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John Bellows
LETTERS AND MEMOIR
EDITED BY HIS WIFE
WITH
PORTRAITS, MAP, AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. LTD.
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1904
SCHOOt
TO
MY DEAR CHILDREN
AND TO THE
BELOVED MEMORY OF MY HUSBAND
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
849
PREFACE
IN THE following pages I have given a selection of
such of my husband's letters as were available for
publication : leaving them, as far as possible, to tell their
own story, and supplementing them with a slight sketch of
his life. For the sake of brevity, I have been obliged to
omit many letters of considerable interest ; whilst others,
for the same reason, have been curtailed. Chronological
order has been adhered to in the correspondence, except
in a few instances where subject order has appeared
preferable.
My task in editing this volume would have been more
difficult but for the advice and assistance of my friend
Miss Stephen, of Cambridge, to whom I offer my grateful
thanks. Her fine critical faculty and literary taste have
been of exceptional value to me in the selection of the
letters. My thanks are also due to Dr Thomas Hodgkin
for his help on certain archaeological subjects : to the many
friends who have placed letters at my disposal for pub-
lication : and to my son William for the valuable assistance
he has given me in the work.
The frontispiece is a reproduction from a photograph
taken in 1891 by Mr H. W. Watson, of Gloucester. The
portrait facing page 357 is from the painting by Percy
Bigland, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1902, and
now in my possession. A replica of this painting has
recently been presented to the City of Gloucester by my
husband's friends, and placed in the Guildhall. The out-
line illustrations — excepting those on pp. 22 and 78 — are
facsimiles of my husband's own sketches in his letters.
ELIZABETH BELLOWS.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester.
Aprily igo4.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Parentage — Early Life— Settles in Gloucester — Religious Con-
victions —Marriage — Max Mtiller — Cornish Antiquities — Outline
Dictionary i
CHAPTER II.
Work at Metz — Views on War — French Dictionary — Discovery
of the Roman Wall of Gloucester — Roman Antiquities ... 15
CHAPTER III.
Cornish Friends— Death of his Parents — ^Religious Corre-
spondence — Vals and the Auvergne — Loss of a Child— 'Upton
Haoll' built 33
CHAPTER IV.
The Home Rule Struggle 61
CHAPTER V.
Travel — Home Life — Archaeology — Tithe— J. A. Froude ... 70
CHAPTER VI.
Joseph Neave— Journey to Russia — Minden — St. Petersburg . . 100
CHAPTER VII.
Journey to South Russia — Count Tolstoi — Vladikafkas— Through
the Mountains — Magnificent Scenery — Arrival at Tiflis . . . 117
CHAPTER VIII.
Incidents of Stay at Tiflis 136
CHAPTER IX.
Visit to the Kedabek Mines — Doukhobor Village — Caucasian
Scenery— Elizabethpol—Udzharri 155
CHAPTER X.
Tartar Caravanserai— Brigandage— Shusha— Armenian Villages
— Gerusi— Ali Akber— Funeral Scene — Evelach Station-
Return to Tiflis 176
CHAPTER XL
Visit to Bashketchet 212
CHAPTER XII.
Kutais — Poti— Farewell to Tiflis— Flowers— On the Black Sea-
Sevastopol— Little Russia— St. Petersburg again— At Count
Tolstoi's — Return to England 221
CONTENTS— continued.
CHAPTER XIII.
Oliver Wendell Holmes— Senator Hoar— American Antiquarian
Society — Paignton— Letters on Religious Subjects — Latin v.
Saxon — Archaeology— Tolstoi — Khama — Chelsea 246
CHAPTER XIV.
Relief-work in Bulgaria and Constantinople 273
CHAPTER XV.
Quakerism — Ancient Rights — Peace — The Hague Conference —
Forest of Dean — Seeds from Borneo — Transvaal War — Letter
on Peace 290
CHAPTER XVI.
The Doukhobors— Second Journey to Russia 318
CHAPTER XVII.
Visit to the United States — Philadelphia— Worcester — Boston —
Plymouth — Concord — Harvard University 338
CHAPTER XVni.
Trials of Faith— Tolstoi's 'Resurrection' — Lake District — Cor-
respondence with Senator Hoar — The Divinity of Christ . . 357
CHAPTER XIX.
Traits and Characteristics — Conclusion 375
APPENDIX.
A List of John Bellows' writings.
INDEX.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BELLOWS, Aged 6o, from
A Photograph Frontispiece
REPRODUCTION OF A PORTION OF FRENCH
DICTIONARY MS facing page 24
UPTON KNOLL 11 50
MAP OF THE TRANS-CAUCASUS 1. 117
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BELLOWS, Aged 70, from
THE Painting bv Percy Bigland n 357
HANDLOW HOUSE, CHURCHAM ... Page 22
BIRTHPLACE AT LISKEARD ... „ 78
OUTLINE ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM JOHN BELLOWS' OWN SKETCHES
APPEAR ON
pp. 30, 31, 45, 88, 179, 183, 188, 191, 193, 19s,
197, 198, 199, 203, 214, 216, 217 and 278.
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE— EARLY LIFE-SETTLES IN GLOUCESTER— RELIGIOUS
CONVICTIONS - MARRIAGE — CORNISH ANTIQUITIES -OUTLINE
DICTIONARY.
JOHN BELLOWS was the elder son of William Lamb
and Hannah Bellows, and was born at Liskeard,
Cornwall, on January i8, 1831.
William Bellows was a native of Bere Regis, Dorset-
shire, and came of a Nonconformist stock. His maternal
ancestor, Philip Lamb, was vicar of Bere Regis in 1662,
and was one of the clergymen who were ejected from
their livings after the passing of the Act of Uniformit5\
From the Bellows and the Lamb families several Inde-
pendent ministers sprang; two notable ones being John
Angell James, who, half a century ago, was a well-known
figure in Birmingham ; and Robert Halley, William
Bellows' first cousin, who was Principal of New College,
London, and who died in 1876.
Hannah Bellows' maiden name was Stickland, and her
father, John Stickland, was, from boyhood to old age,
in the service of the Bond family, as bailiff and steward
of East Holme, their estate near Wareham.
After their marriage William and Hannah Bellows
resided at Liskeard, where their two children were born.
Subsequently they removed to Wallis, a hamlet near
Liskeard ; and, later, to Tavistock, in Devonshire.
It is not now known what William Bellows' occupation
was at this time, though, later, he found in the profession
of a schoolmaster work that was entirely congenial to
A
2 PARENTS AND SCHOOL
him. He was a man of unusual mental ability and force
of character, and had had the benefit of a good education.
He knew Hebrew well enough to be able to give lessons
in it ; and the study of that language was always a great
delight to him, even to the end of life.
During the early years of their married life the young
couple made the acquaintance of William and Anna
Forster, the parents of William Edward Forster, the
statesman, who was then a child ; and they were frequent
visitors, with their children, at their home at Bradpole,
near Bridport. In later life John Bellows used to tell of
William Edward Forster's toys — the carefully kept toys
of an only child who had outgrown their use — being
brought out on these occasions for his entertainment.
The younger son of William and Hannah Bellows was
named Forster after this family.
The strong influence exercised by these friends on the
religious opinions of William and Hannah Bellows led
to their leaving the Wesleyan body, and joining the
Society of Friends, of which Society the Forsters were
not only members, but also ministers.
In 1839 William Bellows was appointed master of the
Friends' School at Lisburn, in Ireland, and removed there
in the summer of the same year, with his wife and chil-
dren. They remained at Lisburn two years, and then
returned to England, settling at Camborne, in Cornwall.
There were many Friends living at Camborne at this
time, and William Bellows started a school amongst them
with some prospect of success. His own sons were taughi
by him in the school as they had been at Lisburn, and,
in fact, his son John never had any other schoolmaster.
William Bellows was a strict disciplinarian in an age
when the rod was not spared, and so anxious was he
not to show any partiality to his own children, that he
was often more severe with them than the occasion
warranted. In spite, though, of his stern rule, an old
APPRENTICESHIP 3
pupil, still living, speaks of him with much tenderness,
and even veneration.
At a time when there was no talk of " Nature Study,"
he used to make country walks pleasant to his pupils,
and always had something interesting to tell them about
the things they saw. It was his aim to make his pupils
observant, and to help them to think.
When John Bellows was fourteen years old he was
apprenticed to Llewellyn Newton, a printer at Camborne,
who also kept a lending library. John Bellows* employer
was a leading Methodist in the town, and was always
spoken of by his new apprentice as conscientiously living
up to his religious profession. He was very considerate
to his new boy, and allowed him to take from the library
any book that he liked, when, as frequently happened,
he was sent long distances into the country, on errands.
That his employer might not lose anything by granting
him this permission, John Bellows trained himself to walk
very rapidly while reading, and as Llewellyn Newton
never withdrew the privilege, we may infer that it was
not abused.
Among the books which he read on these walks were
Scott's novels and poems ; but a conscientious objection
to reading fiction grew with him, and he subsequently
gave it up entirely. So keen was his memory at this
time that, after reading "Marmion" only once, he could
repeat a couple of pages of it by heart.
The chief intellectual help for the young men of Cam-
borne was to be found at the Mechanics' Institute, with
its library and lectures ; and of these John Bellows made
great use. Some of the essays he wrote then are still
in existence.
Before the end of his apprenticeship he brought himself
into some notoriety by a poem which he had written on a
Roman Catholic movement in Camborne, that was attract-
ing attention there.
A2
4 SETTLES IN GLOUCESTER
The noise his little satire made in the neighbourhood
brought him the notice of a Roman Catholic lady living
in the town, and she invited him to dine at her house.
In after years he could not remember if his father knew
of this invitation, but his mother did, and it was with
many misgivings that she let him accept it. The boy's
curiosity was roused, and, naturally, he wished to go,
though he would have given way at once if his mother
had objected.
He found a number of guests present, but no one made
any mark on his memory except his hostess, and a
foreign priest who spoke English imperfectly. These two
tried to flatter the lad with the vision of what he might
become if he had the education that it was in their power
to procure for him ; but their advances were in vain.
At the close of his apprenticeship, John Bellows went
to London to get work. After six months at Harrisons',
the Queen's Printers, his health broke down, and he
returned to Camborne. He was not long idle, however,
for, on the offer being made to him of a position as fore-
man of a small printing business, in the low-lying part of
Gloucester known as " The Island," he accepted it, and
removed there at once. This was in the summer of 185 1.
John Bellows had not been in the practice of beginning
work so early in the day as was the custom at Gloucester,
and it was his duty here to open the office for the work-
people every morning at six o'clock. When he undertook
his new duties he was determined always to be punctual,
and, though it was the middle of summer, he went to bed
every night at eight o'clock, to be ready for rising in
time in the morning. When he had become accustomed
to his new environment he relaxed this rule ; but he was
never once late in unlocking the office door for the first
twelve months in his new situation.
The flood at Gloucester in 1852 was a remarkable one,
and he was young enough to enjoy it. "The Island"
NOMINAL QUAKERISM 5
became accessible only by boat, and the needs of its in-
habitants were the care of the Corporation, who supplied
them. At this time John Bellows was living in lodgings
a little removed from the flood, but, so long as it lasted,
he had to remain in the printing office. He used to tell
with glee of having helped to supply the wants of his
next neighbour, whose distress was keener than his own,
by fastening bread and meat to a broom, and passing it
from his upper story window to hers ; and, also, of a case
of illness in the next house, when a doctor had to be
sent for who was small enough to be got through the
window from a boat in the flooded street below.
The first seven years of John Bellows' residence in
Gloucester was, perhaps, the most momentous period
in his life, and had a very marked effect in building
up that character which was afterwards to make him so
useful in his day and generation. The change from a
nominal to an actual belief in the truths of Quakerism
which he experienced at this time is best told in his own
words :
" Brought up in the Society by parents who had become
Friends from conviction, I had taken for granted that its
teachings were pure Christianity — that is, in theory —
until at twenty years of age I was brought face to face
with the tremendous realities which sooner or later con-
front every human soul. My take-it-easy Quakerism went
to pieces in the storm, and at this critical moment, under
the influence of a clergyman of the Church of England, I
had very nearly built up in its place a traditional belief in
the opposite doctrines of the sacraments and such system
of worship as fits with their observance.
"It was, however, made clear to me that before making
the important change this would involve, I was bound to
do what I had never yet done, and that was to examine
for myself, with all the light I could obtain, and with all
the earnestness of one newly awakened to a consciousness
6 VITAL CHANGE
of the powers of the world to come, the foundations of the
doctrines held by the Society of Friends. I read Barclay's"*
arguments especially, and with them the texts both of the
New and of the Old Testament which he cites, till, after
many anxious days and nights, the light shone on them
steadily and brightly as the sunrise in a cloudless sky, and
I was made as sure of the truth of what the world calls
Quakerism as I was of my own existence."
At this time the Friends were leaving off the character-
istics that had distinguished them. These were their
peculiar dress and the use of what had been called
amongst them, "the plain language," which, at the time
of the rise of the Society, had simply meant that they
refused to follow the changing fashions in dress, and, that
they observed strict truthfulness in their intercourse with
their fellow men. In the case of the language it was also
a protest against using to inferiors the singular pronouns
''thee" and "thou," while equals and superiors were
addressed by the plural "you," which was the custom at
the time of the rise of the Society. The Quakers made
no such distinction, looking on all men as equal in the
sight of God. The costume adopted by the Friends soon
after they came into being as a Society, was simply the
dress of the period, denuded of its ornaments. This dress
has come down almost to our own time, with various
modifications to suit individual convenience. Up to this
time John Bellows had not worn the dress, nor used the
language peculiar to Quakers ; but now, taking counsel of
none, he was impressed with the belief that there was no
escape for him from adopting both ; in this way showing
plainly to his fellow-men that a vital change had taken
place in his life.
He never shrank from a course that he felt it right
to take, because of the pain involved in it. He never
chose the easier way. The change of dress was not
* Barclay's Apology.
GIVES UP SMOKING 7
so much of a trial to him as the change in speech ;
but, having made up his mind as to his right course he
never faltered, though at times the anguish of mind that
he passed through was almost more than he could endure.
He thought it necessary to explain to the work-girls under
him the great change that had taken place in his outlook
on life, and, that for the future he would have to address
them in Quaker language, though he had a morbid dread
of the manner in which this might be received. Those
who knew him later can imagine the scene when he
melted these rough girls to tears by his narrative. One
of them, when he had finished, became spokeswoman for
the rest, assuring him, with tears, that they hoped he
would never shrink from doing and saying what he felt,
in his conscience, to be right.
Besides the two points that have been mentioned there
was but little to alter in his outward life, except that he
had acquired the habit of smoking, and he now felt very
strongly that if he would save his soul he must no longer
be the slave of any habit. It cost him a mighty effort
to give it up, but, coming on the coach from Ross to
Gloucester in the darkness of a winter night, he threw
over the hedge all the paraphernalia of a smoker that he
possessed, and the struggle from that moment was ended.
About this time two rooms in a house which had hitherto
been used as a warehouse attached to the printing office,
were placed at his disposal, and furnished by him, and
here he spent much of his leisure time alone, reading and
studying and laying the foundation of those stores of
knowledge with which in later years he was wont, in
his own inimitable way, to delight his friends.
In 1858 circumstances forced him to make a change
in his position, his employer having announced his in-
tention of giving up his printing business. Under this
expectation, which, however, was not fulfilled until later,
John Bellows' friends at Gloucester and elsewhere urged
8 GOES INTO BUSINESS
him to go into business on his own account. He had
many offers of loans of money to help him to make a
start ; but he was not ambitious, and it was only with
reluctance that he began to entertain the idea of having a
business of his own. The counsel of his friends eventually
prevailed, and he set about the preliminary arrangements
in his own vigorous fashion. He took premises in Com-
mercial Road, Gloucester, bought machinery and materials,
and embarked on this new phase of his career.
His father and mother now joined him at Gloucester,
and added to his happiness by making a home for him
there ; first, in rooms over the printing office in Commer-
cial Road ; and then, when the business grew and needed
more space, at Albion Cottage, Montpellier.
John Bellows' business was at first on so small a scale
that he did not feel justified in having any help in it, and
in these early days he often worked all night long. After
a while he engaged a boy, who formed the nucleus of the
little staff of workpeople that John Bellows gradually
gathered about himself; but the most important change
that he made in these early years was the introduction of
a steam engine into his printing office : the first that had
ever been used in printing in Gloucester.
In 1863, Edward Power, the leading printer in the city,
died ; and his executors invited John Bellows, whose
reputation as a printer was growing, to purchase the
business. The terms of payment were made easy for
him, and he consented, thus becoming the owner of the
larger concern at 6 Westgate Street, where he now
went to reside.
The following years were closely occupied in meeting
the greater responsibilities of life. His business grew, it
might almost be said, in spite of himself, and, by degrees,
all the borrowed money with which he had begun
business, was paid off ; but it was done by the exercise of
continued and great self-denial.
STUDIES FRENCH 9
His onty brother having settled at Brussels, John Bellows
repeatedly had occasion for visits to the Continent, and
this circumstance brought to his notice the need for
dictionaries that could really be used as pocket diction-
aries. He now conceived the idea of supplying this want
himself. His first thought was of a Norsk dictionary, as
he had felt the need of one on a journey to Norway ; and
his visits to the docks at Gloucester on Sunday afternoons,
at this time, with Bibles, on behalf of the Bible Society,
had brought him into contact with Norwegian sailors, from
whom he had picked up a fair knowledge of their language,
which he had improved by study. He soon found, how-
ever, that there would be no great demand for such a
work, and he turned his attention to French instead. He
knew very little French, yet he felt this to be no bar, but
rather a help in the successful prosecution of the work, for
he was thus better able to see for himself the needs of one
who was to use such a dictionary. While learning the
language he worked at his manuscript, and, at the same
time, managed his large and growing business ; and in this
manner his strenuous life went on for the next seven
years.
But neither the anxieties of his business life, nor the
close work on his dictionary, shut his ears to the cry of
distress of his fellow-men, and many were those who
appealed to him for help, and not in vain. The well-
being of the Society of Friends was at all times a great
object of his solicitude, and some portion of his time was
taken up in the earnest discharge of his duties as a
member of that body.
On New Year's Day, 1868, Printing Offices, for the first
time, came under the operation of the Factory Acts, and,
in consequence, in the early days of that year, John
Bellows' establishment received an official visit from
Hugh Granger Earnshaw, the Factory Inspector for the
district in which Gloucester is situated. H. G. Earnshaw
10 MARRIAGE
was much attracted by John Bellows when they%iet, and
invited him to spend a night at his house, Springfield, near
Minchinhampton. He went, and it was during this visit
that he first met his future wife, Elizabeth Earnshaw,
the sister of his host, and the daughter of the late
Mark Earnshaw, surgeon, of Clitheroe, Lancashire. Their
engagement soon followed, and in January, 1869, they
were married at Clitheroe.
In the previous summer John Bellows had taken
Handlow House, Churcham, near Gloucester ; and while
it was still his bachelor home, he had had the pleasure
of welcoming his friend Professor Max Miiller to it. Their
passion for philology had in the first place drawn them
together, and, though their opportunities of meeting were
not frequent, they kept up a friendship and a cor-
respondence that lasted for life, and that was greatly
valued by both ; one result of which was that John Bellows
named his eldest child (a son born in June, 1870), Max,
after his friend.
A correspondence with Max Miiller had been begun
some years before this period, but the earliest letters that
have been preserved are dated 1866, and deal mainly with
Cornish antiquities, in which John Bellows, being a
Cornishman, took a deep interest. His friend's replies to
some of these early letters are given by Mrs Max Miiller
in her admirable Life of her husband.
To Professor Max Miiller^ staying in Cornwall.
Gloucester, 1-9-1866.
cc -x- * ^ jj^g etymology of names of places is in a
very loose state in the county [Cornwall.] The people
are almost as quick as the Irish are at coining reasons,
when they have none at hand. For instance, the old
Cornish name for Falmouth was, they say, Penny-come-
quick ; and they tell a most improbable story to account
for it. I believe the whole compound is only a sort of
CORNISH LANGUAGE ii
English or ' Saxon ' pun upon Pen y cwm gwic, ' Head of
the creek valley.' In like manner they have turned Bryn
whella, 'Highest hill,' into Brown Willy, and Cwm tagoed,
* Woodhouse valley,' into Come- to-good. This latter fits
on somewhat grotesquely to a spot where there is an old
meeting-house of the Friends, still occasionally used for
public meetings."
To the same^ at Oxford.
Gloucester, 6-10-1866.
ct ^ -X- ^ I (Jq j^q|- think there is any evidence of the
Jews having been so numerous in Cornwall as these
traditions assert. These traditions are really inventions
of persons who wished to account for names, the true
purport of which had been lost sight of.
"A curious instance of this occurs in the term Nine
Maidens. Circles and groups of upright stones are so
called in various parts of Cornwall, and although several
of them have nine stones, yet the name is not confined to
these. The circle at Boscawen-tin is called a 'Nine
Maidens,' whilst it really consisted of twenty stones.
Seventeen of these are upright, two are thrown down,
and a gap exists of exactly the double space, for the
twentieth. I found the missing stone not twenty yards
off. A farmer had removed it and made it into a gate-
post. He had cut a road through the circle, and in such a
manner that he was obliged to remove this offending rock
to keep it straight. Fortunately the present proprietress
is a lady of taste, and she has surrounded the circle with
a good hedge to prevent further vandalisms.
"The Cornish folk will tell a stranger, in reply to an
enquiry why they call the stones nine maidens, that ' Nine
yoimg women danced there on a Sunday, and were turned
into stone for a warning to others.' If this be true, the
warning must have had very little effect— for a good many
other damsels have undergone petrifaction on the same
12 'NINE MAIDENS'
account, especially in the western part of the county.
They must have been incorrigible dancers ! I think I can
trace the origin of this myth.
" The word medn is the latest or most corrupt form of
min, a stone. The last stage of the language was marked
by this thickening of the nasals — as pedn for pen (in
Pedn-an-drea, etc.) Now the true sound of men is like
the Enghsh 'main,' which, plus this d, gives maiden
precisely.
''Nod in old Cornish was 'mark' or 'token.' This
passed afterwards to nos and nos. Nod-m,en meant Stone-
mark or token. When it got corrupted to noB (during
the later period of the Cornish language, but before the
introduction of the English) it became confounded with
naw^ 'nine' — making the compound 'nine-stones.'' The
tradition still lingering, about the custom of erecting a
' nine-stones ' to mark something memorable, they would
continue to erect them, confining themselves to nine pieces.
This would account for many of the circles actually being
in nines ^ whilst others, bearing the same name, are com-
posed of a larger number. But should this be so, it would
make the latter the move ancient circles ? They are also
called in Cornish Dawns-men^ ' Stone-dance ' — and hence
the modern tradition about the ' dancing on a Sunday.' If
the original was No<^<^/is-men, the first part of the word
would be a regularly-formed abstract substantive for
' memorial ' or ' remembrance,' corresponding with dew-
hellaw5, atonement ; cregyaws, belief, etc."
To the same.
Gloucester, 9-10- 1866.
" There are several spots not mentioned in the County
History, or in the guide-books, which ought to be re-
corded, and carefully watched by the Penzance club ; or
they will be stripped of their stones to make way for
farm improvements. We came upon one (at no great
VANDALISM 13
distance from Boscawen-Gn) by accident, in missing our
way in the fields. It appeared to be the remains of a
strong fortification facing the slope of a hill to the west.
Some of the stones had been used for building a cottage
close by ; but enough was left to show an immense amount
of work. In another field, not far off, was part of a ' nine
maidens'— perhaps the third of the circle ; the rest of the
stones being dragged out and placed against the hedge, to
make room for the plough. This spot is between the
recently discovered Beehive hut and the Boscawen-(in
Circle, but out of the public road.
" I heard of some farmers in Meneage (the Lizard
district) who dragged down an ancient Gothic well and
rebuilt it. When called to task for it they said : ' The ould
thing was got so shakey that a was'n fit to be seen ; so we
thought we'd putten to rights and build 'un up fitty.^ I need
not add that a Cornish farmer's notion of ' fitty ,' in restoring
Gothic architecture, was something like this
To the same.
Gloucester.
" When at Penzance the other day, I got hold of a bit of
superstition that shows a satisfactory fear of meddling
with ancient monuments. A farmer told one of my friends
that he had a neighbour who ' haeled down a lot of stoans
called the Roundago, and sold 'em for building the docks
at Penzance. But not a penny of the money he got for 'em
ever prospered — and there wasn't wan of the bosses that
haeled 'em that lived out the twelvemonth : and they DO
say ' (added the farmer with great emphasis) ' that some
of the stoans do weep blood, but I don't believe that ! ' "
In this same year, 1866, John Bellows put before his
friend a plan for a skeleton dictionary " in which travellers
and missionaries might record the vocabulary of any
14 OUTLINE DICTIONARY
particular language, or dialect, they wished to study."
Professor Max Miiller entered warmly into the scheme,
compiling a key alphabet, and writing an introduction for
the book. At the time of getting ready for press, John
Bellows had the offer of some paper that had been made
purposely for Confederate bank-notes during the American
War ; but it had failed to get through the blockade, and
was left on the maker's hands. As it was tough and thin,
and exactly suited the work, he used it for the Outline
Dictionary. The whole edition sold, but John Bellows
became too busy ever to reprint it.
CHAPTER II.
WORK AT METZ-VIEWS ON WAR— FRENCH DICTIONARY-
DISCOVERY OF THE ROMAN WALL OF GLOUCESTER-
ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.
UPON the outbreak of the Franco-German War in
1870, the Society of Friends raised a large sum of
money, not only from its own members, but from others,
for the purpose of assisting the non-combatant peasantry
who were suffering in consequence. Members of the
Society were invited to offer their services to go abroad
to distribute food and clothing to these starving people,
to meet the pressing wants of the moment. These
volunteers were expected, if possible, to pay their own
expenses ; but if not, they were met out of a private fund
belonging to the Society, so that every penny subscribed
should be used, without any deductions, for the purpose
for which it was asked.
John Bellows was one of these volimteers, or commis-
sioners as they were named, and he left home for Metz,
one of the chief centres of distress, for four weeks'
absence, in November, 1870, five months after the birth
of his eldest child. Most of the Friends who gave their
help in this cause were, like himself, business men who
could not spare more than a month away from their
own affairs ; but so many volunteered that it was not
difficult to keep up a succession of them for the many
months that this work lasted. It was not without its
dangers, for the condition of the region in and about
Metz after Bazaine's surrender, just before the arrival
of the Friends, was so insanitary that out of the twelve
1 6 WORK AT METZ
delegates who were there when John Bellows arrived,
or who came while he was there, eight were ill (five
from small-pox.) One of these died, and it was John
Bellows' painful duty to attend her funeral on the last day
of his stay at Metz. At first the work of reUef, which was
systematically conducted over districts radiating from
Metz, consisted of the free distribution of food and clothing ;
but, as time went on, and the future need of the sufferers
was foreseen, work, where possible, for some of them,
was obtained, and seed-corn and steam-ploughs were sent
from England to provide for the next season's sowing, the
English commissioners co-operating with a committee of
French gentlemen for this purpose ; all the time receiving
every possible assistance from the German authorities.
Each of the Friends was furnished with a document in
English, with French and German translations, which set
forth their aims as follows :
"The bearer of this document is sent out by the Religious
" Society known in England as the Society of Friends,
" commonly called Quakers, solely to give relief to the
*' non-combatant sufferers through the present war.
*'We, the members of the above-named Society of
"Friends, believe all war to be contrary to the Will and
" Spirit of our Heavenly Father, as shown in the New
" Testament ; but, moved by Christian love, we desire to
" alleviate, as far as may be in our power, the misery of
" non-combatants, irrespective of nationality, remembering
" that all are children of One Father, and that One Saviour
" died for all.
"We therefore entreat all to whom the bearer may
" come to aid him in the fulfilment of his mission."
John Bellows' letters home to his wife during this
month's absence were as frequent as the circumstances
would permit. He generally carried a sheet of paper in
his hat, to jot down a few lines as he could, when he was
on his errands of distribution. On his return home he
* TRACK OF THE WAR* 17
was frequently asked to lecture on his experiences ; but
the exigencies of his own business affairs, rendered more
urgent by his absence, gave him no leisure to do so ;
and in order to meet the wishes of his friends he arranged
his letters to his wife in pamphlet form, and published them
under the title of " The Track of the War around Metz."
The concluding paragraph of the introduction to the
little book is given here, as it shows so forcibly that he did
not deceive himself into believing that he had been en-
gaged in a peculiarly religious work. This paragraph
shows the uncompromising honesty of his character. He
says, *'Some remarks which I have repeatedly heard
induce me to add a word on a common delusion with
regard to what are called philanthropic movements, such
as this for aiding the War Victims. Many people regard
them as religious works, and inconsiderately praise those
who are engaged in them as if they were engaged in
some Divine mission. They even quote Scripture in
support of such a notion, such as passages about visiting
the widows and fatherless in their affliction, and the like.
All this is but false sentimentalism, calculated to mislead
those who seek after reality in the things which are of
weightiest moment to all. It is lawful to aid distress by
sums of money publicly raised and distributed, just as it
is lawful to engage in one's own daily business ; but it
is a confusion of ideas to imagine that this has anything
to do with the religious and far different duty which lies
between each individual soul and the Creator. It is not
the silent work which hides from the left hand what the
right hand doeth ; it is not in any way directly conducive
to personal holiness, the attainment of which is the avowed
object of every religious act we perform. So far indeed is
the busy 'philanthropic' working which is now so popu-
lar, from being a necessary accompaniment of a healthy
religious life, either in an individual or a society, that it but
too often marks a stage of decline from all that constitutes
B
1 8 MEMORIES OF THE WAR
real life and power, and but too often it is secretly, yet
unmistakeably, leaned upon as an easy means of compro-
mising for the neglect of closer and weightier duty."
The little book gave graphic details of the sad scenes
he had witnessed on this errand : scenes which only
deepened his conviction of the iniquity of War. Its closing
lines may here be given.
" Often when alone these memories of Metz fill me with
a gloom I cannot describe. When I used to read in news-
papers, before going there, the figures giving the killed
and wounded after a battle, they were mere statistics and
nothing more. Now they are no longer so. Manly and
sorrowful faces rise before me of some who have fallen
victims in the struggle, and give a startling reality to the
words — ' Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer,^
" Of the material ruin of the war no enduring effect will
remain. The burnt-down houses may be rebuilt, — the
devastated fields, now that England gives her help, will
soon be re-sown. I only see the torment and sorrow and
death it has everywhere left in its track— the poor miser-
able man shrieking, writhing in a pool of his own blood—
the white-haired old general at Gravelotte, bending with
a broken heart over the grave of his child — the nailmaker's
wife in the Thionville road, crying in a despair more bitter
than death, as she turns her face to the wall when her son
is mentioned— her only son, from whom she is never to
hear one parting word, and never to receive even the
most sombre souvenir. And when I remember that many
hundred thousand homes like theirs have no more hope of
happiness until all this generation has gone down to the
grave, I get a dim and vague sense of a suffering to which
no language can give utterance. The mirage that men
call military glory, vanishes, and nothing is left of the war
but its cold and mournful reality."
Max Miiller, in thanking him for a copy of the book,
had put this question, "But what would you have done
LETTER TO MAX MCLLER 19
if you and your wife and child had lived at Saarbrtick,
and the French had come to bombard the town?" to which
John Bellows replied in the following letter :
To Professor Max Muller, Oxford.
Gloucester, 21-2-1871.
*'I candidly admit I don't know how to answer thy
question : What would I do if my wife and child lived in
Saarbrtick and the French were to come and bombard the
town ? I run, mentally, in a moment, over the line of argu-
ment that suggests itself, and find myself at the other end
of that line — bombarding the French. But, what French ?
Those who came to Saarbrtick, or others who had nothing
to do with that ? People call war justice on a large scale ;
but the mischief is that it is only the vastness of the scale
that prevents our seeing there is no justice about it.
" What, for example, is the justice of killing a child in
Strasburg who never heard of Saarbrtick ? I should look
back all my life with regret upon such an act, if I had
been led to its commission. The only way for us to get a
really just view of such cases is to bring them home to
ourselves, and I do so, thus : My house is attacked by
a ruffian who would make * no bones ' of killing my wife
and child if he could. I beat him off. He runs away to
his own house and bars himself in. I say I will stop this
man from repeating his attacks on me ; I'll burn his place
down. So I set fire to the place. He himself may or
may not be injured : I care nothing about that ; but he
has a little child as innocent as my own, and I see the little
thing lying in torment from a stone falling on it in con-
sequence of my work. I should go back home with a
feeling that would never leave me day nor night, that if
there really is a Father of all, to whom all men on earth
are alike dear— barring their wilful acts — He would look
down on me as guilty of a very cruel deed ; and no plea
B2
20 VIEWS ON WAR
that I could bring that I had done it to protect my own
wife and child, would alter it. I don't find fault with the
individual Germans for their conduct — very far from it. I
should abhor myself were I to endeavour to stir up any
bitter feeling against these poor fellows, for I have a
sympathy with their fate that very often when I am alone
finds vent in tears. They are brave as men of steel ; but
no one who does not actually come into contact with them
can tell how great is the suffering entailed upon them by
having to leave their homes behind, too often never to
return. Where a young man does this, he has much to
act as a counterbalance — the excitement, the novelty, the
hope of returning as a hero. With a man of middle, or
more than middle life, it is far otherwise. The intense
sorrow I have seen stamped on the faces of some of these
I shall never forget. It haunts me, and makes it impossible
for me to look on the war from any political point whatever.
That some good may arise out of such oceans of suffering
and evil, can hardly be doubted ; but, whatever it may be,
it is dearly bought — too dearly bought at the price of so
many thousands of homes plunged into grief, so many
millions of tears that will flow on for years in every
corner of Germany and of France.
" I am aware my letter is still no answer to thy ques-
tion. The really Christian standard makes no provision
whatever for such contingencies. It tells us to suffer evil,
to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and
a variety of other things that are impossible except our
actions are made to spring from a new Divine nature.
Where this change into a new nature is known, I believe
a man will not even feel the desire of vengeance against
those who wrong him ; and where it is not known, men
ought not to profess Christianity at all, since this is its
very fundamental condition.
"Where, on the other hand, it has begun to be felt, and
yet not been perfected, there will arise a good deal of
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 21
inconsistency in people's actions, a man sometimes making
one nature his motor, and at others, the other nature.
" The peace principle it seems to me depends on the
spiritual state of the individual, as to its being carried out ;
not at all on mere opinions, whether ' Quaker ' or political,
but on the degree of a man's growth into, and acting from,
the Divine nature itself. * * *
" P.S. — My little Max flourishes like a green bay-tree ;
but he is by no means so still as that plant."
A correspondence with Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes-
begun in 1867 and continued for more than five-and-twenty
years until the close of his life— proved a continual source
of pleasure and interest to John Bellows. The following
letter is reprinted here on account of its allusion to the
work at Metz.
Boston, March 19TH, 187 1.
" Dear Mr Bellows,
'* I have received your little book 'The Track of the
War around Metz,' and have just been reading it through
from beginning to end. It has interested me very much,
and inspired me with new respect for a Christian body
which sends forth such missionaries of humanity to the
suffering multitudes of a nation alien in race and language,
but one with them as children of the common Father.
" Your simple narrative of what you did and what you
saw is worth many a showy volume in which the writer
has told, for the sake of reputation, of the sights he visited
from no higher motive than curiosity. I see my wife at
this moment deep in its pages, and I am sure it will find
sympathising readers wherever there are good men and
women.
" It struck me not a little to see the names of ' Fry ' and
' Barclay ' still represented among the Friends, and I could
hardly forget that at the head of the Sanitary Commission
in our late war, was your namesake Dr Henry W. Bellows.
" Let me thank you again for the gratification your
striking descriptions and indignant protests against the<^
22
LEAVES CHURCHAM
barbarisms of war have given me, and thank you also for
your kindness in remembering me, and sending me a book
which it is impossible to read without thinking worse of
that organised ruffianism which we dress up and call
' War,' and better of the quiet people who have so long
protested against it, and are ready to do all they can to
soften the calamities it inflicts on innocent persons who
are not involved in its acts, though they have to share in
its sufferings.
" Believe me, very truly yours
"O. W. Holmes."
In 1872 the lease of the premises in Westgate Street
had nearly expired ; and by this time John Bellows found
his business there much cramped for room. He therefore
purchased Eastgate House (on the site of the ancient gate-
way of the City,) which had the advantage, for his purpose,
of having a large garden at its rear ; and on this he built
H/INDLOW HGV5E
himself a more commodious printing office. On its com-
pletion, early in 1873, his business was removed to the
new premises, and, in the following September, the pretty
•flittle country home at Churcham, in which he had taken
FRENCH DICTIONARY
23
so much delight, and where his three elder children were
born, was given up, and the family removed to Eastgate
House. Here his aged father and mother came imder the
care, which they now needed, of their son and daughter-
in-law.
During the years that followed John Bellows' marriage,
the work on his Dictionary had not been at a standstill.
He had expected to complete it in a year from its com-
mencement ; but the work expanded, and in spite of the
closest application it was seven years before it was
finished. His reading during that period had a special
bearing on his work, and was chiefly French— current
magazines and newspapers, besides more solid literature,
so that he caught idioms and expressions, as it were, " on
the wing." He began the work with a meagre knowledge
of the language, but long before the seven years had
expired he had become a thoroughly good French scholar.
He was never satisfied with anything short of the very
best renderings for his Dictionary, and took infinite pains
to obtain them, waiting in some cases for months before
he found the exact word or phrase that satisfied him.
He was assisted in the work by M. Auguste Beljame,
and after his death by his brother. Professor Alexandre
Beljame, whose remarkable knowledge of English litera-
ture specially qualified him for the task. Two other
speciahsts also gave John Bellows the benefit of their
advice and experience: Mr. John Sibree, M.A., London,
and M. Auguste Marrot, B.A.
Professor and Madame Beljame were visiting John
Bellows and his wife at their home at Churcham at the
moment when the news arrived of the fall of Sedan. They
immediately left to reach Paris before it was invested
by the Germans, M. Beljame taking with him part of the
dictionary MS. The work of years was, in consequence,
in great danger of being destroyed, for a shell burst,
during the siege, in the very next house to their own.
24 DISCOURAGEMENTS
M. Beljame said later in a letter to John Bellows : " My
first thought was for the safety of my wife ; but my next
was for the dictionary, and I immediately moved both
to more secure quarters."
The difficulties of the work were enormously increased
by the novelty of its design ; by the minuteness of the
type ; and the necessity for using a paper thin enough to
produce a really light volume, and yet not so thin as
to sacrifice clearness. So disheartening were the various
obstacles, that John Bellows at one time thought of
abandoning the work in toto. Writing of his many dis-
couragements, he said later : —
*' Of the weary months of correcting I took no note ;
but at last I concluded I must make the best of it, and I
must go on to the end, fighting my way through all
disappointments till I compelled success, even if it half
ruined me. I had fully steeled myself for the disappoint-
ment of seeing it left on my hands unappreciated ; for with
all due respect to the ' enlightened public,' it is such a
fickle body that absolute merit, even supposing my work
to possess merit in proportion to the labour bestowed on
it, is not always a guarantee of success. ' Your book
will never sell,' remarked the most far-seeing of my
friends,— 'I have always said so; for the print is so
small that no one can read it.' Another would ask me
some question, and answer my reply by silence, with
a look such as Job's friends probably gave him when they
comforted him with the observation that he had no one
but himself to thank for his trials— birthday and all. In
short, if Jacob served as hard a seven years to win
Rachel as I did to win my dictionary, he must have
had pleasant times with his father-in-law when he found
himself associated with the latter for a second term.
"Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, however, cheered
me with a different forecast. ' I see by the way you set
about it,' said he, ' that you have a dash of enthusiasm
/^17
,/,i/ ^ .-.^
^.AyiC./-'
TEN
FRAN CAIS— ANGLAIS
TEN
TENEUR DE LIVRES" book-keeper : i.c-
TfeNIA tenia : tape-worm Lcouutaut
Toniv •'■*''o6(e 15) to hold (k, par, by,
(bj, to] to get hold of : to keep : to cling
(&, to] to 'stand up' (pour, for]
[garder, maintenir, etc.) to keep (house,
•hop, an hotel, books, ... at a distance,
[prendre) to take (the helm, a »ager, etc.]
^ trop de place. To take up too much
room I un lion rang. To be in a good
position I corapte de. To take ... into
account [com) to credit (with] _ la tite
To head (the poll, etc.]
[aroir) to have | Je le tiens de 6o»»e source,
I have it on good authority
[estimer) to take (pour, to be] to take it
(that ... is..., etc.] fto
aind that ! Don't let that be any objec-
ion ! I II n'y a pas de raiton qui tienne,
t's no use giving any reason { 11 n'a tenu
rieu que je ne ..., 1 was as nearly as
ould be (...ing ...]
Cappartenir) to belong (a, to] to partake (of]
Tout ce qui tient k cela, Evervlhing con-
nected with it (ou belonging to it]
[r^sulter) to lie owing to ! k quoi cela tient-
il ? What's that owing to > | Cela tient it
ce que c'est un parvenu. That comes of
his being an upstart
Cd<pendre) II ne tient qu'i lul df. It resU
entirely with him [on himself] (o ...
[r^sister) to stand [^rMiMH) to hold out |
— TtTE k. To stand out against : to resist:
to oppose ; to cope with
[subsister) to hold good ; to stand
[suivre) to pursue : to hold on | _ loie
maUMit CONUVITE. To be going on
badly | — wise conduiu diffirtnU, To act
in a different manner | II a tenu uns
froHMe C, His conduct [ou behaviour]
has lieen good ] .^ la «er. To keep to sea |
le large, To keep well in the offing \
la C6TS, To hug the shore
[employer) _ uu pareil LANQAQE, To
luake use of such language \a, to
[disirer) to wish [T. Y _] to be anxious
A PORTION
OF THE
MANUSCRIPT
OK THE
FRENCH DICTIONARY
FIRST EDITION
(FIVE-EIGHTHS SCALE)
Showing corrections and ad-
ditions : and also the corre-
sponding type matter of the
completed work.
DICTIONARY COMPLETED 25
about you, and that you will go through with your book
for the love of it, whether it ever pays you or not ; but I
think I can promise you, from what I see of its plan, that
in twelve months from the time it is pubHshed, it will be
all over the world as the best French dictionary ever
printed.' "
John Bellows' publisher recognized the unusual ability
shown in the work, and recommended him to print twenty
thousand copies to begin with ; but his strained means
would not permit this, and he had to content himself
with an issue of six thousand. Within twelve months the
whole of these were exhausted, however, and he had to
prepare as quickly as might be for another edition. The
first one had been printed entirely by hand — a slow and
costly process ; but now that it became a question of
producing much larger numbers, special machinery was
henceforth required.
Like many others, John Bellows recognised the great
value of the philological researches of Prince Louis Lucien
Bonaparte (a nephew of Napoleon I.,) and especially with
respect to English dialects, although his work was by no
means confined to these. For some years they corres-
ponded, at intervals, on this subject ; and when the
French dictionary was completed, John Bellows marked
his own appreciation of the Prince's work by dedicating
his little book to him.
The excavations for the building of his new Office had
revealed to him a piece of masonry which he believed to
be the Roman wall of the City; and belief was made
certainty when, as the digging went deeper, he came upon
a heap of earth containing fragments of pottery and other
articles— all undeniably Roman— in such quantities that
Professor Rolleston, of Oxford, declared it to be the
largest collection ever taken in Britain from one spot.
For a few years John Bellows was not able to make much
use of his discovery, owing to the pressure of his business
26 ROMAN WALL
affairs ; though his active brain was no doubt evolving the
meaning of what he had found. When his anxieties were
a little lightened, he threw himself, with his usual ardour,
into the study of this branch of archaeology, and he con-
tributed several papers * on the subject to the Cotteswold
Naturalists' Field Club, of which he was a member, and,
later, a vice-president ; and delighted his fellow-members
with his vivid narrations.
To Professor Max Muller, Oxford.
Gloucester, 31-3-1873.
"I am preparing to remove my business to new
premises which I am building on the site formerly
occupied by the castle of the East Gate of the city. My
premises are on the north side of the Gate ; and as a
portion of the wall of Gloucester is traceable on the south
side, I thought I ought to find it in the garden of the new
house. I told my friend WilHam Lucy I thought of putting
down a trial shaft or two, to search for it, before covering
it with the floor of the new printing office. He thought it
unlikely that I should meet with it, as, a little lower down
the street in a line with my garden, some deep founda-
tions had been sunk recently, for a chapel, without finding
any trace of the old wall.
"I tried, however, and my guess has proved correct.
I have laid bare a magnificent mass of masonry 40 feet
long, 10 feet deep, and 5 or 6 in width. The foundation
goes far below this — probably another 10 feet ; but I am
stopped by water from getting down to it. The most
curious part of my story is yet to be told. Everyone here
believes Gloucester walls to be Norman at earliest; but
directly I got down to the level of the masonry I began to
disinter Roman pottery. At first I thought it simply an
indication that a rubbish heap from some older part of the
town had been carted here ; but I have gone on moving
* See Appendix for list of these and other writings.
FURTHER DISCOVERIES 27
ton after ton of earth and found a continuous store of
Samian pottery, black (or Upchurch) ware, Roman tiles,
bone fibulae, bone needles, a Roman coin (I can only-
decipher the AVG. on it,) two pieces of a sword blade, a
number of fragments of Roman glass, a beautiful hasp of a
cabinet lock (bronze inlaid with ivory or with some com-
position) with the key rusted on to it, a mass of bones of
domestic animals, including horns of bos longifrons, and
the antler of a stag of some species not wild on the
Cotteswolds, and which I should like to have examined by
a palaeontologist ; as well as shells of oysters, mussels, etc.
** The most curious thing perhaps, of all, is a bit of the
common black Roman ware, 4 or 5 inches in length, filled
with some domestic substance which I take to be soap, or
what has been used as soap. At the moment of finding it,
the appearance was exactly that of some crystallized soap
now made in France — so nearly resembling brown crys-
tallized sugar, that the labourer who handed it to me
declared that he had found ' a piece of one of their pots
with the sugar in it.' (The French soap I speak of is so
much like this that when I took some home two months
ago for my wife to experiment with, I put the bag con-
taining it on the hall table, and our servant took it from
thence and shot the contents into the store jar of brown
sugar!) In a few hours after exposure to the air the
crystals crumbled to whitish powder. If thou knowest of
any chemist who is interested in such matters, I will
send him a little of the powder to analyse. I believe the
result of all my digging will be to prove the wall — this
portion of it at least— to be the Roman wall of Glevum
Colonia. Our city is wonderfully rich in Roman remains,
but no systematic account of them is kept. I should be
delighted if thou wouldst make another trip into Glouces-
tershire, and come and see these old remains.
" My wife and two little ones are well. Max is a
delightful little boy— when he isn't naughty."
28 DOCTOR HUBNER
Through his friend Max Miiller, John Bellows' discovery
of the Roman wall was brought to the knowledge of Dr.
Htibner, a distinguished archaeologist of Berlin, who had
specialized on the Roman occupation of Britain. He wrote
an article in a German magazine on this important ' find,'
a translation of which was made for the Transactions of
the Cotteswold Club. A correspondence was, in con-
sequence, begun between Dr. Hiibner and John Bellows,
to their mutual pleasure, and to the profit of the latter.
As these letters extended over a long period, it is only-
possible to give a small selection of them in this volume.
To Professor Max Miiller^ Oxford.
Eastgate, Gloucester, 2-2-1877.
" I would write to Dr Htibner and tell him how greatly
I have been interested in reading his paper on Glevum, if
I knew his address.
"He is ' down upon me,' as we say, and of course
deservedly, for several crudities in my Cotteswold Club
paper : for I can neither forget nor make up for my lack
of a classical education : a lack which really ought to have
deterred me from ever meddling with Roman antiquities,
had not my discovery on my own premises tempted me
to ' rush in where angels fear to tread.' -s^- ^ * * And
against what difficulties such an amateur as I am has to
contend in a town like Gloucester, is shown by my slip in
the statement from Suetonius. I not only have no copy
of his works, but I know no one in Gloucester who has !
The statement that ' a Roman general never marched
without the materials for pavimenta tessellata in his
baggage,' I met with in a very excellent article on Roman
pavements, in the addenda to Leland's Itinerary. Know-
ing how risky a second-hand quotation is liable to be, I
wrote to a clergyman who had access to the work to look
me up the passage in the life of Caesar, and let me know
the exact words. Unluckily he only copied the last part
SAMIAN WARE 29
of the sentence containing what seemed to be the point at
issue. Into this trap I went head over heels ! It is not a
little odd, however, that my theory, built upon this false
foundation, seemed to receive support from my finding,
not many months ago, pieces of tesserce on the extreme
summit of Stinchcombe Hill, in the Roman signal station.
' Yes,' some antiquary will say, ' but the soldiers might
easily carry a few pieceS*of squared stone up to this spot,
to play some sort of game with.' I thought of this ; but
as against it, the Roman lime-mortar still adhered to the
bits, with fine sharp edges, and these edges would have
gone instantly in pitching the bits like dice." * * *
To Dr Huhner^ Berlin.
East Gate, Gloucester, 1-6- 1878.
" By some oversight I have omitted to send thee the
marks on the Samian ware found on these premises, and
which are as follows : —
CARVSSA- IVLLINIM
ANDEGENM ...VNDINIM
CEISIANIF M. . .RCVSSFM
VICTORF
" During the past week, in digging the foundations for a
new rectory at Matson, about two miles from this city,
near the road to Pains wick, a quantity of common Roman
ware has been found, including fragments of an Amphora
of the large size. There is a scratch on the inside of one
of the thin pieces of common red- ware, made while the
clay was soft {i.e.^ before burning,) but whether intended
for a letter I cannot say.
" Matson lies on the north side of a beautiful green hill,
an outlier of the Cotteswolds, called Robins' Wood Hill,
from a family of Robins, who formerly owned the estate.
The most ancient name we have on record is Mattisdon
= Mattesdun, Saxon for Meadow-hill ; for it is covered to
the very summit with pasture. It is about 700 feet high ;
and from its prominent position in the Vale of the Severn,
vis d vis the Cotteswold range, and the city of ' Glevum,'
30 MATSON
it tnust have been used for signalling in the Roman time.
We have in the City records items paid at the time of the
Spanish Armada by the Mayor and Corporation for the
services of men at the ' Beacon ' or signal fire, on the
same spot.
" I have only last evening ascertained from a man living
close to the place, that the roadway running towards the
hill rests on enormous blocks %f unhewn stone (oolite)
which must have been brought three miles or so to place
here. Some of these have been taken up and broken, to
be used in building ; but a number are still left, which
I have a promise to be allowed to open the ground to
examine ; or rather, the rector of the parish has promised
to do so.
"Matson House is a fine old mansion, which was
occupied by Charles I. in the siege of Gloucester ; and his
son James II. many years afterwards told Selwyn (the
then proprietor of the place, and M.P. for Gloucester) that
while they were staying at Matson, his brother Charles
(afterwards Charles II.) and himself were shut up in one
of the bedrooms as a punishment, when they cut and
hacked the window sills and shutters with their swords
and pocket knives. The shutters have gone ; but the
notches in the stone sill are still to be seen."
To the same.
Gloucester, 31-7-1878.
*' In the past week we have come upon three sets of
Roman remains in this city : a large piece of the wall of
the castle at the South gate : the base of a pillar in the
Southgate Street, perhaps 1 50 yards from the spot just
mentioned. This pillar base is a very large one, thirty-
nine inches across ^_ ^ f^' ^ the shafts and
between four and '^ ^^ ^ five feet diameter
at the torus. The ^^^^^^---^ single block
weighs a ton. It ^^^^ rested at a depth
of 9 feet 3 inches ^^===g- „ ^^^ from the existing
GRAVES AT CRICKLEY 31
street, on what seemed to be an enormous square block
of similar oolite stone ; but it proved to be two blocks
cramped together with iron. All the set of stones are
secured for our Museum, and removed thither.
" Lastly we have opened a drain through the sandy soil
at Kingsholm (the suburb so often mentioned by Lysons
as yielding all sorts of Roman remains.) Parts of six
skeletons were turned up ; and one, perfect, in a leaden
coffin, but without any mark or inscription of any kind.
It is shaped thus : y;^^;=^:::==-^^^^_____ ^he lid not soldered
but simply bent ^^^^^^^§~^ down over the sides
and crushed m ^^^ -*^ somewhat by the
weight of soil above. This coffin we could not get leave
to move. It is buried where it was found ! ! "
To the same.
Gloucester, 17-5-1880.
" Two days ago I purchased for our city museum some
interesting articles found near Birdlip, with three skeletons.
'' Birdlip is the pass by which the Ermin Street descends
from the Cotteswold Hills into the Vale of Gloucester. It
is seven miles from here, and ten from Cirencester. Two
miles north of it, or rather less, is a headland of the
Cotteswold range, called Crickley. (Crug, pronounced
creek or krik, is Celtic for barrow ; and there is a pro-
jection exactly like a barrow, which forms a prominent
feature in the hill.)
" About half-way between Crickley and Birdlip, by the
side of the road, the men working at a quarry came down
upon three skeletons. The middle one had a bronze bowl,
very thin, and of most beautiful workmanship, placed
inverted on the face — about eight-and-a-half inches in
diameter, swelling to ten inches below, and perhaps three
inches deep. A similar bowl, about three-and-a-half
inches diameter, lay beside it ; a beautiful oval bronze
mirror, with the back enchased ; a heavy silver fibula,
32 ROMAN ROADS
plated with gold on two places ; part of a pair of tweezers ;
a bronze handle of a knife, with a fawn's head ; and a
necklace or rosary (?) of large amber and other beads.
*'I shall shortly put these things in proper order, and
put them into the museum. Meantime canst thou give me
any light on the use of the bronze bowls ? and as to
whether the Romans, before the Christian epoch, used
rosaries to pray with ? The beads are too heavy, it
seems to me, for wearing on the neck. There are also
three or four heavy rings of base metal — possibly used for
fastenings of part of the dress."
To the same.
Gloucester, 14-2-1882.
" The subject of Roman Roads in Britain is sadly
neglected. After getting the hint from the map in thy
C. I. L.* that roads must have existed between Glevum and
the Templum Nodentis and Isca Silurum, etc., I got the
Ordnance Surveyors to keep a sharp look-out for pave-
ment of Roman origin in the Forest of Dean. They were
just then entering on a large-scale survey (25-344 inches
to the mile.) I went down and showed one of the men
what to look for, and how to distinguish the Roman
margin stones from modern paving. The final result is
that every carriage road but two in the Forest of Dean is
certainly seen to be Roman.
* * The Ordnance Surveyors are at this moment engaged
in the city of Gloucester on a scale over ten feet to the
mile (s-Jo) ^^^ ^1*^ doing good service to the future
archaeologist by recording all the objects of antiquity
found in the city, so far as they can authenticate them.
'* But I hope thou wilt come and see the neighbourhood
for thyself. With a little notice I should be almost certain
to be at home, except for a few weeks in summer at the
seaside."
* Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
CHAPTER III.
CORNISH FRIENDS — DEATH OF HIS PARENTS — RELIGIOUS
CORRESPONDENCE— VALS AND THE AUVERGNE-LOSS OF
A CHILD— 'UPTON KNOLL' BUILT.
LIKE all Cornishmen, John Bellows always thought of
^ his native county as 'home,' and the memories
of his early years in the West were treasured by him all
through his busy life. Among the Cornishmen with
whom he kept up a lasting friendship were the brothers
Tangye, of Illogan, who removed to Birmingham about
the time that he came to Gloucester. The eldest of the
five brothers, James, retired in later years with his wife
to his native village ; and in the home of these two dear
friends John Bellows often found a peaceful haven when
wearied out by his busy labours.
He was always a quick writer, and had acquired, to a
very remarkable degree, the power of concentration. A
great deal of the correspondence given in this volume was
written in the intervals of business or amid constant
interruptions ; and it was indeed a frequent matter for
surprise how much he could accomplish in this way.
The following letter is to his lifelong friend Francis
Michell, of Redruth.
To Francis Michell, Redruth.
Gloucester, 6-6-1872.
''I am exceedingly glad to hear of thy small boy's safe
arrival, and that his mother is going on well. My wife
will be especially pleased at the news.
"No one can tell, until he has had the experience of
it, what a comfort children are— for comfort is just the
C
34 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
word that best describes the feeling that rests with parents
in thinking of them. Of course there is a good deal of
care and responsibility, but these are both very good
things for us. I don't believe a man who had no cares (if
such a rara avis is in existence) would be a happy man.
And as to responsibility, he would be a coward who
blinked at it, especially with regard to endeavours that
his children should grow up thoughtful and religious, with
a view to their lasting happiness. It is a thought that I
frequently find spurring me to arise from the lethargy that
besets my own steps in this direction ; for time slips by
very fast, and almost before I am aware of it I shall have
my little son waiting to take his first lessons in what, alas,
I am so far behind knowing myself! If I let his earlier
years pass away without any earnest effort to bend his
steps in the right path, I fear my after efforts will be
of little avail ; and to give lessons to children, the one
powerful agency is example. ■5<- * ■»«•
"The more we can encourage the feeling of our own
deficiency and helplessness in the matter of the religious
training of our children, the more likely we are to be
aided by the great Father to be of help to them. I conceive
few things do more practical mischief than the notion that
because we are not what we ought to be, it is no use
trying to do anything until we are. The early Friends
frequently used a word which expresses a great truth, in
saying that we should endeavour to walk according to
our fneastire of light, and the state in which we are. The
, on the other hand, talk of all men being divided
simply into two lots — the converted and the unconverted.
They make out, resting upon a half truth (which is often
a whole lie^ that anything and everything the latter do
is wholly displeasing to God. But they entirely ignore
what F^nelon bore witness to — that God speaks in the
hearts of the unconverted in a variety of ways, to draw
them to Himself. If there is any measure of yielding to
CONFIDENCE IN GOD 35
this drawing, does it need argument to prove that, in so
far, the person who endeavours so to yield is acceptable
to God? And among the ways in which we are thus
drawn, by no means the least is that desire that is im-
planted in our hearts for the true well-being of our
children — those whom we have been the means of bringing
into existence to be happy or to be miserable for ever.*
I am certain that the secret looking of the heart towards
the Father of Lights for wisdom to guide our little ones
aright, is not lost, whether from one class of men or from
another.
To George Tangye, Birmingham,
Churcham, 22-12-1872.
*' As I have said, thou hast again and again been in my
thoughts, though very often I have been so overwhelmed
with cares and anxieties that it has appeared as if it would
be unsuitable to write with one's mind in such a state,
especially to an invalid friend whose greatest need was
rest.
"There are moments, however, that come to us unex-
pectedly, in the midst of storms and trials, in which a
quieter influence is felt underneath, as a stay — an anchor
which limits the range of our tossings. Thou hast known
many such seasons, and I trust wilt know them again, if
further trials are permitted thee by the same unerring and
loving Power that has safely led thee thus far. ' In quiet-
ness and in confidence shall be your strength,' remains a
golden watchword — a quietness which lies in inward
silent waiting on God, and in which the true living
confidence in His mercy springs fresh after every dis-
couragement.
" To sink into this inward waiting is not an easy
attainment; but it is worth striving after, earnestly and
* It will be seen later how much his views became modified as to
our condition after death.
C2
36 DEATH OF HIS MOTHER
repeatedly, for it is nothing less than bringing the soul
into immediate communion with Christ, and taking hold
of a measure of His power— in other words, it is the very
essence of prayer, which is the vital point in religion."
To Professor Max Miiller, Oxford.
Gloucester, 12-11-1873.
" My dear mother, now in her 8oth year, is very ill,
and I fear we may not keep her much longer. She has
not been able to lie down for three years, from acute
rheumatism in right knee, so that she sleeps in an easy
chair. She is deaf, to a great extent, and suffers in her
breathing. Yet she is calm in her sorest moments, and
bright and cheerful whenever physical pain permits it.
Last night my wife and I were sitting by her side ; [she
was] almost too weak to speak. After a violent fit of
coughing, she said, ' I am not afraid to die, for I have
long been accustomed to look death in the face ' ; adding
afterwards, ' there is no cloud in the way.' Life is full of
sorrows and troubles, and I have had some heavy ones ;
but I don't know how to steel myself against the blow that
I dread may soon fall on us in parting with my mother.
The cares of business and of little children ought to
harden one into manhood at two and forty ; but when I
think of my mother I come back to be a little child again
myself. I think thou wilt feel what I mean, but I can't
write more."
His mother's illness did not at this time prove fatal.
She died, greatly mourned, in the following July.
To his Wife, after the death of a friend.
London, 22-5-75.
"We sat together (— and I) till after midnight; and
long after I lay down I felt unable to sleep, from the sense
that rested on my heart of the shortness of time for us all,
and the nearness of that great and vast eternity in which.
^ DEATH OF HIS FATHER 37
through the love of God, it will be our portion to be happy-
together, thou and I, my darling Lizzie, when the trials of
this life are past. Heaven would be happy beyond all
comprehension even were it for any of us to be in the
presence of Him who is the fountain of light and love
and bliss ; but His ways are past finding out ; and on
to the very infinitude of blessedness He adds infinite
seas of further bliss in the companionships that have
bound us together in time. On to the mercy no thought
can fathom, of saving our souls from the misery of separa-
tion from His presence. He adds the joy of meeting in the
same endless existence those we loved, and who have
helped us, and whom we have helped, here on earth.
" I cannot say one tithe of what I feel on this matter ; I
can only fall back into silent contemplation of it, just as
I should silently stand on the shore of an ocean of splendour
and brightness that stretched away into eternal distance.
O how small at such a moment seem the sacrifices we are
called on to make as the simplest preparation for entering
such a world! O how earnest we should be with our
darling children, to train them as instruments for the
glory of such a God !
* ' I feel it is a blessed thing for me to have been at this
Yearly Meeting"^; and I do hope to come home with
some enlargement of heart from it, and some increase
of readiness to run in the way of our Heavenly Father's
commandments. "
To Bruce Home^ Edinburgh.
Gloucester, 6-12-77.
" I buried my father yesterday. He was ready to die,
and met Death as patiently and cheerfully as he would
have prepared for a change of abode in this world, had it
been his lot. One thing he said to me nearly a year ago,
will rest on my mind as a lesson to be kept in view,
and followed after.
* Of the Society of Friends.
38 RESIGNATION
" Something had occurred — I forget what — to oblige me
to ask him to forego a plan on which he had set his heart.
If any man had good reason for expecting to be gratified,
it was he : in lonely old age, feeble in health, and able to
take no pleasure in the multitude of things that come in
the way of the young or the middle-aged.
" Without hesitation he at once yielded, quietly saying,
'For some time past I have made it a rule always to
prefer the will of another to my own will, except when by
so doing I should go contrary to the will of God.' I
cannot describe how great an impression these simple
words made on me, as I looked on his silver hairs, and
remembered how soon he would lay them in the grave.
It was the living reality of the words that are too thought-
lessly murmured by thousands : ' Thy will be done in
earth as it is in Heaven ' ; for no angel there or spirit of
just man made perfect could go beyond this entire re-
signation of self.'*
To the same,
Gloucester, 20-3-1878.
" If I have delayed writing thee, it has not been that
my friendship flagged, but simply because I felt empty of
any good ; and above all things I believe it is needful for
us to know when to speak and when to keep silence.
Yet I can assure thee that thy letter warmed my heart
and made me glad. There was something in it more than
words; an underlying sense was present with me as I
read it, of thy tenderness of spirit. This tenderness is of
infinite price, for it is the gift of God, the forerunner of all
His best gifts, so that its being retained is a very important
matter. It is the spirit of the little child, to which the
Heavenly Father reveals the mysteries of His Kingdom
that are hidden from the wise and prudent, from the
theologians and clever searchers who think that the
Kingdom of God ' cometh by observation.^
WAITING UPON GOD 39
"Satan draws us aside from this beautiful childlike
state by getting us to attend to somewhat else than the
secret drawings of the Spirit of God ; either leading us
into chains of reasoning, or into an endeavour to know
more at any given time than it is the Master's will at that
particular time to show us. If the enemy cannot damp
our courage so far as to frighten us back from the narrow
path by forestalling its difficulties, he turns round on the
other tack and plausibly leads us into engaging in some
'good work' to which we are not called. Here is his
great snare, and I hope thou mayest be favoured to see it ;
for vain is it to set the snare in the sight of any bird. "
To a Correspondent. ^
Gloucester, 20-3-1878.
" I can fully enter into thy feeling of discouragement at
thy want of more earnestness in seeking the best things.
Even here, however, we do well to remember that we
cannot will of ourselves anything that is truly good. We
are assured by a man of experience that it is God which
worketh in us both to will and to do, in this sense ; and
therefore it is of deep moment to us to sink into that
waiting state before Him, in which we are kept from
hindering His operations. Multitudes of people are kept
from seeing this by the Enemy of souls ; tossed first into
an eager acting or praying in their own zeal, and then into
despondency because their momentary blaze has gone out.
" No : it is a more blessed thing to wait upon God, and
even to feel one's self naked and miserable, and poor and
blind, than to go wandering on till we get a notion that we
are something, when in reality we are neither cold nor hot.
' They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; '
and it is this renewing that carries us forward from
strength to strength. The Great and Infinite Creator
regards quality in our work more than quantity ; one sigh
from a sense of our utter fall and nothingness, is more
40 JAMES GREEN
acceptable to Him than all the magnificent services in the
world, with which men dazzle each other. He teaches us
a little at a time ; and if we only keep to that, we are well-
pleasing to Him.
" At any and every given moment of our life our safety
consists in our turning submissively to the measure or
degree of the Spirit of God which at the particular time is
manifested to us. Note well that this manifestation is not
always made to the understanding or reason in us ; often
it is secretly felt, but out of the grasp of reason. There
is a passage of which I cannot recall the exact words,
which counsels him ' that hath no light ' to stay upon the
Lord and trust in his God; so that even here, God is
secretly present, giving power to lean on Himself, even
while to the eye of the natural mind all is darkness ; for
power comes from Him."
John Bellows very greatly prized the privilege of
numbering many cultured Americans among his friends.
One of these, to whom the following and other letters
were written, was a beloved correspondent for nearly
twenty-five years.
To James Green, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Gloucester (Old England,) 31-1-1879.
*'Thy most acceptable gift. Holmes' 'Life of Motley,'
reached me on the 8th inst. The Worcester post-mark
led me to guess thou wert the sender ; but the coincidence
of my receiving about the same time a letter from O. W.
Holmes himself (it reached me the previous afternoon,)
left me in just enough uncertainty to delay my acknow-
ledgment of it until I got a line from thee. * * *
"My wife and I are quietly enjoying Prescott's works
in our winter evenings, for I generally read aloud to her
after the children are gone to bed ; and I have been inter-
ested, from time to time, while engaged in his narratives,
in a comparison of his style with that of Motley. The
CONTRASTS IN NATURE 41
latter still appears to me to bear the palm ; for while
both are, as a rule, clear and easy in their manner, and
both possess great power of putting a scene vividly before
the mind of the reader, Prescott now and then makes
a slip, grammatically, or words a sentence so carelessly
that it may be taken to mean something different from
that which he intended ; while, so far as I have observed,
Motley never does so. * * *
"We felt disappointed on account of thy Wye tour,
when the rain set in so heavily as to leave no hope of its
accomplishment. Still, if thou shouldst again visit England,
thou wilt perhaps see the rest of the valley under brighter
aspects. All landscapes depend much upon atmospheric
effects for their beauty ; and especially those made up of
cliffs and mountains. Even the blue sky, which in our
beclouded island is so often hidden as to set us longing
after it as an ideal of perfection, becomes wearisome
when it ceases to change. I have known an Italian com-
plain of its unvaried monotony as the worst drawback of
the southern summer ! His ideal was a moist and rainy
land like England, where the grass was green in hot
weather, and not brown and burnt up. Perhaps the secret
after all is in the contrasts afforded by change ; and these
are necessarily more frequent and striking in a rainy
than in a dry climate. Some of Wordsworth's best de-
scriptions of our Lake District relate to cloud-changes. * *
''It would give my wife and myself great pleasure to
see thee again— and I believe Gloucestershire will not
seem altogether a strange country to thee on thy next
visit, now that the ice is broken — while we shall often
recur to the evening thou passed here, with interest.
" Should anything lead thee to visit Gloucester, Mass.,
do not fail to examine the histories of Old Gloucester
which they keep with their town archives. These include
all our local histories, which were presented to them by
our Mayor and Corporation some twenty years ago."
42 HOLIDAY IN FRANCE
In the spring of 1879, John Bellows' health, never
robust, had become somewhat impaired, and he was with
difficulty persuaded to leave home and business to go for
a short trip to France, with his friend William C. Lucy —
a fellow-member of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field
Club, and, in later years, its president. They went first
to Vals, where the beauty of the scenery filled his memory
with pictures which took long to fade ; and then proceeded
south to Nimes. Here the examination of the wonderful
Roman remains was of special interest to him, as he had
now taken up archaeology, not as a mere pastime, but as
a serious study. On their return journey the two com-
panions stopped at Clermont-Ferrand and ascended the
Puy de DOme, where Roman remains again attracted his
attention.
To his Wife.
Hotel Durand, Vals, ARDficHE, 1 1-5-79.
c< -K- -x- ^ B^t first let me go back to the day before
yesterday, i.e.^ to our arrival, and say something about
Vals itself. It is a large village situate in a valley, sur-
rounded on all sides by hills as high as, and shaped very
much like, those at Llandogo above Tintern. There
is but one principal street, though there are very pretty
walks and drives for visitors besides this.
"The river Volane, which runs into the Ardeche just
below here, is the great feature ; and, as it is a type
of the many streams we see in the district, I will try
to describe it. The bed, which is for a very large part of
its width dry at this time of the year, is made up of boul-
ders of granite and lava of all sizes up to that of our hall
stove, dazzling white and jet black ; with here and there
broad flats of shining sand, the same as that at Mount's
Bay. Winding through this runs the stream, now about
as wide as Eastgate street, clear as crystal — a loud, noisy
river. In some parts it forms pools, many feet deep, of
lovely sea-green ; in others it is all lost in white foam in
its passage through the pebbles.
VISIT TO VALS 43
"Two bridges cross it at the two ends of the village, near
each of which it forms a splendid and most musical water-
fall. The lower of these bridges is a recent one, built ten
years ago by the government, as an experiment Every few
years the torrent sweeps away trees and rocks, and some
of the bridges ; and this one is made low to allow the main
body of the water to pass over it. There is no parapet :
so that it would not be a safe place for [a child] to play
upon. The floor of the bridge is about eight or nine feet
above the present surface of the stream, which in an
ordinary winter rises more than a yard over the top ; and
in the great flood time the engineer hopes the rocks will
roll through the arches below, while the trees are swept
across the top. The Vals people say the whole bridge,
solid and broad as it is, of chiselled granite, will be
carried clean away.
" Many of the bridges are suspension ones, high above
the river. There is one a little beyond here, which we
passed over from Aubenas, and to go to Jaujac also,
as long as Clarence Street and as high as our house over
the water. Below, there is a beach of hundreds of feet
wide. This is on the Ardeche.
" The hills are all cultivated, where the rock admits of
it, in steps and terraces about two or three feet high each.
In one place, just behind the hotel, there are a hundred
of these steps right away.
" I was so delighted with the walk we had after tea,
on the way towards Antraigues, that I could not help
scheming all sorts of things to get thee over here with
some of the children. I told William Lucy that I should
not wish to see anything else but these valleys at Vals.
Cliffs and hills, woodland and cascade succeeded each
other at every bend of the road ; whfle every now and
then we came in view of the far shining snow-clad
mountains high against the blue sky. They are intoler-
ably beautiful.
44 ARDECHE SCENERY
" I gathered bits of wild box to put in my letter home v
bits of genista, violets, and I don't know what besides. I
resolved to telegraph home to thee to make some arrange-
ments for leaving at once, and to go and fetch thee — and
then, as I saw in examining the details that this would be
impossible, I had half a mind to beg William Lucy to
forgive my going home at once, as it would make me un-
happy to stay in such a place unless I could share it
at least with my wife ! Only the conviction that this
would be very unfair to him prevented my doing so. Had
I been alone, I should at this moment have been a good
part of the way back I
"If the Antraigues road delighted, the one to Jaujac
was in some parts even grander. I made the trap stop a
couple of miles out, at a large paper mill, to try and sketch
the outline of snowy mountains, with the magnificent river
before us ; but I gave it up. What is the outline of a
scene in which all beautiful colours tell with all their
force ; or how can a blacklead pencil give any idea of the
air that blows uncontaminated from the broad moorlands
above— or of the sounding music of many waterfalls— or
of the trees and flowers that go to complete the fore-
ground ! "
To his Wife.
Vals, France, 12-5-79.
"We have just returned from a long drive to Montpesat,
a large village some thirteen miles from Vals. Every
part of the road is beautiful : all of it along valleys by the
side of rivers, and all hemmed in by high granite hills
whose lower slopes are cultivated in terraces, while the
heights are clothed with chestnut trees.
" The approach to Montpesat itself is grand. In front
of us is a line of snowy mountains ; at the left a mighty
volcano, the cone of which is itself a mountain of red ash
and cinder as high as Haresfield Hill above the railway,
with trees on its lower part, and a few streaks of snow
PUY DE DOME
45
just at its summit ; on our right, on the opposite side of
the valley, a mighty hill forming a vast combe, in whose
lower hollow nestled the town. To get to this we have to
cross a suspension bridge over a chasm nearly as deep as
Symond's Yat cliff. On the off-bank is a castle ruin,
standing on one edge of this cliff of basalt.
It is now that I regret never having learned a little draw-
ing: at any rate enough to make a difference between
a forest tree and a besom ! But a rough idea is better
than an absolute blank."
To his Wife.
Clermont-Ferrand, 18-5-79.
"I am like a boy going home from school: ready to
count the hours for my return.
"We have been up the Puy de DCme, on the lower
slopes of which grow pansies in abundance.
" The drive towards the Puy de D6me rises for several
miles along a road of forty feet in width, that is carried in
zig-zags of easy gradient to a plateau far higher than
Birdlip. On this we drive, again rising a good part of
the way, till we get to the foot of the Puy itself, where
we leave the horses and take a guide — an intelligent
46 DIRTY INNS
good-looking Auvergnat. The summit (on which stands the
Government Observatory) is over fourteen hundred feet
above the guide's house : half as high again as the hill at
Malvern above that town. Immediately at the back of the
house, and scattered in front also, are heaps of Roman
remains: a beautifully- carved capital of a pillar, lying
among ashes and rubbish, I noticed especially. * * *
**Very near the top we came upon the platform of
a large temple erected by the Romans to Mercury, only
lately discovered in building the observatory. It is all of
chiselled lava— beautiful blocks of stone, many of which
are as long as our front hall, and many of tlie steps cut
two deep out of a single stone. On all hands, and for
hundreds of yards round, the soil is full of Roman pottery.
I could have quickly filled a wheelbarrow with it. Our
guide picked up a bit of Samian [ware] and handed me ;
and many coins are found there."
To his Wife.
Thueyts, Ard^che, 19-5-1879.
" The tea comes in most usefully. In some of the
country inns they have no such thing as either teapot
or kettle. They bring in a shallow saucepan and a slop
basin, and pour a splash all over the place, and then put
the tea in ! Omelettes they make well everywhere, and
the bread is good, so that one is sure of something to eat.
But they are dirty places. I am sitting in such a one now,
the same inn at Thueyts where William Lucy and his
friends were so overcharged when he was last here. He
did resolve never to come here again : but time has
healed the wound, and we are expecting our boiling water
in a few minutes."
To James Green, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Gloucester, England, 27-12-1879.
" Time flies fast, and I can hardly realise that this is
the second winter since thou wert here ; but I have two
THE VALLEYS OF ARDECHE 47
landmarks that compel me to remember it, in the form of
a long attack, last year, of bronchitis (for the first time in
my life,) which I am now supplementing by another that
has kept me indoors somewhat over three weeks.
**In the spring my friend William Lucy, whom thou
wilt recollect, pressed me to try and mend my weakened
health by a short trip to the volcanic district of Central
France ; about the neighbourhood of Vals, in the Ard^che,
and of Clermont-Ferrand.
" It certainly is a marvellous country. There are ex-
tinct volcanoes in whose craters grow sweet pasture and
flowers of many varieties ; down some of whose giant
slopes there are forests of chestnut or terraces of the
vine ; while on other parts of the same mountains lie
the cinders and ashes as they lay the day they fell from
the fiery cloud above, intermingled with mighty bombs
of lava from the explosions that filled miles of the
valleys below with their columns of basalt. If ' distance
lends enchantment to the view,' distance of time eliminates
from our remembrance of a foreign land the minor common-
places incident to our travel in it, and by degrees shapes
out for us an ideal picture, or a poem of things — not of
words— in which is enshrined all that is worth keeping of
them. It is thus with me in looking back upon the beautiful
valleys of Ardeche : there are endless lines of snow-clad
mountains standing out against the blue sky ; forests and
gardens and vineyards on their lower slants ; bounding
rivers and musical waterfalls, such as I have never seen
or heard elsewhere : a land that would be fairyland, if it
were not for the vastness of its proportions, and the
balancing of its sweetness by the evidences of overwhelm-
ing power. But I forget myself. Words that might pass
with a meaning to one who had seen the same landscape,
may have an air of exaggeration to one who has not ; but
if ever it should be thy lot to visit this part of France, thou
wilt acquit me at least of this."
