irrniia'Hl!U:l!i|ri!MH!i.iii lii 'IgfpetAt/e Si>oi$i D Bought with the income of the PASSAGES FROM THE PAST . . VOL. I ^^L/:. ./-'¦Ar^;/^ „^^^'n^ ..u^- ¦'. PASSAGES FROM THE PAST By His Grace THE DUKE OF ARGYLL Author of " Life of S^ueen Victoria" etc., etc. WITH TWO PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. I NEW YORK DODD MEAD & COMPANY PRINTKU IN GREAT BRIIAIN CONTENTS VOL. I CHAPTER I First memories — The island of Walcheren — Mind-pictures — Changes — Language — Dettingen — The old Field-Marshal — A find — "The Duke" — His old enemy Soult — Sir Harry Smith — Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde — Lord Cardigan — Millais — Landseer — Fred Taylor pp. 1-26 CHAPTER II Trentham — Skaters — Young Trowbridge — Distinguished visitors : Hugh, Duke of Westminster, Lord Loch, Lord Carlisle, Count Pahlen — Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland — Mr. Gladstone — Ascot Races— A family party — Sir John Acton — The Danish War — Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Carlyle ...... pp. 27-46 CHAPTER III Great poets : Arndt, Wordsworth, Tennyson — Minor poets : Oliver Wendell Holmes, Swinburne, Browning, Mrs. Browning, William Morris, Monckton Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton), Aytoun pp. 47-58 CHAPTER IV Lord Brougham — " Regency " men : Mr. Stephenson, " Poodle Byng " — Miss O'Neal — Lady Charlotte Campbell — Her beauty — Her extravagance and financial difficulties > . . pp. 59-67 CHAPTER V Eton Days — A visit to the Queen^— A ball at Frogmore — Lord Dufferin summoned for assault — Table turning — Eton ways — The College Pump . pp. 68-73 vi Contents CHAPTER VI Chiswick — Its cedars — The third Duke of Devonshire and Sir Joseph Paxton — Historic rooms pp. 74-77 CHAPTER VII St. Andrews — Miss Jex- Blake — " Angels' Wings " — Garotte robberies— Principal Forbes— A University Magazine — Ghost stories — Marriage of the Prince of Wales — Edinburgh illuminated — Lord Palmerston — Lord Clanwilliam— A Chamois hunt . pp. 78-94 CHAPTER VIII Cambridge — Changes — Need of modern studies — Charles Kingsley — " Fellow commoners ". — Lord Hardwicke — " Classics " — Volun teer corps — Clubs — Whewell — Poem on Kingsley's death — A car penter's bill pp. 95-104 CHAPTER IX The Alps — Turin — Cavour — Lacaita — Italian statesmen — Italian Parliament — The House of Savoy — The Duke of Genoa — Mous taches — Garibaldi — Garibaldi's reception in England — At Stafford House, the Crystal Palace, and Chiswick — Garibaldi and Gladstone — Garibaldi's personal appearance — Description by the Duchess of Argyll pp. 105-122 CHAPTER X Inveraray — Otter hunting — Wild animals — " What na beast's yon ? " — " Fish ¦' — Herring — Birds — Training wild birds for sport — Old plantings — Trees— Improvements — The Armada gun — The Florencia — Burns — Norman names — Patriarchal rule — Hereditary justiciaryship — The hand-plough — Rob Roy — Legends — Mirage — Treasure pp. 123-148 CHAPTER XI Jamaica — Tropical scenery — Forests — Plants — Birds — Sharks Vultures — Sugar-cane — Sugar-making — Negro "Resolutions " — Earthquake pp. 149-162 Contents vii CHAPTER XII United States of America^General Lee — At Washington — Sir Frederick Bruce — Mr. Seward, Secretary of State : attempted murder of — Vain anticipations — General Grant — The war — " Recon struction " — Secretary of State Sherman — Townsfolk as soldiers pp. 163-184 CHAPTER XIII Rosneath — The Gareloch— The castle — Bonomi — " My father " —The " Leven-ax " — Vicissitudes — Monmouth and Argyll — Jaco bite wars — " My mother " — Homes in London : Park Lane and Carlton Terrace — Macaulay — Disraeli — Patronage — Letter to Mr. Everett from the Eighth Duke — Letter from Elizabeth, Duchess of Argyll, to Mr. Everett — Letter from Chevalier Bunsen — Letter from Longfellow — American appreciation^London pageants — Necessity of war with Russia — " Old Spurrits " . . pp. 185-229 CHAPTER XIV The United States, 1866 — A visit to Longfellow — His present to Tennyson — His translation of Dante — Longfellow and the beggars pp. 230-235 CHAPTER XV Berlin, 1866 — Hanover — The Austrian campaign — Koniggratz — Famous German leaders — King William — " Hoffahig ¦' — Diplomats — The duty of defence of country — Sans Souci — Potsdam — Queen Augusta — The " Hubertusjagd " — Count (afterwards Prince) Bis marck — Lord Augustus Loftus — Fencing with France — News of Koniggratz at Paris — Italian' Alliance — A State dinner — The Prussian family — The Crown Prince — Prince Wilhelm — Opera and Archaeology pp. 236-265 CHAPTER XVI Berlin — Prussia and Roumania — Prince Hohenlohe — The Crown Prince and Princess — " Vom Fels zum Meer " — Anticipations of war — The Grand-Duke of Baden — Ranke — Forecaste regarding union — Gustav Freitag — Affairs of the King of Hanover — Pesth — Coronation of Emperor of Austria as King of Hungary — The ceremony — Andrassy and Beust — Corfu — The Albanian coast — Wood-cock shooting pp.^266-286 viii Contents CHAPTER XVII New breech-loading rifles and artillery — Sadowa — Austria's failure partly owing to Hungarian disaffection — The Concordat pp. 287-290 CHAPTER XVIII Garibaldi, 1861 — The conflict in the Papal States — Cialdini — Garibaldi leaves Caprera — Surmises— Embassy talk — -Ratazzi — Per plexity regarding Garibaldi — The silence of the King — " Rome or death " — Rumours from Rome — Lieutenant Stumm — Arrival at Rome — Search for arms — A state of siege. — Fight in the Trastavere — Foreigners in Rome — Fight at Nerola — Rome apathetic — Hotel de r Europe — A bomb — Roman conduct — Monte Rotondo — The wounded in hospital — Cairoli — A reconnaissance — The walls of Rome — The French at last — Florence quiet — -Vigo to Foligno — • Garibaldi on the frontier— Mentana — Retreat — Arrest of Garibaldi — Imprisonment at Varignano — Devotion of the Papal troops pp. 291-332 CHAPTER XIX King Victor Emmanuel — King Humbert — His funeral — The Pantheon — With Gladstone at Monte Cassino . . pp. 333-338 CHAPTER XX Rome, 1890 — Interview wdth the Pope — The Pope's views re garding Ireland pp. 339-342 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. I DUKE OF ARGYLL, WHEN MARQUIS OF LORNE (Photogravure) Frontispiece FACING PAGE TRENTHAM 36 HARRIET, DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND . 40 CLIVEDEN FROM THE RIVER, i860 44 ETON COLLEGE .... . ... 68 WILLIAM JOHNSON CORY 70 THE QUADRANGLE, ETON COLLEGE 72 CHISWICK HOUSE (GARDEN) 74 ... 76 ST. ANDREWS . . 80 LUCERNE, 1863 105 "DILIGENCE" AT ALPINE VILLAGE 106 LADY CONSTANCE GROSVENOR, AFTERWARDS DUCHESS OF WEST MINSTER 112 A RECEPTION AT STAFFORD HOUSE 114 SHIRA BRIDGE, INVERARAY 130 THE TAPESTRY DINING-ROOM, INVERARAY 132 THE SMALL TAPESTRY DRAWING-ROOM, INVERARAY . . . .134 ARMADA GUN I36 THE TAPESTRY BEDROOM, INVERARAY ... ... 140 INVERARAY CASTLE, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST 142 THE CROSS AND PIER, INVERARAY I44 ix X List of Illustrations FACING PAGE HAYTI 152 GEORGE, EIGHTH DUKE OF ARGYLL, AND MR. GLADSTONE . . 190 ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL I92 THE DUCHESS OF ARGYLL, MOTHER OF THE AUTHOR .... I98 THE EIGHTH DUKE OF ARGYLL 200 GEORGE, EIGHTH DUKE OF ARGYLL, WITH LORD LORNE AND LORD ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL 228 GARIBALDI 29I RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE 338 PASSAGES FROM THE PAST CHAPTER I First Memories In the Rapids that cover the River, Almost in the heart of the foam, I have seen a calm pool, that for ever Welled dark from the depths of its home. So now, in the rush of the present, The pools of the memory glow ; To-day's haste and hurry incessant O'erwhelms ne'er the calm " Long Ago." Like canoes flying fast on the spindrift, We seem but the sport of the spray, When a turn of the paddle and wrist lift The boat, to float free of the fray ! So now, from the strife evanescent. We turn, — from To-day to the Past, And Age, by our memory chastened, Recalls our first Home at the last ! At what age is the brain strong enough to retain any recollection of scenes that have passed before the eyes ? I think when man is nearly three years of age. It is usually only one distinct impression that remains. We remember nothing but one picture, VOL. I. I 2 Walcheren stamped on the brain by fright, or by wonder. The circumstances are nothing ; the vivid impression only remains of one moment. So it is that, although the scene of being brought in to say good-bye to my grandfather on his death-bed in a darkened room remains with me, it is only as the picture of a dark head on a white bed. There was nothing else definite, either before or after. He was, I am told, fond of seeing me lifted on to his bed in days before that last scene, and of hearing me imitate the noise of a steam engine ; but of this there is no recollection — only the head on the white pillow. He had in his youth been in the army, and had taken part in the unfortunate campaign of the Duke of York, when there was some hard fighting before the British forces were confined to the Island of Walcheren, where so many perished of fever. Lord John Campbell, as he was then called, was in the Guards, and took the fever so badly that the doctors despaired of his life, and shipped him home to England in hopes, that proved well founded, that his life might yet be saved. He became afterwards Member of Parliament for Argyleshire, and survived to succeed his elder brother George, who was Queen Victoria's first Lord Steward. Then there was one other scene that remained with me. It was one occurring during the visit of the Queen, in 1848, to my father at Inveraray. Mind Pictures 3 Of the Queen I remember nothing, nor of any circumstance attending the time, except this : I can recall a number of tents pitched on a grass field, and men in Highland dress coming out of one of the tents. This must have been part of an en campment of Highlanders from the Island of Islay, which the then M.P. for the county had brought over, as I was told long afterwards, to the number of nearly two hundred, to do honour to the Queen. The next scene was in the following year, when a neighbour came to amuse us and himself by letting off toy fire balloons from the castle door, and one alighted in a wood, and kept on burning, and keepers were sent to see that the flame did not spread if any boughs caught fire. Then come recollections of occasions when one was told what to remember, and when one did so, partially at all events. Infantile misfortunes are important only to those to whom they occur, but linger long in the recollection. When a heavy skipping-rope, held by Prince Albert and Mr. Gibbs, for Angus (Duke of Hamilton) and me to jump, came on my head and felled me, I was carried back to the palace from the garden by the Prince, and the sensation of seeing the grass, as we passed over it, from the secure vantage-place of his arms folded round me, seems as though it had happened much less than more than half a century ago. 4 Changes How few are the links of lives that often con nect us with the Great in past history ! When one thinks how frequent this is the case in English or Scottish history, one can almost under stand how, for forty centuries, the Egyptian Pharaohs looked back to their " forebears," and, with a reve rence for the past, attempted in all things to be like unto their fathers. We have changed thoughts, habits, dress, archi tecture, painting. There is scarcely anything done now as it was in the time of " the making of England." The red-brown people of the Nile, like their unchanging river — ever flowing in the same bed, with the same current, varying only with the seasons of the year, and in every year at the same season ever the same — built as their people did three or four thousand years before ; dressed, feasted, warred, painted, and were buried in painted tombs, as had been with them " since the beginning." For them to look back to many generations must have been easy. It was a mere tracing in fancy of the myriad repeated " laughter of the ocean," or of the Nile, merely a study of historic light, striking, ripple after ripple, wavelet after wavelet, ever the same. But with us to look back means to realise vast changes. Any one who can span in memory re collections of his own, or " given to him first-hand," of the space of two or three ordinary lives, can speak of changes which would have made an Language 5 Egyptian think that grandsons in England must be a wholly difi"erent race from that of their grandsires. It would have taken a dozen Pharaohs to see such changes in their folk as we can mark in our own — as for instance, between the men who took part in the Jacobite insurrection of 171 5 and 1745, and men of our day in the beginning of the twentieth century. Look at Albert Dilrer's drawings of the Irish of his time. Look at the paintings truly represent ing the Highlanders charging, with kilts and bare knees, the stiffly uniformed soldiery of George II. We change with each generation to all appearance : the men of 1 900 are wholly unlike those of 1 700. Even the language, with all the help of schools to keep it inflexible, changes ; and excellent words in use with admirable authors, are discarded by their sons. What man asks his wife to " tarry " for him ? What wife, on the other hand, asks her husband to " abide " .'' Neither of them ever dreams of calling each other " My dear heart ! " You will " obleege " me, says one generation, and another says it is old- fashioned to pronounce the word other than as " obliige." And so on through the variety of difl^erences which all may pick out, if they read a few pages of Smollett, or Johnson, or Fielding, and compare these writers with Thackeray, and Weyman, and Stephenson. These, comparatively speaking, rapid 6 Dettingen changes make more interesting any plunge of memory into the current of the past, for the currents do not now flow always in the same channel. A plunge into the Red Sea would have an enhanced interest if we could remember those who had walked through the sea-bed safely. Difference of circumstance heightens interest in experience. It is this which gives a fascination to the cases where we, or others, can remember so-and-so, who remembered so-and-so, who saw King Charles executed. The thrill of history passes down the chord of memory, making it seem more immediate. Who has not heard of Dettingen, of the great battle which was fought with such doubt of the event, until little George II. placed himself at the head of the British Guard, and a last charge succeeded in driving back the gallant French Army ? Yet no more than thirty-five years ago I used often to hear Mr. Campbell of Sonachan, then about ninety-six years of age, tell of his recollections of my great-grandfather, the Senior Field-Marshal, the Duke of Argyll, who died in 1806. This old soldier fought at Dettingen in the Guards, and commanded his own battalion at Culloden. " I had a very narrow escape at Dettingen," my grandfather used to say ; for the musket-balls had cut his father's clothing on that day, and few of the leading officers expected to leave the field alive. With a good eyesight you would then be almost able to discern the slightest gesture The Old FieId.MarshaI 7 on the part of your friends the enemy, whose musket-balls were so large that they carried, like the cannon, "a lot of wind into the wound," making recovery difficult. These heavy balls were fired, too, at a range of eighty to one hundred and twenty yards, and no man crept and crawled, or rushed to deliver his fire ; but it was, " All upstanding, gentlemen, if you please," and all done in the tightest and most glaring of uniforms and cross belts, so that if a grenadier was not unusually clumsy at his weapons he ought to have been able to make pretty sure of his man in the lines opposite to him. My old friend Sonachan said that he used to feel alarmed at the old Field-Marshal, and used to hide when his carriage passed, although he had heard he had always been kind to his father, who had been " chamberlain," or agent to him. " I hear you are fond of old papers," Sonachan once said to me, when I visited him at Helensburgh. " Well, I have some Sonachan papers in two old oak boxes. I was going to throw them into the fire when I heard you come in, and thought you might like to see them before burning them yourself, if you like to do so." " Certainly ; I shall be glad to see them, and I will take them with me." I did so, and found that the old man in his youth, or his parent, had been careless about keeping his papers free from others, for among them there were three letters written by Queen Elizabeth to 8 A Find the Earl of Argyll, signed, with all Elizabeth's wonderfully elaborate waves and flourishes and knots, " Your loving cousin Elizabeth R." These were letters, and there are others existing (and a good many lost), written by the English Queen to the Earl who was the husband of Mary Queen of Scots' half-sister, the only lady who was with the Queen of Scots when Rizzio was murdered. Elizabeth must have known how intimate Mary was with the Earl, to whom the Scots Queen always wrote signing herself " Your gude sister Marie," and it was Elizabeth's policy constantly to keep in correspondence with those who could influence "the gude sister" she was to condemn to death. Sonachan died in his ninety-eighth year. He used to say that the climate of Rosneath was specially favourable to old age ; and as there is a gentleman now living there, and attending church regularly, and always able to oblige a village audience with a song, at the age of ninety-eight, one fully believes him. On Loch Long there is a man who beats even this " record," for he is one hundred and four, and has, like his younger and less experienced friend of ninety-eight, a good memory, good eyesight, and a good voice, and upright carriage. For most of those born in the middle of last century, the most vivid recollection of any man, linking the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, lies "The Duke" 9 in the memory of the Duke of Wellington. As children they may remember the kindly and keen eyes under the bushy white eyebrows, the eagle nose, and clean-shaven mouth and chin, with the white " chop "-shaped whiskers, looking down on them with a pleasant smile as the children joined their tiny hands together to dance round the old warrior in a " fairy ring," and how much pleased he seemed to be to be thus completely cut ofi^, enclosed, and surrounded by strategy he could not defeat. Or they may remember as they drove in the old-fashioned, high-swung yellow " chariots " (a two-seated, straight front and windowed thing on four wheels, with coachman high in front, and a footman's board for standing behind), hearing the parents say, " Look, there's the Duke." The child, standing within the carriage at his seated parents' knees, will have looked forward and seen, riding and meeting the carriage, an old, slightly bent, and by no means great figure coming along on a brown horse, with " beaver hat " and well-cut civilian clothes, lifting two fingers to the brim, in military salute, as the carriage passed him ; and before the groom who followed had also ridden past, the child's parents told him that he might remember he had now seen the great Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, the man who had " fought a hundred fights and never lost an English gun." How we gaped and stared, and how silent we were until we knew the great man IO "The Duke" better, and then how pleased we were to manage that " surround " and take him all unawares, when he had only his evening clothes with a star and garter upon him, and did not look at all formidable, much less dreadful ! The meetings with him when he was on horseback usually occurred on Constitu tion Hill, near the " Wellington Arch." It was his equestrian statue which is now at Aldershot, which surmounted the Arch. Many thought the sculpture unworthy of the subject, but "The Duke " would never allow it to be taken down or replaced by any other. The Duke was much admired and liked by his old enemies the French, and fully returned the personal aff^ection they showed him. At a party at Stafford House, he and his great opponent Soult were both present. The Duke of Sutherland, the owner of Stafford House, had some fine pictures by Murillo, which had been sold at Paris and purchased by him. The two finest of these pictures, if not all of them, were part of the loot Soult had taken from Madrid. The " Reception of the Angels by Abraham," and the " Prodigal Son," both magnificent pictures, were placed in the gallery at Stafford House ; and Wellington took his old enemy Soult arm-in-arm to the gallery, to show the French commander what had become of his ancient spoil. It was the fashion to call every man Society caressed " a lion." Another " lion," small in Sir Harry Smith ii stature and great in reputation, was Sir Harry Smith, the victor of Aliwal, and one of Wellington's men. He too had a neat little figure, with sandy hair on a well-shaped skull, clean-cut features, reddish short-cut whiskers, only allowed to grow near the ear, and an alert gait. He was more communicative than was his great chief, and he spoke freely of his African wars, little dreaming that fifty years after his death a far more serious war than that in which he commanded in South Africa would fill that country with terror, and make immortal the name of his wife, whom few remember, except as the godmother of the place which held out so desperately and successfully against the Boers so long after her death. He too liked to have children around him, and to tell them of the savages ; how they hurled spears, and had big mouths. He made me a present of a great spoon of yellow horn, with a handle curving backwards, and it seemed to me that the ogre whose mouth could take in that spoon must be twelve feet high, and able to swallow Sir Harry himself at one gulp I Where the Alexandra Hotel now stands at Knightsbridge was a house where Shows of all kinds were given ; and we children were taken, after hearing Sir Harry talk, to see veritable Zulus dance about on a stage, imitate their war tactics, and hurl the terrible assegais, which we were told always killed, because, like the lance, 12 Lord Clyde the wound received with the iron or steel let in so much air that any hurt given became incurable. One of our party was so alarmed at the effect of these blue-black savages' attacks on the painted trees and dummy Europeans that he gave out a cry that was not a war-whoop, and had to be removed yelling, to the no small importance of his comrades who were gallant enough to remain, securely seated in the stalls, which the sensitive one did not consider " zareeba " and protection enough. Yet another ancient warrior was often seen in my people's houses. This was Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde. He always considered himself to be my father's clansman, although his father's name was MacLiver, a man of the island of Mull, where, in a village called Bunessan, his father lived to see his son famous. " I want to ask a favour of you, Mr. Campbell," he said one day to the local factor. " Yes, MacLiver, what can I do for you ? " " Well, it's just this," said the old man, " I hear that Colin is soon coming back from India, noo that the mutineers are all beaten by the boy, and Colin when he was here, as he will maybe be again here soon, will be after doing what he liked doing at home. . . . He was aye fond, Mr. Campbell, of shooting the hoodie craws along the shore, and I want you to lend me a gun to give Colin to shoot craws along the shore." " Certainly, Mr. MacLiver, if Lord Clyde 13 Lord Clyde will honour me by accepting a gun from me, I shall be too happy to accommodate him." " Thank you kindly for my boy, Mr. Campbell ; he's sure to be in Bunessan again, noo the war's well over." But I do not think the " craws " had ever any campaign opened against them by Field- Marshal Lord Clyde. He was a delightfully modest and manly old fellow, standing short and sturdy and square, with a very square jaw, and for a wonder with a grey moustache and short tuft on his under lip, eschewing in this matter the ancient military cut. His hair was a grey " touzle," standing straight like an electrified lawyer's wig. His forehead had deep parallel furrows running straight across it, and his eye brows were thick and grey, and his eyes piercing and blue. He was very proud of being a High lander, and thought there was nothing to beat his men from the Highlands and Islands. During the whole of the Crimean campaign he had insisted on wearing a feather bonnet among his men of the Highland Brigade, which held the lines of Balaclava. This fine old soldier was always sensitive about his Highland Brigade. He did not like to have so little to do with the actual fighting before Sebastopol. His position at the base of supplies guarding the queer little basin of Balaclava, where two old 14 Lord Clyde Genoese towers looked down on a mass of vessels with muddied strings of animals and men constantly passing to and from the shores of the salt water " Lochan," or small fjord, gave him no chance of further distinguishing himself and his men. He had had his chance at the Alma, and the brigade he commanded had dashed nobly up the steep slope, losing many men ; but this was only what the Guards, and the French, and others had done. Sir Colin Campbell wanted more. What he would have liked best would have been to have headed an assault on Sebastopol, with the French picked troops going in at the same time on the left. He had always prayed to have his men in the trenches, and after the great attack on the Redan had failed, and when the French on the left of our line had succeeded in taking the Malakoff Fort in the Russian Defences, Sir Colin's wish was almost granted. The Highlanders were to have been moved down to the trenches, and to have attempted another desperate assault, which was to be covered and assisted by all that French and British artillery could do. But the opportunity never came, for the Russians, made uneasy by the French success, retired, and Sir Colin and his men had to march back to Balaclava, and resume their old position. He gave me an excellent sepia sketch of his position, showing on the plain in front one of the redoubts, or outiying forts, which the Turks garrisoned on the day of the Russian General's Lord Clyde 15 (Liprandi) attack, when the Turks fled. In the drawing it looks as though this out-work, lying by itself out on the plain, was within easy musket-shot of the series of hills crowned and seamed with the ditches and camps of the Scots. But the distances were measured with other scales than nowadays, though the Minie rifle, which was the weapon our riflemen carried, covered a distance which was phenomenal as compared with the old Brown Bess musket, which remained, practically unchanged, the arm of our infantry from the days of Dettingen to those of Alma. Yet how short a time ago seem all these old things to have been the facts of the day ! It is as though only a few hours ago my father came into a room at Rosneath, where I was with my mother, and said, " A great battle has been fought in the Crimea, and we have lost 2,000 men." This was the first fight of the campaign, the storming of the heights of Alma — a little river, as Dean Trench said : Yesterday unnamed, unhonoured, but to wandering Tartars known Now thou art a name forever to the world's four corners blown : Alma, Alma dear for ever to the gallant and the free, Alma, roll thy waters proudly, proudly roll them to the sea. How much war verse Churchmen pour forth on these occasions ! Trench was full of war paeans. Indeed, Dean Trench and Dean Milman were for a time held, by pious ladies, to be at least two of the greatest poets of their age. 1 6 Lord Clyde When Clyde came back, his friends declared that he ought to have held far higher command, and would " have got on much better with the French " than had the others ; but it is doubtful if his impetuous temper would have stood the many trials of patience so well as did the more long-enduring temperament of Lord Raglan. Sir Colin was among the most modest of men. He was told when he returned that a present from the ladies of Argyllshire was to be made to him, and that my mother requested him to come to a dinner to be given at Argyll Lodge, when she would hand over to him the gift. But nothing would persuade him to face this ordeal, until he obtained a solemn promise that he was to make no speech, and that the affair was to be altogether without ceremony. So the guests came and dined, with Sir Colin sitting on my mother's right hand, and the jewel offered to him was handed to him under the table, as though it had been but a tablenapkin he had dropped ! He was very grateful, and somewhat " choky " in his low-spoken acknowledgment " of the ladies' kindly remembrances of an old soldier." But old as he felt himself, nothing would stand between him and duty, and when the news of the great Indian rising came, and the Mutiny with its atrocities filled men's minds with alarm and horror, the public voice called for Sir Colin to be sent in supreme command. My brother and I forthwith mounted our ponies to go and say Lord Clyde 17 good-bye to our old friend, who then lived in a house at Knightsbridge, facing the back of the barracks, a few paces retired from the road. There was a covered way leading from the pavement to the door. Sir Colin and Colonel Stirling, his almost inseparable friend, were at home, both engaged in multitudinous affairs, writing, ordering, despatch ing, with a constant stream of officers and others arriving and departing. But when the old clansman saw his two small guests, he came and made us get off our horses, and took us in to see what a lot of papers he had to answer, and insisted on our staying more than ten minutes, and on coming to the door to see us mount. " God bless you, my boys," he called out, and one of us patriarchally called back, " God bless you. Sir Colin," as we rode off. Then there was Lord Cardigan, of the House of Anglesea, who had led with Lord Lucan the charge of the Light Cavalry at Balaclava. 