FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS
 
 A PATRICIAN OF THE PAST
 
 FANCIES FASHIONS 
 AND FADS 
 
 RALPH NEVILL 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE MERRY PAST," "LONDON CLUBS," ETC. 
 EDITOR OF " UNDER FIVE REIGNS " 
 
 WITH A FRONTISPIECE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BRENTANO'S
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. SOCIETY . i 
 
 II. POLITICS ...... 28 
 
 III. BOHEMIA . . . . . .57 
 
 IV. RESTAURANTS .... 92 
 V. PARIS . . . . . . -123 
 
 VI. ART, YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY . . .160 
 
 VII. FASHION 189 
 
 VIII. UNIFORMS OLD AND NEW . . . 212 
 
 IX. FADS 248 
 
 X. DEMOCRACY . . . .277 
 INDEX . . . . . . - 305 
 
 2055792
 
 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 SOCIETY 
 
 NOTHING in this world is entirely new: the 
 generations of men as they glide along like 
 the waves of a rapid stream resemble each 
 other far more than is generally conceived. Making 
 allowances for the different conditions of various 
 epochs, the sum total of vice and virtue, joy and 
 sorrow, remains about the same. 
 
 Of late we have been surfeited with plaints as to 
 the sins and shortcomings of the wealthier classes 
 and the frivolity of London Society. In all proba- 
 bility it is not a bit worse or better than in the 
 past : its sense of dignity, however, has completely 
 disappeared. 
 
 " The two chief characteristics of London Society 
 are its simplicity and heartlessness. It is amused 
 with marvellous ease. The smallest of practical 
 jokes is enough to set it in a roar. The slightest 
 eccentricity of demeanour plunges it in a paroxysm 
 of laughter. Gossip that is perfectly puerile delights 
 it. Any trivial scandal, the tale of which is told with-
 
 2 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 out point, epigram, or even antithesis, is welcomed 
 as the best thing in the world. In Paris a certain 
 flavour of wit or humour is expected. There is no 
 necessity of anything of the kind in London. These 
 grown-up men and women, who laugh at the recital 
 of imbecilities and ineptitudes, are as easily enter- 
 tained as children. Like children, too, they love to 
 parade their own vices, and to make themselves out 
 a thousand times more wicked than they are. No 
 society could exist if it was half as corrupt as the 
 members of London Society, to judge from their 
 casual talk, or from the significance which their 
 comments and illusions are intended to convey. 
 But it is talk only the lax garrulity of a race 
 which is still laboriously endeavouring to emancipate 
 itself from the fetters of Puritanism." 
 
 This view of Society, it should be added, was 
 not written yesterday, but in 1885; and the people 
 criticized are those who now deplore the frivolity 
 of the present generation. If the critic had pointed 
 out how the Upper Classes were letting their tra- 
 ditional power slip from their grasp, he would have 
 been doing them a greater service, for, though at 
 the date in question, " Society," in the old meaning 
 of the word, was already well on the down-grade, 
 it still played a very considerable part in ruling 
 England. Many of its members, it is true, were 
 unthinking and frivolous, but there were quite a 
 number of serious and high-minded men and 
 women who drew a hard-and-fast line against 
 many things which are freely tolerated to-day.
 
 "MON MONDE" 3 
 
 Money, though thoroughly appreciated, did not 
 command the power which it at present enjoys ; 
 besides, people were rather particular how it had been 
 got, or, at least, pretended to be so a great difference 
 this from the present state of affairs of seeing " no 
 filthiness in any lucre." 
 
 Millionaires were not allowed to ride rough-shod 
 over others by reason of their wealth ; indeed, many 
 of them were merely tolerated, like " Louis Quatorze " 
 a nickname conferred upon a certain rich alien, 
 whose Christian name was Louis, because he was 
 never asked to dinner except when an extra guest was 
 required to prevent the party being thirteen. 
 
 To-day, at least among that ridiculous section 
 known as the " Smart Set," millionaires of no matter 
 what race are indisputably lords paramount by right 
 of superabundant cash. 
 
 The days indeed have gone when any attempt at 
 arrogance on the part of men or women of Semitic 
 extraction was sternly and promptly repressed. 
 
 " I am sorry I cannot send Mr. X an invitation to 
 my party," wrote a wealthy heiress of Hebrew parent- 
 age to one of her husband's relatives who had asked 
 for a card for a friend. "As you must realize, he is 
 not of mon monde" 
 
 11 1 agree with you about Mr. X not being of your 
 monde" came the reply ; "his father was not a Jew 
 banker, but only an English gentleman of ancient 
 family." 
 
 The late King Edward, who regarded the best class 
 of Hebrews with conspicuous favour, first assured
 
 4 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 them the social consideration they now enjoy. In 
 that, as in other matters, he set a fashion which has 
 had far-reaching social effects. 
 
 To-day, numbers of people, whose ancestors would 
 not have sat down at the same table with anyone of 
 Semitic lineage, bow the knee before the descendants 
 of the tribes. 
 
 English Society, indeed, is now dominated by a 
 plutocracy to a considerable extent Hebraic in its 
 composition. 
 
 Though no sensible individual can approve of 
 attempts to arouse racial hatred or view Anti-Semitism 
 with anything but disgust, there is no doubt but that 
 something akin to an Oriental social domination is 
 half on its way to being brought about in modern 
 England. 
 
 I doubt, however, whether our conquerors are 
 entirely at their ease. Though great wealth may 
 bring influence and power, it brings also care and 
 apprehension. The Colchian ram with the golden 
 fleece, though furnished with wings, was probably in 
 constant fear of getting sheared. 
 
 More breezy and irresponsible are the wealthy 
 Americans who make England their playground. 
 These happily appear to have little effect upon 
 our national life. American ideas do not seem 
 easily to acclimatize themselves on British soil. Not- 
 withstanding our close connexion with the United 
 States, expressions or words only with great difficulty 
 become part of our daily speech. 
 
 " Swank," an expressive adjective most appro-
 
 THE MODERN HEAVEN 5 
 
 priately of pure transatlantic origin, has gained a 
 speedy popularity at least among the masses, but 
 other anglicized American words are comparatively 
 rare. 
 
 Railroad, of course, shares an almost equal popu- 
 larity with our own railway, which, nevertheless, is 
 unquestionably more fitting and expressive, as well as 
 more euphonious. Telegram, a Greek compound 
 which cannot grammatically be justified, is another 
 American invention which has gained a permanent 
 foothold. 
 
 Though on the whole our friends from across the 
 Atlantic have not affected the habits of the people 
 at large, they have certainly done a good deal to alter 
 our aristocracy, a considerable portion of which has 
 unconsciously assimilated various American ways and 
 notions. In addition to this, quite a number of our 
 younger peers are of semi-American origin. 
 
 If, as Carlyle said, the modern hell is the hell of 
 not making money, the making of money to an 
 unlimited extent is certainly the modern Yankee 
 heaven. Not unnaturally, many exposed to wealthy 
 transatlantic influences are dominated by the same idea. 
 Americans, like the representatives of the Hebrew 
 race, also largely benefited by the affability of the late 
 King, who had a particular liking for visitors from 
 across the Atlantic, especially if they were rich or 
 beautiful. Many of the latter, having married into the 
 peerage, have become more or less English, but 
 nevertheless they generally keep in touch with their 
 countrymen and women. They are, however, prone
 
 6 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 to become jealous of any new arrivals who contrive 
 to achieve a like social success. 
 
 Marriages between Englishmen of good family and 
 wealthy heiresses from the States have of late years 
 been so frequent that a large number of old families 
 are now connected by ties of blood with the great 
 millionaire-producing country across the Atlantic. 
 
 An American plutocrat, of no matter what origin, 
 has now come to look upon the purchase of an English 
 peer for his daughter as a perfectly natural appanage 
 of great wealth. The difficulty with mothers and 
 fathers of good-looking daughters with plenty of 
 dollars is not to get a peer but to get a good one. 
 
 Wise parents, it is understood, keep a list of eligible 
 young noblemen, and, as a handy American guide now 
 gives a full account of those best suited for marriage- 
 able purposes, there is really no excuse for mistakes. 
 A plan likely to yield good results is to keep two or 
 three strings on the bow, thus if one aristocratic 
 bridegroom fails another can be at once secured. 
 
 Meanwhile an intermediary in England is instructed 
 to see how things are going, and, if necessary, pack 
 off eligible suitors to any given point. This 
 system was not very long ago employed in the most 
 efficient manner possible. The mother of a very 
 wealthy American young lady had for some time 
 hesitated whether her daughter should marry a rather 
 dissipated foreign grandee or a thoroughly impe- 
 cunious but quiet and gentlemanlike English peer, 
 absolutely warranted to give no trouble. 
 
 Owing to unsatisfactory reports concerning the
 
 A GOOD BARGAIN 7 
 
 foreign grandee, choice ultimately fell upon the 
 English peer. A telegraphic summons " Grandee 
 off, send along peer " dispatched to an accommo- 
 dating English friend caused the jubilant nobleman 
 to sail for America at a day's notice. He is now 
 married, and in every way has turned out a most 
 satisfactory bargain. 
 
 Such a transaction as this could not have occurred 
 in former days. The old English aristocrat always 
 chose ; rarely did he consent to be chosen. 
 
 While the system of re-establishing the family 
 fortunes by tacitly consenting to be purchased by 
 American dollars has saved a few estates, it is 
 undoubtedly a proof that the English aristocracy has 
 degenerated in character and backbone, the pitiful 
 ideal of a considerable section of it being " What does 
 anything matter as long as I have a good time ? " 
 
 Attached though one may be to the idea of 
 a dominant aristocracy, it is impossible to be 
 enthusiastic about many of its modern repre- 
 sentatives 
 
 "Who have mildewed in their thousands doing nothing. 
 . . . Why, the greater their disgrace ! 
 Fall back not upon a name ! Rest, rot in that ! 
 Not keep it noble, make it noble ! Fools, 
 With such a vantage-ground for nobleness ! " 
 
 Born into an age when an alert mentality counts 
 as it never counted before, the vast majority 
 entirely fail to grasp the situation, and are content, 
 notwithstanding the considerable advantages which
 
 8 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 their position still gives them, to allow the reins of 
 power, on which their caste formerly kept such a 
 firm hold, to slip completely from their grasp. 
 
 I do not know that, even from a physical stand- 
 point, they are as a class as well developed as 
 their predecessors, who, of course, lived more in 
 the country and spent more time in the open air. 
 
 Not that the aristocracy or Smart Society of 
 to-day despises sport ; on the contrary, not a few 
 devote their whole lives to one form of it or 
 another, frequently to the entire exclusion of far 
 more important interests which they have the colossal 
 folly to declare merely " bore them " ! 
 
 It may be taken as a more or less general rule 
 that people who are always talking about being 
 bored should be classed among what Nietzsche 
 called "slave people." Individuals of this type, 
 consumed by dread of ennui and a desire to kill 
 time, are not really fitted to be entrusted with the 
 priceless boon of leisure at all, nature having only 
 fitted them to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. 
 
 Those who declare that they find the day too 
 long invite ill-luck. A sort of strange fatality 
 seems to be attached to persons who fail to appre- 
 ciate the gifts of fortune. Many who complain that 
 time hangs heavy on their hands are unable to 
 find enough of it to take the most ordinary care 
 of their own affairs, the consequence being that 
 in the end they contrive to outlive their characters, 
 their constitutions, and their properties. 
 
 Living always in the same kind of world makes
 
 MILDEWED BRAINS 9 
 
 certain individuals as unfit for living out of it as 
 always living out of it does for living in it, all sense 
 of proportion being annihilated. 
 
 Idlers who mix only with other idlers ready to 
 agree with them become more and more fixed in 
 their admiration for certain ideals of a petty and 
 unimportant nature, while attaching little importance 
 to the things which really matter. 
 
 I myself have heard an owner of a large landed 
 estate, who ought to have known better, hold up as 
 an ideal to his little son (whose natural bent did not 
 appear to me to lie in the direction of sport) " the 
 making of the biggest bag of partridges on record." 
 Considering the conditions under which modern 
 shooting is conducted, he might just as well have 
 pointed out to him the glory of going to Chicago 
 and converting pigs into sausages quicker than it 
 had ever been done before. 
 
 Like the majority of his class, this thoughtless 
 father entirely failed to realize the tendencies of the 
 age. Endowed with very fair brains, unlimited 
 leisure, and ample wealth, he was, as it were, content 
 to mildew away. Had he chosen to adopt a public 
 career, and if he had anything worth saying, full 
 publicity was at his command. Everything, in fact, 
 went in his favour, and what did he do ? spent 
 his time firing off his gun (it must be admitted, 
 with considerable accuracy) at interminable flocks 
 of partridges and pheasants in order to outdo some 
 of his friends who were obsessed by a similar mania ! 
 
 Well might Dr. Arnold declare that there was
 
 10 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 no earthly thing more mean and despicable than an 
 English gentleman destitute of all sense of his 
 responsibilities and opportunities, and only revelling 
 in the luxuries of our high civilization, and thinking 
 himself a great person. 
 
 It is sad to think how~much the great families 
 of England might have done, and how small are 
 their actual performances in recent times. With 
 their inherited wealth and prestige they could easily 
 have retained the power that their ancestors used 
 not amiss. 
 
 Unfortunately, as a clever Radical writer once said, 
 " their translation of the phrase noblesse oblige seems 
 to be ' Nobility obliges us to do nothing.' " 
 
 Shooting, in spite of humanitarian twaddle, is an 
 excellent sport which, besides, provides very palat- 
 able and wholesome food for numbers of people, 
 but to make it an all-engrossing hobby is ignoble 
 and utterly unworthy of a really civilized man. It 
 would be a good thing for a large proportion of the 
 wealthier class if this were realized. 
 
 The old-fashioned aristocracy, though it liked its 
 pleasures, clearly perceived the wisdom of gaining 
 the support of its humble neighbours. The less far- 
 seeing aristocrat of to-day too often sees nothing of 
 the small local gentry, and thus alienates a valuable 
 political ally. 
 
 No wonder that many a landowner, having had to 
 exchange his luxurious mansion for a small London 
 flat, sits bewailing that Radical legislation is ruining 
 the country by which, of course, he means himself.
 
 MARRYING FOR MONEY 11 
 
 The fashion of despising the small squirearchy, 
 which was formerly such a prop of the large land- 
 owners, is responsible for much ill-feeling. After 
 all, numbers of poor countryfolk are in reality of 
 better blood than most of our newly manufactured 
 peers. They are, however, ill-equipped with means 
 and there is nothing to be got out of them, which, 
 of course, constitutes a fatal defect in the eyes of 
 an aristocracy "on the make." 
 
 Owing to various sources of income, such as sine- 
 cures and revenue from land, being greatly lessened, 
 the upper classes have of late been forced to look 
 about for some means of replenishing their depleted 
 coffers. 
 
 Rich marriages, a perfectly correct and time- 
 honoured way of reviving failing fortunes, cannot 
 always be brought off. The alternative is, there- 
 fore, either to work or live upon somebody else. 
 
 High-spirited scions of noble descent cannot 
 extract cash from foreign financiers so easily as 
 their ancestors pillaged the Jews of the Middle Ages 
 a number of whose descendants, by the way, have 
 since taken an ample revenge. This being so, it 
 naturally chooses the time-honoured method of 
 making a rich marriage. The aristocracy of Eng- 
 land, as a matter of fact, has always recruited its 
 fortunes by marriages with young ladies of great 
 wealth, often, even in the past, of very obscure 
 birth. 
 
 It had no liking, however, for marrying girls 
 of no family with no money, and would have been
 
 \ 
 
 12 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 horrified at the behaviour of some of the younger 
 generation of the English aristocracy who have 
 foolishly reversed this policy. Instead of following 
 their ancestors' examples and marrying heiresses, it 
 has become quite usual for young fellows of good 
 family to espouse minor stars of the theatrical 
 profession whom their ancestors of the eighteenth 
 century would have thought only good enough to 
 wile away a stray hour or two by dancing to the 
 music of a blind fiddler. 
 
 Though alliances between the stage and the peer- 
 age were not unknown after the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century, previous to that period they were 
 almost unheard of pride of birth prevented that. 
 
 Look at Hogarth's pictures of the old nobleman 
 (Lord Scarsdale of the first creation) with his 
 coroneted crutch pointing to his family-tree while 
 he is arranging the marriage of his son with the 
 rich merchant's daughter. He is bestowing an honour 
 for which any amount of bags of gold are but 
 a paltry remuneration. It was this pride of birth, 
 absurd as it may be, which kept the old English 
 aristocracy, now so sadly apologetic, in a position of 
 power and command. 
 
 As the old emperors and kings absolutely believed 
 that they ruled by right divine, so did these old 
 noblemen believe that they were really and truly 
 formed of a clay superior to that which went to the 
 making of their more plebeian fellows. 
 
 This may have been a nonsensical idea, but if you 
 believe a thing implicitly it is already half true at
 
 ARISTOCRATIC BLOOD 13 
 
 all events, you will certainly get a number of other 
 people to believe it. 
 
 The old-fashioned English aristocrat considered 
 himself of an entirely different type from the rest of 
 the world, whom at heart he tolerated only on 
 sufferance. The unswerving and unconscious pride 
 of such a man did not prevent him from being just 
 and kindly in his relations with those beneath him 
 in the social scale. His ideas of duty were rigidly 
 defined. 
 
 One of the best definitions of the characteristics of 
 this type was the criticism which the Due de Broglie 
 passed upon the great Duke of Wellington. " He 
 was a thorough Englishman, and one of the old stock; 
 downright, straightforward, stable, circumspect, but 
 stiff, austere, and rather narrow." 
 
 It may here be remarked that, from a purely 
 scientific point of view, the idea that aristocratic 
 blood is superior to plebeian, though now a good deal 
 exploded and jeered at, is in one way not so entirely 
 erroneous. It used to be an accepted adage in the 
 Navy that in expeditions involving much trying 
 exposure and hardship the men always succumbed 
 before the officers, while in journeys to high latitudes 
 the latter, nine times out of ten, had to drag the 
 former back. Numberless and convincing instances 
 of the constitutional superiority of the individual of 
 gentle blood over his fellows of lowly birth could be 
 given. It is, indeed, almost a law of nature that the 
 gentleman survives where the plebeian dies. 
 
 The reason, quite unromantic, is after all simple,
 
 14 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 the whole thing being merely a question of feeding 
 and care in early years. 
 
 For a good many generations the child of gentle 
 birth has had an abundance of suitable food. For 
 countless generations the children of the poor have 
 been either very badly nurtured or given the wrong 
 kind of nourishment. What wonder, then, that the 
 aristocratic constitution, well fortified in early youth, 
 should be vastly superior to that of the majority of 
 the proletariat, in whom the lamp of life, during 
 childhood, has been kept alight by a very poor or 
 unsuitable kind of oil? In addition to this, the upper 
 classes usually have some fairly sound ideas as 
 to the treatment of infantile maladies. The lower 
 classes, on the other hand, though things perhaps are 
 now a little better than they were, have always been, 
 and to a great extent are still, permeated by mediaeval 
 ideas as to medical treatment, the administration of 
 medicines, and the dangerous effects of fresh air, the 
 result being that their offspring are often at a dis- 
 advantage in fighting against even trifling ailments. 
 
 Besides a certain physical superiority resulting from 
 suitable environment and from a healthy life for 
 great landowners in old days passed much of their 
 time on their estates education and training imbued 
 the heir to great possessions with the conviction that 
 as a superior kind of being there were certain things 
 which he must on no account do. 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the majority of 
 instances the result was a strength of character sadly 
 wanting in the aristocracy of the present day.
 
 SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 15 
 
 The old English gentleman was, as a rule, honour- 
 able and, according to the traditions of his caste, just, 
 his main fault having been a lack of that flexibility 
 of mind which is unfortunately too superabundant in 
 the modern patrician. Though the innate pride of 
 birth which distinguished the old English aristocracy 
 is now but a thing of the past and to-day merely a 
 matter for wonder and amusement, I think that from 
 a business-like point of view its disappearance has 
 been a very great misfortune to the so-called upper 
 classes, who, if they had kept abreast of the times 
 and retained the acquisitive and shrewd mentality of 
 their forefathers, would have exploited it to good 
 advantage even under the altered circumstances of 
 to-day. 
 
 Instead of rushing with open arms to welcome 
 wealthy people of no matter what origin as they 
 emerged from the slums, they should have remained 
 as judiciously exclusive as possible, by which means 
 they would have kept a good deal of power, while 
 acquiring wealth on far better terms than those they 
 have sunk to accepting to-day. It was their women 
 who began the degringolade, imbued as they were 
 with the feminine idea that it was possible to 
 get something for nothing ; they could not resist 
 the comparatively trifling gifts and ostentatious 
 hospitality of the new millionaires, for which in the 
 long run the aristocracy has had to pay such a 
 heavy price. 
 
 Great discredit has also been brought upon what 
 used to be recognized as the ruling class by the lavish
 
 16 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 bestowal of titles upon wealthy nobodies. We can 
 still re-echo the words of Tom Moore : 
 
 " Tis pleasant, while nothing but mercantile fractures, 
 Some simple, some compound, is dinned in our ears, 
 To think that, though robbed of all coarse manufactures, 
 We keep up our fine manufacture of peers." 
 
 Not a few wealthy men are quite shameless in the 
 methods they adopt to obtain a peerage, and the 
 coterie which considers itself Society considers this 
 sort of thing quite legitimate. 
 
 Some little time ago I was discussing a certain 
 Radical who recently received a baronetcy with some 
 friends who are by way of being stanch Conserva- 
 tives. I said that the way this individual, a member 
 of Parliament, wealthy and of good family, went about 
 preaching the most advanced Radicalism and sup- 
 porting all sorts of canting measures which in private 
 life he was known to laugh at, was contemptible. I 
 was told that I was both silly and unkind. " Everyone 
 
 knows," said they, "that Sir (such a charming 
 
 man, and his wife so nice too !) is really not a Radical 
 at all, but only anxious to get a peerage. As you know, 
 he is already well on the way towards one ; when he 
 reaches the House of Lords all that nonsense he talks 
 about his love of the people will be put aside." 
 
 In plain words, this man's life is passed in bambooz- 
 ling various constituencies (for, one or two having 
 found him out, he has had to change his seat) in order 
 ultimately to obtain a seat in that House of Lords 
 which he devotes so much energy to abusing.
 
 THE PEERAGE 17 
 
 Anything more disgraceful from an honest point of 
 view it is impossible to conceive. 
 
 Peerages were originally never intended to be 
 conferred upon wealthy manufacturers who have 
 made their money by getting other people to work 
 for them on the cheapest possible terms. On the 
 other hand, though austere Radicalism may hold up 
 its hands in horror, it was certainly recognized in 
 ancient days that a king should ennoble such of his 
 illegitimate offspring as he chose. Taking the whole 
 system of European aristocracy as it then existed, it 
 would have been very strange had any other idea 
 prevailed. Approve or not, everyone with the 
 slightest tinge of romance thinks sympathetically of 
 the grandes amoureses who beguiled the monarchs of 
 the past. On the whole, with, of course, the excep- 
 tion of the hateful old Maintenon, whose cruel bigotry 
 caused Louis XIV to drive the clever, hardworking 
 Huguenots out of France, I do not believe they did 
 as much harm as our jabbering, self-seeking, meddling 
 politicians do in the modern world. Thank goodness, 
 not one of the latter seems likely to be remembered 
 as sympathetically as Nell Gwyn, the pretty Hereford 
 lass, who, from selling oranges at the theatre, rose to 
 be not merely the favourite actress of the time, but 
 the mother of a duke and the ancestress of a bishop. 
 
 Personally, I prefer peers descended from pretty 
 girls and Stuart Kings to some of our newly manu- 
 factured ones, whose forbears went about dabbling 
 in minor industries of a dubious nature associated 
 with the basement.
 
 18 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 For some reason or other, probably atavism, there 
 is a tendency for the sons of millionaires sprung from 
 the gutter to be particularly uncouth and unpresent- 
 able. Before a peerage is conferred it is now, indeed, 
 usual for some one in a responsible position to have 
 a good look at the prospective peer's sons. 
 
 A remark made by the chauffeur of one of our new 
 nobility proves what a necessary precaution this is. 
 His master, who had bought a fine property in the 
 West of England, had, after the manner of his kind, 
 made himself thoroughly unpopular with his neigh- 
 bours. Though a Radical, he was more particular 
 about anyone coming on to his land than any of the 
 wicked Tory landowners of the past had ever been. 
 So far did he carry his selfishness that for the first 
 time for a long number of years the Yeomanry were 
 not allowed to camp in his park. 
 
 What wonder that the newly made peer was re- 
 garded with contempt and dislike by almost everyone 
 in his neighbourhood. 
 
 The chauffeur one day discussing this unpopularity 
 with a friend, however, defended his master, against 
 whom he had little reason for complaint. 
 
 " I tell you," said he, " they may say what they like: 
 the old man ain't so bad, but, by Jingo, you should 
 see our eldest son ! " 
 
 " He is so rich ! " is often heard as an apology for 
 the bestowal of some particular undeserved honour. 
 Why in these professedly democratic days mere wealth 
 alone should entitle an individual to have a voice in 
 legislating for his less fortunate fellow-creatures,
 
 THE OLD SCHOOL 19 
 
 nobody is quite able to explain. The result of all 
 this is that while the aristocracy, as a class, is as rich 
 or richer than it ever was, its prestige, most precious 
 possession of all, except amongst Jew millionaires and 
 American snobs (who, having purchased the stock, 
 naturally dread a slump), has passed almost completely 
 away. The people of England, a large number of 
 whom, I am glad to say, retain the straightforward 
 non-toadying spirit which distinguished the fine old 
 English of the past, laugh at it, and well they may. 
 
 The old-fashioned aristocrat, proud, narrow, but 
 with well-defined principles and an innate conviction 
 that he was in some vague way responsible for the 
 well-being of England, was to many a sort of superior 
 being, not quite of the same kind as the people they 
 saw every day. His vices and failings generally 
 of what has been somewhat snobbishly termed an 
 aristocratic kind were not blazoned abroad, while, to 
 do him justice, he was quite prepared to incur any 
 amount of trouble or inconvenience in order to fulfil 
 such duties as his class were expected to perform. 
 His pride, though often great, was never blatant or 
 vulgar with many, indeed, it was a sort of second 
 nature. The real old-fashioned aristocrat, indeed, 
 never for a second doubted that he represented a 
 class which was the very salt of the earth. Just, and 
 not unkindly, he held very strong views as to the 
 necessity for keeping himself rather aloof from his 
 social inferiors, whose lot in life was not to push them- 
 selves forward, but to do their duty in that state of life 
 to which it had pleased God to call them.
 
 20 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 He expected respect and often inspired it, for, with 
 all his faults, there is no doubt he was a valuable 
 national asset. Unlike the modern peer, he had no 
 idea of assuming a defensive " I am not so bad after 
 all " attitude. Providence had placed him above other 
 men, and that was enough. 
 
 This system of a privileged class, while probably 
 better suited to the needs of old-fashioned England 
 than people of to-day are prepared to admit, was, 
 of course, accompanied by certain abuses which ac- 
 cording to modern ideas were quite indefensible. 
 
 Wealthy noblemen, unless they took an interest in 
 politics, served the State or went into the Army or 
 Navy ; they were virtually excluded from following 
 any profession. It was tacitly understood that men 
 of their class, provided they committed no real crime, 
 were quite entitled to lead any sort of life they liked, 
 but they could not go into trade, which was then 
 taboo to a man of gentle blood. 
 
 The latter idea, one of the most absurd which ever 
 existed, made loafers of numbers of well-born younger 
 sons, who, owing to their ancestry, found themselves 
 obliged either to live upon sinecures or upon their 
 relatives. 
 
 The bad old system by which men of good family 
 received handsome salaries, not for doing anything, 
 but for being the sons of their respective fathers, up 
 to the end of the eighteenth century existed in pro- 
 fusion not only in England but all over Europe. 
 
 Under the old French monarchy all offices were 
 sold, and the great nobility, being for many ages the
 
 SINECURES 21 
 
 only opulent persons in the kingdom, enjoyed a 
 monopoly of all places of trust and emolument. For 
 a time they did very well. Gradually commerce and 
 industry creating and bringing together the materials 
 of luxury, the nobles were tempted to exhaust their 
 fortunes in procuring personal enjoyments, by which 
 means they became gradually impoverished. They 
 were consequently unable to purchase places at Court, 
 which passed, therefore, into the hands of the middle 
 classes, who rose in wealth as the aristocracy declined. 
 This was the first step towards the events of 1789. 
 
 In England, though things never reached such a 
 bad pitch, numbers of the aristocracy lived upon the 
 State. A member of one noble family, for instance, 
 was Secretary of the Council, Remembrancer of the 
 Court of Exchequer, Clerk of Common Pleas in 
 Barbados, also Registrar in Chancery, and Clerk of 
 the Patents in Jamaica, all which duties were of 
 course discharged by deputy and brought their for- 
 tunate holder an annual income of over five thousand 
 a year. 
 
 The Governorship of Virginia was in the eighteenth 
 century a military sinecure, the holder of which could 
 remain in London. In 17 28 the troubled state of that 
 province would no longer admit of a non-resident 
 Governor, and its Assembly, while voting the salary, 
 had made complaint that they received no service in 
 return. With the unanimous consent of the Cabinet 
 the Governor of the day was informed that the King 
 must call upon him to resign his post, but was willing 
 to grant him an adequate pension until another
 
 22 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 appointment of the same value could be found for 
 him. 
 
 Numbers of individuals contrived to keep their 
 nests well feathered by drawing money from an ap- 
 preciative country, while the number of persons of 
 gentle birth who managed to make some comfortable 
 little addition to their income by means of Court 
 appointments, ornamental colonelcies, or other offices 
 was extremely large. 
 
 Very shocking all this, no doubt, but as matters 
 stood then there was not much cause for surprise. 
 As a matter of fact, a country is, of course, in a minor 
 degree, always exploited by somebody. Whether a 
 peer or a democrat takes the money is really unim- 
 portant, and certainly the old-fashioned peers generally 
 spent the money obtained by sinecures very freely ; 
 also they had a number of individuals lesser fleas 
 who lived upon them. 
 
 The author of the Greville " Memoirs " drew ^500 as 
 late Naval Officer at Demerara, with ,2,000 more as 
 Clerk of the Privy Council, and with yet ^3,000 more 
 as Secretary and Clerk of the Enrolments at Jamaica. 
 Another Charles Greville drew 600 per annum as 
 Comptroller of Cash in the Excise at London, ^600 
 more as Receiver of Taxes at Nottingham, ^350 
 more as Secretary of the Island of Tobago, and 
 yet again ^572 allowance as Naval Officer at 
 Trinidad. 
 
 About the best example of a first-class holder of 
 sinecures, however, was the third Marquis of Hertford 
 Thackeray's Lord Steyne. No doubt in a great
 
 SEYMOUR PLACES 23 
 
 measure owing to his friendship with the Prince 
 Regent, he held a number of public offices, the duties 
 of which probably troubled him little. He was 
 Vice- Chamberlain, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, 
 Lord Steward and Vice-Admiral of the Duchy of 
 Cornwall, Chief Commissioner of the Duchy, and 
 even Recorder of Coventry and Bodmin until the 
 reform of the municipal corporations. 
 
 A most stinging epigram upon the sinecures of 
 this nobleman was the one written by Tom Moore ; 
 it purported to be a conversation between a dowager 
 and her maid : 
 
 " ' I want the Court Guide,' said my lady, ' to look 
 If the house, Seymour Place, be at 30 or 20 '; 
 ' We've lost the Court Guide, ma'am, but here's the Red Book, 
 Where you'll find, I dare say, Seymour Places in plenty.' " 
 
 In those days there was much truth in this epigram. 
 The Seymours figured in every capacity, from am- 
 bassadors to wharfingers and from serjeants-at-arms 
 to housekeepers. 
 
 The old-fashioned peers, if they enjoyed large 
 benefits, were, in return, generally ready to give their 
 lives for their country. Many met their death on 
 hard-fought fields ; many more cheerfully faced exile 
 and hard knocks in search of reputation, and the 
 majority were always ready for any rough work. 
 The old English aristocracy was essentially adven- 
 turous and, though some of them managed to get 
 through a good deal of public money, taking one 
 thing with another, did much for their country.
 
 24 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Thirty or forty years ago, when younger sons of 
 good family realized the absolute necessity for doing 
 something to make money, the City first claimed their 
 attention, and since then a gradually increasing crowd 
 of impoverished young fellows of good family have 
 been flocking into the City to earn a livelihood by 
 commissions. 
 
 While the aristocracy has now long ceased to despise 
 trade, it is remarkable that none of the wealthier 
 amongst them have striven to assure the prosperity 
 of their family fortunes by themselves founding- 
 businesses. Had they had the sense to emulate 
 the merchant princes of the Middle Ages, which 
 many might have done, who knows but that they 
 would not have rehabilitated their class ? 
 
 Some rich peers, more farseeing than their fellows, 
 it is true, have invested large sums in Canada and 
 other portions of that Greater Britain beyond the 
 Seas which, in the future, will probably enjoy great 
 prosperity, but such enterprise does not appeal to 
 the majority, who, merely groaning at the increase 
 of taxation, have no idea of marching with the 
 times. 
 
 As for the considerable class of younger sons, who 
 have no regular occupation at all, they strive to keep 
 things going in all sorts of ways, but a few being 
 none too particular as to what those ways may be. 
 
 " I don't believe in noblesse oblige," I once heard 
 one of these young fellows say ; " that's all gone by 
 the board now you've got to get what you can." 
 
 This remark, though jokingly said, was sadly
 
 OLD BEAUX 25 
 
 significant of the mental attitude of the class to which 
 the speaker belonged. 
 
 A noticeable symptom of the changed habits of 
 the last two generations is the disappearance of 
 that somewhat worthless type who, under various 
 names buck, dandy, swell, masher, and dude was 
 once such a feature of West End life. 
 
 His nearest equivalent to-day, I suppose, is the 
 democratic " Nut," who slouches along where erst- 
 while stalked the patrician beau. 
 
 Except from a picturesque point of view this 
 disappearance is perhaps scarcely to be deplored. 
 The old beaux of the past in particular would be 
 thoroughly out of place to-day. Though many a one 
 had fought gallantly for his country, as a class they 
 were for the most part somewhat disreputable and 
 selfish old men. There were, however, exceptions 
 who were charming. 
 
 Such a one was the late Mr. Mackenzie Grieves, 
 who lived mostly in Paris, where for many years he was 
 a leading figure in everything relating to the French 
 turf. Highly popular and respected, his memory 
 is kept green by a race at Longchamps which in 
 his honour was named " le Prix Mackenzie Grieves." 
 His affability to everyone, his charm of manner 
 and immaculate appearance made a great impression 
 upon my boyish mind. Though he had taken up his 
 residence in Paris and paid but occasional visits to 
 this country, he remained the complete and perfect 
 type of the old-fashioned English gentleman. As a 
 young man he had served in the Life Guards, and
 
 26 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 to his last days he retained much of the smart military 
 bearing which was such a characteristic of the British 
 officer of a past generation. 
 
 Very different in appearance, manners, and ways, 
 however, were most of the old beaux who lingered on 
 into the early eighties of the last century. I can just 
 remember some of these padded and bewigged old 
 fellows as they were tottering to the grave. Some of 
 them who had been brave soldiers fought as gallantly 
 against the ravages of Time as they had done at 
 Inkermann and Balaclava for their Queen. The effect 
 as a rule was, however, pitiable. As is now sensibly 
 recognized, it is more seemly and decent for a 
 man of pleasure after a vie orageuse to view life 
 through the mellowing medium of philosophy. A 
 sensible man, with his appetites curbed by the stern 
 discipline of time, provided he retains the faculty of 
 appreciating humour, can lead a life of considerable 
 happiness and calm. 
 
 Such an idea did not, however, at all appeal to the 
 majority of the old bucks, devotees of Bacchus and 
 Silenus, who lingered about West End thoroughfares 
 as late as the early eighties. Some of them, known 
 by sight to many Londoners, had almost become 
 institutions of the town. 
 
 They ogled and occasionally attempted to enter into 
 conversation with pretty women about the streets, but 
 I do not think much harm was done. True virtue 
 can afford to laugh at fossilized vice, and the old 
 wrecks were easily sent to the rightabout. 
 
 While the morality of such men was very low, they
 
 MERETRICIOUS PLEASURE 27 
 
 were probably at heart not a whit worse than the more 
 restrained and more careful men of to-day. 
 
 It should be taken into account that up to the early 
 part of the nineteenth century a very free morality 
 formed a great, almost the principal, part of the life 
 of rich Englishmen, without any offence being given 
 to the conscience of the community. Princes took 
 their own course along the line of limitless desires 
 and their courtiers followed. Lord Pembroke, who 
 was well known for his elopement with Miss Kitty 
 Hunter, was universally esteemed as an "accom- 
 plished nobleman " ; the Earl Bishop of Derry, the 
 Duke of Devonshire who died in 1811, Lord Egre- 
 mont, Lord Hertford, and, not least, Lord Darlington, 
 were all, to use the phrase of Wraxall, "well known 
 in the annals of meretricious pleasure." 
 
 Their point of view perhaps was best expressed by 
 Renan when he wrote : " Le monde, dont les juge- 
 ments sont rarement tout a fait faux, voit une sorte de 
 ridicule a etre vertueux quand on n'y est pas oblige" 
 par un devoir professionel. Le pretre, ayant pour 
 e"tat d'etre chaste, comme le soldat d'etre brave, est, 
 d'apres ces idees, presque le seul qui puisse sans 
 ridicule tenir a des principes sur lesquels la morale 
 et la mode se livrent les plus Granges combats." 
 
 Be this as it may, it is impossible to deny that in 
 the past the majority of public men, even the cleverest, 
 were prone to be ardent devotees of him whom 
 Buddha called the Lord of Pleasure and the God 
 of Death.
 
 II 
 
 POLITICS 
 
 THE old-fashioned idea of politics at least 
 that held by people of property was that 
 by a sort of tacit agreement it should be kept 
 as much as possible a game, the principal players 
 in which should belong to some of the great titled 
 houses, strong enough to move about the rank and 
 file of their respective parties like pawns. Never- 
 theless there was, however, more independence in 
 the House of Commons then than exists to-day, 
 when members have sunk to being mere voting- 
 machines. 
 
 The sums which were spent by wealthy noblemen 
 in capturing or holding seats for their party were 
 often enormous. 
 
 To-day peers have comparatively little influence 
 in politics, and the sturdy independent Member of 
 Parliament of former days is as extinct as the dodo. 
 The old England which this type of man loved 
 is but a memory. As a matter of fact it vanished 
 years ago. 
 
 " Avec Lord Londonderry [Lord Castlereagh]," 
 wrote Chateaubriand, "expira la vieille Angleterre,
 
 A GLOOMY FORECAST 29 
 
 jusqu'alors se d^battant au milieu des innovations 
 croissantes. Survint M. Canning : 1'amour-propre 
 1'emporta jusqu'a parler a la tribune la langue du 
 propagandiste. Apres lui parut le Due de Welling- 
 ton, conservateur qui venait demolir : quand 1'arret 
 des societe"s est prononce", la main qui devait elever 
 ne sait qu'abattre. Lord Grey, O'Connell, tous ces 
 ouvriers en ruines, travaillerent successivement a la 
 chute des vieilles institutions. ReTorme parlemen- 
 taire, emancipation de 1'Irlande, toutes choses excel- 
 lentes en soi, devinrent, par 1'insalubrite des temps, 
 des causes de destruction. . . . 
 
 " Lord Liverpool avait lui-meme de tristes 
 pressentiments. Je dinais un jour chez lui : apres 
 le repas nous causames a une fenetre qui s'ouvrait 
 sur la Tamise ; on apercevait en avance de la riviere 
 une partie de la cite" dont le brouillard et la fume'e 
 elargissaient la masse. Je faisais a mon hote 1'eloge 
 de la solidite de cette monarchic anglaise pondere"e 
 par le balancement egal de la liberte* et du pouvoir. 
 Le venerable lord, levant et allongeant le bras, me 
 montra de la main la cite" et me dit : * Qu'y a-t-il 
 de solide avec ces villes e'normes ? Une insurrection 
 serieuse a Londres, et tout est perdu.' " 
 
 This gloomy forecast, happily, has not yet been 
 realized. At the same time disquieting symptoms of 
 unrest were not wanting during the great railway 
 strike. 
 
 Agitators abound, and slippery-minded politicians 
 do not scruple to make speeches intended to inflame 
 the lower class against the upper.
 
 30 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 I have heard this defended on the plea that in 
 order to obtain the necessary driving force for social 
 legislation enthusiasm and excitement are indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 Moderate men who sanction such dangerous 
 methods should remember the words of the old 
 coloured preacher, descanting upon the difficulties 
 of the sinner: 
 
 " My brudrin," said he, " it am easy to row a 
 boat ober Niagary Falls, but a tremenjus job to row 
 it back again." 
 
 With the insincerity which, unhappily, seems the 
 appanage of political life, a number of public men 
 are ready to abuse anybody or anything in order 
 to pander to the electorate. To pull down from 
 above is easier than to build up from below. 
 
 Curiously enough, some of those who are the 
 most vehement in calling for equal rights for all 
 are the least democratic in their private lives. 
 
 Catherine Macaulay, who wrote a " History of 
 England from the Accession of James the First to 
 the Elevation of the House of Hanover," in the 
 second half of the eighteenth century, had Republican 
 ideas and was fiercely democratic in her writings. 
 One day at her house Dr. Johnson pretended to be 
 a convert to her doctrines. " I am convinced, like 
 you, madam," he said, " that all mankind ought to 
 be upon an equal footing, and to give you an un- 
 mistakable proof, madam, that I am in earnest, there 
 is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, 
 your footman. I desire that he may be allowed to
 
 DOWN, NOT UP! 31 
 
 sit down and dine with us." Catherine Macaulay 
 resented the suggestion. " I showed her the 
 absurdity of her levelling doctrines," said the 
 Doctor, "and she has never liked me since. Your 
 levellers wish to level down as far as themselves, 
 but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves." 
 
 When all is said and done it must be admitted 
 that, considering the enormous power enjoyed by 
 the upper classes before the passing of the great 
 Reform Bill, the almost unlimited opportunities they 
 had for plunder and the usual effect of such oppor- 
 tunities upon human nature of no matter what class, 
 the wonder is that they showed so much moderation. 
 In return for steering England into a position of 
 commanding power risking and giving their lives 
 freely by land and sea, running the government of 
 the country admittedly with more consideration 
 and fairness to the humbler classes than prevailed 
 anywhere else in Europe, they were, according to 
 their lights, surely entitled to see that their younger 
 sons and relatives without means were provided 
 for for life. I believe that no Radicals or Socialists 
 of the present day would have, under the circum- 
 stances, shown such self-restraint. So-called 
 democratic government, owing to what seems an 
 almost inevitable tendency of popular leaders to 
 make money, generally proves the most expensive 
 of all. 
 
 The business of government, as conducted in old 
 days, was intimately connected with a number of 
 social forms and usages which are now completely
 
 32 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 obsolete. Society exercised real political power, 
 and almost every politician of eminence, more or 
 less, bowed to its decrees. 
 
 Even thirty-five years ago distinguished statesmen 
 attached serious importance to social ordinances, and, 
 following the example of their predecessors, dined out 
 and gave dinners regularly. A prominent public man 
 had to do an enormous amount of dining-out. 
 Lord Beaconsfield's doctors were of opinion that 
 the multitude of dinners he had been forced to attend 
 shortened his life. The London season was coincident 
 with the Parliamentary Session, and from February 
 to July the dinner-parties and other entertainments 
 arranged for the amusement of the politicians and 
 their belongings exceeded the sum of those given 
 in all the other European capitals put together. A 
 certain amount of formality still prevailed. Dinner- 
 parties were regarded as serious functions, and 
 throwing over people at the last moment, or being 
 late, regarded as grave breaches of good manners. 
 Occasionally, Cabinet Ministers who were expected 
 to dinner were prevented by stress of Parlia- 
 mentary business from putting in an appearance, 
 but that was the rare exception ; and in a general 
 way the dinner-party and the evening reception 
 were institutions not less stereotyped and sacred 
 in the London spring and summer than the sittings 
 of both Houses of Parliament. In short, Politics and 
 Society then went hand in hand. I do not know, 
 however, that the affairs of the Empire suffered in 
 consequence.
 
 CASTING OF NETS 33 
 
 London Society as at that time constituted was 
 of immense service to the Conservative cause, all 
 sorts of useful people being adroitly drawn into its 
 net, a process which was greatly assisted by the 
 tactful manoeuvres of a certain number of recognized 
 hostesses, the like of whom do not exist to-day. 
 The Conservatives, indeed, may be said to have 
 possessed a regular social organization devoted to 
 forwarding the interests of the party. Many ladies 
 prominent in Society, for instance, spared no effort 
 to make the wives and daughters of the parvenus 
 actually in Parliament or anxious to get into Par- 
 liament, on the Tory side, at home. On the other 
 hand, the wives and daughters of Liberal M.P.'s 
 on the same social level were neglected or cold- 
 shouldered, or treated only with frigid and con- 
 ventional civility, by the grandes dames of Whiggism 
 or the smart ladies of Liberalism. Consequently 
 those who entered political life, as many did, at 
 the promptings of social ambition or to gratify the 
 ladies of their family could count upon a more 
 definite social reward by joining the Conservatives, 
 whose ranks were thus recruited by numerous astute 
 individuals. The hob-nobbing between men of the 
 rival parties which is such a significant and none 
 too reassuring feature of modern English social 
 life did not then prevail. A real antagonism seemed 
 to exist between the two parties, and a large part 
 of the conversation at Conservative dinner-tables 
 consisted in abuse of Mr. Gladstone, whom numbers 
 of violent people regarded as a kind of Beelzebub.
 
 34 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Modern Tories have now long modified their views 
 as to the statesman in question. Quite a number 
 of them, indeed, declare that Mr. Gladstone would 
 have opposed certain measures passed by the present 
 Liberal Government ; nevertheless, it must not be 
 forgotten that it was Mr. Gladstone who paved the 
 way for what has occurred since his time. Though 
 an excessively clever man, there can be no doubt 
 that, even when facts were against him, he would 
 never admit himself to be wrong, and always 
 cherished the comfortable conviction that what he 
 did or what he abstained from doing was right. 
 Imagination he strangely lacked, as well as the 
 faculty of making allowances for race or climate, 
 historical antecedents, national peculiarities. A 
 striking proof of this is the behaviour of Mr. 
 Gladstone's " interesting nationalities " his favourite 
 Balkan States who have lately been so busy 
 cutting one another's throats. 
 
 His impassioned plea for the simple-minded 
 Christians who were subjected to the brutal rule 
 of the unspeakable Turk, and his horror at 
 " Bulgarian atrocities," roused a large section of 
 England to a state of outraged indignation. What, 
 I wonder, would he say to the well-authenticated and 
 horrible atrocities committed not on but by his pet 
 Bulgarians during the recent war ? That " interesting 
 nationality" has at least been far from justifying the 
 faith which the Grand Old Man reposed in her. 
 No parallel, it is said, can be found for the horrors 
 committed by her soldiers in and about Adrianople,
 
 AN INTERESTING NATIONALITY 35 
 
 outraging, killing, and burning in the most fiendish 
 manner wherever they went. 
 
 When the Turks reoccupied the town Enver Bey 
 and his men were received with rapture by 100,000 
 inhabitants. This is the first, time in history that 
 Europeans, Greeks, and Armenians have received 
 Moslems with open arms as their long-hoped-for 
 protectors, rending the air with their shouts of joy. 
 
 "Europeans declared that they would rather go 
 through a whole year of a siege with shot and shell 
 flying about than endure a single month of the 
 Bulgarian reign of terror. 
 
 " Not a single one of the Turkish prisoners survived. 
 Certain is it that hundreds of fettered Greeks were 
 every day dragged through the city. If one of them 
 just bent down to pick up a scrap of food from the 
 ground, he received a prod from a bayonet, and dozens 
 of corpses were every day carried off the two or three 
 miles of road from Karagatsch to Adrianople and 
 hurled into the rivers. 
 
 " The ingenuity Mr. Gladstone's favourites put 
 into their martyrdoms of the poor people baffles 
 description. According to the Press, Turkish women 
 were crucified, and before the breath had left their 
 bodies carved and flayed even in their death-agonies 
 they were not safe from fresh tortures. Many wells 
 were filled to the brim with the bodies of Turkish 
 women, and many others were poisoned in different 
 ways. 
 
 " Robbery and extortion ran riot. In the Mosque 
 of Selim at Adrianople only the worthless carpets
 
 36 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 were left, and even these had pieces cut out of their 
 corners or middles. Bulgarian officers of all grades 
 simply stole just as it seemed good to them. When 
 General Christowitch was asked by a European 
 merchant for protection against the robbers, he 
 replied : ' What can you expect ? the young fellows, 
 are, after all, only taking away mementoes.' Which 
 reply gained for him the nickname of ' General 
 Memento.' 
 
 " About two hundred trainloads of goods ' requisi- 
 tioned ' from Adrianople steamed back to Bulgaria. 
 Pianos, carpets, curtains, spoons, forks,* chairs, tables 
 in short, everything movable was carted off. If a 
 mob of the invaders came across anything that was 
 not worth taking, they just cut it in pieces or burnt it." 
 
 The results of the emancipation of the Balkan 
 States seem to have had anything but a mollifying 
 effect upon their inhabitants. 
 
 According to the Press, something like 200,000 
 non-combatants, including thousands of men and 
 children, were massacred in the province of Thrace 
 alone. 
 
 This historic butchery, it should be thoroughly 
 realized, was the work of the simple-minded Christians 
 whom Radical sentimentalists have persistently held 
 up as displaying the most praiseworthy and for- 
 giving fortitude under the oppression and brutality 
 of the wicked Turk but then, careful examination 
 of facts more or less proves that sentimentalists are 
 always wrong. 
 
 For Mr. Gladstone, with his sincere but exagge-
 
 A GUARDED FLAME 37 
 
 rated indignation concerning the Bulgarian atrocities 
 of the past (most of which were never proved), there 
 was, of course, a great excuse. Native Christians 
 under Mohammedan rule he always imagined as law- 
 abiding, religious folk, leading much the same kind 
 of orderly life as his own villagers at Hawarden, to 
 whom he read the lessons every Sunday. 
 
 His knowledge of foreign countries was of necessity 
 extremely limited, and in a great measure gleaned 
 from informants anxious to tell him what he wanted 
 to hear ; his whole bent of mind and disposition 
 resembled that of a very cultured ecclesiastic rather 
 than that of a practical and farseeing statesman. 
 During his latter years, at least, the old statesman 
 "a guarded flame," shielded from all annoyance by 
 his intimates had little opportunity of learning any 
 unpleasant truths. Everything of a nature to irritate 
 or annoy him was kept out of his way ; even the 
 daily papers were subjected to a kindly censorship 
 by his devoted wife, who took care to prevent his 
 attention being called to any paragraphs likely to 
 disturb him. One result of this was that he went 
 to his grave believing that parliamentary institu- 
 tions and representative government were not only 
 the supreme end at which to aim, but the regime 
 to which all nationalities were instinctively capable 
 of adapting themselves. In foreign politics his 
 view would seem to have been that every 
 male child born into the world, whether British or 
 Bulgarian, Armenian or African, Egyptian or Zulu, 
 Aztec or Esquimaux, was capable of being educated
 
 38 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 into a free and independent elector for an English 
 borough. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, largely no doubt owing to his 
 entourage of worshippers, was to a great extent self- 
 centred. Whether at heart he was ever really a 
 Radical in the modern acceptation of the term seems 
 rather doubtful. Notwithstanding a blind and almost 
 pathetic belief in representative institutions, any form 
 of government which might have declined to take his 
 own views into account would have aroused his wrath. 
 Perhaps the most Radical characteristic about him 
 was a love of unlimited freedom of speech, espe- 
 cially for himself. He might have been said, indeed, 
 to have lived in an agreeable world of his own, in 
 which everything he said or did was in the nature 
 of things right. 
 
 How can a man whose whole life is passed with one 
 particular set of individuals, who always agree with him, 
 ever have the slightest conception of what existence 
 really is ? Can the social reformer understand why 
 the bar-lounger cheerfully leads a life of sodden 
 inebriety, or can the racing-man realize that even the 
 certainty of backing several really good things has no 
 power to tempt the student from his books or the 
 scientist from his laboratory? 
 
 Byron said of Napoleon that what he most liked 
 in his character was his want of sympathy, which 
 proved his knowledge of man, as those only could 
 possess sympathy who were in happy ignorance of 
 human nature. Unlimited sympathy with suffering 
 humanity, which was a peculiar characteristic of Mr.
 
 A SOPHISTICAL RHETORICIAN 39 
 
 Gladstone, undoubtedly warped his judgment and dis- 
 torted his sense of proportion. Notwithstanding all 
 his wonderful intellectual gifts, there was ever a certain 
 ingenuousness about some of the great statesman's 
 ideas. I believe that he once in print actually advo- 
 cated a line of rail running all round the English coast- 
 line as being the best form of national defence, because 
 artillery could thus be easily moved from point to 
 point ! 
 
 About the real characteristics and failings of the 
 world in general he was very hazy indeed. The intense 
 insularity of his point of view occasionally rather 
 inclines one to doubt whether Mr. Gladstone was a 
 great statesman at all ; at any rate, his widespread 
 sympathy with nationalities, especially small ones, 
 about which he was in reality profoundly ignorant, 
 causes him to be almost better remembered outside 
 England than at home, where his memory is, perhaps, 
 not as green as his commanding intellect and fine 
 character deserved it to be. Probably, as a new and 
 clever writer (Mr. Esme Wingfield Stratford) has 
 recently declared, it was a certain incoherence and 
 lack of backbone which has consigned nearly every- 
 thing that Mr. Gladstone ever wrote or spoke to 
 oblivion. Definite principle or a coherent system of 
 thought seems to have been positively repugnant to 
 this great statesman, whom his rival once not inaptly 
 dubbed "a sophistical rhetorician." Like the modern 
 Japanese, he got his theories and ideas from widely 
 different sources his theology from Oxford, political 
 economy from Liverpool, his love of liberty from
 
 40 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Naples. To sustain any pet contention he was apt 
 to draw support from books. A fine scholar, few 
 have ever known so much about them as he did. 
 There was, however, one important exception the 
 Book of Life. 
 