48 LOSS OF A CHILD
In September, 1881, John Bellows and his wife had the
deep sorrow of losing a little girl, Emily, aged five-and-a-
half years, after a very brief illness. The two letters
which follow refer to this loss.
To James Green, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Gloucester, England, 27-9-1881.
" The little card accompanying this will show what our
last and heaviest trouble has been ; for one of the bright
and happy children who made up the group of our house-
hold when thou passed a few hours under our roof, has
been summoned away from time ; and to-morrow we must
stand by her tiny grave.
" It seems strange thus to open one's heart to a stranger
in a distant land, and make him the sharer in our sorrows ;
but in the ordering of Heaven it was meant to be that even
our seemingly ' chance ' acquaintanceships should often
bind our hearts together in sympathy."
From Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Beverly Farms, Mass., Oct. iith, 1881.
*' My dear Mr Bellows,
" My sympathies go out to you across the wide distance
that separates us. Your affliction calls back to me my
own first experience of death and affliction in the loss of a
little sister at almost exactly the same age with the child
that has left you. I myself was at a still tenderer age,
and yet the remembrance has always been with me, and
when some years ago I came upon her dolls which had
been carefully treasured by my mother, my heart melted
at the sight of the poor little playthings.
" I wish I could have been with you at the Friends'
Burial-ground when the funeral took place. I have been
in so many processions of mourners of late years, that it
seems as if the world — my world — was leaving me, almost,
and I think these experiences have made me more ready
to feel the sorrows of others in their bereavements.
ILLNESS OF CHILDREN 49
"Wishing all heavenly consolation to you and your
family in your time of trial, I am, very sincerely yours,
''O. W. Holmes."
** I cannot help saying that the hearts of our two countries
have never been brought so near together as by the sym-
pathy shewn all over England with us in our great national
affliction." *
To James Green, Worcester, Mass.
Gloucester, England, 24-8-1882.
" We have had a good deal of illness in our family ever
since midsummer ; five children, first and last, down with
scarlet fever ; which has delayed my acknowledging thy
very acceptable letter. The children have had the fever
but lightly ; but my wife in nursing three of them before
we had the aid of a trained nurse, so utterly exhausted
her strength that she has had a narrow escape of her life.
I am glad to say she is now fairly on the way to health
again however; and while our house is, I believe, as
healthy as a dwelling in the town can be — for the town is
low and rather damp — I hope before long we may be able
to live in the country, where a more bracing air will give
us all more vigor.
"If the reading of poetry aloud is one of your joint
home-pleasures, I believe you would much enjoy Wiffen's
Translation of Tasso. This is now out of print. I picked
up a second-hand copy, the whole twelve thousand stanzas
of which I have read aloud to my wife ; some parts half-a-
score of times over. Wiffen was a Friend, librarian to
the Duke of Bedford ; and his first edition was published,
I think, in 1824.
"Wordsworth is, on the whole, my favourite poet. I am
very partial to his ' Excursion.' I dare say thou wilt remem-
ber the piece in it describing the deaf peasant, beginning
'Almost at the root
Of yon tall pine — the shadow,' etc.
To my mind, a delightful piece."
* The death of President Garfield,
50 * UPTON KNOLL' BUILT
As the years went by, the mental and physical strain of
living on the business premises in Eastgate Street, where
little sense of rest could be enjoyed, was increasingly felt
by John Bellows. For this reason he purchased, in 1883,
a site for a house on the Cotteswold Hills, three or four
miles from Gloucester, near the village of Upton St.
Leonards, and the work of building "Upton Knoll" was
quickly begun. When the new home was finished, in
September, 1884, the family removed to it from Saintbridge
House — midway between Gloucester and Upton — which
they had occupied for the intervening twelve months.
To James Green ^ Worcester^ Mass.
Gloucester, England, 3- 12-1883.
" I was much interested in one of thy letters with an
account thou gave of building thy house ; and as I happen
now to be similarly engaged, I will jot down some of the
particulars about our domicile. With a business like
mine, and so large a family, it takes many years to effect
such saving as would justify building ; but my little
dictionary has sold well, and the profits of the work have
shortened the period of waiting.
"When I broke down so utterly last spring, as to
be for some time incapable of any work, my wife wisely
foresaw that the change to life in the country, and the
change of occupation and interests involved in building a
house, would be better for me, when convalescent, than
returning to the old groove at Gloucester. So by the end
of summer we had brought our plans to feasible shape,
and at once set the work in hand. The house is of oolite
stone, lined with brick. The stone is quarried further up
the hill, so that it only has to be * hauled ' down to us.
The brick and timber have to be hauled up, and a pretty
tug it is ; sometimes seven or eight or even ten horses in
a line at one load. The ascent is very pretty (though
I doubt whether the horses think so ;) steep banks on
either hand covered with hedge maple and clematis, with
I
s
UPTON LANDSCAPES 51
fine oak trees at intervals, and orchards behind the
cottages which dot the way all along— a road, so a friend
tells me who has lived for a year on the Syrian mountains,
like that from Beyrout to Damascus, where it begins to
climb Lebanon. On the top of this is a table-land of a
quarter-mile wide, when a second higher hill rises-
Pains wick Camp. Our house is at the beginning of this
table-land. It gives us a beautiful series of landscapes,
including the Forest of Dean and some of thd|,Cambrian
mountains, the Wyndcliff on the Wye, the Severn Bridge
and broad expanse of water, the towns of Gloucester,
Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Worcester (I wish it were
Worcester, Mass. !) the Malvern Hills and hills in Hereford-
shire, and the line of the Cotteswold Hills."
To William Plumbe, Mansfield.
Saintbridge House, nr. Gloucester, 5-2-1884.
"In reference to thy remark about the importance the
early Friends attached to manifestations of the unseen, I
believe it safe to say they regarded these as the substance
of all religion. ' This is eternal life,' said our Saviour,
' to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent.' As God is a Spirit, He can only be
known by His own unseen manifestations to our spirits ;
and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, both outwardly, in
the body at Jerusalem, and inwardly, as the Light which
enlightens every man who comes into the world, can only
be known by our receiving Him inwardly, where, as the
Light, He is manifested, unseen to the outward eye. That
light ' shines in darkness,' the darkness of the carnal or
natural mind ; and the darkness cannot comprehend it.
The truth is that He begins by very small manifestations
to the soul— little indications of our wrong-doing, little
tenderings of the spirit towards Him, which are in fact
little measures of the Divine Nature offered to us. As we
receive these, i.e. obey them and seek after them, they
D2
52 INWARD TRIAL
are increased ; for to him that hath shall be given. ' To
as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God.' So that Christ in His secret
visitations, unseen outwardly, is the Alpha of our salva-
tion ; and if we close with those visitations He becomes
the Omega also ; the beginning of our faith, and the end of
our faith — even the eternal salvation of our souls. For to
be made a son of God, a partaker of the Divine Nature, is
to be created anew into a state that can never die.
**I hope the day may come when this will become
as clear to thee as noontide. If trials, which pass away,
help to prepare this state, they will seem small at last ;
for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things
that are not seen are eternal."
To Paul Jewill, Nancegollan, Cornwall.
Gloucester, 25-3-1884.
" I have delayed long in writing thee, not that I had
forgotten ; but because I am so often under the cloud, and
in the midst of storm and trial inwardly, that I am shut up
from much communication on the matters that lie nearest
to both of us. Seldom, I believe, a day passes, without
my thoughts turning to thee ; for there are very few with
whom it has been my lot to feel so close a unity and
sympathy, notwithstanding that the channel of outward
communication has been, for the reason I have mentioned,
so closed to me.
" The pathway of conversion and of sanctification is
a mystery to the natural mind that no time and no ex-
perience can enable it to comprehend. Yet if we keep
down like little children, to our measure of faith, there
is enough of submission granted to us to enable us to
endure the painful overturnings that are allotted to us,
one at a time.
" 'He that belie veth and is baptized shall be saved,' is a
text some of the wise and learned men dispute the validity
DISCOURAGEMENTS 53
of. Whether the text is genuine or not, the truth it covers
remains, that he who so believes as to bear the renewed
baptism of the Spirit, knows his salvation to be proved,
and experiences a growth in grace. Again and again,
of late, when through want of inward silence I have
allowed the natural will to get uppermost, and so have
begun to faint and grow weary of the heavy cross and the
suffering that stand straight in the path before me, I have
been quietly recalled by the remembrance of the words,
* I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,' and I
have been favoured to come back under the suffering
again, to walk in darkness and fear, staying upon the
Lord, and hoping in His mercy. These are depths in
which man cannot help us ; where no past experience
either of our own or of others, will do : nothing but the
present secret power of the Almighty. To sink down
into silent waiting on Him is the only way when the storm
is heavy, ' when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm
against the wall ; ' and then as we do so, respite sometimes
dawns on us when least expected. The enemy makes
these trials and tossings of spirit seem endless ; but they
are but for a season that will, in the right time, have an
end. And it is right that this end should for the present
be hid from us ; else self would have a share in our tiding
over our griefs, instead of faith carrying us over all."
To the same.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 21-1-1886.
" My wife and I thank thee for the kind and much-
appreciated gift, which reached us to-day in excellent
order. How often I wish our homes were nearer together !
But in this, no doubt, things are ordered for the best. Thou
hast been present to my thoughts very frequently of late,
with much sympathy, mingled with a sense that thou art
too much given to discouragement. I have lost years in the
same way— looking back at what might have been, had
54 OBEDIENCE OF FAITH
I been faithful, and easily led into the snare of concluding
that, after so many lost opportunities, little if anything
better was to be hoped. Yet, as Philippa Williams once
said to me, after a complaint to this eifect : ' Well, we
cannot live on past regrets ! '
" The Lord's mercies are new every morning. We
have been unfaithful, have wasted opportunities ad in-
finitum. What then? Shall we neglect this morning's
new grace and mercy because we have not made the best
use of that of other days ? At every given moment, no
matter how poor or low our state may be — no matter
whether we have backslidden or fallen, there is still at
that moment a little light, a little help, a little strength
from above. The work of the enemy is to get us to
undervalue this. If in no other way, he often succeeds
by so figuring what we might have been, as to make us
believe there is no hope of much attainment now. But as
we admit our shortcoming, without staying in it, and turn
inward to our lessened degree of light, it is still powerful
to help. Can it be other than well-pleasing to God, if,
while mournfully conscious of not having been good
stewards in the past, we begin to be so in the small
matters of to-day ?
' ' It takes self-denial to retire into the inward quietude
of feeling after the present will of God concerning us—
self-denial to resist the tendency to succumb ; but, there is
always strength for the day. The only condition is, our
co-operation with it. To co-operate with the Word in the
heart is to yield the obedience of faith. What if the
measure is small ? I have often to say to myself : ' To
him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not is
taken away even that which he had.' I have wasted the
strength I had, and so it has become less. I might have
been rich, now I am miserably poor. I did not make
a wise use of the pounds — nor even of the shillings ; and
now the Master only trusts me with a few pence. Shall I
LETTER FROM DR. HOLMES 55
\<
repine, and tell Him that if I had the pounds now I should
do better ? Or, shall I not rather say, ' I have deserved
my poverty ; but now, at last, at any rate, I will try to be
a faithful steward of the pence. What if I never grow
rich again ; it is better to strive to become a faithful user
of the twopence I have left— or, rather, that has just been
given me, than to neglect it because it is but twopence.
At any rate I will try my real best, poor as it is.'
" Now this is precisely and truly my own state as I
write this letter. I cannot add much : there is nothing for
it but to seek — to seek anew and cling to the little. Our
Heavenly Father always does the best that is possible for
us, taking into account our present state, and I feel sure
He will help us."
The letters referred to below by Dr Holmes have,
unfortunately, not been preserved.
From Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Boston, Jan. 28, 1885.
"My dear Mr Bellows,
" I have just received and read to the last syllable, with
the greatest pleasure, your delightful letter. It is alto-
gether too good for any private correspondent, and ought
to go with another one you wrote me giving an account of
the funeral at an old manor-house, into some of your public
prints. I wonder you waste so much fine description on
any one individual. However, I handed it to my wife,
who has been enjoying it as I have, and thanks you most
heartily for the great pleasure it has given her.
" As for myself, I can only answer you decently by
sending you my last book — a Memoir of Emerson, which
was printed a few weeks ago, and has proved quite
acceptable here, and received a very pleasant notice in
the ' Pall Mall Gazette,' and I think elsewhere, in England.
" My thanks and my poor book are all the return I can
make for that long and beautiful letter. I have to write so
56 LIFE OF EMERSON
much that I get very tired, and I could not help thinking,
as I read of your breaking down, how I should like to
break down— for a little while, and not the main part of
the vital machinery — so as to be forced to take a little rest.
A few weeks of absolute idleness would be a great bless-
ing to me, but I am caught in the wheels of a promise, and
round I must go.
"In these few words I can at least tell you how
admirable I consider your description of the extended
scenery around your new mansion. It seems to me you
have a special talent for scene-painting in words. But
what a wealth of natural and historical and poetical land-
scape you overlook ! I do not like to be envious, but a
soil that has been trodden by Romans, Britons, Saxons,
Normans, and holds their bones and their memories, is
worth walking on, living on, and being buried in. I will
not be ungrateful, either, for I have a beautiful outlook
from my library window, which is the admiration of all
my English visitors.
" I must stop— with kindest regards and remembrances,
" Faithfully yours
" Oliver Wendell Holmes."
To Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston.
Lizard Point, Cornwall, 6-8-85.
"Here at last is the moment of leisure for which I have
long waited, that I might acknowledge thy kind gift of the
Memorials of Emerson after some acquaintance with its
contents. * -^ -x- j have reserved the volume for
reading aloud to my wife, which is a very slow process,
because our available time for reading aloud is restricted
to the interval after tea. Even this has to be divided into
sections, to suit different auditories, whose tastes require
different books. * "f^ * After Lucy has gone to bed,
things go pretty smoothly till half-past eight, when the rest
follow, except our eldest boy.
STORIES FROM VIRGIL 57
" ' Max— hand me Emerson : there it is, on the second
shelf.'
" * O do let me read this bit first, out of ' Stories from
Virgil ! ' I've been waiting all the evening to do it, and I
have to return the book this week.'
" Here is a case that evidently admits of no delay ; and
as he is now translating from the same author, we assent,
and are presently interested in the filial piety of ^neas as
shown in the funeral games he sets on foot in honor of his
father Anchises.
''Nine o'clock ! Time for Max to stop ; but he begs to
finish the chapter ('only a few more pages,') and as he is
in the middle of a terrible boxing match, we let him go on
till twenty-seven minutes past : by which time * Dares ' is
dragged off the ground with his toes trailing after him,
* vomiting blood, and teeth in the blood.' It takes some
minutes after the story is over to realize the inconsistency
of such reading in the family circle, or semi-circle even ;
for had the same matter occurred in the newspaper, we
should have turned away from it promptly.
* ' And with this we come to Emerson : reading it for
our third course, evening after evening, till now it is
ended, except the last dozen pages.
" It has interested us greatly ; for though my knowledge
of Emerson scarcely extended beyond his Essays, which
I read soon after Carlyle issued an edition in England (or
rather wrote a preface to it) it happened that only a week
or two before thy volume reached me, I had been re-
reading some of the Essays to my wife.
" And what a nice volume it is ! Trenching as it does
on the whole range of subjects which Emerson had occu-
pied himself with, I need hardly say that it has taken
longer to read than almost any other book would have
done, because it has suggested so much matter for con-
versation and digression. And to make one digression
here, from the current of thought principally before me,
58 EMERSON AND WORDSWORTH
may I mention the beautiful get-up of the volume. Art
thou aware that the type of the head-line of the title page is
itself an illustration of Emerson's remark as to the union
of one new and one old strand in our every idea ? The
words ' American Men of Letters ' are in a very beautiful
black-letter, one of the most beautiful that have ever been
cut either in Europe or in America. I have a good 'fount'
of it, having always had a special liking for it. It is a pica
cast in the moulds made by William Caxton himself. The
originals are still in existence, in the foundry once belong-
ing to Dr Fry, the Oriental punch-cutter. No modern
type, although better finished, at all equals it in the effect
of the ensemble of a page.
"The portrait is wonderfully good as a piece of
engraving, and it enables one to realize Emerson as a
man whom it would have been impossible to know
without loving. Where could we find again so deep a
thinker in whom there is so much of the simplicity and
innocence of a little child? His love of things homely
and unaffected is to me the most attractive feature in
his character : as it is also in Wordsworth's. If both
Emerson and Wordsworth occasionally fell short in the
endeavour to bring out the poetry of a homely subject,
it seems to me rather from putting such subject too much
in the foreground, than from making it part of the picture
at all. One distinction between prose and poetry — I had
almost said the essential distinction — is that the former
depends for its perfection on sharpness of outline, on
marking a subject off from other things by bringing out
its detail ; while the very life of poetry lies in its rising
above detail, in its softening and merging lines of division,
and treating everything it touches on with a degree of
vagueness ; because that which is vague and indefinite
calls into play the imagination of the reader, while a
picture in which all the detail is filled in, leaves no room
for this power to act at all. A poet is in reality not
POETRY 59
a master who paints for us, but one who, working with
us, teaches us to paint for ourselves. His poem is an
outline, which he hands to us with certain hints as to how
we are to colour and to shade it, as a draft we are to
copy for ourselves. It is this copy of our own making,
and which no two of us ever make alike, that is the real
poem to us. It is because of this element of vagueness,
of the unknown blending with the known, that moonUght
has more of poetry for us than daylight has ; and that the
distances in a landscape, dying away into haze, delight us
more than sharp foregrounds. And so with distances in
time, with the far-off borderland between history and
myth, with the moonlight of ages past, in which a few
shining points bring out more impressively the shadows
from which they emerge.
"When Emerson would give the gUmmer of romance
to barrows, trays and pans, he might do so on the one
condition of setting them back in the picture, and not
drawing too much attention to them. In adding the word
' tin,' he moves a step forward, calling the eye to the
precise detail which destroys the grace of it. But ' pots,''
indicated vaguely, may be made part, aye, and an essen-
tial part, of a beautiful picture, a picture of Mount Zion
and the columns of Solomon's Temple standing out against
the dazzling sky of Palestine : ' Though ye have lien
among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.'
Or again, but on the same condition of vagueness, and
avoidance of detail, in Wordsworth's description of the
clouds after a storm —
' fixed resemblances were seen
To implements of ordinary use,
But vast in size, in substance glorified.'
I cannot tell how many passages in thy memorials of
Emerson I had mentally marked as striking ; but one
stands pre-eminent, overshadowing all the rest by reason
6o * TERMINUS'
of its exact application to my own condition : those mourn-
ful though wise lines in Terminus—
' There's not enough for this and that —
Make thy option which of two.'
Yes. I feel as he did when this thought pressed on his
soul, in the onward sweep of time that shall soon be time
no more : that if this world were less fleeting and eternity-
further off, a multitude of things might fitly interest or
delight us, which we are compelled to set aside lest other
and deeper things should be set aside instead. Even this
poor letter, which I began in Cornwall a week ago, I
have had to hold back to finish at home ; for the tiny
hindrances to work which we do not take into account till
it is too late, leave us with many things undone at last,
for-
' There's not enough for this and that.' "
CHAPTER IV.
THE HOME RULE STRUGGLE
AFTER his removal to Upton Knoll, it became a
practice with John Bellows to spend his mornings
only at his office in Gloucester, and the additional leisure
thus obtained he devoted mainly to laying out his garden :
a work which he thoroughly enjoyed. This peaceful
occupation was, however, soon to be interrupted, and
his energies thrown into a very different task.
Up to this time he had taken so little part in politics
that he had only once in his life voted for a parliamentary
candidate. The introduction of the Home Rule Bill of
1886, however, brought him face to face with what he
considered a most serious crisis in the history of religious
freedom. He had always been a strong opponent of
everything tending to increase the power of Romanism,
and in the new policy he saw a grave menace to the
peace and liberty of his Protestant brethren in Ireland.
He feared, moreover, like many of his friends, that it
would lead to the ruin of its most prosperous province :
even to the ruin of Ireland itself, and to the final dis-
memberment of the empire. Profoundly convinced of the
seriousness of the peril, he now threw himself definitely
into the struggle, no one ever more truly carrying out the
injunction, ' Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
thy might.'
On the formation of the Liberal Unionist Association he
joined its ranks, and became treasurer of the local body.
Besides an immense issue of literature, much of it from
62 VALUE OF A SIMPLE STYLE
his own pen, he contributed scores of letters to the press,
and maintained, at one time, as many as three distinct
newspaper controversies in different parts of the country.
A few extracts from the wide correspondence he kept
up, throughout the conflict, with his friends, and fellow-
workers of all ranks, are here given.
To the Secretary^ Liberal Unionist Association^ London.
Gloucester, 20-5-1886.
" I have been rather painfully taken by surprise since I
began writing on this Irish matter, to find that words
which are perfectly natural to us of the middle class, are
obscure or even meaningless to moderately intelligent
artisans. Take junta for instance. I feel sure not one
man in my printing staff — and they are really above the
average— could give the slightest idea of its meaning. I
am now trying with but poor success to remodel my own
style to meet this.
"I am sure William Arthur will not be hurt at my
remarks, but I recollect a sermon preached in a little
chapel near Camborne, at the close of which the preacher
stated that a collection would be made towards the liquida-
tion of the chapel debt. A friend of mine overheard a
miner afterwards ask another, ' What do he mean by that
there word, liquidation I reckon it was? ' ' I don't know,*
was the reply, ' unless they are going to whitewash the
chapelM"
To the same.
Gloucester, 26-6-1886.
' ' The distribution of your tracts is all done except at
some few outlying points which are not in contested parts.
Independently of this we have six men on in the City
of Bristol, working through the contested parts, I believe
even without the knowledge of any one of the candidates.
They are distributing fresh literature there. We have also
NEGLECT OF OPPORTUNITIES 63
several working men from Ireland, going to village
meetings and among any gatherings of working men in
the towns, to talk them into some knowledge of the Home
Rule question. These men produce much more effect
than hired bill distributors who know nothing of what
they are engaged in."
To the same.
Gloucester, 9-2-1887.
" I trust my known earnestness in the cause of the Union
may be a sufficient excuse for venturing to urge again on
your Committee the need of more education of the public,
by literature, not during the heat of an election, but irre-
spective of any immediate contest.
"I suspect no man in England has felt the sting of
G. J. Goschen's defeat at Liverpool, by only seven votes,
more sincerely than I have done. Of course when we
speak of any one thing as having caused this loss, we
cannot forget that many things go to make up the whole
result — mail contracts, and many more.
" But with me, the sore point (as it ought to be with
you) is the gross neglect of using literature throughout
the election. As thou art aware, both the ' Times ' and
the * Standard ' commented on this. If I had not known to
a certainty that you were in earnest, it would have been
impossible to resist the conclusion that this fatuous neglect
was the work of a secret enemy of the cause.
*' On my own responsibility at the beginning of last
month I sent a good man to Plymouth to help counteract
the effect of Parnellite meetings, with a large supply of
sharp, telling literature ; and I begged a further lot from
the Loyal and Patriotic Union, which they instantly sent.
We got further help in delivering the bills on the spot,
and I can only say that the effect was beyond my hope.
Some fifty Gladstonian voters voluntarily came forward
within a few days of the reception of the leaflets and
64 PLAN OF ACTION
tracts to say they would never again vote for ' Home
Rule.' As this resulted from the distribution of about
100,000 bills, etc., in Plymouth, Devonport, and Stone-
house, I believe no one would say it is an unreasonable
conclusion that a score of votes at the very least would
have been turned in the Exchange division of Liverpool
in like manner. I am so certain of this that I have begged
the Belfast Committee to spare me two men even now to
go there, for there will be other elections yet, and bad as
the disappointment has been, it shall not be our fault if it
is repeated there next time.
" I feel, and gratefully feel, the priceless services that
have been rendered to the cause of law and order by the
speeches of your leading men ; but these surely need
following up through the press, not fitfully, but steadily
everywhere.
' ' At this very moment the Glenbeigh affair is left nearly
unchallenged in the hands of men like Conybeare, to work
into political fireworks, when but difew of the facts — such
as old Lord Hedley's allowing the subdivision of the farms
to go on unchecked, and so laying the foundation of this
poverty and suffering — would spoil the game of the
agitators, if published widely.
" I write this letter in trembling apprehension for the
result even of this less dangerous election now in pro-
gress ; but even if you gain it, as I sincerely hope you
will, do not let the accidental winning of one battle blind
you to the risk of utter and final defeat unless the plan
of campaign of the Liberal Unionists is changed."
To a Correspondent.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 8-3-1887.
" I have now carefully read over thy MS. on Home Rule
and its consequences. I am bound to say I consider it a
very thoughtful and convincing essay, which if it could be
got largely into circulation would not fail to do good.
UNIONIST LITERATURE • 65
"■ The difficulty is, how to do this. The cost of printing
such a book would render it impossible, with any available
funds, to circulate it by the hundred thousand. And
unless we can reach hundreds of thousands, we make no
sufficient mark on the masses. I have had this difficulty
of appealing to enormous numbers, painfully present to
my mind for the past eleven months since I began cir-
culating Anti-Separatist leaflets and handbills. Happening
to have at my command a large printing office and many
machines, I have strained my private means to the utmost
in using this plant. Up till now I have struck off, and for
the most part given away, about five millions of leaflets —
say sixteen tons of paper ; with the result that I shall
never again recover the degree of ease I had hoped for
after thirty years of business. I do not in the least grudge
or regret this expenditure. It was just and necessary ;
and I feel it a privilege to have been able to incur it."
To Dr Hiibner, Berlin.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 7-4-1887.
^ * -jf * * *
" I may mention that in spite of my not being well able
to work more than a few hours daily, which are taken up
with my printing business, I have taken an active part for
the last twelve months in the exposure and combating of
some of the fallacies of the Separatists who seek to sever
Ireland from Britain. This, partly from the accident of my
being a printer, and having the means at hand of cir-
culating leaflets or bills on the subject, on a very large
scale. Thus, during some 11 months I have printed and
sent out some five millions of copies of such leaflets ; and
as some of these have been translations into Welsh and
Gaelic (for the Highlands of Scotland) an idea has struck
me that I may take advantage of the information obtainable
through our distributors, to do what I believe has never
yet been attempted — i.e. , draw up a linguistic map of Great
Britain, showing the portions over which the native
E
66 WELSH AND GAELIC LEAFLETS
dialects of the Celtic stock are spoken, and the degree in
which they hold their ground.
"Thus I find from a Welshman who is engaged in the
work, that certain parts of Pembrokeshire are Welsh en-
tirely ; other parts (the southern) nearly all English ;
others where Welsh is spoken, but where the bulk of the
people also speak English.
"And similarly in Scotland — there are regions where
no English is understood, while in others the people are
bilinguists. One practical difficulty in appealing to these
old Britons and Caledonians in their own tongues is the
variety of dialects. Thus, I had two chapters of Irish
History translated into Welsh by William Spurrell, of
Carmarthen. He is the author of one of the best Dic-
tionaries of Welsh and English, and is a man of considerable
intelligence. Yet, at Aberystwith, a Welsh clergyman
tells me the Welsh of my history is not good, and gives
me some of his own. I send both on to Penrhyn (Bangor)
for criticism, only to find my north Welsh friends consider
both bad ! So I am getting two recent papers translated
into north Welsh !
"The Gaelic I had done in Edinburgh, and very care-
fully revised by the Professor of that language. Now
I get complaints from Argyllshire that it is ' strange in its
pronunciation ' (by which I suppose they mean its spelling.)
As I find they can clearly understand it, however, I shall
let them ' fight it out.' If I can succeed with the map, it
will be very interesting in a generation or two, to show
what the degree of persistence may be, or of retrocession,
in the Celtic tongues of this island."
To the Secretary, Liberal Unionist Association, London.
Gloucester, 7-6-18^.
" South Wales above all for John Bright's letter. If
thou wilt arrange for a large distribution in Cardiff and
Newport, I will willingly give 5,000 each of the enclosed
IRISH LANDOWNERS 67
— 20,000 to each town. Swansea I have been able to
reach already with 32,000. Or I will of course omit either
that may be thought less suitable, and give more of the
others.
"J. Hack Tuke is having 100,000 each printed of his
own letter in the ' Liberal Unionist' a few weeks ago, and
of Canon Griffin's : both excellent. Some of these will
be available for any point you wish."
To a leading Irish Landowner.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 22-9-1887.
" If having taken an earnest part in the struggle for
maintaining the Union, not without some personal sacrifice,
may be a sufficient plea for venturing to write thee at
a critical moment in that struggle, I may offer it, for I
have no other to offer.
**I fear the Irish landowners are about to make a fatal
mistake. They have in several respects been dealt with
unjustly ; and they rightly realize that the battle they have
to fight is not that of their own order only, but is a contest
with communism which threatens every class in the king-
dom with injury or, it may be, with ruin.
"With a short-sightedness that is almost incredible,
they rely in this crisis upon putting their case before the
Government ; ignoring that the sole power of the Govern-
ment is in the will of the democracy : the 'public opinion'
of the masses in this country, which is still uninformed,
and which for a little while, but only for a little while
longer, is still largely amenable to reason or to passion.
"The Parnellites, wiser in their generation than those
who seek to maintain the Union, have seen this, and have
already begun to act upon it with success. They are lay-
ing their plans for doing so on a more persistent system,
and on a larger scale ; and unless the field is promptly
occupied by those who oppose them, they will most
certainly win the day, and you Irish landowners will be
E2
68 AN OPEN DOOR
made the scapegoats of every successive Government
until the last penny of your rents is stolen, and the last
acre of your land is confiscated.
"Your bounden duty, not only to yourselves, but to the
rest of society, is, instead of putting the cart before the
horse by beginning with the Government, to put your case
before the masses of the people. If you will not at this
supreme moment bend your every energy to instruct the
masses, by the press, by lectures, by every means
legitimately within your power, you will fling away an
opportunity that can never return. You now have an open
door and would be listened to. In a year hence, you will
find it hard to get a hearing, and yet harder to convince
those who will have become set in false opinions, obstinate
in the false beliefs, and partisans of the false actions which
must follow the unopposed efforts of the enemy.
'*I speak from no mere theory, but from as wide a
knowledge of the situation as is possessed by any man.
For the last eighteen months I have been in correspondence,
in reference to this contest, over a line from Stornoway to
Penzance. This very night there is a meeting at Crewe,
tomorrow night at Cheltenham, the night after at Ciren-
cester, for each of which I am responsible ; as I was for a
similar one at Gloucester, which turned out a great success
and did much good to our cause." ^ * *
To a Liberal Unionist Official.
Eastgate House, Gloucester, 20-12-1890.
"I find thou wilt not be able to come to Gloucester
to-day, and I therefore venture to trouble thee with a few
lines on the chief subject we should have had to talk over—
the suggestion from headquarters for our holding a
number of little meetings with local speakers all over the
country.
*' Now with all deference to the Central Committee, this
is a great tactical mistake. * * * xhere are the
UNIONIST TACTICS 69
Gladstonians, with whom we have been carrying on of
late a sort of border war — for it has not been much more —
in which it was doubtful whether we were even holding
all the ground we had gained from them; when all at
once civil war bursts out in the very heart of their own
camp.
"Now every step we take to attack them openly, at this
jimcture, of necessity calls away some of the force to
combat us, and minimises the divisions among themselves.
On the other hand, the less there is to distract their atten-
tion from their own dissensions, the more they will let
those dissensions have full play.
" I have several individual Home Rulers in my mind at
this moment with whom I have argued personally, and
lent them books in time past. They have yielded a little,
and then some rush of party feeling has carried them back
again to where they were at the outset. Now if we held
at Gloucester such a meeting as the people at Great
George Street wish, and I persuaded these men to come
to it, they would do so in a fighting attitude. Instead of
keeping to the main facts that now confront them, they
would feel themselves bound to criticise some paltry side
issues raised by our local speakers, and their emergence
from Gladstonian views would either be retarded or
reversed.
" If the Central Committee carry out their plan, they
will simply put a feather bed between the Parnellite
battering-ram and the Gladstone castle. I hope the bed
will burst ! "
When the struggle was over, it was very gratifying to
John Bellows to receive a letter from the Prime Minister
(Lord Salisbury) acknowledging his sense of the value of
his services, and rejoicing that there were such men who
would " come forward to fight the cause of England in her
peril, not from any party prepossession, but from a pure
sense of duty."
CHAPTER V.
TRAVEL-HOME LIFE— ARCHAEOLOGY— TITHE— J. A. FROUDE.
LITTLE explanation is needed of the correspondence
given in this chapter. As many of his letters will
show, John Bellows was always eager to share his varied
experiences with his absent friends.
A holiday abroad in 1888, with his wife and his son
Max, included a visit to Treves, of which he thus wrote :
To Oliver Wendell Holmes^ Boston, Mass.
Treves, Germany, 19-6-1888.
" I ought, several weeks ago, to have written my warm
thanks for thy kind and most acceptable gift of this last
volume of thy poems ; but I felt somehow sure thou
wouldst forgive the delay if thou knew that it was caused
by the pressure of work consequent on preparing to leave
home, and by the continual change of place since, to which
I have been subject.
' ' We have availed ourselves of [this journey] to serve
two or three subordinate ends ; for it has enabled us to
pay two long-pending visits to friends — one in Germany
and one in France, as well as to examine some Roman
remains in the museums of Cologne, Bonn and Mannheim,
for comparison with those we have found in Gloucester.
"This, for the following reason: — when the Claudian
invasion of Britain took place, in the year 43, the army
that accomplished it was not, as almost everybody fancies,
sent across Gaul, and from Boulogne to the coast of Kent ;
but it was raised in Germany, and sailed down the Rhine
to Holland, and thence along the coast to Ostend, or a
little below, and then due west. This fact, simple in itself,
THE NORTHERN ROME 71
has been strangely overlooked ; for it only needs patience
in placing the proofs of it in their chronological order, to
make it perfectly clear. In the year 9, 1 think, the Germans
destroyed a Roman army under Varus; and five years
after, Germanicus built a fleet, and took eight legions
down the Rhine to revenge the death of his countrymen
and to permanently conquer the German tribes. He suc-
ceeded. What really resulted from his victory was,
however, something of far greater import than the mere
subjection of a couple of provinces. By this extension he
moved the centre of gravity of the whole Roman Empire^
and ensured the downfall of the great City, which took
place several generations later. If we put down on the
map the positions of the legions composing the whole
Roman army, say at the death of Germanicus, or about
A.D. 20, the massing of double as many men on the Rhine
as in any other part of Europe will convince us that the
strength of the Empire no longer lay in Italy, but in
Northern Germany.
" The immediate result of this was that on the pacifica-
tion of the new province, the Roman war office was able
to spare four legions from Bonn, Treves, and Holland,
to conquer Britain ; while the ultimate result was that
Diocletian made Treves the seat of Government, to the
neglect of Rome ; and Constantine, after building his
palaces and castles on the Moselle, saw his way to an
extension of the same principle, and founded the other
great Capital of the East.
'' Here, then, we are in the northern Rome. No other
town in the world, I suspect, [except] Rome itself, is so
crowded with the remains and evidences of that past that
has moulded us all— that underlies our arts, our sciences,
our homeliest daily life, and sends one strand through both
what is true and what is false in all that we do. Where
is the break that divides the old time from the new?
or the moment on one side of which lay the barbaric
72 HISTORICAL CONTINUITY
ages, and on the other the era of civilisation? These
are, after all, but the names for co-existent things that
gradually alter their relative proportions, but imper-
ceptibly. The building of a new house, or the demolition
of an old one, does not alter the identity of the street :
and these beautiful shops with their plate-glass windows
are as really the historical continuation of the city of the
Treviri, as this picturesque old hostelry, with its open
galleries and quaint court-yard is of the ' Rath-haus ' that
it used to be — Rath-haus, now misread as Rothes Haus,
and the outside painted red to make the fib into a truth ! —
fib believed in by the landlord and the porter and the
man who drives the omnibus ; for is not this^ too, painted
red to match ? * Nein,' quoth he, ' Das ist nicht das
Rathh2i\xs ' ! !
*'If we follow back this clue of historical continuation
from the Roman time, we find it helps to explain many
a matter seemingly unconnected with that beginning, but
only seemingly. Had the legions that held the Rhine
been eighty, the whole of Germany would have been as
Latinized as Gaul ; but Drusus put his colony on the left
bank (Cologne,) and so were the large cities — Bonn,
Mainz, Worms, and Strasburg. This left the Germans
more of their nationality, and made the Gauls more ex-
clusively Romans. Thus it left the gap between them
wider for after ages, and therefore increased the chances
of war for both. On the other hand, that left-bank occu-
pation did Romanize the tribes subjected to it — got them
to plant the vine, to imitate the Italian cookery, and to
perfume their handkerchiefs. Who but a Roman citizen
would have enticed his descendants into making Eau-de-
Cologne ? An American Indian would never have done
it, nor a Hamburger, yet I saw in the museum (near
the Jiihchsplatz, which Jean Maria Farina bids us note)
the tombstone of a perfumer who died in th^ first century,
at Colonia Agrippina! I have a copy of it, with a
TREVES
73
translation. It is simple and dignified — nothing about the
* odour of sanctity ' and other mortuary fibs !
" It is precisely this which archaeology ought always to
keep before us— that the present and the past are but one
chain, and that no link between them is broken. The past
is in the present, and will be in it for all time. The broad
street that runs from this ' Platz ' to the Porta Nigra, and
along which we go to the Bahnhof, is the same road the
legions marched upon when they left for Britain, and
the winding streets that diverge from it, with their tall and
many-windowed houses, only witness [to] the sieges and
fires that have forced them out of their line. At this
moment they are draped with a sea of flags, in mourning
for the dead Kaiser Friedrich, and the bells are filling the
whole air with their melody — the sweet and sad and
dreamlike melody of the Middle Ages they come from.
"It is a solemn moment for Europe. Many millions
of hearts are trembling for what the near future may
bring ; for a few brief words from the new Emperor may
mean peace or war for Germany or France. Oh ! if the
two peoples could but see and know each other as they
really are and not as they falsely imagine each other!
They are both, as to the masses, nervously anxious for
peace, nervously apprehensive each that the other is not
to be trusted.
■X- -x- * -x- *
" Nearly a week has passed since I stopped, at this inn.
Summoned to dinner, and from dinner to the express
train for Luxemburg and Brussels and home. So there
was nothing for it but to fold the sheet in a hurry and put
it in my pocket-book till the next moment of leisure,
which has come in this rainy evening while I look out of
my own window on the green summer landscape of
England again.
" The Kaiser's message — and it was a splendid and
kingly speech — was, after all, one of peace and reassur-
ance. It is something if the curse of war may be averted,
74 VISIT TO A FRENCH CHATEAU
if but for a few brief years ; for, alas ! it will come some
day and turn the pleasant daylight once more into the night
of affliction. There are too many passions and jealousies
lying latent in the world to let us hope otherwise.
*' The continual recurrence of ruined castles— of fortified
towns — of battlefields and scenes of great historic events —
the constant coming in contact with bodies of armed men,
makes it difficult to get away from this one dominant idea.
" Yet there were some sweet contrasts to it. We paid
one visit at a French chateau, to a friend who has been
pressing us to come and see him ever since I made his
acquaintance at Metz in 1870. It was no great distance
from the Palatinate to the little town in the Vosges where
he lives, and we went: to receive the most unbounded
hospitality our host could devise. He has a great admira-
tion for England in many ways, and both his wife and
himself speak our language, while their only child, a
charming delicate little girl of thirteen, is absolutely undis-
tinguishable from an English native. She spoke English —
from her nurse — earlier than French : and all her favorite
books are in the same tongue. My wife declares her to
be the sweetest child she has ever seen — simple, natural,
unaffected : kissing the old peasant woman who greeted
her at the railway station with heartiest affection, uncon-
scious of the chasm that too often separates the rich from
the poor, and on the upper margin of which she, if any
one, might take her stand ; for she is the last— the very
last — of a family of the old French noblesse."
From Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Beverly Farms, Mass., Aug. 10, 1888.
*'My dear Mr Bellows,
'* I have had your interesting letter on my table for
a good many weeks, with the intent of answering it, and
have waited and waited, I am afraid through indolence,
partly, but all the time feeling that it deserved a great deal
fuller and better answer than it was like to get. Your
NEW ENGLAND 75
letters always contain suggestions which, if I were younger
and more lively, would set me out on trains of thought
which would lead into long tracks of study. What you
say of Treves and the part it played in the period of the
Roman Empire, would start me off on a historical tour,
beginning with my old friend Gibbon, and ending with — I
do not know what, but probably some German writer
who upsets all that have gone before him, and is waiting
to be upset by somebody that is to come after him. But I
enjoy your bits of archaeology and smile superior at the
poor creatures who talk about the red house and drive the
red omnibus. What a pleasure to you old world people
to have the recollections of so many antiquities — Britons,
Celts, Romans, Germans and the rest — around you and
under your feet. We poor colonists have little except the
Indian arrow-heads, scrapers, mortars and pestles. No !
I will not be unfair to our past. Yesterday I took a drive
with my daughter to the town of Ipswich, ten miles from
here. A delicious old town, with buildings which have
stood two centuries and more, and with an old bridge,
said to be the first with arches of stone ever built in New
England. Two hundred years ago this whole neighbour-
hood was more or less infested by witches^ and at Salem,
which is less than ten miles from here, nearly twenty
were executed for that offence. Our forefathers went by
the Old Testament, in which they read ' Thou shalt not
suffer a witch to live,' and they acted accordingly while
the delusion lasted.
'* You will [have] wanted to know something of how
my daughter and myself are getting along. Of course we
live very quietly here — if there are gaieties we do not join
in them, and there is very little of that nature this season.
I expect to make a short visit to friends at a place become
very famous within a few years — Bar Harbour it is called,
and said to have scenery of wonderful beauty.
'' I am glad to know that you are safely back in England,
and shall always be happy to know of your welfare. I
76 EISENACH
cannot often write as long a letter as this, for my eyes are
getting dimmer, and it is something of an effort for me to
write, but your interesting letter could not be dismissed
with the formula I enclose, which I think I have before
sent you. With kindest regards, faithfully yours,
" O. W. Holmes."
In the Autumn of 1889, John Bellows and his wife went
to Leipzig to see their eldest son ; and took the opportunity
which this journey gave them of visiting many of the places
connected with the life of Luther.
To Francis Michell, Redruth.
Hentschel's Hotel, Leipzig, 17-10-1889.
" Here I am on the Continent again, and, reminded by
this circumstance of the journey we once took together in
Belgium, I take pen in hand to send thee a page or two
which will probably awaken the like remembrances on
thy own part. Of course it would be impossible, within
the limits of even a long letter, to describe the places we
have seen, but we have touched upon or run through
parts of the Thuringian and Hartz forests as well as the
Niederwald, covering some of the most beautiful scenery
in the German Empire. The cream of the cream, barring
the Rhine, is the country round Eisenach, in Thuringia—
a district so closely associated with the history of Martin
Luther, and therefore of modem Europe.
" Our hotel, just out of the town of Eisenach, is a large
Swiss chalet in the midst of a steep wood. On the other
side of the narrow valley in front rises a sea of beech and
birch and oak and pine— now in all the glory of the autumn
colours, contrasting with the evergreens, and towering up
high against the sky-Une. Where that line comes, and
standing in clear relief against the bright blue sky, are
the towers and battlements of a castle. It is as if
Michael's Mount were vaster in size, and crowned by
a larger building, all bosomed in the forest that tradition
LEIPZIG FAIR 77
assigns to it. This is the Wartburg — the scene of Luther's
friendly imprisonment by the Elector of Saxony after the
Diet of Worms. I have never, at any time or in any land,
seen anything quite so solemn and beautiful. Long after
the sun had set, and the blue sky had faded to grey, and
the grey into night, and the moonlight stole over the view,
I kept stepping out on the balcony to look at it again until
the whole landscape seemed a dreamland — mysterious
and indescribable, but never to be forgotten, * * *
" The real place for meeting with people of many
different nationalities is the fair at Leipzig. For ages
regarded as the great central point for Europe and Asia,
the wares bought and sold in it represented the industries
of all lands, both East and West. Now most of the
important business is no longer conducted in booths, but
in buildings, such as the Booksellers' Exchange. This is
a sort of clearing-house for all the booksellers in Germany,
who come once a year to show all their new things, and
to square up accounts for the year past. The trade in
furs is a very great one ; mostly in the hands of Jews.
They have their shops pretty much together in a street
called the Briihl ; and here in the fair-time are to be seen
Oriental Jews in their long yellow caftans, and great
curled side-locks of hair.
* ' On the platform [of the station] I shoulder a pale-faced
Russian with long hair, and just behind him is a Japanese.
A moment after, a little man, glancing at my dress, asks
dubiously if I can speak English. I assure him I do, with
ease ; when he tells me he is an American, able to speak
no German ; and, as we part the next instant, he looks as
if he would give fifty dollars to be in Texas again. Poor
fellow ! I saw a Syrian in the fair who looked just like
that, as he stood behind his little counter trying to sell
nick-nacks from Bethlehem, which the Leipzigers did not
care to buy. * * *
*' Often it happens that what makes the most lasting mark
upon us, is not the greatest object or principal event, but
78
BIRTHPLACE
something accidentally connected with these. It is so
with me now ; for here at the close of so many hundreds
of miles of travel in this German Empire, with the mul-
titude of scenes it has added to one's store of memories,
there comes a kind of refrain below and behind them all,
in the sound of the streets of Leipzig as I lay in my bed at
night at Hentschel's Hotel. It was a low, subdued, solemn
sound, as of some distant sea. But the waves of that
sea had rolled hither from every corner of Europe and
Asia ; and the tide that bore them had risen and fallen
for hundreds of years from the islands of Greece and the
Persian plains, and the mountains of India and the shores
of Siberia. As I shall never forget the Thuringian Forest,
neither shall I ever forget the majestic sound of the streets
of Leipzig and all that that sound conveyed to the imagina-
tion, of the throng of kindreds and peoples and tongues
whose voice it was: a vast, sublime, never-ending poem."
In August, 1890, John Bellows cycled through Cornwall
with his two elder boys, on their way to join the rest
of the family at Mullion.
From the Bell Hotel, Lis-
keard, he wrote to his
wife : — '*As we went up to
our rooms, both of which
faced into the little narrow
'Church Street,' it seemed
as though a tall man might
have leaned out of the win-
dow and touched the panes
of the grocer's shop oppo-
site. With a stick I cer-
tainly could have done so.
I did not know till this
morning, when Mary Eliott
most kindly walked down
the street with us after
Meeting, to show me the spot, that my room was next to
the house in which I was bom, and that the street I was
BIRTHPLACE AT LISKEARD.
'OVER THE TEACUPS' 79
so amused with as a sort of doll's roadway, was the very-
one upon which my baby wonderment had first looked
down, long years ago ! "
To Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, U.S.A.
12 mo. 1890.
" Which chord shall I touch to begin with, as I rise from
the first few hours' delightful reading of thy book ? * So
many are answering to the master vibration that I can
scarcely decide.
" I have been reading it aloud to my wife ; and again
and again in the pauses, some lines of Runeberg, the poet
of Finland, have kept coming back to me in gentle refrain,
although I have not read them for years :
' Shall the land that saw thy morning bloom,
That saw thy noonday bright,
Not also see thy evening come
With its calm sweet sunset light ?
One mystery thy volume has set me further away than
ever from solving : and that is. Where is the boundary
between childhood and boyhood ; or boyhood and manhood
and [old] age? This I have never been able to find. . . Only
this very evening I was wheedled into an interlude from
the ' Teacups,' by a deputation of four Gallios who care
for none of these things, to entreat that I would ' give
them a chase.' Seven-year-old put the request in a very
low voice ; for a ' chase ' in this house is forbidden by the
mistress on the ground that it makes a dust : it destroys the
carpets : it leaves finger-marks on the walls : it tears the
clothes : it upsets the furniture : with other high crimes
and misdemeanours which are duly set forth in the mani-
festo that forbids chasing * indoors.' So, like Shelley's
* sweet child Sleep,' seven-year-old * murmurs like a
noontide bee ; ' while ten-year-old, and five-year-old, and
eight-year-old keep furtively glancing at the arbitress of
* 'Over the Teacups.'
8o A 'CHASE'
their fate to make sure that she does not hear what is
going on. And so
' A spirit in my feet
Has led me, who knows how,'
out of the room, these four stealing silently after me till
we get to the foot of the front stairs, when off they go,
like hares, I following — into the bath-room, and the day-
nursery, and the night-nursery, and down the back stairs,
for dear life ! Every one I can catch is swept off to prison,
either tucked under my arm, or dragged by the heels
along the floor — according to size and weight. (It doesn't
hurt the carpets a bit ! It's only a superstition of the
mistress. They look fresher than ever after it !) And all
this time there is a din of voices, in calls and shouts and
shrieks d tue-tete, as the French say.
" By and by a message comes from the mistress that
the chase has lasted long enough, that we must all come
into the dining-room, and that it is Dorothy's bed-time :
which is followed by a sudden hush, and then a suppressed
* Oh ! ' of disappointment and injured resignation ; and we
five come slinking in, very red and hot : I to resume my
place as an invalid in the arm-chair by the fire, for I have
been laid up several days with a cold and bronchitis,
which I should have pleaded as a weighty excuse for not
chasing, only that the children could not understand it.
So, being obliged to go, I went ; and once in the game,
even five-year-old herself could not throw her heart and
soul into it more entirely ! Boy ! Why I never was more
of a boy in my life ! What boy in the whole world ever
cared about carpets in the midst of a chase ? And did I
care one straw whether they were old sacks, or Cloth of
Gold, or the High Priest of Mecca's prayer rugs, if by
racing over them I could catch two of those hares at one
hit ? Why, here is a game older than Adam ! The old
hunting instinct of the cave-men, as a modern author has
shown, came down to us by heredity ; an instinct that has
MEETS OLIVER W. HOLMES 8i
scores of times transformed me into a cave-bear, under
the dining-room table, and which only the counterbalancing
force of civilized life kept from transforming me into an
elephant after our chase was over just now— crawling
into the room with three men on my back, and one
leading me !
"I do not think that anything in this life has more
puzzled me than this consciousness that the bound between
boyhood and manhood
' Is marked by no distinguishable line ;
The turf unites, the pathways intertwine.*
The secret is this (?) that we go on adding to our existing
ring of life, as the ammonites do with their spiral shells.
We include all that has gone before ; hence we can keep
more fully in touch or in sympathy with children, than
they can with us."
To Oliver Wendell Holmes^ Boston, Mass.
Upton Knoll, GloiTcester, 9-4-1891.
" Nothing is harder to realize than the flight of time. It
seems but as the vivid yesterday that I was passing
swiftly through the streets of London in a cab with thy
daughter, who was on her way to take thee from one
friend's house to that of another, in the crowd of engage-
ments that filled up thy brief visit to England. Suddenly
we turned out of the throng and bustle, and in a few
moments drew up before the mansion of James Russell
Lowell, from whose company I had to send up a message
to summon thee. As I stood in the hall I heard his voice
in a cheery leave-taking on the stair : the only time I ever
heard it, though I had had some kindly written words
from him anent my dictionary. The next moment I was
shaking hands with thyself and receiving the greeting that
was thereafter renewed in Gloucestershire. The scene
is before me : the tall, many-storied, many- windowed
F
82 LITTLE CHILDREN
houses ; the silent street making its silence felt by con-
trast with the roar of the great tide of life so near yet now
inaudible ; the lofty elms in the Park close by ; and the
glinting of the summer afternoon sun on the sward below.
This is the picture that makes it hard to realize that already
two out of the three principal figures in it have passed
away from time.
" I recollect thy telling me that Russell Lowell reversed
thy own figure of ' 76,' and I realize, not without pain,
that seventy-six has in turn given way to other numbers,
and that each of these bournes, as it is left behind, marks
a more lonely path to the summit of the hill ! More
lonely— yet never wholly companionless. If the Father
of All appoints us sorrow, He yet tempers it with some
gleam of love ; and that thirty-third verse of the eighty-
ninth Psalm is as true of us as it was of those earlier
children of men, to whom, as to us, the three preceding
verses apply. If our very sorrow itself were not mingled
with somewhat that is of a different nature, we should not
cherish as we do our saddest bygone moments, or so
willingly, more than willingly, recall
' The touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.'
" There is one adoucissement that tells on us with
increasing force as life advances — the society of little
children. Their resistless self-assertion, their uncom-
promising insistence on our entering into their ideas and
ways, to the utter ignoring of our riper experience, their
dead incapacity of sympathy with our daily anxieties, and
their perennial freshness of imagination, all help us.
" I come home jaded and careworn from my work, and
tempted to think my lot heavier than other men's : when
my boy Jack comes marching up to me with a sort of box
in his hand — four bits of board nailed together with brads
and tin-tacks, and two thick wooden discs that he has
routed out of some cupboard, to make a baker's cart. I
THE BAKER'S CART 83
wanted to sit and * rest '—that is, to brood over the
miseries of my lot ; but Jack cannot stay for brooding or
anything else. He has been ' waiting such a long time '
for my coming home, to tell him how to saw these two
wheels edgeways so as to make them into four ; and how
to put axles to them ; and the end of it is that I have to set
to work in good earnest, and, after long application of
blunt tools and tool substitutes — the baker's cart is finished.
" By this time I have begun to take a real interest in it.
Next morning I buy a wooden horse that fits it ; and
another spell of work ensues in the fitting of his harness.
Dorothy (five) has been busy in the kitchen making loaves
to go in it for a load; and he and she and I drag it
for miles along the sideboard and the dining table and the
hall floor. In the course of the evening Jack asks me
whether a mouse could pull the baker's cart. I tell him
I think it could. Later on he wants to know how many
flies are as strong as one mouse. Not foreseeing the
bearing of the question, I reply somewhat carelessly,
' Perhaps a hundred.' Next morning I meet him march-
ing about with a pasteboard box in his hand. ' How do
people feed flies?' 'With sugar.' 'How much sugar
would a hundred flies eat ? ' Now in strict truth I could
not tell ; but an answer must be given at once, and so I
say, ' Oh, I should think a lump would last them three
days.' In a few minutes he is at my side again with the
box. The lid is cautiously raised, and I am desired to
look in. ' I'm going to catch a hundred flies and tame
them like the man did the fleas, and make them draw the
baker's cart. I've caught one. There he is ! ' I looked
in. There was a large lump of sugar in the centre, and
the fly pacing up and down past it with a nonchalant air
as if it did not concern him what was done. Light
streamed in through a number of pinholes in the ceiling of
the apartment, intended for ventilation. A doll's saucer
full of water stood in the corner, so that the sanitation of
F2
84 TAMING FLIES
the place, and the arrangements for the comfort of the
hundred flies, left nothing to be desired.
" The time at breakfast passed quickly, for I was plied
with a variety of questions about the team of fleas I had at
some time mentioned, that were trained by a man at
Plymouth to draw a little coach, and with one of their
own species sitting on the box as driver.
" I must say I began to get uneasy, for I knew not
whereunto this would grow, and I slipped off to the office
with some new anxieties in my mind. At dinner the
crisis came. ' Papa, how do they tame flies ? ' I was in
a dilemma ; and at last, humiliated at having to show my
ignorance, I was forced to confess that I did not know.
' And, besides,' I hurried on to add, ' I don't know how
we can harness them. I could not tie knots small enough
to hold them without hurting them.' There was a pause
of disappointment. Jack's whole scheme was breaking
down. He had looked upon me as able to do anything, if
I only tried ; and now I had failed him. Revolving the
whole altered position in his mind, he at last said : ' What
had I better do with the fly that is in the box ? Perhaps I
had better let him go?' I caught at the idea and assented.
The fly himself had come to the same conclusion a little
earlier, for when Jack lifted the lid he had already gone !
I heaved a sigh of relief. But it was premature. ' Wouldn't
a mouse be easier to harness than a hundred flies ? '
'Well, yes, I think it would.' 'Then I'll go and ask
William to set the trap in the stable and catch me one.'
" Many days passed. Many times during their passing
I heard the enquiry, ' Is my mouse caught yet ? ' I began
to hope the stable was free from anything smaller than
cats. In the evening our talk was of the baker's cart, and
of the speed at which a mouse could make it go ; of the
danger that the mouse, when harnessed, might turn round
in the shafts and eat the loaves instead of helping to deliver
them ; of the other danger of his being eaten himself
THE MOUSE CAUGHT 85
by the black cat ; or of his bolting, cart and all, no one
knows where, to save his life !•»«■**
' ' Suddenly, one afternoon, we were startled by a shout
from a number of voices in different high keys, ^Jack's
mouse is caught f and Jack himself was rushing to and
fro in a state of wild excitement, with a tiny cage in his
hand, in which the future motor of the cart crouched,
frightened at his surroundings. The vehicle itself was
near, ready, with nothing in the shafts ; and a glance on
the floor showed that
* There lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roUed not the breath of his pride.'
In fact that was his weak point, lack of life ; and it was
this which suggested his being replaced by a creature in
which the mysterious force existed, if not by a multitude
aggregating it.
" All the rest of the day * my mouse ' was the object of
lavish attentions ; and when I last saw him before he
retired for the night, he had, stacked by his side, as much
cheese and tallow-candle ends as it would take him four
days to eat. ' Does he like being in the box ? ' I was
asked. * Well— yes ; he's comfortable enough there.'
' Would he as soon be there as running about in the stable
like he was before?' * Well — no. He would rather be able
to run about. Thou might be happy up in the playroom ;
but if someone came and locked the door, and thou could
not get out into the garden, wouldst thou like it ? ' Jack
looked very thoughtful, but only said * No, papa ! '
*'In the morning he brought me the box, stored as it
had been overnight with cheese and ends of candle ; but
no occupant was in it. 'Why, Jack! where's the mouse?'
' Oh, I thought it would be ra'r cruel to keep him in ; so I
took him to the stable and let him go ! ' And so ended the
scheme for propelling the baker's cart by vital force at
first hand."
86 ON A FLOATING SPAR
From Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston.
Boston, Oct. 31ST, 1891.
*'My dear Mr Bellows,
"You must not think that I have forgotten you, or lost
my interest in your delightful letters, because you have not
heard from me for a good while. The truth is writing is
becoming more and more troublesome to me on account of
the state of my eyes. At this particular moment I am
writing well enough as you see, but it is high noon, and a
bright sky is diffusing ample light through my bay win-
dow, the * airy oriel ' of one of my poems, ' My Aviary. '
* * * But I am looking forward to giving up writing
any answers at all, and I find dictated letters are apt to
be sparing of words.
" You see I am now eighty- two years old — cannot read
at all with my left eye, and poorly enough with my right
one— so that I give up a great part of my newspaper read-
ing—the type and impression being commonly poor. I
get along, however, tolerably, with the occasional use of
a hand-glass in addition to my spectacles. -^ -^ * i have
my old asthmatic trouble to remind me that I am mortal,
but on the whole am quite as comfortable as such a super-
fluity has any right to be.
"But oh, how lonely the world is getting to look!
While Lowell was living I felt his friendship was a strong
tie to my past : now that has snapped, and Whittier and I
are, as I said to him the other day, on a spar together,
floating still, remnants of a raft which has gone to pieces.
One other old friend — old, but of a later date, about thirty
years — I hope to meet in an hour from now at my
Saturday Club, the only social circle with which I retain
a connection. I have been wanting to do a little writing,
but my correspondence has taken up so much time that I
have had to give up all thoughts of writing for the public
at present. Yet there are some things I should like to
say, and may yet get a chance to say. I have been much
THE FLOWING TIDE 87
encouraged by the sale and reception of my last book,
' Over the Teacups.' Tauchnitz has just sent me some
money in advance for an edition he is publishing, so that
I feel quite plq;^sed in the contemplation of my senile
achievement.
" I sent you a poem I wrote for the ' Atlantic Monthly,*
having Lowell as its subject. I went to see him at Cam-
bridge during his illness, which was at times very painful,
and must have tried his soul very severely. He had so
much to live for — honored and beloved at home and abroad.
He was fond of England, and England was fond of him.
No living American can make his place good, and to his
friends the loss is beyond estimation.
"Write me whenever you feel like it without waiting
for answers^ which must grow fewer and shorter as the
tide of old age flows about the chair of the octogenarian
as the ocean around that of King Canute.
" Always faithfully and cordially yours
"O. W. Holmes.
" I always find your details of home-life, especially of
the younger people of your acquaintance, the best of
reading."
To Dv Hiibnev, Berlin.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 28-7-1891.
" Last week I went with J. Mowat, of Oxford, to
Kenchester, the site usually attributed to Magna Castra.
I should be very glad to go there with thyself if thou
shouldst come to this country again ; I am sure it would
interest thee.
"We drive through a very rich and beautiful country
for about six miles west of Hereford city. Here we
see a sort of table-land elevated a score of metres
above the general level of the great valley we are in —
that of the Wye, which is some two miles south of us.
Behind it at no great distance are hills of good height :
88
KENCHESTER
one, wooded to the summit, and the nearest, has a British
camp on it.
" Turning up a lane to our right, we dismount, and
send our carriage round to the other sidf of the plateau
while we strike across it on a footpath. Its whole area I
should think about twenty hectares. When I say it may
rise twenty metres, I mean in all — suddenly. An old
man is hoeing turnips in a field under A. He tells us
that coins are found now and then in the 'Town' field
(b and c) and that he believes his wife has some at home,
at the village post office (e.) Everywhere as we stoop
we pick up bits of old ware of the coarser kinds, such as
always occur in Roman remains : then a tessera, and so
on. B is a field of wheat ; and the crop prevents our
seeing much of the ground below. In dry summers the
old man says the streets show up through the corn. (This
was so distinctly the case at Silchester that the Ordnance
surveyors were able to map the entire city ; and the
insulce so revealed are now being taken one by one for
excavation.)
' ' Kenchester is certainly a town of exactly the same
sort as Silchester ; that is, not so much Roman as British
occupied by Romans. Roughly speaking both cities are
hexagons. Here at Kenchester one of the angles is well
marked at F : and a bit of the wall left. It may be seven
or eight feet high, and four or five wide. The rest of the
bank, except at one point, is earth : the stone having, I
suspect, been taken to build the present village, which is
outside the area.
ROMAN COINS 89
"Some children are coming back from school, and we
ask one of them, ' What is this field called ? ' ' The Town
Field, sir.' ' Why ! there's no town here. Where are
the houses ? ' ' All pulled down, sir. 'Twas the Romans
that built them.' The post office is a little cottage nearly-
buried in foliage, at E. We open a rustic gate and go
along a tiny path made of bright orange-red bits of Roman
tile thrown as macadam on the ground, to the door, where
a well-spoken woman answers our questions, and shows
us a coin of Constantine. She has had a lot of others, but
has sold them to a confectioner in Hereford, whose
address she gives us.
" We drove back part of the way on ' the Roman road,'
but it is rather neglected and rough. At Hereford we saw
the coins, obligingly shown us by the confectioner: too
many to take a list of in the few minutes I had before
going to my train to Gloucester. They however included
denarii of several Emperors ; and copper of Allectus, as
well as models of two British coins in gold, found with
them.
" Whether Kenchester is Magna is, I think, somewhat
uncertain. The distance from Abergavenny (Gobannium)
is about right ; and the existence of Roman roads running
directly to Kenchester is a strong point in its favor. On
the other hand it is not on the river ; nor is it defended by
a ditch of any consequence. Again, for troops coming
from Chester to Gloucester or vice versd^ it is out of the
line — i.e., the nearest and best line^ of march, which would
be through Hereford. Then there is the presumption in
favor of continuous occupation of the site when all other
things are about equal.
"The ecclesiastical administration in Gaul, for example,
followed the Imperial metropolis everywhere ; and as
Caerleon, from being the headquarters of the second
legion, became the see of an archbishop —and so on — I
cannot help a surmise that if Kenchester had been Magna,
90 ROMANS IN HEREFORDSHIRE
we should now find the bishop taking his title, and the
county itself named after Kenchester, and not after
Hereford. I am not asserting this : but suggesting what
I think needs thinking out?
" Another point is that there is no bridge over the Wye
at the point where the road crosses it between Kenchester
and Abergavenny. I have not yet searched for remains
of one, but I hope sometime to do so. The presence or
absence of a stone bridge would be an item of some
weight in settling the problem. We were told by the
postmistress that we could drive over the ford on the
Wye, but time did not admit of the experiment. As the
river rises in flood some metres, it is clear that a ford
would not have sufficed for the Roman service. There
may have been a timber bridge, however."
To Harrison Weir, Sevenoaks.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 9-10-1891.
ct * -x- ^ As to cats, I have always been fond of them
from a boy, when we had several generations of white
Angoras. They were wonderfully affectionate creatures.
One of them always cHmbed on to my mother's shoulder
every morning as she came down to breakfast, and greeted
her with a long side-rub against her right cheek, and then
one on her left, after which she descended to the usual
quadrupedal level. She was a very conscientious cat ; and
so far as I remember one might leave her in the room with
untold beef- steaks without her touching one. This so far
as regarded our property. What was in other houses she
regarded as fair game for foraging ; for I saw her spring
in, one day, through an open window with a large steak
in her mouth. But all her descendants were not so scrup-
ulous. I came down one morning to find one of these
lovely white cats on the table with her head in the cream
jug. On hearing my approach I suppose she pricked up her
ears, with the result that she could not withdraw herself
LETTER ON CATS 91
from the jug. So she backed to the edge of the table
and dropped, jug and all, to the floor. Here, lifting her
head despairingly in the air, a stream of cream ran down
her chest, and then, wildly bumping the encumbrance on
the carpet, the china broke, but so as to leave the rim and
handle as a collar round her neck as she fled from the
room in shame and confusion.
" The daughter or granddaughter of our first white cat
used to follow my father and mother for a mile along the
road when they were walking from East Pool (Cornwall)
to Redruth. This dear Pussy met with a hard fate. Our
house was near East Pool Mine, and the white cat was
seen by the miners killing rats there. They are a super-
stitious set of men, and believed the killing of rats was
the way to ' drive away luck ' from a mine. And so they
killed our cat.
"We children brought home her dead body, and gave
it as impressive a funeral as we knew how. The nearest
thing to Westminster Abbey that we had was a trellised
simimer-house in a corner of the little garden, paved with
white pebbles. The paving was taken up, and a grave
dug in the centre, and then amid many tears her mortal
remains were laid to rest. The western sun still gilds the
spot where the martyr to duty has her last home. No
pilgrim marks it ; but it is known to the angels.
" After I left Cornwall, and my father and mother lived
at Redruth, a descendant of Pussy's died there a natural
death. An old gentleman, next door, who knew and
respected her, dug her grave in the garden, and there
a troop of neighbours' children, by whom she was beloved,
and in whose tiny world she filled no mean space, stood
round her tomb. After the ceremony was over, one little
girl who had long known and loved her, came and stood
by my mother's chair. ' What is this pink ribbon for, my
dear ? ' ' O, it's mourning for Pussy. Is the bell going
for her ? ' (It happened to be tolling.) ' No, my dear, I
92 SIMPLE TASKS
don't think it is.' ' Is she gone to heaven?' ' Well, my
dear, I don't know whether cats go there ; but if they do,
I am sure she has, for she was as good as any cat ever
was in this world.' And the little pink- ribboned mourner
went away comforted. There was hope for Pussy's
felis-ity."
To his son William, in Paris.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 31-1-92.
a * ^ ^ jjjg discouragement to all of us in this
direction is the feeling of powerlessness, and the vague
idea that besets us, that if only some of our circumstances
were different, we should have a better chance of serving
God.
" But this is all a mistake. He does not set us a lot of
ideal tasks, the attainment of which would make us some-
thing extraordinary. What He does set us are very simple
child's tasks : the watching over our own thoughts : the
looking upward in heart : the endeavour to do common-
place things as in His sight. For each hour of each day
as it comes, He gives the necessary ability to perform
exactly what is pleasing to Him in that hour ; and that
is enough."
The following letter on tithe was John Bellows' reply
to his friend Henry T. Evans— a Quaker magistrate in
Cardiganshire — who had sought his opinion and advice
during the Welsh anti-tithe agitation.
To Henry T. Evans, Aberayron, Cardiganshire.
Gloucester, 3-3-1892.
" To thy question, ' What would one of the primitive
Friends do upon receipt of a document similar to the
enclosed ? ' there can be but one answer. He would let
the law take its course. Only the law was so much more
severe two hundred years ago that he would have had to
look forward to a long term of imprisonment, or even to
dying in prison, for the non-payment of the tithe.
TITHE 93
" My own view, which is likely before long to be put
to the test, is, that under no circumstances could I pay
towards the support of a salaried minister who takes
compulsory remuneration. But even if I could go so far
as that, I could not and I would not contribute in any way
to the spread of doctrines which are now [taught] in the
established church.
" Some argue that when I took, or bought, my land, I
did so with the knowledge that this was one of its liabili-
ties. True. But that is a very different thing from
engaging to pay the tithe. I once had to sign a document
in which I was made to covenant that I actually would
pay it ; but I took the pen and struck out the whole clause
before I put my name to it. If the land had been liable
to a tax for any distinctly immoral purpose, that would
be no reason why I should be debarred from taking it.
It would be a reason why I should refuse to pay [the tax.]
*' The law must in all cases come after ^ and not before,
the foundation principles of right and wrong: and the
perpetuation of old and superstitious customs is a wrong
in the very foundation of things. Tithe, in the infinite
majority of cases, was put on to support a ministry that
lived upon false pretences ; and they obtained it by false
pretences, such as that their prayers could ease the
punishment of sin in the world to come, and the like lies.
"It is the silent and passive resistance that sweeps
down evils of old standing ; not rowdyism. In the latter
case the law is not only set at nought, but is often left
unsatisfied ; while by quietly suffering distraint, it is as
fully satisfied as if the tithe were paid.
" As for posing as a martyr, there is not much scope
for that where the martyrdom does not extend to a five
pound note ! But if the * pose ' is thrust upon me, I will
accept it, rather than do wrong for fear of seeming to be
' righteous overmuch.'
94 JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
" A large part of our liberties in the way of worship,
etc., is due to the quiet courage of the early Friends.
When men were seen willing to pass long years in a
dungeon rather than pay a few pence towards the main-
tenance of a false teaching, the light streamed fast on the
masses, and the power of the false teaching was shaken
to the foundation.
" I can't set up for being a pattern to other men ; but so
far as I do see, I will not hinder other men from coming
to a knowledge of the truth, and I will not pay tithe to
any mortal for any ' religious ' purpose.
' ' The mere fact of the refusal will tell the Welsh people
that there is a better way of settling this question than by
fighting the auctioneer. If any considerable number of
them come to do the same, and passively suffer, down the
tithe system will go as surely as the walls of Jericho went
down before the sound of the rams' horns !
" Stand firm, and thou wilt look back on it with
satisfaction. Give way, and thou mayst come to see it
as I do, but thou wilt not then be able to undo thy act."
There were few writers whom John Bellows held in
deeper admiration than James Anthony Froude, with
whom it was his privilege, at times, to correspond ; and
the tribute paid to the value of his work by his appoint-
ment to the Professorship of Modern History at Oxford,
gave John Bellows the deepest satisfaction.
To James Anthony Froude.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 7-4-1892.
*'Dear Friend,
*' I cannot let this occasion go by without a line to say
how heartily glad I am at thy appointment at Oxford. It
is a gladness that will be shared by many hearts to whom
truth is dearer than shams ; for thy nomination means
something more than the honour to the man, deserved as
that is : it is the acknowledgment that thy history is a true
FAITHFUL STEWARDSHIP 95
and faithful record of the times it deals with, and not what
the Jesuits would have the world believe it is.
^ ' I know no happier thought in life than the conscious-
ness that we are but stewards of the several positions we
hold ; entrusted, not so much with gifts and talents that
men deem of value, as with trials and disappointments and
uncertainties that give ample opportunity for us to build
up our own character, not by doing wonders, but by
patiently doing what we can as in God's sight.
" Thou hast had a full share of misunderstanding and of
misrepresentation to bear: the disillusionment of legitimate
hopes of present success in some points, but not their final
defeat. It is not going too far to say that this is the lot of
every man who tries to deal honestly with the task he
undertakes ; and it is the passing through this that gradu-
ally changes him from being but poor iron into tough
steel : or, in the better simile of the Bible, these are the
means by which the Almighty works when He says, ' I
will make a man more precious than fine gold'— surely
His ultimate design for every man.
" I hope thou may St live many years to hold this post,
and so hold it that a very broad circle will say at last,
' We are stronger and truer men for his teaching,' as I
believe can in some small measure be said by
"Thy friend, John Bellows."
The following letter is undated, but as reference is made
in it to the death of Whittier, which event occurred on
September 7, 1892, it must have been written shortly
after that date.
To Oliver Wendell Holmes^ Boston^ Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester.
" I have long had a letter half- written to thee, which
press of business forced me to lay aside till I had in
measure passed out of the mood in which it started.
Yesterday's ' Times ' roused me, however, with its an-
nouncement that the last of the old New England literary
96 SHERSTON
circle, except thyself, had passed away : that Whittier
had followed Lowell, and left but one solitary lamp burn-
ing in the hall, where, but awhile ago, many shone bright.
" I recollect the account thou gave me once, of an
afternoon thou spent with him at his house at Amesbury,
and how cheerful he was notwithstanding his years — not-
withstanding that, in the language of one with whom he
must have been familar as an earlier ' Quaker Poet ' : —
' The moment was drawing nigh
When by every fearful token
The silver cord must loosen its tie,
And the golden bowl be broken.'
I say ' notwithstanding ' : but it strikes me after all as a
wrong word, for I see many examples of similar cheerful
old age. In the right ordering of things it should often be
so ; that is, when the day's work has kept pace with the day ;
for in such a case the burden and heat of the day is gone
by, and there is a foretaste of the rest that is to follow.
Anxiety for the future is the great factor in depression
of spirits ; and Whittier, I take it, had for a long while
been much freed from this ?
*' I hope in a short time to send thee two or three photo-
graphs my son Max has taken this week, but which he has
not yet had time to develop. They are views of a quiet
old village in Wiltshire, called Sherston. The place was
not always so quiet, however, for it played a conspicuous
part in the final struggle between the Britons and the
Saxons, in this part of the country. It was then known
as Tref wen or the White town, and is so spoken of in the
Bard's lamentation, where he describes the death of a
Celtic kiijg Kandelann, in the battle of Dyrham in 577.
Dyrham is a point on the prominent escarpment of the
Cotteswold Hills, ten miles west of Sherston ; and the fate
of that day, according to the Saxon Chronicle, brought the
cities ' ^«^/?anceaster and Cirencester andGleawancester'
under the rule of the West Saxons.
VISIT TO PARIS 97
'* A couple of miles east [of Sherston] the great Roman
Fossway crosses the Avon at a spot still known as White-
walls, and marked in the ordnance map as ' ancient
station.' This Fossway having been made after the towns,
and for the use of the army only, misses many of the
towns and villages, such as Tetbury, Malmesbury, etc.,
and goes straight as a line on to the horizon, on its way
to Lincoln. The paving is still visible in many parts of it.
Close to the little river Avon it becomes merged in a
pasture field, dotted over with trees. I found the bridge
13 ft. 8 ins. in breadth of roadway — i.e., 14 Roman feet —
for a foot rule in these matters is a magician's wand
in what it reveals ! We noticed several circular marks
in the grass as if buildings had stood there ; and digging a
little, we found Roman pottery. In one of the circles
a mole had been at work. I sifted over his mound of
freshly raised earth. It was black with former occupa-
tion, and in it I found a sparkling little bit of Samian
ware ! It was only as large as one's finger tip, but it was
enough to carry one back safely, in a moment, to over
fifteen hundred years of time, to the hour when the officer
was taking his lunch, while the horses were changing.
Tom, Dick and Harry did not use Samian ! "
To Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 10-10-1892.
" I was very glad to get thy kind letter of the 25th
ult., although I did not expect to get one in thy own
handwriting! I now enclose the little photographs my
son took at Sherston, and to which references are made in
my last. . . My wife and I returned last week from a
flying visit to our second son in Paris, where he is for
a while, the better to acquire the language. As they
happened to be full at his own lodgings, he procured
us quarters in the rue de la Sorbonne, where we were in
the shadow of the great building that links Paris of to-day
G
98 CENTENARY OF THE REPUBLIC
with so many of her glories in the past. It has recently
received large additions, so that its long and stately lines
of windows make the perspective of the entire street.
The new front in the rue des Ecoles is next to the College
de France. Our boy lodges au quatrieme opposite the
latter ; and yesterday week we were sitting in his window
looking at the rooms where Renan lay dead— for he died
that very morning. A letter from [our son] this morning
tells us of the spectacle presented by the funeral.
' ' I don't know more than a very little of Renan, but from
the little I have read of his writing in the Revue des Deux
Mondes, I think I know no one with whose views I have
so little in common, and yet with whom, somehow, I feel
more fully in sympathy. But then, if we knew all men
thoroughly, I suspect we should profoundly sympathize,
if not with all, yet with the infinite majority ! To share
their cares and their tears would amount to a very close
kinship : the kinship I am certain the Father of All in-
tended to subsist between the children of men.
