THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. " From grave to gay, from lively to severe. " LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 37, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C. to tijc Sutrta Office. 1892. (.All right* reserved.) LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITRD, STAMFORD STEEtT AND CHAEING CEOSS. DA 56 S~ TO SIR HENRY FOX BRISTOWE, Q.C., VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE COUNTY PALATINE OP LANCASTER, THE PLAYMATE OF MY BOYHOOD, AND THE FAITHFUL FRIEND OF MY MANHOOD AND OLD AGE, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOK. THE DEANERY, ROCHESTER, 1892. INTRODUCTION. THESE Memories are the holiday task of an old boy, who desires, and hopes that he deserves, to rest, but is too fond of work to be quite idle. He would float awhile, " with languid pulses of the oar," upon the Cherwell, that, like the Dido of the unripe scholar, vento profecta secundo, he may come again with second wind to the eight-oar on the Isis. And, though he cannot aspire to combine with his own relaxation any signal service to his fellow-men, even as Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, when he was weary, amused himself by translating Theocritus, he ventures to hope that, from the varied experience of a long and happy life, among all sorts and con- ditions of men, he may communicate information which will be interesting, and suggestions which may be useful. CONTENTS. ARCHERS. CHAPfER I. FACE Early associations in childhood and boyhood The Royal Sherwood Archers at Southwell The Woodmen of Arden Horace Ford Remarkable scores ... ... ... ... ... 1 ARTISTS. CHAPTER II. John Leech His enjoyment of the country Sherwood Forest Mr. Speaker Denison On the hunting field His sketch of " A Con- tented Mind" Nascitur, nonfitHis drawings on the wood His hospitality His friends ... ... ... ... ... H CHAPTER III. A little tour in Ireland Leech on the ocean wave His visit to Blair Athole A fiend in human shape His wife and children Sketch from Biarritz Bull-fight at Bayonne The last new Rose ... 33 CHAPTER IV. Leech as a pugilist In melancholy mood New process of enlarging his drawings "Sketches in Oils" Exhibition in London The begin- ning of the end Thackeray's entreaty Thackeray's death Leech's presentiment His sudden departure His work ... 46 CHAPTER V. Mr. John Tenniel A clever reprisal Mr. Frederick Tayler Mind your own business Edward Lear Herbert Marshall Frank Miles at VI 11 CONTENTS. PAGB Buckingham Palace Herbert Ollivier Charles Furse Mr. Kerape Unintentional praise Musicians Power of music Sir George Grove and the Eoyal College of Music Sir John Stainer Anec- dote of Gounod Famous singers ... ... ... 57 AUTHORS. CHAPTER VI. My first tragedies and poems The two shortest dramas in existence Editorial importance My literary friends The Eev. Henry Lyte, the author of " Abide with me " His popularity at Brixham His death at Nice ... ... ... ... ... ... 69 CHAPTER VII. First meeting with Thackeray Stories of giants The Garrick Club His delight in his daughter's success as an authoress His allusion to "Vanity Fair" Pen or pencil? " Nemo me impune lacessit " The Cornhill Magazine A letter in verse " The Carver's Lesson " 78 CHAPTER VIII. Correspondence and interview with Charles Dickens His affectionate admiration of John Leech Rochester associations His home at Gad's Hill The study and garden " Charles Dickens going out of fashion!" ... ... ... ... ... ... 86 CHAPTER IX. Dr. John Brown, author and physician His visit to Cauntou His quaint letter to Bishop Magee Associated, like Dickens, with Chatham, where he practised at the time of the cholera Strange incident His death His friends Four editors of Punch Mr. Charles Knight The Laureate The Duke of Argyll "John Inglesant" Augustus Hare Edmund Yates ... ... ... 95 CRICKETERS. CHAPTER X. The love of cricket An Oxford song The good influence of cricket Tom Barker Fuller Pilch Lilly white Mynn W. Clark Guy Box R. Daft George and Sam Parr Country stories My CONTENTS. IX PAGE match at single wicket Umpires "The Free Foresters" Re- markable incident at Leicester Extraordinary scores Should clergymen play at cricket ? ... ... ... ... ... 108 ECCLESIASTICS. CHAPTER XI. Past and present Fifty years ago Zebah and Zalmunna The dawn of day The Oxford movement The foreigner's visit The American bishop ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 CHAPTER XII. Personal recollections Dignitaries Archbishop Vernon Harcourt Bishops Kaye and Jackson Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington 140 CHAPTER XIII. Bishop Christopher Wordsworth His appointment to Lincoln His spiritual, intellectual, and bodily excellence His eirenicon to the Wesleyans, and his anxiety to promote reunion The "Old Catholics " The Greek archbishop Strange incidents in con- nection with almsgiving "Theophilus Anglicanus" The last message ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 CHAPTER XIV. Bishop King The power of charity Archbishop Tait American and Scotch bishops Pusey, Newman, and Keble The Oxford revival Indiscretion ... ... ... ... ... ... 156 CHAPTER XV. The village church The daily service The choir Loss and gain "Finn may fiddle" The school "The child is father to the man" Special services for children ... ... ... ... 171 CHAPTER XVI. The country parson and his people The Ranters The villagedemagogue The village artist The club Decrease of drunkenness The "Rang-tang" ... ... ... ... ... ... 181 CHAPTER XVII. Parochial incidents Boring for coals The traveller by the wayside, half dead The village murder The carrier's dog Visions of the night Coincidences ... ... ... ... ... 195 X CONTENTS. GAMBLEES. CHAPTER XVITI. PAGE My first experience Fallen among thieves Gambling at Oxford Suicides, abroad and at home Racing and betting Results Remedies Principiis obsta Power of example ... ... 202 GAEDENEES: CHAPTER XIX. The love of flowers innate Children's gardens Flora forsaken for Pomona The love and practical knowledge of horticulture should be encouraged and instructed Allotments Schools for gardeners Window-plants ... ... ... ... ... ... 215 CHAPTER XX. Our gardens sixty years ago Landscape-gardening Beautiful trees and shrubs Herbaceous and Alpine plants Roses Famous gardeners, and writers about gardens Realities and shams ... ... 231 CHAPTER XXI. Floral exhibitions, committees, and. exhibitors Town and country shows The Knave of Spades Judges, righteous and incapable ... 246 H U N T E E S. CHAPTER XXII. Antiquity of "the sport of kings" Erroneous ideas about hunting ... 262 CHAPTER XXIII. My first horses A sad catastrophe Squire Musters The Belvoir Hunt Will Goodall The Quorn The Pytchley Ruffbrd incidents- Captain Percy Williams Jack Davis Colonel Welfitt Hunting parsons ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 277 SHOOTEES. CHAPTER XXIV. Johnny Jebb and his gun My first partridge Joyful memories The * past and the present The old keeper's lamentation A clever auctioneer... ... ... ... ... ... ... 291 CONTENTS. XI v CHAPTER XXV. PAGE Partridge-shooting in the olden time The sickle and the scythe Tame birds Temptations and inclinations to poach The poacher ... 302 OXONIANS. CHAPTER XXVI. Preparatory schools Newark-upon-Trent Young Mr. Gladstone Memories of the elections Arrival at Oxford Magdalen Bridge The anxious freshman College friends ... ... ... 311 CHAPTER XXVII. Dons and undergraduates Reading, hunting, and boating men Humiliation of pride Want of religious sympathy and instruction How supplied in later and happier days The Universities and Public Schools Missions ... ... ... ... ... 326 CHAPTER XXVIII. The first lecture Timidity and impudence A brave beginning The fascinations of the chase Mr. Drake's hounds, and the Heythrop Jim Hills Buying and selling horses Perils and penalties "The Grind" The river The race with seven oars ... , 336 PREACHEES. CHAPTER XXIX. My experience No help at Oxford The "Evangelicals" the best preachers fifty years ago Ordeal and result Dr. Dollinger and Newman Objections to preaching without manuscript The matter and manner of preaching The Great Example Read and think Savonarola Utterance Length Preachers ... ... 351 WORKING MEN. CHAPTER XXX. Happy sympathies The demagogue distrusted as ignorant and im- moral Promissory notes Might against right True friends Parks, gardens, and playgrounds Clubs and libraries Technical schools The home The smoke nuisance Temperance The Church and the working men ... ... ... ... ( xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF DEAN HOLE ... ... Frontispiece THREE MISHAPS ... .. By LeecJt LEECH AT SEA ... ... A FIEND IN HUMAN SHAPE PONY INCLINING TO EMBONPOINT ,, LAST SWEET THING IN HATS ,, PATERNAL JOY ... ... ,, THE BRUNSWICK SQUARE PET THE CARVER'S LESSON ... By Thackeray 25 34 38 39 43 44 46 84 THE MEMOKIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER I. AKCHERS. Early associations in childhood and boyhood The Royal Sherwood Archers at Southwell The Woodmen of Arden Horace Ford Remarkable scores. I BEGIN my recollections, as I began my education, in alphabetical order. Again my first object-lesson, "A was an Archer, who shot at a frog," presents itself to the mental eye. He was an object, indeed, but no longer of my admiration. He was impossible as an archer, and immoral as a man. In defiance of the first law of the craft, that the bowman stand erect and firmly on his feet, he leaned forward on one leg. The brim of his absurd hat would have hopelessly prevented any approximation of the arrow to his eye, but he appeared to be perfectly satisfied in drawing it near unto his hip. He was encircled with coils of tuneful brass, ces triplex circa pectus erat ; and I was reminded of him, many years after I made his acquaintance, when on a moonlit night, B 2 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. having dined with the regiment of yeomen of which I was chaplain, and going down the inn yard for my dog-cart, I saw a brazen monster, gleaming, as it swayed to and fro, and accosting me, as it came alongside, with, " 'Ow de yer do, Mr. 'Ole ? " Then I recognized one of our bandsmen bearing his ophi- cleide, whom I also knew as a clever house-painter ; and when I proceeded to rebuke his intemperance, he gravely made reply, " Why, it were only t'other day as you was a-praising on me for graining your study door, and I do reckon to follow up natur' pratty close in oak, but I defy you at walnut ! " I declined the challenge, and bade him go to bed. I repeat that this educational archer was, both in posture and purpose, vile. What contemptible, cruel cowardice to array himself in such a costume to shoot at the harmless frog ! I don't like frogs. I have been greatly disturbed by their nocturnes in Southern climes. I was taught in my early childhood that their conduct was not always filial ; that they left their homes, and made proposals of marriage without the permission of their maternal parents, as it has been beautifully told in the Latin language " Ranula furtivos statuebat quaerere amores, ' Me miserum,' tristi Bolius ore gemit, Banula furtivos statuebat quaerere amores, Mater sive daret, sive negaret, iter." But there is no suggestion that this bowman was a moral champion in quest of 1'Enfant Prodige, or even that he was a French epicure yearning for ARCHERS. 3 food ; and we should be harrowed by all the emotions which troubled the poetic soul of Mrs. Leo Hunter when she wrote her lamentations on " The Expiring Frog," were we not quite sure that our archer was incapable of hitting his mark. Another vivid memory of my childhood is closely connected with archery. Many a time has the cistern of my little heart overflowed, when nurse read to us the tragic history of the irritable and nervous tailor, who could not endure the surveillance of the carrion crow from the aged oak hard by, and, shooting his arrow in the haste of his wrath "Full many a shot, at random sent, Finds mark the archer never meant " pierced the heart of the aged sow. I remember how we all fell a-sighing and sobbing, when we came to the supreme crisis of the tragedy " The old sow's body was laid in the clay, Ding-a-ding, a-ding, a-ding 1 All the little pigs came weeping away, And it's heigh-ho, the carrion crow, Ding-a-ding, a-ding, a-ding 0." Then came compensation. Diana smiled on me as I went, a happy boy, into the woods with the keeper, and he cut the stout, round, supple, shining hazel with my new knife (I still bear signs manual of its trenchant power), and I bought whipcord for the string at the village shop, carefully putting by a portion, having just read Miss Edgeworth's story of " Waste not, want not," and we went adown TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the brook for the stiff, straight reed, which we shortened into arrow form, and the blacksmith con- verted long nails into pointed piles, and the shoe- maker fixed these firmly with waxed thread, and I sallied. forth, as it seemed to me, a combination of Apollo, and Robin Hood, and William Tell, and of some stalwart ancestor, who following the banner, " Olde Nottingham, an archer cladde in green," and sending his arrows hurtling through the air, helped to win the great victory, on Crispin's Day, at Agin- court. How delightful it was when first I shot an arrow into the air, and it fell to earth I knew not where ; when I shot mine arrow over the house, and might have hit my brother, had I not been an only son ; when pigeons and rooks were eagles and vultures, and cats and dogs were tigers and bears ! I shot profusely, but, happily for her Majesty's lieges, I lost and broke so many arrows that my bow was soon laid aside. There still remained in use two instruments of terror (boys are a charming nuisance), namely, a cross-bow, made by the village carpenter, which ejected small portions of tobacco pipe, and a sling of stick, which propelled from a cleft at its upper extremity the smooth stones, which suggested on several occasions the exercise of the glazier's art. Civilization and science had not then achieved that infernal machine, the catapult. In due course, I put away these malignant missiles, with other childish things, and, promoted to a full-sized bow and arrows, was permitted to AH CHESS. 5 practise with my father at the targets, elected a member of " The Royal Sherwood Archers," learned to " Prove by shooting in a compass narrow, That I was born at Bow, and taught at Harrow ; " and my " sacra aim fames," my longing to hit " the gold," was gratified by the annexation of my first prize. Our meetings were held on a fair ground, over- looking the valley of the Trent and Southwell, half garden and half town, with its grand old church. The latter was largely indebted to Arch- deacon Wilkins, who occupied " The Residence," for the restoration and maintenance of ihe fabric. Murray, his son, was rector, a man of much humour, and of practical energy in his work, for he was the first to introduce into the Midland Counties the harvest and choral festivals which are now universal ; and I remember, as a specimen of his wit, the remark which he made upon our archers, " that, though the gentlemen shot well with yew bows, the ladies shot better with beaux yeux" And, apropos to his musical instincts, as we were walking down the main street of South- well, he stopped opposite a bank, which was then kept by Messrs. Wild and Sons, and sang sotto voce, " I know a bank, wherein the Wilds' time goes." One day the Roman Bishop of Nottingham, Roskell, came to inspect the minster. He was of portly and imposing aspect, and, when he was 6 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. gone, the rector inquired from the chief mason what he thought of the visitor. " Well, sir," was the reply, " I saw nothing very particular about him. He seemed to me the kind of a man as *ud be pretty regular 'ome at meal-times." At Southwell Lord Byron lived when he wrote his "Hours of Idleness," and the book was pub- lished by Ridge, in the neighbour-town of Newark. " Ridge, Ridge," a friend said to me, as he read the word over his shop ; " what a curious name ! " " Much more remarkable," I could not forbear say- ing, "in the lifetime of his old partner, Furrow." But my companion seemed suspicious. The readers of Byron's " Letters " will re- member the name of the Rev. J. T. Becher, whose descendants still reside at Southwell. Not long ago, at a great ecclesiastical function I think it was the enthronement of the present bishop my friend, the present head of the family, who was rector's warden, was constrained to intimate to one of the vergers, an excellent servant, but en- feebled by age, that he must be superseded for the occasion by a younger man. The poor old fellow could not understand it, and at last exclaimed, in an astonishment of indignant grief, " What me, as brought in 'Arcourt ! " Which meant that, at some distant period, he had walked before the Archbishop of York. We were long in persuading him that there was no diminution of respect. The oldest societies in England are the Brough- AE GHEES. 1 ton Archers, in Lancashire, of whom I have no infor- mation ; the Toxophilite, whom I only know by the high reputation which they most successfully retain in London ; and the Woodmen of Arden, of whose pleasant meetings at Meriden, in Warwickshire where thev have their hall and ball-room, their / dressing-rooms, kitchens, and cellars, their spacious grounds, with targets and butts and clouts, their servants clad in Lincoln green (reminding us of the dear old " Heythrop," of which anon), where guests are entertained with the most genial courtesy, and fed on venison, archers' favourite food I have joyous memories. There, in the older days, when Coker Adams and Coker Beck were the heroes, and in later time, when my dear old friend Riland Bed- ford and others won bugles and arrows, it was my exaltation more than once to win " the stranger's bow." These meetings were more like private parties than public assemblies, the members being so well known to each other, and there was a merry exchange of what the French call badinage and the English chaff. For example, when the member whom I have last named was standing on a chair, reaching some of his archer's gear from his " Ascham," another friend, a layman, who officiated as judge and referee at this and at " the National " gathering, addressed him with, " Now, rector, give us a sermon." " If you wish," was the prompt reply. " Shall I preach about the unjust judge? " Archers are nomad arid gregarious, and I became 8 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Acquainted with the best howmen of their day, Higginson, who was one of the chief founders of " the National," Hippesley, Peckett, Luard, Maitland, Muir, Bramhall, Moore, the Garnetts, a triumvirate of brothers (of whom Charles, the eldest, shot the swiftest, strongest arrow I ever saw fly from bow), cum multis aliis, good men and true, whose names I do not recall. " But one I would select from that proud throng " as the prince and champion of all archers, Horace Ford. In the year 1845, at York, Mr. Peter Muir, of the Queen's Body-guard of Archers at Edinburgh, beat all competitors in the Double York Round, with a score of 537. Twelve years afterwards, at Cheltenham, Mr. Horace Ford took precedence, after shooting the same number of arrows, with a score of 1251, which has never been surpassed in public. " Micat inter omnes Juliuin sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores." But I have before me a letter, signed, " Yours to the pile, Horace Ford," in which he gives the details of a still more wonderful performance, made while shooting with the Rev. John Bramhall, who also achieved an admirable score FORD. 100 yards 144 arrows 127 hits 617 score 80 96 88 486 CO 48 47 , 311 Total 262 hits ! 1414 score ! ARCHERS, 9 BRAMHALL. 100 yards 144 arrows 114 hits 504 score 80 96 89 465 60 48 47 275 Total ... 250 hits. 1 244 score. Ford also sent me some clever verses, written by his friend, Mr. Hughes, and entitled " LINES TO Miss VILLIERS. " Of all the damsels whom the Muse Hath e'er summed up, as target-drillers, I ne'er saw one whom I should choose To hold a candle to Miss Villiers. " All the fair ladies on the ground Shot well, Peels, Hardings, Bakers, Millers, Et caetera; but none were found Within two hundred of Miss Villiers. " Our champion draws a yew as well As the old Agincourt blood-spillers, But query if he can excel, At the same distance, this Miss Villiers ? " Peters, and ye, my staunch E. T., When next we meet, let's all be fillers Of a full pledge, with three times three, To the good health of fair Miss Villiers. " Old Worcestershire may swell at heart With pride to call such grace and skill hers, As we have witnessed on the part Of this redoubtable Miss Villiers ! " The poet does not descend to statistics, but I do not suppose that Miss Villiers ever attained the splendid score which Mrs. Legh made at Leamington 20 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. in 1885, namely, 142 hits from 144 arrows, value 864! Ford was ever ready to instruct ignorance, and he was pleased with a pictorial description which I sent him of " my archery before, and my archery after, six lessons from Professor Ford." In the first tableau one arrow was in the leg of a farm labourer, who was dancing with pain ; another was in a hay- stack ; and a third in the fleece of a sheep. In the second tableau the first was in the centre of the target, the point of the second in the " nock " of the first, and the point of the third in the " nock " of the second. On receiving this proof of my progress, he expressed his intention of retiring into private life. Mr. Edwards, of Birmingham, a successful archer, communicated to me an incident which blended tragedy and comedy in a remarkable degree. He had received a dozen new arrows from Buchanan, and went forth to try them in a paddock adjoining his house. He had made eleven successive hits at sixty yards, and was delighted with his purchase, when a cow, which he had not observed, slowly approached the target, and pushed it down with its horns. " You will guess what I did," he continued. " It was no longer in my power to make a bull's-eye, but I touched up the other end of the cow." And the old nursery rhyme came into my thoughts, how " Tidy hinched, and Tidy flinched, and Tidy cocked her tail ; " ARCHERS. 11 and the old schoolboy round-hand copy, " Ketri- bution follows crime." Two remembrances of graver import are asso- ciated in my mind with archery. Staying with a friend for a " bow meeting " in his neighbourhood, my razor, which I was stropping with the careless rapidity of youth, suddenly slipped from my grasp, and made a gash in the lower part of my left thumb, from which the blood streamed continuously. The wound required a surgeon, and was long in healing. Pollice truncus, but no poltroon, I resumed my archery as soon as I was able, but never again had the same firm grip of my bow. In the same house, after the first day's practice of the year, my host and I decided to try a prescrip- tion for hardening the fingers of the right hand, which were sore from the bowstring, by striking them quickly on a heated poker, just touching the metal. The operation took place in the smoke-room, and the lady of the house, who came in during the process, volunteered to hold the poker, which was nearly red-hot. Suddenly, as she lowered it for an instant, her dress which I think was made of tarlatan caught fire, and to our horror she was at once surrounded with flames. Her husband lost his presence of mind, and tried to extinguish the fire with his hands. As he rushed to ring the bell for help, I bade her lie down, and, spreading out the large thick dressing-gown, in which it was then the fashion to smoke the evening cigar, I enfolded her 12 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. completely, and effectually smothered the flames. The husband was in bed for nearly a fortnight, the wife a day or two, her right arm being badly burnt ; the guest escaped unhurt, with a gratitude, which will never leave his heart, that he had been used to prolong the life of one of the most charming and beautiful women of her day. Taking leave of this subject, so interesting from its associations with the past, and so powerfully presented to us by a modern poet, Mr. Conan Doyle " What of the bow ? The bow was made in England, Of true wood, of yew wood, The wood of English bows : So men, who are free, Love the old yew tree, And the land where the yew tree grows. "What of the shaft? The shaft was cut in England, A long shaft, a strong shaft, Barbed, and trim, and true : So we'll all drink together To the gray goose feather, And the land where the gray goose flew " I would commend archery as a most healthful and social exercise, forewarning all who have not made the experiment, that success can only be attained by acquiring a good style, and by constant practice (" Many prate of Robin Hood, who never shot with his bow "), and that with excellence there comes a powerful temptation to devote too much time to an ARCHEJiS. 13 amusement which, however fascinating, should be regarded only as a relaxation, subordinate and auxiliary to work and duty. Horace Ford expressed, in his later days, a sorrowful regret that he had spent so large a portion of his time in archery. 14 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER II. ARTISTS. John Leech His enjoyment of the country Sherwood Forest Mr. Speaker Denison On the hunting field His sketch of " A Contented Mind " Nascitur, non fit His drawings on the wood His hospitality His friends. I MIGHT have been an artist, but I met discourage- ment. In my early childhood I had pictorial instincts and a sixpenny box of paints, but my mother not only reproved me for painting the baby during the absence of its nurse, but objected to the decoration of my own person and vestments. Under a more auspicious patronage I might have acquired the dexterity of Quintin Matsys, who, having expended on his own pleasures the money given to him for the purchase of a new suit, to be worn at some grand ceremonial of the Court, to which he was attached, painted on canvas a most gorgeous costume, and wore it, to the admiration of all. Again, in boyhood, when, having received lessons in drawing, I took home my show-piece, a ARTISTS. 