 If Mr. Gladstone is not sufficiently remembered by 
 a new generation, no man received more appreciation 
 than he during his lifetime. Not infrequently his 
 admirers, indeed, attributed to his influence reforms and 
 innovations which had never been carried out at all. 
 
 Going into a village shop one day, I happened to 
 embark upon a chat with its proprietor as to the merits 
 and demerits of the Grand Old Man, who had just 
 made a speech which had attracted great attention. 
 " Well, sir," said this tradesman, a note of warm admi- 
 ration in his voice, " whatever people may say against 
 Mr. Gladstone, I for my part can never forget that he 
 gave England 'one man one vote.' " 
 
 I thought it useless to point out that this was 
 exactly what Mr. Gladstone had never brought about, 
 and passed on to topics of a less controversial 
 nature. 
 
 One great merit Lord Beaconsfield's rival 
 undoubtedly had to which full justice has never 
 been done. He was not a sentimentalist in a hurry ; 
 that is to say, he was not ready to crush out personal 
 liberty in order to redress some vague grievance 
 without thoroughly going into the pros and cons of 
 the matter. I fancy that a good deal of our latter- 
 day humanitarian legislation would have been little 
 to his taste. At the same time, in international
 
 COMMON SENSE 41 
 
 matters, Mr. Gladstone certainly represented 
 uncalculating and over-enthusiastic altruism, just 
 as the late Duke of Devonshire represented that 
 scarce and precious attribute in these days, alas! so 
 rarely to be found " ordinary common sense." It 
 was for this reason that when the latter was Lord 
 Hartington, he possessed such overwhelming 
 influence in the House of Commons. Though 
 nominally a Liberal, the Duke had all the 
 characteristics of his class, including a somewhat 
 cynical contempt for his social inferiors, whether 
 Radicals or Conservatives. It is said that, being 
 once asked whether political demonstrations ought 
 not to be forbidden in Hyde Park on Sundays, he 
 replied, with a characteristic sneer, which had in it 
 nothing that was affected, offensive, or insincere, 
 that he could not for the life of him see why, if you 
 were to admit a well-dressed mob into the "Park on 
 week-days, you should exclude from it a less well- 
 dressed mob on the Sabbath. From this utterance 
 it may be gathered that he was somewhat con- 
 temptuous of humanity in the mass, which in reality 
 merely proves that he was a true aristocrat ; for if 
 vulgarity is merely a form of sympathy with the 
 greatest number, it is equally true that sympathy 
 with the greatest number is merely a form of 
 vulgarity. 
 
 In these days when (in the writer's opinion largely 
 by reason of their own ineptitude, slackness, and 
 lack of intelligence) peers have come to be of small 
 account, the old conception of a great English
 
 42 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 aristocrat has almost ceased to be remembered. 
 The old-fashioned nobleman of other days was a 
 type apart. Frigidity and hauteur were often his 
 characteristics, but, unpleasant as these qualities 
 usually are, there was something so high-bred about 
 many of the stiff old peers that much could be 
 forgiven. Many a one, after passing through a 
 period agitated by wild indiscretions, seemed to have 
 bidden a last farewell to folly, and, as it were, frozen 
 into the exemplar of an immaculate, unemotional, 
 self-possessed British nobleman. A curious charac- 
 teristic of not a few of this class who had been dandies 
 in their youth was their apparent contempt for 
 clothes ; the love of some of them for ancient raiment 
 was remarkable. The late Duke of Devonshire 
 almost exactly realized this conception. True to 
 the type, after a joyous youth he became the very 
 incarnation of British stolidity. His whole attitude 
 latterly was one of detachment from all mundane 
 things ; and though he continued to go out a good 
 deal he generally seemed to be bored. Assemblages 
 of his fellow-creatures, of no matter what kind, 
 appealed to him but little. It was once shrewdly 
 said that the Duke's attitude towards society was 
 rather that of a man reconciled to it than anything 
 else. He, as it were, acquiesced in it, even as he 
 acquiesced in, and was reconciled to, the politicians 
 with whom he had cast in his lot, the exalted station 
 to which he had been born, and the dukedom which 
 he undoubtedly adorned. Nevertheless, his manner 
 remained suggestive of a semi-contemptuous protest
 
 IN WOEFUL PLIGHT 43 
 
 against politics, society, the House of Commons, the 
 House of Lords, and everything else. 
 
 He put up with them all, however, and his absolute 
 integrity and detachment from self-interest, together 
 with his great common sense, gave him a unique 
 position as a man to be looked up to and trusted. 
 This being so, it was no wonder that even in his 
 latter years, when he had become a Liberal- Unionist, 
 the Duke remained a tower of strength to his party, 
 which at the present time, notwithstanding having 
 had numberless opportunities (missed), is in such 
 woeful plight. Considering, indeed, the chances which 
 the Conservatives have let slip, it would seem as if 
 they did not really wish to come in at all. For years 
 their main idea has apparently been merely to abuse 
 their opponents for remaining in office and to shrink 
 from taking their place. The main Conservative 
 characteristic since the death of Lord Beaconsfield 
 has been to show complete lack of courage. Their 
 pitiable tactics deceive no one, not even King Demos, 
 with whom they are always seeking to outbid their 
 opponents. Luck has also deserted them. As a 
 matter of fact, it was quite by accident that Disraeli, 
 a man of commanding genius, found himself at the 
 head of the Conservative party, for at heart he was 
 probably not more of a Conservative than he was 
 anything else. 
 
 The career of this really great man is one of the 
 most extraordinary in our political history. No one 
 could have started with greater odds against him than 
 the author of "Lothair." To begin with, his descent
 
 44 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 put him at a considerable disadvantage, though of 
 course the stock he came from was of a totally differ- 
 ent kind from that which has produced so many of 
 our modern Hebrew millionaires. Disraeli sprang 
 from the aristocratic section of the Jews, which has 
 given the world many a fine and lofty intellect. He 
 had, moreover, none of the less edifying qualities of 
 his race. He entirely lacked the Semitic instinct for 
 accumulating wealth, and as a young man was so 
 careless about money that during a great portion of 
 his life he was worried to death. Though never a 
 rich man, his generosity was sometimes quite quixotic. 
 
 Happening to be taken ill while staying at a 
 country house, the local doctor was sent for and came 
 twice. On his return to London, Lord Beaconsfield's 
 secretary, having reminded his chief of the fee, was 
 told to send the practitioner ten guineas. " I dare say 
 he doesn't get much practice down in the country 
 I should like to do him a little good," was the old 
 Tory leader's kindly remark. 
 
 The acceptance of Lord Beaconsfield's leadership 
 by the real English aristocracy was the more remark- 
 able insomuch as he had not received the training 
 which was then considered almost indispensable to an 
 English statesman. Old Isaac Disraeli had not given 
 him what is usually understood by the term " a liberal 
 education " ; and his son was never reared in the Eton 
 and Oxford of his favourite heroes, but was taken 
 from the suburban academy, in which he had mastered 
 some of the elements of learning, to be articled in the 
 office of a metropolitan attorney.
 
 LORD BEACONSFIELD 45 
 
 When the young Disraeli first entered politics his 
 somewhat flamboyant style of dress must have pre- 
 judiced many people against him. His appearance 
 and dandified air in the early days have often been 
 described. His ringlets of silken black hair, his coat 
 of black velvet lined with white satin, his white kid 
 gloves, his ivory cane, of which the handle, inlaid 
 with gold, was relieved by more black silk, in the 
 shape of a tassel, must have all counted to his disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Gradually, as the years crept on, all of these frip- 
 peries were abandoned, and when as a boy he shook 
 hands with me for the last time in my mother's 
 drawing-room, where he was such a frequent visitor, 
 he wore, I remember, the most shocking overcoat 
 possible, and was altogether very shabbily dressed. 
 
 I shall never forget the old statesman's sphinx-like 
 look and his half-closed eyes as he sat huddled up in 
 a little chair. There was something fascinating about 
 him, and one felt that he was some one entirely 
 different from ordinary men. 
 
 A real political leader, if ever there was one, Lord 
 Beaconsfield, at a time when the Conservative party 
 possessed a far greater number of shrewd and virile 
 captains than it does to-day, absolutely dominated 
 his party, not by overbearing methods or temper, but 
 by tact. 
 
 Those who worked with him like his intimate 
 friends, still cherish his memory with the warmest 
 affection. My cousin (Lord Abergavenny), indeed, 
 only a short time ago, speaking to me of his dear
 
 46 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Dizzy, said : " Ah ! there was the most charming man 
 to work with I ever knew. If he disagreed with you, 
 he put things so nicely that you could not be annoyed. 
 He was the most tolerant and most pleasant of men." 
 I have always heard the same story from people, and 
 I have known a good number, who were in close 
 touch with the great statesman. The lapse of years 
 since his death has not shaken his admirers in their 
 ardent enthusiasm for their lost leader, and it is easy 
 to realize the strange, almost mysterious, influence 
 which Dizzy exercised over many contemporaries 
 who had never even caught a glimpse of him. Many, 
 indeed, like myself, who belong to a later generation 
 and have a profound distrust of all politicians, even 
 now grow enthusiastic concerning the genius of the 
 wonderful man who, starting with everything against 
 him, lived to become Benjamin Disraeli, first and only 
 Earl of Beaconsfield. 
 
 The brilliant personal triumph which Dizzy achieved 
 reflected its lustre upon his political followers. 
 Naturally, therefore, when he departed the whole 
 fabric was shaken, and to-day Conservatism as 
 a serious fighting force has almost ceased to exist. 
 Within recent years the Unionist party has been 
 peculiarly unfortunate. To begin with, it seems to 
 have no clear or settled policy, while the old-fashioned 
 sturdy solidity which was once one of its principal 
 characteristics is a thing of the past. 
 
 This state of affairs, however, will not be bettered 
 by a policy of shuffle and retreat. 
 
 To have the best chance of rising once more
 
 NEW AND OLD 47 
 
 Phoenix-like from its ashes the Conservative party 
 must first of all perfect its organization and also 
 hold out more tempting inducements for young men 
 to join its ranks. In this it would merely be follow- 
 ing the example of Lord Beaconsfield, who spared no 
 pains to win over promising young men. 
 
 Disraeli was a man of commanding genius, who 
 by an accident found himself at the head of the 
 Conservative party, but he himself was something 
 more than a hidebound Tory. Nevertheless, it 
 is to the credit of the old Conservatives that, 
 conscious of their own limitations, they accepted 
 the leadership of the cleverest man they could 
 find. On the other hand, their successors of to-day 
 are inspired by a disastrous loyalty to leaders who, 
 owing to various causes, have ceased to be in touch 
 with modern needs. What wonder that the country, 
 unmoved by second-rate Unionist blandishments, 
 trusts itself to the Liberals, not because it likes them 
 or admires them, but because, of two evils, it prefers 
 the evil which, rightly or wrongly, it considers the 
 less? 
 
 The uncompromising attitude of the old-fashioned 
 Conservatives is said to be out of date at any rate 
 it served the cause far better than compromise and 
 would-be artful tactics have served the new school. 
 The Unionists, indeed, when it comes to a question 
 of superior cunning or adroit falsification of fact, 
 are no match for their more wily opponents of 
 " Chinese labour " fame. 
 
 A more shameless cry than this never disgraced
 
 48 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 any political party ; even Mr. Gladstone (who 
 generally managed to convince himself of the justice 
 of anything he advocated, however doubtful) would 
 have recoiled at such a deliberate falsification of 
 the truth. 
 
 The fact that many high-minded and sincere 
 Liberals connived at this piece of chicanery shows 
 what a demoralizing influence party politics exert. 
 
 " Lies always come first in everything," and 
 attract the imbecile by the law of universal vulgarity. 
 The blind see the unknown, the incredulous believe 
 the false. " Few are they who look to the inside 
 of things, which are usually very different from what 
 they seem. Alas, that Truth generally comes in 
 only very late, limping along, as it were, on the arm 
 of Time ! " 
 
 This infamous Chinese labour cry was undoubtedly 
 one of the greatest factors in the Liberal triumph 
 of 1906, yet we find Mr. Lloyd George having the 
 face to tell his countrymen at Aberystwyth 
 May 25, 1912 that "In politics, lying might be 
 a good gamble, but it was a bad investment. On 
 the Stock Exchange they had people who were 
 called Bears, and their function was to run down 
 a security, to circulate falsehoods about it, and then 
 try to break it." On the market, " the only chance 
 of making money," continued the Chancellor, "was 
 to sell out before being found out." 
 
 All things considered, the effrontery displayed in 
 this oration was nothing short of stupendous. Mr. 
 Lloyd George, however no man better knew
 
 MR. LLOYD GEORGE 49 
 
 exactly what would go down with the public he 
 was addressing, 
 
 Abuse of the leisured classes is always popular 
 with a certain section of the proletariat, and whether 
 as a chastiser of unearned increment or defending 
 that " stainless honour " which Mr. Winston Churchill 
 told the National Liberal Club was one of the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer's principal characteristics, Mr. 
 Lloyd George in his own line, at least, is quite 
 inimitable. 
 
 No man better than he understands how 'to hold 
 the attention of the electorate. When he is not 
 amusing them with his quips, he moves them with 
 his pathos. It is pretty certain that his having taken 
 part in the late Ministerial gamble will do his career 
 little harm. Voters always have a very short memory 
 where anyone who flatters and amuses them is 
 concerned. 
 
 Quite recently the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 received a unanimous vote of sympathy at a recent 
 political meeting passed I suppose as a mark of 
 regret at the failure of the " Marconi gamble." 
 There, as in many other instances, the "stormy petrel," 
 as he called himself, was certainly " all at sea" ! 
 
 With all his faults Mr. Lloyd George has at least 
 the merit of being amusing in his speeches, most of 
 which are readable enough to cause the press to 
 report them almost in full; a compliment only accorded 
 to one other speaker Lord Rosebery. 
 
 The rise of the Chancellor is very much to his 
 credit, and though he shows few signs of being a
 
 50 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 really serious politician, he must possess some of the 
 qualities which go to the making of a great man, 
 for, otherwise, he would never have surmounted the 
 many and great difficulties which have shadowed his 
 path. 
 
 At the present time the Chancellor has become 
 almost a national institution, which even those 
 opposed to him accept. It is, however, to be hoped 
 that we shall not have any more politicians of his 
 peculiar bent. One Lloyd George is all very well, 
 but a House of Commons with several would be 
 unbearable. 
 
 The recent Marconi scandal is but a proof of how 
 fallible such courtiers of the people as Messrs. Lloyd 
 George, Isaacs, and Lord Murray of Elibank always 
 are. We are told that in former times patriots prided 
 themselves on two things their own poverty and 
 the riches of the State. But, poor as these men were, 
 there were kings not rich enough to purchase them 
 nor powerful enough to intimidate them. In modern 
 times it would be easier to find a patriot rich enough 
 to buy a king than a king not rich enough to buy a 
 patriot. A noble Roman is said to have torn to 
 pieces with his own teeth a woodpecker, because the 
 augur, being consulted, had replied that if the bird 
 lived his house would flourish, but if it died the 
 prosperity of the State would prevail. I wonder 
 what some of our modern patriots would do under the 
 same circumstances. I think a roast woodcock at 
 the Savoy grill-room would be more to their taste 
 than a raw woodpecker!
 
 CHARLES BRADLAUGH 51 
 
 There are two trades, a friend once told a member 
 of the Cabinet, which seem to be inevitably connected 
 with deterioration of character. Horse-dealing is 
 one, and you know all about the other ! 
 
 The superiority of the Liberals in thoroughly 
 bamboozling the electorate is almost an admitted 
 fact. The Conservatives, no doubt, though they 
 have some scruples, are almost as anxious to do it, 
 but unfortunately for them they have not the brains. 
 
 Their attitude in the Marconi affair proved this. 
 Besides wearing the subject to death, the Opposition 
 assumed a self-righteous attitude which at times 
 became little short of ridiculous. 
 
 As was pertinently remarked, the British public 
 were regaled with the spectacle of the Conservatives 
 pretending to be shocked at speculations which many 
 of them in their innermost hearts thought of no con- 
 sequence at all, while, on the other hand, a number of 
 austere Radicals, who really disapproved, found them- 
 selves obliged to condone, if not actually defend, 
 Stock Exchange gambling. 
 
 The tone adopted by the Unionist party with 
 regard to the whole affair was not dissimilar from 
 that once taken up by the late Sir Henry Drum- 
 mond Wolff. The latter, though no bigot in 
 religious matters, sought to make party capital by 
 opposing the taking of the oath by Charles Bradlaugh, 
 a man who, notwithstanding his aggressive atheism, 
 was one of the most high-minded and sincere indi- 
 viduals who ever lived. 
 
 A strange compound of good and evil, poor Brad-
 
 52 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 laugh was really a good Christian, though he was the 
 last to know it. He did good without knowing why, 
 and practised all the virtues of religion, at the same 
 time he continually attacked its doctrines and called 
 all its advocates impostors. It might have been said of 
 him, as the satirist said of one who was always railing 
 at everything good, kind, and beneficent 
 
 " His honest features the disguise defy, 
 And his face loudly gives his tongue the lie." 
 
 Being by disposition hostile to dogma, Bradlaugh 
 wasted a good deal of time combating religious 
 dogma and faith. 
 
 The great Akbar wrote : 
 
 " In every temple they seek Thee, in every 
 language they praise Thee. Each religion says that 
 it holds Thee the One. 
 
 " But it is Thee whom I seek from temple to 
 temple, for Heresy and Orthodoxy stand not behind 
 the screen of Truth." 
 
 Perhaps the Member for Northampton was closer to 
 the latter than many professed believers. 
 
 Well might John Bright exclaim, " It is not 
 Bradlaugh's atheism which they hate, but his un- 
 conscious Christianity." 
 
 Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, to whom I acted 
 as attache" in Teheran and Madrid, and who was 
 through his mother a cousin of mine, was a most 
 generous and good-hearted man, not at all fanatically 
 fond of religion, narrow-minded, or bigoted in any 
 way. An excellent raconteur, he justly enjoyed a great
 
 A NOBLE SPEECH 53 
 
 reputation for telling amusing stories of a frivolous 
 kind, many of which would certainly not have been to 
 the taste of the Bench of Bishops. Yet here was this 
 tolerant and kindly man who, had he met Mr. Brad- 
 laugh outside political life, would no doubt, like most 
 sensible people, have appreciated and liked his many 
 good qualities doing everything he could to put the 
 newly elected Member for Northampton to unlimited 
 trouble and expense. 
 
 Religious conviction or detestation of Mr. Brad- 
 laugh's unorthodox views did not, in my opinion 
 and I knew Sir Henry as well as anyone have the 
 slightest share in causing the latter to pursue his 
 relentless and ultimately futile opposition to the 
 Member for Northampton taking his seat. 
 
 It was during one of the Bradlaugh debates that Mr. 
 Gladstone made a speech which must endear his 
 memory to all who admire toleration in its best and 
 most difficult form. 
 
 Nothing is more honourable to his reputation than 
 his masterly plea for one whose religious opinions 
 were in direct opposition to his own. Mr. Glad- 
 stone was without doubt a really religious man, and 
 nothing could have been more painful to him than 
 to find himself even indirectly identified with 
 atheism. According to his lights, however, he 
 was strictly just, and feeling it was his duty to 
 speak, he spoke. All honour to him for having 
 done so. 
 
 The trumped-up and insincere opposition to 
 Bradlaugh and the " Marconi affair " are the two
 
 54 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 salient instances of the pitch which demoralization 
 has reached in modern parliamentary life. 
 
 The House of Commons, indeed, has now long 
 ceased to be a place for a man of sturdy and indepen- 
 dent views. Such a one is not wanted in this nest 
 of catchpenny intrigue and pitiful evasion. Were it 
 otherwise, Mr. Harold Cox would not be without a 
 seat. He, at any rate, comes in for no share of that 
 growing contempt which most of our politicians so 
 richly deserve. 
 
 It is, at all events, some consolation to reflect that 
 no class of men becomes so completely forgotten after 
 their deaths as politicians, while their speeches, like 
 out-of-date theological literature, are only dragged 
 out of obscurity to light fires or to be made into pulp. 
 
 The country is rapidly becoming disgusted with the 
 humbug and trickery of the party system, while 
 thoroughly tired of the House of Commons, its super- 
 abundant legislation and make-believe ways. No 
 wonder that recently when the House rose for five 
 months a psean of joy went up from all sensible 
 people, most of whom sighed to think this home of 
 futile talk could not be shut up for ten years. 
 
 The Government (some of the members of which 
 are really clever men, who, if unhampered by the 
 House of Commons, would govern the country well 
 enough) are obliged to keep on pushing forward un- 
 necessary measures in order to satisfy their supporters. 
 The Opposition is in a still worse plight, having no 
 policy and acute differences in its ranks. 
 
 In 1885 an acute observer declared that the great
 
 PARALYSIS AND IMPOTENCE 55 
 
 fact in the political situation in England was that the 
 party system which underlay political life for three 
 centuries had broken down. " Its machinery," said 
 he, " is exhausted or hopelessly out of repair. Its 
 energies are distracted. What was once a whole is 
 split up into fractions and sects, which reduce each 
 other to paralysis and impotence." 
 
 This may have been partially true then, it is 
 certainly wholly true now. 
 
 Particularly impotent is the Unionist party. 
 
 The main hope of the Unionists is based upon an 
 idea that the country will eventually become sufficiently 
 disgusted with the present Government to put them in 
 office, but what on earth they are going to do when 
 they get there it is increasingly difficult to divine. 
 
 The repeal of the Parliament Act and drastic im- 
 provement of Mr. Lloyd George's insurance scheme 
 will, we are assured, form important features of the 
 Unionist programme. One Government, however, 
 very rarely reverses anything which its predecessor 
 has done, and in all probability the advent of the 
 Unionists to power would find them too much oc- 
 cupied with minor legislative tinkerings, bickerings as 
 to Tariff Reform and the like, to effect any serious 
 change in the Acts which they profess to hate. 
 
 The late Lord Salisbury was undoubtedly a source 
 of enormous strength to the class to which he belonged; 
 the methods of the clever Cecil family have not been 
 equally successful. Certain of Lord Salisbury's off- 
 spring, indeed, whilst endowed with brilliant mental 
 gifts, often seem to be all at sea in the modern world.
 
 56 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Lord Robert's keenness for Woman's Suffrage actually 
 caused him to join in the most un-English demand for 
 names in the highly discreditable agitation concerning 
 the Piccadilly flat. Lord Hugh's energies are cramped 
 by the influence of an ecclesiasticism which is unsuited 
 to the needs and ideas of the present age. 
 
 From a certain point of view, no doubt, the fact that 
 this is so is to be deplored ; but politicians, to exercise 
 real influence, must, to a great extent, swim with the 
 tide. On the other hand, a pernicious influence in 
 modern politics is that exercised by extreme timidity. 
 "La peur accroit les maux : si I' on ne sttait pas si 
 fort effrayt des menaces, on eut pu resister avec un 
 certain succes" 
 
 This particularly applies to the Unionist party, a 
 section of which is always trying to show the electorate 
 how anxious it is to yield to any passing whim, and 
 goes poking about to discover some scrap of meddle- 
 some social reform overlooked or rejected by the 
 Radicals. 
 
 Many a voter, I feel sure, would willingly vote for 
 a real Conservative party, but there is at present none 
 for the poor fellow to vote for, and so, not from 
 any admiration for Radical principles, but preferring 
 the lesser of two evils, in despair he is forced into 
 supporting the other side.
 
 Ill 
 
 BOHEMIA 
 
 IT is all very well to say, as the late Sir Walter 
 Besant said of Murger, the author of the " Vie de 
 Boheme," that the life of a true Bohemian is 
 usually sad, mistaken in its aims, bankrupt in its 
 aspirations, ruined by its follies. Without some 
 sympathy for Bohemianism man is a dull dog indeed. 
 In addition to this, those whose youth is austere 
 can seldom or ever understand humanity and make 
 allowances for its faults and failings. 
 
 A century ago and later, even great statesmen made 
 occasional incursions into the land of Bohemia, and 
 the youth of the governing classes, as a rule, were 
 thoroughly acquainted with all its ways. 
 
 Those, of course, were rough days, and the expe- 
 rience gained in queer resorts produced a very 
 different sort of Englishman from the one, we see 
 to-day. 
 
 An instance of the stern point of view taken up by 
 the old school was the remark of the second of a 
 certain duellist, who, after killing his man, began to 
 express sorrow. 
 
 " Sorrow indeed ! For what ? " rapped out the
 
 58 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 fire-eater in question. " Damme ! you shot him like 
 a gentleman, and there's an end on't. What the 
 devil do you want ? You can't kill him again ! " 
 
 Though in point of time we are not very far away 
 from the earlier part of the nineteenth century, it is 
 difficult to estimate the change in manners and habits 
 which since that period has occurred. Men of fashion 
 delighted in paying nocturnal visits to St. Giles's, 
 where the knives and forks were chained to the table, 
 and for twopence you could have a plate of hot 
 ox-cheek, a tumbler of small beer, and a platter of 
 Basilican salve. The buck or dandy, who formerly 
 was a recognized figure in West End life, has dis- 
 appeared, and the days of wild sprees, knocker-wrench- 
 ing, and the like do not seem likely to return. 
 
 Though the Corinthian of the last days of the 
 Regency belonged to a leisured class which was little 
 concerned with the question of having to earn its own 
 living, he was usually a virile, full-blooded specimen of 
 robust manhood, in reality far superior to the dandy 
 of Victorian times or the " nut " of to-day, too often 
 mere languid poseurs of the " nil admirari " order. 
 
 The "nut," moreover, unlike the dandy of the sixties, 
 takes a pride in appearing to be cunning and cute. 
 The best description of his ideals, curiously enough, 
 is that given by Byron in Canto XI of " Don Juan " : 
 
 "Who, on a lark, with black-eyed Sal (his blowing), 
 So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing ? " 
 
 Though he had a number of good qualities unknown 
 to his successors, the buck of the past had some
 
 A BIBULOUS GENERATION 59 
 
 very bad ones the worst, his .fondness for consuming 
 large quantities of strong liquor. 
 
 Intemperance was more or less rife among all 
 classes, and from 1770 to about 1820, not only men 
 about town, but people in highly responsible positions 
 habitually drank deep. 
 
 Certain judges were noted for their potations. 
 Of the drinking judges of the day, Lord Hermand 
 was the most famous. "A case of some great 
 offence was tried before him, and the counsel pleaded 
 extenuation for his client in that he was drunk when 
 he committed the offence. ' Drunk ! ' exclaimed 
 Lord Hermand, in great indignation ; ' if he could 
 do such a thing when he was drunk, what might 
 he not have done when he was sober ? ' evidently 
 implying that the normal condition of human nature, 
 and its most hopeful one, .was a condition of 
 intoxication." 
 
 The amount of drink swallowed by this bibulous 
 generation was amazing, and there was a regular 
 cult of articles connected with the consumption of 
 alcohol. 
 
 A punchbowl was once considered an article of 
 furniture necessary to the humblest household. It 
 was usually given as a present to young people on 
 their marriage ; and the punchbowl with the ladle, 
 with a guinea fixed in the bottom of it, were 
 generally the most cherished of the Lares and 
 Penates of our great-grandfathers. In Dissenters' 
 families the punchbowl was frequently used as a 
 kind of baptismal font. There are some bowls
 
 60 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 which have acquired a rare value from their historic 
 reminiscences. 
 
 The original receipt for punch is said to have 
 been brought back by a traveller from the Coro- 
 mandel coast some two hundred and fifty years ago. 
 "Punch" (which he is supposed to have declared 
 was the favourite tipple of the inhabitants of 
 this region) had obtained its name from " paunch," 
 a word in their language meaning five the number 
 of the ingredients of which it was compounded. 
 These five component parts of punch were spirits, 
 water, lemon, sugar, and spice ; but we have now 
 reduced the elements to four by leaving out the spice. 
 Thus we have, as one poet suggests, " four striking 
 opposites the strong, the weak, the sour, the sweet." 
 The basis of properly made punch is spring water 
 (hot or cold, as the season may incline the taste of 
 the company), to which is added lime or lemon 
 juice and sugar, thus forming a kind of sherbet. 
 The spirit, which may be either brandy, whisky, 
 rum, or arrack, is then poured in, and the liquor 
 becomes punch. When lemon juice is used instead 
 of lime juice, it is called punch royal ; and, whatever 
 may be the value of the statement, it is said to be 
 less liable to affect the head as well as more 
 grateful to the stomach. Milk punch is made by 
 adding nearly as much milk to the sherbet as there 
 is water. Some prefer tea punch, in which a 
 decoction of green tea takes the place of water. There 
 is a punch called chambermaid's punch (though 
 why so named no one seems to know) which is
 
 THE MISPLACED H 61 
 
 made, without water, of lime juice sharpened with 
 a little orange and lemon juice, twice as much 
 white wine as lemon juice, and four times as much 
 brandy, sugar being added to the taste. 
 
 The large amount of spirituous refreshment 
 consumed by a long past generation would seem to 
 have made it choleric and quick to resent a slight 
 by the display of physical violence. Fighting with 
 watchmen or, indeed, no matter who, was at one time 
 considered almost a legitimate form of amusement 
 for a young fellow of spirit. 
 
 The old-fashioned Englishman was rather blood- 
 thirsty ; it used to be said that when he got up on 
 a fine day his first idea was to go out and kill some- 
 thing. At the present time it could, with more justice, 
 be said that his first idea is to go out and reform 
 somebody. 
 
 In the early part of the nineteenth century every 
 young buck prided himself upon being able to hold his 
 own with his fists, handle the ribbons of a four-in-hand, 
 and talk slang as glibly as a professional coachman. 
 
 London slang, indeed, had quite a literature of 
 its own, and the public delighted in imaginary 
 characters who, like that creation of a later age, 
 Sam Weller, had a peculiar pronunciation of the 
 King's English. 
 
 Perhaps the best instance of the habit of misplacing 
 the h was a conversation supposed to have been 
 held at the Zoological Gardens : 
 
 Young Lady: "La, ma, here's a heagle!"
 
 62 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Mama (reproachfully) : "A heagle ! Oh, you 
 hignorant gal. Vy, it's a howl." 
 
 Keeper of the Menagerie (respectfully) : " Axes 
 parding, mum, it's an 'awk ! " 
 
 The bucks, while they pronounced their #s, never- 
 theless delighted in speaking a sort of special 
 language of their own, the best professor of which 
 may be said to have been a writer with a fine typi- 
 cally English name. This was Pierce Egan, who 
 enriched it with many amusing terms. He was a 
 clever man, and some of his happiest efforts betray 
 a strength of sense, and an inclination to support 
 honour and correct feelings which show him to 
 have been something more than a mere frivolous 
 man of pleasure. 
 
 Not a few of his writings are replete with gaiety 
 information, and spirit ; and there are few authors 
 who have made social history the vehicle of so 
 much life and whim. Personally he is said to have 
 been an intelligent man in conversation, as well as 
 a pleasant singer in his day a gift highly esteemed. 
 
 Singing and health-drinking were then important 
 features on all convivial occasions. About the 
 last instance, of a regular old-fashioned function of 
 this sort, with songs and special toasts, was the 
 traditional Cambridge Beefsteak Club dinner, to 
 which the members sat down in blue coats, brass 
 buttons, and buff waistcoats. The president always 
 sang a song composed, I believe, early in the 
 eighteenth century. In addition to much health 
 drinking, there were four regular toasts, the newest
 
 MUND1G 63 
 
 of which was the health of Mr. Bowes, the only 
 undergraduate who ever won the Derby. When 
 drinking this in my Cambridge days I was not 
 aware that I was toasting the defeat of my own 
 grandfather, who lost a large sum of money by the 
 defeat of his horse, the Angelica colt, beaten by 
 half a neck -as the old-fashioned term ran in the 
 Derby of 1835 by Mr. Bowes's horse Miindig. As 
 Mlindig is a German word signifying " of age," 
 the owner was probably just about twenty-one at 
 the time. In after life he became a great collector 
 of Oriental china. 
 
 As a picture of the life led by a man of fashion 
 in the early part of the nineteenth century " Tom and 
 Jerry" is no doubt somewhat overdrawn, but the spirit 
 of life is .there. 
 
 Pierce Egan knew all the haunts of pleasure of 
 his day, and was especially at home in Bohemian 
 circles. 
 
 In the chronicles of the life about town of his 
 day there is a deal of matter for the student of social 
 development. People were more simple and credu- 
 lous, there was a strong hankering for physical 
 violence and a decided predilection for noise. On 
 the whole, however, the populace were much the 
 same as they are now, but there was more coarseness, 
 more massiveness, and less grace. 
 
 Brutality to animals was viewed with unconcern. 
 London abounded with low haunts devoted to all 
 kinds of spurious and cruel sports. This taste spread 
 across the Channel. For the convenience of bucks
 
 64 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 visiting Paris a regular arena was installed on the 
 Barriere du Combat, a picture of which appears in 
 another "Tom and Jerry" book describing life in Paris. 
 A regular performance, known as " Le Combat des 
 Animaux," was held on Sundays, Mondays, and fete- 
 days. The brutal show, such as it was, took place 
 in an enclosure, round which was a gallery, and under 
 it dens of beasts, together with a kennel of dogs, 
 who were always ready for battle. Wolves, bulls, 
 and bears, the latter with their teeth filed down, 
 encountered trained dogs ; but the latter seldom 
 killed their opponents, as amusement, not destruction, 
 instigated the combats. The bulls had their horns 
 sawn off. There were also fireworks exhibited, in 
 which was to be seen a bull-dog, raised fifty feet 
 by a rope, which he held between his teeth, regardless 
 of the flames which surrounded him. The spectacle 
 commenced at three to four o'clock, and the admission 
 was i fr. and 2 fr. 
 
 "Tom and Jerry" has attracted many who would 
 have loathed taking part in most of the scenes it 
 describes. Thackeray confessed that he always re- 
 tained a great liking for the book, and especially the 
 pictures. 
 
 The costumes of the period, as was demonstrated 
 in Sir Conan Doyle's excellent play, " The House 
 of Temperley," were certainly very picturesque as 
 compared with the sad-coloured clothes of to-day. 
 
 The popularity of "Tom and Jerry" was quite 
 phenomenal, and the result was that all sorts of 
 other volumes in the same style were offered to
 
 SIMON PURE 65 
 
 the public. An extra series of twenty-three addi- 
 tional coloured plates, with descriptive verses by 
 Heath, are occasionally, or rather very rarely, found 
 with the first edition. These extra plates, it is 
 probable, were designed by Robert Cruikshank, whose 
 portrait, as well as that of Pierce Egan (depicted 
 as Bob Logic the Oxonian), is to be found in many 
 of the scenes. 
 
 The twenty-three plates in question, with the title 
 "Fashion or Folly, or the Buck's Pilgrimage," were 
 published separately, however, in 1832. They now 
 command a considerable price. 
 
 Another very scarce Tom and Jerry pamphlet 
 is " Death of Life in London, or Tom and Jerry's 
 Funeral," by T. Greenwood, published by Lowndes 
 without date. It is embellished with a coloured fold- 
 ing front by George Cruikshank. 
 
 In connexion with the latter artist an amusing 
 error was formerly to be found in an early edition 
 of that famous work, " Nagler's Kunstler Lexicon." 
 An English review had some time before contrasted 
 the merits of the famous caricaturist with those of 
 his brother Robert. In the course of this article 
 George had been alluded to as "the real' Simon 
 Pure." Unaware of the real significance of a 
 quotation which has become proverbial amongst us, 
 the German editor of that edition of the " Kunstler 
 Lexicon " began his memoir of Cruikshank by 
 gravely informing the public that he was an English 
 artist "whose real name was Simon Pure"! In 
 another part of the Lexicon, under the letter P, was 
 to be found:
 
 66 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 " PURE (SIMON), the real name of the celebrated 
 caricaturist, George Cruikshank." 
 
 " Tom and Jerry's Funeral " must, of course, not be 
 confused with the " Finish to the Adventures of Tom, 
 Jerry, and Logic," by Pierce Egan, published in 
 1830, of which there are two good reprints (1869 
 and 1887). 
 
 In this volume we see the end of Corinthian Tom, 
 killed by a fall out hunting, and the retirement from 
 life in London of Jerry Hawthorn, after taking unto 
 himself a blooming squire's daughter as wife. 
 
 " Life in Paris," comprising the Rambles, Sprees, 
 and Amours of Dick Wildfire, Squire Jenkins, and 
 Captain O'Shuffleton in the French metropolis, 
 with twenty-one comic vignettes and twenty-one 
 coloured engravings of scenes from real life, by 
 George Cruikshank, written by D. Carey and pub- 
 lished in 1822, is now a scarce work of which no 
 reprint has appeared. The coloured plates, spirited 
 and well done, undoubtedly convey a good idea of 
 a certain side of life in the French capital during 
 the early part of the nineteenth century. The letter- 
 press, whilst of course tinged by the " we show vice 
 in order to induce virtue " pose a rather canting 
 spirit, by the by is at times amusing as well as 
 not uninstructive to the reader fond of delving into 
 the more trivial ways and customs of an epoch 
 now as remote from us as that of the ancient 
 Assyrians. 
 
 Another less-known volume written in the same 
 style as "Tom and Jerry" was "Life in Dublin,"
 
 MIDDLEMEN 67 
 
 which includes an account of the landing of George 
 IV when he visited Ireland. 
 
 The place of Logic who, by the way, Pierce Egan 
 drew more or less as a picture of himself is here 
 occupied by a somewhat impecunious officer who 
 does not possess the charm of the Oxonian. 
 
 This same visit of George IV produced a consider- 
 able stir among certain agents then known as 
 " middlemen," who had a free hand in the manage- 
 ment of properties owned by absentee landlords, 
 some of whom chose the occasion to pay one of 
 their rare visits to their Irish domain. 
 
 The harvest some of these " middlemen " reaped is 
 even now legendary in those parts of the country where 
 they had power to oppress. One great landowner 
 about to visit Ireland to welcome King George IV 
 desired his middleman to put his castle in order 
 for his reception. " My lord," was the reply, " I 
 burned it down twenty years ago as the readiest 
 way to come at the lead which covered it, thinking 
 your lordship, after a thirty years' absence, would 
 never come here alive to look for a resting-place." 
 
 By the tenant " the middleman " was too often 
 regarded as a sort of rapscallion placed between 
 his landlord and himself, merely for purposes of 
 oppression. Not a few, it is true, were intolerable 
 extortioners and tyrants, who stuck at nothing to 
 gain money ; they kept hounds, and assumed an 
 authority far superior to the law, their employer, the 
 real landed proprietor, being very seldom accessible 
 for purposes of appeal. A conspicuous instance was
 
 68 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Londonderry, who 
 held that office during a long life, and spent the 
 revenues of his bishopric and estates in Italy. 
 
 Dublin produced its own contribution to " Tom 
 and Jerry " literature. In 1822 was published 
 there " Tom and Jerry ; or, Life in London ; with a 
 Copious Vocabulary of Flash and Cant." This has 
 a coloured frontispiece. 
 
 Other similar publications were : 
 
 " Corinthian Parodies, by Tom, Jerry, and Logic, 
 illustrative of Life in London." Published in 1823. 
 With a folding coloured frontispiece by J. R. 
 Cruikshank." 
 
 " Real Life in London ; or, The Rambles and 
 Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq." This is generally 
 attributed to Pierce Egan. First edition, 2 vols., 
 1821-2, 8vo. Originally published in fourteen 
 parts in pink pictorial wrappers, afterwards in 
 pictorial boards as above. Some copies on large 
 paper. Vol. i. has nineteen coloured plates (in- 
 clusive of frontispiece and title). Vol. ii., thirteen 
 coloured plates (inclusive of frontispiece and title), 
 by Heath, Alken, Rowlandson, and others. 
 
 " Doings in London ; or, Day and Night Scenes of 
 the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the 
 Metropolis," by George Smeeton, 1828. This volume, 
 which was republished in 1840, contains thirty-three 
 plates after R. Cruikshank. 
 
 >> Lowndes published a number of burlesques (now 
 scarce) founded upon " Tom and Jerry." The most 
 worthy of attention is " Tom and Jerry ; or, Life in
 
 TOM AND JERRY 69 
 
 London ; an entirely new Whimsical, Local, Melo- 
 dramatic, Pantomimical, Equestrian Drama, in Three 
 Acts, entitled ' Life in London,' by Pierce Egan. . . . 
 As performed at Davis's Royal Amphitheatre, London" 
 (1822). It cost a shilling, and had one coloured print. 
 
 A play was founded upon the adventures of the two 
 heroes, and after having had a great success in London, 
 was played all over the British Isles. 
 
 In Dublin, where it ran for more than fifty nights, 
 an amusing incident occurred. In the part of 
 Corinthian Tom, Barry wore Russian duck trousers, 
 originally white, which, however, as the run went on, 
 began to assume rather a dusky appearance, indicating 
 their innocence of soap and water. At last, when 
 those long-enduring duck trousers made their appear- 
 ance about the twentieth night, encasing Barry's legs 
 as if they grew there and were never to undergo a 
 change (" sea-change," fresh-water, or other), one of 
 Barry's persecutors cried out to him in the gallery : 
 
 " Whist, Barry, you divil ! " 
 
 " What do ye want, ye blackguard ? " said Barry, 
 nothing moved by a style of address with which he 
 was perfectly familiar. 
 
 " Wait till I whisper to you," said the voice. 
 
 All the house was silent. 
 
 " When did your ducks take the water last ? " 
 
 The audience roared with laughter for several 
 minutes, and Barry, for the first time in his life, was 
 beat by the gallery. 
 
 The popularity which the Rambles and Sprees of 
 Tom and Jerry obtained in England very soon made
 
 70 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 its way across the Channel, where it became the topic 
 of general conversation ; nay, it crept so much into 
 favour with the gay folks of Paris that " Life in 
 London " was speedily translated into French, and the 
 translation had a most extensive circulation in France. 
 
 The French version of " Life in London," published 
 by Thierry, is entitled " Le Diorama Anglais, ou 
 Promenades Pittoresques a Londres," 8vo. 
 
 The vast popularity of this sort of literature abated 
 with the dawn of the Victorian Age ; nevertheless, 
 reprints of various " Tom and Jerry " books attest that 
 the popularity of this sort of book has not entirely 
 waned. 
 
 Modern imitations of Pierce Egan's masterpiece 
 have also been attempted at intermittent periods. 
 
 By far the best of these was a cleverly written 
 skit which appeared in Punch some two-score, years 
 ago. 
 
 For several weeks readers of the London Charivari 
 were entertained with the rambles of Tom and Jerry 
 and Logic around the metropolitan haunts which 
 had taken the place of those popular in their own 
 day. 
 
 The writer of the skit in question, which was 
 admirably illustrated, was peculiarly successful in 
 catching Pierce Egan's style ; the whole thing was 
 very clever and amusing. 
 
 Since those days many of the resorts visited by the 
 resuscitated Corinthians have become as obsolete as 
 Tom Cribb's parlour, 
 
 Cannot Mr. Owen Seaman, who, to the delight of
 
 THE FINISH 71 
 
 many, has put new life into Mr. Punch, persuade the 
 gallant trio to pay another visit to modern London ? 
 I am sure their views of modern customs and ways 
 would make most amusing reading. 
 
 Between 1820 and 1840 a great revolution took 
 place in social manners and customs. The advent 
 of that commercialism which is so triumphant to-day 
 was fatal to the Corinthian spirit. 
 
 Taste became less coarse, if less robust, and gradu- 
 ally, in many old houses owned by bucks long grown 
 old, the sporting pictures so much admired by a 
 rougher generation were sent down to the steward's to 
 make way for some modern gewgaws, groups of opera- 
 dancers, Italian Venuses, and half- naked waltzers. To 
 the horror of the old school the sporting motto of 
 " May those who protect game never want it " was 
 often removed to make way for some frivolous work 
 of art. 
 
 The flash kens and prize-fighters' haunts began 
 to be cleared away. The last of the Covent Garden 
 night-taverns, the noted " Finish," kept by Mrs. Butler 
 upon the south side of the market sheds, ceased to 
 exist in 1829. 
 
 Up to comparatively recent times, however, it was 
 not unusual for young fellows about town, who had 
 been up all night at Bohemian clubs or at a fancy 
 ball, to go and obtain refreshment at one of the 
 hostelries which formerly had special permission to 
 open early for the convenience of market porters 
 and others. This, no doubt, like a similar fancy for 
 breakfasting after a late night at a cabman's shelter
 
 72 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 (now, I understand, strictly prohibited), was merely a 
 survival of Tom and Jerry traditions. 
 
 " Life in London," as pictured by Pierce Egan, 
 really came to an end with the creation of the 
 modern police force by Sir Robert Peel. Rows with 
 the wheezy and rather disreputable old watchmen 
 seldom entailed any serious consequences or loss of 
 social prestige, but coming into conflict with the new 
 police was an entirely different matter. 
 
 Also the tolerance which condoned almost any 
 kind of exuberance manifested by hot-blooded patri- 
 cian youth was going out of fashion ; the West End 
 was ceasing to be the special playground of the aris- 
 tocracy, whose former almost unlimited licence to do as 
 they pleased was being gradually but surely curtailed. 
 
 A less brutal if less robust tone was beginning 
 to pervade all classes, which recoiled at many of their 
 ancestors' rougher ways. 
 
 Old bucks in vain complained that the age was 
 too refined. The spirit of progress was against 
 them, and some of the new generation even dared 
 to hint that a gentleman who only took a delight 
 in the style of his team and in the "rattling of the 
 bars " was nothing but a rough, unaccomplished clown. 
 Gradually the Corinthian ceased to have any prestige. 
 The Champagne Charley of the mid-Victorian era 
 could not be compared to his predecessor, the patri- 
 cian hero whom Pierce Egan had described ; and 
 with the disappearance of the night-houses in the 
 early seventies, larks and sprees ceased to be con- 
 sidered good form.
 
 THE SHERIDAN CLUB 73 
 
 Something of the Tom and Jerry spirit, however, 
 lingered on much later than this, and hot-blooded 
 young men about town as late as the early eighties 
 would occasionally invade supper places with the 
 deliberate intention of provoking a fight. I have 
 seen a wild young fellow, out for what he thought 
 a lark, hurl a chair into the middle of a room full 
 of people at supper, and afterwards engage in a 
 spirited bout of fisticuffs with the officials who tried 
 to turn him out. 
 
 Though the well-to-do classes have given up 
 knocker-wrenching and the like, some equivalent of 
 this most silly and undesirable form of horseplay is 
 still thought great fun by the modern hooligan. 
 
 Fun and frolic, however, are not extinct. 
 
 It is, I believe, more or less an error to think 
 that the ways of the present are very different from 
 those of the past. People who lead quiet, regular 
 lives are always imagining and declaring that the 
 wild ways of a former generation have for ever passed 
 away. This may possibly be the case to-day, but 
 it certainly was not so a few years ago in Dublin, 
 where at the now defunct Sheridan Club scenes and 
 incidents very similar to those so amusingly described 
 by Irish novelists of the past constantly took place. 
 
 I never remember having seen anything like this 
 institution anywhere else. 
 
 Within its hospitable walls all sorts of jokes and 
 hoaxes were carried out by members full of Celtic 
 vivacity and humour, amongst whom, of course, one 
 of the proprietors, the late Charles Barrington affec-
 
 74 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 tionately known as C. B., himself in many ways a 
 most gifted man was easily first. 
 
 It was difficult to be dull in the company of this 
 joyous spirit full of originality and wit. 
 
 At the "Sheridan," as late as the eighties of the 
 last century, could be seen phases of the Irish life 
 pictured in the pages of " Charles O'Malley," " Harry 
 Lorrequer," and other of Lever's enlivening books. 
 
 Its membership then comprised a number of real 
 characters, some rich, some poor, but all of them more 
 or less bent upon pulling the devil by the tail and 
 having a good time ; and a good time most of them 
 certainly had. 
 
 Except to attend race-meetings, however, few of 
 the frequenters went far afield. The Continent 
 appealed to them but little. 
 
 " What struck you most, Tim, in Paris and Rome ? " 
 a certain newly returned member was asked. " Statues 
 of soldiers and generals Caesar and Napoleon, 
 Napoleon and Caesar, but I didn't see a statue of 
 
 ," naming a well-known whisky distiller. " Why 
 
 the devil should you have done so?" "Sure," 
 came back the apt reply, " you'll not be denying 
 that he's killed more men than the lot of them." 
 
 The Club was full of unconventional members, 
 whose escapades and eccentricities were typically 
 Hibernian. 
 
 One of these had a small streamlet running through 
 his domain into a fine bay about two miles away. 
 Ambitious to have a yacht built from the timber off 
 his own ground, he consulted an Irish country ship-
 
 36,000 OVERDRAWN! 75 
 
 builder upon the best mode of doing it on a certain 
 spot. The thing was soon arranged, a ship laid upon 
 the edge of the brook, and a vessel begun and 
 finished in less than a year ; but, behold ! when the 
 time for launching the newly built craft into the 
 river came, it was found the vessel drew five feet 
 of water, and there was only one in the river. The 
 gentleman reproached the architect for deceiving 
 him : " It's sorry I am," said the old ship-cooper ; 
 "had you ordered me to build a ship upon the 
 Sugarloaf Mountain I'd have done it; but as to 
 water for floating her in, sure that was none of my 
 business, but rested with God Almighty and yourself 
 to look after." 
 
 The yacht was converted into a summer-house. 
 
 Many queer tales of Irish landlords were to be 
 heard at the " Sheridan." Some of the ideas of this 
 class as to financial matters were very curious. 
 
 One old peer, who went bankrupt, persisted in 
 tracing all his misfortunes to a certain bank manager 
 who had been instrumental in causing his cheques to 
 be stopped, merely because he was some .36,000 
 overdrawn. 
 
 " Of course I brought an action against the bank," 
 said his lordship, " but that rascally manager, who 
 drove me into the hands of the moneylenders, must 
 have got at the jury, for I lost my case." 
 
 Nothing would ever soften this old peer's anger 
 against the manager in question, who, as some of 
 his friends frankly told him, had in reality acted 
 as his best friend.
 
 76 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 One of the most remarkable characters at the 
 " Sheridan " was a member who was well known for 
 never rising from lunch till seven in the evening. 
 
 At the age of eighty this Irishman of the old 
 school stood (and was elected) for Parliament, the 
 reason he gave for seeking election being that " a 
 little change of whisky might suit him." 
 
 C. B. was at his best when expatiating to a visitor 
 on the attainments and merits of his fellow-members. 
 He never failed to point out a Mr. Rooney, who, 
 he would declare, had played whist thirty-five years 
 and had never yet been known to make a mistake. 
 
 Another great whist - player was Mr. Bennett 
 Little, a clever, well-read man, whose knowledge 
 of Shakespeare has probably never been equalled. 
 It used to be said that there was no line of any 
 of Shakespeare's plays to which, if quoted, he could 
 not quote the next. Unlike his friend C. B., who 
 even at whist was a bit of a gambler, Mr. Little 
 played for the love of the game. The latter, who 
 was a convert to Buddhism, was a highly cultured 
 man in many fields of knowledge ; indeed, there was 
 no subject as to which he was not well informed 
 a proof of which was given one evening at the 
 Rotunda. During the interval in a great boxing 
 tournament got up there by the Trinity College 
 students, C. B., who was unknown to most of those 
 present, rose to his feet and in his best oratorical 
 manner said, " Gentlemen, we have seen a wonderful 
 exposition of the ' noble art.' I think it right to let 
 you know, however, that there is among us here
 
 CAPTAIN MACHELL 77 
 
 to-night one who being the most wonderful pugilist 
 in the world, is ready to take on all comers." 
 This was followed by loud cries of "Name!" 
 from the students and other excited youths. 
 
 " Since you ask for his name," continued C. B., 
 " I shall give it ; I refer to my friend Mr. Bennett 
 Little." 
 
 The latter, who was no boxer, being well used 
 to C. B.'s ways, was not at all disconcerted by the 
 loud cries of " Speech ! " which followed. Getting 
 on to his legs, he told the audience that though 
 unused to fighting, he knew something of the history 
 of the " noble art," the development of which, from 
 the days of ancient Greece and Rome down to 
 those of Sayers and Heenan, he traced with such 
 consummate cleverness that while his address lasted 
 you could have heard a pin drop. 
 
 The Sheridan Club was originally started by the 
 late Colonel McCalmont and Mr. Barrington. At 
 first it was located in Harcourt Street, from which it 
 was moved to a house on Stephen's Green. In a way 
 the Sheridan took the place of the old-fashioned hotels 
 which had been social centres for sporting men coming 
 up to Dublin for business or pleasure. The Sheridan, 
 however, was a meeting-place for Irishmen from all 
 parts of the country, whereas each of the old hostelries 
 used to have a clientele drawn from a particular district 
 from Limerick, Galway, and the like. 
 
 Bilton's Hotel enjoyed great popularity in its day, 
 as did Mappin's. It was here that the late Captain 
 Machell, for a bet, performed the wonderful feat
 
 78 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 of jumping on to an old-fashioned high narrow 
 mantelpiece. 
 
 During race-meetings there was at times a good deal 
 of gambling. I still see in my mind's eye a certain 
 sporting character, noted for his knowledge of horse- 
 flesh, from a somewhat remote part of Ireland. Sitting 
 down to take a baccarat bank, he produced from his 
 capacious pockets two bags filled with gold, almost 
 exactly resembling those pictured by Cruikshank in 
 one of his famous illustrations to Harrison Ainsworth's 
 " Miser's Daughter." On such evenings as there was 
 play the room was usually filled with a crowd of high- 
 spirited and amusing Irishmen, apt at witticism and 
 repartee ; the scene was one which could have been 
 witnessed nowhere else than in Ireland. Very often 
 what seemed to the uninitiated visitor terrible rows 
 used to occur. A good half of these rows, it should 
 be added, were not quarrels at all, but merely hoaxes 
 got up to take in other members, or more usually 
 visitors. Supper, late at night or early in the 
 morning, usually consisting of champagne and grilled 
 bones, was a go-as-you-please entertainment, songs 
 being often sung as only the Irish, with their 
 inimitable gift of humour and pathos, can sing them. 
 
 The old head waiter was a regular institution at the 
 Sheridan and, as such, highly privileged. 
 