" Ten days before the death of Renan was the grande
fBte nationale in commemoration of the French Revolution :
its centenary from the 'battle of Valmy.' A little before
ten [our son] came to fetch us to see the President and his
Cabinet Ministers, the Senators, Deputies, Judges, and
other officials pass to the Pantheon. Crossing the street,
we first went into the Grande Cour of the Sorbonne : its
older part. Late as it is in the year, it was a sunny day
of Indian summer, and many windows that ' gave ' into
the quadrangle stood open. In them were sitting Doctors
and Professors, silk robed and high capped, in many-
fashioned dresses, yellow and violet scarves mingling
with the prevailing black. All was silent, and nearly
motionless ; a dream of the middle ages up yonder, look-
ing down on the long line of carriages of to-day, waiting
to convey the learned men to their appointed places in the
[procession to the Pantheon.]
HISTORICAL PROCESSION 99
'■'•Silent: there are no bells in this gay Paris to ring
in the hundred-year holiday of her revolution. Belgium
would have filled the air with campanulation. Treves
would have filled it with sounds the middle ages had
brought down from the Roman Empire. Yet here was
the Palace of Julian itself at the foot of the street (now the
Hotel Cluny) but no sound of bells from it or from any
other building in Paris ! It was the strangest thing that
struck one. Just the gentle melancholy chime of the
Sorbonne clock : one silver bell and one bronze, to judge
by their tones, to warn us that it is ten, and that the
cortege is due on the boulevard close by. And there we
stand in that vast sea of hundreds of thousands, looking
up at the lacework of golden leaves that half veils the
shining blue above. A pattering of horses' feet, and a
company of cavalry : another : a line of carriages, and
again a lull like the hush after the surf has broken on the
sands. Soon there is a renewal of the same sound at a
distance — slowly gathering volume until it is like the
sweep of a great waterfall, and a dazzle of swords
emerges from the vista of trees into the bright sunshine
before us ; lines of mounted guards flash past ; and in
the midst of a great square they surround the President in
his carriage, and the white-headed Minister of War by
his side. A subdued murmur of pleasure as they go by,
and again the wave subsides ; and so on, yet again.
[In the historical procession that passed through the
streets of Paris in the afternoon] ' ' hundreds of men and
women were dressed in the costumes of 1792. Green
and crimson and blue were there in abundance : Dantons
and Mirabeaus and Robespierres a revendre : but unreal !
With all this I was compelled to notice that there was
no enthusiasm. The thing bore no semblance in any
way to the thing it was meant to celebrate ; for the
misdeeds that served as fuel to that fire are burnt to
incombustibility ./"
G2
CHAPTER VI.
JOSEPH NEAVE-JOURNEY TO RUSSIA-MINDEN-ST. PETERSBURG.
IT IS well known that the Society of Friends has,
from the beginning of its existence, held that no
religious service should be undertaken except in obedience
to an inward prompting, believed to be from above ; and
it is thought right, also, before proceeding on any exten-
sive journey in such service, that the Friend who feels
this prompting should lay his ' concern ' before his fellow
members, in order that the matter may be fully and
carefully weighed, and encouraged or discouraged as
the case may be. If the Meeting before which this matter
is brought believes the call to be a true one, it furnishes
the Friend with a certificate of approval and unity, and, if
necessary, with funds for the expenses of his journey.
In 1 89 1, Joseph James Neave, a Friend residing in
Australia, but who was still connected by membership
with a Friends' Meeting in England, and under its jurisdic-
tion, had felt a ' concern ' to visit Russia on behalf of the
Stundists, at that time suffering persecution on account
of their dissent from the Greek Church. The Friends
in England to whom Joseph Neave communicated his
' concern ' advised delay ; but when, a year later, in the
spring of 1892, he was able to attend the Yearly Meeting
of the Society in London, and renew his appeal in person,
it met with full sympathy and approval ; and a committee
was appointed to make the necessary arrangements.
There is a tacit rule in the Society that a ministering
Friend travelling on such an errand shall have a com-
panion. Joseph Neave, however, feeling great uncertainty
RUSSIA IN PROSPECT loi
as to the extent and duration of his journey, was reluctant
to burden anyone else with a share in it, and was prepared
to go to Russia alone. His journey was fixed, so far as
any human arrangement can be said to be fixed^ in the
early summer of 1892, but it was not to be taken until the
following autumn. In the meantime a companion was
found for him in an unexpected quarter.
A member of the committee arranging for this journey,
writing to John Bellows on other matters, casually men-
tioned Joseph Neave's prospect, when John Bellows was
suddenly and vividly impressed with a sense that he must
be willing to share with Joseph Neave the hardships and
responsibilities of the journey. There was, however, one
difficulty which might have been expected to hinder the
Society from accepting any such offer from him. Nine
years previously, feeling that the Society of Friends was
in some respects drifting away from what he considered
the right standard, and acting under the pressure of much
mental disquiet, he had resigned his membership in it. In
spite, however, of this technical disqualification, the com-
mittee at once and unanimously recognized his fitness for
the delicate mission in prospect, and he was cordially
accepted as companion to Joseph Neave, with whom he
now came into the closest and most harmonious fellowship.
It will not be supposed that one whose mental constitu-
tion was so sensitive and delicate could pass through the
preparation for this work without great suffering. The
prospect of a separation of indefinite duration from his
home, and all that that meant to him, on so vague and
mysterious an errand, which might include a visit to
Siberia, and did in fact include one to the Trans- Caucasus,
was very trying to his affectionate nature ; but in the very
suffering this prospect involved, he recognized a pre-
paration for the work before him.
From his letters to his wife, especially, as they are the
most numerous, a fairly full narrative may be gathered of
102 INTIMATION OF DUTY
his experiences during this journey, which lasted six
months ; but for reasons which will be understood, all
references to interviews with oflficials, on the business in
which Joseph Neave and he were engaged, are omitted,
as well as many interesting records of their intimate inter-
course with others. Although the two Friends did not
effect all that they hoped for, they had the consolation df
knowing that their labours had not been altogether in vain.
Soon after his return to England, John Bellows applied
for re-instatement in the Society of Friends, and was
cordially received again into membership.
To Joseph James Neave.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 9-9-92.
*' When Edwin R. Ransome mentioned, in a letter I had
from him, thy prospect of going to Russia, a weight came
over my mind, with a sense that it might be required of
me to offer to go with thee : and a query whether, if it
should be so required, I would be willing to obey, or
whether I should seek to put it by as a hard thing.
"Keeping still, in mind, and looking up for preservation
from any wrong attitude of mind, I was favoured, though
with a good deal of baptism, to remain passive. This has
recurred several times. On the other hand I have looked
at what seemed the dashing of a hope ; a hope that, shall
I say, has beset me for some months past in an unusual
degree, of more rest from my busy cares, and of lessened
anxiety.
" On the other hand I could not but feel that as all that
I have or that I am, in this sense, has been given me, it
would be a poor acknowledgment of all the blessings
that have been so freely bestowed on me, to turn away
from the secret drawing of the love of God at the first hint
to lay down their enjoyment for a time, and plead these
very favours as a reason for refusing to resign them. I
could not do so.
WILLINGNESS TO GO 103
" The Enemy has not failed to set both these conditions
before me in an exaggerated form, and to ply me hard with
the contrast between the ' cieled house ' and home, and
the far off land with its coming winter : the hardship, and
the vague imcertainty of duration of the trial. But sinking
into a measure of silent dying to self, all this has been
overcome from time to time, and I have felt willing,
against my will, to be led by the still small voice, and the
glance, so to say, of the Divine Eye, in the direction
indicated.
" I have of course, after due reflection, put the matter
to my dear wife ; knowing how truly she would deal with
it, and that if it proved a right, or rather the right thing,
she too would be helped to a willingness in reference to
it ; trial as it necessarily is to her. It is with her con-
currence that I write.
" How I can be of any help to thee beyond a very simple
companionship is certainly not apparent to me ; yet if thou
art clear that it would be right to accept my company, and
if Friends also are fully of the mind that it would be
suitable, I feel I am on solid ground in offering to go.
" If the way should not open, I shall feel still that I have
abundant reason for thankfulness at having been led into
and through these baptisms ; ' in all these things is the life
of my spirit ' — and they leave solid fruit behind."
The Committee, then, having cordially accepted the
companionship of John Bellows for Joseph Neave, the two
left for Russia on October 12, 1892. On their way they
rested at Cologne for a few hours, and spent a day or two
at Minden, where the only Meeting of the Society of
Friends in Germany is held.
To his son Max.
Cologne, 14-10-92.
" We have had time for a short walk and an ascent of
the tower with the wonderful view of the Rhine coimtry
104 FRIENDS AT MINDEN
from it. We also got a walk round the triforium and a
full view of the interior of the Cathedral. At the end we
look from a height of 90 ft. all along the nave, which is
450 ft. long. Here the guide told us we must take off our
hats— but we did not ; and I want thee to drop a line in
German to the custodian of the towers, Koln Cathedral,
telling him that thy father was one of the Englishmen who
went up on the 14th, and that he wished thee to explain
why his friend and he did not uncover : i.e. because we
are the true temples of God (quote the text of the Apostle
Paul) and to give honour to buildings made with men's
hands is to draw away attention from this most vital point.
Taking off a hat in a building is no honour to that Spirit
who dwelleth not in temples made with hands, but to seek
to know Him and to do His will is the worship or honour
which He calls for at the hands of every one of us."
To his Wife.
MiNDEN, Germany, 15-10-92.
" The Friends here are delighted to shew us kindness
and to make us feel at home, though I can see that Louis
Rasche is making a sacrifice at a time of considerable
business anxiety in leaving the whole of his correspondence
to his clerk and his own Max. * * "^
"For twelve years Louis Rasche served as a 'peace
judge ' here. This means an arbitration magistrate whose
duty it is to endeavour to compose differences between
people without going to law. There are three of these in
Minden, and some in every town in Germany. No law-
court will hear a case'^ntil it has been before one of these
peace-makers, and he has failed to bring about a com-
promise.
First-day.
" Sunnier than the sunshine of this beautiful morning,
that has taken the place of yesterday's rain, is thy letter
that has just been handed me ! I must stop to read it as
soon as I have put into the envelope the violets that little
MEETING AT MINDEN 105
Wilhelm has just put into my hand, his little face beaming
with smiles.
" Noon. We have just come back from Meeting.
Nearly forty sat down, as several had come in from the
country who are too far off ( 9 miles ) to attend regularly
here. It was a sweet and solemn time. At the close of
the meeting many hard clasps of the hand were given us,
with looks that made up for lack of words. -^ * *
" In the afternoon the country Friends stayed in to meet
us again at 3 o'clock, and we had another favoured time.
There is something very interesting and touching in the
interpreter giving sentence by sentence in the foreign
tongue and vice versa. J. J. Neave prayed very earnestly
for the little company, and when he had done, or a few
moments after, I touched David Peitsmeyer and whispered
to him to give the Friends the substance of what had been
said, as it is not usual to give sentence by sentence as
they do when preaching. He did so very accurately and
nicely. Louis Rasche, who is a true minister, also prayed
for us, and as J. J. Neave had done, for the people of God
in Russia who had suffered persecution, some to the loss
of all things ; that ' dunkles Land,' as he expressed it.
After Meeting we walked, Louis Rasche, J. J. Neave and
I, to the Weser bank. It was between 4 and 5 in the
afternoon. The wide shining stream, looking westward,
was one sheet of silver. A few miles away it passed
between two steep wooded cliffs, the ' Porta Westphalica,*
and a serrated line of mountains died away from this point
southward. Behind us was Minden, from one of the
towers of which boomed a bell very similar in tone to
that [we heard] in Treves for the death of the Emperor
Friedrich. Few things to me bring more forcibly home
the feeling of being in a strange land than the sound of
unaccustomed bells, and I should have felt greatly cast
down but for the sense of the Divine love and goodness of
which we had so largely partaken in our gathering
io6 KONIGSBERG
together, and which lifted the heart above sorrow and
time and distance.
"As we turned homeward through the avenues of trees
on the glacis of the former fortifications, we came out on
the sweetest cemetery I had ever seen, garden and wood-
land mingled with quiet stonework, and none of those
artificialities that strike one so painfully in many burial
grounds in England and France.
" Louis Rasche told us that once in going through this
ground when he was a young man, the thought pressed
on his mind, ' How many who are lying here would wish,
if it were possible, to undo some of the acts done in their
lives ! ' And the prayer rose in his heart to be kept from
anything he would not like to look back upon when his
turn came to die. But he added, ' The spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak.' "
To his Wife.
Hotel de Prusse, Konigsberg, 18-10-92.
"We have both got on thus far excellently; and we
feel no misgiving as to the unknown future. Had I come
here to please myself, it would have been with far other
feelings that I have seen one great European river after
another placed between me and all that I hold dear in this
world. This afternoon it was the broad silvery stream of
one of the affluents of the Oder ; and later on it was the
wider Vistula reflecting the magnificence of the sunset :
miles of the crimson and gold that had been filling the
western horizon on this almost boundless plain. No poem
that ever was written— no painting that ever was painted—
could more than faintly recall the vastness and the beauty
and the mysteriousness of the whole scene ; nothing could
fitly close it but the darkness and silence of the northern
autumn night, giving place in its turn to the lamps of this
old-world city, shimmering on its canals, and reflecting in
them the many-storied gabled houses, and the masts of
its shipping.
ARRIVAL AT ST. PETERSBURG 107
" Were it not for to-morrow's journey, I could sit for
hours at this bedroom window, watching the fisherman's
boat below. We saw him haul in his net awhile ago, and
the flash of the fish among the endless scintillations around
them. Behind us, still in the town, a great mediaeval
castle towers up into the night. Even the electric light
does not touch the battlements up yonder, but leaves
them vague and shadowy, as they ought to be. It is
midnight, and everything has sunk into silence ; though
a hundred and sixty thousand souls are gathered around
us. The Baltic Sea itself is four miles off; too far for the
sound of its waves to reach us.
"There comes a dull roar! It is the midnight mail
from Russia, going west. I will lie down on my pillow
and be there before it— till to-morrow comes ! "
To his Wife.
H6tel d'Angleterre, Petersburg, 21-10-92.
"Here at last we are landed after a journey with nothing
disagreeable or lacking in comfort from beginning to end.
"I woke in daylight, the sun was shining brilliantly on
a forest of birches among which here and there was a
Scotch fir or two. White frost was on the grass and
buildings where there were any, for they were scarce as
yet, and thin ice covered the pools that had not disap-
peared from the last rain. * * *
" Running into the station we got the guard to look us
out a porter. For more than a mile we drove in a straight
line along the cobbled but exceedingly wide road to the
Square of Isaac's Cathedral. * * * Our hotel fills a
large block on one side the Square, 27 windows long."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 26-10-92.
" We have a very weighty duty to attend to in the
morning : of that we are indeed sensible ; yet neither J. N.
nor myself have felt at liberty to prepare one word
io8 DIVINE GUIDANCE
of what has to be said, or even to form an outline of the
course we ought to take. If this is trying to our faith, we
have yet not only the solid sense of support that is granted
us in the prospect, but the experience of the wonderful
help that has been granted us in every step taken hitherto."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, i 3-1 1-92.
" It is beginning to shape itself to us that as soon as we
are free of Petersburg we ought to go to the Trans-
Caucasus." * * *
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 18-11-92.
" I wish to have this message from me— that in
all this service we have been obliged to walk entirely by
the inner leading of the Spirit, in which she but very dimly
believes. In no case have we entered the presence of
any of the officials we have seen with any preparation as
to what we were to say, and in each case has the Master
literally fulfilled His own promise in Matthew x. 18, 19.
' Who is blind as the Lord's servant ? ' is the true watch-
word in such service as this, and ' Be not afraid of their
faces lest I confound thee before them.' And so marvel-
lous are the entanglements through which we have to move,
that the wisest and cleverest and best man going partly
by Divine guidance and partly stepping before it by his
own judgment, must and would have failed utterly. It is
not man's work at all. If a soldier loaded an Armstrong
gun and put everything so ready that pulling a thread
would fire it, he might order a little child to pull that
thread and the work would be done— not by the child
certainly, though to its intense amazement. This is
exactly our share in the matter.
" Great and mighty changes will come in this land for
the release of the people of God from their cruel suffering
and bondage, but the time is hidden from us. * * *
POWER TO OBEY 109
Sometimes it feels as it does before a storm, when there is a
freshness in the air before the rain ; but the rain will come,
and it will not be a shower but a heavy storm of blessing
for Russia, deluging the dry ground and preparing the
seed sown for a great and wide harvest, in which the
reapers shall reap to life eternal."
To his son Willianty in Paris.
Petersburg, 19-11-92.
^^ All our talents, all our ignorances even — all our
strength and all our weakness, in the Divine Hand can be
worked up into usefulness, exactly in proportion as we
are obedient to that which the Holy Spirit shews us we
ought to do and not do. A man can do nothing of himself,
unless it be to shut his eyes to the light ; yet with every
conviction that God brings home to us. He gives as much
power to obey as will carry us through that particular
requirement. This measure of power (' power belongeth
unto God ') is also called * the measure of faith ' (' faith is
the gift of God ') and the soul in at once closing with it,
takes hold of that power, or faith, and by it is carried
through. This is what is meant by ' the obedience of faith.'
"Now to take a very commonplace illustration : when
we would be carried along the street by a force superior
to our own, we grasp the bar of a passing tramcar, and in
grasping it, we take hold of a strength far beyond our
own — we share the power, so to say, that is to carry us
on our way. But if we hesitate and stand waiting for a
moment that will require no effort on our part — the car
passes : only to leave us losers of so much precious time,
and with exactly the same condition to fulfil when the next
car passes. We must thus much ' co-operate ' with God."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 21-11-92.
** On Seventh-day evening the Pastor of the British-
American Congregational Chapel called to suggest our
no A FRIENDS' MEETING
holding a Friends' Meeting in that building after our own
manner entirely. It appeared to be right to accept this
opening, and Pastor Francis gave it out at the close of
their usual morning gathering yesterday for half-past six
in the evening. I need hardly say that the prospect
brought a good deal of weight upon our minds. About
150 persons gathered. Everything is so unlike what we
are accustomed to, that I will briefly describe the scene.
'' The street is very near this hotel. On reaching the
door several droschkies were drawing up with their
passengers — one young man in a sort of military uniform
helping a dark-complexioned lady, his mother, from such
a carriage — a Persian who spoke to us at the close of the
Meeting. Entering the double doors we pass from the hall
to a large room on the left, filled up from end to end with
elaborate coat and hat stands ; and a general disrobing of
furs and wraps, taking off of goloshes, etc., soon fills
these completely.
''The chapel itself is a long nice room with plain
cushioned seats on either hand of a central gangway or
aisle. The pulpit in the far corner on our right was un-
occupied, but a little table stood on a raised dais in front
of us with three chairs. J. J. Neave took one, and the
Pastor and I sat on either hand of him.
" Briefly explaining that we had no form of service, but
that we waited in silence to feel after God, who is a Spirit
and who must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, J. J. N.
added : ' I will read a chapter in the Bible, and after
that we will endeavour to settle into, not a formal silence,
but an earnest exercise of soul to seek after God.' The
chapter was the last in Revelation. A very solid sflence
followed, and then J. J. N. knelt in prayer that seemed to
reach to those present. After another silence he rose and
spoke of the manner in which the whole Scriptures from
Genesis to Revelation pointed to Christ in His varied
offices as a King and a Priest and a Saviour. The Meeting
THE MONK ALEXIS in
listened with very deep attention and I believe there was
general satisfaction felt. * * *
" We had previously engaged to go at half-past eight to
the house of a lady who had been at the Meeting. The
house is on the Quay, some distance past the Winter
Palace. walked there with me through the fine
drizzling snow. The flash and glisten of the crystals in
the fierce electric light of the Palaces was painful to the
sight— though not so bad, I was assured, as the effect in
the noon sunlight. This ' Palace Quay ' runs for a long
distance on the bank of the Neva, and the effect of the
dark flowing waters on the one hand and the dazzling
white on the other, was very grand. Every time we
passed under an electric lamp, the shadow of the falling
snow looked like the flow on the ground of a grey faint
stream ; for the snow was in fine dust, not in flakes.
" It occurs to me that I have left out of its right place a
visit we paid on Seventh-day afternoon to the Monk
Alexis— a sweet and gentle old man who would be a
shining Christian if he were not so buried in learning !
George Prince went with us. In one of the * lines ' or
street sides abutting on the mercantile part of the Neva,
we pass through a porte cochire into a large courtyard
with some trees in the centre. This is the hostelry of the
Archbishop of Kiev, and the ' Kievsky ' monastery.
"Up a little flight of stone steps— into a passage — again
into one on the left — and finally through the inevitable
double doors into a room the size of our schoolroom, but
rather higher. A little table, two or three large book-
cases, a little bed half hidden by a curtain, and a sweet
and venerable old man with his grey hair streaming over
his shoulders, seizing us by both hands and talking what a
geologist would describe as metamorphosed French, to bid
us welcome to this his cell. He leads us through into
another similar room to hang up our coats and hats, and
stow away our goloshes, and then we return to the cell
112 MONASTIC LIFE
and are seated by the little table, which in ten minutes is
covered three deep with books. Chief among these is
Max Mtiller's ' Sacred Books of the East '—and the dear
old man wants to see these translated into Russ. Nothing
will do but that I must undertake to convey a copy of
Alexis' own works to the Professor at Oxford — and then
he sits down to write a letter in English on a sheet of
foolscap to beg his acceptance of them. Between the
three of us we turn out a very respectable letter, which
winds up with the suggestion that the ' Sacred Books of the
East ' should be translated and published in Russ. * * *
" Oh, what a mistake monastic life is ! This man, I
repeat, would be, if in natural and healthy contact with his
fellows, a burning and a shining light. As it is, he is shut
in with his books to waste his energy on studies of the
letter of Scripture that profit but very little indeed
compared with the living openly and tangibly before men.
" W. Hilton, of whom I have several times spoken, is the
managing partner in a very large linseed oil works here.
Until some years ago the great mass of the Russian
peasantry used to use rape or hemp-seed oil to drink
during the long period of the fast prescribed by the Greek
Church — a fast so severe that nothing whatever that is of
or from an animal must pass the lips for several weeks.
So strictly do they observe this that they will not, or many
of them will not, eat anything that has sugar in, because
sugar is refined with animal charcoal. A doctor told me
last week that he was called in to see a dying baby whose
mother would not suckle it for fear of making the little
thing sin by taking milk. The doctor sent for the priest
to remove the embargo and save the little life, but he said
' No— God gave the child, let Him take it,' and the infant
was literally starved to death and laid in its little grave as
a Divine requirement.
" Well, when some years ago the hemp crop failed, the
blow was terrible to these poor people, for they had no
SIR ROBERT MORIER 113
other oil to fall back upon. W. Hilton then proposed to
the mill proprietors under whom he was serving, that they
should procure a finer quality of linseed and produce a
sweet edible oil that might take the place of the sort that
had failed. The objection previously to linseed was that
it was bitter and earthy in taste. But his plan was adopted,
and now an enormous quantity of the fine quality of linseed
oil is consumed in this way."
Petersburg, 29-11-92.
" Joseph Neave keeps on his way without elevation or
depression, so far as I can see. He has a good deal of
trial, but from causes unconnected with his errand here.
I cannot help feeling the violent contrast between my own
position here and that of men like Daniel Wheeler, Stephen
Grellet and Thomas Shillitoe— but what can I do? I can-
not add one inch to my stature, nor make myself spiritually
anything else than the strange compound of inconsistencies
I have been for most of my life. If I am sent into the
harvest-field as a child to glean where they stood as
powerful men to reap, I must do the best I can."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 8-12-92.
" Yesterday we had an intimation that the British
Ambassador, Sir Robert Morier, would be pleased if we
called on him. * * * We pass through two
ante-rooms to the Ambassador's own apartment. A tall,
splendid-looking old English gentleman meets us in the
doorway, shaking hands and making us at once welcome.
He leads us to three chairs, and we seat ourselves one on
each side of him. Sir Robert Morier is very much such a
man as William Henry Hyett was. I am not quite clear
whether it belongs to the old Adam to feel proud as an
Englishman, but I did feel glad that such a man and such
an environment represented the power of Great Britain
vis a vis the Russian Empire. He reminded me of an
old lion, quiet and majestic, * -J^- * With us he was
H
114 A LECTURE TO CHILDREN
exceedingly kind and gentle and sympathetic when he
found the lines on which we intend to keep.
" Pastor Francis has just been in to arrange for me to
talk to the children in the British- American Congregational
School on the making of a Roman road, and how it was
used. The American Minister will be present."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 12-12-92.
" My little lecture to the school- children came off this
afternoon.
"There are about 60 boys and girls, the only school in
the Russian Empire not under the Minister of Public
Instruction, as it is under the shield of the United States
Embassy and reckoned to belong to it. This is a wonder-
ful advantage to the English and American colony here,
for it enables the committee of management to get English
teachers ; whereas they must have Russians otherwise,
and would be compelled to give the bulk of the instruction
in the Russian language. I found the youngest boys were
nine years of age — and so I began by talking to them about
marbles, going on to Latin, and telling them how I did not
like Latin when / was nine, and how I used to draw
elephants when I was not watched, and paint them
yellow — that they were very pretty — better than any
pictures in the Winter Palace here— but that it ended in
my not knowing Latin, which I was now sorry for. Then
with the blackboard I described the building of Rome, the
formation of the legion, and the work on a new roadway,
etc. I think I managed to keep it simple enough for them,
and Andrew White [the U. S. Minister] made a good little
speech of thanks at the end, when the 60 children gave a
tremendous clapping of hands, sang ' Auld Lang Syne,'
and we adjourned upstairs for tea.
" Here we were joined by Princess . She is
passionately loyal to the Emperor and the monarchical
SYMPATHY
"5
principle, but hates all intolerance with undisguised hate.
She was much pleased to hear us say that we have a good
hope that Russia will rise out of these troubles. As she
was leaving the room I was saying, ' I find nearly every-
body in Russia believes that the Emperor is the highest
power in the Empire— and that after him comes the
Governor of a province — after the Governor comes the
Ispravnik (Chief of Police,) and somewhere, below the
Ispravnik, comes the Almighty.' She was standing out-
side the door when I said this at parting, but she came
back into the room, seized my' hand and gave it a strong
grip and said, ' You are right/' "
To his daughter Marian.
Petersburg, 13-12-92.
'* Last week I was calling on an old lady (who is going
to send her portrait to mamma) and found a poor broken-
down-looking old woman of the poorer sort, waiting in the
same room. I think she must have seen better days, for
she afterwards spoke to me in French. I felt a great
sympathy towards her : though of course I knew nothing
whatever about her — and turning to the lady of the house,
I asked her to tell the old woman that I felt the Almighty
had as much care of her and watched over her as much
for good as if she were the only being in the world. As
the Russian sounds fell on her ear in the interpretation,
the poor old soul burst into tears ; and when a moment
after I was taking leave, she laid her thin trembling hand
in mine and said in French, ' May the Lord bless you for
coming from so far away to say a word of consolation ! *
I heard from the hostess her story afterwards : it was one
of overwhelming griefs."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 18-12-92.
" This will be my last from Petersburg till our return,
as we start for Moscow to-morrow evening. Our work
H2
ii6 THE REPRESSION OF DISSENT
here feels finished so far as the city is concerned, and
gives no condemnation in the retrospect, though I need
hardly say I feel empty and commonplace, as if I had
never anything to do with it at all.
"Princess told us with a quiet smile that the
Petersburg paper ' Novosti ' (News) of yesterday has an
attack on J. J. N. and me as ' two Quakers from England
who have come to Russia to force an open door — inasmuch
as there is already full liberty of conscience in Russia ' ! "
To his Wife.
20-12-92.
" I believe my last brought our narrative to First-day
morning. In the evening we went to bid farewell to
Baroness and family. Two young ladies came in.
One of them was a strong apologist for the support of the
Greek Church as a political necessity in the present
condition of Russian society. Except Princess ,
she was decidedly the most original and vigorous thinker
we have met with since coming from England, and I
greatly enjoyed her determined onslaught on whomsoever
she attacked. She admitted several of our points however.
As to the maintenance of the Greek Church by the iron-
handed repression of dissent, I put it to her that all this
could do would be, not to preserve the Greek Church, but
its empty shell ; and that the Pobedonostzeff policy would
simply do for it what the white ants do in Africa for all the
furniture in a house : eat out the substance more and
more, leaving the outside seemingly sound, till at last the
whole thing crushed to dust."
CHAPTER VII.
JOURNEY TO SOUTH RUSSIA— COUNT TOLSTOI-VLADIKAFKAS—
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS-MAGNIFICENT SCENERY— ARRIVAL
AT TIFLIS.
AS a knowledge at first hand of the people they were
trying to help was indispensable, the two Friends
now left St. Petersburg for the Trans-Caucasus, travelling
by way of Moscow and the Georgian Road through the
mountains, to Tiflis. After an absence of three months on
their delicate errand, they returned by the Black Sea and
the Crimea, to Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The absence of allusion, in these letters, to the more
private part of the work they were engaged in, is due to
the reticence which Joseph Neave and his companion
always felt obliged to maintain on the subject.
The railway journey southward to Vladikafkas— on
the north of the Caucasian Mountains — was described
by John Bellows, in ' The Friend,' as follows : —
" A little before seven in the morning the guard comes
to awaken those who have bespoken coffee at Klin, two
hours short of Moscow, and a few minutes after, at the
halt of the train, a waiter enters with tumblers of hot
coffee and rolls of fancy bread. One or two of us slip on
our furs and step out on the platform to see what the
morning is like. It is bright, but bitterly cold, with a little
snow falling. The landscape is alternately a vast expanse
of white or a forest of birches ; the spray of the trees very
beautiful in the cold sharp morning light.
**By and by villages appear more frequently, then
pretty villas, and the various signs of approach to a large
ii8 MOSCOW
city. The snow falls faster, and we notice men on the
line clearing it, and trains of sledges loaded with it from
the streets. It is only of late years. Count Tolstoi says,
that they have thus cleared the streets, and it must be
a titanic task to do this in such a climate in a town that
covers eighteen square miles.
" At last we slowly roll into a small station, with space
for two trains in width : the terminus of the Petersburg
line. A multitude of porters crowd round us, and in
a few minutes we are seated in one of the throng of
sledges standing in the street outside. There are seats
for four, and a pair of horses dash off with us through the
biting snowstorm to the hotel. It is a good distance ; but
everything is so new and strange, and so different even
from Petersburg, that we do not regret a few minutes
longer in the transit. Here we are at last in a great open
space in front of the Kremlin wall, and are quickly indoors
in what we hope may be as comfortable quarters as we
have left in the Hotel d'Angleterre in Petersburg.
"Even a brief description of Moscow would take too
much space in the present sketch. It is enough here to
say that in a couple of days after our arrival we had com-
pleted the calls we were bound to make, and obtained
information needed for our purpose, so that by five o'clock
in the evening we were again in the train, this time not to
leave it, except at a refreshment-room, or to change
carriages twice, for seventy-five hours.
" To travel on continuously from night till morning, and
again till morning wears into evening, and evening into
night, over the never-ending wilderness of snow, gives
one to realise the immensity of the Russian empire ; for
all these hundreds of miles mark but a very small space
on the map. Yet, somehow, the time does not hang
heavily on our hands. * -^ *
" It was really enjoyable to go outside and stand on the
platform at the end of the carriage. The morning air was
VISIT TO TOLSTOI 119
sweet, and the train was speeding away over the steppe :
back as far as the limit of the horizon, and on as far as the
eye could reach, one vast wilderness of dark brown, not
exactly a moorland, for there is hardly vegetation enough
for that, yet like a moorland that has no beginning or end.
* Monotonous ? ' Yes, but there are monotonies that do not
weary. The sweet sound of a waterfall is one of these,
the sound of the sea is one, and so is the endless heave of
the ocean. All vastness partakes largely of monotony.
The vastness of this plain belting the interval between the
Black Sea and the Caspian grew more and more upon the
imagination as the train rolled on hour after hour with
the same illimitable space still opening before it. True,
some low hills appeared at a distance on the left, and the
mist on the right hung as a veil between us and the great
Alps of the Caucasus ; but for that mist we should have
seen Elbruz, the highest of the range— over 18,500 feet
above the sea. Yet before and behind, the plain was
unbroken, and the very consciousness of the mountains
being, as it were, present but invisible, added to the total
impression the steppe made upon one.
" The snow began to appear again, and by eight o'clock
at night, when we reached the terminus of Vladikafkas,
we found more sledges at the station than droschkies.
Stowing our baggage in one of the latter and ourselves in
a sledge, we were soon at the H6tel de France, tired and
stiff, ready for a meal and for the long dreamless sleep
that followed it."
On their way through Moscow the two Friends had
visited Count Tolstoi, and, in respect to this visit John
Bellows wrote to his wife :—
" I do not know what began it— but some question arose
about Friends' non-use of ' ordinances,' when Fast* stated
that water baptism was commanded in Scripture, and
* The interpreter who accompanied the Friends throughout their
journey in the South.
120 SAVING LIGHT
that all the Scripture was inspired, citing Paul's word to
Timothy in proof. Both Count Tolstoi and I combated his
position, and the conversation became very earnest and
touching. It was a new idea to Fast that a man could
fear God and strive with all his might to keep His com-
mandments, who yet was not a believer in the Divinity of
Christ, or in the inspiration of Paul.
" When I put the Friends' doctrine of Universal and
Saving Light before them both, they were both greatly
impressed by it. Count Tolstoi turned to me with
exceeding emotion—' Oh ! how glad I am to hear you say
this ! Why do the Friends not try to spread this doctrine ? '
(Then turning to Fast) ' You with your sticking hard by
the letter have no unity with me because I cannot admit of
your baptism — and I have no unity with you in that — but
Jesus Christ prayed that we might be one, even as he
and his Father are one. How then are we to come to
this unity but by the Spirit? Here this friend, standing in
the Spirit, can have unity with both of us whose views are
different from his : with you, notwithstanding you are
opposed to him on water-baptism — and he, who believes
in the Divinity of Christ, can at the same time feel that
unity with you who also believe in it, and with me who do
not believe in it at all ! God teaches us all, though we do
not all see things from the same stand-point. You who
stand there see that table and say ' It is long : ' and I who
view it from here say ' No, it is broad ; ' but if I strive to
obey God and to follow Him with the light I now have, do
you believe if I die now that He will save my soul ? ' I
never looked on anything more touching. The big tears
filled his eyes as he turned his sorrow-stricken face full
upon Fast. Fast's lips quivered as he answered, ' Yes — I
do believe He will/' It was a memorable moment for
each of us ; and I feel certain that each of us felt his heart
broadened and deepened in the sense of the everlasting
love of God, whose ways are wonderful and past finding
UNITY 121
out. Fast was exceedingly impressed : and he told us
last night in the train that the whole opportunity was a
new experience for him. He turned again to the passages
in Timothy and Peter, that we had dwelt upon, and I can
see that his eyes are getting opened to the truth.
" Count Tolstoi put with admirable force the poorness
of the foundation that the letter of Scripture is our guide
and not the revelation of God direct to the soul, pointing
out that if that were true, then the clever and the learned
men would know the most of the things of God instead of
the simple and the pure in heart. ' How will you decide,
or shall I decide, which is the text, when there are so
many thousands, yes, thousands of variantes in the MSS. ?
Who shall tell us what are canonical books and what are
apocryphal ? Shall we take the report of bishops in the
fifth or sixth century who held doctrines neither of us
believe to be true ? If you go by the letter, you will end
by having sects without end : but if you are led by the
Spirit, it will bring you into one-ness with God. Yes— I
am glad you have said what you did : I feel — what do
you say for it — ? ' ' Unity,' I suggested. 'Yes, unity. I
feel unity with you.'
" He persuaded us to stay and take lunch as the time
was close at hand. We went downstairs to a dining room
leading out of the entrance hall, where most of the family,
and an English governess, were seated at table. It was
a treat to me to have vegetarian cookery without making
a special request for it.
'* ' I will walk back with you to your hotel if you will
stay and take some lunch first,' Count Tolstoi had said ;
and now, putting on his peasant's sheepskin coat and fur
cap, and taking his staff, we started. The cold was sharp,
our moustaches and beards freezing hard : but I got very
warm walking. He told me that to find men dead from
cold is not uncommon : though ' vodky ' often has some-
thing to do with this. * * *
122 CROSSING THE STEPPE
" Count Tolstoi is too continually in earnest to smile
often. I only heard him laugh once, and that was when,
looking up at some of the names on the signs, I said :
' I wish your Russian words were not so long. If you
would cut them in three I believe I could swallow them
and digest them— but now I can do neither.' He seemed
tickled, and laughed quite a merry little laugh."
To his Wife.
Vladikafkas, 26-12-92.
" Here we are, brought well and satisfactorily to
another stage of our journey, the capital of the Northern
Caucasus.
* * * *
" When we woke yesterday ttiorning we found the
climate milder, and for hour after hour we passed along
the steppe or moorland uncovered with snow. The
monotony of this tremendous expanse did not weary me,
but the contrary. As the afternoon wore on we got to a
greater elevation. Hills were on our left at a distance ;
and now for a long way we had them on our right also — a
level line like Cleeve from the valley. At last I could see
dots on the slope, and then in the plain. As we drew
nearer I thought they might be huts — but they were hay-
stacks^ hay cut from the steppe — now getting more grassy.
And then for scores of miles they dotted the landscape
everywhere. The villages were rare and wretched-
looking. Snow again covered everything as night drew
on, and when we reached Vladikafkas, 2300 feet above
the sea, the air had a mountain feel about it that was not
unpleasant. The people now began to look far more
foreign, dark Armenian and Tartar countenances, strange
great white wool caps, long bourkas or cloaks of coarse
black goats' hair ; women with shawls over their heads —
children padded to a rotundity that would amaze some of
you at home. * * *
VLADIKAFKAS 123
" At the station we found a train waiting for the
Cesarewitch, who is crossing the mountain to-day on his
return to Petersburg. The town is decorated with flags,
etc., to receive him. We were informed that no one will
be allowed to leave Vladikafkas for Tiflis until 5 o'clock
to-morrow morning— a very reasonable precaution for
the Prince's safety. This will give us one day's rest
before the strain of driving 200 versts Wun seiil coup,
and it will not delay our work. The Imperial party is
making the passage of the mountain at the moment I
am writing."
To his Wife.
Vladikafkas, 27-12-92.
" The Heir Apparent and the Governor General [of the
Trans-Caucasus] came through at ii.o last night, so that
the road is free for ordinary traffic again. * * * At
1 1 o'clock as Fast and I were sitting writing ( J. J. Neave
had gone to post a letter) a sudden sound of hurrahing
burst on our ears, and we ran down to the hall-door to see
a strange and beautiful spectacle. The principal streets
of V. are 1 20 feet wide, with a pretty avenue of trees and
a broad foot-walk in the centre. As the houses are for
the most part bungalow-fashion, all on the ground-floor,
it makes the town cover a very large area with 20,000
population. Poles had been planted for miles along both
sides of our carriage-way, hung with banners of the
Russian tricolor. Coloured lamps were burning all along
the front, and of course the entire population, almost, turned
out to welcome their future sovereign. The night was
misty, which added greatly to the effect. Just beyond us
to the south was a glow of crimson fire that coloured the
fog itself in wonderful Turner-fashion, and carriage after
carriage came rushing out of this red mist, passing our
door at a dashing gallop and plunging away into the mist
beyond. In front of us the frost-spangled trees of the
Boulevard, and the white snow imder them, reflected and
124 A GATHERING
sparkled the flashes of light that followed one another in
rhythm, for a squadron of Cosaks galloped by, each
horseman carrying a blazing torch. Fancy all this and
the roar of cheering rising and then rolling away and
dying in the distance with the disappearance of the
Imperial train — and thou wilt not wonder at Joseph
Neave's enthusiasm as he came in from his walk to the
Post-office, nearly out of breath as he said, ' This beats
Petersburg altogether.'
*' Our posting arrangements are set aside— beggars
must not be choosers — and we have to wait till three
o'clock to-morrow afternoon.
" Now let me describe a visit we made to some of our
friends in , people who are beloved by their
neighbours. A few only came to see us, because they
are not allowed to hold large gatherings. As these few
came in — middle-aged men — they shake hands and kiss us,
Russian fashion ; and after J. J. N. has told them through
our interpreter of the way in which he was drawn to visit
this land, we drop into a meeting for worship. One of the
Russians prays in a very humble and broken spirit, and is
followed by another in the same true power and feeling.
I do not remember ever to have been in such an assembly.
The voice of the speaker was several times choked by
suppressed sobs, and the low quiet tones of it again and
again mingled with sounds of weeping from every person
in the room. I felt crushed with a sense of my own
unfitness to be with these dear people, many of whose
countenances bore the visible Shekinah of the Divine
communion. The 91st Psalm was read (the 90th in the
Russian notation) and Joseph Neave prayed with much
power ; then two more of the Russians : the overshadow-
ing heavenly influence being very manifest.
'* After the Meeting was over, tea was placed on the
table with a beautiful pile of rusks and glasses of
preserved cherries which they put into the tea, and very
BAPTISM 125
nice they are. I should remark that here in the Caucasus
we are in a land flowing with milk and honey. Dried
fruits of great variety are sold everywhere, and wine
from the vineyards by which we are surrounded, can be
bought in quantity at three farthings a bottle. The bread
is the lightest and most beautiful I have ever seen. It is
placed before us in slices like snow-white fleece, and is
sold at four kopeks (a penny) a pound : the pound being
about fourteen ounces.
"But to come back to our Meeting. They were all
very earnest to hear anything we could tell them about
Friends, and were well satisfied with what we could
tell them about our doctrines — especially of the benefit
of silence in worship, and of doing nothing without the
leading of the Holy Spirit. When they came to ask about
Baptism, we had only to instance the remarkable time of
favor we had just experienced together in which we
had been as unmistakably baptized into one spirit with
them, as were Cornelius and his household with Peter
when he began to speak to them. Their hearts were
like wax, ready for the touch of the seal ; and I cannot
doubt that a blessing will follow our so-unlooked-for
meeting. Two elderly women had come in after we
had gathered, with shawls over their heads — their tears,
too, fell thick and fast with ours.
" We have arranged for a sort of spring- van to take us
and our baggage — taking three tickets at 1 2 roubles each ;
in addition to which we must pay to-morrow 3 roubles in
all, additional : government passenger duty. We are to
start at 3, with four horses abreast, and in steep parts of
the road these will be supplemented by two in front; in
the steepest of all by four in front."
The impressive yet toilsome drive of one hundred and
thirty-three miles from Vladikafkas to Tiflis, through the
main chain of the Caucasus, was described by John Bellows
126 THE GEORGIAN ROAD
at the time, in the London 'Friend'; from which the
following narrative is taken.
THE GEORGIAN ROAD THROUGH THE CAUCASIAN
MOUNTAINS.
"The total length of the road [from Vladikafkas] to
Tiflis is 200 versts, or 133 English miles. To make the
journey we must take post-horses at the Government
station, booking beforehand, and awaiting our turn. At
length all is arranged ; three tickets taken by * omnibus,'
for which we pay 12 roubles each, with an additional
rouble per head, passenger duty ; and all baggage beyond
a pood''*' per person, to be paid for extra. We are to
start at 3 o'clock the following afternoon, and travel on all
night with four horses, changing them at twelve stations,
with additional ones at three or four of the hardest
gradients.
"At 2.30 p.m. on the 27th of Twelfth-month we are
on the ground. The omnibus was to take one inside
passenger besides ourselves, and one outside. The inside
passenger presently made his appearance— a powerfully
built Georgian of over 6ft. in height, with features exactly
like those carved on the Assyrian monuments. He wore
a bourka— the felted wool cloak of the country, which
coming to his feet, and projecting all round like an inverted
cone, made him between 4ft. and 5ft. in diameter;
seemingly an omnibus-load of himself; and under the
bourka, stuck in his girdle, a silver-mounted dagger.
The outside passenger was a little man : a Jew, of over
eighty years of age, who took his place between the
driver and the conductor.
" All our luggage being loaded left barely room for the
four of us to squeeze in with it. A further quantity of
goods that had arrived by rail was hastily placed on a
goods-wagon, both sets of horses put to, and the bugle
* A pood is 40 Russian pounds ; 36 English pounds.
IN THE TEREK VALLEY 127
being sounded, in the old English coach style, for our
departure, we trotted out of the yard and started up the
road in a somewhat imposing style.
" The afternoon was sunny and beautiful, and the
mountains we were aiming for were full in view, some
versts in the distance ; or rather their outworks, for the
giant heights of Kasbek and his fellows were still veiled
from our sight. Had the weather been clear we should
have seen, when midway from Rostof, Elbruz, the loftiest
height west of the Himalayas— 18,526 ft. Kasbek, right
before us, but as yet invisible in the cloud, is 16,546 ft.
"By and by we have steep hills on each side of us,
covered with woods, not unlike Frocester or Stinchcombe
in the Cottes wolds. Fruit gardens and vineyards cover
the valley between these hills and the road, which is
skirted now by Lombardy poplars and now by other trees,
which, covered with frost, form a silver veil that enhances
the picture, for in landscapes the half is often more than
the whole.
" All the way we are accompanied by the swift- flowing
stream of the Terek, the valley of which we follow for
many miles. It narrows, and as the afternoon light
gleams on us we begin to get a foretaste of the grander
and more solemn scenery of the mountains. All this while
we have been gently ascending, so gently that the horses
have not ceased to trot till we halt at the toll bar, a few
hundred yards short of Balta, our first stage, 12^ versts
from Vladikafkas. There is a great traffic on the road.
We have met or overtaken numbers of vehicles, drawn
by horses or oxen. All have to draw aside at the ring
of our conductor's bugle : for he is an Imperial servant,
as is every stable-boy on the road, who wears the brass
badge with the double eagle in front of his sheepskin cap.
"Our fellow-traveller, the Georgian, by this time begins
to expand a little : not physically, for there is no margin
left for that ! We have not even room to move our feet
128 THE GEORGIAN WINE-GROWER
for change of posture, but must sit as we are till we reach
the station. He expands socially, telling us what it costs
to convey wine from his vineyard to Stavropol, where he
sells it. His vineyard of three desiatines (eight acres) is
sixty versts beyond Tiflis : managed by his wife and
family, to whom he is going for the holidays — a pleasant
surprise for them, as he has not written to say he is
coming. ' Ask him why he carries that dagger ? Has he
ever used it ? ' The interpreter conveys the question, and
receives for reply, ' Yes, he always uses it when on a
journey : never travels without it.' Pressed more closely,
whether he has ever shed blood with it, he replies, ' No.'
" We are at Balta, the first station. Everybody gets
out to stretch his legs while the horses are being changed.
The Russian horses are usually more carefully trained
than ours ; obeying the voice of the driver more readily.
In Petersburg one seldom sees a whip used : a word, and
shake of the reins suffice. In ten minutes we bestow our-
selves as best we may for the next three hours. The
stage is 1714^ versts, and we have to rise over 900 ft. in
course of it.
" We are now in a valley between cliffs, varying from
a quarter to half a mile in width. The sound of the river
is again and again audible as we pass near a rough part
of its bed. Often we seem approaching a dead wall — to
make a sharp turn round a corner, not seen till we are
close upon it. The daylight has gone ; but the moon has
risen, and the snow reflects so much light that we have
no absolute darkness to contend with.
*' At length we are at Lars ; and as six horses are
attached to our vehicle, it is evident we shall have a
stiffer pull in the next 14^ versts to Kasbek, which is
6455 ft. above the sea, while here at Lars we are 3682 ft.
We must not confound the station with the mountain
Kasbek, however: that is a good 10,000 ft. higher still:
still buried in the clouds, mysterious, invisible.
A MOONLIGHT SCENE 129
"Where there is so much to catch the attention and
appeal to the imagination in the heights and depths by
which we are environed, it is difficult to know what to
describe and what to omit. At one turn where a mountain
higher than Ben Nevis suddenly loomed above us, I made
some exclamation : as indeed each of us had involuntarily
done again and again— when the Georgian gave a glance
at the snowy peak, and said depreciatingly, ' Thafs
nothing ! It's a inalo — a malinky /^(a little one — a little
mite of a thing.) Wait till you get further on, to the
bolshoi (big) cliffs. Then you will see things that will
nearly break your neck to bend back and look up at!
Things that would frighten you if it were daylight, for you
would think they were going to fall upon you.' One
could well understand the man. It was the only language
he could command that would convey his thought.
"A hare had started in front of our horses, and,
frightened at the thud of their hoofs, had run for a long
distance before them, up the road. There seemed no
chance of escape from the terrible pursuers, and at last in
its fright the little thing leaped over the low wall on our
left, and down the precipice that the wall was built to
guard us from.
"It is not easy to single out and restore individual
pictures from the multitudinous panorama of heights and
depths of forest and rock and snowy summit that unrolled
itself in such continual succession before us ; but there is
one that will never pass away from my memory. As we
turned a corner under an overhanging rock, the moon
shone full on a belting of white cloud in front of the cliff
on the opposite side of the gorge. Below it, in un-
fathomed darkness, was the sound of rushing water ;
above it rose the precipice ; and then another great cloud
hung in aerial brightness round the masses of crag ; and
far up beyond that again, the same tremendous height
towered into the sky.
130 HALTING - PLACES
*' It must not be forgotten that the district through
which we are passing was that once under the power of
the celebrated chief Schamyl, whose forts and castles add
greatly to the picturesque effect of many points on the
route. Formerly we might have been laid under con-
tribution by his bands of mountaineers. In any case, we
should not then have been travelling in a covered carriage,
or, for the matter of that, in any carriage at all ; for
before the Voenno-Doroga, or military road, was made,
the track was but a bridle-path, and in some places the
horseman was compelled to descend from the saddle and
go on foot.
"At intervals, too, we come upon 'Doukhans,' as
khans are here called — the ancient Cold Harbours, or
halting-places, for travellers overtaken by nightfall.
" It was between 9 and 10 at night when we pulled up
at the station of Kasbek, 6455 ft. above the sea. The
snow was falling, and our conductor told us that at the
next station we should have to change to a sledge for
some stages. For a considerable distance the road now
descended, and then rose again, so that on arriving at Kobi,
though we were over seventeen versts further on the way,
we had only made a net gain of 1 1 5 ft. in elevation.
" The cramped position in which we were forced to sit
was very tiring. I had dropped asleep at intervals ; but
at I o'clopk in the night the sharp ring of our conductor's
bugle warned us to be ready for the station ; and, shortly
after, our six horses drew up, panting, under the lamp
that stood at the porch. A singular sight met the eye.
Scattered all about the open space around us, with no
more order than is observed by the fowls in a farmyard,
were twenty or thirty coaches, omnibuses, telegas, and
wagons, which had here been exchanged for sledges.
The snow was driving fiercely ; and a bustling throng of
passengers, drivers, guards, stable-boys, and others, with
several teams of horses just being taken out or put in.
A FELLOW-TRAVELLER 131
made up the picture— the flitting to and fro of the sharp-
peaked bashliks (head-dresses) giving it a strangely weird
and goblin look. ' The struggling moonbeam's misty light*
shone through the storm, and the jingle of sledge bells
mingled with the rush of the mountain blast and the
voices of the men.
"The poor old Jew was standing up in front of our
carriage beckoning for help, for he was nearly frozen,
and could not get down without assistance. Our con-
ductor promptly rendered it, lifting the old man to the
ground as if he had been a baby. We held a rapid
council as to what could be done to make him more
comfortable, and decided, with the assent of the driver
and conductor, that in the re-arrangement of the baggage
in the covered sledge, which was brought alongside, part
of it could be stowed outside, so as to make room for the
poor old man between us, inside ; for the coldest part of
the journey was yet to come, and would last many hours.
Everybody fell in with the suggestion, which was at once
carried out.
" Presently we were summoned to take our places ;
but the fatigue had been too much — I was beginning to
feel ill, and hastily groping in a hand-bag, I found a bottle
of my medicine— left at its full strength for the sake of
compactness. There might not be a chance of repeating
the dose for some time, so I took two, the interpreter
getting me some water from the inn. The bugle sounded,
and our double team of eight horses slowly ploughed on
uphill through the deep snow.
"*Bist du warm, Vater?' queried our interpreter of
the little Jew, as we got fairly under weigh. 'Ja, ich
danke ! ' was the reply ; and all subsided into the silence
that is the last refuge of weariness. Partly awake, partly
dozing, hour after hour wore on. The moon had set, but
the white snow made the way quite visible ; and when
we reached Goodour, the topmost station, it was hard to
I 2
132 DOUCHETE
believe that daylight had not dawned. I had looked
forward with great interest to the observations I should
make at this height of 7957 ft., but fifteen hours' contin-
uous travel, and sitting all night in the position of an
Egyptian statue, unable even to cross one's knees, is a
wonderful damper to enthusiasm ; and if the truth must be
told, I had ceased to care ten kopeks whether I was
7000 ft. above the sea or 70,000 ft. All my aspirations
had boiled down and dried up into the formula, M wish
we were at Tiflis ! '
"But as the forenoon wore on, the weather grew
bright and sunny, and our spirits revived somewhat. The
landscape was changing completely, and instead of the
gorges with walls that shut out the world from all sides
but the sky, we began to have wide and magnificent
reaches of mountain and forest, with the exhilaration of
speed, for we were now driving downhill instead of up.
The heat of the sun was thawing the snow, and now
and then this gave way under the sledge, causing tre-
mendous bumps to the occupants.
*' In the windings of the road we often approached a
point, and then receded from it, to make another and
closer approach after; and it was thus that, after first
looking down upon, then nearing, and leaving behind us
the village of Douchete, we came back again to it, but on
a level below, and found ourselves at the station where
we were to quit the sledge. We stay for an hour, so that
there is time for a good wash and a meal.
"When we are again on the way, it is in a carriage,
with more room than we have previously had. Our
fellow-passenger, the wine-grower, settles himself com-
fortably, closes his eyes, and sings in a singular, wild kind
of chant, that interests me greatly. I do not understand a
word of it — that * goes without saying ' — but the time itself
and the key, the strange high-pitched voice I had heard
before ! Where ? In the Jews' synagogue at Frankfort,
AN ANCIENT TUNE 133
three years ago ! No one who heard that chant could
forget it, so completely unlike anything European. When
I had had time to reflect on this, it became pretty clear,
either that the tune itself was Assyrian, brought away by
the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, or that it was a
far older one from the times when the ancestors of the
Hebrew race had their home with the ancestors of these
Georgians in Mesopotamia ; for here in the Trans-Caucasus
we are close to the head waters of the Tigris. Here are
Jewish manners and customs all around us : why not
tunes of like antiquity?
" ' Was the wine good at Douchete ? ' asked our inter-
preter, suggestively, of the singer. 'Nay,' he replied,
* it is my heart that is good, for I am going home to my
wife and children ! ' Then, eyeing me, he requested the
interpreter to put me a question : — I had been ill in the
middle of the night and had taken medicine. Why had I
only taken such a very little ? What kind of medicine
was that which could cure with but a few drops ?
'"Tell him,' said I, 'that the doctor who made that
medicine made it very strong, so that I might carry it
in little space.' The Georgian was pleased at such an
evidence of skill among foreigners. He had asked me in
the night whether I was better, and I told him I had
perfectly recovered. This conversation we had carried
on without the medium of the interpreter ; and the vocabu-
lary, which was in Russian, was as follows : —
" Leaning towards me, he said in a tender, querying
tone of voice, ' KarsLshaw V ' Da ! ' I replied, in a firm,
confident tone—' KaraSHAW ! ' (All right ? Yes, all right!)
After reflecting on the wonder of my medicine, he said,
' I also was ill. My head was bad. I rubbed it with
snow. It is karashaw ! '
" Our little Jew was also ' karashaw.' His name was
Abraham Saloman, age eighty-two. He was formerly
regimental cap-maker to the dragoons. He had lived in
134 LEAVING THE MOUNTAINS
the Caucasus ever since he was a boy, and had journeyed
four times through this pass in the course of sixty or
seventy years. He remembers Schamyl very well : a
very decent kind of man. He was never robbed by him ;
but knew numbers of people that had been made to give
up their * Schatz ' in these mountains. The road in old
times was very bad— a foot wide in some places. There
are two crosses erected in different places of the way.
One, not far from Tiflis, where the Emperor Nicholas's
carriage was upset ; one at the top of the pass he is not
quite sure about, believes it was put up in alter Zeit to
record that the Gosudar (Emperor) that then was, had
stopped at that spot to curse the road !
" Gently down hill for hour after hour, with but little
intermission, past beautiful sweeps of forest, till in the
evening we have reached the plain at Tsikane, 1831 feet
above the sea, with only thirty-four more versts between
us and Tiflis. Great traffic still marks the road ; timber
wagons, farmers' carts, buffaloes — all obliged to move on
one side of the way, at the summons of our bugle, for we
represent the Imperial power in so far as our carriage and
horses belong to the Government service. At five in the
evening we stop for our last relay, the four now being
spanned making exactly sixty horses we have used since
starting from Vladikafkas.
" Mtzkheti, the station, is a pretty spot. Within a
hundred yards of it we double round by the railway from
Batoum, with a long petroleum train on it, and close to it
the river Koura, dashing along between deep cliffs. We
shall run near it all the rest of the way to Tiflis — twenty
and a half versts— where we shall hope to rest, while
it flows on to the Caspian.
. " After a while the distant lights of a great city become
visible among the environing mountains ; for though we
are in a plain, it is of no great width — and the hills beyond
it seem endless. Lost now and then, to reappear a little
ARRIVAL AT TIFLIS 135
more distinctly, at last they show grandly on the steep
slope, reaching away for a long distance. We drop to a
slow walk as our horses climb a steep hill — then gallop
down a steep ; up again ; and we are in a wide street of
the city, at our * Stantzie.'
" The Georgian has yet sixty versts to go, but he has
determined to post it at once ; and, as he leaves our
carriage, he gives each of us a shake of the hand. I
thought he had cut my finger with the crush he gave
it against his diamond ring. But he is gone, and Abraham
Saloman is gone — and we drive gently down one more
hill to the Hotel London, where for days and nights our
limbs ached away the effects of the thirty hours' riding
through the Great Barrier of Asia.
" Two days after our arrival, our interpreter and I were
in the street in which the post-office stands, when we sud-
denly came upon our old fellow-traveller, the Jew. The
dear old man was delighted. ' Oh,' he said, ' I've been
telling my wife what good people I met with on my
journey, that took me inside and kept me warm, and gave
me hot tea at the Stantzie. And she and I have wished
that you may live to five times your present age /' The
old man has since been twice to see us at the hotel, and
he is going to show us the synagogue on Seventh-day
morning."
CHAPTER Vm.
INCIDENTS OF STAY AT TIFLIS
JOSEPH NEAVE and his companion were unavoidably
detained in Tiflis for a month, and they therefore had
an excellent opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the city and its life. The selection here given from
John Bellows' letters to his wife will give some idea of
their impressions and experiences there. During their
stay they found a comfortable home at the H6tel London,
which they made their head-quarters.
To his Wife.
Tiflis, 31-12-92.
"Here I am continually reminded of the line in Tasso,
where the knight is about to fell the enchanted myrtle :
' At every strange new turn some strange new wonder sees,'
and it is impossible for my pen to overtake the im-
pressions that follow one another in such rapid succession
in this marvellous Eastern city ! The sights and sounds
and suggestions of the walk through the Armenian and
Persian bazaars yesterday afternoon, kept me awake for
most of the night. * -^^ ^
' ' The sunbeams of summer are shining on me as I
write, for it is a lovely summer day and nothing less. I
hope and believe summer days are near at hand for the
dear people here in bonds, after their long and sore
winter. They have some of them given up all hope for
this life ; but the Master for whom they have suffered the
loss of all things will not fail of His promise, even in this
life ! "
BAZAARS OF TIFLIS 137
To his Wife,
TiFLis, 3-1-93-
" The strangest of all sights in Tiflis are the bazaars.
Turning down the street of silversmiths, if one stops a
moment to look at a bit of filigree-work, a pane pops
open and out comes the silversmith's head within six
inches of one's own, with * Pazhalst ' (Walk in, please.)
They ask about two or three times the price of the articles
they sell : gradually coming down. The last bid of the
customer is declined as an impossible and utterly un-
reasonable thing — then the customer takes his leave : and
just as he reaches the next door, the man peeps out and
says in a resigned-to-the-will-of- Allah tone, ' Pazhalst '
(Please take it at that figure ! )
"No sooner are we past the silver- workers, than the
Jews are at their doors— or rather at their fronts, for
there are no doors except where valuables have to be
protected — trying to sell me a paletot^ inasmuch as the
day being warm I am in my ordinary coat only. A maker
of bright weapons and tambourines on the opposite side,
has caught Joseph Neave's eye, and is gesticulating and
earnest to sell him a 24-inch dagger, touching the edge
with his thumb to hint its keenness ! Presently we come
upon an old man in a chimney-pot. * Why, that's a
European hat ! ' says Joseph Neave to me, in surprise.
The wearer, who is a Jew, takes it off at once and bows
to J. N. with a speech in a humble tone which we do not
understand. I can only guess that he has taken our
friend for some Russian official who is offended at his
want of respect, and that the poor man is assuring his
High Excellency that he had not seen him, or would
instantly have shown him that reverence which is his due !
Blacksmiths' shops with the smiths sitting down comfort-
ably at their work, confectioners, fruit-dealers, grocers —
all in the open air, green-grocer fashion — offer their
attractions, but are not over-pressing. At a dried frxiit
138 STREET SCENES
place I note lumps of chalk in a pan — as big as hens'
eggs. * Ask what that is for,' I say to Fast, who interprets
accordingly. * It is milk f 'Milk! what animal's milk
is it?' 'It is the milk of cows, dried. Would the
Gospodin like to buy some ? ' The Gospodin says ' Nietf
with such energy that the question is not repeated.
"We cross the narrow street, hopping from one high
cobble to another. A horse passes, with two disgusting-
looking greeny wet skins distended : each skin squirting
a fine spray of water about a yard long, at anyone who
has a mind to get in the way. As for Joseph Neave, I
don't know what he is doing. I back out of the horse's
track, getting out of tune with Eastern manners and
customs ; or rather customs, for of manners there is not
the faintest trace !
" Recollect that the street is very narrow — the shape of
one's forefinger in the act of beckoning: that a steep
by-street like one of the back lanes in Falmouth, comes
into it at the knuckle : that the width of each street varies
with every house : that no house or anything else in the
place is square : that the pavement is two feet wide in
some parts and three in others — reduced to ten inches by
all sorts of obstructions, and that to keep hopping up and
down from it to avoid these, means getting in the way of
people who stand from one to two feet lower ; for the path
goes up and down at every yard ! Look at this woman
coming with- the baby ! Decide in one moment whether
to have that baby rubbed against one's coat with all but
the certainty that it has the measles ; or step off into that
pool of liquid mud !
"'Ding, ding, ding,' I heard at a little distance, but
paid no attention to it— for seven donkeys had come round
the corner laden with charcoal, and so laden that each
donkey formed a sort of imitation camel. As these
animals have no idea of method, they spread all across
the street in loose marching order, one of them putting me
BLIND MAN 139
to the instant alternative of letting him charcoal my coat
on the left, or else of my rubbing it on the right against
the bloody neck of a sheep whose carcase swung
pendulum- wise from a butcher's shop. By a sharp skip I
avoided both Scylla and Charybdis, and then stepped into
a shop space to let a blind man pass, who being stout of
person took up the available foot-path— vaguely extending
his hands on each side in advance of him, and holding his
forehead back to catch, it might be, some gleam of the
blessed light of which in this bazaar there was none too
much for those who had eyes. A rogue of a boy (all boys
are rogues) gave him a bump for the pleasure of seeing
him waggle — which he did, and then recovered his
balance. Two dromedaries at this instant hove in sight,
carrying, as I thought, the stock-in-trade of a rag-merchant.
Like the donkeys, they were lacking in their order of
march ; going skew- wise, and justifying their title of * the
ship of the desert * by rolling about as if they were at sea.
Instantly an angry shouting and clang of bell came from
behind. I turned, and there was a tram-car swinging
round the corner, loaded with Armenians, Turks, ladies,
officers, and I know not what besides, all nearly brought
to a dead stand by the dromedaries, which looked scared
out of their wits, and which were hauled out of the way
with guttural objurgations I could not follow. The fact
was that the mud had so hidden the tram line that I had no
idea there was one there at all !
" Of the bakers' shops I have no space to speak, but I
hope to tell you some very interesting things about them
when I get home. Also about decayed fish ! One thing
I note in the fruitshops is, very large boxes of walnuts— I
think I cwt. each — already shelled! As they use no
machinery for cracking them, I would rather not buy
them so !
*' This morning J. J. Neave and I took a short walk up
the hill in front of the hotel to the little chapel that stands
140 THE CORNISH SHOVEL
so picturesquely in the steep side of it. The view thence
of the city is very striking. As we look down on the sea
of roofs, we note a singular commingling of red and green ;
for a great many of them are painted a pale verdigris
green. This I have no doubt is an imitation of the actual
verdigris when roofs of public buildings were really made
of copper. There are mines of the metal in the district,
and I hope we may come across some of them.
" One singular thing here is the use of the long Cornish
shovel ! Directly after the tram-car and dromedaries had
got out of the part of the bazaar I describe, one of the
shopkeepers came out to remove some of the mud from
before his own premises. This he did by shovelling it
with one of these long-hilted shovels, over to his
neighbours' parts of the street, right and left ! In the
process a cobble came up on the shovel— displaced by one
of the tram-horses or dromedaries or donkeys : a stone
four or five lbs. in weight. He hurled it across the street to
be rid of it, and it struck the margin of the footpath close
by me.
*' I could not help thinking, several times, that
might fill a large book here with designs of fretwork, etc.
from the balconies ! They are exceedingly pretty. In
summer in the best houses some of these balconies are
curtained ; and they must be very pleasant as a change
from indoors.
" Tell the children I saw a grand sight this morning : an
eagle sailing down from the Caucasus mountains over the
city of Tiflis. He might have been a quarter of a mile off,
at an angle : not perpendicularly above us. He looked as if
his wings spread out five feet or so, but of course I could
not say exactly what the span was.
**He would give five slow heaves with his pinions, and
that sailed him on for a long distance— then five or six
beats more — and a slow wheeling round as if he were
making a curve to see what was worth while swooping on
A GOOD INVENTION 141
below. He would be sure not to swoop in the city
however ; and we passed behind some tall buildings, and
lost sight of him as he was nearly over the Eastern or
Asian Gate. He was by far the largest bird I have ever
seen on the wing. It was a grand and beautiful sight ! "
To his Wife.
TiFLIS, 11-1-93.
" The editor of the ' Kavkas ' travelled through Central
Asia just after that young American had gone through on
a bicycle. It was the absorbing topic of conversation.
The Tartars generally thought well of it. They said a
steel horse that eats nothing was a good invention. A
Persian blacksmith who had examined it carefully said ' he
believed he could make a thing like that ! '
** Of the train at Samarcand, they think highly. The
Europeans, say they, can invent anything except a soul !
The fact is the Asiatics are younger brothers in the great
family; we are the elder, mentally."
To his Wife.
TiFLis, New Year's Day, O.S., 1 3-1-93.
" We went to the Mosque, under the guidance of our
Persian, who goes under the Russian name of Samedoff.
The building stands in the most crowded part of the
bazaar, close to a branch of the Koura river; and the
throng of donkeys, traders, carriages, porters and camels
beat anything I had yet seen. Diving off the narrow side
walk into the mud to cross the way, I got among a tangle
of all these and had to bow my head to keep out of the
way of a camel that approached at the head of a file of
the same species — some chewing the cud — some making
bitter unearthly noises : this front animal especially, right
over my head. Slipping and tripping as best I could, I
got behind a butcher's cart, with disgusting elements in it,
and found a lot of freshly-stripped skins, flesh side
142 VISIT TO A MOSQUE
uppermost, covering the footpath all but the tiniest edge.
To step upon them was to feel the whole mass slide like a
fluid, but I just managed to escape. I don't know what it
is that charms one in all this disgusting mass ; but in spite
of these sights, and a stench dangerous to health, I go
every time, fascinated !
" 'Ask how much camels like these carry?* said I to
Fast. ' Fifteen poods ' was the interpreted reply ; and I
feel sure they did bear that weight. They stalk along, six,
or eight, or ten tied one behind another, squelching the
mud with their great pads of feet, and gazing mildly about
them, with large, very expressive eyes ; ostentatiously
chewing the cud with a lateral motion of the lower jaws,
of several inches — on the whole very interesting creatures.
*' A narrow door by the side of the principal one, led to
the women's gallery of the Mosque. Up a step or two
and along a narrow dark passage or gangway, and we
came into a vaulted building of three centuries old,
irregular in form. Stepping down a step or two, we peep
over a low wooden railing ; and there, nine feet below us,
is a floor covered with Persian rugs. A sort of stairs,
really a pulpit, stands at the east end ; above it in white
or gold letters (Arabic) on an azure ground, texts from
the Koran. Half a dozen Persians and Tartars are at
prayer, down on all fours ; now and then bending a little
till their foreheads touch the carpet. It was rather an
impressive sight. I ventured to ask the Persian, who
was with us, whether a camera would be allowed in the
building when no worship was going on. He asked the
muezzin who stood by ; the muezzin said he kept the keys,
and he would let us in with a camera to the same gallery.
Forty kopeks gladdened the good man, and as we were
leaving, he asked if we would like to go up to the gallery
in the tower from whence he calls the faithful to prayers.
We said *yes' ; and he showed us a z^^ry narrow staircase,
by far the narrowest I ever got into. It was literally a
ABRAHAM SALOMAN 143
snail's spiral ; for as we took each step up, our bent backs
slid against the smooth ceiling, rounded to fit them.
" The muezzin had crept up after us to warn us not to
try and descend face first, but to back down, as in
descending a ladder. Again fitting fairly tight into the
spiral tube, we got down backwards ; but a fat man would
have stuck there in the pitch darkness, and been in a very
serious position.
" In the market-place we met an ^tape — that is, a gang
of perhaps twenty manacled prisoners, under a guard of
twelve soldiers. The street was steep ; and it was a new
and painful sight to see this throng of grey- clad men, and
to hear the heavy clank of their irons as they marched
past : twelve bayonets gleaming in and out among them.
We could not ascertain who or what they were ; no one
would say.
" We called at the smith's and watched the forging of
one of the tiny shovels he has made for me, and for which
I paid him 50 kopeks each. Another smith is making me
a tiny pick. These are the originals of the tools used in
Cornwall and in Germany.
" Opposite the smith's shop, the road runs up, very
steep; and a little dark-eyed Georgian had brought a
sledge about two feet long, home-made, and was having
a grand time, when the gardevoi (policeman) pounced on
him and took away the sledge. The Httle fellow lifted up
his voice and wept sore, the big tears dropping down his
little round face ; when we pleaded for him. The
gardevoi was good-natured, and gave him back the
sledge; but let him be sufficiently scared to keep him
from breaking the legs of Tartars and Armenians who
have to use the road.
"I said the other day that our old friend Abraham
Saloman was going to take us to the synagogue. His
nephew scared him out of it ; and one can hardly wonder,
now that the Jews are so fearfully persecuted. When the
144 STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
worthy old man told him he was going to bring us to the
synagogue, he said, ' What for ? What do you know
about these people ? They are travellers ; and you don't
know what they are here for. When I asked them what
they came to trade in, they told me they were not here to
trade at all! Don't listen to them. You just let them
alone ! ' The old man, notwithstanding, feels kindly to us,
and has come repeatedly to see us : wishes now that he
had taken us to the synagogue without saying anything
about it to anybody !
" I have got a photographer to take me some special
views; things that the Tiflis public care nothing about,
but which will be of great interest in England. Some of
the scenes attendant on our round with the camera were
quite exciting. I was specially wishing to get one of the
large ox-skins of wine in ; and some Georgians of whom
we were asking about the best spot to get at it from,
suggested bringing one out into the street. Recollect it is
New Year's day, old style, and vast numbers of people
are en fete. Some brought out the hide ; and instantly a
throng began to collect, which in five minutes numbered
over a hundred. Everybody was commenting or giving
advice in Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Russian,
Turkish and a host of languages and dialects perfectly
bewildering ! I don't wonder the masons stopped work
in Babel when the like thing occured. An old beggar, in
the wildest state of raggedness, was hauled in, presented
with ten kopeks, and made to sit down. The garde voi
forced back the motley throng, though he could not silence
it, and made a large ring for the photographer, till the
' click ' of the instrument told all was over.
'' Dr. Haudelin has been telling me that in the Caucasus
sixty different languages are spoken; many of them
not yet classed by scientific men as to their stock or
origin. One tribe seems to be descended from German
Crusaders !
VISIT TO A SYNAGOGUE 145
" The stream that runs under the hotel window, and of
which I have a capital fresh photo this morning, with a
ferry boat crossing it— the river KtJR— is in all probability,
Dr. Haudelin tells me, the one which gives the name to
CYRUS (Kuros.) In the steppes between the KCr* and
the Araxes there are the ruins of seven large cities, and
remains of aqueducts that supplied them.
To his Wife.
TiFLIS, I4-I-93.
"Our old friend Abraham Saloman came to take us,
after all, to the synagogue. He had taken the matter into
his own hands and determined to act independently of his
nephew's opposition to us as ' travellers '—here to-day
and gone to-morrow ; and suspicious because we came
neither to buy nor sell !
" Fifteen minutes' walk through the frosty streets, in the
bright sunshine, brought us to a back street in which stand
two synagogues : one the ' military,' the other known as
the ' Spanish.' Abraham led us to the former. We
entered a room about half the size of the synagogue at
Frankfort — longer in form ; with a raised platform railed
off in the centre, standing about a yard higher than the
floor, and a double aisle passing on either side of it. At
the further end was a desk on another raised platform,
under a canopy — so placed that the reader's back is
towards the congregation. On the desk is a seven-
branched candlestick, like the one shown in the arch of
Titus ; and at the back, in the wall, a curtained cupboard
containing the roll of the law. A passage of Scripture in
Hebrew stands above this. Opposite me was a little boy
who contributed his full share to the success of the service
by his Ah — men ! at the top of his treble voice. It was
to me marvellously interesting. Many nationalities were
represented ; but the majority were Asiatic Jews, black-
eyed, dark-featured, and wearing the Gruzinsky
J * Or Koura.
146 A WEIRD MELODY
(Georgian) cap. Red-bearded Russian soldiers were
there ; and here and there a European hat stood out
conspicuous.
*' They were reciting their prayers, using books printed
in Hebrew and Russian in parallel column. The strange
wild chant rose and fell monotonously ; and swelled into
chorus in which my little friend and the children through-
out the building made their voices dominant, and then
their 'Ah— men ./'
" Abraham touched me on the shoulder and pointed to
the gallery over the back of a room ; a hollow semicircle
not open as at Frankfort, but closely veiled with muslin
curtains — saying half in German, half in Russian, that it
was for the Zhenskian (nearly like the English word
' gentian ') — i.e. , the women's gallery. I noticed several
furtive liftings of the curtains, and peeps of the Zhenskian
on the scene below ; partly prompted, doubtless, by
curiosity at the presence of the European Gentiles near
the reading desk, and wonder what the Rabbi might be
saying to one of the three — for he had stepped up behind
me and said, ' Sprechen Sie deutsch? Quelle langue parlez-
vous?' 'Anglais et un peu de franpais,' I replied— and
he went on to chat a little about the service ; seeming
interested at hearing that I had been in the synagogue at
Frankfort.
"Long rose and fell the weird strange melody— for I
must so describe it, though musical it could hardly be
called— now loud, now low, now a wail ; and now a
monotone song. Was it worship? I cannot lightly
undertake to say how far or how far not. I remembered
Charles Lamb's excellent description of the Quakers'
meeting, in which in some of the faces he could detect
nothing but ' blank inanity ; ' and others on which * the
dove sat visibly brooding.' A man past the prime of life
sat facing me in the next seat but one, with his hood drawn
over his silvering hair — with a very sweet and serious
KISSING THE ROLL 147
face. As I looked at him I could not but feel that he was
really drawing nigh unto God, and realising the promise
that God would draw nigh unto him. I felt strongly in
sympathy with him; and as I glanced round on the
shrouded figures in other parts of the room and
remembered that some of them came from distant lands,
and some not far from the plains in which their fathers
had been so wonderfully favoured in other days, it was
difficult to keep back tears at the sight, and the sound of
the names * Ah-bra-ham, Ee-sak, Ya-kob,' that came out
in part of the service.
*'By and by the reader desisted; the curtains were
drawn from the depository of the law, and the roll was
lifted out and kissed by one after another as it was borne
to the central platform. Six or seven men stood round it,
the Rabbi, more European in costume than I was (for I
wear the shapka here,) in one corner. The covering was
taken off, reverently, and the roll moved till the portion
for the day was reached— it is a double roll— when the
Elder stood with a silver pointer, tracing along the
Hebrew text, as the reader proceeded, from a book held
in his hand. ' What part is he reading ? ' said I to
Abraham. ' I don't know,' replied the old man in
German. ' It is in the old Sprache that I do not under-
stand ! '
" Several individuals were summoned from the con-
gregation to take part in the reading. It is not allowed to
the Rabbi or the Elder to stand there alone. Here comes
a young fellow of five and twenty, a handsome Georgian
Jew. I see the corner of one of the ' Zhenskian ' curtains
lifted, and the flash of a pair of spectacles— and another
corner— and the glance of a pair of black eyes ! . . .
curtain dropped ; owner of eyes noting Gentile observation
possibly ! And now came what to me was most of all
interesting. A young Russian soldier steps up — light of
complexion, pale of face — the striped silken hood thrown
J2
148 JEWISH WORSHIPPERS
over his grey uniform and military cap, the brass Russian
letter and number of his regiment shining in the opening.