'Twas the plume of a Paget above them that floated, 'Twas Anglesea charged in his offspring again. And much we boys loved to see him riding in the Row on a beautiful bay charger. He wore very long fair moustaches, and had a fine figure. I was fond of visiting the old barrack which was used for cavalry at the extreme west end of Rotten Row, now a part of Kensington Gardens. But we were naturally on more intimate terms with the artists than with the military heroes. For instance, we saw much of Millais, afterwards Sir VOL. I. 2 1 8 Millais John Millais, with his pretty Highland wife and handsome boys. What a sensation his early pictures made ! The Pre-Raphaelite school, as it was absurdly named, had in him its most illustrious painter. How the groups of spectators crowded round the picture of the knight crossing the ford 1 and other elaborately executed works, which furnished discussion, often angry discussion, as though people were not at liberty to praise and paint as they chose ! The object of all this laudation was a delightful man, tall, with finely cut features, fond of sport, fond of nature, and never happier than when he was able to wear his shooting-coat, both in and out of doors. He and Vernon Harcourt, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer, and their friend Mr. C. — all three men over six feet in height — spent one long autumn holiday in a little old-fashioned lodge at Dalchenna, on Loch Fyne, about two miles from Inveraray, and unanimously declared that it was one of the happiest times in their lives. They had rented the shooting in woods and on moors in the neighbourhood, and Millais was almost as often out with the gun as were the other two. " How we got into that littie house and lived there so comfortably," they often declared in after years, " was a puzzle." But they had a lovely view of the hills at the head of the Loch from their little drawing-room. The deep wide Qord stretched away to the north, where the little village of Inveraray, a tiny toy town, like some of Dalchenna 1 9 those on the Lombard Lakes, rose reflected in the water, which brought to the ancient burgh a wealth of herrings. Steep wooded hills rose behind it, long avenues of old beech-trees led to it from both north and south ; and further to the eastward the Loch ran up to the feet of even higher hills, less wooded, but of fine jagged shapes, part of what used in old days to be called in derision " Argyll's Bowling Green." Seals, and many gulls, and green plover, and sand-pipers, and oyster-catchers, made the shore in the immediate neighbourhood a happy-hunting-ground for watching through the field-glass the habits of many birds. There was good fishing within two hundred yards. There was a pretty river, the Douglas Water, dashing down through old woods and under picturesque bridges to the sea. Millais' good nature made him make sketches, in his own beautiful, delicate style, of several of the girls at the castle. He made studies of some of the fisher-folk, of the " wood interiors," and of the views from the points where his great predecessor. Turner, had sat and drawn before him for his book of sepia studies. In later years Millais would say if he wanted to paint any of his acquaintance, and his wishes were of course always gratefully followed. He painted with great dash and certainty when en-- gaged in portraiture. Placing the canvas not far from the sitter, he would retire to a considerable distance, apparently to get a general impression. 20 MiUais and would, after making a careful survey, stride rapidly up to the easel and dash in what he wished to paint with much rapidity as well as care. His days of laboured detail did not last long. Latterly he was as effective as he was prompt and dashing. He was of too sturdy a frame and temperament to be jealous. Encouraging to the young, he was kind and courteous to all, was ready to praise good work, and to see the merits rather than the defects in his contemporaries. Great characters, in great brushmen, and the strong in mind, can best portray strength in others. It is notorious how much the carmines of Sir Joshua Reynolds have faded. Two portraits of the Lord and Lady StraflFord of 1770 were in this condition, and Millais was persuaded to see what he could do for them. But he had so sincere an admiration for the Old Master, that his touching up only amounted to putting in, too carefully, some red into the lips and cheeks, so that the pair still seem to think that blood-circulation in the face is unnecessary, although, strangely enough, the crimson of the coronation robes in which they are clad remains as bright as when first painted. Landseer. — Who, remembering " Lanny," does not feel again the pleasure of converse with that bright temperament, before it became, alas ! clouded, and the watchful brain was maimed ? Like Millais, he had a passionate love of the open air, and was ever able to enjoy to the utmost the Landseer 2 1 pleasure of country life in the Highlands, where deer, dogs, Highland cattle, and sheep made up for him all that existence required. Of pleasant manners, he was always a favourite in country houses, ready to take part in all social fun, or work. Table-turning became a mania during this period, and at one stance, where most of the company were made to wait outside a room where experiments were being made, Landseer was one of those admitted to the mysteries within. One of the outsiders, becoming too impatient to keep in exile, made for the door and opened it, just in time to see a moderately heavy table, with Landseer on the top of it, settling down to a place near the door the intruder had opened, after a curious rush it had made from the centre of the room where the party had sat in a ring to lay their fingers upon it. Landseer was always afterwards a firm believer in the occult art, if the moving of mahogany can be called so. His beasts in his paintings were always graceful, his men and women only occasionally. Yet the feeling shown was always refined, even when he painted bulls and lions. His horses and donkeys were never like those of Rubens or any of the great Dutch painters. He read intelligence into them ; there was character in every dumb animal he drew. It was said of a Scotch artist of the day, that he painted all his beasts like men, and his men like beasts. 22 Landseer Landseer never painted the beast in man, though he may have made the beast a little too human. Some of his portraits of ladies are excellent, but if there be a horse on the same canvas, one is tempted to believe that the horse was his first love in painting, and that the lady was " an extra " to be placed on the canvas to show off the horse. " Lady Douro and the Duke of Wellington " may be re garded as an exception. Landseer was a short man, wearing moustache and whiskers. He was most painstaking in getting sketches on the spot for all his work. He would think nothing of the fatigue of keeping out on the hill, watching the deer. At his house at St. John's Wood he had a pleasant garden, and an arrangement in his ground-floor studio by which he could have animals brought in, so that he might paint them at leisure. Another charming painter of animals was Fred Taylor. He painted in water-colour by preference, and certainly excelled rather in animals than men. His style was broad. He used to say that at a drawing-school he had taken infinite pains to make an elaborate study, when his Italian master came round, and simply said, " Finicky, finicky, that is beastly, sir," and tore up his pupil's precious work. " Finickiness " he certainly left for ever, and his horses, ponies, and dogs, especially otter hounds, were admirable. Lc^^^u^^jf^j^, 23 ^ / A €€:^ iffu.pt. .yZ^ 24 ^^t>7-*7X'^^-'-'--7.^^'^"'"''*"'*^ ^MA*^,^,^ ^'^^^c^.-^v^^^^ ^t,...^.^^ ^<^jLu^ 25 yyu^ry '~- v?»-wxlj"~^^ u.^ C^Sir John is more like Macaulay than any one else I can remember in the matter of memory. His knowledge is marvellously varied, wide, and accurate. He, like Macaulay, can never forget anything he has read. The consequence is that he is a walking encyclopaedia. As he is now only about twenty-eight, It is awful to think what his knowledge will be when he is sixty, if health and mind last 1 Gladstone has a great respect for him, and if he himself ever gets beyond his depth in facts, or is at a loss for figures or dates, he always applies to Sir John. Then forthwith all the required information is poured out, as if one had only to turn a tap to make it flow. But Gladstone himself is marvellous. Although he is always poring over 46 Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Carlyle figures, and is now especially busy preparing for his Budget Speech, he is yet able to speak on almost any subject, and always seems to have read any book that is mentioned. How he manages to find the time to read the number of writings he evidently does study, is to me quite inconceivable. / There is very little said here about the Danish war — I expected to hear little but talk of the war when I came from the north to London, but people seem too utterly tired of the subject. The question of the succession to the Duchies (Schleswig-Holstein) is not mentioned, any subject being apparently preferable to "the interminable discussion" about Denmark's old provinces. There may be an occa sional expression of pity for the Danes, but as to backing them — oh no ! In autumn. — The Edinburgh students have had the benefit of a wonderful valedictory address from Gladstone on his leaving the old Rectorship. The students have now elected Carlyle, who met Mr Gladstone the other day. Gladstone began to talk of his election. Carlyle said, in his broad accent, " The worst of it is that one has to treat it " {i.e. the election) " as something, whereas it is in reality nothing." " Well," said Gladstone, " you know there is an inaugural address to be given." " Yes," answered Carlyle, " and I suppose I shall have to go and dig up something from the bottom of my brains, which had much better remain there." CHAPTER III Great Poets. — Poets have more pilgrimages made to their shrines than have the warriors. Perhaps this is because the public still expect further favours from the one, and from the warrior they know that they have already the best he has to give. They do not anticipate reverses that may again call out the soldier, but they do anticipate events that may call forth the verses of the writer. A soldier's fame is therefore more apt to subside with the dispersal of the smoke and the medals, whereas the writer's work remains on our minds, is sung in our assemblies, and is known to the youngest student and to the oldest statesman. The poet often makes the force which bears the soldier to fame in executing the behests that force has given. The man In the ranks has marched into those ranks more often through the influence of songs than through the effect of his own regimental music. And one of the greatest to write these songs of the ranks In Germany, was Arndt. The " Wacht am Rhein " remained as the soul of patriotic and military fervour long after his death. " Sie soUen es nicht haben, den schonen deutschen Rhein," 47 48 Arndt crystallised the national feeling to a tune that became a people's battle hymn. And on the Rhein, near Bonn, he spent his last years in a house with a long strip of garden-ground behind it, with the river at its ending. He re ceived us most graciously " early one afternoon in the sixties," and paced with us up and down the walk of his narrow bit of land, with the fine view of the opposite bank and the shining broad river to cheer him, as he suffered patiently the martyrdom of a visit from the " Yunge Herren Englander." He seemed to us a tall thin man with fine features, but we were young and thought all men tall. We talked halting German to him, my mother very fair German, and my father very poor French, In which Arndt did not seem to care to express himself. I wrote : " He is a very old man. He went on talking to mama, and said he knew that her family had always fought for ' das Recht,' and told her that he considered her as a German princess whom accident had placed in the West of England. What he meant I could not understand ; but it was evident he considered all he said was the highest praise. Seven Hills, the Sieben Gebirge, looked beautiful from his little garden. We soon said good-bye to him." I was taken another pilgrimage to a very differ ent poet, to one whose lays were never feverish or warlike, and who lived a calm life calmly, by a stiller water than the Rhine. Our pilgrimage was Wordsworth 49 to Rydal Mount, at Windermere, to see old Mr. Wordsworth. It is doubtful if many read his writings now, but Wordsworth's name stood then for all that was best in the English poetry of the day. Who if now asked to quote Wordsworth could " reel off" a single poem ? Perhaps A primrose by a river's brim, A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more, may be remembered. Rest, rest, perturbed earth, Rest, thou doleful mother of mankind, may be another characteristic verse, culled from no less than six volumes, all on the same placid, philosophic stufft, fit gruel for mental invalids. Nothing could incite Wordsworth to vivid poetry. The rugged scenes of Switzerland, or of the west of Scotland, the recent wars on the Continent, the great themes that shook the souls of great men and vibrated through their verse, never made Wordsworth rise from a meek contemplation of a toad or butterfly. I remember him as an old man, seated in an armchair in a window, looking out on the lake. He had always been an old man in an armchair, looking out on a placid lake, and placidly droning his own domestic and often melodious ditties. They say it is something to have known him. It is something to remember such serene an- VOL. I. 4 5° Tennyson tiquity. Arndt walked about at Bonn, and showed that there was fire in his nature ; Wordsworth, at Rydal, sat motionless in his chair, and murmuring only of trees, and water, and grass. Arndt could raise the spirit of a nation ; it is doubtful if Wordsworth could do more than raise a smile of sympathy from the benevolent. Yet, as Tennyson said, his own laurels were greener, as laureate, because coming from Wordsworth, " who uttered nothing base." Tennyson. — But now to come to more recent days — to Tennyson, who, as he said of his friend Hallam, was " the master bowman he, could cleave the mark," who wrote the best English sentiment in the best English verse ; who, although not possessing perhaps the fire of Campbell, has left patriotic verse hardly inferior to his, whose whole career was an up lifting of the tone and fibre of English literature ; who never wrote a base thing, but whose thought was ever pure, manly, majestic. A great nature In a great form. Tall, dark to swarthiness, with dark, almost Jewish- looking eyes, a prominent nose, wearing moustache, beard, and hair longer than usual, turn-down collar, dark sailor tie, dark clothes, a large black soft- brimmed hat, he looked hke a ItaHan, or Maronite monk dressed up to pass muster as an English squire. A delightful, afi^ectionate nature, very sensitive, and of utmost nobility of taste and manly fibre, he was able during a long life to carry out Tennyson 5 1 a grand ideal of life and duty, conceived and acted on from the time he was a young student at the University. With a contempt for all that he thought mean or weak, he never let indignation give utterance to any word that was hasty or undignified. The good and worthy he could praise in notes worthy of the Choir of St. Peter's In Rome. Sonorous, resonant, full, and with exquisite melody, his verse could raise and remain splendid until his theme was ended. He himself liked to read out his poems to his Intimate friends, but hated to be overheard by others. He would take us into the very centre of a large field at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, to be sure that he could not be overheard by any one lurking in the hedges, before he could stand and declaim. In deep running bass voice, any piece on which he was at work at the time, or one that had been specially asked for. I remember his thus declaiming the whole of his poem of "Boadlcea," with hardly a pause for breath. It was a Battle March, set to an organ-like music of voice, but declaimed with a kind of accompanying drone, like the drone you hear as undertone with a Gaelic choir's singing. He was very appreciative of the admiration of his contemporaries. Over forty years ago I brought to him a token of esteem from the American poet Longfellow, who asked me to take back to England with me, as a present from him to 52 Tennyson Tennyson, a fine specimen of an Indian pipe- head, carved out of the famous red stone, which takes a fair polish, and used to be a token of a chief's good-will when sent as a gift. The life of a red man had always a great fascination for Longfellow, and Tennyson liked the American poet's works, and greatly valued his pipe, which he kept beside him, in his study, to the last. It is too early yet to dwell long on the beautiful home at Freshwater, for the loss of so great a man, and so loved a personality, must in a measure impose silence on those who knew him well. But it may be allowed to bear a humble tribute to his simplicity, his purity, and the sacred family life, which was a model to all, unto the end. The last conversation with him, as he lay on a couch, resting before the fire, when he showed the kindliest Interest in the fortunes of us youths, who must have seemed mere babes to him, will always be a recollection to dwell upon with delight and sorrow. 1857. — Mr. Tennyson came yesterday. I knew you would wish him not to be at the hotel, and so I wrote to him to come to the Castle. I have no answer from him, so I suppose he is coming. . . . Mr. Tennyson says he likes being here very much. He smokes nearly all day. At night S. takes him up to his room to smoke, so he does not smoke in the drawing-room or hall. He heard a noise at his window yesterday evening, and went Tennyson 53 to see what it was. He found it was a great owl beating against the window with his wings, and staring at him. He says he could have caught it quite easily. Mr. Tennyson is wearing a beard and moustache, which I suppose he can hardly wear in London. A later date. — Tennyson came in announcing lunch. He does not look as tall as he used to appear. He was most majestic and kindly. He sat as upright as ever, with his dark hair about him, his skull cap on his head, wearing the same turn down ample collars, his face pale, with the deep umber-coloured eyes looking rather melancholy. He would hospitably insist in his old affectionate, peremptory way on our drinking a seven-guinea- a-dozen claret. He was glad to hear that the Queen liked his new volume. " Well," he said, in his sonorous, slow, musical bass voice. " I have given a good account of her in that volume, but the news papers don't like my rhymes — say they are bad. I live in terror of any of the Queen's family marry ing, and of hearing from her that she hopes I will write something. I have no news of that kind yet, but I live in terror of it." This with a solemnly sly wink. He spoke of ghosts, and said that a relative of his in England had seen a friend who was dying in India walk into the room. He has taken to water-colour drawing, and showed us a sketch of snow mountains rising over a wooded 54 Holmes country by the seaside, a copy of something Lear the artist painted for him, as Tennyson's own idea of a tropical island. " How's your father ? I am always delighted to see him or hear of him." His nurse, when he showed us his study, where she awaited him before he took his short rest after dinner, told him he would live for another twenty years. He shook his finger at her and called her a humbug. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a distinguished member of the Am.erican Literary Society of half a century ago. These men had a historic liking for England, their old mother-land. Holmes, describing the feelings of some of his countrymen of his great West, imagines a Western giant hardly knowing where England is : He twirls the spotted globe to find it 'Tis but a speck, oh, never mind it. and Holmes replies : Yes, let our brothers of the West write, smiling in their florid pages, One half her Earth hath walked the rest, in Heroes, Poets Wits, and Sages. A pretty " conceit," implying that half the soil of England is made of the dust of the great men who have called themselves Englishmen. Minor Poets. — Of the more modern singers one can write but littie, save to recall the pleasure Swinburne — Browning 5 5 their acquaintance often gave. Mr. Swinburne was the writer who excited most admiration, for his diction was always as abundant and flowing as a laughing river. No one ever reached such per fection of music in our day. His verses leap along the paths of Parnassus, like flower-scented breezes in a thirsty land. His own unfortunate deafness was helped in conversation by the ever- ready aid of his devoted friend, Mr. Watts, himself an excellent writer and bosom friend of Swinburne. The poet seemed for ever to be haunted by his musical metres, and one could see his fingers beating time to some harmony, which came not to his lips, for he was ever reserved, though kindly In society. His features and look reminded one of Shakespeare's portraits, but there was a dreamy, far-away glance about the blue eyes which the Great Master pro bably never had. Then of our own day, again, were delightful Brown ing and his gifted wife. Browning was a man loving society, and often seen at assemblies. At one which took place at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery — a lunch, I think — he was seated next but one to me, and my neighbour was a handsome cousin of my own who had never read his books, being young and having, like the good girl she was, only read those things which were set before her. She stuttered a little, and turning to me, said : " Do tell me who this old man is on my right. I have no idea who it is ! " 5 6 Browning " Oh, don't you know, that is the celebrated poet. Browning : have you never read any of his works — poems or plays or metrical conversations .'' He is supposed to be the writer the least easy to remember by heart, and I was once told to learn by heart ten pages your neighbour had written. This was at school, and the horrid master who gave me the task knew it would take me about ten days to do, because Mr. Browning skips about in his narrative, and does not care to make the phrases very even and smooth." " Oh dear, then what shall I say to him .'' I must say something to him, though he has said nothing to me. Don't you think he will think me rude if I don't say something to him ? " All this in an eager whispered stutter. " Oh yes," I replied, " of course you ought to say something to him. I know what you shall say ; you shall ask him how his translation of the Greek poet Euripides Is getting on? He is sure to be pleased at that." " D-d-do you think so ? W-well, I — I'll t-t-try." And so the attempt was made, and I heard her, after a pause to summon up her courage, say, " Mr. Browning, m-m-may I ask how your t-t-translation of ' Euriplease ' is going on — is it finished ? " Browning was enchanted at finding that this pretty lady had been so closely following his career in literature. He said, " That is a question Morris — Monckton Milnes 57 I am very glad to answer," and for the rest of the lunch hour he poured out to the poor girl a perfect torrent of enthusiastic suggestions and theories on the subject of Greek metre. My cousin looked round several times in despair at me, as though begging me to stop him somehow or other, but I enjoyed the situation too much to let him stop, and on the contrary " egged him on," and she never quite forgave me or him. Browning was a short man, with pleasant " straight " eyes, grey moustache, and clipped beard. Morris, the author of the Earthly Paradise, was a man of sturdier mould, but not unlike Browning: in general appearance. He was equally good at writing, and designing wall-paper and household Stuffs, but had little of the grace of either his poetry or drawing, and seemed to think you either too decorative, or not decorative enough, when he met you, and, as the Scots say, " condescended upon you." He did not object to reading papers he had written on Art, before societies, and then you got the benefit of what he had to give, more than by any conversation with him. He was never smooth, except In verse. Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton, was of a very different stamp. His nickname in his youth was " the cool of the evening." No one enjoyed society more, or was more worthy of the popularity he enjoyed. His vivid imagination gave him a constant sympathy with almost every 58 Aytoun form of human character ; and the last young debutante, and the young man of promise or position entering Parliament or society, were equally sure of exciting his interest and kindly feeling. " The beating of his own heart " was certainly not the only sound he heard. His verses lent themselves to this kind of paltry joke just as did Tennyson's, when the students at a university called out to him, on his stepping up to the Chancellor to receive his degree, " Did they wake and call you early, call you early, Alfred dear ^ " in a tone of anguished sympathy. Tennyson did not like that kind of thing at all. Monckton Milnes would rather enjoy It. Aytoun was the Scottish poet of whom we were most proud. He had written so savagely against some of our people of the seventeenth century that he was reserved and shy when we met him, and seemed to think there could be little good in such spawn of the Covenanters. CHAPTER IV But there are many of us, who, if not in the first blush of youth, are yet " going strong," and feeling ourselves to be just as foolish as if we were still boys, who can remember people of the time of the Regency, when Waterloo was fought. There was Lord Brougham, who once condescended to write me a letter, be ginning, " My dear Lord," in the most approved " Regency " style, who was in the very thick of the battles which raged around Queen Caroline, and who was her defence and stay, and the protagonist in many a political fight of that time. His vivacity was always remarkable. If he was not always jumping up and down himself, toto corpore, his remarkable nose was. It was a nose that jerked, and perked, and quirked, and wagged any way, with varying emotion. He remained to the last much as the caricatures of Gllray represented him. His hair was still fairly thick, though, of course, quite white. He kept himself smooth shaven as he had in youth. Most of each winter was spent by him at Cannes, where he had a villa with steps leading up to S9 6o Lord Brougham the door, and a sloping, prettily planted bit of ground in front, where there was a lovely view of the Esterelles Hills. He received us boys at his door, took us into his study, talked to us with much animation, and advised us to see as much of France as possible ; for we were on our way back from Turin, vid the Corniche Road. He was, perhaps, the best known man of his day, for he had led a life which was constantly before the public, whether as advocate or politician ; his name was very often In every paper, and his face and figure in caricatures in all news-vendors' offices. He had been, in almost boyhood, one of those who had been brought under the influence of the brilliant Edinburgh Society of that day, and had a tender heart for anything and anybody Scottish. Beyond wearing the frequently folded white choker round his throat, his dress had been made to harmonise with changing ideas in costume, but he kept to small black-and-white check patterns in his trousers to the end of his days. But there were still some old gentlemeri who, after the middle of the nineteenth century had passed, insisted on keeping to the dress of the Regency. One of these was Mr. Stephenson, the father of the gallant Admiral who has now ex changed the command of the quarter-deck for that of the Commons, when he conveys to them His Majesty's gracious message that they are to attend at the House of Lords, to hear Parliament opened, "Regency" Men 6i or prorogued. He lived as Deputy Ranger of Hyde Park, in the pleasant house on the north side of the Serpentine, and we used to sail toy boats in that mare magnum, and pay visits to the Ranger. He always wore the blue cutaway coat with brass buttons, the tight trousers, often with high boots, and the rough, furry-looking, tall, white hat of the first part of the century. Another instance was that of the grandfather of the present Lord Lansdowne. With the exception of the boots, the costume was the same, and there was usually the old white waistcoat and heavy fobbed chain and seal. These hats always looked heavy, and when — as in the case of Lord Lansdowne, who went to sleep at one of Professor Owen's lectures which he attended with the Prince Consort, both sitting on chairs on the floor of the semi circular lecture-room — the said hat fell on a resounding floor, the noise made one pity the head that ordinarily supported it. Another fine specimen of the Regency was old " Poodle Byng," a vivacious Society man, whose curly hair gave him the name he was known by