Mrs. Creighton did the same for the -long period covered by Mrs. Ward's correspondence with the Bishop and -with herself; Miss Arnold of Fox How sent me many valuable letters -belonging to the later years. So with Mrs. A. H. Johnson, Mrs. -Conybeare, Mrs. R. Vere O'Brien, Sir Robert Blair, Mr. Leonard Huxley, -Mrs. Reginald Smith, Lord Buxton, M. Chevrillon, Miss McKee, Mrs. -Turner, Miss Gertrude Wood, and many others, and although the letters -may not in all cases have been suitable for publication, they have given -me many valuable side-lights on Mrs. Ward's life and work. - -To Mrs. A. H. Johnson my special thanks are due for permission to -reproduce her water-colour portrait of Mrs. Ward, and to Mrs. T. H. -Green for much help in connexion with the Oxford portion of the book. - -No book at all, however, could have been produced, even from the -material so generously placed at my disposal, had it not been for the -constant collaboration of my father and sister, whose help in sifting -great masses of papers and in advising me in all difficulties has been -my greatest support throughout this task. - -J. P. T. - -BERKHAMSTEAD, - _July, 1923_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGES - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -Mary Arnold's Parentage--The Sorells--Thomas Arnold the -Younger--Marriage in Tasmania with Julia Sorell--Conversion -to Roman Catholicism--Return to England--The -Arnold Family--Mary Arnold's Childhood--Schools--Her -Father's Re-conversion--Removal to Oxford 1-16 - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD, 1867-1881 - -Oxford in the 'Sixties--Mark Pattison and Canon Liddon--Mary -Arnold and the Bodleian--First Attempts at Writing--Marriage -with Mr. T. Humphry Ward--Thomas Arnold's -Second Conversion--Oxford Friends--The Education of -Women--Foundation of Somerville Hall--_The Dictionary -of Christian Biography_--Pamphlet on "Unbelief and Sin" 17-34 - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT -ELSMERE_, 1881-1888 - -Mr. Ward takes work on _The Times_--Removal to London--The -House in Russell Square--London Life and Friends--Work -for John Morley--Letters--Writer's Cramp--_Miss -Bretherton_--Borough Farm--Amiel's _Journal Intime_--Beginnings -of _Robert Elsmere_--Long Struggle with the -Writing--Its Appearance, February 24, 1888--Death of -Mrs. Arnold 35-54 - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER, 1888-1889 - -Reviews--Mr. Gladstone's Interest--His Interview with Mrs. -Ward at Oxford--Their Correspondence--Article in the -_Nineteenth Century_--Circulation of _Robert Elsmere_--Letters--Visit -to Hawarden--_Quarterly_ Article--The Book -in America--"Pirate" Publishers--Letters--Mrs. Ward -at Hampden House--Schemes for a _New Brotherhood_ 55-80 - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL, _DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS," 1889-1892 - -Foundation of University Hall--Mr. Wicksteed as Warden--The -Opening--Lectures--Social Work at Marchmont Hall--Growing -Importance of the Latter--Mr. Passmore -Edwards Promises Help--Our House on Grayswood Hill--Sunday -Readings--The Writing of _David Grieve_--Visit -to Italy--Reception of the Book--Letters--Removal to -"Stocks" 81-103 - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR -GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE -EDWARDS SETTLEMENT, 1892-1897 - -Mrs. Ward much Crippled by Illness--The Writing of _Marcella_--Stocks -Cottage--Reception of the Book--Quarrel with -the Libraries--_The Story of Bessie Costrell_--Friends at -Stocks--Letter from John Morley--_Sir George Tressady_--Letters -from Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Rudyard Kipling--Renewed -attacks of Illness--The Building and Opening -of the Passmore Edwards Settlement 104-122 - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE -FOUNDATION OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S -SCHOOL, 1897-1899 - -Beginnings of the Work for Children--The Recreation School--The -Work for Adults--Finance--Mrs. Ward's interest -in Crippled Children--Plans for Organizing a School--She -obtains the help of the London School Board--Opening -of the Settlement School--The Children's Dinners--Extension -of the Work--Mrs. Ward's Inquiry and Report--Further -Schools opened by the School Board--After-care--Mrs. -Ward and the Children 123-142 - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ -AND THE VILLA BARBERINI, 1896-1900 - -Origins of _Helbeck_--Mrs. Ward at Levens Hall--Her Views on -Roman Catholicism--Creighton and Henry James--Reception -of _Helbeck_--Letter to Creighton--Mrs. Ward -and the Unitarians--Origins of _Eleanor_--Mrs. Ward takes -the Villa Barberini--Life at the Villa--Nemi--Her Feeling -for Italy 143-164 - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND -ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL, -1899-1904 - -Mrs. Ward and the Brontës--George Smith and Charlotte--The -Prefaces to the Brontë Novels--André Chevrillon--M. -Jusserand--Mrs. Ward in Italy and Paris--The Translation -of Jülicher--Death of Thomas Arnold--The South -African War--Death of Bishop Creighton and George -Smith--Dramatization of _Eleanor_--William Arnold--Mrs. -Ward and George Meredith--The Marriage of her -Daughter--The Vacation School at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement 165-186 - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE -CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES, 1904-1917 - -Mrs. Ward's Social Life--Her Physical Delicacy--Power of -Work--American Friends--F. W. Whitridge--Plans for -Extending Recreation Schools for Children to other Districts--Opening -of the first "Evening Play Centres"--The -"Mary Ward Clause"--Negotiations with the London -County Council--Efforts to raise Funds--No help from the -Government till 1917--Two more Vacation Schools--Organized -Playgrounds--_Fenwick's Career_--"Robin -Ghyll" 187-206 - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 1908 - -Invitations to visit America--Mr. and Mrs. Ward and Dorothy -sail in March, 1908--New York--Philadelphia--Washington--Mr. -Roosevelt--Boston--Canada--Lord Grey and -Sir William van Horne--Mrs. Ward at Ottawa--Toronto--Her -Journey West--Vancouver--The Rockies--Lord -Grey and Wolfe--_Canadian Born_ and _Daphne_ 207-223 - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - -Early Feeling against Women's Suffrage--The "Protest" in -the _Nineteenth Century_--Advent of the Suffragettes--Foundation -of the Anti-Suffrage League--Women in Local -Government--Speeches against the Suffrage--Debate with -Mrs. Fawcett--Deputations to Mr. Asquith--The "Conciliation -Bill"--The Government Franchise Bill--Withdrawal -of the Latter--_Delia Blanchflower_--The -"Joint Advisory Committee"--Women's Suffrage passed -by the House of Commons, 1917--Struggle in the House of -Lords--Lord Curzon's Speech 224-245 - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE -OUTBREAK OF WAR - -Rebuilding of Stocks--Mrs. Ward's Love for the Place--Her -Way of Life and Work--Greek Literature--Politics--The -General Elections of 1910--Visitors--Nephews and Nieces--Grandchildren--Death -of Theodore Trevelyan--The -"Westmorland Edition"--Sense of Humour--_The Case -of Richard Meynell_--Letters--Last Visit to Italy--_The -Coryston Family_--The Outbreak of War 246-263 - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO -JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about Germany--Letter to André -Chevrillon--Re-organization of the Passmore Edwards -Settlement--President Roosevelt's Letter--Talk with Sir -Edward Grey--Visits to Munition Centres--To the Fleet--To -France--Mrs. Ward near Neuve Chapelle and on the -Scherpenberg Hill--Return Home--_England's Effort_--Death -of F. W. Whitridge and of Reginald Smith--Second -Journey to France, 1917--The Bois de Bouvigny--The -Battle-field of the Ourcq--Lorraine--_Towards the Goal_ 264-287 - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - -Mrs. Ward at Stocks--Her _Recollections_--The Government -Grant for Play Centres--The Cripples Clause in Mr. Fisher's -Education Act--The War in 1918--Italy--The Armistice--Mrs. -Ward's third journey to France--Visit to British -Headquarters--Strasburg, Verdun and Rheims--Paris--Ill-health--The -Writing of _Fields of Victory_--The last -Summer at Stocks--Mrs. Ward and the "Enabling Bill"--Breakdown -in Health--Removal to London--Mr. -Ward's Operation--Her Death 288-309 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - TO FACE - PAGE - -Mary Ward at Twenty-five. From a water-colour painting by -Mrs. A. H. Johnson _Frontispiece_ - -Borough Farm. From a water-colour painting by Mrs. -Humphry Ward 45 - -Mrs. Ward in 1889. From a photograph by Bassano 82 - -Mrs. Ward in 1898. From a photograph by Miss Ethel M. -Arnold 149 - -Mrs. Ward and Henry James at Stocks. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 252 - -Mrs. Ward beside the Lake of Lucerne. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward 262 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -CHILDHOOD - -1851-1867 - - -Is the study of heredity a science or a pure romance? For the unlearned -at least I like to think it is the latter, since no law that the -Professors ever formulated can explain the caprices of each little human -soul, bobbing up like a coracle over life's horizon and bringing with it -things gathered at random from an infinitely remote and varying -ancestry. It is, I believe, generally known that the subject of this -biography was a granddaughter of Arnold of Rugby, and therewith her -intellectual ability and the force of her character are thought to be -sufficiently explained. But what of her mother, the beautiful Julia -Sorell, of whom her sad husband said at her death that she had "the -nature of a queen," ever thwarted and rebuffed by circumstance? What of -the strain of Spanish Protestant blood that ran in the veins of the -Sorells: for although they were refugees from France after the Edict of -Nantes, it is most probable that they came of Spanish origin? What of -the strain brought in by the wild and forcible Kemps of Mount Vernon in -Tasmania? A daughter of Anthony Fenn Kemp (himself a "character" of a -remarkable kind) married William Sorell and so became the mother of -Julia and the grandmother of Mary Arnold; but the principal fact that is -known of her is that she deserted her three daughters after bringing -them to England for their education, went off with an army officer and -was hardly heard of more. An ungovernable temper seems to have marked -most of this family, and the recollections of her childhood were so -terrible to Julia Sorell that she wrote in after years to her husband, -"Few families have been blessed with such a home training as yours, and -certainly very few in our rank of life have been cursed with such as -mine." Yet although Julia inherited much of this violence and passion, -to her own constant misery, she had also "the nature of a queen," and -transmitted it in no small degree to her daughter Mary. - -The Sorells were descended from Colonel William Sorell, one of the early -Governors of Tasmania, who had been appointed to the post in 1816. Nine -years before, on his appointment as Adjutant-General at the Cape of Good -Hope, this Colonel Sorell had left behind him in England a woman to whom -he was legally married and by whom he had had several children, but whom -he never saw again after leaving these shores. He occupied himself, -indeed, with another lady, while the unfortunate wife at home struggled -to maintain his children on the very inadequate allowance which he had -granted her. Twice the allowance lapsed, with calamitous results for the -wife and children, and it was only on the active intervention of Lord -Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the payment -of her quarterly instalments was resumed in 1818. Meanwhile, her eldest -son William, a steady, hard-working lad, had been trying to support the -family from his own earnings of 12s. a week, and when he grew to man's -estate he applied to Lord Bathurst for permission to join his father in -Van Diemen's Land, hoping that so he might help to reconcile his -parents. Lord Bathurst gave him his passage out, but had in fact already -decided to recall Governor Sorell, so that when young Sorell arrived at -Hobart Town early in 1824 he found his father only awaiting the arrival -of his successor (the well-known Colonel Arthur), before quitting the -Colony for good. William, however, decided to remain there, accepted the -position of Registrar of Deeds from Colonel Arthur, and made his -permanent home in the island. He married the head-strong Miss Kemp, and -in his sad after-life suffered a reversal of the parts played by his own -father and mother. Long after his wife had deserted him he lived on in -Hobart Town, much respected and beloved, and remembered by his -granddaughter as a "gentle, affectionate, upright being, a gentleman of -an old, punctilious school, content with a small sphere and much loved -within it." - -His daughter Julia grew up as the favourite and pet of Hobart Town -society, much admired by the subalterns of the solitary battalion of -British troops that maintained our prestige among the convicts and the -"blacks" of that remote settlement. But for her Fate held other things -in store. Early in 1850 there appeared at Hobart Town a young man of -twenty-six, tall and romantic-looking, who bore a name well known even -in the southern seas--the name of Thomas Arnold. He was the second son -of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. He had left the Old World for the Newest three -years before on a genuine quest for the ideal life; had tried farming in -New Zealand, but in vain, and had then, after some adventures in -schoolmastering, come to Tasmania at the invitation of the Governor, Sir -William Denison, to organize the public education of the Colony. Fortune -seemed to smile upon the young Inspector of Schools, who as a -first-classman and an Arnold found a kind and ready welcome from those -who reigned in Tasmania, and when he met Julia Sorell a few weeks after -he landed and fell in love with her at first sight, no obstacles were -placed in his way. They were married on June 12, 1850--a love-match if -ever there was one, but a match that was too soon to be subjected to -that most fiery test of all, a religious struggle of the deepest and -most formidable kind. - -Thomas Arnold came of a family to whom religion was always a "concern," -as the Quakers call it; whether it was the great Doctor, with his making -of "Christian gentlemen" at Rugby and his fierce polemics against the -"Oxford malignants," or Matt, with his "Power, not ourselves, that makes -for righteousness," or William (a younger brother), with his religious -novel, _Oakfield_, about the temptations of Indian Army life; and Thomas -was by no means exempt from the tradition. A sentimental idealist by -nature, he was a friend of Clough and had already been immortalized as -"Philip" in the _Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich_.[1] He came now to the -Antipodes in rationalistic mood and in search of the nobler, freer life; -but soon the old beliefs reasserted themselves, yet brought no peace. -His mind was "hot for certainties in this our life," and he had not been -five years in Tasmania before he was seeing much of a certain Catholic -priest and feeling himself strongly drawn towards the ancient fold. His -poor wife, in whom her Huguenot ancestry had bred an instinctive and -invincible loathing for Catholicism, felt herself overtaken by a kind of -black doom; she made wild threats of leaving him, she shuddered at the -thought of what might happen to the children. Yet nothing that she or -any of his friends could say might avert the fatal step. Tom Arnold was -received into the Roman Catholic Church at Hobart Town on January 12, -1856. - -His prospects immediately darkened, for feeling ran high in the Colony -against Popery, and it soon became clear that he must give up his -appointment and return to England. Already three children had been born -to him and Julia, but the young wife was now plunged in preparations for -the uprooting of her household and the transport of the whole family -across the globe, to an unknown future and a world of unknown faces. The -voyage was accomplished in a sailing-ship of 400 tons, the _William -Brown_, so overrun by rats that the mother and nurse had to take turns -to watch over the children at night, lest their faces should be bitten; -but after more than three months of this existence the ship did finally -reach English waters and cast anchor in the Thames on October 17, 1856. -It was wet autumn weather and the little family huddled forlornly in a -small inn in Thames Street, but the next day a deliverer appeared in the -person of William Forster (the future Education Minister), who had -married Tom's eldest sister Jane a few years before and who now carried -off the whole family to better quarters in London, helped them in the -kindest way and finally saw off the mother and children to the friendly -shelter of Fox How--that beloved home among the Westmorland hills which -"the Doctor" had built to house his growing family and which was now to -play so great a part in the development of his latest descendant, the -little Mary Arnold. - -Mary Augusta had been born at Hobart Town on June 11, 1851. She was, of -course, the apple of her parents' eyes, and the descriptions which her -father wrote of her, in the long letters that went home to his mother at -Fox How by every available boat, give a curiously vivid picture of a -little creature richly endowed with fairy gifts, but above all with the -crowning gift of _life_. At first she is a "pretty little creature, with -a compact little face, good features and an uncommonly large forehead"; -then at eight months, "If you could but see our darling Mary! The vigour -of life, the animation, the activity of eye and hand that she displays -are astonishing. Her brown hair in its abundance is the admiration of -everybody." At a year old she is "passionate but not peevish, sensitive -to the least harshness in word or gesture, but usually full of merriment -and gladsomeness. She is like a sparkling fountain or a gay flower in -the house, filling it with light and freshness." She has many childish -ailments, but conquers them all in a manner strangely prophetic of her -later power of resisting illness. "I fear you will think she must be a -very sickly child," writes her father, "and she certainly is delicate -and easily put out of order; but I have much faith in the strength of -her constitution, for in all her ailments she has seemed to have a power -of battling against them, a vitality that pulls her through." As a -little thing of under two her feelings are terribly easily worked upon: -"The other evening it was raining very hard and I began to talk to her -about the poor people out in the rain who were getting wet and had no -warm fire to sit by and no nice dry clothes to put on. You cannot -imagine how this touched her. She kept on repeating over and over again, -'Poor people! Poor people! Out in the rain! Get warm! get warm!'" But as -she grows bigger she develops a will of her own that sorely troubles her -father, beset with all the ideas of his generation about "prompt -obedience"; at three and a half he writes: "Little Polly is as imitative -as a monkey and as mischievous; self-willed and resolute to take the -lead and have her own way, whenever her companions are anything -approaching to her own age. Not a very easy character to manage as you -will see, yet often to be led through her feelings, when it would be -difficult to drive her in defiance of her will." Soon he is having "a -regular pitched battle with her about once a day," and writes ruefully -home--as though he were having the worst of it--that Polly is "kind -enough where she can patronize, but her domineering spirit makes even -her kindness partake of oppression." Two little brothers, Willie and -Theodore, had already been added to the family by the time they made the -voyage home--playthings whom Mary alternately slapped and cuddled and in -whom she took an immense pride of possession. They were the first of a -long series of brothers and sisters to whom her kindness, in after -years, was certainly not of the kind that "partakes of oppression." - -Thus, at the age of five, this little spirit, passionate, self-willed -and tender-hearted, came within the direct orbit of the Arnold family. -During most of the four years that followed their arrival she was either -staying with her grandmother, the Doctor's widow, at Fox How, or else -living as a boarder at Miss Clough's little school at Eller How, near -Ambleside, and spending her Saturdays at Fox How. Her father meanwhile -took work under Newman in Dublin and earned a precarious subsistence for -his wife and family by teaching at the Catholic University there. They -were times of hardship and privation for Julia, who never ceased to be -in love with Tom and never ceased to curse the day of his conversion; -and as the babies increased and the income did not she was fain to allow -her eldest daughter to live more and more with the kind grandmother, who -asked no better than to have the child about the house. And, indeed, to -have this particular child about the house was not always a light -undertaking! She was wonderfully quick, clever and affectionate, but her -tempers sometimes shook her to pieces in storms of passion, and the -devoted "Aunt Fan," the Doctor's youngest daughter, who lived with her -mother at Fox How, was often sorely puzzled how to deal with her. Still, -by a judicious mixture of severity and tenderness she won the child's -affection, so that Mary was wont to say, looking slyly at her aunt, "I -like Aunt Fan--she's the master of me!" - -The Arnold atmosphere made indeed a very remarkable influence for any -impressionable child of Mary's age to live in; it supplied a deep-rooted -sense of calm and balance, an unalterable family affection and a sad -disapproval of tempers and excesses of all kinds which, as time went on, -had a marked effect on the Tasmanian child. From a Sorell by birth and -temperament, as I believe she was, she gradually became an Arnold by -environment. If she inherited from her mother those wilder springs of -energy and courage which impelled her, like some dæmon within, to be up -and doing in life's race, it was from the Arnolds that she learnt the -art of living, the art of harnessing the dæmon. They certainly made a -memorable group, the nine sons and daughters of Arnold of Rugby: all of -whom, except Fan, the youngest daughter, were scattered from the nest by -the time that "little Polly" came to Fox How, but all of whom maintained -for each other and for their mother the tenderest affection, so that -life at the Westmorland home was continually crossed and re-crossed by -their visits and their letters. In looking through these faded letters -the reader of to-day is struck by their seriousness and simplicity of -tone, by the intense family affection they display and by the very real -relation in which the writers stood towards the "indwelling presence of -God." Hardly a member of the family can be mentioned without the prefix -"dear" or "dearest," nor can anyone who is acquainted with the Arnold -temperament doubt that this was genuine. Birthdays are made the occasion -for rather solemn words of love or exhortation, and if any sorrow -strikes the family one may expect without fail to find a complete -reliance on the accustomed sources of consolation. Yet they are not -prigs, these brothers and sisters; their roots strike deep down to the -bed-rock of life, and though they are all (except poor Tom) in fairly -prosperous circumstances, they can be generous and open-handed to those -who are less so. Tom was, I think, the special darling of the family, -and his lapse to Catholicism a terrible trial to them, but none the less -did they labour for Tom's children in all simplicity of heart. - -The daughter who, next to "Aunt Fan," had most to do with little Mary -was Jane, the wife of William Forster; Mary was her godchild, and soon -conceived a kind of passion for this sweet-faced woman of thirty-five, -who, childless herself, returned the little girl's affection in no -ordinary degree. Mary would sometimes go to stay with her at -Burley-in-Wharfedale, where she looked with awe at the "great wheels" in -Uncle Forster's woollen mill and saw the children working -there--children untouched as yet by their master's schemes for their -welfare, or by the still remoter visions of their small observer. Then -there was Matt--Matt the sad poet and gay man of the world, who brought -with him on his rarer visits to Fox How the breath of London and of -great affairs, for was he not, in his sisters' eyes at least, the spoilt -darling of society, the diner-out, the frequenter of great houses? He -looked, we know, with unusual interest upon Tom's Polly, and in later -years was wont to say, with his whimsical smile, that she "got her -ability from her mother." Another aunt to whom the Tasmanian child -became much devoted was her namesake Mary, at that time Mrs. Hiley, a -woman whose rich, responsive nature and keen sense of humour endeared -her greatly to the few friends who knew her well, and whose early -rebellions and idealisms had given her a most human personality. It was -she among all the group who understood and sympathized most keenly with -Tom's wife, so that between Julia and Mary Hiley a bond was forged that -ended only with the former's death. Poor Julia! The Arnold atmosphere -was indeed sometimes a formidable one, and had little sympathy to give -to her own undisciplined and tempestuous nature, with its strange deeps -of feeling. Julia's temptations--to extravagance in money matters and to -passionate outbursts of temper--were not Arnold temptations, and she -often felt herself disapproved of in spite of much outward affection and -kindness. And then she would have morbid reactions in which the old -Calvinistic hell-fire of her forefathers seemed very near. Once when she -was staying at Fox How, ill and depressed, she wrote to her husband: -"The feeling grows upon me that I am one of those unhappy people whom -_God has abandoned_, and it is the effect of this feeling I am sure -which causes me to behave as I often do. Oh! it is an awful thing to -_despair_ about one's future state...." Probably she felt that in spite -of their undoubted humility, her in-laws never quite despaired about -theirs. - - * * * * * - -By the time that Mary was seven years old, that is in the autumn of -1858, it was decided that she should go as a boarder to Miss Anne -Clough's school at Ambleside, or rather at Eller How on the slopes of -Wansfell behind the town. Here she spent two years and more--happy on -the whole, often naughty and wilful, but usually held in awe by Miss -Clough's stately presence and power of commanding her small flock. -There was only one other boarder besides Mary, a girl named Sophie -Bellasis, whose recollections of those days were preserved and given to -the world long afterwards by her husband, the late Mr. T. C. Down, in an -article published by the _Cornhill Magazine_.[2] Miss Bellasis' -impressions of the queer little girl, Mary Arnold, who was her -fellow-boarder, make so vivid a picture that I may perhaps be forgiven -for reproducing them here: - - "Mary had a very decided character of her own, as well as a pretty - vivid imagination, for the odd things she used to say, merely on - the spur of the moment, would quite stagger me sometimes. Once when - we were going along the passage upstairs leading to the schoolroom, - she stopped at one of the gratings where the hot air came up from - the furnace, with holes in the pattern about the size of a - shilling, and told me that she knew a little boy whose head was so - small that he could put it through one of those holes: and after we - had gone to bed she would tell me the oddest stories in a whisper, - because it was against the rules to talk. I think now that her - fancy used to run riot with her, and, of course, she had to give - vent to it in any way that suggested itself. But I implicitly - believed whatever she chose to tell me, so that you see we both - enjoyed ourselves. Her energy and high spirits were something - wonderful; out of doors she was never still, but always running or - jumping or playing, and she invariably tired me out at this sort of - thing. Still, nothing came amiss to her in the way of amusement; - anything that entered her head would answer the purpose, and she - was never at a loss. I recollect she had a lovely doll, which her - aunt, Mrs. Forster, had given her, all made of wax. Once she was - annoyed with this doll for some reason or other and broke it up - into little bits. We put the bits into little saucepans, and melted - them over one of the gratings I told you of. Sometimes Willy Dolly - (that was the name we had for the general factotum) would let the - fire go down, and then the gratings were cold, and at other times - he would have a roaring fire, and then they would be so hot that - you couldn't touch them. So we melted the wax and moulded it into - dolls' puddings, and that was the last of her wax doll! - - "One day we were over at Fox How, which was a pretty house, with a - wide lawn and garden. One side of it was covered with a handsome - Virginia creeper, which was thought a great deal of, and, of - course, was not intended to be meddled with. Suddenly it occurred - to Mary that it would be first-rate fun to pick 'all those red - leaves,' and I obediently went and helped her. We cleared a great - bare space all along the wall as high as we could reach, but from - what Miss Arnold said when she came out and discovered what was - done, I gathered that she was not so pleased with our work as we - were ourselves." - -It was during these years, from six to nine, that the foundation was -laid of that passionate adoration for the fells, with their streams, -bogs and stone walls, which became one of Mary's most intimate -possessions and never deserted her in after years. In her -_Recollections_ she describes a walk up the valley to Sweden Bridge with -her father and Arthur Clough, the two men safely engaged in grown-up -talk while she, happy and alone, danced on in front or lingered behind, -all eyes and ears for the stream, the birds and the wind. It was a walk -of which she soon knew every inch, just as she knew every inch of the -Fox How garden, and I believe that the sights and sounds of that rough -northern valley came to be woven in with the very texture of her soul. -They appealed to something primitive and deep-down in her little heart, -some power that remained with her through life and that, as she once -said to me, "stands more rubs than anything else in our equipment." - -Then, when she was only nine and a half, she was transferred to a school -at Shiffnal in Shropshire, kept by a certain Miss Davies, whose sister -happened to be an old friend of Tom Arnold's and offered now to -undertake little Mary's maintenance if she were sent to this "Rock -Terrace School for Young Ladies." But the change seemed to call out all -the demon in Mary's composition; she fought blindly against the -restrictions and rules of this new community, felt herself at enmity -with all the world and broke out ever and anon in storms of passion. In -the first chapter of _Marcella_ it is all described--the "sulks, -quarrels and revolts" of Marcie Boyce (_alias_ Mary Arnold), the -getting up at half-past six on dark winter mornings, the cold ablutions -and dreary meals, and the occasional days in bed with senna-tea and -gruel when Miss Davies (at her wits' end, poor lady!) would try the -method of seclusion as a cure for Mary's tantrums. The poor little thing -suffered cruelly from headaches and bad colds, and laboured too under a -sore sense of poverty and disadvantage as compared with the other girls; -she was, in fact, paid for at a lower rate than most of the other -boarders, and was not allowed to forget it. Often she writes home to beg -for stamps, and once she says to her father: "Do send me some more -money. It was so tantalizing this morning, a woman came to the door with -twopenny baskets, so nice, and many of the other girls got them and I -couldn't." Another time she begs him to send her the threepence that she -has "earned," by writing out some lists of names for him. But on -Saturdays she had one joy, fiercely looked forward to all the week; a -"cake-woman" came to the school, and by hoarding up her tiny weekly -allowance she was able--usually--to buy a three-cornered jam puff. To a -rather starved and very lonely little girl of nine or ten this was--she -often said to us afterwards--the purest consolation of the week. - -But there were some compensations even in these unlovely surroundings. -The nice old German governess, Fräulein Gerecke, was always kind to her, -and tried in little unobtrusive ways to ease the lot which Mary found so -hard to bear. Once she made for her, surreptitiously, a white muslin -frock with blue ribbons and laid it on her bed in time for some little -function of the school for which Mary had received no "party frock" from -home. A gush of hot tears was the response, tears partly of gratitude, -partly of soreness at the need for it; but the muslin frock was worn -nevertheless, and entered from that moment into the substance of the -day-dreams and stories that she was for ever telling herself. Any child -who has a faculty for it will understand how great a consolation were -these self-told stories, in which she rioted especially on days of -senna-tea and gruel. Tales of the Princess of Wales and how she, Mary, -herself succeeded in stopping her runaway horses, with the divinity's -pale agitation and gratitude, filled the long hours, and the muslin -frock usually came into the story when Mary made her trembling -appearance "by command" at the palace afterwards. Gradually, too, these -tales came to weave themselves round more accessible mortals, for Mary's -heart and affections were waking up and she did not escape, any more -than the modern schoolgirl, her share of "adorations." At twelve years -old she fell headlong in love with the Vicar of Shiffnal and his wife, -Mr. and Mrs. Cunliffe; going to church--especially in the evenings, when -the Vicar preached--became a romance; seeing Mrs. Cunliffe pass by in -her pony-carriage lent a radiance to the day. The Vicar's wife, a gentle -Evangelical, felt genuinely drawn towards the untamed little being and -did her best to guide the wayward footsteps, while Mary on her side -wrote poems to her idol, keeping them fortunately locked within her -desk, and let her fancy run from ecstasy to ecstasy in the dreams that -she wove around her. What "dauntless child" among us does not know these -splendours, and the transforming effect that they have upon the prickly -hide of youth? Little Mary Arnold was destined to leave her mark upon -the world, partly by power of brain, but more by sheer power of love, -and the first human beings to unlock the unguessed stores of it within -her were these two kindly Evangelicals. - -Still, the demon was not quite exorcised, and "Aunt Fan" still found -Mary something of a handful when she stayed at Fox How, though now in a -different way. - - "She seems to me very much wanting in _humility_," she writes in - January, 1864, "which, with the knowledge she must have of her own - abilities, is not perhaps wonderful, but it is ungraceful to hear - her expressing strong opinions and holding her own, against elder - people, without certainly much sense of reverence. One thing, - however I will mention to show her desire to conquer herself. She - had no gloves to go to Ellergreen, and I objected to buying her - kid, but got her such as I wear myself, very nice cloth. She vowed - and protested she couldn't and shouldn't wear them, so I said I - should not make her, but if she wanted kid, she must buy them with - her own money. I talked quietly to her about it and said how - pleased I should be if she conquered this whim, and when she came - to say good-bye to me before starting for Ellergreen her last words - were--'I am going to put on the gloves, Auntie!'--and she has worn - them ever since, though I must say with some grumblings!" - -She stayed for four years at Miss Davies's, during which time her -parents moved (in 1862) from Dublin to Birmingham, where Tom Arnold was -offered work under Newman at the Oratory School. The change brought a -small increase in salary, but not enough to cover the needs of the still -growing family, and if it had not been for the help freely given during -these years by W. E. Forster, the struggling pair must almost have gone -down under their difficulties. One result of the change was that the -elder boys, Willie and Theodore, were themselves sent to the Oratory -School, and the thought of Arnold of Rugby's grandsons being pupils of -Newman gave rise to bitter reflections at Fox How. "I was very glad to -hear of Willy's having done so well in the examination of his class," -wrote Julia to her husband from the family home, "although I must -confess the thought of _our son_ being examined by Dr. Newman had -carried a pang to my heart. Your mother I found felt it in the same way; -she said (when I read out to her that part of your letter) with her eyes -full of tears, 'Oh! to think of _his_ grandson, _dearest Tom's son_, -being examined by Dr. Newman!'" Still, Julia was emphatically of opinion -that if priests were to have a hand in their education at all, she would -rather it were English than Irish priests.[3] - -Meanwhile, the shortcomings of the school at Shiffnal were becoming -evident to Mary's mother, and in the winter of 1864-5 she succeeded in -arranging that the child should be sent instead to another near Clifton, -kept by a certain Miss May, which was smaller and also more expensive -than Miss Davies's. Heaven knows how the payments were managed, but the -change answered extremely well, for after the first term Mary settled -down in complete happiness and soon developed such a devotion to Miss -May as made short work of her remaining tendencies to temper and -"contrariness." Miss May must have been exactly the type of -schoolmistress that Mary needed at this stage--kind and large-hearted, -with the understanding necessary to win the confidence of such an -uncommon little creature--so that it was not long before the child's -mind began to expand in every direction. Long afterwards she was wont to -say that the actual knowledge she acquired at school was worth next to -nothing--that she learnt no subject thoroughly and left school without -any "edged tools." But certainly by the time she was twelve she could -write a French letter such as not many of us could produce with all our -advantages, while the drawing and music that she learnt at school -encouraged certain natural talents in her that were to give her some of -the purest joys of her after-life. Still, no doubt her mind received no -systematic training, and at Miss Davies's I believe that _Mangnall's -Questions_ were still the common textbook! Though she learnt a little -German and Latin she always said that she had them to do all over again -when she needed them later for her work, while Greek, which became the -joy and consolation of her later years, was entirely a "grown-up" -acquisition. But whatever the imperfections of her nine years of school, -better times were at hand both for Mary and her mother. - -Whether it was that after two or three years of the Birmingham Oratory, -Tom Arnold's political radicalism (always a sturdy growth) began to make -him uneasy at the proceedings of Pio Nono--for 1864 was the year of the -Encyclical--or whether it was more particularly the Mortara case, as he -says in his autobiography,[4] at any rate his feeling towards the -Catholic Church had grown distinctly cool by the end of that year, and -he was meditating leaving the Oratory. Gradually the rumour spread among -his friends that Tom Arnold was turning against Rome, and in June, 1865, -a paragraph to this effect appeared in the papers. Little Mary, now a -girl of fourteen, heard the news while she was at Miss May's, and wrote -in ecstasy to her mother: - - "My precious Mother, I have indeed seen the paragraphs about Papa. - The L's showed them me on Saturday. You can imagine the excitement - I was in on Saturday night, not knowing whether it was true or not. - Your letter confirmed it this morning and Miss May, seeing I - suppose that I looked rather faint, sent me on a pretended errand - for her notebook to escape the breakfast-table. My darling Mother, - how thankful you must be! One feels as if one could do nothing but - thank Him." - -Her father's change opened indeed a new and happier chapter in their -lives, for it opened the road to Oxford. He had been seriously facing -the possibility of a second emigration, this time to Queensland, and had -been making inquiries about official work there, but his own -inclinations--and, of course, Julia's too--were in favour of trying to -make a living at Oxford by the taking of pupils. His old friends there -encouraged him, and by the autumn of 1865 they were established in a -house in St. Giles's and the venture had begun. Mary wrote in delight -that winter to her dear Mrs. Cunliffe: - - "Do you know that we are now living at Oxford? My father takes - pupils and has a history lectureship. We are happier there than we - have ever been before, I think. My father revels in the libraries, - and so do I when I am at home." - -A fragment of diary written in the Christmas holidays of 1865-6 reveals -how much she enjoyed being taken for a grown-up young lady by Oxford -friends. "Went to St. Mary Magdalen's in the morning and heard a droll -sermon on Convictional Sin. Met Sir Benjamin [Brodie] coming home. Miss -Arnold at home supposed to be seventeen, and Mary Arnold at school known -to be fourteen are two very different things." She is absorbed in -_Essays in Criticism_, but can still criticize the critic. "Read Uncle -Matt's Essay on Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment. Compares the -religious feeling of Pompeii and Theocritus with the religious feeling -of St. Francis and the German Reformation. Contrasts the religion of -sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity with the religion of sense, -giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight pre-eminence -over the latter." She does not like the famous _Preface_ at all. "The -_Preface_ is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, -that of being amusing. As for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight -charms and Romeo and Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly -inclined to ride the high horse whenever he approaches the subject." - -As the eldest of eight children she led a very strenuous life at home, -helping to teach the little ones and ever striving to avoid a clash -between her mother's temper and her own. The entries in the diary are -often sadly self-accusing: "These last three days I have not served -Christ at all. It has been nothing but self from beginning to end. -Prayer seems a task and it seems as if God would not receive me." - -But after another year and a half at Miss May's school these -difficulties vanished, and by the time that she came to live at home -altogether, in the summer of 1867, the rough edges had smoothed -themselves away in marvellous fashion. She was sixteen, and the world -was before her--the world of Oxford, which in spite of her criticisms of -the _Preface_ was indeed _her_ world. Her father seemed content with his -teaching work, and was planning the building of a larger house. She set -to work to be happy, and so indeed did her mother--happy in a great -reprieve, and in the reviving hopes of prosperity. But now and then -Julia would stop suddenly in her household tasks, hearing ominous sounds -from Tom's study. Was it the chanting of a Latin prayer? She put the -fear behind her and passed on. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -LIFE AT OXFORD - -1867-1881 - - -When Tom Arnold settled with his family at Oxford, in 1865, the old -University was still labouring under the repercussions, the thrills and -counter-thrills, of the famous Movement set on foot in 1833 by Keble's -sermon on _National Apostasy_. Keble, indeed, was withdrawn from the -scene, but Newman's conversion to Rome (1845) had made so prodigious a -stir that even twenty years later the religious world of England still -took its colour from that event. In the words of Mark Pattison, "whereas -other reactions accomplished themselves by imperceptible degrees, in -1845 the darkness was dissipated and the light was let in in an instant, -as by the opening of the shutters in the chamber of a sick man who has -slept till mid-day." So at least the crisis appeared to the Liberal -world; the mask had been torn from the Tractarians and their Romanizing -tendencies stood revealed to all beholders. In the opposite camp the -consternation was proportionate, but the formidable figure of Pusey -rallied the doubters and brought them back in good order to the _Via -Media_ of the Anglican communion; while the tender poetry of Keble and -the far-famed eloquence of Liddon fortified and adorned the High Church -cause. But the sudden ending of the Tractarian controversy opened the -way for another movement, slower and less sensational than that of -Newman, yet destined to have an even deeper effect upon the religious -life of England. The freedom of the human mind began to be insisted -upon, not only in the realm of science, or where science clashed with -the Book of Genesis, but in the whole field of the Interpretation of -Scripture. Slowly the results of fifty years of patient study of the -Bible by German scholars and historians began to penetrate here, and -even Oxford, stronghold and citadel of the Laudian establishment, felt -the stir of a new interest, a new challenge to accepted forms. A Liberal -school of theologians arose, led by Jowett, Mark Pattison and other -writers in _Essays and Reviews_ (1860), for whom the old letter of -"inspiration" no longer existed, though they stoutly maintained their -orthodoxy as members and ministers of the Church of England. The Church, -they said, must broaden her base so as to make room for the results of -science and of historical criticism, or else she would be left high and -dry while the forces of democracy passed on their way without her. -Jowett, in his famous essay "On the Interpretation of Scripture," boldly -summed up his argument in the precept, "Interpret the Scripture like any -other book." "The first step is to know the meaning, and this can only -be done in the same careful and impartial way that we ascertain the -meaning of Sophocles or Plato." "Educated persons are beginning to ask, -not what Scripture may be made to mean, but what it does mean." - -The hubbub raised by these and similar expressions continued during the -three years of proceedings before the Court of Arches, the Judicial -Committee of the Privy Council, and finally Convocation, against two of -the contributors to _Essays and Reviews_, and had hardly died away when -the Arnolds came to take up their life in Oxford. And side by side with -the theoretical discussion went the insistent demand of the reforming -party, both at Oxford and in Parliament, for the abolition of the -disabilities that still weighed so heavily against Dissenters. For, -although the "Oxford University Act" of 1854 had admitted them to -matriculation and the B.A. degree, neither Fellowships nor the M.A. were -yet open to any save subscribers to the Thirty-nine Articles. All -through the 'sixties the battle raged, with an annual attempt in -Parliament to break down the defence of the guardians of tradition, and -not till 1871 was the "citadel taken."[5] Jowett and Arthur Stanley -stood forth among the Liberal champions at Oxford--the latter reckoning -himself always as carrying on the tradition of Arnold of Rugby, whose -pamphlet urging the inclusion of Dissenters in the National Church had -made so great a sensation in 1833. It was hardly possible, therefore, -for a little Arnold of Mary's temperament and traditions to escape the -atmosphere that surrounded her so closely, though we need not imagine -that at the age of sixteen she did more than imbibe it passively. But -there were certain things that were not passive in her memory--visions -of Dr. Newman in the streets of Edgbaston, passing gravely by upon his -business--business which the child so passionately resented because she -understood it to be responsible in some vague way for all the hardships -and misfortunes of her family. We may safely assume that if she was ever -taken into Oriel College and saw the many rows of portraits looking down -at her there, in Common-room and Hall, she would feel an instinctive -rallying to the standard of her grandfather rather than to that of his -mighty opponent. - -Two other remarkable figures who dominated the Oxford world of that day, -though from opposite camps, were the silver-tongued Dr. Liddon, "Select -Preacher" at the University Church, and Mark Pattison, Rector of -Lincoln, whom his contemporaries looked on with awe as one of the most -learned scholars in Europe in matters of pure erudition, but in religion -a sad sceptic, though twenty years before, they knew, he had been a -brand only barely plucked from Newman's burning. Both were to have their -influence upon Mary Arnold, the former superficial, the latter deep and -lasting, and it is curious to find a letter from her father, written in -1865, before he had definitely left the Catholic communion, in which he -describes hearing both men preach on the same day in the University -Church. - - "Pattison's sermon was certainly a most remarkable one," he writes; - "I could have sat another half-hour under him with pleasure. But he - has much more of the philosopher than the divine about him, and the - discourse had the effect of an able article in the _National_ or - _Edinburgh Review_, read to a cultivated audience in the academical - theatre, much more than of a sermon. In fact, the name either of - Jesus Christ or of one of the Apostles was not once mentioned - throughout. The subject was, the higher education; and the felicity - of the language accorded well with the clearness and beauty of the - thoughts. He condemned the Catholic system, and also the Positivist - system, and in speaking of the former he said, 'I cannot do better - than describe it in the words of one whose voice was once wont to - sound within these walls with thrilling power, but now, alas! can - never more be heard by us, who in his Treatise on University - Education--' and then he proceeded to quote at some length from Dr. - Newman. It was an extremely powerful sermon, but scandalized, I - think, the High Church and orthodox party. 'Do you often now,' I - asked Edwin Palmer with a smile, meeting him outside after it was - over, 'have University sermons in that style?' 'Oh dear no,' he - said, 'scarcely ever, except indeed from Pattison himself'; this - with some acidity of tone. I dined early; then thought I, in for a - penny, in for a pound, I'll go and hear the other University - sermon. I was punctual, but there was not a seat to be had, the - ladies mustered in overwhelming force. It was strange, but sermon - and preacher were now everything most opposite to those of the - morning. Liddon is a dark, black-haired little man--short, - straight, stubby hair--and with that shiny, glistening appearance - about his sallow complexion which one so often sees in Dissenting - ministers, and which the devotees no doubt consider a mark of - election. Liddon's whole sermon was an impassioned strain of - apologetic argument for the truth of the Resurrection, and of the - church doctrine generally. It was very clever certainly, but rather - too long, it extended to about an hour and twenty minutes. The tone - was earnest and devout; yet there were several sarcastic, one might - almost say irritable, flings at the liberal and rationalizing - party; and it was evident that he was thinking of the Oxford - congregation when he spoke pointedly of the 'educated sceptics who - at that time composed, or at any rate controlled, the Sanhedrin.' - These two," he continues, "were certainly sermons of more than - ordinary interest--each worthily representing a great stream of - thought and tendency, influential for good or evil at the present - moment upon millions of human beings." - -It was under such influences as these that Mary Arnold passed the four -impressionable years of her girlhood, from sixteen to twenty, that -elapsed between her leaving school and her engagement to Mr. Humphry -Ward, of Brasenose. She plunged with zest into the Oxford life, making -friends, helping her father at the Bodleian in his researches into -early English literature and studying music to very good purpose under -James Taylor, the future organist of New College. But she had no further -regular education, and was free to roam and devour at will in that city -of books, guided only by the advice of a few friends and by her own -innate literary instincts. The Mark Pattisons early befriended her, -frequently asking her to supper with them on Sunday evenings--suppers at -which she sat, shy and silent, in a high woollen dress, with her black, -wavy hair brushed very smoothly back, listening to every word of the -eager talk around her and drinking in, no doubt, the Rector's caustic -remarks about Oxford scholarship. These were the years of battle between -the champions of research and the champions of the Balliol ideal of -turning out good men for the public service, and in her ardent -admiration for the Rector Mary Arnold threw herself whole-heartedly into -the former camp. "Get to the bottom of something," he used to say to -her; "choose a subject and know _everything_ about it!" And so she -plunged into early Spanish literature and history, working at it in the -Bodleian with the fervour that comes from knowing that your subject is -your very own, or at least that it has only been traversed before by -dear, musty German scholars. There was hard practice here in the reading -of German and Latin, let alone the Spanish poems and chronicles -themselves, but after a couple of years of it there was little she did -not know about the _Poema del Cid_, or the Visigothic invasion, or the -reign of _Alfonso el Sabio_. Her friend, J. R. Green, the historian, was -so much impressed with her work that he recommended her when she was -only twenty to Edward Freeman as the best person he could suggest for -writing a volume on Spain in an historical series that the latter was -editing. Mr. Freeman duly invited her, but by that time she was already -deep in the preparations for her marriage and was obliged to decline the -offer. She maintained her allegiance to the subject, however, through -all the years that followed, until, as will be seen hereafter, Dean Wace -made her the momentous proposition that she should undertake the lives -of the early Spanish kings and ecclesiastics for the _Dictionary of -Christian Biography_. And there, in the four volumes of the -_Dictionary_, her articles stand to this day, a monument to an early -enthusiasm lightly kindled by a word from a great man, but pursued with -all the patience and intensity of the true historian. - -In the course of this work on the early Spaniards she developed an -extraordinary attachment to the Bodleian, with all the most secret -corners of which she soon became familiar, under the benevolent guidance -of the Librarian, Mr. Coxe. The charm of the noble building, with its -mellow lights and shades, its silences, its deep spaces of book-lined -walls, sank into her very soul and gave her that background of the love -of books and reading which became perhaps--next to her love of -nature--the strongest solace of her after-life. At the age of twenty she -wrote a little essay, called "A Morning in the Bodleian,"[6] which -reflects all the joy--nay, the pride--of her own long days of work among -the calf-bound volumes. - - "As you slip into the chair set ready for you," she writes, "a deep - repose steals over you--the repose, not of indolence but of - possession; the product of time, work and patient thought only. - Literature has no guerdon for 'bread-students,' to quote the - expressive German phrase; let not the young man reading for his - pass, the London copyist or the British Museum illuminator, hope to - enter within the enchanted ring of her benignest influences; only - to the silent ardour, the thirst, the disinterestedness of the true - learner, is she prodigal of all good gifts. To him she beckons, in - him she confides, till she has produced in him that wonderful - many-sidedness, that universal human sympathy which stamps the true - literary man, and which is more religious than any form of creed." - -A touch about the German students to be found there has its note of -prophecy: "In a small inner room are the Hebrew manuscripts; a German is -working there, another in shirt-sleeves is here--strange people of -innumerable tentacles, stretching all ways, from Genesis to the latest -form of the needle-gun." And in the last page we come upon her most -intimate reflections, the thoughts pressed together from her many months -of comradeship with those silent tomes, which show, better than any -letters, the quality of a mind but just emerging--as the years are -reckoned--from its teens:-- - - "Who can pass out of such a building without a feeling of profound - melancholy? The thought is almost too obvious to be dwelt upon; but - it is overpowering and inevitable. These shelves of mighty folios, - these cases of laboured manuscripts, these illuminated volumes of - which each may represent a life--the first, dominant impression - which they make cannot fail to be like that which a burial-ground - leaves--a Hamlet-like sense of 'the pity of it.' Which is the - sadder image, the dust of Alexander stopping a bung-hole, or the - brain and life-blood of a hundred monks cumbering the shelves of - the Bodleian? Not the former, for Alexander's dust matters little - where his work is considered, but these monks' work is in their - books; to their books they sacrificed their lives, and gave - themselves up as an offering to posterity. And posterity, - overburdened by its own concerns, passes them by without a look or - a word! Here and there, of course, is a volume which has made a - mark upon the world; but the mass are silent for ever, and zeal, - industry, talent, for once that they have had permanent results, - have a thousand times been sealed by failure. And yet men go on - writing, writing; and books are born under the shadow of the great - libraries just as children are born within sight of the tombs. It - seems as though Nature's law were universal as well as rigid in its - sphere--wide wastes of sand shut in the green oasis, many a seed - falls among thorns or by the wayside, many a bud must be sacrificed - before there comes the perfect flower, many a little life must - exhaust itself in a useless book before the great book is made - which is to remain a force for ever. And so we might as profitably - murmur at the withered buds, at the seed that takes no root, at the - stretch of desert, as at the unread folios. They are waste, it is - true; but it is the waste that is thrown off by Humanity in its - ceaseless process towards the fulfilment of its law." - -No doubt her life was not all books during these four years, though -books gave it its tone and background; she took her part in the gaieties -of Oxford, in Eights Week and Commem. and in river parties to the -Nuneham woods, and it is to be feared that her stout resistance to the -"seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and Juliet -character" was not of long duration. In one select Oxford pastime, the -game of croquet, she attained to real pre-eminence, becoming, after her -marriage, one of the moving spirits of the Oxford Croquet Club. But her -shyness made social events no special joy to her, and she was far -happier sitting at the feet of "Mark Pat" or helping "Mrs. Pat" with her -etching in the sitting-room upstairs than in making conversation with -the youth of Oxford. - -One charming glimpse of her, however, at a social function remains to us -in the letters of M. Taine. The great Frenchman had come over in the -very spring of the _Commune_ (1871) to give a course of lectures at -Oxford; he met her one evening at the Master of Balliol's, being -introduced to her by Jowett himself. "'A very clever girl,' said -Professor Jowett, as he was taking me towards her. She is about twenty, -very nice-looking and dressed with taste (rather a rare thing here: I -saw one lady imprisoned in a most curious sort of pink silk sheath). -Miss Arnold was born out in Australia, where she was brought up till the -age of five. She knows French, German and Italian, and during this last -year has been studying old Spanish of the time of the Cid; also Latin, -in order to be able to understand the mediæval chronicles. All her -mornings she spends at the Bodleian Library--a most intellectual lady, -but yet a simple, charming girl. By exercise of great tact, I finally -led her on to telling me of an article--her first--that she was writing -for _Macmillan's Magazine_ upon the oldest romances. In extenuation of -it she said, 'Everybody writes or lectures here, and one must follow the -fashion. Besides, it passes the time, and the library is so fine and so -convenient.' Not in the least pedantic!"[7] - -Mary's efforts at writing fiction, which had been many from her -school-days onwards, were far less successful at this stage than her -more serious essays; but she persisted in the attempt, for the pressure -on the family budget was always so great that she longed to make herself -independent of it by earning something with her pen. She sent one story, -at the age of eighteen, to Messrs. Smith & Elder, her future -publishers, but when it was politely declined by them she showed her -philosophy in the following note-- - - -LALEHAM, OXFORD. -_October 1, 1869._ - -DEAR SIRS,-- - - I beg to thank you for your courteous letter. "Ailie" is a juvenile - production and I am not sorry you decline to publish it. Had it - appeared in print I should probably have been ashamed of it by and - by. - -I remain, -Yours obediently, -MARY ARNOLD. - -But at length no less a veteran than Miss Charlotte Yonge, who was then -editing a blameless magazine named the _Churchman's Companion_, accepted -a tale from her called "A Westmorland Story," and Mary's joy and pride -were unbounded. But the tale shows no glimpse, I think, of her future -power, and is as far removed from "A Morning in the Bodleian" as water -is from wine. - -Sometimes the Forsters would invite her to stay with them in London, and -so it occurred that at the age of eighteen she was actually there, in -the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons, when her uncle brought in -his famous Education Bill. In after life she was always glad to recall -that day, and when in the fullness of time her own path led her among -the stunted lives of London's children she liked to think that she was -in a sense continuing her uncle's work. - -In the winter of 1870-71 she first met Mr. T. Humphry Ward, Fellow and -Tutor of Brasenose College, between whom and herself an instant -attraction became manifest. Mr. Ward was the son of the Rev. Henry Ward, -Vicar of St. Barnabas, King Square, E.C., while his mother was Jane -Sandwith, sister of the well-known Army surgeon at the siege of Kars, -Humphry Sandwith, and herself a woman of remarkable charm and beauty of -character. By an odd chance, J. R. Green, the historian, had been curate -to Mr. Henry Ward in London for two years, had made himself the devoted -friend of all his numerous children and has left in his published -Letters a striking tribute to the great qualities of Mrs. Ward.[8] But -she died at the age of forty-two, and Mary Arnold never knew her. The -course of true love ran smoothly through the spring of 1871, and on June -16, five days after Mary's twentieth birthday, they became engaged. -Never was happiness more golden, and when the pair of lovers went to -stay at Fox How and the young man was introduced to all the well-beloved -places--Sweden Bridge and Loughrigg, Rydal Water and the -stepping-stones--she was quite puzzled, as she wrote to him afterwards, -by the change that had come over the mountains, by the "new relations -between Westmorland and me!" It was simply, as she said, that the -mountains had become the frame, instead of being, as hitherto, the -picture. - -They were engaged for ten months, and then, on April 6, 1872, Dean -Stanley married them and they settled, a little later, in a house in -Bradmore Road (then No. 5, now 17), where they lived and worked for the -next nine years. - - * * * * * - -Strenuous and delightful years! In looking back over them her old -friends recall with amazement her intense vitality and energy, in spite -of many lapses of health; how she was always at work, writing articles -or reviewing books to eke out the family income, and how she seemed -besides to bear on her shoulders the cares of two families, her own and -her husband's. She was the eldest and he the third of a long string of -brothers and sisters, the younger of whom were still quite children and -much in need of shepherding. The house in Bradmore Road was always a -second home to them. Her own parents lived close by and she was much in -and out of their house, sharing in their anxieties and struggles and -helping whenever it was possible to help. For she was linked to her -father by a deep and instinctive devotion, much strengthened by these -years of companionship at Oxford, and to her mother by a more aching -sense of pity and longing. Tom Arnold was growing restless again in the -mid-'seventies, and when he went with his younger children to church at -St. Philip's they would nudge each other to hear him muttering under his -breath the Latin prayers of long ago--little thinking, poor babes, how -their very bread and butter might hang upon these mutterings! But in -1876 there came a day when his election to the Professorship of Early -English was almost a foregone conclusion; as the author of the standard -edition of Wycliffe's English Works he was by far the strongest -candidate in the field, and Julia looked forward eagerly to a time of -deliverance from their perpetual money troubles. For some months, -however, he had secretly made up his mind that he must re-enter the -Roman fold, and now that once more his worldly promotion depended on his -remaining outside it he decided that this was the moment to make his -re-conversion public. He announced it on the very eve of the election, -with the result that the majority of the electors decided against him. -Poor Mary heard the news early next morning and ran round in great -distress to her true friends, the T. H. Greens, pouring it out to them -with uncontrollable tears. And, indeed, it was the death-knell of the -Arnolds' prosperity at Oxford. Pupils came no longer to be taught by a -professing Catholic, and Julia was reduced to taking "boarders" in a -smaller house in Church Walk, while Tom earned what he could by -incessant writing and eventually took work again at the Catholic -University in Dublin. And then a still more terrible blow fell upon -Julia; she was discovered to have cancer, and an operation in the autumn -of 1877 left her a maimed and suffering invalid. All this could not fail -to leave a profound mark on the anxious and tender heart of her -daughter, in whom the capacity for human affection seemed to grow and -treble with the years; it made a dark background to her Oxford life, -otherwise so full to overflowing with the happiness of friends and home. - -In her _Recollections_ she has given us once and for all a picture of -the Oxford of her day which in its brilliance and charm is not to be -matched by any later comer. All that can be attempted here is to fill in -to some extent the only gap that she has left in it--the portrait of -herself. How did she move among that small but gifted community, where -Walter Pater revolutionized the taste of Oxford with his Morris papers -and blue china, shocked the Oxford world with his paganizing tendencies -and would, besides, keep his sisters laughing the whole evening, when -they were quite alone, with his spontaneous fun; where Mandell -Creighton was leading and stimulating the teaching of history, with J. -R. Green to help him as Examiner in the Modern History Schools; where T. -H. Green was inspiring the younger generation with his own robust -idealism and the doctrine of the "duty of work," and the more venerable -figures of Jowett and Mark Pattison, Ruskin and Matthew Arnold, Stubbs -and Freeman dominated the intellectual scene? The impression that she -made upon this circle of friends seems first of all to have been one of -extraordinary energy and power of work, of great personal charm veiled -by a crust of shyness, of intellectual powers for which they had the -respect of equals and co-workers, and of a warm and generous sympathy -which was yet free from "gush." One of her closest friends in these -early years, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, has allowed me to use certain extracts -from her journal, in which the figure of "Mary Ward" stands out with the -clearness of absolute simplicity. Mrs. Johnson, besides having the -public spirit which has since made her the President of the Oxford Home -Students' Society, was also a charming artist, and in 1876 painted -Mary's portrait in water-colour, using the opportunities which the -sittings gave her to explore her friend's mind to the uttermost: - -"July 22. Began her portrait. I was so excited that my head ached all -day afterwards. She talked of deep, most interesting subjects, and -attention to the arguments and drawing too was too much for one's head! -I was surprised at the full extent of her vague religion. Jowett is her -great admiration and Matt Arnold her guide for some things. She is great -on the rising Dutch and French and German school of religious thought, -very free criticism of the Bible, entire denial of miracle, our Lord -only a great teacher. I felt as if I had been beaten about, as I always -do after the excitement of such talks. And yet it is all a striving -after righteousness, sincerity, truth." Or, again: "Mary W. came to tea. -My visitor was charmed with her and truly she is a sweet, charming -person, full of gentleness and sympathy, with all her talent and -intelligence too. She had dined at the Pattisons' last night and had -felt appalled at the learning of Mrs. P. and Miss ----,' more in their -little fingers than I in my whole body!' But I felt that no one would -wish to change her for either of them." - -Her music was a constant joy to her friends, and Mrs. Johnson makes -frequent mention of her playing of Bach and of her wonderful reading. It -was a possession that remained with her, to a certain extent, all her -life, in spite of writer's cramp and of a total inability to find time -to "keep it up." But even twenty and thirty years later than this date, -her playing of Beethoven or Brahms--on the rare occasions when she would -allow herself such indulgence--would astonish the few friends who heard -it. - -Meanwhile the portrait prospered, and was at length presented to its -subject when she lay recovering from the birth of her second babe--a boy -whom they named Arnold--in November, 1876. "Humphry and I are full of -delight over the picture," writes Mary to Mrs. Johnson, "and of wonder -at the amount of true and delicate work you have put into it. It will be -a possession not only for us but for our children--see how easily the -new style comes!" These were prophetic words, for it is indeed the -portrait of her that still gives most pleasure to the beholder, though -in later years she was painted or drawn by many skilful hands. - -Her two babies, Dorothy and Arnold, naturally absorbed a great deal of -her time and thoughts in these years, although it was possible in those -spacious days to live comfortably and to keep as many little -nursery-maids as one required on £800 or £900 a year, which was about -the income that husband and wife jointly earned. Her natural talent for -"doctoring" showed itself very early in the skill with which she fed her -babies or cured them of their ills when they were sick. Nor was she -content with her domestic success, but in days before "Infant Welfare" -had ever been thought of she wrote a leaflet entitled "Plain Facts on -Infant Feeding" and circulated it in the slums of Oxford. We will not, -however, rescue it from oblivion, lest it should be found to contain -heretical matter! But there was still time for other pursuits, and since -both she and her husband did their writing mainly at night, from nine to -twelve, Mary began to show her practical powers in other directions, and -to take a leading part in the movement for the higher education of women -which was then absorbing some of the best minds of Oxford. As early as -the winter of 1873-4 a committee was formed among this group of friends, -with Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Creighton (followed, on the latter's departure, -by Mrs. T. H. Green) as joint secretaries, for organizing regular -"Lectures for Women"--not in any connection with the University, for -this was as yet impossible, but in order to satisfy the growing demand -among the women residents of Oxford for more serious instruction in -history, or modern languages, or Latin. The first series of lectures was -held in the early spring of 1874, in the Clarendon Buildings, with Mr. -A. H. Johnson as lecturer; it was an immediate success, and the large -sum of 5_s._ which each member of the Committee had put down as a -guarantee could be triumphantly refunded. Further courses were arranged -in each succeeding winter, till in 1877 the same committee expanded into -an "Association for the Education of Women" (again with Mrs. Ward as -secretary[9]), which undertook still more important work. The idea of -the founding of Women's Colleges was already in the air, for Girton and -Newnham had led the way at Cambridge, and all through 1878 plans were -being discussed to this end. In the next year a special committee was -formed for the raising of funds towards the foundation of a "Hall of -Residence"; Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Augustus Vernon Harcourt were joint -secretaries, but since the latter soon fell ill the whole burden of -correspondence fell upon Mary's shoulders. "There seems no end to the -things I have to do just now," she writes to her father in June, 1879. -"All the secretary's work for Somerville Hall falls on me now as my -colleague, Mrs. Harcourt, is laid up, and yesterday and the day before I -have had the house full of girls being examined for scholarship at the -Hall, and have had to copy out examination papers and look after them -generally. Our Lady Principal, Miss Shaw-Lefevre, is here and she came -to dinner to-night to talk business about furnishing, etc. I think we -are getting on. Did you see in _The Times_ that the Clothworkers' -Company have given us 100 guineas?" - -And thus the work went on, week after week, all through the year 1879. I -have before me a common-looking engagement-diary in which it is all -recorded, from the month of March to late in the month of October: all -the committee-meetings, all the letters written to newspapers, to -prospective students or to possible heads; the decision to purchase the -lease of "Walton House," "to be assigned to the President (Dr. Percival) -on August 1"; the builder's estimate for alterations ("£540 for raising -the roof and making twelve bedrooms"), the letters about drainage, or -cretonne, or armchairs and fenders, no less than the resolution passed -at Balliol on October 24 to "form a Company for the management of the -Hall under the Limited Liability Act of 1862, with a nominal capital of -£25,000." But by that time the Hall was already opened and the long -labour crowned; and a fortnight afterwards, on November 6, her youngest -child was born. It may be hoped that after this Mrs. Ward took a brief -holiday from the cares of Somerville. - -Mrs. Ward remained a member of the original Council of Somerville Hall -long after her departure from Oxford, and during her last two years -there continued to be largely responsible, as one of the most active -members of the Association for the Education of Women, for the -organization of the teaching. All the lectures were arranged by the -Association--in consultation, of course, with the Principal--for it was -not until 1884 that women students were admitted to the smallest of the -University examinations, or to lectures at a few of the Colleges. - -Thus had Mrs. Ward learnt her first lesson and won her first laurels in -the carrying out of a big piece of public work. It was an experience -that was to stand her in good stead in after years. But at this time her -ambitions were still largely historical, weaving themselves in dreams -and plans for the writing of that big book on the origins of modern -Spain of which she afterwards sketched the counterpart in Elsmere's -projected book on the origins of modern France. Very likely she would -have settled down to write it before the opening of Somerville, but as -early as October, 1877, she had received a very flattering offer from -Dean Wace, the general editor of the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_, to take a large share in writing the lives of the early -Spanish ecclesiastics for that monumental work. It was an offer that she -could not refuse, and she always spoke with gratitude of the years of -hard and exacting work that followed, although once or twice she almost -broke down under the strain of it. "Sheer, hard, brain-stretching work," -she calls it in her _Recollections_, and if anyone will look up her -articles on Joannes Biclarensis, or Idatius, or the Histories of Isidore -of Seville, they will see how triply justified she was in using the -term. "You have gone over the ground so thoroughly that there is no -gleaning left," wrote Mr. C. W. Boase, in those days one of the -best-known of Oxford history tutors, while Dean Wace himself, in the -many letters he wrote to her, showed by his kindness and consideration -how much he valued her contributions. Oxford began to think that she was -definitely committed to an historical career, when to its astonishment -she came out as the author of a children's story. "Milly and Olly" was -the record of her own "Holiday among the Mountains" with her children in -the summer of 1879, but the very simplicity of the tale has endeared it -to many generations of children and child-lovers, while the stories it -contains of Beowulf and the Spanish Queen give it a note of romance that -differentiates it from other nursery tales. She wrote it almost as a -relaxation in the summer of 1880; in the midst of her historical work it -showed that the story-telling instinct was already stirring within her. - -And indeed the Oxford historical school was to be disappointed in her -after all, for her labours on the early Spaniards were in reality to -lead her into far other fields. Her interest in the problems of -Christianity had only gathered strength with the years, and were now -greatly stimulated by these researches into the early history of the -Spanish Church. She began to feel the enormous importance to the -believer of the _historical testimony_ on which the whole fabric rested, -while her keen historical imagination enabled her to grasp the mentality -of those distant ages which produced for us the literature of the New -Testament. A feeling of revolt against the arrogance of the orthodox -party, as it was represented in Oxford by Christchurch and Dr. Pusey, -grew and increased in her mind, while at the same time she became more -and more attracted by the romance and mystery of Christianity when -stripped of the coating of legend which pious hands had given it. As -early as 1871 she had written to Mr. Ward (à propos of a somewhat -fatuous sermon to which she had been listening): "How will you make -Christianity into a _motive_?--that is the puzzle. Traditional and -conventional Christianity is worked out--certainly as far as the great -artisan and intelligent working-class in England is concerned, and all -those who are young and touched, ever so vaguely and uncertainly, with -the thought-atmosphere, thought-currents of the day. Is there a -substitute which shall still be Christianity? Yes surely, but it is not -to be arrived at by mere arbitrary remoulding and petulant upsetting as -Mr. Voysey seems to think." And two years later she writes to her -father: "Just now it seems to me that one cannot make one's belief too -simple or hold what one does believe too strongly. Of dogmatic -Christianity I can make nothing. Nothing is clear except the personal -character of Christ and that view of Him as the founder and lawgiver of -a new society which struck me years ago in _Ecce Homo_. And the more I -read and think over the New Testament the more impossible it seems to me -to accept what is ordinarily called the scheme of Christianity." - -But these reflections need never have led her in the direction of -writing _Robert Elsmere_ if it had not been for a personal incident. On -Sunday, March 6, 1881, she attended the first Bampton Lecture of the -Rev. John Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was on "the -present unsettlement in religion," and the speaker castigated the -holders of unorthodox views as being very definitely guilty of sin. -Something in the tone of the sermon set Mary's heart on fire within her. -She walked home in a tumult of feeling. That this man with his confident -phrases should dare thus to arraign the leaders of the Liberal host--men -of such noble lives as T. H. Green, thinkers like Jowett and Matt -Arnold! She sat down and wrote, within a very few days, a reply to Dr. -Wordsworth entitled "Unbelief and Sin: a Protest addressed to those who -attended the Bampton Lecture of Sunday, March 6." A little pamphlet cast -in the form of a dialogue between two Oxford men, it was put up for sale -in Slatter & Rose's window and attracted considerable attention. But -before it had been selling for many hours a certain ecclesiastic took -the bookseller aside and pointed out that the pamphlet bore no printer's -name, which made the sale illegal. He politely threatened proceedings, -and the bookseller in alarm withdrew it from circulation and sent the -unsold copies up to Bradmore Road with an apology, but a firm intimation -that no further copies could be sold. Mary laughed and submitted, and -sent her anonymous offspring round to various friends, among them the -redoubtable Rector of Lincoln. He replied to her as follows:-- - - "No, I did not guess your secret. It was whispered to me in the - street, and I fancy was no secret within the first week of - publication. - - "I admire your courage in attacking one of their strong places. The - doctrine of disbelief in Church principles being due to a - propensity to secret sins is one of the oldest tenets of the - Anglican party. It is also a fundamental principle of popular - Catholicism. I have heard it from the catholic pulpit so often that - it must have among them the character of a commonplace. - - "There is, as you admit, a certain basis of fact for it--just as - 'Patriotism' is often enough the trade of the egoist. 'Licence they - mean when they cry liberty.' - - "More interesting even than your argument against the psychological - dogma, was your constructive hint as to the 'Church of the future.' - I wish I could follow you there! But that is an 'argumentum non - unius horæ.' - - "Believe me, dear Mrs. Ward, to be - -"Yr. attached friend, -"MARK PATTISON." - -It was indeed an argument, not of a single hour, but of many long years. -But the spark had been set to a complex train of thought which was now -to work itself out through toil and stress towards its appointed end. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON--THE WRITING OF _ROBERT ELSMERE_ - -1881-1888 - - -It was in the early summer of 1880 that Mr. Ward was first approached by -Mr. Chenery, the editor, with a suggestion that he should join the staff -of _The Times_. The proposal was in many ways an attractive one, in -spite of the love of both husband and wife for Oxford, for Mr. Ward was -becoming known to a wider world than that of Oxford by his _English -Poets_, which had appeared in this year, nor was he a novice in -journalism. His wife, too, had many links with London through her visits -to the Forsters and her journalistic work. The experiment began in a -tentative way in the winter of 1880-81, she remaining in Oxford with the -children, and he being "tried" for leader-writing while staying in -Bloomsbury lodgings. Within a very few months it proved itself a -success, and, after some pleasant interviews with Mr. John Walter, he -was retained on the permanent staff of the paper. They began seriously -to plan their removal and to look for a house, and found one at length -in that comfortable Bloomsbury region, which was then innocent of big -hotels and offices, and where the houses in Russell Square had not yet -suffered embellishment in the form of pink terra-cotta facings to their -windows. They found that the oldest house in the Square, No. 61, was to -let, and in spite of the dirt of years with which it was encrusted, -perceived its possibilities at once, and came to an agreement with its -owner. A charming old house, built in 1745, its prettiest feature was a -small square entrance-hall, with eighteenth-century stucco-work on the -walls, from which a wide staircase ascended to the drawing-room, giving -an impression of space rare in a _bourgeois_ London house. At the back -was a good-sized strip of garden shaded by tall old plane-trees and -running down to meet the gardens of Queen Square, for No. 61 stood on -the east side of the square and adjoined the first house of Southampton -Row. Little powder-closets jutted out at the back, one of which Mrs. -Ward used as her writing-room, and upstairs the bedroom floors seemed to -expand as you ascended, reaching only to a third story, but giving us -rooms enough even so for ourselves, our maids, and a German governess, -besides the various relations who were constantly coming to stay. Wholly -pleasant are the memories connected with that benign old house, to us -children as well as to our elders, save only that to the youngest of us -there were always two lurking horrors, one on the second floor landing, -where a dark alcove gave harbourage to a little old man in Scotch kilts, -who might, if your legs were not swift enough, come after you as you -toiled up the last flight, and one--still more disquieting--on the top -landing itself, where the taps dripped in a dreadful little boxroom, and -if the taps dripped you knew that the water-bogy, _who lives in taps_, -might at any moment escape and overwhelm you. Since no self-respecting -child ever imparts its terrors to its elders, these nightmares went -unknown until one night, when all the maids were downstairs at supper, -the child in question could not make up its mind to cross the landing, -past the dark mouth of that box-room, from the room where it undressed -to the room where it slept, and was found an hour later, fast asleep in -a chair, with towels pinned over every inch of its small body lest the -bogy should come out and catch hold. After this crisis I think the -terrors declined, and now, alas! taps and box-room and dark alcove have -all disappeared together, with the pleasant rooms downstairs and the -gravelled garden where one made so many persevering expeditions with the -salt-cellar, after the tails of London's sparrows--all swept away and -vanished, and the air that they enclosed parcelled out once more into -the rectangles of the Imperial Hotel! Peace be to the ghost of that poor -house, for it gave happiness in its latter days for nine long years to -the human folk who inhabited it, and it watched the unfolding of a human -heart and mind which were to have no mean influence upon the generation -that encompassed them. - -The house at Oxford was disposed of to the Henry Nettleships, at -Michaelmas, 1881, and in the following November the family moved in to -Russell Square. It was not without searchings of heart, I think, that -Mr. and Mrs. Ward embarked upon the larger venture, where all depended -on their retaining health and strength for their work; but they fondly -hoped that with the larger regular income from _The Times_ the burden on -both pairs of shoulders would be lessened. - - "All will be well with us yet," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband - three months before their move, "and if God is good to us there are - coming years of work indeed, but of less burden and strain. All - depends on you and me, and though I know the very thought depresses - us sometimes, it ought not to, for we have many good gifts within - and without, and a fair field, if not the fairest possible field to - use them in. It seems to me that all I want to be happy is to keep - my own heart and conscience clear, and to feel my way open into the - presence of God and the unseen. And surely to seek is to find." - -Years of less burden and strain! She had, indeed, forgotten the spirit -within, which was to drive her on to ever new and greater efforts in the -more stimulating atmosphere of London. Though her work for the -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_ was almost over, she had by this -time made the acquaintance of Mr. Morley, then editor of the _Pall Mall -Gazette_, and was doing much reviewing of French and Spanish books for -him, while she continued to write weekly articles for the Church -_Guardian_ and the _Oxford Chronicle_. Nor were the authorities of _The -Times_ long in finding out that she too could write, and by the autumn -of 1882 many foreign books reached her for review from Printing House -Square. She complains in her letters that she cannot get through them -quickly enough. "Three or four volumes of these books a week is about -all I can do, and that seems to go no way." The inevitable expenses of -London life did in fact weigh upon her heavily within a year of their -migration, and the sense of "burden and strain" was never long absent. -But she could not have lived otherwise. It was her fundamental instinct -to work herself to the bone and then to share her good times with others -less fortunate, and since this process made away with her earnings she -would work herself to the bone again. In this atmosphere of unremitting -toil interruptions were of course discouraged, but when they occurred in -spite of all defences she never showed the irritation which so -frequently accompanies overwork. And in the many interruptions caused by -the childish illnesses of her small family her tenderness and devotion -were beyond all words. How she dosed us with aconite and belladonna, -watching over us and compelling us to throw off our fevers and colds! -Nor was anything allowed to interfere with the befriending of all -members of the family who wished to come to Russell Square. Her brother -Willie, who had by this time been appointed to the staff of the -_Manchester Guardian_, was a frequent visitor, renewing with each -appearance his literary _camaraderie_ with her and delighting in the -friends whom she would ask to meet him. Matthew Arnold, too, was -sometimes to be caught for an evening--great occasions, those, for Mrs. -Ward's relations with him were already of the most affectionate. He -influenced her profoundly in literary and critical matters, for she -imbibed from him both her respect for German thoroughness and her -passion for French perfection. These, indeed, were the years when she -saw most of "Uncle Matt," for Pains' Hill Cottage, at Cobham, was not -too far away for a Sunday visit, so that she and Mr. Ward would -sometimes fly down there for an afternoon of talk. Usually, however, she -would return full of blasphemies about his precious dogs, who had -diverted their master's attention all through the walk and prevented the -flow of his wit and wisdom. Therefore she preferred to get him safely to -herself at Russell Square! - -Her two younger sisters, Julia and Ethel, were constantly in the house, -the elder of whom married in 1885 Mr. Leonard Huxley, and so brought -about a happy connection with the Professor and his wife, which gave -Mrs. Ward much joy for many years. Nor were her neighbours neglected. -When Christmas came round there was always a wonderful _Weihnachtsbaum_, -dressed with loving care by the good German governess, and by any uncles -and aunts who were within reach, and attended not only by all possible -relations and friends (including especially and always Mr. and Mrs. J. -R. Thursfield and their children), but also by the choirboys of St. -John's Church and by many of _their_ relations too. But behind all this -eager hospitality lay a far deeper longing. Her mother had, early in -1881, undergone a second operation for cancer, and though this gave her -a year's immunity from pain the malady returned. In March, 1882, she -wrote to her daughter with stoical courage that she foresaw what was in -store for her--"a hard ending to a hard life." Though she was devotedly -nursed by her youngest daughter, Ethel, her suffering overshadowed the -next six years of Mary's life like a cloud, but it became also Mrs. -Ward's keenest joy to be able to help her and to ease her path. Once -when she herself had been ill and suffering, she wrote her a few lines -which reveal her own inmost thoughts on the relation between pain and -faith: - - "I am _so_ sorry, dearest, for your own suffering. This is a weary - world,--but there is good behind it, 'a holy will,' as Amiel says, - 'at the root of nature and destiny,' and submission brings peace - because in submission the heart finds God and in God its rest. - There is no truth I believe in more profoundly." - -Yet in spite of the unceasing round of work, what compensations there -were in the London life! The making of new friends can never fail to be -a delightful process, and it very soon became apparent that Mrs. Ward -was to be adopted to the heart of that London world which thought about -books and politics and which incidentally was making history. London was -smaller then than now, and if a new-comer had brains and modesty, and -above all a gift of sympathy that won all hearts, there were few doors -that did not open to her or him in time. Her connection with the -Forsters and with "Uncle Matt" brought her many friends to start with, -while Mr. Ward's work on _The Times_ took them naturally both into the -world of painters (for after 1884 he joined art criticism to his -political and other writing) and into the world of affairs. A letter -written to Mrs. A. H. Johnson in May, 1885, gives a typical picture of -the social side of her life three years after the move to London. The -occasion is the marriage of Alfred Lyttelton and Laura Tennant: - - "The wedding function yesterday was very interesting. I am glad not - to have missed Gladstone's speech at the breakfast. What a wondrous - man it is! The intensity, the feeling of the speech were - extraordinary.... Life has been rather exciting lately in the way - of new friends, the latest acquisition being Mr. Goschen, to whom - I have quite lost my heart! There is a pliancy and a brilliancy - about him which make him one of the most delightful companions. We - dined there last Saturday and I have seldom had so much interesting - talk. Lord Arthur Russell, who sat next me, told me stories of how, - as a child at Geneva, he had met folk who in their youth had seen - Rousseau and known Voltaire, and had been intimate friends of Mme. - de Stael in middle life. And then, coming a little further down the - stream of time, he could describe to me having stayed at - Lamartine's château in the poet's old age, and so on. Mr. Goschen - is busy on a life of his grandfather, who was the publisher of - Goethe, Schiller and Wieland, and whose correspondence, which he is - now going through, covers the whole almost of the German literary - period,--so that after dinner the scene shifted to Germany, and we - talked away with an occasional raid into politics, till, to my - great regret, the evening was over." - -Her own little dinner-parties very soon began to make their mark, while -not long after their establishment in London, she began the practice of -being at home on Thursday afternoons, and though at first her natural -shyness and lack of small talk made her openings somewhat formidable, -she soon warmed to the task, till within a very few months her Thursdays -became a much-appreciated institution. Men, as well as women, came to -them, for they always liked to make her talk and to hear her eager views -on all the topics of the day, from Irish coercion to the literary -personalities of France, or the need for prodding the Universities to -open their examinations to women. She still called herself a good -Radical in these days, but her devotion to Mr. Forster--whom she had -visited in Dublin during his Chief Secretaryship--gave the first -reservations to her Liberal faith, for she took his part in the matter -of his resignation, and felt that he had not been sufficiently supported -by the Cabinet. It was a great grief to her that Mr. Morley, in the -_Pall Mall Gazette_, found it necessary to attack Mr. Forster's Irish -administration with such persistent energy, and once, towards the end of -1882, she summoned up the courage to write him a remonstrance in good -set terms. Mr. Morley's reply is characteristic: - - -_Dec. 13, 82._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have got your letter at last, and carefully read and digested it. - Need I say that its frank and direct vigour only increases my - respect for the writer? To answer it, as it deserves, is hardly - possible for me. It would take a day for me to set forth, with - proper reference to chapter and verse, all the reasons why I could - not follow Mr. Forster in his Irish administration. They were set - forth from time to time with almost tiresome iteration as events - moved forward. - - In all that you say about Mr. Forster's unselfishness, his - industry, his strenuous desire to do what was right and best, - nobody agrees more cordially than I do. Personally I have always - had--if it is not impertinent in me to say so--a great liking for - him. He was always very kind and obliging to me, and nothing has - been more painful to me than to know that I was writing what would - wound a family for whom I have such sincere respect as I have for - his. But the occasion was grave. I have been thinking about Ireland - all my life, and that fashion of governing it is odious and - intolerable. If Sir Charles Dilke or Mr. Chamberlain had been Chief - Secretary, and carried out the Coercion Act as Mr. Forster carried - it out, I could not have attacked either of them, but I should have - resigned my editorship rather than have connived by silence or - otherwise at such mischief. - - I may at times have seemed bitter and personal in my language about - Mr. Forster. One falls into this tone too readily, when fighting a - battle day after day, and writing without time for calm revision. - For that I am sorry, if it has been so, or seemed so. Mr. Forster's - friends--some of them--have been extremely unscrupulous in their - personalities against me, their charges of intrigue, conspiracy. - All that I do not care for one jot; my real regret, and it is a - very sincere one, is that I should seem unjust or vindictive to - people like you, who think honestly and calmly about politics, and - other things. - - I hope that it is over, and that I shall never have to say a word - about Mr. Forster's Irish policy again. - -Yours very sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Such a letter only served to strengthen friendship. Mrs. Ward's literary -comradeship with Mr. Morley remained unbroken in spite of widening -differences in politics, and when, a few months later, he assumed the -editorship of _Macmillan's Magazine_ he proposed to her that she should -virtually take over its literary criticism:-- - - -_March 22, 83._ - -DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - My reign over "Macmillan" will begin in May. I want to know whether - you can help me to a literary article once a month--in the shape of - a _compte rendu_ of some new books, English or French. It is highly - desirable that the subject should be as lively and readable as - possible--not erudite and academic, but literary, or - socio-literary, as Ste Beuve was. - - I don't see why a "causerie" from you once a month should not - become as marked a feature in our world, as Ste Beuve was to - France. In time, the articles would make matter for a volume, and - so you would strike the stars with your sublime head. - - I hope my suggestion will commend itself to you. I have been - counting upon you, and shall be horribly discouraged if you say No. - -Yours sincerely, -JOHN MORLEY. - -Flattered as she was by the suggestion, she was never able to carry out -his whole behest, yet between February, 1883, and June, 1885, she wrote -no less than twelve articles for _Macmillan's_, on subjects ranging from -the young Spanish Romanticist, Gustavo Becquer, to Keats, Jane Austen, -Renan and the "Literature of Introspection" (à propos of Amiel's -_Journal Intime_), while the series was ended by a full-dress review of -Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_. These articles did much to assure her -position in the world of pure literature, as her Dictionary articles had -assured it in the world of scholarship, and she never ceased to be -grateful to Mr. Morley for the opportunities he had given her in -inviting them, for the encouragement of his praise and the bracing of -his occasional criticism. - -But these articles were all written under the heaviest physical -disabilities. Early in 1883 she began to suffer from a violent form of -writer's cramp, which made her right hand almost useless at times, and -recurred at intervals all through her life, so that writing was usually -a far more arduous and painful process to her than it is to most of us. -Through the years 1883 and 1884 she was frequently reduced to writing -with her left hand, but she also dictated much to her young -sister-in-law, Gertrude Ward, who came to live with us at this time, and -became for the next eight years the prop and support of our household. -Many remedies were tried for the ailment, but nothing was really -effective until after two years a German "writing-master" came on the -scene, one Dr. Julius Wolff, who completely transformed her method of -writing by making her sit much higher than before, rest the whole -fore-arm on the table, and use an altogether different set of muscles. -Many curious exercises he gave her also, which she practised at -intervals for years afterwards, and by these means he succeeded in -giving her comparative immunity, though whenever she was specially -pressed with work the pain and weakness would recur. During the year -1884, however, before Dr. Wolff had appeared, her arm was practically -disabled, and she wore it much in a sling. - -Yet it was during this year that she began her translation of Amiel's -_Journal_ and wrote her first novel, _Miss Bretherton_. The idea of it -was suggested by her first sight of the beautiful actress, Mary -Anderson, though she always maintained that, once created, Isabel -Bretherton became to her an absolutely distinct personality. The manner -of its writing is told in a fragment of Miss Gertrude Ward's journal: - - "The book was written in about six weeks. She used to lie or sit - out of doors at Borough Farm, with a notebook and pencil, and - scrawl down what she could with her left hand; then she would come - in about twelve and dictate to me at a great rate for an hour or - more. In the afternoon and evening she would look over and correct - what was done, and I copied out the whole. The scene of Marie and - Kendal in his rooms was dictated in her bedroom; she lay on her - bed, and I sat by the window behind a screen." - -The book was published by Messrs. Macmillan and appeared in December, -1884. It attracted a good deal of attention. The general verdict was -that it was a fine and delicate piece of work, but on too limited, too -intellectual a scale. This view was admirably put by her old friend, Mr. -Creighton (then Emmanuel Professor at Cambridge): - - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I have read _Miss Bretherton_ with much interest. It was hardly - fair on the book to know the plot beforehand, but I found myself - carried away by the delicate feeling with which the development of - character was traced. The Nuneham scene, the death-bed and the - final reconciliation were really touching and powerfully worked - out. - - [Illustration: Borough Farm.] - - At the same time it is not a novel of my sort. I demand that I - should have given me an entire slice of life, and that I should see - the mutual interaction of a number of characters. Your interest - centres entirely on one character: your characters all move in the - same region of ideas, and that a narrow one. Your book is dainty, - but it does not touch the great springs of life. Of course you - didn't mean it to do so: but I am putting before you what I - conceive to be the novelist's ideal. It seems to me that a novelist - must have seen much, must lay himself out to be conversant with - many sides of life, must have no line of his own, but must lend - himself to the life of those around him. This is the direct - opposite of the critic. I wonder if the two trades can be combined. - Have you ever read Sainte Beuve's solitary novel, _Volupté_? It is - instructive reading. You are a critic in your novel. Your object is - really to show how criticism can affect a nature capable of - receiving it. Now is this properly a subject of art? Is it not too - didactic? It is not so for me, for I am an old-fashioned moralist: - but the mass of people do not care for intellectual teaching in - novels. They want an emotional thrill. Remember that you have - deliberately put this aside. Kendal's love is not made to affect - his life, his character, his work. Miss Bretherton only feels so - far attracted to him as to listen to what he says.... I only say - this to show you what the book made me think, that you wrote as a - critic not as a creator. You threw into the form of a story many - critical judgments, and gave an excellent sketch of the possible - worth of criticism in an unregenerate world. This was worth doing - once: but if you are going on with novels you must throw criticism - to the winds and let yourself go as a partner of common joys, - common sorrows and common perplexities. There, I have told you what - I think just as I think it. I would not have done so to anyone else - save you, to whom I am always, - -Your most affectionate, -M. CREIGHTON. - -No doubt Mrs. Ward stored up this criticism for future use, for when she -next embarked upon a novel the canvas was indeed broad enough. - -They had not been settled in London for much more than a year before -Mrs. Ward began to feel the need for some quiet and remote country place -to which she might fly for peace and work when the strain of London -became too great. Fortune favoured the quest, for in the summer of 1882 -they took the rectory at Peper Harow, near Godalming (the "Murewell -Rectory" of _Robert Elsmere_), for a few weeks, and during that time -were taken by Lord Midleton, the owner of Peper Harow, to see a -delightful old farm in the heart of the lonely stretch of country that -lies between the Portsmouth Road and Elstead. They fell in love with it -at once, and during the following winter made an arrangement to take its -six or seven front rooms by the year. So from the summer of 1883 onwards -they possessed Borough Farm as a refuge and solace in the wilds, a -paradise for elders and children alike, where London and its turmoil -could be cast off and forgotten. It lay in a country of heather commons, -woods, rough meadows, streams and lakes--those "Hammer Ponds" which -remain as a relic of the iron-smelting days of Surrey, and in which we -children amused ourselves by the hour in fishing for perch with a bent -pin and a worm. Here Mrs. Ward would lie out whenever the sun shone in -the old sand-pit up the lane, where we had constructed a sort of terrace -for her long chair, or else under the ash-tree on the little hill, -writing or reading, while no sound came save the murmur of wind in the -gorse, or in the dry bells of the heather. If her physique had been -stronger she would, perhaps, have been too much tempted by the beauty of -the country ever to have lain still and worked for so many hours as she -did in that long chair; but she was never robust, she was extremely -susceptible to bad weather, cold winds and every form of chill, and her -longest expeditions were those which she took in a little pony-carriage -over Ryal or Bagmoor Commons to Peper Harow, or up the Portsmouth Road -to Thursley and Hindhead. - -Here a few friends came at intervals to share the solitude with us: -Laura Tennant, on a wonderful day in May, 1884, when she seemed to her -dazzled hostess the very incarnation of the spring; M. Edmond Scherer, -her earliest French friend, who, in 1884, was helping her with her -translation of Amiel's _Journal_; Henry James, whose visit laid the -foundation of a friendship that was to ripen into one of the most -precious of all Mrs. Ward's possessions; Mlle. Souvestre, foundress of -the well-known girls' school at Wimbledon, and one of the keenest -intellects of her time; and once, for a whole fortnight, Miss Eugénie -Sellers,[10] who had for many months been teaching the family their -classics, and who now came down to superintend their Greek a little and -to roam the commons with them much. It was in 1886, just before this -visit, that Mrs. Ward began seriously to read Greek, usually with her -ten-year-old son; she bought a Thucydides in Godalming one day and was -delighted to find it easier than she expected. It was a passion that -grew upon her with the years, as any reader of her later books will -clearly perceive. - -Then, though the solitude of the farm itself was profound, there were a -few, a very few, neighbours in the more eligible districts round about -who made it their pleasure sometimes to call upon us; there were the -Frederic Harrisons at Elstead, whose four boys dared us children to -horrid feats of jumping and climbing in the sand-pit, while our elders -were safely engaged elsewhere; John Morley also, for a few weeks in -1886, and in the other direction Lord and Lady Wolseley, who took a -house near Milford, and thence made their way occasionally down our -sandy track. But the neighbours who meant most to us were, after all, -our landlords, the Brodricks of Peper Harow; they were not only -endlessly kind, giving us leave to disport ourselves in all their -ponds, but took a sort of pride of possession, I believe, in their -pocket authoress, watching her struggles and her achievement with -paternal eyes. And when _Robert Elsmere_ at length appeared, old Lord -Midleton, pillar of Church and State as he was, came riding over to the -farm, sitting his horse squarely in spite of his white hairs and his -semi-blindness, and sent in word that the "Wicked Squire" was at the -gate! - -Two letters written to her father from Borough Farm during these years, -give glimpses of her browsings in many books, and of her thoughts on -Shakespeare, evolution and kindred matters: - - "I have been reading Joubert's _Pensées_ and _Correspondance_ - lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed - with the letters, and some of the _pensées_ are extraordinarily - acute. Now I am deep in Sénancour, and for miscellaneous reading I - have been getting through Horace's Epistles and dawdling a good - deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and - stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a - great dramatist! There's a remark over which I trust you will draw - a fatherly veil! But one can only say what one feels, and I am more - oppressed than I used to be by his faults of construction, his - carelessness, his excrescences, while at the same time much more - sensitive to his preternatural power as a poet and as a - psychological analyst. He gets at the root of his characters in a - marvellous way, he envisages them separately as no one else can, - but it is when he comes to bring them into action to represent the - play of outward circumstance and the interaction of character on - character that he seems to me comparatively--only comparatively, of - course--to fail. I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, - and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the - magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic - bungling.... - - "As to Renan it would be too long to argue it, but I think he very - much saves himself in the passage you quote by the qualifying word - 'comme.' The Church is 'as it were' _un débris de l'Empire_. It is - only another way of putting what Harnack said in that article you - and I read at Sea View. 'The Empire built up the Church out of its - own substance, and destroyed itself in so doing,' or words to that - effect. I cannot help feeling that as far as organization and - institutions go it is very true, though I would never deny that God - was in the Church, as I believe He is in all human society, - moulding it to His will. Everything, from the critical and - scientific standpoint, seems to me so continuous and natural--no - sharp lines anywhere--one thing leading to another, event leading - to event, belief to belief--and God enwrapping and enfolding all. - But this is one general principle, and yours is quite another. I - quite agree that from your standpoint no explanation that Renan - could give of the Church can appear other than meagre or - grotesque." - -Her translation of Amiel's _Journal Intime_ was a long and exacting -piece of work, but she enjoyed the struggle with the precise meaning of -the French phrases and always maintained that she owed much to it, both -in her knowledge of French and of English. She had begun it, with the -benevolent approval of its French editor, M. Scherer, early in 1884, and -took it up again after _Miss Bretherton_ came out; found it indeed a far -more troublesome task than she had foreseen, and was still wrestling -with the Introduction in the summer of 1885, when her head was already -full of her new novel, and she was fretting to begin upon it. But the -book appeared at length in December, 1885, and very soon made its mark. -The wonderful language of the Swiss mystic appealed to a generation more -occupied than ours with the things of the soul, while Mrs. Ward's -introduction gave a masterly sketch of the writer's strange personality -and the development of his mind. As Jowett wrote to her, "Shall I tell -you the simple truth? It is wonderful to me how you could have thought -and known so much about so many things." Mr. Talbot, the Warden of Keble -(now Bishop of Winchester), wrote of the "almost breathless admiration -of the truth and penetration of his thought" with which he had read the -book, while Lord Arthur Russell reported that he had "met Mr. Gladstone, -who spoke with great interest of Amiel, asked me whether I had compared -the translation with the original, and said that a most interesting -small volume might be extracted, of _Pensées_, quite equal to Pascal." - -But it was, inevitably, "caviar to the general." Mrs. Ward's brother, -Willie Arnold, her close comrade and friend in all things literary, -wrote to her from Manchester a few months after its appearance: "I -served on a jury at the Assizes last week--two murder cases and general -horrors. I sat next to a Mr. Amiel--pronounced 'Aymiell'--a worthy -Manchester tradesman; no doubt his ancestor was a Huguenot refugee. I -had one of your vols. in my pocket, and showed him the passage about the -family. He was greatly interested, and borrowed it. Returned it next day -with the remark that it was 'too religious for him.' Alas, divine -philosophy!" - - * * * * * - -Ever since the previous winter the idea of a novel in which the clash -between the older and the younger types of Christianity should be worked -out in terms of human life, had been growing and fermenting in her mind. -_Miss Bretherton_ and Amiel's _Journal_ had given her a valuable -apprenticeship in the art of writing, while Amiel's luminous reflections -on the decadence and formalism of the churches had tended to confirm her -own passionate conviction that all was not well with the established -forms of religion. But the determining factor in the writing of _Robert -Elsmere_ was the close and continuous study which she had given ever -since her work for the _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ to the -problem of "Christian origins." She was fascinated by the intricacy and -difficulty of the whole subject, but more especially by such branches of -it as the Synoptic Problem, or the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the -rest; while the questions raised by the realization that the Books of -the New Testament were the products of an age steeped in miracle and -wholly uncritical of the records of it, struck her as vital to the whole -orthodox position. At the same time her immense tenderness for -Christianity, her belief that the life and teaching of the Founder were -still the "master-light of all our seeing," made her yearn for a -simplification of the creeds, so that the Message itself should once -more appeal to the masses without the intervention of formulæ that -perpetually challenged their reason. The argument of "Literature and -Dogma" culminates in the picture of mankind waiting for the lifting of -the burden of "Aberglaube" and dogmatism, with which the spirit of -Christianity had been crushed down for centuries, waiting for the -renewal that would come when the old coil was cast off. It was in that -spirit also that Mrs. Ward attacked the problem; her Robert was to her a -link in the chain of the liberators of all ages. Was her outlook too -intellectual? Did she overestimate the repugnance to obsolete forms that -possessed her generation? So it was said by many who rose up in startled -defence of those forms, many who had never felt the uttermost clash -between the things which they wished to believe and the things which -Truth allowed them to believe. Yet still the response of her generation -was to be greater than she ever dreamt. No doubt the renewal did not -come in the precise form in which she looked for it; creeds were to -prove tougher, the worship of the Risen Lord more vital than she -thought; yet still, in a hundred ways, the influence of the fermentation -caused by the ideas of _Robert Elsmere_ may be traced in the Church -to-day. "Biblical criticism" may now be out of fashion; but it is -because its victory has in reality been won. All this lay hidden from -the mind of the writer as she sat toiling over her task in the solitude -of Borough Farm, or in the little "powder-closet" overlooking the back -gardens of Russell Square; she wrote because she "could no other," and -only rarely did she allow herself to feel, with trembling, that the -_Zeitgeist_ might indeed be with her. - -The book was begun in the autumn of 1885, with every hope that it would -be finished in less than a year. It was offered, when a few chapters had -been written, to the Macmillans for publication, since they had -published both _Miss Bretherton_ and the _English Poets_, but to the sad -disappointment of its author they rejected it on the ground that the -subject was not likely to appeal to the British public. In this dilemma -Mrs. Ward bethought herself of Mr. George Murray Smith, the publisher of -Charlotte Brontë, and in some trepidation offered the book to him. Mr. -Smith had greater faith than the Macmillans and accepted it at once, -sealing the bargain by making an advance of £200 upon it in May, 1886. -So began Mrs. Ward's connection with "George Smith," as she always -familiarly spoke of him: a friend and counsellor indeed, to whom she -owed incalculable things in the years that followed. - -In the Preface to the "Westmorland Edition" of _Robert Elsmere_, issued -twenty-three years later, Mrs. Ward herself confessed to her models for -some of the principal characters--to the friend of her youth, Mark -Pattison, for the figure of the Squire (though not in his landowning -capacity!); to Thomas Hill Green, "the noblest and most persuasive -master of philosophic thought in modern Oxford," for that of Henry Grey; -and to Amiel himself, the hapless intellectual tortured by the paralysis -of will, for that of Langham. Both the Rector of Lincoln and Professor -Green had recently died, the latter in the prime of his life and work, -and Mrs. Ward sought both in the dedication and in her sketch of the -strong and lovable tutor of St. Anselm's, to express her lasting -admiration for this lost friend. But she claimed in each case the -artist's freedom to treat her creatures as her own, once they had -entered the little world of the novel: a thesis which she was to -maintain and develop in later years, when she occasionally went to the -past for her characters. Catherine was a more composite picture, drawn -from the "strong souls" she had known among her own kinswomen from -childhood up, and therefore, perhaps, more tenderly treated by the -author than the rules of artistic detachment would allow. She was a type -far more possible in the 'eighties than now, but it is perhaps -comforting to know that no single human being inspired her. As to the -scene in which these figures moved, it was on a sunny day at the end of -May, 1885, that Mrs. Ward's old friend, Mr. James Cropper, of -Ellergreen, took her for a drive up the valley of Long Sleddale, in a -lonely part of Westmorland. There she saw the farm at the head of the -dale, the vicarage, the Leyburns' house. Already her thoughts were busy -with her story, and from that day onwards she peopled the quiet valley -with her folk. - -At first she was full of hope that the book would be finished before the -summer of 1886, although she admits to her mother that "it is very -difficult to write and the further I get the harder it is." In March of -that year she writes to her sister-in-law: "I have made up my mind to -come here [Borough Farm] for the whole of April, so as to get _Robert -Elsmere done_! It must and shall be done by the end of April, if I -expire in the attempt." In April she did indeed work herself nearly to -death, writing sixteen, eighteen and even twenty pages of manuscript in -the day, and a sort of confidence began to grow up in her mind that the -book would not speak its message in vain. "I think this book _must_ -interest a certain number of people," she writes to her mother; "I -certainly feel as if I were writing parts of it with my heart's blood." -But the difficulties only increased, and actually it was the end of -October before even the first two volumes were finished. And then "the -more satisfied I become with the second volume the more discontented I -am with the first. It must be re-cast, alas!" Her arm was often -troublesome, especially in the autumn of this year, when she was staying -at the Forsters' house near Fox How, working very hard. "I am dreadfully -low about myself," she writes; "my arm has not been so bad since April, -when it took me practically a month's rest to get it right again. I have -been literally physically incapable of finishing my last chapter. And to -think of all the things I promised myself to do this week! And here I -have time, ideas, inclination, and I can do nothing. I will dictate if I -can to Gertrude, but I am so discouraged just at present I seem to have -no heart for it." Then a few days later it has taken a turn for the -better, and she is overjoyed: "The second volume was _finished_ last -night! The arm is _decidedly_ better, though still shaky. I sleep badly, -and rheumatism keeps flying about me, now here, now there, but I am not -at all doleful--indeed in excellent spirits now that the arm is better!" - -So, in spite of the distractions of London, she struggled on with the -third volume all through that winter (1886-7), flying for a week in -December to Borough Farm in order to get complete isolation for her -task. "Oh, the quiet, the blissful quiet of it! It helps me most in -thinking out the book. I can _write_ in London; I seem to be unable to -think." Sometimes, however, her head was utterly exhausted. Returning to -London, she wrote to her mother: "I did a splendid day's work yesterday, -but it was fighting against headache all day, and this morning I felt -quite incapable of writing and have been lying down, reading, though my -wretched head is hardly fit for reading. It is not exactly pain, but a -horrid feeling of tension and exhaustion, as if one hadn't slept for -ever so long, which I don't at all approve of." - -Often, when these fits of exhaustion came on, a small person would be -sent for from the schoolroom, in whose finger-tips a quaint form of -magic was believed to reside, and there she would sit for an hour, -stroking her mother's head, or her hands, or her feet, while the -"Jabberwock" on the Chinese cabinet curled his long tail at the pair in -silence. "Chatter to me," she used to say; but this was not always easy, -and a golden and friendly silence, peopled by many thoughts, usually lay -between the two. - -At length, on March 9, 1887, the last words of the third volume were -written, there in the little powder-closet behind the back drawing-room. -But this did not mean the end. She was already painfully aware that the -book was too long, and Mr. George Smith, best and truest of advisers, -firmly indicated to her that the limits even of a three-volume novel had -been overstepped. She herself had already admitted to her brother Willie -that it was "not a novel at all," and she now plunged bravely into the -task of cutting and revision, fondly hoping that it would take her no -more than a fortnight's hard work. Instead it took her the best part of -a year. Publication first in the summer season, then in the autumn, had -to be given up, while her own fatigue increased so that sometimes for -days together she could not touch the book. The few friends to whom she -showed it were indeed encouraging, and her brother Willie was the first -to prophesy that it would "make a great mark." After reading the first -volume he wrote to Mrs. Arnold, "You may look forward to finding -yourself the mother of a famous woman!" But the mood of this year was -one of depression, while Mrs. Arnold's illness became an ever-increasing -sorrow. In the Long Vacation Mrs. Ward took the empty Lady Margaret -Hall, at Oxford, for a few weeks, in order to be near her mother--a step -which brought her unexpectedly another pleasure. On the very day after -they arrived she wrote: "I have had a great pleasure to-day, for at -three o'clock arrived a note from Jowett saying that he was in Oxford -for a day and would I come to tea? So I went down at five, stayed an -hour, then he insisted on walking up here, and sat in the garden -watching the children play tennis till about seven. Dear old man! I have -the most lively and filial affection for him. We talked about all sorts -of things--Cornwall, politics, St. Paul--and when I wanted to go he -would not let me. I think he liked it, and certainly I did." - -Through the autumn and into the month of January, 1888, she struggled -with mountains of proofs, while Mr. Smith, though without much faith in -the popular prospects of the book, was always "kind and indulgent," as -she gratefully testifies in the _Recollections_. At length, towards the -end of January, she sent in the last batch, and on February 24 the book -appeared. - -Six weeks later, in the little house in Bradmore Road, which had -witnessed so many years of suffering indomitably borne, Julia Arnold lay -dying. Through pain and exhaustion unspeakable she had yet kept her -intense interest in the human scene, and now the last pleasure which she -enjoyed on earth was the news that reached her of the growing success of -her daughter's book. With a hand so weak that the pen kept falling from -her fingers, she wrote her an account of the Oxford gossip on it; she -asked her, with a flash of the old malice, to let her know at once -should she hear what any of her aunts were saying. Alas, Julia knew -better than anyone else on earth what the religious temperament of the -Arnolds might mean; but before the answer came her poor tormented spirit -was at rest for ever. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -_ROBERT ELSMERE_ AND AFTER - -1888-1889 - - -Three volumes, printed as closely as were those of _Robert Elsmere_, -penetrated somewhat slowly among the fraternity of reviewers. The -_Scotsman_ and the _Morning Post_ were the first to notice it on March -5, nine days after its appearance; the _British Weekly_ wept over it on -March 9; the _Academy_ compared it to _Adam Bede_ on the 17th; the -_Manchester Guardian_ gave it two columns on the 21st; the _Saturday_ -"slated" it on the 24th; while Walter Pater's article in the Church -_Guardian_ on the 28th, calling it a "_chef d'oeuvre_ of that kind of -quiet evolution of character through circumstance, introduced into -English literature by Miss Austen and carried to perfection in France by -George Sand," gave perhaps greater happiness to its author than any -other review. _The Times_ waited till April 7, being in no hurry to show -favour to one connected with its staff, but when it came the review duly -spoke of _Robert_ as "a clever attack upon revealed religion," and all -was well. By the end of March, however, the public interest in the book -had begun in earnest; the first edition of 500 copies was exhausted and -a second had appeared; this was sold out by the middle of April; a third -appeared on April 19 and was gone within a week; a fourth followed in -the same way. Matthew Arnold wrote from Wilton, the Pembrokes' house, a -week before his death (which occurred on April 15), that he found all -the guests there reading or intending to read it, and added, "George -Russell, who was staying at Aston Clinton with Gladstone, says it is all -true about his interest in the book. He talked of it incessantly and -said he thought he should review it for Knowles." - -As a matter of fact, Mr. Gladstone had already written the first draft -of his article and was corresponding with Lord Acton on the various -points which he wished to raise or to drive home. His biographer hints -that Acton's replies were not too encouraging. But the old giant was not -to be deterred. The book had moved him profoundly and he felt impelled -to combat the all too dangerous conclusions to which it pointed. "Mamma -and I," he wrote to his daughter in March, "are each of us still -separately engaged in a death-grapple with _Robert Elsmere_. I -complained of some of the novels you gave me to read as too stiff, but -they are nothing to this. It is wholly out of the common order. At -present I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything on it, -but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will be verified or -not. In any case it is a tremendous book." And to Lord Acton he wrote: -"It is not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the -labour and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one -could no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides." Early in April he -came to Oxford to stay with the Edward Talbots at Keble College, and -hearing that Mrs. Ward was also there, watching over her dying mother, -he expressed a desire to see her, and, if possible, to talk the book -over with her. She came on the day after her mother's death--April -8--towards evening, and waited for him alone in the Talbots' -drawing-room. That night she wrote down the following account of their -conversation: - - "I arrived at Keble at 7.10. Gladstone was not in the drawing-room. - I waited for about three minutes when I heard his slow step coming - downstairs. He came in with a candle in his hand which he put out, - then he came up most cordially and quickly. 'Mrs. Ward--this is - most good of you to come and see me! If you had not come, I should - myself have ventured to call and ask after yourself and Mr. - Arnold.' - - "Then he sat down, he on a small uncomfortable chair, where he - fidgeted greatly! He began to ask about Mamma. Had there been much - suffering? Was death peaceful? I told him. He said that though he - had seen many deaths, he had never seen any really peaceful. In all - there had been much struggle. So much so that 'I myself have - conceived what I will not call a terror of death, but a repugnance - from the idea of death. It is the rending asunder of body and soul, - the tearing apart of the two elements of our nature--for I hold the - body to be an essential element as well as the soul, not a mere - sheath or envelope.' He instanced the death of Sidney Herbert as an - exception. _He_ had said 'can this indeed be dying?'--death had - come so gently. - - "Then after a pause he began to speak of the knowledge of Oxford - shown by _Robert Elsmere_, and we went on to discuss the past and - present state of Oxford. He mentioned it 'as one of the few points - on which, outside Home Rule, I disagree with Hutton,'[11] that - Hutton had given it as his opinion that Cardinal Newman and Matthew - Arnold had had more influence than any other men on modern Oxford. - Newman's influence had been supreme up to 1845--nothing since, and - he gathered from Oxford men that Professor Jowett and Mr. Green had - counted for much more than Matthew Arnold. M.A.'s had been an - influence on the general public, not on the Universities. How - Oxford had been torn and rent, what a 'long agony of thought' she - had gone through! How different from Cambridge! - - "Then we talked again of Newman, how he had possessed the place, - his influence comparable only to that of Abelard on Paris--the - flatness after he left. I quoted Burne-Jones on the subject. Then I - spoke of Pattison's autobiography as illustrating Newman's hold. He - agreed, but said that Pattison's religious phase was so - disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. - He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he - understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if - he had seen Pattison's last 'Confession of Faith,' which Mrs. - Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no. Then he asked me - whether I had pleasant remembrances of Pattison. I warmly said yes, - and described how kind he had been to me as a girl. 'Ah!' he - said--'Church would never cast him off; and Church is almost the - only person of whom he really speaks kindly in the Memoirs.' - - "Then, from the state of Oxford, we passed to the state of the - country during the last half-century. 'It has been a _wonderful_ - half-century! I often tell the young men who are coming on that we - have had a better time than they can have, in the next - half-century. Take one thing only--the abolition of slavery in the - world (outside Africa I suppose he meant). You are too young to - realize what that means. But I draw a distinction between the first - twenty-five years of the period and the second; during the first, - steady advance throughout all classes, during the second, distinct - recession, and retrogression, in the highest class of all. That - testing point, _marriage_, very disquieting. The scandals about - marriage in the last twenty years unparallelled in the first half - of the period. I don't trust my own opinion, but I asked two of the - keenest social observers, and two of the coolest heads I ever - knew--Lord Granville and the late Lord Clanwilliam--to tell me what - they thought and they strongly confirmed my impression.' (Here one - of the Talbot boys came in and stood by the fire, and Gladstone - glanced at him once or twice, as though conversation on these - points was difficult while he was there.) I suggested that more was - made of scandals nowadays by the newspapers. But he would not have - it--'When I was a boy--I left Eton in 1827--there were two papers, - the _Age_ and the _Satirist_, worse than anything which exists now. - But they died out about 1830, and for about forty years there was - _nothing of the kind_. Then sprang up this odious and deplorable - crop of Society papers.' He thought the fact significant. - - "He talked of the modern girl. 'They tell me she is not what she - was--that she loves to be fast. I don't know. All I can bear - testimony to is the girl of my youth. _She_ was excellent!' - - "'But,' I asked him, 'in spite of all drawbacks, do you not see a - gradual growth and diffusion of earnestness, of the social passion - during the whole period?' He assented, and added, 'With the decline - of the Church and State spirit, with the slackening of State - religion, there has unquestionably come about a quickening of the - State conscience, of the _social_ conscience. I will not say what - inference should be drawn.' - - "Then we spoke of charity in London, and of the way in which the - rich districts had elbowed out their poor. And thereupon--perhaps - through talk of the _motives_ for charitable work--we came to - religion. 'I don't believe in any new system,' he said, smiling, - and with reference to _Robert Elsmere_; 'I cling to the old. The - great traditions are what attract me. I believe in a degeneracy of - man, in the Fall--in _sin_--in the intensity and virulence of sin. - No other religion but Christianity meets the sense of sin, and sin - is the great fact in the world to me.' - - "I suggested that though I did not wish for a moment to deny the - existence of moral evil, the more one thought of it the more plain - became its connection with physical and social and therefore - _removable_ conditions. He disagreed, saying that the worst forms - of evil seemed to him to belong to the highest and most favoured - class 'of _educated_ people'--with some emphasis. - - "I asked him whether it did not give him any confidence in 'a new - system'--i.e. a new construction of Christianity--to watch its - effect on such a life as T. H. Green's. He replied individuals were - no test; one must take the broad mass. Some men were born 'so that - sin never came near them. Such men never felt the need of - Christianity. They would be better if they were worse!' - - "And as to difficulties, the great difficulties of all lay in the - way of Theism. 'I am surprised at men who don't feel this--I am - surprised at you!' he said, smiling. Newman had put these - difficulties so powerfully in the _Apologia_. The Christian system - satisfied all the demands of the conscience; and as to the - intellectual difficulties--well there we came to the question of - miracles. - - "Here he restated the old argument against an _a priori_ - impossibility of miracles. Granted a God, it is absurd to limit the - scope and range of the _will_ of such a being. I agreed; then I - asked him to let me tell him how I had approached the - question--through a long immersion in documents of the early - Church, in critical and historical questions connected with - miracles. I had come to see how miracles arise, and to feel it - impossible to draw the line with any rigidity between one - miraculous story and another. - - "'The difficulty is'--he said slowly, 'if you sweep away miracles, - you sweep away _the Resurrection_! With regard to the other - miracles, I no longer feel as I once did that they are the most - essential evidence for Christianity. The evidence which now comes - _nearest_ to me is the evidence of Christian history, of the type - of character Christianity has produced----' - - "Here the Talbots' supper bell rang, and the clock struck eight. He - said in the most cordial way it was impossible it could be so late, - that he must not put the Warden's household out, but that our - conversation could not end there, and would I come again? We - settled 9.30 in the morning. He thanked me, came with me to the - hall and bade me a most courteous and friendly good-bye."[12] - -The next morning she duly presented herself after breakfast, and this -time they got to grips far more thoroughly than before with the question -of miracles and of New Testament criticism generally. In a letter to her -husband (published in the _Recollections_) she calls it "a battle royal -over the book and Christian evidences," and describes how "at times he -looked stern and angry and white to a degree, so that I wondered -sometimes how I had the courage to go on--the drawn brows were so -formidable!" But she stuck to her points and found, as she thought, that -for all his versatility he was not really familiar with the literature -of the subject, but took refuge instead in attacking her own Theistic -position, divested as it was of supernatural Christianity. "I do not say -or think you 'attack' Christianity," he wrote to her two days later, -"but in proposing a substitute for it, reached by reduction and -negation, I think (forgive me) you are dreaming the most visionary of -all human dreams." - -He enclosed a volume of his _Gleanings_, marking the article on "The -Courses of Religious Thought." Mrs. Ward replied to him as follows:-- - - -_April 15, 1888._ - -DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - Thank you very much for the volume of _Gleanings_ with its gracious - inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the - greatest interest, and shall do the same with the others. Does not - the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to - this--that to you the great fact in the world and in the history of - man, is _sin_--to me, _progress_? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks - of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two - orders of temperament. In myself I see a perpetual struggle, in the - world also, but through it all I feel the "Power that makes for - righteousness." In the life of conscience, in the play of physical - and moral law, I see the ordained means by which sin is gradually - scourged and weakened both in the individual and in the human - society. And as to that sense of _irreparableness_, that awful - burden of evil both on the self and outside it, for which all - religions have sought an anodyne in the ceremonies of propitiation - and sacrifice, I think the modern who believes in God and cherishes - the dear memory of a human Christ will learn humbly, as Amiel says, - even "to accept himself," and life, as they are, at God's hands. - Constant and recurrent experience teaches him that the baser self - can only be killed by constant and recurrent effort towards good; - the action of the higher self is governed by an even stronger and - more prevailing law of self-preservation than that of the lower; - evil finds its appointed punishment and deterrent in pain and - restlessness; and as the old certainty of the Christian heaven - fades it will become clear to him that his only hope of an - immortality worth having lies in the developing and maturing of - that diviner part in him which can conceive and share the divine - life--of the soul. And for the rest, he will trust in the - indulgence and pity of the power which brought forth this strangely - mingled world. - - So much for the minds capable of such ideas. For the masses, in the - future, it seems to me that charitable and social organization will - be all-important. If the simpler Christian ideas can clothe - themselves in such organization--and I believe they can and are - even now beginning to do it--their effect on the democracy may be - incalculable. If not, then God will fulfil Himself in other ways. - But "dream" as it may be, it seems to many of us, a dream worth - trying to realize in a world which contains your seven millions of - persons in France, who will have nothing to say to religious - beliefs, or the 200,000 persons in South London alone, amongst - whom, according to the _Record_, Christianity has practically no - existence. - -And the letter ends with a plea that the faith which animated T. H. -Green might fitly be described by the words of the Psalm, "my soul is -athirst for God, for the living God." - -To this Mr. Gladstone replied immediately: - - -ST. JAMES'S STREET. -_April 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I do not at all doubt that your conception of _Robert Elsmere_ - includes much of what is expressed in the opening verses of Psalm - 42. I am more than doubtful whether he could impart it to Elgood - St., and I wholly disbelieve that Elgood St. could hand it on from - generation to generation. You have much courage, but I doubt - whether even you are brave enough to think that, fourteen centuries - after its foundation, Elgood St. could have written the _Imitation - of Christ_. - - And my meaning about Mr. Green was to hint at what seems to me the - unutterable strangeness of his passionately beseeching philosophy - to open to him the communion for which he thirsted, when he had a - better source nearer hand. - - It is like a farmer under the agricultural difficulty who has to - migrate from England and plants himself in the middle of the - Sahara. - - But I must abstain from stimulating you. At Oxford I sought to - avoid pricking you and rather laid myself open--because I thought - it not fair to ask you for statements which might give me points - for reply. - -Mr. Gladstone evidently believed he had been as mild as milk--he knew -not the terror of his own "drawn brows!" - - -_Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone._ - - -_April 17, 1888._ - - I think I must write a few words in answer to your letter of - yesterday, in view of your approaching article which fills me with - so much interest and anxiety. If I put what I have to say badly or - abruptly, please forgive me. My thoughts are so full of this - terrible loss of my dear uncle Matthew Arnold, to whom I was deeply - attached, that it seems difficult to turn to anything else. - - And yet I feel a sort of responsibility laid upon me with regard to - Mr. Green, whom you may possibly mention in your article. There are - many people living who can explain his thought much better than I - can. But may I say with regard to your letter of yesterday, that in - turning to philosophy, that is to the labour of reason and thought, - for light on the question of man's whence and whither, Mr. Green as - I conceive it, only obeyed an urgent and painful necessity. "The - parting with the Christian mythology is the rending asunder of - bones and marrow"--words which I have put into Grey's mouth--were - words of Mr. Green's to me. It was the only thing of the sort I - ever heard him say--he was a man who never spoke of his - feelings--but it was said with a penetrating force and sincerity - which I still remember keenly. A long intellectual travail had - convinced him that the miraculous Christian story was untenable; - but speculatively he gave it up with grief and difficulty, and - practically, to his last hour, he clung to all the forms and - associations of the old belief with a wonderful affection. With - regard to conformity to Church usage and repression of individual - opinion he and I disagreed a good deal. - - If you do speak of him, will you look at his two Lay Sermons, of - which I enclose my copy?--particularly the second one, which was - written eight years after the first, and to my mind expresses his - thought more clearly. - - Some of the letters which have reached me lately about the book - have been curious and interesting. A vicar of a church in the East - End, who seems to have been working among the poor for forty years, - says, "I could not help writing; in your book you seemed to grasp - me by the hand and follow me right on through my own life - experiences." And an Owens College Professor, who appears to have - thought and read much of these things, writes to a third person, à - propos of Elsmere, that the book has grasped "the real force at - work in driving so many to give up the Christian creed. It is not - the scientific (in the loose modern sense of the word), still less - the philosophical difficulties, which influence them, but it is the - education of the historic sense which is disintegrating - faith."--Only the older forms of faith, as I hold, that the new may - rise! But I did not mean to speak of myself. - -When the famous article--entitled "Robert Elsmere and the Battle of -Belief"--appeared in the May _Nineteenth Century_, there was nothing but -courtesy between the two opponents. Mrs. Ward sent the G.O.M. a copy of -the book, with a picture of Catherine's valley bound into it, and he -replied that the volumes would "form a very pleasant recollection of -what I trust has been a 'tearless battle.'" Many of the papers now -reviewed both book and article together, and the _Pall Mall_ ironically -congratulated the Liberal Party on "Mr. Gladstone's new preoccupation." -"For two and a half years," it declared, the G.O.M. had been able to -think of nothing but Home Rule and Ireland. "But Mrs. Ward has changed -all that." The excitement among the reading public was very great. It -penetrated even to the streets, for one of us overheard a panting lady, -hugging a copy of the _Nineteenth Century_, saying to her companion as -she fought her way into an omnibus, "Oh, my dear, _have_ you read Weg on -Bobbie?" Naturally the sale received a fresh stimulus. Two more -three-volume editions disappeared during May, and a seventh and last -during June. Then there was a pause before the appearance of the Popular -or 6s. edition, which came out at the end of July with an impression of -5,000. It was immediately bought up; 7,000 more were disposed of during -August, and the sale went on till the end of the year at the rate of -about 4,000 a month. Even during 1889 it continued steadily, until by -January, 1890, 44,000 copies of the 6_s._ edition had been sold. But as -the sale had then slackened Mr. Smith decided to try the experiment of a -half-crown edition. 20,000 of this were sold by the following November, -but the drop had already set in and during 1891 the total only rose to -23,000. But even so, the sale of these three editions in the United -Kingdom alone had amounted to 70,500. - -All through the spring and summer of 1888 letters poured in upon Mrs. -Ward by the score and the hundred, both from known and unknown -correspondents, so that her husband and sister-in-law had almost to -build a hedge around her and to insist that she should not answer them -all herself. Those which the book provoked from her old friends, -however, especially those of more orthodox views than her own, were -often of poignant interest. The Warden of Keble wrote her six sheets of -friendly argument and remonstrance. Mr. Creighton wrote her a letter -full of closely reasoned criticism of Elsmere's position, to which she -made the following reply: - - -_March 13, 1888._ - -MY DEAR MAX,-- - - I have been deeply interested by your letter, and am very grateful - to you for the fairness and candour of it. Perhaps it is an - affectation to say always that one likes candour!--but I certainly - like it from you, and should be aggrieved if you did not give it - me. - - I think you only evade the whole issue raised by the book when you - say that Elsmere was never a Christian. Of course in the case of - every one who goes through such a change, it is easy to say this; - it is extremely difficult to prove it; and all probability is - against its being true in every case. What do you really fall back - upon when you say that if Elsmere had been a Christian he could not - have been influenced as he was? Surely on the "inward witness." But - the "inward witness," or as you call it "the supernatural life," - belongs to every religion that exists. The Andaman islander even - believes himself filled by his God, the devout Buddhist and - Mahommedan certainly believe themselves under divine and - supernatural direction, and have been inspired by the belief to - heroic efforts and sufferings. What is, in essence and - fundamentally, to distinguish your "inner witness" from theirs? And - if the critical observer maintains that this "supernatural life" is - in all cases really an intense life of the imagination, differently - peopled and conditioned, what answer have you? - - None, unless you appeal to the facts and _fruits_ of Christianity. - The Church has always done so. Only the Quaker or the Quietist can - stand mainly on the "inward witness." - - The fruits we are not concerned with. But it is as to the _facts_ - that Elsmere and, as I conceive, our whole modern time is really - troubled. An acute Scotch economist was talking to Humphry the - other day about the religious change in the Scotch lowlands. "It is - so pathetic," he said: "when I was young religion was the main - interest, the passionate occupation of the whole people. Now when I - go back there, as I constantly do, I find everything changed. The - old keenness is gone, the people's minds are turning to other - things; there is a restless consciousness, coming they know not - whence, but invading every stratum of life, that _the evidence is - not enough_." There, on another scale, is Elsmere's experience writ - large. Why is he to be called "very ill-trained," and his - impressions "accidental" because he undergoes it?... What convinced - _me_ finally and irrevocably was two years of close and constant - occupation with the materials of history in those centuries which - lie near to the birth of Christianity, and were the critical - centuries of its development. I then saw that to adopt the witness - of those centuries to matters of fact, without translating it at - every step into the historical language of our own day--a language - which the long education of time has brought closer to the - realities of things--would be to end by knowing nothing, actually - and truly, about their life. And if one is so to translate - Augustine and Jerome, nay even Suetonius and Tacitus, when they - talk to you of raisings from the dead, and making blind men to see, - why not St. Paul and the Synoptics? - - I don't think you have ever felt this pressure, though within the - limits of your own work I notice that you are always so translating - the language of the past. But those who have, cannot escape it by - any appeal to the "inward witness." They too, or many of them, - still cling to a religious life of the imagination, nay perhaps - they live for it, but it must be one where the expansive energies - of life and reason cannot be always disturbing and tormenting, - which is less vulnerable and offers less prey to the plunderer than - that which depends on the orthodox Christian story. - -Another old friend, Mrs. Edward Conybeare, wrote to contend that the -"mere life and death of the carpenter's son of Nazareth could never have -proved the vast historical influence for good which you allow it to be," -had that life ended in - - "nothing but a Syrian grave." - -Mrs. Ward replied to her as follows:-- - - -_May 16, 1888._ - -MY DEAR FRANCES, - - It was very interesting to me to get your letter about _Robert - Elsmere_. I wish we could have a good talk about it. Writing is - very difficult to me, for the letters about it are overwhelming, - and I am always as you know more or less hampered by writer's - cramp. - - I am thinking of "A Conversation" for one of the summer numbers of - the _Nineteenth Century_, in which some of the questions which are - only suggested in the book may be carried a good deal further. For - the more I think and read the more plain the great lines of that - distant past become to me, the more clearly I see God at work - there, through the forms of thought, the beliefs, the capacities of - the first three centuries, as I see Him at work now, through the - forms of thought, the beliefs and capacities of our own. - Christianity was the result of many converging lines of thought and - development. The time was ripe for a moral revolution, and a great - personality, and the great personality came. That a life of - importance and far-reaching influence could have been lived within - the sphere of religion at that moment, or for centuries afterwards, - without undergoing a process of miraculous amplification, would, I - think, have been impossible. The generations before and the - generations after supply illustration after illustration of it. - That Jesus, our dear Master, partly shared this tendency of his - time and was partly bewildered and repelled by it, is very plain to - me. - - As to the belief in the Resurrection, I have many things to say - about it, and shall hope to say them in public when I have pondered - them long enough. But I long to say them not negatively, for - purposes of attack, but positively, for purposes of - reconstruction. It is about the new forms of faith and the new - grounds of combined action that I really care intensely. I want to - challenge those who live in doubt and indecision from year's end to - year's end, to think out the matter, and for their children's sake - to count up what remains to them, and to join frankly for purposes - of life and conduct with those who are their spiritual fellows. It - is the levity or the cowardice that will not think, or the - indolence and self-indulgence that is only too glad to throw off - restraints, which we have to fear. But in truth for religion, or - for the future, I have no fear at all. God is his own vindication - in human life. - -But apart from the religious argument, the characters in _Robert -Elsmere_ aroused the greatest possible interest, especially perhaps that -of Catherine. - - "As an observer of the human ant-hill, quite impartial by this - time," wrote Prof. Huxley, "I think your picture of one of the - deeper aspects of our troubled times admirable. You are very hard - on the philosophers: I do not know whether Langham or the Squire is - the more unpleasant--but I have a great deal of sympathy with the - latter, so I hope he is not the worse. - - "If I may say so, I think the picture of Catherine is the gem of - the book. She reminds me of her namesake of Siena--and would as - little have failed in any duty, however gruesome. You remember - Sodoma's picture?" - -The appreciation of her French friends was always very dear to Mrs. -Ward, and amongst them too the book was eagerly read by a small circle, -though, as Scherer warned her, the subject could never become a popular -one in France. But both he and M. Taine were greatly excited by it, -while M. André Michel of the Louvre, to whom she had entrusted the copy -which she desired to present to M. Taine, wrote her a delightful account -of his embassy: - - -PARIS. -_ce 31 janvier, 1889._ - -CHERE MADAME,-- - - Votre lettre m'a été une bien agréable surprise et une bien - intéressante lecture. Je l'ai immédiatement communiquée à M. - Taine, en lui remettant l'exemplaire que vous lui destiniez de - _Robert Elsmere_ et je vous avoue qu'en me rendant chez lui à cet - effet, je me _rengorgeais_ un peu, très-fier de servir - d'intermédiaire entre l'auteur de _Robert Elsmere_ et celui de la - _Littérature Anglaise_. L'âne portant des reliques chez son évêque - ne marchait pas plus solennellement! - - M. Taine a été très-touché de cet hommage venant de vous, et je - pense qu'il vous en a déjà remercié lui-même. J'aurais voulu que - vous eussiez pu entendre--incognito--avec quelle vivacité de - sympathie et d'admiration il parlait de votre livre. Pendant - plusieurs jours, il n'a pas été question d'autre chose chez lui. - -The cumulative effect of all these letters, both approving and -disapproving; of the preachings on Robert's opinions that began with Mr. -Haweis in May, and continued at intervals throughout the summer; of the -general atmosphere of celebrity that began to surround her, was -extremely upsetting to so sensitive a nature as Mrs. Ward's, and much of -it was and remained distasteful to her. But fame had its lighter sides. -There were the inevitable sonnets, beginning - - "I thank you, Lady, for your book so pure," - -or - - "Hail to thee, gentle leader, puissant knight!"-- - -there were inquiries as to the address of the "New Brotherhood of -Christ," "so that next time we are in London we may attend some of its -meetings," and there was a gentleman who demanded to know "the opus no. -of the Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven mentioned on p. 239, and of Hans -Sachs's Immortal Song quoted on p. 177. I am in want of a little fresh -music for one of my daughters and shall esteem your kind reply." And -finally there was the following letter, which must be transcribed in -full: - - -DEAR MADAM,-- - - Trusting to your Clemency, in seeking your advice, knowing my - sphere in life, to be so far below your's. My Mother, who is a - Cook-Housekeeper, but very fond of Literature, Poetry - ("unfortunately"), in her younger days brought out a small volume, - upon her own account, a copy of which Her Majesty graciously - accepted. Tennyson considered it most "meritorious," Caryle most - "creditable." But what I am asking your advice upon is her - "Autography," her Cook's Career, which has been a checquered one. - She feels quite sure, that if it were brought out by an abler hand, - it would be widely sought and read, at least by two classes "my - Ladies" and Cooks. The matter would be truth, names and places - strictously ficticious. With much admiration and respect, - -I am, Madam, -Yours Obediently, -A. A. - -History does not record what reply Mrs. Ward made to this interesting -proposal, but no doubt she took it all as part of the great and amusing -game that Fate was playing with her. As to that game--"I have still -constant letters and reviews," she wrote to her father on July 17, "and -have been more lionized this last month than ever.--But a little -lionizing goes a long way! One's sense of humour protests, not to speak -of anything more serious, and I shall be _very_ glad to get to Borough -next week. As to my work, it is all in uncertainty. For the present Miss -Sellers is coming to me in the country, and I shall work hard at Latin -and Greek, especially the Greek of the New Testament." - -And to her old friend, Mrs. Johnson, she wrote: "Being lionized, dear -Bertha, is the foolishest business on earth; I have just had five weeks -of it, and if I don't use it up in a novel some day it's a pity. The -book has been strangely, wonderfully successful and has made me many new -friends. But I love my old ones so much best!" This latter sentiment is -expressed again in a letter to Mr. Ward: "Strange how tenacious are -one's first friendships! No other friends can ever be to me quite like -Charlotte or Louise or Bertha or Clara.[13] They know all there is to -know, bad and good--and with them one is always at ease." - -That autumn they went off on a round of visits, staying first at -Merevale with Mrs. Dugdale, whose husband had been killed three years -before in his own mine near by--a story of simple heroism which moved -Mrs. Ward profoundly, so that years afterwards she used it in her own -tale of _George Tressady_. Then to Sir Robert and Lady Cunliffe, with -whom they went over to see the "old wizard" of Hawarden, and spent a -wonderful hour in his company. - -To her old friend, J. R. Thursfield (a staunch Home Ruler), she wrote -the following account of it: - - -_September 14, 1888._ - - "Where do you think we spent the afternoon of the day before - yesterday? You would have been _so_ much worthier of it than we! - The Cunliffes took us over to tea at Hawarden and the G.O.M. was - delightful. First of all he showed us the old Norman keep, skipping - up the steps in a way to make a Tory positively ill to see, talking - of every subject under the sun--Sir Edward Watkin and their new - line of railway, border castles, executions in the sixteenth - century, Villari's _Savonarola_, Damiens and his tortures--'all for - sticking half-an-inch of penknife into that beast Louis - XV!'--modern poetry, Tupper, Lewis Morris, Lord Houghton and Heaven - knows what besides, and all with a charm, a courtesy, an _élan_, an - eagle glance of eye that sent regretful shivers down one's Unionist - backbone. He showed us all his library--his literary table, and his - political table, and his new toy, the strong fire-proof room he has - just built to hold his 60,000 letters, the papers which will some - day be handed over to his biographer. His vigour both of mind and - body was astonishing--he may well talk, as he did, of 'the foolish - dogmatism which refuses to believe in centenarians.'" - -À propos of this last remark, Mrs. Ward filled in the tale on her return -by telling us how he turned upon her with flashing eye and demanded: -"Did it ever occur to you, Mrs. Ward, that Lord Palmerston was Prime -Minister at 81?" He himself was to surpass that record by returning to -power at 82. - -From the Cunliffes' they also made an expedition to the Peak country, -which Mrs. Ward wished to explore for purposes of her next book (_David -Grieve_), now already taking shape in her mind--and then travelled up to -Scotland to stay at a great house to whose mistress, Lady Wemyss, she -was devoted. From one who was afterwards to be known as the portrayer of -English country-house life the following impressions may be of interest: - - -_To Mrs. A. H. Johnson_ - -FOX GHYLL, AMBLESIDE, -_October 21, 1888_. - -...Yes, we had many visits and on the whole very pleasant ones. In - Derbyshire I saw a farm and a moorland which I shall try to make - the British public see some day. Then on we went to the Lyulph - Stanleys', saw them, and Castle Howard and Rivaulx, and journeyed - on by the coast to Redcar and the Hugh Bells. There we found Alice - Green, and had a merry time. Afterwards came a week at Gosford, - whereof the pleasure was mixed. Lady Wemyss I love more than ever, - but the party in the house was large and very smart, and with the - best will in the world on both sides it is difficult for plain - literary folk who don't belong to it to get much entertainment out - of a circle where everybody is cousin of everybody else, and on - Christian name terms, and where the women at any rate, though - pleasant enough, are taken up with "places," jewels and Society - with a big S. I don't mean to be unfair. Most of them are good and - kindly, and have often unsuspected "interests," but naturally the - paraphernalia of their position plays a large part in their lives, - and makes a sort of hedge round them through which it is hard to - get at the genuine human being. - - Perhaps our most delightful visit was a Saturday to Monday with Mr. - Balfour, at Whittinghame. There life is lived, intellectually, on - the widest and freest of all possible planes, and the master of it - all is one to whom nature has given a peculiar charm and magnetism, - in addition to all that he has made for himself by toil and - trouble. - -...I am a little disturbed by the announcement of a _Quarterly_ - article on _R.E._ It must be hostile--perhaps an attack in the old - _Quarterly_ fashion: well, if so I shall be in good company! But I - don't want to have to answer--I want to be free to think new - thoughts and imagine fresh things. - -When the _Quarterly_ article appeared a few days later she found it -courteous enough in tone, but its attitude of complacent superiority -towards the whole critical process, which it described as "a phase of -thought long ago lived through and practically dead," stung her to -action and made her feel that some reply--to this and Gladstone -together--was now unavoidable. She owed it to her own position--not as a -scholar, for she never claimed that title, but as an interpreter of -scholars and their work to the modern public. But "If I do reply," she -wrote to her husband, "I shall make it as substantive and constructive -as possible. All the attacking, destructive part is so distasteful to -me. I can only go through with it as a necessary element in a whole -which is not negative but positive." But she could not be induced even -by Mr. Knowles's persuasions to make it a regular "reply" to Mr. -Gladstone, whose name is not once mentioned throughout the article[14]; -she threw her argument instead into dialogue form, so keeping the -artistic ground which she had used in the novel, and replying to the -_Quarterly_ or to the G.O.M. rather by allusion than by direct argument. -The article was very widely read and certainly carried her cause a stage -further; it was felt that here was something that had come to stay, that -must be reckoned with, and her skilful use of the admissions made in the -Church Congress that year as to the date and authorship of certain books -of the Old Testament filled her readers with a vague feeling that -perhaps after all these things must be faced for the New Testament also. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile in America the hubbub produced by _Robert Elsmere_ had far -exceeded anything that occurred on this side of the Atlantic. Those were -the days before International Copyright, when any American publisher was -free to issue the works of British authors without their consent and -without payment, and when if an "authorized edition" was issued by some -reputable firm which had paid the author for his rights, it could be -undersold the next day by some adventurous "pirate." Messrs. Macmillan -had bought the American rights of _Robert Elsmere_ for a small sum and -had issued it at $1.50 in April, but as soon as it began to excite -attention, and especially after the appearance of Gladstone's article, -the pirate firms rushed in and raged furiously with each other and with -Macmillan's to get the book out at the lowest possible price. One -firm--Messrs. Lowell & Co.--which had sold tens of thousands of copies, -magnanimously sent the author a cheque for £100, but this was the only -payment which Mrs. Ward ever received for _Robert Elsmere_ from an -American publisher. Some of the incidents of the internecine war between -the pirates themselves for control of the _Robert Elsmere_ market are -still worth recording. They were summed up in a well-informed article in -the _Manchester Guardian_ in March, 1889, entitled _The "Book-Rats" of -the United States_: - - "In America the publisher's lot is not a happy one. If he is - honest, he pays his author, and upon the first assurance of success - sees nine-tenths of his lawful profits swept away by the incursions - of pirates. If he is dishonest, he does not pay his author, but in - hot haste reprints in cheap and nasty material, with one object - alone--to undersell the legitimate publisher. A host more follow - suit with new reprints in still cheaper and nastier material, till, - under the pretence of giving cheap literature to the million, the - culminating point is reached in the man who sells at a quarter of - cost price to drive his rivals out of the field. This is what - happened the other day in Boston over the sale of _Robert Elsmere_, - a book which has there achieved an unparalleled success, and - abundantly illustrates the inequality of the present system of no - copyright. In England between thirty and forty thousand copies have - already been sold in the nine months since it was published, and - the book is selling steadily at the rate of some 700 a week. In - America the sale is estimated at 200,000 copies, of which 150,000 - are in pirated editions. One honest pirate purges his conscience by - the magnificent gift of £100, which is likely to be the first and - last instalment of that 'handsome competence which the American - reading public,' says a Rhode Island newspaper, 'owes to Mrs. - Ward.' A hundred pounds, representing just one shilling and - fourpence per hundred copies upon all the pirated editions! And the - author must be thankful for such mercies; rights she has none over - her own creation, which pervades the States from end to end, and - is not only a library in itself, but has called into existence so - much polemical literature that a leading New York paper gives - solemn warning to contributors that for the future sermons on - _Robert Elsmere_ will only be published at the ordinary - advertisement rates. A Buffalo advertisement cries, 'Who has yet - touched _Robert Elsmere_ at ten cents?' only to be taken down by - Jordan Marsh and Co., the 'Whiteleys' of Boston, who offered the - book at four cents. Twopence for a book which extends over 400 - pages in close-printed octavo! The stroke told, almost too - successfully for its contrivers. It is said that next day the shop - doors were besieged by a crowd like the surging throng at the - entrance to the Lyceum pit on a first night. A queue extended - across the street. For three days the enterprising pirate had the - field to himself; then he raised his price again; he had lost some - ten cents on every copy, but he had crushed his rivals." - -The achievement of one still more enterprising firm, however, escaped -the notice of this correspondent. The Balsam Fir Soap Co., being anxious -to launch their new soap upon the market, made the following -announcement: - - -TO THE PUBLIC - - We beg to announce that we have purchased an edition of the Hyde - Park Company's _Robert Elsmere_, and also their edition of _Robert - Elsmere and the Battle of Belief_--a criticism by the Right Hon. W. - E. Gladstone, M.P. - - These two books will be presented to each purchaser of a single - cake of Balsam Fir Soap. - -Respectfully, -THE MAINE BALSAM FIR CO. - -Thus was poor Robert, with his doubts and dreams, his labours and his -faith, given away with a cake of soap! - -But this was not all, nor even the worst. When the boom was still at its -height, in the spring of 1889, Mrs. Ward was horrified to hear that a -full-blown dramatized version of the book, by William Gillette, had -actually been produced in Boston, with a "comedy element," as the -newspaper report described it, "involving an English exquisite and a -horsey husband," thrown in, the Squire and Grey eliminated, and Langham -"endowed with such nobility of character as ultimately to marry Rose." -She at once cabled her protest with some energy and succeeded in getting -the further performance of the play stopped; but hardly was this episode -ended than another followed on its heels. - - "A writer in the New York _Tribune_," wrote the _Glasgow Herald_ in - April, 1889, "exposes a most barefaced trick of trading upon Mrs. - Humphry Ward's name. A continuation, he says, of _Robert Elsmere_ - has already been begun by an American publisher, and advance - sheets, containing thrilling instalments of the romantic adventures - of _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, are being scattered broadcast over - the length and breadth of the United States. The industrious agents - of the publisher of this sheet have been busily engaged in - inserting sample chapters of this new novel under the doors of - houses all over New York. This, however, is not the worst feature - of the trick. From the title of the story the impression sought to - be conveyed is that Mrs. Humphry Ward, the authoress of _Robert - Elsmere_, is responsible, too, for _Robert Elsmere's Daughter_, the - headings of the story being arranged in this specious shape: - '_Robert Elsmere's Daughter_--a companion story to _Robert - Elsmere_--by Mrs. Humphry Ward.'" - -It was no wonder that the scandal of these events was used by the -promoters of the International Copyright Bill then before Congress as -one of their most powerful arguments; for there were many honourable -publishing firms in America which abhorred these proceedings and were -only anxious to regularize their relations with British authors. Mr. -George Haven Putnam, head of the firm of G. P. Putnam's Sons, and the -International Copyright Committee which he formed, had already been -working in this direction for some years; but the opposition was -strenuous, and it was only in March, 1891, that the Copyright Bill which -was to have so great an effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes actually became -law in the United States. Even before that, however, very flattering -offers were made to her by American publishers--especially by Mr. S. S. -McClure, founder of the then youthful _McClure's Magazine_--for the -right of publishing the "authorized version" of her next book. Mr. -McClure tried to beguile her into writing him a "novelette," or a -"romance of Bible times," but Mrs. Ward was not to be moved. She had -already begun work upon her next book (_David Grieve_), and all she said -in writing to her sister (Mrs. Huxley) was: "This American, Mr. McClure, -is a wonderful man. He has offered me £1,000 for the serial rights of a -story as long as _Milly and Olly_! Naturally I am not going to do it, -but it is amusing." To her father she wrote in more serious mood about -the American boom: - - "It is a great moral strain, this extraordinary success. I feel - often as though it were a struggle to preserve one's full - individuality, and one's sense of truth and proportion in the teeth - of it. There is no help but to look away from oneself and - everything that pertains to self, to the Eternal and Divine things, - to live penetrated with the feebleness and poverty of self and the - greatness of God." - -Yet naturally she enjoyed the many letters from Americans of all ranks -and classes which reached her during the autumn and winter of 1888. The -veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to her in his most charming vein, -speaking of the book as a "medicated novel, which will do much to -improve the secretions and clear the obstructed channels of the decrepit -theological system." W. R. Thayer, afterwards the biographer of Cavour, -wrote: - - "The extraordinary popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ is a most - significant symptom of the spiritual conditions of this country. No - book since _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ has had so sudden and wide a - diffusion among all classes of readers; and I believe that no other - book of equal seriousness ever had so quick a hearing. I have seen - it in the hands of nursery-maids, and of shop-girls behind the - counter; of frivolous young women, who read every novel that is - talked about; of business men, professors, students, and even - schoolboys. The newspapers and periodicals are still discussing it, - and, perhaps the best sign of all, it has been preached against by - the foremost clergymen of all denominations." - -And a sturdy rationalist, Mr. W. D. Childs, thus recorded his protest: - - "I regret the popularity of _Robert Elsmere_ in this country. Our - western people are like sheep in such matters. They will not see - that the book was written for a people with a State Church on its - hands, that a gross exaggeration of the importance of religion was - necessary. It will revive interest in theology and retard the - progress of rationalism. - - "Am I not right in this? You surely cannot think it good for - individuals or for societies to take religion seriously, when there - is so much economic disorder in the world, when the mass of - physical and mental suffering is so obviously reducible only by - material means." - -It was very delightful, of course, to be making a little money from the -book, after so many years of strenuous work, and though the sum she had -earned was still a modest one (about £3,200 by January, 1889), it -enabled her and her husband to make plans for the future and to embark -on the purchase of some land for building in the still unspoilt country -to the east of Haslemere. Here, on Grayswood Hill, overlooking the vast -tangle of the Weald as far as Chanctonbury Ring and the South Downs, a -red-brick house of moderate size, cunningly designed by Mr. Robson, -gradually arose during 1889 and the first part of 1890; but while it was -still building a fortunate accident placed in our way the chance of -living for three months in a far different habitation--John Hampden's -wonderful old house near Great Missenden, which was then in a state of -interregnum, and might be rented for a small sum. - - "It will be quite an adventure," wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher - in July, 1889, "for in spite of the beauty and romance of the place - there is hardly enough furniture of a ramshackle kind in it to - enable us to camp for three months in tolerable comfort! But by - dint of sending down a truck load of baths, carpets and saucepans - from home we shall get on, and our expenses will be less than if we - took a villa at Westgate." - -And to Mrs. Johnson, of Oxford, who was coming with her whole family to -stay there, Mrs. Ward wrote three days after her arrival: - - "The furniture of the house is decrepit, scanty and decayed, but it - has breeding and refinement, and is a thousand times preferable to - any luxurious modern stuff. I am _perfectly_ happy here, and bless - the lucky chance which drew our attention to the advertisement. I - will not spoil the old house and gardens and park for you by - describing them--but they are a dream, and the out-at-elbowness of - everything is an additional charm." - -So for three months we stayed at Hampden, revelling in its beauty and -its spaciousness, learning to know the Chiltern country with its -chalk-downs and beech-woods, entertaining many visitors, including the -much-loved Professor Huxley, and watching anxiously for the ghost that -walked in the passage outside the tapestry-room on moonlight nights. It -never walked for us, though Mrs. Ward sat up many times to woo it, but -there were plenty of ghosts of another sort in a house that had -sheltered Queen Elizabeth on one of her "progresses," that still -possessed the chair in which John Hampden had sat when they came to -arrest him for ship-money, and that had guarded his body at the last, -when his Greencoats bore it thither from Thame to lie in the great hall -for one more night before its burial in the little church across the -garden. At first there were no lamps, and we groped about with stumps of -candles after dark, but gradually all the more glaring deficiencies were -remedied and Mrs. Ward settled down to a happy three months of work on -her new novel, _David Grieve_. But as she wrote of her two wild children -on the Derbyshire moors, or of young David and his books in Manchester, -the very different scene around her formed itself in her mind into a new -setting, from which arose in course of time _Marcella_. - -Meanwhile it was not Hampden's ghost but Elsmere's that still haunted -her, in the sense that the "New Brotherhood" with which the novel ended -would not die with it, but struggled dumbly in the author's mind for -expression in some living form. Some time before she had been deeply -impressed by a visit she had paid to Toynbee Hall with "Max Creighton," -as she wrote to her father, when she found that "in the library there -_R.E._ had been read to pieces, and in a workmen's club which had just -been started several ideas had been taken from the "New Brotherhood." -The experience had remained with her; she had brooded and dreamt over -it, and now when she returned to London in the autumn of 1889 she began -for the first time to try to work out the idea in consultation with -certain chosen friends. "Lord Carlisle came and had a long talk with M. -about a proposed Unitarian Toynbee somewhere in South London"--so wrote -the little sister-in-law (herself an orthodox Christian) in her journal -on November 11, 1889. And a little later: "Mr. Stopford Brooke came and -had a long talk with her about a 'New Brotherhood' they hope to start -with Lord Carlisle and a few others to help." - -Was it to be a new religion, or a re-vivifying of the old? The impulse -to build up, to re-create, was hot within her; could she not appeal to -her generation to help her in following out this impulse towards some -practical goal? Was there not room for another Toynbee, inspired still -more definitely than the first with the ideals of a simpler -Christianity? The dæmon drove; surely the very success of her book -showed that this was the need of the new age in which she lived. She -plunged into the task, and only time and Fate were to reveal that the -"new religion" was doomed to take no outward form, but to work itself -out in ways undreamt of as yet by the author of _Robert Elsmere_. