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Tous les autres exemplaires onginaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de chaque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE " le symbole V S'gnifle "FIN". Jif^ri!?' P'^"'='^««' tableaux, etc.. peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de r6duction diffdrents Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul clich6. il est film6 A partir de I angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 4 ■.A,^ / I HEGINALD IlKBER, REGINALD HE3ER BrSHOP OF CALCUTTA i SOHOLAI^ AND eVANGELlSrp nv ARTHUR MOxNTEFIOja- ""'•'■■Y, .KADhKS INTO fNKNOWN I.ANI)S," ETC. "777/ ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BISHOP HEBER'S SKETCHES AND OTHER DRAWINGS FLEMING H. KeVeLL COMPANY NEW YORK CMiCAnr, i^HlCAGO TORONTO PublUu>s oj E. ,,'^elual Litemtun. ?>t. 1 t t n 'I h c. o: hi m hi ca to iiK lill Su '•i'i'i;i<.\.\j).s,i, •^I'AI.. l^Rl'FACJ^. -TV las appeared since that which his widow ^, 'Almost ..nn.ediatcly after his death in i^^O Z l was largely made up of his icurnil hil " .''"'■'' various Hterary fragnien s nd n '^'^ ^"'■'•^^«P""^'^-"cc, nun.er..s„K.^,,she;din',,::;^2;T!-^^ the universal regret felt n^ I.;. /'"^''^"f' to mark ..asic cKi, and ..f..,' „::'L: V „:r ;■;;,.:"; r";r^' Mpccted, and conscquentiv it I,ik „,„ r., ■ . '' of the „,any wi,„ adln-ed W c "In'ed';/-"," ■"■« t„„n,„tr:nd hts Id t,":,^r'"'^ -"^^ "•«^" Jt has therefore been thouirht thnf i .L. f i r , • career would be wcIco„,e to „„t a fcw .Li I °f M " O PREFACE. contains ; but, by suppressing descriptions of the scene in which he made so interesting a figure, it has been found possible to include a considerable number of personal details, which, taken in the aggregate, may serve to present a fairly complete portrait of\hc individual. A word must be added as to the divisions into which my treatment of the subject has somewhat naturally fallen. It is obvious that a man's life cannot be cut up into as many chapters as he has lived decades, or any other period of years. His life depends not on his age but on his energy. "Oiic crowded hour r.f "lorious life Is u'ortli an age without a Jiaino ; " and, similai-ly, ten years in a quiet country parsonage may be dealt witli and dismissed in the same sp-^ce we might allot to a year of travel under unusual conditions. On the other hand, if one is to insert the whole in a small book, and yet omit no distinct epoch in a busy life, it is equally obvious that severe compression nuist be applied to years that are interesting and filled with action. For example, in this very book, some may be surprised to find a comparatively small portion allotted to his Indian episcopate; and therefore I think it may be well to point out in this introductory note that Ileber held the bishopric of Calcutta for less than three years; and that although he laboured so exceedingly that we may coisider his death was hastened by toil, yet such labour remained during his lifetime rather pregnant with promise, and chiefly became productive of result after his death. I may add in conclusion that I owe a great debt to the various volumes of journals, correspondence, and memorials that were collected and published by his devoted wife. ^ j^ .•> the scene in been found of personal ay serve to vidua], i into which it naturally )t be cut up des, or any : on his age ' parsonage le space we conditions. e whole in h in a busy ssion nuist filled with nc may be on allotted ink it may note that than tliree -xceedingly led by toil, :me rather productive eat debt to :lcnce, and ed by his A. M. A NORWEGIAN FARM. CONTENTS. CliAPTER I. EARLY YEARS . . . ^ " Si;;; P'l^';°."^' - S<^;'"°' - Friendship - Oxford 1 alcstine -Patnotism-IIonoiirs-Fellovvship. PAGE CHAPTER ir. SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805 . Europe in i8oS-_Cottcnbiirg--Posting_Dovre Feld- rrondhcm -- Finns _ Norwegian Simplicity - Sweden - Upsala^-^hnland-St. I'etcr.shurff-Thc C^ar-Thc WaL Winter I ravellmg-Village Life- Mo..cow_The Krcml ii- Moscow Society. ivieuuin CHAPTER III. AMONG THE COSSACKS • • • . , The Soutl.ein Provinces--Rnral Life-" Little Rnssii " - 1 aganrog-Tciicrkask-The Cossacks-The r H s o.T- ri.e.r Lustoms-Easter-tide-The Crimea-Home ^ 23 62 8 CONTEXTS. CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTRY I'ARSON Hodnct — Oxford — Divinity Sliulics— Oxford Friends — Ordination — Rector of Hodnet — Village Reforms — Marriage— Clinreh Views-- Ill-liealth— Parish Anecdotes — Rowland Hill Canon of St. Asaph — Select Preacher at the University — " (ireenland's Icy Mountains'' — Preacher at Lincoln's Inn— The Offer of the Bishopric. PAGE 8^. CHAPTER V. LITERARY LIFE Hebcr's Style — His Studies — Humorous Verse— Founda- tion of Oitarterly Review — Contributions to the Oitaitcrly — Ilymnody— Madame de Stael— A Mask— Cheap Literature — Hymns for Church Use— Southcy"s Lament. CHAPTER VI. 104 THE lilSHOPRIC OF CALCUTTA . . . . India in 1S23 -- Arrears of Work — Chaplains and Missionaries- - Bishop's College — Education - A Native Ordination— His First " Visitation "—Dacca — Death of Scott— "An Evening Walk in Bengal" — Benares — Boat Travel and Jungle Riding — Lucknow— The King of Oudli — Baroda — Archdeacon Barnes — Bombay. 123 CHAPTER VII. THE LAST YEAR 148 Bombay - A Chaplain — Ceylon • — Calcutta — The Armenian Church — Madras— The Governor- Chilhimbrum — Tanjore — A Christian Rajah — Easter Day — Trichinopoly — An Early Service — The End. :€&3. I ids— lis — dotes er at iclier PAGE 83 ) "f^iiTM REGINALD IIEBER. 104 iui;i- '■(y- iturc and itive : of 3 oat udh riie rum )oIy 123 148 CIIAP'IER I. EARLY YKARS. IN^ that memorable 3-ear in which Charles James Fox, hastening to his fall, introduced his famous Bill for the Government of India— a Bill which was so opposed by the King that he authorised Lord Temple to declare that any peer voting for it would be regarded as his personal enemy—Reginald Ileber, the future Bishop of Calcutta, was born. Jn the same year — but three months earlier — the Independence of the Thirteen United States had been acknowledged in the Treaty of Paris; and peace secured for a while to England, France, and Spain in that of Versailles. In the same year, too, a long series of brilliant victories concluded with the submission of Tippu, Sultan of Mysore, and the bringing of peace to that province of India where Bishop Heber was destined to lind his grave. There was a lull in the wars which had been convulsing the civilised world— from Bunker's Hill, overlooking Boston Harbour, in the Far West, to Benares, that most holy city on the Ganges, in the Far East. But it was a lull like that which conies in the midst of the cyclone. A few years of peace and rest and renewal of strength— for England, as far as 9 :*» 10 REGINAT.D IIEHKR. Europe was concerned, barely eleven — and then there burst over Europe such a war-cloud as had never yet been seen. Well might Metternich exclaim — and for the matter of that Frederick the Great too- -"After me the Deluge." But neither looked so far as that deluge swept. It was Just at this moment, then, between two crowded hours of international and almost universal warfare, at the close of the one and before the begin- ning of the other, that in a cjuiet coiintry rectory in the vale of Cheshire, Reginald 1 lebcr was born. The day was the 2 1st of April, the year that of 1 783. I lis father was the co-Rector, with one Dr. Townson, of Malpas — he (jf the upper and the latter of the " lower mediety." The Ilebers were people of d(>scent and circumstance. They traced their name to that hill in Craven, Yorkshire, called flaybergh, or Hayber — a pronuncia- tion frequently given to the surname — and their right to arms to one Reginald lleber of Marton in that district. At least this individual had his arms " certified " in the reign of Elizabeth, which w'as practically an ac- knowledgment that he and his family already had a right to bear them. A descendant of this Reginald lleber married one of the Vernon^, and thereby added to his patrimony the acceptable estate of Ilodnet Jlall in Shropshire. Then came another Reginald, who also married an heiress (they were wise in their generation, children of the light though I believe them to have been), the daughter of the Rev, Martin Baylie, Rector of Wrentham ; and for issue he had Richard, of whom we shall hear a good deal in the course of this little book. Richard's motlier dying, this Reginald lleber married Mary, the daughter of the Rev. Cuthbert Allanson, D.I). ; and of this marriage there were born Reginald, the subject of this memoir, Thomas Cuthbert, and Mary. At the time of Reginald's birth, and for many 3'ears afterwards, his father was, as I have said, co-Rector of Malpas ; but he succeeded, on the death of his elder brother, to the manors of Martou and Hodnet, and the patronage of their rectories. EARLY YEARS. II icn there icvcr yet -and for er me the ^c swept, een two universal le bcgiii- ry in the The clay [is father Vial pas — iicdicty." nistancc. Craven, 'onuncia- r right to t district, ificd " in y an ac- ly had a Reginald by added Inet Hall who also ■neration, to have c, Rector of whom this little d Ileber Cuthbert vere born Cuthbert, , and for 10 vc said, ;he death rton and The future bishop seems to have been almost a bishop born. Of precocity we hear a good deal in the lives of most great men ; but for mcral and spiritual precocity, if the records be true, Reginald Hebcr is entitled to a place in the first rank. It was an age, too, when clever children were unduly forced ; and the piety of pai-ents had little respect for the tenderness of a child's mind, even going so far as to feed the infant imagination on the material glories of a heaven all of gold, or the material horrors of a hell all of fire. Ileber's parents were no exception. They could not have heeded St. Paul's wise advice and given of the milk of Scripture to their babe, for we find that he was permitted to range the Scriptures at the age of five; and we learn that he did this with "avidity, and had at that time remarkable and accurate knowledge " of the contents. Illustrative of this a story is told that at this age he entered a room where his father, the Rector, and some friends were disputing as to the place in the Old Testament where a certain passage occurred. His father i-eferred to his son, who "at once named both the book and the chapter." Ikit it was two years earlier even than this, when his mother was alarmed at a storm overtaking them as they drove through a remote part of the country, that the three-year-old Reginald is said to have exclaimed, " Do not be afraid, mamma; God will take care of us"— a childish echo of the teaching he had received, which passed with those fond parents for the conviction of faith. But, by nature, he inherited a self-control, soberness, and steadfastness which grew in after years to such strength as to dominate his character. It is said that when he was only two years of age, and the doctor was about to open a vein, after the fashion of the time, for the relief of the hooping-cough, as the doctor took hold of his arm he asked not to be held. He was told that he would be much more hurt should he move. "I won't stir," he replied, and the plucky littl- fellow held out his arm to the doctor, and never moved it 12 REGINALD IIKliER. throughout the operation. His self-control and sobriety of temperament may also be inferred from the medical o]Mnion expressed of him when suftei-ing from a very serious attack of inflanmiation of the lungs at ibur years of age. The doctor declared that there would be no hope of saving his life, " if he were not the most tractable child I ever saw." His thirst for knowledge began early, and never left him. When he was six he had a severe attack of typhus fever, and as he slowly recovered he begged his father to let him learn the Latin Grammar to help the time pass as he lay in bed. His faculties were always quick. When about seven years old he was playing with some other boys, and on one of them asking that graceless riddle, " Where was Moses when his candle went out?" Reginald promptly replied, *' On Mount Nebo, for there he died, and it ma}' well be said that his lamp of life went out." It would be interesting to know how this contribution to the merri- ment of the party was received. From early years he had a taste for drawing. He sketched eveiwthing he saw — figures, landscape, and still-life. But he was always particularly devoted to sketching buildings and making architectural designs. Years later, when at Oxford, we find him emphasising the fact that he was reading hard by saying that he had put away his sketches. •* I have kept myself entirely from drawing plans of houses, etc. ; " and again, " I . . , shun politics, eschew architecture." But it remained with him through life. In India he eon- tinually designed churches, belfries, schools, and was passably happy in his i-esults. Many of his sketches v.'ere used to illustrate the Russian travels of the well- known Edward Clarke ; and his Indian drawings were ]iublished in a handsome volume of engravings. In this direction, and in that of books, the eager impetuosity of the child found a vent. He never kept a domestic pet — the rabbit or the guinea-pig, on which the affec- tions of so many children are lavished ; and it is I-ARLV YEARS. 13 In recorded that he even persuaded his little sister to give up hers. His enquiring disposition, which was strengthened ratiier than weakened as he grew in knowledge, was very marked. Indeed, in later life he used to attribute much of his general knowledge to this habit, and say, as many indeed have said, that he had never met any one from whom he could not learn something. lie owed much to his elder half-brother, Richard. In his studies, in particular, he was encouraged and directed by him. And Richard, in describing his younger brother's habits, used to say that Reginald was not content to read books, "he devoured them." With what seemed a glance he absorbed the contents of a page, and so good was his memory that he remem- bered for years what he I'ead— sometimes with an accuracy almost verbal. Under the tuition of his father he early be^an that staple of education, the classics, and by the age of seven, we are told, he had translated Phoedrus into English verse. At eight, how- ever, he went to the Grammar School at Whitc'hurch, whose head-master at that time was the Rev. Dr. Kent ; and subsequently, when thirteen years old, to the well-known private school of Mr. Bristow at Neasden, then spelt Neasdon, lying back from the Edgware road' a few miles from Hyde Park. At that time Neasden was a retired spot, with miles of open country between it and London. Now, as we know, it is a rapidly growing suburban town not sensiblydetached from the metropolis. It was at Neasden that Hebcr made the great friend- ship of his life. It was his fortune to be a dear friend to many men—most of whom eventually occupied dis- tinguished positions in the Government or in the Church — but " his own familiar friend " throughout life was John Thornton, the son of that Samuel Thornton who was Member of Parliament for Surrey for many years. With John 'T'hornton he travelled through Europe after Oxford days, when the centre of the Continent was aflame with war, and dynasties of centuries' standing 14 REGINALD IIE15ER. were crashing to the ground— at, indeed, the most in- structive period of continental history that has occurred during the last hundred and fifty years. With John Thornton lie corresponded during school and college days, from the rectory house at llodnet, and from half a hundred places in the course of his journeys through India. And to John Thornton it fell, when lleber's widow compiled a memoir of the life, that the dedication should be written. As a boy and as a man lleber was generous to a degree. When they sent him back to school at the half year, his parents were compelled to sew the bank-notes that constituted his pocket-money in the lining of his coat —simply to prevent his giving it all away to the poor and the mendicant he might meet on his road ! He seemed never tired, even then, of forming schemes for the relief of distress. Mis lively interest in the functions of the clergyman dated, as with many other children, from the infant years, when an apron or a nightgown constitutes the surplice, and a ])atient untiring nurse the congregation. At school he formed strong ideas of how the government of the Church might l)e improved, and connnunicated to his, friend Thornton many ideas which, as too often is the case, combined with the zeal of the reformer the unpractical solutions of the theorist. With a good memory, and that most blessed of mental endowments, a lively imagination, it is not surprising that his early progress in lessons should have made him conspicuous among the few pupils at Neasden. That he made his mark there is very evi- dent. It is regrettable, indeed, that the individual attention obtained in a system which allots a round dozen of boys to a teacb.er cannot be adopted in the vast and wealthy schools which now bulk so largely in our present system. It seems almost certain that every year hundreds of boys iall away and are lost to eminence whom more careful shepherding would have saved. It is only the strong and those who are not sensitive that can push their way out of a crowd ; and EARLY YEARS. 15 a boy of great talent is not always strong, and seldom othe i an sensitive. We iearn that among his favourite books at this time was Spenser's " Faeiie Queone/' which he was fond of taking with liim on his walks, a habit which stuck to him through lile. For the exact sciences we are pre- ])ared to hear that he did not evince any taste. lie was never very appreciative of grammar and philology. It was the subject-matter which he burrowed for." His- tory, literature, and especially ballad literature, appealed to him with particular emphasis, and both at school and afterwards he achieved a domestic reputation as a story-teller. His prose was good, and in the uncon- scious seeking after the proper words he revealed his literary sense ; but it was in the direction of poetry that as a boy and a young man his own ambitions travelled. We have ali-eady mentioned the remarkable feat of rendering Phccdrus in verse at the age of seven ; and it may be added here that this produced a habit which was maintained through the school days into those of adult life. "The Prophecy of Ishmael"— with reference to the Battle of the Nile— was one of the Neasden batch of productions. Writing to Thornton from Neasden, when sixteen years of age, he says : "In Greek I go on in tlie old train, being now deep engaged in Longinus, Prometheus Vinct., and the Epistles, with Locke's Commentary; besides which I read the 'Essay on the Human Under- standing' for two hours every evening after I liave finished my exercise." A few months later he writes : •' You will remember young P.owler the baker, how he used always to I'ead in his cart. I examined his books some days ago, and found they were \'olney, Voltaire, and Godwin. These are the fruits of circulating hbi-aries "—a somewhat unusual reflection for a lad of sixteen. And a week or two later he laments that Thornton is going to Cambridge and not to Oxford, whither lie himself was intended to go, and adds : " You will laugh at me for talking of college six months before i6 KKC.1N.\1.1» IIF.l'.r.U. mv time but InuUmiiS in Latumi is the principle that ruls uS a and yKiuas talked of Italy when he was 1 n^ Cartha-e." Soon after he was seventeen he tical liuty'' quite in the aecompUshed manner ot a ,.r;.a^eal sciences we inul^s note whu:h is o^ interest as indicating his sympathies . 1_ send >ou a sketch of a building which I passed c;>n""J? <>?"^;^^^ no t which will interest you as much as it did me , To Id a Host have- pulled off my hat as we drove b t is S r Isaac Newton's home as it appears Irom tlu no th roaS " Thornton was good at mathematics, and He 1 to n ourage his friend to give more attention to cm ApropoJ'of this 1 leber writes humorously : Hve vou been much out a-hunting lately? D A to t\ nl- I remember, that Nimrod was a mere ^1i ou; an^l isS lo shake his wise head when you t^dkecl of a leap. He had once a long conversation on the sub et wi h me, and said hunting encouraged vice. ^ h.d n' o u-se to m'ythology, and told him the chaste I nm) vtus was a hunter, which satisfied hmi M^ Ihppol^ts wa j^^^^^ ^^^^^, ^^ j^^^^, T^^ f andur^ou read the less tl^ moi. you l2rrthatln.yhavcn.ore^^^^^ ^ooc/'d^ *a in^^^^^^^^^ ?he old poUinic writers, which, with^my Italian, leave me not much time for mathematics. " irOc ober 1800 he entered Brazenose College, or as it WIS then called. Brazen Nose, and he sends a list of tie dUet things he has to buy on setting up on his "ciunt in college, adding, '' It - -rely a luxurious age when a boy of seventeen requne. =o "^;^^^ 'J'' . ; m him out. 1 have been a much gayer fellow than KAULY YI'AKS. 17 iciple that ■u he was ■entcen he , touchiiiKi y, and thi' allowabh; ' Ecclesias- iinci' of a love of the vhich is of cud you a ■r iVom thi; it did me ; ^ drove by. s iVcMii th(? matics, and ;ittcntion to LUTiorously : y ? D kvas a mere d when you ;crsation on uras^ed vice. 1 the chaste I him. My iftcr it now le more you f overtaking have been a volumes of talian, leave ollege, or, as •nds a list of ng up on his y a luxurious mursi fuss to • fellow than usual of late, having been at a race, and also at, what I never saw before, a masquerade. ... It was given by Sir William Wynn, and though certainly nuieh inferior in spl-ndour to Mr. Chohnondeley's ball (Mr. ChoIniondeJe;* of Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire, a cousin of Heber's), was very well conducted." Ji-(U9. c: llK.\/.i;.Ni)rti; Cul.l.IXii;, On first gouig to Oxford he wrote that his acquaint- ances were unfortunately chieny among men much his senior, or people whom he had met at home. Thus there were "several of the Fellows, the Senior Proctor! the Bishop (he reibrred to Dr. Cleaver, Principal ot lirazenose, who was also Bishop of Chester), " but they I l8 UKC.INAT-l) UV.WAL nl ,ncn ind not tiivu, to ass..riatc' with firshmrn." ^fte.nx ,. * '\, ;, veral unclcrgraauatos, and ho he lailv round of coHcgc Ulc. ^on slip, 1 into tin nan, '--^^^^-.,^,-f^rn\\y :;;:^^•otli^^v!f;. that vc-y ..nc a Fdiow; ..d^s young.,- broth.. 'V''''"^:;^" ^f "t^ " dh^-ma>^ H.hcr was no ^ ^7 ^J"^ " ^^ t,,diti.mal wet vanUs and so we '7^;;;'' '^,^'^g^ luu at college, cloth round Ins head o P ^-^^'Yr. he was always fond dcerec commanded ny m\ k'^'/^'-- Tr^Ur^wc; in a • rth.- f nni Mallard i\nd about forty Fellows, m a view ol the LoiaJuauaiu j- j^, immense kind of procession on the ^f ^^ > r;'^'';^^^-^,^ 1 know awakened by ^he "lannei ni whirh ti^cy m ^ ^ ^^^^ rhorus. 'O by the blood oi .1^" S ^ ^^^^^^^^ not whether vou have any smnlar strange u-b..^ Camb!Sge, so that, perhaps, such ceremonu. .s ■ . All EARLY YKAKS. 19 iTsbmrn.' vvlio was ;>nior, and mcl so lit' Wvgv life. llu' family tlurc ; liis V ; and his •I Fellow, ilinf^-nian's itional wet at college, Ivvays fond t and bigli i hard. In r.e for Latin luar of his eight — and ever be the ic would be ally that at lefat 6 a.m. •d of to-day the celebra- 11 Souls," he le Square to are in some d thus a full Fellows, in a vith immense ect. 1 know ly uninitiated t all who had ust have been lundered their i-cl ' ' I know :ge cusioTPs in inie?. ?'^ '=■■ "^^^ I ■ li ■I Souls' Mallard, the Queens' boar's head, etc., will strike you as more absurd than diey do an Oxford man ; but I own I am of opinion that these rrmnants of Gothicism t( nd very nnich to keep us in a scum' consistent track. In r.So3 we find the inlUunza pr, valeiit at Oxforo, and lliat Ilcber wa: not passed oV' r by tiiat plague. .SutYerers from our recent visitations will sympathise with his remark, " I could .seldom !)ear to hi? up, my head and body ached so nmch." lie was in the midst of preparing his poem on Palestine for the Ncwdigatc I'ri/e. lie writes of his views on the subject: "A fine one, as it will admit of much fancy and many sublime ideas. I know not whether it ought to have been made exelusiv* ly sacred or not. Many men whom I liav( talked N^'ith seem inclined to have made it so; but I have an utter dislike to clothing sacred subjects in verse, unless it be done as nearly as possible in ' riptural language, and introduced with great delicacy. ... My brother, iny tutor (the Rev. T. S. Smyth, afterwards Rector of St. Austell), and Mr. Walter Scott, the author of the Border Minstrelsy, whom I have no doubt you know by name, if not personally, give me strong hopes." It is not generally known, perhaps, that one of the best and most familiar passages in that [)oem is owing to a suggestion of Sir Walter Sc(jtl's. He was breakfasting with Heber one morning, and on hearing the MS. read, Scott said, " You have omitted one striking circuniL.ance in your account of the building of the temple — that no tools were used in its erection." Heber got up from the table and went into another part of tlie room, and in a few minutes returned with the well-known lines, — " No hammer fell, nu ponderous a.xes rung; Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung." The poem secured the prize, and became the most, successful and popular piece of religious verse of the first h,?lf of the centurv. It was read bv everv one : it was known by heart by many. It was translated ■^ 20 KECINALD IIEHER. M into Welsh, and it was set to music by the Professor of Music in the University. Writing many years alter in Blackwood's Magazine, a contemporary said : " None who heard Reginald Heber recite his ' Palestine ' m that magnificent theatre will ever forget his appear- ance—so interesting and impressive. . . . There was a charm in his somewhat melancholy voice, that occa- sionally faltered, less from a feeling of the solemnity and even grandeur of the scene, of which he was himself the conspicuous object— though that feeling did suffuse his pale, ingenuous, and animated countenance— than from the deeply-felt sanctity of his subject. ... As his voice grew bolder and more sonorous in the hush, the audience felt that this was not the mere display of the skill and ingenuity of a clever youth, but that here was a poet indeed, not only of high promise, but of high achievement. . . . And that feeling, whatever might have been the share of the boundless enthusiasm with which the poem was listened to attributable to the in- fluence of the genius loci, has been since sanctioned by the judgment of the world, that has placed ' Palestine ' at the very head of the poetry on Divine subjects of this age. It is now incorporated for ever with the poetry of England." This criticism, it should be added, appeared in November 1827. During the Long Vacation in this year, 1803, Bona- parte's threatened invasion of England and the muster- ing of the "Army of England" along the north coast of France, led to an extraordinary outburst of patriotism— or shall we call it a sense of personal danger ?