all his life. He used to say that he had shot snipe on the flat lands where Belgrave Square is now built, but we always held that he must have been shooting in his sleep. He was certainly a member of the Westminster Volunteers, called out when Napoleon was encamped near Boulogne, threatening to invade England ; as he was certainly again a 62 Miss O'Neal member of the Westminster Volunteer Force, when Louis Napoleon managed to frighten England into the Volunteer movement — an act for which we should all be eternally grateful to the third Emperor. "Poodle" did not wear the Hessian boots, but in all else he remained the " Buck " of the Prince Regent's day. There were, however, no ladies that I can remember who kept to the high-waist costume of that period. I was always curious to see one whose portrait had been shown to me In a little memoir of her career, because she was an actress whom every one respected for her character as well as for the excellent talent she had of impersonating other characters. This was Miss O'Neal, who became Lady Becher, and had a place called Ballygiblin, in Ireland. She had been a friend of my paternal grandfather and of my father, who had known her since the time when she was almost young. Her picture, a coloured print, in the frontispiece of her Memoirs made her rosy, full-eyed, plump, and regular-featured . I was called in one day to see a tall thin woman, with an almost bass voice, and who stood and eyed me solemnly with little grey eyes, with grey curls on each side of her ears, and called my father George, in a voice Antony might have used when he called Brutus so often " an honourable man." And I gradually gathered that this dramatic dowdy repre sented the Miss O'Neal of my impassioned fancy. I daresay she was a dear old lady, but to me she Lady Charlotte Campbell 63 was a disillusioning disappointment. My father used to call her " Ballygiblin," as if she were a Scots Laird. But another lady who realised my ideal of what a beauty should dwindle down into, was my great-aunt. Lady Charlotte Campbell, the grand mother of Lady Granville, Lady Mackenzie, and Ian and Walter Campbell of Islay. She was indeed a lovely specimen of the Past. As she sat In her chair, in her house in Sloane Square, you looked at her and thought her like a pretty piece of Dresden china. There she sat, with a high cap on her head just like those shown in the mezzotint of the portrait by Miss Reade of her mother, the Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll. There were almost the same beautiful and refined features — her delicate nose, her blue eyes, the regular little mouth ; though of course, in Lady Charlotte's case, the wonderful carmine bloom on the cheeks, was, alas ! not that of youth. But when one thought that this beautiful little lady, who sat so upright and seemed like an ex quisite French miniature come to life, had for mother the famous beauty who set all Society agog in the sixties of the eighteenth century, one was amazed that it was still possible to speak to, and admire, the looks of her daughter iio years later. Here was the beauty for whom Walter Scott had laboured to write out in his best handwriting 64 Lady Charlotte Campbell his finest Ballads. Here was the woman who, a writer of poetry herself, had seen Thomas Campbell come to her, to read to her, and to consult with her as to any changes the finest battle description in the English language — namely, the verses on Nelson's Copenhagen victory — might demand. As the sign of battle flew on the lofty British Line, There was silence deep as Death, And the boldest held his breath For a time. Here was the loveliness that Hoppner so adored that nothing would satisfy him until she had sat, or rather stood, for him while he painted her as Aurora, a rosy dawn on grey clouds, as she scatters roses from her pearly fingers. Yes, it was still loveliness, despite the lapse of the three score years and ten. But, alas ! voice and memory were changed, and only her art books, which she still loved to handle, told of her old tastes, and may have made her feel again in Italy, buying prints or rare bindings at Florence or in Rome. The poem she wrote during one of these visits to the South, " The Three Great Sanctuaries of Tuscany," shows that she had much ability. Her daughter told me how well she remem bered coming into the room as a little girl when Thomas Campbell was reading to her mother, and how irritated the poet was at the interrup tion, and how he insisted that she should leave Lady Charlotte Campbell 65 at once, and not come back again to disturb them ! She could tell her mother's stories of how she and her sister, afterwards Lady Coventry, were so mobbed in the Park that they applied, and applied with success, for a Guard to attend them when they took their " airings." She could recount how she had heard this lovely mother say that her father, Lord Mayo, had conversed with Horace Walpole, and danced with the famous Mary Bellenden, destined to become, by an Argyll marriage, a near connection of her own. In one thing Lady Charlotte was never an adept. Economy was, to her, anathema. Why should she not have the beautiful old Italian prints ? Why not possess what so many had — that wonderful Elzevir, or those founts of pure delight, the small folios printed in italics and adorned with fine woodcuts and charming arabesques ? Music she cared little about ; but what was music compared with the possession of old Italian treasures .'' So the treasures accumulated, and the finances decayed. It is like what is said to happen in the State when there is plenty of money flying about overhead, but it does not come down to the people's level, to give them employment. Lady Charlotte could write well, but she never tried to count, even badly. So there were troubles, and letters from creditor's' representatives ; and a very small house had to be taken for her, where she just managed to have room enough, among her Italian books and Maltese dogs, to give a little VOL. I. 5 66 Lady Charlotte Campbell tea-party now and then, and sit beside a fire in her armchair and wearing her high cap. Tradesmen's bills were old foes of hers ; and once, on one awful day, an enterprising member of that "persuasion " actually pursued her to Inveraray, to the sacred sanctuary she thought inviolate. But Inver aray never had such privileges, and the writ came into the hands of the law officer residing there, and he was aghast at the situation. How could he arrest the daughter of his benefactor and friend at the Castle ? No, it was impossible. A private message was sent to Lady C.'s parent. Lady C. was promptly bundled out of her bed. The post-chaise was ordered. Lady C. came down with her maid, fully equipped for a journey. She and her servant got in. The post- chaise drove away in the darkness. Where was Lady C. .' Oh, not at Inveraray. She had left some time ago. News would cojue of her destination, but Lady C. had apparently not made up her mind, at starting, as to the end of her excursion. There were no horses to be got for any pursuit. So the matter must " remain over," and Lady C.'s where abouts would be duly communicated to the trades man, whose accounts were, in the meantime, settled by the Duke. But there must be other liabilities ? " Oh no," Charlotte had said, " oh no," she did not think there could be. She had bought so little of late. She had lived so carefully. And Charlotte, meanwhile, was reaching Edinburgh. Where was she to be while in Edinburgh.? Oh, Lady Charlotte Campbell 67 that was all right. No one could seriously bother her there. Why not ? Because she would be within the sanctuary of the Royal Palace of Holyrood. Sanctuary ? Why, there was only a ruined chapel there. Oh dear no, there was a fine set of rooms belonging to the Duke, as High Steward of Scotland, and no creditor could arrest her while she remained within the precincts of the Palace. So for a while Charlotte was kept in what she considered to be durance vile. But she had excellent rooms, and many friends to visit her, and the Palace court and garden for exercise. Soon her debts were paid, and she was released, only to sin again in the way of over shopping I CHAPTER V Eton Days, 1859. — Arrived late. We were not in bed till 2.30 a.m. Next morning we were told there were only two schools on Saturday, and that we need not go to any of them till our exam, be over. Worked at my tutor's house from 1 1 to 2 o'clock, when we had dinner, and then worked all the afternoon. Went to chapel with G. Howard and had great difficulty in finding a place. The service was at 10.30. Boys all round called out, " Hullo, fellar, what's your name ? " and when one asked where one was to sit, it was either " I don't know " or " In your skin." I believe we shall have to go to chapel In the afternoon again. I believe I shall like Eton very much, though there is such a lot of chapel and lessons. i860. — I have been playing second at football to-day. I am tired and bruised, so don't expect a long letter. We have great games at football and at croquet behind our house up town. Do you know little Dalmeny ? He comes very often to us. We went to see the Queen. She was in the long corridor upstairs. There was a lady with her. She was very kind to us, and laughed a good deal at what we said. She asked me what form I was in, and she 68 1 ft ETON COLLEGE. Eton 69 then asked Archie. Archie answered her, " Nonsense, ma'am." She looked astonished, and said, " What do you say ? " I said, " It's the name of a form." Then I had to explain for Archie, for the Queen did not seem to understand, that Archie had to do nonsense Latin verses, for the sake of learning the number of feet in the verses, and that the sense verses were only done in the fourth form. " Archie is in the Lower School, that Is where ' Nonsense ' is the name of a form, because nonsense verses are written there by the boys." The Queen laughed at us and seemed sorry that one of us should have to write " nonsense." 1862.— -Archie is now fairly established in the Upper School. He writes : " Our seats in chapel are not comfortable. I am leaning against the altar rails, a stone step, then a matting, and on this I perch. I hope I shall soon be promoted to another seat." Went with a firing party to the Dedworth Rifle Butts. I had a horrid rifle from the armoury, a " short Hay " which threw about a mile high. The range was mostly at 500 yards. I had to aim at the middle of a turnip field about 100 yards below the target if I wanted to hit at all. The fee to the tutor on leaving Eton is ;^i5, to the head master ;^io, to the head master's butler ^i. Archie has nothing to pay, being a lower boy. We were invited to a ball at Frogmore. This is where the Duchess of Kent lives, and she gave the ball. The Queen and Prince Albert danced a great 70 A Ball deal. We had a dance called " the grandfather," and when it was their turn they took the ends of a handkerchief, and went down the row, and we all jumped over the handkerchief. The Queen laughed much at us as we jumped. She did not stay till the end. We stayed till the dancing was over, because if we were late we were to have no morning school. But we left before some of the other boys. The Duchess of Kent was very kind to all of us. The ball was In a large room on the left of a gallery with windows that looks on the garden. . . . How dreadful! the Queen sent to our grand mother to Cliveden to ask if it was true that the Eton boys stayed too late, to escape morning school ? Luckily she had heard that we had gone first. But we only kept the servants up, for the Duchess of Kent did not stay up late. At the end we boys were almost alone. Nothing has been said about it by the head master. The dear old Provost was buried in the chapel to-day at twelve o'clock ; the Bishop of Winchester — ^an old schoolfellow — read the service. The opening to the vault is in the ante-chapel, where were a number of people. The boys were in their usual places, but leaving a clear open space in the middle of the centre aisle where the coffin was left during the service. We visited the vault, where are several coffins. One of these was quite mouldered away, leaving a blackened heap of bones exposed, all that remains of an old Dr. Carter. From u. Photograph. WILLIAM JOHNSON CORY (1823 1892), Assistant jMaster of Eton from 1S45 to 1S72. Author of " lonica," etc. Lord Dufferin 71 1862. — Dufferin was nearly taken up for assault and battery the other day in the Isle of Wight ! He was on his way to visit Tennyson at Farrlngford. Having started from London very early in the morning, and without any breakfast, he arrived at Ryde in the Isle of Wight very hungry and very cross. As soon as he had landed from the steamer, he was set upon by the touters and porters on the pier, each wanting to carry his luggage. One fellow followed D. obstinately half down the street, although repeatedly told to be off. At last D., in a fit of despair and exasperation, pulled off his gloves, and told the man that if he came near him again he (D.) would knock him into the gutter. So the next time the porter ventured to ask to be allowed to carry the luggage D. seized him by the collar, and was preparing to administer a good kicking, when the man shook himself free, and was no more seen. D. proceeded to an hotel and ordered breakfast, but he had hardly sat down before Wilson, his valet (who was with him on the voyage to Spitzbergen), appeared at the door with his face even more doleful than usual, and said, " Please, my lord, there is a policeman at the door." So D. went downstairs, where he found a constable waiting for him, and D.'s name and address were demanded. D. was further informed that there was a summons against him for assault and battery. The end of it was that D. was told to attend the Court the next day, to answer to the 72 Table Turning charge. But when it came to the point the porter withdrew his charge, and we charged D. with ruining his Irish estate by paying some gigantic blackmail to the sister Isle of the South. A " whole " school day, consequently a good deal of work. I have bought a beautiful little Kestrel Hawk. I could not resist buying him, and since then we have been training him to fly at small birds ; I have a hood made for him. It is a young male, and has not got his full plumage. He is very tame, and sits on his perch with great dignity. This evening we tried table turning, and suc ceeded beautifully. We began at seven, and in half an hour, and quite suddenly, the table moved slightly. In less than two minutes more it made another sliding motion, advancing about a foot. Soon after this it moved again, and then rushed quickly against the door, making quite a large dent in the wooden side post. We then shoved it back to where it had first stood, and opened the doors to the next room. In less than a minute it again started, and rushed through the door, with us after it, and jammed itself at the top of the stair. The next time it ran clean into the room above the landing, and would have broken the window, which is a long one, reaching to the floor, but we stopped it in time. The motion was always slow at first, and then came the rush. We had all solemnly promised not to push, and could not have done so if we had tried, for we only had the tips of our If lip T? i '" I Photo copyright by'F. Fi!tti'&Co. THE QUADRANGLE, ETON COLLEGE. Eton Ways 73 little fingers on the table. I never believed in table turning before, but then I had never seen it tried. We are not allowed to bathe in the River now. But what is a greater bore is that the High Street in which we live has been declared " out of bounds," the boating being over, and we have to do what is called " shirking." This means that we must not be seen by any of " the Potentates," as we call the masters, and have to hide in shops or get out of the way of their seeing us if we see them walking down the street. If you " shirk " into a shop or down an alley the master often sees you, but must pretend he doesn't, and so you are " not seen " and are not punished by having to write out any number of lines by Virgil or Homer. It is a very odd custom, but I suppose it is an old one. They always show you the College Pump here, although there is nothing wonderful about the Pump, or its place — which is near the old Dining Hall. I believe it used to be shown to all new boys in old days because it was probably the only place where they could wash, unless they bathed in the River. It is very hot, and we bathe in part of the River called Cuckoo Weir. Some boys are very good swimmers and divers. Tyrone can dive under a boy and pull him down by his toes. We sometimes bathe In a backwater behind the town, and the other day we got a fine piece of the horn of a very large Red deer. We fished this up with our feet. CHAPTER VI Chiswick. — " Too small to live in, and too large to hang on your watchchain," was the epigram in regard to this place, when the " Palladian Villa," with dome, portico, and pedimented and architraved windows, was built. Cedars were planted round it, and a broad avenue led up to the stone stairway, with balustraded double flight, giving access to the first floor. The ground floor was not " sunk," but allowed a good view from the square lower windows. A back water of the Thames was improved into a little lake, heavily edged with water-lilies. A fine stone bridge was built over a narrow part of the water, within view of the house. Great flower and kitchen gardens extended all the way to the Hammersmith Road. Around this, in the days when the Villa first arose, were fields and orchards. These orchards formed a main feature of the district, down to the " forties " of the nineteenth century. The place was changed always for the better until this date, after which alterations which detracted from its charm took place, for London advanced along the Thames, and " brick boxes " invaded the fields. The orchards were cut up and the smoke of factories and of domestic chimneys began to blacken the cedars, 74 Chiswick 75 now grown into fine trees. The date of the Chis wick cedars' planting was probably two centuries ago. The growth of this tree near London can be best judged by the fine avenue of them planted about 1750 by Duke Archibald of Argyll, at Whitton, near Hounslow. All the particulars of the plantings are known, for he kept his accounts and journals very carefully, and left " books and instructions " to his agents, giving directions how all things were to be done. The result Is that we know exactly when the avenue at Whitton leading towards Hounslow Heath, and planted entirely with cedar, was made. The triple tower at that place was built at the head of a straight canal-like lakelet, similar to the old canal in St. James's Park. There are prints which show the cedars little higher than the ladles and gentlemen's figures walking near them. The lake at Whitton was later made into the form of a dolphin, with an Islet for the creature's eye. The lakelet at Chiswick was not so closely planted round, but the taste for the Lebanon cedar had begun to show itself even earlier, and a fine dark clump, with low sweeping boughs, stands just behind the Villa. The house itself was enlarged at the beginning of the last century. A good dining-room and drawing- room towards the river, and ranges of dwelling-rooms at the other end, towards the garden, were added. Here the old Duke of Devonshire, the third Duke counting back from the statesman of our day, loved to show his jewels, pictures, and vases of Derbyshire 76 Chiswick spar, and many other treasures. There were fine Vandykes and miniatures, and on the private stair a charming series of water-colours of the beautiful place Inherited in Ireland from the Boyles, namely, the Castle of Lismore, perched, in a grand series of walls and towers, over the Blackwater River. The Duke was the model of the old English noble of his time. Very tall, very benignant, full of poetic spirit, delighting in doing good, full of schemes for the improvement of the people on his immense property, and generous almost to a fault ; and to his own kith and kin, however remote, he was an earthly providence. He took great pains to know about all his servants. One day, noticing a young gardener in his kitchen garden at Chiswick, tending a fruit tree, he began to speak to him, and was struck and pleased with the lad's inteUigence. He took a special interest in the boy from that time, promoting him and watching his progress. The lad's name was Paxton, and he became Sir Joseph Paxton, and was author of the idea of the great greenhouse erected in Hyde Park in 1 8 5 1 , which was called the Crystal Palace, or the Great Exhibition. The Duke presented him to the Prince Consort, who keenly fostered the idea, and the Laureate called the Prince for that act a Far-sighted summoner from war and waste. To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace. Sir Joseph had a short figure, a " buxom," benevo lent, smoothly shaven face, and thick brown wavy hair. He never had an " h " in his composition Chiswick 77 (except in wrong places), but always called his benefactor " 'Is Grace," with whom he was always " 'ighly delighted." It was pleasant to see them together : the Duke, with his very tall, thin, but well-moulded figure, his benevolent, big blue eyes, his almost Jewish, long, curving nose, and full lips with the least suspicion of a lisp, bending down towards the short and well-built and exalted ex-garden boy, who was as fond of being called " Sir Joseph " as was the Duke of wearing the Garter Riband and Star, a decora tion seldom seen now, except on " grand occasions." Each room was full of beautiful things, and there are interesting historical reminiscences connected with several. In one Canning died. It is a little room looking on to the approach. In another Charles James Fox died. This is a slightly Inconvenient cir cumstance, as my grandmother found out, for none of the servants could be persuaded to occupy these rooms, much less to sleep in them. She wanted the valet to sleep in Fox's room, that he might be within call ; but he would not hear of it, and said he would rather leave than have to confront Fox's shade. So there was no help for it, and the house remained unpro tected by any manservant's presence on that floor. At this place we spent much time during some years. It was so associated in some minds with our people that a pretty French governess, a little short-sighted, seeing a Venus on the top of a marble column in the garden, asked in all Innocence, " Est-ce-que c'est une de la famille ? " CHAPTER VII St. Andrews St. Andrews, love for thee's not dead, Whate'er thou taught'st of knowledge, In days when we, not deeply read, Were yet red gowned at College. " Divinity,"—" Humanities," Thou taught'st as thou wast able : We had our own Divinities, Our own, most human label. And if we skyward turned our gaze To azure empyrean. It was to watch white golf balls blaze Towards the "fields Elysian." And youth's best instincts we obeyed In hooting our Professors, When they barred out each learned maid, And us, her intercessors. Her champions, we upheld the sex — Kate Kennedy's sweet glory : We made the row that cleared the checks From cultured women's story. If great were students, when old days Saw Butts hold silvern arrow. We pierced our teachers' " Buts " in ways That damned their creed so narrow. And so we rose in Church and State ; I do not greatly err if Each one, though he were "aye sae blate," Is not at least a SheriflT. So here's, St. Andry, to thy Links, Thy sands, and ancient story : Drink forty gills, take forty winks. And toast her 'gain "to-morry." This all requires explanation. St. Andrews is a University town, famed for its golf links, its 78 St. Andrews 79 University, where the students wear red gowns, for its ancient history, as fortress and cathedral town where at the Reformation its Cardinal was slaughtered and thrown from his own window, and for its old prizes of silver arrows for which its youth contended with the bow when young men had to learn archery. In our day we backed the ladies who determined to attend lectures and be treated as reasoning creatures, and howled at the professors who shut their doors against them. Miss Jex-Blake was the " protagonist " of these. She said she would attend the classes of Professor Swan — a very com plimentary resolution for the professor, so we thought. We knew she was going to demand her rights, and we lined the path by which we knew she would approach the door of the lecture-room. The Professor was aware she was coming, and prepared to " get up and bar the door, O," according to the behests of the Senatus Academicus. All went as prearranged. The double line of students cheered her to the echo, and it was only the Principal and the Professor who blushed when they denied her admission. We had one queer professor, who undertook to teach natural history. " I have a theory — in fact, I know," he said one day, quite seriously, " that the common theory of angels' wings is quite wrong." " Pray, how do you believe them to be .'' " said a colleague. " Oh," said the learned zoologist, " I have 8o St. Andrews found out that what people usually think, namely, that the angels' wings are attached to their shoulders, is quite wrong ; indeed, they are not even attached to that part of the back immediately behind the shoulders. It is an erroneous impression. I am firmly convinced that their wings grow from the corners of their mouths." " Like immense whiskers," interposed D. ; " but do you not suppose that they must interfere some what with their singing ? " " Oh no ; they do not sing as we do, in low and high notes, but in a grand monotone like this : Whoooo — wooo — woo." 1862. — B. writes from London as if that good town were in the wilds of North-west America : " The terror and rage people are in about the Garotte robberies is not exaggerated. No gentleman walks about the streets after dark without arms — re volvers and bowie-knives or clubs are in every shop window. I myself have bought a kind of tomahawk with three blades, which implement I carry over my shoulder, as the glint of steel may have a great effect on any would-be garotter ! " February 22, 1 863. — Had a visit from the Principal (Forbes). He was rather sore about the students' recent conduct towards him. He had stopped some mummeries a few of the students had got up in celebration of Kate Kennedy, a lady who once upon a time gave a bell to this University. The Principal had objected to the custom last year. ^ II w ¦i St. Andrews 8i and the other day, when he heard what was going on, went down to the college and stopped it. In the afternoon of the same day the students met in the quadrangle and passed a resolution that the Principal had no right to stop the mummeries, and then proceeded in a body to his house, and gave him three groans, and three cheers for all the other professors. They mean to crown their insulting conduct by burning the Principal's effigy on March lo, the Prince of Wales's marriage day. March 14, 1863. — A University Magazine has been got up lately. The result is not good, although Professors Black and Ferrier have both contributed. We students at the College Hall have got up one for ourselves. This, we flatter ourselves, is much more creditable, although only ten of us wrote in It. The chief writer Is Andrew Lang, who was with us at the academy school at Edinburgh. He writes very well and quickly, and likes doing it. At a professor's house lately the conversation turned on second sight. " I remember a Highland drover," said Prof. Veitch, " who lived in a parish near Cape Wrath. This man died, leaving a widow and two daughters, who lived in a lonely house on a moor, by the side of a high road. Well, about one month after the death of the drover, his widow was sitting alone by the fireside, when her husband, or his wraith, walked in. The apparition went round the room, but spoke never a word, and then dis appeared. He showed himself soon again ; not VOL. I. 6 82 St. Andrews — A Ghost this time to his widow, but to his daughters, the youngest of whom was dreadfully alarmed at the occurrence, the shock telling severely on her health. " The visits were repeated for some time thereafter to both daughters and widow, and the mind of the younger girl seemed to be getting quite unhinged by the terror she felt each time her father's wraith became visible to her. She was removed to a farm house in the neighbourhood, and while she remained there the drover never appeared to her, although he visited several times the widow, who remained at the cottage. After a time, when the girl seemed to have recovered from her fright, she said she wished to return to her mother, and was allowed to do so. No sooner had she come than the visits from her father were repeated, and the girl was so much alarmed that she persuaded her mother to remove from the place, and to remain at Loch , where I saw her, and heard the strange account of the drover's apparition from her brother. " Now, these people had no earthly motive for deceiving anybody. They both certainly believed they had seen the wraith, and it was a proof how much they were terrified by it that they under took the long and to them expensive journey to Loch ." "Well," said Prof Shairp, "there is a curious notion In the district about Molda, namely, that when two young people are in love with each other they have the power of making their spectre or wraith A Ghost 83 appear to each other. A curious story I heard from a man to whom It happened, and whose tale was corroborated by several persons I knew. The man was driving home late one night, in a light gig, and had to cross a hilly tract of moorland. He had