LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 X
 
 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 SIR OLIVER J. LODGE
 
 BY SIR OLIVER J. LODGE 
 
 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 RAYMOND, OR LIFE AND DEATH 
 
 MODERN PROBLEMS 
 
 THE SUBSTANCE or FAITH, 
 ALLIED WITH SCIENCE 
 
 MAN AND THE UNIVERSE 
 THE SURVIVAL OF MAN 
 REASON AND BELIEF 
 THE WAR AND AFTER
 
 CHRISTOPHER
 
 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 A STUDY IN HUMAN PERSONALITY 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR OLIVER J. LODGE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "RAYMOND, OR LIFE AND DEATH." "THE SURVIVAL 
 OF MAN." "THE WAR AND AFTER," ETC. 
 
 NEW XBT YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1919, 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 V 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 PACT 
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR . n 
 
 CHAPTER X AK. 1 1 
 
 I HOME INFLUENCE 25 
 
 II SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 40 
 
 III MILITARY PREPARATION 56 
 
 IV THE COMPACT 60 
 
 PART II 
 
 MEMOIR, AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT, 
 AND REPRESENTATIVE LETTERS 
 
 V MEMOIR 85 
 
 VI AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 104 
 
 VII WEST DOWNS 116 
 
 VIII WINCHESTER 131 
 
 IX SANDHURST _--' i?9 
 
 X WELSH GUARDS 204 
 
 XI ON ACTIVE SERVICE 229 
 
 <rf 
 
 XII LETTERS FROM BROTHERS, OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED 
 OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE WELSH GUARDS, AND FROM 
 FRIENDS 263 
 
 NOTES ON A FEW QUOTATIONS AND ALLUSIONS .... 297
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHRISTOPHER Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CADOXTON LODGE 86 
 
 CHRISTOPHER AS A CHILD 106 
 
 THE WATTS MEMORIAL J4 2 
 
 CHRISTOPHER AS A MEMBER OF THE WELSH GUARDS . . . 214
 
 CHRISTOPHER
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 
 
 "I with uncovered head 
 
 Salute the sacred dead, 
 
 Who went, and who return not. Say not so! 
 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, 
 But the high faith that failed not by the way; 
 Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; 
 No ban of endless night exiles the brave; 
 
 And to the saner mind 
 We rather seem the dead that stayed behind." 
 
 LOWELL, "Commemoration Ode." 
 
 IN this great massacre of youth, in which we are all, 
 to the best of our ability, heavily engaged, having been 
 driven thereto by the diabolical wickedness of a re- 
 morseless foe, what slaughter of heaven-sent genius 
 must there inevitably be ! Great and simple, high and 
 low, all pass through the valley of the shadow, and 
 many go the way to dusty death. 
 
 Of this great multitude the majority must be com- 
 monplace ordinary mortals, with potentialities unde- 
 veloped, and unlikely to be developed by the dull 
 surroundings of ordinary routine. 
 
 A few there are who, though young, have already 
 shown budding promise of distinction, and whose out- 
 put is not negligible in quality, however deficient in 
 
 ii
 
 12 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 quantity: these are lamented by the world; our loss 
 in them is evident. But many more there must be 
 whose latent capacity was only partially developed, 
 who had had exceptional training, who might have 
 risen to high position, who had laid a sure foundation 
 for achievement, whose nerves and muscles, physical 
 and mental, were in healthy condition, and who, by 
 their intimates, were expected to do great things. 
 
 It is mainly of these unfledged songsters, these un- 
 developed athletes, these youths of blighted promise, 
 that I write. Our loss in them, too, is serious, and 
 the truncation of their own earth-life must be to them 
 something of a calamity. They are born, they go 
 through the troubles of infancy, they labour through 
 strenuous years of preparation, love and care are 
 showered upon them; and then, just in the flush of 
 their ripening years, the blast comes which cuts them 
 off untimely and returns them to that unknown world 
 from whence in some mystic sense they came. All 
 the ripening of experience, the discipline and judgment 
 and forbearance which come with later years, they 
 miss. And it is the best, alas ! who go. Broadly this 
 must be true. 
 
 Seen from our side, it looms large as a catastrophe, 
 mitigated only by their heroism and self-sacrifice: to 
 us, this unnatural selection, this survival of the unfit- 
 test, is deadly and depressing. What can we do but 
 try to raise an altar to their memory, an altar before 
 which many generations of posterity will bow in grati- 
 tude and homage! To this end poets and musicians
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 13 
 
 and architects and artists of every kind will give of 
 their best. A noble monument will be erected, stone 
 by stone; and, buried in one of the stones, perhaps 
 this volume may find a place. 
 
 But, however keenly we admire and rejoice in their 
 achievements, we cannot help remembering how griev- 
 ous and mechanical has been the slaughter. No longer 
 can we sing of arms wielded by heroic men: arma- 
 ments are now physical and chemical, the outcome of 
 prostituted science. Complex machinery, against which 
 human flesh is battered and helpless, flames for in- 
 flicting torment, poisonous gases in which no living 
 creature can breathe these diabolical engines are able 
 to overcome and almost to annihilate heroism. The 
 physiological collapse spoken of as shell-shock or war 
 stress occurs among the bravest. War has become im- 
 possible and inhuman. 
 
 The undeveloped youth of humanity plunges into 
 these horrors, and cannot hope to emerge scathless. 
 The noble army of heroic youths, many of them heirs 
 to privilege and comfort, willingly enter upon the toil- 
 some and dangerous path. Noblesse oblige. 
 
 Hundreds and thousands of such youths in all ranks 
 of life yield up their birthright of health and happi- 
 ness, and either return maimed and disfigured or do 
 not return at all. Some of those who are older or 
 higher in rank may survive, it may be their duty to 
 take precaution, but for the junior officer there is prac- 
 tically no hope of ultimate escape. They stand in the 
 breach, they lead forlorn hopes, they obey the higher
 
 14 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 commands, and they fall under the shower of shell 
 and shrapnel they inevitably fall sometimes having 
 never seen a foe. Fall, I say; yes, fall to all appear- 
 ance, but appearances are deceptive : they 
 
 "fall to rise, 
 
 are baffled to fight better, 
 Sleep to wake." 
 
 Their task is far from ended, a completer existence is 
 begun: they enter the ranks of higher service, their 
 power of help is increased rather than diminished, and 
 they still devote themselves to the cause for which 
 they gave their lives. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that this noble army is help- 
 less and supine ; rather let us be sure that their perform- 
 ance of duty here was but the prelude to more ex- 
 tended service hereafter, that the welcome "Well done, 
 good and faithful servant," will sound in their ears 
 in due time, and that, as the outcome of their faithful- 
 ness in a few things, they will be entrusted with higher 
 power, greater opportunity for achievement, a fuller 
 measure of self-realisation, than would have been pos- 
 sible to them here and now. It is by their perfect 
 willingness for service, and, if need be, for sacrifice, 
 that they are enabled, in some real sense, to enter into 
 the joy of their Lord. 
 
 For them all is gain; and even for us the gain will 
 ultimately outweigh the loss. For we have not really 
 lost them; they feel themselves to be nearer to us than 
 before; death is no estrangement, it has been felt by
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 15 
 
 many as a kind of reunion. Body separates: spirit 
 unites. These are statements based on evidence, 
 though the evidence must be sought elsewhere; what 
 is said here is the expression of a conviction which has 
 come to many. And one thing more we know : sacri- 
 fice is the necessary prelude to the attainment of any 
 high aim. 
 
 The conflict in which we are engaged is not waged 
 by mechanical force alone, it is a knightly enterprise 
 of eager spirits and indomitable hopes. In this strug- 
 gle against principalities and powers and spiritual 
 wickedness in high places, we are not alone. Our part 
 must be done, but it is shared in and assisted by agen- 
 cies higher than ourselves. The aim towards which 
 all are striving is to liberate man from bondage to 
 material necessities, to revive opportunities for mental 
 and moral progress, to promote the peace-ensuring fed- 
 eration of civilised humanity, and to take a further step 
 toward the spiritual regeneration of mankind. 
 
 Why pick out for special remembrance one rather 
 than another of the glorious company of those who 
 have sacrificed themselves in this high cause? Each 
 has done his duty, each is one of a type; but we can 
 best testify where we have known, and the more 
 closely we can represent the type the more valuable 
 will be our testimony. With one such type the 
 engineering practical type I have in another book 
 already dealt. I now essay the presentation of the 
 scholarly, the more artistic type, the undeveloped man 
 of letters or of statesmanship, the youth of intelligent
 
 16 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and cultivated emotion. Both types are full of hu- 
 manity, full of promise, they sympathise with and 
 understand each other, but their aptitudes lie in dif- 
 ferent directions, and we cannot tell how or along 
 what lines their nascent genius would have led them, 
 had they continued to live here. 
 
 Each may stand for a multitude, and I trust that 
 many parents will realise, in one or other of those com- 
 memorated, a sufficient picture of what their own son 
 was like, and will feel that in endeavouring to com- 
 memorate a few we are really commemorating a large 
 and increasing number. 
 
 Now, in depicting a life cut off before its prime, the 
 period of childhood must loom large. It is a period 
 necessarily without achievement, but one which may be 
 of singular interest and promise. It is a period, as I 
 think, insufficiently attended to in many ranks of life, 
 a period which seems short to adults, but which is very 
 long to those who are passing through it, a period 
 of which vastly more might by proper arrangement 
 be made. One reason why the opportunities of this 
 time of rapid growth are largely wasted, is our own 
 adult stupidity, lack of imagination, and stress of 
 other occupations. Another and more general cause 
 of wholesale neglect is the nation's purblind economy, 
 its emphasis on wage-earning, its failure to realise that 
 the production of commodities at the expense of man- 
 hood and womanhood is devastating. But though 
 multitudes have their youth spoiled and frustrated by
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 17 
 
 a grievously sordid or depressing environment, some 
 few, in happy homes and under wise guidance, are 
 able to rise to the height of our common humanity so 
 far as their years allow. 
 
 One undoubtedly who possessed such advantages is 
 the subject of this memoir. And yet I see no reason 
 to suppose that his native capacity was exceptional, 
 unless it was exceptional in power of feeling and sym- 
 pathy. Many a youth must be born with general 
 ability equal to or exceeding his, some of them lower 
 in social grade; and, if there were more real equality 
 of opportunity, many of these might become of con- 
 spicuous service to the State. Every peer seems ex- 
 pected to be a statesman, or to be able at least to enter 
 the diplomatic or some other form of service needing 
 brains and character; and a large proportion of the 
 well-born, whether as Governors of colonies or other- 
 wise, show themselves more or less fit for high adminis- 
 trative office. It can hardly be because they are ex- 
 ceptionally gifted. Their success seems to show that 
 the average of natural ability is fairly high, and that 
 only nurture and opportunity are needed to bring out 
 some capacity latent in every son of man. 
 
 But how little of this development do we attempt! 
 It is lamentable to think that among the rank and file 
 there must be a few whose potential genius is lost to 
 the world, being warped and degraded by the stu- 
 pidity and ignorance of adults or by short-sighted cor- 
 porate greed. 
 
 It may be said that if youths have real genius they
 
 18 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 can rise ; and certainly some opportunities are now pro- 
 vided. Every now and then a Faraday or a Watt or 
 a Stephenson shows what can be done in spite of diffi- 
 culties, or with the help of timely patrons, and exhibits 
 the latent capacity of the poor in birth. Mr. Smiles's 
 volumes are full of the hard-won successes of men of 
 this type. But our social system demands from mem- 
 bers of the proletariat not only innate genius but a 
 character of extraordinary strength, if they are ever 
 to overcome economic difficulties, to emerge from the 
 dead level of mediocrity, secure for themselves the 
 necessary leisure, and come to high fruition. Of the 
 wastage we hear less, but it must be appalling. Slaugh- 
 ter in war is but another and more obvious form of 
 slaughter ; it attracts more attention, but, save in quan- 
 tity, it need hardly be more repined than the less 
 obtrusive moral and intellectual slaughter always go- 
 ing on in time of peace. 
 
 The severity of war losses is felt by all classes, but 
 is more conspicuous when the foresight of parents and 
 the inheritance from previous generations have ren- 
 dered wholesome development possible and compara- 
 tively easy; for those long years of preparation might 
 have been expected to yield some worthy result, some 
 reward for all the labour and sacrifice which had gone 
 to the preparing of the way. 
 
 In some cases the hallmark of real genius may have 
 been set upon a youth; the as-yet-undeveloped but 
 nascent personality may have already displayed itself 
 to expectant eyes; but the era of achievement was not
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 19 
 
 yet; the bud and the blossom had appeared, but not 
 the flower or the fruit. 
 
 "Childhood is genius without capacity," says Fred- 
 eric Myers. Youth may have access to subliminal 
 depths, may experience moments of intuition, may even 
 display trailings of celestial glories, but, save in here 
 and there a prodigy, it has had no adequate opportunity 
 for incarnating much of itself in matter, it has not 
 the skill to overcome the difficulties of translation, it 
 cannot bring the meaning out into the light of day. 
 Hidden but intense feelings, joys and pains more vivid 
 than our worn souls remember, powers and insight of 
 a depth barely suspected, all these can be characteristic 
 of children, and of youths too whose development has 
 not been checked by untoward circumstance, and whose 
 ancestry has been able to bestow on them for genera- 
 tions the blessings of high culture. 
 
 And it is only fair if we comparatively useless sur- 
 vivors, loiterers it may be on a stage whence we must 
 soon depart, should seek to realise and to represent 
 something of what the cloud of vanishing youth has 
 felt, something of what amid happier surroundings it 
 will continue to feel, something out of which may yet 
 arise a period of keener and wiser and more beneficent 
 activity for man.
 
 20 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO INTRODUCTION 
 
 i. A MESSAGE TO THE BEREAVED 
 
 The following message has already been privately circu- 
 lated by the Author to bereaved friends, and it may suitably 
 find a place here: 
 
 The amount of mourning and suffering throughout Europe 
 at the present time is something terrible to contemplate. The 
 loss to those who have gone over is not to be minimised: vio- 
 lent death while young is a serious calamity a man-made 
 tragedy with dire consequences and lamentation is natural 
 and inevitable. But it must be remembered that, from the 
 point of view of the individuals who have gone over, there 
 are many mitigating circumstances. They have done their 
 duty; they have sacrificed a useful career here; they have 
 given up all they possessed; and it will be requited to them. 
 By such a death a burden of sin is lightened ; some atonement 
 is made. Good friends are waiting for them; their help can 
 be utilised, and is much wanted, for their fellows who are 
 coming over; and they themselves will continue in the joy of 
 service. 
 
 They would like their friends here to recognise that, and 
 not to mourn them unduly; above all, not to consider them 
 as gone out of existence, as extinguished and no longer real. 
 Sorrow at their departure is inevitable, but grief which is 
 excessive causes them pain. 
 
 They did their work here, they will do it there ; and in good 
 time reunion may confidently be looked forward to. If the 
 truth of these matters was only clearly and widely realised, 
 the mourning would be not only more resigned but actually 
 more hopeful. Death alone is not to man the greatest evil, 
 and in some sort they are happy in the opportunity of their 
 death. This ought to be recognised by those who survive, and 
 we should not grieve unduly for those who have only gone on 
 before us. 
 
 2. A VISION OF M. MAURICE MAETERLINCK'S 
 
 "We must tell ourselves that now, in each of our homes, 
 both in our cities and in the countryside, both in the palace
 
 YOUTH AND THE WAR 21 
 
 and in the meanest hovel, there lives and reigns a young dead 
 man in the glory of his strength. 
 
 "He fills the poorest, darkest dwelling with a splendour of 
 which it had never ventured to dream. His constant presence, 
 imperious and inevitable, diffuses through it and maintains a 
 religion of ideas which it had never known there before, hal- 
 lows everything around it, forces the eyes to look higher and 
 the spirit to refrain from descending, purifies the air that is 
 breathed and the speech that is held and the thoughts that are 
 mustered there, and little by little ennobles and uplifts a whole 
 people. It will not be long before we see the differences in- 
 crease, and the destinies diverge, between the nations which 
 have acquired all these dead and all this glory, and those 
 which are deprived of them ; and we shall perceive with amaze- 
 ment that those nations which have lost the most are those 
 which have kept their riches and their men."
 
 PART I
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 
 
 "In our absolute ignorance of the source from whence life 
 came, we have no ground for assuming that it was a purely 
 planetary product, or that its unknown potentialities are con- 
 cerned with purely planetary ends." 
 
 "Birth, indeed, is but an incident in each organism's his- 
 tory; that organism has an embryonic life before birth and 
 a pre-embryonic life in countless lines of ancestry." 
 F. W. H. MYERS, "Human Personality," chaps, iii. and iv. 
 
 THROUGH my friendship with Frederic Myers I be- 
 came acquainted in later years with the Tennants of 
 Cadoxton. 1 I had, indeed, met Charles Coombe Ten- 
 nant years ago at Richmond Terrace while F. W. H. 
 Myers, his brother-in-law, was alive. 
 
 The accident of his father, Charles Tennant, hav- 
 ing the same name as Sir Charles Tennant, Bart., the 
 founder of a well-known and distinguished family, 
 does, I find, sometimes lead to confusion, so I state here 
 that the two families are entirely distinct. The con- 
 fusion was rather amusingly perpetuated at a prepara- 
 
 1 It may be well to explain to people unacquainted with South Wales 
 that the accent is on the first syllable of Cadoxton, not on the second, 
 for the name derives from its patron saint, St. Cadoc. 
 
 25
 
 26 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 tory school, where two Christopher Tennants were 
 contemporaries, so that letters and presents frequently 
 went astray. The two boys were quite unrelated to 
 each other; one of them was the son of Lord Glen- 
 conner, the other the subject of the present memoir. 
 
 At the time I first knew Charles Coombe Tennant 
 he was unmarried, and I did not make the acquaint- 
 ance of his wife till long afterwards, when their eldest 
 son Christopher was a boy at Winchester, and after 
 they had lost their infant daughter Daphne. Indeed, 
 it was in consequence of this bereavement, felt by both 
 parents in an unusual and remarkable degree, that ulti- 
 mately I got to know the mother as a Mater Dolorosa 
 one who needed and had received such comfort as 
 belief in survival could afford. Two much younger 
 sons have since been born to them, who are still small 
 children, and who, since Christopher's death at the 
 Front at the age of 19, represent the hope of the 
 family. 
 
 Christopher as a boy was notably intelligent, and 
 after I had met him during one of his holidays he 
 wrote asking arithmetical questions which showed an 
 interest in intellectual pursuits unusual in professional 
 schoolboys, a circumstance that attracted my attention 
 and drew me to him. His intelligence and conspicu- 
 ously affectionate nature were very attractive, and his 
 relations with his parents were ideal. I have no wish 
 to make him out a paragon of excellence. I regard him 
 and I treat him as a type of the studious boy, with a 
 keen sense of fun and humour, and with other apti-
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 27 
 
 tudes of value in themselves, but ill-fitted to cope with 
 some of the coarser and rougher aspects of youthful 
 life. 
 
 It is a fairly accepted fact that the organism re- 
 traces rapidly the history of its ancestry, galloping 
 through some stages with surprising swiftness. This 
 historical repetition is not embryonic alone, it extends 
 into childhood, and the infant presumably passes more 
 or less quickly through the era of savagery, sometimes 
 so quickly as to be barely noticed, sometimes 
 prolonged by circumstances or by ill training until it 
 comes to repulsive fruition in the comparatively un- 
 restrained license of the hobbledehoy. 
 
 A small residual element of the prehistoric man may 
 conduce harmlessly to love of sport. It may in some 
 cases even tend to strengthen a character. There may 
 be room in humanity for both the savage type and 
 the studious type; it is no part of my function to 
 criticise the order of things. But I apprehend that dur- 
 ing the rise of humanity the period of unrelieved sav- 
 agery has been more and more reduced; something of 
 its merits should be retained, but it is to be hoped that 
 during future ages of progress the studious, the inquir- 
 ing, and more civilised type will have gradually con- 
 structed for itself an environment less hostile than at 
 present, and that ultimately it will combine with its 
 own peculiar virtues the strength of character insepa- 
 rable from real elevation, and will become dominant. 
 Already it has attained this stage in individuals, and 
 the idea of weakness is far removed from my concep-
 
 28 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 tion of the influences under which Christopher was 
 reared. 
 
 The education and the companionship which he re- 
 ceived from his Father was a noteworthy feature of his 
 younger life. They rejoiced together in home games, 
 including chess, billiards, and piquet, and in more 
 frolicsome exercises in which the mother took but little 
 interest. It was with his Father also that he began 
 Greek, and though at a later period the boy's fresher 
 learning forged ahead of the Balliol man's more rusty 
 recollection, they went through a play of Aristophanes 
 together with occasional squeals of laughter. The re- 
 lationship between Father and Son continued to be of 
 a most affectionate and almost fraternal character, and 
 the shock of ultimate separation was severe. 
 
 The boy became an enthusiastic devotee of the 
 Classics, and for his age I gather from competent testi' 
 mony the impression that his scholarship was by no 
 means despicable. He was entered upon the roll of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, and would undoubtedly 
 have done well in the Classical Tripos, and keenly 
 enjoyed the inspiration of his environment. 
 
 One of the greatest wrenches which he felt on go- 
 ing into the Army was the uprooting of his cherished 
 ambition to go to Cambridge, and the abandonment, 
 at least for a time, of the anticipated enjoyment of 
 rooms in the Great Court of Trinity, wherein, when 
 he tried for his scholarship, he had oassed a glorious 
 week. 
 
 Concerning Christopher's love of Classics, it was
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 29 
 
 obviously genuine and vivid I feel instinctively his 
 kinship with Frederic Myers, he was a boy with whom 
 that Scholar would have had much sympathy but 
 naturally concerning matters of scholarship it is not 
 for me to express an opinion. I have therefore secured 
 testimony from a more than competent man of letters 
 who knew the boy intimately, and who, in response to 
 the question whether Christopher would have ever made 
 a Scholar, answered somewhat thus: 
 
 "Yes, of the real type; he would have developed, not 
 on the side of philological minutiae, but on the side of 
 feeling for the Classics. It was an element natural to 
 him. Other men might have had more exact technical 
 knowledge, but few could have had a more human, a 
 more spiritual, apperception and feeling for classical 
 literature. It was in the stage of promise rather than 
 of achievement; he was too young for technical com- 
 petitions, but the authentic touch was there." 
 
 Of the Mother it is difficult and yet necessary to 
 speak. As a woman of energy and ability she has been 
 absorbed in war work of many kinds, she is an active 
 member of a War Pensions and other Committees, and 
 many there are, both among officials and among right- 
 ful beneficiaries, who can testify that it is no nominal 
 service which she renders. She is, moreover, closely 
 connected with Welsh Nationalist activities, having 
 been Chairman of the Arts and Crafts Section of the 
 National Eisteddfod of 1918, at which, in recognition 
 of her services, the Archdruid conferred upon her the 
 Honorary Eisteddfodic Degree of Ovate; and in the
 
 30 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Gorsedd Circle she is known by the Welsh name of 
 Mam o Nedd (a mother of Neath). She is also one 
 of the twenty original members (of whom three were 
 women) elected at the Welsh National Conference in 
 May, 1918, to form an Executive Committee for the 
 purpose of forwarding the movement in favour of Self- 
 Government for Wales on Federal lines. In all ways 
 she holds a position of importance in South Wales, es- 
 pecially in the district of which Neath is the centre. 
 Through these, and her previous labours in the 
 cause of Woman's Suffrage with Mrs. Fawcett and 
 others, she must have become known to prominent 
 people, especially to those interested in causes specially 
 associated with the enterprises of women, or those in 
 which women have recently been able to take a lead- 
 ing part; and locally she is a centre of enlightenment 
 and gracious sympathy to her friends and dependents. 
 It is difficult therefore to write of one so compara- 
 tively well known and still active; but inasmuch as 
 what follows is a study of the development of the per- 
 sonality of a Youth and inasmuch as to this develop- 
 ment the personality of the mother has contributed 
 more than any other single cause, I am bound to speak 
 of her as a woman of exceptional ability and strength of 
 character, as well as of a human being specially charac- 
 terised by sympathy and depth of feeling; for on all 
 that there can be no shadow of difference of opinion. 
 Depth of feeling, indeed, and passion of service, are 
 chief among her special characteristics, and these in-
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 31 
 
 nate attributes have been cultivated and brought out 
 by Motherhood to a remarkable degree. 
 
 Devotion to her children is exemplified in her more 
 than in most mothers, and the whole of her powers 
 have been pressed into the service. A busy life has 
 not prevented her keen appreciation of literature and 
 art and music; and in all such directions, and in all 
 matters of taste and of humanity, her influence on her 
 children and immediate surroundings must have been 
 profound. 
 
 Nor was it by inculcation only that the child's emo- 
 tional life was fostered. Depth of feeling is a native 
 gift, not an acquired character, and there can be no 
 doubt about its inheritance. The perception of beauty 
 in the boy was keen, artistic taste was highly developed, 
 and more than in most families were expressions of 
 affection and of enjoyment in life customary; the home 
 atmosphere was one of healthy occupation and joy. 
 
 Many a boy may feel for his home circle a deep 
 affection, few are either able or willing to express 
 their feelings; they are usually self-contained until 
 some strenuous call awakens their manhood, and out 
 of the shyness and shamefacedness of boyhood they ac- 
 quire the man's power of saying what he feels, un- 
 deterred by the old hypercritical and artificially re- 
 stricted atmosphere of school. 
 
 I have emphasised the influence of the Parents, as 
 is only natural and right. But among the home influ- 
 ences the younger sister Daphne was a strangely power- 
 ful one too. This child, destined to an early death,
 
 82 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 must have had an exceptional character, full of unde- 
 veloped possibilities, and the permanent influence of 
 her brief life on those who had to do with her can 
 hardly be over-estimated ; it extended beyond the range 
 of relationship, as letters testify. Length of days is no 
 measure of a personal influence, there is something in 
 genius which transcends time; and from the testimony 
 of those who knew the infant I judge that nothing less 
 than genius will account for the impression she made. 
 
 A memoir of her was written by her Mother a short 
 time after the bereavement, and a portion of that will 
 be added to this chapter as an illustration of the 
 strength of the feelings which went to the making 
 of the boy. The complete memoir has a beauty of its 
 own; it was written under the immediate stress of 
 heavy sorrow, and appears to me a human document 
 of permanent value. It is only in a spirit of self- 
 sacrifice that this and other private records are allowed 
 to reach beyond the circle of close personal friends, but 
 it is in epochs of stress that the emotional life is truly 
 awakened, these epochs are of special though sacred 
 value, and unless I am allowed to exhibit something of 
 the depth of feeling which dominated the situation I 
 cannot make the picture complete. 
 
 I know that a memoir about so young a child is ex- 
 ceptional. I have abbreviated it where I thought that 
 abbreviation would not injure it, though I am not sure 
 that abbreviation is an advantage. I regret that some 
 of its poignant concluding portion has had to be 
 omitted, but I make no apology for reproducing the
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 33 
 
 rest of it here, for my object is to represent truly the 
 personality of both Mother and Son, and to emphasise 
 the character of those home influences which surrounded 
 the life of the boy until he was distracted from them 
 by the exigencies of public school and military training.
 
 34 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 DAPHNE SEROCOLD TENNANT 
 
 Extracts from a memoir of Daphne written by her mother in 
 August, 1908. She was born at Cadoxton Lodge, Vale of 
 Neath, on January 6th, 1907, and died in London on July 
 2ist, 1908, aged eighteen months. 
 
 WHAT I write here is not for myself. Every detail is in my 
 heart, graved there in letters that neither change nor what we 
 call Death can ever efface. 
 
 What I set down is for those who never knew The Darling, 
 or had seen only fragmentary bits of her personality. To 
 some it may seem strange to speak of personality in so young 
 a child; and yet first and foremost she was a person, intensely 
 individual, with strongly marked characteristics, and a certain 
 quality of atmosphere which was essentially her own. Of 
 course this refers to the later months. At first there was only 
 the sleeping, sucking, quiescent stage, but later each day saw 
 a growing power of applying intelligence. In her dear short 
 life she knew many things: knew and loved flowers and their 
 scent, would nose among them with long inspirations of de- 
 light; knew also the elemental joy of sound and rhythm . . . 
 would beat to the measure of a tune at a year old. . . . Later 
 I will try to show how every sense met and rejoiced in the 
 sea. She never knew fear, she never had tempers of any kind, 
 rarely cried, never was still a second when awake, was always 
 active and busy in her own dear way. She was very feminine ; 
 that -was one of her strongest traits; she loved pretty things 
 and could not bear to part with any ornament that had been 
 put on her for drawing-room visits. . . . She loved to be 
 admired and spoken of, and would preen her head and bridle 
 as well as any village beauty. If she caught sight of herself 
 in a glass she expressed vast admiration, and would cover her 
 image with resounding kisses. Her eyes were very expressive,
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 35 
 
 and she used them, quite unconsciously, as a very coquette, 
 with sudden liftings, and quick side glances wonderful to be- 
 hold. She had a merry laugh, and an immense sense of 
 humour, could understand a joke and often cap it. She was 
 wonderfully intelligent, finding out things for herself, and, 
 once shown a thing, remembering it unfailingly. She was 
 sometimes shy with women, but never with men, to whom she 
 instinctively turned. If I were to single out one characteristic 
 above all the rest, I should say it was that she was so very 
 loving. She was the embodiment of love, a dear, soft, fem- 
 inine clinging little child; and this love she would bestow far 
 and wide hugging even the hard ugly tigers carved on the 
 wooden legs of the dining-room sideboard, stroking their poor 
 noses with infinite gentleness and tenderness. Her one atti- 
 tude to outward objects seemed to be love, and her chief 
 desire to express all the love her little heart held. 
 
 In appearance she was remarkably beautiful. Her features 
 were small and delicate, the brow well shaped and giving 
 promise of great intellect; the eyebrows pencilled, rather 
 straight than arched; the eyes heavy-lidded, very wide apart, 
 of a wonderful pale hare-bell blue, which yet at times looked 
 dark, the iris unusually large, the expression very tender and 
 yet alert, the lashes a dark brown, very thick and very long, 
 making a dark fringe that she would lift and lower like some 
 curtain over the soul-light that escaped from between them. 
 The nose was small and well shaped, the chin rounded, with 
 a cleft dimple in the centre; a firm chin with character even 
 in babyhood. The body was exquisitely proportioned, the 
 ankles slender, and the feet the tiniest things imaginable, pink- 
 toed and lovely as a rose leaf. Her hair was of a pale corn 
 colour, plentiful and curling up at the back in little ringlets. 
 She wore it tied on the left side with a bright green flat bow, 
 or a bright green fillet passing round the head. It was as fine 
 as spun silk. Her general appearance was very old-fashioned, 
 something of a Du Maurier child and also something of the 
 Old Masters meeting in her quaint little person. It is, of 
 course, easy to say that love is blind, but in setting down what 
 I do I am giving the impressions that a wide range of people 
 told me she made on them. She was very tall, thirty-nine dear 
 inches when I measured her little frame after she had been 
 gathered into God's arms. . . .
 
 36 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Christopher loved the little sister before she came, sewing 
 with laborious puffings and much finger-pricking her name- 
 tapes on her blankets, and helping to prepare her white muslin 
 cot. . . . The Darling was born on a morning of brilliant 
 sunshine. It was a Sunday (January 6th, 1907). I can hear 
 now the pealing of the bells coming through the half-opened 
 window, as I lay resting. . . . On February 3rd, 1907, she 
 was christened by "The Deacon" (not really one then, but 
 keeping his sobriquet) at the font of Cadoxton Church. In 
 April we moved up to London, and there The Darling met 
 many relations for the first time. She went over to Richmond 
 Terrace to my mother-in-law eighty-seven years between 
 them what a vista of history ! 1 At the end of July we were 
 again at Cadoxton, Christopher coming home from his first 
 term at school and delighting in the society of Daphne, who 
 was now taking notice of all her surroundings. . . . 
 
 Every morning after breakfast The Darling and I played 
 together in the drawing-room. There was a bust of Clyde 
 that she loved, and one of Apollo her god and she knew 
 them both by name, would turn to them at once when I spoke 
 of them. . . . Christmas came the dear child's only earthly 
 Christmas. Tiny baby socks were hung out over the cot's end, 
 and the morning found them stuffed with baby toys, the post 
 of honour being given to Teddy Bear, a soft buff-coloured 
 plush being, with expressionless features and alert eyes the 
 same poor Teddy who keeps guard now beside the little urn. 
 Christopher had a soft shawl done up with a notice that it 
 was "for Sister with Brusser's love on her first Christmas," 
 and from God-daddy came a white bunny. Daphne was 
 brought down in nurse's arms to see the plum pudding blazed, 
 whereat she expressed no surprise. . . . 
 
 During the last six months of her earthly journey she had 
 quite grown out of babyhood and had become a little girl. The 
 sweetness of the face in repose, the curling locks, the wise 
 expressive eyes, were all attributes of early childhood rather 
 than of late babyhood. Her being above the average height 
 strengthened this impression, for the long slender limbs had 
 lost the first round plumpness of infancy. It was a little girl 
 who opened her eyes to a fairer world than ours on the 2ist 
 
 *See footnote on p. 98.
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 87 
 
 of July, 1908. No one could have thought of her as a baby; 
 the first blossoms of the crown of childhood were already set 
 about her brow before she was hid from my eyes, and it is 
 as a child that I see her. . . . 
 
 In the words of the old game, Daphne reminds me of the 
 following : 
 
 In flower A hare-bell. 
 
 In tree A willow in spring. 
 
 In sound The lark's song. 
 
 In food Fresh-drawn milk. 
 
 In melody Old English airs. 
 
 In colour A clear bright blue. 
 
 In scent A primrose. 
 
 At Easter I went to Wales with Christopher, who had had 
 whooping-cough at school, leaving Daphne in my mother's 
 care. When we returned she and Nurse went up to 156, 
 Sloane Street, so that Christopher and she might not meet. 
 His quarantine was over, but we wished to run no risks. He 
 was only in London about three days, and one morning called 
 me excitedly to say The Darling was on the pavement oppo- 
 site. Down we both ran, and in the open air brother and sister 
 gazed at each other. They had not met since the end of 
 January, and they were never to meet again here. Christopher 
 loved her very dearly, and was proud of her. She was the 
 cause of his first fight at school, some boy having named her 
 in a teasing manner. . . . 
 
 Then comes the last earthly chapter of my dear child's 
 story. 
 
 I had been out early that morning (Thursday, July i6th), 
 and coming in about n o'clock I met her in the hall. She 
 was in her pram, sitting up. The day was gusty, with now 
 and then a slight drizzle of cold rain. Nurse said she would 
 not take her far. It was the last day my darling child would 
 ever sit in her pram or go out into the fresh air of this world 
 now all the fresh air of heaven is hers. Later in the day she 
 became rather peevish, which was quite unlike her. I sent for 
 the doctor, and by five o'clock he was there. A warm bath 
 was ordered, and bed and quiet. There were no definite symp- 
 toms. She had a restless but not bad night. . . .
 
 88 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 [A portion dealing with the events of the three subsequent 
 days is omitted.] 
 
 .... I kept the night-light bum- 
 ing, which gave a clear light. It made shadows on the ceiling ; 
 I can see them now. Not wishing to make a chair crack. I 
 sat down on the flooj beside the cot. From time to time I 
 lifted myself up, and could see The Darling lying quiet. How 
 I thanked God for the sleep; she had not had a moment's 
 natural sleep for twenty-four hours. The wind must have 
 been coming from the east, for I could hear Big Ben chiming 
 the quarters, and then booming 3 o'clock. The silence of the 
 night was unbroken ; through the curtains I saw the first faint 
 streak of dawn. Suddenly I noticed a change in The Darling's 
 breathing. . . . 
 
 [A description of the child's peaceful passing is omitted.] 
 
 Day had broken, the moon still showed above the barracks 
 roof, there was not a sound anywhere save of awakening birds. 
 In that peaceful hour I was alone with my child's free spirit, 
 blessing her and giving God thanks for her, and knowing the 
 nothingness of what is called Death such a word for the 
 birth of the soul into perfect freedom and everlasting life ! . . . 
 
 .... The Sun of Life had 
 
 risen upon her and called her from our world of shadows. . . . 
 About 10 o'clock Canon Henson, 1 to whom I had written, 
 came to us. We spoke, he and I alone together first spoke of 
 The Darling and of the future joy for us and the present joy 
 for her. . . . Afterwards we all went into the nursery with 
 him. The little sleeping form showed peaceful in the diffused 
 light. He stood beside the cot, making the sign of the Cross, 
 and saying, "Requiescat in Pace Christianum." Then he said, 
 "Now we will say prayers." He gave thanks the first note 
 was that ; he gave thanks for The Darling and all her pleasant 
 ways and the joy she had brought, and thanks for the joy 
 which she had reached. And he prayed that we might be 
 helped and comforted "in this dark hour," and he commended 
 The Darling's dear spirit to the love that called her into 
 
 'Now Bishop of Hereford.
 
 HOME INFLUENCES 89 
 
 being, and blessed her to whom all blessings had come. It 
 was the only religious note in all our Darling's going; and 
 just such as we would have wished and felt appropriate. My 
 mother, who heard the Church Service at Highgate, felt it 
 almost grotesquely unreal, seeing that nothing of The Darling 
 was contained in the little casket over which the Church 
 seemed to be saying words implying a confusion of her iden- 
 tity with the mindless dust the only real things there being 
 poor Teddy Bear and White Bunny ; real in the sense of being 
 symbols of what loving hearts have fashioned for baby fingers 
 from the times of the Egyptians, where tiny toys are found in 
 tombs and will continue to fashion down to the days when 
 children of earth are no more. . . . 
 
 Of how I loved and love her I have not tried to speak ; nor 
 of my own sorrow: there is sorrow too deep for words, too 
 absolute for healing tears. ... I will end with these words, 
 written to us by Canon Henson on the day our Darling rose 
 to the life immortal: "I am grateful to you for letting me 
 look on that lovely child the sacrament of how fair a spirit, 
 the cradle of how gracious a character. Perishable as the 
 flower which rests on it, and yet having borne its witness, and 
 fulfilled its task. The Life it brought and revealed to you 
 endures and moves on to the full utterance of itself in His 
 Presence, Who is the Life Everlasting ; and you have its mem- 
 ory, and the hope of its restoration. May God bless you in 
 the great sorrow of its absence, as He has blessed you in the 
 great joy of its presence!"
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 
 
 "What inconsistencies, what absurdities underlie the assump- 
 tion that evolution means nothing more than the survival of 
 animals fittest to conquer enemies and to overrun the earth. 
 On that bare hypothesis the genus homo is impossible to ex- 
 plain. No one really attempts to explain him except on the 
 tacit supposition that Nature somehow tended to evolve intelli- 
 gence somehow needed to evolve joy; was not satisfied with 
 such an earth-overrunner as the rabbit, or such an invincible 
 conqueror as the influenza microbe. But how much intelli- 
 gence, what kind of joy Nature aimed at is this to be left 
 to be settled by the instinct of I'komme sensuel moyen? or 
 ought we not rather to ask of the best specimens of our race 
 what it is that they live for? whether they labour for the 
 meat that perisheth, or for Love and Wisdom? To more and 
 more among mankind the need of food is supplied with as little 
 conscious effort as the need of air ; yet these are often the very 
 men through whom evolution is going on most unmistakably 
 who are becoming the typical figures of the swiftly changing 
 race." 
 
 F. W. H. MYERS, "Human Personality," chap. iii. 
 
 THE so-called Public Schools of England are collec- 
 tively a great, a really magnificent institution; with 
 splendid buildings, hallowed associations, and ancient 
 traditions; full-filled they are with ancestral emotion, 
 with all the accumulated feeling of generations of the 
 well-born and well-to-do. 
 
 "Here," said Mr. Mackail, speaking of Eton, "one 
 
 40
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 41 
 
 feels, as perhaps nowhere else, the majestic continuity 
 of the national life." 
 
 As for the staffing of these great schools, many of 
 the headmasters are already half-way to the Bench of 
 Bishops and the House of Lords; while the house 
 masters, let us hope it is always permissible though 
 sometimes extravagant to hope are adequately re- 
 munerated for their vitally important function, are as 
 enthusiastic as any preparatory-school master about 
 proper and sufficient semi-parental care of boys, both 
 moral and material, at a critical and growing age; are 
 without temptation to any kind of profiteering, and 
 have sufficient wisdom to draw the difficult line between 
 pampering on the one hand and neglect on the other. 
 It must be admitted, however, that theirs is a most dif- 
 ficult and strenuous task, and that failure to rise to the 
 heights of opportunity is bound to be frequent. More- 
 over, in the past at least, the luxury of home life has 
 been too often an adverse influence. Yet this war, like 
 every other, has demonstrated how splendid, in reality, 
 is the raw material on which they have to work; 
 though, hampered apparently by a curious kind of 
 group-self consciousness, that material is apt to assume 
 in self-defence a rather stupidly prosaic and hyper- 
 critical attitude to things in general, especially things 
 of the emotions, and to affect a premature variety of 
 cheap cynicism which is not easily overcome. 
 
 To the fostering care of these great institutions are 
 entrusted the best-born and the otherwise privileged 
 youths of England, and here they begin training for
 
 42 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 the work of life, preparation for taking the lead in 
 industrial enterprises, and for ruling men in Dependen- 
 cies throughout the British Empire. So much has been 
 written in description and glorification of Public- 
 School influence, in moulding character and determin- 
 ing destiny, that no more words are needed; nor need 
 the multitude of such books be added to, even by a 
 sentence, in order to emphasise merits which can be 
 taken for granted. Had they not many virtues so 
 many youths would not be sent there. 
 
 But in the midst of the praise, a critical voice is 
 heard, and criticism is growing in intensity. Parents 
 are anxious ; questions are asked ; replies are discordant 
 or are difficult to obtain. Is everything really of the 
 best, is it even as good as it might be^ Is the disci- 
 pline wisely conceived and properly carried out in these 
 originally monastic institutions, or are boys of various 
 ages left too much to their own devices ? Do the weak- 
 est go to the wall*? Are there not excesses, is not the 
 boy-managed discipline too suddenly severe, the con- 
 trast with home and preparatory school too complete'? 
 Are the bodily exercises or "sports" overdone, giving 
 rise to subsequent heart-strain and other troubles'? * 
 Is the feeding wholesome and adequate, or must it be 
 supplemented from home*? 
 
 1 1 only speak feelingly of long school runs, in which smaller boys 
 are swished to over-exertion and fainting by bigger ones who are 
 actuated by sheer ignorance and stupidity. At a school in Yorkshire 
 this system of preposterously long competitive runs was in vogue, 
 perhaps still is; and I have had occasion, not in my own person but 
 in my own family, to curse it and its sequelae.
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 43 
 
 Many such questions are asked, and I do not presume 
 to answer them : they have to be answered differently, 
 it may be supposed, at different schools, and even at 
 different periods in the same school. 
 
 All I have to say, or to suggest, concerning school 
 life is absolutely general; it has no reference to any 
 one school in particular. Special and intimate knowl- 
 edge would be required for that. But there are certain 
 general characteristics which without controversy can 
 be admitted characteristics some of which are upheld 
 by high authority as sound and wholesome and benefi- 
 cent. Let us consider one well-worn argument in their 
 favour. 
 
 The discipline and hardship of school are said to 
 prepare a boy for the discipline and hardship of later 
 life. The note struck is preparation. So far, good. 
 Preparation for life is eminently desirable; and the 
 particular preparation afforded by school life appears 
 to be considered a kind of inoculation. For in like 
 manner it may be said that inoculation prepares one 
 to resist the ravages of specific disease when that is en- 
 countered in the future. 
 
 Inoculation is admittedly never a pleasant process, 
 though authority says that it is necessary. Let us ac- 
 cept that. But we do not select the most virulent form 
 of microbe for inoculation purposes, we do not apply 
 the disease in its severest form to prepare against milder 
 attacks in the future. Yet, according to the testimony 
 of many, the hardship and discipline of school during 
 say the first year, and even during subsequent years
 
 44 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 for many boys, are harsher and more grievous than any- 
 thing they can reasonably expect to encounter in later 
 life. In later life if we make mistakes we are pun- 
 ished, it may be by a fine, it may be by seclusion, but we 
 are not flogged, except for brutal crimes; nor are we 
 beaten by a jury of our fellows, or by some individual 
 stronger than ourselves, unless we have injured him in 
 a quite exceptional way, in some way so serious that he 
 is moved to take the law into his own hands. We 
 are not placed helpless in the midst of a community 
 whose members are of very varying degrees of size and 
 strength, with traditional powers over body and some- 
 times soul, where tale-bearing is forbidden, and where 
 we are removed from the curbing or protective agency 
 of the police. No one expects to encounter troubles 
 of this kind; and to inoculate against the risk of it 
 seems carrying precaution rather far. 
 
 In later life when we run into danger we take other 
 precautions. If we go among savages we carry weap- 
 ons of precision; if we encounter civilised ruffians we 
 appeal to the arm of the law; we protect ourselves 
 against bodily ill-treatment in various ways, and our 
 souls are our own. 
 
 But it will be said that at an earlier stage of life we 
 are retracing an evolutionary period, that we all have 
 to go through the savage phase, and that in this phase 
 the rough discipline of school is salutary and not alien 
 to our disposition. To some, I suppose, it does seem 
 natural and right; but to those whose savage period is 
 curtailed or galloped through, and who already at an
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 45 
 
 early age have reached a higher stage of civilisation, 
 the alien character of the mixed elements of school life 
 becomes painfully apparent. 
 
 But it is not alone, it is not even mainly, the mere 
 physical roughness and irresponsibility of seniors that 
 I propose to criticise. These are painful, but some peo- 
 ple can conscientiously maintain that they are salu- 
 tary, that they are good for the small boy, and do not 
 injure the big boy or develop any vein of cruelty in 
 his disposition. At any rate, they do not seem to frus- 
 trate the main purpose for which schools exist. This 
 purpose I conceive to be development of intellect and 
 of character. Some call it "formation" of character, 
 and put it first. If formation of character is possible 
 by outside influences, then indeed those influences be- 
 come supremely important; but character must be to a 
 great extent inborn. It may be unfolded, or it may 
 be withered, its development may be helped or hin- 
 dered; but surely a school should develop character 
 mainly through the intelligence. Awakening of the 
 mind would seem to be a main necessity in any scholas- 
 tic scheme. A system of training which depresses the 
 mind and yet keeps it at mental tasks for several hours 
 a day, until a feeling of nausea or study-nostalgia is 
 created which lasts more or less through life, few would 
 have the hardihood to support : they can only deny that 
 any such state of things exists; and can take refuge in 
 maintaining that assertion of this kind is an accusation 
 and misrepresentation made by some enemy. 
 
 Well, such assertions are made and must be faced. I
 
 46 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 wish to write tentatively, but I ask those who know the 
 real facts, whatever they are, to consider why such 
 accusations have ever been made. So far as I am able 
 to judge of the matter, basing my view on information 
 available to all, and seeking earnestly to avoid exag- 
 geration, I feel bound to say something on the sub- 
 ject of school, as it not invariably but too often is; 
 and with this apology as preface I begin. 
 
 To a sensitive boy the period of school is a strange 
 admixture of good and evil, of pleasure and pain. 
 With some the pain predominates over the pleasure, 
 and it is difficult to deny the assertion that with a few 
 the evil predominates over the good. A friend of 
 boarding-school education can hardly contest the state- 
 ment that it is, or has been, characterised by some 
 features which may be called defects. Such are : 
 
 Discouragement of intellectual keenness. 
 
 Suppression of natural emotional expression. 
 
 Reduction of exuberant individuality to a common 
 type. 
 
 Submission to a dull tradition of stupid uniformity, 
 where every action has to be guarded by defer- 
 ence to public opinion, on pain of punishment. 
 
 That these are characteristics of public schools, 
 where boys of different ages are left to the tender mer- 
 cies of each other, to the discipline of prefects, and 
 subject to unwritten laws which are Draconian in their 
 severity, can hardly be denied. That they are merits,
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 47 
 
 few will have the hardihood to assert. And if they 
 are not merits they are faults, out of which it is to be 
 hoped that the wave of reality which has submerged 
 us in the great war will have sufficient residual power 
 to emancipate us before it has subsided. 
 
 Joy in rational study, eagerness to receive informa- 
 tion though perhaps not from books desire to under- 
 stand something of the nature of our surroundings and 
 of the main interests of life, these are possessions surely 
 natural to most children, though apparently not to all. 
 But this kind of joy and eagerness is often killed in 
 the growing youth: and for this catastrophe I feel 
 bound to accuse, first the unwisdom, indeed the igno- 
 rance, of teachers, and next the more or less suffocating 
 atmosphere of school. Desire for knowledge may in 
 exceptional cases return with but little abatement dur- 
 ing a College period or in later life, but during the 
 priceless years of boyhood it must be hidden, it must 
 be indulged secretly if at all ; an atmosphere of apathy 
 and magisterial cynicism too often succeeds in killing 
 it. 
 
 Few teachers seem to cultivate desire for knowledge 
 when it needs cultivation, though of course there are 
 exceptions * ; schools may have many merits doubt- 
 
 1 Much has been said, and much needs to be said, about lack of 
 scientific training in the past, and about methods adopted for teaching 
 science, in the present. I feel strongly that no person can be con- 
 sidered educated who grows up without some unspecialised informa- 
 tion and clear outlook on the universe of matter, both animate and 
 inanimate, of which he is a part. I also consider that it is easy to 
 be too specific and technical in imparting this information to the ave- 
 rage unscientific boy with no special aptitude for the subject; and 
 that a course of unprofessional or humanistic science might with
 
 48 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 less they have but as a rule intellectual encourage- 
 ment is not one of them. If that is in any degree true 
 it would be difficult to frame a more serious indictment. 
 The lumbering crudeness of the average professional 
 schoolboy hides, and in normal life effectively conceals, 
 a multitude of virtues. His professionally guarded 
 attitude, undemonstrative, reserved, incapable of intel- 
 ligent expression, and yet with sensitive tentacles 
 shrinking at a touch from his fellows, is like the shell 
 of a crustacean, a protective covering which inevitably 
 hinders free development and which, in more favour- 
 able surroundings, ought not to be necessary. This 
 protective crust can hardly be the result of any reason- 
 able discipline, and in so far as it tends to cramp the 
 wholesome exercise of faculties it is noxious. Nor is its 
 cramping influence over the higher faculties limited to 
 the school period. It lasts into Sandhurst and other 
 establishments where men of good physique learn self- 
 government under strict but intermittent discipline, 
 and where warped high spirits are responsible for oc- 
 casional outbursts of rowdiness or even ill-treatment. 
 The tendency too often is to regard a new-comer as 
 easy prey. At Winchester, and doubtless in other 
 schools, an elder boy is, I believe, told off to help and 
 befriend a new-comer for a time, and in many ways 
 authority tries to stem the influence of meaningless tra- 
 dition; but at some schools a new boy seldom experi- 
 
 advantage be devised. But it is inappropriate to enter upon topics 
 like this in the present book. I wrote an article in the Fortnightly 
 Review for August, 1918, on the subject.
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 49 
 
 ences the smallest chivalry or kindly help in his initial 
 difficulties, and can easily be rendered miserable, while 
 in the worst cases the thoughtless power of the stronger 
 develops into an obscene brutality. 
 