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -UNIVERSITY HALL--_DAVID GRIEVE_ AND "STOCKS" - -1889-1892 - - -The conversations with Stopford Brooke and Lord Carlisle mentioned in -the last chapter contained the germ of all that public work which was to -claim henceforth so large a share of Mrs. Ward's life. Up to this point -she had hardly taken any part in London committees; indeed, those -spacious days were still comparatively free from them, and it is -remembered that when the first meeting of the group with whom she was -discussing her new scheme took place at Russell Square,[15] one -irreverent child in the schoolroom next door said to its fellow, "What's -a committee?" "Oh," said the elder, in the manner of one who imparts -information, "it's when the grown-ups get together, and first they -think, and then they talk, and then they think again." At the moment no -sound was audible through the wall. "They must be thinking now," said -the instructor carelessly, leaving his junior to the solemn belief, held -for many years, that a committee was a sort of prayer-meeting. - -That first group, who discussed and finally approved Mrs. Ward's draft -circular announcing the foundation of a "Hall for Residents" in London, -consisted of the following men and women besides herself: Dr. Martineau, -Dr. James Drummond, of Manchester College, Oxford, Mr. Stopford Brooke, -Lord Carlisle, Rev. W. Copeland Bowie, Dr. Estlin Carpenter, Mr. -Frederick Nettlefold, the Dowager Countess Russell, Miss Frances Power -Cobbe, and lastly, Dr. Blake Odgers, Q.C., who acted as Hon. Treasurer. -Mr. Copeland Bowie, who helped Mrs. Ward for several months as a "kind -of assistant secretary," has recorded his impressions of those crowded -days in an article which he wrote for the _Inquirer_ on April 3, 1920: - - "We met in the dining-room at Russell Square. Mrs. Ward was the - moving and executive force; the rest of us were simply admiring and - sympathetic spectators of her enterprise and zeal. It is delightful - to recall her abounding activity and enthusiasm. Difficulties were - overcome, criticisms were answered, work was carried on with - extraordinary devotion and skill. Several meetings were devoted to - the consideration of how to proceed, for the pathway was beset by - many difficulties. At last, early in March, 1890, a scheme for the - establishment of a Settlement at University Hall, Gordon Square, in - a part of the old building belonging to Dr. Williams's Trustees, - was agreed upon. The religious note is very prominent. University - Hall would encourage 'an improved popular teaching of the Bible and - the history of religion, in order to show the adaptability of the - faith of the past to the needs of the present.'" - -The aims of the new movement were, in fact, set forth in the original -circular in these words: - - "It has been determined to establish a Hall for residents in - London, somewhat on the lines of Toynbee Hall, with the following - objects in view: - - "1. To provide a fresh rallying point and enlarged means of common - religious action for all those to whom Christianity, whether by - inheritance or process of thought, has become a system of practical - conduct, based on faith in God, and on the inspiring memory of a - great teacher, rather than a system of dogma based on a unique - revelation. Such persons especially, who, while holding this point - of view, have not yet been gathered into any existing religious - organization, are often greatly in want of those helps towards the - religious life, whether in thought or action, which are so readily - afforded by the orthodox bodies to their own members. The first aim - of the new Hall will be a religious aim. - - [Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)] - - "2. The Hall will endeavour to promote an improved popular teaching - of the Bible and of the history of religion. To this end - continuous teaching will be attempted under its roof on such - subjects as Old and New Testament criticism, the history of - Christianity, and that of non-Christian religions. A special effort - will be made to establish Sunday teaching both at the Hall and, by - the help of the Hall residents, in other parts of London, for - children of all classes. The children of well-to-do parents are - often worse off in this matter of careful religious teaching than - those of their poorer neighbours. There can be little doubt that - many persons are deeply dissatisfied with the whole state of - popular religious teaching in England. Either it is purely - dogmatic, taking no account of the developments of modern thought - and criticism, or it is colourless and perfunctory, the result of a - compromise which satisfies and inspires nobody. Yet that a simpler - Christianity can be frankly and effectively taught, so as both to - touch the heart and direct the will, is the conviction and familiar - experience of many persons in England, America, France and Holland. - But the new teaching wants organizing, deepening and extending. It - should be the aim of the proposed Hall to work towards such an - end." - -It was natural that such ideals as these should appeal in a peculiar way -to the Unitarian community, and we find in fact that the first -subscription list, which guaranteed an income of about £700 to -University Hall for three years, contains a preponderance of Unitarian -names. Lord Carlisle and Mr. Stopford Brooke were in favour of calling -it frankly a Unitarian Settlement. "There is a life and spirit about the -things which are done by Dissenters," wrote Lord Carlisle, "which I -believe can never be got out of people who have a lingering feeling for -the Church of England." But the majority on the Committee, including -Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau, thought that this would be setting -unnecessary limits to the movement, which they rather intended to be a -leaven permeating the lump both of orthodoxy and of indifferentism. It -was therefore agreed not to use the word in the preliminary circular, -though all the world could see from the names on the Committee that the -tone of the new Settlement would be largely that of the younger and -freer Unitarianism which had founded Manchester College, Oxford. It was -one of Mrs. Ward's most characteristic achievements that while she -herself never sympathized with Unitarianism as an organization, she was -yet able to work closely with Unitarians in this her first great -enterprise, sharing with them their enthusiasm for the Christian message -and their austere devotion to truth, while herself cherishing that -"lingering feeling for the Church of England" which forbade her to -identify herself with any outside body while there was still hope of -influencing and widening the national Church. Yet for all practical -purposes the breach between the "new religion," as its critics -contemptuously dubbed it, and the Establishment was complete enough, and -the foundation of University Hall only confirmed the orthodox in their -disapproval of Mrs. Ward and all her works. - -Besides its definitely religious aim, the new Settlement was to have a -well-marked social side as well. This is set forth in another paragraph -of the circular: - - "It is intended that the Hall shall do its utmost to secure for its - residents opportunities for religious and social work, and for the - study of social problems, such as are possessed by the residents at - Toynbee Hall or those at Oxford House. There will be a certain - number of rooms in the Hall which can be used for social purposes, - for lectures, for recreative and continuation classes and so on. - Though the Hall itself is in one of the West Central Squares, it is - surrounded on three sides by districts crowded with poor. A room - could be taken for workers from the Hall in any of these districts - or in the Drury Lane neighbourhood. In addition, the Hall is close - to Gower Street Station, so that it would be comparatively easy for - the residents to take part in any of the organizations already - existing in the East or South of London, for the help of the poor - and the study of social problems." - -And in spite of the religious ardour of its founders, it was in this -aspect of the work of University Hall that the germ of future -developments really lay. But the future lay hidden as yet from Mrs. Ward -and her gifted band of associates and fellow-workers. - -Many difficulties were encountered in the appointment of a suitable -Warden, for a combination of qualities was required which was not easy -to find, especially in the limited circle of those whose views in -matters of faith agreed broadly with those of the Committee. Month after -month went by while Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau interviewed many -candidates, often assisted by Canon Barnett, of Toynbee, whose interest -in the new venture was as sincere as it was generous. Applications from -possible residents came in fast, showing that the work would not lack -support in that direction, but even in August the Warden was still to -seek. At length, however, in September, the ideal choice was made in Mr. -Philip Wicksteed, who was then holding the office of minister at the -Unitarian chapel in Little Portland Street. He was already beginning to -be widely known outside his regular work as a lecturer on Biblical -subjects and on Dante, and Mrs. Ward had already sounded him once or -twice in this matter of the Wardenship. But he had hitherto evaded it on -the ground that his election would identify the Hall with Unitarianism. -At last, however, Mrs. Ward won his acceptance at an interview she had -with him at Russell Square, in which she greeted him with the words "I -want to _wrestle_ with you!" He dealt frankly with her on the subject of -the religious aims of the Hall, and in a letter written to her a few -days after his acceptance said: - - "You remember when first you spoke to me on this matter how I told - you that I had never been clear as to the exact thing contemplated - in the Hall, and had never felt that it had any programme. Under - those circumstances I felt that it would be false to myself and in - reality false to you to allow myself to be overcome by your - splendid faith and enthusiasm and take it up without any true - inspiration in pity that so noble a 'quest' should find no - knight-errant to try it. - - "My work with you has considerably cleared my vision, and has - inspired me with growing _hopes_ for the institution, but I cannot - honestly say that it has given me any deep _faith_ in its success. - You know how anxious I have been throughout about our audience for - lectures, and how doubtful about the existence of any large public - seriously interested in Biblical studies. My fears are not allayed; - though I hope the result may put them to shame." - -With Mr. Wicksteed's acceptance of the Wardenship, the arrangements for -lectures and the preparations for the reception of Residents were -pushed on apace, while the Committee decided that a formal opening -ceremony must be held in order to plant the flag of the new Settlement's -faith and ideals. The Portman Rooms were taken for the purpose; the -venerable Dr. Martineau consented to be in the chair, and Mrs. Ward was -to make the principal speech. She had never spoken in public before, and -was genuinely terrified at the prospect (three years later she put into -_Marcella's_ experience in the East End her own horror of extempore -speaking); but she prepared her address with great care, and was -afterwards told that her voice carried to the farthest limits of the -room, packed as it was with a keenly expectant audience. Her plea was -that the time had come for a reconstruction of the basis of Christian -belief; that the results both of Darwinian inquiry and of historical -criticism must be faced, especially in the teaching of children, but -that when the "search for an exacter truth, which is the fate and -mission of humanity" had been met, a possibility of faith remained which -would be the future hope of the world. To the elucidation of this faith -the efforts of the Hall, on its teaching and lecturing side, would be -devoted. And in speaking of the "social and practical effort which is an -_essential_ part of our scheme," she pleaded that it was "yet not its -most distinctive nor its most vital part. The need of urging it on -public attention is recognized in all camps. Yet, meanwhile, there are -hundreds of men and women who spend themselves in these works of charity -and mercy who are all the time inwardly starved, crying for something -else, something more, if they could but get it. What matters to them, -first and foremost--what would give fresh life to all their -efforts--would be the provision of a new motive power, a new hope for -the individual life in God, a new respect for man's destiny. Let me -recall you for a moment from the gospel of works to the great Pauline -gospel of faith, and the inner life! It is in the bringing back of -_faith_--not the faith which confuses legend with history, or puts -authority in the place of knowledge, but the faith which springs from -moral and spiritual fact, and may be day after day, and hour after hour, -again verified by fact--that the great task of our generation lies." - -Thus was the new venture launched, amid a mingled chorus of admiration -and criticism from that section of the world which was affected by the -movement of ideas. The lecturing at University Hall was soon in full -swing, and was maintained at a very high level during the years 1891 and -1892, so that when Mrs. Ward went on a speaking tour to some of the -northern towns in the autumn of the latter year in order to appeal for -funds for a further period of three years (an appeal in which she was -completely successful), she was able to give a very remarkable account -of it. Many courses on both Old and New Testament criticism had been -given, by Mr. Wicksteed, by Dr. Estlin Carpenter, by M. Chavannes, of -Leyden; on the Fourth Gospel by that fine scholar, Mr. Charles Hargrove; -on Theism by Prof. Knight, and on the Gospel of St. Luke by Dr. -Martineau himself. These latter took place on Sunday afternoons during -the spring of 1891. "Sunday after Sunday," said Mrs. Ward, "the Hall of -Dr. Williams's Library was crowded to the doors, and, I believe by many -to whom the line of thought followed in the lectures was of quite fresh -help and service; and it will be long indeed before many of us forget -the last Sunday--the venerable form, the beautiful voice, the note of -unconquerable hope as to the future of faith, and yet of unconquerable -courage as to the rights of the mind! I at least shall always look back -to that hour as to a moment of consecration for our young Institution, -disclosing to us at once its opportunities and its responsibilities." In -the non-Biblical sphere Mrs. J. R. Green had given a series of lectures -on the development of the English towns[16]; Miss Beatrice Potter (soon -to become Mrs. Sidney Webb) a course on the Co-operative Movement, which -became the foundation of her great book on that subject; Mr. Graham -Wallas on "The English Citizen"; Mr. Stopford Brooke on "The English -Poets of the Nineteenth Century"; while the Warden lectured to large -audiences on Dante, and "ground away" (in his own words) at political -economy, thinking aloud before his band of students and "forging forward -on new lines." It was all very stimulating, very much alive; but -whether, as the months passed on, it was exactly carrying out the aims -and intentions of that opening day, some sympathetic observers began to -doubt. - - "I was uneasy all the time," wrote Mr. Wicksteed afterwards to J. - P. T., "because though I thought I was working honestly and in a - way usefully, yet I could never quite feel that the Settlement was - doing the work it set out to do, or that it was quite justifying - its subscription list. But I don't believe your mother, in spite of - a great measure of personal disappointment, ever had the smallest - doubt or misgiving in this matter. She thoroughly believed in the - significance and value of what _was_ being done, and cared for it - with a vivid faith and affection, and supported it with an - inventive enthusiasm, that have always seemed to me the expression - of a generosity and magnanimity of a type and quality that were - quite distinctive." - -An energetic attempt was made to interest the young men employed in the -big shops of Tottenham Court Road in the Hall's activities; but the -times were premature; not until the Great War had loosed the foundations -of our society did the young men of Tottenham Court Road find their way -into the Y.M.C.A. "The young men of Tottenham Court Road," wrote Mr. -Copeland Bowie, "gave no sign that they wished to partake of the food -provided for them at University Hall." Then, somewhat apart from the -lecturing scheme of the Hall, there grew up the body of Residents, young -men of divers attainments and tastes who were hard to mould into the -original scheme, some of whom were even greatly concerned to show that -they depended in no way for their ideas on the author of _Robert -Elsmere_. Occasionally there were difficult moments at the Council -meetings, when the Residents' views clashed with those of the older -members, but it was at those moments, and generally in her gift for -bowing to the inevitable when it came, that Mrs. Ward endeared herself -most to her fellow-workers by her rare great-heartedness. During their -first winter's work at the Hall the Residents had discovered, in the -squalid neighbourhood to the east of Tavistock Square, a dingy building -that went by the name of Marchmont Hall, which they decided to take as -the scene of their regular social activities. They raised a special fund -for its expenses, and under the leadership of a young solicitor, who -combined much shrewdness and ability with a glowing enthusiasm for the -service of his fellow-men, the late Mr. Alfred Robinson, the suspicions -of the neighbourhood were overcome and a fruitful programme of boys' -clubs, men's clubs, concerts and lectures launched by the autumn of -1891. Mrs. Ward was deeply interested in the experiment, and hoped -against hope that it might lead to those opportunities for Christian -teaching which still lay very near her heart. A year later she was able -to give the following account of their first attempts in that direction: - - "The Sunday evening lectures are preceded by half an hour's music, - and have been from the first more definitely ethical and religious - in tone than those given on Thursday. But it is only quite recently - we have felt that we could speak freely, without danger of - misunderstanding, upon those subjects which are generally - identified by the working-classes with sectarian and ecclesiastical - propaganda. Now that we are known we need have no fear; and on - November 12 the Warden, who had already spoken on the prophets of - Israel and other kindred topics, gave an address on the life and - character of Jesus. It was received with warm feeling, and more - lectures of the same kind have already been arranged for. Next term - we hope a class in the Gospels, already begun, may take larger - proportions. Among the boys and young men of the Hall, often - intelligent and well-educated as they are, there is an - extraordinary amount of sheer ignorance and indifference as to the - Christian story and literature, even when they have had their full - share of the usual Sunday School training. To some of us there - could be no more welcome task, to be undertaken at once with - eagerness and with trembling, than that of making old things new to - eyes and hearts still capable of that 'admiration, hope, and love' - by which alone we truly live." - -But the movement never developed, for in truth there was no Elsmere to -lead it; Mrs. Ward herself went three times to take a boy's class on -Sunday afternoons, but could not, in the midst of her other work, -maintain the effort; the Warden, versatile as he was, did not regard it -as his _first_ interest, while from the body of Residents came a dumb -sense of antagonism, not amounting to direct opposition, but just as -effective, which in the end prevailed. The "School" of Biblical studies -at University Hall continued as before, appealing to a definite class of -students and educated persons of the middle-class, but the attempt to -fuse it with the social work at Marchmont Hall was doomed to succeed as -little as the attempt to attract to it the half-educated shopmen of -Tottenham Court Road. Gradually the human interest of the experiment, -the sense of romance and adventure, went over from the lecturing side to -the work at Marchmont Hall, where the popular lectures and discussions, -the Saturday evening concerts and the Saturday morning "play-rooms" for -children were making a real mark on the life of the district. But Mrs. -Ward was fully able to recognize this, and accepted in an ungrudging -spirit the different direction which circumstances had given to her own -cherished dreams. - - "It will be seen readily enough," wrote Mr. Wicksteed in the - memorial pamphlet issued by the Passmore Edwards Settlement, "that - it was on the side of the School rather than on that of the - Residence that Mrs. Ward's ideals seemed to have the best chance of - fulfilling themselves. Yet in truth it was in the Residence that - the germ of future development lay. The greatness of Mrs. Ward's - character was shown in her recognition--painful and unwilling - sometimes, but always brave and loyal--of this fact. She could not - and did not relinquish her "Elsmerean" ideals. The romance of - _Richard Meynell_, published twenty-three years after _Robert - Elsmere_, shows them in unabated ardour. The failure of the - Residence to amalgamate with the School was the source of deep - distress to her. She sometimes suggested measures for overcoming it - that did not approve themselves to her colleagues, but throughout - she never suspected their loyalty, and never failed in her own. It - needed rare magnanimity. Patience seems too passive a word to apply - to so ardent a spirit, but something that did the work of patience - was very truly there. And as she came to recognize that with the - available material the Settlement could not be the embodiment of - her full ideal, she withdrew her vital energies from the attempt to - force a passage where none was possible, she steadily refused to - let blood flow through a wound that could be and should be healed, - and she threw all the strength of her inventive and resourceful - mind--and what is more the full stream of her affection and joy in - accomplished good--into the development of such branches of her - purpose as by that agency could be furthered." - -By the year 1893 the situation as between University Hall and Marchmont -Hall had become a curious one, since the former was too large and -expensive for its purpose and the latter not nearly large enough. Mrs. -Ward and her friends came to the conclusion that some scheme must be -devised for combining the activities of both institutions under one -roof; but since no suitable building existed anywhere in the -neighbourhood of Marchmont Hall, where deep roots had been struck in the -affections of the working population, it became obvious that the only -solution was to build. Through the early spring of 1894 Mrs. Ward -laboured to interest the old friends of University Hall in an appeal for -a Building Fund of £5,000; but it was uphill work; her health had -suffered greatly from the long strain, and there were moments when hope -sank very low. Then, one evening in May of that year, the postman's -knock sounded below, and one of us went down as usual to fetch the -letters. There was but a single dull-looking letter in an ordinary -"commercial envelope." "Only a bill," announced the bearer, as it was -placed in Mrs. Ward's hands. She opened it, glanced at the signature, -read it rapidly through, and then, with a little cry, exclaimed: "Mr. -Passmore Edwards is going to build us a Settlement!" - -She had written to him at last, knowing of him--as all that generation -knew--mainly as the generous founder of Free Libraries, but without much -hope that he would seriously take up the Marchmont Hall building scheme. -At that time the Committee were in favour of a site in Somers Town, -north of the Euston Road, the advantages of which Mrs. Ward had set -forth in her letter to Mr. Edwards. His answer ran as follows: - - -_May 30, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MADAM,-- - - Since I received your letter in Italy I have considered your - suggestion in reference to the extension in ampler premises of - University Hall Settlement, and thereby planting as you say a - Toynbee Hall in the Somers Town district. I have also visited the - district in and around Clarendon Sq., and am convinced that such an - Institution is as much wanted in North London as it was wanted in - East London. I therefore cheerfully respond to your appeal, and - undertake to provide the necessary building within the limits of - the sum you indicate, if somebody will provide a suitable site. The - vacant place in Clarendon Sq. would, I consider, be a convenient - spot for the Settlement. As a matter of course, provision must be - made that the building shall be permanently devoted to the purpose - now intended. In my opinion we have the two things most necessary - in the Somers Town district for a Toynbee Hall: we have a numerous - working population requiring educational assistance and advantages; - and we have in the neighbourhood many able and willing workers - ready to assist in works of intellectual, moral and social culture. - -I remain, -Yours faithfully, -J. PASSMORE EDWARDS. - -This was her first great victory on the road to the building of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. That road was still to be a long and -difficult one, but she was not to be discouraged, and where many lesser -souls would have fallen out by the wayside, wearied by ill-health and by -the multiplication of obstacles, she persisted, and won in the end a -vantage-ground in the fine buildings of the Settlement, whence, in the -course of time, she could pass on to new and various achievements. - -Heavy and exacting as the work of University Hall was during the first -three years of its existence, and glum as the face of our coachman was -wont to look at the reiterated orders to drive there (for he disapproved -of his horse being kept waiting in the street while people were just -talking), Mrs. Ward never allowed it to absorb her mind completely. -Indeed, these years saw the writing of her second three-volume novel, -_The History of David Grieve_, as well as many important developments in -our domestic affairs. The house on Grayswood Hill, near Haslemere, was -rising fast during the early months of 1890, while the principles of the -new Settlement were being thrashed out in the study at Russell Square, -and at length Mrs. Ward tore herself away from London, stipulating for a -six weeks' break from the affairs of University Hall, buried herself in -a neighbouring house named "Grayswood Beeches," wrote _David_ hard, and -kept a watchful eye on the plasterers and painters at work on "Lower -Grayswood" below. She took the keenest interest in every detail of the -new house, planning it out in daily letters to her husband, and yet as -it drew near completion she could not help rebelling at its very -newness, at the half-made garden and the plantations of birch and larch -and pine which covered much of the nine acres of ground, while of real -trees there was hardly one. Waves of longing would assail her for -Hampden House, with its silence and its spaciousness, its old lawns and -trees, and its complete absence of neighbours. "How I have been -hankering after Hampden lately!" she writes to her father in June, 1890, -and to her husband she confesses that she has been to the agent's to -inquire whether Hampden could be let for a term of years. "They don't -think so. I told them to inquire without mentioning our names at all." -Hampden, however, was not to be had, and when once she was established -in Lower Grayswood, Mrs. Ward took more kindly to the house, which had -from its windows one of the most astonishing views in all the South of -England. Yet still she wrote to her father: "I doubt whether I shall be -content ultimately without an old house and old trees! If one may covet -anything, I think one may covet this kind of inheritance from the past -to shelter one's own later life in. Life seems so short to make anything -quite fresh. Meanwhile, Lower Grayswood is very nice, and more than we -deserve!" - -The verdict of children and friends was indeed unanimous in praise of -the poor new house, whence endless fishing expeditions were made to -muddy little brooks in the plain below, almost compensating for the loss -of Forked Pond and the other barbarian delights of Borough Farm. But -even the children realized that there were "too many people about" for -the health of their mother's work. The pile of cards on the hall table -grew ominously thick. Americans walked in, taking no denial, and once in -mid-August, when the youngest child tactlessly won a junior race at the -Lythe Hill Sports, with all Haslemere looking on, there were paragraphs -in the evening papers. It would not do, and I think the house at -Haslemere was doomed from that day onwards. Still, for two years it -played its part delightfully in the web of Mrs. Ward's life, giving her -quiet, especially in the autumn and winter, for the writing of _David -Grieve_, giving her deep draughts of beauty which were not forgotten in -after years. The lodge was made a home for tired Londoners, whether boys -or mothers or factory-girls, and the house itself was never long empty -of guests. - -There, too, in the book-lined room which she had made her study, she -would on Sunday evenings carry out in practice those ideas on the -teaching of the Bible which she had striven to inculcate at University -Hall. The audience sat on low stools or lay on the floor, while she read -to them usually a part of the Gospels, making the scene live again, as -only she could make it, not only by her intimate knowledge of the times, -but by her gift of presentation. Systematically, making us use our minds -to follow her, she would work through a section of St. Mark or St. -Matthew, comparing each with the other, showing the touches of the -"later hand," taking us deep into the fascinating intricacies of the -Synoptic Problem. But all the time the central figure would grow clearer -and clearer, in simple majesty of parable or act of healing, while at -the greatest moments commentary fell away and only the old words broke -the stillness. She was immensely interested in the problem of the -Master's own view of himself and his mission, following him step by step -to the declaration at Cæsarea Philippi, then tracing the gathering -conviction that in himself was to be fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy of the -Suffering Servant. She was inclined to reject the prophecies of the -Second Coming as showing too obviously the feeling of the second -generation, as being unworthy of him who said, "The Kingdom of God is -within you." But in later years she came to regard them as probably -based on utterances of his own, for was he not, after all, the child of -his time and country? With an episode like the Transfiguration she would -show us the elements of popular legend from which it was put together, -fitting piece into piece till the whole stood out with a new freshness, -throwing its light backwards over the age-long Jewish expectations of -the return of Moses and Elijah. So with the Resurrection stories; she -bade us always remember the teeming soil from which they sprang, in that -long-past childhood of the world; how none of them were written down -till forty years, most of them not till sixty and seventy years, had -passed since the Crucifixion; how the return from Hades on the third day -is at least as old as Alcestis. These things, she said, forbade us to -accept them as literal fact; but it was impossible to listen to her -reading of the Walk to Emmaus, or the finding of the empty tomb, without -coming under the spell of an emotion as deep as it was austere. For the -fact that we in these latter days had outgrown our childhood and must -distinguish truth from phantasy was no reason in her mind, why we should -renounce the poetic value of scenes and pictures woven into the very -fabric of our being. And so, Sunday after Sunday, our little minds drank -in a teaching which she would fain believe could have been spread -broadcast among our generation, could the ideals of University Hall but -reach the masses. She did not realize how unique her teaching was, nor -how few among her generation combined such knowledge as hers with such a -power of instilling it into other minds and hearts. - - * * * * * - -The writing of _David Grieve_ was a long-sustained effort, extending -over the best part of three years, and too often performed under the -handicap of writer's cramp and sleeplessness. But Mrs. Ward was at the -prime of her powers, and felt herself more thoroughly master of her -material in this book than she had done in the case of _Robert Elsmere_, -so that the revision, when it came, was a matter of weeks and not of -months. Her visits to Manchester and Derbyshire for the local colour of -the book had inspired her with a vivid faith in the working population -of the north, which finds expression in a letter written to her father -in September, 1890, in reply to criticisms which he, with his Catholic -prepossessions, had made on the unloveliness of their lives: - - "You and I would not agree about New Mills, I am afraid! At least, - if New Mills is like Bacup and the towns along the Irwell, as I - suppose it is. After seeing those mill-colonies among the moors, I - came home cheered and comforted in my mind for the future of - England--so differently may the same things affect different - people. Beatrice Potter told me that she had stayed for some time - incog. as one of themselves with a family of mill-hands at Bacup, - and that to her mind they were 'the salt of the earth,' so good and - kind to each other, so diligent, so God-fearing, so truly - unworldly. She attributed it to their religion, to those hideous - chapels, which develop in them the keenest individual sense of - responsibility to God and man, to their habit of combination for a - common end as in their Co-op. Societies and Unions, and to their - real sensitiveness to education and the things of the mind, up to a - certain point, of course. And certainly all that I saw last autumn - bore her out. I imagine that if you were to compare Lancashire with - any other manufacturing district in Europe, with Belgium, with - Lyons, with Catalonia, it would show favourably as regards the type - of human character developed. All the better men and women are - interested in the things that interested St. Paul--grace and - salvation, and the struggle of the spirit against the flesh, and - for the rest they work for their wives and children, and learn - gradually to respect those laws of health which are, after all, as - much 'set in the world,' to use Uncle Matt's phrase, as beauty and - charm, and in their own way as much a will and purpose of God. Read - the books about Lancashire life a hundred years ago, and see if - they have not improved--if they are not less brutal, less earthy, - nearer altogether to the intelligent type of life. That they have - far to go yet one cannot deny. But altogether, when London fills me - with despair, I often think of Lancashire and am comforted for the - future. I think of the people I had tea with at Bacup, all - mill-hands, but so refined, gentle and good; and I think of the - wonderful development of the civic sense in a town like Oldham, - with all its public institutions, its combinations of workpeople - for every possible object, and its generally happy and healthy - tone. I wish the streets were less ugly, but after all, our climate - is hard and drives people indoors three-parts of the year, and the - race has very little artistic gift." - -Meanwhile, the Copyright Committee was again hard at work in the United -States, arousing much anxious speculation in Mrs. Ward's mind as to -whether their Bill would be through Congress in time for her new book; -but in the end the victory came more easily and swiftly than was -expected. Congress passed it in November, 1890, and it became law in the -following March. The effect on Mrs. Ward's fortunes was not long in -making itself felt. Mr. George Smith had been negotiating for her with -an American firm that offered good but not magnificent terms for _David -Grieve_; he was dissatisfied, and in his wise heart bethought him of her -old friends the Macmillans, who had an "American house." The sequel must -be told in his own words: - - -15, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. -_June 13, 1891._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I met Frederick Macmillan in the Park this morning. It flashed on - my mind that I would sell him the American copyright of your book, - and after a long talk (which made me late for breakfast) I promised - him that if he made me a firm offer of seven thousand pounds for - the American copyright, including Canada, before one o'clock - to-day, I would accept it on your behalf. He has just called here - and written the enclosed note. I am rather pleased with myself, and - I hope that you will not reproach me. I write in haste, for I shall - feel rather anxious until I have a line from you on the subject. - -Believe me, -Yours sincerely, -G. M. SMITH. - -Needless to say, the "line" was forthcoming, and Mrs. Ward was left to -contemplate, with some emotion, the fact that she was mistress of a -little fortune. Whether the Macmillans remained as contented with their -bargain as she was is, however, a point of some obscurity. Certainly -they desired her next book (_Marcella_), which amply made up to them for -any shortcomings on _David Grieve_, but during the negotiations for it -some uncomfortable tales leaked out. "Mr. Brett told me," wrote Mrs. -Ward to George Smith, eighteen months after the appearance of _David_, -"that owing to the description of profit-sharing in _David Grieve_ and -the interest roused by it in America, their American branch adopted it -last year for all their employés. Then in consequence of _David_ there -were no profits to divide! I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the -situation, and I am quite determined that if there are losses this time -I will share them." - -But as yet the prospect was unclouded, and the summer of 1891 was spent -in a hard wrestle with the remaining chapters of the book--with the -tragedy of Lucy and the sombre fate of Louie Grieve--but at length, on -September 24, the last words of _David Grieve_ were written, and on -October 16 she and Mr. Ward fled for nine weeks to Italy. - -It was not their first visit, for in the spring of 1889 they had spent -eight days in Rome, making their first Italian friendships and learning -something of the spell of that city of old magic. "In eight days one can -but scratch the surface of Rome," she had written to her father on that -occasion. "Still, I think Lord Acton was quite right when he said to us -at Cannes, 'If you have only three days, go!' To have walked into St. -Peter's, to have driven up on to the Janiculan and seen the view of -Rome, the Alban Hills, the Campagna and Soracte which you get from -there, to have wandered about the Forum and Colosseum and to have -climbed the Palatine and the Capitol, is something after all, even if -one never saw this marvellous place again." - -Now this second time she was so tired that they passed Rome by on the -outward journey and went instead to Naples, Amalfi and Ravello, where -the good Signora Palumbo, landlady of the famous little inn, tended her -as she lay quite fallow, browsing in books or gazing at sea and sky and -sunny coast. But a visit to Pompeii could still arouse all her -historical instincts: - - "To sit in the Forum there," she writes to her sister, Mrs. Leonard - Huxley, "or in one of the bright gaily painted houses, or - restaurants with the wine-jars still perfect in the marble - counters, and to think that people were chatting and laughing in - those very courts and under those very pictures while Jesus was - before Pilate, or Paul was landing at Puteoli, on the same coast - some twenty miles north, made an electric moment in life. It is so - seldom one actually _feels_ and _touches_ the past. After seeing - those temples with their sacrificial altars and _cellæ_, their - priests' sleeping-rooms and dining-rooms, I read this morning St. - Paul's directions to the Corinthians about meat offered to - idols--in fact, the whole first letter--with quite different eyes." - -To the same beloved sister she was indebted for the inimitable tales of -her small boy, Julian, which enliven the later pages of _David Grieve_; -for Sandy Grieve was taken direct from this little grandson of the -Professor--an "impet" indeed, in his mother's expressive phrase. "Your -stories of Julian have been killing," wrote Mrs. Ward from Naples; "I -was sorry one of them arrived too late for _David_. By the way, I have -not yet written to Willie to say that Sandy is merely an imperfect copy -of Julian. He writes 'We both _love_ Sandy.' And I am sure when the book -comes out that Sandy will be the making of some of the last part." - -A month after Mrs. Ward's return to England, that is on January 22, -1892, _David Grieve_ appeared, and was at once greeted with a chorus of -praise, criticism and general talk. "Were there ever such contradictory -judgments!" wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher when the book had been out -a week. "The Master of Balliol writes to me that it is 'the best novel -since George Eliot'--'extraordinarily pathetic and interesting'--and -that Louie is a sketch that Victor Hugo might have drawn. A sledgehammer -article in the _British Weekly_ to-night says 'it is an almost absolute -failure.' Mr. Henry Grenfell and Mr. Haldane have been glued to it till -they finished it. According to other people it is 'ordinary and -tedious.' Well, one must possess one's soul a little, I suppose, till -the real verdict emerges." The reviews were by no means all laudatory, -much criticism being bestowed on the "Paris episode" of David's -entanglement with Elise Delaunay, but the general verdict certainly was -that it showed a marked advance on _Robert Elsmere_ in artistic -treatment, as well as a power of character-drawing that had not been -seen since _Middlemarch_. This feeling was summed up in Walter Pater's -sentence: "It seems to me to have all the forces of its predecessor at -work in it, with perhaps a mellower kind of art--a more matured power of -blending disparate literary gifts in one." Letters poured in upon her -again, both from old friends and strangers. "Max Creighton," now Bishop -of Peterborough, who was never tired of poking fun at Mrs. Ward about -the "higher criticism," found time to dash off ten closely written -sheets of pseudo-solemn investigation into the authenticity of David's -life-story, beginning: "Though I am prepared to believe that David -Grieve was a real personage, it is clear that many mythical elements -have been incorporated into his history, and it is the function of -criticism to disentangle the real man from the legendary accretions -which have gathered round him." Mrs. Ward replied in suitable vein, and -confided to her friend that a few of the reviews had made her very sore. -"I am very sorry to hear," he replied, "that some criticism has been -ungenerous.... But I think that we all have to learn the responsibility -attached to undertaking the function of a teacher, and the inevitable -antagonism which the claim arouses. It has been so always. No amount of -rectitude or good intentions avail." - -But the warm admiration expressed by those for whose opinion she cared -amply made up for the hostility of these reviews. As she said of it in -her _Recollections_: "It has brought me correspondence from all parts -and all classes, more intimate and striking perhaps than in the case of -any other of my books." Many pages might be filled with these letters, -but at a distance of thirty years two only shall be saved from oblivion, -for the sake of that mere quality of delight which pervades them both -and which endeared their writers beyond other men to the company in -which they moved. The first is from Professor Huxley; the second from -Sir Edward Burne-Jones. - - -HODESLEA, STAVELEY ROAD, -EASTBOURNE. -_February 1, 1892._ - -MY DEAR MARY,-- - - You will think I have taken my time about thanking you for _David - Grieve_; but a virtuous resolution to stick to a piece of work I - have had on hand for a long time interfered with my finishing it - before last night. The temptation was severe, and as I do not often - stick to virtuous resolutions under these circumstances, I parade - the fact. - - I think the account of the Parisian episode of David's life the - strongest thing you have done yet. It is alive--every word of - it--and without note or comment produces its ethical effect after - the manner of that "gifted authoress," Dame Nature, who never - moralizes. - - Being "nobbut a heathen," I should have liked the rest to be in the - same vein--the picture of a man hoping nothing, rejecting all - speculative corks and bladders--strong only in the will "im Ganzen, - Guten, Wahren resolut zu leben," and accepting himself for more or - less a failure--yet battling to the end. But you are on the side of - the angels. - - We are very proud of Julian's apotheosis. He is a most delightful - imp, and the way in which he used to defy me, on occasion, when he - was here, was quite refreshing. The strength of his conviction that - people who interfere with his freedom are certainly foolish, - probably wicked, is quite Gladstonian. - -My wife joins in love. -Ever yours affectionately, -T. H. HUXLEY. - - * * * * * - - -THE GRANGE, - 49, NORTH END ROAD, - WEST KENSINGTON, W. - _Saturday morning._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The book has just come--and to my pride and delight with such a - pretty autograph: so that to-day I am mightily set up. I cannot - tell you how comforting the words read to me--and how sunny they - have made this grey day. By the messenger who takes this I send a - little drawing, done in gold, which for a whole year past I have - meant for you--it was to reach you by your last birthday, but I was - ill then with this vile plague that is devastating us, and after - that there seemed no reason for sending it one day more than - another, and as I looked at it again it didn't seem good enough, - and I thought one day you would come and choose a little souvenir - of friendship--one perhaps more to your liking--but this day has - never come, and all the year through illnesses big or little have - pursued me and nipped all plans. But will you take it with my - love--real grateful love; it's a kind of Urania sort of person, and - will be proud to live in your bower in the country. - - We are a poor lot--my wife kept to her room for about a month; Phil - imprisoned in a room with carbolic curtains round him as if he were - a leper, and I--too ignominious at present to be spoken - about--longing to go out and see an omnibus--I _should_ like to - see an omnibus again! - -My love to you all, -Yours, E. B. J. - - P.S.--The first day I can get out I shall call and take my chance - of seeing you. Don't dream of writing about the poor little - drawing; I should be ashamed, and you are full of work. - -The "kind of Urania sort of person" shed a radiance all her own over our -house from that day onwards, and was removed before long to a "country -bower" after Mrs. Ward's own heart. - -For early in 1892 her attention was drawn by her old friend, Mr. (now -Sir James) Thursfield, who lived near Berkhamsted, to the fact that some -five miles farther from London, in the heart of a district as rural and -unspoilt as any that could be found in England, stood a comfortable -eighteenth-century house of medium size which happened recently to have -come into the market. Sir Edward Grey had just inherited it through his -mother under the will of old James Adam Gordon, its possessor in the -'forties and 'fifties; but since the place was far from any trout-stream -he did not propose to live in it, but wished instead to find a tenant to -take it for a term of years. Its name was simply "Stocks," and though -the house itself was only 120 years old, a far older manor-house had -been pulled down to make way for it; while the little estate--"the -stokkes of the parish of Aldbury"--is mentioned in a fifteenth-century -charter as forming an outlying part of the huge diocese of Lincoln. Mr. -Thursfield persuaded Mr. and Mrs. Ward to come and see it, winter though -it was. They fell in love with it there and then, and within a few weeks -it was decided that Grayswood should be sold and Stocks taken for seven -years. Mrs. Ward felt that she had found at last the home she had been -seeking. - - "You know how we have always hankered after an old place with old - trees," she wrote to her brother Willie, "and when the Thursfields - made us come down and see the place and declared we must and should - take it we couldn't in the end resist! It has such an old walled - garden, such a beautiful lime avenue, such delicious old hollies - and oaks, such woods behind it and about it! The house is bigger in - the way of bedrooms than Haslemere, but otherwise not more - formidable, and though the inside has no particular features (the - outside is charming) we shall manage I think to make it habitable - and pretty. One great attraction to me is that it is so near Euston - and therefore to the Hall and all its works. I don't mean to say - that we are taking it on any but the most ordinary selfish - principles!--but still, I like to think that I can make Marchmont - Hall, and the people who congregate about it, free of it as I - cannot do of Haslemere, and that there is a hungry demand in that - part of London for the fruit and flowers with which the place must - overflow in the summer. I believe also that the change will help me - a good deal in my work, and that at Stocks I shall be able to see - something of the genuine English country life which I never could - at Haslemere. But we had got to love Haslemere all the same, and it - is an up-rooting." - -The little house on Grayswood Hill was indeed loath to let her go. She -went there alone at the end of February, when plain and hill lay steeped -in a flood of spring sunshine. "If only the place had not looked so -lovely yesterday and to-day!" she wrote. "We have been hung in infinite -air over the most ethereal of plains." But when Stocks finally received -her, at midsummer, 1892, she knew in her heart that all was well; that -"something" deep down in her nature "that stands more rubs than anything -else in our equipment" was satisfied--satisfied with the quiet lines of -the chalk hills, with the beechwoods that clothed their sides, and -stretched away, she knew, for miles beyond the horizon; with the -neighbourhood of that ancient life of the soil that surrounded her in -village and scattered farm. She had found her home; she was to live in -it and love it for eight-and-twenty years. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH--_MARCELLA_ AND _SIR GEORGE TRESSADY_--THE -BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT - -1892-1897 - - -The acquisition of Stocks in the summer of 1892 was a landmark in Mrs. -Ward's life for more reasons than one, for it coincided with the advent -of a mysterious ailment, or disability, from which she was never to be -wholly free for the rest of her life. She had hardly been in the new -house a fortnight before she succumbed to a violent attack of internal -pain, showing symptoms of gastric catarrh, but also affecting the nerves -of the right leg. It crippled her for many weeks and exercised the minds -of both the local and the London doctors. Some believed that the cause -of it must be a "floating kidney," others that the pain was merely -neuralgic, while Mrs. Ward herself, with that keen interest in the human -organism and that instinct for self-doctoring which made her so -embarrassing a patient, watched the effect of each remedy and suggested -others with pathetic ingenuity. She had her better days, when she was -able to go down to the old walled kitchen-garden--about 300 yards from -the house--in a bath-chair, but whenever she tried to walk, even a -little, the pain returned in aggravated form. Only those who watched her -through those two summer months knew what heroic efforts she made to -master it and to throw herself into the writing of her new book, -_Marcella_, or how her "spirit grew" as the days of comparative relief -were followed ever and again by days of collapse. While she was still in -the thick of the struggle she received a visit from her American friend, -Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, whose impressions of the day were written -immediately to Mrs. Whitman, in Boston, and give a vivid picture of -Mrs. Ward as she appeared at that time to so shrewd and sympathetic an -observer.[17] (Aug. 20, 1892). - - "Yesterday we spent the day with Mrs. Humphry Ward, who has been - ill for a while and is just getting better. Somehow, she seemed so - much younger and more girlish than I expected. I long to have you - know Mrs. Ward. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, - brilliant and full of charm, and with a lovely simplicity and - sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection, and a - sacred expectation of what she is sure to do if she keeps strong, - and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life - burns with a very fierce flame, and she has not in the least done - all that she can do, but just now it seems to me that her vigour is - a good deal spent." - -The "spent vigour" was only another word for bodily illness, but some -weeks after Miss Jewett's visit the first signs of relief appeared. Her -London doctor introduced her to a new drug, phenacetin, which worked -wonders with the sore side and leg. Phenacetin and all its kindred -"tabloids" came into common use at Stocks from that time onwards, in -spite of the mockery of her friends. Mrs. Ward developed an -extraordinary skill in the use of these "little drugs," and would often -baffle her doctors by her theories of their effects. At any rate, they -bore a remarkable part in the complicated struggle between her work and -her health, which was to occupy the next few years, and Mrs. Ward always -staunchly believed in them. - -The improvement continued steadily, so that she was able, that autumn, -to undertake a speaking-tour in Lancashire and Yorkshire on behalf of -University Hall, finding wherever she went the most astonishing welcome. -At Manchester she went, after her own meetings were over, to a great -Unitarian gathering in the Free Trade Hall, stipulating that she was not -to speak; but at the end she was entrapped, nevertheless. Her husband -received the following account of it. - - "Then at the very end, to my sorrow, the chairman announced that - Mrs. Humphry Ward was present, and had been asked to speak, but - was not well enough to do so! Whereupon there were such groans from - the audience, and I felt it so absurd to be sitting there pleading - illness that I could only move up to the desk, wondering whether I - could possibly make myself heard in such a place. Then they all - rose, and such applause as you never heard! It was a good thing - that a certain number of people had left to catch early trains, or - it would have been still more overwhelming to me. I just managed to - say half a dozen words, and I think I said them with sufficient - ease, but whether they carried to the back of the hall I don't - know. It certainly must be very exciting to be able to speak easily - to such a responsive multitude." - -At Leeds the same kind of experience awaited her, though on a smaller -scale. "I should not have been mortal if I had not been deeply touched -by their feeling towards me and towards the books," she wrote. "And what -a strong independent world of its own all this north-country -Nonconformity is! I feel as though these experiences were invaluable to -me as a novelist. One never dreamt of all this at Oxford." - -The improvement in health, which had enabled her to face the strain of -this tour, was not of long duration. Many letters in the winter complain -of the "dragging pain" in the right leg, which prevents her from walking -more than fifty yards without being "brought up sharp till the pain and -stiffness have gone off again--which they do with resting." By the -following June (1893) she was as ill as ever she had been in the -preceding summer. The London doctor adopted the theory of the "shifting -kidney," but encouraged her to allow herself to be carried up and -downstairs at Stocks, so as to lie in the summer garden. "I am afraid -this tendency may mean times of pain for me in the future," she writes, -"but it is not dangerous, and need not prevent my working just as usual. -I _am_ so enjoying the sight of the flowers again, and this afternoon I -shall somehow get to the lime on the lawn. It had given me quite a pang -at my heart to think the lime-blossom would go and I not see it! One has -fewer years to waste now." - -She was hard at work on the writing of _Marcella_ throughout this year, -but the fact that she could not sit up at a table without bringing on a -"wild fit of pain," as she described it once, meant that she had to -cultivate the art of writing in bed or in her garden chair, a proceeding -which was very apt to produce attacks of writer's cramp. Elaborate -erections of writing-boards had to be built up around her, so as to -enable as many as possible of Dr. Wolff's precepts to be carried out, -but it was a weary business, and often the hand would drop lame for a -while, in spite of the author's longing to be "at" her characters. This -joy of creation was, however, her principal stay during these months of -pain and weakness. - - -_To Mr. George Murray Smith_. - -_September 8, 1893._ - - "I, alas! cannot get well, though I am no doubt somewhat better - than when you were here. The horrid ailment, whatever it is, will - not go away, and work is rather a struggle. Still it is also my - great stand-by and consolation,--by the help of it I manage to - avoid the depression which otherwise this long _malaise_ and - weakness must have brought with it. A walk to the kitchen-garden - and back yesterday gave me a bad night and fresh pain to-day, and I - cannot travel with any comfort. But I can get along, and soon we - shall be in London and I must try some fresh doctoring. Meanwhile I - have written nearly a volume since we came down, which is not so - bad." - -All through the autumn of this year she grew more and more absorbed in -her story, while her health improved slightly, though walking was still -an unattainable joy. The life of the little village of Aldbury, half a -mile from the house, which she wove into so many scenes of _Marcella_, -had an immense fascination for her. She would drive down in her -pony-carriage, whenever she could find time, to spend an hour with old -Mrs. Swabey or Mrs. Bradsell, or with Johnny Dolt, the postmaster, -gleaning from their old-world gossip the elemental life-story of the -country-side, or hearing the echoes of the bloody tragedy which had -convulsed the village just before we came to it, in December, 1891. For -while the old lady of Stocks (Mrs. Bright) lay dying, a murderous affray -had occurred in the wood, not a mile from the house, between the -gamekeeper and his lad on the one side, and a band of poachers on the -other. The keeper was shot dead, and the lad, who fled for his life into -the open, down towards a spreading beech in the hollow below, was -followed and beaten to death with the butt-end of a gun. No wonder that -Mrs. Ward took the tale and made it the dominating theme of her story, -weaving into it new threads that the sordid tragedy itself did not -possess--of the poacher Hurd, the dying child, the piteous little wife. -The village itself was somewhat agape, we used to think, over the -proceedings of the new mistress of Stocks, who would have "grand folks" -down from London to spend their Sundays with her, but who had also taken -a cottage on purpose for the reception of tired people from the back -streets, and who was constantly having parties down from "some place in -London" to enjoy the garden and the shady trees. The place in question -was Marchmont Hall, for whose cricket team we children preserved a -private but invincible contempt; but the elderly Associates became real -friends, and soon learnt to know Stocks and its environs with more than -a passing knowledge. Sometimes they would come down just for a day's -outing, but more often they, or the club-girls, or some ailing mother -and baby would stay for a fortnight at the Convalescent Cottage under -the care of the loquacious Mrs. Dell, whose memory must still be green -in many London hearts. A natural philosopher, reared on the Bible and -her own shrewd observation of life, Mrs. Dell was the ideal matron for -the London folk who were sent down to her; she took them all in under -her large embrace, though her opinion of their "draggled" faces when -they arrived was anything but complimentary. She was wont to express -herself, in fact, with considerable freedom about London life. Once one -of her guests--a working-man--had gone back to town for the week-end, -feeling bored in the country. "And pray what can 'e do in London?" she -asked with magnificent scorn. "Nothin' but titter-totter on the paves!" - -And besides the Convalescent Cottage, there stood on the same steep -slope of hill, just under the hanging wood, with its mixture of beech, -ash and wild cherry, another little house, known simply as Stocks -Cottage, which Mr. Ward acquired to round off the miniature estate early -in 1895. It became a source of unmixed joy to Mrs. Ward, for she could -lend or let it to many different friends, from Graham Wallas and Bernard -Shaw, who came to it during one of her absences abroad, and thence -roamed the downs with the daughter she had left behind, preaching -collectivism and Jaeger clothes--to the Neville Lytteltons, who spent -seven consecutive summers in the little place, from 1895 to 1901. The -Cottage, indeed, became a very intimate part of Mrs. Ward's life at -Stocks, and its mistress, Mrs. Lyttelton, one of her closest friends. - - * * * * * - -_Marcella_ was finished, after a long struggle against sleeplessness, -headache and a bad bout of writer's cramp, on January 31, 1894. A -characteristic passage occurred between the author and her publisher -immediately afterwards. Mr. Smith had sent her, according to promise, a -considerable sum in advance of royalty, setting forth at the same time, -with his habitual candour, the exact sum which his firm expected to make -from the same number of copies. Mrs. Ward thought it not enough, and -wrote at once to propose a decrease of royalty on the first 2,000 -copies. "I hardly know what to say," replied Mr. Smith. "It is not often -that a publisher receives such a letter from an author." But after -mutual bargainings--all of an inverted character--they arrived at a -satisfactory agreement. - -Mrs. Ward fled to Italy with husband and daughter to escape the -appearance of the book, and saw herself flaunted on the posters of the -English papers in the Piazza di Spagna early in April. It was indeed an -exhilarating time for her, for there were few harsh voices among the -reviewers on this occasion, while the many letters from her friends were -as kind as ever. A typical opinion was that of Sir Francis Jeune: "I was -charmed with sentence after sentence of perfect finish and point, such -as no other writer of fiction in the present day ever attempts and -certainly could not sustain. They are a delight in themselves, and the -care bestowed on them is the highest compliment to a reader. May I add -that I think the dramatic force of some scenes--I single out the morning -of Hurd's execution, and the death of Hallin, but there are several -more--is greatly in advance of anything even you have done, and touches -a very high point in comparison with any scenes in English fiction. I -think George Eliot never surpassed them." In her _Recollections_ Mrs. -Ward describes the coming out of _Marcella_ as "perhaps the happiest -date in my literary life," for it not only gave her unalloyed joy in -itself, but it coincided also with a comparative return to -health--though always with ups and downs. Yet the immense publicity -which the success of the book brought her was also a grievous burden, -and she gives vent to this feeling in a letter to Mr. Gladstone, written -in reply to his own words of thanks for the gift of the book: - - -25, GROSVENOR PLACE. -_May 6, 1894._ - -MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,-- - - It was charming of you to write to me,--one of those kindnesses - which, apart from all your greatness, win to you the hearts of so - many. I am so glad that the eyes are better for a time, and that - you have shaken off your influenza. - - We have just come back from a delightful seven weeks in Italy, at - Rome, Siena and Florence, and I am much rested, though still, I am - vexed to say, very lame and something of an invalid. The success of - _Marcella_, however, has been a most pleasant tonic, though I - always find the first few weeks after the appearance of a book an - agitating and trying time, however smoothly things go! The great - publicity which our modern conditions involve seems to wear one's - nerves; and I suppose it is inevitable that women should feel such - things more than men, who so often, through the training of school - and college and public life, get used to them from their childhood. - - Your phrase about "prospective work" gave me real delight. I have - been enjoying and pondering over the translations of Horace in the - _Nineteenth Century_. Horace is the one Latin poet whom I know - fairly well, and often read, though this year, in Italy, I think I - realized the spell of Virgil more than ever before. Will you go on, - I wonder, from the love-poems to a gathering from the others? I - wanted to claim of you three or four in particular, but as I turn - over the pages I see in two or three minutes at least twenty that - jostle each other to be named, so it is no good! - -Believe me, -Yours most sincerely, -MARY A. WARD. - -_Marcella_, like her two predecessors, first appeared in three-volume -form, but Mrs. Ward's quarrel with the big libraries for starving their -subscribers, which had been simmering ever since _David Grieve_, became -far more acute over the new book. She reported to George Smith on May 24 -that "Sir Henry Cunningham told us last night that he had made a -tremendous protest to Mudie's against their behaviour in the matter of -_Marcella_--which he seems to have told them he regarded as a fraud on -the public, or rather on their subscribers, whom they were _bound_ to -supply with new books!" This feud, together with the desire of the -American _Century Magazine_ to publish her next novel in serial form, -provided it were only half the length of _Marcella_, induced her to -consider seriously the question of writing shorter books. "It would be -difficult for me, with my tendency to interminableness," she admitted to -George Smith, "to promise to keep within such limits. However, it might -be good for me!" Soon afterwards the decision was made, and with it the -knell of the three-volume novel sounded, for other novelists soon -followed Mrs. Ward's example. The resulting brevity of modern novels -(always excepting Mr. William de Morgan and Mr. Conrad) is thus largely -due to the flaming up of an old quarrel between librarians on the one -side and publishers and authors on the other, as it occurred in the case -of Mrs. Ward's _Marcella_. - -The summer of 1894 was a period of comparative physical ease, during -which Mrs. Ward found that although she was still unable to walk more -than a very little, she could ride an old pony we possessed with much -profit and pleasure, of course at a foot pace. Thus she was enabled to -explore some of the woods and hill-sides around Stocks which she had -never yet visited, a pastime which gave her exquisite delight. But by -the following winter both her persistent plagues had reappeared in -aggravated form. "My hand is extremely troublesome, alas!" she wrote to -her father, "and the internal worry has been worse again lately. It is -so trying week after week never to feel well, or like other people! One -lives one's life, but it makes it all more of a struggle. And as there -is this organic cause for it, one can only look forward to being -sometimes better and less conscious of it than at others, but never to -being quite well. However, one needn't grumble, for I manage to enjoy my -life greatly in spite of it, and to fill the days pretty full." And to -her husband, who was away on a lecturing-tour in America, she wrote in -February, 1895: "Alas! for my hand. It is more seriously disabled than -it has been for months and months, and I really ought to give it a -month's complete rest. If it were not for the _Century_ I would!" - -This unusual disablement was due no doubt to the extraordinary -concentration of effort which she had just put forth in the writing of -her village tale of _Bessie Costrell_--a tale based on an actual -occurrence in the village of Aldbury, the tragic details of which -absorbed her so much as to amount almost to possession. She finished it -in fifteen days, and gave it to George Smith, who always cherished a -special affection for this "grimy little tale," as Mrs. Ward called it. - -When he had brought it out, the world devoured it with enthusiasm--so -much so that her true friend and mentor, Henry James, whose opinion she -valued more highly than any other, thought fit to address a friendly -admonition to her: - - "May 8, 1895. I think the tale very straight-forward and - powerful--very direct and vivid, full of the real and the _juste_. - I like your unalembicated rustics--they are a tremendous rest after - Hardy's--and the infallibility of your feeling for village life. - Likewise I heartily hope you will labour in this field and farm - again. _But_ I won't pretend to agree with one or two declarations - that have been wafted to me to the effect that this little tale is - "the best thing you've done." It has even been murmured to me that - _you_ think so. This I don't believe, and at any rate I find, for - myself, your best in your dealings with _data_ less simple, on a - plan less simple. This means, however, mainly, that I hope you - won't abandon _anything_ that you have shewn you can do, but only - go on with this _and_ that--and the other--especially the other! - -Yours, dear Mrs. Ward, -most truly, -HENRY JAMES." - -Meanwhile, in spite of the drawback of her continued ill-health, she -derived throughout these years an ever-increasing pleasure from the -friendships with which she was surrounded. Both in the London house, -which they had acquired early in 1891 (25 Grosvenor Place), and at -Stocks, she loved to gather many friends about her, though the effort of -entertaining them was often a sore tax upon her slender strength. Her -Sunday parties at Stocks brought together men and women from many -different worlds--political, literary and philanthropic--with whom the -talk ranged over all the questions and persons of the day from breakfast -till lunch, from lunch till tea, and from tea till dinner; but after -dinner, in sheer exhaustion, the party would usually take refuge in what -were known, derisively, as "intellectual games." Mrs. Ward herself was -not particularly good at these diversions, but she loved to watch the -efforts of others, and they did give a rest, after all, from the endless -talk! On one such occasion the game selected was the variety known as -"riddle game," in which a name and a thing are written down at random by -different players, and the next tries to give a reason why the person -should be like the thing. Lord Acton, who had that day devoured ten -books of Biblical criticism that Mrs. Ward had placed in his room, and -would infinitely have preferred to go on talking about them, found -himself confronted by the question: "Why is Lord Rothschild like a -poker?" For a long time he sat contemplating the paper, then scribbled -down in desperation: "Because he is upright," and retired impenetrably -behind an eleventh book. But Mr. Asquith made up for all deficiencies by -his ingenuity in this form of nonsense. "Why is Irving like a -wheelbarrow?" demanded one of the little papers that came round to him, -and while the rest of us floundered in heavy jokes Mr. Asquith found the -exact answer: "Because he serves to fill up the pit and carry away the -boxes." - -Politics were of absorbing interest to Mrs. Ward, and though her own -views remained decidedly Unionist on the Irish question, in home affairs -they were sufficiently mixed to make free discussion not only possible, -but delightful to her. She still retained her old friendship for Mr. -Morley, and probably the majority of her Parliamentary friends at this -time were of the Liberal persuasion. 1895 was the year of the "cordite -division" and the fall of Lord Rosebery's Government, involving many of -these friends in the catastrophe. Mr. Morley was defeated at Newcastle -and went to recover his serenity in the Highlands, whither Mrs. Ward -sent him a copy of _Bessie Costrell_, provoking the following letter -from her old friend and master: - - -_August 6, 1895._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - It was most pleasant to me to receive the little volume, in its - pretty dress, and with the friendly dedication. It will take its - place among my personal treasures, and I am truly grateful to you - for thinking of me. - - The story is full of interest to me, and in the vein of a true - realism, humanising instead of brutalising. The "severity" of the - poor dead woman's look, and the whole of that page, redeems with a - note of just pity all the sordid elements.... We are quartered in - one of the most glorious of highland glens, five and twenty miles - from a railway, and nearly as many hours from London. Now and then - my thoughts wander to Westminster, passing round by way of - Newcastle, but I quickly cast Satan behind me--and try to cultivate - a steady-eyed equanimity, which shall not be a stupid insensibility - to either one's personal catastrophe or to the detriment which the - commonwealth has just suffered. If life were not so short--I - sometimes think it is far too long--I should see some compensations - in the deluge that has come upon the Liberal party. It will do them - good to be sent to adjust their compasses. The steering had been - very blind in these latter days. Perhaps some will tell you that my - own bit of steering was the very blindest of all. I know that you - are disposed to agree with such folk, and I know that Irish - character (for which English government, by the way, is wholly - responsible), is difficult stuff to work with. But the policy was - right, and I beg you not to think--as I once told the H. of - C.--that the Irish sphinx is going to gather up her rags, and - depart from your gates in meekness. - -During these months another Liberal friend, Mr. Sydney Buxton, was -taking infinite pains to pilot Mrs. Ward through the intricacies of the -Parliamentary situation required for the book she was now writing, _Sir -George Tressady_--drawing her a coloured plan of the House and the -division-lobbies for the scene of Tressady's "ratting," and generally -supervising the details of Marcella Maxwell's Factory Bill. "I am sure -it is owing to you," wrote Mrs. Ward to him afterwards, "that the -political framework has not at any rate stood in the way of the book's -success, as I feared at one time it might." She herself had regularly -put herself to school to learn every detail of the system of sweated -homework prevalent in the East End of London at that time; wading -through piles of Blue-books, visiting the actual scenes under the care -of a Factory Inspector, or of Lord Rothschild's Jewish secretary; -learning much from her Fabian friends, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Graham -Wallas. - - "As to Maxwell's Bill itself," she wrote to Mr. Buxton, "after my - talk with you and Mr. Gerald Balfour, I took the final idea of it - from some evidence of Sidney Webb's before the Royal Commission. - There he says that he can perfectly well imagine, and would like to - see tried, a special Factory Act for East London, and I find the - same thing foreshadowed in various other things on Factory Law I - have been reading. And some weeks ago I talked over the idea with - Mr. Haldane, who thought it quite conceivable, and added that - 'London would bear quietly what would make Nottingham or Leeds - revolt.' If such a Bill is possible or plausible, that I think is - all a novelist wants. For of course one cannot describe _the real_, - and yet one wants something which is not merely fanciful, but might - be, under certain circumstances. The whole situation lies as it - were some ten years ahead, and I have made use of a remark of - Gerald Balfour's to me on the Terrace, when we had been talking - over the new Factory Bill. 'There is not much difference between - Parties,' he said, agreeing with you--'but I should not wonder if, - within the next few years, we saw some reaction in these matters,' - by which I suppose he meant if the Home Office power were - over-driven, or the Acts administered too vexatiously. - - "Do you see that they have lately been repealing some Factory - legislation concerning women's labour in France? We are not France, - but we might conceivably, don't you think, have a period of - discontent?" - -When the book at length appeared, in September, 1896, Mrs. Ward was -afraid that it would hardly float under the weight of its politics, but -this was not so, for it sold 15,000 copies within a week, and never, -perhaps, were the reviews more cordial. The relation between the two -women, Letty and Marcella, was universally felt to be one of the best -things she had ever attempted, while the greater compression of the book -was accepted with a sigh of relief. - - * * * * * - -"Mrs. Ward is wisely content," said the _Leeds Mercury_, "to take more -for granted, and with true artistic instinct to leave room for the play -of her readers' imagination; we are saved, consequently, tedious -details, and that over-elaboration of incident, if not of plot, which -was one of the most conspicuous blemishes in her previous works. She is -beginning also to believe that brevity is the soul of art, as well as of -wit, and therefore, without any sacrifice of the essential points in her -narrative, she has found it possible--by discarding padding--to state -all that she has to tell about 'Sir George Tressady' in considerably -less than six hundred pages, instead of making her old, unconscionable -demand for at least a thousand. It would not be true to say that Mrs. -Ward has lost all her literary mannerisms, or even affectations, but -they are falling rapidly into the background--one proof amongst many, -that she is mastering at length the secret of that blended strength and -simplicity of style which all writers envy, but to which few attain." - - * * * * * - -Two opinions, expressed by such opposite critics as Mrs. Sidney Webb and -Mr. Rudyard Kipling, may be of interest to this day: - - "The story is very touching," wrote Mrs. Webb, "and you have an - indescribable power of making your readers sympathize with all your - characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of - course, as a strict utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the - book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this - point of view it is the most useful bit of work that has been done - for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and - against factory legislation and a fixed standard of life with - admirable lucidity and picturesqueness--in a way that will make - them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical - knowledge. I especially admire your real intellectual impartiality - and capacity to give the best arguments on both sides, though - naturally I am glad to see that your sympathy is on the whole with - us on those questions. - - "Pray accept my thanks from a public as well as a personal point of - view for the gift of the book to the world and to myself." - -And Mr. Kipling wrote: - - -"DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - I am delighted to have _Sir George Tressady_ from your hand. I have - followed him from month to month with the liveliest wonder as to - how the inevitable smash in his affairs was to fall, and now that I - have read the tale as a whole I see that of course there was but - one way. Like all human books it has the unpleasant power of making - you think and bother as one only bothers over real folk: but how - splendidly you have done the lighter relief-work! 'Fifteen out of a - possible twelve' has already been adopted as a household word by - us, who have two babies. - - "It will always be one of the darkest mysteries to me that any - human being can make a beginning, end _and_ middle to a really - truly long story. I can think them by scores, but I have not the - hand to work out the full frieze. It is just the difference between - the deep-sea steamer with twelve hundred people aboard, besides the - poor beggars sweating and scorching in the stoke-hold, and the - coastwise boat with a mixed cargo of 'notions.' And so, when the - liner sees fit to salute the coaster in passing, that small boat is - mightily encouraged." - -But the writing of _Sir George Tressady_ had been carried out against -greater handicaps of physical suffering and nervous strain than perhaps -any of Mrs. Ward's previous books. She had agreed to let the _Century -Magazine_ publish it serially from November 1, 1895, and had fully -intended to have it finished, at any rate in provisional form, by that -date. But ill-health and her absorption in the affairs of University -Hall retarded its progress, so that when November came there were still -eight or nine chapters to write, and those the most difficult and -critical of the book. The _Century_ cabled for more copy, but at the -same time Mrs. Ward fell a victim to "a new ailment," as she wrote to -her father, "and what with that and the perpetual struggle with the -hand, which will not let me write lying down, I hardly know how to get -through sometimes." She was advised to have what the surgeons assured -her would be a "slight" operation, but put it off until after a -Christmas month at Stocks, during which she devoted herself, crippled as -she was, to the writing of _Tressady_. Hardly would she have "got -through" these weeks at all--for by now the demands on her time, the -letters and requests to speak were endless--had she not discovered -during this winter a secretary, Miss Bessie Churcher, whose wonderful -qualities made her not only Mrs. Ward's closest helper and friend during -the whole remainder of her life, but have impressed themselves for good, -through many years' devotion, on the public work of London. - -When Mrs. Ward at last found time to put herself in the surgeons' hands, -the operation which ensued was clumsily performed, and left her with yet -another burden to carry through all her later life. After it she lay for -days in such pain as the doctors had neither foreseen nor prophesied, -while the nervous shock of the operation itself was aggravated, one -night, by the antics of a drunken nurse, who came into her room with a -lighted lamp in her hand and deposited it, swaying and lurching, upon -the floor. Fortunately help was at hand and the nurse removed, but the -terror of the moment did not forward Mrs. Ward's recovery. It was many -weeks before sleep came back to her, many weeks before she could sit up -with any comfort or move with ease. But the book must be finished, in -spite of aches and pains, and finished it was within ten weeks of the -operation (March 22, 1896). George Tressady's death in the dark -galleries of the mine "possessed" her as she had only been possessed by -the tale of Bessie Costrell, and helped her no doubt to master the host -of her physical ills. But when the strain was over she was fit for -nothing but to be taken out to Italy, there to recover, if she could, -under the stimulus of that magic light and air which appealed--so at -least we used to imagine--to something in her own far-off southern -blood. At Cadenabbia, on Lake Como, health began to return to her; at -Padua she was "doing more walking than she had dreamed of for four -years," and with the revival of her strength she wrote home in sheer joy -of spirit, "All Italy to me is enchanted ground!" But alas, it was too -early to rejoice. She came again to the Lake of Como to have a -fortnight's complete rest before returning home--staying at the Villa -Serbelloni, above Bellagio--and there unduly overtaxed her new-found -powers. She must make her way to the ruined tower of San Giovanni that -looks at you from its hill-top beyond the little town, and since the -path was _non-carrozzabile_ she would make the ascent on foot. The -adventure was pure joy to her, the views of the lake all the more -intoxicating for having been won by her own strength of limb. But the -next day a violent attack of her old and still unexplained trouble -declared itself. The journey homewards, via Lucerne, was performed under -conditions of crisis which still leave a haunting memory, and though a -clever Swiss doctor at Lucerne appeared to diagnose the disease more -surely than any previous medicine-man, he could suggest no practicable -remedy. Mrs. Ward continued to suffer from her obscure ailment to a -greater or less degree for the rest of her life, as well as from the -results of the operation; but on the whole the attacks became less -frequent, or less severe, as the years went on. She developed an -extraordinary skill in fighting them, by the aid of the thousand and one -little drugs before-mentioned, and often derived a keen pleasure from -the sense of having met and routed an old enemy. But the enemy was -always there, lying in wait for her if she walked more, say, than half a -mile at a time. It is well to remember that her life from 1892 onwards -was conducted under that constant handicap. - - * * * * * - -Yet it was during the years in which her illness was most acute that she -carried to a successful conclusion her labours for the foundation of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. - -When Mr. Edwards, in May, 1894, offered to provide £4,000 towards the -Building Fund of University Hall,[18] it was only the beginning of a -long struggle towards the accomplishment of this design. The next step -was to interest the Duke of Bedford--as the ground-landlord of that part -of London--in the scheme. This Mrs. Ward succeeded in doing during the -summer of 1894, thus laying the foundation of a co-operation that was to -ripen into a strong mutual regard. The Duke took a keen personal -interest in the finding of a suitable site for the new building, and -when such a site became available in Tavistock Place, offered it to the -Committee at less than its market value, and contributed £800 towards -the building fund. Oddly enough, however, this site--for which the -contract was actually signed in February, 1895--was not that on which -the Settlement stands to-day, but lay on the opposite side of the -street; the disadvantage to it being that there would have been a delay -of two years in obtaining possession, owing to existing tenants' rights. -When, therefore, an equally good site actually fell vacant in the same -street a few months later, the Duke willingly released the Committee -from their contract and made over to them the ground on which the -Settlement now stands on a 999 years' lease. In the meantime Mr. -Passmore Edwards had raised his original offer from £4,000 to £7,000, -and then to £10,000; the total fund stood at over £12,000, and Mr. -Norman Shaw agreed to preside over an architects' competition and to -judge between the various designs submitted. All connected with -University Hall rejoiced greatly when the award fell to two young -residents of the Hall, Messrs. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, whose -simple yet beautiful design far surpassed those of the other -competitors. But according to the instructions of the Committee itself -the building was to cost up to £12,000, while the price of the site was -£5,000, and a further sum would be required for furnishing. Mrs. Ward -set herself to the task of raising further funds with her accustomed -energy, but her illness during the winter of 1895-6 greatly hampered -her, and the fund rose all too slowly for her eager spirit. Meanwhile -the builders' tenders soared in the opposite direction. When she -returned from Italy and Lucerne in May, 1896, she found the situation -critical; either fresh plans of a far less ambitious nature must be -asked for, or a further sum of £3,500 must be raised at once. Mr. R. G. -Tatton, already one of the most active members of the Council, and soon -to be appointed Warden, believed that the only hope lay in Mr. Passmore -Edwards, but told Mrs. Ward plainly that the benefactor had said he -could do no more unless others showed a corresponding interest. Mr. -Tatton boldly asked Mrs. Ward herself to lay down £1,000. This she did; -a fortunate legacy of £500 came in at the same moment, and Mr. Edwards -gave an additional £2,000 with the best grace in the world. Yet once -more, on the night of the formal opening, nearly two years later, did he -come forward with a similar donation, making £14,000 in all. He showed -throughout a steadfast faith in the working ideals of the Settlement -that triumphed over all minor difficulties; Mrs. Ward described him once -as possessed by "the very passion of giving." No wonder that the -Committee decided, long before the new building was completed, to call -it by his name. - -Thus Mrs. Ward could have the happiness, during the years 1896 and 1897, -of seeing the beautiful building for which she had toiled so hard rise -and take bodily shape before her eyes. She became fast friends with the -two young architects, who had so decisively won the competition, and who -now devoted themselves indefatigably to the supervision of the work. She -formed, early in 1897, a General Committee for the new Settlement, the -wide and representative character of which showed how warm was the -sympathy entertained for the new venture not only in London, but also in -Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. And she devoted herself to the -formation of a Lectureship Committee, named after Benjamin Jowett, which -was to carry on, within the new organization, the religious ideals of -University Hall. The Settlement itself rested on a purely secular basis, -but the Council fully agreed to the inclusion of the following clause as -one of the "Objects" in the Memorandum of Association: "To promote the -study of the Bible and of the history of religion in the light of the -best available results of criticism and research." The Jowett -Lectureship Committee was established in order to carry out this clause, -and a sum of £100 per annum was placed at its disposal from the general -revenue of the Settlement--a small result, it may be argued, of all the -missionary effort put forth in the founding of University Hall seven -years before. But the Settlement itself stood there as the result of -that effort, and as Mrs. Ward looked down, on October 10, 1897, on the -packed audience that assembled in the new hall to hear her opening -address, she might well feel that her dreams had come to a more solid -fruition than she could ever have dared to hope. But even then she did -not know the whole. There sat the mothers and the fathers, with faces -eager and expectant, ready to throw themselves into this big experiment -that was opening out before them. Mrs. Ward welcomed them with her whole -heart; yet this was not all: the children were at the gates. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT--THE FOUNDATION -OF THE INVALID CHILDREN'S SCHOOL - -1897-1899 - - -For some two or three years before the opening of the new Settlement, a -Saturday morning "playroom" for children had been held at Marchmont -Hall, mainly under the direction of Miss Mary Neal, who, as the founder -of the Esperance Club for factory girls, and one of the "Sisters" -working under Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, had already made her name beloved -in the slums of St. Pancras. In that shabby little room she had taught -them Old English games and dances, till even the street outside grew -merry with the sound of their music, and many were the groups of -children seen playing "Old Roger is dead" or "Looby Loo" at street -corners during the other days of the week. Mrs. Ward had been much -attracted by the experiment, which was hampered, like everything else at -Marchmont Hall, by lack of space; and now that the fine new buildings -were available she was eager to transplant it and to carry it further. -My diary for Saturday, October 16, 1897, duly records that "D. and Miss -Churcher and I went to the Settlement at ten to superintend the -children's play-hour, which we are now going to have every Saturday in -the big hall. It was a perfect pandemonium this time, as we hadn't -prepared any sort of organization, and there were at least 120 children -to deal with. We also had to give each child a pair of list slippers to -put on over its own boots, and this was a tremendous business and took -over half an hour. Miss Neal made them a little speech before we began -the games, and then we all formed rings and played Looby Loo and others -of that stamp for nearly an hour more." - -From these unpromising beginnings sprang the whole of the "organized -recreation" for children which gradually arose at the new Settlement, -with the object of attracting the child population of the district away -from the streets after school hours. Mrs. Ward guided and inspired the -movement, though she left the actual carrying on of the classes to -younger and more robust members of her group; but she formed a special -committee (the Women's Work Committee), of which she was chairman, to -watch over it all, and generally supplied the motive force, the sense of -its being worth while, which inspired the ever-growing band of our -helpers. One class, too, she kept as her very own--a weekly reading -aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she -read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling, or brought them -photographs of her travels in Italy, or talked to them sometimes of the -events of the day. About thirty boys came regularly to these readings, -and always behaved well with her, while she on her side came to know -them individually and felt a strong affection for many of them. Where -are they now, those thirty boys? How many have left their bones in the -mud of Flanders, or on the heights that look towards Troas, across the -narrow sea? Mrs. Ward herself was often possessed with that thought -through the years of the Great War, but never, so far as I know, heard -any direct news of them. All were of that fatal age that Death reaped -with the least pity. - -After the Saturday morning play-rooms--which fortunately improved in -discipline after that first "pandemonium," and increased so much in -popularity that we had to divide them into two, taking in close upon 400 -children in a morning--we launched out into musical drill-classes for -bigger and smaller children, story-telling for the little ones, -gymnastic classes for girls and boys, a children's hour in the library, -dancing and acting classes, and finally history lectures with lantern -slides, designed to supplement the very meagre teaching of history that -the children received in the elementary schools around. How much one -learnt by hard experience, in the course of it all, of the art of -keeping the children's attention--whether in teaching them a new -singing-game on Saturdays, or in the story-telling to the "under -elevens," or in the exciting task of going over Oliver's battles with -the young ladies and gentlemen of the fifth to seventh standards! For -even these, if one lost their attention for a moment, were not above -calling out "Ole Krujer!" at a somewhat forbidding slide of Sir Thomas -Fairfax, while the "under elevens" would often be swept by gusts of -coughing and talk that fairly drowned the voice of the story-teller, if -she suffered them to lose the thread of the Princess's adventures by too -gorgeous a description of the dragon. But usually they were as good as -gold, sitting there packed tight on the rows of chairs (136 children on -seventy-six chairs was one of our records), while the "little mothers" -hugged their babies and no sound was to be heard save the sucking of -toffee or liquorice-sticks. - -All these occupations took place in the late afternoon, from 5.30 to 7, -during the hours when the children of London, discharged from school and -tea, drift aimlessly about the streets, often actually locked out from -home (in those days at least) owing to the long hours worked by mother -as well as father at "charing" or at the local factory. The instant -response made by the child-population of St. Pancras to Mrs. Ward's -piping showed that she had, as it were, stumbled upon a real and vital -need of our great cities, and as a larger and larger band of helpers was -drawn into our circle and more and more of the cheerful Settlement rooms -came into use, the attendances of the children went up by leaps and -bounds. One year after the opening they had grown to some 650 per week; -by October, 1899, to 900, and in the next three or four years they -touched the utmost capacity of the building by reaching 1,200. The -schools in the immediate neighbourhood co-operated eagerly in the new -effort, though the selection of children for our special classes often -involved extra labour for the teachers; but they rose to it with -enthusiasm, and would sometimes steal in to watch their children -enjoying the story-telling or the library, removed from the restraint of -day-school discipline, and yet "giving no trouble," as they wonderingly -recognized. Mrs. Ward made friends with many of these teachers, -especially with those from Manchester Street and Prospect Terrace -Schools, for it was her way to establish natural human relations with -every one with whom she came in contact, and the hard-working London -teacher always appealed to her in a peculiar way. An incident that gave -her special pleasure was the passing of a vote of thanks to the -Settlement by a neighbouring Board of Managers, "for the work done among -the children of this school." How she was loved and looked up to by -every one concerned--by helpers, teachers and, more dimly, by the -children themselves--is not, perhaps, for me to say; but this was the -note that underlay all the busy hum of the Settlement building in the -children's hour, as indeed in all the other hours of its day. - -Occasionally, however, some critic would observe, "Well, this is all -very fine for the children, but what do the parents say about it? What -becomes of _home influence_ when you encourage the children to come out -in this way at an hour when they ought to be at home?" The answer, of -course, was that the parents themselves, and especially the more anxious -and hard-working among them, were the foremost in blessing the -Settlement (or the "Passmore," as it was affectionately dubbed in the -neighbourhood) for the good care that it took of Sidney or Alf or Elsie; -that they knew, better than anyone else, how little they could do in the -miserable rooms that served them for a home for the growing boys and -girls, and yet that "the streets" were full of dangers from which they -longed to preserve their little ones. One or two of them became -voluntary helpers at the "Recreation School," as it came to be called; -many joined the "Parents' Guild" that Mrs. Ward formed from among them, -and that met periodically at the Settlement for music and rest, or for a -quiet talk with her about the children's doings; while all were to be -seen at the summer and winter "Displays" in the big hall or in the -garden, their tired faces beaming with pride at the performance of their -offspring. Perhaps indeed it is the bitterest reproach of all against -our civilization that in the homes of the poor, "where every process of -life and death," as Mrs. Ward once put it, "has to be carried on within -the same few cubic feet of space," there is no room for the growing -children, who, as baby follows baby in the crowded tenement, get pushed -out into the world almost before they can stand upon their feet. Mrs. -Ward knew only too well the conditions of life in the mean streets of -St. Pancras or the East End; her sister-in-law, Miss Gertrude Ward, who -had become a District Nurse after the eight years of her life with us, -had frequently taken her to certain typical dens where such "processes -of life and death" were going on, and her own researches for _Sir George -Tressady_ had done the rest. Add to this her intense power of -imagination and of realization acting like a fire within her, and the -children's work at the Passmore Edwards Settlement is all explained. She -yearned to them and longed to make them happy: that was all. - -Mr. Tatton, the Warden, would often say that the Recreation School was -growing to be the most important side of the Settlement work, and -himself, bachelor as he was, delighted to watch it; but Mrs. Ward would -not willingly have admitted this, even if it were true, for the many -developments of the normal work for adults were always immensely -interesting to her. Whenever she was in London (and often from Stocks -too!) she contrived, in spite of ill-health and the many claims upon her -time, to be at the Settlement three or four times a week, attending -Council meetings and committees, showing the building to friends, -talking to "Associates," old and new, or listening with delight to the -wonderful concerts that took place in the big hall on Saturday evenings. -For it had always been intended that music should play a very special -part in the life of the Settlement, and the Council had been fortunate -in securing as Musical Director Mr. Charles Williams, who, in -partnership with Miss Audrey Chapman's Ladies' Orchestra, gave concerts -of quite extraordinary merit there during the first year or two of the -Settlement's existence. He would take his audience into his confidence, -explaining, before the music began, the part of each instrument in the -whole symphony, and all with so happy a touch that even untrained -listeners felt transported into a world where they understood--for the -moment--what Beethoven or Mozart would be at. Those evenings remain in -memory as occasions of pure joy, and did much to reconcile the older -Associates of Marchmont Hall to the magnificence of the new building--a -magnificence which otherwise weighed rather sadly upon their spirits! -Some of them, amid the growing activity of the new life around them, -confessed that they could not help regretting the old shabby days of -pipe-sucking at Marchmont Hall, where the dingy premises were "a poor -thing, but mine own." Mrs. Ward was distressed by this feeling, and -sought to draw them in in every way to the life and government of the -place; but one of the unforeseen features of the work was that the new -Associates who joined the Settlement in considerable numbers were for -the most part young people, rather than the contemporaries and friends -of the Marchmont Hall Associates. Shop assistants and clerks were also -on the increase, desiring to take advantage of the many facilities, -social and educational, offered by the new building; and though the -new-comers were looked on with distrust by the older members, no -definite rule could be laid down excluding them. Admission to the -Associate body might be strictly reserved to "workmen and working women" -from a definite area, but it was difficult to prove that a shopman or a -clerk did not work. One thing, however, was insisted upon--that the new -candidates should read over and digest the confession of faith which -Mrs. Ward had drawn up in the early days of Marchmont Hall, a creed -which put in simple form the aspirations of the Settlement: - - "We believe that many changes in the conditions of life and labour - are needed, and are coming to pass; but we believe also that men, - without any change except in themselves and in their feelings - towards one another, might make this world a better and happier - place. - - "Therefore, with the same sympathies but different experiences of - life, we meet to exchange ideas and to discuss social questions, in - the hope that as we learn to know one another better, a feeling of - fellowship may arise among us." - -And though some of the younger candidates seemed to have joined the -Settlement rather to dance at the Social Evenings than to "exchange -ideas and to discuss social questions," let alone to attend the lectures -and classes, still the leaven worked, so that at the end of three years -the Warden could report that "an increasing number of Associates use the -opportunities of the Settlement to the utmost, and are always to the -front when service and help are needed. Such Associates, both men and -women, are a chief source of whatever power for good the Settlement may -exert." - -And indeed, with what life and movement the whole building hummed on any -evening of the week, in those first exciting years! Apart altogether -from the children's work, the attendances of adults during the busy -winter terms reached some 1,400 a week, and must surely have -represented, when translated into terms of human aspiration or -enjoyment, much lightening of the burdens and monotonies of life in the -dull streets that surrounded the Settlement. Mrs. Ward herself, in an -appeal in favour of the work issued in 1901, summed up in these words -her feeling on the place that Settlements might fill in the life of -London's workers: - - "Stand in the street now and look back at the 'Community - House'--the Settlement building and its surroundings. The high - windows shine; in and out pass men and women, boys and girls, going - to class, or concert, or drill, to play a game of chess or - billiards, or merely to sit in a pleasant and quiet room, well lit - and warmed, to read a book or listen to music. To your right - stretches the densely peopled district of King's Cross and Gray's - Inn Road, Clerkenwell. Behind the Settlement runs the busy Euston - Road, and the wilderness of Somers Town. Immediately beside you, if - you turn your head, you may see the opening of a narrow street and - the outline of a large block of model dwellings, whence many - frequenters of the Settlement have been drawn. Carry your minds - into the rooms of these old tenement houses which fill the streets - east of Marchmont Street, the streets, say, lying between you and - Prospect Terrace Board School. No doubt the aspect of these rooms - varies with the character of the occupants. But even at their best, - how cramped they are, how lacking in space, air, beauty, judged by - those standards which a richer class applies to its own dwellings - as a matter of course! and though we may hope that a reforming - legislation may yet do something for the dwellings of the London - working-class in the essential matters of air and sanitation, it is - not easy to foresee a time when the workman's house shall do more - than supply him with the simplest necessaries--with shelter, with - breathing-room, sleeping-room, food-room. Yet, as we fully realize, - the self-respecting and industrious artisan has instincts towards - the beauties and dignities of life. He likes spacious rooms, and - soft colour, and pictures to look at, as much as anyone else; he - wants society, art, music, a quiet chair after hard work, stimulus - for the brain after manual labour, amusement after effort, just - like his neighbour in Mayfair or Kensington. The young men and - maidens want decent places other than the streets and the - public-house in which to meet and dance and amuse each other. They - need--as we all need--contact with higher education and gentler - manners. They want--as we all ought to want--to set up a social - standard independent of money or occupation, determined by manners - in the best sense, by kindness, intelligence, mutual sympathy, work - for the commonweal. They want surroundings for their children after - school hours which, without loosening the home-tie, shall yet - supplement their own narrow and much-taxed accommodation; which - shall humanize, and soften, and discipline. They want more physical - exercise, more access to the country, more organization of - holidays. All these things are to be had in or through the House - Beautiful--through the Settlement, the 'Community' or 'Combination' - house of the future. The Socialist dreams of attaining them through - the Collectivist organization of the State. But at any rate he will - admit that his goal is far, far distant; probably he feels it more - distant now than he and his fellows thought it thirty years ago. - Let him, let all of us work meanwhile for something near our hands, - for the deepening and extension of the Settlement movement, for the - spread, that is, of knowledge of the higher pleasures, and of a - true social power among the English working-class." - -How instinct are these words with the idealisms of a bygone generation, -a generation that knew not Communism or Proletarian Schools! No doubt, -nowadays, we have gone beyond all that; we may not speak of the -"self-respecting and industrious artisan"; class-war is the word of -power instead of class-appeasement. So far on the onward road have we -travelled since 1901! - -For the rest, Mrs. Ward's main task during these early years was to use -her gifts of understanding, of patience and of human sympathy in keeping -all the workers at the Settlement together, in straightening out the -differences that would arise among so varied a crew of energetic people, -and in pushing forward the work in ever new directions. All difficulties -were referred to her by Residents, by Associates, by Warden and -Treasurer. On her also rested the responsibility for raising the -necessary money. Much helped by the Duke of Bedford, who remitted the -ground-rent, and also gave a considerable subscription, she prospered -beyond all rational probability in the latter task. Her many friends -were touched by her infectious enthusiasm, and gladly helped her to the -best of their ability, so that the deficits on each year's working -turned out to be far less than the prudent had expected. Such a letter -as the following was not uncommon--though the amount enclosed did not -always reach so round a figure:-- - - -_May 25, 1898._ - -DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - - I shall be very happy to dine with you on the 14th of June. - - You once said that the P. Edwards Settlement would not be - disdainful of subscriptions, and I had not anything to give at the - time. I can now send you with pleasure a cheque for £100. I am sure - you will find some good use for it. - -Yours very truly, -NORTHBROOK. - -The use found for Lord Northbrook's gift was in tidying and beautifying -the garden at the back of the Settlement--a piece of land, shaded by -fine old plane trees, which the Duke kept in his own hands, but allowed -the Settlement to use for a nominal fee. It was now laid down in grass, -and became a vital element in the carrying out of Mrs. Ward's further -schemes for the welfare of her London children. It was there that she -opened her first "Vacation School" in 1902 for children left to play and -quarrel in the streets during the August holiday, and there too that she -could see health returning to the faces of her cripples, after the -opening of the "Invalid Children's School" in February, 1899. - - * * * * * - -In looking back over the origin of Mrs. Ward's interest in crippled and -invalid children, the vision of our old house in Russell Square rises -once more before me, with its gravelled garden at the rear running back -to meet the Queen Square gardens to the east of us, for there, across -those old plane-shaded spaces, rose the modest buildings of the -"Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip"--or, as we used to call it -for short, the "Hip Hospital." What "Diseases of the Hip" exactly were -was an obscure point to our childish minds, but we knew that our mother -cared very much for the children lying there, that all our old toys went -to amuse them, and that sometimes a lame boy or girl would appear at the -cottage down the lane past Borough Farm, which was Mrs. Ward's earliest -attempt at a convalescent home for ailing Londoners. No doubt many -another Bloomsbury family did just as much as we for these helpless -little ones, but the sight of them kindled in her the spark of -imagination, of creative force or what you will, that would not accept -their condition passively, but after many years forged from time and -circumstance the opportunity for a fundamental improvement of their -lives. - -The opportunity presented itself in the tempting emptiness of the -Settlement rooms during the day-time. From five o'clock onwards they -were used to the uttermost, but all the morning and early afternoon they -stood tenantless, asking for occupation. Mrs. Ward had heard of a little -class for crippled children carried on at the Women's University -Settlement, Southwark, by Miss Sparkes, and of another in Stepney -organized by Mr. and Mrs. G. T. Pilcher, and before the new Settlement -was a year old she was already making inquiries from her friends on the -London School Board as to whether it might be possible to obtain the -Board's assistance in opening a small school for Crippled Children at -the Passmore Edwards Settlement. Already London possessed a few Special -Schools for the "mentally defective"; the Progressive party was in the -ascendant on the School Board, and among its chiefs were certain old -friends of Mrs. Ward's--Mr. Lyulph Stanley (now Lord Sheffield) and Mr. -Graham Wallas, who knew something of her powers and of the probability -that anything to which she set her hand in earnest would be carried -through. Mrs. Ward on her side believed that the number of crippled but -educable children scattered through London was far greater than anyone -supposed, and moreover that the policy of drafting them into the new -schools for the mentally defective (as was being done in some cases) was -fundamentally unsound. In the summer of 1898, therefore, she formed a -sub-committee of the Settlement Council, which undertook to carry out a -thorough inquiry in the neighbourhood of Tavistock Place into the -numbers of invalid children living at home and not attending ordinary -school, whose infirmities would yet permit them to attend a special -centre of the type that she had in mind. The help of all the -neighbouring hospitals was asked for and most ungrudgingly given, in the -supplying of lists of suitable children, while the Invalid Children's -Aid Association actively helped in the work of visiting, and the School -Board directed their Attendance Officers to assist Mrs. Ward by -providing the names of children exempted on the ground of ill-health -from attending school. Sad indeed were the secrets revealed by this -inquiry--of helpless children left at home all day, perhaps with a -little food within reach, while mother and father were out at work, with -_nothing on earth to do_, and only the irregular and occasional visits -of some kind-hearted neighbour to look forward to. - - "I have a vivid recollection," writes one of the most devoted - workers of the I.C.A.A., Mrs. Townsend, "of being asked by a - neighbour to visit two small boys in a particularly dirty and - unsavoury street. I found the door open, felt my way along a - pitch-dark passage, and found at the end of it a small dark room, - very barely furnished: in one corner was a bed, on which lay a boy - of ten with spinal trouble; in the other corner were two kitchen - chairs, on one of which sat a boy of seven, with hip disease, his - leg propped on the other. Between them stood a small table, and on - it a tumbler of water and a plate with slices of bread and jam. The - mother of these two was at work all day: at 6 a.m. she put their - food for the day on the table and went off, leaving them all alone - until she got home from work dead tired at 8 p.m. At least there - were two of them, which made it a little less dreary for them than - for another spinal case in the next street, who was left in the - same way and was dependent on a kindly but very busy neighbour for - any sight of human beings for fourteen hours of each day. I could - quote case after case of these types--the children untaught and - undisciplined, without hope or prospect in life, sometimes - neglected because mother's whole time was spent in trying to earn - enough to support them, more often spoilt and petted just because - they were cripples, with their disability continually before them, - and made the excuse for averting all the ordinary troubles of - life. The attempts to place such children when they grew up were - despairing--they were unused to using their hands and brains, - unused to looking after themselves, supremely conscious that they - were different from other people. The days before Special Schools - seem almost too bad to look back upon even!" - -From the reports on such cases which Mrs. Ward received from her helpers -throughout the summer of 1898 she formed the opinion that no school -could be successful unless it maintained a nurse to look after the -children's ailments, and an ambulance to convey them to and from their -homes. But she felt confident of being able to raise the money -(£200-£220 a year) for these purposes, if the School Board would provide -furniture and pay a teacher. Accordingly, by October, 1898, her -committee forwarded to the School Board a carefully-sifted schedule of -twenty-five names, together with a formal application that the Board -should take up the proposed class, provide it with a teacher, and supply -suitable furniture for the class-rooms, while the Settlement undertook -to provide rooms free of charge, to pay a nurse-superintendent, and to -maintain a special ambulance for the use of the school. Some -correspondence followed with the School Management Committee, of which -Mr. Graham Wallas was Chairman, and which was besieged at the same time -by those who thought such schools totally unnecessary, since all invalid -children whom it was possible to educate at all could attend the -Infants' (i.e. ground floor) departments of ordinary schools, where the -teachers would look after them. But Mrs. Ward collected much evidence to -show that this course could not possibly be pursued with any but the -slighter cases. "We have heard very pitiful things of the risks run by -these spinal and hip-disease cases in the ordinary schools," she wrote -to Mr. Stanley, "and of such children's terror of the hustling and -bustling of the playgrounds," and early in December she summed up the -arguments on this head in another memorandum to the Board. The -atmosphere was favourable, and indeed Mrs. Ward had marshalled her -evidence and put the case for the school so convincingly that no serious -opposition was possible. The School Board gave its consent early in -January, 1899; the approval of the Board of Education followed promptly, -and nothing remained but to provide the ambulance, and the set of -special furniture which was to fill the two rooms set aside for the -children at the Settlement. - -The ambulance was presented by no less a well-wisher than Sir Thomas -Barlow, the great physician, while Mrs. Burgwin, the Board's -Superintendent of Special Schools, and Miss McKee, a member of the -Board, busied themselves in procuring and ordering a set of ingenious -invalid furniture--little cane arm-chairs with sliding foot-rests, -couches for the spinal cases, a go-cart for the play-ground, and so -forth--such as no Public Education Authority had ever occupied itself -with before. Preparations were made at the Settlement for serving the -daily dinner, which was to be an integral part of the arrangements, and -which, in those happy days, was to cost the children no more than -three-halfpence a head. At last, on February 28, 1899, all was -ready--save indeed the ambulance, for which an omnibus with an -improvised couch had to be substituted during the first few weeks. The -nurse, too, had been taken ill, so that on this first day the children -were fetched and safely delivered at the Settlement by Mrs. Ward's -secretary, Miss Churcher. It was pitiful to see their excitement and -delight at the new adventure, their joy in the "ride" and their wonder -at the pretty, unfamiliar rooms, each with its open fire, its flowers -from Stocks, and its set of Caldecott pictures on the walls, which -greeted them at the end of their journey. Mrs. Ward was, of course, -among the small group of those who welcomed them. Two medical officers -from the Board were there to admit them officially, and after this -ceremony they were handed over to the care of Miss Milligan, their -teacher--a woman whose special gifts in the handling of these delicate -children were to be devoted to the service of this school for nearly -twenty years. It is to be feared that little in the way of direct -instruction was imparted to them on that first day. But there they now -were, safe within the benevolent shelter of that most human of -institutions, the London School Board, and in a fair way to -become--though few of us realized it fully then--useful members of a -community from which they had received little till then but capricious -petting or heart-rending neglect. - -The arrangements for the children's dinners and for the hour of -play-time afterwards were a subject of constant interest and delight to -Mrs. Ward. The housekeeper at the Settlement put all her ingenuity into -making the children's pence go as far as they could possibly be -stretched in covering the cost of a wholesome meal, and for a long time -the sum of 3_s._ 6_d._ a day was sufficient to pay for dinners of meat, -potatoes and pudding for twenty-five to thirty children. Their health -visibly improved, and the gratitude of their parents was touching to see -and hear. Nevertheless, Mrs. Ward was not satisfied. Some of the -children were very capricious in their appetites, and although most of -them did learn to eat milk puddings (at least when washed down with -treacle!), there were some who could hardly manage the plain wholesome -food, and others who could have eaten more than we had to give. It was -tempting to try the experiment of a larger and more varied dietary upon -them, and in days when the C.O.S. still reigned supreme, and the policy -of "free meals for necessitous children" was hardly breathed by the most -advanced, Mrs. Ward had the courage to carry it out. She described the -results in a letter to _The Times_, in September, 1901: - - "It was pointed out to the managers that a more liberal and varied - dietary might have marked effects upon the children's health. The - experiment was tried. More hot meat, more eggs, milk, cream, - vegetables and fruit were given. In consequence the children's - appetites largely increased, and the expenses naturally increased - with them. The children's pence in May amounted to £3 13_s._ 6_d._, - and the cost of food was £4 7_s._ 2_d._; in June, after the more - liberal scale had been adopted, the children's payments were still - £3 13_s._ 10_d._, but the expenses had risen to £5 7_s._ 8_d._ - Meanwhile, the physical and mental results of the increased - expenditure are already unmistakable. Partially paralysed children - have been recovering strength in hands and limbs with greater - rapidity than before. A child who last year often could not walk at - all, from rickets and extreme delicacy, and seemed to be fading - away--who in May was still languid and feeble--is now racing about - in the garden on his crutches; a boy who last year could only crawl - on hands and feet is now steadily and rapidly learning to walk, and - so on. The effect, indeed, is startling to those who have watched - the experiment. Meanwhile the teachers have entered in the - log-book of the school their testimony to the increased power of - work that the children have been showing since the new feeding has - been adopted. Hardly any child now wants to lie down during school - time, whereas applications to lie down used to be common; and the - children both learn and remember better." - -It may be added that while the minimum payment of 1-1/2_d._ for these -dinners was still maintained at the Settlement School, payments of 2_d._ -and even 3_d._ were asked from those who could afford it, and were in -many cases willingly given, while there were always a few children who -were excused all payment on the ground of poverty at home. - -Another element that contributed largely to the success of the school -from the very beginning was that of the "dinner-hour helpers"--a panel -of ladies who took it in turns to wait on the children at dinner and to -superintend their play-time afterwards. They came with remarkable -regularity, and became deeply attached, many of them, to their frail -little charges. When the School Board extended the Cripples' Schools to -other parts of London they were careful to copy this development of -ours, by insisting that local committees of managers, half of whom -should be women, must be attached to each school. Here, surely, in this -simple but effective institution, may be seen the germ of the Care -Committee of future days! - -The success of the school in Tavistock Place--the roll of which soon -increased to some forty children--naturally attracted a good deal of -attention, and it had hardly been running a year before the pros and -cons of setting up similar schools in other districts began to be -debated within the London School Board. Some members inevitably shied at -the prospect of the increasing expense to the rates, especially if the -whole cost of premises, ambulance and nurse were to be borne by the -public authority, and a definite movement arose, either for bringing the -crippled children into the ordinary schools, with some provision in the -way of special couches, etc., or for brigading the crippled and invalid -children with the "Mentally Defectives" in the special centres which had -already been opened for the latter. Much encouragement was given to this -latter view by the official report of one of the Medical Officers of the -School Board, who was instructed, in the spring of 1900, to examine and -report upon all cases of crippled children not attending school, and -submitted a report recommending that "those cases whom it is advisable -to permit to attend school at all" should be sent to the Mentally -Defective Centres, while neither nurse nor ambulance were, in the -opinion of the writer, required. - -Mrs. Ward and her friends on the School Board were obliged to fight very -strenuously against these views, which, if they had prevailed, would -have prevented the establishment of "Physically Defective Centres" as we -know them to-day. It is perhaps unprofitable to go into the details of -that long-past controversy, the echoes of which have so completely died -away; suffice it to say that a Special Conference appointed by the Board -to consider the Medical Officer's Report recommended, in October, 1900, -that "The Board do make provision for children who, by reason of -physical defect, are incapable of receiving proper benefit from the -instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools, but are not -incapable by reason of such defect of receiving benefit from instruction -in special classes or schools"; and "that children of normal -intelligence be not taught with mentally defective children." A little -later it recommended the provision of both ambulance and nurse. These -resolutions--which were accepted by the Board--cleared the way for the -establishment of new centres for "Physically Defective" children, as -they now began to be called; but in order to make her case invincible, -and to accelerate the work of the School Board, Mrs. Ward undertook, all -through the autumn and winter of 1900-1901, a complete investigation -into the numbers and condition of the invalid children not attending -school in some of the largest and poorest London boroughs. In -consultation with the trained workers whom she employed for the purpose, -she had special forms printed for use in the inquiry, and I remember -well her eager comments as the statistics came in, and her consternation -at the ever-increasing numbers of crippled children which the inquiry -revealed. Finally this investigation extended to nine out of the ten -School Board divisions of London, and embraced a total of some 1,800 -children, of whom 1,000, in round numbers, were recommended by her as -suitable for invalid schools. Of the rest, a substantial proportion were -reported as fit for ordinary school with a little additional care on -the part of teachers and managers; some were too ill for any school, and -some were both mentally and physically defective, and therefore -recommended for the "M.D." Centres. Meanwhile, the Special Schools -Sub-Committee of the School Board, under their Chairman, the Hon. Maude -Lawrence, had been at work since February, 1901, in making inquiries -into possible sites and buildings for the new schools, and by the middle -of March the Board were able to inform Mrs. Ward that sites for four -Centres had been agreed upon, while two more were to be located in -Kennington and Battersea "on the constitution of your returns, which -have now been marked on the map by the Divisional Superintendents." - -Four ambulances had also been ordered, and it was decided to appoint -nurses at each of the Centres at a salary of £75 a year. Kitchens were, -of course, to be provided at all the Centres, so that the hot midday -meal which had proved so successful at the Settlement might be supplied. - -The first two Centres to be opened by the School Board--in Paddington -and Bethnal Green--were ready by September, 1901, and both drew their -children entirely from those on Mrs. Ward's lists. It may be imagined -with what intense satisfaction she had followed every step taken by the -School Board towards this consummation. Finally she gathered up the -whole story of the Settlement School and of the School Board's adoption -of responsibility for London's crippled children in the letter to _The -Times_ mentioned above, pleading for the extension of the movement to -other large towns, and describing certain efforts made at the Settlement -School for the industrial and artistic training of the older children. -Her final paragraph ran as follows: - - "The happiness of the new schools is one of their most delightful - characteristics. Freed from the dread of being jostled on stairs or - knocked down in the crowd of the playground, with hours, food and - rest proportioned to their need, these maimed and fragile creatures - begin to expand and unfold like leaves in the sun. And small - wonder! They have either been battling with ordinary school on - terribly unequal terms, or else, in the intervals of hospital and - convalescent treatment, their not uncommon lot has been to be - locked up at home alone, while the normal members of the family - were at work. I can recall one case of a child, lame and - constantly falling, with brain irritation to boot--the result of - infant convulsions--locked up for hours alone while its mother was - at work; and another, of a poor little lad, whose back had been - injured by an accident, alone all day after his discharge from - hospital, feebly dragging himself about his room, in cold weather, - to find a few sticks for fire, with the tears running down his - cheeks from pain. His father and sister were at work, and he had no - mother. It could not be helped. But he has been gathered into one - of the new schools, where he has become another being. Scores of - children in as sore need as his will, I hope, be reached and - comforted by this latest undertaking of the Board. - - "And for some, all we shall be able to do, perhaps, will be to - gladden a few months or years before the little life goes out. From - them there will be no economic return, such as we may hope for in - the great majority of cases. But even so, will it not be worth - while?" - -As the efforts of the School Board and--after 1903--of the Education -Committee of the London County Council to spread the "Special Schools -for Physically Defective Children" over London grew more and more -effective, and the number of the new schools rose steadily, Mrs. Ward -and her principal helpers concentrated their attention mainly upon the -training of the children for suitable employment on their leaving -school. As early as 1900 a little committee was formed for this purpose -at the Settlement, which engaged special teachers of drawing and design -for the boys and of art needlework for the girls--for these delicate -children were often found to possess artistic aptitudes which made up to -them in a certain degree for their other disabilities. Presently this -committee developed into the "Crippled Children's Training and Dinner -Society," presided over by Miss Maude Lawrence, of the London School -Board, a Committee which did hard pioneer work in the organizing of -careers for these crippled children, whose numbers stood revealed beyond -all expectation as the Special Schools spread to every quarter of -London. By the year 1906 the numbers of schools had risen to -twenty-three, and of children on the rolls to 1,767; by 1909 the figures -were thirty and 2,452 respectively. The dark-brown ambulances conveying -their happy load of children to and from the schools became a familiar -sight of the London streets. But, though Mrs. Ward's experiment had -grown in these ten years with such astonishing rapidity, it had not lost -its original character. She had impressed it too deeply with her own -broad and sane humanity for the Special Schools Department of the L.C.C. -to become lost in red tape or officialdom, and under the wise reign of -Mrs. Burgwin and Miss Collard (Superintendents of Special Schools under -the Council) the traditions that had gathered round the first Invalid -Children's School were carried on and perpetuated. And to this day the -Boards of Managers that watch over the "P.D." Schools seem to be -inspired by a tenderer and more personal feeling than any other of the -multifarious committees that take thought for the children of the State. -The secret, in fact, of Mrs. Ward's success in this as in her other -public undertakings lay in the fact that her action was founded on a -real and urgent human need, and that she combined a power of presenting -and urging that need in forcible manner with an unfailing tenderness for -the individual child. As one of her colleagues expressed it once in -homely phrase: "The fact is, she had the brain of a man and the heart of -a woman." Nor did the heart dissolve itself in "gush," but showed its -quality rather in a disinterestedness that cared not where the _hudos_ -went, so long as the thing itself were done--in an eager desire to bring -others forward and to give them a full share of whatever credit were to -be had. - -The view of the School Board authorities was summed up long afterwards -in these sentences from the pen of Mr. Graham Wallas: "She brought to -the task not only imagination and sympathy, but a steady and systematic -industry, which is the most valuable of all qualities in public life. -She was never disheartened, and never procrastinated." - -What was felt of her spirit by those who worked with her more -intimately, who saw her week by week in contact with the children -themselves, is harder to put into words. Perhaps this little vision of -her, recorded by the teacher of the school, Miss Milligan, comes nearest -to saving what is, after all, an intangible essence, that once had form -and being and is now vanished into air: - -"But above and beyond all else Mrs. Ward was--what she was always called -amongst us--'The Fairy Godmother.' In the early days before the school -grew so big, every child knew this Fairy Godmother personally, and -loved her, and we remember how on the occasion of one Christmas Party -Mrs. Ward was unable to be present through illness, and the children -were so sad that even the Christmas tree could hardly console them. When -she had recovered and came again to see them, _they_ gave _her_ a -delightful little tea-party, even the poorest children giving half-pence -and farthings to buy a bunch of Parma violets, and a sponge-cake--having -first ascertained what sort of cake she liked. It was a pretty sight to -see them all clustering round her, and her kind, beautiful face whenever -she was amongst the children will haunt one for years." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -_HELBECK OF BANNISDALE_--CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS--_ELEANOR_ AND THE -VILLA BARBERINI - -1896-1900 - - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_ is probably that one among Mrs. Ward's books on -which her fame as a novelist will stand or fall. Though it sold less in -England and much less in America than her previous novels at the time of -its publication, it has outlasted all the others in the extent of its -circulation to-day. In this the opinion of those critics for whose word -she cared has been borne out, for they prophesied that it had in it, -more than her other books, the element of permanence. "I know not -another book that shows the classic fate so distinctly to view," wrote -George Meredith, and some years later, in a long talk with a younger -friend about Mrs. Ward's work, repeated his profound admiration for -_Helbeck_. "The hero, if hero he be, is as fresh a creation as -Ravenswood or Rochester," said another critic, Lord Crewe, "and what a -luxury it is to hang a new portrait on one's walls in this age of old -figures in patched garments! I have no idea yet how the story will end, -but though the atmosphere is so much less lurid and troubled, I have -something of the _Wuthering Heights_ sense of coming disaster. I think -the Brontës would have given your story the most valuable admiration of -all--that of writers who have succeeded in a rather similar, though by -no means the same, field." - -The theme of the book was, as all Mrs. Ward's readers know, the eternal -clash between the mediæval and the modern mind in the persons of Alan -Helbeck, the Catholic squire, and Laura Fountain, the child of science -and negation; while beyond and behind their tragic loves stands the -"army of unalterable law" in the austere northern hills, the bog-lands -of the estuary, the river in gentleness and flood. Almost, indeed, can -it be said that there are but three characters in _Helbeck_--Alan -himself, Laura, and the river, which in the end takes her tormented -spirit. The idea of such a novel had presented itself to Mrs. Ward -during a visit that she paid in the autumn of 1896 to her old friends, -Mr. James Cropper and his daughter, in that beautiful South Westmorland -country which she had known only less well than the Lake District itself -ever since her childhood. There the talk turned one day on the fortunes -of an old Catholic family (the Stricklands), who had owned Sizergh -Castle, near Sedgwick, for more than three centuries, steadfastly -enduring the persecutions of earlier days, and, now that persecutions -had ceased, fighting a sad and losing battle against poverty and -mortgages. "The vision of the old squire and the old house--of all the -long vicissitudes of obscure suffering, and dumb clinging to the faith, -of obstinate, half-conscious resistance to a modern world, that in the -end had stripped them of all their gear and possessions, save only this -'I will not' of the soul--haunted me when the conversation was -done."[19] By the end of the long railway-journey from Kendal to London -next day she had thought out her story. The deepest experiences of her -own life went to the making of it, for had she not been brought up with -a Catholic father, made aware from her earliest childhood of the -irremediable chasm there between two lovers? The situation in _Helbeck_ -was of course wholly different, but in the working out of it Mrs. Ward -had the advantage of a certain inborn familiarity with the Catholic -mind, which made the characters of this book peculiarly her own. - -All through the winter of 1896-7 Mrs. Ward was steeping herself in -Catholic literature; then in the early spring--again by the good offices -of Mr. Cropper--she became aware that Levens Hall, the wonderful old -Tudor house near the mouth of the Kent, which belonged to Capt. -Josceline Bagot, might be had for a few weeks or months. She determined -to migrate thither as soon as possible and to write her story amid the -very scenes which she had planned for it. How well do I remember the -grey spring evening (it was the 6th of March) on which--after delays and -confusions far beyond our small deserts--we drove up to the river front -of the old house; the hurried rush through glorious dark rooms, and a -half timid exploration of the garden, peopled with gaunt shapes of -clipped and tortured yews. Levens was to us just such another adventure -as Hampden House had been, eight years before, but this time there was -no bareness, no dilapidation, nothing but the ripe product of many -centuries of peaceful care. Yet Levens was famous for its crooked -descent, its curse and its "grey lady"--an accessory, this latter, of -sadly modern origin, as we found on inquiring into her local history. -Mrs. Ward, however, wove her skilfully into her story, as she wove the -fell-farm of the family of "statesmen" to whom Miss Cropper introduced -her, or the mournful peat-bogs of the estuary, or the daffodils crowding -up through the undergrowth in Brigsteer Wood, or covering with sheets of -gold the graves round Cartmel Fell Chapel. - -Yet Bannisdale itself is "a house of dream," as Mrs. Ward herself -described it[20]; neither wholly Levens nor wholly Sizergh, placed -somewhere in the recesses of Levens Park, and looking south over the -Kent. "And just as Bannisdale, in my eyes, is no mortal house, and if I -were to draw it, it would have outlines and features all its own, so the -story of the race inhabiting it, and of Helbeck its master, detached -itself wholly from that of any real person or persons, past or present. -Those who know Levens will recognize many a fragment here and there that -has been worked into Bannisdale: and so with Sizergh. But Helbeck's -house, as it stands in the book, is his and his alone. And in the same -way the details and vicissitudes of the Helbeck ancestry, and the -influences that went to build up Helbeck himself, were drawn from many -fields, then passed through the crucible of composition, and scarcely -anything now remains of those original facts from which the book -sprang." - -Many Catholic books, in which she browsed "with what thoughts," as -Carlyle would say, followed her to Levens, giving her that grip of -detail in matters of belief or ritual, without which she could not have -approached her subject, but which she had now learnt to absorb and -re-fashion far more skilfully than in the days of _Robert Elsmere_. She -loved to discuss these matters with her father, from whom she had no -secrets, in spite of their divergencies of view; when he came to visit -us at Levens--still a tall and beautiful figure, in spite of his -seventy-three years--they talked of them endlessly, and when he returned -to Dublin she wrote him such letters as the following: - - "One of the main impressions of this Catholic literature upon me is - to make me perceive the enormous intellectual pre-eminence of - Newman. Another impression--I know you will forgive me for saying - quite frankly what I feel--has been to fill me with a perfect - horror of asceticism, or rather of the austerities--or most of - them--which are indispensable to the Catholic ideal of a saint. We - must talk this over, for of course I realize that there is much to - be said on the other side. But the simple and rigid living which I - have seen, for various ideal purposes, in friends of my own--like - T. H. Green--seems to me both religious and reasonable, while I - cannot for the life of me see anything in the austerities, say of - the Blessed Mary Alacoque, but hysteria and self-murder. The Divine - Power occupies itself for age on age in the development of all the - fine nerve-processes of the body, with their infinite potencies for - good or evil. And instead of using them for good, the Catholic - mystic destroys them, injures her digestion and her brain, and is - then tortured by terrible diseases which she attributes to every - cause but the true one--her own deliberate act--and for which her - companions glorify her, instead of regarding them as - what--surely--they truly are, God's punishment. No doubt directors - are more careful nowadays than they were in the seventeenth - century, but her life is still published by authority, and the - ideal it contains is held up to young nuns. - - "Don't imagine, dearest, that I find myself in antagonism to all - this literature. The truth in many respects is quite the other way. - The deep personal piety of good Catholics, and the extent to which - their religion enters into their lives, are extraordinarily - attractive. How much we, who are outside, have to learn from them!" - -To an ex-Catholic friend, Mr. Addis, who had undertaken to look over -the manuscript for her, she wrote some time later, when the book was -nearly finished: - - "In my root-idea of him, Helbeck was to represent the old Catholic - crossed with that more mystical and enthusiastic spirit, brought in - by such converts as Ward and Faber, under Roman and Italian - influence. I gather, both from books and experience, that the more - fervent ideas and practices, which the old Catholics of the - 'forties disliked, have, as a matter of fact, obtained a large - ascendancy in the present practice of Catholics, just as Ritualism - has forced the hands of the older High Churchmen. And I thought one - might, in the matter of austerities, conceive a man directly - influenced by the daily reading of the Lives of the Saints, and - obtaining in middle life, after probation and under special - circumstances, as it were, leave to follow his inclinations. - - "I take note most gratefully of all your small corrections. What I - am really anxious about now is the points--in addition to pure - jealous misery--on which Laura's final breach with Helbeck would - turn. I _think_ on the terror of confession--on what would seem to - her the inevitable uncovering of the inner life and yielding of - personality that the Catholic system involves--and on the - foreignness of the whole idea of _sin_, with its relative, penance. - But I find it extremely hard to work out!" - -As the weeks of our stay at Levens passed by, while the sea-trout came -up the Kent and challenged the barbarian members of the family to many a -tussle in the Otter-pool, or the "turn-hole," or the bend of the river -just above the bridge, Mrs. Ward plunged ever deeper into her subject, -though the difficulties under which she laboured in the sheer writing of -her chapters were almost more disabling than ever. "For a week my arm -has been almost useless, alas!" she wrote in May; "I have had it in a -sling and bandaged up. I partly strained it in rubbing A., but I must -also have caught cold in it. Anyhow it has been very painful, and I have -been in quite low spirits, looking at Chapter III, which would not move! -The chairs and tables here don't suit it at all--the weather is -extremely cold--and altogether I believe I am pining for Stocks!" But -before we left the wonderful old house many friends had come to stay -with us there, renewing their own tired spirits in its beauty and -charm, and in the society of its temporary mistress. Henry James and the -Henry Butchers, Katharine Lyttelton and her Colonel, Bron Herbert and -Victor Lytton, fishers of sea-trout,--and, on Easter Monday, "Max -Creighton" himself, now Bishop of London, much worn by the antics of Mr. -Kensit and his friends, but otherwise only asking to "eat the long -miles" in walks along Scout Scar, or over the "seven bens and seven -fens" that lay between us and the lovely little Chapel of St. Anthony on -Cartmel Fell. Such talks as they had, he and Mrs. Ward, at all times -when she was not deliberately burying herself in her study to escape the -temptation! The rest of us would listen fascinated, watching for that -gesture of his, when he would throw back his head so that the under side -of his red beard appeared to view--a gesture of triumph over his -opponent, as he fondly thought, until her next remark showed him there -was still much to win. Henry James was more demure in his tastes, -walking beside the pony-tub when Mrs. Ward went for her afternoon drive -through Levens Park, or along the Brigsteer lane, and "letting fall -words of wisdom as we went" (for so it is recorded by the driver of the -tub). Ah, if those words could but have been gathered up and saved from -all-swallowing oblivion! Mr. James's friendship for Mrs. Ward had -already endured for ten or twelve years before this visit to Levens, but -these days in the old house gave it a deeper and more intimate tone, -which it never lost thenceforward. He never wholly approved of her art -as a novelist--how could he, when it differed so fundamentally from his -own?--but his admiration for her as a woman, his affection for her as a -friend, knew very few limits indeed. And her feeling for him was to grow -and deepen through another twenty years of happy friendship, ripening -towards that day when, in England's darkest time, he chose to make -himself a son of England, and then, soon afterwards, followed the many -lads whom he had loved "where track there is none." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD IN 1898 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD] - -Mrs. Ward finally quitted Levens before the end of her lease, owing to a -prolonged attack of influenza, which spoilt her last weeks there, but -she always looked back to her stay in the "Border Castle," as Mr. James -had dubbed it, as an enchanting episode, taking her back to the -fell-country and its people with an intimacy she had not known since -those long-past childish days, when she would dance up the path to -Sweden Bridge, the grown-ups loitering behind. For the remainder of this -year (1897) she was pressing on with her book, in spite of -ever-recurring waves of ill-health and of constant over-pressure with -the affairs of the Settlement. By the autumn, when the new buildings -were actually open, this pressure became so formidable that she was -obliged to take a small house at Brighton for three months, in order to -spend three days of each week there in complete seclusion. The book -prospered fairly well, but the formal opening of the Settlement, which -had been fixed for February 12, 1898, was very much on her mind--at -least until she had succeeded in persuading Mr. Morley to make the -principal speech. This, however, he consented to do with all the -graciousness inspired by his old friendship for its founder; and when -the ceremony was actually over Mrs. Ward retired to Stocks for a final -struggle with the last chapters of _Helbeck_. "Except, perhaps, in the -case of "Bessie Costrell," she wrote in her _Recollections_, "I was -never more possessed by a subject, more shut in by it from the outer -world." And in these last few weeks of the long effort she walked as in -a dream, though the dream was too often broken by cruel attacks of her -old illness. She fought them down, however, and emerged victorious on -March 25,--more dead than alive, in the rueful opinion of her family. -But the usual remedy of a flight to Italy was tried again with sovereign -effect, and at Cadenabbia on Lake Como, in Florence and on Maggiore, she -felt the flooding back of a sense of physical ease. The book did not -appear until the month of June, when both Press and friends received it -with so warm an enthusiasm as to "produce in me that curious mood, which -for the artist is much nearer dread than boasting--dread that the best -is over, and that one will never earn such sympathy again." One -discordant note was, however, struck by a review in the _Nineteenth -Century_ by a certain Father Clarke, violently attacking _Helbeck_ as a -caricature of Catholicism, and picking various small holes in its -technicalities of Catholic practice. The article was answered in the -next number of the _Nineteenth Century_ by another Catholic, Mr. St. -George Mivart, and Mrs. Ward's fairness to Catholicism vindicated; -indeed, many of the other reviews had accused her of making the ancient -faith too attractive in the person of Helbeck. Mr. C. E. Maurice wrote -to her to protest against Father Clarke's attack, remarking incidentally -that "if any religious body have cause of complaint against you for this -book, it is the Protestant Nonconformists" and asking her in the course -of his letter "what point you generally start from in deciding to write -a novel; whether from the wish to work out a special thesis, or from the -desire to deal with certain characters who have interested you, or from -being impressed by a special _story_, actual or possible?" Mrs. Ward -replied to him as follows: - - "I think a novel with me generally springs from the idea of a - situation involving two or three characters. _Helbeck_ arose from a - fragment of conversation heard in the North, and was purely human - and not controversial in its origin. It is in these conflicts - between old and new, as it has always seemed to me, that we moderns - find our best example of compelling fate,--and the weakness of the - personal life in the grip of great forces that regard it not, or - seem to regard it not, is just as attractive as ever it was to the - imagination--do you not think so? The forms are different, the - subject is the same." - -To Mr. Mivart himself she wrote: - - "I hear with great interest from Mr. Knowles that you are going to - break a lance with Father Clarke on poor _Helbeck's_ behalf in the - forthcoming _Nineteenth Century_. I need not say that I shall read - very diligently what you have to say. Meanwhile I am venturing to - send you these few Catholic reviews, as specimens of the very - different feelings that seem to have been awakened in many quarters - from those expressed by Father Clarke. It amuses me to put the - passages from Father Vaughan's sermon that concern Helbeck himself - side by side with Father Clarke's onslaught upon him. - - "The story that the orphan tells to Laura, which Father Clarke - calls 'detestable, extravagant and objectionable,' that no - instructed Catholic would dream of telling to his juniors, is told - by Father Law, S.J., to his younger brothers and sisters, and is - given in the very interesting _Life of Father Law_, by Ellis - Schreiber. I have only shortened it. - - "Father Clarke does not seem to have the dimmest notion of what is - meant by writing in character. I had a hearty laugh over his - really absurd remarks about Laura and St. Francis Borgia's - children." - -Some years later, when her feeling about the book's reception had -settled down and crystallized, she wrote in more meditative mood to her -son-in-law, George Trevelyan: - - "Yes, it was a good subject, and I shall hardly come across one - again so full both of intellectual and human interest.... I like - your 'dear and dreadful!' In my case it is quite true. Catholicism - has an enormous attraction for me,--yet I could no more be a - Catholic than a Mahometan. Only, never let us forget how much of - Catholicism is based, as Uncle Matt would have said, on 'Natural - truth'--truth of human nature, and truth of moral experience. The - visible, imperishable Society--the Kingdom of Heaven in our - midst--no greater idea, it seems to me, was ever thrown into the - world of men. Its counterpart is to be found in the Logos - conception from which all Liberalism descends, and which is the - perpetual corrective of the Catholic idea. But these things would - take us far!" - -Meanwhile, to Bishop Creighton, who had written to her far less -critically than usual of her new book, she replied with a long letter, -in which, after the first sheet, she reverted to the subjects which were -always of the deepest interest to this pair of friends--the barriers set -around the National Church, which Mrs. Ward complained kept out too many -of the faithful, or at least too many of those who, like herself, would -willingly proclaim their faith in a spiritual Christ. - - -STOCKS, TRING, -_August 9, 1898_. - -..."I have been desperately, perhaps disproportionately interested - in a meeting of Liberal Churchmen as to which I cannot get full - particulars--in which the great need of the day was said to be not - ritual, but 'the re-statement and re-interpretation of dogma in the - light of the knowledge and criticism of our day.' It makes me once - more conscious of all sorts of claims and cravings that I have - often wished to talk over with you--not as Bishop of London!--but - as one with whom, in old days at any rate, I used to talk quite - freely. If only the orthodox churchmen would allow us on our side a - little more freedom, I, at any rate, should be well content to let - the Ritualists do what they please! Every year I live I more and - more resent the injustice which excludes those who hold certain - historical and critical opinions from full membership in the - National Church, above all from participation in the Lord's Supper. - Why are we _all_ always to be bound by the formularies of a past - age, which avowedly represent a certain state of past opinion, a - certain balance of parties?--privately and personally I mean. The - public and ceremonial use of formularies is another matter where - clearly the will of the majority should decide. The minority may be - well content to accept the public and ceremonial use, if it may - accept it in its own way. But here the Church steps in with a - test--several tests--the Catechism, the Creed, the Confirmation - service. And the tendency of the last generation of churchpeople - has been all towards tightening these tests, probably under two - influences--a deepened Christian devotion, and the growing pressure - of the alternative view of Christianity. But is it not time the - alternative view were brought in and assimilated,--to the - strengthening of Christian love and fellowship? What _ought_ to - prevent anyone who accepts the Lord's own test of the 'two great - commandments,' or the Pauline test of 'all who love the Lord Jesus - Christ,' from breaking the bread and drinking the wine which - signify the headship and sacrifice, and mystical fellowship of - Christ? But such an one may hold it solemnly and sacredly - impossible to recite matters of supposed history such as 'born of - the Virgin Mary,' or 'on the third day He rose again--and ascended - to the Father,' as personally true of himself. He may be quite - wrong--that is not the point. Supposing that his historical - conscience is clearly and steadily convinced on the one side, and - on the other he only asks that he and his children may pass into - the national Christian family, and join hands with all who believe - in God, who 'love the Lord Jesus' and hope in immortality, what - should keep him out? Would it not be an immense strengthening of - the Church to include, on open and honourable terms, those who can - now only share in her Eucharist on terms of concealment and - evasion? Why should there not be an alternative baptismal and - confirmation service, to be claimed under a conscience clause by - those who desire it? At present no one can have his children - confirmed who is not prepared to accept, or see them accept, - certain historical statements, which he and they may perhaps not - believe. And except as a matter of private bargain and - sufferance--always liable to scandal--neither he nor they, unless - these tests have been passed, can join in the commemoration of - their Master's death, which should be to them the food and stimulus - of life. Nothing honestly remains to them but exclusion, and - hunger--or the falling back upon a Unitarianism, which has too - often unlearned Christ, and to which, at its best, they may not - naturally belong." - -Mrs. Ward might, perhaps, have added that what remains to the majority -of those whom these tests keep out, is a gradual _loss of hunger_--a -making up with other things, which cannot but be a fatal loss to the -National Church. But she was thinking of her own case, and to her, I -think, the "hunger" for admission to the Church (though always on her -own terms!) remained for long years a living force, leading her in the -end to write that best and most vivid among her later books, _The Case -of Richard Meynell_. Meanwhile her relations with Unitarianism, -mentioned in this letter, remained somewhat anomalous, for while -agreeing with its tenets, she was always impatient of its old-fashioned -isolation, and of its neglect to seize the opportunity presented to it -by the march of modern thought, which seemed to her to summon it to take -the lead in the movement towards a free Christian fellowship. She was -never so hard on the Unitarian body as Stopford Brooke, who once -exclaimed in a letter to her that "they cling to ancient uglinesses as -if they were sweethearts!" But Mrs. Ward had had a brush with them in -1893, when she wrote to the _Manchester Guardian_ after the opening of -Manchester College, Oxford, lamenting the bareness of the service, the -extempore prayers, the relics of old Puritanism, instead of the appeal -to colour and imagination and modern thought. Her letter provoked many -answers, both public and private, and to one of these, a kind and -generous argument from Dr. Estlin Carpenter, she replied with a fuller -explanation of her feeling: - - -_November 2, 1893._ - -..."My own feeling, the child of course of early habit and - tradition, is strongly on the side of ritual throughout, though I - would infinitely rather have _new_ ritual, like Dr. Martineau's two - services, than a modified edition of the Anglican prayers, such as - we have at Mr. Brooke's. But I don't think I should have ventured - to put forward the view I did so strongly as I did, with regard to - any other place in the world than Oxford. I knew Oxford intimately - for fifteen years, and still, of course, have many friends there. I - am convinced that Manchester College has a real mission towards an - Oxford which is not yet theirs, but which ought to become so. But I - am also certain that Oxford cannot be reached through the forms - that have been so far adopted. You may say, as Mr. ---- does in - effect, in a letter to me: 'Oxford must take us with our Puritanism - as we are, or leave us.' But surely to say this is to refuse a real - mission, a real call. It is the very opposite of St. Paul's spirit, - of making himself all things to all men, 'that I may by any means - gain some.' It is putting adherence to a form, about which there - is, after all, serious difference of opinion in your own body, - between you and a great future. At least that is how it looks to - me, and I think I have some means of judging. The religious - message, the thoughts, the conceptions that you have to give - Oxford, especially to the young men, not of your own body, who may - be attracted to you through the Chapel, are, it seems to me, the - all-important thing, and any fears of imitating the Church, or - dislike of abandoning Puritan tradition, which may hold you back - from the best means of bringing those thoughts and faiths into the - current life of Oxford, will be a disaster to us all. It is because - I have thought so much about this settlement of yours, in the place - where I myself often starved for lack of religious fellowship, that - I was drawn to write with the vehemence I did. But one had better - never be vehement!" - -In the following year the Unitarians forgave her and asked her to -deliver the "Essex Hall Lecture," which she did with a brilliant and -suggestive paper entitled "Unitarians and the Future." Her relations -with many Unitarians all through the period of University Hall were, as -we have seen, of the most intimate and friendly character, and now, -after the publication of _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, she showed her -goodwill to Unitarianism once more by journeying down to Norwich to give -an address in aid of the famous old Octagon Chapel there. The address -was typical of many others that she gave in these years of her -increasing fame; carefully and even elaborately prepared beforehand--for -she would never trust herself to speak extempore--it lived for long in -the memory of her hearers as a model of its kind, while the outspoken -opinions it expressed gave rise to a good deal of controversy in the -religious Press. The demands on her time for speeches and addresses in -aid of every possible good cause were by this time incessant. She -refused nineteen out of twenty, but the twentieth was usually so -persuasively put that she succumbed, and then she would live in an agony -of apprehension and of accumulated overwork, until the effort was safely -over. One of her most finished literary performances was the address she -gave in Glasgow in February, 1897, on "the Peasant in Literature"; while -her paper on the Transfiguration, entitled "Gospel Interpretation--a -Fragment," given at the Leicester Unitarian Conference in 1900, remains -to this day, with some of her audience, as a new and startling -revelation of the critical methods which had, for her, thrown so vivid a -light on the dark places of the Gospel story. All these -carefully-prepared essays--for such, indeed, they were--added enormously -to the burden of work which Mrs. Ward already carried, but she loved her -audiences and loved to feel that she had pleased and interested, or even -shocked them a little. "I want to poke them up," she would say -sometimes, with that flash of mischief or "trotzigkeit" (the word is -untranslatable), that endeared her so much to those who knew her well; -and poke them up she surely did whenever the subject of her address was -a religious one. - -But the pace at which she lived during this year (1898), when the work -of the Settlement was expanding in every direction, and the preparations -for the Invalid Children's School were going on throughout the winter, -led her to feel that in order to write her next book she must have a -complete change of scene and, if possible, a far more complete seclusion -than that of Stocks, with its accessibility to posts and telegrams. The -great subject of Catholicism still held her fascinated, but she was -tempted to explore it this second time rather from the artistic than the -religious point of view. She had been reading much of Châteaubriand and -Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled -by the relationship between the two; why should she not migrate to Rome -and there, in the ancient scene, weave anew the old tale of the conquest -of "outworn, buried age" by the forces of youth? So while the -preparations for the Cripples' School were hastening forward, in -February, 1899, negotiations were also going on with the owners of the -vast old Villa Barberini, at Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills, for -the taking of its first floor, and various friends in Rome were helping -us with advice as to how to make it habitable. It was just such an -adventure as Mrs. Ward loved with her whole heart, and when we finally -arrived at the little station overlooking the Alban Lake, on March 23, -packed ourselves and our luggage into three _vetture_ and drove up to -the somewhat forbidding entrance of the Villa, we felt that here, -indeed, was a new kingdom--a place to dream of, not to tell! - -Never, indeed, will those who took part in it forget the sensations of -that arrival--the floods of welcome poured upon us by the delightful -little butler, Alessandro, and his stately sister Vittoria, who had been -engaged to minister to our wants, our own faltering Italian, and the -procession across the gloomy entrance-hall and up the uncarpeted stone -staircase, to the rooms of our floor above. A dozen rooms clustering -round two huge central _saloni_, all with tiled floors, exiguous strips -of carpet, and wonderfully ugly wall-papers, formed our _appartamento_; -but at each end, east and west, were glorious balconies, the one -overlooking the Alban Lake and Monte Cavo, the other the vast sweep of -the Campagna, stretching from our falling olive-gardens to the sea. Long -we hung over those balconies, forgetting our unpacking, and when at last -we left our book-boxes behind and wandered out into the mile-long -garden, clothing the side of the hill on the Campagna side, it was only -to suffer fresh thrills of wonder and delight. For there, beyond the -ilex avenue, that led like a cool green tunnel to the further mysteries, -ran a great wall of _opus reticulatum_, banking up the hill on that side -and crowned by overhanging olives, which had formed part of the villa -built on this ridge by the Emperor Domitian, just eighteen hundred years -before. And there, to the right, on another substructure of Domitian's, -ran the balustraded terrace laid out by the rascally Barberini Pope, -Urban VIII (or more probably by one of his still more rascally nephews), -from which you beheld, rolling away to the sea, fold after fold of sad -Campagna, and far away to the north, between two stone pines, the white -dome of St. Peter's. Mrs. Ward thus described the scene, four days after -our arrival, in a letter to her son: - - -"VILLA BARBERINI," -_March 27, 1899_. - - "To-day, you never saw anything so enchanting in the world, as this - house and its outlook. At our feet, looking west, lies the rose and - green Campagna, melting into the sea on the horizon line, and as it - approaches the hills, climbing towards us through all imaginable - beauty of spreading olive-groves, and soaring pinewoods--brown - pinkish earth, just upturned by the white ploughing oxen,--here and - there on the spurs of the hills, great ruined strongholds of the - Savelli and Orsini, or fragments of Roman tombs: close below the - house a green sloping olive garden, white with daisies under the - grey mist of the olives--while if you lean out of window and crane - your neck a little, far to the north beyond the descending stone - pines, the æthereal sun-steeped plain takes here a consistence in - something, which is Rome. - - "We have just come in from wandering along the sunny hill-side - towards Albano, past ruins of the Domitian Villa, overgrown with - ilex and creepers, through long shady ilex-avenues, and then out - into the warmth of the olive-yards, where the cyclamen are coming - out and the grass is full of white and blue and pink anemones. Such - a deep draught of beauty--of _bien-être_ physical and mental--one - has not had for years. But only to-day! Two days ago we woke up to - find a world in snow, or rather all the hills white, the Alban Lake - lying like steel in its snowy ring, and the _silvæ laborantes_ - under the weight. And oh! the cold of these vast bare rooms at - night! We spent the day in Rome, where, of course, there was no - snow and much shelter, but when we came home, we sat and shivered - at dinner, and presently we all dragged the table up to the fire in - hope of cheating the draughts a little. Then the north wind howled - round us all night, and our spirits were low. But to-day the - transformation scene is complete!... We have put in baths and - stoves, and carpets and spring mattresses, bought some linen and - electro-plate, hired some armchairs--and here we are, not luxurious - certainly, but with a fair amount of English comfort about - us--quite enough, I fear, to make the Italians stare, who think we - must be mad, anyway, to come here in March, and still madder to - spend any money on an apartment that we take for three months! The - cook, a white-capped, white-jacketed gentleman whom I have only - seen once, sends us up excellent meals--except that on one occasion - he so far forgot himself as to offer us for dinner, first, pâté de - foie gras, and then "movietti," which, being explained, are small - birds, probably siskins. Father and I were too hungry to desist, - the poor little things being anyway fried and past praying for, but - J. sat by, starving and lofty. And _we_ were punished by finding - nothing to eat! So for many reasons, ideal and other, the cook will - have to be told to keep his hands off _movietti_." - -Here, then, we established ourselves, and here, either in the little -_salotto_ that we furnished for her, or walking up and down that -marvellous terrace, Mrs. Ward thought out her tale of _Eleanor_, -infusing into it strains old and new--Papal, Italian, English, -American--but, above all, steeping the whole scene in her own love for -the Italy of to-day, as well as for the old, the immemorial Italy. - -Those were the times--how far away they seem now, and how small the -troubles!--when things were not going happily for the new-made Italian -Kingdom, when the country still smarted under the misery and failure of -the Abyssinian campaign, and when English visitors were wont to express -themselves with insular frankness on the shortcomings of the New Italy, -whose squalid activities so impudently disturbed, in their eyes, the -shades of the Old. The glamour of the _Risorgimento_ had somehow -departed, in the forty years that followed Cavour's death, so that the -Englishman travelling for his pleasure in the former territories of the -Pope, was ready enough to criticize the defects of the new Government, -while forgetting that if they had remained under the Pope, he would have -found therein no Government, in the modern sense, at all. Many elderly -people still remained who could remember Rome before _Venti Settembre_, -when the Cardinals drove in state down the Corso, and Pio Nono could be -seen taking his part in the processions of _Corpus Domini_ or _San -Giovanni_. Sentimentalists wept at the vandalisms of the Savoyards, who -had built a new city, all in squares and rectangles, on the heights of -the Esquiline, away from the sights and smells of Old Rome, had put up a -huge "Palace of Finance" to record their yearly deficits, and were now -cleaning up the Colosseum and the Forum, so that no æsthetic tourist -would ever wish to set foot in them again. - -Mrs. Ward heard plenty of this sort of talk from English friends, who -came out to see us at the Villa, but she, by the simple process of -falling in love, headlong, with Italy and the Italians, avoided these -pitfalls and was enabled to see with a far truer eye than they the -essential soundness of Italian life, whether in town or country--the new -ever jostling the old, rudely sometimes, but with the rudeness of life -and growth, and the old still influencing and encompassing all things. - - "Nothing could be worse than the state of things here between - Liberals and Clericals," she wrote to her son, "yet people seem to - rub along and will, I believe, go on rubbing along in much the same - way for many a long year. We read the _Tribuna_ and the _Civiltà - Cattolica_, which on opposite sides breathe fire and flame. But - life goes on and insensibly certain links grow up, even between the - two extremes. For instance, there is a certain priest in Rome, - rector of San Lorenzo in Lucina, who has started charitable work - rather on the English pattern--no indiscriminate alms, careful - inquiry, provision of work, exercise, recreation, country holidays, - etc., in fine 'Settlement' style. And his workers include people of - all beliefs or none--Jews even. But as he is perfectly correct in - doctrine and observance, and does not meddle with any disputed - points, he is let alone, and the experiment produces a quiet but - very real effect. Yesterday our _parroco_, Padre Ruelli, came to - see us here, an enchanting little man, with something of the old - maid and the child and the poet all combined. He recited to us - Leopardi, and explained some poems in Roman dialect, with an ease, - a vivacity, a perfect simplicity, that charmed us all. Then he - remembered his function, and before he left gave us a discourse on - charity, containing a quotation from the Gospels, largely invented - by himself, and so departed." - -As the weeks went on in our bare, wind-swept _palazzo_, it became -impossible to resist a community in which everyone, from Alessandro to -this dear _padre parroco_, combined to show us that we were not only -tolerated, but _welcomed_. Our Italian was sadly to seek during those -first weeks, consisting largely in agonized consultations with Nutt's -Pocket Dictionary, and in practising its phrases over with Alessandro; -but his courtesy and patience never failed, so that before long our -sentences began to put forth wings and soar. But never, alas, to any -great heights, and even when Mrs. Ward was able to carry on animated -conversations with our drivers about the traditions of the Alban Hills, -she would find herself sitting tongue-tied and exasperated, or -descending into French, at luncheon-parties in Rome! - -Yet those luncheon-parties, and the visits which we persuaded the new -friends, whom we made there, to pay us on our heights, laid the -foundations of certain friendships which influenced Mrs. Ward's whole -attitude towards the new Italy, and gave her the conviction, which she -never lost in the years that followed, that there exists between the -best English and the best Italian minds a certain natural affinity, -which transcends the differences of habits and of speech more surely -than is the case between ourselves and any other of our Continental -neighbours. She put this feeling into the mouth of her ideal Ambassador -in _Eleanor_--that slight but charming sketch which was, I believe, -based upon the figure of Lord Dufferin--when he speaks to the American -Lucy of the Marchesa Fazzoleni, symbol and type of Italian womanhood. -"Look well at her," he says to Lucy, "she is one of the mothers of the -new Italy. She has all the practical sense of the north, and all the -subtlety of the south. She is one of the people who make me feel that -Italy and England have somehow mysterious affinities that will work -themselves out in history. It seems to me that I could understand all -her thoughts--and she mine, if it were worth her while. She is a modern -of the moderns; and yet there is in her some of the oldest stuff in the -world. She belongs, it is true, to a nation in the making--but that -nation, in its earlier forms, has already carried the whole weight of -European history!" - -Figures such as these began, when the storms of an inhospitable April -had passed away, to haunt the cool ilex avenue and the terrace beyond, -filling Mrs. Ward's eager mind with new impressions, new perceptions of -the infinite variety and delightsomeness of the human race; and the old -walls of Domitian's villa re-echoed to many an animated talk of Pope and -Kingdom, Church and State, as well as to Lanciani's full-voiced -exclamations on the buried treasures--nay, even Alba Longa itself!--that -must lie at our feet there, only a few yards below the surface! Then, -once or twice, we took these guests of ours further afield, to the Lake -of Nemi, in its circular crater-cup--"Lo Specchio di Diana"--with the -ruined walls of the Temple of Diana rising amid their beds of -strawberries at its further end. This was indeed a place of enchantment, -and readers of _Eleanor_ will remember how the _motif_ of the "Priest -who slew the slayer" is woven into the fabric of the story, while the -turning-point in the drama of the three--Eleanor, Lucy and Manisty--is -reached during an expedition to the Temple. Here it was that Count Ugo -Balzani, best of friends and mentors, bought from the strawberry-pickers -for a few francs a whole basketful of little terra-cotta heads--votive -offerings of the Tiberian age--and gave them to Mrs. Ward; and here that -Henry James, during the few precious days that he spent with us at the -Villa, found the peasant youth with the glorious name, Aristodemo, and -set him talking of Lord Savile's diggings, and of the marble head that -he himself had found--yes, he!--with nose and all complete, in his own -garden, while the sun sank lower towards the crater-rim, and the rest of -us sat spell-bound, listening to the dialogue. - -Naturally, however, with Rome only fifteen miles away, we did not always -remain upon our hill-top, and the days that Mrs. Ward spent in the city, -making new friends and seeing old sights, were probably among the -richest in her whole experience. The great ceremony in St. Peter's, when -Leo XIII celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his accession, is -too well described in _Eleanor_ to need any mention here, but there were -days of mere wandering about the streets, shopping, exploring old -churches and talking to the sacristans, when she breathed the very -spirit of Rome and let its beauty sink into her soul. And there was one -day when a kind and condescending Cardinal--_not_ an Italian--offered to -take her over the crypt of St. Peter's--a privilege not then easy to -obtain for ladies--and to show her the treasures it contained. Little, -however, did the poor Cardinal guess what a task he had undertaken. "The -very kind Cardinal knew nothing whatever about the crypt, which was a -little sad," wrote D. W. that evening, and Mrs. Ward herself thus -described it to her husband: "It was very funny! The Cardinal was very -kind, and astonishingly ignorant. Any English Bishop going over St. -Peter's would, I think, have known more about it, would have been -certainly more intelligent and probably more learned. You would have -laughed if you could have seen your demure spouse listening to the -Cardinal's explanations. But I said not a word--and came home and read -Harnack!" A lamentable result, surely, of His Eminence's courteous -efforts to grapple with the tombs of the Popes. - -Through April, May, and half through June we stayed at the Villa, till -the sun grew burning hot, and we were fain to adopt the customs of the -country, keeping windows and shutters closed against the fierce mid-day. -During the hot weather Mrs. Ward made an excursion, for purposes of -_Eleanor_, to the wonderful forest-country in the valley of the Paglia, -north of Orvieto, where the Marchese di Torre Alfina, a nephew of Mr. -Stillman, had placed his agent's house at her disposal, and charged his -people to look after her. There, with her husband and daughter, she -spent two or three days exploring the forest roads and the volcanic -torrent-bed, down which the Paglia rushes, learning all she could of the -life and traditions of the village and of the Maremma country beyond. -It was a district wholly unknown to her and full of attraction and -romance, which she has infused into the last chapters of _Eleanor_; it -gave her, too, a feeling of the inexhaustible wealth of the Italian soil -and race which reinforced her growing love for this land of her -adoption. As the chapters of _Eleanor_ swelled during the remainder of -this year, so its theme took form and presence in the writer's mind--the -eternal theme of the supplanting of the old by the young, whether in the -history of States or of persons. Steadily Mrs. Ward's faith in the -destiny of that vast Italy into whose life she had looked, if only for a -moment, grew and strengthened, till she put it into words in the mouth -of her Marchesa Fazzoleni, speaking to a group gathered in the Villa -Borghese garden: "I tell you, Mademoiselle," she says to Lucy, "that -what Italy has done in forty years is colossal--not to be believed! -Forty years--not quite--since Cavour died. And all that time Italy has -been like that cauldron--you remember?--into which they threw the -members of that old man who was to become young. There has been a -bubbling, and a fermenting! And the scum has come up--and up. And it -comes up still, and the brewing goes on. But in the end the young, -strong nation will step forth!" And Manisty himself, the upholder of the -Old against the New, the contemner of Governments and officials, admits -at last that Italy has defeated him, because, as he confesses to Lucy, -"your Italy is a witch." "As I have been going up and down this -country," so runs his recantation, "prating about their poverty, and -their taxes, their corruption, the incompetence of their leaders, the -folly of their quarrel with the Church; I have been finding myself -caught in the grip of things older and deeper--incredibly, primævally -old!--that still dominate everything, shape everything here. There are -forces in Italy, forces of land and soil and race, only now fully let -loose, that will re-make Church no less than State, as the generations -go by. Sometimes I have felt as though this country were the youngest in -Europe; with a future as fresh and teeming as the future of America. And -yet one thinks of it at other times as one vast graveyard; so thick it -is with the ashes and the bones of men." - -Thus Mrs. Ward wove into her book, as was her wont, all the rich -experience of her own mind, as she had gathered and brooded over it -during these months in Italy, and then, when all was finished, gave to -it the prophetic dedication which has made her name beloved by many an -Italian reader: - - "To Italy the beloved and beautiful, - Instructress of our past, - Delight of our present, - Comrade of our future-- - The heart of an Englishwoman - Offers this book." - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT--FRENCH AND ITALIAN FRIENDS--THE -SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL - -1899-1904 - - -In spite of the close and continuous toil that she put into the writing -of _Eleanor_ during the year 1899, Mrs. Ward found time, in the course -of that year, for an effort of literary criticism to which she devoted -the best powers of her mind, but which has never, perhaps, received the -recognition it deserves. I refer to the Prefaces that she wrote to -Messrs. Smith & Elder's "Haworth Edition" of the Brontë novels. - -Mrs. Ward had always had a peculiarly vivid feeling for the genius and -tragedy of the Brontë sisters, so that when Mr. George Smith asked her -in 1898 to undertake these Prefaces she felt it impossible to resist a -task not only attractive in itself, but presented to her in persuasive -phrase by "Dr. John." For it is by this time a commonplace of Brontë -lore that Lucy Snowe's first friend in the wilderness of Villette is no -other than the young publisher who had first recognized Charlotte's -greatness, though the situation between Lucy and Dr. John bears no -resemblance to the actual friendship that arose between Mr. George Smith -and his client. Still, the letters which Mr. Smith placed at Mrs. Ward's -disposal for this task were sufficiently interesting to arouse her -curiosity (one of them even described how Charlotte and he had gone -together to the celebrated phrenologist, Dr. Brown, to have their heads -examined!), and, taking her courage in both hands, she boldly asked him -whether he had ever been in love with Charlotte Brontë? His reply is -delightful as ever: - - -_August 18, 1898._ - - MY DEAR MRS. HUMPHRY WARD,-- - -...I was amused at your questions. No, I never was in the least bit - in love with Charlotte Brontë. I am afraid that the confession will - not raise me in your opinion, but the truth is, I never could have - loved any woman who had not some charm or grace of person, and - Charlotte Brontë had none. I liked her and was interested by her, - and I admired her--especially when she was in Yorkshire and I was - in London. I never was coxcomb enough to suppose that she was in - love with me. But I believe that my mother was at one time rather - alarmed. - -So with much toil and in the intervals of her other work, Mrs. Ward -accomplished the four admirable Prefaces to Charlotte's novels, enjoying -this return to her old critical work of the eighties and becoming more -and more deeply possessed by the strange power of the Haworth sisters. -Then in the winter she took up _Wuthering Heights_ and _Wildfell Hall_, -writing her introduction to the former under a stress of feeling so -profound as to produce in her, for the first and last time since -childhood, the desire to express herself in verse. Early one January -morning she reached out for pencil and paper and wrote down this sonnet, -sending it afterwards to George Smith to deal with as he would. He -printed it in the _Cornhill Magazine_ of February, 1900. - - CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTË. - - Pale sisters! reared amid the purple sea - Of windy moorland, where, remote, ye plied - All household arts, meek, passion-taught, and free, - Kinship your joy, and Fantasy your guide!-- - Ah! who again 'mid English heaths shall see - Such strength in frailest weakness, or so fierce - Behest on tender women laid, to pierce - The world's dull ear with burning poetry?-- - Whence was your spell?--and at what magic spring, - Under what guardian Muse, drank ye so deep - That still ye call, and we are listening; - That still ye plain to us, and we must weep?