 On one occasion, in the small hours of the morning, 
 when the supper-table had been cleared for baccarat 
 and the game was in full swing, one of the players 
 having left the room for a few minutes, old "Richard," 
 with the remark " that after waiting for forty years he
 
 NO BACCARAT! 79 
 
 didn't see why he shouldn't have some fun," sat down 
 in the vacant place, and was only induced to get up by 
 C. B. sternly exercising his authority and kicking him 
 out of the room. 
 
 Bad language was prohibited in the Sheridan, and a 
 certain Major having aroused C. B.'s ire by swearing, 
 the latter told the cashier to return the offender his 
 subscription. The Major having gone off with the 
 money, it suddenly struck C. B. to inquire whether 
 the subscription had ever been paid. "Oh no, sir; 
 not for five years!" was the reply. C. B. was off 
 after the Major like a shot, caught him, and won all 
 the subscriptions back at billiards. 
 
 C. B. could never resist a good game of cards. 
 This was never better exhibited than during one 
 evening at the Sheridan when he himself took the 
 lead in breaking his own rules. 
 
 This happened at a period when a wave of Puri- 
 tanism had swept over the club. The intermittent 
 games of baccarat played there had attracted atten- 
 tion, with the result that C. B., after a consultation 
 with his co-proprietor, decided that the illegal game 
 must be rigorously prohibited. 
 
 Accordingly, on a certain evening members were 
 surprised to see the club placarded with notices stating, 
 "No baccarat allowed." A party of rather wild 
 fellows, however, determined not to be beat by what 
 they called a piece of damned nonsense, and, going 
 upstairs, called for cards as usual. The steward, how- 
 ever, refused to provide any packs, and, finding neither 
 threats, entreaties, nor blandishments of any use, the
 
 80 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 party adjourned to the whist-room, where C. B. and 
 his co-proprietor were indulging in a quiet rubber. 
 Here, at least they must be given cards, and, having 
 obtained the required number of packs, the leader 
 of the band sat down and said, " A pony in the 
 bank." The co-proprietor of the club at once told 
 him to stop, at the same time drawing C. B.'s atten- 
 tion to the fact that in spite of the new regulations 
 which he had so warmly supported baccarat was about 
 to be played. 
 
 " Monstrous!" said C. B. " I must see to this at 
 once." Rising from the whist table with great dignity, 
 he strode over to the lawbreakers and in a stern voice 
 said, " What are you doing ? What's going on ? " 
 
 " What's going on ? " replied the banker. " Why, 
 there's fifty pounds in the bank." 
 
 " Banco," said C. B., and, having lost, he continued 
 to play, with the ultimate result that he did not leave 
 the baccarat table till between seven and eight the 
 next morning. 
 
 His co-proprietor was furious with rage at all this, 
 and determined to pay out C. B. for his laxness. 
 Accordingly, when the old man at length did come 
 downstairs, he found himself surrounded by several 
 members, his colleague at their head. 
 
 " Well, C. B.," they shouted, " you've had your bac- 
 carat ; now you're going to have a Turkish bath." 
 11 Poor old C. B. never takes one," was the reply. 
 " Never mind, he's going to this morning," shouted 
 the crowd, and in due course C. B. was huddled into 
 a four-wheeler and driven off to the baths, where, after
 
 A MYSTERIOUS BOTTLE 81 
 
 he had undressed, his companions, having hung 
 him all over with his own placards, " No baccarat 
 allowed," ran him round the place, one of their number 
 flicking him with the cabman's whip, much to the sur- 
 prise and consternation of the attendants. Poor old 
 C. B. was much too tired to make any effectual protest. 
 
 C. B., notwithstanding his constant complaints that 
 he was a poor old man whom every one got the best 
 of, was seldom caught napping. On one occasion, 
 however, he was fairly served out. He himself 
 delighted in telling the story. 
 
 He had taken a shooting with a friend, and 
 undertook to look after the housekeeping at their 
 shooting lodge. Some good brown sherry formed 
 part of the supplies which he laid in, a bottle always 
 standing on the sideboard. 
 
 After a week or so it was observed that even when 
 no one had drunk any sherry the bottle in question 
 was never more than two-thirds full. C. B. pointed 
 this out to his friend, and said to him, "It's that 
 rascally butler of mine. You see how I'll serve him 
 out." He then took the bottle and having filled it 
 up with slops, " I fancy one glass of that will settle 
 him," said he, as he replaced it on the sideboard. 
 
 One glass, however, did not seem to have " settled 
 him," for at dinner the next evening the butler, a 
 quiet and good servant, was just as calm as ever, 
 while the bottle, as before, was only two-thirds 
 full. 
 
 Neither C. B. nor his friend could make it out, and 
 finally, when dinner was over, they determined to
 
 82 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 thrash the matter out. Accordingly they sent for the 
 butler. 
 
 "What have you been doing with the sherry?" 
 demanded C. B. "The bottle was full this morning; 
 we haven't touched a drop, and a third of it is gone." 
 
 " Yes," said the butler, " I put three glasses in your 
 soup. Ever since we came here I have done so. 
 The cook makes such poor weak stuff, I thought it 
 best to give it some flavour." 
 
 The feelings of C. B. and his friend, who had 
 unwittingly swallowed so much nastiness, may be 
 imagined. 
 
 C. B. possessed quite marvellous resource. No 
 man better than he knew how to get out of an awkward 
 predicament or scrape. One of the most striking 
 proofs of this was the way in which he once avoided 
 having a serious quarrel with an old friend. 
 
 This gentleman, though none too well endowed 
 with the world's goods, was, like C. B., very fond of 
 an occasional game. One evening when baccarat was 
 being played he began bidding for a bank, and 
 eventually secured one for a hundred pounds. 
 
 C. B., who was in the room, knowing that his 
 friend could ill afford to risk such a sum, showed 
 signs of strong disapproval, and during play went and 
 stood behind the banker. When the latter had lost 
 the first hundred pounds and said he would renew, 
 C. B. became more and more anxious. Finally, after 
 two more renewals, he could not restrain himself any 
 longer, and abandoning all muttered admonitions 
 said :
 
 C. B. WITHDRAWS 83 
 
 " Don't be a fool, old boy, you know very well you 
 can't afford to lose so much." 
 
 Upon this the banker, who was naturally sore from 
 losing, turning round in his chair, told C. B. he was 
 a liar. 
 
 "Gentlemen," then said the latter, putting on his 
 dignified air, " owing to the opprobrious term which 
 has just been applied to me I shall withdraw." In 
 the most solemn manner in the world he then went 
 downstairs to the supper-room, where a heated dis- 
 cussion as to the outrage took place between him and 
 several sympathisers. Every one agreed that such an 
 insult could never be atoned for, and matters seemed 
 about to take a most serious turn. 
 
 Half an hour later down came the banker with his 
 friends, the party seating themselves at a table not 
 very far away. 
 
 They also discussed the affair, the offender and 
 offended being close enough to hear what one another 
 were saying. 
 
 "He called me a liar before you all, before my 
 friends I can never forgive such an insult," C. B. 
 kept repeating. 
 
 " What's the use of calling you a liar before your 
 friends?" retorted the banker; "they know you're 
 one." 
 
 C. B. heard these words, but the rest of his party, 
 who were engaged in earnest discussion, did not very 
 well catch what had been said. C. B. noticed this, 
 and quick as lightning said : 
 
 "Very well, under the circumstances, I will accept
 
 84 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 your apology." Though nothing of the sort had ever 
 been offered, every one except C. B. and the man 
 who had insulted him thought it had. With great 
 dignity and betraying some signs of emotion, C. B. went 
 and shook the latter by the hand, and the evening 
 ended amidst general harmony and good fellowship. 
 On the whole I do not think much harm was 
 done by the gambling ; most of the players, indeed, 
 were very wide awake and well able to take care 
 of themselves. 
 
 All sorts of tales were current as to the stratagems 
 of certain wily spirits anxious to retire after a 
 good run of luck. 
 
 On one occasion an old and very popular gambler, 
 having won about three hundred pounds at loo, 
 was, to the consternation of his fellow-players, seen 
 to reel in his chair and collapse upon the floor, 
 his eyes closed and his limbs gave convulsive move- 
 ments of a very alarming character. 
 
 " Poor old chap ! after all he's died in harness," 
 cried his fellow-players as they mournfully carried 
 him out of the room. The sufferer, however, while 
 being driven home seemed to rally slightly, but 
 his fellow-players at least such as were strange to 
 Dublin ways never expected to see him again. 
 What, then, was their surprise upon 'a subsequent 
 visit a month later to find the invalid, who, they 
 believed, must either be paralysed for life or dead, 
 sitting at the card table as blithe and vivacious 
 as a boy of twenty. Once more they played loo 
 with him and once more they lost. When he had
 
 A TERRIBLE HOAX 85 
 
 won something over two hundred and fifty pounds 
 the alarming symptoms again supervened ; but this 
 time a different mode of treatment was adopted. 
 Betaking themselves to the lavatory, two of the 
 most stalwart losers returned laden with enormous 
 cans of cold water, which they poured over the 
 prostrate and twitching form of the invalid till he 
 was soused through and through from head to foot. 
 At last, being able to stand it no longer, with the 
 remark that he would change his clothes and go 
 to bed, he got up and left the room with all the 
 sang-froid in the world. 
 
 In addition to being full of all sorts of original 
 ways, C. B. was a rare sporting character of the 
 old school. On one occasion, in company with 
 another queer celebrity well known at the Sheridan 
 (" Colorado " Hewson), he walked in evening dress 
 and pumps nine miles within an appointed time, 
 by doing which the pair won a considerable sum. 
 This walk, it should be added, took place about 
 two in the morning as the result of a wager laid the 
 same evening at supper. 
 
 " Colorado " Hewson obtained his nickname owing 
 to having passed a certain time in America, where 
 he had had many curious adventures, one of which, 
 terrible if comic, was said to have turned his hair grey. 
 
 While out prospecting and taken to see a mine, 
 he was told to take great care in making a descent 
 in a rough lift. Of a sudden his companions at the 
 top shouted to him to clamber out and clutch hold 
 of a bar he would find fixed to the rocks at the side.
 
 86 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Something, they added, had gone wrong with the 
 lift, which, to his horror, then swiftly flew up, all 
 lights being extinguished. From the top of the shaft 
 he now heard shouts urging him to hold on like grim 
 death, for below him lay a chasm five hundred feet 
 deep. Though constantly encouraged by shouts and 
 cries, no help came. The tension of holding on 
 with certain destruction beneath his feet, combined 
 with the physical exhaustion of the effort, quite 
 exhausted the poor man, and, after a considerable 
 time, which seemed like eternity itself, yielding to 
 fatigue he let go, resigned to drop into the jaws 
 of death. 
 
 He fell exactly a foot, the bottom of the shaft being, 
 in reality, just beneath his feet. The mental strain 
 engendered by this mischievous and cruel joke turned 
 Hewson's hair grey. 
 
 This adventure, which would have sobered many 
 a weaker man, had had little effect upon a naturally 
 genial disposition. Hewson, indeed, had many an 
 amusing tale to tell of his adventures in America, 
 where at one time, he declared, he had run a show, 
 the financial ruin of which was brought about by the 
 arrest of his principal attraction, " The Great Human 
 Opticon," for debt. 
 
 He had many stories of the shrewd ways of various 
 people he had met in Colorado, a country, he said, 
 where every man and boy was able to track an old 
 hen ten miles over pebbles. 
 
 Though a very amusing companion at social gather- 
 ings, Hewson, who, as the old saying goes, "only
 
 THE FLOWER OF DUNBLANE 87 
 
 knew two tunes, one of which was ' God Save the 
 Queen ' and the other wasn't," unlike C. B., had not 
 a note of music in his composition. The musical 
 evenings at the Sheridan were at one time one 
 of the features of the place ; a great deal of talent 
 was to be heard there. Colonel L' Estrange, as a 
 singer and player, could not be beaten at the piano. 
 When distinguished actors came to Dublin special 
 suppers were organized for them. Irving and Toole 
 were the most popular guests, the recitation of 
 " Eugene Aram " by the former never failing to 
 evoke tumultuous applause. Every one who was 
 able was expected to sing or play at these entertain- 
 ments, which were constantly enlivened by the songs 
 of the late Mr. Bob Martin (" Ballyhooley ") and the 
 recitations of Mr. Johnnie Parker, one of the most 
 amusing members of the Sheridan a most original 
 character with a wonderful memory and a good voice. 
 His " Robinson Crusoe " was a thing never to forget. 
 
 A wonder at singing and playing the piano was 
 Jerry Perry, who, some declared, could beat all the 
 world at a comic song no entertainment at the 
 Sheridan was complete without him. 
 
 C. B. himself was full of music, and had a very 
 good, high baritone voice. It was worth going a 
 long way to hear him sing " Jessie, the Flower of 
 Dunblane." He possessed, in a great degree, that 
 peculiarly Irish gift of humour and pathos which 
 was one of the causes of his success as an after-dinner 
 speaker. 
 
 The talent at the Sheridan evenings was, as a rule
 
 
 88 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 entirely amateur. On one occasion, however, C. B., 
 having invited a number of officers of the Scots 
 Guards to dinner, told them that Captain Kelly, of 
 the " Roscommon Fusiliers," was going to drop in 
 later. About 9.30 the gallant officer in question 
 arrived, and vastly entertained every one by his 
 excellent playing of the banjo. All the officers 
 declared the captain was a most amusing man and 
 capital fellow. As a matter of fact, C. B. told them 
 the next day he was no captain at all, but a man 
 who had been hired from the Grafton Varieties a 
 Dublin music-hall of that day. 
 
 C. B. was an excellent sportsman and had been 
 a keen hunting man in his youth. When Master of 
 the Ward Hunt Staghounds, no rider was more 
 dashing than he, or more popular with the hunt. As 
 a jockey he had also had considerable success. He 
 won the Ward Hunt Cup more than once, and had 
 two other racing cups on his table, each of which 
 had had to be won three times to become the winner's 
 own. Fifteen years after he had relinquished the 
 mastership the late Mr. John Waldron came into 
 the Sheridan Club one evening, two days before the 
 entries for the Ward Hunt Races were to close. 
 A discussion arose as to the merits of various horses, 
 during which Mr. Barrington broke in with " Who'll 
 bet poor old C. B." (the way he always spoke of 
 himself) " that he doesn't win the Ward Hunt Cup 
 this year ? " As the entries were to close in forty- 
 eight hours, and C. B. was known not to have 
 possessed a horse for many years, the challenge
 
 GREY MALAHIDE 89 
 
 produced considerable amusement. Several fantastic 
 bets were offered, some of the long odds being at once, 
 however, taken by C. B. There was much jeering 
 and laughter, in the midst of which Mr. Waldron 
 exclaimed : " Well, now, perhaps you would like to 
 back yourself to ride the winner as well, C. B. ? 
 I'll lay you five hundred pounds to one that you 
 don't ! " 
 
 " Done," said C. B., and, after some more betting, 
 the evening ended amidst general merriment. 
 
 As his friends left the club-house they agreed 
 that age (he was well over fifty) was beginning to 
 tell upon C. B. If he did not stand to lose so 
 little and win so much, such bets as had been 
 made seemed to them to be almost unfair. " The 
 old man doesn't understand what he is doing," was 
 the general opinion. 
 
 As it happened, however, the old man understood 
 very well what he was doing. Once the money was 
 on he did not waste an hour. Like a shot from 
 a gun he left Dublin for a place a hundred miles 
 away, where he knew of a splendid steeplechaser, 
 Grey Malahide by name, he bought and entered it. 
 On the appointed day C. B. was at the post in 
 capital trim. Before the start his chances of winning 
 became much fancied, and no more than even money 
 could be obtained against the redoubtable Grey 
 Malahide and his plucky rider. 
 
 Though the three and a half miles of the race 
 must have been a great effort for C. B., who had 
 not been on a horse for so many years, he rode
 
 90 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 with the greatest determination and judgment, finally 
 coming in a winner by fifteen lengths, amidst a 
 scene of enthusiasm such as has hardly ever been 
 witnessed, even on an Irish racecourse. 
 
 The whole thing was a wonderful performance. 
 
 As a young man C. B., when out with hounds, 
 could never bear to be beaten, and one day, out 
 hunting with the Cheshire, the Master became very 
 irascible at seeing the dashing Irishman, whom he 
 did not know, pressing too close upon the hounds. 
 
 "Hold hard!" shouted old Corbet. "Hold hard, 
 you damned tailor ! " 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir. Not a tailor," retorted 
 C. B. ; "a soap-boiler from Dublin." This was 
 to some degree true, for at the time he was a 
 partner in a firm of wholesale soap and candle 
 merchants. 
 
 When a very fit young man, C. B., thinking he 
 would like to do some mountaineering, set out for 
 Zermatt he had heard that the Eiger had never 
 yet been ascended, and consequently thought it 
 would be the very place for him. 
 
 Having engaged two guides, he started on the 
 ascent early one morning, but when he got some- 
 where near the top the men refused to go on. 
 C. B., however, finished the climb by himself and 
 planted his alpenstock on the summit, with his 
 handkerchief tied to its head. 
 
 When he got back to the hotel and told the 
 people there of his adventure, they declined to 
 believe him. "Well, look for yourselves," said C. B.,
 
 WELL BOUND AT THE LAST 91 
 
 and, sure enough, when they put their glasses up 
 there was the alpenstock and the handkerchief. 
 
 This feat of C. B.'s, it should be added, is 
 mentioned in Mr. Whymper's book, but by a 
 mistake the name " Harrington " has been sub- 
 stituted for " Barrington." 
 
 About the best epitaph which could be written 
 for this genial and original Irishman would be some 
 lines from Pierce Egan's farewell to one of his 
 best characters, Bob Logic. 
 
 Of Charles Barrington, as of the witty Oxonian, 
 it may well be said that mirth and good humour 
 were always at his elbows. He certainly played 
 the first fiddle in all companies and was never out 
 of tune. Mankind had been C. B.'s study, and he 
 had thoroughly perused the book of life. As a 
 choice spirit he was unequalled, and as a sincere 
 friend never excelled ; above all, he was under all 
 circumstances a man. Let us hope that the Great 
 Auditor of Accounts will find poor C. B.'s balance- 
 sheet correct, and, as the whole tenor of his life 
 had been a volume of pleasure that it will be well 
 bound at the last.
 
 IV 
 
 RESTAURANTS 
 
 THERE can be no doubt that the general 
 level of cooking in London has been improved 
 by the modern restaurant. Before the days of 
 that Napoleon among hotel-keepers M. Ritz few 
 private dinners were really well chosen or well cooked ; 
 now, amongst wealthy people at least, culinary matters 
 are dealt with in a satisfactory one might even say, 
 artistic style. 
 
 Our more remote ancestors do not appear to have 
 understood gastronomy, for when Cardinal Campeggio 
 came to England in connexion with the divorce of 
 Catherine of Aragon, his report to his master the 
 Pope, who had instructed him to make an exhaustive 
 investigation into the state of English culinary affairs, 
 was merely two words, " Niente affatto." There was 
 nothing whatever to report about English cookery. 
 
 During the mid- Victorian period, when there was a 
 partiality for quantity rather than quality in food, 
 culinary matters'had sunk to a very low ebb, though, 
 of course, there were always a select few who pre- 
 served the great gastronomic traditions of a more
 
 TAVERNS AND COFFEE-HOUSES 93 
 
 critical age. Our ancestors of the eighteenth and 
 early nineteenth century were very particular about 
 having nothing but excellent material. A little over a 
 hundred years ago the catering for dinners was good ; 
 not only in London itself but in suburbs such as 
 Highgate, Hampstead, Chelsea, Greenwich, Putney, 
 Twickenham, and Richmond, were taverns which 
 provided good dinners and excellent wines. 
 
 Gradually, however, as the old-fashioned coffee- 
 houses and taverns closed their doors, and with the 
 abandonment of leisurely ways, owing to increased 
 competition, people in business at least became care- 
 less about what they ate. The result affected all but 
 the most wealthy class, and a good lunch or dinner 
 except at one's own home became difficult to procure. 
 
 In the early seventies an observant visitor to the 
 Metropolis wrote : " It must be confessed that there is 
 no continental capital so poorly provided as London 
 with establishments where the stranger may obtain a 
 fairly good dinner for a small sum, or an excellent 
 dinner for a great price. In the western districts of 
 the town, millionaires and spendthrifts may fare 
 delicately, as well as sumptuously, at the few private 
 hotels which draw their prodigious profits from a small 
 class of luxurious and opulent visitors. But to test 
 the capabilities of the chef retained in any one of 
 these exclusive and decorous taverns, it is necessary 
 that the curious inquirer should take an apartment 
 and attain the status of a guest ' staying in the house.' 
 Even when he places a coffee-room at the service of 
 casual visitors, the keeper of a private hotel is little
 
 94 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 studious to please callers who only 'drop in for dinner' 
 before going to the opera." 
 
 At that time, except at one or two resorts such as 
 the Cafe" Royale, French cookery was not to be 
 obtained. A few small Italian restaurants existed 
 about Leicester Square and Soho, but except for 
 these there was nothing but the old-fashioned chop- 
 houses, whose arrangements, though acceptable 
 enough to early Victorian people, were quite unsuit- 
 able to the needs of a more luxurious generation. At 
 antiquated hotels of the Covent Garden quarter and 
 in some of the principal thoroughfares between the 
 City and Hyde Park, there were quantities of dingy 
 coffee-rooms where a substantial dinner from the joint 
 and a pint of inferior wine might be obtained for eight 
 or ten shillings. 
 
 The Strand and Fleet Street also abounded in 
 long, low, dirty rooms where economical feeders, 
 seated on the narrow benches of a dozen or more 
 little pews, could satisfy their hunger with plates of 
 meat and vegetables in the din and heat of company 
 three times too numerous for the space. There were 
 also a number of modern, flashy, pretentious dining- 
 rooms, where, in saloons splendid with cheap gilding 
 and fly-flecked plate-glass mirrors, a weary mortal 
 might get a piece of fish, a cut from a lukewarm joint, 
 and a bottle of thin claret at an exorbitant charge. 
 While the dining accommodation for even wealthy 
 people was inadequate, the lower middle and working 
 classes were catered for in a quite execrable manner, 
 and practically forced into the public-house. In the
 
 OLD ENGLISH DINNERS 95 
 
 early eighties of the last century, however, quite a 
 stir was caused in philanthropic and temperance 
 circles by the starting of what were called coffee- 
 taverns in many towns in England. Among the 
 promoters were Lord Shaftesbury and the Baroness 
 Burdett-Coutts. All bright anticipations as to those 
 places proving successful rivals to the ordinary public- 
 house were, however, doomed to swift disappointment. 
 Like so many other enthusiastically welcomed schemes 
 for the improvement of the people, their failure was 
 complete. The causes were not far to seek. The 
 refreshments were bad, the attendants slovenly, and 
 the coffee execrable. I remember one being started 
 at Eton when I was at school there, and at first it 
 was a good deal patronized by Etonians. When, 
 however, the novelty wore off the boys fought shy of 
 it, and before I left, for some reason or other, we were 
 forbidden to enter it at all. The worthy founders of 
 these coffee-taverns were probably not happy in their 
 selection of managers and other servants, looking 
 more for piety than business capabilities. At any 
 rate, with very few exceptions, most of the new 
 ventures were ghastly failures. 
 
 At that time, though elaborate cookery was rather 
 difficult to get, there were one or two small, old- 
 fashioned, rather expensive eating-houses which had 
 a great reputation for providing a first-class old 
 English dinner chops, steaks, and old port. About 
 the best of these comfortable little resorts was the " Blue 
 Posts," but far away was the " Bristol," then a great 
 Cork Street resort of men about town for lunch and
 
 96 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 dinner. It was situated almost opposite the late Sam 
 Lewis's famous bow-window, and expectant heirs 
 short of ready money seemed to have a particular 
 fondness for the place. Sam himself also was not an 
 infrequent visitor at luncheon, and at one time ephe- 
 meral celebrities, such as the poor Jubilee Juggins, 
 were regular features of the place. The cooking was 
 quite good, but the arrangements primitive. There 
 was no foyer, and those bringing ladies to dine had to 
 wait for them in the small hotel smoking-room. Till 
 the creation of the far more pretentious restaurant, as 
 we see it to-day, the " Bristol " did very well, but with 
 the opening of the " Savoy " it began to lose its popu- 
 larity. It has now been closed as a restaurant for a 
 good many years. 
 
 The original Savoy restaurant was certainly one of 
 the most agreeable dining-places the world has ever 
 seen, for in addition to the excellent food the eye was 
 gratified by hosts of pretty women. Compared to the 
 present palatial dining-halls, it was, of course, quite a 
 small place, but those who remember the halcyon days 
 of 1895 will agree that nothing so bright and pleasant 
 has been seen since. Few, alas, of the habitual 
 frequenters who waited in the little passage (on the 
 walls of which hung framed the first sovereign ever 
 taken at the Savoy) while (after the manner of her 
 kind) a fair companion lingered in the cloak-room, 
 are still enlivening the West End, the fall in stocks 
 and shares which followed the South African War 
 sent many of them to far less amusing places. 
 
 Most of the fair companions also now probably dine
 
 THE OLD SAVOY 97 
 
 amid less luxurious and more sedate surroundings. A 
 few survivors, however, either making a brave fight 
 against the hand of Time, or philosophically content to 
 be frankly middle-aged, are still occasionally to be 
 observed revisiting the scene of their lively youth. 
 
 While the food and company made a strong appeal 
 to habitues of the old Savoy, the decoration of th. 
 original restaurant might justly have been called 
 artistic, the general scheme of the room having been 
 designed, I believe, by Whistler. The mahogany 
 inlaid panelling, removed some years ago to make 
 way for the present nondescript white woodwork, was 
 very agreeable to the eye. This panelling, I believe, 
 is still owned by the Savoy Company, who, it is said, 
 have been offered as much as ,6,000 for it. 
 
 The reason for changing the interior of the 
 restaurant was, I understand, an idea that the public 
 grow tired of lunching or dining amidst the same 
 surroundings ; all people of artistic taste, however, 
 regretted the alteration. 
 
 The crowd which frequented the old Savoy was 
 much more Bohemian than that which is to be seen 
 there to-day, but care was taken to exclude any 
 visitors likely to disturb the harmony which always 
 prevailed there. Restaurants, I believe, have no 
 legal right to refuse to serve any one, no matter how 
 he or she is dressed, if sober ; and according to the 
 strict letter of the law there is nothing to prevent a 
 navvy from entering the Savoy, Carlton, or Ritz, 
 sitting down at a table and eating a lunch there. 
 This legal obligation, however, is, in the case of
 
 98 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 persons for any reason undesirable in a first-class 
 restaurant, surmounted by the manager declaring all 
 the tables to be full. This very old trick was in 
 former days carried to its farthest limits at Stephen's 
 Hotel in Bond Street, a very fashionable and exclu- 
 sive resort which, in its best days, was chiefly fre- 
 quented by smart officers and men about town, who 
 resented the intrusion of any one not of their set. 
 Consequently, if a stranger came in to dine there he 
 was stared at by the waiters like a wild beast, and 
 solemnly assured that all the tables had been engaged 
 beforehand. 
 
 People are always lamenting the disappearance of 
 spontaneous fun and unconventional ways. Genera- 
 tion after generation of Londoners tells stories of a 
 more amusing London which it has never known ! 
 
 About 1895, however, at the height of the South 
 African boom, the London of the pleasure-seeker was 
 certainly gayer and more animated than it had been 
 for years. Stockbrokers, when things are good, are 
 notoriously very open-handed, and quite a number of 
 them, who had made fortunes in no time, threw their 
 money about like water. 
 
 The " Pinafore " and other private rooms were often 
 used for vivacious dinner-parties. Here it was that a 
 gorgeous repast was given by a well-known South 
 African financier to celebrate his triumph at Monte 
 Carlo, where he had won a considerable sum by 
 backing the red. 
 
 Some of the ladies who were constantly to be seen 
 at supper were not so decorous in their behaviour as
 
 A PRACTICAL JOKE 99 
 
 their successors of to-day. I remember one pretty 
 girl who, by way of paying out her attendant cavalier, 
 who had been giving her a scolding, seized a cham- 
 pagne bottle and raised it to her lips, of course to the 
 great scandal and horror of those at tables close by. 
 
 Music during meals was then an innovation, and 
 humming and whistling softly to the music of the 
 band, which in those days played inside the dining- 
 room, was a well-known way of irritating the manager ; 
 one or two mischievous little ladies brought the art 
 of modulating their tones, according to his proximity 
 to their table, pretty near perfection. 
 
 Practical jokes were frequent. The most amusing 
 of these I always thought was that played by a well- 
 known man about town (now a Member of Parlia- 
 ment) at the Covent Garden Ball, which was then 
 highly popular with the jeunesse dorde. 
 
 Taking a box on the second tier, he filled it with a 
 large party, into the centre of which he smuggled a 
 most lifelike dummy of the late Sir Augustus Harris, 
 at that time lessee of Covent Garden. 
 
 This dummy, worked from behind, was made to 
 perform such antics that a crowd soon assembled 
 below, astounded and scandalized to see such 
 behaviour on the part of the well-known manager, 
 who at intervals appeared to be toasting those below. 
 All of a sudden an altercation seemed to arise, and 
 Sir Augustus was seen to be engaged in a bout of 
 fisticuffs, which, amidst cries of " Shame ! " terminated 
 in his falling over a chair at the back of the box. 
 
 Suddenly, with a wild shriek, his opponent was
 
 100 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 seen to raise the prostrate manager in his arms, and 
 coming forward, to the horror of onlookers, hurl his 
 struggling figure down to the floor below. At this 
 stage of the proceedings, however, the real Sir 
 Augustus, who had been informed of what had been 
 going on, made his appearance at the door of the 
 box and told the party within that they must leave 
 the ball. 
 
 In the earlier days of restaurants the advertising 
 was not on nearly such a considerable scale as it is 
 to-day ; the consequence was that the world of the 
 outer suburbs rarely frequented the Carlton and 
 Savoy. Some years ago, however, the latter em- 
 barked upon a very ingeniously conducted campaign 
 of publicity, consisting of a series of cleverly written 
 articles inserted in various papers, including The Times. 
 The purpose of these was to prove that dining at the 
 restaurants puffed in them could be done well at a 
 very moderate price, to demonstrate the excellence of 
 the material, and to set forth the attention which any 
 one partaking of even the most modest meal was sure 
 to receive. In addition to the advertisements in 
 question, attractively designed coloured pictures repre- 
 senting the delights of dinner at the Savoy and the 
 luxurious foyer (always thronged, it would seem, by 
 a crowd of beautiful women and handsome men) 
 intermittently appeared in the best illustrated papers. 
 
 At first it appeared as if this campaign of advertise- 
 ment (deplored, it should be added, by most of the old 
 frequenters) was having little effect. But in reality it 
 was not so.
 
 HALF-TONE CELEBRITIES 101 
 
 Bayswater, Balham, and other suburbs gradually 
 sent their more prosperous residents to seek for 
 luxury in the West End, and before long the dining- 
 rooms of the smart restaurants became thronged for 
 dinner on Sundays and supper on weekdays by 
 crowds of visitors, belonging to a class which, thirty 
 or forty years before, would as soon have thought of 
 supping in the same room with actresses as dining with 
 the devil himself. The well-cooked food, the artistic 
 decorations and lighting, and the excellent band 
 naturally made a strong appeal to those of the visitors 
 who had a soul above the early Victorian surroundings 
 of their own homes. 
 
 Besides this, well-to-do Suburbia was also attracted 
 by the prospect of seeing in the flesh a number of 
 the smart or titled people whose doings are chronicled 
 in the daily papers. 
 
 Whether celebrities are present or not makes little 
 difference. Visitors from the suburbs are often only 
 acquainted with the physiogomy of their social idols 
 from snapshots and half-tone plates, and Mrs. Jones 
 of Bayswater is pretty safe in showing her knowledge 
 of the great world by pointing out various diners as 
 being Lord This or Lady That for the benefit of her 
 guest, Mrs. Brown of Balham. 
 
 The presence at supper, after the play, of one or two 
 celebrated actors or actresses is a never-failing source 
 of interest to such simple folk. 
 
 Thoroughly alive to the various attractions of the 
 gastronomic palaces of the West End, even the less 
 opulent outer suburbs now make incursions into smart
 
 102 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 restaurants. The expense is often lessened by a party 
 sharing the cost of a small omnibus to convey them to 
 the play, supper, and back to their homes again. As 
 such parties, however, not infrequently exercise great 
 economy, it does not seem certain whether they 
 much benefit the finances of the more expensive 
 restaurants, which are run on the presumption that its 
 clientele rather likes getting rid of cash than looking 
 after it. 
 
 I remember once seeing a scene which to an old- 
 fashioned maitre d } hotel would have been agonizing 
 in its tragic novelty. Round a large supper-table 
 at the Savoy, stolidly consuming every item of an 
 excellently set supper, sat five men and three women, 
 the latter, of course, in their cloaks. On the table, in 
 place of the champagne, stood five carafes of water. 
 To judge from appearances these people, who had 
 evidently perfected the art of getting full value for 
 their money, were anything but profitable to the coffers 
 of the Savoy, which, spending large sums on decora- 
 tion, linen, flowers, and the like, quite legitimately 
 draws a great part of its profit from costly wines. 
 
 Restaurant suppers, I believe, pay very well, for, 
 owing to our absurd licensing laws, it is almost impos- 
 sible for those partaking of them many coming in 
 late from some theatre to eat very much ; at the 
 same time they order just as much as if they were 
 going to sup in peace. Those who manage the big 
 restaurants fully realize this, and also the saving in 
 wages and lights. In consequence, I believe, they 
 rather prefer our ridiculous closing hours to the more
 
 SUPPER 103 
 
 sensible plan of giving people plenty of time for 
 supper which prevails abroad. I have, indeed, been 
 told that, had they not been of this opinion, the 
 present Government would have been willing to make 
 some modification in the law by which a first-class 
 restaurant would be no longer treated as an ordinary 
 public-house, and allowed to keep open long enough 
 for its clients to eat their suppers without indecent 
 haste. 
 
 A feature of supper or dinner is now the great age 
 of some of the frequenters. I fancy that it is becoming 
 a regular suburban practice for young men with 
 expectations to entertain elderly relations of both 
 sexes who are likely to cut up well. The latter class, 
 who have come to regard dining at a restaurant on 
 Sunday night (which their immediate progenitors 
 would have considered extravagant and scarcely 
 proper) as a social function of extreme respectability 
 and importance. Such parties generally contain a few 
 freaks, with a tendency towards the flimsy wraps and 
 meaningless embroidery, which for some reason or 
 other is popular with their class ; it must be admitted, 
 however, that most of the old ladies are handsomely 
 dressed. 
 
 Unfortunately, a number of them spoil the effect by 
 retaining their cloaks in the restaurant. The only 
 reason for this horrible trick must be a desire to avoid 
 tipping the cloak-room attendant. 
 
 While the incursion of Greater London has, in the 
 opinion of many, had rather a bad effect upon both 
 cuisine and service, it has in addition made the great
 
 104 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 restaurants much duller than they were some years 
 ago. They are no longer thronged by gilded youth 
 and its attendant beauty, which have fled before the 
 crowds of stolid-looking middle-aged people. 
 
 The popularity of golf and motoring is probably 
 responsible for the comparative absence of the frivolous 
 habitut who of yore made a point of taking the object 
 of his adoration to a sumptuous Sunday feast, the only 
 note of exuberance being struck at a few tables by 
 obese Hebrews with over-bejewelled matrons. The 
 chorus of the musical comedy theatres, which 
 brightened the restaurants of ten years ago, has to 
 a large extent betaken itself elsewhere. For several 
 reasons it prefers grill-rooms, where it is more at its 
 ease lolling opposite an admirer. 
 
 The "masher" of the eighties is now represented by 
 youths whose mission and privilege (after an expensive 
 supper) is merely to deposit immaculate beauty on her 
 maternal doorstep. Musical comedy is more austere 
 than burlesque, and the old-style chorister, fond of fun 
 and champagne, is pretty well a thing of the past. 
 Numbers of girls, quite rightly regarding the musical- 
 comedy stage as the best marriage market in the 
 world, go on the boards though they have no need 
 to do so. An authority on the lighter forms of the 
 drama recently said to me : " After all, the Gaiety 
 and Daly's are about the best finishing academies 
 for girls in England." So great is now the run on 
 these two elevating London institutions, that parents 
 now put their daughters' names down for them, as 
 fathers do those of their sons for good houses at
 
 RESTAURANTS OF TO-DAY 105 
 
 Eton ! The competition has become very keen, and 
 many homes of austere respectability have been 
 saddened by a daughter's rejection. In spite of 
 their increased popularity, restaurants have, I think, 
 somewhat deteriorated of late years. 
 
 To begin with, the late M. Ritz's maxim "Le 
 client n'a jamais tort," which so largely contributed 
 to the prosperity of the establishments over which 
 he presided, does not now seem to be sufficiently 
 emphasized the waiters are not so attentive or 
 thoughtful as those of other days, when they were 
 very carefully trained. A number of them, indeed, 
 rush about as if taking part in a football match ; one 
 is also frequently kept waiting for the minor acces- 
 sories of dining. 
 
 The quality of the materials has not improved, 
 while the food does not seem to be so carefully 
 cooked as in the past. The maitres cf hotel are less 
 urbane, and do not take so much trouble to humour 
 the fancies of visitors. The far-seeing policy of 
 M. Ritz seems to be abandoned and everything 
 has become rather slipshod and slack except the 
 prices, which are higher than ever. There is, of 
 course, a good reason for this, the cost of provisions 
 having risen more than 25 per cent within the last 
 few years, though nobody knows exactly why? 
 
 What, however, there is no excuse for is the little 
 tricks which would scarcely be in place in a night 
 restaurant of Montmartre, such as obliging a client 
 who calls for a cigarette to purchase a box. Why 
 cannot he be allowed to pay twopence (100 per
 
 106 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 cent profit to the restaurant) for one cigarette, 
 instead of being made to buy a number of a kind 
 he may not like, for, for some reason or other, the 
 choice of cigarettes in the modern smart restaurant 
 is very limited ? 
 
 The price of the cigars is outrageous ; the res- 
 taurant cigar, indeed, which has never been very 
 good, is now, no matter what is paid for it, rarely 
 smokable at all, no care being apparently exercised 
 to keep it in condition. Anything more pitiable, 
 indeed, than these Havanas after a few minutes' 
 smoking it is impossible to conceive. When such 
 a large profit (usually well over 50 per cent) is 
 made, trouble might surely be taken not to provide 
 sodden cigars. No doubt it is difficult to keep the 
 boxes in an equable temperature, but an improve- 
 ment on the present system, or lack of it, might 
 probably be effected without much difficulty. 
 
 In spite of such lapses as have been indicated 
 above, the restaurants of to-day, though they may- 
 have fallen below the standard set up by the incom- 
 parable Ritz, are undoubtedly a great improvement 
 upon those at which people lunched and dined 
 previous to the opening of the old Savoy Hotel. 
 There are many still connected with the business 
 who are well acquainted with the system inaugurated 
 by M. Ritz. Let them remember his methods, and 
 reflect that it was their excellence which created a 
 special public. The latter, should it ever realize 
 that attempts are being made to extract money 
 from its pockets without giving adequate value in
 
 PARIS RESTAURANTS 107 
 
 return, will inevitably desert the smart restaurants, 
 which after all are mere luxuries and not necessities 
 of daily life. 
 
 Within the last twenty-five years nearly all the 
 small Parisian restaurants which were noted through 
 Europe, such as the Cafe" Anglais, Cafe" Riche, the 
 Maison Doree, Bignon's, Durand's, all of which were 
 not only on the boulevard, but at the corner of 
 the boulevard have disappeared. A list of the 
 distinguished people who have regaled themselves 
 at these vanished shrines of gastronomy would make 
 interesting reading. 
 
 In 1867 five kings are said to have supped together 
 in a cabinet particulier at Durand's, and, at the con- 
 clusion of the banquet, discovered that not one of 
 their majesties had money enough about him to pay 
 for his supper. 
 
 One restaurant used to be renowned for the number 
 of royalties who came to dine there. A traveller 
 once laughingly asked the landlord what he could 
 give him in the way of kings to which the 
 restaitranteur jocosely replied that he was very sorry, 
 but that he was then out of crowned heads, and 
 that the utmost he could offer him in the way 
 of exalted rank was the Prince of Tour and 
 Taxis. 
 
 Those were the great days of gastronomy. Never 
 since the days of Vatel had the amour propre of cooks 
 reached such a pitch of sensibility. 
 
 " Je lui ai compose^" said the great Careme bitterly 
 of an unappreciative master, " une longe de veau en
 
 108 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 surprise. II 1'a mangee ; mais il n'a pas su la com- 
 prendre." So the disgusted cook " composed " a last 
 sauce, which he called " La Derniere Pense de 
 Careme," and shook the dust of the barbarous 
 household from his feet. 
 
 About the greatest compliment which was ever 
 paid to a gourmet was the saying of the chef of the 
 Brevoort House, New York. This culinary artist 
 declared that he always knew when His Excellency 
 Lord Lyons was staying in the hotel from the ex- 
 ceptional tastefulness of the dinners selected from 
 his bill of fare by the occupant of the suite of apart- 
 ments on the first floor of the hotel. " Milor Lyon 
 he arrive," the chef would remark to his roasting cook. 
 "Je vois la le main du mattre" 
 
 Some gourmets attached such importance to their 
 dinner that they made a point of always eating it 
 alone. 
 
 If they only ordered for one, they frequently ate 
 enough for a small dinner-party. 
 
 To this school belonged Handel, the composer, 
 who, having ordered dinner for three at a tavern, 
 and being asked by the waiter when the rest of the 
 company were coming, tranquilly replied, " I am de 
 gompany." 
 
 First-class cooking puts people into a good temper, 
 and diplomatic manoeuvres have often owed their 
 success to the softening effects of a good dinner. No 
 one knew this better than the great Duke of 
 Wellington, who, in July, 1815, when Blucher wanted 
 to blow up the bridge of Jena, dissuaded the rough
 
 A SUCCESSFUL DINNER 109 
 
 old soldier over a dinner at Very's in the Palais 
 Royal. 
 
 " I must and will blow it up," grumbled old "Marshal 
 Vorwarts " over his bisque soup. But when he got to 
 his parfait au cafe and his third bottle of Moe't and 
 Chandon, and was preparing to light his meerschaum, 
 he seized the Duke's hand and cried, " Never was 
 there such a dinner ; I will not blow up the bridge of 
 Jena." 
 
 Ordinary matters have from time to time had 
 considerable influence upon politics. 
 
 The Governor of the Palace of Fontainebleau 
 appointed after the Revolution of 1848 was M. 
 Auguste Luchet, well known both as a Republican 
 and a gourmet. In consequence of this reputation 
 he was accused by the anti-Republican newspapers 
 of having fried and eaten the historic carp that 
 Francis I fed with breadcrumbs, and to which the 
 Duchess d'Etampes had thrown golden rings. 
 
 In the days of Louis Philippe and even during 
 the Second Empire the Palais Royal contained more 
 first-class restaurants than all the rest of Paris put 
 together. Dinners could be procured there to suit 
 any price, and every culinary luxury was at the 
 command of those willing to pay for it. 
 
 Ve*ry, Vefour, and the Freres Proven9aux, though 
 unknown to the present generation, deservedly occupy 
 a great place in the annals of gastronomy. After 
 the fall of the Empire, however, the first-class 
 restaurants began to feel the effects of the decadence 
 of the famous pleasure-resort, which gradually became
 
 110 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 a mere lounge for tourists. To cater for this latter 
 class, announcements of cheap dinners from i franc 
 50 centimes stared one in the face all over the old 
 arcades. In the early eighties, however, there were 
 still a few places, notably the Cafe d'Orleans in the 
 famous gallery of that name, where a fair dinner 
 could be procured. This cafe, I recollect, used to 
 be much frequented by old-fashioned English visitors, 
 the majority full of all sorts of queer traditional tricks 
 which they supposed were a guard against any 
 attempts at extortion. The class in question, 
 for instance, had a great horror of hors d'ceuvres, 
 which they would never allow a waiter to place on 
 the table for a moment, the reason being a legend 
 that an English family had been made to pay 25 
 francs because one of their number had eaten a prawn 
 from a little dish containing 25, which a certain 
 restauranteur priced at a franc apiece. Hors d'ceuvres 
 and candles the old-fashioned traveller always 
 connected with robbery and extortion ; indeed, some 
 old ladies used to carry candles in their boxes, but 
 I do not believe they ever got the best of any hotel 
 proprietor. 
 
 Ordinary English refreshments were then difficult 
 to get in Paris and had to be heavily paid for. At 
 one time a pint bottle of Hodgson's " East India 
 Ale " at the Cafe de la Madeleine the only establish- 
 ment where the beverage was sold cost four francs. 
 At present, at many of the fixed-price restaurants, 
 you are allowed to exchange the bottle of wine to 
 which you are entitled for a quart bottle of English
 
 THE CAF& ANGLAIS 111 
 
 bitter beer ; and vast numbers of Frenchmen prefer 
 what they facetiously term le champagne anglaise 
 to that very dubious vintage, restaurant win 
 ordinaire. 
 
 The cheap dinners, two francs and upwards, which 
 attracted unwary tourists, were in the number of 
 their component parts wretched imitations of the 
 lordly feasts of the Cafe Anglais and other noted 
 shrines of gastronomy. 
 
 All things in these terrible and strange meals 
 wore an aspect not their own. Most of these dinners, 
 indeed, resembled a really good dinner only about as 
 much as a monkey resembles a man. 
 
 At that time, however, there were many small 
 restaurants where an excellent dinner could be ob- 
 tained at a moderate price. Most of these, together 
 with almost all the old-fashioned first-class restaurants, 
 such as the Maison d'Oree, Cafe" Anglais, and Durand's, 
 have now disappeared. 
 
 Of the old-fashioned first-rate Parisian restaurants 
 Voisin's, in the Rue St. Honore, now almost alone 
 survives. 
 
 The famous Cafe" Anglais, where in the cabinet 
 particulier No. 16, known to all the viveurs of the 
 Second Empire as the "Grand Seize," so many joyous 
 suppers had been given, closed its doors for ever 
 but a short while ago. On the last night of its 
 existence a number of old habitues were entertained 
 at a farewell dinner. 
 
 While the old restaurants with the sober scheme 
 of decoration and unmistakable air of refined calm
 
 112 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 have disappeared, a number of new establishments 
 of a more flamboyant description have arisen in their 
 stead. Though the cooking at these places is occa- 
 sionally excellent, it is certain that the new genera- 
 tion of gourmets is rarely able to dine so well or 
 so comfortably as the old. To dine on decent fare, 
 in a richly but rather gaudily decorated room, 
 where the conversation is impeded by the din 
 of a noisy band, the diner must submit to pay what 
 is often a ridiculous and outrageous price as well 
 as to the scandalous exactions of an impudent 
 wine carte. The decadence of Parisian cooking had 
 already commenced in the early eighties of the 
 last century, at which time M. Abraham Dreyfus, a 
 high authority on culinary matters, writing in The 
 XIX mc Siecle, pointed out how difficult it was be- 
 coming to secure the services of really accomplished 
 cooks, for the reason that first-rate chefs could always 
 command much larger salaries in London, in Berlin, 
 in Vienna, in St. Petersburg, in New York, and in 
 San Francisco than they could obtain in Paris; and 
 that at the slightest reprimand which they received from 
 their patrons they threatened to " rendre le tablier" 
 
 The Cafe" du Roi, once a celebrated restaurant in 
 secret much patronized by the Royalists under the 
 Empire, acquired its name in rather a strange fashion. 
 One warm evening in autumn a young man, somewhat 
 overdressed, with a very considerable border of pinkish 
 silk stockings seen above the margin of his low boots, 
 and a most inordinate amount of coat-collar, lounged 
 along the Boulevard des Italiens, occasionally ogling
 
 THE CAFti DU ROI 113 
 
 the passers-by, but, oftener still, throwing an admiring 
 glance at himself as the splendid windows of plate- 
 glass reflected back his figure. He had just reached the 
 angle of the Rue Vivienne, and was about to turn, when 
 two individuals advanced towards him. They were 
 both young, and, although palpably men of a certain 
 rank and condition, were equally what is called out-at- 
 elbows ; hats that exhibited long intimacy with rain 
 and wind, shoes of very questionable colour, coats 
 suspiciously buttoned about the throat, being all signs 
 of circumstances that were far from flourishing. 
 
 " Chopard, Brissole," cried the first of the three, 
 " how long have you been in Paris ? " 
 
 " About two hours," replied the first. " Just as I 
 stepped out of the Place des Victoires I met our old 
 friend here ; and now, strange enough, we meet you. 
 Three old schoolfellows ! " 
 
 " An instant later and we should have missed each 
 other," said Brissole. " I was about to take my 
 departure for Nancy." 
 
 " To quit Paris? " 
 
 " Yes ; I've had enough of it." 
 
 " Don't be a fool," said Chopard. " Why, man, 
 I've come to make my fortune!" 
 
 " So much the worse ! " rejoined Brissole. " I have 
 tried it for five years, and now look at me." 
 
 " And you ? " said the dashing young man. 
 
 " I have just had a piece hooted off the stage at 
 Lyons, and so have come to Paris." 
 
 "But what has been your luck?" cried Brissole. 
 "You are, to all appearances, more fortunate."
 
 114 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 "Aye, Jerome, how fares the world with you ? " 
 
 " Pretty well," said the other, laughing. "Just now 
 I'm King of Westphalia." 
 
 " The deuce ! " exclaimed the two unfortunates, 
 bowing respectfully; "and where is this country?" 
 
 "Bah!" added Brissole, "what matters? It pro- 
 duces fine hams." 
 
 "Come and sup with me," said the new-fledged 
 king. "This is Villaret's I'm the host. Be easy ; 
 you, Brissole, I appoint my private secretary ; you, 
 Chopard, my maitre de chapelle" 
 
 The young men bowed their thanks, and, nothing 
 loath, followed the king in to supper. 
 
 The pleasant hours flew rapidly by bright visions 
 of the future lent charms to happiness ; but, still, day- 
 break came at last, and with it the sleepy waiter and 
 the bill eight hundred francs. 
 
 " The deuce ! " said Jerome, " and I have no 
 money. You, Brissole, pay the fellow." 
 
 " Your majesty, I have no money." 
 
 " Then you must do so, Chopard." 
 
 " I haven't a sou." 
 
 "Send the landlord in," said Jerome, with a groan. 
 " Ah, Villaret, there you are ! We have forgotten our 
 purses, but as soon as I reach home I will send a 
 servant with the money." 
 
 " I have no doubt of it, gentlemen but it would 
 please me better to receive it now, particularly as I 
 have not the honour to know the distinguished 
 company." 
 
 In vain the trio found fault with the wine and 
 attendance.
 
 THE IMPERIAL WATCH 115 
 
 "If I had the happiness of knowing messieurs," 
 said Villaret, " I should hope on another occasion to 
 please them better." 
 
 "I am the maitre de chapelle to the King of 
 Westphalia," said Chopard. 
 
 Villaret bowed. 
 
 "And I private secretary and privy purse to His 
 Majesty," said Brissole. 
 
 The restaurateur again bowed, but sarcastically. 
 
 "And pray what office does this gentleman hold 
 in His Majesty's service ? " he said, with mock 
 humility. 
 
 " I am the King of Westphalia," replied Jerome, 
 with an attempt at dignity which the effects of a 
 copious supper rather marred. 
 
 " Frangois," cried the indignant Villaret, " fetch the 
 police ! " 
 
 "No!" said Jerome, springing to his feet, "you 
 do not need them take my watch, it is worth 
 double your bill. I will send for it." 
 
 The landlord rather reluctantly agreed, but im- 
 mediately after their departure, on examining the 
 watch more minutely, he found the emblematic " N " 
 of the Emperor. Fearing it had been stolen, he 
 hurried to the commissary of police, who sent to 
 Fouche, who went to Napoleon and told the whole 
 story. The watch was a present from Napoleon to 
 Jerome, but it was the want of dignity which 
 characterized the whole affair that enraged the 
 Emperor. 
 
 King, secretary, and maitre de chapelle were sent
 
 116 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 off to Westphalia, with strict injunctions to keep the 
 story to themselves. 
 
 A typical French restaurant of the past was the 
 Maison d'Ore'e, the proprietor of which, when I first 
 remember it in the early eighties, was old M. 
 Verdier, who at dinner-time walked about looking 
 after his guests in a frock-coat and black skull-cap. 
 The appointments and decoration of this resort of 
 gourmets always seemed to me admirably designed. 
 On the walls was a paper of white stripes relieved by 
 small golden stars. I have never seen one like it since. 
 A rich carpet of a very subdued tone of colour was on 
 the floor, and the whole place conveyed an impression 
 of refined luxury. As at the Cafe Anglais, the plate 
 was of silver. At that time the restaurant was lit by 
 wax candles, but when old M. Verdier died and was 
 succeeded by his brother, not very much younger than 
 himself, much to the dislike and dismay of old patrons, 
 electric light made its appearance. 
 
 Absurd as it may seem, this was the beginning of 
 the decadence of this famous dining-place. Up to the 
 time of its installation quite a number of gourmets of 
 the old school made a regular practice of dining at the 
 same tables night after night. When the wax candles 
 went a number of old clients said they would go too, 
 and I have no doubt this did the place harm. In old 
 days the ground-floor rooms of this restaurant 
 were frequented mostly by men though, of course, 
 ladies occasionally went to dine there. Foreigners 
 visiting Paris generally made a point of dining at the 
 Maison d'Oree, rather to the disgust of the regular
 
 THE MAISON D'OR^E 117 
 
 habitue's, who regarded them as interlopers. Cocottes, 
 except those of the very highest class, were seldom 
 seen, though frequent visitors at supper-time to the 
 cabinet particulier upstairs, where so many viveurs 
 of the Second Empire had held their revels. It was 
 after dining in one of these rooms that the Duke of 
 Hamilton met his death by falling down the stairs. 
 In consequence of this tragic accident his successor 
 would never enter the place. 
 