 Not with such aid would one expect a Common- 
 wealth to be saved. And yet here are our defenders 
 and underneath the crust they are fine fellows all the 
 time. Hence all these troubles are unnecessary. They 
 thwart and spoil the incubation period. They dissi- 
 pate energy. Many are the evils which come to frui- 
 tion in times of peace, when the output of energy is 
 greater than the demand for its exertion. Only a call 
 is needed a summons to danger and responsibility 
 for true manhood to assert itself. Expression then 
 bursts its hard crust, human nature is once more free 
 as in childhood, the hero at the front is once more at 
 liberty, emancipated from the painful protective cas- 
 ing in which his personality was masked and even his 
 family affection partially obscured. 
 
 Christopher left behind an unusually complete self- 
 revelation, for among his papers was found a locked 
 manuscript book, the contents of which had never 
 been seen by anyone, not even by his mother, till after 
 his death. Here he collected, for private edification, 
 poems and passages which struck him as of permanent 
 value; and, in addition to these, the book contains as 
 its longest feature an autobiographical fragment writ- 
 ten during the period of military training with the 
 Welsh Guards at Tadworth Camp. This is repro- 
 duced in Chapter VI., and to my mind it serves to show
 
 50 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 how unsuited he and his type are to the rough-and- 
 tumble of an average public school as now consti- 
 tuted. But let it not be thought that the fault lay 
 in the boy, that he was a milksop or unable to play 
 the man. No such idea would have occurred to those 
 who knew him ; and fortunately I am able to cite clear 
 evidence to the contrary, in the letters from officers at 
 the front which are reproduced in a concluding chap- 
 ter of this book. In all the realities and exigencies of 
 strenuous life he made himself respected, he made 
 himself beloved: respected by his colleagues, beloved 
 by his men. The testimony from all ranks is strong, 
 spontaneous, and clear. 
 
 The autobiographical fragment breaks off per- 
 haps fortunately at the end of his experience of the 
 Preparatory School. What he felt afterwards in his 
 main school days can only be gathered between the 
 lines of his letters home, for apparently he had not 
 the heart to confess it even to his locked book. Those 
 who have been through it know: though there is a 
 glamour thrown over early days, when reviewed in 
 later life, which masks much of the tedium, the bitter 
 disappointment, the chilling frost of misunderstanding 
 and lack of sympathy. Some indication of the lower 
 activities of officers in training at Sandhurst are given 
 in the letters of that period which follow : correspond- 
 ing indications of the school period are harder to find. 
 The natural exhilaration of boyhood, the desire to save 
 his parents anxiety, the traditional feeling of loyalty, 
 the danger of any information reaching the ears of
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 51 
 
 authority, all combine to render a small boy at school 
 helpless and secretive and inexpressive to a remark- 
 able degree. But in Christopher's case, characterised 
 by an unusually close bond of intellectual and moral 
 sympathy between mother and son, a few facts were 
 revealed, which though regarded as private ought not 
 to be concealed if the representation of school life is 
 not to be altogether one-sided and therefore misleading. 
 The fact to be faced is that to him and to his type 
 school life is not really happy. It is only made toler- 
 able by a blunting of the nerves, a case-hardening of 
 the intelligence, a yielding up of individuality, and a 
 drifting with the crowd. Separation from home is 
 one inevitable burden, most felt perhaps at the pre- 
 paratory school, where pains and penalties of a more 
 active character hardly exist. Home-sickness is bad 
 enough, but in another sense the school-sickness of a 
 later period is much worse. Those who have been 
 through it will recognise some of their own reminis- 
 cences in the few more private letters which I think it 
 well to include in order to make the representation com- 
 plete. These sadder portions written by the boy at 
 the age of seventeen must be allowed not unduly but 
 sensibly to qualify the happier tenour of the main 
 batch of letters reproduced in the "Winchester" chap- 
 ter. 
 
 Loyalty to an institution of which they once formed 
 part and in which they made some friends, must be 
 made responsible for the would-be comforting assur- 
 ance of elders that school life is necessarily happy.
 
 52 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Happy in some respects it is, as all exuberant youth is 
 happy, but we need not blind ourselves to its deficien- 
 cies or fail to realise how much better and more stimu- 
 lating it could be made. The sort of happiness 
 achieved by the less civilised kind of boy the average 
 for whom up to the present the institutions would seem 
 to have been more particularly devised is dearly 
 bought. 
 
 To these average specimens the rest are more or less 
 sacrificed. They represent the type for which rules 
 and regulations are planned, they represent the type 
 to which accordingly it is less troublesome if every 
 other kind of boy is made to conform. 
 
 The stupidity of the conventional atmosphere of 
 schools in general is illustrated by the biographies of 
 many one might almost say of most great men, 
 at any rate of those who do not shine in the world 
 of books. Sometimes it is a great naturalist who tells 
 us that he "learnt next to nothing at school;" some- 
 times it is a traveller or engineer or man of science. 
 How often one reads something like this: "At school 
 his genius was not discovered, the masters considered 
 him rather stupid;" or, "He must have developed late, 
 for no suspicion of his future eminence appears to 
 have been entertained by either his teachers or school- 
 fellows." I quote the following sentence from a bio- 
 graphy of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest 
 mathematical physicists of all time, who died at the 
 early age of 48 too little known even then by the 
 stolid British public in general, though a household
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 53 
 
 word on the more educated Continent of Europe, and 
 more than a pioneer, a founder, of the highest de- 
 velopments in electro-optical and molecular science: 
 
 "At school, he did not at first take a very high place, and 
 his schoolfellows so much misunderstood the character of the 
 reserved, dreamy boy, that they gave him the nickname of 
 'Dafty.' " l 
 
 The very business of a school is to deal with many 
 varieties of young humanity, and its pride should be 
 to recognise and develop nascent ability in whatever 
 direction it begins to blossom; therefore a school sys- 
 tem which has only one standard of judgment, and 
 practically penalises by neglect or misunderstanding 
 all who do not conform to that standard, inevitably 
 writes itself down in terms akin to that in which the 
 indignant Dogberry longed to have himself recorded. 
 
 The contrast between a school or a Sandhurst at- 
 mosphere on the one hand, and the tone of the letters 
 received from Christopher when he emerged into the 
 comparative freedom and adult sanity of Tadworth 
 Camp and of the Trenches, is very marked. And yet 
 what a condemnation it is that such a nature could 
 feel less out of place and homeless even amid the 
 hardships and horrors of war than he felt while at 
 school! For these hardships were real, earnest, and 
 inevitable given the present state of humanity and 
 the blasphemy of a super-ambitious enslaving nation 
 which had to be curbed by force; but the other 
 troubles were gratuitous, unseemly, petty and un- 
 
 1 Schuster and Shipley, "Britain's Heritage of Science."
 
 54 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 worthy: they represented the forcible return of a civi- 
 lised being to savagery. And even that is unfair, for 
 savages at their best are only childishly human and 
 natural, and with them we may have and may show a 
 fellow feeling; but with the arbitrary conventions and 
 brutal traditions of an irresponsible assemblage of 
 privileged ignoramuses there can and ought to be no 
 alliance. Submission is necessary, for they have force 
 on their side, but it is always ignominious ; for it is not 
 genuine human nature that is encountered, but various 
 forms of what can only be stigmatised as vice. I 
 mean nothing technical by this word though of that, 
 too, something might be said but I mean any be- 
 haviour which runs counter to what is natural, any 
 conduct based on rules which are formal, constricted, 
 empty, and profane, including every kind of evil con- 
 duct which is not even justified or partially excused 
 by normal and natural temptation. 
 
 Even games can be spoiled by compulsoriness and 
 semi-professionalism. Playing cricket for his platoon 
 at a later stage was enjoyable, and was entered into 
 with zest ; it was a real relaxation and a friendly game, 
 accompanied by pleasure and pride in the comparative 
 prowess natural to a Public-School boy. But drudg- 
 ing at games amid the harshness of school discipline, 
 as if they were an end in themselves and alone worthy 
 of strenuous exertion, was no true relaxation, and 
 little better than another form of toil. 
 
 Unless schools are already perfect, improvement 
 must be possible, and when improvement is admitted
 
 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 55 
 
 it becomes only a question of degree. There are some 
 who feel that the scope open to improvement is both 
 wide and deep. And, in spite of admiration for many 
 excellent qualities, it seems to me that to a larger ex- 
 tent than is commonly admitted, they are right.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MILITARY PREPARATION 
 
 "We know not in what directions directions how definitely 
 p re-determined even physical organisms can vary from the 
 common type. We know not what amount of energy any given 
 plant or animal can absorb and incorporate from earth and air 
 and sun. Still less can we predict or limit the possible varia- 
 tions of the soul, the fulness which it may receive from the 
 World-Soul, its possible heritage of grace and truth. But in 
 genius we can watch at each stage the processes of this celes- 
 tial nurture. We can imagine the outlook of joyous trustful- 
 ness ; we can almost seem, with Wordsworth, to remember the 
 child's soul entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. Childhood 
 is genius without capacity ; it makes for most of us our best 
 memory of inspiration, and our truest outlook upon the real, 
 which is the ideal, world." 
 
 MYERS, "Human Personality," chap. iii. 
 
 WITH such parentage and surroundings the boy is 
 launched upon the world, type of many another prod- 
 uct of cultivated English homes. Slowly the boy de- 
 velops from the child, and manhood gradually dawns 
 upon the boy. What his career would have been in 
 times of peace, with his quiet tastes, his affectionate 
 disposition, his love of everything connected with 
 Wales and the Welsh people, his passionate devotion 
 to his home, and the opportunities which, in the course 
 of nature, he would have possessed of taking his right- 
 
 56
 
 MILITARY PREPARATION 57 
 
 ful place as heir to a property situated in an industrial 
 district where labour problems are especially acute, 
 and where already he was becoming well known and 
 popular of all this nothing can now be said. 
 
 Every scheme was shattered by the outbreak of 
 War and by the attainment of an age when military 
 service became possible. 
 
 Without enthusiasm, indeed with constitutional re- 
 pugnance to the illogical gruesomeness of war, in full 
 knowledge of the degradation which had fallen upon 
 so-called civilised warfare, he and his kind entered 
 upon the training necessary to fit them for military 
 service, and in his case to enable him to attain the 
 coveted honour of becoming an Officer in the Welsh 
 Guards. And it must be said that he succeeded bril- 
 liantly. 
 
 Considering the extremely short time which he had 
 at the actual Front, for within a month from going 
 abroad he met his death, the spontaneous testimony to 
 his disposition and capabilities, his admirable behav- 
 iour under stress, and his high powers as a soldier 
 such concurrent testimony both from officers and men 
 is amazing. 
 
 Courage and high bearing are innate qualities in a 
 British gentleman, truly, but it is good to know that, 
 having undertaken an irksome task, he threw himself 
 into it with vigour and characteristic thoroughness, 
 and succeeded in winning golden opinions from those 
 well qualified to judge. 
 
 The hardships of a winter campaign and of the long
 
 58 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 fatigue of the trenches he was spared, in this more 
 fortunate than many of his comrades. One after 
 another of those who went out with him have likewise 
 now succumbed, and the roll of glory inexorably grows. 
 
 Among so many heroic lads, why pick out one for 
 special mention"? I have a reason; and the reason in 
 the next chapter will be clear. 
 
 The belief in continuity of existence, in survival of 
 the spirit of man beyond bodily death, was as keen 
 and vivid and as free from doubt or hesitation in his 
 family as in any that I have known. The death of 
 his sister Daphne, in some indirect way, had contributed 
 to this in no small measure; and the result of this 
 strong belief, or, as it seemed, knowledge, was ex- 
 traordinarily wholesome. It led to an agreement be- 
 tween Mother and Son providing for all contingencies, 
 it bore fruit in an attitude of clear-eyed faith and un- 
 repining acquiescence in whatever happened, a thor- 
 oughness of acquiescence in the inevitable, which, 
 though it may not be unique, is practically without sim- 
 ilar example in my knowledge. 
 
 It is in the earnest hope that agreements of this 
 kind, based on faith of equal strength, will become 
 commoner agreements which shall mitigate the sever- 
 ity of the pain which so many must still undergo in 
 the near future, it is largely in the hope that the 
 discovery here made, of how to meet impending fate 
 and insure against the repercussion of bodily injury 
 on the mind and soul, may be helpful to others, that 
 this book is written.
 
 MILITARY PREPARATION 59 
 
 In a previous volume I dealt, as impersonally as 
 possible, with a family where posthumous comfort was 
 obtained, and undoubted communication received, 
 across the thin veil of separation; but many there are 
 who, perhaps wisely, decline to seek or are unable to 
 gain comfort in this way. "Many are the thyrsus- 
 bearers, few are the mystics." For these, and perhaps 
 for all, I am now permitted to show another and per- 
 haps more excellent way. 
 
 Both methods are sensible and right and well- 
 founded; but temperaments differ, opportunities do 
 not come equally to all. Yet all alike suffer in this 
 terrible eruption of mad violence; all of every class 
 must give of their heart's blood to stem the onset of 
 the beast; and it surely behoves us, to whom after 
 much study insight has been given, to supply such help, 
 such encouragement, such strengthening of the mental 
 and moral sinews, as shall enable others to meet the 
 worst in a spirit of calm endurance, nay rather, to 
 meet it in a triumphant spirit of steadfast faith and 
 hope and love.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE COMPACT 
 
 "If the belief in a life to come should ever regain as firm 
 possession of men's mind as of old, that belief will surely be 
 held in a nobler fashion. That life will be conceived, not as 
 a devotional exercise nor as a passive felicity, but as the pro- 
 longation of all generous energies, and the unison of all high 
 desires." 
 
 MYERS, "Modern Essays," viii., p. 310. 
 
 "Not, then, with tears and lamentations should we think of 
 the blessed dead. Rather we should rejoice with them in their 
 enfranchisement, and know that they are still minded to keep 
 us as sharers in their joy. It is they, not we, who are working 
 now ; they are more ready to hear than we to pray ; they guide 
 us as with a cloudy pillar, but it is kindling into steadfast fire. 
 
 "Nay, it may be that our response, our devotion, is a needful 
 element in their ascending joy; and God may have provided 
 some better thing for us, that they without us should not be 
 made perfect; ut non sine nobis consummarentur" 
 
 MYERS, "Human Personality," chap. x. 
 
 IT is naturally to be expected that a family connected 
 by marriage with F. W. H. Myers, even though they 
 had come but little into contact with that vehement 
 personality, should have heard of his dominating in- 
 terest, and absorbed some of his ideas concerning sur- 
 vival and the nature of a future life. Yet not till 
 after the challenging, and to the Mother devastating, 
 event of the death of Daphne did the subject force 
 
 60
 
 THE COMPACT 61 
 
 itself conspicuously on their conscious attention; and 
 when it did, the channels through which enlighten- 
 ment came were not the recognised commonplaces of 
 religion or the traditional beliefs of any sect, but were 
 derived from the inspiration of poets and men of let- 
 ters, and from some of the facts on which Myers him- 
 self had based his own philosophic conceptions: 
 though it is probable that the facts were but partially 
 known, and the conceptions perhaps imperfectly ap- 
 prehended. 
 
 The result, however, was a homely and practical 
 and, so to speak, secular outlook on the continuity of 
 existence, treating after-life not in an awe-stricken 
 scared manner, but with full recognition of duties to 
 be done, affection to be felt, and life to be lived ; treat- 
 ing it, in fact, very much as if the lost ones were only 
 separated by some not altogether impenetrable veil, or 
 as if they had emigrated to another land, a land full of 
 interest and beauty, though out of reach of the ordi- 
 nary opportunities for domestic intercourse. 
 
 Wherever such belief prevails, it is only natural 
 that every means of continuing the unbroken family 
 feeling should be employed. Relics, reminiscences, an- 
 niversaries, everything which reminded the family of 
 its dead member, would be kept in the forefront of 
 attention; and the silent influence, the still half- 
 realised presence of the loved one, would be felt as a 
 stimulus and an assistance in daily life. The first 
 shock of debilitating pain over, a healthy reaction 
 would begin ; and the determination would be made to
 
 62 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 live life worthily, and to serve strenuously, until the 
 time came for corporate re-union. 
 
 In this faith I doubt not the boy Christopher was 
 reared. And it is noteworthy that the paralysing 
 shock of Daphne's death, felt to an almost overpower- 
 ing extent by the mother, indirectly led her to take 
 precautions against any repetition of so shattering a 
 blow : so that nine years later, when the boy was ready 
 to go to the Front and enter the zone of danger from 
 which escape was obviously precarious, a solemn com- 
 pact was entered into between mother and son, the 
 effect of which proved to be strengthening and com- 
 forting and helpful on both sides to an extraordinary 
 degree. And its influence endured long after the first 
 excitement had subsided, and endures in unabated 
 strength to this day. 
 
 This compact it is a chief part of my duty to em- 
 phasise and to commend to others; for I have been 
 impressed with its unique value, and I had not heard 
 before of any similar compact so clearly made and so 
 thoroughly carried out. 
 
 Compacts made between relatives expecting to be 
 separated by death, that, if possible, they would en- 
 deavour to communicate and send some loving greet- 
 ing from the other side of the grave, or would otherwise 
 give some proof of their continued existence compacts 
 such as these are common. I say nothing against 
 them, they are natural enough, but they are most ap- 
 propriate when made between people torn with the 
 agony of doubt, eager to be convinced, seeking for a
 
 THE COMPACT 63 
 
 sign. There is no sense of security, no assured repose, 
 about a compact of that kind; it breathes of uncer- 
 tainty, almost of hopelessness, it is like the longing 
 for a miracle in order that faith may be strengthened; 
 it is entirely justifiable, but in most cases it is a sign 
 of feeble faith, at least on one side. 
 
 Not of such nature was the compact that I now 
 speak of. It was the outcome of clear and vigorous 
 certainty, based largely upon testimony no doubt, but 
 upon intuition too. The fact of survival was admitted ; 
 the possibility of some kind of communication was 
 assumed; the shock of separation was faced; but no 
 demand was made, on either side, for evidence of con- 
 tinued existence or surviving affection. 
 
 Everything of that kind was taken for granted. 
 Given that the departed remained himself, a sudden 
 extinction of love was inconceivable. No sign of sur- 
 vival was needed; the certainty of continued existence 
 was already assured. 
 
 Hence what was needed was not preoccupation with 
 things or people left behind, not groping after what 
 had ceased to be possible the old familiar handclasp, 
 the old loving embrace, the welcoming bodily presence 
 not these, but a clear perception that a new life was 
 being entered on, new surroundings to be understood, 
 old friends to be welcomed in a new guise, a multi- 
 tude of interesting and absorbing things confronting 
 the new comer. Among these he would be moving as 
 a novice, and it was hoped that he might move secure 
 and unperturbed, eager and interested, unperplexed
 
 64 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and unsurprised. To this initial stage it was desirable 
 that he should give himself wholly, not restrained or 
 hampered by anxiety for the grief, still less by the un- 
 nerving doubts, of those left behind. Their sorrow, 
 for the time, he might safely ignore, if only he could 
 be sure that they would sympathise with and under- 
 stand his attitude, would themselves be endeavouring 
 to take up the broken fragments of their own life, and 
 without repining, with no undue mourning, would un- 
 dertake or continue the tasks which lay before them, 
 and, like him, give to those tasks their undivided at- 
 tention. 
 
 The aim was that each might feel secure of the 
 other, secure that temporary absorption did not sig- 
 nify forgetfulness, secure that no misunderstanding 
 would arise or distrust be caused by absence of any 
 sense of communion for a time. 
 
 A sense of communion might well come hereafter, 
 after an interval perhaps not long; but meanwhile it 
 was determined that whatever opportunities for com- 
 munication might in due time follow, they need not 
 be hurried, that nothing need interfere with the happy 
 and peaceful readjustment of existence to the new 
 and for a time strange condition. Such was the com- 
 pact, and it was the clear outcome of mutual love and 
 faith. 
 
 Some people imagine that belief in survival of an 
 assured kind will lead people to neglect their mundane 
 duties and be always asking for messages and evidence ;
 
 THE COMPACT 65 
 
 but they are mistaken. Excessive demands of this kind 
 are a sign of weak faith. 
 
 For scientific purposes evidence is necessary, and 
 may be legitimately sought. People who cannot be- 
 lieve, and who grope after some hope of continued 
 existence, require tests and evidence too. All this is 
 right and human enough. In moderation it is helpful 
 and reasonable for all. But once let the fact of sur- 
 vival be fully and finally established, on scientific not 
 on superstitious grounds, once let the general manner 
 of it be understood, its nature and laws duly recog- 
 nised, and a far more peaceful attitude will be taken 
 towards death and towards the departed. 
 
 That memory survives will be known, that affection 
 is permanent will not be doubted. These will be 
 among the facts apprehended by humanity in general, 
 like the roundness of the earth. 
 
 And once this knowledge is universal and secure, 
 then, though occasional communion will still be de- 
 sired, as is only natural, only those who felt half doubt- 
 ful of real affection here will anxiously seek for evi- 
 dence that in each individual instance the love of the 
 departed was really strong enough to survive the shock 
 of death and to continue amid the manifold interests 
 of another state of being. 
 
 In order to show how different from this was the 
 attitude of Mother and Son here commended, I have 
 obtained permission to copy some extracts from private 
 letters and records which will in some measure speak 
 for themselves.
 
 66 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 They prove how immediately the compact took ef- 
 fect. Further testimony can be adduced that the effect 
 was not an evanescent excitement, to give way to sub- 
 sequent depression, but that it burned with a clear and 
 steady flame, and so continues to this day. 
 
 CONCERNING THE COMPACT 
 
 Copy of a letter written by Christopher's Mother to his 
 immediate relations on September loM, 1917, 
 four days after hearing of his having fallen in 
 action. 
 
 Cadoxton, September loth, 1917. 
 8:30 a.m. Monday. 
 
 I want you all to know just exactly what is about 
 what has happened. 
 
 On August 3rd, just one month before C ruff's * ris- 
 ing, he was here. We had our first long talk together 
 alone since both had known of his going abroad. We 
 sat holding each other's hands, and not without tears. 
 We knew what it was to both of us, and we wanted to 
 say certain things between us. 
 
 After speaking of the perfect companionship which 
 was always ours, but had flowered into such beauty as 
 the boy emerged towards manhood, we spoke of the 
 future, and we provided definitely and fully for each 
 of us what we should each do, aim at, and feel, under 
 certain eventualities. 
 
 These were that he should be wounded, or missing, 
 or taken prisoner, or killed in action. 
 
 1 The abbreviation "Cruff" was used only in writing.
 
 THE COMPACT 67 
 
 We have only to meet this last, and I want you all 
 to know what we arranged, and therefore what is. 
 
 We decided that sudden death must be a shock, and 
 that if Cruff found himself suddenly "over there" he 
 was to expect to be conscious of Daphne and Fred * 
 and if they were not there he was to inquire for them 
 at once. He was then to give his whole mind to the 
 business in hand i.e. to getting his bearings in the new 
 environment, and was to keep before his mind that I 
 was all right, that I knew he was all right and entirely 
 himself and unchanged, and that I was steadying him 
 and helping him telepathically. 
 
 And for me it was settled between us that I should 
 hold to what we both knew as truth that though the 
 old companionship of bodily life was broken the deeper 
 intimacy was already begun. My part was to know for 
 him what he would wish to say to me, and to feel all 
 the cheerful jolly nearness of him and me unchanged, 
 to refuse grief as a disturbing element and to make 
 Cadoxton a happy-hunting ground for him as we had 
 always agreed it was for The Darling. 
 
 We agreed that Fred's presence over there made 
 any strangeness impossible, and that we could never, 
 either Christopher or I, feel anything past between us. 
 You see neither he nor I ever thought of Death as more 
 than a doorway admitting to fuller and freer life. 
 
 When I went to the telephone on Thursday night 
 and took the message from the War Office, I was 
 alone for five minutes, and in that time I slipped my 
 hand firmly into his and began my part, as he, un- 
 known to me, had begun his part a few days earlier. 
 
 J F. W. H. Myers.
 
 68 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 I had been terribly anxious before. I knew he was 
 in the trenches; all that dropped away. One of the 
 eventualities we had provided for had come, and it was 
 so unutterably blessed to think we were together in a 
 mutual experience we had discussed and provided for. 
 
 If I had known he had to give his life in war which 
 was utterly foreign to his type of mind and character 
 I should have chosen for him myself just such a death, 
 and on his first going into action. It was a sudden 
 sleep and a sudden awakening nothing to forget. I 
 go through these days and the long, long nights, just 
 holding his hands as if he were coming out of an 
 anaesthetic, and as if my dear familiar face, just there, 
 without speech, was what he needed. We both of us 
 know the truth, and he is, I believe, deeply happy. He 
 always looked to me for love and strength, and I shall 
 not fail him now. 
 
 This is not to say that there isn't a side of me which 
 is bleeding but it is not the deeper side; and he and 
 I, we will accept that side too as inevitable, seeing 
 beneath it what is true to the depths of both of us. 
 
 I want everyone to know this and to help him and 
 me by confirming us in our resolutions. 
 
 DAPHNE'S MOTHER.* 
 
 To this main contemporary statement about the 
 compact, a few further extracts may be appended, all 
 taken from letters to other members of the family. The 
 first of them describes what the home circle did im- 
 mediately after they had heard the news: which they 
 
 1 This is a signature frequently used by Christopher's mother when 
 writing to intimate friends.
 
 THE COMPACT 69 
 
 received through a War Office telegram, transmitted 
 from Cardiff Post Office by telephone at 8.15 p.m. on 
 September 6th, 1917, three days after the event. 
 
 Extract from a letter written by Christopher's Mother 
 on September 7^, 1917, the day after she 
 heard of his death. 
 
 ... we went into the drawing-room and sat as if 
 listening trying to understand. My whole desire is 
 not to fail Gruff now : he always looked to me for love 
 and strength, the one thought in his mind if he was 
 not killed instantaneously must have been me and C. 
 C. T. During those days from the Sunday to last 
 night I didn't know, and was very anxious and de- 
 pressed ; now I know, and shall never be anxious about 
 him again, and what I am doing is to try and strengthen 
 and steady him in the new surroundings. It is a shock 
 being killed like that. He has ... [a friend] and 
 Fred towers of strength Daphne, Papa, and many 
 comrades, Atkins and others. If he was killed sud- 
 denly it may have been some little time before he 
 could be made to understand that he was what we call 
 "dead." That is what makes me sit here struggling 
 to let him find here in his home nothing but love and 
 understanding of what has happened to him. He is 
 to me as if just out of a severe operation my steady 
 hand in his is what he needs now, for he loved me 
 much ... I have no agonies of mind as to where his 
 dear young body lies it has served his purpose and he 
 has outgrown the need of it; my deepest self knows 
 only this that he is utterly safe for ever, utterly un-
 
 70 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 changed, undiminished, his own bright, happy self. 
 He will have the same capacity for making friends, 
 he will soon get his bearings there, and whether he 
 does it happily and easily, depends on what telepathic 
 impression he gets from us but especially from me. 
 He can't speak to us anyhow not yet we have got 
 to know in our minds, for him, what he is wanting to 
 say. 
 
 Extract from another letter, of date September 
 1917. 
 
 ... I feel all you do, and wrestle against it because 
 I am certain that if anything could unsettle him over 
 there it would be the feeling that I was failing him. 
 It is we who have to bear the burden, and he who reaps 
 complete unchanging well-being. 
 
 "Is any burden sore when one's beloved go free? 
 Come pain and woe to me my well-beloved goes free." 
 
 . . . Don't you find comfort in the thought that it 
 can't be very long before you see him again and then 
 without possibility of any more partings? Life was 
 always tearing him from me school, Sandhurst, the 
 war; when I see him face to face again all that will 
 have ceased once found I shall never be away from 
 him again. It can't be so very long for any of us. 
 (Set against the background of Eternity, how 
 short! /) . . . 
 
 The same feelings and the same absence of pros- 
 trating grief or unreasoning and uncontrolled emotion 
 have continued to this day a victory won by the 
 steadfast following of a high resolve.
 
 THE COMPACT 71 
 
 In the light of this assured conviction and unselfish 
 preparation and determined realisation of fact, how 
 impious and distrustful appears the attitude of those 
 who, dominated by mediaeval or ante-mediseval priest- 
 craft, seek anxiously to know the fate of their de- 
 parted, torment themselves with hopes and fears, ques- 
 tion whether they are "saved," try to pray them out 
 of purgatory or else to suppress all mention of them in 
 their prayers, and endeavour (often fruitlessly) to con- 
 vince themselves that eternal fate is settled at once 
 and for ever, beyond possibility of progress or recov- 
 ery, at the instant of death ! 
 
 Few people now go to this extreme length; though 
 the amount of torment that has been caused by such 
 beliefs in the past can hardly be exaggerated, and all 
 this gratuitous pain must be debited to the account of 
 those who promulgated and sustained so senseless a 
 creed. 
 
 But many there are still who have anxious doubts 
 and fears, who cannot accept the simple naturalness 
 of a passing over into the unseen i.e. into the super- 
 sensuous where our earth-derived sense-organs are help- 
 less who fail to realise that we remain just ourselves, 
 without sudden access of knowledge and without loss 
 of such human faculties as are serviceable amid the 
 new surroundings; surroundings after all, it may be, 
 not so very different, at first, from those of earth. 1 In 
 
 1 If a working hypothesis which commends itself to me may be 
 here obtruded, I should say that the change appears to be a libera- 
 tion from matter, accompanied by a retention of our etherial con- 
 nection; not so much the sudden acquisition of something, but the
 
 72 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 no strange land do we find ourselves, if we have been 
 reasonably prepared; and the shock of death will be 
 greatly mitigated, to the survivor as well as to the 
 departed, when more people are able to make a com- 
 pact akin to the one here set forth and heartily com- 
 mended. I know of no better form of compact; free 
 from superstition, void of anxiety, emancipated from 
 over-specific or sectarian belief; full only of faith in 
 cosmic wisdom and beneficence, anxious only that the 
 lost one shall be worthy of his promotion, shall make 
 full use of his advantages, and shall settle down as 
 quickly and easily as possible to the enjoyment of his 
 recovered friends and higher opportunities for pro- 
 gress. 
 
 For it is progress, not happiness, that should be most 
 earnestly desired. Happiness comes when not directly 
 sought after; it should be among the things that are 
 "added unto" those who, in any state of existence, 
 seek to do their duty. 
 
 And of the innumerable boys who have gone to the 
 front and entered the repulsive complication of modern 
 war, with no taste for it whatever but solely from a 
 sense of duty, how great must be the happiness that 
 necessarily follows so sublime a sacrifice! 
 
 No survivor should doubt for a moment the destiny 
 in store for such as these. Not all of equal standard, 
 truly; not all have had equal opportunities, every 
 
 retention of something which we already possess, though here and 
 now its possession is only known to us by inference from indistinct 
 phenomena by, as it were, larval indications.
 
 THE COMPACT 73 
 
 grade may be represented; social conditions have been 
 hard on some, personal weakness has enfeebled others, 
 but there is a place or condition suited to every grade, 
 and into the state suited to him, each automatically 
 and naturally enters; retaining his earth-grown char- 
 acter, for better for worse, but meeting a, host of kindly 
 helpers who will set him on his feet and turn his face 
 in the right direction the direction which on earth 
 the higher part of himself, had it not been for the 
 weakness of the flesh, would have desired to choose. 
 
 Distinct from the large group of people influenced 
 by theological prejudice and superstitious uncertain- 
 ties, there is another group who find it necessary to 
 contend against the painful ignorance of agnosticism; 
 which, unless stoical in its negative security, leads to 
 an agonising longing for a word or a sign, for some 
 indication of continued existence, some pledge that 
 everything has not ceased, that love and memory still 
 continue. This attitude, whatever view may be taken 
 of religious observances and theological doctrines, is 
 quite unnecessary in the light of scientific knowledge 
 to-day. Doubtless it is a pardonable but it is an essen- 
 tially feeble attitude. The strong position is to take 
 sufficient pains to assure oneself, by critical examina- 
 tion of scientific evidence, what the facts really are; 
 and then, when the crisis comes, to act upon that 
 knowledge in full and assured conviction that all is 
 well, and that wise and undemanding uncomplaining 
 acquiescence has the power to make things still better.
 
 74 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 The steadying, the strengthening, the almost exhil- 
 arating influence of this compact, in the present in- 
 stance, was conspicuous. It broke the blow most ef- 
 fectively, it enabled the "gain of loss" to be realised to 
 the full. 
 
 It was so, clearly, on this side; what of its effect on 
 the other? 
 
 I say nothing about that at present, the time is not 
 ripe; but those who know and are able to testify have 
 on this subject no uncertain voice. Let that statement 
 suffice for the present. 
 
 All that I permit myself to say further on what at 
 present is considered to be the supernormal aspect of 
 things, though it is really normal enough, is that it 
 can all be understood as in simple harmony with or- 
 thodox teaching concerning "a cloud of witnesses" and 
 the "communion of saints," and, further, that we in 
 the body can be the source of an accession of strength 
 to those in the Beyond; Non sine nobis consumma- 
 rentur. 
 
 Whether supported on the wings of faith, or led 
 along the more humdrum pathway of knowledge, 
 most of us surely know that the departed are not 
 wholly beyond our ken; and if so we should realise 
 that those on the other side are grateful for our help. 
 We may long for them to help us, but let us see to it 
 that we help them. Be assured that they feel our atti- 
 tude love makes them sensitive ; consciously or uncon- 
 sciously we have an effect upon them a strengthening 
 or a debilitating effect; and amid the shock of surprise,
 
 THE COMPACT 75 
 
 the suddenness of untimely death, let us not fail them 
 in all high endeavour to the utmost of our power. 
 
 In normal times the stress is far less severe. Old 
 people pass away in the course of nature, prepared by 
 experience and by feebleness of body for the transition. 
 In such cases there need be no shock at all, but a peace- 
 ful reawakening with comparatively easy understand- 
 ing of what has happened. 
 
 But amid the wholesale destruction caused by in- 
 human war, strong healthy vigorous lives are exploded 
 into apparent nonentity; and unless they had some 
 previous knowledge of what to expect, when they sud- 
 denly find themselves apart from their bodies and sepa- 
 rated from their old surroundings, the experience may 
 occasionally be an unnerving shock, an experience in- 
 credible and prostrating. 
 
 Hence the need for help and many willing and 
 active helpers on the other side undoubtedly there are. 
 But it is open to us to help too. The future is indeed 
 proverbially unknown to us, but insurance against its 
 liabilities is possible ; and so simple and easy an insur- 
 ance against the shock of transition as the one here sug- 
 gested, might be a widely prevalent precaution. All 
 that is needed is a timely anticipation of what may hap- 
 pen, a compact between living friends as to their mu- 
 tual attitude when to either the event occurs, and then 
 a determination faithfully to execute each his part of 
 the bargain. 
 
 The facts which establish persistence of existence 
 or survival may not be generally known, but they lie
 
 76 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 open to investigation and are plain to those who seek. 
 Some people seem to imagine, not only that there is no 
 positive evidence, but that orthodox science has some- 
 thing definite to say against what is popularly called 
 "immortality," as if there were some positive evi- 
 dence against the possible survival of memory, charac- 
 ter, and affection. There is nothing of the kind. There 
 is no doubt plenty of evidence that the brain ceases to 
 be available as an instrument, that the body as we 
 know it returns to the earth whence it came. And the 
 more this is emphasised in religious formularies, the 
 better; for much semi-scientific prejudice against sur- 
 vival can probably trace its origin to the strange and 
 repellent but venerable error that these material bodies 
 are of permanent importance and will at some future 
 time be resuscitated. Hence the phrase "resurrection 
 of the body" often excites derision, though it is 
 known to be capable of interpretation in a serious and 
 partially intelligible sense with a little ingenuity, as 
 "resurrection body,"<w/* Trveu/iartKoV, and in other similar 
 ways familiar to theologians, but unfamiliar and alien 
 to the biological and physical sciences. 
 
 It is manifest that many of these sciences are con- 
 cerned specially with the physiological organism, its 
 structure, function, specific energies, and nothing else ; 
 and to trouble specialists in those sciences with ideas 
 about what happens after the death and destruction of 
 this body is irrelevant and often irritating. Some of 
 them, however, occasionally stray beyond the bounda- 
 ries of their special field into the broader region of
 
 THE COMPACT 77 
 
 philosophy for a time, and there they are amenable to 
 argument. But argument on broader lines is wasted 
 on them while they remain purely physiological or bio- 
 logical workers in the narrow sense, while they are con- 
 cerned only with the nature and properties of the mate- 
 rial vehicle of life, and are not concerned with life 
 itself. 
 
 A fact well known to philosophers is that even 
 though, according to the views of leading physicists, 
 the whole fabric of the material universe may gradu- 
 ally fall to destruction and return to cold or chaos, 
 the immaterial entities of life and mind need share no 
 such dissolution. But it is a fact that can never be 
 verified in the dissecting room: its truth or otherwise 
 must necessarily be established by psychological in- 
 vestigation. That biological science has, or ought to 
 have, an open mind on subjects beyond its immediate 
 and specialised ken can be illustrated from many dis- 
 tinguished writers, but I will content myself with ap- 
 pealing to a clarum et venerabile nomen and citing the 
 cautious and tentative admission of Charles Darwin : 
 
 "With respect to immortality, nothing shows me so clearly 
 how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is as the consid- 
 eration of the view now held by most physicists, namely, that 
 the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for 
 life, unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun, and 
 thus gives it fresh life. 
 
 "Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a 
 far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable 
 thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to 
 complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. 
 To those who fully admit the immortality of the human soul, 
 the destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful."
 
 78 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 There is a conservation of matter and of energy, 
 there may be a conservation of life ; or if not of life, of 
 something which transcends life. I quote the assured 
 utterance of a pioneer in psychic realms : 
 
 "No terrene Matter or Energy, but Love itself, is the im- 
 perishable of that higher world ; so that earth's brief encounter 
 with some spirit, quickly dear, may be the precursory omen of 
 a far-off espousal, or the unconscious recognition of fond long- 
 severed souls." * 
 
 And I solemnly believe that by our investigations 
 into these at present dim regions we are preparing the 
 way for apprehension of a truth which shall be uni- 
 versally recognised in the future. 
 
 "The humblest scouts who strive loyally to push forward 
 the frontier of Science, even though Science at first disown 
 them, are sure in time to hear her marching legions possess 
 the unfrequented way." 
 
 1 F. W. H. Myers, "Science and a Future Life."
 
 THE COMPACT 79 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER IV 
 
 In further illustration of the working of the scheme 
 or compact now sufficiently explained, I am permitted 
 to conclude this chapter by citing a few more private 
 records, in order to show how the arrangement made a 
 month or two before death was begun directly the 
 event occurred, and how effectively and thoroughly 
 it was executed. 
 
 The following brief private notes some of them 
 rough jottings on odd scraps of paper were made 
 from time to time by Christopher's Mother, mostly 
 within a few days of the shock, the object being to 
 record for her own use thoughts which came to her 
 during "hours of insight," in the hope that they might 
 aid in keeping her calm and steadfast, and concentrated 
 in purpose, during any "hours of gloom" that might 
 supervene. 
 
 By permission these private and personal notes are 
 reproduced, solely in the hope that they may help 
 others in like sorrow. 
 
 It was a very happy ending to the earthly part of a very 
 happy life. 
 
 The impression I want to convey to him is this : that I know 
 about his bodily death and the happy circumstances of it 
 that I accept this event as part of our mutual experience 
 that I share the whole in perfect companionship, ready and 
 able to face and carry out my part of it, and knowing that 
 for him it means more life and fuller.
 
 80 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 He has won the Dark Tower, he has awakened from an ill 
 dream and "across all this waste and desolate battlefield" he 
 has attained to the haven where he would be. 1 
 
 The one thing that could spoil it all for him is to see pain 
 in my thoughts. He must see love and familiar greeting to 
 his unchanged self, and nothing else: and his home must be 
 full of happy thoughts about him. 
 
 "It is all right with me and all right with you; don't be 
 troubled about me and I am not troubled about you none of 
 the conventional ideas about life and death meant anything to 
 you and me, so we haven't got to get over anything; we can 
 both of us know at once that we are each unchanged and as 
 close as ever" 
 
 The fact that this experience deepens in me every conviction 
 I ever had about life and death, that my belief in "Love is 
 all and Death is nought" absolutely stands the test of this 
 shock and rending of my outer life, is recognised by me. 
 
 Let me remember the words of ... (a friend) written on 
 the day her husband died: "Our long companionship here is 
 broken and the deeper intimacy begun." 
 
 "In no strange land." 
 
 "God created man to be immortal and made him to be an 
 image of His own eternity." 
 
 He had no fear of the act of death whatever and not one 
 shadow of doubt but that it was a physical event admitting 
 his real self unchanged "just him" into a more complete 
 stage of life. He promised me not to think of me as over- 
 come but of me as that I should be knowing the main lines 
 of his then situation, so that one factor of anxiety or worry 
 should be entirely eliminated for him. We made sure that 
 
 'This refers to a passage in one of Christopher's last letters home, 
 written before going into the Trenches (see page 255) : 
 
 "Well, the path lies before me. I feel like Childe Roland, 
 and when I have won the Dark Tower across all this waste 
 and desolate battlefield I shall return, please God, to 'the 
 haven where I would be.' And I hope this time will soon come 
 when we shall meet again and rejoice together."
 
 81 
 
 whatever came we were already prepared for it, having mapped 
 out what each was to do, and certain that each would proceed 
 along the predetermined way. 
 
 I would not exchange the happiness of being his mother 
 and having his companionship the companionship of his dear 
 mind for anything this world has to offer. What I have is 
 the thing to think of. "All that is at all, lasts ever." 
 
 A SONNET 1 
 
 February iftk, 1918. 
 
 To all who wait, blindfolded by the flesh, 
 Upon the stammered promise that we give, 
 Tangling ourselves in the material mesh 
 A moment, while we tell you that we live, 
 Greeting, and reassurance; never doubt 
 That the slow tidings of our joyful state, 
 So hardly given, so haltingly made out, 
 Are but the creaking hinges of the gate. . . . 
 Beyond, the garden lies; and as we turn, 
 Wond'ring how much you hear, how much you guess, 
 Once more the roses of glad service burn 
 With hues of loving thought and thankfulness ; 
 
 Once more we move among them, strong and free, 
 
 Marvelling yet in our felicity. 
 
 x This sonnet, obtained by "influenced" writing and attributed 
 to the inspiration of F. W. H. M., is among certain material, not 
 yet complete, which is coming through to the influenced writer and 
 to others in the form of an account of the after-life. Assent has 
 been given to the preliminary appearance of the sonnet in this place. 
 It was not received by any relative of Christopher or Raymond, and 
 has no specific connection with either.
 
 PART II 
 
 MEMOIR 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE LETTERS
 
 To that Immortal Company, 
 
 The Second Lieutenants aged 19 
 
 who fell in the Great War. 
 
 1914. . . . 
 
 . . . Where our desires are and our hopes profound, 
 Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, 
 To the innermost heart of their own land they are known 
 As the stars are known to the night; 
 
 As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust 
 Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, 
 As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 
 To the end, to the end, they remain. 
 
 LAURENCE BINYON, "For the Fallen."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 BY HIS MOTHER 
 
 "Sunshine was he 
 In the winter day; 
 And in the midsummer 
 Coolness and shade." 
 FROM AN ARAB POEM, quoted by Emerson 
 in "Man the Reformer." 
 
 CHRISTOPHER TENNANT was born at Cadoxton Lodge 
 in the Vale of Neath, on the loth of October, 1897, 
 the eldest child of his parents. 
 
 The story of his nineteen years of bodily life can 
 be told in outline in a few words. 
 
 He went to a preparatory school (Mr. Helbert, 
 West Downs, Winchester) in May, 1907, and re- 
 mained there for four years. In 1911 he went on to 
 Winchester (Kingsgate House, Mr. Beloe, and later 
 Mr. Archibald Wilson), and was there until July, 
 1916, being then in Senior Division Sixth Book, and a 
 School and House Prefect. He passed into Sandhurst 
 as a Prize Cadet, and passing out in April, 1917, was 
 gazetted to the Welsh Guards. He joined his Regi- 
 ment early in May, and crossed to France with a draft 
 
 85
 
 86 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 on August 9th. At dawn on the morning of September 
 3rd he fell in action in the trenches near Langemarck, 
 at the age of 19 years and 10 months. 
 
 His childhood was chiefly spent in the old Welsh 
 home to which he was so passionately devoted. Cadox- 
 ton Lodge is an ancient rambling white-washed manor- 
 house lying near the mouth of the Vale of Neath, a val- 
 ley famous for its beauty, its woods, its waterfalls, its 
 guardian ranges of hills. The house itself is surrounded 
 by one of those old-world gardens where old-fashioned 
 flowers lift year by year familiar faces in the same spot. 
 The large walled kitchen garden is not so much an 
 adjunct to as an integral part of the flower garden, 
 from the fact that a terrace walk some two hundred 
 yards long stretches past the house and on through the 
 kitchen garden to a bright patch of flowers and an ivy- 
 canopied seat. The house faces south, wreathed in vine 
 and climbing rose. On this front grows what is said 
 to be the largest magnolia tree in Wales, the girth of 
 the bole being over 55 inches. From August onwards it 
 bears a wealth of large white blossoms, flowers whose 
 heavy scent pervades both house and garden. The an- 
 cient lead waterpipes and cisterns date probably from 
 the seventeenth century. The cisterns are decorated 
 with the figure of Time holding a scythe, and the pipes 
 with floral designs intermingled with leopards' heads 
 and the face of a man blowing a drapery from his half- 
 open mouth. 
 
 Beyond the garden and meadow the Vale spreads out 
 across to the beautiful rounded hills which close it in
 
 CADOXTON LODGE
 
 MEMOIR 87 
 
 on the south, Neath lying a mile to the west, the tall 
 spire of St. David's church and the stacks of the nu- 
 merous works piercing the sky. 
 
 The north front of the house, with its pillared por- 
 tico and ancient waterpipes, is clear of creepers, and 
 looks out over rising ground, part pasture, part wood- 
 land, which stretches up to a tract of land called by 
 Christopher "the Charlotte Bronte country," from its 
 likeness to the scenery round Haworth described by 
 Mrs. Gaskell a tableland of bog and short mountain 
 grass cut by grey stone walls, gay at certain times of 
 the year with the purple of heather, the yellow of flow- 
 ering gorse, the blue of a small scabious, and the crim- 
 son patches of bog plants. There is a gate in the fur- 
 thest of the stone walls that admits into a land of un- 
 chartered freedom magic ground for a young boy. 
 The great sides of Mynydd March Hywel sweep up, 
 dun and grey, to a height of nearly 1,400 feet: a few 
 sheep and shrill-crying curlews are all the company to 
 be met with here. 
 
 The woods of the lower ground, the "Charlotte 
 Bronte country," and the wilder mountain-side beyond, 
 were the favourite haunts of Christopher from the time 
 when his small sturdy legs could climb the hills down 
 to the last days. They exercised a profound influence 
 on his character and tastes. There are view-points 
 from which one looks down on to the Vale of Neath 
 stretched out below for almost its entire length, and on 
 the still wilder Dulais valley hemmed in by the Brecon- 
 shire hills, snow-capped on winter days. Standing with
 
 88 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 his Mother once on such a point, when he was about 
 thirteen years old, she suggested that they should give 
 the place a name, as they came there so often. "It is 
 too beautiful to have a name," he answered "let us 
 call it The Nameless Spot, like the tomb of Moses" 
 and as The Nameless Spot it was ever after known in 
 the family circle. 
 
 As a child Christopher was passionate, sensitive, and 
 absolutely fearless. He was the despair of some gov- 
 ernesses and the joy of others. The Autobiographical 
 Fragment (Chapter VI) renders it unnecessary to dwell 
 upon this stage of his development. 
 
 When he was 9 years old there occurred an event 
 which was to influence deeply his inner life the birth 
 of his only sister in January 1907. Among the circle 
 of cousins and friends it so happened that there were 
 no children younger than he it was his first experience 
 of watching 5 tiny life unfold, and it was one which 
 left its mark on him for life. Daphne, known by the 
 name of "The Darling" amongst her kindred, was a 
 beautiful and happy babe, and her nursery became 
 Christopher's favourite haunt. It seemed to the boy 
 as if some miraculous treasure had been let down from 
 Heaven into his 'world ; and if the effect of her com- 
 ing had been great, the effect of her going of the sud- 
 den stilling of all that beauty and budding intelli- 
 gence-r-was even greater. She died when Christopher 
 was nearly 1 1 years old, and carried with her some- 
 thing of the boy's very self, which became, as it were, 
 rooted in a divine security, in some world larger and
 
 MEMOIR 89 
 
 freer than that of sense. Her influence spurred him to 
 live at his best, to be in the root of him honest and true 
 and good. The sense of her unseen presence gilded the 
 grey hours of loneliness which school life was soon to 
 bring, and forged an ever closer link between Mother 
 and Son. 
 
 The writer does not think that after the first shock 
 this experience saddened his life, but it certainly en- 
 riched it, and gave him an outlook on life and death 
 which the first touch of early manhood found unshaken 
 and powerful to guide and to control. 
 