-- - Ask of the winds that haunt the moors, what breath - Blows in their storms, outlasting life and death! - -Her introductions duly appeared in the bulky volumes of the Haworth -Edition, and there, unfortunately, they lie buried. The edition was -doomed by its unwieldy _format_, and since the copyright had already -disappeared, these "library volumes" were soon displaced by the lighter -and handier productions of less stately publishing firms. But the -Prefaces had made their mark. The literary world was delighted to -welcome Mrs. Ward again among the critics, with whom she had earned her -earliest successes, and passages such as the following, which gives her -view of the ultimate position of women novelists and women poets, were -much quoted and discussed: - - "What may be said to be the main secret, the central cause, not - only of Charlotte's success, but, generally, of the success of - women in fiction, during the present century? In other fields of - art they are still either relatively amateurs, or their - performance, however good, awakens a kindly surprise. Their - position is hardly assured; they are still on sufferance. Whereas - in fiction the great names of the past, within their own sphere, - are the equals of all the world, accepted, discussed, analysed, by - the masculine critic, with precisely the same keenness and under - the same canons as he applies to Thackeray or Stevenson, to Balzac - or Loti. - - "The reason, perhaps, lies first in the fact that, whereas in all - other arts they are comparatively novices and strangers, having - still to find out the best way in which to appropriate traditions - and methods not created by women, in the art of speech, elegant, - fitting, familiar speech, women are and have long been at home. - They have practised it for generations, they have contributed - largely to its development. The arts of society and of - letter-writing pass naturally into the art of the novel. Madame de - Sévigné and Madame du Deffand are the precursors of George Sand; - they lay her foundations, and make her work possible. In the case - of poetry, one might imagine, a similar process is going on, but it - is not so far advanced. In proportion, however, as women's life and - culture widen, as the points of contact between them and the - manifold world multiply and develop, will Parnassus open before - them. At present those delicate and noble women who have entered - there look still a little strange to us. Mrs. Browning, George - Eliot, Emily Brontë, Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore--it is as though - they had wrested something that did not belong to them, by a kind - of splendid violence. As a rule, so far, women have been poets in - and through the novel--Cowper-like poets of the common life like - Miss Austen, or Mrs. Gaskell, or Mrs. Oliphant; Lucretian or - Virgilian observers of the many-coloured web like George Eliot, or, - in some phases, George Sand; romantic or lyrical artists like - George Sand again, or like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Here no one - questions their citizenship; no one is astonished by the place they - hold; they are here among the recognized masters of those who know. - - "Why? For, after all, women's range of material, even in the novel, - is necessarily limited. There are a hundred subjects and - experiences from which their mere sex debars them. Which is all - very true, but not to the point. For the one subject which they - have eternally at command, which is interesting to all the world, - and whereof large tracts are naturally and wholly their own, is the - subject of love--love of many kinds indeed, but pre-eminently the - love between man and woman. And being already free of the art and - tradition of words, their position in the novel is a strong one, - and their future probably very great." - -She sent her Prefaces to a few intimate friends, turning in this case -chiefly to those French friends who represented for her the ultimate -tribunal in literary matters. The older generation--Scherer, Taine, -Renan--were passing away by this time, but a younger had followed them, -of whom Paul Bourget, Brunetière of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, the -Gaston Paris, the Ribots, the Boutmys were among those whom Mrs. Ward -would always seek out during her almost annual visits to Paris in these -years. But among all her French acquaintance she came about this time to -regard M. André Chevrillon, nephew of Taine, traveller and generous -critic of English politics and literature, as the most sympathetic, for -he seemed to combine with an almost miraculous knowledge of English the -very essence of that _esprit français_ which she continued to adore to -the end of her life. He had first visited Mrs. Ward at Haslemere in -1891, as a "young French student lost in London," and he happened to be -with us at Stocks at the time of the publication of the Haworth Edition -(1900). A few days later Mrs. Ward received the following appreciation -from him: - - -MADAME,-- - - Je désire tout de suite vous remercier de votre gracieux accueil et - de la bonne journée que j'ai passée à Tring, mais je voudrais - surtout essayer de vous dire un peu l'impression, l'émotion durable - et qui me poursuit ici--que m'a donnée la lecture de vos admirables - articles sur les Brontë. Je n'ai pas su le faire tandis que j'étais - auprès de vous; ce n'est que ce matin que j'ai lu l'article sur - Charlotte et Jane Eyre et j'en suis encore tout hanté. Jamais âmes - de poètes et d'artistes n'ont été sondées d'un coup d'oeil plus - pénétrant, plus rapide, plus exercé et plus sûr. Vous avez su, en - quelques pages, montrer l'irréductible personnalité de ces âpres et - douloureuses jeunes femmes en même temps que vous expliquiez les - traits qui chez elles sont ethniques et généraux, la tendre, la - nostalgique âme celtique, farouchement repliée sur soi avec ses - pressentiments, ses divinisations magiques, sa faculté d'apercevoir - dans les couleurs du ciel, dans les formes et les lignes que - présente çà et là la nature des _signes_ chargés de sens mystérieux - et profond.... Enfin le dernier paragraphe où vous mettez Charlotte - à sa place dans la littérature européenne nous rappelle la sûre - _scholarship_, la puissance de généralisation auxquelles vous nous - avez habitués, la faculté philosophique qui aperçoit _les idées_ - comme des forces vivantes, dramatiques qui se croisent, se - combattent, moulent et façonnent les hommes, et sont les plus - vraies des réalités. - -M. Chevrillon shared, I think, with M. Jusserand and with M. Elie Halévy -the distinction of being the most profound and sympathetic among French -students of England at that time; all three were firm friends of Mrs. -Ward's, all charmed her into envious despair by their perfect command of -our language. M. Jusserand--who as a young man on the staff of the -French Embassy had been a constant visitor at Russell Square--would dash -off such notes as this: "Dear Mrs. Ward--Are you in town, or rather what -town is it you are in?" and now in this matter of the Brontë Prefaces he -wrote her his terrible confession: - - "I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay. - Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar - experience? I could never go beyond the terrible beginning of - _Shirley_--and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains - unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but - to Lady Jersey, who charged me to return it when I had finished - reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on - several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise - Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and - visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table - its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of - repulsive persons within. And yet I _can_ read. I have read with - delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of - Parliament, without missing a line. _Shirley_, I cannot. I must try - again, were it only for the sake of the editor of the series!" - -But in spite of these warm and in many cases lifelong friendships, Mrs. -Ward did not find the French atmosphere an easy one in such a year as -1900. The South African War had followed on the Dreyfus Case, the -Dreyfus Case on Fashoda, and the ties of friendship suffered an unkindly -strain. Mrs. Ward spent a few spring weeks in Rome, where all was golden -and delightful--forming new friendships every day, and passing into that -second stage of intimacy where first impressions are tested and were -not, for her, found wanting; then on the way home she lingered a little -in Paris, plunging into the gay confusions of the Great Exhibition. Her -literary friends offered her attentions and hospitalities as of old, but -she felt at once the difference of atmosphere, describing it vividly in -a letter to her brother Willie: - - -"PARIS, -"_May 16, 1900_. - - "We have had a delicious time in Rome, Dorothy and I, and now Paris - and the Exhibition are interesting and stimulating, but are not - Rome! I have come back more Italy-bewitched than ever. Rome was - bathed in the most glorious sunshine. Every breath was - life-giving--everything one saw was beauty. And the people are so - kind, so clever, so friendly--so different from this _France - malveillante_, between whom and us as it seems to me, Fashoda, - Dreyfus and the Transvaal have opened a gulf that it will take a - generation to fill. In Rome we saw many people and I had much - conversation that will be of use for the revision of _Eleanor_. The - country is progressing enormously, the _Anno Santo_ is a - comparative failure, and the Jesuit hatred of England flourishes - and abounds. The Harcourts were there and I had much talk with Sir - William about politics and much else. He is very broken in health, - but as amusing as ever. With him and Father Ehrle we went one - morning through the show treasures of the Vatican, turned over and - handled the Codex Vaticanus, the Michael Angelo letters, the - wonderful illuminated Dante and much else. One day with two friends - D. and I went to Viterbo, slept, and next day saw the two - Cinquecento villas, the Villa Lante and Caprarola. Caprarola was a - wonderful experience. Ten miles' drive into the mountains along a - ridge 3,000 feet high, commanding on one side the Lake of Vico, on - the other the whole valley of the Tiber from Assisi to Palestrina, - with Soracte in the middle distance, and the great rampart of the - Sabines half in snow and girdled with cloud. Between us and the - plain, slopes of chestnut and vine, and on either side of the road - delicious inlets of grass, starred thick with narcissus, running up - into continents of broom that by now must be all gold. Then the - great pentagonal palace of Caprarola, gloomy, magnificent, in an - incomparable position, frescoed inside from top to toe by the - Zuccheri, and containing in its great sala a series of portrait - groups of Charles V, Francis I, Henry II, Philip II, of the - greatest possible animation and brilliancy, and in almost perfect - preservation." - -After such delights the atmosphere of Paris must indeed have seemed -cold, but Mrs. Ward could always see the other side of such a -controversy, and took pleasure in reporting to her father a conversation -she had had, while in Paris, with "a charming old man, formerly -secretary of the Duc D'Aumale, and now curator of the Chantilly Museum." - - "We had," she wrote, "a very interesting talk about the War and - Dreyfus. 'Oh! I am all with the English,' he said--'they could not - let that state of things in the Transvaal continue--the struggle - was inevitable. But then I have lived in England. I love England, - and English people, and can look at matters calmly. As to the - treatment of English people in Paris, remember, Madame, that we are - just now a restless and discontented people. We are a disappointed - people--we have lost our great position in the world, and we don't - see how to get it back. That makes us rude and bitter. And then our - griefs against England go back to the Crimea. The English officers - then made themselves disliked--and in the great war of 1870, you - were not sympathetic--we thought you might have done something for - us, and you did nothing. Then you were much too violent about the - _Affaire_. The first trial was abominable, but by the second trial - we stand, we the _modérés_ who think ourselves honest fellows. But - you made no difference. The Press of both countries has done great - harm. All that explains the present state of things. It is not the - Boers--that is mainly a pretext, an opportunity." - -It is perhaps a curious fact that while German learning and German -methods of historical criticism had compelled Mrs. Ward's admiration -from her earliest years, no crop of personal friendships with Germans -had sprung from these sowings, as in the case of her French studies and -her Italian sojournings. Dear, homely German governesses were almost the -only children of the Fatherland with whom she had personal contact, her -relations with certain Biblical scholars and with the translators and -publishers of her books being confined to pen and ink. But there was one -German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy -correspondence--Dr. Adolf Jülicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on -the New Testament she presented one day, in a moment of enthusiasm, to -her younger daughter (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should -translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the -best part of the next three years to the task--only to find, when the -work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime -brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of -additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for -it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs. Ward -herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand; -little indeed was left of the daughter's unlucky sentences by the time -the process was complete. In vain we would point out to her that this -was the "Lower Criticism" and therefore unworthy of her serious -attention; she would merely make a face at us and plunge with -ardour--perhaps after a heavy day of writing--into the delightful task -of defacing poor Mr. Reginald Smith's clean page-proofs. For these were -the days when Mr. Reginald had practically taken over the business of -Smith & Elder's from his father-in-law, George Smith, and one of the -diversions that he allowed himself was to print Mrs. Ward's daughter's -translation free of all profit to the firm. The profits, indeed, if any, -were to go in full to the translator, but naturally the expenses of -proof-correction stood on the debit side of the account. Hence the -anxiety of the person who had once been seventeen whenever Mrs. Ward had -had a particularly energetic day with the proofs of Jülicher! - -_Eleanor_ had had a triumphal progress in the monthly numbers of -_Harper's Magazine_ throughout this year (1900), and appeared at length -in book-form on November 1. Mrs. Ward's pleasure in its reception was -much enhanced by the warm appreciation given to Mr. Albert Sterner's -illustrations--clever and charming drawings, which had wonderfully -caught the spirit of her characters and of the Italian scene, for Mr. -Sterner had spent two or three weeks with us at the Villa Barberini. He -and Mrs. Ward were fast friends, and it was always a matter of real -delight to her whenever he could be secured to illustrate one of her -subsequent novels. This was to be the case with _William Ashe_, -_Fenwick's Career_ and _The Case of Richard Meynell_. The publication of -_Eleanor_ coincided, however, with news of Mr. Arnold's serious illness -in Dublin, so that the chorus of delight in her "Italian novel" reached -Mrs. Ward's ears muffled by the presence of death. - -Thomas Arnold died on November 12, 1900, tended to the last by his -surviving children, and by the devoted second wife (Miss Josephine -Benison), whom he had married in 1889. Mrs. Ward's affection for him had -never wavered throughout these many years, as the letters which she -wrote him about all her doings, once or even twice in every week, attest -to this day; his mystical, child-like spirit attracted her invincibly. -Three days after his death she wrote to Bishop Creighton, over whom the -same summons was already hovering: - - -_November 15, 1900._ - -MY DEAR BISHOP,-- - - Many, many thanks. It was very dear of you to write to me, - especially at this time of illness, and I prize much all that you - say. My father's was a rare and _hidden_ nature. Among his papers - that have now come to me I have come across the most touching and - remarkable things--things that are a revelation even to his - children. The service yesterday in Newman's beautiful little - University Church, the early mass, the bright morning light on the - procession of friends and clergy through the cypress-lined paths of - Glasnevin, the last 'requiescat in pace,' answered by the Amen of - the little crowd--all made a fitting close to his gentle and - laborious life. He did not suffer much, I am thankful to say, and - he knew that we were all round him and smiled upon us to the last. - -And he on his side regarded her with an adoring affection that sometimes -found touching expression in his letters, as when, a few months after -the publication of _David Grieve_, he broke out in these words: - - "My own dearest Polly (let me call you for once what I often called - you when a child), God made you what you are, and those who love - you will be content to leave you to Him. He gave you that - wide-flashing, swiftly-combining wit, 'glancing from heaven to - earth, from earth to heaven'; He gave you also the power of turning - your thoughts, with deft and felicitous hand, into forms of beauty. - No one can divine what new problems will occupy you in time to - come, nor how you will solve them; but one may feel sure that with - you, as Emerson says, 'the future will be worthy of the past.'" - -Yet there was hardly a public question, especially in his later years, -on which Mrs. Ward and her father did not differ profoundly; for Tom -Arnold hated "Imperialism" and the modern world, especially such -manifestations of it as the Omdurman campaign and the South African War. -Mrs. Ward, on the other hand, watched the former with all the pride and -dread that comes from a personal stake in the adventure; for was not -Colonel Neville Lyttelton in command of a brigade, and had he not left -his wife and children under our care at Stocks Cottage? She had found a -task for Mrs. Lyttelton's quick mind, to while away the too-long hours -of that summer, in a translation into English of the "Pensées" of -Joubert; their consultations over the fine shades of his meaning, while -the bees hummed in the lime-tree on the lawn, became the light and -relaxation of her days, while, later on, the Introduction she -contributed to the book helped its appearance with the public. And when -Colonel Lyttelton came home, a happy soldier, and pegged out the -Omdurman campaign for us on the drawing-room floor with matches, how was -it possible not to rejoice with him in the overthrow of so dark a -tyranny as the Khalifa's? - -But the South African War was a matter of far more mingled feelings, -though on the whole Mrs. Ward was persuaded that we were right as -against President Kruger and his methods, and upheld this view in many a -letter to her father: - - "I am not without sympathy for the Boers," she wrote to him in - November, 1899, "and I often try to realize their case and how the - invasive unwelcome English power looks to them. But it seems to me - that history--which for me is God--makes very stern decisions - between nations. The Boers have had their chance of an ascendancy - which must have been theirs if they had known how to work for it - and deserve it; they have missed it, and the chance now passes to - England. If she is not worthy of it, it won't remain with her--that - one may be sure. But I must say that the loyalty of the other - colonies--especially of French-speaking Canada; the pacification - and good government of India, the noble development of Egypt, are - to me so many signs that at present we _are_ fit to rule, and are - meant to rule. But we shall rule only so long as we execute - righteous judgment and so long as it is for the good of the world - that we should rule." - -She would have liked to see peace made after Lord Roberts' early -victories, and was for a time in favour of such terms as would not have -involved annexation. But when this hope failed she settled down to -endure the thing, and in 1901 devoted much time and labour to the -improvement of the Boer women's and children's lot in the concentration -camps. She joined the committee of the Victoria League formed for this -purpose. And, as inevitably happens in all such controversies, the -passion felt by the other side contributed to the hardening of her own -opinion, so that the end of the war found her more staunch an -Imperialist, more definite a Conservative, than she would have admitted -herself to be before it. - -It was during the war-shadowed winter of 1900-1901 that Mrs. Ward -suffered a series of heavy personal losses in the death of many of her -oldest friends, beginning with Mr. James Cropper, of Ellergreen, her -quasi-uncle,[21] with whom she had been on the most affectionate terms -ever since her childhood. This occurred a bare month before her father's -death; then, two months later (January 14, 1901), came the blow that the -whole country felt as a catastrophe, the death of Bishop Creighton, and, -early in April, a loss that came home very sadly to Mrs. Ward, that of -her well-beloved publisher and friend, George Smith. "I never had a -truer friend or a wiser counsellor," she wrote of him, and indeed he -combined these qualities with so shrewd a humour and so unvarying a -kindness that Mrs. Ward might well count herself fortunate to have -enjoyed fourteen years of familiar intercourse with him. - - "His position as a publisher was very remarkable," she wrote to her - son. "He was the friend of his authors, their counsellor, banker - and domestic providence often--as Murray was to Byron. But nobody - would ever have dared to take the liberties with him that Byron did - with Murray." - -When he was gone, Mrs. Ward was fortunate enough to find in his -successor, Reginald Smith, an equally just and generous adviser, on -whose friendship she leant more and more until death took him too, in -the tragic winter of 1916. - - * * * * * - -The remarkable success of _Eleanor_ in the United States (where the -character of Lucy Foster won all hearts) led to inquiries being made -from certain theatrical quarters there as to whether Mrs. Ward would not -undertake to dramatize it. The suggestion attracted her at once, for -though she had never written anything for the stage she had, all her -life, been a keenly interested critic of plays and actors and a devoted -adherent of French methods as against the heavy English stage -conventions. But when she seriously confronted the problem she felt -herself too ignorant of stagecraft to undertake the task unaided, and -therefore called in to her counsels that delightful writer of light -comedy, Julian Sturgis, whom she persuaded to collaborate with her. -Could she have foreseen the play's delays, the insolence of box offices -and the manifold despairs that awaited her in this new path, probably -even her high courage would have turned aside, but the co-operation it -brought her with so rare a spirit as Julian Sturgis was at any rate a -very living compensation. In the spring of 1901 Mr. Sturgis came out to -stay with us in a villa we had taken (on the spur of the moment) on the -outskirts of Rapallo (not then celebrated as the scene of international -"pacts"), and together he and his hostess plunged with ardour into the -business of making their puppets move. The work was extraordinarily -hard, while the skies above our crimson villa behaved as though it were -Westmorland and the Mediterranean thundered on the sea-wall of our -garden; but Mrs. Ward enjoyed the stimulus and novelty of it immensely -and always declared that she owed much even for her novelist's art to -that week of "grind" with Mr. Sturgis. Nor was it quite all grind, for -one day, when the sun at last shone, we took our guest and his tall Eton -boy up the long pilgrimage-way to the Madonna di Montallegro, overtaking -a party of laden peasant-women as we went to whom Mr. Sturgis offered -some passing kindness. His advances were met by a torrent of words in -some uncouth dialect which none of us could understand, but he chose to -appropriate them to himself as a prayer offered to "Santo Giulio," and -"Santo Giulio" he remained to Mrs. Ward and all of us for the too-short -remnant of his life.[22] The play stood up and lived by the time his -visit was ended; but this was only the beginning of endless heartaches -and disappointments. At first there were hopes of the Duse, then of Mrs. -Pat; then Mr. Benson was to produce it with a clever and charming -amateur actress of our acquaintance in the role of Eleanor; then at -length a real promise was secured from a well-known actor-manager, and -all was fixed for May, 1902. But the promise was not an agreement, and -was therefore mortal; when it died Mr. Sturgis's only comment was: "My -dear Mrs. Ward, I am not a bit surprised. My deep distrust of the -theatrical world, wherein pretending gets into the blood, makes me -sceptical of any promises which are not stamped, signed and witnessed by -a legion of angels." - -Already, however, Miss Marion Terry, Miss Robins and Miss Lilian -Braithwaite had promised in no spirit of "pretending" to play the three -principal parts, so that with things so well advanced on that side Mrs. -Ward determined to go forward. Since the managers were timid she would -take a theatre and bear the risk herself. Finally all was settled with -the Court Theatre, and the delightful agony of the rehearsals began -(October, 1902). Miss Terry sprained a tendon in her leg, but gallantly -limped through her part, while the constant changes called for in the -words, the cuts and compressions, made a bewildering variety of versions -that left the lay onlooker gasping. Mrs. Ward, however, was equal to all -occasions--even to a last-minute change in the actor who played -Manisty[23]--until not one of the cast but was moved to astonishment and -admiration, not only by her versatility, but by her long-suffering. Add -to this her endless consideration for themselves--for their comfort, -their feelings or their clothes--and it is easy to understand the -feelings of real affection which grew up between author and actors as -the play went on. Yet all was of no avail, or, at least, it failed to -conquer the great heart of the British public. The cast was admirable, -the reviews were kind--though Mr. Walkley in _The Times_ perhaps gave -the key to the situation when he ended his article with the words, "But -then, who _could_ play Manisty?" Yet, somehow, the audience (after the -first day) failed to fill the seats. _Eleanor_ ran for only fifteen -matinées, October 30-November 15, and though much was said of a -revival, she only once again saw the footlights--in a couple of special -matinées given in aid of the Passmore Edwards Settlement. And yet--what -fun it had been! Though the financial loss made her rueful, Mrs. Ward -always looked back to those six weeks at the Court Theatre as a -breathless but happy episode, during which she had looked deep into the -technique of a new art and brought from it, not success indeed, but much -valuable experience which she might bring to bear upon her future work. -Certainly the two novels of these years, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and the -_Marriage of William Ashe_, gained much in sureness of touch, terseness -and finish from Mrs. Ward's dramatic studies; _Lady Rose_ was in fact -acclaimed by the critics as the book in which, at last, the writer -showed "the predominance of the artistic over the ethical instinct, the -subordination of the didactic to the artistic impulse." - -She never dramatized it, but a dramatized version of _William Ashe_, at -which Mrs. Ward toiled extremely hard, in collaboration with Miss -Margaret Mayo, during 1905, was accepted by an American "stock company" -and acquired a considerable reputation in the States. In London, -however, where it was performed by a semi-American cast in 1908, it fell -very flat, Mrs. Ward being fortunately spared the sight of it owing to -the fact that she herself was across the Atlantic at the time. The -actress who played Kitty, wishing to leave the author in no doubt as to -the cause of its failure, cabled to her after the first night, "Press -unfriendly to play--_my_ performance highly praised!" Even so, however, -the Manager decided to withdraw it after a three weeks' run, and no play -of Mrs. Ward's was ever afterwards performed in England. - -Among the most absorbed spectators of the first performance of -_Eleanor_, watching it from an arm-chair brought for his ease into the -author's box, was the pathetic figure of Mrs. Ward's eldest brother, -William Arnold. His health had broken down some years before, while he -was still assistant editor of the _Manchester Guardian_, and he had come -to live, with his wife, in a small house in Chelsea, where it was Mrs. -Ward's delight to find him, on his better days, and to discuss all -things in heaven and earth with him. No comradeship could ever have been -closer than was theirs, though intercourse with him would always end in -a strangling heartache for his state of health, for noble gifts -submerged by bodily pain, despite as gallant a fight as was ever waged -by suffering man. Mrs. Ward was for ever watching over him and helping -him; sending him abroad in search of sun and warmth; having him to stay -with her at Stocks, in London, or at some villa in Italy; encouraging -him to do what work he could. But most they loved their talks together. -Their tastes would usually agree on literary matters, and differ on -politics, but no matter what the subject, his flashes of mischief and -malice would light up the most ordinary topic, and no one loved better -to draw him out, and to set him railing or praising, than his sister. -How they would talk, sometimes, about the details of her craft, about -Jane Austen, or Trollope, or George Meredith! For this latter they both -had a feeling akin to adoration, based on a knowledge not only of his -novels but of his poems (then not a common accomplishment); and I -remember W. T. A. once saying to me that he thought the jolliest line in -English poetry was - - Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose. - -Mrs. Ward's feeling for the old giant of Box Hill led her on all -occasions to champion his right to be regarded as the greatest living -master of English--as may be seen from the following spirited letter -(January 19, 1902) addressed to the secretary of the Society of Authors, -when that body had, in her view, made the wrong decision in recommending -Herbert Spencer instead of Meredith for the Nobel Prize. - - "However eminent Mr. Spencer may be" (she wrote), "and however - important his contribution to English thought, there must be a - great many of us who will feel, when it is a question of - interrogating English opinion as to the most distinguished name - among us in pure literature, there can be only one answer--George - Meredith. It is no reply to say that the Swedish Academy will - probably know something of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and may know little - or nothing about Mr. Meredith. That is their affair, not ours. The - meaning and purpose of this prize has been illustrated by the - selection of M. Sully Prud'homme. Its recipient should be surely, - first and foremost, a man of letters, and, if possible, a - representative of what the Germans call 'Dichtung,' whether in - prose or verse. - - "If Mr. Meredith had written nothing but the love-scenes in - _Richard Feverel_; _The Egoist_; and certain passages of - description in _Vittoria_ and _Beauchamp's Career_, he would still - stand at the head of English 'Dichtung.' There is no critic now who - can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of - letters he is easily first; to compare Mr. Spencer's power of clear - statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be - absurd--in the literary field. And this is or should be a literary - award. - - "I trust that in writing thus I shall not be misunderstood. I am - not venturing to dispute Mr. Spencer's great position in the - history of English thought--I have neither the wish nor the - capacity for anything of the kind. But to be the philosopher of - evolution is one thing; to be our first man of letters is another. - I would submit that English opinion is asked to point out our most - distinguished man of letters, and that if we cannot unanimously say - 'George Meredith!' we are not worthy that Genius should come among - us at all." - -But only two years after this outburst (which I feel sure she showed -him) her comradeship with "Will" ended for ever, and his sufferings -ceased. He died on May 29, 1904.[24] - - * * * * * - -About the same time as she lost her beloved brother, Mrs. Ward acquired -a new member of the family in the person of her son-in-law, George -Macaulay Trevelyan, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. He and her younger -daughter became engaged at the Villa Bonaventura, Cadenabbia--which Mrs. -Ward had taken from Mr. Alfred Trench--in May, 1903--and ten months -later they were married at Oxford. Mrs. Ward soon became much devoted to -her son-in-law, whose ardent faiths and non-faiths challenged and -stimulated her, bringing her into touch with movements of thought that -ran parallel to, but had not yet mingled with, her own belief in a more -reasonable Christianity. The walls of her room at Stocks would re-echo, -during his visits, with the most fundamental discussions! Mr. -Chamberlain, too, was a disturbing element in those days, with his -Tariff Reform campaign, for what was Mrs. Ward to do when her son took -one side and her son-in-law the other--and when, moreover, her own -well-trained mind was perfectly capable of understanding the arguments -of each? But whatever the subject of these discussions, whether politics -or religion, they only served to increase the affection between the two, -which grew and deepened with every turn of fortune that the years might -bring. - -It is perhaps interesting to speculate what might have been the -development of Mrs. Ward's powers if her intellect had never been -captured by the dramatic spell, and if other sides of that -"wide-flashing" mind had been allowed to work themselves out unchecked. -For in the lull that followed the completion of _Eleanor_ she had -conceived the writing of a "Life of Christ" based on such a -re-interpretation of the Gospel story as she believed had been made -possible by the research of the last half-century. She brooded much over -this theme and even discussed it with her publishers. But whether it was -that her continued ill-health made her shrink from the heavy toil -involved by such a task--the re-reading and collating of all her -Germans, the study of an infinite amount of fresh material, and probably -a journey to Palestine--or whether the practical side of Christianity -had by now absorbed too large a share of her time and her powers, the -project never came to fruition, though it never ceased to attract her. - - * * * * * - -And indeed, Mrs. Ward's practical adventures in well-doing during these -years would have been enough to fill the lives of any three ordinary -individuals, without any such diversions as the writing of novels or the -hammering out of plays. The affairs of the Settlement were always on her -shoulders, not only as regards the financial burden of its maintenance, -but in all the personal questions that inevitably arose in such a busy -hive of humanity. If the nurse of the Invalid School had words with the -porter, the case was sure to come up to her for judgment, while any -misdemeanour among the young people themselves who frequented the -building would cause her the most anxious searchings of heart. But "it -does not do to start things and then let them drift," as she wrote in -these days to one of us, and she continued to cherish the Settlement, to -support the Warden (Mr. Tatton) in his difficulties and to beg for -money, with an extraordinary vitality as well as an extraordinary -patience. Yet in spite of all, the Settlement was far more of joy to her -than of burden, and on its children's side it never ceased to be pure -joy from the beginning. For was it not always possible to devise new -ways of making the children happy, as well as to continue the old? The -principal way in which Mrs. Ward's work extended itself at this time was -in the opening of the "Vacation School," designed to bring in from the -streets in large numbers the children left stranded during the August -holiday,--and if anyone will take the trouble to wander through the back -streets during that happy season, and to note what he sees, there will -be little doubt in his mind that such a school must be a real -deliverance. Mrs. Ward had taken the idea from an account by Mr. Henry -Curtis in _Harper's Magazine_ (early in 1902) of the first schools of -the kind started in New York, and her mind had at once grasped the -possibilities of such a scheme. There stood the Settlement with its fine -shady garden in the rear, empty and dumb through the holidays: surely it -would be a sin not to use it! - -She collected a special fund from a few old friends of the Settlement, -appointed an admirable director in the person of Mr. E. G. Holland, an -assistant master at the Highgate Secondary School, enlisted the help of -all the schools around to send us such children only as had no chance of -a country holiday, and then issued invitations to some 750, divided into -two batches, morning and afternoon. The result was an orderly and -delighted crowd which, owing to Miss Churcher's and Mr. Holland's -faultless organization, moved from class to class and from garden to -building without the smallest hitch, played and dug in the "waste -ground" beyond the garden, specially thrown open to the school by the -Duke of Bedford, and when rain came marched into the building and filled -its basement rooms and the pleasant library and class-rooms without any -confusion or squabbling. The occupations were much the same as those -already in use for the "Recreation School," and never failed to attract -and then to keep the children; while the spirit of good fellowship that -the atmosphere of the school engendered had a marked effect on their -manners as the four weeks of the school passed away. Here is Mrs. Ward's -own account of the contrast presented by the children as they were in -the Vacation School and as they could not help being in a mean street -only half a mile away:[25] - - "Last week a lady interested in the school was passing through one - of the slum streets to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Much good - work has been done there by many agencies. But in August most of - the workers are away. Dirty, ragged, fighting or querulous children - covered the pavement, or seemed to be bursting out of the grimy - houses. The street was filthy, the clothes of the children to - match. There was no occupation; the little souls were given up to - 'the weight of chance desires'; and whatever happiness there was - must have been of rather a perilous sort. The same spectator passed - on, and half a mile eastward entered the settlement building in - Tavistock Place. Here were nearly 300 children (the children of the - Evening Session), divided between house and garden, many of them - from quarters quite as poor as those she had just traversed. But - all was order, friendliness and enjoyment. Every child was clean - and neat, though the clothes might be poor; if a boy brushed past - the visitor, it would be with a pleasant 'Excuse me, Miss'; in the - manual training-room boys looked up from the benches with glee to - show the models they had made; the drawing-room of the settlement - was full of little ones busy with the unfamiliar delights of brush - or pencil; in the library boys were sitting hunched up over - _Masterman Ready_, or the ever-adored _Robinson Crusoe_; girls were - deep in _Anderson's Fairy Tales_ or _The Cuckoo Clock_, the little - ones were reading Mr. Stead's _Books for the Bairns_ or looking at - pictures; outside in the garden under the trees clay modelling and - kindergarten games were going on, while the sand-pit was crowded - with children enjoying themselves heartily without either shouting - or fighting. Meanwhile in the big hall parents were thronging in to - see the musical drill, the dancing or the acting, or to listen to - the singing; the fathers as proud as the mothers that Willie was - 'in the Shakespeare,' or Nellie 'in the Gavotte.' The visitor had - only to watch to see that the teachers were obeyed at a word, at a - glance, and that the children loved to obey. Everywhere was - discipline, good temper, pleasure. And next day the school broke up - with the joining of 600 voices in the old hymn 'O God, our help in - ages past.' Surely no contrast could be more complete." - -And in conclusion Mrs. Ward made her characteristic appeal: - - "Shall we not enter seriously on the movement and call on our - public authorities to take it up? Who can doubt the need of it, - even when all allowance is made for country holidays of all sorts? - Extend and develop country holidays as you will, London in the - summer vacation month will never be without its hundreds of - thousands of children for whom these Vacation Schools, properly - managed, would be almost a boon of fairyland." - -The Vacation School had indeed been watched with much interest by the -London School Board, which had also co-operated by the lending of -furniture and "stock," but the transference of its powers to the London -County Council made a bad atmosphere, just at this time, for the -adoption of new experiments, and the new "London Education Authority" -which arose in 1903 was only too glad to leave the carrying-on of the -Settlement Vacation School to Mrs. Ward. Every year it seemed to -increase in popularity. Mr. Holland remained director for thirteen -consecutive Augusts (1902-1914); the numbers of the school rose to 1,000 -per day in later years, when an additional building became available, -and Mrs. Ward could have no greater pleasure, when the pressure of her -literary work permitted, than to come up from Stocks for a day to watch -her holiday children. But in spite of the universally recognized success -of her experiment, this and the "Holiday School" organized by the -Browning Settlement from 1904 onwards remained practically the only -efforts of the kind carried on in London, until at length, in 1910, the -L.C.C. followed suit by opening six Vacation Schools in different parts -of the metropolis, housed in the ordinary school buildings and -playgrounds. They were an enormous boon to the children of those -districts, but the Council did not persist in its good deeds, for after -two years these Holiday Schools were allowed to drop, and have never, -unfortunately, been revived. Indeed, in June, 1921, a resolution was -passed, prohibiting any expenditure on Holiday Schools or Organized -Playgrounds. So does the London child pay its share of the War Debt. - -But the Vacation School at the Settlement has never lapsed, since the -first day that Mrs. Ward opened it in August, 1902, although in these -times of forced economy the numbers are less than of old. But there, -under the great plane-trees in the garden, the trestle-tables are still -set up and the children still congregate, bearing their laughing -testimony to the memory of one who knew their little hearts, and who, -seeing them shepherdless in the hot streets, could not rest until they -were gathered in. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -LONDON LIFE--THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE CHILDREN'S PLAY CENTRES - -1904-1917 - - -Both _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and _The Marriage of William Ashe_, which -appeared in 1903 and 1905 respectively, are novels of London life, -reflecting in their minor characters, their talk and the incidents that -accompany the tale, that intimate aquaintance with the world of London -which Mrs. Ward had acquired during the many years that she had spent in -observing it, in working with it, and in sharing some of the rarer forms -of the rewards which it has to give. The central theme in each case is a -broadly human one, but the setting and the savour are those of -London--that all-devouring London which she loved so well, but from -which, after a few weeks of its turmoil, she was always so thankful to -escape. It was now twenty years and more since she and Mr. Ward had come -to live in the pretty old house in Russell Square where they had first -gathered their friends around them, and where her Thursdays had first -become an institution; but time had not dimmed her zest for friendship -and for talk, so that the Thursdays and the frequent dinner-parties -continued at Grosvenor Place through all the years that followed. She -would never have claimed that they amounted to a _salon_, for, in spite -of _Lady Rose's Daughter_, her belief was that a _salon_, properly -so-called, was not in the English tradition, and could hardly survive -outside Paris; yet I think that if one had taken the opinion of those -who frequented them they would have said that Mrs. Ward's afternoons or -evenings made a remarkable English equivalent. She herself did not -disguise the fact that she regarded good talk as an art, and enjoyed -nothing more than the play of mind on mind and the quick thrust and -parry that occasionally sweeps across a dinner-table; but she had no -illusions as to the natural inaptitude of the English for the art, and -would often quote the exasperated remark of her great friend in Rome, -Contessa Maria Pasolini, after an evening spent in entertaining English -visitors: "You English, you need so much winding up! Now, if I were -merely to tear up a piece of paper and throw it down among my French -friends, they would talk about it delightfully all the evening!" Hence -her injunctions to her children, when they began to take wing and go -forth to "social junketings" of their own, not to be stuck-up or blasé, -and above all "not to sit like a stuck pig when you get there!" To exert -one's wits to make a party go was part of one's social duty, just as -much as handing the tea-cake or opening the door, and she herself, in -spite of a natural absence of small talk which made her formidable -sometimes to new acquaintances, would faithfully follow her own -precepts. But with her the effort was second nature, for it sprang from -her inborn desire to place herself in sympathetic relations with her -neighbour, to draw out the best in him, to set him going. And so the -talk that was heard at Grosvenor Place, whether at her small -luncheon-parties, her Thursdays, or her dinners, always took from her -first and foremost the quality of reality; people talked--or made her -talk--of the things they knew or cared about, and since her range was so -wide, and there was always, as an old friend expressed it, "so much -tinder about" among her guests, the result was a certain vividness and -vitality that left their mark, and have been long remembered. And, as -one of those who knew her best said once on a public occasion,[26] she -had the secret of making you feel, as you left her house, that you were -a much finer fellow than you thought when you went in; she made you -believe in yourself, for she had, by some subtle magic--or perhaps by -the simplest of all--brought out gifts or powers in you which you hardly -knew that you possessed. - -As to the persons who came and went in that pretty room, looking out on -the garden of Buckingham Palace, how is it possible to number or name -them, or to recall the flavour of their long-vanished conversation? -Many have, like their hostess, passed into the unknown: figures like -Leslie Stephen, who wrote to her often, especially after his wife's -death, and came at intervals to Grosvenor Place for a long -_tête-à-tête_, sitting on the sofa beside Mrs. Ward, his ear-trumpet -between them; or like the much-loved Burne-Jones, who came at an earlier -stage and too soon ceased to come, for he died in 1898, leaving her only -a little bundle of letters which she affectionately treasured; or again, -like Lady Wemyss, the deep-voiced, queerly-dressed _grande dame_, whom -Mrs. Ward loved for her heart's sake, and of whom she has recorded a -suggestion, perhaps, in the Lady Winterbourne of _Marcella_; and ah! how -many more, of whom it would be unprofitable for the after-born to write. -Mrs. Ward has left in her novels the mirror of the world in which she -lived and moved, and in her _Recollections_ a more intimate picture of -her friends. To try to add to these records would be but to tempt the -Gods. - -But at what a cost in fatigue of body and mind even her entertaining was -carried on, those who passed their days with Mrs. Ward may at least -tell. It was always the same story. She put so much of herself into -whatever she was doing that the effort produced exhaustion. And so, -after her Thursdays, or perhaps after some gathering of Settlement -workers to whom she had been talking individually, she would collapse -upon the sofa, white and speechless, only fit to be "stroked" and left -to gather her forces again as best she might. There was one Thursday in -the month when, after her own "At Home," she was obliged to attend the -Settlement Council meeting at eight o'clock. This meant that there was -no time for recuperation between the two, but only for a hurried meal, -filled with hasty consultations as to the evening's notes, letters and -telephonings that must be done during her absence; then she would go -off, and some time towards eleven would return, worn out and crumpled, -though perhaps with the light of battle still in her eye over some point -well raised or some victory won. At the Settlement she would have given -no hint of any disability, and would have been the life and soul of the -meeting. Perhaps only her friend the Warden knew what a struggle against -physical pain and weakness her presence there had implied. We used to -chaff her sometimes about the physical ailments of her heroines, who, -according to our robust ideas, were too fond of turning white or of -letting their lips tremble, but this trick of her novels expressed only -too deep an experience of her own, since never, in all the years that -she was writing, did she know what it was to have a day of ordinary -physical strength. On many and many of her guests she made the illusion -of being a strong woman, but could they have seen her when the talk and -the excitement were over, they would have known that it was only her -spirit that had carried her through. The body was always dragged after, -a more or less protesting slave. - -Her way of life at Grosvenor Place was naturally one which involved a -good deal of expenditure. Sometimes she would have searchings of heart -over this, or even momentary spasms of economy, but it sprang in reality -from two fundamental causes--one her delight in beautiful things, -inherited even in her starved childhood from her mother, and shared to -the full in later years with her husband; the other this constant -ill-health, which made her incapable of "roughing it," and rendered a -certain amount of luxury indispensable if she was to get through her -daily task. Good pictures and the right kind of furniture gave her a -definite joy for their own sakes, while the arrangement of the chairs -and tables in the manner best calculated to encourage talk was always a -fascinating problem. Clothes, too, were not to be despised, and though -she liked to sit and work in some old rag that had seen better days, it -amused her also to go and plan some beautiful thing with her dressmaker, -Mrs. Kerr, and it amused her to wear the "creation" when it was -finished. Her faithful maid, Lizzie, who had been with us since the -early days of Russell Square, and who was often more nurse than maid to -her, cut and altered and renovated in her little workroom upstairs, -while every now and then Mrs. Ward would issue forth and make a raid -upon the shops, coming home either triumphant to face the criticism of -her family, or very low because she knew she had been beguiled into -buying something which she now positively hated. She was extremely -particular, too, about her daughters' clothes, nor could she make up her -mind, when they came out, to give them a dress allowance, being far too -much interested herself in the problem of how they looked; but even -when she was fully responsible for some luckless garment of theirs she -would often break out, on its first appearance, with the fatal words, -"Go upstairs, take that off, and let me _never_ see it again until it's -completely re-made!"--usually uttered amid helpless giggles, for this -had become, by long use, a stock phrase in our family. - -Strangers coming from afar with some claim upon her kindness found -always a ready welcome at her house. In addition to her French and -Italian friends, who would find their way to her door as soon as they -arrived in London, she had many warm friendships with Americans, -beginning with her much-loved cousin, Frederick W. Whitridge, who had -married Matthew Arnold's daughter Lucy, and had got Mr. Ward to build a -comely house for her within half a mile of Stocks. "Cousin Fred," with -his charming blue eyes and white moustache and beard, had been a truly -Olympian figure to us children even in the days of Russell Square, for -had he not deposited on our plates at breakfast, one golden morning, a -sovereign each for the two elders and half a sovereign for the youngest? -And as the years passed on, and he became the intimate friend of -Roosevelt and a recognized leader of the New York Bar, the friendship -between him and Mrs. Ward grew ever deeper, so that his shrewd wisdom -and inimitable humour, as well as his habit of spoiling the people he -was fond of, came to be looked for each summer as one of the true -pleasures of the year. His son was one of the first Americans to join -the British Army in 1914, but he himself, like Henry James, was not to -see the day for which both he and Roosevelt had toiled so hard. He died -in December, 1916, four months before America "came in." Mr. Lowell, the -American Ambassador during the 'eighties, had been a frequent visitor at -Russell Square, while his successors, Hay, Bayard and Choate, were all -on friendly terms with Mrs. Ward. Comrades in her own trade whom it -always pleased her to see were Mr. Gilder, editor of the _Century -Magazine_, welcome whether he came as publisher or friend; Mr. Godkin, -of the _Evening Post_, the most intellectual among American journalists; -Mr. S. S. McClure, who had first tracked down Mrs. Ward at Borough Farm, -and remained ever afterwards on cordial, not to say familiar, terms with -her; Charles Dudley Warner, Mrs. Wharton, the William James's, and many -more. But the most intimate of all were certain women: that inseparable -and delightful pair, Mrs. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett (the writer -of New England stories), who twice found their way to Stocks, and many -times to Grosvenor Place, and lastly that other Bostonian, Miss Sara -Norton, whose friendship for Dorothy made her almost as another daughter -during her visits to Stocks, to Levens, or to the Villa Bonaventura. - -But it was not by any means only for the "distinguished," whether from -home or abroad, that Grosvenor Place laid itself out. One of its -principal functions was that of making the head-quarters in London for -all the younger members of Mrs. Ward's own family, as well as for the -grandchildren who began about this time to find their way to her knee. -For to all such young people she was mother, fairy godmother and friend -rolled into one. Settlement workers and Associates, teachers and many -"dim" people of various professions would find her as accessible as her -strenuous hours of labour would allow. All she asked of those who came -to her house was that they should have something real to contribute--and -if possible that they should contribute it without egotism. Certainly -she did not suffer bores gladly; an ordinary bore was bad enough, but an -egotistic bore would produce a peculiar kind of nervous irritation in -her which we who watched could always detect, however manfully she -strove to conceal it. Nor could she ever bring herself to observe the -strict rules of London etiquette, so that to "go calling" was an unknown -occupation in her calendar, and in spite of two daughters and a -secretary her social lapses and forgetfulnesses sometimes plunged her in -black despair. When she had hopelessly missed Mrs. So-and-So's party, to -which she had fully meant to go, she would sorrowfully declare that the -motto of the Ward family ought to be: "Never went and never wrote." - -It is needless to point out how exhausting this London life became to -one who pressed so much into it as Mrs. Ward. For although she could -rarely write her books in London, being far too distracted by the -demands of the hungry world upon her time, it was mainly at Grosvenor -Place that she hammered out her schemes for the welfare of London's -children, talking them over with members of the School Board or the -County Council, driving about to some of the poorest districts to see -with her own eyes the conditions under which they lived, and planning -out the details in mornings of hard work with Miss Churcher. The -development of the Cripples' Schools, both in London and the Provinces, -was very much on her shoulders at this time, for she felt the imperative -need for extending them to other parts of the country, and undertook -many arduous missionary journeys on their behalf during the few years -that followed their establishment in London. There, as the schools grew -and spread under the fostering care of the L.C.C., it was the auxiliary -services of after-care, feeding and training that claimed the principal -share of her attention. But she had a very efficient committee to assist -her in these matters, under the chairmanship of Miss Maude Lawrence, so -that gradually her responsibility for the London cripples grew less -heavy, and she was able to turn to other schemes that now began to -simmer in her mind for the welfare of the whole as well as the halt -among London's children. - -For the remarkable success of the Children's Recreation School at the -Settlement, which by the year 1904 had attendances of some 1,700 -children a week (all, of course, wholly voluntary), led Mrs. Ward to -feel that some effort might be made to carry the civilizing effect of -such centres of play into the remoter and still more squalid regions of -the East and South. Already the Children's Happy Evenings' Association -held weekly or fortnightly "Evenings" in some eighty or ninety schools, -giving much pleasure to the children wherever they went, but Mrs. Ward's -plan was for something on a more intensive scale than this, something -that might exert a continuous influence over the lives of large numbers -of children in any given district, as the occupations and delights of -the "Passmore" did over the children of St. Pancras. She founded a small -committee, in October, 1904, to go into the matter and to lay proposals -before the Education Committee of the London County Council: proposals -to the effect that the "Play Centres Committee" should be allowed the -free use of certain schools after school hours on five evenings a week, -from 5.30 to 7.30, and also on Saturday mornings, for the purpose of -providing games, physical exercises and handwork occupations for the -children of that district. The Council readily gave its consent, and -Mrs. Ward applied herself to the task of raising sufficient funds for -the maintenance of eight "Evening Play Centres" in certain school -buildings, to be carried on for a year as an experiment. She obtained -promises amounting to nearly £800, largely from the same friends as had -watched her work at the Settlement, and with this she felt that she -could go forward. After careful inquiry, four schools in the East End -were selected, with one in Somers Town and two in Lambeth and Walworth -respectively, while Canon Barnett offered Toynbee Hall itself as the -scene of an eighth Centre. Mrs. Ward devoted special pains to the -selection of the eight Superintendents who were to have charge of these -Play Centres, for she rightly felt that on their wisdom and skill in -handling the large numbers of children who would pass through their -hands would largely depend the success of the adventure. Gymnastic -instructors, handwork teachers and many voluntary helpers were also -secured and assigned to the various Centres, so that the staff in each -case consisted of a _cadre_ of paid and professional workers, assisted -by as many volunteers as possible. Mrs. Ward's long experience at the -Settlement had convinced her that this nucleus of paid workers was -essential to the smooth and continuous working of any such scheme, since -although the best volunteers were invaluable in supplying an element of -initiative and originality in the working out of new ideas, still there -was also an element of irregularity in their attendance which detracted -much from their usefulness! And in proportion as the Centres succeeded -in their object of attracting the children from the streets, so much the -more disastrous would it be if large numbers of them were left -shepherdless on foggy evenings because Miss So-and-So had a bad cold. -Mrs. Ward was much criticized in certain quarters for bringing the -"professional element" into her Play Centres, but she knew better than -her critics how far the voluntary element might safely be trusted, and -how far it must be supplemented by the professional. She was playing all -the time for a _big thing_, with possibilities of expansion not only in -London but in the great industrial towns as well, besides which she -always hotly resented the suggestion that the paid worker must be -inferior in quality to the volunteer. On the contrary, it interested her -immensely to see how the professional teachers, both men and women, -would often reveal new and unsuspected qualities in the freer atmosphere -of the Play Centre, while the greater intimacy that they acquired with -their children was--as they often acknowledged--of the greatest value to -them in their day-school work. - -The first eight Play Centres opened their doors to the children on the -first Monday in February, 1905, and it may be imagined with what anxiety -and delight Mrs. Ward watched their development during these first -weeks. The children had been secured in the first instance by -invitations distributed through the Head Teachers to those who, in their -opinion, stood most in need of shelter and occupation after school -hours, i.e. principally to those whose parents were both out at work -till 7 or 8 o'clock; but after the ice was broken, Alf would bring 'Arry -and Edie would bring Maud, till the utmost capacity of the classes was -reached, and Mrs. Ward's heart was both gladdened and saddened by the -tale that her staff had as many children as they could possibly cope -with, and that many had of necessity been turned away. By the end of the -year the weekly attendance at the eight Centres amounted to nearly -6,000, and a year later, with ten Centres instead of eight, they had -risen to over 10,000. This meant that Mrs. Ward had struck upon a real -need of the wandering, loafing child-population of our greatest city--a -need that will in fact be perennial so long as the housing of the miles -upon miles of bricks and mortar that we call the working-class districts -remains what it is. "It all grows steadily beyond my hopes," wrote Mrs. -Ward to Mrs. Creighton in October, 1906, "and I believe that in three or -four years we shall see it developing into an ordinary part of -education, in the true sense. There is no difficulty about money--the -difficulty is to find the time and nerve-strength to carry it on, even -with such help as Bessie Churcher's." - -But the burden of raising the increasing sums required was, in truth, -very great, so that Mrs. Ward, with her belief in the future of the -movement, was already at work to get the Play Centre principle -recognized and embodied in an Act of Parliament. The opportunity arose -on Mr. Birrell's ill-fated Bill of 1906, but although Mrs. Ward's -clause, enabling any Local Education Authority "to provide for children -attending a public elementary school, Vacation Schools, Play Centres, or -means of recreation during their holidays or at such other times as the -Local Education Authority may prescribe," was accepted by the -Government, and passed the House of Lords in December, 1906, the Bill -itself was dropped soon afterwards, having been wrecked on the usual -rocks of sectarian passion. Fortunately, however, Mr. McKenna, who -succeeded Mr. Birrell at the Board of Education, was able to carry a -smaller measure, known as the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, -in the summer of the next year (1907). This Act duly contained the Play -Centres clause, as well as the provisions for the medical inspection and -treatment of school-children which have since borne such beneficent -fruit. Already in the previous summer, when the clause was first before -the House of Commons, Mr. Sydney Buxton had said at the opening of the -Settlement Vacation School that he felt sure it would go down to history -as the "Mary Ward Clause." - -But this victory had not been won except at the cost of considerable -friction with the only other body that attempted to cater in any -systematic fashion for the needs of London's children in the evening -hours--I mean the Children's Happy Evenings' Association. The -Association, which embodied the "voluntary principle" in its purest -form, could not tolerate the idea that the Public Education Authority -might in the future come to encroach upon a field which they regarded as -their own--even though their "Evenings" were avowedly held only once a -week, sometimes only once a fortnight, and could not touch more than the -barest fringe of the child population of each district. They disliked -the professional worker, and they abhorred the bare idea that public -money might eventually be spent upon the recreation of the -children--ignoring the experience of America, where the public authority -was doing more each year for the playtime of its children, and -forgetting, perhaps, that at the "preparatory schools" to which their -own little boys were sent, almost more time and thought were spent upon -their games than upon their "education" proper. And so they sent a -deputation to Mr. Birrell to oppose Mrs. Ward's clause, and their -workers attacked Mrs. Ward and her precious Play Centres in other ways -and on other occasions as well; but they found that she was a shrewd -fighter, for even though during the summer of 1906 she was laid low by -that most disabling complaint, a terrible attack of eczema, she -compelled herself to write from her bed a trenchant letter to _The -Times_ in defence of the professional worker, and also a very -conciliatory letter to her friend Lady Jersey, the President of the -Happy Evenings' Association. - - "It is most unwelcome to me," she wrote, "this dispute over a - public cause--especially when I see or dream what could be done by - co-operation. What I _wish_ is that you would join the Evening Play - Centres Committee, and see for yourself what it means. There is - nothing in our movement which is necessarily antagonistic to yours, - but I think we may claim that ours is more in sympathy with the - general ideas on the subject that are stirring people's minds than - yours." - -The affair ended in the acceptance by the Government of an amendment to -Mrs. Ward's clause, authorizing the Local Education Authorities to -"encourage and assist the continuance or establishment of Voluntary -Agencies" in any exercise of powers under the new Act. The two -associations--the Happy Evenings and the Play Centres--continued to -exist side by side until the inevitable march of events led, under the -stress of war, to the issue of Mr. Fisher's authoritative Memorandum -(January, 1917), admitting the obligation of the State in the matter of -the children's recreation, and announcing that in future the Board would -undertake half the "approved expenditure" of Evening Play Centre -committees. The Children's Happy Evenings' committee thereupon decided, -in dignified fashion, that their work was ended, and dissolved their -Association. Peace be to its ashes! It had given joy, much joy, to many -thousands of London children, as Mrs. Ward always most fully recognized, -and if in the end it stood in the way of the new and younger power which -was capable of giving an almost indefinite extension to the children's -pleasure, could it but have a free field, the reluctance of the -Association to cede any ground was only, after all, a very natural -affair. - -But once the new Act was passed, Mrs. Ward was to be disappointed in her -hopes that the London Education Authority would take advantage of the -powers conferred upon it in order to assist the movement financially. -Certain members of the Council elected in 1907 (in which the majority -was overwhelmingly Moderate) urged her to present an appeal to the -Education Committee, asking that the cost of the Handwork, Drill and -Gymnastic classes held at the Play Centres might be defrayed by the -Council; this she did in a statement which she drew up and presented in -October, 1907, weaving into it with all the practised skill that she -knew so well how to throw into such documents firstly a picture of the -child-life of such districts as Hoxton, Walworth and Notting Dale in the -winter evenings, when the children were too often "turned out after tea -into the streets and told not to come home till bedtime"; then a brief -account of the small beginnings and immense growth of the Children's -Recreation School at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, with its -offshoots, the ten Play Centres held in the London schools, and finally -a striking list of individual cases, showing how the Centres had already -attracted to themselves scores of boys and girls whose conditions of -life were leading them into idling and vagabondage of all sorts, through -the mere lack of anything to do in the dark hours. - - "Perhaps the most striking revelation of the whole work," wrote - Mrs. Ward, "has been the positive hunger for hand-occupation which - exists among the older children. The attendances at the handwork - classes drop off a little when June begins, and from June to - October they are better discontinued in favour of cricket, swimming - and outdoor games in general. But from October onwards through the - whole winter and up to the end of May, the demand for handwork - never slackens. Two or three times the number of children who are - now being taught would eagerly come to classes if they were opened. - Basket-work, wood-work and cobbling are unfailing delights, and it - is here that we ask most earnestly for the help of the County - Council. Rough boys, who would soon, if left to themselves, become - on leaving school a nuisance to the community and to the police, - can be got hold of through handwork, and in no other way. And when - once the taste has been acquired, there remains the strong - probability that after school is over they will be drawn into the - net of Evening Classes and Polytechnics, and so rescued for an - honest life." - -But the Education Committee, burdened as it was in that year with the -first arrangements for medical inspection and treatment, as well as with -the demand for the feeding of necessitous children, did not feel able to -undertake this further responsibility, although its reception of Mrs. -Ward's memorandum was extremely sympathetic. All that the Council would -do at this stage was to remit the charges previously made for cleaning -and caretaking of the schools during Play Centre hours, a concession -which amounted to a grant of about £20 a year per Centre. - -Mrs. Ward was therefore thrown back upon her own resources for the -financing of her great experiment. No thought of reduction or even of -standing still could be admitted, for with the growing fame of the -Centres, appeals began to come in from Care Committees, from School -Managers, from Clergy, and from hard-worked Magistrates, begging that -Centres might be opened in their districts, while the owner of a jam -factory in South London offered to pay part of the cost of a Centre if -it could be opened near his works, _because the children used to come -down to the factory gates in the evenings and cry till their mothers -came out_. Mr. Samuel's Children's Act of 1908 created the post of -Probation Officer for the supervision of "first offenders"; the first -two or three of these were appointed, on Mrs. Ward's recommendation, -from among her Play Centre Superintendents, since the intimate knowledge -they possessed of the children's lives gave them special qualifications -for their task. It soon became the practice of all Probation Officers to -refer their lawless little charges (often aged only nine or ten!) to the -nearest Play Centre as "every-night children," there to forget their -wild or thieving ways in the fascinations of cobbling, or wood-work, or -games, or military drill. But in order to respond to these growing -appeals Mrs. Ward had to undertake an ever-increasing burden of -financial responsibility, as well as of organization. In 1905 the first -eight Centres had cost a little over £900; in 1908, with twelve Centres -and total attendances of 620,000, the bill had risen to £3,000; in 1911, -with seventeen Centres and attendances of 1,170,000, it was £4,500; in -1913, with twenty Centres and attendances of 1,500,000, it was £5,700. -How she succeeded in raising these large sums in addition to her efforts -for the Settlement; how she found time, on the top of her literary work -and her many semi-political interests, for the close attention that she -gave, week in, week out, to the progress of each individual Centre and -the peculiarities of every Superintendent, will always remain a mystery. -Her unconquerable optimism, which became a more and more marked trait of -her character as the years went on, helped her through every crisis, -while her joy in the children's happiness acted both as a tonic and a -spur. Every winter she would issue her eloquent Report, sending it out -with irresistible personal letters to a large number of subscribers; -many a London landlord was made to stand and deliver for the children of -meaner streets than those which paid him rent; many a factory owner was -persuaded to follow the example of the jam-manufacturer above-mentioned. -Yet when all was done there would usually remain a deficit of several -hundred pounds, which must be wiped out in order to avert a bankers' -strike; then Mrs. Ward would gather up all the outstanding facts of the -year's work and present them in one of those remarkable letters to _The -Times_ of which she possessed the secret, charming the cheques for very -shame out of the pockets of the kind-hearted. And thus, with incredible -toil and with many moments of despair, the organization was kept going -and the indispensable funds supplied; but it was a labour of Hercules, -and her letters throughout these years bear witness to the exhausting -nature of the task. - -Once more, in 1913, Mrs. Ward hoped that the recognition of her long -effort was not far off, for both Government and County Council expressed -themselves, through the mouths of two distinguished leaders, as very -warmly in sympathy with it. She had organized an exhibition of Play -Centre hand-work at the Settlement--toy models of all sorts, baskets, -dolls, needlework, cobbled boots and shoes--and invited her old friend -Lord Haldane, then Lord Chancellor, and Mr. Cyril Cobb, Chairman of the -Education Committee, L.C.C., to speak at the opening ceremony. Both -speakers emphasized the fact that Mrs. Ward had now proved her case, and -that, as Lord Haldane said, the Play Centre movement had "reached a -stage in which it must be recognized as one, at least, of the elements -in a national system of education, as one of the things that must come -within the scope and observance of the Board of Education. Such a -movement must begin by voluntary effort. It has already reached a stage -in which I hope it is going to attract a great deal of official -attention." Such words could not but encourage Mrs. Ward to hope that -help was near, for by that time the Board of Education had already -inaugurated the system of giving aid to voluntary societies, if their -aims and methods were approved, by a proportional grant on their -expenditure. Yet 1913 passed away and nothing came of it. One may -perhaps shrewdly suspect, in looking back, that the authorities knew -well enough when a thing was a "going concern" and needed no effort of -theirs to help it up the hill. Mrs. Ward was their willing horse; they -continued, with the instinct of _laissez-faire_ which has so often -preserved the British Constitution, to let her pull her own load. But a -time was at hand when _laissez-faire_ and all other comfortable -doctrines were to be swept away in the shock that set the whole fabric -of our society reeling. The outbreak of war, which seemed at first to -threaten the very existence of such things as Play Centres, was in fact -to reveal and establish their necessity. After two more years of heroic -effort to keep them going amid the flood of war appeals, Mrs. Ward had -her reward at last in Mr. Fisher's Memorandum of January, 1917. The -State had recognized the principle that in the children lay the best -hope of England, and Mrs. Ward had her way. Thence-forward the Board of -Education undertook to pay half the "approved expenditure" of the -Evening Play Centres committee. - - * * * * * - -But the establishment and growth of the London Play Centres, heavy and -exacting as was the toil that it involved, did not by any means exhaust -Mrs. Ward's efforts to improve the lot of London's children during these -years. In 1908 she opened two additional Vacation Schools in the East -End; one in a school with a "roof-playground" in Bow, the other in an -ordinary school in Hoxton. - - "On Friday I had a field-day at the Bow Vacation School," she wrote - to J.P.T. in August, 1908. "The air on the roof-playground was like - Margate, and the children's happiness and good-temper delightful to - see. There were flowers all about, and sunny views over East - London to distant country, and round games, and little ones happy - with toys, and all sorts of nice things. Downstairs a splendid game - of hand-ball in the playground, and a cool hall full of boys - playing games and reading. As for the Settlement, it has never been - so enchanting. There are 1,150 children daily, and all the teachers - say it is better than ever. The Duke's sand-heap and the new - drinking-fountain are great additions. Hoxton goes to my heart! It - is _too_ crowded, and there is nothing but asphalt playgrounds, - with no shade till late. Yet the children swarm, and when you see - them sitting listlessly, doing absolutely nothing, in the broiling - dirty streets outside you can't wonder. I am having the playground - shelter scrubbed out with carbolic daily, lined with some flowers - in pots, and filled with small tables and chairs for the little - ones. They have 800 children, and we have been obliged to give - extra help." - -Then in the next year, besides maintaining the roof-playground, she -opened another experimental Holiday-school near by for a small number of -delicate and ailing children whose names were on the "necessitous" list, -and who were therefore eligible for free dinners. Mrs. Ward delighted in -continuing and improving the free dinners for these little waifs during -the holidays, as well as in providing suitable occupations for their -fingers, and it was with real pride that she returned them to their -regular school at the end of the holidays, thriving, and with a record -of increased weight in almost every case. But the very success of these -attempts, together with the ever-increasing size and attractiveness of -the Settlement Vacation School, filled her with distress at the wasted -opportunities presented by the empty playgrounds of the ordinary London -schools during the August holiday, for she well knew from her own -experience and from that of New York, which she had closely studied,[27] -that it only needed the presence of two or three active kindergarten -teachers and a supply of toys and materials to attract to these open -spaces all the hot and weary children from the neighbouring streets and -there to make them happy. Her fingers itched to do it, tired though -they were with so many other labours. It was not, however, till the -spring of 1911 that she was able to take this work in hand, but then she -addressed herself to it with all her usual energy, presenting a scheme -to the L.C.C. for the "organization" of both the boys' and the girls' -playgrounds at twenty-six London schools during the summer holiday. The -Council met her once more with complete confidence, lending all the -larger equipment required; Mrs. Ward raised a special fund of nearly -£1,000, and devoted much attention to the engagement of the -Superintendents for the girls' grounds and the Games Masters for the -boys'. Then, just before the end of term, notices were distributed in -the neighbouring schools announcing that such and such a playground -would be opened for games and quiet occupations during the holidays, and -the result was awaited with some quaking. Would there be a crowd or a -desert? and if the former, would the Superintendents be able to keep -order? The answer was not long in coming. "I let in 400 boys," wrote one -of the Games Masters after his first session, "and the street outside -was still black with them." But in spite of the eager crowds which -everywhere made their appearance, order _was_ kept most successfully. -Mrs. Ward herself visited the playgrounds constantly, and at the end of -the month wrote her joyous report to _The Times_: - - "Inside one came always upon a cheerful scene. In the girls' - playgrounds, during those hottest August days, one saw crowds of - girls and babies playing in the shade of the school buildings, or - forming happy groups for reading or sewing, or filling the trestle - tables under the shelters, where were picture-books to be looked - at, beads to thread, paints and paper to draw with, or wool for - knitting, or portable swings where the elder girls could swing the - little ones in turn. Then, if you asked the schoolkeeper to pass - you through a locked door, you were in the boys' playground, where - balls were whizzing, and the space was divided up by a clever - Superintendent between the cricket of the bigger boys--very near, - often, to the real thing--and the first efforts, not a whit less - energetic, of the younger ones. In one corner, also, there would be - mats and jumping-stands; in another a group playing tennis with a - chalked line instead of a net, while the shelters were full, as in - the girl's ground, of all kinds of quiet occupations. Management - was everything. It was wonderful what a Superintendent with a real - turn for the thing could make of his ground, what a hold he got - upon his boys, and how well, in such cases, the boys behaved. There - was a real loyalty and _esprit de corps_ in these grounds; and - when, in the last week, 'sports' and displays were organized for - the benefit of the parents, it was really astonishing to see with - what ease a competent man or woman could handle a crowded - playground, how eagerly the children obeyed, how courteous and - happy they were." - -The number of attendances had been prodigious--424,000 for the whole -month, or 106,000 per week--and the gratitude of the parents who had -pressed in to see the final displays was touching to hear. In the next -year Mrs. Ward persuaded the L.C.C. to share the experiment with her, -the Council opening "organized playgrounds" in twenty schools and she -herself in twenty more; this time the organization was in many points -improved, and the results still more satisfactory. But although the -Council gave her to understand that they would undertake to carry on the -experiment in future, being convinced of its necessity, no further -action was taken, and the playgrounds of London, in spite of Mrs. Ward's -object-lesson, have been suffered to relapse into that condition of -uselessness and sometimes of positive danger to the children's morals -from which her efforts in 1911 and 1912 had sought to rescue them. - - * * * * * - -The story of Mrs. Ward's activities for the welfare of London's children -has taken us far beyond the period of her life at which we had otherwise -arrived. To return briefly to her literary work, it may be said, I -think, that those two novels of London life, _Lady Rose's Daughter_ and -_William Ashe_, had marked its highest point in sheer brilliance and -success; after these the long autumn of her novel-writing began, which, -like all mellow autumns, had its moments of more true and delicate -beauty than the full summer had possessed. The first of these autumn -novels, if I may use the term, was _Fenwick's Career_, which appeared in -May, 1906; it was not a great popular success, like the previous two, -but to those who read it in these after-times its sober excellence of -workmanship, as shown especially in the scenes at Versailles and at the -Westmorland cottage where husband and wife meet again after their long -separation, are perhaps more attractive than all the brilliance of poor -Kitty Bristol or of the shifting groups in Lady Henry's house in Bruton -Street. Mrs. Ward had been criticized in the case of these three novels -for having made use of the persons and incidents of the past without any -definite acknowledgment, but she defended herself vigorously, in a short -Preface to _Fenwick's Career_, in words that I cannot do better than -reproduce: - - "The artist, as I hold, may gather from any field, so long as he - sacredly respects what other artists have already made their own by - the transmuting processes of the mind. To draw on the conceptions - or the phrases that have once passed through the warm minting of - another's brain, is for us moderns at any rate, the literary crime - of crimes. But to the teller of stories, all that is recorded of - the real life of men, as well as all that his own eyes can see, is - offered for the enrichment of his tale. This is a clear and simple - principle; yet it has been often denied. To insist upon it is, in - my belief, to uphold the true flag of Imagination, and to defend - the wide borders of Romance." - -The cottage on the "shelf of fell" in Langdale, whence poor Phoebe -Fenwick set forth on her mad journey to London, had also a solid -existence of its own, though no "acknowledgment" is made to it in -Foreword or text. "Robin Ghyll" stands high above the road on the -fell-side, between a giant sycamore and an ancient yew, close by the -ghyll of "druid oaks" whence it takes its name--resisting with all the -force of the mountain stone of which it is built the hurricanes that -sweep down upon it from the central knot of those grim northern hills. -The view from its little lawn of Pikes, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell has -perhaps no equal in the Lake District. Sunshine and storm have passed -over it for 200 years or more, since the valley folk first built it as a -small statesman's farm or shepherd's cottage. At the time of which I -write the little place was occupied by a poetically minded resident who -had added two pleasant rooms. - -Mrs. Ward and her daughter Dorothy noticed Robin Ghyll as they drove up -Langdale with "Aunt Fan" one summer day in 1902, and fell in love with -it. Two years later it actually fell vacant, so that Mrs. Ward could -take it in the name of her daughter and share with her the joy of -furnishing and then inhabiting its seven rooms. But though Mrs. Ward -loved Robin Ghyll and fled to it occasionally for complete retirement, -it belonged in a more particular sense to her daughter, and derived from -her its charm. Thither she would go at Whitsuntide or in September, -refreshing body and mind by contact with its solitudes. Not often indeed -could she be spared from the absorbing life of Stocks, or Italy, or -Grosvenor Place, where so much depended upon her. But though life limped -at Stocks during Dorothy's brief absences, she always returned from -Robin Ghyll with strength redoubled for the arduous service of love -which she rendered to her mother all her life long, and from which both -giver and receiver derived a sacred happiness. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA - -1908 - - -Mrs. Ward had often been assured by her friends and admirers in the -United States that if she would but visit them she would find such a -welcome as would stagger all her previous ideas of hospitality. She -could not doubt it; it was, in fact, this thought, combined with the -frailness of her health, that had deterred her during the twenty years -that followed the publication of _Robert Elsmere_ from going to claim -the honours that awaited her. Her husband and daughter had already paid -two visits to the States, and had experienced in the kindness and warmth -of their reception an earnest of what would fall to Mrs. Ward's lot -should she venture across the Atlantic; nor had they merely whirled with -the passing show, but had made many lifelong friends. Mrs. Ward had, -however, resisted the pressure of these friends for many years, until at -length, in the spring of 1908, so strong a combination of circumstances -arose to tempt her that her resolution gave way. Her own health, which -had suffered a grievous and prolonged breakdown in 1906, had gradually -re-established itself, so that by the time of which we are speaking she -was perhaps in better case for such an adventure than she had been for -some years. Mr. and Mrs. Whitridge would hear of nothing but that she -should make their house her home during her stay in New York; Mr. Bryce -made the same demand for Washington; Earl Grey for Ottawa (where he was -at that time Governor-General), while Mr. Ward's acquaintance with Sir -William van Horne, Chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway--based on a -common enthusiasm for Old Masters--led to the irresistible offer of a -private car on the Line for Mrs. Ward and her party, at the Company's -expense, from Montreal to Vancouver and back. Such lures were hardly to -be withstood, but I doubt whether Mrs. Ward would have succumbed even to -them had it not been for her growing desire to see, with her own eyes, -the work which was being done in New York for the play-time of the -children. She knew that New York was far in advance of London in the -provision of Vacation Schools for the long summer holiday, and of -evening Recreation Centres for the children who had left school; but -Play Centres for the school-children themselves were as yet unknown -there, so that she felt much might be gained by an exchange of -experiences between herself and the "Playground Association of America." - -And so, on March 11, 1908, they sailed in the _Adriatic_--she and Mr. -Ward, and her daughter Dorothy, with the faithful Lizzie in attendance. -The great ship set her thinking of the only other long voyage that she -had ever made, over far other seas. "When I look at this ship," she -wrote, "and think of the cockleshell we came home in round the Horn in -'56, and the discomforts my mother must have suffered with three -children, one a young baby! Happiness, as we all know, and as the -copy-books tell us, does not depend on luxuries--but how she would have -responded to a little comfort, a little petting, if she had ever had it! -My heart often aches when I think of it." The comforts of the _Adriatic_ -were indeed colossal, and since the ocean was kindness itself, Mrs. Ward -took no ill from the voyage, but arrived in good spirits, and ready to -face the New World with that zest which was her cradle-gift. - -Mr. Whitridge's pleasant house in East Eleventh Street received Mr. and -Mrs. Ward, while Dorothy stayed with equally hospitable friends--Mrs. -Cadwalader Jones and her daughter--over the way. Avalanches of reporters -had to be faced and dealt with, all craving for five minutes' talk with -Mrs. Ward, but they were usually intercepted in the hall by Mr. -Whitridge, whose method of dealing with his country's newspapers was -somewhat drastic. If they passed this outer line of defence they were -received by Mr. or Miss Ward, who found them persistent indeed, but -always marvellously civil; and on the very few occasions when Mrs. Ward -did consent to be interviewed, she insisted on seeing the proof and -entirely re-writing what had been put into her mouth. The newspapers, -indeed, had reckoned without a mentality which intensely disliked this -kind of thing; it was unfortunate, perhaps, but inevitable! - -In all other respects, however, it was impossible for Mrs. Ward not to -be deeply moved by the kindness that was heaped upon her. "Life has been -a tremendous rush," wrote D. M. W. from New York, "but really a very -delightful one, and we are accumulating many happy and amusing memories. -The chief thing that stands out, of course, is the love and admiration -for M. and her books. When all's said and done, it really is pretty -stirring, the way they feel about her. And the things the quiet, unknown -people say to one about her books go to one's heart." ("We dined at a -house last night," wrote Mrs. Ward herself, "where everybody had a card -containing a quotation from my wretched works. Humphry bears up as well -as can be expected!") But on one occasion, at least, she came in for a -puff of unearned incense. At an afternoon tea, given in her honour by -Mrs. Whitridge, an elderly lady was overheard saying in awe-struck tones -to her neighbour, "To think that I should have lived to shake hands with -the authoress of _Little Lord Fauntleroy_!" - -Dinners, lunches, receptions, operas and theatres succeeded one another -in a dazzling rush, but New York knew quite well what was the main -purpose of Mrs. Ward's visit, and it was fitting that the principal -function arranged in her honour should have been a dinner given her at -the Waldorf-Astoria by the Playground Association of America. There were -900 persons present, and when Mrs. Ward stood up to address them every -man and woman in the room spontaneously rose to their feet to greet her. -It was a moment that would have touched a far harder heart than hers. - - "It was very moving--it really was," she wrote to J. P. - T.--"because of the evident kindness and sincerity of it. I got - through fairly well, though I don't feel that I have yet arrived at - the right speech for a public dinner.... I was most interested by - the speech of the City Superintendent of Education, Dr. Maxwell, an - _admirable_ man, who declared hotly in my favour as to Play - Centres, and has, since the dinner, given directions for the first - _afternoon_ Play Centre for school children in New York. Isn't that - jolly! - - "Well, and since, we have been lunching, dining and seeing sights - with the same vigour. I have been to schools and manual training - centres with Dr. Maxwell, and we went through the Natural History - Museum with its Director,[28] who gave us a _thrilling_ time.... - One afternoon I went down to a College Settlement and spoke to a - large gathering of workers about English ways. The day before - yesterday I spoke to about 900 boys and girls and their teachers, - in one of their _magnificent_ public schools. Dr. Maxwell took me, - and asked me to speak of Grandpapa. A great many of the elder boys - had read _Tom Brown_ and knew all about the 'Doctor'! I enjoyed it - greatly, and as to their saluting of the flag--these masses of - alien children--one may say what one will, but it is one of the - most thrilling things in the world, and we, as a nation, are the - poorer for not having it." - -Mrs. Ward had accepted four or five engagements to lecture while she was -in America, in aid of her London Play Centres, and accumulated, to her -intense satisfaction, the handsome sum of £250 from this source during -her tour. She gave her audiences of her best--the paper already -mentioned, on "The Peasant in Literature," which revealed her literary -craft in its most finished form, and although she was so much the rage -at the time that her admirers were not disposed to be critical, she was -yet genuinely gratified by the pleasure which this paper gave, -especially in so cultivated a centre as Philadelphia. Here Mrs. Ward and -her daughter were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Coates, and then of -the Bertram Lippincotts, in their charming house outside the town. -Independence Hall gave them the proper thrill of sympathy with a "nation -struggling to be free," while Mrs. Ward was delighted by the general -old-world look of many of the streets, no less than by the stately -river, on which, as she found to her astonishment, "the boat-crews -practise for Henley." During their short stay with Mrs. Coates, Mrs. -Ward made friends with Dr. Weir Mitchell, novelist and physician, and -with Miss Agnes Repplier, for whom she felt an instant attraction, -while Dorothy sat next to a Mr. Walter Smith, and talked to him -innocently about certain Modernist lectures that had been given at the -Settlement in London, discovering afterwards, to her dismay, that he was -a strong Catholic, and freely called in Philadelphia "Helbeck of -Bannisdale." "I noticed it fell a little flat!" - -From Philadelphia they moved on to Washington, to stay with their old -friends the Bryces, at the hospitable British Embassy. An invitation -from the President (Mr. Roosevelt) to dine with him at the White House, -had already reached them. Mrs. Ward described her impressions in a long -letter to her son: - - -"WASHINGTON, -"_April 13, 1908_. - - "Everybody here has been kindness itself, and we feel that we ought - to spend the rest of our days in trying to be nice to Americans in - London! First, as you know, we went to the Bryces. They asked a - great many people to meet us, but what I remember best is a quiet - hour with Mr. and Mrs. Root, who were smuggled into an inner - drawing-room away from the crowd, where one could listen to him in - peace, and above all, look at him! He is, I think, the most - attractive of all the Americans we have seen. He has been Secretary - of State now for some years, and is evidently, like Edward Grey, - absorbed in his own special work and not much concerned with - current politics. His subordinates speak of him with enthusiasm, - and he has a detached, humane, meditative face, with a slight - flicker of humour perpetually playing over it--as different as - possible from the hawk-like concentration of the New Yorkers. We - have seen most of the Cabinet and high officials, and I have - particularly liked Mr. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. - Metcalf, Secretary for the Navy, and Mr. Bacon, Assistant Secretary - of State. Saturday's dinner at the White House was delightful, only - surpassed by the little round-table dinner of eight last night at - Mr. Henry Adams's, where the President took me in and talk was fast - and free--altogether a memorable evening. At the White House I did - not sit near the President, everything being regulated by a - comparatively strict etiquette and precedence--but after dinner he - sent word that I was to sit by him in the ballroom, at the little - concert which followed, and when the music was over, he and I - plunged into all sorts of things, ending up with religion and - theology! Last night he talked politics, socialism, divorce, large - and small families, the Kaiser, Randolph Churchill, the future of - wealth in this country (he wants to _lop_ all the biggest fortunes - by some form of taxation--pollard them like trees)--the future of - marriage and a few other trifles of the same kind. He is, of - course, an egotist, but an extraordinarily well-meaning and able - one, with all the virtues and failings of his natural character and - original bringing-up, exaggerated now and produced on what one - might almost call a colossal scale, which strikes the American - imagination. He honestly doesn't want a third term, and has set his - mind on Taft for his successor, but it must be hard for such a man - to step down from such a post into the ordinary opportunities of - life. However, as he says, and apparently sincerely, 'we mustn't - break the Washington tradition.' - - "To-day we are going out to Mount Vernon, and to-night there is - another dinner-party. Washington is a most beautiful place--the - Capitol a really glorious building that any nation might be proud - of, and the shining White House, with its graceful pillared front, - among its flowering trees and shrubs, makes me think with shame of - that black abortion, Buckingham Palace!" - -It was a special pleasure to them also to see something of M. Jusserand, -the French Ambassador, and his charming wife, and to renew a friendship -which had endured since their early days in London. But above all it was -the leaders of American politics that impressed Mrs. Ward. - - "Root, Garfield, Taft," she wrote to Miss Arnold, of Fox How, - "these and several others of the leading men attracted and - impressed me greatly--beyond what I had expected. Indeed, I think - one of the main impressions of this visit has been the inaccuracy - of our common idea in England that American women of the upper - class are as a rule superior to the men. It may be true among a - certain section of the rich business class, but amongst the - professional, educated and political people it is not true at all." - -Boston, of course, claimed Mrs. Ward on her way to Canada, and adopted -her in whole-hearted fashion. She was by this time a little tired of -"receptions" of five and six hundred persons, all passing before her as -in a dream and shaking a hand which was never free from writer's cramp. -"But the touching thing is the distance people come--one lame lady came -300 miles!--it made me feel badly--and all the Unitarian ministers for -thirty miles round have been asked and are said to be coming on Tuesday -next!" When they came, Mrs. Ward enjoyed the occasion particularly, and -wrote home that she had "had to make a speech, but got through better -than usual by dint of talking of T. H. Green." An elderly bookseller -among them, who had written to her regularly about each of her books for -the last twenty years, now met her and spoke with her at last; he went -away contented. But the real delights of her stay at Boston were her -visits to Harvard and Radcliffe, and her intercourse with the Nortons at -Shady Hill, and with Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett at the former's house. -Here she met the fine old veteran, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the -"Battle-Hymn of the Republic," who had lately brought out her memoirs. -Mrs. Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the -latter: "Imagine Mrs. Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, -which a critic had declared to be 'in pitiable hexameters' (English, of -course), was not 'in hexameters at all--it was in pentameters of my own -make--I never followed any special school or rule!' I have been gurgling -over that in bed this morning." But when they met, Mrs. Ward -capitulated. "By the way, I retract about Mrs. Howe. Her book is rather -foolish, but she herself is an old dear--full of fun at ninety, and -adored here. She lunched with Mrs. Fields to-day _en petit comité_, and -was most amusing." - -The New England country, which she saw on a motor-trip to Concord and -Lexington, and again on a visit which she paid to Mr. and Mrs. Henry -Holt at their beautiful house overlooking Lake Champlain, fascinated -her, "with its miles and miles of young woods sprung up on the soil of -the slain forests of the past--its pools and lakes, its hills and dales, -its glorious Connecticut river, and its myriads of white, small wooden -houses, all on a nice Georgian pattern, with shady verandahs, scattered -fenceless over the open fields. There were no flowers to be seen--only -the scarlet blossom of the maples in the woods." - -Nor could she get away, in such an atmosphere, from the old, old problem -of the separation. - -"I have been reading Bancroft this morning, and shall read G. O. T. -to-night. We _were_ fools!--but really, I rather agree with H. G. Wells -that they make too much fuss about it! and with Mr. Bryce that it was a -great pity, for _them_ and us, that the link was broken. So they needn't -be so tremendously dithyrambic!" - -It was, however, with a heart full of gratitude for the unnumbered -kindnesses of her hosts that Mrs. Ward quitted American soil at the end -of April and crossed over into Canada. Here her peregrinations were to -be mainly under the auspices of Lord Grey, then Governor-General, and of -Sir William van Horne, lord of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at whose -house in Montreal she planned the details of her great journey to the -West. These two revealed themselves to Mrs. Ward in characteristic -fashion while she was still the guest of Sir William, at Montreal, for -the Governor-General, coming over from Ottawa for the great Horse Show, -stopped during his progress round the arena at the Van Horne's box, -spoke to Mrs. Ward with the greatest cordiality, and there and then -insisted that she must go to see the great new Agricultural College at -St. Anne's, near Montreal, on their way to Ottawa the next day. - -"He declared that M. could not possibly leave Canada without having seen -it," wrote D. M. W., "and then said, with a laugh and a wave of his hand -to Sir William, 'Ask him--_he'll_ arrange it all for you!'--and passed -on, leaving M. and me somewhat scared, for we had not wanted to bother -Sir William about _this_ journey at any rate! I could see that even he, -who is never perturbed, was a little taken aback, but he said, in his -quiet way, 'It can certainly be arranged,' and it _has_ been!" Then, _en -revanche_, the Governor-General, "being on the loose, so to speak, in -Montreal, with only one and the least vigilant of his A.D.C.'s," came -unexpectedly to the big evening party that the Van Hornes were giving -that night--"because, as he said, 'I like Van Horne, and I wanted to see -Mrs. Ward!'" But, once back in Ottawa, "his family and all his other -A.D.C.'s, are scolding him and wringing their hands, because he never -ought to have done it! It creates a precedent and offends 500 people, -while it pleases one. Such are the joys of his position." - -When the "command" journey to the Agricultural College had been safely -preformed, the students duly presented Mrs. Ward with a bouquet and sang -"For _she's_ a jolly good fellow." "The G.G. was delighted," wrote -Dorothy, "and led her out to smile her thanks, but there was fortunately -no time for her to be called upon for five minutes of uplift, as His -Excellency was, the last time he went there! That has now become a -household word in Government House." Mrs. Ward must, I think, almost -have been in at the birth of that hard-worked phrase. - -Mr. Ward had been obliged to return to England for his work on _The -Times_, so that his wife's Canadian experiences are recorded in letters -to him: - - -"GOVERNMENT HOUSE, OTTAWA, -"_May 14, 1908_. - -..."Well, we have had a _very_ pleasant time. Lord Grey is never - tired of doing kind things, and she also is charming. He has asked - everybody to meet us who he thought would be - interesting--Government and Opposition--Civil servants, - journalists, clergy--but no priests! The fact is that there is a - certain amount of anxiety about these plotting Catholics, and - always will be. They accept the _status quo_ because they must, and - because it would not help them as Catholics to fall into the hands - of either the United States or of France. But there is plenty of - almost seditious feeling about. And the ingratitude of it! I sat - last night at the Lauriers' between Sir Wilfrid and M. Lemieux, - Minister of Labour--both Catholics. Sir Wilfrid said to me, 'I am a - Roman Catholic, but all my life I have fought the priests--_le - cléricalisme, voilà l'ennemi_. Their power in Quebec is unbounded, - but Modernism will come some day--with a rush--in a violent - reaction.' On my left M. Lemieux described his meeting last week in - Quebec with fourteen bishops, one of whom said to him--'_Le Canada, - c'est le Paradis terrestre du Catholicisme!_' But as for the - educated Catholics, M. Lemieux went on, 'We are all Modernists!' - Both of them denounced the Pope and spoke with longing of Leo - XIII." - - * * * * * - - -"TORONTO, -"_May 18_. - - "Such nice people at Ottawa, and such interesting people. Also the - guiding ideas and influences are _English,_ the first time I have - felt it. The position of the Parliament buildings is splendid, and - some day it will be a great city. The Archives represent the birth - and future of Canadian history, and a Canadian patriotism--four - years' work, and already it is influencing ideas and politics, - among a young people who did not know they _had_ a history.[29] - - "Toronto is less exciting, though pleasant. We lunched yesterday - with Colonel George Denison, a great Loyalist and Preferentialist, - much in with Chamberlain. He cut Goldwin Smith twenty years - ago!--so it was piquant to go on from him to the Grange. The Grange - is an English eighteenth-century house, or early nineteenth--as one - might find in the suburbs of Manchester in a large English - garden--the remains of 1,000 acres--with beautiful trees. An old - man got up to meet me, old, but unmistakably Goldwin Smith, though - the black hair is grizzled--not white--and the face emaciated. But - he holds himself erect, and his mind is as clear, and his eye as - living, as ever--at 85. He still harps on his favourite theme--that - Canada must ultimately drop into the mouth of the United States and - should do so--and poured scorn on English Tariff Reformers and - English Home Rulers together. Naturally he is not very popular - here!" - -From Toronto Mrs. Ward made a flying trip to Buffalo and Niagara, where -she was shown the glories of the Falls by General Greene--a descendant -of the gallant Nathaniel Greene, hero of the S. Carolina campaign of -1781. Then, returning to Toronto, she found Sir William van Horne and -the promised private car awaiting her--not to mention the "Royal Suite" -at the Queen's Hotel, offered her by the management "free, gratis, for -nothing! Oh dear, how soon will the mighty fall!--after the 12th of June -next" (the date of her departure for home). But, for the present, "The -car is yours," said Sir William, "the railway is yours--do exactly as -you like and give your orders." - -They parted from their kind Providence on Saturday, May 23, but within -forty-eight hours the railway was providing them with quite an -unforeseen sensation. Six hours this side of Winnipeg (where all kinds -of engagements awaited her), part of the track that ran across a marsh -collapsed, with the result that Mrs. Ward's and many other trains were -held up for nearly twenty hours. - - -"VERMILION STATION, C.P.R., -"_May 25, 1908_. - - "Here we are, stranded at a tiny wayside station of the C.P.R., and - have been waiting _sixteen hours_, while eight miles ahead they are - repairing a bridge which has collapsed in a marsh owing to heavy - rain. Three trains are before us and about five behind. A complete - block on the great line. We arrived here at six this morning, and - here it is 9.50 p.m. - - "It has been a strange day--mostly very wet, with nothing to look - at but some scrubby woods and a bit of cutting. We captured a - Manitoba Senator and made him come and talk to us, but it did not - help us very far. Snell, our wonderful cook and factotum, being in - want of milk, went out and milked a cow!--asking the irate owner, - when the deed was done, how much he wanted. And various little - incidents happened, but nothing very enlivening. - - [_Later._]. "Here we are at the spot, a danger signal behind us, - and the one in front just lowered. Another stop! our engine is - detached and we see it vanishing to the rear. The track won't bear - it. How are we going to get over!--Here comes the engine back, and - the brakesman behind our car imagines we are to be pushed over, the - engine itself not venturing. - - "10.5. Safely over! The engine pushed us to the brink, and then, as - it was taken off, a voice asked for Mrs. Ward. It was the - Assistant Manager of the line, Mr. Jameson, who jumped on board in - order to cross with us and explain to me everything that had - happened. He had been working for hours and looked tired out. But - we went out to the observation-platform, he and I and Dorothy, and - the _trajet_ began--our train being attached to some light empty - cars, and an engine in front that was pulling us over. I thought - Mr. Jameson evidently nervous as we went slowly forward--we were - the first train over!--but he showed us as well as the darkness - allowed, the marshy place, the new bed made for the line (in the - morning the rails were hanging in air and an engine and two cars - went in!) and the black mud of the sink-hole pushed up into high - banks--trees on the top of them--on either side by the pressure of - the new filling put in--50,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel. On - either side of the line were crowds of dark figures, Galician and - Italian workmen, intently watching our progress. Altogether a - dramatic and interesting scene! We were all glad, including, - clearly, the assistant manager, when he said, 'Now we are over - it'--but there was no real danger, even if the train had partially - sunk, for it was only a causeway over a marsh and not a real - bridge. - - "Well, it is absurd to have only a day for Winnipeg, but this - accident makes it inevitable. The journey has been all of it - wonderful, and I am more thrilled by Canada than words can - describe!" - -After a breathless day in Winnipeg, very pleasantly spent, under the -care of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Evans, in endeavouring to overtake the -engagements lost in the "sink-hole," Mrs. Ward and her daughter resumed -their journey across the vast prairie, over the Rockies and the -Selkirks, and down into Vancouver. On her return she thus summed up her -impressions of it in a letter to "Aunt Fan": - - "Everybody was kindness itself, everywhere, and the wonderful - journey across Canada and back was something never to forget. To - see how a great railway can make and has made a country, to watch - all the stages of the prairie towns, from the first wooden huts - upwards to towns like Calgary and Regina, and the booming - prosperity of Winnipeg--to be able to linger a little in the - glorious Rockies, to rush down the Fraser Cañon, which Papa used to - talk to us about and show us pictures of when we were children--I - thought of him with tears and longing in the middle of it--and then - to find ourselves at the end beside the 'wide glimmering sea' of - the blue Pacific--all this was wonderful, a real enrichment of mind - and imagination. At least it ought to be!" - -In Vancouver they were under the chaperonage of Mr. F. C. Wade, now -Agent-General for British Columbia, and of Mr. Mackenzie King, the -future Prime Minister, whom they had already met at Ottawa, but with -whom Mrs. Ward had a far more intimate link than that, since about five -years before he had come to live as a Resident at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, and had made great friends with us all. He now acted as -guide, not only to the marvellous beauties of Vancouver, but also to the -recesses of the Chinese quarter, where he had many friends, owing to the -fact that he happened to be engaged in dealing out Government -compensation for the anti-Chinese riots of the year before. Mrs. Ward -was immensely interested in all the problems of Vancouver--racial, -financial and political--being especially impressed by the danger of its -"Americanization" through the buying up of its real estate by American -capital. She stayed long enough to lecture to the Canadian Club of -Vancouver in aid of Lord Grey's fund for the purchase of the Quebec -battlefields as a national memorial to Wolfe, and then set her face -definitely homewards. But she could not allow herself to hurry too -swiftly through the Rockies, where the snow was beginning to melt and -expeditions were becoming possible. From Field she drove to feast her -eyes on the Emerald Lake; from Laggan she pushed on to Lake Louise. - - -To T. H. W. - -"BANFF, -"_June 4, 1908_. - - "Since we left Vancouver we have had a delicious time, but - yesterday was the cream! We started at 8.30 from the very nice - Field Hotel, on a special train, just our car and an engine, - and--the car being in front--were pushed up the famous Kicking - Horse Pass, on a glorious morning. The Superintendent in charge of - the Laggan division of the line came up with us and explained the - construction of the new section of the line, which is to take the - place of the present dangerous and costly track down the pass. At - present there are no tunnels, nothing but a long hill, up and down - which extraordinary precautions have to be taken. Now they are to - have spiral tunnels, or rather one long one, on the St. Gotthard - plan. One won't see so much, but it will be safer, and far less - expensive to work. - - "The beauty of the snow peaks, the lateral valleys, the leaping - streams, the forests!--and the friendliness of everybody adds to - the charm. At Laggan we left the car and drove up--three miles--to - Lake Louise--a perfectly beautiful place, which I tried to - sketch--alack! It is, I think, more wonderful than any place of the - kind in Switzerland, because of the colour of the rocks, which hold - the gorgeous glacier and snow-peak. We spent the day there, looked - after by a charming Scotchwoman--Miss Mollison--one of three - sisters who run the C.P.R. hotels about here. About 6.30 we drove - down again to find Snell and George delighted to welcome us back to - the car. Then we came on to Banff, sitting on the platform of the - car, and looking back at a beautiful sunset among the mountains. We - shall part from the Rockies with a pang! Emerald Lake and Lake - Louise would certainly conjure one back again, if they were any - less than 6,000 miles from home! As it is, I suppose one's physical - eyes will never see them again, but it is something to have beheld - them once." - -At Field Mrs. Ward had met the eminent explorer, Mrs. Schäffer, who was -busy collecting guides and ponies for another expedition into the -unknown tracts of the Rockies. She and Mrs. Ward made great friends, and -some months later the latter was delighted to receive from her -photographs of a wonderful lake which she had discovered, and to which -she gave the name of Lake Maligne. Mrs. Ward could not resist weaving -the virgin lake into the last chapter of her story, _Canadian Born_. - -When at length the long journey was over and the faithful car landed her -safely at Montreal, Mrs. Ward still had one pleasant duty to -perform--the handing over of her earnings at Vancouver to Lord Grey, as -a thank-offering for all the good things that had fallen to her lot -since she had parted from him three weeks before. His reply delighted -her, especially since she had just ended her Canadian experiences by an -expedition up the Heights of Abraham, escorted by Col. Wood, the -Canadian military historian. - - -_June 12, 1908._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - You are _most_ kind! I have received no contribution to the Quebec - Battlefields that has given me greater pleasure. I value it partly - because it is yours and partly Vancouver's. Every cent that filters - through from B.C. and the Prairie Provinces is a joy to me. The - Canadian National Problem, the Imperial Problem, is how to link - B.C. and the Western Provinces more closely with the Maritime - Eastern Provinces--how to improve the transportation service, East - and West, and cause the great highroad of human traffic from Europe - to Asia to go via Montreal and Vancouver--that is the problem, and - that is why I rejoice over every Western Piccanin who subscribes - his few cents to Quebec. A feeling for Quebec will remain engraven - on his heart for all time. - -...I do not think the character of the debt owing in £ s. d. by the - British race to the Wolfe family has ever been put before the - public. Wolfe's father never could obtain the repayment from the - British Government of £16,000 advanced by him during the - Marlborough campaigns. The different Departments did the pass trick - with him--the first rule of departmental administration--played - battledore and shuttlecock with him until he desisted from pressing - his claim for fear of being considered a Dun! - - Then James Wolfe, our Quebec hero, never received the C. in C. - allowance of £10 per day. His mother claimed £3,000 from the - British Treasury as the amount owing to her son on September 13, - 1759--but the poor hard-up departments played battledore and - shuttlecock with her, and she, like her Wolfe relations, was too - great a gentleman to press for payment. When, however, she found - that James had left £10,000 to be distributed according to the - instructions of his will, and that his assets only realized £8,000, - the dear good lady did try and squeeze £2,000 out of the £19,000 - owing by the Government to the family, in order that she might - carry out her boy's wishes--but it was a hopeless, useless effort, - and the splendid dame heaped all the coals of fire she could on the - heads of the stony-hearted, perhaps because stony-broke, British - People, by leaving the whole of her fortune to the widows and - orphans of the officers who fell under Wolfe's command at Quebec. - Now I maintain that the whole Empire has a moral responsibility in - this matter, for have not the most energetic of the descendants of - the British People of 1759 emigrated into Greater Britain? The - story of how we recompensed Wolfe for giving us an immortal example - and half a continent has not, so far as I know, been told. - - Delighted to think you are going back to England a red-hot Canadian - missionary. Send out all the young people whom you know and believe - in, and who are receptive and sympathetic and appreciative, and - have sufficient imagination not to be stupidly critical. Send them - all over here. We shall be delighted to see them, although I fear - they cannot all get Private Cars! - -If Mrs. Ward did not, on her return to England, set up altogether as an -amateur emigration agent, she yet paid her debt to Canada by the -delightful enthusiasm for the young country with all its boundless -possibilities, combined with a shrewd appreciation of its difficulties, -which she threw into her novel, _Canadian Born_. Neither Canada nor Lord -Grey had any reason to complain of the devotion, both of heart and of -head, which she gave to the cause. To her American friends, on the other -hand, her impassioned attack in _Daphne_, or _Marriage à la Mode_, on -the divorce laws of the United States, came as something of a surprise, -for they had not realized, while she was with them, how deep an -impression these things had made on her, or how much her artistic -imagination had been captured by their tragic or sordid possibilities. -_Daphne_ is, indeed, little but a powerful tract, written under great -stress of feeling, but the Americans missed in it the happy touch that -had created Lucy Foster, and regretted that Mrs. Ward should have felt -bound to portray for their benefit so wholly disagreeable a young person -as Daphne Floyd. Time has, however, brought its revenges in the strong -movement that has now arisen in the United States for the unification of -the widely-differing divorce laws of the various States under one -Federal Law. - -Yet there were deeper forces at work in the writing of _Daphne_ than any -which Mrs. Ward's brief visit to America alone could have accounted for. -The growing disturbance which the Suffrage question was making in the -currents of English life had thrown Mrs. Ward's thoughts into these -channels for longer than her critics knew. _Daphne_ was one result of -this fermentation; another was what we should now call "direct action." -Within a month after her return from America Mrs. Ward wrote to Miss -Arnold of Fox How (herself an undaunted Suffragist at the age of -seventy-five): "You will see from the papers what it is that has been -taking all my time--the foundation of an Anti-Suffrage League." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION - - -Mrs. Ward, as is well known, did not believe in Women's Suffrage. She -had heard the subject discussed from her earliest days at Oxford, ever -since the time when the first Women's Petition for the vote was brought -to the House of Commons by Miss Garrett and Miss Emily Davies in 1866, -and John Stuart Mill moved his amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867. But -it did not greatly interest her. Her mind was set in other directions, -responding to the intellectual stimulus of Oxford rather in the field of -historical and religious inquiry and leading her on, as we have seen, to -her memorable "revolt from awe" in the matter of the Interpretation of -the Scriptures. Her group of friends at Oxford were hardly touched by -the Suffrage agitation; the movement for the Higher Education of Women, -in which Mrs. Ward bore so distinguished a part, was wholly unconnected -with it. Indeed it was the very success of this movement that helped to -convince Mrs. Ward that the right lines for women's advance lay, not in -the political agitation for the Suffrage, but in the broadening of -education, so as to fit her sex for the many tasks which were opening -out before it. But she had also an inborn dislike and distaste for the -type of agitation which, even in those early days, the Suffragists -carried on; for the "anti-Man" feeling that ran through it, and for the -type of woman--the "New Woman" as she was called in the eighties--who -gravitated towards its ranks. Her scholarly mind rejected many of the -Suffragist arguments as shallow and unproven, especially those which -concerned the economic condition of women, while the practical -co-operation between men and women that she saw all round her, both in -Oxford and afterwards in London, gave her the conviction that the -remaining disabilities of women might and would be removed in due course -by this road, rather than by a political turmoil which would only serve -to embitter the relations between them. In her eyes women were neither -better nor worse than men, but different; so different that neither they -nor the State would really be served by this attempt to press them into -a political machine which owed its development solely to the male sex. -In later years she had many close friends in the Suffrage camp, nor did -she ever lose those of her earlier days who were converted, but to the -end there remained a profound antipathy between her and the "feminist" -type of mind, with its crudities and extravagances--the type that was to -manifest itself so disastrously in later years among the "Suffragettes." -It was not that she wished her sex to remain aloof from the toil and -dust of the world, as her Positivist friends would have liked; rather -she felt it to be the duty of all educated women to work themselves to -the bone for the uplifting of women and children less fortunate than -themselves, and so to repay their debt to the community; but clamour for -their own "rights" was a different thing: ugly in itself, and likely to -lead, in her opinion, to a sex-war of very dubious outcome. - -The first time that Mrs. Ward was drawn into the battle of the Suffrage -was on the occasion, early in 1889, of Lord Salisbury's much-trumpeted -conversion to it, when a Private Member's Bill[30] of the usual limited -type was before Parliament, and the Prime Minister's attitude appeared -to make it probable that the Bill might pass. Mrs. Creighton--then also -opposed to the Suffrage, though on somewhat different grounds from Mrs. -Ward's--Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Knowles, and Mrs. Ward united in -organizing a movement of protest. It was decided at a meeting held at -Mr. Harrison's house in May that the signatures of women eminent in the -world of education, literature and public service should be invited to a -"Protest against the extension of the Parliamentary Franchise to Women," -which Mrs. Ward had drawn up (with some assistance from Mrs. Creighton), -and which Mr. Knowles undertook to publish in the next month's -_Nineteenth Century_. - -The arguments advanced in this _Protest_ are interesting as showing the -position from which Mrs. Ward hardly moved in the next thirty years, -though many of her original allies who signed it fell away and joined -the Suffrage camp. There is first the emphasis on the essentially -different functions of men and women: - - "While desiring the fullest possible development of the powers, - energies and education of women, we believe that their work for the - State, and their responsibilities towards it, must always differ - essentially from those of men, and that therefore their share in - the working of the State machinery should be different from that - assigned to men." Women can never share in such labours as "the - working of the Army and Navy, all the heavy, laborious, fundamental - industries of the State, such as those of mines, metals and - railways, the management of commerce and finance, the service of - that merchant fleet on which our food supply depends.... Therefore - it is not just to give to women direct power of deciding questions - of Parliamentary policy, of war, of foreign or colonial affairs, of - commerce and finance equal to that possessed by men. We hold that - they already possess an influence on political matters fully - proportioned to the possible share of women in the political - activities of England." - -At the same time the recent extensions of women's responsibilities, such -as their admission to the municipal vote and to membership of School -Boards, Boards of Guardians, etc., is warmly welcomed, "since here it is -possible for them not only to decide but to help in carrying out, and -judgment is therefore weighted by a true responsibility." Then comes a -denial of any widespread demand among women themselves for the -franchise, "as is always the case if a grievance is real and reform -necessary," and finally an argument on which Mrs. Ward continued to lay -much stress in after years, that of the steady removal of the reasonable -grievances of women by the existing machinery of a male Parliament. - - "It is often urged that certain injustices of the law towards women - would be easily and quickly remedied were the political power of - the vote conceded to them; and that there are many wants, - especially among working women, which are now neglected, but which - the suffrage would enable them to press on public attention. We - reply that during the past half-century all the principal - injustices of the law towards women have been amended by means of - the existing constitutional machinery; and with regard to those - that remain, we see no signs of any unwillingness on the part of - Parliament to deal with them. On the contrary, we remark a growing - sensitiveness to the claims of women, and the rise of a new spirit - of justice and sympathy among men, answering to those advances made - by women in education, and the best kind of social influence, which - we have already noticed and welcomed. With regard to the business - or trade interests of women--here, again, we think it safer and - wiser to trust to organization and self-help on their own part, and - to the growth of a better public opinion among the men workers, - than to the exercise of a political right which may easily bring - women into direct and hasty conflict with men." - -This feeling was evidently uppermost in her thoughts at that time, for -she wrote as early as January, 1889, to her sister-in-law, Miss Agnes -Ward: - - "What _are_ these tremendous grievances women are still labouring - under, and for which the present Parliament is not likely to give - them redress? I believe in them as little as I believe now in the - grievances of the Irish tenant. There _were_ grievances, but by the - action of the parties concerned and their friends under the - existing system they have been practically removed. No doubt much - might be done to improve the condition of certain classes of women, - just as much might be done for that of certain classes of men, but - the world is indefinitely improveable, and I believe there is - little more chance of quickening the pace--wisely--with women's - suffrage than without it.... There is a great deal of championing - of women's suffrage going on which is not really serious. Mr. - Haldane, a Gladstonian member, said to me the other day, 'Oh, I - shall vote for it of course!--with this amendment, that it be - extended to married women, and in the intention of leading through - it to manhood suffrage.' But if many people treat it from this - point of view and avow it, the struggle is likely to be a good deal - hotter and tougher before we have done with it than it has ever - been yet. - - "I should like to know John Morley's mind on the matter. He began - as an enthusiast and has now decided strongly against. So have - several other people whose opinion means a good deal to me. And as - to women, whether their lives have been hard or soft, I imagine - that when the danger _really_ comes, we shall be able to raise a - protest which will be a surprise to the other side." - -In spite of the fact that the organizers of the _Protest_ were -handicapped by the natural reluctance of many of their warmest -supporters to take part in what seemed to them a "political agitation," -and so to let their names appear in print,[31] they worked to such -purpose during the ten days that elapsed between the meeting at Mr. -Frederic Harrison's house and the going to press of the _Nineteenth -Century_ that 104 signatures were secured. They were regarded by their -contemporaries as the signatures either of "eminent women" or of -"superior persons," according to the bias of those who contemplated the -list. Posterity may be interested to know that they included such future -supporters of the Suffrage as Miss Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb), -Mrs. Creighton and Mrs. T. H. Green, while among women distinguished -either through their own work or their husbands' in many fields occur -the names of Mrs. Goschen, Lady Stanley of Alderley, Lady Frederick -Cavendish, Mrs. T. H. Huxley, Mrs. J. R. Green, Mrs. Max Müller, Mrs. W. -E. Forster, and Mrs. Arnold Toynbee. - -Naturally the _Protest_ drew the Suffrage forces into the field. The -July number of the _Nineteenth Century_ contained two "Replies," from -Mrs. Fawcett and Mrs. Ashton Dilke, to which Mrs. Creighton in her turn -supplied a "Rejoinder." Meanwhile a form of signature to the _Protest_ -had been circulated with the Review, and was supplied in large numbers -on demand, so that in the August number Mr. Knowles was enabled to print -twenty-seven pages of signatures to the statement that "The -enfranchisement of women would be a measure distasteful to the great -majority of women of the country--unnecessary--and mischievous both to -themselves and to the State." Mrs. Creighton's "Rejoinder" was regarded -on the Anti-Suffrage side as a dignified and worthy close to the -discussion. "The question has been laid to rest," wrote Mr. Harrison to -her, "for this generation, I feel sure." Nearly thirty years were indeed -to pass before the question was "laid to rest," though in a different -sense from Mr. Harrison's. - -During the earlier part of that long period Mrs. Ward concerned herself -no further, in any public capacity, with the task of opposing the -Suffrage forces. Her own opinions were known and respected by her -friends of whatever party, while her growing interest in and knowledge -of social questions gave her an ever-increasing right to advocate them. -At Grosvenor Place the talk at luncheon or dinner-table would often play -round the dread subject in the freest manner, with a frequent appeal, in -those happy days, to ridicule as the deciding factor. Mrs. Ward was -particularly pleased with a dictum of John Morley's, "For Heaven's sake, -don't let us be the first to make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of -Europe!" which I remember hearing her quote from time to time; but on -this subject, as on all others, the atmosphere of the house was one of -liberty to all comers to air and express their opinions. Most of her own -family were of the Suffrage persuasion, especially her two sisters, -Julia and Ethel, but her children followed her lead--save one who, being -a member of a youthful debating society where the wisdom of nineteen ran -riot in speech and counter-speech, was told off one day to get up the -arguments in favour of Women's Suffrage and to open the debate; she got -them up with the energy of that terrible age, and remained a convert -ever afterwards. - -The question, in fact, did not enter the region of practical politics -until the advent to power of the Liberal Government in December, 1905. -It was on the occasion of Campbell-Bannerman's great meeting at the -Albert Hall, before the election, that the portent of the Suffragette -first manifested itself in the form of a young woman who put -inconvenient questions to "C.-B.," in a strident voice, from the -orchestra, and was unmercifully hustled out by indignant stewards. It -was the beginning of eight years of tribulation. Mrs. Ward watched -through 1906 and 1907 the growing violences of these women with mingled -horror and satisfaction: horror at the unloveliness of their -proceedings and satisfaction at the feeling that an outraged public -would never yield to such clamour what they had refused to yield to -argument. She did not yet know the uses of democracy. But the -constitutional agitation was also making way during these years, -especially since it was known that Campbell-Bannerman himself was a -Suffragist, and even after his death Mr. Asquith announced to a -deputation of Liberal M.P.'s, in May, 1908, that if when the -Government's proposed Reform Bill was introduced, an amendment for the -extension of the franchise to women on democratic lines were moved to -it, his Government as a Government would not oppose such an amendment. -This announcement brought Women's Suffrage very definitely within the -bounds of practical politics, so that those who believed that the change -would be disastrous felt bound to exert themselves in rallying the -forces of opposition. Mrs. Ward had hardly returned from America before -Lord Cromer and other prominent Anti-Suffragists approached her with -regard to the starting of a society pledged to oppose the movement. They -knew well enough that no such counter-movement had any chance of success -without her active support, and they shrewdly augured that, once -captured, she would become the life and soul of it. Mrs. Ward groaned -but acquiesced, and thus in July of this year (1908) was born the -"Women's National Anti-Suffrage League," inaugurated at a meeting held -at the Westminster Palace Hotel on July 21. - -In the long struggle that now opened it is easy to see that Mrs. Ward -was not really at her ease in conducting a movement of mere opposition -and denial. She did not enjoy it as she enjoyed her battles with the -L.C.C. for the pushing forward of her schemes for the children, yet she -felt that it was "laid upon her" and that there was no escape. "As -Gertrude says, it is all fiendish, but we feel we must do it," she wrote -after the inaugural meeting; but this feeling explains her imperative -desire to give a positive side to the movement by dwelling on the great -need for women's work on local bodies--a line of argument which was -mistrusted by many of her male supporters, one of whom, Lord James of -Hereford, had spoken passionately in the House of Lords against the Act -of 1907 for enabling women to sit on County or Borough Councils. But -Mrs. Ward had her way, so that when the programme of the Anti-Suffrage -League came out it was found to contain twin "Objects": - -(_a_) To resist the proposal to admit women to the Parliamentary -Franchise and to Parliament; and - -(_b_) To maintain the principle of the representation of women on -municipal and other bodies concerned with the domestic and social -affairs of the community. - -This second "Object" was indeed the keystone of Mrs. Ward's fabric for -the useful employment of the energies and gifts of women, in a manner -suited to their special experience as well as conducive to the real -interests of the State. She called it somewhere the "enlarged -housekeeping" of the nation, and maintained that the need for women's -work and influence here was unlimited, whereas in the special -Parliamentary fields of foreign affairs, war and finance, women might -indeed have opinions, but opinions unsubstantiated by experience and -unbacked by the sanction of physical force. It is interesting to observe -how she conducts her case for a "forward policy" as regards Local -Government before her own supporters in the _Anti-Suffrage Review_ -(July, 1910): - - "There is no doubt that the appointment of a Local Government - Sub-Committee marks a certain new and definite stage in the - programme of our League. By some, perhaps, that stage will be - watched with a certain anxiety; while others will see in it the - fulfilment--so far as it goes--of delayed hopes, and the promise of - new strength. The anxiety is natural. For the task before the - League is long and strenuous, and that task in its first and most - essential aspect is a task of fight, a task of opposition. We are - here primarily to resist the imposition on women of the burden of - the parliamentary vote. And it is easily intelligible that those - who realize keenly the struggle before us may feel some alarm lest - anything should divert the energies of the League from its first - object, or lest those who are primarily interested in the fight - against the franchise should find themselves expected willy-nilly - to throw themselves into work for which they are less fitted, and - for which they care less. - - "But if the anxiety is natural, the hope is natural too Many - members of the League believe that there are two ways of fighting - the franchise--a negative and a positive way. They believe that - while the more extreme and bigoted Suffragists can only be met by - an attitude of resolute and direct opposition to an unpatriotic - demand, there are in this country thousands of women, - Anti-Suffragist at heart, or still undecided, who may be attracted - to a positive and alternative programme, while they shrink from - meeting the Suffragist claim with a simple 'No.' Their mind and - judgment tell them that there are many things still to be done, - both for women, and the country, that women ought to be doing, and - if they are asked merely to acquiesce in the present state of - things, they rebel, and will in the end rather listen to Suffragist - persuasion and adopt Suffragist methods. But the recent action of - the executive opens to such women a new field of positive - action--without any interference with the old. How immeasurably - would the strength of the League be increased, say the advocates of - what has been called 'the forward policy,' if in every town or - district, where we have a branch, we had also a Local Government - Committee, affiliated not to the present W.L.G.S., which is a - simple branch of the Suffrage propaganda, but to the Women's - National Anti-Suffrage League! The women's local government - movement, which has been almost killed in the last two years by - Suffragist excesses and the wrath provoked by them in the nation, - would then pass over into the hands of those better able to use - without abusing it. Anti-Suffrage would profit, and the nation - also." - -Mrs. Ward looked forward, indeed, to the regular organization of women's -work and influence on these lines, culminating in the election, by the -women members of local bodies, of a central committee in London which -would inevitably acquire immense influence on legislation as well as -administration in all matters affecting women and children. "Such a -Committee," she said to an American audience in 1908, "might easily be -strengthened by the addition to it of representatives from those -government offices most closely concerned with the administration of -laws concerning women and children; and no Government, in the case of -any new Bill before the House of Commons, could possibly afford to -ignore the strongly expressed opinion of such a committee, backed up as -it could easily be by agitation in the country. In this way, it seems to -me, all those questions of factory and sanitary legislation, which are -now being put forward as stalking-horses by the advocates of the -franchise, could be amply dealt with, without rushing us into the -dangers and the risks, in which the extension of the suffrage to women, -on the same terms as men, must ultimately land us." - -This passage shows very clearly Mrs. Ward's belief in the duty of -educated women to work for their fellows. She did not by any means wish -them to sit at home all day with their embroidery frames, but looked -forward instead to the steady development of what she called women's -"legitimate influence" in politics--the influence of a sane and informed -opinion, working in collaboration with Parliament, which should not only -remove the remaining grievances and disabilities of women, but hold a -watching brief on all future legislation affecting their interests. -Decidedly Mrs. Ward was no democrat. She was willing to wear herself out -for Mrs. Smith, of Peabody Buildings, and her children, but she could -not believe that it would do Mrs. Smith any good to become the prey of -the political agitator. - -Her activity in carrying on the Anti-Suffrage campaign from 1908 to 1914 -was astonishing, considering how heavily burdened she was at the same -time with her literary work and with the constant pressure of her Play -Centres and Vacation Schools. She was practically the only woman speaker -of the first rank on her own side, except for the rare appearances in -public of Miss Violet Markham, so that the Branches of the Anti-Suffrage -League formed in the great towns were all anxious to have her to speak, -and she felt bound to accept a certain number of such invitations. She -went to Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield in 1909; she led a -deputation to Mr. Asquith in 1910 and another at a more critical moment -in December, 1911; she wrote a series of articles in the _Standard_ on -"The Case against Women's Suffrage" in October, 1911, besides carrying -on an active correspondence in _The Times_, as occasion arose, against -Lady Maclaren, Mrs. Fawcett, or Mr. Zangwill; she spoke at Newcastle, -Bristol and Oxford early in 1912, and at a great meeting in the Queen's -Hall, just before the fiasco of the Liberal Reform Bill, in January, -1913. At all these meetings the prospect of Suffragette interruptions -weighed upon her like a nightmare. The militant agitation was, however, -a very potent source of reinforcement to the Anti-Suffrage ranks -throughout this period, so that although Mrs. Ward groaned as a citizen -at every new device the Militants put forth for plaguing the community, -she rejoiced as an Anti-Suffragist. The most definite annoyance to which -she herself was subjected by the Suffragettes occurred at Bristol, where -she addressed a huge meeting in February, 1912, in company with Lord -Cromer and Mr. Charles Hobhouse, M.P. A devoted lady had found a place -of concealment among the organ-pipes behind the platform, from which -post of vantage, as the _Bristol Times_ put it, "she heard an excellent -recital of music at close quarters, and for a few minutes addressed a -vast meeting in a muffled voice which uttered indistinguishable words." -She and a number of her fellows were ejected after the usual unhappy -scrimmage, and Mrs. Ward and Mr. Hobhouse were allowed to proceed. But -whether in consequence of this or as a mere coincidence, the Bristol -Branch became one of the strongest of the League's off-shoots, devoting -itself, to Mrs. Ward's intense satisfaction, to much useful work on -local and municipal bodies. - -Her opposition to Mrs. Fawcett's organization was, of course, conducted -on very different lines from this. Quite early in the campaign, in -February, 1909, a debate was arranged to take place at the Passmore -Edwards Settlement (under the auspices of the St. Pancras Branch of the -Women's Suffrage Society) between the two protagonists, Mrs. Ward and -Mrs. Fawcett. The organizers of the meeting were besieged with -applications for seats. Mrs. Ward reserved 150 for herself and the -Anti-Suffrage League, while about 300 went to the Suffrage Society, so -that the voting was a foregone conclusion; but the debate itself reached -a high level of excellence, though it suffered from the usual fault -which besets such tournaments--that the champions did not really _meet_ -each other's arguments, but cantered on into the void, discharging their -ammunition and returning gracefully to their starting-points when time -was called. - - "Surely," wrote Mrs. Ward afterwards to her old friend, Miss McKee, - the Chairman of the St. Pancras Suffrage Society, "surely you - don't think that Mrs. Fawcett answered my main contentions! Does - anyone deny the inequality of wage?--but what Mrs. Fawcett never - attempted to prove was how the vote could affect it. And why - compare doctor and nurse? Does not the doctor pay for a long and - costly training, while the nurse is paid her living at least from - the beginning? Would it not have been fairer to compare woman - doctor with man doctor, and then to show that under the L.C.C. at - the present moment medical appointments are open to both women and - men, and the salaries are equal?" - -It could not be expected that such combatants would influence each -other, but Mrs. Ward's campaign went far to influence the doubting -multitude, torn by conflicting counsels, harassed by the Militants, -worried by accounts of prison tortures suffered by the "martyrettes," -and generally bothered by the obscuring of the good old fight between -Liberals and Tories which the importation of the Suffrage into every -by-election caused. The Suffrage battle was indeed waged upon and around -the vile body of the Liberal Party in a very special degree from 1908 to -1914, for Mr. Asquith was Prime Minister, and Mr. Asquith--encouraged -thereto by every device of provocation and exasperation which the -Militants could spring upon him--was an Anti-Suffragist. Yet the -influence of his Suffragist colleagues and of the constitutional -agitation throughout the country was sufficient to induce him, in -November, 1911, to give a very favourable answer to a deputation -introduced by Mrs. Fawcett, who put to him a series of questions with -regard to the Reform Bill announced by the Government for the Session of -1912 and the possibility of adding Suffrage amendments to it. The -Suffragists withdrew with high hopes of a real measure of -enfranchisement in the ensuing year. But less than a month later Mr. -Asquith was receiving a similar deputation from the Anti-Suffrage -League, introduced by Lord Curzon and including Mrs. Ward, Miss Violet -Markham and Mr. McCallum Scott. His reply showed unmistakably that he -was exceedingly glad to have his hands strengthened by the "Antis" in -his own domestic camp, and he only begged them to carry on their crusade -with the utmost vigour, since "as an individual I am in entire agreement -with you that the grant of the parliamentary suffrage to women in this -country would be a political mistake of a very disastrous kind." - -When the Session of 1912 opened it was evident that very strong -influences were at work within the walls of Parliament for the defeat of -the "Conciliation Bill," which was due to come up for Second Reading at -the end of March, and it is significant that Mrs. Ward was able to say, -at a meeting of the Oxford Branch of the Anti-Suffrage League held on -March 15, that "Woman Suffrage is in all probability killed for this -Session and this Parliament." The prophecy was partly fulfilled; like -the prayers of Homer's heroes, Zeus "heard part, and part he scattered -to the winds." At any rate, in the Session of 1912, not only was the -Conciliation Bill defeated on March 28, by fourteen votes (after its -very striking victory the year before), but the Suffrage amendments to -the Reform Bill never even came up for consideration. At the very end of -a long Session, that is in January, 1913, the Speaker ruled that the -Bill had been so seriously altered by the amendments regarding male -franchise already passed that it was not, in fact, the same Bill as had -received Second Reading, while there were also "other amendments -regarding female suffrage" to come which would make it still more -vitally different. For these reasons he directed the withdrawal of the -Bill. The fury of the Suffragists at the "trick" which had been played -them may be imagined, but apart from the sanctity of Mr. Speaker's -rulings I think it is evident that the lassitude and discouragement -about the Suffrage which pervaded the House of Commons at that time, and -which contributed to the withdrawal of the Bill, was largely due to the -recognition that there _was_ a considerable body of Anti-Suffrage -opinion in the country, both amongst men and women, the strength of -which had not been realized before Mrs. Ward began her campaign. Well -might she draw attention to this at a great meeting held at the Queen's -Hall on January 20, when it was still expected that the Suffrage -amendments would be moved: - - "Naturally, I am reminded as I stand here, of all that has happened - in the four and a half years since our League was founded. All I - can tell you is, that we have put up a good fight; and I am amazed - at what we have been able to do. Just throw your minds back to - 1908. The militant organization was fast over-running the country; - the cause of Women Suffrage had undoubtedly been pushed to the - front, and for the moment benefited by the immense advertisement it - had received; our ears were deafened by the noise and the shouting; - and it looked as though the Suffrage might suddenly be carried - before the country, the real country, had taken it seriously at - all. The Second Readings of various Franchise Bills had been - passed, and were still to be passed, by large majorities. There was - no organized opposition. Suffragist opinions were entrenched in the - universities and the schools, and between the ardour of the - Suffragists and the apathy of the nation generally the situation - was full of danger. - - "What has happened since? An opposition, steadily growing in - importance and strength, has spread itself over the United Kingdom. - Men and women who had formerly supported the Suffrage, looked it in - the face, thought again and withdrew. Every item in the Suffragist - claim has been contested; every point in the Suffragist argument - has been investigated, and, as I think, overthrown. It is a great - deal more difficult to-day than it was then to go about vaguely and - passionately preaching that votes will raise wages in the ordinary - market--that nothing can be done for the parasitic trades and - sweated women without the women's vote--for what about the Trade - Boards Bill? or that nothing can be done to put down organized vice - without the women's vote--for what about the Criminal Law Amendment - Bill? or that nothing can be done to help and protect children, - without women's votes--for what about the Children's Act, the First - Offenders' Act, the new Children's Courts and the Children's - Probationary Officers, the vast growth of the Care Committees, and - all their beneficent work, due initially to the work of a woman, - Miss Margaret Frere? - - "Witness, too, the increasing number of women on important - Commissions: University--Divorce--Insurance; the increasing respect - paid to women's opinions; the strengthening of trade unionism among - women; the steady rise in the average wage. - - "No, the Suffragist argument that women are trampled on and - oppressed, and can do nothing without the vote, has crumbled in - their hands. It had but to be examined to be defeated. - - "Meanwhile, the outrages and the excitement of the extreme - Suffragist campaign gave many people pause. Was it to this we were - committing English politics? Did not the whole development throw a - new and startling light on the effect of party politics--politics - so exciting as politics are bound to be in such a country as - England--on the nerves of women? Women as advisers, as auxiliaries, - as the disinterested volunteers of politics, we all know, and as - far as I am concerned, cordially welcome. But women fighting for - their own hands--fighting ultimately for the political control of - men in men's affairs--women in fierce and direct opposition to - men--that was new--that gave us, as the French say, furiously to - think! - - "And now, the coming week will be critical enough, anxious enough; - but we all know that if any Suffrage amendment is carried in the - House, it can only be by a handful of votes--none of your - majorities of 160 or 170 as in the past. - - "And our high _hope_ is that none will pass, that every Suffrage - amendment will be defeated. - - "That state of things is the exact measure of what has been done by - us, the Anti-Suffrage party, to meet the Suffragist arguments and - to make the nation understand what such a revolution really - means--though I admit that Mrs. Pankhurst has done a good deal! It - is the exact measure of the national recoil since 1908, and if - fortune is on our side next week, we have only to carry on the - fight resolutely and steadily to the end in order finally to - convince the nation." - -After the collapse of the Government Reform Bill just described, the -deadlock in the Parliamentary situation as regards Women's Suffrage -continued right down to the outbreak of the War. Mrs. Fawcett -transferred the allegiance of the National Union of Women's Suffrage -Societies to the Labour Party, the only party which was prepared to back -the principle of women's votes through thick and thin; the Militants -continually increased in numbers, agitation and violence, and Mrs. Ward -and her friends concentrated their energies more and more on the -positive side of their programme, that is on the active development of -women's work in Local Government. But it was a heavy burden. Mrs. Ward -felt, as she said in a speech at Oxford in 1912, that "it is a profound -saying that nothing is conquered until it is replaced. Before the -Suffrage movement can be finally defeated, or rather transformed, we who -are its opponents must not only have beaten and refuted the Suffrage -argument, but we must have succeeded in showing that there is a more -excellent way towards everything that the moderate Suffragist desires, -and we must have kindled in the minds, especially of the young, hopes -and ideals for women which may efface and supersede those which have -been held out to them by the leaders of the Suffrage army." - -Her artistic imagination was already at work on the problem, for in 1913 -she wrote her Suffrage novel, _Delia Blanchflower_, in which the reader -of to-day may still enjoy her closely observed study of the militant -temperament, in Gertrude Marvell and her village followers, while on -Delia herself, an ardent militant when the story opens, the gradual -effect is traced of the English traditions of quiet public service, as -exemplified--naturally!--in the person of the hero. Incidentally it may -here be remarked that Mrs. Ward always believed that her Anti-Suffrage -activities, culminating in the writing of this novel, had a markedly bad -effect on the circulation of her books. Certainly she was prepared to -suffer for her opinions, for the task of diverting and of carrying -forward the Women's Movement into other lines than those which led to -Westminster was one that was to wear her out prematurely, though her -gallant spirit never recognized its hopelessness. - -Her organized attempt to give effect to these aspirations, in the -foundation (early in 1914) of the "Joint Advisory Council" between -Members of Parliament and Women Social Workers, arose out of the stand -which she made within the National Union of Women Workers[32] for the -neutrality of that body on the Suffrage question. The National Union was -bound by its constitution to favour "no one policy" in national affairs, -and many moderate Suffragists agreed with Mrs. Ward that sufficient _ad -hoc_ Societies existed already for carrying on the Suffrage campaign, -and that it would have been wiser for the National Union to remain -aloof from it altogether. But the feeling among the rank and file of the -Union was too strong for the Executive, so that in the autumn of 1912 a -Suffrage resolution was passed and sent up to the Prime Minister and all -Members of the House of Commons. Mrs. Ward protested, but suspended her -resignation until the next Annual Conference, which met at Hull in -October, 1913. There Mrs. Ward's resolutions were all voted down by the -Suffragist majority, so that she and some of her friends felt that they -had no choice but to secede from the Union, on the ground that its -original constitution had been violated. They drew up and sent to the -Press a Manifesto in which the following passage occurred: - - "Under these circumstances it is proposed to enlarge and strengthen - the protest movement, and to provide it, if possible, with a new - centre and rallying-point for social work involving, probably, - active co-operation with a certain number of Members of Parliament, - who, on wholly neutral ground from which the question of Suffrage, - for or against, has been altogether excluded, desire the help and - advice of women in such legislation." - -Mrs. Ward had, throughout the controversy, carried on an active and most -amicable correspondence with her old friend, Mrs. Creighton, the -President of the National Union of Women Workers, who had for some years -been a convert to Women's Suffrage, on the ground that, since women had -already, for good or ill, entered the political arena with their various -Party Associations, it would be more straight-forward to have them -inside than outside the political machine. Mrs. Ward now wrote to tell -her of the progress of her idea for a "Joint Advisory Committee": - - -"STOCKS, -"_December 18, 1913_. - -..."The scheme has been shaping beyond my hopes, and will I hope, - be ready for publication before Parliament meets. What we have been - aiming at is a kind of Standing Committee composed equally of - Members from all parts of the House of Commons, and both sides of - the Suffrage question--and women of experience in social work. I do - not, I hope, at all disguise from myself the difficulties of the - project, and yet I feel that it _ought_ to be very useful, and to - develop into a permanent adjunct of the House of Commons. From this - Joint Committee the Suffrage question will be excluded, but it will - contain a dozen of the leading Suffragists in the House, which - ought, I think, to make it clear that it is no _Anti_ - conspiracy!--but a bona-fide attempt to get Antis and Pros to work - together on really equal terms." - -She was much gratified by the cordial response to her invitation on the -part of M.P.'s of all shades of opinion, while some seventy women--both -Suffragists and "Antis"--representing every field of social work, -presently joined the Committee. Naturally the reproach levelled against -it by those who did not believe in it was that the Committee was wholly -self-appointed, but Mrs. Ward replied that, self-appointed or not, it -was an instrument for _getting things done_, and that it would soon -prove its usefulness. Under the Chairmanship of Sir Charles Nicholson, -M.P., the Committee had held four meetings at the House of Commons -between April and July, 1914, and had got through a great deal of -practical work in the drafting of various amendments to Bills then -before the House, when the curtain was rung down on all such fruitful -and peaceable activities. Henceforth the guns were to speak, and such -things as the education of crippled children, or the pressing of a wider -qualification for women members of local bodies, were to disappear -within the shadow that fell over the whole country. So at least it -appeared at the time, but the Joint Advisory Council, like all really -practical bodies, survived the shock, and lived to devote to the special -questions arising from the War the experience gained in these first -meetings. - - * * * * * - -The last act in the drama of Women's Suffrage found Mrs. Ward, as usual, -active and on the alert, and still unconvinced of the necessity for the -measure, or, still more, of the competence of the Parliament of 1917 to -deal with it. It will be remembered that the question arose again on the -"Representation of the People Bill" which the Government felt bound to -bring in before the death of the existing Parliament in order to remedy -the crying injustices of registration which deprived most of the -fighting men and many of the munition workers of their votes. The -opportunity was seized by the Suffragists to press the claims of women -once more upon Parliament and public, and this time the response was -overwhelmingly favourable. The pluck and endurance shown by women in all -the multifarious activities of the War had brought the public round to -their side; the men at the front were believed to be in favour of it, -the militant outrages had ceased, and, last but not least, there was now -a lifelong Suffragist at the head of affairs. The Speaker's Conference, -which reported on January 27, 1917, decided "by a majority" that "some -measure of women's suffrage should be conferred." It was evident that -the current of opinion was setting strongly in favour of the women's -claim, but Mrs. Ward still felt it to be her duty to protest, and to -organize the latent opposition which certainly existed in the country. -She wrote an eloquent letter to _The Times_ in May, pointing out the -obvious truth that the country had not been consulted, that the existing -Parliament had twice rejected the measure and was now a mere rump, with -some 200 Members absent on war service; she denied in a passage of great -force the plea based on "equality of service" between men and women, -appealing to the grave-yards in France and Flanders which she had seen -with her own eyes, as evidence of the eternal _in_equality, and finally -she pleaded for a large extension of the women's _municipal_ vote, in -order to provide an electorate which might be consulted by Referendum. -The Referendum was in fact adopted by the now dwindling Anti-Suffrage -party in Parliament as their policy; but the House of Commons would have -none of it, and the Second Reading of the Bill, which included the -Suffrage clause, was carried by 329 to 40. It is obvious, of course, -that in an elective Assembly, when the members are once convinced that a -large increase in the electorate is about to be made, anxiety for their -seats will make them very chary of voting against the new electors. -Hence Mrs. Ward had to bewail many desertions. The Bill was finally -passed by the House of Commons on December 7; but there still remained -the Lords. Here the opposition was likely to be far more formidable, for -the Lords had no hungry electors waiting for them, nor were they so -susceptible as the Lower House to waves of sentiment such as that which -had overspread press and public in favour of Women's Suffrage. It was -here, therefore, that Mrs. Ward organized her last resistance. The -January _Nineteenth Century_ appeared with an article by her entitled -"Let Women Say," appealing to the Lords to insist on a Referendum, while -in the first week of January she (acting as Chairman of the National -League for Opposing Women's Suffrage) issued a Memorial to which she had -obtained the signatures of about 2,000 women war-workers, and sent it to -the press and to the Members of the House of Lords. - -Lord Bryce wrote to her in response (January 8, 1918): - - -"MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - Thank you for your admirable article and for the copy of the - Memorial, an effective reply to that of the Suffragist ladies. It - is an achievement to have secured so many signatures so - quickly--and this may be used effectively by Lord Balfour of - Burleigh, when he moves his Referendum Amendment. No one can yet - predict the result. Lord Loreburn will move the omission of the - earlier part of Clause IV to-morrow; and I suppose that if it is - defeated the Referendum issue will come next." - -There were a large number of distinguished Peers, including Lords -Loreburn, Weardale, Halsbury, Plymouth, and Finlay, who were pledged to -oppose "Clause IV," but the rock on whom the Anti-Suffragists chiefly -relied was Lord Curzon. He was President of the National League for -Opposing Women's Suffrage. He was an important member of the Government. -His advice would sway the votes of large numbers of docile Peers. He -had, however, sent Mrs. Ward a verbal message through her son, whom he -met in the House on December 18, that his position in the Government -would make it impossible for him to _vote_ against the Clause: he would -be obliged to abstain. Still he continued in active communication with -Mrs. Ward, giving advice on the tactics to be pursued, and on December -30, 1917, wrote her a letter in which, after expressing admiration for -her _Nineteenth Century_ article, he added the words: "A letter (if -possible with the article) to the Peers a few days before the Clause -comes under consideration may bring up a good many to vote, and after -all that is what you want for the moment." - -Lord Curzon gave no further warning to the Committee of the League that -he intended to pursue any different line of action from that recommended -here. It was still a question of "bringing the Peers up to vote," though -the Committee knew by this time that his own vote--on the formal ground -of his being Leader of the House of Lords--could not be given against -the Clause. What, then, was their astonishment, when on the decisive -day, January 10, 1918, after a speech in which Lord Curzon condemned the -principle of Women's Suffrage in unmeasured terms and announced that his -opposition to it was as strong as ever, he then turned to their -Lordships and advised them not to reject the Clause because it would -lead to a conflict with the other House "from which your Lordships would -not emerge with credit." The effect of the appeal was decisive; the -Clause passed the House of Lords by a majority of sixty-three. - -Thus fell the Anti-Suffrage edifice, and Mrs. Ward and her friends were -left to nurse their wrath against their leader. A somewhat lengthy -correspondence in the _Morning Post_ followed, the echoes of which have -long since died away, and Mrs. Ward retired soon afterwards to Stocks. -Thence she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, on March 14, her little valediction -on the Suffrage question: - - "Yes, I have had rather a bad time of headache and weariness - lately. The last lap of the Suffrage struggle was rather too much - for me. But I felt bound, under all the circumstances (I should not - have felt bound if the decision had been postponed till after the - War) as a patriot--or what I conceive to be a patriot--to fight to - the end, and I actually drafted the last amendment on which the - House of Lords voted. Well now, thank goodness, it is over, for a - while, though I see Mrs. Fawcett is still proposing to go on. Now - the question is what the women will do with their vote. I can only - hope that you and Mrs. Fawcett are right and that I am wrong." - -Nine months later, the General Election of December, 1918, gave women -the opportunity of echoing their Prime Minister's sentiments that the -Kaiser should be brought to trial and that Germany should pay for the -cost of the War. Mrs. Ward did not record her vote, for purely local -reasons, but she had by this time adopted an attitude of quite -benevolent neutrality on the merits of the question. She had fought her -fight squarely and openly, and had finally been defeated by a -combination of circumstances to which no combatant need have been -ashamed of succumbing. To some of those who worked with her and who -watched her endless consideration for friend and foe alike, in office -and committee-room, who admired the breadth and versatility of her mind -and who shared her belief in the "alternative policy" for which she so -eloquently pleaded, it seemed that the failure of the Anti-Suffrage -campaign lay at the door of those who obstructed her within her own -walls, who could not understand her call to women to be up and doing, -and who opposed a mere blind _No_ to the youth and hope of the Suffrage -crusade. - -Be that as it may, Mrs. Ward had no reason, in looking back, to be -otherwise than proud of her contribution to the great cause of women's -work and freedom in this country. From her earliest days she had -forwarded the cause of women's education. As her experience of life grew -ever richer and more pitiful she had pleaded with her sex, using all her -varied gifts of pen and speech, to give themselves, each in her degree, -to the service of her fellows, and of the children. Her own example was -never lacking to enforce the plea. Service, not "rights," was in effect -her watch-word. If she disbelieved in the efficacy of the vote to -achieve miracles, it was because she believed far more in the gradual -growth and efficacy of spiritual forces. The rule of the mob did not -attract her, especially if it were a female mob; she would have offered -it, instead, its fill of work and service. Perhaps it was too austere a -gospel for our day, and in the end she watched her country choose the -opposite path without bitterness, and even with some degree of hope. At -any rate she had done her part in laying before her countrywomen a -different ideal. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914--_THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL_--THE OUTBREAK -OF WAR - - -Stocks, during the first sixteen years that Mrs. Ward inhabited it, was -a dear but provoking house. Built in 1772 by the Duncombe family, at the -expense of the earlier manor-house at the foot of the hill, it had been -added to in the mid-nineteenth century in a spirit of small economy, so -that the visitor as he drove up beheld an unlovely eastern side, with a -squalid porch jutting out into the drive and a mean little block of -"bachelors' rooms" joined on to the main Georgian building. Though Mrs. -Ward loved the southern and western sides of the house, the eastern side -was always an offence to her; she longed to tear down the porch and to -plan some simple scheme for unifying its whole aspect. After many -hesitations, the plunge was finally made in 1907. The family retired to -Stocks Cottage, the little house among the steep hanging woods of -Moneybury Hill where the Neville Lytteltons had stayed so many summers, -and thence watched the slow disintegration and rebuilding of the "big -house." For, of course, once the process was begun, three-quarters of -the Georgian structure was found to be in a state of decomposition, with -floors and ceilings that would have crumbled at another touch, so that -long before it was finished the visit to America had come and gone and -the Anti-Suffrage campaign was launched. When at length the new Stocks -could be inhabited, in the autumn of 1908, the alterations were -beautiful indeed, but had been expensive. There was thenceforward an -unknown burden in the way of upkeep which at times oppressed even Mrs. -Ward's buoyant spirit. - -And yet how she loved every inch of the place--house and garden -together--especially after this rebuilding, which stamped it so clearly -as her and her husband's twin possession. Whether in solitude or in -company, Stocks was to her the place of consolation which repaid her for -all the fatigues and troubles of her life. Not that she went to it for -rest, for the day's work there was often harder than it was in London, -but the little walks that she could take in the intervals of work, down -to the kitchen-garden, or up and down the lime-avenue, or through the -wood behind the house, brought refreshment to her spirit and helped her -to surmount the labours that for ever weighed upon her. Here it was that -the near neighbourhood of her cousins of "Barley End"--Mr. and Mrs. -Whitridge in summer and Lord and Lady Sandhurst in winter--meant so much -to her, for they could share these brief half-hours of leisure and give -her, in the precious intimacy of gossip, that relaxation which her mind -so sorely needed. Then, in summer, there were certain spots in the long -grass under the scattered beeches where wild strawberries grew and -multiplied; these gave her exquisite delight, bringing back to her the -hungry joys of her childhood, when she would seek and find the secret -strawberry-beds that grew on the outcrop of rock in Fox How garden. But -the more sybaritic delights of Stocks were very dear to her too--the -scent of hyacinths and narcissus that greeted her as she entered the -house at Christmas-time, or the banks of azalea placed there by Mr. -Keen, the incomparable head-gardener. Keen had already been at Stocks -for fifteen years before we came to it in 1892, and he lived to gather -the branches of wild cherry that decked his mistress's grave in 1920. In -summer he would work for fifteen hours a day, in spite of all that Mrs. -Ward could say to him; his simple answer was that he could not bear to -see his plants die for lack of watering. So Keen toiled at his garden, -and Mrs. Ward toiled at her books, her speeches and her correspondence, -each holding for the other the respect that only the toilers of this -world can know. - -Her habits of work when she was settled at Stocks were somewhat -peculiar, for method was not her strong point, and it often seemed as -though the day's quota was accomplished in a series of rushes rather -than in a steady approach and fulfilment. No breakfast downstairs at -8.30 and then a solid morning's work for her, but a morning beginning -often at 5.30 a.m., with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or -much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest -solace and delight. "For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet's -_Dix-huitième Siècle_," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton in August, 1908, -"comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary -with the Liberal; reading Raleigh's Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as -usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should -be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough--and -there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before." - -Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and -though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before -breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, -or the _Agamemnon_, became gradually more precious to her than any other -fraction of the day. She was of course no scholar, in the ordinary -sense, and her "quantities" both in Greek and Latin frequently produced -a raucous cry from her husband, to whom the correct thing was, somehow, -second nature; but the literary sense in her responded with a thrill -both to the glories and the restraints of Greek verse, so that such a -passage as Clytemnestra's description of the beacons moved her with a -power that she could hardly explain to herself. The influence which -Greek tragedy had obtained upon her thought is well seen in the opening -chapter of _Diana Mallory_. - -Then, at eight o'clock, would come breakfast and post, and, with the -post, the first visits from the rest of us and the planning of the day's -events. Usually she did not appear downstairs till after ten, and if, as -so often happened, there were friends or relations staying in the house -she would linger talking with them for another half-hour before -disappearing finally into her writing-room. Then there would be a short -but intensive morning's work--sometimes wasted on Anti-Suffrage, as she -would wrathfully confess!--lunch and a brief interval for driving on the -Common or in Ashridge Park, after which work would begin again before -four o'clock and continue, with only a nominal break for tea, till well -after eight. She rarely returned to her task after dinner, for this -would infallibly bring on a bad night, and indeed the long spell in the -afternoon left her with little energy for anything but talk or silence -in the evening. - -Such, in approximate outline, was her day when nothing from outside -caused an unusual interruption, but life at Stocks seemed often fated to -consist of interruptions. First and foremost there might be guests in -the house, who must be taken for a picnic on the Ivinghoe Downs or on -Ringshall Common, or else there might be visitors from town on -business--the Warden of the Settlement, an American publisher, a -theatrical manager; telegrams would come up the drive from the little -village post-office (for the telephone was not installed till 1914), -while always and ever there was the tyranny of the post. One Sunday the -contribution of Stocks to the village post-bag was duly certified at -eighty-five letters, while forty to fifty was a very usual number. The -evening post left at 6.30, and not till this was out of the way could -Mrs. Ward enjoy that fragment of the day which she regarded as the best -for real work, when letters and all other interruptions were cleared -from the horizon. Her sitting-room was always a mass of papers, -wonderfully kept in order by Dorothy or Miss Churcher; but in spite of -the neatness of the packets, there would come days when the one letter -or sheet of manuscript that she wanted could _not_ be found, and the -house would resound with the clamour of the searchers. Indeed Mrs. Ward -could never be trusted to keep her small possessions, unaided, for very -long, for being entirely without pockets she was reduced to the -inevitable "little bag," which naturally spent much of its time down -cracks of chairs and in other occult places. When her advancing years -made spectacles necessary for reading and writing, these added another -complication to life, but fortunately there was always some willing -slave at hand to aid in recovering the lost--or rather her family would -half unconsciously arrange their days so that there should be some one. -Once she declared with pride to a friend that she had travelled home -_alone_ from Paris to London without mishap, but on inquiry it was found -that "alone" included the faithful Lizzie, and only meant that, for -once, neither husband nor daughter had accompanied her. - -Her letters to Mrs. Creighton during these years give many glimpses of -her life. - - "I am writing to you very early in the morning--6.30--," she wrote - on August 4, 1910, "a time when I often find one can get a _real_ - letter done, or a difficult bit of work. These weeks since the - middle of June have been unusually strenuous for me. Anti-Suffrage - has been a heavy burden, especially the effort to give the movement - a more constructive and positive side. Play Centres have been - steadily increasing, and there were three Vacation Schools to - organize. The Care Committees under the L.C.C. are beginning to - wake up to Play Centres, and lately I have had three applications - to start Centres in one week. Then I have also begun a new book - [_The Case of Richard Meynell_] and even completed and sent off the - first number. But I am very harassed about the book, which does not - lie clear before me by any means. Still, I have been able to read a - good deal--William James, and Tyrrell, and Claude Montefiore's book - on the Synoptics, and some other theology and history. - - "Life is _too_ crowded!