 The regular clientele of the restaurant in its pros- 
 perous days consisted of well-to-do gourmets, including 
 a number of rich boursiers, who came to lunch there 
 every day. When, however, the young Verdiers came 
 into power, they tried to bring the place up-to-date ; 
 the old waiters, some of whom had been there more 
 years than anyone remembered typical Parisian char- 
 acters who knew the exact tastes of their older clients 
 gradually disappeared ; various innovations improve- 
 ments no doubt, but quite unsuited to the old-world 
 spirit of the famous restaurant were effected in many 
 directions, with the result that the old habitue's went 
 elsewhere to dine, their place being taken by a hetero- 
 geneous crowd, amongst which were many Americans. 
 The old restaurant, however, was too small, and its 
 rooms too decorous in character to become a popular 
 cosmopolitan resort ; and so, eventually falling between 
 two stools, the proprietors, who in the meanwhile had 
 started the very unsuccessful Maison d'Ore"e Club in 
 London, were eventually forced to close it, and the 
 place where so many admirable dinners had been 
 eaten is now, I think, either a post-office or a boot-
 
 118 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 shop. In its flourishing days the Maison d'Oree was 
 the most satisfactory restaurant I ever remember. 
 If you were known to the house they would serve 
 you with a boiled egg and a piece of toast with 
 the same ceremony as accompanied an elaborate and 
 costly dinner. The way in which the old waiters 
 brought in the dishes was almost sacramental certain 
 special dishes there were, the secret of which the chef 
 alone knew. 
 
 One felt, indeed, that there was something more 
 than a mere dinner in a restaurant, and everything 
 was done to promote this impression. The scale 
 of charges, I may add, though of course not cheap, 
 was nothing like that ordinarily met with in modern 
 caravanserais. 
 
 From the Maison d'Ore"e it was that in the eighties 
 I witnessed the destruction by fire of the Opera 
 Comique, in which hundreds of people met their death 
 a friend of mine in Paris at the time escaped death 
 by the merest chance. A constant frequenter of the 
 Opera when in Paris, an engagement luckily pre- 
 vented him from that night occupying his usual seat. 
 
 I can still see in my mind's eye the gallant little 
 firemen climbing about the burning roof, the streets 
 thronged with people, and the whole building opposite 
 one blazing furnace filled with flame. 
 
 The loss of life was appalling ; very few escaped. 
 For days afterwards people declared that the vicinity 
 of the burnt-out theatre smelt like a kitchen after a 
 dinner had been cooked. This, however, was probably 
 fancy.
 
 PINK CHAMPAGNE 119 
 
 A speciality of the Maison d'Ore'e was a certain 
 pink champagne champagne rosd " St. Marceaux." 
 It was, I remember, the particular brand, exceedingly 
 good and quite different from the usual wine of this 
 kind, which as a rule has little to recommend it 
 except its attractive appearance. 
 
 " Lily on liquid roses floating, 
 So floats yon foam o'er pink champagne," 
 
 as an American poet once wrote. A hundred years 
 ago or so pink champagne enjoyed great popularity, 
 but by 1825 this was rapidly fading away, and at the 
 present day champagne of this colour is scarcely ever 
 to be seen. The famous vintage of 1874, owing 
 to the excellence of certain pink brands, due to a 
 portion of the colouring matter having been extracted 
 from the skins of grapes, for a time partly restored 
 the fortunes of champagne rosJ, the cruder forms 
 of which were also produced by the admixture of a 
 small quantity of pink wine. 
 
 In former days it was only very rarely that the 
 ordinary Frenchman touched champagne. 
 
 The wine in question, indeed, was often alluded 
 to contemptuously as " le vin des cocottes" and more 
 frequently "/<? vin des Allemands" 
 
 A well-known restaurant of the past, now but a 
 memory, was Brebant's. Upstairs, here, were a 
 number of cabinet particuliers. Rather old-fashioned 
 in their style of decoration, these little rooms had, 
 as the names scratched on the looking-glasses testi- 
 fied, seen many lovers come and go.
 
 120 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 The delights of a tete-a-tete supper at Brabant's 
 formed the subject of many a Cafe Concert dinner. 
 In former days, Parisian chanteurs and ckanteuses 
 were much given to chanting the charms of various 
 resorts, identified not only with excellent cooking, 
 but also with what sometimes passes for love. 
 
 The most attractive song of this sort I ever heard, 
 set to a most haunting tune, was : 
 
 "Je vous promets des delices 
 Et je suis loin d'etre flatteur, 
 Nous mangerons des ecrevisses 
 Aux Cafe des Ambassadeurs." 
 
 A visit to the Cafe" des Ambassadeurs was at 
 that time heaven to many &grisette. The restaurant 
 was then of course much less expensive than it is now. 
 
 In more primitive days, before the Caf Concert 
 was roofed in and boxes built at the side, this 
 place on a summer's evening was a most delightful 
 resort. It was at the "Ambassadeurs" that poor 
 Paulus enjoyed his greatest hour of triumph. 
 
 The Second Empire was the halcyon era of the 
 real French restaurant as it existed up to twenty 
 years ago, and while most of the old-established 
 cafes enjoyed great prosperity, quite a number of 
 new restaurants were founded in the great thorough- 
 fares which were constructed on the initiative of 
 Napoleon III. A particularly fashionable and expen- 
 sive resort of this kind was Bignon's, in the Avenue 
 de rOpeVa, the very name of which, once so celebrated, 
 is unknown to the Parisians of to-day. As far as I 
 remember, its doors were finally closed in the later
 
 BIGNON'S 121 
 
 eighties. In the last years of its existence this 
 restaurant was more especially frequented at lunch- 
 time, many people going there for dejeuner before 
 driving out to the races. Two features I especially 
 remember were the excellence of the new-laid eggs, 
 sent into Paris from the country every morning 
 early, and the atrocity of the racing tips, which, how- 
 ever disinclined one might be, the mattres d 'hotel 
 insisted upon foisting upon one. It was a curiously 
 arranged restaurant, much space being wasted, while 
 the room was decorated in the taste of the Second 
 Empire, with huge leather-cushioned seats. In its 
 last days very few people went to dine at Bignon's. 
 I believe an attempt was made to sell the goodwill 
 and premises for a ridiculously large sum, with the 
 result that no purchaser could be found. The 
 cabinet particuliers and the bills for supping in 
 them were a good deal bigger than those of rival 
 establishments. One in particular I recollect an 
 account for a jovial supper-party after an opera ball, 
 which beat anything I ever heard of. When it was 
 presented, after a good deal of argument, a few of the 
 more ridiculous items were struck off, and the waiter 
 having been handsomely tipped, we said, "Well, 
 anyhow, they can't make us pay anything more." 
 The rapacity which animated the whole place was, 
 however, absolutely unbounded. 
 Though 
 
 "The evaporation of a joyous day, 
 Is like the last glass of champagne, without 
 The foam which made its virgin bumper gay,"
 
 122 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 our party, after the manner of revellers, continued 
 to sit on for some time longer. 
 
 At five in the morning, when we rang for our coats, 
 the maitre (f hotel had the effrontery to appear with 
 another complete bill. I believe this form of extortion 
 was regularly practised on supper-parties after opera 
 balls, many of these parties begun in revelry, ending 
 in such drowsiness that people did not very well 
 remember whether they had paid their bill or not. 
 However, to their surprise the harpies, in spite of the 
 lateness of the hour, found us quite alert and quite 
 determined not to be robbed any more. The exit from 
 these night restaurants in the early morning after an 
 opera ball was always rather amusing, the incongruity 
 of ladies in fancy dresses coming out quite uncon- 
 cerned in broad daylight being essentially Parisian. 
 On the occasion alluded to above, I remember, our 
 party consisted, besides myself and a friend, of two 
 Parisiennes dressed respectively as a Louis XV 
 Marquis and a Mignon of the Court of Henry III. 
 No fiacre could be got at the door, but the Marquis 
 and the Mignon, in no wise disturbed, walked down 
 the Avenue de I'Op^ra just as if they were in 
 ordinary costume. No women in the world enter so 
 fully into the real spirit of carnival as the French.
 
 V 
 PARIS 
 
 IN Paris, as Chopin said, you may do as you 
 please, laugh, cry, go pleasure-hunting, or 
 think of nothing but business. Nobody takes 
 any notice of what you do all sorts of amusements 
 are to be found in abundance ; no wonder then 
 that all the pleasure-loving world flocks to the gay 
 city beside the Seine. 
 
 Up to comparatively recent years, however, there 
 was scarcely a sufficiency of first-rate hotel accom- 
 modation, and nervous visitors from England rather 
 dreaded the crowd at seasons such as Easter and 
 the fortnight which ended with the Grand Prix. 
 
 In the eighties big hotels were few. The most 
 frequented being the Grand, Continental, and Louvre, 
 which then occupied a great part of the building 
 now entirely absorbed by the famous " Magasins 
 du Louvre." 
 
 The table d'hote here enjoyed great popularity 
 with travellers, the room in which it was given, 
 still in existence, looking quite magnificent when 
 lit up at night, while the fare was liberal and 
 
 on the whole good; separate tables, of course, were 
 123
 
 124 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 at that time very limited in number. The court- 
 yard of the Louvre, like that of the Grand Hotel, 
 now converted to other uses, was quite an amusing 
 place to sit in after dinner. As fiacres and small 
 omnibuses drove in, the porter used, I remember, 
 to ring a great clanging bell, which conveyed an 
 impression that some important event was about to 
 happen. 
 
 Everything was done in a very orderly and 
 dignified fashion. Considerable ceremony accom- 
 panied the opening of the table d'hote dinner, a 
 number of kuissier -\\ViG. personages of grave and 
 reverend aspect, clad in a full suit of black, with a 
 white cravat, and a steel chain round their necks, 
 being in attendance as necessarily auxiliaries to dining. 
 
 Though good hotels were few, their amenities 
 far excelled those then to be found in London. 
 The extravagant luxury of our modern palatial 
 caravanserais did not, of course, yet exist ; but at 
 the hotels mentioned above very comfortable rooms 
 could be procured at a fairly moderate rate ; there 
 were also smaller ones, such as the Splendide, 
 Chatham, Lille et d' Albion. The Bristol, Rhin, and 
 Meurice's were of course more expensive, and only 
 frequented by wealthy people. 
 
 Many things which are now to be found all over 
 the world were then difficult to get out of England. 
 Soda-water, except in rather doubtful siphons, was 
 only to be procured at certain special resorts 
 which made an especial feature of catering for 
 English visitors. Still, things were a good deal better
 
 A QUAINT CUSTOM 125 
 
 than they had been thirty years before, when the 
 only place in Paris where you could procure English 
 groceries and wines and spirits was at Cuvillier's, 
 in the Rue de la Paix. At that remote period 
 English penknives, scissors, and table-cutlery were 
 almost unattainable things ; English crockeryware 
 was as scarce in Paris as old Chelsea china ; English 
 hosiery and linendrapery were fearfully costly and 
 difficult to get at all. 
 
 Within the last fifty years the appearance of the 
 Parisians has entirely changed. Men no longer wear 
 coats and hats of eccentric cut and style ; many 
 picturesque little industries have also disappeared. 
 
 It was, for instance, at one time quite an ordinary 
 thing on the boulevards to see boys, who offered 
 to passers-by the pleasure of setting at liberty captive 
 little birds, such as sparrows, finches, and swallows, 
 in return for a few centimes. This custom, which has 
 its origin in a desire to propitiate fortune, has of 
 late years been adopted at the launch of our battle- 
 ships, when, after the Japanese fashion, a paper 
 cage opens and liberates a number of pigeons as 
 the vessel glides into the water. The liberation in 
 question is a sentimental superstition, and savours 
 of the vicarious way of compounding for sins taught 
 and practised in the Middle Ages. At St. Peters- 
 burg, towards the end of the month of May, baskets 
 filled with small birds used to be seen in the streets, 
 and it was considered a religious duty to expend 
 a few copecks for permission to free these feathered 
 captives. In 1858 the liberation of the birds had
 
 126 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 a political significance attached to it, and the humbler 
 classes, while letting their purchases fly, made signifi- 
 cant allusions, and even prayed for the emancipation 
 of the peasantry from serfdom. 
 
 The itinerant shearer of poodles who used to 
 perambulate Paris streets is, I fancy, obsolete even 
 that Autolycus of the gutter, the chiffonier, is but 
 a memory of other days. In the descent to obli- 
 vion, he was long preceded by the individuals 
 who made a precarious living by carrying ladies 
 safely across the swollen kennel or ruisseau after a 
 shower of rain. For a lady the fee was ten centimes, 
 for a child or a pet poodle five. 
 
 The little open-air balls which at one time abounded 
 have been succeeded by more ambitious resorts, but 
 the populace still dances in the streets on the i4th 
 of July, and the open-air cafe concerts still survive. 
 
 Outdoor games, shows, and merrymakings have 
 always been systematically sanctioned and encouraged 
 by authority ; and under the Restoration, when a 
 feeble effort was made by the Government to sup- 
 press the popular suburban balls, the attempt was 
 met by the furious and famous diatribe of Paul- Louis 
 Courier against the law which proposed "d'empecher 
 les paysans de danser le Dimanche," and the pro- 
 hibitory legislation was abandoned. 
 
 While the general appearance and the habits of 
 the Parisians are very different now from what they 
 were, the old school of English tourist, once so con- 
 spicuous by reason of his queer dress and uncouth 
 manners, has in these cosmopolitan days become
 
 LEGENDARY FIGURES 127 
 
 more or less a mere recollection, and the hideously 
 costumed females with protruding teeth and terrible 
 boots now only survive upon the lighter French 
 stage ; but for many years after the Franco-German 
 War both of these types were unsightly and disagree- 
 able figures on the Continent. French people well 
 acquainted with England and the high standard of 
 beauty which is a characteristic of our women used 
 to express surprise at the specimens they saw abroad ; 
 some, indeed, had a sort of idea that it was a traditional 
 English custom to take care that the bad-looking 
 ones remained outside their native country. Perhaps 
 the disappearance of the unpleasant type of female 
 from foreign capitals is owing to the fact that she 
 can now find a genial occupation at home in con- 
 nexion with one or more of the cranky fads now 
 so abundant and popular. 
 
 The traditional English milor disappeared with 
 the Second Empire, in the last days of which he 
 was merely a legendary figure. His heyday was of 
 course the era before railways, when rich Englishmen 
 drove over the Continent in their own carriages, 
 accompanied by a number of mounted servants, 
 fourgons carrying luggage, and sometimes a portable 
 batterie de cuisine and a favourite cook. Compared 
 with the rich peers who squandered money in the 
 old pleasure resorts of Paris, the milor of the 
 sixties cut a very poor figure indeed. His day was 
 gone and, however rich he might be, his wealth and 
 position gave him very little power compared with 
 that exercised by his predecessor of a previous
 
 128 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 generation, who could pretty well gratify every 
 desire. 
 
 About the last of the great milors iiltimus 
 Romanorum would seem to have been Lord Henry 
 Seymour, the real founder of the French Turf, who 
 in his particular circle exercised as powerful a sway 
 as any absolute monarch. 
 
 The Paris which I remember in the early eighties 
 of the last century, as far as English visitors 
 went, might be said to have been in a transitional 
 stage. While the Gay City was not so well known 
 to English people as it is now, the British colony, 
 quite a feature in Thackeray's days, had practically 
 ceased to exist, and few of our countrymen made a 
 practice of paying constant visits to the Metropolis 
 of Pleasure. 
 
 Even quite well-to-do visitors were content to pass 
 their time in a way which would almost arouse 
 derision amongst the more luxurious generation of 
 to-day. A favourite amusement of families after 
 dining at table d'hote (considered quite a piece 
 of dissipation by many, there being then no 
 palatial hotels in England) was to make a solemn 
 promenade along the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue 
 de la Paix, the particular attraction being the 
 brilliantly lit shop-windows, which for some reason 
 or other as far as I could make out, purchasers 
 were very rare after dinner then made a practice 
 of keeping open very late. This, together with an 
 inspection of the public monuments, a visit to the 
 Comedie Fra^aise to see a classical play, not one
 
 THE RUE DE RIVOLI 129 
 
 line of which the majority understood, and a few 
 drives in the Bois de Boulogne, was the programme 
 which the majority of English visitors made a 
 practice of going through. Most of them, being 
 firmly convinced that it didn't matter what one wore 
 abroad, took care to rig themselves out in their 
 oldest and worst clothes, a custom which undoubtedly 
 contributed towards the unpopularity of the inhabi- 
 tants of " La Perfide Albion " unhappy-looking 
 figures who marched solemnly about Paris, obviously 
 contemptuous of all foreign ways. 
 
 For some years after the war the Rue de Rivoli 
 contained many first-class shops, the proprietors of 
 which tried hard to believe that the prosperity which 
 they had once enjoyed would return. Circumstances, 
 however, were too strong for them, and gradually 
 this agreeable thoroughfare became filled with estab- 
 lishments selling odds and ends photographs, guide- 
 books, sham antiquities, shoddy Oriental goods, and 
 pastilles de serail. A feature of the cheap book- 
 shops which has now disappeared was, I remember, 
 a little glass case in the corner of the window, 
 specially designed to attract English tourists of 
 Bohemian tendencies. In this case were stored a 
 number of small volumes in paper covers, the titles 
 of which made an appeal to the worst passions of 
 visitors from across the Channel. For the most 
 part these little books were merely bad abridg- 
 ments of French novels, mostly by Paul de Kock, 
 the title of which, translated into English, conveyed 
 the totally wrong impression that very improper
 
 130 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 reading was to be found inside " The Little 
 Milliner with the Three Petticoats," if I remember 
 rightly, was one ; " The Mysteries of Paris " a 
 most inoffensive work by Eugene Sue another. 
 Side by side with these quite harmless productions 
 were displayed a number of flashy-looking guides 
 to the amusements of Paris, the names of which 
 smacked of wild dissipation. The " Night Side of 
 Paris," and other similar works, embellished with 
 lurid frontispieces, probably commanded a good 
 sale ; but from what I recollect of their execrably 
 written contents, the voluptuaries who paid five 
 francs for them must have been woefully disappointed. 
 In most cases the letterpress was a mere hash-up 
 of old stories of obsolete pleasure-resorts, popular 
 under the Second Empire, interspersed with diatribes 
 against vicious-minded people in general, which 
 must have been little to the taste of most of the 
 purchasers anxious to find out how they could see 
 the fast life of Paris. 
 
 A better class of shop did a fairly brisk trade in 
 selling rather well-executed miniature copies in oils 
 of the most attractive pictures in the year's Salon. 
 A distinct preference was generally shown for battle 
 scenes and nudities, a number of which, appropriately 
 framed, were taken back to England to decorate 
 the best parlours of suburban villas or to be given 
 as presents to provincial relatives from whom the 
 donors had expectations. 
 
 Though fallen into a somewhat derelict condition 
 since the brilliant days when Napoleon III had
 
 THE TUILERIES 131 
 
 held his Court close by in the Tuileries, the Rue 
 de Rivoli was still an amusing street ; besides which, 
 if one strolled there one might be certain to come 
 across any English acquaintance visiting Paris. 
 
 As a contrast to the somewhat shoddy splendour 
 of the shop-windows, the blackened ruins of the 
 Tuileries still remained a striking reminder of the 
 terrible days of the Commune, still fresh in the recol- 
 lection of most Parisians of that day. 
 
 In old days the beautiful gardens were frequented 
 by many quaint characters. One of the most original 
 of these was " Le Marquis des Grangers," an 
 eccentric old gentleman, whose residence was never 
 known, but who made his appearance in the alley 
 of the Tuileries as regularly each year as the orange- 
 trees were brought out of their winter conservatory 
 to bask in the first rays of spring. He made this 
 alley his daily resort from three to five, and never 
 saw his friends in any other reception-room. In 
 winter he disappeared entirely. 
 
 Before the old stones and broken columns of the 
 ruined palace were finally removed, considerable 
 uncertainty prevailed as to whether the Tuileries 
 would be rebuilt or not. Personally I think the 
 present plan of leaving this site a blank space very 
 tastefully laid out it is true a mistake. Some day, 
 I hope, a new palace, or fine public edifice, will be 
 reared upon the ground where in 1564 Philibert 
 Delorme and Jean Bullant constructed a central 
 pavilion and wings for Catherine de Medicis. 
 
 This queen, it is curious to note, arriving at the
 
 132 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 conclusion that the site was an unlucky one, even- 
 tually stopped her architects from continuing their 
 work. An astrological prediction had bidden her 
 beware of St. Germain, so realizing that the new 
 palace would be in the parish of St. Germain 
 d'Auxerrois she decided to abandon her scheme. 
 In the reign of Henri IV, however, Ducerreau 
 and Duperac were employed to complete the build- 
 ings. Amongst other constructions they erected 
 lofty pavilions at each end. Louis XIII finished 
 the palace, the different portions of which by order 
 of the Rio Soleil were brought into harmony by 
 Levan and d'Orbay. Some further changes were 
 afterwards made, notably by Napoleon, who in 1808 
 built a northern gallery to serve as a communication 
 with the Louvre. 
 
 Napoleon III made considerable alterations both 
 in the Tuileries and the Louvre. His taste was 
 not always judicious, but on the whole the new 
 streets and boulevards, which owe their existence 
 to his initiative, are built in a dignified and suitable 
 style. 
 
 A man of large ideas, he sought to emulate the 
 architectural magnificence of Augustus, whose boast 
 was that he found Rome built of brick and would 
 leave it of marble. That Roman Emperor, however, 
 while embellishing his noble city, never contemplated 
 combining strategical with architectural plans. The 
 Romans, unlike the French cradled in revolution, were 
 ignorant of barricades. From 1789 to 1871 a certain 
 kind of Parisian positively venerated paving-stones,
 
 PLOTS REAL AND UNREAL 133 
 
 while extremely partial to impromptu breastworks of 
 anybody's vehicles or furniture. 
 
 At times, so great was the number of plots and 
 counter-plots that those responsible for order could not 
 be certain what form of government was coming next. 
 A revolutionist was once seized only a few minutes 
 before an attempt was made on Louis Philippe. The 
 police had hardly done searching him when the explo- 
 sions were heard, upon which the prisoner exclaimed, 
 " There ! your citizen king has ceased to exist ; you 
 needn't trouble yourself about me." Thereupon one 
 of the sergents, struck with the idea that in this case 
 the man under arrest might form part of the next 
 Provisional Government, said to his captive, " Well, 
 sir, whatever happens, remember that I treated you 
 like a gentleman." 
 
 So nervous and scared did the authorities become 
 that ridiculous arrests were not uncommon. 
 
 On one occasion Lord Henry Seymour, being in 
 treaty for the purchase of a carriage, ordered his 
 servants to test the solidity of the springs. They 
 loaded the carriage with several pieces of cast iron and 
 drove it outside the Barriere de la Villette, which is 
 on the road to Fontainebleau, in order to look out for 
 some rough ground over which the carriage might get 
 a good jolting. On passing the barrier the coachman 
 said to the octroi officers, " You will please to observe 
 that we have got some cast-iron bars, and you will not 
 make us pay on them when we come back." The 
 officers said it would be all right and the carriage 
 went on. But presently, as the officers talked
 
 134 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 amongst themselves at the station, it struck some of 
 them as suspicious that a carriage bearing hollow 
 metallic tubes should have been driving at a rapid rate 
 on the road to Fontainebleau. Visions of Orsini 
 bombs arose before the eyes of the most imaginative ; 
 a force of gendarmes was sent for to the barrier, and 
 when the carriage came back the servants were 
 arrested and the cast-iron ballast seized for inspection. 
 
 Napoleon III, who till his illness was an excessively 
 astute ruler, left no stone unturned to secure his own 
 safety and the permanence of the Empire. He under- 
 stood thoroughly how dangerous a Parisian mob could 
 be, and accordingly all the vaunted improvements of 
 Paris were dictated and governed by the supreme idea 
 of placing the whole of the city under the direct 
 command of the military authorities. 
 
 The first step taken was to macadamize the leading 
 arteries, the next to widen them, and the last to 
 embellish their fronts with structures of palatial 
 grandeur. 
 
 At that time and later much which vividly recalled 
 the turbulent days of the great Revolution disappeared. 
 
 Some historic houses sheltered queer tenants before 
 they fell before the pick of Haussmannization. In the 
 room in the tall dingy house in the Rue de 1'ficole 
 de Me"decine where Marat was stabbed to death lived, 
 in the middle of the last century, a Polish exile who 
 had invented a machine for hatching chickens by 
 electricity, and who would not permit any one* to 
 enter his domicile. Probably it was full of eggs ; and 
 possibly he cared no more about his apartment having
 
 OLD PARIS 135 
 
 been the deathplace of Marat than the late Mr. Toole, 
 in a celebrated farce, cared about his second-floor back 
 having been the birthplace of Podgers. 
 
 Of all great European cities, Paris changes her 
 aspect the most ; one old quarter after another under- 
 goes the process of renewing its youth, during which 
 the pick of the housebreaker often destroys buildings 
 of great historical or romantic interest. That curious 
 and essential compound of East and West, the late 
 General Tcheng-ki-Tong, who had assimilated so 
 many ideas of the true Parisian, happily expressed 
 what many must have felt as to the constant 
 transformations of the capital of France. 
 
 " After a number of years of absence," wrote he, 
 " return to no matter what city in the world you will 
 find it pretty much as you left it, putting aside, of 
 course, a number of new houses. Paris alone 
 escapes this law of stability. It is the ideal city of 
 development. Darwin ought to have been a 
 Parisian." 
 
 The demolition of Old Paris under the Empire, 
 while it improved sanitation, also indirectly checked 
 crime. Large masses of old buildings, squalid with 
 filth and crime, were swept away, while the hereditary 
 revolutionists of Paris, driven into more accessible 
 quarters, were dominated by the cannon of the ram- 
 parts. Within easy distance was the strong fortress 
 of Vincennes, and barracks built at various strategic 
 points girt the whole of the city like grim sentinels. 
 
 An additional safeguard of public order was 
 Napoleon I II 's carefully chosen force visergents de ville,
 
 136 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 broad-shouldered, fierce-moustached, truculent, with 
 cocked hats and long rapiers. They were intensely 
 hated by the dangerous classes, whom, nevertheless, 
 they kept .in awe. On the whole they did their work 
 in a very efficient, if occasionally uncompromising, 
 manner, besides being more ornamental than the 
 modern gardiens de la paix, armed with sword 
 bayonets, in their unobtrusive uniforms of tunic and 
 kpi t who saunter along the kerbstones continually 
 taking notes about goodness knows what. 
 
 Paris has a wonderful past, and for the visitor who 
 has made a hobby of studying its social history, 
 every street nay, almost every stone has an interest 
 of its own. 
 
 Take, for instance, the Rue de la Paix, a street 
 originally constructed under Napoleon I, which 
 received its name in memory of the Treaty 
 of Peace which the allied sovereigns imposed upon 
 conquered France in 1814. 
 
 A year later all Paris was a hostile camp. Our 
 Highlanders bivouacked in the Champs Elyse*es. 
 Lord Uxbridge's troopers picketed their horses in 
 the Bois de Boulogne. The Russian headquarters 
 were in the Place Vendome. The Austrians were 
 in the Champ de Mars and the Carrousel. The 
 Prussians held the heights of Montmartre. 
 
 In due course they departed, only, however, to 
 return some fifty-five years later and make a 
 triumphal entry through the magnificent Arch, which 
 happily escaped serious damage during the siege. 
 
 In an old guide-book (Galignani's " New Paris
 
 THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE 137 
 
 Guide," 1840) I find scrawled in pencil at the side 
 of a page dealing with the Champs Elys^es the 
 words, "The long vista and broad walk ending with 
 the Triumphal Arch beyond description fine." I 
 think this is a very apt and complete comment upon 
 the beauty of the most perfect thoroughfare in 
 Europe. 
 
 The Arc de Triomphe is undoubtedly the most 
 satisfactory example of modern work in the classical 
 style in the world, besides which the memories 
 evoked by it are of supreme historical interest. Not 
 the least striking, perhaps, is the recollection of the 
 handsome young German hussar officer who, riding 
 ahead of his victorious countrymen upon the occasion 
 of their entry into Paris, galloped on till he had 
 passed through the Arch, when, reining his horse 
 up sharp, he waved his sword in the air, the 
 triumphal gesture of the first German in Paris. 
 
 This historical incident, commemorated by a con- 
 temporary illustration in the Graphic, made, I remem- 
 ber, a considerable impression upon my youthful 
 mind. There is an admirable description of this 
 hussar's entry in Blackwood. 
 
 The entry of the German Army into Paris was 
 a sad ordeal for patriotic Parisians. An eyewitness 
 told me that on the whole the attitude of the French 
 was dignified in the extreme. Many of the crowd 
 took old General Zimmermann, who resembled 
 William I, for the conquering king. 
 
 The night before the entry, my informant told me, 
 he went to the Palais Royale. Before the piece
 
 138 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 began, the manager, coming before the curtain, made 
 a brief speech in which, after speaking with some 
 emotion of the humiliation which Paris was to 
 undergo next day, he begged every one to remember 
 how important it was for France that Frenchmen 
 should exhibit self-restraint. " I entreat you," said 
 he, " stay in your houses till all is over." 
 
 Tremendous applause greeted his address, the band 
 played the "Marseillaise, "every one standing up much 
 moved. The curtain then rose upon a rattling farce, 
 which evoked the usual amount of laughter, just as 
 in ordinary times. The whole thing was highly 
 creditable to the French, and very characteristic of 
 the best side of the national character. 
 
 At the time of the triumphal entry occurred an 
 incident which, I think, has not been chronicled 
 before. When the Bavarians reached the Place de la 
 Concorde some of them began to sing the " Wacht 
 am Rhein." The strains of this, however, were 
 dramatically mingled with those of the " Marseillaise," 
 which, as if the unconquerable spirit of France was 
 making reply, came faintly floating from the Pont 
 Neuf, upon which a number of the French had 
 gathered to intone the splendid march of Rouget de 
 Lisle. 
 
 During the siege and the Commune numbers of 
 people went about their ordinary avocations as if 
 nothing out of the common was taking place. 
 
 It is always so a certain number of individuals 
 scarcely noticed the French Revolution ! 
 
 An enthusiastic young student of the great social
 
 SOURCE BADOIT 139 
 
 upheaval of 1789, chancing to meet an old gentleman 
 who had been in Paris during the sanguinary frenzy 
 of the Terror, implored him to speak about Robes- 
 pierre and Collot d'Herbois about the Jacobins and 
 the Furies of the Guillotine. " I troubled myself very 
 little about such matters," merely replied the old 
 man. " Pendant ce temps la je m'occupais de la 
 conchologie." Human heads were falling all around 
 him, blood was flowing like water ; but all these 
 horrors were powerless to disturb the old student in 
 his placid study of molluscs and Crustacea! 
 
 Ultra-patriotic feeling was naturally very deep for 
 years after the war ; in some cases it rendered a 
 certain number of Frenchmen almost ridiculous. 
 
 One Chauvinist actually objected to drink St. 
 Galmier on the ground that it came from the 
 " Source Badois " and that Baden was in Germany. 
 His scruples were, however, removed, first by ex- 
 hibiting to him a bottle, from the label of which it 
 was made manifest that the name of the spring was 
 "Badoit," with a t instead of an s\ and next, by 
 pointing out to him that if the water had been, 
 indeed, of Teutonic origin, " Source " happens to 
 be a feminine noun, and the requirements of French 
 grammar would have demanded the substitution of 
 " Badoise " for " Badois." 
 
 In the early eighties Paris had not yet given way 
 to the irrevocable tendency of modern cities to spread 
 from east to west. 
 
 In consonance with this law, the fashionable 
 quarter has within the last four decades been ever
 
 140 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 moving westwards, spreading to innumerable new 
 boulevards, spreading to the Pare Monceau, over- 
 running the Champs Elysees, and threatening to 
 overlap the Bois de Boulogne, which happily, how- 
 ever, no buildings can ever invade. 
 
 This beautiful wood, now devoted entirely to 
 pleasure, has been the scene of some tragic events 
 in its day. 
 
 Here, under Louis XV, two ladies, the Marquise 
 de Nesles and Comtesse de Polignac, exchanged 
 pistol-shots on account of their rivalry in the affec- 
 tions of the handsome Due de Richelieu. And here 
 also, in 1790, Cuzale's and Barnave fought a duel on 
 account of a political quarrel. 
 
 " I should be wretched at killing you," said Cuzales, 
 " but you bore us dreadfully and I should like to stop 
 you speaking for some time." 
 
 "You are less generous than I," replied Barnave, 
 "for I hardly want to touch you, since you are the 
 only orator of your party. Mine would hardly notice 
 my absence ! " 
 
 Amongst the many duels which have taken place 
 in this old wood, perhaps the most curious was the 
 encounter between Benjamin Constant and Forbin 
 des Essarts, fought at ten paces, each duellist seated 
 in an arm-chair. 
 
 During the Second Empire, when its avenues 
 and rides were thronged by strange characters of 
 both sexes, and of every description, the aspect 
 of the Bois de Boulogne was far smarter than it is 
 at present. There was a tremendous amount of
 
 MABILLE 141 
 
 extravagance ; still, luxury did not often reach the 
 point of ostentatious vulgarity. The horses seen in 
 the Bois in 1867-8 were, as a rule, superb, but a 
 few years later, after the siege, a woeful deterioration 
 took place. It was a rare sight in the seventies 
 and eighties to see there a piece of horseflesh 
 worth so much as a hundred-pound note. Poor 
 Napoleon III, whatever may have been his short- 
 comings, certainly knew the "points" of a horse. 
 He was indeed an eminently "horsey" sovereign, and 
 his stud-grooms were Englishmen. The wealthiest 
 and " horsiest " of foreign grandees flocked to the 
 brilliant Court of the Tuileries, and the horizontals 
 of Imperial days they were called cocottes then 
 vied in the splendour of their equipages with the 
 great ladies, of the Empire and the foreign Ambassa- 
 dresses, just as, a century ago, La Morphise had 
 vied with the Duchesse de Valentinois. 
 
 In the evening the same ladies frequented Mabille, 
 the famous dancing-place, which a few years after 
 the war was succeeded by the Jardin de Paris. 
 
 Some few survivors of the brilliant Imperial days 
 still frequented this latter pleasure resort in the 
 eighties ; it was then, however, in a different part 
 of the Champs Elyse"es from where it is to-day. 
 
 I well remember one veteran, the famous dancer 
 of quadrilles known as Valentin le Desosse", who 
 occasionally footed it at the Moulin Rouge and the 
 Jardin de Paris. He was an entirely different type 
 of man from the ordinary paid dancer of Parisian 
 public halls, and in the days of La Goulue, Grille
 
 142 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 d'Egout, Rayon d'Or, Nini-Patte-en-l'Air, and other 
 high-kicking ladies, had a wide reputation as being 
 the last representative of the old school who, under 
 the Empire, had danced for pleasure more than for 
 pay at Mabille and Valentino's with Clodoche and 
 Flageolet. I never saw any one like him ; he really 
 did dance for the joy of the thing. His sardonic 
 expression and quaint appearance in an old-fashioned 
 frock-coat, top-hat with a flat brim, and huge butter- 
 fly bow tie, a cigarette always between his lips, was 
 highly characteristic. Nevertheless, there was some- 
 thing dignified about him, and his entrain and supple- 
 ness were marvellous ; lithe as a serpent, he twisted 
 in and out in the quadrille, to which he always at- 
 tracted an appreciative crowd. 
 
 When old age absolutely prevented his dancing, 
 Valentin le Desosse bade farewell to his beloved 
 quadrilles and busied himself with the sale of wine ; 
 he, who had passed so many nights in a perpetual 
 whirl, took to returning home every evening at 
 six o'clock! 
 
 Still alert, though verging upon seventy, M. Jules 
 Renaudin went out every day to take a ride on 
 horseback, this being the only way in which he 
 could yet honourably play the "Cavalier seul," of 
 which as Valentin le Desosse" he had been such an 
 undoubted master. 
 
 After having witnessed so many scenes of unbridled 
 revelry, in his last years he became highly interested 
 in children. To all the urchins who lived near his 
 house he behaved like a kindly grandfather. They
 
 PAULUS 143 
 
 knew the trim, sharp, spare figure whose rugged 
 face always lit up when he heard them say " Bonjour, 
 Grand Pere." 
 
 The old dancer died not so many years ago a 
 peaceable and sedate citizen of the small town of 
 Sceaux, where he had been wise enough to go 
 and seek a calm retreat for his old age. 
 
 Another interesting figure in the Paris of the 
 day before yesterday was Paulus. Curiously enough, 
 this clever singer, though for a time the idol of 
 Paris, did not have any great success during one 
 or two visits which he made to London. His art, 
 and I think in his own time he was a real artist, 
 was essentially calculated to appeal to the Parisians, 
 and in another country, speaking a different language, 
 he was entirely lost. Nevertheless, I think all who, 
 like myself, have heard him at his best will agree 
 that he was inconceivably ahead of any Cafe Concert 
 star of his or any other day. 
 
 He had a countenance of a somewhat Napoleonic 
 type (of which he was very proud) and a neat figure 
 well set off by a simple costume, the main feature 
 of which was a well-cut blue swallow-tail coat. His 
 intonation, though that of the Midi from whence 
 he came, was beautifully clear and not guttural, while 
 his action while singing was wonderfully adapted to 
 the subject of which he sang. In addition to this, 
 he conveyed the impression of strength, vitality, 
 and love of his work. Oddly enough, though 
 Paulus achieved an immense success, his songs 
 were far more restrained and decorous than those
 
 144 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 of the other Caf6 Concert singers of his time. His 
 tunes, it should be added, were almost invariably 
 good, the best of all being the famous " Pere la 
 Victoire," in which there was a good deal of the 
 real spirit of patriotism. " Petit Bleu," a valse song 
 in praise of light French wine, was also far above 
 the level of most Cafe" Concert songs. The cele- 
 brated " En Revenant de la Revue," which did so 
 much for General Boulanger (I still seem to hear 
 the public of the Concert des Ambassadors cheering 
 the last lines telling of " le brav' Gne>al Boulanger ") 
 was, on the other hand, rather a poor composition. 
 Its popularity, I think, was largely owing to the 
 fact that it really did describe the doings, or what 
 the public imagined might be the doings, of a 
 French lower middle-class family after witnessing 
 the great Longchamps review. 
 
 The end of poor Paulus, who, in his time, gave 
 pleasure of a healthy, virile sort to thousands, was 
 rather an unhappy one. 
 
 Not content to be the shining constellation of the 
 Cafe* Concert, he went into management and became 
 the proprietor of the Bataclan, a rather second-rate 
 sort of music-hall, which he was never able to make 
 pay. This unfortunate enterprise, together with a 
 wine business in which he was foolishly induced to 
 dabble, eventually ran away with pretty well all his 
 savings. He fell into ill-health and could not command 
 his old salary when he tried to sing again. Finally, a 
 broken-down invalid, he retired to the Midi where he 
 had first seen the light, and shortly afterwards died in
 
 BOULANGER 145 
 
 the arms of a devoted friend who had soothed his last 
 hours. 
 
 Of the ill-fated General, for whom Paulus's song 
 had done so much, I saw a good deal at the old 
 Hotel de Louvre. Here he lived for a time, and 
 once or twice he was accorded a sort of small ovation 
 as in full uniform he descended the great staircase 
 into the courtyard. Most of the staff of the hotel, 
 however, were not at all impressed by him or his 
 methods. I well remember being told that the changes 
 which he made in the equipment of the French Army 
 merely put money into certain people's pockets. They 
 certainly did one thing, which was to keep the General's 
 name before the public. The changes in question, as 
 far as I can recollect, consisted in painting the sentry- 
 boxes red, white, and blue, allowing soldiers to wear 
 beards and giving them latitude in the matter of 
 gloves. Besides this, alterations mostly useless and 
 inartistic, were made in uniforms. At one time great 
 excitement was caused by the announcement that the 
 gendarmerie was to have its traditional headdress, the 
 cocked hat, worn en battaille, replaced by a helmet of 
 General Boulanger's own design. There was great 
 opposition to the idea of any innovation of the sort 
 and the proposal was dropped. Since then the cocked 
 hat has gone. I suppose it would seem even more 
 ridiculous to English travellers of to-day than it did 
 to their predecessors, who used to laugh at what they 
 called the Punch-like appearance of the gendarme 
 who, with his yellow belt and huge sword, was one 
 of the first figures which struck their sight on the old 
 landing-stage at Calais ?
 
 146 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 General Boulanger, though he may have wanted 
 to do away with the cocked hat of the gendarmes, 
 fully understood the artistic value of his own general's 
 cocked hat and handsome uniform. He certainly cut 
 a fine figure on his black horse Tunis at the famous 
 Longchamps review. 
 
 For a time it really seemed as if the brav Ge'ne'ral 
 might succeed, but from the evening when he failed 
 to march upon the Elysee his fortunes steadily de- 
 clined 
 
 The story of that famous evening when General 
 Boulanger with his friends at Durand's was expected 
 to sally forth by the crowds assembled outside, I 
 heard from the lips of the proprietor, M. Sylvain, who, 
 before retiring to a country house at Brie Comte 
 Robert, where I hope he still flourishes, entertained 
 me at lunch in the very room where the famous 
 dinner had taken place. He described to me the 
 enthusiastic crowd beneath the windows, the exulta- 
 tion of the Boulangists, and how it gradually turned 
 to dismay as they saw their leader's disinclination to 
 march, culminating in complete despair as they saw 
 that nothing would make him take immediate action. 
 " Alors" said M. Sylvain, " le Ge'ne'ral a pris son 
 paletot, et le mouvement Boulangiste e"tait mort" 
 
 As a matter of fact Boulanger, as I happen to 
 know from one who was deep in the counsels of 
 the opposing party, was far better informed as to 
 the reception which awaited him at the Presidential 
 Palace than his followers. A considerable number of 
 picked soldiers, every one of them heart and soul
 
 M. CONSTANS 147 
 
 devoted to the Republic, were stowed away in various 
 parts of the building, from which they could havo 
 fired with deadly effect. The arrangements in case 
 of attack were far more complete than any one had 
 any idea of except the President, M. Constans, his 
 lieutenants, and General Boulanger himself, whom the 
 Minister of the Interior, with his usual astuteness, 
 took care should know through the medium of certain 
 casual acquaintances, apparently mere irresponsible 
 chatterboxes, but in reality clever spies, who, while 
 keeping the Republicans informed of everything which 
 went on in the Boulangist camp, on occasion fright- 
 ened the General by letting slip, as if by accident, 
 news of stern measures about to be put in force by his 
 opponents. 
 
 One of the greatest stumbling-blocks to Boulanger's 
 success was the fact of the Military Governor of Paris 
 being opposed to him. Besides this, the troops, who 
 had been carefully canvassed by clever spies, were on 
 the whole faithful to the Republic. 
 
 The Government and General Boulanger knew 
 this, the mass of the Boulangist party did not. 
 
 At every turn the General was confronted by the 
 clever machinations of the astute and well informed 
 M. Constans, who eventually put his adversary 
 to complete rout. Nothing could have been more 
 methodical than the way the former managed the 
 electoral campaign, the result of which practically 
 ended the General's career. 
 
 Some time before the election, M. Constans, 
 summoning his agents, spread out the map of
 
 148 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 France upon a table before them, after which he 
 proceeded to mark the Departments with a pencil. 
 
 " These, gentlemen," said he, indicating various 
 Boulangist strongholds, "are hopeless, and therefore 
 it is useless to spend a sou in trying to win them. 
 They should be placed in the same category with 
 these other Departments which, as they are absolutely 
 certain to return our candidates, should make no 
 tax whatever upon our war chest. 
 
 " Now we come to the doubtful Departments 
 to win these we should concentrate all our energies 
 and spend all our funds. Do as I say, and victory 
 is assured." 
 
 The eventual success of his party at the polls 
 showed how rightly M. Constans gauged the situa- 
 tion. Once the campaign had begun he neglected 
 no means to defeat the Boulangist party. Some of 
 the methods employed would have appealed to 
 English boroughmongers of the eighteenth century, 
 and quite a number of seats were won by cunning 
 diplomacy. 
 
 In a certain constituency of considerable importance 
 secret service agents reported "that a redoubtable 
 prop of Boulangism was a certain lawyer, who, 
 owing to his excellent relations with the small 
 farmers and peasants, would exercise great influence 
 upon the result of the election. This lawyer, though 
 well off, lived very simply and knew little of Paris. 
 His wife for some time past had been suffering 
 from some obscure malady which the local doctors 
 were unable to diagnose." In consequence of this
 
 AN INTERESTING INVALID 149 
 
 report a great Parisian doctor, known to be devoted 
 to the Republic, was sent off to stay as a friend 
 with a gentleman, secretly also of strong anti- 
 Boulangist principles, who lived not far from the 
 lawyer, to call upon whom the doctor was taken 
 shortly after his arrival. 
 
 During the visit the host, speaking enthusiastically 
 of the certainty of triumph for le brav General 
 at the polls, said the only thing which now de- 
 pressed him was the continued indisposition of his 
 wife, which medical advice seemed powerless to cure. 
 
 "Will you let me see her?" said the doctor. "I 
 have a large practice in Paris, and possibly I may 
 be able to throw some light upon the case. I may 
 add that I shall esteem it a favour to be allowed 
 to see her, not as a medical man, but as a friend." 
 
 The lawyer, delighted, took the doctor to the 
 sick-room, and the latter, after making a prolonged 
 and careful examination of the patient, begged to 
 be allowed to see her again in three days, in order 
 to be able to give a definite opinion. 
 
 Meanwhile he reported to the wire-pullers in Paris 
 that the woman's malady was not serious, and he 
 felt sure that he could cure her with great ease 
 what was he to do ? The answer came back : 
 44 Cure the woman, but do not cure her too quickly 
 bring her up to Paris and arrange that the husband 
 should visit her there at frequent intervals." 
 
 The doctor in due course went to the lawyer's 
 house, and after another and prolonged examination 
 of the invalid, told the husband that he had dis-
 
 150 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 covered what was the matter. " Madame," said he, 
 " will never get well in the country ; she needs 
 most careful attention from specialists who could 
 not come down here. Her case, I may add, is so 
 interesting that I should esteem it a favour to be 
 allowed to take her to Paris and put her into good 
 health without making any charge. Rest assured 
 she shall be well looked after, and I hope, monsieur, 
 that from time to time you will do me the honour 
 of being a guest under my roof, in order that you 
 may see how she is getting on." 
 
 The woman was taken to Paris and placed in a 
 luxurious " home," where she was kept for six weeks 
 till the eve of the elections. During that time her 
 husband came frequently to see her, being on every 
 occasion regally entertained and brought in contact 
 with clever and diplomatic agents of the anti-Boulan- 
 gist party. The result of all this was that gradually 
 the lawyer quite lost faith in Boulanger, and eventually 
 went all over his district exhorting every one he had 
 ever met to vote for the Republican candidate, who, 
 principally owing to the lawyer's influence, came in 
 by a large majority. 
 
 This was one instance out of many of the astute if 
 rather unscrupulous ways in which the Republic was 
 saved. 
 
 As a matter of fact it is very doubtful whether 
 the people of France as a whole would ever have 
 tolerated any attempt to substitute any other form 
 of Government. 
 
 In spite of considerable peculation and intermittent
 
 FRENCH RULE 151 
 
 tripotage the Republican regime is certainly not 
 unpopular among the proletariat, who, in spite of 
 showering abuse (for the most part no doubt quite 
 deservedly) upon politicians, are perfectly contented 
 with the present regime. 
 
 In spite of many tedious formalities which are the 
 results of a somewhat overdeveloped system of 
 bureaucracy, French rule is amazingly popular as 
 compared with that of any other nation. Love of 
 France, it is said, of late years has increased rather 
 than diminished in the lost provinces of Alsace and 
 Lorraine, many inhabitants of which have made 
 enormous sacrifices in order to remain Frenchmen. 
 
 Sentiment of course plays a large part in this 
 romantic attachment for France, but the question of 
 sentiment does not concern the Savoyards, who, in 
 reality Italian by race, are happy and proud to be 
 Frenchmen by nationality. 
 
 At the time of the late President Carnot's assassi- 
 nation, when discussing the crime with a Savoyard 
 boatman on Lac Bourget, I was astounded to hear 
 the way in which he spoke of the Italians as he 
 said, countrymen of the assassin. 
 
 Murderers, thieves, swindlers no term of abuse 
 did he leave unemployed at the same time express- 
 ing the greatest delight that his dear Savoy formed 
 part of France. 
 
 Since 1789 the French have tried so many forms 
 of government that they may be said to respect 
 none. 
 
 Driving back from Longchamps after the Grand
 
 152 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Prix not many years ago, I was much amused at the 
 anger of my cocker when his fiacre was forced to 
 draw aside in order to let the Presidential carriage 
 go by. In a furious rage the man called poor M. 
 Faillieres every insulting name he could think of; 
 he then went on to denounce public men in general 
 tas de voleurs, who passed their lives swindling 
 the poor ! And what scandalous salaries these salops 
 received. I pointed out that at any rate the Presi- 
 dent, who was merely preceded by a few bicycle police, 
 did not keep up any wasteful state ; but far from 
 soothing the cabman, this made him more angry, his 
 idea being, as far as I could make out, that the Presi- 
 dent of the Republic ought to give the people some 
 show for their money. I then asked him did he think 
 he would like a Louis XIV better? To this, after a 
 moment's hesitation, he replied, " Yes." The men- 
 tion of the Rio Soleil, indeed, quite soothed him down, 
 and putting his long-suffering horse into a gentle trot, 
 he jogged peacefully back to Paris in a capital temper. 
 The fact is, in spite of their democratic ideas, the 
 French have an idea that a president is a sort of 
 rather expensive second-class imitation of a king. 
 
 Most of the Presidents of the French Republic, 
 indeed, have been regarded with the greatest indiffer- 
 ence. M. GreVy was always being sneered at for his 
 love of economy ; he was never liked. Sadi Carnot, 
 however, partly by reason of his name and partly by 
 reason of his sympathetic personality, did attain to 
 some degree of popularity, while his tragic death at 
 Lyons evoked a good deal of real sympathy. The cir-
 
 SADI CARNOT 153 
 
 cumstances of his terrible end stabbed by the dagger 
 of the infamous Caserio, who, on the pretext of offering 
 a bouquet of flowers, climbed on to the step of the 
 presidential landau, proved that the state carriage- 
 builders of the past, who built chariots with bodies 
 suspended a good way from the ground, had their wits 
 about them. Had the poor President been driving in 
 an old-fashioned conveyance of this sort he would 
 most probably have escaped. By some mischance 
 that fatal day President Carnot had elected to use a 
 landau, hung low with a fixed step a high slung 
 vehicle with step folded up when the carriage was 
 in motion would have baffled the designs of the 
 assassin. 
 
 Sadi Carnot, endowed oddly enough with a coun- 
 tenance of rather a Persian type, had not the appear- 
 ance of a lucky man. I remember seeing him at 
 Longchamps and noting his sad, almost melancholy, 
 look. He was a good President, and partly no doubt 
 on account of his name, which recalled the glorious 
 doings of the Republican armies, enjoyed a much 
 larger share of popularity than his predecessor or 
 successors. 
 
 The state funeral which was accorded to him was 
 a wonderful affair. I watched it literally for hours 
 as it passed along the Rue de Rivoli. As a matter 
 of fact, it never had any actual end, for there were 
 so many deputations, etc., that the latter portion of 
 the procession a confused mass broke up before 
 it got anywhere near Notre Dame. Lord Dufferin, I 
 remember, was a conspicuous figure among the
 
 154 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 diplomats, all of them on foot. He was dressed 
 in the scarlet coatee of a lord-lieutenant, the effect 
 of which picturesque old-world dress he had, however, 
 completely spoilt by substituting an Indian feathered 
 solar topee the cocked hat is of course an essential 
 feature of the uniform he wore that day. 
 
 The authorities were very apprehensive of some 
 Anarchist outrage on the line of route, and in the 
 Place du Palais Royale, the guns of the horse 
 artillery were loaded ready to fire in case of need, 
 while the soldiers stood by armed as on active service. 
 Before the procession arrived there was a considerable 
 display of military force; dragoons kept galloping up 
 and down the street, pushing back stragglers into 
 the road in anything but a gentle manner. The 
 theatrical instinct of the French, generally to the fore 
 on such occasions, was in this instance, I remember, 
 exemplified by a handsome young general who, 
 sitting his horse well, intermittently cantered from 
 point to point, accompanied by a brilliantly uniformed 
 staff. 
 
 For some time after the death of President Carnot 
 stringent precautions were taken to protect public men 
 in France. I remember seeing Casimir Perier 
 driving along the Boulevard closely surrounded by 
 a large escort of Cuirassiers, each man near the 
 carriage holding a loaded revolver in his right hand. 
 Altogether an extraordinary state of affairs prevailed 
 during this anarchist craze the real history of which 
 movement, I fancy, will never be written ; there 
 is, however, little doubt but that the peril was
 
 ANARCHISM 155 
 
 somewhat exaggerated by various persons having 
 political axes to grind, some of whom even went so 
 far as to manufacture bogus outrages in order to 
 serve personal ends. There were, of course, a number 
 of true anarchists, dangerous characters who, like 
 Michel Bakounine, the founder of their strange and 
 incoherent creed, were mainly swayed by inordinate 
 ambition and an inordinate desire to attract public 
 attention by no matter what means. In these days, 
 when all sorts of cranky fools are taken seriously, 
 the story of the founder of the anarchist party is 
 well worth remembering. A Russian aristocrat, he 
 left the army at an early age to study the works of 
 Hegel and Schopenhauer, and settling at Moscow, 
 came in contact with many clever young men, a 
 number of whom, such as Alexander Herzen, the 
 romantic revolutionary who founded the Kolokol in 
 London, Bjelinski, afterwards a great Liberal 
 publicist, the Panslavist brothers Aksakoff, and 
 Katkoff, in later years director of the Moscow Gazette 
 and chief of the old Russian party, cut a considerable 
 figure in the world. The various ideas and con- 
 victions of his friends seem to have entirely muddled 
 Bakounine's brain. 
 