 The happiness of those nursery days returned to 
 him in a great measure through the birth of two 
 small brothers, Alexander, born 1909, and Henry, 
 known to his intimates as "The Wise One," born 1913. 
 The difference in age between him and these two small 
 folk made his relationship to them almost a fatherly 
 one. What he meant to them and what they meant to 
 him is not dwelt on here. 
 
 Another influence not indeed separate from that of 
 the little sister's, rather springing from and bound up 
 with the thought of her came to him about this time. 
 
 Frederic Myers, the poet and psychologist, whose 
 name is for ever identified with Psychical Research, 
 was his uncle by marriage. He died when Christopher 
 was 3*/2 years old, and it is certain that the child had 
 no recollection of him. But he became a living reality 
 in the boy's life. To hear him speak of "Fred" was 
 to realise at once that a kinship of spirit, some inex- 
 plicable affinity of soul, existed between them. Their
 
 90 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 tastes were not dissimilar. Frederic Myers' love of 
 the Classics found a reflection, as time passed, in Chris- 
 topher's mind. Both shared to the full the love of 
 Nature in its wilder aspects, and of poetry ; both were 
 haunted by visions of 
 
 "Something far more deeply interfused, 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: 
 A motion and a spirit, that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
 And rolls through all things . . ." 
 
 both had a vivid interest in the question of what death 
 means to human personality. 
 
 As Christopher grew up he became well read in 
 Frederic Myers' works, both prose and poetry. 
 From the age of 15 onwards he bought and studied 
 many books on telepathy, clairvoyance, and dreams. It 
 was perhaps because he himself was such an absolutely 
 healthy-minded, cheerful, efficient creature that he 
 could do this without anyone thinking it strange. The 
 publications of the Society for Psychical Research (of 
 which he was never a member) were eagerly devoured 
 when they came his way. From 1912 onwards his 
 close friendship with the family of Mr. Gerald Bal- 
 four (President of the S. P. R. 1906-1907) brought 
 him into contact with men and women who had made 
 a study of that branch of science with which the Society 
 concerns itself. He became a diligent reader of Sir 
 Oliver Lodge's books. He discussed with his Mother,
 
 MEMOIR 91 
 
 sometimes far into the night, the problems raised by 
 these matters and their bearing on life in general; but 
 it was always the thought of the little sister that lay at 
 the back of his mind. Before his death he had attained 
 a complete conviction that life and love and memory 
 survive the grave, and before he sailed for France he 
 spoke of the possibility of his falling in battle, and ar- 
 ranged with his Mother exactly what her actions, and 
 his, would be after his death, if this occurred. 
 
 Christopher was always a great reader. From the 
 time he was ten years old onwards he read omnivor- 
 ously. Reading aloud was a part of the daily round 
 of the life of his family, and by this means he laid 
 hold of a large portion of that great inheritance of 
 English Literature which our children may possess for 
 the asking. Even in those early days Blake, Tennyson, 
 Browning, Wordsworth were becoming old friends, and 
 from the age of fifteen onwards he read much poetry 
 under whatever circumstances he found himself. 
 
 His love of music was also marked. He never missed 
 the chance of hearing classical music, and would often 
 quote the saying, "He who has heard the Fifth Sym- 
 phony has known the mind of Beethoven." London, 
 and to some extent Winchester, afforded him the op- 
 portunities he prized, but it was a humble instrument 
 no more than a pianola that gave him the larger 
 part of his first-hand knowledge of the works of his 
 two special divinities, Beethoven and Wagner. The 
 long sunlit summer afternoons and the long winter 
 evenings which he spent at the pianola in the Music
 
 92 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Room at Cadoxton a large white-walled room with 
 high vaulted roof, perfect for sound were among the 
 happiest of his life. He played the pianola with great 
 skill, and got an immense amount out of this Cinderella 
 of musical instruments. To hear it played by another 
 was to realise this at once. 
 
 No picture of the boy would be complete which 
 omitted to mention his invincible gaiety of spirits, his 
 keen sense of fun (degenerating in earlier da^s into a 
 habit of practical joking, which was sternly repressed 
 by outraged "grown-ups"), his love of amusement and 
 good company, his powers of mimicry (the latter much 
 appreciated by the annual "private theatricals" party, 
 in which he always took a leading role, usually dying 
 with shocking realism under the blow of a home-made 
 cardboard dagger), his love of the theatre, his delight 
 in impromptu entertainments, and his affection for the 
 ices of Gunter, the consuming of which in the Berkeley 
 Square rooms took on by degrees an almost ritual sig- 
 nificance for him and his mother. Up to the last 
 Christmas the fiction of the visit of Father Christmas 
 to fill expectant stockings was maintained between 
 them. The small socks gave place to hand-knit stock- 
 ings, and these again to capacious shooting stockings, 
 the filling of which in the dead of night became an in- 
 creasingly difficult problem. 
 
 At the age of 9 a great upheaval came into the boy's 
 life. The inexorable law of custom as it exists in his 
 caste drew him from the sunny valley of home up into 
 the bleak pass of school life. It was inevitable that he
 
 MEMOIR 93 
 
 should feel the change acutely, and equally inevitable 
 that, given his temperament and tastes, school life 
 should have remained to him throughout as something 
 alien to his spirit. 
 
 The fragment of autobiography which he has left 
 gives something of this sense of a being "moving about 
 in worlds not realised." The sense of the irksomeness 
 of many of the features of school life gave place, to 
 some extent, to one of real enjoyment when at Win- 
 chester he reached a place in the school which brought 
 him into close relation with such men as Mr. Frank 
 Carter and the Head Master, Mr. Montague Kendall. 
 To say that he delighted in them would be no exag- 
 geration. He loved, too, the beauty of the old build- 
 ings, of the great Cathedral which by some strange 
 freak of the Powers that Be was "out of bounds" when 
 he first entered the school of the views from Hills * ; 
 and he became linked in ties of close friendship with 
 some of the men in his house, more especially after he 
 had become a prefect. 
 
 But it is true to say that having "gone through the 
 mill" himself, he maintained a critical attitude towards 
 the Public School system as he had known it. Those 
 who wish to follow this point further are advised to 
 read that powerful novel written by a schoolboy, "The 
 Loom of Youth," by Alec Waugh. The writer received 
 a few painful letters dealing with this side of school 
 
 1 St. Catherine's Hill, about three-quarters of a mile from the Col- 
 lege, a place associated with ancient school customs, of which names- 
 calling twice a year still survives.
 
 94 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 life, written from 1913 onwards, but looking back she 
 cannot regret that her son was a rebel (not for noth- 
 ing was he ninth in direct descent from Oliver Crom- 
 well) against the established order of things as it exists 
 in Public Schools. It gave him a sturdiness of charac- 
 ter and an independence of outlook which prevented 
 him from drifting, and the experience was no doubt 
 wholesome. 
 
 ". . . welcome each rebuff 
 That turns Earth's smoothness rough, 
 Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!" 
 
 His visions of a life at Trinity College, Cambridge, of 
 which he became a member, but which he never actually 
 entered, melted away before the actualities of the Great 
 War. Having realised that he had "got to be a sol- 
 dier," as he expressed it, it was characteristic of him 
 that he should wish to learn his job thoroughly. Mili- 
 tary life seemed to offer him nothing congenial; he 
 certainly was not inspired by any hatred of the German 
 people, and the whole business of war appeared to him 
 to be as wearisome as it was horrible. But the call, 
 once given, was nobly responded to. His classical work 
 was set aside without a murmur, "working for marks" 
 a form of occupation he always despised was car- 
 ried on up to the eve of the Sandhurst entrance exam- 
 ination, and once he entered the R.M.C. he laid his up- 
 hill shoulder to the wheel and put his whole energy 
 into the round of work there, remote as it was from 
 all that had hitherto occupied his mind.
 
 MEMOIR 95 
 
 Much in the atmosphere of Sandhurst was uncon- 
 genial. The vast number of youths of different edu- 
 cation and different traditions gathered together there 
 meant inevitable friction. The lack of any human re- 
 lation between the officials and the individual cadets, 
 the monotony of the life, the strenuous physical exer- 
 tion, often beyond what is wise for boys of 18, the 
 occasional outbursts of rowdiness all these things were 
 displeasing. But there was gold amid the grey. He 
 thoroughly enjoyed the society of some kindred spirits 
 in his Company (K Company, stationed in the Old 
 Buildings), and in particular he rejoiced in the friend- 
 ship of Peter Harris *, whom he had known in early 
 childhood. 
 
 In April, 1917, Christopher passed out of Sandhurst, 
 twelfth on the list, and on April 3Oth he was gazetted 
 to the Welsh Guards. 
 
 To understand what this meant to him it is necessary 
 to say a few words about his passionate pride in the 
 land of his birth and in the Welsh people. Though 
 sprung from a stock predominantly English, he had a 
 strain of pure Welsh blood in him on his mother's side. 
 He counted himself wholly a Welshman, and national- 
 ity for him meant Welsh nationality. He loved the 
 Welsh people with an understanding love which is de- 
 nied to the Saxon. He understood their faults, he per- 
 ceived their spiritual and intellectual qualities, he re- 
 sponded to their quick-hearted likes and dislikes. His 
 relations with the dwellers on the property of his fam- 
 
 1 2nd-Lieut. P. E. C. Harris, 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards.
 
 96 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 ily were particularly happy. A strong democrat, he 
 never posed as "the young squire" indeed, one of the 
 characteristics which won for him so wide a circle of 
 friends in such different walks of life was his habit 
 of utterly ignoring barriers of class, education, and 
 even of sex, and of valuing individuals for what they 
 were in themselves as human beings. In his dealing 
 with others even casual acquaintances, old people, 
 humble folk, children, servants the human note was 
 always struck. Each was made to feel that he or she 
 counted for him as an end in himself or herself, and 
 not as a means to any other end. The fact that his 
 mother was engaged in public work of various kinds, 
 work in which he always helped when at home, brought 
 a great variety of people into his home. He was thrown 
 into contact with many men whom he might otherwise 
 have missed, Labour men, Welsh-speaking Free Church- 
 men, Trades Unionists, politicians of all the three great 
 parties in the State. This contact enlarged his sympa- 
 thies and provided him with a training that would have 
 been of value to his country that great South Wales 
 coalfield which is the cock-pit of democracy had he 
 been spared to devote himself to a life spent in her 
 service. 
 
 In politics he was keenly interested, and political 
 discussions were part of the atmosphere in which he 
 was reared, partly due to the fact that while his Father 
 leaned towards a Toryism of the old school, his Mother 
 was what a friend described, more in sorrow than in 
 wrath, as "a fanatical Liberal."
 
 MEMOIR 97 
 
 Thus it was that his joining the Welsh Guards filled 
 him with profound satisfaction. Here were his own 
 people, and he felt that he belonged to them, that their 
 God was his God also. The sound of the first bars of 
 their National Air, "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" ("Dear 
 Land of my Fathers"), always brought him leaping to 
 his feet, the sight of the Red Dragon on the Welsh 
 Flag meant more to him than all the Union Jacks that 
 were ever woven, the National Eisteddfod stood to him 
 as a great religious Festival. Of all the sons of Wales 
 who have laid their gift upon the altar, none has loved 
 her more deeply and more passionately than he. 
 
 He joined the Welsh Guards in May. The regiment 
 was then stationed at Tadworth, and from the first day 
 down to the very last his life with his regiment was one 
 of unmixed happiness. 
 
 The writer is not sufficiently familiar with the atmos- 
 phere of military life to know whether all the friendli- 
 ness, good-comradeship, and affection which was show- 
 ered upon her son was such as falls to the lot of every 
 subaltern. She only knows that his delight in his 
 brother officers, his pride in his men, his satisfaction in 
 finding that he "knew his job," his sense of having come 
 into a united family who loved him and whom he loved 
 all this made those last months of his bodily life a 
 time of complete happiness. It was enough to look at 
 him to know that this was so. 
 
 He had inherited the brown hair and the large gentle 
 brown eyes of his Welsh great-grandmother; his six- 
 feet-three-inches of straight young manhood seemed to
 
 98 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 radiate joy. He was very good to look upon in 'his 
 various uniforms, and this too pleased him, as a new 
 toy may please a merry child. 
 
 And it was not only life at Tadworth that he found 
 sweet. London was easy of access, and London, when 
 one is young, heart-whole, and well provided with 
 funds, is a place of great possibilities. Dinner parties 
 at the Berkeley followed by a play, and sometimes, re- 
 gardless of food economy, by supper at the Savoy or the 
 Carlton, were of frequent occurrence. The Guards' 
 Club gave him the rendezvous he needed, and his 
 grandmother's house * under the shadow of the Houses 
 
 1 His grandmother, Gertrude Barbara Rich Tennant, only survived 
 him by a few months, dying in April, 1918, in the ninety-ninth year 
 of her age. She was the eldest daughter of Vice-Admiral Henry 
 T. B. Collier, and through her mother, Harriet Nicholas of Aston 
 Keynes, traced her descent direct from Oliver Cromwell. Born in 
 1819, the first twenty-four years of her life were spent almost en- 
 tirely in France, where as a girl she became intimately acquainted 
 with all that was distinguished in the literary, artistic and social 
 world of Paris. Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse Daudet, Gambetta, Re- 
 nan, and many others of note were numbered among her friends, 
 and to the last she retained a warm admiration for French ways 
 of life and thought, the experiences of her early days having, indeed, 
 stamped her whole personality with something of the charm and dis- 
 tinction of the great ladies of the ancien regime. Her remarkable 
 beauty and quick intelligence won for her a ready welcome in Lon- 
 don when at the age of 24 she returned to England. Not long after- 
 wards she married Charles Tennant, of Cadoxton Lodge, for many 
 years Member for St. Albans, a man of outstanding ability and 
 strength of character, with strong democratic sympathies and a for- 
 ward-looking mind. Of the children of this marriage, Dorothy 
 married H. M. Stanley, the explorer, Eveleen became the wife of 
 Frederic Myers the poet and psychologist, and the only son, Charles 
 Coombe Tennant, is the father of the subject of this Memoir by his 
 marriage with Winifred, daughter of Lieut. George Pearce-Serocold, 
 R.N. (See p. 137.) 
 
 Mrs. Tennant's salon at her house in Whitehall was for long 
 the meeting place of a wide circle of interesting people, including
 
 MEMOIR 99 
 
 of Parliament was always open to him. Certain of the 
 special courses of instruction which he went through 
 necessitated residence in London, and then his Father 
 or his Mother usually joined him, and all the amuse- 
 ments became doubly delightful. 
 
 In July his only London dance, one given by a 
 brother officer to whom he was especially attached, 
 caught him just before he was sent abroad. There 
 he danced most of the evening with a lovely and un- 
 known damsel to whom he had never been introduced, 
 and whose name he never discovered. His attitude to- 
 wards women was always perfect perhaps the result 
 of his having been reared in a home where belief in the 
 equality of the sexes, and the equality of opportunity 
 which forms its natural corollary, had always been an 
 article of faith. 
 
 The letters written during the brief time he was on 
 
 such great Victorians as John Bright, Gladstone, Ruskin, Tennyson, 
 Huxley, Herbert Spencer, George Eliot, Watts, Burne-Jones, and 
 many others. Though already 78 years of age at the time of Chris- 
 topher's birth, the relation between them was not so much one of youth 
 and age as of mutual affection and admiration. She was essentially 
 one of those people who do not date. Up to the time of his death 
 she retained her memory and all her faculties unimpaired, and took 
 a keen interest in the doings of the world at large. Age had done 
 little to rob her of the beauty of feature and colouring for which 
 she had been famous; she seemed gifted with perennial youth. She 
 remained a vivid and arresting human being, full of individual 
 traits, and joining, as it were, in her own person two different epochs 
 of European history for she had danced as a child in Paris at the 
 Court of Charles X. (1824-1830), and she lived to see the three 
 great battles of Ypres in the present war (1914-1917). Pre-eminently 
 gifted by nature herself, she was quick to recognise and appreciate 
 ability in others, and her interest and pride in Christopher, to whom 
 she looked to carry on a high tradition of family history, was a 
 marked feature of her later years.
 
 100 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 active service in France and Flanders which are in- 
 cluded in the present volume, speak for themselves. He 
 enjoyed "the great adventure," and before he had seen 
 anything of the darker side of war he was lifted as by 
 an invisible hand into that world which held for him 
 the welcoming eyes of his sister, the little sister be- 
 neath whose name in his locked MS. book he had 
 written : 
 
 "Experta vitae consitum spinis iter, 
 Clausit tenellum lumen, et vidit Deum." * 
 
 It was but a little way and into a familiar country 
 that he passed. 
 
 [Here ends his mother's Memoir.} 
 
 1 Mr. Ernest Myers kindly supplies the following translation: 
 
 "Life's thorny way she for a moment trod, 
 Closed her sweet infant eyes, and looked on God." 
 
 "Tenellum" he adds, "is a diminutive of tenerum (tender), an& 
 perhaps needs the two words I have used to express it. I never saw 
 these touching lines before and would much like to know where they 
 are to be found. Probably they are a Christian epitaph."
 
 MEMOIR 101 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER V 
 
 American readers may be interested to know that 
 the subject of this book had a strain of American blood 
 in him and was descended from a lady who held a prom- 
 inent place in the social life of South Carolina in 
 the early part of the XVIII Century. His Great-great- 
 great Grandmother was Miss Sarah Rhett of Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina (born 1725; died 1808), who, in 
 1743, at the age of eighteen, married Admiral Sir 
 Thomas Frankland, 5th Bart., of Thirkleby, York- 
 shire, at Charleston. She was the daughter of John 
 Rhett (son of Col. William Rhett, Lt. Governor of 
 South Carolina and Vice Admiral of the Navy) by 
 Mary Trott his wife. Both her parents dying in 1728, 
 within a few days of each other, of fever, when Sarah 
 was but three years old, she was brought up by her 
 Maternal Grandfather, Chief Justice Nicholas Trott, 
 at his home The Point, near Charleston. Nicholas 
 Trott had settled in that town in 1690, and he exer- 
 cised a dominating influence in the Colony. As judge, 
 it fell to his lot to try the notorious Captain Kidd and 
 his associates, who were arrested in Boston, Mass., in 
 July, 1699. Kidd had been sent out as a Privateer in 
 1690, but was eventually arrested as a pirate, by Col. 
 William Rhett, and sent to England, where he was 
 hanged in 1704. Sarah Rhetr's paternal Grandfather, 
 Col. William Rhett (born 1666, died 1722), also oc-
 
 102 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 cupied an important position in South Carolina. He 
 was a Lieut.-General of Militia, Commissioner of Cus- 
 toms for Carolina, and Surveyor General. He was 
 also Vice-Admiral of the Navy, and distinguished him- 
 self in various Naval engagements against the Spanish 
 and French. The Rhett family Vault is in St. Philip's 
 Churchyard, Charleston, South Carolina, and is em- 
 bellished with the Rhett coat of arms "Or, a cross 
 engrailed, sable." 
 
 Sarah Rhett left America in 1744, after her mar- 
 riage, and resided in England until her death in 1808, 
 at the age of eighty-two. A portrait of this lady, 
 painted when she was about twenty-three years of age, 
 is now in the possession of the Tennant family, whose 
 descent from her is shown in the accompanying table.
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 103 
 
 Admiral Sir Thomas Frank-: 
 land, 5th Bart. M.P., b. 
 1718; m. 1743; d. 1784. 
 He descended from Frances, 
 4th daughter of Oliver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 Charlotte, 7th daughter, 
 1760; m. 1778; d. 1800. 
 
 Harriet, 4th daughter, 
 1793; m. 1816; d. 1850. 
 
 I 
 
 Gertrude Barbara Rich, eld- 
 est daughter, b. 1819; m. 
 1847; d. 1918. She was 
 7th in direct descent from 
 Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Sarah Rhett of Charleston, 
 South Carolina, b. 1725; d. 
 1808. Her great-grand- 
 father, Sir Walter Rhett, is 
 said to have accompanied 
 Charles II from the Hague 
 to England (1660). 
 
 Robert Nicholas, of Ashton 
 Keynes, Wilts ; M.P., F.S. 
 A. ; Chairman of the Board 
 of Excise for upwards of 
 32 years; b. 1758; d. 1826. 
 
 ; Vice-Admiral Henry T. B. 
 Collier, 4th son of Admiral 
 Sir George Collier, M.P., 
 and younger brother of Ad- 
 miral Sir Francis Collier; 
 C.B., K.L.S., K.C.H., b. 
 1791 ; d. 1872. 
 
 Charles Tennant, M.P., D.L., 
 co: Glam., of Cadoxton 
 Lodge, Neath, South 
 Wales, b. 1796; d. 1873. 
 
 Charles Coombe Tennant, = Winifred, daughter of Lieut. 
 
 J.P. of Cadoxton Lodge, 
 only son; m. 1895. 
 
 George 
 R.N. 
 
 Pearce-Serocold, 
 
 George Christopher Serocold Tennant, eldest son, Second 
 Lieutenant 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, b. 1897. Killed 
 in action in Flanders 1917.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 
 
 ". . . Even then I felt 
 
 Gleams like the flashing of a shield : the Earth 
 And common face of Nature spake to me 
 Rememberable things." 
 
 WORDSWORTH, Prelude, II. 
 
 IN October 1911, on Christopher's fourteenth birth- 
 day, his mother gave him a book for manuscript, bound 
 in red leather and fitted with a lock and key. The con- 
 tents of this book remained unknown to her until she 
 read them in September, 1917, after her son's death. 
 Here follow some extracts : 
 
 Tadworth Camp, July, 1917. 
 
 This is not an attempt at autobiography it is 
 merely an attempt to set down a few incidents of my 
 past life, an attempt which, writing as I do at the 
 age of 19 years 9 months, must necessarily be incom- 
 plete and lacking in detail. But whether I survive 
 this war or not it may be of interest both for myself 
 and for those dear to me to have some record of things 
 which may not linger in my memory. I shall write 
 from time to time as the spirit moves me, not striving 
 for flow of expression, but setting down simply what 
 comes into my mind here as I sit at Tadworth Camp 
 
 104
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 105 
 
 in my tent, with the sun streaming in upon me and 
 the voices of my fellow officers sounding in the distance. 
 
 Like the lives of most other men, mine falls into 
 periods: Before school Private school Public school 
 Sandhurst the Army. I was born at Cadoxton on 
 October loth, 1897. My childhood was, I think, on the 
 whole very happy, chiefly because of the love that has 
 existed between my parents (harsh word!) and my- 
 self yes, ever since I can remember. I know now 
 that I was born into the world almost inanimate 
 and that the doctor restored life by judicious flapping 
 with wet towels. My earliest recollection is of watch- 
 ing a snow storm at the age of about 4, standing on 
 a chair in my nursery at Cadoxton with old Nurse 
 beside me. Then, as I got a little older, my Father 
 and Mother went off to Algiers, and old Nurse wrote 
 daily that "Master Christopher eats well, sleeps well, 
 and takes his food"! 
 
 Cadoxton was a house full of mystery to me, and 
 though never afraid I was visited on two occasions by 
 strange fancies so vividly did they impress them- 
 selves on my mind that they remain clear till this day. 
 The psychology of them must be interesting. The first 
 happened when I was about 5 years old the second 
 a few days afterwards. I was lying in my bed in my 
 nursery, and old Nurse was sitting in a chair by the 
 fire. There was also a lamp in the room. I had only 
 just been put in bed when I had the feeling of being 
 watched, and looking towards the door I was under 
 the impression that it opened and shut noiselessly. 
 (The sequence of this is interesting.) Then I seemed 
 to distinguish above the screen in the corner, a screen
 
 106 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 which partially surrounded the door but did not totally 
 conceal the top of it from my bed above the screen, 
 I say, appeared a forehead and eyes the top part of 
 a face, in fact. The face was black, and two black 
 eyes watched me. My instinct was to duck under the 
 clothes, but with immense effort and prompted by 
 curiosity I resisted the instinct. The next thing I saw 
 was a long black neck shooting out over the top of the 
 screen, with a black shapeless face at the end of it. 
 Then I did duck under the clothes. This by itself 
 might have been a bad dream, or a trick of the shadows, 
 but the curious thing is that a few days or it may 
 have been weeks afterwards the following occurred. 
 It was the afternoon, between lunch and tea, and I was 
 sitting on the ground with old Nurse sewing beside 
 me. She had given me a large box of old Christmas 
 cards to play with, and I had arranged them, standing 
 them up, all over the nursery floor no one could have 
 walked from the door to the window without upsetting 
 some of them. Suddenly, without any warning, I saw 
 coming from the door a figure, clothed in black close- 
 fitting draperies, with the same black face I had seen 
 before, though the hands were whiter. The figure 
 came towards me with a trotting gait, walked through 
 all the Christmas cards without upsetting any, till it 
 reached the window; then it turned and trotted back, 
 disappearing as it got towards the door. The door 
 never opened, and old Nurse seemed, as far as I can 
 remember, to notice nothing unusual. My feelings 
 were entirely those of interest and curiosity at being 
 thus able to identify this visitant with the one of a 
 former occasion and prove to myself that it had been
 
 CHRISTOPHER WITH HIS DOG BOXER. 
 OCTOBER, 1900, AGED 3 YEARS.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 107 
 
 no dream. I felt not a shadow of fear, but somehow 
 I have never spoken of these things. 
 
 So much for my early recollections of Cadoxton, 
 where I used to spend six months of the year. The 
 other six were spent in London at 5, Sloane Court, in 
 Lower Sloane Street. I can remember very early days 
 there I can still conjure up the peculiar smell of the 
 cupboards those white cupboards in the nursery, the 
 Red Room where Deedooge * used to read to me, 
 Mother's room with Japanese prints, and the dining- 
 room from which I watched the naturalist's shop be- 
 low, and the sentry in his red coat and bearskin out- 
 side Chelsea Barracks. These things seem very far 
 away, as in a dream. One morning I was very young 
 my Mother called me to her room, and said, "Carry 
 this thought in your mind to-day 'God is love.' ' I 
 have always remembered that. 
 
 Many incidents I have forgotten. Innumerable 
 governesses I remember as concrete things, but the gen- 
 eral impression of my first years in London left me with 
 memories of sunlit days in the Chelsea Gardens, and 
 a sweet glamour of childhood associated with the scent 
 of white hawthorn and the songs of thrushes in the 
 trees. 
 
 It is strange, what I have called the glamour of 
 childhood those gardens that seemed to me full of a 
 celestial brightness the essential happiness and joy of 
 my life. Delicious shady nooks were there which 
 seemed like a paradise to me, full of the sound of 
 cooing doves and the smell of spring, delicious scents 
 
 1 A name given by Christopher as a small child to his Father, 
 which became a permanent addition to the family vocabulary.
 
 108 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 floating from the flower gardens, the whole world trans- 
 figured with celestial light. I feel intensely that that 
 which Wordsworth sets down in his "Ode on the Inti- 
 mations of Immortality" has been my actual experi- 
 ence. I knew those clouds of glory in my childhood, I 
 felt them fading with boyhood, and now I feel those 
 fancies "pass away and fade into the light of com- 
 mon day." Yet there are certain things which bring 
 them back to me, and recall that glamour and splen- 
 dour of the past sunset, and the song of birds, and 
 Thompson's "Ode to the Setting Sun" such things 
 bring back to me what now seems "desolate sweetness 
 far and far away." How my childhood invested these 
 places with a divine glory, and how small and sordid 
 they now seem, returning after an interval of some 
 years! Strange indeed! 
 
 London, too, impressed me. How vast, how full of 
 people it seemed! I remember so well going to bed 
 by candlelight, and waking in the morning with the 
 light streaming through the windows. I remember the 
 curious effect on the ceiling of cabs and lighted vehi- 
 cles passing at night, arms of light shooting across the 
 ceiling from the top of the window and travelling 
 slowly across it. I remember parties, too with Peter * 
 and others and I remember my Mother, a vision of 
 beauty in her low dress, with pearl necklaces and dia- 
 mond tiara and my Father, who used to give me a 
 lighted candle to blow out, to comfort me, and used 
 to sit beside my bed when I could not go to sleep. 
 Vaguely, too, comes back the memory of measles, and 
 
 1 Peter Harris, afterwards at Sandhurst with him, and now a 
 Second-Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 109 
 
 of how ill I was, and how I could hardly walk when 
 I first got up afterwards. 
 
 Then came our expedition to France. How I loved 
 France the Riviera, with its blue sky, and beds of 
 violets, and mimosa trees ! We travelled right through 
 to Marseilles, and I slept in the train and woke up at 
 Lyons. We went to Hyeres. There was a lovely gar- 
 den there, belonging to the Abbe, full of flowers and 
 bees. 
 
 INTERPOLATION 
 
 [Christopher's acquaintance with this garden and with the 
 Abbe Marquand who became so good a friend to him oc- 
 curred in the following way. 
 
 Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verse" had been a familiar 
 companion from very early days, and his usual desire to know 
 something of the people who had written the things he cared 
 for led his Mother to read the Life of R. L. S. and the two 
 volumes of his Letters edited by Sidney Colvin. 
 
 When the family party reached Hyeres their first thought 
 was of the villa in which R. L. S. had lived from the spring 
 of 1883 for the greater part of sixteen months. The "Child's 
 Garden of Verse," "The Silverado Squatters," and "Black 
 Arrow" belong to this period. Writing in October, 1883, R. 
 L. S. describes his house thus : "My address is still the same, 
 and I live in a most sweet corner of the universe ; sea and fine 
 hills before me, and a rich variegated plain ; at my back a 
 craggy hill, loaded with vast feudal ruins. I am very quiet; 
 a person passing by my door half startles me ; but I enjoy 
 the most aromatic airs, and at night the most wonderful view 
 into a moonlit garden. By day this garden fades into nothing, 
 overpowered by its surroundings and the luminous distance ; 
 but at night, and when the moon is out, that garden, the arbour, 
 the flight of stairs that mount the artificial hillock, the plumed 
 blue gum-trees that hang trembling, become the very skirts of 
 Paradise. Angels I know frequent it; and it thrills all night 
 with the flutes of silence."
 
 110 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 It was in this same garden that the problem of the disposal 
 of an army of snails collected by R. L. S. arose : "Our lovely 
 garden is a prey to snails; I have gathered about a bushel, 
 which, not having the heart to slay, I steal forth withal and 
 deposit near my neighbour's garden wall. As a case of casuis- 
 try, this presents many points of interest. I loathe the snails, 
 but from loathing to actual butchery, trucidation of multi- 
 tudes, there is a step that I hesitate to take. What then to 
 do with them? My neighbour's vineyard, pardy! It is a 
 rich villa pleasure garden, of course; if it were a peasant's 
 patch the snails I suppose would have to perish." 
 
 This story always amused Christopher, and to enter and 
 explore this garden was one of the fixed determinations of 
 his days at Hyeres. His Mother thought it wise to go and 
 spy out the land alone as a preliminary step. The following 
 is taken from a contemporary note made by her at Hyeres in 
 March 1905: 
 
 "It was not without emotion that I first beheld the little 
 house. Set back behind a wooden paling, the white-washed 
 chalet with its overhanging eaves lay like a white bird against 
 the background of verdure. On the ground were three long 
 French windows opening on to a little tile-paved path from 
 whence on either side a flight of steps led up into the garden. 
 Above, the wooden balcony ran round three sides of the house, 
 the windows of the upper floor opening out upon it. The 
 whole impression was one of a harmony of white and brown; 
 white walls making a setting for the note of brown in the 
 carved woodwork of balcony, eave, and window frame. 
 
 "At the back rose the garden, bright with flowering shrubs; 
 and far above, the half-ruined tower of the old chateau kept 
 watch like a forgotten sentinel. 
 
 "Not without some misgiving I crossed the road and pulled 
 the bell that hung just outside the grille. The sound of foot- 
 steps came from the garden path, and in another moment I 
 found myself face to face with the occupant of La Solitude. 1 
 
 "I do not know exactly whom I had expected to find living 
 in Stevenson's house, but it was certainly not the priest who, 
 in cassock and biretta, now opened the door and let me in. He 
 was a man verging on middle age, dark, of medium height, 
 
 1 The name of the villa.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 111 
 
 with intelligent and kindly eyes that reassured me at once. 
 He led me through an open window on the ground floor into 
 a tiny study, set me at my ease in a few moments, and was 
 soon asking a hundred eager questions about Stevenson, of 
 whom he had heard as 'ce grand ecrivain etranger qui habitait 
 ici autrefois.' My interview with M. 1'Abbe was a most happy 
 one. It seemed strange to be speaking of R. L. S. in what had 
 probably been his own writing-room. I tried to give some 
 incomplete picture of the compelling charm of his character, 
 of his joyous blitheness of spirit, persisting even in the darkest 
 days, of his intuitive sympathy with all forms of life, and of 
 the deep and abiding effect he has had upon many who never 
 knew him. 
 
 "Then M. 1'Abbe rose and led me from room to room. The 
 real entrance is from the back of the chalet and leads directly 
 on to the upper story, from whence a miniature staircase 
 descends to the ground floor. On the latter are two sitting- 
 rooms, very diminutive and very cheerful, the kitchen and 
 pantry. Above are four bedrooms opening on to the balcony. 
 Everywhere I saw evidence of the most refined and cultivated 
 taste; a note of ordered simplicity prevailed; the walls were 
 coloured in delicate neutral shades, and formed an admirable 
 background for some fine pieces of ancient walnut furniture 
 and old oil paintings in heavily carved frames. The little 
 dwelling was very flower-like, very reposeful full of sweet- 
 ness and light. We passed out into the garden and along the 
 winding paths edged with narcissus, violets, and roses, with 
 aloes and f resias : flowers everywhere, such as one only sees in 
 a garden where none are ever picked and each plant may bear 
 its full load of blossom undisturbed. Everywhere, too, birds, 
 as in the days more than twenty years ago when R. L. S. wrote 
 of the 'fair wood music in this solitude of ours.' In one corner 
 stood a gnarled old olive tree half buried in falling honey- 
 suckle; the terrace that runs along the garden's upmost slope 
 is bordered by fine aloes ; and a mimosa in full bloom a 
 veritable firework of falling gold brought a vivid note of 
 colour into the scene. 
 
 "A flight of stone steps leads up to what was once a studio, 
 now transformed into an oratory in which M. 1'Abbe daily 
 celebrates Mass. The dim light and perfect silence of the 
 little chapel had something of mystery and peace as I passed
 
 112 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 into it from the bird-haunted sun-bathed garden. Above the 
 altar rose a figure of the Saviour, around it great bowls of 
 mimosa were grouped, filling the air with a subtle perfume; 
 on either side stood a smaller statue, to the right the Virgin 
 Mother, to the left Joseph with his carpenter's tools. The 
 consecration of many prayers brooded like a benediction above 
 the spot. . . . This was the beginning of a close friendship 
 between us, for nothing could have exceeded the exquisite hos- 
 pitality of the Abbe to me, a stranger not only in race but also 
 in creed. It was the story of Crocket and the Bishop of El Seo 
 over again, told with such subtle charm in 'A Wayfarer in 
 Spain.' I later knew that my Abbe of La Solitude belonged 
 also to that never very numerous company of human souls 
 that stand outside and above every accident of race and creed 
 and century ; that link us with the great Illuminati of the past, 
 and renew, in hearts grown weary with the complexity of life, 
 the glow of faith in Man's destiny." 
 
 Thus it came about that Christopher was made free 
 of the lovely garden of his dreams during several happy 
 weeks. A letter on page 289 shows how close the link 
 between the boy and his French friend remained.] 
 
 Autobiographical Fragment Resumed. 
 
 Then came The Darling. I will not speak much of 
 her. She was a very living person to me, and I still 
 feel her a living influence in my life. God bless her. 
 Some day we shall meet and look into each other's eyes, 
 for the love between us is great. I remember her so 
 well. She was so beautiful and so unique, and meant 
 so much to me. 
 
 In 1907 I went to West Downs, a preparatory school 
 near Winchester. I was very unhappy and very home- 
 sick at first, but it all helped me to gain that savoir 
 faire that enables one to get on with men. That is
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 113 
 
 the most that can be said of it. At first I was entirely 
 out of my element. The boys just above me bullied 
 me and the others of my lot. I found my feet as I 
 got on, and liked the place eventually. It was a clean 
 school, though full of intrigues and petty spite, as 
 schools are. The masters were very nice men ; Helbert 
 was a good teacher, and made the school run well, and 
 made his boys as happy as they might be under such 
 circumstances. 
 
 Personally I have always been a lover of freedom, 
 and have resented the control of all my actions by 
 vengeful deities. That control is necessary, I know, 
 but it can be done with wise love, and it can be done 
 in a spirit of smug prudery; and it is very often done 
 in the latter. Perhaps I misjudged authority and 
 thought harshly of it in those days, but moments of 
 freedom and leisure made up to a large extent for the 
 constant supervision. There is a certain kind of old- 
 maidishness which makes my blood boil, and I have 
 always thought it latent in most schoolmasters. How- 
 ever, I am now inclined to think they are more like 
 ordinary people, and assume a role which they imagine 
 to be suitable for dealing with the young. 
 
 I thought West Downs at first what I should call 
 "hard," perhaps owing to the absence of carpets and 
 other amenities of civilised life. The place was bare, 
 the people's minds were bare. I noted at the time, with- 
 out being able to express it, a certain mental inelasticity 
 and absence of imagination in the people there. I was 
 intensely romantic by nature then, and found no cor- 
 responding chord in my superiors. They were nice, 
 but unsympathetic.
 
 114 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Apart from this criticism, I had a pleasant time the 
 last few years at West Downs at least, I sometimes 
 feel that it was rather a grey stretch of vague indefi- 
 niteness, with pleasant moments and incidents dotted 
 here and there. But I do not think one minds so much 
 at the time, as on looking back at it afterwards. 
 [Here the fragment of autobiography breaks off.] 
 
 The locked MS. book (called by Christopher his 
 Red Book) also contains a small number of other 
 entricr, made on different dates prior to that of the 
 above Autobiographical Fragment. Of these the fol- 
 lowing only are quoted as showing their general char- 
 acter : 
 
 "Dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand 
 fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." l 
 
 TABLET IN KESWICK CHURCH. 2 
 
 In Memory of Frederic William Henry Myers. 
 Eldest son of the Rev. Frederic Myers. 
 Born at Keswick February 8th, 1843. 
 Departed this life at Rome, January, 1901. 
 
 "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him a long life, 
 even for ever and ever." 
 
 May 1st, 1916. 
 
 "To God again the enfranchised soul must tend, 
 He is her home; her Author is her End. 
 Hers is no death; when earthly eyes grow dim 
 Starlike she soars, and Godlike melts in Him." 3 
 
 F. W. H. M. 
 
 1 From Philippians iv. 1. These words are on a brass tablet placed 
 below a Delia Robbia bas-relief in the church of St. Cattwg, Cadox- 
 ton-j uxta-Neath, in memory of his sister. 
 * Visited by Christopher in September, 1912. 
 
 *A translation of Georgics iv., 223, by Frederic Myers. See the 
 Essay on Virgil, "Classical Essays," p. 174.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT 115 
 
 00 /*' tTL, irapOeviKal fj.\ijapvs i[ip6<fxi)voi t 
 yvla <t>eprjv Bvvarai. jS&Xc 5?) /SdXe Krjpv\os etijv, 
 ficrr' tiri Ktijuaros avflos &n' &\Kvbvcr<ri iroTJJTai 
 a\nr6p<f>vpos elapos 6pvis. 1 
 
 *"No longer, sweetly murmuring loving-voiced maidens, my limbs 
 can support me. Would, ah! would that I were a Kingfisher who 
 along the flower of the wave flits with the halcyons, his heart at 
 ease, the sea-blue bird of Spring." 
 
 ALCMAN.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 WEST DOWNS 
 
 "Thus encircled by the mystery of Existence; under the 
 deep heavenly Firmament; waited on by the four golden Sea- 
 sons, with their vicissitudes of contribution . . . did the Child 
 sit and learn. . . . 
 
 "Nevertheless I were but a vain dreamer to say that even 
 then my felicity was perfect. I had, once for all, come down 
 from Heaven into the Earth. Among the rainbow colours that 
 glowed on my horizon, lay even in childhood a dark ring of 
 Care, as yet no thicker than a thread, and often quite over- 
 shone. ... It was the ring of Necessity whereby we are all 
 begirt; happy he for whom a kind heavenly Sun brightens it 
 into a ring of Duty, and plays round it with beautiful pris- 
 matic diffractions; yet ever, as basis and bourne of our whole 
 being, it is there." CARLYLE, "Sartor Resartus." 
 
 IN May, 1907, Christopher's school life began. He 
 went in that month to West Downs (Mr. Helbert), a 
 preparatory school, which lies high above the ancient 
 city of Winchester and looks out over a wide stretch 
 of rolling country. Here he was to remain for the next 
 four years. At the time there were between fifty and 
 sixty boys in the school. I am indebted to his Parents 
 for these and all other details. 
 
 West Downs, May, 1907. 
 
 MY DEAR MUM, I drink tea for tea and tea for 
 breakfast! It is difficult to get time to write to you, 
 
 116
 
 WEST DOWNS 117 
 
 because there is such a lot of changing for cricket, and 
 then I have to go out, and lessons, etc. 
 
 The Matron puts my bath ready. There are many 
 boys younger than me here. I like my Pater 1 very 
 well. My Pater just arrived when I did, so he does 
 not know much himself. We go to chapel every morn- 
 ing and evening. . . . The lark woke me up this 
 morning, and is still singing beautifully. Well, dear 
 Mum, please give my love to Daphne. 
 
 God bless you. I am your loving First-born son, 
 
 CHRISTOPHER TENNANT. 
 
 P.S. When you come for the Sports I shall have 
 to call you "Mother." 
 
 October, 1907. 
 
 There is a probable match on the 2oth of this month 
 against a school near here called Winton House. The 
 watch you sent me keeps perfect time. In the morn- 
 ings, when we are dressed, we learn one verse. I have 
 learned the 46th Psalm, and am learning the 3oth. We 
 say our verses to the prefects. 
 
 It is a very cold day to-day, and raining hard. The 
 wind is howling through the trees, and I cannot de- 
 scribe its force. ... I hope that "Daphne is quite well 
 and sleeps well and enjoys her food." 2 I am fourth in 
 my class, and hope to get on well in this school. The 
 German servant Carl has gone yesterday (to be a sol- 
 dier) back to Germany. 
 
 1 An elder boy charged with the duty of showing a new boy the 
 ropes and generally befriending him. 
 
 3 The formula used by his old nurse to signify "All well," when 
 writing to his parents when they were abroad. See p. 105.
 
 118 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Another of my teeth has come out, which I en- 
 close. ... I give most hearty love to you, Deedooge, 
 and Daphne. 
 
 October, 1908. 
 
 I am getting on well with my work. I think of The 
 Darling, 1 and know she is helping me. It was very 
 cold this morning, although the sun was shining. I 
 hope you like Florence. I am doing well in Greek. 
 The boy whom I like best in the school is Brown- 
 ing 2 ... all the boys in the school are playing with 
 "Diabolo." 
 
 June \$th, 1909. 
 
 DEAR MUM, To-day is Mr. Helbert's birthday, 
 and we have just had an enormous cake, with 1909 
 B.C., which stands for birthday cake; it was in the 
 middle of the hall upon a stand. We all had two big 
 helpings, and even afterwards some small boys came 
 and looked longingly at it. We all tried to guess how 
 old Mr. Helbert was, but he would not tell us then. 
 I myself think he is about 40 or 41. I did very well 
 in the half-term exams., and was second, but in every- 
 thing, exams, and work during the term, I was 
 TOP ! . . . 
 
 West Downs, June 2oM, 1909. 
 
 DEAR MUM, On Friday the Fire Brigade came up, 
 and the St. Cross dormitory was cut off, and the fire 
 was supposed to have burned the stairs. They had a 
 huge ladder and the firemen climbed up it and rescued 
 us. The ladder was two long ladders joined together, 
 
 1 His only sister, Daphne, who had died in the previous July. 
 'Now a Captain in the Grenadier Guards. Croix de Guerre, 1917, 
 and D.S.O.
 
 WEST DOWNS 119 
 
 and one man turned a handle round and round and it 
 gradually went up. Then the real engine itself came 
 up, and sparks flew in every direction, and they squirted 
 water on to the house. I enjoyed it so much. 
 
 Yesterday we had a Paters' match. We made 82, 
 and then they went in and made 67. We went in 
 again and made 66 for no wickets. So we beat them, 
 and afterwards went down the bank and had a pic- 
 nic; we threw buns and things at each other, but to- 
 wards the end it began to rain, and we rushed about 
 with hot tea under a sort of awning. I don't know what 
 my prize is going to be, but I think it will be very 
 grand. 1 Winchester and Reading were going in for 
 it, but I was first of them all. I sit top of my class, 
 and am getting on very well. The summer holidays 
 are very near now. Much love. 
 
 September igth, 1909. 
 
 I am getting on quite well. We are now playing 
 footer, and I play left half. Mr. Rose gave a lecture 
 last night upon aeroplanes, and I am sending you some 
 notes that I made at the time. There are two "sec- 
 tions" of the top class, and I am head of the second. 
 I am also appointed by Mr. Helbert to look after the 
 whole top dormitory when (as often happens) the 
 prefects are out of the room. I like it very much. 
 
 God bless The Darling. 2 I am sure Fred 8 and she 
 are often with us both. 
 
 *The first prize in a competition organised by the "Alliance Fran- 
 c.aise": Gallia, Comite de Reading, XV. Concours de Franqais, 1909. 
 Premier Prix en Lecture et Recitation. 19 Juin, 1909. Christopher 
 could speak both French and German readily, through his home 
 training. 
 
 2 Daphne (obiit July zist, 1908). 
 
 *F. W. H. Myers (obiit January ryth, 1901).
 
 120 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 October $\st, 1909. 
 
 DEAR MUM, I am writing to wish you very many 
 happy returns of your birthday. Well, I hope you will 
 have a very happy birthday, Mum, with the dear Dar- 
 ling, God bless her, watching over you and with you. 
 
 The time is drawing near when you give away our 
 prizes at the Cadoxton schools. Have you got another 
 of Oliver Lodge's books to read together in the holi- 
 days'? 
 
 I have determined to try and support the Prefects, 
 but I don't seem to quite know how to do it? but 
 there, I will do my best and cannot do more. Well, 
 dear Mum, again wishing you a most EXQUISITE AND 
 JOYFUL BIRTHDAY, and warm and sunny. Let it be 
 "the day that the Lord hath made." Your loving and 
 adoring son, 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 November 2U/, 1909. 
 
 DEAR MUM, All is well here. This morning Mr. 
 Helbert gave us a New Testament all in Greek; at 
 first I could not find anything at all, but at last I 
 recognised some words. I received during the match an 
 extremely mysterious and interesting-looking telegram ! 
 I could not open it in the middle of the match, which 
 I must tell you we won (score: W. D. 3, other S. 2), 
 but I opened it at the end ! I could hardly speak with 
 joy ! ! ! When I read the contents ! So dear Alexander 
 has arrived! 1 Well, I have written to him to tell him 
 how much I love him. We have great things to thank 
 God and The Darling for. Words cannot express my 
 
 1 His brother, born November zoth, 1909.
 
 WEST DOWNS 121 
 
 excitement, but I shall soon see Alexander; may he 
 be indeed Alexander "the Great" ! 
 
 All is well here. There is no news. Much love. 
 Your adoring GRUFFER. 
 
 January 2Q(k, 1910. 
 
 All is well. The Doctor says my knee is decidedly 
 on the mend, and I think it is nearly well now. . . . 
 Several of the Masters come to see me regularly, and 
 Mr. Helbert comes over and reads to me every day, 
 which I think very kind of him. The real pleasures I 
 enjoy here are the evenings, when I recall fragments 
 of poetry such as "Aye, note that potter's wheel," 1 
 "O to mount again where erst I haunted, where the old 
 red hills are bird enchanted," 2 Again, "Say not the 
 struggle naught availeth." 3 I simply delight in them; 
 they are companions to me. Well, dear Mum, God 
 bless you. 
 
 February 4^, 1910. 
 
 DEAR MUM, I am charmed with the poem of Ros- 
 setti's. I should like to know who Rossetti is *? He is 
 not a person I know, like Browning or Clough. I sup- 
 pose he is a person like Dante ? At any rate, he wrote 
 wonderful poetry. Did he not write "Does the road 
 wind up hill all the way?" * I read that poem often. 
 When one has read it once or twice it suddenly dawns 
 upon you, and every time you read it you get more 
 out of it each time. It is so vast! It is more than 
 
 1 "Rabbi Ben Ezra," Browning. 
 
 "In the Highlands," Stevenson. 
 
 Clough. 
 'Christina Rossetti.
 
 122 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 simple poetry! I shall be very pleased to have "The 
 old plain men have rosy faces." * Doctor says my knee 
 all right again. Am just going down to dinner, and 
 shall do lessons as usual. 
 
 June $th, 1910. 
 
 To-day the match-cards are given out by the cap- 
 tain of the eleven. There is a second-eleven match next 
 Saturday. I am getting on very well with my music, 
 also with my cricket! Well, dear Mum, I long to be 
 with you. I often imagine you sitting in the drawing- 
 room with Clytie 2 and the Icon. 8 The Darling must 
 be often passing between us. 
 
 All is well here. 
 
 June 19 th, 1910. 
 
 The sports are drawing near, and I hope to see you 
 on the 23rd. There will be another "Hesperid" 4 for 
 the sports, of which I am one of the editors. It goes 
 to be printed early to-morrow morning. I think it is 
 going to be very good indeed. I and Tennant minor 
 have written a long account of Mr. Helbert's birth- 
 day. You will see an account of my day there. At 
 the end of our account we put 
 
 "Long live Mr. Helbert!" 
 
 but he would not put it in! The "Hesperid" is, as 
 you know, our school paper. 
 
 *"In the Highlands," Stevenson. 
 
 *A cast of the bust in the British Museum. 
 
 8 An ancient Russian icon given to his sister Daphne by her god- 
 father, Dr. Hagbcrg Wright, brought back by him from Russia, 
 where he had gone to visit Tolstoi at Yasnaya Polyana. 
 
 4 The School Magazine.
 
 WEST DOWNS: 123 
 
 The editors are: 
 
 Tennant ma., 1 
 Tennant mi., 2 
 Goff 8 assisting, 
 Ramsay* assisting. 
 