— throu^^hout England. No fewer than 400,000 volunteers were" rapidly raised, and drilling and march- ing became the occupation of the hour. Heber threw himself into the work with all his characteristic thorough- ness, and wrote the martial song, "Swell, swell the shrill trumpet clear sounding afar," to be sung at a parade of volunteers. He and his brother Richard raised a corps at Hodnet— " all here are furiously loyal." His friend Thornton was similarly employed. EARLY YEARS. 21 iii ofcssor rs after " None ine' in ippear- t was a t occa- lemnity himself suffuse ^ — than As his ish, the 1 of the at here but of :r might 3m with the in- 3ned by ilestine ' 3 of this oetry of p pea red Hcbcr studied tactics with great application, and gave up the idea of reading for honours at Oxford. He went out into camp with his corps, and paid unceasing attention to all the necessary details of a soldier's training. Fortunately, however, as the year wore on, the danger became less, and, though still on the alert, England's war-fever passed away for a time. Once again at Oxford, the spirit of the place brought him back to his studies, and he worked very hard. The examination came on in the October term — with what success we may leave a contemporary of his to tell. " His university career was eqijally splendid to its close. In the schools his examination for his bachelor's degree, although not so much distinguished as that of many others for accurate remembrances of the manifold divisions and subtleties of Aristotle's philosophical works, by the solution of syllogisms out of Aldrich's logic, or of mathematical problems, was brilliant in the oratory and poetry of Greece. But his reputation was then so great and high, that no public exhibition of that kind could increase or raise it. Some men enter the schools obscure and come out bright ; others enter bright and come out obscure ; but Reginald Heber was a star whose lustre was as steady as it was clear, and would neither suffer temporary eclipse nor * draw golden light ' from any other source of honour within the walls of a university." So distinguished, indeed, was his performance in the schools, that he was immediatel}', on November 2nd, 1804, elected a Fellow of All Souls. The letter in which he tells his friend Thornton of this latest honour begins in so characteristic a way that I venture to quote it : — " After much deliberation concerning which of the two societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge I should subscribe to, I have at length determined upon both ; you will therefore oblige me if you will put down the enclosed, under the signature of O.A., to the fund of the Bible Society. I would not trouble you in this if I had not lost the paper you were so good as to send me." f^ REGINALD IIEIIER. In the following year lie gained the University's Bachelor's Prize for an English prose essay : the subject was **The Sense of Honour," and the motto under which it was sent in \v-as ^^ Sans pntr et sans reprochc.'^ He was thus the winner of the two Chancellor's Prizes for Latin verse and English prose — the third was not established till later — as well as the Newdigate Prize for English verse. Just at this moment, with a three years' interval facing him before he could be ordained— the ministry of the Church having long been decided on as his vocation — his friend Thornton proposed, by one of those happy thoughts, we may suppose, which come to most of us occasionally, a tour through Europe. Eager to see the Continent, and especially those more remote portions which the Ercnch wars would compel them to visit, Hcber consented; and the narrative of the journey which was thus begun, and evf-ntually extended to an unusual length and a comparati\ely unknown corner of the Continent, may be fitly left for further chapters. S3^^?5*«^*^v>^^ niversity's ;he subject >tto under ri'procJic." )r's Prizes d was not ^atc I'rize 5' interval ? ministry )n as liis e of those e to most Eager to 'e remote -1 them to e journey ded to an corner of pters. CROSSING A KIVER IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA. {Fro,,, a skrlJi by Eihmrd Clarke, Jleba's fried.) CHAPTER II. SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1 805. IT was in July 1805— just three months before 1 Nelson lought and won, and died in the wiiming the I^attie of Trafalgar— that Reginald Heber, acconi- pan.ed by his old schoolfellow John Thornton, set out lor a prolonged European tour. It was a curious tune, perhaps, to choose for travel. Europe was in a ferment of war. Pitt had formed his "Third Coalition" against France, an international alliance uicluduig Russia, Austria, and Sweden, for the over- throw of Napoleon. The " Army of England," which Napoleon had levied to lower the "assumption" of this^ country, and, as he wrote to Admiral Ganteaume, to "avenge six centuries of insult and shame," was lymg encamped at Boulogne, a hundred and fifty thousand strong. ViUeneuve, with the flower of the 1' rench fleet and a large contingent sent by his Spanish uliies, was biding the time when he could escape the 23 -- i ' ; 1 i 1 J ill :f ■* 24 REHINALD IIEI5ER. ¥' watchfulness of Nelson and sweep the Channel. There had been, it is true, a brief interval of peace, brought about by the assassination of Czar Paul and the consequent break-up of the "Northern League," but at its sudden ending Napoleon had thrown as many as ten thousand British tourists (who had been tempted by the peace to cross the Channel) into prison, and, wheeling his army to face the Channel, he deployed it along the coast from Brest to Antwerp, concentrating it at Boulogne. In England the war-fever was at its height. Volunteers, as has been shown, were being enrolled in great numbers— no fewer than four hundred thousand of them were drilling themselves into efficiency. Pitt was colonel of a levy of three thousand which he had raised in his capacity of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports ; the king himself held reviews of them, and, as Montagu Burrows has well written, "he, his nobles, and his gentry were ready to lead his people to battle, as in ancient times." England had, indeed, sprung to arms, and Europe, aflame with war, was on the eve of vast catastrophes and far-reaching change. Though the danger may have served as an incitement to the young graduates, it modified their plans. For instead of travelling through the Netherlands or up the Rhine, or penetrating to Switzerland, it became necessary to plan a route which should pass through friendly countries, and along, if scarcely beyond, the periphery of war. So it came about that Sweden, Norway (then united to Denmark), Finland (then Swedish), and Russia formed the main route, and that the way home was left to be decided by the turn of events. Who could foresee at that time the carnage of Austerlitz and the downthrow of the " Holy Roman Empire," which had stood just a thousand years ? or the sudden rush which swept everything before him at Jena, and led Napoleon to dictate to Europe as •' Emperor of the West " ? Embarking in the packet— a small sloop which Hcber likened to a fishing-smack— the travellers reached lel. There :e, brought 1 and the ague," but 1 as many 2n tempted rison, and, Icployed it icentrating was at its ^'ere being ur hundred ) efficiency. I which he [en of the 's of them, , ** he, his his people id, indeed, ar, was on change, incitement ians. For nds or up it became iS through ?yond, the ; Sweden, md (then ?, and that le turn of e carnage ily Roman years ? or lefoic him uu'ope as op which rs reached I SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IX 1805. 25 Gottenburg without mishap. They were plentifully supplied with cr^'dentials and letters of introduction to all the persons of importance and influence they were likely to meet, and, as we shall see, they en- joyed the best opportunities throughout their travels of advancing when advance was difficult, and of seeing places which at such a time would be closed to the loreigner and stranger. This it is that helps to make Hebers travels m Europe more than interesting. For Europe was not only in the crucible of war, but the most ruthless hand known to her history fanned the flame and thrones were to fall and arise, governments to expire and appear, before there could be peace and with peace, the opportunity to reckon up the dead and nussmg, to note the new features on the continental andscape. Heber was one of the last, if not the very ast, ot cultivated Englishmen to visit Moscow, and leave a literary account of this ancient capital of Muscovy before the armies of Napoleon entered its gates, and the stoical Russians, as alike their best defcnce and attack, burnt their city to the ground At Gottenburg the untravelled Englishmen began to realize the complete change which foreign customs introduce into even the details of life. We find Heuer expressing surprise at the inverted order of dining— the Swedes sharing with other continental nations tb- custom of beginning with noyau and concluding with fish. Gottenburg at that time was just recovering from a disastrous fire, the second general conflagration in ive years, and showing the misfortune to have been a blessing in disguise by improving her ground plan, widening her streets, and exchanging wooden and rickety houses for buildings of brick and stone. Yet he city preserved its character. Canals still ran down the centre of the widened roads, and the furniture and uses of the stone-walled rooms remained the same, luge fortifications circled the city-curiously enough they were much neglected, and the cannon actually lying to rust under long grass." What with the I :Y'. 26 RECINATJ) TTEBER. costumes, the language, and the easy manners, the travellers found nmch to interest and note. Heber writes that his attention had been "on the stretch ever since 1 came here ;" and Thornton, among other things, was much reminded of Scotland, not only by the appearance of the people but by their accent or tone of voice. In the market-place, where the height and flaxen hair of the men attracted attention, the only vegetable obtainal)le was the green pea, though fruit was abundant. Gottenburg was a garrison town, and Ileber, an ardent volunteer, inquires into the constitu- tion and discipline of the army, and notes that, instead of sheathing their bayonets, the men revei'se them on the "musquet;" and ihat the captains of the companies wear, as badge of their rank, a white handkerchief tied round the arm — the badge originating from its being worn by the Royalists in the recent revolutions of Gustavus III. After a brief stay in Gottenbui-g the travellers set out for Frederikshall, on Lake Wener ; and as they used for the first time a vehicle they were going to travel in for many hundreds of miles — a carriage which may be taken, perhaps, as a type of tliose used at this period for sucli a purpose - a word or two of tlescription will be of interest. It was a small and light four- wheeled carriage with a capacious coach-bo.\" (to hold the trunks and packages), and a seat behind for the Swede who looked after the horses. The top opened and shut at will, and \ydvt of the side was taken up with glass windows. In fact, this was a light eilition of the '* barouche " which one sees so often pictured in books of travel of the period. The horses, which nu"ght almost be called ponies — Heber himself .says they were about the size of Welsh ponies — were tvVo in number, obtained from the " posts " which, in the days previous to railways, were stationed at fairly regular intervals along the roads. A Swede was sent in advance to bespeak — he was califd the " forbiid " — the horses required at the various posts, and this SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 27 useful person drove in a light cart with the overflow of the baggage. When he arrived at a post and demanded the horses, the postmaster would send messengers out into the district and requisition the number required from the peasants, who, by the way, were compelled to furnish them at a fixed contract rate. The price paid to the postmaster was about three-halfpence an English mile per horse ; and the normal rate of travel one Svyedish or 61 English miles an hour. The route lay through Udevalla, which is situated in a district of unusual beauty. The steep hills are topped with pines, the valleys occupied by mountain-ashes, birch, and alder. Forest scenery gives place to gigantic recks, and these again to meadows and cornfields. 'i"he two characteristics that impressed Ileber were the monotony of the pines and the prevalence of rocks. "I do not believe," he says, "we have at any time seen four hundred yards of land together without rock visible above the surface." At Frederikshall they entered Norway— not, how- ever, without some trouble from the Custom-house. For a couple of hours the Swede in receipt of the customs stood out for a fine of one hundred and fifty nx-do!lars (about £16) on account of some omission in their papers ; but by maintaining a sturdy independ- ence, and threatening to report the man, the fine rapidly fell to six dollars, and the request for this amount was put so obsequiously that one suspects that Heber paid the sum, though he nowhere specifically adnnts it. Frederikshall, at this time, was a city of wooden buildings, and one-storied buildings at that; the accommodation at the inns was good, but the charges were "very exorbitant." Rather curiously— for our modern experience leads us to hold the opposite view— Heber adds, "as is the case everywhere in Norway." At this period Norway and Sweden were very bitter agai A each other— a bitterness, by the way, not assuaged when Sweden forced Norway, a few years m .1. " ■^M M 28 RECINALD IIEIiER. later, to accept its king. Both in Norway and Sweden I itt was spoken of with great disHke, the cause for whicli may be traced to the formation of the Northern League, whose "armed neutrah'ty " really arose out of Czar Paul's dislike of Great Britain, and the effect of which was to leave us out in the cold and almost alone m our struggle with France. Ileber was at this time more pleased with Norway than with Sweden. It is particularly interesting to us to know that English influence— and we shall meet with It in other parts of Europe-had permeated Norwegian ways. Norwegian cattle were being im- proved by English cross-breeding, the English system ot farming was grafted on the Norwegian. In the kennels were English dogs, in the fiel Is grew English hops. Gardens were laid out in the English manner and the women of Norway regularly received their new fashions and new clothes from England. At Dillingen, near Christiania, Heber came into contact with Norwegian fairy-lore, for the lake at that place IS famous as the home of Noeck, the kelpie of Norway. ''He is described," writes Heber, ''as a malevolent being who generally appears in the shape of a black horse. If any one succeeds in bridling him he becomes a useful animal, and serves his master laithfully. This information we had from an Enolish servant, married in the country, who said that a relation of his wife s told him seriously that he had himself seen Noeck in harness, quietly drawing a plough; but the moment the bridle was taken off he galloped away with prodigious violence and noise, plunged into the lake, and disappeared. His favourite residence is at Dillingen but he is occasionally seen in other parts of Norway." ' Of Christiania, as it was at the beginning of the century, we are not told much. The Cathedral is noted as handsome "—which is an useless word for descrip- tive purposes— but only "four or five old women and somc-^chanty children " are to be seen in it at service on Sunday morning. (They afterwards met the I Sweden :ause for Northern >e out of lie effect d almost Norway iig to us all meet inneated Mng im- i system In the English manner, leir new lie into at that :elpie of "as a e shape ing him, master English relation elf seen but the ay with ike, and illingen, way." of the is noted descrip- len and service let the SCANDINAMA AN J) RUSSIA IN 1S05. 29 ofliciating clergyman, dressed in a green coat and striped waistcoat.) As a matter of fact, the people of Chnstiania were not Sabbatarians, and Sunday was observed in "the continental manner." A friend of Ileber's—with whom he stayed in Christiania— had made great but unavailing efforts to establish a university, but Denmark declined to allow this as its policy was to have the young Norwegians educated at Copenhagen. I here was, however, a fine public library, which might be said, with the single exception of a imlitary school, to represent the public buildings of the place. ° On leaving Christiania, and posting at the rate of bd. a JJanish mile— rather less than five English miles— lor each horse, the route lay through Kongsvinger, and then turned due northward, leaving the ancient ruins ot Storhammer about ten miles to the west, until at Chnstiansford it turned sharp to the left, and, running northwesterly through Littlehammer, entered the famous budbrandsdal, and shortly after began the long ascent to the Dovre Feld. At Breiden Heber met, for the iii-st time, " the gigantic figures and long yellow hair of the men of Gudbrandsdal. Hitherto, we had been disappointed in the appearance of the people of Norway but we now began to svl many fine-looking men though certainly not so many as we had been taught to expect ; they were uniformly of fair complexions with red bonnets on their heads, and dressed in plaid cloth, with garters of very lively colours tied in large bovvs at their knees. The women wear enormous buckles, which make a clinking noise as they walk, and iigh-heeled shoes, which give them an appearance of height, though they are not taller, perhaps ha-^iy so tall, as m many parts of Europe. Their dress cjusists of a coarse, loose shift fastened round the throat no stays, and only one dark-coloured petticoat. Sometimes however, they wear a waistcoat without sleeves made exactly like that of a man, their hair snooded' round with tape, and tied back from the forehead, hanging down 30 UEOINALD HKHER. iK'liiiul ill lung liugkts. The houses arc a good deal oniamcnttd with carving, stjinctitncs done very neatly, and the doors arc painted with flowers in very lively colours. Stoves, which are used in the southern parts of Norway, are here rarely seen. The natives adhere to their ancient wide chinnieyin the corner of the room, made to project with a salient angle, which is supported hy an iron bar; their Ibrni is very convenient, and might be introduced with advantage into an English cottage; the tops of the chimneys arc soniet,.iics covered with a little dome to exclude snow, with lateral perforations for the smoke. In Sweden they have a small trap-door to answer the same jHU-pose." Crossing the Dovre Feld, which Ileber compares to the north-country tuoors of England, the road became very bad, and the travellers had to send their carriage on empiy and ride on horseback. In this part of the countiy the people were found to be of particular simplicity, and though poor not poverty-stricken. The schoolmaster of the district was perhaps the exception —though in exchange for his services, he had plenty of free rations. We are told that he made "a --egular progress from village to village, having his meat and lodging with the principal farmers ; and all the inhabit- ants who cannot read are obliged by law to go to him for instruction ; he receives a very trifling fee from each person, about two or three stivers, and !iis whole annual income does not exceed twenty-five dollars a year ; food and lodging are, indeed, supplied to him gratis during his journeys. The priests arc obliged to examine the children aiuuially in reading and writing, and to give in a statement of their abilities to the bishop. Bibles are costly, and are seldom possessed except by the richer sort of peasants; they almost all have Luther's catechism and the Psalm-book, which also contains the Epistles and Gospels for each Sunday." The Dovre Feld, in fact, was the least sophisticated district of an unsophisticated country. Nature, indeed, was almost untamed of man ; for the land was but little ,s 32 UKCINALD IIKHKK. cultivated — wild birch forests clasping it, luijj;e upthrusts of rocks sterilisiiif; it. Wolves were to be found in greai numlx rs, and more than usually savage ; lemmings were seen for the Hrst time — the fable of their having dropped from the clouds still finding sonv; credence; and the roads were often mere watercourses. It was here that I leher first saw the "cow-pipe," a horn some live feet in length, made of bark, the bark of the birch, and capable of a woodland music not by any means unwelcome to the traveller as he passes up some deep and winding dal. Trondhcim was soon reached from the Dovre Feld. With this, one of the oldest cities in Norway, the young travellers appear to have been much pleased, and in- deed, considering that they were most hospitably treated, one is not surprised. But Trondheim has attractions of its own. It lies in the centre of a fnie bay ; the streets are wide ; the houses attractive ; the inarket- place unusually large. The place has an appearance ot peacefulness, which the ancient ramparts, now covered with turf, only heighten. Of historic memories Trond- heim has many. Its cathedral dates from a very early period, and was originally b>""lt by St. Olaf, and dedicated to St. Clement ; but of C s work little remains but the chapter-house. The south transept is due to I larold Hardcra? 'e, who built it six years before ^hc battle of Hastings ; and the north transept, choir, and tower are more than a century younger. Vicissitudes have visited it ; thrice — in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries — it has been burnt ; several times, notably in 155 I, it has been pillaged ; in the seventeenth century its spire was blown down, and in the eighteenth its successor was destroyed by lightning. Hardly less unkind had been the hand of the people it overshadows, for at this period the whitewash and plaster of the Philistine had submerged the beautiful carving ; marble and alabaster were covered with the same abomination ; and four and five stones of gallericp. ruined the effect of arch and column, and blocked up the windows. SCANr)INA\IA AM. Rl'SSTA IN rSo5. 33 r.yint; in the bay, about a mile ulY TroiKlh.ini is the small .s and of Munkl, .I,,,, notable as atFordinK r.K.tholcl or a state pnson. Wh.n Hebe. ..sited it he fbu.u ainoMK the pnsoncs a man who had Ikc. ininunvd ;;'• ""."•'■ li.-^n Idty years. JJttle wonder, pc.rl,a,>s. thnt IMS nund had g.vui way. To make matters very nuuh worse- ,t was found, ou makiuj.- inquiries, that no one Hally knew he can ,e of his imprisonment. ( )n<« man sau he had done violence to his fathe,- ; another, that <: l;ad been gn.lty of criminal extravagance ; and a .rd, m.stakniK perhaps the cfVect for the cause, said hat he was n,ad. Jt is probable tbat th.- n,an was ■nmured for reasons partly private and partiv political for he was of g(,od fanu-ly, had been a naval oflicc.,' and indeed V as the sun of an admiral. It is only fair .. add that for some timr he had l>,,„ at lib.Mty to leave Ins pnson-bn.ken down and aKvd as he was, har.nless '"> hxi.^er; or pn-ha,)s th.- fact that, havinj,^ surxived 'Most of his relat.vc-s, he- had come into abundant means was a reason for political I, nic-ncy ; but it came too late' No persuasion could remove the old man's objection to forsake the place he knew for the world lie had long 01-otten, or shake him in the less terrible belief that he was at least three huiulred years old « Jf '''''\'^V'^''°"'^'''''" ^^'""^ ^'^'b^''" ^'•■■'^t met with the Skates which are now so familiar to us by their Nor- wegian name-" ski." 1 le speaks of two battalions of soldiers, drawn from the 'J'rondheim district, drill inir in winter shod with ski. "When they ex^-cise n skates they have their rifies slung, and cany a staff .n their hands, flattened at the end'lo prevent'its sinf ing into the snow, and to assist them in the leaps they are sometimes compelled to take when going dovvn hill Inch oh". T' '°"k'""^' ^'° "'^'^ ^^••-' 4idity. ov ; such obstacles as obstruct their progress. The only Heber" wl/l" /!"'"