 At one time he was a fervent Panslavist (in the 
 contemporary Larousse he is described as Bakounine, 
 " patriote russe "), at another, influenced by Herzen, 
 he was wildly socialistic and revolutionary. Every- 
 thing he did was indeed a contradiction pessimist, 
 socialist, and internationalist in theory, in practice 
 he was nothing of the sort. A warm advocate of the
 
 156 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 restoration of the ancient kingdom of Poland, he took 
 part in the Panslavist Congress held at Prague in 
 1848, where he sat cheek by jowl with Vladika of 
 Montenegro pensioner of the Czar and representa- 
 tive of the Servian Prince together with many others 
 who had not the least sympathy with democracy. A 
 year or two later he took part in the Saxon revolution 
 and was only saved from execution by Russia, which, 
 for some reason or other, got him handed over to her 
 and sent him to Siberia in 1851. In 1 86 1, however, 
 he was in London, and the next year once more he 
 was pleading for Panslavism. A few years later 
 began his struggle with Carl Marx, which at first 
 resulted in the triumph of the latter at the Hague 
 Congres de 1' Internationale in 1872. Bakounine 
 being a refugee in Switzerland, and France and 
 Germany, through which he would have had to pass, 
 being closed to him, he could not appear to meet his 
 rival face to face. 
 
 In 1873, however, when the "Congres" was held 
 at Geneva, Bakounine routed his enemy, whose 
 principles were discarded by the majority in favour 
 of his antagonist's wild ideas, mainly resting upon 
 federalism and active opposition to all authority. 
 Bakounine's Anarchism is entirely different from 
 Revolutionary Socialism, Collectivism, or Positivism 
 as a matter of fact it is little more than a wild 
 chaotic and destructive nightmare. 
 
 After Bakounine's death, in 1876, Elisee Reclus, 
 Paul Brousse, and others carried on the propaganda. 
 Soon, however, the anarchists split into two parties.
 
 EVERYBODY OWNS EVERYTHING 157 
 
 The first, entirely negative in its ideas, may be said 
 to have arrived at nothing, its programme being 
 aimed against 
 
 1. Property, capital, the exploitation of man by 
 man. 
 
 2. The idea of a fatherland, no more frontiers or 
 wars between nations. 
 
 3. The State war against all authority, whether 
 elected or not, dynastic, or constitutional. 
 
 The second party was more affirmative in character, 
 its two chief principles being, however 
 
 1. Do as you like, and 
 
 2. Everything belongs to everybody. 
 
 It was in 1876 that two Italian anarchists first 
 mooted the idea of propaganda by deed. At the 
 Congres of that year, Carlo Capiero and Enrico 
 Malatesta read a declaration, in which they set forth 
 that the insurrectional deed destined to affirm socialist 
 principles by acts is the only effectual method of 
 propaganda. The next year both these men converted 
 their words into deeds by heading a revolt in Italy 
 and burning the archives of Tetino and San Galo. 
 This was the earliest outrage produced strictly by the 
 monstrous and insane creed, the devotees of which 
 hailed Ravachol and Vaillant as ill-used martyrs. 
 
 For a considerable period of time Anarchism was 
 an ever-present danger, real or supposed, to the 
 Parisians. Once, however, that the Dreyfus affair 
 had begun to run its course little more was heard of it. 
 
 The whole "affaire" arose through racial hatred 
 and the personal unpopularity of Captain Dreyfus.
 
 158 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 A Frenchman who had held high office under the 
 Republic and who had been at the Ecole Polytechnique 
 with Dreyfus, told me that the latter was always cor- 
 dially disliked by his fellow-students. While nothing 
 in particular could be brought against him, his 
 unsympathetic manner and ways, and his habit of 
 poking his nose into matters which did not concern 
 him, made him an object of general detestation, while 
 he was suspected of being capable of any dirty trick. 
 
 Walking on the Boulevard at the time when 
 "T affaire" was first beginning, the above-mentioned 
 Frenchman having read a placard " Trahison (fun 
 Officier Juif " at once said to his friend (also an old 
 Polytechnicien), " I bet you that's Dreyfus." 
 
 "I'm certain of it," was the reply; "and also 
 certain of something else, which is, that he is not 
 guilty." 
 
 The truth of the latter remark is now generally 
 acknowledged. 
 
 Captain Dreyfus in matters of routine was a first- 
 rate officer. No battery was kept in better order 
 than his. He had, however, no tact, and retained 
 his old student habit of rummaging about after matters 
 which did not concern him. Not unnaturally (the 
 more so as he was the first Jew ever appointed to the 
 General Staff), he was thoroughly unpopular with his 
 colleagues. His persecution and trials are now mere 
 matters of history. All that can be said is that 
 Dreyfus, besides having the misfortune of possessing 
 an unsympathetic nature, had the even worse one 
 of being a most unlucky man.
 
 ZOLA 159 
 
 The only good which resulted from the whole 
 miserable affair was to show the splendid character of 
 Emile Zola. 
 
 At the time of the second Dreyfus trial, in 
 consideration of his noble fight for justice, he received 
 from some admirers a medal on which was inscribed 
 a fine saying of William the Silent : 
 
 " // nest pas ndcessaire d'espdrer pour entreprendre 
 ni de rdussir pour per severer"
 
 VI 
 ART, YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 
 
 I FANCY that at heart most English people think 
 that applied art, that is to say fine architecture and 
 the like, is something that matters very little is 
 not worth troubling about, in fact! 
 
 We spend millions on educational schemes, the 
 results of which are in a large degree futile, and at 
 the same time do little or nothing to promote one of 
 the very best forms of education, which is an apprecia- 
 tion of artistic and harmonious design in architecture 
 and things in ordinary use. Notwithstanding our 
 boasted progress, the taste of the people at large is 
 hopelessly below that of their predecessors of the eigh- 
 teenth century. Pictures of public rejoicings of that 
 date show that the decorations customary on such occa- 
 sions were always appropriate and often artistic; under 
 similar circumstances to-day, poverty of design and 
 tawdry details are invariably predominant. The 
 people of the eighteenth century always had a style, 
 sometimes no doubt feeble, but yet a style. We 
 of to-day have none, and, when old styles are copied, 
 for the most part they are copied wrong. While 
 enormous prices are paid for cunningly advertised
 
 FOLLOWERS OF FASHION 161 
 
 masterpieces, the majority regard any attempt to 
 import an artistic spirit into the minor necessities 
 and accessories of daily life as being needless and 
 out of place. 
 
 Quite a number of modern collectors who believe 
 themselves to be fond of art are merely followers of 
 fashion. If a man is really artistic he is interested 
 in every kind of well-executed work, from a Gothic 
 cathedral to a French print, and can appreciate good 
 design of no matter what style or period. 
 
 Many wealthy collectors who pay large sums for 
 objets d'art, at heart do not care a scrap for beautiful 
 things. Out in the country with one of this type, 
 who, to do him justice, was not an indiscriminating 
 buyer, and chancing to pass a little village church, I 
 attempted to call his attention to one of its singularly 
 fine windows, the tracery of which was of a most 
 elaborate and charming pattern, the stonework, well 
 and truly laid by long-forgotten craftsmen in the ages 
 of faith, being in addition delightfully mellowed by 
 the hand of Time. 
 
 Nothing, however, would induce my friend to stop. 
 He had never heard of the church, and the window 
 did not bear the hall-mark of general recognition, 
 therefore why should he bother about it ? had, how- 
 ever, its weather-beaten tracery (after some adroitly 
 arranged puffing) been on view at one of the 
 famous West End art dealers, I am sure he would 
 have been amongst the first to rush and see it. 
 
 The idiotic ideas which the craze for antiques, 
 merely because they are antiques, occasionally inspires,
 
 162 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 were best, perhaps, expressed by the lady who, on 
 being shown a very beautiful piece of furniture 
 (frankly described as modern) by an honest dealer, 
 exclaimed, " Oh, what a sad pity ! If it had only been 
 old I would have bought it at once." 
 
 Decorators and furnishers are, no doubt, greatly to 
 blame for not trying to lead public taste into better 
 channels, but they often have to contend with colossal 
 stupidity and fathomless ignorance. 
 
 The designer attached to one well-known firm, being 
 asked to furnish plans for an Oriental smoking-room, 
 incorporated some careful reproductions of the splendid 
 work to be found in the Alhambra at Granada. 
 
 The people who had ordered the room, however, 
 did not like this at all. " We don't want copies," said 
 they, "but original work ; besides, we don't care about 
 the ' Alhambra ' the ' Empire ' is built in a more 
 cheerful style ! " 
 
 Side by side with a veritable craze for collecting 
 and paying enormous prices for furniture, pictures, and 
 prints, there exists a complete indifference as regards 
 ancient architecture and the fittings of old houses and 
 churches, unless they have been widely boomed, after 
 which process, as in the case of the Globe Room at the 
 Reindeer Inn at Banbury, they become valued at 
 some sum quite disproportionate to their real worth. 
 
 The circumstances connected with the sale of this 
 room, which Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox and 
 Lord Curzon tried so hard to save, were indubitably 
 highly discreditable to the town of Banbury and to 
 the well-to-do residents of the surrounding district.
 
 THE GLOBE ROOM 163 
 
 Not one of these, with the exception of the lady 
 mentioned above, seems to have made the very 
 slightest effort to save the room from being carted 
 away. As for the town, putting aside all considera- 
 tions of art or sentiment, it would have been a good 
 investment for it to have purchased the old inn as 
 it stood. Carefully renovated by competent hands, 
 the old house would undoubtedly have attracted 
 visitors who would have been a source of profit. 
 The local authorities, however, were apparently too 
 dense or too indifferent to pay any attention to the 
 matter, and so the Globe Room, sold by the firm of 
 dealers who purchased it at an extravagant price, has 
 been packed away to the other side of the Atlantic, 
 no doubt to form a smoking-room for some American 
 millionaire ! 
 
 A large quantity of old, or reputedly old, woodwork 
 must have been sent over to America within the last 
 fifteen years ; but I believe it is doubtful whether in 
 half a century much of it will be left, the climate in 
 most parts of the United States being unfavourable 
 to the preservation of furniture made of old wood. 
 As, however, no small portion of the old cabinets, 
 tabfes, and chairs bought by Yankee millionaires 
 have in reality been made a few years ago, there is a 
 good chance of the descendants of these connoisseurs 
 inheriting a fair number of masterpieces of Sheraton 
 and Chippendale in fair condition. 
 
 Up to quite recently old English woodwork was 
 held to be of small account. 
 
 The careless treatment which has been accorded to
 
 164 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 the fine old fittings of churches and chapels is a proof of 
 the artistic incompetence of clerics and others respon- 
 sible for the upkeep of our colleges and schools. Much 
 fine old woodwork has disappeared from Oxford and 
 Cambridge, and most glaring instances of vandalism 
 have occurred at two of our great public schools. In 
 the forties of the last century, Eton (which very re- 
 cently ran up a monstrous building of the " municipal 
 lavatory " type as a Memorial Hall) cheerfully ac- 
 quiesced in the wilful destruction of the interior 
 fittings of her chapel, the design of which is said to 
 have been furnished by the soaring genius of Wren. 
 In 1877 Winchester committed an act of unparalleled 
 vandalism in casting out of its chapel the magnificent 
 panelling, which is now not many miles away at 
 Hursley Park ! The panelling in question which has 
 been valued, I believe, as high as ,100,000 at the 
 so-called " restoration " was allowed to become the 
 property of the contractors, who eventually sold it for 
 ^50 to an ecclesiastical dignitary who hoped to be 
 able to preserve it. Not, however, being able to 
 make use of it, he eventually sold it again. That 
 ardent fighter against vandalism, Mr. Arthur Leveson- 
 Gower, found it in 1903 in the possession of the next 
 owner, who was willing to part with it for ; 1,200. 
 Mr. Leveson-Gower then used his best endeavours to 
 get the Winchester authorities to buy back this price- 
 less treasure, but they refused to listen. He next 
 approached the authorities at Eton, having some 
 idea that the fine old woodwork might be utilized for 
 the Eton memorial ; this suggestion, however, was
 
 MR. LEVESON GOWER 165 
 
 not considered practicable, and it was then bought by 
 an architect and sold, but for something approaching 
 ^"30,000. To-day it is the glory of a private house 
 within a few miles of Winchester. 
 
 There is a roll of shame as well as a roll of honour ; 
 the names of the governing body which allowed the 
 removal of this panelling certainly deserve to figure 
 on the former. 
 
 To the honour of the Warden, the Rev. Godfrey 
 Bolles Lee, he was not among the ignorant men who 
 approved of the removal of the beautiful Grinling 
 Gibbons carving from the chapel in order to carry 
 out Mr. Butterfield's scheme for increasing the ac- 
 commodation. 
 
 The removal of the panelling remained a grievance 
 to Mr. Lee for the rest of his life, and he never 
 ceased to deplore the fact of the chapel having been 
 spoilt by the substitution of sham Gothic fittings. 
 
 He opposed the alterations in every possible way, 
 but his objections were ruthlessly overruled by the 
 majority, whose vandalism he was powerless to check. 
 
 Unfortunately at that time the Warden was not 
 ex officio chairman of the governing body, but only 
 an ordinary member. 
 
 In a despairing letter to The Times, Mr. Leveson- 
 Gower, to whom all honour is due, recently pointed 
 out that nothing seems to stem the current of this 
 ruthless " restoration by continual acts of vandalism." 
 Even while he wrote, two old city churches were 
 closed for "restoration" and the removal of their 
 galleries ; while but a few weeks before, the noble old
 
 166 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 church of St. Mary, in Rotterdam, held on a perpetual 
 lease and founded in the reign of Queen Anne, sub- 
 scribed for by the Queen, by Admiral Sir George 
 Rooke, and many other eminent Englishmen, possibly 
 built by Wren, and at all events an excellent type of 
 church of his date and in a perfect state of preserva- 
 tion, had been ruthlessly torn down, all its fine wood- 
 work offered for sale a landmark in Rotterdam gone 
 for ever in order to satisfy some passing whim, and to 
 provide a modern, up-to-date church for the use of the 
 British residents of that town. This latter act of 
 vandalism was a disgrace to every one concerned. 
 
 Much the same kind of thing, unfortunately, has, 
 from time to time, taken place in England, the prin- 
 cipal offenders having generally been the clergy, owing 
 to whom most of the picturesque village churches, so 
 many of which, up to the middle of the last century, 
 were full of highly interesting details, have been 
 completely spoilt. 
 
 In some cases, where dilapidation prevailed, so- 
 called "restoration" may have done good; but, as 
 a general rule, it has merely vulgarized and spoilt the 
 buildings to which it has been applied. 
 
 The word " restoration " is really a misnomer for the 
 attempt of one age to recreate that which essentially 
 belongs to another and entirely different age, and 
 cannot of necessity prove successful. At best restora- 
 tion, even of a thoughtful kind, can only be considered 
 as a sort of antiquarianism diverted into a mischievous 
 channel ; it should also not be forgotten that were it 
 ever completely successful it would be but a falsifi-
 
 " RESTORATION " 167 
 
 cation of history and a fraud to take in future 
 generations. There is, however, little fear of 
 this; "restorations" may shock, but they hardly 
 ever deceive. 
 
 The struggle to preserve fine old buildings gains 
 comparatively little sympathy from the public, the 
 excellent Society for the Preservation of Ancient 
 Buildings not receiving anything like the support its 
 most judicious efforts deserve. The war which it 
 wages against vandalism in general is more or less 
 an unequal fight, for, like the legendary Phcenix, the 
 Philistine is always rising afresh from his own ashes, 
 as destructive, as incapable of appreciating relics of 
 the past as were the cavemen of dim prehistoric times. 
 
 Ignorance is one of the most active agents in 
 promoting the destruction of fine things. 
 
 The incendiary who had gleefully taken part in 
 the burning of the library of the Louvre in 1871 
 really had a very good excuse when he defended his 
 conduct by the remark : " After all, what do you 
 expect? I cannot read." 
 
 For the "restorer," however, there is no excuse 
 in the sixties and seventies he probably did more 
 harm, from an artistic point of view, than the rough 
 old Puritans had ever done. 
 
 One of the peculiar crazes of the restoring architect 
 was laying down encaustic tiles. 
 
 The resuscitation of the art of making this form of 
 artistic pavement, which was indirectly due to the 
 influence of Sir Charles Barry and of the elder Pugin, 
 has produced some deplorable results. Coloured
 
 168 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 tessera arranged in a classically geometrical pattern 
 were used by the first-named architect more than 
 forty years ago for the pavement of the atrium of the 
 Reform Club. The erection, all over the country, 
 of a vast number of public buildings and ecclesias- 
 tical structures of so-called mediaeval design, and the 
 restoration of a large number of churches, gave great 
 encouragement to the tile industry; tiles, indeed, more 
 suitable to public lavatories than venerable buildings 
 were laid down almost everywhere ; artistic ineptitude 
 ran riot. 
 
 Unfortunately this ineptitude is still more or less 
 a persistent characteristic of modern English art. 
 Even when a design is beautiful it too often exhibits 
 triviality or inconsequence. A striking example of 
 the latter is the Lord Kelvin Memorial Window in 
 Westminster Abbey a gift of the Civil Engineers 
 of Great Britain and the United States, which 
 was dedicated on July 15, 1913. This window, 
 beautiful enough in its way, is in a very suitable 
 position, overlooking as it does both the grave of 
 the great Irish scientist and that of Sir Isaac Newton. 
 
 It would, however, have been thought that some 
 attempt would have been made to commemorate the 
 scientific achievements of Lord Kelvin, but to this 
 can it be believed? not the slightest attention has 
 been paid ! 
 
 With reference to this deplorable omission, an 
 "Old Student of Kelvin," writing to an evening 
 paper, said : 
 
 " Representations of Henry V, Abbot William
 
 INEPT ARCHITECTURE 169 
 
 Colchester, St. George and St. Denys, the Dukes 
 of Gloucester, Exeter, Bedford, and Sir Thomas 
 Erpingham ; also of Richard of Cirencester, William 
 of Sudbury, John Lakynheth, Thomas Merkes, Peter 
 Combe, Richard Harweden, and Richard Whitting- 
 ton. I find, on the other hand, nothing to symbolize 
 science or the career of Lord Kelvin. A red-and- 
 green presentment of Peter Pan would have been 
 quite as appropriate." 
 
 Westminster Abbey possesses what I fancy is a 
 unique specimen of painted glass in the form of a 
 representation of a great Victorian engineer George 
 Stephenson, if my memory is not at fault wearing 
 a top-hat ! 
 
 Ineptitude also extends to our modern architecture. 
 What could be more unsuitable to London than the 
 style of the Piccadilly Hotel and other huge modern 
 erections ? 
 
 Well might a discriminating critic, "Sir William 
 Eden," write to the Saturday Review : 
 
 " Let us obliterate, if we can, the reproach of the 
 South Kensington Museum, the horror of Harrods' 
 Stores, and that worst of all disgusting objects, the 
 Victoria Memorial." 
 
 I cannot, however, agree with him when he adds : 
 " Let us try to forget Mount Street," for that 
 thoroughfare, whatever may be the demerits of its 
 architecture, is at least an attempt to produce a 
 complete modern street in a style of its own. This, 
 at all events, is something ; for since the eighteenth 
 century we have had no style at all. What is
 
 170 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 sorely needed is a decorative idea, characteristically 
 English, but based upon the best classic models of 
 antiquity. 
 
 It should be remembered that the British imitation 
 of the Grecian style, which prevailed towards the 
 close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth centuries, was improved by Inigo Jones, nay, 
 almost carried by him to perfection. This he effected 
 by elevating ceilings and altering the shape of 
 windows, by which means he removed the gloom and 
 darkness which characterized the preceding period of 
 architecture. What was begun by him, Sir Christopher 
 Wren completed. 
 
 It is an extraordinary thing that the plans for build- 
 ing streets left by this great architect have not been 
 utilized in new thoroughfares, such as Kingsway. 
 The whole history of modern London architecture, 
 indeed, is merely a long series of wasted opportunities. 
 In the matter of preserving ancient buildings of 
 historical interest things, however, are not so bad. 
 
 Owing to the exigencies of modern life in great 
 towns, it is, of course, often very difficult to save 
 them. London lost much when she lost Temple Bar, 
 which should, of course, never have been parted with 
 by the Corporation ; and at the present time, accord- 
 ing to the Press, we are threatened with the loss of 
 one of the only two blocks of genuine Tudor domestic 
 architecture still in existence. 
 
 If this report be true, Cloth Fair, which contains 
 the Dick Whittington Inn, housed in a building of 
 Henry VIII date, is to disappear, together with the
 
 IMPROVEMENTS 171 
 
 adjacent streets like Cloth Fair erected by Lord 
 Rich in the reign of " Bluff King Hal." 
 
 The contemplated demolition, it is stated, will be 
 undertaken for the purpose of making way for " cold 
 stores and offices in connexion with the market," 
 and to provide more standing room for carriers' 
 carts. 
 
 St. Bartholomew the Great, of course, will remain, 
 but if the scheme of demolition be carried out, it 
 will really become little more than a show-place for 
 tourists, as the entire resident population of the parish, 
 which it was built to serve, will have been practically 
 wiped out. 
 
 The estimated net cost to the ratepayers of this 
 "improvement" will be about two hundred thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 If the scheme be completed in its entirety, the last 
 surviving remnant of the old City of London as it 
 existed before the Great Fire, will vanish, for Staple 
 Inn, the only other Tudor building now left, is with- 
 out the City boundary. The County of London 
 contains few really old houses. 
 
 An old court in Bow Lane, Poplar, was built in 1616. 
 There are only one or two tiled-roof houses in Wool- 
 wich and two in Plumstead. A few old almshouses 
 are all that remain in Lewisham ; the oldest parts of 
 Rotherhithe and Bermondsey are late Jacobean. 
 Westminster, once rich in old buildings, has not one 
 left ; there are none in Islington, and only a few on the 
 fringe of St. Pancras. 
 
 So rapid and frequent are the changes in London at
 
 172 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 the present time that many comparatively modern 
 buildings which have been erected at great cost are 
 already making way for newer and bigger structures. 
 Amongst recent demolitions of this sort, the old 
 General Post Office must not be forgotten. Every 
 one interested in architecture and culture in general 
 should obtain and read an article which clever Mr. 
 Filson Young wrote as to this demolition in the 
 Saturday Review that " lively weekly " which of late 
 has regained the vivacity of its brilliant youth. 
 
 With all its faults the present age undoubtedly 
 takes more interest in architecture than was the case 
 in Victorian days, when a purely utilitarian spirit pre- 
 vailed, akin to that displayed by the Dey of Algiers, 
 who, after Lord Exmouth had bombarded half his city 
 into a mass of ruins, offered to bombard the other half, 
 if the British Government would compensate him for 
 his trouble. 
 
 Old buildings, no matter how beautiful, fared very 
 badly when they could be put to practical use. 
 
 The mixture of utilitarianism and simplicity which 
 characterized England almost throughout Queen 
 Victoria's wonderful reign was very curious. 
 
 In the great towns men were entirely absorbed by 
 their business, conducted, of course, in a far less 
 speculative way than to-day, but still very strenuous 
 and even exacting. Combining a stern private 
 morality with sharp business practice, art had no 
 meaning for the majority most of whom rather despised 
 it as immaterial to success. 
 
 In the smaller towns and villages a peaceful and
 
 THE MID-VICTORIAN ERA 173 
 
 sheltered existence was the general rule. There was 
 practically no social unrest, and the majority were 
 quite content to drone out their lives with scarcely 
 any variation as year succeeded year. The men 
 hunted and shot at the proper seasons, and, with 
 their womenfolk, paid an annual visit to town. Social 
 affairs, and the exchange of rather heavy dinners with 
 neighbours, occupied most of the rest of the time. 
 Interest in gardens "a beautiful and refined taste" 
 was not then what it is now, and those who did go in 
 for gardening seldom achieved anything like perfection. 
 As understood in those days, a fine garden consisted 
 of huge blocks of gaudy flowers, chosen quite irre- 
 spective of their colours. 
 
 Most of the Mid-Victorian country gentlemen were 
 quite indifferent to science, art, or modern improve- 
 ments. They had, it is true, mostly got past the stage 
 of actually hating anything new merely because it 
 was new, but, nevertheless, they heartily mistrusted 
 innovations. Not a few doubted whether the inven- 
 tion of the steam-engine had not been a mistake, and 
 would have cheerfully gone back to the ways of their 
 fathers or grandfathers. 
 
 The country gentry which at that time still lived 
 upon its estates regarded itself as the very salt of the 
 earth. The sons, if they did not go into the Army, 
 Bar, or the Church, stayed at home and did nothing. 
 The daughters, till they were married at least, led a 
 life of modified seclusion which was almost Oriental, 
 whiling away their very abundant leisure with semi- 
 useless occupations, such as tatting, crochet, and
 
 174 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 working appalling fire-screens, the designs adopted 
 being, in almost all cases, hideous to a degree. 
 
 The pretty, often beautiful, little arts practised by 
 their grandmothers of the eighteenth century, who 
 produced some real masterpieces in the way of dainty 
 decorations, were regarded as childish and out of date. 
 
 Taste in art changes as rapidly as fashions in dress. 
 What is admired by one generation is despised by the 
 next, and the Victorian rather scorned the pretty 
 trifles which it had known in its childhood. At heart 
 its spirit was eminently serious, as was shown by the 
 somewhat morbid way in which its writers have treated 
 death. A curious love of being harrowed by grief 
 permeated all classes. The interest which Queen 
 Victoria showed for funerals, memorials, and her pro- 
 tracted mourning for the Prince Consort undoubtedly 
 enhanced her popularity with the British proletariat. 
 The undertaker's business has always made a great 
 appeal to the lower-middle and lower classes ; indeed, 
 it is well known that the crowning ambition in the 
 labourer's life is a handsome funeral. Coffins, shrouds, 
 hearses, and nodding plumes delight him. He and 
 his wife are enthusiastic over what they will call a 
 beautiful corpse. The pomp and apparatus of 
 mortality made a like appeal to Queen Victoria, 
 who seemed to find a kind of bliss in tears, and 
 numbers of well-to-do people were of the opinion 
 that this was the proper thing to do. 
 
 Art of no matter what kind was regarded as being 
 essentially frivolous, if not sinful, and unworthy of the 
 attention of serious folk.
 
 PLUSH 175 
 
 The beauties of pre-Revolutionary objets dart were 
 little appreciated, except by a cultured few, and the 
 work of even the great dbdnistes of the Louis XV and 
 Louis XVI period was contemptuously classed as 
 Rococo and undeserving of serious appreciation. 
 William Morris, it will be remembered, called the 
 magnificent productions of the old French cabinet- 
 makers "bankers' furniture," 
 
 For Chippendale or Sheraton masterpieces few 
 wealthy Victorians cared a jot. Admirably designed 
 chairs, bureaus, and the like were sent downstairs to 
 the servants' hall or upstairs to the attics. The same 
 procedure was often adopted with regard to master- 
 pieces of the engraver's art. Mezzotints made little 
 appeal to the Victorian fancy, which liked to let its 
 complacent gaze rest upon heavy mahogany couches 
 and chairs ranged stolidly against a gaudily papered 
 wall, relieved by some totally meaningless pictures, 
 or coloured prints showing imaginary Italian peasants 
 in stiff and conventional poses. 
 
 About the most hideous (of many hideous) features 
 in a Mid- Victorian room was the fire-place with its 
 heavy mantelpiece. In the late seventies a craze 
 arose for having a board placed on the top, covered 
 with plush or stamped velvet embellished with gilt 
 nails, in addition to which there were often curtains 
 at the side, full of meaningless embroidery. The 
 raison d'etre of the latter, I suppose, must have been 
 that they were intended to hide the ugly grate with 
 its rounded top, but as they were never drawn there 
 was no valid reason for them at all.
 
 176 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Victorian lack of taste in many cases made a clean 
 sweep of valuable and artistic relics of the eighteenth 
 century, and many delicately designed mantelpieces 
 were swept away to make place for ponderous con- 
 structions embellished with decoration of that pecu- 
 liarly meaningless school of design which seems to 
 have been so much admired by the visitors to the 
 Great Exhibition of 1851. 
 
 A short time ago, in company with an expert, I 
 was looking at two huge marble Victorian mantel- 
 pieces enriched with ponderous carving of the usual 
 inartistic character. " They must have cost a good 
 deal," said I, "at least ^100 apiece, and now I 
 suppose they wouldn't fetch ^25. " "They cost," 
 said the expert, "over 500 the pair, and if you 
 could get any one out of a lunatic asylum to buy 
 them, they would not fetch more than ^10." 
 
 Sic transit gloria Victoria mundi. 
 
 The artistic outlook of the Victorian was in certain 
 respects childlike. For instance, when mechanical 
 methods came to be perfected, people took great 
 delight in imitations of hand-wrought work being 
 produced by machinery. 
 
 Fine old iron railings which had been deftly con- 
 trived by skilled and clever craftsmen of the past 
 were discarded in favour of cast-iron monstrosities, 
 the conventional designs of which lacked the slightest 
 grace or sign of imagination. The charm of old 
 work is that it bears the definite imprint of its maker's 
 personality ; the defect of the new, its entire lack 
 of character.
 
 MACHINE-MADE 177 
 
 To those, however, who had passed their childhood 
 amidst hand-made things, the idea that a machine 
 could actually produce that which, superficially at 
 least, answered all requirements seemed marvellous. 
 The last survivors of the old craftsmen, who even in 
 the earlier portion of the nineteenth century were 
 not many in number, discovered that their day was 
 gone, and soon the fine tradition which prompted 
 good workers to put their very best work into 
 anything they undertook was supplanted by a 
 new and bad ideal of turning out everything as 
 quickly and in as large quantities as possible. 
 The factory system which thus arose has, except 
 to the very limited number of individuals who 
 have made colossal fortunes, artistically proved 
 little less than a curse. The only thing that can 
 be said for it is that it has been necessary, in con- 
 sequence of the enormous increase of population 
 unfortunately in the main composed of indifferent 
 specimens of humanity. For this increase, however, 
 the system itself is indirectly responsible. No one, 
 I suppose, would hold up the average worker in a 
 huge manufacturing town as being, either physically 
 or mentally, the ideal type of man. 
 
 While the goods turned out are, on the whole, 
 fair in quality, many of the cheaper products have 
 little to recommend them ; extensive puffing, however, 
 will sell most things. 
 
 The reputation of an article is seldom achieved 
 merely by its excellence. It requires many years 
 of advertising years of continual and expensive
 
 178 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 advertising to convince the public of anything ; and 
 if any article which has achieved popularity ceases 
 to be advertised, the sale of it at once sensibly 
 decreases. This was proved years ago by the head 
 of a certain enterprising firm, who when, after some 
 years, its reputation had spread throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land, conceived the idea that 
 the time had come to put a stop to this expensive 
 process of advertising. "In future," said this gentle- 
 man, " I mean to take the full interest from my 
 capital instead of paying part of it to the printers." 
 And he set at once about it. Accordingly that year 
 the firm spent a few thousand pounds less than usual 
 in advertisements. The consequences immediately 
 made themselves felt, and as month followed month 
 they became still more disagreeably perceptible. The 
 head of the firm then realized that in London virtue 
 is its own reward only provided it keeps a trumpeter : 
 and as he was not an obstinate theorist, he again 
 had recourse to the printing-press. Determined 
 not to spare expense he paid as much as ^900 
 for the insertion of his advertisement on the back 
 of the wrapper of the Catalogue of the Great 
 Exhibition, with the result that his business again 
 became as prosperous as ever. The articles turned 
 out by this firm were, of course, quite as good during 
 the period when they were not advertised, neverthe- 
 less the public came near overlooking them, for 
 advertising is an indispensable item in the expendi- 
 ture of a great London firm. 
 
 Fashion as well as advertisement has, no doubt,
 
 AESTHETES OF THE "SEVENTIES" 179 
 
 a good deal to do with influencing the public taste ; 
 reaction against the taste of a previous generation 
 also affects it. Most of the Victorian designers, 
 indeed, not a few of whom had passed their child- 
 hood amongst tasteful surroundings, produced by 
 cultured eighteenth - century craftsmen, actually 
 despised the work of their talented predecessors. 
 There was an almost entire lack of artistic symbolism 
 in most of the furniture and decorations produced 
 between 1830 and 1875, born, no doubt, of the attempt 
 to draw inspiration from the machine-made goods, 
 which were such a source of pride to the generation 
 which had complacently witnessed the almost 
 complete extinction of individual taste and skill. 
 
 I think, at a time when there is so much to be 
 deplored, it is a highly reassuring symptom that the 
 public in general are slowly but steadily coming to 
 value good hand-made things at their proper value. 
 The aesthetic movement of the seventies, at which 
 so much fun was poked, undoubtedly contributed 
 to this artistic awakening ; we should, indeed, be 
 grateful that the type immortalized as Bunthorne 
 ever existed. 
 
 About this time it was that the word " artistic," 
 now in such constant use, came into vogue. Oddly 
 enough, this word, as was recently pointed out in 
 an interesting article in The Times, is one of the 
 words which have no right to exist, because they 
 have come into use to express not a thing or an 
 idea, but a mere vagueness or confusion of thought. 
 
 "The word 'artistic' usually implies (said the
 
 180 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 writer) that all art is a mystery which only a few 
 initiates can understand. The rest of us must not 
 expect to enjoy a work of art ; the best we can do 
 is to enjoy our own recognition of the fact that it 
 is a work of art, and we express that recognition 
 by calling it artistic. We must feel for it the same 
 kind of reverence which the savage feels for a hideous 
 idol. He believes that the idol is powerful because 
 the priest tells him so, although he has never seen 
 it exercise any power ; and we must believe that 
 a picture is artistic because we are told so, although 
 it produces upon us no effect whatever. But there 
 is this to be said for the savage : that he does believe 
 what he is told by a particular person who is sup- 
 posed to be an expert in such matters ; whereas 
 no one knows who are the people who decide whether 
 a work of art is artistic or not, or on what grounds 
 they decide it." 
 
 To the aesthetes of the late seventies " artistic " 
 meant blue and white china, Japanese fans, and 
 green or yellow curtains. They were, indeed, much 
 given to swathing all kinds of things in what was 
 termed "art drapery" of those colours "greenery- 
 yallery" as they were called. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was the " greenery-yallery " school 
 which made the first attack upon plush picture frames, 
 plush - framed mirrors plastered over with crude 
 paintings of fruit and flowers, and other similar 
 horrors ; the so-called art decorations and blue china 
 which supplanted these atrocities, in spite of the 
 satire they evoked, paved the way for better things.
 
 OLD-FASHIONED ! 181 
 
 The Victorians loved covering up everything 
 with little mats, generally decorated with flimsy 
 tassels or pompons, care apparently being taken 
 to select a material which might be relied upon 
 to attract the greatest quantity of dust. They were 
 also very partial to painting mahogany doors or 
 bureaus black and gold, cutting up fine prints to 
 make screens, and affixing modern china plaques to 
 elaborately decorated cabinets. Numbers of people, 
 who prided themselves upon their taste, relegated 
 beautiful pieces of eighteenth-century furniture to 
 the lumber-room. The art of the eighteenth century 
 was considered merely as " old-fashioned," a word 
 which people were fond of scornfully using in con- 
 nexion with old furniture, prints, and other objets 
 d'art, now worth untold gold. 
 
 A striking demonstration of what the Mid-Vic- 
 torians thought of the artistic furniture which is now 
 so highly prized is afforded by the criticism which 
 the late George Augustus Sala a man, be it remem- 
 bered, in many things by no means wanting in taste 
 passed upon a room in the old style, designed and 
 furnished by two ladies (the Miss Garrards, I believe) 
 in the English Section of the Paris Exhibition of 
 1879. 
 
 "The section of a poky little English room is 
 shown, furnished in the angular and uncomfortable 
 style pertaining to the end of the last or the begin- 
 ning of the present century a style of which I 
 thought that we were well rid, but for the revival 
 of which there seems to be at present a partial
 
 182 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 craze. These rickety, 'skimping,' spider-legged 
 chairs, tables, corner cupboards and ' whatnots,' 
 these sofas too narrow for purposes of flirtation 
 and too short to put your feet up are all very well 
 in the delightful pictures of Mr. George Leslie, R.A., 
 and Mr. G. H. Boughton. In actual oak, walnut, 
 mahogany, or rosewood I object very strongly to 
 them ; and, if the lady-decorators will study even 
 the rudiments of the History of Decoration, they 
 will find that this kind of furniture belongs to a 
 period when a succession of long and cruel wars had 
 virtually shut us out from the Continent, and had 
 left us a people almost entirely ignorant of the art 
 of design and wholly destitute of taste. The carpet 
 in the lady-decorators' model room is a significant 
 illustration of our deplorable condition at the period 
 which the apartment is supposed to illustrate. It is a 
 carpet substantially without a pattern, and there is a 
 good reason for the absence of pattern. In the age in 
 question we did not know how to draw carpet patterns, 
 and we could import no pattern-draughtsmen from 
 abroad. The two ladies may be complimented on the 
 scrupulous fidelity with which they have reproduced a 
 number of poverty-stricken and weak-kneed little 
 models ; but the value of their work is diminished 
 by the extravagant prices which they have affixed 
 to the examples of upholstery exhibited. Sedulous 
 rummaging among the brokers' shops round Lincoln's 
 Inn and behind the Waterloo Road would buy for so 
 many shillings what these ladies have charged so many 
 pounds for. On the whole, this little exhibition of
 
 THE CRAFTSMAN OF THE PAST 183 
 
 a state of domesticity to which it is to be hoped we 
 shall not return is interesting." 
 
 Many things have changed since the days when this 
 was written, and sedulous rummaging in London back 
 streets now very seldom procures any genuine old 
 furniture at all. What cost shillings then is now, 
 in the majority of instances, worth a very large sum. 
 
 The contemptuous reference to the carpet substan- 
 tially without a pattern is typically characteristic of one 
 of the worst features of Victorian taste, which delighted 
 in meaningless patterns running riot over all sorts of 
 unsuitable material. 
 
 On the other hand, rich Victorians who deemed 
 themselves art-connoisseurs paid large prices for suites 
 of furniture and heavy cabinets of the style which 
 attracted such admiration in the Great Exhibition of 
 1851. Though almost invariably of execrable design, 
 the workmanship, up to the seventies at least, was ex- 
 cellent. It is a curious coincidence that the passing 
 of the first Education Act should have coincided with 
 the complete disappearance of the old spirit which 
 caused craftsmen to take a pride in putting their very 
 best work into whatever they took in hand. 
 
 With very few exceptions the workman of to-day is 
 quite unable to comprehend the fine ideal of his pre- 
 decessor, who made it a point of honour that nothing 
 bad or skimpy should be found in anything with which 
 he had had to do. This type of craftsman, which has 
 been practically extinguished by the democratic 
 system, reached his highest development under the 
 daimios of old Japan and in the days of French
 
 184 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 aristocratic rule before the Great Revolution ; another 
 proof, if proof is needed, that aristocracy fosters Art 
 while democracy kills it. 
 
 Blame the ancien regime as you like, it gave to the 
 world numbers of enduring monuments of real beauty, 
 together with objets (fart many of which are so mar- 
 vellously well wrought as often to defy exact repro- 
 duction. The creators of these beautiful things took 
 a delight in their handiwork. The modern craftsman 
 with his " get money as quickly as you can " spirit, 
 does not care a jot about any one's opinion. He 
 only wants to get as much pay from his employer as 
 possible, and under present conditions it is difficult to 
 blame him for doing so. As a rule (mainly, it must be 
 admitted, through no fault of his own) he starts im- 
 measurably lower than the skilled craftsman of a past 
 age who, whether he was making much or little 
 money, whether his accounts were paid or unpaid, 
 scorned to turn out anything, no matter how small or 
 trifling, into the workmanship and design of which he 
 had not put his whole heart and soul. 
 
 An enormous quantity of valuable objets d'art was 
 destroyed during the Napoleonic wars ; even more 
 fatal to Art were the immediate results of the French 
 Revolution, when a clean sweep was made of so 
 much that was beautiful and interesting. Even 
 men of high talents and culture, carried away by 
 frenzy, rejoiced in the wilful destruction of everything 
 in any way connected with the old regime, and 
 witnessed acts of mad vandalism with complete 
 complacency.
 
 " WARMED MYSELF LIKE THE REST " 185 
 
 The engraver Wille, for instance, an individual of 
 high mental and artistic attainments, wrote in his 
 journal (date June 19, 1792) : 
 
 " To-day an immense quantity of the chronicles of 
 the noblesse were burnt in the Place Vendome, before 
 the statue of Louis XIV. I went and saw the cinders 
 still glowing. There was a huge crowd near by, who 
 were warming their feet and hands. There was a 
 very cold north wind, and I warmed myself like 
 the rest." 
 
 At this period many municipalities, when ordered 
 to furnish inventories of objets dart and historical 
 documents appropriated by the State, saved 
 themselves the trouble by committing them to the 
 flames. 
 
 The effects of the French Revolution, owing to 
 various reasons, were highly destructive to many 
 beautiful relics of the past. The young Republic, 
 amongst many other things, lacked gold for its 
 coinage, for which reason the authorities of the 
 City of Lyons did not for a moment hesitate to melt 
 down a priceless collection of ancient medals. Superb 
 fabrics and magnificent tapestries containing gold 
 thread were ruthlessly destroyed in order to obtain 
 a few pounds of the precious metal. 
 
 In accordance with two orders issued in Flore"al and 
 Prairial of the year V, some of the most ancient 
 tapestries of the Royal Collection were cynically burnt 
 in the courtyard of the famous Gobelins manufactory 
 itself, the object being the extraction of a certain 
 quantity of gold and silver. The tapestry in question,
 
 186 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 consisting of sixteen sets (180 pieces!) was of incom- 
 parable beauty. 
 
 The populace in general showed itself brutal and 
 stupid as regards works of art. The wonderful stag 
 of the Chateau d'Anet, by Benvenuto Cellini, now 
 happily safe in the Louvre, was in 1793 roughly 
 handled by a crowd of peasants. Feudalism, they 
 declared, had disappeared, and a stag, even of bronze, 
 being a survival of the ancient sporting rights, must be 
 ruthlessly destroyed. The zeal shown by many of 
 these peasants for destruction well illustrated the 
 boundless limits of human stupidity. They carried 
 their idiotic ideas even into the peaceful realm of 
 garden life. 
 
 In their disordered minds certain choice plants bore 
 the hated brand of aristocracy. Orange-trees and 
 cacti were special objects of abomination to these 
 savages. "Republicans want apples, not oranges!" 
 was the insensate reason given for the attempted 
 destruction of 180 superb orange-trees which, being 
 at that period of great rarity, were with difficulty 
 happily saved. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking instance of Republican 
 brutishness was an incident at thejardm des Plantes, 
 where a number of fools mutilated the bust of that 
 friend of Nature, the great and gentle Linnaeus. 
 
 At the same time ignorance and cupidity sacrificed 
 chefs-doeuvres of Titian T and of Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 1 A Titian of enormous value was burnt at the Chateau of 
 Caumartin, and a fine bronze of Leonardo da Vinci was mutilated 
 at Fontainebleau.
 
 AN ASTOUNDING REPORT 187 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate the many acts of 
 deliberate vandalism which disgraced the French 
 democracy. Suffice to say that if it warred against 
 tyrants, it warred also against art, science, and 
 letters. 
 
 It should be remarked that a large number of the 
 men who were at the head of the Revolutionary 
 movement (many of the ideas of which were ad- 
 mirable) did everything possible to check the 
 destructive folly of the people. The Convention, 
 indeed, issued decree after decree enjoining the 
 populace to respect works of art. These, however, 
 could not entirely arrest the violence of a maddened 
 proletariat, for the most part quite unable to under- 
 stand anything except that they were free to pillage 
 and destroy as they liked. 
 
 The manner in which Revolutionary ideas turned 
 the heads of intelligent and artistic men may be 
 judged from the astounding report which, on the 
 6th Messidor, year II, Bouquier submitted, in the 
 name of the Committee of Public Instruction, relative 
 to the repair of pictures and objets dart in the National 
 Collections. 
 
 In this document he demanded the elimination of 
 sickly pictures, such as the productions of Boucher 
 and Van Loo and others of the same schools, whose 
 effeminate brushes were not calculated to inspire the 
 masculine and nervous style which should characterize 
 defenders of Liberty. " To depict the energy," said 
 he, "of a people who, by breaking its chains has 
 voted the freedom of the human race, fierce colouring,
 
 188 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 a nervous style, and volcanic brush could alone 
 suffice. 
 
 " It is time," continued he, " to abandon the 
 French routine, essentially monarchical, which, 
 making the arts minister to the caprices of false 
 taste, of corruption, and of fashion, has shackled 
 their genius, imparted affectation to their methods, 
 and diverted their real end." 
 
 As a matter of fact, the beautiful Louis XVI style 
 had already been succeeded by that at first known 
 as Directoire, and later as Empire ; Percier and 
 Fontaine having in 1793 furnished the Ebeniste 
 Jacob with designs for the furniture for the Con- 
 vention, inspired by a spirit of classic art, modified 
 to suit more modern needs.
 
 VII 
 FASHION 
 
 WITHIN the last few years fashion, as 
 regards both man's and woman's dress, 
 has certainly become more elastic and 
 tolerant. During the Victorian Era, though oscil- 
 lating from full to narrow skirts and from draped 
 to undraped, sometimes elaborate and sometimes 
 simple, the mode of feminine dress, within certain 
 limits, was always strictly defined. 
 
 When crinolines, for instance, went out, they 
 practically disappeared altogether, the only exception 
 being Spain, where the ladies retained the huge 
 hooped skirt, originated by their countrywoman, the 
 Empress Eugenie, long after it had ceased to be 
 worn elsewhere. 
 
 To-day more latitude prevails, with the result that, 
 ladies dressing rather to suit themselves than to con- 
 form with the dictates of fashion, feminine costume 
 has become more artistic and graceful than of yore. 
 
 The grotesque combinations of colour which were 
 to be seen in the seventies and early eighties no 
 longer offend the eye, and the days of wild eccen- 
 tricity in millinery seem to have passed away. In
 
 190 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 former days ladies often had queer manias in con- 
 nexion with minor items of their toilet ; some, for 
 instance, wore queerly coloured gloves. The least 
 harmful from an artistic point of view was the idiosyn- 
 crasy of Lady Caroline Lamb. 
 
 " How many pairth of thtockingth do you think I've 
 got on ? " once lisped out this lady to an astonished 
 partner at a ball " thikth ! " 
 
 A peculiarity of modern feminine dress is a costly 
 simplicity which was unknown in less luxurious and 
 extravagant times. 
 
 All classes of women, indeed, now spend more on 
 their clothes than was the case in former days, and 
 almost every young woman down to the working class 
 occasionally goes in for "stripping for dinner," as the 
 old Irishwoman termed evening dress. 
 
 While feminine costume has become more elaborate, 
 man's dress, on the other hand, has deteriorated in 
 every way. 
 
 It was an ill day for sartorial display when George 
 IV decreed the adoption of trousers. The First 
 Gentleman in Europe, who was Regent at the time, 
 is said to have arrived at this momentous decision, 
 which entailed the abandonment of the aristocratic 
 knee-breeches, only after a prolonged conference with 
 a select committee of ladies, with Lady Conyngham 
 at its head. 
 
 All over Europe and even Asia a craze for 
 uniformity is evident in male costume. The quaintly 
 garbed characters who in the past gave a note of 
 colour to the streets of great cities have gone or are
 
 THE COLOUR OF ROME 191 
 
 going. Even in Rome, of which in the past they 
 seemed to be a sort of appanage, the guardian of the 
 law, who many years ago exchanged his plumed 
 cocked hat for a copy of the London policeman's 
 helmet, views such people with no friendly eye. 
 
 Rome, before the abolition of the temporal power 
 of the Pope, was an incomparably more picturesque 
 city than it is to-day. Its streets were full of life and 
 colour, thronged by peasants with steeple-crowned 
 hats set off with ribbons and flowers ; scarlet waist- 
 coats adorned with gay buttons and embroidered with 
 gold and silver ; breeches tied at the knee with ribbons 
 or fastened with silver buckles ; their legs were pro- 
 tected with gaiters, and their waists by woollen scarves, 
 bright cravats gave an additional note of colour. 
 
 Peasant women sported coloured bodices, laced in 
 front by ribbons, and short petticoats which, if they 
 did not hide their thick ankles, showed a bright buckle 
 on the shoes ; most of them wore a square fold of 
 white linen lying on the top of the head fastened to 
 the hair by a silver arrow. 
 
 Priests of every rank monks, cardinals, monsignori, 
 abbes, friars perambulated the streets in every garb. 
 To-day almost the whole of this motley crowd has 
 vanished. 
 
 All over Europe, with some few exceptions, national 
 costume is being abandoned altogether or worn only 
 on gala occasions, as stage dresses are worn. In Hol- 
 land, however, I understand that the peasants in 
 certain districts, in consideration of retaining their 
 national dress, are subsidized by a certain great agency
 
 192 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 of travel, the object of course being to provide tourists 
 with something to look at. 
 
 In the general abandonment of old-world and 
 national costumes England has lost least of all. 
 
 Except the smock-frock, there does not appear 
 to have ever been a real English national costume. 
 The Highlanders, of course, had their kilt, but I am 
 not sure that either the Welsh or the Irish ever 
 possessed any distinctive dress of their own. 
 
 It is true that in connexion with recent attempts 
 to revive Gaelic in Ireland a sort of kilt has been 
 worn, and probably those who devised it had some 
 authority for its pattern. 
 
 Many years ago, during a previous craze for Gaelic, 
 an amusing incident occurred. A little German tailor 
 amassed quite a small fortune by teaching visitors 
 to the Emerald Isle the "old Irish language," of 
 which, as a matter of fact, he knew not a single 
 syllable. Nevertheless, one of his pupils, an English 
 officer, after being taught by him for twelve months 
 in Dublin, was announced to be a complete master of 
 the real Gaelic tongue. Gaelic is only spoken in 
 remote districts, and a sudden call took the pupil 
 abroad without his ever having an opportunity of 
 trying his powers in conversation with a real Gaelic- 
 speaking Irishman. 
 
 A short time later this officer, abroad with a friend, 
 and walking through the streets of a German town, 
 remarked, "Well, I'm blessed if these Germans don't 
 all talk Irish!" 
 
 " Whatever do you mean ? " rejoined his companion.
 
 MOTOR DRESS 193 
 
 "Why, I speak Irish, and to convince you they 
 do the same, I'll address the first person I meet." 
 
 He did so, civilly inquiring the hour of the day, 
 and receiving a polite answer ; at the same time the 
 native asked if the officer were German. " No," 
 replied the latter, "but are you from Ireland?" The 
 native had never heard of such a place. An ex- 
 planation ensued, and the officer found that his 
 Dublin tutor had made him a perfect German scholar, 
 while swindling him into the idea that he had been 
 learning Irish ! 
 
 The automobile is, of course, largely responsible for 
 the present slackness of fashion as regards clothes. It 
 has, indeed, entirely changed the dress of the man 
 about town, who, even a dozen years ago or so, was 
 wont to pride himself upon the perfection of his tail 
 coat and the immaculate shininess of his top-hat. 
 Walking in Piccadilly in former days one could not 
 help being struck by the little groups of smartly 
 turned-out men who were wont to perambulate the 
 old thoroughfare. To-day it is becoming quite rare 
 to see people dressed in anything but what were once 
 called country clothes. Such an equipment was sup- 
 posed to be not at all the thing to be seen in in town, 
 but such a prejudice has now completely disappeared. 
 As for the cuffless shirts of soft material, the mashers 
 of the eighties would have been horrified at the mere 
 idea of appearing in them in any part of London. 
 All the time-honoured traditions of London dress 
 have been outraged since motoring became popular. 
 If with some loss of distinction, this revolution has
 
 194 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 undoubtedly been accompanied by a considerable 
 increase in comfort. It is, however, a pity that, owing 
 to the sinister influence of that inartistic spirit which 
 seems to be inseparable from modern civilization, 
 something more agreeable to the eye has not been 
 evolved, for, if comfortable, man's newest form of 
 dressing is undoubtedly somewhat slovenly and un- 
 dignified. 
 
 To wear bowlers and straw hats would have been 
 considered as the acme of bad form in the Rotten 
 Row of the past. To-day a rider in a top-hat has 
 become almost an object to stare at, a strange 
 sloppiness of attire being the object aimed at by most 
 of the male and female riders. When this tendency 
 comes to be analysed it is seen to be but another 
 proof of the lack of robustness of the present age and 
 its contempt for everything which makes for dignity 
 and order. The old school of riders, in their tightly 
 buttoned coats, trousers with straps, and shining hats, 
 belonged to a different type altogether. They felt 
 they represented the aristocracy of England and must 
 therefore keep up a well-turned-out appearance before 
 the outside world. The modern school either have no 
 traditions or are contemptuous of such traditions as 
 they have. In brief, their ineptitude and sloppiness of 
 mind expresses itself even in their dress. 
 
 In the West End of London the top-hat still more 
 or less holds its own, especially in the evening, when 
 it has triumphed over the opera-hat. Nevertheless 
 it does not occupy the exclusive position it did thirty 
 years ago ; out of the season in particular, top-hats in
 
 THE TOP-HAT 195 
 
 the daytime, except as part of the insignia of a 
 professional man, are growing rare. Any one entering 
 a good West End club wearing this form of headgear 
 during the daytime in August is liable to be chaffed. 
 This, I think, bodes ill for the future of the hat in 
 question, for there is no more potent destroyer of 
 time-honoured things than chaff. It was this, no 
 doubt, which drove the picturesque cocked hat out of 
 fashion. 
 
 For years, after it had been abandoned in the 
 daytime, a small form of cocked hat was worn in 
 the evening by men of fashion ; and an ill portent 
 for the survival of its successor is that it seems to 
 be going exactly the same way. 
 
 The top-hat is an English invention. It began to 
 be worn in England, in the morning, about the year 
 1757 ; and after the French Revolution, because it was 
 adopted by the Parisians probably from an idea that 
 it was an outward sign of equality and less ostenta- 
 tious than the cocked hat it became popular in both 
 countries and has maintained its popularity ever since. 
 The artistic eye has denounced it as being unsightly, 
 and scientists have accused it of promoting baldness. 
 On the other hand, it has found defenders to declare 
 that it is the most healthy head-covering ever worn, 
 on account of the cooling atmosphere which it 
 produces above the head in summer and the warm 
 one in the winter. Many efforts have been made to 
 banish it, but in spite pf time and change it has hither- 
 to held its own. Originally the top-hat was of beaver, 
 gradually, however, this gave way to silk.
 