15 weeping willow by a ruined wall, entitled, " The Deserted Home" no willow had ever such cause to weep, like Marius or Mariana, over a more desolate scene my father first kindled, and then extinguished, my hopes by his commentary, " that it was just the sort of thing which he liked for gun-wads." Wherefore I retired from the School of Art, and satisfied myself, as most boys do, with marginal illustrations of my books, of the noble horse, as " Lseta per arva ruit," with portraits of those who taught me how to translate them, with mural delineations in chalk, and, in after-time, with such occasional cartoons in pen and ink as that to which I have referred, and which evoked the eulogies of Horace Ford. How, then, it may be asked, dare you presume to write about artists ? And I offer my apology in the language of the flower in the Persian fable, " I am not the rose, but cherish me, for we have dwelt together." My dearest friend for many years was John Leech. It was a memorable day on which we first met. I went literally " from grave to gay." In the morning there had been a consecration of ground added to our churchyard, by Bishop Jackson, of Lincoln ; and a most incongruous incident had occurred in the distribution, by one of my parishioners, who had brought the wrong parcel from my study, of the " Schedule of the Caunton 16 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Cottage Gardening and Horticultural Society," instead of the Form of Service ; and in the evening I went to dine with a neighbour, and to meet Leech. I had always longed to grasp the hand which diffused so much pure enjoyment, and taught men how to be both merry and wise, and it was an epoch in my life, a green spot on the path of time, to look on his kindly, intellectual, handsome face. He had come into the Midlands, with his old friend Adams, to have a day with the Belvoir Hounds, and was greatly amused, with a soupqon of annoyance, at the ill-concealed attention which had been freely bestowed upon him. Some expected him to witch the world with noble horsemanship, whereas, fond as he was of hunting, he was a timid rider, and loved a placid steed. " Give me an animal," I have heard him say, " on which you can carry an umbrella in a hailstorm." Some hoped for a recitation in the familiar intonation of Punch ; and all expected to see themselves next week in the pages of the London Charivari. As to his appearance, it might be said of him, as Sterne said of Uncle Toby, that "Nature had written Gentleman, with so fair a hand, on every line of his countenance," and that, as Lord Peter- borough said of Fe'nelon, he was " cast in a par- ticular mould, never used for anybody else." After his death, his father sent me the Illustrated London News, having written in pencil over his portrait therein, "an exact likeness; the best extant." He ARTISTS. 17 was tall, but slight in figure, with a high broad forehead, large blue-grey Irish eyes (his family came originally from Ireland), and a face full of expression. When he saw anything which he disliked, when he was bored or vexed, there was " a lurking trouble of the nether lip," butjthe sunniest of smiles, ain^pW^ov yeXaoyxa, when he was enjoying the ridiculous, or giving pleasure to his friends. He was modest in his demeanour, and silent as a rule, as one who, though he was not working, was constrained to think about his work. "Les petits esprits" Kochefau- cault writes, " ont le don de beaucoup parler mais de rien dire ; " but when Leech spoke, he spoke well, and when he was with those whom he loved, no one was merrier than he. He dressed tastefully but quietly, like a gentle- man, and was one of those who believe that cleanli- ness is next to godliness. Some years ago, I was writing letters in the morning-room of a great house, and one of two fine ladies, who evidently wished me to be edified by their conversation, inquired from the other, "Do you care, dear, for artists, and authors, and that sort of people ? " And the answer was, " No, dear, I can't say I do. They're so dirty!" I ventured to suggest the names of individuals, distinguished in literature and art, who were manifestly as fond of ablutions as the haute noblesse, but they evidently did not believe me ; and I must confess that I have met disciples of the palette and the press whose back hair has sug- c 18 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. gested both scissors and shampoo, and whose lighter raiment would be best described in Latin " Qui color albus erat mmc est contrarius albo." The first time John Leech paid me a visit, it did me good to watch his enjoyment of country air and quiet. He sat under a tree, stretched himself, folded his arms, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth, inhaling, like one " Who feels, as in a pensive dream, When all his active powers are still, A distant clearness in the hill, A sacred sweetness in the stream." Like the Arctic voyager, when the sun shone once more, he "seemed to be bathing in periumed waters." No child among the cowslips, no schoolboy home- ward bound, could be happier. I drove him to " the Dukeries," so called because at one time there was a conjunction of four ducal homes. Thoresby was the residence of the Duke of Kingston, succeeded by Earl Manvers, Clumber of the Duke of New- castle, Welbeck of the Duke of Portland, Worksop Manor of the Duke of Norfolk. Passing through Wellow, he seemed to be as delighted with the maypole on the village green, as was Washington Irving, when, in writing of his visit to England, he says, " I shall never forget my joy at first seeing a maypole." But when, having left our carriage, we wandered among the grand old oaks and the golden bracken, he closed his sketch-book, almost as soon ARTISTS. 19 as he had opened it, and murmuring, "This is too delicious," sat down in the sunshine. We discoursed on Robin Hood (Eobin o' the 'ood), who, by an ubiquity, only surpassed by that of our royal Charles, who seems to have slept in several beds on the same night, is supposed to have spent much time in this Forest of Sherwood (" the Shire Wood "), chasing the wild deer and harassing the tourist. Leech was pleased by an account, which I gave him, of a recent Archa3ological meet- ing at Newark, in which a learned antiquarian, after an elaborate history of Eobin and his doings, was succeeded by a brother savant, who undertook to prove, by unanswerable evidence, that no such person ever existed. And I told him, apropos of outlaws, how, not many miles from the place where we sat, a Nottinghamshire gentleman was met as he was returning, on horseback, by night from Mans- field, where he had been to receive his rents, and having a large sum of "money with him, by Dick Turpin, who stopped him with the inquiry, " Mr. Mil ward, I think ? " " Noa, sir," it was answered in a vulgar provincial twang, " I bean't Mister Mil- ward. I be his mon. The master's got a party at th' inn, and he won't be home till midnight." On he went unmolested, but it was long, after discovering the deception, before "Richard" was "himself again." I invited all my neighbours to meet Leech at a garden party, my annual Fete des Roses, of which I had then three or four thousand trees ; and, in 20 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. memory of the fair ladies, who admired him, and the flowers, and the cooling cups, he afterwards made a charming picture of Mr. Punch, crowned with a wreath of roses and surrounded by smiling Hebes, offering sherry-cobblers, fanning him, and shading from the sun. He was somewhat perplexed by one exuberant worshipper, who insisted on drinking his health at intervals, and assuring him that he was " the delight of the nation," and evidently felt, as Mrs. Nickleby, when one of her lovers would cut her initials on the pew-door during Divine service, that " it was grati- fying but embarrassing." He liked the sympathy of those who could appreciate the intention and execution of his work, but his countenance, his mixed expression of indigna- tion and amusement, was a memorable sight to see. " A moment o'er his face a tablet of unutterable thought was traced," when a vulgar fellow, who travelled with us on the rail, asked him " how much he got for his funny cuts," and assured him that " some on 'em was tiptop, though he thought old Briggs was bosh." * Everybody gave him heartiest welcome whenever he came and wherever he went. The Speaker, * I had the pleasure of suppressing an intrusive fellow- traveller of this type, who brought into the carriage a strong, odour of whisky, and, having bored me for some time with his imbecile remarks, roughly inquired, "What comes next to Itchin ? " And when I answered, " Scratching" the conversation flagged. ARTISTS. 21 Mr. Denison, afterwards Lord Ossington, at whose house one met the potentates of the age, the American President, the English Premier, the popular prelate (I have in my recollection Daniel Webster, Lord Palmerston, and Bishop Wilberforce), mounted him, dined him, and told him, as few could tell, amusing incidents. Apropos of art, he narrated how, when making alterations in his house, he had sent away from a long gallery two waggon-loads of worthless pictures, copies from the great masters, to a dealer at Retford, who bought them for three or four pounds apiece. A worthy chemist from Southwell, very fond of pictures, went to inspect the purchase, and was so delighted with "A Monk at Prayer, by Murillo," that, as he told a friend on his return, he hardly dared to inquire the price, lest he should reveal his anxiety to purchase. Finally, on payment of ten pounds, he secured, and brought home, the treasure. There must have been some merit in it, for not many days after, Mr. Wright, of Upton, an accomplished scholar, the translator of Dante and Tasso, a clever artist, and the owner of many valuable pictures, saw it, bought it for eighty guineas, and gave it the best place in his collection. He died. The pictures were to be sold, and Messrs. Christie and Manson sent down an expert to prepare a catalogue. A proof was forwarded to the chief executor, who wrote back at once to express his astonishment that no mention was made of the gem of the collection, the Murillo. The explanation was 22 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. depressing a courteous intimation that the owner of the picture had made an injudicious purchase, and they could not advise that it should be sent to London. On the hunting-field Leech was a most delectable companion, when he had a gentle, tranquil steed, and hounds were not running. No incident or object of interest escaped his keen observation. He directed attention to circumstances which were exceptional, characteristics which were quaint, things beautiful or ugly, where ordinary eyes saw nothing worthy of notice. I remember, in proof, that, as we were going from covert to covert, it was necessary to negotiate an ordinary fence. " Now," he said to me, " there is no hurry, nothing to fire your inflam- matory spirit; wait awhile here and watch. You shall see that no two men, women, or boys, no two horses or ponies, will go through this performance, which seems so simple, in the same temper and style." His prophecy was exactly fulfilled. Some men gathered themselves and their , bridles together, gripped their steeds, put their feet further through their stirrups, pressed their hats more tightly, and charged the obstacle, as though they rode to battle. Some held a loose and some a tightened rein. Some used the whip, and some the spur. Some were silent, and some addressed their animals with brief words of encouragement. Some kept their seat, and some rose so high as to open out an extensive view of the distant landscape between themselves and ARTISTS. 23 their saddles. The horse and his rider, who knew their business, went, the pace imperceptibly quickened, with serene confidence to the leap. The quadrupeds, like the bipeds, showed signal diversities of form. Some jumped a foot higher than the hedge, and covered four times the necessary space. Some cleared it, and that was all. Some broke it with their hind- legs, to the intense gratification of the timid, who were rendered yet more happy when an excited four-year-old or a blundering underbred brute went through it with a crash. Some suddenly refused, and then, if the rider was without experience, it was a case of " stand and deliver." Lastly, the mixed multitude, including that section which a friend of mine was pleased to designate as " The Pop and Porter Brigade," passed bravely through the gaps, and the gay cavalcade moved on. When the chase began, Leech was not in the foreground. He was not physically strong ; he had not hunted in his youth ; his arm had been broken by a fall from his pony, and the recurrence of such an accident would have been disastrous to him and to us all. We, whose limbs were compara- tively of no importance, could afford to risk an occasional fall ; and, apropos of such contingencies, he sent me, in reply to a letter, in which I informed him that I had been riding a most promising young chestnut in a long and difficult run, and that we had only had three mishaps, a sketch, which after- wards was published in Punch, as illustrating 24 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. A CONTENTED MIND. " Well, Master Reynolds, so you've been riding the young un. How does he go ? " " Splendid ! never carried better in my life ! It was his first run, and we only came down five times ! " With the original, he wrote " DEAR MASTER REYNOLDS, " I should immensely like a mount on this charming animal. Yours ever, "J. L." The city and country mouse exchanged frequent visits, but with no unpleasant interruptions, as in the fable. He came and went as he pleased, and could work or rest at his will. He gathered welcome material in fields fresh and pastures new. Some- times he would say, " I must make a memorandum," and would trace a few mysterious lines in his sketch- book to be developed hereafter ; and sometimes he would ask, with the meekest diffidence, if he were told an anecdote worthy of illustration, " May I use that ? " as though you were conferring a priceless obligation, instead of receiving a privilege, in playing jackal to such a lion. Sometimes he would have a horse brought out, and draw him. Some- times my wife sat to him in her habit. Both may be seen in combination in one of his " Sketches in Oil," wherein a young horsewoman leaves the road, to 26 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the horror and expostulation of the fat groom behind, and takes a fence into the adjoining field, to spare the poor animal's legs. The horse is the only true presentation the lady in the picture is short instead of tall, and if I had proposed to any servant of mine to assume that coat of many colours, I should have received an immediate month's warn- ing. Leech never published likenesses, except of public men in his cartoons, on principle, and I am not sure that he had the power, if he had desired it. He spent the best part of a day in endeavouring to produce a pencil sketch of the lady aforesaid, and then destroyed it as a failure. It was like bringing water to some fair plant which was drooping in drought, food to the hungry, fuel to the frozen, to tell Leech a good story which the public had never heard, and which none could repeat to them so charmingly as he. I see that dear face light up once more as I relate how the farmer at the rent dinner (it took place, I think, on the Belvoir property) smacked his lips over the rich liqueur, and, turning to the footman behind him, said, " Young man, if you've no objection, I'll tak' some o' that in a moog ; " how the coachman, un- accustomed to act as waiter, watched with agony of mind the jelly which he bore swaying to and fro, and set it down on the table with a gentle remon- strance of " Who-o, who-o, who-o," as though it were some restive horse ; with other histories, many - in number, which he made famous. ARTISTS. 27 He was ever on the look-out,* listening, musing, realizing. " I am obliged," lie said, " to keep my pencil in exercise, lest it should get above its work." But the real constraint was in the continuous demand, " nulla dies sine lined" " There is always," he sighed, " a boy from the Punch office, diffusing an odour of damp corduroy through the house, and waiting for fresh supplies." Sometimes he could work with marvellous rapidity. I have known him finish three drawings on the wood before luncheon. Sometimes he said that his pencil was on strike, that it was a dangerous anarchist, and that he proposed to call out the military. I have met with those who seemed to think that it gave him no trouble to produce his sketches (we are all of us inclined to regard other people's work as much more easy than our own), and that, like Gluck the composer, when he took his piano with a bottle of champagne into his garden and played joyous airs, his life was all music and sunshine ; but at times he was sorely pressed. No artist had ever more enjoyment from his art. It was innate, as with all extraordinary genius poeta nascitur, non fit. It was so in a marvellous degree with Handel, but the difference was that Leech had every, en- * So we read of Hogarth in his rambles through London streets, always on the watch for striking features or incidents, and accustomed, when any face struck him as particularly grotesque or expressive, to make a preliminary sketch on his thumb. 28 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. couragement (Flaxman, the sculptor, foretold his excellence), whereas Handel's father opposed his son's inclinations, and kept all instruments out of his reach, ignoring the wise advice of Lord Bacon, that " if the affection and aptness of children be extraordinary, then it is good not to cross it." He contrived to get possession of a clavichord, which he secreted in his garret, and played while others slept. It is recorded that he played the organ in the cathedral at Halle before he was seven years old, and that he began at the age of nine to study composition. I have seen some very clever drawings which Leech did about the same period of life, notably a coach with four horses, and two knights tilting in the ring, and no doubt his pleasure increased with his skill ; but he was overworked, and sacrificed himself for the advantage of others. No one knows what John Leech could do, no one has seen the supreme perfection of his art, who has not been privileged to admire his drawings when they were finished on the wood for the engraver. There was an exquisite delicacy of touch, which, even by such accomplished artificers as Mr. Swain, could never be reproduced in their integrity. The slightest divergence in an eyelash, or the curl of a lip, changed the expression and misrepresented his work; and I have heard him groan when Punch arrived at his breakfast-table on Tuesday morning, and he saw that some small aberration had detracted from his design and achievement. Happily there ARTISTS. 29 always remained an amount of excellence to satisfy and gratify all who saw them. The mention of a Breakfast Table of which he was Autocrat (he had high admiration of Wendell Holmes) suggests his hospitality, and he was the most considerate and thoughtful of hosts. He gave to all his hest. He had no chasse-cousin, no cheap wine, halfway on its road to vinegar, and so called because the French give it to poor relations when they wish to shorten their stay ; and though he never pampered himself in private, nothing was too good for his friends, for whom he always produced, as Douglas Jerrold bade the waiter, " the older, not the elder, port." I asked him one day, after he had given us a merry little dinner at his lodgings, No. 1, The Crescent, Scarborough, how he made such good champagne cup. " The ingredients," he replied, " " of which this refreshing beverage is composed, and which is highly recommended by the faculty for officers going abroad, and all other persons stopping at home, are champagne, ice, and aerated water, but, in consequence of advancing years, I always forget the seltzer." I remember a dish of British Queen strawberries, of a size and colour to make a gardener take off his hat, crowned with a majestic monster, which would have made a dumpling; and he gravely requested a servant to remove the apex from the pyramid, and to have it carved on the sideboard. But better than choice fruit, or food, or vintage, 30 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. though remarkably nice in combination, was the feast of reason and repartee provided by the clever guests whom he delighted to gather round him : Thackeray and Millais ; * Adams, his oldest, and one of his dearest friends, who lived at Baldock in Hertfordshire, where Leech went a-hunting, and where our eighth Henry went a-hawking, and was nearly suffocated in a muddy ditch, his jumping-pole snapping in twain as he was vaulting over ; Lemon, Shirley Brooks, and Tom Taylor three successive editors of Punch; Douglas Jerrold and Percival Leigh ; Tenniel, Holman Hunt, Du Maurier, Silver, Mowbray Morris (the sub-editor of the Times), Dasent, Lucas, Knox (on the staff), and others, whose names I forget. Dickens was absent, because, when I first knew Leech, there had been an inter- ruption of their friendship, but it was afterwards happily resumed. Their intimacy had been long and affectionate, and Dickens had nursed him in a serious crisis. Leech was his guest at Bonchurch, and while bathing was suddenly struck by a gigantic wave with a force which brought on symptoms of a congested brain, and for a time imperilled his life. Dickens wrote, " He was put to bed with twenty of his namesakes upon his forehead, * A gentleman came into his studio, and, seeing his famous picture of " The Black Brunswicker," asked, " What uniform is that ? " Millais, who had been at great trouble and expense to procure the exact costume, replied, " The Black Brunswicker." " Oh, indeed," said the visitor ; " I knew it was one of the volunteers, but I wasn't sure which regiment." AETISTS. 31 became seriously worse, and was again very heavily bled. The night before last, he was in such an alarming state of restlessness, which nothing could relieve, that I proposed to Mrs. Leech to try magnetism. Accordingly, in the middle of the night, I fell to, and, after a very fatiguing bout of it, put him to sleep for an hour and thirty-five minutes. A change came on in his sleep, and he is decidedly better. I talked to the astounded Mrs. Leech across him, as if he had been a truss of hay." He took me to dine at the weekly congress, the hebdomadal board, of Punch, which was held on Wednesday, in Bouverie Street, when the subject of the next large cartoon was fixed by the authors and artists. Afterwards he told me, " You are an honorary member of our mess," a compliment which I most gratefully appreciated, and which, I was informed, had only been offered to one other favoured guest, Sir Joseph Paxton. I need not say how elated and exhilarated I was, to be where " the sparks of wit flew in such profusion as to form complete fireworks." Thomas Hood I write the name with reverence, because no English poet, except Shakspere, has united in one brain and heart such pathetic and humorous power, who was among authors as Garrick among actors, alike excellent in tragedy and comedy Hood was one of his select friends, and he went to see him, he told me, shortly before his death. He was weak, and emaciated in body, 32 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. but the old bright spirit was strong within him. " Ah, Leech," he sighed, pointing to some pungent plasters, which his doctor had put on his chest, " so much mustard, and so very little beef ! " Samuel Rogers said to him, "Mr. Leech, I admire you much." He was just beginning his success as an artist, and was gratified by this commendation, as he supposed, of his art. " Yes," repeated Eogers, " I admire you much. I saw you brushing your own hat, and the man who, in these days, does anything for himself, is deserving of admiration." CHAPTER III. ARTISTS Continued. A little tour in Ireland Leech on the ocean wave His visit to Blair Athole A fiend in human shape His wife and children Sketch from Biarritz Bull-fight at Bayonne The last new Eose. LEECH proposed that we should take a fortnight's holiday in Ireland, and I accepted his invitation with an eager gladness, which was somewhat suhdued when he suggested, " You shall write, and I will illustrate, an account of our little tour." * Nevertheless, my hesitation was brief; for I knew that the sauce would compensate for the want of flavour in the fish, and that the dulness of the drama would be redeemed by the splendour of the scenes. He sent me a sketch of his delight on the ocean wave, being, in fact, an early and helpless victim to mat de mer, and having stated in a letter to Charles Dickens, whom he visited at a chateau in France, that on his arrival at Calais he was received by the congregated spectators with a distinct round of applause, as being by far the most intensely and unutterably miserable object that had yet appeared. * " A Little Tour in Ireland." Illustrated by John Leech. London : Edward Arnold. D 34 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. From the hour of embarkation to that in which we parted, our journey was all " sweetness and light." To have had as a companion " an abridgment of all that is pleasant in man ; " to have realized Sallust's maxim, " eadem velle, eadem nolle, ea demum est amicitia ; " to have shared his quick perception and keen appreciation of all that was grand and lovely in nature, and of all that was eccentric and laughable in man ARTISTS. 35 " His eye begets occasion for his wit ; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest " as we looked over the Bay of Dublin from the hill of Killiney, wandered among the solemn mountains and lakes of Connemara, all but danced with joy over the first salmon which he caught at Kylemore, shot the weir between the upper and lower lake at Killarney, rowed by moonlight to Innisfallen, talking to the boatmen about the O'Donoghue, and listening to the bugles as they set the echoes flying, travelling mile after mile of tranquil enjoyment in the cosy Irish car ; these are memories to make an old man young. He was perfectly successful in all his attempts at delineation but one the portrait of a most offensive odour in Cork Harbour, which, he said, taking out his book and pencil, " was quite strong enough to sketch." He had previously achieved a representation of a sneeze, which is still in my possession. Soon after our return from Ireland, he wrote me an account of his visit to Blair Athole. He was delighted with the scenery and the gracious hospitality, but (as the lady said, when she was con- gratulated on her daughter's engagement, "Jenny hates the man, but there's always a something") his ) spirit was perturbed by the lateness of the dinner- hour, which depended upon the ducal siesta, and was sometimes delayed until 9 p.m., and also by the presence on the dinner-table of a small but obese 36 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. dog, who, as the footmen took up large hot-water dishes and handed them to the company, watched his opportunity, and crawled from one vacant space to another, that he might enjoy the warmer locality. Asking the reader's permission to record my memories as they present themselves, I would narrate another canine incident, also connected with the dinner-table and warm water, which I heard from an eye-witness. In a London home it was the custom to place a foot-warmer, before the repast began, in front of the chair of the hostess, who was chilly and infirm from old age. On this occasion the guests were early, or the footman was late, and the latter was still under the table when the former took their seats. The lady of the house became conscious of some motive power below, and thinking that it came from a favourite retriever, who was allowed to roam where he pleased, fondly addressed it as " Rollo, good Rollo ! " and, failing to hear the protest, " It's not Hollo, grandmamma it's Alfred," affectionately patted the head as it emerged from the table, with a halo of powder, and an expression of perplexity which Leech himself could not have copied. I have before me nearly one hundred and fifty of his letters one, " written with a pen which had no mouth, and bolted," all in haste. A large proportion consists of invitations or replies thereto. When I pleaded my reluctance to leave my garden, he sent me a sarcastic view of a "rational being admiring AMTISTS. 