* r'^''^ °'' ^^'-^"'"^ "IV continued . ^ ' , " '-i.uc^r:- in his mind, ''is. that in ^^.ntc,■ they allow between the files roo.n 'to tu'rn in the skates, which they do by changing the right foot by 3 I 34 REGINALD IIEP.ER. an extraordinary motion, which would seem enough to dislocate the ankle. We examined a pan" ot these skates ; they are not above six or eight inches broad and of different lengths, that worn on the leit loot being from seven to nine feet long, the other not more than four or live, and chiefly used as a means of direct- inr. the other." A few days later, the city trainband tamed out for its annual exercise, and the Shropshire volunteer exclaims: " A perfect burlesque, worse than the worst volunteers ever were or ever wil be ; they were armed with rusty muskets and long three-edged swords, and wore cocked hats, ^ with long blue coats, like our bell-men or town-criers." . The profusion of vegetables made an agreeable im- pression, which is not unnatural when we remember that in many parts of Norway it is vcny difi.cult to get a variety of garden produce. At Trondheim the berries which are commonly eaten all over Norway were mucn in evidence, and Heber mentions that " cranberries, wortleberries, multiberries (a fruit not very unlike a mulberry, wliich grows in bogs on a creeping plant resembling a saxifrage), strawberries, and mounta.n- ash berries are in conmion use, and much eaten with meat : whenever they appear on a table, you may be sure that a joint of meat is, sooner or later, to make its appearance." it might be added that few Amencans of the present day forego the delights of cranberry sauce with that common article of their consumption, the turkey. ^ ., [Proceeding through a wild country to Roraas— the site of the copper industry of the north-the travellers journeyed along the shore of Lake Oresund to vis. an encampment of Finns. Stopping the first night at a small village, where they slept on boards covered witli deer skins, they crossed " the most desolatc> country we have yet seen "-a mixture, one gat >ers, of lichen- covered rocks and iruilti berry-covered bog, thin woods of stunted birch, shallow pools, and sluggish streams. Hebcr compared the white- mossy covering of the rocks SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 35 to leprosy — yet this was the pasture of the reindeer ! It was the month of August ; yet while crossing this region a snowstorm swept over the Httle i)arty and heightened the desolate effect. And, to complete the semi-Arctic scene, groups of reindeer were met with, standing among the rocks with theii- noses thrust out, sniffing with long breaths the air which bore to them " i' A FINN KNCAMPMENT. the new and suspicious scent of "the blood of an Englishman." On reaching the Finn encampment (the tents of which Heber compares to those of the Terra del Fuegans) they were received in very friendly fashion. Good entertaiinuent — the best they had — was offered by the Finns, rhey brought out milk and reindeer cheese ; and the visitors were asked to rest on rein- deer skins. Within the tents, built up of poles and 3|l 36 REGINALD IIEHER. turfs and skins, the fires smouldered and smoked, and the inhabitants squatted around. At this time there were some fifteen small Finn camps in the district of Roraas, the people kcepint? themselves apart from the Norwegians and inter- marrying among themselves. The family Ileber was now visiting numbered eight in all, including two ser- vants. They seemed to be in a fair state of prosperity, although the housewife, if that term be applicable to a dwi'ller in tents, bitterly complained of the Swedes over the border, who had lately, during some temporary outbreak, "lifted" about a thousand head of deer. This family, however, still had a herd of about five himdrcd left, and could hardly be in the very straitened circumstances they bewailed. The head of the house was an old man, seventy-eight years of age, and though perfectly blind was otherwise in good health. Ileber mentions that the men came up to the elbow of a ••common-sized Englishman" — a somewhat vague standard of height ; and to their own style of costume — shoes, gaiters, breeches, and long coats of reindeer sl^in — they had added articles of Norse and Swedish taste. Simple and comparatively primitive as these people seemed, they could all read. Mere, too, is an interesting note: •'Their mode of milking the reindeer is singular ; they first catch it by throwing a noose round the horns, then give it a blow on the loins, on wliich the animal immediately lifts up its leg, and the Finns, bein^ 30 dwarfish a race, milk it standing." A rapid descent of the valley of the Glomni brought the party to Kongsvinger, where they arrived in the middle of the night, to find that, "as usual in Norway," the doors of the inn were unfastened, and there was no difficulty in marching unattended up to a bedroom. The next day they crossed the frontier and entered Sweden ; but before following them, there are one or two points of interest which Heber has dwelt on in his private letters, and may be briefly alluded to here. It will be seen that the party had travelled north by SCANDINAMA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. ^7 on the Gudbrandsdal, and came outh by the Osterdal ; thus seeing the richer and les> inhospitable section of Norway — that which lies, in fact, between the wild, mountainous country of the west and the; Swedish frontier. With the exception of the passage over the Dovre Feld and the brief excursion into the district bordering on the Kiolen Range when they visited the Finn encampment, the country they had passed through was at that time moderately cultivated by a simple peasantry. In man.y parts they had been struck by the appearance of wealth in the cottages and farms, in the shape of silver spoons and folks, even of silver coffee-pots ; and many of the farmers possessed large granaries and storehouses for oats, hops, malt, salt meat, and fish. The people were, as a rule, able to read, and though their reading seldom went beyond Luther's cateciiism or the Psalm-book, they hatl a simple — shall I sa}-, Arcadian ?— grace of manner. It is but a touch, but the touch is sufficient to call up a pretty picture — that note of how Thornton came upon a farm-maiden, with her long plaits of flaxen hair, playing on a live-stringed guitar to call the cattle home ! Of the lemmings Heber found plentiful traces. In the light of their ravages one might call them the locusts of the north ; but in nature and appearance they are very different. You might take a lemming for a small-sized rat, dun-coloured save for the thin rich black streaks on the back, if you diil not examine it very closely. They come down from the mountains in enormous troops, and completely devastate the grow- ing crops. Indeed, the lemmings were at this time even more destructive than the spring Hoods — the numerous mountain torrents in this season overleaping their channels, and pouring all over the lower slopes and valley levels, bringing with them so vast a quantity of stones, large and small, that the land is strewn until it fairly looks like a sea-shore. But the lemmings do their evil work in the autumn ; a work so destruc- I 38 UF.GINALD IIEHER. i t tive that wc hear of Norway being obliged to import large quantities of corn from ICngland — then, happily, able to provide not only its own wants, but those of others. 1 liave said that Norway, at the beginning of this centurv, belonged to Denmark, and was under the inile of the King of Denmark. It is worth noting that, in order to esti'ange the Norwegians as much as possible from the Swedes, the DcUiish goxcrnuuMit imposed a new system — and a bad system — of spelling upon the lormer. Still, there was no destroying the inherent genius of the language, or its aflinities with sister-tongues. Heber was interested -as many an Englishman has been since — to ruid how like that language is to the English of the north and east. 1 le exclaims that an Englishman, especially a Yorkshireman, can haidly mistake the meaning of such phrases as "bra bairn," an "ox stek," a " skort simmer," or a " cald winter ;" or fail to understand when told to " sitta dere," or " ga til kirchen." At this time, it may be added, a rigorous system of caste prevailed in Norway. However rich one of the peasant-caste might become, his son re- mained in the peasant grade, and was not only com- pelled to serve liis country as a soldier, but at the same time shut out from all chance of becoming an officer. We may now follow Meber and Thornton on their way to Upsala. The carriage which had been bought at Gottenburg, though rickety, was still of service. The country through which they were now going was very difierent from that tract of it they had already seen on their way from Gottenburg to Norway. The route to Upsala is rich, varied, and well cultivated. Allowing for the single exception of the rocky sub- stratum, Heber rather hapi^ily compared it to Leicester- shire. But the rocks are so near the surface that he says that Sweden may be compared, in general, to a maible table coveied with baize ; it is level indeed, and green, but the veil is thin, and every heie and there the stone peeps through the cracks of its covering. SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 39 P\-irmiiig is well understood, and the soil, thoiigli very light, is not unproductive. At Upsala, of course, the attraction was the university. We learn that the professors were provided with houses, and those who were clergy, with prebends in addition. It is noticeable that there were many lay- tutors in Upsala : ninety years ago, at Oxford or Cambridge, it would have been diflicult to find any. The students wore black gowns, with scarlet facings — which may interest the scarlet-clothed undergraduate of Aberdeen. At one time the students were differently clad according to their social origin— Swede, Ostrogoth, Westrogoth,'Finn, or Vandal; and from this division of " nations " arose the colleges, which are not colleges in our substantial sense, but merely groups of students united under different heads, and having separate endowments attached. At Upsala, Heber found that the professor of liotany had been a good deal in England, and, to his chagrin, professed greater admiration for Cambridge than for Oxford. lie complained, bewails the Oxonian, that Oxford was less civilised than Cam- bridge, and we are told, not without a suspicion of triumph in the words, that " I wanted him to state his si-r.vvrli of dislike, but could not succeed in keeping h'vn to the point." Stockholm was ihc next halting-place, and the beau- tiful natural features of this city did not fail— have they e\-er failed ? — to make an impression on the travellers. The wooded islands, the steep hills, the fine rocks, on which the town is built, the network of bridges over narrow and winding waters, the open fiord beyond, all unite to make Stockholm the most beautifully situated city in Europe. And to a traveller in Scandinavia the buildings would be more imposing because built of stone and brick. Lofty domes reared up against the overhanging woods ; the great palace (" as big, I think." says Keber, " as five Somerset Houses ") dominated the city ; while seaward the spacious quays presented a front of fine solidity. It is true that the ! 'H j. I, I ^ ■m 40 RllC.TNALT) lIllliKR. Streets were narrow, and not so clean as the\' are now ; true, too, we fear, that the inns were "as dirty and as dear, and the landlords as impudent, as in any part of the world;" hut in the short time they stayed at .Stockholm the travellers found Swedish society of the hcst sort as polished as any they knew ; and little to controvert their opinion that for cleanliness, industry, and honesty the Swedes are hard to heat. At the Arsenal — a sort of historical museum— they were, of course, much interested in seeing the uniforms and accoutrements of the heroes Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. Of the latter llcber writes : " We were surprised to find that this great hero had been so small and slight-made a man ; his gloves and boots prove it strongly; neither Thornton nor myself could, with all possible straining, have made the coat button over the breast ; with ine it absolutely would scarcely come on at all; and the sleeves vv^ere also much too short. The sword, however, which is a rapier almost five feet long, has something heroic about it; and there was a standard Just by which Charles had taken with his own hands from a Saxon officer." At the end of September Ileber and Thornton crossed the Gulf of Bothin'a, sailing from Stockholm, and landing at Abo. I may point out that by crossing to Abo they had not left Sweden. For at the begin- ning of the century Finland was not wholly Russian ; a good half belonged to Sweden, only to be lost during the next war with Russia, and finally ceded, with Bothnia and the Aland Islands, by the treaty of Frcderik- shannii (1809). The Swedish connection had lasted for six centuries, and whatever of culture Finland possessed was due to Sweden ; but Russia did not prove unreasonable, and to this day the Finlanders possess a Diet of their own and a separate army. Further, their language and racial characteristics have gained rather than lost by the change. Ikit i am anticipating. When Heber crc -ed the gulf, Aland and Abo were still Swedish. He telis us of the SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 41 course between huiulreds of rocky islets aixl of low reefs, some bare and some wooded to the water's edge ; he recounts how on an islet they encamped for the night, the sailors only venturing on navigation by day ; he is surprised to lind that women are counted among the crew, and act as such, and mentions that at Stockholm a man would as soon think of rowing a boat as knitting a stocking ; he gossips pleasantly about a poor Finn student who had not the money to pay his passage to Abo, and, in return lor a free passage, c.n- versed with them in Latin, "after a most barbarous fashion," on the state of Finland ; and he is impressed by the pleasant looks and manners of the people of Aland. Thence across to Abo, which might be described as a place possessing an archbishop, fifteen professors, three hundred students, a ruined castle, a whitewashed cathedral, and, certainly, the most northern university in Furope. Perhaps the chief thing of interest to us is the monument in the cathedral to Sir John Cockburn, one of the many Scotch soldiers who fought under Ciustavus Adolphus. Helsingfors and Wyborg Ileber found to be " wretched i)laces," though the country was fertile and the people numerous ; and at Frederikshanmi he entered Russian Finland, and at the same time the dominions of Czar Alexander L When Ileber visited Russia, the frontiers of that great state were far more contracted than they are now. Yet the century had just closed on a series of territorial expansions nothing less than remarkable. Round the small Slaxonic princedoms of Novgorod and Kiev the Ivans and Alexis had gathered state after state, until the Empire of Russia took shape and sub- stance ; the fourth and last Ivan had even crossed the Urals and annexed Siberia. But although he swept down on the Cossacks and absorbed them, the coveted Black Sea, and that of Azov, were still outside the boundary of his empire. Early in the eighteenth century, however, in the reign of Peter the Great and for the first time in her histor}', Russia burst 4- UKdINALD TIEP.KR. the baiTiLi-.s that insulatfd hci- in a continental mass of land, and gained an outlit to tin- \vni-|d on tiie shores of the Baltic. The foundation of Petersburg coni- MKinoratt's that triuni])li. Later on came the conquests on the Caspian ; and under Catherine II. the Crimea and the Black Sea were reached. The fortress-cities of Sevastopol ami Odessa arose to mark this imf)ortant step. Just before this, and for twelve years subse- (juently, the encroachments on the old kingdom of Poland proceeded so successfully that round the whole of Poland, with the single exception of the Duchy of Warsaw (s(K)n to meet tlie same fate), the fi'ontiers of tlie White C/ar were drawn. Courland followed, and from the I>lack Sea to the Baltic Russia ruled the region abutting on tlie kingdoms of Prussia and Hungary. Then she crossed the Caucasus, and Georgia fell to her sword. What remained ? Swedish Finland — to complete Russian supremacy of the eastern littoral of the Baltic ; and Warsaw — to finally wipe Poland off the map. This completed Russian Europe, if wo anticipate the pacification of much that was newly wo i and not yet Slavonised, and overlook that little piece of Bessarabia which was to make her almost next-door neighbour to Kuroi)ean Turkey, but which she does not get until 1878. In Asia she is to plunder Persia, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and even far Japan ; but with this we have nothing now to do. When Ileber came into Russia, Poland, the Crimea, and Georgia were but newly won ; Swedish Finland watched and fettered Russian action on the Neva; Czar Paul, with his mad policies and fui"ious enmities, had fallen by the assas- sin's hand in the Mikhailovski Palace, and Alexander 1. reigned in his stead. Petersburg — the creation of the man who found Russia Asiatic and left it European — was at this time barely a hundred years old. Yet it was a city of strikmg proportions and magnificent buildings. Heber crossed the Neva on the bridge of boats, and, looking SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 43 up and down the iiv(T, beheld the j;iTat hnildings cm the banks which to-day lurni the chiefest claim of Fetersburj;- to a beautiful city. It was larly in October when 11, ■ aiTived, and the "little winter" of the Russians — a short season ol' IVost which usually accompanies the autumn — had bef^^un. Soon, however, the frost of the real winter set in, diihough not in great severity till the middle of November. So the travellers began jnu'chasing furs and preparing for the rigours of a Russian winter. Towards tlv; end of October Ileber wrote home to his mother tha.t the Russians of the upper classes were already in their furs ; but he adtled : " I have observed both here and in Sweden, where the cold is always comparatively noderate, that the gentleiiien, from their indolent — 1 had almost said eiR'minate — lives, and fiT)m the great heat of their houses, are much more chilly than Englishmen, if a .Swede rides out the hottest da}- in sunnuer, the i)robability is that he wears a swansdown great coat and a silk hand- kerchief about his mouth and ears ; nor shall 1 ever forget the looks of astonishment and alarm which an open window never failed to produce. An officer in the guards would as soon, or sooner, face a cannon than a draught of air." Ileber and 'J'hornton intended, at this time, to stay in Petersburg till Christmas, and then travel west into Germany, l^iut everything depended on the turn that the war should take, and it will be seen that these plans were very considerably modified. Meanw'iile let us follow him as he moves about Russia, and notes the ways of the Russians at the begiiniing of this century. In the first place we find that he is not disposed to admire I'etersburg. It was, perhaps, too new, and certainly too shoddy, for the young man '"1 sprang from an ancient family and was reared amid the vener- able colleges of Oxford. There is nothing more striking, he exclaims, than the rottenness of this splendid city. § i^ 44 UIXMXAr.l) IIKMKR. Accustomed to I)I()cks of solitl stoiu', he is aghast at tlu' stuccoctl houses, churches, and pubhc buikhiig's. I'l-oni the porticoes of palaces and churches the stucco was often broken away, reveaHng rotten bricks below. Nevertheless, in spite of the sham and the want of solidity, there was a magnificence which arrested the eye and commanded admiration. Tiie great domes, the many spins, the countless minan ts blazed in the light ol the sun like fire, for they were all richly gilded. Al(?iig the banks of the Neva the long succession of sumptuous palaces compelled praise; their domes anti turrets to , were gilded, and huge gilt railings fenced off their gardens. 'J'he domed Jaurida Palace, the Hermitage the Winter Palace, the jnilace of St. Michael with 'ks gilded sj^ire, the huge citadel with great bulging bastions of granite — looking the vaster and Miore durable for the little cottage of Peter the Cleat which nestled below, — these are some of the long ranges of buildings, magnificent if only with a semi-barbaric magnificence, which make the Neva i)rospect so admirable. Then, on entering the town, buildings of hardly less iK)te met the eye. Driving past the statue of Peter the Great to the Quai de Galerenhof, Ileber writes, " Our admiration was continually on the stretch ; " and he adds that " it is certain that, however deficient in taste, convenience, or durability each build- ing taken separately may appear, as a whole the plan and coup d\vil of Petersburg may b' consid(.-red as almost a standard of beauty. . . . Its streets are gene- rally very wide, and the houses low, nor always con- tiguous ; the Nevska perspective is the principal, which IS divided in the middle by a raised gravel walk, railed ui and planted with lime trees. 'I Uese rails, as well as all public buildings, bridges, sentry-boxes, and guard- houses, are chequered black and wiiite ; this was a whim of Paul's. The houses are mostly very large, built round courts, and generally divided into twenty or thirty ciifTerc nt tenements. I remember Kerr l^orter hunting about a whole morning for a house of which he SCANDINAVIX AND RUSSIA IN 1S05. 45 knew both the street and the miinlur." I Ic makes three e.xeeptiniis, it slioiiUl he ndded, to thi' prevaiUnj^^ system of huilding with inrerior hriek, and jilasterin^- it with stueco in in.itation of stone, — the Marhle Palace, the Maihle Chuirh, and the Cathechal of Our Lady of Kazan ; but die re were many houses and churehes whieli were painted in imitation of marble, and it stems that the Russians attained great skill in the count( fiit. " The marble," says Ileber, " it is impossible to dls- tinj4uish fi-om real;" and he adds, with a si se of the useful, " it costs one ruble the square arskine." (An arskine is equal to two feet four inches. I might also mention here that forty Russian pounds equal thirty- six pounds English, and that at this time a ruble was worth two shillings and I'ightpence English money. As one hundred copeks go to the ruble, the value of a copek would be about a third of a penny.) Excellent introductions to the British End)assy and other influential pirsons gave the young tiavellers the t'litnr to everything worth seeing. Ileber seems to have been little imjM-essed by Czarsco-Zelo or Gatchina, except for their gnat size and the interest inspired by their associations. The I'ormer was the favourite home of Catherine II. — the latter was bought by Czar Paul from Potemkin. At Czarsco-Zelo there was a huge glass gallery used as a winter -esort by the inmates ; and here Ileber saw the bust of Charles James Fox between those of l)enu)sthenes and Cicero. The atti- tude of Fox to the French Revolution caused him to fall out of favour, and the bust was removed, oidv to be replaced by Paul. The situation of Czarsco-Zelo did not meet with Heber's approval ; it is, he says, " the most dirty and boggy conceivable," On the other hand, we are interested in hearing that ** its gardens , are laid out in the English manner ; and the gardener here, as almost everywhere throughout Russia, is of English extraction." Later on, describing a visit to the Taurida Palace (which had been presented to the Empress Catherine by Potemkin, prime favourite and 46 KEGINAM) IIKIIEK. till' virtual nikr ul Russia chwiu^ h,r rciirii), ht' finds that tlic gartltnt'i- is "an old servant (.f Mr. \V. i^ootli's, of Latham." N'isitin.t; the Wintd' Palace, he is im- pressed with the simplieity ot the Imperial private rooms; and very intcrestid in the suite of apartments tHeiipied by C'i^ar I'aul just previous .o his assassination. I he story of that assassination was toUl in the |)apers of General Sablukov, who was on duty at the time. Czar Paul was actually strani;led by Zubov, Pahlen,' and other eonsjiirators -if this term "may be applied to nun who acted for the j^ood of their country. Paul had imperilled that country's safety by his mad policy, and incurred the hatred of his subjects by his injustice and caprice ; it was almost universally felt that he f^'.hould be macU; to abdicate ; but action was left to the desperate, and not unnaturally the desperate matle away with him altot;ether. Paul's apartments were preserved by his widow in precisely the same state in which \u- left them. Ileber tells us that " not a book or article of furniture has been removed from its exact place ; one book in parti- cular remains turned down open on its face, to mark where he had left ofV reading-. The table is covered with models for cocked hats and uniforms, and the walls with coloured half-sheets, representing the uniforms of the diffiient Russian regiments ; his clothes and linen are lying- carelessly about the room, and are preserved with the same religious care. In an adjoining library were dc-posited regularly the standards of the ditTerent regiments in garrison in Petersburg, and these have also been alloweil to remain. What appears to be a part of the bookcase slides back, and you ascend by a dai-k and narrow staircase into an unsuspecti d suite of rooms above, small, low, and not to be discovered even on the outside of the building by thee who are not thoioughly ac(|uainl«(l with it. I'hey consist of a bedroom, study, and oratory, all filled with a collection of miniature pictures, and richly furnished; but the appearance of the whole is gloomy and desolate, and SCXNDTN.WIA AND RUSSIA IN 1805. 