accomphshed more than half the journey, and was slowly ascending a steep hill, when all of a sudden the horse started and broke away up the hill at full gallop. The man wondered what on earth was the matter, as no horse could possibly of his own accord wish to gallop at such a pace up such a hill. On tore the horse, and the man, looking behind him, saw close to him a black something, a dark figure, which seemed to be rapidly approaching. " Faster yet flew the gig, up the steep slope, but still faster the pursuing shadow glided, and was soon close behind the driver — then came alongside — and then, putting one foot on the step, was mounting up — when the man fainted. He remembered nothing more till he was brought back to consciousness by his friends, who had found him in a death-like swoon at the bottom of the gig when the horse, breathless and foaming, cantered up to the door of the stable. The explanation the good people of Moida gave of the affair was that a certain damsel being passionately in love with the man — who, by the way, did not at all fancy her — had caused her wraith to appear to him, and hence the fright of horse and driver." Shairp's story went no further. He and I 84 St. Andrews rode out yesterday to Magus Muir, the place where his archbishop namesake was murdered, near three centuries ago. We found a farmer at Strath Kenniss who showed us the spot. The old road can now hardly be traced, but it ran, as did so many of the old roads, along the side of the hill, thus avoiding the soft places. A moss-grown cairn in the midst of a plantation is all that now marks the place of the murder. About fifty yards away in a field is a place where the men who were supposed to be implicated in his murder were buried in chains. The tree from which one of the con federates watched for the Archbishop's coming is still standing. We had a good run the other day with the fox hounds. Whyte Melville, the novelist, was one of the field. We had four hours of it altogether, with some fast going. The country is heavy, and there are a good many stone dykes. April, 1863. — Yesterday we all went to Cupar to play a cricket match with the eleven there. We, that is, the College Hall eleven, beat them by three wickets, after a very exciting match. The weather on this east coast is quite warm and sunny at this time of the year. The scores on both sides were small, of course only because the ground was not perfect 1 I rode there and back, with a companion. The others went in one of the Royal Hotel " Busses." Coming back into St. Andrews we let all the people know by roaring out " We are jolly Edinburgh illuminated 85 good fellows," and one of us who had done least was loudest in blowing a horn he had brought with him, " in case of a glorious return." So the sensation caused in South Street was wonderful. Windows were thrown open, handkerchiefs waved, and half the population turned out on the " trottoirs," cheering us in the most patriotic way. We had gone to Edinburgh a short time before, to see a demonstration of joy on the marriage of the Prince of Wales. The illuminations of the town were the most beautiful ever seen. Each window In the old town looking towards Prince's Street was lighted by about a dozen candles. The roofs of the houses, and the steep bank between the houses of the old town and the Castle, shone with rows of padellas (things like shallow flower-pots filled with tallow), while all the parapets of the Castle flamed with these and with red and blue lights and lamps. The crowds in the streets were enormous, for half Scotland and the north of England had come up to town. As no cabs were allowed, the whole breadth of the streets were available for walking ; and, as the crowd was kept In two streams coming and going, there were no accidents and but little crushing. The fireworks on Salisbury Crags had a magnificent effect. We saw them very well from the Infirmary Gardens. Lady C. was with us part of the time in Prince's Street, and her tall figure was so conspicuous that boys Called out, " How does it look from up there ? " 86 Lord Palmerston I hear from London that Tennyson was too late for the ceremony at St. George's, " which is a pity, for no poet ever dreamed anything more striking than that sight in St. George's Chapel." One boy and seven women were killed in the London crowd. They say that a horse was knocked down in one of the rushes near the Mansion House, which gives one a good Idea of the crush thereabouts. March, 1864. — Went to Edinburgh for Lord Palmerston's reception. He was very pleased with Scotland's reception of him. The way in which he managed to make six or seven good speeches in the course of a day or two is a wonder at his age — seventy-nine. But he was not the least fatigued after it, and he repHed to a question as to whether he was not tired : " Fatigued ? Oh dear no, not a bit. I am going to walk this afternoon to the top of Arthur's Seat. That was the kind of walk one used to take here, you know." We left St. Andrews with regret. The old ruins on the low cliff, on which the town is built, the wide sandy reaches with the blue ocean waves for ever breaking over them, the wonderful golf links, and the cheery student life we led, were all charming. Golf was played in those days with clubs twice as long in the head as those now used, and I think the distance they could send a ball was as great then as now, while the chances of " slicing," or sending the ball to the right in driving, were less. Tom Morris Lord Clanwilliam 87 was the best man among the professionals. Whyte Melville was a fine player, and was often on the links, carefully dressed, with curled grey whiskers, and doing all things well. Clanwilliam sends to me the account he gave us the other day at dinner, of his adventure during a Chamois Hunt in the Tyrol. " Many years ago, while making a tour through that beautiful tract of mountain scenery in the South of Bavaria, known as the Saltzkammergut, I stayed for a fortnight at Berchtesgaden. I spent much of my time there in fishing for grayling, and in talking to the chamois hunters, with many of whom I had made acquaintance during a previous visit. I used often to sit for hours listening to their hunting stories, and on one occasion I hunted with them. The mountains immediately around Berch tesgaden are kept as a royal chamois preserve, and as the King was expected to arrive shortly, none but his majesty's own jagers were allowed, during the time I was there, to disturb the chamois. I was however very anxious to have at least one day's sport, and arranged with old Siegel and his son Franz, chamois hunters whom I had known for some time and on whom I could depend, to have a " jagt " on the morrow. Siegel persuaded a friend of his, named Getting, to come with us. We started early in the morning, and after toiling for several hours up through the dark pine woods, which 88 A Chamois Hunt became more scant and scrubby the higher we went, emerged at last on the open snow fields. We now separated, Franz' and Getting making a long detour to the left, while Siegel and I hastened on to reach some commanding position above in case any chamois were driven up. After an hour's more climbing we halted on the top of a precipice, which, shaped in the form of a crescent, made a complete cul-de-sac for any chamois driven up by our friends below. We had hardly been watching ten minutes when two chamois appeared in sight, bounding up the mountain-side and coming directly towards us. When the foremost had come within range I fired, and missed, as most men would have done, firing as I did at so small an object from a height almost perpendicularly above it. The beasts turned, and, springing with wonderful speed over the sharp rocks, were soon out of sight. I fired a second shot just as they were disappearing, and think I struck one of them, but it got away, and we never saw it again. Siegel and I, somewhat crestfallen, trudged on up the mountain, keeping a sharp look out on all sides, and halting every now and then to give the others time to overtake us. Suddenly we heard far down below us a shot, and then all was again silent. We were much surprised, as it is one of the first rules in this kind of hunting never except when absolutely necessary even to raise the voice, much less, of course, to fire a rifle, which scares the chamois completely. We knew that A Chamois Hunt 89 Getting and Franz (directly below us as they were) could not possibly have seen a chamois, as our shots must have driven them quite out of reach. After a minute's anxious hstening, we thought we heard shouts, and, fearing we knew not what, called loudly Franz's name. We then heard — and this time quite distinctly, the voice of Getting saying, ' Come down, come down ! it is all over : Franz has shot himself.' Siegel and I were standing together ankle-deep in the snow. I glanced into his face, and I think I shall never forget the look of misery I saw there. Before I knew what he was about he had seized his rifle, had presented the muzzle to his head, and was feeling with his foot in a frenzied manner for the trigger. I snatched the piece away just in time, and he did not try to recover it ; but, throwing himself on the snow, burst into a most passionate, most eloquent torrent of praise of his son's many virtues. He told me what a good son he had always been to him, how anxious to fulfil his slightest wish. I at length succeeded in partially soothing him, and in rousing him to action. We scrambled down as fast as we could, guided by Getting's shouts. It was a long time before we reached them — to me it seemed an age. I accused myself of being the author of all this misery, and my anxiety was heightened by the reflection that we were in reality poaching, and we should very likely, in consequence of this misfortune, get into trouble on our return. We found poor Franz 9° A Chamois Hunt lying shot through the back, and in great pain, among stunted ' Knie-holz ' — a plant something like our whin bush. It appeared that he had, contrary to all jager rules, carried his rifle capped, and that in walking through the Knie-holz he had stumbled and fallen, and his rifle had somehow or other exploded, causing a severe wound. We stanched the blood as well as we could with our handkerchiefs, and then held a consultation. Getting said he knew of a chalet some way off, to which he thought we might manage to carry Franz. I lifted him up as carefully as possible, and walked for some way over the abominable Knie-holz, which threatened to trip one up every moment. I managed, I think, to go about two hundred yards with my burden, and then, exhausted, had to lay him down. His father tried to carry him next, but unnerved and half blinded by his tears, had also soon to give it up. Getting was the only one of the party who could carry Franz for any length of time over the rough ground we were now com pelled to traverse ; he was a small man, but seemed to be all wire and muscle. It was, however, evident that at the slow pace we were obliged to go, we should never, even if we knew the exact direction — which by the way none of us did — get to the chalet before nightfall. Some other arrangement must be made. Getting proposed that he should stay with the wounded man, while Siegel and I should go forward and attempt to reach the chalet. Getting A Chamois Hunt 91 was the only one of the party who had ever been there, and that was years before. He gave us directions how to find it. We were to pass to the right or left of certain peaks he pointed out to us, and then he said we should see a large field of snow. We were to cross this, and the chalet was in a hollow about half a mile above, and to the left. Well, we started — Siegel and I — leaving all the provisions, except a few sandwiches, with Franz and Getting. A weary walk brought us to the peak, beyond which, according to Getting, we were to see the snow-field. But there was nothing of the sort there : peak rose upon peak, but there was no great level snow-field stretching away at our feet, such as he had described. We looked at each other in dismay. To add to our distress, the weather, which had hitherto been beautiful, began to get overcast. Light wreaths of mist were settling on the higher summits of the mountain, sure signs of a coming storm. However, there was no use in going back. We should perhaps not be able to find Franz and Getting again If, bewildered as we now were, we attempted to get back to them. Our only chance was forward. Tired and dispirited, we walked on, turning round only to look at the gathering clouds that were now piling themselves dark and threatening behind us. The wind too began to rise. We determined to go downwards, indeed we were too much exhausted to go any higher, or waste any more time in looking for the 92 A Chamois Hunt chalet. The ground seemed to get more rough the lower we went, and the tremendous gusts of wind that whistled round us made the descent most dangerous. Great spattering rain-drops now began to fall, and we halted on a ledge of rock, utterly worn out. The storm Increased, and in a short time was at its height. The rain came down in torrents, completely drenching us. The lightning with blinding flashes played all round us, illumining for an instant the awful grandeur of the scene, while the thunder pealed and crashed overhead — each crag and wall of rock echoing the sound and increasing It an hundredfold. We had thrown our rifles away, afraid that the lightning would strike them, and stood waiting for the storm to abate. When we again commenced our descent, we were trembling with cold In every limb. The air, which was warm enough before, was now piercingly cold, and the wind drove snow and bits of ice against our faces with blinding force. I went first, and for a long time neither of us spoke. Only when a particularly dangerous place was to be crossed, I gave the warning, ' Look to the right,' or ' to the left,' as the case might be. Siegel led the way when I was tired, and thus we proceeded with the greatest caution, as a false step would have been almost certain death, till we got to more level ground. Here we again encountered thickets of Knie-holz. We were already congratulating ourselves on having got the worst over, when we were suddenly stopped A Chamois Hunt 93 by a precipice, or ' Wand,' down which it would have been impossible for a goat to go. It was a sheer descent of at least 80 feet. This was a dreadful disappointment. We walked along the edge for some way, but, as far as we could see, the wand extended for miles. I had already thrown myself on the ground and had given up all hopes of life, when a shout from Siegel, who had gone on a little way, made me once more spring to my feet. I hastened to him. He was standing over a narrow hole in the rock almost hidden by bushes of the Knie-holz. ' We are saved, we are saved,' he cried, and explained to me how, when I had given up in despair, he suddenly thought that he remembered the place we were in ; and had remembered, too, that If it were indeed the part of the mountain he supposed it to be, there was a circular hole in the rock forming the Wand, by which the chamois hunters scaled this otherwise inaccessible place. He had gone on, had found the opening, and, fearful of losing the spot, had stood over it and called till I came. We slid safely down this chimney-like hole, which is not much more than twenty feet in depth, and, easily descend ing the lower part of the Wand, which is here much broken, arrived, famished and half frozen, at ten o'clock at night, at a woodman's hut Siegel knew of in the valley below. Here we obtained warmth and shelter ; three of the woodmen imme diately started up the mountain and returned in a 94 A Chamois Hunt few hours with poor Franz, who was very much exhausted — not so much from cold, as Getting had contrived to light a fire, and they had plenty of provisions — as from loss of blood. " I once asked Siegel what he would have done if we had not found that opening. ' We should,' he said, ' have struck our alpenstocks into the ground, and have walked round them all the night to keep off sleep, which would of course have been fatal. If we lived till day broke we should have tried to find our way back to the others.' Whether we were likely to succeed in doing so, cold, hungry, and exhausted as we were, the reader may judge. " As for Franz, he completely recovered from his wound, and I have hunted many a time with him since that memorable day." CHAPTER VIII Cambridge 'Neath Brick and Stone all Learning here Is loud with young men's clamour : If Whewell's talk we must revere. We love best Kingsley's stammer ! There Poetry and History live, — He twirls the globe to show us : O weariness ! where dons but give Their classic nag to tow us ! Here bridges beautiful are bent Above a ditch's turnings 1 Their system's type ! Yes, Ornament O'er little that is Learning's ! The bridges seem but built to prove How art can nobly wreathe them ; There's something for the dons to love, Though nothing move beneath them ! As flattened as the country round Seems here all good ambition, Unless by mathematics crowned, Or classics' worse fruition ! There are some changes in Cambridge now — and there is a little more modern knowledge given in the college lectures. The last time I was there it was for the purpose of being " Doctored," and my memory of places had some what failed me. Going with a lady through one of 95 96 Cambridge the colleges, she asked me its name ; I had forgotten, but replied, " We will ask the first young fellow we meet." We passed through a dark passage from one court to another. A stream of students was pouring down a staircase into the half-lit corridor. I button holed one, and said " What college is this ? " A Japanese face looked up into mine and said some what indignantly, " Trinity Hall ! Why ! Don't you know ? " So this old place had modernised itself, or, as the Germans say, had " oriented " itself, and had joined the wisdom of the modern East to the study of Greek and Latin ! Rifle-shooting and occasional country visits had made Cambridge tolerable for a year, or less than a year only. When a man is young and has already been dosed, though in full mental health, by old Greek and Roman doctors, he longs to escape from them. The only thing I cared for in Greek was the song " Eros pot in rodoisy.^^ The only things I cared for in Latin were some of Horace's songs. Was it worth while to try to like more of such at Cambridge, after Eton and St. Andrews had failed to create anew an affection for the classics, felt only as a vague archasologlcal fancy as a boy .'' When one is longing to know the present world, is it wise to tie youth down to the old ? Why do we persist in this extraordinary laming and hmiting of a young man's natural ambition in learning ? Are not modern languages just as good a mental exercise ? After having once laid down Cambridge 97 in childhood a platform of Greek and Latin, why not let the brain range over the languages derived from the ancient roots ? When we draw a tree, do we always think it necessary to explore the hidden stems that are underground ? Is time of so little moment, in our momentary lives, where there is so much that is vital to learn, that we must needs shorten the days available for useful knowledge .'' Why is a young Englishman or a young German as a rule less well equipped for the struggle of life, and for making himself a home in new lands, than are others, like the Scot or Irish, who have less pedantry, and practise a wider range of knowledge in their schools ? The Irish and the Scot may place themselves on a lower level than the English boy if they take up Gaelic only as a com pulsory language as well as Latin or Greek. We must distinguish between archaic forms of thought and expression, beautiful as these may sometimes be, and modern " use and wont." We must give the yearning for knowledge in a boy an ampler field. Cambridge was only a larger paddock in the classical enclosure which had surrounded us at Eton where the only useful things acquired — and these were outside school hours — were the games and the acquaintance of many boys. There was only one master among the many at Eton who made friends of the boys and talked to them of men as interesting and more to be imitated than those who led the forces of Rome or Greece. As a " holiday task " VOL. I. 7 98 Cambridge we were sometimes encouraged to read up and write out parts of English history ; but the living Britain, her Colonies, and dependencies, the living action in European and other states, we were not taught to know. Was it to be wondered at if we felt the Uni versity tedious, after the first joy at its novelty ? With so much young manly life shut up in the old college walls, we had only the Union Student Debating Society to help us to realise outside wants. We wanted, many of us, to know the real world, not that of philosophic Dons, willing only to dis course on the bones of the blessed in ancient church or state history. We had seen all the Newmarket races, we had shot many of the neighbouring squire's pheasants, we had won many of the volunteer silver cups, we had cheered the University crews — all this was some comfort ; but more was wanted. At a supper at Cyril Flower's (now Lord Battersea), talk fell on the attempt at insurrection in Jamaica, and my friend Strutt and I resolved to visit the West Indies. In a few days we were off, and never again went back to the fogs and shades and the cloisters of Cambridge. 1867. — Dined last night with Kingsley. He was charming, but I think him extravagant in ideas on some subjects, especially on " race and blood." He tries to make out, for example, that the French Revo lution arose chiefly out of race hatred. The nobles, Charles Kingsley 99 he said, were Franks, as shown by their light hair, in opposition to the dark hair of the plebeian Gauls. He must be working hard, as he has to preach the University sermon on Sundays, and lecture three times a week besides. His lectures are excellent. He had a stutter when speaking, and this could only be prevented by a continual flow of sound. If he paused, the difficulty of utterance began again. The remedy he found successful was always to keep the voice sustained, making one sentence follow the other without break of sound. This made the delivery appear a little hurried, but his style was so good that interest never slackened. There was one lecture I especially admired — a wonderfully vivid description of Harold's battle in the north-east, and of his march, after his victory there, to fight the Normans at Hastings, and the resulting fight at that place was marvellously described. Won the Trinity Cup, rifle-shooting, with a fair score. Parties of some kind are perpetual here. You are asked out to breakfast, lunch, tea, or supper, and the latter lasts from nine to twelve very often. We had a jolly party at Thomson's (Lord Knaresborough) last night, all Eton men, and all consequently pleasant — good wine, good singers — then home to college, Melgund with a white bulldog he is very fond loo "Fellow Commoners" of, and which always goes about with him. No dogs are allowed in college, so the difficulty was how to get the dog and M. in. The gate was locked, and the porter in letting us in would be quite close to us and only too easily spot the dog. But the animal was put under his gown, making it bulge enormously in front, and a tail or a paw was always insisting upon sticking out, and would not be packed in. One of us went and knocked, and as soon as the porter appeared stood in front of him, and engaged him in the closest conversation. Another went In front of M., edging round so as to be always between the porter and the bulging gown, and all passed safely, the dog behaving magnificently, and only giving vent to his feelings by wagging his disengaged tail, which looked so like the piece of white silver on the gown that the porter was quite unsuspicious. A final gathering in my rooms, with some mulled claret, and then M. was got out of college in the same manner with the discreet dog. Melgund and Aberdour are the best riders here. We who pay higher rates are called " Fellow Commoners," and wear high hats and a blue gown with silver zigzag ornaments — much the sort of thing in which you would dress the magician in Aladdin's play ; " noblemen," who pay still more, have black gowns and wear a gold tassel on their " mortar-board " and caps. Is not this very childish ? We have visited dear old Lord Hardwicke at Lord Hardwicke loi Wlmpole, a place vnth an interesting painted chapel and good avenue of trees in a large park. He " comes out strongly " on naval matters. He does not agree that the Duke of Somerset is doing the right thing at the Admiralty. He thinks the waste and expense prodigious — the French ships, especially the Couronne, better than ours. He wants a system of light and heavy ships, as we had before. " The next time you fight the French, they will be in battle order. They will have their light ships, with good guns In front, and they will disable your rigging as your heavy vessels approach. When you are crippled, the heavy ships will sweep alongside your damaged hulks and complete the work. Unless you fight in their way and have light ships to engage as skirmishers, and then the heavy batteries of guns behind, you will be beaten." He thinks the economy and excellence prevailing in the French fleet admirable. I am getting very tired of Cambridge. It seems to me that both in England and Scotland the public schools and universities do really the reverse of what ought to be done in the way of allocation of subjects for teaching. They give most of the boys' and men's time to classics, and the lesser part to what they call " special subjects." Why don't they do the opposite ? Why is not the direct training for a life's work made the chief thing, and the classics the lesser object .? What is a luxury and decoration they make the chief food I02 "Classics" and the main structure. Surely science and all its branches, useful mathematics (not too hard driven as here), mechanics, chemistry, languages, knowledge of commercial affairs, and of law, etc., are the things the men will want. Why not supply them with all that is possible while they are young ? Who remembers or cares for classics, except as a luxury ? Oh 1 the misery of this waste of time. Students, unless they are prodigies, will not give more than a certain time to work. Masters and professors seem to try to make the time as useless as possible. I long to get away and see something of a less perverse world, less hampered by old fashions of teaching, less limited and more practical, as I should think almost every other " seat of learning " is outside these fine old walls. We were allowed to do something useful in drilling. The volunteer corps was fairly good under the command of Colonel Baker, a brother of Baker Pacha. We paraded once with the Oxford corps on their fine parade ground, in haymaking time, and the file fire of sneezing from hay fever, as we advanced in line together, was enough to show we despised all enemies. Our rifle range was a very good one, and some of us once improved upon it by trying to hit the targets from the top of one of the college towers, using a new " match rifle." The. bullets may have hit something, but certainly not the targets. Whewell 103 The best clubs were first the Union, where politics were discussed, and where Lord Edmond FItzmaurice was perhaps the best speaker, and the other club was the Amateur Dramatic, where the acting was often excellent, although we had to take ladies' parts. As to the teaching, the answer of Whewell, Master of Trinity, to a student who said that there was little work done, was typical of the general tone: "If you wish to work," he said, " there's nothing to prevent you 1 " Of course this all depended on the nature of the work one was encouraged to do, and the nature of the work favoured as instruction was not encouraging. ON CHARLES KINGSLEY'S DEATH Manly soul, we mourn the parting That consigns to English earth Him whose pure and hardy spirit Honoured well his English birth. Fair ideal of our manhood, IMoulded of the metal fine. That could counter back a buffet. Trenchant, cleave a base design. High of spirit, scorning meanness. Yet of nature humble, true. That would love to yield its reverence Where he saw it justly due. Real and open, undissembling. Loving joy as he loved truth. Preacher of no sad religion That would kill the joys of youth. 