--don't you feel it so? Every year brings - its fresh interests and claims, and one can't let go the old. Yet I - hope there may be time left for some resting, watching years at the - end of it all--when one may sit in the chimney corner, look on--and - think!" - -"Some resting, watching years"! The gods were indeed asleep when Mrs. -Ward breathed this prayer, or was it that they knew, better than she, -that life without toil would have been no life to her? - -Among the self-imposed labours which Mrs. Ward added to her burden -during the year 1910, was that of taking an active part in the two -General Elections of that _annus mirabilis_. Her son had been adopted as -Unionist candidate for the West Herts Division, in which Stocks lay, and -Mrs. Ward was so disgusted by what she conceived to be the violence and -unfairness of the leaflets issued by both sides that she decided to sit -down and write a series of her own, intended primarily for the villages -round Stocks and written in simple but persuasive language. These -"Letters to my Neighbours," as they were entitled, dealt with all the -burning questions of the day--the rejection of the Budget by the House -of Lords, Tariff Reform, the new Land Taxes, Home Rule for Ireland and -so forth; but their fame did not remain confined to the villages of West -Herts, but spread first to Sheffield and thence to many other great -towns and county divisions. Mrs. Ward was by this time a convinced -Tariff Reformer, and set forth the case in favour of Protection in lucid -and attractive style; she had learnt the way to do this in the course of -certain "Talks with Voters" which she had held in the little village -schoolroom at Aldbury and in which she had penetrated with her usual -sympathy and directness into the recesses of the rustic mind. The whole -thing was, of course, a direct attempt to influence public opinion on a -political issue, on the part of one who had no vote, and as such was not -missed by the sharp eye of Mrs. Fawcett. The Suffrage leader twitted -Mrs. Ward with her inconsistency in a speech to a Women's Congress in -the summer of 1910, drawing from Mrs. Ward a reply in _The Times_ which -showed that her withers were quite unwrung. Her contention was, in fact, -that the minority of women who cared about politics had as good a right -as anyone else to influence opinion, _if they could_, and would succeed -"as men succeed, in proportion to their knowledge, their energy and -their patience.... That a woman member of the National Union of -Teachers, that the wives and daughters of professional and working men, -that educated women generally, should try to influence the votes of male -voters towards causes in which they believe, seems to me only part of -the general national process of making and enforcing opinion." At any -rate in the village of Aldbury and far outside it, Mrs. Ward was -accepted as a "maker of opinion" because the people loved her, and -because at the end of her little "Talks with Voters" she never failed to -remind her hearers that the ballot was secret. Her son was duly elected -for West Herts--a result which Mrs. Ward could not be expected to take -with as much philosophy as Mrs. Dell, our village oracle, whose only -remark was, "Lumme, sech a fustle and a bustle! And when all's say and -do one's out and the other's in!" - -The election made Mrs. Ward more intimate than she had been before with -the village folk and with her county neighbours--amongst whom she had -many close friends--but her real delight still was to receive her -relations and friends, to stay in the house, and there to make much of -them. Among these her sister Ethel was a constant visitor, together with -her great friend Miss Williams-Freeman, whose knowledge of France and of -French people was always a delight to Mrs. Ward. Then there were those -whom she would beguile from London on shorter visits--so far as she -could afford the time to entertain them! Not every Sunday, by any means, -could she allow herself this pleasure, but her instinct for hospitality -was so strong that she stretched many points in this direction, paying -for her indulgence afterwards by a still harder "grind." There were -red-letter days when she persuaded her oldest friends of all, Mrs. T. H. -Green or the Arthur Johnsons, to uproot themselves from Oxford and come -to talk of all things in heaven and earth with her; Mrs. Creighton was -an annual visitor, usually for several days in the autumn; Miss Cropper, -of Kendal, and the Hugh Bells, of Rounton, were among the few whom Mrs. -Ward not only loved to have at Stocks, but with whom she in her turn -would go to stay, reviving in Westmorland and Yorkshire her love for the -North. Then there was Henry James, whose rarer visits made him each time -the more beloved, and with whom Mrs. Ward maintained all through these -years a correspondence which might have delighted posterity, but of -which he, alas, destroyed her share before he died. Many, too, were the -friends from the world of politics or journalism who found their way to -Stocks: Mr. Haldane and Alfred Lyttelton; Oakeley Arnold-Forster, her -cousin, whose career in the Unionist Cabinet was cut short by death in -1909; Sir Donald Wallace, the George Protheros and Mr. Chirol, and ever -and anon some friend from Italy or France--Count Ugo Balzani and his -daughters, Carlo Segrè or André Chevrillon, whose presence only made the -talk leap faster and more joyously. The sound and the flavour of their -talk is gone for ever, but the memory of those days, and of their -hostess, must still be green in the hearts of many. - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Young people, too, were always welcomed by Mrs. Ward, especially the -many nieces and nephews who were now growing up around her and who were -accustomed to look to Stocks almost as to a second home. Amongst these -were the whole Selwyn family, children of her sister Lucy, who had died -in 1894; both children and father (Dr. E. C. Selwyn, Headmaster of -Uppingham School) were very dear to Mrs. Ward and frequently came to -fill the house at Stocks. Two splendid sons of this family, Arthur -and Christopher, were to give up their lives in the War. Their -stepmother, who had been Mrs. Ward's favourite cousin on the Sorell -side, Miss Maud Dunn, occupied after her marriage a still more intimate -place in her affections. One little boy she had, George, to whom Mrs. -Ward was much attached for his quaint and serious character, but he too -was doomed to die in France, of influenza, in the last month of the War. - -That member of her own family, however, to whom Mrs. Ward was most -deeply attached, her sister Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), fell a victim -in the year 1908, at the age of only 46, to a swift and terrible form of -malignant disease. With her perished not only the gifted foundress of -the great girls' school at Priors' Field, but Mrs. Ward's most intimate -friend--the person with whom she shared all joys and sorrows, and whom -it was an ever-new delight to receive at Stocks, with her brood of -brilliant children. She had been amongst the first guests to visit the -house in 1892; she was there within two months of her death in 1908. -Such a shock went very deep with Mrs. Ward, but she spent herself all -the more in devotion to "Judy's" children, whom she loved next to her -own and who had always, since their babyhood, spent a large part of each -year's holidays at Stocks. And they on their side were not ashamed to -return her affection. Julian and Trevenen, Aldous and Margaret became to -her almost a second family, leaning on her and loving and chaffing her -as only the keen-witted children of a house know how to do. - -For if Stocks was a Paradise to the tired week-end visitor from London, -or to the stalwart young ones who could play cricket or tennis on its -lawns, it was still more the Paradise of little children. Mrs. Ward was -never really happy unless there were children in the house, the younger -the better, and one of the joys of the re-building was that it provided -her, on the transformed eastern side, with a pair of nurseries which -only asked thenceforward to be tenanted. Her grandchildren, Mary, -Theodore and Humphry, were naturally the most frequent tenants, and -there accumulated a store of ancient treasures to which they looked -forward with unfailing joy each time that they returned. Usually, too, -they found that "Gunny" (as they had early christened her) had -surreptitiously added to the store during their absence, which was -unorthodox, but pleasant. How she loved to fill their red mouths with -strawberries or grapes, to hear their voices on the stairs, or their -shrill shrieks as they played hide-and-seek on the lawn with some -captive grown-up! The two elders, Mary and Theodore, paid her a visit -every morning, with the regularity of clockwork, just as her -breakfast-tray arrived, and then sat on the bed, with sly, expectant -faces, waiting for the execution of the egg--a drama that was performed -each day with a prescribed ritual, varying only in the intensity of the -egg's protests against decapitation. The invaders usually ended by -consuming far more than their share of Gunny's breakfast. And as they -grew in stature and delightsomeness, Mrs. Ward became only the more -devoted to them, till when Theo was four and Mary five and a half, they -would pay for their 'bits of egg' by show performances of _Horatius_, -declaiming it there on the big bed till the room re-echoed with their -noise. Or else they would act the coming of King Charles into the House -of Commons in search of the five members, Mary being the Speaker and -Theo the disgruntled King, or, now and then, descend to modern politics -by singing her derisive ditties such as-- - - "Tariff Reform means work for all, - Work for all, work for all; - Tariff Reform means work for all, - Chopping up wood in the Workhouse." - -"Gunny" would become quite limp with laughing at the wickedness and -point which Theodore would throw into the singing of this song, for the -rascal knew full well that she had succumbed to what Mrs. Dell, after a -village meeting, had christened "Tarridy-form." - -Whenever one of their long visits to Stocks came to an end, Mrs. Ward -would be most disconsolate. "_How_ I miss the children," she wrote to J. -P. T. in January, 1911, "--it is quite foolish. I can never pass the -nursery door without a pang." Three months later, while she was staying -at an Italian villa in the Lucchese hills, the news fell upon her that -the beloved grandson whose every look and gesture was to her "an -embodied joy," would be hers no longer. He had died beside the sea, - -[Greek: ...philê en patridi gaiê], - -and the fells which stand around the little church in the Langdale -valley looked down upon another grave. - -It was long before Mrs. Ward could surmount this grief. That summer -(1911) she was busied with the organization of her Playgrounds for the -thousands upon thousands of London children who had no Stocks to play -in. - - "Sometimes," she wrote, "when I think of the masses of London - children I have been going through I seem to imagine him beside me, - his eager little hand in mine, looking at the dockers' children, - ragged, half-starved, disfigured, with his grave sweet eyes, eyes - so full already of humanity and pity. Is it so that his spirit - lives with us--the beloved one--part for ever of all that is best - in us, all that is nearest to God, in whom, I must believe, he - lives." - -During these years between her visit to America and the outbreak of War, -Mrs. Ward produced no less than six novels, including the two on America -and Canada which we have already mentioned. She also issued, in the -autumn of 1911, with Mr. Reginald Smith's help and guidance, the -"Westmorland Edition" of her earlier books (from _Miss Bretherton_ to -_Canadian Born_), contributing to them a series of critical and -autobiographical Prefaces which, as the _Oxford Chronicle_ said, "to a -great extent disarm criticism because in them Mrs. Ward appears as her -own best critic." Time and again, in these Introductions, we find her -seizing upon the weak point in her characters or her constructions: how -_Robert Elsmere_ "lacks irony and detachment," how _David Grieve_ is -"didactic in some parts and amateurish in others," how in _Sir George -Tressady_ Marcella "hovers incorporate and only very rarely finds her -feet." This candour made the new edition all the more acceptable to her -old admirers, and set the critics arguing once more on their old theme, -as to whether Mrs. Ward possessed or not a sense of humour. If it may be -permitted to one so near to her to venture an opinion on this point, it -is that Mrs. Ward, like all those who possess the ardent temperament, -the will to move the world, worked first and foremost by the methods of -direct attack rather than by the subtler shafts of humour; but no one -could live beside her, especially in these years of her maturity, -without falling under the spell of something which, if not humour, was -at least a vivid gift of "irony and detachment," asserting itself -constantly at the expense of herself and her doings and finding its way, -surely, into so many of her later books. Her minor characters are -usually instinct with it; they form the chorus, or the "volley of -silvery laughter" for ever threatening her too ardent heroes from the -Meredithian "spirit up aloft," and show that she herself is by no means -totally carried away by the ardours she creates. My own feeling is that -this gift of "irony and detachment" grew stronger with the years, -perhaps as the original motive force grew weaker, and though she -maintained to the end her unconquerable fighting spirit, as shown in her -struggle against the Suffrage and her keen interest in politics, these -things were crossed more frequently by humorous returns upon herself -which made her all the more delightful to those who knew her well. And -in the little things of life, no one was ever more easy to move to -helpless laughter over her own foibles. When she had bought no less than -five hats for her daughter on a motor-drive from Stocks to London--"on -spec, darling, at horrid little cheap shops in the Edgware Road"--or -when at Cadenabbia, she had actually sallied forth _unattended_ in order -to buy a pair of the peasants' string shoes, and had gone through a -series of harrowing adventures, no one who heard her tell the tale could -doubt that she was richly endowed with the power of laughing at herself. -In her writings she was, perhaps, a little sensitive about the point. - - "_Am_ I so devoid of humour?" she wrote to Mr. Reginald Smith, in - September, 1911. "I was looking at _David Grieve_ again the other - day--surely there is a good deal that is humorous there. And if I - may be egotistical and repeat them, I heard such pleasing things - about _David_ from Lord Arran in Dublin the other day. He knows it - absolutely by heart, and he says that when he was campaigning in - South Africa two battered copies of _David_ were read to pieces by - him and his brother-officers, and every night they discussed it - round the camp fires." - -The inference being, no doubt, that a set of hard-bitten British -officers would hardly have wasted their scanty leisure on a book that -totally lacked the indispensable national ingredient. - -The last novel with a definitely religious tendency to which Mrs. Ward -set her hand was her well-known sequel to _Robert Elsmere_, the "Case" -of the Modernist clergyman, Richard Meynell. It was by far the most -considerable work of her later years and represented the fruit of her -ripest meditations on the evolution of religious thought and practice in -the twenty years that had elapsed since _Robert's_ day. Ever since the -Loisy case she had been deeply possessed by the literature of Modernism, -seeing in it the force which would, she believed, in the end regenerate -the churches. - - "What interests and touches me most, in religion, at the present - moment," she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, in September, 1907, "is - Liberal Catholicism. It has a bolder freedom than anything in the - Anglican Church, and a more philosophic and poetic outlook. It - seems to me at any rate to combine the mystical and scientific - powers in a wonderful degree. If I only could believe that it would - last, and had a future!" - -She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrell, of Bergson and of -William James during these years, but while she allowed herself, -perhaps, as time went on, a more mystical interpretation of the Gospel -narratives, she was still as convinced as ever of the necessity for -historical criticism. - - -_To J. P. T._ - -"VALESCURE, -"_Easter Day, 1910_. - -..."It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been - reading William James on this very point--the worth of being - alive--and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the - Maries. I more and more believe that the whole resurrection story, - as a story, arose from the transference of the body by the - Romans--at Jewish bidding, no doubt--to a hidden sepulchre to avoid - a local cult. The vacant grave seems to me historic fact,--next to - it, the visions in Galilee, perhaps springing from _one_ vivid - dream of a disciple such as I had both of my father and mother - after their deaths--and then theology, and poetry, environment and - inherited belief did the rest. Yet what an amazing thing the rest - is, and how impossible to suppose that it--or any other great - religion--means nothing in the scheme of things." - -She had been much excited, also, by the instances of revolt in a Liberal -direction which were occurring at this time within the English Church, -such as that of Mr. Thompson of Magdalen; and so, out of these various -elements, she wove her tale of _Richard Meynell_. When she was already -deep in the writing of the book she came, quite by chance, upon a -country parish in Cheshire where a similar drama was going on. - - -_To Reginald Smith_ - -"STOCKS, -"_October 11, 1910_. - -..."I have returned home a great deal better than when I went, I am - glad to say. And on Sunday I heard Meynell preach!--in Alderley - church, in the person of Mr. Hudson Shaw. An astonishing sermon, - and a crowded congregation. 'I shall not in future read the - Athanasian Creed, or the cursing psalms or the Ten Commandments, or - the Exhortation at the beginning of the Marriage Service--and I - shall take the consequences. The Baptismal Service ought to be - altered--so ought the Burial Service. And how you, the laity, can - tolerate us--the clergy--standing up Sunday after Sunday and saying - these things to you, I cannot understand. But I for one will do it - no more, happen what may.' - - "I really felt that _Richard Meynell_ was likely to be in the - movement!" - -Richard Meynell, as the readers of this book will remember, makes -himself the leader of a crusade for modernizing and re-vivifying the -services of the Church, in accordance with the new preaching of "the -Christ of to-day,"--finds his message taken up by hundreds of his fellow -priests and hundreds of thousands of eager souls throughout the -country,--comes into collision with the higher powers of the Church, -takes his trial in the Court of Arches, and, when the inevitable -judgment goes against him, leaves us, on a note of hope, carrying his -appeal to the Privy Council, to Parliament and to the people of England. -The whole book is written in a vein of passionate inspiration--save for -the few touches, here and there, which convey the note of irony or -contemplation--; the reader may disagree, but he cannot help being -carried away, for the time at least, by the infectious enthusiasm of -Meynell and his movement. - - * * * * * - -"Perhaps the strongest impression," declared one of the reviewers, "at -once the most striking and the most profound, created by _The Case of -Richard Meynell_, is its religious optimism. One finds oneself -marvelling how any writer, in so sceptical an age as this, can picture a -Modernist religious movement with so inspired, so fervent a pen, as to -kindle a factitious flame even in hearts grown cold to religious -inspiration and to religious hope." - - * * * * * - -Others, again, pronounced the book to be, on the whole, a failure. "And -yet," said the _Dublin Review_, "there is a certain force in Mrs. -Humphry Ward that enables her to push her defective machine into motion; -_Richard Meynell_ is the work of a forcible, if tired, imagination. This -fact may be wrong, and that detail ugly, and another phrase offensive to -the sense of the ridiculous; but as a whole it ranks higher than many -and many a production that is lightly touched in and delicately edged -with satire. Spiritual sufferings, a yearning after truth, -self-restraint, revolt, the helpless wish to aid those who will not be -helped, the texture of fine souls, such things are brought home to us in -_Richard Meynell_. This is not done by the vitality of the author's -personages, for they never wholly escape from bondage to the main -intention of the book, but it is done by contact with a remarkable mind -tuned to fine issues." - -The reappearance of Catherine Elsmere, far less overwhelming and more -attractive than in the earlier book, endeared this tale to all who -remembered Robert's wife; her death in the little house in Long Sleddale -where Robert had first found her was felt to be a masterpiece that Mrs. -Ward had never surpassed. - -The writer did not disguise from herself and her friends that she looked -forward with unusual interest to the reception of this book. Would it in -truth find itself "in the movement"? Would it kindle into a flame the -dull embers of religious faith and freedom? - - "What I should like to do this winter," she wrote to Mrs. - Creighton, in September, 1911 (six weeks before the book's - appearance), "is to write a volume of imaginary 'Sermons and - Journals of Richard Meynell,' going in detail into many of the - points only touched in the book. If the book has the great success - the publishers predict, I could devote myself to handling in - another form some of the subjects that have been long in my mind. - But of course it may have no such success at all. I sometimes think - that, as Mr. Holmes maintains in his extraordinarily interesting - book,[33] the church teaching of the last twenty years has gone a - long way towards paganizing England--together of course with the - increase of wealth and hurry." - -These "Sermons and Journals of Richard Meynell" were, however, never -written. The book certainly aroused interest and even controversy in -England, but it did not sweep the country and set all tongues wagging, -as _Elsmere_ had done, while in America the populace refused to be -roused by what they regarded as the domestic affairs of the English -Church. Mrs. Ward never spoke of Meynell's reception as a -disappointment, but she must have felt it so, and within six months of -its appearance she was at work, as usual, upon its successor. - -Yet a piece of work which brought her two such letters as the following -(amongst many others) cannot be said to have gone unrewarded:-- - - -_From Frederic Harrison_ - - "I am one of those to whom your book specially appeals, as I know - so much of the literature, the persons, the questions it dealt - with. It has given me the most lively interest both as romance--as - fine as anything since _Adam Bede_--and also as controversy--as - important as anything since _Essays and Reviews_. Meynell seems to - me a far higher type than Elsmere, both as a man and as a book, and - I am sure will have a greater permanent value--even if its - popularity for the hour is not so rapid--for it appeals to a higher - order of reader, and is of a larger kind of art." - - -_From André Chevrillon_ - - "On est heureux d'y retrouver ce qui nous a paru si longtemps une - des principales caractéristiques de la littérature anglaise: ce - sentiment de la beauté morale, cette émotion devant la qualité de - la conduite qui prennent par leur intensité même une valeur - esthétique. C'est la tradition de vos écrivains les plus anglais, - celle des Browning, des Tennyson, des George Eliot. Elle fait la - portée et l'originalité des oeuvres de cette époque victorienne, - contre laquelle on a l'air, malheureusement, d'être en réaction en - Angleterre aujourd'hui--réaction que je ne crois pas durable--qui - cessera dès que le recule sera suffisant pour que la force et la - grandeur de cette littérature apparaisse. - - "Le problème religieux que vous posez là est vital, et la solution - que vous y prévoyez dans votre pays, cette possibilité d'un - christianisme évolué, adapté, qui conserverait les formes anciennes - avec leur puissance si efficace de prestige, tout en attribuant de - plus en plus aux vieilles formules, aux vieux rites une valeur de - symbole--cette solution est celle que l'on peut espérer du - protestantisme, lequel est relativement peu cristalisé et peut - encore évoluer. Même dans l'anglicanisme la part de - l'interprétation personnelle a toujours été assez grande. J'ai peur - que l'avenir de la religion soit plus douteux dans ceux des pays - catholiques où la culture est avancée. Nous sommes là comme des - vivants liés à des cadavres, ou comme des grandes personnes que - l'on astreindrait au régime de la _nursery_. Les mêmes formules, - les mêmes articles de foi, le même catéchisme, les mêmes - interprétations, doivent servir à la fois à des peuple de mentalité - encore primitive et semi-païenne et à des sociétés aussi - intellectuelles et civilisées que la nôtre. Nous n'avons le choix - qu'entre le culte des reliques, la foi aux eaux miraculeuses, et - l'agnosticisme pur, ou du moins, une religiosité amorphe, sans - système ni discipline." - -The writing of _Richard Meynell_ left Mrs. Ward very tired, and all the -next year (1912) she "puddled along" as Mrs. Dell would have put it, -accomplishing her tasks with all her old devotion, but suffering from -sleeplessness and knowing that the novel of that year, _The Mating of -Lydia_, was not really up to standard. Mr. Ward, too, fell ill, and -remained in precarious health for the next four years, which gravely -added to his wife's anxieties. The burdens of life pressed upon her, -while the maintenance of her Play Centres seemed sometimes an almost -impossible addition. Italy was still the best restorative for all these -ills. Every spring she fled across the Alps, enjoying a week or two of -holiday and then settling, with her daughter, in some Villa where she -might work undisturbed. In 1909 she went for the last time to the Villa -Bonaventura at Cadenabbia, the place which was to her, I think, the -high-water mark of earthly bliss. This time her stay was marked by one -long-remembered day--a flying visit paid her from Milan by Contessa -Maria Pasolini, the friend for whom, amongst all her Italian -aquaintance, Mrs Ward felt the strongest devotion. She could watch her, -or listen to her talk, for hours with unfailing delight; for she seemed -to embody in herself both the wisdom and the charm, the age and the -youth, of Italy. It was a friendship worthy of two noble spirits. Never -again was Mrs. Ward able to rise to the Villa Bonaventura, but she -explored other parts of Italy with almost equal delight, settling at the -Villa Pazzi, outside Florence, in April, 1910, at a bare but fascinating -Villa in the Lucchese hills in the next year, and in a fragment of a -palace on the Grand Canal in 1912. It was during this stay in Venice -that Mr. Reginald Smith obtained for her, from Mr. Pen Browning, -permission to camp and work in the empty Rezzonico Palace, a privilege -which she greatly valued and which gave her many romantic hours. While -savouring thus the delights of Venice she was enabled, too, to witness -the formal inauguration of the new-built Campanile, watching the -splendid ceremony from a seat in the Piazzetta. - - "Venice has been delirious to-day," she wrote to Reginald Smith on - St. Mark's Day, April 25, "and the inauguration of the Campanile - was really a most moving sight. 'Il Campanile è morto--viva il - Campanile!' The letting loose of the pigeons--the first sound of - the glorious bells after these ten years of silence--the thousands - of children's voices--the extraordinary beauty of the setting--the - splendour of the day--it was all perfect, and one feels that Italy - may well be proud." - -[Illustration: MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912 - -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD] - -Her great relaxation during all these sojourns, but especially during a -stay of six weeks at Rydal Mount during the autumn of 1911, was to play -with brushes and paint, for she had skill enough in the problems of -colour and line to throw off all other cares in their pursuit, while her -inevitable imperfections only spurred her to fresh efforts. Dorothy -would call it her "public-house," for she could not keep away from it -and would exhaust herself, sometimes, in the pursuit of the ideal, -but the results were full of charm and are much treasured by their few -possessors. - - * * * * * - -In 1913, as though to confound her critics, Mrs. Ward produced the book -which contained, perhaps, the most brilliant character-drawing that she -had ever attempted--_The Coryston Family_. She was pleased with its -success, which was indeed needed to reassure her, for at this time -occurred some serious losses, not of her making, which had to be faced, -and, if possible, repaired. She was already sixty-two and her health, as -we know, was more than precarious, but she set herself to work perhaps -harder than ever. "Courage!" she wrote in July 1913, "and perhaps this -time next year, if we are all well, the clouds will have rolled away." - -When that time came, when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand had been -murdered at Serajevo and we in England, no less than the Serbian peasant -and the French _piou-piou_, found ourselves face to face with a horror -never known before, the crisis found Mrs. Ward at a low ebb of health -and spirits. Attacks of giddiness led the doctors to pronounce that she -was suffering from "heart fatigue." Mr. Ward's illness had increased -rather than diminished; Stocks was abandoned for a time (though to a -charming tenant and a sister novelist, Mrs. Wharton), and the three had -migrated to a small and unattractive house in Fifeshire, where Mrs. Ward -applied herself once more to writing. There the blow fell. Her first -reaction to it was one of mere revolt, a cry of blind human misery. -"What madness is it that drives men to such horrors?--not for great -causes, but for dark diplomatic and military motives only understood by -the ruling class, and for which hundreds of thousands will be sent to -their death like sheep to the slaughter! Germany, Russia and Austria -seem to me all equally criminal." Then, as the news came rolling in, -from the "dark motives" there seemed to detach itself one clear, -stabbing thought. France! France invaded, perhaps overwhelmed! - -"To me she is still the France of Taine, and Renan, and Pasteur, of an -immortal literature, and a history that, blood-stained as it is, makes a -page that humanity could ill spare. No, I am with her, heart and soul, -and to see her wiped out by Germany would put out for me one of the -world's great lights." - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE WAR, 1914-1917--MRS. WARD'S FIRST TWO JOURNEYS TO FRANCE - - -Mrs. Ward's feeling about the Germans, before the thunderbolt of 1914, -had been one of sincere respect and admiration for a nation of patient -brain-workers who, she believed, were honest with the truth, and had -delved farther into certain obscure fields of history in which she -herself was deeply interested than any of their contemporaries. But her -acquaintance with Germany was a book-acquaintance only. She had indeed -paid one or two visits to the Rhine and to South Germany during her -married life, and had been astonished to mark, in 1900, the growth of -wealth and prosperity in the Rhine towns, due, she was told, to -scientific protection and to the skilful use of the French indemnity. -But she had no personal friendships with Germans, and her knowledge of -their state of mind was derived only from books and newspapers and the -reports of others. Still, these had become disquieting enough, as all -the world remembers, between 1911 and 1914, but Mrs. Ward clung to the -optimistic view that the hatred and envy of England, so apparent in -German newspaper writing, was but the creed of a clique, and that the -heart of the laborious and thrifty German people was still sound. In -April, 1913, a delegation of German Professors came over to London to -take part in a historical congress; Mrs. Ward willingly assisted in -entertaining them, giving a large evening party in their honour at -Grosvenor Place. Perhaps the atmosphere was already a little strained, -but we mustered our forgotten German as best we might, and flattered -ourselves at the end that things had not gone badly. Little more than a -year afterwards the names of nearly all our guests were to be found in -the manifesto of the ninety-three German Professors--the pronouncement -which above all others in those grim days stirred Mrs. Ward's -indignation. She expressed her sense of the "bitter personal -disillusionment which I, and so many Englishmen and Englishwomen, have -suffered since this war began," in a Preface which she wrote, in 1916, -to the German edition of _England's Effort_--an edition which was -intended for circulation in German Switzerland, but found its way also, -as we afterwards heard, to a good many centres within Germany itself: - - "We were lifelong lovers and admirers of a Germany which, it seems - now, never really existed except in our dreams. In the article 'A - New Reformation,' which I published in the _Nineteenth Century_ in - 1889, in answer to Mr. Gladstone's critique of _Robert Elsmere_, - and in many later utterances, I have rendered whole-hearted homage - to that critical and philosophical Germany which I took to be the - real Germany, and hailed as the home of liberal and humane ideas. - And now! In that amazing manifesto of the German Professors at the - opening of the War, there were names of men--that of Adolf Harnack, - for instance--which had never been mentioned in English scholarly - circles before August, 1914, except with sympathy and admiration, - even by those who sharply differed from the views they represented. - We held them to be servants of truth, incapable therefore of - acquiescence in a tyrannous lie. We held them also to be scholars, - incapable therefore of falsifying facts and ignoring documents in - their own interest. But in that astonishing manifesto, not only was - the cry of Belgium wholly repulsed, but those very men who had - taught Europe to respect evidence and to deal scrupulously with - documents, when it was a question of Classical antiquity, or early - Christianity, now, when it was a question of justifying the crime - of their country, of defending the Government of which they were - the salaried officials, threw evidence and documents to the winds. - How many of those who signed the professorial manifesto had ever - read the British White Paper, and the French Yellow Book, or, if - they had read them, had ever given to those damning records of - Germany's attack on Europe, and of the vain efforts of the Allies - to hold her back, one fraction of that honest and impartial study - of which a newly discovered Greek inscription, or a fragment of a - lost Gospel, would have been certain at their hands?" - -It was this feeling of the betrayal of high standards and ideals which -had meant much to her in earlier life, coupled with the emergence of a -native ferocity unguessed before (for _we_ had not lived through 1870), -that went so deep with Mrs. Ward. But there were at least no personal -friendships to break. With France, on the other hand, her ties had, as -we know, been close and intimate from the beginning, so that her heart -went out to the trials and agonies of her French friends with a peculiar -poignancy. M. Chevrillon, her principal correspondent, gave her in a -series of letters, from November, 1914, onwards, a wonderful picture of -the sufferings, the heroisms and the moods of France; she replied--to -this lover of Meredith!--with her reading of the English scene: - - -"STOCKS, -"_November 23, 1914_. - - "We are indeed no less absorbed in the War than you. And yet, - perhaps, there is not that _unrelenting_ pressure on nerve and - recollection in this country, 'set in the silver sea' and so far - inviolate, which there must be for you, who have this cruel and - powerful enemy at your gates and in your midst, and can never - forget the fact for a moment. That, of course, is the explanation - of the recent slackening of recruiting here. The classes to whom - education and social life have taught imagination are miserable and - shamed before these great football gatherings, which bring no - recruits--'but my people do not understand, and Israel doth not - consider. They have eyes and see not; ears have they but they hear - not.' One little raid on the East Coast--a village burnt, a few - hundred men killed on English soil--then indeed we should see an - England in arms. Meanwhile, compared with any England we have ever - seen, it _is_ an England in arms. Every town of any size has its - camp, the roads are full of soldiers, and they are billeted in our - houses. No such sight, of course, has ever been seen in our day. - And yet how quickly one accustoms oneself to it, and to all the - other accompaniments of war! The new recruits are mostly excellent - material. Dorothy and I motored over early one morning last week to - Aston Clinton Park to see the King inspect a large gathering of - recruits. It was a beautiful morning, with the misty Chilterns - looking down upon the wide stretches of the park, and the bodies of - drilling men. The King must have been up early, for he had - inspected the camp at ten (thirty-five miles from London) and was - in the park by eleven. There was no ceremony whatever, and only a - few neighbours and children looking on. It had been elaborately - announced that he would inspect troops that day in Norfolk! The men - were only in the early stages, but they were mostly of fine - physique--miners from Northumberland a great many of them. The - difficulty is officers. They have to accept them now, either so - young, or so elderly! And these well-to-do workmen of twenty-five - or thirty don't like being ordered about by lads of nineteen. But - the lads of nineteen are shaping, too, very fast. - - "We are so sorry for your poor niece, and for all the other - sufferers you tell us of. I have five nephews fighting, and of - course innumerable friends. Arnold is in Egypt with his Yeomanry. - One dreads to open _The Times_, day after day. The most tragic loss - I know so far is that of the Edward Cecils' only boy--grandson of - the late Lord Salisbury, and Admiral Maxse, the Beauchamp of - _Beauchamp's Career_. I saw him last as a delightful chattering boy - of eleven--so clever, so handsome, just what Beauchamp might have - been at his age! He was missing on September 2, and was only - announced as killed two days ago." - -The first year and a half of the War was a time of great anxiety and -strain for Mrs. Ward, both in the literary and the practical fields. -Besides her unremitting literary work she pushed through, by means of -the "Joint Advisory Committee," an exhaustive inquiry into the working -of the existing system of soldiers' pensions and pressed certain -recommendations, as a result, upon the War Office; she was confronted by -a partial falling-off in the subscriptions to her Play Centres, and was -obliged to introduce economies and curtailments which cost her much -anxious thought; she converted the Settlement into a temporary hostel -for Belgian Refugees; and, above all, she carried through, between -October, 1914, and the summer of 1915, a complete reorganization of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement, converting it from a men's into a women's -settlement. There were many reasons, even apart from the growing -pressure on men of military age to enlist in the New Armies, which had -for some time made such a change desirable in the eyes of Mrs. Ward and -of a majority of the Council; chief among these being the need for a -body of trained voluntary workers to carry out, for St. Pancras, the -mass of social legislation that had been passed since the foundation of -the Settlement, and to take their part in the work of School Care -Committees, Schools for Mothers and so forth. Male Residents, being -occupied with their own work during the day, were not available for such -things; but amongst women it was believed that a body possessing -sufficient leisure and enthusiasm for social service to make a real mark -in the life of the neighbourhood, would not be difficult to find. The -change was not accomplished without strenuous opposition from the -existing Warden and some of the Residents, but Mrs. Ward went -methodically to work, getting the Council to appoint a Committee with -powers to inquire and report. She found also that her old friend and -supporter, the Duke of Bedford, was strongly in favour of the change, -and would be ready to provide, for three years, about two-thirds of the -annual sum required for the maintenance of a Women's Settlement. This -argument was decisive, and the Council finally adopted the Report of the -Special Committee in May, 1915. Mrs. Ward had the happiness of seeing, -during the remaining years of the War, her hopes for the usefulness of -the new venture very largely fulfilled, under the able guidance of Miss -Hilda Oakeley, who was appointed Warden of the Settlement in August, -1915. - -Meanwhile, Mrs. Ward felt herself in danger of seeing her usual means of -livelihood cut from beneath her feet during this first period of the -War. For one result of the vast upheaval in our social conditions was -that the circulation of all novels went down with a run, and it was not -until the War had made a certain dismal routine of its own, in the needs -of hospitals, munition-centres, soldiers' and officers' clubs and the -like, that the national taste for the reading of fiction reasserted -itself. Till then Mrs. Ward relied mainly on her American public, which -was still untouched; but the pressure of work was never for an instant -relaxed, and fortunately she still found her greatest solace and relief -from present cares in the writing of books. "I never felt more inclined -to spin tales, which is a great comfort," she wrote in January, 1915, -but as yet she could not face the thought of weaving the War into their -fabric, and took refuge instead in the summer of that year in the making -of a story of Oxford life, as she had known it in her youth--an -occupation that gave her a quiet joy, providing a "wind-warm space" into -which she could retreat from the horrors of the outer world. The -compulsory retrenchments of the War years came also to her aid, in -reducing the _personnel_ employed at Stocks, while Stocks itself was -usually let in the summer and Grosvenor Place in the winter; but still -the struggle was an arduous one, leaving its mark upon her in the -growing whiteness of her hair, the growing fragility and pallor of her -look. Sleeplessness became an ever greater difficulty in these years, -but on the other hand her old complaint in the right side had grown less -troublesome, so that standing and walking were more possible than of -old. Had it not been for this improvement she would have been physically -incapable of carrying out the task laid upon her, swiftly and -unexpectedly, in January, 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt wrote to her -from Oyster Bay to beg her to tell America what England was doing in the -War. - - -_December 27, 1915._ - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD,-- - - The War has been, on the whole, well presented in America from the - French side. We do not think justice has been done to the English - side. I attribute this in part to the rather odd working of the - censorship in hands not accustomed to the censorship. I wish that - some writer like yourself could, in a series of articles, put - vividly before our people what the English people are doing, what - the actual life of the men in the trenches is, what is actually - being done by the straight and decent capitalist, who is not - concerned with making a profit, but with serving his country, and - by the straight and decent labouring man, who is not thinking of - striking for higher wages, but is trying to help his comrades in - the trenches. What I would like our people to visualize is the - effort, the resolution and the self-sacrifice of the English men - and women who are determined to see this war through. Just at - present England is in much the same strait that we were in in our - Civil War toward the end of 1862, and during the opening months of - 1863. That was the time when we needed to have our case put before - the people of England--when men as diverse as Gladstone, Carlyle - and the after-time Marquis of Salisbury were all strongly against - us. There is not a human being more fitted to present this matter - as it should be presented than you are. I do hope you will - undertake the task. - -Faithfully yours, -THEODORE ROOSEVELT. - -The letter reached Mrs. Ward at Stocks on Monday, January 10, 1916, by -the evening post. She felt at once that she must respond to such a call, -though the manner of doing so was still dim to her. But she consulted -her friends, C. F. G. Masterman and Sir Gilbert Parker, at "Wellington -House" (at that time the Government Propaganda Department), and found -that they took Mr. Roosevelt's letter quite as seriously as she did -herself. They showed her specimens of what the American papers were -saying about England, her blunders, her slackers and her shirkers, till -Mrs. Ward thrilled to the task and felt a longing to be up and at it. -The next step was to see Sir Edward Grey (then Foreign Minister), to -whom she had also sent a copy of the letter. He asked her to come to his -house in Eccleston Square, whither accordingly she went early on January -20. - - "They showed me into the dining-room," she wrote to J. P. T., "and - he came down to say that he had asked Lord Robert Cecil and Sir - Arthur Nicolson to come too, and that they were upstairs. So then - we went into his library sitting-room, a charming room full of - books, and there were the other two. They all took Roosevelt's - letter very seriously, and there is no question but that I must do - my best to carry it out. I simply felt after Edward Grey had spoken - his mind that, money or no money, strength or fatigue, I was under - orders and must just go on. I said that I should like to go to - France, just for the sake of giving some life and colour to the - articles--and that a novelist could not work from films, however - good. They agreed. - - "'And would you like to have a look at the Fleet?' said Lord - Robert. - - "I said that I had not ventured to suggest it, but that of course - anything that gave picturesqueness and novelty--i.e. a woman being - allowed to visit the Fleet--would help the articles. - - "I gave a little outline of what I proposed, beginning with the - unpreparedness of England. On that Edward Grey spoke at some - length--the utter absence of any wish for war in this country, or - thought of war. Even those centres that had suffered most from - German competition had never thought of war. No one wished for it. - I thought of his long, long struggle for peace. It was pathetic to - hear him talking so simply--with such complete conviction. - - "I was rather more than half an hour with them. Sir Edward took me - downstairs, said it was 'good of me' to be willing to undertake it, - and I went off feeling the die was cast." - -A luncheon with Mr. Lloyd George--then Minister of Munitions--who gladly -offered her every possible facility for seeing the great -munition-centres that had by that time altered the face of England, and -the plan for carrying out her task began to shape itself in her mind. A -tour of ten days or so through the principal munition-works, ranging -from Birmingham to the Clyde, then a dash to the Fleet, lying in the -Firth of Cromarty, then south once more and across the Straits to see -the "back of the Army" in France. It may be imagined what busy -co-ordination of arrangements was necessary between the Ministry of -Munitions, the Admiralty and the War Office, before all the details of -the tour were settled, but by the aid of "Wellington House" all was -hustled through in a short time, so that Mrs. Ward was off on her round -of the great towns by January 31. To her, of course, the human interest -of the scene was the all-important thing--the spectacle of the mixture -of classes in the vast factories, the high-school mistresses, the -parsons, the tailors' and drapers' assistants handling their machines -as lovingly as the born engineers--the enormous sheds-full of women and -girls of many diverse types working together with one common impulse, -and protesting against the cutting down of their twelve hours' day! She -was taken everywhere and shown everything (accompanied this time by Miss -Churcher), seeing in the space of ten days the munition-works at -Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and -the Clyde. Then she returned home for a few days, to fix her impressions -in an ordered mass of notes, before leaving again on February 15 for the -far north, armed with an Admiralty permit and an invitation from Sir -John Jellicoe to spend a couple of nights in his house at Invergordon. - -It was, of course, an unheard-of thing for a woman to visit the Fleet in -war-time, but, once the barriers passed, the sailors were so glad to see -her! Withdrawn from the common life in their iron, sleepless world, they -welcomed this break in their routine as much as she did the chance it -gave her of a wholly unique experience. She told the tale of her -adventures both in a letter to Mr. Ward and in notes written down at the -time: - - -"_February 16, 1916._ - - "Such a journey! Heavy snow-storm in the night, and we were held up - for three hours on the highest part of the line between Kingussie - and Aviemore. But at Invergordon a group of naval officers - appeared. A great swell [Sir Thomas Jerram] detached himself and - came up to me. 'Mrs. Ward? Sir John has asked me to look after - you.' We twinkled at each other, both seeing the comedy of the - situation. 'Now then, what can I do for you? Will you be at - Invergordon pier to-morrow at eleven? and come and lunch with me on - the Flagship? Then afterwards you shall see the destroyers come in - and anything else we can show you. Will that suit you?' So he - disappears and I journey on to Kildary, five miles, with a jolly - young sailor just returned from catching contraband in the North - Sea, and going up to Thurso in charge of the mail." - -She spent a quiet evening at Sir John Jellicoe's house (the Admiral -himself being away). Her notes continue the story: - - "Looked out into the snowy moonlight--the Frith steely grey--the - hills opposite black and white--a pale sky--black shapes on the - water--no lights except from a ship on the inlet (the hospital - ship). - - "Next day--an open car--bitterly cold--through the snow and wind. - At the pier--a young officer, Admiral Jerram's Flag Lieutenant. - 'The Admiral wished to know if you would like him to take you round - the Fleet. If so, we will pick him up at the Flagship.' The - barge--very comfortable--with a cabin--and an outer seat--sped - through the water. We stopped at the Flagship and the Admiral - stepped in. We sped on past the _Erin_--one of the Turkish cruisers - impounded at the beginning of the war--the _Iron Duke_, the - _Centurion_, _Monarch_, _Thunderer_--to the hospital ship _China_. - The Admiral pointed out the three cruisers near the entrance to the - harbour--under Sir Robert Arbuthnot--also the hull of the poor - _Natal_--with buoys at either end--two men walking on her. - - "At luncheon--Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Jerram on my left, Sir Robert - Arbuthnot, commanding the cruiser squadron, on my right. Captain - Field and Mrs. Field. Commander Goldie--Flag Lieutenant Boissier, - and a couple of other officers and their wives. - - "In the barge I had shown the Admiral Roosevelt's letter. Sir - Robert Arbuthnot spoke to me about it at luncheon, and very kindly. - They all seemed to feel that it was a tough task, not of my - seeking, and showed wonderful sympathy and understanding. After - lunch Captain Field was told off to show me the ship. Thrilling to - see a ship in war-time, that might be in action any moment. The - loading of the guns--the wireless rooms--the look down to the - engine deck--the anchor held by the three great chains--the - middies' quarters--the officers' ward-room. The brains of the - ship--men trained to transmit signals from the fire-control above - to all parts of the ship, directing the guns. The middies' - chests--great black and grey boxes--holding all a middy's worldly - goods. He opens one--shows the photos inside.--The senior middy, a - fair-haired boy, like Humphry Sandwith--the others younger. Their - pleasant room, with its pictures, magazines and books. Spaces where - the wounded can be temporarily placed during action. - - "The chart of the North Sea, and the ship-stations. Lines radiating - out in all directions--every dot on them a ship. - - "After going through the ship we went to look at the destroyer - which the Admiral had ordered alongside. Commanded by Mr. - Leveson-Gower, son of the Lord Granville who was Foreign Secretary, - and nephew of 'Freddy.' The two torpedo tubes on the destroyer are - moved to the side, so that we see how it discharges them. The guns - very small--the whole ship, which carries 100 men, seems almost on - the water-line--is constantly a-wash except for the cabin and the - bridge. But on a dark night in the high seas, 'we are always so - glad to see them!--they are the guards of the big ships--or we are - the hens, and they are the chickens.' - - "Naval character--the close relations between officers and men - necessitated by the ship's life. 'The men are splendid.' How good - they are to the officers--'have a cup of coffee, sir, and lie down - a bit.'--Splendidly healthy--in spite of the habitually broken - sleep. Thursday afternoons (making and mending)--practically the - naval half-holiday. - - "Talk at tea with Captain and Mrs. Field and Boissier and Commander - Goldie. They praise the book, _Naval Occasions_. No sentiment - possible in the Navy--_in speech_. The life could not be endured - often, unless it were _jested through_. Men meet and part with a - laugh--absurdity of sentimental accounts. Life on a - destroyer--these young fellows absolute masters--their talk when - they come in--'By Jove, I nearly lost the ship last night--awful - sea--I was right on the rocks.'--Their life is always in their - hands." - -Writing a week later to "Aunt Fan," she added one further remark about -the Captain of the ship--"so quietly full of care for his men--and so -certain, one could see, that Germany would never actually give in -without trying something desperate against our fleet." Little more than -three months later, Germany tried her desperate stroke, tried it and -lost, but at what a cost to English sailormen! The noble officer who had -sat next to Mrs. Ward at luncheon in the Admiral's flagship, Sir Robert -Arbuthnot, went down with his battle-cruiser, while on either side of -him occurred the losses which shook, for one terrible day, England's -faith in her fleet. Mrs. Ward wrote on June 6 to Katharine Lyttelton: - - "Yes, indeed, Sir Robert Arbuthnot's cruiser squadron was at - Cromarty when I was there, and he sat next me at luncheon on the - Flagship. I _particularly_ liked him--one of those modest, - efficient naval men whose absolute courage and nerve, no less than - their absolute humanity, one would trust in any emergency. I - remember Sir Thomas Jerram, on my other side, saying in my - ear--'The man to your right is one of the most rising men in the - Navy.' And the line of cruisers in front of the Dreadnoughts, as I - saw them in the February dawn, stretching towards the harbour - entrance, will always remain with me." - -Meanwhile the preparations for her journey to France had been pushed -forward by "Wellington House," so that only four days after her return -from Invergordon all was ready for her departure for Le Havre. She went -(this time with Dorothy) as the guest of the Foreign Office, recommended -by them to the good offices of the Army. She was first to be given some -idea of the vast organization of the Base at Le Havre, and then sent on -by motor to Rouen, Abbeville, Étaples and Boulogne. A programme -representing almost every branch of the unending activities of the "Back -of the Army" had been worked out for her, but she was warned that she -could not be allowed to enter the "War Zone." Once in France, however, -it was not long before this prohibition broke down, though not through -any importunity of hers. - -The marvellous spectacle unrolled itself before her, quietly and -methodically, while her guides expounded to her the meaning of what she -saw and the bearing of every movement at the Base upon the lives of the -men in the front line. General Asser himself, commanding at Le Havre, -devoted a whole afternoon to taking her through the docks and -store-sheds of the port, "so that one had a dim idea," as she wrote to -her husband, "of the amazing organization that has sprung up here. It -explains a good deal, too, of the five millions a day!" But as a matter -of fact, the thing which impressed her most at Le Havre was the -'make-over department,' where all the rubbish brought down from the -Front, from bully-beef tins to broken boots, was collected together and -boiled down (metaphorically speaking) into something useful, so that -many thousands a week were thus saved to the taxpayer at home. "All the -creation of Colonel Davies, who has saved the Government thousands and -thousands of pounds. Such a thing has never been done before!" -Similarly, at Rouen (whither she drove on February 26--fifty -miles--through blinding snow) she was fascinated by the motor-transport -department--"the biggest thing of its kind in France--the creation of -one man, Colonel Barnes, who started with 'two balls of string and a -packet of nails,' and is now dealing with 40,000 vehicles." - -Another snowy and Arctic drive from Rouen to Dieppe, and on to -Abbeville, where a wonderful piece of news awaited them. - - -_To T. H. W._ - - -"_February 29, 1916._ - -..."After lunch Colonel Schofield [their guide] went out to find - the British Headquarters and report. Dorothy and I went up to the - cathedral, and on emerging from it met the Colonel with another - officer, who introduced himself as Colonel Dalrymple White, M.P. 'I - have news for you, Mrs. Ward, which I think will change your - plans!' I looked at him rather aghast, wondering if I was to be - suddenly sent home! 'There is an invitation for you from G.H.Q., - and we have been telephoning about, trying to find you. Great luck - that Colonel Schofield looked in just now.' Whereupon it appeared - that 'by the wish of the Foreign Office,' G.H.Q. had invited me for - two days, and that an officer would call for me at Boulogne on - Wednesday morning, and take me to the place which no one here - mentions but with bated breath, and which I will not write! [St. - Omer.] I was naturally thrilled, but I confess I am in terror of - being in their way, and also of not being able to write anything - the least adequate to such an opportunity. However it could not of - course be refused." - -A long day at Étaples intervened between this little scene and the -arrival at G.H.Q.--a day devoted not only to an inspection of some of -the great hospitals, but also to a more unusual experience. Étaples was -the scene of a huge training-camp where troops from England received -their final "polish" before going up to the Front; amongst other -things, they were taught how to throw bombs, and Mrs. Ward was taken to -see them do it. "We climb to the very top of the slope," she wrote in -her journal at the time, "and over its crest to see some live -bomb-practice. A hollow in the sand, three dummy figures twenty yards -away--a parapet and a young soldier with three different bombs, that -explode by a time-fuse. He throws--we crouch low behind the parapet of -sand-bags--a few seconds, then a fierce report. We rise. One of the -dummy figures is half wrecked, only a few fragments of the bomb -surviving. One thinks of it descending in a group of men, and one -remembers the huge hospitals behind us. War begins to seem to me more -and more horrible and intolerable." - -The next day, March 1, they were taken in charge at Boulogne by Captain -H. C. Roberts, sent thither by G.H.Q. to fetch them, and motored through -a more spring-like land to St. Omer, where they took up their quarters -for two nights in the "Visitors' Château" (the Château de la Tour -Blanche). Captain Roberts said that his orders were to take them as near -to the battle-line as he safely could, and accordingly they started out -early in the afternoon in the direction of Richebourg St. Vaast, calling -on the way at Merville, the headquarters of General Pinney and the 35th -Division. The General came out to see his visitors and said that, having -an hour to spare, he would take them to the Line himself. He and Mrs. -Ward went ahead in the General's car, Dorothy and Captain Roberts -following behind. At Richebourg St. Vaast the road became so much broken -by shell-holes that they got out and walked, and General Pinney informed -Mrs. Ward calmly that she was now "actually in the battle," for the -British guns were bellowing from behind them. Early the next morning she -wrote down the following notes of what ensued: - - "Richebourg St. Vaast--a ruined village, the church in fragments--a - few walls and arches standing. The crucifix on a bit of wall - untouched. Just beyond, General Pinney captured a gunner and heard - that a battery was close by to our right. We were led there through - seas of mud. Two bright-faced young officers. One gives me a hand - through the mud, and down into the dug-out of the gun. There it - is--its muzzle just showing in the dark, nine or ten shells lying - in front of it. One is put in. We stand back and put our fingers in - our ears. An old artillery-man says 'Look straight at the gun, - ma'am.' It fires--the cartridge-case drops out. The shock not so - great as I had imagined. Has the shell fallen on a German trench, - and with what result! They give us the cartridge-case to take home. - - "After firing the gun we walked on along the road. General Pinney - talks of taking us to the entrance of the communication-trench. But - Captain Roberts is obviously nervous. The battery we have just left - crashes away behind us, and the firing generally seems to grow - hotter. I suggest turning back, and Captain Roberts approves. 'You - have been nearer the actual fighting than any woman has been in - this war--not even a nurse has been so close,' says the General. - Neuve Chapelle a mile and a half away to the north behind some tall - poplars. In front within a mile, first some ruined - buildings--immediately beyond them our trenches--then the Germans, - within a hundred yards of each other. - - "As we were going up, we had seen parties of men sitting along the - edge of the fields, with their rifles and field kit beside them, - waiting for sunset. Now, as we return, and the sun is sinking fast - to the horizon, we pass them--platoon after platoon--at - intervals--going up towards the trenches. The spacing of these - groups along the road, and the timing of them, is a difficult piece - of staff-work. The faces of the men quiet and cheerful, a little - subdued whistling here and there--but generally serious. And how - young! 'War,' says the General beside me, 'is crass folly! _crass_ - folly! nothing else. We want new forms of religion--the old seem to - have failed us. Miracle and dogma are no use. We want a new - prophet, a new Messiah!'" - -Mrs. Ward left her new friend with a feeling of astonishment at having -found so kindred a spirit in so strange a scene. - -The next day they were up betimes and on their way to Cassel and -Westoutre, there to obtain permits, at the Canadian headquarters, for -the ascent of the Scherpenberg Hill, in order that Mrs. Ward might -behold Ypres and the Salient. There had been a British attack, that -morning, in the region of the Ypres-Comines Canal; it had succeeded, -and there was a sense of elation in the air. But, by an ironic chance, -Mrs. Ward had heard by the mail that reached the Château a far different -piece of news, and as she drove through the ruined Belgian -villages--through Poperinghe and Locre--dodging and turning so as to -avoid roads recently shelled, her mind was filled with one overmastering -thought--the death of Henry James, her countryman.[34] - -But now they are at the foot of the Scherpenberg Hill. Her journal -continues: - - "A picket of soldiers belonging to the Canadian Division stops us, - and we show our passes. Then we begin to mount the hill (about as - steep as that above Stocks Cottage), but Captain Roberts pulls me - up, and with various halts at last we are on the top, passing a - dug-out for shelter in case of shells on the way. At the top a - windmill--some Tommies playing football. Two stout lasses driving a - rustic cart with two horses. We go to the windmill and, sheltering - behind its supports (for nobody must be seen on the sky-line), look - out north-east and east. Far away on the horizon the mists lift for - a moment, and a great ghost looks out--the ruined tower of Ypres. - You see that half its top is torn away. A flash! from what seem to - be the ruins at its base. Another! It is the English guns speaking - from the lines between us and Ypres--and as we watch, we see the - columns of white smoke rising from the German lines as they burst. - Then it is the German turn, and we see a couple of their shells - bursting on our lines, between Vlamertinghe and Dickebusch. - Hark--the rattle of the machine-guns from, as it were, a point just - below us to the left, and again the roar of the howitzers. There, - on the horizon, is the ridge of Messines, Wytschoete, and near by - the hill and village of Kemmel, which has been shelled to bits. - Along that distant ridge run the German trenches, line upon line. - One can see them plainly without a glass. At last we are within - actual sight of the _Great Aggression_--the nation and the army - which have defied the laws of God and man, and left their fresh and - damning mark to all time on the history of Europe and on this old, - old land on which we are looking. In front of us the Zillebeke - Lake, beyond it Hooge--Hill 60 lost in the shadows, and that famous - spot where, on the afternoon of November 11, the 'thin red line' - withstood the onset of the Prussian Guard. The Salient lies there - before us, and one's heart trembles thinking of all the gallant - life laid down there, and all the issues that have hung upon the - fight for it." - -So, with gas-helmets in hand, they retraced their steps down the hill, -finding at the bottom that the kind Canadian sentries had cut steps for -Mrs. Ward down the steep, slippery bank, and on to see General Plumer at -Cassel. With him and with Lord Cavan--the future heroes of the Italian -War--Mrs. Ward had half an hour's memorable talk, returning afterwards -to the Visitors' Château in time to pack and depart that same evening -for Boulogne. Next day they sailed in the "Leave boat"--"all swathed in -life-belts, and the good boat escorted (so wrote D. M. W.) by a -destroyer and a torpedo-boat, and ringed round with mine-sweepers!" In -such pomp of modern war did Mrs. Ward return. - -It now remained for her to put into shape the impressions gathered in -these five breathless weeks, and this she did during some forty-five -days of work at very high pressure, putting what she had to say into the -form of "Letters to an American Friend." The Letters were sent hot to -the Press on the American side as quickly as Mrs. Ward could mail them, -appearing in a number of newspapers controlled by one of the great -"Syndicates"; then Scribner's published them in book form at the end of -May, with a preface by Mr. Choate. Here, with a little more leisure for -revision, the little book, under the title of _England's Effort_, came -out on June 8, incidentally giving to Mrs. Ward the pleasant opportunity -of a renewal of her old acquaintance with Lord Rosebery, whom she had -invited to write a preface to it. She went over, full of doubt, to -Mentmore one May afternoon, having heard that he was there, "quite -alone" (as she wrote to M. Chevrillon), "driving about in a high -mid-Victorian phaeton, with a postilion!" Knowing that he was never -strong, she fully expected a refusal, but found instead that he had -already done what she asked, being deeply moved by the proofs that she -had sent him. She was much touched, and the friendship was cemented, a -few days later, by a return visit that he paid to Stocks, all in its May -green, when he could not contain himself on the beauty of the place, or -the incomparable advantages it possessed over "such a British Museum as -Mentmore!" - -_England's Effort_ reached a dejected world in the nick of time. Our -national habit of "grousing" in public, and of hanging our dirty linen -on every possible clothes-line, had naturally disposed both ourselves -and the outer world to under-estimate our vast achievements. This little -book set us right both with the home front and with our foreign critics. -It penetrated into every corner of the world and was translated into -every civilized language, while Mrs. Ward constantly received letters -about it, not only from friends, but from total strangers--from dwellers -in Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and India, not to mention -France and Italy, thanking her for her immense service, and expressing -astonishment at the facts that she had brought to light. The -_Preussische Jahrbücher_ reviewed it with great respect; the Japanese -Ambassador, Viscount Chinda, was urgently recommended by King George to -read it, and afterwards contributed a preface to the Japanese edition. -And, as Principal Heberden of Brasenose reported to her, the burden of -comment among his friends always ended with the feeling that "the most -remarkable fact about the book is Mrs. Humphry Ward's own astonishing -effort. Certainly the nation owes her much, for no other author could -have attracted so much attention in America." A year later, it was -asserted by many Americans, with every accent of conviction, that but -for _England's Effort_ and the public opinion that it stirred, President -Wilson might have delayed still longer than he did in bringing America -in. - -In all the business arrangements made for the "little book" in America, -Mrs. Ward had had the constant help and support of her beloved cousin, -Fred Whitridge, while in England not only the publication, but the -voluminous arrangements for translation, were in the hands of Reginald -Smith. By a cruel stroke of fate, both these devoted friends were taken -from her in the same week--the last week of December, 1916--and Mrs. -Ward was left to carry on as best she might, without "the tender humour -and the fire of sense" in the "good eyes" of the one, or the wisdom, -strength and kindness that had always been her portion in so rich a -measure from the other. To Mrs. Smith (herself the daughter of George -Murray Smith), she wrote after the funeral of "Mr. Reginald": - - "I watched in Oxford Street, till the car had passed northwards out - of sight, and said good-bye with tears to that good man and - faithful friend it bore away.... Your husband has been to me - shelter and comfort, advice and help, through many years. I feel as - if a great tree had fallen under whose boughs I had sheltered...." - -Never was the writing of books the same joy to Mrs. Ward after this. -Other publishers arose with whom she established, as was her wont, good -and friendly relations, but with the death of Reginald Smith it was as -if a veil had descended between her and this chief solace of her -declining years. - - * * * * * - -Already, in the autumn of 1916, Mrs. Ward was thinking--in consultation -with Wellington House--of a possible return to France, mainly in order, -this time, to visit some of the regions behind the French front which -had suffered most cruelly in 1914. She wished to bring home to the -English-speaking world, which was apt to forget such things, some of the -undying wrongs of France. M. Chevrillon obtained for her the ear of the -French War Office, and meanwhile Mrs. Ward applied once more to Sir -Edward Grey and to General Charteris, head of the British Intelligence -Department in France (with whom she had made friends on her first -journey) for permission to spend another two or three days behind the -British front. Here, however, the difficulty arose that since Mrs. -Ward's first visit, some other ladies, reading _England's Effort_, had -been clamorous for the same privileges, so that the much-tried War -Office had been obliged to lay down a rigid rule against the admission -of "any more ladies," as Sir Edward Grey wrote, "within the military -zone of the British Armies." Sir Edward did not think that any exception -could be made, but not so General Charteris. On November 9, Lord Onslow, -then serving in the War Office, wrote to Mrs. Ward that: - - "General Charteris fully recognizes the valuable effect which your - first book produced upon the public, and would consequently expect - similar results from a further work of yours. He is, therefore, - disposed to do everything in his power to assist you, and he thinks - it possible that perhaps an exception to the general rule might be - made on public grounds. But it would have to be clearly understood - that in the event of your being allowed to go, it would not - constitute a precedent as regards any other ladies." - -Permits, in the form of "Adjutant-General's Passes," were therefore -issued to Mrs. Ward and her daughter for a visit to the British Military -Zone from February 28 to March 4, 1917. They crossed direct to Boulogne, -and were the guests of General Headquarters from the moment that they -set foot in France. - -Since their last visit, the Battle of the Somme had come and gone, and -the German Army was in the act of retreating across that tortured belt -of territory to the safe shelter of the Hindenburg Line, there to resist -our pressure for another year. But, in these weeks of early spring, the -elation of movement had gripped our Army; the Boche was in retreat; this -must, this _should_ be the deciding year! Mrs. Ward's letters from the -war zone are full of this spirit of hopefulness; not yet had Russia -crumbled in pieces, not yet had the strength of the shortened German -line revealed itself. Once more she was sent on two memorable days, from -the Visitors' Château at Agincourt, to points of vital interest on our -line, first through St. Pol, Divion and Ranchicourt, to the wooded slope -of the Bois de Bouvigny, whence she could gaze across at the Vimy Ridge, -not yet stormed by the Canadians; then, on the second day, to the very -centre of the Somme battlefield, where she stood in the midst of the -world's uttermost scene of desolation. Of the Bois de Bouvigny, -Dorothy's narrative, written down the same night, gives the following -picture: - - "The car bumped slowly along a very rough track into the heart of - the wood, and stopped when it could go no farther. We got out and - walked on till soon we came to an open piece of grass-land, a - rectangular wedge, as it were, driven from the eastern edge of the - hill into the heart of the wood. We walked across it, facing east, - and saw it was pitted with shell-holes, mostly old--but not all. - In particular, one very large one had fresh moist earth cast up all - round it. Captain Fowler [their guide] asked Captain Bell a - question about it, lightly, yet with a significant _appui_ in his - tone--but the young man laughed off the question and implied that - the Boches had grown tired of troubling that particular place. - Meanwhile, the firing of our own guns behind and to the side of us - was becoming more frequent, the noise greater. Just ahead, and to - the right, the ground sloped to a valley, which we could not see, - and where we were told lay Ablain St. Nazaire and Carençy. From - this direction came the short, abrupt, but quite formidable reports - of trench-mortars. Over against us, and slightly to the right, - three or four ridges and folds of hill lay clearly - distinguishable--of which the middle back was the famous _Vimy - Ridge_, partly held to this day by the Germans. Captain Bell, - however, would not let us advance quite to the edge of the plateau, - so that we never saw exactly how the ground dropped to the lower - ground, neither did we see the crucifix of Notre Dame de Lorette at - the end of the spur. All this bit had been the scene of terrific - fighting in 1915, when it still formed part of the French line; it - had been a fight at close quarters in the beautiful wood that - closed in the open ground on which we stood, and we were told that - many bodies of poor French soldiers still lay unburied in the wood. - We turned soon to recross the bare space again, and as we did so, - fresh guns of our own opened fire, and once more I heard that - long-drawn scream of the shells over our heads that I got to know - last year." - -On both these days, the "things seen," unforgettable as they were, were -filled out by most interesting conversations with two of our Army -Commanders--first with General Horne and then with Sir Henry Rawlinson, -who entertained Mrs. Ward and her daughter with a kindness that had in -it an element of pathos. Not often, in those stern days, did anyone of -the gentler sex make and pour out their tea! And in the Chauffeurs' -Mess, the Scotch chauffeur, Sloan, who for the second time was in charge -of Mrs. Ward, found himself the object of universal curiosity. "He told -Captain Fowler," wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband, "that they asked him -innumerable questions about the two ladies--no one having ever seen -such a phenomenon in these parts before. 'They were varra puzzled,' said -Sloan, 'they couldna mak' it out. But I didna tell them. I left them -thinkin'!'" - -Mrs. Ward left the British zone for Paris on March 4, and after three -days of comparative rest there--renewing old acquaintance under strange -new conditions--she put herself under the charge of a kind and energetic -official of the "Maison de la Presse," M. Ponsot, for her long-planned -visit to the devastated regions of the Centre and East. Soissons, Reims -and Verdun were pronounced too dangerous for her, but she went north to -the ruins of Senlis, and heard from the lips of the old curé the -horrible tale of the German panic there, in the early days of September, -1914, the burning of the town, the murder of the Maire and the other -hostages, and of the frantic, insane excitement under which many of the -German officers seemed to be labouring. Then it was the battlefield of -the Ourcq, the scene of Maunoury's fateful flank attack, which forced -Von Kluck to halt and give battle at the Marne; a string of famous -villages--Marcilly, Barcy, Etrépilly, Vareddes--seen, alas, under a -blinding snow-storm, and at length the vision of the Marne itself, -"winding, steely-grey, through the white landscape." Mrs. Ward has -described it all, in inimitable fashion, in the seventh and eighth -Letters of _Towards the Goal_, and has there told also the ghastly tale -of the Hostages of Vareddes, which burnt itself upon her mind with the -sharpness that only the sight of the actual scene could give. Then, -leaving Paris by train for Nancy, she spent two days--seeing much of the -stout-hearted Préfet, M. Mirman--in visiting the regions overwhelmed by -the German invasion between August 20 and September 10, 1914--a period -and a theatre of the War of which we English usually have but the -dimmest idea. From the ruined farm of Léaumont she was shown, by a -French staff officer, the whole scene of these operations, spread like a -map before her, and became absorbed in the thrilling tale of the driving -back of the Bavarians by General Castelnau and the First French Army. -Then southward through the region from which the German wave had -receded, but which still bore indelible marks of the invaders' savage -fear and hatred. In _Towards the Goal_ Mrs. Ward has told the tale of -Gerbévillers and of the heroic Soeur Julie, who saved her "gros -blessés" in the teeth of some demoralized German officers, who forced -their way into the hospital. Here we can but give her general -impressions of the scene, as she recorded them in a letter to Miss -Arnold, written from Paris immediately afterwards: - - "Lorraine was in some ways a spectacle to wring one's heart, the - ruined villages, the _réfugiés_ everywhere, and the faces of men - and women who had lost their all and seen the worst horrors of - human nature face to face. But there were many beautiful and - consoling things. The marvellous view from a point near Lunéville - of the eastern frontier, the French lines and the German, near the - Forêt de Paroy--a group of some hundreds of French soldiers, near - another point of the frontier, who, finding out that we were two - English ladies, cheered us vigorously as we passed through - them--the already famous Soeur Julie, of Gerbévillers, who had - been a witness of all the German crimes there, and told the story - inimitably, with native wit and Christian feeling--the beautiful - return from Nancy on a spring day across France, from East to West, - passing the great rivers, Meurthe, Meuse, Moselle, Marne--the warm - welcome of the Lorrainers--these things we shall never forget." - -A rapid return to England and then, in order that her impressions of the -Fleet might not be behindhand, she was sent by special arrangement to -see Commodore Tyrwhitt, at Harwich, there to realize the immense -development of the smaller craft of the Navy, and to go "creeping and -climbing," as she describes it in _Towards the Goal_, about a submarine. -Returning to Stocks to write her second series of "Letters"--now -addressed without disguise to Mr. Roosevelt--it was not long before the -news of America's Declaration of War came in to cheer her, with an eager -telephone-message from a daughter, left in London, that "Old Glory" was -to be seen waving side by side with the Union Jack from the tower of the -House of Lords. Now surely, the happy prophecies of her soldier-friends -in France would be fulfilled: this _must_ be the deciding year! But the -months passed on; Vimy and Messines were ours, yet nothing followed, and -in August, September, October, the agonizing struggle in the mud of -Passchendæle sapped the endurance of the watchers at home more -miserably than any other three months of the War. And there, on October -11, perished a lad of twenty, bearing a name that was heart of her heart -to Mrs. Ward, Tom Arnold, the elder son of her brother, Dr. F. S. -Arnold. He had lain wounded all night in a shell-hole, and when at -length they bore him back to the Casualty Clearing-station, the little -flame of life, though it flickered and shot upwards in hope, sank again -into darkness. Tom was a lad to whose gentle soul all war was utterly -abhorrent, yet he had "joined up" without question on the earliest -possible day. Already Christopher and Arthur Selwyn, the splendid twins, -were gone, and the sons of so many friends and neighbours, gentle and -simple! About this time General Horne had invited her to come once more -to France. "But it is not at all likely I shall go (she wrote)--though, -perhaps, in the spring it might be, if the War goes on. Horrible, -horrible thought! I am more and more conscious of its horror and -hideousness every day. And yet after so much--after all these lives laid -down--not to achieve the end, and a real 'peace upon Israel'--would not -that be worst of all?" - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920 - - [Greek: antar emeu schedothen moros Istatai; hôs ophelon ge - cheiri philên tên sên cheira labousa thanein].[35] - DAMAGETUS. - - -Those who visited Mrs. Ward at Stocks during the later years of the War -were wont to fasten upon any younger members of the family who happened -to be there, to declare that Mrs. Ward was working herself to death and -to plead that something must be done to stop her. And even as they said -it they knew that their words were vain, for besides the perennial need -to make a living, was not her country at war and were not the young men -dying every day? Mrs. Ward was not of the temperament that forgot such -things; hence her desire to throw her very best work into her "War -books"--which owing to their low price and the special terms on which -she allowed the Government to use them could never bring her anything -like the same return as her novels.[36] She regarded them therefore -almost as an extra on her ordinary work, so that the pressure on her -time was increased rather than diminished as the War years went on and -her own age advanced. And the last of the series, _Fields of Victory_, -was to make on her time and strength the greatest demands of all. - -But the lighter side of her War labours was the intense and meticulous -interest she took in the "War economies" devised by herself and Dorothy -at Stocks. How they schemed and planned about the cutting of timber, the -growing of potatoes, the making of jam and the sharing of the garden -fruit with the village! Labour in the garden was reduced to a minimum, -so that all the family must take their turn at planting out violas and -verbenas, if the poor things were to be saved for use at all, while Mr. -Wilkin, the well-beloved butler who had been with us for twenty years, -mowed the lawn and split wood and performed many other unorthodox tasks -until he too was called up, at 47, in the summer of 1918. Mrs. Ward -could not plant verbenas, but she armed herself with a spud and might -often be seen of an afternoon valiantly attacking the weeds in the -rose-beds and paths. The links between her and the little estate seemed -to grow ever stronger as she came to depend more and more directly on -the produce of the soil, and when, in 1918, she established a cow on -what had once been the cricket-ground her joy and pride in the -productiveness of her new creature were a delight to all beholders. Her -daughter Dorothy was at this time deep in the organisation of "Women on -the Land"--a movement of considerable importance in Hertfordshire--, so -that Mrs. Ward could study it at first hand and had many an absorbing -conversation with one of the "gang-leaders," Mrs. Bentwich, who made -Stocks her headquarters for a time and delighted her hostess by her -many-sided ability and by the picturesqueness of her attire. All this -gave her many ideas for her four War novels--_Missing_, _The War and -Elizabeth_, _Cousin Philip_ and _Harvest_, the last of which was to -close the long list of her books. _Missing_ had a considerable popular -success, for it sold 21,000 in America in the first two months of its -appearance, but _Elizabeth_ and _Cousin Philip_ were, I think, felt to -be the most interesting of this series, owing to the admirable studies -they presented of the type of young woman thrown up and moulded by the -War. Mrs. Ward was by no means ashamed of her hard work as a novelist in -these days. - - "I have just finished a book," she wrote to her nephew, Julian - Huxley, in April 1918, "and am beginning another--as usual! But I - should be lost without it, and it is what my betters, George Sand - and Balzac--and Scott!--did before me. Literature is an honourable - profession, and I am no ways ashamed of it--as a profession. And - indeed I feel that novels have a special function nowadays--when - one sees the great demand for them as a _délassement_ and - refreshment. I wish with all my heart I could write a good - detective--or mystery--novel! That is what the wounded and the - tired love." - -But, side by side with this immense output of writing, Mrs. Ward never -allowed the springs of thought to grow dry for lack of reading. The one -advantage that she gained from her short nights--for her hours of sleep -were rarely more and often less than six--was that the long hours of -wakefulness in the early morning gave her time for the reading of many -books and of poetry. "There is nothing like it for keeping the streams -of life fresh," she wrote to one of us. "At least that is my feeling now -that I am beginning to grow old. All things pass, but thought and -feeling! And to grow cold to poetry is to let that which is most vital -in our being decay. I seem to trace in the men and women I see whether -they keep their ideals and whether they still turn to imagination, -whether through art or poetry. And I believe for thousands it is the -difference between being happy and unhappy--between being 'dans l'ordre' -or at variance with the world." - -In addition to her novels and her two first War books, Mrs. Ward had -been writing at intervals, ever since the summer of 1916, her -_Recollections_, and brought them out at length in October 1918. They -covered the period of her life down to the year 1900, giving a picture -of things seen and heard, of friends loved and enjoyed and lost, of -long-past Oxford days, of London, Rome, and the Alban Hills, such as -only a woman of her manifold experience could offer to a tired -generation. The reception given to the book touched her profoundly, for -it showed her, beyond the possibility of doubt, that her long life's -work had earned her not only the admiration but the love of her -fellow-countrymen. As an old friend, Mrs. Halsey, wrote to Dorothy, "I -remember Mlle Souvestre saying more than thirty years ago, 'Ah! the -books I admire--but it's the woman Mary Ward that I love.'" "Mrs. Ward's -Recollections are of priceless value," said the _Contemporary Review_; -"all the famous names are here, but that is nothing; the people -themselves are here moving about and veritably alive--great men and -women of whom posterity will long to hear." And another reviewer dwelt -on a different aspect: "She has lived to see the first social studies -and efforts of her Oxford days grow into the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, the Schools for the Physically Defective, the Play Centres -and a great deal else in which she has reaped a harvest for the England -of to-day or sown a seed for the England of to-morrow." The reviews -generally ended on a note of hope for a second volume, to complete the -story--, but the story remained, and will always remain, uncompleted. - -Perhaps part of the affectionate admiration with which her -_Recollections_ were received was due to the wider knowledge which the -public at last possessed of all that she had been able to accomplish, -through twenty years of toil, for the children of England. For it so -happened that during the two years that preceded the appearance of her -_Recollections_--years of war and difficulty of all kinds as they -were--Mrs. Ward had seen her labours for the play-time of London's -children crowned by that State recognition towards which she had always -worked, and her hopes for the extension of Special Schools for crippled -children to the provinces as well as London very largely realised. After -an immensely up-hill struggle to maintain the funds for her Play Centres -during the first two years of the War, it was at length the War -conditions themselves that convinced the authorities that all was not -well with the child-population of our big cities and that such efforts -as Mrs. Ward's must be encouraged and assisted in the fullest possible -way. "Juvenile crime"--that comprehensive phrase that covers everything -from pilfering at street corners to the formation of "Black-Hand-Gangs" -under some adventurous spirit of ten or eleven, gloriously devoted to -terrorising the back streets after dark--was the portent that convinced -Whitehall, that set the Home Office complaining to the Board of -Education and the Board of Education consulting Mrs. Ward. The result of -these consultations, carried on in the winter of 1916-17 between Mrs. -Ward, Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge (the Permanent Secretary), Mr. Pease the -outgoing and Mr. Fisher the incoming President of the Board, was that on -Jan. 26, 1917, an official announcement appeared in _The Times_ to the -effect that "Grants from the Board of Education will shortly be -available in aid of the cost of carrying on Play Centres.... Hitherto -Centres have been established only by voluntary bodies, mostly in -London, where the Local Education Authority has granted the free use of -school buildings. It is hoped that the powers which education -authorities already possess of establishing and aiding such centres will -be more freely exercised in future." - -To which _The Times_ added the following note:--"The announcement that -the Treasury has approved the principle of play centres and will signify -its approval in the usual manner, forms a fitting and characteristic -climax to twenty years of voluntary effort on the part of Mrs. Humphry -Ward and a devoted circle of workers." - -There was general rejoicing among the higher officials of the Board, who -had watched Mrs. Ward's work for so long, when the Treasury at length -announced its consent to the Grant. Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge wrote to her -in the following terms: - - "Allow me to congratulate you most heartily on having induced the - State to take under its wing and aid the enterprise of which you - have been the pioneer and which you have carried on unaided for so - many years with such admirable results. - - "I do not think you are one of those who are nervous about State - intervention or share the apprehension which is sometimes expressed - that a free spirit of voluntary enterprise may be hampered or - circumscribed by the existence of State aid. However this may be, I - think you may feel sure that our grants and regulations will be - administered in a sympathetic spirit and with full recognition that - it is necessary to secure and retain the willing co-operation of - people of all kinds who are anxious to devote their time and - energy to public service. It is a source of great pleasure to me - that I have been the humble instrument of furthering the enterprise - of which you have been the guiding spirit." - -As a matter of fact, the Board's regulations were largely drawn up by -Mrs. Ward herself, and her relations with both officials and President -continued close and cordial--nay, almost affectionate!--down to the last -day of her life. Nor was the London County Council left long behindhand. -The Treasury Grant amounted to 50 per cent. of the "approved -expenditure" of any voluntary committee or Education Authority which -carried on Play Centres according to the Board's regulations, so that it -was not long before some fifty great towns all over England were opening -Play Centres of their own, under the Act of 1907, and London was in -danger of being left behind. In the summer of 1919, however, Mrs. Ward's -edifice was crowned by the Council's deciding to take over another -quarter of the cost of her Centres, so that she was left with only one -quarter to raise in voluntary funds. The whole of the organisation, -however--which had long been perfected by the contriving brain of Miss -Churcher--was left in Mrs. Ward's hands, subject only to inspection by -the Council, for the Education Committee knew better than to disturb the -result of so many years of specialised care and study. The additional -funds available made it possible for Mrs. Ward, in the last three years -of her life, to add ten new Centres in London to the twenty-two that she -was maintaining before the advent of the Grant. It may be imagined what -joy this gave to her, and how, in the winter of 1917-18, in spite of the -cruelly-darkened streets and the danger of air-raids, she managed to -make her way to many of these new Centres, lingering there in complete -content to watch her singing children. The last phase of the Play Centre -movement, as far as Mrs. Ward was concerned, was the publication by her -daughter, in February 1920, of a little book describing their origin and -growth,[37] with a preface written by Mrs. Ward herself. This she sent -to Mr. Fisher, and received from him, a month before her death, a letter -which deserves to be quoted here as a fitting epitaph on her work. Mr. -Fisher and she had recently visited Oxford together, to speak at the -opening of the "Arlosh Hall" at Manchester College. - - "Albert Dicey spoke to us, as you will remember," wrote Mr. Fisher, - "of the abolition of religious tests in the Universities as - belonging to that small category of reforms to which no discernible - disadvantages attach and I am convinced that the same high and - unusual compliment may be paid without a suspicion of extravagance - to the Evening Play Centres. Here there are no drawbacks, nothing - but positive and far-reaching good." - -In the same way Mrs. Ward succeeded, in the spring of 1918, in -persuading the House of Commons to add a clause to Mr. Fisher's great -Education Bill, making it compulsory for Education Authorities -throughout the country to "make arrangements" for the education of their -physically defective children. She used for this purpose the machinery -of the "Joint Parliamentary Advisory Council" which she had founded in -1913,[38] but the bulk of the work--involving as it did the sending out -of circular letters to ninety-five Education Authorities, the sifting -and printing of the replies and the forwarding of these to every Member -of Parliament--was carried out from Stocks, causing a heavy strain--long -remembered!--on the secretarial resources of the house. It may be noted -too, that all this took place during those agonising weeks when the -British Armies were being hurled back in France and Flanders, and when -Mrs. Ward, of all people, realised only too clearly the peril we were -in. But the task was accomplished and the clause added to the Bill, so -that a new charter was thus provided for the 30,000 or so of crippled -and invalid children who still remained throughout the country -uneducated and uncared for.[39] A little later, the movement initiated -by Sir Robert Jones and the Central Committee for the Care of Cripples, -for converting some of the War Hospitals into Homes for the scientific -treatment of crippled children received Mrs. Ward's warm support, her -special contribution to the movement being a successful campaign for the -provision of educational facilities for the children lying for many -months within the hospital walls. The beautiful War-hospital at Calgarth -on Lake Windermere (the Ethel Hedley Hospital) was converted to this use -in the spring of 1920, and one of the last pleasures which Mrs. Ward -enjoyed was her correspondence with the Governors of the hospital, who -described to her their plan for the conversion and invoked her blessing -upon it. Mrs. Ward was never able to visit Calgarth, but the love she -bore to the fells and waters of the North which surrounded it have -linked her memory very specially with this delightful place, where -children who, even ten years before, would have been deemed hopeless -cases, recover straightness and strength. Her connection with this -enterprise made a gentle ending to her long labour for these waifs of -our educational system. - - * * * * * - -Who that lived through the year 1918 will ever lose the memory of its -gigantic vicissitudes? Mrs. Ward, with her actual knowledge of so much -of the ground over which the battles of March and April raged, was -certainly not among those who could shut their eyes to the national -danger they involved. She tried to maintain her characteristic optimism -throughout the blackest times, and was in the end justified. But I -remember one afternoon at Grosvenor Place when a friend who thought that -he was much "in the know" informed us confidentially that we were "out -of Ypres--been out for the last two days, but they don't want to tell -us," and hope sank very low. When the battle rolled up to the foot of -her own Scherpenberg Hill she longed, I believe, to be there with a -pike, but victory was ours that day and she felt a special lifting of -the heart at the news. As the terrible pageant of the year unrolled -itself, her heart went out to France in her losing struggle north of the -Marne; to Italy in those anxious days of June, when after a first recoil -she swept the Austrians permanently back over the Piave; to France again -in the first great return towards Soissons and the Aisne. Was it the -real turn of the tide? Hardly could we dare to believe it, but in the -light of later events it became evident that the Italian stand on the -Piave had indeed marked the turn for the whole Allied front. Mrs. Ward -always thought of this with peculiar satisfaction, for she was kept in -constant touch with the situation out there by her son-in-law, George -Trevelyan, who was in command of a British Red Cross Unit on the Italian -front, and the disaster of Caporetto had very sadly affected her. Now -all was well once more and Mrs. Ward, who had been no fair-weather -friend to Italy, rejoiced with all her heart. There was much talk during -the summer of a possible visit of hers, that autumn, to the Italian -front, but events were destined to move too fast, and Mrs. Ward never -again beheld the Lombard Plain. - -But when the incredible hope had at last become solid fact--when the -British Armies had stormed the Hindenburg Line and how much else beside, -when the Americans had won through the forest of the Argonne and the -French had pressed on to their ancient frontier; when Stocks had been -illuminated on Armistice Night and we had all settled down to -speculation, more or less sober, on the remaking of the world, Mrs. Ward -began to enquire from the authorities as to the possibility of a third -and final journey to France. For she wished with almost passionate -eagerness to write a third and final book on the last phase of -"England's Effort." She was met once more with the greatest cordiality. -Sir Douglas Haig expressed a desire to see her; General Horne promised -to send her over the battlefield of Vimy; Lille, Lens and Cambrai were -to reveal to her the tale of their four years of servitude. And, on -their part, the French promised to convey her to Metz and Strasburg and -to show her Verdun and Rheims on her return, while Paris was to be made -easy for her by the hospitality of a delightful young couple, her -cousins, Arnold Whitridge and his wife, who had the good fortune to -possess a house there amid the rush and pressure of all the nations of -the world. - -So everything was planned and settled during the month of December 1918, -but before she left England on her last mission Mrs. Ward was able to -enjoy that strange Peace Christmas which, in spite of its superficial -note of thanksgiving, seemed to ring for so many the final knell of joy. -Just two months before, Mrs. Ward had lost, from the influenza scourge, -yet another soldier-nephew, the youngest Selwyn boy, while sorrow had -come to the house itself in the death at a training camp of her butler's -only son--a lad of 17 who had been the playmate of her grandchildren on -many a golden afternoon in the days gone by. But if the elders could not -forget these things, the children at least could be made an excuse for -rejoicing! And so her two grandchildren, Mary and Humphry, came once -more to Stocks as they had come for every Christmas since they entered -this world; they mounted the big bed as of old and played the egg-game -with solemn attention to detail, and then on the last day of the year -Stocks opened its doors to the children from far and near, coming in -fancy dress to dance out the Year of Miracles. Mrs. Ward, who had that -very morning finished the writing of a novel, moved among the groups -with a face the pallor of which, though we did not know it, was already -a premonition of the end. She drank in the beauty of the scene in deep -draughts of refreshment. That little boy attired as feathered -Mercury--that slender Rosalind with the glorious bush of hair--they -caught at her heart! From certain fragments of talk that she let fall -during the evening one gathered that the sight had meant more to her -than a mere joyous spectacle. To these would be the new world: let the -elders leave it them in faith. "Green earth forgets." - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward's third journey to France was of longer duration (it lasted -over three weeks, Jan. 7-30) than either of the others, and save that -the conditions of danger created by the actual fighting were eliminated -it was of a still more arduous nature, while it afforded her even -greater opportunities than the others had done of realising and summing -up the proportionate achievements of the three great armies--French, -American and British. For the object of this final pilgrimage was no -less than to bring out, by a careful analysis of all the available -facts, the overwhelming part played by the British Armies in France in -the last year of the War, and so to do her part in silencing the -extraordinary misconceptions that were still current, especially in -America, as to the share that the British Armies had had in the final -breaking of the German resistance. A Canadian girl working at an -American Y.M.C.A. in France had written to her in the previous August, -imploring her to bring _England's Effort_ up to date and to distribute -it by the thousand among the American troops. - - "I see hundreds of the finest remaining white men on earth every - week," continued this witness. "They are wonderful military - material and _very_ attractive and lovable boys, but it discourages - all one's hopes for future unity and friendship between us all to - realize, as I have done the last few months, that the majority of - these men are entering the fight firmly believing that 'England has - not done her share,' 'the colonials have done all the hard - fighting'--'France has borne all,' etc. This from not one or two, - but _hundreds_. The men I speak of come principally from Kansas, - Illinois, Iowa--that wonderful Valley of Democracy that I sometimes - compare in my mind (with its safety and isolation from the outside - world) to those words of Kipling--'Ringed by your careful seas, - long have you waked in quiet and long lain down at ease'--To these - boys away from the sheltered country for the first time in - _generations_, England is a foreign and a somewhat mistrusted - country, and four or five days rush through it gives them neither - opportunity nor a fair chance of judging the people--beyond the - fact that war-time restrictions annoy them. It is a crying shame - that the _only_ knowledge these splendid men have of England's - share in the war is drawn from the belittling reports of pro-German - papers. This attitude will mar all attempts at friendship between - the troops, and, I believe, seriously jeopardise future friendship - between the countries." - -This first-hand evidence has recently received a very striking -corroboration in Mr. Walter Page's Letters, and was amply borne out at -the time by our Ministry of Information at home. Moreover, since August, -Great Britain had indeed added another chapter to her previous record! -So Mrs. Ward was received by Sir Douglas Haig, at his little château -near Montreuil, on January 8, 1919, and there had a most illuminating -talk with him, illustrated by his wonderful series of charts and maps; -she went through the desolation of Ypres, and Lens, and Arras; she -visited General Birdwood at Lille and General Horne at Valenciennes, -renewing her friendship with the latter and making the aquaintance of -his Chief of Staff, General Hastings Anderson, "a delightful, witty -person, full of fun," who told her many things. She climbed the Vimy -Ridge, "scrambling up over trenches and barbed wire and other _débris_ -to the top," assisted by Dorothy and Lieut. Farrer, their guide; she -crossed the Hindenburg Line in both directions, the second time at the -Canal du Nord, where she got out in the January twilight to study the -marvellous German trench system and the tracks of two tanks that had led -the attack of the First Army on September 27; she saw the area of open -fighting beyond Cambrai, and, returning by the Cambrai-Bapaume road to -Amiens, passed through a heap of shapeless ruins "where only a signboard -told us that this had once been Bapaume." From Amiens she passed on to -Paris, and thence to Metz and Strasburg, realising something, at Metz, -of the difficulty confronting the French Government in the large German -population, and at Strasburg passing a wholly delightful evening with -General Gouraud--hero both of Gallipoli and of Champagne. Armed with -General Gouraud's maps and passes she then returned via Nancy to Verdun -and spent an unforgettable afternoon, first in inspecting the -subterranean labyrinth under the old fortress which had given sleep to -so many weary soldiers during the siege, and then in motoring slowly -through the battlefield itself. It may be imagined how such names as -Vaux, Douaumont, the Mort Homme, the Mont des Corbeils and the rest made -her heart leap, how they stirred the vivid historic imagination in her -which always enabled her to visualise, beyond her fellows, the actual -movement of events and of the men who played their part in them. The -sight of Verdun certainly affected her more deeply than anything, I -think, save the Salient with its hundred thousand British graves. Then, -sleeping at Châlons, she moved on to Rheims, arriving in the _Place_ -before what had once been the Cathedral in time to see the Prime -Minister of England--a Sunday visitor from the Conference--standing -before the battered façade in animated talk with Cardinal Luçon. Mrs. -Ward stood aside to let them pass, watching the retreating figure of Mr. -Lloyd George "with what thoughts." _This_ was Rheims; what remedy for it -would the Conference find? - -Nor did Mrs. Ward neglect the American battle-fields, for on her way to -Verdun she had passed through the St. Mihiel salient and studied the -ground there; she had seen the Forêt de l'Argonne in the winter dusk -after leaving Verdun, and now on her way to Paris she spent a cheerful -hour at Château Thierry, mingling with the American boys on the scene -of their first and perhaps most memorable triumph. For actually to have -helped by hard fighting, man to man, to keep the Boche from Paris, that -was something for which to have crossed the Atlantic! St. Mihiel and the -Argonne were all part of the great plan, but this, this was history! So -at least Mrs. Ward felt as she crossed the sacred ground from Dormans to -Château Thierry where the Germans had made their formidable push for -Montmirail and Paris, and where an American regiment of marines had said -them nay. - -After her long pilgrimage Mrs. Ward spent a week in Paris, much absorbed -in the pursuit of accurate information for the book that she had still -to write. But there was also time for the seeing of many of those famous -figures who, with the best intentions, filled the French stage for half -a year and, at the end, gave us the world in which, _tant bien que mal_, -we live. She went to consult with our ambassador, Lord Derby, on certain -aspects of her work; she revived her old friendship with M. Jusserand; -she saw General Pershing and Mr. Hoover, and, on the very day when the -League of Nations resolution had been passed, President Wilson himself. -Of this she has left a lively account in the first chapter of _Fields of -Victory_. - -Mrs. Ward should, by all the rules, have returned straight home from -Paris, for she had already begun to suffer from bronchial catarrh and -the weather had turned colder. But she was bent on seeing certain -British officers at Amiens who had prepared some special information for -her and therefore broke her journey there and also at the little -"Visitors' Château" at Agincourt. Here, struggling against the intense -cold and her own increasing illness, she exhausted herself in long -conversations, though all that she heard was of deep interest to her -task. But she was obliged to give up a visit to the battle-field of -August 8 which her hosts had planned for her, and to return instead, -while she still might, to England. When at last she reached home she was -pronounced to have tonsilitis and to be within an inch of bronchitis -too, and was kept in bed for many days. But it was many weeks before the -bronchial catarrh left her, nor did she ever, during this last year of -her life, regain the level of health at which she had started for France -in the first week of the year. Yet none the less must her articles be -written, for time pressed if she was to catch the right moment for the -book's appearance. She was ably and generously helped by various -officers, especially by General Sir John Davidson, who brought with him -to Grosvenor Place one day a reduced-scale version of the great chart at -which she had gazed fascinated at Montreuil, and which she afterwards -obtained leave to reproduce in her book. "It was amusing," wrote Dorothy -that night, "to see Mother and Lady Selborne and Sir John Davidson all -on the floor, poring over his wonderful chart of the War." - -But in spite of the willingness to help of the authorities, the labour -of studying and digesting the mass of material placed at her -disposal--stiff and intractable stuff as it was--and of forming from it -a harmonious and artistic whole was something far harder than she had -expected. It required real historical method, and carried her back in -memory to the days of the West Goths and the _Dictionary of Christian -Biography_. But she would not be beaten, either by the difficulty of the -task or by the necessity of getting it done within a certain time. One -day in April, just after she had returned from Grosvenor Place to -Stocks, it became necessary to send one of her articles, type-written, -up to London in time to catch the Foreign Office bag for New York; the -necessary train left Tring Station at 12.37. Mrs. Ward finished writing -the article at 12.22; Miss Churcher, who had followed page by page with -the type-writer, finished the last page at 12.30; Dorothy flew to the -station with it and caught the train. - -Besides the initial difficulty of the work, however, the necessity of -submitting what she had written to two or three different authorities -caused inevitable delays, while a printers' strike in Glasgow at the -critical moment again deferred the book's publication. When, therefore, -_Fields of Victory_ at length appeared, the psychological moment had -passed by, the world was far more concerned with the future than with -the past, and only a moderate number of the book were sold. Mrs. Ward -was of course somewhat disappointed, but there was much consolation to -be had in the note of astonishment, combined with admiration, which the -book called forth among those for whose opinion she really cared, -whether in England, France or America. This feeling was summed up in a -letter written by General Hastings Anderson--then holding a high -appointment on the Staff of the Army--to Miss Ward, after her mother's -death. - - "The book will be a very prized memento, not only of a gifted - writer who did so much to bring home to the ignorant the whole - significance of our effort in the war; but also of a great - Englishwoman, and of the happy breaks in our work marked by her - visits to the First Army in France. - - "What strikes me most in your mother's book is her marvellous - insight into the way of thinking of the soldiers--I mean those who - knew most of what was really happening--who were actually engaged - in the great struggle. One would say the book was written by one - who had played a prominent part in the War in France, and with - knowledge of the thoughts of the high directing staffs. This is no - compliment; it can only come from the trained expression of a very - deep sympathy, and complete understanding of the thoughts and views - which were expressed to her by those high in command. - - "I can well understand what a strain such intense concentration of - thought must have meant, when combined with the fatigues of travel - over great distances on the French roads, and the regrets and - delays in publication. But the completed book and its predecessors - are a very precious legacy, especially to those of us who saw the - whole long struggle in France." - -Mrs. Ward's health improved to a certain extent during the summer of -this year (1919), so that she was able to enjoy on Peace Day (July 19) -the great procession of Victory, watching it from the enclosure outside -Buckingham Palace. "Foch saluting was a sight not to be forgotten," she -wrote. "A paladin on horseback, saluting with a certain melancholy -dignity--a figure of romance." But she was mainly at Stocks during all -this summer, basking in the golden weather of that year, delighting in a -few Sunday gatherings of friends and in the weekly visits of her -grandchildren, who were now domiciled at Berkhamsted, five miles away, -and whom nothing could keep away, on Sundays, from Stocks, with its -tennis-court, its strawberries--and "Gunny"! - -..."I shall always think of her particularly," wrote Mrs. Robert - Crawshay afterwards, "sitting in her garden that last beautiful - summer at Stocks, with her wonderful expression of wisdom and the - kindness that prevented anyone feeling rebuked by her being on a - much higher level than themselves--her interest so generously - given, her pain never mentioned, her eyes lighting up with love as - the children came across the lawn, an atmosphere of beauty and - peace all around her." - -Much talk was heard on the lawn, as the summer passed on, about the -peace terms and the prospects of any recovery in Europe, and it is -recorded that although Mrs. Ward approved on the whole of the terms she -thought it the height of unwisdom to have allowed the Germans no voice -in discussing them before the signature. In Russia her heart was -passionately with the various rebels who arose to dispute the tyranny of -the Soviets, and as each hope faded she felt the horrors of that tragic -land more acutely. But most of all did she feel the tragedy of the -children of Austria and Central Europe, so that one of her last speeches -was devoted to pleading, at Berkhamsted, the cause of the Save the -Children Fund.[40] It was noticed that day how white and frail was her -look, but all the more for that did her appeal find its way to the -hearts of her audience. The children of Germany must be fed as well as -the rest, she said; "we have no war with children," and she recalled the -lovely lines of Blake which describe the angels moving through the -night: - - "If they see any weeping - That should have been sleeping - They pour sleep on their head - And sit down by their bed." - -"There are hundreds of thousands of children at this moment who on these -beautiful October nights 'are weeping that should have been -sleeping'--It is for this country, it is for you and me, to play the -part of angels of succour to these poor little ones wherever they may -be, to feed and clothe and cherish them in the name of our common -humanity and our common faith." - -In the meantime the unrelenting pressure of war taxation on her own -income had made it imperative, at last, to give up the house in -Grosvenor Place which had been her London home for nearly thirty years. -Mrs. Ward slept there for the last time on August 29, 1919, and wrote of -her parting from it the next day to J. P. T. - - "The poor old house begins to look dismantled. I had many thoughts - about it that last night there--of the people who had dined and - talked in it--Henry James, and Burne-Jones, Stopford Brooke, - Martineau, Watts, Tadema, Lowell, Roosevelt, Page, Northbrook, - Goschen and so many more--of one's own good times, and follies and - mistakes--everything passing at last into the words, 'He knoweth - whereof we are made, He remembereth that we are but dust.'" - -Then, in September, Mrs. Ward went for the last time to the Lake -District, motoring there via Stratford-on-Avon in her "little car"--a -cheap post-war purchase which spent most of its time in the repairing -shop, but which, for this occasion, put forth a supreme effort and -actually brought Mrs. Ward safely home through the midst of the railway -strike. She made her headquarters at Grasmere, for which she had -developed a special affection during two recent summers when she had -taken "Kelbarrow" and had watched from its lawn every passing mood of -the little lake. She visited Fox How and "Aunt Fan" almost every day; -she renewed her friendship with Canon and Mrs. Rawnsley and her -life-long intimacy with Gordon Wordsworth. And, on the Langdale side of -the fell, she visited a little grave to which her heart always yearned -afresh. - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Ward was deeply interested, during these last months of her life, -in the attempts made by the Liberal element in the Church to modify or -retard the "Enabling Bill," or as it is now known, the Church Assembly -Act. All her fighting spirit was aroused by the claim made by the Bill -to lay down tests and distinctions between member and member of the -National Church, especially by the imposition of the test of Holy -Communion on all candidates for the new Church bodies. She feared, in -the words of the Bishop of Carlisle (who saw eye to eye with her in this -matter) "that the declaration required as a condition of membership of -the Church of England will go a long way towards de-nationalising the -Church and reducing it to the status of a sect." She organised, early -in December, a letter to _The Times_ which was signed by all the most -prominent names in Liberal Churchmanship, protesting against the scanty -opportunities for debate which, owing to a ruling of the Speaker's, the -measure was to have in the House of Commons. But, when it became law -_quand même_, she turned her thoughts and her remaining energies to a -constructive movement which might rally the scattered Liberal forces of -the Church and assert for them the right, after due notice given of -their opinions, to participate without dishonesty in the rite of Holy -Communion. In a leaflet issued from Stocks to various private -sympathisers in January 1920, Mrs. Ward pointed out that the difficulty -which had confronted the Church sixty years before with regard to the -Thirty-nine Articles had now passed on to the Creeds, and that to many -who were convinced believers in the God within us, the following of -Christ and the practical realisation of the Kingdom, the Nicene Creed -was yet, "to quote a recent phrase, 'no more than the majority opinion -of a Committee held 1,600 years ago.'" She therefore appealed for the -formation of a "Faith and Freedom Association," the members of which -might claim to take their part in the new Councils and Assemblies while -openly stating their dissent from, or their right to re-interpret the -Creeds; only so could the Church continue to include that Modernist -element which was essential to its healthy development. - -Mrs. Ward received a good deal of sympathy and encouragement from those -to whom she sent her leaflet, and dreamt, in her indomitable way, of -summoning a meeting later on if the response were sufficient. But she -knew in her heart that her own strength would no longer suffice to lead -such a crusade, and she appealed with a certain wistfulness to the young -"to pour into it their life, their courage and their love." It troubled -her that no young person or group arose to take the burden from her -shoulders. But in truth she was still the youngest in heart of all her -generation, or the next, and if it were not that the poor body was -outworn she might yet have exerted the influence she longed for on the -religious life of her country. - -But it was too late. Mrs. Ward's health definitely gave way about -Christmas-time, 1919, the breakdown taking the form of a violent attack -of neuritis in the shoulders and arms. Although she would not yet -acknowledge it, but tried to continue the old round of work, increasing -weakness made it plain to her, at length, that she must not, for the -present at least, go crusading. But how she hoped and strove for better -times! Her devoted doctor-brother, Frank Arnold, to whom she turned -again and again with pathetic trust, knowing his ingenuity in the -devising of remedies, tended her with a skill born of a life-long -knowledge of her; but the malady was too deep-seated. At the end of -January she moved to London in order to try a certain course of -treatment, taking up her abode in a little house in Connaught Square -which her husband and Dorothy had found for her. She liked the little -place, especially on the days when flowers from Stocks arrived to make a -bower of it, and there, in the midst of a fruitless round of -"treatments" which did nothing but sap her remaining strength, she -passed the last weeks of her life. Old friends came once more to visit -her; her son and her daughters took turns in reading to her the poets -that she loved; Miss Churcher brought for her delight the latest stories -from the Play Centres. She still went downstairs and even, sometimes, -out of doors, but those who came to the house to sit with her left it, -usually, with aching hearts. Then, on March 11, another blow fell. Mr. -Ward became dangerously ill, and an immediate operation was found to be -necessary. The doctors carried him off to a nursing home not far away -and performed it, successfully, that night, while Mrs. Ward sat below in -the waiting-room in an agony of anxiety. The next day, and the next, she -was still able to go to him, the porters carrying her upstairs to his -room, but on Sunday, March 14, signs of bronchitis showed themselves, -together with a grave condition of the heart. The doctors would not -hear, after this, of her leaving the house. - -So for ten days she lay in the little London bedroom, looking out over -London trees, her heart pining for the day--the spring day which would -surely come--when she and he would return to Stocks together and their -ills would be forgotten. "Ah," she wrote to him in his nursing home on -March 18, "it is too trying this imprisonment--but it ought only to be a -few days more!" - -And indeed, her release was nearer than she knew. Did she not know it? -In mortal illness there are secrets of the inner consciousness which -those who tend, however lovingly, can never wholly penetrate, but as her -mind advanced ever nearer to the verge, one felt that it was swept, ever -and anon, by far-off gusts of poetry, finding expression in words and -fragments long possessed and intimately loved. Such were the "Last -Lines" of Emily Brontë, of which, two days before the end, she repeated -the great second verse to Dorothy, saying with the old passionate -gesture of the hands, "_That's_ what I am thinking of!" - - O God within my breast, - Almighty, ever-present Deity! - Life--that in me has rest, - As I--undying Life--have power in thee! - -Then, early on the morning of the 24th, there came an hour of crisis, -when life fought with death for victory; but, before the end, "she -opened her dear eyes wide, her dear brown eyes, like the eyes of a young -woman, and looked out into the unknown with a most wonderful look on her -face. I think that at that moment her soul crossed the bar." So wrote -Dorothy, the only witness of that look; she will carry the memory of it -in her heart to the end. - - * * * * * - -We buried her in the quiet churchyard at Aldbury, within sight of the -long sweep of hill and the beechwoods that she had loved so well. Her -old friend the Rector, Canon Wood, laid her to rest, while another -friend for whom she had had a deep regard, Dean Inge, spoke of her in -simple and moving words, naming her before us all as "perhaps the -greatest Englishwoman of our time." - -There were not wanting, indeed, signs that many in England so regarded -her. It was as though she had lived through the period, some ten years -before, when the public had tired somewhat of her books and younger -writers had to a large extent supplanted her, until, towards the end, -she found herself taken to the heart of her countrymen in a manner that -had hardly been her lot in the years of her greatest literary fame. They -loved her not only for all that she had done, but for what she was, -divining in her, besides her intellectual gifts, besides even the -tenderness and sympathy of her character, that indomitable courage that -carried her through to the end, over difficulties and obstacles at -which they only dimly guessed. They loved her for wearing herself out, -at sixty-seven, in visits to the battle-fields of France, that she might -bear her witness to her country's deeds; they loved her for all the joy -that she had given to little children. Two months before her death the -Lord Chancellor, making himself the mouthpiece of this feeling, had -asked her to act as one of the first seven women magistrates of England, -and later still, when she was already nearing the end, the University of -Edinburgh invited her to receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D. These acts -of recognition gave her a passing pleasure, and when she herself was -beyond the reach of pleasure, or of pain, it stirred the hearts of those -who went with her, for the last time, to the little village graveyard to -see awaiting her, at the drive gate, a file of stalwart police, claiming -their right to escort the coffin of a Justice of the Peace. - -Many indeed were the tributes paid to her memory, whether in the letters -received after her death or in the words uttered by Lord Milner and -other old friends at the unveiling of her medallion in the Hall of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement[41] (July 1922). Of these one only shall be -quoted here, from a letter written to Mr. Ward by her dear and intimate -friend of so many years' standing, André Chevrillon: - -..."I had no friend in England whom I loved and respected more, - none to whom I owed so much. I have often thought that if I love - your country as I do--and indeed I have sometimes been accused of - being biassed in my views of England--it was partly due to the - personal gratitude which I always felt for the kindness of her - greeting and hospitality when I came to England as a young man. The - same generous welcome was extended to other young Frenchmen who - have since written on England, and there is no doubt that it has - helped to create long before the War a bond between our two - countries. - - "We all felt the spell of her noble and generous spirit. She struck - one as the most perfect example of the English lady of the old - admirable governing class, with her ever-active and efficient - public spirit--of the highest English moral and intellectual - culture. Though I had come to England several times before I met - her--some thirty years ago--I had not yet formed a true idea of - what that culture would be--though I had read of it in my uncle - Taine's _Notes on England_. It was a revelation, though I must say - I have never met one since with quite so complete a mental - equipment, and that showed quite to the same degree those wonderful - and, to others, beneficent qualities of radiant vitality, spirit - and generosity. (It seems that these words must recur again and - again when one speaks of her). She was one of those of whom a - nation may well be proud. - - "I remember our impression when her first great book came to us in - Paris. Here was the true successor of George Eliot; she continued - the great English tradition of insight into the spiritual world. - The events in her novels were those of the soul--how remote from - those which can be adapted from other writers' novels for the - cinema!--The main forces that drove the characters like Fate were - Ideas. She could _dramatise_ ideas. I do not know of any novelist - that gives one to the same degree the feeling that Ideas are living - forces, more enduring than men, and in a sense more real than - men--forces that move through them, taking hold of them and driving - them like an unseen, higher Power." - -On her tombstone we inscribed the lines of Clough, which she herself had -written on the last page of _Robert Elsmere_: - - Others, I doubt not, if not we, - The issue of our toils shall see, - And, they forgotten and unknown, - Young children gather as their own - The harvest that the dead had sown. - - - - -THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD - - -_Title._ _Date of Publication._ - -Milly and Olly, or A Holiday among the Mountains May, 1881 - -Miss Bretherton November, 1884 - -Amiel's Journal December, 1885 - -Robert Elsmere February, 1888 - -The History of David Grieve January, 1892 - -Marcella April, 1894 - -The Story of Bessie Costrell July, 1895 - -Sir George Tressady September, 1896 - -Helbeck of Bannisdale June, 1898 - -Eleanor November, 1900 - -Lady Rose's Daughter March, 1903 - -The Marriage of William Ashe February, 1905 - -Fenwick's Career May, 1906 - -The Testing of Diana Mallory September, 1908 - -Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode May, 1909 - -Canadian Born April, 1910 - -The Case of Richard Meynell October, 1911 - -The Mating of Lydia March, 1913 - -The Coryston Family October, 1913 - -Delia Blanchflower January, 1915 - -Eltham House October, 1915 - -A Great Success March, 1916 - -England's Effort June, 1916 - -Lady Connie November, 1916 - -Towards the Goal June, 1917 - -Missing October, 1917 - -A Writer's Recollections October, 1918 - -The War and Elizabeth November, 1918 - -Fields of Victory July, 1919 - -Cousin Philip November, 1919 - -Harvest April, 1920 - - - - -INDEX - - -Acton, Lord, 56, 98, 113 - -Adams, Henry, 211 - -Addis, W. E., 146 - -Amiel's _Journal Intime_, 42, 43, 46, 48-49 - -Anderson, General Sir Hastings, 298, 302 - -Anderson, Mary, 43 - -Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 273-275 - -Arnold, Eleanor (Viscountess Sandhurst), 247 - -Arnold, Miss Ethel, 38, 39, 229, 251 - -Arnold family, the, 6 - -Arnold, Frances (Fan), 6, 7, 10, 12, 212, 218, 223, 274, 304 - -Arnold, Dr. Francis Sorell, 287, 306 - -Arnold, Jane (Mrs. W. E. Forster), 4, 7, 9, 228 - -Arnold, Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), 38, 77, 98, 229, 253 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 252 - -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. F. W. Whitridge), 191, 209, 247 - -Arnold, Mary (Mrs. Hiley), 8 - -Arnold, Matthew, 3, 15, 28, 33, 38, 55, 57, 63, 151, 191 - -Arnold, Theodore, 6, 13 - -Arnold, Thomas, Headmaster of Rugby, 1, 3, 18, 210 - -Arnold, Thomas, the younger, 3-7, 13, 14, 15, 19, - 26, 27, 47, 95, 146, 173-174, 219 - -Arnold, Lieut. Thomas Sorell, 287 - -Arnold, William T., 6, 13, 38, 48, 53, 99, 170, 179-181 - -Arnold-Forster, Oakeley, 252 - -Arran, Earl of, 256 - -Arthur, Colonel, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 113, 230, 233, 235 - -Asser, General, 275 - - -Bagot, Capt. Josceline, 144 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James (Earl), 72 - -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald, 115 - -Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 243 - -Balzani, Count Ugo, 161, 252 - -Barberini, the Villa, 156-158, 161-162, 173 - -Barlow, Sir Thomas, 135 - -Barnes, Colonel, 276 - -Barnett, Canon Samuel, 85, 194 - -Bathurst, Lord, 2 - -Bayard, American Ambassador, 191 - -Bedford, Duke of, 120, 131, 183, 268 - -Bell, Capt., 284 - -Bell, Sir Hugh, 72, 188 _note_, 252 - -Bellasis, Sophie, 9 - -Benison, Miss Josephine, 173 - -Bentwich, Mrs., 289 - -_Bessie Costrell_, _the Story of_, 112, 114, 118 - -Birdwood, General, 298 - -Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine, 195-196 - -Boase, C. W., 32 - -Boissier, Lieut., R.N., 273-274 - -Bonaventura, the Villa, 181, 192, 262 - -Borough Farm, 45-47, 51, 52, 93, 132 - -Bourget, Paul, 168 - -Boutmy, Emile, 168 - -Bowie, Rev. W. Copeland, 81, 82, 88 - -Braithwaite, Miss Lilian, 178 - -Brewer, Cecil, 120-121 - -Bright, Mrs., 107 - -Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 15 - -Brontë, Charlotte, 165-168 - -Brontë, Emily, 166-168, 307 - -_Brontë Prefaces_, the, 165-169 - -Brooke, Stopford A., 80, 81, 83, 87, 153, 304 - -Browning, Pen, 262 - -Brunetière, F., 168 - -Bryce, Rt. Hon. James (Viscount), 207, 211, 214, 243 - -Buchan, Lt.-Col. John, 288 - -Burgwin, Mrs., 135, 141 - -Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 100, 102, 189, 304 - -Butcher, S. H., 30 _footnote_, 148 - -Buxton, Sydney (Earl), 115, 196 - - -Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 229, 230 - -_Canadian Born_, 222, 255 - -Carlisle, Earl of, 80, 81, 83 - -Carpenter, J. Estlin, D.D., 81, 87, 154 - -Cavan, General the Earl of, 280 - -Cavendish, Lady Frederick, 228 - -Cecil, Lord Edward, 267 - -Cecil, Lord Robert, 270-271 - -Chapman, Audrey, 127 - -Charteris, General, 282 - -Chavannes, Dr., 87 - -Chevrillon, André, 168-169, 252, 260, 266, 280, 282, 308 - -Children's Happy Evenings Association, 193, 196-197 - -Childs, W. D., 77 - -Chinda, Viscount, 281 - -Chirol, Sir Valentine, 252 - -Choate, Joseph, American Ambassador, 191, 280 - -Churcher, Miss Bessie, 118, 123, 135, 192, 195, 249, 272, 293, 306 - -Churchill, Lord Randolph, 212 - -Clarke, Father, 149-150 - -Clough, Miss Anne, 8 - -Clough, Arthur Hugh, 3, 10, 309 - -Coates, Mrs. Earle, 210 - -Cobb, Sir Cyril, 200 - -Cobbe, Frances Power, 81 - -Collard, Miss M.L., 141 - -Conybeare, Mrs. Edward, 66 - -_Coryston Family_, _The_, 263 - -_Cousin Philip_, 289-290 - -Crawshay, Mrs. Robert, 303 - -Creighton, Mandell, Bishop of London, 28, 44, 65, 79, 99, 148, 151, 174, 176 - -Creighton, Mrs., 29, 195, 225, 228, 240, 244, 248, 249, 252, 257, 259 - -Crewe, Marquess of, 143 - -Cromer, Earl of, 230, 234 - -Cropper, James, 51, 144, 176 - -Cropper, Miss Mary, 144, 145, 252 - -Cunliffe, Mrs., 12, 15 - -Cunliffe, Sir Robert, 71 - -Cunningham, Sir Henry, 111 - -Curtis, Henry, 183 - -Curzon of Kedleston, Marquess, 235, 243-244 - - -_Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode_, 222-223 - -_David Grieve_, _The History of_, 71, 79, 92, 95, 97-99, 255, 256 - -Davidson, Sir John, 301 - -Davies, Colonel, 276 - -Davies, Miss, 10-14 - -Davies, Miss Emily, 224 - -_Delia Blanchflower_, 239 - -Dell, Mrs., 108, 251, 254, 261 - -Denison, Col. George, 216 - -Denison, Sir William, Governor of Tasmania, 3 - -Dicey, Albert, 294 - -_Dictionary of Christian Biography_, _The_, 21, 31, 37, 49 - -_Diana Mallory_, _The Testing of_, 248 - -Dilke, Mrs. Ashton, 228 - -Drummond, James, D.D., 81 - -Dufferin and Ava, Marquis of, 160 - -Dugdale, Mrs. Alice, 70 - -Dunn, Miss Maud (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), 253 - - -Ehrle, Father, 171 - -_Eleanor_, 158-164, 173; - dramatisation of, 176-179 - -_England's Effort_, 265, 280-282, 297 - -Evans, Sanford, 218 - - -Fawcett, Mrs., 228, 233-235, 238, 244, 251 - -_Fenwick's Career_, 173, 204-205 - -Field, Capt., R.N., 273 - -Fields, Mrs. Annie, 105 _note_, 192, 213 - -_Fields of Victory_, 289, 300-301 - -Finlay, Lord, 243 - -Fisher, Rt. Hon. H. A. L., 197, 292-294 - -Foch, Marshal, 302 - -Forster, W. E., 4, 25, 40-41 - -Fowler, Capt., 284 - -Fox How, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 26, 247, 304 - -Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 263 - -Freeman, Edward, 21, 28 - -Frere, Miss Margaret, 237 - - -Garrett, Miss, 224 - -Gerecke, Fräulein, 11 - -Gilder, R.W., 191 - -Gladstone, William Ewart, 39, 48, 55-64, 71, 73, 110 - -Godkin, E. L., 191 - -Gordon, James Adam, 102 - -Goschen, George (Lord), 40, 304 - -Goschen, Mrs., 228 - -Gouraud, General, 299 - -Grayswood Hill, Mrs. Ward's house on, 78, 92-94, 103 - -Green, John Richard, 21, 25, 28 - -Green, Mrs. J. R., 87, 228 - -Green, Thomas Hill, 27, 28, 33, 51, 62, 63, 213 - -Green, Mrs. T. H., 30, 228, 252 - -Greene, General, 216 - -Grey, Earl, 207, 214-215, 219, 221-222 - -Grey, Sir Edward (Viscount), 102, 211, 270-271, 282 - -Grosvenor Place, No. 25, 113, 190-192, 304 - - -Haldane, R. B. (Lord), 99, 115, 200, 227, 252 - -Halévy, Elie, 169 - -Halsbury, Lord, 243 - -Halsey, Mrs., 291 - -Hampden House, 78-79 - -Harcourt, Mrs. Augustus Vernon, 30 - -Harcourt, Sir William, 171 - -Hargrove, Charles, 87 - -Harnack, Adolf, 265 - -Harrison, Frederic, 46, 225, 228-229, 260 - -_Harvest_, 289 - -Hay, American Ambassador, 191 - -Heberden, Principal, 281 - -_Helbeck of Bannisdale_, 143-151 - -Herbert, Bron (Lord Lucas), 148 - -Hobhouse, Charles, 234 - -Holland, E. G., 183, 185 - -Holmes, Edmond, 260 - -Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 77 - -Holt, Henry, 213 - -Horne, General Lord, 284, 287, 296, 298 - -Horne, Sir William van, 207, 214, 216-217 - -Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, 213 - -Hughes, Rev. Hugh Price, 123 - -Huxley, Aldous, 253 - -Huxley, Julian, 98, 99, 253, 290 - -Huxley, Leonard, 38 - -Huxley, Margaret, 253 - -Huxley, Prof. T. H., 38, 68, 79, 100 - -Huxley, Mrs. T. H., 228 - -Huxley, Trevenen, 253 - - -Inge, W. R., Dean of St. Paul's, 307 - - -James, Henry, 46, 112, 148, 161, 191, 252, 279 - -James, William, 192, 250, 257 - -James of Hereford, Lord, 230 - -Jellicoe, Sir John, 272 - -Jerram, Admiral Sir Thomas, 272-273 - -Jersey, Countess of, 170, 197 - -Jeune, Sir Francis, 109 - -Jewett, Miss Sarah Orne, 104-105, 192, 213 - -Johnson, A. H., 30, 252 - -Johnson, Mrs. A. H., 28, 29, 39, 70, 72, 78, 252 - -Jones, Mrs. Cadwalader, 208 - -Jones, Sir Robert, 294 - -Jowett, Benjamin, Master of Balliol, 18, 24, 28, 33, 48, 53, 99, 121 - -Jülicher, Dr. Adolf, 172 - -Julie, Soeur, 286 - -Jusserand, J. J., 169-170, 212, 300 - - -Keble, John, 17 - -Keen, Daniel, 247 - -Kemp, Anthony Fenn, 1 - -Kemp, Miss, 2 - -Kensit, John, 148 - -King, Mackenzie, 219 - -Kipling, Rudyard, 116-117, 124 - -Knight, Prof., 87 - -Kruger, President, 175 - -Knowles, James, 55, 73, 150, 225, 228 - - -_Lady Rose's Daughter_, 179, 187, 204 - -Lanciani, Senator Rodolfo, 161 - -Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 215 - -Lawrence, Hon. Maude, 139, 140, 193 - -Lemieux, M., 215 - -Leo XIII., Pope, 162, 216 - -Levens Hall, 144-148 - -Liddon, Canon H.P., 17, 19, 20 - -Lippincott, Bertram, 210 - -"Lizzie," Miss H. E. Smith, 190, 208, 249 - -Lloyd George, Rt. Hon. David, 271, 299 - -Loreburn, Lord, 243 - -Lowell, American Ambassador, 191, 304 - -_Lydia_, _the Mating of_, 261 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 39, 252 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Sir Neville, 109, 148, 174-175, 247 - -Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Neville (Lady), 109, 148, 175, 274 - -Lytton, Victor (Earl of), 148 - - -Maclaren, Lady, 233 - -McClure, S. S., 76, 191 - -McKee, Miss Ellen, 135, 234 - -McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, 196 - -Macmillan, Sir Frederick, 97 - -Macmillan, Messrs., 43, 50, 73 - -_Marcella_, 79, 97, 106-111, 189 - -Markham, Miss Violet, 233, 235 - -Martineau, James, D.D., 81-87, 154, 304 - -Masterman, C. F. G., 270 - -Maurice, C. E., 149 - -Maxse, Admiral, 267 - -Maxwell, Dr., 209-210 - -May, Miss, 13, 14, 16 - -Meredith, George, 143, 180-181, 266 - -Michel, André, 68 - -Midleton, Lord, 45, 47 - -Mill, John Stuart, 224 - -Milligan, Miss, 135, 141 - -_Milly and Olly_, 32 - -Milner, Viscount, 308 - -Mirman, M., 285 - -_Miss Bretherton_, 43, 44, 48, 255 - -_Missing_, 289 - -Mitchell, Dr. Weir, 210 - -Mivart, St. George, 149 - -Mollison, Miss, 220 - -Morley, John (Viscount), 37, 40-42, 46, 114, 149, 228, 229 - -Mudie's Library, 111 - -Müller, Mrs. Max, 228 - - -Neal, Mary, 123 - -Nettlefold, Frederick, 81 - -Newman, Cardinal, 13, 17, 19, 57 - -Nicholson, Sir Charles, 241 - -Nicolson, Sir Arthur, 270 - -Northbrook, Lord, 131, 304 - -Norton, Miss Sara, 192, 213 - - -Oakeley, Miss Hilda, 268 - -Odgers, Dr. Blake, 81 - -Onslow, Earl of, 282 - -Osborn, Fairfield, 210 _note_ - - -Page, Walter Hines, 298, 304 - -Palmer, Edwin, 20 - -Pankhurst, Mrs., 238 - -Paris, Gaston, 168 - -Parker, Sir Gilbert, 270 - -Pasolini, Contessa Maria, 188, 262 - -Passmore Edwards, J., 91, 120-121 - -Passmore Edwards Settlement, the, 90, 92, 119-122, - 130-131, 182-183, 186, 189, 219, 234, 268 - -Pater, Walter, 27, 42, 99 - -Pattison, Mark, Rector of Lincoln, 17, 19-21, 24, 28, 34, 51, 57 - -_Peasant in Literature_, _The_, 155, 210 - -Pease, Rt. Hon. J. (Lord Gainford), 292 - -Percival, Dr., Bishop of Hereford, 31 - -Pilcher, G. T., 132 - -Pinney, General, 277 - -Plumer, General Lord, 280 - -Plymouth, Earl of, 243 - -Ponsot, M., 285 - -Potter, Beatrice (Mrs. Sidney Webb), 87, 95, 115, 116, 228 - -Prothero, Sir George, 252 - -Pusey, Edward Bouverie, D.D., 32 - -Putnam, George Haven, 76 - - -Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, 284 - -Rawnsley, Rev. Canon H. D., 304 - -Renan, Ernest, 47, 168 - -Repplier, Miss Agnes, 210 - -Ribot, Alexandre, 168 - -_Richard Meynell_, _The Case of_, 90, 153, 173, 250, 257-261 - -Roberts, Earl, 175 - -Roberts, Capt. H. C., 277 - -_Robert Elsmere_, 33, 47, 49-54; - publication, 54-55; - Mr. Gladstone on, 55-64; - circulation of, 64; - _Quarterly_ article on, 72-73; - in America, 73-78, 255, 309 - -"Robin Ghyll," 205-206 - -Robins, Miss Elizabeth, 178 - -Robinson, Alfred, 88 - -Rodd, Sir Rennell, 288 _note_ - -Roosevelt, Theodore, 191, 211-212, 269-270, 286, 304 - -Root, Elihu, 211-212 - -Rosebery, Earl of, 114, 280 - -Rothschild, Lord, 112, 115 - -Ruelli, Padre, 160 - -Ruskin, John, 28 - -Russell, Lord Arthur, 40, 48 - -Russell, Dowager Countess, 81 - -Russell, George W. E., 55 - -Russell Square, No. 61, 35-36, 131, 191 - - -Salisbury, Marquis of, 225, 266 - -Sandwith, Humphry, 25 - -Sandwith, Lieut. Humphry, R.N., 273 - -Sandwith, Jane, wife of Henry Ward, 25 - -Samuel, Rt. Hon. Herbert, 199 - -Sandhurst, Viscount, 247 - -Savile, Lord, 161 - -Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - -Scherer, Edmond, 46, 48, 168 - -Schofield, Colonel, 276 - -Scott, McCallum, 235 - -Segrè, Carlo, 252 - -Selborne, Countess of, 301 - -Selby-Bigge, Sir Amherst, 292 - -Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs. Arthur Strong), 46, 70 - -Selwyn, Arthur, Christopher and George, 253, 287, 296 - -Selwyn, Rev. Dr. E. C., 252 - -Shakespeare, 47 - -Shaw, Bernard, 109 - -Shaw, Norman, 120 - -Shaw-Lefevre, Miss, 30 - -_Sir George Tressady_, 115-118, 127, 255 - -Smith, Dunbar, 120-121 - -Smith, George Murray, 50, 53, 96, 97, 107, 109, 112, 165-166, 176, 282 - -Smith, Goldwin, 216 - -Smith, Reginald J., 173, 176, 255, 256, 258, 262, 281-282 - -Smith, Walter, 211 - -Smith & Elder, publishers, 24, 165 - -Somerville Hall, foundation of, 30-31 - -Sorell, Julia, wife of Thomas Arnold, 1-4, 6, 8, 13, 16, 27, 53, 54, 208 - -Sorell, Colonel William, Governor of Tasmania, 2 - -Sorell, William, 2 - -Souvestre, Marie, 46, 291 - -Sparkes, Miss, 132 - -Spencer, Herbert, 180-181 - -Stanley, Arthur, Dean of Westminster, 18, 26 - -Stanley, Hon. Lyulph (Lord Sheffield), 72, 132, 134 - -Stanley of Alderley, Lady, 228 - -Stephen, Leslie, 189 - -Sterner, Albert, 173 - -"Stocks," 102, 103, 107-109, 113, 246-254, 297, 302-303, 306 - -Stubbs, William, Bp. of Oxford, 28 - -Sturgis, Julian, 177 - - -Taine, H., 24, 68-69, 168 - -Talbot, Edward, Warden of Keble and Bp. of Winchester, 48, 56, 65 - -Tatton, R. G., 121, 127, 128, 189 - -Taylor, James, 21 - -Tennant, Laura, 39, 46 - -Terry, Miss Marion, 178 - -Thayer, W. R., 77 - -Thursfield, J. R., 38, 71, 102 - -Torre Alfina, Marchese di, 162 - -_Towards the Goal_, 285-286 - -Townsend, Mrs., 133 - -Toynbee, Mrs. Arnold, 228 - -Trench, Alfred Chevenix, 181 - -Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 151, 181-182, 296 - -Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, 181, 214 - -Trevelyan, Humphry, 253, 297 - -Trevelyan, Mary, 253-254, 297 - -Trevelyan, Theodore Macaulay, 253-255 - -Tyrrell, Father, 250, 257 - -Tyrwhitt, Commodore, 286 - - -_Unitarians and the Future_, 155 - - -Voysey, Charles, 33 - - -Wace, Henry, Dean of Canterbury, 21, 31, 32 - -Wade, F. C., 219 - -Walkley, A. B., 178 - -Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 252 - -Wallas, Graham, 87, 109, 115, 132, 134, 141 - -Walter, John, 35 - -_War and Elizabeth_, _The_, 289-290 - -Ward, Miss Agnes (Mrs. Turner), 227 - -Ward, Dorothy Mary, 29, 205-206, 208-209, 211, - 214-215, 249, 275-280, 283-285, 289, 299, 301, 306-307 - -Ward, Miss Gertrude, 43, 126, 230 - -Ward, Rev. Henry, 25 - -Ward, Thomas Humphry, 20, 25, 35, 105, 112, 207-209, 215, 247, 248, 306, 308 - -Warner, Charles Dudley, 191 - -Weardale, Lord, 243 - -Wells, H. G., 214 - -Wemyss, The Countess of, 71-72, 189 - -Wharton, Mrs., 192, 263 - -Whitridge, Arnold, 296 - -Whitridge, Frederick W., 191, 207-208, 247, 281 - -Wicksteed, Philip, 85, 87, 88, 90 - -Wilkin, Charles, 289 - -_William Ashe_, _The Marriage of_, 173, 179, 187, 204 - -Williams, Charles, 127 - -Williams-Freeman, Miss, 251 - -Wilson, President, 281, 300 - -Wolfe, General James, 221 - -Wolff, Dr. Julius, 43, 107 - -Wolseley, Lord, 46 - -Wood, Rev. Canon H. T., 307 - -Wood, Col. William, 221 - -Wordsworth, Gordon, 304 - -Wordsworth, John, Bp. of Salisbury, 33 - -_Writer's Recollections_, _A_, 27, 31, 189, 290-291 - - -Yonge, Miss Charlotte, 25 - - -Zangwill, Israel, 233 - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner, Ltd., _Frome and London_ - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by etext transcriber: - -reliques chez son évèque=>reliques chez son évêque - -The matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticous=>The -matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticious - -Yours Obiediently=>Yours Obediently - -extents over 400 pages=>extends over 400 pages - -présente ça et là la nature=>présente çà et là la nature - -as a thankoffering=>as a thank-offering - -agitatiion and violence=>agitation and violence - -Opposing Woman Suffrage=>Opposing Women's Suffrage {243} - -Dix-huitième Siécle=>Dix-huitième Siècle - -processs of making=>process of making - -War conditions themsleves that convinced=>War conditions themselves that -convinced {291} - -women are and and have long been at home=>women are and have long been -at home - -Schaffer, Mrs., 220=>Schäffer, Mrs., 220 - - * * * * * - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The following is a letter written long afterwards by Tom Arnold to -his sister Fan, with reference to Clough: "I loved him, oh! so well: and -also respected him more profoundly than any man, anywhere near my own -age, whom I ever met. His pure soul was without stain: he seemed -incapable of being inflamed by wrath, or tempted to vice, or enslaved by -any unworthy passion of any sort. As to 'Philip' something that he saw -in me helped to suggest the character, that was all. There is much in -Philip that is Clough himself and there is a dialectic force in him that -certainly was never in me." - -_December 21, 1895._ - - -[2] "School-days with Miss Clough." By T. C. Down. _Cornhill_, June, -1920. - -[3] According to the universal understanding of those days, in the case -of a mixed marriage the boys followed the father's faith and the girls -the mother's. Tom Arnold's boys were, therefore, brought up as Catholics -until their father's reversion to Anglicanism in 1864. - -[4] _Passages in a Wandering Life_ (T. Arnold), p. 185. - -[5] Jowett to Lewis Campbell, June, 1871. - -[6] Privately printed. - -[7] _Life and Letters of H. Taine._ Trans. by E. Sparrel-Bayly, Vol. -III, p. 58. - -[8] He called her "the greatest and best person I have ever met, or -shall ever meet, in this world."--_Letters of J. R. Green._ Ed. Leslie -Stephen, p. 284. - -[9] After the foundation of Somerville Hall Mrs. Ward was succeeded in -the Secretaryship by Mrs. T. H. Green and Mr. Henry Butcher. - -[10] Now Mrs. Arthur Strong, Assistant Director of the British School at -Rome. - -[11] The Editor of the _Spectator_. - -[12] This conversation has already appeared once in print, as an -Appendix to the Westmorland Edition of _Robert Elsmere_. - -[13] Mrs. T. H. Green; Mrs. Creighton; Mrs. A. H. Johnson; Miss Pater. - -[14] "The New Reformation," _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1889. - -[15] On February 3, 1890. - -[16] Afterwards embodied in her book, _Town Life in the Fifteenth -Century_. - -[17] _Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett_, edited by Annie Fields, p. 95. - -[18] See p. 91. - -[19] Introduction to _Helbeck of Bannisdale_, Autograph Edition, -Houghton Mifflin & Co. - -[20] Introduction to the Autograph Edition. - -[21] Mr. Cropper's brother had married Susan Arnold, sister of Tom. - -[22] He died in April, 1904. - -[23] _Eleanor_ was finally played with the following cast: - - Edward Manisty Mr. CHARLES QUARTERMAINE - Father Benecke Mr. STEPHEN POWYS - Reggie Brooklyn Mr. LESLIE FABER - Alfredo Mr. VICTOR BRIDGES - Lucy Foster Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE - Madame Variani Miss ROSINA FILIPPI - Alice Manisty Miss ELIZABETH ROBINS - Marie Miss MABEL ARCHDALL - Dalgetty Miss BEATRIX DE BURGH - and - Eleanor Burgoyne Miss MARION TERRY - - -[24] See the _Memoir of W. T. Arnold_, by Mrs. Ward and C. E. Montague. - -[25] From _The Associate_, the quarterly magazine of the Passmore -Edwards Settlement, for October, 1902. - -[26] Sir Hugh Bell at the unveiling of the memorial to Mrs. Ward at the -Mary Ward Settlement, July, 1922. - -[27] In 1907 the City Education Authority of New York had no less than -100 school playgrounds equipped and opened under its own supervision. - -[28] Mr. Fairfield Osborn. - -[29] Mrs. Ward had spent a morning in the Parliamentary Library with Mr. -Martin, the librarian, delighting in his detailed knowledge of Canadian -history. - -[30] Mr. Woodall's. - -[31] Mr. Harrison also deprecated the formation of a definite League. -"It is to do the very thing that we are protesting against," he wrote, -"which is to accustom women to the mechanical artifices of political -agitation." - -[32] Now the National Council of Women. - -[33] _What Is and What Might Be._ By Edmond Holmes. - -[34] Henry James had become a naturalized British subject in July, 1915. - -[35] - - My doom hath come upon me, and would to God that I - Had felt my hand in thy dear hand on the day I had to die. - - Sir Rennell Rodd's translation, in - _Love, Worship and Death_. - - -[36] Col. John Buchan, Director of the Ministry of Information, wrote to -her in December 1918, as follows: - -MY DEAR MRS. WARD, - -As the Ministry of Information ceases its operations on Dec. 31st, I am -taking this opportunity of writing to express to you, on behalf of the -Ministry, our very cordial gratitude for the help which you have given -so generously. It would have been almost impossible to essay the great -task of enlightening foreign countries as to the justice of the Allied -cause and the magnitude of the British effort without the co-operation -of our leading writers, and we have been most fortunate in receiving -that co-operation in full and ungrudged measure. To you in particular we -are indebted for generous concessions with regard to the use of your -books and writings, and I beg that you will accept this message of -gratitude from myself and from the other members of the Staff. - -[37] _Evening Play Centres for Children_, by Janet Penrose Trevelyan. -Methuen & Co. - -[38] See p. 241. - -[39] Sir Robert Jones, F.R.C.S., Chairman of the Central Committee for -the care of Cripples, wrote to Miss Ward after her mother's death: "One -of the last pieces of work accomplished by Mrs. Ward for cripples was -the insertion of the P.D. clause in the Fisher Education Act, and the -reports obtained for that purpose are largely the groundwork and origin -of this Committee, in whose work she took a deep interest." - -[40] On October 23, 1919. - -[41] Now named, after its founder, the Mary Ward Settlement. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by -Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. 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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/license - - -Title: The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward - -Author: Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -Release Date: July 24, 2012 [EBook #40319] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif, University of Michigan Libraries -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="399" height="550" alt="" title="" /> -</p> - -<h1><small>THE LIFE OF</small><br /> -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD</h1> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_frontispiece_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_frontispiece_sml.jpg" width="299" height="346" alt="MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE" title="MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MARY WARD AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE<br /> -FROM A WATER-COLOUR PAINTING BY MRS A. H. JOHNSON</span></p> - -<h1><small>THE LIFE OF</small><br /> -MRS. HUMPHRY WARD</h1> - -<p class="cb">BY HER DAUGHTER<br /> -<big>JANET PENROSE TREVELYAN</big><br /> -Author of<br /> -“A Short History of the Italian People”<br /> -<br /><br /><br /><br /> -NEW YORK<br /> -DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY<br /> -1923</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p class="c"> -<small><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> Butler & Tanner Ltd., <i>Frome and London</i></small></p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<p class="c"> -TO<br /> -DOROTHY MARY WARD</p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<h2><a name="AUTHORS_NOTE" id="AUTHORS_NOTE"></a>AUTHOR’S NOTE</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">M</span>Y warmest thanks are due to the many friends who have helped me, -directly or indirectly, in the writing of this book, but especially to -all those who have sent me the letters they possessed from Mrs. Ward, or -who have given me leave to publish their own. Mr. Henry Gladstone kindly -looked out for me the letters written by Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone -during the <i>Robert Elsmere</i> period; Mrs. Creighton did the same for the -long period covered by Mrs. Ward’s correspondence with the Bishop and -with herself; Miss Arnold of Fox How sent me many valuable letters -belonging to the later years. So with Mrs. A. H. Johnson, Mrs. -Conybeare, Mrs. R. Vere O’Brien, Sir Robert Blair, Mr. Leonard Huxley, -Mrs. Reginald Smith, Lord Buxton, M. Chevrillon, Miss McKee, Mrs. -Turner, Miss Gertrude Wood, and many others, and although the letters -may not in all cases have been suitable for publication, they have given -me many valuable side-lights on Mrs. Ward’s life and work.</p> - -<p>To Mrs. A. H. Johnson my special thanks are due for permission to -reproduce her water-colour portrait of Mrs. Ward, and to Mrs. T. H. -Green for much help in connexion with the Oxford portion of the book.</p> - -<p>No book at all, however, could have been produced, even from the -material so generously placed at my disposal, had it not been for the -constant collaboration of my father and sister, whose help in sifting -great masses of papers and in advising me in all difficulties has been -my greatest support throughout this task.</p> - -<p class="r">J. P. T.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang"> -B<small>ERKHAMSTEAD</small>,<br /> -<i>July, 1923</i>.</p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="max-width:65%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"> - -<tr><td align="right" colspan="2"><small>PAGES</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHILDHOOD</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mary Arnold’s Parentage—The Sorells—Thomas Arnold the -Younger—Marriage in Tasmania with Julia Sorell—Conversion -to Roman Catholicism—Return to England—The -Arnold Family—Mary Arnold’s Childhood—Schools—Her -Father’s Re-conversion—Removal to Oxford</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_001">1-16</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LIFE AT OXFORD, 1867-1881</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Oxford in the ‘Sixties—Mark Pattison and Canon Liddon—Mary -Arnold and the Bodleian—First Attempts at Writing—Marriage -with Mr. T. Humphry Ward—Thomas Arnold’s -Second Conversion—Oxford Friends—The Education of -Women—Foundation of Somerville Hall—<i>The Dictionary -of Christian Biography</i>—Pamphlet on “Unbelief and Sin”</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_017">17-34</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">EARLY YEARS IN LONDON—THE WRITING OF <i>ROBERT -ELSMERE</i>, 1881-1888</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mr. Ward takes work on <i>The Times</i>—Removal to London—The -House in Russell Square—London Life and Friends—Work -for John Morley—Letters—Writer’s Cramp—<i>Miss -Bretherton</i>—Borough Farm—Amiel’s <i>Journal Intime</i>—Beginnings -of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>—Long Struggle with the -Writing—Its Appearance, February 24, 1888—Death of -Mrs. Arnold</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_035">35-54</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><i>ROBERT ELSMERE</i> AND AFTER, 1888-1889</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Reviews—Mr. Gladstone’s Interest—His Interview with Mrs. -Ward at Oxford—Their Correspondence—Article in the -<i>Nineteenth Century</i>—Circulation of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>—Letters—Visit -to Hawarden—<i>Quarterly</i> Article—The Book -in America—“Pirate” Publishers—Letters—Mrs. Ward -at Hampden House—Schemes for a <i>New Brotherhood</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_055">55-80</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">UNIVERSITY HALL, <i>DAVID GRIEVE</i> AND “STOCKS,” 1889-1892</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Foundation of University Hall—Mr. Wicksteed as Warden—The -Opening—Lectures—Social Work at Marchmont Hall—Growing -Importance of the Latter—Mr. Passmore -Edwards Promises Help—Our House on Grayswood Hill—Sunday -Readings—The Writing of <i>David Grieve</i>—Visit -to Italy—Reception of the Book—Letters—Removal to -“Stocks”</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_081">81-103</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH—<i>MARCELLA</i> AND <i>SIR -GEORGE TRESSADY</i>—THE BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE -EDWARDS SETTLEMENT, 1892-1897</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward much Crippled by Illness—The Writing of <i>Marcella</i>—Stocks -Cottage—Reception of the Book—Quarrel with -the Libraries—<i>The Story of Bessie Costrell</i>—Friends at -Stocks—Letter from John Morley—<i>Sir George Tressady</i>—Letters -from Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Rudyard Kipling—Renewed -attacks of Illness—The Building and Opening -of the Passmore Edwards Settlement</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_104">104-122</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT—THE -FOUNDATION OF THE INVALID CHILDREN’S -SCHOOL, 1897-1899</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Beginnings of the Work for Children—The Recreation School—The -Work for Adults—Finance—Mrs. Ward’s interest -in Crippled Children—Plans for Organizing a School—She -obtains the help of the London School Board—Opening -of the Settlement School—The Children’s Dinners—Extension -of the Work—Mrs. Ward’s Inquiry and Report—Further -Schools opened by the School Board—After-care—Mrs. -Ward and the Children</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_123">123-142</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><i>HELBECK OF BANNISDALE</i>—CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS—<i>ELEANOR</i> -AND THE VILLA BARBERINI, 1896-1900</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Origins of <i>Helbeck</i>—Mrs. Ward at Levens Hall—Her Views on -Roman Catholicism—Creighton and Henry James—Reception -of <i>Helbeck</i>—Letter to Creighton—Mrs. Ward -and the Unitarians—Origins of <i>Eleanor</i>—Mrs. Ward takes -the Villa Barberini—Life at the Villa—Nemi—Her Feeling -for Italy</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_143">143-164</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT—FRENCH AND -ITALIAN FRIENDS—THE SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL, -1899-1904</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward and the Brontës—George Smith and Charlotte—The -Prefaces to the Brontë Novels—André Chevrillon—M. -Jusserand—Mrs. Ward in Italy and Paris—The Translation -of Jülicher—Death of Thomas Arnold—The South -African War—Death of Bishop Creighton and George -Smith—Dramatization of <i>Eleanor</i>—William Arnold—Mrs. -Ward and George Meredith—The Marriage of her -Daughter—The Vacation School at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_165">165-186</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LONDON LIFE—THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE -CHILDREN’S PLAY CENTRES, 1904-1917</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward’s Social Life—Her Physical Delicacy—Power of -Work—American Friends—F. W. Whitridge—Plans for -Extending Recreation Schools for Children to other Districts—Opening -of the first “Evening Play Centres”—The -“Mary Ward Clause”—Negotiations with the London -County Council—Efforts to raise Funds—No help from the -Government till 1917—Two more Vacation Schools—Organized -Playgrounds—<i>Fenwick’s Career</i>—“Robin -Ghyll”</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_187">187-206</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 1908</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Invitations to visit America—Mr. and Mrs. Ward and Dorothy -sail in March, 1908—New York—Philadelphia—Washington—Mr. -Roosevelt—Boston—Canada—Lord Grey and -Sir William van Horne—Mrs. Ward at Ottawa—Toronto—Her -Journey West—Vancouver—The Rockies—Lord -Grey and Wolfe—<i>Canadian Born</i> and <i>Daphne</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_207">207-223</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Early Feeling against Women’s Suffrage—The “Protest” in -the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>—Advent of the Suffragettes—Foundation -of the Anti-Suffrage League—Women in Local -Government—Speeches against the Suffrage—Debate with -Mrs. Fawcett—Deputations to Mr. Asquith—The “Conciliation -Bill”—The Government Franchise Bill—Withdrawal -of the Latter—<i>Delia Blanchflower</i>—The -“Joint Advisory Committee”—Women’s Suffrage passed -by the House of Commons, 1917—Struggle in the House of -Lords—Lord Curzon’s Speech</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_224">224-245</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914—<i>THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL</i>—THE -OUTBREAK OF WAR</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Rebuilding of Stocks—Mrs. Ward’s Love for the Place—Her -Way of Life and Work—Greek Literature—Politics—The -General Elections of 1910—Visitors—Nephews and Nieces—Grandchildren—Death -of Theodore Trevelyan—The -“Westmorland Edition”—Sense of Humour—<i>The Case -of Richard Meynell</i>—Letters—Last Visit to Italy—<i>The -Coryston Family</i>—The Outbreak of War</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_246">246-263</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">THE WAR, 1914-1917—MRS. WARD’S FIRST TWO -JOURNEYS TO FRANCE</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward’s feeling about Germany—Letter to André -Chevrillon—Re-organization of the Passmore Edwards -Settlement—President Roosevelt’s Letter—Talk with Sir -Edward Grey—Visits to Munition Centres—To the Fleet—To -France—Mrs. Ward near Neuve Chapelle and on the -Scherpenberg Hill—Return Home—<i>England’s Effort</i>—Death -of F. W. Whitridge and of Reginald Smith—Second -Journey to France, 1917—The Bois de Bouvigny—The -Battle-field of the Ourcq—Lorraine—<i>Towards the Goal</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_264">264-287</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">LAST YEARS: 1917-1920</td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward at Stocks—Her <i>Recollections</i>—The Government -Grant for Play Centres—The Cripples Clause in Mr. Fisher’s -Education Act—The War in 1918—Italy—The Armistice—Mrs. -Ward’s third journey to France—Visit to British -Headquarters—Strasburg, Verdun and Rheims—Paris—Ill-health—The -Writing of <i>Fields of Victory</i>—The last -Summer at Stocks—Mrs. Ward and the “Enabling Bill”—Breakdown -in Health—Removal to London—Mr. -Ward’s Operation—Her Death</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_288">288-309</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td align="right" colspan="2"><small>TO FACE<br /> -PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mary Ward at Twenty-five. From a water-colour painting by -Mrs. A. H. Johnson</td><td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Borough Farm. From a water-colour painting by Mrs. -Humphry Ward</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_045">45</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward in 1889. From a photograph by Bassano</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_082">82</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward in 1898. From a photograph by Miss Ethel M. -Arnold</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_149">149</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward and Henry James at Stocks. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_252">252</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td>Mrs. Ward beside the Lake of Lucerne. From a photograph -by Miss Dorothy Ward</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_262">262</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /><br /> -CHILDHOOD<br /><br /> -1851-1867</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>S the study of heredity a science or a pure romance? For the unlearned -at least I like to think it is the latter, since no law that the -Professors ever formulated can explain the caprices of each little human -soul, bobbing up like a coracle over life’s horizon and bringing with it -things gathered at random from an infinitely remote and varying -ancestry. It is, I believe, generally known that the subject of this -biography was a granddaughter of Arnold of Rugby, and therewith her -intellectual ability and the force of her character are thought to be -sufficiently explained. But what of her mother, the beautiful Julia -Sorell, of whom her sad husband said at her death that she had “the -nature of a queen,” ever thwarted and rebuffed by circumstance? What of -the strain of Spanish Protestant blood that ran in the veins of the -Sorells: for although they were refugees from France after the Edict of -Nantes, it is most probable that they came of Spanish origin? What of -the strain brought in by the wild and forcible Kemps of Mount Vernon in -Tasmania? A daughter of Anthony Fenn Kemp (himself a “character” of a -remarkable kind) married William Sorell and so became the mother of -Julia and the grandmother of Mary Arnold; but the principal fact that is -known of her is that she deserted her three daughters after bringing -them to England for their education, went off with an army officer and -was hardly heard of more. An ungovernable temper seems to have marked -most of this family, and the recollections of her childhood were so -terrible to Julia Sorell that she wrote in after years to her husband, -“Few families have been blessed with such a home training as yours, and -certainly<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> very few in our rank of life have been cursed with such as -mine.” Yet although Julia inherited much of this violence and passion, -to her own constant misery, she had also “the nature of a queen,” and -transmitted it in no small degree to her daughter Mary.</p> - -<p>The Sorells were descended from Colonel William Sorell, one of the early -Governors of Tasmania, who had been appointed to the post in 1816. Nine -years before, on his appointment as Adjutant-General at the Cape of Good -Hope, this Colonel Sorell had left behind him in England a woman to whom -he was legally married and by whom he had had several children, but whom -he never saw again after leaving these shores. He occupied himself, -indeed, with another lady, while the unfortunate wife at home struggled -to maintain his children on the very inadequate allowance which he had -granted her. Twice the allowance lapsed, with calamitous results for the -wife and children, and it was only on the active intervention of Lord -Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the payment -of her quarterly instalments was resumed in 1818. Meanwhile, her eldest -son William, a steady, hard-working lad, had been trying to support the -family from his own earnings of 12s. a week, and when he grew to man’s -estate he applied to Lord Bathurst for permission to join his father in -Van Diemen’s Land, hoping that so he might help to reconcile his -parents. Lord Bathurst gave him his passage out, but had in fact already -decided to recall Governor Sorell, so that when young Sorell arrived at -Hobart Town early in 1824 he found his father only awaiting the arrival -of his successor (the well-known Colonel Arthur), before quitting the -Colony for good. William, however, decided to remain there, accepted the -position of Registrar of Deeds from Colonel Arthur, and made his -permanent home in the island. He married the head-strong Miss Kemp, and -in his sad after-life suffered a reversal of the parts played by his own -father and mother. Long after his wife had deserted him he lived on in -Hobart Town, much respected and beloved, and remembered by his -granddaughter as a “gentle, affectionate, upright being, a gentleman of -an old, punctilious school, content with a small sphere and much loved -within it.”</p> - -<p>His daughter Julia grew up as the favourite and pet of Hobart Town -society, much admired by the subalterns of<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> the solitary battalion of -British troops that maintained our prestige among the convicts and the -“blacks” of that remote settlement. But for her Fate held other things -in store. Early in 1850 there appeared at Hobart Town a young man of -twenty-six, tall and romantic-looking, who bore a name well known even -in the southern seas—the name of Thomas Arnold. He was the second son -of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. He had left the Old World for the Newest three -years before on a genuine quest for the ideal life; had tried farming in -New Zealand, but in vain, and had then, after some adventures in -schoolmastering, come to Tasmania at the invitation of the Governor, Sir -William Denison, to organize the public education of the Colony. Fortune -seemed to smile upon the young Inspector of Schools, who as a -first-classman and an Arnold found a kind and ready welcome from those -who reigned in Tasmania, and when he met Julia Sorell a few weeks after -he landed and fell in love with her at first sight, no obstacles were -placed in his way. They were married on June 12, 1850—a love-match if -ever there was one, but a match that was too soon to be subjected to -that most fiery test of all, a religious struggle of the deepest and -most formidable kind.</p> - -<p>Thomas Arnold came of a family to whom religion was always a “concern,” -as the Quakers call it; whether it was the great Doctor, with his making -of “Christian gentlemen” at Rugby and his fierce polemics against the -“Oxford malignants,” or Matt, with his “Power, not ourselves, that makes -for righteousness,” or William (a younger brother), with his religious -novel, <i>Oakfield</i>, about the temptations of Indian Army life; and Thomas -was by no means exempt from the tradition. A sentimental idealist by -nature, he was a friend of Clough and had already been immortalized as -“Philip” in the <i>Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> He came<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> now to the -Antipodes in rationalistic mood and in search of the nobler, freer life; -but soon the old beliefs reasserted themselves, yet brought no peace. -His mind was “hot for certainties in this our life,” and he had not been -five years in Tasmania before he was seeing much of a certain Catholic -priest and feeling himself strongly drawn towards the ancient fold. His -poor wife, in whom her Huguenot ancestry had bred an instinctive and -invincible loathing for Catholicism, felt herself overtaken by a kind of -black doom; she made wild threats of leaving him, she shuddered at the -thought of what might happen to the children. Yet nothing that she or -any of his friends could say might avert the fatal step. Tom Arnold was -received into the Roman Catholic Church at Hobart Town on January 12, -1856.</p> - -<p>His prospects immediately darkened, for feeling ran high in the Colony -against Popery, and it soon became clear that he must give up his -appointment and return to England. Already three children had been born -to him and Julia, but the young wife was now plunged in preparations for -the uprooting of her household and the transport of the whole family -across the globe, to an unknown future and a world of unknown faces. The -voyage was accomplished in a sailing-ship of 400 tons, the <i>William -Brown</i>, so overrun by rats that the mother and nurse had to take turns -to watch over the children at night, lest their faces should be bitten; -but after more than three months of this existence the ship did finally -reach English waters and cast anchor in the Thames on October 17, 1856. -It was wet autumn weather and the little family huddled forlornly in a -small inn in Thames Street, but the next day a deliverer appeared in the -person of William Forster (the future Education Minister), who had -married Tom’s eldest sister Jane a few years before and who now carried -off the whole family to better quarters in London, helped them in the -kindest way and finally saw off the mother and children to the friendly -shelter of Fox How—that beloved home among the Westmorland hills which -“the Doctor” had built to house his growing family and which was now to -play so great a part in the development of his latest descendant, the -little Mary Arnold.</p> - -<p>Mary Augusta had been born at Hobart Town on June 11, 1851. She was, of -course, the apple of her parents’ eyes,<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> and the descriptions which her -father wrote of her, in the long letters that went home to his mother at -Fox How by every available boat, give a curiously vivid picture of a -little creature richly endowed with fairy gifts, but above all with the -crowning gift of <i>life</i>. At first she is a “pretty little creature, with -a compact little face, good features and an uncommonly large forehead”; -then at eight months, “If you could but see our darling Mary! The vigour -of life, the animation, the activity of eye and hand that she displays -are astonishing. Her brown hair in its abundance is the admiration of -everybody.” At a year old she is “passionate but not peevish, sensitive -to the least harshness in word or gesture, but usually full of merriment -and gladsomeness. She is like a sparkling fountain or a gay flower in -the house, filling it with light and freshness.” She has many childish -ailments, but conquers them all in a manner strangely prophetic of her -later power of resisting illness. “I fear you will think she must be a -very sickly child,” writes her father, “and she certainly is delicate -and easily put out of order; but I have much faith in the strength of -her constitution, for in all her ailments she has seemed to have a power -of battling against them, a vitality that pulls her through.” As a -little thing of under two her feelings are terribly easily worked upon: -“The other evening it was raining very hard and I began to talk to her -about the poor people out in the rain who were getting wet and had no -warm fire to sit by and no nice dry clothes to put on. You cannot -imagine how this touched her. She kept on repeating over and over again, -‘Poor people! Poor people! Out in the rain! Get warm! get warm!’” But as -she grows bigger she develops a will of her own that sorely troubles her -father, beset with all the ideas of his generation about “prompt -obedience”; at three and a half he writes: “Little Polly is as imitative -as a monkey and as mischievous; self-willed and resolute to take the -lead and have her own way, whenever her companions are anything -approaching to her own age. Not a very easy character to manage as you -will see, yet often to be led through her feelings, when it would be -difficult to drive her in defiance of her will.” Soon he is having “a -regular pitched battle with her about once a day,” and writes ruefully -home—as though he were having the worst of it—<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a>that Polly is “kind -enough where she can patronize, but her domineering spirit makes even -her kindness partake of oppression.” Two little brothers, Willie and -Theodore, had already been added to the family by the time they made the -voyage home—playthings whom Mary alternately slapped and cuddled and in -whom she took an immense pride of possession. They were the first of a -long series of brothers and sisters to whom her kindness, in after -years, was certainly not of the kind that “partakes of oppression.”</p> - -<p>Thus, at the age of five, this little spirit, passionate, self-willed -and tender-hearted, came within the direct orbit of the Arnold family. -During most of the four years that followed their arrival she was either -staying with her grandmother, the Doctor’s widow, at Fox How, or else -living as a boarder at Miss Clough’s little school at Eller How, near -Ambleside, and spending her Saturdays at Fox How. Her father meanwhile -took work under Newman in Dublin and earned a precarious subsistence for -his wife and family by teaching at the Catholic University there. They -were times of hardship and privation for Julia, who never ceased to be -in love with Tom and never ceased to curse the day of his conversion; -and as the babies increased and the income did not she was fain to allow -her eldest daughter to live more and more with the kind grandmother, who -asked no better than to have the child about the house. And, indeed, to -have this particular child about the house was not always a light -undertaking! She was wonderfully quick, clever and affectionate, but her -tempers sometimes shook her to pieces in storms of passion, and the -devoted “Aunt Fan,” the Doctor’s youngest daughter, who lived with her -mother at Fox How, was often sorely puzzled how to deal with her. Still, -by a judicious mixture of severity and tenderness she won the child’s -affection, so that Mary was wont to say, looking slyly at her aunt, “I -like Aunt Fan—she’s the master of me!”</p> - -<p>The Arnold atmosphere made indeed a very remarkable influence for any -impressionable child of Mary’s age to live in; it supplied a deep-rooted -sense of calm and balance, an unalterable family affection and a sad -disapproval of tempers and excesses of all kinds which, as time went on, -had a marked effect on the Tasmanian child. From a Sorell by birth and -temperament, as I believe she was, she<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> gradually became an Arnold by -environment. If she inherited from her mother those wilder springs of -energy and courage which impelled her, like some dæmon within, to be up -and doing in life’s race, it was from the Arnolds that she learnt the -art of living, the art of harnessing the dæmon. They certainly made a -memorable group, the nine sons and daughters of Arnold of Rugby: all of -whom, except Fan, the youngest daughter, were scattered from the nest by -the time that “little Polly” came to Fox How, but all of whom maintained -for each other and for their mother the tenderest affection, so that -life at the Westmorland home was continually crossed and re-crossed by -their visits and their letters. In looking through these faded letters -the reader of to-day is struck by their seriousness and simplicity of -tone, by the intense family affection they display and by the very real -relation in which the writers stood towards the “indwelling presence of -God.” Hardly a member of the family can be mentioned without the prefix -“dear” or “dearest,” nor can anyone who is acquainted with the Arnold -temperament doubt that this was genuine. Birthdays are made the occasion -for rather solemn words of love or exhortation, and if any sorrow -strikes the family one may expect without fail to find a complete -reliance on the accustomed sources of consolation. Yet they are not -prigs, these brothers and sisters; their roots strike deep down to the -bed-rock of life, and though they are all (except poor Tom) in fairly -prosperous circumstances, they can be generous and open-handed to those -who are less so. Tom was, I think, the special darling of the family, -and his lapse to Catholicism a terrible trial to them, but none the less -did they labour for Tom’s children in all simplicity of heart.</p> - -<p>The daughter who, next to “Aunt Fan,” had most to do with little Mary -was Jane, the wife of William Forster; Mary was her godchild, and soon -conceived a kind of passion for this sweet-faced woman of thirty-five, -who, childless herself, returned the little girl’s affection in no -ordinary degree. Mary would sometimes go to stay with her at -Burley-in-Wharfedale, where she looked with awe at the “great wheels” in -Uncle Forster’s woollen mill and saw the children working -there—children untouched as yet by their master’s schemes for their -welfare, or by the still<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> remoter visions of their small observer. Then -there was Matt—Matt the sad poet and gay man of the world, who brought -with him on his rarer visits to Fox How the breath of London and of -great affairs, for was he not, in his sisters’ eyes at least, the spoilt -darling of society, the diner-out, the frequenter of great houses? He -looked, we know, with unusual interest upon Tom’s Polly, and in later -years was wont to say, with his whimsical smile, that she “got her -ability from her mother.” Another aunt to whom the Tasmanian child -became much devoted was her namesake Mary, at that time Mrs. Hiley, a -woman whose rich, responsive nature and keen sense of humour endeared -her greatly to the few friends who knew her well, and whose early -rebellions and idealisms had given her a most human personality. It was -she among all the group who understood and sympathized most keenly with -Tom’s wife, so that between Julia and Mary Hiley a bond was forged that -ended only with the former’s death. Poor Julia! The Arnold atmosphere -was indeed sometimes a formidable one, and had little sympathy to give -to her own undisciplined and tempestuous nature, with its strange deeps -of feeling. Julia’s temptations—to extravagance in money matters and to -passionate outbursts of temper—were not Arnold temptations, and she -often felt herself disapproved of in spite of much outward affection and -kindness. And then she would have morbid reactions in which the old -Calvinistic hell-fire of her forefathers seemed very near. Once when she -was staying at Fox How, ill and depressed, she wrote to her husband: -“The feeling grows upon me that I am one of those unhappy people whom -<i>God has abandoned</i>, and it is the effect of this feeling I am sure -which causes me to behave as I often do. Oh! it is an awful thing to -<i>despair</i> about one’s future state....” Probably she felt that in spite -of their undoubted humility, her in-laws never quite despaired about -theirs.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>By the time that Mary was seven years old, that is in the autumn of -1858, it was decided that she should go as a boarder to Miss Anne -Clough’s school at Ambleside, or rather at Eller How on the slopes of -Wansfell behind the town. Here she spent two years and more—happy on -the whole, often naughty and wilful, but usually held in awe by Miss -Clough’s stately presence and power of commanding<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> her small flock. -There was only one other boarder besides Mary, a girl named Sophie -Bellasis, whose recollections of those days were preserved and given to -the world long afterwards by her husband, the late Mr. T. C. Down, in an -article published by the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Miss Bellasis’ -impressions of the queer little girl, Mary Arnold, who was her -fellow-boarder, make so vivid a picture that I may perhaps be forgiven -for reproducing them here:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Mary had a very decided character of her own, as well as a pretty -vivid imagination, for the odd things she used to say, merely on -the spur of the moment, would quite stagger me sometimes. Once when -we were going along the passage upstairs leading to the schoolroom, -she stopped at one of the gratings where the hot air came up from -the furnace, with holes in the pattern about the size of a -shilling, and told me that she knew a little boy whose head was so -small that he could put it through one of those holes: and after we -had gone to bed she would tell me the oddest stories in a whisper, -because it was against the rules to talk. I think now that her -fancy used to run riot with her, and, of course, she had to give -vent to it in any way that suggested itself. But I implicitly -believed whatever she chose to tell me, so that you see we both -enjoyed ourselves. Her energy and high spirits were something -wonderful; out of doors she was never still, but always running or -jumping or playing, and she invariably tired me out at this sort of -thing. Still, nothing came amiss to her in the way of amusement; -anything that entered her head would answer the purpose, and she -was never at a loss. I recollect she had a lovely doll, which her -aunt, Mrs. Forster, had given her, all made of wax. Once she was -annoyed with this doll for some reason or other and broke it up -into little bits. We put the bits into little saucepans, and melted -them over one of the gratings I told you of. Sometimes Willy Dolly -(that was the name we had for the general factotum) would let the -fire go down, and then the gratings were cold, and at other times -he would have a roaring fire, and then they would be so hot that -you couldn’t touch them. So we melted the<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> wax and moulded it into -dolls’ puddings, and that was the last of her wax doll!</p> - -<p>“One day we were over at Fox How, which was a pretty house, with a -wide lawn and garden. One side of it was covered with a handsome -Virginia creeper, which was thought a great deal of, and, of -course, was not intended to be meddled with. Suddenly it occurred -to Mary that it would be first-rate fun to pick ‘all those red -leaves,’ and I obediently went and helped her. We cleared a great -bare space all along the wall as high as we could reach, but from -what Miss Arnold said when she came out and discovered what was -done, I gathered that she was not so pleased with our work as we -were ourselves.”</p></div> - -<p>It was during these years, from six to nine, that the foundation was -laid of that passionate adoration for the fells, with their streams, -bogs and stone walls, which became one of Mary’s most intimate -possessions and never deserted her in after years. In her -<i>Recollections</i> she describes a walk up the valley to Sweden Bridge with -her father and Arthur Clough, the two men safely engaged in grown-up -talk while she, happy and alone, danced on in front or lingered behind, -all eyes and ears for the stream, the birds and the wind. It was a walk -of which she soon knew every inch, just as she knew every inch of the -Fox How garden, and I believe that the sights and sounds of that rough -northern valley came to be woven in with the very texture of her soul. -They appealed to something primitive and deep-down in her little heart, -some power that remained with her through life and that, as she once -said to me, “stands more rubs than anything else in our equipment.”