47 gives the idea of the tyrant's den in Drydeii's ' Sigisnionda and (iuiscaitlo.' " liel)( I iiaclud I'ctershnrg just iKfoic tlic date of the Battle of 'J rafalgar ; ami, siiortly afterwards, we find him writing home that the war against France is very i)opidar, and that the Knssian people are friendly to Kngland a'ld appreciate Pitt, though they could wnt inulerstand his policy of inactivity duiiug tiie coalition then in force. He says, too, that the Russians are inclined to attribute the Austrian reverses to this lack of Hritish support, and adds, "Thank God, the victoi-y of Trafalgar, followed up by the arrival of (leneral 1 km at Cuxhaven, has tiuiu d the scale in oui- favour, and the destruction of lioulogne, of which we are in daily hopes to hear, will give new spirits to tlie friends of Kngland, and of what is emphatically called 'the good cause.'" The Emperor was away at the seat of war when Ileber arrived at IVtersburg ; but the overthrow of (uneral Mack at IJlm, who was in (October foiced by Napoleon to surrender with 28,000 Austrians at his back ; the subsequent occupation of Vienna by the French ; and the defeat of the allied armies of Russia and Austria at Austerlitz in December, led to the treaty of l^ressbui-g and tem|iorary peace. Austerlitz was 'e greatest battle that had yet been fought in Eur j ; 'i'rafalgar was for awhile forgotten, and the blow fell with such force on Pitt that he ('! re the end came, to find him writing tliat " this is indeed the only sight of Mohamme- dan manners which, in all probability, 1 shall ever have." And it is interesting to note the attitude of sympathy he had thus early assumed to the followers of a ci-eed which, though it is answei-able for many fearful crimes and enormous social degi-adation, has yet begotten noble virtues. And now, grumbling a good deal at the expense of dress in Russia — the cheapest winter suit of iurs costing fi-om twenty-five to thirty guineas— llcber and Thornton started, after a visit to Cronstadt and the Peterhof, on their sledge-journey to Moscow. It was the last day but one of an eventful year, on December 30th, 1805, that this observant brace of travellers set out on their mid- winter journey over the frozen plains of Russia. They travelled by post at a rapid rate, and soon reached the Valdai Mountains, which Ileber characterised as low stony hills, the Russians not knowing what mountains , I I SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA IN l8o: 51 were. These hiils formed the ancient frontier between Novgorod and Great Russia, for even at the time when rieber wrote Petersburg was merely considered a conquest and a colony, and Novgorod itself was an acquisition. Looking down upon Valdai from the neighbouring hills, Ileber likened the view of the city t(^ that of Oxford as seen from the Banbury road. They came in sight of it about sunrise, and we are told that Thornton drew the curtains of the kibitka and called out, " England ! " The country through which they had travelled was neither fertile nor beautiful, — " the most fiat and un- interesting I ever saw," — and the district thence to Moscow was only less unattractive. The kibitka, the carriage in which they travelled (their own vehicle had gradually become more and more decrepit as it wandered through Sweden and Norway, and on reach- ing Petersburg, after having served their turn for two thousand miles, it finally succumbed), was the usual conveyance employed by Russian gentlemen on winter journeys. I leber described it as nothing more than a very large bottomless cradle, covered over with leather, and having a leather curtain. This cradle was placed on a sledge ; on this the luggage was carefully packed, and over the luggage was laid a mattress. It is on this mattv.. - that the travellers reclined, or, with the aid off :: , sat up to look out on the country. Given good roads, weather not too cold, and plenty of warm furs, a journey in such a vehicle was comfortable enough. Having their guns with them, they occasionally left the sledge and enjoyed some sport with the large black grouse of Russia, which is nearly as large as a turkey ; but the birds were wild, and close quarters impossible. Though wolves sometimes crossed their road it was at night, and Heber tells us that before either he or Tliointon could be roused and get their guns out the beasts were lost in the fir forests. Making the best of all their opportunities, the travellers found out what ' } Mi ■s 5^ RECJNATJ) IIEHER. II. 1 they could about the stato of tin- peasantry, an:I visited the serfs in their cottages. A Russian cottage, we are told, is "always built of logs cemented with clay and moss, and is genei-ally larger than an Knglish one ; it has two stories, one of which is half sunk and serves as a storehouse ; two- thirds of the upper story arc taken up with the principal room, where they sit and sleep ; and the remainder is divided between a closet, where they cook their victuals, and an iiuniense stove, not unlike an oven, which heats the whole building, and the top of which — for the chimney is only a small flue on the side — scr\es as a favourite sitting and sleeping place, though we could scarcely bear to lay our hands on it. In the corner of the great room always stands the bed of the master and mistress of the family, generally very neat, and with curtains, sometimes of English cotton ; the other bi'anches of the family sleep on the stove or floor. In the post-houses, whicli difter in no respect from this description, we always found good coffee, tea, and cream ; nothing else can be expected, and we carried our other provisions with us." The country grew richer with every verst the}- travelled. Sanki after sanki (one-horse sledges) passed them in rapid succession — Heber thought he passed a thousand in a day — all laden with provisions for Petersbui'g. The horst:s were well grown and well i\x\, and could be cajoled into a very good pace. The drivers either sang their folk-songs or shouted to their horses as they went. They seldom beat their horses, but would argue with them in a most peaceable manner ; should this prove unavailing, the driver would try abuse, and cull his steed a wolf or a Jew — than which he knew no expression moj'e contemptuous 1 The people all bore a strong family likeness — Heber was approaching the heart of the Slav country — and were alike good=humoured, dirty, and sheepskin clad. There appeared to be one great distinction between the serfs of the country, arising out of the position SCANDINAVIA AM) RUSSIA IN 1S05. 53 of their proprictoi-. All tlic crown sciis, and nearly all those who belonged to very great nobles, were in RUSSIAN 1-AHM. a mnch more prosperous condition than those who be- longed to individuals of less wealth. Nearly the whole of the former were assessed at a fixetl rate — live rubles per annum for crown serls and ten rubles for noblemen's ; and, owing to the In,, r: 54 REGINALD IIKDKR. circunislaiiccs of tlicir lord, they knew that they were ]-)ractically safe from interference or alteration of their I'ents. The result was that it jiaid them to be indus- trious, and a large number of the seii's were in really aiHuent jwsitions. Althoui^h technically all serfs were compelled to work so many days in each week for their proprietoi's, as a matter of fact it was to their mutual benefit for the serf to work on his own account and be assessed so nuich per annum for the privilege. But the master j^rovided him with a cottage and a small allotment, the nature and site of which, by the way, were decided by a meeting of the peasantry under the pre- sidency of the Starosta, the elder of the village. Of course domestic serfs and those employed in manufac- ture were freed from such rent, and were, in addition, provided with food and clothing. On the other hand, those who went to the large towns in order to make more money, and those generally who embarked in trade, were assessed at a higher rent. This system of pa^'ing rent for leave to employ one's time on one's own account was carried to such an extent that the aged and feeble, when they preferred to roam the country as beggars, had to pay rent for permission to beg. But it may be added that these old fellows could, if they pleased, remain at home and receive, at the expense of their master, a cottage, some food, and, perhaps, all needful clothing. At last the 720 versts — or 520 miles — of road between Petersburg and Moscow had been galloped over, and on January 31x1 the three travellers — for our Consul-General, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Daniel Bayley had joined them in their journey — reache.l Moscijw. It will be interesting i^' c note, as briefly as possible, the chief features the city of Moscow as observed by Heber. Many of them had only a few more years of existence ; six short years later Moscow was to he destroyed bv its own people ; to br burnt over the heads of that vast amy, more numerous than any army yet led in Europe ; so strangely nn'xed and SCAN1)INA\I.\ AND RUSSIA IN 1 80 = 55 niotlty lluit the legions of Xc xes and their fate form a starthng- parallel ; yet apparently so ]x)\verful and over- whelming that its atlvance has been called " the storm of nations " — that i^raiide armc'c of Napoleon, which was to suffer so fearfully in its retreat that for every man who returned alive seven were left stark and dead on Russian soil. lleber, writing to his motlier on his arrival, says that they reached "this over-grown village, for I can compare it to nothing else, in the nujonlight;" but his subsequent descriptions reveal both the magnitude and magnificence of this ancient city. Grown up on a wide plain, watered by the river Moskva, Moscow seemed to him about the size pf London and Westminster. There were two cities, * if one may say so: the old city— parallel to that of London — called Kitai-gorod, the city of Katliay ; and the new Russian city which grew up outside its walls alter the Tartar conquest, and called Biel-gorod, the White City. The old Tartar walls still surrounded Kitai-gorod ; the high brick towers, pagoda-shap d, still stood sentry over its ramparts. Gateways and gates were as Oriental as those of any Tartar city in Asia. In the treasury of the Kremlin, the crowns of Kazan, Astrachan, Siberia, and a dozen other Asiatic kingdoms were securely housed — representing a long series of conquests. Perluips the finest view of the old city was to be had from above the famous Saracenic gate of the Kremlin. From the summit of .St. Michael's tower, standing, in the middle of the great court, you might behold this L':auti- ful prospect turned into a map. Right and left ot you would be the churches — Christianised mosques — in one of which Russia crowned its Czars and in the other buried them. Beyond were bai'racks and public build- ings, a group of convents, and the archiepiscopal palace. Around rose terrace above terrace and tower beyond tower, their gilded spires forking to a golden flame in the crescents wl \c\\ still crowned them. Fancifully did Ileber think, as he walked up the magnificent '!-u - 1%\- i^M ' 56 KlCClXAl.h lIlCIiKR. Stan-case (. I tlu- Krcniliii and looked aiouiid him, that he was tho h(T() of ail Eastern talc, and expert to meet with the talkiiii;-i)ird or the singing-water of Oriental romance. It is interesting to note tliat he has left a cai'c ful F Tin: KUKMLIN. catalogue of the chief buildings of old Moscow The list runs thus: The Kremlin, with its magnificent cluster of builduigs; the seven-spired Church of St Basil, whose architect lost his eyes by order of Ivan II • the Club of the Nobles ; the Foundling Hospital • the nipenal Palace in the Slobodi ; ]-'rince Gallit';^in's Hospital; the Theatre; M. Paschkof's house- the SCANniNAN lA AM) lUJSSlA I \ 1S05, 57 L^iivcr>it3' ; the Collc.i^c ibr Foreii;!! i\ flairs ; Uk; Admiralty; ami iMdizikof's pa.t^oda-likc churfli. The streets of tlie more modern town were very wide, and wound in line curves, in contrast to the iiregular and naiM-ower streets of the older j^art. 'I1iou,i;li' for- bidden by law, many of the houses, perhaps (jne-half, were built of wood. The architecture, of course, was very mixed, but over everything, in both cities, the hand of the Tartar had not been content merely to pass — it had rested. One house, in particular, arrested the attention of the travellers. A fine building-, used as a warehouse, bore on its gateway the sign of the lion and the unicorn. It had formerly been the house of the English ambassadors. iJut, in place of the royal arms, a Russian inscription had been carved, and this informed the world that the Knglish were regicides and heathens, and had been expelled the Russian Empire. The immediate cause for this had been the death of Charles I. Several of the churches had been built or " restored " by the unfortunate Solarius. lie was an Italian, a Milanese. After building St. Basil at Moscow he was so singularly indiscreet as to proclaim that he had often seen finer churches in Italy! Ivan II. promptly had his eyes put out, — in order, we may presume, to prevent a similar experience occurring in the future. The Churches of the Assumption and St. Michael were both his, and they were both an adajitation of the Cireek orders to Tartar outlines. In the former the Czars were buried ; and in the latter, the walls of which were plated with silver, tiie patriarchs of the Greek Church. Near by, in the library of the Synod of that church, a robe was shown which had belonged to the patriarch Nicon ; it was embroidered in pearls \yith the words of the Nicene Creed. It may be men- tioned in passing that on festal days these patriarchs used to ride through Moscow on horses shod with silver. 'J'his short description of Moscow must not be con- i-'i ' J Mil .J: 5 s-s kk(;l\.\i,i) iii;iii;k. <'lu(h (I \vitl)(,iit mciiti \\a.s a national iiistitni ""i"",u tiic ^^H.^(lli^,^■ I lospital, wlnVIi l)v a r thi '.valty I"", •^iippoi-Uil, aiiK.iin- otlicrw oiu imposed ..11 cvirv tluatrii-al pcrf ";"t the enipiiv! Alu.'ut six hundivd el ^T "/''""tanud and cdnaUcd in the horn' "L '^ ''I'- ''".i^vi- number passed throUKli its hand course., I a. year. In the year i avs. oriiiance hild nil lonie itseIC; hut in the three thou b\- its worl CI nnmech" M-eviuus to llei)er's visit, orty) had been benefited dien were taken without inquiry, and ';;and children (save torty) had been bene! itel> baptised, unless proof was offered Jf vious baptism. After th sent into the provinces in 'the d...^,- ,. „, a.Jfcoive they came back to be- Educate ot eighteen they left tl 'lid cloth in 'J'l pre- cy were vaccinated they were 'large of nurses ; at the at the age »nie money ic institntit)n with s. shoemakers, etc., but ic boys were educated as tail M'ven a good medical educat , l>iit many of the more caDabl be up as embroid ■ame medical nurses, but (^ ivrs and the lil ion. more usu 'J'l ors. le were lie girls oi'ten ally w ■ere brouuht buryr. M •Socially, Ileber found M A 111 use men t, he savt- oscow in advance of Peters- 'scow, and to do tht business perfectly. At leavinir Enfrimui i is th le great business of people justice they did that Moscow, for the first time since ^'••cally'intu-e;;;^-"'':r; T ^^'^^'V^^^"^" ^vnowere n,j.i -^ , "'■^'^^^'"S- At the soirees g ven bv the um miglu have UU.ngvd to I.nncasliiie or CJicsliiiv ;;.;>.^t oddly say. A,„o„k those w \ul Z ZI Htio,,t,'t !■'■";'■■"","'■ •""' '""'-'' "'""W--- i"'°r- Kussmn pohtics; C„u„t Alexis Pushkin 1^ 'm^o a UKiuary ; „„d IVinco Dasi.koff rwl,o had be n\ T m "' '-*-'-- at EdMburgh). Of M. Karan i /ZX SCANDINAMA WD RUSSIA IN 1805. 59 travels in luin.pf were tlini very ramous, he and Ihnrnt.Mi saw much, ami 1 IcIkt 'nunticns that (.11 n.'Icrniii;- to his tra\oIs the Imperial historionraplu'i- (lor that was his post then) shook liis luad aiid'said he was very young when he wrote them. The Kdinhitn^h Kcview had recently reviewed them hostilelv, antf^'a nval author (for , he had his rivals) translated the beotch article- into Kussian, and "circulated it through r/H- -' .' •l-.4/',i ■.-TT -w:. lOUNDLING HOSPITAL CIUOUNDS, Mt).M OW. Moscow with great solicituile." In the Princess Dash- kof Uiey made a good iViend and an interesting ; she It will he rememhered, was a great ally of CathLrine iT i his courtly old lady's upper costume usually consisted ot a mans great coat with a star ariixed to tlie hreast while ahove it all she wore a night-cap. The military governor of Moscow was exceedingly kind to the young travellers; and the head of the university ex- tended such hospitality that IJeber says '* Oxford lili J.! 1 ". 6o KKciN \i,i) iii:i;i:r. Jts.( n..U n..i have lurn ashamed." Vynm in. hiIhts n thf bntish Kinhassy tln-y had nmrh help i„ the- way nt intmcucti..ns-L(,rd Stuart dc Rothesay bciim- particularly incntionfd. ** Althou-h Mosruvv society rculd converse; hi two or three lauguaKes-Ciernian, French, and Italian as a rule— beside its own, such ability did not prevent its bein.ij curiously ignorant of ..ther countries fleber was frequently asked if the Knglish did not hang their prisoners ol war; he was even asked if Knglish women were not slaves, and sold with a halter 'about their necks ()( course these were exceptions, but the icmark held good as a rule. On the other hand foi iRU ihshions W( i c much in Vogue. ,..,,. , r. — • The favourite ..latcnal lor women's clothes was silk-even the worn, „ ot tile Jower classes wearing silk handkerchiefs on their ^■ads. Among the wealthier classes silk was tlie fashionable material for gowns, and the young women wore costumes gorgeously embroidered witli thread iM.niKts and headdresses entirely con^posed of pearls were common wear among them. The Oriental in their nature came out, too, in an excessive u.e of paint-even the dead, when laid out for the fan wells ot riencs and acquaintances, had their faces thickly and brightly painted. Dancing and card-playing formed a large part of the s.jcial festivities, and plav ran hi-h • iHit young people were neither supi.osed lior, indeed' allowed to play cards. 'J-he manners of society were not only polished, but the real expression of 'honest welcome and kindly heans. After a brief journey to the north-east as far as Kos- roma, through at that time, a district quite unknown to Lurope-IIebe.- and Thornton, I believe, were the irst Lnghsh travellers who had visited Kostroma— they returned to Moscow and prepared for departure I he news of Pitfs death had then arrived, and the state o the Continent prevented an immediate return to Kngland. It was accordingly decided to travel south to 1 cherkask, the capital of the Cossack country, and SCANDINAVrA AND RUSSIA IN 1S05. r,| aftir a sojourn ninnng that interesting people to cio.ss over to tlie Crimea, from the Criiiu a to journey tn Odessa, and pass theno(> to \'i. una. It was hop, 1 that Austria would by that tiuu- have become more tran- (juillised; and, at any rate, at Odessa they would be .-il'Ir t.. h.ar the latest news. The French "had evacu- ated Cermany, and s(. the travell'Ts planned their route home from X'ienna 7'id Dresden and Berlin lleber was particularly anxious to pass thiou.uh that part of the Continent which had recently been the theatre of war : " It would be almost a crime," lie wrote to his brother, "to lose the opportunity of obtaininir the information which mav be derived from seeiu"- a country recovering from the efVects of su terrible\n nn'asion." 0.1 March 13th, then, they left the city of Moscow I'ound tor the south. But they looked back on that city, with Its (ifteen hundred spires, witli a genuine ivgret. The two months the-. !,ad spent in it had been passed in ipuch social enjoy.. rnt and intcrestiu.r study. ■ * a I f I fCll SLEDGES IN III.E. ClIAPTKR III. AMOSC. 'II li: COSSACKS. '"T^RA\'ELLIN(i in a liL;lit vehicle, to all intents and X purposes an ordinary carriage, thougli mounted on a sledge, they made rapid progress on their southern journey. Comfortable, too, they found it, and so arranged that they could lie down at full length and make theii- beds in it — no small virtue when travelling in a coi:ntry where' beds were few and far between. A fortnight later they arrived at Kharkov, after passing for about nine huntU'ed miles through a stretch of desolate country, in the early part of the journey the snow had been very deep, and in the later they had crossed wide distiMcts of muddy morass and flooded country ; both impeded pmgi'ess. But, perhaps, this loss of time was gain to knowledge, as a closer acciuaintance could be formed with the character and habits of the people. The largeness of the towns and the number of churches seem to have been the most notewoithy surprise. Ileber has left us a fairly good picture of the ordinary country house of the Russian landlord at this period. Of rural magnificence there were no traces, and the Russian counterpart of our country squire seldom pos- sessed a house which would approach in si.?e, not to speak of comfort, those to be found in their hundreds in any English count}'. Small in extent, low in height, 62 AMONCi Till: COSSACKS. 63 and built of Avood, these houses were more h-ke the bungalows of a warmer cHmc. Few had more th"n one story, and four or iWe decent rooms. These rooms .>pc.Kxl into each other in almost invariable orde : t e i- St bemjr the dnung-roon. The bedroom of laird and l.i> the kitchen and "some dirty holes where the servants and the other members of the familv sleep " 1 here were no guest-chambers, visitors being provided llebe 't II "'"" .;'y "'^ ""' '''' """••• '' A llussia ,' I c las c nl> a .uigle coverlet, and seldom takes off any clothes but h,s shoes and coat. The women sleep n n.ghtoowns ..., what we should call drcssing-gow s " an Lnghsh lady at Moscow was taxed with great in^ decency because she undressed at night. Tliey generill v .-.se early and are dressed in a fevv^ninutes ,• a r 'nt pours a httle water on their hands, they wash t own faces, and their toilet is soon finished. Tlev sometimes take a single cup of tea, but never auN-thinn- more belore noon; an English breakfast i.s, 1 believ ^-nknown on the Continent. At Moscow we werJ scmremjes invited to breakfhst a PAn^lais; but always found that they imagined an English breakfast was a meal on beefsteaks and champagn? " One or two incidents of the jSurney soutii will show te than any contmuousdiaiy, the sort of experience vhich Heber and his Iriend encountered. At one place, for example, they were blocked lor six ho ,r u a snowdrift; in another the hor.ses gave out, a . tl e ir^e^H ev"'-' rV" r"^'^'--the Englishn^en liad^ cMl eyes. A few days later the travellin.- carnage was bogged, and a dozen horses had gradu- v o be borrowed from passing sankies be orc-^ t co be extricated. Pmt as they made " southing '' tl e sn beg.n o disappear, and although there A^^re swo U xei. to cross and muddy tracks to toil painful! rough, no mishap beyond those to be expec cd n any journey in a wild country was encountered I ■ I. it". " 1 li^l 1. a^H 4 64 RKc.iNALi) iii;r,i;R. At Tula, a small sort of Russian Birmingham, they had nottd that at tlic arm-factorits it was quite a Odinmon trick to put the word " London " on the guns; so clumsily, however, was the fraud perpetrated that this persuasive " certificate of origin " was frequently engraved in Russian characters! Reaching Kursk they soon afterwards arrived at Kharkov. 'J'his city is the capital of the Sloboda Ukraine. Of I'kiaini's tlure wc iv two — that on the west, in the hasin of tiie Dnieper, being the Polish Ukraine; and that on the east, in tlie basin of the Don, being the Sloboda L'kraine. The people of the Polish Ukraine had had for three centuries a series of conflicts with Russia, now being subdued into submission and now breaking out into rebellion again under some patriotic hetman. The last great insurrection hpd been led by Mazcpi:;a ; but it \vas doomed to failure. Nevertheless the people of the western Akraine maintained an inde- pendence in their dress and maimers — of Polish-Tartar origin — and wh( n Ileber visited them could not sav a good word for the Russians. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the Sloboda Ukraine, on the east (Ukraine, by the way, has much the same meaning as our " Border"), were in origin Cossack, and though all their independence liad been taken from them, they clung to their own language and dress. Their dislrie-^t is more commonly called " Little Russia." On the whole the people seemed to lead a fairly easy life — the greatest want in the country being the scarcity of wood. Large herds of cattle were everywhere seen, but milk was at a premium, and rarely obtainable, owing to the fact that it was seldom drunk, and no butter or cheese ever made. " The little milk we could get," says Ileber, "was always considered as so much stolen from the calf," On March 29th they reached Baemuth, the old frontier of Malo or Little Russia, of tlie khanate ot the Crimea, and the first town in what was now called New Russia. It marks the threshold of the AMONG THE COSSACKS. 65 steppes. 7 he country thence to Taganrog was a wide treeless p am, the soil of chalky clay, with here and there a village or a town, chiefly noteworthy for the groups of willows planted about them. Portions of this steppe were ploughed, and the people actually produced more corn than they consumed. Scattered over the steppe were many tumuli, usually surmounted with some figure rudely carved of limestone. Dirty were the houses, wretched seemed the people ; yet labour com- manded a good price, and the serfs had easier times than those of Great Russia. No doubt the damp soil bnngmg with it malarial fevers, exercised a permanent Hifluence on the physique of the people. The post- houses were miserable affairs_lean-to huts jammed in a hole in some bank or slope. Occasionally a hill arose trom the plain, but league upon league the country was a dead level, and if not actually a marsh, at least deep with mire. The most cheerful sight were the sushks the marmots of the steppes, who scampered about ike rabbits, uttering their shrill whistles at every turn. With the fecundity of rabbits, these little creatures were the plague of the country : they burrowed and bred with such persistence that large parts of the steppe were like a rabbit-warren. High overhead floated eagles with glittering eyes fixed on the little sushks ; and large flocks of the grea. buzzard were similarly occu- pied Occasionally, too, the peasant, whose corn was rapidly devoured as it sprang above ground, would come and pour water down the burrows, and so the lively httle sushks did not have things all their own way-- especially in summer, when the steppe became less miry and troops of Calmuks wandered about, pitching their tents hither and thither, and making deep cauldrons of suslik soup. As the steppe nears Taganrog, a northern slope has to be ascended, and then, as you travel alon.i, rUl 66 REGINALD IIKl'.ER. f Taganrog owes to the shape of the bluft' on which its fortress is built, is neither high nor particularly grand in character ; but it has a simple dignified outline, of good proportions, and is consetpiently i^iposing in appearance. But the town in Ileber's time was the exact reverse. The buildings were not only humble but dirty ; the people, though in easy circumstances, were dirty too ; there was practically no cultivated society, the chief portion of the trade being in the hands of European "supercargoes," whose private character would hardly have borne even a cursory examination. Of the people, the greater part were Greeks of low position, very ignorant and very un- progressive ; but there were Russian peasants in fair number — no Russian persons of the upper class — Cos- sacks in profusion, some Armenians, and not a few Jews. All things were dear at 'J^aganrog with but two exceptions — corn and fish ; the one being grown in great quantity in the district, and the other being found in enormous quantities on the spot. Here, in fact, at the mouth of the Don, the natural provision of fish tended to become a plague. The sturgeon was common, and the enormous " white fish " — running to fourteen or fifteen feet in length — formed the staple food of the people. Although a large trade was carried on in fish, the refuse that accumulated was so grea' that both here and at many other ))laces along the eastern shores of the Sea of Azov vast stacks of putrid fish, piled up for puiposes of manure, were as numerous as, and, at times, even more numerous than, the houses. And the atmosphere of this locality con- veyed its dominant odour, not only from the heaps of fish rejected of the salters, but also from the millions of the fint- and chosen, which lay drying along the banks of the Don, or the shore of the sea, carpeting them as closely almost as grass. Above them, on the sheltered side of the downs, were the vineyards : is it so sur- prising^ that the wine of Taganrog was so bad as to be nauseous? Yet on their fishing trade, and on their AMONG TITE COSSACKS. 