 We have each done a lot of it. I think you will like 
 it immensely. I am keeping my reputation up as a 
 prefect, and will do so all through the end of the 
 term. 
 
 September l8th, 1910. 
 
 There is going to be a French play at the end of this 
 term called Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. It is by 
 Moliere. You no doubt know it. Tennant minor is 
 acting the part of M. Jourdain, the bourgeois; I am 
 acting the part of Madame Jourdain, who is supposed 
 to be very sensible! The play is frightfully amusing; 
 I roared with laughter as we went through it. There 
 is no news. I am getting on very well indeed. 
 
 December 4/A, 1910. 
 
 Yesterday evening the long dormitory acted Ham- 
 let; it was very amusing in parts, especially when the 
 ghost came in wrapped in a sheet ! But it was nothing 
 compared to The Taming of the Shrew. 5 I shall be 
 able to make sure of my French play in the holidays, 
 
 1 Himself. 
 
 'Edward Wyndham Tennant, later Lieut., Grenadier Guards. 
 Killed in action September 22nd, 1916. 
 
 "T. R. C. Goff, Lieut, Scots Guards. Wounded October 9th, 1917. 
 
 4 W. A. Ramsay, Sec.-Lieut., Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. 
 Prisoner of War. 
 
 'In which he had recently acted, taking the part of Petruchio.
 
 124 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 as it is definitely postponed to next term. I send you 
 an Order in which I came out head boy, so I am still 
 retaining my position as top of the school. 
 
 The Christmas holidays this year were spent at 
 Hubborn, a pleasant old house near Highcliffe which 
 his parents had taken for the winter. It was within 
 easy reach of Christchurch with its fine Priory, of Bar- 
 ton Cliffs famous for their fossils, and of the New 
 Forest, which the family party explored in many direc- 
 tions by motor. 
 
 The beauty of the country lying round Burley, Pick- 
 etts Post, and Lyndhurst was a joy to the boy. More 
 than once he visited Rufus Stone a memorial mark- 
 ing the spot where William Rufus was slain whilst 
 hunting in the New Forest in 1 100. The stone is sur- 
 rounded by magnificent beech woods, then in all the 
 loveliness of their winter state, bare branch and spray 
 rising from the russet carpet of their fallen leaves. 
 
 A small incident recorded at this time in his Mother's 
 diary gives an insight into one side of the boy's nature. 
 He had been promoted during these holidays to joining 
 his parents at dinner on two evenings in the week. 
 This was a welcome change from the "early to bed" 
 regime, precious too as a sign of emancipation from 
 childish things. But after a week or two he suddenly 
 gave it up and reverted to the early supper arrange- 
 ment. Perfect freedom in so far as it is compatible 
 with a child's safety and the give-and-take of family 
 life being the law of his upbringing, the change was
 
 WEST DOWNS 125 
 
 accepted by his parents without comment, and it was 
 not until a few weeks later that the cause became 
 known to his Mother, who noted it in her diary as 
 follows : 
 
 "Much touched yesterday to find Christopher had volun- 
 tarily abandoned his two late dinners a week with us because 
 on the nights he stayed up I did not read the Bible and pray 
 with him as my custom is on other nights. Rather than miss 
 this he went to bed at 7.15 p.m. instead of dining with us. 
 Arranged in consequence that he should stay up once a week, 
 and that I would read to him as usual on that night." 
 
 To the end of his days the things which are unseen 
 and eternal remained very real to him. Free from the 
 least trace of priggishness, his attitude to this side of 
 his life was entirely natural and entirely unconven- 
 tional. He accepted the outward forms of Anglicanism 
 but he never found in them the natural expression of 
 his religious sense. Dogma had no meaning for him, 
 still less the idea of religion seen as a useful kind of 
 police force to restrain the young and adventurous a 
 view secretly held by many adults. He was on the 
 side of the rebels on this as on many other questions, 
 but it was the rebellion of one lit by an inner vision, 
 who found in the official system little that satisfied his 
 sense of the immensities with which his individual life 
 was hedged. 
 
 He did not return to West Downs at the beginning 
 of 191 1. During the past term there had been a num- 
 ber of cases of Hoffman's bacillus (a more or less 
 harmless germ often found in the throat) in the school,
 
 126 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and the order had gone forth that each boy's throat 
 was to be swabbed before his return from the Christ- 
 mas holidays. Bacteriological examination showed 
 that the bacillus was present in Christopher's throat, 
 and there was nothing for it but to keep him at home 
 and give him such help with his work as a tutor who 
 came three times a week from Winchester could pro- 
 vide. 
 
 He was already keen to try for a scholarship at Eton 
 (which his grandfather had entered in 1841) or at 
 Winchester, and the loss of the regular term's work 
 was a set-back which made the prospects of his getting 
 one rather remote. By the end of March he was 
 passed free from germs and returned to West Downs. 
 Early in April a chance vacancy, due to the ploughing 
 of a candidate, occurred in K house at Winchester Col- 
 lege. This was offered to Christopher through Mr. 
 Helbert, and it was decided that he should accept it 
 and try for a scholarship in the following July. He 
 left West Downs in April and went in May, 1911, to 
 Kingsgate House, Winchester (Mr. R. D. Beloe), 
 where he was to remain for the next five years.
 
 WEST DOWNS 127 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER VII 
 
 As an example of the effect of the Great War upon 
 the careers of the boys who were together in a private 
 school in 1909, the following complete list of those 
 who were at West Downs in 1909 is included, the 
 particular war service being noted against each name, 
 at or about the date of August, 1918. 
 
 WEST DOWNS 
 
 DIVISION LIST 
 Short Half, 1909 (Winter Term). 
 
 IV.a. 
 ARCHER Major, R.F.A. and R.F.C., Flight 
 
 Commander. Military Cross. 
 
 PIGOTT R.F.A., Sec.-Lieut. Killed in action. 
 
 SEELY, MA Hampshire Regiment, Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 Killed in action, April, 1917. 
 
 BEITH igth Hussars, Lieut. Wounded. 
 
 CRAWLEY .... R.B., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 DEANE Lancashire Fusiliers, Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 Wounded. 
 
 TENNANT, MA. . . Sec.-Lieut., Welsh Guards. Killed in 
 
 action, September 3rd, 1917. 
 
 DE BURGH .... R.F.A. and R.F.C., Capt. 
 
 BOSTOCK .... R.H.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 RAMSAY Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, 
 
 Sec.-Lieut. Prisoner of War. 
 
 MORLEY R.N., Sub.-Lieut.
 
 128 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 SINCLAIR .... R.N., Sub.-Licut. Invalided out: 
 
 Woolwich. 
 MACKESON .... Rifle Brigade, Sec.-Lieut. Died of 
 
 wounds, August, 1917. 
 STEWART .... Hussars, Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 FRENCH Irish Guards. 
 
 BROADHURST . . . Gordon Highlanders, Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 Twice wounded. 
 
 IV.b. 
 
 BIRKBECK, MA. . . Rifle Brigade, Captain. Military 
 
 Cross. 
 
 SELBY-LOWNDES . . iQth Hussars, Lieut. Wounded. 
 PALMER, MI. . . . R.F.A., Sec.-Lieut. Gassed, June, 
 
 1917. 
 TENNANT, MI. . . Grenadier Guards, Lieut. Killed in 
 
 action, September, 1916. 
 
 PASTEUR, MA. . . . M.G.C., Captain. Military Cross. 
 CARTHEW-YORSTOUN Black Watch, Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 COLLINS R.F.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 PALMER, MA. . . . Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, 
 
 R.F.C., Captain. Wounded. 
 PURDEY Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. 
 
 Lieut. 
 BROWNING .... Grenadier Guards, Captain. Croix de 
 
 Guerre, D.S.O. 
 DAVIES West Yorkshire Regiment, Lieut. 
 
 Wounded. 
 
 IILa. 
 
 PHILIPSON-STOW . . R.G.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 SOMERVILLE 
 
 HEATON-ELLIS . . R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 
 BIRKBECK, MI. . . R.F.C., Flight Commander. D.F.C. 
 
 GOFF Scots Guards, Lieut. Wounded. 
 
 COTTON, MA. . . . R.N., Midshipman. Killed in action, 
 
 May, 1916. 
 WOOD R.H.A. and R.F.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 Wounded.
 
 WEST DOWNS 
 
 129 
 
 BAINES . . . 
 
 WALTER . . 
 
 McCoRQUODALE 
 
 HAWKER . . 
 RANDOLPH . 
 
 MARTIN-HOLLAND, MA. 
 
 R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 Sec.-Lieut., Scots Greys. 
 Sec.-Lieut., R.F.A. 
 R.F.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 ROUQUETTE . . . 
 McCoNNEL . . . 
 
 SMITH, MA. . . . 
 
 OSWALD 
 
 MOLYNEUX, MA. . . 
 GASCOIGNE . . . . 
 
 BUCKNALL .... 
 PASTEUR, MI. . . . 
 BUTTON .... 
 
 MILES-BAILEY . . 
 KNOLLYS 
 
 IILb. 
 
 Lancers, Sec.-Lieut. Killed in action, 
 
 March 26th, 1918. 
 R.G.A., Sec.-Lieut. 
 Scots Guards, Lieut. 
 R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 Bengal Lancers, Sec.-Lieut. 
 Guards, Sec.-Lieut. 
 Grenadier Guards, Lieut. Died of 
 
 wounds, April 12th, 1918. 
 Hussars, Sec.-Lieut. 
 Sec.-Lieut. 
 
 Hampshire Regiment, Sec.-Lieut. 
 Rifle Brigade, Sec.-Lieut. Wounded. 
 
 HOTHAM .... 
 
 WHITE ..... 
 WILKINSON . . . 
 SEELY, MI ..... 
 FELLOWES .... 
 POORE ..... 
 GRAHAM .... 
 PHILLIPS .... 
 MARTIN-HOLLAND, MI. 
 SHIRLEY ..... 
 TENNANT, MIN. . . 
 VAUGHAN-JOHNSON . 
 
 LlNZEE . . . 
 
 MOLYNEUX, MI. 
 
 R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 R.N., Sub.-Lieut. 
 
 ILb. 
 
 R.N., Midshipman. 
 R.N., Midshipman. Killed in action, 
 May, 1916.
 
 130 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 REES , 
 
 CHILD R.N., Midshipman. 
 
 MORANT .... Artists' Rifles, Private. 
 
 PARKER 
 
 PEACOCK .... 
 
 I. 
 
 TYRONE 
 
 BLACKETT .... 
 
 COLLINGWOOD, MA. . R.N., Midshipman. Invalided out. 
 
 COLLINGWOOD, MI. . R.N., Midshipman. 
 
 COTTON, MI. . . . 
 
 SMITH, MI R.N.V.R., Midshipman.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WINCHESTER 
 
 "Therefore if any young man here have embarked his life in 
 pursuit of knowledge, let him go on without doubting or fear- 
 ing the event ; let him not be intimidated by the cheerless begin- 
 nings of knowledge, by the darkness from which she springs, 
 by the difficulties which hover around her, by the wretched 
 habitations in which she dwells, by the want and sorrow which 
 sometimes journey in her train; but let him ever follow her 
 as the Angel that guards him, and as the Genius of his life. 
 She will bring him out at last into the light of day, and exhibit 
 him to the world comprehensive in acquirements, fertile in 
 resources, rich in imagination, strong in reasoning, prudent and 
 powerful above his fellows in all the relations and in all the 
 offices of life." 
 
 SIDNEY SMITH, quoted by Ruskin, in "Praeterita." 
 
 IN the belief that parents of past and future Winches- 
 ter boys (or "men," as they are officially called) may 
 be interested in details of life there, this chapter is left 
 longer than it need otherwise be. The letters all ex- 
 hibit the dominating influence of his Mother, and in 
 some of them he shows himself rather "old" for his 
 age. But that is rather characteristic of serious boys of 
 fourteen, and as they grow in real experience they get 
 younger in expression and probably in feeling. The 
 phase is a necessary one to go through, and we ought to 
 be able to sympathise with earnest young enthusiasm, 
 
 131
 
 132 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 for it is surely a mistake to inflict on youth the reti- 
 cences and precautions miscalled the disillusionment 
 of age; nor can we expect from youth a premature 
 abandonment of expressions of self-conscious enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 It may be, after all, that the illusion is on our side : 
 youth may recognise serious values more clearly than 
 we, who have the world too much with us, and, per- 
 chance, by getting and spending have laid waste our 
 powers. When we remember all that boys have to go 
 through, we can read their home letters with a sym- 
 pathetic eye. 
 
 AGED 13. 
 
 Kings gate House, Winchester, May 14^, 1911. 
 
 DEAR MUM, All is well here. I am in the Chan- 
 try 2 quire, and like it very much. You can imagine me 
 in that beautiful place. I am not allowed to wear my 
 white boots until I am in the first eleven! I have to 
 
 1 Winchester College is one of the oldest and most famous of the 
 great Public Schools of England. It was founded by William of 
 Wykeham (born 1324, consecrated Bishop of Winchester 1367, died 
 1404) in the fourteenth century. The foundation stone of the 
 Chapel was laid in 1382, and twelve years later the Warden and 
 Scholars entered into possession of the College buildings. The great 
 Outer Gateway was built in 1394, the central niche above it still 
 retaining a beautiful statue of the Virgin. The College has under- 
 gone extraordinarily little change considering its five hundred years 
 of existence. There are now 70 Scholars and nearly 380 students, 
 not on the foundation, who reside in Tutor's houses. The motto 
 of the School, given to it by its Founder, is "Manners Makyth Man." 
 
 *A two-storied building surrounded by cloisters built by Fromond, 
 Steward of the Hants and Wilts estates of the College until 1420. 
 Used now as a chapel for the juniors, who number about one hundred, 
 and must spend at least a year in Chantry before passing into chapel.
 
 WINCHESTER 133 
 
 know all the colours and cups, etc., and "Domum"! 
 I am learning hard, but I have got over a week more. 
 My "Toys" are so delicious, with The Darling and all 
 my photographs. 1 I have been oiling my bat. My 
 form master is very nice. Our class-room is a very 
 nice and large one. There are about 20 boys in my 
 div. 
 
 Generally I get up at 6.15 and dress. Then I go 
 over with a socius 2 to school, and we have one hour's 
 lessons (called Morning Lines). Then I come back to 
 the House very hungry and have breakfast. After 
 breakfast we do anything we like; go down to shops, 3 
 etc. Then we come up and work till lunch. We have 
 lunch, and after lunch we do anything we like. Then 
 I go down to the nets and watch out (field) or play 
 crockets. 4 Then I come up and work till tea. After 
 tea we do anything, and then have toy-time, when we 
 prepare for the next day; then prayers and then bed. 
 When the clock strikes ten all talking stops, and I go 
 to sleep. 
 
 A long day! 
 
 Kings gate House, Winchester, May i^th, 1911. 
 
 All is well here. I find we never wear our dressing- 
 gowns except once or twice. When we go to our cold 
 tub in the morning we simply wrap a towel round us 
 
 1 "Toys" is the Winchester name for the place where each man 
 keeps his private belongings. See p. 135, footnote. 
 
 *A companion; it being a bad "Notion" to walk into Meads be- 
 tween hours without one. 
 
 8 The shops in College and Kingsgate Streets, which are licet for 
 men in the School. 
 
 4 Cricket
 
 134 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and go like that ! . . . I have been learning "Domum," 
 as Notion examination is next Wednesday ! You have 
 to stand in a row in prefis' lib. 1 All men compete who 
 have not been here two years, so each term for two 
 years I shall have to know and say my notions. 2 It is 
 a bad Notion to take a coat and umbrella. You may 
 only take one! It has been raining this morning. I 
 took my umbrella to prevent spoiling my cather (top 
 hat). I have got all my delicious photographs in my 
 toys. You and the Darling and Deedooge and little 
 Alexander. ... I was bottom out of 26 boys at the 
 beginning of the term. I am now fourth. I hope to 
 rise to top and then into a higher division. . . . Mo- 
 berly Library 3 is a magnificent place. It is a large 
 room, full of books. There must be silence. There 
 are marvellous books all in different headings, Poetry, 
 Fiction, Classical you can think of me withdrawing 
 there and having peace ! 
 
 May, 1911. 
 
 Mr. Kendall has been appointed Head Master. I 
 like him, and think he will make a very good one. I 
 have just been to Gunner's hole (the school bathing 
 place) ; it is all in the open air and so delightful. We 
 bathe with nothing on, and it is very slow running 
 water. It is an enormous place and so nice. I can swim 
 quite a long way now. 
 
 *The sitting-room of the prefects. 
 
 8 Any word, custom, person, or place peculiar to Wykehamists, and 
 handed on from one generation to another, is called a "notion." See 
 the vocabulary "Winchester College Notions," two vols., 2nd edition, 
 1910 (Wells, booksellers to the College, Winchester). 
 
 'The School Library, opened in 1870, and named after a former 
 Head Master.
 
 WINCHESTER 135 
 
 My work, only as far as marks go, is not getting on 
 well. The thing that pulls me down in marks is the 
 weekly Essay on Saturday night, and somehow I can- 
 not do them well. But in other respects I am working 
 hard, and as long as I know that it is all right, and 
 you do not have an Essay in Scholarship Exam. I 
 must work doubly hard to catch up in other ways. 
 Pray for me, dear Mum. The Darling is sure to help 
 me, and I hope to get on very well. I am now "in 
 course" for toy-room, 1 which means I have to sweep 
 out toy-room two times a day ! and I also have to put 
 changing-room straight. If you do not do this you 
 get beaten. Some mer. have already been for not 
 sweeping out ! I do not think I shall forget ! 
 
 July 14^, 1911. 
 
 All is well. I was cut out from scholarship. Only 
 just over 20 out of 80 were left in. Mr. Helbert said 
 some of the papers were very hard. I have got them 
 all. Some were easy. All well. 
 
 October u/, 1911. 
 
 Oh! MUM, I shall soon be 14! I sometimes feel 
 very lonely, and feel there are many things and many 
 people I do not understand. I feel that my life might 
 be more than it is, and that I might be more of a com- 
 
 1 The room surrounded by the toys of the men, and in which they 
 do their preparation. Each man has his own "toys," an upright cup- 
 board about $y 2 ft. high and i ft. deep, in which he keeps his books 
 and other belongings. It is divided into two parts by a slab pro- 
 jecting out at about 30 in. from the floor. The upper part contains 
 three shelves, the top and bottom ones being usually reserved for 
 books and stationery, the middle one for ornaments and photographs. 
 The seat is 18 in. from the floor, and quite separate from the toys.
 
 136 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 panion to you and closer to you than I am. I love you 
 so, so very much, and suddenly I realise that all life is 
 so wonderful and I am so small and understand so lit- 
 tle of things. The days here seem empty and monoto- 
 nous. I am very happy, however, and am getting on 
 with the other boys simply splendidly! 
 
 I do enjoy my work. I am nearly getting out of the 
 drudgery, and I often feel intense joy in Horace, Xeno- 
 phon, etc. I am now sitting top of Mid Part II. I 
 worked my way up, but there are some very clever 
 men in the div. God bless you, my darling mother. 
 Oh, if only we two kindred spirits could flee to the 
 haunts of joy and peace to see "magic casements 
 opening on the foam of perilous seas in fairy lands 
 forlorn" ! 1 
 
 I think of Maud Allan 2 unfolding like a lovely 
 flower! Sweet joy is mine now. 8 Mizpah. Your 
 adoring 
 
 CRUFF 
 
 AGED 14. 
 
 October 3U/, 1911. 
 
 DEAREST DARLING MUMSEY, Many, many happy 
 returns of your birthday. I hope and feel sure there is 
 a very happy year in store for you, and that the 
 Darling will bless you abundantly. You know it says 
 in Proverbs, "Blessed is a virtuous woman, for all 
 her children rise up and call her blessed." All your 
 children do bless you and love you more than words 
 can express. Your dear "buffday" will always bring 
 
 1 Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale." 
 
 *Then dancing Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" in London. 
 
 1 See Blake, "Songs of Innocence."
 
 WINCHESTER 137 
 
 you the thought of an infinite store of happiness for 
 future years. I wish I could be with you to-morrow, 
 but I shall always be thinking of you. I hope you 
 will have a really nice fine day. I remember well when 
 we took X to The Nameless Spot and saw dear Fan 
 Gihirych. 1 Think to yourself 
 
 I happy am, 
 Joy is my name. 
 
 Sweet joy befall thee! 2 
 
 P.S. I save just been out to tea with Mr. Robin- 
 son, my late div. master. After a good tea we all read 
 the "Midsummer Night's Dream," each taking a part. 
 I was very dramatic and Coquelinish ! 8 
 
 God bless you. Your adoring CRUFF. 
 
 Early in November of this year Christopher had a 
 severe attack of measles, which affected his heart, and 
 by medical advice he was sent home on sick leave. He 
 did not return to Winchester until the end of the 
 Christmas holidays. 
 
 The interval was spent at Hilders, a house which his 
 grandfather, George Pearce-Serocold, 4 had taken for 
 
 1 One of the Breconshire mountains. See also p. 87. 
 
 2 Blake's "Infant Joy" in "Songs of Innocence." 
 
 3 Coquelin aine was a personal friend of the family. 
 
 4 Obiit July, 1912, aged 84. Leaving Eton in 1841, George Pearce- 
 Serocold joined the Navy, and sailed with the last of Nelson's cap- 
 tains, Sir William Parker, who became Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Fleet in the first China war, and flew his flag on the Cornivallis. 
 After the storming and capture of Ching Kiang Foo, the Treaty of 
 Nankin was signed in 1842, George Pearce-Serocold, as the youngest 
 midshipman in the Fleet, carrying the treaty to be signed on a silver 
 salver. He subsequently saw a good deal of active service ID H.M.S.
 
 138 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 the winter on the slopes high above Haslemere, and 
 not far from Hindhead. The surrounding country 
 called by Tyndall "the Switzerland of England" was 
 explored in every direction, and many places of inter- 
 est further afield were visited more than once. Aid- 
 worth, Tennyson's summer home, with the view over 
 the Sussex Weald "long known and lov'd" by the poet, 
 
 "Green Sussex fading into blue, 
 With one grey glimpse of sea," 
 
 was but a few miles away. 
 
 The great house at Petworth, which is thrown open 
 to the public on certain days, was also an attraction 
 for the sake of the fine collection of pictures which it 
 contains, examples of Raphael, Titian, Holbein, a 
 grand portrait of Rodney by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and 
 some very beautiful Turners, hung for the most part 
 not in the unattractive bareness of a picture gallery, 
 but set about in rooms which are lived in, and gaining 
 immensely thereby. The run through the park sur- 
 rounding Cowdray Abbey, near Midhurst, was a fa- 
 vourite motor drive ; the great avenues of leafless trees, 
 and the stretches of park land where deer were often to 
 be seen, made the place a veritable winter fairy land. 
 
 In another direction lay Newlands Corner, ap- 
 proached by Albury and up a slope dotted with juni- 
 per trees. The beauty of the well-known view, with 
 
 Wateriultch, then employed in the suppression of the slave trade 
 on the West Coast of Africa. After his retirement from the Navy 
 he spent ten years sheep farming in Queensland, Mount Serocold in 
 Central Queensland being named after him.
 
 WINCHESTER 139 
 
 the little church of St. Martha in the foreground and 
 the bold outline of Hindhead in the distance, was an 
 unceasing delight; on grey days, on days of sunshine 
 and cloud, by morning light or in the gathering dusk 
 of a winter afternoon, it was always touched with some- 
 thing of the mystery of perfect loveliness. 
 
 The eastern side of Hampshire was also accessible, 
 and among other places expeditions were made to Sel- 
 borne, where a beautiful triptych of the Dutch School 
 glows like a jewel above the altar of the little grey 
 church, and memories of Gilbert White meet one at 
 every turn ; and to the old town of Petersfield, with its 
 quaint streets and Norman church. 
 
 But most loved by the boy and most often returned 
 to was Compton, that spot sacred to all who have 
 drawn inspiration from the life and work of G. F. 
 Watts. 
 
 Watts was much more than a name to the boy. The 
 delicate intimate little appreciation of the Master writ- 
 ten by Frederic Myers and published in his "Frag- 
 ments of Prose and Poetry" (a book which Christopher 
 knew from cover to cover), had made Watts a very real 
 personality to him. There was also a further link 
 through Myers' poem, "Stanzas on Mr. Watts' Col- 
 lected Works," which contains an allusion to Watts' 
 painting "Daphne." 
 
 Compton is a typical Surrey village, set beneath the 
 shelter of the Hog's Back, and surrounded by unbroken 
 country, part arable, part woodland. There is a peace 
 and a beauty about it to which many who know and
 
 140 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 love the place must often have returned in thought 
 through these dark years of War, and over it all the 
 spirit of the Master seems to brood. Limnerslease, his 
 house, stands close to the picture gallery which he 
 built to contain a representative collection of his works. 
 The gallery is a one-storied building (always fragrant 
 with the faint scent of some aromatic wax used for 
 polishing the wooden floor), and on its walls hang 
 many of Watts's masterpieces "The Slumber of the 
 Ages," of which the painter wrote, "In this picture the 
 great stretches of time, since the earth ceased to be a 
 formless mass, are represented as a mighty Mother, 
 with Man, the child upon her lap, growing to conscious 
 knowledge of himself and of his place in the scheme 
 of creation;" "Paolo and Francesca," swept along but 
 together by the winds of hell as Dante saw them; 
 "Orpheus and Eurydice," and perhaps the gem of 
 the collection "Endymion." "As he lies asleep, his 
 staff in his hand, his dog sleeping also at his feet, the 
 moon-goddess comes down to him, and, bending in 
 crescent form above him, places a hand beneath his 
 head and kisses him upon the lips. It is as if the beauty 
 of the night-time had become sentient, and felt and 
 obtained response to love, passionate, yet pure and 
 calm." 1 
 
 Other well-known pictures in the collection are 
 "Good Luck to your Fishing," "Dawn," and the por- 
 traits of Josephine Butler, Joachim, and the beautiful 
 Rachel Gurney (Lady Dudley). 
 
 1U G. F. Watts." By J. E. Phythian.
 
 WINCHESTER 141 
 
 Many happy hours were spent by Mother and Son 
 in this little gallery, which was within an easy motor 
 drive from Hilders. 
 
 Adjoining the gallery is the pottery established dur- 
 ing Watts's lifetime, and now carried on by Mrs. 
 Watts. Here many things of beauty are made and may 
 be bought, from large pieces such as fountains, bird- 
 baths, and great terra-cotta jars to hold outdoor shrubs, 
 down to tiny bas-reliefs of putti, and angels, and repro- 
 ductions of Egyptian scarabs. 
 
 A winding country lane set with trees leads to the 
 new graveyard of the village, a rising slope of green 
 crowned by the Chapel, that unique treasury of sym- 
 bolic design "built to the loving memory of all who 
 find rest near its walls, and for the comfort and help 
 of those to whom the sorrow of separation yet remains," 
 and described by Mrs. Watts in her book, "The Word 
 in the Pattern." 
 
 The full significance of the little building cannot be 
 understood apart from this loving commentary written 
 by one who was closely associated with its building, 
 and whose own work has done so much to make it what 
 it is a perfect shrine. "A symbol may well be com- 
 pared to a magic key. In one hand it is nothing more 
 than a piece of quaintly wrought iron, in another it un- 
 locks a door into a world of enchantment." * "As far 
 as is possible . . . every bit of the decoration of this 
 
 1 All the passages here quoted are from Mrs. Watts's book, "The 
 Word in the Pattern." The place made a great impression on the 
 boy and his mother.
 
 142 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 chapel, modelled in clay of Surrey, by Compton hands, 
 under unusual conditions much of the work having 
 been done gratuitously, and all of it with the love that 
 made the work delightful has something to say, 
 though the patterns can claim to be no more than are 
 the letters of a great word; hieroglyphs, and very in- 
 adequate as representations of the possible reach of the 
 underlying thought suggested by them." 
 
 The decorated brickwork of the exterior is full of 
 beauty. In the belfry hangs a bell, the gift of Watts, 
 which bears the words, "Be my voice neither feared nor 
 forgotten." "Around the belfry, on the north and 
 south sides runs a frieze of doves holding the olive 
 branch, signs of the presence of the Spirit of God speak- 
 ing unutterable words of peace to the mourner, of heal- 
 ing after fiery trial, of anointing to the high calling of 
 such as can suffer and be strong, of crowning for the 
 conqueror who can rise above the lower plane of self- 
 pity. To the east and west are wings rising out of the 
 heart of a great seed-husk, which, with the trumpet- 
 shaped capitals of the small columns supporting the 
 belfry roof, are designed to suggest that ultimate word 
 of triumph, It is sown in weakness, it is raised in 
 power.' " 
 
 The interior of the Chapel glows with colour. The 
 walls are covered with designs executed in gesso, with 
 a wealth of symbol and invention which satisfies heart 
 and eye, and are painted in gold and rich colours. 
 
 "The encircling groups of winged messengers, al-
 
 GRAVE OF G. F. WATTS AND MEMORIAL 
 IN THE CLOISTER AT COMPTON
 
 WINCHESTER 143 
 
 ternately representing the light or the dark side of 
 things . . . would suggest the earthly conditions in 
 which the soul of man finds itself. The face of the 
 angel carrying the symbol of light is seen, but the face 
 of the angel carrying the symbol of darkness is un- 
 seen. . . . The corbels supporting a wealth of child 
 faces (one of the oldest symbols of the soul) carry the 
 words, 'The souls of the righteous are in the hand of 
 God their hope is full of immortality.' " 
 
 Above the altar is a painting finished by Watts in 
 April, 1904 but three months before his death "a 
 smaller and somewhat different version of his picture in 
 the National Gallery of British Art which he called 
 The All-Pervading.' . . . He claimed that by line 
 and colour, as by chords of music, that which cannot 
 be spoken in words may be said to the eye and ear of 
 heart and mind. Here he has used the symbol of the 
 blue sphere starred with flecks of light, to suggest the 
 whole vast universe 'the rush of Suns and roll of 
 Systems,' safe in the lap of the great enfolding figure, 
 and encompassed by the guiding Hands of Love." 
 
 A steep path leads from the Chapel to the higher por- 
 tion of the graveyard, along which a brick cloister runs. 
 Immediately before it is the Master's grave, and with- 
 in the cloister is a memorial bas-relief, a small recum- 
 bent figure of Watts with panels at head and foot from 
 his paintings "Destiny" and "The Messenger," and 
 an inscription beneath, with these words from Ploti* 
 mis:
 
 144 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 "As one that doeth Truth cometh to the Light, 
 
 So he living sought Light diligently, 
 And dying could say, Now I see that Great Light. 
 
 So may man's soul be sure of Vision 
 When suddenly she is sure of Light, 
 
 For this Light is from Him and is He." 
 
 It was of Watts that Frederic Myers wrote, "For 
 such a man what we call death is reduced to a mere 
 formality; and by an opening of inner vision the im- 
 manent becomes the manifest heaven." 
 
 This account of Compton, slight and imperfect as 
 it is, will perhaps enable the reader to understand the 
 profound influence which the place exercised upon 
 Christopher. The memory of it remained with him, 
 and in later days he returned there more than once in 
 the spirit of one who goes on pilgrimage. 
 
 January 2isf, 1912. 
 
 All is well here. This morning we had that de- 
 lightful passage about Hepseba ^i/3a. I was second 
 in Macaulay, and not many marks behind the first 
 man. Our div. Don commented on the magnificence 
 of my paper. I am going to try and get it back to 
 show you, especially the criticism on Macaulay, which 
 was not too severe, and in which I did not give myself 
 away by any downright invective ! ! ! I enjoy my work 
 here, and hope to be senior and get a prize at the end 
 of the term. I am looking forward to seeing you here 
 one day, "all dipt in Angel instincts," 2 as my Red 
 Book hath it. 
 
 1 "Fragments of Prose and Poetry." 
 "Tennyson, "Princess," vii.
 
 WINCHESTER 145 
 
 The Darling watches over us, and there is no sepa- 
 ration in Love. God bless and keep you, and give you 
 great joy. 
 
 Mizpah. I am with you always. 
 
 February 18^, 1912. 
 
 DEAREST MUM, Oh, what a delightful time we 
 had ! Oh, to think we walked arm and arm in all the 
 places I walk in by my wild lone ! It was a treat your 
 coming down. I enjoyed the hot dish we ordered to- 
 gether, 1 it was a million times nicer as we ordered it 
 together. I can picture you now in your sitting-room 
 with fire and bulbs, and you can me in my toys. This 
 week will pass and bring at its close the joy of an- 
 other meeting. We had that Epistle this morning at 
 11.0: "And now abideth these three, Faith, Hope, and 
 Love, but the greatest of these is Love." I thought 
 of you as I often think of you, and hope the term may 
 fly quickly and we may have a delightful time to- 
 gether. All is well here. I love you very much. 
 
 Your own adoring CRUFF. 
 
 February 2U/, 1912. 
 
 This afternoon I went to the Cathedral Library, 
 after having previously read your delightfully mounted 
 extract you sent me. I went to Rob, who is a delicious 
 old person, and then we went up into the beautiful 
 long room, and how I enjoyed the marvellous manu- 
 scripts! You can't possibly imagine the beauty of 
 them. 
 
 There were marvellous illuminations, but the most 
 
 1 An addition to the last meal of the day, which may be ordered to 
 be sent in from the school shop.
 
 146 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 wonderful of all by far was the VULGATE manuscript, 
 which I saw and enjoyed very much! x There were 
 letters that went the length of the page which have 
 symbolical pictures in and along them. There are 
 the most brilliantly beautiful colours imaginable ! ! I 
 saw one of Elijah, and in the letter was the whole story 
 of his life. Half way down you saw the mantle, and 
 below Elisha, on whom it was falling. There were 
 also lovely rings and sapphires there. I did enjoy it. 
 
 May 2gtk, 1912. 
 
 Yesterday was leave out day, and as Beloe went 
 away, three of us got leave to go on the river. We got 
 into three boats with paddles. They were rather wob- 
 bly at first, and we went a long way, paddling on each 
 side alternately. We took ices in tins, and books, and 
 we lay in these boats in the shade and ate ices! Most 
 delicious ! After that we went out in an ordinary boat 
 for a short way. Then after lunch we went again in 
 the paddle boats, which could have sails, but there was 
 no wind. Then we bathed and had tea. We had quite 
 a nice day, really. I have got to clean some boots this 
 afternoon, as I forgot to shut a window in galleries, 
 and so have not much time. There have been a few 
 cricket matches. The "Wykehamist" is just out, and 
 with a splendid article on Classics and the Average 
 Boy! Your loving 
 
 CHISSIFOR. 
 
 July i^th, 1912. 
 
 It is awfully hot here. I will apply for "Swiss 
 leave" next week. I am looking forward to seeing the 
 
 Dating from the twelfth century.
 
 WINCHESTER 147 
 
 King to-morrow. We all receive him in Chamber 
 Court, and sing "Domum" 1 and "God save the King." 
 Then we meet him again in the Warden's garden, 
 which is a most lovely place. 
 
 We are going to win a cricket cup this year; the 
 final round is not quite finished. I have been cleaning 
 brass buttons a good deal this morning. I went to a 
 lecture the other day on "The Processes of Etching 
 and Engraving." Next week we shall be revising for 
 exams. 
 AGED 15. October llth, 1912. 
 
 I had such a happy birthday ! My cake is delicious. 
 I gave it all round. We have just had Notion- 
 Examina., and the prefects let me off easily. (I gave 
 them each a large piece of cake!) Will you send me 
 my two golf clubs and the bag, so that I may use them, 
 for I want to play golf, and there is another man in 
 the house who has just begun. . . . 
 
 I remember 
 
 "Act well thy part, 
 There all thy duty lies." 2 
 
 Where do these lines come from? 
 
 January 2$rd, 1913. 
 
 I had the carriage to myself all the way, and a pleas- 
 ant journey. I arrived safe and got my books. I send 
 you my holiday task, which I had this morning, and 
 
 1 The Winchester Song, supposed to have been carved on Domum 
 Tree (an elm on St. Catherine's Hill blown down in 1904), by a 
 "man" kept back for the holidays, who there committed suicide. 
 "Pope. The correct version is: 
 
 "Honour and shame from no condition rise; 
 Act well your part, there all the honour lies."
 
 148 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 did well in it. I enclose the paper. It was not very 
 hard. I am in Mr. Platnauer's division. He is very 
 nice, and I like him so much. There are three new 
 men, Yates, Kilburn and Ferguson. 1 I am in the same 
 toys and the same dormitory, but a different and nicer 
 bed. I have to sweep out the hall or toy-room next 
 week. Nice to get it over so early in the term ! We 
 get up at 6.45. I think of you walking alone in Lon- 
 don. However, we shall be together again soon. 
 Schlafen Sie wohl. 
 
 February gth, 1913. 
 
 I enjoyed the debate I went to. We all sat in Mo- 
 berly Library, the President, Mr. Quirk, sitting at a 
 large table. To become a member you pay is., and 
 then you can vote. Debate is held every other Mon- 
 day. I send you the rules of the society and a paper 
 which is given to every member of the society. 
 
 This is Gathers Sunday, 2 and so I am going again 
 to the Cathedral. I do enjoy the Cathedral, especially 
 the sixpenny parts, 3 and it is always interesting and 
 beautiful. . . . To-day I have finished all my fagging 
 for good, except cleaning boots every day! I am in 
 the middle of "Barnaby Rudge." So delightful! 
 
 March isf, 1913. 
 
 Everything goes on much the same as usual here. 
 There is a junior steeplechase soon. There are also ath- 
 letics (sports) on March 25th. There was an inter- 
 esting lecture last week on lifeboats by Captain 
 
 filled, 1917. 
 
 *A separate service is held for the School, in the Cathedral, on 
 the second Sunday of each month. 
 * This fee is charged for admission to the eastern aisles and chapels.
 
 WINCHESTER 149 
 
 Bathurst. We had a debate in my dormitory on 
 Woman Suffrage. I was proposer; I spoke in favour 
 of it, and the motion was easily carried! 
 
 March ^oth, 1913. 
 
 All is well here. I got a beautiful driver (price 
 55. 6d.), and I am going to use it to-morrow when I 
 play golf. I was fifth in my block (out of about fifty) 
 in mathematics, and first in geometry. The prize is 
 only given for the whole thing; it was won by a 
 Scholar. I have been reading the "Ancient Sage" and 
 the "Passing of Arthur." They are marvellously beau- 
 tiful poems ! It was so exciting about Monte 1 and the 
 Burglar. Monte found him in a cupboard; he was 
 hiding, and Monte in his pyjamas collared him. The 
 burglar said, "I won't struggle." Monte said, "I don't 
 care if you do !" 
 
 How wonderful St. Luke i. and ii. are ! I have been 
 reading them. I am truly sorry to lose Nurse, and I 
 do not think we can realise how much we shall miss 
 her. I hope she will come back to us and see us again, 
 and perhaps be nurse to my children! 
 
 There are only two more days, and next half will 
 be nice, as I shall have no fagging. To-night we read 
 "Locksley Hall." It is a very realistic poem, but diffi- 
 cult to understand. 
 
 Fisher's Hill, Woking, April 1913. 
 I arrived at Woking and saw Mr. Balfour and Aunt 
 Betty 2 starting off for London. Then I went in the car 
 
 1 Mr. Montague Kendall, Head Master. 
 
 *The name by which he always called Lady Betty Balfour, though 
 there was no tie between them other than that of close friendship.
 
 150 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 to various places to do some shopping, and then I came 
 on here. After lunch I went out with Eve, who is 
 well and in very good spirits. We explored every- 
 where, and we made a large bonfire. We then got some 
 bread and butter, some butter and some potatoes (raw), 
 and we cooked the potatoes in the embers, and had a 
 delicious meal ... in the woods. I have been playing 
 the pianola here, which works by clockwork, but you 
 pedal to make the sound. Ruth has got a motor-bike 
 on which she is going to Crabbet to-morrow. I rode it 
 up and down the drive; it is just like an ordinary bike, 
 except that it carries you along! . . . 
 
 It seems so strange to be here without you ! I wish 
 you were here too. The place is as it was last year. 
 I am enjoying myself immensely. I expect the play 
 will come off well. Eve is the Emperor, and Anthony 
 the hero! I have to drink poisoned cofee (instead of 
 poisoned wine, as was previously arranged). Mrs. 
 Sidgwick is here. She is happy and cheerful. Beloe 1 
 said my report was excellent. I did not get my remove, 
 as there were only five, but I was first in my division 
 for both maths, and French. Beloe's parting words to 
 me were, "I am very pleased with you. You have 
 done well/' 
 
 P.S. Mum!! Telegram just arrived. 2 God bless 
 Augustus Henry. We are all so delighted. I am so 
 pleased he has arrived. Your four children! I am 
 wildly excited. Love to all. 
 
 1 His first House Master. 
 
 * Announcing the birth of his youngest brother, afterwards known 
 in the family as "The Wise One."
 
 WINCHESTER 151 
 
 July 2oth, 1913. 
 
 DEAR MUM, In the combined term order I am 
 first. This means first in everything except exams, 
 (which begin to-morrow), and I shall be first alto- 
 gether if I do well in them! I am revising hard, so 
 that I may do well, as exams, count a good deal. I 
 have been reading Lamb's "Essays of Elia"; some 
 of them are very amusing. 
 
 The table I am making is practically finished, and 
 looks superb. Monte came into carpenter's shop the 
 other day and admired it and turned it upside down to 
 examine it all over. Well, dear Mum, you are con- 
 stantly in my thoughts. Much love from your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 ChamouniX) August 30^, 1913. 
 DEAR MOTHER, These are a few Alpine flowers I 
 gathered for you at the Mer de Glace. I hope most of 
 them will be alive when they reach you. There was 
 a thunderstorm yesterday over Mont Blanc, the light- 
 ning flashing down upon it, and there was lightning in 
 the sky too, in another place, most vivid flashes light- 
 ing up the sky. It is a wonderful sight ! I walked on 
 the Mer de Glace yesterday; it was just like a sea sud- 
 denly frozen, and is quite solid to walk upon, but oc- 
 casionally you hear it creaking. The mountains are 
 wonderful, and I feel their power when I see them. 
 I appreciate their character so immensely. Everything 
 is so delightful here, and the people are so intelligent. 
 Love to my Brothers! Your loving 
 
 CRUFF.
 
 152 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 AGED 16. October 12th, 1913. 
 
 MY VERY DEAR MOTHER, Thank you so much for 
 the 1 os. you sent me. I should like to choose something 
 with you when we meet on December 1st. I feel a 
 great responsibility when I realise I am 16, and I hope 
 I shall be able to do my best in my work, of whatever 
 sort it may be. 
 
 I felt that you were especially near me on my birth- 
 day, and I am glad each birthday when I think as I 
 grow up I can be more and more of a companion to you. 
 The outward routine of life seems so trivial, yet it is 
 serious in itself, but I think it is hard to use one's 
 opportunities well. Well, dear Mother, the days are 
 passing, one just like the other, except that I progress 
 steadily in my work. But life is well worth the strug- 
 gle. You know the line of "Ulysses" : 
 
 "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" 
 
 I feel that I am helped by those I love, whether near 
 or far. My beloved mother, to you above all are due 
 my gratitude and love. Your loving firstborn, 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 October 26 th, 1913. 
 
 All is well here. Winter is coming on fast, and the 
 weather has turned cold. I rejoice in my new warm 
 vests ! I am trying to enjoy my time here, and I think 
 I succeed to a large extent. 
 
 I have been appointed to the post of Junior Li- 
 brarian; that is, I suggest, discuss, and am consulted 
 about the new books that are now being got for House 
 Library. Everybody pays is. a term to the Library,
 
 WINCHESTER 153 
 
 so we have enough money to buy quite a lot of books 
 a year. 
 
 November 4/^, 1913. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, In the debate next Monday I 
 am going to speak. 1 The motion is, "That this House 
 approves of vivisection," and I speak in favour of the 
 motion; that is, for vivisection. It is difficult to de- 
 fend, because people .will say it is cruel, but could you 
 send me some points or facts about it, serious or hu- 
 morous, that would help me? 
 
 All is well here. I expect to finish the bookcase this 
 term; it is progressing favourably. I am well and 
 happy, and my exam, is to-morrow, and on Saturday 
 we have "viva voce" up to Monte ! 
 
 Much love, dear mother. Your affectionate 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 November 12 (h, 1913. 
 
 My speech was quite a success, though one or two of 
 my points had been mentioned. I had plenty to say, 
 and though I felt nervous I got on all right, and heard 
 that my speech was good ! Each speaker goes up to a 
 large round table at which the President and Vice- 
 President and Treasurer are seated. Paget is Vice- 
 President, and spoke well. The motion was carried by 
 eight votes. I hope I convinced eight people! No 
 good speeches were made against it. 
 
 1 At the Debating Society, open to men in Sixth Book and Senior 
 Part
 
 154 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 To HIS BROTHER. 
 
 November igth, 1913. 
 
 MY DEAR ALEXANDER, To-morrow is your birth- 
 day, and I am sending you a present which I do not 
 expect you have yet received. May you have a happy 
 birthday ! Four years is a long time, a great age com- 
 pared with dear Wise One, to whom give my love. 
 
 Yesterday I bicycled to Southampton, and we got 
 into a small steamer, and it rolled very much, and we 
 went for a short sail ; then we bicycled back in the dark 
 without lamps! Southampton is twelve miles away, 
 and Beloe went with us, and we lunched in a wood. 
 
 Give my love to dear Nannie. God bless you on 
 your fifth birthday, and I feel sure you are happy. 
 Much love from your own Big Brer, 
 
 CHISSIFOR. 
 
 December jth, 1913. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, All well here. Exams, start next 
 Saturday. I am getting on well here and enjoying my- 
 self, but it is an effort to work hard and get up in the 
 morning ! I had a book to read during the term, a term 
 task, and I have the exam, on it on Tuesday; it is 
 Kingsley's "Hypatia," quite amusing, but it almost 
 spoils a book to have to work at it carefully. There 
 was an amusing debate the other day on, "Are we bet- 
 ter than our fathers'?" The motion was lost by six 
 votes, but I voted for it! I "get up by candle-light" 1 
 now, but after next Thursday there is no work before 
 breakfast ! 
 
 Stevenson, "Bed in Summer," in "Child's Garden of Verse."
 
 WINCHESTER 155 
 
 I have been asked by one of the Dons to "rub 
 brasses" next holidays, which consists of getting a print 
 of some brass figures on church walls and floors by 
 rubbing with heelball on kitchen paper put over them; 
 and there are one or two quite close to Brighton which 
 he wants me to do, and in the summer we may have 
 an exhibition of them here! Knights in armour and 
 other figures in brass can be rubbed, so as to get the 
 imprint of them. All is well here. I am working hard 
 and I hope it may not be in vain ! 
 
 December 21 s(, 1913. 
 
 I shall be with you on Tuesday. How nice it is that 
 all work for the term is over! I have done quite well 
 in exams., being first in both the Greek papers (Euri- 
 pides and Demosthenes) with some ease, and second 
 in Gibbon's "History," and quite high in the Latin 
 papers, so with luck I ought to get a remove. 
 
 The Christmas holidays this year were spent at 
 Brighton, where his parents had taken a house for the 
 winter. The strange beauty of the Downs so unlike 
 their own Glamorganshire country appealed strongly 
 to the family party, and long expeditions by motor were 
 made in every direction. Near home, the little church 
 of Rottingdean with its lovely Burne-Jones windows 
 became a favourite haunt, and happy but laborious 
 days were spent in obtaining "rubbings" for the forth- 
 coming exhibition of church brasses to be held at Win- 
 chester. New Shoreham, Goring, and the Fitzalan 
 Chapel at Arundel Castle, where no less than six rub-
 
 156 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 bings were made in one day, yielded fine examples of 
 early brass work, the rubber becoming more and more 
 expert as time went on. 
 
 January 22nd, 1914. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Your letter, which arrived 
 this morning, was a great comfort to me. There is one 
 new man, and I am in the same bed and toys. Monro 
 is Scotch, a good scholar and teacher. I like him and 
 have been getting on well with him, and my work is 
 interesting. The Bin 1 was raptured with our rubbings, 
 and insisted on opening them. He said they were very 
 good. He also tells me that though none of the rub- 
 bings have yet been mounted, he himself, aided by 
 rubbers, has determined to cut out and mount on can- 
 vas all the rubbings for the Exhibition, as he says they 
 look very much nicer. He showed me some other rub- 
 bings, and the best one of all was a very black one done 
 near here, but ours are a good deal better than most. 
 The Bin says we can have the rubbings back; how 
 nice they will look in the billiard room ! Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 March 22nd, 1914. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, All is well here, but there is no 
 news to tell you. I am well and happy and look for^ 
 ward to the end of the term very much. I read this 
 morning, in Mob. Lib., Fred's essay on Virgil. 2 We 
 have read it together, and I enjoyed it very much; 
 it is so wonderful. I am sorry to see ominous prepa- 
 rations going on about Ulster. I hope there will not 
 be a war. How is it that it is so fascinating and so 
 
 1 Mr. Robinson. 
 
 'Frederic Myers, "Classical Essays."
 
 WINCHESTER 157 
 
 enjoyable to read about war in things like Homer and 
 Virgil, and yet war itself is really so terrible! Give 
 my love to Alexander and the noble Wise One. As 
 Juvenal says, Maxima debetur puero reverential Good 
 night, dear mother. Your loving 
 
 GRUFF. 
 
 Cambridge, April 28M, 1914. 
 DEAREST MOTHER, It was sad to have to part 
 from you this morning, and I do miss you so much. 
 This afternoon I went to Ely 1 and saw the Cathedral, 
 which I much enjoyed, but they were tuning the organ 
 most of the time, which was rather tiresome. I went 
 up the octagonal tower and saw the towers of King's 
 in the distance. ... I am still doing jigsaws; they dis- 
 tract the mind from anything else. I long to be at 
 Cambridge; Winchester seems dull and monotonous 
 compared with it. Everything is so delightful here. 
 I have had such a happy holiday that it makes it hard 
 for me going back. I am so lonely without you. 
 Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 Winchester, May \\th, 1914. 
 