</p> - -<p>Then, when she was only nine and a half, she was transferred to a school -at Shiffnal in Shropshire, kept by a certain Miss Davies, whose sister -happened to be an old friend of Tom Arnold’s and offered now to -undertake little Mary’s maintenance if she were sent to this “Rock -Terrace School for Young Ladies.” But the change seemed to call out all -the demon in Mary’s composition; she fought blindly against the -restrictions and rules of this new community, felt herself at enmity -with all the world and broke out ever and anon in storms of passion. In -the first chapter of <i>Marcella</i> it is all described—the “sulks, -quarrels and<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> revolts” of Marcie Boyce (<i>alias</i> Mary Arnold), the -getting up at half-past six on dark winter mornings, the cold ablutions -and dreary meals, and the occasional days in bed with senna-tea and -gruel when Miss Davies (at her wits’ end, poor lady!) would try the -method of seclusion as a cure for Mary’s tantrums. The poor little thing -suffered cruelly from headaches and bad colds, and laboured too under a -sore sense of poverty and disadvantage as compared with the other girls; -she was, in fact, paid for at a lower rate than most of the other -boarders, and was not allowed to forget it. Often she writes home to beg -for stamps, and once she says to her father: “Do send me some more -money. It was so tantalizing this morning, a woman came to the door with -twopenny baskets, so nice, and many of the other girls got them and I -couldn’t.” Another time she begs him to send her the threepence that she -has “earned,” by writing out some lists of names for him. But on -Saturdays she had one joy, fiercely looked forward to all the week; a -“cake-woman” came to the school, and by hoarding up her tiny weekly -allowance she was able—usually—to buy a three-cornered jam puff. To a -rather starved and very lonely little girl of nine or ten this was—she -often said to us afterwards—the purest consolation of the week.</p> - -<p>But there were some compensations even in these unlovely surroundings. -The nice old German governess, Fräulein Gerecke, was always kind to her, -and tried in little unobtrusive ways to ease the lot which Mary found so -hard to bear. Once she made for her, surreptitiously, a white muslin -frock with blue ribbons and laid it on her bed in time for some little -function of the school for which Mary had received no “party frock” from -home. A gush of hot tears was the response, tears partly of gratitude, -partly of soreness at the need for it; but the muslin frock was worn -nevertheless, and entered from that moment into the substance of the -day-dreams and stories that she was for ever telling herself. Any child -who has a faculty for it will understand how great a consolation were -these self-told stories, in which she rioted especially on days of -senna-tea and gruel. Tales of the Princess of Wales and how she, Mary, -herself succeeded in stopping her runaway horses, with the divinity’s -pale agitation and gratitude, filled the long hours, and the muslin -frock usually came into the story<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> when Mary made her trembling -appearance “by command” at the palace afterwards. Gradually, too, these -tales came to weave themselves round more accessible mortals, for Mary’s -heart and affections were waking up and she did not escape, any more -than the modern schoolgirl, her share of “adorations.” At twelve years -old she fell headlong in love with the Vicar of Shiffnal and his wife, -Mr. and Mrs. Cunliffe; going to church—especially in the evenings, when -the Vicar preached—became a romance; seeing Mrs. Cunliffe pass by in -her pony-carriage lent a radiance to the day. The Vicar’s wife, a gentle -Evangelical, felt genuinely drawn towards the untamed little being and -did her best to guide the wayward footsteps, while Mary on her side -wrote poems to her idol, keeping them fortunately locked within her -desk, and let her fancy run from ecstasy to ecstasy in the dreams that -she wove around her. What “dauntless child” among us does not know these -splendours, and the transforming effect that they have upon the prickly -hide of youth? Little Mary Arnold was destined to leave her mark upon -the world, partly by power of brain, but more by sheer power of love, -and the first human beings to unlock the unguessed stores of it within -her were these two kindly Evangelicals.</p> - -<p>Still, the demon was not quite exorcised, and “Aunt Fan” still found -Mary something of a handful when she stayed at Fox How, though now in a -different way.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“She seems to me very much wanting in <i>humility</i>,” she writes in -January, 1864, “which, with the knowledge she must have of her own -abilities, is not perhaps wonderful, but it is ungraceful to hear -her expressing strong opinions and holding her own, against elder -people, without certainly much sense of reverence. One thing, -however I will mention to show her desire to conquer herself. She -had no gloves to go to Ellergreen, and I objected to buying her -kid, but got her such as I wear myself, very nice cloth. She vowed -and protested she couldn’t and shouldn’t wear them, so I said I -should not make her, but if she wanted kid, she must buy them with -her own money. I talked quietly to her about it and said how -pleased I should be if she conquered this whim, and when she came -to say good-bye to me before starting for Ellergreen her last words -were—‘I am going to put on the gloves, Auntie!’—<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a>and she has worn -them ever since, though I must say with some grumblings!”</p></div> - -<p>She stayed for four years at Miss Davies’s, during which time her -parents moved (in 1862) from Dublin to Birmingham, where Tom Arnold was -offered work under Newman at the Oratory School. The change brought a -small increase in salary, but not enough to cover the needs of the still -growing family, and if it had not been for the help freely given during -these years by W. E. Forster, the struggling pair must almost have gone -down under their difficulties. One result of the change was that the -elder boys, Willie and Theodore, were themselves sent to the Oratory -School, and the thought of Arnold of Rugby’s grandsons being pupils of -Newman gave rise to bitter reflections at Fox How. “I was very glad to -hear of Willy’s having done so well in the examination of his class,” -wrote Julia to her husband from the family home, “although I must -confess the thought of <i>our son</i> being examined by Dr. Newman had -carried a pang to my heart. Your mother I found felt it in the same way; -she said (when I read out to her that part of your letter) with her eyes -full of tears, ‘Oh! to think of <i>his</i> grandson, <i>dearest Tom’s son</i>, -being examined by Dr. Newman!’” Still, Julia was emphatically of opinion -that if priests were to have a hand in their education at all, she would -rather it were English than Irish priests.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the shortcomings of the school at Shiffnal were becoming -evident to Mary’s mother, and in the winter of 1864-5 she succeeded in -arranging that the child should be sent instead to another near Clifton, -kept by a certain Miss May, which was smaller and also more expensive -than Miss Davies’s. Heaven knows how the payments were managed, but the -change answered extremely well, for after the first term Mary settled -down in complete happiness and soon developed such a devotion to Miss -May as made short work of her remaining tendencies to temper and -“contrariness.” Miss May must have been exactly the type of -schoolmistress that Mary needed at this stage—kind and<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> large-hearted, -with the understanding necessary to win the confidence of such an -uncommon little creature—so that it was not long before the child’s -mind began to expand in every direction. Long afterwards she was wont to -say that the actual knowledge she acquired at school was worth next to -nothing—that she learnt no subject thoroughly and left school without -any “edged tools.” But certainly by the time she was twelve she could -write a French letter such as not many of us could produce with all our -advantages, while the drawing and music that she learnt at school -encouraged certain natural talents in her that were to give her some of -the purest joys of her after-life. Still, no doubt her mind received no -systematic training, and at Miss Davies’s I believe that <i>Mangnall’s -Questions</i> were still the common textbook! Though she learnt a little -German and Latin she always said that she had them to do all over again -when she needed them later for her work, while Greek, which became the -joy and consolation of her later years, was entirely a “grown-up” -acquisition. But whatever the imperfections of her nine years of school, -better times were at hand both for Mary and her mother.</p> - -<p>Whether it was that after two or three years of the Birmingham Oratory, -Tom Arnold’s political radicalism (always a sturdy growth) began to make -him uneasy at the proceedings of Pio Nono—for 1864 was the year of the -Encyclical—or whether it was more particularly the Mortara case, as he -says in his autobiography,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> at any rate his feeling towards the -Catholic Church had grown distinctly cool by the end of that year, and -he was meditating leaving the Oratory. Gradually the rumour spread among -his friends that Tom Arnold was turning against Rome, and in June, 1865, -a paragraph to this effect appeared in the papers. Little Mary, now a -girl of fourteen, heard the news while she was at Miss May’s, and wrote -in ecstasy to her mother:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘My precious Mother, I have indeed seen the paragraphs about Papa. -The L’s showed them me on Saturday. You can imagine the excitement -I was in on Saturday night, not knowing whether it was true or not. -Your letter confirmed it this morning and Miss May, seeing I -suppose that I looked rather faint, sent me on a pretended errand<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> -for her notebook to escape the breakfast-table. My darling Mother, -how thankful you must be! One feels as if one could do nothing but -thank Him.”</p></div> - -<p>Her father’s change opened indeed a new and happier chapter in their -lives, for it opened the road to Oxford. He had been seriously facing -the possibility of a second emigration, this time to Queensland, and had -been making inquiries about official work there, but his own -inclinations—and, of course, Julia’s too—were in favour of trying to -make a living at Oxford by the taking of pupils. His old friends there -encouraged him, and by the autumn of 1865 they were established in a -house in St. Giles’s and the venture had begun. Mary wrote in delight -that winter to her dear Mrs. Cunliffe:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Do you know that we are now living at Oxford? My father takes -pupils and has a history lectureship. We are happier there than we -have ever been before, I think. My father revels in the libraries, -and so do I when I am at home.”</p></div> - -<p>A fragment of diary written in the Christmas holidays of 1865-6 reveals -how much she enjoyed being taken for a grown-up young lady by Oxford -friends. “Went to St. Mary Magdalen’s in the morning and heard a droll -sermon on Convictional Sin. Met Sir Benjamin [Brodie] coming home. Miss -Arnold at home supposed to be seventeen, and Mary Arnold at school known -to be fourteen are two very different things.” She is absorbed in -<i>Essays in Criticism</i>, but can still criticize the critic. “Read Uncle -Matt’s Essay on Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Sentiment. Compares the -religious feeling of Pompeii and Theocritus with the religious feeling -of St. Francis and the German Reformation. Contrasts the religion of -sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity with the religion of sense, -giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight pre-eminence -over the latter.” She does not like the famous <i>Preface</i> at all. “The -<i>Preface</i> is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, -that of being amusing. As for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight -charms and Romeo and Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly -inclined to ride the high horse whenever he approaches the subject.”</p> - -<p>As the eldest of eight children she led a very strenuous life at home, -helping to teach the little ones and ever striving<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> to avoid a clash -between her mother’s temper and her own. The entries in the diary are -often sadly self-accusing: “These last three days I have not served -Christ at all. It has been nothing but self from beginning to end. -Prayer seems a task and it seems as if God would not receive me.”</p> - -<p>But after another year and a half at Miss May’s school these -difficulties vanished, and by the time that she came to live at home -altogether, in the summer of 1867, the rough edges had smoothed -themselves away in marvellous fashion. She was sixteen, and the world -was before her—the world of Oxford, which in spite of her criticisms of -the <i>Preface</i> was indeed <i>her</i> world. Her father seemed content with his -teaching work, and was planning the building of a larger house. She set -to work to be happy, and so indeed did her mother—happy in a great -reprieve, and in the reviving hopes of prosperity. But now and then -Julia would stop suddenly in her household tasks, hearing ominous sounds -from Tom’s study. Was it the chanting of a Latin prayer? She put the -fear behind her and passed on.<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /><br /> -LIFE AT OXFORD<br /><br /> -1867-1881</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">W</span>HEN Tom Arnold settled with his family at Oxford, in 1865, the old -University was still labouring under the repercussions, the thrills and -counter-thrills, of the famous Movement set on foot in 1833 by Keble’s -sermon on <i>National Apostasy</i>. Keble, indeed, was withdrawn from the -scene, but Newman’s conversion to Rome (1845) had made so prodigious a -stir that even twenty years later the religious world of England still -took its colour from that event. In the words of Mark Pattison, “whereas -other reactions accomplished themselves by imperceptible degrees, in -1845 the darkness was dissipated and the light was let in in an instant, -as by the opening of the shutters in the chamber of a sick man who has -slept till mid-day.” So at least the crisis appeared to the Liberal -world; the mask had been torn from the Tractarians and their Romanizing -tendencies stood revealed to all beholders. In the opposite camp the -consternation was proportionate, but the formidable figure of Pusey -rallied the doubters and brought them back in good order to the <i>Via -Media</i> of the Anglican communion; while the tender poetry of Keble and -the far-famed eloquence of Liddon fortified and adorned the High Church -cause. But the sudden ending of the Tractarian controversy opened the -way for another movement, slower and less sensational than that of -Newman, yet destined to have an even deeper effect upon the religious -life of England. The freedom of the human mind began to be insisted -upon, not only in the realm of science, or where science clashed with -the Book of Genesis, but in the whole field of the Interpretation of -Scripture. Slowly the results of fifty years of patient study<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> of the -Bible by German scholars and historians began to penetrate here, and -even Oxford, stronghold and citadel of the Laudian establishment, felt -the stir of a new interest, a new challenge to accepted forms. A Liberal -school of theologians arose, led by Jowett, Mark Pattison and other -writers in <i>Essays and Reviews</i> (1860), for whom the old letter of -“inspiration” no longer existed, though they stoutly maintained their -orthodoxy as members and ministers of the Church of England. The Church, -they said, must broaden her base so as to make room for the results of -science and of historical criticism, or else she would be left high and -dry while the forces of democracy passed on their way without her. -Jowett, in his famous essay “On the Interpretation of Scripture,” boldly -summed up his argument in the precept, “Interpret the Scripture like any -other book.” “The first step is to know the meaning, and this can only -be done in the same careful and impartial way that we ascertain the -meaning of Sophocles or Plato.” “Educated persons are beginning to ask, -not what Scripture may be made to mean, but what it does mean.”</p> - -<p>The hubbub raised by these and similar expressions continued during the -three years of proceedings before the Court of Arches, the Judicial -Committee of the Privy Council, and finally Convocation, against two of -the contributors to <i>Essays and Reviews</i>, and had hardly died away when -the Arnolds came to take up their life in Oxford. And side by side with -the theoretical discussion went the insistent demand of the reforming -party, both at Oxford and in Parliament, for the abolition of the -disabilities that still weighed so heavily against Dissenters. For, -although the “Oxford University Act” of 1854 had admitted them to -matriculation and the B.A. degree, neither Fellowships nor the M.A. were -yet open to any save subscribers to the Thirty-nine Articles. All -through the ’sixties the battle raged, with an annual attempt in -Parliament to break down the defence of the guardians of tradition, and -not till 1871 was the “citadel taken.”<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Jowett and Arthur Stanley -stood forth among the Liberal champions at Oxford—the latter reckoning -himself always as carrying on the tradition of Arnold of Rugby, whose -pamphlet urging the inclusion of Dissenters in the National Church had -made so great a<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> sensation in 1833. It was hardly possible, therefore, -for a little Arnold of Mary’s temperament and traditions to escape the -atmosphere that surrounded her so closely, though we need not imagine -that at the age of sixteen she did more than imbibe it passively. But -there were certain things that were not passive in her memory—visions -of Dr. Newman in the streets of Edgbaston, passing gravely by upon his -business—business which the child so passionately resented because she -understood it to be responsible in some vague way for all the hardships -and misfortunes of her family. We may safely assume that if she was ever -taken into Oriel College and saw the many rows of portraits looking down -at her there, in Common-room and Hall, she would feel an instinctive -rallying to the standard of her grandfather rather than to that of his -mighty opponent.</p> - -<p>Two other remarkable figures who dominated the Oxford world of that day, -though from opposite camps, were the silver-tongued Dr. Liddon, “Select -Preacher” at the University Church, and Mark Pattison, Rector of -Lincoln, whom his contemporaries looked on with awe as one of the most -learned scholars in Europe in matters of pure erudition, but in religion -a sad sceptic, though twenty years before, they knew, he had been a -brand only barely plucked from Newman’s burning. Both were to have their -influence upon Mary Arnold, the former superficial, the latter deep and -lasting, and it is curious to find a letter from her father, written in -1865, before he had definitely left the Catholic communion, in which he -describes hearing both men preach on the same day in the University -Church.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Pattison’s sermon was certainly a most remarkable one,” he writes; -“I could have sat another half-hour under him with pleasure. But he -has much more of the philosopher than the divine about him, and the -discourse had the effect of an able article in the <i>National</i> or -<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, read to a cultivated audience in the academical -theatre, much more than of a sermon. In fact, the name either of -Jesus Christ or of one of the Apostles was not once mentioned -throughout. The subject was, the higher education; and the felicity -of the language accorded well with the clearness and beauty of the -thoughts. He condemned the Catholic system, and also the Positivist -system, and in speaking of the former he said, ‘I cannot do better<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> -than describe it in the words of one whose voice was once wont to -sound within these walls with thrilling power, but now, alas! can -never more be heard by us, who in his Treatise on University -Education—‘ and then he proceeded to quote at some length from Dr. -Newman. It was an extremely powerful sermon, but scandalized, I -think, the High Church and orthodox party. ‘Do you often now,’ I -asked Edwin Palmer with a smile, meeting him outside after it was -over, ‘have University sermons in that style?’ ‘Oh dear no,’ he -said, ‘scarcely ever, except indeed from Pattison himself’; this -with some acidity of tone. I dined early; then thought I, in for a -penny, in for a pound, I’ll go and hear the other University -sermon. I was punctual, but there was not a seat to be had, the -ladies mustered in overwhelming force. It was strange, but sermon -and preacher were now everything most opposite to those of the -morning. Liddon is a dark, black-haired little man—short, -straight, stubby hair—and with that shiny, glistening appearance -about his sallow complexion which one so often sees in Dissenting -ministers, and which the devotees no doubt consider a mark of -election. Liddon’s whole sermon was an impassioned strain of -apologetic argument for the truth of the Resurrection, and of the -church doctrine generally. It was very clever certainly, but rather -too long, it extended to about an hour and twenty minutes. The tone -was earnest and devout; yet there were several sarcastic, one might -almost say irritable, flings at the liberal and rationalizing -party; and it was evident that he was thinking of the Oxford -congregation when he spoke pointedly of the ‘educated sceptics who -at that time composed, or at any rate controlled, the Sanhedrin.’ -These two,” he continues, “were certainly sermons of more than -ordinary interest—each worthily representing a great stream of -thought and tendency, influential for good or evil at the present -moment upon millions of human beings.”</p></div> - -<p>It was under such influences as these that Mary Arnold passed the four -impressionable years of her girlhood, from sixteen to twenty, that -elapsed between her leaving school and her engagement to Mr. Humphry -Ward, of Brasenose. She plunged with zest into the Oxford life, making -friends, helping her father at the Bodleian in his researches into<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> -early English literature and studying music to very good purpose under -James Taylor, the future organist of New College. But she had no further -regular education, and was free to roam and devour at will in that city -of books, guided only by the advice of a few friends and by her own -innate literary instincts. The Mark Pattisons early befriended her, -frequently asking her to supper with them on Sunday evenings—suppers at -which she sat, shy and silent, in a high woollen dress, with her black, -wavy hair brushed very smoothly back, listening to every word of the -eager talk around her and drinking in, no doubt, the Rector’s caustic -remarks about Oxford scholarship. These were the years of battle between -the champions of research and the champions of the Balliol ideal of -turning out good men for the public service, and in her ardent -admiration for the Rector Mary Arnold threw herself whole-heartedly into -the former camp. “Get to the bottom of something,” he used to say to -her; “choose a subject and know <i>everything</i> about it!” And so she -plunged into early Spanish literature and history, working at it in the -Bodleian with the fervour that comes from knowing that your subject is -your very own, or at least that it has only been traversed before by -dear, musty German scholars. There was hard practice here in the reading -of German and Latin, let alone the Spanish poems and chronicles -themselves, but after a couple of years of it there was little she did -not know about the <i>Poema del Cid</i>, or the Visigothic invasion, or the -reign of <i>Alfonso el Sabio</i>. Her friend, J. R. Green, the historian, was -so much impressed with her work that he recommended her when she was -only twenty to Edward Freeman as the best person he could suggest for -writing a volume on Spain in an historical series that the latter was -editing. Mr. Freeman duly invited her, but by that time she was already -deep in the preparations for her marriage and was obliged to decline the -offer. She maintained her allegiance to the subject, however, through -all the years that followed, until, as will be seen hereafter, Dean Wace -made her the momentous proposition that she should undertake the lives -of the early Spanish kings and ecclesiastics for the <i>Dictionary of -Christian Biography</i>. And there, in the four volumes of the -<i>Dictionary</i>, her articles stand to this day, a monument to an early -enthusiasm lightly kindled by a word from a<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> great man, but pursued with -all the patience and intensity of the true historian.</p> - -<p>In the course of this work on the early Spaniards she developed an -extraordinary attachment to the Bodleian, with all the most secret -corners of which she soon became familiar, under the benevolent guidance -of the Librarian, Mr. Coxe. The charm of the noble building, with its -mellow lights and shades, its silences, its deep spaces of book-lined -walls, sank into her very soul and gave her that background of the love -of books and reading which became perhaps—next to her love of -nature—the strongest solace of her after-life. At the age of twenty she -wrote a little essay, called “A Morning in the Bodleian,”<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> which -reflects all the joy—nay, the pride—of her own long days of work among -the calf-bound volumes.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“As you slip into the chair set ready for you,” she writes, “a deep -repose steals over you—the repose, not of indolence but of -possession; the product of time, work and patient thought only. -Literature has no guerdon for ‘bread-students,’ to quote the -expressive German phrase; let not the young man reading for his -pass, the London copyist or the British Museum illuminator, hope to -enter within the enchanted ring of her benignest influences; only -to the silent ardour, the thirst, the disinterestedness of the true -learner, is she prodigal of all good gifts. To him she beckons, in -him she confides, till she has produced in him that wonderful -many-sidedness, that universal human sympathy which stamps the true -literary man, and which is more religious than any form of creed.”</p></div> - -<p>A touch about the German students to be found there has its note of -prophecy: “In a small inner room are the Hebrew manuscripts; a German is -working there, another in shirt-sleeves is here—strange people of -innumerable tentacles, stretching all ways, from Genesis to the latest -form of the needle-gun.” And in the last page we come upon her most -intimate reflections, the thoughts pressed together from her many months -of comradeship with those silent tomes, which show, better than any -letters, the<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> quality of a mind but just emerging—as the years are -reckoned—from its teens:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Who can pass out of such a building without a feeling of profound -melancholy? The thought is almost too obvious to be dwelt upon; but -it is overpowering and inevitable. These shelves of mighty folios, -these cases of laboured manuscripts, these illuminated volumes of -which each may represent a life—the first, dominant impression -which they make cannot fail to be like that which a burial-ground -leaves—a Hamlet-like sense of ‘the pity of it.’ Which is the -sadder image, the dust of Alexander stopping a bung-hole, or the -brain and life-blood of a hundred monks cumbering the shelves of -the Bodleian? Not the former, for Alexander’s dust matters little -where his work is considered, but these monks’ work is in their -books; to their books they sacrificed their lives, and gave -themselves up as an offering to posterity. And posterity, -overburdened by its own concerns, passes them by without a look or -a word! Here and there, of course, is a volume which has made a -mark upon the world; but the mass are silent for ever, and zeal, -industry, talent, for once that they have had permanent results, -have a thousand times been sealed by failure. And yet men go on -writing, writing; and books are born under the shadow of the great -libraries just as children are born within sight of the tombs. It -seems as though Nature’s law were universal as well as rigid in its -sphere—wide wastes of sand shut in the green oasis, many a seed -falls among thorns or by the wayside, many a bud must be sacrificed -before there comes the perfect flower, many a little life must -exhaust itself in a useless book before the great book is made -which is to remain a force for ever. And so we might as profitably -murmur at the withered buds, at the seed that takes no root, at the -stretch of desert, as at the unread folios. They are waste, it is -true; but it is the waste that is thrown off by Humanity in its -ceaseless process towards the fulfilment of its law.”</p></div> - -<p>No doubt her life was not all books during these four years, though -books gave it its tone and background; she took her part in the gaieties -of Oxford, in Eights Week and Commem. and in river parties to the -Nuneham woods, and<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> it is to be feared that her stout resistance to the -“seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and Juliet -character” was not of long duration. In one select Oxford pastime, the -game of croquet, she attained to real pre-eminence, becoming, after her -marriage, one of the moving spirits of the Oxford Croquet Club. But her -shyness made social events no special joy to her, and she was far -happier sitting at the feet of “Mark Pat” or helping “Mrs. Pat” with her -etching in the sitting-room upstairs than in making conversation with -the youth of Oxford.</p> - -<p>One charming glimpse of her, however, at a social function remains to us -in the letters of M. Taine. The great Frenchman had come over in the -very spring of the <i>Commune</i> (1871) to give a course of lectures at -Oxford; he met her one evening at the Master of Balliol’s, being -introduced to her by Jowett himself. “‘A very clever girl,’ said -Professor Jowett, as he was taking me towards her. She is about twenty, -very nice-looking and dressed with taste (rather a rare thing here: I -saw one lady imprisoned in a most curious sort of pink silk sheath). -Miss Arnold was born out in Australia, where she was brought up till the -age of five. She knows French, German and Italian, and during this last -year has been studying old Spanish of the time of the Cid; also Latin, -in order to be able to understand the mediæval chronicles. All her -mornings she spends at the Bodleian Library—a most intellectual lady, -but yet a simple, charming girl. By exercise of great tact, I finally -led her on to telling me of an article—her first—that she was writing -for <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i> upon the oldest romances. In extenuation of -it she said, ‘Everybody writes or lectures here, and one must follow the -fashion. Besides, it passes the time, and the library is so fine and so -convenient.’ Not in the least pedantic!”<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> - -<p>Mary’s efforts at writing fiction, which had been many from her -school-days onwards, were far less successful at this stage than her -more serious essays; but she persisted in the attempt, for the pressure -on the family budget was always so great that she longed to make herself -independent of it by earning something with her pen. She sent one story, -at the age of eighteen, to Messrs. Smith & Elder,<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> her future -publishers, but when it was politely declined by them she showed her -philosophy in the following note—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Laleham, Oxford.</span><br /> -<i>October 1, 1869.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">D<small>EAR</small> S<small>IRS</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I beg to thank you for your courteous letter. “Ailie” is a juvenile -production and I am not sorry you decline to publish it. Had it -appeared in print I should probably have been ashamed of it by and -by.</p> - -<p class="r">I remain,<br /> -Yours obediently,<br /> -M<small>ARY</small> A<small>RNOLD</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>But at length no less a veteran than Miss Charlotte Yonge, who was then -editing a blameless magazine named the <i>Churchman’s Companion</i>, accepted -a tale from her called “A Westmorland Story,” and Mary’s joy and pride -were unbounded. But the tale shows no glimpse, I think, of her future -power, and is as far removed from “A Morning in the Bodleian” as water -is from wine.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the Forsters would invite her to stay with them in London, and -so it occurred that at the age of eighteen she was actually there, in -the Ladies’ Gallery of the House of Commons, when her uncle brought in -his famous Education Bill. In after life she was always glad to recall -that day, and when in the fullness of time her own path led her among -the stunted lives of London’s children she liked to think that she was -in a sense continuing her uncle’s work.</p> - -<p>In the winter of 1870-71 she first met Mr. T. Humphry Ward, Fellow and -Tutor of Brasenose College, between whom and herself an instant -attraction became manifest. Mr. Ward was the son of the Rev. Henry Ward, -Vicar of St. Barnabas, King Square, E.C., while his mother was Jane -Sandwith, sister of the well-known Army surgeon at the siege of Kars, -Humphry Sandwith, and herself a woman of remarkable charm and beauty of -character. By an odd chance, J. R. Green, the historian, had been curate -to Mr. Henry Ward in London for two years, had made himself the devoted -friend of all his numerous children and has left in his published -Letters a striking tribute to the great<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> qualities of Mrs. Ward.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> But -she died at the age of forty-two, and Mary Arnold never knew her. The -course of true love ran smoothly through the spring of 1871, and on June -16, five days after Mary’s twentieth birthday, they became engaged. -Never was happiness more golden, and when the pair of lovers went to -stay at Fox How and the young man was introduced to all the well-beloved -places—Sweden Bridge and Loughrigg, Rydal Water and the -stepping-stones—she was quite puzzled, as she wrote to him afterwards, -by the change that had come over the mountains, by the “new relations -between Westmorland and me!” It was simply, as she said, that the -mountains had become the frame, instead of being, as hitherto, the -picture.</p> - -<p>They were engaged for ten months, and then, on April 6, 1872, Dean -Stanley married them and they settled, a little later, in a house in -Bradmore Road (then No. 5, now 17), where they lived and worked for the -next nine years.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Strenuous and delightful years! In looking back over them her old -friends recall with amazement her intense vitality and energy, in spite -of many lapses of health; how she was always at work, writing articles -or reviewing books to eke out the family income, and how she seemed -besides to bear on her shoulders the cares of two families, her own and -her husband’s. She was the eldest and he the third of a long string of -brothers and sisters, the younger of whom were still quite children and -much in need of shepherding. The house in Bradmore Road was always a -second home to them. Her own parents lived close by and she was much in -and out of their house, sharing in their anxieties and struggles and -helping whenever it was possible to help. For she was linked to her -father by a deep and instinctive devotion, much strengthened by these -years of companionship at Oxford, and to her mother by a more aching -sense of pity and longing. Tom Arnold was growing restless again in the -mid-’seventies, and when he went with his younger children to church at -St. Philip’s they would nudge each other to hear him muttering under his -breath the Latin<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> prayers of long ago—little thinking, poor babes, how -their very bread and butter might hang upon these mutterings! But in -1876 there came a day when his election to the Professorship of Early -English was almost a foregone conclusion; as the author of the standard -edition of Wycliffe’s English Works he was by far the strongest -candidate in the field, and Julia looked forward eagerly to a time of -deliverance from their perpetual money troubles. For some months, -however, he had secretly made up his mind that he must re-enter the -Roman fold, and now that once more his worldly promotion depended on his -remaining outside it he decided that this was the moment to make his -re-conversion public. He announced it on the very eve of the election, -with the result that the majority of the electors decided against him. -Poor Mary heard the news early next morning and ran round in great -distress to her true friends, the T. H. Greens, pouring it out to them -with uncontrollable tears. And, indeed, it was the death-knell of the -Arnolds’ prosperity at Oxford. Pupils came no longer to be taught by a -professing Catholic, and Julia was reduced to taking “boarders” in a -smaller house in Church Walk, while Tom earned what he could by -incessant writing and eventually took work again at the Catholic -University in Dublin. And then a still more terrible blow fell upon -Julia; she was discovered to have cancer, and an operation in the autumn -of 1877 left her a maimed and suffering invalid. All this could not fail -to leave a profound mark on the anxious and tender heart of her -daughter, in whom the capacity for human affection seemed to grow and -treble with the years; it made a dark background to her Oxford life, -otherwise so full to overflowing with the happiness of friends and home.</p> - -<p>In her <i>Recollections</i> she has given us once and for all a picture of -the Oxford of her day which in its brilliance and charm is not to be -matched by any later comer. All that can be attempted here is to fill in -to some extent the only gap that she has left in it—the portrait of -herself. How did she move among that small but gifted community, where -Walter Pater revolutionized the taste of Oxford with his Morris papers -and blue china, shocked the Oxford world with his paganizing tendencies -and would, besides, keep his sisters laughing the whole evening, when -they were<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> quite alone, with his spontaneous fun; where Mandell -Creighton was leading and stimulating the teaching of history, with J. -R. Green to help him as Examiner in the Modern History Schools; where T. -H. Green was inspiring the younger generation with his own robust -idealism and the doctrine of the “duty of work,” and the more venerable -figures of Jowett and Mark Pattison, Ruskin and Matthew Arnold, Stubbs -and Freeman dominated the intellectual scene? The impression that she -made upon this circle of friends seems first of all to have been one of -extraordinary energy and power of work, of great personal charm veiled -by a crust of shyness, of intellectual powers for which they had the -respect of equals and co-workers, and of a warm and generous sympathy -which was yet free from “gush.” One of her closest friends in these -early years, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, has allowed me to use certain extracts -from her journal, in which the figure of “Mary Ward” stands out with the -clearness of absolute simplicity. Mrs. Johnson, besides having the -public spirit which has since made her the President of the Oxford Home -Students’ Society, was also a charming artist, and in 1876 painted -Mary’s portrait in water-colour, using the opportunities which the -sittings gave her to explore her friend’s mind to the uttermost:</p> - -<p>“July 22. Began her portrait. I was so excited that my head ached all -day afterwards. She talked of deep, most interesting subjects, and -attention to the arguments and drawing too was too much for one’s head! -I was surprised at the full extent of her vague religion. Jowett is her -great admiration and Matt Arnold her guide for some things. She is great -on the rising Dutch and French and German school of religious thought, -very free criticism of the Bible, entire denial of miracle, our Lord -only a great teacher. I felt as if I had been beaten about, as I always -do after the excitement of such talks. And yet it is all a striving -after righteousness, sincerity, truth.” Or, again: “Mary W. came to tea. -My visitor was charmed with her and truly she is a sweet, charming -person, full of gentleness and sympathy, with all her talent and -intelligence too. She had dined at the Pattisons’ last night and had -felt appalled at the learning of Mrs. P. and Miss ——,‘ more in their -little fingers than I in my whole body!’ But I felt that no one would -wish to change her for either of them.”<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a></p> - -<p>Her music was a constant joy to her friends, and Mrs. Johnson makes -frequent mention of her playing of Bach and of her wonderful reading. It -was a possession that remained with her, to a certain extent, all her -life, in spite of writer’s cramp and of a total inability to find time -to “keep it up.” But even twenty and thirty years later than this date, -her playing of Beethoven or Brahms—on the rare occasions when she would -allow herself such indulgence—would astonish the few friends who heard -it.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the portrait prospered, and was at length presented to its -subject when she lay recovering from the birth of her second babe—a boy -whom they named Arnold—in November, 1876. “Humphry and I are full of -delight over the picture,” writes Mary to Mrs. Johnson, “and of wonder -at the amount of true and delicate work you have put into it. It will be -a possession not only for us but for our children—see how easily the -new style comes!” These were prophetic words, for it is indeed the -portrait of her that still gives most pleasure to the beholder, though -in later years she was painted or drawn by many skilful hands.</p> - -<p>Her two babies, Dorothy and Arnold, naturally absorbed a great deal of -her time and thoughts in these years, although it was possible in those -spacious days to live comfortably and to keep as many little -nursery-maids as one required on £800 or £900 a year, which was about -the income that husband and wife jointly earned. Her natural talent for -“doctoring” showed itself very early in the skill with which she fed her -babies or cured them of their ills when they were sick. Nor was she -content with her domestic success, but in days before “Infant Welfare” -had ever been thought of she wrote a leaflet entitled “Plain Facts on -Infant Feeding” and circulated it in the slums of Oxford. We will not, -however, rescue it from oblivion, lest it should be found to contain -heretical matter! But there was still time for other pursuits, and since -both she and her husband did their writing mainly at night, from nine to -twelve, Mary began to show her practical powers in other directions, and -to take a leading part in the movement for the higher education of women -which was then absorbing some of the best minds of Oxford. As early as -the winter of 1873-4 a committee was formed among this group of friends, -with Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Creighton (followed, on the latter’s departure, -by<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> Mrs. T. H. Green) as joint secretaries, for organizing regular -“Lectures for Women”—not in any connection with the University, for -this was as yet impossible, but in order to satisfy the growing demand -among the women residents of Oxford for more serious instruction in -history, or modern languages, or Latin. The first series of lectures was -held in the early spring of 1874, in the Clarendon Buildings, with Mr. -A. H. Johnson as lecturer; it was an immediate success, and the large -sum of 5<i>s.</i> which each member of the Committee had put down as a -guarantee could be triumphantly refunded. Further courses were arranged -in each succeeding winter, till in 1877 the same committee expanded into -an “Association for the Education of Women” (again with Mrs. Ward as -secretary<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>), which undertook still more important work. The idea of -the founding of Women’s Colleges was already in the air, for Girton and -Newnham had led the way at Cambridge, and all through 1878 plans were -being discussed to this end. In the next year a special committee was -formed for the raising of funds towards the foundation of a “Hall of -Residence”; Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Augustus Vernon Harcourt were joint -secretaries, but since the latter soon fell ill the whole burden of -correspondence fell upon Mary’s shoulders. “There seems no end to the -things I have to do just now,” she writes to her father in June, 1879. -“All the secretary’s work for Somerville Hall falls on me now as my -colleague, Mrs. Harcourt, is laid up, and yesterday and the day before I -have had the house full of girls being examined for scholarship at the -Hall, and have had to copy out examination papers and look after them -generally. Our Lady Principal, Miss Shaw-Lefevre, is here and she came -to dinner to-night to talk business about furnishing, etc. I think we -are getting on. Did you see in <i>The Times</i> that the Clothworkers’ -Company have given us 100 guineas?”</p> - -<p>And thus the work went on, week after week, all through the year 1879. I -have before me a common-looking engagement-diary in which it is all -recorded, from the month of March to late in the month of October: all -the committee-meetings, all the letters written to newspapers, to -prospective students or to possible heads;<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> the decision to purchase the -lease of “Walton House,” “to be assigned to the President (Dr. Percival) -on August 1”; the builder’s estimate for alterations (“£540 for raising -the roof and making twelve bedrooms”), the letters about drainage, or -cretonne, or armchairs and fenders, no less than the resolution passed -at Balliol on October 24 to “form a Company for the management of the -Hall under the Limited Liability Act of 1862, with a nominal capital of -£25,000.” But by that time the Hall was already opened and the long -labour crowned; and a fortnight afterwards, on November 6, her youngest -child was born. It may be hoped that after this Mrs. Ward took a brief -holiday from the cares of Somerville.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward remained a member of the original Council of Somerville Hall -long after her departure from Oxford, and during her last two years -there continued to be largely responsible, as one of the most active -members of the Association for the Education of Women, for the -organization of the teaching. All the lectures were arranged by the -Association—in consultation, of course, with the Principal—for it was -not until 1884 that women students were admitted to the smallest of the -University examinations, or to lectures at a few of the Colleges.</p> - -<p>Thus had Mrs. Ward learnt her first lesson and won her first laurels in -the carrying out of a big piece of public work. It was an experience -that was to stand her in good stead in after years. But at this time her -ambitions were still largely historical, weaving themselves in dreams -and plans for the writing of that big book on the origins of modern -Spain of which she afterwards sketched the counterpart in Elsmere’s -projected book on the origins of modern France. Very likely she would -have settled down to write it before the opening of Somerville, but as -early as October, 1877, she had received a very flattering offer from -Dean Wace, the general editor of the <i>Dictionary of Christian -Biography</i>, to take a large share in writing the lives of the early -Spanish ecclesiastics for that monumental work. It was an offer that she -could not refuse, and she always spoke with gratitude of the years of -hard and exacting work that followed, although once or twice she almost -broke down under the strain of it. “Sheer, hard, brain-stretching work,” -she calls it in her <i>Recollections</i>, and if anyone will<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> look up her -articles on Joannes Biclarensis, or Idatius, or the Histories of Isidore -of Seville, they will see how triply justified she was in using the -term. “You have gone over the ground so thoroughly that there is no -gleaning left,” wrote Mr. C. W. Boase, in those days one of the -best-known of Oxford history tutors, while Dean Wace himself, in the -many letters he wrote to her, showed by his kindness and consideration -how much he valued her contributions. Oxford began to think that she was -definitely committed to an historical career, when to its astonishment -she came out as the author of a children’s story. “Milly and Olly” was -the record of her own “Holiday among the Mountains” with her children in -the summer of 1879, but the very simplicity of the tale has endeared it -to many generations of children and child-lovers, while the stories it -contains of Beowulf and the Spanish Queen give it a note of romance that -differentiates it from other nursery tales. She wrote it almost as a -relaxation in the summer of 1880; in the midst of her historical work it -showed that the story-telling instinct was already stirring within her.</p> - -<p>And indeed the Oxford historical school was to be disappointed in her -after all, for her labours on the early Spaniards were in reality to -lead her into far other fields. Her interest in the problems of -Christianity had only gathered strength with the years, and were now -greatly stimulated by these researches into the early history of the -Spanish Church. She began to feel the enormous importance to the -believer of the <i>historical testimony</i> on which the whole fabric rested, -while her keen historical imagination enabled her to grasp the mentality -of those distant ages which produced for us the literature of the New -Testament. A feeling of revolt against the arrogance of the orthodox -party, as it was represented in Oxford by Christchurch and Dr. Pusey, -grew and increased in her mind, while at the same time she became more -and more attracted by the romance and mystery of Christianity when -stripped of the coating of legend which pious hands had given it. As -early as 1871 she had written to Mr. Ward (à propos of a somewhat -fatuous sermon to which she had been listening): “How will you make -Christianity into a <i>motive</i>?—that is the puzzle. Traditional and -conventional Christianity is worked out—certainly as far as the great -artisan and intelligent working-class<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> in England is concerned, and all -those who are young and touched, ever so vaguely and uncertainly, with -the thought-atmosphere, thought-currents of the day. Is there a -substitute which shall still be Christianity? Yes surely, but it is not -to be arrived at by mere arbitrary remoulding and petulant upsetting as -Mr. Voysey seems to think.” And two years later she writes to her -father: “Just now it seems to me that one cannot make one’s belief too -simple or hold what one does believe too strongly. Of dogmatic -Christianity I can make nothing. Nothing is clear except the personal -character of Christ and that view of Him as the founder and lawgiver of -a new society which struck me years ago in <i>Ecce Homo</i>. And the more I -read and think over the New Testament the more impossible it seems to me -to accept what is ordinarily called the scheme of Christianity.”</p> - -<p>But these reflections need never have led her in the direction of -writing <i>Robert Elsmere</i> if it had not been for a personal incident. On -Sunday, March 6, 1881, she attended the first Bampton Lecture of the -Rev. John Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was on “the -present unsettlement in religion,” and the speaker castigated the -holders of unorthodox views as being very definitely guilty of sin. -Something in the tone of the sermon set Mary’s heart on fire within her. -She walked home in a tumult of feeling. That this man with his confident -phrases should dare thus to arraign the leaders of the Liberal host—men -of such noble lives as T. H. Green, thinkers like Jowett and Matt -Arnold! She sat down and wrote, within a very few days, a reply to Dr. -Wordsworth entitled “Unbelief and Sin: a Protest addressed to those who -attended the Bampton Lecture of Sunday, March 6.” A little pamphlet cast -in the form of a dialogue between two Oxford men, it was put up for sale -in Slatter & Rose’s window and attracted considerable attention. But -before it had been selling for many hours a certain ecclesiastic took -the bookseller aside and pointed out that the pamphlet bore no printer’s -name, which made the sale illegal. He politely threatened proceedings, -and the bookseller in alarm withdrew it from circulation and sent the -unsold copies up to Bradmore Road with an apology, but a firm intimation -that no further copies could be sold. Mary laughed and submitted, and -sent her anonymous offspring round to various friends,<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> among them the -redoubtable Rector of Lincoln. He replied to her as follows:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘No, I did not guess your secret. It was whispered to me in the -street, and I fancy was no secret within the first week of -publication.</p> - -<p>‘I admire your courage in attacking one of their strong places. The -doctrine of disbelief in Church principles being due to a -propensity to secret sins is one of the oldest tenets of the -Anglican party. It is also a fundamental principle of popular -Catholicism. I have heard it from the catholic pulpit so often that -it must have among them the character of a commonplace.</p> - -<p>‘There is, as you admit, a certain basis of fact for it—just as -‘Patriotism’ is often enough the trade of the egoist. ‘Licence they -mean when they cry liberty.’</p> - -<p>‘More interesting even than your argument against the psychological -dogma, was your constructive hint as to the ‘Church of the future.’ -I wish I could follow you there! But that is an ‘argumentum non -unius horæ.’</p> - -<p>‘Believe me, dear Mrs. Ward, to be</p> - -<p class="r">“Yr. attached friend,<br /> -“M<small>ARK</small> P<small>ATTISON</small>.”<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>It was indeed an argument, not of a single hour, but of many long years. -But the spark had been set to a complex train of thought which was now -to work itself out through toil and stress towards its appointed end.<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /><br /> -EARLY YEARS IN LONDON—THE WRITING OF <i>ROBERT ELSMERE</i><br /><br /> -1881-1888</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>T was in the early summer of 1880 that Mr. Ward was first approached by -Mr. Chenery, the editor, with a suggestion that he should join the staff -of <i>The Times</i>. The proposal was in many ways an attractive one, in -spite of the love of both husband and wife for Oxford, for Mr. Ward was -becoming known to a wider world than that of Oxford by his <i>English -Poets</i>, which had appeared in this year, nor was he a novice in -journalism. His wife, too, had many links with London through her visits -to the Forsters and her journalistic work. The experiment began in a -tentative way in the winter of 1880-81, she remaining in Oxford with the -children, and he being “tried” for leader-writing while staying in -Bloomsbury lodgings. Within a very few months it proved itself a -success, and, after some pleasant interviews with Mr. John Walter, he -was retained on the permanent staff of the paper. They began seriously -to plan their removal and to look for a house, and found one at length -in that comfortable Bloomsbury region, which was then innocent of big -hotels and offices, and where the houses in Russell Square had not yet -suffered embellishment in the form of pink terra-cotta facings to their -windows. They found that the oldest house in the Square, No. 61, was to -let, and in spite of the dirt of years with which it was encrusted, -perceived its possibilities at once, and came to an agreement with its -owner. A charming old house, built in 1745, its prettiest feature was a -small square entrance-hall, with eighteenth-century stucco-work on the -walls, from which a wide staircase ascended to the drawing-room, giving -an impression of space<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> rare in a <i>bourgeois</i> London house. At the back -was a good-sized strip of garden shaded by tall old plane-trees and -running down to meet the gardens of Queen Square, for No. 61 stood on -the east side of the square and adjoined the first house of Southampton -Row. Little powder-closets jutted out at the back, one of which Mrs. -Ward used as her writing-room, and upstairs the bedroom floors seemed to -expand as you ascended, reaching only to a third story, but giving us -rooms enough even so for ourselves, our maids, and a German governess, -besides the various relations who were constantly coming to stay. Wholly -pleasant are the memories connected with that benign old house, to us -children as well as to our elders, save only that to the youngest of us -there were always two lurking horrors, one on the second floor landing, -where a dark alcove gave harbourage to a little old man in Scotch kilts, -who might, if your legs were not swift enough, come after you as you -toiled up the last flight, and one—still more disquieting—on the top -landing itself, where the taps dripped in a dreadful little boxroom, and -if the taps dripped you knew that the water-bogy, <i>who lives in taps</i>, -might at any moment escape and overwhelm you. Since no self-respecting -child ever imparts its terrors to its elders, these nightmares went -unknown until one night, when all the maids were downstairs at supper, -the child in question could not make up its mind to cross the landing, -past the dark mouth of that box-room, from the room where it undressed -to the room where it slept, and was found an hour later, fast asleep in -a chair, with towels pinned over every inch of its small body lest the -bogy should come out and catch hold. After this crisis I think the -terrors declined, and now, alas! taps and box-room and dark alcove have -all disappeared together, with the pleasant rooms downstairs and the -gravelled garden where one made so many persevering expeditions with the -salt-cellar, after the tails of London’s sparrows—all swept away and -vanished, and the air that they enclosed parcelled out once more into -the rectangles of the Imperial Hotel! Peace be to the ghost of that poor -house, for it gave happiness in its latter days for nine long years to -the human folk who inhabited it, and it watched the unfolding of a human -heart and mind which were to have no mean influence upon the generation -that encompassed them.<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a></p> - -<p>The house at Oxford was disposed of to the Henry Nettleships, at -Michaelmas, 1881, and in the following November the family moved in to -Russell Square. It was not without searchings of heart, I think, that -Mr. and Mrs. Ward embarked upon the larger venture, where all depended -on their retaining health and strength for their work; but they fondly -hoped that with the larger regular income from <i>The Times</i> the burden on -both pairs of shoulders would be lessened.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“All will be well with us yet,” wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband -three months before their move, “and if God is good to us there are -coming years of work indeed, but of less burden and strain. All -depends on you and me, and though I know the very thought depresses -us sometimes, it ought not to, for we have many good gifts within -and without, and a fair field, if not the fairest possible field to -use them in. It seems to me that all I want to be happy is to keep -my own heart and conscience clear, and to feel my way open into the -presence of God and the unseen. And surely to seek is to find.”</p></div> - -<p>Years of less burden and strain! She had, indeed, forgotten the spirit -within, which was to drive her on to ever new and greater efforts in the -more stimulating atmosphere of London. Though her work for the -<i>Dictionary of Christian Biography</i> was almost over, she had by this -time made the acquaintance of Mr. Morley, then editor of the <i>Pall Mall -Gazette</i>, and was doing much reviewing of French and Spanish books for -him, while she continued to write weekly articles for the Church -<i>Guardian</i> and the <i>Oxford Chronicle</i>. Nor were the authorities of <i>The -Times</i> long in finding out that she too could write, and by the autumn -of 1882 many foreign books reached her for review from Printing House -Square. She complains in her letters that she cannot get through them -quickly enough. “Three or four volumes of these books a week is about -all I can do, and that seems to go no way.” The inevitable expenses of -London life did in fact weigh upon her heavily within a year of their -migration, and the sense of “burden and strain” was never long absent. -But she could not have lived otherwise. It was her fundamental instinct -to work herself to the bone and then to share her good times with others -less fortunate, and since this process made away with her earnings she -would work herself<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> to the bone again. In this atmosphere of unremitting -toil interruptions were of course discouraged, but when they occurred in -spite of all defences she never showed the irritation which so -frequently accompanies overwork. And in the many interruptions caused by -the childish illnesses of her small family her tenderness and devotion -were beyond all words. How she dosed us with aconite and belladonna, -watching over us and compelling us to throw off our fevers and colds! -Nor was anything allowed to interfere with the befriending of all -members of the family who wished to come to Russell Square. Her brother -Willie, who had by this time been appointed to the staff of the -<i>Manchester Guardian</i>, was a frequent visitor, renewing with each -appearance his literary <i>camaraderie</i> with her and delighting in the -friends whom she would ask to meet him. Matthew Arnold, too, was -sometimes to be caught for an evening—great occasions, those, for Mrs. -Ward’s relations with him were already of the most affectionate. He -influenced her profoundly in literary and critical matters, for she -imbibed from him both her respect for German thoroughness and her -passion for French perfection. These, indeed, were the years when she -saw most of “Uncle Matt,” for Pains’ Hill Cottage, at Cobham, was not -too far away for a Sunday visit, so that she and Mr. Ward would -sometimes fly down there for an afternoon of talk. Usually, however, she -would return full of blasphemies about his precious dogs, who had -diverted their master’s attention all through the walk and prevented the -flow of his wit and wisdom. Therefore she preferred to get him safely to -herself at Russell Square!</p> - -<p>Her two younger sisters, Julia and Ethel, were constantly in the house, -the elder of whom married in 1885 Mr. Leonard Huxley, and so brought -about a happy connection with the Professor and his wife, which gave -Mrs. Ward much joy for many years. Nor were her neighbours neglected. -When Christmas came round there was always a wonderful <i>Weihnachtsbaum</i>, -dressed with loving care by the good German governess, and by any uncles -and aunts who were within reach, and attended not only by all possible -relations and friends (including especially and always Mr. and Mrs. J. -R. Thursfield and their children), but also by the choirboys of St. -John’s Church and by many of <i>their</i> relations too. But behind all this -eager hospitality lay a far deeper<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> longing. Her mother had, early in -1881, undergone a second operation for cancer, and though this gave her -a year’s immunity from pain the malady returned. In March, 1882, she -wrote to her daughter with stoical courage that she foresaw what was in -store for her—“a hard ending to a hard life.” Though she was devotedly -nursed by her youngest daughter, Ethel, her suffering overshadowed the -next six years of Mary’s life like a cloud, but it became also Mrs. -Ward’s keenest joy to be able to help her and to ease her path. Once -when she herself had been ill and suffering, she wrote her a few lines -which reveal her own inmost thoughts on the relation between pain and -faith:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I am <i>so</i> sorry, dearest, for your own suffering. This is a weary -world,—but there is good behind it, ‘a holy will,’ as Amiel says, -‘at the root of nature and destiny,’ and submission brings peace -because in submission the heart finds God and in God its rest. -There is no truth I believe in more profoundly.”</p></div> - -<p>Yet in spite of the unceasing round of work, what compensations there -were in the London life! The making of new friends can never fail to be -a delightful process, and it very soon became apparent that Mrs. Ward -was to be adopted to the heart of that London world which thought about -books and politics and which incidentally was making history. London was -smaller then than now, and if a new-comer had brains and modesty, and -above all a gift of sympathy that won all hearts, there were few doors -that did not open to her or him in time. Her connection with the -Forsters and with “Uncle Matt” brought her many friends to start with, -while Mr. Ward’s work on <i>The Times</i> took them naturally both into the -world of painters (for after 1884 he joined art criticism to his -political and other writing) and into the world of affairs. A letter -written to Mrs. A. H. Johnson in May, 1885, gives a typical picture of -the social side of her life three years after the move to London. The -occasion is the marriage of Alfred Lyttelton and Laura Tennant:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The wedding function yesterday was very interesting. I am glad not -to have missed Gladstone’s speech at the breakfast. What a wondrous -man it is! The intensity, the feeling of the speech were -extraordinary.... Life has been rather exciting lately in the way -of new friends,<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> the latest acquisition being Mr. Goschen, to whom -I have quite lost my heart! There is a pliancy and a brilliancy -about him which make him one of the most delightful companions. We -dined there last Saturday and I have seldom had so much interesting -talk. Lord Arthur Russell, who sat next me, told me stories of how, -as a child at Geneva, he had met folk who in their youth had seen -Rousseau and known Voltaire, and had been intimate friends of Mme. -de Stael in middle life. And then, coming a little further down the -stream of time, he could describe to me having stayed at -Lamartine’s château in the poet’s old age, and so on. Mr. Goschen -is busy on a life of his grandfather, who was the publisher of -Goethe, Schiller and Wieland, and whose correspondence, which he is -now going through, covers the whole almost of the German literary -period,—so that after dinner the scene shifted to Germany, and we -talked away with an occasional raid into politics, till, to my -great regret, the evening was over.”</p></div> - -<p>Her own little dinner-parties very soon began to make their mark, while -not long after their establishment in London, she began the practice of -being at home on Thursday afternoons, and though at first her natural -shyness and lack of small talk made her openings somewhat formidable, -she soon warmed to the task, till within a very few months her Thursdays -became a much-appreciated institution. Men, as well as women, came to -them, for they always liked to make her talk and to hear her eager views -on all the topics of the day, from Irish coercion to the literary -personalities of France, or the need for prodding the Universities to -open their examinations to women. She still called herself a good -Radical in these days, but her devotion to Mr. Forster—whom she had -visited in Dublin during his Chief Secretaryship—gave the first -reservations to her Liberal faith, for she took his part in the matter -of his resignation, and felt that he had not been sufficiently supported -by the Cabinet. It was a great grief to her that Mr. Morley, in the -<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, found it necessary to attack Mr. Forster’s Irish -administration with such persistent energy, and once, towards the end of -1882, she summoned up the courage to write him a remonstrance in good -set terms. Mr. Morley’s reply is characteristic:<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>Dec. 13, 82.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I have got your letter at last, and carefully read and digested it. -Need I say that its frank and direct vigour only increases my -respect for the writer? To answer it, as it deserves, is hardly -possible for me. It would take a day for me to set forth, with -proper reference to chapter and verse, all the reasons why I could -not follow Mr. Forster in his Irish administration. They were set -forth from time to time with almost tiresome iteration as events -moved forward.</p> - -<p>In all that you say about Mr. Forster’s unselfishness, his -industry, his strenuous desire to do what was right and best, -nobody agrees more cordially than I do. Personally I have always -had—if it is not impertinent in me to say so—a great liking for -him. He was always very kind and obliging to me, and nothing has -been more painful to me than to know that I was writing what would -wound a family for whom I have such sincere respect as I have for -his. But the occasion was grave. I have been thinking about Ireland -all my life, and that fashion of governing it is odious and -intolerable. If Sir Charles Dilke or Mr. Chamberlain had been Chief -Secretary, and carried out the Coercion Act as Mr. Forster carried -it out, I could not have attacked either of them, but I should have -resigned my editorship rather than have connived by silence or -otherwise at such mischief.</p> - -<p>I may at times have seemed bitter and personal in my language about -Mr. Forster. One falls into this tone too readily, when fighting a -battle day after day, and writing without time for calm revision. -For that I am sorry, if it has been so, or seemed so. Mr. Forster’s -friends—some of them—have been extremely unscrupulous in their -personalities against me, their charges of intrigue, conspiracy. -All that I do not care for one jot; my real regret, and it is a -very sincere one, is that I should seem unjust or vindictive to -people like you, who think honestly and calmly about politics, and -other things.</p> - -<p>I hope that it is over, and that I shall never have to say a word -about Mr. Forster’s Irish policy again.</p> - -<p class="r">Yours very sincerely,<br /> -J<small>OHN</small> M<small>ORLEY</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p><a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a></p> - -<p>Such a letter only served to strengthen friendship. Mrs. Ward’s literary -comradeship with Mr. Morley remained unbroken in spite of widening -differences in politics, and when, a few months later, he assumed the -editorship of <i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i> he proposed to her that she should -virtually take over its literary criticism:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>March 22, 83.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>My reign over “Macmillan” will begin in May. I want to know whether -you can help me to a literary article once a month—in the shape of -a <i>compte rendu</i> of some new books, English or French. It is highly -desirable that the subject should be as lively and readable as -possible—not erudite and academic, but literary, or -socio-literary, as S<sup>te</sup> Beuve was.</p> - -<p>I don’t see why a “causerie” from you once a month should not -become as marked a feature in our world, as S<sup>te</sup> Beuve was to -France. In time, the articles would make matter for a volume, and -so you would strike the stars with your sublime head.</p> - -<p>I hope my suggestion will commend itself to you. I have been -counting upon you, and shall be horribly discouraged if you say No.</p> - -<p class="r">Yours sincerely,<br /> -J<small>OHN</small> M<small>ORLEY</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Flattered as she was by the suggestion, she was never able to carry out -his whole behest, yet between February, 1883, and June, 1885, she wrote -no less than twelve articles for <i>Macmillan’s</i>, on subjects ranging from -the young Spanish Romanticist, Gustavo Becquer, to Keats, Jane Austen, -Renan and the “Literature of Introspection” (à propos of Amiel’s -<i>Journal Intime</i>), while the series was ended by a full-dress review of -Pater’s <i>Marius the Epicurean</i>. These articles did much to assure her -position in the world of pure literature, as her Dictionary articles had -assured it in the world of scholarship, and she never ceased to be -grateful to Mr. Morley for the opportunities he had given her in -inviting them, for the encouragement of his praise and the bracing of -his occasional criticism.</p> - -<p>But these articles were all written under the heaviest<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> physical -disabilities. Early in 1883 she began to suffer from a violent form of -writer’s cramp, which made her right hand almost useless at times, and -recurred at intervals all through her life, so that writing was usually -a far more arduous and painful process to her than it is to most of us. -Through the years 1883 and 1884 she was frequently reduced to writing -with her left hand, but she also dictated much to her young -sister-in-law, Gertrude Ward, who came to live with us at this time, and -became for the next eight years the prop and support of our household. -Many remedies were tried for the ailment, but nothing was really -effective until after two years a German “writing-master” came on the -scene, one Dr. Julius Wolff, who completely transformed her method of -writing by making her sit much higher than before, rest the whole -fore-arm on the table, and use an altogether different set of muscles. -Many curious exercises he gave her also, which she practised at -intervals for years afterwards, and by these means he succeeded in -giving her comparative immunity, though whenever she was specially -pressed with work the pain and weakness would recur. During the year -1884, however, before Dr. Wolff had appeared, her arm was practically -disabled, and she wore it much in a sling.</p> - -<p>Yet it was during this year that she began her translation of Amiel’s -<i>Journal</i> and wrote her first novel, <i>Miss Bretherton</i>. The idea of it -was suggested by her first sight of the beautiful actress, Mary -Anderson, though she always maintained that, once created, Isabel -Bretherton became to her an absolutely distinct personality. The manner -of its writing is told in a fragment of Miss Gertrude Ward’s journal:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The book was written in about six weeks. She used to lie or sit -out of doors at Borough Farm, with a notebook and pencil, and -scrawl down what she could with her left hand; then she would come -in about twelve and dictate to me at a great rate for an hour or -more. In the afternoon and evening she would look over and correct -what was done, and I copied out the whole. The scene of Marie and -Kendal in his rooms was dictated in her bedroom; she lay on her -bed, and I sat by the window behind a screen.”</p></div> - -<p>The book was published by Messrs. Macmillan and<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> appeared in December, -1884. It attracted a good deal of attention. The general verdict was -that it was a fine and delicate piece of work, but on too limited, too -intellectual a scale. This view was admirably put by her old friend, Mr. -Creighton (then Emmanuel Professor at Cambridge):</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I have read <i>Miss Bretherton</i> with much interest. It was hardly -fair on the book to know the plot beforehand, but I found myself -carried away by the delicate feeling with which the development of -character was traced. The Nuneham scene, the death-bed and the -final reconciliation were really touching and powerfully worked -out.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_045_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_045_sml.jpg" width="408" height="297" alt="Borough Farm." title="Borough Farm." /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">Borough Farm.</span> -</p> - -<p>At the same time it is not a novel of my sort. I demand that I -should have given me an entire slice of life, and that I should see -the mutual interaction of a number of characters. Your interest -centres entirely on one character: your characters all move in the -same region of ideas, and that a narrow one. Your book is dainty, -but it does not touch the great springs of life. Of course you -didn’t mean it to do so: but I am putting before you what I -conceive to be the novelist’s ideal. It seems to me that a novelist -must have seen much, must lay himself out to be conversant with -many sides of life, must have no line of his own, but must lend -himself to the life of those around him. This is the direct -opposite of the critic. I wonder if the two trades can be combined. -Have you ever read Sainte Beuve’s solitary novel, <i>Volupté</i>? It is -instructive reading. You are a critic in your novel. Your object is -really to show how criticism can affect a nature capable of -receiving it. Now is this properly a subject of art? Is it not too -didactic? It is not so for me, for I am an old-fashioned moralist: -but the mass of people do not care for intellectual teaching in -novels. They want an emotional thrill. Remember that you have -deliberately put this aside. Kendal’s love is not made to affect -his life, his character, his work. Miss Bretherton only feels so -far attracted to him as to listen to what he says.... I only say -this to show you what the book made me think, that you wrote as a -critic not as a creator. You threw into the form of a story many -critical judgments, and gave an excellent sketch of the<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> possible -worth of criticism in an unregenerate world. This was worth doing -once: but if you are going on with novels you must throw criticism -to the winds and let yourself go as a partner of common joys, -common sorrows and common perplexities. There, I have told you what -I think just as I think it. I would not have done so to anyone else -save you, to whom I am always,</p> - -<p class="r">Your most affectionate,<br /> -M. C<small>REIGHTON</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>No doubt Mrs. Ward stored up this criticism for future use, for when she -next embarked upon a novel the canvas was indeed broad enough.</p> - -<p>They had not been settled in London for much more than a year before -Mrs. Ward began to feel the need for some quiet and remote country place -to which she might fly for peace and work when the strain of London -became too great. Fortune favoured the quest, for in the summer of 1882 -they took the rectory at Peper Harow, near Godalming (the “Murewell -Rectory” of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>), for a few weeks, and during that time -were taken by Lord Midleton, the owner of Peper Harow, to see a -delightful old farm in the heart of the lonely stretch of country that -lies between the Portsmouth Road and Elstead. They fell in love with it -at once, and during the following winter made an arrangement to take its -six or seven front rooms by the year. So from the summer of 1883 onwards -they possessed Borough Farm as a refuge and solace in the wilds, a -paradise for elders and children alike, where London and its turmoil -could be cast off and forgotten. It lay in a country of heather commons, -woods, rough meadows, streams and lakes—those “Hammer Ponds” which -remain as a relic of the iron-smelting days of Surrey, and in which we -children amused ourselves by the hour in fishing for perch with a bent -pin and a worm. Here Mrs. Ward would lie out whenever the sun shone in -the old sand-pit up the lane, where we had constructed a sort of terrace -for her long chair, or else under the ash-tree on the little hill, -writing or reading, while no sound came save the murmur of wind in the -gorse, or in the dry bells of the heather. If her physique had been -stronger she would, perhaps, have been too much tempted by the beauty of -the country ever to have<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> lain still and worked for so many hours as she -did in that long chair; but she was never robust, she was extremely -susceptible to bad weather, cold winds and every form of chill, and her -longest expeditions were those which she took in a little pony-carriage -over Ryal or Bagmoor Commons to Peper Harow, or up the Portsmouth Road -to Thursley and Hindhead.</p> - -<p>Here a few friends came at intervals to share the solitude with us: -Laura Tennant, on a wonderful day in May, 1884, when she seemed to her -dazzled hostess the very incarnation of the spring; M. Edmond Scherer, -her earliest French friend, who, in 1884, was helping her with her -translation of Amiel’s <i>Journal</i>; Henry James, whose visit laid the -foundation of a friendship that was to ripen into one of the most -precious of all Mrs. Ward’s possessions; Mlle. Souvestre, foundress of -the well-known girls’ school at Wimbledon, and one of the keenest -intellects of her time; and once, for a whole fortnight, Miss Eugénie -Sellers,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> who had for many months been teaching the family their -classics, and who now came down to superintend their Greek a little and -to roam the commons with them much. It was in 1886, just before this -visit, that Mrs. Ward began seriously to read Greek, usually with her -ten-year-old son; she bought a Thucydides in Godalming one day and was -delighted to find it easier than she expected. It was a passion that -grew upon her with the years, as any reader of her later books will -clearly perceive.</p> - -<p>Then, though the solitude of the farm itself was profound, there were a -few, a very few, neighbours in the more eligible districts round about -who made it their pleasure sometimes to call upon us; there were the -Frederic Harrisons at Elstead, whose four boys dared us children to -horrid feats of jumping and climbing in the sand-pit, while our elders -were safely engaged elsewhere; John Morley also, for a few weeks in -1886, and in the other direction Lord and Lady Wolseley, who took a -house near Milford, and thence made their way occasionally down our -sandy track. But the neighbours who meant most to us were, after all, -our landlords, the Brodricks of Peper Harow; they were not only -endlessly kind, giving us leave to disport ourselves in all<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> their -ponds, but took a sort of pride of possession, I believe, in their -pocket authoress, watching her struggles and her achievement with -paternal eyes. And when <i>Robert Elsmere</i> at length appeared, old Lord -Midleton, pillar of Church and State as he was, came riding over to the -farm, sitting his horse squarely in spite of his white hairs and his -semi-blindness, and sent in word that the “Wicked Squire” was at the -gate!</p> - -<p>Two letters written to her father from Borough Farm during these years, -give glimpses of her browsings in many books, and of her thoughts on -Shakespeare, evolution and kindred matters:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘I have been reading Joubert’s <i>Pensées</i> and <i>Correspondance</i> -lately, with a view to the Amiel introduction. You would be charmed -with the letters, and some of the <i>pensées</i> are extraordinarily -acute. Now I am deep in Sénancour, and for miscellaneous reading I -have been getting through Horace’s Epistles and dawdling a good -deal over Shakespeare. My feeling as to him gets stronger and -stronger, that he was, strictly speaking, a great poet, but not a -great dramatist! There’s a remark over which I trust you will draw -a fatherly veil! But one can only say what one feels, and I am more -oppressed than I used to be by his faults of construction, his -carelessness, his excrescences, while at the same time much more -sensitive to his preternatural power as a poet and as a -psychological analyst. He gets at the root of his characters in a -marvellous way, he envisages them separately as no one else can, -but it is when he comes to bring them into action to represent the -play of outward circumstance and the interaction of character on -character that he seems to me comparatively—only comparatively, of -course—to fail. I have always felt it most strongly in Othello, -and of course in the last act of Hamlet, which, in spite of the -magnificent poetry in it, is surely a piece of dramatic -bungling....</p> - -<p>‘As to Renan it would be too long to argue it, but I think he very -much saves himself in the passage you quote by the qualifying word -‘comme.’ The Church is ‘as it were’ <i>un débris de l’Empire</i>. It is -only another way of putting what Harnack said in that article you -and I read at Sea View. ‘The Empire built up the Church out of its -own substance, and destroyed itself in so doing,’ or words to that<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> -effect. I cannot help feeling that as far as organization and -institutions go it is very true, though I would never deny that God -was in the Church, as I believe He is in all human society, -moulding it to His will. Everything, from the critical and -scientific standpoint, seems to me so continuous and natural—no -sharp lines anywhere—one thing leading to another, event leading -to event, belief to belief—and God enwrapping and enfolding all. -But this is one general principle, and yours is quite another. I -quite agree that from your standpoint no explanation that Renan -could give of the Church can appear other than meagre or -grotesque.”</p></div> - -<p>Her translation of Amiel’s <i>Journal Intime</i> was a long and exacting -piece of work, but she enjoyed the struggle with the precise meaning of -the French phrases and always maintained that she owed much to it, both -in her knowledge of French and of English. She had begun it, with the -benevolent approval of its French editor, M. Scherer, early in 1884, and -took it up again after <i>Miss Bretherton</i> came out; found it indeed a far -more troublesome task than she had foreseen, and was still wrestling -with the Introduction in the summer of 1885, when her head was already -full of her new novel, and she was fretting to begin upon it. But the -book appeared at length in December, 1885, and very soon made its mark. -The wonderful language of the Swiss mystic appealed to a generation more -occupied than ours with the things of the soul, while Mrs. Ward’s -introduction gave a masterly sketch of the writer’s strange personality -and the development of his mind. As Jowett wrote to her, “Shall I tell -you the simple truth? It is wonderful to me how you could have thought -and known so much about so many things.” Mr. Talbot, the Warden of Keble -(now Bishop of Winchester), wrote of the “almost breathless admiration -of the truth and penetration of his thought” with which he had read the -book, while Lord Arthur Russell reported that he had “met Mr. Gladstone, -who spoke with great interest of Amiel, asked me whether I had compared -the translation with the original, and said that a most interesting -small volume might be extracted, of <i>Pensées</i>, quite equal to Pascal.”</p> - -<p>But it was, inevitably, “caviar to the general.” Mrs. Ward’s brother, -Willie Arnold, her close comrade and<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> friend in all things literary, -wrote to her from Manchester a few months after its appearance: “I -served on a jury at the Assizes last week—two murder cases and general -horrors. I sat next to a Mr. Amiel—pronounced ‘Aymiell’—a worthy -Manchester tradesman; no doubt his ancestor was a Huguenot refugee. I -had one of your vols. in my pocket, and showed him the passage about the -family. He was greatly interested, and borrowed it. Returned it next day -with the remark that it was ‘too religious for him.’ Alas, divine -philosophy!”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Ever since the previous winter the idea of a novel in which the clash -between the older and the younger types of Christianity should be worked -out in terms of human life, had been growing and fermenting in her mind. -<i>Miss Bretherton</i> and Amiel’s <i>Journal</i> had given her a valuable -apprenticeship in the art of writing, while Amiel’s luminous reflections -on the decadence and formalism of the churches had tended to confirm her -own passionate conviction that all was not well with the established -forms of religion. But the determining factor in the writing of <i>Robert -Elsmere</i> was the close and continuous study which she had given ever -since her work for the <i>Dictionary of Christian Biography</i> to the -problem of “Christian origins.” She was fascinated by the intricacy and -difficulty of the whole subject, but more especially by such branches of -it as the Synoptic Problem, or the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the -rest; while the questions raised by the realization that the Books of -the New Testament were the products of an age steeped in miracle and -wholly uncritical of the records of it, struck her as vital to the whole -orthodox position. At the same time her immense tenderness for -Christianity, her belief that the life and teaching of the Founder were -still the “master-light of all our seeing,” made her yearn for a -simplification of the creeds, so that the Message itself should once -more appeal to the masses without the intervention of formulæ that -perpetually challenged their reason. The argument of “Literature and -Dogma” culminates in the picture of mankind waiting for the lifting of -the burden of “Aberglaube” and dogmatism, with which the spirit of -Christianity had been crushed down for centuries, waiting for the -renewal that would come when the old coil was cast off.<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> It was in that -spirit also that Mrs. Ward attacked the problem; her Robert was to her a -link in the chain of the liberators of all ages. Was her outlook too -intellectual? Did she overestimate the repugnance to obsolete forms that -possessed her generation? So it was said by many who rose up in startled -defence of those forms, many who had never felt the uttermost clash -between the things which they wished to believe and the things which -Truth allowed them to believe. Yet still the response of her generation -was to be greater than she ever dreamt. No doubt the renewal did not -come in the precise form in which she looked for it; creeds were to -prove tougher, the worship of the Risen Lord more vital than she -thought; yet still, in a hundred ways, the influence of the fermentation -caused by the ideas of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> may be traced in the Church -to-day. “Biblical criticism” may now be out of fashion; but it is -because its victory has in reality been won. All this lay hidden from -the mind of the writer as she sat toiling over her task in the solitude -of Borough Farm, or in the little “powder-closet” overlooking the back -gardens of Russell Square; she wrote because she “could no other,” and -only rarely did she allow herself to feel, with trembling, that the -<i>Zeitgeist</i> might indeed be with her.</p> - -<p>The book was begun in the autumn of 1885, with every hope that it would -be finished in less than a year. It was offered, when a few chapters had -been written, to the Macmillans for publication, since they had -published both <i>Miss Bretherton</i> and the <i>English Poets</i>, but to the sad -disappointment of its author they rejected it on the ground that the -subject was not likely to appeal to the British public. In this dilemma -Mrs. Ward bethought herself of Mr. George Murray Smith, the publisher of -Charlotte Brontë, and in some trepidation offered the book to him. Mr. -Smith had greater faith than the Macmillans and accepted it at once, -sealing the bargain by making an advance of £200 upon it in May, 1886. -So began Mrs. Ward’s connection with “George Smith,” as she always -familiarly spoke of him: a friend and counsellor indeed, to whom she -owed incalculable things in the years that followed.</p> - -<p>In the Preface to the “Westmorland Edition” of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, issued -twenty-three years later, Mrs. Ward herself confessed to her models for -some of the principal<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> characters—to the friend of her youth, Mark -Pattison, for the figure of the Squire (though not in his landowning -capacity!); to Thomas Hill Green, “the noblest and most persuasive -master of philosophic thought in modern Oxford,” for that of Henry Grey; -and to Amiel himself, the hapless intellectual tortured by the paralysis -of will, for that of Langham. Both the Rector of Lincoln and Professor -Green had recently died, the latter in the prime of his life and work, -and Mrs. Ward sought both in the dedication and in her sketch of the -strong and lovable tutor of St. Anselm’s, to express her lasting -admiration for this lost friend. But she claimed in each case the -artist’s freedom to treat her creatures as her own, once they had -entered the little world of the novel: a thesis which she was to -maintain and develop in later years, when she occasionally went to the -past for her characters. Catherine was a more composite picture, drawn -from the “strong souls” she had known among her own kinswomen from -childhood up, and therefore, perhaps, more tenderly treated by the -author than the rules of artistic detachment would allow. She was a type -far more possible in the ’eighties than now, but it is perhaps -comforting to know that no single human being inspired her. As to the -scene in which these figures moved, it was on a sunny day at the end of -May, 1885, that Mrs. Ward’s old friend, Mr. James Cropper, of -Ellergreen, took her for a drive up the valley of Long Sleddale, in a -lonely part of Westmorland. There she saw the farm at the head of the -dale, the vicarage, the Leyburns’ house. Already her thoughts were busy -with her story, and from that day onwards she peopled the quiet valley -with her folk.</p> - -<p>At first she was full of hope that the book would be finished before the -summer of 1886, although she admits to her mother that “it is very -difficult to write and the further I get the harder it is.” In March of -that year she writes to her sister-in-law: “I have made up my mind to -come here [Borough Farm] for the whole of April, so as to get <i>Robert -Elsmere done</i>! It must and shall be done by the end of April, if I -expire in the attempt.” In April she did indeed work herself nearly to -death, writing sixteen, eighteen and even twenty pages of manuscript in -the day, and a sort of confidence began to grow up in her mind that the -book would not speak its message in vain. “I think this book<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> <i>must</i> -interest a certain number of people,” she writes to her mother; “I -certainly feel as if I were writing parts of it with my heart’s blood.” -But the difficulties only increased, and actually it was the end of -October before even the first two volumes were finished. And then “the -more satisfied I become with the second volume the more discontented I -am with the first. It must be re-cast, alas!” Her arm was often -troublesome, especially in the autumn of this year, when she was staying -at the Forsters’ house near Fox How, working very hard. “I am dreadfully -low about myself,” she writes; “my arm has not been so bad since April, -when it took me practically a month’s rest to get it right again. I have -been literally physically incapable of finishing my last chapter. And to -think of all the things I promised myself to do this week! And here I -have time, ideas, inclination, and I can do nothing. I will dictate if I -can to Gertrude, but I am so discouraged just at present I seem to have -no heart for it.” Then a few days later it has taken a turn for the -better, and she is overjoyed: “The second volume was <i>finished</i> last -night! The arm is <i>decidedly</i> better, though still shaky. I sleep badly, -and rheumatism keeps flying about me, now here, now there, but I am not -at all doleful—indeed in excellent spirits now that the arm is better!”</p> - -<p>So, in spite of the distractions of London, she struggled on with the -third volume all through that winter (1886-7), flying for a week in -December to Borough Farm in order to get complete isolation for her -task. “Oh, the quiet, the blissful quiet of it! It helps me most in -thinking out the book. I can <i>write</i> in London; I seem to be unable to -think.” Sometimes, however, her head was utterly exhausted. Returning to -London, she wrote to her mother: “I did a splendid day’s work yesterday, -but it was fighting against headache all day, and this morning I felt -quite incapable of writing and have been lying down, reading, though my -wretched head is hardly fit for reading. It is not exactly pain, but a -horrid feeling of tension and exhaustion, as if one hadn’t slept for -ever so long, which I don’t at all approve of.”</p> - -<p>Often, when these fits of exhaustion came on, a small person would be -sent for from the schoolroom, in whose finger-tips a quaint form of -magic was believed to reside, and there she<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> would sit for an hour, -stroking her mother’s head, or her hands, or her feet, while the -“Jabberwock” on the Chinese cabinet curled his long tail at the pair in -silence. “Chatter to me,” she used to say; but this was not always easy, -and a golden and friendly silence, peopled by many thoughts, usually lay -between the two.</p> - -<p>At length, on March 9, 1887, the last words of the third volume were -written, there in the little powder-closet behind the back drawing-room. -But this did not mean the end. She was already painfully aware that the -book was too long, and Mr. George Smith, best and truest of advisers, -firmly indicated to her that the limits even of a three-volume novel had -been overstepped. She herself had already admitted to her brother Willie -that it was “not a novel at all,” and she now plunged bravely into the -task of cutting and revision, fondly hoping that it would take her no -more than a fortnight’s hard work. Instead it took her the best part of -a year. Publication first in the summer season, then in the autumn, had -to be given up, while her own fatigue increased so that sometimes for -days together she could not touch the book. The few friends to whom she -showed it were indeed encouraging, and her brother Willie was the first -to prophesy that it would “make a great mark.” After reading the first -volume he wrote to Mrs. Arnold, “You may look forward to finding -yourself the mother of a famous woman!” But the mood of this year was -one of depression, while Mrs. Arnold’s illness became an ever-increasing -sorrow. In the Long Vacation Mrs. Ward took the empty Lady Margaret -Hall, at Oxford, for a few weeks, in order to be near her mother—a step -which brought her unexpectedly another pleasure. On the very day after -they arrived she wrote: “I have had a great pleasure to-day, for at -three o’clock arrived a note from Jowett saying that he was in Oxford -for a day and would I come to tea? So I went down at five, stayed an -hour, then he insisted on walking up here, and sat in the garden -watching the children play tennis till about seven. Dear old man! I have -the most lively and filial affection for him. We talked about all sorts -of things—Cornwall, politics, St. Paul—and when I wanted to go he -would not let me. I think he liked it, and certainly I did.”</p> - -<p>Through the autumn and into the month of January,<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> 1888, she struggled -with mountains of proofs, while Mr. Smith, though without much faith in -the popular prospects of the book, was always “kind and indulgent,” as -she gratefully testifies in the <i>Recollections</i>. At length, towards the -end of January, she sent in the last batch, and on February 24 the book -appeared.</p> - -<p>Six weeks later, in the little house in Bradmore Road, which had -witnessed so many years of suffering indomitably borne, Julia Arnold lay -dying. Through pain and exhaustion unspeakable she had yet kept her -intense interest in the human scene, and now the last pleasure which she -enjoyed on earth was the news that reached her of the growing success of -her daughter’s book. With a hand so weak that the pen kept falling from -her fingers, she wrote her an account of the Oxford gossip on it; she -asked her, with a flash of the old malice, to let her know at once -should she hear what any of her aunts were saying. Alas, Julia knew -better than anyone else on earth what the religious temperament of the -Arnolds might mean; but before the answer came her poor tormented spirit -was at rest for ever.<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><br /> -<i>ROBERT ELSMERE</i> AND AFTER<br /><br /> -1888-1889</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HREE volumes, printed as closely as were those of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, -penetrated somewhat slowly among the fraternity of reviewers. The -<i>Scotsman</i> and the <i>Morning Post</i> were the first to notice it on March -5, nine days after its appearance; the <i>British Weekly</i> wept over it on -March 9; the <i>Academy</i> compared it to <i>Adam Bede</i> on the 17th; the -<i>Manchester Guardian</i> gave it two columns on the 21st; the <i>Saturday</i> -“slated” it on the 24th; while Walter Pater’s article in the Church -<i>Guardian</i> on the 28th, calling it a “<i>chef d’Å“uvre</i> of that kind of -quiet evolution of character through circumstance, introduced into -English literature by Miss Austen and carried to perfection in France by -George Sand,” gave perhaps greater happiness to its author than any -other review. <i>The Times</i> waited till April 7, being in no hurry to show -favour to one connected with its staff, but when it came the review duly -spoke of <i>Robert</i> as “a clever attack upon revealed religion,” and all -was well. By the end of March, however, the public interest in the book -had begun in earnest; the first edition of 500 copies was exhausted and -a second had appeared; this was sold out by the middle of April; a third -appeared on April 19 and was gone within a week; a fourth followed in -the same way. Matthew Arnold wrote from Wilton, the Pembrokes’ house, a -week before his death (which occurred on April 15), that he found all -the guests there reading or intending to read it, and added, “George -Russell, who was staying at Aston Clinton with Gladstone, says it is all -true about his interest in the book. He talked of it incessantly and -said he thought he should review it for Knowles.”</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact, Mr. Gladstone had already written<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> the first draft -of his article and was corresponding with Lord Acton on the various -points which he wished to raise or to drive home. His biographer hints -that Acton’s replies were not too encouraging. But the old giant was not -to be deterred. The book had moved him profoundly and he felt impelled -to combat the all too dangerous conclusions to which it pointed. “Mamma -and I,” he wrote to his daughter in March, “are each of us still -separately engaged in a death-grapple with <i>Robert Elsmere</i>. I -complained of some of the novels you gave me to read as too stiff, but -they are nothing to this. It is wholly out of the common order. At -present I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything on it, -but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will be verified or -not. In any case it is a tremendous book.” And to Lord Acton he wrote: -“It is not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the -labour and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one -could no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides.” Early in April he -came to Oxford to stay with the Edward Talbots at Keble College, and -hearing that Mrs. Ward was also there, watching over her dying mother, -he expressed a desire to see her, and, if possible, to talk the book -over with her. She came on the day after her mother’s death—April -8—towards evening, and waited for him alone in the Talbots’ -drawing-room. That night she wrote down the following account of their -conversation:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘I arrived at Keble at 7.10. Gladstone was not in the drawing-room. -I waited for about three minutes when I heard his slow step coming -downstairs. He came in with a candle in his hand which he put out, -then he came up most cordially and quickly. ‘Mrs. Ward—this is -most good of you to come and see me! If you had not come, I should -myself have ventured to call and ask after yourself and Mr. -Arnold.’</p> - -<p>‘Then he sat down, he on a small uncomfortable chair, where he -fidgeted greatly! He began to ask about Mamma. Had there been much -suffering? Was death peaceful? I told him. He said that though he -had seen many deaths, he had never seen any really peaceful. In all -there had been much struggle. So much so that ‘I myself have -conceived what I will not call a terror<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> of death, but a repugnance -from the idea of death. It is the rending asunder of body and soul, -the tearing apart of the two elements of our nature—for I hold the -body to be an essential element as well as the soul, not a mere -sheath or envelope.‘ He instanced the death of Sidney Herbert as an -exception. <i>He</i> had said ‘can this indeed be dying?’—death had -come so gently.</p> - -<p>‘Then after a pause he began to speak of the knowledge of Oxford -shown by <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, and we went on to discuss the past and -present state of Oxford. He mentioned it ‘as one of the few points -on which, outside Home Rule, I disagree with Hutton,’<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> that -Hutton had given it as his opinion that Cardinal Newman and Matthew -Arnold had had more influence than any other men on modern Oxford. -Newman’s influence had been supreme up to 1845—nothing since, and -he gathered from Oxford men that Professor Jowett and Mr. Green had -counted for much more than Matthew Arnold. M.A.’s had been an -influence on the general public, not on the Universities. How -Oxford had been torn and rent, what a ‘long agony of thought’ she -had gone through! How different from Cambridge!</p> - -<p>‘Then we talked again of Newman, how he had possessed the place, -his influence comparable only to that of Abelard on Paris—the -flatness after he left. I quoted Burne-Jones on the subject. Then I -spoke of Pattison’s autobiography as illustrating Newman’s hold. He -agreed, but said that Pattison’s religious phase was so -disagreeable and unattractive that it did small credit to Newman. -He would much like to have seen more of the autobiography, but he -understood that the personalities were too strong. I asked him if -he had seen Pattison’s last ‘Confession of Faith,’ which Mrs. -Pattison decided not to print, in MS. He said no. Then he asked me -whether I had pleasant remembrances of Pattison. I warmly said yes, -and described how kind he had been to me as a girl. ‘Ah!’ he -said—‘Church would never cast him off; and Church is almost the -only person of whom he really speaks kindly in the Memoirs.’</p> - -<p>‘Then, from the state of Oxford, we passed to the state of the -country during the last half-century. ‘It has<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> been a <i>wonderful</i> -half-century! I often tell the young men who are coming on that we -have had a better time than they can have, in the next -half-century. Take one thing only—the abolition of slavery in the -world (outside Africa I suppose he meant). You are too young to -realize what that means. But I draw a distinction between the first -twenty-five years of the period and the second; during the first, -steady advance throughout all classes, during the second, distinct -recession, and retrogression, in the highest class of all. That -testing point, <i>marriage</i>, very disquieting. The scandals about -marriage in the last twenty years unparallelled in the first half -of the period. I don’t trust my own opinion, but I asked two of the -keenest social observers, and two of the coolest heads I ever -knew—Lord Granville and the late Lord Clanwilliam—to tell me what -they thought and they strongly confirmed my impression.‘ (Here one -of the Talbot boys came in and stood by the fire, and Gladstone -glanced at him once or twice, as though conversation on these -points was difficult while he was there.) I suggested that more was -made of scandals nowadays by the newspapers. But he would not have -it—‘When I was a boy—I left Eton in 1827—there were two papers, -the <i>Age</i> and the <i>Satirist</i>, worse than anything which exists now. -But they died out about 1830, and for about forty years there was -<i>nothing of the kind</i>. Then sprang up this odious and deplorable -crop of Society papers.’ He thought the fact significant.</p> - -<p>‘He talked of the modern girl. ‘They tell me she is not what she -was—that she loves to be fast. I don’t know. All I can bear -testimony to is the girl of my youth. <i>She</i> was excellent!’</p> - -<p>‘‘But,’ I asked him, ‘in spite of all drawbacks, do you not see a -gradual growth and diffusion of earnestness, of the social passion -during the whole period?’ He assented, and added, ‘With the decline -of the Church and State spirit, with the slackening of State -religion, there has unquestionably come about a quickening of the -State conscience, of the <i>social</i> conscience. I will not say what -inference should be drawn.’</p> - -<p>‘Then we spoke of charity in London, and of the way in which the -rich districts had elbowed out their poor.<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> And thereupon—perhaps -through talk of the <i>motives</i> for charitable work—we came to -religion. ‘I don’t believe in any new system,’ he said, smiling, -and with reference to <i>Robert Elsmere</i>; ‘I cling to the old. The -great traditions are what attract me. I believe in a degeneracy of -man, in the Fall—in <i>sin</i>—in the intensity and virulence of sin. -No other religion but Christianity meets the sense of sin, and sin -is the great fact in the world to me.’</p> - -<p>‘I suggested that though I did not wish for a moment to deny the -existence of moral evil, the more one thought of it the more plain -became its connection with physical and social and therefore -<i>removable</i> conditions. He disagreed, saying that the worst forms -of evil seemed to him to belong to the highest and most favoured -class ‘of <i>educated</i> people’—with some emphasis.</p> - -<p>‘I asked him whether it did not give him any confidence in ‘a new -system’—i.e. a new construction of Christianity—to watch its -effect on such a life as T. H. Green’s. He replied individuals were -no test; one must take the broad mass. Some men were born ‘so that -sin never came near them. Such men never felt the need of -Christianity. They would be better if they were worse!’</p> - -<p>‘And as to difficulties, the great difficulties of all lay in the -way of Theism. ‘I am surprised at men who don’t feel this—I am -surprised at you!‘ he said, smiling. Newman had put these -difficulties so powerfully in the <i>Apologia</i>. The Christian system -satisfied all the demands of the conscience; and as to the -intellectual difficulties—well there we came to the question of -miracles.</p> - -<p>‘Here he restated the old argument against an <i>a priori</i> -impossibility of miracles. Granted a God, it is absurd to limit the -scope and range of the <i>will</i> of such a being. I agreed; then I -asked him to let me tell him how I had approached the -question—through a long immersion in documents of the early -Church, in critical and historical questions connected with -miracles. I had come to see how miracles arise, and to feel it -impossible to draw the line with any rigidity between one -miraculous story and another.</p> - -<p>‘‘The difficulty is’—he said slowly, ‘if you sweep away miracles, -you sweep away <i>the Resurrection</i>! With regard to the other -miracles, I no longer feel as I once<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> did that they are the most -essential evidence for Christianity. The evidence which now comes -<i>nearest</i> to me is the evidence of Christian history, of the type -of character Christianity has produced——‘</p> - -<p>“Here the Talbots’ supper bell rang, and the clock struck eight. He -said in the most cordial way it was impossible it could be so late, -that he must not put the Warden’s household out, but that our -conversation could not end there, and would I come again? We -settled 9.30 in the morning. He thanked me, came with me to the -hall and bade me a most courteous and friendly good-bye.”<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p></div> - -<p>The next morning she duly presented herself after breakfast, and this -time they got to grips far more thoroughly than before with the question -of miracles and of New Testament criticism generally. In a letter to her -husband (published in the <i>Recollections</i>) she calls it “a battle royal -over the book and Christian evidences,” and describes how “at times he -looked stern and angry and white to a degree, so that I wondered -sometimes how I had the courage to go on—the drawn brows were so -formidable!” But she stuck to her points and found, as she thought, that -for all his versatility he was not really familiar with the literature -of the subject, but took refuge instead in attacking her own Theistic -position, divested as it was of supernatural Christianity. “I do not say -or think you ‘attack’ Christianity,” he wrote to her two days later, -“but in proposing a substitute for it, reached by reduction and -negation, I think (forgive me) you are dreaming the most visionary of -all human dreams.”</p> - -<p>He enclosed a volume of his <i>Gleanings</i>, marking the article on “The -Courses of Religious Thought.” Mrs. Ward replied to him as follows:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>April 15, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Gladstone</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Thank you very much for the volume of <i>Gleanings</i> with its gracious -inscription. I have read the article you point out to me with the -greatest interest, and shall do<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> the same with the others. Does not -the difference between us on the question of sin come very much to -this—that to you the great fact in the world and in the history of -man, is <i>sin</i>—to me, <i>progress</i>? I remember Amiel somewhere speaks -of the distinction as marking off two classes of thought, two -orders of temperament. In myself I see a perpetual struggle, in the -world also, but through it all I feel the “Power that makes for -righteousness.” In the life of conscience, in the play of physical -and moral law, I see the ordained means by which sin is gradually -scourged and weakened both in the individual and in the human -society. And as to that sense of <i>irreparableness</i>, that awful -burden of evil both on the self and outside it, for which all -religions have sought an anodyne in the ceremonies of propitiation -and sacrifice, I think the modern who believes in God and cherishes -the dear memory of a human Christ will learn humbly, as Amiel says, -even “to accept himself,” and life, as they are, at God’s hands. -Constant and recurrent experience teaches him that the baser self -can only be killed by constant and recurrent effort towards good; -the action of the higher self is governed by an even stronger and -more prevailing law of self-preservation than that of the lower; -evil finds its appointed punishment and deterrent in pain and -restlessness; and as the old certainty of the Christian heaven -fades it will become clear to him that his only hope of an -immortality worth having lies in the developing and maturing of -that diviner part in him which can conceive and share the divine -life—of the soul. And for the rest, he will trust in the -indulgence and pity of the power which brought forth this strangely -mingled world.</p> - -<p>So much for the minds capable of such ideas. For the masses, in the -future, it seems to me that charitable and social organization will -be all-important. If the simpler Christian ideas can clothe -themselves in such organization—and I believe they can and are -even now beginning to do it—their effect on the democracy may be -incalculable. If not, then God will fulfil Himself in other ways. -But “dream” as it may be, it seems to many of us, a dream worth -trying to realize in a world which contains your seven millions of -persons in France, who will have nothing to say to religious -beliefs, or the 200,000 persons in South<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> London alone, amongst -whom, according to the <i>Record</i>, Christianity has practically no -existence.</p></div> - -<p>And the letter ends with a plea that the faith which animated T. H. -Green might fitly be described by the words of the Psalm, “my soul is -athirst for God, for the living God.”</p> - -<p>To this Mr. Gladstone replied immediately:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">St. James’s Street.</span><br /> -<i>April 16, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I do not at all doubt that your conception of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> -includes much of what is expressed in the opening verses of Psalm -42. I am more than doubtful whether he could impart it to Elgood -St., and I wholly disbelieve that Elgood St. could hand it on from -generation to generation. You have much courage, but I doubt -whether even you are brave enough to think that, fourteen centuries -after its foundation, Elgood St. could have written the <i>Imitation -of Christ</i>.</p> - -<p>And my meaning about Mr. Green was to hint at what seems to me the -unutterable strangeness of his passionately beseeching philosophy -to open to him the communion for which he thirsted, when he had a -better source nearer hand.</p> - -<p>It is like a farmer under the agricultural difficulty who has to -migrate from England and plants himself in the middle of the -Sahara.</p> - -<p>But I must abstain from stimulating you. At Oxford I sought to -avoid pricking you and rather laid myself open—because I thought -it not fair to ask you for statements which might give me points -for reply.</p></div> - -<p>Mr. Gladstone evidently believed he had been as mild as milk—he knew -not the terror of his own “drawn brows!”</p> - -<p><i>Mrs. Ward to Mr. Gladstone.</i></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>April 17, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>I think I must write a few words in answer to your letter of -yesterday, in view of your approaching article<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> which fills me with -so much interest and anxiety. If I put what I have to say badly or -abruptly, please forgive me. My thoughts are so full of this -terrible loss of my dear uncle Matthew Arnold, to whom I was deeply -attached, that it seems difficult to turn to anything else.</p> - -<p>And yet I feel a sort of responsibility laid upon me with regard to -Mr. Green, whom you may possibly mention in your article. There are -many people living who can explain his thought much better than I -can. But may I say with regard to your letter of yesterday, that in -turning to philosophy, that is to the labour of reason and thought, -for light on the question of man’s whence and whither, Mr. Green as -I conceive it, only obeyed an urgent and painful necessity. “The -parting with the Christian mythology is the rending asunder of -bones and marrow”—words which I have put into Grey’s mouth—were -words of Mr. Green’s to me. It was the only thing of the sort I -ever heard him say—he was a man who never spoke of his -feelings—but it was said with a penetrating force and sincerity -which I still remember keenly. A long intellectual travail had -convinced him that the miraculous Christian story was untenable; -but speculatively he gave it up with grief and difficulty, and -practically, to his last hour, he clung to all the forms and -associations of the old belief with a wonderful affection. With -regard to conformity to Church usage and repression of individual -opinion he and I disagreed a good deal.</p> - -<p>If you do speak of him, will you look at his two Lay Sermons, of -which I enclose my copy?—particularly the second one, which was -written eight years after the first, and to my mind expresses his -thought more clearly.</p> - -<p>Some of the letters which have reached me lately about the book -have been curious and interesting. A vicar of a church in the East -End, who seems to have been working among the poor for forty years, -says, “I could not help writing; in your book you seemed to grasp -me by the hand and follow me right on through my own life -experiences.” And an Owens College Professor, who appears to have -thought and read much of these things, writes to a third person, à -propos of Elsmere, that the book has grasped “the real force at -work in driving so many to give up the Christian creed. It is not -the<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> scientific (in the loose modern sense of the word), still less -the philosophical difficulties, which influence them, but it is the -education of the historic sense which is disintegrating -faith.”—Only the older forms of faith, as I hold, that the new may -rise! But I did not mean to speak of myself.</p></div> - -<p>When the famous article—entitled “Robert Elsmere and the Battle of -Belief”—appeared in the May <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, there was nothing but -courtesy between the two opponents. Mrs. Ward sent the G.O.M. a copy of -the book, with a picture of Catherine’s valley bound into it, and he -replied that the volumes would “form a very pleasant recollection of -what I trust has been a ‘tearless battle.’” Many of the papers now -reviewed both book and article together, and the <i>Pall Mall</i> ironically -congratulated the Liberal Party on “Mr. Gladstone’s new preoccupation.” -“For two and a half years,” it declared, the G.O.M. had been able to -think of nothing but Home Rule and Ireland. “But Mrs. Ward has changed -all that.” The excitement among the reading public was very great. It -penetrated even to the streets, for one of us overheard a panting lady, -hugging a copy of the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, saying to her companion as -she fought her way into an omnibus, “Oh, my dear, <i>have</i> you read Weg on -Bobbie?” Naturally the sale received a fresh stimulus. Two more -three-volume editions disappeared during May, and a seventh and last -during June. Then there was a pause before the appearance of the Popular -or 6s. edition, which came out at the end of July with an impression of -5,000. It was immediately bought up; 7,000 more were disposed of during -August, and the sale went on till the end of the year at the rate of -about 4,000 a month. Even during 1889 it continued steadily, until by -January, 1890, 44,000 copies of the 6<i>s.</i> edition had been sold. But as -the sale had then slackened Mr. Smith decided to try the experiment of a -half-crown edition. 20,000 of this were sold by the following November, -but the drop had already set in and during 1891 the total only rose to -23,000. But even so, the sale of these three editions in the United -Kingdom alone had amounted to 70,500.</p> - -<p>All through the spring and summer of 1888 letters poured in upon Mrs. -Ward by the score and the hundred, both<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> from known and unknown -correspondents, so that her husband and sister-in-law had almost to -build a hedge around her and to insist that she should not answer them -all herself. Those which the book provoked from her old friends, -however, especially those of more orthodox views than her own, were -often of poignant interest. The Warden of Keble wrote her six sheets of -friendly argument and remonstrance. Mr. Creighton wrote her a letter -full of closely reasoned criticism of Elsmere’s position, to which she -made the following reply:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>March 13, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Max</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I have been deeply interested by your letter, and am very grateful -to you for the fairness and candour of it. Perhaps it is an -affectation to say always that one likes candour!—but I certainly -like it from you, and should be aggrieved if you did not give it -me.</p> - -<p>I think you only evade the whole issue raised by the book when you -say that Elsmere was never a Christian. Of course in the case of -every one who goes through such a change, it is easy to say this; -it is extremely difficult to prove it; and all probability is -against its being true in every case. What do you really fall back -upon when you say that if Elsmere had been a Christian he could not -have been influenced as he was? Surely on the “inward witness.” But -the “inward witness,” or as you call it “the supernatural life,” -belongs to every religion that exists. The Andaman islander even -believes himself filled by his God, the devout Buddhist and -Mahommedan certainly believe themselves under divine and -supernatural direction, and have been inspired by the belief to -heroic efforts and sufferings. What is, in essence and -fundamentally, to distinguish your “inner witness” from theirs? And -if the critical observer maintains that this “supernatural life” is -in all cases really an intense life of the imagination, differently -peopled and conditioned, what answer have you?</p> - -<p>None, unless you appeal to the facts and <i>fruits</i> of Christianity. -The Church has always done so. Only the Quaker or the Quietist can -stand mainly on the “inward witness.”</p> - -<p>The fruits we are not concerned with. But it is as<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> to the <i>facts</i> -that Elsmere and, as I conceive, our whole modern time is really -troubled. An acute Scotch economist was talking to Humphry the -other day about the religious change in the Scotch lowlands. “It is -so pathetic,” he said: “when I was young religion was the main -interest, the passionate occupation of the whole people. Now when I -go back there, as I constantly do, I find everything changed. The -old keenness is gone, the people’s minds are turning to other -things; there is a restless consciousness, coming they know not -whence, but invading every stratum of life, that <i>the evidence is -not enough</i>.” There, on another scale, is Elsmere’s experience writ -large. Why is he to be called “very ill-trained,” and his -impressions “accidental” because he undergoes it?... What convinced -<i>me</i> finally and irrevocably was two years of close and constant -occupation with the materials of history in those centuries which -lie near to the birth of Christianity, and were the critical -centuries of its development. I then saw that to adopt the witness -of those centuries to matters of fact, without translating it at -every step into the historical language of our own day—a language -which the long education of time has brought closer to the -realities of things—would be to end by knowing nothing, actually -and truly, about their life. And if one is so to translate -Augustine and Jerome, nay even Suetonius and Tacitus, when they -talk to you of raisings from the dead, and making blind men to see, -why not St. Paul and the Synoptics?</p> - -<p>I don’t think you have ever felt this pressure, though within the -limits of your own work I notice that you are always so translating -the language of the past. But those who have, cannot escape it by -any appeal to the “inward witness.” They too, or many of them, -still cling to a religious life of the imagination, nay perhaps -they live for it, but it must be one where the expansive energies -of life and reason cannot be always disturbing and tormenting, -which is less vulnerable and offers less prey to the plunderer than -that which depends on the orthodox Christian story.</p></div> - -<p>Another old friend, Mrs. Edward Conybeare, wrote to<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> contend that the -“mere life and death of the carpenter’s son of Nazareth could never have -proved the vast historical influence for good which you allow it to be,” -had that life ended in</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“nothing but a Syrian grave.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward replied to her as follows:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>May 16, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Frances</span>,<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was very interesting to me to get your letter about <i>Robert -Elsmere</i>. I wish we could have a good talk about it. Writing is -very difficult to me, for the letters about it are overwhelming, -and I am always as you know more or less hampered by writer’s -cramp.</p> - -<p>I am thinking of “A Conversation” for one of the summer numbers of -the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, in which some of the questions which are -only suggested in the book may be carried a good deal further. For -the more I think and read the more plain the great lines of that -distant past become to me, the more clearly I see God at work -there, through the forms of thought, the beliefs, the capacities of -the first three centuries, as I see Him at work now, through the -forms of thought, the beliefs and capacities of our own. -Christianity was the result of many converging lines of thought and -development. The time was ripe for a moral revolution, and a great -personality, and the great personality came. That a life of -importance and far-reaching influence could have been lived within -the sphere of religion at that moment, or for centuries afterwards, -without undergoing a process of miraculous amplification, would, I -think, have been impossible. The generations before and the -generations after supply illustration after illustration of it. -That Jesus, our dear Master, partly shared this tendency of his -time and was partly bewildered and repelled by it, is very plain to -me.</p> - -<p>As to the belief in the Resurrection, I have many things to say -about it, and shall hope to say them in public when I have pondered -them long enough. But I long to say them not negatively, for -purposes of attack, but positively,<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> for purposes of -reconstruction. It is about the new forms of faith and the new -grounds of combined action that I really care intensely. I want to -challenge those who live in doubt and indecision from year’s end to -year’s end, to think out the matter, and for their children’s sake -to count up what remains to them, and to join frankly for purposes -of life and conduct with those who are their spiritual fellows. It -is the levity or the cowardice that will not think, or the -indolence and self-indulgence that is only too glad to throw off -restraints, which we have to fear. But in truth for religion, or -for the future, I have no fear at all. God is his own vindication -in human life.</p></div> - -<p>But apart from the religious argument, the characters in <i>Robert -Elsmere</i> aroused the greatest possible interest, especially perhaps that -of Catherine.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“As an observer of the human ant-hill, quite impartial by this -time,” wrote Prof. Huxley, “I think your picture of one of the -deeper aspects of our troubled times admirable. You are very hard -on the philosophers: I do not know whether Langham or the Squire is -the more unpleasant—but I have a great deal of sympathy with the -latter, so I hope he is not the worse.</p> - -<p>“If I may say so, I think the picture of Catherine is the gem of -the book. She reminds me of her namesake of Siena—and would as -little have failed in any duty, however gruesome. You remember -Sodoma’s picture?”</p></div> - -<p>The appreciation of her French friends was always very dear to Mrs. -Ward, and amongst them too the book was eagerly read by a small circle, -though, as Scherer warned her, the subject could never become a popular -one in France. But both he and M. Taine were greatly excited by it, -while M. André Michel of the Louvre, to whom she had entrusted the copy -which she desired to present to M. Taine, wrote her a delightful account -of his embassy:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">P<small>ARIS</small>.<br /> -<i>ce 31 janvier, 1889.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">C<small>HERE</small> M<small>ADAME</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Votre lettre m’a été une bien agréable surprise et une bien -intéressante lecture. Je l’ai immédiatement communiquée<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> à M. -Taine, en lui remettant l’exemplaire que vous lui destiniez de -<i>Robert Elsmere</i> et je vous avoue qu’en me rendant chez lui à cet -effet, je me <i>rengorgeais</i> un peu, très-fier de servir -d’intermédiaire entre l’auteur de <i>Robert Elsmere</i> et celui de la -<i>Littérature Anglaise</i>. L’âne portant des reliques chez son évêque -ne marchait pas plus solennellement!</p> - -<p>M. Taine a été très-touché de cet hommage venant de vous, et je -pense qu’il vous en a déjà remercié lui-même. J’aurais voulu que -vous eussiez pu entendre—incognito—avec quelle vivacité de -sympathie et d’admiration il parlait de votre livre. Pendant -plusieurs jours, il n’a pas été question d’autre chose chez lui.</p></div> - -<p>The cumulative effect of all these letters, both approving and -disapproving; of the preachings on Robert’s opinions that began with Mr. -Haweis in May, and continued at intervals throughout the summer; of the -general atmosphere of celebrity that began to surround her, was -extremely upsetting to so sensitive a nature as Mrs. Ward’s, and much of -it was and remained distasteful to her. But fame had its lighter sides. -There were the inevitable sonnets, beginning</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“I thank you, Lady, for your book so pure,”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">or</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Hail to thee, gentle leader, puissant knight!”—<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">there were inquiries as to the address of the “New Brotherhood of -Christ,” “so that next time we are in London we may attend some of its -meetings,” and there was a gentleman who demanded to know “the opus no. -of the Andante and Scherzo of Beethoven mentioned on p. 239, and of Hans -Sachs’s Immortal Song quoted on p. 177. I am in want of a little fresh -music for one of my daughters and shall esteem your kind reply.” And -finally there was the following letter, which must be transcribed in -full:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="nind">D<small>EAR</small> M<small>ADAM</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Trusting to your Clemency, in seeking your advice, knowing my -sphere in life, to be so far below your’s. My Mother, who is a -Cook-Housekeeper, but very fond of<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> Literature, Poetry -(“unfortunately”), in her younger days brought out a small volume, -upon her own account, a copy of which Her Majesty graciously -accepted. Tennyson considered it most “meritorious,” Caryle most -“creditable.” But what I am asking your advice upon is her -“Autography,” her Cook’s Career, which has been a checquered one. -She feels quite sure, that if it were brought out by an abler hand, -it would be widely sought and read, at least by two classes “my -Ladies” and Cooks. The matter would be truth, names and places -strictously ficticious. With much admiration and respect,</p> - -<p class="r">I am, Madam,<br /> -Yours Obediently,<br /> -A. A.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>History does not record what reply Mrs. Ward made to this interesting -proposal, but no doubt she took it all as part of the great and amusing -game that Fate was playing with her. As to that game—“I have still -constant letters and reviews,” she wrote to her father on July 17, “and -have been more lionized this last month than ever.—But a little -lionizing goes a long way! One’s sense of humour protests, not to speak -of anything more serious, and I shall be <i>very</i> glad to get to Borough -next week. As to my work, it is all in uncertainty. For the present Miss -Sellers is coming to me in the country, and I shall work hard at Latin -and Greek, especially the Greek of the New Testament.”</p> - -<p>And to her old friend, Mrs. Johnson, she wrote: “Being lionized, dear -Bertha, is the foolishest business on earth; I have just had five weeks -of it, and if I don’t use it up in a novel some day it’s a pity. The -book has been strangely, wonderfully successful and has made me many new -friends. But I love my old ones so much best!” This latter sentiment is -expressed again in a letter to Mr. Ward: “Strange how tenacious are -one’s first friendships! No other friends can ever be to me quite like -Charlotte or Louise or Bertha or Clara.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> They know all there is to -know, bad and good—and with them one is always at ease.”</p> - -<p>That autumn they went off on a round of visits, staying first at -Merevale with Mrs. Dugdale, whose husband had<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> been killed three years -before in his own mine near by—a story of simple heroism which moved -Mrs. Ward profoundly, so that years afterwards she used it in her own -tale of <i>George Tressady</i>. Then to Sir Robert and Lady Cunliffe, with -whom they went over to see the “old wizard” of Hawarden, and spent a -wonderful hour in his company.</p> - -<p>To her old friend, J. R. Thursfield (a staunch Home Ruler), she wrote -the following account of it:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>September 14, 1888.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>“Where do you think we spent the afternoon of the day before -yesterday? You would have been <i>so</i> much worthier of it than we! -The Cunliffes took us over to tea at Hawarden and the G.O.M. was -delightful. First of all he showed us the old Norman keep, skipping -up the steps in a way to make a Tory positively ill to see, talking -of every subject under the sun—Sir Edward Watkin and their new -line of railway, border castles, executions in the sixteenth -century, Villari’s <i>Savonarola</i>, Damiens and his tortures—‘all for -sticking half-an-inch of penknife into that beast Louis -XV!’—modern poetry, Tupper, Lewis Morris, Lord Houghton and Heaven -knows what besides, and all with a charm, a courtesy, an <i>élan</i>, an -eagle glance of eye that sent regretful shivers down one’s Unionist -backbone. He showed us all his library—his literary table, and his -political table, and his new toy, the strong fire-proof room he has -just built to hold his 60,000 letters, the papers which will some -day be handed over to his biographer. His vigour both of mind and -body was astonishing—he may well talk, as he did, of ‘the foolish -dogmatism which refuses to believe in centenarians.’”</p></div> - -<p>À propos of this last remark, Mrs. Ward filled in the tale on her return -by telling us how he turned upon her with flashing eye and demanded: -“Did it ever occur to you, Mrs. Ward, that Lord Palmerston was Prime -Minister at 81?” He himself was to surpass that record by returning to -power at 82.</p> - -<p>From the Cunliffes’ they also made an expedition to the Peak country, -which Mrs. Ward wished to explore for purposes of her next book (<i>David -Grieve</i>), now already taking shape in her mind—and then travelled up to -Scotland to stay at a great house to whose mistress, Lady Wemyss,<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> she -was devoted. From one who was afterwards to be known as the portrayer of -English country-house life the following impressions may be of interest:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c"><i>To Mrs. A. H. Johnson</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Fox Ghyll, Ambleside</span>,<br /> -<i>October 21, 1888</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...Yes, we had many visits and on the whole very pleasant ones. In -Derbyshire I saw a farm and a moorland which I shall try to make -the British public see some day. Then on we went to the Lyulph -Stanleys’, saw them, and Castle Howard and Rivaulx, and journeyed -on by the coast to Redcar and the Hugh Bells. There we found Alice -Green, and had a merry time. Afterwards came a week at Gosford, -whereof the pleasure was mixed. Lady Wemyss I love more than ever, -but the party in the house was large and very smart, and with the -best will in the world on both sides it is difficult for plain -literary folk who don’t belong to it to get much entertainment out -of a circle where everybody is cousin of everybody else, and on -Christian name terms, and where the women at any rate, though -pleasant enough, are taken up with “places,” jewels and Society -with a big S. I don’t mean to be unfair. Most of them are good and -kindly, and have often unsuspected “interests,” but naturally the -paraphernalia of their position plays a large part in their lives, -and makes a sort of hedge round them through which it is hard to -get at the genuine human being.</p> - -<p>Perhaps our most delightful visit was a Saturday to Monday with Mr. -Balfour, at Whittinghame. There life is lived, intellectually, on -the widest and freest of all possible planes, and the master of it -all is one to whom nature has given a peculiar charm and magnetism, -in addition to all that he has made for himself by toil and -trouble.</p> - -<p>...I am a little disturbed by the announcement of a <i>Quarterly</i> -article on <i>R.E.</i> It must be hostile—perhaps an attack in the old -<i>Quarterly</i> fashion: well, if so I shall be in good company! But I -don’t want to have to answer—I want to be free to think new -thoughts and imagine fresh things.</p></div> - -<p><a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a></p> - -<p>When the <i>Quarterly</i> article appeared a few days later she found it -courteous enough in tone, but its attitude of complacent superiority -towards the whole critical process, which it described as “a phase of -thought long ago lived through and practically dead,” stung her to -action and made her feel that some reply—to this and Gladstone -together—was now unavoidable. She owed it to her own position—not as a -scholar, for she never claimed that title, but as an interpreter of -scholars and their work to the modern public. But “If I do reply,” she -wrote to her husband, “I shall make it as substantive and constructive -as possible. All the attacking, destructive part is so distasteful to -me. I can only go through with it as a necessary element in a whole -which is not negative but positive.” But she could not be induced even -by Mr. Knowles’s persuasions to make it a regular “reply” to Mr. -Gladstone, whose name is not once mentioned throughout the article<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>; -she threw her argument instead into dialogue form, so keeping the -artistic ground which she had used in the novel, and replying to the -<i>Quarterly</i> or to the G.O.M. rather by allusion than by direct argument. -The article was very widely read and certainly carried her cause a stage -further; it was felt that here was something that had come to stay, that -must be reckoned with, and her skilful use of the admissions made in the -Church Congress that year as to the date and authorship of certain books -of the Old Testament filled her readers with a vague feeling that -perhaps after all these things must be faced for the New Testament also.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Meanwhile in America the hubbub produced by <i>Robert Elsmere</i> had far -exceeded anything that occurred on this side of the Atlantic. Those were -the days before International Copyright, when any American publisher was -free to issue the works of British authors without their consent and -without payment, and when if an “authorized edition” was issued by some -reputable firm which had paid the author for his rights, it could be -undersold the next day by some adventurous “pirate.” Messrs. Macmillan -had bought the American rights of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> for a small sum and -had issued it at $1.50 in April, but as soon as it began to excite -attention, and especially after the appearance<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> of Gladstone’s article, -the pirate firms rushed in and raged furiously with each other and with -Macmillan’s to get the book out at the lowest possible price. One -firm—Messrs. Lowell & Co.—which had sold tens of thousands of copies, -magnanimously sent the author a cheque for £100, but this was the only -payment which Mrs. Ward ever received for <i>Robert Elsmere</i> from an -American publisher. Some of the incidents of the internecine war between -the pirates themselves for control of the <i>Robert Elsmere</i> market are -still worth recording. They were summed up in a well-informed article in -the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> in March, 1889, entitled <i>The “Book-Rats” of -the United States</i>:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘In America the publisher’s lot is not a happy one. If he is -honest, he pays his author, and upon the first assurance of success -sees nine-tenths of his lawful profits swept away by the incursions -of pirates. If he is dishonest, he does not pay his author, but in -hot haste reprints in cheap and nasty material, with one object -alone—to undersell the legitimate publisher. A host more follow -suit with new reprints in still cheaper and nastier material, till, -under the pretence of giving cheap literature to the million, the -culminating point is reached in the man who sells at a quarter of -cost price to drive his rivals out of the field. This is what -happened the other day in Boston over the sale of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, -a book which has there achieved an unparalleled success, and -abundantly illustrates the inequality of the present system of no -copyright. In England between thirty and forty thousand copies have -already been sold in the nine months since it was published, and -the book is selling steadily at the rate of some 700 a week. In -America the sale is estimated at 200,000 copies, of which 150,000 -are in pirated editions. One honest pirate purges his conscience by -the magnificent gift of £100, which is likely to be the first and -last instalment of that ‘handsome competence which the American -reading public,’ says a Rhode Island newspaper, ‘owes to Mrs. -Ward.’ A hundred pounds, representing just one shilling and -fourpence per hundred copies upon all the pirated editions! And the -author must be thankful for such mercies; rights she has none over -her own creation, which pervades the<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> States from end to end, and -is not only a library in itself, but has called into existence so -much polemical literature that a leading New York paper gives -solemn warning to contributors that for the future sermons on -<i>Robert Elsmere</i> will only be published at the ordinary -advertisement rates. A Buffalo advertisement cries, ‘Who has yet -touched <i>Robert Elsmere</i> at ten cents?’ only to be taken down by -Jordan Marsh and Co., the ‘Whiteleys’ of Boston, who offered the -book at four cents. Twopence for a book which extends over 400 -pages in close-printed octavo! The stroke told, almost too -successfully for its contrivers. It is said that next day the shop -doors were besieged by a crowd like the surging throng at the -entrance to the Lyceum pit on a first night. A queue extended -across the street. For three days the enterprising pirate had the -field to himself; then he raised his price again; he had lost some -ten cents on every copy, but he had crushed his rivals.”</p></div> - -<p>The achievement of one still more enterprising firm, however, escaped -the notice of this correspondent. The Balsam Fir Soap Co., being anxious -to launch their new soap upon the market, made the following -announcement:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c">TO THE PUBLIC</p> - -<p>We beg to announce that we have purchased an edition of the Hyde -Park Company’s <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, and also their edition of <i>Robert -Elsmere and the Battle of Belief</i>—a criticism by the Right Hon. W. -E. Gladstone, M.P.</p> - -<p>These two books will be presented to each purchaser of a single -cake of Balsam Fir Soap.</p> - -<p class="r">Respectfully,<br /> -<span class="smcap">The Maine Balsam Fir Co.</span><br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Thus was poor Robert, with his doubts and dreams, his labours and his -faith, given away with a cake of soap!</p> - -<p>But this was not all, nor even the worst. When the boom was still at its -height, in the spring of 1889, Mrs. Ward was horrified to hear that a -full-blown dramatized version of the book, by William Gillette, had -actually been produced in Boston, with a “comedy element,” as the -newspaper report described it, “involving an English exquisite and a<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> -horsey husband,” thrown in, the Squire and Grey eliminated, and Langham -“endowed with such nobility of character as ultimately to marry Rose.” -She at once cabled her protest with some energy and succeeded in getting -the further performance of the play stopped; but hardly was this episode -ended than another followed on its heels.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“A writer in the New York <i>Tribune</i>,” wrote the <i>Glasgow Herald</i> in -April, 1889, “exposes a most barefaced trick of trading upon Mrs. -Humphry Ward’s name. A continuation, he says, of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> -has already been begun by an American publisher, and advance -sheets, containing thrilling instalments of the romantic adventures -of <i>Robert Elsmere’s Daughter</i>, are being scattered broadcast over -the length and breadth of the United States. The industrious agents -of the publisher of this sheet have been busily engaged in -inserting sample chapters of this new novel under the doors of -houses all over New York. This, however, is not the worst feature -of the trick. From the title of the story the impression sought to -be conveyed is that Mrs. Humphry Ward, the authoress of <i>Robert -Elsmere</i>, is responsible, too, for <i>Robert Elsmere’s Daughter</i>, the -headings of the story being arranged in this specious shape: -‘<i>Robert Elsmere’s Daughter</i>—a companion story to <i>Robert -Elsmere</i>—by Mrs. Humphry Ward.’”</p></div> - -<p>It was no wonder that the scandal of these events was used by the -promoters of the International Copyright Bill then before Congress as -one of their most powerful arguments; for there were many honourable -publishing firms in America which abhorred these proceedings and were -only anxious to regularize their relations with British authors. Mr. -George Haven Putnam, head of the firm of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and the -International Copyright Committee which he formed, had already been -working in this direction for some years; but the opposition was -strenuous, and it was only in March, 1891, that the Copyright Bill which -was to have so great an effect on Mrs. Ward’s fortunes actually became -law in the United States. Even before that, however, very flattering -offers were made to her by American publishers—especially by Mr. S. S. -McClure, founder of the then youthful <i>McClure’s Magazine</i>—for the<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> -right of publishing the “authorized version” of her next book. Mr. -McClure tried to beguile her into writing him a “novelette,” or a -“romance of Bible times,” but Mrs. Ward was not to be moved. She had -already begun work upon her next book (<i>David Grieve</i>), and all she said -in writing to her sister (Mrs. Huxley) was: “This American, Mr. McClure, -is a wonderful man. He has offered me £1,000 for the serial rights of a -story as long as <i>Milly and Olly</i>! Naturally I am not going to do it, -but it is amusing.” To her father she wrote in more serious mood about -the American boom:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It is a great moral strain, this extraordinary success. I feel -often as though it were a struggle to preserve one’s full -individuality, and one’s sense of truth and proportion in the teeth -of it. There is no help but to look away from oneself and -everything that pertains to self, to the Eternal and Divine things, -to live penetrated with the feebleness and poverty of self and the -greatness of God.”</p></div> - -<p>Yet naturally she enjoyed the many letters from Americans of all ranks -and classes which reached her during the autumn and winter of 1888. The -veteran Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to her in his most charming vein, -speaking of the book as a “medicated novel, which will do much to -improve the secretions and clear the obstructed channels of the decrepit -theological system.” W. R. Thayer, afterwards the biographer of Cavour, -wrote:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The extraordinary popularity of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> is a most -significant symptom of the spiritual conditions of this country. No -book since <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i> has had so sudden and wide a -diffusion among all classes of readers; and I believe that no other -book of equal seriousness ever had so quick a hearing. I have seen -it in the hands of nursery-maids, and of shop-girls behind the -counter; of frivolous young women, who read every novel that is -talked about; of business men, professors, students, and even -schoolboys. The newspapers and periodicals are still discussing it, -and, perhaps the best sign of all, it has been preached against by -the foremost clergymen of all denominations.”</p></div> - -<p>And a sturdy rationalist, Mr. W. D. Childs, thus recorded his protest:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘I regret the popularity of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> in this<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> country. Our -western people are like sheep in such matters. They will not see -that the book was written for a people with a State Church on its -hands, that a gross exaggeration of the importance of religion was -necessary. It will revive interest in theology and retard the -progress of rationalism.</p> - -<p>“Am I not right in this? You surely cannot think it good for -individuals or for societies to take religion seriously, when there -is so much economic disorder in the world, when the mass of -physical and mental suffering is so obviously reducible only by -material means.”</p></div> - -<p>It was very delightful, of course, to be making a little money from the -book, after so many years of strenuous work, and though the sum she had -earned was still a modest one (about £3,200 by January, 1889), it -enabled her and her husband to make plans for the future and to embark -on the purchase of some land for building in the still unspoilt country -to the east of Haslemere. Here, on Grayswood Hill, overlooking the vast -tangle of the Weald as far as Chanctonbury Ring and the South Downs, a -red-brick house of moderate size, cunningly designed by Mr. Robson, -gradually arose during 1889 and the first part of 1890; but while it was -still building a fortunate accident placed in our way the chance of -living for three months in a far different habitation—John Hampden’s -wonderful old house near Great Missenden, which was then in a state of -interregnum, and might be rented for a small sum.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It will be quite an adventure,” wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher -in July, 1889, “for in spite of the beauty and romance of the place -there is hardly enough furniture of a ramshackle kind in it to -enable us to camp for three months in tolerable comfort! But by -dint of sending down a truck load of baths, carpets and saucepans -from home we shall get on, and our expenses will be less than if we -took a villa at Westgate.”</p></div> - -<p>And to Mrs. Johnson, of Oxford, who was coming with her whole family to -stay there, Mrs. Ward wrote three days after her arrival:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The furniture of the house is decrepit, scanty and decayed, but it -has breeding and refinement, and is a thousand times preferable to -any luxurious modern stuff.<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> I am <i>perfectly</i> happy here, and bless -the lucky chance which drew our attention to the advertisement. I -will not spoil the old house and gardens and park for you by -describing them—but they are a dream, and the out-at-elbowness of -everything is an additional charm.”</p></div> - -<p>So for three months we stayed at Hampden, revelling in its beauty and -its spaciousness, learning to know the Chiltern country with its -chalk-downs and beech-woods, entertaining many visitors, including the -much-loved Professor Huxley, and watching anxiously for the ghost that -walked in the passage outside the tapestry-room on moonlight nights. It -never walked for us, though Mrs. Ward sat up many times to woo it, but -there were plenty of ghosts of another sort in a house that had -sheltered Queen Elizabeth on one of her “progresses,” that still -possessed the chair in which John Hampden had sat when they came to -arrest him for ship-money, and that had guarded his body at the last, -when his Greencoats bore it thither from Thame to lie in the great hall -for one more night before its burial in the little church across the -garden. At first there were no lamps, and we groped about with stumps of -candles after dark, but gradually all the more glaring deficiencies were -remedied and Mrs. Ward settled down to a happy three months of work on -her new novel, <i>David Grieve</i>. But as she wrote of her two wild children -on the Derbyshire moors, or of young David and his books in Manchester, -the very different scene around her formed itself in her mind into a new -setting, from which arose in course of time <i>Marcella</i>.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile it was not Hampden’s ghost but Elsmere’s that still haunted -her, in the sense that the “New Brotherhood” with which the novel ended -would not die with it, but struggled dumbly in the author’s mind for -expression in some living form. Some time before she had been deeply -impressed by a visit she had paid to Toynbee Hall with “Max Creighton,” -as she wrote to her father, when she found that “in the library there -<i>R.E.</i> had been read to pieces, and in a workmen’s club which had just -been started several ideas had been taken from the “New Brotherhood.” -The experience had remained with her; she had brooded and dreamt over -it, and now when she returned to London in the autumn of 1889 she began -for the first time to try to work out the idea in consultation with -certain chosen friends.<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> “Lord Carlisle came and had a long talk with M. -about a proposed Unitarian Toynbee somewhere in South London”—so wrote -the little sister-in-law (herself an orthodox Christian) in her journal -on November 11, 1889. And a little later: “Mr. Stopford Brooke came and -had a long talk with her about a ‘New Brotherhood’ they hope to start -with Lord Carlisle and a few others to help.”</p> - -<p>Was it to be a new religion, or a re-vivifying of the old? The impulse -to build up, to re-create, was hot within her; could she not appeal to -her generation to help her in following out this impulse towards some -practical goal? Was there not room for another Toynbee, inspired still -more definitely than the first with the ideals of a simpler -Christianity? The dæmon drove; surely the very success of her book -showed that this was the need of the new age in which she lived. She -plunged into the task, and only time and Fate were to reveal that the -“new religion” was doomed to take no outward form, but to work itself -out in ways undreamt of as yet by the author of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>.<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /><br /> -UNIVERSITY HALL—<i>DAVID GRIEVE</i> AND “STOCKS”<br /><br /> -1889-1892</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE conversations with Stopford Brooke and Lord Carlisle mentioned in -the last chapter contained the germ of all that public work which was to -claim henceforth so large a share of Mrs. Ward’s life. Up to this point -she had hardly taken any part in London committees; indeed, those -spacious days were still comparatively free from them, and it is -remembered that when the first meeting of the group with whom she was -discussing her new scheme took place at Russell Square,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> one -irreverent child in the schoolroom next door said to its fellow, “What’s -a committee?” “Oh,” said the elder, in the manner of one who imparts -information, “it’s when the grown-ups get together, and first they -think, and then they talk, and then they think again.” At the moment no -sound was audible through the wall. “They must be thinking now,” said -the instructor carelessly, leaving his junior to the solemn belief, held -for many years, that a committee was a sort of prayer-meeting.</p> - -<p>That first group, who discussed and finally approved Mrs. Ward’s draft -circular announcing the foundation of a “Hall for Residents” in London, -consisted of the following men and women besides herself: Dr. Martineau, -Dr. James Drummond, of Manchester College, Oxford, Mr. Stopford Brooke, -Lord Carlisle, Rev. W. Copeland Bowie, Dr. Estlin Carpenter, Mr. -Frederick Nettlefold, the Dowager Countess Russell, Miss Frances Power -Cobbe, and lastly, Dr. Blake Odgers, Q.C., who acted as Hon. Treasurer.<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> -Mr. Copeland Bowie, who helped Mrs. Ward for several months as a “kind -of assistant secretary,” has recorded his impressions of those crowded -days in an article which he wrote for the <i>Inquirer</i> on April 3, 1920:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“We met in the dining-room at Russell Square. Mrs. Ward was the -moving and executive force; the rest of us were simply admiring and -sympathetic spectators of her enterprise and zeal. It is delightful -to recall her abounding activity and enthusiasm. Difficulties were -overcome, criticisms were answered, work was carried on with -extraordinary devotion and skill. Several meetings were devoted to -the consideration of how to proceed, for the pathway was beset by -many difficulties. At last, early in March, 1890, a scheme for the -establishment of a Settlement at University Hall, Gordon Square, in -a part of the old building belonging to Dr. Williams’s Trustees, -was agreed upon. The religious note is very prominent. University -Hall would encourage ‘an improved popular teaching of the Bible and -the history of religion, in order to show the adaptability of the -faith of the past to the needs of the present.’”</p></div> - -<p>The aims of the new movement were, in fact, set forth in the original -circular in these words:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘It has been determined to establish a Hall for residents in -London, somewhat on the lines of Toynbee Hall, with the following -objects in view:</p> - -<p>‘1. To provide a fresh rallying point and enlarged means of common -religious action for all those to whom Christianity, whether by -inheritance or process of thought, has become a system of practical -conduct, based on faith in God, and on the inspiring memory of a -great teacher, rather than a system of dogma based on a unique -revelation. Such persons especially, who, while holding this point -of view, have not yet been gathered into any existing religious -organization, are often greatly in want of those helps towards the -religious life, whether in thought or action, which are so readily -afforded by the orthodox bodies to their own members. The first aim -of the new Hall will be a religious aim.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_082_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_082_sml.jpg" width="303" height="411" alt="MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)" title="MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MRS. WARD IN 1889 (Bassano, photo.)</span> -</p> - -<p>‘2. The Hall will endeavour to promote an improved popular teaching -of the Bible and of the history of religion.<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> To this end -continuous teaching will be attempted under its roof on such -subjects as Old and New Testament criticism, the history of -Christianity, and that of non-Christian religions. A special effort -will be made to establish Sunday teaching both at the Hall and, by -the help of the Hall residents, in other parts of London, for -children of all classes. The children of well-to-do parents are -often worse off in this matter of careful religious teaching than -those of their poorer neighbours. There can be little doubt that -many persons are deeply dissatisfied with the whole state of -popular religious teaching in England. Either it is purely -dogmatic, taking no account of the developments of modern thought -and criticism, or it is colourless and perfunctory, the result of a -compromise which satisfies and inspires nobody. Yet that a simpler -Christianity can be frankly and effectively taught, so as both to -touch the heart and direct the will, is the conviction and familiar -experience of many persons in England, America, France and Holland. -But the new teaching wants organizing, deepening and extending. It -should be the aim of the proposed Hall to work towards such an -end.”</p></div> - -<p>It was natural that such ideals as these should appeal in a peculiar way -to the Unitarian community, and we find in fact that the first -subscription list, which guaranteed an income of about £700 to -University Hall for three years, contains a preponderance of Unitarian -names. Lord Carlisle and Mr. Stopford Brooke were in favour of calling -it frankly a Unitarian Settlement. “There is a life and spirit about the -things which are done by Dissenters,” wrote Lord Carlisle, “which I -believe can never be got out of people who have a lingering feeling for -the Church of England.” But the majority on the Committee, including -Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau, thought that this would be setting -unnecessary limits to the movement, which they rather intended to be a -leaven permeating the lump both of orthodoxy and of indifferentism. It -was therefore agreed not to use the word in the preliminary circular, -though all the world could see from the names on the Committee that the -tone of the new Settlement would be largely that of the younger and -freer Unitarianism which had founded Manchester College, Oxford. It was -one of Mrs. Ward’s<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> most characteristic achievements that while she -herself never sympathized with Unitarianism as an organization, she was -yet able to work closely with Unitarians in this her first great -enterprise, sharing with them their enthusiasm for the Christian message -and their austere devotion to truth, while herself cherishing that -“lingering feeling for the Church of England” which forbade her to -identify herself with any outside body while there was still hope of -influencing and widening the national Church. Yet for all practical -purposes the breach between the “new religion,” as its critics -contemptuously dubbed it, and the Establishment was complete enough, and -the foundation of University Hall only confirmed the orthodox in their -disapproval of Mrs. Ward and all her works.</p> - -<p>Besides its definitely religious aim, the new Settlement was to have a -well-marked social side as well. This is set forth in another paragraph -of the circular:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It is intended that the Hall shall do its utmost to secure for its -residents opportunities for religious and social work, and for the -study of social problems, such as are possessed by the residents at -Toynbee Hall or those at Oxford House. There will be a certain -number of rooms in the Hall which can be used for social purposes, -for lectures, for recreative and continuation classes and so on. -Though the Hall itself is in one of the West Central Squares, it is -surrounded on three sides by districts crowded with poor. A room -could be taken for workers from the Hall in any of these districts -or in the Drury Lane neighbourhood. In addition, the Hall is close -to Gower Street Station, so that it would be comparatively easy for -the residents to take part in any of the organizations already -existing in the East or South of London, for the help of the poor -and the study of social problems.”</p></div> - -<p>And in spite of the religious ardour of its founders, it was in this -aspect of the work of University Hall that the germ of future -developments really lay. But the future lay hidden as yet from Mrs. Ward -and her gifted band of associates and fellow-workers.</p> - -<p>Many difficulties were encountered in the appointment of a suitable -Warden, for a combination of qualities was<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> required which was not easy -to find, especially in the limited circle of those whose views in -matters of faith agreed broadly with those of the Committee. Month after -month went by while Mrs. Ward and Dr. Martineau interviewed many -candidates, often assisted by Canon Barnett, of Toynbee, whose interest -in the new venture was as sincere as it was generous. Applications from -possible residents came in fast, showing that the work would not lack -support in that direction, but even in August the Warden was still to -seek. At length, however, in September, the ideal choice was made in Mr. -Philip Wicksteed, who was then holding the office of minister at the -Unitarian chapel in Little Portland Street. He was already beginning to -be widely known outside his regular work as a lecturer on Biblical -subjects and on Dante, and Mrs. Ward had already sounded him once or -twice in this matter of the Wardenship. But he had hitherto evaded it on -the ground that his election would identify the Hall with Unitarianism. -At last, however, Mrs. Ward won his acceptance at an interview she had -with him at Russell Square, in which she greeted him with the words “I -want to <i>wrestle</i> with you!” He dealt frankly with her on the subject of -the religious aims of the Hall, and in a letter written to her a few -days after his acceptance said:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘You remember when first you spoke to me on this matter how I told -you that I had never been clear as to the exact thing contemplated -in the Hall, and had never felt that it had any programme. Under -those circumstances I felt that it would be false to myself and in -reality false to you to allow myself to be overcome by your -splendid faith and enthusiasm and take it up without any true -inspiration in pity that so noble a ‘quest’ should find no -knight-errant to try it.</p> - -<p>“My work with you has considerably cleared my vision, and has -inspired me with growing <i>hopes</i> for the institution, but I cannot -honestly say that it has given me any deep <i>faith</i> in its success. -You know how anxious I have been throughout about our audience for -lectures, and how doubtful about the existence of any large public -seriously interested in Biblical studies. My fears are not allayed; -though I hope the result may put them to shame.”</p></div> - -<p>With Mr. Wicksteed’s acceptance of the Wardenship, the arrangements for -lectures and the preparations for the<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> reception of Residents were -pushed on apace, while the Committee decided that a formal opening -ceremony must be held in order to plant the flag of the new Settlement’s -faith and ideals. The Portman Rooms were taken for the purpose; the -venerable Dr. Martineau consented to be in the chair, and Mrs. Ward was -to make the principal speech. She had never spoken in public before, and -was genuinely terrified at the prospect (three years later she put into -<i>Marcella’s</i> experience in the East End her own horror of extempore -speaking); but she prepared her address with great care, and was -afterwards told that her voice carried to the farthest limits of the -room, packed as it was with a keenly expectant audience. Her plea was -that the time had come for a reconstruction of the basis of Christian -belief; that the results both of Darwinian inquiry and of historical -criticism must be faced, especially in the teaching of children, but -that when the “search for an exacter truth, which is the fate and -mission of humanity” had been met, a possibility of faith remained which -would be the future hope of the world. To the elucidation of this faith -the efforts of the Hall, on its teaching and lecturing side, would be -devoted. And in speaking of the “social and practical effort which is an -<i>essential</i> part of our scheme,” she pleaded that it was “yet not its -most distinctive nor its most vital part. The need of urging it on -public attention is recognized in all camps. Yet, meanwhile, there are -hundreds of men and women who spend themselves in these works of charity -and mercy who are all the time inwardly starved, crying for something -else, something more, if they could but get it. What matters to them, -first and foremost—what would give fresh life to all their -efforts—would be the provision of a new motive power, a new hope for -the individual life in God, a new respect for man’s destiny. Let me -recall you for a moment from the gospel of works to the great Pauline -gospel of faith, and the inner life! It is in the bringing back of -<i>faith</i>—not the faith which confuses legend with history, or puts -authority in the place of knowledge, but the faith which springs from -moral and spiritual fact, and may be day after day, and hour after hour, -again verified by fact—that the great task of our generation lies.”</p> - -<p>Thus was the new venture launched, amid a mingled chorus of admiration -and criticism from that section of<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> the world which was affected by the -movement of ideas. The lecturing at University Hall was soon in full -swing, and was maintained at a very high level during the years 1891 and -1892, so that when Mrs. Ward went on a speaking tour to some of the -northern towns in the autumn of the latter year in order to appeal for -funds for a further period of three years (an appeal in which she was -completely successful), she was able to give a very remarkable account -of it. Many courses on both Old and New Testament criticism had been -given, by Mr. Wicksteed, by Dr. Estlin Carpenter, by M. Chavannes, of -Leyden; on the Fourth Gospel by that fine scholar, Mr. Charles Hargrove; -on Theism by Prof. Knight, and on the Gospel of St. Luke by Dr. -Martineau himself. These latter took place on Sunday afternoons during -the spring of 1891. “Sunday after Sunday,” said Mrs. Ward, “the Hall of -Dr. Williams’s Library was crowded to the doors, and, I believe by many -to whom the line of thought followed in the lectures was of quite fresh -help and service; and it will be long indeed before many of us forget -the last Sunday—the venerable form, the beautiful voice, the note of -unconquerable hope as to the future of faith, and yet of unconquerable -courage as to the rights of the mind! I at least shall always look back -to that hour as to a moment of consecration for our young Institution, -disclosing to us at once its opportunities and its responsibilities.” In -the non-Biblical sphere Mrs. J. R. Green had given a series of lectures -on the development of the English towns<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>; Miss Beatrice Potter (soon -to become Mrs. Sidney Webb) a course on the Co-operative Movement, which -became the foundation of her great book on that subject; Mr. Graham -Wallas on “The English Citizen”; Mr. Stopford Brooke on “The English -Poets of the Nineteenth Century”; while the Warden lectured to large -audiences on Dante, and “ground away” (in his own words) at political -economy, thinking aloud before his band of students and “forging forward -on new lines.” It was all very stimulating, very much alive; but -whether, as the months passed on, it was exactly carrying out the aims -and intentions of that opening day, some sympathetic observers began to -doubt.<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I was uneasy all the time,” wrote Mr. Wicksteed afterwards to J. -P. T., “because though I thought I was working honestly and in a -way usefully, yet I could never quite feel that the Settlement was -doing the work it set out to do, or that it was quite justifying -its subscription list. But I don’t believe your mother, in spite of -a great measure of personal disappointment, ever had the smallest -doubt or misgiving in this matter. She thoroughly believed in the -significance and value of what <i>was</i> being done, and cared for it -with a vivid faith and affection, and supported it with an -inventive enthusiasm, that have always seemed to me the expression -of a generosity and magnanimity of a type and quality that were -quite distinctive.”</p></div> - -<p>An energetic attempt was made to interest the young men employed in the -big shops of Tottenham Court Road in the Hall’s activities; but the -times were premature; not until the Great War had loosed the foundations -of our society did the young men of Tottenham Court Road find their way -into the Y.M.C.A. “The young men of Tottenham Court Road,” wrote Mr. -Copeland Bowie, “gave no sign that they wished to partake of the food -provided for them at University Hall.” Then, somewhat apart from the -lecturing scheme of the Hall, there grew up the body of Residents, young -men of divers attainments and tastes who were hard to mould into the -original scheme, some of whom were even greatly concerned to show that -they depended in no way for their ideas on the author of <i>Robert -Elsmere</i>. Occasionally there were difficult moments at the Council -meetings, when the Residents’ views clashed with those of the older -members, but it was at those moments, and generally in her gift for -bowing to the inevitable when it came, that Mrs. Ward endeared herself -most to her fellow-workers by her rare great-heartedness. During their -first winter’s work at the Hall the Residents had discovered, in the -squalid neighbourhood to the east of Tavistock Square, a dingy building -that went by the name of Marchmont Hall, which they decided to take as -the scene of their regular social activities. They raised a special fund -for its expenses, and under the leadership of a young solicitor, who -combined much shrewdness and ability with a glowing enthusiasm for the -service of his fellow-men, the late Mr. Alfred Robinson, the suspicions -of the neighbourhood were<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> overcome and a fruitful programme of boys’ -clubs, men’s clubs, concerts and lectures launched by the autumn of -1891. Mrs. Ward was deeply interested in the experiment, and hoped -against hope that it might lead to those opportunities for Christian -teaching which still lay very near her heart. A year later she was able -to give the following account of their first attempts in that direction:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The Sunday evening lectures are preceded by half an hour’s music, -and have been from the first more definitely ethical and religious -in tone than those given on Thursday. But it is only quite recently -we have felt that we could speak freely, without danger of -misunderstanding, upon those subjects which are generally -identified by the working-classes with sectarian and ecclesiastical -propaganda. Now that we are known we need have no fear; and on -November 12 the Warden, who had already spoken on the prophets of -Israel and other kindred topics, gave an address on the life and -character of Jesus. It was received with warm feeling, and more -lectures of the same kind have already been arranged for. Next term -we hope a class in the Gospels, already begun, may take larger -proportions. Among the boys and young men of the Hall, often -intelligent and well-educated as they are, there is an -extraordinary amount of sheer ignorance and indifference as to the -Christian story and literature, even when they have had their full -share of the usual Sunday School training. To some of us there -could be no more welcome task, to be undertaken at once with -eagerness and with trembling, than that of making old things new to -eyes and hearts still capable of that ‘admiration, hope, and love’ -by which alone we truly live.”</p></div> - -<p>But the movement never developed, for in truth there was no Elsmere to -lead it; Mrs. Ward herself went three times to take a boy’s class on -Sunday afternoons, but could not, in the midst of her other work, -maintain the effort; the Warden, versatile as he was, did not regard it -as his <i>first</i> interest, while from the body of Residents came a dumb -sense of antagonism, not amounting to direct opposition, but just as -effective, which in the end prevailed. The “School” of Biblical studies -at University Hall continued as before, appealing to a definite class of -students and<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> educated persons of the middle-class, but the attempt to -fuse it with the social work at Marchmont Hall was doomed to succeed as -little as the attempt to attract to it the half-educated shopmen of -Tottenham Court Road. Gradually the human interest of the experiment, -the sense of romance and adventure, went over from the lecturing side to -the work at Marchmont Hall, where the popular lectures and discussions, -the Saturday evening concerts and the Saturday morning “play-rooms” for -children were making a real mark on the life of the district. But Mrs. -Ward was fully able to recognize this, and accepted in an ungrudging -spirit the different direction which circumstances had given to her own -cherished dreams.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It will be seen readily enough,” wrote Mr. Wicksteed in the -memorial pamphlet issued by the Passmore Edwards Settlement, “that -it was on the side of the School rather than on that of the -Residence that Mrs. Ward’s ideals seemed to have the best chance of -fulfilling themselves. Yet in truth it was in the Residence that -the germ of future development lay. The greatness of Mrs. Ward’s -character was shown in her recognition—painful and unwilling -sometimes, but always brave and loyal—of this fact. She could not -and did not relinquish her “Elsmerean” ideals. The romance of -<i>Richard Meynell</i>, published twenty-three years after <i>Robert -Elsmere</i>, shows them in unabated ardour. The failure of the -Residence to amalgamate with the School was the source of deep -distress to her. She sometimes suggested measures for overcoming it -that did not approve themselves to her colleagues, but throughout -she never suspected their loyalty, and never failed in her own. It -needed rare magnanimity. Patience seems too passive a word to apply -to so ardent a spirit, but something that did the work of patience -was very truly there. And as she came to recognize that with the -available material the Settlement could not be the embodiment of -her full ideal, she withdrew her vital energies from the attempt to -force a passage where none was possible, she steadily refused to -let blood flow through a wound that could be and should be healed, -and she threw all the strength of her inventive and resourceful -mind—and what is more the full stream of her affection and joy in -accomplished good—into the development of such branches of her -purpose as by that agency could be furthered.”</p></div> - -<p><a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a></p> - -<p>By the year 1893 the situation as between University Hall and Marchmont -Hall had become a curious one, since the former was too large and -expensive for its purpose and the latter not nearly large enough. Mrs. -Ward and her friends came to the conclusion that some scheme must be -devised for combining the activities of both institutions under one -roof; but since no suitable building existed anywhere in the -neighbourhood of Marchmont Hall, where deep roots had been struck in the -affections of the working population, it became obvious that the only -solution was to build. Through the early spring of 1894 Mrs. Ward -laboured to interest the old friends of University Hall in an appeal for -a Building Fund of £5,000; but it was uphill work; her health had -suffered greatly from the long strain, and there were moments when hope -sank very low. Then, one evening in May of that year, the postman’s -knock sounded below, and one of us went down as usual to fetch the -letters. There was but a single dull-looking letter in an ordinary -“commercial envelope.” “Only a bill,” announced the bearer, as it was -placed in Mrs. Ward’s hands. She opened it, glanced at the signature, -read it rapidly through, and then, with a little cry, exclaimed: “Mr. -Passmore Edwards is going to build us a Settlement!”</p> - -<p>She had written to him at last, knowing of him—as all that generation -knew—mainly as the generous founder of Free Libraries, but without much -hope that he would seriously take up the Marchmont Hall building scheme. -At that time the Committee were in favour of a site in Somers Town, -north of the Euston Road, the advantages of which Mrs. Ward had set -forth in her letter to Mr. Edwards. His answer ran as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>May 30, 1894.