 196 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 One of the earliest hats of velvet-pile silk, the 
 precursor of the velvet-napped silk now in general use, 
 was made for Lord Lyndhurst, who is said to have 
 been the first English nobleman to adopt the silk hat. 
 Originally the material on which the silk was fixed 
 was of stuff or felt ; but after a time these were 
 supplanted by the perforated willow body, giving rise 
 to the well-known "gossamer hat." Messrs. Lincoln 
 and Bennett, however, were the first to have recourse 
 to muslin and cambric securing thereby the much- 
 desired lightness as well as to a chemical composition 
 technically known as " coodle " for proofing in lieu 
 of the customary size, glue, resin, pitch, oil, and 
 naphtha, the presence of which was apt to become 
 unpleasantly obvious when the warmth of the head 
 made itself felt. 
 
 It is curious that man's headgear probably an 
 unnecessary adjunct should be a symbol of civiliza- 
 tion. One of the most ancient forms of it would 
 appear to have been the Phrygian cap. Italy gave 
 the world the Cap of Liberty and the fool's cap 
 Venice the Doge's cap. 
 
 Coverings for the head were little cared for -by the 
 hardy Celtic and Teutonic tribes, but a cap or bonnet, 
 answering the double purpose of a hat and helmet, was 
 occasionally worn by their chiefs as much, perhaps, for 
 distinction as for defence. Its material was originally 
 leather, and its shape, among the Britons and Irish, 
 conical. The flat bonnet now worn in Scotland, anti- 
 quarians do not consider to have formed part of the 
 primitive costume. If ancient, it is of Saxon, Norman,
 
 THE CAP 197 
 
 or Danish introduction. One shape, though not the 
 best known of the Scotch bonnet, bears a curious 
 affinity to the still earlier Phrygian cap worn by the 
 Saxon, the Anglo-Norman, and most probably the 
 Dane. 
 
 The cap of antiquity has undergone many trans- 
 formations during the ages. The old-fashioned 
 Highland bonnet, the Turkish fez, the Hussar's 
 busby and the kalpak of the Cossacks, the cloth 
 top of which protrudes above the fur, are all modifica- 
 tions of the original cap, which never had a peak or 
 brim. The Greeks, Phoenicians, and Gauls stiffened 
 the point. Old-time sailors all wore it, no doubt 
 because it was ndt easily blown off. The cap, it 
 should be added, has always remained peculiar to 
 countries directly or indirectly influenced by Greece 
 or Phoenicia, for which reason, I suppose, like most 
 nations quite indifferent to historical traditions, the 
 modern Greek Army wears a kfyi, though the cap of 
 the ancient Greeks from whom they claim descent was 
 under no circumstances ever peaked. 
 
 The cap was unknown in ancient China and Japan, 
 though modified forms of it were to be met with in 
 India. The top-hat, really identical with the shako, 
 the bowler or billycock (originally, it is said, Billy Coke), 
 the sou'-wester and other modern forms of headgear, 
 all have their histories. 
 
 The dignity imparted to man by a striking head- 
 dress is nowhere better exemplified than by the case 
 of the judge's wig, the abolition of which, even in this 
 iconoclastic age, no one has ever yet ventured to
 
 198 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 propose. Nothing, jndeed, is more extraordinary 
 than the enormous air of authority and weight which 
 is imparted to a quite insignificant-looking individual 
 by this head -'covering a fact with which no one was 
 better acquainted than Louis XIV, who, without his 
 enormous wig, appeared a very poor creature 
 indeed. 
 
 The gorgeous costumes worn by public functionaries, 
 nobles, and kings were part of a policy which aimed 
 at making an imposing impression upon the prole- 
 tariat. 
 
 Humanity like bright-coloured raiment and gor- 
 geous plumes, and the wearer of such finery no 
 doubt reaps some reflected glory. 
 
 In the East an individual in a position of importance 
 loses prestige if he appears in public slovenly dressed. 
 One of the cleverest of our younger administrators 
 proved a complete failure largely owing to the fact that 
 he was in the habit of dressing in a cap and flannels 
 and riding about Eastern towns on a bicycle. 
 
 The effect which fine uniforms produce upon the 
 masses is undeniable. I have personally experimented 
 in this direction. 
 
 When attached to the old Shah of Persia 
 (Nasreddin), during his visit to England some twenty- 
 four years ago, I observed that his reception by the 
 crowds in various manufacturing centres varied from 
 extreme cordiality to complete indifference. 
 
 The Shah was growing a very old man, and found 
 it more comfortable to abandon a good deal of the 
 gorgeous clothing coats stiff with gold lace, pearls,
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF COSTUME 199 
 
 and diamonds which had been the traditional garb of 
 his ancestors. 
 
 The diamond jika, a plume emblematic of 
 sovereignty which is worn in the kola, or lambskin 
 cap, however, still remained an essential part of his 
 state costume, though he did not, as in former days, 
 always wear it. 
 
 When he drove through the streets. I observed 
 that the reception of the King of Kings and his 
 suite was rather cold some of the Persians, indeed, 
 expressed surprise at the coldness of their reception 
 by the crowd. 
 
 " Well," said I, " if your Shah were to put on the 
 splendid uniforms he wore during his first visit to 
 Europe, you would find the crowd more enthusiastic ; 
 they come out expecting to see him one blaze of 
 diamonds, and only catch sight of an old gentleman 
 in a black frock-coat and black cap. Make him at 
 least wear his jika and diamond belt with the great 
 emerald clasp." 
 
 My remonstrances bore fruit, and though the Shah 
 said the diamond-plumed cap made his head ache, 
 he wore it several times during the rest of his trip ; 
 also he wore his. famous diamond belt and other 
 ornaments which were part of his regalia at 
 Teheran. 
 
 His reception by the populace varied in about 
 direct proportion to the magnificence of his dress, 
 and during the remainder of the tour neither he 
 nor his suite had any reason to be dissatisfied. 
 
 In connexion with Persian costumes, it would be
 
 200 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 curious to know exactly what the Persian fashion 
 of coat introduced by Charles II was. 
 
 Some of this king's costumes were artistic in the 
 extreme, and he seems to have had a partiality for 
 subdued colours. 
 
 A picture which was formerly at Strawberry Hill, 
 represented the Merry Monarch in the customary 
 dark wig, a point-lace cravat and a tasselled hand- 
 kerchief hanging from a low pocket of a brown coat 
 lined with orange. 
 
 The picture in question representing a most curious 
 incident, seems to have disappeared, inquiries having 
 totally failed to discover where it is. 
 
 Of small landscape size and very well painted, it 
 showed Rose, Charles II's gardener, presenting the 
 first pineapple raised in England to his royal master. 
 This highly interesting painting, which had been 
 presented to Horace Walpole by Mr. Pennicott, was 
 sold at the Strawberry Hill Sale for 22 is. 6d. 
 in 1859, when it passed into the possession of Mr. 
 Labouchere, afterwards Lord Taunton. 
 
 Loudon, a great gardener in his day, had be- 
 queathed it to his grandson, who had left it to Mr. 
 Pennicott. 
 
 The scene of the presentation was laid in a garden 
 with a view of the country house (Dorney Court) 
 to which it belonged, and it must have been a most 
 appropriate picture for a gardener to possess. It 
 is to be hoped that some day this curious painting, 
 a print of which exists, will be rediscovered. The 
 Government, of course, should have bought it. "Well
 
 STAGE DRESS 201 
 
 might a critic write at the time of its sale : " If our 
 Governments were only as highly cultured as John 
 Rose's pineapple, such a picture could not fail to 
 be in the possession of the nation." 
 
 The reign of Charles I 1625-48 brought with 
 it what has often been termed the most elegant 
 and picturesque costume ever worn in England. 
 Owing to its being in fashion at the time when 
 Vandyke was painting, it is generally known as the 
 Vandyke dress, which, of all costumes, perhaps, is 
 the one the best. adapted for the stage, and therefore 
 generally selected for such plays as are not fixed 
 by their subject to any particular date. In Mid- 
 Victorian times it was even more popular than it 
 is to-day, and many plays founded on incidents in 
 the reign of Charles II were often acted in cos- 
 tumes of the reign of Charles I. John Kemble, 
 actually hashed up the costumes of 'three reigns 
 those of Elizabeth, James, and Charles to form a 
 conventional costume for the whole of Shakespeare's 
 historical plays from " King John " to " Henry 
 VIII." 
 
 At any rate this was a distinct artistic advance 
 upon the custom of the eighteenth century, which 
 decreed that Shakespeare should Ije played in the 
 modern costume of the day. 
 
 Garrick first broke away from convention by 
 wearing a fancy dress for the part of Richard III, 
 but he played Macbeth to the last in a Court suit 
 of sky-blue and scarlet, laced with gold. Kemble's 
 good sense and determined spirit induced him to
 
 202 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 reform this altogether ; and though, to the antiquary, 
 it was as ridiculous to see the " gracious Duncan " 
 in a trunk-hose as in velvet breeches and silk 
 stockings, the absurdity was not so striking to the 
 million, and stage effect was infinitely heightened by 
 the change. 
 
 One of the most striking symptoms of the deca- 
 dence of modern European male costume is the 
 popularity of the cloth cap, surely the most hideous 
 and inartistic head-covering which the mind of man 
 has ever devised, in addition to which it has the 
 disadvantage of being utterly unsuited for wet 
 weather. Essentially vulgar and plebeian, this cap 
 unredeemed by any single merit except its lightness 
 seems to me to be one of the most suitable signs 
 of the ascendancy which democracy, of necessity 
 devoid of imagination and appreciation of art, has 
 contrived to attain the appanage of an errand-boy 
 of the sixties of the last century, this cap is now 
 quite freely worn by Cabinet Ministers, statesmen, 
 and others, whose predecessors in a more dignified 
 age would have shrunk in horror from any idea 
 of such a kind. 
 
 Striking and gorgeous crowns were always worn by 
 monarchs of the ancient world, especially in the East. 
 Within the last fifty years, however, the head-dresses 
 of Oriental sovereigns have greatly shrunk in size, 
 the shrinkage in question, in two instances at least, 
 coinciding with the decay and downfall of dominance 
 and world power. These instances are Turkey and 
 Persia. In Turkey, till the reign of Mahmoud II,
 
 THE TURBAN 203 
 
 huge and picturesque turbans were worn. About 
 1848, however, the Sultan of that day led the way 
 in discarding the stately and dignified old robes 
 which had been worn by the Turks ever since 
 Mahomet II had captured Constantinople, at the 
 same time adopting the somewhat meaningless fez 
 in the place of the beautiful old turban. 
 
 The sartorial revolution which ensued produced 
 what may be called " the bottle-of- Bordeaux 
 Ottoman " his closely buttoned black surtout re- 
 presenting the body of the bottle and his fez the 
 red-sealed cork. 
 
 A huge turban of shawls was also generally 
 worn in Persia up to the fall of the Sefavee 
 monarchy, on the capture of Ispahan by the Afghans 
 in the eighteenth century ; but when the Kadjars had 
 managed to capture the throne they brought the 
 black kola, or astrakhan cap, into general use, its 
 shape varying from time to time. To-day, when 
 his country seems to have fallen into a most -pitiable 
 state of impotence and anarchy, the high Persian 
 official sports a small black cloth cap, which is a 
 mere shadow of the original Kadjar kola, which, 
 under Fathi AH Shah, was of considerable height. 
 
 Quite lately China, or at least those Chinese 
 sympathizing with the spread of modern ideas, have 
 taken to substituting the hideous European cloth 
 cap for its ancient picturesque and appropriate head- 
 dress, the substitution in question, as in other 
 cases, coinciding with social anaichy and complete 
 loss of world power.
 
 204 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 The case of Japan, where a large number of the 
 inhabitants now wear cloth caps, is, however, widely 
 different, for in that country, before the advent of 
 Western ideas, the populace at large wore no hats 
 at all ; this was probably in a great measure due 
 to the elaborate way in which the hair of a Japanese 
 was arranged, before the craze for European costume 
 was inaugurated by those at the head of affairs. 
 In this instance, therefore, there has been no re- 
 linquishing of any historical head-dress, but merely 
 the assumption of a singularly inartistic and vulgar 
 article of costume, absorbed together with many 
 other things and ideas some good, many bad 
 from that Western world with which the old Japanese 
 declined to have any intercourse or dealings. 
 
 The adoption of Western clothes by the subjects 
 of the Mikado has been defended on the grounds 
 of expediency for working purposes, there is no 
 doubt, a loose jacket is more convenient than a 
 flowing- robe with long sleeves. 
 
 It is, in my opinion, a highly significant symptom 
 of the low estimation in which, at heart, the modern 
 world holds true culture, that the passing of beautiful 
 national costume, the design of which, unlike the 
 arbitrary creations of costumiers and tailors has 
 gradually evolved, should evoke scarcely an expression 
 of genuine regret. 
 
 Quite recently, when the so-called Chinese Republic 
 was proclaimed, not a protest was made against the 
 adoption of the frock-coat and top-hat and European 
 uniforms in place of the highly artistic and beautifully
 
 CHANGING CHINA 205 
 
 embroidered robes which for centuries had been the 
 recognized dress of Chinese officialdom. The run 
 upon the Western cloth cap, probably the most com- 
 plete manifestation of sartorial degradation, which 
 many of the lower-class Chinese immediately took to 
 substituting for their own very appropriate and not 
 unpicturesque head-gear, was even said to be highly 
 satisfactory as promoting the interests of European 
 traders. At the same time the illustrated papers 
 complacently published pictures showing Chinese 
 officials in their new garb, as if this development (in 
 reality a retrogression) were a matter for congratulation. 
 
 The far-reaching effects which this lamentable 
 change must have upon the general culture of the 
 people of China cannot be otherwise than bad. To 
 begin with, a whole class of designers and embroiderers 
 find their occupation gone, in addition to which the 
 disappearance of the ancient costumes must inevitably 
 convey an impression to the populace that an essential 
 part of the new civilization which they are to adopt is 
 complete indifference to colour and design. 
 
 For military purposes, on active service at least, 
 China has no doubt been well advised to adopt a 
 thoroughly workmanlike dress ; but for official occa- 
 sions surely the gorgeous old robes should have been 
 preserved. A wise measure, which would have shown 
 the world that the young Republic sincerely desired to 
 be in the forefront of true civilization, would have been 
 the institution of a special department to see that 
 Chinese art, as applied to ordinary things and to 
 the costume of the people, should be fostered and
 
 206 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 developed to its utmost extent. As it is, every effort 
 seems to be made to induce the populace to equip 
 themselves in the trappings of our own squalid 
 East End.. 
 
 It is a most unfortunate thing that the mania of 
 Oriental nations for adopting European dress should 
 have arisen just at the very time when Western male 
 costume has developed into the most inartistic and 
 hideous form ever devised. 
 
 From the point of view of real civilization, there 
 is something especially depressing about the recent 
 adoption of Western costume in China. A French 
 visitor to Yuan Shi Kai recently noted, with disgust, 
 that not only was the Chinese President rigged out in 
 a khaki uniform, but the room in which he received 
 visitors was entirely European in style and had not 
 a single Chinese thing in it. This at a time when 
 cultured and wealthy Western people are searching 
 eagerly for Chinese works of art ! 
 
 The adoption of European costume by ladies of 
 the Japanese Court about 1886 (in which year the 
 Empress Haruko first appeared in a costume fabri- 
 cated by some modiste of Berlin) was, from an artistic 
 point of view, lamentable in the extreme. 
 
 Pierre Loti has admirably described the charming 
 appearance which the consort of the late Mikado and 
 her ladies presented at the last official garden party 
 before the change. 
 
 For some time before this horrible piece of bar- 
 barism was decided upon, the Japanese Court had 
 been trained in an adaptation of Western ceremonial,
 
 VULGARIZING JAPAN 207 
 
 a German lady having been imported to revise the 
 ancient manners and ways. 
 
 The adoption of Western dress, against which, to 
 her honour, Mrs. Cleveland, the wife of the then 
 President of the United States, made a tactful protest, 
 was the natural outcome of this German influence 
 and of the unfortunate mania of the Japanese for 
 imitating any modes and customs which chance to 
 catch their fancy. 
 
 After the Empress had assumed a garb which 
 invariably disfigures and vulgarizes the women of her 
 race, a great craze for Western costumes seized the 
 ladies connected with the Court, the more so as an 
 order, still, I fear, in force, rigorously prescribed 
 Western dress on all official occasions. The inno- 
 vation not infrequently produced ludicrous effects ; 
 the Japanese, unused as they were to tight bodices 
 and the other paraphernalia connected with Western 
 fashions, made all sorts of ludicrous mistakes. Stays 
 in Old Japan, much to the profit of the national health, 
 quite unknown were occasionally worn upside down 
 underneath bodices of thick red plush and the like. 
 At official banquets where the poor little ladies had to 
 sit on chairs, some of them would occasionally be seen 
 furtively drawing up their legs till they reached the 
 more comfortable position beneath them, which for 
 untold ages has been the national method of squatting 
 on the spotless Japanese floors. 
 
 To me these Japanese women, tricked out in 
 European dress, seemed so dreadful that 1 always 
 avoided seeing them as much as possible. It gave
 
 208 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 me much the same impression as would a beautiful 
 work of art pasted over with cheap machine-made 
 scraps of t tawdry decoration. When I lived with a 
 friend at Nikko, I was one day, in our garden, 
 appalled by coming across what I at first took for a 
 large monkey dressed up in a short red flannel skirt, 
 thick blue stockings, and shoes. I immediately sent 
 for our major-domo, and asked him the meaning 
 of the horrible apparition outside. Bowing in the 
 customary manner, he told me that the parents of 
 his little niece had scraped together enough money to 
 buy her a European dress, and thinking to please us 
 (for we encouraged all children to come and play 
 around our house) he had bidden her come and show 
 herself in her new costume. 
 
 After sharply telling him that if such an outrage 
 ever occurred again he would have to leave our 
 service, and delivering a brief but forcible lecture on 
 the horror and barbarism of copying bad Western 
 things, I gave him a present for the child and told 
 him to tell her to buy a good obi (the beautiful broad 
 girdle which is such an essential part of a Japanese 
 woman's costume), and, in return, burn the ridiculous 
 travesty which had spoilt my morning. My order 
 was obeyed, and during the rest of our stay the little 
 lady never appeared before us unless dressed in the 
 graceful robes so admirably suited to the face, figure, 
 and gait of the gentle and charming women of Japan. 
 
 At the present time I understand there is a distinct 
 tendency among the cultured class in Japan to revert 
 to their old and picturesque costume photographs
 
 THE MIKADO 209 
 
 of the present Emperor and Empress in ancient Court 
 costumes have even been reproduced in English illus- 
 trated papers ; for state functions, however, Western 
 garb has still to be worn. 
 
 The spectacle of a Japanese in a cocked hat is as 
 strange a sight as a Highlander wearing a pigtail. 
 Why on earth such a clever people as the Japanese 
 should ever have adopted the head-gear which our 
 ancestors wore in the eighteenth century is quite 
 inconceivable. Our generals, diplomats, and other 
 high functionaries retain it because it has been 
 handed down to us from the past. The ancestors of 
 the Japanese, however, would never have dreamt of 
 wearing such a head-dress, which is therefore meaning- 
 less, and must be worn merely from the idea of aping 
 other nations. 
 
 The late Mikado, I believe, after 1868, only put on 
 the full dress worn by his ancestors three times every 
 year, on which occasions he went through a solemn 
 religious ceremonial before the shrine of his ances- 
 tors. Though in public he invariably wore uniform, 
 in his private apartments he adhered to a pure white 
 kimono. These kimonos were never worn more than 
 once ; when taken off, they were given to various 
 Court functionaries, who set great store upon such 
 gifts. 
 
 It is curious to observe that in their funerals the 
 Japanese still adhere to the fashions of their ancestors. 
 Few of the ancient ceremonies were omitted at the 
 burial of the late Mikado, whose illness had inspired 
 such fanatical devotion.
 
 210 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Four days before his death, when all hope seemed 
 pretty well gone, a middle-aged woman committed 
 suicide, wishing to give her life for that of her 
 Imperial master. 
 
 Instances of fanatical devotion to Mutsushito were 
 quite common among the Japanese people. Just 
 before the close of his reign a local stationmaster 
 killed himself because the Mikado's train had been 
 delayed for half an hour. 
 
 General Nogi performed his final act of self- 
 sacrifice in national costume. I do not, however, 
 know whether he donned the special ceremonial dress 
 worn by those about to commit hara-kiri in Old 
 Japan. 
 
 It was strange to see how the news of the General's 
 self- dispatch, so totally alien to the modern spirit, 
 was received in Europe. On the whole the attitude 
 of most people was, I fancy, one of puzzled 
 admiration. 
 
 In Japan itself his heroic sacrifice provoked neither 
 astonishment nor regret. 
 
 During the war with Russia the stern old warrior 
 a Samurai of Samurais and his wife, though passion- 
 ately devoted to their two sons, had actually gloried 
 in their bereavement when death snatched both boys 
 away while they were campaigning. Not a tear fell 
 from the weather-beaten old General's face when they 
 brought him the news that his second and last son had 
 given his life for his country before Port Arthur " I 
 am glad," said he, "that he has died with honour!" 
 
 The overwhelming majority of the Japanese deemed
 
 TO THAT BOURNE .... 211 
 
 Count Nogi's suicide a magnificent deed and a fine 
 patriotic act of self-devotion. 
 
 Speaking of what according to Western ideas was 
 a deplorable tragedy, a Japanese gentleman, labouring 
 under deep emotion, said, "You in England cannot 
 understand it, but we can." 
 
 General Nogi and his wife were old. Their children 
 had died in the service of Japan and the Emperor, and 
 when the latter passed away, no doubt there seemed 
 to them nothing more to live for. Accordingly they 
 decided, after the example of their brave ancestors, to 
 accompany their lord on his last great journey. 
 
 Europe may not approve, but it must at least bow 
 in respectful silence before the unfathomable and 
 heroic spirit which prompted these two brave hearts 
 to seek a tragic end.
 
 VIII 
 UNIFORMS OLD AND NEW 
 
 FASHION, if she has ceased to exercise as 
 much influence as of yore over masculine 
 clothes, is still paramount where uniform is 
 concerned. 
 
 The history of military costume as told by old 
 pictures and prints is very curious and interesting, 
 its cut, colour, and design have varied at different 
 epochs in much the same style as woman's dress. 
 
 From the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 to about 1850 the coatee ruled supreme ; the tunic 
 was then introduced in France and spread all over 
 Europe. 
 
 The triumph of the Germans in 1870 caused us 
 to discard the infantry shako for the present hideous 
 helmet. 
 
 At the present time khaki, a mud-coloured cloth, 
 is having a great vogue, all ornamentation being 
 suppressed. I am convinced that had the people 
 of the eighteenth century found it expedient to dress 
 their soldiers in this sad-coloured stuff, they would 
 have evolved a uniform which would at least have 
 possessed some striking and distinctive features of
 
 MILITARY COLLECTORS 213 
 
 its own. The khaki costume now in use is, indeed, 
 scarcely a uniform at all ; anything less inspiriting 
 than a regiment dressed in this gloomy convict garb it 
 is impossible to conceive. The wars of past ages 
 though, like all wars, full of horrors, were at least 
 not wanting in an element of the picturesque. The 
 wars of the future, on the other hand, seem likely 
 to be merely a contest of death-dealing machines 
 managed by individuals clothed in the most depress- 
 ing style that human ingenuity has ever been able 
 to devise. 
 
 It is a relief to turn from the unattractive fighting 
 dress of modern armies to prints and pictures represent- 
 ing the fine and artistically designed uniforms of the 
 past. 
 
 At the present time, when all sorts of hitherto 
 unconsidered trifles are eagerly sought for, it is strange 
 that so few devote their energies to collecting prints of 
 old military uniforms, badges, belt-plates and other 
 ornamental relics of armies which have marched away 
 for ever. 
 
 In France, setting aside the splendid assemblage 
 of relics at the Invalides, there have been many great 
 collections of this kind, notably that of the late M. 
 Detaille, which, by the terms of his will, is to be 
 thrown open to public view. In this country, private 
 collectors seem rather to have overlooked this highly 
 interesting field. Major-General Terry formed a 
 fine collection of military prints, as did the late Mr. 
 Milne, whose books and pictures, forming a most 
 valuable record of the British Army, were not very
 
 214 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 long ago dispersed at Messrs. Sotheby's, where 
 a three days' sale realized something over ^"8,000. 
 
 The study of past military dress, while highly 
 instructive from an historical point of view, cannot 
 fail to demonstrate the artistic taste with which even 
 the military tailors of other days were imbued. 
 
 Their often admirable designs indeed make one 
 realize how pitiful are the efforts of their successors 
 of to-day, who, considering the large amount of 
 money spent on uniforms in the majority of instances, 
 produce but meaningless and gaudy effects. Nations 
 which spend enormous sums upon their armies should 
 at least get as much value as possible for their gold 
 and take care that the parade dress of their soldiery, 
 in addition to being ornamental, should be designed 
 upon principles which should demonstrate the con- 
 tinuity of national history. 
 
 Germany, it is true, though she has adopted the 
 comparatively new-fangled spiked helmet or Pickel- 
 haube, seems to have in some degree realized the 
 value of such an idea, the dress of the army, 
 especially as regards certain details, bearing traces 
 of evolution from that worn by the soldiers of 
 Frederick the Great. The Pickelhaube itself has 
 now also its traditions, for this not very ornamental 
 head-dress was generally worn in the war of 1870, 
 when the victories of William I laid the foundations 
 of the powerful German Empire which we see 
 to-day. 
 
 France, on the other hand, except for her Cuiras- 
 siers, which, notwithstanding modern ideas, she still
 
 THE PANTALON ROUGE 215 
 
 retains partly, I fancy, because they are so closely 
 connected with glorious episodes of her national 
 history clothes her soldiers in a very slovenly 
 manner ; the red trousers, it should be added, though 
 now regarded as an essential characteristic of the 
 infantry dress, possess very little historic interest. 
 They were first worn by the French Army about the 
 time of the Algerian campaign and never formed 
 part of the uniform of Napoleon's veterans, who were 
 clothed entirely in blue. The army of the old French 
 kings, or at least a portion of it, wore white, a 
 colour which did not commend itself to Napoleon 
 because he considered that it showed blood-stains 
 too conspicuously, and so led to the demoralization of 
 troops when in action. 
 
 The knapsacks of the French and German Armies 
 were made of calf-skins, tanned with the hair left on. 
 They shed the rain better than those formed of plain 
 leather, and they were not so much affected by heat 
 and cold as those made of waterproof fabrics, because 
 the hair is a good non-conductor. 
 
 The French cavalry helmet, the design of which 
 is similar to that worn at Waterloo, has been pro- 
 nounced by modern experts to be the best and most 
 practical cavalry head-dress in existence ; in fact, only 
 a year or two ago there was an idea of giving the 
 whole of the French cavalry, including the Hussars 
 and Chasseurs, some form of it. French explorers, it 
 may not be generally known, have been in the habit 
 of bestowing military head-dresses upon friendly 
 native chiefs as badges of honour. At the present
 
 216 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 day the chief of a certain tribe in French Africa, 
 as confirmation of authority over his people, receives 
 from France the cocked hat of a French general, 
 which, on ceremonial occasions, he wears over his 
 primitive coiffure. This custom of giving natives 
 military head-dresses as symbols of rulership must 
 have been practised by French explorers for a long 
 series of past years. A friend of mine, who did 
 much rough work pushing his way into the interior 
 on the East Coast, told me that during a punitive 
 expedition he found in a village, to the best of his 
 knowledge hitherto unvisited by Europeans, a beau- 
 tifully fashioned French cuirassier helmet, which from 
 his description -would appear to have once formed 
 part of the equipment of an officer of Napoleon's 
 army. While in its design it followed that still worn 
 by the French Cuirassiers, its details were highly 
 finished, whilst the ornamentation showed that it had 
 been carried out by some skilled and artistic crafts- 
 man. To my very great regret my friend went on to 
 say that in the presence- of the vanquished inhabi- . 
 tants of this village he had had this beautiful work 
 of art hacked into little pieces, it being necessary to 
 impress them with the idea that their ruler's power 
 to work his destructive way was for ever broken. 
 In all probability the helmet in question had been 
 given to the tribe many years before by one of some 
 adventurous French officers who had first penetrated 
 into this unexplored part of the country. 
 
 Cast-off military trappings and costumes are highly 
 valued by savage and semi-civilized States. A con-
 
 A QUEER REGIMENT 217 
 
 siderable trade, I believe, is done in second-hand 
 uniforms of every kind. 
 
 A good customer for dealers in this sort of thing 
 must be the Ameer of Afghanistan, who has a com- 
 plete regiment of cavalry dressed in the cast-off garb 
 of guards of our various lines of railway. The ap- 
 pearance of this corps upon parade, with its diver- 
 sified insignia, " L.B.S.C.," " L.N.W.R.," and the 
 like emblazoned upon various portions of its equip- 
 ment, is said to be indescribably quaint. 
 
 Of late years many officers have told me that they 
 consider uniforms mere useless survivals of the past 
 good only to go to balls in. According to some, 
 all regiments should be dressed alike in that joyless 
 convict garb "khaki," an inconspicuous plume or 
 badge alone serving to distinguish a regiment from 
 its fellows. The soldier, in short, is to be equipped 
 merely as a drab unit in a general scheme of un- 
 emotional scientific butchery. Old-fashioned war 
 was a fever full of vivid, if wild and disordered, 
 dreams. Modern war is to be a sort of ague which 
 kills as much by dull leaden depression as by any- 
 thing else. When the world has reached such a 
 pitch as this, it is undoubtedly time that wars should 
 cease altogether. 
 
 It is impossible to imagine that any khaki-clad 
 conqueror of the future, swordless, wearing a hygienic 
 cap and probably goggles to guard his eyes from 
 the sun, will ever go down to history as has done 
 Napoleon in his famous cocked hat and effective 
 uniform of the Chasseurs of the Guard.
 
 218 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Khaki, though undoubtedly a useful and workman- 
 like dress, cannot be called an inspiriting garb, or one 
 calculated to promote esprit de corps ; there can be 
 little doubt but that the adoption of this hideous 
 material is largely responsible for the Territorial 
 breakdown. The marches out of the old Volunteers 
 in full dress produced many recruits. It was a fine 
 thing to see a smart corps swing along, the band at 
 its head, and civilian friends stepping out to the music 
 by the side of the regiment. About the Territorials, 
 on the other hand, there is little of the brighter side 
 of soldiering no pageantry, and no smart uniform 
 to attract recruits. 
 
 The whole Territorial system, indeed, well-thought- 
 out and clearly devised as it undoubtedly is, takes 
 little account of human nature, which is the main 
 reason that it has proved such a failure. 
 
 The authorities apparently are at last beginning to 
 remember that red coats have always proved an 
 attraction to men not indisposed to join the Army, for 
 attempts have recently been made to promote recruit- 
 ing in Birmingham by granting extra pay to soldiers 
 who wear their uniform on furlough. 
 
 The value of a smart uniform as an inducement to 
 enlist was generally recognized in the past. 
 
 The Times of September 25, 1801, contained an 
 advertisement addressed to young men likely to join 
 the Light Dragoons. Among the attractions specified 
 were the prospect of being mounted " on the finest 
 horses in the world, wearing superb clothing and the 
 richest accoutrements.
 
 MARTIAL MUSIC 219 
 
 Your pay and privileges " (so ran this appeal) 
 " equal two guineas a week ; you are everywhere 
 respected ; your society is courted ; you are admired 
 by the fair, which, together with the chance of getting 
 switched to a buxom widow or brushing with a rich 
 heiress, renders the situation truly enviable and 
 delightful." 
 
 Not content with garbing our soldiers like convicts, 
 there have been suggestions of late years that military 
 bands should cease to exist. A more ridiculous 
 suggestion was never made. 
 
 Napoleon, the greatest master of war who ever 
 lived, attached extraordinary importance to martial 
 music. Before a battle he always caused his bands 
 to strike up airs recalling the memories of many vic- 
 tories, and the cries of "Vive l'Empe>eur!" which 
 followed clearly showed what an effect this produced 
 upon the spirits of his men. 
 
 The bands of the Austrian Army have always been 
 noted for their' excellence. The big drum used to 
 be carried on a sort of little trolly drawn by dogs, 
 and up to about the sixties of the last century the 
 bandmasters always wore a white feathered tricorne as 
 a badge of their office. 
 
 Military music is essential in an efficient army, 
 and were bands to be abolished it would certainly 
 not be for long. The experiment made some years 
 ago by General Thibaudin, who did away with the 
 traditional French drummer because he said he took 
 too long to train, proved a complete failure, and at 
 the present time every* French regiment of infantry
 
 220 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 has its roll of drums as of yore. The glories of the 
 tambour major, who was such a conspicuous figure 
 during the Second Empire, have, however, not yet 
 been revived. 
 
 Under the Second Empire the Paris streets were 
 rendered gay by the multitude of varied and brilliant 
 uniforms. Stately Cent Gardes, with their shining 
 casques, their buckskins, and their jack-boots ; 
 soldiers of the Guides, rivalling in the tight fit 
 of their jackets and overalls, and the abundance of 
 their embroidery, our Hussars of the Regency ; 
 Grenadiers, Voltigeurs, Chasseurs, Eclaireurs, 
 Zouaves, Sapeurs, cantinieres of the Imperial 
 Guard, Chasseurs de Vincennes, Chasseurs d'Afrique, 
 Spahis, Turcos. Of splendid appearance also were 
 the Dragons de 1'Imperatrice, a regiment most of 
 the younger officers of which were dashing viveurs. 
 Only a few years ago I found on the floor of my 
 bedroom at Trouville, where it must have lain for 
 many years, one of the pretty buttons of that 
 vanished regiment. 
 
 Napoleon III naturally did all he could to 
 keep alive the military traditions connected with 
 his great uncle, and therefore created a new Imperial 
 Guard. The costume of this corps did not exactly 
 resemble that worn by the famous old soldiers who 
 had formed the backbone of La Grande Arme'e 
 the huge bonnet a poil grenadier cap, was, however, 
 retained. 
 
 The little Prince Imperial, curiously enough, 
 entertained an extraordinary aversion for this
 
 AN OBNOXIOUS CAP 221 
 
 picturesque head-dress. As a child in 1863, after 
 having been promoted to the rank of corporal of 
 the Imperial Guard, he went to a review of his 
 regiment with the fur cap replaced by the light 
 kfyi, still, though altered in shape, worn by French 
 infantry, and also by schoolboys. As the trumpet 
 sounded for the commencement of the review, 
 Madame Bruat, who had held the grenadier cap 
 upon her knees ready for this opportunity, imme- 
 diately began to remove the ktpi, in order to 
 substitute the head-dress belonging to the uniform 
 he wore. But the action gave rise to such a storm 
 of indignation, such a burst of rage and anger, such 
 shrieking and screaming on the part of the little 
 hero, that, had resistance to his wishes been main- 
 tained, the most dire results might have occurred. 
 As it was, nothing happened more serious than 
 throwing the offensive grenadier's cap far out among 
 the crowd of soldiers. Good-humour was restored 
 with the replacing of the ktpi, and the usual demure 
 and quiet demeanour of the little Prince was notice- 
 able for the remainder of the day. 
 
 To-day, like the great tambour majors and the 
 gorgeous Hussars with their furred pelisses and 
 heavily plumed caps, the Imperial Guard is but a 
 picturesque memory. The Cuirassiers, however, still 
 exist, and to the unconcealed amazement of foreign 
 military critics still retain their cuirasses made at 
 the Creusot works and supposed to be sufficiently 
 strong to turn a bullet. 
 
 For the cuirassier and dragoon helmet with long
 
 222 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 horsetail hanging behind, the modern French, indeed, 
 appear to have a great affection. Quite recently it 
 was reported that a helmet closely resembling that 
 worn by heavy cavalry during the Monarchy of July 
 was to be adopted for the gendarmerie, who, since the 
 abolition of their picturesque cocked hat (worn en 
 bataille in Napoleonic fashion) some dozen years 
 ago or so, have had to content themselves with the 
 unpretentious kfyi. 
 
 The helmet which they are to wear is not unlike 
 that worn under the Second Empire by the Cent 
 Gardes, a picked body of men, who were more of 
 a personal bodyguard of the Emperor and Empress 
 than anything else, and disappeared with the Im- 
 perial Court. The dress of this famous cohort, who, 
 motionless as statues, lined the grand staircase of the 
 Tuileries on gala days, was probably the most ornate 
 cavalry uniform ever worn. The equipment of these 
 giants included silvery casques and flowing plumes, 
 sky-blue tunics and pink facings, bright steel cuirasses 
 and golden epaulettes and aiguillettes, spotless gaunt- 
 lets and buckskins, lustrous jack-boots and embroidered 
 hammercloths. The last colonel wrote an interesting 
 history of the corps. The light blue of the Cent 
 Gardes was very likely suggested by the white 
 formerly worn by the French Army of the ancien 
 regime. Though very attractive-looking when new, 
 on service it produced a bad effect ; except in the 
 crack regiments the men were ragged and dirty. 
 White is a difficult colour to keep clean one of 
 the reasons, no doubt, why Austria abandoned its
 
 CARNOT 223 
 
 white tunics in the sixties of the last century. 
 After the Revolution (though the troops in the 
 earlier battles fought by the young French Republic 
 were dressed in pretty well anything they could find) 
 blue came to be adopted as the national colour. 
 
 About the most picturesque innovation at that 
 time was the huge plume of tricolour feathers which 
 surmounted the hats of general officers. 
 
 Such a frivolous, if ornamental, head-dress was 
 worn by the serious-minded Carnot, " far-planning, 
 imperturbable, and indomitable," who organized vic- 
 tory by means of his cool mathematical head and 
 iron, indomitable will. It is said that the direction 
 of the movements of sometimes as many as fourteen 
 armies at once were controlled by him. 
 
 This true patriot and gentleman was a poet as well 
 as a writer on military tactics, geometry, and mechanics. 
 He was, besides, a man of great personal courage, as 
 was proved by his leading on foot an attacking column 
 of the army which forced the Austrians to raise the 
 siege of Maubeuge. 
 
 With the rise of Napoleon to power less laxity was 
 allowed in the dress of the French Army, David 
 and other artists being specially called in to design 
 uniforms for certain specially selected regiments. The 
 infantry of the time received the shako in lieu of the 
 plumed cocked hat, while various new corps, such as 
 Lancers, were called into being. 
 
 The great value, of imposing head-gear as a means 
 of impressing the populace appealed to Napoleon, who 
 gave his soldiers the most stupendous plumed hats
 
 224 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 which the world has ever seen. In addition to this the 
 cocked hats of his staff, worn fore and aft, were enor- 
 mous, forming at the same time a most effective con- 
 trast to his own bicorne (always worn en bataille], 
 which has come down to us almost as part of the 
 personality of the Great Captain. 
 
 Though Napoleon himself wore a uniform of great 
 simplicity, the cost of which, I believe, did not exceed 
 fifteen pounds, he liked to be surrounded by a bril- 
 liantly dressed staff. Most of his generals vied with 
 one another in gorgeousness of dress. One or two, 
 however, paid little attention to their appearance 
 notably General Count Dejeau, one of the Emperor's 
 aides-de-camp. 
 
 This gallant soldier was a keen entomologist and 
 never lost an opportunity of acquiring any rare speci- 
 men, being continually occupied in collecting insects 
 and fastening them with pins on the outside of his 
 cocked hat, which was always covered with them. 
 The Emperor, as well as the whole army, was accus- 
 tomed to see General Dejeau's head thus singularly 
 ornamented, even when in battle. But the departed 
 spirits of those murdered insects once had their 
 revenge on him ; for in the battle of Wagram, in 
 1809, and while he was at the side of Napoleon, a 
 shot from the enemy struck Dejeau's head and 
 precipitated him senseless from his horse. Soon, 
 however, recovering from the shock, and being asked 
 by the Emperor if he were still alive, he answered, " I 
 am not dead ; but, alas ! my insects are all gone ! " for 
 his hat was literally torn to pieces.
 
 SCIENTIFIC BUTCHERY 225 
 
 General Dejeau, however, was an exception, for 
 those were the halcyon days of uniform, and no 
 troops ever marched to battle in braver array than 
 the armies of the First Empire. It would seem, 
 indeed, that he considered pomp and ceremony in- 
 dispensable to successful soldiery. 
 
 For uniforms intended to protect his troops from 
 observation, the Emperor had the most profound dis- 
 like and contempt. At one time some well-meaning 
 officer (probably of much the same mental type as 
 some of our military faddists of the present day) 
 actually devised a uniform for the Emperor which 
 should make him less conspicuous among his staff. 
 The petit caporal, however, would have none of it. 
 " If," said he, "I were to go in for this kind of thing, 
 I had much better give up going to war at all." Not 
 for an instant would he even consider such an idea, 
 continuing to wear his green coat and little cocked 
 hat and to be accompanied by a brilliant staff. A 
 fundamental principle of his military policy, indeed, 
 lay in fostering a certain pomp and display. This, 
 however, be it remarked, was always in good taste, 
 for the uniforms of his armies, as has already been 
 mentioned, were designed by first-class artists, and 
 the Emperor himself had a fine sense of what was 
 fitting and picturesque. 
 
 War, and especially successful war, is after all 
 based upon nothing but sentiment, and its conversion 
 into scientific butchery, as it were, knocks the bottom 
 out of the whole idea. Napoleon well understood 
 this, and, in consequence, did everything possible to
 
 226 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 make his armies as splendid and imposing as he 
 could. 
 
 The lofty plumes which crowned the shakos of 
 the Grande Armee were, it should be added, not 
 devised entirely for the sake of producing an im- 
 posing appearance, something of a utilitarian idea 
 being also connected with them. In those days of 
 firing at close range it was said that a body of troops 
 equipped in very high shakos with tall plumes had 
 a better chance of escaping bullets fired from very 
 unreliable muskets than soldiers wearing small caps. 
 In the heat of battle, amidst volumes of smoke, the 
 aim of those firing a volley became confused, and it 
 was difficult to distinguish exactly where the man 
 ended and his head-dress began. 
 
 Another reason which no doubt prompted the 
 Great Conqueror to favour gigantic bearskins, gor- 
 geously plumed helmets, and huge shakos was the 
 attraction which such trappings have always had for 
 the people at large. During quite recent years a 
 similar consideration has caused the Russian military 
 authorities to restore to certain regiments the head- 
 dresses which they wore a hundred years ago, while 
 at the same time adopting a modification of the 
 uniforms of the same period. One of the high officials 
 responsible for this change, to which at one time he 
 had been opposed, assured me that in practice it had 
 proved the greatest success. Putting aside the fact 
 that the initial cost, contrary to general opinion, is no 
 more than that of the ordinary modern equipment, 
 and that, owing to the pride of the soldier in his
 
 M. DETAILLE 227 
 
 picturesque kit, it lasts longer, thanks to the care 
 bestowed upon it, this change had done much to 
 make the army popular among the people. 
 
 About two years ago the French military authorities, 
 after a short trial of a reseda-coloured uniform, designed, 
 like khaki, to save troops from being observed, 
 decided to reclothe the French infantry in a more 
 attractive dress. The task of preparing designs was 
 confided to the late M. Detaille, an expert on such 
 matters, who, of all men, one would have imagined was 
 best fitted for the task. 
 
 The result, however, was not satisfactory, the main 
 objection to his scheme being a rather ugly helmet 
 of Cromwellian type, which he named " La Bourgui- 
 gnote." The new tunic, more ornamental than the old, 
 revived some of the features of the dress of the 
 Voltigeurs of the Second Empire. Worn in conjunction 
 with putties (which the artist had adopted from the 
 English model), the general effect was not good. 
 Owing, indeed, to the criticisms which the new equip- 
 ment evoked, it was not carried out much, I believe, 
 to the mortification of the designer. It was said 
 by some that the rejection of his designs hastened 
 M. Detaille's death. 
 
 In spite of the failure of our friends across the 
 Channel to evolve a satisfactory dress for their troops, 
 there is no doubt it could have been done had only 
 old uniforms been judiciously adapted. 
 
 Would that our English uniforms could be re- 
 modelled upon the lines which were followed in the 
 past ! Within the present year a very sensible minor
 
 228 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 change has been made in infantry dress. Since about 
 1872 up to quite recently privates and non-com- 
 missioned officers of line regiments wore shoulder- 
 straps of the same colour as their tunic. At the 
 present time, however, the shoulder-straps are of the 
 same colour as regimental facings, the result, from a 
 decorative point of view, being eminently satisfactory. 
 
 Old facings have also been restored to certain 
 regiments within the last few years. On the whole, 
 indeed, those responsible for the clothing of the 
 British Army have shown a little more sense than 
 their immediate predecessors. 
 
 This being so, and some slight desire to restore 
 some of the picturesque features of parade uniforms 
 appearing to exist, it seems strange that there is 
 no idea of reviving the convenient and artistic 
 costume which was worn by general officers during 
 the earlier portion of the last century. At that time, 
 unlike the vast majority of the army, general officers 
 wore no epaulettes or wings, one rich aiguillette worn 
 on the right shoulder being the peculiar and highly 
 ornamental appanage of their rank. In place of the 
 tunic now in use, such officers sported a coatee, cut 
 somewhat more gradually away than that of other 
 ranks ; a double row of buttons and a sash worn in 
 the same manner as to-day completed a very comfort- 
 able equipment, which accorded admirably with the 
 cocked hat and feathers, which, in spite of much 
 unmerited abuse, in an altered and smaller form, 
 happily still survive. 
 
 While our uniforms are always undergoing a process
 
 THE SLASH 229 
 
 of simplification, strangely enough their cost does not 
 appear to show any substantial decrease. 
 
 I have not the bills before me, but I would willingly 
 wager that the full-dress uniform of a subaltern of the 
 Grenadier Guards of to-day is far more costly than 
 that of his predecessor of a hundred years ago. In 
 spite of this, the dress of a lieutenant of that age was 
 far more ornamental and artistic than that now in use, 
 besides which, it embraced several traditional features 
 closely connected with the history of English military 
 costume. The gorget (abolished about 1830), an 
 ornament of comparatively small cost, represented the 
 last remnant of the armour worn by mediaeval soldiers ; 
 the sash not a mere piece of ribbon as at present 
 was a real sash of considerable dimensions, of hygienic 
 value in cold weather, and besides, at a pinch, capable 
 of being used to bear a wounded man off the field 
 of battle. To-day the Guards regiments, almost 
 alone, retain the slash with buttons on their sleeve. 
 This, it is true, is a relic of old military costume ; 
 but in 1812 they wore the far less expensive and more 
 historical turn-over cuff with buttons, which the band 
 of one regiment of Guards still retains in a modified 
 form. 
 
 Within the last few years, it is pleasant to note, the 
 Royal Marine Light Infantry have had the slash 
 restored to them. It is to be hoped that other distin- 
 guished regiments will before long be accorded a like 
 privilege. 
 
 The bearskin (contrary to ordinary belief, light, 
 comfortable, and a perfect protection against sunstroke),
 
 230 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 within the last hundred years has shed nearly all the 
 ornamentation which in former days relieved its fur. 
 Except in the Scots Guards (in 1812 merely the 3rd 
 Guards), the plume, it is true, remains, but the 
 picturesque front plate, the cords, tassels, and cloth 
 patch at back, a relic of the original top, have one by 
 one gradually disappeared. The front plate (abolished 
 about 1838) was probably discarded from an idea 
 that it pressed too heavily upon the foreheads of the 
 men ; but surely, as in Fusilier regiments, some light 
 badge might have been retained, while, for full dress, 
 the picturesque gold cords, contrasting so admirably 
 with the dark fur, might well form part of an officer's 
 equipment. The return to the simple and artistic 
 old-fashioned gauntlet cuff with buttons, far less richly 
 embroidered with gold than the present one, would 
 be a considerable economy ; in addition to this, if 
 officers were obliged to purchase their uniforms in a 
 rational manner, the epaulette, once such a distin- 
 guishing feature of their dress, might, at very small 
 additional expense, take the place of the meaningless 
 shoulder-strap. 
 
 No infantry has ever worn such a hideous and 
 unpractical head-dress as the cloth helmet. Some 
 little time ago designs for a shako were under con- 
 sideration, and it was almost decided to issue a certain 
 pattern in lieu of the helmet. The present Minister 
 for War, I believe, put his veto upon the idea. 
 Though a man of great personal bravery, like most 
 modern politicians he is timid about doing anything 
 likely to arouse criticism.
 
 TO BLUE 231 
 
 At present, when the design of officers' uniforms 
 and equipment is entirely in the hands of army tailors, 
 any changes, good or bad, undoubtedly entail serious 
 inroads upon the pockets of those who lead our men. 
 
 The whole system is iniquitous to an inconceivable 
 degree. If the authorities are really desirous of 
 assisting economy, why do they not (as prevails in 
 efficiently managed armies) institute a special de- 
 partment of the army clothing factory, from which 
 officers should be obliged to purchase all uniforms at 
 the very moderate figure at which a properly managed 
 tailoring department could easily supply them? To 
 combat the vast and costly influence of the army 
 tailors seems, however, to be an almost superhuman 
 task ; their power to-day, indeed, is probably little less 
 than in 1856, at which date it was openly said that 
 they alone were responsible for changing the colour 
 of the 6th Dragoon Guards (the Carabiniers) to blue. 
 When this entirely unnecessary change, made, it 
 would seem, merely to put money into certain West 
 End tradesmen's pockets, was effected, some outspoken 
 people did not hesitate to say that certain officials 
 shared in the profits which resulted from every 
 officer being compelled to purchase an entirely new 
 equipment. This, however, was possibly mere 
 malicious talk, it being more likely that certain officers 
 of high rank and straitened means did not dislike 
 assenting to anything calculated to please the tailors 
 and cause them to be lax about sending in their 
 bills. 
 
 Be this as it may, for years past there has been,
 
 232 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 and still is to-day, a kindly feeling towards sartorial 
 pockets in the hearts of those who are constantly 
 making alterations in British officers' dress. 
 
 The Carabiniers, of course, were so called from 
 the fire-arm they carried. Their embodiment began 
 in James II's time, and they were formed into 
 regiments in the reign of William III. They \vore 
 breast and back plates, and iron skull-caps sewn in 
 the crowns of their hats. They were armed with 
 swords, and carried pistols in holsters, the carbine 
 being slung behind by a belt. 
 
 A curious thing is that during the Indian Mutiny 
 the Carabiniers wore their brass helmets in action, 
 though they were without any other cover or pro- 
 tection against the sun. Contrary to what might be 
 imagined, there were very few cases of sunstroke, 
 the burnished surface of the elaborate head-dresses 
 apparently causing the rays of the sun to deflect. 
 
 The fifties of the last century, when the gallant 
 regiment mentioned above had the colour of its 
 uniform altered for no reason at all, was essentially 
 an era of sartorial change. It was then that the 
 coatee was replaced by the tunic, then that epaulettes 
 most handsome of military ornaments ceased to 
 be worn, and then that the Hussars were stripped 
 of their traditional pelisse. 
 
 For a time, indeed, it seemed as if no old uniforms 
 would be spared. 
 
 In September, 1858, an announcement appeared in 
 the papers to the effect that it was intended to deprive 
 the warders of the Tower of the rich costume which
 
 SILENT BANDS 233 
 
 they had worn since the days of Henry VIII. They 
 were no longer to appear in scarlet and gold, adding 
 to the pomp of a royal procession or state visit. 
 They were to wear, in future, a blue tunic with 
 scarlet facings and a pair of blue cloth trousers with 
 a red stripe. The velvet bonnets were not to under- 
 go any alteration. This change was announced to be 
 caused by considerations of economy, the old uniform 
 having cost the country ^52 per man. 
 
 Happily, in the end the fine old yeomen were 
 allowed to retain their smart uniform at least on state 
 occasions. I am sure the stately and imposing effect 
 produced by their old-world dress is well worth the 
 money which it costs the country. 
 
 The expense of the English Army is greater than 
 that of any other, but the British taxpayer gets very 
 little display for his money. Military bands, it is true, 
 play in the parks at fixed times, but now that the 
 Volunteers have been abolished, it is rarely that a 
 regiment is seen marching through the street with its 
 band at its head. 
 
 Those responsible for the mise en scene on festival 
 occasions seem, in these days, not to be very happy 
 in their methods. 
 
 After the recent review of the Guards, when the 
 King was returning to Buckingham Palace the road- 
 way through Green Park was naturally thronged by a 
 crowd which had been unable to obtain an entrance to 
 Hyde Park. 
 
 The King and his staff closely preceded the band 
 of one battalion, which, however, did not play, but
 
 234 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 carried its instruments. The effect was not good, 
 and I heard murmurs of disapprobation from working 
 people who had sacrificed half a day's pay to come 
 and see the troops go by. It may be urged that the 
 musicians were tired from playing in Hyde Park, but 
 surely one band should have been held in reserve, in 
 order that the return from the review might take place 
 to the sound of martial music. 
 
 On the occasion of the visit of the French President 
 the musical arrangements were somewhat more en- 
 livening. Outside St. James's Palace, just before 
 M. Poincar returned from the Mansion House, the 
 excellent band of the King's Royal Rifle Corps 
 delighted an expectant crowd with the " Gaby Glide," 
 to which some of the spectators, presumably under 
 the impression that the tune in question was the 
 French National Anthem, listened hat in hand. 
 
 Up to about twenty-six years ago the privates of 
 the Guards, and, indeed, of all regiments, wore their 
 full-dress head-dress when walking out on Sundays 
 an admirable custom which imparted a little 
 picturesqueness to our streets. Suddenly, however, 
 from reasons of economy, soldiers were ordered to 
 wear their undress caps as on ordinary days ; and so 
 the British public, which pays more heavily than any 
 other nation for an army which affords less spectacular 
 show than any other in the world, was robbed of this 
 slight return for the enormous sums spent in inartistic 
 uniforms. 
 
 Almost the only time at which the public is granted 
 a glimpse of the elaborate head-dresses for which it
 
 THE FEATHER BONNET 235 
 
 pays is during strikes, the idea of the authorities 
 being, of course, to afford protection to the soldiers 
 against brickbats and other missiles. 
 
 A very good effect was produced during the last 
 great railway strike by the bearskins of the Guards 
 worn in conjunction with khaki. For once this 
 depressing garb looked quite soldier-like, its essentially 
 unmilitary appearance being redeemed by the bear- 
 skin cap. The whole thing would have formed an 
 excellent subject for a sketch by Detaille. 
 
 On the other hand, khaki does not go well with 
 the kilt, that important feature of a Highlander's dress, 
 which some have declared to be of comparatively 
 modern origin. 
 