 This afternoon Gustave Hamel, a famous aviator, 
 came here to fly, and most of the school went to see 
 him. I went, and was much excited to see him rise 
 up, and especially "loop the loop" ; that is, turn upside 
 down in the air and let the aeroplane dive right down, 
 and then it rights itself. It was most exciting, and he 
 played all sorts of tricks in the air. 
 
 1 His great-great-grandfather, Dr. Pearce, was Dean of Ely in 
 1797. He was also Master of the Temple and Master of Jesus 
 College, Cambridge.
 
 158 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 I had a long talk yesterday about my work with 
 Monro (I told him I was Fred's 1 nephew, which inter- 
 ested him). He says it is most important I should get 
 my remove this term, as in the next division I should 
 get personal supervision and be under a really fine 
 scholar. It is most important I should do this, as I 
 have only eighteen months till the scholarship. 2 He 
 thinks I have a good chance for it if I work, so I must 
 do my utmost to get a remove into Mr. Carter's divi- 
 sion. We chiefly talked about technicalities in my 
 work. How hard it is to work well in hot weather! 
 
 Your Suffrage work interests me always. I find how 
 people confuse any Suffragist opinion with militancy. 
 I had a long talk with our butler (Witty) on the 
 subject. He thinks it would be all right if propertied 
 women had a vote, but he "doesn't want to see women 
 in Parliament," which, he thinks, would be the swift 
 outcome of Suffrage. Also, a boy tells me Suffrage in 
 Australia is quite a failure. I said I believed it was 
 otherwise! How terrible this liner disaster must be 
 for the relations and friends of those who perished! 
 I am now reading "John Bull's other Island" for the 
 third time; it is most delightful. 
 
 To HIS GRANDMOTHER, MRS. TENNANT 
 
 Winchester, May 2Otk, 1914. 
 
 DEAREST GRANDMAMA, Your delightful and re- 
 freshing letter reached me this morning; all you say 
 interests me. 
 
 1 Frederic Myers. 
 
 3 He had decided to try for a scholarship at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge.
 
 WINCHESTER 159 
 
 Yes ; I think, though one has periods of great happi- 
 ness, life is a struggle, and we climb one mountain only 
 to find another in front of us. Perhaps you know 
 those comforting lines of Clough: 
 
 "Say not the struggle nought availeth, 
 The labour and the wounds are vain. . . ." 
 
 People often say, "Oh, you have your life in front of 
 you" ; but I feel it is a responsibility to make the best 
 of it. There must be some satisfaction in having most 
 of one's life behind one. 
 
 I have not written any poetry lately one cannot sit 
 down and compose it laboriously it must come by in- 
 spiration. The power to think, and to think well, is a 
 rare gift; many people seem very callous and indiffer- 
 ent to the intellectual things of life. However, 
 
 "If they appear untouched by solemn thought, 
 Their nature is not therefore less divine." 
 
 And what a lot of delightful people there are in the 
 world ! It is a great gift to be able to see the best in 
 people there always is a best! 
 
 I am hard at work here, and do not find much time 
 for reading novels. I have been reading a play of 
 Bernard Shaw's lately I think he is always so de- 
 lightful, and I am very fond of his excellent plays. 
 I have been playing cricket a good deal lately I really 
 enjoy it now. 
 
 To-morrow being Ascension Day, we get a whole 
 holiday, which is something to look forward to. 
 
 Canon Henson, who used to be at St. Margaret's, 
 is coming to preach here this term he is the finest 
 preacher I have ever heard.
 
 160 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Well, I must say good-bye now; it will be most 
 delightful to see you all on June 2nd. I always enjoy 
 my day in London tremendously. 
 
 Good-night, and God bless you. Ever your loving 
 friend, 1 
 
 CHRISTOPHER TENNANT. 
 
 June jfk t 1914. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, So glad my bike has arrived. 
 I shall enjoy unpacking it myself when I arrive. Your 
 Suffrage work must be tryingly difficult in some ways 
 canvassing and the like but you will look back to 
 it with intense pride when the Suffrage Movement has 
 achieved its object. No doubt, in your work, as in 
 mine, there is a great deal that is enjoyable. 
 
 I have only been twice to Gathers since I have been 
 back, but next holiday I am free, I have been intending 
 to go and hear the anthem at 4 o'clock. I have been 
 playing cricket so much lately, but I hope to go next 
 week; another boy advised me and said he had been; 
 the same who is under the delusion about Australian 
 Suffrage [having been a failure]. He is a pre- 
 fect!!!... 
 
 God bless you, dear mother, we must each 
 "Lay his uphill shoulder to the wheel." 
 
 I am progressing every day. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 Lionel Ford, Head Master of Harrow, preached to- 
 day a good sermon. 
 
 3 This designation was adopted as the result of a suggestion by his 
 grandmother, who felt the intellectual link between them an even 
 stronger tie than that of blood relationship.
 
 WINCHESTER 161 
 
 I am now reading "John Bull's Other Island" for 
 the third time; it is most delightful. 
 
 June 28 fh, 1914. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, It has been such a joy having 
 Deedooge 1 here for the last two days. We had a most 
 delightful time together, and we both enjoyed our- 
 selves tremendously. I showed him the places of in- 
 terest in the College and the Exhibition of Brasses, 
 which was a great success. Mine were beautiful ! We 
 also watched the match against Eton, which was really 
 most exciting, and ended in a draw ; there was not time 
 to finish the match, but if there had been we should 
 probably have won! However, you cannot tell, and 
 the result was considered a draw not especially in 
 cither's favour. There were thousands of people here 
 for the Eton match, as nearly everybody had some 
 friends down, and we had brilliant weather; we get 
 whole holidays those two days very delightful. 
 
 Farewell, dear mother. I hope you are getting on 
 well with your Suffrage work. On Eton match day I 
 saw a girl with your colours selling "The Common 
 Cause" 2 here. I was overjoyed, and said to her, "I 
 am delighted to see you here." The first appearance of 
 Suffrage in Winchester! Your loving ~ 
 
 Llandrindod Wells, July 30^, 1914. 
 I arrived here safely yesterday, and am very happy 
 with Gaggi. 3 It was a triumph getting my remove 
 
 1 Childish nickname for his Father. 
 
 *The weekly paper issued by the National Union of Women's 
 Suffrage Societies. 
 'His maternal grandmother.
 
 162 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 such a reward for my work, and makes all my labour 
 worth while! I was in great suspense until I knew I 
 was all right. I am in the Lower Sixth now I shall 
 be under a Mr. Carter, a great classical scholar, who 
 adores classics and makes his pupils work hard. 
 
 We are going this afternoon to Elan Valley water- 
 works, and I look forward to my run back in the car 
 to Cadoxton on Wednesday. . . . This is a lovely 
 place, and I am enjoying myself. 
 
 Winchester^ September l8M, 1914. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have passed my Certificate 
 (by which I am exempt from Little-Go) and the extra 
 subjects for Cambridge, having taken extra mathe- 
 matics and Scripture included in my certificate. Now, 
 therefore, I can devote more time to classics. I like 
 Mr. Carter; he is very interesting; but the work is 
 hard not too hard. I shall be doing Greek iambics, 
 Greek prose, and Latin prose or verse all in a week. 
 In my division we do only one Greek book at a time; 
 we are doing the Antigone of Sophocles. I have only 
 time to say how much I miss you, and how every year 
 I do feel that you are with me in the spirit distance 
 cannot separate this. 
 
 Farewell, dearest. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF.. 
 
 October 2$tk, 1914. 
 
 The terrible war seems to be dragging on. Hilaire 
 Belloc lectured here last week, and he said everything 
 depended upon the result of the battle on the Vistula. 
 Also he thought there was going to be a big smash-up
 
 WINCHESTER 163 
 
 soon. I am getting on in my work; we are getting 
 through the Antigone; it is very fine. I also do Plato 
 and Herodotus "unseen." I did so enjoy seeing you 
 at Fisher's Hill. I went out to tea to-day with May 
 Carter, the sister of my master, Frank Carter, and had 
 a very pleasant time there. They have a very nice 
 house the other side of the Cathedral, with a lovely 
 view from it. 
 
 June $th, 1915. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I hope all is well with you; 
 I have not much news to tell you, except to suggest a 
 plan which occurred to me. It is now drawing near 
 the time of my examination, which is in November, 
 and I suggest I should leave Winchester at the end of 
 this term (which I should not be very sorry to do), 
 and that I should have a month or so's coaching for 
 my scholarship, which would give me more chance of 
 getting one I do not know if I am doing the right 
 sort of work here for it. Then my exam, would be in 
 November, and I could spend the time before I actu- 
 ally go to Trinity with you, instead of being here at 
 Winchester. I shall soon be 18, and I do not think I 
 should much miss being here. You know, mother, we 
 see so very little of each other as things are, and there 
 are lots of things we could do together, if we had time. 
 Ever your loving 
 
 A CRUFF. 
 
 AGED 17. 
 
 To show that the daily round was not all couleur de 
 rose, and to give a faithful picture of life in his House, 
 some indication of other sides ought to be given sides 
 which often trouble parents, though in deference to
 
 164 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 ancient custom they try to make light of them. Ac- 
 cordingly the following extracts from three letters writ- 
 ten early in June, 1915, by Christopher to his Mother 
 are here quoted: 
 
 "I entirely agree with what you say; I think it is 
 best that I should stick on here for the present, though 
 I am not very happy here, and often feel very lonely 
 there is no sort of intellectual companionship with the 
 boys in my house, who for the most part dislike and 
 despise those who care for such things. ... I assure 
 you my life here is not a happy one, but I know things 
 will be better next term, and I do not despair; but I 
 only tell you this because you know what a relief it is 
 to tell one's sorrow to anyone who will sympathise. . . . 
 I do not say I have no friends. They are rather ac- 
 quaintances and no more. You can imagine a large 
 number of boys who loathe work, and who when 
 massed together become somewhat animal-like. It is 
 the loneliness I have been in that has brought me into 
 disfavour, especially as there are a large number of 
 rough boys. They have for the most part some vir- 
 tues, but are rough, and readily resort to measures of 
 violence. These measures would be more correctly 
 described as one or two incidents by which some who 
 are not my friends showed their spitefulness. It will 
 perhaps help if I tell you that this is a very rowdy 
 house at present. Bullying has always gone on to some 
 degree (not of me), as in all Public Schools. I have 
 not said anything at all to annoy, but I have always 
 kept more or less myself to myself. I have thrown my 
 whole keenness into my work. The prefects are as fol-
 
 WINCHESTER 165 
 
 lows: three mediocre and impartial, one rowdy and 
 hostile (only mentally), and one who is unutterably 
 weak and has no authority. The upper part of the 
 house (just below the prefects) can do more or less 
 what they like without interference from prefects, who 
 probably know that these upper boys hold me in dis- 
 favour. I mean that they do not persecute me, but as 
 a rule ignore me. This I like. I am a good deal alone, 
 and then I am happy. ... I will only add that I do 
 not know nor can I find out who has committed these 
 acts of hostility trifles in themselves some of them. 
 I will illustrate: I do not know who threw my books 
 on the floor and poured my own ink and brilliantine 
 and glue on them : who tore in half a new tie I had not 
 yet worn, who broke the glass of my picture frames, 
 who broke up a wooden stand for writing-paper I had, 
 who smeared my hair-brushes, one pair with ink, an- 
 other with leather polish. Nor do I know who poured 
 coloured inks on to my best white tennis shoes, who 
 poured nasty smelling chemicals into my cushion so 
 that it had to be thrown away, who removed my elec- 
 tric globe so that I have to use candles, who broke the 
 front magnifying glass of my gold watch. Such things 
 may seem but trifles and would be ludicrous if they 
 were not very tiresome. If I am a prefect next term, 
 which is very probable, I shall at least have comfort 
 and peace. As it is, no one affects my work : I prepare 
 it in Mob. Lib., 1 and so do no work in my house ex- 
 cept preparation in the evening. I have told you every- 
 thing. I do not think many boys confide school trou- 
 
 *The School Library.
 
 166 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 bles to their mothers, but I am glad I have done so to 
 you, as you, I know, would always understand." 
 
 A letter from his House Master, Mr. A. E. Wilson, 
 written in June, 1915, in answer to a letter from Chris- 
 topher's Mother (it need hardly be said that the boy 
 remained in complete ignorance both of her letter and 
 of the reply) shows that he was fully aware of the 
 facts of the case, and that he sympathised warmly with 
 the boy, although he did not "conform to type" : indeed, 
 he took strong measures to stop the trouble. 
 
 Writing with full sympathy and understanding, he 
 admits that "the general tone of the House is em- 
 phatically not intellectual. ... I have a set of big 
 men who are pure Philistines, with whom Christopher 
 would never get on, and who are incapable of making 
 allowance for a person of Christopher's temperament 
 and tastes. Most of them are leaving this term, and I 
 think Christopher will be happier next term. It would 
 be a very great pity for him to leave now. He is do- 
 ing very good work and making most satisfactory 
 progress, and his Division Master, Mr. Carter, is very 
 pleased with him. I wish I could write in a more 
 comforting way about him; but it is better to be quite 
 frank as to what I think." 
 
 It should be noted that the relation between Chris- 
 topher and his House Master had always been and re- 
 mained to the end an entirely friendly one. That the 
 older man understood and appreciated the boy is shown 
 by the following extract from a letter written by him
 
 WINCHESTER 167 
 
 to Christopher's mother on hearing of her son's death 
 in action: 
 
 "Christopher was such an attractive personality, 
 and I am sure I can fully endorse what Lord Harlech 
 wrote that we can ill afford to lose such young men 
 as he now. He was always an influence for good 
 wherever he was, and had such a sane outlook that 
 one had hoped for a distinguished career for him." 
 
 June 22nd, 1915. 
 
 I was very sorry to part from you this morning, 
 but we have had such a delicious time together; I 
 am so glad you came, and you managed to get a lot in 
 in two days. I look forward to your coming down here 
 again : your visit has made everything so much brighter 
 for me, and all the places round about have sweet 
 memories of our happy time together. I hope you ar- 
 rived safely at Cadoxton, and caught your train com- 
 fortably. I spent the afternoon with Gilbert Murray 
 in Mob. Lib., and finished the book. ... It was de- 
 licious your being here, and a very good idea of yours 
 to come. I'm so glad you are on the Executive; 1 it is 
 splendid. Farewell, dear mother. 
 
 June 2jth, 1915. 
 
 All well here. I talked to Frank Carter yesterday 
 about my scholarship; he thinks I have got quite a 
 good chance. He said that examinations always de- 
 pended on various things, such as whether one is on 
 one's day at the time, and also on the examiners. He 
 said that when he used to be a master at St. Paul's 
 
 1 His mother had been recently elected to the Executive of the 
 National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
 
 168 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 he used to send up a good many people to Trinity for 
 scholarships, and he never knew of any case in which 
 the examiners had made a mistake they never failed 
 to take the good and reject bad people. He said that 
 was owing to the fact that Trinity had a large number 
 of Fellows, and that the papers were looked over by at 
 least three different examiners to get the fairest results. 
 He also said that I was up to the standard of scholar- 
 ship, and that I ought to have some coaching in the 
 holidays, but that it would not be easy to find any- 
 one. I also talked to Monro about it, and he said that 
 it would be difficult to get coaching in the holidays. 
 He (Monro) said I could try for the scholarship again 
 in March if I failed in November, and that I could 
 try again as often as I liked, after I had gone up to 
 Cambridge. 
 
 Llandrindod Wells^ July 2C)tk, 1915. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, You will have heard from 
 C.C.T. about my remove into the top division. I am 
 now in the first twenty of the whole School. Also that 
 I am going to be a Prefect next term. Carter has told 
 me what he advises me to do in the holidays; he said 
 I must not do too much work. I have got the books 
 with me; the work he advised is to read Homer's 
 Odyssey without looking up the words, but read it 
 straight through like a novel, and that after I had read 
 a thousand lines or so it would be just like reading 
 Shakespeare. ... I am enjoying myself here; the air 
 is most refreshing. It is a great relief to get out of 
 Winchester after having been there so long, and to be 
 able to take a good rest. 
 
 Ever your loving CRUFF.
 
 WINCHESTER 169 
 
 Winchester, September 23^, 1915. 
 
 All is well here. I am working at nothing but 
 classics, except for two hours' history a week which I 
 cannot avoid. 
 
 I have become a member of the Shakespeare Society 
 at the President's invitation. The President is Monte 1 
 himself, and the Society is called S.R.O.G.U.S. The 
 letters mean Shakespeare Reading, etc., Society, and 
 we go and read a play of Shakespeare's, each taking a 
 part and reading it. This will be very exciting, and 
 it is such a nice way to read Shakespeare. It is still 
 quite warm weather here. I do most of my work with 
 Monte and Rackam, and some with M. du Pontet. I 
 have only played one game of football since I got back. 
 The house is very peaceful, and everything is running 
 smoothly. 
 
 AGED 18. October lo/A, 1Q15- 2 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Thank you so much for the 
 beautiful Japanese print you Sent me. I have put it 
 up in my toys, and it looks beautiful there; many peo- 
 ple to whom I have shown it admired it very much and 
 were surprised at it. I like the sea and those delicious 
 hills. It is quite a joy for ever to me, and gives me 
 pleasure whenever I look at it. ... 
 
 It seems strange to me to be 18 ! I remember a birth- 
 day so well at Cadoxton I had when I was 8, and it 
 seems quite a short time ago. All well here. We had 
 our Shakespeare reading last night. We read the Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, and I was "Slender." Monte said 
 to me that I read very well! We all enjoyed it so 
 
 x The Head Master. 
 
 2 His eighteenth birthday.
 
 170 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 much. I talked to Duff about Cambridge. Farewell. 
 Ever your loving 
 
 GRUFF. 
 
 October 3<D/A, 1915. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am writing to wish you many 
 happy returns of your birthday. I send you a little 
 lacquer tray which I got here; it may be useful to 
 you, and I think it is old. 
 
 All well here. I am going on Monday, leave-out 
 day, home with Wallop to Hurstbourne, where I shall 
 meet Lord Portsmouth. 1 I shall be very happy to 
 spend Christmas at Cadoxton. I go up to Cambridge 
 on December 6th, and stay there till December nth 
 just that week. I am getting on well here, and am 
 very happy and enjoying myself we prefects are all 
 very united. We have fires every day now, all the day 
 long, in the Prefects' library : it is much easier to work 
 when warm and comfortable in spite of X.'s main- 
 taining the exact opposite of this! Well, dearest 
 Mother, God bless you, and farewell : I hope you will 
 have a happy birthday. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 November list, 1915. 
 
 The time of my exam, is drawing near now, and on 
 December 6th I go to Cambridge; I do not know ex- 
 actly what I shall do when I get there, but I suppose 
 Ernest Harrison will tell me. . . . We had a lecture 
 by a man in the school to the Archseological Society 
 this morning, and I was asked to go, though I do not 
 
 1 A Balliol friend of his father's.
 
 WINCHESTER 171 
 
 belong to the Society; it was very interesting about 
 Chinese art. He knows someone at the British Mu- 
 seum, and had got down a crate of ancient Chinese 
 porcelains and bronzes very beautiful things. Morn- 
 ing lines, the hour we do before breakfast, has changed 
 from 7 to 7.30, and so we get more sleep. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, December 6tk, 1915. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I arrived here safely this after- 
 noon and found your letter waiting for me : I have got 
 very nice rooms on the ground floor in the Great Court. 
 When I got here I went to see Harrison 1 : he is very 
 pleasant, and told me all I had to do. I have two ex- 
 aminations per day throughout the following week, 
 one between breakfast and lunch and one between 
 lunch and tea. I go back to Winchester on Saturday. 
 It is very dark here at night. It is lovely here: the 
 Great Court looks beautiful, and I have got very nice 
 rooms, a bedroom and a large sitting-room, on the left 
 of the Court as you come in at the main entrance. 
 There is only one other Wykehamist up here, as far as 
 I know, and he is the son of the Trinity organist, so 
 he will be with his father, and I shall not see much 
 of him. 
 
 Well, dearest Mother, I hope I shall succeed in the 
 examination; they do not give one too much time for 
 the papers, and I do not go very rapidly, but I will do 
 my best. After dinner this evening I am going to see 
 Harrison again. All well here. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 *Mr. E. Harrison, Tutor of Trinity College. See p. 287.
 
 172 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Trinity College., Cambridge, December Jfk, 1915. 
 
 All well here; I have so far had two papers, Latin 
 verse and Latin translation, one this morning and the 
 other this afternoon. I think I did them all right, but 
 of course I do not know how I compare with others. 
 The people doing the examinations all look very 
 learned ! 
 
 I had a cup of coffee with Mr. Harrison yesterday 
 evening. He is very nice and cheerful, and has got a 
 great sense of humour; he asked me a lot about Win- 
 chester. To-morrow I have two Greek papers, verse 
 and translation. My day is as follows, regularly: I am 
 called at 7.30 by a bedmaker, and breakfast at 8 
 o'clock. I have a paper from 9 to 1 1.30 or 12.30, and 
 then lunch at 12.30, and have another paper from 
 1.30 till 4.30. It is dark at 4.30 now, and the streets 
 have no lights. Then at 7.35 I have dinner in Trinity 
 hall (the same place as I do the examinations in), all 
 the other meals being in my room. I have to order 
 my own meals which is a problem I have never faced 
 before ! 
 
 I will write again to-morrow. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, December 8M, 1915. 
 
 I went to Trinity Chapel this morning and copied 
 out the hymn for you, which I send you. 1 I also went 
 to King's Chapel and walked back along the Backs 
 of the Colleges. I hope all is well with you. I have 
 
 lK When wilt Thou save the People?" by Ebenezer Elliot (1781- 
 1849), a special favourite of his which is included in Trinity Col- 
 lege Hymnal. See also p. 237.
 
 WINCHESTER 173 
 
 no news to tell you. My holidays begin on Wednes- 
 day, December 22nd. 
 
 Of the result of the examination his House Master 
 wrote as follows: 
 
 "Kingsgate House^ December 23^, 1915. 
 "I am sorry that Christopher has not got an Exhibi- 
 tion at Trinity he seems to have gone very near it, 
 judging from the letter he received from his tutor. He 
 was apparently up against very stiff competition, for 
 the few Classical Scholarships and Exhibitions which 
 they gave. And he has another chance next year, when 
 I hope he may be successful." 
 
 As the result had not been unforeseen, Christopher 
 was not greatly disappointed; on the other hand, he 
 always looked back with satisfaction to the chance 
 which had made him an inmate of the College for those 
 few days. His name is among those of the members 
 of the College who have served in the Army or the 
 Navy during the war. The lists are at present affixed 
 to the screen in the ante-chapel. 
 
 Winchester, February 2jfh, 1916. 
 I have this time news to tell you about myself. I 
 am in bed with a sprained ankle, and have to rest it 
 for two or three days, so I am having a good rest, which 
 I enjoy, and there is no pain in the ankle at all. I 
 put it out of joint when tobogganing yesterday we 
 managed to upset somehow, and my foot was caught 
 by the toboggan and twisted. However, I was able 
 to walk home comfortably, and it was only afterwards
 
 174 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 that the joint began to swell and grow stiff. We had 
 a delightful time tobogganing on Hills there is quite 
 a good run there, and it was a pity I hurt my ankle at 
 the end. We upset because someone got right in our 
 way, and the man who was guiding swerved sharply, 
 and so we slid off. All I have to do is to keep my foot 
 up; it is in a sort of basket which prevents the bed- 
 clothes pressing on it. The snow is deep here and 
 makes everything look many times more lovely. I 
 have got everything I want here books, etc. 
 
 March 2nd, 1916 
 
 I have enjoyed this week in bed, and it has given 
 me time for reading. I have read all the Wordsworth 
 and some Bacon, and am now deep in Chaucer. I also 
 read one or two novels in between; to-day I read "Man 
 and Superman" again it is very delightful and 
 amusing. 
 
 Two people in other houses are laid up with broken 
 ankles not serious, however. Do let us have music at 
 Easter; it is so refreshing, and I often hunger for it 
 during term time, sometimes unconsciously. Last 
 night at about 8 o'clock the electric light got dimmer 
 and dimmer and then went out. We had been warned 
 that this would be an indication of Zeppelins! So in 
 the dark there was no light anywhere I groped, or 
 rather hopped, my way along to the Matron. Every- 
 one seemed to be rushing about with candles, but I 
 did not use my bad foot at all, and then we heard there 
 was no Zeppelin alarm, so I went back to bed and in 
 ten minutes the light went on again ! There is no news. 
 It is nice having rest and plenty of sleep.
 
 WINCHESTER 175 
 
 May 4/A, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have made all necessary ar- 
 rangements for doing French and mathematics, history 
 and geography, which the necessity of Sandhurst, 
 should it arise, would entail. A good few are in my 
 position and think Sandhurst best. . . . For Sandhurst 
 I have to qualify in English, elementary mathematics, 
 French, history (1588-1901, and "The British Em- 
 pire"!), geography (main features of the world, and 
 especially colonies), and take also Latin and Greek. 
 The exam, is at the end of June. I have been made a 
 Commoner (or "School" as opposed to "House") Pre- 
 fect, which is a great extension of power, and a rise for 
 me. I have a Row in Chapel, etc. 
 
 I saw Aunt Betty 1 to-day. She was very comforting 
 and glad to find me not depressed about anything. I 
 laid before her my present position with its possi- 
 bilities. 
 
 I should very much prefer the Welsh Guards to any- 
 thing else myself. I am very keen about the Welsh 
 Guards now. I note your letter re Lord Harlech, and 
 have written to him and arranged to go on Tuesday. 
 I have got a letter of recommendation from Monte. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, When I got to Welsh Guards 
 Headquarters at 1 1 o'clock they told me Lord Harlech 
 was in Wales and that I could see him at 3.30. I have 
 not seen him yet, but am going to shortly. I went and 
 saw Westminster Abbey and then lunched. I am now 
 sitting in St. James's Park close to the Welsh Guards 
 
 *Lady Betty Balfour. See pp. 149 and 285.
 
 176 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Headquarters, and am going to see Lord Harlech at 
 
 3-3- 
 
 (Later.) 
 
 Lord Harlech says I must go to Sandhurst and learn 
 the thing thoroughly. He will give me a letter of 
 recommendation and send it to Winchester. 
 
 May igfk, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have written to you only on 
 business lately, and now that everything is settled I 
 do feel so deeply grateful to you for all you have done 
 about my going into the Welsh Guards. As I have got 
 to be a soldier, that is best. Personally I do not think 
 it will be at all an unpleasant experience for a few 
 years. My classics may get rusty, and them I shall rub 
 up easily and I shall never cease to care for the right 
 things Browning, and the Alps, and all the things 
 we have loved together. . . . The following are the 
 dates of my movements: June 2yth, Sandhurst exam, 
 (at Winchester). Beginning of July, leave Winches- 
 ter for good (this is usual in the case of men going to 
 Sandhurst). First week in August, results of exam, 
 come out. Immediately after, go to Sandhurst. . . . 
 God bless you, dear Mother. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 June, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I look back with great pleasure 
 to our delightful time together. I enjoyed so much 
 having you here, and I think you managed to do a 
 lot of important business in connection with me. 
 
 This afternoon I fired at the range and did very
 
 WINCHESTER 177 
 
 well. Sergeant Bawket said there was nothing in my 
 shooting to worry about, and that I may fire at the 
 range as often as I like, so as to get good by prac- 
 tice. . . . He has been eleven years in the Army, and 
 enjoyed it very much. He was in the trenches nine 
 months, and at Mons with the men who retreated 
 eighteen miles at two miles an hour without any food 
 at all. This eighteen miles was right at the end of 
 the retreat. I think he has taught me a great deal, and 
 all of it will be useful to me. . . . Last lesson we went 
 out to a place where there are some real trenches, and 
 he told me all about trench warfare very interesting. 
 I shall be sorry in a way to leave here but not alto- 
 gether sorry, which is as it should be, I think. Farewell, 
 dear mother. My Sandhurst exam, is coming on soon 
 now. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 In the second week of July, 1916, Christopher left 
 Winchester for good in order that he might get a short 
 holiday before going to Sandhurst at the end of August.
 
 178 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER VIII 
 ROLL OF HONOUR * 
 
 Of those who were contemporaries of Christopher Tennant's 
 at Kingsgate House, Winchester, the following have laid down 
 their lives in the service of their country during the Great 
 War: 
 
 "K" HOUSE. 
 
 i . K.O.S.B. , 
 
 T. C. GlLLESPIE . 
 
 A. J. I. DONALD . 
 A. M. GASELEE . 
 G. R. McGusTY . 
 R. I. MACKENZIE 
 R. S. OSMASTON . 
 E. H. K. SMITHERS 
 Visct. WEYMOUTH 
 R. W. ATKIN . . 
 
 E. R. HAYWARD . 
 G. C. S. TENNANT 
 
 F. H. HADEN . . 
 J. K. FALCONER . 
 R. NEVILL ... 
 F. H. PATTEN . 
 T. H. B. WEBB . 
 A. NUGENT . . 
 J. FERGUSON . . 
 F. A. HICKS .. 
 
 1907-12 
 1907-12 
 1907-11 
 1909-11 
 1909-13 
 1909-14 
 1909-12 
 1910-15 
 1911-15 
 1911-16 
 1911-12 
 1911-14 
 1911-15 
 1912-16 
 1912-16 
 1912-17 
 1913-16 
 19. .-14 
 
 1914 
 
 Manchester Regt. . 1915 
 
 15th Hussars . . 1915 
 
 Royal Irish Rifles . 1916 
 
 Black Watch . . 1914 
 
 Royal Sussex Regt. 1917 
 
 Manchester Regt. . 1916 
 
 Scots Greys . . . 1915 
 
 R.H.A 1917 
 
 R.F.A. 
 
 Welsh Guards . 
 Rifle Brigade . 
 Hants Carabiniers 
 S. Lanes Regt. . 
 R.A.F. ... 
 Welsh Guards . , 
 R.A.F. . . . 
 R.A.F. . . . , 
 Royal Fusiliers 
 
 1916 
 1917 
 1917 
 1917 
 1918 
 1918 
 1917 
 1918 
 1917 
 1918 
 
 *Up to August, 1918.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SANDHURST 
 
 "Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest 
 And passage through these looms 
 God order'd motion, but ordain'd no rest." 
 
 HENRY VAUGHAN (1650). 
 
 No excuse seems necessary, at the present time, for 
 giving some idea of life at Sandhurst as seen by a type 
 of boy who has undertaken military life without hav- 
 ing been normally in the least attracted by it a great 
 multitude now. 
 
 Royal Military College, Camberley. 
 
 August 3oM, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am going to tell you all my 
 adventures from the beginning. I do not like this place 
 much, but it is not so bad as I expected. I believe it 
 is quite nice after the first six weeks. I left my bicycle 
 at the station and came on here with my luggage in a 
 car with a lot of other men. I first saw the Adjutant, 
 who shook hands and took my name down. Then I 
 came on to K Company. It was a cavalry company 
 before the war. Now Guards and cavalry and infantry 
 are all mixed up. There are about 900 here in all, I 
 believe. When I got here I was shown a room; it is 
 quite a separate room, about the size of the bathroom, 
 
 179
 
 180 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and it is nice to have it. Then I saw our sergeant, 
 Sergeant Giles, a fierce-looking man, brawny, with a 
 toothbrush moustache. He took my name and address 
 and gave me my safe key and room number. I also 
 saw the Captain of the Company he took my name 
 and religion and future regiment! Then I was left 
 alone. It was like one's first day at school. Nobody 
 took any notice of me, and one was a mere cypher. Also 
 the buildings here are like a maze. It is literally im- 
 possible to find one's way anywhere at first, and I 
 hardly know the way now. It is like being in bar- 
 racks here. My room looks on to a square surrounded 
 by other rooms. I found no key to my room. All 
 rooms have a Yale lock on the inside and are supposed 
 to be locked. There was also no plug in the washing 
 basin, so that all the water ran away. I managed to 
 get the key and the plug from my servant after a time. 
 I have got a rifle of my own, and various articles of 
 kit in the shape of belts with water-bottles, etc., on 
 them. We go before mess to an ante-room, which is a 
 sort of large smoking lounge. The new arrivals, or 
 "juniors" (as they are called till the next lot come in, 
 when they become "seniors") are not allowed to go to 
 the upper end of the ante-room, but have to keep down 
 in one corner, and there is an invisible line which one 
 may not cross. If one offends the seniors by so doing, 
 one is liable to be put in an ink bath. All this is very 
 barbarous. The seniors here seem a very rowdy lot. 
 Then we had a good dinner the food here is very 
 good and afterwards the senior man of the Company 
 came and talked to the juniors. He gave us a few hints 
 about things. He said "The point of this place is disci-
 
 SANDHURST 181 
 
 pline," which about sums it up. The mess-room is dark 
 and ominous, red in colour, hung with military trophies, 
 so different to the majestic beauty of Trinity's hall. 
 
 I am lucky in having got into a good set here the 
 nucleus of which is another old Wykehamist and an 
 old Etonian, called Ralli, a very nice fellow. He, too, 
 was going to Trinity, Cambridge, and was prevented 
 by the war. The course here is about six months. 
 There is no leave till we are "off the square" that is, 
 finished our drills which means at the end of a month 
 or six weeks. It depends how we get on, but till then 
 there is no leave. However, we get the following times 
 off, and, I believe, are allowed to go anywhere in those 
 times : 
 
 Wednesday, 2 to mess. 
 Saturday, 11 to mess. 
 
 I believe there is a good hotel at Camberley, if you 
 come down here some time. My time-table is as fol- 
 lows, and very descriptive: 
 
 6.0. Wakened by servants, who go round with ham- 
 mers, banging on the doors. 
 
 6.30. Coffee. 
 
 6.50. Drill. 
 
 8.O. Breakfast. 
 
 9-1. Drill. Later other things riding, etc., or gym- 
 nastics. 
 
 1. Lunch. 
 
 2-7. Various military work. 
 
 8. Mess. 
 
 9-10. Sort of "prep." One has to be alone in one's 
 room and look over the book work one has 
 had in the day. 
 10.30. Lights out.
 
 182 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 We went and got measured this morning and got 
 our gym. things. There are a good many new buildings 
 here. I feel this will get very monotonous after a time, 
 and I shall never like it. Still, I know it is best under 
 the circumstances. I will write again. God bless you. 
 I am with you in the spirit always and feel very home- 
 sick here! Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFP. 
 
 We have to pay 2s. a month ante-room subscription. 
 The ante-room is where we go before dinner, and our 
 names are called there. The subscription is to supply 
 furniture, as every single article of furniture, including 
 the piano, was smashed by the last lot of people who 
 went out to take up commissions ! 
 
 August 3U7, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, No letter from you yet. All 
 well here. I foresee this place will be quite possible 
 after a bit. I am not at all unhappy, and quite en- 
 joying the time when we are not drilling, as I have 
 luckily got into a good set. This is very fortunate. 
 The people I know here are chiefly old Etonians, and 
 one other old Wykehamist whom I like. I have seen a 
 good many other old Wykehamists about in other com- 
 panies. There are ten companies and about seventy or 
 eighty in each. I have just had a bath (5 p.m.), as it is 
 impossible to get one in the morning. There are only 
 two bathrooms and a few shower baths. The drill is 
 strict, but the unpleasant part of it will be over in a 
 few weeks. We each have a rifle, which we have to 
 keep clean ; we have it in our rooms. . . . Some of the 
 seniors are very rowdy, but do not take much notice
 
 SANDHURST 183 
 
 of us juniors. I am sorry I do not get any leave for 
 the first six weeks, but perhaps I can get over to 
 Fisher's Hill * sometimes on Saturdays, when we can go 
 where we like between 1 1 and 7. This morning we all 
 put on gym. clothes and were inspected in the gymna- 
 sium that is, all the new cadets, about 500 in all. 
 We were inspected by General Stopford, the Com- 
 mandant. Later we went to a class-room, where the 
 C.O. of our company (Major Tod) spoke to us. He 
 asked us to go to him in any difficulty. I hope all is 
 well with you. Ever your loving and inwardly un- 
 military 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 September u/, 1916. 
 
 Could you send me my football boots? I take the 
 Daily News every day, and have done so since I have 
 been here. I will certainly try and keep up my classics. 
 I will do the Homer. 
 
 We do a good deal of book work, consisting of: 
 
 1 i ) Military Law and Administration. 
 
 (2) Tactics (very interesting). 
 
 (3) Topography, maps, etc. (all very inter- 
 
 esting) . 
 
 The more I am here the better it seems, and it is all 
 right after one gets into it. I am very pleased about 
 the Prize Cadetship. 2 I get tea daily at 4. It is not 
 supplied, but I have it at a shop or cafe. I am well and 
 happy. I have got my Madonna 3 up, and my room is 
 
 'The home of the Rt. Hon. G. W. Balfour. 
 
 8 Awarded to him on the result of the entrance examination. 
 
 3 Botticelli's Virgin and Child and St. John (the Louvre).
 
 184 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 quite comfortable ..... I think of you often at Cadox- 
 ton. I am going to get "Old Mortality" from the li- 
 brary this evening you can take books for fourteen 
 days. ... I am lucky in having the officer in my Com- 
 pany Senior Cadet an old Wykehamist: I knew 
 him at Winchester and was in the same form with him. 
 
 September ^rd, 1916. 
 
 We had church parade this morning and marched to 
 church with a band. This lot of seniors go out in six 
 weeks, and I believe there is a probability of our all 
 getting five or six days' leave then! I hope so. We 
 should then become seniors; this is very lucky, as usu- 
 ally men are juniors for at least three months. We 
 shall be seniors for more than four months. We are 
 doing two hours' drill a day at present. The Adjutant 
 is often there, and he is terribly strict. He drops on 
 you for having your boots laced the wrong way, and 
 that sort of thing! I quite enjoy my leisure time here, 
 it is a great thing having one's own room. ... It is 
 not so bad as I expected, and, now I have more or less 
 got into it, it is all right, but it may be worse later on. 
 The discipline is very strict, and I do not like that! 
 Also it is a great bore getting up so early. This place 
 is surrounded by a beautiful park, with a lake in it on 
 which men boat. The sergeant who drills us is a nice 
 man, but enormously strict: he expects one to move 
 like lightning, and he is always falling on somebody! 
 One has to keep perfectly still on parade, and some 
 of the rifle exercises are very difficult. One has to make 
 a great deal of noise with the rifle in moving it about. 
 This is quite incorrect from a military point of view,
 
 SANDHURST 185 
 
 and only done here so we have to do it! We also 
 have to learn one or two rifle exercises that are done 
 nowhere else! This seems such a waste of time. . . . 
 This place is very physically fatiguing, and one gets 
 so little sleep, but I shall only be here seven months 
 at the very outside, and I am sure this is the very best 
 thing that could have happened considering the present 
 circumstances. . . . 
 
 September 6M, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have written to Lord Har- 
 lech. I take in the Daily News, the Saturday West- 
 minster^ and the New Statesman all of which I de- 
 vour eagerly, as they are a link with intellectual things. 
 I have also got "Old Mortality," but do not enjoy it 
 so much as when we read it together. ... It seems as 
 though I had been here for months, although the days 
 seem to slip by quickly. It feels to me very strange 
 my being here and almost like a dream. But it is not 
 nearly so bad as I expected, and though at times one 
 has to do unpleasant things there are advantages which 
 make up for them. We get up at 6 all through the 
 winter ! Sometimes I have been so tired that I went to 
 sleep again after being woken, and woke up at 7.25, 
 dressed in ten minutes, and just had time for some 
 coffee. The other night the seniors put two juniors 
 into cold baths and then made them run along pas- 
 sages, beating them with belts and sticks. I do not 
 think I am at all likely to come in for any of this. . . . 
 We breakfast at 9 on Sundays, and may come down 
 at any time. What joy! Ever yours, 
 
 CRUFF.
 
 186 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 September \$th, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I send you a very interesting 
 article from the New Statesman; I agree with it thor- 
 oughly. We spent all this morning digging trenches, 
 in canvas trousers very hard work. We had to dig 
 ourselves in ; each man had a piece of ground 6 ft. by 3 
 ft., and had to dig 3 ft. deep, throwing the earth up 
 as a parapet in front. We just went out into a wood 
 and marked out trenches and then dug. I had a tree 
 close to my part and had to cut the roots away with an 
 axe. Several trees had to be cut down altogether, as 
 they came in the middle of the trenches. So glad you 
 are reading Ibsen. His plays made a great impression 
 on me when I read them not so very long ago. I re- 
 member The Lady from the Sea, well, and The Wild 
 Duck, too. The Doll's House is very wonderful. Do 
 get those two you suggest, and we could read them to- 
 gether, The Master Builder and Hedda Gabbler. I 
 have not read them. I do not think I should have time 
 to read the Welsh Outlook. All well here. Ever your 
 loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 September 2$tk, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I too felt it was terribly hard 
 parting from you yesterday morning your presence 
 was like a ray of sunshine. I so enjoyed having you 
 here, and it makes it much easier for me, now that you 
 know all about my life here. I heard from Aunt 
 Betty * this morning. She asks me to go over to Fisher's 
 Hill. Farrell tells me he has never known anyone hav- 
 
 *L&dy Betty Balfour.
 
 SANDHURST 187 
 
 ing an extra rough tunic, and that men wear superfines 
 if they get the others wet. So I am going to wait and 
 see if it is necessary to get an extra one, and not de- 
 cide now. I think it would be better to send me the 
 3 by post, and not to the Accountant, because people 
 look in the book and see one has a lot of money with 
 the Accountant and then press one to lend them money 
 if one has two or three pounds there. I got your 
 letter, written on an envelope, this morning, and it 
 cheered me up very much. I find two men keep spirit 
 lamps in their room and make themselves tea some- 
 times with tabloids. All well. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 September 2%tk 9 1916. 
 
 The seniors have been quite nice to me lately. The 
 rowdiness has died down. There have been no more 
 ink baths and not any sort of rowdiness. One of the 
 juniors told me that the seniors had decided to stop 
 ink baths for the present. 
 
 I am sorry to see Bimbo Tennant killed ; I knew him 
 well at West Downs, and he was at Winchester too. 1 
 When I read his letter I felt it was just the sort of 
 letter I might have written to you. 
 
 October 2nd, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am reading "Waverley," and 
 like it very much. Have you ever read it*? It is a 
 great thing to have something to read in an odd ten 
 minutes or quarter of an hour. We are finishing our 
 
 1 Lieut, the Hon. E. Wyndham Tennant, Grenadier Guards, killed 
 in action September 22nd, 1916. See p. 123. The letter referred to 
 is one written by him to his mother before going into action.
 
 188 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 drill on the square this week, and would have done so 
 last week if the Adjutant had not been ill. I have dis- 
 covered here a reading room to which any cadet may 
 go any time to read and be quiet. It is in the New 
 Buildings, and I often go there now and read the pa- 
 pers. I even discovered there books by the last person 
 you would expect to find, even Bernard Shaw and 
 am reading them! Yesterday I went to Winchester 
 with six others one of them a man who was in my 
 house and a prefect with me. I like him very much 
 and only wish we were in the same company. We got 
 there at two, and Archie 1 gave us some lunch. Then 
 we talked with him and saw the Matron and all the 
 other prefects, etc. It seemed very strange being there, 
 like a dream, and everything so familiar. The atmos- 
 phere there was very different to this place. One felt 
 the contrast. We had tea with the prefects, this man 
 and I, while the others went off to their respective 
 houses. Then we went to Chapel and heard the Bishop 
 of Winchester preach, a good and short sermon. Then 
 I had a talk with Monte, 2 who was very refreshing and 
 delightful. We had dinner with Archie, and had de- 
 cided to meet at the "George" at eight. Archie's clocks 
 were a quarter of an hour late, and we got there to find 
 the others were waiting, and had been for a quarter of 
 an hour, and had sent the car for us of course we 
 had missed it. By then it was 8.30, and we had to be 
 in by 10.15. The driver said he could do it if nothing 
 happened, and we got on all right till we were about six 
 miles from here. Then our head-lights suddenly went 
 
 1 Mr. A. E. Wilson, his former House Master. 
 'Mr. Montague Kendall, the Head Master.
 
 SANDHURST 189 
 
 out. We were in complete darkness, and could not get 
 the lights to work. We persuaded the man to drive 
 on in the dark, and at a garage hired a small bicycle 
 lamp, which I held. It was ten o'clock, and the others 
 said it was all my fault our being so late. However, 
 our driver behaved splendidly, and we drove on in 
 darkness, our lamp giving hardly any light and being 
 blown out by the wind every minute. The man drove 
 on as fast as he could in the dark ; twice we were almost 
 into a telegraph pole, and once we nearly ran into a 
 tree. At last we got to R.M.C., and I thought we were 
 done for. We rushed in to sign our names with the 
 time of arrival. The sergeant called out 10.20! At 
 that moment an officer the officer in charge came in, 
 and he was Scotch and very nice. We told him what 
 had happened and he said, "All right, you may put it 
 down 10.15 on the book, not 10.20!" So we were safe 
 and got in in time. The seniors would have made it 
 hot for me if we had been late. As it was, they are 
 so pleased at having got back in time that they do not 
 mind. I so enjoyed going to Winchester. Everybody 
 so nice and pleased to see us. Ever your loving 
 
 GRUFF. 
 
 October %rd, 1916. 
 
 I do rejoice in the book 1 which you have sent me. I 
 have begun the Pheedo already, and am surprised how 
 easily I can read it. I have got the English on the op- 
 posite page to the Greek, and can refer from one to 
 the other when necessary. I find I can read the Greek 
 
 1 Plato, with an English translation by H. N. Fowler. The Loeb 
 Classical Library.
 
 190 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 very easily, with occasional references to the English. 
 It is a joy to have Plato here, and I shall certainly read 
 daily. I am so fond of Socrates he seems like an old 
 friend when I come back to him again. It is all so 
 refreshing, and I delight in it so. 
 
 This morning I was five minutes late for parade. 
 I never woke up because they tapped very lightly on 
 the doors, so as not to disturb the seniors who had been 
 inoculated the day before, and were to stay in bed this 
 morning. However, I was let off any punishment. 
 The sergeant did not report the matter. I think he is 
 very pleased with me, as I have been trying very hard 
 lately. I do not think my lateness has affected this, 
 but I must not oversleep again ! You can think of me 
 reading Plato here ; it is a very Xtian way of spending 
 one's leisure time in a military college! 
 
 AGED 19. October io/^, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Your birthday letter to me 
 was a great joy with all the blessings that it brings. 
 It is wonderful to think that I am 19! A year ago I 
 never thought I should be encompassed by all these 
 "military vipers" I 1 
 
 A magnificent Etna arrived this morning. It is a 
 lovely one, with handles, and I shall be able to make 
 myself hot tea and coffee. Everything arrived as per 
 list except the bundle of wicks. I read Plato every 
 evening regularly. Deedooge 2 is coming over this after- 
 noon to see the buildings, etc., and I shall take him to 
 my room and show him my rifle and things which you 
 
 1 Some family joke, only. 
 
 8 Childish nickname for his father.
 
 SANDHURST 191 
 
 saw. This week we finish our drill on the square and 
 begin Company drill. Everybody says the worst is 
 over when you leave the square. 
 
 I look back to all the birthdays I have celebrated, 
 in Cadoxton, at West Downs, and at Winchester 
 and I think this is the strangest place of all that I have 
 had a birthday in. 
 
 "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways." 
 
 I remember my birthday at Cadoxton when I was 
 five, with five candles. It seems very long ago, to me ! 
 
 Farewell, dear mother ; I am never completely happy 
 except when you are with me. Ever your loving first- 
 born, 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 November 1st, 1916.* 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, My thoughts are with you to- 
 day, your birthday. I wish we could have spent it to- 
 gether; I do miss you so much, and I feel it more to- 
 day, sitting alone in my room, than I did yesterday. It 
 is dreadful having to part from you, and everybody. 
 
 Coming back to it, I feel the atmosphere of Sand- 
 hurst is to me very uncongenial. It makes a difference 
 being a senior, and so on but it is depressing coming 
 back again, the time seems to go so slowly at first. I 
 have got the same room as before. Three of the seniors 
 have stayed behind, two of them failed to pass out, 
 and the other was caught in London and deprived of 
 his commission. They are in this Company. This 
 
 * Written after five days' recess, spent at home.
 
 192 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 morning we had to get up at six and ride from seven 
 to eight. We only trotted round, and I got on all 
 right. Then we did Swedish drill from nine to ten, 
 and after that two hours' tactics, so I have had an 
 energetic morning. . . . 
 
 There is a rumour that our lot will not go out till 
 April; I will let you know if I hear anything definite. 
 I did so enjoy our time together, and every moment of 
 those four days was precious to me. It will be a joy 
 to have you here on the 24th. 
 
 I am going to have a sleep now, as I feel tired, so 
 farewell. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 'November $th, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well here; I find life very 
 much easier as a senior, and I get on well with every- 
 body. It was hard in a way to come back here, but now 
 I have got into it again everything seems all right. 
 It is like school in that way. 
 
 I was going to see Monseigneur De La Villarmois at 
 Farnborough to-day, but it has been raining all day 
 without stopping, so I gave it up. I spent the after- 
 noon partly with a friend who was at Winchester with 
 me in my house, and partly in the reading room. In 
 the morning I did a little work for an exam, we are 
 going to have next week on "The Infantry in Attack" ! 
 I am getting on well with riding: I think I have good 
 hands, and I always feel an affection for the horse I 
 am riding. I am reading in my leisure moments "The 
 Heart of Midlothian." It is very wonderful. I do 
 think it is a help to have something like Scott to live
 
 SANDHURST 193 
 
 with and digest something outside my present sphere 
 of duties. I am putting my back into all my work 
 here much of it is interesting and worth doing well. 
 
 I see Oliver Lodge has written a new book, "Ray- 
 mond, or Life and Death." I saw a review of it in 
 the Times Literary Supplement, and it deals with 
 topics of an S.P.R. nature. 
 
 Our lot do not seem to be very rowdy, except for 
 the first evening of the new juniors, when they were 
 exceptionally rowdy, to impress them ! ! ! One senior 
 dressed up as a junior, and the other seniors mobbed 
 him. Then an officer came up, and did not recognise 
 the senior, but thought it was a junior, and he was 
 very angry! 
 
 I so so miss you. Farewell. 
 