67 export of corn, the people kept themselves in com- parative ease-vve prefer the word to comfort. The chnuite dicl not prevent their industry, and impoverish hem-as it so o ten does-during a certain season of the 3 car. For, by a strange reversal of man's ex- penence m other regions, a mild winter at Taganro- meant poverty to the people. For unless the Sea ol" ^f the nTon"''^°- "■'/'"' ^.•^'""^^' ^'^^' "^'-^^^ --M^'-^tion of the people, sustamcd an interruption. But directly he sea froxc over, then the people came out of their K'uses, iK.r huts and their tents, and, making large oles in the ice at frequent intervals, slipped the^nd of t u; net ui hrst, and, by the help of a pole and much objurgation, passed the huge net along under the ice a.K hus made a wide cast. The ice formed standing! g.ound for any number of fishermen, and the cold season passed happily enough. With less cold how- ever there would be insufficient ice for this' artful ope, ation, and yet too much for the safo use of l)oats wo 1 ' r'n 7 T '•"'-^' ''^''P"^ '" determine ihe woik of the people, but it also imposed the strictest inuts on the periods when such work mij along the banks of the river itself or creep close clown to one of the many swamps and marshes which characterise th" country through v. hich the Lower Don winds. As regularly as spring Ciuiie round so did this low-lying country become annually flooded. Swamp united to swamp, and morass trickled into morass. The very villages were invaded by the shallow flood — hence their being so oiten raised on piles above the ground. As spring advanced and the waters subsided, the whole country appeared like the bed of a mere but recently drained. The mud was still moist, and the greenness of the reeds and spongy masses of vegetation heightened the effect. Then the rays uf the sun, as the earth canted more and more to him, grew hotter and hotter, and drew out from » « )? M !h, pi Q w 5- o but the m 70 REGINALD iii:i;i;k. this marsliy plain the vapouis that hrou^ht agues and fivers as tiuir unwelcome gift. Annually, in eon- sequence, tlieie was a sick season among the Cossacks. lUit it must not he forgotten that man, like all other creatures, managis to adapt himself to his surroundings in a way which would l)e remarkahle were it not natural. Here was a treeless district — a region where wood was almost as rare as silver. So although the Cossack built him houses of wood he ustd that wood but sparingly, and was lavish with mud antl j-eeds, and not inadetpiate were they for his simple wants ; and of reeds he made fuel for warmth and cot)king. Sometimes, indeed, a house would be altogether made of reeds, sticks being only used to make a roof. They would be fastened at the top of the reed u all, and then bent towaid a birch hoop in the centre. This hoop, in fine weather, served as chimney and ventilator, but in wet or cold weather a hood of felt was drawn over. A mat of felt was also hung over the opening, and served as a door. On piles he reared his houses, so as to be above the silent visitor of the spring, and from house to house he spanned a light gangway. Have we not over and ov(.r again seen pictures of houses almost, if not absolutely, identical with these, but ascribed, in one case, to the ancient Lake Dwellers of Europe, and in the other to those Malayan tribes of our own time who are in about the same state of civilisation as the Lake Dwellers once weie ? Hcbcr said rightly that " no one but a race of fishermen or pirates would have chosen so unwholesome a spot." Precisely : and both the Cossacks and the Dyaks were fishermen and pirates. To the latter class, however, the Cossacks have ceased to belong. The dress of the Don Cossacks was modelled on that of ancient Muscovy. The long coats were of various colours, but on gala occasions blue and scarlet were the favourite. Emblazoned with silvei- lace, and spangled with a profusion of silver ornaments, the men made a brave show on occasion. And not behind in AMONG THE COSSACKS. 71 this, if b(,hiiul at all, were the Cossack women. The outdoor costume of a well-ch-essed woman would he a richly-coloured silk tunic, girt in by a belt of solid silver; loose silk trousers, and boots of yellow leather. On the head they would wear a beautiful silk hand- kerchief of Indian or Persian workmanship, and both on this and on their tunics it was usual to hang or embroider strings of pearls. At a festive indoor gathering the trousers were of some light colour- yellow or pink, or pink and silver ; a long open gown was put on over this, perhaps of the palest green ; and the silver girdle might be hidden by the mass of ixarls .set upon it. 'J'he plaited hair hung down the back, and the Indian silk handkerchief appeared as a simple snood. Iland.some, though of Tartan type, and tall— taller than the Russians— the Cossacks of the Don country were fully able to show their striking dress to advantage. Chiefly pastoral in their habits, the wealthier mem- bers of the race used to cultivate vineyards of .some size, and thought and drank more of the wine they produced than the wine deseived or was good for them. Of spirits they were very fond, and one of their chiefs, I leber tells us, actually drank brandy and salt— a jaded palate indeed ! Briefly, there were at this time five distinct hordes -if one may say so— of Cossacks. There were the Cossacks of the Dneiper; the Den Cossacks; a third group in Poland which, of an ancient Nogay race and professing Mohanunedanism, still retained the Tartar habit of eating raw flesh; then, in Siberia the Cossacks of the lira); and the Zaperogians— the Cossacks of the Kuban. Although Meber was told that they got the name " Cossack " from the scythe-like shape of their swords (" coss " = any crooked weapon), it is much more probable that the name, which should perhaps be written " Kazak," means n " lobber." This came to have in time a meaning not unlike the Scotch '• land- louper ; " and it might be fairly applied to the whole race. I fi 72 UKC.INAI.I) IIKI'.EU. And mixed, indeed, that race was. Russians of Cii'eat Russia, Russians of Malo-Kussia, Tartars, I'oles, Circassians, 'J'uiks — all had a hand in the making or the blending of this adventurous people. Edward Clarke, before Ileber, remarked the great mi.\tur« not only of the true Cossacks, but also of the general population of this modern Scythia. Ikit whether you arc impressed by the appearance of the Armenian or the Grec k, there are onlv three types which really dominate tin crowds '.idi ,-,.aiii: together in the streets of Tcherkask or Taganrc/', These three types arc Cossack, Kalmuk, and Nogay. The Cossack is not un- like an Kuropeai'. darker in skin than the Teuton, but more florid than the Latin races ; brown of > ye, small and somewhat li[i-tilted of nose, black (but sometimes auburn) of hair, which is curly. '^V. '^ ,i> Je are they, and active, strong, and tireless. Magnificent horsemen, skilful boatmen, and zealous fisherme!i, thc}^ have lived, as far bark as we can trace them, in tlieir reed* d huts. On the jther hand, the Kalniuks are a wandering people dwelling in tents, not a little remarkable. These nomritainable, anti not only had them tianslateti into Russian, bui caused tluiu to be used instead of the old service-books, which had been hope- lessly mutilated by a ' mg course of ijj^norant copyinjj;. Hut mixed with the tinets of the Cireek Church, the Cossacks ritained many tiaces of 'I'artar paganism. Easter, however, they celebrateil with all the fervour of true Russians, and Ileber has left us a long account of their cei monies, a passage from which will serve to show its interest. On iCaster Eve "all the churches were illuminated, and all were crowded, particularly the Cathedral ; the congregations were dressed in their best clothes, and held lighted tapers in their hands. The elTect produced was very solenni and n agnificent. The priests and choir alternately continued singing j)laintivc, solemn hymns ; we observed that the same hymns occurred repeatedl}'. The priests stood in ranks on each side the steps of the altar, all in their most magnificent liabits ; and the choir was placed in a very high gallery at the west end. The congregations were attentive, and showed wonderful patience. Many, I think, re- mained there the whole night, without any ivst or change of altitude, except from standing to prostration. The priests made several processions round the church, carrying the great cross, the Bible, etc., and occasionally incensed the people, and received their offerings in a silver plate. 1 did not observe that any large sums were given, and we understood that their principal harvest at this season was made by going from AMONr; tiik ('OSSACKS. 75 hoiisL- to house, wluii the people gave very boiuiti- fiilly. "At the iiioimnt of das !>ieal< a cannon was lired, at which signal all the hells in tin- town rang and the choir burst into a loud hymn, 'Chrlstos voskn ss ! ' (Christ is risen.) 'i'o which the chorus of priests Ix low answered, ' Ves, lie is indeed risen!' They then embraced each other, anti kissed a cross, which they presented first to the attanian and then to such of the cf)ngregatioii as were fortunate enough to get near ii. After this the service began for ICaster Day : the sacrament was administered, and a sermon preached. The old attaman, who had come into the town on purpo.se, ami had remained in church with his officers the whole of the night, stood in the aisle like all the rest, but distinguished by his red riband and the badge of his authority, a long ebony .staff with a round silver head, something like a melon. After the sermon the priests distributed small cakes of consecrated bread ; and the people i)resented eggs to each other, accom- panied by the address, 'Christ is risen,' which was always answered I)y an embrace and the answer, * Yes, He is indeed.' This is the only salutation allowed during the weeks immediately succeeding Easter, and all are in this respect on an equality. 'J'he Empress her.scif durst not i-efuse the kiss of a slave, when accompanied with a hard egg and this exclamation. The eggs are generally prepared some days before, and are curiously painted and gilt. To foreigners the Russians in the southern part of the empire say always Xpiarnf avecTTTj (Christ is risen) — as the Greeks are the foreigners of whom they .sec the most. The rest of th«' day was spent in amusement and feasting. We all went to the attaman's house, where we found an immense Easter cake, a cold ham, and several other good things, with plenty of brandy and Donskoy wine on a large table ; this was about nine in the riiurning. The church choristers attended and sang the Easter hymn ; till this was finished, and grace had been said ;6 REGINALD IIKI'.KK. by the bishop, nobody touched the victuals. Afterwards they fell to with a famous appetite, as might be expected in men who had not tasted meat for forty days. The liand were in a very handsome scarlet uniform. Several officers, from seven or eight regiments which happened to be on their return that day from Poland, came in with the rest of the guests, and among them was Platofs son. His father received him with great dignity, not as a father, but as a commander-i)^-chief, tilT, after a few minutes' conversation, he called nim to an inner room, where, the door remaining half open, 1 saw^ him embrace him with great tenderness. About noon the attaman returned to his house in a hand- some ten-oared barge. These barges are the principal articles of luxury in which Cossack chiefs indulge; their rowers are all splendidly dressed, and their prows profusely carved and gilded. . . . We walked about almost the whole evening, but, notwithstanding all the stories we had heard of Cossack brutality, we saw nothing of the kind. . . . All the stories of the impossibility of travelling in Russia during a feast time are greatly exaggerated, and are probably chiefly drawn from the excessive profligacy of a Petersburg mob._ I do not think that the people in the other parts of Russia are more given to intoxication than the English." And, writing to his brother, he says that during the Easter festivities " there was certainly far less drunken- ness and rioting than on an English holiday." Of these modern Scythians many familiar tales are told. Room for such tales we have not, but it will be expected, perhaps, that any account of the Cossacks, however short, should include a word or two about that famous drink, koumiss. The Erenchman Rubruquis has told us that it is *• sharp on the tongue, like raspbeiry wine," i)ut other opinions have been published which convey diflerent impressions. It is made ot fermented mares' milk, kept in a skin, and generally hung at the door of the hut or tent. It is the great drink of summer, but really not more popular than the AMONG TUF COSSACKS. 77 mixture of rice and honey which is the favourite winter beverage. After a stay in Tcherkask, Hcber and Thornton crossed over to Azov, and made their way thence through the country of the Kuban to Kertch. On their journe}^ through this wild country they came in contact with the Circassians, who were " out " at that time ; but beyond having a number of false alarms and their Cossack guard increased in number at different stations, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The way was chiefly marsh and bog, but this unpleasantness was balanced by the abundance of excellent sport with deer, hares, pheasants, and ducks which they were able to enjoy. Of Kertch Heber could find no good word to say, except in favour of its antiquities. The town was small and wretched, and the manners of the people contrasted ill with those of the Cossacks. Heber men- tions in his journal that at Kertch a Russian major " who agreed to furnish us with horses and an open kibitka to Kaffa, insisted on such usurious terms that the other officers cried out, * Shame ' ; " and that the same man afterwards squeezed some further presents out of Thornton's servants. " A Cossack," he adds, " would have disdained such conduct." Leaving Kertch and passing over the swampy plains — then densely settled by the bustard, the crane, and the stork— of the eastern peninsula of the Crimea, they arrived at Kaffa, and again were much impressed by the dismal condition of the town. But Kaffa had a more picturesque position and architectural qualifica- tions. Although the town was nearly a complete ruin at the time, it rose from the water's edge and climbed the hill behind with an effective display. The forti- fications, once magnificent, \'/ere still impressive ; some beautiful Mohammedan baths still showed signs of past magnificence, though converted into warehouses ; mosques there were in plenty — only one, however, not a ruin. Travelling thence along the southern shore, : m 1 1 ' I : )' I-:' II ;;. ) i » 78 REGINALD TIEBER. an overshadowed on the north by a long range of hills, they came to Sudak, where they spent a day with Pallas, the famous artist and antiquary. Here the Greek element was very dominant, and the chief in- dustry lay in th^.' vineyard. Beyond Sudak the people ceased to bear the appearance or have the customs of peoples of the plain. They became mountaineers, largely Greek and Turkish ; while here and there was a village of Armenians. The roofs of the houses became flat, and porticoes surround the walls. One above the other, in an irregular order, like the burrows in a rabbit warren, the houses were built along the flanks of the hills ; vineyards above and fruit orchards below, the country was a pleasant change from the swamp and morass of the Cossack country. Passing the rocky cape of Lambat, the converging point of perhaps the fin^-st scenery in the Crimea, it is interesting to note that these young jiatriots visited Balaclava and Inkerman. Ileber writes of the latter place — fifty years before the time when the greycoats and redcoats were to mingle in carnage — that " there are some formidable batteries, and the mouth of the harbour is very easy of defence." A brief stay v/as made in Batchiserai, then the largest town in the Crimea, and peopled by Turks, jews, and Armenians almost exclu- sively, and then, regaining the mainland, they journeyed on to Perekof From here we cannot follow them step by step on their way through Little Russia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and Prussia, and finally to 1 lamburg, where they took ship for Yarmouth ; but a visit to the tomb of that great philanthropist, John Howard, so soon after his death, and Heber's impres- sions of the great battle-field of Austc litz, only a few months following the g.eatest battle up to that time fought in P^urope, may well conclude this chapter, and the narrative of a journey of quite exceptional interest. Heber visited the tomb of Howard and sketched it. He tells us thnt it is in the de.sert, about a mile from Cherson. It was built by Admiral Mordvinof, and is I i ! of hills, ay with [ere the :hicf in- s people stonis of taineers, lere was s became bove the a rabbit s of the low, the imp and a- n verging rimea, it s visited he latter ney coats t ** there h of the •/as made mea, and ist excl Li- eu rneyed hem step , Poland, id finally )uth ; but list, John 3 impres- ily a few that time pter, and interest, etched it. mile from )f, and is > r > r, r > ! t { 1 )• I ■ ' 8o REC.INALD IIEl'.ER. " a small brick pyramid, whitewashed, but without any inscription. He himself fixed on the spot of his inter- ment. He had built a small hut on this part of the steppe, where he passed much of his time, as bemg the most healthy spot in the neighbourhood. I he English Burial Service was read over him by Admiral Priestman, from whom 1 had these particulars. . . Howard was spoken of with exceeding respect and affection by all who remembered or knew him ; and they were many. Edward Clarke, whose travels in Russia a few years before Heber have enriched our literature concerning that country with a most entertaining work gives us a most graphic account of the last hours of Howard, the details of which he took down from Admiral Friest- man. This officer, like many other Englishmen was in the Russian service, and was thus enabled to befriend Howard at the end. It had been Howard's practice to visit the Admiral at a fixed time every day, laying his watch on the table as he entered to enable him to spend the exact time-one hour-he allotted to the visit One dav finding that Howard did not come, the Admiral went out to see him. Howard had been struck down by fever, and was sick unto death. After a little con- versation he said to Priestman,— ''There is a spot near the village of Dauphigny which would suit me nicely ; you know it well, for I have often said I should like to be buried there ; and let me beg of you, as you value your old friend, not to suffer any pomp to be used at my funeral ; nor any monument, or monumental inscription whatsoever, to mark where I am laid ; but lay me quietly in the earth, place a sun-dial over my grave, and let me be forgotten. Priestman went straight forth and obtained permission to use the piece of ground as a burial-place. He then returned to Howard and told him. This seemed to make the dying man satisfied. Just at this moment a letter arrived from England, giving him good news ot his son. On hearing it read, Hr>w.ard said to Priest- man, •' Is not this comfort for a dying father ? AMONG THE COSSACKS. 8 1 He then made the Admiral promise to read the English Burial Service over him — he greatly disliked the ceremonies of the Greek Church. Priestman pro- mised, and Howard never spoke again. A little later, Admiral Mordv^nof (then in command of the Russian {[' . in the Black Sea) came in to see him. Howard recognised him, and then, in the presence of these good friends, quietly, and without apparent pain, drew his last breath. His portrait had never, I think, been taken ; but Mordvinof had a' mould taken of the great philan- thropist's features, and Clarke saw a cast of this mould when at Cherson. ^3'^-fa*-- TOMU OF JOHN HOWARD. (From a (hiiwiiig by Reginald Hcber.) The sun-dial was not placed above him, but a monu- ment of some pretensions but unusual ugliness. Stone posts, connected by chains, were placed round for protection, but when Heber made his sketch these had entirely disappeared. On leaving Vienna, Heber and Thornton travelled to Briinn, and from there they visited the field of Austerlitz. Heber tells us that they " passed a whole day in tracing out and drawing plans of the battle. . . . Except a lew skeletons of horses, and a few trees which have been shivered by bullets, all wears its 6 82 REGINALD IIEllER. ancient appearance. . . . We drew much .nf..rmat.o. from a sensible farmer in the village ot behuhnitz. All the stories wv had heard in Russia were very ialse ; and the Austrian-^' account of the behaviour ot the Russian troops equally so. The loss ot the battle is entirely attributable to the scandalous want of intorma- tion of the Austrians, and to the extended I'ne on which Kotusof made the attack. The trench had behaved very well till their victory, but alter it they committed m-eat excesses among the villages ; the Russians were popular among the common people, which at once proved the falsehood of the scandals circulated against them at Vienna. At last, however, they too were driven to plunder ; but it was by absolut(^ famine, owing to the miserable weakness ot the Austrian G.A'ernment, and the bad conduct ot their aoents The Russians understood the Moravian lan- -uagc being only a dialect of the Slavonian ; and tins drcumstance endeared them a good deal to the people. The loss of the French on this memorable day was much greater than they have been willing to alloxy. My informant had passed the morning after the battle rom Schohnitz by Pratzcn to Austerlitz. On the hill ot Pratzen, he said, M could not set my foot to the ground for blue uniforms.' I drew there a few plans of the ground, and at last succeeded in makmg a very exact one. While 1 was thus employed, 1 was taken for a French spy, and accosted by some ianners who asked, with many apologies, for my passport. 1 toltl them I had none, and a very curious village counci ot war was held, which was terminated l)y the arrival ot Thornton and the guide we had taken from l>t-unn^ At Hamburg Ileber and Thornton met Lord Mor- peth, and he gave them the use of his cutter. In this they sailed to Yarmouth, landing on October 14th iboO the very day on which the battle of Jena was tought ^ ■ -^ ^ ■ . -•- Tr..„.,<,ji ,^ battle which between the Prussians an ])laced l^russia at few month F the feet of Bonaparte, and resulted, a later, in the Peace of Tilsit. CHAPTER IV. THF COUNTS' PARSON'. IT EBER had written to his brother from Lcniberg, 1 " 1 shall certainly see yen before the All Souls' election." As a Fellow of that society he was keenly interested in the matter; but on his return he found the country on the very eve of a general election, and, as his brother was a candidate for the University seat he made up his mind to stay a day at Oxford on his way home. By a curious coincidence, John Thornton's father and uncle were both candidates for other seats, and the young travellers flung themselves into the struggle with all the zest of Englishmen whose foreign experiences have heightened their patriotism. Richard Heber was beaten by Abbott, and Thointon's father also suffered defeat; but \ e find Reginald writing: "My brother's minority is tr.;; i.'n.