1 04 Kingsley 'Tis the man thou did'st remember. Not the priest who is divine, If like thee of simple honour, — Pure in every word and line, Not in vain theit lifetime's labour. Quiet tho' such lives must be. Of the men who, dying, leave us Living men, like Amyas Leigh ! s. d. 8 6 8 6 8 6 Here is a carpenter's bill : — Ap/ 16. IVIakin a Weelbarrer and a wooden do. Ap. 19. Makin another and a wood do The peculiarity is that seemingly both " barrers " cost Ss. 6d., and yet the sum total is only Ss. 6d. The explanation is that the first item is " Makin a Weelbarrer and a wooden do " means making a wheelbarrow but it would not " do. " So only one " barrer " is charged. Here is another bill : — Osafada Atakinonimone . Which being interpreted is " Horse half-a-day," and " A-taking-of-him-home. " £ s. d. 0 10 6 0 2 6 0 13 0 From a drawing by ihs Duke of Argyll LUCERNE, 1863. CHAPTER IX "Bellinzona, 1866. — If you can imagine the feehngs of a small dog after it has made a good spring to gain the top of a wall, but has only managed to scrape his paws on the top bricks, and then tumbled back ignominiously, you can imagine mine. " There never was such bad luck. If I had started three days sooner from Florence I should have got over, for the pass of St. Gothard has been closed for the first time this year, yesterday and to-day. The snow-fall has been tremendous, breaking the telegraph wires, and stopping all com munication. I got up to Faldo in a four-wheeler — then changed to a sledge carriage, which did not always get along well, and sometimes stuck so badly that I and two other passengers had to get out and shove behind and do what we could to help the horses. This operation repeated several times did not tend to make me more comfortable when we got in again, and the snow poured down uninterruptedly, and underfoot it was in a very wet condition. We got on with difficulty beyond Airolo, and within no long distance of the top. io6 Alps by "Diligence" when the attempt was given up as a bad job, the conductor being in a funk about avalanches which had begun to fall. The last passage over the top is made in small open sledges — one horse to, and one man in, each. I was not sorry to have a few hours at an inn, instead of in such ' machines ' in such weather. The snow is four if not five feet thick up there, and in drifts of course much deeper. I came back with a Swiss who had gone just before me, and who had to get out and help the conductors to clear a path through an avalanche that had obligingly fallen across the road. " We are both in a very bad temper. I am off in another two hours' time (at 2.30 in the morning) for Lago Maggiore, to hear if the Simplon is possible, and if it is not to go straight to Turin — Susa — and over the Mont Cenis, which I suppose must be open, " What a bore Alps are ! " It is becoming difficult for modern travellers to imagine any one crossing the Alps on a road, or traversing the Atlantic in a paddle steamer. Yet I have done both more than once. The coach road over the Mont Cenis is preferable to the tunnel, to any one desirous of getting a full impression of a first journey over the snowy ranges of Central Europe. It was delightful to pause at Modane, and to rest there for the night, with the frosty sky radiant with stars, above the soaring / Sr / n V ^¦;' / / -^ ' y ^ " ^ ( From a drawing by the Duke of Argyll. "diligence" AT ALPINE VILLAGE, 1863. Alps 107 mountain forms, which shone white, or smirched with the black that told of rock or pinewood. Who can forget the feelings with which one looks at the first real " Alps " .? And then how pleasant the cold sunshine In the morning as the coach became gradually packed with passengers and luggage, and the slow ascent was begun along the excellent road, while the ravines on one side of the limestoned terrace way became ever deeper and deeper, the view more entrancing of chalet and mountain hamlets, with their church spires, and the wonder ever greater how men could choose to live in such steep and cold places. Oh, the long, long pull up the steep ascent, the ever-varying glory of sun on peak and glacier and snow-field, giving an ever-growing admiration of the wonderful views, until at last the summit of the pass was reached, and the descent, the ItaUan descent towards the plains of Lombardy, began. And then the eager expectation, until at last, past the avenues of snow slopes and meagre pines, the blue loom of the distant flat country became discernible, and we knew that we looked on Italy. The capital was then Turin. Cavour was in power. His country had become one kingdom, save only for the " enclave " of the Papal States, a mere district around " eternal Rome." The Parliament was sitting. The session was held in a large semicircular hall, as seems the invariable custom of the Latin races. The form is that of I o 8 Turin — Cavour a Greek theatre, with the Ministry on the stage, and the Deputies each at their desks in the half- circle, fronting them. It was the tribute due to the leading part Savoy had taken in the unifica tion of Italy that the Parliament should first meet at Turin, though the sentiment of the people already tended in the direction of Florence, nay, even of Rome itself. Cavour, a little man, with round bald head, white hair, and shaven face, firm mouth, and gold- rimmed spectacles concealing sagacious eyes, was " the observed of all observers." " If you want to get entrance into the House, you must ask for ' 11 Deputato Lacaita,' " said an old friend to us. How was it that an Italian Deputy could be an old friend of us "young people".? Because this gentleman had lived long in England, had married a Scotswoman, and was a great friend of Mr. Glad stone and of the old Duke of Devonshire, for whom he had at one time acted as Librarian at Chatsworth. Lacaita had always been a fervent supporter of a United Italy. He was a Neapohtan, and the story of how he became for so many years a naturalised Englishman, before his own country's unity allowed him to go back to take part in its public life, was a curious one. Even as a youth, he had liked the English, and had in a measure learned the English language. During the reign of " Bomba," as Ferdinand was nicknamed at Naples, a party of English made an excursion Lacaita 109 to the lovely island of Capri, whose rocky outline bounds the sea-view from the Bay of Naples. They invited young Lacaita, then a barrister at the Neapolitan Bar, to accompany them. Arrived at the island, they lunched in high spirits, and some chaff took place among them as to the Government of Naples. It is supposed that some chance words of Lacaita's were overheard by a waiter and repeated to Government spies, but nothing was said which could, except by the basest distortion, inculpate him as guilty even of an indiscretion. The party reached Naples happily, and nobody dreamed of anything but pleasure In the recollection of the day. Very soon afterwards, Lacaita was walking along the Sea Parade, when a man passed him, and as he passed said to Lacaita, " Fuge, fuge" (" Fly, fly "). The man walked on quickly past him, without turning his head. Lacaita thought this a strange warning, but did not like to take any notice of it in so public a place, and continued his walking. But after a short interval, another man passed him, and this time Lacaita's arm was significantly brushed by the passer-by, as though to excite attention, and again he heard another voice saying, " Fuge, fuge," and the second man passed on, as the first had done. Aroused by this second rencontre to the suspicion of something uncanny being meditated against him, Lacaita quickened his pace, with the intention of going home. Too late ; IIO Lacaita for he had only proceeded a few score more yards when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking round, he found he was arrested by two policemen. These hailed a cab, and, placing Lacaita inside, entered with him, and drove off to the prison 1 Luckily for the young Italian advocate, some of his English friends happened to see his face at the cab window. They saw, also, the uniform of the police who guarded him. They understood the situation from a sign he was able to make to them. They at once went to the British Representative, told him they had seen their friend in duress, and begged him to make inquiries as regards the arrest. The Minister to the Court of Naples did so, found that Lacaita had been arrested for alleged seditious talk at a picnic party when on the Island of Capri, and that he would be kept In prison. Then began a per sistent English agitation, and he was finally allowed his Hberty. He attended a reception at the palace, but the King, passing him, would not look at him, much less speak to him. He was made to under stand that he must leave the country, and he came to England, and was a persona gratissima there in society. He was invited to many country houses. One of those he frequented in the north was that of a Scottish judge, Lord Murray, who loved to yacht about the the west coast, and leased for many years the house and estate of Strachur on Loch Fyne, which the Roman banker, Mr. Plowden, bought long afterwards. Italian Statesmen m At Chatsworth he met a great number of men whose friendship was dear to him. His son became M.P. for the town of Dundee. But at the time when we were told by him, at Turin, to ask at the door of the Parliament House for " 11 Deputato Lacaita " he was really in the companionship of his ancient Neapolitan friends in the United Parliament of his beloved Italy. There were notably two there who had sufl^ered much In the cause for which he had so nearly suffered also. These men were Poerio and the Duke of CabaUino. Long imprison ment in the Castel Uovo, the egg-shaped fort in the harbour of Naples, had been their lot ; each of them had despaired of ever seeing freedom again. The narrow dungeon and chains had been their fate for year after year. Both bore evident marks of the severity of their confinement. Both were then at Turin, and very willing to speak of their experiences to sympathetic Englishmen, yet all they said was said calmly, and without rancour. Our friend brought several others ; among them Cavour, courteous, clever, and more like a vivacious little family doctor than the physician of a kingdom's welfare. He had been a sapper, or engineer, and had designed the fortifica tion of Vintimiglla ; and when the French insisted on having Nice, Cavour insisted that Vintimigha should remain Italian. Then there was a striking-looking priest of liberal opinions, Passaglia, and other deputies, of whom I 112 Italian Parliament chiefly remember Massari. The next time I entered an Italian Parliament, Florence had been exchanged for Turin, and the pleasanter banks of the Arno for the Po. No place can feel colder than Turin in winter, with its fogs and dampness ; and Florence's arcades, though not so numerous as those of the Lombard Capital, have never the draughts and mists of the north. Again I saw deputies rise and speak, and be congratulated by their colleagues, by hand-shakes, when they sat down ; an altogether novel practice to us colder-blooded Englishmen. Again, long afterwards, I attended a Session of the Italian Parliament, and this time it was at the Monte Cittorlo, in the Roman Palace, of that name, which is devoted to the assemblage. Again the place seemed hardly worthy of being the head-quarters of the kingdom. I do not think there was a single survivor of the Parliament that I had seen so many years before at Turin. The Marquis Rudini may have been the sole exception. Lacaita was dead, and all those to whom he had introduced me. What enthusiasts we children were in the cause of Italy ! How we admired the good stout house of Savoy I With what eagerness, in the days of the Crimea, we looked out in the illustrated papers any drawing of the " Sardinian Contingents' " camps on the Tchernaya, the little river on our extreme right flank in the lines before Sebastopol, where General La Marmora, with his superabundant '% From a. jdrawing by Swinton. LADY CONSTANCE GROSVENOR, AFTERWARDS DUCHESS OF WESTMINSTER. Youngest sister of Elizabeth, Duchess of Argyll. The House of Savoy 113 moustaches, guarded the rear of the allied lines 1 It is strange what a courtier the moustache is, and how it invariably jumps up, or lies down, at the caprice of the moustache of the Sovereign of the land ! King Victor Emmanuel had a magni ficent, waving, double brush of a moustache, which waved away in space on each side of his fine manly countenance. And his army incontinently followed suit, as far as they could ; but it was not given even to Lombard upper lips to be always so magnificently hirsute as was the Sardinian King. So men did what they could, in this Sardinian army, to be loyal ; and if the moustache would not grow out in almost equal thickness from nose to ear, it was made to stick out In waxen spikes at right angles to the nose. The finest example of this kind of decoration was seen In the case of the Duke of Genoa, the King's brother, a fine fellow in all ways, who was much feted when he came to England. Among other entertainments given to him was a dinner in the great banqueting-room, over the entrance of Stafford House, looking out over the portico, on the Duke of York's former stable-yard. We boys were, as usual, in Highland dress, and were told off" to act as pages, to stand behind the chairs of the chief guests. I was behind the Duke of Genoa's, and shall never forget the effect on me, of those moustaches, even although only seen from the back. VOL. I. 8 114 The Duke of Genoa My feelings were those of pure, unmixed envy. I had a vague impression that everybody at Genoa must go about with these hairy stilettos openly displayed, for the terrorising of Frenchmen, and of any others wifh whom they might disagree. But the ladies sitting at his side did not seem at all alarmed, although I thought that one sweep of the head thus adorned might knock my grand mother backwards, chair and all, or forwards, prostrate among the plates on the table. Nothing of this character happened. The adornment was not used at all, at least on this occasion, as the crocodile is said to use its tail to knock its neighbour into the soup of Nile water, or backwards on to dry land. Indeed, my grandmother seemed to like the swinging tails, and we certainly all admired the handsome man who wore them. But far beyond our admiration for the House of Savoy was our adoration for Garibaldi, the man who made the Sardinian and Savoy Kingdom that of Italy. His heroic figure seemed the very ideal of all that boys long for : calm courage in the hell of batde, a leonine confidence that communicated courage to all around him, the fixed resolve to venture life, and all, on the cast of fortune, at the right time ; the crusade against despotism, bigotry, and bad government of all sorts, as we were taught in England to consider the normal state of all the little Courts of the Italian Peninsula. What had Austrians and strangers to do in Italy.? From a painting. A RECEPTION AT STAFFORD HOUSE. Garibaldi 1 1 5 asked we, who had no personal knowledge whatever either of Austrians or Italians. But were not the " Tedeschi " Courts, or the Bourbon Courts, relics of the horrid Bonaparte, whom, we had always heard, had been the scourge of Italy .? and was not Italy very beautiful ? and how would EngUsh boys ap prove of Prisons for political opponents ? or admire their states, not one of which had proper Parliaments and proper policemen ? We did not care to argue further than that we knew that all the little Princes did was " a beastly shame," and the liberator Gari baldi was " a ripping good fellow " ; and so, when the leader and organiser of the " 1,000 " of Marsala, of the men who had conquered Sicily and the Neapolitan Kingdom, came to England, we were on the tip-toe of excitement. And so were even all the servants in the houses where Garibaldi was first a guest. He landed in the Isle of Wight, and went as guest to the Seelys and the servants there straight way brought him coffee ; but in their hurry they had placed salt instead of sugar in the sugar basin, and the poor General found to his surprise that English custom apparently salted all coffee cups. Exactly the same thing happened at Stafford House, when the time came that he was at last brought Into the hall, and received sitting (for the wound received at Aspromonte made him very lame) the congratula tions of all present, the servants again brought him salt instead of sugar. But with the sole exception 1 1 6 Garibaldi of this lapse in sweetness of his coffee cups, what a wondrous reception the people of London gave to this single-hearted volunteer soldier ! There were too few police in the streets to keep order, although the Government might have anticipated an enormous crush. The only organised men to assist the police were the volunteers from England who had served under the General during his campaign. These were a most useful band to keep a way for him in his entry into London. For the people were beside themselves with enthusiasm. I never saw a crowd so genuinely excited and delighted in England. The numbers were vast, and with such numbers it was impossible there could be good order, for the crowd was helpless against itself. The Duchess of Sutherland had Invited the General to take up his abode at Stafford House, and had sent to the station one of the open carriages of the model she always used. Four horses drew it, two postillions riding them, while four persons could be seated in the carriage, and there was a " rumble " behind, which held two footmen. It was with the greatest dlflficulty that the lame General could be got into the carriage through the crowds at the station, and then began a most toilsome, slow, and at one time even dangerous journey, through the streets and across the bridge. It was on the bridge crossing the Thames that the moment of peril came. The people, unable to withstand the pressure of their own numbers. Garibaldi 1 1 7 forced the carriage on to one side of the road and then further even, on to the sidewalk. One of the postillions, an old friend, named Donald Sutherland, who long survived as an innkeeper in Argyllshire, often told me how he thought his last hour, and that of the General, had come. For it seemed as though the carriage would in evitably be pushed over the parapet into the Thames below. The horses were at the barrier ; Donald said he got his foot out of the stirrup, to try to scramble on to the led horse, and drop on the crowd beyond, for he thought the next moment " they would be over." But the red-shirted volunteers, and a few police, made a desperate effort, and the seething crowd was forced back on itself, and the carriage was drawn on to the centre roadway. The arrival at Stafford House was again a scene of somewhat dangerous, because utterly uncontrolled, turbulence. It seemed as though some of the good- natured and struggling crowds must be crushed under the horses, or against railings and walls. Hands clung on all sides to the carriage. The weight was so great on the rumble behind that it came down bodily, with the two footmen in it on the heads and shoulders of the mob. But again the red-shirted volunteers did manfully, and squeezed a track through the multitude, and then had the greatest difficulty in preventing the people from entering the house with the General. The II 8 Garibaldi and Gladstone great mahogany doors had to be pressed back against a mass of humanity that seemed deter mined to enter, in sheer rollicking enthusiasm. After a reception in the hall, the General, who was fatigued by all the homage paid to him, was shown his rooms, which were those facing, on the ground floor, Clarence House. Here he was, at last, left in peace for the moment. One of the most remarkable opportunities given to the people to again show their feelings for him was that given by a visit to the Crystal Palace, and another, when his friends and distin guished sympathisers were able to see him more privately, was at a party given for him at Chiswick. There, under the portico, Mr. Gladstone, with others, waited for him. And Gladstone, when Garibaldi had slowly ascended the left-hand outer stair, met him with a fervent hand-shake, and Garibaldi, holding Gladstone's hand said, with deep feeling, the single word, " Precurseur I " meaning that Gladstone had paved the way for his own effort in Italy, by inclining public feeling, both there and In England, against the Government Garibaldi had been instrumental in overthrowing. All this enthusiasm on the part of the people for the Italian liberator, and the manner in which the Duchess and her friends in London had received the hero, was, of course, little to the taste of the ultra Tories. They dreaded " the sentimental " gush shown by the Stafford House folk, recalled Reception in England 119 old civilities extended to them at the little Courts of Florence and Naples, and prophesied that no good could come of a movement which had so vigorous a flirtation with revolution. But these good Legitimists did not see that revolution against evil government is not a revolution against the rights of man and the consequent ownership of property, and were led away by the mere name. If they themselves had been obliged to live per manently instead of resting only as birds of passage under the Austrian or Bourbon rule, in Southern Italy, they would have welcomed the Liberator as keenly as did the Whigs. Lord Shaftesbury, who was of a totally different Tory " stripe," and who knew the London people very thoroughly, having spent his health and strength in their service, was of quite another opinion, and kept saying : " Bless me, why, bless you, Duchess, you have done a great good," and he went on to assert that the General, being a simple man, would have been got hold of by intriguing politicians, having their own little game to play in domestic politics, and made a cat's-paw by them, for the increase of their own importance. Although no Government troops kept the road clear for him, and he was only unofficially wel comed, no man ever received a more national welcome. His appearance was very peculiar, partly owing to the costume he wore. The great characteristic 120 Garibaldi of his presence was a singular immobility and calm. But he had a ready and very pleasant smile, when the fine blue eyes under the straight fair brow shone with an honest benignity which was very striking. A good, straight, well-formed, " im portant " nose, with full fair beard and moustache, a good forehead, very straight in line in profile with the nose, and hair worn to a length a little beyond the ear lobes, all gave a look of quiet force. There were many deep wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. He looked more like a Norman than an Italian, and there may have been Norman blood in the Genoese family from which he sprung. He wore a " pork-pie " or round small sauce pan-like black cap, and a poncho, or long cape cloak, made of the grey-blue colour of the Guards' new overcoat. Underneath this he wore the plain red shirt which had become the uniform of his volunteers. His lameness from the wound in his foot was always very apparent. One knew, from hearing him speak, that he believed his task, though so nearly accomplished, was not completed, in his opinion. He could not bear that the Pope should be cursed by what Dante had called the curse of worldly government ; and the Papal States were, it was well known, a mark at which he would, some day or other, launch his men. He will always stand out in history as the pilot of the ship of the reconstituted Nationhood of Italy. He gave one the impression that any fear, Garibaldi 1 2 1 hesitation, or fuss, in action or in peace time, were things utterly impossible for him to be troubled with. He had none of the vivacity or gesticulation which we are wont to associate with Italians. I never saw him excited, although I have seen him in at least one trying situation. A quiet dignity seemed always to possess him. While others raved around him, his face appeared absolutely calm. Such calmness as this is a great possession for a man. It seems to lift him above his fellows, and keeps him on the straight path while the passions of his companions make them sway this way and that. It was long before there was any opportunity of seeing him again. From the Duchess of Argyll We had a long waiting yesterday — first on Dover House roof to see Garibaldi pass Whitehall, and then at Stafford House, but well repaid. His face is sublime : all one can imagine. When he passed, it was the most thriUing thing. The people pressing so close round him that he seemed borne on their shoulders. He standing and waving his arm for four hours. He acknowledged he was very tired when he arrived at last, and when I took him to his room he said he would like some bread and cheese and go to bed. So we had only five minutes of him. We are now going to Chiswick. . . . Mama is off 122 Garibaldi to Stafford House to dine with the General there, Chiswick was very successful — not a very large number of people — almost all family — Lord Russell, Lord Clarendon, Mr. Gladstone all presented to him. Garibaldi saying " Oh," with surprise after each name, and then making litde complimentary speeches in French. I wish you had seen the entry yesterday ; it was the greatest ovation that has ever been paid to anybody, the crowd cheering not with separate cheers but with one great roar. There is to be a great " drum " at Stafford House on Wednesday, and on Thursday he is to be taken to the opera. So you see he is to be made very much of. CHAPTER X Inveraray {November, 1863). — We had a grand otter chase at Kenmore. There Is a large cairn on the sea-shore In a bay, a great jumble of rock. We were nearly successful In bagging a very fine otter. The dogs found soon, and made a great row, deep down under our feet, the otter giving, every now and then, a surly grunt. Three of us had guns, and we were all watching the place where we thought it would bolt ; but he was so long about it, and the dogs seemed so far away, deep under ground, that we had begun to get a little careless, when one of us suddenly caught sight of him coming out of a cleft between two great stones. A shot was fired, but missed. The next who got a chance was an under keeper, who hit the otter in the side with one barrel. I was too late, as the beast was hidden from my view behind stones while this happened, and I only caught sight of him as he plunged into the sea. A salute to the tip of his tail, as he disappeared, was the only thing I could give him, and so we lost him, and hoped the keeper only 123 124 Inveraray wounded him slightly, as seemed to be the case. We immediately loaded, and, taking different stations along the rocks, waited. There was no sign of him until two fishermen in a boat shouted they saw him. We rushed along the very rough shore, as fast as we could, to the place where his wicked- looking little head came up out of the sea, opposite the keeper, gave a grin, and disappeared. The keeper's shot specked the water all round where the head had been, but again too late. Another interval of a few minutes, and the little black snout with long whiskers appeared for a moment, a little farther out. I tried my rifle, but the ball was an inch too high. Down he went, and we never saw him again, as it was too dark. The terriers thought they had seen him under a large stone, over whose sides a thick tangle of seaweed drooped into the water ; but, after rummaging about the place for some time, they gave it up as a bad job. We had sometimes more picturesque otter hunts, up the three rapid streams which flow through the three glens near Inveraray. It was always at daybreak that the start was made, when the regular pack was brought along the country-side by the gentlemen who kept them going, and who hunted all that part of the west coast ; fine young fellows they were, and there is now not one of them alive. It is probable that the overheating from running Otter Hunting 125 and working with the hounds, and then wading in the cold water, is harmful, for I never knew a man who hunted otters much to live long. But the " field " was a most picturesque sight, when the dogs were well under way, searching all the overhanging banks, and wild rock rents, and stony heaps of boulders along the banks, which are usually deeply shadowed by wood. The hunts men were in short corduroy breeches, but the following was one of ladies and of kilted men. Far up some deep glen, where cliffs overhung lovely pools of amber water, the otter would be found to have got into some rock ruckle, and then the fun was begun with the terriers. These would chase the otter into all his hiding-places, and then you might see him, through the clear water, sally forth by some subaqueous passage, take a swim round the pool, without ever once showing his nose to the hounds waiting and baying above, and re-enter his fortress by another waterway. He was more often successful in cheating the dogs than the hunt was in killing him. Sometimes when the dogs were not very near, he would leave the stream altogether and take his way through woods for half a mile at least, in order to take refuge In some cairn in the afforested mountain side. We had one especially beautiful scene, when the kilted figures were grouped eagerly at the foot of a cascade, and the ladies were peeping from above, holding on to branches of trees, whose boughs. 126 Wild Animals of tawny gold and light yellow, with the enduring green of the oak above, hung over the white foam of a waterfall which descended into a pool so deep that it looked a brown-black, with only the amber fringe of the shallows near its outlet. The otter had defied us long, but at last was driven into the pool, and, trying a dash down the current, at the " tail of the Lynn," was overtaken by the maddened dogs. Their prey was taken from them and lifted on a short spear, while they leaped up and made music louder even than the cascade itself, in its time of wildest " spate." Gamekeepers have killed most of the wild animals which used to prey on game. I have only once seen a marten in the Highlands. They are rare now everywhere in Great Britain. I was crossing a burn in a wood in the hills, when a little creature the size of a cat sprang from above, on to a big stone in the burn, and, seeing me, turned towards me, showing the yellow-white patch on the breast which distinguishes the marten. It would be worth while to keep these creatures in some enclosure for the sake of their fur, but the difficulty of having a fence " marten proof" would be great. Polecats, again, have nearly disappeared. I have never seen more than three in Argyllshire, but they do exist In the wilder parts. Badgers are more frequently seen, and I have dug them out of their burrows on mountain slopes, and marvelled at the brave fights they made against the dogs, when "What na beast's yon?