 Be this as it may, the tartan, which is now so 
 characteristically Scotch, is almost certainly derived 
 from the variously coloured garment of the Gauls 
 described by Diodorus. At one time this was the 
 ordinary garb of every Celtic tribe. 
 
 The feather bonnet is not very much more than a 
 hundred years old, having originated from Highland 
 soldiers sticking ostrich feathers in their caps. 
 
 Old or new, however, it is certainly the most 
 handsome military head-dress ever devised. Let us 
 hope that our gallant Highland regiments will never 
 cease to wear it. 
 
 In the early eighties of the last century it was 
 in great danger, and had it not been for Queen 
 Victoria would have disappeared. Happily she 
 stoutly refused to sanction the adoption of some 
 new-fangled head-dress submitted for her approval.
 
 236 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 It is to be regretted that she ever consented 
 to the introduction of the ridiculous so-called Terri- 
 torial system, introduced in 1881, which, for some 
 unknown reason, entailed the abolition of the practical 
 regimental numbers associated with a glorious past, 
 and gave nothing but long-winded and inconvenient 
 appellations in return. 
 
 It was well known that the Duke of Cambridge, 
 Commander-in-Chief at that time, deeply deplored 
 this change. However, he made no serious effort to 
 oppose it, the real cause of this being that the consti- 
 tutional spirit which had become part of Queen 
 Victoria's nature and was as the breath of his nostrils 
 to the late King, in the main dominated the Duke, 
 who on several occasions acquiesced in much that he 
 cordially detested merely because the Constitution of 
 the realm demanded it. For this reason, although 
 most distrustful of so-called reforms, during his career 
 he accepted various periodic revolutions which at 
 heart deeply grieved him. 
 
 Though the harm done to esprit de corps by the 
 introduction of the cumbersome so-called Territorial 
 system was almost irreparable, great good might still 
 be effected by giving numbers to the regiments as 
 they stand now. 
 
 By such an arrangement the first twenty-five regi- 
 ments would recover their original numbers. In any 
 scheme of this sort certain distinguished regiments, 
 such as the 6oth, 42nd, and others, might well be 
 allowed to resume their old nomenclature. At the 
 same time, if it should seem advisable, there would be
 
 FAMOUS REGIMENTS 237 
 
 no objection to the present long-winded and often 
 inappropriate titles being retained in the Army List 
 side by side with the far more convenient and 
 historical numbering. 
 
 The present familiar names of the regiments com- 
 prising the British Army commenced in the reign of 
 Charles II. The Life Guards were raised in 1661 
 on the plan of the Gardes du Corps of the French, 
 being formed chiefly of gentlemen of family and dis- 
 tinction who themselves, or their fathers, had fought 
 in the Civil War. In the same year the Blues were 
 also embodied, and called the Oxford Blues, from 
 their first commander, Aubrey, Earl of Oxford. The 
 Coldstream Foot Guards date their formation from 
 1660, when two regiments were added to the one 
 raised about ten years previously by General Monk 
 at Coldstream, on the borders of Scotland. To these 
 were added the ist Royal Scots, brought over from 
 France at the Restoration ; the 2nd, or Queen's, 
 raised in 1661 ; the 3rd, or Old Buffs, from their 
 accoutrements being composed of buffalo leather, 
 embodied in 1665; the Scotch Fusiliers (now the 
 2ist Foot), raised in 1678, and so called from their 
 carrying the fusil, a firelock lighter than the musket, 
 invented in France in 1630; and the 4th, or 
 King's Own, raised in 1680. During this reign 
 the bayonet was invented at Bayonne, whence its 
 name. In 1678 Evelyn informs us that the Grena- 
 diers were first brought into our service. " They 
 were so called," he says, "because they were dexterous 
 at flinging hand-grenades, every one having a pouch
 
 238 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 full." The Dragoons derived their name from dragon, 
 a fire-arm of Elizabeth's time, ornamented with the 
 head of that fabled monster. In 1632 European 
 cavalry was divided into four classes " the Lancier, 
 the Cuirassier, the Arquebusier, the Carbineer, and 
 the Dragon e." 
 
 Even in those days people seem to have been hard 
 at work inventing new equipment and weapons. 
 
 Before, and up to the time of the Revolution 
 (1688), there existed a company entitled "The 
 Hollow Sword-blade Company," which was chartered 
 for the professed purpose of making swords of this 
 construction. Though it is uncertain whether these 
 hollow sword-blades (with running mercury enclosed 
 to gravitate to the point when a blow was struck, 
 and so increase the weight and momentum of the 
 stroke) were ever adopted in actual warfare ; it is 
 certain that " The Hollow Sword-blade Company " 
 ultimately resolved itself into a great land-purchasing 
 company, and invested large sums in the purchase of 
 the Irish forfeited estates, eventually sold at Chichester 
 House, Dublin, in the years 1703-4. These were 
 resold again to different purchasers, and I believe 
 there are still estates in Ireland which depend on 
 what is called " The Hollow Sword-blade Title " ; 
 that is to say, deeds showing their repurchase from 
 the original company." 
 
 Uniform as we know it to-day is of course a compara- 
 tively modern invention ; the mediaeval archer probably 
 wore any clothes he could get, though commanders 
 gave their troops a special badge.
 
 INFANTRY 239 
 
 A white cross was generally worn by the English 
 men-at-arms in the time of the Crusades, being after- 
 wards retained as late as the reign of Edward IV. 
 Stowe says the City Archers wore the red cross, the 
 arms of the City, on the back and breast of their 
 coats. As armour became abandoned, the necessity 
 for uniform became more apparent, and scarlet was 
 definitely established as that of the British Army in 
 the reign of Queen Anne, at which time, also, the 
 pike ceased to be carried and the musket and bayonet 
 became the general weapons of the infantry. 
 
 The rose was adopted as an emblem of England in 
 the time of the Tudors, after the cessation of the 
 Wars of the Roses; the thistle, from the incident of a 
 Dane treading on one, and, by his cries of pain, alarm- 
 ing the Scottish camp, and saving the army from 
 destruction ; the shamrock, or three-leaved grass, was 
 by the early Irish considered an emblem of the Trinity, 
 brought to Ireland by St. Patrick, and so became the 
 badge of the nation. 
 
 Both in Norway and in Denmark the infantry 
 soldiers had red cloth ; the English infantry red is 
 said by some to be copied from that once worn by 
 Norwegian troops. 
 
 The term " infantry " is said to have taken its 
 origin from one of the Infantas of Spain, who, rinding 
 that the army commanded by the King her father had 
 been defeated by the Moors, assembled a body of 
 foot-soldiers, and with them engaged and totally 
 defeated the enemy. In memory of this event, and 
 to honour the foot-soldiers, who were not before held
 
 240 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 in much consideration, they received the name of 
 " infantry." 
 
 To realize the change which the British military 
 uniform has undergone during the last two hundred 
 and fifty years one has only to take a regiment like 
 the Life Guards. 
 
 The dashing Cavalier guardsman, as enrolled by 
 Charles II, entered into London in 1661 with a round 
 sombrero hat, drooping feather, long curling hair, 
 lace collar, cuirass, gold-embroidered scarf, flaunting 
 shoulder-knot, buff belt and bandolier ; gradually he 
 developed into the steady, sturdy soldier of 1742, with 
 pigtail and smartly cocked hat, long sword, and gold- 
 laced frock. Later on came the life-guardsman of 
 the early fifties, his tails not yet cut off or his coatee 
 converted into a short tunic. His jack-boots, leather 
 breeches, shining cuirass, and glittering helmet, how- 
 ever, are with us still. The cavalier rode the old 
 Flemish horse ; the dragoon of Malplaquet jogged 
 sturdily along on a Suffolk Punch, the favourite 
 steed of that day; while the life-guardsman of 1853 
 bestrode a black warhorse of the true Smolensko 
 strain, strong in body, heavy in limb, but clean at 
 the fetlock. 
 
 We occasionally hear complaints as to the luxurious- 
 ness of our officers ; in all probability, however, it 
 never reaches anything like the pitch to which it was 
 brought by some of the smart purchase soldiers of 
 a long-past day. 
 
 The laments of one distinguished commander when 
 piteously appealing for various luxuries still wanting to
 
 ULTIMA RATIO REGUM 241 
 
 complete his commissariat made him the laughing-stock 
 of Europe. Lord Cardigan, before Balaclava, lived on 
 his yacht, nor were the minor amenities of life despised 
 by officers of what is generally accounted to have 
 been a more hardy and rougher age. In the 
 Peninsula, for instance, quite a number of the younger 
 captains and subalterns carried umbrellas expensive 
 dressing-cases were also often taken on a campaign. 
 
 As for display and luxury in dress, that, of course, 
 was a far more prominent feature of a military career 
 than it is to-day. 
 
 An earlier age even strove to make its cannon orna- 
 mental. Louis XIV emblazoned their breaches with 
 his crown and cipher, while within an ornamental 
 scroll was contained the significant words, " Ultima 
 Ratio Regum." 
 
 An even more characteristic inscription was that 
 which Oliver Cromwell had cast upon some of his 
 artillery : " Lord, open Thou our lips, and our mouth 
 shall shew forth Thy praise." 
 
 In old days officers' trappings and swords were 
 often real works of art. Up to quite recent times 
 accoutrements, as well as swords of honour, used to 
 be presented to prominent personalities as a sort of 
 testimonial. 
 
 In 1 86 1, for instance, the Lancashire Rifle Volun- 
 teer Corps presented a set of accoutrements to 
 Ricciotti Garibaldi, son of General Garibaldi, the 
 great Italian patriot. The accoutrements consisted 
 of shoulder-belt, sword-belt, and frog-belt, with silver 
 ornaments.
 
 242 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Some still surviving military accoutrements are 
 of curious origin the two pins in a lancer officer's 
 shoulder-belt were originally worn in order to clear 
 out the touch-hole of the flint-lock pistol. 
 
 The origin of aiguillettes has given rise to much 
 controversy ; the most generally accepted theory is 
 that an aide-de-camp was given these trappings so 
 that he could rest his arm in the cords while writing 
 with a pencil suspended from another cord. 
 
 Every army has, of course, got something from 
 some other army, and as in the past some of our 
 regiments consisted largely of foreign officers and 
 men, it is not extraordinary that we should in some 
 cases have copied foreign equipment. One of the 
 first lieutenant-colonels of the 6oth Rifles, when it 
 was the Royal American Regiment, was Henri 
 Bouquet, a Swiss, who had served in the Dutch 
 and Sardinian Armies. The 6oth, in its early days, 
 had a peculiarly foreign character, composed as it 
 was of Lowenstein Fusiliers, Waldstein's Chasseurs, 
 and the regiment of Hompesch, the latter of whom, 
 I believe, bestowed upon it its badge. The Rifle 
 officers' dress, in any case, was originally merely 
 that of a German hussar. 
 
 Many regiments possess pieces of mess- plate 
 recalling glorious incidents connected with their 
 history. 
 
 One of the most interesting of these is the centre- 
 piece of the ist Battalion of the Buffs, the subject 
 of which is the heroic deed of an officer, Latham 
 by name, at Albuera, in which battle he kept his
 
 LATHAM 243 
 
 hold on the colours even when one arm had been 
 cut off. 
 
 The gallant soldier, in fact, rigidly followed the 
 rule of conduct which used to be laid down for 
 ensigns during the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 At that period, when a colour-bearer for the first 
 time received the regimental colour, he was ad- 
 monished " to treat it as a bride and daughter ; if 
 need be to take it from the right hand to the left, 
 or if both arms were shot or cut off, to hold it in 
 his mouth ; and when neither help nor hope remained, 
 wrap himself in it, and after commending his soul 
 to God, to be stabbed and die in it as befitted 
 an honest man." 
 
 Latham recovered from his wounds. He appears 
 to have considered himself an ill-used man, for, leaving 
 the army, he married a Frenchwoman and settled 
 down in France to farm, 
 
 I have an idea that Latham, the aviator, who died 
 in 1912 while hunting big-game in Africa, was related 
 to the gallant colour-bearer of Albuera. Neither the 
 adjutant of the ist Buffs nor that kindliest of men, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Newnham Davis, who is an 
 authority on such matters, could give me any definite 
 information. One thing, however, is certain both 
 Lathams, whether related to one another or not, were 
 exceptionally brave men. 
 
 It is pleasant indeed to learn that a singularly 
 appropriate monument is about to be erected at 
 Sangatte to the memory of Hubert Latham. The 
 gallant aviator who was the first who attempted to
 
 244 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 fly across the Channel will be represented standing 
 on a rock, a cigarette between his fingers. At the 
 foot of a column nearly 40 feet high there will be a 
 figure representing Aviation, pointing with outstretched 
 hand towards the English coast. 
 
 A number of picturesque and stately ceremonies 
 formerly inaugurated a military career. One of these, 
 " the blessing of the swords," still prevails at Wiener 
 Neustadt in Austria. During a recent review held 
 at the Military Academy to celebrate the eighty-third 
 anniversary of the Emperor Francis Joseph's birth, 
 a number of young officers took a solemn oath of 
 fealty over their drawn swords held out towards 
 a chaplain, after whom they repeated " Faithful 
 unto Death." 
 
 All this is akin to the spirit which animated the 
 brave Charles XII of Sweden. When for the first 
 time that monarch was under fire, he inquired 
 what the hissing he heard about his ears was, and 
 being told that it was caused by the musket-balls, 
 "Good!" he exclaimed; "this henceforth shall be 
 my music." 
 
 Much of our military ceremonial came from the 
 Continent. In all probability that picturesque sur- 
 vival, the presentation at Windsor Castle of the 
 Waterloo banner, by which Strathfieldsaye is held 
 by the family of the first Duke of Wellington, is of 
 foreign origin. A banner similar to that carried by 
 Napoleon's army is suspended over the bust of the 
 illustrious Duke in the Guard Chamber, opposite to 
 that of the Duke of Marlborough, where it remains 
 until replaced by its successor.
 
 THE POMP OF THE PAST 245 
 
 A similar ceremony is observed in connexion with 
 the tenure of Blenheim, the banner bearing, however, 
 the lilies of France, in reference to the army van- 
 quished by Marlborough. 
 
 In both cases a new banner is presented every 
 year. 
 
 At present a general idea prevails that all this sort 
 of thing is merely archaic folly. The spirit of the age 
 is indeed rather inclined to laugh at all military 
 display as childish folly. In England I think this 
 has been largely brought about by officers never 
 wearing their uniform off duty. 
 
 The eighteenth-century English officer was proud 
 of his scarlet coat, and did not rush to doff it when 
 he had gone off duty. 
 
 Previous to the latter forties of the last century 
 officers appear to have worn a uniform blue frock- 
 coat even in everyday life. They had then, however, 
 ceased to wear their swords, which even many years 
 before they had come to regard as an inconvenience 
 in private life. The Duke of Wellington is supposed 
 to have discouraged officers wearing their regimentals, 
 as the term then was, his idea being that the sight 
 of too many red or blue coats would arouse feeling 
 against the Army, which was already not too popular 
 with a large section of the population. 
 
 The world has always associated a soldier with 
 pomp and show, and the old school of colonels 
 attached great importance to their officers and men 
 being the pink of smartness both in and out of 
 uniform.
 
 246 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Not a few commanders were veritable martinets 
 with regard to even quite trifling matters of equip- 
 ment ; a sash tied wrong or a button out of place 
 was capable of throwing them into almost a frenzy. 
 
 The health of the soldier was even sometimes 
 sacrificed to the exigencies of show and smartness ; 
 for instance, the old-fashioned high stock must have 
 been most uncomfortable to wear. 
 
 Up to the middle of the fifties of the last century, 
 for instance, the Guards wore white trousers in 
 summer, the effect of which must have well con- 
 trasted with the scarlet of their coats. 
 
 At the time of the remodelling of British uniforms 
 after the Crimean War, the present dark-coloured 
 trousers were adopted for wear all through the year. 
 One of the chief reasons for the change, I have been 
 told, was the contention that the trousers needed 
 constant washing, and in consequence the men often 
 put them on wet, with the result that rheumatism 
 and chills were very prevalent throughout the 
 brigade. 
 
 What a change from the present state of affairs, 
 when all sorts of hygienic safeguards are enforced 
 in the Army, and all vestiges of the old " pipeclay " 
 system are discouraged ! 
 
 It is a relief to turn from the inartistic and often 
 childish vagaries of those responsible for military 
 uniforms to the sensible system which regulates the 
 costume of our Navy. Beyond some slight altera- 
 tions, a naval officer's dress has not been seriously 
 altered for some sixty years.
 
 NAVAL UNIFORM 247 
 
 Regular uniform for seamen would appear to have 
 only been introduced into the Navy in 1857, although 
 for many years previously captains used to dress 
 the crews of their principal boats either in a fanciful 
 way or in a style appropriate to the name of the 
 ship they commanded. Admiral Dundas, for instance, 
 rigged his men out in the Dundas tartan, and a 
 certain captain of the Tiger had jerseys with yellow 
 and black stripes served out to the crew of his boat. 
 The familiar term "blazer" takes its origin from 
 this old naval custom, the captain of H.M.S. Blazer 
 in 1845 having equipped his ship's company in blue 
 and white striped guernseys, which originated the 
 expression now in general use. 
 
 Some captains carried eccentricity to great lengths. 
 The gig's crew of the Harlequin in 1853 were dressed 
 as harlequins, and about the same time the captain 
 of the Constance rigged out his own boatmen in 
 dungaree suits with red sashes and long sheath-knives 
 in their belts. This costume however, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief at Rio declined to sanction. 
 
 Irregularity in naval uniform continued to prevail 
 for some time after the issue of the official circular 
 of January 30, 1857, but for many years now the 
 prescribed pattern has been strictly followed. Never- 
 theless as late as the early seventies ships' bands 
 were dressed according to the taste and fancy of 
 captains and officers.
 
 IX 
 FADS 
 
 IT is no exaggeration to say that this is the golden 
 age of the fad. 
 Never before in the world's history has this 
 particular form of egotism had such chances of 
 flourishing as it has to-day. In rougher and more 
 matter-of-fact times our ancestors did not give it 
 much chance of developing, but to-day even the most 
 insensate little fad has a good chance of reaching 
 honourable maturity. 
 
 When a fad grows up it becomes what the Press 
 calls a "movement," has its own society, its secretary, 
 and sometimes its own little balance-sheet. 
 
 In accordance with the demand for them fads 
 naturally multiply ; at the present day their name is 
 legion. Besides the great, big, flourishing, and 
 financially prosperous fads, based upon some real 
 foundation of truth, like Woman's Suffrage, Temper- 
 ance, Cruelty to Animals, and other varieties of 
 social reform, there are quantities of lesser fads 
 which do very well indeed. 
 
 Such are Anti-vivisection, Anti-sport, Anti- 
 gambling, the craze for licensing and controlling 
 348
 
 "PROGRESSIVE" FADS 249 
 
 everything and everybody, and numberless others 
 based upon an imaginary right to make people vir- 
 tuous by Act of Parliament. 
 
 A rather old-fashioned fad of this sort is the one 
 which seeks to make the Sabbath a day of complete 
 dullness and gloom, the whole of it to be spent 
 either in church, contemplation, or sleep. Some 
 formerly carried this fad so far that they disliked 
 papers being opened or read in their house on Sunday. 
 
 The anti-corporal punishment fanatics are another 
 group. I wonder what they have to say to the 
 recent report of the Governor of Delaware, a State 
 which still retains the old-fashioned whipping- 
 posts ? 
 
 These relics of a brutal age, far from exercising a 
 demoralizing influence, according to the report in 
 question, reduce crime to a minimum, there being 
 a great fear of the public disgrace attached to a 
 sentence of public castigation. 
 
 The London County Council has had many expen- 
 sive fads ; happily most of these have now been 
 squashed. Quite recently a little-known fad of theirs, 
 " the Farmfield Colony for Drunkards," has been 
 closed. 
 
 This interesting social experiment in an existence 
 of ten years cost the ratepayers ; 100,000, without, 
 of course, materially affecting drunkenness. 
 
 Only 19 per cent of the six hundred cases dealt 
 with proved amenable to treatment whatever that 
 may mean the percentage of cures being considerably 
 lower.
 
 250 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Wholesale faddism may be said to be the peculiar 
 appanage of the so-called Progressives, who seem 
 ready to take up all sorts of wild schemes. 
 
 No one has ever spent so much money upon fads 
 as they ; witness the London steamboats, which, 
 costing an enormous sum, had, owing to lack of 
 passengers, to be sold for a song. 
 
 The fads of the past were purely insular, but pre- 
 sently we shall be confronted with the international 
 fad. The substantial, if inartistic, result of this 
 particular craze is the Palace of Peace at the 
 Hague, the building of which, by the way, was 
 immediately followed by the especially sanguinary 
 Russo-Japanese War. 
 
 This dream of perpetual peace among the nations, 
 however, is no new thing. 
 
 When it first became known to the world that very 
 important improvements had been made in cannon 
 and fire-arms, while leading military authorities were 
 of opinion that the art of war would undergo an entire 
 change, altruists and peacemakers went so far as to 
 hope that war would become impossible, as certain 
 death awaited all combatants. 
 
 This is the halcyon age of legislative Paul Prys, who 
 stick at nothing in their advocacy of various fads. 
 Many of these people, while perfectly sincere, live in 
 the impulse of the moment, and if facts constitute an 
 obstruction either declare that they are no longer 
 facts or ignore them altogether. Their own ideas 
 for the most part are based upon half fact and half 
 fiction ; so many a good man or woman fights a life-
 
 EXPERIMENTAL FADDISTS 251 
 
 long battle, the result of which must, of necessity, be 
 hopeless. 
 
 Such people, however self-sacrificing and well- 
 meaning they may be, are as a rule quite incapable 
 of taking a sane view of the questions with which 
 they deal. 
 
 Imbued with an uncritical spirit of enthusiasm for 
 righting wrongs and moralizing all the world, they 
 entirely disregard or disguise the experience of 
 past ages. 
 
 No disorders have employed so many quacks as 
 those that have no cure, and no sciences have 
 exercised so many pens as those that have no 
 certainty. 
 
 Trying social experiments upon the less fortunate 
 classes (for the very wealthy are little affected by 
 grandmotherly legislation) has now almost reached 
 the pitch of having become one of our national sports. 
 Thousands of people belong to some society or other 
 for the reform of somebody or something, thereby, of 
 course, indirectly supporting a secretary and his 
 family, perhaps about the only satisfactory result of 
 the whole thing. 
 
 Quacks with legislative cures for every kind of 
 social evil are now as plentiful as Jews on the Stock 
 Exchange. 
 
 One consolation is that, owing to our super- 
 abundant reformers, we shall soon have so many 
 meddlesome laws and regulations that the lot of them 
 will fall into abeyance. 
 
 A study of the Bills annually brought forward in
 
 252 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 the House of Commons is an excellent demonstration 
 of the pitch to which faddism can be carried. 
 
 Happily for England, most of the more outrageous 
 Bills promoted by private members are never allowed 
 to come to maturity. 
 
 A large number always deal with the repression 
 of forms of sport odious to sentimentalists. 
 
 The earliest legislation for the protection of animals 
 of the brute creation was one of the most salutary and 
 just legislative innovations ever brought forward. All 
 credit to Lord Erskine and Richard Martin for having 
 been the foremost in the England of the past to im- 
 prove the lot of the brute creation. 
 
 The legislative proposals of many modern animal 
 lovers, however, go much too far ; some, indeed, seem 
 to set a higher value on the life of a brute than on 
 that of a man. 
 
 Said one of these to me : "If I saw any one ill- 
 treating a horse, I should consider myself perfectly 
 justified in killing him." Ill-balanced fanaticism can 
 go no further than this. 
 
 Of Bills dealing with so-called temperance, there 
 is, of course, no end. Private members' Bills drafted 
 with the intention of making people moral by Act of 
 Parliament also abound. Mr. Josiah King is a great 
 promoter of this sort of legislation, which, for some 
 curious reason, generally has the support of the 
 Labour party the English proletariat, which it 
 claims to represent, cannot justly be called hypo- 
 critical or canting. 
 
 Of late years a tendency towards this particularly
 
 AN EMOTIONAL FOX-HUNTER 253 
 
 futile and rather nauseous form of faddism has also 
 made its appearance in the House of Lords. Oddly 
 enough, about its warmest supporter there seems to 
 be that genial, if somewhat emotional, fox-hunter, 
 Lord Willoughby de Broke, who was carried away 
 by the hysterical movement which manufactured the 
 outcry as to the really non-existent English " White 
 Slave Trade." 
 
 This, after all, is merely a new name for an evil 
 of immemorial antiquity. Like the " Cobra Corrugata 
 of the Yangtze-kiang," for a view of which the old 
 showman refused to take the Iron Duke's shilling : 
 " It's only the Old Sarpint with a new coat of 
 paint." 
 
 The lamentable thing is that social reformers 
 who deal with this evil will never trouble to inves- 
 tigate the unfortunate results which have invariably 
 followed upon every attempt at compulsory moral- 
 ization. The measures they advocate are too drastic, 
 their promoters frequently carrying an extreme desire 
 to stamp out vice beyond reasonable bounds. Many 
 who should be diverting their energies into more 
 useful channels, become like that holy Pontiff, Pius V, 
 who is stated by a chronicler to have been so occu- 
 pied in re-establishing and improving "his admirable 
 Inquisition," that the concerns of the people went 
 to ruin. 
 
 The real truth as to the White Slave agitation 
 was admirably exposed by Mrs. Billington Greig in 
 the June number of the English Review. It is 
 highly regrettable that Lord Willoughby de Broke,
 
 254 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Mr. Arthur Lee, and others instead of being 
 gulled by the sensational statements which Mrs. 
 Greig has so ably proved to be mere hysterical 
 fabrications, do not devote their energies to a real 
 evil and attempt to deal with the terrible hidden 
 scourge which constitutes a real danger to the 
 national health. Untold human suffering might be 
 alleviated if serious attention were paid to the de- 
 mands of those who appeal for a Royal Commission to 
 investigate the facts concerning these diseases. This 
 appeared in the Morning Post of July 22, 1913, 
 signed by the President of the Royal College of 
 Physicians and the leaders of the medical pro- 
 fession. 
 
 To their eternal shame, with scarcely an exception, 
 our politicians and so-called reformers, fearing un- 
 popularity, dare not allude to what is, undoubtedly, 
 a national disgrace. 
 
 To the honour of the British Press, a certain more 
 enlightened section of it has of late done its best 
 to arouse public opinion as to the penalty which 
 England pays for its wilful blindness. 
 
 Up to quite recently, any one who attempted to 
 call public attention to the present terrible state of 
 affairs in print was vilified and given to understand 
 he had much better leave the subject alone. I ought 
 to know when some years ago I wrote a special 
 chapter in " Piccadilly to Pall Mall," dealing with what 
 has now come to be regarded as a real and grave 
 scandal, most (but not all) social reformers received 
 it with scornful abuse.
 
 GOOD FADS 255 
 
 Well might the great Goethe say that, "If any 
 one advances anything new which contradicts, per- 
 haps threatens to overturn, the creed which we have 
 for years repeated and have handed down to others, 
 all passions are raised against him, and every effort 
 is made to crush him ! " 
 
 A fad well worthy of respect demands prison 
 reform and giving people who have been in prison 
 a fresh start in life. 
 
 The spirit of this agitation is akin to that which 
 caused the relaxation of the old criminal law which 
 besides being terribly severe upon malefactors, dealt 
 much too ferociously with any one who, even with 
 good reason, troubled the public peace. 
 
 A favourite remedy for social disaffection was then 
 not to remove its causes, but to imprison, transport, 
 and hang without mercy. While Lord Sidmouth 
 held the post of Home Secretary fourteen rioters 
 were hanged at York in 1813, eight more at Leicester 
 in 1817, three more at Nottingham in the same year, 
 and five more at Ely in 1819. 
 
 As for ordinary crime, any tampering with pro- 
 perty was punished in quite savage fashion and 
 many people were executed for theft. 
 
 On one occasion, it is said, a jury, under the 
 judge's direction, brought a woman in guilty of man- 
 slaughter for stealing a pair of breeches ; the real fact 
 was that they were all determined to save her from 
 the halter, and it was just as well to do it in this 
 manner as any other. 
 
 Those were rough days, and curious scenes took
 
 256 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 place in courts of justice, as the following speech 
 by a judge to a jury well shows : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, in this case the counsel 
 on both sides are unintelligible, the witnesses 
 incredible, and the plaintiffs and defendants are both 
 such bad characters that to me it is indifferent which 
 way you give your verdict." Brevity, satire, and 
 point were here admirably displayed. 
 
 Another brief, witty summing-up was that of a 
 judge who was trying a boy for having stolen a 
 pudding. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, pointing to the prisoner, 
 " there's the boy and there's the pudding ! " 
 
 A bad fad is the one which seeks to make heroes 
 out of criminals, demands the abolition of capital 
 punishment, and a too lenient treatment of crime. 
 
 Some years ago there was a fad which sought 
 the reduction of sentences, but I believe the conse- 
 quences were so disappointing that it died away. 
 Still, the judges of to-day are more lenient than those 
 of the past. About the last representative of the 
 stern old school, who was a real terror to evil-doers, 
 was the late Lord Brampton, a judge who dispensed 
 justice with a stern hand and was entirely free 
 from judicial sentimentalism. Carrying out the idea 
 that criminals should be severely punished in order 
 to check crime, he took no account of chatter about 
 environment, well-meaning ideas, and chimerical 
 fancies, which, in the end, seemed to him to lead 
 towards social anarchy. There is no doubt that 
 his methods were to a great extent justified by
 
 FRESH AIR 257 
 
 results : the most extraordinary thing about them 
 was that they apparently pleased the criminal 
 classes themselves, with whom " Old Hawkins," 
 as they familiarly spoke of him, enjoyed great 
 popularity. 
 
 Lord Brampton, it must, however, be remembered, 
 was essentially a very just judge. It is a pity that 
 so few men of his stamp are alive to-day to combat 
 the tendency towards ridiculous leniency. The 
 hysterical faddists who make a criminal more 
 interesting than his victims are merely hindering 
 the execution of justice, and giving the criminal 
 class to understand that the proceedings of the 
 judicial bench and the condemnation of a jury are a 
 solemn farce. It is inconceivable that importance 
 should be attached to the protests of persons moved 
 by maudlin sentimentality or pious hypocrisy. 
 
 Among minor social fads there are several which, 
 properly controlled, have a positively beneficent 
 effect. Such are Fresh air, exercise, and vege- 
 tarianism the two last, within certain limits, good ; 
 the first, excellent at all times and for all people. 
 Unfortunately, owing to antique prejudice, the 
 beneficial effects of keeping windows open is not 
 realized by most of the population. Go down any 
 street in London and you will find the majority of 
 windows shut. A large number, indeed, are very 
 fond of the opposition fad of, under all circumstances, 
 keeping windows shut. Curiously enough, if these 
 lovers of stuffiness fail to notice that a window is 
 open they are perfectly content, but let a sash creak
 
 258 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 and they immediately indulge in peculiar pantomimic 
 movements expressive of disgust. 
 
 While the fad for fresh air can, no doubt, be carried 
 too far, it should be remembered that "just as a 
 fish cannot flourish in dirty water, so man cannot 
 flourish in foul air." 
 
 The most convincing proof, however, of the relation 
 between a free current of air and health is the 
 remarkable and well-authenticated fact that in warfare 
 the wounded placed in tents always get well far 
 more quickly than those tended within four walls. 
 The proportion of recoveries amongst those who 
 have been nursed in tents is also far greater. 
 
 The purely modern fad for exercise, while bene- 
 ficial to some, makes no difference and is positively 
 hurtful to others, mainly for the reason that they 
 do not know when to stop. Hard exercise in the 
 case of a man over forty is more or less contrary 
 to nature ; no animal which has reached full maturity 
 goes tearing about merely for the love of the thing. 
 
 A charming friend of mine, poor fellow! un- 
 doubtedly owed his death to exercise. 
 
 For some reason or other, although as thin as a 
 lath, he made it a practice to run round the Park 
 every morning before breakfast. As he got older 
 and thinner some of his friends begged him to desist. 
 Nothing, however, could make him listen to their 
 remonstrances, and so at the comparatively early age 
 of forty-eight, he was one morning found in a state of 
 collapse on his doorstep, from which he was never to 
 start again.
 
 VEGETARIANISM 259 
 
 Vegetarianism, when carried to excess, is liable 
 to upset certain constitutions, but as a check upon 
 the modern habit of eating enormous quantities of 
 meat it has its uses. Devotees of this particular 
 fad seem, for the most part, to be people of a gentle, 
 refined, and often clever disposition, and there is 
 no doubt that a number of them are better without 
 meat, for which they have an instinctive dislike. 
 
 On the other hand, when it is taken up with 
 immoderate enthusiasm by any one who has been 
 accustomed to a generous and unrestricted diet, it 
 is liable to produce weakness and depression, 
 causing uneasiness to relatives. In such cases tactful 
 measures are the best. 
 
 Lunching with a friend fond of food fads, I 
 observed that he touched no meat, but ate only 
 certain strange vegetarian dishes, which had evi- 
 dently been prepared for his special consumption. 
 
 Later on, I inquired of his wife if this new diet 
 agreed with her husband. 
 
 "It didn't at first," she replied, "but it does 
 now." 
 
 " From his looks he certainly seems to thrive on 
 it. He never looked more robust in his life." 
 
 " I take care of that," she went on, " though I 
 hope he won't find it out. No man partakes of a 
 more carnivorous diet than he. Every one of those 
 vegetable courses you saw to-day was full of the 
 strongest meat juice which, by my orders, is put into 
 everything served to him before it appears on the 
 table."
 
 260 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 This pious fraud, I understand, still continues, 
 with evident benefit to my friend's health. 
 
 Conscientious scruples as to the killing of animals 
 causes a certain number of people to be vegetarians. 
 I have known some, indeed, who, owing to ex- 
 aggerated considerations of this kind, would not wear 
 boots made of leather ! 
 
 This idea of not destroying life is of course very 
 much akin to the spirit of Buddhism, which now 
 has a certain number of followers in England. 
 There is, indeed, one Buddhist peer, a cousin of 
 mine, who some years ago adopted the religion in 
 question. 
 
 The tenets of Buddhism in its highest and purest 
 state are very fine. The ordinary idea that the 
 ultimate aim of the Buddhist is to attain peace by 
 means of annihilation is scarcely fair. The grand 
 finale the ultimate consummation set before the 
 minds of Buddha's worshippers is deification, 
 apotheosis, absorption of the soul into God, but 
 not its annihilation. When they plead that man's 
 soul should seek its last consummate perfection in 
 deification, in union and communion with the In- 
 finite Deity from whom it sprang, they state that, 
 in order to do so, it must " get rid of self and 
 selfishness, or its separate conditions and interests " ; 
 but not that it must get rid of its essence of being, 
 which is to be glorified and expanded by union with 
 Deity, and by no means to be reduced to nothing. 
 
 The Buddhists continually compare the human soul 
 to a drop of water, severed from the great ocean of
 
 BUDDHISM 261 
 
 Deity by a transitory individuality of selfism ; and 
 they believe that this drop must regain its original 
 state by mingling once more with the essential 
 Fountain of existence from which it issued. They 
 allow, indeed, that this drop may pass through many 
 changes, metamorphoses, and revolutions before it 
 recovers its original union with God ; but they do 
 not acknowledge that it can ever utterly perish, 
 though some of their metaphysical phrases on this 
 topic are extremely subtle and ambiguous, and often 
 misunderstood. 
 
 True Buddhism is a lofty, noble, and altruistic creed 
 which cannot be classed with the fad religions, 
 mostly manufactured in America, which during the 
 last fifty years have attracted so many. 
 
 No matter how absurd may be its tenets, a brand- 
 new religion (as a rule, cooked up from some old one) 
 is sure to have a certain amount of success. 
 
 Man has need of something wonderful, Napoleon 
 is reported to have told O'Meara, and it is this need 
 which causes many who are indifferent to religion 
 to consult those claiming to possess occult powers 
 and follow the charlatans who start new creeds. 
 
 They would not have had much success with some 
 of the stolid old school of Churchmen. 
 
 One of this type once said to me, " Never bother 
 yourself about disquieting speculations ; they only 
 lead to doubt and unhappiness ! Go to church 
 regularly on Sunday, and leave the rest to the 
 parson, whose business it is to think out these 
 things. I go to the best bootmaker in London
 
 262 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 for my boots, to the best tailor for my clothes, and 
 the best gunmaker for my guns, and I don't bother 
 them as to the details of their work, provided it is 
 properly done. I have been brought up in the 
 Church of England and, therefore, am naturally 
 perfectly satisfied to follow the man who knows most 
 about it you may be sure the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury wouldn't be paid the salary he gets if he wasn't 
 an expert about the whole thing." 
 
 Crude as it is, such an attitude is undoubtedly 
 more healthy than being carried away by one of the 
 numerous forms of fad religion which, for some 
 curious reason, attract a large number of people. 
 There is at all events dignity about the old-established 
 faiths ; about the new, none. The ritual of the 
 latter is merely a hotchpotch of scraps, picked out 
 of more dignified forms of worship. It is, indeed, 
 for the most part but a very cheap form of 
 spiritual patent medicine, the prescription for which 
 has been prepared by an unlicensed and sometimes 
 designing quack. 
 
 In this age of fads it might be worth while for 
 some crank to revive a curious form of religion which 
 some fifty years ago was started by a Dr. Edward 
 Lowenthal. This sect, which was called the " Cogi- 
 tants," had as their motto: "Our knowledge is our 
 faith ; our dignity is our morality ; our worship is life ; 
 and our religion is our secret." A few of their 
 doctrines and practices were as follows : Neither theft 
 nor fraud could be punished with imprisonment. 
 Women were to have a part in the Church govern-
 
 MATERIALISM 263 
 
 ment. Only the lower part of a coffin should be 
 buried in the earth. All good Cogitants (the head of 
 whom was to wear a black camlet cloak with upright 
 collar and three silver stars on it) were to have a 
 good dinner for nothing, and dine in public on 
 Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, and Whit Sunday. 
 
 Materialism, as a fad, seems now rather out of 
 fashion, but it had a considerable vogue in the seven- 
 ties after Darwin had published his "Origin of Species." 
 It does not seem to be so active now, perhaps owing 
 to the harmony between religion and science inter- 
 mittently discovered by the English Press. 
 
 Materialism is the concomitant of religious apathy 
 rather than its cause. There is no doubt, I think, 
 that the apathy in question is largely produced by the 
 tendency of the Church to attach more importance to 
 dogma and ceremonial forms than is in consonance 
 with the age or with the spirit of the Protestant 
 Church, which, after all, should be widely progressive 
 and not a mere copy of Roman Catholicism. 
 
 The High Church clergy are no doubt very devoted 
 and sincere, but in spite of their self-sacrifice and 
 fervour they have unconsciously shaken the founda- 
 tions of the Church of England. Numbers of people, 
 in disgust at the slavish copying of Roman Catholic 
 ceremonial, cease to go to church at all. In particular, 
 the labouring classes in country districts, as is well 
 known, prefer the simpler and more austere worship 
 of Nonconformist chapels. 
 
 Numbers of others, becoming accustomed to ornate 
 worship, finally determine to go the whole hog and
 
 264 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 betake themselves to Rome. Not so very long ago 
 almost all the congregation of a High Church in 
 Brighton embraced Catholicism, and quite recently a 
 brotherhood of so-called Church of England monks 
 in Essex did the same. 
 
 The progress which Roman Catholicism has made 
 among well-to-do people of late years is a highly 
 significant social symptom. This going over to Rome, 
 however, is essentially a Society fad. Among the 
 masses the Roman Church draws comparatively few 
 recruits, and they still retain a good deal of that 
 prejudice which was so actively displayed in the 
 Gordon Riots. Even in Mid- Victorian days Anti- 
 Romanism was a common and rather powerful fad. 
 
 The announcement in 1859, for instance, that the 
 then Prince of Wales, the late King, was to reside in 
 Rome a few months gave rise to not a little feeling 
 in English religious circles, a portion of which frankly 
 declared that he would be injured by what he saw 
 and heard in the Eternal City. A more tolerant 
 section was of opinion that the Romanism which he 
 would witness might provoke his antagonism and 
 strengthen his faith. Those who were most alarmed 
 at Roman Catholic ceremonial showed the greatest 
 feeling on this subject ; those who were not so much 
 alarmed said that the young Prince had received a 
 Protestant education which would effectually preserve 
 him from being tempted. 
 
 The fanaticism and intolerance aroused by the 
 controversies which followed on the Reformation, 
 itself perhaps a sort of superior kind of fad, had not
 
 HARMLESS FADS 265 
 
 then totally subsided to-day most people seem to 
 have forgotten what was undoubtedly one of the most 
 striking events in the history of the human mind. 
 Every pen was engaged in the dispute, and the 
 faddists of that day had plenty to employ their 
 energies. Protestants, alternately with Catholics, 
 used the stage and drama as instruments of contro- 
 versy, each party, of course, complaining of their 
 licentiousness. The Protestant Liturgy, restored at 
 the accession of Elizabeth after its suppression under 
 Mary, was attacked by innumerable .ballads and 
 interludes. The opposite party had their poets, and 
 every day produced some popular ballad for or against 
 the Reformation. "The stage," observed Dr. Percy, 
 " in those days literally was, what wise men had 
 always wished it to be a supplement to the pulpit. 
 Chapter and verse were as formally quoted as in a 
 sermon." On the other side, " the new Gospellers" 
 were ridiculed by the Catholics, and found support in 
 the elder part of their audience, who still clung to 
 their old doctrines, the young adopting the Reforma- 
 tion in its fullest sense. The conduct of the Catholics 
 called down a proclamation from Edward VI (1549), 
 wherein we find that the Government was most 
 anxious that these plays should be performed in 
 " the English tongue " ; nothing was said about Latin, 
 because probably few could be affected by treasonable 
 utterances in that language. 
 
 There are many quite harmless minor fads which 
 have an amusing side. Such a one is the " phonetic 
 spelling fad " ; many words spelt in the new fashion,
 
 266 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 which it seeks to make general, are often irresistibly 
 comic. Phonetic spelling, of course, is quite an old- 
 fashioned thing. 
 
 In the eighteenth century, accurate spelling was a 
 rare accomplishment, and especially amongst fashion- 
 able ladies. Playing at the old parlour-game of " I 
 love my love with a letter," three ladies Ladies 
 Cheere, Fielding, and Hill are supposed to have 
 answered as follows : 
 
 "I love," began the first, "my love with an N, 
 because he is a night ; " Lady Fielding followed with, 
 " I love my love with a G, because he is a gustice ; " 
 "and I love my love with an F," said Lady Hill, 
 " because he is a fisishun." 
 
 No modern devotee of phonetic spelling could do 
 better. 
 
 While what may be termed public fads that is, fads 
 which seek to interfere with the lives or doings of 
 other people have enormously increased in number, 
 the purely private fad of personal eccentricity is not 
 nearly so common as in the past. 
 
 About the most curious fad of this kind was the 
 craze which wealthy old gentlemen used to have for 
 keeping an enormous balance at their bankers'. 
 
 " I want to borrow ^40,00x3," said an old peer, 
 strolling into Coutts's one day. 
 
 " Rather a large sum, your lordship. May I venture 
 to inquire why you need it?" said the partner into 
 whose private room the nobleman had been shown. 
 
 " That's my business," was the reply. 
 
 11 Of course, your lordship can have the money ;
 
 A SUFFICIENT BALANCE 267 
 
 I only asked because I thought you might have 
 forgotten that your balance here is ,30,000 ! " 
 
 " And always will be ! " snapped out the old peer, as 
 he brusquely got up and left the room. 
 
 The truth of the matter was that, certain inevitable 
 expenses threatening to reduce the balance in question, 
 he determined to take measures to keep an even larger 
 sum at his immediate command. 
 
 Another similar mania was a craze for keeping 
 great sums in private houses, often not even under 
 lock and key. 
 
 A relative of the present writer, who died in the 
 forties of the last century, for instance, had a love 
 for putting bank-notes in books, and a sum amounting 
 to little short of ,30,000 was extracted from between 
 the leaves of his library by his executors. 
 
 This passion for ready cash sometimes amounted to 
 something like a mania. A former Lord Dysart, who 
 lived more or less an invalid's life in a house on the 
 outskirts of London, carefully watched over by a lady 
 who acted as a sort of companion-nurse, one day asked 
 her to go to town and get a cheque cashed for him at 
 the Bank of England. When she was ready to start, 
 the old peer sat down at his writing-table, and, having 
 written out a cheque for ; 100,000, told her to be sure 
 and see that she got one note for the whole amount. 
 
 The nurse, as may be imagined, was somewhat 
 staggered at the largeness of the sum ; but, having 
 in due course of time arrived at the Bank, presented 
 the cheque for payment, with the request that the 
 drawer particularly wanted a single note for it.
 
 268 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 The cashier communicated with the manager, who 
 asked the nurse to step into his private office. Having 
 satisfied himself as to her authority for making such 
 a request, he said that if she did not object he would 
 much rather send a clerk to accompany her with 
 the note. 
 
 She gladly assented to this arrangement, and in due 
 course the clerk in person handed the ; 100,000 note 
 to Lord Dysart. 
 
 After having done so, he told the peer that only 
 three such notes were in existence. "One," said he, 
 " we have at the bank, another I have just handed 
 to your lordship, and the third, which some time ago 
 disappeared from circulation, we have never been able 
 to trace." 
 
 " Perhaps I can help you," said Lord Dysart, and, 
 hobbling over to a bureau, he unlocked a drawer and 
 took out the missing ; 100,000 note, which had been 
 lying there for many years. 
 
 The craze for having an unlimited sum of ready 
 money at immediate command, no matter at what 
 cost, occasionally affects the young as well as the old. 
 
 According to one account, taking advantage of 
 this idiosyncrasy laid the foundations of the late Sam 
 Lewis's fortune. 
 
 In the earlier portion of this great moneylender's 
 career, when he was making a livelihood by selling 
 jewellery on commission at Brighton, he came across 
 a rich young subaltern, who, in addition to being fond 
 of purchasing costly trinkets, possessed a regular craze 
 for ready money.
 
 SAM LEWIS 269 
 
 This young officer was the very incarnation of 
 laziness, and could not bear the trouble of going into 
 his affairs drawing cheques even when money was 
 at the bank to meet them was almost too great a tax 
 upon his energies. He was, however, quite prepared 
 to pay handsome interest for money which could be 
 obtained without bother. 
 
 Sam, with that shrewdness which was his character- 
 istic, quietly made exhaustive inquiries into the young 
 soldier's affairs, and finding that the latter possessed 
 ample assets if he chose to realize them, advanced the 
 simpleton whatever he wanted at a very remunera- 
 tive rate, with the result that the investment (it could 
 hardly be called a speculation) proved highly profit- 
 able in the end. 
 
 While the nucleus of Sam's large fortune was, 
 of course, made by moneylending, a very con- 
 siderable portion was the result of successful flutters 
 in the City, where Sam was very fortunate. He, too, 
 had one dominating fad gambling. At cards and on 
 the turf he lost many thousands ; nevertheless in an 
 indirect way his passion for high play rather paid him, 
 for it undoubtedly acted as a big advertisement and 
 brought him prominently into notice. 
 
 At Monte Carlo, where he was a well-known figure, 
 his sensational way of playing in maximums always 
 caused him to be surrounded by an admiring and 
 envious crowd. 
 
 His craze for card-playing once cost him many 
 thousands. At a club on the Riviera, organized, 
 it was said, especially for Sam's benefit, he lost one
 
 270 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 night many thousands at baccarat. Though he was 
 afterwards informed that it was highly probable he 
 had been robbed, he characteristically declined to 
 investigate the matter. " Anyhow," said he, "I lost 
 the money and I'm going to pay." 
 
 As his will showed, he had a somewhat superior 
 mind. He would, indeed, have probably succeeded in 
 any line he had chosen to adopt. 
 
 " I don't understand, Sam," once said an old client 
 of his to him, " why you don't retire and go in for 
 politics or something. With your money and brains 
 you would be sure to get on." 
 
 " My boy," was the reply, " it would be hopeless 
 for me to try a new line. Everybody knows what 
 I am; even if I became Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 I should be Sam Lewis the moneylender still." 
 
 Although in his latter years he had virtually retired 
 from business, only negotiating very large loans on 
 good security, the genial little moneylender had 
 become a regular West End institution. His death 
 resulting from a chill caught looking at Queen 
 Victoria's funeral procession gave many a great 
 shock. 
 
 " Good gracious me ! " said a well-known man 
 about town on hearing the sad news; "here's the 
 poor old Queen gone at one end of the week 
 and Sam Lewis at the other! Whatever's going to 
 happen next?" 
 
 In his own particular line Sam was a master of 
 diplomacy and tact. A proof of this was that his 
 name very rarely figured in cases of bankruptcy or
 
 MONEYLENDERS 271 
 
 the like, nor was he ever heard of as suing any one 
 for small sums. 
 
 His knowledge of men about town was so accurate 
 that he very seldom made a mistake. A would-be 
 borrower whom he did not wish to offend he would 
 often get rid of by lending him a small sum at no 
 interest at all ; others he would contrive to foist off 
 on to some humbler member of the moneylending tribe. 
 
 " I don't feel like doing business to-day, my boy," 
 
 Sam would say; "but why don't you give a turn? 
 
 His place is only a stone's-throw from here, and I'm 
 sure you'll find him reasonable." 
 
 Sam, of course, was head and shoulders above all 
 the moneylenders of his day. There is an aristocracy 
 among usurers as in other professions. 
 
 The old-fashioned Shylock, who used to try and 
 get his unfortunate clients to take part of a loan in 
 bad sherry or indifferent cigars, might justly have 
 been placed at the bottom of the scale. 
 
 I remember such a one an obese Hebrew who 
 tried to dazzle youthful clients by flashing about a 
 sham gold cigar-case, ornamented with a huge mono- 
 gram of bogus stones. He was also in the habit of 
 telling them that though he never ate anything, he 
 kept an expensive French cook. Why he should have 
 thought this detail of his domestic life likely to impress 
 would-be borrowers was an insoluble mystery. 
 
 This kind of usurer often used to indulge in specious 
 advertisements, which no doubt originated the circulars 
 which modern moneylenders, or more often their touts, 
 shower broadcast to-day.
 
 272 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 A new fad, championed by Lord Newton, now 
 seeks to make the sending of these circulars an 
 offence. It is regrettable that this clever peer, who 
 is justly regarded as a most valuable asset of the 
 Unionist party, should have fallen a victim to the 
 modern craze for unnecessary legislation. 
 
 Curbing the rapacity of moneylenders on the old 
 mediaeval principle of occasionally drawing a Shylock's 
 teeth is no doubt a very salutary thing, but attempting 
 to suppress what, after all, is merely a nuisance by 
 legislation is surely going too far. 
 
 Only a few years ago a rather sensible Bill dealing 
 with moneylending became law, but, though a good 
 deal was expected from it, I fancy it had little effect. 
 
 This, of course, was before Lord Newton had 
 . begun to direct his energies towards safeguarding 
 the pockets of the public from the unscrupulous in- 
 roads of the bookmaker and the usurer. 
 
 One of his pet theories seems to be that, if people 
 are not exposed to temptation by advertisement or 
 circular, they will neither bet nor borrow money. 
 Ever alert for evidence as to the widespread harm 
 done by these two evils, what must have been the 
 excitement when some poor imbecile usurer sent a 
 circular to the reforming peer's own daughter ! Such 
 a shameless piece of effrontery naturally called for 
 drastic measures, and her father at once drafted a 
 Bill to smite Shylock hip and thigh. 
 
 Of one thing he may be sure whether his Bill 
 eventually passes or not, it will have little or no effect. 
 If he will study the history of European laws against
 
 CENT PER CENT 273 
 
 moneylending, he will discover that the only result 
 of attempts at drastic repression of moneylending is 
 an increase in the rate of interest demanded from 
 borrowers. 
 
 Legislation has always proved completely im- 
 potent in preventing impecunious or foolish people 
 from being entangled in the tentacles of the octopus 
 of cent per cent, which, in the nature of things, is 
 after all but a necessary monster. 
 
 I say necessary, because, in spite of the denuncia- 
 tions of Lord Newton and of bankers (themselves 
 merely a privileged class of moneylender), the usurer 
 is an unavoidable product of civilization. 
 
 Lord Newton, no doubt, having plenty of money 
 does not see this, but there are many who, at times, 
 find it absolutely essential to negotiate a loan, even 
 upon what may appear to be ruinous terms. 
 
 A delay of twenty-four hours in paying a large 
 sum may mean the social ruin of an individual, and 
 under such circumstances small wonder that he 
 should be only too pleased to pay a heavy rate of 
 interest for an immediate loan. 
 
 Moneylenders are abused for charging a heavy 
 percentage 25, 40, 60, even 100 per cent for 
 lending their money. 
 
 Is there any tradesman, I should like to know, 
 who does not expect to make just as high a profit 
 on his goods? 
 
 If I go into a West End shop and buy a gold 
 cigar-case, the seller will certainly not make less 
 than 30 per cent out of the sale ; why should
 
 274 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 money the most precious of all commodities be 
 sold at a smaller rate of profit than anything else ? 
 
 The agitation against moneylenders has been over- 
 done. Their profession exists because of the weak- 
 ness and fallibility of human nature, and nothing will 
 seriously affect it. 
 
 An even more futile and meddlesome fad of Lord 
 Newton's in his Anti-Betting Bill. He does not, 
 of course, call it by that name, nevertheless it best 
 indicates what it is expected to effect. 
 
 The Betting Inducements Bill, as its official title 
 runs, did not receive the support of any prominent 
 patrons of the Turf in the House of Lords ; they all 
 (with the exception of Lord Durham, who was absent) 
 voted for Lord Derby's amendment. 
 
 Nor does there appear to be any particular enthu- 
 siasm for it in the House of Commons. Mr. James 
 Hogge, M.P. for East Edinburgh, and the most 
 fanatical of anti-gambling faddists, is of course its 
 warm supporter ; on the other hand, a few very 
 advanced Radicals, much to their credit, are going 
 to fight it tooth and nail. 
 
 The ostensible object of this latest specimen of 
 faddist legislation is to prevent the " writing, printing, 
 and publishing or circulating in the United Kingdom 
 of any advertisements of any betting or tipster's 
 business," nevertheless, as in reality it is merely an 
 attempt to prohibit betting amongst the poor, the 
 best name for it would be " A Bill for the Restriction 
 of Betting to the Wealthy Classes." 
 