 November 8M, 1916. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Your letter arriving yesterday 
 was a great joy to me. I do feel thankful that I am 
 a member of Trinity that in itself is a great posses- 
 sion for me. As you say, I belong to her, now. Your 
 suggestion about an article re life here is a very good 
 one, and I will see what I can do and try to talk 
 about things that happen here that would perhaps 
 startle the outside world, though we get used to them 
 soon enough. . . . This morning we have all been out 
 with maps, marking in them how we should dispose 
 outposts and picquets, etc. The country we were deal- 
 ing with is all flooded, and we had to walk about in 
 the water ! Some men went up to their knees in it, but 
 I managed to do the work all right without going above 
 my ankles in water!
 
 194 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 It is definite that we shall be kept here till April, 
 unless the rumour re Guards going out earlier is true. 
 I do look forward to having you here, dear mother; 
 it seems ages since we were together. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 December 12th, 1916. 
 
 I have just won my spurs at riding, which is a great 
 honour, and difficult to do and now I have got a 
 beautiful new pair of spurs which I shall wear for rid- 
 ing in future ! I have written to Lord Harlech. I see 
 the papers every day. What a strange state the po- 
 litical world seems to be in ! 
 
 January 13^, 1917.* 
 
 All is well: my luggage arrived this morning and 
 I have got it all right. Coming back here has been 
 much less trying than I expected. Now I am here 
 Peter 2 and I and my Irish friends are good company. 
 It was dreadful leaving you; but I enjoyed every mo- 
 ment of those three weeks we had together. 
 
 I have got Wells's "Passionate Friends" to read. 
 I went to bed soon after mess. They got us up at six 
 this morning, paraded us at seven for drawing our 
 rifles. That process was over by 7.10, and we had 
 nothing to do till breakfast at eight o'clock! We are 
 having a new time-table now, in which the chief thing 
 is firing at the big range with ball ammunition. There 
 seems to be no more Company Drill. The only things 
 we shall be doing are 
 
 1 Written after the Christmas recess. 
 
 * Sec-Lieut. Peter Harris, Coldstream Guards. See p. 108.
 
 SANDHURST 195 
 
 Shooting, 
 Hall of study, 
 Swedish drill, 
 Riding, 
 Digging trenches. 
 
 The new lot arrive on the 23rd. I have been over to 
 the Staff College to see our juniors. They are in quite 
 nice big rooms, and they have fires in their rooms, 
 which is very nice for them. I hope all is well with 
 you. You can think of me as happy and untroubled. 
 I miss you all intensely. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 January 14^, 1917. 
 
 All well here. We had the usual Church Parade this 
 morning. There was a fine rain falling all the time, 
 which later turned to snow. We stood in the rain and 
 were inspected by people in red tabs I thought of 
 Wells! 
 
 Then we had quite a good sermon from the Muscu- 
 lar Christian, who actually quoted "Mr. Britling" 1 to 
 these "military vipers." He spoke of it as the book of 
 the day, and quoted that part right at the end where 
 Letty is speaking about God "a God who struggles, 
 who is akin to Mr. Britling," and how "God is every- 
 thing that is true, everything that is tender" you will 
 remember the passage. 
 
 January 25/A, 1917. 
 
 My cold is quite well again now, and I am enjoy- 
 ing life here very much. I made a "possible" at the 
 
 lH Mr. Britling Sees it Through" had been read aloud during the 
 recess and discussed with his mother until all hours of the night
 
 196 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 range to-day. I got ten bulls' -eyes at 200 yards in 
 rapid fire i.e., the ten shots have to be got off in 
 forty-five seconds ! This is a great achievement ! Many 
 thanks for the Wells article. Do send them to me in 
 your letters whenever they come out. How exciting 
 your being an official for next year's Eisteddfod I 1 The 
 new juniors are here some Wykehamists. Five of the 
 juniors fainted on seven o'clock parade this morn- 
 ing 
 
 January 3Oth, 1917. 
 
 Everything is going on well here. We are having 
 glorious skating on the lake. We have finished our 
 course of shooting and I am one of the best shots in 
 the Company. You can be a marksman, a first-class 
 shot, second-class shot, third-class shot I am a marks- 
 man, which is the highest of all. I am also repre- 
 senting the Company in revolver shooting, as I am 
 the third best revolver shot in the Company. 
 
 LETTER TO A FRIEND. 
 
 Royal Military College, Camberley. 
 
 February l^ffi, 1917. 
 
 This is just a line to tell you how much I enjoyed 
 my day with you at Reading. I look back with pleasure 
 to every moment of it, and hope I shall be able to 
 come and see you again. 
 
 I also want to tell you my adventures after I left 
 you. The driver took the wrong road, though he asked 
 the way several times, and we went on and on for 
 
 1 His mother had been elected Chairman of the Arts and Crafts 
 Committee of the National Eisteddfod for 1918, which was to be 
 held in Neath.
 
 SANDHURST 197 
 
 miles, then we stopped to look at a sign-post and found 
 we were going towards Reading! We got into the 
 right road just as the car punctured. So we took the 
 tyre off and went on with no tyre, until the wheel 
 began breaking. Then the driver refused to go any 
 farther, and we were stranded. I discovered we were 
 at a place called Heckfield Heath, near Hook, in 
 Hampshire, with no house for miles round. So I 
 made myself comfortable in the car and went to sleep ! 
 I had quite a good night's rest, and was well wrapped 
 up. In the morning the engine was frozen, so we first 
 mended the puncture, and then I had to walk a con- 
 siderable distance to get some hot water. After that 
 the engine started again, and we got back safely at 
 9.30 on Sunday morning! 
 
 I had an adventurous night of it, and was not at all 
 uncomfortable, and I took everything calmly! 
 
 The authorities didn't mind a bit, and were rather 
 amused at my adventures. 
 
 February ijfk, 1917. 
 
 We are having a sort of concert to-night. I think 
 juniors are going to sing voluntarily ! If the mumps 
 goes on we may get three weeks' holidays when I pass 
 out, owing to infection. The hospitals are full, and 
 there are mumps quartered in the rooms of A Com- 
 pany ! 
 
 We were inspected to-day by the D.G.I.C.G.S., 
 which being interpreted is the Deputy General in Com- 
 mand of the General Staff. I had a very wild horse 
 yesterday at riding, he refused to go over the jump and 
 swerved round it, then began kicking, and very nearly 
 kicked old X, who had to jump nimbly aside. Several
 
 198 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 other officers watching nearly got kicked, and finally 
 the instructor had to get on him and take him over 
 the jump. 
 
 I am doing a lot of revolver shooting, as I am in 
 the battalion revolver team i.e., one of the thirty 
 best shots in the College. The days pass very quickly. 
 I do a good deal of work, and ought to pass out easily. 
 There are really very few subjects to learn up for the 
 exam, when you consider them all. ... By the way, 
 I read with interest the cuttings you sent me re brains 
 in the Army, etc., and also gave them to Harris to 
 read. I hope all goes well with you at Cadoxton. We 
 spend most of our time now doing schemes going out 
 into the country and putting into practice what we 
 have learnt in theory. There are several cases of 
 measles now, as well as mumps just developed. 
 
 All the skating is over now, and there is very little 
 ice left on the lake. We have finished all our work 
 really, as the course was arranged to last six months, 
 and now they do not know what to do with us, so we 
 are just doing the same old drill most of the time 
 forming fours, etc. 
 
 They have started a clothing inspection now, and we 
 have to put all our clothes out on our beds, then an 
 officer comes round and inspects it. Everything has 
 to be in a particular place, socks with a collar between 
 them, and all that sort of thing! 
 
 Our food is also being reduced ; we get no sugar now, 
 and all the tea and coffee is sweetened beforehand, and 
 we have our porridge with a very small heap of sugar 
 put on it for us ! ! You know what a lot of sugar I 
 generally like ! !
 
 SANDHURST 199 
 
 You must excuse this long scroll, as I have just fin- 
 ished my writing paper it is what Father Christmas 
 put in my stocking. 
 
 I hope all is well with you. 
 
 February 27^, 1917. 
 
 I am working hard for the exams. I saw by chance 
 in the Orderly Room that one of my schemes was be- 
 ing sent to the Commandant, together with our under- 
 officer's, as being super-excellent! A scheme is when 
 we go out and draw maps of the country and then put 
 our troops in various dispositions to protect another 
 force, for instance. We are doing night work to-night, 
 and come back at nine o'clock. Then we get up at 6.30 
 again next day! 
 
 March 6fh, 1917. 
 
 Great joy! A notice has come out to say that the 
 College closes for three weeks from next Thursday, 
 the day after to-morrow, and all cadets will return 
 to their homes! We are going to be disinfected and 
 sent home, "owing to the outbreak of mumps." This 
 notice only came out this afternoon, and I am writ- 
 ing to tell you to expect me. 
 
 We are going to be disinfected in a steam and car- 
 bolic room. Very few mumps in our Company com- 
 pared to the others. 
 
 The recess lasted for just under four weeks, and 
 was a pure joy to all concerned. Christopher spent 
 many days rabbit-shooting, starting out after a late 
 breakfast with his lunch in his pocket in company with 
 a keeper. He would return at dusk to a square meal,
 
 200 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and afterwards every member of the family, big and 
 little, would be summoned to an inspection of the bag, 
 a row of brown bunnies of various sizes spread out 
 upon stone flags. Each bunny would be commented on, 
 often the place and manner of its shooting would be 
 described in detail the heaviest would be weighed 
 some would be tied together and labelled for despatch- 
 ing in various directions the family and household 
 having entered protests against a diet too exclusively 
 rabbit. 
 
 Beethoven in the Music Room, followed by a pipe 
 and much talk, usually completed the round of the 
 day. 
 
 R.M.C., April 8th t 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I got your letter last night 
 not to-day as you had expected. I have had a strange 
 Easter no church but I have meditated upon things 
 in heaven and earth generally. 
 
 We had a three hours' Law paper this morning, in 
 which I did very well, I think, as I believe I got prac- 
 tically everything right. Then this afternoon we had 
 a three-hours' paper on Administration, which I did 
 not do so well, for this reason. Half the questions were 
 on things we had not done with our officers, though we 
 ought to have done them. However, I knew the other 
 questions absolutely pat, so am sure of not having 
 failed in it, and made very good common-sense tries 
 for the ones we had not been taught. We have only 
 three more exams, now, Physical Training, Musketry, 
 and Drill. We had one oral paper, and I got 150, full 
 marks, for that. The two officers who correct all our
 
 SANDHURST 201 
 
 company's papers and do our exams, are very nice 
 one is Major Powell, and Captain Galsworthy offi- 
 cers of another company. . . . 
 
 I might have still been here now without any recess 
 if it hadn't been for the mumps ! I did enjoy my time 
 so much, and did more work, I think, than I should 
 have done had I been here. Harris has brought back a 
 stiletto which he can throw into a wall from a great 
 distance and it sticks there. I will write again soon; 
 we shall meet again in three weeks, and I hope I shall 
 get another recess then! 
 
 April nth, 1917. 
 
 We have been having intervals of snow and hail all 
 to-day. Many thanks for the Wise One's cake. I will 
 write him a letter myself. I am sorry to have forgotten 
 that it was his birthday but in the stress of exams. 
 I have had a lot to do. 
 
 We had a ten-mile route march yesterday (in the 
 middle of exams. !), but I was not very tired. I did a 
 lot of walking when I went shooting. I thought of 
 that book about the Foreign Legion where they did 
 thirty miles a day ! We are now doing what is called 
 Company Training till we leave that is work in the 
 open, and sort of sham fights every day. We practise 
 what we have learnt in theory, i.e., attacking over 
 different sorts of ground, etc. We have to practise 
 lying down and getting up quickly; the gorse is very 
 prickly, and suddenly a whistle blows and we have to 
 fall down flat ! There is probably going to be a Com- 
 pany Supper in London the day we pass out that is, 
 all the seniors have a sort of final good-bye, and I have 
 said I will come. Farewell.
 
 202 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Friday, April 2Otk, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well here. We have been 
 out every day this week so far, doing Field Days, and 
 not coming back till after four. We have been having 
 sham fights, etc., combined with route marches, but we 
 have not been getting up early before breakfast, so it 
 has not been so bad. 
 
 To-night we are going to practise relieving trenches, 
 which is always carried out by night, and we leave 
 the R.M.C. at 9.30 p.m., and stay in the trenches till 
 12 midnight. I hope to get back about l a.m. ! ! 
 
 Then next Wednesday the Duke of Connaught is 
 coming down to inspect us. On the other days we are 
 having Field Days of the whole Battalion together - 
 about 1,000 strong. 
 
 Our G.S. tunics have all gone down to have Stars 
 put on ! ... 
 
 God bless you, dear mother. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 April 24-M, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Just one line to say I have 
 passed out twelfth out of about 330 in the R.M.C. 
 Tod very pleased, and gave me the list of everybody. 
 Giles says I ought to order my uniform directly I 
 leave ; that is the usual thing to do. 
 
 I wrote to the Adjutant of the Welsh Guards yes- 
 terday on receipt of your telegram. I told him I should 
 probably be reporting for duty about ten days after 
 leaving here, as I think we may get ten days' recess, 
 though it is not certain. 
 
 We have got our kit : it came yesterday, and I have
 
 SANDHURST 203 
 
 got a magnificent Welsh Guards sword, with leeks on 
 it in every direction ! Also I have got my tunic with 
 stars on it, and a Sam Brown belt. . . . 
 Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 He returned to Wales on April 3oth, and was 
 gazetted to the Welsh Guards on the same day. From 
 the yth to the 1 5th Mother and Son were in London, a 
 time much occupied with visits to tailor, cap-maker, 
 etc., but which gave opportunity for seeing a number 
 of plays and hearing several operas. On May 15th he 
 joined his Regiment at Tad worth, where it was in 
 camp.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WELSH GUARDS 
 
 "Questa montagna e tale, 
 Che sempre al cominciar di sotto e grave, 
 E quanto uom piu va su, e men fa male. 
 
 Pero quand' ella ti parra soave 
 Tanto, che il su andar ti sia leggiero, 
 Come a seconda guiso andar per nave, 
 
 Allor sarai al fin d'esto sentiero: 
 Quivi di riposar 1'affano aspetta." 
 
 "Tu sei si presso all' ultima salute 
 .... che tu dei 
 Aver le luci tue chiare ed acute." 
 
 Dante, "Purgatorio," Canto iv. ; "Paradiso," Canto xxii. 
 
 (See page 299.} 
 
 Guards' Camp, Tadworth^ Surrey. 
 
 May \6th, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, My address is as you see above 
 though you had better put Welsh Guards in. 
 
 I will tell you all my adventures from the time I 
 left you. I got out at Tadworth and walked to the 
 camp, leaving my luggage at the station. Then I saw 
 the Adjutant Martin Smith his name is a nice man. 
 Then I went back to the station, got a cab, and brought 
 up my luggage. I was given a tent and a servant. He 
 unpacked my things. Then the furniture arrived from 
 Orpington, 1 and I got a bed (a proper one) and a chest 
 
 1 Whence the Regiment had that day arrived at Tadworth. 
 
 204
 
 WELSH GUARDS 205 
 
 of drawers and washing stand and looking glass and 
 towel horse. I went to the ante-room, and we messed 
 at 7.30. Webb 1 was away for the day, and I felt very 
 lost at first, but by now I know all the Second-Lieu- 
 tenants and some of the other officers. I think they are 
 a very nice lot. 
 
 We had a good mess with new potatoes! and 
 then I went to bed by the light of a lantern. We do 
 not get up early except when we are on duty for the 
 day. Breakfast at 8.15, parade at 9. I am in command 
 of a platoon, with Llewellyn and Carlyon in command 
 of the other platoons. Captain Taylor commands the 
 Company. . . . We drilled from nine to ten. At ten 
 we had Company Orderly Room, and soldiers were 
 brought up before Taylor for various offences; we 
 stood behind him. Some men were absent when they 
 should not have been. Witnesses, etc., were called. 
 One man "created a disturbance" after lights out 
 others had dirty buttons. Then we inspected the men's 
 tents. From eleven to twelve we did more drill. Then 
 we got off till two, lunch in between. 
 
 All the senior officers are very nice to me, and in- 
 quire affectionately about Sandhurst! ... I find it a 
 great advantage having been to Sandhurst. Webb 
 came to see me early this morning. He is very nice 
 to me, and we get on well together. I am an Ensign 
 (i.e., Second-Lieutenant). A Subaltern is a full Lieu- 
 tenant. 
 
 Then we get off at 3 p.m. and can go away if we 
 
 *At Kingsgate House, Winchester, with him. Since killed in ac- 
 tion, December ist, 1917.
 
 206 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 like, as long as we get back at nine next morning, in 
 time for parade. . . . 
 
 I have to inspect my platoon and look at their but- 
 tons. We did musketry from two to three to-day. 
 
 I want to impress upon you how happy I am here. 
 It is much nicer than Sandhurst, and I feel certain I 
 am going to enjoy it. 
 
 God bless you, mother dear, I did enjoy our time 
 together! Your loving CRUFF. 
 
 Could you send me two pillow-cases (no sheets) and 
 my woolly jacket, as it is cold here? All well. 
 
 May i6th, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am writing you a second let- 
 ter just to tell you anything I think of. I am in my 
 tent, which is quite comfortable, thanks to my servant 
 Charles, who is a Cardiff man. I am so glad to have 
 my Horace with me. There is one Ode I know about 
 soldiers in camp : I am looking for it, but have not been 
 able to find it yet. . . . The men in our Company are 
 most of them fairly new, and only just past the recruit 
 stage, so they are very slack just at present. The offi- 
 cers' tents are in a field apart from the main body of 
 the camp. On parade for the first ten minutes all we 
 do is that the officers commanding platoons march up 
 and down, up and down, in front of the Company. 
 The work is much slacker than Sandhurst. Webb is 
 doing a course of signalling, and knows the Morse code 
 backwards now! 
 
 I thought of you arriving last night with your bun- 
 nies and felt so lonely and desperate at leaving you 
 till I got here. I know I shall be happy here and en-
 
 WELSH GUARDS 207 
 
 joy myself. My work is interesting, and it is a great 
 advantage having been to Sandhurst and knowing my 
 job. The floor of my tent is wood, and about 12 ft. 
 in diameter. It was strange waking up and rinding 
 myself in a tent ! The light penetrates the canvas quite 
 early. I like the younger officers here very much, and 
 I think I shall get on well with them. My Spotted 
 Dog 1 is unpacked and empty, and I have got a nice 
 large chest of drawers. I hope you are reading the 
 "Ear of Dionysius" ! 2 I expect I shall hear from you 
 to-morrow. . . . We only wear the khaki hats for 
 parade, etc., here, and keep our super-magnificent hats 
 for London. I am so glad I followed your advice and 
 brought a box to keep my hat in! I often think you 
 are wrong and find out afterwards that you are right 
 dear mother! or rather, I now seldom disagree with 
 you re anything! 
 
 We had a delicious time together. Give my love to 
 everyone at Cadoxton. God bless you. Ever your 
 loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 May iSfh, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well here. I am very 
 happy and getting on splendidly. My work for the 
 last two days has been to go round with the Picquet 
 Officer (called Orderly Officer in line regiments), so 
 as to learn a job which I shall shortly have to do my- 
 
 1 An airtight uniform case, so-called from the peculiar dec- 
 orations in paint on it. 
 
 'A paper on Automatic Writings, by Mr. G. W. Balfour, given 
 * him during a recent visit to Fisher's Hill. (Proceedings of the 
 
 2i'ety for Psychical Research, part Ixxiii., vol. zzix.)
 
 208 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 self. It means turning out and inspecting the guard 
 of the camp at 1 2.30 p.m. and 1 1 p.m. in the evening, 
 also attending parades of men doing punishments at 
 two and four o'clock. Then visiting the cook-house 
 and men's dinners, asking if there are any complaints, 
 and a number of other minor things. It also involves 
 getting up at 6 a.m. to be at the 6.40 breakfast parade. 
 I have to do this three days running. The Picquet 
 Officer is not allowed to leave the camp while on duty. 
 There is not much other news to tell you, except that 
 I have been drilled a bit in a squad of private sol- 
 diers but I did all that at Sandhurst, so I know it all 
 right. Every officer on joining starts by having to do 
 this. We have a very good mess here everything very 
 hot, and cream at lunch! also lump sugar and po- 
 tatoes ! 
 
 All the officers are very nice to me, and I get on 
 well with the Second-Lieutenants, who are my equals. 
 The Scots, Coldstream and Grenadier Guards are all 
 coming here, and some of the officers of each regiment 
 will mess in the same tent with us. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 May 2isf, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have got my clubs and 
 racket safely. Many thanks for sending them. I have 
 not been doing much of interest lately, beyond what I 
 told you in my last letter. On Sunday we had church 
 parade, which I attended, as I was on duty that day. 
 We had a sort of service in the open air, sitting on 
 benches. The men sang most beautifully in har- 
 mony. There was a funny little padre who seerr*-*
 
 WELSH GUARDS 209 
 
 very optimistic about everything, and was full of "All's 
 right with the world" ideas. After that I and another 
 officer were taken to a place about five miles off by one 
 of the officers, who invited me over. We went over 
 by car to this house of his, which belongs to him. 
 There was nobody there except a cook and a house- 
 keeper, and we had a nice lunch and then played bil- 
 liards and gramophones, and walked about in his gar- 
 den. We left at 4.30, as we had to be back by dinner. 
 Please send me all the manuscript notebooks writ- 
 ten in my own handwriting, which went back to Wales 
 in my trunk. They are essential to me. We have got 
 two Volunteer Officers who have just joined to do some 
 training. One is a Captain and one a Lieutenant, but 
 I am senior to them ! Tremendous thunderstorms, and 
 torrents of rain coming into the tents last night, but 
 to-day fine. All well here. I am well and happy. 
 Ever your loving 
 
 GRUFF. 
 
 May 23rd, 1917. 
 
 All well here. I went up to London yesterday with 
 Webb, and we went to a theatre and came down that 
 evening. 
 
 There are about fifteen other Welsh Guards officers 
 here. The Grenadiers have just come, in number about 
 twenty officers. The Welsh Guards officers consist of: 
 Colonel Stracey Clitherow; Captains: Marshall Rob- 
 erts, Aldridge (a Wykehamist), and Taylor; Lieuten- 
 ants: Martin Smith (Adjutant), Howard, 1 Dickens, 
 
 1 Lieut, the Hon. Philip Fitzalan Howard, died of wounds, May 
 zist, 1918.
 
 210 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 de Wiart; Second Lieutenants: Webb/ Pryce, Llewel- 
 lyn, Mathew, Gore, Byrne 2 and Baness (just left for 
 the front), Carlyon and myself. In my platoon there 
 are a large number of Davies, Evans, Jones, Griffiths, 
 Bowens, etc., so most of them are Welsh. I have not 
 come across any Neath men. We do not always sit 
 in the same places at mess, but move about. I gen- 
 erally go and sit next to one of my friends. I feel 
 well and am very fit. I am going to get some riding, as 
 we borrow horses from the senior officers. After mess 
 we usually sit and read or talk; mess is over about 
 9.15. I have played bridge, too, and bezique. Letters 
 are put in pigeon-holes in the ante-room by Sergeant 
 James (formerly policeman at Port Talbot). I have 
 not been able to get a Daily News. Do you think I 
 could get it posted from London? I called on Stracey 
 Clitherow to-day and had tea with him. . . . Tad- 
 worth has no village that I can find. There is a sta- 
 tion, and a few houses round, with, I believe, one or 
 two small shops. I keep my bike in a shed, locked up. 
 
 I am now drilling the men every day. Yesterday 
 I took a parade of about 200 men ! 
 
 The Brigadier-General in command of this Brigade 
 has asked for a map of some trenches which have been 
 dug near here, and I have been chosen by the Com- 
 manding Officer of the Welsh Guards to make this 
 map. I have got all day to-morrow for it; we did that 
 sort of thing at Sandhurst. All well here. I fear I 
 shall be unable to go up to London for this week-end, 
 as I am almost certain to be on duty. 
 
 *Mr. Webb was killed in action, December ist, 1917. 
 3 Mr. Byrne was killed in action, March 9th, 1918.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 211 
 
 May 2$th, 1917. 
 
 This morning I passed off in Squad Drill under the 
 Adjutant's eye! I had to drill a squad of men, giving 
 the commands on the proper foot, etc., and I managed 
 this all right. Then this afternoon I had to pay the 
 Company ! Any mistake I made would have to be made 
 up out of my own pocket, but to-day I got the sum 
 exactly right. Many thanks for my books, which have 
 arrived safely. I shall be doing Company Drill now. 
 
 I have been up to London the last few days, going 
 up in the afternoon and coming back in the evening. 
 I got the Regimental Adjutant, Crawshay (Williams 
 Bulkeley is away), to take me to the Guards' Club, 
 where I have been introduced. My Daily News comes 
 every morning, and is a great joy to me. It is nice our 
 reading the same things. I see a letter from you in to- 
 day's Times re Pensions. I played tennis yesterday 
 with the Adjutant here, Martin Smith, and got on very 
 well; we played at a house near here. He is one of 
 the Smiths, of the Union of London and Smiths Bank, 
 and knows the Serocolds and all about them. I will 
 write again at greater length, am on parade now. 
 
 June 6tk, 1917. 
 
 I am getting on well here, and am very happy. The 
 map of the trenches I made was a great success, and 
 General Monck sent for me and congratulated me on 
 it. He made me write my name on it, and is going to 
 have it copied and given to each unit. 
 
 To-morrow Lord French is coming down to inspect 
 us, and we have been rehearsing to-day for it. He 
 will inspect the whole Brigade in a large field near the
 
 212 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 camp. I am Picquet Officer to-day, and have just come 
 off a large parade, where I inspected defaulters. I 
 took memoranda to-day and dealt out punishments to 
 the men, tempering justice with mercy! 
 
 Guards' Club, S.W.I, June 13^, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have not written for some 
 time because I have been most frightfully busy. I 
 was up here the week-end, and went back to Tadwortr* 
 Sunday evening. The next morning at six my servant 
 woke me, saying I was to be at Chelsea Barracks at 
 9 a.m., so I caught a train up to London, travelling 
 with another man, Llewellyn, who is doing a bombing 
 course. 
 
 I am doing the Lewis machine-gun course. The gun 
 is automatic, and fires 400 shots per minute, and is 
 used a great deal by the infantry. Every officer does 
 this course. It will be over on Friday, and I am going 
 down to Fisher's Hill on Saturday for the week-end. 
 
 We work from nine to twelve, and two to five ; then 
 we have to copy out notes in the evening, so there is a 
 great deal to do. We are taught by a Sergeant, about 
 ten Officers, three others in the Brigade of Guards, but 
 none in my Regiment. 
 
 The cuttings you sent me I saw in the papers all 
 except the one about the officers complaining re man- 
 ners of Guardsmen. The reason of that is that the 
 attitude of some of the Brigade to officers of the line 
 is like that of a large and magnificent lion to an ob- 
 scure blackbeetle! 
 
 I will write at greater length to-morrow. Your 
 loving CRUFF.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 213 
 
 Fisher's Hill, Woking, June ijtk, 1917. 
 
 I am enjoying myself here very much. On Friday 
 I did my exam, on the Lewis gun; the exam, was in 
 two parts, part written and part oral. The marks we 
 got for the oral were read out before we left. (I got 
 full marks for oral, and one other officer only!) We 
 shall hear the whole result next Saturday. On Wednes- 
 day I dined with Llewellyn, and we went to the play 
 together. 
 
 Delicious weather here warm and sunny garden 
 looking lovely and full of scents. . . . 
 
 You said you were enclosing a list of books for me 
 to get from Mudie's, but it was not enclosed in your 
 letter. Shall I get "Varieties of Religious Experi- 
 ence," by William James? God bless you. 
 
 Guards' Camp, Tadworth, Surrey. 
 
 June iSfk. 
 
 I got back here safely last night. Many thanks 
 for Wells's book. 1 I shall start reading it to-day. 
 This morning I have been sitting on a court-martial, 
 but may not divulge anything about it to anyone yet ! 
 
 I shall think of you walking in the Eisteddfod Pro- 
 cession ! I do hope the Commanding Officer will give 
 me leave for the Gorsedd. 
 
 God bless you, dear mother. You are often in my 
 thoughts. I have been very busy the last week, but 
 now shall be able to write more frequently. The father 
 of two Wykehamists in my house is now here as a 
 volunteer officer we have to instruct him. Rather 
 killing, this! 
 
 '"God the Invisible King."
 
 214 . CHRISTOPHER 
 
 June 22nd, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have got leave for the Gor- 
 sedd! and shall arrive Wednesday evening at 7.55, I 
 hope, and return by the train leaving Neath at 3.55 on 
 Friday. This is the longest I can get but it will be 
 very nice. Fox-Pitt, the Adjutant, persuaded the Com- 
 manding Officer to let me go! All well here. My 
 work is now entirely field work, attacking and defend- 
 ing positions in the country, with my platoon. There 
 is a draft going out to France next week. It is nice 
 here now, and not too hot. 
 
 I am rejoicing over Women's Suffrage. It is splen- 
 did that it has come at last. 
 
 I am getting the blue evening uniform and the grey 
 great-coat. The blue is worn on ceremonial occasions, 
 and chiefly when dining in London. It is the evening 
 "dress" of khaki. I went up to London with Webb 
 yesterday. In the evening Webb took me to a revue 
 called "Bubbly," which was very amusing. I hope all 
 is well with you at Cadoxton. 
 
 The following note on the Gorsedd Circle, by the 
 Revd. Mardy Rees, is here reprinted (slightly abbre- 
 viated) with the author's permission : 
 
 The Gorsedd (throne) circle is exciting a good deal of in- 
 terest; and English friends frequently ask what is the origin 
 and meaning of the Gorsedd. It has been said that the circle 
 represents a temple of religion, a court of justice, the twelve 
 counties of Wales, and so forth. Personally, we believe that 
 its chief purpose was astronomical. It takes us back four thou- 
 sand years at least, to the days when there were no clocks or 
 almanacks. The Druids were able by means of the stones in 
 the circle to tell the time of night as well as of the day, and
 
 CHRISTOPHER JULY, 1917. 
 
 WELSH GUARDS SECTION.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 215 
 
 of the year. They watched the clock stars, especially the 
 Pleiades, which became visible about an hour before sunrise 
 on May 1st. This was important, as they offered a sacrifice 
 at sunrise at that season of the year. The stones also gave 
 people the points of the compass. 
 
 The Druids kept the secrets themselves, and only the ini- 
 tiated knew them. They died, but the secrets have been dis- 
 covered by later generations. A great authority on the Gorsedd 
 states that the principles of the ancient circle are incorporated 
 in every old parish church in the country. The church took 
 the place of the Gorsedd. 
 
 Sir Norman Lockyer believes that the Welsh circle con- 
 tained all the characteristic features of several Egyptian tem- 
 ples. He refers to the Temple of Amen-Ra, with its avenue 
 of stone pillars, a quarter of a mile long. At the end of the 
 avenue, in a darkened chamber, was the image of Ra. Once 
 in the year, about June 2 1st, at set of sun, a golden shaft of 
 light would strike the face of the image in this chamber, and 
 the worshippers believed that they had seen the face of their 
 god. It was a natural phenomenon, but only the priests knew 
 that. This chamber was situated where the two outside pillars 
 of stone stand to-day, in the Gorsedd circle. 
 
 There is an old Welsh tradition that he who spends a night 
 in the mystic circle will be either a bard or a lunatic. In other 
 words, a son of the light or darkness. The throne of the bard 
 is very old. It is anterior to that of the king or bishop. Civ- 
 ilisation has dethroned the bard, but he still holds his place 
 in the life of the Nation. 
 
 The Proclamation of the National Eisteddfod of 
 the year 1918 by the Gorsedd of the Bards was held 
 in Neath on June 28th. It was a memorable day for 
 that ancient town. Those who were to take part in 
 the Procession to the Gorsedd Circle assembled in the 
 robing room, where a large number of Bards wearing 
 their robes awaited them. Here the regalia, consisting 
 of the Gorsedd sword, banner, divided sword, and Hir- 
 las horn, was set out in readiness to be borne through
 
 216 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 the streets. The Hirlas horn, presented by Lord Tred- 
 egar in 1897, was designed by Herkomer, and is one 
 of the most beautiful of Welsh treasures. Headed by 
 a band, the Procession wended its way through the 
 principal streets of the town which now, alas! like 
 so many centres of industrial life, shows little trace of 
 its past history. 
 
 In Roman times Nidium was an important place on 
 the Via Julia, and in the Middle Ages it played a no 
 mean part in Welsh history. The castle is said to have 
 been built in 1090 by Richard de Granville, one of the 
 twelve Norman Knights of Robert Fitzhamon, the 
 conqueror of Glamorgan. In 1231 the castle was cap- 
 tured by Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, who is 
 said to have razed it to the ground and to have exter- 
 minated the inhabitants. It was afterwards rebuilt, 
 and Edward II., while passing through South Wales 
 raising forces to contend against his rebellious Queen, 
 Isabella, was captured and imprisoned within its walls. 
 To-day only the portcullis gate and towers remain 
 standing. 
 
 Neath is one of the most ancient boroughs in the 
 country, a charter having been granted to the burgesses 
 by one of the Earls of Gloucester as far back as the 
 twelfth century. The ruins of Neath Abbey once 
 "the fairest abbey in all Wales" lie a mile to the 
 west of the town. Founded in 1 129 for Grey Friars, it 
 was granted at its dissolution in 1539 to Sir Richard 
 Williams, alias Cromwell, a great-grandfather of the 
 Protector.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 217 
 
 After perambulating the main streets, crowded with 
 miners from the neighbouring valleys, the Gorsedd Pro- 
 cession (in which Christopher took part, walking im- 
 mediately before the Gorsedd Banner) .made its way 
 to the Bardic Circle, fourteen great monoliths set up 
 to form a large circle round a fine central logan. These 
 stones had for the most part been presented by the 
 landowners of the district. Christopher had taken a 
 special interest in searching for and deciding on a stone 
 to be given from the Tennant Estate. The stones must 
 be untouched by chisel, of a certain height and size, 
 and it was long before one was found which satisfied 
 the requirements of the Gorsedd and the individual 
 taste of members of the family. 
 
 One was discovered at last, over 6 feet high and 
 about 18 inches broad, lying partly covered with earth 
 in the woods on the hillside above Cadoxton Lodge, a 
 great grey block of Pennant rock, the local stone of 
 the county. 
 
 It had been set up, together with the other thirteen 
 stones, in the Victoria Gardens, and there the proclama- 
 tion that the National Eisteddfod of Wales of 1918 
 would be held in Neath took place. 
 
 The old decree runs: "The Gorsedd and Chair of 
 the Bards of the Isle of Britain shall be held in the face 
 of the Sun and Eye of Light, and in the free open sky, 
 so that it may be seen and heard of all." 
 
 After the sounding of the Corn Gwlad, or Trumpet 
 of the Fatherland, the Gorsedd Prayer was offered by 
 one of the Bards. It may be translated as follows :
 
 218 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 "Give us, O God, Thy protection, 
 And in Thy protection strength, 
 And in strength understanding, 
 And in understanding to know, 
 
 And in knowing the knowledge of the Righteous One, 
 And in knowing Him to love Him, 
 And in loving Him to love every essential being, 
 And in loving every essential being to love God and every 
 goodness." 
 
 Standing on the central Logan Stone in his robes, 
 the Archdruid made the Proclamation, and was pre- 
 sented with the Cup of Welcome. Addresses by the 
 Bards, interspersed with Penillion singing to the ac- 
 companiment of the harp, followed. It was a moving 
 scene. Within the circle stood the Bards in their 
 bright-coloured robes. Ringed around it was a seated 
 crowd, including a large number of girls wearing the 
 Welsh national costume; beyond, again, a vast mass 
 of men and women stood, and the amphitheatre of hills 
 rose upwards half veiled in the haze of a perfect sum- 
 mer's day. 
 
 Few of those present will ever forget the moment 
 when, the whole audience rising to its feet and every 
 man in uniform standing rigid at attention, the Na- 
 tional Anthem of Wales, Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, burst 
 forth in volumes of glorious sound, rising and falling 
 on the air sung as only a Welsh crowd sings, in 
 harmony and with pure and perfect intonation. 
 It was the climax of a day charged with deep emo- 
 tion.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 219 
 
 CYMRU AM BYTH! 
 
 It was Christopher's passionate desire that the Welsh Guards 
 should become officially connected with the annual celebration 
 of the National Eisteddfod, and his fixed determination was to 
 work towards the establishment of such a tradition at the ensu- 
 ing Eisteddfod, which was to be held in his native town. 
 Though he did not live to do the work he had contemplated, it 
 was carried on by other hands, and as a result the Regiment 
 was for the first time officially represented at the National 
 Eisteddfod of 1918. Colonel Murray-Threipland, D.S.O., 
 commanding the Welsh Guards, the Regimental Adjutant, 
 Captain the Earl of Lisburne, Captain Fox-Pitt, M.C., and 
 Lieut. G. C. H. Crawshay, were present as official guests, and, 
 together with close upon a hundred men of the Regiment, took 
 part in the Gorsedd and other ceremonies held in connection 
 with the National Festival. The Regimental Male Voice Choir 
 competed in the Male Voice Choral Competition, being placed 
 second in order of merit by the Adjudicators, and receiving a 
 great ovation from the vast crowd of over ten thousand people 
 assembled in the Pavilion. Within the Gorsedd Circle one of 
 the most eloquent of the addresses delivered from the Maen 
 Llog (the great central Logan Stone) called upon Welshmen 
 to remember Christopher Tennant, who had stood within that 
 Circle when the Eisteddfod was proclaimed, as the type of 
 patriot which young Welshmen should desire to emulate. 
 
 Writing of the events of those days, one of his brother- 
 officers who took part in them sums up his impressions in the 
 following words: 
 
 "August \$th, 1918. 
 
 "To me, at least, the whole Eisteddfod programme seemed 
 to centre round Christopher. I couldn't help feeling that in 
 spirit he was present, and that he knew his ambition to see 
 the Regiment represented at Neath had been realised. I know 
 that the wonderful reception we received on mounting the plat- 
 form was intended just as much for him, and the others who 
 are with him, as it was intended for those who were actually 
 the subject of it. You remember that when I first wrote to 
 you I said that his great sacrifice would not be in vain; and
 
 220 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 already his influence is being felt. Let us hope that genera- 
 tions of Welshmen will follow him in the example he set, by 
 pride of race and nobility of character." 
 
 Saturday, June 30 th. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I got back safely yesterday, 
 and everyone was much interested in the Gorsedd. I 
 gave Fox-Pitt a glowing account ! 
 
 I am going on a bombing course, starting Monday, 
 and it lasts a fortnight. I shall be sleeping at Rich- 
 mond Terrace every night. The course is at ten, and 
 is over at three every day. No time for more. Ever 
 your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 On July 5th his mother joined him in London. 
 Their first excitement was the daylight air-raid on July 
 yth, in which both found themselves in positions of 
 considerable "liveliness," though in widely separated 
 localities. Tannhduser in the afternoon and Brieux's 
 Three Daughters of M. Dupont in the evening closed 
 a rather strenuous day. On the gth the photograph of 
 Christopher included in this volume was taken by 
 Beresford. 
 
 The Recruiting Exemptions Committee was at this 
 time sitting in the Grand Committee Room of the 
 House of Commons, and a long afternoon was spent 
 there, his Mother's work on the Neath Rural District 
 War Pensions Committee having roused the keen in- 
 terest of the family in the questions upon which the 
 Committee was then taking evidence. 
 
 The ritual of ices at Gunter's was not forgotten (p.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 221 
 
 92) . Two characteristic incidents belong to this period. 
 Walking one day with his mother through Westmin- 
 ster Cathedral and examining the beautiful mosaics 
 and marbles of the side chapels, Christopher noted that 
 whereas chapels of St. George, St. Andrew and St. 
 Patrick were to be found, none appeared to have been 
 dedicated to St. David. Striding up to the lady chapel, 
 he sought a priest, and, saying he was "from Wales," 
 inquired where the chapel of his patron saint was situ- 
 ated. On being informed that none at present existed, 
 he expressed his surprise and regret in very plain lan- 
 guage, leaving the priest in visible bewilderment as to 
 who this young giant from Wales could be. 
 
 Is it too much to hope that as a memorial to the sons 
 of Wales fallen in the war a replica of Goscombe 
 John's beautiful statue of St. David, presented to the 
 City Hall, Cardiff, by Lord Rhondda, may be set up 
 in one of the side chapels of Westminster Cathedral? 
 
 Equally characteristic was an incident in connection 
 with the purchase of an automatic pistol at the Army 
 and Navy Stores. It was necessary to obtain a permit 
 before one could be supplied, and this involved the 
 filling up of an official form. Instructed by the fore- 
 man of the Gun Department, Christopher was success- 
 fully negotiating its intricacies until they came to the 
 space reserved for "Nationality." "Put 'English' there, 
 sir," said the foreman. "English! but I'm not Eng- 
 lish," the boy answered, flushing; and in the space re- 
 served he inked in in capital letters, the word 
 "WELSH."
 
 222 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 One week-end and another long Sunday were spent 
 with the beloved "Aunt Betty" of the letters, Lady 
 Betty Balfour, at Fisher's Hill, near Woking, where 
 the garden was at its loveliest and the Surrey commons 
 which surround it gay with field flowers. 
 
 Both in the Lewis gun course and in the bombing 
 course Christopher obtained a first. 
 
 Tadworth, July l6tk, 1917. 
 
 I arrived here safely last night, feeling very lone- 
 some at having to part from you. I travelled down 
 with Fox-Pitt. There are two new Ensigns, but I have 
 not seen much of them yet; they come from Wales, I 
 think. I shall be on Sunday duty next Sunday, I fear, 
 which means dining in Saturday and Sunday evening. 
 However, I am trying hard to get someone to do it 
 for me, and I will let you know if I succeed. It is 
 quite possible I shall get someone. I went out this 
 morning with the Training Company, who dug 
 trenches. This afternoon I took 2 o'clock parade of 
 the Company. Carlyon is going to the front next 
 week, and has just gone on a few days' leave. Every- 
 thing is much the same as when I left. We are hav- 
 ing night operations to-morrow. Major Dene is back 
 and in command of the Company. I enjoyed our time 
 so much, especially Fisher's Hill at the end. Even if 
 I cannot get off Sunday duty, I shall try and come for 
 the afternoon, as I must see you once more before you 
 go to Wales. . . . 
 
 'July jth, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have wired you to-day, as I 
 can come next week-end, having got someone else to
 
 WELSH GUARDS 223 
 
 do Sunday duty for me. My blue hat has turned up 
 from the Lost Property Office at Waterloo! I must 
 have left it in the train, and am glad to get it back. 
 
 I have been writing in my Red Book (which you 
 gave me) partly autobiography and partly meditations 
 on various subjects which you must read some day. 1 
 
 We were to have had Regimental Sports to-day with 
 our own Welsh Guards band, but they have put it off, 
 as it is raining. 
 
 All well here. We had a lecture on Tactics this 
 morning by Marshall Roberts. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 July igtk, 1917. 
 
 We had Regimental Sports to-day I enclose pro- 
 gramme. I ran in the Officers' Race (100 yards). It 
 is item 20 on the list, and gave much pleasure to the 
 men! One got a yard's start for each year's service. 
 Marshall Roberts had sixteen yards' start and won 
 the race! I was sixth. The band came down from 
 London and played; it was delicious. 
 
 July 2%tk, 1917. 
 
 I went to a dance yesterday evening, which I en- 
 joyed immensely. It was given by our Regimental 
 Adjutant, Crawshay. He is now a great friend of 
 mine. 
 
 All sorts of interesting people were there, and I 
 danced the whole time with various people. All well 
 here. I am going to Winchester to-morrow. 
 
 *See pp. 104 and 113.
 
 224 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 July 3U/, 1917. 
 
 I enjoyed my visit to Winchester very much every- 
 body there very cordial and pleased to see me espe- 
 cially Monte. I had brew 1 with the prefects. Webb 
 did not come, as he has gone on draft leave. It has 
 been pouring with rain here all day and all last night, 
 but I am well and happy. 
 
 The Commanding Officer has told me to be inocu- 
 lated this week, here, by the doctor attached to our 
 Regiment. He has got all the stuff, etc. There is no 
 news to tell you. I read the Daily News every day, 
 which I get regularly. How amusing the people at 
 Neath mistaking me for the Prince of Wales! I en- 
 joyed the dance very much. I am quite a good dancer, 
 and enjoy it. People only dance one-steps and fox- 
 trots nowadays, with a waltz occasionally. I can dance 
 all those. 
 
 On August 2nd he arrived home on draft leave. 
 Those who have passed through such days know all 
 there is to be known of their poignant sweetness and 
 agony; those to whom such days have not come can 
 only dimly understand. 
 
 Home is enfolding its children together, perhaps for 
 the last time; youth must fare forth to unnumbered 
 and unknown dangers, while love can only stay be- 
 hind, to stand and wait. Elderly folk who have 
 watched the baby pass into childhood, from childhood 
 to boyhood, and from boyhood to the first stage of 
 early manhood, come to take leave of their lad their 
 
 'Tea.
 
 WELSH GUARDS 225 
 
 sense of possession in him strong with the links which 
 country life, perhaps, alone can give; small brothers 
 are round-eyed and troubled at the general stir and at 
 the news that he who is half their world is "going to 
 the war." 
 
 Pilgrimages are made to places round which happy 
 memories are twined. Silences fall, too precious to be 
 broken "by fragmentary speech." 
 
 "Since in that hour the still souls held as nought 
 The body's beauty or brain's responsive thought, 
 Content to feel that life in life had grown 
 Separate no longer, but one life alone; 
 Ay, and they guessed thereby what life shall be 
 When Love world-wide has shown his mystery." 
 
 And mixed with all this sense of the mystery and the 
 beauty and the tragedy of life is the necessity of clear- 
 headed Martha-ing over details of kit and equipment. 
 It was during these days that Mother and Son arranged 
 together what each would do and each would aim at if 
 the seeming separation of bodily death rose suddenly 
 between them. 1 The days were very full, but time 
 was snatched for walks to places beloved on hillside 
 and in wood ; the evenings brought the comfort of Bee- 
 thoven sonatas; and some special treasures of English 
 literature were shared again by reading aloud : E. B. 
 B.'s "Sonnets from the Portuguese," vi., which was 
 the keynote of the parting; Kettle's lovely lines to his 
 little daughter written "In the Field before Guillemont, 
 
 l See Chap. IV.
 
 226 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Somme, September 4th, 1916," ending with those ring- 
 ing words on the fallen who 
 
 "Died not for flag, nor king, nor emperor, 
 But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed, 
 And for the Secret Scripture of the Poor." 
 
 Also a splendid poem by Ralph Hodgson, "The Song 
 of Honour," new to Christopher, which made a great 
 impression upon him; and, at his special wish, the let- 
 ter written by Mr. Britling after his own son's death 
 to the old German couple who were the parents of 
 Herr Heinrich, in the last chapter of Wells's master- 
 piece. "Our sons who have shown us God. . . ." 
 
 On Bank Holiday, August 6th, Christopher "left his 
 home for the last time. Of all the farewells of those 
 last days this was the only one which moved him to 
 outward expression of emotion. The old Welsh house 
 in that far-away Welsh valley held for him something 
 of the essence, as it were, of his own being; and to leave 
 it was a "death in life" which cut him to the quick. 
 Pater's words best describe the link which bound him 
 to it: 
 
 "The house in which she lives is for the orderly soul which 
 does not live on blindly before her, but is ever, out of her 
 passing experiences, building and adorning the parts of a 
 many-roomed abode for herself, only an expansion of the 
 body ; as the body is but an expansion of the soul. For such 
 an orderly soul, as she lives onward, all sorts of delicate affini- 
 ties establish themselves, between her and the doors and pas- 
 sage-ways, the lights and shadows of her outward abode, until 
 she seems incorporate into it till at last, in the entire expres- 
 siveness of what is outward, there is for her, to speak properly,
 
 WELSH GUARDS 227 
 
 no longer any distinction between outward and inward at all; 
 and the light which creeps at a particular hour on a wall, the 
 scent of flowers in the air at a particular window, become to 
 her, not so much apprehended objects, as themselves powers 
 of apprehension, and doorways to things beyond seeds or 
 rudiments of new faculties, by which she, dimly yet surely, 
 apprehends a matter lying beyond her actually attained ca- 
 pacity of sense and spirit." 
 
 His mother travelled with him to London, and there 
 two strenuous days were spent in collecting the neces- 
 sary items of Active Service kit and equipment. On 
 the Wednesday morning he returned to Tadworth and 
 heard that he was to cross to France on the morrow 
 with a draft of about 150 men of the Welsh Guards, 
 the other officer in charge being Lieut. R. W. Har- 
 greaves. Obtaining a few hours' leave, he returned to 
 London and rejoined his mother, travelling back to 
 Tadworth again in the evening. 
 
 On Thursday, August Qth, they met at Waterloo 
 Station and had forty minutes together. The draft 
 had come up from Tadworth by train, and the men 
 were lined up and marched to the platform from which 
 they were to entrain for Southampton. A finer body 
 of Welshmen it would have been hard to find. The 
 air rang with the sound of their voices, the beautiful 
 melodies of Aberystwith, "The Men of Harlech," 
 "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau," making "a sunshine in the 
 shady place." Ordinary travellers who found them- 
 selves in the station had the delight of listening to a 
 male-voice choir giving an impromptu concert. 
 
 Six officers of the Welsh Guards left for the front
 
 228 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 on that day. Lieut. R. W. Hargreaves and Sec.-Lieut. 
 G. C. S. Tennant in charge of the draft, and Sec.-Lieuts. 
 Webb, Devereux, Ballard, and Llewellyn travelling 
 separately. Of these six, four have been killed in ac- 
 tion : G. C. S. Tennant on September 3rd, R. W. Har- 
 greaves and T. H. B. Webb on December ist, and C. 
 P. Ballard on March loth, 1918. Sec.-Lieut. Devereux 
 has been wounded and sent home, and Sec.-Lieut. Paul 
 Llewellyn was dangerously wounded in March, 1918; 
 so that of the six not one remains, at the time of writ- 
 ing, on active service.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 
 
 "Burningly it came on me all at once, 
 This was the place ! . . . 
 