** 127 it seemed impossible that any number of their enemies could kill them. As regards wild-cats, although they are to be met with in the north-west, they have vanished from the more southern parts. The keepers we employed were usually men of the district, and had not much respect for any one who was not of the neighbourhood. One told a story of a showman's big ape. The animal, a big hairy brute, had been taken on tour through Aberdeen, Inverness, and Oban, and had finally come to Inveraray, a good deal the worse for his expedition to Scotland. But heavy clothing had, it was hoped, brought the baboon's health "round again." At Inveraray, seeing woods all about the town, it made up its mind to escape, and did so, but starved in the woods, and, getting very sick, came down again to the side of a road near the town, where it died. Two of the farmers found it as they wended their way homeward, after refreshing themselves at the inn. " Deaeer me, what na beast's yon ? " " It's no a beast — it's a man." " A fery hairy man," said one. The other drew near, and, after an inspection from some yards away, replied : " It's a man, but did ye ever see such a hairy man ? It canna be a High lander — no, no, it canna be a Highlander ; do ye thinks it's a Lowlander, Donald .' " " I think not ; I don't think a Lowlander Is quite ever, ever so hairy as yon." 128 "Fish'* " Deaeer me," said the first, " I think it canna be a Highlander ; I think it canna be a Low lander. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just go to the Castle and just see if any of the English visitors are missing since the yesterday." To turn to less doubtful natural history. The sea has brought its wonders to our shores. A boy saw something splashing and shining in the shallow waters of the bay, which sweeps up almost to the roots of the old beeches of the avenue planted at the foot of Glen Shira in 1620. He saw it was a big round fish, of a strange kind. He got help. It was encircled with a net, and dragged to shore, and lo, it gleamed like burnished steel and silver, blue above, with many half-crown-like spots, with crimson fins and tail, and the body very thick and round. This was a fish known in the Japan seas — the opah, or sunfish. At another time the fishermen out in their boats saw, to their surprise, a white island rise like an iceberg from the blue waters. They saw the white gleam vanish, only to be trace able in its quick course just below the surface. It was manifestly a whale. They were right in their surmise. It was a Beluga arctica strayed from the seas of Spitzbergen, and come to see what the herring of Loch Fyne were like. Whether the herring appreciated the compliment of the great white whale's visit is doubtful. There were few herring in the Loch that year. Some said that the whales and steamers had alarmed Herring 129 them and that they had sunk to the bottom of the tremendous chasm, seventy-five fathoms deep, that is called Loch Fyne. Others said it was not the whales and steamers so much as the trawlers who scared the fish. Now, the trawlers are men who come with a couple of small sailing-boats acting in pairs, and trawl or sweep with their nets the water between each boat. Sometimes they came with little steamers for the same purpose. Since this kind of fishing has been going on, say the old hands, the catch of herring in Loch Fyne Is now no longer the regular thing it used to be In old days. What was the method then .'' Quite a different thing. There was no splashing, no noise to drive away the timid shoals. Quite silently the boats of the drift-net fishermen — larger craft than the little ones now used for trawling — would set out at evening, and drop their nets so as to form a wall in the waters. Against these walls the shoals of fish would swim in the night time, entangling themselves by the gills only, so that the bodies of the fish were not squeezed or damaged as they may be with the regular work of the trawl- netting, and at the first grey of dawn the wall of net was lifted. What a wondrous sight this afforded to visitors ! A night spent in a good large fishing-boat could be quite cosy, and then when the time for lift ing the catch came, it seemed as if a silver carpet were being slowly drawn up by the labouring fisher- VOL. I. 9 13° Birds men. So heavy was often the "take" that the nets were damaged by the weight of the fish. Every mesh held a herring. " May a herring always hang to you " (" Semper tibi pendeat halec ") is the motto of the Borough of Inveraray ; and so it might have been until to-day, say the burghers ruefully, had it not been for the legalising of the trawling. The herring are great Tories. They never say, " Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis " ; on the contrary, when good customs change, these fat fish, Hke rich men, say they will take their capital away, and won't take the trouble to change their habits by staying where they are bullied. As with beasts of prey, so also with birds. I remember the fork-tailed kites, quartering the skies with the buzzards above the hilltops. Now we never see a kite, and buzzards are rare. Peregrine falcons also used to breed in at least one of the precipices, and are now gone. We never had regular hawking on the moors. Falcons were caught, reared, and trained in the old fashion, first with a lure, then with pigeons, and were at last taken to the moor and loosed at grouse. Flying at herons was sometimes also an amusement, but was not liked so much by the owners of the falcons, as the birds sometimes got harm from the heron's beak. But with grouse there was no difficulty, and It was a very pretty thing to see the peregrine single out the prey he wanted from the covey, and strike It down. The kestrel and Training for Sport 131 merlin are the only hawks now seen, and neither of these has ever been trained by us. It is curious how the training of wild creatures is only attempted by some races, and how others never seem to have Imagined that the attempt to use them for man's purposes could ever be made. Hawks were as common In the Highlands as they were in England or on the Continent, and yet to use them in the pursuit of game was never thought of by the Celts. The same curious want of imagination is seen in America, where none of the Indians ever thought of doing that which is commonly done by all the Northern Asiatics, namely, the training for use of the carriboo, or reindeer, always used by the Laps for milk and haulage. But this does not prevent the imagination of the less resourceful folk from think ing themselves superior to the others. One head keeper we had was always looked upon as an Inferior craftsman by his Highland colleagues, although he was a very deft fisherman, and a very knowing fellow. But courage, as he himself said, when courage re quired anything in the water, was not his to boast. A lady whom he was attending, whilst fishing, slipped from a rock where she had been standing, and fell into a pool. The fall was nothing, but the water was deep, and she was just disappearing when David, our friend from Fife, managed to catch the end of her skirt and pull her to shore. As soon as she opened her eyes, David shouted excitedly to her, " Mind, I would na have swum a stroke for ye !" 132 Old Plantings And another day, when my father and he were fishing in a moorland lake from an air-inflated, gutta-percha canoe, their little vessel passed over a ledge of reeds, that made a hissing sound against her bottom as though air were escaping. David instantly took a mortal fright, and shouted to my father, " Mind, if she rive, I'll hold on to ye 1 " which declaration made my father forthwith provide David with a cork jacket for his own special and separate use, on all such joint boating excursions. But he was a good walker, and could outlast most men on the hill when after a deer, or on the long tramps to near the summit of the highest moun tains when the quest was after ptarmigan, turned snow-white among the snow in winter, or when the great wilderness of moorland, over i,6oo feet above the sea, and lying in white desolation between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne, was traversed by the sportsmen in fine for the sake of shooting the " blue " hares, now all white save the tips of their ears and their eyes, which alone showed on the wintry uplands. The hills along the shore of Loch Fyne have been well planted, the face of the slopes towards the water being covered with trees, so as to give the effect of forest belts, deeper than in reality, for the reverse slopes have often been left for farming. Some of the beech avenues were planted in (about) 1620, in the days of the Marquis of Argyll, and very many more date from 1750, from a photograph. THE TAPESTRY DINING-ROOM, INVERARAY. Trees 133 when Duke Archibald was engaged In building the present Casde, and In removing the old one. The old town also, which had grown up at the mouth of the river Aray, close under the Casde walls, was removed and built again on a jutting promontory a few hundred yards away. The beautiful palladian bridges which span the Aray and Shira Rivers were built at the same time, an enormous amount of labour going to their construction. The river near the Castle, and for a mile above, was em banked and artificial falls made at Intervals to check the winter rush of the torrent from doing harm to the banks, which near the sea were most skilfully dyked. A large lagoon was filled, and became a fine pasture field. The trees have flourished wonderfully. There is a great Scots fir 123 feet in height, and a silver fir 145 feet high, and this is said to be the tallest in Great Britain. A laburnum recently cut down measured nine feet three inches In circumference, at five feet from the ground. There are Spanish chestnuts, worthy in size of the South of Europe, but their fruit is poor and small. The place and woods suffered much during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, when a surprise attack gave it into the hands of the Stuart party. Seventeen gentlemen of the name of Campbell were hung in cold blood, though every usage of civilised warfare would have demanded that they should have been kept as honourable prisoners. The Macdonalds 1 34 Improvements burnt a number of women and children alive, in a barn In Lome. Two successive chiefs of the Campbell Clan, father and son, suffered death by beheading at Edinburgh. It was only through the accident that a retainer was able to hide the family charters and papers in a cave, that these documents escaped destruction. In the eighteenth century, when the next head of the Clan came with William of Orange from the Low Countries, in 1688, matters mended. Argyll placed the Scots crown on the King's head at Whitehall. His son was the commander of the Whig and Government forces in the war of 171 5. He spent much money at Inveraray ; and his brother Archibald, who succeeded him as third Duke, carried out his plans, and added greatly to them. Indeed, during the whole of the first sixty years of the eighteenth century, works were incessantly carried on under the sense of security given by the failures of the Jacobite faction to upset constitutional government. During the insurrection of 1745, the fourth Duke commanded the militia of the west, and his son was at the head of the men of his name at the Battle of Culloden. Not allowed at Falkirk to do more than guard the camp, his militia covered the retreat to Linlithgow, and their leader busied him self with the raising of men for the coming of the Duke of Cumberland with more of the regulars, ensuring the final victory near Inverness. It is curious to note among the trees those that The Armada Gun 135 have not flourished, as compared with others. For Instance, many tulip-trees are recorded as having been put into the ground as vigorous plants in 1760, and in 1905 only one survives. This has attained the height of about sixty feet, and is in good health. Of the oaks it is difficult to judge, for the best were taken for use in ships, during the wars with Napoleon, and none were left of any remarkable size. Some of the larch attain to over a hundred feet. Of all recently planted, the British Columbian Douglas fir thrives the best, and Is likely to show a growth as good as in its native woods, where a height of more than two hundred and fifty feet has been recorded. It Is one of the bad consequences of the death taxes that few will now plant forests, for the taxation of all that is visible at capital valuation deters any who do not want their successors to pay over and over again on the same thing. There is a very beautifully fashioned and interest ing cannon preserved at Inveraray. This is a gun got from the wreck of a vessel of the Spanish Armada, in the year 1670, at Tobermory Bay, in the island of Mull. It is a French weapon wrought at Fontalne- bleau, for Francis I. of France. On the fore part of the " chase " it has In relief the " Fs " of Francis's name, and the fleur-de-lis. On the vent It has the King's cognisance, a salamander in flames, the old beHef being that a salamander was so Icily cold that no fire could harm it. The 136 The "Florencia" " cascable " or button at the butt end of the piece, is made into the likeness of a pomegranate, and is bored through, evidently as an afterthought, so that a rope could be passed through the hole to assist in slewing the gun round in taking aim on board ship. That one of the French King's guns should have been recovered from the wreck of a Spanish vessel seems strange. It Is, however, explained by the records showing that some of the cannon captured from Francis in his Invasion of Italy, at Pavia, were put on a vessel contributed to the Armada by the State of Tuscany. The ship was named the Florencia, after the capital of Tuscany, and when she got to Vigo a Portuguese captain, Pereira, and crew were put into her. She joined the great fleet of Medina Sidonia, was in the action In the Channel, and was one of the vessels which escaped north into the German Ocean, and so made her way right round the " Orcades " or Shetland Isles, and, coming down the west coast of Scotland, took refuge in the bay of the "Well of Mary" in the Isle of Mull. Scotland was not at war with Spain although England was, and there was no harm that could threaten her in a Hebridean harbour ; but her captain was foolishly persuaded to take some part In a feud between the Macdonalds and the Macleans, and It has always been reported that the loss of the ship was owing to the act of a Macdonald. This man had been taken prisoner by the Spaniards Burns i37 while they were assisting the Macleans, and It oc curred to Pereira that such a prisoner might amuse his friends at Lisbon or Vigo. He therefore prepared to sail, and took the prisoner with him, but took little precaution with regard to him. As the ship was lying in the harbour the Macdonald got at the powder magazine, and blew the vessel into the air. Every one perished. Only some horses are said to have escaped. In 1670 the Earl of Argyll engaged a Swede to dive with a diving-bell. The Duke of York, as High Admiral, interfered, claiming Crown rights. Argyll resisted and won, in a case brought before the Scots Courts, as Argyll was Admiral of the Coast. The Duke wrote him a handsome letter, acknowledging that he had been in the wrong, and saying that he hoped it would not be taken amiss that he had acted as he thought it was his duty to act. The sole result of the diving operations of the year was, as far as we know, the recovery of this handsome gun, the surface metal of which has now acquired a pleasant green tint, and Is still in such good condition that I have seen heavy charges fired from it for saluting purposes. At the hotel in the town. Burns wrote on a window : Whoe'er he be who sojourns here, I pity much his case. Unless he come to wait upon My Lord, their God, His Grace. 138 Norman Names There's naething here but Highland pride And Highland scab and hunger ; If Providence has sent me here, 'Twas surely in His anger. But this was before our days of motor-cars, billiard- rooms, and the admirable care and comfort Mr. Gilmore ensures to every guest in the twentieth century, at his hostelry. The family which for so long a time has made this place its head-quarters moved here from Loch Awe, where a castle on an island in the narrow part of that Loch was the first considerable strong hold they possessed. Near it, in the " String " or Pass of Lome, their ancestor Colin Mhor, or Black Colin, fell pierced by the arrow of a murderer hiding behind a rock by the wayside. His fathers called themselves originally not Campbell, but O'DuIn, or sons of Brown Diarmid, the Celtic hero who eloped with Queen Grainia, wife of King Fion, and who, like Meleager, slew a terrible wild boar. The name is undoubtedly Norman, and is found in France under Cambell, Cambellanus, Campell, while there is no name the least like it in Gaelic history. O'Duin took the Norman name after the marriage of his mother, the daughter of Paul, the Treasurer of the Celtic King. It was as much the fashion for Celtic maidens to marry Norman knights, as it Is to-day for American maidens to marry British men of birth. The name of the French Ambassador to the Court of Queen Victoria, and now to King Edward, is the same. His name Patriarchal Rule 139 Cambon is simply a variant of Fairfield, as Cambell is also. Sometimes the " p " Is kept, from the old Roman " Campus " ; at other times it is dropped. Tradition is seldom wholly wrong, and in this case tradition is backed by charters proving when the name O'Duin was dropped for that of Campbell. People speak of the name as " curved mouth," and say Cameron means " curved nose." Cameron has no Norman tradition, but Cambronne Is more like the name than the Gaelic pronunciation of " arched nose." Personal peculiarities may lead to nicknames, but nicknames are seldom adopted by children, unless there is something to be proud of in the name. Norman rolls have the name. Scots rolls have not ; and in the days when the Norman marriage took place, all Gaelic chiefs were counted, as were the Jews, as son of so-and-so, who was son of so-and-so, ad infinitum ; or at least until the deluge drowned the backward counting. That this careful counting In remembrance of their genealogy was common among the Celts arose from the very simple fact that unless a chief kept his descent continually repeated to men who could not read, his followers would not remember his descent. If they forgot that, they were apt to flout his patriarchal title to command. His chiefship depended on the tribesmen remembering why he was chief. His patriarchal power was more absolute than that of a modern father in his own family. It was everything in the tribal organisation. It made 14° Hereditary Justiciaryship him their chief, for whom, as for a father, each member of the tribe had to lay down his life if called upon to do so. Others might be adopted by the clan. The Campbell Clan was good for over 5,000 swordsmen, and this meant something in the days before the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth, the whole army of Scotland assembled on the field of Bannockburn was only six times that number, namely, 30,000 men. The chief was king and high judge of his people. Some of these attributes remained to a late day. Argyll was Hereditary Justice of Scotland, and the jurisdiction was only bought out in the eighteenth century. The last state trial was perhaps that of Stewart, who was condemned to death for the murder of Campbell of Glenure. The trial took place In the house now used as the Chamberlain's House. There one can still see the traces of the bars that kept the prisoners in the lower rooms. The Duke, as judge, sat in the room above. The executions took place on a mound, where now stand two old beech- trees, close to the landward side of the old road to the Castle. This road left the shore at this point, and was carried by a bridge which has now dis appeared up to the old town and Castle, which stood eighty yards nearer the river than does the present Castle. A finely sculptured cross now standing in front of the village esplanade has on it good specimens of the patterns which were brought from Italy by the monks of the Irish Church. The Hand Plough 141 These designs came originally from the East, and the identical undulating floral scroll on the side of this monument can be seen at the present day frequently employed by the brass-workers of Cairo. The cross was in the market-place of the old town, raised on a platform or stone " stance," and from this place proclamation used to be made of any document affecting the lieges. In miniature its form was like that of the market-cross platform at Edinburgh, but the metropolitan one has no central ornament. There are now plenty of red deer among the woods and hills in the neighbourhood, and a large number of Highland cattle share with them the pasturage. There was no drainage made in the glens of old, and the only land which could be cultivated was on the slopes where a natural drainage allowed man to put in patches of barley or oats, the ploughing all being done by a hand plough, such as is still seen in remote parts of Ireland. All the land of the valleys has been reclaimed from heather and marsh and bad grass, at an enormous outlay In drainage and general improvement. The venison for the consumption of the household used to be got chiefly from a deer-forest called Coriante, in the district of Cowal, behind the modern town of Dunoon. Old rents were paid in bolls of barley, or oats and cattle. The introduction of sheep was comparatively modern, and the Innovation gave a use to the hills which they formerly did not possess, the cattle being poor and small. 142 Rob Roy At the time of the building of the new Castle, the poorer men all wore the kilt and plaid, and blue bonnets, and the women the plaid, either over their shoulders or drawn over the head. Shoes were not much in request. The richer classes wore the cocked hat, and long coat and knee-breeches in fashion among the Lowlanders. The houses were mere rough stone cabins, thatched, with the fire in the centre of the one room they contained, and the smoke escaped through a hole In the thatch. At Inveraray the earls had built stone and slate houses in their town, and there were some of two stories. I can remember several of the older and more primitive cottages in the country districts. One which Rob Roy lived in, when under the protection of the Duke of Queen Anne's time, was inhabited till recently. A cow had one end to herself, the family the other. Rob Roy's knife- handle of cow's horn was found not long ago. " R. Mc.G." were the letters cut deeply on it — a curious relic of the last of the freebooters. Of legends of the neighbourhood there are several of comparatively recent date. Here are two of them. " On a fine summer's evening in the year 1755, Major Campbell of Inverawe was walking by himself on the hill of Cruachan. Suddenly there appeared to him a wild-looking man, evidently In abject terror, his feet cut from running over rocks on the steep hillside. He threw himself at Campbell's Inverawe 143 feet, imploring his protection from his enemies who were pursuing him. Inverawe, filled with pity for the miserable man, swore on his word of honour, as a Campbell, to protect him from his foes, whoever they might be, and hid him In the cavern of Cruachan, the mountain whose peaks look down on Glen Aray from Loch Awe. No sooner had Inverawe placed the man In safety, having promised him to return daily to the cavern with food when the coast was clear, than he met a clansman who reported to him the murder on that very evening of his foster-brother, to whom he was devoted. The avengers, his informer excitedly declared, had followed the murderer, one known to them by the name of MacNivan, until near Cruachan, when suddenly and mysteriously all traces of him disappeared. " In consternation Inverawe listened to this tale of bloodshed, feeling that he was actually giving sanctuary to the red-handed murderer of his beloved brother. " Even under the circumstances he determined not to break his word. Tossing on his bed that night, there appeared to him the vision of his murdered brother, who pronounced slowly and sadly these words, " Inverawe, blood for blood. Hide not my murderer from vengeance." Notwithstanding this warning, Inverawe, true to his word, early next morning took food to the cave where the miscreant lay concealed. Again that night in his dreams his brother's wraith 144 Ticonderoga stood by his bed, and repeated the words. At daybreak next morning so impressed was Inverawe with this second appearance that he hastened to the hiding-place, this time roughly threatening the prisoner and warning him to escape as best he might, without further delay. Inverawe retraced his steps homeward, hoping that this would end the matter, but what was his horror when for the third time the wraith appeared by his bedside, this time blaming him bitterly for not having carried out the duty of revenge for the death of a clansman, and the ghost ended his last warning with these mysterious words : " 'But we shall meet at Ticonderoga.' " Nearly bereft of his senses, Inverawe hurried to the cavern, but the murderer had fled. His last chance of retaHation was gone, but the words ' blood for blood ' never ceased to trouble his mind. He hailed with joy the orders for foreign service. In the year 1757 the 42nd Highlanders, in which Inverawe was then serving as major, were lying at Albany, expecting to take their part in fighdng the French. One day Inverawe anxiously inquired of his colonel if ever he had heard of a place called Ticonderoga, and he explained his terrible interest In the name to his brother officers at mess. They of course treated his story as an hallucination pure and simple. Inverawe was much liked in the regiment, and, seeing how the matter troubled him, the word went round that no further allusion was to be made to it. Mirage HS " The next summer the regiment was ordered to storm a place of the name of St. Louis. That was its name as given by the French, but It turned out that the native appellation was Ticonderoga ! One of the Intelligence officers, on learning this. Informed Colonel Grant, who said, ' For the love of God, keep it from Inverawe.' The place was stormed, and, among those who fell, mortally wounded, were Inverawe and his son. Inverawe, with his dying breath, said : ' This place is Ticon deroga, and not St. Louis. I know it, for I have seen my brother ! ' " On the very day that this fight occurred, a Sir R. Hart, a physician at the Castle, happened to be walking with two friends in the vicinity of Inveraray Castle. A bright light in the sky attracted their attention, and they distinctly saw what they Instantly set down as a mirage — the reflection of Highland troops evidently engaged in storming some place. At the same instant the two Miss Campbells of Ederein were walking towards the Castle, and their attention was drawn to a bright vision in the sky — the young ladies even asserting that among the familiar faces of those they saw fall were Inverawe and his son. " Now for what one may look on as a piece of absolutely independent evidence as to the truth of some mysterious mirage at Inveraray, on the very day of the assault (July lo, 1757), at far-away Ticonderoga, A certain Ottway left an account VOL. I. 10 H^ Mirage of what his father and grandfather saw at Glenshira one summer's eve. Whilst on the Garron Bridge, they saw coming towards them on the road a regiment, and the evening sunlight, though they could not see the faces of the soldiers, shone on the arms they carried. They seemed to leave the road and wade through the Aray. The elder man of the couple had served in the Argyllshire militia during the suppression of the Highland Rebellion in 1745, and was much interested in the sight ; and, in answer to his son's inquiries, ' surmised ' it was a regiment returned from Ireland after, perhaps, landing at Kintyre. After crossing the river at some distance from where the men stood, the little army seemed to approach them. To get out of the way they both leapt over the adjoining dyke. On returning, what was their astonishment to find no trace of a soldier anywhere ! " To his dying day the old soldier said, ' If a vision it was, it was not sent for nought 1 ' and that It might, in his opinion, be a forerunner of things to happen. And later, at the time of the Irish Rebellion, he lived in constant hopes of seeing a regiment march across the Garron Bridge on its way to Ireland. " As for the visions seen in the sky at Inveraray it is a well-known fact that when, many months later, the news of the death of Inverawe and his son arrived, the Miss Campbells, as well as the inhabitants of Inveraray, were already mourning Treasure i47 their dead, with the certainty born of that summer night of July lo, 1756." Some of the realisations of Highland prophecy are very difficult to understand. For Instance, the people in Glenaray used persistently to allege that there was a golden treasure hidden in the valley, and that this hoard would not be found until it was found by the son of a stranger. The children of the farmers knew the tale, told them by their grandmothers, who had received it from older generations. So they searched, and laughed at the idea, and played hide-and-seek in all sorts of places, and peered Into crevices and banks of burns, but all to no avail. Then, when drainage had reclaimed a field near the present high road, and when ploughing on the new-drained land, they blasted with powder the big rocks that had either fallen from the hills above, or been dropped by ice In prehistoric days on the floor of the glen. Such a stone was one day blasted, and under it were found three solid gold bracelets, of the fashion seen in Ireland. These are heavy rings, with small cusps at the ends, which do not meet, but have spaces at the ends for a woman's wrist to sHp through. One had no cusps, but a slightly thickened ring at the ends. There, then, was the treasure found at last 1 But where was the son of a stranger ? Close by, for the youth who held the plough was the son of an Englishman — a rare being in those parts at that time ! 