37 a chrysanthemum I " bade me seek " the more refined and intellectual qualifications to be found in a pantomime," and called upon me to remember how we had enjoyed together the consummate acting of Robson in The Porter s Knot, so pathetic that a young man in the stalls near to us, who, before the performance, had been " turning to mirth all things of earth," when the drama was over, murmured to his friend, with tears in his eyes, " Awfully jolly, awfully jolly ! " Leech was himself a clever actor, and played in private theatricals at Sir Lytton Bulwer's house at Knebworth, with Dickens, John Forster, Frank Stone, Mark Lemon, Cruikshank, Egg, and others : also, for charitable purposes, as "Slender" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, at the Haymarket, the St. James's, and Miss Kelly's theatres. Shirley Brooks describes him as being by far the most effective figure, in a combination of ancient and modern costumes, classic tunic over dress black trousers and patent-leather boots, new silk hat with wreath of laurel, spectacles, umbrella, etc., at a fancy ball, which was given by their mutual friend, John Parry. His first public appearance was when, with two or three other medical students, he sang, " for the fun of the thing," at night in the streets, the concerts being profitable as well as amusing. He told me that on one occasion a listener, to whom he pre- sented his hat, produced from behind his back a small violin to intimate that he was one of the profession. 38 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. When I invited him to have a day with the Rufford, and promised him a horse which had won his confidence, he denounced me as a fiend in human shape (I never quite understood why he put a college cap on my head) ; and afterwards, in reply to a similar proposal, he wrote to say that his ARTISTS. 39 work, chiefly for "the almanac," would not even permit me to ride his pony, which was " swelling wisibly before his wery eyes " in the stable. More- over, he was devotedly attached to his home, for he was a " Douglas, tender and true," and the best of husbands and fathers, as well as the best of friends. j ' ' < ;i " The gladdener of ten thousand hearths, The idol of his own." " Love at first sight, firstborn, and heir to all," constrained him to seek an introduction to Miss Eaton, to woo and win ; and though, when I first knew her, the bloom of la premiere jeunesse was gone, there remained abundant evidences of the charms which dazzled the eye, bewildered the brain, annexed the heart, of John Leech, bachelor, and reappeared continually in the pretty girls of Punch. He has given us numerous manifestations of his delight in children, and one of the most delicious drawings he ever made is that scene in the nursery, 40 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. where a child of seven appears, in a hat, neckerchief, and coat (tails touching the floor), evidently the property of the elder brother, as the family doctor, solemnly prescribing for the sick doll, while a wee lassie of four summers respectfully holds his (rocking) horse. Mrs. Lemon, the wife of the editor of Punch, and designated sometimes by irreverent minds as Judy, told me that Leech was sadly disappointed in tlie first part of his married life that he had no children ; then a child was born and died, and then there were two more, a son and a daughter, whom I knew from their early days. The son, George Warrington, had many " notes of fatherhood." A mere child, he must wear a little velvet coat like his papa's, and he expressed a wish to have the hair removed from the top of his head, that it might resemble the parental pate, which had what the Americans term " a snow line," where vegetation ceases. I see the dear little fellow now, standing before his miniature easel, and, with a most solemn gravity, richly colouring, in a style of polychromatic splendour hitherto unknown, the engravings of the Illustrated London News. He was remarkably quick and shrewd. On the arrival of a new nurse, he informed her at once that his papa had said that he was a sort of boy who required peculiar and kind treatment (a quota- tion, I have no doubt, from the mouth of his indulgent father, which he was not intended to ARTISTS. 41 hear), and that he would trouble her to bring him an orange and a cake. On another occasion, when he was staying in my house, and my wife's maid remonstrated with him, and threatened to tell his mamma, he immediately made answer, " Oh yes, go, if you like ; and I shall go too, and say how you idle away your time with nurse." Leech had an original and effective method of reprimanding his children. If their faces were dis- torted by anger, by a rebellious temper, or a sullen mood, he took out his sketch-book, transferred their lineaments, with a slight exaggeration " pictoribus atque poetis Quidlibet audendi semper fuit sequa potestas " to paper, and showed them, to their shameful con- fusion, how ugly naughtiness was ! The boy went to Charterhouse, and was the first to win the " Leech Prize for Drawing," given annually in honour of his father, who had been there as a scholar with Thackeray. Thence he went into Lincolnshire, a tall, handsome youth, to learn on a large farm the science and practice of agriculture ; and then, not being strong, he set forth with a friend, the captain of a ship, to Australia, and as they were returning one night from the shore at South Adelaide, the boat was upset by a sudden storm, and young Leech was drowned. His sister, of whom Leech might have said with Byron, "Ada, sole daughter of my home and 42 TEE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. hearth," a gentle, delicate, affectionate girl, had her home in ours soon after the death of her mother, who was separated but a brief while from him whom she so dearly loved, and remained with us until her marriage with Mr. William Grillett. Alas ! she too died soon after the birth of her child, Dorothy, now the only living descendant of John Leech. Ada possessed a most charming miniature by Millais in water-colours of herself as a baby, with the hand of her father appearing round her waist. I never saw it without thinking of the lines " for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still ! " And I remember another sketch by the same great painter, which Leech showed me with mirthful admiration, for it was equally adroit, though in an entirely different style, of " Old Mr. Leech and old Mr. Millais on their hunters." How thankful we ought to be that " Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, Except the page prescribed, the present date " ! Leech took as much lively interest in my en- gagement and marriage as though he had been my brother ; insisted on accompanying me, when I went on the somewhat anxious mission of discussing settlements with the young lady's guardian, to the door of his house ; sent me a charming present of a gold horse, exquisitely modelled, on a large seal, and, having requested and received long notice of ARTISTS. 43 the wedding-day, "because," he said, "his coat, waistcoat, trousers, and especially his scarf, must be gradually and carefully developed," he appeared in due course, a combination of good looks, good temper, and good clothes, as my best man. In the following year (1862) he went to Biarritz, and I received in one of his letters " the last sweet thing in hats (with a walking-stick, if you please)." In his next he writes : " 32, Brunswick Square, W.C., September 18, 1862. "My DEAR HOLE, " I have only just returned from a bull- fight at Bayonne ! and find your kind note. Don't think me a brute, therefore, for not replying sooner, whatever you may think of me for assisting at such a disgusting display. I had heard of such things, but had always supposed that they were mere circus or Astley affairs, and never thought that any civilized people could delight in so much animal suffering. When I tell you that, besides six bulls, seven horses were sacrificed for the afternoon's entertainment, 44 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. *n J&*** * ^g. which he referred ; little more than a mile from the home and school of his childhood at Chatham ; not two from the house which he desired in his boy- hood, and bought when, after years of painful poverty, he became rich, wherein he lived long and happily until his sudden death ; not a hundred yards- from the High Street, in which the coach which bore the Pickwick Club stopped at the Bull Hotel, in which Mr. Winkle's horse conducted himself in a most mysterious manner, with his head towards one side of the way and his tail to the other, and in which the house of " The Seven Poor Travellers " has the inscription in stone over its portals "BiCHARD WATTS, Esq. "by his Will, dated 22 Aug. 1579, founded this Charity for Six poor Travellers, who not being EOGUES, or PROCTORS, May receive gratis for one Night, Lodging, Entertainment, and Fourpence each " and is open nightly to those who may ask admission,, The " Proctors " excluded were (not the members AUTHORS. 91 of the Lower House of Convocation, nor the peri- patetic gentlemen in velvet sleeves who supervise our undergraduates, but) a swarm of hypocrites, professing to collect money for the Lepers' houses, and spending what they could obtain on themselves. I admire, as Mr. Pickwick admired, from Rochester Bridge, "the grand old keep of the ancient castle, its towers roofless, and its massive walls crumbling away, but telling us proudly of its old might and strength," and I gaze on the river, which flows by, as Mr. Micawber gazed, "with a view to setting up in the Medway Coal Trade." I walk on the seven miles of road between Rochester and Maidstone, which Dickens affirmed to be one of the most beautiful walks in England ; and from the marshes, in which the child met the escaped convict, my son brings home the wildfowl which he has shot at flight-time, concealed, half-frozen, in his punt. I too enjoy, as Dickens enjoyed, the woods and glades of beautiful Cobham, having free access from the generous owner; and in its garden-grounds have sat in the Swiss Chalet, which the great actor (Fechter) gave to the great author, and in which, placed in a shrubbery, and bright with mirrors, re- flecting the trees and fields around, he wrote, with flowers always on his table, and the birds singing around him, in the summer months. It was re- moved, after his death, to Cobham, and is safe from pocket-knives and petty larcenies in the careful custody of Lord Darnley. In this chalet he passed 92 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the greater part of his last day on earth, June 8, 1870, writing the unfinished story of " Edwin Drood ; " and I never pass " the little graveyard, belonging to the cathedral, at the foot of the castle wall," in which he wished his body to be laid, I seldom go by the brass tablet which bears his name in our cathedral, without the joyful hope, which is inspired by those words, almost the last which came from his pen, concerning " the Resurrection and the Life." No thoughtful reader of his books can fail to trace those pure, deep, living waters of charity, which flow through the flowery, fertile banks of his wit and humour, to their spring, to his faith as a Christian, to that " unswerving faith in Christianity," to which his most intimate friend and biographer bears such earnest testimony, and which he himself so solemnly declares, and commends to his children, in his last will and testament. Coming yet nearer home, I little thought, when, in that same history of " Edwin Drood," I read of " the ancient English cathedral, having for suffi- cient reasons the fictitious name of Cloisterham," but being Rochester, of Minor Canon Corner, and of " the dean, who, with a pleasant air of patronage, as nearly cocks his quaint hat as a dean io good spirits may" (Dickens forgot that the hat decanal is cocked always), " and directs his comely gaiters homewards," I little thought, one hundred and fifty miles away, that on this stage, and in that AUTHORS. 93 character and costume, I was to conclude the little drama of my life. ***** I have just returned from a pilgrimage (many a pilgrim has gone to a shrine with a far less reverent joy) to Gad's Hill Place. The present owner r Mr. Latham, has greatly improved, without altering the general appearance of the home of Dickens. He has introduced more light and air both into the house and grounds, developing the capabilities of the place, after the example of those who preceded him ; but there is no material change. The dear old study remains as it was, with the dummy books on the door and on part of the walls, bearing the quaint titles which Dickens invented for them Kant's Eminent Humbugs, 10 vols. The Gunpowder Magazine. Drowsey's Recollections of Nothing. Lady Godiva, on her Horse. Evidences of Christianity. By King Henry the Eighth. Hansard's Guide to Refreshing Sleep. Strutt's Walk. Malthus' Nursery Songs. Cat's Lives, in 9 volumes. History of the Middling Ages. Five Minutes in China. Swallows, on Emigration. History of a Short Chancery Suit, in 19 volumes. A. Carpenter's Bench of Bishops. Butcher's Suetonius. Crib's edition of Miller. In the garden is the tiny grave, tombstone, and epitaph of " Dick," a beloved canary 94 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. " This is the Grave of DICK, the best of birds, born at Broadstairs, Midsummer, 1851, died at Gad's Hill Place, 14 October, 1866." A critical autocrat recently informed me that " Charles Dickens was going out of fashion ; " where- upon I inquired, as one profoundly impressed, and gasping for more information, " whether he thought that Shakspere would be a la mode this season, and what he considered the newest and sweetest thing in the beau monde of intellect ? " " Pick- wick," " Nicholas Nickleby," " Oliver Twist," " The Old Curiosity Shop," " David Copperfield," " A Tale of Two Cities," "A Christmas Carol," out of fashion ! Not while the English language remains as now, and they, who speak it, have brains to appreciate humour, and hearts to sympathize with woe. CHAPTER IX. AUTHORS Continued. Dr. John Brown, author and physician His visit to Caunton His quaint letter to Bishop Magee Associated, like Dickens, with Chatham, where he practised at the time of the cholera Strange incident His death His friends Four editors of Punch Mr. Charles Knight The Lau- reate The Duke of Argyll " John Inglesant " Augustus Hare Edmund Yates. OF the authors whom it has been my great privi- lege to number among my friends, there is not one whom I remember with a more affectionate regard than Dr. John Brown, who wrote " Rab and his Friends." " In memory's fondest place I shrine " the words which I heard from his lips, and read in his books his admirations of all things pure, and brave, and true ; his condemnations of meanness, falsehood, cruelty ; his tenderness and compassion for the desolate and oppressed. That beautiful head, " with Brains, Sir ; " that face, so bright with intel- lectual power, and with the purer "sunshine of a divine charity, hangs " on the line " of the long gallery of portraits, on which imagination delights to gaze. No man was ever more beloved by his friends ; few writers have been so intensely appre- 9G f) OF DEAN HOLE. dated ly k ' hough many mor ; ;v read. Hill ' :: I I knev j . s||i, Edinburgh, amc-, '--.: who loved ! : : t ! ly, because they I " '--- best. To F-lii ill was to love hiv,; - -. -, He was or : H^p i whom, from tlie iu.oi;>-;At in wliich v hand and look in;- : ; face, you 1 rHi ^ ^ be, sincere. ; >:; be a doctc il his skill as a p s .- : -: ;;.:. Ms symp$i f ' Jj ' bring, his kindne- v;- ;:.. poor, but si ry presence relrc ^ ( d :.-:;J. cheered, tl 'ifc ^ ^ n n ^ s slnl l e ? '- . i . . I ;-:! ':'':,. =,: . -, - in his voic_-, :_ _j rfe }j ;: . the doctor's duty, he said, to be kind. Kindness, as well as a merry heart, doeth good like a medicine. Cheeriness is a. great thing in a doctor ; his very foot should have " music in't, as he comes up the stair." The doctor should never lose his power of pitying pain, and letting his patient see this and feel it. His eye should so command, comfort, and cheer his patient, that he should never let him think disobedience or despair possible. It is not true that doctors are hardened by seeing so much suffer- ing. Pity as a motive, as well as a feeling ending in itself, is stronger in an old doctor than in a young, so he be made of the right stuff. He comes to know himself what pain and sorrow mean, what their weight is, and how grateful he was or is for relief and sympathy. He paid me a visit in Nottinghamshire. On the AUTHORS. 97 morning after his arrival, he went with me to our daily service in the church hard by. He talked after prayers to some of the old folks outside, and was specially pleased with one of them, an octo- genarian, who, using two sticks, had remarked in our hearing to a companion, who required but one, " Why, Sammy, you're a poor crittur ! why don't you drive a pair, like a gentleman ? " And no man ever drove a pair, or two pairs, who was more " like a gentleman " than he who spoke those words. Not long before Dr. Brown's visit, he came to me, as we were going into church, and said, " Do you think, sir, you could bring in that prayer about giving thanks this morning ? I'm eighty years old to-day, and I should like to thank God for all the mercies He has been pleased to send." He had one small room in a poor cottage, his income was three shillings a week, he had no relations and few friends, he was often ailing, and always infirm, and yet, he had not only learned, in whatsoever state he was, therewith to be content, but he was always happy. He was a Christian in spirit and in truth, and the last words he spoke to me just before his death were these : " I am not dying in darkness ; I am dying in the light of life." Dr. Brown went with me to the school, and heard the children sing their morning hymn, and, as we were returning to breakfast, he said to me, " I am a Presbyterian, and the son of a minister, but I must say that in this daily worship and com- H 98 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. munion with your people, old and young, you have an advantage which we do not possess, and which might beneficially occupy some part of the time which is so largely devoted to sermons to sermons of which, not seldom, the chief result is somnolence ! " Not that he faltered in his faith, because he knew that the best of Christians may be over- come by an exposition of sleep, when lulled by a monotonous drawl, numbed by a frigid dulness, dazed by insoluble problems, or exhausted by vain repetitions. On the contrary, I find in one of his letters this delightful affirmation of his loyalty : " I have sent a funny little game Scotch terrier to the Bishop of Peterborough * half Skye (original, short and hard hair), otter terrier ; t'other ^ Scotch fox terrier, small and wiry. When young, this breed have their tail cocked up and their ears down, but when they come to years (ears) of dis- cretion, the tail drops gracefully and slowly down, and the ears prick themselves, and their courage, up ; and I have told the bishop that as the tail (gradually) falls, so falls the Church of England, and as the ears rise, so rises the U. P. Church." In another letter he writes, " You know, I dare say " (but I did not know), " the lines addressed to a hunting dean, who sang a song in praise of the hounds, he being a grey-headed man ' Cane Decane ! canes canis, Ne cane canes, Cane Decane, Cane canos, Cane Decane.' " * Dr. Magee, afterwards Archbishop of York. AUTEOES. 99 John Brown, like Charles Dickens, is associated with Chatham. He was here (I am within five minutes' walk of Chatham) when the cholera first came in 1832, and he records his experience how serious a thing it is to be a doctor, and how terribly in earnest people are when they want him. This fearful malady generally came on in the night " the pestilence that walketh in darkness " and many a morning he was roused at two o'clock to go and see its victims, for then was its hour and power. One morning a sailor came to say he must go three miles down the river to a village, where the disease had broken out with great fury. They rowed in silence down the dark stream, passing the huge hulks, which were then on the Medway, and hear- ing the restless convicts turning in their beds and their chains. The men rowed with all their might in silence ; they had too many dying or dead at home to have any heart for conversation. As they neared the place, the young surgeon saw a crowd of men and women on the landing. They were all shouting for him the shrill cries of the women and the deep voices of the men coming to him over the water. As the boat drew near the shore, an elderly but powerful man forced his way through the crowd, plunged into the sea, seized John Brown, and carried him ashore. Then grasping him with his left hand, and thrusting aside with his right fist all that opposed his progress, he hurried him with an irresistible force to a cottage near. It 100 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. was "Big Joe," in his fierce determination that the doctor's first patient should be his grandson, " Little Joe," convulsed with cholera. The boy got better, but " Big Joe " died that night. The disease was on him when he carried the doctor from the boat, and when his wonderful love for the child, supreme over all else, had fulfilled its purpose, he collapsed and died. Dr. John Brown died on the llth of May, 1882. Mr. David Douglas, his devoted friend, to whom we owe the publication of " The Journals of Sir Walter Scott," being my friend also, wrote to tell me of our loss, in words which he knew would comfort that his mind was clear until the final separation ; that he had taken an affectionate fare- well of those most dear to him. When the dark shadow showed him that death was near, he asked that a favourite old nurse might be sent for, and greeted her, when she entered his room, with, " Come away, Mrs. Scott ; you know you trysted to be with me at my death." " Then," Mr. Douglas wrote, " one of the loveliest <#, human characters left this earth. It has been a great privilege to know such a man. I never met another who so attracted love from all classes and conditions of men and women." And he added, to my deep joy and gratitude, " I tell you all this, knowing the regard you had for him, and to thank you, on the part of his Edinburgh friends, for being the means of rousing him from his apathy by writing AUTHORS. 101 to him so cordially in October last. I look upon your writing to him as the turning-point from great depression to a state of mental vigour, such as he had not shown for twenty years. After re- ceiving your encouragement, he entered heartily into the correction of his papers, and quite enjoyed the praises of a new generation of critics. He has been very happy in various ways since Christmas last." One morning he came to me, his face beaming with pleasure, with an open letter in his hand, and said, " I am a happier and prouder man to-day than I have been since Thackeray first wrote to me." The letter was from Wendell Holmes, praising his last volume, and specially the history of " Pet Marjorie," which " he had read, re-read, and then insisted on reading for the third time aloud to his wife." Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Kuskin, Mr. Motley, and other distinguished men, were also his admiring friends. ***** I have known the four editors of Punch. The first, who started the periodical in 1841, Mark Lemon, and his successor, Shirley Brooks, inti- mately ; the third, Tom Taylor, seldom but admiringly ; the fourth, Mr. Burnand, slightly but gratefully, for the refreshment of my spirit's weari- ness, and specially for his modern version of " Sand- ford and Merton," which, like " Phyllis," never fails to please. Mark Lemon was portly, fatherly, 102 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. genial, a wise administrator, and shrewd man of business, keeping his team well in hand, in good condition on a liberal diet. He wrote a great number of farces, melodramas, etc., which had a brief success ; but he had not the quick, brilliant humour of Shirley Brooks. Tom Taylor was of a more reflective, graver mood ; and I remember, at one of the Punch dinners, when he had just brought upon the stage two of his pathetic pieces, that Thackeray remarked of him, as he sat in silence opposite, " All play and no work makes Tom a dull boy." Nevertheless, he had any amount of comedy as well as of tragedy in his^ mental repertoire, and generally suggested the best subject for the next week's cartoon. I went, on Shirley's invitation, to the christen- ing of his children, and Mark Lemon was there as one of the sponsors. Some of our friends professed to regard this arrangement with horror and indig- nation. They solemnly assured the father of the babe that they saw through his diabolical intentions ; that all London, including the suburbs, was crying shame upon him ; and that, after anxious delibera- tion, they thought it their duty to lay an informa- tion before the magistrates, and to demand the interference of the police. It was evident, they said, that in engaging Mr. Punch as a godfather- Punch, who habitually and daily assaulted babies, beat them about the head with a stick, and dashed them down upon the stones of the street he, Shirley AUTHORS. 103 Brooks, was bent upon infanticide ; and that they were unable in consequence to sleep in their beds, terrified as they were by previsions of one, whom they had so dearly loved, appearing as Brooks, murderer, in Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors ! All things, nevertheless, were done with due reverence ; so much so, that Mr. Charles Knight, the historian, remarked, sitting next to me at the dejeuner which followed the ceremony, on the im- provement which had taken place within his recol- lection. He remembered that when he was a very small boy, one of his godfathers came to him and said, " You see this half-crown ; you shall put it in your pocket if you'll say * D ' " (he gave the monosyl- lable in extenso), " 'd Billy Pitt! "' There has indeed been an " improvement " since those " times of the Regent," in which it might be said of the nobleman or gentleman (so called) of the day that " his delight was in cursing," when their conversation was so blended with blasphemous oaths that this profanity was regarded by foreigners as a characteristic of our nation. Whenever an Englishman was repre- sented in a French drama, he rarely uttered a sentence without an imprecation ; and an old friend tells me that when he and his brother went to a French school, it was said of them in the streets, " Voild, les deux petits Godam ! " I was present when Shirley Brooks first pro- pounded a riddle, which I venture to repeat, as being one of the cleverest of its class, though it 104 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. afterwards appeared in Punch. Lord Palmerston was Premier, and John Delane, the editor of the Times, was a constant guest at Lady Palmerston's receptions ; therefore we were asked, " Why is Swan and Edgar's like the residence of Lady Palmerston ? " and were told, when we could not answer, " It is the best house in London for mousseline de laine" The sub-editor and three of the leading writers or writers of leaders in the Times were of our com- pany, and the expression of doubt upon their countenances as to whether it was loyal and safe to scoff at Jupiter Tonaaas added greatly to the delight of those who felt no apprehensions. It was a very brief hesitation. They knew, as we all knew, that Delane was " above suspicion," and that no one would enjoy the enigma more than he. Sff fl *(P *(? SI? Walking one day in front of my house, I was astonished to see a number of workmen preparing to set up the usual telegraphic apparatus on the roadside not far distant, and I wrote at once to the postal authorities, declining to have the presentation of a drying-ground for clothes perpetually in sight of my windows. The postal authorities sent down Mr. Edmund Yates, and Mr. Edmund Yates very promptly sent down the poles, which were contrary to the provisions of the Act protecting ornamental grounds. I much enjoyed his cheery society, and some of his recent experiences in connection with this new line of electric communication which had AUTHORS. 