Throwing his hood well back he chants out the Hebrew
in strong clear fashion, as if his heart was in the work.
No curtain is lifted for him ! He comes with his regiment
from far away to serve in the Caucasus, to serve his five
and twenty years in the army, and then be cast out of
home and country by the country he has served.— But no.
It will not be so. The New Year has opened in the out-
ward world with sunshine and beauty ; and it will even be
so for the persecuted Jew and Christian in Russia.
Brighter days will come.
" The Jew in the corner, whose sweet serious face had
so attracted me, left his seat, and came and shook hands
with me. Neither of us spoke, for we both knew it would
be in vain ; but I need not say I was delighted with this
spontaneous mark of friendly feeling.
" The congregation turned to another part of the book
and began a fresh reading. It was the prayer for the
Emperor. An old man took the lead in the rest of the
service, a recent comer to Tiflis — a merchant millionaire,
I was afterwards told. It was a strange sight and sound.
His tall figure was shrouded in the hood, from where I
sat, except the edge of his snow-white beard, as he swayed
to and fro with his head bowed towards the candlestick.
" We had asked the old man (Abraham) to come and
take coffee with us. He was waiting for us at the door,
and begged us to stay yet an instant, while he went and
spoke up the women's stairs. Presently an old lady came
down. She was Sarah, his wife ; and she was evidently
greatly pleased to shake hands with the fellow-traveller of
her husband, and to thank me for our kindness to him. I
bade the Rabbi assure her ' II n'y a pas de quoi '—which
was done — and we came away.
'* The Rabbi left us with an invitation to come to his
house this evening at 8 o'clock, when he is going to ask
TIFLIS BY NIGHT 149
some of his friends to be present also. The whole
interview was very satisfactory to my mind ; and after it
was over, as I took a few moments' turn over the bridge
in the sunshine, I felt deeply the love of God to all men—
and to these His ancient people whose eyes are yet holden
that they cannot see Him in His last and most perfect
manifestation. I will not throw stones at them, however,
because they do not see ; but I will rather, in such
measure of the same everlasting love as I am capable of,
take them by the hand, if it may be, to commend them yet
further to cherish the knowledge of God they have ; yet
further to obey His Spirit which saved Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, and which is able, notwithstanding their
blindness, to save them also."
To his Wife.
TiFLis, iS-i-93-
" I must not forget to record one impression, now very
familiar to me : the effect of the city by night. The
nearest thing I know to it is Falmouth, after dark, as seen
from the harbour ; but Tiflis is like many Falmouths fused
into one. As I look from my hotel window, the innumer-
able lamps in the great amphitheatre of hill before me lead
on up to and mingle with the stars above them, and
suggest that element of the vast and the indefinite which
is the very foundation true poetry is built upon. In the
morning I look up from the gloom of the valley to the
same hill-side, and see the sunrise touching the spire of
the chapel-tower yonder : and then gilding some windows,
before the day properly comes down into the streets.
Sixteen evenings and mornings have come and gone since
we came ; but the effect on the mind is as if I had been
here for many months, I am not quite sure that I ought
not to say 'years,' for I never in my life felt like this
before in a foreign land !
* * Our Persian of the mosque was married yesterday
morning, when his sister returned with the wife she had
ISO A TARTAR BRIDE
been in treaty for at Elizabethpol : neither she nor her
brother ever having seen the young lady before. The
bride is a girl of fourteen, and speaks no tongue but
Tartar : her husband, who is thirty, talking Persian,
Russian and Tartar, will have to teach her. She brings
no dowry. On the contrary he has to pay her father and
mother a handsome sum. I was curious to know what
kind of reception the poor girl had ; and I have fished out
from a friend of the husband that his comment on her was,
* Elle n' est pas mal f — which is, I take it, satisfactory as
a beginning of the new manage. This friend of his thinks
he will have paid as much as looo roubles to the girl's
family, for the match.
" In the morning, just now, I went out for a good walk
alone. I went on to the Botanic Gardens at the top of the
town on this side. The gates were closed, but the care-
taker remembered my face in connection with 20 kopeks,
smiled a welcome, and let me in. I had an hour's
undisturbed walk, for there came no further visitor.
Getting back to the hotel at one^ thy letter arrived at the
same time ; and as soon as it was read I had to accompany
my two friends to the house of , who had asked us
to dine. About nine others came.
" In the afternoon we had a long conversation, over the
Bible ; and finally the 27th Psalm was read, and we sat a
few moments in silence. One of the Russians then prayed,
and was followed by a young man who had come in late :
a working-man — with dark features, and densely black
hair and eyes — bearing the impress of a sweet spirit that
struck me much. It was strange to hear the new and
xmknown sounds from his lips ; what language he used I
did not know, but it was not Russian. It was more
rhythmic, but wild-sounding. I felt the prayer was of the
true stamp, nevertheless, and was greatly drawn towards
the speaker. As we were presently after at tea, I asked
Fast what countryman he was. ' An Assyrian praying in
ASSYRIAN INTONATION 151
Persian r I should have added that Joseph Neave also
prayed with marked power. The young Assyrian drew
from his pocket a well-thumbed Syriac New Testament,
and I opened it at Acts, ii. 8 and 9. He read it with
animation — and made signs that God was speaking to our
hearts Himself."
To his daughter Marian.
TiFLis, 18-1-1893.
" We have just returned from spending [the evening]
with the family of the Jew who was so timid of his uncle's
bringing us to the synagogue ; and a very interesting
evening it has been.
*' I asked him [our host] about the Hebrew word in the
20th verse of the last chapter in Isaiah, which is translated
* swift beasts ' ; and again in Nahum, ii. 4. In both these
cases he confirmed the idea IJiad got from some Hebraists
(from the former text,) for he said, suiting the action to
the word, that it meant something rolling very swiftly on
wheels: — my supposition being that the prophet in each
case had the vision of the railway train before him, and
used the only word that he could find to convey the idea.
" It also interested them a good deal when I told them
of the Jerusalem survey ; King Solomon's waterworks,
and the discovery, a few years ago, of the inscription in
the tunnel made by Solomon to convey the water, the
form of his mains, and so on.
" When I mentioned that strange intonation of the
synagogue service at Frankfort, and the way in which
the Georgian or Armenian singing struck me as matching
it, the doctor said that he came here to the Caucasus from
a distant place about fourteen years ago, and was at once
struck with the same. He thinks my suggestion is the
right one : that the air or motif is from Assyria at the
time of the Babylonian Captivity. As another Jew in
Tiflis also confirms it, I think it may be safely set down
as probable.
152 A JEWISH FAMILY
" At supper, several religious questions came up, all
showing a solid interest in them, though the father seemed
more worldly and less alive to these things than the rest
of the company ; and he made some remark that no doubt
Joseph Neave and I had more freedom from business cares
than he had— for a man immersed in trade had not time
for studying the Scriptures. I asked him if, when he was
courting his wife, he ever found business hinder him from
writing to her. This caught the attention of the whole
family, and of course brought a smile to the faces of the
two daughters. He smiled too, and assented to my point.
' Now,' said I, ' where there is love, it will make a way.''
Here (laying my hand on the Hebrew bible) is the first
commandment Moses gave you as a people — ' Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
mind and with all thy soul.' If we love Him, we shall not
only strive to obey Him and keep His commandments, but
we shall be delighted to find time to read what He has
said; and no business will hinder us.' They all assented
fully to this ; and I felt their hearts were open to hear us,
if we spoke a language suited to their position.
" The [eldest] son has a wonderful knowledge of the
Scriptures : several times finding a text before any of the
rest of us, including the doctor, who was very expert,
could do so. We had been talking of the Talmud.
' There is our Talmud ! ' said the father, pointing to the
lad with evident pride !
' ' I felt the love of God was very manifest to this family ;
and when we rose to leave, this feeling was especially
strong towards the eldest son, and I said : ' We feel very
grateful for all this kindness that you have shown us
strangers in a strange land, and we can in return wish
you no better wish than that which is our heartfelt desire :
that you may seek and find the Lord God of your fathers,
for His promise is as true to-day as in former days— They
that seek me early shall find me !— and that you may love
CAUCASIAN GOVERNORS 153
Him and serve Him.' There was a moment of pause as
the interpretation fell on their ears, and the warm shake
of the hand told that the word was felt by every one. The
eldest son, especially, grasped my hand in his, as if his
heart were too full for utterance. They seemed unwilling
to let us go ; and insisted that we must come and see them
again when re-passing Tiflis in a few weeks.
" We gleaned many details of the unfair and wicked
treatment to which the Jews are subjected in Russia ; and
I have no doubt that the knowledge of our endeavour to
secure equal liberty for them as for Christians helped
much to open the door for our conference with them.
They laid stress on the inconsistency of persecution with
the teaching of Jesus Christ ; and one of them remarked
that the difference was not great between a real Christian
and a good Jew."
To his Wife.
Tiflis, 26-1-93.
" It is a month to-day since we arrived at Tiflis, but the
delay works out for the best. Owing to it, we are here at
the period of the annual conference of all the local
governors. When we speak of governors and governor-
general, we must not imagine such ranks as correspond to
Indian Viceroys : for the total population of the Caucasus
may be about 8 millions, and that of say the Government
of Elizabethpol about % milHon, Tiflis i million, and so on.
The Governor of Kutais has the bedroom next mine, and
a very picturesque ' Ossetin ' tribesman, armed to the
teeth, keeps guard at his door. His bosom is covered
with cartridge holders, a tremendous dagger in his girdle,
a long sword dangles at his side, and a good-natured
smile plays on his lips. I wish I could get him photo-
graphed ! " * * *
To his Wife.
Tiflis, 27-1-93.
*' It is still winterly, but not more so than, if perhaps as
much as, in England. We leave to-morrow at mid-day
154 JOURNEYS IN PROSPECT
for a station called Daliar, on our east before we come to
Elizabethpol— arriving in the evening. A team meets us
from the Kedabek copper mines ; and the horses and we
rest all night. Then we go to a village and again stay
the night — and next day are at the mines. On the
morning after, we return to Daliar and come by train at
night to Elizabethpol, and then to several villages and the
little town of Shusha, where an Armenian-Persian
population lives : i.e., Armenians formerly under Persia
and speaking the Persian tongue. From this point to the
Caspian, I think, in ancient times, the country belonged to
Media ; and the River Ktir, on which our hotel looks at
the back, belonged to the kingdom of Media. This is how
it came, I suspect, to give its name to the great Cyrus."
CHAPTER IX.
VISIT TO THE KEDABEK MINES— DOUKHOBOR VILLAGE-
CAUCASIAN SCENERY— ELIZABETHPOL—UDZHARRI.
AFTER their month's detention at Tiflis, it wsls
necessary for the two Friends and their interpreter
to take a journey to the great copper mines of Kedabek,
and from there still further into the mountains near Lake
Goktcha. To reach the mines from Tiflis, they proceeded
by rail to Daliar station, on the line to Baku, driving
thence across country to Kedabek, some thirty miles
southward.
From John Bellows to his Wife.
Tiflis, 28-1-93.
"It is with a feeling of relief that I find myself again
on the railway, as it means one more step towards the
accomplishment of our work. The country we are trav-
elling over is steppe— the flat valley of the K(ir, two or
three miles wide, between the hills of Kohitia, the great
wine district of the Caucasus, on our left, and the snowy,
sun- dazzled mountains of Armenia on our right. The line
is just crossing the river K^, and the steppe is here
diversified with trees. A few versts behind we passed a
few of the very dwellings Strabo mentions — i.e., huts
imderground. These have framed doorways.
"When we got into the train at Tiflis, I refused to
enter the smoking carriages, and as the * «i-kouriastchi '
or ' Nichtraucher ' seemed to be reserved for ladies only,
we have changed into the first-class by permission of the
chef de gave. This has led to our making two acquaint-
ances — a Persian Shihite Mahomedan and a Turkish Bek.
156 SHIHITE MAHOMEDANS
We find from the latter that the Persian is a judge at
Shusha, the place we shall soon visit (Shusha is the
Tartar word for ' glass '— from its white appearance on
a hill, at a distance.)
" The Turk is a tall young man, with slightly aquiline
nose, densely black hair, and nominally a Shihite Mahom-
edan. He asked me in Russian if I could speak that
tongue. I said no— but ' un peu de frangais '—and found
he also can speak a little ; just enough for us to make out
each other's meaning. He wishes us to lodge a night
at his house, saying he will give us good wine, and will
kill a sheep for us, and have pilau served. I think we
may possibly become his guests ; but I tell him in the
matter of wine we are better Mahomedans than he is, for
we do not drink any. He says Mahomet's rule is a good
one ; but he does not keep to the rule himself, as he
believes that if he does not steal, and keeps a good con-
science, he will go to Paradise. ' Some of those Persians,'
he added, ' make plenty of prayers, but they will take
away your five roubles all the same ! '
" Ali is unmarried; in fact is at this moment on the
look-out for a wife. He is an intelligent man, readily
entering into my questions about names of places, etc. The
* Railway ? ' I queried. The Turks call it Demirio/ = iron-
road. By the way I must tell, when I get home, of two
Tartars or Kurds, who thought the engine was worked by
evil spirits inside the boiler— and a Molokan who credited
the telegraph with no higher motor !
" I took a last stroll this forenoon for half-an-hour, at
Tiflis, in the stove-makers' quarter, and on getting back
to the hotel had difficulty in getting rid of a man who
begged me to buy a dagger or a sword of him — both
*Stari' (antique). The carrying of weapons so imiver-
sally, leads to much loss of life— for in Tiflis government
alone, out of less than a million people, there were
140 murders in 1890— and I think 139 in Elizabethpol
DALIAR 157
government, out of three-quarters of a million. Then
there are hundreds stabbed who do not die. * * *
" Daylight had gone when the train pulled up atDaliar,
the station for the mines. As we stepped down with our
baggage, the manager of the mines came in ; for the same
horses that brought him here are to take us to Kedabek.
" We found ourselves in a boundless plain of snow.
The forwarding agent of the mines was in waiting to take
us to his house (where I now write,) a quarter of a mile
from the station. A carriage took our baggage, but we
walked along the line. Near the station I noticed an iron
tower fifty feet high. Others had occurred at some of the
other stations ; and one I saw was just begun. What
were they ? Signal towers for the line ? ' Nein,' said our
host, who speaks German ; ' they are mosquito towers
for the station people to sleep in on summer nights ! ' The
mosquitoes keep near the ground, and by these towers
they can be escaped from ! This is one of the annoyances
we avoid by travelling in winter.
" Our interpreter has an old friend living three versts
from this place, and had planned to leave us here for the
night and go on to sleep with the old man ; we picking
him up in the morning en route for the mines. But the
expdditeur (for this is a siding station from which all the
metal copper is sent off— and all the materials are brought
to it from the mines)— told him it would not be possible to
go at 9 o'clock at night. He says the mud will take him
up to his knees, and he would never forget the road all his
life after, if he tried it ! But he persevered, and finally a
guide was found for him. Just as they were going to
start, a German engineer came in and made such a fright-
ful picture of the dangers that he has scared him out of the
idea. ' Not only the mud that you will stick fast in— but
Tartars — and besides the Tartars, wolves will attack you —
and all sorts.' This last was shouted at the top of his
voice, for the gentleman is deaf, and had no idea of the
158 DALIAR
noise he was making. It is now arranged that the guide is
to go with him friih in the morning, and we call for him
later.
" We are to be called at 6.30, and start as soon as we
have had coffee. The distance is 45 versts — 30 miles —
over the mountains ; and with six horses (and even they
useless over the steepest three versts, which we walk) it
will take us till six o'clock at night to reach Kedabek.
The mines employ 2000 people, I believe. We are very
sorry to miss the manager, but his wife will entertain us ;
and she speaks English.
*' I think I told you about the travelling shop on the line
here ? We owe our excellent supper to-night to the pur-
chases our host and hostess made from this van in the
train."
To his Wife,
Kedabek Mines, Caucasus, 29-1-93.
" In spite of the stoves, we found our bedroom at Daliar
last night cold enough to make our bourkas valued as a
covering. The house is a good German one — a sort of
warehouse below for the copper ingots ; and a railway
platform and siding adjoining for loading the metal, and
for unloading machinery and plant for the mines, which
are 45 versts away, in a mountain over 5000 feet high.
Near the 'Expeditions Stantsie' is the great petroleum
reservoir, holding three hundred thousand poods of the
unrefined oil ; of which more presently.
" The whole premises is so arranged as to serve as the
store for the copper, etc., and the upper part in which we
were entertained, as a kind of hotel for persons coming to
or from the mines. The agent is a German of perhaps
thirty-five years of age — a bright active man, with a
bright wife, and one little girl three years old. The child
sees so many visitors that she is not a bit shy ; and in
a very few minutes after our arrival she had taken Joseph
Neave's measure and mine, and established games with
I
A GERMAN HOME 159
us. I had a regular race and hide-and-seek with her, and
made all clear to her mother by showing the photo of you
—the Upton family ! Greatly as I regretted, for the hun-
dredth time since being in Russia, my non-acquaintance
with German, I was yet glad of the fractions I was able
to scrape out of my memory — enough to ask my host
many questions, and understand his replies. They were
abounding in their efforts to make us comfortable. As to
Clara, two things heightened us much in her opinion.
The first was a box of a Russian sweetmeat, made from
apple-jelly into a sort of Turkish delight, which M. S. had
included in her selection for our journey. We had only
used half, and Fast most happily bethought him of it for
this child's benefit. The second was a happy acquirement
of Joseph Neave's, by which a handkerchief, knotted, is
drawn over the top of the forefinger to make a man, the
knot forming his cap. In so lonely a position as this home
in the steppe, where a child of three has no playmate of
her own age, thou wilt fancy how popular all this would
make us !
"It was as well Fast did not go last night, for al-
though I do not believe either Tartars or wolves would
have attacked him, we were warned not to go downstairs
(the stairs descend from a verandah and balcony outside,
as is usual in the Caucasian-German houses,) as several
large and fierce dogs are unchained at dark to guard the
premises from robbers. I shall have another word or two
about dogs by and by — and Strabo's account of them.
They howled fearfully last night, I know !
" We were called at 8, and as soon as we were dressed,
coffee was served to us with excellent bread and butter ;
the bread made in the house, the butter sent in by a
Tartar of the steppe : white, but as good as we get in
England. At breakfast Clara's bright little face suddenly
grew sad — and her tears came ! What was the matter ?
She remembered that last night she had a beautiful box of
i6o LEAVING FOR KEDABEK
sweets, with a picture on the lid — and it was gone. She
thought it was a dream ! Box found, safely put away in
a cupboard ; tears dried, smiles again order of the day,
and general distribution of * goodies' to all of us. Mamma
as much pleased as Clara !
'' When the coffee was drunk we were told the ' Pferde'
were ' fertig '—or ' gatof ' as the Russians have it, and we
forthwith put on our shubas and then the heavy wolfskin
shubas over them — for Dr Haudelin had dissuaded us from
leaving the heaviest at Tiflis. * Take every wrap and
coat you have. You will want everything.' Staggering
under the weight and bulk we climbed into the Fy-tone
(phaeton) that was to take us to Kedabek : our baggage
strapped, part of it in front and part behind. Six horses,
four abreast and two in front, were waiting to drag us
through the bog and over the boulders that formed the
' road '—for road in the English meaning of the word there
is none. A light-haired young man in a sheepskin coat,
and a great woolly cap, mounted the box as driver ; a
boy of thirteen or fourteen, similarly clad, plus a bright
coloured scarf round his neck, mounted one of the front
pair as postilion ; and a handsome fellow on a good horse
rode slowly up to the side of the carriage who, we were
told, was ordered by the mine manager to escort us as a
guard. He wore a coffee-brown cloak over some blue
garment, heavy boots, his bashlik lying on his shoulders —
a breech-loading rifle slung on one side, a sabre on the
other, and a large dagger in his girdle. We found after-
wards that the Governor-General had an understanding
with the mine manager that he was to give us this protec-
tion ! Of course we did not want anything of the sort —
but the authorities here don't consult us in such matters.
They simply regard themselves as in some way respon-
sible for our safety from attack, and take their own
measures. Sometimes just behind, sometimes in front,
our Tartar rode— all three were Tartars who had charge
of us — and very nicely they behaved all the way through.
ANNENFELD i6i
" The station enclosure is simply a piece of bog moor-
land fenced off from the other hog outside. The signal
given, the driver cracked his whip, and the horses pulled
us through the heavy ground half way up to the axles.
When I say that an ordinary arable field in England would
be as good, it is no exaggeration — bump over a boulder —
lurch into a rut — squelch through sludge, amid objurga-
tions from the driver and postilion to the horses (for I
have gathered an idea that swearing, or what sounds to
one like it, forms a sort of principle with Tartars in deal-
ing with cattle !) — on we ploughed at two miles an hour
till we reached the German Colony (Annenfeld,) where
Fast had been breakfasting with an old Pastor.
'* The mark by which I have come to know German
villages in Russia is the presence of the Lombardy poplar.
It adds much to a landscape otherwise so bare of trees ;
and Annenfeld is a well-to-do looking village with double
lines of poplars, and a stream of water under them.
" By degrees the way rose as it wound to and fro over
the moorland. In front was a line of mountains, serrated
into hundreds of points, all glistening with snow— larger
ones behind the smaller. As hour after hour passed, we
rose higher and higher into scenery that now reminded
one of Malvern, and now of the Welsh mountains. At last
the slant is steeper than even six horses can well manage,
except with the empty carriage — empty, all but for our
light baggage ; and we take off our wraps and walk for
three versts. We have now mounted to 2,500 feet, and it
is perceptibly colder. The sharp points of the hills behind
us are beginning to give place to rounder mountains. We
have in no instance any cliffs like those in the pass from
Vladikafkas ; but steep combes and gorges, very Welsh
or Highland.
*' I turned to look back at one point. Two dark snow
clouds had just rolled asunder, and gave a peep over
a plain stretching far— /ay away. A sharp pointed hill in
K
1 62 MOORLAND
the mid-distance we had passed on our right— not far from
the ' Colony.' It had been the centre of the camp of the
last Persian army that fought with the Russians in 1827 ;
for this country east of Tiflis all belonged to Persia at that
time. It was winter, and a driving storm of snow blew
from west to east, covering the Russian army coming
from the west. It was only 8,000 strong — but falling
suddenly on the Persian camp unprepared for attack, the
battle was very bloody, and soon over ; the Persian
Prince was among the slain.
"By mid-day the sharp pointed hills have given place
to great rounded mountains, all covered with snow shining
in a slight sunny mist. It felt as if we were travelling
over endless moorland. On one high plateau we see
tombstones unfenced near the road. They are recent ;
the inscriptions in Persian (Arabic letters.)
" We left at nine. By half-past two we come in sight
of a large tank like a gasometer ; and near it a good
European dwelling. We drive into the yard and find it is
a sort of half-way house for the works. An elderly
German who is in charge of the Station comes out to
welcome us. * Herr Bolton,' he says, ' has ordered dinner
to be ready for you, and if you will come in it shall be
served augenblicklich.' We were very tired and hungry,
and excellent vermicelli soup and baked potatoes, with
Asiatic bread, soon recruited me ; while the others were
regaled further with roast hare, hares being plentiful here.
"In an hour we started with four fresh horses instead
of six tired ones * ; for although we rise higher, the way
is not on the whole so atrocious as in the part we have
done with. Here and there we certainly seem very near
a capsize, and even here the hill seems too steep in parts
to let us escape a fall of appalling force ; but the driver
knows what he is about, and the two outer horses skip up
* " This was a mistake. They rested, and the four fresh instead of
six were given us at Slavianka."
FIERCE DOGS 163
and down in a way that first moved my pity, but later,
when I understood them better, my admiration. They
were clever ! The one on the side towards the hill would
only get foot room now and then by a skip out of the rut
on to the bank ; while his opposite fellow hopped on three
legs— then went with his foot alternately on the ridge and
down in the rut ; but very rarely on a boulder, though
they tempted him sorely.
" Daylight had gone, and with it the only signs of life,
except now and then a wagon or a peasant on the road,
a kind of crow, and the snow-bunting. The last time I
saw this bird was on Ben Nevis. But I ought not to have
missed mention of Tchardachle— the Tartar village adjoin-
ing the half-way tank and house. It consisted partly of
huts built of stone, with earthen roofs ; and partly of caves
or houses made in the ground, exactly as Strabo describes
the Caucasians 1 900 years ago ! He also says the people
here had dogs as large and fierce as lions ; and it made
me start as I looked across the way from one of these
subterranean houses, to see two dogs guarding each his
master's door, immense in size, the exact colour and ap-
pearance of lionesses, their ears short ; so that it would
be impossible not to think as Strabo did, if we came
without knowing a word he had said !
" This morning (day after) I saw one in the works — a
magnificent dog ; and on saying as much to the manager
he replied ' Yes, he's a fine dog, but of a bad temper. He
has killed fourteen other dogs ! '
" By and by we drive down into a long valley, pleas-
antly besprinkled with trees, and among them Lombardy
poplars. The village that came into view was Slavianka,
(something like Slave- vill or town of the Slavonians, i.e.^
Russian.) It is a Duchabortzi colony* transported in the
* This is the first mention, by John Bellows, of the Russian sect
whom he so largely assisted in later years in their emigration to
Canada. The name is now generally spelt Doukhobor,
K2
1 64 DOUKHOBOR WOMEN
first place from some part of Russia to the Crimea, where
the Duchabortzi were joined by Mennonites from Germany.
Re-transported to the Caucasus, they have settled and
prospered here, and brought with them from the Crimea
the making of fuel out of the farmyard manure pressed
into moulds and dried. It looks, en masse, like turf ricks.
In a treeless country, like parts of the Stavropol govern-
ment, this is all they have to depend on for firing.
" While the horses were changing we were asked to
walk in. The house was a farm ; and a decent room with
two beds in one side, curtained off, shewed that they used
it for sleeping. An old woman neatly dressed, and clean,
brought us biscuits— home-made. Her daughter, a very
tall, strongly-built woman, and grand-daughter, a girl of
perhaps ten, also came in, and they were glad to converse
about their belief. They fetched in another woman, a
neighbour, to give us a specimen of their oral recitation of
a hymn. She needed a good deal of urging, but at last
began, and for five minutes repeated line after line till she
got to the end, when all bowed in token of reverence.
Fast said that on the whole it was good matter. These
people are well spoken of by other Russians as honest
and industrious ; and I believe it.
"With our new team of four we resumed our course.
A few narrow escapes, and lurches that made one cringe,
were the only diversifications as we passed from hill to
valley, and valley to hill, until we began one ascent so
bad that it seemed impossible for horses to pull us up it.
I was calling ' Stoi ! ' and offering that we would get out
and walk, but our Engineer said in German, ' It is only a
short hill. Don't get out. We shall be in Kedabek in einer
Viertelstunde.' On the summit, 5000 feet elevation, the
smell of sulphur burning confirmed his words, and before
long we were driving down hill once more, with the lurid
light of furnaces reflected on the snow, and making beau-
tiful effects with the moonlight and the shadows.
THE KEDABEK MINES 165
" At a sudden turn we stopped at the Gastinitza at the
entrance of the village— for the absence of the manager
prevented DrHaudelin's plan of our being his guests [being
carried out.] We had no reason to complain, however.
It was not such an hotel as we had had at Petersburg or
at Tiflis ; but there were good plain rooms ready for us,
with a brisk fire in the little stove ; and very soon the
samovar and its concomitants left us little to wish for.
" We should have to spend most of the next day waiting
to see the persons we wished to question, for they were
at work till evening. We cannot move as we should
naturally like to, in this far away corner ; things in Asia
are slow, and we must submit.
*' In the morning the deputy- manager called on us, and
we went with him to the works ; no great distance down
the village. The mines are high in the mountain side,
and the ore is brought down to be smelted, etc. All the
processes are now performed with raw or unrefined
petroleum from Baku. The mine was discovered ages
ago, beyond history. Its latest development before falling
into the hands of the present firm, was imder a native
(Armenian, etc.) firm, when it yielded about 4000 poods of
metal a year. William Siemens, German Consul at Tiflis,
knew of it, and finally induced his brothers to take it over
and work it after European methods, thus enormously in-
creasing the output, and greatly benefiting the district by
employing such a large number of people; about 2000
in all.
"As it was not possible to go further during the after-
noon, the manager of the mines asked if we would not
occupy the time by going underground, in charge of their
German overseer — or, as he would be called in Cornwall,
' Captain.' We were glad of the opportunity, though the
loss of time was a trial we could not help.
" There is more than one mine here ; but we went to
the nearest ; perhaps a couple of versts out. It is on the
i66 ANCIENT TOOLS
side of a very steep hill. * * * * it was very warm
in some of the backs ; but the mine is really well ven-
tilated. They use the same methods as in Cornwall :
powder for blasting the softer rock, and dynamite for
the harder. An hour and a quarter of the underground
journey was as much as we cared for. My friend did not
like the ladder climbing, little as it amounted to ; but the
Captain was pleased to signify his belief that I was a
* born miner.'
" We also had the opportunity of testing the point about
the antiquity of the pick and shovel ; for when the mana-
ger found I wished to go into this, he sent for a venerable
old Armenian who had worked many years in Kedabek
mines before Siemens Brothers came here. He had a
splendid white beard — for the old man was eighty-five.
The cross-examination had to be conducted through double
interpreters — i.e., as I asked in English, Fast repeated
what I said in Russian ; marginal notes were thrown in
by the manager in German ; then an employe of the mine
interpreted into Armenian; and the answers returned
through the same complicated lines except the first.
" Question i. You now use in Kedabek three-cornered
shovels with long handles. Were these first brought here
by the firm Siemens Brothers, or is this the original shovel
of the country ?
' * The old man replied in a tone that showed me he was
denying that Siemens introduced the shape ; but he added
something more, which the middle interpreter conveyed
direct to me by speaking in German, and using a pencil.
*He says. No. This was the shovel used in old times
before Siemens came into the country, and you will see it
used in all country places in Armenia now ; only they put
an iron on for the foot to bear on in digging with it.'
" Question 2. Was the pick used before Siemens' time,
the same shape as this one ?
" Answer. Yes. Before Siemens came, all the picks
were like that ; none had head two ways. * * *
DIFFICULT TRAVELLING 167
" On Third-day morning we started for two villages
still higher in the mountains than Kedabek. They lie
about 30 versts east, and 30 versts in such a country
is enough for a day's journey, as much of it is slow climb-
ing up mountain steeps. We must therefore sleep at one
of these places in a cottage.
'' In the morning at nine we were ready. I shall always
be grateful to Dr Haudelin for his care of us, and counsel
to ' Take all the wraps and furs you have. It is very cold
up in the mountains.' For, judging by slight frosts at
Tiflis, which is in the valley, I should have come without
the heavy wolfskin shuba, and only brought the lighter
fur ; but 5000 feet up a mountain makes all the difference !
I don't know how many poods I weighed ; but I do know
that the stairs plied a bit as I trailed down them. At the
door stood a wagon — springless — with four little horses
harnessed abreast and a bronzed peasant for driver.
" By the good offices of men accustomed to load goods,
I was heaved up and got seated on a bundle of hay, as
were the rest — and off we went. In a very brief time we
found our wagon more comfortable than the phaeton. As
for springs, the hay and our shubas answered. Real steel
springs could not have stood such work as we had to go
through. After a long climb up hill, we descended a
steep, past a commenced but unfinished bridge across
a gorge. Recollect, everything is deep in snow, and the
brooks part frozen and part free. People talk about keep-
ing a good heart. I thought later on in the day, ' The
best place to keep it is in one's mouth, for it keeps on
coming there ! ' "
Having completed its work in the Kedabek district,
the party returned to Daliar station, and travelled eastward
to Elizabethpol, where a day was spent in making certain
needful calls.
At their hotel in Tiflis, Joseph Neave and his companion
had met with a young Englishman, who, by a singular
1 68 AN UNDERGROUND DWELLING
coincidence, had been educated at the school * in Glouces-
tershire where one of John Bellows' own boys was at that
very moment. Their new acquaintance was the engineer
of a large liquorice factory at Udzharri, on the line to the
east of Elizabethpol. Its owner and the chief members
of the staff were all fellow-countrymen of our travellers,
who gladly accepted an invitation to visit them in their
isolation on the factory premises. They accordingly spent
the week-end at Udzharri, after their visit to Elizabethpol.
To his Wife.
Udzharri, Caucasus, S-2-93.
" We arrived here shortly before midnight last night to
spend a quiet First-day before beginning our round to
Shusha, etc., etc., after a single day in Elizabethpol.
" As soon as we came back f from the mountain drive,
W. Bolton, J finding I was curious to see a subterranean
dwelling, drove us over, about a mile, to an Armenian
village, where we went into one. It was divided below
into two apartments, one for the cattle and one for the
family. A little light came in from the door, enough to
show two broad benches of earth covered with board, on
either side the room, with a stove in the space between ;
at the far end, raised 20 inches from the floor, on the plat-
form, was a mother rocking her baby to sleep in a cradle ;
and a handsome girl of fourteen or so was doing some
domestic work. Fowls walked in and out between our
feet.
" A visit to the stables at W. Bolton's ended our pleas-
ant afternoon there. One lovely Arab horse, white, with
flowing mane and tail, bought for his wife to ride, but
rather too spirited, was brought out — neighed — stood on
his hind legs ; and was followed by an old Turkestan white
horse, twenty years old, which the lady does ride, and
which, amid all these loose stones and mountain paths, has
*Bussage House, near Stroud. fTo Kedabek.
J The manager of the mines.
GREEK PRIESTS 169
never once slipped down in his life ; then a native horse,
whose height I took (i^ metre) as a memorandum for use
in describing our teams.
" In the evening we took tea at Gustav Kelly's, whose
wife is W. B.'s daughter. She speaks French and he
English ; so that we felt not cut off by our foreign speech.
The Boltons came too ; and the hearty kindness all showed
us, I shall never forget.
" In the morning we left for Daliar. We had a little
conversation with the young Greek priest of the village,
who left a favourable impression on us. I am bound to
say this is our feeling with regard to many of the priests —
though a few are bad and dark.
" We had liked our old wagon and driver so much that
we engaged the same team to take us to Daliar— but
W. Bolton, wishing us to use his phaeton instead of the
wagon, we got the same four horses harnessed to it and
started. The first thing that met our eyes just beyond our
inn, was a cow that some Tartars had just butchered in
the street! This is a dreadful country for such things.
I do hope the day will come when people will cease to eat
flesh !
" The road was slippery for some hours till the sun had
gained power — and I sat admiring the feats of skating per-
formed by the near outer horse of the team, in front of
me. He could do ' outside edge ' in a wonderful way ;
and many other things. One movement he had which
used to make me shiver ! Every time we rushed down
hill to one of the sharp turns, where a gorge needed his
keeping m, he had a way of pulling out and heading
straight for the gulf! And just at the last moment he
would alter his mind, sidle up close to the horse on his
left, and make him get in far enough for him to have room
for his feet instead of falling over, and ending the lives
of the whole equipage : horses, driver, interpreter, and
' Friends ' ! I now believe he only obeyed the rein, and
I70 CAUCASIAN SCENERY
that it was his place to pull diagonally at that particular
juncture, though why I fail to see. Certainly all the time
he was not engaged in saving his own life, he pulled.
A big Strabo's lion dog set at his legs in one village. He
kept his eye on him, and all at once let fly such a kick at
the animal as would have killed him on the spot if the dog
had not dodged it!
" Soon, as we rose on to the high ground, we got a
peep at the Great Caucasus mountains sixty versts away
— a grand piece of the range, but limited on both right
and left by the hills through which we were travelling.
Hour after hour, as we rose and descended, and rose yet
again nearer the outer heights of this Lesser Caucasus,
the stretches of the Greater range grew broader and
broader; till at last, on emerging from the last of the
back valleys to the edge that overlooks all the plain of the
Koura, the whole vast wall of towering Alps stood in
dazzling splendour before us — two hundred miles long
and eleven thousand feet high ! Far too wide to be com-
prehended in one view, the eye had to travel slowly
along the great arc, unable to take it in so as fully to
realise it : wearied with its very magnificence. We are
ourselves standing on a mountain at this outer line two
thousand feet higher than the plain below our feet— the
plain that rolls away westward to Europe and eastward
to Asia ; itself a great and vast and indescribable sea of
violet that ends nowhere, right or left, but dies away into
violet mist, and that again into blue haze— and the blue
haze into a grey that is again immeasurable — and then
above all this the innumerable peaks and towers and cliffs,
dazzling white against the far pale blue sky. White with
faint blushes of palest rose colour, marked with thousands
and tens of thousands of folds and wrinkles and lines run-
ning down from the snow into the violet sea of nothingness
in the plains below. Yonder, far, very very far on the
western horizon, is Kasbek, 16,000 feet high — and west
CAUCASIAN SCENERY 171
again from Kasbek, some other giant height far more
than a hundred miles from the mountain we stand on ;
and as we turn eastward the sight wanders on, and on,
and on, till it wearies in the effort to comprehend that
another hundred miles towards the Caspian still leaves
the list of heights unexhausted.
" There is nothing in Switzerland — nothing in Europe
like this ; and powerless to grasp the ideas such a scene
suggests, I am glad of the sunset, glad of the darkness,
and the silence and the stillness that shall for a time veil
the overpowering presence, and hush the spirit to rest
from it. Any one of those mountains alone would be
enough to rouse all the sense of the vast and sublime
of which the mind is capable. Those tiny grooves and
perpendicular lines are, some of them, cliffs four and five
thousand feet deep ; and yet they are only at the base of
the hill ; for yonder on the right we see Shalvuz Dagh
13,619 feet; Shah Dagh 13,931 ; and Basar-Dusi 14,750.
" We walked and ran down the mountain to the valley,
making short cuts, plunging through the snow and amid
the bushes, which are here abundant, while the carriage
went to and fro down the zig-zags.
" I had got ahead of the others, who were out of view,
when I came upon three Tartar boys with donkeys, and a
woman standing by a spring. I was not thirsty, but to
open up communications with the nomads I made the sign
of drinking from my hand. The youngest of the three
lads ran to the woman, took a tin from her, filled it with
water, and handed it to me. I gave him a fifteen kopek
piece, which he took without the slightest sign of ' thanks ' :
but this was only because he had never learned to offer
thanks for a gift. Gifts were in his life few and far between,
I fancy ! The woman went one way, the boys and their
donkeys laden with firewood, my way ; and we walked
together. I tried to get a few Tartar words from the
biggest boy ; but his vague wild gutterals in reply were
172 A TARTAR CHILD
beyond my grasp. Presently the youngest, a mere child,
noticing that I slipped a little where the snow had been
frozen smooth, went and fetched a stick which he signed
to me to use as an Alpenstock. It was very nice of him,
and I prize his little gift ; for it was his way of showing
that he was not ungrateful for mine to himself. When we
parted from him, I kissed his little bronzed cheek and
longed that someone would now and then show some
kindness to him and to his people ; as indeed I believe
will be the case in the village they were going to.
" It was dark when we reached Elizabethpol. As the
luggage was being loaded into one phytone and we were
stepping into another, I suggested to Joseph Neave that
we should walk to the hotel. ' But where was the hotel ? '
' Four versts from the Station ! ' It was well we had not
attempted the walk. At about half-way the luggage stuck
fast in front of us, and we stopped, stopping two more
carriages behind us. Strong language ! Driver in front
using whip freely— then cajoling with little sounds like
kissing— but horses not to be urged or cajoled ! At last
they do go — and we also. By and by all this occurs
again. Later on, at a heavy lurch over a rut, our biggest
package is pitched out — and then we get into softer mud,
and pass under giant trees with low windowless buildings
behind them, and long blank walls— closed shops— a few
lamps — a large mosque with two minarets, and presently
a gloomy one-story building with a porch across the foot-
way—the Hotel d'Europe. We are in Russia politically,
but in all other respects — buildings, people, language,
manners, we are in Persia ! Inside^ the hotel is light and
good ; an open balcony runs round the courtyard. The
rooms are very lofty ; and with fire in the stoves we are
soon comfortable.
" In the morning we waited early on . In reply
to some question of mine, he says the town was formerly
called Ghandja— and was thirty versts in circumference,
ELIZ ABETHPOL — UDZH ARRI 1 73
the large gardens taking up so much space. [After
a visit to the Mosque] we went through the Bazaars:
still more oriental than even those of Tiflis— the great
many-centuried plane trees standing in the street before
the shops, loaded baskets of grapes, bags of drugs,
beautiful sweetmeats, and other merchandise. In reply-
to some archaeological question, the old gentleman*
turned to me with a smile and said, ' Feu mon onclefM le
Prince id avant la domination russe.^ I found afterwards
that he is the grand-nephew of the Persian prince who
governed the city and province of Ghandja. The mud
was incredible ! The old gentleman lastly took me to the
city park or garden (my friends returned to the hotel) and
even here the paths were so bad that they pulled off my
goloshes, and left me plimging hopelessly after my guide
— almost losing him sometimes. Again in the street, we
met a lady — the only woman I saw in the whole place.
She was veiled in purple silk — but instantly turning her
face to the wall, she bent slightly forward, and stood so
till we had passed.
" In the evening we allowed an hour to plough our way
to the station ; plunging, rolling, heaving, till I thought at
one lurch we really had lost our balance. We were met
between 1 1 and 1 2 at night [here at Udzharri] by James
Brown, who had a man in waiting for our baggage ; and
five minutes' walk brought us to a bungalow in a large
enclosure, the residence of our host, the owner of the
Liquorice Factory, the buildings of which stand at a few
hundred yards distance. Four young Englishmen in all
sat with us next day (First-day) at table : a manager, a
buyer of root, J. Brown (the engineer,) and a clerk. We
were made welcome with a heartiness that was tenfold
the more acceptable from the extreme isolation of the spot :
a roaring fire in our bedroom, and an excellent hot supper
in the dining-room, to begin with. We are in the middle
* Their guide.
174 AT UDZHARRI
of a vast flat ; marshy, and very bad for fevers. The
mosquito tower at the Station tells its own tale.
"A few versts off the Tartar population are in a terribly
lawless state — hundreds of murders a year never traced.
Brigands abound. They often kill as well as rob ; and
always beat their victims. Close by here lately, a Tartar
stabbed his brother to death for having let a horse out of
an enclosure. Another, angry with his wife, cut off all
her fingers with his knife, slashed her dreadfully, and sent
her home to her father ! The murder of a wife is very
rarely brought home to a man. If he is caught, he brings
fifteen or twenty eye-witnesses, who go into court and
swear they saw her get into a boat and try to cross the
Koura— and it upset and she was drowned— etcetera !
'' We spent a quiet First-day yesterday (2 mo. 5). I
felt a hope that some opening might offer for a few words
on the most important subjects. At last Fast went out
and came back with a Bible in his hand, asking if we
might have a chapter read. They readily assented— and
I took the book and read a chapter in Job. We paused ;
and Joseph Neave spoke at some length very nicely in the
ministry, following in prayer. It was, I felt, a word in
season ; and I was indeed thankful that this seed had been
sown. They were more hearty than ever, after it ; more
kind than I can describe.
" Out-of-doors it was bright sunshine and blue sky, but
too muddy to attempt walking. From the balcony in
front, a splendid view of the Karabagh mountains, south,
10,000 feet high — and from the opposite balcony, Basar-
Dusi nearly 15,000, and Shah Dagh, nearly 14,000 feet,
north.
" This is Second-day, the 6th of Second month. I was
not very well this morning, and Joseph Neave and Fast
begged me to stay in and rest — which I have done— while
they paid the visit to Geoktchaiskaya, 17 versts from here.
They have returned, and we have all been taken over the
AT UDZHARRI 175
Liquorice Works — a very interesting sight. The yard
itself is surrounded by a mud wall seven feet high and a
mile in circumference. The buildings and machinery I
must tell you about when I get home. Around the houses
are great stacks of liquorice root 1 50 feet long and 30 feet
high.
" We start at 7 to-morrow morning, and by the time
this reaches Gloucester I expect we shall be back in Tiflis
on our way home, all but two little visits en route besides
Moscow and Petersburg."
CHAPTER X.
TARTAR CARAVANSERAI — BRIGANDAGE — SHUSHA— ARMENIAN
VILLAGES-GERUSI-ALI AKBER— FUNERAL SCENE— EVELACH
STATION-RETURN TO TIFLIS.
THE travellers had now^ to face the hardest and most
difficult part of their journey, w^hich was to take
them, through the mountains of the southern Caucasus, to
Shusha and Gerusi : in fact, almost to the Persian frontier.
The first portion of their route, from Udzharri, was by
rail to Evelach, where they were joined by the Govern-
ment attendant who had been specially appointed to
accompany them to Gerusi.
After a journey of over two hundred and forty miles
by road and rough mountain track, they found themselves
once again at Evelach, where they parted with then-
attendant, and returned via Elizabethpol to Tiflis.
From John Bellows to his Wife.
Caravanserai of Korvendskaya,
Eastern Transcaucasus, 7-2-93.
" When I posted my No. 45 into the mail carriage at
Udzharri at seven this morning, I not only foresaw that
some days must elapse before I could again get a letter on
to the line of rail for home, but I thought that I should
be some time before I had anything fresh to tell. But
I am writing this under the strangest circumstances of the
whole journey : lodging the night in an oriental caravan-
serai.
" The boy came into our room at Udzharri this morning
at six to light a fire of wood for us to dress by ; and a good
breakfast awaited us in the dining-room, our untiring
GREGORIO WITCH 177
friends accompanying us thereafter to the platform to see
us off. No one can tell but ourselves what that break in
the journey has been to us ! So far from home, and even
from civilization, to find the comforts of an English home
and a very warm welcome! We again had a time of
worship with them last night ; and the seed sown will not
have been sown in vain. For an hour and a half we rolled
along over the seemingly boundless wilderness ; for the
morning was misty, and the great mountains no longer in
view. We cross the Koura near our halting station (Eve-
lach) and a bit of forest diversifies the monotony of the
swamp we have traversed ; not at all like an English or
German wood, but an impenetrable tangle of briars ten
or twelve feet high under the trees, and hundreds of these
themselves overgrown with tropical climbers. These
woods and swamps abound in hot summer weather with
venomous serpents. In the end of spring many people
are stung by them ; and this, added to the continual fever
that hangs about the swamp, makes it a sad country to
live in.
" At Evelach we found our Government attendant
waiting for us. He had been kind enough to hire for us,
as requested, two phaetons (the carriage of the country,
though not well suited to it) each with four little horses
abreast. Dividing our baggage between them. Fast and
the attendant took one, and we the other. The agent's
name is Gregorio witch ; a very decent young fellow. He
is armed to the teeth, carrying besides his bright weapons
a breech-loading rifle and twenty-two rounds of ammuni-
tion. Of course we are not responsible for this, or we
would on no account allow it ; for, although the district is
almost abandoned to banditti, we have not the slightest
fear that the Master who sent us here will suffer any real
harm to befall us. Unlike their congeners nearer the
mouth of the Arax, they do not hurt their victims, but
simply take away their property. As a heavy robbery
L
178 BRIGANDAGE
took place on the road we are now travelling, only two
months ago, Gregorio witch wanted us to take an armed
Cosak guard, which we promptly declined to do.
" The robbery was between this posting station and the
next (Agdam) to which we meant to push on to-night ;
but our drivers are so frightened that we have given up
the attempt. Eight armed Tartars managed the whole
affair. They began in the morning by stopping a phaeton ;
lashing the passengers to trees (for we are in a sort of
straggling wood,) and robbing them. Then they waited
for a second, a third, a fourth, and so on the whole day
long, including the mail and all its passengers ; so that by
night- fall they had about 150 people tied up. Then one
of them untied a victim, and left them to get out of the
difficulty as best they could ! Yesterday they again robbed
the mail near this spot ! In 1885 one daring fellow with
his band managed (in the Baku Government) to tie up and
rob nearly 300 people in a day. It occurred to him after-
wards that the Russian authorities might look into such a
matter as this, so he withdrew into Persia, where it is said
he is now an attendant on the Shah.
" Don't be uneasy on our account. The very fact of this
letter arriving will show that I have posted it ! But more
than all we are under a higher protection than police.
Even a couple of armed men are no match for eight
desperadoes ; so that the reliance on them would be in
any case foolish.
'' We drove for twenty- three versts this morning along
a better road than any we have seen since the great mili-
tary way over the Caucasian mountains. It is as level as
a die — over a moorland and marsh, with now and then a
bit of scrub and here, a wood. The way is kept good
with pebbles and gravel that once formed the bed of the
Caspian when it came up here. Twice we had to cross
the bed of a very broad torrent, now dry ; i.e., a torrent
at the melting of the snow.
BARDA
179
" At the end of this twenty-three versts, we turned into
a very large yard in the Tartar village of Barda. Round
two sides of it ran an open flat-roofed shed for horses and
camels. At one part was a vapour bath ; and on the side
next the street some empty rooms, into one of which
we were shown by the Odabashi (Head of the yard.) As
the weather is very cold this was cheerless. A room
twenty-five feet long and ten wide, with mud walls covered
with European paper-hanging — here and there torn— and
a board floor. Three or four low broad tables served for
bedsteads, and there were three chairs, but nothing else
whatever in the place. An arched recess in the end
showed that fire was sometimes used there ; though they
certainly did not appear to be fire- worshippers ! ' Tapieti€ ! *
(Light a fire !) In two minutes a grave-looking man brings
a shovel of burning charcoal and lays it in the hearth ;
while a boy, following, brings a big armful of split blocks
of wood. These are piled endways on the embers, and
in a few minutes we have a splendid fire, and the boiling
samovar; make our own tea, and get a good lunch. In
an hour we are off again ; and just at sundown our drivers,
who are very timid, declare it is not possible to go further
to-night — and they drive into another large yard through
a stone building that looks almost like a fort.
Long stone walls on either side of it are covered with a
mass of dry thorns, enough to keep a wolf from climbing
over, but only needing a match from a robber, to make us
quit the premises. Heavy oaken gates close the entrance,
L2
i8o TARTAR CARAVANSERAI
and above them is a gallery open both front and back.
The yard is a foot deep in mud, but as it is frozen we are
not harmed by it. Inside the stone walls are storehouses
for firewood, etc. etc., stables and granaries. Away on
the right are three or four underground houses burrowed
in the yard itself!
" We are asked to climb a step-ladder to the gallery,
and are shown into the upper room on the right — our
quarters for the night ; as the apartment below is for our
drivers. Opposite, another party of travellers has already
taken up a similar position. A boy climbs the ladder with
a shovel of coals, burning; a great store of wood is
brought, and a blazing fire made.
"The room itself has an earthen floor, and bare stone
walls and bare timber flat roof above. On the floor lie
three carpets, under which I find ' India ' mats. One tiny
low table 1 8 inches square and 2 feet high is the only fur-
niture. We unpack, and when the samovar comes we
make a splendid tea, the foundation of which is four cakes
of Tartar bread which we bought at three kopeks a pound.
Each is about a foot in diameter, and one inch thick : un-
bolted wheat meal. Then we have sardines, butter, cheese
and other luxuries, and make a picnic. This is literally
' a lodge in some vast wilderness,' for no other dwelling
is within many miles of us !
" I have made the folk bring in a good large stock of
wood for all night ; for warmth is everything here now.
In summer the windows are left open for air ; and I see
everywhere a set of ornamental bars or grillage to keep
anyone from paying a visit through the opening so left !
"It is now half-past ten at night. Joseph Neave has
put his pillow on the floor and laid down in his clothes,
and is now fast asleep. I am going to put on my great
wolfskin shuba and do the same— so for to-night. Farewell !
" Morning. We arranged ourselves last night in two
rows of two each, heads to the wall and feet to centre
RISKS FROM ROBBERS i8i
of room and influence of the fire. I soon fell asleep — and
never woke till the Odabashi pushed open the door, a
little before six, and placed a loud-singing samovar on the
floor ; presently following it with a fresh armful of wood
for the fire.
"We have just breakfasted. The room is as warm as a
toast, and we shall go out into the frosty air with a stock
of heat that will last us the rest of our journey— 54 versts
to Shusha — a Persian fortress — now belonging to Russia.
It is walled, and the gates are shut at night."
To his Wife.
Shusha, 8-2-93.
"We got into this place about six o'clock to-night;
making two days' journey from the Railway Station of
Evelach.
" We find the fears of our drivers were not imaginary
about robbers. Four more travellers who followed us last
night decided to push on to the next station, and they were
all stripped of their possessions ! At the very time I was
writing in our caravanserai, they were being tied up and
their packages searched ! And not long since the high-
waymen paid a visit to the next caravanserai after the
travellers lodging in it were comfortably settled in for the
night, and cleared them out of everything.
" This is rather more than the Russian authorities can
stand ; and the district chief of police has gone to the scene
of the robbery with another official to make the needful
enquiries on the spot. We met them coming at a tre-
mendous pace down hill ; a mounted and armed police
guard in front, peremptorily ordering carriages and
camels, etc., out of the way. A good many camels have
met us ; and wagons, loaded with carpets and other mer-
chandise. I never imagined when we left England that
part of our work would lie in Persia ; but so it is — for all
this district was a Persian Province until the time of the
Emperor Nicholas, I think. Almost everything is oriental
i82 PERSIAN WOMEN
in the extreme. We met two or three women this morning,
of the poorer class, yet each veiled in silk. One was
carrying her baby on her back and leading a little fellow
by the hand. At a hundred yards away, I saw that her
silk hood was not drawn over her face — so thought for
once I should see what a Persian woman was like. As
she drew within fifty yards, however, I saw her raise her
spare hand to her mouth, and when she passed the car-
riage, she had a black netting drawn up level with her
nose, but with such large meshes that it did not conceal
her mouth. Another passed us as we were walking up a
hill, closely veiled in pale red plaid silk, but barefoot, with
sandals. That is, the sandals are loose and at every step
the foot lifts nearly out of them. They are high-heeled to
keep the toes well down in them, or they would constantly
come off. Most of the population are Armenian Persian ;
and these do not veil.
" We resumed our journey quickly after breakfast; but
I found I had been mistaken about the extreme lonesome-
ness of the spot. There were two or three habitations
and another caravanserai a little further on. By and by
the wood ended, and we were again in the open country —
at last entering a valley with a river in it, which we
followed for many miles. Walnut and mulberry trees
were frequent; for this is a silkworm district. By one
o'clock we came to a small settlement* in which was a
caravanserai where we rested the horses an hour and
a half, and had lunch. It was in an upper room like the
one we had slept in— but smaller, and less tidy. Three
panes broken in a window we stopped by putting a bourka
against the casement. There were two stools (no carpet)
which J. J. N. and I sat on. Our companions folded their
bourkas and squatted on them— and the Odabashi made
his boy— a smart little fellow who kicked off his sandals
every time he crossed our threshold — light us a fire of
* Khan-i-bagh.
KHAN-I-BAGH
183
small sticks ; and then he came himself and spread a
camel cloth on the floor in front of it for our samovar. As
we carry all we need with us, bread, butter, cheese, tea,
sugar and lemons, we soon made a meal, when Joseph
Neave and I started for a walk in advance of the carriages.
" The building we left at Khan-i-bagh was like the one
at Barda in general plan — but the open gallery ran all
along the outside as well as through the centre above
the gate, and three or four workshops occupied the front
towards the road on the ground floor ; especially a black-
smith's, next the gate— who sat on the ground as I looked
down on him from the gallery — forging nails, and talking to
two friends who squatted alongside of him like Job's coun-
sellors, and I imagine as usefully employed as they were.
" Khan-i-bagh means Khan's garden. As there was a
house up a bank 100 yards off, with two windows and a
door, I imagined some wealthy man lived in the place ;
and found
this surmise ,^
was right,
for as I was
looking
back at the
house I saw
two bullock
wagons loaded with ice, unloaded into a cellar at the
end — under the mass of supporting masonry, I suppose.
"If we should go to Ali Bek's to pass the night on our
return from Djibrail, I hope to induce him not to kill the
sheep he promised us. He is a gentleman ; but many
of his class — Tartar beys — have a way of not only killing
a sheep to gratify a visitor, but of having his bloody
carcase brought in steaming, to show that he really has
been killed on purpose ! Others bring him to the door
and cut his throat under the very nose of the guest ! This
is a barbarous land.
i84 SHUSHA
" We walked three versts before our folk overtook us ;
gently rising, with sometimes a down-hill, as we wound in
and out among the deep centres and lateral valleys of
this wonderful series of volcanoes. One crater on our
left was almost perfect ; and basalt and lava on all hands
told their own tale. We caught sight of Shusha again
and again for two hours or more before we reached it. It
is right on the top of a mountain, a thousand feet higher
than Snowdon, above the plain of the Koura ; and most of
the elevation we have made gradually in to-day's journey.
The road is a wide and good one, with no bad gradient in
the whole 105 versts; but the last hour especially it winds
and doubles to and fro in a most bewildering way. I
looked down just now upon a series of six different bends
of it far below us, all going in different directions. At last
we come nearly to the walls, for it is walled (by the
Persians) though the walls are no longer of value as a
defence.
" We are so near that we can see there is no opening
by which we can go in — when suddenly a previously
unseen bend comes in view, and we turn back again —
and then again ! At last we find our road (which is new)
passes through a breach forty feet wide made for it
through the city wall — and we drive up the steep frozen
street ; wind again to and fro amid the quaintest old
buildings, many in ruins, through the bazaar, out-Tiflis-ing
Tiflis itself— and after a mile of such entanglements, pull
up in a square or market place. Several hundreds of men
and boys all surround us and offer counsel and comment
in Persian, in Russian, in Armenian, and in Tartar, till the
whole sound is as of a swarm of bees. Presently an
Armenian and several men and boys under his rule, take
each an article of our baggage, and we follow in the tail
of their procession up a side street for a few yards, and
through a door, up an open staircase to a balcony, whence
we are conducted to a comfortable room 18 feet by 10,
COMFORTABLE QUARTERS 185
papered d V europ^enne— oxnr hotel and quarters. It is
nicely warmed by a stove, and an open hearth at the
end can also be utilized. A dark-haired boy (whose pay
I afterwards learned is one rouble a month) brings a low
table, wash-basin and ewer, and pours a little into each of
our hands by turn as we wash. Clean linen on our beds
promises rest.
" The samovar comes ; and we order fried fish for
supper, with a little shissllk—rosist bits of mutton done on
the coals. An hour and a half after we have drunk our
tea, it comes ! But it is good— and we are thankful ! for
the journey has been extremely fatiguing.
" Fifth-day morning, 2 mo. p. We have had an ex-
cellent night's rest, notwithstanding the difference between
European, or rather English, and Asiatic beds. The
latter, here, are hard benches with a couple of rugs laid
on them, no mattress, and one sheet. Above, a single
quilt. The thing is to lie still ; for if one turns over, there
is nothing tucked in, and everything moves, letting in the
cold. But I had taken the precaution last night, when our
boy brought in four chumps of wood for the open fire
which I got him to light as well as the stove, to get hold of
his two hands — and pointing to the four logs, I counted off
ten on his fingers. He grinned assent, and presently
returned with a further supply. His appreciation was
rewarded with a new lo-kopek piece ; and this has made
him our willing servant.
"When we arrived last evening we wanted a wash.
There is only one basin and ewer for the establishment —
kept in a room open to the balcony on one side, outside
our door. Now this boy not only poured a few spoonfuls
into the hands of each of us in turn ; but after we had
all washed and the water was black, he quietly put the jug
to stand in it and left it for the night. This morning when
I was dressing I asked Fast to call for the basin, etc. He
suggested that we must do as the others do in the hotel —
1 86 ORIENTAL ABLUTIONS
and let the boy pour a driblet of water on our hands. But
I put my foot down. I said—' No ; I will not be told
by Asiatics how I shall wash ; I will have it my own way.'
After a while the point was carried triumphantly : basin
cleaned, and a jug of hot and one of cold water brought
into our room. It really was a treat. I ventured to
enquire whether it could not remain here, but as it ap-
peared this would prevent all other occupants of the
premises from any ablution whatever, I waived the matter.
I had a look at the basin an hour after — ! !
"At breakfast when the boiling samovar came, we
enquired for eggs. The people of the house thought it a
very foreign idea — they never eat them for breakfast —
but they sent out and bought some, which we cooked
ourselves. Could we have a little milk? Yes. In half
an hour a saucepan came up, with half a gallon, hot.
" Our next journey— to Gerusi— which we start on to-
morrow, at first looked trying. We were told that the
road is so doubtful from snow blocking it that it would not
be possible to travel with any carriage but a fourgon—Si
four-wheeled springless wagon with a half-round body,
and as many horses as would serve for each of us to have
one to ride on if we found the way impassable at any point
for further traffic on wheels. And as the distance is
eighty versts, we must prepare to sleep all night in the
open wagon; no other accommodation probably being
available. Of course this meant hardship ; for we are
high up in the mountains in the depth of winter, though
the wolfskin furs would keep us probably warm enough
to get some sleep. After fully deciding on this as our only
way of reaching Gerusi, we are considerably relieved
this morning by the news that someone has come down
from there and reports the road open the whole distance
for the ^o^Xmg fourgons. Instead therefore of taking our
own team (i.e.^ the one that brought us here) we shall now
be able to take the customary post-horses, and change
four times, getting through in one day."
LEAVING FOR GERUSI 187
To his Wife.
Stantsie Zabouch, near Gerusi, 10-2-93.
" After a busy day yesterday, we rose at five this morn-
ing to get an early breakfast and start for Gerusi — a
journey of eighty versts, which by using the post-horses,
we hope to finish by night. The distance is about the
same as from Gloucester to Birmingham, but over a very
difficult mountain road. Two little wagons, springless,
harnessed with a ' troika ' each (three horses) took our
party of four and the baggage, Fast and Gregorio witch in
one, Joseph Neave and myself in the other. There is just
room in each for a little luggage and the driver besides
two passengers, who have not comfortable elbow room,
and nothing to hold on to on swinging round corners.
" It was seven o'clock before we got fairly under weigh.
The streets of Shusha are as steep as the worst parts of
Stroud or Redruth; and as we drove uphill our horses
slipped and scrambled in all directions on the ice. In five
minutes the other wagon which started in front of us,
pulled up, and after a great deal of plunging and scraping
to get a foothold, down came the off horse of the three.
Ours threatened to follow suit ; but we soon got on better.
A long descent followed, over deeply trampled and rutted
mud, frozen as hard as stone— and on which we danced
up and down till I began to wonder what might be the
limit of shaking that the human diaphragm can bear. But
before long we were on a better road, nearly level, and
about 13 feet wide, except in some places where it might,
for a few yards only, be too narrow for two carts to pass.
It is a new post road, only opened nine days ago ; so that
we are among its earliest passengers.
" Soon we enter a gorge in the never-ending multitude
of mountains— and our road becomes a shelf cut out in the
face of the rock, running for mile after mile in loops and
bends following the windings of the valleys, rising almost
insensibly till we are up some thousands of feet from the
i88
SAKSARAN
first valley we left. The precipice on our left varies from
45 degrees to almost perpendicular : in numbers of places
the outer edge of the road being held up by a dry stone
wall of 10, 15 or 20 feet before it touches the natural sur-
face of the ground. In some bad places it is laid on
faggots of oak.
*' By 9.30 or so we have reached our first stage — a
pretty spot, high up, but looked down upon by the extinct
volcano of Saksaran, 7,068 feet high. It shows two great
sides of the crater wall still standing like cliffs on the
summit. The general look of it is this :
Sahsaran
" Hour after hour wore on as we continued winding in
and out of the never-ending mountains ; now rising gently
to the summit of a dividing ridge, now going right down
to the bottom of the next valley, and plunging through its
stream. In one place we saw many cave-dwellings of
Armenians, cut in the soft sandy cliffs on the opposite side
of the valley : some seemingly inaccessible, but probably
got at by inner galleries.
'' By one o'clock we had reached the second stage,
Abdalyarsha, again on a parting ridge of very high
ground. Just before reaching the ' Stantsie,' the bare
hills began to be relieved by arbor vitae, which here took
the place of the deciduous trees (oaks, etc.) we had seen
in the valleys. The farthest line of mountains is the last
RIVER AKARA 189
series in Russia to the south. Bartaz is the highest on the
left in this line— 7,490 feet high. On the other side of that
range, and at their base, runs the River Arax, or Aras, or
' Araxes,' margining the present Persia.
" We find all the post horses are gone from the station.
We have the right to the first that come in ; but they must
first have two hours' rest. Meantime a fire is lighted in
the station- room— an apartment 12 feet by 10, very rough
and ready— and the samovar brought. We make a good
meal ; and then Joseph Neave and I decide to walk on.
As the wagons will not start till three, possibly half-past,
we shall have to give up our idea of getting to our jour-
ney's end to-night, and sleep at the next station.
" For an hour and a half we walk leisurely on, cutting
across comers and loops of the post road, and plunging
down the steep hill sides, for there are no perpendicular
cliffs here to oblige us to keep on the track. At last we
come out into a valley of nearly a verst in width, and the
loud sound of water warns us that we can go no further
till the wagons come up with us. We are on the banks of
the River Akara — a fast-rushing stream of some two feet
in depth, and from 50 to 100 feet wide. It is a lovely
sunny afternoon, and we fill up our time by searching
among the shingle of the strand for pebbles that may be
worth bringing home.
"By and by a horseman rides up, says something to
us in Russian, to which I can only give my stereotyped
reply, and in a few minutes, after hesitating, he rides
through the river and disappears up the opposite hill. I
can now see what he meant. Finding us moving about
the bank he no doubt thought we wanted help to cross the
water, and so offered to take us on horseback. Soon
after he has gone, however, the wagons come up ; and
when we are seated, the drivers head the troika for the
ford. They pull up in the middle, to drink ; and then
plimging in and out among the boulders, the wagon
I90 ZABOUCH
lurching to and fro as its wheels strike the obstacles, we
get on to terra finna.
"This river Akara runs into the Araxes. Just after
the part where we ford it, it enters a narrower defile,
and for the lofty cliffs that overhang it we are now
making ; for our road goes on in many a loop and double
S until we are at a dizzy elevation, looking down on
the winding river below. Our road is again only a twelve
feet shelf or ledge cut on the side of the slope ; often the
latter is as steep as 60 or 70 degrees ; and we are running
on snow, with alternations of sheet ice where the sun has
melted it and the evening air again frozen it. Our driver
is rather less careful than some we have had, and he
swings along in a happy-go-lucky way that keeps me
nervous, for our wheels skid sideways on the smooth
surface sometimes. But at last we are descending again,
and it is still daylight when the man makes a short cut
over a very steep bit of rough mountain side, instead of
following the final bend of the road — and we are in the
Stantsie Zabouch. Here we must sleep ; and here we
learn for the first time that we can go no further on
wheels. We have still some fifty versts to go, to reach
Gerusi ; and as the post road is blocked, we are told we
must go on horseback. Sufficient to the day is the evil
thereof, and we must do the best we can for to-night.
*' We go up a wooden outside stairs to a couple of small
rooms, of which the inner is our lodging. It is dirty
enough— but I lift the samovar on to one of the low tables
that are to be our bedsteads and turn the tap, signifying
to the Tartar who attends as a servant that it must be
wiped with a cloth. He does this ; and then we send him
to the village for bread and eggs. Milk? There is none.
" Presently he brings twenty eggs, for which we pay
twenty-two kopeks ; and four sheets of bread, thin and
tough as brown paper, for five kopeks ; i.e., a pound
weight, Russian. Then the Yuzbashi comes, to lend us
ZABOUCH
191
carpets and two mattresses to lie on. (Yuz is Tartar for
hundred, so that Yuzbashi means ' head of the hundred.*
He is in reality the chief man of the village, answering to
the Starosta in Russia, or the Maire of a French Com-
mune.) Fast and Gregorio witch make up, with these, beds
on the floor ; Joseph Neave and I sleep on the wooden
stands. I undress and get into my wolfskin shuba as
between sheets. It is a wonderful help to a night's rest —
for I can keep warm in it anywhere. Yet the unusual
surroundings keep one thinking ; and I wake at midnight
The large house is the etape prison as seen from the steps of
our Stantsie. The slightly curved roofs level with the ground
at back, of the Tartar huts, rise in irregular tiers behind.
for a long while thinking of home ; not, I hope, in any
spirit of wishing to cut short the work here — for I remem-
ber that if I were a soldier of the Queen's, I should not be
a good soldier if I shunned the privations of war ; and
miserably deficient as I know I am in the higher service,
yet I have been called to it,- and I wish to do it faithfully
in my small measure. The River Zabouch runs at the
bottom of the dell ; and as I lie silent I hear its sweet
never-ending melody, on its way to the Araxes, till it lulls
me to sleep again.
192 FORDING A RIVER
" We open our door wide to the morning sunshine, at
six o'clock, and again I enjoy the loud sound of the stream.
We must cross the little river, and there is no bridge,
so we all mount horses and wend our way to the bank.
First rides Gregoriowitch in his uniform, his sword swing-
ing ostentatiously by his side. Next, Fast, in his bourka.
Third, Joseph Neave on a bay horse. Fourth, myself—
on another bay. Fifth, a Tartar with one half our bag-
gage most cleverly arranged and strapped— portmanteau,
baskets, etc.— and he on the top, camel- wise. Lastly,
[another] Tartar perched on the rest of the baggage, and
armed with dagger and breech-loading rifle ! There is no
persuading these people that we would rather they took
no weapons. It is impossible at present to get the idea
into their heads ! Only last night Gregoriowitch was
talking it over with Fast ; and he still believes that our
objection is not to arms, but to the peculiar style of
weapons of the country. He is a very nice thoughtful
man ; and we hope to see him more clearly informed
before he leaves us. He was very earnest in listening to
something J. J. N. said the other day in the ministry — and
would like to have the words ' written down, for they
were good words,' he said.
" One after another our horses crept down the steep
bank to the river, and got across among the rolling
boulders. Then in Indian file we entered a gorge in the
mountain opposite, and scrambled up the bank, steeper
and steeper, along a path every foot of which had loose
stones and pieces of lava on it. Stepping up, and down,
and sideways — one horse turning to the right while the
one behind him was facing left, and the rest at all angles
by turn, we kept steadily ascending.
" I begin to think it a mistake to try to give any idea in
a sketch, of the sort of path we followed for some versts ;
but we went on climbing the edges of such steeps, some-
times 200 or 300 feet above the valley below ; the valleys
DIFFICULT TRAVELLING 193
of course rising too, as we get farther back into the
mountains. One slab of rock took up all the path but
six inches. It was covered with marks of scratches from
horseshoes ; but a real slip would have sent horse and
rider hopelessly into the ravine below.
" When we had got to about two thousand feet higher
than the village, we were glad to get out of the precipice
path on to a great table-land of snow of but gentle slope.
My Tartar however thought it now safe to let the horses
generally have a good strapping (he had lent me his whip,
most fortunately — or it would have been worse !) I re-
gretted that my ignorance of the language prevented my
being able to speak effectively to him, as it also prevented
my interpreting some remarks of his to his companion;
I incline to believe having reference to my horsemanship.
We came to a sort of dyke, down which my horse was
picking his way carefully and safely, when the Tartar
stole up behind and gave him a whack that made him start
M
194 AN ARMENIAN VILLAGE
and miss a foothold. He did not actually fall, but plunged
so that I should have gone over his head but for the
pommel of the saddle — one of the best things among this
barbarous people. It is a real handle, and an instant
grip of this saved me.
" Joseph Neave got off and walked, as we had originally
intended— for I forgot to say that after crossing the stream
and jumping up on to the bank, I had suggested that we
might keep our seats for a verst or two — not dreaming of
what was coming ! When it came to a descent I dis-
mounted too— for I looked upon this as more risky than
going up. At the bottom of the valley into which we had
come I got on again, to ride up to the Stantsie in the
Armenian village of Dyk.
" Hundreds of families came out to see us pass ; or
were already out enjoying the hot sunshine. Old men
sitting on their housetops, with their legs dangling in the
air ; women in all brilliant colours, scarlet and green and
blue — scarlet predominating — standing in their porticoes,
with groups of children similarly attired in bright hues.
As we wound slowly along the ledges, which were at most
five or six feet in width — a retaining wall or the houses
themselves on our right, and a sheer drop of fifteen to
twenty-five feet perpendicular on our left, the roofs of
the next row of houses at the foot of this drop (and so
stage after stage, both below and above us) — we could
barely give room to the men who were standing in the
' street ' — if I must call it a street — without endangering
our horses' foothold. Worst of all was a little donkey
loaded with firewood, projecting a most unreasonable
distance from his sides. If I rode outside of him he would
push me over the cliff; if inside, I should send him over.
I kept patiently behind him till he got to a little passing
place. A ferocious brute of a ' Strabo '—a dog as fierce
as a lion— came barking at us ; and I was debating what
would happen to the calf of my leg, when my Tartar, to
ARMENIAN LIFE 195
whom I had restored his whip, used it in such wise that
by dogs we were troubled no further. Where the houses
were level with us we could see their arrangement, and
the dark Jewish faces of the women, veiled over the mouth.
*'In the dell below were the massive stone arches of
three boulaks or fountains — many women drawing water
at them, and shouldering their copper vessels to carry it
home in admirably oriental style.
" Before I leave Dyk I must mention that its frightful
misdrainage caused great havoc last summer with the
cholera. The people are very ignorant and superstitious ;
and someone having suggested that the way to stop its
ravages was to bury the bodies of those who died of it,
face downwards, they set to work and reopened the
graves, and turned all the corpses over on their faces.
Of course the cholera spread fiercely after this. Three
hundred died in this one village.
'' It was now a long walk over plains of snow on top of
the mountains. Emerging from the environing circle of
heights, the landscape opened away on the south to a great
plain, on the far side of which was the magnificent barrier
of mountains looking down on the Araxes and Persia. It
is fifty miles away — and before it is a sea of the softest
blue— too ethereal for this world— and yet too real not to
be. It is more beautiful than the clear blue sky above us,
more lovely than any painter could paint, or than any poet
could find words to describe. Yet if scenery could give
power to either painter or poet, surely it would be here in
these Armenian mountains and in yonder everlasting hills
whose forms were known to the Assyrian kings as well
M2
196 NEAR THE PERSIAN BORDER
as to Darius, and daily looked upon by Cyrus through all
his earlier years, and woven into his very dreams. Yes,
that Cyrus dreamed of those mountains of the Araxes I am
as certain as that I am dreaming here myself, alone.
" My companion, after asking if I would ride again
when the horses came up, and finding I would do so,
decided to finish the journey on foot, and went on ; and I
am alone on this great plain of snow, quietly walking after
him when I have finished my little outline above. Sud-
denly as I look up I see two figures on horseback in the
distance, and as they draw near, I see a gentleman in the
Russian military uniform, and a lady in black, who by her
veil must be a Tartar. He asks me something in a voice
of cultivated tone— but I am obliged again to fall back on
' Ya Anglitchanin ; ya ne gavarou pa Rousky. Perevost-
chik pridiyot ' (pointing back.) ' I am an Englishman ; I
can't speak Russ. The interpreter is coming.' I was so
full of Bartaz and the Araxes that it never occurred to me
to try French with the strangers; they understood my
difficulty however, and passed on. I found afterwards
that they were a Tartar Bek and his wife.
" The descent into the next dell was difficult from the
sun melting the snow, and leaving the volcanic debris
a soft, very adhesive mud, that held down my goloshes,
and unless I took care, pulled them off. At the bottom the
path turned sharply to the left, and in rounding the corner
I found myself suddenly face to face with four Tartars
armed to the teeth. Ordinarily I should expect as a very
likely thing to be robbed ; but I am not here in my own
will, and I am perfectly certain of protection by my
Master. I pass them cheerfully with * Salaam,' and they
courteously give me their own (initial) greeting ' Salam
maluchim ! ' * Peace be to you ! '—a word they never
deign to say to an Armenian. I do not think that life is so
lightly esteemed in any other part of the world as here on
the border of Persia.
ARRIVAL AT GERUSI
197
"When the horses overtook me it was at the entrance
of a glen with no road at all in it ; nothing but a mountain
stream. There was but little water running in it ; plenty
of ice and boulders. Up this stream we went, the horses
feeling their foothold among the rocks ; now crawling
down a bank ; now leaping and scrambling out again to a
bed of the higher or spring torrent-level when the snows
melt. When that comes, of course no living thing could
stand here. Rocks and boulders are driven down, tearing
fresh passages for themselves, and gradually changing
even * the everlasting hills ' into plains !
"After more ups and downs we again come out on a
plateau covered with snow ; and at last look down some
couple of thousand feet below us, on Gerusi. It is a
village, at first sight, of European houses ; but on nearer
acquaintance two villages, for an Armenian settlement
stands back in the hollows of the slope we must now
descend. But how to get down there ? The Tartars
swing cheerily on with no idea of danger ; and we have
to trust to the horses as before.
" At last we got to the valley, and in a few minutes
were in the yard of the cara-
vanserai. As it is a fine
sunny afternoon we unloaded
our luggage in the yard and
sat outside while a Tartar
youth wiped our floor with a
wet cloth, and cleaned the
little table. He looks as much
like a Cranham gipsy as can
be ; except that he shaves
his head as a Mahometan.