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Madam</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Since I received your letter in Italy I have considered your -suggestion in reference to the extension in ampler premises of -University Hall Settlement, and thereby planting as you say a -Toynbee Hall in the Somers Town district. I have also visited the -district in and around Clarendon Sq., and am convinced that such an -Institution is as much wanted in North London as it was wanted in<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> -East London. I therefore cheerfully respond to your appeal, and -undertake to provide the necessary building within the limits of -the sum you indicate, if somebody will provide a suitable site. The -vacant place in Clarendon Sq. would, I consider, be a convenient -spot for the Settlement. As a matter of course, provision must be -made that the building shall be permanently devoted to the purpose -now intended. In my opinion we have the two things most necessary -in the Somers Town district for a Toynbee Hall: we have a numerous -working population requiring educational assistance and advantages; -and we have in the neighbourhood many able and willing workers -ready to assist in works of intellectual, moral and social culture.</p> - -<p class="r">I remain,<br /> -Yours faithfully,<br /> -<span class="smcap">J. Passmore Edwards</span>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>This was her first great victory on the road to the building of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement. That road was still to be a long and -difficult one, but she was not to be discouraged, and where many lesser -souls would have fallen out by the wayside, wearied by ill-health and by -the multiplication of obstacles, she persisted, and won in the end a -vantage-ground in the fine buildings of the Settlement, whence, in the -course of time, she could pass on to new and various achievements.</p> - -<p>Heavy and exacting as the work of University Hall was during the first -three years of its existence, and glum as the face of our coachman was -wont to look at the reiterated orders to drive there (for he disapproved -of his horse being kept waiting in the street while people were just -talking), Mrs. Ward never allowed it to absorb her mind completely. -Indeed, these years saw the writing of her second three-volume novel, -<i>The History of David Grieve</i>, as well as many important developments in -our domestic affairs. The house on Grayswood Hill, near Haslemere, was -rising fast during the early months of 1890, while the principles of the -new Settlement were being thrashed out in the study at Russell Square, -and at length Mrs. Ward tore herself away from London, stipulating for a -six weeks’ break from the affairs of University Hall, buried herself in -a neighbouring house<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> named “Grayswood Beeches,” wrote <i>David</i> hard, and -kept a watchful eye on the plasterers and painters at work on “Lower -Grayswood” below. She took the keenest interest in every detail of the -new house, planning it out in daily letters to her husband, and yet as -it drew near completion she could not help rebelling at its very -newness, at the half-made garden and the plantations of birch and larch -and pine which covered much of the nine acres of ground, while of real -trees there was hardly one. Waves of longing would assail her for -Hampden House, with its silence and its spaciousness, its old lawns and -trees, and its complete absence of neighbours. “How I have been -hankering after Hampden lately!” she writes to her father in June, 1890, -and to her husband she confesses that she has been to the agent’s to -inquire whether Hampden could be let for a term of years. “They don’t -think so. I told them to inquire without mentioning our names at all.” -Hampden, however, was not to be had, and when once she was established -in Lower Grayswood, Mrs. Ward took more kindly to the house, which had -from its windows one of the most astonishing views in all the South of -England. Yet still she wrote to her father: “I doubt whether I shall be -content ultimately without an old house and old trees! If one may covet -anything, I think one may covet this kind of inheritance from the past -to shelter one’s own later life in. Life seems so short to make anything -quite fresh. Meanwhile, Lower Grayswood is very nice, and more than we -deserve!”</p> - -<p>The verdict of children and friends was indeed unanimous in praise of -the poor new house, whence endless fishing expeditions were made to -muddy little brooks in the plain below, almost compensating for the loss -of Forked Pond and the other barbarian delights of Borough Farm. But -even the children realized that there were “too many people about” for -the health of their mother’s work. The pile of cards on the hall table -grew ominously thick. Americans walked in, taking no denial, and once in -mid-August, when the youngest child tactlessly won a junior race at the -Lythe Hill Sports, with all Haslemere looking on, there were paragraphs -in the evening papers. It would not do, and I think the house at -Haslemere was doomed from that day onwards. Still, for two years it -played its part delightfully<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> in the web of Mrs. Ward’s life, giving her -quiet, especially in the autumn and winter, for the writing of <i>David -Grieve</i>, giving her deep draughts of beauty which were not forgotten in -after years. The lodge was made a home for tired Londoners, whether boys -or mothers or factory-girls, and the house itself was never long empty -of guests.</p> - -<p>There, too, in the book-lined room which she had made her study, she -would on Sunday evenings carry out in practice those ideas on the -teaching of the Bible which she had striven to inculcate at University -Hall. The audience sat on low stools or lay on the floor, while she read -to them usually a part of the Gospels, making the scene live again, as -only she could make it, not only by her intimate knowledge of the times, -but by her gift of presentation. Systematically, making us use our minds -to follow her, she would work through a section of St. Mark or St. -Matthew, comparing each with the other, showing the touches of the -“later hand,” taking us deep into the fascinating intricacies of the -Synoptic Problem. But all the time the central figure would grow clearer -and clearer, in simple majesty of parable or act of healing, while at -the greatest moments commentary fell away and only the old words broke -the stillness. She was immensely interested in the problem of the -Master’s own view of himself and his mission, following him step by step -to the declaration at Cæsarea Philippi, then tracing the gathering -conviction that in himself was to be fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of the -Suffering Servant. She was inclined to reject the prophecies of the -Second Coming as showing too obviously the feeling of the second -generation, as being unworthy of him who said, “The Kingdom of God is -within you.” But in later years she came to regard them as probably -based on utterances of his own, for was he not, after all, the child of -his time and country? With an episode like the Transfiguration she would -show us the elements of popular legend from which it was put together, -fitting piece into piece till the whole stood out with a new freshness, -throwing its light backwards over the age-long Jewish expectations of -the return of Moses and Elijah. So with the Resurrection stories; she -bade us always remember the teeming soil from which they sprang, in that -long-past childhood of the world; how none of them were written down -till forty years, most of them not till sixty<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> and seventy years, had -passed since the Crucifixion; how the return from Hades on the third day -is at least as old as Alcestis. These things, she said, forbade us to -accept them as literal fact; but it was impossible to listen to her -reading of the Walk to Emmaus, or the finding of the empty tomb, without -coming under the spell of an emotion as deep as it was austere. For the -fact that we in these latter days had outgrown our childhood and must -distinguish truth from phantasy was no reason in her mind, why we should -renounce the poetic value of scenes and pictures woven into the very -fabric of our being. And so, Sunday after Sunday, our little minds drank -in a teaching which she would fain believe could have been spread -broadcast among our generation, could the ideals of University Hall but -reach the masses. She did not realize how unique her teaching was, nor -how few among her generation combined such knowledge as hers with such a -power of instilling it into other minds and hearts.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The writing of <i>David Grieve</i> was a long-sustained effort, extending -over the best part of three years, and too often performed under the -handicap of writer’s cramp and sleeplessness. But Mrs. Ward was at the -prime of her powers, and felt herself more thoroughly master of her -material in this book than she had done in the case of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, -so that the revision, when it came, was a matter of weeks and not of -months. Her visits to Manchester and Derbyshire for the local colour of -the book had inspired her with a vivid faith in the working population -of the north, which finds expression in a letter written to her father -in September, 1890, in reply to criticisms which he, with his Catholic -prepossessions, had made on the unloveliness of their lives:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘You and I would not agree about New Mills, I am afraid! At least, -if New Mills is like Bacup and the towns along the Irwell, as I -suppose it is. After seeing those mill-colonies among the moors, I -came home cheered and comforted in my mind for the future of -England—so differently may the same things affect different -people. Beatrice Potter told me that she had stayed for some time -incog. as one of themselves with a family of mill-hands at Bacup, -and that to her mind they were ‘the salt of the earth,’ so good and -kind to each other, so diligent,<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> so God-fearing, so truly -unworldly. She attributed it to their religion, to those hideous -chapels, which develop in them the keenest individual sense of -responsibility to God and man, to their habit of combination for a -common end as in their Co-op. Societies and Unions, and to their -real sensitiveness to education and the things of the mind, up to a -certain point, of course. And certainly all that I saw last autumn -bore her out. I imagine that if you were to compare Lancashire with -any other manufacturing district in Europe, with Belgium, with -Lyons, with Catalonia, it would show favourably as regards the type -of human character developed. All the better men and women are -interested in the things that interested St. Paul—grace and -salvation, and the struggle of the spirit against the flesh, and -for the rest they work for their wives and children, and learn -gradually to respect those laws of health which are, after all, as -much ‘set in the world,’ to use Uncle Matt’s phrase, as beauty and -charm, and in their own way as much a will and purpose of God. Read -the books about Lancashire life a hundred years ago, and see if -they have not improved—if they are not less brutal, less earthy, -nearer altogether to the intelligent type of life. That they have -far to go yet one cannot deny. But altogether, when London fills me -with despair, I often think of Lancashire and am comforted for the -future. I think of the people I had tea with at Bacup, all -mill-hands, but so refined, gentle and good; and I think of the -wonderful development of the civic sense in a town like Oldham, -with all its public institutions, its combinations of workpeople -for every possible object, and its generally happy and healthy -tone. I wish the streets were less ugly, but after all, our climate -is hard and drives people indoors three-parts of the year, and the -race has very little artistic gift.”</p></div> - -<p>Meanwhile, the Copyright Committee was again hard at work in the United -States, arousing much anxious speculation in Mrs. Ward’s mind as to -whether their Bill would be through Congress in time for her new book; -but in the end the victory came more easily and swiftly than was -expected. Congress passed it in November, 1890, and it became law in the -following March. The effect on Mrs. Ward’s fortunes was not long in -making itself felt. Mr. George Smith had<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> been negotiating for her with -an American firm that offered good but not magnificent terms for <i>David -Grieve</i>; he was dissatisfied, and in his wise heart bethought him of her -old friends the Macmillans, who had an “American house.” The sequel must -be told in his own words:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">15, Waterloo Place, S.W.</span><br /> -<i>June 13, 1891.</i></p> - -<p class="nind">D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. H<small>UMPHRY</small> W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I met Frederick Macmillan in the Park this morning. It flashed on -my mind that I would sell him the American copyright of your book, -and after a long talk (which made me late for breakfast) I promised -him that if he made me a firm offer of seven thousand pounds for -the American copyright, including Canada, before one o’clock -to-day, I would accept it on your behalf. He has just called here -and written the enclosed note. I am rather pleased with myself, and -I hope that you will not reproach me. I write in haste, for I shall -feel rather anxious until I have a line from you on the subject.</p> - -<p class="r">Believe me,<br /> -Yours sincerely,<br /> -<span class="smcap">G. M. Smith</span>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Needless to say, the “line” was forthcoming, and Mrs. Ward was left to -contemplate, with some emotion, the fact that she was mistress of a -little fortune. Whether the Macmillans remained as contented with their -bargain as she was is, however, a point of some obscurity. Certainly -they desired her next book (<i>Marcella</i>), which amply made up to them for -any shortcomings on <i>David Grieve</i>, but during the negotiations for it -some uncomfortable tales leaked out. “Mr. Brett told me,” wrote Mrs. -Ward to George Smith, eighteen months after the appearance of <i>David</i>, -“that owing to the description of profit-sharing in <i>David Grieve</i> and -the interest roused by it in America, their American branch adopted it -last year for all their employés. Then in consequence of <i>David</i> there -were no profits to divide! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over the -situation, and I am quite determined that if there are losses this time -I will share them.”</p> - -<p>But as yet the prospect was unclouded, and the summer of<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> 1891 was spent -in a hard wrestle with the remaining chapters of the book—with the -tragedy of Lucy and the sombre fate of Louie Grieve—but at length, on -September 24, the last words of <i>David Grieve</i> were written, and on -October 16 she and Mr. Ward fled for nine weeks to Italy.</p> - -<p>It was not their first visit, for in the spring of 1889 they had spent -eight days in Rome, making their first Italian friendships and learning -something of the spell of that city of old magic. “In eight days one can -but scratch the surface of Rome,” she had written to her father on that -occasion. “Still, I think Lord Acton was quite right when he said to us -at Cannes, ‘If you have only three days, go!’ To have walked into St. -Peter’s, to have driven up on to the Janiculan and seen the view of -Rome, the Alban Hills, the Campagna and Soracte which you get from -there, to have wandered about the Forum and Colosseum and to have -climbed the Palatine and the Capitol, is something after all, even if -one never saw this marvellous place again.”</p> - -<p>Now this second time she was so tired that they passed Rome by on the -outward journey and went instead to Naples, Amalfi and Ravello, where -the good Signora Palumbo, landlady of the famous little inn, tended her -as she lay quite fallow, browsing in books or gazing at sea and sky and -sunny coast. But a visit to Pompeii could still arouse all her -historical instincts:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“To sit in the Forum there,” she writes to her sister, Mrs. Leonard -Huxley, “or in one of the bright gaily painted houses, or -restaurants with the wine-jars still perfect in the marble -counters, and to think that people were chatting and laughing in -those very courts and under those very pictures while Jesus was -before Pilate, or Paul was landing at Puteoli, on the same coast -some twenty miles north, made an electric moment in life. It is so -seldom one actually <i>feels</i> and <i>touches</i> the past. After seeing -those temples with their sacrificial altars and <i>cellæ</i>, their -priests’ sleeping-rooms and dining-rooms, I read this morning St. -Paul’s directions to the Corinthians about meat offered to -idols—in fact, the whole first letter—with quite different eyes.”</p></div> - -<p>To the same beloved sister she was indebted for the inimitable tales of -her small boy, Julian, which enliven the<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> later pages of <i>David Grieve</i>; -for Sandy Grieve was taken direct from this little grandson of the -Professor—an “impet” indeed, in his mother’s expressive phrase. “Your -stories of Julian have been killing,” wrote Mrs. Ward from Naples; “I -was sorry one of them arrived too late for <i>David</i>. By the way, I have -not yet written to Willie to say that Sandy is merely an imperfect copy -of Julian. He writes ‘We both <i>love</i> Sandy.’ And I am sure when the book -comes out that Sandy will be the making of some of the last part.”</p> - -<p>A month after Mrs. Ward’s return to England, that is on January 22, -1892, <i>David Grieve</i> appeared, and was at once greeted with a chorus of -praise, criticism and general talk. “Were there ever such contradictory -judgments!” wrote Mrs. Ward to her publisher when the book had been out -a week. “The Master of Balliol writes to me that it is ‘the best novel -since George Eliot’—‘extraordinarily pathetic and interesting’—and -that Louie is a sketch that Victor Hugo might have drawn. A sledgehammer -article in the <i>British Weekly</i> to-night says ‘it is an almost absolute -failure.’ Mr. Henry Grenfell and Mr. Haldane have been glued to it till -they finished it. According to other people it is ‘ordinary and -tedious.’ Well, one must possess one’s soul a little, I suppose, till -the real verdict emerges.” The reviews were by no means all laudatory, -much criticism being bestowed on the “Paris episode” of David’s -entanglement with Elise Delaunay, but the general verdict certainly was -that it showed a marked advance on <i>Robert Elsmere</i> in artistic -treatment, as well as a power of character-drawing that had not been -seen since <i>Middlemarch</i>. This feeling was summed up in Walter Pater’s -sentence: “It seems to me to have all the forces of its predecessor at -work in it, with perhaps a mellower kind of art—a more matured power of -blending disparate literary gifts in one.” Letters poured in upon her -again, both from old friends and strangers. “Max Creighton,” now Bishop -of Peterborough, who was never tired of poking fun at Mrs. Ward about -the “higher criticism,” found time to dash off ten closely written -sheets of pseudo-solemn investigation into the authenticity of David’s -life-story, beginning: “Though I am prepared to believe that David -Grieve was a real personage, it is clear that many mythical elements -have been incorporated into his history, and it is the function<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> of -criticism to disentangle the real man from the legendary accretions -which have gathered round him.” Mrs. Ward replied in suitable vein, and -confided to her friend that a few of the reviews had made her very sore. -“I am very sorry to hear,” he replied, “that some criticism has been -ungenerous.... But I think that we all have to learn the responsibility -attached to undertaking the function of a teacher, and the inevitable -antagonism which the claim arouses. It has been so always. No amount of -rectitude or good intentions avail.”</p> - -<p>But the warm admiration expressed by those for whose opinion she cared -amply made up for the hostility of these reviews. As she said of it in -her <i>Recollections</i>: “It has brought me correspondence from all parts -and all classes, more intimate and striking perhaps than in the case of -any other of my books.” Many pages might be filled with these letters, -but at a distance of thirty years two only shall be saved from oblivion, -for the sake of that mere quality of delight which pervades them both -and which endeared their writers beyond other men to the company in -which they moved. The first is from Professor Huxley; the second from -Sir Edward Burne-Jones.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Hodeslea, Staveley Road,<br /> -Eastbourne.</span><br /> -<i>February 1, 1892.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Mary</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>You will think I have taken my time about thanking you for <i>David -Grieve</i>; but a virtuous resolution to stick to a piece of work I -have had on hand for a long time interfered with my finishing it -before last night. The temptation was severe, and as I do not often -stick to virtuous resolutions under these circumstances, I parade -the fact.</p> - -<p>I think the account of the Parisian episode of David’s life the -strongest thing you have done yet. It is alive—every word of -it—and without note or comment produces its ethical effect after -the manner of that “gifted authoress,” Dame Nature, who never -moralizes.</p> - -<p>Being “nobbut a heathen,” I should have liked the rest to be in the -same vein—the picture of a man hoping<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> nothing, rejecting all -speculative corks and bladders—strong only in the will “im Ganzen, -Guten, Wahren resolut zu leben,” and accepting himself for more or -less a failure—yet battling to the end. But you are on the side of -the angels.</p> - -<p>We are very proud of Julian’s apotheosis. He is a most delightful -imp, and the way in which he used to defy me, on occasion, when he -was here, was quite refreshing. The strength of his conviction that -people who interfere with his freedom are certainly foolish, -probably wicked, is quite Gladstonian.</p> - -<p class="r">My wife joins in love.<br /> -Ever yours affectionately,<br /> -<span class="smcap">T. H. Huxley</span>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">The Grange,<br /> -49, North End Road,<br /> -West Kensington, W.</span><br /> -<i>Saturday morning.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Ward</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>The book has just come—and to my pride and delight with such a -pretty autograph: so that to-day I am mightily set up. I cannot -tell you how comforting the words read to me—and how sunny they -have made this grey day. By the messenger who takes this I send a -little drawing, done in gold, which for a whole year past I have -meant for you—it was to reach you by your last birthday, but I was -ill then with this vile plague that is devastating us, and after -that there seemed no reason for sending it one day more than -another, and as I looked at it again it didn’t seem good enough, -and I thought one day you would come and choose a little souvenir -of friendship—one perhaps more to your liking—but this day has -never come, and all the year through illnesses big or little have -pursued me and nipped all plans. But will you take it with my -love—real grateful love; it’s a kind of Urania sort of person, and -will be proud to live in your bower in the country.</p> - -<p>We are a poor lot—my wife kept to her room for about a month; Phil -imprisoned in a room with carbolic curtains round him as if he were -a leper, and I—too ignominious at present to be spoken -about—longing to<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> go out and see an omnibus—I <i>should</i> like to -see an omnibus again!</p> - -<p class="r">My love to you all,<br /> -Yours, E. B. J.<br /> -</p> - -<p>P.S.—The first day I can get out I shall call and take my chance -of seeing you. Don’t dream of writing about the poor little -drawing; I should be ashamed, and you are full of work.</p></div> - -<p>The “kind of Urania sort of person” shed a radiance all her own over our -house from that day onwards, and was removed before long to a “country -bower” after Mrs. Ward’s own heart.</p> - -<p>For early in 1892 her attention was drawn by her old friend, Mr. (now -Sir James) Thursfield, who lived near Berkhamsted, to the fact that some -five miles farther from London, in the heart of a district as rural and -unspoilt as any that could be found in England, stood a comfortable -eighteenth-century house of medium size which happened recently to have -come into the market. Sir Edward Grey had just inherited it through his -mother under the will of old James Adam Gordon, its possessor in the -’forties and ’fifties; but since the place was far from any trout-stream -he did not propose to live in it, but wished instead to find a tenant to -take it for a term of years. Its name was simply “Stocks,” and though -the house itself was only 120 years old, a far older manor-house had -been pulled down to make way for it; while the little estate—“the -stokkes of the parish of Aldbury”—is mentioned in a fifteenth-century -charter as forming an outlying part of the huge diocese of Lincoln. Mr. -Thursfield persuaded Mr. and Mrs. Ward to come and see it, winter though -it was. They fell in love with it there and then, and within a few weeks -it was decided that Grayswood should be sold and Stocks taken for seven -years. Mrs. Ward felt that she had found at last the home she had been -seeking.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“You know how we have always hankered after an old place with old -trees,” she wrote to her brother Willie, “and when the Thursfields -made us come down and see the place and declared we must and should -take it we couldn’t in the end resist! It has such an old walled<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> -garden, such a beautiful lime avenue, such delicious old hollies -and oaks, such woods behind it and about it! The house is bigger in -the way of bedrooms than Haslemere, but otherwise not more -formidable, and though the inside has no particular features (the -outside is charming) we shall manage I think to make it habitable -and pretty. One great attraction to me is that it is so near Euston -and therefore to the Hall and all its works. I don’t mean to say -that we are taking it on any but the most ordinary selfish -principles!—but still, I like to think that I can make Marchmont -Hall, and the people who congregate about it, free of it as I -cannot do of Haslemere, and that there is a hungry demand in that -part of London for the fruit and flowers with which the place must -overflow in the summer. I believe also that the change will help me -a good deal in my work, and that at Stocks I shall be able to see -something of the genuine English country life which I never could -at Haslemere. But we had got to love Haslemere all the same, and it -is an up-rooting.”</p></div> - -<p>The little house on Grayswood Hill was indeed loath to let her go. She -went there alone at the end of February, when plain and hill lay steeped -in a flood of spring sunshine. “If only the place had not looked so -lovely yesterday and to-day!” she wrote. “We have been hung in infinite -air over the most ethereal of plains.” But when Stocks finally received -her, at midsummer, 1892, she knew in her heart that all was well; that -“something” deep down in her nature “that stands more rubs than anything -else in our equipment” was satisfied—satisfied with the quiet lines of -the chalk hills, with the beechwoods that clothed their sides, and -stretched away, she knew, for miles beyond the horizon; with the -neighbourhood of that ancient life of the soil that surrounded her in -village and scattered farm. She had found her home; she was to live in -it and love it for eight-and-twenty years.<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><br /> -THE STRUGGLE WITH ILL-HEALTH—<i>MARCELLA</i> AND <i>SIR GEORGE TRESSADY</i>—THE BUILDING OF THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT<br /><br /> -1892-1897</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HE acquisition of Stocks in the summer of 1892 was a landmark in Mrs. -Ward’s life for more reasons than one, for it coincided with the advent -of a mysterious ailment, or disability, from which she was never to be -wholly free for the rest of her life. She had hardly been in the new -house a fortnight before she succumbed to a violent attack of internal -pain, showing symptoms of gastric catarrh, but also affecting the nerves -of the right leg. It crippled her for many weeks and exercised the minds -of both the local and the London doctors. Some believed that the cause -of it must be a “floating kidney,” others that the pain was merely -neuralgic, while Mrs. Ward herself, with that keen interest in the human -organism and that instinct for self-doctoring which made her so -embarrassing a patient, watched the effect of each remedy and suggested -others with pathetic ingenuity. She had her better days, when she was -able to go down to the old walled kitchen-garden—about 300 yards from -the house—in a bath-chair, but whenever she tried to walk, even a -little, the pain returned in aggravated form. Only those who watched her -through those two summer months knew what heroic efforts she made to -master it and to throw herself into the writing of her new book, -<i>Marcella</i>, or how her “spirit grew” as the days of comparative relief -were followed ever and again by days of collapse. While she was still in -the thick of the struggle she received a visit from her American friend, -Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, whose impressions of the day were written -immediately to Mrs.<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> Whitman, in Boston, and give a vivid picture of -Mrs. Ward as she appeared at that time to so shrewd and sympathetic an -observer.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> (Aug. 20, 1892).</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Yesterday we spent the day with Mrs. Humphry Ward, who has been -ill for a while and is just getting better. Somehow, she seemed so -much younger and more girlish than I expected. I long to have you -know Mrs. Ward. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, -brilliant and full of charm, and with a lovely simplicity and -sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection, and a -sacred expectation of what she is sure to do if she keeps strong, -and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life -burns with a very fierce flame, and she has not in the least done -all that she can do, but just now it seems to me that her vigour is -a good deal spent.”</p></div> - -<p>The “spent vigour” was only another word for bodily illness, but some -weeks after Miss Jewett’s visit the first signs of relief appeared. Her -London doctor introduced her to a new drug, phenacetin, which worked -wonders with the sore side and leg. Phenacetin and all its kindred -“tabloids” came into common use at Stocks from that time onwards, in -spite of the mockery of her friends. Mrs. Ward developed an -extraordinary skill in the use of these “little drugs,” and would often -baffle her doctors by her theories of their effects. At any rate, they -bore a remarkable part in the complicated struggle between her work and -her health, which was to occupy the next few years, and Mrs. Ward always -staunchly believed in them.</p> - -<p>The improvement continued steadily, so that she was able, that autumn, -to undertake a speaking-tour in Lancashire and Yorkshire on behalf of -University Hall, finding wherever she went the most astonishing welcome. -At Manchester she went, after her own meetings were over, to a great -Unitarian gathering in the Free Trade Hall, stipulating that she was not -to speak; but at the end she was entrapped, nevertheless. Her husband -received the following account of it.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Then at the very end, to my sorrow, the chairman announced that -Mrs. Humphry Ward was present, and<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> had been asked to speak, but -was not well enough to do so! Whereupon there were such groans from -the audience, and I felt it so absurd to be sitting there pleading -illness that I could only move up to the desk, wondering whether I -could possibly make myself heard in such a place. Then they all -rose, and such applause as you never heard! It was a good thing -that a certain number of people had left to catch early trains, or -it would have been still more overwhelming to me. I just managed to -say half a dozen words, and I think I said them with sufficient -ease, but whether they carried to the back of the hall I don’t -know. It certainly must be very exciting to be able to speak easily -to such a responsive multitude.”</p></div> - -<p>At Leeds the same kind of experience awaited her, though on a smaller -scale. “I should not have been mortal if I had not been deeply touched -by their feeling towards me and towards the books,” she wrote. “And what -a strong independent world of its own all this north-country -Nonconformity is! I feel as though these experiences were invaluable to -me as a novelist. One never dreamt of all this at Oxford.”</p> - -<p>The improvement in health, which had enabled her to face the strain of -this tour, was not of long duration. Many letters in the winter complain -of the “dragging pain” in the right leg, which prevents her from walking -more than fifty yards without being “brought up sharp till the pain and -stiffness have gone off again—which they do with resting.” By the -following June (1893) she was as ill as ever she had been in the -preceding summer. The London doctor adopted the theory of the “shifting -kidney,” but encouraged her to allow herself to be carried up and -downstairs at Stocks, so as to lie in the summer garden. “I am afraid -this tendency may mean times of pain for me in the future,” she writes, -“but it is not dangerous, and need not prevent my working just as usual. -I <i>am</i> so enjoying the sight of the flowers again, and this afternoon I -shall somehow get to the lime on the lawn. It had given me quite a pang -at my heart to think the lime-blossom would go and I not see it! One has -fewer years to waste now.”</p> - -<p>She was hard at work on the writing of <i>Marcella</i> throughout this year, -but the fact that she could not sit up at a<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> table without bringing on a -“wild fit of pain,” as she described it once, meant that she had to -cultivate the art of writing in bed or in her garden chair, a proceeding -which was very apt to produce attacks of writer’s cramp. Elaborate -erections of writing-boards had to be built up around her, so as to -enable as many as possible of Dr. Wolff’s precepts to be carried out, -but it was a weary business, and often the hand would drop lame for a -while, in spite of the author’s longing to be “at” her characters. This -joy of creation was, however, her principal stay during these months of -pain and weakness.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c"><i>To Mr. George Murray Smith</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="r"><i>September 8, 1893.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>“I, alas! cannot get well, though I am no doubt somewhat better -than when you were here. The horrid ailment, whatever it is, will -not go away, and work is rather a struggle. Still it is also my -great stand-by and consolation,—by the help of it I manage to -avoid the depression which otherwise this long <i>malaise</i> and -weakness must have brought with it. A walk to the kitchen-garden -and back yesterday gave me a bad night and fresh pain to-day, and I -cannot travel with any comfort. But I can get along, and soon we -shall be in London and I must try some fresh doctoring. Meanwhile I -have written nearly a volume since we came down, which is not so -bad.”</p></div> - -<p>All through the autumn of this year she grew more and more absorbed in -her story, while her health improved slightly, though walking was still -an unattainable joy. The life of the little village of Aldbury, half a -mile from the house, which she wove into so many scenes of <i>Marcella</i>, -had an immense fascination for her. She would drive down in her -pony-carriage, whenever she could find time, to spend an hour with old -Mrs. Swabey or Mrs. Bradsell, or with Johnny Dolt, the postmaster, -gleaning from their old-world gossip the elemental life-story of the -country-side, or hearing the echoes of the bloody tragedy which had -convulsed the village just before we came to it, in December, 1891. For -while the old lady of Stocks (Mrs. Bright) lay dying, a murderous affray -had occurred in the wood, not a<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> mile from the house, between the -gamekeeper and his lad on the one side, and a band of poachers on the -other. The keeper was shot dead, and the lad, who fled for his life into -the open, down towards a spreading beech in the hollow below, was -followed and beaten to death with the butt-end of a gun. No wonder that -Mrs. Ward took the tale and made it the dominating theme of her story, -weaving into it new threads that the sordid tragedy itself did not -possess—of the poacher Hurd, the dying child, the piteous little wife. -The village itself was somewhat agape, we used to think, over the -proceedings of the new mistress of Stocks, who would have “grand folks” -down from London to spend their Sundays with her, but who had also taken -a cottage on purpose for the reception of tired people from the back -streets, and who was constantly having parties down from “some place in -London” to enjoy the garden and the shady trees. The place in question -was Marchmont Hall, for whose cricket team we children preserved a -private but invincible contempt; but the elderly Associates became real -friends, and soon learnt to know Stocks and its environs with more than -a passing knowledge. Sometimes they would come down just for a day’s -outing, but more often they, or the club-girls, or some ailing mother -and baby would stay for a fortnight at the Convalescent Cottage under -the care of the loquacious Mrs. Dell, whose memory must still be green -in many London hearts. A natural philosopher, reared on the Bible and -her own shrewd observation of life, Mrs. Dell was the ideal matron for -the London folk who were sent down to her; she took them all in under -her large embrace, though her opinion of their “draggled” faces when -they arrived was anything but complimentary. She was wont to express -herself, in fact, with considerable freedom about London life. Once one -of her guests—a working-man—had gone back to town for the week-end, -feeling bored in the country. “And pray what can ‘e do in London?” she -asked with magnificent scorn. “Nothin’ but titter-totter on the paves!”</p> - -<p>And besides the Convalescent Cottage, there stood on the same steep -slope of hill, just under the hanging wood, with its mixture of beech, -ash and wild cherry, another little house, known simply as Stocks -Cottage, which Mr. Ward acquired to round off the miniature estate early -in<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> 1895. It became a source of unmixed joy to Mrs. Ward, for she could -lend or let it to many different friends, from Graham Wallas and Bernard -Shaw, who came to it during one of her absences abroad, and thence -roamed the downs with the daughter she had left behind, preaching -collectivism and Jaeger clothes—to the Neville Lytteltons, who spent -seven consecutive summers in the little place, from 1895 to 1901. The -Cottage, indeed, became a very intimate part of Mrs. Ward’s life at -Stocks, and its mistress, Mrs. Lyttelton, one of her closest friends.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p><i>Marcella</i> was finished, after a long struggle against sleeplessness, -headache and a bad bout of writer’s cramp, on January 31, 1894. A -characteristic passage occurred between the author and her publisher -immediately afterwards. Mr. Smith had sent her, according to promise, a -considerable sum in advance of royalty, setting forth at the same time, -with his habitual candour, the exact sum which his firm expected to make -from the same number of copies. Mrs. Ward thought it not enough, and -wrote at once to propose a decrease of royalty on the first 2,000 -copies. “I hardly know what to say,” replied Mr. Smith. “It is not often -that a publisher receives such a letter from an author.” But after -mutual bargainings—all of an inverted character—they arrived at a -satisfactory agreement.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward fled to Italy with husband and daughter to escape the -appearance of the book, and saw herself flaunted on the posters of the -English papers in the Piazza di Spagna early in April. It was indeed an -exhilarating time for her, for there were few harsh voices among the -reviewers on this occasion, while the many letters from her friends were -as kind as ever. A typical opinion was that of Sir Francis Jeune: “I was -charmed with sentence after sentence of perfect finish and point, such -as no other writer of fiction in the present day ever attempts and -certainly could not sustain. They are a delight in themselves, and the -care bestowed on them is the highest compliment to a reader. May I add -that I think the dramatic force of some scenes—I single out the morning -of Hurd’s execution, and the death of Hallin, but there are several -more—is greatly in advance of anything even you have done, and touches -a very high<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> point in comparison with any scenes in English fiction. I -think George Eliot never surpassed them.” In her <i>Recollections</i> Mrs. -Ward describes the coming out of <i>Marcella</i> as “perhaps the happiest -date in my literary life,” for it not only gave her unalloyed joy in -itself, but it coincided also with a comparative return to -health—though always with ups and downs. Yet the immense publicity -which the success of the book brought her was also a grievous burden, -and she gives vent to this feeling in a letter to Mr. Gladstone, written -in reply to his own words of thanks for the gift of the book:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">25, Grosvenor Place.</span><br /> -<i>May 6, 1894.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Mr. Gladstone</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was charming of you to write to me,—one of those kindnesses -which, apart from all your greatness, win to you the hearts of so -many. I am so glad that the eyes are better for a time, and that -you have shaken off your influenza.</p> - -<p>We have just come back from a delightful seven weeks in Italy, at -Rome, Siena and Florence, and I am much rested, though still, I am -vexed to say, very lame and something of an invalid. The success of -<i>Marcella</i>, however, has been a most pleasant tonic, though I -always find the first few weeks after the appearance of a book an -agitating and trying time, however smoothly things go! The great -publicity which our modern conditions involve seems to wear one’s -nerves; and I suppose it is inevitable that women should feel such -things more than men, who so often, through the training of school -and college and public life, get used to them from their childhood.</p> - -<p>Your phrase about “prospective work” gave me real delight. I have -been enjoying and pondering over the translations of Horace in the -<i>Nineteenth Century</i>. Horace is the one Latin poet whom I know -fairly well, and often read, though this year, in Italy, I think I -realized the spell of Virgil more than ever before. Will you go on, -I wonder, from the love-poems to a gathering from the others? I -wanted to claim of you three or four in particular, but as I turn -over the pages I see in two or three<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> minutes at least twenty that -jostle each other to be named, so it is no good!</p> - -<p class="r">Believe me,<br /> -Yours most sincerely,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Mary A. Ward</span>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p><i>Marcella</i>, like her two predecessors, first appeared in three-volume -form, but Mrs. Ward’s quarrel with the big libraries for starving their -subscribers, which had been simmering ever since <i>David Grieve</i>, became -far more acute over the new book. She reported to George Smith on May 24 -that “Sir Henry Cunningham told us last night that he had made a -tremendous protest to Mudie’s against their behaviour in the matter of -<i>Marcella</i>—which he seems to have told them he regarded as a fraud on -the public, or rather on their subscribers, whom they were <i>bound</i> to -supply with new books!” This feud, together with the desire of the -American <i>Century Magazine</i> to publish her next novel in serial form, -provided it were only half the length of <i>Marcella</i>, induced her to -consider seriously the question of writing shorter books. “It would be -difficult for me, with my tendency to interminableness,” she admitted to -George Smith, “to promise to keep within such limits. However, it might -be good for me!” Soon afterwards the decision was made, and with it the -knell of the three-volume novel sounded, for other novelists soon -followed Mrs. Ward’s example. The resulting brevity of modern novels -(always excepting Mr. William de Morgan and Mr. Conrad) is thus largely -due to the flaming up of an old quarrel between librarians on the one -side and publishers and authors on the other, as it occurred in the case -of Mrs. Ward’s <i>Marcella</i>.</p> - -<p>The summer of 1894 was a period of comparative physical ease, during -which Mrs. Ward found that although she was still unable to walk more -than a very little, she could ride an old pony we possessed with much -profit and pleasure, of course at a foot pace. Thus she was enabled to -explore some of the woods and hill-sides around Stocks which she had -never yet visited, a pastime which gave her exquisite delight. But by -the following winter both her persistent plagues had reappeared in -aggravated form. “My hand is extremely troublesome, alas!” she wrote to -her father,<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> “and the internal worry has been worse again lately. It is -so trying week after week never to feel well, or like other people! One -lives one’s life, but it makes it all more of a struggle. And as there -is this organic cause for it, one can only look forward to being -sometimes better and less conscious of it than at others, but never to -being quite well. However, one needn’t grumble, for I manage to enjoy my -life greatly in spite of it, and to fill the days pretty full.” And to -her husband, who was away on a lecturing-tour in America, she wrote in -February, 1895: “Alas! for my hand. It is more seriously disabled than -it has been for months and months, and I really ought to give it a -month’s complete rest. If it were not for the <i>Century</i> I would!”</p> - -<p>This unusual disablement was due no doubt to the extraordinary -concentration of effort which she had just put forth in the writing of -her village tale of <i>Bessie Costrell</i>—a tale based on an actual -occurrence in the village of Aldbury, the tragic details of which -absorbed her so much as to amount almost to possession. She finished it -in fifteen days, and gave it to George Smith, who always cherished a -special affection for this “grimy little tale,” as Mrs. Ward called it.</p> - -<p>When he had brought it out, the world devoured it with enthusiasm—so -much so that her true friend and mentor, Henry James, whose opinion she -valued more highly than any other, thought fit to address a friendly -admonition to her:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘May 8, 1895. I think the tale very straight-forward and -powerful—very direct and vivid, full of the real and the <i>juste</i>. -I like your unalembicated rustics—they are a tremendous rest after -Hardy’s—and the infallibility of your feeling for village life. -Likewise I heartily hope you will labour in this field and farm -again. <i>But</i> I won’t pretend to agree with one or two declarations -that have been wafted to me to the effect that this little tale is -“the best thing you’ve done.” It has even been murmured to me that -<i>you</i> think so. This I don’t believe, and at any rate I find, for -myself, your best in your dealings with <i>data</i> less simple, on a -plan less simple. This means, however, mainly, that I hope you -won’t abandon <i>anything</i> that you have shewn you can do, but<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> only -go on with this <i>and</i> that—and the other—especially the other!</p> - -<p class="r">Yours, dear Mrs. Ward,<br /> -most truly,<br /> -H<small>ENRY</small> J<small>AMES</small>.”<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Meanwhile, in spite of the drawback of her continued ill-health, she -derived throughout these years an ever-increasing pleasure from the -friendships with which she was surrounded. Both in the London house, -which they had acquired early in 1891 (25 Grosvenor Place), and at -Stocks, she loved to gather many friends about her, though the effort of -entertaining them was often a sore tax upon her slender strength. Her -Sunday parties at Stocks brought together men and women from many -different worlds—political, literary and philanthropic—with whom the -talk ranged over all the questions and persons of the day from breakfast -till lunch, from lunch till tea, and from tea till dinner; but after -dinner, in sheer exhaustion, the party would usually take refuge in what -were known, derisively, as “intellectual games.” Mrs. Ward herself was -not particularly good at these diversions, but she loved to watch the -efforts of others, and they did give a rest, after all, from the endless -talk! On one such occasion the game selected was the variety known as -“riddle game,” in which a name and a thing are written down at random by -different players, and the next tries to give a reason why the person -should be like the thing. Lord Acton, who had that day devoured ten -books of Biblical criticism that Mrs. Ward had placed in his room, and -would infinitely have preferred to go on talking about them, found -himself confronted by the question: “Why is Lord Rothschild like a -poker?” For a long time he sat contemplating the paper, then scribbled -down in desperation: “Because he is upright,” and retired impenetrably -behind an eleventh book. But Mr. Asquith made up for all deficiencies by -his ingenuity in this form of nonsense. “Why is Irving like a -wheelbarrow?” demanded one of the little papers that came round to him, -and while the rest of us floundered in heavy jokes Mr. Asquith found the -exact answer: “Because he serves to fill up the pit and carry away the -boxes.”</p> - -<p>Politics were of absorbing interest to Mrs. Ward, and<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> though her own -views remained decidedly Unionist on the Irish question, in home affairs -they were sufficiently mixed to make free discussion not only possible, -but delightful to her. She still retained her old friendship for Mr. -Morley, and probably the majority of her Parliamentary friends at this -time were of the Liberal persuasion. 1895 was the year of the “cordite -division” and the fall of Lord Rosebery’s Government, involving many of -these friends in the catastrophe. Mr. Morley was defeated at Newcastle -and went to recover his serenity in the Highlands, whither Mrs. Ward -sent him a copy of <i>Bessie Costrell</i>, provoking the following letter -from her old friend and master:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>August 6, 1895.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Ward</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>It was most pleasant to me to receive the little volume, in its -pretty dress, and with the friendly dedication. It will take its -place among my personal treasures, and I am truly grateful to you -for thinking of me.</p> - -<p>The story is full of interest to me, and in the vein of a true -realism, humanising instead of brutalising. The “severity” of the -poor dead woman’s look, and the whole of that page, redeems with a -note of just pity all the sordid elements.... We are quartered in -one of the most glorious of highland glens, five and twenty miles -from a railway, and nearly as many hours from London. Now and then -my thoughts wander to Westminster, passing round by way of -Newcastle, but I quickly cast Satan behind me—and try to cultivate -a steady-eyed equanimity, which shall not be a stupid insensibility -to either one’s personal catastrophe or to the detriment which the -commonwealth has just suffered. If life were not so short—I -sometimes think it is far too long—I should see some compensations -in the deluge that has come upon the Liberal party. It will do them -good to be sent to adjust their compasses. The steering had been -very blind in these latter days. Perhaps some will tell you that my -own bit of steering was the very blindest of all. I know that you -are disposed to agree with such folk, and I know that Irish -character (for which English government, by the way, is wholly -responsible), is difficult stuff to work with. But the policy was -right, and I beg<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> you not to think—as I once told the H. of -C.—that the Irish sphinx is going to gather up her rags, and -depart from your gates in meekness.</p></div> - -<p>During these months another Liberal friend, Mr. Sydney Buxton, was -taking infinite pains to pilot Mrs. Ward through the intricacies of the -Parliamentary situation required for the book she was now writing, <i>Sir -George Tressady</i>—drawing her a coloured plan of the House and the -division-lobbies for the scene of Tressady’s “ratting,” and generally -supervising the details of Marcella Maxwell’s Factory Bill. “I am sure -it is owing to you,” wrote Mrs. Ward to him afterwards, “that the -political framework has not at any rate stood in the way of the book’s -success, as I feared at one time it might.” She herself had regularly -put herself to school to learn every detail of the system of sweated -homework prevalent in the East End of London at that time; wading -through piles of Blue-books, visiting the actual scenes under the care -of a Factory Inspector, or of Lord Rothschild’s Jewish secretary; -learning much from her Fabian friends, Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Graham -Wallas.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“As to Maxwell’s Bill itself,” she wrote to Mr. Buxton, “after my -talk with you and Mr. Gerald Balfour, I took the final idea of it -from some evidence of Sidney Webb’s before the Royal Commission. -There he says that he can perfectly well imagine, and would like to -see tried, a special Factory Act for East London, and I find the -same thing foreshadowed in various other things on Factory Law I -have been reading. And some weeks ago I talked over the idea with -Mr. Haldane, who thought it quite conceivable, and added that -‘London would bear quietly what would make Nottingham or Leeds -revolt.’ If such a Bill is possible or plausible, that I think is -all a novelist wants. For of course one cannot describe <i>the real</i>, -and yet one wants something which is not merely fanciful, but might -be, under certain circumstances. The whole situation lies as it -were some ten years ahead, and I have made use of a remark of -Gerald Balfour’s to me on the Terrace, when we had been talking -over the new Factory Bill. ‘There is not much difference between -Parties,’ he said, agreeing with you—‘but I should not wonder if, -within the next few years, we saw some reaction in these matters,’ -by which I suppose he<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> meant if the Home Office power were -over-driven, or the Acts administered too vexatiously.</p> - -<p>“Do you see that they have lately been repealing some Factory -legislation concerning women’s labour in France? We are not France, -but we might conceivably, don’t you think, have a period of -discontent?”</p></div> - -<p>When the book at length appeared, in September, 1896, Mrs. Ward was -afraid that it would hardly float under the weight of its politics, but -this was not so, for it sold 15,000 copies within a week, and never, -perhaps, were the reviews more cordial. The relation between the two -women, Letty and Marcella, was universally felt to be one of the best -things she had ever attempted, while the greater compression of the book -was accepted with a sigh of relief.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>“Mrs. Ward is wisely content,” said the <i>Leeds Mercury</i>, “to take more -for granted, and with true artistic instinct to leave room for the play -of her readers’ imagination; we are saved, consequently, tedious -details, and that over-elaboration of incident, if not of plot, which -was one of the most conspicuous blemishes in her previous works. She is -beginning also to believe that brevity is the soul of art, as well as of -wit, and therefore, without any sacrifice of the essential points in her -narrative, she has found it possible—by discarding padding—to state -all that she has to tell about ‘Sir George Tressady’ in considerably -less than six hundred pages, instead of making her old, unconscionable -demand for at least a thousand. It would not be true to say that Mrs. -Ward has lost all her literary mannerisms, or even affectations, but -they are falling rapidly into the background—one proof amongst many, -that she is mastering at length the secret of that blended strength and -simplicity of style which all writers envy, but to which few attain.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Two opinions, expressed by such opposite critics as Mrs. Sidney Webb and -Mr. Rudyard Kipling, may be of interest to this day:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The story is very touching,” wrote Mrs. Webb, “and you have an -indescribable power of making your readers sympathize with all your -characters, even with Letty and her unlovely mother-in-law. Of -course, as a strict<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> utilitarian, I am inclined to estimate the -book more in its character of treatise than as a novel. From this -point of view it is the most useful bit of work that has been done -for many a long day. You have managed to give the arguments for and -against factory legislation and a fixed standard of life with -admirable lucidity and picturesqueness—in a way that will make -them comprehensible to the ordinary person without any technical -knowledge. I especially admire your real intellectual impartiality -and capacity to give the best arguments on both sides, though -naturally I am glad to see that your sympathy is on the whole with -us on those questions.</p> - -<p>“Pray accept my thanks from a public as well as a personal point of -view for the gift of the book to the world and to myself.”</p></div> - -<p>And Mr. Kipling wrote:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="nind">“D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I am delighted to have <i>Sir George Tressady</i> from your hand. I have -followed him from month to month with the liveliest wonder as to -how the inevitable smash in his affairs was to fall, and now that I -have read the tale as a whole I see that of course there was but -one way. Like all human books it has the unpleasant power of making -you think and bother as one only bothers over real folk: but how -splendidly you have done the lighter relief-work! ‘Fifteen out of a -possible twelve’ has already been adopted as a household word by -us, who have two babies.</p> - -<p>“It will always be one of the darkest mysteries to me that any -human being can make a beginning, end <i>and</i> middle to a really -truly long story. I can think them by scores, but I have not the -hand to work out the full frieze. It is just the difference between -the deep-sea steamer with twelve hundred people aboard, besides the -poor beggars sweating and scorching in the stoke-hold, and the -coastwise boat with a mixed cargo of ‘notions.’ And so, when the -liner sees fit to salute the coaster in passing, that small boat is -mightily encouraged.”</p></div> - -<p>But the writing of <i>Sir George Tressady</i> had been carried out against -greater handicaps of physical suffering and nervous strain than perhaps -any of Mrs. Ward’s previous<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> books. She had agreed to let the <i>Century -Magazine</i> publish it serially from November 1, 1895, and had fully -intended to have it finished, at any rate in provisional form, by that -date. But ill-health and her absorption in the affairs of University -Hall retarded its progress, so that when November came there were still -eight or nine chapters to write, and those the most difficult and -critical of the book. The <i>Century</i> cabled for more copy, but at the -same time Mrs. Ward fell a victim to “a new ailment,” as she wrote to -her father, “and what with that and the perpetual struggle with the -hand, which will not let me write lying down, I hardly know how to get -through sometimes.” She was advised to have what the surgeons assured -her would be a “slight” operation, but put it off until after a -Christmas month at Stocks, during which she devoted herself, crippled as -she was, to the writing of <i>Tressady</i>. Hardly would she have “got -through” these weeks at all—for by now the demands on her time, the -letters and requests to speak were endless—had she not discovered -during this winter a secretary, Miss Bessie Churcher, whose wonderful -qualities made her not only Mrs. Ward’s closest helper and friend during -the whole remainder of her life, but have impressed themselves for good, -through many years’ devotion, on the public work of London.</p> - -<p>When Mrs. Ward at last found time to put herself in the surgeons’ hands, -the operation which ensued was clumsily performed, and left her with yet -another burden to carry through all her later life. After it she lay for -days in such pain as the doctors had neither foreseen nor prophesied, -while the nervous shock of the operation itself was aggravated, one -night, by the antics of a drunken nurse, who came into her room with a -lighted lamp in her hand and deposited it, swaying and lurching, upon -the floor. Fortunately help was at hand and the nurse removed, but the -terror of the moment did not forward Mrs. Ward’s recovery. It was many -weeks before sleep came back to her, many weeks before she could sit up -with any comfort or move with ease. But the book must be finished, in -spite of aches and pains, and finished it was within ten weeks of the -operation (March 22, 1896). George Tressady’s death in the dark -galleries of the mine “possessed” her as she had only been possessed by -the tale of Bessie Costrell, and<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> helped her no doubt to master the host -of her physical ills. But when the strain was over she was fit for -nothing but to be taken out to Italy, there to recover, if she could, -under the stimulus of that magic light and air which appealed—so at -least we used to imagine—to something in her own far-off southern -blood. At Cadenabbia, on Lake Como, health began to return to her; at -Padua she was “doing more walking than she had dreamed of for four -years,” and with the revival of her strength she wrote home in sheer joy -of spirit, “All Italy to me is enchanted ground!” But alas, it was too -early to rejoice. She came again to the Lake of Como to have a -fortnight’s complete rest before returning home—staying at the Villa -Serbelloni, above Bellagio—and there unduly overtaxed her new-found -powers. She must make her way to the ruined tower of San Giovanni that -looks at you from its hill-top beyond the little town, and since the -path was <i>non-carrozzabile</i> she would make the ascent on foot. The -adventure was pure joy to her, the views of the lake all the more -intoxicating for having been won by her own strength of limb. But the -next day a violent attack of her old and still unexplained trouble -declared itself. The journey homewards, via Lucerne, was performed under -conditions of crisis which still leave a haunting memory, and though a -clever Swiss doctor at Lucerne appeared to diagnose the disease more -surely than any previous medicine-man, he could suggest no practicable -remedy. Mrs. Ward continued to suffer from her obscure ailment to a -greater or less degree for the rest of her life, as well as from the -results of the operation; but on the whole the attacks became less -frequent, or less severe, as the years went on. She developed an -extraordinary skill in fighting them, by the aid of the thousand and one -little drugs before-mentioned, and often derived a keen pleasure from -the sense of having met and routed an old enemy. But the enemy was -always there, lying in wait for her if she walked more, say, than half a -mile at a time. It is well to remember that her life from 1892 onwards -was conducted under that constant handicap.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Yet it was during the years in which her illness was most acute that she -carried to a successful conclusion her labours for the foundation of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement.<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a></p> - -<p>When Mr. Edwards, in May, 1894, offered to provide £4,000 towards the -Building Fund of University Hall,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> it was only the beginning of a -long struggle towards the accomplishment of this design. The next step -was to interest the Duke of Bedford—as the ground-landlord of that part -of London—in the scheme. This Mrs. Ward succeeded in doing during the -summer of 1894, thus laying the foundation of a co-operation that was to -ripen into a strong mutual regard. The Duke took a keen personal -interest in the finding of a suitable site for the new building, and -when such a site became available in Tavistock Place, offered it to the -Committee at less than its market value, and contributed £800 towards -the building fund. Oddly enough, however, this site—for which the -contract was actually signed in February, 1895—was not that on which -the Settlement stands to-day, but lay on the opposite side of the -street; the disadvantage to it being that there would have been a delay -of two years in obtaining possession, owing to existing tenants’ rights. -When, therefore, an equally good site actually fell vacant in the same -street a few months later, the Duke willingly released the Committee -from their contract and made over to them the ground on which the -Settlement now stands on a 999 years’ lease. In the meantime Mr. -Passmore Edwards had raised his original offer from £4,000 to £7,000, -and then to £10,000; the total fund stood at over £12,000, and Mr. -Norman Shaw agreed to preside over an architects’ competition and to -judge between the various designs submitted. All connected with -University Hall rejoiced greatly when the award fell to two young -residents of the Hall, Messrs. Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, whose -simple yet beautiful design far surpassed those of the other -competitors. But according to the instructions of the Committee itself -the building was to cost up to £12,000, while the price of the site was -£5,000, and a further sum would be required for furnishing. Mrs. Ward -set herself to the task of raising further funds with her accustomed -energy, but her illness during the winter of 1895-6 greatly hampered -her, and the fund rose all too slowly for her eager spirit. Meanwhile -the builders’ tenders soared in the opposite direction. When she -returned from Italy and Lucerne in May, 1896, she found the situation<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> -critical; either fresh plans of a far less ambitious nature must be -asked for, or a further sum of £3,500 must be raised at once. Mr. R. G. -Tatton, already one of the most active members of the Council, and soon -to be appointed Warden, believed that the only hope lay in Mr. Passmore -Edwards, but told Mrs. Ward plainly that the benefactor had said he -could do no more unless others showed a corresponding interest. Mr. -Tatton boldly asked Mrs. Ward herself to lay down £1,000. This she did; -a fortunate legacy of £500 came in at the same moment, and Mr. Edwards -gave an additional £2,000 with the best grace in the world. Yet once -more, on the night of the formal opening, nearly two years later, did he -come forward with a similar donation, making £14,000 in all. He showed -throughout a steadfast faith in the working ideals of the Settlement -that triumphed over all minor difficulties; Mrs. Ward described him once -as possessed by “the very passion of giving.” No wonder that the -Committee decided, long before the new building was completed, to call -it by his name.</p> - -<p>Thus Mrs. Ward could have the happiness, during the years 1896 and 1897, -of seeing the beautiful building for which she had toiled so hard rise -and take bodily shape before her eyes. She became fast friends with the -two young architects, who had so decisively won the competition, and who -now devoted themselves indefatigably to the supervision of the work. She -formed, early in 1897, a General Committee for the new Settlement, the -wide and representative character of which showed how warm was the -sympathy entertained for the new venture not only in London, but also in -Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. And she devoted herself to the -formation of a Lectureship Committee, named after Benjamin Jowett, which -was to carry on, within the new organization, the religious ideals of -University Hall. The Settlement itself rested on a purely secular basis, -but the Council fully agreed to the inclusion of the following clause as -one of the “Objects” in the Memorandum of Association: “To promote the -study of the Bible and of the history of religion in the light of the -best available results of criticism and research.” The Jowett -Lectureship Committee was established in order to carry out this clause, -and a sum of £100 per annum was placed at its disposal from the general -revenue of the<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> Settlement—a small result, it may be argued, of all the -missionary effort put forth in the founding of University Hall seven -years before. But the Settlement itself stood there as the result of -that effort, and as Mrs. Ward looked down, on October 10, 1897, on the -packed audience that assembled in the new hall to hear her opening -address, she might well feel that her dreams had come to a more solid -fruition than she could ever have dared to hope. But even then she did -not know the whole. There sat the mothers and the fathers, with faces -eager and expectant, ready to throw themselves into this big experiment -that was opening out before them. Mrs. Ward welcomed them with her whole -heart; yet this was not all: the children were at the gates.<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><br /> -CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT THE PASSMORE EDWARDS SETTLEMENT—THE FOUNDATION OF THE INVALID CHILDREN’S SCHOOL<br /><br /> -1897-1899</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">F</span>OR some two or three years before the opening of the new Settlement, a -Saturday morning “playroom” for children had been held at Marchmont -Hall, mainly under the direction of Miss Mary Neal, who, as the founder -of the Esperance Club for factory girls, and one of the “Sisters” -working under Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, had already made her name beloved -in the slums of St. Pancras. In that shabby little room she had taught -them Old English games and dances, till even the street outside grew -merry with the sound of their music, and many were the groups of -children seen playing “Old Roger is dead” or “Looby Loo” at street -corners during the other days of the week. Mrs. Ward had been much -attracted by the experiment, which was hampered, like everything else at -Marchmont Hall, by lack of space; and now that the fine new buildings -were available she was eager to transplant it and to carry it further. -My diary for Saturday, October 16, 1897, duly records that “D. and Miss -Churcher and I went to the Settlement at ten to superintend the -children’s play-hour, which we are now going to have every Saturday in -the big hall. It was a perfect pandemonium this time, as we hadn’t -prepared any sort of organization, and there were at least 120 children -to deal with. We also had to give each child a pair of list slippers to -put on over its own boots, and this was a tremendous business and took -over half an hour. Miss Neal made them a little speech before we began -the games, and then we all formed rings and played Looby Loo and others -of that stamp for nearly an hour more.”<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a></p> - -<p>From these unpromising beginnings sprang the whole of the “organized -recreation” for children which gradually arose at the new Settlement, -with the object of attracting the child population of the district away -from the streets after school hours. Mrs. Ward guided and inspired the -movement, though she left the actual carrying on of the classes to -younger and more robust members of her group; but she formed a special -committee (the Women’s Work Committee), of which she was chairman, to -watch over it all, and generally supplied the motive force, the sense of -its being worth while, which inspired the ever-growing band of our -helpers. One class, too, she kept as her very own—a weekly reading -aloud for boys between eleven and fourteen, in the course of which she -read them a great deal of Stevenson and Kipling, or brought them -photographs of her travels in Italy, or talked to them sometimes of the -events of the day. About thirty boys came regularly to these readings, -and always behaved well with her, while she on her side came to know -them individually and felt a strong affection for many of them. Where -are they now, those thirty boys? How many have left their bones in the -mud of Flanders, or on the heights that look towards Troas, across the -narrow sea? Mrs. Ward herself was often possessed with that thought -through the years of the Great War, but never, so far as I know, heard -any direct news of them. All were of that fatal age that Death reaped -with the least pity.</p> - -<p>After the Saturday morning play-rooms—which fortunately improved in -discipline after that first “pandemonium,” and increased so much in -popularity that we had to divide them into two, taking in close upon 400 -children in a morning—we launched out into musical drill-classes for -bigger and smaller children, story-telling for the little ones, -gymnastic classes for girls and boys, a children’s hour in the library, -dancing and acting classes, and finally history lectures with lantern -slides, designed to supplement the very meagre teaching of history that -the children received in the elementary schools around. How much one -learnt by hard experience, in the course of it all, of the art of -keeping the children’s attention—whether in teaching them a new -singing-game on Saturdays, or in the story-telling to the “under -elevens,” or in the exciting task of going over Oliver’s battles with<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> -the young ladies and gentlemen of the fifth to seventh standards! For -even these, if one lost their attention for a moment, were not above -calling out “Ole Krujer!” at a somewhat forbidding slide of Sir Thomas -Fairfax, while the “under elevens” would often be swept by gusts of -coughing and talk that fairly drowned the voice of the story-teller, if -she suffered them to lose the thread of the Princess’s adventures by too -gorgeous a description of the dragon. But usually they were as good as -gold, sitting there packed tight on the rows of chairs (136 children on -seventy-six chairs was one of our records), while the “little mothers” -hugged their babies and no sound was to be heard save the sucking of -toffee or liquorice-sticks.</p> - -<p>All these occupations took place in the late afternoon, from 5.30 to 7, -during the hours when the children of London, discharged from school and -tea, drift aimlessly about the streets, often actually locked out from -home (in those days at least) owing to the long hours worked by mother -as well as father at “charing” or at the local factory. The instant -response made by the child-population of St. Pancras to Mrs. Ward’s -piping showed that she had, as it were, stumbled upon a real and vital -need of our great cities, and as a larger and larger band of helpers was -drawn into our circle and more and more of the cheerful Settlement rooms -came into use, the attendances of the children went up by leaps and -bounds. One year after the opening they had grown to some 650 per week; -by October, 1899, to 900, and in the next three or four years they -touched the utmost capacity of the building by reaching 1,200. The -schools in the immediate neighbourhood co-operated eagerly in the new -effort, though the selection of children for our special classes often -involved extra labour for the teachers; but they rose to it with -enthusiasm, and would sometimes steal in to watch their children -enjoying the story-telling or the library, removed from the restraint of -day-school discipline, and yet “giving no trouble,” as they wonderingly -recognized. Mrs. Ward made friends with many of these teachers, -especially with those from Manchester Street and Prospect Terrace -Schools, for it was her way to establish natural human relations with -every one with whom she came in contact, and the hard-working London -teacher always appealed to her in a peculiar way. An incident that gave -her special<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> pleasure was the passing of a vote of thanks to the -Settlement by a neighbouring Board of Managers, “for the work done among -the children of this school.” How she was loved and looked up to by -every one concerned—by helpers, teachers and, more dimly, by the -children themselves—is not, perhaps, for me to say; but this was the -note that underlay all the busy hum of the Settlement building in the -children’s hour, as indeed in all the other hours of its day.</p> - -<p>Occasionally, however, some critic would observe, “Well, this is all -very fine for the children, but what do the parents say about it? What -becomes of <i>home influence</i> when you encourage the children to come out -in this way at an hour when they ought to be at home?” The answer, of -course, was that the parents themselves, and especially the more anxious -and hard-working among them, were the foremost in blessing the -Settlement (or the “Passmore,” as it was affectionately dubbed in the -neighbourhood) for the good care that it took of Sidney or Alf or Elsie; -that they knew, better than anyone else, how little they could do in the -miserable rooms that served them for a home for the growing boys and -girls, and yet that “the streets” were full of dangers from which they -longed to preserve their little ones. One or two of them became -voluntary helpers at the “Recreation School,” as it came to be called; -many joined the “Parents’ Guild” that Mrs. Ward formed from among them, -and that met periodically at the Settlement for music and rest, or for a -quiet talk with her about the children’s doings; while all were to be -seen at the summer and winter “Displays” in the big hall or in the -garden, their tired faces beaming with pride at the performance of their -offspring. Perhaps indeed it is the bitterest reproach of all against -our civilization that in the homes of the poor, “where every process of -life and death,” as Mrs. Ward once put it, “has to be carried on within -the same few cubic feet of space,” there is no room for the growing -children, who, as baby follows baby in the crowded tenement, get pushed -out into the world almost before they can stand upon their feet. Mrs. -Ward knew only too well the conditions of life in the mean streets of -St. Pancras or the East End; her sister-in-law, Miss Gertrude Ward, who -had become a District Nurse after the eight years of her life with us, -had frequently taken her to<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> certain typical dens where such “processes -of life and death” were going on, and her own researches for <i>Sir George -Tressady</i> had done the rest. Add to this her intense power of -imagination and of realization acting like a fire within her, and the -children’s work at the Passmore Edwards Settlement is all explained. She -yearned to them and longed to make them happy: that was all.</p> - -<p>Mr. Tatton, the Warden, would often say that the Recreation School was -growing to be the most important side of the Settlement work, and -himself, bachelor as he was, delighted to watch it; but Mrs. Ward would -not willingly have admitted this, even if it were true, for the many -developments of the normal work for adults were always immensely -interesting to her. Whenever she was in London (and often from Stocks -too!) she contrived, in spite of ill-health and the many claims upon her -time, to be at the Settlement three or four times a week, attending -Council meetings and committees, showing the building to friends, -talking to “Associates,” old and new, or listening with delight to the -wonderful concerts that took place in the big hall on Saturday evenings. -For it had always been intended that music should play a very special -part in the life of the Settlement, and the Council had been fortunate -in securing as Musical Director Mr. Charles Williams, who, in -partnership with Miss Audrey Chapman’s Ladies’ Orchestra, gave concerts -of quite extraordinary merit there during the first year or two of the -Settlement’s existence. He would take his audience into his confidence, -explaining, before the music began, the part of each instrument in the -whole symphony, and all with so happy a touch that even untrained -listeners felt transported into a world where they understood—for the -moment—what Beethoven or Mozart would be at. Those evenings remain in -memory as occasions of pure joy, and did much to reconcile the older -Associates of Marchmont Hall to the magnificence of the new building—a -magnificence which otherwise weighed rather sadly upon their spirits! -Some of them, amid the growing activity of the new life around them, -confessed that they could not help regretting the old shabby days of -pipe-sucking at Marchmont Hall, where the dingy premises were “a poor -thing, but mine own.” Mrs. Ward was distressed by this feeling, and -sought to draw them in in every way to<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> the life and government of the -place; but one of the unforeseen features of the work was that the new -Associates who joined the Settlement in considerable numbers were for -the most part young people, rather than the contemporaries and friends -of the Marchmont Hall Associates. Shop assistants and clerks were also -on the increase, desiring to take advantage of the many facilities, -social and educational, offered by the new building; and though the -new-comers were looked on with distrust by the older members, no -definite rule could be laid down excluding them. Admission to the -Associate body might be strictly reserved to “workmen and working women” -from a definite area, but it was difficult to prove that a shopman or a -clerk did not work. One thing, however, was insisted upon—that the new -candidates should read over and digest the confession of faith which -Mrs. Ward had drawn up in the early days of Marchmont Hall, a creed -which put in simple form the aspirations of the Settlement:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘We believe that many changes in the conditions of life and labour -are needed, and are coming to pass; but we believe also that men, -without any change except in themselves and in their feelings -towards one another, might make this world a better and happier -place.</p> - -<p>“Therefore, with the same sympathies but different experiences of -life, we meet to exchange ideas and to discuss social questions, in -the hope that as we learn to know one another better, a feeling of -fellowship may arise among us.”</p></div> - -<p>And though some of the younger candidates seemed to have joined the -Settlement rather to dance at the Social Evenings than to “exchange -ideas and to discuss social questions,” let alone to attend the lectures -and classes, still the leaven worked, so that at the end of three years -the Warden could report that “an increasing number of Associates use the -opportunities of the Settlement to the utmost, and are always to the -front when service and help are needed. Such Associates, both men and -women, are a chief source of whatever power for good the Settlement may -exert.”</p> - -<p>And indeed, with what life and movement the whole building hummed on any -evening of the week, in those first exciting years! Apart altogether -from the children’s work,<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> the attendances of adults during the busy -winter terms reached some 1,400 a week, and must surely have -represented, when translated into terms of human aspiration or -enjoyment, much lightening of the burdens and monotonies of life in the -dull streets that surrounded the Settlement. Mrs. Ward herself, in an -appeal in favour of the work issued in 1901, summed up in these words -her feeling on the place that Settlements might fill in the life of -London’s workers:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Stand in the street now and look back at the ‘Community -House’—the Settlement building and its surroundings. The high -windows shine; in and out pass men and women, boys and girls, going -to class, or concert, or drill, to play a game of chess or -billiards, or merely to sit in a pleasant and quiet room, well lit -and warmed, to read a book or listen to music. To your right -stretches the densely peopled district of King’s Cross and Gray’s -Inn Road, Clerkenwell. Behind the Settlement runs the busy Euston -Road, and the wilderness of Somers Town. Immediately beside you, if -you turn your head, you may see the opening of a narrow street and -the outline of a large block of model dwellings, whence many -frequenters of the Settlement have been drawn. Carry your minds -into the rooms of these old tenement houses which fill the streets -east of Marchmont Street, the streets, say, lying between you and -Prospect Terrace Board School. No doubt the aspect of these rooms -varies with the character of the occupants. But even at their best, -how cramped they are, how lacking in space, air, beauty, judged by -those standards which a richer class applies to its own dwellings -as a matter of course! and though we may hope that a reforming -legislation may yet do something for the dwellings of the London -working-class in the essential matters of air and sanitation, it is -not easy to foresee a time when the workman’s house shall do more -than supply him with the simplest necessaries—with shelter, with -breathing-room, sleeping-room, food-room. Yet, as we fully realize, -the self-respecting and industrious artisan has instincts towards -the beauties and dignities of life. He likes spacious rooms, and -soft colour, and pictures to look at, as much as anyone else; he -wants society, art, music, a quiet chair after hard work, stimulus -for the brain after manual labour, amusement after effort, just -like his<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> neighbour in Mayfair or Kensington. The young men and -maidens want decent places other than the streets and the -public-house in which to meet and dance and amuse each other. They -need—as we all need—contact with higher education and gentler -manners. They want—as we all ought to want—to set up a social -standard independent of money or occupation, determined by manners -in the best sense, by kindness, intelligence, mutual sympathy, work -for the commonweal. They want surroundings for their children after -school hours which, without loosening the home-tie, shall yet -supplement their own narrow and much-taxed accommodation; which -shall humanize, and soften, and discipline. They want more physical -exercise, more access to the country, more organization of -holidays. All these things are to be had in or through the House -Beautiful—through the Settlement, the ‘Community’ or ‘Combination’ -house of the future. The Socialist dreams of attaining them through -the Collectivist organization of the State. But at any rate he will -admit that his goal is far, far distant; probably he feels it more -distant now than he and his fellows thought it thirty years ago. -Let him, let all of us work meanwhile for something near our hands, -for the deepening and extension of the Settlement movement, for the -spread, that is, of knowledge of the higher pleasures, and of a -true social power among the English working-class.”</p></div> - -<p>How instinct are these words with the idealisms of a bygone generation, -a generation that knew not Communism or Proletarian Schools! No doubt, -nowadays, we have gone beyond all that; we may not speak of the -“self-respecting and industrious artisan”; class-war is the word of -power instead of class-appeasement. So far on the onward road have we -travelled since 1901!</p> - -<p>For the rest, Mrs. Ward’s main task during these early years was to use -her gifts of understanding, of patience and of human sympathy in keeping -all the workers at the Settlement together, in straightening out the -differences that would arise among so varied a crew of energetic people, -and in pushing forward the work in ever new directions. All difficulties -were referred to her by Residents, by Associates, by Warden and -Treasurer. On her also rested the responsibility<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> for raising the -necessary money. Much helped by the Duke of Bedford, who remitted the -ground-rent, and also gave a considerable subscription, she prospered -beyond all rational probability in the latter task. Her many friends -were touched by her infectious enthusiasm, and gladly helped her to the -best of their ability, so that the deficits on each year’s working -turned out to be far less than the prudent had expected. Such a letter -as the following was not uncommon—though the amount enclosed did not -always reach so round a figure:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>May 25, 1898.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Humphry Ward</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>I shall be very happy to dine with you on the 14th of June.</p> - -<p>You once said that the P. Edwards Settlement would not be -disdainful of subscriptions, and I had not anything to give at the -time. I can now send you with pleasure a cheque for £100. I am sure -you will find some good use for it.</p> - -<p class="r">Yours very truly,<br /> -N<small>ORTHBROOK</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>The use found for Lord Northbrook’s gift was in tidying and beautifying -the garden at the back of the Settlement—a piece of land, shaded by -fine old plane trees, which the Duke kept in his own hands, but allowed -the Settlement to use for a nominal fee. It was now laid down in grass, -and became a vital element in the carrying out of Mrs. Ward’s further -schemes for the welfare of her London children. It was there that she -opened her first “Vacation School” in 1902 for children left to play and -quarrel in the streets during the August holiday, and there too that she -could see health returning to the faces of her cripples, after the -opening of the “Invalid Children’s School” in February, 1899.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>In looking back over the origin of Mrs. Ward’s interest in crippled and -invalid children, the vision of our old house in Russell Square rises -once more before me, with its gravelled garden at the rear running back -to meet the Queen Square gardens to the east of us, for there, across -those old plane-shaded spaces, rose the modest buildings of the -“Alexandra<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> Hospital for Diseases of the Hip”—or, as we used to call it -for short, the “Hip Hospital.” What “Diseases of the Hip” exactly were -was an obscure point to our childish minds, but we knew that our mother -cared very much for the children lying there, that all our old toys went -to amuse them, and that sometimes a lame boy or girl would appear at the -cottage down the lane past Borough Farm, which was Mrs. Ward’s earliest -attempt at a convalescent home for ailing Londoners. No doubt many -another Bloomsbury family did just as much as we for these helpless -little ones, but the sight of them kindled in her the spark of -imagination, of creative force or what you will, that would not accept -their condition passively, but after many years forged from time and -circumstance the opportunity for a fundamental improvement of their -lives.</p> - -<p>The opportunity presented itself in the tempting emptiness of the -Settlement rooms during the day-time. From five o’clock onwards they -were used to the uttermost, but all the morning and early afternoon they -stood tenantless, asking for occupation. Mrs. Ward had heard of a little -class for crippled children carried on at the Women’s University -Settlement, Southwark, by Miss Sparkes, and of another in Stepney -organized by Mr. and Mrs. G. T. Pilcher, and before the new Settlement -was a year old she was already making inquiries from her friends on the -London School Board as to whether it might be possible to obtain the -Board’s assistance in opening a small school for Crippled Children at -the Passmore Edwards Settlement. Already London possessed a few Special -Schools for the “mentally defective”; the Progressive party was in the -ascendant on the School Board, and among its chiefs were certain old -friends of Mrs. Ward’s—Mr. Lyulph Stanley (now Lord Sheffield) and Mr. -Graham Wallas, who knew something of her powers and of the probability -that anything to which she set her hand in earnest would be carried -through. Mrs. Ward on her side believed that the number of crippled but -educable children scattered through London was far greater than anyone -supposed, and moreover that the policy of drafting them into the new -schools for the mentally defective (as was being done in some cases) was -fundamentally unsound. In the summer of 1898, therefore, she formed a -sub-committee of the Settlement Council, which undertook<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> to carry out a -thorough inquiry in the neighbourhood of Tavistock Place into the -numbers of invalid children living at home and not attending ordinary -school, whose infirmities would yet permit them to attend a special -centre of the type that she had in mind. The help of all the -neighbouring hospitals was asked for and most ungrudgingly given, in the -supplying of lists of suitable children, while the Invalid Children’s -Aid Association actively helped in the work of visiting, and the School -Board directed their Attendance Officers to assist Mrs. Ward by -providing the names of children exempted on the ground of ill-health -from attending school. Sad indeed were the secrets revealed by this -inquiry—of helpless children left at home all day, perhaps with a -little food within reach, while mother and father were out at work, with -<i>nothing on earth to do</i>, and only the irregular and occasional visits -of some kind-hearted neighbour to look forward to.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I have a vivid recollection,” writes one of the most devoted -workers of the I.C.A.A., Mrs. Townsend, “of being asked by a -neighbour to visit two small boys in a particularly dirty and -unsavoury street. I found the door open, felt my way along a -pitch-dark passage, and found at the end of it a small dark room, -very barely furnished: in one corner was a bed, on which lay a boy -of ten with spinal trouble; in the other corner were two kitchen -chairs, on one of which sat a boy of seven, with hip disease, his -leg propped on the other. Between them stood a small table, and on -it a tumbler of water and a plate with slices of bread and jam. The -mother of these two was at work all day: at 6 a.m. she put their -food for the day on the table and went off, leaving them all alone -until she got home from work dead tired at 8 p.m. At least there -were two of them, which made it a little less dreary for them than -for another spinal case in the next street, who was left in the -same way and was dependent on a kindly but very busy neighbour for -any sight of human beings for fourteen hours of each day. I could -quote case after case of these types—the children untaught and -undisciplined, without hope or prospect in life, sometimes -neglected because mother’s whole time was spent in trying to earn -enough to support them, more often spoilt and petted just because -they were cripples, with their disability continually before them, -and made the excuse for<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> averting all the ordinary troubles of -life. The attempts to place such children when they grew up were -despairing—they were unused to using their hands and brains, -unused to looking after themselves, supremely conscious that they -were different from other people. The days before Special Schools -seem almost too bad to look back upon even!”</p></div> - -<p>From the reports on such cases which Mrs. Ward received from her helpers -throughout the summer of 1898 she formed the opinion that no school -could be successful unless it maintained a nurse to look after the -children’s ailments, and an ambulance to convey them to and from their -homes. But she felt confident of being able to raise the money -(£200-£220 a year) for these purposes, if the School Board would provide -furniture and pay a teacher. Accordingly, by October, 1898, her -committee forwarded to the School Board a carefully-sifted schedule of -twenty-five names, together with a formal application that the Board -should take up the proposed class, provide it with a teacher, and supply -suitable furniture for the class-rooms, while the Settlement undertook -to provide rooms free of charge, to pay a nurse-superintendent, and to -maintain a special ambulance for the use of the school. Some -correspondence followed with the School Management Committee, of which -Mr. Graham Wallas was Chairman, and which was besieged at the same time -by those who thought such schools totally unnecessary, since all invalid -children whom it was possible to educate at all could attend the -Infants’ (i.e. ground floor) departments of ordinary schools, where the -teachers would look after them. But Mrs. Ward collected much evidence to -show that this course could not possibly be pursued with any but the -slighter cases. “We have heard very pitiful things of the risks run by -these spinal and hip-disease cases in the ordinary schools,” she wrote -to Mr. Stanley, “and of such children’s terror of the hustling and -bustling of the playgrounds,” and early in December she summed up the -arguments on this head in another memorandum to the Board. The -atmosphere was favourable, and indeed Mrs. Ward had marshalled her -evidence and put the case for the school so convincingly that no serious -opposition was possible. The School Board gave its consent early in -January, 1899; the approval of the Board of Education followed promptly, -and nothing remained but to provide<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> the ambulance, and the set of -special furniture which was to fill the two rooms set aside for the -children at the Settlement.</p> - -<p>The ambulance was presented by no less a well-wisher than Sir Thomas -Barlow, the great physician, while Mrs. Burgwin, the Board’s -Superintendent of Special Schools, and Miss McKee, a member of the -Board, busied themselves in procuring and ordering a set of ingenious -invalid furniture—little cane arm-chairs with sliding foot-rests, -couches for the spinal cases, a go-cart for the play-ground, and so -forth—such as no Public Education Authority had ever occupied itself -with before. Preparations were made at the Settlement for serving the -daily dinner, which was to be an integral part of the arrangements, and -which, in those happy days, was to cost the children no more than -three-halfpence a head. At last, on February 28, 1899, all was -ready—save indeed the ambulance, for which an omnibus with an -improvised couch had to be substituted during the first few weeks. The -nurse, too, had been taken ill, so that on this first day the children -were fetched and safely delivered at the Settlement by Mrs. Ward’s -secretary, Miss Churcher. It was pitiful to see their excitement and -delight at the new adventure, their joy in the “ride” and their wonder -at the pretty, unfamiliar rooms, each with its open fire, its flowers -from Stocks, and its set of Caldecott pictures on the walls, which -greeted them at the end of their journey. Mrs. Ward was, of course, -among the small group of those who welcomed them. Two medical officers -from the Board were there to admit them officially, and after this -ceremony they were handed over to the care of Miss Milligan, their -teacher—a woman whose special gifts in the handling of these delicate -children were to be devoted to the service of this school for nearly -twenty years. It is to be feared that little in the way of direct -instruction was imparted to them on that first day. But there they now -were, safe within the benevolent shelter of that most human of -institutions, the London School Board, and in a fair way to -become—though few of us realized it fully then—useful members of a -community from which they had received little till then but capricious -petting or heart-rending neglect.</p> - -<p>The arrangements for the children’s dinners and for the hour of -play-time afterwards were a subject of constant<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> interest and delight to -Mrs. Ward. The housekeeper at the Settlement put all her ingenuity into -making the children’s pence go as far as they could possibly be -stretched in covering the cost of a wholesome meal, and for a long time -the sum of 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a day was sufficient to pay for dinners of meat, -potatoes and pudding for twenty-five to thirty children. Their health -visibly improved, and the gratitude of their parents was touching to see -and hear. Nevertheless, Mrs. Ward was not satisfied. Some of the -children were very capricious in their appetites, and although most of -them did learn to eat milk puddings (at least when washed down with -treacle!), there were some who could hardly manage the plain wholesome -food, and others who could have eaten more than we had to give. It was -tempting to try the experiment of a larger and more varied dietary upon -them, and in days when the C.O.S. still reigned supreme, and the policy -of “free meals for necessitous children” was hardly breathed by the most -advanced, Mrs. Ward had the courage to carry it out. She described the -results in a letter to <i>The Times</i>, in September, 1901:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘It was pointed out to the managers that a more liberal and varied -dietary might have marked effects upon the children’s health. The -experiment was tried. More hot meat, more eggs, milk, cream, -vegetables and fruit were given. In consequence the children’s -appetites largely increased, and the expenses naturally increased -with them. The children’s pence in May amounted to £3 13<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, -and the cost of food was £4 7<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i>; in June, after the more -liberal scale had been adopted, the children’s payments were still -£3 13<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i>, but the expenses had risen to £5 7<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> -Meanwhile, the physical and mental results of the increased -expenditure are already unmistakable. Partially paralysed children -have been recovering strength in hands and limbs with greater -rapidity than before. A child who last year often could not walk at -all, from rickets and extreme delicacy, and seemed to be fading -away—who in May was still languid and feeble—is now racing about -in the garden on his crutches; a boy who last year could only crawl -on hands and feet is now steadily and rapidly learning to walk, and -so on. The effect, indeed, is startling to those who have watched -the experiment. Meanwhile the teachers have entered<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> in the -log-book of the school their testimony to the increased power of -work that the children have been showing since the new feeding has -been adopted. Hardly any child now wants to lie down during school -time, whereas applications to lie down used to be common; and the -children both learn and remember better.”</p></div> - -<p>It may be added that while the minimum payment of 1-1/2<i>d.</i> for these -dinners was still maintained at the Settlement School, payments of 2<i>d.</i> -and even 3<i>d.</i> were asked from those who could afford it, and were in -many cases willingly given, while there were always a few children who -were excused all payment on the ground of poverty at home.</p> - -<p>Another element that contributed largely to the success of the school -from the very beginning was that of the “dinner-hour helpers”—a panel -of ladies who took it in turns to wait on the children at dinner and to -superintend their play-time afterwards. They came with remarkable -regularity, and became deeply attached, many of them, to their frail -little charges. When the School Board extended the Cripples’ Schools to -other parts of London they were careful to copy this development of -ours, by insisting that local committees of managers, half of whom -should be women, must be attached to each school. Here, surely, in this -simple but effective institution, may be seen the germ of the Care -Committee of future days!</p> - -<p>The success of the school in Tavistock Place—the roll of which soon -increased to some forty children—naturally attracted a good deal of -attention, and it had hardly been running a year before the pros and -cons of setting up similar schools in other districts began to be -debated within the London School Board. Some members inevitably shied at -the prospect of the increasing expense to the rates, especially if the -whole cost of premises, ambulance and nurse were to be borne by the -public authority, and a definite movement arose, either for bringing the -crippled children into the ordinary schools, with some provision in the -way of special couches, etc., or for brigading the crippled and invalid -children with the “Mentally Defectives” in the special centres which had -already been opened for the latter. Much encouragement was given to this -latter view by the official report of one of the Medical Officers of the -School Board, who was instructed, in the spring of 1900, to examine<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> and -report upon all cases of crippled children not attending school, and -submitted a report recommending that “those cases whom it is advisable -to permit to attend school at all” should be sent to the Mentally -Defective Centres, while neither nurse nor ambulance were, in the -opinion of the writer, required.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward and her friends on the School Board were obliged to fight very -strenuously against these views, which, if they had prevailed, would -have prevented the establishment of “Physically Defective Centres” as we -know them to-day. It is perhaps unprofitable to go into the details of -that long-past controversy, the echoes of which have so completely died -away; suffice it to say that a Special Conference appointed by the Board -to consider the Medical Officer’s Report recommended, in October, 1900, -that “The Board do make provision for children who, by reason of -physical defect, are incapable of receiving proper benefit from the -instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools, but are not -incapable by reason of such defect of receiving benefit from instruction -in special classes or schools”; and “that children of normal -intelligence be not taught with mentally defective children.” A little -later it recommended the provision of both ambulance and nurse. These -resolutions—which were accepted by the Board—cleared the way for the -establishment of new centres for “Physically Defective” children, as -they now began to be called; but in order to make her case invincible, -and to accelerate the work of the School Board, Mrs. Ward undertook, all -through the autumn and winter of 1900-1901, a complete investigation -into the numbers and condition of the invalid children not attending -school in some of the largest and poorest London boroughs. In -consultation with the trained workers whom she employed for the purpose, -she had special forms printed for use in the inquiry, and I remember -well her eager comments as the statistics came in, and her consternation -at the ever-increasing numbers of crippled children which the inquiry -revealed. Finally this investigation extended to nine out of the ten -School Board divisions of London, and embraced a total of some 1,800 -children, of whom 1,000, in round numbers, were recommended by her as -suitable for invalid schools. Of the rest, a substantial proportion were -reported as fit for<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> ordinary school with a little additional care on -the part of teachers and managers; some were too ill for any school, and -some were both mentally and physically defective, and therefore -recommended for the “M.D.” Centres. Meanwhile, the Special Schools -Sub-Committee of the School Board, under their Chairman, the Hon. Maude -Lawrence, had been at work since February, 1901, in making inquiries -into possible sites and buildings for the new schools, and by the middle -of March the Board were able to inform Mrs. Ward that sites for four -Centres had been agreed upon, while two more were to be located in -Kennington and Battersea “on the constitution of your returns, which -have now been marked on the map by the Divisional Superintendents.”</p> - -<p>Four ambulances had also been ordered, and it was decided to appoint -nurses at each of the Centres at a salary of £75 a year. Kitchens were, -of course, to be provided at all the Centres, so that the hot midday -meal which had proved so successful at the Settlement might be supplied.</p> - -<p>The first two Centres to be opened by the School Board—in Paddington -and Bethnal Green—were ready by September, 1901, and both drew their -children entirely from those on Mrs. Ward’s lists. It may be imagined -with what intense satisfaction she had followed every step taken by the -School Board towards this consummation. Finally she gathered up the -whole story of the Settlement School and of the School Board’s adoption -of responsibility for London’s crippled children in the letter to <i>The -Times</i> mentioned above, pleading for the extension of the movement to -other large towns, and describing certain efforts made at the Settlement -School for the industrial and artistic training of the older children. -Her final paragraph ran as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The happiness of the new schools is one of their most delightful -characteristics. Freed from the dread of being jostled on stairs or -knocked down in the crowd of the playground, with hours, food and -rest proportioned to their need, these maimed and fragile creatures -begin to expand and unfold like leaves in the sun. And small -wonder! They have either been battling with ordinary school on -terribly unequal terms, or else, in the intervals of hospital and -convalescent treatment, their not uncommon lot has been to be -locked up at home alone, while the normal members of the family -were at work. I can recall one<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> case of a child, lame and -constantly falling, with brain irritation to boot—the result of -infant convulsions—locked up for hours alone while its mother was -at work; and another, of a poor little lad, whose back had been -injured by an accident, alone all day after his discharge from -hospital, feebly dragging himself about his room, in cold weather, -to find a few sticks for fire, with the tears running down his -cheeks from pain. His father and sister were at work, and he had no -mother. It could not be helped. But he has been gathered into one -of the new schools, where he has become another being. Scores of -children in as sore need as his will, I hope, be reached and -comforted by this latest undertaking of the Board.</p> - -<p>“And for some, all we shall be able to do, perhaps, will be to -gladden a few months or years before the little life goes out. From -them there will be no economic return, such as we may hope for in -the great majority of cases. But even so, will it not be worth -while?”</p></div> - -<p>As the efforts of the School Board and—after 1903—of the Education -Committee of the London County Council to spread the “Special Schools -for Physically Defective Children” over London grew more and more -effective, and the number of the new schools rose steadily, Mrs. Ward -and her principal helpers concentrated their attention mainly upon the -training of the children for suitable employment on their leaving -school. As early as 1900 a little committee was formed for this purpose -at the Settlement, which engaged special teachers of drawing and design -for the boys and of art needlework for the girls—for these delicate -children were often found to possess artistic aptitudes which made up to -them in a certain degree for their other disabilities. Presently this -committee developed into the “Crippled Children’s Training and Dinner -Society,” presided over by Miss Maude Lawrence, of the London School -Board, a Committee which did hard pioneer work in the organizing of -careers for these crippled children, whose numbers stood revealed beyond -all expectation as the Special Schools spread to every quarter of -London. By the year 1906 the numbers of schools had risen to -twenty-three, and of children on the rolls to 1,767; by 1909 the figures -were thirty and 2,452 respectively. The dark-brown ambulances conveying -their happy load of children to and from the schools became<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> a familiar -sight of the London streets. But, though Mrs. Ward’s experiment had -grown in these ten years with such astonishing rapidity, it had not lost -its original character. She had impressed it too deeply with her own -broad and sane humanity for the Special Schools Department of the L.C.C. -to become lost in red tape or officialdom, and under the wise reign of -Mrs. Burgwin and Miss Collard (Superintendents of Special Schools under -the Council) the traditions that had gathered round the first Invalid -Children’s School were carried on and perpetuated. And to this day the -Boards of Managers that watch over the “P.D.” Schools seem to be -inspired by a tenderer and more personal feeling than any other of the -multifarious committees that take thought for the children of the State. -The secret, in fact, of Mrs. Ward’s success in this as in her other -public undertakings lay in the fact that her action was founded on a -real and urgent human need, and that she combined a power of presenting -and urging that need in forcible manner with an unfailing tenderness for -the individual child. As one of her colleagues expressed it once in -homely phrase: “The fact is, she had the brain of a man and the heart of -a woman.” Nor did the heart dissolve itself in “gush,” but showed its -quality rather in a disinterestedness that cared not where the <i>hudos</i> -went, so long as the thing itself were done—in an eager desire to bring -others forward and to give them a full share of whatever credit were to -be had.</p> - -<p>The view of the School Board authorities was summed up long afterwards -in these sentences from the pen of Mr. Graham Wallas: “She brought to -the task not only imagination and sympathy, but a steady and systematic -industry, which is the most valuable of all qualities in public life. -She was never disheartened, and never procrastinated.”</p> - -<p>What was felt of her spirit by those who worked with her more -intimately, who saw her week by week in contact with the children -themselves, is harder to put into words. Perhaps this little vision of -her, recorded by the teacher of the school, Miss Milligan, comes nearest -to saving what is, after all, an intangible essence, that once had form -and being and is now vanished into air:</p> - -<p>‘But above and beyond all else Mrs. Ward was—what she was always called -amongst us—‘The Fairy Godmother.’ In the early days before the school -grew so big,<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> every child knew this Fairy Godmother personally, and -loved her, and we remember how on the occasion of one Christmas Party -Mrs. Ward was unable to be present through illness, and the children -were so sad that even the Christmas tree could hardly console them. When -she had recovered and came again to see them, <i>they</i> gave <i>her</i> a -delightful little tea-party, even the poorest children giving half-pence -and farthings to buy a bunch of Parma violets, and a sponge-cake—having -first ascertained what sort of cake she liked. It was a pretty sight to -see them all clustering round her, and her kind, beautiful face whenever -she was amongst the children will haunt one for years.”<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><br /> -<i>HELBECK OF BANNISDALE</i>—CATHOLICS AND UNITARIANS—<i>ELEANOR</i> AND THE VILLA BARBERINI<br /><br /> -1896-1900</h2> - -<p class="nind"><i><span class="letra">H</span>ELBECK OF BANNISDALE</i> is probably that one among Mrs. Ward’s books on -which her fame as a novelist will stand or fall. Though it sold less in -England and much less in America than her previous novels at the time of -its publication, it has outlasted all the others in the extent of its -circulation to-day. In this the opinion of those critics for whose word -she cared has been borne out, for they prophesied that it had in it, -more than her other books, the element of permanence. “I know not -another book that shows the classic fate so distinctly to view,” wrote -George Meredith, and some years later, in a long talk with a younger -friend about Mrs. Ward’s work, repeated his profound admiration for -<i>Helbeck</i>. “The hero, if hero he be, is as fresh a creation as -Ravenswood or Rochester,” said another critic, Lord Crewe, “and what a -luxury it is to hang a new portrait on one’s walls in this age of old -figures in patched garments! I have no idea yet how the story will end, -but though the atmosphere is so much less lurid and troubled, I have -something of the <i>Wuthering Heights</i> sense of coming disaster. I think -the Brontës would have given your story the most valuable admiration of -all—that of writers who have succeeded in a rather similar, though by -no means the same, field.”</p> - -<p>The theme of the book was, as all Mrs. Ward’s readers know, the eternal -clash between the mediæval and the modern mind in the persons of Alan -Helbeck, the Catholic squire, and Laura Fountain, the child of science -and negation; while beyond and behind their tragic loves<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> stands the -“army of unalterable law” in the austere northern hills, the bog-lands -of the estuary, the river in gentleness and flood. Almost, indeed, can -it be said that there are but three characters in <i>Helbeck</i>—Alan -himself, Laura, and the river, which in the end takes her tormented -spirit. The idea of such a novel had presented itself to Mrs. Ward -during a visit that she paid in the autumn of 1896 to her old friends, -Mr. James Cropper and his daughter, in that beautiful South Westmorland -country which she had known only less well than the Lake District itself -ever since her childhood. There the talk turned one day on the fortunes -of an old Catholic family (the Stricklands), who had owned Sizergh -Castle, near Sedgwick, for more than three centuries, steadfastly -enduring the persecutions of earlier days, and, now that persecutions -had ceased, fighting a sad and losing battle against poverty and -mortgages. “The vision of the old squire and the old house—of all the -long vicissitudes of obscure suffering, and dumb clinging to the faith, -of obstinate, half-conscious resistance to a modern world, that in the -end had stripped them of all their gear and possessions, save only this -‘I will not’ of the soul—haunted me when the conversation was -done.”<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> By the end of the long railway-journey from Kendal to London -next day she had thought out her story. The deepest experiences of her -own life went to the making of it, for had she not been brought up with -a Catholic father, made aware from her earliest childhood of the -irremediable chasm there between two lovers? The situation in <i>Helbeck</i> -was of course wholly different, but in the working out of it Mrs. Ward -had the advantage of a certain inborn familiarity with the Catholic -mind, which made the characters of this book peculiarly her own.</p> - -<p>All through the winter of 1896-7 Mrs. Ward was steeping herself in -Catholic literature; then in the early spring—again by the good offices -of Mr. Cropper—she became aware that Levens Hall, the wonderful old -Tudor house near the mouth of the Kent, which belonged to Capt. -Josceline Bagot, might be had for a few weeks or months. She determined -to migrate thither as soon as possible and to write her story amid the<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> -very scenes which she had planned for it. How well do I remember the -grey spring evening (it was the 6th of March) on which—after delays and -confusions far beyond our small deserts—we drove up to the river front -of the old house; the hurried rush through glorious dark rooms, and a -half timid exploration of the garden, peopled with gaunt shapes of -clipped and tortured yews. Levens was to us just such another adventure -as Hampden House had been, eight years before, but this time there was -no bareness, no dilapidation, nothing but the ripe product of many -centuries of peaceful care. Yet Levens was famous for its crooked -descent, its curse and its “grey lady”—an accessory, this latter, of -sadly modern origin, as we found on inquiring into her local history. -Mrs. Ward, however, wove her skilfully into her story, as she wove the -fell-farm of the family of “statesmen” to whom Miss Cropper introduced -her, or the mournful peat-bogs of the estuary, or the daffodils crowding -up through the undergrowth in Brigsteer Wood, or covering with sheets of -gold the graves round Cartmel Fell Chapel.</p> - -<p>Yet Bannisdale itself is “a house of dream,” as Mrs. Ward herself -described it<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>; neither wholly Levens nor wholly Sizergh, placed -somewhere in the recesses of Levens Park, and looking south over the -Kent. “And just as Bannisdale, in my eyes, is no mortal house, and if I -were to draw it, it would have outlines and features all its own, so the -story of the race inhabiting it, and of Helbeck its master, detached -itself wholly from that of any real person or persons, past or present. -Those who know Levens will recognize many a fragment here and there that -has been worked into Bannisdale: and so with Sizergh. But Helbeck’s -house, as it stands in the book, is his and his alone. And in the same -way the details and vicissitudes of the Helbeck ancestry, and the -influences that went to build up Helbeck himself, were drawn from many -fields, then passed through the crucible of composition, and scarcely -anything now remains of those original facts from which the book -sprang.”</p> - -<p>Many Catholic books, in which she browsed “with what thoughts,” as -Carlyle would say, followed her to Levens, giving her that grip of -detail in matters of belief or ritual,<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> without which she could not have -approached her subject, but which she had now learnt to absorb and -re-fashion far more skilfully than in the days of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>. She -loved to discuss these matters with her father, from whom she had no -secrets, in spite of their divergencies of view; when he came to visit -us at Levens—still a tall and beautiful figure, in spite of his -seventy-three years—they talked of them endlessly, and when he returned -to Dublin she wrote him such letters as the following:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘One of the main impressions of this Catholic literature upon me is -to make me perceive the enormous intellectual pre-eminence of -Newman. Another impression—I know you will forgive me for saying -quite frankly what I feel—has been to fill me with a perfect -horror of asceticism, or rather of the austerities—or most of -them—which are indispensable to the Catholic ideal of a saint. We -must talk this over, for of course I realize that there is much to -be said on the other side. But the simple and rigid living which I -have seen, for various ideal purposes, in friends of my own—like -T. H. Green—seems to me both religious and reasonable, while I -cannot for the life of me see anything in the austerities, say of -the Blessed Mary Alacoque, but hysteria and self-murder. The Divine -Power occupies itself for age on age in the development of all the -fine nerve-processes of the body, with their infinite potencies for -good or evil. And instead of using them for good, the Catholic -mystic destroys them, injures her digestion and her brain, and is -then tortured by terrible diseases which she attributes to every -cause but the true one—her own deliberate act—and for which her -companions glorify her, instead of regarding them as -what—surely—they truly are, God’s punishment. No doubt directors -are more careful nowadays than they were in the seventeenth -century, but her life is still published by authority, and the -ideal it contains is held up to young nuns.</p> - -<p>“Don’t imagine, dearest, that I find myself in antagonism to all -this literature. The truth in many respects is quite the other way. -The deep personal piety of good Catholics, and the extent to which -their religion enters into their lives, are extraordinarily -attractive. How much we, who are outside, have to learn from them!”</p></div> - -<p>To an ex-Catholic friend, Mr. Addis, who had undertaken<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> to look over -the manuscript for her, she wrote some time later, when the book was -nearly finished:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘In my root-idea of him, Helbeck was to represent the old Catholic -crossed with that more mystical and enthusiastic spirit, brought in -by such converts as Ward and Faber, under Roman and Italian -influence. I gather, both from books and experience, that the more -fervent ideas and practices, which the old Catholics of the -’forties disliked, have, as a matter of fact, obtained a large -ascendancy in the present practice of Catholics, just as Ritualism -has forced the hands of the older High Churchmen. And I thought one -might, in the matter of austerities, conceive a man directly -influenced by the daily reading of the Lives of the Saints, and -obtaining in middle life, after probation and under special -circumstances, as it were, leave to follow his inclinations.</p> - -<p>“I take note most gratefully of all your small corrections. What I -am really anxious about now is the points—in addition to pure -jealous misery—on which Laura’s final breach with Helbeck would -turn. I <i>think</i> on the terror of confession—on what would seem to -her the inevitable uncovering of the inner life and yielding of -personality that the Catholic system involves—and on the -foreignness of the whole idea of <i>sin</i>, with its relative, penance. -But I find it extremely hard to work out!”</p></div> - -<p>As the weeks of our stay at Levens passed by, while the sea-trout came -up the Kent and challenged the barbarian members of the family to many a -tussle in the Otter-pool, or the “turn-hole,” or the bend of the river -just above the bridge, Mrs. Ward plunged ever deeper into her subject, -though the difficulties under which she laboured in the sheer writing of -her chapters were almost more disabling than ever. “For a week my arm -has been almost useless, alas!” she wrote in May; “I have had it in a -sling and bandaged up. I partly strained it in rubbing A., but I must -also have caught cold in it. Anyhow it has been very painful, and I have -been in quite low spirits, looking at Chapter III, which would not move! -The chairs and tables here don’t suit it at all—the weather is -extremely cold—and altogether I believe I am pining for Stocks!” But -before we left the wonderful old house many friends had come to stay -with us there, renewing their own tired spirits in its beauty and<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> -charm, and in the society of its temporary mistress. Henry James and the -Henry Butchers, Katharine Lyttelton and her Colonel, Bron Herbert and -Victor Lytton, fishers of sea-trout,—and, on Easter Monday, “Max -Creighton” himself, now Bishop of London, much worn by the antics of Mr. -Kensit and his friends, but otherwise only asking to “eat the long -miles” in walks along Scout Scar, or over the “seven bens and seven -fens” that lay between us and the lovely little Chapel of St. Anthony on -Cartmel Fell. Such talks as they had, he and Mrs. Ward, at all times -when she was not deliberately burying herself in her study to escape the -temptation! The rest of us would listen fascinated, watching for that -gesture of his, when he would throw back his head so that the under side -of his red beard appeared to view—a gesture of triumph over his -opponent, as he fondly thought, until her next remark showed him there -was still much to win. Henry James was more demure in his tastes, -walking beside the pony-tub when Mrs. Ward went for her afternoon drive -through Levens Park, or along the Brigsteer lane, and “letting fall -words of wisdom as we went” (for so it is recorded by the driver of the -tub). Ah, if those words could but have been gathered up and saved from -all-swallowing oblivion! Mr. James’s friendship for Mrs. Ward had -already endured for ten or twelve years before this visit to Levens, but -these days in the old house gave it a deeper and more intimate tone, -which it never lost thenceforward. He never wholly approved of her art -as a novelist—how could he, when it differed so fundamentally from his -own?—but his admiration for her as a woman, his affection for her as a -friend, knew very few limits indeed. And her feeling for him was to grow -and deepen through another twenty years of happy friendship, ripening -towards that day when, in England’s darkest time, he chose to make -himself a son of England, and then, soon afterwards, followed the many -lads whom he had loved “where track there is none.”</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_149_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_149_sml.jpg" width="298" height="365" alt="MRS. WARD IN 1898 -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD" title="MRS. WARD IN 1898 -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MRS. WARD IN 1898<br /> -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS ETHEL ARNOLD</span> -</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward finally quitted Levens before the end of her lease, owing to a -prolonged attack of influenza, which spoilt her last weeks there, but -she always looked back to her stay in the “Border Castle,” as Mr. James -had dubbed it, as an enchanting episode, taking her back to the -fell-country and its people with an intimacy she had not known since -those long-past childish days, when she would dance up the path<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> to -Sweden Bridge, the grown-ups loitering behind. For the remainder of this -year (1897) she was pressing on with her book, in spite of -ever-recurring waves of ill-health and of constant over-pressure with -the affairs of the Settlement. By the autumn, when the new buildings -were actually open, this pressure became so formidable that she was -obliged to take a small house at Brighton for three months, in order to -spend three days of each week there in complete seclusion. The book -prospered fairly well, but the formal opening of the Settlement, which -had been fixed for February 12, 1898, was very much on her mind—at -least until she had succeeded in persuading Mr. Morley to make the -principal speech. This, however, he consented to do with all the -graciousness inspired by his old friendship for its founder; and when -the ceremony was actually over Mrs. Ward retired to Stocks for a final -struggle with the last chapters of <i>Helbeck</i>. “Except, perhaps, in the -case of “Bessie Costrell,” she wrote in her <i>Recollections</i>, “I was -never more possessed by a subject, more shut in by it from the outer -world.” And in these last few weeks of the long effort she walked as in -a dream, though the dream was too often broken by cruel attacks of her -old illness. She fought them down, however, and emerged victorious on -March 25,—more dead than alive, in the rueful opinion of her family. -But the usual remedy of a flight to Italy was tried again with sovereign -effect, and at Cadenabbia on Lake Como, in Florence and on Maggiore, she -felt the flooding back of a sense of physical ease. The book did not -appear until the month of June, when both Press and friends received it -with so warm an enthusiasm as to “produce in me that curious mood, which -for the artist is much nearer dread than boasting—dread that the best -is over, and that one will never earn such sympathy again.” One -discordant note was, however, struck by a review in the <i>Nineteenth -Century</i> by a certain Father Clarke, violently attacking <i>Helbeck</i> as a -caricature of Catholicism, and picking various small holes in its -technicalities of Catholic practice. The article was answered in the -next number of the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> by another Catholic, Mr. St. -George Mivart, and Mrs. Ward’s fairness to Catholicism vindicated; -indeed, many of the other reviews had accused her of making the ancient -faith too attractive in the person of Helbeck. Mr. C. E. Maurice<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> wrote -to her to protest against Father Clarke’s attack, remarking incidentally -that “if any religious body have cause of complaint against you for this -book, it is the Protestant Nonconformists” and asking her in the course -of his letter “what point you generally start from in deciding to write -a novel; whether from the wish to work out a special thesis, or from the -desire to deal with certain characters who have interested you, or from -being impressed by a special <i>story</i>, actual or possible?” Mrs. Ward -replied to him as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I think a novel with me generally springs from the idea of a -situation involving two or three characters. <i>Helbeck</i> arose from a -fragment of conversation heard in the North, and was purely human -and not controversial in its origin. It is in these conflicts -between old and new, as it has always seemed to me, that we moderns -find our best example of compelling fate,—and the weakness of the -personal life in the grip of great forces that regard it not, or -seem to regard it not, is just as attractive as ever it was to the -imagination—do you not think so? The forms are different, the -subject is the same.”</p></div> - -<p>To Mr. Mivart himself she wrote:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘I hear with great interest from Mr. Knowles that you are going to -break a lance with Father Clarke on poor <i>Helbeck’s</i> behalf in the -forthcoming <i>Nineteenth Century</i>. I need not say that I shall read -very diligently what you have to say. Meanwhile I am venturing to -send you these few Catholic reviews, as specimens of the very -different feelings that seem to have been awakened in many quarters -from those expressed by Father Clarke. It amuses me to put the -passages from Father Vaughan’s sermon that concern Helbeck himself -side by side with Father Clarke’s onslaught upon him.</p> - -<p>‘The story that the orphan tells to Laura, which Father Clarke -calls ‘detestable, extravagant and objectionable,’ that no -instructed Catholic would dream of telling to his juniors, is told -by Father Law, S.J., to his younger brothers and sisters, and is -given in the very interesting <i>Life of Father Law</i>, by Ellis -Schreiber. I have only shortened it.</p> - -<p>‘Father Clarke does not seem to have the dimmest notion of what is -meant by writing in character. I had<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> a hearty laugh over his -really absurd remarks about Laura and St. Francis Borgia’s -children.”</p></div> - -<p>Some years later, when her feeling about the book’s reception had -settled down and crystallized, she wrote in more meditative mood to her -son-in-law, George Trevelyan:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Yes, it was a good subject, and I shall hardly come across one -again so full both of intellectual and human interest.... I like -your ‘dear and dreadful!’ In my case it is quite true. Catholicism -has an enormous attraction for me,—yet I could no more be a -Catholic than a Mahometan. Only, never let us forget how much of -Catholicism is based, as Uncle Matt would have said, on ‘Natural -truth’—truth of human nature, and truth of moral experience. The -visible, imperishable Society—the Kingdom of Heaven in our -midst—no greater idea, it seems to me, was ever thrown into the -world of men. Its counterpart is to be found in the Logos -conception from which all Liberalism descends, and which is the -perpetual corrective of the Catholic idea. But these things would -take us far!”</p></div> - -<p>Meanwhile, to Bishop Creighton, who had written to her far less -critically than usual of her new book, she replied with a long letter, -in which, after the first sheet, she reverted to the subjects which were -always of the deepest interest to this pair of friends—the barriers set -around the National Church, which Mrs. Ward complained kept out too many -of the faithful, or at least too many of those who, like herself, would -willingly proclaim their faith in a spiritual Christ.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><span class="smcap">Stocks, Tring</span>,<br /> -<i>August 9, 1898</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...“I have been desperately, perhaps disproportionately interested -in a meeting of Liberal Churchmen as to which I cannot get full -particulars—in which the great need of the day was said to be not -ritual, but ‘the re-statement and re-interpretation of dogma in the -light of the knowledge and criticism of our day.’ It makes me once -more conscious of all sorts of claims and cravings that I have -often wished to talk over with you—not as Bishop of London!—but -as one with whom, in old days<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> at any rate, I used to talk quite -freely. If only the orthodox churchmen would allow us on our side a -little more freedom, I, at any rate, should be well content to let -the Ritualists do what they please! Every year I live I more and -more resent the injustice which excludes those who hold certain -historical and critical opinions from full membership in the -National Church, above all from participation in the Lord’s Supper. -Why are we <i>all</i> always to be bound by the formularies of a past -age, which avowedly represent a certain state of past opinion, a -certain balance of parties?—privately and personally I mean. The -public and ceremonial use of formularies is another matter where -clearly the will of the majority should decide. The minority may be -well content to accept the public and ceremonial use, if it may -accept it in its own way. But here the Church steps in with a -test—several tests—the Catechism, the Creed, the Confirmation -service. And the tendency of the last generation of churchpeople -has been all towards tightening these tests, probably under two -influences—a deepened Christian devotion, and the growing pressure -of the alternative view of Christianity. But is it not time the -alternative view were brought in and assimilated,—to the -strengthening of Christian love and fellowship? What <i>ought</i> to -prevent anyone who accepts the Lord’s own test of the ‘two great -commandments,’ or the Pauline test of ‘all who love the Lord Jesus -Christ,’ from breaking the bread and drinking the wine which -signify the headship and sacrifice, and mystical fellowship of -Christ? But such an one may hold it solemnly and sacredly -impossible to recite matters of supposed history such as ‘born of -the Virgin Mary,’ or ‘on the third day He rose again—and ascended -to the Father,’ as personally true of himself. He may be quite -wrong—that is not the point. Supposing that his historical -conscience is clearly and steadily convinced on the one side, and -on the other he only asks that he and his children may pass into -the national Christian family, and join hands with all who believe -in God, who ‘love the Lord Jesus’ and hope in immortality, what -should keep him out? Would it not be an immense strengthening of -the Church to include, on open and honourable terms, those who can -now only share in her Eucharist<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> on terms of concealment and -evasion? Why should there not be an alternative baptismal and -confirmation service, to be claimed under a conscience clause by -those who desire it? At present no one can have his children -confirmed who is not prepared to accept, or see them accept, -certain historical statements, which he and they may perhaps not -believe. And except as a matter of private bargain and -sufferance—always liable to scandal—neither he nor they, unless -these tests have been passed, can join in the commemoration of -their Master’s death, which should be to them the food and stimulus -of life. Nothing honestly remains to them but exclusion, and -hunger—or the falling back upon a Unitarianism, which has too -often unlearned Christ, and to which, at its best, they may not -naturally belong.”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward might, perhaps, have added that what remains to the majority -of those whom these tests keep out, is a gradual <i>loss of hunger</i>—a -making up with other things, which cannot but be a fatal loss to the -National Church. But she was thinking of her own case, and to her, I -think, the “hunger” for admission to the Church (though always on her -own terms!) remained for long years a living force, leading her in the -end to write that best and most vivid among her later books, <i>The Case -of Richard Meynell</i>. Meanwhile her relations with Unitarianism, -mentioned in this letter, remained somewhat anomalous, for while -agreeing with its tenets, she was always impatient of its old-fashioned -isolation, and of its neglect to seize the opportunity presented to it -by the march of modern thought, which seemed to her to summon it to take -the lead in the movement towards a free Christian fellowship. She was -never so hard on the Unitarian body as Stopford Brooke, who once -exclaimed in a letter to her that “they cling to ancient uglinesses as -if they were sweethearts!” But Mrs. Ward had had a brush with them in -1893, when she wrote to the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> after the opening of -Manchester College, Oxford, lamenting the bareness of the service, the -extempore prayers, the relics of old Puritanism, instead of the appeal -to colour and imagination and modern thought. Her letter provoked many -answers, both public and private, and to one of these, a kind and -generous argument from<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> Dr. Estlin Carpenter, she replied with a fuller -explanation of her feeling:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>November 2, 1893.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>...“My own feeling, the child of course of early habit and -tradition, is strongly on the side of ritual throughout, though I -would infinitely rather have <i>new</i> ritual, like Dr. Martineau’s two -services, than a modified edition of the Anglican prayers, such as -we have at Mr. Brooke’s. But I don’t think I should have ventured -to put forward the view I did so strongly as I did, with regard to -any other place in the world than Oxford. I knew Oxford intimately -for fifteen years, and still, of course, have many friends there. I -am convinced that Manchester College has a real mission towards an -Oxford which is not yet theirs, but which ought to become so. But I -am also certain that Oxford cannot be reached through the forms -that have been so far adopted. You may say, as Mr. —— does in -effect, in a letter to me: ‘Oxford must take us with our Puritanism -as we are, or leave us.’ But surely to say this is to refuse a real -mission, a real call. It is the very opposite of St. Paul’s spirit, -of making himself all things to all men, ‘that I may by any means -gain some.’ It is putting adherence to a form, about which there -is, after all, serious difference of opinion in your own body, -between you and a great future. At least that is how it looks to -me, and I think I have some means of judging. The religious -message, the thoughts, the conceptions that you have to give -Oxford, especially to the young men, not of your own body, who may -be attracted to you through the Chapel, are, it seems to me, the -all-important thing, and any fears of imitating the Church, or -dislike of abandoning Puritan tradition, which may hold you back -from the best means of bringing those thoughts and faiths into the -current life of Oxford, will be a disaster to us all. It is because -I have thought so much about this settlement of yours, in the place -where I myself often starved for lack of religious fellowship, that -I was drawn to write with the vehemence I did. But one had better -never be vehement!”</p></div> - -<p>In the following year the Unitarians forgave her<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> and asked her to -deliver the “Essex Hall Lecture,” which she did with a brilliant and -suggestive paper entitled “Unitarians and the Future.” Her relations -with many Unitarians all through the period of University Hall were, as -we have seen, of the most intimate and friendly character, and now, -after the publication of <i>Helbeck of Bannisdale</i>, she showed her -goodwill to Unitarianism once more by journeying down to Norwich to give -an address in aid of the famous old Octagon Chapel there. The address -was typical of many others that she gave in these years of her -increasing fame; carefully and even elaborately prepared beforehand—for -she would never trust herself to speak extempore—it lived for long in -the memory of her hearers as a model of its kind, while the outspoken -opinions it expressed gave rise to a good deal of controversy in the -religious Press. The demands on her time for speeches and addresses in -aid of every possible good cause were by this time incessant. She -refused nineteen out of twenty, but the twentieth was usually so -persuasively put that she succumbed, and then she would live in an agony -of apprehension and of accumulated overwork, until the effort was safely -over. One of her most finished literary performances was the address she -gave in Glasgow in February, 1897, on “the Peasant in Literature”; while -her paper on the Transfiguration, entitled “Gospel Interpretation—a -Fragment,” given at the Leicester Unitarian Conference in 1900, remains -to this day, with some of her audience, as a new and startling -revelation of the critical methods which had, for her, thrown so vivid a -light on the dark places of the Gospel story. All these -carefully-prepared essays—for such, indeed, they were—added enormously -to the burden of work which Mrs. Ward already carried, but she loved her -audiences and loved to feel that she had pleased and interested, or even -shocked them a little. “I want to poke them up,” she would say -sometimes, with that flash of mischief or “trotzigkeit” (the word is -untranslatable), that endeared her so much to those who knew her well; -and poke them up she surely did whenever the subject of her address was -a religious one.</p> - -<p>But the pace at which she lived during this year (1898), when the work -of the Settlement was expanding in every direction, and the preparations -for the Invalid Children’s School were going on throughout the winter, -led her to feel<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> that in order to write her next book she must have a -complete change of scene and, if possible, a far more complete seclusion -than that of Stocks, with its accessibility to posts and telegrams. The -great subject of Catholicism still held her fascinated, but she was -tempted to explore it this second time rather from the artistic than the -religious point of view. She had been reading much of Châteaubriand and -Mme de Beaumont during the winter, and had felt her imagination kindled -by the relationship between the two; why should she not migrate to Rome -and there, in the ancient scene, weave anew the old tale of the conquest -of “outworn, buried age” by the forces of youth? So while the -preparations for the Cripples’ School were hastening forward, in -February, 1899, negotiations were also going on with the owners of the -vast old Villa Barberini, at Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills, for -the taking of its first floor, and various friends in Rome were helping -us with advice as to how to make it habitable. It was just such an -adventure as Mrs. Ward loved with her whole heart, and when we finally -arrived at the little station overlooking the Alban Lake, on March 23, -packed ourselves and our luggage into three <i>vetture</i> and drove up to -the somewhat forbidding entrance of the Villa, we felt that here, -indeed, was a new kingdom—a place to dream of, not to tell!</p> - -<p>Never, indeed, will those who took part in it forget the sensations of -that arrival—the floods of welcome poured upon us by the delightful -little butler, Alessandro, and his stately sister Vittoria, who had been -engaged to minister to our wants, our own faltering Italian, and the -procession across the gloomy entrance-hall and up the uncarpeted stone -staircase, to the rooms of our floor above. A dozen rooms clustering -round two huge central <i>saloni</i>, all with tiled floors, exiguous strips -of carpet, and wonderfully ugly wall-papers, formed our <i>appartamento</i>; -but at each end, east and west, were glorious balconies, the one -overlooking the Alban Lake and Monte Cavo, the other the vast sweep of -the Campagna, stretching from our falling olive-gardens to the sea. Long -we hung over those balconies, forgetting our unpacking, and when at last -we left our book-boxes behind and wandered out into the mile-long -garden, clothing the side of the hill on the Campagna side, it was only -to suffer fresh thrills of wonder and delight. For there, beyond<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> the -ilex avenue, that led like a cool green tunnel to the further mysteries, -ran a great wall of <i>opus reticulatum</i>, banking up the hill on that side -and crowned by overhanging olives, which had formed part of the villa -built on this ridge by the Emperor Domitian, just eighteen hundred years -before. And there, to the right, on another substructure of Domitian’s, -ran the balustraded terrace laid out by the rascally Barberini Pope, -Urban VIII (or more probably by one of his still more rascally nephews), -from which you beheld, rolling away to the sea, fold after fold of sad -Campagna, and far away to the north, between two stone pines, the white -dome of St. Peter’s. Mrs. Ward thus described the scene, four days after -our arrival, in a letter to her son:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“V<small>ILLA</small> B<small>ARBERINI</small>,”<br /> -<i>March 27, 1899</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘To-day, you never saw anything so enchanting in the world, as this -house and its outlook. At our feet, looking west, lies the rose and -green Campagna, melting into the sea on the horizon line, and as it -approaches the hills, climbing towards us through all imaginable -beauty of spreading olive-groves, and soaring pinewoods—brown -pinkish earth, just upturned by the white ploughing oxen,—here and -there on the spurs of the hills, great ruined strongholds of the -Savelli and Orsini, or fragments of Roman tombs: close below the -house a green sloping olive garden, white with daisies under the -grey mist of the olives—while if you lean out of window and crane -your neck a little, far to the north beyond the descending stone -pines, the æthereal sun-steeped plain takes here a consistence in -something, which is Rome.</p> - -<p>‘We have just come in from wandering along the sunny hill-side -towards Albano, past ruins of the Domitian Villa, overgrown with -ilex and creepers, through long shady ilex-avenues, and then out -into the warmth of the olive-yards, where the cyclamen are coming -out and the grass is full of white and blue and pink anemones. Such -a deep draught of beauty—of <i>bien-être</i> physical and mental—one -has not had for years. But only to-day! Two days ago we woke up to -find a world in snow, or rather all the hills white, the Alban Lake -lying like<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> steel in its snowy ring, and the <i>silvæ laborantes</i> -under the weight. And oh! the cold of these vast bare rooms at -night! We spent the day in Rome, where, of course, there was no -snow and much shelter, but when we came home, we sat and shivered -at dinner, and presently we all dragged the table up to the fire in -hope of cheating the draughts a little. Then the north wind howled -round us all night, and our spirits were low. But to-day the -transformation scene is complete!... We have put in baths and -stoves, and carpets and spring mattresses, bought some linen and -electro-plate, hired some armchairs—and here we are, not luxurious -certainly, but with a fair amount of English comfort about -us—quite enough, I fear, to make the Italians stare, who think we -must be mad, anyway, to come here in March, and still madder to -spend any money on an apartment that we take for three months! The -cook, a white-capped, white-jacketed gentleman whom I have only -seen once, sends us up excellent meals—except that on one occasion -he so far forgot himself as to offer us for dinner, first, pâté de -foie gras, and then “movietti,” which, being explained, are small -birds, probably siskins. Father and I were too hungry to desist, -the poor little things being anyway fried and past praying for, but -J. sat by, starving and lofty. And <i>we</i> were punished by finding -nothing to eat! So for many reasons, ideal and other, the cook will -have to be told to keep his hands off <i>movietti</i>.”</p></div> - -<p>Here, then, we established ourselves, and here, either in the little -<i>salotto</i> that we furnished for her, or walking up and down that -marvellous terrace, Mrs. Ward thought out her tale of <i>Eleanor</i>, -infusing into it strains old and new—Papal, Italian, English, -American—but, above all, steeping the whole scene in her own love for -the Italy of to-day, as well as for the old, the immemorial Italy.</p> - -<p>Those were the times—how far away they seem now, and how small the -troubles!—when things were not going happily for the new-made Italian -Kingdom, when the country still smarted under the misery and failure of -the Abyssinian campaign, and when English visitors were wont to express -themselves with insular frankness on the shortcomings of the New Italy, -whose squalid activities<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> so impudently disturbed, in their eyes, the -shades of the Old. The glamour of the <i>Risorgimento</i> had somehow -departed, in the forty years that followed Cavour’s death, so that the -Englishman travelling for his pleasure in the former territories of the -Pope, was ready enough to criticize the defects of the new Government, -while forgetting that if they had remained under the Pope, he would have -found therein no Government, in the modern sense, at all. Many elderly -people still remained who could remember Rome before <i>Venti Settembre</i>, -when the Cardinals drove in state down the Corso, and Pio Nono could be -seen taking his part in the processions of <i>Corpus Domini</i> or <i>San -Giovanni</i>. Sentimentalists wept at the vandalisms of the Savoyards, who -had built a new city, all in squares and rectangles, on the heights of -the Esquiline, away from the sights and smells of Old Rome, had put up a -huge “Palace of Finance” to record their yearly deficits, and were now -cleaning up the Colosseum and the Forum, so that no æsthetic tourist -would ever wish to set foot in them again.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward heard plenty of this sort of talk from English friends, who -came out to see us at the Villa, but she, by the simple process of -falling in love, headlong, with Italy and the Italians, avoided these -pitfalls and was enabled to see with a far truer eye than they the -essential soundness of Italian life, whether in town or country—the new -ever jostling the old, rudely sometimes, but with the rudeness of life -and growth, and the old still influencing and encompassing all things.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Nothing could be worse than the state of things here between -Liberals and Clericals,” she wrote to her son, “yet people seem to -rub along and will, I believe, go on rubbing along in much the same -way for many a long year. We read the <i>Tribuna</i> and the <i>Civiltà -Cattolica</i>, which on opposite sides breathe fire and flame. But -life goes on and insensibly certain links grow up, even between the -two extremes. For instance, there is a certain priest in Rome, -rector of San Lorenzo in Lucina, who has started charitable work -rather on the English pattern—no indiscriminate alms, careful -inquiry, provision of work, exercise, recreation, country holidays, -etc., in fine ‘Settlement’ style. And his workers include people of -all beliefs or none—Jews even. But as he is perfectly<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> correct in -doctrine and observance, and does not meddle with any disputed -points, he is let alone, and the experiment produces a quiet but -very real effect. Yesterday our <i>parroco</i>, Padre Ruelli, came to -see us here, an enchanting little man, with something of the old -maid and the child and the poet all combined. He recited to us -Leopardi, and explained some poems in Roman dialect, with an ease, -a vivacity, a perfect simplicity, that charmed us all. Then he -remembered his function, and before he left gave us a discourse on -charity, containing a quotation from the Gospels, largely invented -by himself, and so departed.”</p></div> - -<p>As the weeks went on in our bare, wind-swept <i>palazzo</i>, it became -impossible to resist a community in which everyone, from Alessandro to -this dear <i>padre parroco</i>, combined to show us that we were not only -tolerated, but <i>welcomed</i>. Our Italian was sadly to seek during those -first weeks, consisting largely in agonized consultations with Nutt’s -Pocket Dictionary, and in practising its phrases over with Alessandro; -but his courtesy and patience never failed, so that before long our -sentences began to put forth wings and soar. But never, alas, to any -great heights, and even when Mrs. Ward was able to carry on animated -conversations with our drivers about the traditions of the Alban Hills, -she would find herself sitting tongue-tied and exasperated, or -descending into French, at luncheon-parties in Rome!</p> - -<p>Yet those luncheon-parties, and the visits which we persuaded the new -friends, whom we made there, to pay us on our heights, laid the -foundations of certain friendships which influenced Mrs. Ward’s whole -attitude towards the new Italy, and gave her the conviction, which she -never lost in the years that followed, that there exists between the -best English and the best Italian minds a certain natural affinity, -which transcends the differences of habits and of speech more surely -than is the case between ourselves and any other of our Continental -neighbours. She put this feeling into the mouth of her ideal Ambassador -in <i>Eleanor</i>—that slight but charming sketch which was, I believe, -based upon the figure of Lord Dufferin—when he speaks to the American -Lucy of the Marchesa Fazzoleni, symbol and type of Italian womanhood. -“Look well at her,” he says<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> to Lucy, “she is one of the mothers of the -new Italy. She has all the practical sense of the north, and all the -subtlety of the south. She is one of the people who make me feel that -Italy and England have somehow mysterious affinities that will work -themselves out in history. It seems to me that I could understand all -her thoughts—and she mine, if it were worth her while. She is a modern -of the moderns; and yet there is in her some of the oldest stuff in the -world. She belongs, it is true, to a nation in the making—but that -nation, in its earlier forms, has already carried the whole weight of -European history!”</p> - -<p>Figures such as these began, when the storms of an inhospitable April -had passed away, to haunt the cool ilex avenue and the terrace beyond, -filling Mrs. Ward’s eager mind with new impressions, new perceptions of -the infinite variety and delightsomeness of the human race; and the old -walls of Domitian’s villa re-echoed to many an animated talk of Pope and -Kingdom, Church and State, as well as to Lanciani’s full-voiced -exclamations on the buried treasures—nay, even Alba Longa itself!—that -must lie at our feet there, only a few yards below the surface! Then, -once or twice, we took these guests of ours further afield, to the Lake -of Nemi, in its circular crater-cup—“Lo Specchio di Diana”—with the -ruined walls of the Temple of Diana rising amid their beds of -strawberries at its further end. This was indeed a place of enchantment, -and readers of <i>Eleanor</i> will remember how the <i>motif</i> of the “Priest -who slew the slayer” is woven into the fabric of the story, while the -turning-point in the drama of the three—Eleanor, Lucy and Manisty—is -reached during an expedition to the Temple. Here it was that Count Ugo -Balzani, best of friends and mentors, bought from the strawberry-pickers -for a few francs a whole basketful of little terra-cotta heads—votive -offerings of the Tiberian age—and gave them to Mrs. Ward; and here that -Henry James, during the few precious days that he spent with us at the -Villa, found the peasant youth with the glorious name, Aristodemo, and -set him talking of Lord Savile’s diggings, and of the marble head that -he himself had found—yes, he!—with nose and all complete, in his own -garden, while the sun sank lower towards the crater-rim, and the rest of -us sat spell-bound, listening to the dialogue.<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a></p> - -<p>Naturally, however, with Rome only fifteen miles away, we did not always -remain upon our hill-top, and the days that Mrs. Ward spent in the city, -making new friends and seeing old sights, were probably among the -richest in her whole experience. The great ceremony in St. Peter’s, when -Leo XIII celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of his accession, is -too well described in <i>Eleanor</i> to need any mention here, but there were -days of mere wandering about the streets, shopping, exploring old -churches and talking to the sacristans, when she breathed the very -spirit of Rome and let its beauty sink into her soul. And there was one -day when a kind and condescending Cardinal—<i>not</i> an Italian—offered to -take her over the crypt of St. Peter’s—a privilege not then easy to -obtain for ladies—and to show her the treasures it contained. Little, -however, did the poor Cardinal guess what a task he had undertaken. “The -very kind Cardinal knew nothing whatever about the crypt, which was a -little sad,” wrote D. W. that evening, and Mrs. Ward herself thus -described it to her husband: “It was very funny! The Cardinal was very -kind, and astonishingly ignorant. Any English Bishop going over St. -Peter’s would, I think, have known more about it, would have been -certainly more intelligent and probably more learned. You would have -laughed if you could have seen your demure spouse listening to the -Cardinal’s explanations. But I said not a word—and came home and read -Harnack!” A lamentable result, surely, of His Eminence’s courteous -efforts to grapple with the tombs of the Popes.</p> - -<p>Through April, May, and half through June we stayed at the Villa, till -the sun grew burning hot, and we were fain to adopt the customs of the -country, keeping windows and shutters closed against the fierce mid-day. -During the hot weather Mrs. Ward made an excursion, for purposes of -<i>Eleanor</i>, to the wonderful forest-country in the valley of the Paglia, -north of Orvieto, where the Marchese di Torre Alfina, a nephew of Mr. -Stillman, had placed his agent’s house at her disposal, and charged his -people to look after her. There, with her husband and daughter, she -spent two or three days exploring the forest roads and the volcanic -torrent-bed, down which the Paglia rushes, learning all she could of the -life and traditions of the village and of the<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> Maremma country beyond. -It was a district wholly unknown to her and full of attraction and -romance, which she has infused into the last chapters of <i>Eleanor</i>; it -gave her, too, a feeling of the inexhaustible wealth of the Italian soil -and race which reinforced her growing love for this land of her -adoption. As the chapters of <i>Eleanor</i> swelled during the remainder of -this year, so its theme took form and presence in the writer’s mind—the -eternal theme of the supplanting of the old by the young, whether in the -history of States or of persons. Steadily Mrs. Ward’s faith in the -destiny of that vast Italy into whose life she had looked, if only for a -moment, grew and strengthened, till she put it into words in the mouth -of her Marchesa Fazzoleni, speaking to a group gathered in the Villa -Borghese garden: “I tell you, Mademoiselle,” she says to Lucy, “that -what Italy has done in forty years is colossal—not to be believed! -Forty years—not quite—since Cavour died. And all that time Italy has -been like that cauldron—you remember?—into which they threw the -members of that old man who was to become young. There has been a -bubbling, and a fermenting! And the scum has come up—and up. And it -comes up still, and the brewing goes on. But in the end the young, -strong nation will step forth!” And Manisty himself, the upholder of the -Old against the New, the contemner of Governments and officials, admits -at last that Italy has defeated him, because, as he confesses to Lucy, -“your Italy is a witch.” “As I have been going up and down this -country,” so runs his recantation, “prating about their poverty, and -their taxes, their corruption, the incompetence of their leaders, the -folly of their quarrel with the Church; I have been finding myself -caught in the grip of things older and deeper—incredibly, primævally -old!—that still dominate everything, shape everything here. There are -forces in Italy, forces of land and soil and race, only now fully let -loose, that will re-make Church no less than State, as the generations -go by. Sometimes I have felt as though this country were the youngest in -Europe; with a future as fresh and teeming as the future of America. And -yet one thinks of it at other times as one vast graveyard; so thick it -is with the ashes and the bones of men.”</p> - -<p>Thus Mrs. Ward wove into her book, as was her wont, all the rich -experience of her own mind, as she had gathered<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> and brooded over it -during these months in Italy, and then, when all was finished, gave to -it the prophetic dedication which has made her name beloved by many an -Italian reader:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“To Italy the beloved and beautiful,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Instructress of our past,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Delight of our present,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Comrade of our future—<br /></span> -<span class="i1">The heart of an Englishwoman<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Offers this book.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><br /> -MRS. WARD AS CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT—FRENCH AND ITALIAN FRIENDS—THE SETTLEMENT VACATION SCHOOL<br /><br /> -1899-1904</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">I</span>N spite of the close and continuous toil that she put into the writing -of <i>Eleanor</i> during the year 1899, Mrs. Ward found time, in the course -of that year, for an effort of literary criticism to which she devoted -the best powers of her mind, but which has never, perhaps, received the -recognition it deserves. I refer to the Prefaces that she wrote to -Messrs. Smith & Elder’s “Haworth Edition” of the Brontë novels.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward had always had a peculiarly vivid feeling for the genius and -tragedy of the Brontë sisters, so that when Mr. George Smith asked her -in 1898 to undertake these Prefaces she felt it impossible to resist a -task not only attractive in itself, but presented to her in persuasive -phrase by “Dr. John.” For it is by this time a commonplace of Brontë -lore that Lucy Snowe’s first friend in the wilderness of Villette is no -other than the young publisher who had first recognized Charlotte’s -greatness, though the situation between Lucy and Dr. John bears no -resemblance to the actual friendship that arose between Mr. George Smith -and his client. Still, the letters which Mr. Smith placed at Mrs. Ward’s -disposal for this task were sufficiently interesting to arouse her -curiosity (one of them even described how Charlotte and he had gone -together to the celebrated phrenologist, Dr. Brown, to have their heads -examined!), and, taking her courage in both hands, she boldly asked him -whether he had ever been in love with Charlotte Brontë? His reply is -delightful as ever:<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>August 18, 1898.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Humphry Ward</span>,—</p> - -<p>...I was amused at your questions. No, I never was in the least bit -in love with Charlotte Brontë. I am afraid that the confession will -not raise me in your opinion, but the truth is, I never could have -loved any woman who had not some charm or grace of person, and -Charlotte Brontë had none. I liked her and was interested by her, -and I admired her—especially when she was in Yorkshire and I was -in London. I never was coxcomb enough to suppose that she was in -love with me. But I believe that my mother was at one time rather -alarmed.</p></div> - -<p>So with much toil and in the intervals of her other work, Mrs. Ward -accomplished the four admirable Prefaces to Charlotte’s novels, enjoying -this return to her old critical work of the eighties and becoming more -and more deeply possessed by the strange power of the Haworth sisters. -Then in the winter she took up <i>Wuthering Heights</i> and <i>Wildfell Hall</i>, -writing her introduction to the former under a stress of feeling so -profound as to produce in her, for the first and last time since -childhood, the desire to express herself in verse. Early one January -morning she reached out for pencil and paper and wrote down this sonnet, -sending it afterwards to George Smith to deal with as he would. He -printed it in the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i> of February, 1900.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTË.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Pale sisters! reared amid the purple sea<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Of windy moorland, where, remote, ye plied<br /></span> -<span class="i0">All household arts, meek, passion-taught, and free,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Kinship your joy, and Fantasy your guide!—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ah! who again ’mid English heaths shall see<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Such strength in frailest weakness, or so fierce<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Behest on tender women laid, to pierce<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The world’s dull ear with burning poetry?—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Whence was your spell?—and at what magic spring,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Under what guardian Muse, drank ye so deep<br /></span> -<span class="i0">That still ye call, and we are listening;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">That still ye plain to us, and we must weep?—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ask of the winds that haunt the moors, what breath<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Blows in their storms, outlasting life and death!<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Her introductions duly appeared in the bulky volumes of the Haworth -Edition, and there, unfortunately, they lie<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> buried. The edition was -doomed by its unwieldy <i>format</i>, and since the copyright had already -disappeared, these “library volumes” were soon displaced by the lighter -and handier productions of less stately publishing firms. But the -Prefaces had made their mark. The literary world was delighted to -welcome Mrs. Ward again among the critics, with whom she had earned her -earliest successes, and passages such as the following, which gives her -view of the ultimate position of women novelists and women poets, were -much quoted and discussed:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘What may be said to be the main secret, the central cause, not -only of Charlotte’s success, but, generally, of the success of -women in fiction, during the present century? In other fields of -art they are still either relatively amateurs, or their -performance, however good, awakens a kindly surprise. Their -position is hardly assured; they are still on sufferance. Whereas -in fiction the great names of the past, within their own sphere, -are the equals of all the world, accepted, discussed, analysed, by -the masculine critic, with precisely the same keenness and under -the same canons as he applies to Thackeray or Stevenson, to Balzac -or Loti.</p> - -<p>‘The reason, perhaps, lies first in the fact that, whereas in all -other arts they are comparatively novices and strangers, having -still to find out the best way in which to appropriate traditions -and methods not created by women, in the art of speech, elegant, -fitting, familiar speech, women are and have long been at home. -They have practised it for generations, they have contributed -largely to its development. The arts of society and of -letter-writing pass naturally into the art of the novel. Madame de -Sévigné and Madame du Deffand are the precursors of George Sand; -they lay her foundations, and make her work possible. In the case -of poetry, one might imagine, a similar process is going on, but it -is not so far advanced. In proportion, however, as women’s life and -culture widen, as the points of contact between them and the -manifold world multiply and develop, will Parnassus open before -them. At present those delicate and noble women who have entered -there look still a little strange to us. Mrs. Browning, George -Eliot, Emily Brontë, Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore—it is as though -they had wrested something that did not belong to them, by a kind<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> -of splendid violence. As a rule, so far, women have been poets in -and through the novel—Cowper-like poets of the common life like -Miss Austen, or Mrs. Gaskell, or Mrs. Oliphant; Lucretian or -Virgilian observers of the many-coloured web like George Eliot, or, -in some phases, George Sand; romantic or lyrical artists like -George Sand again, or like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Here no one -questions their citizenship; no one is astonished by the place they -hold; they are here among the recognized masters of those who know.</p> - -<p>“Why? For, after all, women’s range of material, even in the novel, -is necessarily limited. There are a hundred subjects and -experiences from which their mere sex debars them. Which is all -very true, but not to the point. For the one subject which they -have eternally at command, which is interesting to all the world, -and whereof large tracts are naturally and wholly their own, is the -subject of love—love of many kinds indeed, but pre-eminently the -love between man and woman. And being already free of the art and -tradition of words, their position in the novel is a strong one, -and their future probably very great.”</p></div> - -<p>She sent her Prefaces to a few intimate friends, turning in this case -chiefly to those French friends who represented for her the ultimate -tribunal in literary matters. The older generation—Scherer, Taine, -Renan—were passing away by this time, but a younger had followed them, -of whom Paul Bourget, Brunetière of the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, the -Gaston Paris, the Ribots, the Boutmys were among those whom Mrs. Ward -would always seek out during her almost annual visits to Paris in these -years. But among all her French acquaintance she came about this time to -regard M. André Chevrillon, nephew of Taine, traveller and generous -critic of English politics and literature, as the most sympathetic, for -he seemed to combine with an almost miraculous knowledge of English the -very essence of that <i>esprit français</i> which she continued to adore to -the end of her life. He had first visited Mrs. Ward at Haslemere in -1891, as a “young French student lost in London,” and he happened to be -with us at Stocks at the time of the publication of the Haworth Edition -(1900). A few days later Mrs. Ward received the following appreciation -from him:<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="nind">M<small>ADAME</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Je désire tout de suite vous remercier de votre gracieux accueil et -de la bonne journée que j’ai passée à Tring, mais je voudrais -surtout essayer de vous dire un peu l’impression, l’émotion durable -et qui me poursuit ici—que m’a donnée la lecture de vos admirables -articles sur les Brontë. Je n’ai pas su le faire tandis que j’étais -auprès de vous; ce n’est que ce matin que j’ai lu l’article sur -Charlotte et Jane Eyre et j’en suis encore tout hanté. Jamais âmes -de poètes et d’artistes n’ont été sondées d’un coup d’Å“il plus -pénétrant, plus rapide, plus exercé et plus sûr. Vous avez su, en -quelques pages, montrer l’irréductible personnalité de ces âpres et -douloureuses jeunes femmes en même temps que vous expliquiez les -traits qui chez elles sont ethniques et généraux, la tendre, la -nostalgique âme celtique, farouchement repliée sur soi avec ses -pressentiments, ses divinisations magiques, sa faculté d’apercevoir -dans les couleurs du ciel, dans les formes et les lignes que -présente çà et là la nature des <i>signes</i> chargés de sens mystérieux -et profond.... Enfin le dernier paragraphe où vous mettez Charlotte -à sa place dans la littérature européenne nous rappelle la sûre -<i>scholarship</i>, la puissance de généralisation auxquelles vous nous -avez habitués, la faculté philosophique qui aperçoit <i>les idées</i> -comme des forces vivantes, dramatiques qui se croisent, se -combattent, moulent et façonnent les hommes, et sont les plus -vraies des réalités.</p></div> - -<p>M. Chevrillon shared, I think, with M. Jusserand and with M. Elie Halévy -the distinction of being the most profound and sympathetic among French -students of England at that time; all three were firm friends of Mrs. -Ward’s, all charmed her into envious despair by their perfect command of -our language. M. Jusserand—who as a young man on the staff of the -French Embassy had been a constant visitor at Russell Square—would dash -off such notes as this: “Dear Mrs. Ward—Are you in town, or rather what -town is it you are in?” and now in this matter of the Brontë Prefaces he -wrote her his terrible confession:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘I spent yesternight a most charming evening reading your essay. -Shall I confess that I feel with Kingsley, having had a similar -experience? I could never go<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> beyond the terrible beginning of -<i>Shirley</i>—and yet I tried and did my best, and the book remains -unread, and I the more sorry as my copy does not belong to me, but -to Lady Jersey, who charged me to return it when I had finished -reading. I really tried earnestly: I took the volume with me on -several occasions; it has seen, I am sure, as many lands as wise -Ulysses, having crossed the Mediterranean more than once and -visited Assuan. But there it is, and I see from my writing-table -its threatening green cloth and awful back, with plenty of -repulsive persons within. And yet I <i>can</i> read. I have read with -delight and unflagging interest Vol. I in-folio of the Rolls of -Parliament, without missing a line. <i>Shirley</i>, I cannot. I must try -again, were it only for the sake of the editor of the series!”</p></div> - -<p>But in spite of these warm and in many cases lifelong friendships, Mrs. -Ward did not find the French atmosphere an easy one in such a year as -1900. The South African War had followed on the Dreyfus Case, the -Dreyfus Case on Fashoda, and the ties of friendship suffered an unkindly -strain. Mrs. Ward spent a few spring weeks in Rome, where all was golden -and delightful—forming new friendships every day, and passing into that -second stage of intimacy where first impressions are tested and were -not, for her, found wanting; then on the way home she lingered a little -in Paris, plunging into the gay confusions of the Great Exhibition. Her -literary friends offered her attentions and hospitalities as of old, but -she felt at once the difference of atmosphere, describing it vividly in -a letter to her brother Willie:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“P<small>ARIS</small>,<br /> -”<i>May 16, 1900</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘We have had a delicious time in Rome, Dorothy and I, and now Paris -and the Exhibition are interesting and stimulating, but are not -Rome! I have come back more Italy-bewitched than ever. Rome was -bathed in the most glorious sunshine. Every breath was -life-giving—everything one saw was beauty. And the people are so -kind, so clever, so friendly—so different from this <i>France -malveillante</i>, between whom and us as it seems to me, Fashoda, -Dreyfus and the Transvaal have opened a gulf<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> that it will take a -generation to fill. In Rome we saw many people and I had much -conversation that will be of use for the revision of <i>Eleanor</i>. The -country is progressing enormously, the <i>Anno Santo</i> is a -comparative failure, and the Jesuit hatred of England flourishes -and abounds. The Harcourts were there and I had much talk with Sir -William about politics and much else. He is very broken in health, -but as amusing as ever. With him and Father Ehrle we went one -morning through the show treasures of the Vatican, turned over and -handled the Codex Vaticanus, the Michael Angelo letters, the -wonderful illuminated Dante and much else. One day with two friends -D. and I went to Viterbo, slept, and next day saw the two -Cinquecento villas, the Villa Lante and Caprarola. Caprarola was a -wonderful experience. Ten miles’ drive into the mountains along a -ridge 3,000 feet high, commanding on one side the Lake of Vico, on -the other the whole valley of the Tiber from Assisi to Palestrina, -with Soracte in the middle distance, and the great rampart of the -Sabines half in snow and girdled with cloud. Between us and the -plain, slopes of chestnut and vine, and on either side of the road -delicious inlets of grass, starred thick with narcissus, running up -into continents of broom that by now must be all gold. Then the -great pentagonal palace of Caprarola, gloomy, magnificent, in an -incomparable position, frescoed inside from top to toe by the -Zuccheri, and containing in its great sala a series of portrait -groups of Charles V, Francis I, Henry II, Philip II, of the -greatest possible animation and brilliancy, and in almost perfect -preservation.”</p></div> - -<p>After such delights the atmosphere of Paris must indeed have seemed -cold, but Mrs. Ward could always see the other side of such a -controversy, and took pleasure in reporting to her father a conversation -she had had, while in Paris, with “a charming old man, formerly -secretary of the Duc D’Aumale, and now curator of the Chantilly Museum.”</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“We had,” she wrote, “a very interesting talk about the War and -Dreyfus. ‘Oh! I am all with the English,’ he said—‘they could not -let that state of things in the Transvaal continue—the struggle -was inevitable. But<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> then I have lived in England. I love England, -and English people, and can look at matters calmly. As to the -treatment of English people in Paris, remember, Madame, that we are -just now a restless and discontented people. We are a disappointed -people—we have lost our great position in the world, and we don’t -see how to get it back. That makes us rude and bitter. And then our -griefs against England go back to the Crimea. The English officers -then made themselves disliked—and in the great war of 1870, you -were not sympathetic—we thought you might have done something for -us, and you did nothing. Then you were much too violent about the -<i>Affaire</i>. The first trial was abominable, but by the second trial -we stand, we the <i>modérés</i> who think ourselves honest fellows. But -you made no difference. The Press of both countries has done great -harm. All that explains the present state of things. It is not the -Boers—that is mainly a pretext, an opportunity.”