148 Bronze Unfortunately, it is not in all cases of such finds that local tradition still exists to tell the people to search. Thus it was that In Islay, when several such bracelets were found, they were thought to be old brass handles, and good for a chest of drawers, and the finder used them as such in his cottage. Then there came along one wiser than he, saw the chest, examined the handles, kept his counsel, offered ^ 2 for the furniture, and this being gladly accepted, the " brass handles " disappeared with him for ever. Another bracelet was found in Kintyre of exactly the same cusp-ended pattern. Some very fine bronze swords, a bronze scabbard, and spear-heads were found, all belonging to the remote age that often startles us by the beauty of the work. It is probable that the race who used such things in the north got them by barter from the south, for the swords and gold rings have their exact counterparts in the Lowlands and in Ireland ; and all manual work found in pottery in the north speaks of a rude native manufacture, and gives no sign of artistic value. Life must have been too rough, and peace and plenty too rare, to allow the dweller in the Glens or along the Atlantic shores to be more than a fighter or a fisherman. CHAPTER XI Jamaica The tropic isles in jewels glow ; Their sapphire seas enfold In emerald curves and thundering snows Sea-sands of pearl and gold. The darkest woods are gemmed and bright With gleam of flower and fern, And ruby-throated birds alight Where crimson cacti burn. And every shade is comrade true To harmonies of tone, From the ethereal sky of blue To every shell, sea-strewn. Each fairy fish, each dazzling bird. Seem gems that one and all Are wrought in forges none have heard, Where never footsteps fall. Hail ! Topaz, Ruby, Amethyst, On Feather, Sward, and Tree, By lips divine to colour kissed On Mountain, Forest, Sea ! No town Is visible as you approach Kings ton from the sea. A long breakwater-like strip of mud and sand covered with belts of mangroves completely masks the basin on which it stands. This tree lives In the water, and sends down branches into it, forming fresh roots, and so becomes a dense crooked-pillared jungle among which the waves flow into endless slime and ooze. 149 1 50 Kingston The green thickets are full of water-snakes. There is only a narrow opening, and on the left of this the low walls of a long white fort. This is still called Port Royal, and is near the site of the old port of Jamacia ; but the town and land sank together into the sea during an earthquake, and to see the buildings you have to look under water. It is said that walls are still standing deep In the sea. Once you pass In, the Narrows are seen to form a screen concealing a wide harbour, and you find you can make a nearer approach to the fine hills that stretch away to the right, and sink on the left to lower ground. Filling up the front of the view at their base, stands the town, close to the water's edge ; and this is the King's Town which became the chief town of the island and is now a large place. You remember how full of Scots the colony was, and how Glasgow was especially connected with the sugar-raising of the island one hundred years ago, when men made large fortunes here, and came back to Scotland and bought out all their neighbours, and were West Indian " Nabobs." No millions are made now, but there are still great sugar-plantations, and there are fields of tobacco and endless oranee- O groves, and fine pastures at one end of the island for cattle and fine mountains at the other, and everywhere bananas grow and a fierce sun glows. There was an attempt at an insurrection in 1865, and the white inhabitants were in real danger. An Tropical Scenery 151 armed vessel should always be kept there, or within easy reach, as the same thing may occur again. My first visit was in company with Sir Henry Storks who was sent out as Commissioner of the British, Government, to inquire about the cause of the troubles. There has been nothing of the kind since, a happy circumstance more due to accident and the want of a leader, and to the memory of the failure of the last rising, than to any real disappearance of the eternal difficulty of the government of blacks by whites under our system of equalising the unequaHsable. The finest scenery I have met with in the tropics was the bit of country between Milbank and Bath. We rode down, taking about four hours on the journey. No one thinks of walking here. Even if one wants to go to some place one's legs would take one to in five minutes, one never uses them, but always a horse or buggy — a " transport " used as much by the most healthy as by the most "patapouf" old tropical gentleman. One breakfasts on fresh-water periwinkles, ring tail pigeons, and coarse brown sugar and coffee. Then comes a ride ; to-day we went through a valley, finely wooded, to the top of the pass. There were pretty rivers, especially one called the Rio Grande, winding along between the large boulders. I suppose some of the trees are native ; but many — for instance, the cocoa, the mango, bread-fruit, and pimento — have been brought by the planters. The 152 Forests cotton-tree is a magnificent forest giant. In this respect the towering domes of the groves of bamboo are beautiful in their feathery grandeur. I am told that the Jamaica woods are inferior to those of South America. Certainly even the cotton- tree itself is not to be compared in beauty to a beech or an elm. The stem is straight and round. The bark glistens white. The branches are thrown out in a formal right angle, often at two or three heights on different sides of the trunk, and at a great height from the ground. The foliage is very scanty, and in no proportion to the immense size of the timber. The greatest beauty in the woods lies in the undergrowth and creepers, and of course in the palms, when you have them ; but their zone is below, not in the mountains. In the hills you find lovely groups of tree-ferns, and there is a plant they call the Long Thatch that sprouts in great palm-like branches thirty or forty feet in length from the ground. Of the tree-ferns there are several varieties, and their lacelike fronds are sometimes banked on the slopes in a delicate forest of brightest green. I saw more birds on this ride than anywhere before. One very handsomely marked, that they call the banana-bird, was common ; and a species of humming-bird, with a long tail and white breast, let us get close to them. Flocks of parrots were screaming in the branches. They are a large species and seem very wild. Of flowers there are few. Near the sea you may find the great crimson cactus. From sketches by the Duke ot .4rgrl!. HAYTI. The" top view. Jacnael. The lower. Port au Prince. Humming' birds 153 Elsewhere but litde. There is a sweet-smelling tree-cactus called the Night-blowing Cereus, but one can hardly distinguish it, as it closes during the day. March 7, 1 866. — I went to call on a naturahst. We talked of sharks, and I told him a story I had heard of a diver having entered the funnel of a sunken ship, meeting a shark from the other end ; the diver was not frightened, knowing the fish could not there turn on his side to bite him. " Oh," said our host, " they never take a man In midwater ; everybody who can dive may kill them. They can only feed off the ground or on the surface, and a diver may let them smell him at their pleasure." This is not according to our Ideas that a shark has only to turn on his side to tackle a man. Any one diving under them seems to be safe. They say the black vulture with the red head — a bird to be seen by hundreds near every settlement here — came from Florida to Cuba and so to Jamaica. It is a useful scavenger, and is carefully preserved. A fine of ^"5 is the penalty for killing it. There is also a black-headed vulture, but it is not so common. You would have delighted in a garden at a villa where we sat among the flowers and pepper plants, and humming-birds flew like insects all round us, moving just like some kinds of fly over the plants, and remaining quite stationary for a while in the air, and then darting off. The picking up and eating of sugar-canes — formerly a misdemeanour — and previously always 1 54 Cromwell allowed to slaves — has been made a larceny, and this fills the prisons. Columbus gave his name to part of this island. Many of the Spanish names have disappeared — Jamaica was Cromwell's contribution to the expansion of the Empire, and he did not like the old names of streets and districts, for they were all named after saints. Instead of the musical Spanish, we have the ugly White Church Street, Red Church Street, Spanish Town, for the old " St. Jago de la Vega." All the country about Moreland in Vere district is uninteresting, as it is flat, and covered with the short wood of the cashaw, a tree somewhat like a mimosa or an acacia, with a flat top and bright green foliage. It belongs to Mr. Mitchell, my Irish friend, who does not mind how hot the sun is ; and to-day it was perfervid, making the yuccas along the road side glitter. We are near the sea, but there is no open beach with yellow sand and white surf, but instead an eternal belt of mangrove rising from the water, and casting back into it numberless forked roots, making a wood- tangle impenetrable to any but the alligators. Zachary Macaulay, the historian's father, had estates here, but they are hardly cultivated at all now. The cane-fields of this estate are magnificent. There is no crop so handsome as the sugar-cane. It is sheathed in long reed-like leaves, that cluster thicker at the top and fall drooping downwards. We saw the cutting of the cane, and the Sugar^making 155 pressing of it, and all the work done, to the final stowing of the fine brown sugar in hogsheads. Splendid oxen are employed, fourteen to the plough in some cases. The most picturesque part in the whole process of sugar-making is that when you see the great wains loaded with sugar come in, drawn by the cattle, to the pressing-roller. The negroes look like bronze statues when you see them half-naked, each muscle glossy in the sun, as they bear great loads to the roller and stand round while it sucks in and crushes the bundles, and sends a white stream of sugar juice into the pipes leading to the boilers. That crushing and that white stream will go on now, night and day, for nearly three months, at the end of which M. hopes to have about 350 hogsheads from each of his three estates. The heavy smell of sugar-reek from the bolhng-house, or the more disagreeable smell from the still-house, makes one glad to halt some distance in the shade of the house. The blacks were getting up " Courts of Justice " of their own. Here are the minutiae of one such meeting : "Memory of a Meeting held on July 11, 1863, Unonlmously carried that Mr. W. C. Winknot be appointed State General. " Move that the qualification of barristers and lawyers be a certificate from the Judge and be receiving a fee of ^i. That the fees of the Peace Office for each Process be ^^i. That two Petty 156 Negro ''Resolutions" Sessions be held, and that the Court of Arispagus be held on August 4, 1863. " Resolve that all person or persons that shall wilfully misbehave themselves in the vicinity of the Court, the same shall be committed for trial, and if won't submit be disbands as Unsivilise. " Resolve that 3a'. be considered as a pound, and due deference be paid to the Chairman and his sobadinates. " Resolve that the Prevance Marshal General do stick up a list ledgable writen. " For every omission ^4 and likewise every officer, in the same for omission or neglect of Duty." Another paper gives another " Memory " of a meeting held, where people were elected for the offices of "Judge," of "Clerk of the Peace," of " Prevance Marshal," of" Inspector," of " Sergeant," and one unfortunate to the post of " Privett." One man was appointed " Founder," whatever that may have meant. The cattle pastures belonging to Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch are very fine, and he has a large property which pays well. Lord Dudley has also a nice place in the hills, one vast tract of orange- groves, the prettiest part of It looking like the crater of a volcano, for there are hills all round and a great circular flat in the centre. There is a good house, and the coolness was dehcious — so long as you did not drink the rum always generously offered to you. Negro Names 157 Spanish Town, of old the chief city, has round- arched solid buildings, for the Spaniards wherever they went reared walls as though they believed there were no earthquakes to be dreaded. The thick walls give great coolness, and if men have a fancy for light woodwork structures they can raise them on these solid platforms. I confess, how ever, that with earthquakes in view I would rather build lightly on the ground and have a chance of escape Into the open made as easy as possible. Dr. Macgregor, speaking of the pleasant looks of some of the negro children, tells me that when he asked a mother the name of her child she put her arms akimbo, threw back her head, and answered proudly, " Victoria Cleopatra, sar." And I hear of an African lady who came to one of our missionaries to get a baby baptized ; the name she gave it was " Twenty-two, Queen Street," which was the address of the mission house in Edinburgh In Scotland ! The father had heard the words so often from the minister's lips that he thought It a most becoming name. I took a nice mulatto boy from Jamaica as a servant. He amused himself at several places to which we travelled by enrolling himself as a Freemason, taking oaths to divulge nothing, and then coming to me and telling me all that had happened to him. It was no use telling him I did not want to hear anything about his experiences. We all liked him — even when he was impudent 15^ The Earthquake and said to us one morning, when he found us awake earlier than usual, " Hallo, sars, anything frightened you this morning ? " Kingston, 1907. — Mr. Mitchell wrote forty years later : " I have been waiting to write to you until I had something to say, and now unfor tunately I have plenty — Kingston, as you know, is in ruins — at least, so much of it as is not in ashes. The disaster must have been known In England within a few hours of its occurrence, for a man staying here received yesterday a telegram from Cardiff on Tuesday to this effect, ' Reported that Kingston destroyed by earthquake ; are you safe ? ' Professor Milne would by means of his instruments have located the disaster. " Now for my own experiences. I had gone down for the ' Conference,' and as I wished to see Dr. Water and Sir D. Morris I called at the Miev, where the Conference was held, about 2 p.m. on Monday ; but, finding that they would not be at liberty before 5 p.m., I went back to my lodgings and lay on the bed to rest (the bed was on the north side of the room) when, as I was resting, the wall opposite seemed to rise and fall outwards with a sound of a great explosion. Only a few pieces of wood, none of them heavy, fell on the bed, so I remained quiet ; and when I saw that nothing more seemed inclined to fall I crawled to an angle of the room where there The Earthquake 159 were some strong upright posts and there I stayed until some one came (I was in an upstairs room), and then I went down the passages and stairs on to a lawn, where I found all the people assembled ; and on that lawn we all remained until Wednesday, sleeping upon chairs and mat tresses from the dismantled rooms ; for the house, though standing for the most part, was dangerous and uninhabitable. " None of us could get at our clothes, and so we remained. A fire was made on a part of the lawn, where water was boiled and food cooked. There were ladles of the party, both American and English, and I was to some small extent able to reassure them by saying — what is I believe the fact — that the first shock is always the worst, although small shocks or earth tremors are constantly occurring for some time afterwards — that was my experience in the Algerian earthquake, which differed, however, from this one In that there was a rocking motion. The room seemed to go backwards and forwards, whereas in this case the motion was or seemed to be vertical, with the sound of a violent explosion, and then the v/all fell at once. I was In North A., the upper part of Kingston, not far from the race-course, where we should have camped out but for having a largish lawn. But for the magnitude of the disaster the spectacle would have been very picturesque. During the evening we saw the smoke and the glow of a great fire in the lower part of i6o The Earthquake the town, but there was no great danger to us, as the north wind would keep it away. " On Wednesday morning, as the trains were then running, they sent me away, fearing perhaps the effect of camping out upon my eighty-three years. There was a curious scene at the station, which was still encumbered by bricks and all manner of rubbish, so that tickets were given out on the platform to an immense crowd. I travelled in a luggage van, one side of which was occupied by a bench on which was a girl with a broken leg, but who seemed to be getting on all right. The train should have started at 10.15 ; '^^ started at 12.15 after a small tremor which frightened some people, and we, or rather I, did not reach Mandeville until 7 p.m, none the worse. " But now comes the bad part, — it was the break ing of the electric wires probably which caused the fire to spring up simultaneously in various places. Fortunately it occurred In the larger streets, but one heard of some people injured by the earthquake who were unable to escape, and the fire did the most mischief. All, or almost all, the churches are gone. The parish church, which stood at the corner of an open space, was rendered unsafe, and we hear has been taken down, and so also in the plain of St. Andrews behind Kingston I am told that all the villas and residences are unsafe and will have to be in great measure rebuilt. The Govern ment House is, I believe, all right excepting the ball- The Earthquake i6i room, which fell (there was to have been a ball on the Wednesday for the Conference people). The conduct of the Governor and his wife is beyond all praise. She devoted herself to the hospitals, and he took charge of the streets in so far as it was possible, to avoid pillage. No cable messages could be sent out on Tuesday. I believe an American gun-boat came in and landed marines in time to prevent an escape of the prisoners in the penitentiary, but on the whole I believe that the people behaved well and pillaged little, except some of the small shops which had been left derelict. Of the larger shops all, I believe, were burned. " I was talking yesterday to an intelligent negro who had just come down. No one, he said, could go into the lower part of the town except at the risk of being shot, as sentries were posted to prevent It. In the meantime, gangs were being employed to clear away the debris, the Governor, he said, working among them. I asked what was the rate of wages. Sixpence an hour, he said. Trained nurses are in request ; and two ladles here, one Canadian and one American, who have some experience went down yesterday. " The effect of the shock was very little felt in other parts of the Island — even Spanish Town escaped without material injury. I saw a man from Vere who was riding at the time, and he said that he saw the cornfields swaying up and down. A few chimneys were cracked, and that was all, as VOL. I. 11 1 62 The Earthquake far as I heard. It is where the mountains sink into the plain that the trouble occurs — it was so in the Algerian earthquake. Algiers, on the hill, escaped well, but Blidah on the alluvium was wrecked. The people who are suffering the most are not the labouring class, whose wooden shanties survived the shock, but the class above these, clerks, employes at stores, whose homes are destroyed and their means of living taken away. The clergy also, many of them, are in evil case. I refer to all denominations, for their churches have ceased to exist. And now I must conclude my tale of disaster." CHAPTER XII U.S.A. May 14 TO May 20, 1866 A summer morning, just as now, Brightened from yonder distant brow ; But lo ! just there, all day a host Broke like a storm-sea on a coast. To fierce attack through copse and field Rushed the steeled foe, as cannon pealed ! I leaned upon my sword as though Forged from some brazen furnace glow, With open lip and staring eye. Now hell seemed opened suddenly — There — there — they are ! Fire, fire, stand fast ! Our flag waves high in smoke and blast ! And man on man but stands to fall, For death to many brings his call. I'm hurled to earth, and stabbed, and weak, To answer back the stroke I seek ; — And round me, o'er me, and below An awful wrestle — blow on blow ; — Then o'er our corpses' knotted heaps A wounded charger rears and leaps ; — I see his fore hoofs' lightning gleam, I see his spurred sides crimson stream — I see his girths all smeared with blood : — And 'twixt us with a flash and roar The shrapnel's screaming o'er us tore. As though a dragon rent the earth And heaven fell in shards accurst. Then dust and stour, and shriek and groan, — Laurels of Death, — then sky, alone ! LiLIENKRON. May 14. — What we really wished for in travel ling all the way to Lexington was to visit General 163 164 General Lee Lee. He is now leading a life of quiet and rest there, but employs himself most usefully as President of Washington College. His son. General Curtis Lee, is still under his command, for he is one of the professors at the military college. We had been able to obtain a letter of introduction to the father from General Wickham, and had posted it some days before our visit, so that we might know if there was any chance that the General would see us. When we returned we heard that both sons, General Curtis and General Hugh, had courteously called on us. A note was delivered to us, in which they said that their father was much occupied with business both morning and afternoon, but would receive us in the evening if we called at his house. At eight o'clock we knocked at his door and had not to wait a moment in the heavy rain which was falling, for we were at once welcomed, and found the whole family, the father, the two sons, two daughters, and Mrs. Lee sitting round their table reading the papers which had just been received from the capital. We feared we were disturbing them, but the General was most kind, asking about our journey to Virginia. His manner is very simple and dignified. He introduced us to his family, giving to both of his sons their title of " General," the rank they had attained to during the war. He is a fine-looking man, whom one likes at first sight, and is vigorous looking, holding himself very straight. His hair is rather thin, and quite white, General Lee 165 the forehead broad and the eyes brown and piercing, the nose slightly aquiline, and the upper lip, chin, and cheeks covered with closely trimmed white hair. He looks much bronzed, and must be about six feet in height. He wore a coat of Confederate grey, as did also both of his sons. Few here wear any other — a black coat is seldom seen. We did not dare to speak of the past, for we felt that anything we asked would only seem as though the sadness of the situation of the Virginians was a matter of careless Interest to us. He, however, himself spoke of the hardships all had now to endure, and how difficult must be the work of the re-establishment of the old relations. He showed no ill-feeling for the enemy who had turned the Shenandoah Valley into a desert. " Crops this year are bad enough, and it will be long before there is any Improvement in the condition of the people." He inquired if we had been able to see many of the men In power in Washington, and then alluded to the various opinions held by politicians among the federal parties with regard to the government of the South. He said that It was useless for him to read debates in Congress and the Reconstruction Committee Report. "The Radical party are likely to do a great deal of harm, for we wish now for good feeling to grow up between North and South, and the President, Mr. Johnson, has been doing much to strengthen the feeUng in favour of the Union 1 66 General Lee among us. The relations between the negroes and the whites were friendly formerly, and would remain so If legislation be not passed in favour of the blacks, in a way that will only do them harm. " We do not seem to see that they are raising up feelings of race — and if a bad feeling is raised In consequence of unfair laws being passed against the weaker party it must yield. The blacks must always here be the weaker ; the whites are so much stronger that there is no chance for the black. If the Radical party passes the laws it wants against us. They are working as though they wished to keep alive by their proposals in Congress the bad blood in the South against the North. If left alone the hostility which must be felt after such a war would rapidly decrease, but it may be continued by incessant pro vocation. The Southerners took up arms honestly : surely it is to be desired that the goodwill of our people be encouraged, and that there should be no inciting them against the North. To the minds of the Southern men the idea of ' Union ' was ridiculous when the States that made the Union did not desire that it continue ; but the North fought for the Union, and now, if what appears to be the most powerful party among them is to have its own way, they are doing their best to destroy all real union. If they succeed, ' Union ' can only be a mere name." I said that it seemed to me when speaking to Northerners at Washington that there were many General Lee 167 who would work for reconciliation, and approved the President's action to that end. " Yes, there is much talk," the General said, " but none seem to be courageous enough to oppose the Radicals, who are therefore able to do what they like, and no one stands fairly up to them to hinder them. Surely if the Union be worth preserving at all, they should try to conciliate the whole nation, and not do all they can against the Southern part of it." I said I thought that the great majority re pudiated the violent words of Thadeus Stevens, who had shouted, " The best place for the rebels is Hell, fenced in by bayonets," or words to that effect. There is one proposal to confiscate rebel lands, so that they may be ultimately given to the blacks ; and the disfranchising clauses for the whites of the South in the Reconstruction Committee's Report, which are not likely to be acted upon. The General was of course quite against any weakening of the State governments, and hoped that their powers would be largely left to them. I asked him if it was true that he was writing a History of the War, for very little was known of the enormous disparity of forces. I was sorry to hear him say : " No, sir, I am not writing any History of the War ; I am only collecting documents, official and otherwise, that were lost or captured during the retreat from Petersburg. The disparity of forces throughout was very great. At Sharpsburg I had 1 68 President Johnson only 35,000 opposed to 120,000, and at Chancellors- ville 45,000 all told against the enemy, who had a number equal to that brought against us at Sharpsburg." It seemed remarkable that his voice never expressed bitterness, but it did express great sorrow when he mentioned the continuance of Northern hatred. He remembered Hartington's visit, and spoke with hearty appreciation of the conduct of several Englishmen who had served in his army. When we went he insisted upon coming out to the portico with us, to light us down the few steps in front of the house ; and the last I saw of him, as we floundered out into the darkness and rain, was his tall figure and face in the strong side-light thrown on him by the lamp he held in his hand, his two sons by his side. Washington, 1866. — The President came in and shook hands and said "How do .'' " pleasantly enough. But this was all. During the short time he sat, a heavy man, with a look of great cleverness in his face, he did not speak one word. Secretary of State Seward did all the talking, which was at first complimentary to my father, and then a little about the Colorado business, and the way in which Sumner had found himself In a minority. There was something said favourable to rapid reconstruction and a generous pohcy. The President contented himself with merely Sir Frederick Bruce 169 endorsing Seward's remarks, and when the Secretary talked a little of the Radicals a visible expression of pain came over Johnson's face. He said good bye and that he was glad to have seen us, again pleasantly enough, and the interview was over. Seward took us afterwards over the rooms of the house. In the Reception Hall there was a chair or two with the satin covering very much out of repair. Seward pointed them out to us and said that the reason they were in that state was that they had been "just left so after President