He does not dye his beard
with henna, like his master, who owns the place and
superintends the arrangements— for the simple reason that
he, Ali Hassan, has as yet no beard to dye. As soon as
198 ALI AKBER
he has done the floor, he lights a fire in the little iron
stove ; and as the hole in the wall sends the smoke back
into the room, he fetches a double handful of mud from the
yard and plasters it up.*
"He is helped by a bright boy of twelve or fourteen,
Ali Akber. He has a very nice face, dark as a Hindoo,
and large expressive eyes. Though a Tartar he has
learnt Russian at school, and speaks it well. Is very
glad to answer any of our questions. ^ How many Prophets
are there ?' '144 thousand.' Then he gives the names of
some : Ibrahim, and Sheof (Job) figure among them. I
suggest Da-veed, and Salomon? Yes. They were pro-
phets ; but not Veliki propMten (not great ones.) There
are only five Veliki : Ibrahim and Natch (Noah) and
Yakoob and Eesus and Mahomet.
'* Does he intend to become a MoUah ? ' Niet ! ' To be
a Mollah one must go to Persia or to Turkey to learn ;
and he does not wish to go to either. Ali Akber stands
by the door after he has done our fire for the last time at
night, listening in rapt attention to our reading in the
Psalms. We hand the Russian Psalms to Gregorio witch,
P^RS/A»J "^^^j^ and he reads it after the English, a few
verses at a time— (Psalm 32)— so that
he and Ali may understand it. Both are
evidently very thoughtful. Ali had kept
coming in earlier in the evening to look
to the lamp, to pour water over our
hands for washing, from a beautiful
Persian jug into a new brass dish (bought
^£^ — on purpose for us,) to bring me svetchki
^ (candles,) and so on. I showed him the
sketches in this letter— to his great delight, and then let
him have a look at you — the group photograph from home.
"Ali has been a smart lad at school, and he carried a
blacklead pencil and a piece of paper in his pocket, in
token of his being a Mirza (writer.) He is entitled to sign
*See sketch on previous page.
CAVE DWELLINGS
199
his name as ' Mirsa Ali Akber ' in consequence of this
acquirement ; one may almost call it a B.A. degree, as
things go here. He must not put the Mirza after his
name — that mescns ^ Prince.' * * *
" We have had one walk up into the Armenian Village.
It is a place of exceeding interest — there are 500 houses,
part of them
half under-
ground in the
slant of the hill,
id /• "^^^^^^^^^ISI^/r'^ini'K^^il ^"^ P^^^ caves
ers and spires
of sandy con-
glomerate that
cover the
mountain side.
I begged per-
mission to go
into one of these homes. A parley with two veiled
women seemed likely to fail, when fortunately the husband
came home in the nick of time. After silencing a furious
Strabo by a punch in the ribs, we were courteously asked
in. It was intensely interesting to sit down on the car-
peted bench in a cave-dwelling, and see the ancient loom,
and the spinning wheel as old as the Babylonian Empire ;
and the oven in the middle of the floor ; and many things
besides.
"In the cave, shown above in the crag on the right,
dwells a potter. He has built a kiln just outside the door,
in which besides pots, pitchers, etc., he makes the ovens
like those I saw at Tiflis. Round at the back of this cave,
in the next cliff, I found a stable, similarly hollowed from
the rock. Standing at the back, and looking across a
small dell, we saw a funeral. The burial grounds are
almost always unfenced; and this one was. A procession
200 ARMENIAN FUNERAL
of sixty or eighty people came down to it from the shoulder
of the opposite hill. A child's coffin was borne in front, by
one man, (on his back) and the ceremony consisted for the
most part of singing. It lasted some twenty-five minutes ;
and then several men brought to the grave, each a stone
as large as he could carry, from a heap evidently kept for
the purpose. No doubt the loading a new grave with
such stones is a necessary protection in such a country,
from wolves or other wild animals digging up the body.
" Descending through the village we had the same
scene of beautiful colouring I have already mentioned —
for while the Armenian men and boys wear coffee-brown
tunics, or sometimes blue, and blue trousers, the majority
of the women dress in Turkey red (' Karmir,') and as they
stood or sat in their doorways or on the roofs of the
houses, the whole effect was really beautiful. From the
timbers of one porch a swing was suspended ; and a little
thing of two years old or so was enjoying it ! We walked
either along the streets, or on the roofs of the houses as
we chose. The chimneys came up in the most unexpected
places ; once, in the middle of the road !
" We left Gerusi for Shusha on Second-day morning at
9.30 — J. J. Neave and I deciding to walk back to Dyk;
for I agreed with him in preferring our own feet to a
horse's. We took a track not quite so direct as we might
have done — and did not arrive at the Stantsie of Dyk till
two o'clock ; for the sun was exceedingly hot, and the
snow giving way under our feet very tiring.
*' At the Stantsie we did not stay longer than to get
a quick meal, for we found the snow-blocked section of
road between this and Zabouch was now sufficiently pass-
able for the mail to have come in by a ' troika ' wagon, and
we were able to use this on its return journey. Joseph
Neave preferred walking all the way to Zabouch. Fast
went on horseback to accompany him ; for our Russians
are not such walkers as the English. Gregoriowitch and
RIVER ZABOUCH 201
I took the troika— exchanging at rare intervals a word or
two in French, which tongue he learned at school, and has
some little remembrance of.
" Eight versts before we could reach our Stantsie we
could see where it lay. The last two or three were down
a mountain I should think 1,200 feet to the valley. In
the very bottom was the Tartar village, and the pretty
green stream, with mulberry trees on both its banks;
the same river Zabouch I have [already] mentioned.
'' At last we have got down to its level. It is deeper
from melting snow, than when we crossed it on horseback ;
and we only barely escape damaging our baggage, as we
are dragged by main force amid the shifting boulders and
eddying waters. The horses at any rate are the better
for the plunge, for they were loaded with mud ; and now
they are as clean as new pennies !
"And here we are back in the Stantsie of our Tartar
village, with a good fire in our stove, and prepared for a
sound night's rest before to-morrow's heavy wagon ride
to Shusha, of 40 versts odd. I believe a week or two of
roughing it and walking like to-day's work would make
me as strong as I have ever been in my life. It is very
different from Upton Knoll with its bath-room, to turn out
as I did at dusk this evening with my soap and sponge
and go down to the brook to enjoy a wash in unlimited
cold water ! This comparison is not intended to the dis-
paragement of Upton, to which after all I shall get re-
accustomed very soon ; but as a contrast to little All
pouring leaks of water into my hand from his Persian jug.
To do the boy justice he was anxious to do all he could for
us, and very gladly fetched more water when the quantum
was exhausted. He wrote his name in my book just now,
in Russian ; and when I asked him, repeated his auto-
graph in Arabic. Ali Akber is decidedly a Mirza !
" The pleasant sound of the river Zabouch is filling all the
silence of the night— and my face is homeward so far as
202 DANGEROUS ROAD
the main part of our work is concerned. So, for the
moment, Farewell ! "
The following morning the party left Zabouch, continuing
their return journey to Shusha, which they reached that
night.
2 mo. 14, 1893.
*' No one can form the least idea of the difficulty of such
a journey as this to Gerusi [from Shusha] by looking at
the map, which gives it forty versts as the crow flies ;
whereas the actual measured distance on the post road
is eighty. And the to and fro of this eighty versts
takes the same time that it does from London to Peters-
burg — four days ! while it is incomparably more fatiguing
than to travel from England to Russia !
" It grew dark before we had ended the run — so dark
that I could no longer distinguish the edge of the precipice
just below me, for I took the outside seat; but I knew
what it was from having gone over the ground five days
ago. The worst places are where the edge has given
way and been mended with faggots. Where a rill crosses
the road, back in a gorge, it eats away the ground, and
the wheel goes bump down into the notch in a very
unpleasant way ; and while the horses always manage to
keep clear of newly fallen blocks of stone lying in the way,
once in a while the wheel does wo^— and a hit against
a large stone of this sort this evening shook me for an
instant off the seat ! But it is over— and we have indeed
cause to feel very thankful to have been brought through
all our hardest mountain travelling in safety, health, and
strength !
" Before it grew quite dark we could see the great
limestone cliff from a long distance, that crowns the hill of
Shusha. It is a singular sight. On the top of a volcanic
mountain (I believe) of over 5,000 feet high, comes a per-
pendicular wall of cliff, of from one to two hundred feet
deep, three quarters of a mile or more long, by one
SHUSHA CLIFFS 203
quarter of a mile broad. The end is so exactly like a
castle that it is not easy to think it merely natural, yet
it certainly is so.
"2 mo. IS' We left between one and two o'clock for
the railway to Elizabethpol and Tiflis. It is hard for us
English folk to realize a two days' drive to the station, but
this is what it is, for the distance is 105 versts. The road
is in good order now, for the snow is gone, and by six
o'clock we had reached a Tartar village, Agdam, to which
a posting Stantsie is annexed on rather a large scale ; and
the building in which we have our quarters to-night is
a singular compound of hotel and caravanserai."
To his Wife.
Agdam, 15-2-93.
" Agdam is a Tartar settlement on the post-road from
Shusha to the Railway. We are just at the end of the
mountains, and on the edge of the steppe. It is a most
welcome change ; for while a little mountain scenery
is very pleasing, such an amount as we have had fills one
with very different feelings. To be shut in day after day
by black gigantic cliffs of lava, and to ride from sunset to
dark along precipices, is a very depressing experience, as
204 CARAVANSERAI OF BARDA
well as a very exhausting one, physically. I am as well
as need be, yet aching in every limb from the tremendous
jolting of the last few days.
" Sixth-day, 2 mo. 17. We did fairly well at Agdam,
and managed to get some sleep in spite of the dirty floors.
At one we stopped at the caravanserai of Barda. The
general outline of the place is like that I have already
described ; but the rooms are here approached from a bal-
conied platform of five feet or so from the ground. A very
rough step-ladder gives access to it ; that is, on condition
of one's making a giant-stride to begin with, for the bottom
step was gone. The room, exceedingly dirty, is paved
with coarse tiles, not set close ; and two square yards in
the centre have apparently gone to look for the ladder step !
" I felt for once degoute. I have stood a good deal on
this journey— eating Tartar bread, and Armenian ditto ;
and cheese that never had any connection with cow's
milk, to say nothing of a loaf laid on a pillow, and a salt-
cellar kept beside the brush and comb on the dressing-
table. To watch a man, while one is eating, cleaning
one's goloshes with his coat-tails, and a boy cutting the
mud splashes off Gregoriowitch's uniform with a pocket
knife, does not increase one's appetite — and this morning
I gave in ! I felt rather qualmish, and as soon as I had
warmed myself I set out to walk on towards our final halt
at the Railway Station.
" The traffic at intervals was great ; and then- again one
would be alone for a time— nothing else in the whole circle
of vision but some far-away flock of sheep, with the soli-
tary herdman watching them. When flocks are not too
far off, they form a much prettier feature in the landscape
than with us ; because they are of many shades of colour —
black, several shades of brown, and a few white ; while a
goat and some kids give further variety to it.
" I carried a small hammer to break pebbles, etc., on
the stone heaps by the roadside ; for these are brought
TARTARS 205
from the neighbouring river beds, and contain specimens
of the volcanic rocks we have seen such masses of. By
and by a Tartar rides up and requests me to hand him
up the stone I was examining. ' What is it ? ' I laugh,
and tell him ' Nitchevo ! ' (' It's of no use ! ') ' Nitchevo ? '
he queries, rather puzzled. I assure him it is, Nitchevo !
What am I myself ? Can I speak Russian ? 'No.' 'lam
an Englishman.' 'Inglesam?' he repeats doubtfully —
and then asks if it is a Frank. ' Da ! Frank ! ' I reply ;
and so we part the best of friends — he remarking as
the light dawns upon him, handing me back my specimen,
' Rousky Kamm /' (i.e. I was a Frank collecting Russian
stones.) Another lot of Tartars offer me a ride in their
wagon, which I am obliged to decline on the ground that
' Phytone pridiyott ot Barda,' (pointing back to the place.)
There is no fear of being robbed just here, for the police
are at this moment scouring the district after the band
whose exploits I have already told. They came up with
them a couple of days ago, but did not dare close with
them, for the highwaymen or banditti are a band of eight,
well armed and prepared to fight to the death. The
country people help to conceal them. They are afraid
to do otherwise. When the banditti come to plunder
them, they send word to the police, and when the police
are on the track, they send word to the banditti— and
so endeavour to keep on good terms with both.
" The stage was twenty versts. I had walked seven or
eight when Joseph Neave overtook me, and at ten versts
the carriages overtook us. The fact is that walking is far
more pleasant than riding, for the bitter cold north wind
was blowing in our faces from the Daghestan Mountains ;
and the exercise just balanced the chill. The sight grew
more splendid as we drew nearer the range, and as the
afternoon sun changed the shadows and lights on the cliffs
and gorges. The base of the hills we did not see for the
day — the belt of cloud hiding it. As sunset drew near,
2o6 AT EVELACH STATION
the colouring grew vivid and beautiful. All the way along
the eastern line — about half the distance that separated us
from the Caspian Sea— the snow-covered peaks stood out
in a pale rose tint. Right in front of us, rising out of a sea
of violet haze, came the line of purple cliffs that margin
the river Koura ; here and there touched with fiery red.
Above these again came volumes of cloud, dark and cold ;
and then far up into the sky the great towers of crimson
and burning peaks, and red blazing chasms and precipices,
and down below them the grey cloud silently rising and
dimming the resplendence, until the fires rested only on
the last solitary points, paused, and died away.
" It is a cold chilly evening as we drive past the cara-
vanserais with their silhouetted mosquito towers to the
Evelach Railway Station. We have to ask permission of
the authorities to be allowed to stay in the waiting-room
all night, for there is no train westward till half-past eight
to-morrow morning. The under-stationmaster at once
accords this ; and we have the satisfaction of being in
a clean room, with European comforts, or some of them,
around us. There is a train to Baku at ten at night;
several passengers drop in, and we have a very interest-
ing chat with one of them, a Tartar formerly in the body-
guard of Alexander II. He is a thin intelligent-looking
>
man, shaved all but a heavy moustache ; a strict Ma-
hometan. I do not know that I ever gained more inform-
ation from any man in the same brief interval than from
him.
" When the Baku passengers had cleared out, we
prepared for the night's rest. A fire had been lighted in
the large refreshment room. Gregoriowitch wrapped
himself in his bourka and lay on a sofa ; Joseph Neave on
another ; Fast lay on the stone floor on his bourka — the
station cat curling herself up by his side as the warmest
place. But the fire went out in the night, and all suffered
more or less from the cold, except puss, who still kept to
SUNRISE 207
the bourka on the floor. I had a sofa, or rather a divan
in the small first-class waiting room— no fire— but my
wolfskin as usual kept me as warm as toast, and I had a
really good night. At eight we had coffee and good white
bread. Butter there was none ; nor milk. No one at the
station could keep a cow, I fancy ; the certainty that she
would be stolen is a deterrent. A few passengers come
in : among them a Priestoff or superintendent of police, in
his grey uniform. As he opens the door, he falls all
along, dead drunk on the floor. A faithful Tartar servant
gets him up and on to the sofa ; and one of his subordinate
police gets his pass for him, at the booking office.
" In the little interval before the train comes, I turn out
for a walk on the platform. It is a lovely morning.
Away, far away over the level steppe towards the Caspian,
the sky is gilding with the sunrise ; and a cliff or two of
the great mountains on the north catch the reflection ; but
the clouds hide the rest. Southward the mountains we
escaped from yesterday are clear and dazzling in snow ;
and I take my last farewell of the 7,000-feet volcano that
comes furthest towards the valley.
" It was a relief to be once more in the train, rolling on
and on over the steppe instead of being imprisoned in the
Armenian mountain gorges ! At every station the same
sights ; the woman holding the flag at the crossing ; the
mosquito tower just outside ; the long petroleum train
on the siding for us to pass. On the steppe itself some-
times irrigation and cultivation, sometimes stunted bar-
berry bushes, sometimes a flock with its shepherd. Here
a line of sand hills, like those at Hayle and Gwithian —
till a closer sight shows them to be the volcanic sandy
mud, like that of Gerusi with the cave dwellings cut in
it ; and there are cave dwellings here, too, perched in
the sandstone cliffs. Just outside one station, the porter's
abode is one of those underground houses Strabo describes !
Europe and Asia wrestling together — the one to force her
2o8 ELIZABETHPOL
innovations on her sister : railways and new fangles of all
sorts— the other to hold what she has, and means to keep !
'' Yonder on the right is a mosque of brown tile work,
but domed in most beautiful Persian blue tiles that glisten
in the sun like deep sapphire. Ten versts more and we
are at Elizabethpol. Two phy -tortes take us and our
baggage, and we plunge at once into a bed, a sea, of mud,
of the consistence of mortar, of the colour of raw umber,
and of the depth of twelve inches. We take our places in
a file of phy-tones, each dragged by two horses by main
force through the bog. Plunging, rocking, halting, we
go on through this incredible bog till we cross a destroyed
burial ground, the subsidence of the graves under our
wheels making even this bad so much worse that at one
lurch, Joseph Neave, who never loses his head as I do,
quietly remarks, ' I hope we shall not be upset here or we
might be stifled before we could get up.'
" For the last verst the mud changes to a thin fluid with
a surface like Windermere, except as to colour, which is
now pale drab. At last we splash our way across the
great square round which the plane trees stand, and the
bazaar shops behind them. The next two streets brought
us to the hotel, and our coachman, a Kazan Tartar, thought
well to smack his horses and finish up with a fast trot ! A
burst of indignation rose on all hands, which bewildered
me, till a loud shout from two men in a phy-tone coming
the opposite way made me look up instead of down into
the sea below. Both men were leaning away from us,
and covering their faces with their hands, which were
heavily splashed. I realised too late that our man had
made his carriage into a powerful centrifugal pump, and
had been throwing columns of mud into the air from our
wheels and the horses' feet, which had come down on the
by-passers and on the goods in the shop fronts ! I wonder
we were not mobbed ! It was really a relief to find oneself
inside the hotel door, and the matter allowed to drop.
SEASONS OF TRIAL 209
2 mo. 18.
"In the train for Tiflis. I sat up very late last night
writing the foregoing. On glancing at it I note that it
conveys the exact impressions of the moment; yet it
would mislead a stranger to our movements if he imagined
they were mainly light or amusing. I purposely avoid
much mention of such parts of our work as involve mental
pain and exercise of spirit. These are neither few nor far
between. Such a season was my lonely walk from Barda ;
heaved up and down on the wave, I could well feel near
the state of the disciples who cried, ' Master, carest thou
not that we perish ? ' Yet above it all, and below it all, is
the feeling that it will yet be well ; and one is held firmly
enough in the storms not to cast away the small measure
of confidence that is left till the waves grow still again. . .
" I did not mention yesterday the beautiful blue seas we
saw under the Koura cliffs. They set me dreaming, as
well they might, for they were of dream material them-
selves—mirage—with the morning sun on the vapour."
To his Children.
In the Train to Tiflis, 18-2-93.
*' It was a delightful thing yesterday, when we got into
Elizabethpol, to have a whole lot of letters and post-cards
handed to me. I picked out Mamma's — and read that^rs^
you will say ? No, I didn't ! I saved it to the last, because
it is always nice to have the best to finish up with. And
it was nice ! I expect some more letters to-night when we
get home to Tiflis. It seems like home after going to the
places I have told Mamma all about; for it is like being
cut off at sea from the land, to feel that it will take one
four whole days and nights to get to the nearest railway
station ! You must know, too, that there is only one train
in the day, here, each way. Some of the stations are in
places where there is no water to drink, no bread to
eat, no meat or fish, no shops to buy anything in. So
N
210 A TRAVELLING CHAPEL
the Railway has a travelling shop; and when the train
comes in, people have driven in from the country to meet
it and get what they want. Then there is a great carriage
like an iron boiler painted white (to keep it cool on hot
days,) to bring water; and once a month there is a
travelling chapel of the Greek Church in the train. They
bring it into a siding with the engine, and leave it till next
day. It is fitted up with an altar and pictures of saints,
and great wax-candles that burn all day before these
pictures. All the officials are expected to come and take
the sacrament while the travelling priests are there to give
it to them ; and if there is a marriage, it is timed to meet
the train-day. The bride and bridegroom and all their
attendants go into the carriage, and the priests chant and
sing over them ; and then they all walk round the saloon
in procession, while two friends of the bridegroom go
behind the newly married pair, holding a heavy crown
above the head of each. They say it makes their arms
ache to do it. I think if I had to do it, I should ask if a
half crown would not do as well !
** Then the next day the chapel is hooked on to the train
again, and goes to the next station— and when all the
stations are done, it goes back to Tiflis. * * *
" We have just stopped to dine at Akstapha. I could
only get raw fish, bread and colBfee, but I have managed
to make a meal. When I say 'raw' I mean that it is
smoked — but not cooked. I must not forget to tell you
that last night, at our hotel, we asked for slivki (cream) as
Joseph Neave can hardly drink black coffee. They
brought us a quart bowl nearly full ! When we came to
use it, we found it was very nearly what we call Cornish
cream ; and we had part of it again to-day for breakfast.
This helps to shew, I think, that the Cornish people had
their way of making cream from Asia. The manners and
customs that we are in the habit of thinking Syrian or
Jewish would be properly described as Western Asiatic ;
LOCUST EGGS 211
for we have seen very many things here in this old part
of Persia that remind one of what we read in the Bible.
Three days ago as we drove along the road from Shusha,
we saw an aged woman, seemingly a widow, sitting on
the ground^ begging. A little child stood by her. Joseph
Neave reminded me of a passage, perhaps in Isaiah, ' She,
being desolate, shall sit upon the ground.'
"Locusts eat up the crops sometimes, and the Russian
Government, to keep them under, makes every house
collect 3 poods of locust eggs in the spring (a pood is 36
pounds.) All the women and children then turn up and
are very busy gathering these eggs ; and as they go in
among the bushes to find them, they often get bitten by
serpents, and sometimes die. If they cannot find three
poods, they have to buy as many as will make up the
difference ; and a good trade is done by Persians bringing
them over the border to sell ! Of course it comes to the
same thing ; for if the eggs were allowed to hatch in
Persia the locusts would fly over to the Caucasus and do
the same mischief as if they were natives."
CHAPTER XI.
VISIT TO BASHKETCHET
ON THEIR return to Tiflis from their long and
fatiguing journey to Shusha and Gerusi, the two
travellers rested for a day or two, and then left with their
interpreter for Bashketchet, to the south-west, to visit
Prince Hilkoflf. The latter— once a wealthy landed pro-
prietor—had divided his estate among his tenants ; and,
for his dissent from the Greek church, was now living,
in banishment, the simple life of a peasant.
From John Bellows to his Wife.
Ekaterinenfeldt, 20-2-93.
" Yesterday, First-day, we rested all day ; aching in
every limb and stiff from our heavy journey in the moun-
tains. I felt rather poorly with it ; but a good night's rest
in the beautiful clean sheets and pillows we can appreciate
so, after Asiatic rugs, set all right ; and this morning I
was up at six, and we breakfasted and packed in time to
be on the road at a quarter before eight, for Bashketchet,
the village in which Prince H. is exiled. It is a long way,
though but little on the map : eighty-five versts, much of
which is over downs with no road.
"We had a phaeton with four horses abreast, and a
good driver — a Molokan. For the only time since coming
to the Caucasus we had a clean nice-looking carriage.
Driving out of the Eastern or Persian gate, we seem by
the map to be wrong, for our destination is south-west ;
but the mountains near Tiflis are so bad in the direct line,
that we do better to go ten or twelve versts further round.
ROUGH TRAVELLING 213
and avoid them. The thing was to get as far on as possible
while the ground was hard with frost ; for if the sun
should be hot, part of the way would be so deep and ad-
hesive that even four horses could not pull the carriage
through, and in such an event we should have to unharness
and leave the carriage in the middle of the moors, and
each of us mount one of the horses ! This often happens.
"At no great distance out, we overtook a caravan of
thirty- one loaded camels : a very interesting sight. By
and by we leave the Baku chaussee and strike over the
great barren plains and low rolling plateaux that separate
the last hills of the Great Caucasus fromi^the first hills of
the Lesser. It is rough work. Fancy having to drive all
the way from Cheltenham to Weston-super-Mare — more
than half of it over arable land, and part over worse roads
than the most cut-up roads in an English field, frosen.
We have to make fifty versts to-day, staying the night at
Ekaterinenfeldt, a German * Colony ' village, and finishing
the other thirty-five versts to-morrow.
" By and by we sight another caravan in the distance ;
and as we come up with it find twenty-nine camels in a
long line, with four swarthy fellows as drivers, slowly and
with stately swing, pacing the desert. For it is a desert :
not of sand, but of dull brown earth, everywhere thickly
bestrewn with stones. It looked as if nothing green grew
on it, but there must be some slight herbage, as we pass
several flocks of sheep. In the midst of one of them, I get
our driver to pull up and ask the two Tartar shepherds a
few questions : ending with a request for a specimen of
the 'Asiatiske' sheep's wool, of both white and black
colours. Fifteen kopeks donation for same gratifies the
Tartars.
" Slipping, bumping over the frozen ruts, plunging into
a pit or mounting a bank, we go trotting on at I dare say
five miles an hour notwithstanding. At one rather deeper
ditch than usual we drove a few yards to and fro on the
214
GEORGIAN PRINCES
nearer bank before our cocher would risk the dip that
might break his springs ; at last finding the least for-
bidding spot, we pass it in safety. At twelve o'clock
^^-x we have reached the
ssC C-^ "- " Tartar village of Sar-
van. The first house
we come to on cross-
ing a timber bridge
over a stream, is a
Duchan or inn. The
weather is cold, but not bitterly so ; and we prefer sitting
outside under the 'Balkon' to going into the gloomy
interior.
*' Our horses are scarcely out of harness, and our
provisions unpacked, when another team of four in a
phaeton drives up, and two gentlemen in uniform descend
and take their seats at a table on our left. They are very
pleasant-mannered, and are perfectly ready to chat with
us, giving us any details we ask for, and so on. We offer
them tea or some of our cold eggs ; they politely decline,
but press us to take some of their shisslik (roasted mutton
done on skewers over charcoal.) One is a very handsome
man of thirty, and what is very unusual here, he is blond
and with very light hair. His companion looks much
older ; I guessed him sixty — but he told Fast he was
thirty-six years old only : adding ' It is very usual for us
here in the Caucasus to turn grey early.' We found they
were two Georgian princes.
" We had twenty versts yet to do. In the course of it
we passed a large deserted Persian fort on the bank of the
river Chram, and on the further bank a considerable
Tartar village. A good many children were on the flat
house-tops to see us drive past. I should mention that we
had now come on to the post-road to Alexandropol, and,
though very rough, it was a decided step in advance of
the moorland. By six o'clock we drew towards [this]
EKATERINENFELDT — MOLOKANI 215
flourishing German colony : marked for several versts
before its approach by well-fenced vineyards, and the
never-failing Lombardy poplars brought here by the good
Swabians and Wurtemburgers, who were the original
founders of Ekaterinenfeldt.
*' It is the most prosperous-looking village we have yet
seen in the Transcaucasus ; we might say in all Russia.
Excellently built houses in the German style, modified as
it is here by the Asiatic verandah and balcony, show their
gables to the street ; many of them coloured, or rather
colour-washed, in tasteful fashion. We go on almost to
the end of the village, where it descends a gentle slope,
and drive into the yard of the village hotel. We are taken
to a clean little room on the right of the door, a fire put in
the stove, good coffee, etc., etc.— not forgetting fried
potatoes for the chronicler of these events, who is now
going to bed, as his friends are already in theirs.
22-2-93
" Rising early we were again on our way betimes. A
fairly level but rough road lasted till a little beyond our
first halt, about ten or half-past. It was a Duchan : a
house half underground, half an inn and half a shop. A
blacksmith has his forge for shoeing close at hand ; but as
the owner of the Duchan facetiously remarks, he has more
shoes than horses to put them on. After baiting our team,
and samovaring ourselves, we go forward, passing a new
colony of Molokani. A number of log houses are being
built in all directions : several tiny ones, of one room, are
already finished. These are the vapour baths a la russe :
to every Molokan a sine qiid non. There are twenty-five
families in the colony, and they have taken 1500 desiatines
of fertile land on a kind of plateau, but with a bordering
of forested hills on the two sides. They have a lease
of thirty years, and pay i rouble 80 per desiatine per year.
Last autumn was their first crop of melons, which would
have paid well, sold in Tiflis, about seventy versts off, but
2l6
AT BASHKETCHET
for the cholera regulations making it illegal to offer them.
They have sown a large breadth of wheat, etc. Timber
for the buildings they have free ; and, for firewood, some
hills covered with trees behind their allotments they also
have free. They will become prosperous, if they are not
interfered with on the ground of their religion.
" The road goes on rising for miles, the last part over
high table-land covered with snow ; and at last, in the
afternoon, in a dip of this plateau, we see two villages near
each other : one, flat-roofed and half-burrowing, the other
very German-looking. The latter is Bashketchet, our
destination. The snow is deep. We are over four thou-
sand feet above the sea, and there is one height in sight,
over ten thousand.
" Ivan, to whom has referred us to lodge, is
quite willing to do so ; but as his space available is very
small, he ends by taking us to another peasant's, where
we have a room i8' by 20', and are well accommodated.
The door is on the right. A similar but poorer room is
opposite ; and the latter was for a month the lodging of
Prince H., we found. The good people of the village, this
PRINCE HILKOFF
217
house included, are Duchabortsi, of whom there is a total
colony here of eight villages. The peasant's wife gets us
a good supper— eggs, milk, boiled potatoes, and home-
made brown wheaten bread. Her dress is a red plaid
cotton, with head-gear somewhat like a helmet of red and
blue, tipped with bright ends of ribbon in front. This is
the general head-dress of women of this sect.
" Next door is a smaller cottage (like this below,) in the
left-hand room of which Prince H. lives, with his wife and
two little children. We send him word of our arrival. In
a short time he comes in : a man of say five-and-thirty,
dressed in a dark brown tunic of coarse woollen. In
profile he reminds me of , very fair, with wavy
light-brown hair and beard, blue eyes, and a most sweet
dignified look. He wears a pince-nez, and is very gentle-
manly in bearing ; indeed it would be impossible to take
him for a peasant, though he identifies himself with the
peasants in every way he can. At the moment of our
arrival he was carrying a burden of firewood. One would
take him for a country doctor ; and in fact he is exceed-
ingly useful to his neighbours for some distance round in
this capacity.
" He asked if I could come and look at an old peasant
in the village, who was ill. I ought to say that he had
enquired if I knew anything about sick management ; and
it was my affirmative reply that led to this second question.
We went to a tidy log house, where a tall strong man of
sixty-five lay in bed, in a good deal of fever. I got a
2i8 NURSING AN OLD PEASANT
large tub of hot water and well bathed the old farmer's
feet ; and a hot blanket to wrap them in ; and got the men
who were with him to rub him. In the morning his tem-
perature was down. They were very grateful to the
anglisky Feldsher^ as I dubbed myself in fun ; and sent a
message that they hoped the Lord would bless me and
bring me to my family again in good health, and to find
them so. (A Feldsher is a rough and ready doctor who
has passed no examination ; a man who generally gives
medicine rather with the hope of finding out what is the
matter, than with any distinct idea of its curing !)
" The great fierce dogs to be passed in going from one
house to another, are a serious danger ; for they bite,
Prince H. said, as well as bark. He put a stick into my
hand (notwithstanding his non-resistant principles, which
he carries further than Friends do) and a piece of bread in
the other. The dogs in all cases prefer the bread. One
old fellow who lay in the porch of our lodging needed
a great deal of admonition from our friends to keep him
from flying at us ; and after he had been threatened, and
tapped on with a stick, and ordered to * Posho/.^ Posho//',
he groaned and growled like a demon. I never heard a
dog make such sounds — and hope I never shall again !
" As soon as we had done with the old farmer we went
to Prince H.'s cottage. He lives, with his wife and two
children — a boy of four and a girl of two-and-a-half— in the
left-hand room in my sketch. It is about twelve feet
square, with an earthen floor. A large oven fills one
corner, similar to the one in our lodging. One wooden
and one iron bedstead, and a table, with a chair or two,
make all the furniture. Two shelves on the wall hold
books and bottles of medicine. A very tiny scullery opens
from it, in which a paraffin stove and other necessary
utensils stand.
"Princess H. is a pleasant-looking woman of thirty to
thirty-six years — oval face, very black hair and eyes.
EPISODE OF THE SIEGE OF KARS 219
The little boy — a sweet little fellow who was four years
old on the day of our arrival— has an air distingzi^ in spite
of his father's endeavour to live the life of a peasant.
" We had a long and exceedingly interesting conversa-
tion. Prince H. gave us the history of his charge upon
the Turks in the siege of Kars, the General of the Russian
forces (an Abkhasian by the way) sending him with only
fifty men to surprise an enormously larger force of Turks
in their sleep. A Tartar brigand who was serving under
him recoiled at the idea of killing men in their sleep ; and
Prince H., too, felt pity for them, and refrained. In a few
moments the Turks were prisoners, without bloodshed,
when one of them lifted his rifle, with the muzzle at
Prince H.'s breast, and was going to fire. Prince H.
leaned over (he was on horseback) and fired down on the
man's head, killing him instantly ; but the fact haunted
him, and he determined to kill no more. The officer to
whom he first spoke of this advised him not to resign
until he was sure that his motive was not fear, and sug-
gested his going into battle and not defending himself, as
a test. He did. Twice he half drew his sword in the
heat of the excitement — but sent it back into its sheath
again. Once a Turk put the muzzle of his rifle to the nape
of his neck, but it slipped, and as he pulled the trigger,
the ball went just past his ear, the explosion deafening him
so that for three days he heard nothing whatever. He
came out of the action with another hair-breadth escape ;
and then he resigned. It happened that he was not
ordered to serve in this siege of Kars, but had volunteered,
and this left it possible for him to withdraw without a
court-martial. He is exfled, not for this, but for speaking
to people about religion.
"As a nobleman, the Government would even now
release him if he asked to go abroad ; but he feels that he
is more useful here at Bashketchet, among the peasantiy.
AU the people look up to him almost as an angel. They
220 RETURN TO TIFLIS
bring him bread, and potatoes, and flour, and fruit, and
everything they have, as much as he needs ; and he talks
to them in a way to open their eyes to many things, and
he tends them in their sickness. I must tell you about his
visit to a sick Tartar when I get back. ^ * *
"When we came to settle in. for the night, Prince H.
was anxious to ensure our being warm ; and in spite of
our protestations that we had wood enough, he went and
brought us a double armful to keep the stove going all
night. J. J. N. and Fast offered me the bed : they to
sleep on the benches. I declined, and insisted on lying on
the floor by the stove, which I did, in my old friend the
wolf-skin, and was very comfortable except when the old
Adam put Isidor ^ into my mind and his diabolical delight
in cruelty.
"In the morning the good woman of the house baked
us some fresh hot cakes for breakfast, and Prince H.
brought us a beautiful jug of milk. The meal well over,
we started to walk (J. J. N., Prince H. and I) in advance
of the horses, over the deep snow. It w^s a walk I shall
never forget ; and it was hard to part when the moment
came that we must do so. I felt very closely united with
him in spirit. Riding behind our carriage was a young man
with a spare horse besides his own. This was sent by the
villagers for Prince H., as they had seen him start to walk
with us, and they wished to spare him the walk back."
* A certain Greek priest, who had threatened Prince H. with
further punishment.
CHAPTER XII.
KUTAIS—POTI— FAREWELL TO TIFLIS— FLOWERS-ON THE BLACK
SEA— SEVASTOPOL— LITTLE RUSSIA— ST. PETERSBURG AGAIN—
AT COUNT TOLSTOI'S— RETURN TO ENGLAND.
ON THEIR return from Bashketchet to Tiflis, the
work of the two Friends in the Trans- Caucasus was
ended, except for an interview in the city, and a journey
to Kutais. The former having to be postponed through
the illness of the person they wished to see, they pro-
ceeded at once to Kutais and made their call ; and then
went on to visit their old friend Wilson Sturge, the British
Vice-Consul at Poti.
From. John Bellows to his Wife.
KuTAis, 25-2-1893.
*'We left Tiflis last night about seven o'clock in the
ni-kouriastchi (Nichtraucher) carriage. As the only non-
smoking one is for ladies, we could stay but by sufferance.
A lady came, with her little girl about Lucy's age, and
took the two spare seats next ours ; but though a lady, she
was anything but 'ni-kouriastchi,' for she took out a
cigarette, lighted it, and made a cloud over our prospects.
Her husband, an army officer, came to see her off, but
did not accompany her. By and by we settled in on the
shelves; the little girl sleeping on the seat opposite me
rolled off on to the ground, but did not really wake up
with the blow. Meantime her mother lighted one cigarette
after another, to ' keep out the cold,' though I perceived
no cold to keep out — for the weather is quite mild at this
moment.
222 KUTAiS
" At four in the morning we left the train at Rion, where
a branch line of eight versts takes passengers to Kutai's.
Arrived at the town we slept in our chairs till seven, and
then came to the H6tel de France, where I write this.
"The city is exceedingly picturesque in situation, as the
river Rion, on which it stands, winds between cliffs and
mountains, reminding one of the Saar. Pomegranate
trees grow everywhere, and I saw figs already formed
larger than hazel nuts. The blackberry-bramble is bud-
ding, and violets are in bloom. We have had a walk up
the hillside to a fort held by the Turks about 1815 against
the Russians, who destroyed it.
"The Rion is an exceedingly rapid torrent: muddy at
this season, and liable to heavy floods. The mud from
one part of it is a natural cement of great hardness, used
constantly as mortar. Evergreen trees, such as cypresses,
grow very tall here, and make a feature, with ivy on the
walls and cliffs, of much beauty in the greenness they give
among these dark mountains. The average temperature
is the same as that of Naples. In the bazaar I begged a
piece of Georgian wool — and bought two little fleeces —
though, singularly enough, I had wo^ Jason's being here for
his golden fleece in my mind as I did so! {These are
lambskins.)
" We have now finished all the visits we needed in the
Caucasus, except the final one at Tiflis, which we hope to
make on Third-day. We are both tired — but isoell; and
the rest to-morrow at Wilson Sturge's will be doubly
welcome after the ' roughing it' of the past three weeks.'
To his Wife.
POTI, 27-2-93.
'* Poti is a town of only 4000 inhabitants ; but the houses
are all bungalows, widely set apart from one another to
lessen the risk of fire, as they are built of wood.
" Crossing the Phasis — the Rion — by a long, low bridge,
English-built, and driving along a broad road, with trees
POTI 223
and bungalows on either hand, we arrive at Wilson
Sturge's villa. The blazing fire, the cocoa and cake and
bread and Trebizond butter, the chat till midnight, the
clean comfortable beds, the sleep with compound interest
to repay those borrowed hours of dozing in trains and
railway stations — all these things I can outline, and thou
canst fill in and shade off for thyself! Those days at
Udzharri in the steppe, and these two by the Black Sea,
at Poti, will always remain in my recollection as green
spots in our pilgrimage in Russia and Asia.
" After breakfast we sat down to our little meeting, to
feel some new evidence of that mercy which is new every
morning ; and to sit as under the shadow of a Great Rock
in a weary land. It was a sweet and refreshing time.
All of us parted from home, and from all that is dear to us
on earth ; all helpless and needing the renewal of our
strength — and, I feel sure, all finding it. Wilson Sturge
is greatly pleased to have our visit, for his position here is
a singularly lonely one.
" After this we went into the garden. Tall magnolias,
cypresses, retinosporas and lemon trees make it different
from an English one : but very pleasant after the vast
monotony of barren mountains we have been journeying
amidst.
'' In the afternoon, Wilson Sturge took us a walk to get
our first sight of the Black Sea. It is about two miles
from his house. Very wide roads, gravelled from the
strand of the Rion, at some distance out end the villas and
cottages, and we enter an open glade in a wood of not
very large trees, tangled and bound together in all
directions by climbing rose-bushes : at night the shelter
of vast numbers of nightingales. Violets and cyclamens
grow among the bushes below ; and we pick some which
I hope may reach thee safely, though faded.
" At last the wood ends. We can only see great green
banks in front— sand-banks : but they are artificial, the
224 THE BLACK SEA
remains of a Russian fort used in the Turkish war. Mount-
ing the bank we have the sea almost at our feet— wide
and blue and beautiful. The mountains of Armenia fill up
all the landscape on our left ; and very far off on our right
are the towering Alps of the Northern Caucasus. Filling
in the great semicircle that is formed by all these
mountains, or rather two sides of the semicircle — for the
plain of the Rion is flat for many miles — is the sea:
smooth and beautifully blue — blue as sapphire — with the
gilding of the evening sun on its farther line : this is the
' Black Sea: "
On leaving Poti, John Bellows and his friend returned
to Tiflis for the interview already alluded to, and then left
for St. Petersburg by way of Batoum and the Black Sea.
To his Wife.
Train, Tiflis to Batoum, 1-3-93.
" Leaving Tiflis closes a distinct chapter in our journey ;
and in doing so, I can truly acknowledge that I have been
many times in course of it impressed with the goodness
of the Almighty, who, as thou hast so well put it, is Lord
both of time and space, in so ordering it that neither the
time nor the distance which separate us has been per-
mitted to press upon my spirits to anything like its full
natural degree.
" As I look up from the window, I see we are running
along the bank of a swift river, a feeder of the Rion ; for
our watershed has changed since passing the tunnel, and
this stream runs to the Black Sea. The flora too has
visibly changed. We begin to see ivy on the cliffs, and
bushes of box and holly and yew, as well as the ' Colchic '
laurel. Little tufts of cyclamen appear on the edge of the
woods, and in one or two spots, considerable masses. I
note now and then some primulas, pink, with a light centre :
and, I think, a few primroses. Hellebore makes a good
show. A bright blue flower I take to be squills, in the
woods ; but there is no opportunity of verifying it by
FLOWERS 225
getting close. Blackberry brambles are abundant, with
last year's leaves half unshed ; but the barberry, that grows
all over the Caucasus east of the Suram and especially
east of Tiflis, is wanting. One thing that tends to this
change in the growth of plants, or rather in the plants, is
the much greater abundance of water. Here it is like the
Lake District. The loveliest cascades come down the
gorges: one, over a flight of very regular ledges like
stairs : another, in five silver streams down the face of a
perpendicular cliff, like the strings of a harp : and the
music, in a pause of the train, beautiful.
** For a long distance the valley was as narrow as that of
the Wye below Lydbrook ; but the hills are higher, and not
so thickly wooded. The train winds in and out between
the mountains, opening a fresh picture at every bend. By
degrees, however, the valley widens till we are on a
plain many miles broad. After a beautiful sunset we have
the moonlight on it ; and I feel that so far as description
of the landscape is concerned, in the Caucasus, my day's
work is done.
" I fully appreciate thy remark on the need of inward
trial to keep the heart humble and therefore nearer to God.
So far as this errand goes, on which we are now sent, I
cannot say that it has ever struck me that it was an honour
put on us, other than in the general sense that all true
Divine service is honourable. If the issue depended on
our skill or diplomacy, there might spring up such a
thought; but it does not. Indeed the instrumentality
seems so far removed from anything really effective, that
I am daily more or less beset with doubts as to its out-
come ; but I feel it is not right to let this idea have much
sway. It is enough to do what we are clearly called to
do, and leave the result. Things do not turn out as we
forecast, either for success or failure ; unless we have a
true sense given us of the result, which is, I think, but
seldom. * * *
o
226 VEGETARIANISM
"As to my interest in science during the journey, I
get along excellently with my companions ; for although
they have not the same tastes, I am often able to interest
them with some details. They are exceedingly nice and
very unselfish : always trying to give me the most
comfortable place, etc. As to food, we have got on all
the better in the last few days for the fast of the Greek
Church ; for this leads to the Hotels and Restaurants
having a sort of double menu : vegetarian for the ' ortho-
dox.' I conclude to discontinue fish : for I could not kill
them myself ; and if I cannot kill, I will not let others
kill for me. That the most robust health and strength
can be maintained without eating flesh is shown by the
porters of Tiflis, who are practically vegetarians."
To his Wife.
Black Sea, 2-3-93.
"It feels a distinct gain to be actually on the water
sailing north for home ! I am reminded of the Viking in
Frithiofs Saga, who, after roving not far from here,
among the Greek Islands, says —
' In the North is the land that's beloved.
I will follow the flight of the heavenly winds —
I will steer yet again for the North ! '
" We went on board our vessel in good time, and for
nearly an hour watched the interesting spectacle of the
final loading, and the coming on board of the last
passengers. They are of many nationalities — turbaned
Turks, fezzed Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Persians,
Georgians, Russians : a very picturesque assemblage in
every way. Among them two Turkish women, veiled in
a small-pattern check or plaid silk; though we are told
they often put aside their veils on board ship when no
Turks are present. These are nearly all second-class and
steerage passengers ; for we find the saloon passengers
are only^z;^ in a//— two ladies, and three gentlemen. Of
the latter, one is from Petersburg, one from Sydney, and
FELLOW- PASSENGERS 227
one from Gloucester : the Petersburg one being the
interpreter to the two Englishmen ! The saloon is four
times as large as our drawing-room. There are six tables
in it, and the steward is laying covers for five on one of
them. Away in the farthest corner, in an easy chair, is a
lady, with a book. Where the other is I do not know.
" There was a drizzling rain as we steamed out of
Batoum— but already, since I have written as far as this
line, we have passed beyond it into a serene atmosphere,
clear and quiet as the sea below us ; and this is so smooth
that no movement whatever is perceptible in the ship but
the tremor of the engines. It is the very perfection of
travel. The * Alexie ' is an English-built vessel, perfectly
new — most beautifully fitted— and of about 2000 tons
burden. We pay 30 roubles each for our passage, which
lasts three days— including the meals, which we are told
are as good as on board a Cunarder.
*' How different most things on our journey have turned
out from my expectation ! I had thought it not unlikely
that this passage would be rough. It didn't in the least
trouble me ; for I supposed the physical pain involved
might be needful, and therefore useful. For all physical
pain is also mental. Still, we are not to choose for our-
selves in such matters.
" At dinner the Captain, a handsome grey-haired officer,
took his seat at the head of our little table, and one, only,
of the two ladies graced it with her presence. She might
be an Englishwoman, or a German ; tall, light com-
plexioned, sad looking, but she never spoke a word.
The other lady beckoned the steward to bring her an
orange, and dined on that ; and then both disappeared to
the cabin. Ours is on the floor below, where we are
' monarchs of all we survey.'
3 mo. 4. 8 a.m.
" We are lying off the entrance to the Sea of Azof, with
a little steamer taking goods for Kertch from ours. There
02
228 NOVOROSSISK
is a fog : so that nothing is visible. We put in yesterday
at Novorossisk for five hours, while an immense quantity
of goods was landed and more put on board. All the
passengers went ashore— but the town is a wretched one,
not worth going to see: the streets, over ankle-deep in
mud, cannot be crossed except in certain parts, where a
little rise (as to ascend a bridge for instance) has allowed
the mud to harden a little. Here a repetition of footprints
in the same spots has left a little line of pits, down into
which one has to step, balancing one's-self : penalty for
slipping, whole suit of clothes spoilt.
" I was glad to get out of this, and away from the
stepping-stones which cross one large open space, down
to the beach, where I strolled along for an hour close to
the edge of the water. There is no tide ; but the wavelet
keeps lapping to and fro over a space of about two feet,
on the sand and shingle. I hunted in the shingle for little
shells for Jack and Dorothy. There is not much seaweed ;
and the pebbles give scarcely any variety, being nearly
all, as at Batoum, of dark blue limestone.
"Novorossisk is a place of perhaps 15,000 or 20,000
inhabitants, with a considerable industry in cement-
making. The stone (of which I have a specimen) is
exploited by a French company, who have built large
works here. It is brought in wagons from a score of
versts off, in the hills. The place is also a landing port
for masout — the waste tarry material from the paraffin
manufacture at Baku. It is stored in large tanks, from
which it is conveyed to the Russian railway stations for
fuel for the locomotives.
" I cannot get much information from the folk on board,
from the bar of language— but one passenger who has
joined us since starting, speaks French, and is intelligent.
He is a native of Sukhum Khale— the Dioscurias of
Strabo — and has given me some really interesting details
of the place. He is a great admirer of Gladstone as a
A STUDENT OF ENGLISH 229
statesman ; but he did not know that Ireland was one of
the British Isles. He suggested to me that it lies in the
Baltic, and seemed rather inclined to contest the point, but
I put my foot down firmly — and when, looking him
straight in the face, I told him I knew it was near England,
he meekly and nicely gave in. He would like to learn
English ; and I have this morning taught him to sound
the th as a commencement. I made him put his tongue
out a centimetre between his teeth and withdraw it in the
act of speaking. His th is now perfect : and so far he
might pass for the Master of Rugby 1 •»<■ * -x-
" As the Russians, many of them, have a superstition
that the English are all sailors and never get sick, I felt
that the honour of the flag required us to keep up this
delusion ; and Joseph Neave and I persisted in pacing the
deck when the rest had given in. I am not quite sure
that the effect was always dignified ; for now and then a
bad lurch would have suggested to a stranger that our
abstinence at table from vodky and schnapps was not
genuine ! "
To his Wife.
In the Train between Sevastopol and Kharkoff, S-3-93.
"We finished our voyage yesterday at dusk, just in
time to get comfortably from our steamer to the station ;
for the fog had delayed us three or four hours.
" The battle-field of Balaklava lies on the shore on our
right, before we get to Sevastopol : i.e.^ to the east of it.
Rounding a headland we pass between two large forts into
a long creek or arm of the sea with low hills on either
hand. At a little distance up, on the right, rises the town :
its suburbs stretching round a curve in front. Looking
this way, a gentle eminence on the left is the Malakoff.
Further still on the left, but not in sight, is Inkerman ; and
in the hollow leading to it lie the Russian dead.
" The general effect of the town itself is beautiful, and
deserving of its name. Picture the dark blue sea in front,
230 SEVASTOPOL
and a crescent-formed hill of white buildings rising from
it ; for the houses are new and white, with here and there
a blue dome, or bit of other colour to enliven the mass.
"We shook hands with our fellow-passengers of the
saloon, with warm wishes on their part for our safe
journey, and the success of our errand : one grey-haired
old engineer with especial feeling bidding us God-speed,
the tears filling his eyes. -J*- * *
" The crowd on the quay at Sevastopol was very great.
It took some time to get disentangled from it, and see our
baggage right ; and then we started for the Station. For
military reasons this is placed nearly two miles inland,
behind a hill which would largely shelter it from bombard-
ment. The town is new and beautiful, so far as the main
streets are concerned, although a great many houses ( I
think, but I am not sure, 300) are still in ruins from the
Anglo-French bombardment. Its situation is of the very
best as a harbour, and, as the sea is never frozen here, it
is certain sooner or later to become the chief port of Russia
on the Black Sea, instead of Odessa, which is often badly
blocked with ice. In the drive to the station we go over
the shoulder of the hill with a long, scarcely perceptible
rise. On our left is a long valley, the opposite side of
which is covered with hundreds of lights, for darkness has
now set in. We come down a rather steep slope to the
station, which is a very handsome one : strangely in
contrast to the shed that forms the terminus of the
Petersburg main line at Moscow.
" It was eight o'clock when we left Sevastopol. At
nine o'clock [next morning] we had passed miles of marsh
and flooded land from the River Dnieper : and then we
got to Alexandrovsk, a prosperous-looking German
colony. We get twelve minutes for breakfast, and here,
thanks to the colonists, we could get good cream and butter.
With the breakfast, I got rid of a little headache from
tobacco-smoke: for though we are in a ' w/-kouri«stchi '
LITTLE RUSSIA 231
carriage, they smoke just the same ! I sympathized with
Jonah when he said 'Do I not well to be angry,' as I
woke with the sickly smell of the cigarettes. I don't
suppose Jonah smoked — or I should sympathize with the
whale also that swallowed him ! To speak freely, I very
often think of Jonah. He was what the Gloucestershire
folk would call ' a very middling sort :' and lam like him,
" We have the comfort of a through carriage for our
run of nearly a thousand miles to Moscow, where we are
due to-morrow evening at 6.30: about 46 hours from
Sevastopol. Up to this point (Sinelnikovo — one third of
the way) we have had mild air and scarcely any snow on
the steppe ; but here the ground is white over most of its
surface. The cottages here in ' Little Russia ' are almost
all thatched ; better houses red-tiled, and the people look
fairly prosperous. Our next main stop is at Losovaya,
where we get an hour for dinner.
" We hear it is still very cold at Petersburg, last week
forty degrees below zero ! I forget whether I mentioned
that case at Kars, that occurred about six weeks ago. A
soldier was sent there from the northern part of Russia.
He had a brother already in garrison at Kars, and on his
arrival went to speak to him at his post ; (he was on duty
as a sentry.) He found his brother stiff and cold ; standing
frozen to death !
'' We are now in what is called the black earth zone of
Russia : a belt of deep rich soil running all across from
Poland to Orenburg and the Ural mountains. As we see
it from the carriage window in places free from snow, it
looks like the peaty soil of some parts of Ireland : perhaps
hardly as black. It runs many feet deep, and in some
districts they go on never manuring it ! "
To his Wife
Petersburg, 11-3-1893
"Even yet the tired feeling has not quite gone from
either of us, the result in total of our long journey in the
232 ST. PETERSBURG AGAIN
* Zakafkaz.' I dare say this counts for something — perhaps
for much — in my dull mental state : for I feel a good
deal cast down in the realization of the cruelty and
injustice that so largely reign all around us ; though I do
not know that there is any fresh cause for it.
" In our little walk yesterday, taken simply for exercise,
we crossed the Neva on the ice, in a long diagonal line to
the ' Old Fort ' of Peter the Great, where the Emperors
lie buried. An arm of the Neva runs at the back of it,
serving as a moat ; and here large quantities of ice are
cut and carted for consumption in the town. It was miser-
ably cold ; so that while there was no difficulty in keeping
one's body warm, the face seemed as if it were ground
by the tiny dust-like snow that was blown in it by the fierce
west wind.
" Behind the moat is a park or plantation of trees ; and
as we were walking through it, the chime sounded for the
three-quarter hour. I had heard it before on the other
side of the Neva ; but not close, like this. Even more
magical than before, its sound seemed to me ; for in a
moment I was walking in Bishopsgate Street, and sur-
rounded by the throng of Friends from the Yearly Meeting.
I could not keep back the tears. I think I have never felt
so low-spirited since leaving home — but the time is short
now ! "
John Bellows felt great reluctance to leave Russia with-
out seeing Count Tolstoi once more, and, as the stay in
St. Petersburg lasted a fortnight longer, a visit was
arranged, and he again went down to Moscow— this time
without his companion.
To his Wife.
Train, Petersburg to Moscow, 19-3-93
"The snow is nearly cleared from the streets of
Petersburg, but here on the line there has been a little
fresh fall : just enough to make everything dazzling
COUNT TOLSTOI 233
white and clean again. The trees are beautiful in their
last winter beauty. The spring will come almost suddenly
on them. We are told that the change is much more
rapid than with us, the growth of the leaves being almost
magical. I expect the change at Upton will be so to mef
Train, returning Moscow to Petersburg, 20-3-93
**I have now, I believe, finally done with Moscow. It
has been a time of great exercise of spirit with me : of
special anxiety, such as I can more fully make clfar
verbally than by letter. Three or four visits have filled
up the time, but by far the larger part of it has been spent
at Count Tolstoi's. He was exceedingly glad to see me,
and I feel bound up in him more than I can express.
There are some things in which we see eye to eye ; and
others that I know to a certainty he is mistaken in, and
which I would give much to open his eyes to. To-day,
besides the conversation at his own house, he accompanied
me for many miles over Moscow on foot and in the trams.
I had a call to make at a house outside the city on the
opposite side to his house and he came there first with
me ; afterwards to a bookseller's and finally to the hotel,
till nearly the train- time.
"After lunch this morning, before we started on this
roimd, he took a nap, as is his custom. A friend of his,
who seems a very thoughtful earnest man, and one of his
daughters (Countess Mary Tolstoi) remained at table,
asking me about Friends' doctrines. They were deeply
interested ; and Mary Tolstoi said it was of great interest
to them that one should come from so far off, who held the
same doctrines they believed, on the universality of the
light of God, and other points. She asked if I believed in
the Divinity of Christ. I said ' I do believe in it ; but I do
not think it would be of any benefit to thee to force thyself
into it, or into any other belief : for it is only as the thing
is Divinely made manifest to us, that it is true or real to
us. The great thing is for all of us to be faithful to the
234 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
light we already have. That will lead us to all truth.'
She interpreted each point to the visitor as we proceeded ;
and then she mentioned some difficulty that seemed to her
to stand in the way of her accepting Christ as God. I
advised her to leave this at present; for if the true
revelation of His character came to her, the seeming
difficulty would disappear. I put the differences of creed,
and yet their compatibility with our holding some truths
notwithstanding, and the unity of spirit resulting from
this, as follows: — Each of us — i.e., every one — has a
double vision in these matters. We see the real truth in a
manner comparable to seeing, say, the trees in the garden,
through the window. This I will call our spiritual sense,
or that which we have through immediate revelation. But
we have also an intellectual or merely human apprehen-
sion of them also, which may be compared to our holding
a coloured glass between our eyes and the window. My
glass may be red; my neighbour's, blue, or some other
colour. Now it is human nature, or a law of the human
mind, that we should imagine this coloured glass to be of
capital importance, and try to force our neighbour to
change his colour for ours. But a mistake here may
injure his sight. The main thing is to direct him to that
which is beyond, and leave his glass alone unless we are
clearly called to touch it. I find I have put this less
distinctly, here, in writing, than I believe I was enabled
to do vivd voce; for they were satisfied that it is the truth.
"Presently the two youngest children came in, and
began to coax me to get them some English postage
stamps: for my carte, etc., etc. Little Ivan is five: his
sister Alexandra, a most lovely child of eight. * * *
The two little ones dragged me off, at this point, to the
nursery, to shew me their toys and their brother's puppy.
* An English pointer, Mr Bellows.' ' What is his name?'
' O, he has not got a name yet. You see it is — a little
girl — and my brother would rather have a little boy : so
'REPOSE YOURSELF' 235
it will be changed.' Ivan's English is hardly so perfect as
his sister's. It was delightful to see his earnestness as he
strove after words to say what he wanted. Their
governess is a young [English] lady, and the nurse a
motherly old Russian who was sorely exercised to keep
them from making too much noise. ' I think Mr Bellows
will be tired with your taking him about so,' said their
sister Mary, coming into the nursery — adding some
suggestion about shewing me to her brother's room, if I
wished some rest. I declared that I would rather play
with the little ones : but Ivan dragged me to a couch — and
pushing my head towards the pillow, said ' Repose. Now —
you can — repose — yourself — but I was to go on, while I
reposed myself, telling them stories about dogs, Men
entetidu ! My heart fairly ached, in the vivid remembrance
of our own Jack and Dorothy, as these two little things
stood in the porch shouting ' Good-bye ! ' after me— and
promising to come to Upton to play with my children.
*'As we left the house, Mary Tolstoi slipped on her
outdoor wraps and went on before us. Three hours after,
when her father and I reached the hotel, I found a little
parcel of toys for our children, with the note enclosed.
*' ' Your wife will not like you to come back looking so
thin,' said Count Tolstoi, this evening, as he was bidding
me farewell on the hotel stairs. ' You must tell her that
you are not feeding yourself enough on this journey : and
that if you had stayed with us, we would have looked
after you better than you are doing yourself.' Again and
again he said with emphasis : * How glad I am that you
came over. O, how glad I am of your visit ! ' * * *
*' I made one call yesterday on an elderly lady who has
had a great fight of trials and doubts ; and when I told
her she was not alone in some of the things she mentioned,
and told her of the full cup that I had had to drink of in
the past week, she said, after a pause, * Perhaps it has
been permitted in order that you might be better able to
236 LEAVING RUSSIA
say a word of comfort and encouragement to others.' It
may be so. I hardly know. What I do know is that I
am ready to sink under the discouragements of the whole
position ; and the impossibility of hoping, humanly speak-
ing, for any material alteration in the Russian system of
persecution. Joseph Neave is more hopeful ; but I cannot
test his hope so as to hold on to its margin myself."
To his Wife.
"Last Letter from Petersburg, 27-3-93.
" It is nearly midnight on the last day of our stay in
Russia ; for to-morrow evening we must be on our way to
Berlin, Minden and Paris. It is with very mingled feelings
that I bid farewell to the city that has played so eventful a
part in my life : of delight at the nearing home again : of
thankfulness for the help we have had from above : of
gratitude and love to the many dear friends who have done
all in their power to show their sympathy with us: of
sadness that my own share in the work is weak and
unsatisfactory : so much so that I could wish to bury it for
ever out of my memory, and only to retain the recollection
of the friends we have made, and the interesting spots we
have travelled in, independently of the occasion of the
journey. Part of this is probably due to want of rest, for
the day has been a tiring one ; and as we shall be
travelling in the same train that brings the mail, with this
letter, I will leave it for to-night, and finish it en route.
28-3-93 (Third-day.)
"It is 7.30 at night; and we are in the train rolling
away from Petersburg for Wilna : really going home at
last! A very beautiful sunset has left its last lines of
orange light above the serried trees on the horizon :
orange that merges imperceptibly into the soft quiet blue
sky. Sunset in Petersburg is an impressive sight : more
than in any other capital I know, from the quantity of
gilding on the domes and spires. It is a decoration of no
FAREWELL GATHERING 237
great value in the common daylight, but at sunrise or
sunset the effect is altogether different ; and the great
burning masses and flashing lines against the sky, lift the
imagination far into the realms of poetry. This is
especially true of the spire of the Old Fort, with its
majestic sweep of the Neva before it, and snow-laden
cloud behind. If at one of these moments of splendour the
sound of its bells falls on the ear — the low sweet
melancholy chimes from Ausland, and from long years
ago — the effect is overpowering.
" Quite a little throng of friends came to the carriage
side to see us off : Baron Nicolay, William Nicholson,
William Hilton and his wife and both their sons, their
newly-married daughter and her husband, Hermann Fast,
Dr Selheim, Mary Selheim, and their sons, and a young
Lancashire Friend who is here in a cotton mill. We had
had a little farewell gathering last night in Pastor Francis's
room, and had made many calls yesterday besides. In
the morning we went to dear old George Prince's— then
to the lady on whom we made nearly our first call in
Petersburg, and who was then newly a widow ; some
fresh tears were shed, but I trust not altogether without
comfort and help. Thence we went to the British Embassy,
where Lady Morier and her daughter received us very
kindly ; and where, after lunch, we had an interesting
half-hour with Sir Robert Morier in his own room. He
is greatly interested in the journey we have taken ;
though he is ill. * -^^ *
"The family with whom Pastor Francis lodges have a
Finnish servant. After the company had gathered (about
20 or so— mostly not those who came to the station) she
stood for an instant in the doorway, astonished, and told
her mistress afterwards, ' Why, they do exactly the same
in their meeting as we do! ' (i.e., sit down in silence to
worship, only speaking if they feel led to do so.) She
belongs to a body of spiritual worshippers of which I had
238 A FINNISH GIRL
never heard. This morning, calling to bid Pastor Francis
farewell (for he was obliged to be elsewhere last night)
we asked that the girl might be called, that we might
shake hands with her. She has a sweet, serious face ;
and as we shook hands she said something in Finsk, and
then, unable to convey her thought to us, she burst into
tears and looked up, laying her hand on her heart. Her
mistress was in tears too, and her master (a Frenchman)
not far from the same state. It seems she was at the
meeting of Finns and Swedes where we had that double
interpreting : and was much touched there. * "^ *
" Sir Robert Morier said yesterday that he hoped I had
kept a diary of the journey we had made in the Caucasus.
He added, ' It will be of great interest in years to come.'
Train going to Wilna, 29-3-93.
" I did not get to sleep till the small hours, which thou
canst, I am sure, well understand, from the strain on my
mind, and the excitement of being so near our beloved
home. The whole journey with its unusual events is still
so close at hand, that it is as if one stood just under a cliff
looking up at it. We get a more just idea of its pro-
portions when we are more ^loign^s from it. Wearied as
I was, it really crossed my mind that the whole thing was
a dream, intended perhaps to teach me something, and
that I should wake and find that it had never been a reality !
♦ * *
Eydtkuhnen, 6*10 p.m.
" Here we are actually in free Europe again — flying
by express to Berlin and shaking beyond anything we
have had since the springless wagons of the Caucasus !
At Wirballen our passports were all ' overhauled : ' ours
being in due order we were allowed to quit Russian soil.
Minden, 1-4-93.
" Yesterday afternoon the Rasches took us a few miles
out into the country to the Porta Westphalica. This is a
MINDEN — LONDON 239
point where the River Weser passes between cliffs on
either hand of a chain of wooded hills : the spot, no doubt,
indicated in the poem,
* Now stood Eliza on the wood-crowned height,*
to watch the battle of Minden : when a stray shot struck
her dead. From the top, at the ' Silberblick,' is a view
over many hundreds of square miles of Westphalia, the
winding Weser silvering the plain at a score of points.
Far up, on our right, though indistinguishable from here,
is Hameln (of the ' Pied Piper ' story.) It was a holiday,
and we met or passed thousands of the German people of
the middle class, out for a walk or in other ways enjoying
themselves.
" The stay at Louis Rasche's has been another oasis in
our journey. All the family do their utmost to shew their
care and affection for us ; and they would have kept us a
week if we had so wished, very gladly.
Later
"We have just passed Bielefeld — a large town, and
bearing the stamp of prosperity that is so indicative of
the German people, and the fruit of the seed Martin
Luther sowed. Oh, what a contrast to poor Russia ! But
I hope Russia's brighter day will come yet ! "
The two companions reached London on April 6, 1893 ;
and on the following day gave in their report to the
Meeting for Sufferings, to its entire satisfaction.
To Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston.
Gloucester, 15-7- 1893.
*' A very pleasant but flying visit we have had this week
from Rockwood Hoar and his wife has pressed upon me
the fact that I have long owed thee a letter ; and I must at
least make an effort to pay my debt without more delay.
" First, let me thank thee heartily for the beautiful little
volumes of thy poems published by David Douglas, who
has done much in the last few years to make us better
acquainted on this side the water with American authors,
240 CHIMES OF THE * OLD FORT'
and this in a form that does credit to Edinburgh printing.
It is quite a treat to see so good a margin, especially on so
small a page ; for in this utilitarian age the utility of any
margin at all seems passing into the region of doubt, in
cheap editions !
" Three months have passed since I returned from half
a year's journey in Russia, of which I have already given
thee some inkling : at least of the portion of it passed in
Petersburg, including pleasant and profitable hours under
the roof of Andrew White at the U.S. Legation. I have
some doubt, however, whether the letter I wrote, and
which is in my mind as I pen this allusion, ever reached
thee ; because it went by a private hand, in the guise of a
note of introduction to a Russian gentleman who may per-
chance not have visited Boston. I remember mentioning
in it the effect of the chimes from the towers of the ' Old
Fort,' as their melody stole over the waters of the Neva to
the Palace Quay, in which Andrew White's house stands.
They were London bells of long ago ; and to hear their
soft sweet tones in that far northern land was to open the
floodgates of memory suddenly, and overwhelm one with
sights and sounds of home. Twice while in Petersburg
I passed under this spell ; but the predisposing mood in
which it finds one makes all the difference between a spell
of pleasure or of pain. In the autumn sunset, just after
hearing Ellen M. White's description of a visit to places
and persons in England well known to my friend Neave
and myself, the London chimes mingling with the sound
of the sweeping Neva, wove themselves into what had
gone before, in a quiet delight ; but when, weeks after,
we were walking on the ice over the silenced river, and I
heard them again, close under the walls of the Fort, it was
very different. I was in very low spirits that morning,
for what reason I cannot tell ; but when the clear and
mournful notes again reminded me of Old England, I
could not keep back my tears. I shall not forget how I
A MOUNTAIN PANORAMA 241
was roused, however, from my reverie, by the sharp
sting of their freezing on my face ! For the air was
intensely cold. It is no use crying when the thermometer
is below zero !
*' Paradoxical as it may sound, the difference between
pleasure and pain is not always one of kind, but some-
times it is of degree only. I remember in the beginning
of the present year, when we had been travelling for some
days among the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus, on the
borders of Persian Armenia, we emerged at last on the
edge of a height overlooking the vast plain of the Koura,
east of Tiflis. Two thousand feet below us lay the station
of Daliar ; sixty or eighty miles away rose the wall of the
great Caucasian Mountains, nearly two hundred miles
long, by 11,000 feet high. The optical effect was as if
a curve bounded the horizon from left to right : though in
reality the line is nearly straight. But the mind cannot
receive or assimilate such an indescribable picture. The
eye wandered, wearied out, over the uncountable peaks
and spires and precipices, unable to convey the ideas they
suggested. A hundred miles on the left were the shining
summits of Kasbek, over 16,000 feet in height ; a hundred
miles off, in front, was one of the great mountains of
Daghestan, over 14,000 ; between them, and around them,
and beyond them, and below them, were hundreds and
thousands of points and lines and cliffs and depths : white
and dark and rose-coloured, and pink and ethereal, in-
numerable, bewildering, incomprehensible, overpowering,
endless : so far beyond giving pleasure to the eye, that
one longed for the darkness of night to fall and hide them
from one for ever. It was as if some multitude of sweet
sounds had loudened and gone on loudening till they
terrified and deafened the hearer, and made hearing itself
impossible.
" The truth is that all our capabilities— all the powers
and liabilities and conditions of our existence are
p
242 OUR CAPABILITIES
suspended, as Mahomet's coffin was said to be, between
heaven and earth : between forces, either of which, if we
pass the narrow limits within which we are bounded, is
destruction. A few degrees in the variation of the ther-
mometer bring us to the walls of our Life- castle on either
hand ; and if we overleap them it is to perish in measure-
less cold, or its opposite of fiercest fire. The guarding
battlements that keep us from this leap are of Pain : the
centre area between their lines is our limit of Pleasure.
If we try to enlarge this by striding beyond it, it ceases
to be!
* ' If one, only, out of all that infinitude of mountains had
been in view, it would have given the pleasure that
accompanies the flow of knowledge into the mind when it
is in harmony with the Creation ; because the eye could
have seized and classified its lines in somewise, compre-
hending some of its parts, and apprehending even where
it could not comprehend : but hundreds of miles of moun-
tains in one moment of time are not meant for the mind of
man to deal with, any more than thousands of degrees of
heat or cold are intended to be gauged by his bodily
sensations.
" I brought home a large number of photographs from
Tiflis, which give my friends in England pleasure to look
over, though they do not convey the impression of the
originals of the passes and cliffs they represent. How can
a camera give a precipice 4,000 feet in height ? It cannot
even approximate the effect ; though what it gives one
instead is an agreeable substitute for it.
" Tiflis is a wonderful city for photographs. I think I
am well within the mark in saying that we had our choice
of over 10,000 views. In the month's residence we had
to make there, we visited all the principal studios : chiefly,
so far as I was personally concerned, to obtain a selection
of the types of the races that people this most remarkable
country. For as it has been the highway of the nations
STRABO 243
migrating from Asia to Europe in ages past, so it has
become the halting-place and home of little groups from
among them which are now represented by — shall I say,
fifty or sixty tribes differing in race and speech. Strabo
mentions as many coming down in his day to Dioscurias,
a port on the Euxine Sea, which became the Sebastopol of
the Roman Empire (not the modern town of that name,
which is in the Crimea) and finally Sukhitm Khale of
to-day.
" It was marvellously interesting to see how much of
Strabo's description holds good of the Trans-Caucasus, at
this very hour. The fierce tribe of the Soanes at the foot
of Elbruz is still there ; and I have made a magic-lantern
slide of one of these wild sheepskin-clad * Suans,' as they
are now called, which would match anything in the way
of Indians on your continent ! The old historian tells of
underground dwellings, guarded by dogs as large and
fierce as lions : I have been in those very houses, and
narrowly escaped being bitten, if not torn in pieces, by
dogs the exact colour of lions, and of such proportions as
to need but small eking- out by oriental imagination to
justify Strabo's estimate of their size. I wandered one
day, exploring, into the back streets and alleys of the
Tartar quarter of Tiflis, when I disturbed a little mite of a
dog which had the meanness to go off in search of one of
those classical and dreadful brutes. The great dog came
on deliberately, howling and barking in a way I wish to
forget, as if he was in no hurry, but would seal my doom
once for all. Providentially, a little boy of from four to
five years old emerged from a doorway at the very instant,
and caught the monster by the neck. What he did I could
not make out ; but the bigger animal gave a shriek and
turned away, and the little one crept into a hole : so that,
as John Bunyan has it, ' I saw them no more.' In one of
the villages, where, at every door lay one of these
Strabonian lions, with his face all covered with scars — the
P2
244 VISIT TO A CAVE -DWELLING
marks of battles— a beloved friend, a follower of Count
Tolstoi, put into my right hand a stick, and into my left a
slice of rye-bread : and following his example, I offered
every dog we met, his choice. Fortunately they all pre-
ferred the bread. Even when the supply failed, though
they growled, they refrained from attack, no doubt with
an eye to future favours !
" I think the most interesting thing we met with,
archseologically, was a cave-dwelling near the border
of Persia. It was just on the edge of an Armenian village
(Gerusi) and our interpreter asked permission for us to
see the interior, of two women who stood at the door.
They were veiled over the mouth, oriental- wise, and led
us to understand that it would be contrary to custom for
us to enter in the absence of the master of the house. He
happened to come, however, at the instant, and very
courteously bade us welcome. We passed into a domed
room cut out of the soft volcanic stone — the roof glistening
black with smoke, for there was no chimney. A deep pit
in the floor was the oven : covered at this time with a
slab to keep the baby from a premature grave. Near it
was a very pretty divan, covered with carpets tnade in
the cave. The floor, though of earth, was beautifully
clean ; and the whole place had an air of comfort that took
one by surprise. Gerusi is one of the centres of this
carpet making, and I have a rug I brought back from
there, which our visitors, the Hoars, will tell thee would
not disgrace any drawing-room in Europe or America :
though it is not of the finest Persian make. The room
might be twenty-five feet in diameter. At its farthest side
was a loom with a short piece of coarse linen in it. This
the good man kindly spared me for a few kopeks. His
wife took down her spinning-wheel to show us ; but some-
thing about it was out of order, and it would not work.
*' These Armenians are very Jewish-looking, and some
of them are said to be descendants of Jews who settled
THE PAST IN THE PRESENT 245
here at the close of the Babylonish captivity : for we were
not very far from the head- waters of the Euphrates. The
Jewish manners and customs strike one at every turn, and
carry one back as if by magic to the earliest modes of life
on earth ; while we caught glimpses, even in the picture
that imveiled itself before us, of those ages of Abraham,
Moses and Job, of possibilities in many directions that
have since developed into the things of otir every-day life :
the same materials for clothing : the same implements for
working : and we close the door of the cave-dwelling
silently, in the thought well expressed by Gaston Boissier
in his charming article on la Vieille Sor bonne — * rien ne
commence : tout se continue /'"
CHAPTER XIII.
OLIVER W. HOLMES — SENATOR HOAR — AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN
SOCIETY — PAIGNTON — LETTERS ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS-
LATIN V. SAXON— ARCHAEOLOGY- TOLSTOI — KHAMA — CHELSEA
THE following letter from Dr Holmes refers to a
description of village life in Gloucestershire, w^hich
John Bellows had sent to him.
Boston, January 2ist, 1891.
"My dear Mr Bellows,
" I got your letter yesterday and cannot answer it
fittingly, being oppressed with my wearying correspon-
dence, much of which is of an uninteresting nature.
" It is enough to say that I thank you most heartily for
one of the most charming letters I ever received. My
intelligent young lady secretary read it aloud to me —
every word of it — and we both agreed that your account
of the boy and the top, and all the rest of it, were perfectly
delicious. We thanked God that there are such sweet,
intelligent, receptive natures as yours, whose very touch
transfigures the common objects of life and throws an
ideal atmosphere round them without destroying their
nature, and also we thanked Him for giving us both the
capability of appreciating your exquisite pictures of life
as it met you in your daily walks. We shall both feel
happier all day for reading that letter, and I don't believe
we shall ever forget it.
" I thank you for your permission to make extracts from
letters of yours — you need not be surprised if by and by
I avail myself of your permission. * * *
" Believe me, dear Mr Bellows,
" Always faithfully and cordially yours
O. W. Holmes."
SENATOR HOAR 247
A visit to England by Senator George F. Hoar in the
summer of 1892, led to a warm friendship between him
and John Bellows. Gloucester having been the home of
Senator Hoar's ancestors, the city has always had a special
attraction for him, and his occasional visits to it were
eagerly welcomed by John Bellows. While the latter
was on his Russian journey, he was much gratified to
hear of his election as a member of the American Anti-
quarian Society— an honour which he shared with a few
distinguished Englishmen, and which he owed to Senator
Hoar's introduction. He contributed occasionally to the
Proceedings of the Society, and Senator Hoar, in his
delightful 'Autobiography,' lately published, records his
estimate of the literary value of one, at least, of these
contributions.
From Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass,
Worcester, Mass., May 4, 1893
"My dear Mr Bellows,
" I am glad to hear from Mr Taylor that you have got
home again. I hope your important mission to Russia
was fruitful of good result. I trust God may raise up for
that unhappy country a Sovereign who will be another
Peter the Great in genius, who will do justice, love mercy,
and lead his people in the paths of constitutional liberty.