105 brought us together. There had been much opposi- tion, and at a recent meeting a small, insignificant old gentleman had suddenly bounced out of his chair, and approaching Yates, who could have blown him away with a puff, in a state of incan- descent excitement, shook his fist and yelled, " You minion of the Government ! don't think you're going to cram your poles and wires down our throats. I defy you." Afterwards he sent me his trenchant epigram, suggested by the gay clothing of the worshippers at a church, known as "All Saints'" " In a church which is garnished with mullion and gables, With altar and reredos, with gurgoyle and groin, The penitents' dresses are sealskin and sables, The odour of sanctity eau de Cologne. But surely if Lucifer, flying from Hades, Were to gaze on the crowd with its paniers and paints, HH would say, as he look'd on the lords and the ladies, ' Oh, where is All Sinners, if this is All Saints? ' " ***** I have many happy recollections of authors ; of an interview, in his beautiful home, with one of the most profound thinkers and writers of our age on spiritual, political, and social subjects the author of " The Reign of Law ; " of letters from the Laureate, in one of which he crowns me as " the Eose-King," placing me on a " throne of purple sublimity," from which I have ever since surveyed with royal conde- scension the whole horticultural world ; of pleasant, profitable hours spent with Professor Sir Eichard 106 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Owen in the Museum of Natural History at Ken- sington, and in his home in the park at Richmond, in which I learned more of the wonderful beasts and birds now extinct, of their habits and surround- ings, than I could have acquired from years among books ; of mirthsome months in the Riviera with Lawrence Lockhart ; of a delightful visit from the writer of that famous book, " John Inglesant ; " of an interview, too brief, with the author of " The Light of the World ; " of conversations with Mr. Augustus Hare, who deserves to be called " the traveller's joy," seeing that without his " Walks in London and Rome, Yenice, and Florence," the tourist would be, like Goldsmith's " Traveller," "remote, un- friended, melancholy, slow," and of learning from him how the lady, who had been reading one of his books, and had left it in her bedroom, suddenly exclaimed, as she was departing from her hotel, surrounded by the landlord and his servants and an admiring crowd, in a loud voice to her maid, " Oh, Eliza, Eliza, I've left my Hare on the dressing-table ! " ***** " Kissing hands " is in some countries a graceful expression of a sincere respect and attachment ; with us it is little more than a ceremonial sign of homage on appointment to some office of importance, and a form of osculation not much in vogue. But we rejoice to grasp the hand of those whom we love, honour, and admire ; of good, true, generous men ; of those " that handle the pen of the writer," to AUTHORS. 107 instruct, to gladden, and to warn ; and of those who delight our ears with exquisite music, and our eyes with the life-like portrait, the lovely landscape, the historical scene. In speaking of those great authors and artists whom it has heen my privilege to know, I have seemed once more to hold the hand and see the smile of their friendship, and I venture to hope, as I withdraw from their presence, that my recollec- tions may leave upon my readers, as they always have upon me, a more thankful admiration and regard. 108 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER X. CRICKETERS. The love of cricket An Oxford song The good influence of cricket Tom Barker Fuller Pilch Lillywhite Mynn W. Clark Guy Box E. Daft George and Sam Parr Country stories My match at single wicket Umpires " The Free Foresters " Kemarkable incident at Leicester Extraordinary scores Should clergymen play at cricket ? THE love of cricket, as of all manly games and sports, is innate in the hearts of Englishmen, especially in the northern and midland counties,* and in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent. It first develops itself, according to my experience, in dab and billet, trap and ball, rounders (who that has " run his side in " ever for- gets the delicious sensation?); expands into fives, rackets, tennis, and finally attains its full power and joy in cricket ! Wherefore I sang at Oxford, and the voices of the athletes made the welkin ring ; that is * Nottinghamshire produces more first-rate cricketers than any other county, and, the supply being in excess of the home demand, they are to be found in various parts of the land. For example, in the recent victory which the Notts eleven achieved over Surrey at the Oval, their most formidable opponent was Lockwood, a Nottinghamshire man. CEICKETERS. 109 to say for I am not quite clear about the welkin, what it means, or how and when it rings the undergraduates joined in the chorus : YE CEICKETEKS OF ENGLAND. AIR " Ye Mariners of England." " Ye cricketers of England, Who guard the timbers three, Whose game has braved a thousand years All other games that be, Yonr pliant willows grasp again, To meet another foe, As ye stand, bat in hand, Where the ripping swift uns go, Or some crafty Clark,* with artful twist, Sends in the teasers slow." Chorus "Where the ripping," etc. " The spirits of your fathers Look on from glen and glade, Their ghosts in ancient flannels clad Watch every ball that's played. Where Pilch and mighty Alford move, Those spectres long to show, How to stand, bat in hand," Chorus " Where the ripping," etc. " That England hath no rival, Well know the trembling pack, Whom Charley Brown, by Calais town, Bowled out behind his back.f * William Clark, the famous Notts slow bowler. J" Charley Brown was an eccentric supernumerary on the Nottingham ground, and had a marvellous knack of bowling from behind his back. He challenged and defeated three Frenchmen in the neighbourhood of Calais. 110 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. The cricket-ball of England Can brook no foreign blow, As they stand, awkward band," Chorus " Where the ripping," etc. " Long, long, in park of noble, And in the cottage field, This game of games to English hearts Its manly joys shall yield ; And oft at eve, when stumps are drawn, The fragrant weed shall glow, As ye tell how they fell," Chorus " Where the ripping," etc. And ever since I sang that song, I have rejoiced to see children, on village greens and the waste places of our towns and cities, boys in the playing-fields of our schools, young men in our universities, and everywhere, all sorts and conditions of grown men, enjoying this grand old game ; and I never had a reception which gratified me more, than when, fifty years after, I accepted an invitation from the Notts Incorporated Football Club to a welcome at their rooms, which I shall never forget, and to receive from a very large attendance with such men as William Gunn in the foreground, and with men of authority and influence, magistrates and others, on the platform " a vote of thanks for the support which I had always given to all that is manly and honourable in British sports and recreations." This club has four hundred and fifty members, and is rapidly increasing. They meet for friendly inter- course, pleasant conversation, reading the news- papers, chess and other indoor games, and smoke the CEICKETERS. Ill soothing weed, when the day's work is done. No intoxicants are sold on the premises, and no gambling is allowed. I regard cricket with admiration, not only for the enjoyment which it brings to those who play it, and to those who see it played, but, as a philosopher, physician, and priest, I not only believe that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," but that no good work can be done continuously, without that variety of occupation which brings comparative rest, and refreshes both body and mind. So long as we can run, as he who " fields ; " and smite, as he who bats ; and aim, as he who bowls ; so long as we retain the keen eye, the strong arm, the lithe limbs of the cricketer, we shall run after, and not before, our enemies, break through his defences, and demolish his batteries.* He is no statesman, no philanthropist, much less a Christian, who does not prize, as of prime importance, the health the physical as well as mental health of a nation, the mens sana in corpore sano ; and a country has no benefactors who more deserve its respect and gratitude than those who give grounds for games. Tom Barker was the first distinguished cricketer with whom I was acquainted, and on an eventful day, when I had accompanied my father to a meeting of our County Club at Southwell, which Barker attended * Our reviewing officers will tell yon, in proof, that in Nottinghamshire our Yeomanry, the South Notts and the Sherwood Rangers, our Militia, and Volunteers, are excellent, and second to none. 112 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. as a paid bowler, and when my seniors were leaving the ground and going for lunch to the pavilion, he said to me, " Now, my little man, I'll give you a ball." I took up a bat, and went with my heart in my mouth to the wicket; for Tom was a tall, dark man, and bowled at a terrible pace ; but he favoured me with a ball which was exquisitely slow, and which, in the most awkward manner imaginable, I spooned up into the air, and he called out, " Bravo, bravo ! " and I was bound to believe him ; and we parted to our mutual satisfaction. Then, on the Trent-bridge Ground at Nottingham, I saw all the great heroes play. Fuller Pilch, with his long reach, grand defence, and powerful hitting. Short, stout Lillywhite, who was the only round bowler, until Redgate (in white breeches and stock- ings) followed his example, with twice his amount, of speed ; and round bowling became the rule. I saw Alfred Mynn, with his tall figure and handsome face, hit a ball which he could not resist, in practice before the match (the biggest hit I ever saw, or shall see !), over the booths, over the Bingham road, and some distance into a field of potatoes on the opposite side thereof; and we stood gazing as it rose, as rustics gaze at a rocket, and then relieved our oppression of astonishment with that universal note of admiration, " Oh ! " And here I must relate an incident, which created such an intense excitement as I have rarely seen, and which was followed by a discussion, never to CRICKETERS. 113 be solved, whether it was the result of intention or of accident. There was to be a great match between Nottingham and Kent. Mynn had recently made a big score, over one hundred runs, off Redgate's bowling at Leicester (in which operation, playing without pads, he was sorely bruised, and for some days was unable to leave his bed), and William Clark was absorbed by one anxious ambition, to bowl him, or get him caught. He walked about the ground before the play begun, and murmured at intervals to a friend of mine, who reported the interview, " If I can only get him if I can only get him I " The ground was cleared ; Mynn and his colleague went to the wickets, and the umpire called " Play." Then Clark bowled, and Mynn seemed to prepare to hit, but changed his mind, and quietly blocked the ball halfway between wicket and crease. Clark bowled again with a similar result, but the ball was stopped much nearer the wicket. A third ball came, but the batsman went back so far that as the ball fell from his bat, a bail fell also ! For two seconds there was a profound silence ; there might have been nobody, where many thousands were. We Notts men were mute with amazement, dumb with a joy which hardly dare believe itself. The " Lambs " could not utter a bleat. Then they roared like lions ! They left their seats, and, not satisfied with shouting, they danced and capered on the sward ! I saw Box, who in those days had no rival in his i 114 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN SOLE. department, keeping wicket in his tall white hat. Ei chard Daft, who was in his best day the most graceful of bats (as Clark said of Guy, " Joe Guy, sir, Joe Guy, all elegance, fit to play in a drawing- room before her Majesty ") and the quickest of fielders, told me an amusing story of Box. The Eleven of England, like all other elevens, had much harmless fun, and many a practical joke, in their peregrinations, being ever in exuberant health and spirits ; and on one occasion it was Box's turn to be victimized. He was scrupulously particular about his hair, and one evening at supper, during a match, he inquired whether any of his companions could tell him of a good haircutter. Sam Parr replied that he had found a satisfactory artist in the town, and gave Box his address. Then a mischievous design occurred to him, and early next morning he went to the haircutter, and told him that he should shortly introduce a friend, who was unfortunately suffering from disease of the brain ; that the doctors considered it a matter of great importance that he should wear as little hair as possible, and had, at last, and after much opposition, persuaded him to have it removed. Box returned from the interview, white and wild with indignation. He might have quoted the words of his namesake in the play, " I have a great mind to register an oath that I will never have my hair cut again. I told the man only to take off the ends. He must have thought I meant the other ends. I look as if I had been cropped CRICKETERS. 115 for the Militia ; " but he preferred, I regret to say, much more violent language. He all but assaulted Sam, and told him that his friend was a born fool, and that when he had asked him whether he was not taking too much off, the lunatic had said, " Oh no, sir ; just a little shorter, sir ; you'll feel so much better, sir you will indeed." " I told the brute," said Box, " I didn't want to feel better ; but it was no use, and I'm not fit to be seen ! " He wore his hat at meals, and Sam said he slept in it. My friend Daft owed me a story. Giving a lecture in the village in which he resides, I was pleased to see him in the audience, and made a detour from my main subject, that I might surprise him with a bit of cricket. And I did surprise him, when I affirmed boldly that cricketers nowadays did not know how to score as we of the olden time. I then narrated how, many years ago, I had played a match at single wicket against a friend and his retriever. The dog was really an excellent field, and brought the ball with great rapidity to his master. Unhappily for my opponent, the spectators were so clamorous in their expressions of interest, that the poor retriever lost his presence of mind, and started off with the ball in his mouth, as though making for Southwell, about a mile away. His master followed in pursuit, and I took advantage of his absence to make twenty-seven runs, before he returned with the ball ! 116 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. George Parr's hitting, especially to leg, was, I think, the most cheerful performance I ever saw with the bat. He went to play for his village at a country match, and there was a sort of panic among the little fishes in the presence of this Leviathan. George ventured on an impossible run, and was manifestly out. But when the question "How's that ? " was put to the umpire, his courage failed. He hesitated, and, turning to the batsman, said, " Now, Mestur Parr, you know a great deal more about these things than I do ; what should you say ? " " / should say, * Not out,' " was the reply. " And so say I, Mestur Parr," said the umpire. " Lads, get on with your gam'." There are other quaint records of country umpires. My son was captain for a time of an eleven in a mining district, and refreshed me at intervals with his reminiscences. One worthy old fellow remarked, in returning thanks at a supper for the toast of the umpires, " My opinion of an umpire is, that he should be fair, and I don't hold with no foul dealings. What I always says is, Fairation with" (after a short pause) "just a slight leaning towards your own side." And I do not suppose that you would find an umpire without this little bias more quickly than Diogenes with his lantern could find a perfectly honest man. In the same district it was solemnly decreed, at a general meeting of the club, that, though a certain umpire (I have his name, but must not reveal it) CRICKETERS. 117 " in ordinary fixtures gave general satisfaction, yet, taking into consideration the peculiarities of other umpires, he must be regarded as a little too fair for such important competitions as the Derbyshire and Wake Cups" And when one of these " other umpires " ex- emplified his peculiarities by giving a man "in," who certainly was so when the verdict was uttered, but not when the wicket went down, a voice came from a distant part of the field, " Mestur umpire, I don't want to have no unpleasantness with you, but if you come that little gam again, I shall just step in, and pull out your mustassios by the rewts." Within my own experience and neighbourhood, another umpire, in speaking after a match to the united elevens, made his confession thus : " Gentle- men, I think that the time has arrived in which I should offer you my hearty apologies for any prejudice which I may have shown in favour of local talent, and I confidently rely on your forgive- ness, because I am sure that you must have noticed in the second innings I treated my own side with undue severity, in order to make an average." He might have added, that when it was evident that his friends must win, he regulated his verdicts, so o that they should not win too easily. One more delectable incident. I must alter the names of the dramatis persona, but that will be the only fiction. Mr. Stumps, an umpire, has bad a quarrel with Mr. Batts, and on the morning of 118 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. a match, he addresses Mr. Bowles, sotto voce : " Mr, Bowles, that there Batts is going to play again you to-day, and if ever you says to me consarning that ruffian, * How's that ? ' I shall lose no time in telling you, ' You can chuck her up, Mr. Bowles? ' But the " out-and-I've-won-five-bob " umpire is now almost extinct, and the office of adjudication is entrusted to honest men, who love cricket too well to insult and spoil it. Their long white coats are somewhat unsightly to us elderly gentlemen, who resent innovations; but their resemblance to the apparel of the kennel huntsman may reconcile them to hunting men. I remain a member of several clubs, because it seems to me a duty to encourage, especially among boys and working men, this manly recreation. Next to my own county club (Nottinghamshire), the society which has given to me the greatest amount of personal pleasure is known as " The Free Foresters," and was founded by the Eev. W. K. Riland Bedford, to whom I have previously referred as an archer, Rector of Sutton Coldfield, and well known in the literary world as the author of " The Blazon of Episcopacy " (I asked him to supplement the arms of the bishops with the legs of the deans, but he has not complied), and other interesting books, in conjunction with his neighbours,, the Garnetts, of Moor Hall and Bone Hill. The latter were accomplished cricketers, and an eleven of their house and name played and defeated a first- CRICKETEES. 119 class team. This brotherhood of Foresters has included, and includes, the elite of the amateurs ; such bats as Mitchell and the Lytteltons, and such bowlers as Goodrich (the best slow bowler of his day) and David Buchanan, cum multis aliis. When I knew them best, and sometimes had the pleasure of offering them hospitality, they were the most delightful of guests. They gave you an admirable display of cricket by day, and at night, as merry as crickets on the hearth, the most charming music, glees and madrigals, and dear old English songs, such as I had not heard since the Orpheus Club sang, in the gardens of New College, during the commemoration week, " quam bonum est ! quam jucundum est ! Poculis fraternis gaudere ! " and the pocula fraterna were splendidly represented by the college silver goblets and cups. An accomplished cricketer related to me a very singular incident, which occurred during a match between the counties of Nottingham and Leicester. Before the game began, the captain of the latter eleven came to him, as being leader of the opposition, and inquired whether there would be any objection to their playing a young fellow, who was devotedly fond of cricket, but who unfortunately was suffering from mental derangement, and was an inmate of the asylum hard by. He was perfectly harmless and inoffensive, and often came to play with them, not 120 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. only with his doctor's permission, but at his special request. Assent was readily given, and about an hour before luncheon the invalid came on the ground. My friend was making an excellent score, and remained at the wicket until the bell rang. As he was walking back to his place, he was accosted by the new-comer, who was put on to bowl, "Allow me, sir, to say that 1 have been watching you with much interest, and I deeply regret, I can assure you " (he spoke with a sad and solemn earnestness), " that I must bowl you out" My friend, of course, cheerily replied that he should postpone such a consummation so long as it was in his power. The umpire gave the signal, the bowler uttered a sound, something between a who-op and a wail, and away flew the middle stump ! The batsman laughed aloud, but the bowler surveyed with a rueful counte- nance the ruin which he had wrought ; and with an audible lamentation, " So sorry ! " went back to his post. At eventide a bell rang from his melancholy home, and quietly and sadly he left the ground. The happiest, neatest, prettiest ban mot which I ever heard about cricket was said by Lord Winchilsea, at a dinner given to Lord Harris before his departure as Governor of Bombay : " It may be that, when the noble lord returns, the House of which he is a member, and which is now denounced by its enemies, may have ceased to exist ; but, be this as it may, I have full confidence that he will be permitted to play at Lord's" Meanwhile, there is every reason CB1CKETEES. 121 to hope that he will show in ruling a Presidency that power of keen observation, that insight as to the capacity of subordinates, which puts the right man into the right place, and won for him the high renown of being " the best captain of an eleven in England." The annals of cricket are so full of remarkable incidents, that memory is confused by their number, and only two or three seem to raise themselves above the multitude and demand notice. In the midland counties we have always believed in the famous one-innings match between Kegworth and a neigh- bouring village, which resulted as follows : Kegworth, 1 ; neighbouring village, 0. But as others may regard this contest as legendary, I will restrict myself to details of which there can be no doubt. In July, 1884, Newman, a professional, in a match between Wimborne and Poole, made all the runs from the bat the innings amounting to 27, of which 4 were " extras " ! About the same date, in a match between two London schools, St. Paul's and Highbury Park, St. Paul's scored 8, including 4 extras ; and T. H. Fawcett had the honour of carrying his bat through the innings for a score of 1 ! In 1885, July 13 and 14, at Chichester, Mr. T. S. Oarrick, in a match between the West of Scotland and the Chichester Priory Park Cricket Clubs, scored for the former 419 runs, not out. He was batting for two days, and his side made 745 for four wickets. 122 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Just one more abnormal performance, because I know the performer. Colonel Fellowes, of the Royal Engineers, scored 22 runs from an over, 4 balls, bowled by W. Gr. Grace ! The total would have been 24, but the last ball hit the wall of the pavilion, and came back into the field, making the result 6, 6, 6, 4 ! Should clergymen play at cricket ? Why not ? If I were a bishop, and a young priest asked me the question, I should at once give an affirmative answer, with these restrictions : Your cricket must never interrupt or abridge your duty. You should not leave your parish, unless you have a curate,, for a match of two or three days' duration, because fatal sickness may come suddenly, to the babe unbaptized, and to those who most desire or most need your help. You must be satisfied with the ordinary costume of clean white flannel (none so- becoming), arid not array yourself in gorgeous or fantastic raiment. You must despise the habit of " going in for a B and S," and let your moderation be known unto men in tobacco, as in all things else. When you have made a good innings, you will deserve your pipe. It is rarely given to a clergyman to effect a complete transformation of character upon the cricket-field, as it was to one, who is now very highly esteemed in love for his works' sake, as a suffragan bishop, but he may exercise a very health- ful influence. In the case to which I refer, the CRICKETEES. 