 What in the midst lay but the Tower itself ? . . * 
 
 . . . noise was everywhere! it tolled 
 
 Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears 
 
 Of all the lost adventurers my peers, 
 How such a one was strong, and such was bold, 
 And such was fortunate, yet each of old 
 
 Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years. 
 
 There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met 
 To view the last of me, a living frame 
 For one more picture! in a sheet of flame 
 
 I saw them and I knew them all. And yet 
 
 Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, 
 
 And blew. 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.' " 
 ROBERT BROWNING, "Childe Roland." 
 
 Guards' Division, Base Depot, B.E.F., France. 
 
 August \Qth, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I have just arrived at the Base, 
 and have been unable to wire so far, but may do so 
 later if I can. 
 
 We censor our own letters here! 
 When I left you we went straight to Southampton. 
 After waiting about an hour we embarked there no 
 weighing of kits, etc. 
 
 229
 
 280 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 I was very distressed at having to leave you, but I 
 expect we shall be here for some time. We left South- 
 ampton about four o'clock yesterday, but did not really 
 do the crossing till night. 
 
 I slept on deck in my sleeping bag and on the air- 
 bed. Hobbs is a very efficient servant. 
 
 We missed the tide coming here, so we could not 
 land in France till about 3 p.m. to-day, Friday. There 
 were a lot of American officers on board. The boat 
 was quite a large one, the - . It had been a Ger- 
 man one, and was captured from them. We had quite 
 a smooth crossing, and nobody was ill. 
 
 Then we disembarked and marched to the Camp, 
 about five or six miles off from where we disembarked. 
 The roads were rough, and people sold us apples and 
 chocolate on the way. Then we got here. It is a very 
 large Camp, and there are officers whom I know in 
 other Regiments of the Brigade. 
 
 The men are cheerful and happy. I expect to be 
 here for some time. . . . We have a lot of Orders, 
 etc., to read, and I will write again when I know more. 
 I share a tent with Hargreaves. 1 Other officers are in 
 huts. I will write again soon. God bless you. 
 Your loving CRUFF. 
 
 August loM, 1917. 
 
 Second letter. 
 
 I have got a tent with Hargreaves, and Hobbs has 
 put out all my bed, etc. It is very like being in camp 
 at Tadworth, here. We are allowed into the town 
 (there are trams), but must not be there after 10 p.m. 
 
 1 Killed in action, December 1st, 1917.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 231 
 
 Llewellyn, Webb, and Ballard are here, but Har- 
 greaves and I do all the work with the draft, and they 
 are separate. 
 
 I really expect to be here about a month. I hear the 
 Kaiser says the war will be over in three weeks ! 
 
 You are all constantly in my thoughts. You must 
 imagine me in Camp here just like Tad worth, and 
 perfectly safe for some time though the work is 
 harder. 
 
 There are large notices everywhere cautioning us 
 against spies. I shall soon find out the ropes, though 
 everything is rather strange at first. We are high up 
 here, and can see the sea in the distance. Good-night, 
 mother dear. All well here. Do you remember Goff, 
 who was at West Downs'? He is here in the Scots 
 Guards. I shall write again when I have more de- 
 tails to tell you. The Picquet Officer censors all the 
 letters. A long job that, I should imagine. Write 
 and tell me all you want to know. I can write with 
 a great sense of privacy, being my own censor! God 
 bless you. 
 
 Guards' Division, Base Depot, B.E.F. 
 
 August 12 tk, 1917. 
 
 We are allowed to say that we are at camp in Har- 
 fleur, near Havre. We have got 150 men. Hargreaves 
 and I belong to this draft, but the other officers are 
 separate. 
 
 I went into Havre yesterday with Llewellyn, and 
 we sat in cafes and talked French at great length 
 at least I did Llewellyn can't speak French. Then 
 we had tea at a cafe, and I also had my hair cut
 
 232 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 the barber put all sorts of unguents on! I enjoy 
 talking French to the inhabitants of Havre! 
 
 August 14-fh, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well here. Yesterday we 
 had a long day of training at the Camp. We did gas 
 all day, and we all went through poison gas with 
 respirators on. 
 
 On Sunday we had Church in the morning, and I 
 attended the parade. Hargreaves has been warned 
 that he will go up to the Entrenching Battalion, just 
 behind the front lines, shortly, and I now go out in 
 command of our draft (150) ! The men are a splen- 
 did lot, and I have been able to get to know them bet- 
 ter over here privates and N.C.O.'s. 
 
 On Sunday I went into Havre and talked French at 
 great length. That sort of practice makes me much 
 more familiar with the language. 
 
 August \$th, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am leaving here this eve- 
 ning and going straight to the 1st Battalion. All our 
 officers (except Llewellyn who is in hospital I don't 
 know what is the matter with him) are going straight 
 up to the 1st Battalion, and not to the Entrenching 
 Battalion at all. Hobbs is coming with me. He was 
 here last year, and says it took him three days to get 
 up to the front. The train used to go so slowly that 
 people got out and walked along, and then caught it 
 up and got in again! It may be quicker getting up 
 now. I am not sure where our 1st Battalion is. Prob- 
 ably resting, I should think. I expect our letters will
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 233 
 
 be censored up there. We start at 6.30 p.m. to-day, 
 and I will write again as soon as we reach our desti- 
 nation. 
 
 My eye is quite all right this morning; the swelling 
 has gone down completely on the eyelid, and I have 
 not been bitten by any more mosquitoes. 
 
 Well, dear Mother, you are ever in my thoughts, 
 and you know what I feel, better than I can express 
 it. I know you will be with me all through the com- 
 ing days, and our love can bridge all distances. 
 
 Do not be anxious or worried ; I know I shall return 
 safe to you. I shall write to you constantly, and think 
 of you all at Cadoxton. Give my love to Deedooge. 
 God bless you, Mother dear. I shall take great care 
 of myself, and come through everything all right. 
 Ever your loving and affectionate 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 August ijfh, 1917. 
 
 I am writing from a place en route* We left the 
 base on Wednesday evening, and travelled all night. I 
 slept in the train. In the morning we reached a town 
 the name of which I must not say. 2 It is a delicious 
 quaint place. I went over the Cathedral most lovely. 
 We had a few hours there, and who do you think I 
 met in the street but Betty Haggard*? 3 She was very 
 pleased to see me, but I had not time to see much of 
 her. 
 
 'Etaples. "Rouen. 
 
 'The widow of Captain Mark Haggard, Welsh Regiment, killed 
 in action September, 1914. His dying cry, "Stick it, the Welsh!" will 
 never be forgotten in the Principality. Christopher had spent many 
 happy days with Mrs. Haggard before her marriage, at the home of 
 her parents in the Vale of Neath.
 
 234 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 Then we travelled the rest of the day and all the 
 night, during which we slept. I went on the engine 
 for part of the way and talked to the engine-driver. 
 
 We got here this morning, and are leaving soon. I 
 do not know our destination. Must stop now. 
 
 August i&fk, 1917. 
 
 All well here. We have arrived at our destination. 1 
 I wrote to you en route on Friday. Well, we travelled 
 on to railhead, and from there were taken to the Rein- 
 forcement Camp in motor lorries, jolted all the way! 
 We spent that night in the Camp, which has a small 
 farmhouse for the officers to feed in. I conversed in 
 French with the inhabitants, and then slept in a tent. 
 This morning we had to walk up here, getting a lift 
 in a lorry part of the way. We are now out of the 
 line, and the Battalion was up a little time ago. I 
 will write to you at greater length re all the new peo- 
 ple I meet of the 1st Battalion. We are now at our 
 destination for the moment. I have lost my fountain 
 pen. Could you send me out another*? medium nib. 
 Your two letters I got here this morning saying you 
 had not yet heard. Must stop. Will write again. 
 
 August iStk. Second letter. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I wrote to you a few hours 
 ago, a hurried letter. There are four Companies in 
 the Battalion. I am in the first one, called The Prince 
 of Wales's Company it is the best in the Battalion, 
 
 *Petworth Camp, Proven.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 235 
 
 and the Battalion is the best in the Army, so I could 
 not wish for better. 1 
 
 There are several officers here whom I knew at Tad- 
 worth. 
 
 To His Father. 
 
 August igtk, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST DEEDOOGE, I have not written to you 
 very lately, but you have been much in my 
 thoughts. . . . 
 
 You will have heard most of my news from my 
 letters to Mummy. As a matter of fact I am now in 
 Flanders I may tell you that much and a little 
 way behind the line. Last night we suddenly had the 
 order all lights out about 10 p.m., and we were told 
 the German aeroplanes were over; we heard bombs 
 dropping about a mile off, and saw shrapnel bursting. 
 It looked like little stars which came and then disap- 
 peared. The Germans come over round here fairly 
 often, they say. We can hear the guns firing at night 
 from here, though only faintly. 
 
 This morning I was sitting in my tent after break- 
 fast when I heard a commotion, and rushed out just 
 in time to see one of our aeroplanes, which was at a 
 good height, turn nose downwards and fall with a 
 crash. It was a wonderful sight. The aeroplane fell 
 very rapidly, and landed about half a mile away. I 
 do not know what the cause of it was. I may not tell 
 you where we shall be when we go up into the line; 
 I do not know really where we shall go to. Last time 
 we were up north of blank and south of blank! and 
 
 1 The Motto of the Company is, "Y ddraig goch a ddyry gychwyn." 
 (The Red Dragon will give the lead.)
 
 236 
 
 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 north-west of somewhere else where the Germans 
 were very pressing. 1 Martin Smith is out here, but he 
 is not Adjutant. 
 
 One of our Sergeants has been recommended for 
 the V.C., but I do not know if he has got it yet. 
 
 In case you should know any of them, our officers 
 are: 
 
 Commanding Officer 
 Second in Command 
 
 Captains 
 
 Subalterns 
 
 Ensigns 
 
 COL. DOUGLAS GORDON. 
 
 MAJOR LUXMORE BALL. 
 
 GIBBS. 
 
 LORD LISBURNE. 
 
 RODERICK. 2 
 
 BATTYE. 
 
 TAYLOR. 
 
 'MARTIN SMITH. 
 
 NEWALL. 3 
 
 MENZIES. 
 
 .HARGREAVES.* 
 
 DEVAS (Adjutant). 
 
 SHAND. 
 
 FRIPP. 
 
 LASCELLES. 
 
 BYRNE. 5 
 
 And those who came out with me. Also de Satge, 
 Interpreter (was a master at Eton). 
 
 I am in the Prince of Wales's Company. It is al- 
 ways known by that name, and never as No. i Com- 
 pany. 
 
 1 Words used by Raymond Lodge to signify Ypres. See "Raymond," 
 p. 17. 
 
 'Killed in action, December ist, 1917. 
 'Killed in action, October i2th, 1917. 
 4 Killed in action, December ist, 1917. 
 'Killed in action, March 9th, 1918.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 237 
 
 I hope all is well with you; I long to hear from 
 you, dearest Deedooge. I got a book at the station 
 to read "Woodstock," by Scott. Do you know it^ 
 Farewell. Your loving 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 P.S. I played cricket for the Prince of Wales's 
 Company yesterday, and am playing again this after- 
 noon. 
 
 Sunday, August igth, 1917, 10 a.m. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, The General of the Division 
 (Feilding is his name) is coming down this morning 
 to present decorations, etc., to various men, but now 
 he cannot come, so we are only having a church parade 
 this morning. The padre here is a good fellow (Mogg) 
 and has a sense of humour an excellent thing in 
 padres ! 
 
 I did so enjoy your two letters I know all you feel, 
 and you know what I feel. I long to be with you, but 
 here I am happy, and I like the other officers, and 
 I shall have lots to tell you that I cannot tell you now. 
 We get ten days about every three months, so I shall 
 be back soon, and we can get leave to Paris occasionally. 
 You could come over to Paris ! . . . 
 
 Many thanks for that lovely poem * which I shall 
 keep. I get my Daily News, which is a great joy, as 
 there are no papers provided here. We mess in a 
 small farm, and I sleep in a tent which I am sharing 
 with one Bonsor, who is in Paris at present. The men 
 are very wonderful everyone says so and very 
 Welsh. 
 
 1 Ebenezer Elliot's hymn, "When wilt Thou save the people?" 
 See p. 172.
 
 238 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 August 2oth t 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well. . . . Llewellyn is 
 still at the Base in hospital with some sort of fever. 
 He is not seriously ill at all. 
 
 Now for my news. Yesterday I played cricket in 
 the afternoon for the Prince of Wales's Company. In 
 the evening German aeroplanes again came over, and 
 one we saw some way off detected by searchlights, 
 which all focussed on him, and shrapnel bursting all 
 round a wonderful sight. He got away, however ! 
 
 This morning my Company Commander returned, 
 and I like him very much. His name is Gibbs, and he 
 is very human and affectionate (not the typical soldier 
 type), and I am told he has simply made the Prince of 
 Wales's Company, which is now the best. 
 
 I am temporarily Battalion Bombing Officer, till 
 Gwynne Jones comes back, and this afternoon I took 
 a party of men over to a place two miles away to do 
 bombing tests. I left them with the Bombing Officer 
 and returned in two hours; they were kept for another 
 hour after that before they finished, and then I brought 
 them back and arranged tea for them, etc. 
 
 I have been given a platoon (No. 4 of the Prince of 
 Wales's Company), which is to be mine permanently. 
 They are a good lot of men, but one has to be strict 
 with them, though all the time I feel such an affection 
 for them. 
 
 This morning we did bayonet fighting, musketry 
 and gas drill. We parade at 10 a.m. every morning, 
 which is a splendid hour! 
 
 A flight of five herons has just flown over the camp.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 239 
 
 There was much amusement, and cries of "Lights out !" 
 They look exactly like aeroplanes ! 
 
 Well, dear Mother, you know I think of you con- 
 stantly. This is a most beautiful spot, and I am with 
 people I like, so I am as happy as I could expect to be 
 so far from you all. God bless you. Your loving 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, Your photographs just ar- 
 rived. They are quite glorious and quite perfect. They 
 are really you, and it is a joy to have them. Nothing 
 could have given me greater pleasure, and I like the 
 case and everything so much. . . . God bless you. 
 You are continually in my thoughts. Ever your lov- 
 ing 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 I shall have your photographs with me always. 
 
 THE SALIENT 1 
 
 The Ypres Salient 2 no longer exists. The battles of 
 the summer campaign of 1917 have extended the Brit- 
 ish line forward to the Passchendaele ridges and have 
 widened out of recognition the narrow loop of defences 
 that swung round to the north and south of Ypres. 
 But the memory of the Ypres Salient will never fade 
 from the minds of those who knew it in being. 
 
 1 This description of the neighbourhood of Ypres is here repro- 
 duced by the permission of the writer, Mr. Fred Ambrose, and of the 
 owners of the W elsh Outlook in which it first appeared. 
 
 *A salient in a system of defences is a loop in a line of trenches 
 and redoubts thrust forward for a considerable distance from the 
 main trend of the defences.
 
 240 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 The early battles against the westward advancing 
 Germans barred their progress to the sea. The thin 
 khaki line of British regulars and territorials held the 
 beautiful old Belgian town against the most desperate 
 attacks of the flower of the German Army, and in the 
 varying fortunes of that period was the Salient formed 
 a settled integral part of the British line. The hold- 
 ing of the Salient was rather a matter of British hon- 
 our and pride than of military importance. While it 
 was held there was still a Belgium; still was Belgium 
 in part free. The cost of its holding will never be 
 told this sector with a sinister reputation which 
 claimed a constant heavy toll of British men. When 
 on the Laventie stretch farther south or in the Festu- 
 bert "islands" the first Kitchener's men groused about 
 the heavy German gunfire, the old "sweats" would 
 smile grimly, saying, "Wait till yer gets to Wypers, 
 chum, ye' 11 have something to grouse about then. They 
 shoot yer in the back as yer walks towards the line 
 there." 
 
 And the new divisions came to regard the Salient as 
 a Hell amongst Hells. 
 
 If you have ever visited the Fen country you will 
 be able to picture the interior of the Salient. Low- 
 lying, marshy, a sea of mud in winter, a few rare and 
 scattered undulations which are a little less wet and 
 muddy, frequent copses of stunted oaks, and fields of 
 hop-poles gaunt and bare in winter, but in summer 
 clothed with wondrous green foliage; these are the
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 241 
 
 characteristic features of that spit of land which was 
 the foremost bastion of the British defences. 
 
 Round Ypres the line swept like the edge of an 
 open fan. Where its radiating ribs met stands Pope- 
 ringhe, a little town with cobbled streets and houses of 
 quaint Flemish design with truncated gables and red- 
 tiled roofs. Eastwards through Poperinghe passes the 
 main road from Calais to Ypres. Half-way between 
 Poperinghe and Ypres it runs through the village of 
 Vlamertinghe. Elverdinghe and Woeston on the north, 
 and Kimmel and St. Eloi on the south, flank the 
 Salient. 
 
 Surrounding the low land held by the British, rose 
 arrogantly the Pilkem ridge on the north, and the 
 Messines ridge to the south ridges upon which for 
 nearly three years the German positions were estab- 
 lished. They looked down upon us as into a cup- 
 shaped hollow : they mocked us : they gave us the feel- 
 ing that our every movement was being watched and 
 all that was done was done by the tacit permission of 
 the Germans. That hollow one entered as one would 
 enter the Valley of the Shadow, conscious of malevo- 
 lent eyes, dreading every moment evil from an invis- 
 ible, ever-vigilant foe. Within the Salient to the south 
 rose one low ridge, relieving the flat monotony, and 
 when the air was clear on this could be discerned the 
 old monastery of Mont des Cato, and along the edge 
 of this ridge the canvas sails of the Flemish windmills 
 revolved slowly in the breeze, and peacefully ground 
 the corn into meal. In the fields toiled the peasants,
 
 242 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 on the ridge the windmills turned lazily and from 
 the copse near by came the full-throated roar of a 
 big gun battery. A strange mingling of Peace and 
 War! 
 
 Often have I lain awake under the brown blankets 
 in my billet in the Salient, seeing the yellow glare 
 of the Very lights, and listening to the monotonous rat- 
 tle of the ration limbers returning empty from the line 
 over the cobbled (pave) roads. The car rattling over 
 the stony street Byron's line revealed then its full 
 meaning to me. At night the guns concentrated in the 
 hollow roared their thunder, and lit up the darkness 
 with their lightning flashes. It seemed as though a 
 thousand thunder-storms were concentrating their fury 
 upon the Salient. And the ruined city guiltless, 
 martyred, immortal Ypres has been exposed for 
 three years to the fury of the storm of steel. At times 
 an uncanny silence brooded over its pitiful streets of 
 houses, now masses of formless debris. Now and then 
 a gun spoke hollowly amidst its ruins making the si- 
 lence more intense. Then would come the storm peri- 
 ods with their hissings of angry projectiles, the roar 
 of concealed batteries, and the heart-clutching detona- 
 tions of the shells that daily, and not without success, 
 sought their mark. Then like an April shower the 
 storm would pass, ending in a few desultory rounds 
 from the guns, answered by stray shells whining like 
 souls lost in the brooding silence. 
 
 Coming from the "Ramparts" near the Menin gate 
 we traversed the ruined streets as far as the Square.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 243 
 
 As we walked the sun shone serenely, pitilessly upon 
 that naked heap of ruins. Through the Square 
 .flanked by the shattered Cloth Hall rode a cyclist- 
 soldier, whistling cheerfully for he had nearly attained 
 his journey's end. Another whistle louder and omi- 
 nous stifled it and then a crash as a huge shell burst 
 a little to one side of him sending up a soot-black acrid 
 cloud of smoke. The cyclist fell headlong from his 
 cycle and lay upon his back on the cobbled stones in 
 the sun, his knees drawn up nearly touching his chin 
 and his legs kicking feebly. A piece of the shell had 
 cut across his body and had almost disembowelled him. 
 He kicked a little more, frothed at the lips a bloody 
 froth and, crouched up in that horrible attitude, lay 
 stiff and still. And the sun shone on, warming the 
 pave stones with its rays. Everything was just the 
 same except that lad who, but a few moments before, 
 was whistling cheerfully, and now lay dead. The sun 
 shone on serenely seeming to smile through death. 
 That lad was just one of the daily toll of men who died 
 that we might still say, "We hold Ypres." 
 
 Along the banks of the little Yperlee which flows 
 northwards from Ypres for some distance parallel to 
 the Yser were the dug-outs now little needed of the 
 British troops who had sapped into the banks, and con- 
 structed innumerable sand-bagged shelters for them- 
 selves. Endless tracks of duck-boards stretched along 
 its banks and that of the Yser, and here in a pre-his- 
 toric fashion lived for nearly three years the troops 
 who held the northern portion of the Salient. This
 
 244 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 dug-out town was self-contained: it had its bath, its 
 hospital, its kitchens, its stores, its canteens, its rail- 
 ways, and its cemetery, in which an ever-increasing 
 number of wooden crosses grew out of the soil, and in 
 which there were always a number of ready-delved 
 graves for the occupants that never failed them. And 
 within a stone's throw there was gay laughter and song, 
 jokes and harmless horse-play, amongst those for whom 
 those graves yawned insatiate. 
 
 Elverdinghe the fortress village surrounded by 
 batteries which spoke often and seldom were wanting 
 of their reply ! The church is a broken ruin, the church- 
 yard a chaotic mass of broken stone, plaster, glass and 
 the bones of men long since dead. From the cellars, 
 roofed with sandbags, peeped the bronzed faces of the 
 garrison. They greet passers-by with a cheerful hail. 
 "Cheero chum ! Any news ! When is this bloody war 
 going to end?" 
 
 At night the Very Lights rose and fell around one 
 in a wide curve. From the apex of the Salient near 
 Hooge it seemed as though they surrounded one and 
 this intensified the feeling of helplessness and impo- 
 tence which possessed one during the day. These arcs 
 of light rose and fell all through the night, while, at 
 intervals, various coloured lights signalled to the artil- 
 lery behind. It was a beautiful spectacle, but life in 
 the Salient does not conduce to artistic appreciation. 
 
 When the moon was full, and in the dull grey dawn, 
 enemy planes came over and dropped their burden of 
 deadly bombs on the canvas camp and hutments built
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 245 
 
 by the troops for their shelter in the cold wet weather. 
 When the wind was "dangerous" no rare occurrence 
 in the Salient the deep note of the Strombos Horn 
 often roused us from our sleep. This heralded an 
 enemy gas attack and the Salient was instantly a Pan- 
 demonium. Shell-case gongs were beaten, ringing 
 lengths of steel rail hammered with metal strikers by 
 lusty sentries, bugles were blown, and horns blared, 
 and a little later the artillery would partially drown 
 the inferno of noise in an attempt to smother the enemy 
 sector from which the gas came. From the dug-outs, 
 tents, and huts flowed a bustling, cursing stream of men 
 obeying the call to "Stand to" with their box-respira- 
 tors worn on the chest in the "Alert" position. 
 
 The soldier "on pass" into Poperinghe was rarely 
 allowed to feel, even for an evening, that he could 
 shake off the hateful dread of the Salient. After a 
 long period in the line he would walk the cobbled 
 streets and would visit the concert party and the pic- 
 tures at the Divisional Cinema near the station. Rare- 
 ly was the evening's enjoyment unbroken, for from 
 the north-east would come the unmistakable hollow 
 crack of a German long-range high velocity gun, and 
 the scream of the 8 in. shell that burst with an ap- 
 palling crash in the cobbled square. Four minutes 
 later, and then came another this time perhaps peri- 
 lously near the crowded cinema hall and the soldier- 
 manager would deem it prudent to dismiss the audience 
 an audience that trudged despondently cursing back 
 to the camps, while panic-stricken civilians and women
 
 246 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 bearing children in their arms, hurried past them out 
 of the town into the open country and safety. 
 
 Of such was the Salient. During the day it pulsated 
 with toil, at the A.S.C. dumps, and at the R.E. yards 
 refugees prepared war material for the line which pro- 
 hibited the invader from the last corner of their be- 
 loved Belgium; at the numerous ammunition dumps 
 huge and innumerable shells were loaded into lorries 
 bound for the gun positions. New railways were be- 
 ing laid down, and new roads constructed for the grand 
 advance to come. Innumerable hutments and camps 
 sprang up amid the copses and woods of the Salient. 
 Fritz, his path marked by a row of white puff-balls 
 in the sky, would come to view it all, and busy work- 
 ers craned their necks to see his plane flashing in the 
 sun, and hoped that one of our airmen would attack 
 him. An aerial fight never proved monotonous, though 
 it was a fairly common occurrence in the Salient. 
 
 Along the roads the refugees built themselves rows 
 of little cabins from any and every material from 
 hammered out petrol cans, packing cases, biscuit tins, 
 from mud and wattle. There they lived making many 
 honest pennies by selling eggs and chips, doughnuts, 
 embroidered postcards, aluminium rings and such like 
 articles to the soldiers. 
 
 And always shells, and gunfire, and the rattle of a 
 myriad machine guns, and the constant menace of the 
 poison gas. And often at night the thunder of a 
 German armoured train with its leviathan guns shell-
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 247 
 
 ing a village or our big gun positions. And always in 
 the distance the black puff-balls of smoke from German 
 shrapnel bursting over Ypres. 
 
 With all its dread horror the Salient will ever be 
 hallowed ground to Britain. Her many brave sons 
 who lie buried there have made it "for ever Eng- 
 land's." 
 
 FRED AMBROSE. 
 
 To his Father. 
 
 August 23^, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST DEEDOOGE, All well here there is not 
 much news to tell you, but I long to hear from you. I 
 was Picquet Officer yesterday, and had various duties 
 to perform. I have just been censoring the men's 
 letters. 
 
 We had German aeroplanes over here yesterday. 
 They came right over the camp last night, and I could 
 hear the engines distinctly, but they did not drop bombs 
 here. They dropped them about a mile off on casualty 
 clearing stations, and bombed some of their own 
 wounded. I have got everything that I want out here 
 but would you ask Mummy to send me a "Platoon 
 Roll Book," to keep a list of the men in my platoon. 
 . . . We had a terrific thunderstorm last night, and 
 it has been raining this morning. I expect to move, 
 possibly ( !) next week, but one never knows. 
 
 I spent this morning in going over the bombs be- 
 longing to the Battalion, sorting and cleaning them up 
 generally. I am glad to have that photograph of Ca- 
 doxton it gives me great pleasure.
 
 248 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 God bless you. Write soon, as the men always say 
 in their letters. Ever your loving 
 
 CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 August 2^.tk. 
 
 No news to-day, but just a line to say all well. We 
 are still in the same place, and I do not yet know when 
 we shall move. We are having a parade to-morrow 
 of the whole Guards' Division ! A French General is 
 going to present decorations and medals. Some of our 
 men are getting medals, and the General will probably 
 embrace them! I played cricket yesterday. Ballard 
 got a kick on the leg at football, and is limping a bit, 
 but will be all right in a day or two. I have not re- 
 ceived any cigarettes yet from the Stores. I hope you 
 have got some of my letters by now. 
 
 God bless you, dear Mother. 
 
 Sunday, August 26 th. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well. The fountain pen 
 has arrived, and I am very glad to have it many 
 thanks for it, and also the scissors. I do admire the 
 magnificent way you do up the parcels in that sort of 
 stuff we used to mount brass rubbings on! 1 All your 
 parcels have arrived safe, and I hope you got my wire 
 
 about three days ago. We go to-morrow to 2 for 
 
 some days, then the front. When we go up we shall 
 be in the line for four days, and then come out when- 
 ever we do go. . . . 
 
 I find my air-bed very useful out here, as we sleep 
 
 1 The parcels were sewn up in unbleached calico. 
 *A farm in the neighbourhood of Elverdinghe.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 249 
 
 on stretchers, and the air-bed makes the whole differ- 
 ence in comfort. I have received a cover for my steel 
 helmet. My periscope has come. The Entrenching 
 Battalion consists of men from various regiments in 
 the Guards Division, and Devereux is there now, but 
 none of us went I do not know why. Dickens is out 
 here. 
 
 My Padre's real name is not Mogg but Oldham, and 
 he is always called "Moo" as a nickname. No one 
 knows why, but I suggest it is short for "Man of God" ! 
 God bless you, dear mother; I have you continually 
 before my eyes, and travel to Cadoxton in spirit very 
 often. 
 
 I went for a ride this afternoon on the Quarter- 
 master's horse, and enjoyed it. 
 
 Yesterday we had a long day. Left at 1 1 130, 
 marched four miles to a flying ground. At three we 
 were inspected by General Anthoine, a French General, 
 in magnificent blue uniform. We did not get back till 
 six. He did not embrace anyone : I was disappointed ! 
 He had a magnificent staff in bright blue, and our 
 Corps Commander was there. 
 
 God bless you, dear Mother. 
 
 P.S. (Written outside the envelope.) Un mon- 
 sieur qui s'appelle Pte. Ball dans le regiment ira vous 
 voir. II vient de Cadoxton, et retourne la dans quel- 
 ques jours en vacances. 
 
 August 2jtk, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well here. We moved this 
 morning from our last place, and came by train here, a 
 journey of about ten miles. Our kit we brought with
 
 250 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 us, and it went at eight this morning. We got here 
 about one o'clock this afternoon. It has rained inces- 
 santly all day, but I did not get wet. I have got my 
 black top boots on ! 
 
 We all travelled in cattle trucks, all the officers 
 in one truck, and the men crowded into others. 
 It was very interesting, as we gradually got into the 
 area that had once been shelled farmhouses half 
 demolished and churches with part of the tower 
 blown off, also many trees all looking like the "blasted 
 Pine," * stripped of branches, and in some cases mere 
 stumps left. 
 
 We marched here from the place at which we de- 
 trained along a road lined with such trees and houses 
 about two miles' march and we saw German shells 
 occasionally bursting not more than a mile or so away. 
 We are not up in the front line nor likely to be shelled 
 here, but it is a moderately warm place. We are sur- 
 rounded by our own guns, fairly close by, and there 
 is a tremendous bombardment going on at present 
 like continuous thunder. It is all very wonderful! 
 
 When we got here the men pitched their bivouacs, 
 and we had some lunch. I am sharing a tent with 
 the Padre and de Satge the interpreter, both very nice 
 and intellectual people. 
 
 My kit is all here, but it will not go further up with 
 
 *A huge tree which had been struck by lightning and stands high 
 on the mountain side above Cadoxton. The family party often climbed 
 up to it for the sake of the glorious view spread out beneath, and 
 Christopher had named it from a line in one of the songs from "The 
 Princess," which was a special favourite of his: 
 
 ". . . cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease 
 To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine."
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 251 
 
 me. I am in good spirits and really enjoying the 
 great adventure. We wear our box respirators slung 
 over our shoulders, to be ready for gas, but we are 
 practically safe from it here, I think. 
 
 I think this is all my news. Private Ball, who is 
 a Cadoxton man, introduced himself to me yesterday, 
 and I had a long talk with him. He is going on leave 
 to Cadoxton soon, and I told him to be sure to call on 
 you, so you may expect to see him. 1 
 
 As to the estimate that the men formed of Christo- 
 pher the following words are quoted from a contem- 
 porary note made by his mother immediately after her 
 interview with Private Ball : 
 
 "The men would have done anything for him, he 
 made himself just one of them. He never made any 
 man feel that he thought himself above him. He was 
 a man and a soldier! He got more out of his men 
 than others because they did it for him with willing 
 hearts. There was no grousing in his platoon. He had 
 a Welsh way with him, he was always so happy and 
 smiling. They knew what he was, the men he was 
 one of them. Everyone thought the world of him. I 
 have heard remarks passed after his death among the 
 men about what he was I know I would have given 
 my life for him willingly." 
 
 1 The meeting with Private Ball took place in due course when 
 he came home on leave on September isth. He had been in the 
 trenches on the night of September 2nd and 3rd, and was able to 
 give a number of small details as to the experiences of the ist Bat- 
 talion of the Welsh Guards from the day Christopher joined it
 
 252 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 August 28/^, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER. Many thanks for your delicious 
 long letter. There is a tremendously strong gale blow- 
 ing; our tent was nearly blown away during the night! 
 It is finer to-day, with squalls of rain. I have got my 
 black top boots on, which keep out the rain. I wrote 
 daily to you from the last place, so you ought to get 
 my letters regularly. My Daily News is only a day 
 late, always! 
 
 That is a delicious poem you sent me, which I will 
 keep in my pocket-book. 1 I have also got in my pocket 
 the little lavender bag you sent me with the fountain 
 pen. 
 
 Re the various questions in your letter. I sleep on 
 a stretcher raised on wood off the ground, with my 
 air-bed, sleeping bag, and blanket. Here I have the 
 whole valise unrolled on a stretcher and sleep on it. 
 
 My green kit bag is very useful, and I have got 
 my web equipment, etc., and things which are too 
 hard or too fragile to sleep on in it. We eat off tin 
 plates and drink out of mugs, though there are a few 
 china plates and glasses which we may occasionally 
 get. At the last camp we had two farmhouses for hav- 
 ing our meals in. The best one was used by Head- 
 quarters i.e. C.O., Adjutant, Second in Command, 
 etc. with the officers of the Prince of Wales's Com- 
 
 *A poem by Christina Rossetti which ends with the following 
 verse : 
 
 "Heaven overarches you and me, 
 
 And all earth's gardens and her graves. 
 Look up with me, until we see 
 The day break and the shadows flee. 
 What though to-night wrecks you and me, 
 If so to-morrow saves?"
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 253 
 
 pany and No. 2. In the other farm Nos. 3 and 4 Com- 
 panies messed. Here we all mess together in a small 
 corrugated shed. The men sleep in bivouacs, and we 
 have tents, three in a tent. Bivouacs are sheets pegged 
 down over frames (three parts and crosspiece). 
 
 We have breakfast eggs and bacon, tea (no coffee, 
 alas!), bread and butter and marmalade any time 
 from seven to nine ! I had breakfast in bed this morn- 
 ing, and got up at 9.30, as we had to have our meals 
 in our tents until the mess (a shed of corrugated iron) 
 was put up. All of us have to salute the Commanding 
 Officer the first time we see him in the day, and if he 
 is at breakfast we walk in and salute ! I like him and 
 get on with him. He is Scotch. Then we lunch at 
 one, when we have meat, vegetables, sweet and cheese. 
 Tea from four to five, and dinner at eight soup, meat, 
 sweet and cheese, with white wine and soda to drink. 
 We used to have coffee, too, after lunch and dinner 
 at our last camp. 
 
 Our present camp was a field quite full of thistles 
 when we first came. There are crops everywhere yel- 
 low corn, wheat, and some maize. The roads are all 
 pav e, except the very small ones, and not comfortable 
 for marching on. The guns go on intermittently here, 
 and there is a 12-inch one not far off which makes a 
 tremendous bang, but they are not firing so fiercely 
 to-day as yesterday. . . . 
 
 I am glad you got my telegram, and I will wire 
 whenever I come out of the line. I have not heard 
 anything more about Paris leave, but when I know for 
 certain I will wire.
 
 254, CHRISTOPHER 
 
 I like that extract from "Letters of a Soldier" 1 
 which you send me. You know all I feel, dear Mother, 
 and I know you will be with me in all dangers and 
 weariness that I may have to go through. What hap- 
 py days we have had together and how love has in- 
 terwoven our lives! It is a great joy to look back on 
 delicious moments we have had. I can think of many 
 such, and they will be a memory for ever. This whole 
 business seems often to me just a dream, from which I 
 shall wake to find myself in my own bed at Cadox- 
 ton, and I daresay it will seem like that when it is all 
 over. 
 
 How strange life is! We are perplexed, but not 
 dismayed "Heaven over-arches you and me," and 
 I have learnt to feel that separation cannot break the 
 bond of love nor destroy the daily intercourse which 
 has been ours so long. The miles by which we are 
 divided do not matter, for we are close together in the 
 spirit, you and I. Each day that passes I feel that 
 we are conversing together, with our minds, for we 
 
 1 Extract from "Letters of a Soldier" (the writer is a young French 
 painter) : "I should like to define the form of my conviction of better 
 things in the near future, resulting from this war. These events pre- 
 pare the way to a new life: that of the United States of Europe. 
 After the conflict those who will have completely and filially ful- 
 filled their obligations to their country will find themselves con- 
 fronted by duties yet more grave and the realisation of things that 
 are now impossible. Then will be the time for them to throw their 
 efforts into the Future they must use their energies to wipe out the 
 trace of the shattering contact of Nations. The French Revolution, 
 notwithstanding its mistakes, notwithstanding some backsliding in 
 practice, some failure in construction, did none the less establish 
 in man's soul this fine theory of National Unity. Well ! the horrors 
 of this War lead to the Unity of Europe, to the Unity of the race. 
 The new State will not be established without blows and strife for 
 an indefinite time, but without doubt the door is now open towards 
 the new horizon." (Date, November ifth, 1914.)
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 255 
 
 know that each is thinking of the other. I feel you so 
 near to me that when I open my eyes I expect almost 
 to see you before me. I have never felt so strongly 
 before this nearness of you, dear Mother, to me. 
 
 Well, the path lies before me. I feel like Childe 
 Roland, and when I have won the Dark Tower * 
 across all this waste and desolate battlefield I shall 
 return, please God, to the "haven where I would be." 
 And I hope this time will soon come, when we shall 
 meet again and rejoice together. 
 
 Give my love to all. I am well, and in a place not 
 unpleasant. The sun is shining, and the world looks 
 all so bright. 
 
 Give my love to all, and especially to Deedooge, 
 whom ask to interpret &&pv & olarkov 5' fywos from 
 Sophocles. 
 
 God bless you again. I look forward to all the 
 happy days we shall have together. Ever your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 August 2gfh t 1917. 
 
 My possessions are most adequate, and I have got 
 everything I want. Other people's things are very 
 insufficient when compared with mine, and de Satge, 
 the interpreter, said to me the other day, "What a 
 splendid kit you have got! You must have a very 
 loving mother!" which I said was quite true. 
 
 Hobbs will go with me into the front line, as far 
 
 1 Browning's "Childe Roland." See quotation at head of this chap- 
 ter, p. 229, and p. 80. But Browning quotes it from Shakespeare, King 
 Lear, III. iv. 
 
 2 Grievous indeed, yet to be endured.
 
 256 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 as he knows, and my kit will stay behind with the 
 transport, except just what I take up with me. 
 
 I have to-day wired to say that I am getting Paris 
 leave September 4th. This is practically certain, and 
 I shall be able to go unless any very unforeseen cir- 
 cumstance occurs. People here say it is difficult for 
 anyone except wives to come over, but I hope you and 
 Deedooge will manage! Most of the officers here 
 stay at the Ritz when they go there. Paris leave has 
 no relation at all to English leave, which you get 
 ten days every three months, and Paris leave cannot 
 affect that. I have got all the parcels sent, registered 
 and otherwise. . . . 
 
 I remember the house you are taking at Langland 
 Bay, and I like your sketch of it! You will enjoy the 
 change and sea air. You are constantly in my thoughts, 
 dear Mother. Farewell for the present. Ever your 
 loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 Extracts from letters of the same date to two other 
 members of the family : 
 
 "We are surrounded by big guns, some firing over 
 our heads, and the first day we arrived there was a 
 tremendous bombardment going on. 'Fritz was getting 
 it!' as the men said. We have had German shells 
 right over the camp, aimed, no doubt, at guns behind 
 us, and last night I heard them singing through the 
 air. The Adjutant found a piece of shrapnel in the 
 camp this morning which may have been blown from 
 300 yards off ! I am parading at 5.30 a.m. to-morrow
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 257 
 
 to take a party of ninety-eight men and march to a 
 certain town about nine miles off. I am the only 
 officer in charge, and I leave the men at this town and 
 then come back. I expect I shall get a lift in a motor 
 lorry on the way back. I expect to go to the front 
 line the day after to-morrow and be in for four days 
 but I do not know at all for certain. . . . We 
 have got a tame jackdaw as a mascot, and he was 
 brought up from our last camp in a sandbag. He is 
 very tame, and you can pick him up. 
 
 "You would laugh if you could see me now, dressed 
 in riding breeches and black top boots, and sitting in 
 my tent while the wind and rain are raging outside! 
 Well, I can tell you that I am in Flanders, and that 
 is about all. It is all very interesting out here, which 
 is a great thing. The batteries of guns round here are 
 mostly 9.2, and I went and looked at them yesterday. 
 There is a tall tree near one of them, with a ladder go- 
 ing up to the top, so I climbed up and had a look 
 round. I saw very desolate country in front. Lots of 
 trees all stripped of leaves and branches and even bark. 
 This is a great adventure, and I am enjoying it." 
 
 August 30^, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well. I got your letter of 
 27th to-day. . . . 
 
 I expect to go into the line to-morrow night. 1 I 
 will tell you my day to-day: I rose at 4.30 a.m., 
 breakfasted at five, paraded at 5.30, and marched my 
 ninety-eight men to a certain town. 2 It is a quaint old 
 place; the eastern half has been entirely demolished 
 
 1 Near Langemarck. 3 Poperinghe.
 
 258 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 by shelling, but all the houses stand on the west side. 
 I put my men into the train (they are returning to the 
 Entrenching Battalion, as we are up to full strength). 
 Then I went and had another breakfast and came back 
 in a lorry. On returning I found the camp deserted! 
 I went to the Orderly Room, and the clerk said the 
 Battalion had taken refuge about 100 yards off. I 
 noticed shells coming right over the camp and bursting 
 a quarter of a mile west of us, so I put on my steel 
 helmet, and joined the other officers. They told me 
 we had had several shells of shrapnel bursting right 
 over the camp. None of our men were touched, but 
 the Grenadiers, who are encamped in the same field as 
 ourselves, had one man killed and four injured by 
 shrapnel. However, there was no more of it after I 
 returned. I will write again to-morrow before we go 
 off. I hope you will come to Paris, but my leave 
 may be put off owing to our going up into the line; 
 as it is we shall be out at the time of my leave, and 
 you may count on my coming, but should anything 
 occur I will wire. . . . Love to Deedooge. God 
 bless you. All well. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 August 3U/, 1917.* 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, We go into the trenches to- 
 night. I am taking Hobbs with me. Gibbs stays at 
 Company Headquarters, coming round occasionally, 
 and Bonsor and I take turns, one being in the line, and 
 one at Company Headquarters. We take alternate 
 days. Being in the line means probably a concrete 
 
 1 Received Tuesday, September 4th, the day after his death.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 259 
 
 blockhouse. We shall be in four days. We first cross 
 a river rolling rapidly J then are met by guides who 
 conduct us to our destination, where we relieve other 
 troops. As soon as we get out of the line I will if 
 possible wire to you. I expect I shall not come to 
 Paris till the 5th of September, unless I leave a day 
 earlier. I do not know. 
 
 My kit I am taking up is going in two sandbags by 
 mules to Company Headquarters. We are going to a 
 very quiet part of the line, I hear, which is a good 
 thing. I am taking my writing pad with me, so I shall 
 have plenty of time to write to you at length. Both 
 you and Deedooge will be much in my thoughts. I 
 do not mind going up myself, as I feel very philosophi- 
 cal about danger, and I have the conviction that I 
 shall return to you safe. God bless and keep you. Let 
 not your heart be troubled. I will write frequently. 
 Give Deedooge my love. I have not much time to 
 write now as we are busy getting off. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 The two following letters were found upon his body 
 after his death in action on September 3rd. 
 
 September 1st, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, I am now sitting in a dugout 
 in the front line; it is a concrete blockhouse and very 
 strong. We left our last camp yesterday evening, then 
 marched about two miles on the road, then turned off 
 on to trenchboards which led for miles past shell holes 
 nothing but mud to be seen and trees stripped of 
 
 'The Iser. See Campbell's "Hohenlinden."
 
 260 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 branches. At length we turned off again and found 
 our own way through the mud. (We had a guide to 
 show us the way.) They sent some shells over, but 
 none near us during our march, and the night was dark. 
 
 We all got settled in eventually. It is an old Ger- 
 man trench, and really faces the wrong way. It mere- 
 ly consists of the trench, which is broken in several 
 places. Last night shells dropped close to us, and I 
 got covered with mud from them several times. In 
 the night Gibbs and I went out in front and walked 
 about I cannot now tell you why but we had shells 
 bursting round us all the time. The men are splendid, 
 and nobody is the least bit afraid. I was up all night, 
 and got a little sleep this morning, and a little more 
 after tea. I have got tins of food, and Hobbs cooks 
 for me. To-night I go back and spend twenty-four 
 hours at Company Headquarters while Bonsor relieves 
 me. 1 The line is really quite quiet, though one cannot 
 move about much by day owing to German snipers. 
 
 I am a bit tired, but very satisfied with things in 
 general, and the men are cheerful. 
 
 God bless you, dear mother. I will wire if I can 
 when we come out. Your loving 
 
 CRUFF. 
 
 September 2nd, 1917. 
 
 DEAREST MOTHER, All well. I come out to-night, 
 and Bonsor takes my place so by the time you get this 
 you will know I am through all right. 
 
 I got your wire last night, also your three letters. 
 
 a This arrangement was altered, and he remained on duty in the 
 front line throughout Sunday, September 2nd.
 
 ON ACTIVE SERVICE 261 
 
 I am very sorry you cannot come to Paris. 1 Isn't it 
 shameful only wives may go? I am going with Webb, 2 
 which will be nice for me. I will write when I get there. 
 
 Many thanks for that little book of poems. 3 It IS 
 a great joy having it out here. There is nothing much 
 to do all day except sleep now and then. Well you 
 can think of me in Paris. It will soon be English 
 leave, and that will be splendid! 
 
 Webb is going to stay at the Ritz, I think, where 
 he has been before, so I expect I might go there with 
 him. He tried to get his papa to come over, but I 
 expect he found it is only wives who can come! 
 
 I got hit in the face by a small piece of shrapnel 
 this morning, but it was a spent piece, and did not 
 even cut me. 
 
 One becomes a great fatalist out here. God bless 
 you.-Your loving 
 
 A telegram from the War Office, dated September 
 6th, 1917, was received at Cadoxton on the evening 
 of that day : 
 
 "Deeply regret to inform you that Sec.-Lieut. G. C. S. Ten- 
 nant, 1st Welsh Guards, was killed in action September sec- 
 ond.* The Army Council express their sympathy. 
 
 "Secretary, War Office." 
 
 1 After obtaining a passport his Mother had been refused permis- 
 sion to proceed to Paris by the Military Permit Office, on the ground 
 that the Regulations provided that only the wives of officers were 
 allowed over. This specimen of official red-tape (she considers) 
 ought surely to be done away with in the case of mothers of un- 
 married officers. 
 
 *Mr. Webb (pp. 178, 277) was killed in action on Dec. i, 1917. 
 
 ' A small paper-covered anthology, "The Hundred Best Poems in 
 the English Language (Lyrical)." Selected by Adam L. Gowans, M.A. 
 
 4 This was subsequently corrected to September 3rd.
 
 262 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 (Or THE DEAD.) 
 
 "First and chiefly, I at least see ground to believe that their 
 state is one of endless evolution in wisdom and in love. Their 
 loves of earth persist; and most of all those highest loves 
 which seek their outlet in adoration and worship. . . . For in 
 that world love is actually self-preservation, the Communion 
 of Saints not only adorns but constitutes the Life Everlasting. 
 Nay, from the law of telepathy it follows that that Com- 
 munion is valid for us here and now. Even now the love of 
 souls departed makes answer to our invocations. Even now 
 our loving memory love is itself a prayer supports and 
 strengthens those delivered spirits upon their upward way. 
 No wonder; since we are to them but as fellow-travellers 
 shrouded in a mist; 'neither death nor life, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature' can bar us from the hearth-fires 
 of the universe, or hide for more than a moment the inconceiv- 
 able oneness of souls." 1 
 
 " 'Eiri6vTOS &pa Oavarov tirl rbv avOpuirov rb n& Qvyrbv, ws 
 abrov airoOvyffKei., rb 5' bdavarov ffuv Kal 
 
 A DDIODDEFODD A ORFU 8 
 
 a From a Paper read before the Synthetic Society in March, 1899, 
 by F. W. H. Myers. See "Human Personality," chap. x. 
 
 * Plato, Phaedo (106) : "Then when death comes to a man, his 
 mortal part dies, but the immortal part goes away unharmed and 
 undestroyed, withdrawing from death." 
 
 * "He who has suffered has conquered." The Motto of Jestyn Ap 
 Gurgan, who ruled over Neath before the coming of the Normans.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 LETTERS FROM BROTHER OFFICERS, NON-COMMIS- 
 SIONED OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE WELSH 
 GUARDS, AND FROM FRIENDS 
 
 "And so of all that form inheriteth 
 
 The fall doth pass the rise in worth; 
 For birth hath in itself the germ of death, 
 
 But death hath in itself the germ, of birth. 
 It is the falling acorn buds the tree, 
 The falling rain that bears the greenery, 
 
 The fern-plants moulder when the ferns arise. 
 For there is nothing lives but something dies, 
 And there is nothing dies but something lives. 
 
 Till skies be fugitives, 
 
 Till Time, the hidden root of Change, updries, 
 Are Birth and Death inseparable on earth; 
 For they are twain yet one, and Death is Birth." 
 FRANCIS THOMPSON, "Ode to the Setting Sun." (Cf. p. 108.) 
 
 FROM CAPTAIN ARTHUR GIBBS, COMMANDING THE 
 PRINCE OF WALES COMPANY, IST BATTALION 
 WELSH GUARDS. 
 
 1st Welsh Guards, B.E.F. 
 
 September $th. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, It is with the greatest sor- 
 row that I have to write to you about the death of your 
 son. I will tell you how it happened. 
 
 He had been up in the front line for two days, and 
 
 263
 
 264 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 early in the morning of the 3rd, at about four o'clock, 
 while it was still dark, he came down to Company 
 Headquarters with all his kit packed up, as he was 
 going out of the line that morning to go to Paris the 
 next day. I saw him then, wished him good luck, and 
 that was the last I saw of him. He had Hobbs, his 
 servant, with him, and Lewis, an Orderly. They had 
 only got about 200 yards away, down the duckboard 
 track, when a shell burst very close to them, hitting 
 your son in the eye, and about the head and face, 
 wounding Lewis in seven or eight places, and scratch- 
 ing Hobbs's face. Hobbs stayed with your son, who 
 was unconscious from the first, and Lewis, very pluck- 
 ily, struggled back to Company Headquarters to fetch 
 the stretcher-bearers. Lewis was hit in both legs, and 
 lost a great deal of blood ; he delivered his message and 
 then fainted away. 1 Your son died in less than half 
 an hour, 2 and I am certain he never suffered at all; 
 I asked our medical officer specially about this. His 
 body was brought down here, and was buried yester- 
 day by our chaplain, the Revd. G. M. S. Oldham, at 
 Canada Farm. 
 