" The report of the proceedings of the meeting of the
American Antiquarian Society for October, 1892, has
been sent to you. -^ * * i write chiefly to say that I
hope you will contribute for us a paper for our next
meeting, which will be in October. You can select your
own subject. And you may be sure that what is common
learning to you will be of great interest to us. If you
were to tell us what you told me and Mrs Hoar in
conversation, about the laying out of roads and cities by
the Romans when they occupied Britain, and their fashion
of military dispatches, and their measurements, with any
special account of the laying out of Gloucester, it would
be of great interest. Or we should be glad to hear any-
thing about the English Puritans, or any local matter
248 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
connected with the siege of Gloucester, like the story
which one of your townsmen has told so well about John
Massey. Or, if you have investigated the matter, we
would like to know the view which you, as a member of
the Society of Friends — an historical investigator — take of
Macaulay's accoimt of William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania. You may possibly think that subject has
been exhausted. But it will always have an interest for
Americans, especially if, as we hope and believe, Macaulay
can be shown to have been greatly mistaken. But all
these are merely to suggest to you the kind of paper that
would give us great pleasure. It would be better still if
you were to come here and read it yourself.
" I dined in company with your friend, Dr Holmes, last
Saturday. He was as bright and sparkling as ever. His
eighty-three years have made little impression upon him.
" I am, faithfully yours,
George F. Hoar."
In 1894, John Bellows contributed a paper to the
American Antiquarian Society, on * the Past in the Present
in Asia ' — showing the relation which exists between our
modern tools and methods, and the ancient ones still in
use in the Transcaucasus.
To Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 5-3-1894.
" As to thy kind suggestion that I should come over and
read the paper myself, I can assure thee I would gladly
do so were I able to command a few weeks of leisure ;
but at present I am tied by a variety of engagements that
must be met. Still, I do look forward to such a visit
some day ; for I have so many dear and valued friends on
your side of the Atlantic, that I cannot help a feeling of
New England being very close indeed to Old England.
" I think it will interest thee to know that I tried the
effect of the article I have just sent thee, a few days ago,
upon a company of about seven hundred smiths and
BOATING AT PAIGNTON 249
working engineers, employes of my old friends, the
Tangyes, of Birmingham. I did not read the paper to
them, but gave them magic-lantern shdes of the scenery
I travelled through in the Caucasus, the town of Tiflis, etc.,
and showed them the forgings * I describe in the paper.
I never had a more appreciative audience ; for the tech-
nical side of the subject suited them peculiarly."
During the summer of 1893, ^fter John Bellows' return
from Russia, he spent a month at Paignton, Devonshire,
with his family. While staying there, he wrote to his
invalid friend, John Soper, the account of a day's
excursion here given.
To John Soper ^ Gloucester.
On board the hooker *' Gertrude," Torbay, 25-8-1893.
" In less than a week I expect we shall be back in the
usual groove at Gloucester, and to-day we have chartered
this vessel for our last sail south : for we are bound for
Dartmouth. It is a sunny morning, with a blue sky flecked
with white clouds, and a tiny-rippled sea. The hooker
takes this designation from its being destined to the
peche a la ligne^ as distinguished from trawling : for
the trawlers are the principal bateaux pecheurs of
Brixham, towards which port we are at this moment
heading our course. The ship is four tons burden, fitted
with a seat all round the stern-sheets, in which the
whole of my family, except Max and Willie, are variously
occupied : Dorothy and Lucy in sailing boats astern, and
admiring the seaworthy qualities which enable such small
craft to progress either on the water or below it— on an
even keel, or capsized, as the case may be. My wife, who
ought to have taken precedence in the category, is calmly
employed in knitting. Marian and Jack are employed as
I am, in letter- writing : Jack's epistle being to Max, and, I
suspect, descriptive of the voyage. Kitty, who is always
a practical person, is at the helm, obedient to the hints
* Models of tools in use in the Caucasus.
250 OFF BERRY HEAD
* Port,' ' Starboard,' or ' Steady,' which drop at intervals
from the boatman. Philip is engaged in a general prowl
over the ship : now climbing the mast, to his mother's
apprehension, and anon, without re-assuring her, leaning
over the bows to a degree that raises the question of his
being able to swim, which he assures us he can do.
" I have been on Windermere when the water has not
been so smooth as this which now quietly ' laps ' our
bows ; and the motion is only enough to send one, if
so minded, to sleep ! Here is the perpendicular cliff of
Berry Head just before us ; far away on the east is Lyme
Regis ; and less distant, Exmouth, Dawlish, Teignmouth,
and the many-coloured rocks of Babbacombe and Torquay.
The latter is a queenly watering place, with marvellous
evidence of wealth : wealth that can purchase beauty of
landscape and comfort of habitation, but, inutile de dire,
not rest of mind or happiness.
' While place we seek or place we shun,
The mind finds happiness in none.'
— not place, then, but state of soul is the true thing to
aim at!
" A low roar like distant artillery. What is it? Stone
being shot from yon red quarry on board a sloop for
Exmouth. Of course, in so uneventful a passage as ours,
this is an event, and all hands suspend work to look at the
operation.
" I wish thou couldst feel the delightful air on thy brow
that fans mine as we tack— air that seems made for music
itself— like that of Frithiof's Saga, where the Viking is
running before the wind, homeward-bound to the north-
east:
' For the western winds in the canvas sing
Like nightingales with the voice of spring :
And the blue veiled daughters of Egir play
Swift round the rudder, and dance away.'
It is to buy this air that all that gold has been spent
at Torquay !
NEARING DARTMOUTH 251
"2 p.m. We stood out into the Channel, hoping to get
more breeze, and instead have had nearly a dead calm.
For an hour-and-a-half we have had to use the 14-foot
oars, making a rate which even Jack, sitting on the boom
and blowing with all his might on the mainsail, has not
sensibly altered ! Great oily swells that heave us up and
down, in place of the water like Windermere. The
monotony is broken by passing a fishing boat, from whose
stern they have suspended a shark about three feet long-
one of the bottle-nosed sort. Bottle-nosed men are not
well-spoken of ; but sharks with this adjective bear a good
reputation as harmless.
*'As we roll up and down, we draw by insensible
degrees nearer Dartmouth Harbour. Forty or fifty craft
enliven the sea before us, for to-day is the regatta in
which the ' Britannia' and ' Navahoe' are competing.
" 3-30 o'clock. This letter is written a batons rompusi
No sooner had I reached the end of last paragraph, than
I had to lay down the pen for the oar ; and after a long
spell at it, I was fain to let Philip take my place. The
poor boy worked on until I could willingly have released
him, but, in view of the way he had spent some of his time
latterly, I concluded to let him be. Rowing, even to tiring
point, is at least safe ; but I doubt whether the same can
be said of sitting astride on the end of the jib-boom, with
his stockings off, to plunge his feet into the billow at the
dip of the bows.
" And now a breeze has sprung up unexpectedly, so
that our sails are again bellied, and we are making way.
We shall be in the Dart directly ; and if in this sauntering
letter I have been at all able to make thee a sharer in our
voyage, I shall be well repaid."
To Colonel Carleton, Clevedon
30-8-1894.
*' I am struck with the condition of trial in which I think
every one of my correspondents is more or less placed in
Petersburg: some by outward circumstances, and some
252 WATCHFULNESS UNTO PRAYER
by more hidden- means. They remind me of the passage
about the Israelites being ' all baptised in the cloud and in
the sea ' in their journey through the wilderness ; for this
is the case with every human soul in its travel towards the
State of Rest. There are times when the suffering seems
too heavy to bear, and we are ready to cry, ' Master,
carest thou not that we perishl' But the alternation
comes, and we are not left to perish. On the contrary, if
we sink into a silent watching before God we emerge
from the conflict with profit ; with at least some grains of
the gold tried in the fire, which the Heavenly Wisdom
counsels us to buy that we may be rich.
" And I am certain that there is no advance possible, in
our experience, beyond the state of children, ' tossed
to and fro ' with the trials we have to pass through, until
we come to this inward silence of the natural will, this
' ceasing from our own thoughts,' this abstaining from
' leaning to our own understanding.' Nor is it a matter we
can attain to in a day. We have to learn it as all other
things are learned, beginning with imperfect effort, and
being schooled by our very mistakes, which are patiently
borne with, and progressing slowly, very slowly at times,
towards the state to which we are called. But here, as in
outward things, the hand of the diligent maketh rich ; and
the more we keep in watchfulness unto prayer, the more
we shall grow in the true knowledge of God, and of Christ,
His manifestation to us."
Gloucester, 10-9- 1894.
•5t ^ -x- << J thank thee for Drummond. The imagined
disaccord between the Scriptures and modern discovery
never gave me a moment's uneasiness. Two real truths
can never clash.''
To his daughter Marian.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, i 3-9-1894.
** I never attended a more solidly satisfactory wedding
than 's. I use these words as exactly expressing
A WEDDING 253
the sense that seemed to me the pervading one— not of
racketing merrymaking, but of quiet, still happiness, and
an underlying blessing of God on it. We seldom make
any approach at realising the close interest our Heavenly
Father takes in us, His children ; not merely in what we
deem the acts of religion, but in all that concerns our
daily life.
" As I woke yesterday morning the feeling of this came
home to me, with the recollection of that solemnly beautiful
opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews : * God, who spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son.' Of course the
writer referred to the outward coming and life and death
of our Saviour ; but as He is Infinite, so the ways in
which His voice reaches us are also infinitely varied. We
hear its distant tones in the outward creation from sunrise
to sunset, and all through the darkness of the night, every
day and night of our journey from the cradle to the grave,
and in every wave of happiness and of grief that we meet
with in our way ; and we heard it, many of us, in our
hearts, on the wedding-day we all spent so cheeringly.
For as it is true that ' in all their affliction He was afflicted,'
it is equally and correlatively true that in their every glad-
ness He too is a sharer ; and in every joy and sorrow His
word to us, often very gently breathed, is, * My son — or
my daughter, give me thine heart.' I was much impressed
with the spirit that prompted the endeavour to begin the
wedding-day with an acknowledgment of the Divine
Presence; and I am much mistaken if there are not
several hearts in the little company now at , whose
secret longing is to draw nearer to this Everlasting
Spring, and to make life what it was intended to be : a
means of glorifying Him who gave it. How much depends
on cherishing such desires ! They would increase to
greater strength in us if we oftener turned quietly in heart
to the Communion with God that is possible at all times :
254 ALEXANDER III.
a simple turning to the Light and keeping in the Light,
instead of casting about us, like Naaman, for some great
thing — some grand coup that is to do wonders for us,
which itself is instead of the everyday humble watchful-
ness which in the end will bring us to see our mistakes,
and gradually, very gradually, to overcome them all."'
To Joseph James Neave^ Sydney.
Gloucester, 30-10-94.
'*Thou wilt, I know, have felt concern at the sudden
failure of the Emperor's health [Alexander IIL of Russia,]
and at the uncertainty and gloom this has caused over
Europe. His position has come home to me very painfully.
It is impossible not to feel sympathy with a strong man,
who, in the midst of a task such as few men would burden
themselves with, even from a sense of duty, finds himself
compelled suddenly to relinquish his position to those
who are but partially acquainted with its responsibilities.
•X- * -x- -x-
" There is a time to be silent, and a time to speak ; and
we have both been reticent on points we would willingly
have talked of, if talking would not have been harmful to
the cause we wish above all to be served. But in this
instance, it seemed clear to me, it was time to speak out ;
and I wrote to the ' Scotsman ' as one of the provincial
papers with great influence, an account of the Emperor's
visiting the old nurse who attended him as a child, reading
the English Bible to her ; and of his simple - hearted
conduct on the day of the funeral. Thou wilt recollect our
being told this at the house of the English Chaplain, who
witnessed it all. The whole incident is a most touching
one ; exceedingly to the honour of Alexander III. ; and I
cannot but think, in reference to it, of Thomas Carlyle's
view ; i.e.., that the measure of any man's real reverence
for what is good in the conduct of another, is the measure
THE POWER OF SYMPATHY 255
of his own love for what is just and true. There can
be no question whatever that the tendering influences
of the nurse's teaching told largely on Alexander's
character.
" The letter was copied from the ' Scotsman ' by some
other papers ; and I can see that the incident makes a deep
impression on the working men who read it ; softening
them towards a man whom they regarded as but a tyrant,
and inducing a better feeling towards his country. Possibly
thou mayest see thy way to getting it into some paper
at Sydney ; but of this thou art a better judge than I
am. I know how completely our views are as one with
regard to the real character of the Emperor ; and how
glad thou wouldst be to see a kindly feeling towards
him become general amongst Englishmen as well as
others."
To Senator Hoar^ Worcester, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 1-1-1895.
*' I thank thee for the pamphlet, * The Opportunity of
the Colored Leader,' which I have read with interest. It
is a delicate subject, handled, it seems to me, with great
tact ; and it is well to the point.
*'Race preferences are inevitable, just as certainly as
are individual predilections ; but they are perfectly com-
patible with the right balance of justice, and the play of
sympathy which softens off all edges and dividing lines
that come in our way. No system, political, social, or
religious, will really lead to harmonious life among men
without this one element of quick sympathy. It is a
master-key that opens all locks. We look forward in
hope of some millennium — some golden age in which
no wrong shall exist ; yet this one power of sympathy
which is at this very moment potentially within the
attainment of every man is all that is needed to bring it
about."
256 LATIN V. SAXON
To the same.
Gloucester, 7-1-1895.
'■'■Encore une fois de plus! I have to thank thee for
thinking of me ; this time in sending me thy speech on
Webster.
" Thy remark on Latin v. Saxon in language specially in-
terests me. Somehow I can never get deep enough into the
essence of the thing to decide whether the one or the other
should really take the higher place ; but my instinct leans
to the Saxon, as a leading, but not an exclusive medium of
expressing the highest thought. That is, Saxon with here
and there a dash of Latin — a little touch or soupQon of it ;
for a very little in some compounds means a very great
change in the effect, o-i of carbon added to pure iron
toughens it and hardens it into a good steel for many uses.
Put in 0*5, and it becomes brittle — a different metal.
*'It is a question of mind, of the cast of mind, too.
Macaulay tried to de-Latinize himself, if I may so put it,
by reading ' Pilgrim's Progress ' through fifteen times !
But his mind was in no way the pendant to Bunyan's : it
was not the same size or shape ; and he had as much
chance of fitting Bunyan's language as he had of fitting
his leather breeches.
" ' Punch' commented many years ago on the advertise-
ment of a manual, ' Every Man his own Lawyer,' to the
effect that a more wicked state of society could not be
imagined than one in which every man was a lawyer \
But 'Every Man his own Speaker' is certainly a truth.
We may modify our own natural and inherent lines of
thought, and therefore expression, to a very large extent,
by copying other men; yet, au fond, there is a shape that
is ours individually, and ours alone-ly of all the thousands
of millions of men that ever lived.
*' But to return to the point of power inherent in a
tongue to express thought with beauty. I look upon
Shelley's as the most inherently melodious flow of English
SHELLEY 257
language of this century ; and I note that his mastery of
Greek plays a singular part in his poetry in this regard ;
i.e., his pen use of Greek place-names and Classic per-
sonal-names.
* Aretkusa arose
From her couch of snows
In the Acroceraunian mountains, —
From cloud and from crag,
With many a jag,
Shepherding her bright fountains.'
" Yet he could produce the most perfect lines with pure
Saxon, as in his ' Lines to an Indian Air ' : —
' I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright :
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me — who knows how ?
To thy chamber window, sweet ! '
" Only one Latin word in eight lines ! But the first
verse is music beyond music as it seems to me ; and the
words such as might express the loftiest thought, as well
as these simple ones."
To Colonel Carleton, Boxmoor.
Gloucester, 25-6-95.
" The Roman remains at Boxmoor would have a great
interest for me ; and there are some other places in Hert-
fordshire that I have been pressed to come and see for
a similar reason. At a guess, which I do not lay stress on,
these remains will probably belong to the time of Valen-
tinian, or just after. He put everything in fresh order in
this land ; and much of the building, pavement, pottery,
etc., that has come down to us dates from this point.
'* The period was one of immense moment to the Roman
world. Valentinian had ordered the removal of the statue
of the Goddess of Victory from the Senate House in Rome.
Q
258 SYMMACHUS AND AMBROSE
The old Tories of the House of Lords were strongly
against this, and they deputed Symmachus as their repre-
sentative to the Court of the young Emperor Gratian —
then a boy of fourteen— at Milan, to plead for its restora-
tion. (This was of course after Valentinian's death.)
" Symmachus made a splendid speech, appealing to the
patriotism of the council on the grounds that under the
protection of the Goddess of Victory, Rome had gone on
for a thousand years to become the mistress of all the
world ; and that she had given them bounteous harvests,
and blessed and prospered them in every way— while on
the other hand, directly her image was removed from the
Hall, a blast had lighted on them, and a ruined harvest
hinted to them what they must expect if they continued to
slight her power.
"The cousin of Symmachus was Prefect of Milan: a
Christian — a man of such consummate ability that not long
before this, the Christians of Milan, struck by the wisdom
of his counsel in a difficult case (the appointment of a new
bishop,) insisted on his becoming bishop himself. This
was Ambrose (now called ' Saint Ambrose.') Greatly
looked up to by the boy-sovereign, he counselled him not
to yield. All the cabinet were against him — overpowered
by Symmachus' eloquence. But Ambrose smashed his
speech to atoms, making great capital out of the point
about the bad harvest. That was some years ago. Last
year's was a most splendid harvest — and this showed
either that the Goddess of Victory was satisfied to be
removed, or that she had no voice in the matter.
"That speech sealed the downfall of nominal heathenism
in the Roman Empire— for Gratian would not yield an
atom, and the cabinet gave way to his view."
To his son William
Gloucester, 27-7-95.
"Yesterday I had to fulfil my engagement to lecture at
Caerleon to the Cotteswold Club, on the Roman occupation
CAERLEON 259
of that district. An unusually large number came —
between 40 and 50 ; and the day was a considerable
success. One point struck them much. I carried with
me the new Ordnance map of the village, showing the
Roman wall ; and then I produced one of the Gloucester
maps, also traced from the 25- inch Ordnance. I said, ' I
have never yet tried the experiment, but my impression is
that the Second Legion, in moving to their new quarters
at Caerleon, copied the old camp so exactly, that if I lay
this Gloucester map on the Caerleon one, it will nearly
fit.' I did ; and they fitted within a very fine fraction ! "
To a Correspondent.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 4-7-1895.
** Thou hast been so constantly present to my mind
since I left thy house that I hope I may not go beyond
what is right in venturing to say as much.
"If, in time of spiritual trial, it were within our own
power to comfort and help one another, we should never
be left face to face with the alone Source of all true help
and comfort ; for the mere action of our natural sympathy
would prompt us to relieve the pain we cannot but share.
"This natural sympathy is a help, and a right one,
when it comes in as part of the Divine ordering ; but not
when it seeks to make a short cut, and forestall the Divine
ordering. How often, alas, do inexperienced Christians
make this mistake, both on their own behalf, and on
behalf of others. They are comparable to children in
a sick room, who, impatient because the doctor has not
come, take his work into their own hands and hunt about
the medicine cupboard to find an anodyne that may have
been given by the doctor himself to some other patient, or
to the same patient when in a different state.
" But the patient, whether his pain be dulled or not, is
thrown back by this unskilful dealing : and not less cer-
tainly are we thrown back, spiritually, when we deal to
Q2
26o THE NATURAL MIND
ourselves or others comfort that is not freshly dispensed
to us by the Great Physician. Everything depends on
that word '•freshly.^ Ah ! surely it is better to suffer pain^
and doubt and uncertainty of every kind, than to snatch at
relief from wrong sources !
*' The natural mind in us — the flesh — that never com-
prehends the things of God, struggles to the last against
^z>^c^ dependence on Him, putting everything and anything
in as a reason why we should depend on something short
«|( of Him. And so, when the hour of darkness overtakes us,
it prompts us to kindle sparks of our own instead of
patiently waiting for the arising of the true light. And
sparks of our own are very specious : sometimes even to
lean on the prayers of another, or of others, are such
sparks, and not true fire.
" Let him ' that walketh in darkness and hath no light'
* * * * trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon
his God.'
" We seek light upon our path in the natural under-
standing—but it is often God's purpose to leave the natural
apprehension of things completely in darkness with us, in
order that we may in deed and reality trust in the power —
the secret, inwardly revealed power of the Lord : for
nothing short of this is trusting in His name, and staying
upon Him.
" And it is this denial of light to the natural mind that
the prophet describes : ' Verily thou art a God that hidest
thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour ! ' Yes, He hides
Himself from the natural man, and by so doing draws us
away from the old nature to the new. * I will bring the
blind by a way that they knew not.' ' I will lead them in
paths that they have not known : I will make darkness
light before them, and crooked things straight.' I feel
that thou hast indeed crooked things to get through,
though I do not know the forms they take. This much is
certain— that no human help can straighten them, or ought
PRAYER 261
to be permitted to straighten them — for otherwise God
would not have the glory. Yet the end is sure. * These
things will I do unto them and not forsake them.'
"I know of no other way, in these deeper depths, of
trusting in the name of the Lord, and staying upon God,
than sinking into silence and nothingness before Him.
And this I am certain is what is meant in the words, ' The
name of the Lord is a strong tower : the righteous runneth
into it, and is safe ! ' So long as the enemy can keep us
reasoning, he can buffet us to and fro ; but into the true
solemn silence of the soul before God he cannot follow us.
To leave all results and come to this silence is to enter the
impregnable tower."
To Emily Dobell* Painswick.
Gloucester, 5-9-1895.
"The point thou hast mentioned is the vital one: for
Prayer is the very beginning and end of our true spiritual
life : but not always prayer in words, or even in words
shaped in thought, but unuttered. If we are bidden to
* pray without ceasing,' it is evident that this must cover
wider ground than speech or active thought.
" There is an attitude of mind as in the presence of
God which I believe corresponds to this prayer without
ceasing, and which is described in the Psalms, etc., as
* Waiting upon the Lord.' I recollect that my father, who
was fond of the study of Hebrew, pointed out to me that
the word in the original in such passages was * To be
silent unto the Lord.' ' They that are silent unto the Lord
shall renew their strength,' etc.
" I had mentioned this to Count Tolstoi, in reference to
something that occurred in our conversation. He was
much interested in it ; and fetching Young's Concordance
he asked me to give him a passage in point. We turned
to the closing portion of the 40th Isaiah, and as the chapter-
*Mrs Sydney Dobell.
262 PRAYER
division there happens to come in the wrong place, cutting
off a verse that really belongs to, and completes the
passage itself, we read on to the end of the first verse
in Chapter 41.
" Count T. turned to the Hebrew, and said quietly,
* Yes ; it is so : They that are silent unto the Lord shall
renew their strength : they shall mount up with wings as
eagles,' etc. ' Keep silence before Me, O Islands, and let
the people renew their strength."*
" This is a deep matter ; and I feel the danger of getting
beyond my depth in touching on it ; yet not to realize it is
to lose the greatest help we can have in our spiritual
course. To sink into the reverent silence of the will and
of self, before the Almighty, is to ' dwell in the secret
place of the Most High,' and to ' abide under His shadow : '
that is, to be in the closest communion with God that
is possible for a human soul. This is the essence and
foundation of prayer, whether words are given to us
in utterance of it, or whether they are withheld ; for there
are times when the very withholding is but the means of
enabling us more immediately to perceive the Divine
voice — perhaps a still, small voice.
" I cannot add much ; but I am certain that no one who
has once found the help and strength that are experienced
in this, will ever again rest in any lower experience. It
is a laying hold of the Power of the Almighty in times of
trial, of storm, of temptation that threaten to destroy us ;
and it was this, surely, that Solomon meant when he said,
' The Name of the Lord is a strong tower : the righteous
rimneth into it, and is safe."* "
The following characteristic letter from Count Tolstoi
was an acknowledgment of a sum of money which had
reached him from John Bellows for the relief of one of
Tolstoi's friends on the Contment. The style of the
original has been retained.
TOLSTOI ON MONEY 263
[Postmark dated October 22, 1895]
"Dear Friend,
" I received your letter and the draft for ninety-two
roubles, and will send it to Tchertkoff, who will forward it
to its destination. I am sorry that Tchertkoff addressed
himself through you to the Society of Friends, and I will
avow it to you, that it is very disagreeable to me that I
have something to do with this matter. If I thought that
it is good for a Christian to have money at his disposal
and that good could be done by money, I would have kept
my fortune and would help people by my money. But as
I think that a Christian ought not to have any property and
that it is impossible to do any good through money, I can
never ask for money, not for me not for anybody else. If
people find right as you do to give their money to other
men and will do it through me, as they did in the time of
the famine, I will do as they wish, but I would rather not
have anything to do with money matters, which are always
full of sin. And this is an example of it. You are not
rich but nevertheless you gave a good sum of money
with the best wishes, and this gift of yours has awakened
in me very bad feelings : it seemed to me that you must
reproach me of inconsistency or in want of delicacy, if
not asking, letting others ask money for my friends from
strangers when the members of my family are rich.
" Excuse me for saying all this, but I prefer to be
sincere with you because I like and esteem you very much,
and have retained from our intercourse the most kind
remembrances.
"You have heard I think of the persecution of the
Duchobori that is going on in the Caucasus. I have sent a
correspondence about it to my friend Mr John Ken worthy
(London) and it will, I hope, appear very soon in the
English papers.
" With best love, your friend
Leo Tolstoy"
264 CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION
To Senator Hoar^ Worcester, Mass.
Gloucester, England, 15-11-95.
" In Russia, a body of people [the Doukhobors] quite
unconnected with Friends have lately refused to bear
arms ; but along with the belief that it is wrong for us to
kill one another, they have adopted Count Tolstoi's teach-
ing that all government is abhorrent to the spirit of
Christianity ! I had some little talk, when at Moscow,
with Count T. on this point ; but could find no common
basis to argue from. He has an idea that civilization,
which admits of so many existing evils, is itself the cause
of evil, and so would do away with it. Of course he
is inconsistent : just as a man would necessarily be who
tried to do away with gravitation. Thus, he resorts to
the press constantly, to spread his opinions ; but how
he could have typefounding and paper-making, etc. etc.,
without even a very advanced stage of civilization, passes
my comprehension ! So with money. He looks on it as
inherently sinful, and so has as little to do with it as
possible ; though here again, of course, he cannot get
away from the thing, though he may from the name.
Andrew White visited him not long before he left Russia ;
and I fear lost patience with his unpractical ideas. Yet
behind and underneath all this there is something really
good in him ; and a sympathetic power, which has a great
reach over most of those who come in contact with him.
"It is very hard for an American or an Englishman to
make sufficient allowance for a Russian nobleman who
desires to lead a life in accordance with the will of God.
He begins on a level far below ours ; that is, he is about
where men of the same class were in Europe — or at least
in England — three or four centuries ago. We ought not,
then, to judge a man by where he is, but by the direction
in which he is moving. And by this standard Tolstoi
deserves our deep respect. By the way, I recollect
remarking to him, in course of a walk across Moscow,
that there are two ways in which we may describe a stone
TOLSTOI — KHAMA 265
of ore. We may say * This stone is of value, for five per
cent, of it is gold : ' or, ' There isn't much good in this
stone. Why, ninety -five per cent, of it is rubbish I He
said, * You are right. We ought to look at the gold, and
not at the rubbish ! '
"By and by, as we were standing on the foot-plate of
a tramcar, he turned suddenly upon me, and looking me
full in the eyes, said, ' Why did you say that to me about
the stone and the gold ? ' I was forced to make a clean
breast of it, and admit that what I had in my mind was,
that it might do him good to come to England and see
some other phases of society than those to which he had
been accustomed in Russia ; but that any benefit he might
derive thus, would depend on his own state of mind. If
he looked at the defects of our friends, he would find plenty
to occupy him, for they are not perfect ; but if he were
disposed to look at the good side, it would help him. He
assented to this.
" I don't know why I should run on with this gossip, but
Tolstoi is so remarkable a man that I believe thou wilt
excuse me for doing so. He is narrow-minded in some
directions (as we all are, inherently!) and to see some-
thing outside of Russia would tend to broaden his views
on the real effects of civilization as distinguished from
some of its diseases ! "
The visit of Khama, the Bechuana Chief, to this country
in 1895, to plead for the exclusion of intoxicants from his
country, roused the attention and sympathy of the Society
of Friends, and Edmund Wright Brooks and John Bellows
were appointed to seek an interview with the Colonial
Secretary on the subject. This was granted, and an
opportunity was also given for them to meet Khama and
his two companions, Bathoen and Sebele.
To Colonel Carleton, Clevedon.
Gloucester, 2-12-95.
" A fortnight ago it was my lot to go with another
Friend (Edmund Wright Brooks) as a deputation from
266 PROHIBITION IN BECHUANALAND
the Society, to the Colonial Secretary (Joseph Chamber-
lain) to hand him a memorial praying that Khama might
be permitted to still keep alcoholic drink out of his
territory. He has fought a hard battle to keep his people
from this curse ; and it would be sad if the power of the
Empire were used to force back such a work.
" Joseph Chamberlain was fmly in sympathy with the
object, though he explained to us some of the difficulties of
entirely excluding drink from the territory. Still he has
done more than has ever been attempted before, for
he not only will not permit any new licenses, but he is
going to extinguish one in Bathoen's reserve, which Lord
Ripon had granted. No liquor will be allowed for sale on
any terms ; and where desired for private consumption by
white settlers, they must apply for and obtain a permit.
If they abuse this, or give any of the liquor so obtained, to
natives, the permit will be at once taken away. "^ * *
" The day after we saw the chiefs they were received
by the Queen, who expressed herself very strongly on the
desire she has that the curse of drink shall not be per-
mitted in Khama's territory. It is very gratifying that
they have been so well received in England ; but in the
opening-up of their country, notwithstanding the efforts of
our government, some harm is sure to follow the advent
of white settlers. Khama will have to face new trials ;
but he is a man to bear them in the right spirit, and profit
by them. ' Many shall be purified, and made white, and
tried ^^ is a word of great depth and meaning for all who
seek to do rights
To Professor Bonet-Maury, Paris.
Gloucester, 25-12-1895.
" Wilt thou accept my best thanks for the copy of ' Le
Congres des Religions a Chicago ' which has reached me
this morning ?
CONFUCIUS 267
" The first part at which I open (after the kind inscrip-
tion inside the cover) is page 104— (Chine.) This will be
of special interest to me : for I have read the works of
Lao Tse, Confucius, and Mencius, as far as they are
accessible to us in English ; Professor Legge, of Oxford,
being the Sinologue to whom we are most in debt for this
literature. I shall not soon forget a delightful half hour or
more that I had at his house, when he gave me a descrip-
tion of a visit he paid, before leaving China, to Confucius'
country. The Philosopher's descendants, who are a clan
to themselves, number about thirty thousand ; and the
head of this clan is still, as he was, a duke. The Chinese
had five orders of noblesse, very much like those in feudal
Europe, and which are still existing here in England.
About the second century of our era these ranks were
abolished ; but out of respect to the memory of Confucius,
his descendant was made an exception, with the result
that at this moment there is still a ' duke ' descended in
right line from the Philosopher — certainly the oldest
family nobility in the world ! Two thousand five hundred
years !
"Professor Legge has a ' rubbing' of the tombstone of
Confucius that he made when on the visit referred to. It
may be about 70 or 80 cm. by 45 cm. At the head is the
likeness of Confucius himself, and below, arranged in a
carve, are his four principal disciples, Mencius and Tseng
being the upper two. The latter was the ancestor of the
Ambassador Tseng, well known in Paris and London
a dozen years ago.
" Now, in the figures of these men there are square caps
on their heads, exactly such as are now worn by students
at Oxford. I asked Professor Legge whether this was
really the fact, that such caps were worn as far back as
the time of Confucius. He said, ' That cap has been worn
in China for two thousand five himdred years as the sign
of a teacher ./' "
268 THE SPIRIT OF LOVE
To Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass.
Gloucester, England, 13-1-96.
" Some weeks ago, I sent thee a volume entitled
* Southern Heroes.' It is a history of the conduct of
members of the Society of Friends during the Civil War.
" If the day is ever to come when the sword shall be
beaten into the ploughshare and the nations learn war no
more, someone must make the beginning? If it falls to
the lot of ' Friends ' to do this, even if they do not succeed
in inducing any large number of their fellow-citizens to
follow them, they may at least increase the employment
of arbitration, and in so far lessen the number of times
blood is shed in settlement of quarrels ? I know it is an
advanced position to take, and that it demands more from
the spirit of love and sympathy we manifest, than from the
force of argument we can bring to bear in support of it.
The two should go hand in hand, however. I find it a
harder task to overcome my own hasty temper than to
advise my neighbour to curb his ; yet I do not wish to
slacken in the endeavour, or to forget that greater is he
that overcometh himself than he that taketh a city ! "
To Elisabeth Putnam, Boston, U.S.A.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, i 7-2-1896.
" A week or two ago we mailed to thy address a little
book — of which we beg thy acceptance — on Carlyle's
House, which, thanks to the exertions of Reginald Blunt,
the writer of the book, has now been purchased by sub-
scriptions and turned into a ' Carlyle Museum.'
" I have no doubt that many of our visitors from your
side of the Atlantic will make this one of their pilgrimages ;
and I think it is worth sparing a few hours for. Chelsea
is a very picturesque part of London, and very memory-
laden : for there are other and far older houses than
Carlyle's that will attract the notice of the visitor.
" Last summer it was the fortune of my wife and
myself to be guests in a house that stands on Chelsea
CHELSEA 269
Embankment, overlooking the Carlyle Monument. Turner
the artist had lived not far away ; and as we looked from our
window at the sunrise over the broad shining Thames, it
was easy to see where he had gained his idea of mist-
effects ; for it would be difficult to imagine anything more
beautiful in landscape than the white dazzling cloud that
linked something to nothing, and that gently turned the
crimson and gold of the water and bridges and barges in
the foreground into half tones, and then into haze and
poetry (and all poetry depends upon that which is m-
definite because it leaves play for the fancy!) in the
distance.
" I can only hope that if thou shouldst again come and
see us, and take Chelsea in thy round of English scenery,
it may happen to be under the same atmospheric conditions ;
for in landscape the beauty is more dependent on the
transient effects than on the permanent material that serves
as their basis.
' ' I ought to mention that the German Emperor sent
a liberal donation towards the purchase of the Carlyle
House, in recognition of the author of the Life of Frederick
the Great. * * * It could not but be a sad blow to
much that we value, if England and Germany were to go
to war— two Protestant Powers weakening each other ;
and how far more to be deplored would be any quarrel
between your country and ours ! I cannot describe what
it would mean to most of us here— for all English men and
women who have any knowledge of Americans feel a far
stronger drawing to them than to any other people.
"It is in the Divine ordering of Nature that all wounds
heal with time ; and especially is this the case with feuds
between nations. Look at Ireland for instance. The
Roman Catholic priests never weary of reminding their
people of Cromwell's cruelties in conquering them. A
very bitter historian who takes this line closes his chapter
on Cromwell by remarking that he failed, after all, of his
270 FAITHFULNESS IN SMALL THINGS
purpose ; for, 40 years after his campaign in Ireland, the
descendants of his soldiers could not speak a word of
English, because the soldiers had married the daughters
of the Irish peasants whom they conquered, and whose
lands they stole ! Precisely so. But what does this
mean? It means that the very people who cry out so
bitterly against Cromwell's soldiers are the descendants of
those soldiers as well as of the despoiled peasants. And
this is, in the end, the story of most national wrongs !
Here in Britain we are descended alike from the Roman
taskmaster and the Celtic slave— from the Saxon serf and
his Norman lord. The waves that beat on the Ocean of
Time round off all the shingle on its shore ; and the sharp
split stone becomes the smooth shining pebble."
To his daughter Katharine.
Friends' Institute, London, 27-5-96.
" I have read what Mother has just written thee : which
exactly conveys my own thoughts of thee.
" Recollect that our Heavenly Father is most glorified
by our using little light, and clinging close to a little faith.
The smallness of it, in seeming, is as nothing. This is
shown clearly by the parable of the grain of mustard seed
— *the least of all seeds' — yet how mighty is its effect,
finally !
" To feel little, and yet to desire earnestly to he faithful
to that little, is indeed well-pleasing to God. Perhaps all
that we can do is to keep trying to believe in His goodness
and kindness. If it is, then this is all that is required of
us. A thousand years in the sight of the Almighty are but
as yesterday when it is past ; and He knows how swiftly
the now that tries us becomes the past in which the trial
is for ever passed away, but has left behind it the solid,
quiet, everlasting fruit of righteousness. Every great
trial helps this lasting gain ; and every tiny trial, rightly
borne, helps it too."
LETTER TO CHIEF JUSTICE HOLMES 271
To Chief Justice Holmes* Boston, U.S.A.
Gloucester, 10-8- 1896.
"It is a disappointment that we shall not be able to
show thee some of our beautiful Cotteswold scenery
before thy return ; but I know how time steals upon one
in so short a visit as thine is to England, and we can
but hope that before long thou mayst again come over to
the Old Country with a little more leisure !
"As it is, however, not possible for thee to come here
now, I send with this one or two little things I had put by
to hand to thee :
" I. An electrotyped copy of a medal struck by
Pope Alexander VI., I believe in the year 1500,
showing him at the head of a body of Bishops, open-
ing the gate of Purgatory and letting the souls there
escape !
"2. Copy of a medal (unfortunately much cor-
roded) found in digging a few feet below the London
Road, Gloucester, and struck as a ' Portrait medal ' of
Francis I. when a lad of ten years of age. The date
would be four years later than the Borgia medal
above mentioned, i.e., 1504.
"3. Specimens of the common Roman coins of the
Constantine period found in this neighbourhood.
" The * Haresfield ' find was a singular one. About 60
years ago the property belonged to a family named Niblett,
one of whom, John N., was a good antiquary, whom I
knew well some years after the date I mention. He told
me that at that time, say about 1830-40, his brother came
home from Oxford fired with a zeal for Roman antiquities,
and said to him one morning, ' John, let us take a spade
each and go and dig on the Camp to see what we can turn
up.' * Oh you may dig your life out and never find any-
thing ! ' was the response. The brother had his way,
* A son of the late Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, and now a Judge
of the Supreme Court of the United States.
272 THE ROMANS AT LYDNEY
however; and in an hour or so they struck off (as it
afterwards proved) the shoulder of a pot containing 3000 of
the coins, of which these r,re two. The four lower ones are
coins of the same era (Constantine's) found within the past
twelvemonth at Bishopswood, near Ross : part of a lot of
between 16,000 and 17,000 : the largest, in one heap, ever
found in the world, so far as I am aware.
"4. A few tesserce from Lydney Park. Close by
this spot, where rabbits had thrown them out, are the
remains of an important Temple overlooking the mile-
wide Severn. Quite a museum is preserved in the
mansion of Charles Bathurst, at Lydney Park, of
these remains. Among the rest are some thin metal
letters that had been fastened by pins to the stone
fa9ade of the temple — NODENS — probably the
name of the god to whom it was erected. Noddyns
would be, in Celtic, the Abyss, or Deep— z.^., the God
of the Deep.
"Such temples were also health resorts— and a more
lovely spot for the site of such an establishment could
hardly be imagined : wooded hills, green lawns and pas-
tures, the lake-like river, and exquisite lines of blue
mountain scenery beyond it, must have tempted many
a wealthy Roman and Briton to Lydney.
" Suddenly all this was destroyed : how we know not ;
but the evidence is the burying of a quantity of silver coin
in one of the Roman iron mines close by, under a large
mass of rock. In 1854 they were making a tramway
along the mine, which was being re-worked, when the
rock impeded their progress. It was too heavy to move,
so they blasted it— and underneath lay the denarii of
Nerva, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and so on — one, of
Hadrian's, the most beautiful face I have ever seen on
any coin, ancient or modern !
" We have archaeological evidence that after this sud-
den abandonment of Lydney Park Mine, the Romans never
returned to it ! "
CHAPTER XIV.
RELIEF-WORK IN BULGARIA AND CONSTANTINOPLE
THE letters in this chapter briefly describe the journey
taken by John Bellows and his wife to Constantinople
in November, 1896, for the relief of helpless survivors of
the Armenian massacres. They travelled overland to
Varna, accompanied by a Friend, James Adams, whose
object was to start workshops in that town in order to give
employment to refugee artisans. In these workshops
articles for domestic use, in wood and metal, were manu-
factured ; and these, together with embroideries made by
the women, were eventually sent to England, or elsewhere,
for sale. After a fortnight spent in relief work at Varna,
John Bellows and his wife continued their journey, by sea,
to Constantinople.
To the Clerk of the Friends^ Armenian Relief Committee
(Dr Hingston Fox, London.)
RusTCHUCK, Bulgaria, 4-12-1896.
*' Although we have travelled as fast as circumstances
would allow, it has taken us till now to reach this point ;
that is, from Fourth-day night, last week, from London,
to Sixth-day here on the southern bank of the Danube.
Thou art aware that we had to change our route in con-
sequence of floods barring the line in Servia, and come to
Bucharest instead of to Belgrade.
"Yesterday morning [at Bucharest] we took an Inter-
preter and called on an Armenian priest in the city, from
whom we obtained an outline of the position of the
refugees on this side of the Black Sea. In the afternoon
R
274 BUCHAREST
he came to us at the HOtel Bristol, with another Armenian
of good standing in Bucharest ; and conversation with them
gave us many further details. The Roumanian authorities
have forbidden Armenian exiles from entering their
territory ; but a few have passed over the frontier, who
have met with help and sympathy from their compatriots.
"One excellent man, not an Armenian, who keeps a
large inn, has sheltered fifteen refugees, first and last ;
and our visitors took us to the house, to see a poor blind
doctor from Constantinople, who escaped the massacre by
the kind aid of a Christian Turk. The inn, we found, was
one of those large Khans one often sees in the East, with
two courtyards, beautiful old overhanging roofs, open
corridors with wooden balustrades, and outside flights of
steps. At the moment we got to the old doctor's room,
which is given him gratuitously by the kind landlord, we
found that he and his child were out; but we gathered
some details of the rest of the family, left behind in
Constantinople, which may possibly enable us to be of use
to them. We could not wait the return of the poor doctor,
for it was after five, and we had to go back to the hotel
and start for the station, which is a long way from it, to
come on to Giurgiu (or as the Bulgarians call it, Giurgevo)
two hours' run from Bucharest, and the crossing-place
for Rustchuck.
" This morning we were roused soon after six, to get
breakfast over in time for the first steamer, which leaves
at eight. The passage usually takes forty minutes from
bank to bank of the Danube ; but the hard Russian-like
winter is setting in, and the boat had to break its way
through a mile of two-inch ice before it got into the clear
river: and it was nine o'clock before we landed. The
stream may at any moment be stopped by ice now ; and
as soon as this occurs, all traffic will be by sledge.
" Things are rough— one cannot say rough and ready—
in this corner of Europe ; and we are stopped on the
ARMENIANS AT RUSTCHUCK 275
landing plank to give up our passports, which we are told
shall be returned to us during the day ! Then comes the
customs examination : not on the counter of a Zollhaus —
for the doiiane here is the shingle and dried mud of the
river strand, on which our baggage has to be unpacked.
They were not very exacting however, and we were soon
under a roof, and warm again after the bitter cold of the
river passage.
" The Armenian visitors of whom I spoke at Bucharest,
gave us an introduction to the committee in Rustchuck,
and we were soon in communication with two or three of
the members here. This committee is evidently composed
of good business men, who have exercised great care and
skill in dealing with the diflSiCult problem of the large
immigration of Armenians into this town. Already, they
have been able to get a large nimiber of refugees into
employment, but as the need is still pressing in this
direction, we got three of the Relief Committee to come
with an interpreter to the hotel this afternoon, and go
carefully through the statistics with us. After putting
down every item needed to start the looms, the tailors,
shoe makers, bakers, etc., on the most modest scale
possible, we find ;£i6o is needed: and making deductions
for the amounts promised by the Duke of Westminster's
fimd, the whole burden on the local committee will still
be so serious, that we are satisfied that Friends in
England would wish to contribute ;£i6o towards the
objects I have above outlined.
" Besides the numbers of refugees who are quartered in
private lodgings, and in larger groups elsewhere, there is
a theatre in the higher part of the town, which the
committee have temporarily rented to shelter some fifty
families. James Adams found out this place, this morning ;
and at middle day we all went there. It was a singular
and a very touching sight. I hope there are not many
Friends who are familiar with the inside of a theatre ; but
R2
276 REFUGEES IN A THEATRE
one has an idea from pictures, that it is a luxuriously
fitted-up building, with plenty of decoration and gilding.
The English reader who would form a true idea of the
theatre in which the Armenian refugees are living at
Rustchuck, must make a clean sweep of all this, and
imagine in place of it, a building of eighty or a hundred
feet long, by perhaps fifty wide, with three tiers of boxes,
or rather, two tiers of boxes with a gallery above, all of
rough unpainted deal, and with no more ornament than a
stack of Dacking cases.
"We pick our way over the ice that covers the rough
ground, to the door, and go up the clumsy wooden stairs
on our right. On the landing is the beginning of a long
corridor leading to the back of the dress-circle, as I am
told is the technical term for it. A matronly Armenian
woman who lodges in the first box, courteously invites us
to make use of it. In spite of the miserable surroundings,
she has managed to make it really neat, with a rug on the
floor ; and scarcely have we set foot in it before two chairs
and a box are passed in behind us by as many men, on
which we seat ourselves. On the floor below are motley
groups of men, women, and children, eagerly but re-
spectfully scanning the foreign visitors. Behind these
groups are beds, on the floor. In one lies a woman,
seemingly very ill. Above her head, along several of the
boxes, level with the one in which we are, hang clothes
lines, with the linen of three or four families drying in the
heat of the iron stove-pipe that runs horizontally past them.
Four families are quartered on the stage, and little mites
of children are performing there, for their own benefit,
oblivious of the sadness around them ; while some bigger
boys have heaved up a hatch in front of the painted scene,
and are in a hollow below, throwing up blocks of fire-
wood for the stove. Several little charcoal fires are
burning in different parts — for cooking.
RUSTCHUCK TO VARNA 277
"As we withdraw, we offer our hands to those who
happen to be near, and they eagerly crowd round to
shake them, in appreciation of the sympathy shown them.
I got out quickly ; but numbers of little children pressed
round my wife, kissing her hand — then laying their
foreheads on it — and kissing it again. A good many of
these are orphans from Constantinople.
" The Bulgarian Government has shown great sympathy
with these poor people : giving them bread, up to the end
of the present month— and free passage on the railways,
so as to get them distributed inland, instead of dangerously
overcrowding the coast towns. It has turned out well,
after all, that we could not get through to Varna to-day.
The bitter winter is coming on, and every day makes a
difference in preparing for it. Now we shall look forward
to a goodly number of men being at work, even in a week,
instead of going on weighting the relief funds that are so
much needed by others.
" The only train in the day to Varna is at 7.30 a.m. —
and we hope to go by it to-morrow, so as to be there on
First-day."
To his Children.
Line between Rustchuck and Varna,
5- I 2- I 896.
" For a good many miles the country on which we
emerged after leaving Rustchuck is a gently undulating
p^in — very bare ; but later on it became decidedly acci-
dent., and forests were frequent, especially of young oak.
Single trees stand in the open or cultivated land ; and the
Christ-thorn covers all waste spots more or less thickly, as
it does in the Caucasus ; but it does not usually attain such
a size.
'* Gradually we have more and more hills, and higher
hills. We are now in a limestone country with frequent
white scars or cliffs. The dips or basins we look down
into, as the line keeps a good deal on high table-land, are
278 BULGARIAN SCENERY
many of them very picturesque — houses rare ; but where
villages do occur, they are either made up of long hayrick-
looking habitations
I rather think the first is Bulgarian and the second Turkish.
One can trace back the evolution of these two forms — for
the Bulgars came from the Volga, (Bulgar = Volgar) and
the house is like a Russian one. The Turk is an Asiatic—
originally Mongol or Chinese — and this is more like
the Chinese form than the haystack is.
Provadya.
" The country has now changed much : many vineyards
on the hillsides, as at Riidesheim, etc. Numbers of covered
trucks on the line have been built for grain only. They
are loaded from the top, and discharged through a small
iron door sliding perpendicularly.
Varna,
*' We arrived an hour late, after passing through miles
and miles of marshy flat, between lines of limestone hills.
Hundreds of acres of beautiful bulrushes ten or twelve
feet high, like a jungle. In some places they were cut, for
matting, thatching, and so on ; and in two spots they had
been set on fire, making a grand effect in the fading even-
ing light. At about half-past five we entered the terminds.
James Adams jumped down to look for a porter, when
a young Armenian, who had just come from England,
stepped up to us and told us the committee at Rustchuck
had telegraphed him to meet and see us to the hotel ; so
all was made easy in a moment."
To his daughter Katharine.
Hotel Imperial, Varna, 10-12-1896.
" The best streets here are nicely paved, but the back
ones are like nothing we have in England— no two stones
VARNA 279
level — and here and there pits and puddles and pools
where all the big stones have been taken away. A crowd
of people fill some corners : Armenians selling oranges
and lemons and nuts : Turks with their turbans : Bulgarians,
Greeks, Tartars: women with veils up to their noses,
carrying water in tins like big biscuit tins, only twice as
deep : lots of two-horse phaetons ; horses not much bigger
than ponies, and with red woollen ornaments on their
foreheads : flocks of geese and turkeys being driven along
the streets : boys carrying fowls by the feet : wagons of
firewood drawn by oxen and buffaloes : coffee houses with
little projecting balconies over the door, and Turks sitting
in them drinking tiny cups of black coffee : good shops in
the main street, something like our second-best ones, but
such queer little places in some of the back ones ! A man
seems to get four or five big packing cases and knock out
the boards, and then he drives some stakes into the ground
and nails the whole into a big box, not higher than Dorothy
could stand up in, with her head touching the top. He
covers it all with some bits of black tarred canvas, or
American cloth, and puts a window in one end, three
times the size of this card, — and then he is ready to start
with any small wares he wants to sell !
" Mother is going over to the other side of the bay to
teach mat-making to some Armenians, so I must close."
To his daughter Hannah.
Hotel Imperial, Varna, 15- 12- 1896.
" We were both measured for boots this morning by an
Armenian shoemaker refugee. He does beautiful work.
We started him with leather and tools, and he made the
first pair yesterday for James Adams. * Why don't you
smile ? ' said J. A. as he spoke a few cheery words to him
in launching the business. ' I have no smiles left,' was
the reply. ' I saw my brother torn to pieces in Constan-
tinople by the Turks, when I made my escape, and I
28o BUYING WOOL
cannot smile now.' * * * For five days we have
struggled to buy some wool to set the women at work who
have not sewing ; but in vain, we first call on a firm
of merchants to ask what is the best shop for wool. They
are very kind and offer us coffee ; but we only want this
one indication. Then they tell us that ' demain ' they will
' nous envoy er un homme qui connatt le metier.' Demain
happens to be Seventh-day, and a message comes at six
o'clock at night that the dealer who has the wool is a Jew ;
that it is his Sabbath, and he can sell nothing. But he
sends us a sample and price — two napoleons a kilo ! At
the same time he tells us that there are but two kilos
in Varna. On Second-day comes a further message— that
the price was wrong ; that it was so high that our messen-
ger himself quoted us only half of what the Jew asked ;
and the last thing we have heard is that there is but a
kilo et demiy and it is worth eight Hras a kilo. A lira
is i8s6d!"
To the Clerk of the Friends' Armenian Relief Committee
(Dr. Hingston Fox, London)
Varna, 15- 12- 1896.
"We have written to Alexandria, to make quite sure
the opening there is sufficiently good to justify the men
being sent, in case we get your assent to the proposal to
emigrate them, and thus disburden the relief fund for the
rest of the winter by so many mouths. A suggestion has
come from Marseilles that some might be provided for
with work, etc., at Tunis ; but the Armenians all have a
great clinging to their own land, and shrink from getting
very far away from it : as they still hope the times may so
far change as to enable them to go back to Anatolia.
"We have made an earnest endeavour to get employ-
ment for some of the women for whom there is no
needlework ; but the difficulties are all but incredible. I
have myself been this afternoon from shop to shop for
large knitting needles (used in knitting foundation of rugs,
MAT MAKING 281
etc., in coarse cotton.) After exhausting every chance of
needles, in vain, we found some stout brass wire in the
bazaar, and then took it to a stove-maker who beat it
straight and filed the ends sufficiently to do the work.
"Great effort has been made, too, to get some bits of
cloth, or waste cuttings, to work up into such mats ; but
the quantity obtained, after hours of endeavour, is too
small to last beyond this evening. If an appeal were made
in ' The Friend,' or other paper, for clean woollen cuttings
(either of dress-pieces or cloth) it would bring some
response : and 30 or 40 lbs. could be sent by Parcel Post,
at, I suppose, a total cost of less than a sovereign ? This
would start a few hands with work that could be sold so as
to recoup at least a good part of the outlay ; while it would
lessen the strain on the relief fund by the wages given.
*' My wife and I expected to sail to-night for Constanti-
nople, but the steamer, like everything else, is ' late.' We
had to meet the train this evening in hope of getting some
missing luggage. There is but one train a day : due at
4.30, but always 'late.' At a quarter before 5 some cabs
(two-horse phaetons, etc.) drove leisurely up to be ready
for it : some of the drivers settling off for, I suppose, half
or three-quarters of an hour's nap to fill up the interval.
By some unusual occurrence, the train arrived only thirty-
five minutes late however : but the porters told us it was
better to let the baggage be till daylight tomorrow.
' Daylight ' they first fixed to mean ten o'clock— but after-
wards they said — eleven !
" It is a very good place for disciplining impatience ! I
am bound to say coming to Varna has made me feel
smaller than when I left home."
To Chief Justice Holmes, Boston, U.S.A.
Constantinople, 21-12-1896.
" If thy father had lived long enough to hear of the
tragic events of the last twelve or fourteen months in this
part of the world, few men would, I believe, have had
282 THE RELIEF FUNDS
a more vigorous ' say ' with regard to them, as the outcome
of the keen interest he would have taken in the recrudes-
cence of Mussulman persecution against the Christian
population of the Ottoman Empire. And this not only as
a man of unusual breadth of sympathy, but as an American
citizen ; for it is to the American missionaries in Anatolia,
more than to any other force, that the Armenian people owe
the shaping of their present culture, and will owe the power
they must exercise over Western Asia in the future ; and it
is to the presence of American missionaries in Urfa, Diar-
bekir, Sivas, Van, and other centres, that vast numbers of
them are indebted at this moment for the preservation
of their lives.
" Early in this year several of these stations were
visited by Rendel Harris, of Cambridge (Eng.) and his
wife, and from the reports they sent to England of the
suffering with which your countrymen and countrywomen
were energetically endeavouring to cope, so much sym-
pathy was aroused in the Society of Friends (of which
R. H. is a member,) that a fund was at once raised for
Armenian Relief, in addition to that already started by the
Duke of Westminster, and another by a Ladies' Associa-
tion in London. I was asked to become one of the execu-
tive committee of this Fund ; and for several months the
attendance on it has taken me to London every two or
three weeks.
'* Just about the time of thy leaving England, as thou
wilt remember, the whole world was horror-stricken at
the great massacre of Armenians by the lowest of the
Mahometan population of this city of Constantinople. Con-
sequent on this was a flight of many thousand Armenian
refugees to all places within easy reach of Turkey, but
outside the frontier : more especially to Varna, in Bulgaria,
which lies within a couple of days' sail of Constantinople.
" Our Committee, however, felt the responsibility of its
trust with such sums of money as came in ; and it was
BUDAPEST 283
deemed necessary to send some capable man over, to
arrange for the economical and prompt application of the
funds granted for the relief work. On enquiry we were
recommended to ask a Friend named Adams, from Harro-
gate, to undertake this task for Varna. He willingly
assented to the call. At the same time there were other
points that needed looking after, including Constantinople,
and my wife and I have offered to come out at our
own cost ; for it is not permitted to use any fraction of
the Friends' Fund for * expenses : ' these being contributed
specially, separately.
" We started from London with our friend Adams three
weeks ago, intending to travel together to Belgrade, when
he would go on by Bucharest to Varna, while we took the
rail to Philippopolis, Adrianople and Constantinople. But
at Budapest we learned that floods had stopped the traffic
near Sofia ; so that we had all to go via Varna. Though
we went on as quickly as circumstances would permit,
the loss of our baggage compelled us to stay three days
at Budapest, giving an opportunity for a rapid glance
at what I am bound to regard as the most striking town in
Europe. This is the more remarkable, as the Huns are
a people of such distinctively Asiatic origin; yet here,
within the last 18 or 20 years, they have almost rebuilt
their city, at a cost of millions of pounds sterling : cutting
new and splendid streets through primeval forests of
'slums'— with tramways above, and a beautiful electric
railroad below ; grand iron suspension-bridges over the
Danube ; a new Palais de Justice only opened six weeks
before our visit, as handsome as any building in Paris ;
new Houses of Parliament opened while we were there ;
new Schools of Art ; new Royal Palace : a new Cathedral
—and more !
" The hotel we were fortunate enough to stay at was
opened last spring, and by comparison, after some of the
Eastern European ones reeking with smells that link one
284 ROUMANIAN LANGUAGE
to the middle ages, it seems like a palace of Aladdin !
If any of thy friends in Boston are making a tour to
Europe, send them for rest and comfort to Budapest, to
the Hotel Royal ! And if they are millionaires let them
ask for the suite of apartments in which the Duke of
Connaught stayed !
"We are not millionaires however, and travelled in
more humble style through the beautiful Carpathian
mountains, with the snow on the pines. A map does
not always make clear the physical aspect of the countries
it delineates, or one would realize at once that what we
call the Carpathians and Balkans are really one serpentine
chain both north and south of the Danube, and the cele-
brated ' Iron Gates ' on this river are the cliffs where
it cuts this chain. The whole is a broad S turned back-
ward, beginning near Vienna.
" Bucharest is another town in the transition stage, with
a very striking new" Palais de Justice. Some of the hotels
are still miserable. But one thing about the place is very
interesting— the language. The Romans put a colony in
Wallachia, which I suppose got pretty much cut off from
the mother country by the time of Aurelian ; yet it must
have held its own, in isolation, for the people still speak an
Italian dialect, and very charming it is in its rhythm.
True, they make some of their s's into sh, so that they call
their city Bukar^s/?^ to the ear ; but it took one by surprise
in this Eastern corner of Europe to see up at a street
corner STRADA SEMILUNA, and to have to ask the
servant at the hotel for ' apa calda ' when we wanted hot
water. Here on board the Austro- Italian steamer in
whose cabin I am writing, I have to say ' acqM2i calda ' ;
but both here and at Bucharest, if I ask for ' luminare,*
they bring me candles !
" Trajan built a wall across from the Danube (where it
makes its sudden bend to the north) to Kustendje, which is
the Turkish alteration of Constantia : and I have no doubt
* GAVASH ! ' 285
that it was having this wall, then just built, in his mind,
that suggested the idea to Hadrian of making the one from
Newcastle to Carlisle, of which we still have such remark-
able remains. Both are about the same length— some 70
miles. And mention of Hadrian reminds me that last week
at Varna, a gipsy was shown into our room (or came in
without being shown)— a dark, mischievous-looking fellow,
who, after bowing and scraping an introduction, pulled
out a bag from his pocket and poured a lot of Roman coins
on the table. Several were of later Emperors, but one
was a good denarius of Hadrian. He watched my inter-
ested look, and demanded ten francs for it ; but as this
is much beyond its value, I offered him two. He said
three, when I turned away ; and at this moment our
Roumanian chambermaid came in, and in Turkish ordered
him out of the house. It was a sight to see his blood
moimt to his cheeks ! I should not have been in the least
surprised to see him draw his knife upon her: and the
only word I knew that might tend to allay the storm was
Gavash I (Gently ; slowly. I had learnt it that morning,
for using to moderate a Turk driving a carriage.) I think
it helped a little, but the fellow was not calm as he left the
house !
" But to return to the journey. Leaving Bucharest we
got late in the evening to Giurgevo, on the Danube :
crossing the river next morning in the stinging cold of a
Russian winter, the steamer tearing its course through
two-inch ice for part of the passage. At Rustchuck— a
semi-Turkish town on the other bank— we found the first
large gathering of refugees. They are quartered wher-
ever shelter could be got, cheaply. Among other places
the Relief Committee had rented a Theatre, and lodged
fifty families in it. This was a strange sight. The build-
ing is a very rough one, of unpainted sawn timber inside ;
and the * boxes ' looked like so many packing cases. Each
of these held a family. Others filled the floor, or pit;
286 CONSTANTINOPLE
others the gallery ; and a last group occupied the stage.
In several parts tiny brasiers were doing the work of
stoves for cooking ; and clothes lines, drying linen, varied
the scene !
" At Varna the climate was milder : and well it is for
the refugees that it is so. Here again they are quartered
all over the town ; a main place being a large hospital
rented from the town corporation. Here Katherine Frazer,
of the American Mission at Van, is the moving spirit.
She has forced the chaos into order, and no one of the
multitude who fled thither from the massacres is at this
moment unclad or unfed. Our friend Adams has set
to work also, hiring rooms, buying tools and materials,
and getting some of the artisans into employment in their
own trades.
" Leaving Varna we came on here ; but, delayed by fog
on the Black Sea, we reached Constantinople too late last
night to be allowed by the police to land."
To James Green, Worcester, Mass.
Constantinople, 2-1-1897.
" The approach to Constantinople from the Black Sea,
the way by which we came, is exceedingly romantic :
sixteen miles of what looks like a broad winding river, on
either bank of which are castles, towers, villas and gar-
dens ; hills of forest and moorland ; and all that could be
dreamed of to make the meeting-place of Europe and Asia
grand and beautiful ! As we emerge from the Bosphorus
on to the Sea of Marmora, an arm of the sea branches off
on our right, into which we sail. This is the Golden Horn.
On either side of it rise steep hills covered with strange
and beautiful masses of building. The height on the right
is Pera, and its lower slope Galata ; the hills on the left
are covered by Eski Stamboul— the old Byzantium— the
city Constantine the Great made his Eastern Capital.
Between these a forest of masts, and dark throngs of
THE MASSACRES 287
shipping from all parts of the world, with numbers of
' kaiks ' flitting and darting to and fro between the larger
vessels. The sun was setting as our ' Austrian Lloyd *
steamer dropped her anchor ; and a red sky cast its lurid
light on the city with weird effect. Here are the domes
and the minarets one has heard of and dreamed of from
childhood : and now all at once the dream has become the
reality, and still a reality almost too beautiful to be true !
Alas for the disillusion of to-morrow, when we shall tread
the dark narrow dirty streets, and hear the story of the
fearful cruelties that are not yet six months old ! ' I saw
eight men flung down from the windows four stories up,'
said the mate of our ship. ' Eighteen men were dragged
out from a hiding place above the ceiling in the Khan
where I was living,' said a woman who was here a few
days since, ' and all killed ; ' and so the story goes on as
if it would never end !
" The widows and orphans left by the massacre are the
principal care we have here in the administration of the
funds raised for the Armenians. We had the privilege
lately of attending the sittings of the local (Constantinople)
committee of relief, and of the general committee for the
Empire.
" Not much time remains on our hands for sight-seeing,
rich as this city is in sights of interest. We have been
into the great mosque of 'Aya Sofia,' as the Turks call it—
and a marvellous scene it is ! The night before last I
happened to be passing it, too, after dark, and saw the
lamps lighted on the minarets for some Moslem festival.
Another night as my wife and I were going by, the sound
came echoing down from the gloom above, of the Muezzin's
weird Arabic call to prayer. As its last tones died away
on the first minaret they were caught up by the man on
the second ; and he in turn was followed by the third,
whose voice was sweet and musical ; and then the fourth,
farther off, ended the series, and the sky was silent
again ! "
288 OVANNES
To his Children.
Orient Express, Nisch, Servia, 8-1-97.
** The Station [at Constantinople] is rather a handsome
building at Seraglio Point, and the line skirts the Sea
of Marmora for some distance. It is worked by a German
Company. I did feel thankful when the train began to
move ; for even on this very platform one of the engine-
drivers — a brother of the man who was cook at Koum
Kapou when we came— was cruelly murdered, his hands
and feet being first chopped off.
" I say the man who was cook ; for he was terribly
afraid of staying, and we helped to pay his passage to
Egypt. When he went for his passport they refused to
let him go ; but he returned at last from the Sublime Porte
(as the Europeans call the government offices) in high
spirits, having bribed the officials and got his pass.
Ovannes— for that is his name — is a little man, with black
hair and black eyes, very thin. I gave him my old great
coat, which comes down to his heels. In it, and his red
fez, he looks fairly like a European Jew. Anyhow, he is
on board ship, and if I might venture a guess as to his
present whereabouts, it is that he is now leaning over the
gunwale of the steamer, shivering amid the isles of the
^gean Sea, in my great coat, sea-sick, and muttering in
Armenian, ' Oh that I had died by the hand of the Turk,
instead of coming to this ! ' But in a week he will land
and get work, as he has a kinsman in Alexandria await-
ing him.
"He is a very good cook— and when your mother one
day admired some dough nuts and asked him for the
recipe, he showed her how he had oiled his hand over,
and squeezed the paste out of his fist in little balls, into
boiling fat. A queer expression passed over her face as
she realized the process, and though Ovannes went away
delighted, and prepared to make enormous numbers of the
nuts, I have not noticed your mother asking for any more."
PHILIPPOPOLIS 289
To Colonel Carleton, Clevedon.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 24-1-1897
" We are back at home at last, tired, yet thankful to
have taken the journey, notwithstanding that in its retro-
spect pain seems to overshadow all other feelings. * * *
" It [Philippopolis] is a beautiful place, in a wide plain,
through which the river Maritza runs. Far away on the
north we see the range of the Balkans, with the Shipka
Pass ; and on the south the Rhodope mountains, where
vast quantities of roses are grown, and otto is distilled for
export. There are picturesque Roman remains in the
city ; but the recollection I shall always carry of it will be
of the lodgings of the refugees — room after room with its
fireless stove — and the cry of a poor woman who flung
herself on her knees before us in despair, as she told how
the relief inspector had struck her off the list for bread,
with her three tiny children, because she had a bit of
carpet on the floor, which I suppose she had snatched
from her home in Constantinople at the moment of their
flight from the massacre !
" It takes all the heart out of one to remember it ! "
CHAPTER XV.
QUAKERISM— ANCIENT RIGHTS-PEACE— THE HAGUE CONFERENCE-
FOREST OF DEAN — SEEDS FROM BORNEO -TRANSVAAL WAR-
LETTER ON PEACE.
A MISSIONARY in Asia Minor, whom John Bellows
had met at Constantinople, had asked him— through
a mutual friend — for information on the distinguishing
doctrines of Quakerism. The following was John Bellows'
reply :
To Louisa Smithy Constantinople.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 7-5-1897.
" I have a vivid remembrance of Dr Christie's kindness,
and it would be an added pleasure to the inherent one of
helping, if it may be, to satisfy an enquirer into Friends'
doctrines, if I could be of any service to him.
'-'Au fond, what is called Quakerism rests upon one
doctrine only: namely, that Christ not only took our
human form and nature, and suffered for us outwardly,
but that, as God, He enlightens all men, inwardly, to lead
them away from sin to a state of redemption ; and that it
is only as we receive this light by obeying its manifesta-
tions that we can be made partakers of the salvation He
is the alone Author and Finisher of.
'* In the sublime opening of the book of John, we are
reminded first of the Everlasting Power of God, by which
all things were created— and then we are shewn how this
same Eternal and Divine Nature enlightens every man
who comes into the world : that it is as a light shining in
darkness, because it is manifested in the dark natural
OBEDIENCE TO THE LIGHT 291
mind that comprehends it not, that does not perceive its
true character: while it is yet sujjiciently clear to he
followed, ' He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not ' — ' but as many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God : ' that is, that those
who receive the Light and walk in the Light, become the
children of the Light, partakers of the Divine Nature. For
if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. This is the
consummation we have to aim at: the so partaking of
the Divine nature that we escape ' the corruption that is
in the world through lust' — which is the sum of all the
Promises.
" I know it is ' high,' and am ready to say, * I cannot
attain unto it *— but I must attain unto it if I would dwell
with God : seeing that it is only ' he that doeth the will of
God' who 'abideth for ever.' Yes, it is high; but as
Confucius reminded those who longed after righteousness,
with far less outward or intellectual light than we have,
' The journey of a thousand li is begun by a single step.*
The first step is to obey the Light, and every step after is
to follow the Light, and to love it and walk in it, till it
shines more and more upon us ' unto the perfect day.""
" Our Saviour warns us not to despise the day of small
things, for in the spiritual as in the natural world the
beginnings are indeed small. The Kingdom of Heaven,
the way of salvation, begins almost imperceptibly : a
gentle influence— a little Light— a grain of mustard seed,
which is less than other seeds. * No man can come to me,'
says Christ, ' except the Father which hath sent me draw
him ' ; and again He says, ' No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.' We cannot fathom the Infinite ; but
we get a glimpse, which is enough for us, of a Power
which is One^ under whatever manifestation it is brought
home to us, drawing us to forsake sin : giving us ability as
S2
292 QUAKERISM
we yield to it — itself both the Way and the Means, the
Beginning and the End.
" This is the foundation upon which ' Quakerism' (if I
must use the name given by those who did not comprehend
it) is built ! For my own part I would press this home
rather than dwell much on the points that grow out of it.
" If we walk in the Light, as God is in the Light, we
shall become like Him : filled with a love that can work
no ill to his neighbour, that cannot hurt or slay him for
fear he may hurt or slay us : filled with the presence of
Christ, in the real Holy Communion that needs no outward
symbol of Passover to perfect or to heighten it : washed
with the water of Regeneration that is the thing figured,
by ' putting away the filth of the flesh.'
'' To talk of these experiences before we have ourselves
attained to them is not satisfying, except as a call to aim
after their attainment. I certainly have not attained to
them ; but I am certain that what Friends have held with
respect to the way to reach them is the very truth ; and I
would that all men believed it.
" May I ask thee kindly to forward this letter to Dr
Christie with my most kind remembrance."
To Chief Justice Holmes., Boston, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 10-7-1897.
** I thank thee for the Address at the opening of the
School of Law, which I have read to my wife with no
little interest. The principle for which it contends seems
to me remarkably clear ; although in the nature of things
the change from leaning too much on precedent, to a
reliance on the fundamental reasons for the law, must be
a very gradual one.
" I recollect some articles in La Revue des Deux
Mondes, many years ago, by a French lawyer who had
been commissioned to introduce the Code Napoleon into
Japan. He pointed out the inapplicability of it, en hloc, to
ANCIENT RIGHTS 293
the utterly different conditions of society in a far eastern
land which had been so long in a state of isolation from
other countries. What the outcome was, of the attempt,
I do not know ; but one can guess ! Many provisions of
the Code Napoleon would be as useful to the Japanese as
would the old Norsk law be to us, which provided that a
man might follow ' Bisvarme sinum' (his Bee-swarm) into
his neighbour's wood, and cut down a tree upon which the
bees settled, on paying its bare value. In reading thy
remarks on the sHght value to be attached to the study of
Roman Law, I could not but recall some of the points
raised in Pliny's letters: cases as remote from your needs
or ours, as that of the Bee-swarm.
" Here in England, where all our law has gone on
' broadening from precedent to precedent,' it will, I sus-
pect, take longer to disentangle ourselves from old customs
than it will you. In respect of land rights, commons, etc.,
we are strangely environed by the past. Take my own
case, which is a good specimen. My dwelling-house is
three -and-a-half miles out of the city, in the parish of
'Upton St. Leonards.' This parish has two or three large
pieces of land over which certain rights of common
extend, which differ in themselves.
" On one, known as Awe-field (from the same root as
the German Aue, a meadow) no hedges or fences can be
erected, because, in the autumn, after the crops are off, all
the occupiers have a joint right of pasturage : practically
worth about as much as this sheet of paper, but guarded
with a jealousy hardly credible ! Under ' The Commons
Enclosures Act,' however, this will be ended in the coming
autumn, and we shall see hedges spring up, and the
' open-field system ' disappear.
" The second is a right which I have to send one horse,
or two cows, or so many sheep, to pasture on Painswick
hill, a common somewhat over a mile from my house.
This right, I am assured, comes down from the time of the
294 BOROUGH ENGLISH
Crusades: the privilege having been accorded to the
families of those who were absent on that wild-goose
chase in Palestine. I have never availed myself of it,
however ; because as there are no fences, I should have
to keep a boy to hold my horse in tether on the grass. If
he were to stray into the public road, he would be cap-
tured, and I should have to pay a fine for the trespass.
*'So much for the rural district. Now for the city.
Gloucester is one of the (perhaps) thirty places in England
in which the custom of ' Borough English ' overrides the
common law of the land, in so far that if I were to die
to-night intestate, my youngest son would inherit my
business premises, while my eldest son would have Upton
Knoll.
" I once went pretty fully into the subject with the late
Justice Denman, and convinced him that the real reason
for Borough English must have been the Roman law
which made every son in a family liable to conscription,
except the youngest^ who was left to cultivate the farm,
etc. It is evident that if the land were at once settled on
the youngest, endless litigation would be avoided ; and
litigation under the disadvantage of the inability of the
principal party ever to appear in court, seeing he would
be far away on military service for the next 25 years.
" May I give two further points in proof of this conten-
tion? First: had the custom originated in the Feudal
time, it would have borne a different designation : for
Borough English (with the adjective after the noun) is a
Norman form, implying something existing before the
Norman time (else why ' English ' f) That the Normans
gave the name is plain. Had Englishmen given it, they
would have made it ' English Borough ' with the adjective
before the noun. Second. Had the custom been a Manor-
ial one, it would apply only in rural districts, and would
be absent in free cities, i.e.^ cities not subject to lords
of manors. But here is the exact reverse ; for no such
BOROUGH ENGLISH 295
thing as Borough English holds good outside Gloucester :
only inside the city, as it was bounded originally.
* ' A singular point of law arose on this head some years
ago, and I was asked if I would come into court as a
specialist witness upon it with respect to the Roman limits
of the town. (This because I happened to be the dis-
coverer of the lines of the Roman Vallation.) The case
was this. A steam turnery was left by a man who died
intestate. Two sons claimed it : the elder by the law of
primogeniture, the younger by Borough English. But the
premises stood just outside what I knew to have been the
line of the Roman Wall. Did the custom hold any farther
than this line? The answer was clear. The Romans
always kept a clear zone outside the Wall, the Pomevium,
for military reasons, which zone was essentially part of
the city, subject to the authority of its governing body ;
and therefore the younger brother, according to the intent
of the custom, ought to inherit the property.
" The case was so clear that the elder brother was
advised to withdraw his claim, which he did ; and my
cross-examination was not called for !
'* I note thy remark about ' Black-letter ' ; but I feel sure
thou wilt not refuse to accept the little volume I send by
this mail, though it may not be new to thee.
"a profitable booke
by master john perkins, of the inner temple
treating of the lawes of england
LONDON, 1609."
It is in black-letter : in Norman-French : the text perfect :
though one or two of the marginal notes have been sharply
dealt with by a mouse — probably of the Inner Temple,
temp. Geo. III.?"
To Colonel Carleton, Clevedon.
Upton, Gloucester, 26-7-1897.
" I was saying to myself this morning, * It seems a long
time since I heard from Col. Carleton ! I wish he would
296 MEETING FOR SUFFERINGS
write ! '—and presently after, the postman brought me thy
letter! * * *
" I forget whether I have at any time previously men-
tioned that the name, ' Meeting for Sufferings '* was given
in Charles II. 's time, when sometimes thousands of Friends
were in prison at a time, for not attending ' Church '—and
this was the committee to see to their wants. What those
sufferings were, few have any idea of. I alluded to one
case when I was proposing the vote of thanks to A. J.
Balfour in the Memorial Hall three years ago, to show
that while the Irish <^/sloyalists make a pretext of the per-
secutions the Catholics underwent in the days of the
Tudor s, for their disaffection, the Friends had far more
reason for complaint, yet are heartily loyal in spite of the
persecutions they endured. Not many yards from where
I was speaking, a delicate young girl of fifteen, brought
up in a refined circle, was dragged away from the Friends'
Meeting House and cast among the mob of felons and
murderers of Newgate. Her mother was not allowed to
be with her ; but in a very few days the awful surround-
ings proved too much for her— the jail fever seized her ;
she died in Newgate prison ; and the mother was notified
that she could come to the gate and have her daughter's
dead body ! That was a fiery furnace if ever there was
one ; and yet there was not a single Friend of all those
thousands who would not have denounced any plotters
against the King, because they knew it was their duty to
be loyal to him in all matters that would not contravene
their duty to God.
"Yet many times since, in the 230 years that have
passed away, the name ' Meeting for Sufferings ' has
justified itself; and it is doing so at this very moment. I
* The Meeting for Sufferings is the Standing Committee of the
Society of Friends. It is composed of representatives from each of
the Quarterly Meetings in England and Wales, who meet, monthly,
at the headquarters of the Society, Devonshire House, Bishopsgate
Street, London.
PEACE PRINCIPLES 297
have just been made a member of it ; and have to go up
to Devonshire House on the 30th to attend a sitting, at
which one item of the business will be an endeavour to
obtain some mitigation of the sufiferings of the Russian
* Doukhobortsi '—four thousand of whom are being pun-
ished to the very extreme, for refusing to serve in the
army."
To Gamaliel MUner, Mary-de- Crypt Rectory, Gloucester.
Gloucester, 17-10-1898.