123 parson, who frequently played cricket with his parishioners and neighbours, was surprised and grieved to notice that one of those who joined in. the game had a manifest dislike of his presence. The cause, whether some anti-clerical feeling, evoked by those agitators who tell working men that they are robbed and priest-ridden, or from some other prejudice, he never knew, but the aversion was obvious, and on one occasion was conspicuously displayed by the proprietor, who placed himself at the beginning of an over by the side, and within a few feet, of the ecclesiastic who was going to bat, and contemptuously replied to a remonstrance and warning of danger, " I'm not afraid of nothing as the likes of you can do to me." There came a loose half-volley to leg, and the batsman hit it with all his strength. His malignant adversary, anticipating results, fell just in time to the ground, or he would in all probability have been stretched there in woeful plight. He was a miner, and, shortly after this escape, he was very badly hurt by an accident in the mine. Then the clergyman, to his surprise, received an invitation to go and see him, and, after several visits, he had the curiosity to inquire the motives which had dispelled his antipathy. " Oh," said the miner, " that hit o' yourn to square leg for six converted me." This incident was a phenomenon ; nevertheless, the ordinary parson may win sympathies, and suggest reflections, quietly and unostentatiously, 124 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. which may be profitable alike to him who gives and him who takes. A good man, wherever he goes with a good purpose, will communicate good- ness ; for virtue, thank Heaven, is a thousand times more impressive for good than vice is infectious for evil. Clergymen must not be hermits, but rather in the world though not of it ; all things to all men, that they may save some. Great harm is done by their absence from those places and pastimes in which laymen see nothing immoral or religious, and the latter resent it, as suggesting the evil which they do not find. Moreover, it confirms the hurtful notion that the clergy are wanting in manliness, and is used as an argument by those who rejoice to disparage, and to denounce us as "a lot of old women." We may not go where men are drunken, and curse, and swear, and are profane and obscene, and love to speak all words that may do hurt ; where they lie and cheat, and defraud one another, and knaves are applauded for their cunning, and young men are robbed of their inheritance, and women who have lost " the shame, which is a glory and grace," are flattered and admired ; we must turn away with the sad regret that a sport, which might have given entertainment to all classes, should be thus degraded and defiled. But we may go, and ought to go, where men may renovate true manliness ; to the playgrounds where rich and poor, masters and servants, may forget the difference which divides CRICKETERS. 125 them elsewhere, and unite in their common admira- tion of excellence, which is independent of money and rank, and offers itself to the ambition of all earnest men. And there never was a time when kindly communion of the upper, middle, and lower classes (as they are termed) was of more serious importance than now. I may not leave this subject without offering humbly my tribute of praise to the great cricketers of our day ; without expressing the hope that the champion, who has " beaten the record " of all time, may continue to demonstrate how long and how well the man who takes care of himself may play cricket (" he who striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things "), and that all the famous chieftains who bowl and bat may maintain their ancient glory, and may teach Young England how to play the most manly, the most healthful, and the most interesting of all our games. Above all, I would tender, as a Nottinghamshire man, to Mr. Dixon and his decemviri my grateful admiration. And good luck to our Australian brothers! They have done us good. They have taught the old folks at home a few things which they did not know. They have made John Bull sit up, when he was becoming drowsy and obese, in the belief that he was omnipotent ; and they have proved, as Lord Shaftesbury said a wife would prove to the Pope, that he is not infallible. Moreover, such 126 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. intercourse is good for nations, as well as for classes ; and at a dinner which we gave to their eleven at Nottingham, it was pleasant to hear their expressions of affectionate regard for the dear old fatherland. " We always," my neighbour said to me, " we always call it home" Concerning other games, I know little of football, except that it is a brave and gallant diversion, and that I rejoice to see thousands of onr young men and boys enjoying it on a Saturday afternoon, instead of loafing about the streets, and boozing in the public-house. Of golf I know less, and am too old to learn. Lawn-tennis is a most precious invention (or rather restoration, for I was told by an archaeologist, who went with me to Pompeii, that something very like it was played there, two thousand years ago), social, invigorating, graceful ; and it has taken the place of a game croquet which was in every way inferior, and a sore trial to the equanimity of those, who suddenly found themselves expelled from honourable positions in society to the loneliness of some distant grove ! Court-tennis always seemed to me the most fascinating and scientific exercise ; but it is far too expensive and far too difficult to be accessible to the public. I saw Barr, the Frenchman, beat the marker in our Oxford court with a bootjack, and CRICKETERS. 127 make some marvellous returns with a ginger-beer bottle. He was a fat man, with little rapidity of action, but he seemed to know where every ball would finish its course, and was there to meet it on arrival. 128 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XL ECCLESIASTICS. Past and present Fifty years ago Zebah and Zalmunna The dawn of day The Oxford movement The foreigner's visit The American bishop. I REMEMBER a remark made by the late Bishop of London (Dr. Jackson), that when he recalled the sad condition of apathy, indolence, and disobedience into which the Church of England had fallen, it seemed marvellous to him that it continued to exist, that it should survive such manifest indications of debility and decay. I did not share in his surprise, believing that, as a branch of the true Yine, it may droop, but it cannot wither, and though it may bleed when it is pruned, whether by the merciful Hand which purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit, or by the sword of the oppressor, it can never die. Moreover, there was the remnant, the seed, the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the Baal of worldliness ; and He who said, " I will not destroy the city for ten's sake," in His wrath thinketh upon mercy. The Evangelicals, the Wesleyans, not then severed from the Church, ECCLESIASTICS. 129 and devout Christians in all grades of society, kept the lamp from going out in the temple of the Lord. The pulse of spiritual life was feeble, slow, inter- mittent, but it encouraged hope. And so, while I record the memories of my boyhood and youth, were it only to suggest or to strengthen the grati- tude which we owe for the revival of the faith, which worketh by love my recollections of neglect and degradation I remember also with a reverent regard those holy and humble men of heart who, few in number " the fewer men the greater share of honour" followed in quietness and confidence the steps of the Divine Master, and went about doing good, in schools and cottages, sick-rooms and mourners' homes, from that charity " which vaunteth not itself." In some cases a comparison between the past and the present is greatly in favour of the past. I speak that which I know, and testify that which I have seen, having associated all my life with rich and poor alike, when I affirm that there was far more unity and far less discontent a better feeling between masters and servants, employers and em- ployed. Servants were not tempted by bribes, nor by facilities of locomotion, to wander from place to place ; they remained in happy homes for long periods of mutual attachment, and there were no demagogues to suggest and organize distrust. I do not say that the disaffection and disunion which ensued were not provoked nor justified. I regard K 130 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. them, on the contrary, as the protest of right against wrong, as the fulfilment of the Divine warning, " Be sure your sin will find you out ; " a truth which was echoed by the philosopher when he said " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make whips to scourge." I know that we were living in the lull which pre- cedes the storm, and the big drops, which have been described as the tears of the tempest, weeping for the havoc it will make, began at long intervals to fall. I believe that the thunder-clouds then gather- ing on the horizon had never darkened day, if the Church had done her duty ; if her rich laity, her nobles, squires, and merchants, had been more thoughtful and more generous as to the spiritual and temporal condition of the people ; if the welfare of the mechanic and the labourer had been studied and promoted by Christian sympathy, instead of by politicians, fighting for place, and outbidding one another with promises to the electors of a benefi- cence which, if ever it be realized, will cost them personally nothing. If the subjects of education, dwellings, allotments, trades unions, labour and capital, had been dealt with in a religious, philan- thropic spirit, instead of being pressed upon Par- liament, and if that Parliament had never been, as Charles Dickens, who watched its proceedings for three and a half years, described it, a place in which Britannia was brought out night after night to tt \ ECCLESIA STICS. 131 be roasted, like a trussed fowl, skewered with office pens, and tied up with red tape ; a place in which he listened to promises which were not intended for fulfilment, and to explanations which only tended to mystify, which constrained him to declare with regard to patriotism, ' I am an infidel and shall never be converted;'" why, then there might have been confidence instead of suspicion, men of all ranks might have met each other in the streets with the smile of sympathy instead of with the scowl of aversion, and owners might have gone into factory and field, as Boaz went among his harvesters, with a " Lord be with you," and been answered with " The Lord bless thee." In addition to this larger concord, there were other advantages and immunities, fifty years ago. Though the Wesleyans were fast breaking away from the Church, losing their affection for a mother who made no effort to retain it, we had no deserters to Rome ; nor were we informed by professors and pedants that the Bible abounded in myths and mistakes ; that we must take their word for it, instead of listening to Him Who bids us " hear the Church," and must receive their hypercriticisms, their theories, and doubtful disputations, as though they were the edicts of an (Ecumenical Council, and in place of our ancient Creeds. Some have affirmed and all inherit from our first parents an evil instinct to transfer blame : Adam accused Eve, and Eve the serpent that the clergy were the cause of this sad 132 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. declension. They were, undoubtedly (with few exceptions, chiefly, as I have intimated, of the Evangelical school), indifferent to their duties, and unworthy of their high vocation. They did as little as decency compelled, and that but once in the week. They ate of the fat, and clothed themselves / with the wool, but they did not feed the flock. Nevertheless it must not be ignored by their accusers that the people loved to have it so. Populus vult decipi et decipiatur. It was as at Tyre, as with the people so with the priest, as with the servant so with his master, as with the maid so with her mistress. The parson could not prevent Lord Zebah and Squire Zalmunna from taking the houses of God in possession, from slumbering in their lofty quadrilateral forts. Had he lifted up his voice like a trumpet, and constrained them to hear a sermon, preached by Saint James, about rich men in gay clothing and poor men in vile, he would have been denounced at once as a Papist or a Methodist, and would have tasted the old port no more. Within twelve miles of my home, Zalmunna came regularly to church, followed by a footman, carrying a Prayer-book, which he reverently suspended by a silver chain round the neck of his master on his arrival in the family pew ! My first memory ecclesiastical is of a time in which we never saw or heard of our vicar days of pluralities and non-residence, suggestive of Lord ECCLESIASTICS. 133 Brougham's splendid enigma, " What makes treason reason and Ireland wretched ? " answer, " Absent T." It was then that a certain Vicar of Strood was induced by a laudable, abnormal magnanimity to leave the benefice, which he preferred in some distant county, and to visit the fold, which he had entrusted to one of his hirelings ; but he was so offended and repelled on his arrival by a nauseous odour, which came between the wind and his nobility from a basket of shrimps, held up as he passed through the street for his approval as a purchaser, and in process of swift decomposition, that he abandoned his benevolent intention, and sought the refuge of his sweeter home. Our curate, who lived five miles away, rode over for one dreary service on the Sunday, dined, and we saw him no more during the week. He was much occupied in the pursuit of the fox, which, it is charitable to suppose, he mistook for a wolf, and like a good shepherd was anxious to destroy. The service was literally a duet between the parson and the clerk, except when old John Manners, the bricklayer, gave the keynote for the hymn from his bassoon, a sound which might have been uttered by an elephant in distress, and we sang " turn my pi turn my pi turn my pious soul to Thee ; " or when the curate suddenly emerged from his surplice, which he placed on the side of his reading- pew, and appearing in his academical gown, went 134 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. up the " three-decker " to preach. The altar was represented by a small rickety deal table, with a scanty covering of faded and patched green baize y on which were placed the overcoat, hat, and riding- vvhip of the officiating minister, who made a vestry within the sacrarium, and, sitting there in a huge surplice, had a conversation with the sexton before the service began, and looked as though he were about to have his hair cut. The font was filled with coffin-ropes, tinder-box, and brimstone matches, candle-ends, etc. It was never used for baptism, Zebah and Zalmunna would not have countenanced such an unseemly interruption of the service. Sparrows twittered, and bats floated, beneath the rotten timbers of the roof, while beetles and moths, and all manner of flies, found happy homes below. The damp walls represented in fresco " a green and yellow melancholy," which had a depressing influence upon the spirit, and the darkest and most dismal building of the parish was that called the House of God. We had, I remember, a supplemental service at home on the Sunday, which I am sure was good for us, although we derived no benefit from the intro- duction of Blair's sermons, of which we children understood not a single sentence, and in which it is difficult to find any reference to the Christian faith. They only impressed me as being beautifully bound, in calf with gilt edges, and as being printed in large clear type. Perhaps, as the first day of the week ECCLESIASTICS. 135 was then regarded as the gloomiest of all, and no notice was taken of the Church's directions as to "days of fasting and abstinence," these sermons were inflicted as penance. If so, they fulfilled their purpose ; but I should say that, as a Lenten exercise, a course of Blair would be too severe for ordinary patients. At last, the morning star, which announced the advent of a brighter day, shone through the darkness ; and it is interesting to recall how gradually that gracious light broke upon the dreary scene. As when some beautiful picture, which has been concealed and forgotten, removed in time of battle, lest it should be destroyed by the enemy, is found after many years, and is carefully cleansed and skilfully restored, and the eye is delighted with the successive development of colour and of form, and the lifelike countenance, the historical scene, the sunny landscape, or the moonlit sea come out once more upon the canvas ; so in that great revival of religion, which began in England more than half a century ago, the glorious truths of the gospel, the ancient verities of the Catholic faith, were restored to a disobedient and gainsaying people, who had forgotten or slighted them so long. They were with us in our Bibles, in our Prayer-books, in our Sacraments, and means of grace, but they were hidden from our eyes, like the colours of the picture, by the dust of a long neglect. 136 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Or as when, after some sad, restless night of pain, of feverish vision, and of fearful dream, joy cometh in the morning, and the sun shines upon a world " By suffering worn and weary, Yet beautiful as some fair angel still; " so with the awaking of our religious life from that sleep, which seemed like death. The first agents employed in this work of restoration, the first promoters of " The Oxford Movement," invited and secured, through the press and from the pulpit, the consideration of their readers and hearers, as they appealed to the Holy Scriptures, to the Prayer-book, to the ancient Fathers, and to primitive practice, in their expositions of our privileges and of our duties as members of the English Church. They reminded us, and proved to us, that this Church was no modern establishment, devised by human prudence and depending upon secular support, but that it was founded in Apostolic times, or shortly after the decease of the Apostles, by those whom they had ordained ; that it was here when Augustine came to exalt and extend it ; and that in later days, having, like the Church of Ephesus, lost its first love, and remembering from whence it was fallen, it had been reclaimed and reformed ; that our bishops, though statesmen had the power to commend, and kings, to command, their appointment, derived their dignity and power from consecration and the imposition of hands ; and ECCLESIASTICS. 137 that our clergy, however unworthy, were royal ambassadors, entrusted with messages of pardon, and with the benedictions of peace. They taught us, at the same time, that these privileges were worthless, unless we proved our appreciation ; that it was vain, and worse than vain, to have the most excellent form of godliness on our lips, if in our lives we denied the power of it ; and that they only, who receive the seed into an honest and good heart, can bring forth fruit with patience. These soldiers were the pioneers, the advanced guard, of a victorious army, marching to the relief of a beleaguered citadel and of famished men, and they wrought a great deliverance. Ere they came, a foreigner visited this country and wrote a record of the impressions which it made upon him. After praising its scenery, valleys and hills and streams, its woods and cornfields, gardens and orchards, its wealth and industry, its great discoveries in science, its achievements in art and in arms, he goes on to say, " But most impressive, at first sight, to me was the sight, not only in cities and in towns, but in every village, of the church tower or spire, rising over the roofs and the trees, and hard by the pastor's peaceful home. Surely, I thought, we have here, not only a prosperous, intellectual, energetic, brave, and accomplished people, but they are devout and religious also. Imagine then my disappointment when, as I drew near, I found the graveyards were uncared for, the tombstones broken, defaced, defiled, 138 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the church doors barred and locked, and when I obtained admission, for which I was manifestly expected to pay, I looked on desolation and decay, comfortable apartments for the rich, with cushions and carpets, bare benches for the poor; and was told that the church was only used once in the week, and that the chief shepherd resided a hundred miles from his sheep ! " How great would be his surprise of joy could he return to us now ! His utterance of sad reproach would be exchanged for some such words as those which were spoken, when the first influence of this reaction was felt throughout the land, by an American bishop, George Doane of New Jersey. Preaching in the parish church at Leeds, he said, " Brethren, right reverend, reverend, and beloved, it is written in the records of the Older Testament^ that when the Ark of God was on its way to Zion,. it rested for three months in the house of Obed- Edom, ' and it was told King David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the Ark of God ; ' and as I have gone from scene to scene of varied beauty in this the most favoured land of all the world, as I have contemplated your prosperous industry, and enjoyed the hospitality of your happy, peaceful homes, and have remembered that over every sea floats the Red Cross of Saint George, and that on the limits of your Empire the sun never sets, I have asked myself, Whence to this little island,. ECCLESIASTICS. 139 whence to Britain, once unknown to the civilized world, this glory and this power ? And the answer which has come to me instinctively is this : * The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the House of Grod.' Yes, brethren, the power and glory of England comes from her pure and ancient Chris- tianity. And the armament which guards her shores is the fleet which bears to distant lands her missionary zeal." 140 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XII. ECCLESIASTICS Continued. Personal recollections Dignitaries Archbishop Vernon Har- court Bishops Kaye and Jackson Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington. MY own parochial experience of this great trans- formation and renewal reminds me of its progress from small beginnings. A new curate came to reside within three miles of our church ; the next, within two ; his successor actually in the parish, though at the extreme boundary ; and then the appointment was given to me residing in my old home, not two minutes' walk from the church. Since that time a new school and vicarage have been built, " the House of God set in its state," the daily service and weekly Communion restored. And this may be said generally of the parishes throughout the land. As a rule, there is a resident and earnest clergyman, and a restored church ; the children are taught, the sick are visited, the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and the worship is frequent and sincere. My first recollection of dignitaries is of Arch- bishop Harcourt Yernon, who confirmed me at ECCLESIASTICS. 141 Newark a tall, aristocratic man in a wig, which became him well. There was in those days a scant administration and a large abuse of this Apostolic ordinance. Seldom offered, and only in cities and towns, the ceremony was attended by crowds from the surrounding districts, who came with little or no preparation, behaved with much irreverence and levity within the church, and outside as though at a fair. From a parish adjoining my own the candi- dates went in a waggon, and gave a fiddler half a crown to play them merry tunes on their journey ! Then came Bishop Kaye, who ordained me deacon and priest, ever to be remembered by those who had the privilege of knowing him, with admira- tion of his learning and veneration of his character. Spiritual and intellectual beauty made sunshine on his countenance, and " On his lips perpetually did reign The summer calm of golden charity." He had, as I afterwards discovered from converse with others, an invariable system of dealing with those whom he examined personally for Holy Orders. He took an exact measurement of each before he let him go. He led us by the hand into shallow waters, and onward until we were out of our depth ; and then, giving us one plunge overhead, he brought us gently and lovingly ashore. The process commenced, on my first interview, with easy passages from the Greek Gospels, and I was congratulating myself on the serenity and security around, when I found the 142 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. waters rising rapidly, as I made mistakes in my translation of the shipwreck in the Acts, and finally lost my foothold and my Greek in the Epistles, as huge billows, lingual and doctrinal, surged and roared overhead. Then I grasped the outstretched hand of his sympathy, and heard, as I reached the land, that he was fully satisfied. Nevertheless, there was not then the anxious forethought, the preliminary training, which are now bestowed upon those who are candidates for the diaconate and the priesthood. Too many young men were attracted by the leisure which seemed to accompany the life of a clergyman, and to a profession which brought ready admission into what is called good society. Some were to have rich livings by purchase, and some through family ties. There were none of those admirable training colleges to which the young graduate can now go for special instruction relating to the ministerial office, nor do I remember an instance of that reception in the house of the bishop, or in other congenial homes, which is now as general as it is wise and helpful. In my day we went to the hotels. A singular incident occurred during a confirma- tion held by Bishop Kaye at Newark. A boy named Hage, from the neighbouring village of Balderton, looked so much younger than his years, as to have quite a childish appearance, and the bishop, as he approached for the imposition of hands, ECCLESIASTICS. 143 paused and inquired, " My boy, what age are you ? " He was immediately answered, "Please, sir, Hage o' Balderton." Then his pastor came forward and explained. Bishop Kaye was succeeded by Bishop Jackson, a loving servant of his Divine Master, an earnest preacher of practical religion, fervent in spirit, energetic in the duties of his office, so much es- teemed for his sermons when Rector of St. James', Piccadilly, that both the leaders in Parliament were members of his congregation, and were alike de- sirous to offer him a bishopric. He told me that one morning, when he was preaching in the Chapel Royal of St. James', he was much perplexed by the conduct of a verger, who, at the close of the sermon, opened the door of the pulpit, and just as the preacher was about to step through, suddenly closed it with all his force, and with a noise which rang through the building. " I looked at him for an explanation," the bishop continued, " and he informed me in a whisper that his Grace the Duke of Wellington was asleep, and that, not liking to touch him, they adopted this method of rousing him from his slumbers." There was no necessity to repeat the bombardment, as " that good grey head, which all men knew," was no longer nodding. We all like to be reminded of our Great Duke " The hero of a hundred fights, Who never lost an English gun," 144 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. and I may therefore record some characteristic words of his, repeated to me by one who heard them, Dr. Blakesley, Dean of Lincoln. " I've just come from Buxton," he said. " I haven't been there since I was quite a youngster ever so many years ago but the man at the inn knew me again ! " He had the modesty which forgets its own greatness, and I quite believe in his meeting the lady who was going up the steps to see the model of Waterloo as he came down them, and in his saying, " Ah, you're going to see Waterloo. It's very good, very good indeed I was there, you know." He left behind him three memorable sentences, which we ecclesiastics should quote continually to those who revere his memory and confide in his common sense. He said " that education without religion would surround us with clever devils ; " and our prison records will testify to the truth of his prophecy. He said to one who pushed aside a poor man who was going up before him to the altar, and bade him " make way for his Grace the Duke of Wellington," "Not so we are all equal here." And when a young clergyman was speaking in disparagement of foreign missions, he rebuked him with, " Sir, you forget your marching orders, ' Gro ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' " Bishop Jackson suffered much from depressing headaches, but when in health he was always genial, sometimes humorous. He said that the preben- ECCLESIASTICS. 