-t numerous ever known on a similar occasion ; and as the whole weight of govern- ment weni against him, it was scarcely to be expected that a mere country gentleman, with no inLorcst but his personal character, could have pro !u'~'^H such serious numbers, of which not a single vote coulu be atiributed to unworthy or unfit motives." A qucM-oii arose as to the eligibility of the successful candidate, but Richard Heber ixfused to re-open the matter. Naturally the welcome home to Hodnet was very m-' M- i- 84 UKCINALI) IlEr.ER. 1^ 3 ■' Winn Ik-bci- had not forgotten his volunteers, and m Uie first letter that he wrote to his late companion he says that he fou.ul " my volunteers complete in number, ind in hif^h spirits." We also learn that the farmers of the ktrict' gave a public feast in honour of the volunteers, to celebrate their captain s safe return 1 am ust going to put on my old red jacket," wrote I eber, - and iohi them. 1 low 1 do love these good people 1 lie now returned to Oxford, and went into residence nt All Souls. Having by this time fully determined To ake Oiders, he wa! landing hard. Fortunately the itmosohere of Ml Souls was in no sense unfavourable, or iJs qu te probable that a fit of " travellcn-'s unrest " miAit have supervened. -Fho very air of the place brSlhes study' While I write 1 am enjoying the luxuries of a bright coal fire, a green desk, and a tea- kettle bubbling. What should we have thought of such a situation at Tcherkask or at laganrog? Lx- ner ence had evidently had the effect of heightening the contrast, and led Ileber to appreciate more fully the comfort^ of England. Yet there are ^^^ny men who would have preferred the swamps of the Kuban to the ancient turf of an Oxford quadrangle Bishop Cleaver, who was still Principal of Brazenose continued to take great interest in his old pupil, and we find that he gave him much advice about his course of reading. But there were evidently intermissions in Ue study Here is a characteristic little note: though Cnibertlur la grandc tactujuc unfortunately -duced me a little as he lay very temptingly on my study table, \ lave done with him ; tactics are now, indeed enough o make a man sick. What are our wise Ministers about sending Lord Hutchison, at this time of da>s to t e Continent ? " He had already sa d that he had thought of the '- fatal 14th of October "-the day on 'vhich Jena was fought and Napoleon ^became mastei of Prussia— until he was "half crazy • We find him now in the midst of friends and ac- quaintances. To one-R. W. Hay, afterwards Under THE COUNTRY PARSON. 85 Secretary of State for the Colonies — he gives most de- tailed routes for a journey through Eastern Europe ; for another — Sir James Riddell — he translates into English verse some German poems. Sir Thomas Acland and Sir Robert Inglis— both members of Christ Church — are very dear friends ; and the festivities of a ball at a country inn, which effectually kept him from sleeping all night, occasion a humorous set of Greek verses (in Homeric metre) to Lord Ebrington, then at Braze- nose. Another friend write jf him in these Oxford days in the following wa}' : - "At a time when, with the enthusiasm of the place, I had rather caught by heart than learnt * Palestine,' and when it was a privilege to any one of any age to know Reginald Hebcr, 1 had the delight of forming his acquaintance. I cannot forget the feeling of admiration with which I approached his presence, or the surprise with which I contrasted my abstract image of him with his own simple, social, every-day manner. He talked and laughed like those around him, and entered into the pleasures of the day with them, and with their relish ; but when any higher subject was introduced (and he was never slow in contriving to introduce literature at least, and to draw from his exhaustless memory riches of every kind) his manner became his own. He never looked up at his hearers (one of the few things, by-the- bye, which 1 could have wished altered in him in after life, for he retained the habit) ; with his eyes downcast and fixed, he poured forth in a measured intonation, which from him became fashionable, stores of every age : the old romances ; Spenser ; some of our early prose writers ; of Scott's published works ; or verses of his own. I speak not of one day only, but of my general recollection of his habits, as after that day witnessed often. One moonlight night (I do not recollect the year) we were walking together, talking of the old fabliaux and romances with which his memory was full ; and we continued our walk till long past midnight. He said that it was a very easy style, and he could imitate lill Ill ii! \h\ 86 RKCINALD HKI'-l it without an effort, and as he went along he rcrited, composing as he recited, th<' liappiest inutatious ot the Geoi-Ln-Kllis sprciuiens whuli I ever saw. IklM r had tlie knack whieh belongs to only clever nnn—that of writing excellent n..nsense. lie usrd to contribute ;rux iVc^pril to the Gcullniians Magn-.me even at this time, and write many smart c p.grams tor his friends. Nevertheless, he read hard, and was at this period, as well as in his nnd, rgraduate days a close student. The subject, loo, to which he gave the largest share of his attention— theology— was calcutateil, of course, to make his literary work more and more ot grave complexion. , „ , • .• lleber was ordained deacon in 1S07, and was nisti- tuted by his brother Richard to the fanuly hvmg ot lludnet This, however, did not create an mmiediat. break in his life, for he returned to Oxford to contuuie reading f(..r Orders, and to proceed to M.A. m the usual course. . . , ^ 1 -i 1 f The doubts and difficulties which for a while beset nearly all students of theology-certainly all who have trained and logical minds, and conscientious thorougb- ness of thought-did not pass by the tuture bishoi). Writing to 'rhornton, on hearing ot his engagement, he III ence to the so-called " learned" style had he written less of purely literary and scholarly subjects. While one must not forget that even in the age of a Johnson a Gilbert White could be born to immortality, it is also necessary to remember that the sul)ject greatly dominates the style. You will scarcely be flippant if you write of sacred things ; and you would not intentionally select the style of the Schoolman when you write of the running brook. This principle Heber illustrates. When we read one of his village sermons we are at once struck by the difference of the style from that of his reviews in the Oitartcrly. But while there are styles rnid styles, there is but^ one canon of criticism lor all styles. Command of any defined style is itself, on critical grounds, laudable : whether you sing in syllables or polysyllables ; whether a spade is " a spade " or " an agricultural implement ; " whether a Ruskin invests a noble theme with noble words, or a Kipling sets down in lifelike coarseness the mere vulgarities of Tommy Atkins. For if the terms employed be proper to their subject, if the epithets be just, the syntax not only correct but so orderly as to be balanced, and yet so variously ordered as not to be monotonous or unduly rhythmical, and if the arrangement and sequence of the matter be in true perspective— then the style cannot be condemiied on the score of inherent worthlessness. It may strike one generation as pedantic, and another as ponderous, and a third as affected, and a fourth as coarse, for this is a matter of fashion ; but there can be little question that it satisfied the demands of criticism. For criticism of style does not deal with matter, but with form. Vv^hen we pass io the next question, and ask our- selves not how Ileber said his message, but tvhat message he had to say, we arrive on safer ground. This is ascertainable with a degree of accuracy which does not distinguisli it from solid fact, for of course we gather his ideas and views, the teaching he offered, and the knowledge he defined, from the actual text of his LITERARY LIFE. 107 writings. To summarise these in a paragrapli would not only deprive them of any interest they may have for us, but would almost cei'tainly be misleading-. For the story, however, of his literary life and work it will be both eas}' and interesting to find for ourselves what is best for each of us in the legacy he wrote ior all. On his return to Oxford, after his extended travels in Europe, lleber had sufficient leisure for attempting literature. It is natural that the attempt was soon made. lie had always been a great reader — almost an omnivorous reader — and in the direction of romance, ])oetry, and history a persistent student. But, as with many of Oxford's distinguished sons, his earlier efforts were largely humorous and satiri(~al. 1 le contributed at this period a number of amusing sketches to that most venerable journal, the Gciit/cDinn's Mdgaiiiw. After the fashion of the day, he sent various queries to its pages. But they were usually of an absurd cha- lacter, and he answered them himself in the next issue with a great show of reality. One of these queries was supposed to emanate from ** Clericus Leicestren- sis," and asked for full information as tc the remedy for tiie depredations of a certain insect which conceuii-ated its attention on spinach; and lleber replied at length and with great seiuousness as to the proper remedial measures — the insect, the ravages, and the remedy all being pui'tly imaginary. At another time there ajipeared a sonnet on the death of a certain Lieutenant l^hilip V , who was killed at the siege of Fort Muzzaboo on the St. Lawrence : the last line is famous — "And Maratlion shall yield to Muzzaboo" — but the fort and the siege and the lieutenant were all fiction. Yet a gentleman actually sent £$ to Sylvanus Urban for the writer of the poem, so pleased was he to hear that his nephew Philip V (who had been miss- ing for years) had died with honour to himself and his country 1 His Homeric poem on the county ball at the vM loS RKC.INAT.I) HEr.KR. "Hen and Cliirkens," Binninghani, has already been rt'fcMTcd to ; but it drsrrvfs to be read not only for the luiiiiour of the Greek, but the wit of the I.atiii notes appended. These, however, would be out of place in a book intended foi" "popular" circulation. When in the sunnner of 1806 he reached Dresden, he found that town in the state of excitement which the marching of troops to meet the French would be likely to arouse. With the clash of arms in his (\'u"s, he began the poem which in 1809 he published under the title of "Europe." It is spirited and suggestive, but it may be mentioned in passing that the prophecy regard- ing Spain — though confirmed as to political events — has not yet become true as to religious matters. Early in this year we find him thinking of the Quarterly Revicii\ then about to be started, lie writes to his friend Thornton, asking him to secure recruits for the Review, *' in which several of our conmion friends are likely to be engaged, and which may serve to set some limits to the despotic authority of the Edi'iibtiri^liJ' I le adds that he is waiting for the appearance of the first number before he finally consents to work for it. This consent he soon gave, and in the same year contributed the review on Robert Kerr Porter's " Tra- velling Sketches in Russia and Sweden." Commenting on the poem on Talavera in the same number, he says that " it is very spirited, and only unfortunate in being necessarily compared with Scott ; the author is under- stood to be Mr. Croker." And he adds: "The best article, I think, in the Revieiv is the critique on Parr, which, both in wit, taste, and good sense, is superior to almost everything of Jeffery's." At the same time we hear that his religious muse is silent. "In summer when I walked in green fields, or sat under shady trees, such fancies oiten came into my head ; now, I have unpacked six boxes of old divinity, and am otherwise employed." in preparing his travels "in Europe, Asia, and Africa," published in 18 10, the well-known traveller LITERARY LIKK 109 -has Edward Clarke made great use of Ileber's MS. journa ;. the section devoted to Russia. Ileber also placed at his disposal many of the careful sketches he had made in that country. Clarke himself wrote in the preface to that work: "In addition to Mr. Ileber's habitual accuracy may be mentioned the statistical information, which stamps a peculiar value on his observations; this has enriched the volume by com- munications the author himself was incompetent to supply." Writing of the review of this work which appeared in the (Jitaiicrly, Ileber says: "I agree with y, and not satisfying when done. Among the more serious occupations of his literary lifr, Ileber was able and willing, at times, to indulge in the lighter vein. We have seen how at Oxford he was not innocent of the satirical e(Tusit)ns that we expect from the undergraduate with a taste for verse, and now, in his maturer years, he could be persuaded to lend his pen to the uses of social enjoyment. Among these "Masques" and efforts, suggested un- doubtedly by friends and festivities rather than by Liae Muse (even in the guise she wore't(j Milton when he wrote L'Allegro), we may perhaps place "The Masque of Gwendolen " as the most conspicuous. .Some of the passages are simple and charming, as the following verse from the song to the Sea Nymphs will show: — "NympliH of .nir ami aiiciciit sea, Hi itlal gifts \\c bring to thee ! I.o, tliesc plumes of rich device, Pluck'd from birds of paradise! Lo, these drops of tssencc rare, Siiook from a wand'ring meteor's hair ! Nymphs of air and ancient sea, biieli the gifts vvc bring to thee ! " At tliat time there was no such thing as cheap and good literature. The Government regarded literaturt.^ and journalism as lawful prey, and taxed paper and 8 m 114 REGINALD IIEl'.ER. printer and publisher uitliin an nich of tlicir hvcs. Still, it began to be thought by those who had the interests of the poor at he art, that, in spite_ of these imposts nn the diffusing of knowledge, soniethuig nugh vet be done. Among those who thought and worked for this was Ilcber, and he writes to his friend I lay in 1817 that it is a great misfortune that the poor man who wants to read can find so few books of good qualitv within his means. The wholesome^ appetite for reading he could satisfy with plenty of rubbish and plenty, too, of controversial and banally political .pamphlets; but if his appetite were wholesome and keen lor good sound instructive books, he stood a very lair ehance of starving. " This evil," said Heber, ; is no met by the usual distribution of tracts by the different religious societies, since their works are not read as amusement ; and therefore, though they may some- times correct the evil of a blasphemous or seditious publicaticn, do not come in instead ot such a work. Mrs Hannah More's repository, to a certain extent, answered this object ; but an abridgment of some- historical books, of the Lives of the Admirals, ^outhey s Nelson, Hume's History, etc., would, 1 think, be of still greater advantage if a society could be instituted to print them in numbers, so cheap as to make it more worth the while of the hawkers to sell them than Paine's -Age of Reason,' etc., which 1 believe they now do sell to a greater amount than is generally supposed. Such a society was eventually founded, and for a con- siderable period carried on this very work. On the periodical journeys which his appointment to a prebendary's stall" in the Cathedral of St. Asaph required him to make- on horseback-he frequently composed songs and other poems ; more or less sug- gested by the incidents or impressions of his journeys. One familiar song, for example, is called "The Spring lourney," and another is the " Carol lor May-Day. The concluding verse of the latter will show him ni a happy vein :— LITERARY LIFE. 115 " Floiks on the inoiintaiiis, And birds upon their spray, Tree, turf, and fountains, All hold holy day : And love, the life of living things Love waves his torch, love claps his wing-i And loud and wide thy praises sings, Thou merry month of May." In September 1 817 he wrote the review on Southey's "History of the Brazils," which appeared in the Oiiar/er/v ; and in the same month he writes of the editor of that review : " Poor Gifford has, 1 fear, been dismally ill. What is to become of the Onarterly when he goes?" But Gifford was to recover, and Ileber very soon afterwards contributed an article intended to show — what subsequent events have been calcu- lated to disprove— that Russia had not the intentions against British supremacy in the East and elsewhere which a certain class of politicians began to suspect. The curious will find his arguments set forth with his usual lucidity under the title of "A Sketch of the Military and Political Power of Russia in 1817." Writing, on behalf of Gifford, to a clergyman anxious to contribute to the Review, we find this interesting little piece of information about the editorial conduct : "It is fair to tell you beforehand that Gifford claims the privilege, and exercises it with very little ceremony, of either rejecting or curtailing the articles sent to him." To the death of his firstborn in 18 19 we may trace the origin of the well-known hymn " Thou art gone to the grave,' the lilt and refrain of which were subsequently adopted by the Rev. Dr. Turner ni^his memorial verses of the Bishop. Writing to the Rev. T. E. S. Hornby, he mentions that some years betore he had thought of writing " a sort of epic poem on the subject of Arthur," and more recently contemplated something of like extent on the subject of Montgomery's "World before the Flood." Neither came to anythmg beyond a fragment. As the year went on, he wrote n6 UKC.INAU) UEl'.KR, nn article on Kinneir's Travels (comparing them with Rcnncrs Retreat of the Ten Thousand), and a second on a il^vv translation -llunt's-of Tasso. Moreover, he is ^ry busy in collecting and arrangmg h)S hymns whch says he, "now that 1 have got them together r in to ha-e some High Church scruples agamst usmi n public." His scruples we,-e to be overcoim. '•he occasion of his writing the famous hy"-. ""^ Greenland's lev Mountains," was a sermon p. cached by Heb"' tather-in-law. Uean Shipley, u. a,d o t t he Society for the Propagation ol the Gospel on W h t- Sundav 1 8 1 9, in the parish church of Wrcxhan . 1 he Dea hid asked hin> on the previous day to write some hymn appropriate to the occasion, and the story goes ifat leber there and then wrote the verses now' amd.ai to us al The origiiual manuscript was m the pos- ^s^i^^f Mr. Thomas Stamford RaHles unt^l- ^^^t death and it came to him irom his iathei the late Kcv Sas Rafiles, D.D. The latter obtamed jt Irom a Wrrxh-un resident in 183O. It ^^^■ "i^y accept the nai- ^^t^ve o l^d.-cu.nstances under which thehymn xvas V ten these fan>ous verses were strictly n.proiuptu md will reveal, perhaps, more than any -^^ -:^- 1 can bring, a spontaneity which could scaiecly Dc omu; in a writer who was not both ^l-l^-^ J^^^f ;- / A visit to Seacome, m the summer of the >eai, a Ae his Muse. " The Outward Bound Ship belongs ''' llilcl' was not only busy in writing matter which ^vas tended for publication, but he was always mo.e o'es consulted by a wide circle of friends and acquanU- nnces on points of criticism, advice as to books, and hehi in the study of theology. Many letters are ex ant wWch si ow us^hat in these private communicatu^ns he w^s 1 o less careful in his method and polished in is manner than when writing for the Ona,ia-Iy. A perusal nsiiuuiuu . ,, 1.....,,... i,,arlc thr nrcsent writer to nt man^ wonder at JI lllUSU H_l.LV_l.J 1^...^..- 1 all the work which he managed to getthrougli, an ,d to estimate something o f the loss, in innueiice LITKl^AUV I-IFl'-. I I ^nd literature-, wlmh his rcmovnl to Calcutta must havt- "" s'd here is on. later iu existence: u, wluch he wu" a careful criticisn, of Seo.fs " °-; ,,^' ™ ':(, exteiulin- to some seven tliousand woids, foi the single '■^■Tl"i;iTtr'cnd"of ,8,9 I-e began the work of cdi in" 1 e fi St eompleto and eollectcd edition of Jeremy ryir- works. The edition was to be coutamed n fourte. n or fifteen handsome octavo volun es i lebi "".': write a life and a critical cs=ay ; and he port.a of 1. remv Taylor that hung m the hall ol AH bonis 1; to rcng?aved as a frontispiece. His fr.cnd John Talb ^t c*t: ned for hi,n a good deal of mformat.on lout'-Mor's descendants in l'-'-^^, -« ,,^^trpn sent him " a curious and cl^'- "--",- dpu si'-iit of some notes which he has at ;i;S „ 'Time ;'ri ten oir-raylor." One difijculty be In with regard to the descendants was the great umbe who laid claim to this distinction w.tbout any ans of establishing it ; and ^"f^-^^^Z^":^. ,>r material for the Life. In a letter to Wilmot he sa}S . -Mhavi had from Ireland a very enriousandn.terestmg packet of details concerning Jeren.y Taylor, such as 1.. S^ng married a natural daughter ot CharlestheLn'stS : n 1 other particulars not previously known 1 he 1 shop of Oxford (who was also Warden of All Souls- S^ Colteg^^^ ent him information as to the election of Urvt clK°ne to a fellowship, about which there was 1 fcc^troversy, the fellowship finally being allowed t" ipse to please a Church dignitary, and other pai- kuh^^of \l residence there. Meneage Legge provKlc drawing from which the engraving ot the portia t vasma e There was another matter which, with the :Ss;:it-of Lord Teignmouth, he -as able^to dear up -the source of that well-known parab e ot Abiahaiu ancUhe fi e-worshipper, which Taylor, who tells , in s ^Ubenyof Prophesying;' said '- '-^^ f j-' , ;;; ^ Jews' books." Franldin -b^^-^^^ ^^ J^ ' X. Ins style of Scripture, and this, peihaps, ..< ip- - i- m it8 KKC.lNALl) 11F.IM:R. il'i i', I' : ( !i I the popular version. It is so IxMutiful that the writer, at the risk of occupying space much needed for Ilcber's own work, do;s not liesitate to quote it here. "And it came to pass, after these things, that ^..yryy^- ^ iwi- wy j:Ji »*»rr •^■■p,^ vpiV>m'^VilW" "f ' ''-■«**. .--/ -/• ^. .* ----i..^ n. ■:/,, '' • l-V ... -ff' .A,"«, /■,^^, J /■4», J-V-~>** ' L.-*'>--» U^-.:... 'in.u... z:/^...,^.. /!>fc, ;y ' '-'•<> i'>^!f,rt »-/ /^(f^ij- /r// / 6,': •,,' •-'.' 4. J A, A-*. /_*' y/ 'A. A'.I'^-d^.—. '7/., -'? ' K.M^„ ^ fi^^tJU. . ^^t ^tr-z^i a; .^ti;j. /^ {• ir? /,^ /h-v* C*-li^'-> wa}^ of the wilderness, leaning on a stafi'; "an J Abraham arose and met him, and said unto coming from tiie 1 10 writer, ■ Ilcbcr's igs, that the going with age, ling on a said unto LITERARY LIKE. 119 him 'Turn in, I r'-ay tliee, and wash thy feet, and tan'y all night J and thou shalt arise early m the morn- inj I irrv all night ; and thou sliait arise eauj^ lu ..- ■"^^y and go on thy way.' And the man said, ' Nay ; lo will abide under this tree.' But Abraham pressed f/,^.4!t^ t^^Ct-*»~ V*^ ry ,^j. jfA,^'> /-' r »-< Jt • •-- t^_» /, Z-n ' ^-.V 6 h . • .,1. -■ V ;\^-; J-,^- J^ •"'^ L MS. OF lir.liEKS HYMN. T. S. KAFI Lrs, Hso. him o-reatly ; so he turned, and they went in ^nto the e . And Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat And when Abraham saw that the man bles ed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dust thou not m I '4f I r 120 Ri'.riiXAT.T) iii'.r.r.R. li » i worsliip tlic most liiii,!! God, Creator of hfavon and eai'th ? ' And the man answcivd and said, '1 do not woiship thy Ciod, ntitlicr do 1 call njion His name ; for 1 have niatlc unto mysilf a .uod which ahidcth always in mine house, and provideth me with all things.' And Ahraham's zeal was kindled against the man ; and he arose and fell uix)n him, and drove him forth with hlows into the wilderness. And God called unto Abraham, saying, * Abraham, where is the stranger ? ' And Abraham answered and said, * Lord, he would not worship Thee, neither would lie call upon Thy name ; therefore have 1 di'iven him before my face into the wilderness.' And God said, 'i have borne with him these hundred and ninety years, and nourished him and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against and couldst not thou, who art thyself a sinner, M( bear with him one night ? ' " In April 1 822 the work was published, and received •al. witti unanmious approvr Tiie year before this big undertaking — of wliich, like other authors, he confessed to grow weary toward the hnish— was thus brought to an end, he had published in the Oitartt'rly a review of Southey's " Life of Wesley." His attitude toward that w^onderful man may be summed up in his own words — the biographer would be happy indeed who could write a Life which should be largely autobiographical : " It is no easy matter to give Wesley his clue praise, at the same time that 1 am to distinguish all that was blamable in his conduct and doctrines ; and it is a very difficult matter indeed to write on such a subject at all without offending one or both of the two fiercest and foolishest parties that ever divided a Church, the High Churchmen and the ICvangelicals." And yet the writer of Heber's Life in that monumental w^ork the " Dictionary of National biography" calls the Bishop a High Church- man ! All that llebcr wrote and did went to prove the contrary, or, rather, the negative : he was essentially a "no-party " man. I,ITERARV T.IFE. 121 wn and I d(i not nie ; for 1 always x' And and h(^ rth with E'd unto •anger ? ' ould not y name ; into the vith him lied him I airainst I sinner, received lich, like ,vard the )ublished 'Life of •fill man ographer ife whicli no easy he same imable in ' difficult 1 without foolishest uu'chmen ^ Heber's onar}' of I Church- prove the entiall}' a lie WMS now woi king Steadily at the collection of hvnms for use in public service, At that tnn(> there was not such a thing as a body of hymnody that could be so useil. Ken's morning and evenuig hymns were artainly much sung, and on the occasion ot "chanty sermons" some more or less suitable verses were usually given out. But there were few good hymns, simple and reverent, that could be readily employed ior services. Ileber himself told the Bishop of London (l)r llowlev) that when the Duke of Gloucester was installed as Chancellor at Cambridge he heard a hymn suno- to the apparent approval of an august and learned auchence, "a poem in the style of Darwin, m which the passion llower was described as a virgin, devoting her- self to religion, attended by as many youths as the plant has .stamina." Milman was helping him by actually writing as well as searching for suitable hvnuis- Walter Scott and Robert Southey were also eontrlbuting to the collection. For the first time some attempt was made to provide for the chief Christian seasons— for Advent, Christmas, the Passion, Laster, and for the days set apart as memorials of Christians (ininent for saintliness or suffering. Milman wrote hvmns for Advent, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and other occasions. Scott's imitation of the Roman "Dies Irse" was also included; it was preferred to a version sent him bv his old friend Sir Robert Harry Ino-lis as being more suited for English congrega- tionai'singing, "though less full and faithful, and less poetical." In November 1822 the following note comes as a contribution to the history of the classic Qitarlnly. " Among the possible conductors of the Quarterly hrvunv, a name has just occurred to me which 1 cannot help thinking very likely to answer. It is that ot Lockhart the .son-in-law of Walter Scott, and the author of •Peter's Letters,' which are written with abundant talent and caustic humour. ... As his princijiles are -'-cidedly Tory, he may be very useful at tiie present V i'\ 122 RKC.INAI.I) ni:i'.F.K. moment." At this time he was liard at work on a review on tiie " IJlack IJook," a volume whieli made a great stir at the time owing to its severe sti'ictures on the corruption of the clergy and their inonlinate riches. With tlu' help of his friends Mr. Williams Wynn, Mr. Vansittai't, and others, he ohtained a great mass of oflicial returns of income tax, tithes, etc., and had almost completed a most exhaustive article en the revenues of the English Church at that jieriod, when his accejitance of the See of Calcutta brought his literary work, with the single exception of his "Journal in India," to a conclusion. Fortunately, the article has been preserved, and forms, for those who are in- terested in the condition of the Church at the be- ginning of this century, a most important and valuable authority. Perhaps the best conclusion to this chapter will be found in some verses from Southey's poem, suggested by the portrait of his old friend : — " Devotedly iic went, Forsaking friends and kin, Us own loved paths of pleasantness and peace, Books, leisure, privacy, Frospcets (and not remote) of all wherewith Authority could dignify desert; And, dearer far to liini, Pursuits that with the learned and the wise Should have assured his name its lasting place. O Reginald, one course Our studies, and our thoughts, Our aspirations held ; Wherein, but mostly in this blessed hope, We hatl a bond of union, closely knit In spirit, though in this world's wilderness Apart our lots were cast. Scltlom we met; but I knew well 'I'iiat whatsoe'er this never idle hand Sent forth would find with thee Benign acceptance, to its full desert. For thou wert of that audienei', . . . fit, though few, For whom I am content To live laborious days, Assured that after years will ratify Their honourable award.' rk on a made a turcs on c riches, Wyiin, >at mass antl had ( n the d, when ■; literary unial in tide has are i li- the be- vakiable TRAVF.LLING ON, THE GANGES. • will be Liggested cc, :c. gli few, CHAPTER VI. Tin: BisnorRic of Calcutta. IN 1823, when Heber was appointed the second Bishop' of Calcntta, that diocese was so immense that no man could hope to adminiscer it thoroughly. It was overwork which killed Bishop Middleton, and overwork carried Ileber off in the xcvy prime ot life. It not only embraced the whole of the vast peninsula of India then accessible to the English, but it also included the Crown colony of Ceylon, the continent of Australia, and the colonies of Tasmania and New Zealand. And, as if this were not enough to dismay the most sanguine, there were added the Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, and Madeira. These last, however, lay on the sea-route to India, and might be visited at long intervals by the Bishop when going to England and returning to his Eastern dioc ..._ Heber's Indian career began and ended during the Governor-Generalship of Lord Amherst, a man socially agreeable, butundnubtedlvonc of the lenst distinguished of our rulers of India. ' The first Burmah war, the 123 124 lil'.CINAI,!) Iir.I'.l'.K. i I !