" I thank thee much for thy letter, with nearly every
word of which I am in personal agreement. I say per-
sonally, because I feel that my real conviction is short of
the highest standard in this matter of war. That is, it is
a matter rather of spiritual growth, or state, than of mere
theory. If a man has so far submitted to the death of self
as to be really partaker of the Divine nature, it would, I
believe, be impossible for him to inflict such torment on
others as is involved in fighting them. But there is an
infinite variety of states, and many things are permitted,
temporarily, as fitted to a less enlightened condition,
which are afterwards shown to the conscience as wrong,
and to be given up.
" Individually I feel I dare under no circumstances
assist in any way in military matters, even if the refusal
involved death. At the same time I am fully persuaded
that numbers of excellent men are not shown this as their
duty ; and for them war is not, per se, a sin.
" I think thou hast not seen the accompanying tracts,
which illustrate the actual carrying out of the Friends'
conviction under circumstances of extreme trial. Sellar's
narrative is interesting archaeologically, as showing what
the Fleet was like in the time of the Stuarts.
** I have only very imperfectly outlined what I wished
to say, which comes to this, if I must speak unreservedly,
that I am ' hardly ! ' (A Friend told me yesterday that his
298 AIDING A PRISONER
grandfather was once passing along a lane at Richmond
with two others of the Society, when a messenger came
up hurriedly, and desired them to stand aside, for the
King was coming. This was George III., and the period
was just that at which his reason was clouding over. The
three Friends drew up close to the hedge, in line. Two
were dressed rigidly in the old Quaker style — and as the
King passed, giving them a scrutinizing glance, he said —
' Quite, quite.' Coming to [the third] who had just been
married, and who wore a nankeen waistcoat, he paused,
and said ' Hardly, HARDLY ! ')
*' I can smile at the scene, but the tears come into my
eyes as I take home the application of it."
The following is a reply from John Bellows to a letter
he had received from Major Knox, the Governor of
Wandsworth Prison, and formerly the Governor of the
Gaol at Gloucester. A prisoner had asked Major Knox
for the gift of a * composing stick,' that he might have
another chance of earning an honest living at his own
trade, that of a compositor, when his term of imprison-
ment was ended. Major Knox thought that the tool in
question would probably be provided by the employer,
and accordingly wrote to ask John Bellows.
To Major Knox, Wandsworth Prison.
Gloucester, 6-3-1899.
*' For this man's immediate use I beg thou wilt accept
the composing stick I send with this. It is the size, 6-inch,
generally used for bookwork and news, and carried by
compositors, who are by custom always expected to pro-
vide the stick themselves, together with a ' bodkin ' for
correcting (which I also send)— unless he happens to be,
what I am not, a man who never makes mistakes.
''When I think of poor fellows like he is, leaving the
prison, my heart aches with sympathy for them, and I
often wish I could be near them to say a word of cheer
and encouragement to them.
THE CHOICE OF GOOD OR EVIL 299
" As I look across from my house on the Cotteswold
Hills to Birdlip and the dividing line of the watershed,
I am struck with the thought that in a shower of rain the
faintest whiff of the breeze on a falling drop turns it east
to find its way into the Thames and away into the North
Sea— perhaps finally to be frozen for ages at the North
Pole ; or, west, to the Severn, and Kingroad, and the
Atlantic Ocean, to bear its myriad -millionth part in carry-
ing the commerce of the world to and from America.
'* And so it is with us. I am sure as I look back on my
own past life I see escapes, not one, but many, narrow
enough to make me tremble in the remembrance of how
nearly I had slipped into courses that would have led me
into a worse fate than ever befel thy poor compositor,
Wandsworth Gaol included ! But no simile, as the Latins
used to say, ever runs on all fours ; and there is this
difference between the Cotteswold rain-drop and the
destiny of a man, that while the one is entirely passive,
the man has some power of choice : enough certainly to
decide, at every given moment of his life, what his next
turning point shall be. Two forces are close to him, but
the power is put into his hands to fix which shall afifect
him most.
" We have no other power, to speak of, than this. It is
as if I stand by a lever which opens the steam valve of a
ten thousand horse-power engine on an Atlantic liner. I
could no more move the ship than I could Kinchinjunga—
but the tiny sweep of the iron bar that is within my power,
to or fro, puts her in motion for New York or for the
Manacles ! And so with our souls. Effort is required of
us, for God will not condone laziness in us, or release us
from this right and reasonable condition— effort ; not to do
impossibilities in our own strength, but to take hold of the
Powers of the world to come, and overcome the inertia of
our own nature till we force even it into an element of
help in our progress towards that state for the attainment
300 DIVINE HELP
of which we have been sent into this world of time. (How
should the steamer move but for the resistance of the
water to the screw ?)
"Do carry this thought home to the dear fellows who
are under thy care at Wandsworth, and tell them that it
doesn't matter an atom what their past has been. The
moment a man feels he has gone wrong, and longs to do
right, God is on his side as fully and as earnestly (if I may
so put it) as if he were an angel that had never sinned ;
for if any man (aye ! the biggest rogue in England) if any
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all
men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given
him. I suppose it does need wisdom to know how to
begin again and keep straight, after leaving Wandsworth
Gaol— but that is the very wisdom that will be given to
every one that seeks it : and God, who can do all things,
can make even Wandsworth Gaol a stepping stone to an
honourable life and a blessed eternity."
To William Holland, Norquay, Manitoba.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 12-6- 1899.
" Dr Johnson once laid it down that a gentleman ought
never to apologize for what he cannot help ! As I wish
certainly to be (what he was not!) of the class indicated,
I will not apologize for letting weeks elapse since receiv-
ing thy last letter before replying to it ; because every
hour of my time has been occupied to a degree I have
never before known.
"As for correspondence, since my friend Tchertkoff
writes me that he has by him ninety-five unanswered
letters up till this day week, I take comfort on the principle
of our Jack, who, when a little boy, came home aglow
with excitement from school to tell his mother that ' there's
a prize at our school for the best boy ! ' * And who has got
it ? ' asked my wife, with evident hope in her eye. * Oh
nobody hasn't got it, because there is no best boy. We are
all one as bad as each other only I'm not the worst ! '
THE HAGUE CONFERENCE 301
** I have had to be three times in London during two
weeks, chiefly on account of the 'Yeariy Meeting' of
Friends there. On the 24th ult. they decided to send an
address to the President of the Peace Conference at the
Hague. The draft of this document was adopted on the
forenoon of the 25th, and six persons chosen to take it
over to Holland, of whom I was one. They engross such
things for presentation to public men on vellum ; and this
took a clerk some hours. It was finished and signed by
the Clerk of the Meeting and handed to us at 6.30 p.m.
At 8.30 we were in the train for Harwich and the Hook of
Holland ; and at seven next morning we were at the
Hague. It took us some hours to make good copies of
our document for presentation (both in English and French)
to several other envoys, etc. ; and as we had begged of
Baron de Staal the special favour of his allowing us to
wait on him soon, we received a note at five the same
evening to say he would see us at six.
"The Envoys of Great Britain, France, and Germany
are lodged in the magnificent Hotel des Indes ; while
those of the United States, Spain, Persia, Siam, Italy,
Russia, and four other nations, are at the Old Doelen.
This is a place 400 or 500 years old, that used to belong in
the middle ages to an archery guild. When Motley was
writing his history of the Dutch Republic and the United
Netherlands, he lived in it. His apartments were shown
to my wife and me some two-and-a-half years ago, when
we stayed there a couple of days on our way back from
Constantinople.
" A little before six our party walked quietly to the
Doelen, to our appointment. The city is exceedingly
bright, and beautifully planted with trees and flowering
shrubs, and here and there one comes upon sheets of
ornamental water. Passing one of these, we came to the
square in which the Doelen stands — roofed everywhere
over with the foliage, of light spring green, of the avenues
302 BARON DE STAAL
of lime and elm, and fresh from yesterday's showers that
made the sunlight sparkle wherever the blue sky shewed
through the leaves. The feeling was difficult to convey.
To my own mind it seemed all so new and so perfect, and
with the sweet mysterious silence that reigned — for there
was no person visible but ourselves — that I could have
imagined the unfallen Paradise to be no great distance off,
and this the pathway to it from Earth.
" In a few moments we were shown into the President's
room. A very gentle old man, with silver hair and a sweet
sorrowful smile that won one's heart, received us with a
warm shake of the hand : a few preliminary words ; and
then we asked if we might be permitted to read the
address to him. Assenting, he listened with his head
inclined towards us ; and when we had done (I was asked
to read it) he said in French ' I perfectly understand your
language, but you will pardon me if I reply to you in
French, as I speak it more fluently. I note that you
take for your address the religious base : I am glad to
receive it, for I know it is sincere.' Three of us had
travelled in Russia, and we took the opportunity to ex-
press our grateful feeling for the unvarying kindness we
had received from his countrymen of every class : a few
more words — and we withdrew. (Baron de Staal has
since sent the Friends a very warm letter of thanks for
their address.)
"We left the Hague that night at lo, after running
down to Scheveningen, the pretty seaside place, three
miles off, and having tea with the British Consul [Amster-
dam], whose sister was one of us six delegates. His
house was in the wood that covers the intervening space ;
and I shall never forget the brilliance of the Spring green
overhead : the wood in some places floored with lilies of
the valley and Solomon's seal, and resounding with the
loud song of nightingales all the afternoon ! Next morn-
ing we were in London, having been absent two clear
DEAN FOREST 303
days, and on the 30th we gave in our report, and were
assured of the satisfaction of Friends at its execution."
To William Holland^ Manitoba^ Canada.
Gloucester, 26-8-1899.
" A number of unforeseen things have thrown my work
into arrear : the last being a somewhat sudden visit of
Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, who is now for the sixth
time in England. He wanted to see some of the older
oak trees in the Forest of Dean ; and before I was aware
of it, he had engaged a carriage and pair and driven over
from Malvern to beg me to accompany him. So the fol-
lowing morning we drove to Lydney, calling on Sir James
Campbell [the late Deputy-Surveyor of the Forest] from
whom we obtained much curious information about oak
planting. The chief practical point in it was that oaks are
better for being carefully moved, while they are young
trees : though Loudon says they ought never to be
touched after springing from the acorn!
" From Lydney we drove to Whitemead Park, where
Philip Baylis [the Deputy-Surveyor] lives : saw the very
large oak about a mile from his house, in Churchill
enclosure, 21 ft. 7 ins. circumference 6 ft. up, and then
drove on in the moonlight to Speech House.* It is, as I
daresay thou wilt recollect, an ideal spot to stay a night
at. I greatly enjoyed the cool air from the Forest below,
through my wide-open bedroom window, wafting in the
far away sounds from the owls.
" Next day we drove to Newland. The Newland oak
we measured, 46 ft. 4 in. round the trunk, which is about
twelve feet up to the branches. It has been pollarded at
some remote time, and the shoots sent out from the trimk
after this are respectable trees themselves. I should
hardly think it is less than a thousand years old ; but
* The Government Court House and Hotel in the middle of the
Forest of Dean.
304 DEAN FOREST
it is not possible to be certain, because an oak reaches
maturity in two hundred years ; and after that its exist-
ence seems indefinitely prolonged. One often hears that
such and such a tree is mentioned in Domesday Book ;
but on searching, no such mention is found !
' ' At Bigswear I was able to point out to Senator Hoar
the place where Wordsworth stood when he wrote, now a
hundred years ago or thereabouts, his Lines on revisiting
the Wye above Tintern Abbey. One point in the poem is :
' These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines
' Of sportive wood run wild '
and this one sees still : hedges ten or twelve feet wide !
" The whole round was one of strange interest to an
American of such culture as Senator Hoar ; and I do not
think he will ever forget it ! He is a man of immense
reading and of tenacious memory; and, as thou wilt
imagine, his conversation is full of interest. He was
familiar with Wendell Holmes, Russell Lowell, Whittier,
Emerson, Thoreau, etc., etc. ! He was Thoreau's school-
fellow; and Emerson's younger brother Charles was
engaged to George Hoar's eldest sister : but he died
prematurely — a man of the very highest promise. One
thing he told of Emerson was pathetic— that his memory
failed for names while he still clearly recalled persons.
He even lectured in Boston on Memory after this ! His
daughter stood by his side to hand him the slips in the
order in which they were to be read ; and he did it well ! "
The following refers to a contribution by John Bellows,
on ' The Forest of Dean,' read before the American Anti-
quarian Society in 1899. The essay was the outcome of
the visit to the Forest referred to in the previous .letter.
From Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass.
Worcester, Mass., Nov. 24, 1899.
*'Dear Mr Bellows,
" I send you the proof of your paper. As you will see,
I have not stricken out the sentence about the first of
LETTER FROM SENATOR HOAR 305
May, thinking it better to leave it to you to make the
correction in your own way. You can of course sub-
stitute anything else for it that you choose. If anything
further occur to you to be added to the paper, pray feel at
liberty to extend it or change it as you like. The whole
paper gave great pleasure to the Society. Your account
of the working of that mighty machine, a Roman army,
was specially interesting. Waldo Emerson once said of
William Ellery Channing that he could read into a hymn
a sense that nobody else who read it could ever find there.
You have certainly put into Statius a vigor and lofty stroke
of poetry which it is a little difficult to find there.
"I have just been led to look over with renewed
delight Canon Rawnsley's little volume entitled, * Sonnets
at the English Lakes.' I wonder if you are familiar with
it. The one on Wordsworth's seat at Rydal and that on
Water-lilies seem to me exquisite. He was over here
this Autumn and I had a brief talk with him. I have also
this morning read Wordsworth's three sonnets, — that on
the thoughts of a high-minded Spaniard, and that on the
greatness of a country manifested by keeping within her
own bounds and not by conquering other people, and the
description of the Spanish guerilla. They are wonderfully
suited to our time and to my own country. They show —
what has always much impressed me — Wordsworth's
wonderful political wisdom and insight. * * *
" Faithfully yours,
George F. Hoar."
To Senator Hoar^ Worcester, Mass.
Aviary Cottage, Redruth, Cornwall, 26-9-99.
" The story of the introduction of plants in the last
century, in the earth from Borneo, is this :
*'I must premise that I have not seen it in print,
but only received it verbally from a friend many years
ago, who also had had it himself orally. It must there-
fore be taken subject to correction in any detail.
3o6 DOCTOR FOTHERGILL
" DrFothergill was a Friend and a leading physician in
London in the latter half of last century. He took great
interest in botany ; and paid the expenses of JohnBartram,
one of the well-known John Bartrams of Philadelphia, in
exploring some of the forests in Florida, etc., for new
plants : an undertaking which so interested the King
(George III.) that he desired Dr Fothergill to allow him
to contribute half the payment to Bartram for this service ;
and this arrangement was made accordingly.
" A ship arrived in the port of London, the captain of
which was reported suffering from yellow fever ; but the
disease was so dreaded that the medical men of the city
shrank from the risk of attending such a patient, and he
could get no doctor. At this juncture Dr Fothergill heard
of the case, and he at once went on board the vessel to see
what could be done for the captain. As he had no family
at his own house, he decided to have him removed thither
from the ship, so that he could watch the case more closely,
and give the seaman more attention.
*' Eventually the captain recovered from the fever. On
his leaving Dr Fothergill, he offered to pay him, but the
Doctor declined to receive anything, saying that he was
sufficiently recompensed for any service he had been able
to render the captain, by the opportunity the latter had
afforded him of diagnosing a complaint with which he had
had no previous acquaintance. The Captain begged him
to give him some opportunity of showing that he was
at least grateful for all the kindness he had received at
the Doctor's hands ; and telling him that he was going to
China on his next voyage, he asked if there was anything
he could bring him back from there.
" On reflection, Dr Fothergill asked the Captain whether
his course would take him past the Island of Borneo.
The Captain said, Yes : he was going to sail past Borneo.
* Then,' the Doctor said, ' if when thou art off the coast
thou would St let some of thy men go ashore, and bring me
SEEDS FROM BORNEO 307
two casks full of earth, from as many points as they can
get it without going out of their way, or without much
trouble, I should be much obliged to thee.'
" No intimation was however added, as to the use to
which the Bornean earth was to be put ; and as the
captain could not even guess the object of it, he could not
summon courage to give his men what seemed such a
foolish order. He sailed past Borneo to China, finished
his voyage out, and came back again through the Straits.
Again he shrank from making a fool of himself ; and the
ship had left Borneo behind, on her way home, when he
began to realize that the only reason he could give Dr
Fothergill for not bringing what he had asked for, was
that the request was so simple ! He felt that if the Doctor
had asked for some great thing he would only have been
too glad to do it, to prove his gratitude for all that had been
done for him as a stranger in a strange place. He put
the ship back, gave the order for the casks to be taken
ashore and filled with earth, and then sailed for London.
On his arrival in port, he sent word to Dr Fothergill that
the barrels of earth were on board, awaiting his orders.
" The Doctor had a great area of greenhouses : more
glass in fact than any other private person in England ;
and he at once had a quantity of earth burned, so as
to destroy the seeds lying in it, and spread out in the
greenhouses. On this he laid in a thin stratum the con-
tents of the two barrels from Borneo ; and in due time his
foresight was justified by the springing up of a large
number of what are now common ornamental plants of
Europe and America."
In the summer of 1900, John Bellows published a
pamphlet entitled ' The Truth about the Transvaal War,'
in which he defended the British Government from what
he considered unjust attacks upon its policy in South
Africa. During a journey to Russia in the previous winter
he had noticed the ignorance of his friends there on the
T2
3o8 THE TRANSVAAL WAR
past history of the Transvaal question ; and this led him
to enquire into the whole subject more closely. He spent
much time and care in the compilation of his pamphlet,
and in it he showed that the British Government was
justified in its contention that the war had been forced
upon it. His testimony against war, as the second part
of his work would show, was not abandoned ; for his con-
viction was that ' war is wrong : but not alike wrong to
all.' The position he took upon the question led him into
considerable controversy at the time. The pamphlet had
a large issue, and was subsequently translated into French
and German, and circulated on the Continent.
To Professor Church, Kew.
Gloucester, 4-11-1899.
" I lately had a book lent to me by Julia Sterling, (the
daughter of Carlyle's friend, John Sterling) ' The Spiritual
Order,' by T. Erskine. The volume had belonged to her
uncle, Frederick Denison Maurice, who valued it highly.
"It is out of the ordinary run of theological books : a
closely and clearly reasoned argument for the gradual
evolution of every soul into harmony with the Divine
Will : i.e., of the entire human race, without exception.
** I would send thee a copy if I were sure it would
interest thee, but I know how entirely the use of a book
depends on the state of the reader, and that what is help-
ful to one may not be so to another.
" What led to my mention of Erskine was the thought
of war and its incompatibiUty with pure Christianity :
therefore its final cessation when the point is reached in
the evolution of the race, at which pure Christianity shall
prevail.
" Men can be Christians far short of this — real and true
Christians, I mean; for it is not by any ideal outward
standard that God judges the heart, but simply and solely
by faithfulness to the degree of light one has at a given
time. But when a young man who had lived a remarkably
CHRISTIANS AND THE WAR 309
faithful life came to Christ, he was Moved' by him on
this account, and yet he was told that if he would be
perfect he must take a further step. And so in this
matter of war : if we would be perfect^ we must cease to
inflict suffering and death on others.
" This thought does not keep me from keen pain at
the anxieties of my friends who have near kinsmen in
Natal. -^ -J*- ^ But while I dare not kill, I am an
Englishman ! "
To Thomas Hodgkin^ Barmoor Castte.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 16-11-1899.
" Surely if there is any reality in Quakerism it lies in
its clear teaching on the different degrees of light which
go with different states. We know that the vast majority
of really Christian men and women do not regard all war
as wrong, and that to those who look upon it as inevitable
under some circumstances, it is as lawful as it was to the
Jews under the former dispensation ; while those who
closely follow the Light are led beyond this to the ground
Friends are called to take — that of a larger degree of
faith in God, and of the love of God, in which it is no
longer possible to hurt or destroy men. -^ -^f- *
"We shall never bring any thoughtful person to the
true principle of peace by casting aspersions on our own
Government in reference to the Transvaal War, or, in
other words, by unjust statements as to the origin of the
war. On the other hand, while admitting the difficulty of
the position — the impossibility of evading the final resort
to armed force by any honourable men who believed in
using the sword, we in no way lower our standard that
for him who would be perfect all war is forbidden. At
least this is the only ground that to me seems tenable. It
is a ground that those who differ from us respect, and
from which they are therefore amenable to influence:
310 LETTER TO SOLDIERS
though our influence can never be eff'ective beyond the
degree to which we are ourselves individually in touch
with the Spirit of love and peace in our own hearts."
In January, 1900, John Bellows had as fellow-travellers
from Swindon to Gloucester two men with whom he soon
got into conversation. They were soldiers from Aldershot
on their way home to say good-bye to their wives and
families, as their regiments were ordered to leave for
South Africa the following week. The two men separated
at Gloucester, and were to meet there on the following
evening. In the case of one of them a walk of seven
miles each way was involved : in the case of the other
the journey was less laborious : but with both, the hours
at home would be considerably reduced on account of the
distance they had to go. The men did not complain, but
looked on these inconveniences as inevitable, and were
grateful when John Bellows gave them such help as made
their journeys easier. He heard from them from South
Africa more than once ; and it gave him acute suffering
when he read of the death of one of them from enteric
fever there. John Bellows' interest in this poor man did
not end here, for he did all that lay in his power to raise
up friends for the widow and her family.
To Private George Roberts, and Private Joseph
Goodall^ South Wales Borderers.
Gloucester, 9-1-1900
" My dear Men,
"I hope you got home all right after I left you at
Gloucester station, for I assure you I have been thinking
a good deal about you and the rest of your mates who are
sailing to-morrow for Africa, and wishing it were in my
power to help you in some way. It is not much that one
person can do in this way : but I got a few books together
yesterday, and sent them off by Midland Railway to your
address on the ' Bavarian ' thinking they would do to read
on the voyage, as three or four weeks will hang heavy on
your hands if you have nothing to do. Besides this I put
in some paper and envelopes and pens and pencils which
TRUST IN GOD 311
you can divide among the men who would like to write
home while they are on board, ready to post when you get
ashore.
" None of us know what lies ahead of us. I hope you
may all be spared to come back to your homes again, even
if you have to rough it ; but in case you should be laid up
in J^ospital or anything like that, and you would like me or
my wife to go over to Winchcomb or to Cinderford and
see your people for any reason, let us know and we will
do it ; or if any of your mates want any messages got to
relatives in England, that we could be of any use in getting
done for them, we should be glad to try our best to help
them. I know myself what it is to be hundreds of miles
away from home in a foreign land, when I have been glad
of ever such a little kindness from a stranger, but I have
had no one to ask help of but God. Only a few weeks ago
I was half as far off from here as you will be at the Cape :
but in the north of Russia. It was dreadfully cold, and
I got a chill one evening that made me feverish, and so
bad in a few hours that I was suddenly brought face to face
with the chances of death. It looked black enough to have
to pass away without a word of farewell to wife or child,
and lie under the snow yonder ; and so I know exactly
what many a soldier has to feel, besides his bodily pain,
when he comes to die on the field of battle. It may be
that one of you may have this to pass through — though
with all my heart I hope you will not. But if you should,
get this thought fixed firm in your hearts beforehand, and
you will find it will hold you up even in death— that God
who made you is as near to you as your own breath is,
and that His Spirit keeps in touch with your spirits : so
close in touch that He does not even need a cry from the
lips to reach Him — only a look of the heart itself, so to
say, and a determination to trust in His goodness and
mercy, no matter a bit how you don't deserve it, and how,
if He will save you, it will be by forgiving all you have
312 HELP FROM ABOVE
done against Him ; or to put it into Bible words, He is able
to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him: and in
His own words, ' Him that cometh imto Me I will in no
wise cast out.'
''You will have many a quiet moment on the voyage,
leaning over the taffrail or lying silent in your berths in the
darkness of the night, when you can turn your heartj|to
Him, knowing that He is everywhere and always present,
everywhere and always ready and longing to help every
soul that He ever created. No form of prayer is needed ;
nothing whatever but the feeling of need itself, and the
feeling certain that He who made the heart, reads every
thought in it, and will help, no matter what the need is, or
how short the time is. Time is nothing to Him,
'' And now I will say no more, for I don't want to talk a
word more than I feel— that would be only cant: but it
isn't cant to say what one really does feel.
"If you can send me a line from the Cape, do: and if
you come back to Gloucester after the war is over, I shall
be very glad to shake hands with you once more, and so
" I am your friend, .
John Bellows
"I put in a few stamps in case any of your men are
short of one for sending a letter home from the ship."
To Colonel Carleton^ Norwood.
Keswick, 22-8-1900.
"It is easy, but wrong, to get angry with people for
being dull of apprehension, or even petulant ; and I am
reminded of a scene I witnessed nearly fifty years ago in
Gloucester. A young Irish clergyman asked me to help
him with a class in an evening school for boys and young
men, to which came a half-witted fellow named Joe
Hewlett, who was turned over to me for spelling lessons.
It took me a whole fortnight to get him to spell ox. He
was at last thoroughly grounded in it, and could read it
without a hitch, though he could read nothing else.
JOE HEWLETT 313
'*At the next class after his mastering the word, there
was a new comer— a little lad of twelve, who had never
been to school. Seating him between Joe and myself, I
took up the book, and touching the now well-thumbed
word, I told him that the first letter was O, which he
repeated, — and then that the second was X. ' What does
O X spell ? ' I asked. Timidly the little fellow replied—
' I dofCt know P Whereupon, quick as lightning, Joe
Hewlett snatched away the spelling-book, shut it, and
brought it down on the boy's head with a crash, exclaim-
ing very angrily, ' You fool ! How don't you know what
OX spells?'
'*How many of us have got beyond Joe Hewlett? I
fear not thy friend John Bellows, though he is striving to !"
To his daughter Hannah.
Gloucester, 18-1-1901.
" Thy little note is especially a pleasure to me on
reaching this seventieth year of my life : an age I should
have looked upon as dismaying, from a distance, but not
in the least so on closer sight of it.
'*I think of the closing words of the 23rd Psalm, and
make them retrospective as well ; for surely goodness
and mercy have followed me all the days of my life ; and
one evidence of them is the increase of hope and of cheer-
fulness as life goes on, instead of its diminution. And
this not on my own account only, but for all of us : for
* all men everywhere.' In this, as in all things, we shall
certauily have to say, ' As for God, His way is perfect ! ' "
To the Friends at the Meeting on Peace^ held at Westminster
Meeting House^ London, 2 mo. 8, igoi.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester.
" Dear Friends,
"As I understand some of your committee kindly invited
me to this meeting, I wish to say I should have looked to
being present with you but for the distance of my home
from London.
314 LETTER ON PEACE
"May I, however, write a few lines expressive of the
hope that the Divine Presence may be so sought in it that
a blessing may rest on the gathering for such an object ;
for it is not by argument alone, or even principally by
argument, that the kingdom of Christ is advanced in the
hearts of men, but by the love of God overflowing in those
imbued with it, and felt in and through the arguments
they may use in support of the truth.
" In exact proportion to our personal experience of the
love of God, is the power of our entering into sympathy
with those whom we seek to enlighten ; and this love and
sympathy will make us very patient with those who do
not see what to us is clear ; for the giving of sight to the
blind, spiritually, is often a very gradual process, as it is
in the natural life.
" I feel it thus, because I have so often missed my way
for want of this patience and forbearance, and I feel that
others may also miss it for the same reason. When our
Saviour anointed the blind man (in John, chap, ix.) He
did not at once give him sight, but sent him first to the
pool of Siloam to wash ; and it was not until this second
exercise of his faith and obedience that the blind received
his sight. So again in the case of the blind man at
Bethsaida (in Mark, chap, viii.) the process was one of
degrees : for first he saw men as trees walking : and after
that Jesus put his hands upon his eyes and made him look
up ; and then, but not till then, he saw clearly.
** While, then, we hold fast that we have, that no man
take our crown, in this testimony that war without excep-
tion, and under every circumstance, is contrary to the
pure law of Christ, we must be extremely careful not to
condemn by line and rule those who, while sincere in
obedience to other parts of His law, have not yet received
their sight upon this point in it. To blame or to be angry
with such as those for disobedience to the letter of the New
Testament in the matter of war, would be comparable to
THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT 315
our blaming or being vexed with the man who described
men as moving trees, because of his imperfect sight ; or
being impatient with him who is groping his way to the
Pool of Siloam, instead of gently helping to guide him
thither that he may be healed.
*' To keep up the simile, this is exactly what the earliest
Friends did, from whom we received this testimony
against war. They did not so much deal with the sepa-
rate diseases of men, as send them all to the Pool of
Siloam, where each would be healed of whatsoever disease
he had. That is, they referred every one to the power and
Spirit of the Son of God manifested directly to his own
soul, and that power and Spirit brought each individual to
a state in which fighting was no longer possible to him.
" My belief is that exactly in proportion as we do this,
our testimony for Peace will again become a power in the
world. If we do not do it, disguise the matter as we may
from ourselves, we shall drag it down to the level of
a fad ; and we shall become hopelessly narrow, instead
of broad and deep and able to help others.
" We were raised up, and are raised up as a body, not
primarily to advocate separate truths, but to testify by
our lives and our lips and our pens to the one foundation
truth of obedience to the Spirit of God which leads into all
truth. Bringing this home to other men, we shall be care-
ful never to upbraid or blame them except in the Spirit
and under its direct leading — else we repel them ; for as
I lately saw it remarked in an old book : * He who finds
fault with another without praying for him, is a mere
mischief-maker.' I believe a sentence from the Confessions
of Augustine (Book III. Chap. IX.) will help us to realize
what the attitude of mind should be of Friends towards
those who do not see with them on war in its relation to
Christianity. Augustine says : —
' Amidst these offences of foulness and violence and
so many iniquities, are sins of men who are making
3i6 DEPUTATION TO THE KING
progress, which by those who judge rightly, accord-
ing to the law of perfection are condemned, yet the
persons considered in hope of future fruit, as the
green blade has promise of corn.'
"As our own hearts are brought to peace and kept in
peace we shall powerfully help others to reach the same
experience, and in this they and we shall realize that none
can hurt or destroy in all the Lord's Holy Mountain.
** I am your friend,
" John Bellows."
In March, 1901, a number of delegates, including John
Bellows, were appointed by the Society of Friends to
convey an Address to King Edward VII. on the occasion
of his accession. The following extract from a letter
describes the scene at St. James's Palace : —
To his son Philip, Philadelphia,
Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, 12-3-1901.
<<* * * A buzz of conversation behind us gets a
little too loud for etiquette, and an officer in front gives a
gentle 'sh I This is not for the Friends, however : but for
Lord Roberts and a little knot of officers just behind us,
who are waiting their turn for some other deputation.
Then the door opens, and we all move forward between
the lines of life guards, to the front of the throne. The
King, seated on it, is dressed in scarlet ; the Duke of
Cornwall and York, on his left, standing, is dressed in
black with many stars and insignia on ; and a gentleman
I cannot identify stands on the right of the throne. On
either hand of these stand officers and life guards. Caleb
Kemp steps slightly in advance, and reads—' May it
please the King,' and so on. The King stoops forward—
and is evidently listening earnestly. He is touched — as I
felt certain he would be. Caleb Kemp, in closing, ex-
plains that there are also some Friends from Ireland
among us, who, though they had no share in the address,
AT ST. JAMES'S PALACE 317
wish to identify themselves with its assurance of loyalty
to himself and the throne, and with our desires for his
welfare and that of his people. He rolls up the address
and hands it to the King, who takes it and bows, and then
passes it to an officer. The gentleman on his right then
steps forward and places before him his written reply (for
the King has previously read the address and prepared
his answer,) which he reads clearly and in a deep voice.
It is beautiful— and expresses a hope that the principles
Friends have striven for may spread during his reign,
while he asks our prayers for his faithful fulfilment of the
duties that fall to his lot as Sovereign.
" Caleb Kemp then takes two steps forward and bends
to kiss the King's right hand ; then introduces Bevan
Braithwaite, who does the same ; and then we all slowly
move backward towards the door. I am on the outside
edge, and I keep myself right by alignment with the life
guards as we draw back. Downstairs— get our coats,
etc. — and then into the air again, and the sunshine — for it
is a nice spring day ; past more grenadiers, squadrons of
horse guards, and so to the Park, and then here to Chelsea
to lunch.
" I have given thee the outside state of things. To me
it simply brought home the lesson, ' The fashion of this
world passeth away,' and the feeling of how great and
earnest the duty is of our sinking into exercise of soul that
the King may be kept faithful to that renewed visitation of
the Divine love which has, I am certain, been granted him
in this time of sorrow at his mother's death, and in the
realization of the responsibilities that rest on him. As we
do this we help him to build for eternity ./"
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DOUKHOBORS- SECOND JOURNEY TO RUSSIA.
DURING his journey with Joseph Neave in the south
of Russia, John Bellows— as his letters have shown
— had occasionally come into contact with communities of
a sect known as the Doukhobors, peasant farmers for the
most part, who were then living in peace and comfort in
their villages in the Trans-Caucasus. The history of this
sect having been fully dealt with elsewhere,"^ it is only
necessary to tell here as much of it as concerned the work
of John Bellows and his colleagues. During the year 1895,
rumours reached him from some of his Russian friends
that the Doukhobors were suffering extreme persecution
for their refusal to bear arms, owing to a return to their
foundation principle that all war is wrong. As this belief
is shared by Friends, their sympathy and interest were
soon roused on behalf of these suffering people.
The knowledge of the persecution was not limited
however to the Society of Friends, or to Russian sym-
pathizers with the Doukhobors, for in the autumn of the
same year, 1895, a letter from Count Tolstoi appeared in
the ' Times,' calling public attention to it.
Little could be done for them until 1898, when, in the
spring of that year, they obtained permission from the
Tsar to leave Russia, on the condition that they were
never to return. Steps were then taken, as quickly as was
practicable, for their emigration ; the Society of Friends
making itself more immediately responsible for a group
*See, especially, "The Doukhobors," by Joseph Elkinton, and
"Christian Martyrdom in Russia," by Vladimir Tchertkoff.
THE DOUKHOBORS 319
of eleven hundred of the poorest. These, however, in
spite of their poverty, had saved a sum of money, in the
hope of some time being allowed to leave the country ;
and Cyprus being now chosen as the only suitable place
which their means would enable them to reach, a vessel
was chartered to take them to that island. In Cyprus they
came under the devoted care of Wilson Sturge (of
Birmingham) ; but the climate proving unsuitable for them,
further funds were raised by the Friends' Committee, of
which John Bellows was the * clerk,' to remove them to
Canada. By the generous co-operation of the Dominion
Government, of Russian sympathisers, and of Friends in
England and America, the whole Doukhobor community,
numbering more than seven thousand, was eventually
settled in the North- West Territories, where it has since
attained considerable prosperity.
John Bellows and his fellow-workers were always
anxious that, as soon as possible, schools should be
opened for the Doukhobor children in Canada. He lived
to see only a very small beginning made in this direction ;
but his daughter Hannah, during the last year of his life,
volunteered, with his full approval, to go out to them as a
teacher ; and two other lady Friends have also joined in
the work, living, like herself, among the Russian settlers.
To Joseph Neave, Sydney, Australia.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 24-11-1895.
" For some weeks past it has been on my mind to send
thee a few lines : though I cannot clearly remember at
what point of Russian news my last left off ? In any case
the matter of the Duchobortzi has occurred since : that
is, the publication by Count Tolstoi, in the 'Times,' of
nearly a whole page of details of their refusal to bear
arms, and the sufferings they had been made to endure in
consequence. This is really a coming back to the original
doctrine held by their body, that war is unlawful : for at
320 ORIGIN OF THE SECT
the time of our visit they had let this lapse. In fact,
someone told us — I think it was Fast — that at the time of
the Russian and Turkish war, in 1878, the Russians were
very largely indebted to the Duchobortzi for the supply of
horses they needed for their operations against Kars, etc.
There was one error in the account written by Tolstoi's
friend. The sect does not owe its foundation to * a Quaker
missionary of the last century,' as he states in the article
I posted to thee, in the * Times.' There are some MSS.
at Devonshire House [Bishopsgate,] most of them dating
from about 18 15, which give an account of these people :
and I noticed in one of them a statement by an Archbishop
of the Greek church, in which he says ' my acquaintance
with this sect goes back to 1768.' It is evident from other
allusions that they were even then long established.
Another of the documents says that they began with three
Cossacks of the Don, who obtained a copy of the Scrip-
tures, which they closely studied : with the result that
they found all war to be incompatible with obedience to
the Spirit of Christ. They did own civil government
however : in which point the present body of their
followers is not like them. They were placed in the
Crimea : and in the time of Nicholas I. were re- exiled to
the Transcaucasus, but colonized on grants of land."
To Thomas Hodgkin, Barmoor Castle, Northumberland*
Gloucester, 23-4-1898.
'*As the Emperor of Russia has now granted permission
for the Doukhobortsi to emigrate, in response to their
own petition and that of our Meeting for Sufferings, it will
be needful to make an appeal to Friends to help* these
poor people to a new settlement ; and I have thought it
would enable some Friends the better to grasp the whole
position and to realize the claim the Doukhobortsi have on
*The words in square brackets in this letter are Vladimir
TchertkoflPs own corrections.
RUSSIAN SYMPATHISERS 321
their sympathy, if I were to describe, in a very simple
way, what I have accidentally come to know of two or
three Russians who have been their principal helpers. I
say ' accidentally,' because it has been my lot to be
thrown more in contact with them from having become
acquainted, in Russia, with Count Tolstoi and others with
whom they have been acting in aid of those who are
persecuted.
" Vladimir Tchertkoff was a nobleman who underwent
a great change, and gave up the bulk of his property and
lived much as a Russian peasant would. His mother, who
is an exceedingly nice woman, is one of the ladies of the
court of the Empress Dowager. The course her son had
taken was a bitter trial to her ; and it was just after hearing
her speak of this, and realizing the suffering so inflicted
on her, that I met with one of Vladimir TchertkofiPs
friends, to whom I said something expressive of doubt as
to the wisdom or the right of his doing as he has done.
His friend replied, ' / said the same to him, but he
answered me very meekly and simply : ' I don't pretend
to lay down a rule for others, but I do know that the call
came to me, as it did to the young man in the Gospel, to
go and sell all that I had, and give to the poor, and to
follow Christ ; and I obeyed it." I felt I had no right to
judge him ; and now that, five years after, I have come to
know him personally, and see his noble and sweet and
childlike simplicity of character, I can only admire and
love him as deserving of far other than the foolish and
superficial judgment I had passed upon him.
" When Vladimir Tchertkoff got to know of the terrible
sufferings of the Doukhobortsi — for their refusal to inflict
suffering on others— he took up their cause with all
his power [appealing to Russians of all ranks and
positions, and also] writing to the English press to ask
the sympathy of thoughtful people on their behalf. For
this he was ordered into banishment from the Empire. He
u
322 FAITHFUL TESTIMONY
came to England, and is now living at Purleigh, in a
small farm-house, which has been a refuge to several
others who have been driven from their homes since his
arrival.
" One of these is a young Hungarian army surgeon,
named Skarvan. He was within three weeks of the ex-
piration of his military service, when the light became
clear to him that to kill men is entirely incompatible with
the teaching of Christ. His friends begged him to keep
on as he was for the brief interval in which he must serve ;
but he could not do so without doing violence to the love
of God in his heart, and the love of all men which springs
from it, and he voluntarily faced the unknown sufferings
of a long imprisonment, followed by incarceration in a
lunatic asylum, rather than fail in his testimony to the
truth. At last he was set free, and he went [to live with
TchertkofPs family in Russia and accompanied them to
England.]
" When I met him first he could speak no English, but
it was impossible not to feel the sweetness of his spirit,
even when no words were spoken. A delicate-looking,
singularly interesting young man, everybody about him
was drawn towards him. He occupied his time working
on the farm : I suspect beyond his strength. The last
time I was at Purleigh he was lying ill, and the doctor
said he must soon die. It was very touching to sit by his
bedside and to see him at the end of his great sufferings,
with the Divine presence shining on his countenance as
visibly, it seemed to me, as it shone on the face of
Stephen ! I have never before seen so remarkable a
degree of it, anywhere, as in that little room. A week or
two before, a young Georgian Prince had come there :
drawn, I suspect, more by curiosity than anything else
to see who and what these Russians were who form the
little group of refugees. Be this as it may, finding
Skarvan ill, he volunteered to sit up with him at nights ;
EXILES 323
and the effect of being in his company has been very
powerful upon him. It has evidently shown him the
realities of a Power to which he had been much a stranger,
and will leave a mark upon him that will not pass away.
" The latest comer to the little group, except this
Georgian, is X., from Moscow. For some time he had
been [a friend of] Tolstoi, and through Tolstoi he became
interested in behalf of the Stundists and the Doukhobortsi,
sending them monetary help, and in a variety of ways
showing them sympathy in their trials. Last year a party
of thirty-two of the young men who had refused the con-
scription were on their way to punishment in far Eastern
Siberia. One of them fell ill in and X. was watch-
ful over his comfort till he died. He passed away in
great peace, impressing all those about him by the
patience and tenderness of his spirit. The rest of the
gang were sent on to Yakoutsk, and they, too, won the
regard of officers and soldiers in charge by their gentle-
ness, and the more than willingness to perform their daily
tasks as convicts— such as cleaning their prison cells—
and the like.
" And here I must remark that none of the people of
whom I am writing {i.e.^ the Doukhobortsi) are very en-
lightened as to doctrines. Measured by this standard
they would have to be classed as ignorant— some of them
in the extreme of ignorance— for they have not had teach-
ing ; but measured by their faithfulness to the one point
that has been shown them — the duty of loving all men —
they have attained a high degree of perfection. I say
this because we are all apt to judge those who differ from
us in important doctrines. We are narrower than the
Father of all, and need broadening, to be just to those
whom He has accepted, but who have not had our
training.
"X. was summoned to Petersburg, and told that for
helping Tolstoi, and for aiding and abetting the Stundists
U2
324 THE NEED OF HELP
and Doukhobortsi, of which the police had long been
cognisant, he must at once quit Russia !
" To most men, so sudden a plunge from influence and
comparative wealth, to poverty, with a wife and five little
children, in a land whose language he could not speak,
would mean very great despondency, if not blank despair !
Not so to X. Instantly setting to work to master English,
he already, in less than six months, speaks and writes
it intelligibly, though not grammatically ; and at the
same time he has been learning type composing [in
order to manage a Russian printing undertaking his friend
Tchertkoff has planned, and for which he receives] ;^5 or
;£6 a month to maintain his family. When I found this, I
invited him down to Gloucester, to be shown some of the
technical details he would need ; and he came for a few
days — not liking to leave his wife, who cannot speak our
language, for a longer time. I can only say we have all
been deeply impressed by his quiet courage and sweet
spirit. No one would for a moment suspect the tre-
mendous trial through which he is passing. So far from
hinting a complaint, or a murmur, he is as cheerful and
* all there ' as if everything were sunshine about him.
■X- * * * *
' * This is a long letter, but I have felt bound to put
enough of the story of these men before Friends to show
who and what they are who have been raised up to help
the Doukhobortsi, and who now have to give place to us
to carry on that help, while they have to share the suffer-
ing in their own persons that they have hitherto been
relieving ; and I feel confident that the Society of Friends
will do its part in this emergency, and gladly do it. The
emigration cannot fail to bring the testimony against war
before the world in a new form. Comparatively few
even of those who are Christians can really sympathise
with it ; but all can understand and may be influenced
in measure by the object lesson summed up in the words—
' How these Christians love one another.' "
DOUKHOBORS IN CYPRUS 325
During their settlement in the island, the ' Cyprus '
group of Doukhobors were located principally upon two
farms, Pergamo and Athalassa, where they were prac-
tically dependent on the generosity of their friends, for
their own means were by this time exhausted. The scene
described in the following letter was the removal of a
large party of them from Lamaka, the port of landing,
to Athalassa.
To William Holland^ Norquay, Manitoba
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 14-9-1898
*' A telegram has just come from Wilson Sturge to say
he has bought a farm called Pergamo for ;£"38o, and that all
the Duchobors have now moved from Larnaka. That is,
I take it, all the 11 26 are now settled on some land.
Pergamo is about ten miles on the road from Lamaka to
Famagusta.
"Birukoff, who is with Wilson Sturge, was a writer of
articles in some of the Russian papers : a friend of Tolstoi's.
He has a very capital power of description. Here is his
accoimt of the march to Athalassa. His delight at being
able to command a policeman instead of being dogged by
one is amusing !
' I am again at Larnaka, having returned from a journey
* to Nicosia and Athalassa, where I have established 272
'Duchobors. The transport was accomplished quite
'successfully. We marched the whole night with a
' caravan of wagons stretching several versts. It was
' a splendid moonlight night : warm : quiet. I rode up
' and down the caravan accompanied by a mounted
' policeman whom the Governor gave me, and kept
' things in order. The journey was quite a fairy dream.
' Amid the wild barren scenery of Cyprus in a moon-
' light night are advancing wagons harnessed with
' bullocks and mules, laden with the Duchobors' baggage,
' women and children. The men and strong women are
' advancing in small groups between the wagons ; some
326 ATHALASSA
' singing hymns. We meet on the way caravans of
' camels with bells, and Arabs swaying on the top.
' And lo ! I am riding about as a kind of commander of
' this our caravan, and with a policeman attached to my
' person, whom I send to and fro ; and he saying ' Yes
' Sir ! ' gallops away at full speed either to one end or
' the other of the caravan to stop or hurry on the pro-
' cession. This policeman is not attached to me to
' dodge my steps or to catch either me or a Duchobor,
' but on the contrary to afford us every kind of help in
' our relations with the local inhabitants, chiefly by the
' language, which he chatters in, while he understands
' a little English.
'So we march on one hour — another — and a third.
' Midway we make a halt of three hours, and the bullocks
' are fed. Notwithstanding it is night the inhabitants
' of the locality turn out to gaze at the unusual sight.
' Then we gradually crawl on further. I ride on with
' the safli (policeman) to meet the Duchobors at their
' destination. We get to a turning off the high road, —
' go along it, and see in the moonlight in the distance an
' oasis — the tops of palms and shining white walls of
' buildings. This is Athalassa. The nearer we approach,
' the thicker and more varied becomes the vegetation :
' we see cotton plantations, groups of olive trees,
'bulrushes, etc., and the palms become grander and
' finer. I perceive bunches of dates upon them which I
' long to eat : but they are not yet ripe : and they are too
' high. At last we ride up to the house itself: we ascend
' a little hillock and hear the trickling of a stream. The
' wagons drive up one at a time ; and by nine in the
' morning on the banks of the stream were already
'pitched twenty-five tents, and the people actively
' moving about among them.
'The place is beautiful, and I hope the Duchobors
' will settle in it permanently.' "
EMIGRATION TO CANADA 327
To Joseph Neave, Sydney, Australia.
Gloucester, 27-10-1898.
" Again and again I have been hoping for time to write
thee — but the crowd of correspondence that comes on me
as clerk of the Doukhobortsi Committee keeps putting ofif
the leisure f * * *
" The Canadian Government, on behalf of the Doukho-
bortsi, promise a very large grant of land, with advance
of seed and implements, and several other privileges.
The cost, even with all this help, for a large number will
be of course very great, and with eleven hundred people
to feed and find land for in Cyprus, it will be impossible
for our committee to undertake more, as we have only
some ;£4,ooo in hand at this moment, after the expenses
thus far incurred.
*' Count Tolstoi is very earnest to go on with the
emigration nevertheless, and he has imdertaken to write
some tales and sell the copyright for the benefit of the
Doukhobortsi, though he has never done such a thing
before. He sent his son Sergius over here three weeks
ago to see our committee about the scheme. Sergius
Tolstoi gave us the figures of funds on which they could
reckon — first from some of the Doukhobors selling their
land, etc. (not the very poor ones we have been helping,
but some not so stripped of all) — about ^5,000. Count
Tolstoi himself could add ;£^3,ooo, and his friend V.
Tchertkoff about ^700. Roundly speaking they expected
the cost of transit from Batoum to Quebec, and then on
by rail, to be about ;^i 1,000 ; and we decided to make
them a grant in aid of the balance.
" It now appears that the cost will be short of ;^i 1,000 ;
but no provision is made for feeding two thousand people
during winter in Canada. How this will be managed I
do not yet know. An extremely capable Russian is
seeing to the steamer, etc., and securing the needful
arrangements for health on board ; but, at the moment
328 CYPRUS ABANDONED
I write, the matter is not completed. Prince Hilkoff is
now away in the far-west of the Dominion looking out for
land, a first large tract which was agreed upon by the
Government, not being found suitable for some reason.
''I have much more to write, but time makes it im-
possible as the Committee work presses."
To Joseph J. Neave, Sydney, Australia.
Gloucester, 11-1-1899.
" With regard to the Doukhobors, at the time I write
a company of them are on the Atlantic — perhaps half-way
across to Halifax— ^w route for a tract of land granted
them by the Canadian Government at a point that lies at
the apex of an obtuse triangle, the base of which would be
Regina on the west and Winnipeg on the east. Another
ship, the ' Lake Superior,' is nearing Gibraltar on her way
after the first, which is called the ' Lake Huron.' The
two together convey over four thousand souls.
" We now find it will be needful to re-emigrate the
Cyprus company at an early date. It is a weighty under-
taking to look forward to ; but the way will doubtless be
made plain when the right time for it comes. Meanwhile
we have sent two Russian nurses to Cyprus to take care
of the sick, though the sickness is lessened. Wilson
Sturge reports that the seeds he has had sown all seem
likely to produce good crops, which will tend to help
matters somewhat. The growth of many things at this
season when the rain has come, is exceedingly rapid. A
lady who lives in Cyprus mentions in a book that peas can
be eaten four weeks after they are sown ! Wilson Sturge
confirms this, saying that he himself has had some that
had been sown a month previously.
" I was in London the night before last at the request
of the Friends' Quarterly Meeting lecture committee, to
give them a paper on the Roman origin of many of our
homely old houses ; for our pillared market-houses and
SURVIVALS FROM THE PAST 329
such old inns as the ' Green Dragon ' used to be, in
Bishopsgate Street, with galleries all round a court or
courts, are Roman in their origin, although they have
been several times rebuilt since the fifth century, when the
Romans left.
"In an enquiry of this sort, where one looks into little
things as a clue to larger matters, one often comes upon
interesting items whose very lack of importance, as people
generally count importance, has caused them to be over-
looked. Thus, we find our very old gates— such as the
' Traitor's Gate ' in the Tower of London, the Market
House Gate at Ross, etc. — trellis-work to let in light. In
old times, before glass was used, trellis filled the windows ;
and in stormy weather it was screened by cloths or by
shutters. And when glass began to be used, it was cut to
the shape that people had always been accustomed to in
the ' lattice ' (lath- work.) Hence the diamond window
panes of our cottages, as well as in ecclesiastical buildings.
" But even the angle to which these were cut was
the result of experience and of rule -for I got two photo
slides made from pictures of Greek Temples in which such
lattice was used, and threw them on the screen ; and then
I put on the shadowed lines a tracing of one of the old
window panes in the Crypt of Gloucester Cathedral (which
also happens to correspond accurately with many cottage
window panes, such as that of Ann Hathaway 's cottage
near Stratford-on-Avon) when the lines exactly fitted,
showing the very pattern itself, and the precise angle, to
have come down to us from thousands of years ago !
" I have to go again to London the day after to-morrow
to join a number of Friends at the Foreign Office in a
deputation to St John Brodrick, the new Under Secretary
for Foreign Affairs, to urge upon the Government the
need of putting an end quickly to the slavery in Pemba
and Zanzibar, which lingers on, notwithstanding the
Queen's decree against it."
330 SECOND JOURNEY TO RUSSIA
To Joseph Elkinton^ Philadelphia.
Gloucester, England, 19-8-1899.
" It is a great matter to get the information our son is
able to give us about the Doukhobor settlement ; for our
work as a committee is, I think, by no means near its end
yet. We have difficult matters to arrange in Cyprus
about the land and buildings, getting the crop sold, etc.—
and then in Canada there is the claim of over $5000 for the
quarantine of the last arrivals from Kars, etc.
'' These last Doukhobors are a mixed company — by no
means of so high a standard, on the whole, as the previous
immigrants. Some of them are persons who forced them-
selves on the party leaving Russia, although they had not
borne the testimony against war themselves : their motive
being merely that of getting better farms.
"Still, this mixture, while it tries our patience, ought
certainly not to exhaust it. We must keep steadily on,
doing our best under the circumstances, and the end will
be right."
In December, 1899, the case of one hundred and ten
leading Doukhobors, who had been exiled to Siberia
before permission was granted to the main body to leave
Russia, was brought to the notice of the Society of
Friends. It received their warm sympathy, and two
delegates, Edmund Wright Brooks and John Bellows, were
appointed to convey a petition to the Tsar, praying that
these exiles might be permitted to join their brethren in
Canada. The errand, however, was unsuccessful. John
Bellows, when on this journey, writes from his old
quarters in St. Petersburg.
To his Wife and Children.
Petersburg, First-day, 10-12-1899.
" After breakfast we came up to our drawing-room and
sat down by the open English fire for our meeting. We
had a long and solemn and sweet silence, our Heavenly
Father's near presence enabling us to look onward with
no misgiving whatever to the weighty matter before us.
♦ * * I cannot describe the sense of the Divine
AT ST, PETERSBURG 331
presence that dwelt with us, both in the silence and in the
utterance : and the earnest desire that rested with me that
the pure will of God may be done in the carrying out our
endeavour to help the poor people we seek to befriend ;
and it may be to help another or others besides, in this
land. I felt it an unspeakable favor to be tendered and
made small ; and instead of fretting because we are not
Stephen Grellets, or Daniel Wheelers, just to resign our-
selves into the hands of the Almighty, who can do with us
and with all men whatever He wills : for that is enough.
" Many times as I looked from the windows of our
Nordexpress at the driving snow and the darkness of
the wilderness through which we were being borne, I
realized the words ' stormy wind fulfilling His word ' ; and
felt assured that it is so both inwardly and outwardly, and
that all the storms we pass through in life will swiftly be
past, to give place to the great and never-ending eternity
of rest in the love of God !
"It is this love which has placed us in one group
together as a family, that we may be helpful to one
another 'in the way everlasting.'"
To Francis Michelle Redruth,
Petersburg, 17-12-99.
" The railways here to distant points are not like ours ;
they are very gingerly affairs. That to Archangel from
Moscow, not long opened, has lost a big piece lately from
floods washing it away in the swamps it crosses. The
speed of the train there was never above ten versts an
hour ! The Trans-Siberian line is so enormously long and
badly built, that a merchant (the foremost of the English
firms here) told me it was never possible to trace lost goods
from a train upsetting away in Central Asia. Long before
it can be traced, the nomad Tartars, etc., have carried ofif
bag and baggage to the four winds. The cost is £,^ for
freight for £^j^ worth of grain {i.e., £,\ at Irkutsk.)"
332 AT ST. PETERSBURG
To his daughter Lucy.
Petersburg, 18-12-1899
" In the afternoon we took a walk for exercise, past the
Palace-quay as it is called, where the Winter Palace and
the Embassies and other grand houses face the river Neva.
A crowd, mostly of the peasant class, were standing by
the guard-wall of the River, looking up at the Palace ; and
there in the first floor window sat a group of members of
the Imperial family, I suppose : a gentleman with stars and
ribbons, and a lady and children beautifully dressed,
forming a little semi- circle, looking out on the frozen
river and the beautiful sky behind the part of the city on
its other bank. In the street were numbers of carriages
and pairs, with the most lovely horses : elegant sledges
with gorgeous coachmen and footmen, and so on for a
mile : ladies of the court, officials of rank, and lovely
children flashing past in carriage and sledge to the recep-
tion, f^ * * I find that we did see the Emperor and
Empress and the three pretty little princesses in the
window of the Winter Palace just now.
"A couple of days ago a gentleman in uniform, with a
large grey beard, dined at the next table to ours in the
small dining room of the hotel. This was Admiral
Makharoff, the designer of the great Ice-breaker we see
in the Neva. It is a three-funnel steamer of 8,000 tons,
and just rides on to the ice, and bears it down by sheer
weight ! It smashes eight feet thick of it."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 23-12-1899.
" We have done our very best ; but it seems that
success must not follow our efforts at present. It may
come later ; but the future is hid from us. It is a sharp
trial of faith ; but all I can do is to endeavour not to cast
it away utterly. Looking back on each step we have
taken, I cannot see that we could have done anything else.
ST. PETERSBURG — MOSCOW 333
I could not have refused to come, without a distinct feel-
ing of resisting or overriding a true call : and yet here we
are, unsuccessful in the accomplishing of our aim."
To his Wife.
Petersburg, 25-12-99.
" We had an interesting brief call this evening from a
lady of the landed class whose memory goes back fifty or
sixty years, when the usual run from here to Moscow took
three-and-a-half days, travelling day and night by sledge ! !
At the time she was married, when her husband had large
numbers of serfs on his estates in the South, there used to
be a regular day in each week for flogging both men and
women who had offended the manager or overseer. The
sight and hearing of such torture so affected our hostess
that she was continually crying ; and her husband on this
account had the flogging day done away with ! "
To his daughter Dorothy.
Petersburg, 28-12-1899.
" I wish you could all see Moscow. There is no other
city of a million people at all like it. It covers miles on
miles of hills, not very high, but some of them steep : the
largest in the centre being the one on which the Kremlin,
or fortress, is built. It is a town in itself, with walls and
gates separating it. Below it runs the wide River Moskwa,
from which the city is named. It was only partly frozen
over when we were there on First-day ; and a score of
men were standing on the ice, fishing through holes they
had cut in it, and down through which they let their lines.
** Fancy all the space from Gloucester to Cheltenham
filled with hill and dell covered with houses of all sorts
and sizes, most of' them white with snow : and a dazzling
sun shining in a very pale blue sky above : and among
the houses, gilded spires and domes, and domes of blue and
green and crimson and all colours of the rainbow, flashing
and shining like jewellery : a stinging bitter cold making
334 COUNT TOLSTOI
one muffle into one's fur ; but a freshness and light feeling
in the air like we get in England on a mountain top, enough
to make one sing or dance with delight. But the singing
is all done for us by the bells booming and tinkling and
chiming amid the sh—sh—sh of hundreds of sledges flying
past one, and the clang, clang of tram-bells and the shouts
of ^Hif Verrighee /' (Hi there, Look out!)— and that is
Moscow."
To Joseph Elkinton^ Philadelphia,
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 8-1-1900.
"As Count Tolstoi has all along been so deeply inter-
ested in this migration of the Doukhobortsi, and feels so
earnestly for the Siberian exiles, we arranged to go over
to Moscow and see him. It is a journey by night, of
thirteen hours. We were met at the station by a lady
whose acquaintance Edmund Brooks had made during the
famine : a friend of the Tolstois, who introduced us to
some of her relatives, people of liberal views, who were
sympathetic with our effort.
*' We dined and spent the evening with Count Tolstoi
and his family, and with one or two of their friends,
including the mother of the lady just mentioned. Our
welcome was warm by every one of the family, who, like
all those who saw Joseph James Neave and myself seven
years ago, enquired very lovingly after him, and were not
a little interested to hear of his being in America now.
" I have been unable to approve of some of Tolstoi's
views, or of things he has written ; and yet in sitting down
by his side I felt the same deep and precious unity of
spirit with him which I experienced at our last visit.
Grasping both my hands, he said with emotion, * I have
great love for you ' ; and he afterwards adverted to that
broadness of mind which enables us to recognise the love
of the truth in those who may not be of the same mould of
thought as ourselves. Count Tolstoi was earnest that we
should leave no possible stone unturned on this errand."
RETURN TO ENGLAND 335
After his return from Russia with his companion, John
Bellows continued to give earnest practical help to the
Doukhobors in Canada ; and, with his colleagues, kept in
close touch with everything that affected their welfare.
To Joseph J. Neave, Sydney, Australia.
UpT^pN Knoll, Gloucester, 11-9-1900.
" Thou wilt, I dare say, have followed with interest the
account of the visit of Jonathan Rhoads and Joseph S.
Elkinton to the Doukhobor colonies. One item in it was
especially cheering— that a letter has arrived from one of
the exiles in Siberia, to his mother in the Prince Albert
settlement, in which he says that the officials have informed
them that twelve of their number will be at once freed. * *
" Last week, or just before, Edmund W. Brooks met
with some Russians from the Caucasus, who;told him that
ten thousand Stundists there were making enquiry with a
view to emigrating to Canada. I think the number must
be wrong, for when thou and I were there, and saw most
of the exiles, there were nothing approaching this figure ;
and I do not think any vast movement of persecution has
taken place since. Indeed, for the last year or two, we
hear the Emperor has stopped the further transportation
of Stundists to the Caucasus.
*'Thou wilt, I am sure, recollect our visit to Kutais to
see B., the cheerful but visionary man who had been
banished to that spot. Thou mayst also remember his
socialistic talk with Hermann Fast about the evil of
money, per se, and the harm done to the human race by
civilization !
" * I thought you said the visit of these friends had been
a comfort to you ? ' was Fast's adroit remark.
" ' So it has been.'
"*But you forget — How could they have come here
without money?'
" * Very well ! They could have walked.'
" ' What ! Could Mr Neave have walked from Australia?*
336 A VISIONARY
'* This upset his calculations ; but in a few moments he
said, ' No ; but he could have begged a passage ! '
"I lost patience with this, and asked Fast to tell him
that if civilization was in itself such a wicked thing, we
were bound to get rid of it and its effects ; and that as a
printed Bible was certainly a product of civilization, he
must begin by burning his Bible. (I knew he rightly held
it in high esteem.) He winced at this— and then said,
' We can't be consistent all at once ! ' ' No,' 1 said ; ' but
we are bound not to preach any further than we are con-
sistent ! ' After which we got on to more congenial lines."
Soon after their settlement in Canada, the Doukhobors
added to the responsibilities of those who were seeking to
aid them, by their refusal to register their births, marriages
and deaths, and to comply with the Government regula-
tions in the matter of the registration of their lands. At
the present date (1904) these difficulties have practically
disappeared.
To Joseph Elkinton, Philadelphia.
Gloucester, England, 21-9-1900.
" I know it will cheer Friends to read an extract from
a letter just received from one of the members of the
Government in Canada, bearing out, as it does, what I
wrote to thy father a few days ago about the spirit in which
all the officials with whom we have been in correspondence,
act towards the Doukhobors. Referring to the objection
raised by some of the latter to comply with the laws about
registration of land, births, marriages and deaths, the
writer goes on to say : —
' While of course the Doukhobors added to some
* extent to our responsibilities in undertaking to adjust
' their difficulties, yet as far as I am concerned, I am
' only pleased to be able, even though the road may not
' be smooth, to look for a satisfactory termination of the
' matter, and I am inclined to think that these people
' will become very creditable settlers in the country.
THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT 337
* It will only require a little leading to show them that
* the Government has no desire except the public
' welfare in any request that may be made to them, and
* that so far from doing anything that might prove
* injurious to settlers, the object of the Department is to
* further their interests in every possible way.'
**I am closely pressed for time or would write more;
but I will add that I feel no fear that the difficulty about
registration will disappear with a little timely explanation
which our Committee is now preparing to ofifer the
inunigrants."
CHAPTER XVII.
VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES — PHILADELPHIA — WORCESTER-
BOSTON — PLYMOUTH — CONCORD — HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
IN THE summer of 1901 , John Bellows and his wife were
able to carry out a long- cherished wish to visit their
friends in the United States : where, moreover, their third
son, Philip, had recently settled as an engineer. To the
Friends in Philadelphia John Bellows was bound by ties
of the closest religious unity : and, in addition to this, there
was the bond of a joint interest in the Doukhobor settle-
ment in Canada, to which these Friends had so largely
contributed; whilst in New England, also, there were
many whose friendship was very dear to him.
On their arrival in Philadelphia they were privileged
to be the guests of Joseph S. and Malinda Elkinton,
whose house became a real home for them during their
stay, and a centre from which to visit their other friends
in and around the city.
The summer of 190 1 was an exceptionally hot one even
for America, and John Bellows' health was much tried by
it. He soon began to suffer from a difficulty in breathing
which considerably troubled him : and in order to obtain for
him a little rest and relief from the excessive heat, a few
days were now spent in the cooler air of Niagara. From
Niagara he and his wife proceeded to Worcester,
Massachusetts, where, for a fortnight, they were the
guests of Senator and Mrs Hoar: and in the congenial
society of his host, John Bellows visited places whose
names with us in Old England are household words.
VISIT TO AMERICA 339
During this interesting visit, John Bellows was much
gratified by receiving the honorary M. A. degree of Harvard
University, which was conferred on him for his French
Dictionary, and for his essays on Roman antiquities in
Britain.
At Harvard he and his wife had the pleasure of meeting
members of the American branch of the Bellows family,
which is descended from one John Bellows, who as a boy
of twelve, sailed from London in April, 1635. I^ the
sixties, Dr Henry Whitney Bellows, a distinguished
Unitarian minister of New York, on a visit to England,
being attracted by the name of John Bellows, had sought
him out at Gloucester : and it was, therefore, a great satis-
faction to the latter to meet a son of his remote kinsman.
' In family Bibles, in town, provincial and state records,
and on gravestones scattered through rural burying
grounds' the history of the American family had been
stored ; and from these sources it has been gathered into
an interesting volume by Thomas Bellows Peck, of
Walpole, New Hampshire, another of the descendants
of the boy emigrant.
A second visit to Philadelphia, and one to the Whittier
home at Amesbury, brought this memorable journey to
the United States to a close.
From John Bellows to his Children.
Pine Street, Philadelphia, 18-5-1901.
" It was an interesting run [from New York to Phila-
delphia,] some of the scenery very much reminding one
of Belgium. Arriving at Broad Street exactly on time (as
the Americans say) our luggage was taken care of by a
colored man, to whom Joseph S. Elkinton gave the
checks, and we ' trollied ' to Pine Street. The streets for
the most part strike me as narrow : even Broadway in
New York looking more like the narrow street of some
German city than one that is really * broad,' But a pretty
V2
340 PHILADELPHIA
feature of the Quaker City is the number of trees every-
where planted along the side walks : plane and poplar
and sycamore predominating.
" 325 Pine Street is not many doors from the last tram
line we used: an old English-looking brick house with
white painted doors and window frames, with three steps
up to the front door. On the opposite side of the street is
a beautiful old burial ground of one of the oldest city
' churches,' where, by the way, Washington had a pew.
It is thickly planted with trees, now brilliant in their first
spring green, and between the foliage of which a lofty
brick tower rises, carrying an octagonal spire. The
ampelopsis climbs to the very battlements of the square
part, and the whole makes ^ most beautiful picture. They
tell us that on moonlight nights the effect is still more
charming ; [and] there is an old-world beauty about it that
carries one back to the days of William Penn, who laid
down the street with the others in the original plan of the
city.
*' I need hardly say how warm a welcome we had from
the household. Invitations begin to pour in on us. Joshua
L. Bailey has called and arranged for us to be at his house
on Fifth- day next; and we go this afternoon to William
Evans's, at Moorestown, to stay over to-morrow. Yester-
day afternoon we went to a meeting at the Friends' Girls'
School, to hear something of Ramabai's work in India - a
Hindoo girl speaking very artlessly on behalf of it. From
there Thomas Elkinton came in a barouche to take us
a drive through Fairmount Park— a most beautiful time
we had ; and in the evening George Vaux came to engage
us for Third-day night at his house in the country."
To Colonel Carleton, Norwood.
325 Pine St., Philadelphia, 18-5-1901.
"Moorestown is the residence of a large number of
Friends, the avenue in which we were staying being
MOORESTOWN FRIENDS 341
almost entirely peopled by them. We have nothing
similar to it. A broad drive, with avenues of trees in the
first brilliance of spring green ; smooth lawns on either
hand, running on either side, continuously, with no fences
or walls ; and villas, some of wood, some of brick or
stone, standing back each in its ornamental garden, and
partly hidden by the forest of greenery that covers every-
thing. The interiors of the houses are furnished with a
neatness and comfort that could not be surpassed ; and
behind them again come lawns and gardens merging one
into another, seemingly without end.
" In the evening, our host and hostess, who had been in
England, had invited quite a number of yoimg people to
meet us, some of whom had travelled widely, both in our
own island and on the continent of Europe, as well as in
Syria and Egypt. In our own family circle we usually
have a chapter or two of the Bible read on 'First-day'
evening, each taking two verses in turn ; and it was
home-like to us, as well as interesting, to find the same
custom here ; and the whole company dropped into it
naturally, reading from I Peter ii. on to the end. That the
elder people should do this was less noteworthy ; but the
reverent earnestness of the young fathers and mothers,
and of the bright and chatty younger men and maidens
brought home to one's mind the conviction that here was
in very truth a community with whom the seeking after
God and purity of heart was the main aim of their lives.'*
Extracts from Letters from Niagara.
Niagara, 7-6-1901.
" We got in here between twelve and one at night, and
were taken to the Cataract Hotel. The journey had been
a long one : part of it — a large part — through the beautiful
scenery Willie advised us not to miss. Two points especi-
ally struck us. Glen Summit, 2,000 feet above the sea, in
the midst of wooded hills stretching away to an immense
distance ; the town of Wilkes-Barre, below and four miles
342 SENECA LAKE -NIAGARA
off, we had to run downhill seventeen miles to reach, at a
workable gradient ! After this we ran for miles along by
the northern branch of the Susquehanna River. We had pre-
viously kept along the course of the Lehigh River, which
gives its name to the railway — 'The Lehigh Valley' line.
" The second very beautiful feature was the Seneca
Lake by sunset. It is thirty-seven miles long— say as far
as from Bristol to Gloucester— and about as wide as
Windermere. Here and there lovely gorges and woods
run down to it ; and much of the land on the side on which
the rail runs is cultivated for fruit — peaches, grapes, etc.
In one part we ran through a vineyard two hundred acres
in extent. It was half-past ten, nearly, when we reached
Buffalo city, where we waited an hour or more for the
train to Niagara Falls.
'* The Falls themselves are not to be described by any
words, nor shown in any painting or photograph. To get
below them, on the little steamer, is the best way to form
an idea of their scale. We are all furnished with tarpaulin
dresses and hoods, and stand on the deck in a storm of
mist and hammering spray. To look up one hundred and
sixty feet and see the mighty roll-over of the mass of
emerald green water against the sky-line of blue, a thou-
sand feet wide, and watch it always plunging down into
the vast sea of cloud that hides the river where it strikes,
and have all the hearing filled with the hiss and boom and
thunder of it, nearly stuns the imagination. This is the
smaller portion alone of it — the American Fall. Half-a-
mile of wooded cliff parts it from the Canadian or
Horseshoe Fall, which is a curve of half-a-mile in outline.
One looks on for hours — the scale never lessening but
growing on one."
To his Children.
AT Senator Hoar's, Worcester, Mass., 14-6-1901.
" Everything here is so full of interest that it is hard to
keep pace with the new thoughts suggested by each place
EXCURSIONS IN NEW ENGLAND 343
and each person with which and with whom we come in
contact.
" Yesterday we had a delightful excursion to the
neighbouring towns of Clinton and Lancaster, going to
the first on a trolley car,* some half-dozen miles through
a delightful country of hills and woods, past the new lake
that is being made for the larger supply of Boston with
water. **•>«• Lancaster, a few miles on from Clinton,
is a lovely town among trees — all the place buried in
greenery and flowers. We drove past it to see a vast
American Elm : a splendid tree, the trunk of which, at its
smallest circumference below the bifurcation is twenty-six
feet. The American Elm is much more open in its growth
than ours, in fact very nearly like our ' Wych Elm *
(Wych = wyke, to bend — i.e., the bending elm.)
"Passing a sweet old burial ground on our way back
we stayed to read the epitaph on a descendant of the
Pretender, who, after years of wandering over the world,
attracted by the quiet beauty of Lancaster, settled here
and found in it his last resting place.
" This morning Senator Hoar took me to Boston : your
mother coming on later with our hostess to join us at the
Union Club. * * *
'' Entering a carriage we were soon on Boston Common,
where two hundred and thirty odd years ago the four
Friends were put to death. It is not a ' common,' but a
beautiful park, with tall timber trees and grand banks of
rhododendrons, dominated by the State House where the
Assembly and the Senate pass the State laws, etc. We
drove to a burial ground where many of the great men of
the Revolution lie buried, and where, too, is the tomb of
Franklin's father and mother. Then to the old King's
Chapel with further grand memories ; to the old South
Chapel, now a museum of the most interesting relics of
the colonial and revolution times ; to Faneuil Hall, where
* Electric tram-car.
344 ' BOSTON
a canny Scotsman was glad to hear me speak a little of his
own dialect ; and then to the State House, where we went
up in the elevator to the magnificent corridor leading to
the apartments of the Secretary of State, to whom I was
introduced, and in whose office we were to wait till joined
by Ruth Hoar and your mother. The Secretary of State
gave us some interesting details of the procedure of the
Parliament, which was to be prorogued that evening, they
hoped."
To his Children.
Worcester, Mass., 16-6-1901.
" The day at Boston was one never to be forgotten.
We are now far enough away from the time of the Revolu-
tion for all its sharp lines to be softened down ; and the
events which a hundred years ago were the subjects of
controversy, have now passed into the domain of history,
as full of interest to Englishmen as they are to Americans.
It was not without a feeling of wonder and surprise that I
came suddenly on the old court house of the * Colonial '
days, with the royal arms of England in their full glory of
painting and gilding, on the summit.
"There is an antique beauty in the tall many-storied
houses and curving narrow streets of Boston— well in
keeping with the romance of its history ; the whole effect
of its color against the cloudless blue of the sky, and of
the musical roar of its thronging population, presses upon
one's spirit like the embodiment of a poem too vast and
too vivid to be expressed in words. I have never seen
anything more magnificent than Washington Street, com-
bining in its sweep such a sense of the ethereal and the
material in one : the halo of its history resting on its
stately buildings, gilding them as the sunset gilds the
commonplace dwellings of men and transforms them to
that which is unearthly and indescribable. I believe it
used to be called ' King Street ' : to me it was King Street
still, and it always will be.
BOSTON 345
"After a brief call on the Governor of Massachusetts,
and a visit to the library of the State House, in which we
examined the precious Bradford MS. that Senator Hoar
brought back from England, where it had been ever since
the Revolution,— and a look at the Bunker Hill monument
from the windows of the State House, we left for lunch at
the Union Club.
"We lunched with Chief Justice Holmes, Samuel Hoar
(nephew of Senator H.,) Arthur Lord of Plymouth, Charles
F. Adams (son of the U.S. Minister to London, grandson
of President John Quincy Adams, and great-grandson of
John Adams, who signed the Declaration of Independence,)
and Dr Samuel Green, the librarian of the Historical
Society of Massachusetts.
"After lunch we joined the ladies, and then Chief
Justice Holmes took your mother and me to his father's
old house on the River Charles. As mother will describe
this visit to Kitty, I will not give the details of it.
Armstrong Howitt's carving of the city arms of Glou-
cester—taken from the Tolsey at the time of its being
' torn down ' — is built into the mantel-piece of Oliver W.
Holmes's room overlooking the water. I ought to have
said that we had passed the house of Prescott the historian,
before, i.e., during our drive from the electric station. It
is now divided into two— a very English (* Colonial ' they
call it here) house in its appearance, with beautiful
greenery adding to its effect. * * *
"Yesterday, 6 mo. i6, we were all to go to * Redemp-
tion Rock,' about fifty miles journey from Worcester, to
be present at the handing over of the Rock by Senator
Hoar to his grand-nephew, John Hoar. The 225th anni-
versary of [his ancestor] John Hoar's redeeming poor
Mary Rowlandson from the Indians at this spot, was on
the 25th of Fifth month, 1901 ; but the family or rather the
clan gathering could not be arranged for at that moment,
and it took place yesterday. It is remarkable that this
346 REDEMPTION ROCK
delay enabled your mother and me to be present at the
ceremony, to the great delight of Senator Hoar, inasmuch
as we come from the very place where John Hoar was
born (Gloucester, about A. D. 1600.)
" We were taken to Ayer by rail, where we changed
for Fitchburg, a very busy manufacturing town, but very
prettily planted. Near it we passed Leominster — a little
town situate so exactly like its venerable namesake, that
the position, backed by hills as in Herefordshire, must
have suggested the name. At both Ayer and Fitchburg
our party was increased by other kinsfolk of our host. At
Fitchburg a special electric car had been engaged to take
us to Lake Wachusett— some seven miles— along a lovely
wooded country road. We were now thirty-six in number ;
and the thirty-horse -power motor swung us along over
hill and dale, and round curves no English engineer would
venture to make. The car is speeded for thirty miles an
hour. It won't be long before the whole country is net-
worked everywhere with these most excellent carriages.
"At Wachusett Lake we changed to two four-horse
brakes : and in two or three miles run along a sandy road
through the forest, we arrived at the Rock. It stands just
inside a field, on the lower slope of Wachusett Mountain
(2000 feet above the sea, at the summit.) The name means
Place of mountains, and Massa ( = great) -chusetts means
Place of the great mountains.
" The Redemption Rock is a mass of granite, nearly
flat, about forty feet by twenty-five, and some twelve feet
high, or more, with trees round part of it, and an open
field at back. All clambering on to the top, we stood in a
group while Senator Hoar graphically told us the story of
the capture, and redemption of Mary Rowlandson by his
Gloucester ancestor ; and at the conclusion of his speech
a camera-case was brought to serve as a table, and
Senator Hoar and his wife signed the deed, all the rest of
us following on it with our names, as witnesses. George
INTERESTING CEREMONY 347
F. Hoar now called his grand-nephew forward and made
him a present of the property, which he had purchased
to preserve it in the family. John Hoar is a bright boy
of nine. Taking the deed of gift from the Senator, he
said in a clear voice, ' Uncle Frisbie, I will keep this
precious deed in memory of John Hoar and of you.'