145 daries of his cathedral, being deprived of their prebenda, had " stalls without a manger ; " and this remark suggests the clever epithet applied to them of " Rifled Canons," and an amusing story told of one of their brotherhood. Under the old regime, when cannons were some- times removed from their places on board a man- of-war for the sake of accommodation, they were replaced by short wooden dummies, which looked externally just like the real thing, but occupied much less room. A naval officer, who had taken offence at something which had been said at a dinner-party by a clergyman who had just been made an honorary canon, and who was somewhat autocratic, resolved to be avenged. He invited the whole party to inspect his ship next day, and when inquiry was made as to the use of one of these sham substitutes, which he had placed in a conspicuous position to attract notice, he replied, in a tone which all could hear, " Ok, that wooden thing f It's only a dummy a sort of honorary cannon ! " One more explosion, but only from a minor canon. His temper was not always in harmony with his music, and he was afflicted bv sullen moods, v which made him impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, sudden and quick in quarrel, resentful of any interference. A sick man had been prayed for twice daily in his cathedral during several weeks, and when the constant repetition of his name became somewhat monotonous, the canon in residence, from L 146 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. whom I received the story, politely suggested that the words " for a sick person " should be substituted for the name of the invalid. The request received a brief ungracious assent ; and at the next service, and just before the Prayer for All Conditions of Men, the minor canon announced in a tone of surly in- dignation, " The prayers of the Church are desired for a person whom I'm not at liberty to mention" Bishop Jackson much enjoyed " a doubtful com- pliment," which was paid to him by the young curate of the parish in which he lived, who was much attached to him, and said to him one day in conversation, " I can assure you, my lord, that my rector is such an exceptionally good man, and his wife is such an exceedingly good woman, and they are in every respect so infinitely my superiors, that, if it weren't for your lordship and Mrs. Jackson, I should feel quite uncomfortable." ( 147 ) CHAPTER XIII. ECCLESIASTICS Continued. Bishop Christopher Wordsworth His appointment to Lincoln His spiritual, intellectual, and bodily excellence His eirenicon to the Wesleyans, and his anxiety to promote reunion The " Old Catholics " The Greek archbishop Strange incidents in connection with almsgiving " Theo- philus Anglicanus " The last message. BISHOP JACKSON was succeeded by Dr. Chris- topher Wordsworth, Archdeacon of Westminster. The late Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Magee, after- wards Archbishop of York, said to me, " I was never in Bishop Wordsworth's society without feel- ing better from the interview." And it was im- possible to know a man so saintly, so learned, and so kind, without a reverent and loving affection. There was a remarkable coincidence in the circum- stances of his appointment. Having to preach in the Abbey at Westminster, I was staying with my old Oxford friend, Canon Prothero, in the house which had been occupied by Archdeacon Words- worth, and having occasion to write to him I re- ferred to the fact. He told me in his reply that in the room from which I wrote, close to the place of St. Hugh's consecration, he had received, on St. 148 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Hugh's Day, the offer of the bishopric once held by " St. Hugh of Lincoln." His " praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine," but none could honour him more. Eight worthy of the beautiful name of Christopher, he evoked and exalted Christian sym- pathies wherever he was, and men " took notice of him, as of the Apostle, that he had been with his Divine Master." He spoke eloquently and instruc- tively on all subjects, even as King Solomon spake of trees, " from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall," and would descend from the heights of theology, or the classical slopes of Parnassus, to the humble abodes of the valley or the playgrounds of the school. " I have learned more," he said, " in sick-rooms, and from poor and simple folks, than from all the books which I have read." He left his library once, I remember, when the lake was frozen at Riseholme, and, putting on his skates, astonished and delighted the spectators. He never forgot the days when he played in the eleven of his school, or the match in which " Manning, caught Wordsworth, 0," seemed to intimate that the first of the two did not always play with a straight bat. He sympathized with all sports, games, and recreations which were manly and free from vice, and which could be enjoyed without dereliction of duty or unwise expense. When he was told that the wife of one of his canons had been driving tandem in a sleigh over the snow, his commentary was not at all in accord- ECCLESIASTICS. 149 ance with the anticipation and hope of the individual who laid the information : " I should greatly have enjoyed the drive ! " He had the courage of his opinions, and swerved neither to the right hand nor to the left, when he believed that he was on the way of righteousness, however rough and steep. He disputed the presen- tation to a living which seemed to him to be illegal, and the lawsuit which ensued, and ended in a verdict against him, cost him nine hundred pounds. The clergy of his diocese subscribed and sent a cheque for the amount, for which he expressed his gratitude, and his hope that he might be allowed to expend the money on the restoration of the Old Palace at Lincoln. Some criticized his " Eirenicon to the Wes- leyans," as an .imprudent interference, which would only widen the gulf between that community and the Church ; but the result was that " he received," to quote his own words, " more applications from Wesleyan ministers for admission into Holy Orders than he could possibly entertain." " This morning," he writes to me in one of his letters, " I have three communications on the subject." He had a great yearning for the reunion of Christendom, that all who profess and call them- selves Christians might hold the Faith, as the Founder prayed, in unity of spirit.* The Archbishop * He took a deep interest and a prominent part in the " Old Catholic" movement, and iii the year 1872 attended the Con- 150 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. of Syra and Temos was his guest at Riseholme, and on the occasion of a great Church function, in St. Mary's at Nottingham, I was honoured with an introduction. He spoke to me very kindly, but no chorus in the " Agamemnon " of ^Eschylus had ever perplexed me more than his Grace's modern G-reek, and when I rejoined my friends, and was eagerly questioned as to the subject of conversation, I could only say, with the minor canon, that I was not at liberty to mention it. At the luncheon, which fol- lowed, the bishop proposed the archbishop's health, and the latter responded in modern Greek, and the physiognomy of the listeners was a study some trying, some, I fear, affecting, to understand, and some assuming an expression of honest ignorance and hopeless stupidity, which was not encouraging to the speakers. Many curious incidents are narrated having reference to the giving of alms. How Lady Cork was so impressed by a sermon, soliciting pecuniary help, that she borrowed a sovereign from Sydney Smith, who sat next to her, but could not make up her mind to put it into the plate, or to repay Sydney. How a certain quaint canon in a northern diocese was playing billiards in a country house, and having " lost a life " at pool, produced payment in the form of two threepenny bits, and when an exuberant youth exclaimed, " Oh, canon, you've gress at Cologne, and addressed the members in a powerful Latin oration. ECCLESIASTICS. 151 got to the offertory," effectually silenced his critic with the rejoinder, " You recognize your miserable contributions, do you f " And there is the authentic history of the lady, or rather of the female disguised as a lady, who came into the vestry after a collection, and asked that a sovereign, which she had put in the alms-bag, mistaking it for a shilling, might be returned to her ; and all doubt as to the course to be pursued was dispelled from the minds of the churchwardens by the absence of the coin, which the claimant hoped would be there. But all these (even were we to include the gentleman, not gene- rous, feeling the rim of his offering, lest he should give a fourpenny instead of a threepenny piece, and singing the while " Were the whole realm of Nature mine, That were an offering far too small ") all these pale their ineffectual fire in the splendour of an incident, which occurred during the episcopate of Bishop Wordsworth, and at the consecration of a church in his diocese. There was a very large congregation, and the rector, seeing that there was only one alms-dish, made signs to a rustic from the chancel entrance to come to him, and bade him go into the rectory garden, through a glass door into the dining-room, where there had been a slight refection before the service, bring a dish from the table, take it down one side of the north aisle, and up the other, and then bring it to the clergyman at the place from which he started. The rustic dis- 152 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. appeared, reappeared with the dish, took it, as he was ordered, and presented it to the people on either side of the aisle, and then, approaching the rector, whispered in his ear, " I've done as yer told me, sir. I've taken it down yon side the aisle, and up t'other they'll none on 'em 'ave any." No order had been given to empty the dish, and it was full of biscuits ! No incident in our Comic Ecclesiastical History excites my admiration more than that which I have told ; but America in this, as in all things else, challenges our precedence, and I must meekly acknowledge that the occurrence, certified to me by Dean Hart of Denver as an actual fact, substantiates her claim. " We have a certain parson," he writes, giving the name, " whom we keep on the frontier. He is a rough diamond, and has a knack with the miners. Not long ago, he went to a camp called Eico, borrowed the dance hall over the saloon for his service, 'rounded up his boys,' and the hall was filled. After the sermon came the collection, a very important feature. The preacher ran his eye over his audience, and selecting a certain ' tin-horn ' gambler, known as ' Billy the Kid,' ' Billy,' he said, ' take up the collection.' Very much honoured, Billy took his big sombrero hat, and with an impor- tant and dignified air, as was fitting for the occasion, he made his way to the front, and held his hat for a young man on the foremost chair to 'donate.' The young miner dropped in a quarter (Is.). Billy looked at it, then, putting his hand under his ECCLESIASTICS. 153 coat-tails, drew his revolver, ' clicked ' it at the donor, and said, with the utmost gravity, ' Young man, take that back ; this here's a dollar show/ Then, with his hat and revolver, moving round the hall, he got as many dollars as there were people." One more curious incident from the States. An American bishop, whose praise is in the Churches, told me that a collector in a church in San Francisco, on receiving a shake of the head instead of a dollar from the hand of one whom he knew intimately, stopped to remonstrate, arid said, "William, you must give something. You've heard what the rector has said it's your duty." " My money belongs to my creditors," said William. " And who is your greatest creditor ? To whom do you owe the most ? " asked the collector. " Well, that's very true," replied William; "but just now He's not crowding me quite so much as the others." The Church of England never had a braver champion nor a more loyal son than Christopher, Bishop of Lincoln. No book had so great an influ- ence in its day upon young men, at our public schools and universities, and upon candidates for Holy Orders, to convince them of the Divine insti- tution of their Church, and of their privileges and duties as Churchmen, as the manual entitled " Theo- philus Anglicanus." With good will and kind words for all, he never accommodated his creed to his company, or sacrificed truth to peace. While with the charity which hopeth all things, he dare 154 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. not limit the Holy One of Israel, yet, knowing the terrors of his Lord, he would persuade men to flee from the wrath to come. When he prayed to be delivered from false doctrine, heresy, and schism, he believed in their existence, for he saw them around him, and knew that they were perilous to souls. He asked from others the obedience which he always rendered to the rules of the Church. He thought that the " Ornaments Rubric " meant what it said, and that it was lawful, though it might not be expedient, to wear the special vestments in use throughout Christendom at our highest act of worship. But he was equally opposed to additions as to subtractions. He generously encouraged the building and beautifying of churches, he was the advocate of frequent and reverent services, but he disdained the curtsyings, and osculations, and tinkling cymbals introduced from Rome, as much as he disliked the chill indifference of those who sat to pray, and only cared for the preaching of tenets which emanated from Geneva. He was neither papist nor puritan, but one who believed in his heart that " before all things it was necessary to hold the Catholic faith." Not long before he died, he sent me this message: " Tell him, who is so fond of flowers, that no bed in the Garden of the Soul is so beautiful as the bed of sickness and of death, on which the penitent seems to be in the presence of the Gardener and to have a prevision of the flowers, and a foretaste EC OLE SI A STICS. 155 of the fruits, of Paradise. Tell him that these thoughts may give him a subject for a sermon." I never forgot his words, and waited for the oppor- tunity to preach, as he proposed. It came in an invitation from his successor in the archdeaconry of Westminster to speak from the pulpit, which he so often occupied, in aid of a society, which he had instituted some fifty years ago, for the spiritual welfare of the district in which he lived. Then I endeavoured to develop the analogy which he had suggested to contrast the soul, which is a watered garden, with that which is as a barren and dry land where no water is, the flowers and fruits of holiness with the cruel thorns and poisonous weeds of sin ; and I essayed to show how every man may " make the desert smile," not only in his own heart and home, but in the abodes of ignorance and poverty and sin. Abiit, obiit I would fain say, as I pray, prceivit. Dr. Hammond's epitaph might be inscribed over his grave " Nihil eo excelsius erat, aut huuiilius, Sibi uni non placuit, Qui, tarn calamo quam vita, Humano generi complacuerat." 156 THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XIV. ECCLESIASTICS Continued. Bishop King The power of charity Archbishop Tait American and Scotch bishops Pusey, Newman, and Keble The Oxford revival Indiscretion. HE was succeeded by another episcopus episcopo- rum, Bishop King. And here I would say of our bishops generally, from the long and large ex- perience of one who has been permitted to do some work for his Master in almost every diocese, not only in England, but in Scotland and in Wales, that all Churchmen should render hearty thanks to that great Shepherd of the sheep who has sent such loving, learned, and laborious men to take the over- sight of His flock ; and though I may not say much that I should like to say, personally, I may console myself by relating incidents with which they were connected, which have gone into circulation, and have become, as it were, public property. I begin with an interview between the prelate whom I just now named and a deputation of aggrieved parishioners, who went from a neighbour- ing village to Lincoln, to lay their grievance before him. Being questioned on their return as to the ECCLESIASTICS. 157 result of their appeal, they seemed much perplexed and confused, and there was some hesitation before Mercurius, the chief speaker, delivered his report of the meeting : '* We went to see the bishop, and he came out to meet us in his purple dressing-gown, and seemed so pleased to see us ; and said he was just going to have his lunch, and hoped that we would join him ; and we sat down, and he smiled and talked, and told us to come again, and behaved himself so gracious, that we would not find in our hearts to bring in anything unpleasant." This triumph of charity, so honourable to all who won it, brings to my memory another meeting between Archbishop Tait and a shrewd layman, very characteristic of both. A passenger entered the railway carriage, in which I was travelling, with a bit of blue ribbon on the breast of his coat, and said benignly, after surveying my person, " A Catholic priest, I presume ? " " Yes," I replied, " I am a Catholic priest, of the English, not the Roman Church." He then inquired whether I objected to conversation, and being assured that I liked it, he told me that he was a Nonconformist teetotaler, and went about giving lectures. Being myself much engaged in the latter business, we made it our chief topic, and we were unanimous in our protest against an annoyance of which we both had experience, and which is caused by chairmen and others, who have been reading up the subject, " rising to say a few words of introduction " of the 158 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. lecturer and anticipating some of his best points, statistics, and illustrations. I told him the story of the loquacious squire and the garrulous rector, who, by their preliminary speeches, occupied nearly all the time which had been allotted to a lecture in the village where they lived. The lecturer spoke for some twenty minutes, and then, looking at his watch, he said, " Ladies and gentleman, I must now leave that I may catch my train, but I will ask your per- mission before I depart to suggest for your considera- tion an occurrence which took place on board a small American vessel. The captain, the mate, and a passenger dined together, and upon the occasion of a roly-poly pudding being placed on the table, the captain inquired from his guest, 'Stranger, do you like ends ? ' and receiving a negative answer, went on to say, ' Oh, don't yer ? Me and the mate does ; ' and he cut the pudding in two, giving one end to the mate and appropriating the other." My companion said it was a good story, but he could tell me a better, in which he himself was the sufferer and the avenger. " I was invited," he said, " to speak about total abstinence at a mixed meeting, and, being nobody in particular, I was placed last on the list. Worse than this, the chair- man introduced a lot of other speakers, and the whole audience were sick and tired, when he in- formed them that Mr. Bailey would now give his address. And I rose and said, 'My address is ECCLESIA S TICS. 159 45, Loughborough Park, Brixton Road, and I wish. / you all good night.' ' Then in the course of our conversation he told me of the interview to which I referred. He was working as a turner in Lambeth parish, when a servant came from the Palace with a note, inviting him to see the archbishop, who was anxious to obtain some information from him. " I was engaged in some important work," he continued, " which had just come in, and I sent my respects to his Grace, informing him that I could not spare the time to come. The same day, he came down to my work- shop, and stood for a couple of hours beside my lathe, until he had heard all I could tell him con- cerning the good works in which he was engaged. Then he thanked me, and asked, ' Is there anything I can do for you ? ' ' Well, your Grace,' I replied, ' we are giving a tea to our Eagged School next week, and our funds are very low.' ' What shall I give ? ' he said. I asked for a sovereign, and he said, ' Take two,' putting them on the bench close by. Then I remarked, ' Mrs. Tait, perhaps, would like to subscribe ; ' and he answered, ' I am sure she would,' and he laid down another sovereign. Then I thought, ' I may not have another visit from an archbishop ; I must make the most of the occasion,' and I said, 'There's dear Miss Tait; we must not leave her out in the cold!' and he took out his purse and added half a sovereign more." There is another story of an American captain 160 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. (which was told to me by the Bishop of Minnesota, and may therefore be included in my episcopal anecdotage), who reproved one of his passengers for beginning his breakfast on Friday, a day which the captain rightly observed as a day of abstinence, with a huge beefsteak. The beef-eater was silent, but he was on the watch for his time of retaliation, and all things come to him that waits. That same morning something went wrong on deck ; the captain lost his temper, and, like the Scotchman, who went into the middle of the street and swore, at last he used words vile and profane. Then the passenger drew near and addressed him, " I guess, captain, that if you'd eat a little more and cuss a little less, you'd be much nigher the kingdom." The bishop has delicious records of Indian sagacity how the shrewd old chief, with the quickest insight into character and intention, will listen with an expression of the most solemn gravity and intense interest to some proposal which is designed to deceive and cheat him, and will suddenly, and in some quaint, unexpected manner, make it known to all that the fish sees the hook in the gaudy fly, and flaps his tail at the angler on the bank ; that the days are gone, departed never to return, when lands, and ivories, and skins were to be had in exchange for glass beads, padlocks, and " Turkey reds." ,, A pious fraud, desiring to revive these ancient negotiations, was endeavouring to make a favour- ECCLESIASTICS. 161 able impression upon a tribe of Indians by assuring them that he had lived such an unblemished life that he should not know how to cheat. " The winds of sixty winters," he said, " have passed over my head and left this snow upon it, but never from my childhood have I done a dishonest deed." Then, after a pause, the chief arose and said, " The winds of sixty winters have likewise turned the little hair I have to grey, but they have not blown out my brains" And when another visitor, also in search of advantageous contracts, came to them in a military uniform, and informed them that the Great Father (the President), knowing their valour in battle, had selected him from his warriors, as being most worthy to hold intercourse with them, another chief drew near, with a look of delighted, reverent admiration on his face, and said, " All my life I have longed, and hoped, and prayed that I might be permitted to see the white man in his war-paint, and now " (walking slowly round the object of his worship, a short, fat man in clothes which did not fit) "now" (sitting down with a sigh of blissful satiety, after one last fond look)" now, I am ready to die" Before I leave the States, my memory suggests that I should pass from lively to severe, and should chronicle an impressive incident impressive as a proof that the seed which is sown in faith, and received in an honest and good heart, never fails M 162 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. to germinate, and that, where intentions are pure and earnest, the reward is sure related to me by the Bishop of Albany. His father, the eloquent and beloved Bishop of New Jersey, whose words I have quoted,* was staying with Dr. Hook at Leeds, and preached one Sunday, in the grand old parish church, a sermon upon Baptism, in which he pleaded with those who had not been baptized to prepare themselves at once, and to receive the Sacrament, as being necessary to salvation, wherever it might be had. Dr. Hook thanked the bishop after the service for his excellent sermon, but deemed it only due to his congregation to add that, so far as he knew, they were all baptized. The bishop expressed his great regret that, under the impression that in Leeds, as in the place from which he came, large numbers were unbaptized, he had chosen this theme for his discourse. Some months after he had crossed the Atlantic, a young man came to Dr. Hook, and told him that, walking through the streets, he had seen an announcement of a sermon from the Bishop of New Jersey. He had at that time no religious convictions, and had never been taught the Christian faith; but he '^thought he would see what a Yankee bishop was like," and went accordingly to hear him preach. He was so impressed by the sermon, that it became his dominant and most anxious thought; and he sought counsel and instruction, not only from * Page 138. ECCLESIASTICS. 