</p></div> - -<p>It is perhaps a curious fact that while German learning and German -methods of historical criticism had compelled Mrs. Ward’s admiration -from her earliest years, no crop of personal friendships with Germans -had sprung from these sowings, as in the case of her French studies and -her Italian sojournings. Dear, homely German governesses were almost the -only children of the Fatherland with whom she had personal contact, her -relations with certain Biblical scholars and with the translators and -publishers of her books being confined to pen and ink. But there was one -German scholar with whom she had at any rate a lengthy -correspondence—Dr. Adolf Jülicher, of Marburg, whose monumental work on -the New Testament she presented one day, in a moment of enthusiasm, to -her younger daughter (aged seventeen), suggesting that she should -translate it into English. The daughter dutifully obeyed, devoting the -best part of the next three years to the task—only to find, when the -work was all but finished, that the German professor had in the meantime -brought out a new edition of his book, running to some 100 pages of -additional matter. Dismay reigned at Stocks, but there was no help for -it: the additional 100 pages had to be tackled. In the end Mrs. Ward -herself seized on the proofs and went all through them, pen in hand;<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> -little indeed was left of the daughter’s unlucky sentences by the time -the process was complete. In vain we would point out to her that this -was the “Lower Criticism” and therefore unworthy of her serious -attention; she would merely make a face at us and plunge with -ardour—perhaps after a heavy day of writing—into the delightful task -of defacing poor Mr. Reginald Smith’s clean page-proofs. For these were -the days when Mr. Reginald had practically taken over the business of -Smith & Elder’s from his father-in-law, George Smith, and one of the -diversions that he allowed himself was to print Mrs. Ward’s daughter’s -translation free of all profit to the firm. The profits, indeed, if any, -were to go in full to the translator, but naturally the expenses of -proof-correction stood on the debit side of the account. Hence the -anxiety of the person who had once been seventeen whenever Mrs. Ward had -had a particularly energetic day with the proofs of Jülicher!</p> - -<p><i>Eleanor</i> had had a triumphal progress in the monthly numbers of -<i>Harper’s Magazine</i> throughout this year (1900), and appeared at length -in book-form on November 1. Mrs. Ward’s pleasure in its reception was -much enhanced by the warm appreciation given to Mr. Albert Sterner’s -illustrations—clever and charming drawings, which had wonderfully -caught the spirit of her characters and of the Italian scene, for Mr. -Sterner had spent two or three weeks with us at the Villa Barberini. He -and Mrs. Ward were fast friends, and it was always a matter of real -delight to her whenever he could be secured to illustrate one of her -subsequent novels. This was to be the case with <i>William Ashe</i>, -<i>Fenwick’s Career</i> and <i>The Case of Richard Meynell</i>. The publication of -<i>Eleanor</i> coincided, however, with news of Mr. Arnold’s serious illness -in Dublin, so that the chorus of delight in her “Italian novel” reached -Mrs. Ward’s ears muffled by the presence of death.</p> - -<p>Thomas Arnold died on November 12, 1900, tended to the last by his -surviving children, and by the devoted second wife (Miss Josephine -Benison), whom he had married in 1889. Mrs. Ward’s affection for him had -never wavered throughout these many years, as the letters which she -wrote him about all her doings, once or even twice in every week, attest -to this day; his mystical, child-like spirit attracted her invincibly. -Three days after his death she wrote to Bishop<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> Creighton, over whom the -same summons was already hovering:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>November 15, 1900.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">My dear Bishop</span>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Many, many thanks. It was very dear of you to write to me, -especially at this time of illness, and I prize much all that you -say. My father’s was a rare and <i>hidden</i> nature. Among his papers -that have now come to me I have come across the most touching and -remarkable things—things that are a revelation even to his -children. The service yesterday in Newman’s beautiful little -University Church, the early mass, the bright morning light on the -procession of friends and clergy through the cypress-lined paths of -Glasnevin, the last ‘requiescat in pace,’ answered by the Amen of -the little crowd—all made a fitting close to his gentle and -laborious life. He did not suffer much, I am thankful to say, and -he knew that we were all round him and smiled upon us to the last.</p></div> - -<p>And he on his side regarded her with an adoring affection that sometimes -found touching expression in his letters, as when, a few months after -the publication of <i>David Grieve</i>, he broke out in these words:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“My own dearest Polly (let me call you for once what I often called -you when a child), God made you what you are, and those who love -you will be content to leave you to Him. He gave you that -wide-flashing, swiftly-combining wit, ‘glancing from heaven to -earth, from earth to heaven’; He gave you also the power of turning -your thoughts, with deft and felicitous hand, into forms of beauty. -No one can divine what new problems will occupy you in time to -come, nor how you will solve them; but one may feel sure that with -you, as Emerson says, ‘the future will be worthy of the past.’”</p></div> - -<p>Yet there was hardly a public question, especially in his later years, -on which Mrs. Ward and her father did not differ profoundly; for Tom -Arnold hated “Imperialism” and the modern world, especially such -manifestations of it as the Omdurman campaign and the South African War. -Mrs. Ward, on the other hand, watched the former with all the pride and -dread that comes from a personal stake in the adventure; for was not -Colonel Neville Lyttelton in command<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> of a brigade, and had he not left -his wife and children under our care at Stocks Cottage? She had found a -task for Mrs. Lyttelton’s quick mind, to while away the too-long hours -of that summer, in a translation into English of the “Pensées” of -Joubert; their consultations over the fine shades of his meaning, while -the bees hummed in the lime-tree on the lawn, became the light and -relaxation of her days, while, later on, the Introduction she -contributed to the book helped its appearance with the public. And when -Colonel Lyttelton came home, a happy soldier, and pegged out the -Omdurman campaign for us on the drawing-room floor with matches, how was -it possible not to rejoice with him in the overthrow of so dark a -tyranny as the Khalifa’s?</p> - -<p>But the South African War was a matter of far more mingled feelings, -though on the whole Mrs. Ward was persuaded that we were right as -against President Kruger and his methods, and upheld this view in many a -letter to her father:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I am not without sympathy for the Boers,” she wrote to him in -November, 1899, “and I often try to realize their case and how the -invasive unwelcome English power looks to them. But it seems to me -that history—which for me is God—makes very stern decisions -between nations. The Boers have had their chance of an ascendancy -which must have been theirs if they had known how to work for it -and deserve it; they have missed it, and the chance now passes to -England. If she is not worthy of it, it won’t remain with her—that -one may be sure. But I must say that the loyalty of the other -colonies—especially of French-speaking Canada; the pacification -and good government of India, the noble development of Egypt, are -to me so many signs that at present we <i>are</i> fit to rule, and are -meant to rule. But we shall rule only so long as we execute -righteous judgment and so long as it is for the good of the world -that we should rule.”</p></div> - -<p>She would have liked to see peace made after Lord Roberts’ early -victories, and was for a time in favour of such terms as would not have -involved annexation. But when this hope failed she settled down to -endure the thing, and in 1901 devoted much time and labour to the -improvement of the Boer women’s and children’s lot in the concentration -camps. She joined the committee of the Victoria League<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> formed for this -purpose. And, as inevitably happens in all such controversies, the -passion felt by the other side contributed to the hardening of her own -opinion, so that the end of the war found her more staunch an -Imperialist, more definite a Conservative, than she would have admitted -herself to be before it.</p> - -<p>It was during the war-shadowed winter of 1900-1901 that Mrs. Ward -suffered a series of heavy personal losses in the death of many of her -oldest friends, beginning with Mr. James Cropper, of Ellergreen, her -quasi-uncle,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> with whom she had been on the most affectionate terms -ever since her childhood. This occurred a bare month before her father’s -death; then, two months later (January 14, 1901), came the blow that the -whole country felt as a catastrophe, the death of Bishop Creighton, and, -early in April, a loss that came home very sadly to Mrs. Ward, that of -her well-beloved publisher and friend, George Smith. “I never had a -truer friend or a wiser counsellor,” she wrote of him, and indeed he -combined these qualities with so shrewd a humour and so unvarying a -kindness that Mrs. Ward might well count herself fortunate to have -enjoyed fourteen years of familiar intercourse with him.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“His position as a publisher was very remarkable,” she wrote to her -son. “He was the friend of his authors, their counsellor, banker -and domestic providence often—as Murray was to Byron. But nobody -would ever have dared to take the liberties with him that Byron did -with Murray.”</p></div> - -<p>When he was gone, Mrs. Ward was fortunate enough to find in his -successor, Reginald Smith, an equally just and generous adviser, on -whose friendship she leant more and more until death took him too, in -the tragic winter of 1916.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The remarkable success of <i>Eleanor</i> in the United States (where the -character of Lucy Foster won all hearts) led to inquiries being made -from certain theatrical quarters there as to whether Mrs. Ward would not -undertake to dramatize it. The suggestion attracted her at once, for -though she had never written anything for the stage she had, all her -life, been a keenly interested critic of plays and actors and a devoted -adherent of French methods as against<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> the heavy English stage -conventions. But when she seriously confronted the problem she felt -herself too ignorant of stagecraft to undertake the task unaided, and -therefore called in to her counsels that delightful writer of light -comedy, Julian Sturgis, whom she persuaded to collaborate with her. -Could she have foreseen the play’s delays, the insolence of box offices -and the manifold despairs that awaited her in this new path, probably -even her high courage would have turned aside, but the co-operation it -brought her with so rare a spirit as Julian Sturgis was at any rate a -very living compensation. In the spring of 1901 Mr. Sturgis came out to -stay with us in a villa we had taken (on the spur of the moment) on the -outskirts of Rapallo (not then celebrated as the scene of international -“pacts”), and together he and his hostess plunged with ardour into the -business of making their puppets move. The work was extraordinarily -hard, while the skies above our crimson villa behaved as though it were -Westmorland and the Mediterranean thundered on the sea-wall of our -garden; but Mrs. Ward enjoyed the stimulus and novelty of it immensely -and always declared that she owed much even for her novelist’s art to -that week of “grind” with Mr. Sturgis. Nor was it quite all grind, for -one day, when the sun at last shone, we took our guest and his tall Eton -boy up the long pilgrimage-way to the Madonna di Montallegro, overtaking -a party of laden peasant-women as we went to whom Mr. Sturgis offered -some passing kindness. His advances were met by a torrent of words in -some uncouth dialect which none of us could understand, but he chose to -appropriate them to himself as a prayer offered to “Santo Giulio,” and -“Santo Giulio” he remained to Mrs. Ward and all of us for the too-short -remnant of his life.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The play stood up and lived by the time his -visit was ended; but this was only the beginning of endless heartaches -and disappointments. At first there were hopes of the Duse, then of Mrs. -Pat; then Mr. Benson was to produce it with a clever and charming -amateur actress of our acquaintance in the role of Eleanor; then at -length a real promise was secured from a well-known actor-manager, and -all was fixed for May, 1902. But the promise was not an agreement, and -was therefore mortal; when it died Mr. Sturgis’s only comment was: “My -dear Mrs. Ward,<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> I am not a bit surprised. My deep distrust of the -theatrical world, wherein pretending gets into the blood, makes me -sceptical of any promises which are not stamped, signed and witnessed by -a legion of angels.”</p> - -<p>Already, however, Miss Marion Terry, Miss Robins and Miss Lilian -Braithwaite had promised in no spirit of “pretending” to play the three -principal parts, so that with things so well advanced on that side Mrs. -Ward determined to go forward. Since the managers were timid she would -take a theatre and bear the risk herself. Finally all was settled with -the Court Theatre, and the delightful agony of the rehearsals began -(October, 1902). Miss Terry sprained a tendon in her leg, but gallantly -limped through her part, while the constant changes called for in the -words, the cuts and compressions, made a bewildering variety of versions -that left the lay onlooker gasping. Mrs. Ward, however, was equal to all -occasions—even to a last-minute change in the actor who played -Manisty<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>—until not one of the cast but was moved to astonishment and -admiration, not only by her versatility, but by her long-suffering. Add -to this her endless consideration for themselves—for their comfort, -their feelings or their clothes—and it is easy to understand the -feelings of real affection which grew up between author and actors as -the play went on. Yet all was of no avail, or, at least, it failed to -conquer the great heart of the British public. The cast was admirable, -the reviews were kind—though Mr. Walkley in <i>The Times</i> perhaps gave -the key to the situation when he ended his article with the words, “But -then, who <i>could</i> play Manisty?” Yet, somehow, the audience (after the -first day) failed to fill the seats. <i>Eleanor</i> ran for only fifteen -matinées, October 30-November 15, and<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> though much was said of a -revival, she only once again saw the footlights—in a couple of special -matinées given in aid of the Passmore Edwards Settlement. And yet—what -fun it had been! Though the financial loss made her rueful, Mrs. Ward -always looked back to those six weeks at the Court Theatre as a -breathless but happy episode, during which she had looked deep into the -technique of a new art and brought from it, not success indeed, but much -valuable experience which she might bring to bear upon her future work. -Certainly the two novels of these years, <i>Lady Rose’s Daughter</i> and the -<i>Marriage of William Ashe</i>, gained much in sureness of touch, terseness -and finish from Mrs. Ward’s dramatic studies; <i>Lady Rose</i> was in fact -acclaimed by the critics as the book in which, at last, the writer -showed “the predominance of the artistic over the ethical instinct, the -subordination of the didactic to the artistic impulse.”</p> - -<p>She never dramatized it, but a dramatized version of <i>William Ashe</i>, at -which Mrs. Ward toiled extremely hard, in collaboration with Miss -Margaret Mayo, during 1905, was accepted by an American “stock company” -and acquired a considerable reputation in the States. In London, -however, where it was performed by a semi-American cast in 1908, it fell -very flat, Mrs. Ward being fortunately spared the sight of it owing to -the fact that she herself was across the Atlantic at the time. The -actress who played Kitty, wishing to leave the author in no doubt as to -the cause of its failure, cabled to her after the first night, “Press -unfriendly to play—<i>my</i> performance highly praised!” Even so, however, -the Manager decided to withdraw it after a three weeks’ run, and no play -of Mrs. Ward’s was ever afterwards performed in England.</p> - -<p>Among the most absorbed spectators of the first performance of -<i>Eleanor</i>, watching it from an arm-chair brought for his ease into the -author’s box, was the pathetic figure of Mrs. Ward’s eldest brother, -William Arnold. His health had broken down some years before, while he -was still assistant editor of the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, and he had come -to live, with his wife, in a small house in Chelsea, where it was Mrs. -Ward’s delight to find him, on his better days, and to discuss all -things in heaven and earth with him. No comradeship could ever have been -closer than was theirs, though intercourse with him would always end in -a strangling heartache<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> for his state of health, for noble gifts -submerged by bodily pain, despite as gallant a fight as was ever waged -by suffering man. Mrs. Ward was for ever watching over him and helping -him; sending him abroad in search of sun and warmth; having him to stay -with her at Stocks, in London, or at some villa in Italy; encouraging -him to do what work he could. But most they loved their talks together. -Their tastes would usually agree on literary matters, and differ on -politics, but no matter what the subject, his flashes of mischief and -malice would light up the most ordinary topic, and no one loved better -to draw him out, and to set him railing or praising, than his sister. -How they would talk, sometimes, about the details of her craft, about -Jane Austen, or Trollope, or George Meredith! For this latter they both -had a feeling akin to adoration, based on a knowledge not only of his -novels but of his poems (then not a common accomplishment); and I -remember W. T. A. once saying to me that he thought the jolliest line in -English poetry was</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Gentle beasties through pushed a cold long nose.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward’s feeling for the old giant of Box Hill led her on all -occasions to champion his right to be regarded as the greatest living -master of English—as may be seen from the following spirited letter -(January 19, 1902) addressed to the secretary of the Society of Authors, -when that body had, in her view, made the wrong decision in recommending -Herbert Spencer instead of Meredith for the Nobel Prize.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“However eminent Mr. Spencer may be” (she wrote), “and however -important his contribution to English thought, there must be a -great many of us who will feel, when it is a question of -interrogating English opinion as to the most distinguished name -among us in pure literature, there can be only one answer—George -Meredith. It is no reply to say that the Swedish Academy will -probably know something of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and may know little -or nothing about Mr. Meredith. That is their affair, not ours. The -meaning and purpose of this prize has been illustrated by the -selection of M. Sully Prud’homme. Its recipient should be surely, -first and foremost, a man of letters, and, if possible, a -representative of what the Germans call ‘Dichtung,’ whether in -prose or verse.<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a></p> - -<p>‘If Mr. Meredith had written nothing but the love-scenes in -<i>Richard Feverel</i>; <i>The Egoist</i>; and certain passages of -description in <i>Vittoria</i> and <i>Beauchamp’s Career</i>, he would still -stand at the head of English ‘Dichtung.’ There is no critic now who -can be ranged with him in position, and no poet. As a man of -letters he is easily first; to compare Mr. Spencer’s power of clear -statement with the play of imaginative genius in Meredith would be -absurd—in the literary field. And this is or should be a literary -award.</p> - -<p>“I trust that in writing thus I shall not be misunderstood. I am -not venturing to dispute Mr. Spencer’s great position in the -history of English thought—I have neither the wish nor the -capacity for anything of the kind. But to be the philosopher of -evolution is one thing; to be our first man of letters is another. -I would submit that English opinion is asked to point out our most -distinguished man of letters, and that if we cannot unanimously say -‘George Meredith!’ we are not worthy that Genius should come among -us at all.”</p></div> - -<p>But only two years after this outburst (which I feel sure she showed -him) her comradeship with “Will” ended for ever, and his sufferings -ceased. He died on May 29, 1904.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>About the same time as she lost her beloved brother, Mrs. Ward acquired -a new member of the family in the person of her son-in-law, George -Macaulay Trevelyan, son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. He and her younger -daughter became engaged at the Villa Bonaventura, Cadenabbia—which Mrs. -Ward had taken from Mr. Alfred Trench—in May, 1903—and ten months -later they were married at Oxford. Mrs. Ward soon became much devoted to -her son-in-law, whose ardent faiths and non-faiths challenged and -stimulated her, bringing her into touch with movements of thought that -ran parallel to, but had not yet mingled with, her own belief in a more -reasonable Christianity. The walls of her room at Stocks would re-echo, -during his visits, with the most fundamental discussions! Mr. -Chamberlain, too, was a disturbing element in those days, with his -Tariff Reform campaign, for what was Mrs. Ward to do when her son took<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> -one side and her son-in-law the other—and when, moreover, her own -well-trained mind was perfectly capable of understanding the arguments -of each? But whatever the subject of these discussions, whether politics -or religion, they only served to increase the affection between the two, -which grew and deepened with every turn of fortune that the years might -bring.</p> - -<p>It is perhaps interesting to speculate what might have been the -development of Mrs. Ward’s powers if her intellect had never been -captured by the dramatic spell, and if other sides of that -“wide-flashing” mind had been allowed to work themselves out unchecked. -For in the lull that followed the completion of <i>Eleanor</i> she had -conceived the writing of a “Life of Christ” based on such a -re-interpretation of the Gospel story as she believed had been made -possible by the research of the last half-century. She brooded much over -this theme and even discussed it with her publishers. But whether it was -that her continued ill-health made her shrink from the heavy toil -involved by such a task—the re-reading and collating of all her -Germans, the study of an infinite amount of fresh material, and probably -a journey to Palestine—or whether the practical side of Christianity -had by now absorbed too large a share of her time and her powers, the -project never came to fruition, though it never ceased to attract her.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>And indeed, Mrs. Ward’s practical adventures in well-doing during these -years would have been enough to fill the lives of any three ordinary -individuals, without any such diversions as the writing of novels or the -hammering out of plays. The affairs of the Settlement were always on her -shoulders, not only as regards the financial burden of its maintenance, -but in all the personal questions that inevitably arose in such a busy -hive of humanity. If the nurse of the Invalid School had words with the -porter, the case was sure to come up to her for judgment, while any -misdemeanour among the young people themselves who frequented the -building would cause her the most anxious searchings of heart. But “it -does not do to start things and then let them drift,” as she wrote in -these days to one of us, and she continued to cherish the Settlement, to -support the Warden (Mr. Tatton) in his difficulties and to beg for -money, with an<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> extraordinary vitality as well as an extraordinary -patience. Yet in spite of all, the Settlement was far more of joy to her -than of burden, and on its children’s side it never ceased to be pure -joy from the beginning. For was it not always possible to devise new -ways of making the children happy, as well as to continue the old? The -principal way in which Mrs. Ward’s work extended itself at this time was -in the opening of the “Vacation School,” designed to bring in from the -streets in large numbers the children left stranded during the August -holiday,—and if anyone will take the trouble to wander through the back -streets during that happy season, and to note what he sees, there will -be little doubt in his mind that such a school must be a real -deliverance. Mrs. Ward had taken the idea from an account by Mr. Henry -Curtis in <i>Harper’s Magazine</i> (early in 1902) of the first schools of -the kind started in New York, and her mind had at once grasped the -possibilities of such a scheme. There stood the Settlement with its fine -shady garden in the rear, empty and dumb through the holidays: surely it -would be a sin not to use it!</p> - -<p>She collected a special fund from a few old friends of the Settlement, -appointed an admirable director in the person of Mr. E. G. Holland, an -assistant master at the Highgate Secondary School, enlisted the help of -all the schools around to send us such children only as had no chance of -a country holiday, and then issued invitations to some 750, divided into -two batches, morning and afternoon. The result was an orderly and -delighted crowd which, owing to Miss Churcher’s and Mr. Holland’s -faultless organization, moved from class to class and from garden to -building without the smallest hitch, played and dug in the “waste -ground” beyond the garden, specially thrown open to the school by the -Duke of Bedford, and when rain came marched into the building and filled -its basement rooms and the pleasant library and class-rooms without any -confusion or squabbling. The occupations were much the same as those -already in use for the “Recreation School,” and never failed to attract -and then to keep the children; while the spirit of good fellowship that -the atmosphere of the school engendered had a marked effect on their -manners as the four weeks of the school passed away. Here is Mrs. Ward’s -own account of the contrast presented by the children as they were in -the<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> Vacation School and as they could not help being in a mean street -only half a mile away:<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Last week a lady interested in the school was passing through one -of the slum streets to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Much good -work has been done there by many agencies. But in August most of -the workers are away. Dirty, ragged, fighting or querulous children -covered the pavement, or seemed to be bursting out of the grimy -houses. The street was filthy, the clothes of the children to -match. There was no occupation; the little souls were given up to -‘the weight of chance desires’; and whatever happiness there was -must have been of rather a perilous sort. The same spectator passed -on, and half a mile eastward entered the settlement building in -Tavistock Place. Here were nearly 300 children (the children of the -Evening Session), divided between house and garden, many of them -from quarters quite as poor as those she had just traversed. But -all was order, friendliness and enjoyment. Every child was clean -and neat, though the clothes might be poor; if a boy brushed past -the visitor, it would be with a pleasant ‘Excuse me, Miss’; in the -manual training-room boys looked up from the benches with glee to -show the models they had made; the drawing-room of the settlement -was full of little ones busy with the unfamiliar delights of brush -or pencil; in the library boys were sitting hunched up over -<i>Masterman Ready</i>, or the ever-adored <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>; girls were -deep in <i>Anderson’s Fairy Tales</i> or <i>The Cuckoo Clock</i>, the little -ones were reading Mr. Stead’s <i>Books for the Bairns</i> or looking at -pictures; outside in the garden under the trees clay modelling and -kindergarten games were going on, while the sand-pit was crowded -with children enjoying themselves heartily without either shouting -or fighting. Meanwhile in the big hall parents were thronging in to -see the musical drill, the dancing or the acting, or to listen to -the singing; the fathers as proud as the mothers that Willie was -‘in the Shakespeare,’ or Nellie ‘in the Gavotte.’ The visitor had -only to watch to see that the teachers were obeyed at a word, at a -glance, and that the children loved<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> to obey. Everywhere was -discipline, good temper, pleasure. And next day the school broke up -with the joining of 600 voices in the old hymn ‘O God, our help in -ages past.’ Surely no contrast could be more complete.”</p></div> - -<p>And in conclusion Mrs. Ward made her characteristic appeal:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Shall we not enter seriously on the movement and call on our -public authorities to take it up? Who can doubt the need of it, -even when all allowance is made for country holidays of all sorts? -Extend and develop country holidays as you will, London in the -summer vacation month will never be without its hundreds of -thousands of children for whom these Vacation Schools, properly -managed, would be almost a boon of fairyland.”</p></div> - -<p>The Vacation School had indeed been watched with much interest by the -London School Board, which had also co-operated by the lending of -furniture and “stock,” but the transference of its powers to the London -County Council made a bad atmosphere, just at this time, for the -adoption of new experiments, and the new “London Education Authority” -which arose in 1903 was only too glad to leave the carrying-on of the -Settlement Vacation School to Mrs. Ward. Every year it seemed to -increase in popularity. Mr. Holland remained director for thirteen -consecutive Augusts (1902-1914); the numbers of the school rose to 1,000 -per day in later years, when an additional building became available, -and Mrs. Ward could have no greater pleasure, when the pressure of her -literary work permitted, than to come up from Stocks for a day to watch -her holiday children. But in spite of the universally recognized success -of her experiment, this and the “Holiday School” organized by the -Browning Settlement from 1904 onwards remained practically the only -efforts of the kind carried on in London, until at length, in 1910, the -L.C.C. followed suit by opening six Vacation Schools in different parts -of the metropolis, housed in the ordinary school buildings and -playgrounds. They were an enormous boon to the children of those -districts, but the Council did not persist in its good deeds, for after -two years these Holiday Schools were allowed to drop, and have never, -unfortunately, been revived. Indeed, in June, 1921, a resolution was -passed, prohibiting any expenditure on Holiday Schools or Organized -Playgrounds.<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> So does the London child pay its share of the War Debt.</p> - -<p>But the Vacation School at the Settlement has never lapsed, since the -first day that Mrs. Ward opened it in August, 1902, although in these -times of forced economy the numbers are less than of old. But there, -under the great plane-trees in the garden, the trestle-tables are still -set up and the children still congregate, bearing their laughing -testimony to the memory of one who knew their little hearts, and who, -seeing them shepherdless in the hot streets, could not rest until they -were gathered in.<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br /><br /> -LONDON LIFE—THE BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH OF THE CHILDREN’S PLAY CENTRES<br /><br /> -1904-1917</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">B</span>OTH <i>Lady Rose’s Daughter</i> and <i>The Marriage of William Ashe</i>, which -appeared in 1903 and 1905 respectively, are novels of London life, -reflecting in their minor characters, their talk and the incidents that -accompany the tale, that intimate aquaintance with the world of London -which Mrs. Ward had acquired during the many years that she had spent in -observing it, in working with it, and in sharing some of the rarer forms -of the rewards which it has to give. The central theme in each case is a -broadly human one, but the setting and the savour are those of -London—that all-devouring London which she loved so well, but from -which, after a few weeks of its turmoil, she was always so thankful to -escape. It was now twenty years and more since she and Mr. Ward had come -to live in the pretty old house in Russell Square where they had first -gathered their friends around them, and where her Thursdays had first -become an institution; but time had not dimmed her zest for friendship -and for talk, so that the Thursdays and the frequent dinner-parties -continued at Grosvenor Place through all the years that followed. She -would never have claimed that they amounted to a <i>salon</i>, for, in spite -of <i>Lady Rose’s Daughter</i>, her belief was that a <i>salon</i>, properly -so-called, was not in the English tradition, and could hardly survive -outside Paris; yet I think that if one had taken the opinion of those -who frequented them they would have said that Mrs. Ward’s afternoons or -evenings made a remarkable English equivalent. She herself did not -disguise the fact that she regarded good talk as an art, and enjoyed -nothing more than the play<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> of mind on mind and the quick thrust and -parry that occasionally sweeps across a dinner-table; but she had no -illusions as to the natural inaptitude of the English for the art, and -would often quote the exasperated remark of her great friend in Rome, -Contessa Maria Pasolini, after an evening spent in entertaining English -visitors: “You English, you need so much winding up! Now, if I were -merely to tear up a piece of paper and throw it down among my French -friends, they would talk about it delightfully all the evening!” Hence -her injunctions to her children, when they began to take wing and go -forth to “social junketings” of their own, not to be stuck-up or blasé, -and above all “not to sit like a stuck pig when you get there!” To exert -one’s wits to make a party go was part of one’s social duty, just as -much as handing the tea-cake or opening the door, and she herself, in -spite of a natural absence of small talk which made her formidable -sometimes to new acquaintances, would faithfully follow her own -precepts. But with her the effort was second nature, for it sprang from -her inborn desire to place herself in sympathetic relations with her -neighbour, to draw out the best in him, to set him going. And so the -talk that was heard at Grosvenor Place, whether at her small -luncheon-parties, her Thursdays, or her dinners, always took from her -first and foremost the quality of reality; people talked—or made her -talk—of the things they knew or cared about, and since her range was so -wide, and there was always, as an old friend expressed it, “so much -tinder about” among her guests, the result was a certain vividness and -vitality that left their mark, and have been long remembered. And, as -one of those who knew her best said once on a public occasion,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> she -had the secret of making you feel, as you left her house, that you were -a much finer fellow than you thought when you went in; she made you -believe in yourself, for she had, by some subtle magic—or perhaps by -the simplest of all—brought out gifts or powers in you which you hardly -knew that you possessed.</p> - -<p>As to the persons who came and went in that pretty room, looking out on -the garden of Buckingham Palace, how is it possible to number or name -them, or to recall the flavour<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> of their long-vanished conversation? -Many have, like their hostess, passed into the unknown: figures like -Leslie Stephen, who wrote to her often, especially after his wife’s -death, and came at intervals to Grosvenor Place for a long -<i>tête-à -tête</i>, sitting on the sofa beside Mrs. Ward, his ear-trumpet -between them; or like the much-loved Burne-Jones, who came at an earlier -stage and too soon ceased to come, for he died in 1898, leaving her only -a little bundle of letters which she affectionately treasured; or again, -like Lady Wemyss, the deep-voiced, queerly-dressed <i>grande dame</i>, whom -Mrs. Ward loved for her heart’s sake, and of whom she has recorded a -suggestion, perhaps, in the Lady Winterbourne of <i>Marcella</i>; and ah! how -many more, of whom it would be unprofitable for the after-born to write. -Mrs. Ward has left in her novels the mirror of the world in which she -lived and moved, and in her <i>Recollections</i> a more intimate picture of -her friends. To try to add to these records would be but to tempt the -Gods.</p> - -<p>But at what a cost in fatigue of body and mind even her entertaining was -carried on, those who passed their days with Mrs. Ward may at least -tell. It was always the same story. She put so much of herself into -whatever she was doing that the effort produced exhaustion. And so, -after her Thursdays, or perhaps after some gathering of Settlement -workers to whom she had been talking individually, she would collapse -upon the sofa, white and speechless, only fit to be “stroked” and left -to gather her forces again as best she might. There was one Thursday in -the month when, after her own “At Home,” she was obliged to attend the -Settlement Council meeting at eight o’clock. This meant that there was -no time for recuperation between the two, but only for a hurried meal, -filled with hasty consultations as to the evening’s notes, letters and -telephonings that must be done during her absence; then she would go -off, and some time towards eleven would return, worn out and crumpled, -though perhaps with the light of battle still in her eye over some point -well raised or some victory won. At the Settlement she would have given -no hint of any disability, and would have been the life and soul of the -meeting. Perhaps only her friend the Warden knew what a struggle against -physical pain and weakness her presence there had implied. We used to -chaff her sometimes about<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> the physical ailments of her heroines, who, -according to our robust ideas, were too fond of turning white or of -letting their lips tremble, but this trick of her novels expressed only -too deep an experience of her own, since never, in all the years that -she was writing, did she know what it was to have a day of ordinary -physical strength. On many and many of her guests she made the illusion -of being a strong woman, but could they have seen her when the talk and -the excitement were over, they would have known that it was only her -spirit that had carried her through. The body was always dragged after, -a more or less protesting slave.</p> - -<p>Her way of life at Grosvenor Place was naturally one which involved a -good deal of expenditure. Sometimes she would have searchings of heart -over this, or even momentary spasms of economy, but it sprang in reality -from two fundamental causes—one her delight in beautiful things, -inherited even in her starved childhood from her mother, and shared to -the full in later years with her husband; the other this constant -ill-health, which made her incapable of “roughing it,” and rendered a -certain amount of luxury indispensable if she was to get through her -daily task. Good pictures and the right kind of furniture gave her a -definite joy for their own sakes, while the arrangement of the chairs -and tables in the manner best calculated to encourage talk was always a -fascinating problem. Clothes, too, were not to be despised, and though -she liked to sit and work in some old rag that had seen better days, it -amused her also to go and plan some beautiful thing with her dressmaker, -Mrs. Kerr, and it amused her to wear the “creation” when it was -finished. Her faithful maid, Lizzie, who had been with us since the -early days of Russell Square, and who was often more nurse than maid to -her, cut and altered and renovated in her little workroom upstairs, -while every now and then Mrs. Ward would issue forth and make a raid -upon the shops, coming home either triumphant to face the criticism of -her family, or very low because she knew she had been beguiled into -buying something which she now positively hated. She was extremely -particular, too, about her daughters’ clothes, nor could she make up her -mind, when they came out, to give them a dress allowance, being far too -much interested herself in the<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> problem of how they looked; but even -when she was fully responsible for some luckless garment of theirs she -would often break out, on its first appearance, with the fatal words, -“Go upstairs, take that off, and let me <i>never</i> see it again until it’s -completely re-made!”—usually uttered amid helpless giggles, for this -had become, by long use, a stock phrase in our family.</p> - -<p>Strangers coming from afar with some claim upon her kindness found -always a ready welcome at her house. In addition to her French and -Italian friends, who would find their way to her door as soon as they -arrived in London, she had many warm friendships with Americans, -beginning with her much-loved cousin, Frederick W. Whitridge, who had -married Matthew Arnold’s daughter Lucy, and had got Mr. Ward to build a -comely house for her within half a mile of Stocks. “Cousin Fred,” with -his charming blue eyes and white moustache and beard, had been a truly -Olympian figure to us children even in the days of Russell Square, for -had he not deposited on our plates at breakfast, one golden morning, a -sovereign each for the two elders and half a sovereign for the youngest? -And as the years passed on, and he became the intimate friend of -Roosevelt and a recognized leader of the New York Bar, the friendship -between him and Mrs. Ward grew ever deeper, so that his shrewd wisdom -and inimitable humour, as well as his habit of spoiling the people he -was fond of, came to be looked for each summer as one of the true -pleasures of the year. His son was one of the first Americans to join -the British Army in 1914, but he himself, like Henry James, was not to -see the day for which both he and Roosevelt had toiled so hard. He died -in December, 1916, four months before America “came in.” Mr. Lowell, the -American Ambassador during the ’eighties, had been a frequent visitor at -Russell Square, while his successors, Hay, Bayard and Choate, were all -on friendly terms with Mrs. Ward. Comrades in her own trade whom it -always pleased her to see were Mr. Gilder, editor of the <i>Century -Magazine</i>, welcome whether he came as publisher or friend; Mr. Godkin, -of the <i>Evening Post</i>, the most intellectual among American journalists; -Mr. S. S. McClure, who had first tracked down Mrs. Ward at Borough Farm, -and remained ever afterwards on cordial, not to say familiar, terms with -her; Charles Dudley Warner,<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> Mrs. Wharton, the William James’s, and many -more. But the most intimate of all were certain women: that inseparable -and delightful pair, Mrs. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett (the writer -of New England stories), who twice found their way to Stocks, and many -times to Grosvenor Place, and lastly that other Bostonian, Miss Sara -Norton, whose friendship for Dorothy made her almost as another daughter -during her visits to Stocks, to Levens, or to the Villa Bonaventura.</p> - -<p>But it was not by any means only for the “distinguished,” whether from -home or abroad, that Grosvenor Place laid itself out. One of its -principal functions was that of making the head-quarters in London for -all the younger members of Mrs. Ward’s own family, as well as for the -grandchildren who began about this time to find their way to her knee. -For to all such young people she was mother, fairy godmother and friend -rolled into one. Settlement workers and Associates, teachers and many -“dim” people of various professions would find her as accessible as her -strenuous hours of labour would allow. All she asked of those who came -to her house was that they should have something real to contribute—and -if possible that they should contribute it without egotism. Certainly -she did not suffer bores gladly; an ordinary bore was bad enough, but an -egotistic bore would produce a peculiar kind of nervous irritation in -her which we who watched could always detect, however manfully she -strove to conceal it. Nor could she ever bring herself to observe the -strict rules of London etiquette, so that to “go calling” was an unknown -occupation in her calendar, and in spite of two daughters and a -secretary her social lapses and forgetfulnesses sometimes plunged her in -black despair. When she had hopelessly missed Mrs. So-and-So’s party, to -which she had fully meant to go, she would sorrowfully declare that the -motto of the Ward family ought to be: “Never went and never wrote.”</p> - -<p>It is needless to point out how exhausting this London life became to -one who pressed so much into it as Mrs. Ward. For although she could -rarely write her books in London, being far too distracted by the -demands of the hungry world upon her time, it was mainly at Grosvenor -Place that she hammered out her schemes for the welfare of London’s -children, talking them over with members of<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> the School Board or the -County Council, driving about to some of the poorest districts to see -with her own eyes the conditions under which they lived, and planning -out the details in mornings of hard work with Miss Churcher. The -development of the Cripples’ Schools, both in London and the Provinces, -was very much on her shoulders at this time, for she felt the imperative -need for extending them to other parts of the country, and undertook -many arduous missionary journeys on their behalf during the few years -that followed their establishment in London. There, as the schools grew -and spread under the fostering care of the L.C.C., it was the auxiliary -services of after-care, feeding and training that claimed the principal -share of her attention. But she had a very efficient committee to assist -her in these matters, under the chairmanship of Miss Maude Lawrence, so -that gradually her responsibility for the London cripples grew less -heavy, and she was able to turn to other schemes that now began to -simmer in her mind for the welfare of the whole as well as the halt -among London’s children.</p> - -<p>For the remarkable success of the Children’s Recreation School at the -Settlement, which by the year 1904 had attendances of some 1,700 -children a week (all, of course, wholly voluntary), led Mrs. Ward to -feel that some effort might be made to carry the civilizing effect of -such centres of play into the remoter and still more squalid regions of -the East and South. Already the Children’s Happy Evenings’ Association -held weekly or fortnightly “Evenings” in some eighty or ninety schools, -giving much pleasure to the children wherever they went, but Mrs. Ward’s -plan was for something on a more intensive scale than this, something -that might exert a continuous influence over the lives of large numbers -of children in any given district, as the occupations and delights of -the “Passmore” did over the children of St. Pancras. She founded a small -committee, in October, 1904, to go into the matter and to lay proposals -before the Education Committee of the London County Council: proposals -to the effect that the “Play Centres Committee” should be allowed the -free use of certain schools after school hours on five evenings a week, -from 5.30 to 7.30, and also on Saturday mornings, for the purpose of -providing games, physical exercises and handwork occupations for the -children of that district. The Council<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> readily gave its consent, and -Mrs. Ward applied herself to the task of raising sufficient funds for -the maintenance of eight “Evening Play Centres” in certain school -buildings, to be carried on for a year as an experiment. She obtained -promises amounting to nearly £800, largely from the same friends as had -watched her work at the Settlement, and with this she felt that she -could go forward. After careful inquiry, four schools in the East End -were selected, with one in Somers Town and two in Lambeth and Walworth -respectively, while Canon Barnett offered Toynbee Hall itself as the -scene of an eighth Centre. Mrs. Ward devoted special pains to the -selection of the eight Superintendents who were to have charge of these -Play Centres, for she rightly felt that on their wisdom and skill in -handling the large numbers of children who would pass through their -hands would largely depend the success of the adventure. Gymnastic -instructors, handwork teachers and many voluntary helpers were also -secured and assigned to the various Centres, so that the staff in each -case consisted of a <i>cadre</i> of paid and professional workers, assisted -by as many volunteers as possible. Mrs. Ward’s long experience at the -Settlement had convinced her that this nucleus of paid workers was -essential to the smooth and continuous working of any such scheme, since -although the best volunteers were invaluable in supplying an element of -initiative and originality in the working out of new ideas, still there -was also an element of irregularity in their attendance which detracted -much from their usefulness! And in proportion as the Centres succeeded -in their object of attracting the children from the streets, so much the -more disastrous would it be if large numbers of them were left -shepherdless on foggy evenings because Miss So-and-So had a bad cold. -Mrs. Ward was much criticized in certain quarters for bringing the -“professional element” into her Play Centres, but she knew better than -her critics how far the voluntary element might safely be trusted, and -how far it must be supplemented by the professional. She was playing all -the time for a <i>big thing</i>, with possibilities of expansion not only in -London but in the great industrial towns as well, besides which she -always hotly resented the suggestion that the paid worker must be -inferior in quality to the volunteer. On the contrary, it interested her -immensely to see how the<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> professional teachers, both men and women, -would often reveal new and unsuspected qualities in the freer atmosphere -of the Play Centre, while the greater intimacy that they acquired with -their children was—as they often acknowledged—of the greatest value to -them in their day-school work.</p> - -<p>The first eight Play Centres opened their doors to the children on the -first Monday in February, 1905, and it may be imagined with what anxiety -and delight Mrs. Ward watched their development during these first -weeks. The children had been secured in the first instance by -invitations distributed through the Head Teachers to those who, in their -opinion, stood most in need of shelter and occupation after school -hours, i.e. principally to those whose parents were both out at work -till 7 or 8 o’clock; but after the ice was broken, Alf would bring ‘Arry -and Edie would bring Maud, till the utmost capacity of the classes was -reached, and Mrs. Ward’s heart was both gladdened and saddened by the -tale that her staff had as many children as they could possibly cope -with, and that many had of necessity been turned away. By the end of the -year the weekly attendance at the eight Centres amounted to nearly -6,000, and a year later, with ten Centres instead of eight, they had -risen to over 10,000. This meant that Mrs. Ward had struck upon a real -need of the wandering, loafing child-population of our greatest city—a -need that will in fact be perennial so long as the housing of the miles -upon miles of bricks and mortar that we call the working-class districts -remains what it is. “It all grows steadily beyond my hopes,” wrote Mrs. -Ward to Mrs. Creighton in October, 1906, “and I believe that in three or -four years we shall see it developing into an ordinary part of -education, in the true sense. There is no difficulty about money—the -difficulty is to find the time and nerve-strength to carry it on, even -with such help as Bessie Churcher’s.”</p> - -<p>But the burden of raising the increasing sums required was, in truth, -very great, so that Mrs. Ward, with her belief in the future of the -movement, was already at work to get the Play Centre principle -recognized and embodied in an Act of Parliament. The opportunity arose -on Mr. Birrell’s ill-fated Bill of 1906, but although Mrs. Ward’s -clause, enabling any Local Education Authority “to provide for children<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> -attending a public elementary school, Vacation Schools, Play Centres, or -means of recreation during their holidays or at such other times as the -Local Education Authority may prescribe,” was accepted by the -Government, and passed the House of Lords in December, 1906, the Bill -itself was dropped soon afterwards, having been wrecked on the usual -rocks of sectarian passion. Fortunately, however, Mr. McKenna, who -succeeded Mr. Birrell at the Board of Education, was able to carry a -smaller measure, known as the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, -in the summer of the next year (1907). This Act duly contained the Play -Centres clause, as well as the provisions for the medical inspection and -treatment of school-children which have since borne such beneficent -fruit. Already in the previous summer, when the clause was first before -the House of Commons, Mr. Sydney Buxton had said at the opening of the -Settlement Vacation School that he felt sure it would go down to history -as the “Mary Ward Clause.”</p> - -<p>But this victory had not been won except at the cost of considerable -friction with the only other body that attempted to cater in any -systematic fashion for the needs of London’s children in the evening -hours—I mean the Children’s Happy Evenings’ Association. The -Association, which embodied the “voluntary principle” in its purest -form, could not tolerate the idea that the Public Education Authority -might in the future come to encroach upon a field which they regarded as -their own—even though their “Evenings” were avowedly held only once a -week, sometimes only once a fortnight, and could not touch more than the -barest fringe of the child population of each district. They disliked -the professional worker, and they abhorred the bare idea that public -money might eventually be spent upon the recreation of the -children—ignoring the experience of America, where the public authority -was doing more each year for the playtime of its children, and -forgetting, perhaps, that at the “preparatory schools” to which their -own little boys were sent, almost more time and thought were spent upon -their games than upon their “education” proper. And so they sent a -deputation to Mr. Birrell to oppose Mrs. Ward’s clause, and their -workers attacked Mrs. Ward and her precious Play Centres in other ways -and on other occasions as well; but they found that she was a shrewd -fighter,<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> for even though during the summer of 1906 she was laid low by -that most disabling complaint, a terrible attack of eczema, she -compelled herself to write from her bed a trenchant letter to <i>The -Times</i> in defence of the professional worker, and also a very -conciliatory letter to her friend Lady Jersey, the President of the -Happy Evenings’ Association.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It is most unwelcome to me,” she wrote, “this dispute over a -public cause—especially when I see or dream what could be done by -co-operation. What I <i>wish</i> is that you would join the Evening Play -Centres Committee, and see for yourself what it means. There is -nothing in our movement which is necessarily antagonistic to yours, -but I think we may claim that ours is more in sympathy with the -general ideas on the subject that are stirring people’s minds than -yours.”</p></div> - -<p>The affair ended in the acceptance by the Government of an amendment to -Mrs. Ward’s clause, authorizing the Local Education Authorities to -“encourage and assist the continuance or establishment of Voluntary -Agencies” in any exercise of powers under the new Act. The two -associations—the Happy Evenings and the Play Centres—continued to -exist side by side until the inevitable march of events led, under the -stress of war, to the issue of Mr. Fisher’s authoritative Memorandum -(January, 1917), admitting the obligation of the State in the matter of -the children’s recreation, and announcing that in future the Board would -undertake half the “approved expenditure” of Evening Play Centre -committees. The Children’s Happy Evenings’ committee thereupon decided, -in dignified fashion, that their work was ended, and dissolved their -Association. Peace be to its ashes! It had given joy, much joy, to many -thousands of London children, as Mrs. Ward always most fully recognized, -and if in the end it stood in the way of the new and younger power which -was capable of giving an almost indefinite extension to the children’s -pleasure, could it but have a free field, the reluctance of the -Association to cede any ground was only, after all, a very natural -affair.</p> - -<p>But once the new Act was passed, Mrs. Ward was to be disappointed in her -hopes that the London Education Authority would take advantage of the -powers conferred<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> upon it in order to assist the movement financially. -Certain members of the Council elected in 1907 (in which the majority -was overwhelmingly Moderate) urged her to present an appeal to the -Education Committee, asking that the cost of the Handwork, Drill and -Gymnastic classes held at the Play Centres might be defrayed by the -Council; this she did in a statement which she drew up and presented in -October, 1907, weaving into it with all the practised skill that she -knew so well how to throw into such documents firstly a picture of the -child-life of such districts as Hoxton, Walworth and Notting Dale in the -winter evenings, when the children were too often “turned out after tea -into the streets and told not to come home till bedtime”; then a brief -account of the small beginnings and immense growth of the Children’s -Recreation School at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, with its -offshoots, the ten Play Centres held in the London schools, and finally -a striking list of individual cases, showing how the Centres had already -attracted to themselves scores of boys and girls whose conditions of -life were leading them into idling and vagabondage of all sorts, through -the mere lack of anything to do in the dark hours.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Perhaps the most striking revelation of the whole work,” wrote -Mrs. Ward, “has been the positive hunger for hand-occupation which -exists among the older children. The attendances at the handwork -classes drop off a little when June begins, and from June to -October they are better discontinued in favour of cricket, swimming -and outdoor games in general. But from October onwards through the -whole winter and up to the end of May, the demand for handwork -never slackens. Two or three times the number of children who are -now being taught would eagerly come to classes if they were opened. -Basket-work, wood-work and cobbling are unfailing delights, and it -is here that we ask most earnestly for the help of the County -Council. Rough boys, who would soon, if left to themselves, become -on leaving school a nuisance to the community and to the police, -can be got hold of through handwork, and in no other way. And when -once the taste has been acquired, there remains the strong -probability that after school is over they will be drawn into the -net of Evening Classes and Polytechnics, and so rescued for an -honest life.”</p></div> - -<p><a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a></p> - -<p>But the Education Committee, burdened as it was in that year with the -first arrangements for medical inspection and treatment, as well as with -the demand for the feeding of necessitous children, did not feel able to -undertake this further responsibility, although its reception of Mrs. -Ward’s memorandum was extremely sympathetic. All that the Council would -do at this stage was to remit the charges previously made for cleaning -and caretaking of the schools during Play Centre hours, a concession -which amounted to a grant of about £20 a year per Centre.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward was therefore thrown back upon her own resources for the -financing of her great experiment. No thought of reduction or even of -standing still could be admitted, for with the growing fame of the -Centres, appeals began to come in from Care Committees, from School -Managers, from Clergy, and from hard-worked Magistrates, begging that -Centres might be opened in their districts, while the owner of a jam -factory in South London offered to pay part of the cost of a Centre if -it could be opened near his works, <i>because the children used to come -down to the factory gates in the evenings and cry till their mothers -came out</i>. Mr. Samuel’s Children’s Act of 1908 created the post of -Probation Officer for the supervision of “first offenders”; the first -two or three of these were appointed, on Mrs. Ward’s recommendation, -from among her Play Centre Superintendents, since the intimate knowledge -they possessed of the children’s lives gave them special qualifications -for their task. It soon became the practice of all Probation Officers to -refer their lawless little charges (often aged only nine or ten!) to the -nearest Play Centre as “every-night children,” there to forget their -wild or thieving ways in the fascinations of cobbling, or wood-work, or -games, or military drill. But in order to respond to these growing -appeals Mrs. Ward had to undertake an ever-increasing burden of -financial responsibility, as well as of organization. In 1905 the first -eight Centres had cost a little over £900; in 1908, with twelve Centres -and total attendances of 620,000, the bill had risen to £3,000; in 1911, -with seventeen Centres and attendances of 1,170,000, it was £4,500; in -1913, with twenty Centres and attendances of 1,500,000, it was £5,700. -How she succeeded in raising these large sums in addition to her efforts -for the Settlement; how she<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> found time, on the top of her literary work -and her many semi-political interests, for the close attention that she -gave, week in, week out, to the progress of each individual Centre and -the peculiarities of every Superintendent, will always remain a mystery. -Her unconquerable optimism, which became a more and more marked trait of -her character as the years went on, helped her through every crisis, -while her joy in the children’s happiness acted both as a tonic and a -spur. Every winter she would issue her eloquent Report, sending it out -with irresistible personal letters to a large number of subscribers; -many a London landlord was made to stand and deliver for the children of -meaner streets than those which paid him rent; many a factory owner was -persuaded to follow the example of the jam-manufacturer above-mentioned. -Yet when all was done there would usually remain a deficit of several -hundred pounds, which must be wiped out in order to avert a bankers’ -strike; then Mrs. Ward would gather up all the outstanding facts of the -year’s work and present them in one of those remarkable letters to <i>The -Times</i> of which she possessed the secret, charming the cheques for very -shame out of the pockets of the kind-hearted. And thus, with incredible -toil and with many moments of despair, the organization was kept going -and the indispensable funds supplied; but it was a labour of Hercules, -and her letters throughout these years bear witness to the exhausting -nature of the task.</p> - -<p>Once more, in 1913, Mrs. Ward hoped that the recognition of her long -effort was not far off, for both Government and County Council expressed -themselves, through the mouths of two distinguished leaders, as very -warmly in sympathy with it. She had organized an exhibition of Play -Centre hand-work at the Settlement—toy models of all sorts, baskets, -dolls, needlework, cobbled boots and shoes—and invited her old friend -Lord Haldane, then Lord Chancellor, and Mr. Cyril Cobb, Chairman of the -Education Committee, L.C.C., to speak at the opening ceremony. Both -speakers emphasized the fact that Mrs. Ward had now proved her case, and -that, as Lord Haldane said, the Play Centre movement had “reached a -stage in which it must be recognized as one, at least, of the elements -in a national system of education, as one of the things that must come -within the scope and observance of the Board of Education. Such<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> a -movement must begin by voluntary effort. It has already reached a stage -in which I hope it is going to attract a great deal of official -attention.” Such words could not but encourage Mrs. Ward to hope that -help was near, for by that time the Board of Education had already -inaugurated the system of giving aid to voluntary societies, if their -aims and methods were approved, by a proportional grant on their -expenditure. Yet 1913 passed away and nothing came of it. One may -perhaps shrewdly suspect, in looking back, that the authorities knew -well enough when a thing was a “going concern” and needed no effort of -theirs to help it up the hill. Mrs. Ward was their willing horse; they -continued, with the instinct of <i>laissez-faire</i> which has so often -preserved the British Constitution, to let her pull her own load. But a -time was at hand when <i>laissez-faire</i> and all other comfortable -doctrines were to be swept away in the shock that set the whole fabric -of our society reeling. The outbreak of war, which seemed at first to -threaten the very existence of such things as Play Centres, was in fact -to reveal and establish their necessity. After two more years of heroic -effort to keep them going amid the flood of war appeals, Mrs. Ward had -her reward at last in Mr. Fisher’s Memorandum of January, 1917. The -State had recognized the principle that in the children lay the best -hope of England, and Mrs. Ward had her way. Thence-forward the Board of -Education undertook to pay half the “approved expenditure” of the -Evening Play Centres committee.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>But the establishment and growth of the London Play Centres, heavy and -exacting as was the toil that it involved, did not by any means exhaust -Mrs. Ward’s efforts to improve the lot of London’s children during these -years. In 1908 she opened two additional Vacation Schools in the East -End; one in a school with a “roof-playground” in Bow, the other in an -ordinary school in Hoxton.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“On Friday I had a field-day at the Bow Vacation School,” she wrote -to J.P.T. in August, 1908. “The air on the roof-playground was like -Margate, and the children’s happiness and good-temper delightful to -see. There were flowers all about, and sunny views<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> over East -London to distant country, and round games, and little ones happy -with toys, and all sorts of nice things. Downstairs a splendid game -of hand-ball in the playground, and a cool hall full of boys -playing games and reading. As for the Settlement, it has never been -so enchanting. There are 1,150 children daily, and all the teachers -say it is better than ever. The Duke’s sand-heap and the new -drinking-fountain are great additions. Hoxton goes to my heart! It -is <i>too</i> crowded, and there is nothing but asphalt playgrounds, -with no shade till late. Yet the children swarm, and when you see -them sitting listlessly, doing absolutely nothing, in the broiling -dirty streets outside you can’t wonder. I am having the playground -shelter scrubbed out with carbolic daily, lined with some flowers -in pots, and filled with small tables and chairs for the little -ones. They have 800 children, and we have been obliged to give -extra help.”</p></div> - -<p>Then in the next year, besides maintaining the roof-playground, she -opened another experimental Holiday-school near by for a small number of -delicate and ailing children whose names were on the “necessitous” list, -and who were therefore eligible for free dinners. Mrs. Ward delighted in -continuing and improving the free dinners for these little waifs during -the holidays, as well as in providing suitable occupations for their -fingers, and it was with real pride that she returned them to their -regular school at the end of the holidays, thriving, and with a record -of increased weight in almost every case. But the very success of these -attempts, together with the ever-increasing size and attractiveness of -the Settlement Vacation School, filled her with distress at the wasted -opportunities presented by the empty playgrounds of the ordinary London -schools during the August holiday, for she well knew from her own -experience and from that of New York, which she had closely studied,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> -that it only needed the presence of two or three active kindergarten -teachers and a supply of toys and materials to attract to these open -spaces all the hot and weary children from the neighbouring streets and -there to make them happy.<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> Her fingers itched to do it, tired though -they were with so many other labours. It was not, however, till the -spring of 1911 that she was able to take this work in hand, but then she -addressed herself to it with all her usual energy, presenting a scheme -to the L.C.C. for the “organization” of both the boys’ and the girls’ -playgrounds at twenty-six London schools during the summer holiday. The -Council met her once more with complete confidence, lending all the -larger equipment required; Mrs. Ward raised a special fund of nearly -£1,000, and devoted much attention to the engagement of the -Superintendents for the girls’ grounds and the Games Masters for the -boys’. Then, just before the end of term, notices were distributed in -the neighbouring schools announcing that such and such a playground -would be opened for games and quiet occupations during the holidays, and -the result was awaited with some quaking. Would there be a crowd or a -desert? and if the former, would the Superintendents be able to keep -order? The answer was not long in coming. “I let in 400 boys,” wrote one -of the Games Masters after his first session, “and the street outside -was still black with them.” But in spite of the eager crowds which -everywhere made their appearance, order <i>was</i> kept most successfully. -Mrs. Ward herself visited the playgrounds constantly, and at the end of -the month wrote her joyous report to <i>The Times</i>:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Inside one came always upon a cheerful scene. In the girls’ -playgrounds, during those hottest August days, one saw crowds of -girls and babies playing in the shade of the school buildings, or -forming happy groups for reading or sewing, or filling the trestle -tables under the shelters, where were picture-books to be looked -at, beads to thread, paints and paper to draw with, or wool for -knitting, or portable swings where the elder girls could swing the -little ones in turn. Then, if you asked the schoolkeeper to pass -you through a locked door, you were in the boys’ playground, where -balls were whizzing, and the space was divided up by a clever -Superintendent between the cricket of the bigger boys—very near, -often, to the real thing—and the first efforts, not a whit less -energetic, of the younger ones. In one corner, also, there would be -mats and jumping-stands; in another a group playing tennis with a -chalked line instead of a net, while the<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> shelters were full, as in -the girl’s ground, of all kinds of quiet occupations. Management -was everything. It was wonderful what a Superintendent with a real -turn for the thing could make of his ground, what a hold he got -upon his boys, and how well, in such cases, the boys behaved. There -was a real loyalty and <i>esprit de corps</i> in these grounds; and -when, in the last week, ‘sports’ and displays were organized for -the benefit of the parents, it was really astonishing to see with -what ease a competent man or woman could handle a crowded -playground, how eagerly the children obeyed, how courteous and -happy they were.”</p></div> - -<p>The number of attendances had been prodigious—424,000 for the whole -month, or 106,000 per week—and the gratitude of the parents who had -pressed in to see the final displays was touching to hear. In the next -year Mrs. Ward persuaded the L.C.C. to share the experiment with her, -the Council opening “organized playgrounds” in twenty schools and she -herself in twenty more; this time the organization was in many points -improved, and the results still more satisfactory. But although the -Council gave her to understand that they would undertake to carry on the -experiment in future, being convinced of its necessity, no further -action was taken, and the playgrounds of London, in spite of Mrs. Ward’s -object-lesson, have been suffered to relapse into that condition of -uselessness and sometimes of positive danger to the children’s morals -from which her efforts in 1911 and 1912 had sought to rescue them.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The story of Mrs. Ward’s activities for the welfare of London’s children -has taken us far beyond the period of her life at which we had otherwise -arrived. To return briefly to her literary work, it may be said, I -think, that those two novels of London life, <i>Lady Rose’s Daughter</i> and -<i>William Ashe</i>, had marked its highest point in sheer brilliance and -success; after these the long autumn of her novel-writing began, which, -like all mellow autumns, had its moments of more true and delicate -beauty than the full summer had possessed. The first of these autumn -novels, if I may use the term, was <i>Fenwick’s Career</i>, which appeared in -May, 1906; it was not a great popular success, like the previous two, -but to those who read it in these after-times its sober<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> excellence of -workmanship, as shown especially in the scenes at Versailles and at the -Westmorland cottage where husband and wife meet again after their long -separation, are perhaps more attractive than all the brilliance of poor -Kitty Bristol or of the shifting groups in Lady Henry’s house in Bruton -Street. Mrs. Ward had been criticized in the case of these three novels -for having made use of the persons and incidents of the past without any -definite acknowledgment, but she defended herself vigorously, in a short -Preface to <i>Fenwick’s Career</i>, in words that I cannot do better than -reproduce:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The artist, as I hold, may gather from any field, so long as he -sacredly respects what other artists have already made their own by -the transmuting processes of the mind. To draw on the conceptions -or the phrases that have once passed through the warm minting of -another’s brain, is for us moderns at any rate, the literary crime -of crimes. But to the teller of stories, all that is recorded of -the real life of men, as well as all that his own eyes can see, is -offered for the enrichment of his tale. This is a clear and simple -principle; yet it has been often denied. To insist upon it is, in -my belief, to uphold the true flag of Imagination, and to defend -the wide borders of Romance.”</p></div> - -<p>The cottage on the “shelf of fell” in Langdale, whence poor PhÅ“be -Fenwick set forth on her mad journey to London, had also a solid -existence of its own, though no “acknowledgment” is made to it in -Foreword or text. “Robin Ghyll” stands high above the road on the -fell-side, between a giant sycamore and an ancient yew, close by the -ghyll of “druid oaks” whence it takes its name—resisting with all the -force of the mountain stone of which it is built the hurricanes that -sweep down upon it from the central knot of those grim northern hills. -The view from its little lawn of Pikes, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell has -perhaps no equal in the Lake District. Sunshine and storm have passed -over it for 200 years or more, since the valley folk first built it as a -small statesman’s farm or shepherd’s cottage. At the time of which I -write the little place was occupied by a poetically minded resident who -had added two pleasant rooms.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward and her daughter Dorothy noticed Robin Ghyll as they drove up -Langdale with “Aunt Fan” one<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> summer day in 1902, and fell in love with -it. Two years later it actually fell vacant, so that Mrs. Ward could -take it in the name of her daughter and share with her the joy of -furnishing and then inhabiting its seven rooms. But though Mrs. Ward -loved Robin Ghyll and fled to it occasionally for complete retirement, -it belonged in a more particular sense to her daughter, and derived from -her its charm. Thither she would go at Whitsuntide or in September, -refreshing body and mind by contact with its solitudes. Not often indeed -could she be spared from the absorbing life of Stocks, or Italy, or -Grosvenor Place, where so much depended upon her. But though life limped -at Stocks during Dorothy’s brief absences, she always returned from -Robin Ghyll with strength redoubled for the arduous service of love -which she rendered to her mother all her life long, and from which both -giver and receiver derived a sacred happiness.<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><br /> -THE VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA<br /><br /> -1908</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">M</span>RS. WARD had often been assured by her friends and admirers in the -United States that if she would but visit them she would find such a -welcome as would stagger all her previous ideas of hospitality. She -could not doubt it; it was, in fact, this thought, combined with the -frailness of her health, that had deterred her during the twenty years -that followed the publication of <i>Robert Elsmere</i> from going to claim -the honours that awaited her. Her husband and daughter had already paid -two visits to the States, and had experienced in the kindness and warmth -of their reception an earnest of what would fall to Mrs. Ward’s lot -should she venture across the Atlantic; nor had they merely whirled with -the passing show, but had made many lifelong friends. Mrs. Ward had, -however, resisted the pressure of these friends for many years, until at -length, in the spring of 1908, so strong a combination of circumstances -arose to tempt her that her resolution gave way. Her own health, which -had suffered a grievous and prolonged breakdown in 1906, had gradually -re-established itself, so that by the time of which we are speaking she -was perhaps in better case for such an adventure than she had been for -some years. Mr. and Mrs. Whitridge would hear of nothing but that she -should make their house her home during her stay in New York; Mr. Bryce -made the same demand for Washington; Earl Grey for Ottawa (where he was -at that time Governor-General), while Mr. Ward’s acquaintance with Sir -William van Horne, Chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway—based on a -common enthusiasm for Old Masters—led to the irresistible offer of a -private car on the Line for Mrs. Ward and her party, at the<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> Company’s -expense, from Montreal to Vancouver and back. Such lures were hardly to -be withstood, but I doubt whether Mrs. Ward would have succumbed even to -them had it not been for her growing desire to see, with her own eyes, -the work which was being done in New York for the play-time of the -children. She knew that New York was far in advance of London in the -provision of Vacation Schools for the long summer holiday, and of -evening Recreation Centres for the children who had left school; but -Play Centres for the school-children themselves were as yet unknown -there, so that she felt much might be gained by an exchange of -experiences between herself and the “Playground Association of America.”</p> - -<p>And so, on March 11, 1908, they sailed in the <i>Adriatic</i>—she and Mr. -Ward, and her daughter Dorothy, with the faithful Lizzie in attendance. -The great ship set her thinking of the only other long voyage that she -had ever made, over far other seas. “When I look at this ship,” she -wrote, “and think of the cockleshell we came home in round the Horn in -’56, and the discomforts my mother must have suffered with three -children, one a young baby! Happiness, as we all know, and as the -copy-books tell us, does not depend on luxuries—but how she would have -responded to a little comfort, a little petting, if she had ever had it! -My heart often aches when I think of it.” The comforts of the <i>Adriatic</i> -were indeed colossal, and since the ocean was kindness itself, Mrs. Ward -took no ill from the voyage, but arrived in good spirits, and ready to -face the New World with that zest which was her cradle-gift.</p> - -<p>Mr. Whitridge’s pleasant house in East Eleventh Street received Mr. and -Mrs. Ward, while Dorothy stayed with equally hospitable friends—Mrs. -Cadwalader Jones and her daughter—over the way. Avalanches of reporters -had to be faced and dealt with, all craving for five minutes’ talk with -Mrs. Ward, but they were usually intercepted in the hall by Mr. -Whitridge, whose method of dealing with his country’s newspapers was -somewhat drastic. If they passed this outer line of defence they were -received by Mr. or Miss Ward, who found them persistent indeed, but -always marvellously civil; and on the very few occasions when Mrs. Ward -did consent to be interviewed, she insisted on seeing the proof and -entirely re-writing what had been put<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> into her mouth. The newspapers, -indeed, had reckoned without a mentality which intensely disliked this -kind of thing; it was unfortunate, perhaps, but inevitable!</p> - -<p>In all other respects, however, it was impossible for Mrs. Ward not to -be deeply moved by the kindness that was heaped upon her. “Life has been -a tremendous rush,” wrote D. M. W. from New York, “but really a very -delightful one, and we are accumulating many happy and amusing memories. -The chief thing that stands out, of course, is the love and admiration -for M. and her books. When all’s said and done, it really is pretty -stirring, the way they feel about her. And the things the quiet, unknown -people say to one about her books go to one’s heart.” (“We dined at a -house last night,” wrote Mrs. Ward herself, “where everybody had a card -containing a quotation from my wretched works. Humphry bears up as well -as can be expected!”) But on one occasion, at least, she came in for a -puff of unearned incense. At an afternoon tea, given in her honour by -Mrs. Whitridge, an elderly lady was overheard saying in awe-struck tones -to her neighbour, “To think that I should have lived to shake hands with -the authoress of <i>Little Lord Fauntleroy</i>!”</p> - -<p>Dinners, lunches, receptions, operas and theatres succeeded one another -in a dazzling rush, but New York knew quite well what was the main -purpose of Mrs. Ward’s visit, and it was fitting that the principal -function arranged in her honour should have been a dinner given her at -the Waldorf-Astoria by the Playground Association of America. There were -900 persons present, and when Mrs. Ward stood up to address them every -man and woman in the room spontaneously rose to their feet to greet her. -It was a moment that would have touched a far harder heart than hers.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“It was very moving—it really was,” she wrote to J. P. -T.—“because of the evident kindness and sincerity of it. I got -through fairly well, though I don’t feel that I have yet arrived at -the right speech for a public dinner.... I was most interested by -the speech of the City Superintendent of Education, Dr. Maxwell, an -<i>admirable</i> man, who declared hotly in my favour as to Play -Centres, and has, since the dinner, given directions for the first<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> -<i>afternoon</i> Play Centre for school children in New York. Isn’t that -jolly!</p> - -<p>‘Well, and since, we have been lunching, dining and seeing sights -with the same vigour. I have been to schools and manual training -centres with Dr. Maxwell, and we went through the Natural History -Museum with its Director,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> who gave us a <i>thrilling</i> time.... -One afternoon I went down to a College Settlement and spoke to a -large gathering of workers about English ways. The day before -yesterday I spoke to about 900 boys and girls and their teachers, -in one of their <i>magnificent</i> public schools. Dr. Maxwell took me, -and asked me to speak of Grandpapa. A great many of the elder boys -had read <i>Tom Brown</i> and knew all about the ‘Doctor’! I enjoyed it -greatly, and as to their saluting of the flag—these masses of -alien children—one may say what one will, but it is one of the -most thrilling things in the world, and we, as a nation, are the -poorer for not having it.”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward had accepted four or five engagements to lecture while she was -in America, in aid of her London Play Centres, and accumulated, to her -intense satisfaction, the handsome sum of £250 from this source during -her tour. She gave her audiences of her best—the paper already -mentioned, on “The Peasant in Literature,” which revealed her literary -craft in its most finished form, and although she was so much the rage -at the time that her admirers were not disposed to be critical, she was -yet genuinely gratified by the pleasure which this paper gave, -especially in so cultivated a centre as Philadelphia. Here Mrs. Ward and -her daughter were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Earle Coates, and then of -the Bertram Lippincotts, in their charming house outside the town. -Independence Hall gave them the proper thrill of sympathy with a “nation -struggling to be free,” while Mrs. Ward was delighted by the general -old-world look of many of the streets, no less than by the stately -river, on which, as she found to her astonishment, “the boat-crews -practise for Henley.” During their short stay with Mrs. Coates, Mrs. -Ward made friends with Dr. Weir Mitchell, novelist and physician, and -with Miss Agnes Repplier, for whom<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> she felt an instant attraction, -while Dorothy sat next to a Mr. Walter Smith, and talked to him -innocently about certain Modernist lectures that had been given at the -Settlement in London, discovering afterwards, to her dismay, that he was -a strong Catholic, and freely called in Philadelphia “Helbeck of -Bannisdale.” “I noticed it fell a little flat!”</p> - -<p>From Philadelphia they moved on to Washington, to stay with their old -friends the Bryces, at the hospitable British Embassy. An invitation -from the President (Mr. Roosevelt) to dine with him at the White House, -had already reached them. Mrs. Ward described her impressions in a long -letter to her son:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“W<small>ASHINGTON</small>,<br /> -”<i>April 13, 1908</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘Everybody here has been kindness itself, and we feel that we ought -to spend the rest of our days in trying to be nice to Americans in -London! First, as you know, we went to the Bryces. They asked a -great many people to meet us, but what I remember best is a quiet -hour with Mr. and Mrs. Root, who were smuggled into an inner -drawing-room away from the crowd, where one could listen to him in -peace, and above all, look at him! He is, I think, the most -attractive of all the Americans we have seen. He has been Secretary -of State now for some years, and is evidently, like Edward Grey, -absorbed in his own special work and not much concerned with -current politics. His subordinates speak of him with enthusiasm, -and he has a detached, humane, meditative face, with a slight -flicker of humour perpetually playing over it—as different as -possible from the hawk-like concentration of the New Yorkers. We -have seen most of the Cabinet and high officials, and I have -particularly liked Mr. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Mr. -Metcalf, Secretary for the Navy, and Mr. Bacon, Assistant Secretary -of State. Saturday’s dinner at the White House was delightful, only -surpassed by the little round-table dinner of eight last night at -Mr. Henry Adams’s, where the President took me in and talk was fast -and free—altogether a memorable evening. At the White House I did -not sit near the President, everything being regulated<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a> by a -comparatively strict etiquette and precedence—but after dinner he -sent word that I was to sit by him in the ballroom, at the little -concert which followed, and when the music was over, he and I -plunged into all sorts of things, ending up with religion and -theology! Last night he talked politics, socialism, divorce, large -and small families, the Kaiser, Randolph Churchill, the future of -wealth in this country (he wants to <i>lop</i> all the biggest fortunes -by some form of taxation—pollard them like trees)—the future of -marriage and a few other trifles of the same kind. He is, of -course, an egotist, but an extraordinarily well-meaning and able -one, with all the virtues and failings of his natural character and -original bringing-up, exaggerated now and produced on what one -might almost call a colossal scale, which strikes the American -imagination. He honestly doesn’t want a third term, and has set his -mind on Taft for his successor, but it must be hard for such a man -to step down from such a post into the ordinary opportunities of -life. However, as he says, and apparently sincerely, ‘we mustn’t -break the Washington tradition.’</p> - -<p>“To-day we are going out to Mount Vernon, and to-night there is -another dinner-party. Washington is a most beautiful place—the -Capitol a really glorious building that any nation might be proud -of, and the shining White House, with its graceful pillared front, -among its flowering trees and shrubs, makes me think with shame of -that black abortion, Buckingham Palace!”</p></div> - -<p>It was a special pleasure to them also to see something of M. Jusserand, -the French Ambassador, and his charming wife, and to renew a friendship -which had endured since their early days in London. But above all it was -the leaders of American politics that impressed Mrs. Ward.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Root, Garfield, Taft,” she wrote to Miss Arnold, of Fox How, -“these and several others of the leading men attracted and -impressed me greatly—beyond what I had expected. Indeed, I think -one of the main impressions of this visit has been the inaccuracy -of our common idea in England that American women of the upper -class are as a rule superior to the men. It may be true among a -certain section of the rich business class, but amongst<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> the -professional, educated and political people it is not true at all.”</p></div> - -<p>Boston, of course, claimed Mrs. Ward on her way to Canada, and adopted -her in whole-hearted fashion. She was by this time a little tired of -“receptions” of five and six hundred persons, all passing before her as -in a dream and shaking a hand which was never free from writer’s cramp. -“But the touching thing is the distance people come—one lame lady came -300 miles!—it made me feel badly—and all the Unitarian ministers for -thirty miles round have been asked and are said to be coming on Tuesday -next!” When they came, Mrs. Ward enjoyed the occasion particularly, and -wrote home that she had “had to make a speech, but got through better -than usual by dint of talking of T. H. Green.” An elderly bookseller -among them, who had written to her regularly about each of her books for -the last twenty years, now met her and spoke with her at last; he went -away contented. But the real delights of her stay at Boston were her -visits to Harvard and Radcliffe, and her intercourse with the Nortons at -Shady Hill, and with Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett at the former’s house. -Here she met the fine old veteran, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, author of the -“Battle-Hymn of the Republic,” who had lately brought out her memoirs. -Mrs. Ward had been somewhat wickedly amused by certain passages in the -latter: “Imagine Mrs. Ward Howe declaring in public that a poem of hers, -which a critic had declared to be ‘in pitiable hexameters’ (English, of -course), was not ‘in hexameters at all—it was in pentameters of my own -make—I never followed any special school or rule!’ I have been gurgling -over that in bed this morning.” But when they met, Mrs. Ward -capitulated. “By the way, I retract about Mrs. Howe. Her book is rather -foolish, but she herself is an old dear—full of fun at ninety, and -adored here. She lunched with Mrs. Fields to-day <i>en petit comité</i>, and -was most amusing.”</p> - -<p>The New England country, which she saw on a motor-trip to Concord and -Lexington, and again on a visit which she paid to Mr. and Mrs. Henry -Holt at their beautiful house overlooking Lake Champlain, fascinated -her, “with its miles and miles of young woods sprung up on the soil of -the slain forests of the past—its pools and lakes, its hills and dales, -its glorious Connecticut river, and its myriads of<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> white, small wooden -houses, all on a nice Georgian pattern, with shady verandahs, scattered -fenceless over the open fields. There were no flowers to be seen—only -the scarlet blossom of the maples in the woods.”</p> - -<p>Nor could she get away, in such an atmosphere, from the old, old problem -of the separation.</p> - -<p>“I have been reading Bancroft this morning, and shall read G. O. T. -to-night. We <i>were</i> fools!—but really, I rather agree with H. G. Wells -that they make too much fuss about it! and with Mr. Bryce that it was a -great pity, for <i>them</i> and us, that the link was broken. So they needn’t -be so tremendously dithyrambic!”</p> - -<p>It was, however, with a heart full of gratitude for the unnumbered -kindnesses of her hosts that Mrs. Ward quitted American soil at the end -of April and crossed over into Canada. Here her peregrinations were to -be mainly under the auspices of Lord Grey, then Governor-General, and of -Sir William van Horne, lord of the Canadian Pacific Railway, at whose -house in Montreal she planned the details of her great journey to the -West. These two revealed themselves to Mrs. Ward in characteristic -fashion while she was still the guest of Sir William, at Montreal, for -the Governor-General, coming over from Ottawa for the great Horse Show, -stopped during his progress round the arena at the Van Horne’s box, -spoke to Mrs. Ward with the greatest cordiality, and there and then -insisted that she must go to see the great new Agricultural College at -St. Anne’s, near Montreal, on their way to Ottawa the next day.</p> - -<p>“He declared that M. could not possibly leave Canada without having seen -it,” wrote D. M. W., “and then said, with a laugh and a wave of his hand -to Sir William, ‘Ask him—<i>he’ll</i> arrange it all for you!’—and passed -on, leaving M. and me somewhat scared, for we had not wanted to bother -Sir William about <i>this</i> journey at any rate! I could see that even he, -who is never perturbed, was a little taken aback, but he said, in his -quiet way, ‘It can certainly be arranged,’ and it <i>has</i> been!” Then, <i>en -revanche</i>, the Governor-General, “being on the loose, so to speak, in -Montreal, with only one and the least vigilant of his A.D.C.’s,” came -unexpectedly to the big evening party that the Van Hornes were giving -that night—“because, as he said, ‘I like Van Horne, and I wanted to see -Mrs.<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> Ward!’” But, once back in Ottawa, “his family and all his other -A.D.C.’s, are scolding him and wringing their hands, because he never -ought to have done it! It creates a precedent and offends 500 people, -while it pleases one. Such are the joys of his position.”</p> - -<p>When the “command” journey to the Agricultural College had been safely -preformed, the students duly presented Mrs. Ward with a bouquet and sang -“For <i>she’s</i> a jolly good fellow.” “The G.G. was delighted,” wrote -Dorothy, “and led her out to smile her thanks, but there was fortunately -no time for her to be called upon for five minutes of uplift, as His -Excellency was, the last time he went there! That has now become a -household word in Government House.” Mrs. Ward must, I think, almost -have been in at the birth of that hard-worked phrase.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ward had been obliged to return to England for his work on <i>The -Times</i>, so that his wife’s Canadian experiences are recorded in letters -to him:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“G<small>OVERNMENT</small> H<small>OUSE</small>, O<small>TTAWA</small>,<br /> -“<i>May 14, 1908</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...“Well, we have had a <i>very</i> pleasant time. Lord Grey is never -tired of doing kind things, and she also is charming. He has asked -everybody to meet us who he thought would be -interesting—Government and Opposition—Civil servants, -journalists, clergy—but no priests! The fact is that there is a -certain amount of anxiety about these plotting Catholics, and -always will be. They accept the <i>status quo</i> because they must, and -because it would not help them as Catholics to fall into the hands -of either the United States or of France. But there is plenty of -almost seditious feeling about. And the ingratitude of it! I sat -last night at the Lauriers’ between Sir Wilfrid and M. Lemieux, -Minister of Labour—both Catholics. Sir Wilfrid said to me, ‘I am a -Roman Catholic, but all my life I have fought the priests—<i>le -cléricalisme, voilà l’ennemi</i>. Their power in Quebec is unbounded, -but Modernism will come some day—with a rush—in a violent -reaction.‘ On my left M. Lemieux described his meeting last week in -Quebec with fourteen bishops, one of whom said to him—’<i>Le Canada, -c’est le Paradis terrestre du Catholicisme!</i>’ But as for the -educated<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> Catholics, M. Lemieux went on, ‘We are all Modernists!’ -Both of them denounced the Pope and spoke with longing of Leo -XIII.”</p></div> - -<p> </p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“T<small>ORONTO</small>,<br /> -”<i>May 18</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘Such nice people at Ottawa, and such interesting people. Also the -guiding ideas and influences are <i>English,</i> the first time I have -felt it. The position of the Parliament buildings is splendid, and -some day it will be a great city. The Archives represent the birth -and future of Canadian history, and a Canadian patriotism—four -years’ work, and already it is influencing ideas and politics, -among a young people who did not know they <i>had</i> a history.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p>“Toronto is less exciting, though pleasant. We lunched yesterday -with Colonel George Denison, a great Loyalist and Preferentialist, -much in with Chamberlain. He cut Goldwin Smith twenty years -ago!—so it was piquant to go on from him to the Grange. The Grange -is an English eighteenth-century house, or early nineteenth—as one -might find in the suburbs of Manchester in a large English -garden—the remains of 1,000 acres—with beautiful trees. An old -man got up to meet me, old, but unmistakably Goldwin Smith, though -the black hair is grizzled—not white—and the face emaciated. But -he holds himself erect, and his mind is as clear, and his eye as -living, as ever—at 85. He still harps on his favourite theme—that -Canada must ultimately drop into the mouth of the United States and -should do so—and poured scorn on English Tariff Reformers and -English Home Rulers together. Naturally he is not very popular -here!”</p></div> - -<p>From Toronto Mrs. Ward made a flying trip to Buffalo and Niagara, where -she was shown the glories of the Falls by General Greene—a descendant -of the gallant Nathaniel Greene, hero of the S. Carolina campaign of -1781. Then, returning to Toronto, she found Sir William van Horne<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> and -the promised private car awaiting her—not to mention the “Royal Suite” -at the Queen’s Hotel, offered her by the management “free, gratis, for -nothing! Oh dear, how soon will the mighty fall!—after the 12th of June -next” (the date of her departure for home). But, for the present, “The -car is yours,” said Sir William, “the railway is yours—do exactly as -you like and give your orders.”</p> - -<p>They parted from their kind Providence on Saturday, May 23, but within -forty-eight hours the railway was providing them with quite an -unforeseen sensation. Six hours this side of Winnipeg (where all kinds -of engagements awaited her), part of the track that ran across a marsh -collapsed, with the result that Mrs. Ward’s and many other trains were -held up for nearly twenty hours.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“<span class="smcap">Vermilion Station, C.P.R.</span>,<br /> -“<i>May 25, 1908</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘Here we are, stranded at a tiny wayside station of the C.P.R., and -have been waiting <i>sixteen hours</i>, while eight miles ahead they are -repairing a bridge which has collapsed in a marsh owing to heavy -rain. Three trains are before us and about five behind. A complete -block on the great line. We arrived here at six this morning, and -here it is 9.50 p.m.</p> - -<p>‘It has been a strange day—mostly very wet, with nothing to look -at but some scrubby woods and a bit of cutting. We captured a -Manitoba Senator and made him come and talk to us, but it did not -help us very far. Snell, our wonderful cook and factotum, being in -want of milk, went out and milked a cow!—asking the irate owner, -when the deed was done, how much he wanted. And various little -incidents happened, but nothing very enlivening.</p> - -<p>[<i>Later.</i>]. “Here we are at the spot, a danger signal behind us, -and the one in front just lowered. Another stop! our engine is -detached and we see it vanishing to the rear. The track won’t bear -it. How are we going to get over!—Here comes the engine back, and -the brakesman behind our car imagines we are to be pushed over, the -engine itself not venturing.</p> - -<p>‘10.5. Safely over! The engine pushed us to the brink, and then, as -it was taken off, a voice asked for<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> Mrs. Ward. It was the -Assistant Manager of the line, Mr. Jameson, who jumped on board in -order to cross with us and explain to me everything that had -happened. He had been working for hours and looked tired out. But -we went out to the observation-platform, he and I and Dorothy, and -the <i>trajet</i> began—our train being attached to some light empty -cars, and an engine in front that was pulling us over. I thought -Mr. Jameson evidently nervous as we went slowly forward—we were -the first train over!—but he showed us as well as the darkness -allowed, the marshy place, the new bed made for the line (in the -morning the rails were hanging in air and an engine and two cars -went in!) and the black mud of the sink-hole pushed up into high -banks—trees on the top of them—on either side by the pressure of -the new filling put in—50,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel. On -either side of the line were crowds of dark figures, Galician and -Italian workmen, intently watching our progress. Altogether a -dramatic and interesting scene! We were all glad, including, -clearly, the assistant manager, when he said, ‘Now we are over -it’—but there was no real danger, even if the train had partially -sunk, for it was only a causeway over a marsh and not a real -bridge.</p> - -<p>“Well, it is absurd to have only a day for Winnipeg, but this -accident makes it inevitable. The journey has been all of it -wonderful, and I am more thrilled by Canada than words can -describe!”</p></div> - -<p>After a breathless day in Winnipeg, very pleasantly spent, under the -care of Mr. and Mrs. Sanford Evans, in endeavouring to overtake the -engagements lost in the “sink-hole,” Mrs. Ward and her daughter resumed -their journey across the vast prairie, over the Rockies and the -Selkirks, and down into Vancouver. On her return she thus summed up her -impressions of it in a letter to “Aunt Fan”:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Everybody was kindness itself, everywhere, and the wonderful -journey across Canada and back was something never to forget. To -see how a great railway can make and has made a country, to watch -all the stages of the prairie towns, from the first wooden huts -upwards to towns like Calgary and Regina, and the booming<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> -prosperity of Winnipeg—to be able to linger a little in the -glorious Rockies, to rush down the Fraser Cañon, which Papa used to -talk to us about and show us pictures of when we were children—I -thought of him with tears and longing in the middle of it—and then -to find ourselves at the end beside the ‘wide glimmering sea’ of -the blue Pacific—all this was wonderful, a real enrichment of mind -and imagination. At least it ought to be!”</p></div> - -<p>In Vancouver they were under the chaperonage of Mr. F. C. Wade, now -Agent-General for British Columbia, and of Mr. Mackenzie King, the -future Prime Minister, whom they had already met at Ottawa, but with -whom Mrs. Ward had a far more intimate link than that, since about five -years before he had come to live as a Resident at the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, and had made great friends with us all. He now acted as -guide, not only to the marvellous beauties of Vancouver, but also to the -recesses of the Chinese quarter, where he had many friends, owing to the -fact that he happened to be engaged in dealing out Government -compensation for the anti-Chinese riots of the year before. Mrs. Ward -was immensely interested in all the problems of Vancouver—racial, -financial and political—being especially impressed by the danger of its -“Americanization” through the buying up of its real estate by American -capital. She stayed long enough to lecture to the Canadian Club of -Vancouver in aid of Lord Grey’s fund for the purchase of the Quebec -battlefields as a national memorial to Wolfe, and then set her face -definitely homewards. But she could not allow herself to hurry too -swiftly through the Rockies, where the snow was beginning to melt and -expeditions were becoming possible. From Field she drove to feast her -eyes on the Emerald Lake; from Laggan she pushed on to Lake Louise.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c">To T. H. W.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="r">“B<small>ANFF</small>,<br /> -”<i>June 4, 1908</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘Since we left Vancouver we have had a delicious time, but -yesterday was the cream! We started at 8.30 from the very nice -Field Hotel, on a special train, just our car and an engine, -and—the car being in front—were pushed up the famous Kicking -Horse Pass, on a glorious morning.<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> The Superintendent in charge of -the Laggan division of the line came up with us and explained the -construction of the new section of the line, which is to take the -place of the present dangerous and costly track down the pass. At -present there are no tunnels, nothing but a long hill, up and down -which extraordinary precautions have to be taken. Now they are to -have spiral tunnels, or rather one long one, on the St. Gotthard -plan. One won’t see so much, but it will be safer, and far less -expensive to work.</p> - -<p>“The beauty of the snow peaks, the lateral valleys, the leaping -streams, the forests!—and the friendliness of everybody adds to -the charm. At Laggan we left the car and drove up—three miles—to -Lake Louise—a perfectly beautiful place, which I tried to -sketch—alack! It is, I think, more wonderful than any place of the -kind in Switzerland, because of the colour of the rocks, which hold -the gorgeous glacier and snow-peak. We spent the day there, looked -after by a charming Scotchwoman—Miss Mollison—one of three -sisters who run the C.P.R. hotels about here. About 6.30 we drove -down again to find Snell and George delighted to welcome us back to -the car. Then we came on to Banff, sitting on the platform of the -car, and looking back at a beautiful sunset among the mountains. We -shall part from the Rockies with a pang! Emerald Lake and Lake -Louise would certainly conjure one back again, if they were any -less than 6,000 miles from home! As it is, I suppose one’s physical -eyes will never see them again, but it is something to have beheld -them once.”</p></div> - -<p>At Field Mrs. Ward had met the eminent explorer, Mrs. Schäffer, who was -busy collecting guides and ponies for another expedition into the -unknown tracts of the Rockies. She and Mrs. Ward made great friends, and -some months later the latter was delighted to receive from her -photographs of a wonderful lake which she had discovered, and to which -she gave the name of Lake Maligne. Mrs. Ward could not resist weaving -the virgin lake into the last chapter of her story, <i>Canadian Born</i>.</p> - -<p>When at length the long journey was over and the faithful car landed her -safely at Montreal, Mrs. Ward still had one<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> pleasant duty to -perform—the handing over of her earnings at Vancouver to Lord Grey, as -a thank-offering for all the good things that had fallen to her lot -since she had parted from him three weeks before. His reply delighted -her, especially since she had just ended her Canadian experiences by an -expedition up the Heights of Abraham, escorted by Col. Wood, the -Canadian military historian.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>June 12, 1908.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>You are <i>most</i> kind! I have received no contribution to the Quebec -Battlefields that has given me greater pleasure. I value it partly -because it is yours and partly Vancouver’s. Every cent that filters -through from B.C. and the Prairie Provinces is a joy to me. The -Canadian National Problem, the Imperial Problem, is how to link -B.C. and the Western Provinces more closely with the Maritime -Eastern Provinces—how to improve the transportation service, East -and West, and cause the great highroad of human traffic from Europe -to Asia to go via Montreal and Vancouver—that is the problem, and -that is why I rejoice over every Western Piccanin who subscribes -his few cents to Quebec. A feeling for Quebec will remain engraven -on his heart for all time.</p> - -<p>...I do not think the character of the debt owing in £ s. d. by the -British race to the Wolfe family has ever been put before the -public. Wolfe’s father never could obtain the repayment from the -British Government of £16,000 advanced by him during the -Marlborough campaigns. The different Departments did the pass trick -with him—the first rule of departmental administration—played -battledore and shuttlecock with him until he desisted from pressing -his claim for fear of being considered a Dun!</p> - -<p>Then James Wolfe, our Quebec hero, never received the C. in C. -allowance of £10 per day. His mother claimed £3,000 from the -British Treasury as the amount owing to her son on September 13, -1759—but the poor hard-up departments played battledore and -shuttlecock with her, and she, like her Wolfe relations, was too -great a gentleman to press for payment. When, however, she found -that James had left £10,000 to be distributed<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> according to the -instructions of his will, and that his assets only realized £8,000, -the dear good lady did try and squeeze £2,000 out of the £19,000 -owing by the Government to the family, in order that she might -carry out her boy’s wishes—but it was a hopeless, useless effort, -and the splendid dame heaped all the coals of fire she could on the -heads of the stony-hearted, perhaps because stony-broke, British -People, by leaving the whole of her fortune to the widows and -orphans of the officers who fell under Wolfe’s command at Quebec. -Now I maintain that the whole Empire has a moral responsibility in -this matter, for have not the most energetic of the descendants of -the British People of 1759 emigrated into Greater Britain? The -story of how we recompensed Wolfe for giving us an immortal example -and half a continent has not, so far as I know, been told.</p> - -<p>Delighted to think you are going back to England a red-hot Canadian -missionary. Send out all the young people whom you know and believe -in, and who are receptive and sympathetic and appreciative, and -have sufficient imagination not to be stupidly critical. Send them -all over here. We shall be delighted to see them, although I fear -they cannot all get Private Cars!</p></div> - -<p>If Mrs. Ward did not, on her return to England, set up altogether as an -amateur emigration agent, she yet paid her debt to Canada by the -delightful enthusiasm for the young country with all its boundless -possibilities, combined with a shrewd appreciation of its difficulties, -which she threw into her novel, <i>Canadian Born</i>. Neither Canada nor Lord -Grey had any reason to complain of the devotion, both of heart and of -head, which she gave to the cause. To her American friends, on the other -hand, her impassioned attack in <i>Daphne</i>, or <i>Marriage à la Mode</i>, on -the divorce laws of the United States, came as something of a surprise, -for they had not realized, while she was with them, how deep an -impression these things had made on her, or how much her artistic -imagination had been captured by their tragic or sordid possibilities. -<i>Daphne</i> is, indeed, little but a powerful tract, written under great -stress of feeling, but the Americans missed in it the happy touch that -had created Lucy Foster, and regretted that Mrs. Ward should<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> have felt -bound to portray for their benefit so wholly disagreeable a young person -as Daphne Floyd. Time has, however, brought its revenges in the strong -movement that has now arisen in the United States for the unification of -the widely-differing divorce laws of the various States under one -Federal Law.</p> - -<p>Yet there were deeper forces at work in the writing of <i>Daphne</i> than any -which Mrs. Ward’s brief visit to America alone could have accounted for. -The growing disturbance which the Suffrage question was making in the -currents of English life had thrown Mrs. Ward’s thoughts into these -channels for longer than her critics knew. <i>Daphne</i> was one result of -this fermentation; another was what we should now call “direct action.” -Within a month after her return from America Mrs. Ward wrote to Miss -Arnold of Fox How (herself an undaunted Suffragist at the age of -seventy-five): “You will see from the papers what it is that has been -taking all my time—the foundation of an Anti-Suffrage League.”<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><br /> -MRS. WARD AND THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">M</span>RS. WARD, as is well known, did not believe in Women’s Suffrage. She -had heard the subject discussed from her earliest days at Oxford, ever -since the time when the first Women’s Petition for the vote was brought -to the House of Commons by Miss Garrett and Miss Emily Davies in 1866, -and John Stuart Mill moved his amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867. But -it did not greatly interest her. Her mind was set in other directions, -responding to the intellectual stimulus of Oxford rather in the field of -historical and religious inquiry and leading her on, as we have seen, to -her memorable “revolt from awe” in the matter of the Interpretation of -the Scriptures. Her group of friends at Oxford were hardly touched by -the Suffrage agitation; the movement for the Higher Education of Women, -in which Mrs. Ward bore so distinguished a part, was wholly unconnected -with it. Indeed it was the very success of this movement that helped to -convince Mrs. Ward that the right lines for women’s advance lay, not in -the political agitation for the Suffrage, but in the broadening of -education, so as to fit her sex for the many tasks which were opening -out before it. But she had also an inborn dislike and distaste for the -type of agitation which, even in those early days, the Suffragists -carried on; for the “anti-Man” feeling that ran through it, and for the -type of woman—the “New Woman” as she was called in the eighties—who -gravitated towards its ranks. Her scholarly mind rejected many of the -Suffragist arguments as shallow and unproven, especially those which -concerned the economic condition of women, while the practical -co-operation between men and women that she saw all round her, both in -Oxford and afterwards in London, gave her the conviction that the<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a> -remaining disabilities of women might and would be removed in due course -by this road, rather than by a political turmoil which would only serve -to embitter the relations between them. In her eyes women were neither -better nor worse than men, but different; so different that neither they -nor the State would really be served by this attempt to press them into -a political machine which owed its development solely to the male sex. -In later years she had many close friends in the Suffrage camp, nor did -she ever lose those of her earlier days who were converted, but to the -end there remained a profound antipathy between her and the “feminist” -type of mind, with its crudities and extravagances—the type that was to -manifest itself so disastrously in later years among the “Suffragettes.” -It was not that she wished her sex to remain aloof from the toil and -dust of the world, as her Positivist friends would have liked; rather -she felt it to be the duty of all educated women to work themselves to -the bone for the uplifting of women and children less fortunate than -themselves, and so to repay their debt to the community; but clamour for -their own “rights” was a different thing: ugly in itself, and likely to -lead, in her opinion, to a sex-war of very dubious outcome.</p> - -<p>The first time that Mrs. Ward was drawn into the battle of the Suffrage -was on the occasion, early in 1889, of Lord Salisbury’s much-trumpeted -conversion to it, when a Private Member’s Bill<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> of the usual limited -type was before Parliament, and the Prime Minister’s attitude appeared -to make it probable that the Bill might pass. Mrs. Creighton—then also -opposed to the Suffrage, though on somewhat different grounds from Mrs. -Ward’s—Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Knowles, and Mrs. Ward united in -organizing a movement of protest. It was decided at a meeting held at -Mr. Harrison’s house in May that the signatures of women eminent in the -world of education, literature and public service should be invited to a -“Protest against the extension of the Parliamentary Franchise to Women,” -which Mrs. Ward had drawn up (with some assistance from Mrs. Creighton), -and which Mr. Knowles undertook to publish in the next month’s -<i>Nineteenth Century</i>.</p> - -<p>The arguments advanced in this <i>Protest</i> are interesting as showing the -position from which Mrs. Ward hardly moved<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> in the next thirty years, -though many of her original allies who signed it fell away and joined -the Suffrage camp. There is first the emphasis on the essentially -different functions of men and women:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“While desiring the fullest possible development of the powers, -energies and education of women, we believe that their work for the -State, and their responsibilities towards it, must always differ -essentially from those of men, and that therefore their share in -the working of the State machinery should be different from that -assigned to men.” Women can never share in such labours as “the -working of the Army and Navy, all the heavy, laborious, fundamental -industries of the State, such as those of mines, metals and -railways, the management of commerce and finance, the service of -that merchant fleet on which our food supply depends.... Therefore -it is not just to give to women direct power of deciding questions -of Parliamentary policy, of war, of foreign or colonial affairs, of -commerce and finance equal to that possessed by men. We hold that -they already possess an influence on political matters fully -proportioned to the possible share of women in the political -activities of England.”</p></div> - -<p>At the same time the recent extensions of women’s responsibilities, such -as their admission to the municipal vote and to membership of School -Boards, Boards of Guardians, etc., is warmly welcomed, “since here it is -possible for them not only to decide but to help in carrying out, and -judgment is therefore weighted by a true responsibility.” Then comes a -denial of any widespread demand among women themselves for the -franchise, “as is always the case if a grievance is real and reform -necessary,” and finally an argument on which Mrs. Ward continued to lay -much stress in after years, that of the steady removal of the reasonable -grievances of women by the existing machinery of a male Parliament.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘It is often urged that certain injustices of the law towards women -would be easily and quickly remedied were the political power of -the vote conceded to them; and that there are many wants, -especially among working women, which are now neglected, but which -the suffrage would enable them to press on public attention. We -reply that<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> during the past half-century all the principal -injustices of the law towards women have been amended by means of -the existing constitutional machinery; and with regard to those -that remain, we see no signs of any unwillingness on the part of -Parliament to deal with them. On the contrary, we remark a growing -sensitiveness to the claims of women, and the rise of a new spirit -of justice and sympathy among men, answering to those advances made -by women in education, and the best kind of social influence, which -we have already noticed and welcomed. With regard to the business -or trade interests of women—here, again, we think it safer and -wiser to trust to organization and self-help on their own part, and -to the growth of a better public opinion among the men workers, -than to the exercise of a political right which may easily bring -women into direct and hasty conflict with men.”</p></div> - -<p>This feeling was evidently uppermost in her thoughts at that time, for -she wrote as early as January, 1889, to her sister-in-law, Miss Agnes -Ward:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘What <i>are</i> these tremendous grievances women are still labouring -under, and for which the present Parliament is not likely to give -them redress? I believe in them as little as I believe now in the -grievances of the Irish tenant. There <i>were</i> grievances, but by the -action of the parties concerned and their friends under the -existing system they have been practically removed. No doubt much -might be done to improve the condition of certain classes of women, -just as much might be done for that of certain classes of men, but -the world is indefinitely improveable, and I believe there is -little more chance of quickening the pace—wisely—with women’s -suffrage than without it.... There is a great deal of championing -of women’s suffrage going on which is not really serious. Mr. -Haldane, a Gladstonian member, said to me the other day, ‘Oh, I -shall vote for it of course!—with this amendment, that it be -extended to married women, and in the intention of leading through -it to manhood suffrage.’ But if many people treat it from this -point of view and avow it, the struggle is likely to be a good deal -hotter and tougher before we have done with it than it has ever -been yet.<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a></p> - -<p>“I should like to know John Morley’s mind on the matter. He began -as an enthusiast and has now decided strongly against. So have -several other people whose opinion means a good deal to me. And as -to women, whether their lives have been hard or soft, I imagine -that when the danger <i>really</i> comes, we shall be able to raise a -protest which will be a surprise to the other side.”</p></div> - -<p>In spite of the fact that the organizers of the <i>Protest</i> were -handicapped by the natural reluctance of many of their warmest -supporters to take part in what seemed to them a “political agitation,” -and so to let their names appear in print,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> they worked to such -purpose during the ten days that elapsed between the meeting at Mr. -Frederic Harrison’s house and the going to press of the <i>Nineteenth -Century</i> that 104 signatures were secured. They were regarded by their -contemporaries as the signatures either of “eminent women” or of -“superior persons,” according to the bias of those who contemplated the -list. Posterity may be interested to know that they included such future -supporters of the Suffrage as Miss Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb), -Mrs. Creighton and Mrs. T. H. Green, while among women distinguished -either through their own work or their husbands’ in many fields occur -the names of Mrs. Goschen, Lady Stanley of Alderley, Lady Frederick -Cavendish, Mrs. T. H. Huxley, Mrs. J. R. Green, Mrs. Max Müller, Mrs. W. -E. Forster, and Mrs. Arnold Toynbee.</p> - -<p>Naturally the <i>Protest</i> drew the Suffrage forces into the field. The -July number of the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> contained two “Replies,” from -Mrs. Fawcett and Mrs. Ashton Dilke, to which Mrs. Creighton in her turn -supplied a “Rejoinder.” Meanwhile a form of signature to the <i>Protest</i> -had been circulated with the Review, and was supplied in large numbers -on demand, so that in the August number Mr. Knowles was enabled to print -twenty-seven pages of signatures to the statement that “The -enfranchisement of women would be a measure distasteful to the great -majority of women of the country—unnecessary—and mischievous both to -themselves and to the State.” Mrs. Creighton’s<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> “Rejoinder” was regarded -on the Anti-Suffrage side as a dignified and worthy close to the -discussion. “The question has been laid to rest,” wrote Mr. Harrison to -her, “for this generation, I feel sure.” Nearly thirty years were indeed -to pass before the question was “laid to rest,” though in a different -sense from Mr. Harrison’s.</p> - -<p>During the earlier part of that long period Mrs. Ward concerned herself -no further, in any public capacity, with the task of opposing the -Suffrage forces. Her own opinions were known and respected by her -friends of whatever party, while her growing interest in and knowledge -of social questions gave her an ever-increasing right to advocate them. -At Grosvenor Place the talk at luncheon or dinner-table would often play -round the dread subject in the freest manner, with a frequent appeal, in -those happy days, to ridicule as the deciding factor. Mrs. Ward was -particularly pleased with a dictum of John Morley’s, “For Heaven’s sake, -don’t let us be the first to make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of -Europe!” which I remember hearing her quote from time to time; but on -this subject, as on all others, the atmosphere of the house was one of -liberty to all comers to air and express their opinions. Most of her own -family were of the Suffrage persuasion, especially her two sisters, -Julia and Ethel, but her children followed her lead—save one who, being -a member of a youthful debating society where the wisdom of nineteen ran -riot in speech and counter-speech, was told off one day to get up the -arguments in favour of Women’s Suffrage and to open the debate; she got -them up with the energy of that terrible age, and remained a convert -ever afterwards.</p> - -<p>The question, in fact, did not enter the region of practical politics -until the advent to power of the Liberal Government in December, 1905. -It was on the occasion of Campbell-Bannerman’s great meeting at the -Albert Hall, before the election, that the portent of the Suffragette -first manifested itself in the form of a young woman who put -inconvenient questions to “C.-B.,” in a strident voice, from the -orchestra, and was unmercifully hustled out by indignant stewards. It -was the beginning of eight years of tribulation. Mrs. Ward watched -through 1906 and 1907 the growing violences of these women with mingled -horror and satisfaction: horror at the unloveliness of their -proceedings<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> and satisfaction at the feeling that an outraged public -would never yield to such clamour what they had refused to yield to -argument. She did not yet know the uses of democracy. But the -constitutional agitation was also making way during these years, -especially since it was known that Campbell-Bannerman himself was a -Suffragist, and even after his death Mr. Asquith announced to a -deputation of Liberal M.P.’s, in May, 1908, that if when the -Government’s proposed Reform Bill was introduced, an amendment for the -extension of the franchise to women on democratic lines were moved to -it, his Government as a Government would not oppose such an amendment. -This announcement brought Women’s Suffrage very definitely within the -bounds of practical politics, so that those who believed that the change -would be disastrous felt bound to exert themselves in rallying the -forces of opposition. Mrs. Ward had hardly returned from America before -Lord Cromer and other prominent Anti-Suffragists approached her with -regard to the starting of a society pledged to oppose the movement. They -knew well enough that no such counter-movement had any chance of success -without her active support, and they shrewdly augured that, once -captured, she would become the life and soul of it. Mrs. Ward groaned -but acquiesced, and thus in July of this year (1908) was born the -“Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League,” inaugurated at a meeting held -at the Westminster Palace Hotel on July 21.</p> - -<p>In the long struggle that now opened it is easy to see that Mrs. Ward -was not really at her ease in conducting a movement of mere opposition -and denial. She did not enjoy it as she enjoyed her battles with the -L.C.C. for the pushing forward of her schemes for the children, yet she -felt that it was “laid upon her” and that there was no escape. “As -Gertrude says, it is all fiendish, but we feel we must do it,” she wrote -after the inaugural meeting; but this feeling explains her imperative -desire to give a positive side to the movement by dwelling on the great -need for women’s work on local bodies—a line of argument which was -mistrusted by many of her male supporters, one of whom, Lord James of -Hereford, had spoken passionately in the House of Lords against the Act -of 1907 for enabling women to sit on County or Borough Councils. But -Mrs.<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> Ward had her way, so that when the programme of the Anti-Suffrage -League came out it was found to contain twin “Objects”:</p> - -<p>(<i>a</i>) To resist the proposal to admit women to the Parliamentary -Franchise and to Parliament; and</p> - -<p>(<i>b</i>) To maintain the principle of the representation of women on -municipal and other bodies concerned with the domestic and social -affairs of the community.</p> - -<p>This second “Object” was indeed the keystone of Mrs. Ward’s fabric for -the useful employment of the energies and gifts of women, in a manner -suited to their special experience as well as conducive to the real -interests of the State. She called it somewhere the “enlarged -housekeeping” of the nation, and maintained that the need for women’s -work and influence here was unlimited, whereas in the special -Parliamentary fields of foreign affairs, war and finance, women might -indeed have opinions, but opinions unsubstantiated by experience and -unbacked by the sanction of physical force. It is interesting to observe -how she conducts her case for a “forward policy” as regards Local -Government before her own supporters in the <i>Anti-Suffrage Review</i> -(July, 1910):</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘There is no doubt that the appointment of a Local Government -Sub-Committee marks a certain new and definite stage in the -programme of our League. By some, perhaps, that stage will be -watched with a certain anxiety; while others will see in it the -fulfilment—so far as it goes—of delayed hopes, and the promise of -new strength. The anxiety is natural. For the task before the -League is long and strenuous, and that task in its first and most -essential aspect is a task of fight, a task of opposition. We are -here primarily to resist the imposition on women of the burden of -the parliamentary vote. And it is easily intelligible that those -who realize keenly the struggle before us may feel some alarm lest -anything should divert the energies of the League from its first -object, or lest those who are primarily interested in the fight -against the franchise should find themselves expected willy-nilly -to throw themselves into work for which they are less fitted, and -for which they care less.</p> - -<p>‘But if the anxiety is natural, the hope is natural too<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> Many -members of the League believe that there are two ways of fighting -the franchise—a negative and a positive way. They believe that -while the more extreme and bigoted Suffragists can only be met by -an attitude of resolute and direct opposition to an unpatriotic -demand, there are in this country thousands of women, -Anti-Suffragist at heart, or still undecided, who may be attracted -to a positive and alternative programme, while they shrink from -meeting the Suffragist claim with a simple ‘No.’ Their mind and -judgment tell them that there are many things still to be done, -both for women, and the country, that women ought to be doing, and -if they are asked merely to acquiesce in the present state of -things, they rebel, and will in the end rather listen to Suffragist -persuasion and adopt Suffragist methods. But the recent action of -the executive opens to such women a new field of positive -action—without any interference with the old. How immeasurably -would the strength of the League be increased, say the advocates of -what has been called ‘the forward policy,’ if in every town or -district, where we have a branch, we had also a Local Government -Committee, affiliated not to the present W.L.G.S., which is a -simple branch of the Suffrage propaganda, but to the Women’s -National Anti-Suffrage League! The women’s local government -movement, which has been almost killed in the last two years by -Suffragist excesses and the wrath provoked by them in the nation, -would then pass over into the hands of those better able to use -without abusing it. Anti-Suffrage would profit, and the nation -also.”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward looked forward, indeed, to the regular organization of women’s -work and influence on these lines, culminating in the election, by the -women members of local bodies, of a central committee in London which -would inevitably acquire immense influence on legislation as well as -administration in all matters affecting women and children. “Such a -Committee,” she said to an American audience in 1908, “might easily be -strengthened by the addition to it of representatives from those -government offices most closely concerned with the administration of -laws concerning women and children; and no Government, in the case of -any new Bill before the House of Commons, could possibly afford to -ignore the strongly expressed opinion of such a<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> committee, backed up as -it could easily be by agitation in the country. In this way, it seems to -me, all those questions of factory and sanitary legislation, which are -now being put forward as stalking-horses by the advocates of the -franchise, could be amply dealt with, without rushing us into the -dangers and the risks, in which the extension of the suffrage to women, -on the same terms as men, must ultimately land us.”</p> - -<p>This passage shows very clearly Mrs. Ward’s belief in the duty of -educated women to work for their fellows. She did not by any means wish -them to sit at home all day with their embroidery frames, but looked -forward instead to the steady development of what she called women’s -“legitimate influence” in politics—the influence of a sane and informed -opinion, working in collaboration with Parliament, which should not only -remove the remaining grievances and disabilities of women, but hold a -watching brief on all future legislation affecting their interests. -Decidedly Mrs. Ward was no democrat. She was willing to wear herself out -for Mrs. Smith, of Peabody Buildings, and her children, but she could -not believe that it would do Mrs. Smith any good to become the prey of -the political agitator.</p> - -<p>Her activity in carrying on the Anti-Suffrage campaign from 1908 to 1914 -was astonishing, considering how heavily burdened she was at the same -time with her literary work and with the constant pressure of her Play -Centres and Vacation Schools. She was practically the only woman speaker -of the first rank on her own side, except for the rare appearances in -public of Miss Violet Markham, so that the Branches of the Anti-Suffrage -League formed in the great towns were all anxious to have her to speak, -and she felt bound to accept a certain number of such invitations. She -went to Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield in 1909; she led a -deputation to Mr. Asquith in 1910 and another at a more critical moment -in December, 1911; she wrote a series of articles in the <i>Standard</i> on -“The Case against Women’s Suffrage” in October, 1911, besides carrying -on an active correspondence in <i>The Times</i>, as occasion arose, against -Lady Maclaren, Mrs. Fawcett, or Mr. Zangwill; she spoke at Newcastle, -Bristol and Oxford early in 1912, and at a great meeting in the Queen’s -Hall, just before the fiasco of the Liberal Reform Bill, in January, -1913. At all these<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> meetings the prospect of Suffragette interruptions -weighed upon her like a nightmare. The militant agitation was, however, -a very potent source of reinforcement to the Anti-Suffrage ranks -throughout this period, so that although Mrs. Ward groaned as a citizen -at every new device the Militants put forth for plaguing the community, -she rejoiced as an Anti-Suffragist. The most definite annoyance to which -she herself was subjected by the Suffragettes occurred at Bristol, where -she addressed a huge meeting in February, 1912, in company with Lord -Cromer and Mr. Charles Hobhouse, M.P. A devoted lady had found a place -of concealment among the organ-pipes behind the platform, from which -post of vantage, as the <i>Bristol Times</i> put it, “she heard an excellent -recital of music at close quarters, and for a few minutes addressed a -vast meeting in a muffled voice which uttered indistinguishable words.” -She and a number of her fellows were ejected after the usual unhappy -scrimmage, and Mrs. Ward and Mr. Hobhouse were allowed to proceed. But -whether in consequence of this or as a mere coincidence, the Bristol -Branch became one of the strongest of the League’s off-shoots, devoting -itself, to Mrs. Ward’s intense satisfaction, to much useful work on -local and municipal bodies.</p> - -<p>Her opposition to Mrs. Fawcett’s organization was, of course, conducted -on very different lines from this. Quite early in the campaign, in -February, 1909, a debate was arranged to take place at the Passmore -Edwards Settlement (under the auspices of the St. Pancras Branch of the -Women’s Suffrage Society) between the two protagonists, Mrs. Ward and -Mrs. Fawcett. The organizers of the meeting were besieged with -applications for seats. Mrs. Ward reserved 150 for herself and the -Anti-Suffrage League, while about 300 went to the Suffrage Society, so -that the voting was a foregone conclusion; but the debate itself reached -a high level of excellence, though it suffered from the usual fault -which besets such tournaments—that the champions did not really <i>meet</i> -each other’s arguments, but cantered on into the void, discharging their -ammunition and returning gracefully to their starting-points when time -was called.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Surely,” wrote Mrs. Ward afterwards to her old friend, Miss McKee, -the Chairman of the St. Pancras<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> Suffrage Society, “surely you -don’t think that Mrs. Fawcett answered my main contentions! Does -anyone deny the inequality of wage?—but what Mrs. Fawcett never -attempted to prove was how the vote could affect it. And why -compare doctor and nurse? Does not the doctor pay for a long and -costly training, while the nurse is paid her living at least from -the beginning? Would it not have been fairer to compare woman -doctor with man doctor, and then to show that under the L.C.C. at -the present moment medical appointments are open to both women and -men, and the salaries are equal?”</p></div> - -<p>It could not be expected that such combatants would influence each -other, but Mrs. Ward’s campaign went far to influence the doubting -multitude, torn by conflicting counsels, harassed by the Militants, -worried by accounts of prison tortures suffered by the “martyrettes,” -and generally bothered by the obscuring of the good old fight between -Liberals and Tories which the importation of the Suffrage into every -by-election caused. The Suffrage battle was indeed waged upon and around -the vile body of the Liberal Party in a very special degree from 1908 to -1914, for Mr. Asquith was Prime Minister, and Mr. Asquith—encouraged -thereto by every device of provocation and exasperation which the -Militants could spring upon him—was an Anti-Suffragist. Yet the -influence of his Suffragist colleagues and of the constitutional -agitation throughout the country was sufficient to induce him, in -November, 1911, to give a very favourable answer to a deputation -introduced by Mrs. Fawcett, who put to him a series of questions with -regard to the Reform Bill announced by the Government for the Session of -1912 and the possibility of adding Suffrage amendments to it. The -Suffragists withdrew with high hopes of a real measure of -enfranchisement in the ensuing year. But less than a month later Mr. -Asquith was receiving a similar deputation from the Anti-Suffrage -League, introduced by Lord Curzon and including Mrs. Ward, Miss Violet -Markham and Mr. McCallum Scott. His reply showed unmistakably that he -was exceedingly glad to have his hands strengthened by the “Antis” in -his own domestic camp, and he only begged them to carry on their crusade -with the utmost vigour, since “as an individual I am in entire agreement -with you that the grant of the<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> parliamentary suffrage to women in this -country would be a political mistake of a very disastrous kind.”</p> - -<p>When the Session of 1912 opened it was evident that very strong -influences were at work within the walls of Parliament for the defeat of -the “Conciliation Bill,” which was due to come up for Second Reading at -the end of March, and it is significant that Mrs. Ward was able to say, -at a meeting of the Oxford Branch of the Anti-Suffrage League held on -March 15, that “Woman Suffrage is in all probability killed for this -Session and this Parliament.” The prophecy was partly fulfilled; like -the prayers of Homer’s heroes, Zeus “heard part, and part he scattered -to the winds.” At any rate, in the Session of 1912, not only was the -Conciliation Bill defeated on March 28, by fourteen votes (after its -very striking victory the year before), but the Suffrage amendments to -the Reform Bill never even came up for consideration. At the very end of -a long Session, that is in January, 1913, the Speaker ruled that the -Bill had been so seriously altered by the amendments regarding male -franchise already passed that it was not, in fact, the same Bill as had -received Second Reading, while there were also “other amendments -regarding female suffrage” to come which would make it still more -vitally different. For these reasons he directed the withdrawal of the -Bill. The fury of the Suffragists at the “trick” which had been played -them may be imagined, but apart from the sanctity of Mr. Speaker’s -rulings I think it is evident that the lassitude and discouragement -about the Suffrage which pervaded the House of Commons at that time, and -which contributed to the withdrawal of the Bill, was largely due to the -recognition that there <i>was</i> a considerable body of Anti-Suffrage -opinion in the country, both amongst men and women, the strength of -which had not been realized before Mrs. Ward began her campaign. Well -might she draw attention to this at a great meeting held at the Queen’s -Hall on January 20, when it was still expected that the Suffrage -amendments would be moved:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Naturally, I am reminded as I stand here, of all that has happened -in the four and a half years since our League was founded. All I -can tell you is, that we have put up a good fight; and I am amazed -at what we have been able to<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> do. Just throw your minds back to -1908. The militant organization was fast over-running the country; -the cause of Women Suffrage had undoubtedly been pushed to the -front, and for the moment benefited by the immense advertisement it -had received; our ears were deafened by the noise and the shouting; -and it looked as though the Suffrage might suddenly be carried -before the country, the real country, had taken it seriously at -all. The Second Readings of various Franchise Bills had been -passed, and were still to be passed, by large majorities. There was -no organized opposition. Suffragist opinions were entrenched in the -universities and the schools, and between the ardour of the -Suffragists and the apathy of the nation generally the situation -was full of danger.</p> - -<p>‘What has happened since? An opposition, steadily growing in -importance and strength, has spread itself over the United Kingdom. -Men and women who had formerly supported the Suffrage, looked it in -the face, thought again and withdrew. Every item in the Suffragist -claim has been contested; every point in the Suffragist argument -has been investigated, and, as I think, overthrown. It is a great -deal more difficult to-day than it was then to go about vaguely and -passionately preaching that votes will raise wages in the ordinary -market—that nothing can be done for the parasitic trades and -sweated women without the women’s vote—for what about the Trade -Boards Bill? or that nothing can be done to put down organized vice -without the women’s vote—for what about the Criminal Law Amendment -Bill? or that nothing can be done to help and protect children, -without women’s votes—for what about the Children’s Act, the First -Offenders’ Act, the new Children’s Courts and the Children’s -Probationary Officers, the vast growth of the Care Committees, and -all their beneficent work, due initially to the work of a woman, -Miss Margaret Frere?</p> - -<p>‘Witness, too, the increasing number of women on important -Commissions: University—Divorce—Insurance; the increasing respect -paid to women’s opinions; the strengthening of trade unionism among -women; the steady rise in the average wage.</p> - -<p>‘No, the Suffragist argument that women are trampled on and -oppressed, and can do nothing without the vote, has<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> crumbled in -their hands. It had but to be examined to be defeated.</p> - -<p>‘Meanwhile, the outrages and the excitement of the extreme -Suffragist campaign gave many people pause. Was it to this we were -committing English politics? Did not the whole development throw a -new and startling light on the effect of party politics—politics -so exciting as politics are bound to be in such a country as -England—on the nerves of women? Women as advisers, as auxiliaries, -as the disinterested volunteers of politics, we all know, and as -far as I am concerned, cordially welcome. But women fighting for -their own hands—fighting ultimately for the political control of -men in men’s affairs—women in fierce and direct opposition to -men—that was new—that gave us, as the French say, furiously to -think!</p> - -<p>‘And now, the coming week will be critical enough, anxious enough; -but we all know that if any Suffrage amendment is carried in the -House, it can only be by a handful of votes—none of your -majorities of 160 or 170 as in the past.</p> - -<p>‘And our high <i>hope</i> is that none will pass, that every Suffrage -amendment will be defeated.</p> - -<p>“That state of things is the exact measure of what has been done by -us, the Anti-Suffrage party, to meet the Suffragist arguments and -to make the nation understand what such a revolution really -means—though I admit that Mrs. Pankhurst has done a good deal! It -is the exact measure of the national recoil since 1908, and if -fortune is on our side next week, we have only to carry on the -fight resolutely and steadily to the end in order finally to -convince the nation.”</p></div> - -<p>After the collapse of the Government Reform Bill just described, the -deadlock in the Parliamentary situation as regards Women’s Suffrage -continued right down to the outbreak of the War. Mrs. Fawcett -transferred the allegiance of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage -Societies to the Labour Party, the only party which was prepared to back -the principle of women’s votes through thick and thin; the Militants -continually increased in numbers, agitation and violence, and Mrs. Ward -and her friends concentrated their energies more and more on the -positive<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> side of their programme, that is on the active development of -women’s work in Local Government. But it was a heavy burden. Mrs. Ward -felt, as she said in a speech at Oxford in 1912, that “it is a profound -saying that nothing is conquered until it is replaced. Before the -Suffrage movement can be finally defeated, or rather transformed, we who -are its opponents must not only have beaten and refuted the Suffrage -argument, but we must have succeeded in showing that there is a more -excellent way towards everything that the moderate Suffragist desires, -and we must have kindled in the minds, especially of the young, hopes -and ideals for women which may efface and supersede those which have -been held out to them by the leaders of the Suffrage army.”</p> - -<p>Her artistic imagination was already at work on the problem, for in 1913 -she wrote her Suffrage novel, <i>Delia Blanchflower</i>, in which the reader -of to-day may still enjoy her closely observed study of the militant -temperament, in Gertrude Marvell and her village followers, while on -Delia herself, an ardent militant when the story opens, the gradual -effect is traced of the English traditions of quiet public service, as -exemplified—naturally!—in the person of the hero. Incidentally it may -here be remarked that Mrs. Ward always believed that her Anti-Suffrage -activities, culminating in the writing of this novel, had a markedly bad -effect on the circulation of her books. Certainly she was prepared to -suffer for her opinions, for the task of diverting and of carrying -forward the Women’s Movement into other lines than those which led to -Westminster was one that was to wear her out prematurely, though her -gallant spirit never recognized its hopelessness.</p> - -<p>Her organized attempt to give effect to these aspirations, in the -foundation (early in 1914) of the “Joint Advisory Council” between -Members of Parliament and Women Social Workers, arose out of the stand -which she made within the National Union of Women Workers<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> for the -neutrality of that body on the Suffrage question. The National Union was -bound by its constitution to favour “no one policy” in national affairs, -and many moderate Suffragists agreed with Mrs. Ward that sufficient <i>ad -hoc</i> Societies existed already for carrying on the Suffrage campaign, -and that it would have been wiser for the National<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> Union to remain -aloof from it altogether. But the feeling among the rank and file of the -Union was too strong for the Executive, so that in the autumn of 1912 a -Suffrage resolution was passed and sent up to the Prime Minister and all -Members of the House of Commons. Mrs. Ward protested, but suspended her -resignation until the next Annual Conference, which met at Hull in -October, 1913. There Mrs. Ward’s resolutions were all voted down by the -Suffragist majority, so that she and some of her friends felt that they -had no choice but to secede from the Union, on the ground that its -original constitution had been violated. They drew up and sent to the -Press a Manifesto in which the following passage occurred:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Under these circumstances it is proposed to enlarge and strengthen -the protest movement, and to provide it, if possible, with a new -centre and rallying-point for social work involving, probably, -active co-operation with a certain number of Members of Parliament, -who, on wholly neutral ground from which the question of Suffrage, -for or against, has been altogether excluded, desire the help and -advice of women in such legislation.”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward had, throughout the controversy, carried on an active and most -amicable correspondence with her old friend, Mrs. Creighton, the -President of the National Union of Women Workers, who had for some years -been a convert to Women’s Suffrage, on the ground that, since women had -already, for good or ill, entered the political arena with their various -Party Associations, it would be more straight-forward to have them -inside than outside the political machine. Mrs. Ward now wrote to tell -her of the progress of her idea for a “Joint Advisory Committee”:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“S<small>TOCKS</small>,<br /> -”<i>December 18, 1913</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...“The scheme has been shaping beyond my hopes, and will I hope, -be ready for publication before Parliament meets. What we have been -aiming at is a kind of Standing Committee composed equally of -Members from all parts of the House of Commons, and both sides of -the Suffrage question—and women of experience in social work. I do -not, I hope, at all disguise from myself the<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> difficulties of the -project, and yet I feel that it <i>ought</i> to be very useful, and to -develop into a permanent adjunct of the House of Commons. From this -Joint Committee the Suffrage question will be excluded, but it will -contain a dozen of the leading Suffragists in the House, which -ought, I think, to make it clear that it is no <i>Anti</i> -conspiracy!—but a bona-fide attempt to get Antis and Pros to work -together on really equal terms.”</p></div> - -<p>She was much gratified by the cordial response to her invitation on the -part of M.P.’s of all shades of opinion, while some seventy women—both -Suffragists and “Antis”—representing every field of social work, -presently joined the Committee. Naturally the reproach levelled against -it by those who did not believe in it was that the Committee was wholly -self-appointed, but Mrs. Ward replied that, self-appointed or not, it -was an instrument for <i>getting things done</i>, and that it would soon -prove its usefulness. Under the Chairmanship of Sir Charles Nicholson, -M.P., the Committee had held four meetings at the House of Commons -between April and July, 1914, and had got through a great deal of -practical work in the drafting of various amendments to Bills then -before the House, when the curtain was rung down on all such fruitful -and peaceable activities. Henceforth the guns were to speak, and such -things as the education of crippled children, or the pressing of a wider -qualification for women members of local bodies, were to disappear -within the shadow that fell over the whole country. So at least it -appeared at the time, but the Joint Advisory Council, like all really -practical bodies, survived the shock, and lived to devote to the special -questions arising from the War the experience gained in these first -meetings.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The last act in the drama of Women’s Suffrage found Mrs. Ward, as usual, -active and on the alert, and still unconvinced of the necessity for the -measure, or, still more, of the competence of the Parliament of 1917 to -deal with it. It will be remembered that the question arose again on the -“Representation of the People Bill” which the Government felt bound to -bring in before the death of the existing Parliament in order to remedy -the crying injustices of registration which deprived most of the -fighting men and<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> many of the munition workers of their votes. The -opportunity was seized by the Suffragists to press the claims of women -once more upon Parliament and public, and this time the response was -overwhelmingly favourable. The pluck and endurance shown by women in all -the multifarious activities of the War had brought the public round to -their side; the men at the front were believed to be in favour of it, -the militant outrages had ceased, and, last but not least, there was now -a lifelong Suffragist at the head of affairs. The Speaker’s Conference, -which reported on January 27, 1917, decided “by a majority” that “some -measure of women’s suffrage should be conferred.” It was evident that -the current of opinion was setting strongly in favour of the women’s -claim, but Mrs. Ward still felt it to be her duty to protest, and to -organize the latent opposition which certainly existed in the country. -She wrote an eloquent letter to <i>The Times</i> in May, pointing out the -obvious truth that the country had not been consulted, that the existing -Parliament had twice rejected the measure and was now a mere rump, with -some 200 Members absent on war service; she denied in a passage of great -force the plea based on “equality of service” between men and women, -appealing to the grave-yards in France and Flanders which she had seen -with her own eyes, as evidence of the eternal <i>in</i>equality, and finally -she pleaded for a large extension of the women’s <i>municipal</i> vote, in -order to provide an electorate which might be consulted by Referendum. -The Referendum was in fact adopted by the now dwindling Anti-Suffrage -party in Parliament as their policy; but the House of Commons would have -none of it, and the Second Reading of the Bill, which included the -Suffrage clause, was carried by 329 to 40. It is obvious, of course, -that in an elective Assembly, when the members are once convinced that a -large increase in the electorate is about to be made, anxiety for their -seats will make them very chary of voting against the new electors. -Hence Mrs. Ward had to bewail many desertions. The Bill was finally -passed by the House of Commons on December 7; but there still remained -the Lords. Here the opposition was likely to be far more formidable, for -the Lords had no hungry electors waiting for them, nor were they so -susceptible as the Lower House to waves of sentiment such as that which -had overspread press<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> and public in favour of Women’s Suffrage. It was -here, therefore, that Mrs. Ward organized her last resistance. The -January <i>Nineteenth Century</i> appeared with an article by her entitled -“Let Women Say,” appealing to the Lords to insist on a Referendum, while -in the first week of January she (acting as Chairman of the National -League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage) issued a Memorial to which she had -obtained the signatures of about 2,000 women war-workers, and sent it to -the press and to the Members of the House of Lords.</p> - -<p>Lord Bryce wrote to her in response (January 8, 1918):</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>Thank you for your admirable article and for the copy of the -Memorial, an effective reply to that of the Suffragist ladies. It -is an achievement to have secured so many signatures so -quickly—and this may be used effectively by Lord Balfour of -Burleigh, when he moves his Referendum Amendment. No one can yet -predict the result. Lord Loreburn will move the omission of the -earlier part of Clause IV to-morrow; and I suppose that if it is -defeated the Referendum issue will come next.”</p></div> - -<p>There were a large number of distinguished Peers, including Lords -Loreburn, Weardale, Halsbury, Plymouth, and Finlay, who were pledged to -oppose “Clause IV,” but the rock on whom the Anti-Suffragists chiefly -relied was Lord Curzon. He was President of the National League for -Opposing Women’s Suffrage. He was an important member of the Government. -His advice would sway the votes of large numbers of docile Peers. He -had, however, sent Mrs. Ward a verbal message through her son, whom he -met in the House on December 18, that his position in the Government -would make it impossible for him to <i>vote</i> against the Clause: he would -be obliged to abstain. Still he continued in active communication with -Mrs. Ward, giving advice on the tactics to be pursued, and on December -30, 1917, wrote her a letter in which, after expressing admiration for -her <i>Nineteenth Century</i> article, he added the words: “A letter (if -possible with the article) to the Peers a few days before the Clause -comes under consideration may bring up a good many to vote, and after -all that is what you want for the moment.”<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a></p> - -<p>Lord Curzon gave no further warning to the Committee of the League that -he intended to pursue any different line of action from that recommended -here. It was still a question of “bringing the Peers up to vote,” though -the Committee knew by this time that his own vote—on the formal ground -of his being Leader of the House of Lords—could not be given against -the Clause. What, then, was their astonishment, when on the decisive -day, January 10, 1918, after a speech in which Lord Curzon condemned the -principle of Women’s Suffrage in unmeasured terms and announced that his -opposition to it was as strong as ever, he then turned to their -Lordships and advised them not to reject the Clause because it would -lead to a conflict with the other House “from which your Lordships would -not emerge with credit.” The effect of the appeal was decisive; the -Clause passed the House of Lords by a majority of sixty-three.</p> - -<p>Thus fell the Anti-Suffrage edifice, and Mrs. Ward and her friends were -left to nurse their wrath against their leader. A somewhat lengthy -correspondence in the <i>Morning Post</i> followed, the echoes of which have -long since died away, and Mrs. Ward retired soon afterwards to Stocks. -Thence she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, on March 14, her little valediction -on the Suffrage question:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Yes, I have had rather a bad time of headache and weariness -lately. The last lap of the Suffrage struggle was rather too much -for me. But I felt bound, under all the circumstances (I should not -have felt bound if the decision had been postponed till after the -War) as a patriot—or what I conceive to be a patriot—to fight to -the end, and I actually drafted the last amendment on which the -House of Lords voted. Well now, thank goodness, it is over, for a -while, though I see Mrs. Fawcett is still proposing to go on. Now -the question is what the women will do with their vote. I can only -hope that you and Mrs. Fawcett are right and that I am wrong.”</p></div> - -<p>Nine months later, the General Election of December, 1918, gave women -the opportunity of echoing their Prime Minister’s sentiments that the -Kaiser should be brought to trial and that Germany should pay for the -cost of the War. Mrs. Ward did not record her vote, for purely local -reasons, but she had by this time adopted an attitude of quite<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> -benevolent neutrality on the merits of the question. She had fought her -fight squarely and openly, and had finally been defeated by a -combination of circumstances to which no combatant need have been -ashamed of succumbing. To some of those who worked with her and who -watched her endless consideration for friend and foe alike, in office -and committee-room, who admired the breadth and versatility of her mind -and who shared her belief in the “alternative policy” for which she so -eloquently pleaded, it seemed that the failure of the Anti-Suffrage -campaign lay at the door of those who obstructed her within her own -walls, who could not understand her call to women to be up and doing, -and who opposed a mere blind <i>No</i> to the youth and hope of the Suffrage -crusade.</p> - -<p>Be that as it may, Mrs. Ward had no reason, in looking back, to be -otherwise than proud of her contribution to the great cause of women’s -work and freedom in this country. From her earliest days she had -forwarded the cause of women’s education. As her experience of life grew -ever richer and more pitiful she had pleaded with her sex, using all her -varied gifts of pen and speech, to give themselves, each in her degree, -to the service of her fellows, and of the children. Her own example was -never lacking to enforce the plea. Service, not “rights,” was in effect -her watch-word. If she disbelieved in the efficacy of the vote to -achieve miracles, it was because she believed far more in the gradual -growth and efficacy of spiritual forces. The rule of the mob did not -attract her, especially if it were a female mob; she would have offered -it, instead, its fill of work and service. Perhaps it was too austere a -gospel for our day, and in the end she watched her country choose the -opposite path without bitterness, and even with some degree of hope. At -any rate she had done her part in laying before her countrywomen a -different ideal.<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><br /> -LIFE AT STOCKS, 1908-1914—<i>THE CASE OF RICHARD MEYNELL</i>—THE OUTBREAK OF WAR</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">S</span>TOCKS, during the first sixteen years that Mrs. Ward inhabited it, was -a dear but provoking house. Built in 1772 by the Duncombe family, at the -expense of the earlier manor-house at the foot of the hill, it had been -added to in the mid-nineteenth century in a spirit of small economy, so -that the visitor as he drove up beheld an unlovely eastern side, with a -squalid porch jutting out into the drive and a mean little block of -“bachelors’ rooms” joined on to the main Georgian building. Though Mrs. -Ward loved the southern and western sides of the house, the eastern side -was always an offence to her; she longed to tear down the porch and to -plan some simple scheme for unifying its whole aspect. After many -hesitations, the plunge was finally made in 1907. The family retired to -Stocks Cottage, the little house among the steep hanging woods of -Moneybury Hill where the Neville Lytteltons had stayed so many summers, -and thence watched the slow disintegration and rebuilding of the “big -house.” For, of course, once the process was begun, three-quarters of -the Georgian structure was found to be in a state of decomposition, with -floors and ceilings that would have crumbled at another touch, so that -long before it was finished the visit to America had come and gone and -the Anti-Suffrage campaign was launched. When at length the new Stocks -could be inhabited, in the autumn of 1908, the alterations were -beautiful indeed, but had been expensive. There was thenceforward an -unknown burden in the way of upkeep which at times oppressed even Mrs. -Ward’s buoyant spirit.</p> - -<p>And yet how she loved every inch of the place—house and garden -together—especially after this rebuilding, which<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> stamped it so clearly -as her and her husband’s twin possession. Whether in solitude or in -company, Stocks was to her the place of consolation which repaid her for -all the fatigues and troubles of her life. Not that she went to it for -rest, for the day’s work there was often harder than it was in London, -but the little walks that she could take in the intervals of work, down -to the kitchen-garden, or up and down the lime-avenue, or through the -wood behind the house, brought refreshment to her spirit and helped her -to surmount the labours that for ever weighed upon her. Here it was that -the near neighbourhood of her cousins of “Barley End”—Mr. and Mrs. -Whitridge in summer and Lord and Lady Sandhurst in winter—meant so much -to her, for they could share these brief half-hours of leisure and give -her, in the precious intimacy of gossip, that relaxation which her mind -so sorely needed. Then, in summer, there were certain spots in the long -grass under the scattered beeches where wild strawberries grew and -multiplied; these gave her exquisite delight, bringing back to her the -hungry joys of her childhood, when she would seek and find the secret -strawberry-beds that grew on the outcrop of rock in Fox How garden. But -the more sybaritic delights of Stocks were very dear to her too—the -scent of hyacinths and narcissus that greeted her as she entered the -house at Christmas-time, or the banks of azalea placed there by Mr. -Keen, the incomparable head-gardener. Keen had already been at Stocks -for fifteen years before we came to it in 1892, and he lived to gather -the branches of wild cherry that decked his mistress’s grave in 1920. In -summer he would work for fifteen hours a day, in spite of all that Mrs. -Ward could say to him; his simple answer was that he could not bear to -see his plants die for lack of watering. So Keen toiled at his garden, -and Mrs. Ward toiled at her books, her speeches and her correspondence, -each holding for the other the respect that only the toilers of this -world can know.</p> - -<p>Her habits of work when she was settled at Stocks were somewhat -peculiar, for method was not her strong point, and it often seemed as -though the day’s quota was accomplished in a series of rushes rather -than in a steady approach and fulfilment. No breakfast downstairs at -8.30 and then a solid morning’s work for her, but a morning beginning<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> -often at 5.30 a.m., with the reading of Greek, or writing of letters, or -much reading, for the reading of many books was still her greatest -solace and delight. “For reading, I have been deep in Emile Faguet’s -<i>Dix-huitième Siècle</i>,” she wrote to Mrs. Creighton in August, 1908, -“comparing some of the essays in it with Sainte-Beuve, the reactionary -with the Liberal; reading Raleigh’s Wordsworth, and Homer and Horace as -usual. If I could only give three straight months to Greek now I should -be able to read most things easily, but I never get time enough—and -there are breaks when one forgets what one knew before.”</p> - -<p>Greek literature meant more and more to her as the years went on, and -though she could give so little time to it, the half-hour before -breakfast which she devoted, with her husband, to Homer, or Euripides, -or the <i>Agamemnon</i>, became gradually more precious to her than any other -fraction of the day. She was of course no scholar, in the ordinary -sense, and her “quantities” both in Greek and Latin frequently produced -a raucous cry from her husband, to whom the correct thing was, somehow, -second nature; but the literary sense in her responded with a thrill -both to the glories and the restraints of Greek verse, so that such a -passage as Clytemnestra’s description of the beacons moved her with a -power that she could hardly explain to herself. The influence which -Greek tragedy had obtained upon her thought is well seen in the opening -chapter of <i>Diana Mallory</i>.</p> - -<p>Then, at eight o’clock, would come breakfast and post, and, with the -post, the first visits from the rest of us and the planning of the day’s -events. Usually she did not appear downstairs till after ten, and if, as -so often happened, there were friends or relations staying in the house -she would linger talking with them for another half-hour before -disappearing finally into her writing-room. Then there would be a short -but intensive morning’s work—sometimes wasted on Anti-Suffrage, as she -would wrathfully confess!—lunch and a brief interval for driving on the -Common or in Ashridge Park, after which work would begin again before -four o’clock and continue, with only a nominal break for tea, till well -after eight. She rarely returned to her task after dinner, for this -would infallibly bring on a bad night, and indeed the long spell in the -afternoon left her<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> with little energy for anything but talk or silence -in the evening.</p> - -<p>Such, in approximate outline, was her day when nothing from outside -caused an unusual interruption, but life at Stocks seemed often fated to -consist of interruptions. First and foremost there might be guests in -the house, who must be taken for a picnic on the Ivinghoe Downs or on -Ringshall Common, or else there might be visitors from town on -business—the Warden of the Settlement, an American publisher, a -theatrical manager; telegrams would come up the drive from the little -village post-office (for the telephone was not installed till 1914), -while always and ever there was the tyranny of the post. One Sunday the -contribution of Stocks to the village post-bag was duly certified at -eighty-five letters, while forty to fifty was a very usual number. The -evening post left at 6.30, and not till this was out of the way could -Mrs. Ward enjoy that fragment of the day which she regarded as the best -for real work, when letters and all other interruptions were cleared -from the horizon. Her sitting-room was always a mass of papers, -wonderfully kept in order by Dorothy or Miss Churcher; but in spite of -the neatness of the packets, there would come days when the one letter -or sheet of manuscript that she wanted could <i>not</i> be found, and the -house would resound with the clamour of the searchers. Indeed Mrs. Ward -could never be trusted to keep her small possessions, unaided, for very -long, for being entirely without pockets she was reduced to the -inevitable “little bag,” which naturally spent much of its time down -cracks of chairs and in other occult places. When her advancing years -made spectacles necessary for reading and writing, these added another -complication to life, but fortunately there was always some willing -slave at hand to aid in recovering the lost—or rather her family would -half unconsciously arrange their days so that there should be some one. -Once she declared with pride to a friend that she had travelled home -<i>alone</i> from Paris to London without mishap, but on inquiry it was found -that “alone” included the faithful Lizzie, and only meant that, for -once, neither husband nor daughter had accompanied her.</p> - -<p>Her letters to Mrs. Creighton during these years give many glimpses of -her life.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I am writing to you very early in the morning—6.30—,”<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> she wrote -on August 4, 1910, “a time when I often find one can get a <i>real</i> -letter done, or a difficult bit of work. These weeks since the -middle of June have been unusually strenuous for me. Anti-Suffrage -has been a heavy burden, especially the effort to give the movement -a more constructive and positive side. Play Centres have been -steadily increasing, and there were three Vacation Schools to -organize. The Care Committees under the L.C.C. are beginning to -wake up to Play Centres, and lately I have had three applications -to start Centres in one week. Then I have also begun a new book -[<i>The Case of Richard Meynell</i>] and even completed and sent off the -first number. But I am very harassed about the book, which does not -lie clear before me by any means. Still, I have been able to read a -good deal—William James, and Tyrrell, and Claude Montefiore’s book -on the Synoptics, and some other theology and history.</p> - -<p>“Life is <i>too</i> crowded!—don’t you feel it so? Every year brings -its fresh interests and claims, and one can’t let go the old. Yet I -hope there may be time left for some resting, watching years at the -end of it all—when one may sit in the chimney corner, look on—and -think!”</p></div> - -<p>“Some resting, watching years”! The gods were indeed asleep when Mrs. -Ward breathed this prayer, or was it that they knew, better than she, -that life without toil would have been no life to her?</p> - -<p>Among the self-imposed labours which Mrs. Ward added to her burden -during the year 1910, was that of taking an active part in the two -General Elections of that <i>annus mirabilis</i>. Her son had been adopted as -Unionist candidate for the West Herts Division, in which Stocks lay, and -Mrs. Ward was so disgusted by what she conceived to be the violence and -unfairness of the leaflets issued by both sides that she decided to sit -down and write a series of her own, intended primarily for the villages -round Stocks and written in simple but persuasive language. These -“Letters to my Neighbours,” as they were entitled, dealt with all the -burning questions of the day—the rejection of the Budget by the House -of Lords, Tariff Reform, the new Land Taxes, Home Rule for Ireland and -so forth; but their fame did not remain confined to the villages of West -Herts, but spread first to Sheffield and thence to many other great<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> -towns and county divisions. Mrs. Ward was by this time a convinced -Tariff Reformer, and set forth the case in favour of Protection in lucid -and attractive style; she had learnt the way to do this in the course of -certain “Talks with Voters” which she had held in the little village -schoolroom at Aldbury and in which she had penetrated with her usual -sympathy and directness into the recesses of the rustic mind. The whole -thing was, of course, a direct attempt to influence public opinion on a -political issue, on the part of one who had no vote, and as such was not -missed by the sharp eye of Mrs. Fawcett. The Suffrage leader twitted -Mrs. Ward with her inconsistency in a speech to a Women’s Congress in -the summer of 1910, drawing from Mrs. Ward a reply in <i>The Times</i> which -showed that her withers were quite unwrung. Her contention was, in fact, -that the minority of women who cared about politics had as good a right -as anyone else to influence opinion, <i>if they could</i>, and would succeed -“as men succeed, in proportion to their knowledge, their energy and -their patience.... That a woman member of the National Union of -Teachers, that the wives and daughters of professional and working men, -that educated women generally, should try to influence the votes of male -voters towards causes in which they believe, seems to me only part of -the general national process of making and enforcing opinion.” At any -rate in the village of Aldbury and far outside it, Mrs. Ward was -accepted as a “maker of opinion” because the people loved her, and -because at the end of her little “Talks with Voters” she never failed to -remind her hearers that the ballot was secret. Her son was duly elected -for West Herts—a result which Mrs. Ward could not be expected to take -with as much philosophy as Mrs. Dell, our village oracle, whose only -remark was, “Lumme, sech a fustle and a bustle! And when all’s say and -do one’s out and the other’s in!”</p> - -<p>The election made Mrs. Ward more intimate than she had been before with -the village folk and with her county neighbours—amongst whom she had -many close friends—but her real delight still was to receive her -relations and friends, to stay in the house, and there to make much of -them. Among these her sister Ethel was a constant visitor, together with -her great friend Miss Williams-Freeman, whose knowledge of France and of -French people<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> was always a delight to Mrs. Ward. Then there were those -whom she would beguile from London on shorter visits—so far as she -could afford the time to entertain them! Not every Sunday, by any means, -could she allow herself this pleasure, but her instinct for hospitality -was so strong that she stretched many points in this direction, paying -for her indulgence afterwards by a still harder “grind.” There were -red-letter days when she persuaded her oldest friends of all, Mrs. T. H. -Green or the Arthur Johnsons, to uproot themselves from Oxford and come -to talk of all things in heaven and earth with her; Mrs. Creighton was -an annual visitor, usually for several days in the autumn; Miss Cropper, -of Kendal, and the Hugh Bells, of Rounton, were among the few whom Mrs. -Ward not only loved to have at Stocks, but with whom she in her turn -would go to stay, reviving in Westmorland and Yorkshire her love for the -North. Then there was Henry James, whose rarer visits made him each time -the more beloved, and with whom Mrs. Ward maintained all through these -years a correspondence which might have delighted posterity, but of -which he, alas, destroyed her share before he died. Many, too, were the -friends from the world of politics or journalism who found their way to -Stocks: Mr. Haldane and Alfred Lyttelton; Oakeley Arnold-Forster, her -cousin, whose career in the Unionist Cabinet was cut short by death in -1909; Sir Donald Wallace, the George Protheros and Mr. Chirol, and ever -and anon some friend from Italy or France—Count Ugo Balzani and his -daughters, Carlo Segrè or André Chevrillon, whose presence only made the -talk leap faster and more joyously. The sound and the flavour of their -talk is gone for ever, but the memory of those days, and of their -hostess, must still be green in the hearts of many.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_252_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_252_sml.jpg" width="297" height="408" alt="MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD" title="MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MRS. WARD AND HENRY JAMES IN THE GARDEN AT STOCKS<br /> -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD</span> -</p> - -<p>Young people, too, were always welcomed by Mrs. Ward, especially the -many nieces and nephews who were now growing up around her and who were -accustomed to look to Stocks almost as to a second home. Amongst these -were the whole Selwyn family, children of her sister Lucy, who had died -in 1894; both children and father (Dr. E. C. Selwyn, Headmaster of -Uppingham School) were very dear to Mrs. Ward and frequently came to -fill the house at Stocks. Two splendid sons of this family, Arthur -and<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> Christopher, were to give up their lives in the War. Their -stepmother, who had been Mrs. Ward’s favourite cousin on the Sorell -side, Miss Maud Dunn, occupied after her marriage a still more intimate -place in her affections. One little boy she had, George, to whom Mrs. -Ward was much attached for his quaint and serious character, but he too -was doomed to die in France, of influenza, in the last month of the War.