** Again taking our seats in the * barges,' as four-horse
brakes are here called, we were taken a mile or two up
the side of Lake Wachusett to lunch at an hotel from
which there is a splendid view over a plain like that of old
Worcester from Malvern. At some points on the way
we had a fine sight of Monadnock, the 3000-feet mountain
of which Emerson writes. It was a beautiful steel-
blue in colour — perhaps twenty or thirty miles to our
north. * * *
" A grand drive down the moimtain, another flying run
in the electric car to Fitchburg, and the journey by rail-
road back to Worcester, and this most interesting day
was ended. We had journeyed about a hundred miles in
course of it."
To his Children.
Worcester, Mass., 20-6-1901.
" On Second-day last Senator Hoar took us to Plymouth :
about an hour's run from Boston, which is an hour from
Worcester.
" As we approach the spot where the Pilgrims landed
in New England, it is interesting to note how many names
we meet with that recall the Devon and Cornwall and
Dorset homes from which some of them came. Thus,
before we get into Plymouth, we have Plympton for one
of the stations ; while, a few miles away, we have Falmouth
and Truro and Wareham and Weymouth, etc., etc. — and
in the little town itself one of the family names that we see
is * Cornish ' !
"We were met at the station by Arthur Lord, the
Secretary of the Pilgrim Society, whose members make
348 THE PILGRIM FATHERS
it their business to preserve and record all that exists
connected with the Immigration. A. L. drove us first up to
the great National Monument, which stands on a hill at the
back of Plymouth, corresponding to the * Hoe ' in the
English town. It was a lovely day, and the sapphire blue
sea sparkling in the sun, with the blue sky above it,
might have been the Mediterranean for beauty. White
sails dotted it here and there ; and the fresh breeze gave
a life to it all wonderfully in keeping with the poetry of
the place. Across the bay, on the left, is a low sandy hill
with an obelisk on it to Miles Standish, after whose place
in Old Lancashire, this spot, his New-World home, was
named Duxbury. It was this rough old soldier, I suspect,
who had the lead in the old-dispensation way in which the
Pilgrim Fathers treated the Indians ; for, as a wit has put
it, ' they first fell on their knees,' when they landed, * and
then they fell on the Ahoriginees /'
'* We were next driven to the ' church' that has lately
been built on the site of the one the Pilgrims first built in
America. Your mother will tell you the details of this
interesting part of our visit ; and I will pass on to the
further drive down to the shore and the ' rock ' on which
the landing was made, and the thanksgiving oifered for
their safely effecting the transit of the great ocean.
Plymouth is a little town of some 7000 people ; and like
all the American country towns we have yet seen, it is
beautifully shaded by trees : most of its streets being leafy
avenues, through which at different points glint bits of the
blue sea.
"A most hospitable meal at Arthur Lord's, and a sight
of the ' grandfather clock,' which is such a feature in the
American homes we have visited, gave us an hour's rest
before completing our round of the place ; though I ought
not to pass over the Indian stone implements and other
curiosities which A. L. has collected : for he is an ardent
antiquary.
PLYMOUTH 349
*' After lunch we went to the Pilgrim Hall— a museum
of documents and objects collected by the Society for their
historic interest. I was allowed to hold Miles Standish's
sword (taken from its glass case for the purpose) as well
as to examine many other articles that came over in the
Mayflower. Time would fail for their enumeration, how-
ever ; and I must pass on to the further drive we had up
the hill at the back of the town : this time to the burial
ground where Governor Bradford and others of the little
band of the forerunners lie in their last resting-place. It
is a site of touching beauty ; and as we stood on the edge
of its steep escarpment looking over the great bay, we
could just discern the broken outline of Cape Cod on the
horizon thirty miles away. It seemed hard to tear our-
selves away from the spot ; for, as I ventured to tell the
little group of people near the * church,' no American
could feel more deeply the emotion stirred by its associa-
tions. We agreed that we should like to live in Plymouth,
if we were to stay in this country : but we have said the
same of Moorestown, and of Boston, and I believe we
have since come to the conclusion that we should choose
Cambridge ! "
To his Children.
Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R.I., 27-6-1901.
" Such a pressure of events has been about us for
several days that I hardly know where I dropped the last
thread of narrative. On Sixth-day we were taken over
to Concord— one of the most beautiful of the New England
towns : perhaps the most beautiful we have yet seen. Hill
and river and woodland make it exceedingly romantic ;
while its associations with R. W. Emerson, Thoreau, and
other literary people, besides its history in the War of
Independence, add a charm to all this that it is difficult to
realize.
'*We were met at the station by Samuel Hoar, a
nephew of Senator H. He drove us to the scene of the
350 VISIT TO CONCORD '
battle of Concord, and then to the lovely burial ground
of ' Sleepy Hollow,' where Emerson, the Thoreaus,
Hawthorne, the Alcott family, and many of Senator Hoar's
family lie interred. Emerson's grave is marked by a
great piece of quartz rock in lieu of a tombstone, the
whole ground being wooded hills. Thence we were
driven to Walden, the forest and lake which were the
scene of Thoreau's hermit life. A young engineer has
since lived in the same spot, in the like fashion : not from
sentiment, but because he was in consumption. The open-
air life in Walden woods cured him, however.
"Steep hills, covered with primeval forest, rimning
round a deep lake of half-a-mile or more in width, are the
chief features of Walden. Thoreau's hut has gone, its
site being marked by a cairn of stones put there by
visitors, and to which we added our share. A large area
of the adjoining woods, though not Thoreau's part, belongs
to Samuel Hoar. We lunched at his house, and had the
pleasure of the company of Dr Edward Emerson and his
sister Ellen : son and daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
and very charming people. A beautiful garden at the
back of the house runs down to the Concord river— a
stream very much like the Thames in some of its
reaches.
" On Seventh-day Senator Hoar drove me to Holden
and Rutland— small towns to the north of Worcester, and
on higher ground. At the first-named we made a brief
halt to examine the beautiful little town library, and
it was wonderful to find a building that had cost $50,000
devoted to such a use in a place the size of Painswick.
Massachusetts is, in the matter of libraries, at the head
of the entire world— for at this moment every one but
two of its between two and three hundred towns has a
substantial public library. I ran through the catalogue of
the Holden one, and found it remarkably well chosen as a
whole.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 351
"Rutland lies 1260 feet above the sea, and commands
a vast landscape. About a mile below it stands the house
once occupied by General Rufus Putnam,* which, with its
hundred and fifty acres of land, has just been bought by
subscription, to turn it into a national monument. Senator
Hoar has bought at Worcester, and other places in
England, many old articles of furniture to place in the
rooms : all of the period of the Revolution or somewhat
earlier, so as to present a correct picture of what a New
England house was like in the earlier days."
To William Holland^ Norquay, Manitoba.
Providence, R. L, 28-6-1901.
<< * -x- * Before leaving England I had a letter
from Senator Hoar saying that he hoped I could plan to
be present at this function [Harvard Commencement] and
adding that he thought they might give me a degree ! I
at once wrote that I did not want to put myself in a false
position, that I was not of a calibre to take part in such a
festival, and must therefore decline it. Writing the same
day to Andrew White (the U. S. Ambassador at Berlin,
whom I had known at Petersburg and at the Hague, and
who was giving me some introductions for this journey) I
told him what I had said about Harvard ; but he at once
urged me to go there. * * *
" Just before the procession formed up in the morning,
to march to the theater where the degrees were to be
conferred, Senator Hoar came to me and said I had to
walk with him (he is the President of the Alumni) at the
head of it. Of course there was nothing for it but to
comply, and so we set out, followed by the Governor of
Massachusetts and the German Ambassador, and then the
Vice-President f of the United States — President McKinley
not being able to be present, on account of his wife's
illness. Just before starting, the Chief Marshal told me
* One of the heroes of the Revolution, t Theodore Roosevelt.
352 DEGREE CONFERRED
that when my name was mentioned by President Eliot, I
must stand up in my place, but not speak. We went
through a double rank of some thousands of graduates, to
the ' Theater,' and on to the platform. A very large
number of the ordinary student degrees were conferred,
representative batches of the young men coming up as
they were in turn summoned to take the sheaves of
diplomas for distribution in their several classes.
" When the honors came, two or three others and
myself were recommended by the Board of Overseers
as worthy to have conferred on us the degree of Master
of Arts ; and so, nolens volens, I found myself an ' M.A.'
of Harvard for my French Dictionary and Roman remains
essays ! I had no idea that what Senator Hoar hinted at
was more than a thought of his own, for the secret was
kept from me absolutely. I find my wife knew it— but
she gave me not even a suspicion of it ! "
The Whittier Association at Amesbury had invited
Senator Hoar to visit them during this summer of 1901,
and it had been planned that John Bellows and his wife
should accompany him. Illness prevented the Senator's
visit, and John Bellows and his wife went alone, being
the guests of the Lady President of the Association, in
Whittier 's old home.
From Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass.
Worcester, Mass, July ii, 1901.
'* My dear Mr Bellows,
" I am sorry that things seem to go wrong a little as to
the visit to Amesbury. I have been in bed since Sunday
night. I am, I think, getting better ; but it is not now
likely that I can make the journey to Amesbury in person
for at least two or three weeks to come. I was very
much affected by the heat at Harvard Commencement.
But I felt better next day, and on my return home took up
some very perplexing work which had given me a great
deal of anxiety, and kept along somehow until last Sunday,
AMESBURY 353
when I went to bed, and I have employed an intelligent
young doctor, whose principal prescription is that I shall
mind my wife, which I am doing with a meekness and do-
cility which would certainly commend me to Mrs Bellows,
and might insure my admission into the Quakers' fold.
"But Mrs Row ell, and the other Amesbury people,
will, I am sure, be delighted to see you and your wife, if
you will go there. She knows all about you already.
You will have the fullest ojj^ortunity to see Whittier's
dwelling-place and to worship with his friends in the old
meeting-house, and to see the green where it is proposed
to have his statue, of which he once said jestingly, ' I
suppose they will put a graven image here.'
"I need not say that I am very sorry indeed that this
thing has happened. It would have been a delight to me
to have made the visit under almost any circumstances.
But it would have been a special delight to have made it
in Mrs Bellows' company and yours. Be good enough to
let me know whether you will still like to go, that I may
give the Amesbury people notice.
" I think I am enjoying myself during this little sick-
ness more than I should if I were about my ordinary
occupations. I am getting a complete rest. The ladies
of the family, while they affirm a feminine authority, yet
do it in a certain tender and deferential way which is
exceedingly delightful. We have lovely cool weather.
So I lie in bed and croon over to myself the old hymn :
' Sleep, sleep, to-day, tormenting cares,
Of earth and folly born.'
** Mrs Hoar has gone out while I am dictating this letter,
or she would join with me in love to yourself and your
wife. I am faithfully yours, George F. Hoar."
To his son Max and his Wife.
Amesbury, Mass., 21-7-1901.
** I think you will like to have a line from Whittier's
house, where we are spending our last First-day in
w
354 WHITTIER'S HOME
America— a quiet and sweet spot in the avenued street of
a country town. The rooms are just those of a good
Friend's cottage, plain but comfortable. Ours is the
guest chamber, next to the poet's own bedroom. I can
touch the ceiling with my hand. Two windows look out
on the street, under the elms ; another into the garden.
The little parlor downstairs, in which Whittier sat and
wrote, looks out into this ; and he always called it ' the
garden-room.' Outside the two windows is a bushy rose-
acacia. * * * There are many trees— shade being what
is most wanted here— and a pergola covered with a vine.
'* This morning we went to Amesbury meeting— a nice
little gathering of perhaps forty Friends. Mother sat in
Whittier' s seat."
To his son John Earnshaw.
R.M.S. " Oceanic."
" Here we are safe on board this gigantic ship, which is
really a palace ! I could not by mere description convey a
full idea of what she is.
"We have splendid weather, and every prospect of
a beautiful passage.
" I feel that in what are relatively small things the care
of our Heavenly Father is over us. It seems to brighten
everything like the sunshine that is now above us !
Extracts.
** The Friends in and around Philadelphia are a sweet
and a dear people, whom I was going to say it would be
impossible not to love ; but I don't know about that, for I
never tried not to ! The meetings we were privileged to
attend were favored gatherings ; and I was again and
again impressed with regret that such real Friends should
be separated from Friends in England who have the same
aim and the same spirit !"
" I am greatly interested in finding the Pennsylvanians
using Cornish words and Cornish intonation of voice.
EXTRACTS ^ 355
They say, for instance, a house is torn down (which
is not English !) They have told me when I have once or
twice spoken in their meetings they have been struck
with my tone being much nearer their own than that
of English Friends generally is ! "
*' I must not forget to mention the wonderful electric
car system of Boston. I know of nothing like it. We
descend a subway in the Common (Boston Common, like
the commons of other American towns, is a Park) to a
large station, from which the electric trams run to all
parts of the city and suburbs. The rapidity with which
these vehicles rush in, load, and fly off in all directions is
bewildering. We were assured that it would be far more
crowded if we were there at five o'clock, when the busi-
ness men are bound homeward. We waited perhaps ten
minutes to get the Cambridge or Harvard car. In that
interval the cars came and left at the rate of 514 per hour ! "
To George F. Hoar and his Wife, Worcester, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 3-8-1901.
" Here we are, back at home again, after our nearly
three months' delightful journey in your land, laden like
bees, with the pollen of practical information about many
matters in it, and with the honey of the friendships we
have made, and deepened !
'* Our son, with a friend, ran up from Philadelphia to
see us off from New York, which we left with almost
the punctuality of a train, to dream our way across the
Atlantic on our floating Island, the ' Oceanic ' : an Island
flowing with milk and honey, and producing all the fruits
and grains of the temperate zone and the tropics, from
Quaker oats to oranges growing ready peeled on forks,
coming into our cabin in the morning to entice us out
to breakfast.
** On that voyage, I had planned a round of work
suitable to the leisure it affords— letters to friends ;
W2
356 RETURN HOME
essays ; dictionary work, and more than I can now even
recall. But if, on land, the way to ruin is paved with
good intentions, at sea these take the form, of clouds that
disappear day by day and leave not a wreck behind !
* * * * *
** At home we found all the children well and ready to
give us an enthusiastic welcome back."
CHAPTER XVm.
TRIALS OF FAITH— TOLSTOI'S " RESURRECTION "—LAKE DISTRICT-
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SENATOR HOAR — THE DIVINITY OF
CHRIST.
THE return voyage from America at the end of July,
1 901, was a favourable one, and John Bellows*
health appeared to benefit by it; but the improvement,
alas! was not permanent. After his return home his
books and his correspondence with his friends were still
a continual source of pleasure to him ; but his energies in
other directions had gradually to be much curtailed.
To Colonel Carleton, Norwood.
Gloucester, 23-8-1901.
" Two of my sons are gone to the Tyrol for a walking
tour among the mountains — good healthful work if the
weather keeps fine. As I was seeing them off at the
station yesterday, a large number of little East- end chil-
dren came from the Hereford train to go back to London
after a fortnight in the country. It was interesting and
amusing to see the rush and excitement among them. All
carried bags or packets — some of carrots, potatoes, wild
flowers, grass, corn — an * omnium gatherum ' of the most
heterogeneous description. About nine hundred go through
here per fortnight. These all looked in the most vigorous
health, bronzed and full of colour in their faces.
'* Some weeks ago one of my nieces wrote to her cousin
Marian to get some buns and milk for fourteen of these
East-end children who would be at Gloucester station
en route for Raglan. Marian, unable to come in that
358 FAITH IN THE PRESENT
morning, asked our old artillery sergeant to do it for her.
He found he had twenty-seven to feed, but did the best he
could. In course of a few days it transpired that he had
missed the Raglan contingent and fed the wrong children !
**A clergyman's daughter at Newport, Essex, tells us
that the only complaint that such little visitors make is
that country eggs are not right. ' They have not the
London flavour.'' "
To William Holland^ Norquay, Manitoba.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 28-9-1901.
"I entirely agree with what thou sayest about our
making the most of our health and of our influence of all
sorts, including that which may come to us with money.
As to the latter, a natural indolence keeps making me
wish I had enough to escape anxiety that often weights
me ; but it is a short-sighted wish. The truth is that,
shift the burden as we may, there is a continual need
of our exercising faith in the present care and goodness of
God, and in His present willingness to help us. No day
dawns on us in which the need of His help does not exist ;
and it is well that need should come home to us prac-
tically. A living dog is better than a dead lion ; and
a trust in a power that can help me through a worry or a
dilemma in my day's work is infinitely more to me than
knowing or believing something about the help Abraham
or Moses had at some remote time, and in other far
different circumstances. It is the now that tries the faith
that is the gift of God to every human soul; and the
now that is the time of the victory that overcomes the
world.
" My trial, at the moment I write, is not to give way to
fretting because I am laid on the shelf by my illness, for
I am writing this letter in bed. I often smile as I recall
the visit of a young fellow who was once in my employ,
named Latimer. He came over to see me at home, at
LATIMER 359
Churcham, and introduced his errand by saying, *The
Apostle Paul says, sir, that we must always do the best
we can for ourselves ; so I have come over to see if you
can't give me a rise of wages ? ' I rather think that the
Apostle Paul had no right to interfere between Latimer
and me in this particular ; but notwithstanding the oddity
of the way it was put, there is a solid truth at the bottom
of it— for to ' do the best we can for ourselves ' is the
whole duty of man.
" Latimer left me some time after ; and when I again
saw him I asked, ' Where art thou working now ? ' With
a cheery smile he answered, * Oh, for the Army /' He was
on General Booth's paper in London, and I suppose a step
nearer to the Apostle Paul than when he was at Gloucester.
By no means a bad sort of fellow."
To Stephen Salisbury, Worcester, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 25-10-1901.
" Our visit to Worcester opened up a new world to me,
that is seldom out of my remembrance for many hours at
a time, and it always feels to me as if I received more
from it than I can possibly repay ; so that it is a real
pleasure to find that friends like thyself are so willing to
accept what I write ! * * *
" I remember Professor C. telling me, some twenty
years ago, that a quantity of wine was laid down in the
cellars of Charles II. in the year of the Great Fire of
London, from which each succeeding monarch had drunk
a glass once a year on the anniversary of that event.
This went on till a little before the time Professor C.
mentioned it to me : Queen Victoria duly taking her glass
of the wine, until she found it so unpleasant that a bottle
of it was sent to Professor C. to be analysed and reported
on. He found it to be pure vinegar— all the alcohol having
disappeared ; and thereafter the time-honored custom of
the sovereign's tasting it was discontinued.
36o TOLSTOI'S "RESURRECTION"
" I suspect, as I write the story, that had it fallen to
Thoreau's lot to do so, he would have added a reflection
that there are things which happen to us in life of which
this would serve as an emblem : that which has been real
wine losing its life and energy by lapse of time and be-
coming mere acid ! -^^ -^ -^^
" I seldom find much worth listening to in formal
sermons, or prayers, or graces before meat ; but I am
bound to say that a word spoken by the Chaplain at
Harvard Commencement did strike me as very real and
sterling. He prayed— " Lord give us simplicity /'^
In December, 1901, John Bellows attended the Douk-
hobor committee in London for the last time, his failing
strength making it necessary for him to resign his position
on it as ' clerk.' At the same time there was a further
and painful matter which he was anxious for the committee
to settle while he still held the post.
Some time before this, Count Tolstoi had published his
novel, "Resurrection," in order to help the Doukhobors by
the sale of the copyright. The production of the book, in
English, had been jointly undertaken by two well-wishers
of the Doukhobors, who offered ;^ 150 from the proceeds to
the Friends' Fund : and this sum was accepted. At that
time no member of the committee had read the book,
except John Bellows — and he only in part — a portion of
the translation having been submitted to him for technical
assistance. He quickly perceived that it was a work that
he could in no way encourage, on account of its giving
"too much detail of scenes that ought not to be reported" ;
and he afterwards blamed himself that, knowing this, he
had not objected to the receipt of the money at the time.
To clear the Society of Friends, however, of any
complicity in countenancing the book, he had meanwhile
refunded the ;£"i5o to the donors, out of his own pocket.
By this time the majority of his colleagues had read the
special parts objected to, and now at this last committee
they unanimously agreed that the money must be refunded
to John Bellows, in order that the refusal to accept it
should be the joint action of the committee. This was
accordingly done.
ACTION OF THE COMMITTEE 361
To William Holland^ Nor quay ^ Manitoba.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 10-12-1901.
" * * * Press of time will not permit of my enlarging,
as I should like to, for I could jfind much to talk of;
but I may say briefly that one thing I had to get through
at our last Committee was the question of the novel
Tolstoi wrote to help the Doukobor migration expenses —
* Resurrection.' Our people received £^\^o of the pro-
ceeds ; but the work is an objectionable one in its giving
far too full details of ' smutty ' things ; and my wife and I
felt we had better sacrifice this sum ourselves rather than
let the Society of Friends be in complicity with its pub-
lication. So I paid the sum back out of my own pocket,
and then wrote Tolstoi a long and earnest letter on the
subject, to which he has as yet not sent a reply ; but his
friend who helped the translation, etc., came to the Com-
mittee to defend it against my charges. The Committee,
however, took my view, and unanimously condemned the
work as unfit for our homes ; and ordered the J[,\^o to be
refunded to me."
Count Tolstoi's reply to the letter referred to above was
delayed through illness. It was as follows : —
7TH of December, 1901.
'* Dear Friend,
" I received your letter and meant to answer it ; but the
last two months I have been so weak that I could not do
it, so you must excuse me my long silence.
" I read your letter twice and considered the matter as
well as I could, and could not arrive at a definite solution
of the question. You may be right, but I think not for
every person which will read the book. It can have a
bad influence over persons who will read not the whole
book and not take in the sense of it. It might also have
quite the opposite influence so as it was intended to. All
that I can say in my defence is, that when I read a book,
the chief interest for me is the Weltanschauung desAutors:
362 REPLY FROM TOLSTOI
what he likes and what he hates. And I hope that the
reader which will read my book with the same view will
find out what the author likes or dislikes and will be
influenced with the sentiments of the author, and I can
say that when I wrote the book I abhorred with all my
heart the lust, and to express this abhorrence was one of
the chief aims of the book.
" If I have failed in it I am very sorry, and I am pleading
guilty if I was so inconsiderate in the scene of which you
write that I could have produced such a bad impression
on your mind.
"I think that we will be judged by our conscience and
by God, not for the results of our deeds which we cannot
know, but for our intentions, and I hope that my intentions
were not bad. Yours truly,
Leo Tolstoy"
To Chief Justice Holmes, Boston, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 25-1-1902.
" I have just met with a book, which though not abso-
lutely a new one, has been published so recently that
it may not have found its way to Beverly Farms ; for
' of making many books there is no end,' and some of
these may have got in front of it. At least this is my
hope, as I want Canon Rawnsley's ' Literary Associations
of the English Lakes ' to come upon thy wife and thyself
as a pleasant surprise, and I venture on the chance of its
doing so, to send a copy by this mail for your acceptance.
Had thy father been still living, it is, I think, just such
reading as he would have enjoyed, for Canon Rawnsley
unites to an excellent knowledge of his subject, a sympathy
with the several literary men with whose story he deals,
and a style that is refined and unaffected, while he has
certainly enough of the poetic power to make him a worthy
interpreter of the golden age of the Lake District. In
conversation he is equally charming.
THE LAKE DISTRICT 363
" I had a climb with him two summers ago, to a height,
above Keswick, on which a camp commanded the Derwent
valley on the one side, and that leading to Thirlmere and
Ambleside on the other. ' There were giants in those
days,' wrote the old Hebrew historian, appealing to the
Eastern imagination to fill in their heights ! Similarly we
might say of our Camp, ' There were giants in that place ' :
for nowhere in the world is such a variety of mountain
forms, so inwrought with poetic legend, brought into a
single landscape. Skiddaw and Blencathra and the West-
ern Cumberland hills on the north, the Borrowdale heights
on the south, and the range of Helvellyn to the east,
magnificent in themselves, were all linked in association
with Wordsworth and his compeers : an association
mellowed and heightened by the lapse of what will soon
be a hundred years of time.
" To me there is no more pathetic proof of the power of
poetry over the human heart than the vast crowd of tourists
on a summer evening at Wythburn, with six or seven
four-horse coaches all standing near the country inn, some
boimd for Keswick and some for Grasmere and Rydal and
Ambleside. Pedestrian and cyclist and coach-passenger
and carriage-occupant — they have come from the far ends
of the earth— from the Western States of America — from
the African sands— from the plains of Australia— from the
forests of India— from the rivers of New Zealand— from
wherever the English language is spoken — to renew, if it
be possible, the spell of magical delight evoked in them
from childhood by the lines of Wordsworth or of Walter
Scott: to re-awaken, as far as in them lies, the poetry
that was aroused by those stirring words, by climbing, for
themselves, from this spot —
' The dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn '
that looms above, and seeing with their own eyes
'Lakes and mountains beneath them gleam misty and wide.'
As we look into the faces of those who have just descended
364 FAILING STRENGTH
from the summit we cannot help noting that some have
succeeded in this, and many have failed. I like to get
into touch and sympathy with them, whether they belong
to the happy or the disappointed ones. For sympathy we
owe, in varying degree, to every created being : even to
the dog that bites our shins unprovoked. He must be
punished, for our protection in future and for his own
good, but not mercilessly. * * ^
" Now for many weeks past I have been laid up with
cardiac asthma, which I had made a beginning of in the
summer. It has been almost a struggle for existence, and
it means the end of my active or business life, though at
seventy-one years of age it is fitting that this should come.
I write in my bedroom now. Few invalids, however, are
so favoured in their surroundings; for from this bay
window I have one of the most beautiful landscapes in the
world, as Senator Hoar will tell thee. Even without
rising from my pillow I can see the whole beautiful range
of the Malvern Hills, from eighteen miles away at the
nearer end to twenty-eight at the farther point. The cities
of Gloucester and Worcester, and the Wyndcliff below
Tintern Abbey are all within view, with hundreds of
square miles of field and woodland and park and river that
will some day summon into existence a poetry of the
Cotteswold Hills that shall be a pendant to that of the
English Lakes."
To Senator Hoar, Worcester, Mass.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 25-1 -1902.
"Yes, I quite hope we may keep up our correspondence,
which has been one of the privileges of my life. If I seem
long in replying now and then, to thy letters, I know thou
wilt bear with me, when I explain that I have been laid
by for many weeks with a severe attack of cardiac asthma
that entirely debars me from going into Gloucester, and
that confines me for a large part of the day to my bed-
room. I dare say thou canst enter into the experience of
ILLNESS 365
a man accustomed to a busy life being thus set aside from
it suddenly? It is as if one had been sailing along day
after day over a blue sea, and were all at once stranded
on a sandbank, to watch the tide recede and feel the
uncertainty of ever floating again : though sunny days
and unstormy moonlight nights give one hope !
"The doctors come with their stethoscopes, and after
taking soundings declare that there is nothing organically
wrong : that it is all due to nervous exhaustion : and that
time and rest may set all right again. Perhaps they may.
Behind and below all, comes the need of clinging to the
hope in God which is the final refuge of every created
being, and for which no dogma or creed is a substitute of
any value.
" One feature of asthma is the inability to breathe
sufficiently while lying down. And after hours of sitting
up and leaning forward, in bed, I devised one day a board,
on two little stands about fifteen inches high, on which one
can lean the forehead (on a small pillow) with a semi-
circular gap cut out for the mouth. It is about three feet six
inches long, and with it I have had excellent nights of rest !
" Now a curious thought has struck me that I must put
before Dr Hall to find if there is any likelihood of ground
for it. In some of the pre-historic burial mounds we find
all the skeletons sitting on their haunches — not lying
down. Is it possible that this was the posture of rest
to these people ? If for any reason their lungs were im-
perfectly developed, this may have been their position in
sleeping. To the Turks and Syrians the squatting thus on
the haunches, with the sole of the foot raised behind, so as
to throw all the weight on the fore part of it, is the
position that answers to our sitting. In pictures, Turks
are shown cross-legged. I have never seen one in actual
life do this ; nor do I believe that it is ever done !
" I recollect an old Friend from Maine, who spent a
winter at Brumana (in Lebanon) with an English friend of
366 A FRAGMENT ON MUMMIES
ours, at a school for Syrian children. They (the American
and the Englishman) were much exercised at the degrada-
tion of the little things squatting thus on the floor, and
they had some forms made for them to sit on. Next
morning they went, light-hearted, to see this step towards
civilization ; but the little Syrians were perched in rows,
squatting on the forms instead of on the ground !
(" Query : Is lying a result of civilization ? ")
From Senator Hoar, Washington.
Washington, D.C, January i6, 1902.
" Dear Mr Bellows,
" I wonder if you can tell me anything about a wonderful
fragment on Mummies, which I thought to be by Sir
Thomas Browne, and which is published, without any
question of its genuineness, in the four volume edition of his
works printed more than forty years ago, which I possess.
It begins something like this :
' Of their living habitations they made little account,
' conceiving them but as hospitia, or inns, while they
* adorned the sepulchres of the dead, and planting
* thereon lasting bases, defied the crumbling touches of
' time, and the misty vaporousness of oblivion.'
" I have seen an article in some newspaper lately
saying that this passage, which I think nearly the most
sublime piece of prose in English literature, is not by
Sir Thomas Browne at all, but is a clever hoax. Perhaps
you have among your circle of friends some scholar who
would know all about it. Sir Thomas, as you know very
well, was of Norwich. I dare say there is some learned
man there who could answer the question at once. The
newspaper which made the statement, stated that Emerson
had somewhere spoken with great admiration of this
passage. I do not remember that myself.
" I am, with high regard, faithfully yours,
George F. Hoar."
MUSIC IN THE TREES 367
To Senator Hoar, Washington.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 1-2-1902.
" Immediately on receipt of thy letter, I was able to put
the enquiry about the passage on mummies into the right
hands : those of Leslie Stephen, whose reply, enclosed, is
interesting and conclusive. No doubt the Dictionary of
National Biography is in your libraries at Washington
and at Worcester, and thou wilt be able to verify Leslie
Stephen's statement that James Crossley, of Manchester,
made up the passage in question, and palmed it off upon
Sir Thomas Browne's editor as one he had chanced upon,
but of which he had not taken note of the reference !
"We have been much concerned to learn of thy
wife's failure of health at Washington ; but hope from
thy letter that she has really passed the worst. As I
write in my room upstairs, I have been wishing she could
have such invalid quarters as mine, with all this wide
reach of landscape to look out on, and with the sound of
the breeze coming through the open window, I was going
to say in music : but it is something more than music. It
comes sweeping through the trees, gathering up tones
that are different from different species. The sound in
the leafless beeches is sweet, but it is not the same sound
as in the foliage of the fir-trees, and so on. A being of
larger faculties than ours would therefore comprehend
more, in listening to the wind, than we do ; he would see
SL tune played on all the trees and shrubs over which
it swept, as on a multitudinously-stringed instrument. I
can apprehend, though I cannot comprehend, such an
effect, from watching the play of the sunlight on the
towers in different parts of the landscape. They shine
white, and fade and disappear in response to the play of
the clouds, and come again, like the notes of music in
some vast concert, that are varied by the composer so as
never to recur in the same order, and yet never to fail of
rhythmic beauty.
368 FEAR OF DIVERGENCES
" Such a larger-powered being as I have hinted at
woul(i take in more than the differences of sort in the
tree-sounds ; he would discern their individual specialties,
just as I see differences in towers and spires that are
many miles away. Thus, there is a lovely Lombardy
poplar not far from my window — one that I planted some
years ago. At sunrise all the leafless twigs are golden in
color, but near the top there is one branch that stands
away from the rest, of course giving a variant note to the
wind that sweeps over it. No doubt when the tree was
younger, some starling or homeward-bound rook rested
on the twig that was not then strong enough to bear his
weight, and so he gave the plant this set for all time. I
used to think it would be well to cut off this branch, for
the sake of uniformity ; but I could not reach it. Now I
would rather have it as it is. And is it not so in life?
We are too fearful of divergences.'*
From. Senator Hoar, Washington.
Washington, D.C, February 24, 1902.
" My Dear Friend,
" I have just got your letter dated February ist. I got
back from Worcester last night where I had been to
attend a hearing in court and to straighten out, if I could,
the affairs of Clark University of which you will remember
our friend President Hall is the head. The founder left a
very obscure will. But we hope it will be interpreted so
as to be the source of great good.
" I am very sorry indeed to be assured that the famous
fragment on Mummies is forged. It is inserted in the four-
volume edition of Sir Thomas Browne's works which I
own. I have always deemed that passage one of the very
few best passages in English prose ; and in spite of what you
tell me of its origin I do not change my mind. Indeed it
is hard to believe that a man capable of rising to that
height of lofty sublimity did not do something else to make
himself famous.
MUSIC IN THE TREES 369
" Your discovery of the difference in the musical sound
of the wind as it sweeps through different species of trees
and shrubs is quite new to me, and manifests marvellous
discernment which a man must be a naturalist and poet to
possess. I should like to look out with you upon that
wonderful landscape again. I believe I contemplate
leaving this world with all proper equanimity. But there
is a great deal in it that I long to see, and a great deal I
want to know and want to do before I go. I do not get
much time for reading, beside what is needed for my
public duties, which have been quite engrossing this
winter. But I hope to have more leisure in time to come.
" I hope I shall get better news of you than your two
last letters have brought, and shall hear that you are
restored to your usual activities. I hope your ill health
is not due to working too hard in the United States, but on
the contrary that your physician will prescribe another
visit to this side of the water as a cure. If you will come
again, you shall see things leisurely and quietly. I trust
you will be before long fully restored to your former
health and strength. At the same time, however, I envy
you the quiet of the sick chamber, from which you can
shut out all the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of
riches and give yourself up to pleasant thoughts and
fancies like those you tell me of in your letter. My year
had in it little vacation. The only real vacation I have
had since I came back from England in 1899 was that I
enjoyed so much with you and your wife last summer.
" I feel more hopeful and more cheerful as I grow old,
and yet just now there is not much to be of satisfaction for
me in the political conditions here. I sometimes think
that in this vulgar dream of empire our people are for-
getting all their old ideals, and that in clutching out after
greatness they are abandoning everything that has made
them great. I am faithfully and affectionately yours,
George F. Hoar."
X
370 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
To Joannin Ardouin^ Paris.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 19-2-1902.
" Though I still am ill, and write this au lit^ I am not
without hope that the summer may enable me to get out
again. It would be a real pleasure to see thy wife and thy-
self here. * -^ ^ * It was rather singular that the same
mail that brought me thy letter, mentioning Harvard, also
brought one from the President of that University asking
me to cable reply whether I could go to Manchester and
represent Harvard at the fiftieth anniversary of Owen's
College. Of course I have to cable ' impossible.'
" The Tolstoi letter in Le Temps is very good : he puts
each of his points, I think, unanswerably. I remember in
1893 he said to me that he thought it hard that so many of
his friends should have suffered for adhesion to his teach-
ing, while he himself was allowed to escape : but I begged
him not to try to be a martyr. * -^ *
*' The last time I was with him was at the end of 1900,
when Edmund Brooks, a friend with whom I went to
Petersburg, went with me to Moscow to dine with the
Tolstois. There were fifteen of the family at table, besides
ourselves as guests. I know Count Tolstoi does not be-
lieve in the Divinity of Christ: in fact, when I was
speaking of him to the Countess T. at Petersburg, she
wanted us to give him her amities, etc., and I chanced to
say '■ Dans Vessentiel il est Chretien ' — but she stopped me
— * Cest un tris bon gar f on si vous voules, mais il n'est
pas ChrMienf Many people in such matters do not go
deeper than a creed or belief: but to me, as God is
en rapport with all that He creates. He is manifested, in
varying degree certainly, but still manifested, to every
human heart, showing every man what is good and what
is evil. And perfectly irrespective of whether one is a
Christian, or a Mahometan, or a Jew, or a heathen, every
man who forsakes evil and does rights draws near to God,
and is approved of Him. Take Confucius as an instance.
CONFUCIUS 371
No one can read his life without being convinced that he
was in deed and truth a good man— and what is more,
an extraordinarily good man : that his goodness was a
growth, being much more marked later in life than it was
at first. I recollect that he had on some occasion given
advice to one of the petty Chinese Kings, who was offended
at it, and who disgraced him, reducing him to poverty for
a while. His own remark on this is very striking : to this
effect : — * My food is the coarsest unhusked rice, and my
drink is water ; but these things cannot take from me the
joy of righteousness.'
" I feel certain that the Maker of all things is good, and
just — and if He is good and just, He cannot create any
being with whom He is not in sympathy. He could not
create Chinamen with less chance of sharing His sympathy
than Europeans, because that would be unjust and unfair.
In the old Bible language this truth is expressed in the
words ' The tender mercies of the Lord are over all His
works.' Tender mercies include, above all, salvation:
that is. He puts the power of being everlastingly purified
and united to Himself, within the reach of every soul that
ever was, or is, or will be created.
"This Tolstoi believes: and while I believe, and he
does not, that Jesus Christ was a manifestation of God in
human form, this forms no barrier between us. A mystery
which numbers of men cannot fathom or grasp, [and]
cannot believe, cannot be essential to salvation. Or, to
put it another way. God would have all men be saved.
But that which is to save all men must be extremely
simple. Therefore anything which is not simple enough
for all, cannot be essential for all.
" He who is the Source of goodness must have more
goodness than any other being. The Source of love must
be more full of love than anything that emanates from that
Source. Take a mother's love : something so great — so
deep, as to be scarcely fathomable by man— something we
X2
372 DIVINE SYMPATHY
rather apprehend than comprehend. What then must be
the heart that shaped and builded all the mothers' hearts
that ever were from the foundation of the world till now ?
Nay, we may go down below, to the very animals, and
see millions innumerable of hearts of mothers among them
filled with a love for their little ones such as we can by no
possibility measure or grasp the portee of ! Would such a
Being as this create man in conditions of trial and suffering
and temptation and struggle such as we have to pass
through, though for a brief and little moment — a mere
flash of time as compared with the boundless eternity we
are to enter on next ; — would, I say, a Being so overflow-
ing in love and tenderness and sympathy unspeakable,
unfathomable, incomprehensible, send us into such a
world of time to chance our way through it by ourselves ?
No — never !
" Too infinitely loving — too infinitely full of the noblesse
oblige that must be present to such a mind, for any such
thing, such a God could not create Man without at the
same time determining to put Himself on the same low
level— to share to the last and lowest atom the suffering
which in His wisdom and love He saw to be needful for
the final perfecting of His creatures ! For this reason it
is clear to me that the coming of a Divine Being, say
a manifestation of God Himself in human form, was as
inevitable as the creation of the sun or the stars.
" If sometime I send thee a volume by Barclay— read
what he says on 'Universal and Saving Light.' Count
Tolstoi stood over the page with tears in his eyes, saying,
'Why haven't you taken more pains to spread this
doctrine — because it is the truth ? ' "
To the Sergeant in charge of the Ordnance Survey
at Gloucester.
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 27-2-1902.
"I am always glad to be of any help in Roman matters,
but illness prevented my replying by return to thy letter
of the 25th, re VIA JULIA.
VIA JULIA 373
"The real main road that must have borne this name is
the one running from Gloucester through Lydney and
Chepstow to Caerleon and South Wales.
"First of all, in the year 43 a.d., when the Romans
conquered Britain, they secured Gloucester [GLEVUM] as
the key of the Severn, to hold the Silures or South Welsh
borderers ; but in the course of a half century after, they
were so harassed by incursions of the South Welsh that
they moved the head-quarters of the II. Legion west, to
Caerleon on Usk, where it was stationed all the rest of
the time of its stay in Britain— or nearly all.
"This conquest of the Silures was made by Julius
Frontinus, a very able general under Domitian, and, as he
made the road, it was no doubt named after him. He was
a very skilled engineer, and after his return to Rome he
was put in charge of the aqueducts and water supply of
the city, upon which he wrote a treatise.
" The Silures were the most dangerous of all the native
races the Romans had to deal with in this part of the
Island : several times they attacked the garrisons, once
cutting off a foraging party, and so on.
"To keep them in check a very perfect system was
adopted. I have examined the several points to which
the signalling was arranged, and I find that within an hour
of the alarm being given at Caerleon, it would be passed
over the Severn from Caerwent, over the Wye at
Chepstow, etc. etc., to five-and-twenty places for rein-
forcements, some smaller, some larger. From Cirencester
and Gloucester troops of horse could be sent through the
Forest of Dean— for cavalry were stationed at each of
these cities— and pensioners of infantry besides.
" Then from Bath, Sea Mills, and Bristol side, troops
could cross at ' New Passage '—coming further up the
Sea Bank or the eastern side — so as to drop down with the
stream if the tide was not right, and landing at that camp
near the Great Western tunnel under the Severn. This
374 NAME DERIVATIONS
camp stands on the cliff alongside of a low part of the
shore where the boats could ground. The banks are
19 feet 3 inches high. I remember seeing them measured
by the G.W.R. surveyors = 20 Roman feet.
" This enabled men to form up into marching order for
Caerwent and Caerleon under protection.
*' In returning from these places to Sea Mills, etc., the
boats would make a long diagonal run to *Chittening
Street '—further south— thus partly using the rapid stream
of the Severn. Chittening is a Saxon alteration, or cor-
ruption, of Cue Tenewen, the British, i.e., Welsh for Bank
Side, a great sea wall still existing there. It is very
likely that Julius Frontinus made this bank and the road
to Bath, etc. ; but it would be safer simply to mark it
'ROMAN ROAD.'
*' A noteworthy thing is that on the old one-inch map
the old road from Bristol to Gloucester is lettered as
' Cribb's Causeway,' up to the point where the branch
strikes west to cross the Severn : and above that point it
is marked ' Ridgeway.' This arises from a partial trans-
lation of the Welsh, or original name, in the first instance,
and a full rendering of it in the second case.
" Thus the original name must have been Sarn y Crib =
Paved way of the Ridge. No doubt some Saxon asked
what Sarn meant, and when he learned it was Causeway,
he jumped to the conclusion that Crib was a man's name ;
but it means a Ridge.
"So, again, Patchw2iy is a translation of Sarn y Clwt—
or some similar word. Clwt means hurdle, as well as
patch. It meant a hurdle or wattled road over the marsh.
We have it in the English clout—' Old shoes and clouted,'
' clout nails,' and so on."
CHAPTER XIX.
TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS -CONCLUSION.
THE following lines, written by his father when John
Bellows was only six years old, give evidence of a
degree of thoughtfulness very striking for one so young :
*' John said to me one evening when we were alone,
' Father, I've been thinking that if people are too poor to
buy a Bible, our Heavenly Father can put the words of
the Bible into their minds for them to think about,' and
added, ' When I am in school, writing my figures, if I feel
that I ought to pray, I can pray without opening my
lips.' " Surely these sayings of the child were an earnest
of that remarkable independence of conviction which was
always such a feature in his character.
Whilst faithfully adhering to his own conception of re-
ligious truth, as the years went by his outlook gradually
widened with regard to the standpoint of others ; and this
was particularly noticeable after his return from Russia
in 1893 — a result due, no doubt, to the fact that he had
been brought into the closest intimacy with many individ-
uals whose spiritual aspirations he found to be the same
as his own, but whose creed was quite different. A
remark, to which he assented, was made to him on this
journey, that "there is not much difference between a
real Christian and a good Jew." He once wrote : " In
going through life, no two of us have precisely the same
path to tread. Yet we cannot contemplate the steps by
which another soul has overcome the world, without being
helped in our own, though different, path to the same end.
If we are in a right state of mind, we shall be in sympathy
376 TEETOTALISM — VEGETARIANISM
with such a man, notwithstanding that the truths which
were the principal ones he was called to contend for, may
not, at present, even be shown to us at all. Unity of
spirit does not lie in holding the same views of things, or
learning the same outward lessons ; but in our loving and
cherishing the truth in whatever direction it is made
manifest to us."
With one or two quite trifling exceptions, John Bellows
was a teetotaller all his life. He felt so strongly on the
subject of drink, that he declined, in his business, all work
that was in any way connected with it. The following
extract from a letter will show how courteously this could
be done.
Gloucester, 2-1-1899.
" Being impressed with the misery and suffering of all
kinds involved in the drinking customs of the country, I
felt when I began business, some forty years ago, that I
ought to decline all printing, etc., connected with them, so
far as I was able to draw a line for the purpose. Thy
kindness (which I fully appreciate) led to the placing of a
former order here, which was executed without coming
under my own notice, or I would have offered the ex-
planation I am now making, then. I know how stupid it
must seem, looked at from thy standpoint, for me to make
such a rule, and it is no light pain for me to be thought
stupid and narrow."
He carried this objection to printing what his conscience
did not approve even further than this, for he also declined
to do certain other kinds of work ; but these refusals
were always expressed in such a manner that no one
appears ever to have been seriously offended by them.
About the year 1890, he was so horrified by a newspaper
article narrating the cruelties often inflicted on live cattle
during their transit across the Atlantic, that he declared
he would no longer be a party to such things, and would
never again eat meat — a vow which he rigidly kept. For
RELATIONS WITH EMPLOYEES 377
two or three years he did not feel debarred from eating fish:
but there came a time at last when he gave that up also.
During his visit to St. Petersburg in 1892 he was dining
one evening with a gentleman, who enquired of him if he
had been at a certain ball on the previous evening, and if
he had seen such and such a play. To these enquiries
John Bellows had to reply in the negative ; and, further,
that he had never been to a ball or to a theatre in his life.
This statement was so astounding to his host that he laid
down his knife and fork, looked fixedly at him, and ex-
claimed : "You never go to balls, you don't go to the
theatre, you drink no wine, and you eat no meat : then do
tell me if your life is worth living at all ! " But it was
not on such things as these that John Bellows depended
for his happiness ; and yet it would have been hard to find
anyone who got more keen enjoyment out of life than he
did : certainly no one was more interested in every phase
of it, from the spiritual welfare of a nation to the passing
amusement of a little child.
Amongst his fellow- craftsmen his reputation for per-
fection of workmanship stood very high, and his office
became an excellent school for printers.
His relations with his employees were of the happiest,
and it was a source of the deepest satisfaction to him that
several of them had been with him for so long. The first
he ever employed, who came to him as a boy, gave him
faithful service for forty-three years, and is now in the
employment of John Bellows* sons. Several others, also,
were his trusted servants for periods ranging up to forty
years. There was no limit, as far as his means permitted,
to his practical generosity to his workpeople, and his
sympathy with them in their trials was deep and sincere.
To further their welfare, especially that of those who had
served him the longest, he started a system of bonuses on
their savings, which in time bore fruit in their greater
comfort.
378 SYMPATHY WITH OTHERS
It was to him a cheering sign of the moral improvement
of the age, that in many cases the sympathy of the rich
with the poor was greater in his lifetime than it had ever
been before. It required no effort on his part to show
them kindness— his inclinations all lying in that direction.
When driving to and from business, it was so much his
custom to stop and pick up a solitary wayfarer, that his
horse acquired the habit of pulling up of its own accord,
when it saw one upon the road — sometimes to the con-
fusion of its owner. A certain working-man has told of
being picked up in this way—" in my dirty clothes, just as
I was coming from work, when I was fair 'shamed to sit
by 'un ; but he didn't seem to mind, bless 'ee ! " No
opportunity was ever missed by him of getting into sympathy
with those whom he casually met on his journeys. He
would, if possible, sit near the driver of the omnibus he
happened to be riding on in London, joining in conver-
sation with him, and entering into the trials that were
frequently confided to him.
His wife was once visiting some friends near Epping
Forest, and he was to join her the day before her return,
to accompany her home. A picnic in the Forest had been
planned, if he would consent to stay a day longer for it.
No one would have enjoyed it more keenly than he ; but
he said it was impossible. He was reluctant to state the
reason why, but at last it transpired that he had had a
good deal of talk with the boy who had carried his bag for
him in London, and had promised him that he should carry
it again if he would meet a certain train on the following
day. He had no means of communicating with the boy,
and rather than break his word to him, he would forego
his own pleasure.
John Bellows' life was such a full one that he was un-
fortunately never able to take the hint contained in the
following letter from his old friend Dr Hiibner. All that
he had evolved from the archaeology of his city, and from
GLEVUM 379
the Roman history of Britain, was scattered through the
pages of the Proceedings of Societies at whose meetings
he had given addresses.
From Dr Hiibner, Berlin
Berlin, 16-3-1899
='Dear Friend,
*' It is more than a year I did not hear from thee, but
hope thou and thy family continue in their usual health and
prosperity.
*' I was occupied, these days, to write a short notice about
Glevum for our new great Encyclopaedia of Antiquity
— Pauly-Wissowa, ' Realencyklopadie,' two volimies and
a half published since 1894. I dare say thou hast seen it ;
it is not badly printed.
"Well, in writing this note, it struck me that there is
no monograph existing about Gloucester. Thou hast sent
me from many years ago short notes about finds in and
near Gloucester, foundations of buildings, etc., squeezes of
inscriptions and marks on tiles, etc., many interesting
photographs, etc., a plan of the city in which the lines of
walls and streets are marked. But is there nobody in thy
city, who could put all that together and form a handy
volume of short relations, photos, plans, etc., only matter
of fact, no dreary discussion, printed in thy excellent
types, and giving to the citizen and to the stranger by it a
full idea of what Gloucester once has been ? Also Medi-
aeval Qoucester does not lose interest. It would be worth
while, as it seems to me, to do such a work. Is not there
a clergyman or a learned schoolmaster at hand, who would
help thee in such an undertaking ? All those curious tiles,
with RPG and PRG, evident texts of the public works of
t\ieco\ony—r(atio)p(ublica) G(levensis), or pr(aetorium?
praedium?) G(levense)—a.s 1 venture to read them and
explain them — should be represented in careful photo-
graphs. Doesn't it seem to thee also a worthy service
done to thy native town, to leave it such a monument of
38o ORIGINALITY AND CHARM
its beginnings ? A flourishing community, the wealth ot
which is increasing, ought not to spare the necessary-
means to give publicity to such a book. Certainly, by and
by, new finds will come and make the book the more
interesting. * * *
" I remain, truly as ever, thy friend
E. Hubner"
John Bellows' vivid imagination, and the power he had
of bringing the past into the present, and of throwing
fresh light on that past, made his narratives instinct with
life and animation. He was full of originality, so that it
was impossible for him ever to be dull, and his remarkable
memory enabled him to place his illustrations just where
they produced the most telling effect. The many Associa-
tions which visited Gloucester always found in him a
willing guide to its antiquities, and his intimate knowledge
of Roman Glevum was always at their service.
He possessed the gift of charm in a striking degree.
Men and women were drawn to him instinctively ; and
his own character was on so high a level that, quite natur-
ally and without effort on his part, the best elements in the
characters of those with whom he came in contact were
brought out. Even the unworthy whom he endeavoured
to raise were, for the time, lifted by association with him,
to something higher than they had known before.
John Bellows did not differ from his fellow-men in a
liability to make mistakes ; but he was always ready to
own them when convinced that he had made them. In a
leaflet which he issued in 1 900 on another subject, he writes,
"Nearly forty years ago I made two serious mistakes —
one in attacking John Bright, and the other in imagining
that the Southern States of America were struggling for
their proper rights. I have long since been sorry for
these mistakes, and have said so."
He always took the deepest interest in the Protestant
Reformation in England, and in the course of some years
FRENCH ^BOURSIERS' 381
he entered on several controversies on the subject, in the
local press. He was very jealous for the honour of the
men who carried out that great movement, and felt it to
be his duty to defend them whenever their memory was
assailed.
In his later years, John Bellows not infrequently spoke
in the meetings for worship of his Society : his brief and
living messages always being given with weight and
power. He was for some years an elder of his Meeting.
During the past few years the French Government has
adopted an excellent system by which certain students
who have passed with exceptional credit through its
schools are maintained for one, and in some cases for two,
years in a foreign country. In several instances situations
have been found for these boursiers in business houses in
England, where they have not only been able to improve
their knowledge of our language, but have received an
insight into our business methods. John Bellows was
quick to recognise the advantages of the system, and in
recent years a succession of these young men came under
his care at Gloucester. To mark their appreciation of
his help, the French Government sent John Bellows a
handsome copy of La Fontaine's Fables. In acknow-
ledging the gift, he wrote to his friend Professor Bonet-
Maury, of Paris, who was a member of the Committee
having charge of the young men : —
Upton Knoll, Gloucester, 21-5-89.
'* Dear Friend,
" I attach very great importance to the success and
spread of the system of placing boursiers d V stranger, not
only as a well-deserved reward to the young men them-
selves, but especially as a means of making two neighbour-
nations better acquainted with each other, and thus helping
to bind them in a concord that may never be broken. I
have no hesitation then, in believing that if it were possible
very largely to extend this excellent system among the
382 ILLNESS
nations of Europe, of letting the young men of one country
dwell for awhile among the people of another land, it
would be a powerful means of lessening those misconcep-
tions and mistaken ideas about one another, which lead
on to war. Even individually, if we experience dislike
towards a person, such a feeling lessens as we come to
know him more closely, and enter into his trials and
sorrows : for it is impossible to hate even a wicked man
if we know all about him.
" The day will come when this will be the experience
of the nations too — and with it will come the beating of
swords into plough-shares, and the learning of war no
more. But even that supreme hour will have had, like
all great things, its small and distant preparations which
were developed slowly, and by little changes. When I
say that these two beautiful volumes of La Fontaine, in
reminding me of the quiet yet potentially great work
on which the Comity is engaged, will always carry my
thoughts on to that better future it is helping to accom-
plish, thou wilt believe how greatly I shall value them.
" I am, with sincere respect, thy friend,
John Bellows."
Although it was too evident that his strength was gradu-
ally failing, the winter of 1 901-2 was passed by John
Bellows in a fair degree of comfort. He was able to take
an occasional drive : and in his correspondence with his
friends kept up his interest with the outer world. It soon
became necessary, however, for him to arrange for the
transfer of his business to his sons Max and William, who
had previously assisted in the management of it. In
February, 1902, he had the grief of losing his only brother,
Forster, who died at Cardiff, after a short illness.
With the return of Spring, the heart-weakness from
which John Bellows suffered became more acute, and his
son Philip, the only absent member of his family, was
DEATH AND FUNERAL 383
summoned home from America. John Bellows now had
the great satisfaction of having all his nine children around
him. As his bodily strength declined, it was an unspeak-
able comfort to those about him that his faith in the unseen
became stronger and stronger. It was like living in the
atmosphere of Heaven itself to be with him during his last
days on earth : and for him Heaven had already begun.
From this experience there was no variation ; and early on
the morning of May 5th, 1902, " he was not, for God took
him."
He had himself chosen for his last resting place the
beautiful burying ground on the open hill-side at Painswick,
not far from his own home, and here on the 9th of May
the funeral took place, with the simple ceremony of the
Society of Friends.
APPENDIX
A LIST OF JOHN BELLOWS' WRITINGS
Outline Dictionary, for the Use of Missionaries,
Explorers and Students of Language. With an
introduction by Professor Max Miiller. Title:
pp. v-xxxi, and 2-368. Size 6^ x 4 inches ... 1867
Ditto ditto. With introductory notes by Professor
Summers, on writing Chinese with Roman letters.
Title: pp. iii-vi, and 2-368. Size 6}^ x 4 inches 1868
The Bona-fide Pocket Dictionary of the French and
English Languages on an entirely new system.
Revised and corrected by Auguste Beljame,
B.A., Alexandre Beljame, M.A., and John
Sibree, M.A. First edition, 6000 copies. Refer-
ences, titles and dedication : pp. i-xvi, and 1-548.
Size 4>^ X 2^ inches 1872
Ditto ditto. Second edition, now in its 8oth thousand.
Revised by Alexandre Beljame, Docteur-es-
lettres. Proof sheets read by John Sibree, M.A.
and Auguste Marrot, B. A. References, title and
dedication : pp. i-viii and 1-605 • maps. Size
4/^ X 2^ inches 1876
PAMPHLETS, ETC.
Remarks on certain Anonymous Articles designed
to render Queen Victoria unpopular 1864
Two Days' Excursion to Llanthony Abbey and the
Black Mountains 1868
Ritualism or Quakerism ? 1870
Who sent thee to baptise? ? 1870
The Track of the War around Metz 1871
On the Ancient Wall of Gloucester, and some
Roman Remains found in proximity to it in 1873.
(Proceedings, Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club) 1875
386 APFENDlX—continued
Notes on Offa's Dyke : the Black Rock at New Pass-
age: Caldicot Castle. (Proceedings C.N.F.C.) 1875
The Roman Wall of Gloucester. (Transactions,
Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological So-
ciety) 1876
On some Archaeological Remains in Gloucester
relating to the burning of Bishop Hooper. (Pro-
ceedings, C.N.F.C.) 1878
On some Bronze and other Articles found near
Birdlip. (Transactions, B. & G. A. S.) .1
A Week's Holiday in the Forest of Dean. By Col.
Holland and John Bellows. This has been fre-
quently re-issued, with slight variations from the
first edition 1881
Remarks on some Skeletons found at Gloucester in
1881. (Transactions, B. &G. A. S.) 1882
Chapters of Irish History 1886
Roman Wareham and the Claudian Invasion. (Pro-
ceedings, Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian
Field Club) 1892
William Lucy and his friends of the Cotteswold
Club five-and-thirty years ago. (Proceedings,
C.N.F.C.) 1894
On the Past in the Present in Asia. (Proceedings,
American Antiquarian Society) ..
Chisel-drafted Stones at Jerusalem. (Palestine
Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, July,
1896) 1896
Evolution in the Monastic Orders : Roman Work
at Chepstow : Roman Remains at Bath. (Pro-
ceedings, C. N. F. C.) 1898
Survivals of Roman Architecture in Britain. (Pro-
ceedings, C. N. F. C.)
The Browns of Bartonbury. (Friends' Quarterly
Examiner) 1899
The Forest of Dean. (Proceedings, American Anti-
quarian Society)
The Romans in Gloucestershire. (Lecture to the
Cheltenham Natural Science Society) 1900
APPENDIX— continued 387
The Truth about the Transvaal War and the Truth
about War. (Translations also in French and
German) 1900
The England of the time of the War of Indepen-
dence. (Proceedings, American Antiquarian
Society) 1901
Etc., Etc.
LETTERS AND ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS, ETC.
AFTERWARDS PRINTED AS LEAFLETS.
Why I ought not to keep ' Christmas.'
What is ;£i,ooo,ooo?: The Union of Hearts: Pauperism
in Ireland : and others.
Education, Emigration, and Colonization : a unified System.
Overstrained 'Free' Trade (1887.)
Prince Lucien Bonaparte.
Daniel Wheeler's Farm at Shushari (Russia.)
A Russian Railway Journey in Winter.
The Georgian Road through the Caucasian Mountains.
The Mediation of the Virgin.
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Alexander III.
Oxford Extension Lectures on the Reformation.
John Soper.
Peculiarities in Speech.
Prayer.
Letter to Senator Hoar on the Transvaal War (' New
York Tribune.') Also issued in French.
Letter to the Students of the Penn Charter School,
Philadelphia.
African Concentration Camps ('New York Tribime.')
John Bellows was the inventor of a cylindrical calculator for the
rapid and accurate reckoning of workmen's wages. He also compiled
a series of concentric calculators for converting the metric system
into English equivalents, and vice versa.
INDEX
ADAMS, Charles F., 345
Adams, James, 273, 275, 279, 283,
Agdam, 203, 204 [286
Akara, River, 189
Alexander III, Emperor, 254, 255
Alexis, Monk, iii, 112
Ali Akber, 198, 201
Ali Bek, 156, 183
Ali Hassan, 197
Ambrose, 258
America, visit to, 338-356
American Antiquarian Society, 247
248, 304
American friends, 40, 338
American missionaries, 282
Amesbury, Whittier's home at,
339, 352, 353
Ardeche scenery, 42-44, 47
Ardouin, Joannin, letter to, 370
Armenian Massacres, 273, 282,
287, 289
Refugees, 274-277, 279-
281, 285, 286, 287,
BAILEY, Joshua L., 340
Balaklava, 229
Balfour, Arthur J. 296
Baptism, 52, 125
Barclay's ' Apology,' 6, 372
Barda, 179, 204
Bashketchet, 212, 216
Batoum, 227, 228
Bechuana Chiefs, 265, 266
Beljame, Professor Alexandre, 23
Beljame, Professor Auguste, 23
Bellows, Dorothy, 228, 235, 249, 279
, letter to, 333
Bellows, Ebenezer Forster, 2, 9, 382
Bellows, Emily, death of, 48
Bellows family, American branch
of, 339
Bellows, Hannah, 319
, letters to, 279, 313
Bellows, Hannah, {nee Stickland)
I, 2, 8, 36
Bellows, Dr Henry W., 21, 339
BELLOWS, JOHN :
Parentage, i ; childhood, 2 ; at
Lisburn School, 2; removal to
Camborne, 2 ; apprenticeship, 3 ;
remarkable memory, 3 ; early
essays, 3 ; goes to London, 4 ;
back at Camborne, 4 ; removes to
Gloucester, 4 ; punctuality, 4 ; life
at Gloucester, 5 ; becomes con-
vinced Quaker, 6 ; gives up
smoking, 7 ; studies, 7 ; goes into
business, 8 ; parents move to
Gloucester, 8 ; journey to Norway,
9 ; French Dictionary begun, 9 ;
marriage, 10 ; Churcham, 10 ;
Professor Max Mliller, 10 ; birth
of eldest child, 10; publication of
Outline Dictionary^ 14 ; Franco-
German War, 15 ; Track of the
War around Metz, 17; Dr Oliver
Wendell Holmes, 21 ; removal to
Eastgate, 22 ; completion of
French Dictionary, 23-25 ; dis-
covery of the Roman wall of
Gloucester, 25 ; interest in Roman
antiquities, 27-32; Cornish friends,
33 ; death of parents, 36, 37 ;
American friends, 40 ; holiday in
France, 42-47 ; death of child, 48 ;
builds 'Upton Knoll,' 50; Home
Rule struggle, 61-69 ; visit to
Treves, 70-74 ; visit to Germany,
76-78 ; home life, 82-85 ; archaeo-
logy, 88-90; J. A. Froude, 94 ; visit
to Paris, 97 ; journey to Russia,
100-245; Petersburg, 107-116;
South Russia, 11 7-231 ; Count
Tolstoi, 119; return to Gloucester,
239 ; Senator George F. Hoar,
247 ; American Antiquarian
Society, 247 ; Paignton, 249-251 ;
Khama, 265; journey to Varna and
Constantinople, 273-289 ; Hague
Peace Conference, 301 ; Iruth
about the Transvaal War, 307 ;
Doukhobors, 318-337 ; Slavery
INDEX — continued
389
in Pemba, 329 ; second journey to
Russia, 330-334 ; visit to United
States, 338-356 ; honorary degree.
Harvard, 351 ; failing health, 360 ;
action with regard to ' Resurrec-
tion,* 360, 361 ; Lake District, 363 ;
illness, 364; Roman antiquities,
372-4 ; traits and characteristics,
375 ; independence of thought,
375 ; teetotalism, 376; vegetarian-
ism 376;the theatre andmusic, 377 ;
enjoyment of life, 377 ; relations
with employees, 377 ; sympathy
with the poor, 378 ; acknowledg-
ment of errors, 380; French
'boursiers,' 381 ; death, 383 ;
funeral at Painswick, 383
Bellows, John Earnshaw, 82-85,
228, 235, 249, 251, 300
, letter to, 354
Bellows, Katharine, 249, 345
, letters to, 270, 278
Bellows, Lucy, 56, 221, 249
, letter to, 332
Bellows, Marian, 249
, letters to, 115, 151, 252
Bellows, Max, 10, 21, 27, 57, 70, 96,
, letters to, 103, 353 [249
Bellows, Philip, 250, 251, 338, 382
, letter to, 316
Bellows, William, 249, 341
, letters to, 92, 109, 258
Bellows, William Lamb, i, 2, 8, 37,
375
Bells, sound of, 105, 232, 237, 240
Bible Society, 9
Birukofif, 325
Blackie, Professor, 24
Black Sea, 223, 224, 226-229, 230
Boissier, Gaston, 245
Bolton, Clara, 159
Bolton, William, 162, 168, 169
Bonaparte, Prince L. Lucien, 25
Bonet-Maury, Professor, letters to.
Borough English, 294 [3^1 » 266
Boston, 343-345, 355
Bright, John, 66, 380
Brooks, Edmund Wright, 265, 330,
Brown, James, 167, 173 L335; 37©
Browne, Sir Thomas, 366, 367
Bucharest, 273, 284
Budapest, 283
Bulgaria, 273, 277-281
Bunyan, John, 256
CAERLEON, 89, 258, 259, 373, 374
Camborne, 2, 3, 4
, Chapel anecdote, 62
Campbell, Sir James, 303
Carleton, Colonel, letters to, 251,
257, 289, 295, 312, 340, 357
Caucasus, 125-128, 153, 170, 213,
224, 238, 241
, brigands in, 178, 181, 205
, Governor-General of, 160
Cave-dwellings, 199, 207, 244
Caxton, 58
Celtic dialects, 66
Chamberlain, Joseph, 265, 266
Chelsea, Carlyle's house, 268, 269
Child, death of, 48
Children, Letter on, 33
, Society of little, 82
Children, illness of his, 49
, letters to his, 209, 277,
288, 339, 342, 344, 347, 349
Christ, Divinity of, 120, 233, 234
370, 37I; 372
Christie, Dr, 290, 292
Church of England, 5
Church of Rome, 4
Church, Professor, letter to, 308
Clitheroe, marriage at, 10
Concentration, power of, 33
Concord, visit to, 349
Confederate bank-notes, 14
Confucius, 267, 370, 371
Constantinople, 286-288
Cornish friends, 33
names and antiquities,
10-13
Cornwall, 10-13, 78, 91
Correspondents, letters to, 39, 64,
259
Cossacks of the Don, 320
Cotteswold Hills, 29, 31, 50, 51, 364
Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club,
26, 42
Crickley, discovery of graves near,
Cromwell, 269 [31
Cyrus, 145, 154, 196
DAGHESTAN Mountains, 205
Daliar, 155, 157, 158
Death, views on, 36, 37
Dictionary, French, 9, 23-25, 339,
Outline, 13 [352
Dioscurias, 243
Dobell, Mrs Sydney, letter to, 261
Douglas, David, 239
Doukhobors, 163, 217, 263, 264,
297, 318-337, 360, 361
in Canada, 319, 327, 328,
330, 336
in Cyprus, 319, 325, 328,
330
Dyk, Armenian village of, 194, 200
Dyrham, 96
390
INDEX — continued
EASTGATE House, 22, 23
Earnshaw, Elizabeth, 10
Earnshaw, Hugh Granger, 9
Earnshaw, Mark, 10
Eisenach, 76, 77
EUot, President, 352, 370
EHott, Mary, 78 [208
Elizabethpol, 154, 156, 167, 172,
Elkinton, Joseph letters to, 330,
334, 336
Elkmton, Joseph S., 335, 338, 339
Elkinton, Malinda, 338
Emerson, Charles, 304
Emerson, Dr Edward, 350
Emerson, Miss, 350
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 56-60,
304, 305, 350
Erskine's, 'Spiritual Order,' 308
Evans, Henry T., letter to, 92
Evans, William, 340
Extracts from letters, 341, 354
FAST, Hermann, 119, 123, 159, 161,
174, 206, 237, 335
Fenelon, 34
Forest of Dean, 32, 303
Forster, William and Anna, 2
Forster, William Edward, 2
Fothergill, Dr, 306 [280
Fox, Dr Hingston, letters to, 273,
Francis, Alexander, 110, 114, 237,
Franco-German War, 15-22 [238
Frankfort, synagogue at, 132, 146,
Frazer, Katherine, 286 [151
French 'boursiers,' 381
French Republic, Centenary of,
98, 99
Friends, Society of, 2, 5, 9, 15,
100, 102, 103, 105, 1 10, 318, 330, 360
Armenian Relief Fund,
282, 283
Meeting for Sufferings,
239; 296, 320
Meeting on Peace, letter
to, 313
Testimony againstWar, 16
3M; 315
Yearly Meeting, 37
Frithiof's Saga, 226, 250
Froude, James Anthony, 94
GEORGIAN road through the
Caucasian Mountains, the, 126
Germany, visits to, 70, 76
Gerusi, 176, 197, 199, 207, 244
Glevum, 25-32, 295, 379 [373
Gloucester, 4, 5, 30, 247, 271, 295
Goktcha, Lake, 155 [226
Greek Church, 100, 116, 169, 212,
Green, James, letters to, 40, 46
48, 49, 50, 286
Green, Dr Samuel, 345
Gregorio witch, 177, 192, 198, 200
HAGUE Peace Conference, 301
Halley, Robert, i
Handlow House, Churcham, 10, 22
Harris, Rendel, 282
Harvard University, 339, 351, 370
Haudelin, Dr, 144, 145, 160, 165,
Hewlett, Joe, 312 [167
Hilkoff, Prince, 212, 216-220, 328
Hilton, William, 112, 237
Hoar, Senator George F., 247,
303; 338, 346, 347, 350, 351
letters to, 248, 255, 256,
264, 268, 305, 355, 364, 367
letters from, 247, 304,
352, 366, 368
, his 'Autobiography,' 247
Hoar, Mrs, 344, 367
Hoar, John, 345
Hoar, Rockwood, 239
Hoar, Samuel, 345, 349 [309, 320
Hodgkin, Dr Thomas, letters to
Holland, William, letters to, 300,
303, 325, 351, 358, 361
Holmes, Dr Oliver Wendell, 21,
248, 304, 345
, letters to, 56, 70, 79, 81,
95, 97, 239
-, letters from, 21, 48, 55,
74, 86, 246
Holmes, Chief Justice O.W., 345
, letters to, 271, 281, 292,
Home, Bruce, letters to, 37-8 [362
Home Rule, 61-69
Htibner, Dr Emil, 28 [65, 87
, letters to, 29, 30, 31, 32,
, letter from, 379
Hyett, William Henry, 1 1 3
IRELAND, 61, 269
Irish Landowner, letter to, 67
JAMES, John Angell, i
Jason's Fleece, 222
Jewill, Paul, letters to, 52, 53
KARS, 219, 231
Kasbek, Mount, 128, 170, 241
Kedabek, 155, 158-160, 164-167
Kenchester, 87-90
Khama, 265, 266
Khan-i-bagh, 183
King, Friends' address to the, 316
Knox, Major, letter to, 298
Koura, River, 134, 145, 154, 170
Kutais, 221, 222 [206, 241
INDEX— continued
391
LAKE District, the, 362, 363
Lamb, Charles, 146
Lamb, Philip, i
Latimer, 358
Legge, Professor, 267
Leipzig, 76-78
Liberal Unionist Association, 61
Liberal Unionist Association, let-
ters to Secretary of, 62, 63, 66
Liberal Unionist official, letter to,
Lisburn School, 2 [6S
Liskeard, i, 78
Lord, Arthur, 345, 347
Lowell, James Russell, 81, 82, 86,
87, 96, 304
Lucy, William C, 26, 42
Luthdr, Martin, 76, 239
MACAULAY, 256
Magna Castra, S7, 89
Mahomedanism, 156
Makharoff, Admiral, 332
Marrot, Auguste, 23
Matson House, 30
Maurice, Frederick Denison, 308
Max MUller, Professor, 10, 18, 112
, letters to, 10, ir, 12,
13, 19, 26, 28, 36
Max Mttller, Mrs, 10
Metz, relief-work at, 15-18 [17, 21
Metz, ' Track of the War around,'
Michell, Francis, letters to, 33, 76,
Milner, Gamaliel, letter to, 297 [331
Minden, 104, 106, 238
Molokani, colony of, 215
Morier, Sir Robert, 113, 237, 238
Morier, Lady, 237
Moscow, 118, 233-236, 333
Mosque, 141
Motley, 40
Mowat, J., 87
NAMES, origin of, 10-12, 29, 374
Neave, Joseph James, 100, loi,
102, 103, 105, 107, no, 113, 116,
117, 124, 136, 137, 139, 151, 159,
172, 174, 180, 183, 187, 189, 191,
192, 200, 208, 229, 236, 318, 334
, letters to, 102, 254, 319,
327, 328, 335
Neva, River, 232, 240
New England, visit to, 342-354
Newton, Llewellyn, 3
Niagara, visit to, 341
Nicholson, William, 237
Nicolay, Baron, 237
Nonconformist ancestors, i
Norway, 9
Novorossisk, 228
ORDNANCE Survey, 32, 372
Ovannes, 288
'Over the Teacups,' 79, 87
PAIGNTON, 249
Paris, visit to, 97 [313-316
Peace principles, 21, 268, 297, 308,
Peck, Thomas Bellows, 329
Peitsmeyer, David, 105
Petersburg, 107-116, 231, 232, 236,
Phasis, 222 [237, 240, 332
Philadelphia, 338, 339-341
Philadelphia, Friends at, 338, 340,
Philippopolis, 289 [341, 354
Plumbe, William, letter to, 51
Plymouth, Mass., 347-349
Poetry, 58, 59
Poti, 221, 222
Power, Edward, 8
Prayer, 261, 262
Prescott, 40, 345
Prince, George, in, 237
Putnam, Elizabeth, letter to, 268
Puy de Dome, visit to, 45
QUAKERISM, 5-7, 290, 292, 309
RABBI in Tiflis, 147, 148
Rasche, Louis, 104, 105, 106, 239
Rawnsley, Canon, 362
Redemption Rock, 345-347
Renan, E., 98
Resignation, 38
Rhoads, Jonathan, 335
Rion, River, 222, 223
Rolleston, Professor, 25
Roman Antiquities, 25-32, 46, 88,
89; 97, 257, 271, 272, 289
Architecture, survival of,
lecture on, 328 [374
roads, 32, 89, 97, 1 14, 372-
Wall, Gloucester, 25-27, 295
Empire, extension of, 70
Romans in Roumania, 284, 285
Rowlandson, Mary, 345
Runeberg, the poet, 79
Russia, visits to, 107-238, 330-334
Rustchuck, 275, 285
SAINTBRIDGE House, 50
St. Petersburg (see Petersburg)
Saksaran, mountain, 188
Salisbury, Lord, 69
Salisbury, Stephen, letter to, 359
Saloman, Abraham, 133, 135, 143,
Schamyl, 130, 134 [145, 148
Selheim, Dr, 237
Selheim, Mrs, 237
Sevastopol, 230
392
INDEX— continued
Shelley, 79, 256
Sherston, Wiltshire, 96
Shusha, 156, 176, 181,
Sibree, John, 23
Siemens, William, 165
Silchester, 88
Skarvan, Dr, 322
Slavery in Pemba, 329
Slavianka, Doukhobor village ofj
Smith, Louisa, letter to, 290
Smoking, gives up, 7
184, 187,
L202, 203
[163
Soper, John, letter to, 249
Spurrell, William, 66
Staal, Baron de, 301, 302
Stephen, Leslie, 367
Sterling, Miss, 308
Stickland, John, i
Strabo, 155, 163, 170, 207, 228, 243
Stundists, 100, 335
Sturge, Wilson, 221, 222, 223, 319,
Sukhum Khale, 243 [328
Symmachus, 258
Sympathy, 98, 255, 259, 364
S3magogue at Tiflis, 145, 151
TANGYE, George, letter to 35
Tangye, James, ^3
Tasso, 136
Tavistock, i
Tchertkoff, Vladimir, 300, 321
Temperance, 376
'Terminus,' 60
Theatre, the, 377
Thoreau, Henry D., 304, 350
Tiflis, 136-154, 156, 167,212,221,
224, 242, 243
Tithe, objection to, 92-94
Tolstoi, Count, 118, 261, 262, 264,
265, 319; 321, 327, 370, 372
, visits to, 1 19-122, 232-
235, 334
, letters from, 263, 361
Tolstoi, Count, his 'Resurrection,'
360, 361
Tolstoi, Count Sergius, 327
Tolstoi, Countess Mary, 233, 235
Tolstoi, Alexandra, 234
Tolstoi, Ivan, 234
Tools, Cornish, 140, 143,
, ancient, 166, 248
Trans-Caucasus, 108, 136-226, 243
Transvaal War, 307, 309
Trees, Music in the, 367-369
Treves, 70-73
Tsar, petition to the, 330
UDZHARRI, 168, 173, 176, 223
'Upton Knoll,' 50, 61, 233
VALS, visit to, 42
Varna, 273, 278-281
Vaux, George, 340
Vegetarianism, 226
Vladikafkas, 119, 122, 123
WALLIS, Liskeard, i
War, views on, 18-21, 308
Weir, Harrison, letter to, 90
Wesleyans, 2
White, Andrew D., 114, 240, 264,
Whittier, 86, 96, 339, 352 [351
Wife, his, 10, 50, 53, 103, 235, 249,
268, 273, 277, 279, 287, 288, 352
, letters to, 36, 42, 44, 45,
46, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113,
114, 115, 116, 119, 122, 123, 136,
137, 141, 145, 149, 153, 155; 158,
168, 176, 181, 187, 203, 212, 221,
222, 224, 226, 229, 231, 232, 236,
330, 332, 333
Wiffen's translation of Tasso, 49
Worcester, Mass., visit to, 338, 359
Wordsworth, 41, 49, 58, 59, 304
ZABOUCH, village of, 190, 200
THE END
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