163 human wisdom, but from Him who is always merciful to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. He was baptized, confirmed, and came now, as a com- municant, to ask Dr. Hook what assistance he could render in any branch of his work. Of the Scotch bishops who have left us, two, Alexander, Bishop of Brechin, and George, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, were my dear friends. Forbes was with me at Brasenose, and was a delightful companion. No man could have more solemn con- victions, or a more reverent spirit, but the sunlit, silvery waves of his humour danced and gleamed above the depths. George Mackarness, like his brother, " Honest John," Bishop of Oxford, was beloved by all who knew him. Upright in mind as in mien, the kind- ness of his heart shone in his handsome face. Mine was, I think, the last house he visited, before he went to Brighton, where he died from cancer of the tongue a fearful disease, but as his day so was his strength ; a few lines written in pencil, shortly before he died, assured me of his perfect resignation, and of his bright and certain hope. Why was St. Andrew selected to be the patron saint of Scotland ? This question has exercised the clerical and lay curiosity, but has not been satis- factorily answered, unless the explanation, offered by the Archdeacon of Calcutta at a dinner which 164 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. he attended on St. Andrew's Day, be confirmed as final, a consummation which we can hardly anti- cipate, though the archidiaconal conjecture was received with unanimous, nay more, hilarious, applause. " Gentlemen," he said, " I have given this difficult subject my thoughtful consideration, and I have come to the conclusion that St. Andrew was chosen to be the patron saint of Scotland because he discovered the lad who had the loaves and jishes!" Passing from the prelates to a lower grade of the priesthood, I was greatly impressed as an under- graduate by Dr. Pusey's preaching, as afterwards by his published writings, by his saintly life, and his loyal love, faithful unto death, for the Church, in which he received from those in authority so much opposition and distrust. His manner was in itself a sermon, and he went up to preach with a manifest humility, which no hypocrite could assume, and no actor could copy. Newman was a far more attractive preacher. There was such a pathetic tone in his utterance, of that which the French describe as "tears in the voice," such a tender appeal of plaintive sweetness, that I remember to this day the first words of the first sermon I heard from his lips " Sheep are defenceless creatures, wolves are strong and fierce." But I fail to comprehend, regarding the matter in the light of consistency and common sense, why it was proposed that a statue of Cardinal ECCLESIASTICS. 165 Newman should occupy the best site in Oxford ; why the representation of a deserter should be set up in a barrack-yard of the Church Militant, as a ; model for the young recruits ! I can understand the gratitude and respect which built a college in honour of Keble, and a " house " in remembrance of Pusey ; I can under- stand the Roman Catholics delighting to honour their illustrious proselyte ; but the exaltation by English Churchmen of a man who forsook and denounced them, while they ignore the claims of her own champions, saints, and scholars, who have fought her battles and died in her ranks, is to me a mystery. The revival of faith, and therefore of life, in the Church of England may be regarded in three phases, divided into three epochs. (1) It was, first of all, as I have endeavoured to show, a restoration of doctrine, as taught by the Church in her Prayer- book, with an appeal to history as to her right to teach. (2) It was then manifested in the restoration of churches, and of a more dignified and frequent worship ; and (3) it has now reached the supreme height of its ascension, and is exercised by the noblest of all ambitions, to seek that which was lost, to bring back that which was driven away, to bind up that which was broken, and to strengthen that which was sick to obey the Divine injunction, " Go out into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, 166 THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. and the blind. Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in." The shepherds have filled up the gaps in their fences and rebuilt the breaches of their walls in vain, if they do not seek and find the sheep which have wandered from the fold. They will not come until they hear the shepherd's voice how can they hear without a preacher ? Paul preached in the market-place and on Mars' Hill, as well as in the synagogue. If we would have " the common people," 6 TTO\V S'dei KpareLv, " Make up your mind to win, but always honestly." I am aware that the exhibitor may occasionally 252 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. make a fool of himself " We are the sons of women, Master Page," and I have seen a competitor of the highest respectability tear a card in pieces on which he read, " Second Prize." There was no doubt with the unprejudiced as to the justice of the award, but his vision was distorted, and his temper followed in its track. Sometimes an exhibitor has come to me in my judicial capacity, with a pallid countenance and quivering lip, to inquire, in the calmest tone at his disposal, whether I would be so kind as to inform him why Mr. Black was honoured with the first prize for a lot of old rubbish which had all but gone out of cultivation, whereas he, Mr. White, had shown the latest novelties from the first growers, at home and on the Continent, and at enormous outlay ? And when the answer has been given, that we were to decide on the merits of the flowers, and not on the date of their introduction, on the culture and not on the cost, it was evident that we made little im- pression, and that, if common sense could not be confuted, he thought slightingly of common sense. Wandering about the show, unknown, I have heard myself referred to as one of the umpires in terms opprobrious and severe : "I should say the man as judged those bouquets had just come out of a blind asylum ; " " That orchid in No. 4 was worth the whole lot in the first prize," etc. Sometimes we are accused of deliberate partiality : " I know'd how it would be when I see Tom Jones shaking hands GARDENERS. 253 with the judge at the station." But the ebullitions of disappointment are not seriously intended, and are soon forgotten. I only remember one instance, and that was associated with fowls, and not with flowers, in which a spirit of resentment lingered in the breast of an unsuccessful exhibitor. At the time of the Crimean War, a friend of mine, who had served as an officer in the 16th Lancers, and was then our Master of Hounds, was president of the Bolsover Poultry Show. A farmer, who had en- tered his name as a candidate for a prize to be given to the best three ducks, finding that one of his birds was much inferior to the others, substituted in its place a fine young goose, and was of course dis- qualified. On this he vowed vengeance on all con- nected with the show, and especially against the president, who had nothing whatever to do with the awards. He deliberately planned his vendetta. Meeting the M.F.H. one morning as he drove to covert, he stopped him with uplifted hand and in- quired, " Morning, major ; how long has thee been out o' th' army?" This strange question was politely answered, " Fourteen or fifteen years." The reply was not in harmony with the plot of the questioner, but he had loaded his gun and must fire it, hit or miss. " Oh," he said, " yer know'd t' war were coming ; yer nipped out o' th' army. Yer lig nice and snug in bed when them cannon-balls were a-rolling and a-bowling about Sebastopple. Yer'd raythur smell a fox than powder. Yer know'd t' 254 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. war were coming ; yer nipped out o' th' army. Good morning, major." The righteous judge must solace himself with the consciousness that he understands his business and has done his best ; but it must be remembered by those who appoint him, that he cannot be right- eous unless he is thoroughly conversant with the objects submitted to his arbitration. He must know from practical experience their habits and capabili- ties. He must be quick to detect duplicates or addi- tions. He must concentrate all his attention upon his work, and be intensely patient in his scrutiny, until he is fully convinced. I remember a rosarian, who had a large collection and wrote cleverly about roses, entering a show with his two coadjutors (myself and a well-known nurseryman), and when I took him to our first function, the inspection of six collections, each containing seventy-two varie- ties, he threw up his arms (and his appointment), exclaiming, " I'm dazed at the very sight of them ! As for judging, I should never dream of it." Nor could we persuade him to make the experiment. I have met with others far more incompetent, but not so scrupulous; clever in some special department, but not in that which had been assigned to them as judges. I recall one of my coadjutors who had a quaint method of concealing his ignorance. He knew the securities of silence, and never volunteered a remark, but feeling that he could not consistently remain entirely aloof, he would from time to time QAEDENEBS. 255 hold a pencil, which he carried, over some particular flower, as though he were meditating upon its merits, or wished to direct our attention to it. If it was a poor specimen, we were to infer that he desired us to notice its inferiority ; if it was a fine bloom, he commended it to our admiration; if there was nothing remarkable about it, that was just his perplexity, whether to praise or condemn it. When the other judges made a remark, he boldly intimated that was exactly what the pencil meant. My memory records examples of incapacity yet more strange than these. The Rev. E. Pochin, one of our most accomplished and successful rosarians, having won the chief honours at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, took collections quite as good as those which he had shown in London to a provincial show, and, there being no question as to the supe- riority of his flowers, was surprised to find them unnoticed. Venturing to communicate his astonish- ment to the judges, he was politely but positively informed that " his roses were not the right sort for exhibition " ! Having denounced the incapacities of others, I am conscientiously bound to acknowledge an in- firmity to which, in common with my learned and thirsty brothers, I have yielded more than once, namely, in" devoting more time than was absolutely necessary to fruits, which were " to be tested by flavour." After two or three hours in a hot tent on a July day, the difficulty of arriving at a unanimous 256 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. verdict as to the relative merits of the strawberries and the melons has been unduly magnified, and a superfluous number of witnesses have been examined by the judicial committee. Should gardeners exhibit? Some of their em- ployers are apprehensive that objects of special cultivation may divert attention from others, which seem of less importance to the gardener, but are quite as interesting to the owner. My experience is this, that if a man achieves signal excellence in any particular department of horticulture, he deserves the encouragement which he obtains at a show, and that he who has this excellence will not restrict it to one ambition. It is, moreover, advantageous for a gardener to see the best specimens of his art in all their varieties, to gain and give information. Exhibitors will not tell you all they know, but they will tell you much, if they find you zealous and ready to communicate your own experience. Letting my memory range among the many gardens which I know the best, it brings home the conviction that, as a rule, the gardener who has some special superiority rises above mediocrity in his other productions, and that he who has no remarkable success is satisfied with a decent debility, a con- ventional standard, which just satisfies, and evokes neither praise nor blame. The same flowers (of the same size), the same fruits and vegetables (of the same flavour), appear, at the same time, in the same places, and might be under some act of uni- GARDENERS. 257 formity, which, like the law of the Medes and Persians, altereth not. ***** Flowers never seem to me so happily placed, as when offered upon His altars, who gives them to us, and who bids us, " Consider the lilies." Most beautiful of all these lilies, for this sacred purpose, the eucharis, the arum, L. auratum, longiflorum, Harrisi, candidum. The Christmas rose, protected by glazed frames, is a precious addition at a time when the Japanese anemone and other outdoor white flowers have bloomed ; and some of the snowy chrysanthemums are fair emblems of purity and innocence. The white camellia has ever a stiff, artificial look, but this may be modified by inter- mixture with ferns and other flowers. I would choose all that were fairest and sweetest, not formally arranging them by ecclesiastical rule or pattern, but with a natural grace sometimes using only one variety, sometimes many. As a flower by itself, the arum is of all most effective, and its easy cultivation, size, and endurance combine to make it, in my opinion, the most valuable of all for church decoration. At the consecration of the first Bishop of Truro, there were two vases upon the altar, each containing five flowers of arum, and every white, ivory chalice was visible throughout St. Paul's. The larger orchids, such as Lcelia purpurata ; stove plants, such as the lovely dipla- denia; roses of one colour, or mixed, or in combination s 258 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. with lilies La France is, perhaps, the most charm- ing ; the diverse shades of the paeony, pale yellow find bright rose ; with countless other flowers, and many varieties of foliage, are available and effective. A silly and inaccurate objection is sometimes made to placing flowers upon the altar, because it is a practice of the Roman Catholic Church. The question is whether the use is right, and not whether it is Roman; and Roman it is not, so far as my experience goes, seeing that it would be a misnomer und an insult to designate as flowers the artificial rubbish which is so often placed upon Roman altars. 1 am sorry, but not surprised, to see from time to time in our obituaries, " No flowers" A cross and a, crown upon the coffin, expressing the humble hope that work is over, and that the worker rests from his labours ; that the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity, may bring welcome solace to the Christian mourner's heart, and it may be right that sincere affection and respect should lay their wreath upon the grave ; but when hundreds of pounds are thus spent on a single funeral, reason and religion must protest against the waste. Then especially, when these floreated coffins are made a public show. There is a natural desire to take a last fond look of those nearest and dearest, but to make a display of the dead with scenic surroundings, such as have been recently described in the London papers, must GARDENERS. 259 be suggestive to many minds of profanation rather than of piety. It is recorded in the Standard of February 11, 1892, that " four memorial services were held at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on the day preceding, each attended by 5500 persons. At each service, all eyes were centred upon the group- ing of coffin and bending palms, of white lilies, ferns, and myrtles, with hanging drapery, bearing texts or words spoken by the deceased, and the white bust in the centre, a striking likeness of the late pastor." The same paper, on February 12, had an admirable article on the subject, in which the writer says, " The public pulse is getting into the habit of being at fever heat; and unless the popular humour soon changes, men really great and eminent will shrink from the humiliation of public honours, whether in life or posthumously. The exaggerated demonstra- tions, held at the obsequies of those who have had their little day, will compel the surviving kindred of really great citizens to ask to be left alone with their sorrow, and to insist on a quiet interment in some country churchyard." It is a matter of thank- fulness to know that in our Church these spectacles would be impossible, and that any such display at the funerals of our great ecclesiastics, such as Dean Church and Canon Liddon, would be universally condemned. " Our mother the Church hath never a son To honour before the rest, But she singeth the same for mighty kings, And the veriest babe at her breast ; 260 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. And the bishop goes down to his narrow home As the ploughman's child is laid, And alike she blesses the dark-browed serf, And the chief in his robe arrayed." Of flowers for festivals, I Jove the primrose, so fresh and sweet, for Easter, in bunches and in water ; the holly and aucuba for Christmas ; and the bright dahlias, among the oats, for harvest. I conclude my reminiscences of florists and flowers with some verses, which appropriately combine ecclesiastical and floral themes, and which I have permission from the author, the Rev. John Spittal, to publish. The lines are addressed to Lord Penzance, a most scientific student of the rose, and were written on reading an account of his most in- teresting and successful experiments in hybridizing his favourite flower, and which, read in the same spirit in which they were written, have been pro- nounced by his lordship to be " very amusing." " I own it was with much surprise I Saw Penzance named in your report, By me connected with ' rule nisi,' Or 'judgment for contempt of court.' For High Church ways, and making crosses, His lordship sentenced Mr. Dale. Poor Fairthorn Green had grievous losses, And spent about three years in jail. And while my lord prepares fur taking An early hold on Mr. Cox, To find the judge himself cross-making, I must confess it rather shocks. Yet there is hope the truth may reach him, As he essays to hybridize, GARDENERS. 261 And wedding rose with, rose may teach, him With marriage boiicis to sympathize. Surely a man of such resources May find sufficient work at least, Without insisting on divorces Of congregations from their priest. But all our trouble may be settled, When some new rose, of splendid fame, Brilliant in hue, distinct, large petalled, Bears through the world Penzance's name ! " 262 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XXII. HUNTERS. Antiquity of "the sport of kings" Erroneous ideas about hunting. MR. JORROCKS, though not a student, was historically accurate in his observation that " hunting was the sport of kings." He who " began to be a mighty one in the earth " was Nimrod, the hunter. In the East, we read, hunting was always regarded as a manly exercise, requiring courage and dexterity, invigorating the body, and instilling into the mind a taste for active pursuits. It was held in such respect that the founders of empires were repre- sented in the characters of renowned hunters, and the Babylonians were so fond of the chase that the walls of their rooms presented a repetition of subjects connected with it, and they even ornamented their dresses and the furniture of their houses with the animals which they had hunted. The Medes and Persians were equally noted for their love of field sports, and, like the Egyptians, had spacious preserves, in which the game was inclosed. The animal to be hunted and the methods of HUNTERS. 263 hunting have varied, of course, with the climate and scene of the chase. The artist who represented the Prodigal Son in scarlet, breeches, and boots, was a man of limited information ; and Sir Tatton Sykes was indulging his quaint humour, when, his attention being invited to some beautiful views, by Boberts, of the mountainous districts of Palestine, he remarked, " Queer country to get across, that, sir, queer country ! " But, mutatis mutandis, the same spirit has per- vaded and pervades the ages. It has glowed in the hearts of kings, as we know here in England, from our royal chases, forests, and preserves, Grand Falconers, and Masters of the Buckhounds ; it is the sport par excellence of the nobles, gentry, professional men, farmers of all who have a horse to ride ; and with those who have none, the latent love of it wakes instantly at the sound of the horn, and men, women, and children rush with eager faces from their homes, whenever the hunt goes by. There are some who hold that hunting is a mere barbarian instinct, innate in all, but conspicuously developed in the Englishman, whose first impulse, according to Charles Lamb, is to say, " Here is a fine day, let us kill something." They affirm that it is a frivolous, dangerous, and expensive amusement ; and, so far as these objections have come under my notice, I am convinced that in the case of those who make them, the vanity, the peril, and the extravagance would all be realized if they went forth to hunt the 264 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. fox. They are persons who would be uncomfortable, both in body and mind, if they were placed astride a spirited horse, in proximity with a pack of hounds. They would be annoyed by his impetuosity, and would be perplexed, like Mr. Winkle, as to " what makes him go sideways ? " They would tumble off. They might require a doctor. They would rightly denounce the exercise as a waste of time, of peaceful contentment and personal security, of pounds, shillings, and pence. But their physical incom- petence, it will be justly urged, does not invalidate their argument ; that must be met as a principle, without personalities. Well, then, I reply, you must allow that men need relaxation, as wheels need oil, and I ask you, Where will you find it so conducive to manliness, healthfulness, and social intercourse, as in the hunting field ? I have not a word to say in defence of the man who makes hunting his business, and does nothing else. An idle man, wherever he be, who does nothing to justify his existence, who makes an idol of his lower self, and ignores the noble work and duty for which he was created, is a drone in the hive, a barren tree in the orchard, a deaf note in the instrument, a dead fish in the net. He monopolizes that which he was meant to share ; " Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone ; " but for the man who is true to his manhood and its re- sponsibilities, and who can afford the time and the money, I can think of no recreation so invigorating as a few weeks' holiday in the shires, or two days a HUNTERS. 265 week from his home. And he will have far more enjoyment than the man to whom, in this as in all other excess, satiety brings indigestion. Some, who have no practical experience, have most erroneous ideas about hunting. They are under the impression that every man who rides, and has a good horse, goes out and follows the hounds. Their conjecture is so far correct that a large majority, when they leave their homes, entertain that hope and intention ; but not one in ten fulfils it. At the first stiff fence, when hounds are running, there is a pause. An observant eye sees a distant gate, and galloping to it, is followed by half the field. While others are hesitating, an underbred four-year-old smashes a gap in the hedge, and the dubious lose their fears. Brief while ! A strong piece of timber, too strong even for the cart-horsy quadruped, who is down on the other side (procumbit humi bos), scatters them in all directions, and they are seen no more. Now, two or three equestrians with large hearts and little heads seem to take leave of the latter, and, forgetting that foxes do not always run in a straight line, rush forward recklessly, and do not discover until too late that the hounds are not to be seen. The huntsman has watched their demented disappearance with a thankful mind, for these are the men who override his hounds the men of whom Will Derry said, " That's Parson Wills, sir, Parson Wills. He will be atop o' th' 'ounds. Whips blow'd him up, and he tuk no notice ; and I 266 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. blow'd him up, and he tuk no notice ; and master blow'd him up, and he tuk no notice ; so we tuk the Bounds *ome" A goodly number still remain with the pack, but as the pace grows faster, and the line of chase leads over some heavy " plough," a deep drain, and a " beastly double," others begin to veer and skirt, the roads and lanes and gates allure the unstable mind, and, after thirty-five minutes, only six men, all of whom might have been named before the fox was found, have kept their place with the hounds. The explanation is, that it requires something more than a man and a horse, though the man be courageous and the horse can gallop and jump ; it requires a man " with brains, sir ! " to ride to hounds. It is possible for a person of weak intellect and strong limbs to win a steeplechase on a superior horse ; he can only go in one direction, and go he must, between the flags ; but to keep with hounds in a long and difficult run is altogether a different thing, and the exceptions are very few to the rule that he who rides always with cool, courageous judgment, has other accomplishments, other superiorities above his fellow-men. One of these leaders, who could not only ride in a run, but describe it afterwards, as no other man Whyte Melville writes in " Market Harborough," after describing the Honourable Crasher as reading the " Idylls of the King," " There is something of poetry in every man who rides across country." He who " dares do all that may become HUNTERS. 2G7 a man " delights to read in the old romance of gallant, knightly deeds ; and if sometimes he lays it down, arid sighs " So then I see the good old times are gone, When every day brought forth a noble chance, And every chance brought forth a noble knight," then let him remember that stile in the corner, at which he disposed of a bumptious rival, or let him anticipate next Thursday's meet, when in all pro- bability they will have the brook. Days of chivalry are still in store au cheval and his rider. I shall ever remember with a grateful respect the groom who taught me to ride. As soon as my father, a keen sportsman, could persuade my mother that I was much too old (cet. med iv.) for a rocking- horse, I was transferred to a pony, ancient and of blameless character, and to the tuition of our master of the horse. My memories are dim as to the initial process, but most distinct and joyful of a day when, having taught me what he called " quite an 'unting seat," and having inspired me with confidence to canter, sitting behind me, and with his hands in readiness to help in case of need, he slipped off unnoticed, except by my parents, who had just come to see, and who watched me with amused anxiety, as I approached to realize the triumphant dignity of my new-born independence. Once assured that I could swim without the corks, I plunged boldly into deep water. My teacher came with a proud smile on his face, and my father put a sovereign into his 268 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. hand. It was well earned, and quite appropriate to the golden opportunity, for which he had waited with so much careful preparation. When he left me without his supporting arm, he knew that I no longer required it, and he saw that if I missed him and mourned his loss, there was the best of help at hand. Many a child has been frightened into a dislike and * O dread of riding by want of thoughtful sympathy, just as many a young horse has been spoiled by violent, instead of gentle treatment. Horse-breaking and heart-breaking may be synonymous terms. If a child is afraid when he is first mounted on a rocking-horse, or on a pony, take him off, and wait until he has lost his fear by watching others that are fearless. Then that love of imitation, which some would have us believe (but we don't) that we inherit from ancestral apes, and that instinct of jealousy, which we know too well, from the history of his sons, that we inherit from Adam, will soon make him wish to be replaced. Do not thwart, but guide, his inclinations. Let him always think that he is master of the situation. Exalt him gradually from the dull to the lively, from the pony to the jumping cob, from the jumping cob to the hunter, and it will not be your fault when the ordeal comes, when he gets his first fall, or is run away with such " fate is the common lot of all " it will be his fault, not yours, if he is not a horseman. There must come a selection of the fittest a crisis, when the timid goes home, and the brave goes to the next HUNTERS. 