</p> - -<p>That member of her own family, however, to whom Mrs. Ward was most -deeply attached, her sister Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), fell a victim -in the year 1908, at the age of only 46, to a swift and terrible form of -malignant disease. With her perished not only the gifted foundress of -the great girls’ school at Priors’ Field, but Mrs. Ward’s most intimate -friend—the person with whom she shared all joys and sorrows, and whom -it was an ever-new delight to receive at Stocks, with her brood of -brilliant children. She had been amongst the first guests to visit the -house in 1892; she was there within two months of her death in 1908. -Such a shock went very deep with Mrs. Ward, but she spent herself all -the more in devotion to “Judy’s” children, whom she loved next to her -own and who had always, since their babyhood, spent a large part of each -year’s holidays at Stocks. And they on their side were not ashamed to -return her affection. Julian and Trevenen, Aldous and Margaret became to -her almost a second family, leaning on her and loving and chaffing her -as only the keen-witted children of a house know how to do.</p> - -<p>For if Stocks was a Paradise to the tired week-end visitor from London, -or to the stalwart young ones who could play cricket or tennis on its -lawns, it was still more the Paradise of little children. Mrs. Ward was -never really happy unless there were children in the house, the younger -the better, and one of the joys of the re-building was that it provided -her, on the transformed eastern side, with a pair of nurseries which -only asked thenceforward to be tenanted. Her grandchildren, Mary, -Theodore and Humphry, were naturally the most frequent tenants, and -there accumulated a store of ancient treasures to which they looked -forward with unfailing joy each time that they returned. Usually, too, -they found that “Gunny” (as they had early christened her) had -surreptitiously added to the store during their<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> absence, which was -unorthodox, but pleasant. How she loved to fill their red mouths with -strawberries or grapes, to hear their voices on the stairs, or their -shrill shrieks as they played hide-and-seek on the lawn with some -captive grown-up! The two elders, Mary and Theodore, paid her a visit -every morning, with the regularity of clockwork, just as her -breakfast-tray arrived, and then sat on the bed, with sly, expectant -faces, waiting for the execution of the egg—a drama that was performed -each day with a prescribed ritual, varying only in the intensity of the -egg’s protests against decapitation. The invaders usually ended by -consuming far more than their share of Gunny’s breakfast. And as they -grew in stature and delightsomeness, Mrs. Ward became only the more -devoted to them, till when Theo was four and Mary five and a half, they -would pay for their ‘bits of egg’ by show performances of <i>Horatius</i>, -declaiming it there on the big bed till the room re-echoed with their -noise. Or else they would act the coming of King Charles into the House -of Commons in search of the five members, Mary being the Speaker and -Theo the disgruntled King, or, now and then, descend to modern politics -by singing her derisive ditties such as—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Tariff Reform means work for all,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Work for all, work for all;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Tariff Reform means work for all,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Chopping up wood in the Workhouse.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">“Gunny” would become quite limp with laughing at the wickedness and -point which Theodore would throw into the singing of this song, for the -rascal knew full well that she had succumbed to what Mrs. Dell, after a -village meeting, had christened “Tarridy-form.”</p> - -<p>Whenever one of their long visits to Stocks came to an end, Mrs. Ward -would be most disconsolate. “<i>How</i> I miss the children,” she wrote to J. -P. T. in January, 1911, “—it is quite foolish. I can never pass the -nursery door without a pang.” Three months later, while she was staying -at an Italian villa in the Lucchese hills, the news fell upon her that -the beloved grandson whose every look and gesture was to her “an -embodied joy,” would be hers no longer. He had died beside the sea,</p> - -<p class="c">...<span title="Greek: philê en patridi gaiê">φἱη ἑν πατÏἱδι γαἱη</span></p> - -<p><a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a></p> - -<p class="nind">and the fells which stand around the little church in the Langdale -valley looked down upon another grave.</p> - -<p>It was long before Mrs. Ward could surmount this grief. That summer -(1911) she was busied with the organization of her Playgrounds for the -thousands upon thousands of London children who had no Stocks to play -in.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Sometimes,” she wrote, “when I think of the masses of London -children I have been going through I seem to imagine him beside me, -his eager little hand in mine, looking at the dockers’ children, -ragged, half-starved, disfigured, with his grave sweet eyes, eyes -so full already of humanity and pity. Is it so that his spirit -lives with us—the beloved one—part for ever of all that is best -in us, all that is nearest to God, in whom, I must believe, he -lives.”</p></div> - -<p>During these years between her visit to America and the outbreak of War, -Mrs. Ward produced no less than six novels, including the two on America -and Canada which we have already mentioned. She also issued, in the -autumn of 1911, with Mr. Reginald Smith’s help and guidance, the -“Westmorland Edition” of her earlier books (from <i>Miss Bretherton</i> to -<i>Canadian Born</i>), contributing to them a series of critical and -autobiographical Prefaces which, as the <i>Oxford Chronicle</i> said, “to a -great extent disarm criticism because in them Mrs. Ward appears as her -own best critic.” Time and again, in these Introductions, we find her -seizing upon the weak point in her characters or her constructions: how -<i>Robert Elsmere</i> “lacks irony and detachment,” how <i>David Grieve</i> is -“didactic in some parts and amateurish in others,” how in <i>Sir George -Tressady</i> Marcella “hovers incorporate and only very rarely finds her -feet.” This candour made the new edition all the more acceptable to her -old admirers, and set the critics arguing once more on their old theme, -as to whether Mrs. Ward possessed or not a sense of humour. If it may be -permitted to one so near to her to venture an opinion on this point, it -is that Mrs. Ward, like all those who possess the ardent temperament, -the will to move the world, worked first and foremost by the methods of -direct attack rather than by the subtler shafts of humour; but no one -could live beside her, especially in these years of her maturity, -without falling under the spell of something<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> which, if not humour, was -at least a vivid gift of “irony and detachment,” asserting itself -constantly at the expense of herself and her doings and finding its way, -surely, into so many of her later books. Her minor characters are -usually instinct with it; they form the chorus, or the “volley of -silvery laughter” for ever threatening her too ardent heroes from the -Meredithian “spirit up aloft,” and show that she herself is by no means -totally carried away by the ardours she creates. My own feeling is that -this gift of “irony and detachment” grew stronger with the years, -perhaps as the original motive force grew weaker, and though she -maintained to the end her unconquerable fighting spirit, as shown in her -struggle against the Suffrage and her keen interest in politics, these -things were crossed more frequently by humorous returns upon herself -which made her all the more delightful to those who knew her well. And -in the little things of life, no one was ever more easy to move to -helpless laughter over her own foibles. When she had bought no less than -five hats for her daughter on a motor-drive from Stocks to London—“on -spec, darling, at horrid little cheap shops in the Edgware Road”—or -when at Cadenabbia, she had actually sallied forth <i>unattended</i> in order -to buy a pair of the peasants’ string shoes, and had gone through a -series of harrowing adventures, no one who heard her tell the tale could -doubt that she was richly endowed with the power of laughing at herself. -In her writings she was, perhaps, a little sensitive about the point.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“<i>Am</i> I so devoid of humour?” she wrote to Mr. Reginald Smith, in -September, 1911. “I was looking at <i>David Grieve</i> again the other -day—surely there is a good deal that is humorous there. And if I -may be egotistical and repeat them, I heard such pleasing things -about <i>David</i> from Lord Arran in Dublin the other day. He knows it -absolutely by heart, and he says that when he was campaigning in -South Africa two battered copies of <i>David</i> were read to pieces by -him and his brother-officers, and every night they discussed it -round the camp fires.”</p></div> - -<p>The inference being, no doubt, that a set of hard-bitten British -officers would hardly have wasted their scanty leisure on a book that -totally lacked the indispensable national ingredient.<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a></p> - -<p>The last novel with a definitely religious tendency to which Mrs. Ward -set her hand was her well-known sequel to <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, the “Case” -of the Modernist clergyman, Richard Meynell. It was by far the most -considerable work of her later years and represented the fruit of her -ripest meditations on the evolution of religious thought and practice in -the twenty years that had elapsed since <i>Robert’s</i> day. Ever since the -Loisy case she had been deeply possessed by the literature of Modernism, -seeing in it the force which would, she believed, in the end regenerate -the churches.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“What interests and touches me most, in religion, at the present -moment,” she wrote to Mrs. Creighton, in September, 1907, “is -Liberal Catholicism. It has a bolder freedom than anything in the -Anglican Church, and a more philosophic and poetic outlook. It -seems to me at any rate to combine the mystical and scientific -powers in a wonderful degree. If I only could believe that it would -last, and had a future!”</p></div> - -<p><a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a></p> - -<p>She was deep in the writings of Father Tyrrell, of Bergson and of -William James during these years, but while she allowed herself, -perhaps, as time went on, a more mystical interpretation of the Gospel -narratives, she was still as convinced as ever of the necessity for -historical criticism.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c"><i>To J. P. T.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="r">“V<small>ALESCURE</small>,<br /> -”<i>Easter Day, 1910</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...“It is good to be alive on spring days like this! I have been -reading William James on this very point—the worth of being -alive—and before that the Emmaus story and the appearance to the -Maries. I more and more believe that the whole resurrection story, -as a story, arose from the transference of the body by the -Romans—at Jewish bidding, no doubt—to a hidden sepulchre to avoid -a local cult. The vacant grave seems to me historic fact,—next to -it, the visions in Galilee, perhaps springing from <i>one</i> vivid -dream of a disciple such as I had both of my father and mother -after their deaths—and then theology, and poetry, environment and -inherited belief did the rest. Yet what an amazing thing the rest -is, and how impossible to suppose that it—or any other great -religion—means nothing in the scheme of things.”</p></div> - -<p>She had been much excited, also, by the instances of revolt in a Liberal -direction which were occurring at this time within the English Church, -such as that of Mr. Thompson of Magdalen; and so, out of these various -elements, she wove her tale of <i>Richard Meynell</i>. When she was already -deep in the writing of the book she came, quite by chance, upon a -country parish in Cheshire where a similar drama was going on.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="c"><i>To Reginald Smith</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="r">“S<small>TOCKS</small>,<br /> -”<i>October 11, 1910</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>...“I have returned home a great deal better than when I went, I am -glad to say. And on Sunday I heard Meynell preach!—in Alderley -church, in the person of Mr. Hudson Shaw. An astonishing sermon, -and a crowded congregation. ‘I shall not in future read the -Athanasian Creed, or the cursing psalms or the Ten Commandments, or -the Exhortation at the beginning of the Marriage Service—and I -shall take the consequences. The Baptismal Service ought to be -altered—so ought the Burial Service. And how you, the laity, can -tolerate us—the clergy—standing up Sunday after Sunday and saying -these things to you, I cannot understand. But I for one will do it -no more, happen what may.’</p> - -<p>“I really felt that <i>Richard Meynell</i> was likely to be in the -movement!”</p></div> - -<p>Richard Meynell, as the readers of this book will remember, makes -himself the leader of a crusade for modernizing and re-vivifying the -services of the Church, in accordance with the new preaching of “the -Christ of to-day,”—finds his message taken up by hundreds of his fellow -priests and hundreds of thousands of eager souls throughout the -country,—comes into collision with the higher powers of the Church, -takes his trial in the Court of Arches, and, when the inevitable -judgment goes against him, leaves us, on a note of hope, carrying his -appeal to the Privy Council, to Parliament and to the people of England. -The whole book is written in a vein of passionate inspiration—save for -the few touches, here and there, which convey the note of irony or -contemplation—; the reader may disagree, but he cannot help<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> being -carried away, for the time at least, by the infectious enthusiasm of -Meynell and his movement.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>“Perhaps the strongest impression,” declared one of the reviewers, “at -once the most striking and the most profound, created by <i>The Case of -Richard Meynell</i>, is its religious optimism. One finds oneself -marvelling how any writer, in so sceptical an age as this, can picture a -Modernist religious movement with so inspired, so fervent a pen, as to -kindle a factitious flame even in hearts grown cold to religious -inspiration and to religious hope.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Others, again, pronounced the book to be, on the whole, a failure. “And -yet,” said the <i>Dublin Review</i>, “there is a certain force in Mrs. -Humphry Ward that enables her to push her defective machine into motion; -<i>Richard Meynell</i> is the work of a forcible, if tired, imagination. This -fact may be wrong, and that detail ugly, and another phrase offensive to -the sense of the ridiculous; but as a whole it ranks higher than many -and many a production that is lightly touched in and delicately edged -with satire. Spiritual sufferings, a yearning after truth, -self-restraint, revolt, the helpless wish to aid those who will not be -helped, the texture of fine souls, such things are brought home to us in -<i>Richard Meynell</i>. This is not done by the vitality of the author’s -personages, for they never wholly escape from bondage to the main -intention of the book, but it is done by contact with a remarkable mind -tuned to fine issues.”</p> - -<p>The reappearance of Catherine Elsmere, far less overwhelming and more -attractive than in the earlier book, endeared this tale to all who -remembered Robert’s wife; her death in the little house in Long Sleddale -where Robert had first found her was felt to be a masterpiece that Mrs. -Ward had never surpassed.</p> - -<p>The writer did not disguise from herself and her friends that she looked -forward with unusual interest to the reception of this book. Would it in -truth find itself “in the movement”? Would it kindle into a flame the -dull embers of religious faith and freedom?</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“What I should like to do this winter,” she wrote to Mrs. -Creighton, in September, 1911 (six weeks before the book’s -appearance), “is to write a volume of imaginary ‘Sermons and -Journals of Richard Meynell,’ going in<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> detail into many of the -points only touched in the book. If the book has the great success -the publishers predict, I could devote myself to handling in -another form some of the subjects that have been long in my mind. -But of course it may have no such success at all. I sometimes think -that, as Mr. Holmes maintains in his extraordinarily interesting -book,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> the church teaching of the last twenty years has gone a -long way towards paganizing England—together of course with the -increase of wealth and hurry.”</p></div> - -<p>These “Sermons and Journals of Richard Meynell” were, however, never -written. The book certainly aroused interest and even controversy in -England, but it did not sweep the country and set all tongues wagging, -as <i>Elsmere</i> had done, while in America the populace refused to be -roused by what they regarded as the domestic affairs of the English -Church. Mrs. Ward never spoke of Meynell’s reception as a -disappointment, but she must have felt it so, and within six months of -its appearance she was at work, as usual, upon its successor.</p> - -<p>Yet a piece of work which brought her two such letters as the following -(amongst many others) cannot be said to have gone unrewarded:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="c"><i>From Frederic Harrison</i></p> - -<p>“I am one of those to whom your book specially appeals, as I know -so much of the literature, the persons, the questions it dealt -with. It has given me the most lively interest both as romance—as -fine as anything since <i>Adam Bede</i>—and also as controversy—as -important as anything since <i>Essays and Reviews</i>. Meynell seems to -me a far higher type than Elsmere, both as a man and as a book, and -I am sure will have a greater permanent value—even if its -popularity for the hour is not so rapid—for it appeals to a higher -order of reader, and is of a larger kind of art.”</p></div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="c"><i>From André Chevrillon</i></p> - -<p>‘On est heureux d’y retrouver ce qui nous a paru si longtemps une -des principales caractéristiques de la littérature anglaise: ce -sentiment de la beauté morale, cette émotion devant la qualité de -la conduite qui prennent par leur intensité même une valeur -esthétique. C’est la tradition de vos écrivains les plus anglais, -celle des<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> Browning, des Tennyson, des George Eliot. Elle fait la -portée et l’originalité des Å“uvres de cette époque victorienne, -contre laquelle on a l’air, malheureusement, d’être en réaction en -Angleterre aujourd’hui—réaction que je ne crois pas durable—qui -cessera dès que le recule sera suffisant pour que la force et la -grandeur de cette littérature apparaisse.</p> - -<p>“Le problème religieux que vous posez là est vital, et la solution -que vous y prévoyez dans votre pays, cette possibilité d’un -christianisme évolué, adapté, qui conserverait les formes anciennes -avec leur puissance si efficace de prestige, tout en attribuant de -plus en plus aux vieilles formules, aux vieux rites une valeur de -symbole—cette solution est celle que l’on peut espérer du -protestantisme, lequel est relativement peu cristalisé et peut -encore évoluer. Même dans l’anglicanisme la part de -l’interprétation personnelle a toujours été assez grande. J’ai peur -que l’avenir de la religion soit plus douteux dans ceux des pays -catholiques où la culture est avancée. Nous sommes là comme des -vivants liés à des cadavres, ou comme des grandes personnes que -l’on astreindrait au régime de la <i>nursery</i>. Les mêmes formules, -les mêmes articles de foi, le même catéchisme, les mêmes -interprétations, doivent servir à la fois à des peuple de mentalité -encore primitive et semi-païenne et à des sociétés aussi -intellectuelles et civilisées que la nôtre. Nous n’avons le choix -qu’entre le culte des reliques, la foi aux eaux miraculeuses, et -l’agnosticisme pur, ou du moins, une religiosité amorphe, sans -système ni discipline.”</p></div> - -<p>The writing of <i>Richard Meynell</i> left Mrs. Ward very tired, and all the -next year (1912) she “puddled along” as Mrs. Dell would have put it, -accomplishing her tasks with all her old devotion, but suffering from -sleeplessness and knowing that the novel of that year, <i>The Mating of -Lydia</i>, was not really up to standard. Mr. Ward, too, fell ill, and -remained in precarious health for the next four years, which gravely -added to his wife’s anxieties. The burdens of life pressed upon her, -while the maintenance of her Play Centres seemed sometimes an almost -impossible addition. Italy was still the best restorative for all these -ills. Every spring she fled across the Alps, enjoying a week or two of -holiday and then<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> settling, with her daughter, in some Villa where she -might work undisturbed. In 1909 she went for the last time to the Villa -Bonaventura at Cadenabbia, the place which was to her, I think, the -high-water mark of earthly bliss. This time her stay was marked by one -long-remembered day—a flying visit paid her from Milan by Contessa -Maria Pasolini, the friend for whom, amongst all her Italian -aquaintance, Mrs Ward felt the strongest devotion. She could watch her, -or listen to her talk, for hours with unfailing delight; for she seemed -to embody in herself both the wisdom and the charm, the age and the -youth, of Italy. It was a friendship worthy of two noble spirits. Never -again was Mrs. Ward able to rise to the Villa Bonaventura, but she -explored other parts of Italy with almost equal delight, settling at the -Villa Pazzi, outside Florence, in April, 1910, at a bare but fascinating -Villa in the Lucchese hills in the next year, and in a fragment of a -palace on the Grand Canal in 1912. It was during this stay in Venice -that Mr. Reginald Smith obtained for her, from Mr. Pen Browning, -permission to camp and work in the empty Rezzonico Palace, a privilege -which she greatly valued and which gave her many romantic hours. While -savouring thus the delights of Venice she was enabled, too, to witness -the formal inauguration of the new-built Campanile, watching the -splendid ceremony from a seat in the Piazzetta.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Venice has been delirious to-day,” she wrote to Reginald Smith on -St. Mark’s Day, April 25, “and the inauguration of the Campanile -was really a most moving sight. ‘Il Campanile è morto—viva il -Campanile!’ The letting loose of the pigeons—the first sound of -the glorious bells after these ten years of silence—the thousands -of children’s voices—the extraordinary beauty of the setting—the -splendour of the day—it was all perfect, and one feels that Italy -may well be proud.”</p></div> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_262_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_262_sml.jpg" width="299" height="399" alt="MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912 -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD" title="MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912 -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MRS. WARD BESIDE THE LAKE OF LUCERNE. 1912<br /> -FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS DOROTHY WARD</span> -</p> - -<p>Her great relaxation during all these sojourns, but especially during a -stay of six weeks at Rydal Mount during the autumn of 1911, was to play -with brushes and paint, for she had skill enough in the problems of -colour and line to throw off all other cares in their pursuit, while her -inevitable imperfections only spurred her to fresh efforts. Dorothy -would call it her “public-house,” for she could not keep away from it -and would exhaust herself, sometimes, in the<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> pursuit of the ideal, -but the results were full of charm and are much treasured by their few -possessors.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>In 1913, as though to confound her critics, Mrs. Ward produced the book -which contained, perhaps, the most brilliant character-drawing that she -had ever attempted—<i>The Coryston Family</i>. She was pleased with its -success, which was indeed needed to reassure her, for at this time -occurred some serious losses, not of her making, which had to be faced, -and, if possible, repaired. She was already sixty-two and her health, as -we know, was more than precarious, but she set herself to work perhaps -harder than ever. “Courage!” she wrote in July 1913, “and perhaps this -time next year, if we are all well, the clouds will have rolled away.”</p> - -<p>When that time came, when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand had been -murdered at Serajevo and we in England, no less than the Serbian peasant -and the French <i>piou-piou</i>, found ourselves face to face with a horror -never known before, the crisis found Mrs. Ward at a low ebb of health -and spirits. Attacks of giddiness led the doctors to pronounce that she -was suffering from “heart fatigue.” Mr. Ward’s illness had increased -rather than diminished; Stocks was abandoned for a time (though to a -charming tenant and a sister novelist, Mrs. Wharton), and the three had -migrated to a small and unattractive house in Fifeshire, where Mrs. Ward -applied herself once more to writing. There the blow fell. Her first -reaction to it was one of mere revolt, a cry of blind human misery. -“What madness is it that drives men to such horrors?—not for great -causes, but for dark diplomatic and military motives only understood by -the ruling class, and for which hundreds of thousands will be sent to -their death like sheep to the slaughter! Germany, Russia and Austria -seem to me all equally criminal.” Then, as the news came rolling in, -from the “dark motives” there seemed to detach itself one clear, -stabbing thought. France! France invaded, perhaps overwhelmed!</p> - -<p>“To me she is still the France of Taine, and Renan, and Pasteur, of an -immortal literature, and a history that, blood-stained as it is, makes a -page that humanity could ill spare. No, I am with her, heart and soul, -and to see her wiped out by Germany would put out for me one of the -world’s great lights.”<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><br /> -THE WAR, 1914-1917—MRS. WARD’S FIRST TWO JOURNEYS TO FRANCE</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">M</span>RS. WARD’S feeling about the Germans, before the thunderbolt of 1914, -had been one of sincere respect and admiration for a nation of patient -brain-workers who, she believed, were honest with the truth, and had -delved farther into certain obscure fields of history in which she -herself was deeply interested than any of their contemporaries. But her -acquaintance with Germany was a book-acquaintance only. She had indeed -paid one or two visits to the Rhine and to South Germany during her -married life, and had been astonished to mark, in 1900, the growth of -wealth and prosperity in the Rhine towns, due, she was told, to -scientific protection and to the skilful use of the French indemnity. -But she had no personal friendships with Germans, and her knowledge of -their state of mind was derived only from books and newspapers and the -reports of others. Still, these had become disquieting enough, as all -the world remembers, between 1911 and 1914, but Mrs. Ward clung to the -optimistic view that the hatred and envy of England, so apparent in -German newspaper writing, was but the creed of a clique, and that the -heart of the laborious and thrifty German people was still sound. In -April, 1913, a delegation of German Professors came over to London to -take part in a historical congress; Mrs. Ward willingly assisted in -entertaining them, giving a large evening party in their honour at -Grosvenor Place. Perhaps the atmosphere was already a little strained, -but we mustered our forgotten German as best we might, and flattered -ourselves at the end that things had not gone badly. Little more than a -year afterwards the names of nearly all our guests were to be found in -the manifesto of the ninety-three<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> German Professors—the pronouncement -which above all others in those grim days stirred Mrs. Ward’s -indignation. She expressed her sense of the “bitter personal -disillusionment which I, and so many Englishmen and Englishwomen, have -suffered since this war began,” in a Preface which she wrote, in 1916, -to the German edition of <i>England’s Effort</i>—an edition which was -intended for circulation in German Switzerland, but found its way also, -as we afterwards heard, to a good many centres within Germany itself:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘We were lifelong lovers and admirers of a Germany which, it seems -now, never really existed except in our dreams. In the article ‘A -New Reformation,’ which I published in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> in -1889, in answer to Mr. Gladstone’s critique of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>, -and in many later utterances, I have rendered whole-hearted homage -to that critical and philosophical Germany which I took to be the -real Germany, and hailed as the home of liberal and humane ideas. -And now! In that amazing manifesto of the German Professors at the -opening of the War, there were names of men—that of Adolf Harnack, -for instance—which had never been mentioned in English scholarly -circles before August, 1914, except with sympathy and admiration, -even by those who sharply differed from the views they represented. -We held them to be servants of truth, incapable therefore of -acquiescence in a tyrannous lie. We held them also to be scholars, -incapable therefore of falsifying facts and ignoring documents in -their own interest. But in that astonishing manifesto, not only was -the cry of Belgium wholly repulsed, but those very men who had -taught Europe to respect evidence and to deal scrupulously with -documents, when it was a question of Classical antiquity, or early -Christianity, now, when it was a question of justifying the crime -of their country, of defending the Government of which they were -the salaried officials, threw evidence and documents to the winds. -How many of those who signed the professorial manifesto had ever -read the British White Paper, and the French Yellow Book, or, if -they had read them, had ever given to those damning records of -Germany’s attack on Europe, and of the vain efforts of the Allies -to hold her back, one fraction of that honest and impartial study -of which a newly discovered Greek inscription, or a<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> fragment of a -lost Gospel, would have been certain at their hands?”</p></div> - -<p>It was this feeling of the betrayal of high standards and ideals which -had meant much to her in earlier life, coupled with the emergence of a -native ferocity unguessed before (for <i>we</i> had not lived through 1870), -that went so deep with Mrs. Ward. But there were at least no personal -friendships to break. With France, on the other hand, her ties had, as -we know, been close and intimate from the beginning, so that her heart -went out to the trials and agonies of her French friends with a peculiar -poignancy. M. Chevrillon, her principal correspondent, gave her in a -series of letters, from November, 1914, onwards, a wonderful picture of -the sufferings, the heroisms and the moods of France; she replied—to -this lover of Meredith!—with her reading of the English scene:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“S<small>TOCKS</small>,<br /> -”<i>November 23, 1914</i>.<br /> -</p> - -<p>‘We are indeed no less absorbed in the War than you. And yet, -perhaps, there is not that <i>unrelenting</i> pressure on nerve and -recollection in this country, ‘set in the silver sea’ and so far -inviolate, which there must be for you, who have this cruel and -powerful enemy at your gates and in your midst, and can never -forget the fact for a moment. That, of course, is the explanation -of the recent slackening of recruiting here. The classes to whom -education and social life have taught imagination are miserable and -shamed before these great football gatherings, which bring no -recruits—‘but my people do not understand, and Israel doth not -consider. They have eyes and see not; ears have they but they hear -not.’ One little raid on the East Coast—a village burnt, a few -hundred men killed on English soil—then indeed we should see an -England in arms. Meanwhile, compared with any England we have ever -seen, it <i>is</i> an England in arms. Every town of any size has its -camp, the roads are full of soldiers, and they are billeted in our -houses. No such sight, of course, has ever been seen in our day. -And yet how quickly one accustoms oneself to it, and to all the -other accompaniments of war! The new recruits<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> are mostly excellent -material. Dorothy and I motored over early one morning last week to -Aston Clinton Park to see the King inspect a large gathering of -recruits. It was a beautiful morning, with the misty Chilterns -looking down upon the wide stretches of the park, and the bodies of -drilling men. The King must have been up early, for he had -inspected the camp at ten (thirty-five miles from London) and was -in the park by eleven. There was no ceremony whatever, and only a -few neighbours and children looking on. It had been elaborately -announced that he would inspect troops that day in Norfolk! The men -were only in the early stages, but they were mostly of fine -physique—miners from Northumberland a great many of them. The -difficulty is officers. They have to accept them now, either so -young, or so elderly! And these well-to-do workmen of twenty-five -or thirty don’t like being ordered about by lads of nineteen. But -the lads of nineteen are shaping, too, very fast.</p> - -<p>“We are so sorry for your poor niece, and for all the other -sufferers you tell us of. I have five nephews fighting, and of -course innumerable friends. Arnold is in Egypt with his Yeomanry. -One dreads to open <i>The Times</i>, day after day. The most tragic loss -I know so far is that of the Edward Cecils’ only boy—grandson of -the late Lord Salisbury, and Admiral Maxse, the Beauchamp of -<i>Beauchamp’s Career</i>. I saw him last as a delightful chattering boy -of eleven—so clever, so handsome, just what Beauchamp might have -been at his age! He was missing on September 2, and was only -announced as killed two days ago.”</p></div> - -<p>The first year and a half of the War was a time of great anxiety and -strain for Mrs. Ward, both in the literary and the practical fields. -Besides her unremitting literary work she pushed through, by means of -the “Joint Advisory Committee,” an exhaustive inquiry into the working -of the existing system of soldiers’ pensions and pressed certain -recommendations, as a result, upon the War Office; she was confronted by -a partial falling-off in the subscriptions to her Play Centres, and was -obliged to introduce economies and curtailments which cost her much -anxious thought; she converted the Settlement into a temporary hostel -for<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> Belgian Refugees; and, above all, she carried through, between -October, 1914, and the summer of 1915, a complete reorganization of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement, converting it from a men’s into a women’s -settlement. There were many reasons, even apart from the growing -pressure on men of military age to enlist in the New Armies, which had -for some time made such a change desirable in the eyes of Mrs. Ward and -of a majority of the Council; chief among these being the need for a -body of trained voluntary workers to carry out, for St. Pancras, the -mass of social legislation that had been passed since the foundation of -the Settlement, and to take their part in the work of School Care -Committees, Schools for Mothers and so forth. Male Residents, being -occupied with their own work during the day, were not available for such -things; but amongst women it was believed that a body possessing -sufficient leisure and enthusiasm for social service to make a real mark -in the life of the neighbourhood, would not be difficult to find. The -change was not accomplished without strenuous opposition from the -existing Warden and some of the Residents, but Mrs. Ward went -methodically to work, getting the Council to appoint a Committee with -powers to inquire and report. She found also that her old friend and -supporter, the Duke of Bedford, was strongly in favour of the change, -and would be ready to provide, for three years, about two-thirds of the -annual sum required for the maintenance of a Women’s Settlement. This -argument was decisive, and the Council finally adopted the Report of the -Special Committee in May, 1915. Mrs. Ward had the happiness of seeing, -during the remaining years of the War, her hopes for the usefulness of -the new venture very largely fulfilled, under the able guidance of Miss -Hilda Oakeley, who was appointed Warden of the Settlement in August, -1915.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, Mrs. Ward felt herself in danger of seeing her usual means of -livelihood cut from beneath her feet during this first period of the -War. For one result of the vast upheaval in our social conditions was -that the circulation of all novels went down with a run, and it was not -until the War had made a certain dismal routine of its own, in the needs -of hospitals, munition-centres, soldiers’ and officers’ clubs and the -like, that the national taste for the<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> reading of fiction reasserted -itself. Till then Mrs. Ward relied mainly on her American public, which -was still untouched; but the pressure of work was never for an instant -relaxed, and fortunately she still found her greatest solace and relief -from present cares in the writing of books. “I never felt more inclined -to spin tales, which is a great comfort,” she wrote in January, 1915, -but as yet she could not face the thought of weaving the War into their -fabric, and took refuge instead in the summer of that year in the making -of a story of Oxford life, as she had known it in her youth—an -occupation that gave her a quiet joy, providing a “wind-warm space” into -which she could retreat from the horrors of the outer world. The -compulsory retrenchments of the War years came also to her aid, in -reducing the <i>personnel</i> employed at Stocks, while Stocks itself was -usually let in the summer and Grosvenor Place in the winter; but still -the struggle was an arduous one, leaving its mark upon her in the -growing whiteness of her hair, the growing fragility and pallor of her -look. Sleeplessness became an ever greater difficulty in these years, -but on the other hand her old complaint in the right side had grown less -troublesome, so that standing and walking were more possible than of -old. Had it not been for this improvement she would have been physically -incapable of carrying out the task laid upon her, swiftly and -unexpectedly, in January, 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt wrote to her -from Oyster Bay to beg her to tell America what England was doing in the -War.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r"><i>December 27, 1915.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,—<br /> -</p> - -<p>The War has been, on the whole, well presented in America from the -French side. We do not think justice has been done to the English -side. I attribute this in part to the rather odd working of the -censorship in hands not accustomed to the censorship. I wish that -some writer like yourself could, in a series of articles, put -vividly before our people what the English people are doing, what -the actual life of the men in the trenches is, what is actually -being done by the straight and decent capitalist, who is not -concerned with making a profit, but with serving his country, and -by the straight and<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> decent labouring man, who is not thinking of -striking for higher wages, but is trying to help his comrades in -the trenches. What I would like our people to visualize is the -effort, the resolution and the self-sacrifice of the English men -and women who are determined to see this war through. Just at -present England is in much the same strait that we were in in our -Civil War toward the end of 1862, and during the opening months of -1863. That was the time when we needed to have our case put before -the people of England—when men as diverse as Gladstone, Carlyle -and the after-time Marquis of Salisbury were all strongly against -us. There is not a human being more fitted to present this matter -as it should be presented than you are. I do hope you will -undertake the task.</p> - -<p class="r">Faithfully yours,<br /> -T<small>HEODORE</small> R<small>OOSEVELT</small>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>The letter reached Mrs. Ward at Stocks on Monday, January 10, 1916, by -the evening post. She felt at once that she must respond to such a call, -though the manner of doing so was still dim to her. But she consulted -her friends, C. F. G. Masterman and Sir Gilbert Parker, at “Wellington -House” (at that time the Government Propaganda Department), and found -that they took Mr. Roosevelt’s letter quite as seriously as she did -herself. They showed her specimens of what the American papers were -saying about England, her blunders, her slackers and her shirkers, till -Mrs. Ward thrilled to the task and felt a longing to be up and at it. -The next step was to see Sir Edward Grey (then Foreign Minister), to -whom she had also sent a copy of the letter. He asked her to come to his -house in Eccleston Square, whither accordingly she went early on January -20.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“They showed me into the dining-room,” she wrote to J. P. T., “and -he came down to say that he had asked Lord Robert Cecil and Sir -Arthur Nicolson to come too, and that they were upstairs. So then -we went into his library sitting-room, a charming room full of -books, and there were the other two. They all took Roosevelt’s -letter very seriously, and there is no question but that I must do -my best to carry it out. I simply felt after Edward Grey had spoken -his mind that, money or no<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> money, strength or fatigue, I was under -orders and must just go on. I said that I should like to go to -France, just for the sake of giving some life and colour to the -articles—and that a novelist could not work from films, however -good. They agreed.</p> - -<p>‘‘And would you like to have a look at the Fleet?’ said Lord -Robert.</p> - -<p>‘I said that I had not ventured to suggest it, but that of course -anything that gave picturesqueness and novelty—i.e. a woman being -allowed to visit the Fleet—would help the articles.</p> - -<p>‘I gave a little outline of what I proposed, beginning with the -unpreparedness of England. On that Edward Grey spoke at some -length—the utter absence of any wish for war in this country, or -thought of war. Even those centres that had suffered most from -German competition had never thought of war. No one wished for it. -I thought of his long, long struggle for peace. It was pathetic to -hear him talking so simply—with such complete conviction.</p> - -<p>“I was rather more than half an hour with them. Sir Edward took me -downstairs, said it was ‘good of me’ to be willing to undertake it, -and I went off feeling the die was cast.”</p></div> - -<p>A luncheon with Mr. Lloyd George—then Minister of Munitions—who gladly -offered her every possible facility for seeing the great -munition-centres that had by that time altered the face of England, and -the plan for carrying out her task began to shape itself in her mind. A -tour of ten days or so through the principal munition-works, ranging -from Birmingham to the Clyde, then a dash to the Fleet, lying in the -Firth of Cromarty, then south once more and across the Straits to see -the “back of the Army” in France. It may be imagined what busy -co-ordination of arrangements was necessary between the Ministry of -Munitions, the Admiralty and the War Office, before all the details of -the tour were settled, but by the aid of “Wellington House” all was -hustled through in a short time, so that Mrs. Ward was off on her round -of the great towns by January 31. To her, of course, the human interest -of the scene was the all-important thing—the spectacle of the mixture -of classes in the vast factories, the high-school mistresses, the -parsons,<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> the tailors’ and drapers’ assistants handling their machines -as lovingly as the born engineers—the enormous sheds-full of women and -girls of many diverse types working together with one common impulse, -and protesting against the cutting down of their twelve hours’ day! She -was taken everywhere and shown everything (accompanied this time by Miss -Churcher), seeing in the space of ten days the munition-works at -Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and -the Clyde. Then she returned home for a few days, to fix her impressions -in an ordered mass of notes, before leaving again on February 15 for the -far north, armed with an Admiralty permit and an invitation from Sir -John Jellicoe to spend a couple of nights in his house at Invergordon.</p> - -<p>It was, of course, an unheard-of thing for a woman to visit the Fleet in -war-time, but, once the barriers passed, the sailors were so glad to see -her! Withdrawn from the common life in their iron, sleepless world, they -welcomed this break in their routine as much as she did the chance it -gave her of a wholly unique experience. She told the tale of her -adventures both in a letter to Mr. Ward and in notes written down at the -time:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="r">“<i>February 16, 1916.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>“Such a journey! Heavy snow-storm in the night, and we were held up -for three hours on the highest part of the line between Kingussie -and Aviemore. But at Invergordon a group of naval officers -appeared. A great swell [Sir Thomas Jerram] detached himself and -came up to me. ‘Mrs. Ward? Sir John has asked me to look after -you.’ We twinkled at each other, both seeing the comedy of the -situation. ‘Now then, what can I do for you? Will you be at -Invergordon pier to-morrow at eleven? and come and lunch with me on -the Flagship? Then afterwards you shall see the destroyers come in -and anything else we can show you. Will that suit you?’ So he -disappears and I journey on to Kildary, five miles, with a jolly -young sailor just returned from catching contraband in the North -Sea, and going up to Thurso in charge of the mail.”</p></div> - -<p>She spent a quiet evening at Sir John Jellicoe’s house (the Admiral -himself being away). Her notes continue the story:<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Looked out into the snowy moonlight—the Frith steely grey—the -hills opposite black and white—a pale sky—black shapes on the -water—no lights except from a ship on the inlet (the hospital -ship).</p> - -<p>‘Next day—an open car—bitterly cold—through the snow and wind. -At the pier—a young officer, Admiral Jerram’s Flag Lieutenant. -‘The Admiral wished to know if you would like him to take you round -the Fleet. If so, we will pick him up at the Flagship.’ The -barge—very comfortable—with a cabin—and an outer seat—sped -through the water. We stopped at the Flagship and the Admiral -stepped in. We sped on past the <i>Erin</i>—one of the Turkish cruisers -impounded at the beginning of the war—the <i>Iron Duke</i>, the -<i>Centurion</i>, <i>Monarch</i>, <i>Thunderer</i>—to the hospital ship <i>China</i>. -The Admiral pointed out the three cruisers near the entrance to the -harbour—under Sir Robert Arbuthnot—also the hull of the poor -<i>Natal</i>—with buoys at either end—two men walking on her.</p> - -<p>‘At luncheon—Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Jerram on my left, Sir Robert -Arbuthnot, commanding the cruiser squadron, on my right. Captain -Field and Mrs. Field. Commander Goldie—Flag Lieutenant Boissier, -and a couple of other officers and their wives.</p> - -<p>‘In the barge I had shown the Admiral Roosevelt’s letter. Sir -Robert Arbuthnot spoke to me about it at luncheon, and very kindly. -They all seemed to feel that it was a tough task, not of my -seeking, and showed wonderful sympathy and understanding. After -lunch Captain Field was told off to show me the ship. Thrilling to -see a ship in war-time, that might be in action any moment. The -loading of the guns—the wireless rooms—the look down to the -engine deck—the anchor held by the three great chains—the -middies’ quarters—the officers’ ward-room. The brains of the -ship—men trained to transmit signals from the fire-control above -to all parts of the ship, directing the guns. The middies’ -chests—great black and grey boxes—holding all a middy’s worldly -goods. He opens one—shows the photos inside.—The senior middy, a -fair-haired boy, like Humphry Sandwith—the others younger. Their -pleasant room, with its pictures, magazines and books. Spaces where -the wounded can be temporarily placed during action.<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a></p> - -<p>‘The chart of the North Sea, and the ship-stations. Lines radiating -out in all directions—every dot on them a ship.</p> - -<p>‘After going through the ship we went to look at the destroyer -which the Admiral had ordered alongside. Commanded by Mr. -Leveson-Gower, son of the Lord Granville who was Foreign Secretary, -and nephew of ‘Freddy.’ The two torpedo tubes on the destroyer are -moved to the side, so that we see how it discharges them. The guns -very small—the whole ship, which carries 100 men, seems almost on -the water-line—is constantly a-wash except for the cabin and the -bridge. But on a dark night in the high seas, ‘we are always so -glad to see them!—they are the guards of the big ships—or we are -the hens, and they are the chickens.’</p> - -<p>‘Naval character—the close relations between officers and men -necessitated by the ship’s life. ‘The men are splendid.’ How good -they are to the officers—‘have a cup of coffee, sir, and lie down -a bit.’—Splendidly healthy—in spite of the habitually broken -sleep. Thursday afternoons (making and mending)—practically the -naval half-holiday.</p> - -<p>“Talk at tea with Captain and Mrs. Field and Boissier and Commander -Goldie. They praise the book, <i>Naval Occasions</i>. No sentiment -possible in the Navy—<i>in speech</i>. The life could not be endured -often, unless it were <i>jested through</i>. Men meet and part with a -laugh—absurdity of sentimental accounts. Life on a -destroyer—these young fellows absolute masters—their talk when -they come in—‘By Jove, I nearly lost the ship last night—awful -sea—I was right on the rocks.’—Their life is always in their -hands.”</p></div> - -<p>Writing a week later to “Aunt Fan,” she added one further remark about -the Captain of the ship—“so quietly full of care for his men—and so -certain, one could see, that Germany would never actually give in -without trying something desperate against our fleet.” Little more than -three months later, Germany tried her desperate stroke, tried it and -lost, but at what a cost to English sailormen! The noble officer who had -sat next to Mrs. Ward at luncheon in the Admiral’s flagship, Sir Robert -Arbuthnot, went down with his battle-cruiser, while on either side of -him occurred the losses which shook, for one terrible day, England’s -faith in her fleet. Mrs. Ward wrote on June 6 to Katharine Lyttelton:<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Yes, indeed, Sir Robert Arbuthnot’s cruiser squadron was at -Cromarty when I was there, and he sat next me at luncheon on the -Flagship. I <i>particularly</i> liked him—one of those modest, -efficient naval men whose absolute courage and nerve, no less than -their absolute humanity, one would trust in any emergency. I -remember Sir Thomas Jerram, on my other side, saying in my -ear—‘The man to your right is one of the most rising men in the -Navy.’ And the line of cruisers in front of the Dreadnoughts, as I -saw them in the February dawn, stretching towards the harbour -entrance, will always remain with me.”</p></div> - -<p>Meanwhile the preparations for her journey to France had been pushed -forward by “Wellington House,” so that only four days after her return -from Invergordon all was ready for her departure for Le Havre. She went -(this time with Dorothy) as the guest of the Foreign Office, recommended -by them to the good offices of the Army. She was first to be given some -idea of the vast organization of the Base at Le Havre, and then sent on -by motor to Rouen, Abbeville, Étaples and Boulogne. A programme -representing almost every branch of the unending activities of the “Back -of the Army” had been worked out for her, but she was warned that she -could not be allowed to enter the “War Zone.” Once in France, however, -it was not long before this prohibition broke down, though not through -any importunity of hers.</p> - -<p>The marvellous spectacle unrolled itself before her, quietly and -methodically, while her guides expounded to her the meaning of what she -saw and the bearing of every movement at the Base upon the lives of the -men in the front line. General Asser himself, commanding at Le Havre, -devoted a whole afternoon to taking her through the docks and -store-sheds of the port, “so that one had a dim idea,” as she wrote to -her husband, “of the amazing organization that has sprung up here. It -explains a good deal, too, of the five millions a day!” But as a matter -of fact, the thing which impressed her most at Le Havre was the -‘make-over department,’ where all the rubbish brought down from the -Front, from bully-beef tins to broken boots, was collected together and -boiled down (metaphorically speaking)<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> into something useful, so that -many thousands a week were thus saved to the taxpayer at home. “All the -creation of Colonel Davies, who has saved the Government thousands and -thousands of pounds. Such a thing has never been done before!” -Similarly, at Rouen (whither she drove on February 26—fifty -miles—through blinding snow) she was fascinated by the motor-transport -department—“the biggest thing of its kind in France—the creation of -one man, Colonel Barnes, who started with ‘two balls of string and a -packet of nails,’ and is now dealing with 40,000 vehicles.”</p> - -<p>Another snowy and Arctic drive from Rouen to Dieppe, and on to -Abbeville, where a wonderful piece of news awaited them.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="c"><i>To T. H. W.</i></p> - -<p class="r">“<i>February 29, 1916.</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>...“After lunch Colonel Schofield [their guide] went out to find -the British Headquarters and report. Dorothy and I went up to the -cathedral, and on emerging from it met the Colonel with another -officer, who introduced himself as Colonel Dalrymple White, M.P. ‘I -have news for you, Mrs. Ward, which I think will change your -plans!’ I looked at him rather aghast, wondering if I was to be -suddenly sent home! ‘There is an invitation for you from G.H.Q., -and we have been telephoning about, trying to find you. Great luck -that Colonel Schofield looked in just now.’ Whereupon it appeared -that ‘by the wish of the Foreign Office,’ G.H.Q. had invited me for -two days, and that an officer would call for me at Boulogne on -Wednesday morning, and take me to the place which no one here -mentions but with bated breath, and which I will not write! [St. -Omer.] I was naturally thrilled, but I confess I am in terror of -being in their way, and also of not being able to write anything -the least adequate to such an opportunity. However it could not of -course be refused.”</p></div> - -<p>A long day at Étaples intervened between this little scene and the -arrival at G.H.Q.—a day devoted not only to an inspection of some of -the great hospitals, but also to a more unusual experience. Étaples was -the scene of a huge training-camp where troops from England received -their<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> final “polish” before going up to the Front; amongst other -things, they were taught how to throw bombs, and Mrs. Ward was taken to -see them do it. “We climb to the very top of the slope,” she wrote in -her journal at the time, “and over its crest to see some live -bomb-practice. A hollow in the sand, three dummy figures twenty yards -away—a parapet and a young soldier with three different bombs, that -explode by a time-fuse. He throws—we crouch low behind the parapet of -sand-bags—a few seconds, then a fierce report. We rise. One of the -dummy figures is half wrecked, only a few fragments of the bomb -surviving. One thinks of it descending in a group of men, and one -remembers the huge hospitals behind us. War begins to seem to me more -and more horrible and intolerable.”</p> - -<p>The next day, March 1, they were taken in charge at Boulogne by Captain -H. C. Roberts, sent thither by G.H.Q. to fetch them, and motored through -a more spring-like land to St. Omer, where they took up their quarters -for two nights in the “Visitors’ Château” (the Château de la Tour -Blanche). Captain Roberts said that his orders were to take them as near -to the battle-line as he safely could, and accordingly they started out -early in the afternoon in the direction of Richebourg St. Vaast, calling -on the way at Merville, the headquarters of General Pinney and the 35th -Division. The General came out to see his visitors and said that, having -an hour to spare, he would take them to the Line himself. He and Mrs. -Ward went ahead in the General’s car, Dorothy and Captain Roberts -following behind. At Richebourg St. Vaast the road became so much broken -by shell-holes that they got out and walked, and General Pinney informed -Mrs. Ward calmly that she was now “actually in the battle,” for the -British guns were bellowing from behind them. Early the next morning she -wrote down the following notes of what ensued:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Richebourg St. Vaast—a ruined village, the church in fragments—a -few walls and arches standing. The crucifix on a bit of wall -untouched. Just beyond, General Pinney captured a gunner and heard -that a battery was close by to our right. We were led there through -seas of mud. Two bright-faced young officers. One gives me a hand -through the mud, and down into the dug-out of the gun. There it -is—its muzzle just showing in the dark,<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> nine or ten shells lying -in front of it. One is put in. We stand back and put our fingers in -our ears. An old artillery-man says ‘Look straight at the gun, -ma’am.’ It fires—the cartridge-case drops out. The shock not so -great as I had imagined. Has the shell fallen on a German trench, -and with what result! They give us the cartridge-case to take home.</p> - -<p>‘After firing the gun we walked on along the road. General Pinney -talks of taking us to the entrance of the communication-trench. But -Captain Roberts is obviously nervous. The battery we have just left -crashes away behind us, and the firing generally seems to grow -hotter. I suggest turning back, and Captain Roberts approves. ‘You -have been nearer the actual fighting than any woman has been in -this war—not even a nurse has been so close,’ says the General. -Neuve Chapelle a mile and a half away to the north behind some tall -poplars. In front within a mile, first some ruined -buildings—immediately beyond them our trenches—then the Germans, -within a hundred yards of each other.</p> - -<p>“As we were going up, we had seen parties of men sitting along the -edge of the fields, with their rifles and field kit beside them, -waiting for sunset. Now, as we return, and the sun is sinking fast -to the horizon, we pass them—platoon after platoon—at -intervals—going up towards the trenches. The spacing of these -groups along the road, and the timing of them, is a difficult piece -of staff-work. The faces of the men quiet and cheerful, a little -subdued whistling here and there—but generally serious. And how -young! ‘War,’ says the General beside me, ‘is crass folly! <i>crass</i> -folly! nothing else. We want new forms of religion—the old seem to -have failed us. Miracle and dogma are no use. We want a new -prophet, a new Messiah!’”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward left her new friend with a feeling of astonishment at having -found so kindred a spirit in so strange a scene.</p> - -<p>The next day they were up betimes and on their way to Cassel and -Westoutre, there to obtain permits, at the Canadian headquarters, for -the ascent of the Scherpenberg Hill, in order that Mrs. Ward might -behold Ypres and the Salient. There had been a British attack, that -morning,<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> in the region of the Ypres-Comines Canal; it had succeeded, -and there was a sense of elation in the air. But, by an ironic chance, -Mrs. Ward had heard by the mail that reached the Château a far different -piece of news, and as she drove through the ruined Belgian -villages—through Poperinghe and Locre—dodging and turning so as to -avoid roads recently shelled, her mind was filled with one overmastering -thought—the death of Henry James, her countryman.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> - -<p>But now they are at the foot of the Scherpenberg Hill. Her journal -continues:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘A picket of soldiers belonging to the Canadian Division stops us, -and we show our passes. Then we begin to mount the hill (about as -steep as that above Stocks Cottage), but Captain Roberts pulls me -up, and with various halts at last we are on the top, passing a -dug-out for shelter in case of shells on the way. At the top a -windmill—some Tommies playing football. Two stout lasses driving a -rustic cart with two horses. We go to the windmill and, sheltering -behind its supports (for nobody must be seen on the sky-line), look -out north-east and east. Far away on the horizon the mists lift for -a moment, and a great ghost looks out—the ruined tower of Ypres. -You see that half its top is torn away. A flash! from what seem to -be the ruins at its base. Another! It is the English guns speaking -from the lines between us and Ypres—and as we watch, we see the -columns of white smoke rising from the German lines as they burst. -Then it is the German turn, and we see a couple of their shells -bursting on our lines, between Vlamertinghe and Dickebusch. -Hark—the rattle of the machine-guns from, as it were, a point just -below us to the left, and again the roar of the howitzers. There, -on the horizon, is the ridge of Messines, WytschÅ“te, and near by -the hill and village of Kemmel, which has been shelled to bits. -Along that distant ridge run the German trenches, line upon line. -One can see them plainly without a glass. At last we are within -actual sight of the <i>Great Aggression</i>—the nation and the army -which have defied the laws of God and man, and left their fresh and -damning mark to all time on the history of Europe<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> and on this old, -old land on which we are looking. In front of us the Zillebeke -Lake, beyond it Hooge—Hill 60 lost in the shadows, and that famous -spot where, on the afternoon of November 11, the ‘thin red line’ -withstood the onset of the Prussian Guard. The Salient lies there -before us, and one’s heart trembles thinking of all the gallant -life laid down there, and all the issues that have hung upon the -fight for it.”</p></div> - -<p>So, with gas-helmets in hand, they retraced their steps down the hill, -finding at the bottom that the kind Canadian sentries had cut steps for -Mrs. Ward down the steep, slippery bank, and on to see General Plumer at -Cassel. With him and with Lord Cavan—the future heroes of the Italian -War—Mrs. Ward had half an hour’s memorable talk, returning afterwards -to the Visitors’ Château in time to pack and depart that same evening -for Boulogne. Next day they sailed in the “Leave boat”—“all swathed in -life-belts, and the good boat escorted (so wrote D. M. W.) by a -destroyer and a torpedo-boat, and ringed round with mine-sweepers!” In -such pomp of modern war did Mrs. Ward return.</p> - -<p>It now remained for her to put into shape the impressions gathered in -these five breathless weeks, and this she did during some forty-five -days of work at very high pressure, putting what she had to say into the -form of “Letters to an American Friend.” The Letters were sent hot to -the Press on the American side as quickly as Mrs. Ward could mail them, -appearing in a number of newspapers controlled by one of the great -“Syndicates”; then Scribner’s published them in book form at the end of -May, with a preface by Mr. Choate. Here, with a little more leisure for -revision, the little book, under the title of <i>England’s Effort</i>, came -out on June 8, incidentally giving to Mrs. Ward the pleasant opportunity -of a renewal of her old acquaintance with Lord Rosebery, whom she had -invited to write a preface to it. She went over, full of doubt, to -Mentmore one May afternoon, having heard that he was there, “quite -alone” (as she wrote to M. Chevrillon), “driving about in a high -mid-Victorian phaeton, with a postilion!” Knowing that he was never -strong, she fully expected a refusal, but found instead that he had -already done what she asked, being deeply moved by the proofs that she -had sent him.<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> She was much touched, and the friendship was cemented, a -few days later, by a return visit that he paid to Stocks, all in its May -green, when he could not contain himself on the beauty of the place, or -the incomparable advantages it possessed over “such a British Museum as -Mentmore!”</p> - -<p><i>England’s Effort</i> reached a dejected world in the nick of time. Our -national habit of “grousing” in public, and of hanging our dirty linen -on every possible clothes-line, had naturally disposed both ourselves -and the outer world to under-estimate our vast achievements. This little -book set us right both with the home front and with our foreign critics. -It penetrated into every corner of the world and was translated into -every civilized language, while Mrs. Ward constantly received letters -about it, not only from friends, but from total strangers—from dwellers -in Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and India, not to mention -France and Italy, thanking her for her immense service, and expressing -astonishment at the facts that she had brought to light. The -<i>Preussische Jahrbücher</i> reviewed it with great respect; the Japanese -Ambassador, Viscount Chinda, was urgently recommended by King George to -read it, and afterwards contributed a preface to the Japanese edition. -And, as Principal Heberden of Brasenose reported to her, the burden of -comment among his friends always ended with the feeling that “the most -remarkable fact about the book is Mrs. Humphry Ward’s own astonishing -effort. Certainly the nation owes her much, for no other author could -have attracted so much attention in America.” A year later, it was -asserted by many Americans, with every accent of conviction, that but -for <i>England’s Effort</i> and the public opinion that it stirred, President -Wilson might have delayed still longer than he did in bringing America -in.</p> - -<p>In all the business arrangements made for the “little book” in America, -Mrs. Ward had had the constant help and support of her beloved cousin, -Fred Whitridge, while in England not only the publication, but the -voluminous arrangements for translation, were in the hands of Reginald -Smith. By a cruel stroke of fate, both these devoted friends were taken -from her in the same week—the last week of December, 1916—and Mrs. -Ward was left to carry on as best she might, without “the tender humour -and the<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> fire of sense” in the “good eyes” of the one, or the wisdom, -strength and kindness that had always been her portion in so rich a -measure from the other. To Mrs. Smith (herself the daughter of George -Murray Smith), she wrote after the funeral of “Mr. Reginald”:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I watched in Oxford Street, till the car had passed northwards out -of sight, and said good-bye with tears to that good man and -faithful friend it bore away.... Your husband has been to me -shelter and comfort, advice and help, through many years. I feel as -if a great tree had fallen under whose boughs I had sheltered....”</p></div> - -<p>Never was the writing of books the same joy to Mrs. Ward after this. -Other publishers arose with whom she established, as was her wont, good -and friendly relations, but with the death of Reginald Smith it was as -if a veil had descended between her and this chief solace of her -declining years.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Already, in the autumn of 1916, Mrs. Ward was thinking—in consultation -with Wellington House—of a possible return to France, mainly in order, -this time, to visit some of the regions behind the French front which -had suffered most cruelly in 1914. She wished to bring home to the -English-speaking world, which was apt to forget such things, some of the -undying wrongs of France. M. Chevrillon obtained for her the ear of the -French War Office, and meanwhile Mrs. Ward applied once more to Sir -Edward Grey and to General Charteris, head of the British Intelligence -Department in France (with whom she had made friends on her first -journey) for permission to spend another two or three days behind the -British front. Here, however, the difficulty arose that since Mrs. -Ward’s first visit, some other ladies, reading <i>England’s Effort</i>, had -been clamorous for the same privileges, so that the much-tried War -Office had been obliged to lay down a rigid rule against the admission -of “any more ladies,” as Sir Edward Grey wrote, “within the military -zone of the British Armies.” Sir Edward did not think that any exception -could be made, but not so General Charteris. On November 9, Lord Onslow, -then serving in the War Office, wrote to Mrs. Ward that:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘General Charteris fully recognizes the valuable effect<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> which your -first book produced upon the public, and would consequently expect -similar results from a further work of yours. He is, therefore, -disposed to do everything in his power to assist you, and he thinks -it possible that perhaps an exception to the general rule might be -made on public grounds. But it would have to be clearly understood -that in the event of your being allowed to go, it would not -constitute a precedent as regards any other ladies.”</p></div> - -<p>Permits, in the form of “Adjutant-General’s Passes,” were therefore -issued to Mrs. Ward and her daughter for a visit to the British Military -Zone from February 28 to March 4, 1917. They crossed direct to Boulogne, -and were the guests of General Headquarters from the moment that they -set foot in France.</p> - -<p>Since their last visit, the Battle of the Somme had come and gone, and -the German Army was in the act of retreating across that tortured belt -of territory to the safe shelter of the Hindenburg Line, there to resist -our pressure for another year. But, in these weeks of early spring, the -elation of movement had gripped our Army; the Boche was in retreat; this -must, this <i>should</i> be the deciding year! Mrs. Ward’s letters from the -war zone are full of this spirit of hopefulness; not yet had Russia -crumbled in pieces, not yet had the strength of the shortened German -line revealed itself. Once more she was sent on two memorable days, from -the Visitors’ Château at Agincourt, to points of vital interest on our -line, first through St. Pol, Divion and Ranchicourt, to the wooded slope -of the Bois de Bouvigny, whence she could gaze across at the Vimy Ridge, -not yet stormed by the Canadians; then, on the second day, to the very -centre of the Somme battlefield, where she stood in the midst of the -world’s uttermost scene of desolation. Of the Bois de Bouvigny, -Dorothy’s narrative, written down the same night, gives the following -picture:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The car bumped slowly along a very rough track into the heart of -the wood, and stopped when it could go no farther. We got out and -walked on till soon we came to an open piece of grass-land, a -rectangular wedge, as it were, driven from the eastern edge of the -hill into the heart of the wood. We walked across it, facing east, -and saw it was pitted with shell-holes, mostly old—but<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> not all. -In particular, one very large one had fresh moist earth cast up all -round it. Captain Fowler [their guide] asked Captain Bell a -question about it, lightly, yet with a significant <i>appui</i> in his -tone—but the young man laughed off the question and implied that -the Boches had grown tired of troubling that particular place. -Meanwhile, the firing of our own guns behind and to the side of us -was becoming more frequent, the noise greater. Just ahead, and to -the right, the ground sloped to a valley, which we could not see, -and where we were told lay Ablain St. Nazaire and Carençy. From -this direction came the short, abrupt, but quite formidable reports -of trench-mortars. Over against us, and slightly to the right, -three or four ridges and folds of hill lay clearly -distinguishable—of which the middle back was the famous <i>Vimy -Ridge</i>, partly held to this day by the Germans. Captain Bell, -however, would not let us advance quite to the edge of the plateau, -so that we never saw exactly how the ground dropped to the lower -ground, neither did we see the crucifix of Notre Dame de Lorette at -the end of the spur. All this bit had been the scene of terrific -fighting in 1915, when it still formed part of the French line; it -had been a fight at close quarters in the beautiful wood that -closed in the open ground on which we stood, and we were told that -many bodies of poor French soldiers still lay unburied in the wood. -We turned soon to recross the bare space again, and as we did so, -fresh guns of our own opened fire, and once more I heard that -long-drawn scream of the shells over our heads that I got to know -last year.”</p></div> - -<p>On both these days, the “things seen,” unforgettable as they were, were -filled out by most interesting conversations with two of our Army -Commanders—first with General Horne and then with Sir Henry Rawlinson, -who entertained Mrs. Ward and her daughter with a kindness that had in -it an element of pathos. Not often, in those stern days, did anyone of -the gentler sex make and pour out their tea! And in the Chauffeurs’ -Mess, the Scotch chauffeur, Sloan, who for the second time was in charge -of Mrs. Ward, found himself the object of universal curiosity. “He told -Captain Fowler,” wrote Mrs. Ward to her husband, “that they asked him -innumerable questions about the two ladies<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a>—no one having ever seen -such a phenomenon in these parts before. ‘They were varra puzzled,’ said -Sloan, ‘they couldna mak’ it out. But I didna tell them. I left them -thinkin’!’”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward left the British zone for Paris on March 4, and after three -days of comparative rest there—renewing old acquaintance under strange -new conditions—she put herself under the charge of a kind and energetic -official of the “Maison de la Presse,” M. Ponsot, for her long-planned -visit to the devastated regions of the Centre and East. Soissons, Reims -and Verdun were pronounced too dangerous for her, but she went north to -the ruins of Senlis, and heard from the lips of the old curé the -horrible tale of the German panic there, in the early days of September, -1914, the burning of the town, the murder of the Maire and the other -hostages, and of the frantic, insane excitement under which many of the -German officers seemed to be labouring. Then it was the battlefield of -the Ourcq, the scene of Maunoury’s fateful flank attack, which forced -Von Kluck to halt and give battle at the Marne; a string of famous -villages—Marcilly, Barcy, Etrépilly, Vareddes—seen, alas, under a -blinding snow-storm, and at length the vision of the Marne itself, -“winding, steely-grey, through the white landscape.” Mrs. Ward has -described it all, in inimitable fashion, in the seventh and eighth -Letters of <i>Towards the Goal</i>, and has there told also the ghastly tale -of the Hostages of Vareddes, which burnt itself upon her mind with the -sharpness that only the sight of the actual scene could give. Then, -leaving Paris by train for Nancy, she spent two days—seeing much of the -stout-hearted Préfet, M. Mirman—in visiting the regions overwhelmed by -the German invasion between August 20 and September 10, 1914—a period -and a theatre of the War of which we English usually have but the -dimmest idea. From the ruined farm of Léaumont she was shown, by a -French staff officer, the whole scene of these operations, spread like a -map before her, and became absorbed in the thrilling tale of the driving -back of the Bavarians by General Castelnau and the First French Army. -Then southward through the region from which the German wave had -receded, but which still bore indelible marks of the invaders’ savage -fear and hatred. In <i>Towards the Goal</i> Mrs. Ward has told the<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> tale of -Gerbévillers and of the heroic SÅ“ur Julie, who saved her “gros -blessés” in the teeth of some demoralized German officers, who forced -their way into the hospital. Here we can but give her general -impressions of the scene, as she recorded them in a letter to Miss -Arnold, written from Paris immediately afterwards:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Lorraine was in some ways a spectacle to wring one’s heart, the -ruined villages, the <i>réfugiés</i> everywhere, and the faces of men -and women who had lost their all and seen the worst horrors of -human nature face to face. But there were many beautiful and -consoling things. The marvellous view from a point near Lunéville -of the eastern frontier, the French lines and the German, near the -Forêt de Paroy—a group of some hundreds of French soldiers, near -another point of the frontier, who, finding out that we were two -English ladies, cheered us vigorously as we passed through -them—the already famous SÅ“ur Julie, of Gerbévillers, who had -been a witness of all the German crimes there, and told the story -inimitably, with native wit and Christian feeling—the beautiful -return from Nancy on a spring day across France, from East to West, -passing the great rivers, Meurthe, Meuse, Moselle, Marne—the warm -welcome of the Lorrainers—these things we shall never forget.”</p></div> - -<p>A rapid return to England and then, in order that her impressions of the -Fleet might not be behindhand, she was sent by special arrangement to -see Commodore Tyrwhitt, at Harwich, there to realize the immense -development of the smaller craft of the Navy, and to go “creeping and -climbing,” as she describes it in <i>Towards the Goal</i>, about a submarine. -Returning to Stocks to write her second series of “Letters”—now -addressed without disguise to Mr. Roosevelt—it was not long before the -news of America’s Declaration of War came in to cheer her, with an eager -telephone-message from a daughter, left in London, that “Old Glory” was -to be seen waving side by side with the Union Jack from the tower of the -House of Lords. Now surely, the happy prophecies of her soldier-friends -in France would be fulfilled: this <i>must</i> be the deciding year! But the -months passed on; Vimy and Messines were ours, yet nothing followed, and -in August, September, October, the agonizing struggle in the mud of -Passchendæle sapped the<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> endurance of the watchers at home more -miserably than any other three months of the War. And there, on October -11, perished a lad of twenty, bearing a name that was heart of her heart -to Mrs. Ward, Tom Arnold, the elder son of her brother, Dr. F. S. -Arnold. He had lain wounded all night in a shell-hole, and when at -length they bore him back to the Casualty Clearing-station, the little -flame of life, though it flickered and shot upwards in hope, sank again -into darkness. Tom was a lad to whose gentle soul all war was utterly -abhorrent, yet he had “joined up” without question on the earliest -possible day. Already Christopher and Arthur Selwyn, the splendid twins, -were gone, and the sons of so many friends and neighbours, gentle and -simple! About this time General Horne had invited her to come once more -to France. “But it is not at all likely I shall go (she wrote)—though, -perhaps, in the spring it might be, if the War goes on. Horrible, -horrible thought! I am more and more conscious of its horror and -hideousness every day. And yet after so much—after all these lives laid -down—not to achieve the end, and a real ‘peace upon Israel’—would not -that be worst of all?”<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><br /> -LAST YEARS: 1917-1920</h2> - -<p class="c"> -<span title="Greek: antar emeu schedothen moros Istatai; hôs ophelon ge -sên cheira labousa thanein">αὑτá¼Ï ἑμεὑ σχεδá½Î¸ÎµÎ½ μá½Ïος Ισταται ὡς á½Ï†ÎµÎ»á½Î½ γε<br /> -χεÏá¼± φἱλην τἡν σἡν χεἱÏα λαβοὑσα θανεἱν.</span><a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a><br /> - -D<small>AMAGETUS.</small> -</p> - -<p class="nind"><span class="letra">T</span>HOSE who visited Mrs. Ward at Stocks during the later years of the War -were wont to fasten upon any younger members of the family who happened -to be there, to declare that Mrs. Ward was working herself to death and -to plead that something must be done to stop her. And even as they said -it they knew that their words were vain, for besides the perennial need -to make a living, was not her country at war and were not the young men -dying every day? Mrs. Ward was not of the temperament that forgot such -things; hence her desire to throw her very best work into her “War -books”—which owing to their low price and the special terms on which -she allowed the Government to use them could never bring her anything -like the same return as her novels.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> She regarded them<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> therefore -almost as an extra on her ordinary work, so that the pressure on her -time was increased rather than diminished as the War years went on and -her own age advanced. And the last of the series, <i>Fields of Victory</i>, -was to make on her time and strength the greatest demands of all.</p> - -<p>But the lighter side of her War labours was the intense and meticulous -interest she took in the “War economies” devised by herself and Dorothy -at Stocks. How they schemed and planned about the cutting of timber, the -growing of potatoes, the making of jam and the sharing of the garden -fruit with the village! Labour in the garden was reduced to a minimum, -so that all the family must take their turn at planting out violas and -verbenas, if the poor things were to be saved for use at all, while Mr. -Wilkin, the well-beloved butler who had been with us for twenty years, -mowed the lawn and split wood and performed many other unorthodox tasks -until he too was called up, at 47, in the summer of 1918. Mrs. Ward -could not plant verbenas, but she armed herself with a spud and might -often be seen of an afternoon valiantly attacking the weeds in the -rose-beds and paths. The links between her and the little estate seemed -to grow ever stronger as she came to depend more and more directly on -the produce of the soil, and when, in 1918, she established a cow on -what had once been the cricket-ground her joy and pride in the -productiveness of her new creature were a delight to all beholders. Her -daughter Dorothy was at this time deep in the organisation of “Women on -the Land”—a movement of considerable importance in Hertfordshire—, so -that Mrs. Ward could study it at first hand and had many an absorbing -conversation with one of the “gang-leaders,” Mrs. Bentwich, who made -Stocks her headquarters for a time and delighted her hostess by her -many-sided ability and by the picturesqueness of her attire. All this -gave her many ideas for her four War novels—<i>Missing</i>, <i>The War and -Elizabeth</i>, <i>Cousin Philip</i> and <i>Harvest</i>, the last of which was to -close the long list of her books. <i>Missing</i> had a considerable popular -success, for it sold 21,000 in America in the first two months of its<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> -appearance, but <i>Elizabeth</i> and <i>Cousin Philip</i> were, I think, felt to -be the most interesting of this series, owing to the admirable studies -they presented of the type of young woman thrown up and moulded by the -War. Mrs. Ward was by no means ashamed of her hard work as a novelist in -these days.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I have just finished a book,” she wrote to her nephew, Julian -Huxley, in April 1918, “and am beginning another—as usual! But I -should be lost without it, and it is what my betters, George Sand -and Balzac—and Scott!—did before me. Literature is an honourable -profession, and I am no ways ashamed of it—as a profession. And -indeed I feel that novels have a special function nowadays—when -one sees the great demand for them as a <i>délassement</i> and -refreshment. I wish with all my heart I could write a good -detective—or mystery—novel! That is what the wounded and the -tired love.”</p></div> - -<p>But, side by side with this immense output of writing, Mrs. Ward never -allowed the springs of thought to grow dry for lack of reading. The one -advantage that she gained from her short nights—for her hours of sleep -were rarely more and often less than six—was that the long hours of -wakefulness in the early morning gave her time for the reading of many -books and of poetry. “There is nothing like it for keeping the streams -of life fresh,” she wrote to one of us. “At least that is my feeling now -that I am beginning to grow old. All things pass, but thought and -feeling! And to grow cold to poetry is to let that which is most vital -in our being decay. I seem to trace in the men and women I see whether -they keep their ideals and whether they still turn to imagination, -whether through art or poetry. And I believe for thousands it is the -difference between being happy and unhappy—between being ‘dans l’ordre’ -or at variance with the world.”</p> - -<p>In addition to her novels and her two first War books, Mrs. Ward had -been writing at intervals, ever since the summer of 1916, her -<i>Recollections</i>, and brought them out at length in October 1918. They -covered the period of her life down to the year 1900, giving a picture -of things seen and heard, of friends loved and enjoyed and lost, of -long-past Oxford days, of London, Rome, and the Alban Hills, such as -only a woman of her manifold experience could offer to<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> a tired -generation. The reception given to the book touched her profoundly, for -it showed her, beyond the possibility of doubt, that her long life’s -work had earned her not only the admiration but the love of her -fellow-countrymen. As an old friend, Mrs. Halsey, wrote to Dorothy, “I -remember Mlle Souvestre saying more than thirty years ago, ‘Ah! the -books I admire—but it’s the woman Mary Ward that I love.’” “Mrs. Ward’s -Recollections are of priceless value,” said the <i>Contemporary Review</i>; -“all the famous names are here, but that is nothing; the people -themselves are here moving about and veritably alive—great men and -women of whom posterity will long to hear.” And another reviewer dwelt -on a different aspect: “She has lived to see the first social studies -and efforts of her Oxford days grow into the Passmore Edwards -Settlement, the Schools for the Physically Defective, the Play Centres -and a great deal else in which she has reaped a harvest for the England -of to-day or sown a seed for the England of to-morrow.” The reviews -generally ended on a note of hope for a second volume, to complete the -story—, but the story remained, and will always remain, uncompleted.</p> - -<p>Perhaps part of the affectionate admiration with which her -<i>Recollections</i> were received was due to the wider knowledge which the -public at last possessed of all that she had been able to accomplish, -through twenty years of toil, for the children of England. For it so -happened that during the two years that preceded the appearance of her -<i>Recollections</i>—years of war and difficulty of all kinds as they -were—Mrs. Ward had seen her labours for the play-time of London’s -children crowned by that State recognition towards which she had always -worked, and her hopes for the extension of Special Schools for crippled -children to the provinces as well as London very largely realised. After -an immensely up-hill struggle to maintain the funds for her Play Centres -during the first two years of the War, it was at length the War -conditions themselves that convinced the authorities that all was not -well with the child-population of our big cities and that such efforts -as Mrs. Ward’s must be encouraged and assisted in the fullest possible -way. “Juvenile crime”—that comprehensive phrase that covers everything -from pilfering at street corners to the formation of “Black-Hand-Gangs” -under some adventurous spirit of ten or eleven,<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> gloriously devoted to -terrorising the back streets after dark—was the portent that convinced -Whitehall, that set the Home Office complaining to the Board of -Education and the Board of Education consulting Mrs. Ward. The result of -these consultations, carried on in the winter of 1916-17 between Mrs. -Ward, Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge (the Permanent Secretary), Mr. Pease the -outgoing and Mr. Fisher the incoming President of the Board, was that on -Jan. 26, 1917, an official announcement appeared in <i>The Times</i> to the -effect that “Grants from the Board of Education will shortly be -available in aid of the cost of carrying on Play Centres.... Hitherto -Centres have been established only by voluntary bodies, mostly in -London, where the Local Education Authority has granted the free use of -school buildings. It is hoped that the powers which education -authorities already possess of establishing and aiding such centres will -be more freely exercised in future.”</p> - -<p>To which <i>The Times</i> added the following note:—“The announcement that -the Treasury has approved the principle of play centres and will signify -its approval in the usual manner, forms a fitting and characteristic -climax to twenty years of voluntary effort on the part of Mrs. Humphry -Ward and a devoted circle of workers.”</p> - -<p>There was general rejoicing among the higher officials of the Board, who -had watched Mrs. Ward’s work for so long, when the Treasury at length -announced its consent to the Grant. Sir Amherst Selby-Bigge wrote to her -in the following terms:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Allow me to congratulate you most heartily on having induced the -State to take under its wing and aid the enterprise of which you -have been the pioneer and which you have carried on unaided for so -many years with such admirable results.</p> - -<p>‘I do not think you are one of those who are nervous about State -intervention or share the apprehension which is sometimes expressed -that a free spirit of voluntary enterprise may be hampered or -circumscribed by the existence of State aid. However this may be, I -think you may feel sure that our grants and regulations will be -administered in a sympathetic spirit and with full recognition that -it is necessary to secure and retain the willing co-operation of -people of all kinds who are anxious<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> to devote their time and -energy to public service. It is a source of great pleasure to me -that I have been the humble instrument of furthering the enterprise -of which you have been the guiding spirit.”</p></div> - -<p>As a matter of fact, the Board’s regulations were largely drawn up by -Mrs. Ward herself, and her relations with both officials and President -continued close and cordial—nay, almost affectionate!—down to the last -day of her life. Nor was the London County Council left long behindhand. -The Treasury Grant amounted to 50 per cent. of the “approved -expenditure” of any voluntary committee or Education Authority which -carried on Play Centres according to the Board’s regulations, so that it -was not long before some fifty great towns all over England were opening -Play Centres of their own, under the Act of 1907, and London was in -danger of being left behind. In the summer of 1919, however, Mrs. Ward’s -edifice was crowned by the Council’s deciding to take over another -quarter of the cost of her Centres, so that she was left with only one -quarter to raise in voluntary funds. The whole of the organisation, -however—which had long been perfected by the contriving brain of Miss -Churcher—was left in Mrs. Ward’s hands, subject only to inspection by -the Council, for the Education Committee knew better than to disturb the -result of so many years of specialised care and study. The additional -funds available made it possible for Mrs. Ward, in the last three years -of her life, to add ten new Centres in London to the twenty-two that she -was maintaining before the advent of the Grant. It may be imagined what -joy this gave to her, and how, in the winter of 1917-18, in spite of the -cruelly-darkened streets and the danger of air-raids, she managed to -make her way to many of these new Centres, lingering there in complete -content to watch her singing children. The last phase of the Play Centre -movement, as far as Mrs. Ward was concerned, was the publication by her -daughter, in February 1920, of a little book describing their origin and -growth,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> with a preface written by Mrs. Ward herself. This she sent -to Mr. Fisher, and received from him, a month before her death, a letter -which deserves to be quoted here as a fitting epitaph on her work. Mr. -Fisher and she had<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> recently visited Oxford together, to speak at the -opening of the “Arlosh Hall” at Manchester College.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“Albert Dicey spoke to us, as you will remember,” wrote Mr. Fisher, -“of the abolition of religious tests in the Universities as -belonging to that small category of reforms to which no discernible -disadvantages attach and I am convinced that the same high and -unusual compliment may be paid without a suspicion of extravagance -to the Evening Play Centres. Here there are no drawbacks, nothing -but positive and far-reaching good.”</p></div> - -<p>In the same way Mrs. Ward succeeded, in the spring of 1918, in -persuading the House of Commons to add a clause to Mr. Fisher’s great -Education Bill, making it compulsory for Education Authorities -throughout the country to “make arrangements” for the education of their -physically defective children. She used for this purpose the machinery -of the “Joint Parliamentary Advisory Council” which she had founded in -1913,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> but the bulk of the work—involving as it did the sending out -of circular letters to ninety-five Education Authorities, the sifting -and printing of the replies and the forwarding of these to every Member -of Parliament—was carried out from Stocks, causing a heavy strain—long -remembered!—on the secretarial resources of the house. It may be noted -too, that all this took place during those agonising weeks when the -British Armies were being hurled back in France and Flanders, and when -Mrs. Ward, of all people, realised only too clearly the peril we were -in. But the task was accomplished and the clause added to the Bill, so -that a new charter was thus provided for the 30,000 or so of crippled -and invalid children who still remained throughout the country -uneducated and uncared for.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> A little later, the movement initiated -by Sir Robert Jones and the Central Committee for the Care of Cripples, -for converting some of the War Hospitals into Homes for the scientific -treatment of crippled children received Mrs. Ward’s<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> warm support, her -special contribution to the movement being a successful campaign for the -provision of educational facilities for the children lying for many -months within the hospital walls. The beautiful War-hospital at Calgarth -on Lake Windermere (the Ethel Hedley Hospital) was converted to this use -in the spring of 1920, and one of the last pleasures which Mrs. Ward -enjoyed was her correspondence with the Governors of the hospital, who -described to her their plan for the conversion and invoked her blessing -upon it. Mrs. Ward was never able to visit Calgarth, but the love she -bore to the fells and waters of the North which surrounded it have -linked her memory very specially with this delightful place, where -children who, even ten years before, would have been deemed hopeless -cases, recover straightness and strength. Her connection with this -enterprise made a gentle ending to her long labour for these waifs of -our educational system.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Who that lived through the year 1918 will ever lose the memory of its -gigantic vicissitudes? Mrs. Ward, with her actual knowledge of so much -of the ground over which the battles of March and April raged, was -certainly not among those who could shut their eyes to the national -danger they involved. She tried to maintain her characteristic optimism -throughout the blackest times, and was in the end justified. But I -remember one afternoon at Grosvenor Place when a friend who thought that -he was much “in the know” informed us confidentially that we were “out -of Ypres—been out for the last two days, but they don’t want to tell -us,” and hope sank very low. When the battle rolled up to the foot of -her own Scherpenberg Hill she longed, I believe, to be there with a -pike, but victory was ours that day and she felt a special lifting of -the heart at the news. As the terrible pageant of the year unrolled -itself, her heart went out to France in her losing struggle north of the -Marne; to Italy in those anxious days of June, when after a first recoil -she swept the Austrians permanently back over the Piave; to France again -in the first great return towards Soissons and the Aisne. Was it the -real turn of the tide? Hardly could we dare to believe it, but in the -light of later events it became evident that the Italian stand on the -Piave had indeed marked the turn for the whole Allied front. Mrs. Ward<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> -always thought of this with peculiar satisfaction, for she was kept in -constant touch with the situation out there by her son-in-law, George -Trevelyan, who was in command of a British Red Cross Unit on the Italian -front, and the disaster of Caporetto had very sadly affected her. Now -all was well once more and Mrs. Ward, who had been no fair-weather -friend to Italy, rejoiced with all her heart. There was much talk during -the summer of a possible visit of hers, that autumn, to the Italian -front, but events were destined to move too fast, and Mrs. Ward never -again beheld the Lombard Plain.</p> - -<p>But when the incredible hope had at last become solid fact—when the -British Armies had stormed the Hindenburg Line and how much else beside, -when the Americans had won through the forest of the Argonne and the -French had pressed on to their ancient frontier; when Stocks had been -illuminated on Armistice Night and we had all settled down to -speculation, more or less sober, on the remaking of the world, Mrs. Ward -began to enquire from the authorities as to the possibility of a third -and final journey to France. For she wished with almost passionate -eagerness to write a third and final book on the last phase of -“England’s Effort.” She was met once more with the greatest cordiality. -Sir Douglas Haig expressed a desire to see her; General Horne promised -to send her over the battlefield of Vimy; Lille, Lens and Cambrai were -to reveal to her the tale of their four years of servitude. And, on -their part, the French promised to convey her to Metz and Strasburg and -to show her Verdun and Rheims on her return, while Paris was to be made -easy for her by the hospitality of a delightful young couple, her -cousins, Arnold Whitridge and his wife, who had the good fortune to -possess a house there amid the rush and pressure of all the nations of -the world.</p> - -<p>So everything was planned and settled during the month of December 1918, -but before she left England on her last mission Mrs. Ward was able to -enjoy that strange Peace Christmas which, in spite of its superficial -note of thanksgiving, seemed to ring for so many the final knell of joy. -Just two months before, Mrs. Ward had lost, from the influenza scourge, -yet another soldier-nephew, the youngest Selwyn boy, while sorrow had -come to the house itself in the death at a training camp of her butler’s -only son—a lad<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> of 17 who had been the playmate of her grandchildren on -many a golden afternoon in the days gone by. But if the elders could not -forget these things, the children at least could be made an excuse for -rejoicing! And so her two grandchildren, Mary and Humphry, came once -more to Stocks as they had come for every Christmas since they entered -this world; they mounted the big bed as of old and played the egg-game -with solemn attention to detail, and then on the last day of the year -Stocks opened its doors to the children from far and near, coming in -fancy dress to dance out the Year of Miracles. Mrs. Ward, who had that -very morning finished the writing of a novel, moved among the groups -with a face the pallor of which, though we did not know it, was already -a premonition of the end. She drank in the beauty of the scene in deep -draughts of refreshment. That little boy attired as feathered -Mercury—that slender Rosalind with the glorious bush of hair—they -caught at her heart! From certain fragments of talk that she let fall -during the evening one gathered that the sight had meant more to her -than a mere joyous spectacle. To these would be the new world: let the -elders leave it them in faith. “Green earth forgets.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward’s third journey to France was of longer duration (it lasted -over three weeks, Jan. 7-30) than either of the others, and save that -the conditions of danger created by the actual fighting were eliminated -it was of a still more arduous nature, while it afforded her even -greater opportunities than the others had done of realising and summing -up the proportionate achievements of the three great armies—French, -American and British. For the object of this final pilgrimage was no -less than to bring out, by a careful analysis of all the available -facts, the overwhelming part played by the British Armies in France in -the last year of the War, and so to do her part in silencing the -extraordinary misconceptions that were still current, especially in -America, as to the share that the British Armies had had in the final -breaking of the German resistance. A Canadian girl working at an -American Y.M.C.A. in France had written to her in the previous August, -imploring her to bring <i>England’s Effort</i> up to date and to distribute -it by the thousand among the American troops.<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“I see hundreds of the finest remaining white men on earth every -week,” continued this witness. “They are wonderful military -material and <i>very</i> attractive and lovable boys, but it discourages -all one’s hopes for future unity and friendship between us all to -realize, as I have done the last few months, that the majority of -these men are entering the fight firmly believing that ‘England has -not done her share,’ ‘the colonials have done all the hard -fighting’—‘France has borne all,’ etc. This from not one or two, -but <i>hundreds</i>. The men I speak of come principally from Kansas, -Illinois, Iowa—that wonderful Valley of Democracy that I sometimes -compare in my mind (with its safety and isolation from the outside -world) to those words of Kipling—‘Ringed by your careful seas, -long have you waked in quiet and long lain down at ease’—To these -boys away from the sheltered country for the first time in -<i>generations</i>, England is a foreign and a somewhat mistrusted -country, and four or five days rush through it gives them neither -opportunity nor a fair chance of judging the people—beyond the -fact that war-time restrictions annoy them. It is a crying shame -that the <i>only</i> knowledge these splendid men have of England’s -share in the war is drawn from the belittling reports of pro-German -papers. This attitude will mar all attempts at friendship between -the troops, and, I believe, seriously jeopardise future friendship -between the countries.”</p></div> - -<p>This first-hand evidence has recently received a very striking -corroboration in Mr. Walter Page’s Letters, and was amply borne out at -the time by our Ministry of Information at home. Moreover, since August, -Great Britain had indeed added another chapter to her previous record! -So Mrs. Ward was received by Sir Douglas Haig, at his little château -near Montreuil, on January 8, 1919, and there had a most illuminating -talk with him, illustrated by his wonderful series of charts and maps; -she went through the desolation of Ypres, and Lens, and Arras; she -visited General Birdwood at Lille and General Horne at Valenciennes, -renewing her friendship with the latter and making the aquaintance of -his Chief of Staff, General Hastings Anderson, “a delightful, witty -person, full of fun,” who told her many things. She climbed the Vimy -Ridge, “scrambling up over trenches and barbed wire and other <i>débris</i> -to the top,”<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> assisted by Dorothy and Lieut. Farrer, their guide; she -crossed the Hindenburg Line in both directions, the second time at the -Canal du Nord, where she got out in the January twilight to study the -marvellous German trench system and the tracks of two tanks that had led -the attack of the First Army on September 27; she saw the area of open -fighting beyond Cambrai, and, returning by the Cambrai-Bapaume road to -Amiens, passed through a heap of shapeless ruins “where only a signboard -told us that this had once been Bapaume.” From Amiens she passed on to -Paris, and thence to Metz and Strasburg, realising something, at Metz, -of the difficulty confronting the French Government in the large German -population, and at Strasburg passing a wholly delightful evening with -General Gouraud—hero both of Gallipoli and of Champagne. Armed with -General Gouraud’s maps and passes she then returned via Nancy to Verdun -and spent an unforgettable afternoon, first in inspecting the -subterranean labyrinth under the old fortress which had given sleep to -so many weary soldiers during the siege, and then in motoring slowly -through the battlefield itself. It may be imagined how such names as -Vaux, Douaumont, the Mort Homme, the Mont des Corbeils and the rest made -her heart leap, how they stirred the vivid historic imagination in her -which always enabled her to visualise, beyond her fellows, the actual -movement of events and of the men who played their part in them. The -sight of Verdun certainly affected her more deeply than anything, I -think, save the Salient with its hundred thousand British graves. Then, -sleeping at Châlons, she moved on to Rheims, arriving in the <i>Place</i> -before what had once been the Cathedral in time to see the Prime -Minister of England—a Sunday visitor from the Conference—standing -before the battered façade in animated talk with Cardinal Luçon. Mrs. -Ward stood aside to let them pass, watching the retreating figure of Mr. -Lloyd George “with what thoughts.” <i>This</i> was Rheims; what remedy for it -would the Conference find?</p> - -<p>Nor did Mrs. Ward neglect the American battle-fields, for on her way to -Verdun she had passed through the St. Mihiel salient and studied the -ground there; she had seen the Forêt de l’Argonne in the winter dusk -after leaving Verdun, and now on her way to Paris she spent a cheerful -hour at Château Thierry, mingling with the American boys<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> on the scene -of their first and perhaps most memorable triumph. For actually to have -helped by hard fighting, man to man, to keep the Boche from Paris, that -was something for which to have crossed the Atlantic! St. Mihiel and the -Argonne were all part of the great plan, but this, this was history! So -at least Mrs. Ward felt as she crossed the sacred ground from Dormans to -Château Thierry where the Germans had made their formidable push for -Montmirail and Paris, and where an American regiment of marines had said -them nay.</p> - -<p>After her long pilgrimage Mrs. Ward spent a week in Paris, much absorbed -in the pursuit of accurate information for the book that she had still -to write. But there was also time for the seeing of many of those famous -figures who, with the best intentions, filled the French stage for half -a year and, at the end, gave us the world in which, <i>tant bien que mal</i>, -we live. She went to consult with our ambassador, Lord Derby, on certain -aspects of her work; she revived her old friendship with M. Jusserand; -she saw General Pershing and Mr. Hoover, and, on the very day when the -League of Nations resolution had been passed, President Wilson himself. -Of this she has left a lively account in the first chapter of <i>Fields of -Victory</i>.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward should, by all the rules, have returned straight home from -Paris, for she had already begun to suffer from bronchial catarrh and -the weather had turned colder. But she was bent on seeing certain -British officers at Amiens who had prepared some special information for -her and therefore broke her journey there and also at the little -“Visitors’ Château” at Agincourt. Here, struggling against the intense -cold and her own increasing illness, she exhausted herself in long -conversations, though all that she heard was of deep interest to her -task. But she was obliged to give up a visit to the battle-field of -August 8 which her hosts had planned for her, and to return instead, -while she still might, to England. When at last she reached home she was -pronounced to have tonsilitis and to be within an inch of bronchitis -too, and was kept in bed for many days. But it was many weeks before the -bronchial catarrh left her, nor did she ever, during this last year of -her life, regain the level of health at which she had started for France -in the first week of the year. Yet none the less must her articles be -written, for<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> time pressed if she was to catch the right moment for the -book’s appearance. She was ably and generously helped by various -officers, especially by General Sir John Davidson, who brought with him -to Grosvenor Place one day a reduced-scale version of the great chart at -which she had gazed fascinated at Montreuil, and which she afterwards -obtained leave to reproduce in her book. “It was amusing,” wrote Dorothy -that night, “to see Mother and Lady Selborne and Sir John Davidson all -on the floor, poring over his wonderful chart of the War.”</p> - -<p>But in spite of the willingness to help of the authorities, the labour -of studying and digesting the mass of material placed at her -disposal—stiff and intractable stuff as it was—and of forming from it -a harmonious and artistic whole was something far harder than she had -expected. It required real historical method, and carried her back in -memory to the days of the West Goths and the <i>Dictionary of Christian -Biography</i>. But she would not be beaten, either by the difficulty of the -task or by the necessity of getting it done within a certain time. One -day in April, just after she had returned from Grosvenor Place to -Stocks, it became necessary to send one of her articles, type-written, -up to London in time to catch the Foreign Office bag for New York; the -necessary train left Tring Station at 12.37. Mrs. Ward finished writing -the article at 12.22; Miss Churcher, who had followed page by page with -the type-writer, finished the last page at 12.30; Dorothy flew to the -station with it and caught the train.</p> - -<p>Besides the initial difficulty of the work, however, the necessity of -submitting what she had written to two or three different authorities -caused inevitable delays, while a printers’ strike in Glasgow at the -critical moment again deferred the book’s publication. When, therefore, -<i>Fields of Victory</i> at length appeared, the psychological moment had -passed by, the world was far more concerned with the future than with -the past, and only a moderate number of the book were sold. Mrs. Ward -was of course somewhat disappointed, but there was much consolation to -be had in the note of astonishment, combined with admiration, which the -book called forth among those for whose opinion she really cared, -whether in England, France or America. This feeling was summed up in a -letter written by General<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> Hastings Anderson—then holding a high -appointment on the Staff of the Army—to Miss Ward, after her mother’s -death.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The book will be a very prized memento, not only of a gifted -writer who did so much to bring home to the ignorant the whole -significance of our effort in the war; but also of a great -Englishwoman, and of the happy breaks in our work marked by her -visits to the First Army in France.</p> - -<p>‘What strikes me most in your mother’s book is her marvellous -insight into the way of thinking of the soldiers—I mean those who -knew most of what was really happening—who were actually engaged -in the great struggle. One would say the book was written by one -who had played a prominent part in the War in France, and with -knowledge of the thoughts of the high directing staffs. This is no -compliment; it can only come from the trained expression of a very -deep sympathy, and complete understanding of the thoughts and views -which were expressed to her by those high in command.</p> - -<p>“I can well understand what a strain such intense concentration of -thought must have meant, when combined with the fatigues of travel -over great distances on the French roads, and the regrets and -delays in publication. But the completed book and its predecessors -are a very precious legacy, especially to those of us who saw the -whole long struggle in France.”</p></div> - -<p>Mrs. Ward’s health improved to a certain extent during the summer of -this year (1919), so that she was able to enjoy on Peace Day (July 19) -the great procession of Victory, watching it from the enclosure outside -Buckingham Palace. “Foch saluting was a sight not to be forgotten,” she -wrote. “A paladin on horseback, saluting with a certain melancholy -dignity—a figure of romance.” But she was mainly at Stocks during all -this summer, basking in the golden weather of that year, delighting in a -few Sunday gatherings of friends and in the weekly visits of her -grandchildren, who were now domiciled at Berkhamsted, five miles away, -and whom nothing could keep away, on Sundays, from Stocks, with its -tennis-court, its strawberries—and “Gunny”!</p> - -<p><a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a></p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>...“I shall always think of her particularly,” wrote Mrs. Robert -Crawshay afterwards, “sitting in her garden that last beautiful -summer at Stocks, with her wonderful expression of wisdom and the -kindness that prevented anyone feeling rebuked by her being on a -much higher level than themselves—her interest so generously -given, her pain never mentioned, her eyes lighting up with love as -the children came across the lawn, an atmosphere of beauty and -peace all around her.”</p></div> - -<p>Much talk was heard on the lawn, as the summer passed on, about the -peace terms and the prospects of any recovery in Europe, and it is -recorded that although Mrs. Ward approved on the whole of the terms she -thought it the height of unwisdom to have allowed the Germans no voice -in discussing them before the signature. In Russia her heart was -passionately with the various rebels who arose to dispute the tyranny of -the Soviets, and as each hope faded she felt the horrors of that tragic -land more acutely. But most of all did she feel the tragedy of the -children of Austria and Central Europe, so that one of her last speeches -was devoted to pleading, at Berkhamsted, the cause of the Save the -Children Fund.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> It was noticed that day how white and frail was her -look, but all the more for that did her appeal find its way to the -hearts of her audience. The children of Germany must be fed as well as -the rest, she said; “we have no war with children,” and she recalled the -lovely lines of Blake which describe the angels moving through the -night:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“If they see any weeping<br /></span> -<span class="i1">That should have been sleeping<br /></span> -<span class="i1">They pour sleep on their head<br /></span> -<span class="i1">And sit down by their bed.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">“There are hundreds of thousands of children at this moment who on these -beautiful October nights ‘are weeping that should have been -sleeping’—It is for this country, it is for you and me, to play the -part of angels of succour to these poor little ones wherever they may -be, to feed and clothe and cherish them in the name of our common -humanity and our common faith.”</p> - -<p>In the meantime the unrelenting pressure of war taxation on her own -income had made it imperative, at last, to give<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> up the house in -Grosvenor Place which had been her London home for nearly thirty years. -Mrs. Ward slept there for the last time on August 29, 1919, and wrote of -her parting from it the next day to J. P. T.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“The poor old house begins to look dismantled. I had many thoughts -about it that last night there—of the people who had dined and -talked in it—Henry James, and Burne-Jones, Stopford Brooke, -Martineau, Watts, Tadema, Lowell, Roosevelt, Page, Northbrook, -Goschen and so many more—of one’s own good times, and follies and -mistakes—everything passing at last into the words, ‘He knoweth -whereof we are made, He remembereth that we are but dust.’”</p></div> - -<p>Then, in September, Mrs. Ward went for the last time to the Lake -District, motoring there via Stratford-on-Avon in her “little car”—a -cheap post-war purchase which spent most of its time in the repairing -shop, but which, for this occasion, put forth a supreme effort and -actually brought Mrs. Ward safely home through the midst of the railway -strike. She made her headquarters at Grasmere, for which she had -developed a special affection during two recent summers when she had -taken “Kelbarrow” and had watched from its lawn every passing mood of -the little lake. She visited Fox How and “Aunt Fan” almost every day; -she renewed her friendship with Canon and Mrs. Rawnsley and her -life-long intimacy with Gordon Wordsworth. And, on the Langdale side of -the fell, she visited a little grave to which her heart always yearned -afresh.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward was deeply interested, during these last months of her life, -in the attempts made by the Liberal element in the Church to modify or -retard the “Enabling Bill,” or as it is now known, the Church Assembly -Act. All her fighting spirit was aroused by the claim made by the Bill -to lay down tests and distinctions between member and member of the -National Church, especially by the imposition of the test of Holy -Communion on all candidates for the new Church bodies. She feared, in -the words of the Bishop of Carlisle (who saw eye to eye with her in this -matter) “that the declaration required as a condition of membership of -the Church of England will go a long way towards de-nationalising the -Church and reducing it to the status of a<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> sect.” She organised, early -in December, a letter to <i>The Times</i> which was signed by all the most -prominent names in Liberal Churchmanship, protesting against the scanty -opportunities for debate which, owing to a ruling of the Speaker’s, the -measure was to have in the House of Commons. But, when it became law -<i>quand même</i>, she turned her thoughts and her remaining energies to a -constructive movement which might rally the scattered Liberal forces of -the Church and assert for them the right, after due notice given of -their opinions, to participate without dishonesty in the rite of Holy -Communion. In a leaflet issued from Stocks to various private -sympathisers in January 1920, Mrs. Ward pointed out that the difficulty -which had confronted the Church sixty years before with regard to the -Thirty-nine Articles had now passed on to the Creeds, and that to many -who were convinced believers in the God within us, the following of -Christ and the practical realisation of the Kingdom, the Nicene Creed -was yet, “to quote a recent phrase, ‘no more than the majority opinion -of a Committee held 1,600 years ago.’” She therefore appealed for the -formation of a “Faith and Freedom Association,” the members of which -might claim to take their part in the new Councils and Assemblies while -openly stating their dissent from, or their right to re-interpret the -Creeds; only so could the Church continue to include that Modernist -element which was essential to its healthy development.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ward received a good deal of sympathy and encouragement from those -to whom she sent her leaflet, and dreamt, in her indomitable way, of -summoning a meeting later on if the response were sufficient. But she -knew in her heart that her own strength would no longer suffice to lead -such a crusade, and she appealed with a certain wistfulness to the young -“to pour into it their life, their courage and their love.” It troubled -her that no young person or group arose to take the burden from her -shoulders. But in truth she was still the youngest in heart of all her -generation, or the next, and if it were not that the poor body was -outworn she might yet have exerted the influence she longed for on the -religious life of her country.</p> - -<p>But it was too late. Mrs. Ward’s health definitely gave way about -Christmas-time, 1919, the breakdown taking the form of a violent attack -of neuritis in the shoulders and arms.<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> Although she would not yet -acknowledge it, but tried to continue the old round of work, increasing -weakness made it plain to her, at length, that she must not, for the -present at least, go crusading. But how she hoped and strove for better -times! Her devoted doctor-brother, Frank Arnold, to whom she turned -again and again with pathetic trust, knowing his ingenuity in the -devising of remedies, tended her with a skill born of a life-long -knowledge of her; but the malady was too deep-seated. At the end of -January she moved to London in order to try a certain course of -treatment, taking up her abode in a little house in Connaught Square -which her husband and Dorothy had found for her. She liked the little -place, especially on the days when flowers from Stocks arrived to make a -bower of it, and there, in the midst of a fruitless round of -“treatments” which did nothing but sap her remaining strength, she -passed the last weeks of her life. Old friends came once more to visit -her; her son and her daughters took turns in reading to her the poets -that she loved; Miss Churcher brought for her delight the latest stories -from the Play Centres. She still went downstairs and even, sometimes, -out of doors, but those who came to the house to sit with her left it, -usually, with aching hearts. Then, on March 11, another blow fell. Mr. -Ward became dangerously ill, and an immediate operation was found to be -necessary. The doctors carried him off to a nursing home not far away -and performed it, successfully, that night, while Mrs. Ward sat below in -the waiting-room in an agony of anxiety. The next day, and the next, she -was still able to go to him, the porters carrying her upstairs to his -room, but on Sunday, March 14, signs of bronchitis showed themselves, -together with a grave condition of the heart. The doctors would not -hear, after this, of her leaving the house.</p> - -<p>So for ten days she lay in the little London bedroom, looking out over -London trees, her heart pining for the day—the spring day which would -surely come—when she and he would return to Stocks together and their -ills would be forgotten. “Ah,” she wrote to him in his nursing home on -March 18, “it is too trying this imprisonment—but it ought only to be a -few days more!”</p> - -<p>And indeed, her release was nearer than she knew. Did she not know it? -In mortal illness there are secrets of<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> the inner consciousness which -those who tend, however lovingly, can never wholly penetrate, but as her -mind advanced ever nearer to the verge, one felt that it was swept, ever -and anon, by far-off gusts of poetry, finding expression in words and -fragments long possessed and intimately loved. Such were the “Last -Lines” of Emily Brontë, of which, two days before the end, she repeated -the great second verse to Dorothy, saying with the old passionate -gesture of the hands, “<i>That’s</i> what I am thinking of!”</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">O God within my breast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Almighty, ever-present Deity!<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Life—that in me has rest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As I—undying Life—have power in thee!<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Then, early on the morning of the 24th, there came an hour of crisis, -when life fought with death for victory; but, before the end, “she -opened her dear eyes wide, her dear brown eyes, like the eyes of a young -woman, and looked out into the unknown with a most wonderful look on her -face. I think that at that moment her soul crossed the bar.” So wrote -Dorothy, the only witness of that look; she will carry the memory of it -in her heart to the end.</p> - -<p class="c">————</p> - -<p>We buried her in the quiet churchyard at Aldbury, within sight of the -long sweep of hill and the beechwoods that she had loved so well. Her -old friend the Rector, Canon Wood, laid her to rest, while another -friend for whom she had had a deep regard, Dean Inge, spoke of her in -simple and moving words, naming her before us all as “perhaps the -greatest Englishwoman of our time.”</p> - -<p>There were not wanting, indeed, signs that many in England so regarded -her. It was as though she had lived through the period, some ten years -before, when the public had tired somewhat of her books and younger -writers had to a large extent supplanted her, until, towards the end, -she found herself taken to the heart of her countrymen in a manner that -had hardly been her lot in the years of her greatest literary fame. They -loved her not only for all that she had done, but for what she was, -divining in her, besides her intellectual gifts, besides even the -tenderness and sympathy of her character, that indomitable courage that -carried her<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> through to the end, over difficulties and obstacles at -which they only dimly guessed. They loved her for wearing herself out, -at sixty-seven, in visits to the battle-fields of France, that she might -bear her witness to her country’s deeds; they loved her for all the joy -that she had given to little children. Two months before her death the -Lord Chancellor, making himself the mouthpiece of this feeling, had -asked her to act as one of the first seven women magistrates of England, -and later still, when she was already nearing the end, the University of -Edinburgh invited her to receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D. These acts -of recognition gave her a passing pleasure, and when she herself was -beyond the reach of pleasure, or of pain, it stirred the hearts of those -who went with her, for the last time, to the little village graveyard to -see awaiting her, at the drive gate, a file of stalwart police, claiming -their right to escort the coffin of a Justice of the Peace.</p> - -<p>Many indeed were the tributes paid to her memory, whether in the letters -received after her death or in the words uttered by Lord Milner and -other old friends at the unveiling of her medallion in the Hall of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> (July 1922). Of these one only shall be -quoted here, from a letter written to Mr. Ward by her dear and intimate -friend of so many years’ standing, André Chevrillon:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>...“I had no friend in England whom I loved and respected more, -none to whom I owed so much. I have often thought that if I love -your country as I do—and indeed I have sometimes been accused of -being biassed in my views of England—it was partly due to the -personal gratitude which I always felt for the kindness of her -greeting and hospitality when I came to England as a young man. The -same generous welcome was extended to other young Frenchmen who -have since written on England, and there is no doubt that it has -helped to create long before the War a bond between our two -countries.</p> - -<p>‘We all felt the spell of her noble and generous spirit. She struck -one as the most perfect example of the English lady of the old -admirable governing class, with her ever-active and efficient -public spirit—of the highest English moral and intellectual -culture. Though I had come to<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> England several times before I met -her—some thirty years ago—I had not yet formed a true idea of -what that culture would be—though I had read of it in my uncle -Taine’s <i>Notes on England</i>. It was a revelation, though I must say -I have never met one since with quite so complete a mental -equipment, and that showed quite to the same degree those wonderful -and, to others, beneficent qualities of radiant vitality, spirit -and generosity. (It seems that these words must recur again and -again when one speaks of her). She was one of those of whom a -nation may well be proud.</p> - -<p>“I remember our impression when her first great book came to us in -Paris. Here was the true successor of George Eliot; she continued -the great English tradition of insight into the spiritual world. -The events in her novels were those of the soul—how remote from -those which can be adapted from other writers’ novels for the -cinema!—The main forces that drove the characters like Fate were -Ideas. She could <i>dramatise</i> ideas. I do not know of any novelist -that gives one to the same degree the feeling that Ideas are living -forces, more enduring than men, and in a sense more real than -men—forces that move through them, taking hold of them and driving -them like an unseen, higher Power.”</p></div> - -<p>On her tombstone we inscribed the lines of Clough, which she herself had -written on the last page of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Others, I doubt not, if not we,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The issue of our toils shall see,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And, they forgotten and unknown,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Young children gather as their own<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The harvest that the dead had sown.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a></p> - -<p><a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="THE_PUBLISHED_WORKS_OF_MRS_HUMPHRY_WARD" id="THE_PUBLISHED_WORKS_OF_MRS_HUMPHRY_WARD"></a>THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF MRS. HUMPHRY WARD</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="left"><i>Title.</i></td><td align="center"><i>Date of Publication.</i></td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Milly and Olly, or A Holiday among the Mountains </td><td align="left">May, 1881</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Miss Bretherton</td><td align="left">November, 1884</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Amiel’s Journal</td><td align="left">December, 1885</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Robert Elsmere</td><td align="left">February, 1888</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The History of David Grieve</td><td align="left">January, 1892</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Marcella</td><td align="left">April, 1894</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Story of Bessie Costrell</td><td align="left">July, 1895</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Sir George Tressady</td><td align="left">September, 1896</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Helbeck of Bannisdale</td><td align="left">June, 1898</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Eleanor</td><td align="left">November, 1900</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Lady Rose’s Daughter</td><td align="left">March, 1903</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Marriage of William Ashe</td><td align="left">February, 1905</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Fenwick’s Career</td><td align="left">May, 1906</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Testing of Diana Mallory</td><td align="left">September, 1908</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode</td><td align="left">May, 1909</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Canadian Born</td><td align="left">April, 1910</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Case of Richard Meynell</td><td align="left">October, 1911</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Mating of Lydia</td><td align="left">March, 1913</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The Coryston Family</td><td align="left">October, 1913</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Delia Blanchflower</td><td align="left">January, 1915</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Eltham House</td><td align="left">October, 1915</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">A Great Success</td><td align="left">March, 1916</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">England’s Effort</td><td align="left">June, 1916</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Lady Connie</td><td align="left">November, 1916</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Towards the Goal</td><td align="left">June, 1917</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Missing</td><td align="left">October, 1917</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">A Writer’s Recollections</td><td align="left">October, 1918</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">The War and Elizabeth</td><td align="left">November, 1918</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Fields of Victory</td><td align="left">July, 1919</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Cousin Philip</td><td align="left">November, 1919</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Harvest</td><td align="left">April, 1920</td></tr> -</table><h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> - -<p class="cb"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#I">I</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#O">O</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#V">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a>, -<a href="#Y">Y</a>, -<a href="#Z">Z</a></p> - -<p class="nind"> -<a name="A" id="A"></a>Acton, Lord, <a href="#page_056">56</a>, <a href="#page_098">98</a>, <a href="#page_113">113</a><br /> -Adams, Henry, <a href="#page_211">211</a><br /> -Addis, W. E., <a href="#page_146">146</a><br /> -Amiel’s <i>Journal Intime</i>, <a href="#page_042">42</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_048">48-49</a><br /> -Anderson, General Sir Hastings, <a href="#page_298">298</a>, <a href="#page_302">302</a><br /> -Anderson, Mary, <a href="#page_043">43</a><br /> -Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, <a href="#page_273">273-275</a><br /> -Arnold, Eleanor (Viscountess Sandhurst), <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Arnold, Miss Ethel, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_229">229</a>, <a href="#page_251">251</a><br /> -Arnold family, the, <a href="#page_006">6</a><br /> -Arnold, Frances (Fan), <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_010">10</a>, <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_212">212</a>, <a href="#page_218">218</a>, <a href="#page_223">223</a>, <a href="#page_274">274</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Arnold, Dr. Francis Sorell, <a href="#page_287">287</a>, <a href="#page_306">306</a><br /> -Arnold, Jane (Mrs. W. E. Forster), <a href="#page_004">4</a>, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_009">9</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Arnold, Julia (Mrs. Leonard Huxley), <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_098">98</a>, <a href="#page_229">229</a>, <a href="#page_253">253</a><br /> -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Arnold, Lucy (Mrs. F. W. Whitridge), <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_209">209</a>, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Arnold, Mary (Mrs. Hiley), <a href="#page_008">8</a><br /> -Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#page_003">3</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_055">55</a>, <a href="#page_057">57</a>, <a href="#page_063">63</a>, <a href="#page_151">151</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Arnold, Theodore, <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a><br /> -Arnold, Thomas, Headmaster of Rugby, <a href="#page_001">1</a>, <a href="#page_003">3</a>, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Arnold, Thomas, the younger, <a href="#page_003">3-7</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_027">27</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a>, <a href="#page_173">173-174</a>, <a href="#page_219">219</a><br /> -Arnold, Lieut. Thomas Sorell, <a href="#page_287">287</a><br /> -Arnold, William T., <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_170">170</a>, <a href="#page_179">179-181</a><br /> -Arnold-Forster, Oakeley, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Arran, Earl of, <a href="#page_256">256</a><br /> -Arthur, Colonel, Governor of Tasmania, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> -Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a>, <a href="#page_233">233</a>, <a href="#page_235">235</a><br /> -Asser, General, <a href="#page_275">275</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="B" id="B"></a>Bagot, Capt. Josceline, <a href="#page_144">144</a><br /> -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur James (Earl), <a href="#page_072">72</a><br /> -Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald, <a href="#page_115">115</a><br /> -Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Balzani, Count Ugo, <a href="#page_161">161</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Barberini, the Villa, <a href="#page_156">156-158</a>, <a href="#page_161">161-162</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a><br /> -Barlow, Sir Thomas, <a href="#page_135">135</a><br /> -Barnes, Colonel, <a href="#page_276">276</a><br /> -Barnett, Canon Samuel, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_194">194</a><br /> -Bathurst, Lord, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> -Bayard, American Ambassador, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Bedford, Duke of, <a href="#page_120">120</a>, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_183">183</a>, <a href="#page_268">268</a><br /> -Bell, Capt., <a href="#page_284">284</a><br /> -Bell, Sir Hugh, <a href="#page_072">72</a>, 188 <i>note</i>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Bellasis, Sophie, <a href="#page_009">9</a><br /> -Benison, Miss Josephine, <a href="#page_173">173</a><br /> -Bentwich, Mrs., <a href="#page_289">289</a><br /> -<i>Bessie Costrell</i>, <i>the Story of</i>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_118">118</a><br /> -Birdwood, General, <a href="#page_298">298</a><br /> -Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine, <a href="#page_195">195-196</a><br /> -Boase, C. W., <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> -Boissier, Lieut., R.N., <a href="#page_273">273-274</a><br /> -Bonaventura, the Villa, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_262">262</a><br /> -Borough Farm, <a href="#page_045">45-47</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a>, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_093">93</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a><br /> -Bourget, Paul, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Boutmy, Emile, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Bowie, Rev. W. Copeland, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_088">88</a><br /> -Braithwaite, Miss Lilian, <a href="#page_178">178</a><br /> -Brewer, Cecil, <a href="#page_120">120-121</a><br /> -Bright, Mrs., <a href="#page_107">107</a><br /> -Brodie, Sir Benjamin, <a href="#page_015">15</a><br /> -Brontë, Charlotte, <a href="#page_165">165-168</a><br /> -Brontë, Emily, <a href="#page_166">166-168</a>, <a href="#page_307">307</a><br /> -<i>Brontë Prefaces</i>, the, <a href="#page_165">165-169</a><br /> -Brooke, Stopford A., <a href="#page_080">80</a>, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_083">83</a>, <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Browning, Pen, <a href="#page_262">262</a><br /> -Brunetière, F., <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Bryce, Rt. Hon. James (Viscount), <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_211">211</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Buchan, Lt.-Col. John, <a href="#page_288">288</a><br /> -Burgwin, Mrs., <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_141">141</a><br /> -Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, <a href="#page_100">100</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Butcher, S. H., 30 <i>footnote</i>, <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -Buxton, Sydney (Earl), <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_196">196</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="C" id="C"></a>Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, <a href="#page_229">229</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -<i>Canadian Born</i>, <a href="#page_222">222</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a><br /> -Carlisle, Earl of, <a href="#page_080">80</a>, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_083">83</a><br /> -Carpenter, J. Estlin, D.D., <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_154">154</a><br /> -Cavan, General the Earl of, <a href="#page_280">280</a><br /> -Cavendish, Lady Frederick, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Cecil, Lord Edward, <a href="#page_267">267</a><br /> -Cecil, Lord Robert, <a href="#page_270">270-271</a><br /> -Chapman, Audrey, <a href="#page_127">127</a><br /> -Charteris, General, <a href="#page_282">282</a><br /> -Chavannes, Dr., <a href="#page_087">87</a><br /> -Chevrillon, André, <a href="#page_168">168-169</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a>, <a href="#page_260">260</a>, <a href="#page_266">266</a>, <a href="#page_280">280</a>, <a href="#page_282">282</a>, <a href="#page_308">308</a><br /> -Children’s Happy Evenings Association, <a href="#page_193">193</a>, <a href="#page_196">196-197</a><br /> -Childs, W. D., <a href="#page_077">77</a><br /> -Chinda, Viscount, <a href="#page_281">281</a><br /> -Chirol, Sir Valentine, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Choate, Joseph, American Ambassador, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_280">280</a><br /> -Churcher, Miss Bessie, <a href="#page_118">118</a>, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_272">272</a>, <a href="#page_293">293</a>, <a href="#page_306">306</a><br /> -Churchill, Lord Randolph, <a href="#page_212">212</a><br /> -Clarke, Father, <a href="#page_149">149-150</a><br /> -Clough, Miss Anne, <a href="#page_008">8</a><br /> -Clough, Arthur Hugh, <a href="#page_003">3</a>, <a href="#page_010">10</a>, <a href="#page_309">309</a><br /> -Coates, Mrs. Earle, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Cobb, Sir Cyril, <a href="#page_200">200</a><br /> -Cobbe, Frances Power, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Collard, Miss M.L., <a href="#page_141">141</a><br /> -Conybeare, Mrs. Edward, <a href="#page_066">66</a><br /> -<i>Coryston Family</i>, <i>The</i>, <a href="#page_263">263</a><br /> -<i>Cousin Philip</i>, <a href="#page_289">289-290</a><br /> -Crawshay, Mrs. Robert, <a href="#page_303">303</a><br /> -Creighton, Mandell, Bishop of London, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_044">44</a>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>, <a href="#page_151">151</a>, <a href="#page_174">174</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a><br /> -Creighton, Mrs., <a href="#page_029">29</a>, <a href="#page_195">195</a>, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_240">240</a>, <a href="#page_244">244</a>, <a href="#page_248">248</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a>, <a href="#page_257">257</a>, <a href="#page_259">259</a><br /> -Crewe, Marquess of, <a href="#page_143">143</a><br /> -Cromer, Earl of, <a href="#page_230">230</a>, <a href="#page_234">234</a><br /> -Cropper, James, <a href="#page_051">51</a>, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a><br /> -Cropper, Miss Mary, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_145">145</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Cunliffe, Mrs., <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a><br /> -Cunliffe, Sir Robert, <a href="#page_071">71</a><br /> -Cunningham, Sir Henry, <a href="#page_111">111</a><br /> -Curtis, Henry, <a href="#page_183">183</a><br /> -Curzon of Kedleston, Marquess, <a href="#page_235">235</a>, <a href="#page_243">243-244</a><br /> -<br /> -<i><a name="D" id="D"></a>Daphne, or Marriage à la Mode</i>, <a href="#page_222">222-223</a><br /> -<i>David Grieve</i>, <i>The History of</i>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_092">92</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>, <a href="#page_097">97-99</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>, <a href="#page_256">256</a><br /> -Davidson, Sir John, <a href="#page_301">301</a><br /> -Davies, Colonel, <a href="#page_276">276</a><br /> -Davies, Miss, <a href="#page_010">10-14</a><br /> -Davies, Miss Emily, <a href="#page_224">224</a><br /> -<i>Delia Blanchflower</i>, <a href="#page_239">239</a><br /> -Dell, Mrs., <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_251">251</a>, <a href="#page_254">254</a>, <a href="#page_261">261</a><br /> -Denison, Col. George, <a href="#page_216">216</a><br /> -Denison, Sir William, Governor of Tasmania, <a href="#page_003">3</a><br /> -Dicey, Albert, <a href="#page_294">294</a><br /> -<i>Dictionary of Christian Biography</i>, <i>The</i>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_049">49</a><br /> -<i>Diana Mallory</i>, <i>The Testing of</i>, <a href="#page_248">248</a><br /> -Dilke, Mrs. Ashton, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Drummond, James, D.D., <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Dufferin and Ava, Marquis of, <a href="#page_160">160</a><br /> -Dugdale, Mrs. Alice, <a href="#page_070">70</a><br /> -Dunn, Miss Maud (Mrs. E. C. Selwyn), <a href="#page_253">253</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="E" id="E"></a>Ehrle, Father, <a href="#page_171">171</a><br /> -<i>Eleanor</i>, <a href="#page_158">158-164</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dramatisation of, <a href="#page_176">176-179</a></span><br /> -<i>England’s Effort</i>, <a href="#page_265">265</a>, <a href="#page_280">280-282</a>, <a href="#page_297">297</a><br /> -Evans, Sanford, <a href="#page_218">218</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="F" id="F"></a>Fawcett, Mrs., <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_233">233-235</a>, <a href="#page_238">238</a>, <a href="#page_244">244</a>, <a href="#page_251">251</a><br /> -<i>Fenwick’s Career</i>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_204">204-205</a><br /> -Field, Capt., R.N., <a href="#page_273">273</a><br /> -Fields, Mrs. Annie, 105 <i>note</i>, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -<i>Fields of Victory</i>, <a href="#page_289">289</a>, <a href="#page_300">300-301</a><br /> -Finlay, Lord, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Fisher, Rt. Hon. H. A. L., <a href="#page_197">197</a>, <a href="#page_292">292-294</a><br /> -Foch, Marshal, <a href="#page_302">302</a><br /> -Forster, W. E., <a href="#page_004">4</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_040">40-41</a><br /> -Fowler, Capt., <a href="#page_284">284</a><br /> -Fox How, <a href="#page_004">4</a>, <a href="#page_005">5</a>, <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_008">8</a>, <a href="#page_010">10</a>, <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_247">247</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, <a href="#page_263">263</a><br /> -Freeman, Edward, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a><br /> -Frere, Miss Margaret, <a href="#page_237">237</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="G" id="G"></a>Garrett, Miss, <a href="#page_224">224</a><br /> -Gerecke, Fräulein, <a href="#page_011">11</a><br /> -Gilder, R.W., <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Gladstone, William Ewart, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_055">55-64</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>, <a href="#page_073">73</a>, <a href="#page_110">110</a><br /> -Godkin, E. L., <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Gordon, James Adam, <a href="#page_102">102</a><br /> -Goschen, George (Lord), <a href="#page_040">40</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Goschen, Mrs., <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Gouraud, General, <a href="#page_299">299</a><br /> -Grayswood Hill, Mrs. Ward’s house on, <a href="#page_078">78</a>, <a href="#page_092">92-94</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a><br /> -Green, John Richard, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a><br /> -Green, Mrs. J. R., <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Green, Thomas Hill, <a href="#page_027">27</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a>, <a href="#page_062">62</a>, <a href="#page_063">63</a>, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -Green, Mrs. T. H., <a href="#page_030">30</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Greene, General, <a href="#page_216">216</a><br /> -Grey, Earl, <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_214">214-215</a>, <a href="#page_219">219</a>, <a href="#page_221">221-222</a><br /> -Grey, Sir Edward (Viscount), <a href="#page_102">102</a>, <a href="#page_211">211</a>, <a href="#page_270">270-271</a>, <a href="#page_282">282</a><br /> -Grosvenor Place, No. <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_190">190-192</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="H" id="H"></a>Haldane, R. B. (Lord), <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>, <a href="#page_227">227</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Halévy, Elie, <a href="#page_169">169</a><br /> -Halsbury, Lord, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Halsey, Mrs., <a href="#page_291">291</a><br /> -Hampden House, <a href="#page_078">78-79</a><br /> -Harcourt, Mrs. Augustus Vernon, <a href="#page_030">30</a><br /> -Harcourt, Sir William, <a href="#page_171">171</a><br /> -Hargrove, Charles, <a href="#page_087">87</a><br /> -Harnack, Adolf, <a href="#page_265">265</a><br /> -Harrison, Frederic, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_228">228-229</a>, <a href="#page_260">260</a><br /> -<i>Harvest</i>, <a href="#page_289">289</a><br /> -Hay, American Ambassador, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Heberden, Principal, <a href="#page_281">281</a><br /> -<i>Helbeck of Bannisdale</i>, <a href="#page_143">143-151</a><br /> -Herbert, Bron (Lord Lucas), <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -Hobhouse, Charles, <a href="#page_234">234</a><br /> -Holland, E. G., <a href="#page_183">183</a>, <a href="#page_185">185</a><br /> -Holmes, Edmond, <a href="#page_260">260</a><br /> -Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href="#page_077">77</a><br /> -Holt, Henry, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -Horne, General Lord, <a href="#page_284">284</a>, <a href="#page_287">287</a>, <a href="#page_296">296</a>, <a href="#page_298">298</a><br /> -Horne, Sir William van, <a href="#page_207">207</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>, <a href="#page_216">216-217</a><br /> -Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -Hughes, Rev. Hugh Price, <a href="#page_123">123</a><br /> -Huxley, Aldous, <a href="#page_253">253</a><br /> -Huxley, Julian, <a href="#page_098">98</a>, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_253">253</a>, <a href="#page_290">290</a><br /> -Huxley, Leonard, <a href="#page_038">38</a><br /> -Huxley, Margaret, <a href="#page_253">253</a><br /> -Huxley, Prof. T. H., <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_100">100</a><br /> -Huxley, Mrs. T. H., <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Huxley, Trevenen, <a href="#page_253">253</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="I" id="I"></a>Inge, W. R., Dean of St. Paul’s, <a href="#page_307">307</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="J" id="J"></a>James, Henry, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>, <a href="#page_161">161</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a>, <a href="#page_279">279</a><br /> -James, William, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_250">250</a>, <a href="#page_257">257</a><br /> -James of Hereford, Lord, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -Jellicoe, Sir John, <a href="#page_272">272</a><br /> -Jerram, Admiral Sir Thomas, <a href="#page_272">272-273</a><br /> -Jersey, Countess of, <a href="#page_170">170</a>, <a href="#page_197">197</a><br /> -Jeune, Sir Francis, <a href="#page_109">109</a><br /> -Jewett, Miss Sarah Orne, <a href="#page_104">104-105</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -Johnson, A. H., <a href="#page_030">30</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Johnson, Mrs. A. H., <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_029">29</a>, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_072">72</a>, <a href="#page_078">78</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Jones, Mrs. Cadwalader, <a href="#page_208">208</a><br /> -Jones, Sir Robert, <a href="#page_294">294</a><br /> -Jowett, Benjamin, Master of Balliol, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_024">24</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_121">121</a><br /> -Jülicher, Dr. Adolf, <a href="#page_172">172</a><br /> -Julie, SÅ“ur, <a href="#page_286">286</a><br /> -Jusserand, J. J., <a href="#page_169">169-170</a>, <a href="#page_212">212</a>, <a href="#page_300">300</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="K" id="K"></a>Keble, John, <a href="#page_017">17</a><br /> -Keen, Daniel, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Kemp, Anthony Fenn, <a href="#page_001">1</a><br /> -Kemp, Miss, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> -Kensit, John, <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -King, Mackenzie, <a href="#page_219">219</a><br /> -Kipling, Rudyard, <a href="#page_116">116-117</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a><br /> -Knight, Prof., <a href="#page_087">87</a><br /> -Kruger, President, <a href="#page_175">175</a><br /> -Knowles, James, <a href="#page_055">55</a>, <a href="#page_073">73</a>, <a href="#page_150">150</a>, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -<br /> -<i><a name="L" id="L"></a>Lady Rose’s Daughter</i>, <a href="#page_179">179</a>, <a href="#page_187">187</a>, <a href="#page_204">204</a><br /> -Lanciani, Senator Rodolfo, <a href="#page_161">161</a><br /> -Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, <a href="#page_215">215</a><br /> -Lawrence, Hon. Maude, <a href="#page_139">139</a>, <a href="#page_140">140</a>, <a href="#page_193">193</a><br /> -Lemieux, M., <a href="#page_215">215</a><br /> -Leo XIII., Pope, <a href="#page_162">162</a>, <a href="#page_216">216</a><br /> -Levens Hall, <a href="#page_144">144-148</a><br /> -Liddon, Canon H.P., <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_020">20</a><br /> -Lippincott, Bertram, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -“Lizzie,” Miss H. E. Smith, <a href="#page_190">190</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a><br /> -Lloyd George, Rt. Hon. David, <a href="#page_271">271</a>, <a href="#page_299">299</a><br /> -Loreburn, Lord, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Lowell, American Ambassador, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -<i>Lydia</i>, <i>the Mating of</i>, <a href="#page_261">261</a><br /> -Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Lyttelton, Hon. Sir Neville, <a href="#page_109">109</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>, <a href="#page_174">174-175</a>, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs. Neville (Lady), <a href="#page_109">109</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>, <a href="#page_175">175</a>, <a href="#page_274">274</a><br /> -Lytton, Victor (Earl of), <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="M" id="M"></a>Maclaren, Lady, <a href="#page_233">233</a><br /> -McClure, S. S., <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -McKee, Miss Ellen, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_234">234</a><br /> -McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, <a href="#page_196">196</a><br /> -Macmillan, Sir Frederick, <a href="#page_097">97</a><br /> -Macmillan, Messrs., <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_050">50</a>, <a href="#page_073">73</a><br /> -<i>Marcella</i>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_106">106-111</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a><br /> -Markham, Miss Violet, <a href="#page_233">233</a>, <a href="#page_235">235</a><br /> -Martineau, James, D.D., <a href="#page_081">81-87</a>, <a href="#page_154">154</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Masterman, C. F. G., <a href="#page_270">270</a><br /> -Maurice, C. E., <a href="#page_149">149</a><br /> -Maxse, Admiral, <a href="#page_267">267</a><br /> -Maxwell, Dr., <a href="#page_209">209-210</a><br /> -May, Miss, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_016">16</a><br /> -Meredith, George, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_180">180-181</a>, <a href="#page_266">266</a><br /> -Michel, André, <a href="#page_068">68</a><br /> -Midleton, Lord, <a href="#page_045">45</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a><br /> -Mill, John Stuart, <a href="#page_224">224</a><br /> -Milligan, Miss, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_141">141</a><br /> -<i>Milly and Olly</i>, <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> -Milner, Viscount, <a href="#page_308">308</a><br /> -Mirman, M., <a href="#page_285">285</a><br /> -<i>Miss Bretherton</i>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_044">44</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a><br /> -<i>Missing</i>, <a href="#page_289">289</a><br /> -Mitchell, Dr. Weir, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Mivart, St. George, <a href="#page_149">149</a><br /> -Mollison, Miss, <a href="#page_220">220</a><br /> -Morley, John (Viscount), <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_040">40-42</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_149">149</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_229">229</a><br /> -Mudie’s Library, <a href="#page_111">111</a><br /> -Müller, Mrs. Max, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="N" id="N"></a>Neal, Mary, <a href="#page_123">123</a><br /> -Nettlefold, Frederick, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Newman, Cardinal, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_057">57</a><br /> -Nicholson, Sir Charles, <a href="#page_241">241</a><br /> -Nicolson, Sir Arthur, <a href="#page_270">270</a><br /> -Northbrook, Lord, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Norton, Miss Sara, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_213">213</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="O" id="O"></a>Oakeley, Miss Hilda, <a href="#page_268">268</a><br /> -Odgers, Dr. Blake, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Onslow, Earl of, <a href="#page_282">282</a><br /> -Osborn, Fairfield, 210 <i>note</i><br /> -<br /> -<a name="P" id="P"></a>Page, Walter Hines, <a href="#page_298">298</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Palmer, Edwin, <a href="#page_020">20</a><br /> -Pankhurst, Mrs., <a href="#page_238">238</a><br /> -Paris, Gaston, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Parker, Sir Gilbert, <a href="#page_270">270</a><br /> -Pasolini, Contessa Maria, <a href="#page_188">188</a>, <a href="#page_262">262</a><br /> -Passmore Edwards, J., <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_120">120-121</a><br /> -Passmore Edwards Settlement, the, <a href="#page_090">90</a>, <a href="#page_092">92</a>, <a href="#page_119">119-122</a>, <a href="#page_130">130-131</a>, <a href="#page_182">182-183</a>, <a href="#page_186">186</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_219">219</a>, <a href="#page_234">234</a>, <a href="#page_268">268</a><br /> -Pater, Walter, <a href="#page_027">27</a>, <a href="#page_042">42</a>, <a href="#page_099">99</a><br /> -Pattison, Mark, Rector of Lincoln, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_019">19-21</a>, <a href="#page_024">24</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_034">34</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a>, <a href="#page_057">57</a><br /> -<i>Peasant in Literature</i>, <i>The</i>, <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Pease, Rt. Hon. J. (Lord Gainford), <a href="#page_292">292</a><br /> -Percival, Dr., Bishop of Hereford, <a href="#page_031">31</a><br /> -Pilcher, G. T., <a href="#page_132">132</a><br /> -Pinney, General, <a href="#page_277">277</a><br /> -Plumer, General Lord, <a href="#page_280">280</a><br /> -Plymouth, Earl of, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Ponsot, M., <a href="#page_285">285</a><br /> -Potter, Beatrice (Mrs. Sidney Webb), <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Prothero, Sir George, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Pusey, Edward Bouverie, D.D., <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> -Putnam, George Haven, <a href="#page_076">76</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="R" id="R"></a>Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, <a href="#page_284">284</a><br /> -Rawnsley, Rev. Canon H. D., <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Renan, Ernest, <a href="#page_047">47</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Repplier, Miss Agnes, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Ribot, Alexandre, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -<i>Richard Meynell</i>, <i>The Case of</i>, <a href="#page_090">90</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_250">250</a>, <a href="#page_257">257-261</a><br /> -Roberts, Earl, <a href="#page_175">175</a><br /> -Roberts, Capt. H. C., <a href="#page_277">277</a><br /> -<i>Robert Elsmere</i>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a>, <a href="#page_049">49-54</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">publication, <a href="#page_054">54-55</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mr. Gladstone on, <a href="#page_055">55-64</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">circulation of, <a href="#page_064">64</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Quarterly</i> article on, <a href="#page_072">72-73</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in America, <a href="#page_073">73-78</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>, 309</span><br /> -“Robin Ghyll,” <a href="#page_205">205-206</a><br /> -Robins, Miss Elizabeth, <a href="#page_178">178</a><br /> -Robinson, Alfred, <a href="#page_088">88</a><br /> -Rodd, Sir Rennell, 288 <i>note</i><br /> -Roosevelt, Theodore, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_211">211-212</a>, <a href="#page_269">269-270</a>, <a href="#page_286">286</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Root, Elihu, <a href="#page_211">211-212</a><br /> -Rosebery, Earl of, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_280">280</a><br /> -Rothschild, Lord, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a><br /> -Ruelli, Padre, <a href="#page_160">160</a><br /> -Ruskin, John, <a href="#page_028">28</a><br /> -Russell, Lord Arthur, <a href="#page_040">40</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a><br /> -Russell, Dowager Countess, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Russell, George W. E., <a href="#page_055">55</a><br /> -Russell Square, No. <a href="#page_061">61</a>, <a href="#page_035">35-36</a>, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="S" id="S"></a>Salisbury, Marquis of, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_266">266</a><br /> -Sandwith, Humphry, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> -Sandwith, Lieut. Humphry, R.N., <a href="#page_273">273</a><br /> -Sandwith, Jane, wife of Henry Ward, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> -Samuel, Rt. Hon. Herbert, <a href="#page_199">199</a><br /> -Sandhurst, Viscount, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Savile, Lord, <a href="#page_161">161</a><br /> -Schäffer, Mrs., <a href="#page_220">220</a><br /> -Scherer, Edmond, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Schofield, Colonel, <a href="#page_276">276</a><br /> -Scott, McCallum, <a href="#page_235">235</a><br /> -Segrè, Carlo, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Selborne, Countess of, <a href="#page_301">301</a><br /> -Selby-Bigge, Sir Amherst, <a href="#page_292">292</a><br /> -Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs. Arthur Strong), <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a><br /> -Selwyn, Arthur, Christopher and George, <a href="#page_253">253</a>, <a href="#page_287">287</a>, <a href="#page_296">296</a><br /> -Selwyn, Rev. Dr. E. C., <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Shakespeare, <a href="#page_047">47</a><br /> -Shaw, Bernard, <a href="#page_109">109</a><br /> -Shaw, Norman, <a href="#page_120">120</a><br /> -Shaw-Lefevre, Miss, <a href="#page_030">30</a><br /> -<i>Sir George Tressady</i>, <a href="#page_115">115-118</a>, <a href="#page_127">127</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a><br /> -Smith, Dunbar, <a href="#page_120">120-121</a><br /> -Smith, George Murray, <a href="#page_050">50</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_096">96</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_165">165-166</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_282">282</a><br /> -Smith, Goldwin, <a href="#page_216">216</a><br /> -Smith, Reginald J., <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>, <a href="#page_256">256</a>, <a href="#page_258">258</a>, <a href="#page_262">262</a>, <a href="#page_281">281-282</a><br /> -Smith, Walter, <a href="#page_211">211</a><br /> -Smith & Elder, publishers, <a href="#page_024">24</a>, <a href="#page_165">165</a><br /> -Somerville Hall, foundation of, <a href="#page_030">30-31</a><br /> -Sorell, Julia, wife of Thomas Arnold, <a href="#page_001">1-4</a>, <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_008">8</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_016">16</a>, <a href="#page_027">27</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_054">54</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a><br /> -Sorell, Colonel William, Governor of Tasmania, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> -Sorell, William, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> -Souvestre, Marie, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_291">291</a><br /> -Sparkes, Miss, <a href="#page_132">132</a><br /> -Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#page_180">180-181</a><br /> -Stanley, Arthur, Dean of Westminster, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a><br /> -Stanley, Hon. Lyulph (Lord Sheffield), <a href="#page_072">72</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>, <a href="#page_134">134</a><br /> -Stanley of Alderley, Lady, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Stephen, Leslie, <a href="#page_189">189</a><br /> -Sterner, Albert, <a href="#page_173">173</a><br /> -“Stocks,” <a href="#page_102">102</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_107">107-109</a>, <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_246">246-254</a>, <a href="#page_297">297</a>, <a href="#page_302">302-303</a>, <a href="#page_306">306</a><br /> -Stubbs, William, Bp. of Oxford, <a href="#page_028">28</a><br /> -Sturgis, Julian, <a href="#page_177">177</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="T" id="T"></a>Taine, H., <a href="#page_024">24</a>, <a href="#page_068">68-69</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Talbot, Edward, Warden of Keble and Bp. of Winchester, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_056">56</a>, <a href="#page_065">65</a><br /> -Tatton, R. G., <a href="#page_121">121</a>, <a href="#page_127">127</a>, <a href="#page_128">128</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a><br /> -Taylor, James, <a href="#page_021">21</a><br /> -Tennant, Laura, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a><br /> -Terry, Miss Marion, <a href="#page_178">178</a><br /> -Thayer, W. R., <a href="#page_077">77</a><br /> -Thursfield, J. R., <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a><br /> -Torre Alfina, Marchese di, <a href="#page_162">162</a><br /> -<i>Towards the Goal</i>, <a href="#page_285">285-286</a><br /> -Townsend, Mrs., <a href="#page_133">133</a><br /> -Toynbee, Mrs. Arnold, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Trench, Alfred Chevenix, <a href="#page_181">181</a><br /> -Trevelyan, George Macaulay, <a href="#page_151">151</a>, <a href="#page_181">181-182</a>, <a href="#page_296">296</a><br /> -Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a><br /> -Trevelyan, Humphry, <a href="#page_253">253</a>, <a href="#page_297">297</a><br /> -Trevelyan, Mary, <a href="#page_253">253-254</a>, <a href="#page_297">297</a><br /> -Trevelyan, Theodore Macaulay, <a href="#page_253">253-255</a><br /> -Tyrrell, Father, <a href="#page_250">250</a>, <a href="#page_257">257</a><br /> -Tyrwhitt, Commodore, <a href="#page_286">286</a><br /> -<br /> -<i>Unitarians and the Future</i>, <a href="#page_155">155</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="V" id="V"></a>Voysey, Charles, <a href="#page_033">33</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="W" id="W"></a>Wace, Henry, Dean of Canterbury, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> -Wade, F. C., <a href="#page_219">219</a><br /> -Walkley, A. B., <a href="#page_178">178</a><br /> -Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, <a href="#page_252">252</a><br /> -Wallas, Graham, <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>, <a href="#page_134">134</a>, <a href="#page_141">141</a><br /> -Walter, John, <a href="#page_035">35</a><br /> -<i>War and Elizabeth</i>, <i>The</i>, <a href="#page_289">289-290</a><br /> -Ward, Miss Agnes (Mrs. Turner), <a href="#page_227">227</a><br /> -Ward, Dorothy Mary, <a href="#page_029">29</a>, <a href="#page_205">205-206</a>, <a href="#page_208">208-209</a>, <a href="#page_211">211</a>, <a href="#page_214">214-215</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_275">275-280</a>, <a href="#page_283">283-285</a>, <a href="#page_289">289</a>, <a href="#page_299">299</a>, <a href="#page_301">301</a>, <a href="#page_306">306-307</a><br /> -Ward, Miss Gertrude, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -Ward, Rev. Henry, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> -Ward, Thomas Humphry, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_035">35</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_207">207-209</a>, <a href="#page_215">215</a>, <a href="#page_247">247</a>, <a href="#page_248">248</a>, <a href="#page_306">306</a>, <a href="#page_308">308</a><br /> -Warner, Charles Dudley, <a href="#page_191">191</a><br /> -Weardale, Lord, <a href="#page_243">243</a><br /> -Wells, H. G., <a href="#page_214">214</a><br /> -Wemyss, The Countess of, <a href="#page_071">71-72</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a><br /> -Wharton, Mrs., <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_263">263</a><br /> -Whitridge, Arnold, <a href="#page_296">296</a><br /> -Whitridge, Frederick W., <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_207">207-208</a>, <a href="#page_247">247</a>, <a href="#page_281">281</a><br /> -Wicksteed, Philip, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_088">88</a>, <a href="#page_090">90</a><br /> -Wilkin, Charles, <a href="#page_289">289</a><br /> -<i>William Ashe</i>, <i>The Marriage of</i>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_179">179</a>, <a href="#page_187">187</a>, <a href="#page_204">204</a><br /> -Williams, Charles, <a href="#page_127">127</a><br /> -Williams-Freeman, Miss, <a href="#page_251">251</a><br /> -Wilson, President, <a href="#page_281">281</a>, <a href="#page_300">300</a><br /> -Wolfe, General James, <a href="#page_221">221</a><br /> -Wolff, Dr. Julius, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a><br /> -Wolseley, Lord, <a href="#page_046">46</a><br /> -Wood, Rev. Canon H. T., <a href="#page_307">307</a><br /> -Wood, Col. William, <a href="#page_221">221</a><br /> -Wordsworth, Gordon, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Wordsworth, John, Bp. of Salisbury, <a href="#page_033">33</a><br /> -<i>Writer’s Recollections</i>, <i>A</i>, <a href="#page_027">27</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_290">290-291</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="Y" id="Y"></a>Yonge, Miss Charlotte, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="Z" id="Z"></a>Zangwill, Israel, <a href="#page_233">233</a><br /> -</p> - -<p class="c"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> Butler & Tanner, Ltd., <i>Frome and London</i></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="padding:2%;border:3px double gray;"> -<tr><th align="center">Typographical errors corrected by etext transcriber:</th></tr> -<tr><td align="center">reliques chez son <span class="errata">évèque</span>=>reliques chez son évêque</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">The matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticous=>The matter would be truth, names and places strictously ficticious</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Yours <span class="errata">Obiediently</span>=>Yours Obediently</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="errata">extents</span> over 400 pages=>extends over 400 pages</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">présente <span class="errata">ça</span> et là la nature=>présente çà et là la nature</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">as a <span class="errata">thankoffering</span>=>as a thank-offering</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="errata">agitatiion</span> and violence=>agitation and violence</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Opposing <span class="errata">Woman</span> Suffrage=>Opposing Women’s Suffrage {243}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Dix-huitième <span class="errata">Siécle</span>=>Dix-huitième Siècle</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="errata">processs</span> of making=>process of making</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">War conditions <span class="errata">themsleves</span> that convinced=>War conditions themselves that convinced {291}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">women are <span class="errata">and and</span> have long been at home=>women are and have long been at home</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="errata">Schaffer</span>, Mrs., 220=>Schäffer, Mrs., 220</td></tr> -</table> - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="cb">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The following is a letter written long afterwards by Tom -Arnold to his sister Fan, with reference to Clough: “I loved him, oh! so -well: and also respected him more profoundly than any man, anywhere near -my own age, whom I ever met. His pure soul was without stain: he seemed -incapable of being inflamed by wrath, or tempted to vice, or enslaved by -any unworthy passion of any sort. As to ‘Philip’ something that he saw -in me helped to suggest the character, that was all. There is much in -Philip that is Clough himself and there is a dialectic force in him that -certainly was never in me.” -</p> -<p class="r"><i>December 21, 1895.</i><br /> -</p> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> “School-days with Miss Clough.” By T. C. Down. <i>Cornhill</i>, -June, 1920.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> According to the universal understanding of those days, in -the case of a mixed marriage the boys followed the father’s faith and -the girls the mother’s. Tom Arnold’s boys were, therefore, brought up as -Catholics until their father’s reversion to Anglicanism in 1864.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Passages in a Wandering Life</i> (T. Arnold), p. 185.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Jowett to Lewis Campbell, June, 1871.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Privately printed.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Life and Letters of H. Taine.</i> Trans. by E. Sparrel-Bayly, -Vol. III, p. 58.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> He called her “the greatest and best person I have ever -met, or shall ever meet, in this world.”—<i>Letters of J. R. Green.</i> Ed. -Leslie Stephen, p. 284.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> After the foundation of Somerville Hall Mrs. Ward was -succeeded in the Secretaryship by Mrs. T. H. Green and Mr. Henry -Butcher.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Now Mrs. Arthur Strong, Assistant Director of the British -School at Rome.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Editor of the <i>Spectator</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This conversation has already appeared once in print, as -an Appendix to the Westmorland Edition of <i>Robert Elsmere</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mrs. T. H. Green; Mrs. Creighton; Mrs. A. H. Johnson; Miss -Pater.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> “The New Reformation,” <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, January, -1889.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> On February 3, 1890.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Afterwards embodied in her book, <i>Town Life in the -Fifteenth Century</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett</i>, edited by Annie Fields, p. -95.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <a href="#page_091">See p. 91</a>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Introduction to <i>Helbeck of Bannisdale</i>, Autograph -Edition, Houghton Mifflin & Co.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Introduction to the Autograph Edition.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Mr. Cropper’s brother had married Susan Arnold, sister of -Tom.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> He died in April, 1904.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Eleanor</i> was finally played with the following cast:</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="cast"> -<tr><td align="left">Edward Manisty</td><td align="left">Mr. CHARLES QUARTERMAINE</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Father Benecke</td><td align="left">Mr. STEPHEN POWYS</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Reggie Brooklyn</td><td align="left">Mr. LESLIE FABER</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Alfredo</td><td align="left">Mr. VICTOR BRIDGES</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Lucy Foster</td><td align="left">Miss LILIAN BRAITHWAITE</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Madame Variani</td><td align="left">Miss ROSINA FILIPPI</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Alice Manisty</td><td align="left">Miss ELIZABETH ROBINS</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Marie</td><td align="left">Miss MABEL ARCHDALL</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Dalgetty</td><td align="left">Miss Beatrix de Burgh</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">and</td></tr> -<tr><td align="left">Eleanor Burgoyne </td><td align="left">Miss MARION TERRY</td></tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See the <i>Memoir of W. T. Arnold</i>, by Mrs. Ward and C. E. -Montague.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> From <i>The Associate</i>, the quarterly magazine of the -Passmore Edwards Settlement, for October, 1902.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Sir Hugh Bell at the unveiling of the memorial to Mrs. -Ward at the Mary Ward Settlement, July, 1922.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> In 1907 the City Education Authority of New York had no -less than 100 school playgrounds equipped and opened under its own -supervision.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Mr. Fairfield Osborn.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Mrs. Ward had spent a morning in the Parliamentary Library -with Mr. Martin, the librarian, delighting in his detailed knowledge of -Canadian history.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Mr. Woodall’s.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Mr. Harrison also deprecated the formation of a definite -League. “It is to do the very thing that we are protesting against,” he -wrote, “which is to accustom women to the mechanical artifices of -political agitation.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Now the National Council of Women.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>What Is and What Might Be.</i> By Edmond Holmes.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Henry James had become a naturalized British subject in -July, 1915.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> -</p> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">My doom hath come upon me, and would to God that I<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Had felt my hand in thy dear hand on the day I had to die.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Sir Rennell Rodd’s translation, in<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Love, Worship and Death</i>.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Col. John Buchan, Director of the Ministry of Information, -wrote to her in December 1918, as follows: -</p> -<p class="nind">M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> M<small>RS</small>. W<small>ARD</small>,<br /> -</p> -<p> -As the Ministry of Information ceases its operations on Dec. 31st, I am -taking this opportunity of writing to express to you, on behalf of the -Ministry, our very cordial gratitude for the help which you have given -so generously. It would have been almost impossible to essay the great -task of enlightening foreign countries as to the justice of the Allied -cause and the magnitude of the British effort without the co-operation -of our leading writers, and we have been most fortunate in receiving -that co-operation in full and ungrudged measure. To you in particular we -are indebted for generous concessions with regard to the use of your -books and writings, and I beg that you will accept this message of -gratitude from myself and from the other members of the Staff.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Evening Play Centres for Children</i>, by Janet Penrose -Trevelyan. Methuen & Co.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <a href="#page_241">See p. 241</a>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Sir Robert Jones, F.R.C.S., Chairman of the Central -Committee for the care of Cripples, wrote to Miss Ward after her -mother’s death: “One of the last pieces of work accomplished by Mrs. -Ward for cripples was the insertion of the P.D. clause in the Fisher -Education Act, and the reports obtained for that purpose are largely the -groundwork and origin of this Committee, in whose work she took a deep -interest.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> On October 23, 1919.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Now named, after its founder, the Mary Ward Settlement.</p></div> - -</div> -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward, by -Janet Penrose Trevelyan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MRS. 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