Lincoln's death." Con gress each year votes a certain amount for the repair of the furniture of this house. During Lincoln's last year of office the Congress differed from him upon a question regarding the treatment of one of the States of the South, Louisiana, and a question of the same nature has now caused the split between this Congress and President — and no money had been voted and the chairs had been left to be torn. We dined with Sir F. Bruce and his niece, and the attaches. In the evening there was a flood of black-coated men surrounding Sir Frederick. I asked who they were and was told that they were governors of lunatic asylums. It was a deputation received after dinner — quite enough to destroy Sir Frederick's digestion I He disbelieves In the possibility of white labour in the South, and in the policy of the Eastern States. Even if white labour were possible, it's not likely that it will be got. He believed too that the mortality among the 170 Secretary of State Seward blacks had been fearful. More infants had died under the age of five years in 1865 than the total number of blacks whose deaths were registered in 1865. The flocking to the towns that had caused this mortahty was, however, decreasing. Sumner was a good deal chaffed about the increasing power of the West, and was told that the East would shortly find itself nowhere. " I'd make you an even bet," said Sir Frederick, " that if annexation there be within the next twenty years, it will be the annexa tion of New England to Canada, not of Canada to the States." April 25. — We dined at six with Mr. Seward en famille, as his note of invitation said. His two sons. Colonel Seward, and Frederick, his daughter, a Miss Perry, and Sumner were there. His son Frederick looks delicate and still wears a black fur cap to conceal the marks of the wounds on his head. Seward began about my father, saying he knew that he was the best friend the North had had during the war. Lord John Russell had been cold in his tone, and Mr. Glad stone had made that speech, which could not be forgotten by Americans, in which he had said that Jeff. Davis had made a nation. " How strange of such a man — a deep thinker — to have supposed that, while we before had managed to become a great nation in spite of slavery, the very men who had caused a weakness could, by separating them selves from all that had caused strength, constitute Secretary of State Seward 171 a great people." Lord Russell too had spoken of the wish of the North for empire. He had told them that it was for that, and not for the principles of justice, not for freedom against slavery, that they were fighting. My father had been staunch to them throughout, and they had recognised in him their firm friend. Then he spoke of the Capitol. "It is the people's house, and as such it was determined to make it one of the finest buildings in the world. This nation does not reward its officers. It tells the Cabinet to look out for lodgings for themselves. It does not pay them well or give them fine houses. The President himself has a comparatively small house, to teach him his place, and to show him his position is not that of a king, but only that of the man chosen for a time as the first magistrate. Your Houses of Parliament have not the same pre dominance in the city as the Capitol has here. Your people's house is herein fitly symbolising your constitution — not the grandest. At Rome there is the sign of priesthood, and St. Peter's is the building that towers above all others." A jaguar's skin was on the floor in front of the fire, and they talked of it as having just come from Mexico, a present from a Frenchman. This led to jokes on the French retreat. Secretary Seward shows the effect of the attack made upon him last year. He was so good as to say he would like to show us the room in 172 Attempted Murder which he was lying at the time it happened, and gave us a detailed history of all that happened until he became unconscious. The house is one of moderate size, and built on the common plan of a dining- room fronting the road on the ground floor ; the drawing-room is on the second floor, and over the drawing-room Is Mrs. Seward's bedroom. On the landing at the top of the stairs on the second floor two doors open. One the would-be murderer must have known to be the Secretary of State's, the other was the door of Fred Seward's room. On the right and left are two other doors, to rooms occupied by the daughter and elder son. Half-past ten had struck and all was quiet. There was a gas-light burning on the landing. The room where Mr. Seward slept was almost completely darkened, for he had suffered because of a fall from his carriage ; in this accident his eye was injured, and light was painful to him. His daughter sat in a corner of the room not far from the foot of the bed, which was placed at right angles to the door. A soldier who had been a hospital orderly acted as nurse, and was sitting on the right of the bed near the window. The surgeons had contrived a sort of wooden frame to keep Seward's injured jaw from moving ; and, fancying in his weakness that if he slept the broken bone by falling might cause lockjaw, he did his best not to fall asleep. He had an odd fancy that by lying on the edge of the bed he might be kept awake by the thought that Attempted Murder 173 if he dozed off he would fall off. But he was half unconscious. He lay on the side of the bed furthest from the door, which was open, the light from the gas-jet on the landing being shaded by curtains. A man called at the house, and rang the bell. A coloured servant opened It, and was told that the stranger was bringing medicine from the doctor. But he gave a name which was not that of the doctor attending Mr. Seward, and the boy was suspicious and wanted to take the medicine. The visitor said he must take it up himself. The boy went before him upstairs remonstrating, but, thinking when on the flight of steps near the side room that he might be scolded for making difficulties, returned down the stairs. Young Mr. Seward, from the room he occu pied next his father, heard the talking, and came out. He found the man, who was unknown to him, just at the top of the stairs, and demanded his business. The same story about the doctor was told, and Fred Seward said he would take the medicine to his father himself. No, the strange doctor said, he must eive the dose. He was then told he could not go In — that he must give up what he had In his hand. He persisted. Fred Seward, who thought him merely an impudent fellow, said, " No, you shall not." The man said, " Well, if I can't, I'll take back the medicine now." He was told he might do so, and turned and went down some of the steps. Then, as he afterwards said, he remembered his oath not to fail, and returning. 174 Attempted Murder sprang up the landing, drew a revolver, and presented it at the son's head. The first cap snapped — the trigger was again pulled, and again the pistol missed fire. The man then, taking hold of the barrels of the pistol, gave two such blows with the butt that the pistol and Frederick's skull were both broken. Then drawing a knife he dashed past, the knife making a cut on the doorpost, and was by the side of the bed in a moment. Miss Seward, watching in the room, heard her brother's fall, and stood up with the cry, " He Is going to kill my father. Oh, don't let him kill him ! " Mr, Seward, partially roused, was able to watch all that was occurring, but felt no fear and could not understand why his daughter was staring and pointing at some one near him, and then he saw a man above him. In his weak condition he had no feeling but that he must die, as he had often expected that he would be assassinated. It was to be expected ! He can recall now that he saw the hand and coat- sleeve of the murderer. The sleeve was of a grey cloth : he wondered why the man was in a tweed suit. He says his eye wandered from the arm to the face, and he thought that the person who had so suddenly appeared was handsome. He then felt a gush of warm water, as he thought, on his cheek, and the splash and warmth came twice again, once on each side of his face. The thought then came that it was not hot water, but came from himself, Attempted Murder 175 and then he knew it must be blood. He had drawn himself to the edge of the bed, and then fell over it to the ground. " The man — who in those three strokes had cut down to my throat on two sides with two stabs, and with the third had left one of my cheeks hang ing down in a flap — now moved round the foot of the bed to get at me on the other side. He was met by the soldier and they had a tussle on the floor. Payne, the assassin, was breathless and tired with the excitement and the violence of his attack upon me, and the soldier, though wounded, was able to drive him to the door. All this had happened in so short a time and had made so little noise that my other son knew nothing of what was going on, but entering as Payne had been driven to the door, he helped to drag him to the stairs, down which he dashed and, mounting a horse, got away." Fred Seward's head had to be trepanned, and two fearful plaster patches on the skull show where the pistol-butt blows were dealt. Mr. Seward himself talked in quite a lively way about the whole affair, sitting on the bed puffing at a cigar, and going round and standing at the side to show the assassin's position. He described it so graphically that I felt quite sick with the horror of it. The first thing he remembered after tumbling on to the floor — when he felt much as a man does in a dream when he thinks he is falling from a height — was to feel two hands under his arms, and a voice saying 176 Vain Anticipations " He Is not dead." He said faintly, " I am not dead. I am not dead." Then he was in the bed with the doctor by his side and a taste of tea in his mouth. This revived him, and he asked for the slate on which he had been writing since his jaw had been broken, and was able to write a few words. Mr. Seward says it is not the business of the Federal Government to interfere with the States about educa tion of blacks or whites. He thinks it is probable that the State Governments will support the schools, for it is their interest to do so, and to raise the stan dard of intelligence among the people. " The whites will buy the lands, not the negro. In Jamaica you had a different state of things. There were not enough whites to buy the lands, and the negro could get his plot and squat on it. Here the white men have the capital and will secure all the lands. There is a constant influx of white men now, and it will in time become greater. The emigration stream does not flow directly to the south. It passes to the west, but Americans are moving south. We must avoid creating any fresh antagonism between the whites and blacks. If the suffrage were given to the coloured men they would send people here demanding things that it would be impossible to give them. It would raise the feeling of the whites against them, and there would be a war of races most disastrous to the blacks." " Mr. Sumner," he said jokingly, " is the man who has preached peace. It is I who have always General Grant 177 practised it ; and I have always hated war, and sought to avoid it as far as possible." Sumner, I thought, did not look pleased. It was the only bit of Seward's talk he heard, as It was said so that it should reach him ; the rest was said to me quietly in a corner of the room, and out of Sumner's range of hearing. He told Sumner, too, to observe how the West was Increasing. This new State admission gave them more power. " Westward tends the star of Empire," he quoted. " You think it is the beginning," Sumner said. It seemed that the Secretary had spoken to show Sumner how necessary it was to make allies, or at least not have enemies in the south, but it will take much to teach Sumner that. Chase and Sumner were talking at one time of the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Grant's face flushed up, and I heard him say with a good deal of energy, " Well, there's one thing I want done about that Paris Exposition. I want none of our people to send one thing there unless every French soldier has been withdrawn by that time from Mexico." " Well, General, they are to go by Instalments, you know," said Sumner. " Not a bit of it," said Grant angrily, " they won't go till they're obliged to. Troops and artillery are the only things that will make them quit hold," and proceeded to talk most violently on the subject. Sumner bent over him and asked him if he would like a war with France, to which he gave VOL. I. 12 178 General Grant no answer. If ever Grant gets power, no European Emperor in Mexico will be long without a war with the United States on his hands. The Indian troubles. Grant thought, were entirely owing to the bad faith kept by the white settlers and hunters in the West to the Indians. " I have seen an Englishman who belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company quite able to mount his horse and ride right away among the tribes most hostile to us, just because the Indians know that the English have always kept faith with them." In the smoking-room after dinner the General became quite communicative and talked away for about an hour and a half Of Lee, Grant spoke with great respect, saying that he liked him, that Lee was a gentleman. Colfax pumped Grant well, but I noticed that the tone used towards him was almost one of pure flattery, and Grant rather put my back up by the way he would never confess that he had ever been beaten. He said that Lee had told him he was not for Secession. He did not consider it necessary, but he had thought it his duty to go when his State went. " I never took that view," Grant said, "as to State rights, and I remem ber years ago when there was some talk of such a thing in Missouri that I resolved, come what would, that I should stick to the Union. I looked upon it as showing the demoralisation of the time that such talk should be possible, that men could think In that way." General Grant 179 I asked him a good many questions about the war. Joe Johnson, the Confederate leader, he thought fully as good a general as Lee, if not better. " Lee's army, just before the taking of Richmond, I should set down at 80,000 men. I had 130,000 all told. We had the outside, and he the inside, which gave him an advantage. He was able to concentrate on any threatened position fully as many men as I could bring to the attack. We had an advantage in resources." He set down the loss of the Confederates at the great battle of Pittsburg as amounting to 20,000 men. His army lost 12,000. "Well, General," said some one, " we were pretty well whipped that first day, though we whipped them the second." " No, sir," said Grant, " we were not. We were always confident of beating them. They brought all their troops on the ground the first day. I had a whole fresh division coming up, and I knew we should drive them the next day." The losses of troops " were always very heavy when an attack failed. If we broke through their line there was not much loss in general on our side." " It was during a retreat after an attack had failed that the troops got so badly cut up ? " " No, sir, we never retreated. The loss was after the failure of an attack." " Yes, after the failure." " We never retreated," again said the General. Sherman, he said, he should put first among i8o General Grant his generals — above Sheridan ; but Sheridan was the next best and he should consider a war conducted by either of them, even if their command embraced the united action of several armies, quite in safe hands. Sherman had been uneasy when Hood replaced Joe Johnson before Atlanta. " He is such a damned fool that I don't know what he'll do," Sherman had said. " Now with Johnson I know pretty well what is likely to be done. He is an experienced soldier, and fights like one. You never know what Hood will do next." Grant said, " I knew of Johnson's being superseded as soon as Sherman, for we were in constant telegraphic communication, and I took quite the opposite view about it that Sherman did. I was very glad to hear of it." We asked about his own suspension of Thomas when he allowed Hood to shut him in. " Yes, well, that's true. I was considerably annoyed at Thomas's slowness. He had, as I knew, whipped the enemy badly, and Thomas ought to have at once rushed out of Franklin and given battle. We were superior In force, but he waited for the arrival of other troops that were then on their march to join him. I sent message after message to him ordering him positively to move out and attack Hood, and when he did not I telegraphed the message suspending him and putting Schofield In command. Thomas sent back word that he was very sorry, that he would of course go General Grant i8i without a word if I wished him to, but that he had made his preparations and was confident of whipping Hood. I then countermanded his sus pension, but sent Logan down to be near to take command if necessary, and myself started from before Richmond, and had got as far as this Washington city, on my way west to Thomas's army, when the news came in how he was moving out, and then of his success. As I said in my official report, that success was the only thing that justified his conduct. He is sluggish, and I would rather give Sheridan a job to do, if it should be either the taking or holding of a position, than Thomas. Sheridan is like a little bull-dog. If he once gets hold he won't let go. It is impossible to shake him off." Speaking of the Southern States, Grant said that he did not think they would Insist much on the representation of the blacks in Congress. Chief Justice Chase I found to be quite in favour of giving the blacks all rights, including the right to vote. I was surprised to find this man, who is looked upon by Sir Frederick amongst others as anxious to get the democratic votes for the next presidential election, so decided in favour of a measure against which the whole democratic vote will be thrown en masse. " It is not possible for us to give this right of voting to the blacks of the South immediately, but I am quite in favour of it, and that it should be done as soon as it 1 82 General Grant is possible to do it. In Louisiana I think the coloured men are in general most intelligent. In the towns too they are sharp enough. It is not as it has been in Jamaica, where there were few white men from whom they could learn. Here they hear so much talk that they know fully as well as most people what is going on. You will always find that they know their minds." General Howard argued thus, saying, " Yes, the other day I was in Washington when there was that immense mass meeting of coloured men. I and others addressed them, and the applause did not come generally when we appeared, but It was the points in our speeches that they applauded. They know their friends. If the President goes against therti they know well enough what to think of him." " You must remember this," said Mr. Chase, \ " that we consider the right to vote is of itself a good educator. We beheve that the best education a man can receive is the privilege of voting. He becomes a person of importance and is run after and spoken to in a very different way than when he has no vote. It is only on some plantations that the grievance of the blacks is so gross as is represented. In a few States the black vote would certainly swamp the white, but I do not beheve that the antagonism of whites and blacks would be increased by the measure. On the contrary I believe it would be lessened. In one of the Southern towns there is now a newspaper edited General Sherman 183 by a black man. He says in his paper that the antagonism is much heightened at present by the suffrage being withheld. ' You keep us out,' he says, ' and deny us full rights, and till we get them we will make war upon you.' It is true that power would be given to many Ignorant men, but the giving of that power is the best means of dispelling the ignorance. I do not believe that they would act in a body against the whites. On the contrary it is probable that they would split into sections, and follow the lead of white men." Sherman seems the most able of the men I met last evening. He spoke of the difficulties between North and South as not of vital im portance. "If we surrender our attempt to give the Southern negro the suffrage, and if they surrender their attempt to get representation for negroes whom they don't allow to vote, the difficulty may be bridged over. It is not fair that the South should be able to get a number of members into the House as representatives of negroes whom they will not allow to have any share in the Government. It is one of our first principles that men who have a share in the Government shall alone be represented." It is a curious thing, in reference to the common supposition that the best and hardiest soldiers come from the country, to hear American officers declare that they found during the Civil War that the town lad, even after many years of behind-the- 184 Townsfolk as Soldiers counter existence, could usually outlast and out march the big country bumpkin. The explanation given was that the town man's meals were often more uncertain and eaten at less regular hours than were those of the countryman, who got "knocked up " by an unaccustomed irregularity in this matter. CHAPTER XIII Rosneath. — There were two old castles, about a mile apart, which dominated a narrow tract of water. These were Ardencaple and Rosneath Castles. Each stood near the shore, that of Rosneath on a sharp acclivity immediately above a bay, and that of Ardencaple, which looked down on a flat tract of land between it and the shore, was itself perched on the edge of a plateau whose abrupt fall to the water meadows showed that the sea's waves had in distant ages flowed at its foot. These two fortalices guarded the narrows between a long peninsula which hangs down from the Highlands into the Clyde estuary, and Is eight miles long and shaped like a pear, and the higher hills of northern Dunbartonshire. The loch widens out as it nears the Argyllshire mountains, whose fine oudines frame the view to the north. From sunrise to sunset the lovely colouring is ever changing on their rugged forms, and evening brings them out In blues and purples against the reddened skies. Their shadows dip into the waters of the loch, which forms a secure harbour, and used to be the place where vessels I8S 1 86 The Gareloch before proceeding on a voyage adjusted their com passes and made trial of their speed. This is the Gare or Gairloch. Gar is the Celtic for " short " ; the loch here is called by that name, because Its eight miles give it a short length as compared with the twenty miles of Loch Long, which is a deep fiord running up just at the foot of the Argyll mountains, and only separated from the water we now look upon by a narrow neck of rocky hills. It is curious how these Celtic words for " water," " long," and " short " survive in river and sea inlets. In the Avon we have the Celtic for " river " or "water." In the Garonne we have the old language for "short river" — Gar-avon, contracted into Garonne. So at Inveraray we have the Garonne, or " short water," flowing out of Glen Shira. So the name in France was given to the river which was short in comparison with the Loire, the next big stream flowing westwards. The Gareloch may some day be used for docks, for there is at one place a depth of glacial clay on its western shore of no less than eighty feet ! It would afford a wonderful shelter for the building of ships of the largest size, and a war harbour unrivalled on any part of the coast. But the lovely peninsula has long been the favourite abode of men who can ensure that many families can have good air and pleasant gardens there, while they themselves can reach Glasgow for business and return by an excel lent steamer and rail service within two hours. Ardencaple 187 The two ancient castles at the entrance of the loch belonged at the beginning of the nineteenth century to two brothers, the one being my grand father, a second son of the fifth Duke, or " Field- Marshal John," as he used to be called, and the other to his elder brother, who was a friend of George IV., who insisted that he should take the office of Lord Steward, which post he filled when Queen Victoria ascended the throne. " I always thought him a most agreeable man," she used to say. But he was, like many men of his generation, a very extra vagant man, and greatly impoverished the estate to which he had succeeded. The Castle where both these brothers lived in their youth with their father was a curious old pile of buildings with two great and lofty round towers. The walls between these and the ancient walls behind them had been pierced for larger windows, and the appearance of the little fortress much spoiled by these alterations, when in 1 803 the place took fire one afternoon, and before the old Duke, who was taking his accustomed drive along the loch shore, could return, the main part of the Castle was destroyed. A few chimney- pieces and portions of the tapestries, old chairs, and some paintings were all that was saved. A wing built almost over high-tide water remained ; but this was soon taken down when the ruins of the burnt portion were carted away, and a determination arrived at to build again, Bonomi, 1 88 Bonomi an Italian architect who built Eastwell and other large houses in England, and was then a fashionable favourite, was chosen as the best man to put up something quite different and quite modern. He proposed a design for a small Italian palazzo, with portico and balustraded architrave all round a parallelogram a hundred and eighty feet long. This was at once commenced, but never finished, as it took too long to build, being constructed wholly of finely cut sandstone blocks brought from Garscube, near Glasgow. The Field-Marshal died, and his son had too many debts to pay to continue the work. The old man used to reprove his boy for his taste for dice and cards, while he himself was content to improve his estates, and live upon them. He left his mark in agricultural associations in Scotland, and in great barns and farm buildings during the last years of his life. " Young Hopeful," on being told he was spending too much, wrote to his father saying that it was all very well to scold, but that his father must remember how much his beloved parent had himself spent on his favourite hobbles of fine stables, etc., for his farms. The ancient warrior immediately made a note in his favourite red pocket-book, which said : " Write to George, who says I also spend much money, that whereas he spends on cards and follies, I spend for the dignity and importance of agriculture." So ever afterwards a wonderful pile of stones for cows and horses, adorned with towers and battlements, at Rosneath, The Virtues of Porridge 189 has been called " The Dignity and Importance of Agriculture." But when the sons married, the second brother, my grandfather, got the Castle on the opposite side of the water for his portion, and It was there that his children were born. The eldest died when about sixteen, and the younger and a sister remained with their father, who had served at Walcheren with the Guards and afterwards became M.P. for Argyllshire. Lord John Campbell was a good Tory, and a good turner, and produced wonderful things with his " Rose lathe " in ebony, ivory, and silver. He did not send my father to school, as the boy's health was delicate, but kept him at home, and fed him on good porridge. Years after, when my father was at Balmoral, as a Minister in the Government of the Queen, a discussion began among the ladies and gentle men at breakfast on the virtues of porridge. It was condemned by several as too tasteless, and as not giving real nutriment. Sir William Jenner, the Queen's physician, was one of the grumblers. My father, hearing some disparaging remarks on the qualities of the favourite Scottish food, said In the positive manner which was natural to him : " Porridge — why, excellent stuff - — couldn't be better. Why, I was brought up on porridge myself." Jenner looked across the table with his sharp little eyes at him, and said, 190 My Father as Orator " Yes, and a good specimen of the result I suppose you think yourself." Mentally there was no doubt that there could hardly be any improvement, but as to physical powers of limb Jenner had perhaps a good deal of right on his side, if such can be judged by the results of nutriment alone, for the Cabinet Minister was not as strong a man as the physician. But he was very quick with the gun and rifle, and had a fine voice, which could carry much further and could influence far more than could the doctor's, and both lived to about the same age — the doctor of course having the advantage in the number of creatures killed by the pair. As a child my father's great delight was to sit in a Httle round window in the tower at Ardencaple, and watch the birds ; and the love of natural history never left him, and was an unceasing source of delight. Always vehement in argument, he was an excellent orator, better than Gladstone, and equal to Bright, because his audience always felt that he was a thorough believer in the truth of all that came from his lips. This gave my father and the great Birmingham speaker the hold they had over a wider audience than the number collected to hear them. They were not daunted by the changing opinion of constituents, or others, to change them selves. I have heard members of the House of Commons sitting on committees, where they ought to sit as judges, utterly uninfluenced by any evidence •^T -*:->- ...