 I am sending you a map of his (your son's), 3 and 
 I have marked with a blue cross the exact spot where 
 he was killed. It is just south of a place marked 
 Cannes Farm, and north-east of Wijden Drift. It is 
 on the right of the map. He is buried at Canada Farm, 
 which I have marked with blue, which is on the left 
 
 *For his devotion to duty on this occasion Private J. Lewis was 
 awarded the Military Medal. He is a Cardiganshire man. 
 
 'Evidence subsequently received makes it clear that death occurred 
 within a few minutes. 
 
 3 Cf. pp. 210 and 211.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 265 
 
 of the map. Canada Farm is about six miles north- 
 east of Poperinghe, near the Poperinghe Elverdinghe 
 Road. 
 
 I am sending home in a registered parcel his small 
 belongings which were on him. Wrist watch, identity 
 disc, pen, diary, flask, pipe, map, compass, cigarette 
 case, whistle, writing pad. 
 
 Mr. Bonsor is going to make an inventory of his 
 large kit this afternoon, and it will be sent off, c/o 
 Cox's,' who will send it on to you. His revolvers, field 
 glasses, periscope, etc., will be in that kit, and it ought 
 to be home in about a fortnight or three weeks. 
 
 He had only been with us such a short time that it 
 seems very hard that he should be killed so soon, and 
 so young. 
 
 What work I gave him to do he always did excel- 
 lently, and he was splendid up in the trenches, for his 
 first time. He didn't seem to care a bit about the shells. 
 The men loved him for that. Although he was so 
 young they all respected him, and knew at once that 
 he was a good officer. I feel his loss very keenly, and 
 can only offer you my very sincerest sympathy. Yours 
 very sincerely, 
 
 ARTHUR GIBBS. 
 
 Will you please write and ask me anything you want 
 to know? 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A FURTHER LETTER FROM CAPTAIN 
 GIBBS, DATED SEPTEMBER 14, 1917. 
 
 I was so glad to hear all that you had to say about 
 your son. ... I am particularly happy to know that
 
 266 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 he loved the Regiment so, and that he felt so much 
 at home with us all. It is always so strange and un- 
 comfortable for a new officer, on joining a battalion, 
 and one's first three or four weeks out here are always 
 the worst. 
 
 Duckboards, or trenchboards, are short lengths of 
 wooden track laid down in the mud, either in the open, 
 or in the bottom of the trench, to make it possible to 
 walk about when the country gets wet. There are 
 miles and miles of this track laid down over the coun- 
 try which we have just captured from the Germans. 
 The ground is so very much cut up by our shells that 
 one couldn't get about without duckboards to walk 
 upon. They are about 10 ft. long and 2 ft. wide. 
 
 Company Headquarters are usually a little way be- 
 hind the front line. Last time mine were about 200 
 yards behind, and a duckboard track ran from Com- 
 pany Headquarters to Battalion Headquarters. 
 
 Your son died where he was hit. His body was 
 taken down to Battalion Headquarters, and was car- 
 ried out from there down to the canal, where it was 
 put on a limber and taken back to our transport. . . . 
 All the men are. very upset about Christopher's death, 
 and they still talk about him, and they miss him very 
 much. They are always so fond of young officers, and 
 it is very nice to see the way they look after a young 
 boy who hasn't been out here before, helping him in a 
 lot of small ways, especially up in the trenches.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 267 
 
 FROM LiEUT.-CoLONEL DOUGLAS GORDON, D.S.O., 
 OFFICER COMMANDING THE IST BATTALION 
 WELSH GUARDS. 
 
 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. 
 
 12.9.17. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, Firstly I want to tell you 
 how very truly sorry, not only I myself am, but the 
 whole Battalion is, in the very great loss which you 
 have suffered, and we all grieve with you. 
 
 Your boy was only with us such a very short time, 
 but during that period he got himself liked by all, and 
 was so keen and took such an interest in everything. 
 He was, too, I think very happy ; he was always cheer- 
 ful and smiling. 
 
 He is buried in a very nice cemetery not far from 
 Poperinghe. His grave is at the end of the row, and 
 he has men of the Battalion next to him. If I can 
 do anything of any description, or tell you anything, 
 I beg of you to ask me, and I will do all I can. 
 
 Once again please accept my sincerest sympathy, and 
 believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 DOUGLAS GORDON. 
 
 FROM COLONEL LORD HARLECH, WELSH GUARDS. 
 
 Regimental Headquarters, Welsh Guards, Bucking- 
 ham Gate, London, S.W.I. 
 
 September 7th, 1917. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, It is my sad duty to write 
 and inform you that I this morning received a letter
 
 268 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 from Colonel Gordon to say that your son had been 
 killed as he was coming out of the trenches at dawn 
 on the morning of the 3rd. He was hit in the head, 
 and died without any pain. 
 
 I am afraid any words I can put to paper will fail 
 to express my deep sympathy with you in the loss of 
 so promising a son. The short time he had been in 
 the Regiment was quite sufficient for his Brother Offi- 
 cers to find out what a valuable addition he was to 
 the Regiment, and all who came in contact with him 
 will grieve at his loss, but to you, I am sure, it is quite 
 irreparable. His C.O. says that he only came across 
 him for the first time on the i8th of last month, but 
 the little he saw of him he liked immensely. He adds 
 that he always seemed so happy and cheerful. We can 
 ill spare young men like him in the Regiment. I am, 
 yours sincerely, 
 
 HARLECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM CAPTAIN WILLIAMS 
 BuLKELEY, 1 REGIMENTAL ADJUTANT, WELSH 
 GUARDS. 
 
 "I at once marked him as a really good boy, and 
 one of the right sort. He was most popular with all 
 who knew him, and a keen soldier, who, if time had 
 allowed, would have made a name for himself. It 
 is always the good ones that are taken much too 
 soon." 
 
 1 Wounded December, 1915, and awarded the Military Cross; died 
 after a long illness consequent on wounds, March, 1918.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 269 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM CAPTAIN W. A. FOX- 
 PITT, M.C., ADJUTANT, 2ND (RESERVE) BAT- 
 TALION, WELSH GUARDS. 
 
 "I knew your son very well while he was with the 
 (Reserve) Battalion, and we all know what a loss the 
 Regiment has suffered by his death. 
 
 "He is the sort of officer it is pleasant to have un- 
 der one, and as his Adjutant I could always rely upon 
 him to do any job he was given properly. 
 
 ". . . The first thing that people noticed were his 
 good manners, and when one got to know him one 
 realised what a great gentleman he was and what an 
 extraordinarily nice mind he had got; he always struck 
 me as being very young for his age, but, on the other 
 hand, perfectly capable to talk about any subject, and 
 to have opinions that were his own." 
 
 LETTER FROM SEC.-LIEUT. C. PENFOLD BALLARD, 
 WELSH GUARDS. 1 
 
 B.E.F., France, 6.8.17. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, This is the first oppor- 
 tunity I have had, since leaving the "line" for this 
 rest camp two days ago, of writing to express my deep- 
 est sympathy with you in the irreparable loss you have 
 sustained in the death of your dear son. I had the 
 warmest regard for him, and feel I have lost a true 
 friend. 
 
 At twelve o'clock on the night before he was hit he 
 visited my dug-out his position was next mine 
 
 1 Mr. Ballard was killed in action, March 10th, 1918.
 
 270 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 and we had a cigarette together. I then saw him to 
 his dug-out, when he told me he was very disappointed 
 he had received a wire saying you were prevented from 
 going to Paris, but that he was going there alone after 
 he had left Company Headquarters at 3.30 a.m. It 
 was after leaving there he was struck down by a shell. 
 I have seen his servant, Hobbs, who was also slightly 
 wounded, and he has given me full particulars. Hobbs 
 has looked after your son with the greatest assiduity 
 and kindly care, and is very cut up. I was not out 
 of the line in time to attend his funeral, but I have 
 seen his grave, which is in a very nice position here. . . . 
 I remain, yours very sincerely, 
 
 CHAS. PENFOLD BALLARD. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A FURTHER LETTER FROM SEC.-LIEUT. 
 BALLARD, DATED SEPTEMBER QTH. 
 
 "Your dear son and myself had always something 
 in common. We shared the same tent before going 
 into the line, and he showed me your photographs, 
 which he always placed open near his bed at night. I 
 was in command of No. 10 and half of No. 9 platoon, 
 and the Prince of Wales's was next me, and as our 
 dug-outs were only 15 yards apart we always visited 
 one another once or twice a day. Your son was in my 
 dug-out and I saw him to his at twelve o'clock, a few 
 hours before his death, which occurred a few hours 
 later on the duckboards. . . . He was unusually 
 bright and cheerful so much so that I could not help 
 remarking it. He often told me he loved the Welsh
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 271 
 
 Guards. I know they loved him, as I have seen let- 
 ters written by the men, which I have censored." 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM THE REV. G. MILES 
 STAVELEY OLDHAM, C.F., ATTACHED TO THE IST 
 BATTALION WELSH GUARDS/ 
 
 October 4/^, 1917. 
 
 I have waited a bit to answer your letter to me about 
 your son until I could get a quiet time. We were hav- 
 ing an unpleasant time and moving about a good deal 
 when your letter came, which makes letter-writing dif- 
 ficult. ... I think you will like me to tell you all I 
 knew of Christopher. He came to the Battalion when 
 we were in a very jolly camp, some miles behind the 
 line, and he very quickly entered into things play- 
 ing cricket with his Company, and in scratch games. 
 I was attracted to him at once as he was an old Wyke- 
 hamist as so many of my Oxford friends were and 
 I was always brought up to venerate the old English 
 schools, and we had old associations with Winchester 
 at Westminster (where I was), and I played football 
 against them one year for my College. I think every- 
 one too liked him because he was quiet and did not 
 "thrust himself forward" in the mess, while at the 
 same time he entered into things and could obviously 
 hold his own in conversation and otherwise when it 
 came to the point. I remember, too, his telling me 
 how delighted he was to find a number of men from his 
 own part of Wales he was so awfully keen on his 
 country and on the other side one or two men men- 
 
 *See pp. 237, 249.
 
 272 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 tioned to me that "Mr. Tennant" came from their 
 part, and had spoken to them of it which they ap- 
 preciated; they spoke of this to me both before and 
 after he was killed. I recollect, too, one evening when 
 the German aeroplanes were round about dropping 
 bombs, and our guns were firing, that we talked about 
 what it was like to be under fire; and I think that we 
 came to the conclusion that it was not the fear of 
 death, but rather the "not knowing" what being under 
 fire would be like, and what one would find difficult, 
 that was the worst part. When I was sharing a tent 
 with him at the end of August I noticed that he was 
 very fond of reading, and one night at mess we had 
 a long talk on books. . . . and we had a great ex- 
 change of ideas and likes and dislikes on the subject; 
 and I think we had a discussion as to whether history 
 should not play a very much larger part in all educa- 
 tion than it does to-day. 
 
 My last recollection of your son is seeing him in his 
 service equipment just before he marched off to the 
 trenches with his Company. He was quite cheery and 
 happy, and his usual self in every way, as far as I 
 could tell ; and I think he would be. 
 
 I was up the line the day he was killed, and on my 
 way back called in at the Regimental Aid Post to take 
 his servant Hobbs down with our party. I noticed 
 Hobbs was shaken a good deal by the loss of your 
 son ; his own wounds were quite slight. Hobbs, as you 
 know, is a splendid man, and he has since talked to me 
 of your son two or three times, and I know he was 
 very delighted to be Christopher's servant. I shall 
 certainly try to keep in touch with Hobbs.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 273 
 
 Your son was buried in a military cemetery, and his 
 grave is followed by seven of his fellow Welsh Guards- 
 men in the same row. Your son's is the first in the 
 row. They have all similar crosses, just with their 
 name and rank, regiment, and "killed in action," with 
 the date, and a regimental badge at the top of the cross. 
 I think it is one of the good points out here that officers 
 and men are treated exactly alike when it comes to their 
 last earthly incident. Christopher's body was wrapped 
 in a blanket, covered with the Union Jack (we have 
 not got a Red Dragon of Wales), and there was no 
 music. Highland pipers are the only ones I have heard 
 playing at a funeral out here. The place is well with- 
 in sound and reach of shells, but I cannot be quite 
 certain whether the guns were firing at the moment, 
 though I have often noticed them when taking ser- 
 vices at the same cemetery. The officers present were 
 Major R. Luxmore-Ball, Lieut. Keith Menzies, Lieut. 
 Francis Fripp. The Commanding Officer and all the 
 other officers were in the line, of course, at the time, 
 and so could not attend. I took the service, and all 
 the men not in the line were present. . . . 
 
 I think you may care to know the exact Service 
 which I read. I like to read always exactly the same 
 Service for officers and men, and you will understand 
 that the men are not all accustomed to our Prayer 
 Book Services; and that they are not easy conditions 
 for a Service, to stand for a long time, sometimes when 
 shells may be near. I have tried therefore to make the 
 Burial Service rather short, so that the men may at- 
 tend carefully all the time, and as simple as possible, 
 that they may understand it, and I have tried to bring
 
 274 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 out the glorious hope of Resurrection to Eternal Life, 
 and the fact that the soldier's spirit his real self 
 still lives, and that we are burying the body only. So 
 I enclose the exact form of Service I read, and I ask 
 you to forgive me if you are disappointed that the 
 full Prayer Book Service was not used, and if the 
 alterations and additions jar upon you. I do appreciate 
 so much the view of those who love our Prayer Book 
 and wish for that only; but out here I do also feel 
 the other side. So, if I have done less than you would 
 have liked, I can only ask you to forgive me, and to 
 feel something of a Chaplain's difficulties out here, 
 dealing with "all sorts and conditions of men," and 
 yet for whom there is "One God and Father of all." 
 I remain, yours sincerely, 
 
 G. MILES STAVELEY OLDHAM. 
 
 THE SERVICE. 
 
 Versides. 
 
 "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in 
 Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." 
 
 "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we 
 can carry nothing out." 
 
 "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be 
 the name of the Lord." 
 
 Psalm xxiii. (in full). 
 
 The Lesson. Parts of i Corinthians xv., as follows. 
 
 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first- 
 fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by 
 man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam 
 all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 275 
 
 man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they 
 that are Christ's at His coming. Then shall be brought to 
 pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in Vic- 
 tory. . . . O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
 victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved breth- 
 ren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the 
 work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is 
 not in vain in the Lord. 
 
 Committal Prayer. 
 
 As in Prayer Book, substituting "our comrade" for "our dear 
 brother." 
 
 Versicle. 
 
 "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, from 
 henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even 
 so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours." 
 
 The Lord's Prayer. 
 Prayer of Commendation. 
 
 "Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that 
 depart in the faith and fear of the Lord, we commend to Thy 
 loving mercy the soul of this our comrade who has laid down 
 his life in the service of his country. We pray Thee to pardon 
 all his sins, and to show Thyself unto him in Thy saving 
 grace: that so he may pass from this earthly strife into the 
 peace and joy of Thy Heavenly Kingdom: through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord and Saviour." 
 
 Prayer for Those who Mourn at Home. 
 
 "Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, regard with Thy 
 tender compassion those at home to whom this our comrade is 
 near and dear. Strengthen them to bear their sorrow, and 
 lead them to put all their hope and trust in Thy loving mercy 
 and Fatherly care: through Jesus Christ, our Lord and 
 Saviour."
 
 276 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 The Blessing. 
 
 "Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we commit thee : 
 and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Spirit, be with thee, now and for evermore." Amen. 
 
 The body is saluted by each officer as he leaves the grave- 
 side in turn. 
 
 FROM MR. H. DE SATGE, ATTACHED IST BATTALION 
 WELSH GUARDS. 
 
 12.9.17. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, Ballard told me that you 
 would like to hear from me, or I would not, a total 
 stranger, intrude on your great sorrow, but I should 
 like to express my deep sympathy in your great loss. 
 I shared a tent with your son, and had an oppor- 
 tunity of learning to know him and appreciate his 
 lovable nature and many qualities. I have had in 
 my eleven years' experience as a master at Eton Col- 
 lege the best opportunity of studying young boys and 
 men, and your son struck me as being one of the best 
 products of your fine public schools. He was so keen 
 and straight, and had such nice manners. It seems 
 such a cruel shame that such a promising young life 
 should have come to such a tragic and sudden end, 
 and I can well understand what a terrible blow his 
 death is to you. He was so proud of you, and showed 
 me your photograph, and spoke of you as I hope my son 
 may speak of his mother and me. Please do not take 
 the trouble to answer this poor expression of my real 
 sympathy and sorrow. Yours very truly, 
 
 J. C. H. DE SATGE.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 277 
 
 FROM SEC.-LIEUT. T. H. B. WEBB, WELSH GUARDS. 1 
 
 Welsh Guards, B.E.F. 
 
 September \$th. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, I feel that you may per- 
 haps like to hear from me, as being the person who 
 probably knew your son better than anyone else in 
 the Regiment. I was, as you may know, at Win- 
 chester with him for four years, and came out here 
 at the same time as he did. 
 
 I know he enjoyed his life out here and with the 
 2nd Battalion thoroughly. In fact, he told me out 
 here that he was having the best time of his life. 
 He was popular with everybody, and had the respect 
 of his men, as he was always cheerful, and very cool 
 under fire. He did his job excellently for the whole 
 time he was out here. 
 
 With regard to his death, I know you have heard 
 the whole story from his servant, Hobbs. It was 
 quite unavoidable, just one of those bits of bad luck 
 which go to make up this business of war. The great 
 thing is, he was doing his job up in the line, and 
 did not get hit by a stray shell miles behind, which 
 is the fate of many poor people. Also he was killed 
 practically outright and suffered nothing. If he was 
 going to be knocked out it could not possibly have 
 happened in a better way. But even so the whole thing 
 is a horrible affair, and I can only express my sympathy 
 with you, and sorrow that the Regiment has lost such 
 a good officer. If there is anything else I could tell 
 
 1 Mr. Webb was killed in action December ist, 1917.
 
 278 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 you about him, I should be only too pleased to do so. 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 T. H. B. WEBB. 
 
 B.E.F., September 2/j.M, 1917. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, My last letter must have 
 seemed to you to be rather formal and scrappy. This 
 was due to a certain diffidence I felt in pushing my- 
 self forward on such a subject, but now that you 
 have asked me to enter on a more intimate corre- 
 spondence I will gladly do so. It is the least we 
 who have the luck can do for those who don't; to 
 help to bridge the great gulf fixed between them and 
 their folk at home and to bring the history of their 
 time out here to the ears of those whom it interests 
 most. 
 
 As to what happens afterwards, I am not surprised 
 to learn what his views were. Such things are, 
 not unnaturally perhaps, practically never discussed 
 amongst us out here. Of course, such thoughts are 
 present in the minds of most of us, and that is the 
 reason we steer so very clear of them in our talk. But 
 to me it seems incredible that all these men have simply 
 been snuffed out like a candle. If leaving this world 
 means disappearing altogether, the whole point of stay- 
 ing in it disappears also, and life resolves itself into a 
 monstrous practical joke perpetrated on generations of 
 mankind. 
 
 With regard to the incident referred to by one of 
 our men on leave, I think the true story is as follows : 
 Captain Gibbs rang up Captain Devas to ask when 
 Christopher's leave was due, and, as it is never wise to
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 279 
 
 mention dates on the telephone within a mile of the 
 enemy, as they can overhear, Captain Devas replied, 
 "The day before my birthday," knowing that Captain 
 Gibbs knew what day that was, i.e. the 5th of Sep- 
 tember, Christopher's leave being due on the 4th. My 
 leave came off all right on that day, and I went there 
 straight from the line. I was in during the days 
 Christopher was there, but further to the left, and as 
 communication was impossible by daylight there 
 everything had to go over the top, there being no com- 
 munication trenches I knew nothing about his death 
 till the evening of that day, in fact just before I started 
 for Paris. . . . 
 
 We were only under fire once together, and on that 
 occasion he displayed the utmost coolness. He always 
 said it was no good worrying, as it would make no dif- 
 ference to the ultimate result. Yours sincerely, 
 
 T. H. B. WEBB. 
 
 FROM LIEUT. GEOFFREY C. H. CRAWSHAY, WELSH 
 
 GUARDS 1 
 
 White's, St. James's Street, S.W.I. 
 
 24.9.17. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, I haven't written to you 
 before because I felt I couldn't express all that I 
 wanted to say to you. It is so much easier to write 
 about something which one doesn't feel too deeply. 
 
 There was something about Christopher which placed 
 him on a level so much above those of his own age. 
 I always thought it was mainly due to his home in- 
 
 * See pp. 211 and 223.
 
 280 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 fluence. The love he had for you, his home, and Wales, 
 came first in his life; and then he stood for so much 
 that was good and best in the world. 
 
 I can but be thankful that I knew him, if even for 
 so short a time, for I shall never forget him. To me 
 and all those in the Regiment who knew him his name 
 must ever be an affectionate memory. Pray God that 
 the sacrifice of such a glorious life may not be in 
 vain. Some day I hope to meet you, and then per- 
 haps merely by a handshake you may know that there 
 is one who deeply shares your sorrow. Believe me, 
 yours very sincerely, 
 
 GEOFFREY C. H. CRAWSHAY. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF SEPTEMBER i8TH, 1917, 
 FROM PRIVATE HOBBS, WHO ACTED AS SERVANT 
 TO G. C. S. T. IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS. 
 
 On September 3rd, Mr. Tennant, his Orderly, and 
 I were leaving the trenches, when suddenly they opened 
 a barrage just where we were we were only about 
 one foot apart. We instantly fell to the floor, and I 
 heard Mr. Tennant say, "Oh, Hobbs, I'm hit in the 
 eye!" 
 
 He was a very brave Officer, and was very much 
 liked by all the men in his platoon, and it came as a 
 great shock to them when they heard the sad news. 
 The orderly who was with Mr. Tennant until the day 
 we left the front line for Company Headquarters was 
 Private Rees, of the Prince of Wales's Company. We 
 left him behind at the front line. At Headquarters we 
 asked Lewis to show us the way down. We had not
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 281 
 
 gone more than 200 yards from Headquarters when 
 they opened the barrage. I have heard nothing of 
 Lewis since he went away, and I do not know into what 
 hospital he has gone. 
 
 Mr. Tennant was very jolly and interested whilst 
 in the line, and the boys thought a lot of him. He 
 would go amongst them and talk with them and also 
 supply them with cigarettes. One could not wish 
 to have a better Officer. Mr. Tennant usually spent 
 most of his time in the line with myself and Mr. Bal- 
 lard. Mr. Bonsor used to come over and see us occa- 
 sionally, also Captain Gibbs, who used to think so 
 much of him. I lost a good master in Mr. Tennant, 
 and I shall never have another one like him. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM LANCE-CORPORAL 
 G. H. LLEWELLYN, 1 No. 4 PLATOON, PRINCE OF 
 WALES'S COMPANY, IST BATTALION WELSH 
 GUARDS. 
 
 Though Mr. Tennant was with us so short a time, 
 yet his stay was sufficiently long for us to realise what 
 a sterling leader we had. His whole thought was for 
 our comfort, and whatever comfort he could get under 
 conditions out here he spared no effort to get for us. 
 He also took great interest in our sport while out of 
 the trenches, and proved himself no mean sportsman. 
 We all will remember the great asset he was to us as 
 a cricketer, and the pleasant times we spent with him 
 in this pastime. In the name of the platoon I offer 
 you our sincerest sympathy in your sad bereavement. 
 
 1 Wounded December ist, 1917. His home is in Swansea.
 
 282 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 The following additional details are taken from an 
 account given by PRIVATE WILLIAM REES, Welsh 
 Guards, who was Christopher's Orderly during the days 
 he was in the front line : 
 
 I first had speech with Mr. Tennant on the evening of 
 Friday, August 3ist, when No. 4 platoon started for the front 
 line. When we were marching up Mr. Tennant called out for 
 me, and said, "Come and walk ahead of the platoon with me." 
 We therefore walked up to the front line some nine miles 
 side by side. Mr. Tennant asked me if I was a Welshman, 
 and on hearing that I came from Port Talbot x talk fell on 
 Wales and home affairs. We got into the trenches after much 
 clambering over mud and shell holes, and established ourselves 
 in a concrete blockhouse. This had a concrete floor, the ceiling 
 and sides being boarded; it was pitch dark, and was lighted 
 by candles. 
 
 On entering we found the complete kit of an officer in the 
 Scots Guards, and Mr. Tennant proceeded to inspect it. Some 
 boxes of cigarettes, a small Bible, and a water-bottle, etc., were 
 all there. The officer to whom they belonged had been 
 wounded earlier in the day. After looking round Mr. Ten- 
 nant said to me that he wanted to go and inspect the machine- 
 gun posts out beyond No Man's Land. These were in charge 
 of Corporal Llewellyn, a Swansea man, since wounded. Mr. 
 Tennant was dressed as a private soldier, with black top boots, 
 shrapnel helmet, and a rifle slung on his shoulders. He had 
 both his revolvers. 
 
 We started over No Man's Land to visit the machine-gun 
 posts. Mr. Tennant was a good soldier. He didn't know 
 what fear was, but he was not reckless or foolhardy. In going 
 over No Man's Land we were under a hail of shells, and had 
 to throw ourselves into shell holes several times. A bombard- 
 ment was going on, and the German snipers were awful ; no 
 one could move but he had a bullet past him. It was brilliant 
 moonlight all the three nights Mr. Tennant was in the 
 trenches, which made it more dangerous. We got to the Lewis- 
 
 1 A few miles from Neath.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 283 
 
 gun posts, and after inspecting them made our way back to the 
 dug-out. Hobbs had by this time arrived with the kit and 
 provisions. A green bolster-shaped kit bag belonging to Mr. 
 Tennant was in the dug-out, and he used this as a seat. He 
 read a good deal both from a paper-covered book * and a small 
 blue book. 
 
 He also wrote some letters, and censored a number of men's 
 letters. He received letters himself in the trenches, and told 
 me he was so disappointed that his mother could not meet him 
 in Paris where he was going on leave on September 4th. 
 
 He was specially loved by us men because he wasn't like 
 some officers who go into their dug-outs and stay there, leaving 
 the men outside. He had us all in all day long, his dug-out 
 was full of private soldiers the whole time, many smoking, 
 others writing letters. Our rations had not come up to begin 
 with, and Mr. Tennant gave us out cigarettes. The men 
 would have done more for him than for many another officer 
 because he was so friendly with them, and he knew his job. 
 He was a fine soldier, and they knew it. 
 
 After coming back from inspecting the outlying machine- 
 gun posts, Captain Gibbs came in and questioned Mr. Ten- 
 nant as to the position generally. Mr. Tennant said he had 
 been out and inspected the posts. Captain Gibbs said, "We'd 
 better go out again and make sure." Captain Gibbs, Mr. Ten- 
 nant, and I then went out and again visited the machine-gun 
 posts. This No Man's Land was strewn with dead groups 
 of them lying here and there. Mr. Tennant appeared quite 
 calm and undisturbed he was perfectly cheerful during the 
 whole time he was in the line. 
 
 On the Sunday night, when Mr. Tennant was due to go out 
 of the line on leave, Mr. Bonsor came into the dug-out and 
 said to Mr. Tennant, "For God's sake, Tennant, get off quick- 
 ly. There's a fearful bombardment going on, and it's going to 
 get worse." Mr. Tennant replied, "I don't mind the shells; 
 what I object to is the snipers." 
 
 His kit, etc., was gathered together, and he and I and Hobbs 
 started off from the dug-out to go to Captain Gibbs's Head- 
 quarters. It took about ten minutes over shell holes and 
 through thick mud. Shells were falling all the time. We 
 
 1 A small volume of poems. See p. 261.
 
 284 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 reached Captain Gibbs's Headquarters safely. I had both my 
 own and Mr. Tennant's rifle slung over my shoulders. Hobbs 
 was carrying Mr. Tennant's kit. 
 
 After an interval Mr. Tennant, Hobbs, and Private Lewis 
 started off from Company Headquarters to go to Battalion 
 Headquarters on their way out of the line, and I remained in 
 Captain Gibbs's dug-out. I had not done much more than 
 take my equipment off when Lewis staggered in pouring with 
 blood and said that an officer had been hit. 
 
 Stretcher bearers started at once, and I, feeling sure it must 
 be Mr. Tennant, went with them. Shells were pouring over. 
 We went along the duckboard and found Mr. Tennant's body 
 lying in a shell hole beside it. I saw Mr. Tennant within five 
 or six minutes of his being hit, and he was then dead, and his 
 body lying in a shell hole as if it had fallen into it on being 
 hit whilst he was standing on the duckboard. 
 
 This part of the line had been quite peaceful for weeks. A 
 sergeant who was sent up to find out what sort of trenches we 
 were going up to and what sort of time the regiment we were 
 relieving had had, reported that it was a "cushy place," the 
 Scots Guards having had hardly any casualties, and the place 
 bearing the reputation of being quite quiet. 
 
 But from a short time before the Welsh Guards took it over 
 it became an absolute hell. In all my experience of the 
 trenches I never knew anything like those four days. 1 There 
 was a rain of shells all over that particular place. On Sep- 
 tember 3rd (Mr. Tennant having been killed at dawn that 
 day) we suffered severe casualties, and the regiment which 
 relieved us had the same experience. A few days later the 
 Germans during a raid entered the trench, and appeared to 
 know every turn and the position of every post. 
 
 The letters which follow were written for the most 
 part by intimate friends of Christopher's. They are 
 included as having an interest for those in whom this 
 
 1 Mr. Ballard told his wife that though he had been through the 
 subsequent fighting at Houthulst Forest, and at Cambrai (in Decem- 
 ber, 1917), the memory of those days August jist to September 4th 
 remained as his worst experience of trench warfare.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 285 
 
 record of his life and character have aroused feelings 
 of sympathy. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM LADY BETTY 
 BALFOUR. 
 
 Whittinghame, Prestonkirk, Scotland, 
 
 September &tk, 1917. 
 
 What does it all mean and what through this tor- 
 ture of suffering and sacrifice is to evolve for man- 
 kind 1 ? Bill sent Ruth a sermon he heard at the front 
 the beginning of this fourth year of war. It ended 
 with these lines : 
 
 "In Flanders' fields the poppies blow, 
 Between the crosses row on row 
 That mark our place: and in the sky 
 The larks, still bravely singing, fly 
 Scarce heard amid the guns below. 
 We are the dead. Short days ago 
 We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
 Loved and were loved; and now we lie 
 In Flanders' fields. 
 
 "Take up our quarrel with the foe, 
 To you from failing hands we throw 
 The Torch be yours to hold it high; 
 If ye break faith with us who die, 
 We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, 
 In Flanders' fields." 1 
 
 Christopher had no quarrel and no foe. His ideals 
 were not war ideals. His heroism none the less great. 
 Every man who served with him must have been 
 
 1 Lines written by Lt-Col. J. McCrae, Canadian A.M.C. ; first pub- 
 lished in Punch. The author died in France in January, 1918.
 
 286 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 the better for the companionship of his gentle, intel- 
 lectual, utterly good spirit. The random brutality of 
 this machine-war has set him free almost in his first 
 fight before he was hardened or besmirched and be- 
 fore he had had to endure prolonged suffering. Like 
 a beautiful flower he has been blown into safety. His 
 ideals to carry on are your ideals, to which your life 
 has long been consecrate. To break faith with him 
 would be to live for anything short of the truest, the 
 justest, the noblest. He was a pure and perfect knight, 
 if ever there was one. 
 
 I do feel so intensely for his Father. If you can, 
 tell him this from me I know he was proud of and 
 devoted to Christopher Christopher the little loved 
 boy the school boy the scholar the soldier. How 
 the young life passes before me West Downs Win- 
 chester the Cambridge that ought to have been and 
 never was the Army nightmare Christopher in his 
 Guardsman's uniform, still so utterly his reflective, 
 independent, humorous, gentle self and now with 
 one flame gone beyond us all, out of brutal surround- 
 ings for ever. 
 
 FROM MR. MONTAGUE KENDALL, HEAD MASTER OF 
 WINCHESTER COLLEGE. 
 
 September llik, 1917. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, I could hardly believe my 
 eyes when I opened my paper this morning and found 
 that your dear boy, whom I saw a week or two since, 
 was no more. You know what I thought of him. His 
 gentle, pure soul, which spoke through his eyes, and
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 287 
 
 innate refinement of character attracted me from the 
 beginning of his time here; he was a very gentle boy, 
 in the truest sense of that good word. 
 
 Just at the end I got to know him well, and valued 
 his trust and affection immensely. I know how nobly 
 he took up work which his soul hated ; I know that he 
 found strength to stand fearlessly amid a shower of 
 shells. How splendid ! 
 
 But to you the loss must be beyond words: I can, 
 with a full heart, and in no conventional terms, offer 
 you my sympathy. May the memory of him, blame- 
 less and beautiful nineteen years, be your comfort. 
 
 Will you kindly send me a photograph for our War 
 Memorial Volumes'? I have one which he sent me for 
 myself, and which I value far too much to part with it. 
 Yours in profound sympathy, 
 
 M. J. KENDALL. 
 
 FROM MR. ERNEST HARRISON, TUTOR OF TRINITY 
 COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 1 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 October 7^, 1917. 
 
 DEAR MRS. TENNANT, Let me offer my deepest 
 sympathy with you in your loss, of which your letter 
 gave me the first news yesterday. 
 
 I feel the loss to the College and myself more keenly 
 than in any other case of the kind that I can remember. 
 Your son was clearly in love with Trinity in advance, 
 and, for myself, I felt that he would soon have passed 
 from acquaintance to friend. It is touching to read 
 
 l See p. 171.
 
 288 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 your evidence of the value he attached to his member- 
 ship of our Society. 
 
 Could you spare me a copy of the photograph, I 
 wonder? 
 
 Let me quote a couplet that I wrote for a cemetery 
 behind the front: 
 
 "Pro patria sociisque viros pro foedere pacto 
 Vim passes hominum pax tenet alta Dei." x 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 E. HARRISON. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM HUGH R. FRANCIS, 
 SENIOR PREFECT, KINGSGATE HOUSE, WIN- 
 CHESTER, 1914-1916. 
 
 I want to tell you how very much I have felt the 
 sad news about Christopher, although I do not expect 
 that you of all people need to hear that, for you knew 
 him as he really was far better than I ever could, al- 
 though I can say that I knew and loved him as well as 
 any of his friends. I shall always remember him best 
 as he was during those last two and a half years at 
 Winchester, and especially the terms when we were 
 prefects together there. Like many at Winchester, I 
 did not learn to appreciate all that he was at once, 
 but it is not the people that we know and like the 
 most quickly that are always the best friends. I shall 
 always be sorry that I saw so little of him during his 
 
 1 "For their fatherland and its allies and for a solemn covenant 
 these soldiers endured the outrages of men, and now are at rest in 
 the deep peace of God."
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 289 
 
 time at Sandhurst and in the Welsh Guards. Not 
 many people of his talents and ideas would have taken 
 to the training and the life as he did, and loved it too, 
 as he really did. Both he and I were looking forward 
 very much to seeing more of each other when he came 
 in to London in the autumn, and it was a real dis- 
 appointment to me when I heard he was off so soon to 
 the front. 
 
 There is, in a way, a consolation that he should have 
 been taken out of what must be awful beyond belief, 
 so quickly and so gently; for if he had gone through 
 months of it, as some have, only to fall in the end, I 
 couldn't have felt he had had so happy a life as he has 
 had. ... I only hope that what I have written may 
 at least show you that his death is a loss, not only to 
 you, but in great measure a loss to me and all who knew 
 him." 
 
 FROM M. L'ABBE MARQUAND. 1 
 
 Le Foyer du Soldat^ Villa Jeanne d'Arc, 
 Avenue G o ditto t^ Hyeres (Var). 
 MADAME, Bien souvent j'ai pense au cher Christo- 
 phe, dont je garde le meilleur souvenir. Je voulais 
 vous en demander de ses nouvelles depuis cette afTreuse 
 guerre qui a fait tant de victimes ! Je n'osais le faire, 
 craignant d'apprendre un grand malheur. . . . Votre 
 lettre m'apporte la certitude que je craignais de con- 
 naitre. Merci, madame, de m' avoir associe a votre dou- 
 leur de mere. Get enfant etait une merveille, et vous 
 aurait donne toujours des joies. II a fait son devoir 
 
 *See p. 109.
 
 290 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 en voulant defendre son pays. II est mort sur notre 
 terre de France, que vous aimez, et que vous aimerez 
 encore davantage. Nous saurons vous garder les corps 
 de vos aimes ces corps deviendront de precieuses 
 reliques que nous honorerons et que nous vous rendrons 
 quand le moment sera venu. 
 
 Esto vir! Oui, il a etc un homme, et quel homme 
 au cceur si tendre et si viril! Je pleure avec vous, 
 madame, ce cher enfant, et j'ai la certitude qu'il vit 
 pres de Dieu de cette vie qui donne le vrai bonheur. 
 De la-haut il prie pour ceux qui souffrent et qui pleu- 
 rent. Comme c'est reconfortant de croire a la com- 
 munion des saints ! Oui, la mort n'ote pas la vie elle 
 ne fait que la changer! Vous me faites grand plaisir 
 en me disant qu'il avait garde mon souvenir. J'ai tou- 
 jours sa photographic lorsqu'il tenait son lapin blanc 
 dans les bras. J'ai garde de vous tous un si bon sou- 
 venir. Vous nous reviendrez, n'est pas? et n'oubliez 
 pas que je vous reste entierement devoue. Je suis tres 
 occupe par mon aumonerie de tous les hopitaux mili- 
 taires. Je suis a la gare d'Hyeres, ou j'ai fait batir une 
 eglise. Venez bientot vous reposer pres de nous. 
 
 Je prie pour ce cher enfant et pour vous, madame. 
 La priere c'est le parfait trait d'union qui unit les ames 
 pour le temps et pour 1'eternite. Hommages respec- 
 tueux, de votre tout devoue, 
 
 ABBE MARO,UAND.
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 291 
 
 To CHRISTOPHER'S FATHER, FROM AN OLD GAME- 
 
 KEEPER, A FAMILY RETAINER OF THE OLD SCHOOL, 
 WHO WAS AND IS THE CLOSE FRIEND OF THE CHIL- 
 
 DREN AT CADOXTON LODGE. 
 
 near Neath. 
 September 14/A, 1917. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I am deeply touched with the contents 
 of your very kind letter, and I respectfully beg to say 
 that I feel extremely sorry for what has happened to 
 your dearly beloved son Christopher, and all who knew 
 him are surely sorry for his untimely death. But I 
 don't think that anyone of only casual acquaintance 
 can feel the deep heartfelt sorrow which those do who 
 knew him as well as I did. I very well remember it 
 was an anxious time at Cadoxton Lodge in the early 
 part of the day of his birth, and after he had safely 
 come into the world I had the great honour of being 
 the first male to see him after Dr. Lewis and his own 
 dear father. 
 
 By his Father I mean your own self. And after 
 the day of his birth I saw him many times as a baby 
 in arms and with his nurse in his little carriage. And 
 after he grew older, so that he could run about and 
 play and talk well by himself, I could find that he 
 strictly followed the advice of his parents. He was 
 fond of a little playsome joke, but always very truth- 
 ful, and I never knew him to do a thing that one could 
 consider sinful, or say anything to do harm to anyone. 
 I was of opinion that he was inspired with the Holy 
 Spirit strongly, and he seemed to be absolutely fearless. 
 And now I am convinced that he really was inspired by
 
 292 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 an Holy Spirit, and the fact that a merciful Providence 
 had ordained for him quite a painless death I take as a 
 sure sign that his body was released from life so that 
 his soul may ascend to a happier place than is to be 
 found in this world. I believe it is part of our duty 
 to take some consolation in the knowledge that the Al- 
 mighty has a happier place than can be found in this 
 world for the souls of the departed who were inspired 
 by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But I confess that 1 cannot help wishing that your 
 dear son, Master Christopher, was still alive in the flesh. 
 
 I hope, sir, you will keep well, also Mrs. Tennant, 
 and the two dear children that are left to you. Mrs. 
 Meadows quite agrees with me in what I have said 
 in this letter, and she tells me that she wishes to say 
 respectfully that she very affectionately wishes you all 
 well, as also does yours very obediently, 
 
 GEORGE MEADOWS. 
 
 FROM THE BRYNCOCH AND RHYDING FARMERS ON 
 THE TENNANT ESTATE. 
 
 Plough and Harrow, Neath. 
 
 September 2()tk, 1917. 
 
 DEAR SIR, The news of the great cloud of sorrow 
 which has recently fallen upon your home has cast quite 
 a gloom over this neighbourhood, where your gallant 
 son was held in such high respect. We are conscious 
 that mere human words fail to effectually soothe, as 
 they fail to adequately express, the bitterness which 
 must underlie a heavy trial such as that through which 
 you and your good lady are now passing, but as loyal
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 293 
 
 and devoted tenants upon your estate, we feel that 
 we cannot refrain from encroaching upon the sacred 
 domain of your silent grief and assure you how deeply 
 we sympathise with you and your family in this keen 
 bereavement, and how sincerely we pray that you may 
 receive all the strengthening influence of Divine Power 
 and be further sustained by the comforting memories 
 of a young life whose noble surrender in the bud of 
 promise (true to the best traditions of honourable and 
 honoured ancestry) for King and Country will be re- 
 corded in golden characters upon the escutcheon of a 
 God-fearing loving people. It is not how long we live 
 but what we put into it that tells, for one hour of glor- 
 ious life's worth an age without a name. Yours faith- 
 fully, 
 
 DANIEL BOWEN, 
 for the Bryncoch and Rhyding farmers. 
 
 The following letters from two young girls who were 
 his closest girl friends are included as showing the 
 impression he made upon those who shared many of his 
 gayest play-hours. 
 
 "Of all the casualties that I have felt, Christopher's 
 death is the hardest to believe. To me he was always 
 so like a child that went through life as through a 
 dream, so lovable, and creating an atmosphere so sug- 
 gestive of absolute still peace, that I feel he can have 
 had no part in the chaos that ended his life, and that 
 he has just gently moved his still spirit elsewhere to 
 continue that life in his own calm way. For him I can-
 
 294 CHRISTOPHER 
 
 not feel any tragedy, he seemed to be so cheerfully 
 happy in any place, yet having no passionate clinging to 
 this life. You must have been his greatest tie, and 
 surely he, at least, will not feel that is broken. . . . 
 I know that I shall feel him more acutely here than I 
 ever did; so many things will remind us of Christopher 
 that at times he will seem with us, just the same, with 
 a hand ready and willing to help at every turn." 
 
 "I am not going to attempt to offer sympathy, it does 
 not help; in fact I always feel it makes things harder 
 to bear, except from a very few people. 
 
 I am very miserable, but chiefly for you; I always 
 felt that dear Christopher himself was not quite of this 
 world. 
 
 The part of him which talked, moved, and even 
 thought, was here; but I felt that his true self was al- 
 ways far away, in quite another world. I never felt 
 that he was in any way made for this existence, he was 
 so totally unlike anyone else I ever met. 
 
 I feel, therefore, that his real self is still just where 
 it always was, because it never was here, and that, on 
 account of that, it is in a way less of a separation than 
 it would be with many boys, who have their whole 
 being essentially on this earth. 
 
 Another thing I feel is that he was a boy who had 
 such a calm philosophy about life that it must have 
 been easier for him to go than many boys. He himself, 
 I mean, would not have dreaded it, for I feel he knew 
 it would make so little difference, really. 
 
 I am sure he is happy. It is the first thing I felt 
 very strongly after taking hi what it meant. It was
 
 LETTERS FROM FRIENDS 295 
 
 such a shock because it had never occurred to me as 
 possible. I am sure that the only thing that would 
 make him sad is your sorrow. 
 
 I am sure that the one thing he would wish would 
 be for you not to be too unhappy. He was a great 
 friend, and I too shall miss him dreadfully." 
 
 "Bydd myrdd o ryfeddodau 
 
 Ar doriad boreu wawr, 
 Pan ddelo plant y tonau 
 
 Yn iach o'r cystudd mawr; 
 Oil yn eu gynau gwynion, 
 
 Ac ar eu newydd wedd, 
 Yn debyg idd eu Harglwydd, 
 
 Yn d'od i'r Ian o'r bedd." 
 
 "For he who hath thus far had intelligence of love, and 
 hath beheld all fair things in order and aright, he, drawing 
 near to the end of things lovable, shall behold a BEING mar- 
 vellously fair; for whose sake in truth it is that all the pre- 
 vious labours have been undergone: One who is from ever- 
 lasting, and neither is born nor perisheth, nor can wax nor 
 wane, nor hath change or turning or alteration of foul and 
 fair; nor can that beauty be imagined after the fashion of 
 face or hands or bodily parts and members, nor in any form 
 of speech or knowledge, nor as dwelling in aught but in itself ; 
 neither in beast nor man, nor earth nor heaven, nor any other 
 creature ; but Beauty only and alone, and separate and eternal, 
 which, albeit all other fair things partake thereof and grow 
 and perish, itself without change or increase or diminution 
 endures for everlasting. And whoso being led on and upward 
 by human loves begins to see that Beauty, he is not far, I say, 
 from reaching the end of all." PLATO, "Symposium."
 
 NOTES ON A FEW QUOTATIONS 
 AND ALLUSIONS 
 
 Most of the sources of quotation are sufficiently indicated 
 in the body of the book; but, in case it is convenient to any 
 reader, some residual information is unobtrusively collected 
 here : 
 
 PAGE 
 
 14. "fall to rise" . 
 
 14. "joy of their Lord" 
 51. "case-hardening" . 
 
 59. "Many are the thyrsus- 
 bearers," etc.: 
 
 60 (and 74). consummaren- 
 
 tur 
 
 60. "cloudy pillar" . 
 72. "In no strange land" . 
 
 Browning, Epilogue to Aso- 
 lando. 
 
 Matt. xxv. 21. 
 
 A process applied to iron 
 whereby it is superficially 
 converted into unannealed 
 steel, so as to protect it 
 from scratching or scarring 
 even by a file. 
 
 but the really inspired teach- 
 ers or true philosophers are 
 few. The saying is quoted 
 by Plato in Phaedo 69, 
 probably from an Orphic 
 source. It is employed in 
 the text to signify that 
 while many derive comfort 
 from the offices of religion, 
 and from the testimony and 
 experience of others, few 
 desire to penetrate the veil 
 for themselves. 
 
 Hebrews xi. 40. 
 
 Exodus xiii. 22. 
 
 A poem by Francis Thomp- 
 
 son. 
 
 297
 
 PAGE 
 
 72. "added unto" 
 74. "gain of loss 
 
 Matt. vi. 33. 
 
 Tennyson, "In Memoriam," 
 
 I. 
 
 Hebrews xii. 1. 
 i Cor. xv. 44. 
 
 74- "cloud of witnesses 
 
 76. <r&/za Trvtvna.Ti.iibv . 
 
 79. "hours of gloom: hours Matt. Arnold, "Morality." 
 
 of insight" 
 80 (and 255.) "haven where Psalm cvii. 30. 
 
 they would be." 
 
 80. "God created man 
 
 Wisdom" ii. 23. 
 
 90. "Something far more Wordsworth, "Tintern Ab- 
 
 deeply interfused" 
 
 91. "Fifth Symphony" 
 
 93. "moving about" . . 
 
 94. "welcome each rebuff" . 
 108. "desolate sweetness" . 
 
 bey." 
 
 Lodge, in an Address. 
 Wordsworth, "Immortality." 
 Browning, "Rabbi Ben Ezra." 
 Tennyson, "The Ancient 
 
 Sage." 
 
 108. "Ode to the Setting Sun" See p. 263. 
 132. "The world is too much 
 
 with us." 
 138. "Green Sussex" . 
 
 Wordsworth, Sonnet xxxiii. 
 
 152. "To strive," etc. . 
 
 159. "If they appear" . 
 
 160. "Lay thy uphill shoul- 
 
 der" 
 204. Dante passages 
 
 Tennyson, "Prologue to Gen- 
 
 eral Hamley." 
 Tennyson, "Ulysses." 
 cf. Wordsworth, Sonnet xxx. 
 Tennyson, "Ancient Sage." 
 
 (See translation on p. 299.) 
 
 218. "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" "Dear Land of my Fathers." 
 
 Dear Land of my Fathers, whose glories were told 
 By bard and by minstrel who loved thee of old, 
 Dear country whose sires, that their sons might be free, 
 Have suffered and perished for thee! 
 
 Wales! Wales! Land of the mist and the wild, 
 Wherever I roam, though far from my home, 
 The Mother is calling her child. 
 
 219. "Cymru am byth!" 
 
 Wales for ever!" (Regi- 
 mental Motto of Welsh 
 Guards.)
 
 QUOTATIONS AND ALLUSIONS 299 
 
 PAGE 
 
 225. "Since in that hour" . F. W. H. Myers, "Fragments 
 
 of Prose and Poetry," p. 
 
 148. 
 254. "Heaven overarches" . Christina Rossetti (see p. 
 
 252). 
 
 262. "Neither death nor life" Romans viii. 38. 
 295. Welsh poem 
 
 There will be myriad wonders 
 
 At break of morning dawn, 
 When the children of the tempest come 
 
 Freed from their great tribulation; 
 All in their robes resplendent 
 
 And with countenance transfigured 
 Resembling their Lord 
 
 Rising from the tomb. 
 
 Of the Dante passages, on page 204, the translation in The 
 Temple Classics will serve: 
 
 "This mountain is such, that ever at the beginning 
 below 'tis toilsome, and the more a man ascends the 
 less it wearies. 
 
 "Therefore when it shall seem to thee so pleasant 
 that the ascending becomes to thee easy, even as in a 
 boat to descend with the stream, 
 
 "Then shalt thou be at the end of this path: there 
 hope to rest thy weariness." 
 
 "Thou art so nigh to the supreme weal that thou 
 shouldst have thine eyes clear and keen."
 
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