 What is the Stock Exchange but a huge gaming-
 
 A NOBLE FADDIST 275 
 
 house? Indeed, what in any society or in any place 
 is the pursuit of money, unaccompanied by industry, 
 but trading on chances, sheer gambling ? 
 
 Lord Newton, in short, is content to allow the rich 
 to speculate and gamble to their hearts' content, and 
 avowedly limits his restrictive efforts to the poor, 
 whom, like many other people with plenty of time on 
 their hands, he thinks capital subjects for his experi- 
 mental legislation. 
 
 I am informed by several members that numbers 
 of their working-class constituents are bitterly 
 opposed to Lord Newton's Bill, which has also been 
 severely criticized by the sporting Press. 
 
 His lordship, however, apparently ignoring the 
 meaning of the words " individual liberty," seems 
 genuinely unable to understand why any one should 
 be opposed to his proposals. In the course of a 
 speech he made when opening a new Savings Bank at 
 Stockport in August, he deplored the unfashionable- 
 ness of thrift, which Parliament did not encourage. 
 
 In the past Session (he added) he himself had 
 been an unsuccessful worker in the cause of thrift, but 
 his betting and moneylenders Bills, which were 
 intended to protect the ignorant and the credulous, 
 had caused him to be described as a "most abandoned 
 person" and as a "socialist." Though one cannot 
 approve of the former at least of these two terms 
 being applied to the speaker, it is pleasant to learn 
 that Lord Newton is being made to realize how 
 deeply many Englishmen resent his attempted 
 destruction of personal liberty by legislation.
 
 276 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 The attitude of the Nonconformist conscience 
 towards betting is, with all its narrowness and limita- 
 tions, after all, perfectly logical. The same cannot 
 be said of this new form of Unionist faddism. How, 
 for instance, can Lord Newton, who holds such strong 
 views as to the evils produced by betting, justify his 
 position in remaining in a party which runs Mr. Robert 
 Sievier a perfectly frank and self-confessed gambler 
 as official candidate for Hoxton ? One thing I 
 think we may be sure of, and that is, that the proprietor 
 of the Winning Post, who is certainly not a humbug, 
 should he get into the House of Commons, will 
 stanchly oppose all futile and meddlesome inter- 
 ference with the liberties of the people. 
 
 Be this as it may, one thing is certain : Lord 
 Newton may frame any Bill he likes, but he will 
 never check betting or gambling. Further, if he and 
 his fellow-spoilsports continue to indulge in making 
 unnecessary laws, an inevitable reaction against being 
 made virtuous by Act of Parliament is sure to follow. 
 Human nature is too strong to be dragooned into 
 virtue, and, let faddists do what they may, the people 
 will eventually resent the dreariness of a world trans- 
 formed into a reformatory by educational philanthropists 
 or into a paradise designed by prigs.
 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 YEAR by year the struggle for existence grows 
 keener, the population greater, and life more 
 strenuous. There is undoubtedly more com- 
 fort and luxury, but there is also more social unrest. 
 
 On the other hand, that general indifference to the 
 wellbeing and habits of the community at large which 
 characterized our ancestors has been succeeded by an 
 almost frenzied desire to improve the conditions under 
 which the people live. 
 
 We have got rid of town burial-grounds, multiplied 
 windows, analysed poisonous victuals, poured down 
 the ears of the multitude streams of knowledge about 
 drains, sewers, fresh air, and good water, and generally 
 attempted to teach the masses to live in accordance 
 with the laws by which men's bodies are governed. 
 
 If good drainage, sanitary reform, and laws for the 
 regulation of everything and everybody could make 
 humanity happy, the inhabitants of our great cities 
 ought to be the happiest people in the world. 
 
 There is, however, a dark side to the picture. To 
 begin with, what can be more pitiable than the condi- 
 tion of the "genteel poor," who have to sacrifice so
 
 278 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 much for the sake of keeping up appearances ? The 
 terrible strain of making both ends meet on a small 
 fixed salary kills the soul of many a poor clerk or 
 office underling with a wife and children to support. 
 The lot of such a man is, in some respects, worse 
 than that of the factory operative, for, with the excep- 
 tion of a brief holiday, he passes his life in the dull 
 drab work of making money for others to spend. 
 There is no variety or excitement except domestic 
 worries in his existence ; one morning is like another, 
 and every evening he reaches home so tired both 
 mentally and bodily that he cannot be expected to 
 take interest in the affairs of the community at large. 
 The result is a class, the majority of whom are 
 practically indifferent to social, political, or religious 
 questions ; utterly tired out by having to remain in 
 a groove, sleep is probably the only real relaxation 
 they enjoy. Hope is crushed out of them with the 
 progress of years ; indeed, the only thing the older 
 ones have to look forward to is the time when they 
 can go to sleep for ever. 
 
 No doubt a certain number of clerks do contrive to 
 rise to better positions, but the overwork, worry, and 
 meagre salary kill initiative and imagination in the 
 vast majority, who become mere machines for register- 
 ing and supervising the increase of wealth, such a 
 minute portion of which finds its way into their poor 
 shabby pockets. Their lot is a most miserable one, 
 and at present there seems little prospect of its being 
 improved. 
 
 The condition of the working classes, on the other
 
 FACTORIES 279 
 
 hand, has undoubtedly improved ; to begin with, 
 their hours are shorter and they get more pay. 
 
 If, however, their wages are higher, they are looked 
 upon more as mere moneymaking machines than they 
 were in the past. 
 
 In the eighteenth century the social bonds between 
 master and man were promoted by many things which 
 would now be considered out of date. Employers 
 and workpeople, both in town and country, were in 
 close touch. Employe's often lived with their master 
 and his family, while in the farmhouses it was quite 
 usual for a farmer to work and take his meals with his 
 labourers. Many industries were carried on in the 
 people's own homes. Machinery put an end to all 
 this. Its introduction was at first anything but 
 welcome. It would almost seem as if the working 
 classes, when they wrecked new labour-saving inven- 
 tions, had some kind of premonition of the soul- 
 crushing factory system which in a way has effectually 
 enslaved their descendants. Notwithstanding this the 
 workers, though in strict justice they may not have 
 received quite their fair share of the increased 
 commercial prosperity which has produced so many 
 millionaires, have more reason to be satisfied than 
 other classes with appearances to keep up. 
 
 The present factory system in the future will 
 probably be much improved and humanized. Progress 
 in the storage of energy and the perfection of 
 machinery may enable a great output to be produced 
 with a very moderate amount of work. 
 
 Nevertheless, thoughtful people, while reluctantly
 
 280 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 recognizing its necessity, must always regret the 
 days when even the simplest necessities of life were 
 made by craftsmen, many of whom took a real delight 
 in the perfection of their handiwork. 
 
 If factories continue to exist and under modern 
 conditions, and as far as we can see, they must exist 
 I do not for a moment believe that posterity will 
 allow enormous profits to be made out of them by one 
 man, his family, or by a group of shareholders, 
 without those who produce the wealth having a larger 
 share the factory hand will receive more pay and 
 have more leisure, by which means his class will be 
 levelled up. Not Socialism but Co-operation will 
 probably bring this about. 
 
 When in ancient days an individual accumulated so 
 much wealth or land that he seemed likely, owing to 
 his power, to become a danger to the State, which at 
 that time really meant the King, his wings were very 
 soon clipped. 
 
 In mediaeval times monarchs were found to load 
 their favourites with enormously valuable gifts, but the 
 lavish grants of the Crown were checked by the power 
 of resumption. Most of the vast estates seized and 
 retained by William the Conqueror were dissipated by 
 William Rufus. The Crown was at one time com- 
 pelled to resume the grants, portions of its ancient 
 inheritance, which had been alienated by Edward III 
 and Richard II. The same kind of thing occurred in 
 the reigns of Henry VI and Henry VII. 
 
 No one ventures to dispute that this power of 
 resumption in connexion with properties and land
 
 RESUMPTION 281 
 
 on the whole worked out for the benefit of the 
 country. 
 
 But there is no resumption of the enormous fortunes 
 made out of labour by modern owners of capital. 
 The freedom of a comparatively few to make 
 exaggerated profits at the expense of the whole com- 
 munity is practically unchecked. I am not, of course, 
 denying that a number of manufacturers are useful to 
 the community or advocating confiscation ; I cannot, 
 however, help thinking that the day will come when 
 at least a moderate proportion of the gigantic fortunes 
 made out of factories will in some form or other be 
 allocated for the benefit either of those who spend 
 their whole existence in them or for the general 
 purposes of the State. 
 
 A regular scale will, I believe, be adopted for every 
 trade and profession, setting forth the minimum pro- 
 portion of profit which must be paid to the individuals 
 who produce it. 
 
 Though in many things strongly opposed to what 
 are claimed to be the ideals of modern democracy, I 
 can never understand how sensible and thoughtful 
 people can be surprised at the efforts of the worker to 
 obtain better wages for his work. 
 
 Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and he 
 who finds himself born into a state of life where he is 
 obliged to slave for other people is undoubtedly 
 justified in seeking to improve his condition. 
 
 Workmen, and even labourers, are better paid than 
 of yore, but when all is said and done, the fact 
 remains that there are more people in England to-day
 
 282 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 leading wretched and poverty-stricken lives than there 
 were a hundred years ago. The objection that, 
 considering the great increase of population, the 
 proportion is less, is a mere quibble. If there had 
 been any great amount of real progress, poverty and 
 misery would have been reduced to a minimum ; as it 
 is, the sum of human suffering stands higher than it 
 ever stood before. Of course it is ridiculous to think 
 (as some visionaries like to do) that poverty and 
 misery will be entirely swept away. There will 
 always be poor people and also wretched ones, but 
 under a proper system there should be no reason 
 why any really worthy man, woman, or child should 
 be insufficiently fed or clothed or lack a decent roof 
 over their heads. On the other hand, the utterly 
 worthless Nature's mistakes after being given 
 several fair chances, will be segregated under special 
 discipline suited to their needs. 
 
 The only true remedy for social ills, though many 
 dispute it, is education. 
 
 I do not mean what usually passes for it, but real 
 practical training devised to meet the needs of 
 various types. 
 
 At present children of widely differing mental 
 capacity are all lumped into the same educational 
 boat. Under a proper system only those showing 
 signs of real intelligence would be taught advanced 
 subjects, and thus much energy, ability, and time would 
 be saved to overworked teachers. 
 
 Self-improvement is not a mere empty sound ; 
 the reward in some shape or other must be satis-
 
 NATIONAL NON-EDUCATION 283 
 
 factory. The humblest ranks have their heroes as 
 well as the titled and noble. Knowledge will obey 
 the call made upon her, whether it be by rich or 
 poor. 
 
 But knowledge cannot be induced by mere 
 cramming. 
 
 Plato observed that the minds of children were 
 like bottles with very narrow mouths if you 
 attempted to fill them too rapidly much knowledge 
 was wasted and little received, whereas, with a small 
 stream, they were easily filled. Those who would 
 make young children prodigies act as wisely as if 
 they would pour a pail of water into a pint 
 measure. 
 
 The whole of our system of national education, 
 which is really the most important thing of all, needs 
 careful revision. 
 
 After all, as Schopenhauer said, you can teach a 
 child to worship anything even a teapot. Why 
 should we not be able to teach the children of Eng- 
 land to worship the ideal of good citizenship, efficiency, 
 and general knowledge ? 
 
 Socialism, whether Revolutionary or Fabian, ad- 
 mirable as are a number of its aims, will probably 
 never effect any serious amelioration of the present 
 really miserable state of affairs. 
 
 A body of strong, powerful, ruthless, matter-of-fact 
 but highly intelligent men, on the other hand, might 
 do it, and in spite of my own mental bent, which 
 inclines me to believe that the future of the world 
 will be something of the kind pictured in the pessi-
 
 284 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 mistic "1'Ile des Penguins" of Anatole France, I 
 believe that some day they will. 
 
 In the accomplishment of such a great purpose, 
 much top-hamper in the shape of traditional ideas, 
 now very dear to many, will have to be swept away. 
 Much which now influences our lives and thoughts, 
 born of ecclesiastical influence and the dead hand of 
 medisevalism, will have to go. 
 
 The real democracy of the future which it is to 
 be hoped will in reality be an aristocracy of intelli- 
 gence, intellect, and common sense drawn from all 
 classes will probably discard many shibboleths dear 
 to so-called democratic leaders of to-day. My im- 
 pression is that in the far future we shall go back 
 to some modification of the old slave system, in 
 which worthless people will be obliged to work for 
 those of higher mental development. Also I am 
 convinced that, in the ages to come, population will 
 be very strictly limited. To my mind there is 
 nothing so symptomatic of the collective idiocy of 
 humanity than the congratulations which follow upon 
 any announcement of some town having doubled 
 its population since the last century, or the laments 
 over the failure of the French to multiply themselves 
 with indecent speed. 
 
 The only real reason for desiring an enormous 
 population is a secret wish to be able to browbeat or 
 overpower some other nation, and, with the alteration 
 in modern ways of fighting, it is becoming doubtful 
 whether even this will remain a good reason. With 
 changed methods of fighting, numbers do not tell as 
 they did in old days.
 
 MILLIONS OF WEAKLINGS 285 
 
 The population of a country, strictly speaking, 
 according to the decrees of Nature (which the modern 
 world thinks of small importance), should be limited 
 to its natural food supply. England, I believe, is at 
 most able to support some twenty millions. The 
 number of inhabitants at present is a good deal more 
 than double that figure, but, of course, allowance must 
 be made for emigration and wastage. At present 
 thousands have to live upon preserved foods and the 
 like, which probably have a tendency to weaken the 
 national stamina. The true race-suicide is the multi- 
 plication of feeble individuals. A dozen men of 
 strong constitution are worth fifty weaklings. 
 
 The objection that limiting the population is con- 
 trary to Nature cannot seriously be sustained the 
 ants limit the size of their communities in accordance 
 with their food supply. 
 
 Ecclesiastics, of course, are always urging the 
 populace to marry early and have large families. 
 This, no doubt, was an excellent thing for the 
 nomadic Jews of the Bible, roaming about with their 
 flocks and herds, with huge tracts of country to wander 
 over, but for the modern town-dweller it generally 
 means the annihilation of all comfort, decency, and 
 health I will not add culture ; a man and woman 
 living with a large family in poverty in a slum cannot 
 of necessity, except in very rare cases, be expected to 
 rise much above the level of their ancestors of a 
 primaeval age. 
 
 This partiality of the Church for a high birth-rate, 
 undoubtedly the main cause of enormous misery and
 
 286 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 poverty, must alienate many who attach less im- 
 portance to mere traditional superstition than to 
 ordinary common sense. The newly developed 
 habit of calling for legislation against immorality, 
 which the Church confesses itself impotent to check, 
 is another cause which, if carried to an extreme, will 
 further weaken its prestige. The principal exponent 
 of this new school of Churchmen is the Bishop of 
 London, a good and sincere man, capable of exhibiting 
 an almost savage ferocity as regards the moral lapses 
 of men. 
 
 His ruthlessness towards illicit love in some respects 
 resembles that of the austere priest in Zola's charming 
 and poetic " La Faute de 1'Abbe Mouret." 
 
 No better picture of certain dehumanizing effects 
 of celibacy has ever been drawn than this. 
 
 Over-population is, undoubtedly, the main cause of 
 all the misery which produces Revolutionary Socialism, 
 many apostles of which, paradoxically enough, become 
 dangerous fanatics, owing to their sensitive natures 
 and goodness of heart, which cannot bear the con- 
 templation of so much apparently needless suffering. 
 
 From a merely selfish point of view the well-to-do 
 classes, which themselves have of late begun to 
 manifest a partiality for small families, should realize 
 the danger which looms ahead. 
 
 A single snowflake who cares for it ? But an 
 unlimited mass of snowflakes obliterating the land- 
 marks, drifting over the doors, gathering upon the 
 mountains to crash in avalanches who does not 
 care for that ?
 
 FALLACIOUS FORECASTS 287 
 
 Is it not better to face facts as they are, and thus 
 pave the way for avoiding the crash, than to com- 
 placently say, " Well, after all, nothing very much 
 will happen in my time ! " 
 
 When discussing this question people usually 
 argue that "disease or war will keep the population 
 down if it grows inconveniently big," This is "the 
 everything comes right in the end, don't you know " 
 attitude. War, though sometimes sport to the rich, 
 it is true, has always been death to the poor, but 
 though it on occasion undoubtedly develops splendid 
 and virile qualities, it can scarcely be relied upon 
 as an ideal instrument of progress. 
 
 Disease, with all its mental and physical torture, 
 is an avowed curse of human existence which every 
 one, without exception, would like to see mitigated to 
 the greatest possible extent. 
 
 Nevertheless, we are bidden to cheerfully look to 
 these two curses to control the future of the human 
 race. 
 
 Another and more thoughtful school of sociologists 
 pins its faith to democracy, by which it means various 
 ideas and nostrums thrust upon the proletariat by 
 rather clever faddists drawn from an entirely different 
 class. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it seems to me very doubtful 
 if the present brand of democracy, as it is understood 
 to-day, will count for anything in the future. 
 
 Much was expected from the extension of the 
 franchise by ardent Radicals of a past generation 
 which relied too much upon representative govern-
 
 288 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 ment. In reality, the form of a government is of 
 little importance the essential thing is that it should 
 govern well. 
 
 Up to the present time democracy has settled nothing. 
 With its rise to power, the House of Commons, how- 
 ever, has lost much of its prestige, while many 
 sensible people openly declare their disgust with so- 
 called representative institutions. It must, however, 
 be remembered that what we call " democracy " is, 
 after all, of but quite recent origin a thing of yester- 
 day, indeed, born of the great French Revolution and 
 the weakness of Louis XVI. Contrary to current 
 opinion, the collective judgment of the masses is far 
 from being infallible they have so little time to think. 
 Why any sane people should imagine that a number 
 of fools should produce more wisdom than a selected 
 few, except if it be granted that one fool counteracts 
 another, I have never been able to understand. 
 
 We have got to look at the world not as we would 
 wish it to be, but as it is. It has always abounded 
 with idiots too dull to be employed and knaves too 
 sharp to be trusted. It is absurd to pretend that the 
 masses are an exception to this rule. They are no 
 better and no worse than the classes above them, but 
 the conditions of their existence are unfavourable to 
 culture and thought ; they are therefore easily led by 
 the nose, and have few independent opinions about 
 anything, except the pressing necessity not to 
 starve. 
 
 The aristocratic system of government in the past 
 at least assured the ease and happiness of a certain
 
 AN UNATTAINABLE IDEAL 289 
 
 amount of privileged and fortunate individuals ; 
 undoubtedly, it also greatly promoted art. 
 
 The democratic system of the future, if it develops 
 on the lines laid down by its leaders of to-day, bids 
 fair to produce nothing but general mediocrity. The 
 claim that reducing every one to the same level 
 levelling down, not up will produce universal happi- 
 ness would be pathetic were it not so absurd. 
 
 Universal happiness is a consummation which 
 cannot happen unless the entire nature of things is 
 changed. When romantic generosity shall be as 
 common as gross selfishness ; when love of power 
 shall no longer goad men on to restless action ; 
 when passion and will, hope and fear, love and 
 hatred, good and evil, shall no longer sway the 
 hearts and heads of men then, and then only, can 
 such a forecast be realized. 
 
 If, however, universal happiness on earth is an 
 unattainable ideal, a great and general improvement 
 in the conditions of human existence is more than 
 probable. We stand now as regards posterity much 
 as the cave man in his time stood to us. In the days 
 when man, a rude, semi-savage, wandered through 
 the primeval forests, a visitor from another world 
 would never have anticipated the civilization of to- 
 day, imperfect and faulty though it be ! 
 
 Accordingly, looking forward over the gulf of 
 coming centuries towards the unborn, generations of 
 the remote future, we may fairly anticipate that they 
 will have solved many pressing and essential problems 
 of to-day. If to us the conditions of life entail much
 
 290 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 sorrow, much suffering, and much needless injustice, 
 with but a small dole of pleasure, it is at least some 
 compensation to think that humanity in the future will 
 move in a brighter, better-adjusted, and more cultured 
 world than that which witnessed the struggles of its 
 ancestors towards the light. 
 
 Religion, were it to become broadminded and 
 tolerant, might greatly assist progress ; unfortunately 
 the reluctance of its teachers to moderate the rigidity 
 of their tenets rather tends to minimize its influence 
 among the masses. As John Bright once said, " The 
 working people of the country do not care any more 
 for the dogmas of Christianity than the upper classes 
 care for the practise of it." 
 
 Sentimentalism is another barrier in the way of real 
 civilization we lack that robust spirit which prompted 
 Charles Kingsley to write : 
 
 "Welcome, brave North-easter, shame it is to see 
 Odes to every zephyr, not a line to thee." 
 
 Signs of a reaction against sloppy sentimentalism 
 are not wanting ; in this direction, no one has done 
 better service than Mr. Charles Whibley with his 
 admirable " Letters of an Englishman." 
 
 It is a pity that more clever public men do not 
 cultivate a reputation for being stanch upholders of 
 law, order, and the defence of property. 
 
 The modern attitude towards disorder, and even 
 towards crime, is perhaps one of the most disquieting 
 symptoms of the times. Any one who pleads that he 
 has a social or a political grievance seems to become,
 
 THE PROLETARIAT 291 
 
 in a way, a privileged, lawbreaker, and self-seeking 
 agitators who make incendiary speeches are far too 
 leniently treated. 
 
 One of the great curses connected with so-called 
 government of the people by the people is that it 
 invariably produces a greater number of charlatans 
 and swindlers than the worst forms of autocracy. In 
 the heat and frenzy of the French Revolution the 
 sordid struggle for place and power never sustained 
 the smallest diminution ; appointments and offices 
 were never pursued with more eagerness and intrigue 
 than when the heads of those who gained them sat 
 loosely on their shoulders, held on, as it were, merely by 
 pieces of sticking-plaster. Demagogues sprang up like 
 mushrooms, and the crop seemed to be fecundated 
 by blood. Heads fell in all directions. It repeatedly 
 happened that the guillotine finished off an individual 
 newly risen to fame before the artist who had been 
 commissioned to prepare a bust had finished his 
 work. Frequently the original was dead before the 
 plaster was dry. 
 
 The proletariat itself cannot govern, for, owing to 
 the struggle for existence, the workers cannot find 
 time to reason out the many complicated problems 
 connected with law-making and the like. Blandilo- 
 quent agitators with a glib tongue apt at flattery 
 naturally come to the front together with a certain 
 number of rather clever faddists full of totally 
 erroneous ideas as to the aspirations and needs of 
 the class which they claim to represent. These 
 faddists, though generally perfectly sincere, are even
 
 292 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 more dangerous than the self-seeking representatives 
 of the people (humanity swindlers, Bismarck called 
 them) who make a living by stirring up class against 
 class. 
 
 Sentimentalists in a position of power are rarely 
 able to form very just estimates either of others or 
 of themselves. Their knowledge of themselves is 
 obscured by egotism and pride in their fancied mission 
 to the world ; their knowledge of others is equally 
 clouded by lack of knowledge of human nature. 
 
 Such men often live in a land of dreams, believing 
 that the selfishness and stupidity, the deformities and 
 disasters of humanity of the present can be easily 
 rectified by gentleness and remonstrance. Not a few 
 often profess unbounded sympathy for every one in 
 general and criminals and malefactors in particular. 
 
 At heart the masses, though they allow both these 
 types of men to pose as their representatives, do not, 
 I believe, repose any real faith in their honeyed words 
 and abundant promises. 
 
 Humanity has ever loved and will ever love a 
 strong man, and were he to arise the whole country 
 would be at his feet. 
 
 What is wanted is a figure like Cromwell, " whose 
 rule was to seek out men for places, not places for 
 men." 
 
 He had faith in his mission, and endeavoured to 
 fulfil it to the utmost of his ability. Cromwell was 
 indeed that rarest of men, an honest politician. His 
 soul was too mighty to need a cloak, and there is no 
 evidence he was ever actuated by ulterior motives.
 
 CROMWELL 293 
 
 From the point of view of the party which he 
 represented he was scrupulously fair to Charles I, 
 whose death he conscientiously considered necessary 
 for the honour and salvation of England. By this 
 act he deliberately exposed himself to the resentment 
 of quite half the kingdom, and that fact ought to 
 weigh heavily against any supposition that he was 
 actuated by merely sordid motives. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is noteworthy how little the mob 
 appreciated all that Cromwell had done for England. 
 After the Restoration, it was dangerous to express 
 any sentiments favourable to the regime which had 
 just passed away. The country at that time re- 
 pudiated virtually every act of Cromwell and his 
 associates, and in all legal documents the existence 
 of the Commonwealth was sternly ignored. The super- 
 stitious discerned the finger of Providence in the 
 unhappy lives of most of the regicides, and the 
 infamous ends of several of them even the glorious 
 Milton, who entreated Cromwell to spare the King's 
 life, narrowly escaped being hanged at Tyburn. A 
 somewhat parallel instance in later times was the 
 ill-fortune which seemed to attach itself to so many 
 of those who were mainly instrumental in bringing 
 Louis XVI to the guillotine. There is, however, 
 little analogy between the two revolutions. The bulk 
 of the French people thirsted for the blood of their 
 monarch and rejoiced at his downfall. The great 
 majority of the English nation was opposed to the 
 dethronement, much more to the execution, of Charles, 
 and bitterly mourned his untimely end, which even
 
 294 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 some of his most bitter enemies deplored as a 
 lamentable necessity. 
 
 The Great Revolution of 1789 had nothing in 
 common with the struggle between Cavalier and 
 Roundhead. In the first-named social upheaval it 
 was the common people against the aristocracy in 
 the second the gentry of England were fairly dis- 
 tributed on both sides indeed, the proletariat, except 
 for probably suffering a good deal of inconvenience 
 and rough treatment at the hands of both armies, were 
 little concerned. 
 
 The English aristocracy, as should be remembered 
 to their credit, never oppressed those in a humble 
 position of life as did the noblesse across the Channel. 
 
 Considerate treatment of social inferiors in perhaps 
 a primitive form existed in England even during the 
 Middle Ages. After a battle, as Philip de Comminges 
 noted, the English knights cried, " Kill the nobles, 
 but save the men-at-arms ; " abroad it was, " Save 
 the nobles, but kill the common soldiers." 
 
 The English nobility of those far-off days practised 
 none of the brutalities which French seigneurs con- 
 sidered as part of their rights. Property was re- 
 spected except after the Reformation, when the 
 monasteries were broken up. 
 
 No doubt the nobility then managed to grab a 
 vast quantity of Church lands, but I do not see why 
 modern Radicalism should urge that as a legitimate 
 reason for pillaging the aristocracy of to-day. Two 
 wrongs never yet made a right ; besides, it is doubtful 
 whether it was not more advantageous for the people
 
 GRAB 295 
 
 at large that the vast estates accumulated by monks 
 should pass into the hands of a nobility which, at 
 all events, was likely to make a better use of them 
 than the monks had done the opposition to the 
 breaking up of the monasteries was not serious. 
 
 The monks, though we surround them with a halo 
 born of picturesque ruins, old fishponds, green lawns, 
 and peaceful old gardens, were not popular, also they 
 were often rapacious. At one time or another they 
 must have owned a very large proportion of all the 
 land in England. They were notorious grabbers, 
 which was the reason that the populace were rather 
 pleased than otherwise when the nobility grabbed 
 in their turn. About the only individual indeed, 
 other than the monks, whom this last process of 
 grabbing seems to have upset is Mr. Lloyd George, 
 who is never tired of alluding to the appropriation of 
 Church lands by the wicked aristocracy. 
 
 In toleration of religions, or the lack of them, 
 England, to her honour, has always been ahead of 
 other nations, and if the monks had deserved to 
 remain the country would not have tolerated their 
 expulsion. 
 
 In the days when the Roman Church claimed to 
 rule in every hamlet in the country, she inspired a 
 deep resentment, which generations later caused an 
 enthusiastic welcome to be accorded to the Hugue- 
 nots, whom the insensate policy of Louis XIV, 
 prompted by the Jesuits and old Madame de Main- 
 tenon, drove out of France. 
 
 No finer stock of men than those earnest and
 
 29(5 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 sincere fighters against persecution ever existed, and 
 it is pleasant to see that their strenuous and gallant 
 efforts were not all in vain. All over Europe their 
 descendants have done much for the cause of true 
 liberty and true progress. We have only to glance 
 at the history of our manufactures to see how 
 enormously these French exiles benefited England. 
 This is not the place to deal with technical matters, 
 but indirectly a large number of modern conveniences 
 and inventions are the outcome of Huguenot brains. 
 
 As soldiers, the descendants of the brave French 
 Protestants are still unrivalled : witness the Boers and 
 many gallant English soldiers. The military history 
 of numbers of Huguenot families is glorious in the 
 extreme, and in this age of monuments and of the 
 entente cordiale it seems a pity that, somewhere on 
 the cliffs facing France, there should not be erected 
 a memorial giving the names of the many gallant 
 men of French descent who have given their lives 
 for the country which sheltered their fofefathers 
 in the dark days of bigotry and persecution. 
 
 Personally, I have such an intense admiration for 
 the Huguenots that I at once feel interested when- 
 ever I meet any one coming of that stock. I believe 
 if a complete record could be found, it would be dis- 
 covered that a very large proportion of those who 
 have contributed to modern civilization and progress 
 are of Huguenot descent ; besides this, as a rule, no 
 matter what position in life they occupy, they are 
 generally real gentlemen at heart the Boers, in spite 
 of their uncouth ways, are described as having a
 
 THE HUGUENOTS 297 
 
 certain innate dignity, which, considering their up- 
 bringing and surroundings, is only to be explained 
 by their French ancestry. 
 
 It is curious to speculate as to how France would 
 have developed had Roman Catholicism never been 
 its State religion. At one time such a state of affairs 
 was not entirely without the bounds of possibility, for 
 it is said that almost one-third of the population 
 belonged or were favourably inclined to the faith 
 which Henri IV abandoned. 
 
 "Paris vaut bien une messe," said he; and no 
 doubt, in addition to personal considerations of great 
 weight, there were many other reasons for ending 
 the fratricidal struggles which distracted his country. 
 At the same time a Protestant France would have 
 been far more formidable from every point of view. 
 As it was, Roman Catholicism triumphed for a while, 
 but the result to-day is that modern France is 
 practically an agnostic nation which regards clerical- 
 ism as a relic of an unenlightened age. 
 
 Napoleon at one time hesitated as to what form 
 of religion he should impose upon the French. His 
 decision to revive Roman Catholicism was based 
 upon the conviction that it was the most likely to 
 ensure the continuance of the Imperial regime. 
 
 The persecution of the Huguenots is yet vaguely 
 remembered by the French proletariat ; how else 
 can the complacent acceptance of the law abolishing 
 the monasteries be accounted for? Even in the 
 district where was situated the Grande Chartreuse, 
 most of the monks of which were retired military
 
 298 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 men who spent their lives in doing good, the 
 Deputies who voted for the expulsion were after- 
 wards returned by enormous majorities ; this must 
 have been almost purely atavistic hatred of the 
 Roman Church, for nothing could have been more 
 beneficial to the interests of the countryside than 
 the famous clerical manufactory of chartreuse, the 
 receipt for which was originally given to the Car- 
 thusians in the seventeenth century by the Marechal 
 d'Estr^es. 
 
 In connexion with this expulsion, all sorts of 
 reports were circulated to arouse public feeling against 
 the monks. The most absurd of these was the gross 
 libel that they promoted intemperance by the distri- 
 bution of their famous liqueur ! 
 
 The real truth was that they very rightly allowed 
 their workpeople to have one glass of chartreuse a 
 day if they cared to do so. Many other similar 
 libels were current, but in all probability none of 
 them much influenced the electorate, who were quite 
 determined to make an end of monastic institutions. 
 The monks of the Grande Chartreuse had been 
 expelled once before. Will they ever return ? At 
 present it seems unlikely, but monks have a curious 
 way of slipping back to their old resting-places, and 
 anything is possible in France. 
 
 The French Government, I believe, mindful of 
 the homing tendencies of religious congregations, 
 have drafted all sorts of drastic ordinances designed 
 to prevent such a return. No Englishman (prob- 
 ably no foreigner), I believe, is allowed to purchase
 
 RETROSPECTION 299 
 
 any of the buildings which have been confiscated by 
 the State, and even a French purchaser has to give a 
 guarantee that he will not allow or connive at such 
 buildings being devoted to any but purely secular 
 purposes. 
 
 In England there are many legends of ill-luck 
 attached to old country houses standing on the site 
 of monasteries, and in a minor degree the same 
 tradition seems arising as to confiscated French 
 monastic property to-day. A large hotel on the 
 site of a monastery near Paris, I was told, has been 
 singularly unfortunate, and all sorts of superstitions 
 as to old convents which have been put to secular 
 uses prevail. 
 
 There are certainly quite a curious number of tragic 
 incidents connected with places like Newstead Abbey, 
 Cowdray, Coldham Hall, and many other buildings. 
 The ground on which the Carlton Hotel stands, it is 
 said, was, up till recently, under a curse owing to out- 
 rages committed upon a religious community in a long- 
 past age. When, however, the present Carlton Hotel 
 Company was formed, one of the directors, being a 
 pious Catholic, by means of a diplomatic intermediary, 
 got the Catholic authorities to remove the curse, with, 
 I believe, benefit to the dividends. 
 
 *#=**# 
 
 During the eighteenth century, though the working 
 classes showed some slight symptoms of awakening 
 from political sleep, there was little social unrest. 
 The people being for the most part totally uneducated 
 had, of course, no share in the government. To
 
 300 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 most people at the present this seems wrong and 
 unjust, but it must be remembered that owing to 
 various causes lack of communications, of training 
 colleges, and many other institutions popular educa- 
 tion as we see it to-day would then have been an 
 impossibility. On the other hand, to have allowed 
 the illiterate labourers, artisans, and workmen of that 
 day to vote would have been madness in its most 
 virulent form. 
 
 The consequence was that members of the House 
 of Commons were for the most part the nominees of 
 great nobles, wealthy landowners, and people with a 
 large stake in the country. In theory this system was 
 indefensible, but in practice it did not work out ill. 
 
 The third Earl of Darlington, afterwards Marquis 
 of Cleveland, though a wise and statesmanlike peer of 
 very liberal views, when taunted with being a borough- 
 monger, freely owned that he had purposely, at great 
 expense, obtained the control of his boroughs because 
 such property was so often used for improper purposes, 
 and there was no other mode of counteracting those 
 who thus used it. 
 
 A certain Lord Lonsdale reduced boroughmonger- 
 ing to a science. He held some property in the little 
 rotten borough of ftaslemere, now disfranchised, and 
 in order to return its two members he actually im- 
 ported into it forty Cumberland colliers who were 
 provided with cottages and were paid half a guinea a 
 week each for twenty years, in return for which they 
 only had to record their votes for two of the Earl's 
 nominees, who each drew some thousands annually of
 
 LIGHT AND AIR 301 
 
 public money. This same Lord Lonsdale at one time 
 returned the two members for Cumberland, but at one 
 election the Duke of Portland started an opposition 
 candidate. The result was that the two noblemen 
 spent between them no less than ; 100,000 in the 
 contest, and would no doubt have spent a good deal 
 more. Happily for their pockets, however, they 
 agreed to save their money in the future by each 
 nominating one member. Altogether Lord Lonsdale 
 managed to return no less than nine members to the 
 House of Commons, where they were known as 
 41 Lord Lonsdale's people." 
 
 All this sounds very shocking to modern ears ; but 
 it may be asked, considering that the great majority 
 of the population was totally ignorant and uneducated 
 and also that the upper classes then possessed a real 
 political sense of governing according to the needs of 
 that day, what other system would have been possible? 
 Though morally indefensible, the boroughmongering 
 really amounted to but a side issue ; the electorate as 
 we see it to-day had no vote and were not fit to vote ; 
 all that was to come later on, bringing with it the 
 results that we now see. 
 
 The worst effect produced by the pre- Reform Bill 
 system of government was in my opinion the enclo- 
 sure of so much common land. Our ancestors of 
 course did not know of what benefit open spaces would 
 be to a posterity much of which lives cooped up in 
 towns. 
 
 This shortsighted policy deprived a section of the 
 populace of its rightful share of light and air.
 
 302 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 During the reigns of the first three Georges, the 
 House of Commons was constantly passing Enclosure 
 Acts. It did not, it is true, always do so from 
 motives of greed; in many cases there was a justifiable 
 desire to increase production. The result, however, 
 was that far too many acres of common land were 
 taken away from their rightful owners and in this 
 matter the people have a real grievance against their 
 rulers of the past. On the other hand great landlords 
 and landowners within more recent times have been 
 very generous in presenting public parks and facilitat- 
 ing the acquisition of open spaces this, however, 
 does not wipe out injustice sustained in the past. 
 
 Another mistake made by a large number of old- 
 fashioned peers and landowners was keeping the newly 
 made railways as far on the outskirts of their estates 
 as possible, thus, unwittingly, hindering the prosperity 
 of small country towns and impoverishing their suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 The very last speech which Lord Eldon probably 
 one of the greatest reactionary extremists who ever 
 lived made in the House of Lords was against the 
 Bill authorizing the Great Western Railway rail- 
 ways being, as he told his fellow- peers, dangerous 
 innovations. 
 
 Nevertheless, taking it all in all, the England of the 
 past was happy and content. 
 
 " I have seen," wrote Chateaubriand, " the famous 
 British Parliaments in all their power. What will 
 they become ? 
 
 " I have seen England with its ancient customs
 
 THE CHARM OF ENGLAND 303 
 
 enjoying its ancient prosperity : everywhere the 
 solitary little church with its tower, the country 
 churchyard of Gray ; everywhere roads narrow and 
 well kept, valleys teeming with cattle, fields dotted 
 over with sheep, parks, mansions, towns, few great 
 woods, few birds, and the breeze from the sea. . . . 
 
 " Enfin, telle qu'elle etait," continues he, " cette 
 Angleterre, entouree de ses navires, couverte de ses 
 troupeaux et professant le culte de ses grands hommes, 
 etait charmante et redoutable."
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abergavenny, Lord, 45 
 Advertising, 177, 178 
 Esthetes of the seventies, 179, 180 
 Afghanistan, Ameer of, 217; his 
 
 strange regiment, 217 
 Americans, 4, 5, 6 
 Anarchism, its theories and leaders, 
 
 155-7 
 Anti-Betting Bill, Lord Newton's, 
 
 274, 276 
 Anti-Moneylending Bill, Lord 
 
 Newton's, 272-6 
 Architecture ineptness of modern 
 
 English, 169 
 Aristocracy, 7, 8, 10, n, 12, 14, 15, 
 
 19, 21, 23 
 Art, indifference of the English to, 
 
 160 
 Automobile, influence of on 
 
 clothes, 193 
 
 Baccarat, 79 
 
 Bamboozling constituencies, 16 ; 
 
 superiority of Liberals in, 51 
 Bands, silent, 233 
 Bank balance, mania for large, 
 
 266, 267 
 
 " Bankers' furniture," 175 
 Barrington, Charles, the late Mr., 
 
 seeC. B. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord, 32, 43-6 ; his 
 generosity, 44, 47 
 
 Bearskin cap, its evolution, 229, 
 230 
 
 Beefsteak Club (Cambridge), 62 
 
 Bennett, Little, the late, 76, 77 
 
 Besant, the late Sir Walter, 57 
 
 Bignon's, 120 ; supper-party at, 
 121, 122 
 
 Billington Greig, Mrs., her ex- 
 posure of the White Slave Trade 
 agitation, 253, 254 
 
 Blackwood, 137 
 
 Blessing of the swords, the, 243 
 
 Bliicher, effects of a good dinner 
 upon, 108, 109 
 
 Blue Posts, the, 95 
 
 Bois de Boulogne, its memories, 
 140 ; appearance during the 
 Second Empire and later, 140, 
 141 
 
 Boulanger, General, 144, 145-7 ' 
 cunning manoeuvres employed 
 to defeat his schemes, 148-50 
 
 Bouquet, Lieutenant-Colonel, 242 
 
 Bouquier, astounding report fur- 
 nished by, 187 
 
 Bowes, Mr. (owner of Derby 
 winner, 1835), 63 
 
 Bradlaugh, Charles, 51-3 
 
 Brampton, Lord, 256, 257
 
 306 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Brebant's, 1 19, 120 
 
 Bright, John, 290 
 
 Bristol (restaurant), 95, 96 
 
 Bucks and Beaux, 26, 58 
 
 Buddhism, 260, 261 
 
 Bulgarians, atrocities on and by, 
 
 34-6 
 
 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 95 
 Byron, 38 
 
 Cafe Anglais, in, 116 
 Cafe de la Madeleine, no 
 Cafe des Ambassadeurs, 120 
 Cafe d'Orleans, no 
 Cafe du Roi, concerning the, 112 
 Cafe Royale, 94 
 Cambridge, late Duke of, 236 
 Campeggio, Cardinal, 92 
 Cannon, ornamental, of Cromwell 
 
 and Louis XIV, 241 
 Cap, modern cloth, 202 ; a vulgar 
 
 and plebeian head covering, 202 
 Cap, various forms of, 196, 197 
 Carbineers, 231, 232 
 Cardigan, Lord, 241 
 Careme, 107 
 Carl ton Hotel, 299 
 Carlton Restaurant, 100 
 Carnot, the great, 223 
 Carnot, the late president, 151, 152, 
 
 153 ; recollections of his funeral, 
 
 153, 154 
 
 Casimir Perier, president, 154 
 
 Cavalry helmet, French, 215, 216 
 
 C. B. (the late Mr. Charles Barring- 
 ton), anecdotes concerning, 73-91 
 
 Cecil family, 55, 56 
 
 Cent Gardes, 220, 222 
 
 Champagne Charley, 72 
 
 Charles I, costume during reign of, 
 
 201 
 
 Chartreuse, Grande, the, 297, 298 
 Chateaubriand, 28, 302 
 
 Chinese, abandonment of national 
 
 dress by officials, 204, 205, 206 
 Chinese Labour, a shameless and 
 
 infamous cry, 47, 48 
 Clerk, hard lot of the, 278 
 Cleveland, Mrs., her protest 
 
 against abandonment of ancient 
 
 Japanese court costume, 207 
 Cocked hat, 195 
 Coffee taverns, 95 
 Cogitants, the, 262 
 Combat des Animaux, le, 64 
 Comminges, Philip de, 294 
 Common land, 301, 302 
 Conan Doyle, Sir A., 64 
 Conservatives, futile tactics of, 43, 
 
 46 
 Constans, M., the late, 147 ; his 
 
 astuteness in defeating General 
 
 Boulanger, 147, 148 
 Cork Street, 95 
 Covent Garden Ball, practical joke 
 
 at, 99, 100 
 
 Cox, Harold, Mr., 54 
 Craze for antiques, the, 161, 162 
 Cromwell, 292, 293 
 Curzon, Lord, his efforts to save 
 
 "Globe Room" at Banbury, 163 
 
 Daly's, 104 
 
 Darlington, Lord, 300 
 
 Dejeau, Napoleonic general fond 
 
 of entomology, 224, 225 
 Detaille, M., strange failure of his 
 
 designs for dress of French 
 
 army, 227, 235 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 41-3 
 Dorney Court, 200 
 Dreyfus, M. Abraham, 112 
 Dreyfus, Captain, 157-9 
 Drummond Wolff, the late Sir 
 
 Henry, 51, 52, 53 
 Drunkards' colony, 249
 
 INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Duels, curious, 140 
 Dufferin, the late Lord, 153 
 Dundas, Admiral, 247 
 Durand's, 107 
 
 Dysart, Lord, anecdote concern- 
 ing, 267, 268 
 
 Edward VII, 3, 5 
 
 Egan, Pierce, 62,63, 7> 7 2 
 
 Eiger, ascent of by C. B., 90 
 
 Eldon, Lord, 302 
 
 Empire, people who preferred it 
 
 to the Alhambra at Granada, 162 
 "En Revenantde la Revue," famous 
 
 song sung by Paulus, 144 
 English of Victorian Era, 172-4, 
 
 181-3 
 
 English Review, 253 
 Erskine, Lord, 252 
 Eton, 95, 105, 164 
 Exercise, 258 
 Exhibition of 1851, 176 
 
 Factory system, 177, 279 
 
 Fad, development of a, 248 
 
 Faillieres, M., 152 
 
 Fashions, feminine, 189, 190 
 
 Fathi Ali Shah, 203 
 
 Feather bonnet saved by Queen 
 
 Victoria, 235 
 Filson Young, Mr., an able critic 
 
 of modern methods, 172 
 France, Anatole, 284 
 Francis I, 109 
 
 French rule, popularity of, 151 
 Freres Provcncaux (restaurant), 
 
 109 
 Fresh air, 257, 258 
 
 " Gaby Glide," the, 234 
 
 Gaelic, anecdote concerning, 192, 
 
 193 
 
 Gaiety Theatre, 104 
 
 Garibaldi, 241 
 
 Garrick, stage costume of, 201 
 
 Gendarmerie, French, 222 
 
 George IV, King, 67, 190 
 
 Globe room at Banbury and in- 
 difference of inhabitants of latter 
 town to its removal, 162-3 
 
 Gladstone, Mr., 33-41, 48 ; noble 
 speech of, 53 
 
 Gordon Lennox, Lady Algernon, 
 her efforts to save "Globe 
 Room" at Banbury, 163 
 
 Grande Seize, a famous private 
 room in the Cafe Anglais, in 
 
 Graphic, the, 137 
 
 Gray, the ipoet, 302 
 
 Grevy, M., 152 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of, 117 
 
 Handel, 108 
 
 Hand-made goods, 177 
 
 Harris, Sir Augustus, 99, 100 
 
 Haruko, Empress, 206 
 
 Hebraic domination of Society, 2, 3 
 
 Henry IV, 132, 297 
 
 Hewson, late Mr., 85, 86, 87 
 
 Hogarth, 12 
 
 Hogge, Mr. James, 274 
 
 Hollow Sword Blade Company, 
 
 239 
 
 House of Commons, faddist legis- 
 lation in, 252 
 
 House of Temperley, 64 
 
 Huguenots, 295, 297 
 
 Human Opticon, the Great, 86 
 
 Japanese, adoption of European 
 
 dress by, 204, 206-9 
 Jubilee Juggins, 96 
 
 Kelly, Captain, 88 
 Kelvin memorial window, strange 
 design of, 168, 169
 
 308 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Kemble, John, invents composite 
 
 stage costume, 201 
 Khaki, 217, 218, 235 
 King of Westphalia, anecdote of, 
 
 113-16 
 
 King, Mr. Josiah, 252 
 Kingsley, Charles, 290 
 Kiinstler Lexicon, Nagler's, 65 
 
 Latham of the Buffs and his 
 gallantry at Albuera, 242, 243 
 
 Latham, Hubert, aviator, 243 
 
 Lee, Mr. Arthur, 254 
 
 Lee, the late Rev. Bolles, and 
 his protest against removal of 
 Winchester College panelling, 
 165 
 
 L' Estrange, 87 
 
 Leveson-Gower, Mr., his efforts to 
 combat vandalism, 164-6 
 
 Lewis, Sam, 268-7 1 
 
 Light Dragoons, 218 
 
 Liverpool, Lord, his gloomy fore- 
 cast, 29 
 
 Lloyd George, Mr., 48-50, 55, 295 
 
 London, Bishop of, 286 
 
 Lonsdale, Lord, 300, 301 
 
 Loti, Pierre, 206 
 
 Louis XIV, 198, 241 
 
 Louis Philippe, 109; attempt 
 upon, 133 
 
 Louis XVI, 288, 293 
 
 Lowenthal, Dr., his curious re- 
 ligion, 262 
 
 Luchet, M., 109 
 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, 196 
 
 Mabille, 141, 142 
 McCalmont, Colonel, 77 
 Macaulay, Catherine, 30, 31 
 Mackenzie Grieves, late Mr., 25, 26 
 Maintenon, Madame de, 295 
 Maison d'Oree, in, 116-19 
 
 Maison d'Oree Club, 117 
 Malahide, Grey (steeplechaser), 89, 
 
 90 
 
 Marat, his house, 134 
 Marconi affair, 49, 50, 51, 53 
 Marrying for money, 6, 7, 1 1 
 Martin, late Mr. Bob (Ballyhooley), 
 
 87 
 
 Martin, Richard, 252 
 
 Materialism, 263 
 
 Mikado, the late, 209 ; devotion to, 
 209, 210 
 
 Milne, the late Mr. and his collec- 
 tion, 214 
 
 Milor of the past, 127 
 
 Moneylending, 271-4 
 
 Moore, Tom, 16, 23 
 
 Morning Post, 254 
 
 Mundig (racehorse), 63 
 
 Murray, Lord, 50 
 
 Napoleon, 38, 132, 137, 215, 216, 
 217, 219, 223-7 
 
 Napoleon III, 132, 134, 135, 141 
 
 Nasreddin, Shah of Persia and his 
 dress, 198, 199 
 
 Navy, 13 
 
 Neitzsche, 8 
 
 Newton, Lord, 272-6 
 
 Nikko, author's experience at, 208 
 
 Nogi, General, his heroic self- 
 sacrifice, 210, 211 
 
 " Nut," the, 25 ; description of his 
 ideals by Byron, 58 
 
 Officers' uniform, cost of, 231 
 Opera Comique, author's reminis- 
 cences of its being on fire, 118 
 Overpopulation, evils of, 284-6 
 
 Palace of peace, 250 
 Paris, recollections of, 123, 154 ; 
 hotels of, 123, 124
 
 INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 Paul Prys, legislative, 250 
 
 Paulus (famous cafe concert 
 singer), 120, 143-5 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 72 
 
 Peers, old and new, 17, 18, 20, 24, 
 28, 41, 42 
 
 Phonetic spelling, 266 
 
 Pickelhaube, 214 
 
 Pineapple, first raised in England, 
 200 
 
 Poincare, M., 234 
 
 Preservation of Ancient Buildings, 
 the Society for, and its admir- 
 able but little appreciated 
 efforts to check vandalism, 167 
 
 Prince Imperial, his dislike to the 
 Grenadier cap, 220-1 
 
 " Progressive " fads, 249, 250 
 
 Protestantism, 265 
 
 Punch, its composition, 60 
 
 Punch, its youth revived under new 
 editor, 71 
 
 Renan, quotation from, 27 
 
 Restaurants of London, 92-107 ; 
 of Paris, 107-22 
 
 " Restoration," artistic horrors of, 
 166 
 
 Resumption, 281 
 
 Revolutionary vandalism, 184-8 
 
 Richard (waiter at Sheridan Club, 
 Dublin), 78, 79 
 
 Rifles, 6oth, 242 
 
 Ritz, M., 92, 105 
 
 Roman Catholicism, 264, 297 
 
 Rome, 191 
 
 Rose, gardener of Charles II, 200 
 
 Rosebery, Lord, 49 
 
 Rotten Row, 194 
 
 Rotterdam, recent destruction of 
 old English church there dis- 
 creditable to everyone con- 
 cerned, 166 
 
 Rue de Rivoli, the, 129-31 
 Russian military uniform (modern), 
 226, 227 
 
 Sala, George Augustus, 181 
 
 Sam Lewis, 96 
 
 Savoy restaurant, 50, 96, 97, 100, 
 
 102, 106 
 
 Scarsdale, Lord, 12 
 Schopenhauer, 283 
 Seaman, Owen, Mr., 70 
 Seymour, Lord Henry, 128, 133 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 95 
 Shako, designs for new, 230 
 Sheridan Club and its members 
 
 account of, 73-91 
 Shooting, 9, 10 
 Sievier, Mr. Robert, 276 
 Simon Pure, 65, 66 
 Sinecures, 20-3 
 Slash, the, 229 
 Smart set, 3 
 Socialism, 280, 283,286 
 Society, i, 2, 8, 32, 33 
 Stephen's Hotel, 98 
 Stratford, Esme-Wingfield, Mr., 39 
 Sylvain, M., proprietor of Durand's, 
 
 144 
 
 Tcheng-ki-Tong, the late General, 
 
 135 
 
 Temperance, 248 
 Territorial system, 236 
 Terry, Major-General, 213 
 Thibaudin, General, abolishes 
 
 drums in French army, 219 
 " Tom and Jerry," 63-72 ; amusing 
 
 skit in Punch, 70, 71 
 Toole, the late Mr., 135 
 Top-hat, its rise and survival, 194, 
 
 195 
 Tourist, the English, 126, 127
 
 310 FANCIES, FASHIONS, AND FADS 
 
 Tuileries, the, 131, 132 
 Turban, 203 
 
 Uniform, 212-47 
 Uniform, naval, 246, 247 
 Unionist party, impotence of, 55 
 
 Valentin le Desosse, recollections 
 of this celebrated dancer, 141-3 
 Vandyke, 201 
 Vefour (restaurant), 109 
 Vegetarianism, 259 
 Verdier, M., 116 
 Very (restaurant), 109 
 Victorian taste, 172-4, 181-3 
 Virginia, governorship of, 21 
 
 "Wacht am Rhein," sung by 
 Bavarians after entry into Paris, 
 
 138 
 
 Waldron, Mr. John, 88, 89 
 Ward Hunt, staghounds, 88 ; cup, 
 
 88 
 Warders of the Tower, their 
 
 uniform, 232, 233 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, his dinner to 
 Bliicher, 108, 109 ; his habit of 
 discouraging officers from wear- 
 ing uniform, 245 ; other refer- 
 ences to, 13, 29 
 
 Whibley, Mr. Charles, 290 
 
 Whipping-posts, 249 
 
 Whistler, his designs for Savoy 
 Restaurant, 97 
 
 White Slave Trade, agitation con- 
 cerning, 253, 254 
 
 Wille, 185 
 
 Willoughby de Broke, Lord, 253 
 
 Winchester College panelling, re- 
 moval of, 164, 165 
 
 Winning Post, 276 
 
 Woman's Suffrage, 56, 248 
 
 Yuan Shi Kai adopts European 
 dress, 206 
 
 Zimmermann, General, taken for 
 
 the Emperor William I, 137 
 Zola, Emile, 159
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 NO PHONE RE 
 
 MAR 12 1986 
 
 1997 
 
 MEW;.
 
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