■. siicoessful storming' oC Dlmrtpnr Ccliicfly important li(raiis(> our Indian {neinits liclicvccl that foi't rcss imprcj^Miablc), and the drclai-ation at Delhi of our su pr niary over tlit- Muf^liul Knipcror, were the three land- ks of his reign, lie was perhaps unfortunate ii nun succeeding so great a statesman as Lord Hastings, and in being followed by so successful an administrator as Loitl William Biiitinck. Hriefiy, the British possessions in India at this pciicd embraced the whole of the Ganges valley, practically the whole of the eastern and a large part of the west.rli coast, and, with the exception of Mysore and 'J'ravan- core, the whole of the peninsula south of a line drawn from Cioa, on the west, to the Godaveri on the cast. In addition to this, the subsidiary and " protected" states, where our influence was dominant, includet' Oudh, Gujerat, the great states in the southern-central pro- vinces, and Mysore and Travancore in the south. The Punjab, Rajpootana, Malwah, and Berar were still indipendent. To put it concisely, if roughly, we may be said to have penetrated in the north to the Sutl( j— the frontier of Lahore — and wedged our way in between the wild tribes of the Himalayan Mountains and those of a belt of an average width of four hundred miles, which stretched in a south-easterly direction from the Indus to within one hundred miles of the Bay of Bengal ; while, south of this belt, we were masters of the entire country. At the same time many distri •;;-; in our immediate control, as well as under our protection, were still in a ti-oubled state, and great care had to be taken not to unduly excite popular indignation as well as the suspicions and jealousies of dynasties. In particular, it was dangerous to interfere with the public per- formance of religious rites, bai'barous though some of these were. But as our rule grew in power, and became, in more rcsjionsible hands, less corrupt, we were found strong enough to interfere even with these. This, hcnvever, was aftei- lleber's day. It was left to Lord William Bentinck to suppress sii/fcc — the self- Tin: insiK^i'KU' OF Calcutta. 12i important fortress ur suprc- rco laiul- tunatc in ings, and itratoi" as lis period ractically .' west. Ill 1 'Jravan- ne drawn the east, d" states, (' Oudh, itral pro- th. The 'ere still '0 may he itl( i— th(^ l)etw(( n ind those cd miles, from the f Bengal ; ;he entire ■; in our ion, were be taken ell as the (articular, iblic per- some of iver, and Tupt, we th these. IS left to the self- destruction of widows on their husbands' funend pile — and /////A'i'''''. the wholesale robbery and murder which lluir fanatical religion imposed upon the t/in^s. ileberreaclud Calcutta on the lOtli of October, 1823, and immediately found himself not only in a very strange scene and among strangei-s, but also face to face with an enormous fiuantity of woik which had accumulated during the jjcriod which had elapsed since r,ishop Middleton's death. At that time there was no official residence ; and while his friend Williams Wynn was making arrangiimnts in England for this and other conveniences, the Bishoj) was indebted to the CioveriU)r-C'.eneral and others for the loan of houses that could be spared. I'hus, on his first arrival in Calcutta, he was accommodated in a building which had at one time been the Government 1 louse. One of the lirst matters to recpiire his attention was an unseemly squabble between the Archdeacon <)f Tjombay and one of the chaplains there. V>y the exercise of conciliatory measures, by grea.t luitience, and showing liersonal anxiety on his own part, the Bishop was able to bring this to a .satislactory conclusit.n; only, liowever, to be confronted with another of somewhat similar natun.'. We mav suppose that under the vice-episcopal govern- ment ot" the archdeacons, during the inter-episcopate, .some of the senior chaplains had got a little out ot hand, and that the.se and two or three other outbreaks of an unfortunate spirit of indiscipline were, under the circumstances, only human and natural. In following very closely the lengthy correspondence which the Bishop entered into with the various parties to these disagreements, one is strongly impressed with the laborious care and the honesty of motive therein made evident ; and it may here be said, once ibr all, that in every hitch or difiiculty that arose during his short episcopate he bestowed an amount of learning and labour, moderation and tact, which account for the otherwise almost inexplicable enthusiasm he created wherever he went, and the cxtiaordinary outburst ol % ill I 126 KICINAI.I) IIKI'.KU H t i sympathy and sorrow which his suckliii and ( aiiy diath called out. No man, one feels sate in assertinj,;;, ever mad • so ^i-(>at a mark ujion India in so short a tiiiu-. llis o|)i)ortiniities were lew, hul he utilised eviry sinj;Ie ehanre that came in his way to the very utmost of his undoubti'd power. Yet it is less to that power — of inu llict or of initiative that his success was due than to the wise ami temperate counsels that proceeded from motives of singular honesty and a high sense of con- ciliation. 'IVmpend though the latter was by I'igjd adherence to the pi-inciple he believed the light one, he was fortunate in never making an enemy. i\nd that much of the success which attc nckcl these C(unsi'ls arosr from the soberness and lucidity of thought which his peculiar piiparation in Knglantl had engendtrcd maybe gathered from the remark of one who said that though he was seldom sili lit, he never heard him speak without Wondering at the aptness and wisdom of his remarks. At this period the Christian agencies in Iiulia were somewhat divided in aims, and, in certain cases, rather unfortunately diverse in their methods, in the first place, there were the chajilains provided for the "ghostly comfort" of the ICnglish in India, 'i1ie.se men, though few- — tin were onl}' twenty-eight appointed to IJengal at that time, and more than half that number on furlough ! — were sujiposed to be superior to the others. Certainly, in point of material position, they held the lead by a long way. I'heir salaries were much larger, their jK'iisions far more secure and easily gaiiied ; and by their official associa- tion with the ruling class they were in possession of more influence than the missionaries. Of the latter, thofjc sent out by the Society for i'romotiiig Christian Knowledge were the more numerous, but closely touch- ing them were the emissaries of the Society for Pro- pagating the Ciospel. Inferior in numbers, and differing i'rom the Uvo former in their policy, were the agents of the Church Missionar}- Societ}' ; and after these, in point of numbers and influence, there were the men 'llli; IlISIlolKH' <>!■ < Al.rn TA. 127 uly tlcath ting, ever t a tiiiU'. ry ssiiiKic oHt of his lower — of due than .ileil from L* of COll- I)y rij;id it one, he And that ■iels arose vhich his d may be •It tlioui^h k without ■marks, uha were L's, rather the first for the . Tliese nty-iight hail haU' 1 to he material '. Their far more associa- ession of rie latter, Christian ly touch- for Pro- I tlifferiiig le agents L'r these, : the men sen t <»ut by various Nonconforming boiiits— many of lluni most abli' and learned, and many ot them shariuj; th till' other Societies the di.-advantagis of a young, wi inexperienced, and not very ahU: />rrsoiiH(/. An early exercise ol Ileber's epi. .U|jal power brought a (piestion atVecting the Church Missionary Society's agents to a hiad. The two elder Societies ha'' placed their men under liishoj) Middleton and now under his successor. They hatl In in licensed and ruled in much the same fashion as the English clergy. Not so with the Church Missionary Society. 1 kber, however, obtained the opinion u[' the authoiities as to the law of the matter— whether all clergy of the Knglisli Church in India were not subject to the Bishop— and obtained undeniable proof in support of the hypo- thesis. He thin called a meeting of the Church Missionary Society branch at Calcutta. The cl(,rgy were, with one exception, in favour of sulmiitting to his authority, the great majority of the laity against it. His claim was linally admitted as a "bye-law," but his point had already been gained by the voluntary adhesion of the clergy. It is important to note this, however brielly, because few jKople are aware that there was at one time a great deal of ojipositiou to the introduction into India of episcopal rule, it is also useful to remember that one of Ileber's motives in making missionaries as well as chai)lains reciuire his licence for leavi' to officiate, was to i)lace them all, as far as possible, on a level. Before this there liad been a great indifference shown by the chaplain to tlie missionary ; and it is regrettable that the latter should have soimtimes retaliated by withholding his help. Indeed, up to this time, there had been so clean a gap between the two classes that the officials of a station, if deprived of their chaplain by death or absence, freiiuently went without a service in their church for a year and more together, although, ntar by, there was an luiglish missionary working laboriously, and perhaps with scant success, among the heathen ! 'I hat so dis- 11 128 luxiixALi) iiki;i:r. 1 1 crcditahk' a state (jf things was br()Ui;ht to an end is due to this action ol" Bishoi) Mcber. It must be renienil)ered that Bishop Ah\ld!eton had been unable to recognise the Ciiurch Missionary Society nn'ssions at all, as not being subject to his jurisdiction, and also, that many of the missionaries sent out by or representing any of the Societies were somewhat uncultured men. We "can therefore undeistand what 1 leber means by writing that they "are well pleased to fnid themselves recognised as regular clergymen, ar.d treated accordingly." MluiJiriSy:-:-;^Hf::;-'to^^ i^Sdiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiili^ Tin; ORIGINAL BUII.DIN(;S OF lUSllOp's Cnu.KCK, HOWKAII, CMXU MA. Hie next matter to require his attention was the Bishop's College at Calcutta — for many years the most important educational institution in India. For Bishop's College was not a mere theological school ; it represented the first attempt in India to educate the Hindu in •secular as well as religious subjects. It was the pai'ent of all tliose universities and colleges which are now sjiread over that great country, and the foster-nurse of the native ministry, t)f what one might call the Indian Church. Yet when I leber arrived in'Calcutta Bishop's College was a mere she II, in wliich no stndeiit could be fuuntl, and whose principal was nut yet in residence. cud is due Jiiicnibi red ) recognise all, as not that many tini^ any ol' . We can writing that recognised THE BISHOPRIC OF CALCUTTA. 129 !, c \i.ce rr.\. 1 was the . the most ir Bishop's -■presented Hindu in the parent are now ster-nurse :he Indian L Bishop's cut could residence. The College owed its existence to Bishop Middleton, its upbringing to Bishop Heber, but its sustenance largely to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 18 19, with the assistance of a "Royal Letter," which at that time was a favourite method of obtaining popular support, some ;^50,000 had been subscribed in England. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Church Missionary Society each gave ^5,000 to the building fund; and the latter gave ^1,000 annually towards its maintenance. The British and Foreign Bible Society placed ;{^2,ooo at its disposal for the work of translating the Bible into native tongues. Bishop Middleton himself gave ;{J"400, besides many valuable MSS. and some five hundred volumes for the library. Yet, in spite of all this help, the money raised was spent in an absurdly lavish manner, and the College made very slow progress towards completion. The very style in which it was built, Gothic (and of a debased order), was totally un- suited to the climate and the country, though doubtless recalling the seats and associations of learning in far- away England. When Heber arrived, the grounds of the College were still undrained marshland, with wide, open stagnant pools and dense jungle, dangerous to health. Within less than two years this and sixty additional acres, which he had procured for the College from the Government, were drained and laid out. On his arrival the building was pushed on so that within a few months Principal Mill and the tutors could move into it ; and first the library and then the chapel were finished. For these, too, he raised large sums of money. The purposes fulfilled were four : — 1. A thorough educational course in secular subjects, including English ; 2. A theological training for natives and Europeans intending to become schoolmasters, catechists, and clergymen ; 3. A place for the translation of the Scriptures and Prayer Book into native languages ; and no REGINALD IIDISER. l! 4 A hostel for missionaries arriving and staying in Calcutta, xvhile awaiting instructions, and the hke. On his journeys throughout India the Bishop never lost an opportunity of ]M-essing the claims of this Institution ; and be-fore his episcopate came to an end the College was in full work, carrying out each one of the purposes for which it had been founded And not only this, but some schools in other parts of India had been founded and affiliated to it, thus showing that the ramifications of the educational system which subse- quently arose were not beyond the thoughts of the wise and far-seeing man who had laboured so abun- dantly for the success of the College. Nor was his zeal for the education of the native con- fined to higher branches or adults. For within a few months of his reaching Calcutta he had enlisted the sup- port and services of many English women in that city on L.half of the native girls. He got much help from the Europeans, and no less a sum than twenty thousand rupees from a Hindu gentleman. A grant from the Church Missionary Society afforded material help and very soon, under the able administration of Mrs. Wilson, to whose energy and acquaintance with native languages the initiative was due, a central school, with a group of affiliated schools, was successfully organisc'd. in the central school native teachers were trained for work in the other schools. At first it was difficult to find a native who would become a teacher. At the end of a tew ye-rs nearly thirty women were being trained Hindu parents, too, were even asking for trained teachers to instruct their children in their own homes! It must be remembered that these schools were tor Hindus, and that all were welcome, whatever their creed The first thing was to obtain the support and the confidence of the i lindu parents. After that it was hoped that the influence of the teachers would leave a feeling of friendliness and sympathy for Christianity ■ ■ • ' ' ■ might not bear even riper fruit. ignt In February iB-M we find the Bishop speaking of THE r.ISIIOPRIC OF CALCUTTA. 131 1 Staying the like. lop never i of this to an end each one led. And ;s of India nving that ich subsc- its of the so abun- lativc con- thin a few td the sup- hat city on p from the / thousand t from the .1 help, and rs. Wilson, 2 languages a group of ■d. In the d for work lit to find a le end of a ng trained, for trained )wn homes ! lis were for atever their support and 1- that it was ould leave a Christianity ler fruit, speaking of his writing with difficulty, owing to a disorder of the eyes. ^ The birth of another > 'lild had deprived him for a while of what he calls ' my best, and, in confidential matters, my only secretary." The health of Mrs. Ileber and the children, it may be said here, was a continual source of anxiety to him throughout his Indian career— a matter which would not be surprising now, but in those days, when the country round Calcutta was far less drained and cultivated, might have been almost accepted as inevitable. In lune the Bishop set apart for the work of the Christian ministry the first native yet ordained. This was Christian David, who was a native of Malabar, but came to Calcutta from Ceylon, where he had been for some years engaged as Catechist (under the direc- tion of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- ledge). He had formerly been a pupil of Schwartz, who had laboured wiMi such success in Southern India. Ileber mentions that David passed his exami- nation excellently, and gave very general satisfaction. He was ordained deacon on Ascension Day, and made priest on the ibllowing Trinity Sunday, lodging and working, meanwhile, at Bishop's College. David subsequently had the charge of a mission in the dis- trict of Bhagalpur, and died not long afterwards of fever, his wife following him to the grave about a month later from the same disease. He was evidently a man very much above the average native catechist in point of intellectual attainments and moral steadfast- ness, and it is a little regrettable that the Bishop should have intervened to prevent his first sermon being printed. In those days Protestants thought nearly as much of a sermon as a Hindu did of his idol, and it was not so unusual to print a sermon delivered on any noteworthy occasion, as it would be now. Indeed, sermons good, bad, and indifferent, were printed on all sides, and at every opportunity. David's first sermon after ordination, on the oth^M• hand, was probably the climax of a long and highly meritorious course of :■; 132 REGINALD IIEBEK ii^ "b' from many Englishmen in English clergy, and the not' from the author but Calcutta, including the It was one of the very few oppor conduct, sustained with singular persistence desire to have it printed came tunkies which Heber (for sound reasons, doubtless) seems to us to have let slip. , „• , , It may not be generally known that the Bishop, who was soon appointed a Vice-President of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, suggested to Mr. Williams Wynn the device afterwards borne by the Royal Asiatic Society, that of the banyan tree, with the motto, ; Quot rami tot arbores." The branches, though flourishing and grown themselves to trees, subsequently became more closely fused in the Royal Asiatic Society ol London, and thus justified the device of tb.e banyan tree if they somewhat belied the motto. In the month of June 1824 the Bishop set out on his first " Visitation," one of the most extensive visita- tions if 1 mistake not, ever undertaken. It included the whole of the Ganges valley, and at its head a trek south to Baroda and Bombay. Thence by ship to Cevlon, and thence again to Calcutta, where, after a short rest it was extended southwards to Madras and 'Jrichinopoly. Of all the incidents, or even of a few of them, we cannot possibly hope to give an account here It must suffice if we follow in the Bishop s steps, and lin-er with him now and again, more especially, 'ncrhaps"^ when he has something to say of himseh or of the condition of the English at that time, and of the r)rooress we were making in winning our way as a civifising power. Like all Eastern nations, the customs of the natives of India were much then as they were a thousand years ago, and much, too, as they are now^ Of these customs most persons ha\e a good idea, if not an exact knowledge, and this is not the place to deal with such questions as caste or the rivalries between th'- Hindu and Mohammedan population. It is rather the purpose of these pages to reflect a personal figure, which if it be only piojected in outline, yet retains so THE BTSIIOPRIC OF CALCUTTA. 133 ; and the author but Liding the ew oppor- doubtless) ishop, who :he Asiatic ims Wynn ,'al Asiatic tto, "Quot flourishing tly became Society of b.e banyan set out on isive visita- It included head a trek by ship to ere, alter a Madras and ■n of a few an account hop's steps, i especially, ' himself or , and of the r way as a the eustoms 5 they were ley are now. 1 idea, if not lace to deal ies between It is rather sonal figure, et retains so much of the characteristic features, that we recognise it for that of Ileber, a man of mental i^wer, common sense, patience, moderation, personal charm, and unremitting toil. The first part of his journey was an interesting voyage through the intersecting rivers and channels of th(- Ganges delta to the old city of Dacca. Accom- panied by Mr. Stowe, his chaplain, and some native servants, he started in a couple of small boats, lateen- rigged. The accommodation was slight, the cabin being merely an open sort of hut, with a low thatched roof. In the one boat the travellers journeyed, and in the other their cooking was done, their luggage was piled, and their stores packed away. It may give the reader some idea of the difficulty of obtaining supplies even in this fertile region if it is mentioned that they had to provide for so simple a matter as milk, milch goats being taki n on board. Salt meat and poultry formed the staple of provisions, and, after a while, they were able to obtain from the fishermen they encountered an uncertain supply of fish. It is curious to note that it was with great difficulty that they were able to enter into parleys with the native fishermen, so plundered had they been by the rascally s-ervants of careless or indifferent European " Sahibs." There is one point, which any one would do well to remember in reading the travels of any white man in tropical countries, and it is that the natives, being by natu)-e and climate disposed to an easy life and Uie habit of supplying themselves alone with food, very seldom have any to spare for the unexpected visitor. This fact has accounted for many of the privations wMiich Englishmen and others have suffered in exploring new tropical regions, and it explains why Stanley, who marched at the head of an arrny, had to enforce the delivery of provisions at the point of the bayonet. It also explains, since by clearing the country of the harvest he left the people in imminent danger of starvation, why it was often so difficult and sometimes impossible for him to return by the way he came. ..!^* 134 RKc.iNAi.n ni:r.KR. 1 1 "I"' Through a flat and alluvial countiy, growing rice and indigo, and al)ounding in jungk' foruRd by banyans, ])alnis, plantains, and bamboo thickets, and lure and there usurped by a wide stretch of malarial swamp, the little boats held on their tortuous way to Dacca. One characteristic anecdote we have room for, and that is all. While passing along one of the streams, they were hailed from the bank by a man who begged earnestly to be taken on board. The Mussulmans who formed the crew laughed at his entreaties, but I leber, who was steering, turned his boat towaixl shore. The man said he \Vci3 a soldier in the 14th Regiment, wliich was going to Dacca by boat, and that at the last halting- place he had missed the boat to which he belonged. He could not swim, and all the boats that had jne- viously passed refused him passage, seeing that he was poor. Heber took him on board, and the fellow, who Avas a fine specimen of a Hindu, said that on seeing a Sahib (a white gentleman) his hopes had revived. By way of administering a side-thrust to the crew^, and perhaps at the same time of com- plimenting the Sahib, he said, " These cursed Bengalees are not like other people, and care nothing for a soldier or an^ iiody else in trouble. To be sure," he added with some point, " they always run away well ! " After travelling some miles Heber overtook the ilotilla of the regiment, and proposed to put him on board the first boat. But the Hindu begged piteously not to be so dishonoured, for this was the cooking boat. The Mussulman crew, caring nothing for caste, roared hilariously at this. They then approached a second boat, and again overtures were made to transfer the passenger. Again he objected — it was the washer- man's boat ! The crew now simpl y shouted and chaffed the man out of countenance, so with many apologies and profuse expressions of gratitude he was straightway transferred. This is a slight incident, but it shows us something of the character of the natives and a glimpse of the methods by which the THE I'.ISIIOI'RIC OF CALCUTTA. 135 g rice and banyans, luTc and ivanip, the cca. One lid that is they were earnestly ho formed ) who was • man said vhich was St iialting- belonged. t had 1)1 e- ig that he the fellow, id that on ho]ies had •-thrust to .' of com- I Bengalees )r a soldier ' he added ay well ! " ;rtook the )ut him on x\ piteously loking boat. :iste, roared d a second ransfer the lie washer- louted and with many ratitude he ht incident, icter of the ' which the liishop earned to himself such golden opinions from the natives. At Dacca Mr. Stowe was taken dangerously ill. Me had been ailing at Calcutta, but it was hoped that a three months' voyage on the Ganges would set him up. Probably had he weathered the severe strain put upon his constitution by this trip through the delta, he would have really benefited by the change to a drier climate ; but, like many another European, he failed to exercise the continual caution required in a miasmatic country. The three weeks' journey through the delta proved fatal, and on the 17th of July he died. Ilebcr nursed him throughout the last illness, closed his eyes when the end came, laid him to rest in the cemetery outside the town, and ordered a monument to be placed over his grave. This was a great loss to him, as well as, of course, a personal grief Writing home to Augustus Mare of the death of Stowe, he mentions that at Dacca they "were the guests of Mr. Master, the principal judge, whose nephew you may have known at Balliol, and from him, more particularly, and from Mr. Mitford, the junior judge, brother to my friend Mitford, of Oriel, we received daily and unwearied kindness. Mrs. Mitford, on finding that poor Miss Stowe thought of setting off for Dacca to nurse her brother, not only wrote to ask her to their house, but oifered to accelerate a journey which Mr. Mitford and she were meditating to Calcutta, in order to take care of her in her dismal homeward voyage. I trust, however, that my letter would arrive in time to stop her." It is interesting to record, as an instance of Meber's genial and liberal Christianity, that it was at Dacca he received a letter from the Protopapas of the Greek Church resident at Calcutta, in which that official regretted to hear of the Bishop's departure, and trusted that he would have a safe journey. The letter was written in Greek, and cannot find a place in this little 1 r I. \. 136 REGINALD IIEDER. memoir, but its superscription is worth rccordinp^: "To the most learned and reverend Master, and Spiritual Father, the Lord Reginald, Bishop of Calcutta, with respectful solicitations." It may be added that the translation of the letter printed in Mrs. Heber's memoir of her husband, though performed by a clergyman, is a most miserable affair, and does little justice to the writer's Greek. An enieufe cordiole was not only established between the English and Greek Churches, but also between the former and the Armenian Christians, who even called themselves " Protestant Armenians," by way of claiming some identity with the reformed churches. Few people can realise even nowadays how vast a country India is, but there is probably not one person in a hundred thousand who has thought of how much more vast it must have been when railways were not, and the English was to the native population but a few scattered pin-points on a blackboard. Nowa- days, too, you cannot travel at all in India witliout jostling against the clergy, ^oth English and native; then it was very different. This is v.hat Heber wrote in his Journal at Dacca : " I met a lady to-day who had been several years at Nusseerabad in Rajpootana, and during seven years of her stay in India, she had never seen a clergyman, or had an opportunity of going to church. This was, however, a less tedious excom- munication than has been the lot of a very good and religious man, resident at Tiperah, or somewhere in that neighbourhood, who was for nineteen years to- gether the only Christian within scvcnt}' miles, and at least three hundred from any place of worship." From Dacca the Bishop journe^'ed south until he reached the Ganges again, and then turned his boats up stream. " The noise of the Ganges," writes the Bishop, " is really hke the sea. As we passed near a hollow and precipitous part of the bank, on which the wind set full, it told on my ear exactly as if the tide were coming THE BISHOPRIC OF CALCUTTA. 137 ne; : " To Spiritual itta, with that the s nunioir man, is a le writer's rtablislied but also ians, who ans," by reformed )w vast a le person low much were not, on but a Nowa- 1 without d native ; ber wrote -day who ijpootana, she had f of going IS exconi- good and where in years to- ;s, and at I until he his boats shop, " is iljow and wind set re coming in ; and when the moon rested at night on this great and, as it then seemed, this shoreless extent of water, we might nave fancied ourselves in the cuddy of an Indiaman." ''1ie river at this point was then about lour miles \\. ' /idth ; but it must be renu mbcred that the Ganges ove-.nows its banks every year, and that during the rainy season many districts are Hooded lor a breadth of twenty, and even a greater numner of miles. The first station of importance was Bhagalpur. It was owing to the interest he then gained in the people of that district that Christian David was sent there to work so abundantly and with such promise- to be cut short, as we have seen, only too soon. From thence the Bishop moved on to Monghyr, here meeting lames Lushington, cousin of his friend Charles Lushington, and so 1 to that Stephen Lushington who afterwards became Governor of Madras. In his letter to Charles we have an interesting reference to the influenza which at that time— the summer of 1824— raged throughout the Lower Ganges. Speakmg of a friend at Bhagalpur, he says: "Had he remained m Calcutta, he would hardly, 1 think, have weathered the influenza, or whatever is its name, of this last unhealthy season. ... I was sincerely anxious to know that you had both got through this troublesome and universal ordeal without worse consequences than the usual amount of nursing and confinement. 1 trust that the weakness which it appears to have invariably left behind has been of less duration with both of you than my wife complains it has been in her case." So univer- sal, indeed, was the epidemic that many of the pubhc offices at Calcutta were closed, and the Company s dis- pensary was actually shut up at one time. On the evening of August 3rd, after they had moored for the night, he landed, and went for a stroll. I he result was the well-known poem, " An Evening Walk in Bengal." He said that he wrote . - ndeavouring to fancy he was tiot alone. The lines "Come, walk with me the jungle through," and " Come on 1 yet pause 1 I3« KKniNAi.n iii:i!r,k. I! l:i| -'•K' IkIioKI us how," may be (|U()t(tl as showing liow it bore out the intentional decejition. At Monghyr I leber met with an interesting,^ incident, evidencing the catholicity of Christianity. There was no Company's chaplain at that station, the only Christian ministration being provided by a liaptist Missionary, and members of the English Church and other bodies avaihxl themselves of it. I leber was asked to slay over a Sunday in order that he might hold service, and on this being made pul)lic the Baptist nu'ssionary announced that he would hold no servii j that day. When the day came, he not only attended himself, but brought his whole flock with him. The Bishop sent home a humorous account of his entry into the sacred city of Benares, that " most holy city " of Hindustan. Here is an abridged version : — •• I will endeavour to give you some idea of the concert, vocal and instrumental, which saluted us as we entered the town. " First Bci^gar. ' Great lord, great judge, give me some pice. 1 am a fakir ; I am a priest ; I am dying with hunger.' "Bearers, trotting. ' Ugh ! Ugh ! Ugh ! Ugh ! ' *' Musicians. 'Tingle tangle, tingle tangle, bray, bray, bray ! ' " Chiiprassc (clearing the way with his sheathed sword). 'Silence! give room for the lord judge, the lord priest I Get out of the way — quir' ! ' (Then very gently stroking and patting the broad back of a Brahmin bull), ' Oh, good man., move, move.' " Bull (scarcely moving) ' Ba~a — ah ! ' ''Second Beggar (counting his beads, rolling his eyes, and moving his body backwards and forwards). ' Ram, ram, ram, ram ! ' " Bearers, as before. " Ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! ' " Any one who has ever travelled in an Oriental country, and especially in India, can realise the scene which the Bishop here calls up for the amusement of his wife. The reverence with which the sacred bulls are treated Tin: I'.isiioi'Ric OF Calcutta. 139 ; how it incident, lie re was he only Baptist uirh antl as asked gilt hold IJaptist ) servit J attended it of his est holy lion : — L of the id us as give nie in dying 1!' ay, bray, sheathed dge, the lien very :k of a ling his rwards). ^•h ! ' " countt-}'^, hich the lis wife. : treated is very often absurd, 'lluy will U t theui thrust tin u" noses "in to the shops, and gorge sweetmeats or anything else that takes their fancy without more remonstrance than a humble petition will convey. While riding one morning through the streets ot Benares, a litti.- boy ran after him, and ^y.th many salaams, and with his hands joined ni humble appea (as their manner is), told him that he- was a student at a school which t!ie Bishop had exaimned the y bclore. The boy said that the Bishop had not asked h.m if he knew his lesson, but that he d ' knovv it, and with my Lord the Bishop's permission he would say it. The good Bishop pulled up his horse and listened while the boy recited a long Sanskrit ode. 1 he Bishop, though not understanding what it was about at every pause said, 'Good, good,' which so pleased the boy that when he had done he wished to begin 1 all ove again. The boy got a pat on the head and a small present, and he, in his turn, offered the Bishop a garland of flowers. It was a little incident, but a pretty one. . , . Heber saw much of Benares and its lile much of natives and something of native opinion^during his stay For the results 1 have no space, but it will interest my reader to hear that he endeavoured to ascer- tain which were the most popular of tb.e many Governors who had ruled India, and ;hat the poll he took ui casua conversation resulted in placing Warren Hastings and Lord Wellesley highest-" the two greatest men who had ever ruled this part of the world." But na ive affection, it seemed, was reserved for Mr. Jonathan Duncan ; and "Duncan sahib ka chota bhaee ( Mi. Duncan's younger brother ") was a phrase commonly applied to any ruler who showed great kindness and a liberal spirit. A glamour seemed to rest round the name of Warren I Listings, and the children of Luropeans were frequently put to sleep with lullabies which recalled, in Hindustanee, the pomp and splendour of iluu un- fortunate Governor. 140 Ri:r,iNAr,i) iiKiiicR. k One j^rts a lair idea ..f what " visitation " nuant to the iJishop, uht iMvcr he ivadK (I a station whcic a cliuirh Of something tliat vvonld ilo duty for a church could In- lound, in a letter written by one ofthr missionaries at (hunar, above r)enarUL;li tin- northern part of India Ilchc r liad met with many encouraging signs o( the vitaUty of the Church, and we learn from him that it was not the hikcwarmncss of the lay but the paucity of t!ie clerical element that prevented the Church from going forward and keeping well abreast of the expansion of the civil power. " Not Westmoreland," said he, " before the battle of Agincourt wished with greater earnest- ness for ' more men from England ' than 1 do." At Benares he had had eighty English communicants ; at Allahabad sixty ; and at Chunar, including the natives, one hundred and twenty. ** The eagerness and anxiety for more chaplains," he writes, " is cxceedii.gly painful to witness, knowing, as 1 w< .now, that the remedy of the evil is beyond the j ower of government to supply." This, of course, applied only to chaplains, whose duties were restricted to care for the Company's officials and troops. For missionaries he would look to the missionary societies. It is a matter of opinion, we may suppose, which is the prior duty, and it is the opinion of the present writer that the first duty of Englishmen is to satisfy the spiritual requirement then Drethren in distant lands ; to do this, but yet 148 f THE LAST YEAR. i;i !1l1k r V vitality was not y' of thu )m going on of the *' before earnest- do." At :ants ; at : natives, d anxiety ly painful J remedy iment to : ha plains, onipany's Diild look f opinion, 1 it is the diit}' of ;ments of jt yet not 149 to leave the other undone. This seems to have been the Bishop's view of the matter, and, although greatly anxious for missionary extension, he was if possible even more anxious for the provision of spiritual pastoi's for the small groups of English Christians seattered all over his wide diocese. Four days after reaching I^ombay he confirmed one hundred and twenty persons in St. Thomas's Church, — a lai-ge number for India in those days, especially as children were and still are sent home to England for their education. Three days later the formal visitation was held, and Dr. Barnes, the Archdeacon, preached a sermon which, as he was leaving for England after eleven years' service, was for him a sort of farewell. The Bishop consecrated five churches in the archdeaconry, visited many stations, confirming where required, and seeing what was to be seen in the district. At Bombay he appointed Mr. Robinson, who was there translating the Old Testament into Persian, his domestic chaplain, and obtained for him a Professorship at Bishop's College, so as to enable that scholar to proceed with his work. Me then set about raising money for Bishop's College, as well as for the schools of the S.P.G. in the Bombay district. In a v'ery short time he was able to collect for the former some £'Joo^ and the promise of about ^150 per annum. In the course o( his travels ii the district he preached at every building set apart for religious services ; he spared himself in no wa}', even wiien ill. Yet his solicitude for others was remarkable. Writing to a clergyman about some new work, he adds this postscript : " I feel conscious that I have in this letter chalked out for you a deal of trouble, and thrown a great weight of responsibility on your shoulders." On August 15th, 1825, he sailed for Ceylon, his family and Mr. Robinson accon.panying him. One of the first things he did on arriving at the Crown Colony was to establish a district committee of the S.P.G., and raise a fund for a scholarship to be held at Bishop's College. But his sympathies were not for one society nor a I ^o KKr.INAI.D UKUKK. :£:! single institution. Of his visit to the Church Mis- sionary Society's station at Cotta an affecting account has ken left by Mr. Robinson. It must be remembered tliat up to tin's time the emissaries of the Church Missionary Society had been outside Episcopal control in India, and the hearty reception they !.;ave the Bishop everywhei-e, and the affectionate response that was returned, had a special point which the reader of to- day is likely to misinterpret witiiout this hint. " 'J"he sceni'/' wrote Mr. Robinson of the visit to Cotta, " was to me most beautiful. We were embowered in the sequestered woods of Ceylon, in the midst of a heathen population ; and here was a transaction worthy of an apostolic age,— a Christian bishop, his luart "full of loye and full of xeal for the cause of his Divine Master, received in his proper character by a body of missionaries of his own Chm-ch, who, with fuirconlidence and affection, ranged themselves under his authority as his servants and fellow-labourers — men of devoted piety, of sober wisdom, whose labours were at that moment before them, and whose reward is in. heaven." It may be noted that here, as at many other i)laces, we find people astonished at his youthful appearance, and yet impressed with the simple, easy dignity of liis manner. 'lie" left Ceylon at the end of September— '' I have passetl a very interesting month in Ceylon ; but never in my life, to the best of my recollection, passed so laborious a one "—and readied Calcutta on October 2 1 St. He had intended to travel to Madras about the following Chi-istmas, and visit the southern provinces during the cool season ; but the great mass of work which had accumulated in his absence prevented this prudi.'ut plan being carried out. Among the many matters he was now busied with, and the \tters he had to write about them, we fuid an interesting record of how he had, as their almoner, dis- bursed the subscriptions and donations of the S.P.C.K. Noticeable i ; the /joo in aid of a chapel in a populous THE LAST YEAR. 151 rh Mis- account LMiibered Church control ) Bishop lat was r of to- visit to hovvercd iiidst of nsaction liop, his e of his cr by a 10, with >.s under jurers — labours cward is it many youthful lie, easy ' ami wise, lloiifst, pure, Ine from (liHum-.c , Father of iirpluiiis, the widow's siipport, Coinlort ill sorrow of every sort, To the l)• •*s ministers. Mr. Robinson writes: "I have seen no congregation, even in Europe, by whom the responses of the liturgy are more generally and correctly made, or where the psalmody is more devotional and correct. ... It was of deep and thrilling interest, in which memor}', and hope, and joy mingled with the devotion of the hour, to hear so many voices, but lately rescued from the ix)lluting services of the jjagoda, joining in . . . . the ICaster llynm and the Hundredth I'salm, and uttering the loud Amen at the close of every prayer. For the last ten years I have longed to witness a scene like this, but tln' reality exceeds all my expecta- tions. . . . 'I'he Bishop's heart was full ; and never shall I forget the energy of his manner, and the heavenly expression of his countenance, when he exclaimed, as 1 assisted him to take off his robes, ' Gladly would I exchange years of conmKMi life for one such day as this ! ' " On the next day he confirmed and addressed native congregations, and on Tuesday visited the Rajah. Tliis extraordinary native prince was the child of Schwartz's teaching, a living monument to that noble missionary's labours. He spoke nuich of '* his dear lather," which he always called Schwartz, and re- peatedly told the ]5ishc>p that he hoped he would stand "in his room." He showed the Bishop over his palace — took him into his library, his nmseum, and showed him his printing-[)ress. I le exhibited knowledge of many topics that we might think strange in an Indian, prince though he might be, and among other things discussed with apparent learning the various styles of Hindu and Mussulman architecture. The ability and virtue of this man were cons|)icuous in a class of clever if not over-virtuous rulers. One instance will serve to distinguish his character from that of the average. The Rajah promised to send the P>ishop a copv of a miniature of Schwartz, and although the death of the liishop happened a few days after the promise was made, he sent it to his widow. It is n a d iM '1' THE LAST YEAR. 157 seen no ■spouses y made, correct. 1 which Jevotioii rescued ining' in Fsahii, )f every witness expecta- d never leavenly inied, as would I day as d native Rajah, child of at noble liis dear and re- - would op over uni, and lowledge ,e in an ig other various .'. The )us in a instance It of the 5isho|-) a ugh the liter the :. It is pl(;asant to remember that the liishop drew up a prayer ior the Divine protection of this noble ruler, and gave instructions that it should be translated into Tamil, and read by all the missionaries in the Rajah's dominions. On April ist the party reached Trichinopoly. 1 he heat was very oppressive. On the 2nd the Bishop preached in the large church there— St. John's— in the morning, and in the afternoon held a confirmation and bT. JOHNS, ■rUIClIINOPOLY. {The CliHich in viliich llcbcr last ministend.) addressed the candidates. In the evening he com- plained of headache and— little wonder ! — of weariness. But at daybreak on the following morning he attended a service held in 'I'amil, and confirmed and addressed a native congregation in that language ; thence he passed to the mission house, and investigated the con- dition of the schools. Shortly afterwards he received a petition from the natives asking for a pastor. " His answer was given with that gentleness and kindness oi heart which never failed to win the affections of all who 158 REGINALD IlEBER. heard him." On returning to the house where he was staying — that of Mr. Bird, judge of the circuit — and before taking off his robes, he" visited Mr. Robinson, who was too ill to leave his bed. Me spoke of the affairs of the mission, dwelling on its poverty, and saying that he ought to have regular reports from every mission in India, in order tlmt he might know what were their wants. Nothing that he had seen in the whole of his diocese, he said, had so powerfully interested him. Mr. Robinsori said afterwards that the mental excitement was so great tht.t he showed no trace of ph3'sical exhaustion. The Bishop went to his own room, and, as usual, wrote the name of the place and date on the back of his confu-mation address : " 1 1 ichinopoly, April 3rd, 1826." Unwittingly he wrote the place of his burial, the date of his death. i\s he did not reappeai", and for some time there had been unusual silence, his servant entered his room to see if anything was the matter or if he were wanted. I le found his master lying in his bath. Nothing was the matter with him now,— nothing would ever be wanted again : the eager spirit was at rest at last. Thus did Rcginakl Heber pass. Woin with toil, oppressed by heat, and overcome at the last by nervous exhaustion, he died in the prime of life and the meridian of his day of usefulness. Amid the scene of his fruitful labours, far from wife and childnn if among the sons of his adoption, without friend to lean over him and ^atch the last broken words on the fleeting breath, without warning froui science, or, for all that is known, a suspicion of the approach of death, the beloved of his people was called into the dark- ness of the Valley of the Shadow, whence no voice Cometh, nor is anything heard, "if in this life only W( th. I I I He was a man ol ..uch singular gifts, and, though .1' lie was .lit — and ion, who lilairs of ;• that ho ssion in nx' their vholc of ted him. citement ph3'sical IS usual, he back pi-il 3rd, s burial, ear, and nee, his was the Iter lying 1 now, — jer spirit vith toil, last by life and :he scene lildnn if i to lean i on the ', or, for of death, he dark- no voice life only , though I I ■ '\ A. _. 4 1 -J ^V:^ ^- 'mEfmiiwm^ss^. -^ 4, i^i0'.4jkJSk,iiimib»»">^- MEMORIAL TO HEBER, AT MADRAS. i6o REGINALD HETIER. 1 1 t', I ft" bred in a period of great affectations, so frank and natural in his manner and habit of thought, that we cannot be surprised at the impression he made on his own generation. To-thiy, much that was unknown and seldom guessed at in his time has long been realised. Our fashions are different, our habits unlike, our very speech has passed into another phase. We accept for granted so much that was barely entertained seventy yeai's ago tliat it is well-nigh impossible to appreciate the prevision of Ileber at its true value to his own time. The brotherhood of Christians, which he was conspicuous in demonstrating, is now become the hope and realisation of many sections of the connnunity. His soberness of Judgment weighed strongly in an age when the disposition to run after some new thing was particularly^ mai'ked. He was a man df the world, and though in (^ne sense distinctly not of the world, neither ascetic nor hermit. He was a man among men — a man who could rule and dared not lit- — and among Christians he was a leader. An Iilnglislniian in his blood and breeding, he was to the heathen a brother aiid a servant ; a son of the aristocracy of tiie ]"ichest nation in the world, the poor and lowly were his friends; a creator of the literature of his age, and among the craftsmen an artist, he gave the treasures of his nu"nd to those who coultl not even read ; the spiritual lord of all the Indies, he lived and moved and died the humble follower of Jesus, the crucified Carpenter of Nazareth. ■K %' ,»>' I'rinted by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., Loadon and Aylesbury. I I I ^KKl«>^MU^>i^^»»£««^'