2G9 fence, with an utterance of indignation, and other stimulants, which cause his steed to bound like a buck. The faint-hearted disappears " At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri Gaudet equo, jamque hos cursu jam praeterit illos." It gladdens my heart and kindles my hope to see our boys ride. They get a little intermixed with our horses' forelegs in the woods and lanes, but they are out of the way when business begins, and when it is slack they are worth watching. They are off at full gallop as soon as they see a fence, and either clear three times the necessary space, or, if their steed abruptly determines, on reaching the obstacle, to give them notice to quit, they bound over it like a flying-fish, are up in five seconds with a merry laugh, and evidently regard their aerial flight as part of the day's fun. This is the raw material, from which we make our cavalry officers, explorers, and pioneers. I had two young brothers-in-law, who were the joy of John Leech's heart. He represented one of them in Punch, riding at a deer- fence about nine feet high ; and he declared that the other was only prevented from charging a canal by a barge in full sail. They turned out excellent horsemen. Harry bought and trained a young horse at Oxford, rode him, and won " the Aylesbury," and the other was thrice M.F.H., and said to be one of the best judges of hounds in England. Keturning home after the first day on which I 270 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. was permitted to remain with the hounds until the hunting was over, my father told me that a tall gentleman in a brown coat, who had been talking to me long and kindly, was the Marquis of Tichfield (afterwards Duke of Portland), and that he was considered to be the best horseman of his day. I do not remember to have seen him again, but I often met his brother, Lord Henry Bentinck, who was also, though he was shortsighted and wore glasses, an admirable rider, a popular Master of Hounds, and a man whose quick and pungent humour glittered and pierced like a sword. It was he who said, though the splendid rebuke has been ascribed to others, when he was canvassing North Nottinghamshire, and a furious opponent informed him, " Lord Henry, I'd sooner vote for the divil than for you ! " it was he who replied, with the most polite demeanour and blandest suavity of tone, " Perhaps, sir, in the event of your friend not coming forward, I might hope for your support." It was he who inquired from a rash cavalier, who was overriding his hounds, "May I ask, sir, do you smell the fox ? " and who said to a large landed proprietor, suspected of vulpecidal acts, on his remarking that he regarded a particular wood as " quite a seminary for foxes," " I think, general, you mean cemetery.'' 9 " I've an unpleasant duty to perform this morning," he said to a friend on the hunting-field ; " I told my two whips the other day that they were the two biggest fools in EUNTERS. 271 England, and I've been out with Lord Yarborough's hounds, and seen two bigger, and must, of course, withdraw the observation." A fox crossed the Trent near a ferry, and Lord Henry had just got his hounds, horses, and men into the boat, and was leaving the banks, when a member of his hunt, called "The Bird" (he being of the first flight), arrived, and foolishly endeavoured to leap into the boat. The distance was too far, and the gallant "horse, though he made a noble effort, fell with his rider into the Trent. Lord Henry calmly surveyed the misadventure, and all that he said was, " The Dun Diver!" The poor "Bird" returned to dry his plumage ashore. Spending Christmas with a friend, he was asked at luncheon by the rector, after service in a church at which, profusely adorned with evergreens, the congregation had been small, "what he thought of the decorations ? " "I thought," he replied, " that there was plenty of cover, but very little game" In those days a meet of " the Eufford " was indeed a sight to see. " The Dukeries " alone made a gallant show. Worksop Manor, then the property oi the Duke of Norfolk, now of the Duke of Newcastle, was uninhabited ; Clumber, although the reigning duke did not hunt, was represented by the heir, the grandfather of the present duke, and an influential member of the Government at the time of the Crimean War ; Welbeck, as I have noted, by the marquis and -his brother, Lord Henry ; and Thoresby by Earl 272 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Manvers, the most considerate of landlords, the most generous of benefactors to the poor and sick, the kindest and truest of friends. I have never since seen such a charming " turn-out," an equipage so comme ilfaut, as that in which he came to the meet an open carriage with four grand sixteen-hand horses, ridden by postilions in cherry-coloured jackets, buckskins, and black-velvet caps, with two outriders. He could say a severe thing when a knave or a fool required it ; but he was a delightful companion in his normal state, full of quaint and genial humour. Though he was always a munificent supporter of the hunt, he was not a prominent hunter ; in fact, he preferred the fallentis semita vitce, and followed in the wake of the hounds, " far from the madding crowd." If he met with obstacles which seemed to him unduly obtrusive, Robert, a favourite groom, got off his horse and removed them. One day a timid stranger, admiring this method of hunting made easy, attached himself as equerry, and followed through the gaps, until the earl, turning towards him with a solemn courtesy, said, as he raised his hat, " I am quite sure, sir, that you are not aware that for many years I have enjoyed in this hunt the exclusive privilege of being last ; and I know that I have only to inform you of this fact to secure your respect for my claim." On another occasion, when a new pack had been brought into the country, hastily got together, and comprising the drafts of many kennels, only unani- HUNTERS. 273 mous on one subject, that it was their duty to hunt whatever they could see or smell, an officer came from the barracks at Nottingham to one of our meets, who was evidently an expert. The hounds had been but a short time in covert, when a hare came forth, in front of the horsemen outside, pursued by half a dozen puppies, full cry. The officer immediately followed, and, with considerable shouting and crack- ing of his whip, turned them back into the wood. Whereupon Lord Manvers rode up to him, and addressed him, with a courteous bow, " Pardon me, sir, for the intrusion, but, seeing that you are a sportsman, I think it only right to warn you that in undertaking to correct the delinquencies of this incorrigible pack of rebels, you are entering upon a task which is superhuman. ' All the king's horses and all the king's men ' could . not stop them from running hare." Robert aforesaid, though blameless as a groom, was sans peur, but not sans reproche, as a rider, and, on being requested by his master to try a mare recently purchased at a fence, he lost his seat, and, as he alighted, scored her with the spur. " Robert," the earl quietly remarked, " if the spur is required in taking a horse over a fence, the application is usually made before, rather than after, the leap." Lord Scarborough, irreverently designated "Black Jack," came also with four horses from Rufford, and " Dick Lumley," heir to the title, and a striking contrast to the solemn peer, bright with health, T 274 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. high spirits, and good looks. Lord Gal way came from Serlby, himself a Master of Hounds, and no better sportsman rode horse or carried horn. The Foljambes from Osberton ; George the squire, also M.F.H., and Frank, his brother, one of the most popular men of his day, and always to the fore. They were sorely afflicted, these two brothers, the elder with blindness, and the younger with a fatal cancer; but the fame of the Foljambes in the hunting (and cricket) field is safe with those who bear the name. The Bridgeman-Simpsons from Babworth ; the squire, who was the husband of the accomplished lady to whom I have previously referred as an artist, and his brother, the rector. The Denisons from Ossington, the home of the elder brother, Evelyn, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and Viscount Ossington. They were all of them what we gardeners call " specimen plants," men of genius and culture. Four, I think, were first-class men at Oxford, including Edward, Bishop of Salisbury, and George, Archdeacon of Taunton. Lord Manvers spoke of the latter as " St. George without the dragon," and right worthy is he to be ranked among the champions of Christendom, for no man has fought more bravely than he against the enemies of his Church and creed. Mr. Denison was always a very generous supporter of the hunt, and took an anxious and practical interest in its management, not only because he liked the amusement, but because, as he said to me more than HUN TEES. 275 once, it seemed to him a matter of importance to the common weal, that all sorts and conditions of men should have opportunities of meeting together for pleasant recreation, interchange of thought, and enlargement of sympathy. At the time when he was made Speaker, he was specially hopeful, on the election of a new M.F.H., and the auspicious commence- ment of his new regime ; and Davis, the huntsman, with whom I was discussing our future prospects, said to me, " As for the Speaker, sir, I never saw him so pleased, and I'm only afraid of his calling out, ' Forrard, Fallacy ! ' " (one of his favourite hounds) " in the 'Ouse, instead of * Order, gentlemen ! ' : No need, I thought, to encourage Fallacy in a place where it never ceases to assert itself; and as for " Order, gentlemen," in those days all members of Parliament were gentlemen and knew how to keep order for themselves. There were many other good men and true : Sir William Miles, M.P. for Bristol, but then residing at Beesthorpe Hall, Notts., a most powerful horseman, who excelled all in piloting a " screw ; " Sherbrooke of Oxton (formerly Lowe, the brother of Robert, Chancellor of the Exchequer and afterwards Lord Sherbrooke), the model of a country squire; Manners- Sutton of Kelham ; Pegge-Burnell of Winkburn ; " Will Need " of Fountain Dale, of whom more anon ; the Handleys of Muskham ; Francklin of Gonalston ; Trebeck, Beecher, and Warrand, of Southwell ; Milward of Hexgreave. And now ? 276 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. The last time I saw the hunt go by, I counted but six scarlet coats, and those of other tints were few ; but it was solace to hear that some of the great houses still maintained their ancient zeal, pre- eminently those of Welbeck and Thoresby, support- ing the chase in person and in purse, and that " the Bufford " never had a more successful and popular Master than now in Launcelot Eolleston. ( 277 ) CHAPTER XXIII. HUNTERS Continued. My first horses A sad catastrophe Squire Musters The Belvoir Hunt Will Goodall The Quorn The Pytch- ley Kufford incidents Captain Percy Williams Jack Davis Colonel Welfitt Hunting parsons. REVERTING to early youth, the first hunter which was mine exclusively was a cob of fifteen hands. His name was David, and I loved him like another Jonathan. He was a demure, and yet an eccentric horse. He galloped demurely, he jumped demurely, he never reared, or kicked, or shied, and yet on one occasion he suddenly and irresistibly darted from the riding of a wood into the thicket, and rushing under the bough of a tree, where there was not room for both of us to pass, he left me, like Absalom, among the branches ; and again, on a sunny afternoon, when we had been waiting for some time in a grass field outside the covert, in which hounds were drawing, he with his usual deliberation sank gradually down. Before he had time to roll, or I to dismount, my father, who was happily close by, gave him such a cut with his whip as roused him to 278 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. an abnormal liveliness, and kept him wide awake throughout the day. History repeats itself, and, after a lapse of some thirty years, I had a similar experience. I was returning from a distant meet on a warm day towards the end of March, and was riding very slowly on the grassy side of a lane, when " Paddy," a very old Irish horse, went down abruptly, and I had only just time to free myself from the saddle, before he was lying on his side. I thought that his end was come, and, having loosed his girths, I stood by in a most doleful mood, for a better horse never rose at a fence ; and I was doubting whether I should bleed him in the mouth, the only form of depletion which I should dare to practise, when, to my astonishment, lazily and leisurely, but with evident satisfaction, the old horse began to graze ! Aware that only condemned criminals partake of a hearty breakfast on the eve, or rather the morn, of annihilation, I joyfully tightened Paddy's girths, raised him on his legs with a chuck of the bridle, mounted, and trotted him home. I believe that the horse was fast asleep when he fell. This incident, comic in itself, evokes, nevertheless, one of the most tragic memories of my life. I was riding a very promising four-year-old over some small fences, as we went from covert to covert (hounds not running), and came to one which had a dyke of some four feet on the other side, and a drop of about a foot from the level of the ground HUNTERS. 279 from which he sprang. He seemed to clear the leap easily and completely, but I suppose that one of his hind legs must have alighted below the bank. We had not gone far into the field before I felt a tremulous vibration under me, and when I had dismounted, and led him a few paces onward, he fell, never to rise again. I have always had one thankful consolation : I am sure that he felt no pain. When ten minutes afterwards he heard the distant horn, he raised his head, and his bright eyes glowed, as he longed to join the chase. I could have thrown myself on the ground and wept, and I never hear that most pathetic song of Whyte Melville's, " The Place where the Old Horse died," but a flood of thoughts comes gushing, and fills mine eyes with tears. David was soon too slow for my ambition, and a generosity which never failed supplied me with a much more rapid conveyance, in the form of a bright well-bred bay with black points, a beautiful head, clean shoulders, and strong propelling powers, though anything but a screw. My singing sister insisted that he should be called Lochinvar, but it was I who should have had the appellation, convinced as I was, after a brief acquaintance, that "in all the wide borders my steed was the best." Accustomed to the dignified demeanour of David, I was somewhat perplexed for a brief season by the incessant gaiety of his successor, but I quickly discovered that it was only an indication of his desire for those more active 280 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. employments which I was fully prepared to supply, and that he loved galloping and jumping as much as I did. We had only one quarrel, which resulted in a brief separation. We were approaching a fence, when he saw, and I ought to have seen, the hounds on the other side make a sudden turn. He turned with them, and as he resisted my endeavour to keep him in his former line, I struck him sharply with my whip. In three seconds I was on my back by his side. I really don't know how he did it, but if a box of dynamite had exploded under me, I could not have been more summarily dislodged. Then the horse never attempted to move. I believe that if he could have spoken he would have said, " I'm very sorry ; please get up ; but you mustn't do it again." I never felt more humiliated. I arose a sadder, a wiser, and a dirtier man. Lochinvar offered no resistance when I put him again at the fence. He never swerved an inch from my guidance, though I turned him, of course, on the opposite side to rejoin the hounds. He went, if possible, better than ever, and made no mistake. When I reached home my father, who had not been out that day, met me in the stable-yard and said, " I don't know, Reynolds, whether you have brought the brush, but I never saw any one in greater need of it." I told him what had happened, and he laughed, until I thought he would be ill. I claim some appreciative sense of humour, but I never could fully grasp the comedy of that situation. HUNTERS. 281 I rode Lochinvar for two Christmas holidays, and then I was promoted from the cob to the hunter, raised from the lower to the upper horse. At that time the famous " Jack Musters " was still hunting hounds in Nottinghamshire, and his clear musical voice rang through our big woods in " The Clays." The husband of Byron's " Mary," a great athlete in his earlier days, was a powerful horseman, and had a method of pressing his horse through a fence, whenever it was possible, rather than of leaping over it, which was not graceful, though in the case of such a heavy rider it required less exertion from his steed. In the first days of my promotion, I was riding a very tall animal, appropriately named Leopard (one of those horses which, too good for harness, and not quite good enough for hunting, form the fag end of a stud, and are rarely ridden by the owner), and in the course of a very slow run, for the scent was bad, we came to a flight of strong rails. As there was no hurry, Mr. Musters ordered one of his whips to get off and remove a bar. Alas ! the pride which goeth before a fall came upon me, and I rode at the rail ; but Leopard had no pride about him, and instead of rising to the occasion, he smashed two bars. While I was communicating to him my views as to his behaviour, I heard the cheery voice of Musters, " Thank you, sir, thank you. Get on, Jack." The vote of thanks, seconded by the whip, was carried unanimously, but it failed to impart to me the gratification with which it was proposed. 282 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. I went now and then into " the Belvoir " country. First, when the Duke of Wellington, a guest of the Duke of Rutland, came to the meet at "Scrimshaw's Mill," and it seemed as though every man who could ride or drive, in the four counties of Leicester, Rutland, Lincoln, and Nottinghamshire, was there to welcome our great hero. From the high ground on which the hill stands, the surrounding country appeared like no, I shall not say an ant-hill ; everybody would say an ant-hill seemed to be as full of moving life as London of twinkling lights, when you look down upon it in the night. " The Belvoir country " words musical and full of meaning in the ears of hunting men ! " Beautiful to see," whether on the broad uplands of Lincoln Heath, or (to him who has a stout heart and strong horse) in the heavier soil and larger fences of the Yale. " Beautiful to see," the best-looking, the best-bred, the most even pack of hounds in the world ; and he who can follow them, when they meet, and there is a scent, at Stubton (the only appointment which was well within my reach), will bear witness that they are as good as they look. " Beautiful to see," with Will G-oodall, rightly named, like the place from which he came, for he was good all round, in looks, in temper, know- ledge, horsemanship, riding before them to covert, or close behind them in the chase close behind, so long as his steed would carry him. I remember an occasion when he was not so well mounted as usual, and the mare which he rode, hardly rising at a fence, HUNTERS. 283 fell into a deep ditch on the other side, and deposit- ing Will on the bank, seemed quite content to remain where she was. At that moment the hounds lost the scent, but Goodall's keen eye had seen the tired fox in front, and running forward, cap in hand, he put them on the line. Then returning to the mare, pulling at her head, and touching her with his whip, he said, " Now, old lady, get up, and let us have another try ! " " Beautiful to see," as I have seen, such gallant cavaliers as Lords Forester, Gardner, Wilton, Sirs Frederick Johnston, Thomas Wychcote, Mr. Gilmour, " Harry Howson," Rector of Brant Broughton (and memory presents him, making for his favourite place over the Brant aforesaid, on whose banks so many will be " left lamenting "), Colonel Dundas, the Gordons, John Marriott, and many more. I have only one memory of the illustrious "Quorn," the recollection of a happy day which I spent in " high Leicestershire," at the invitation of my friend, W. Clowes, then Master, in the neighbourhood of Cream Gorse and Ashby Pastures. I went, as a heavy weight, only to look on, but I saw much more than I expected. There was an immense " field," but, like all other fields, it grew small by degrees and beautifully less. Not so the fences they were several sizes larger than I liked ; but I had a powerful horse, and to rise from the elastic sward, instead of from the tenacious clay, was like leaping from a spring-board to an athlete. 284 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. " The Pytchley " I never saw, though I have been often in their country, and had the pleasure of knowing some of their foremost men, Whyte Melville, H. Nethercote, E. Be van, and others. It must be a grand country to ride over a little too grand now and then ; indeed, I have heard Percy Williams say that there was a certain district, not far from Market Harborough, which no horse could negotiate. His name recalls my excursive thoughts to the Rufford, of which he was for many years the successful Master. He was a thorough sportsman, lived at the kennels, like the old tradesmen over their shops, turned out his men, hounds, and horses in excellent order, and was always punctual. Sometimes too punctual, as when, in the days of cub-hunting, he appeared very early on a September morning in a distant part of the hunt, and, not finding a fox in the first wood which he tried, said to a boy waiting outside, " Well, my lad, and where are all these foxes, of which I have heard so much ? " " Oh, if you please, sir," replied the guileless youth, " fayther hasn't brought him yet." The keeper had a bagman in reserve, to deceive his master, whose orders to preserve foxes he had disobeyed, and his delay in producing him lost him his situation his employer gave him the sack. And this incident again reminds me of Jack Davis, who was long chief equerry to Captain Percy Williams, and of a conversation which I overheard, to my intense delight, between him and another HUNTERS. 285 keeper, who loved the pheasant more than the fox, and who joined us at the centre of a large wood, which the hounds were patiently drawing without any audible results. " Good morning, Mr. Davis," said the keeper. " Morning," growled Mr. Davis. " Has your dogs had pretty good sport, Mr. Davis ? " " We don't call 'em dogs," said Jack, " we call 'em hounds." " Oh, don't yer ? " said the keeper. " I thote yer did." " Oh, you thote so, did you ? " replied Davis. " You're like Thompson's dog ; he thote they were a-bringing him his breakfast, and he came up, a-jumping and wagging his tail, and they took him out and hanged him!" And if he had been wearing the black cap of a judge, and not of a fox- hunter, I believe he would have pronounced then and there upon that keeper the extreme sentence of the law. Jack's contempt for game and gamekeepers amounted to monomania. We were returning one afternoon by a famous preserve, and from the grassy lane on which we rode the pheasants rose before our horses in such numbers, that I could not restrain the exclamation, " What a lot of pheasants ! " On which Mr. Davis replied, drawing himself up into an attitude of dignity, and gazing into the firmament with a sudden interest, as though he had just been made Astronomer Royal, "We dont take no notice of them things ! " The Master of the Rufford whom I knew best and cared for most (with the exception, of course, of my 286 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. brother-in-law, Francklin, who showed good sport for a couple of seasons, and greatly improved the quality of the pack, chiefly by introducing the Belvoir blood) was Colonel Welfitt, to whom I have previously referred as " Will Need," and who was the president of the Ornithological Show at Bolsover, falsely accused by a disappointed exhibitor of " nipping out o' th' army " to avoid the Crimean War. He was past mid age when he accepted the office, and when he informed old John, the kennel- man, that he was going to be Master, the reply was not encouraging : " Are yer ? Yer twenty years too old for the job." There never was a more matter-of-fact or plain-spoken man than John, and when he was called upon at the hunt supper to propose a sentiment, he rose and said, with a solemnity befitting the occasion, " Gentlemen, the sentiment as I've got to propose is this I wish as I wor twenty year younger ! " Welfitt was " a fellow of infinite jest," one of those bright spirits who make the sunshine of society, dispelling its dreary gloom, and thawing its rigid and chill constraints. Dignity forgot its self-importance at the sound of his joyful laugh, and in him were fulfilled the wise man's words, " A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." His experience, military (he was a captain in the 16th Lancers, and afterwards commanded our yeomen regiment of " Sherwood Rangers "), magisterial, and sporting, supplied him with a fund of anec- HUNTERS. 287 dotes, always well told and worth hearing. More- over, he knew the " time to laugh," and that " it is good to be merry and wise," but below the spark- ling surface there was a stream of " living water," deep and clear. Dulce est desipere in loco occasionally, oppor- tunely, harmlessly. Welfitt delighted in a practical joke. He had promised to give a Dorking cock to a neighbour, and presuming upon his credulity, although not, as the result showed, overrating it, he put an egg into the hamper which contained the bird. By an early post he received a thankful acknowledgment of its safe arrival, with the infor- mation that, to the intense surprise of the writer, the cock, during his journey, had laid an egg ! The donor immediately wrote back to say that the fowl had undoubtedly " beaten the record," that he was the only cock who had ever done it, and that his friend would find, to the increase of his astonish- ment, that " the egg was laid hard boiled ! " He who attacked Welfitt rode for a fall. He lost a valuable hunter, which was accidentally " staked " and died. At the same time, a member of the hunt, who had more money than manners, had bought a black horse for two hundred guineas, which, to his sore disappointment, had fallen lame. He was under the impression that his misfortune was only known to his grooms ; but Welfitt, whose ears were always open, had heard of it, and therefore when he was rudely addressed, " And so, I hear, 288 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. you've killed your grey horse," he was quite pre- pared with a reply " Yes, he's dead and buried. It is a sad loss to me, but I have been much com- forted in my sorrow by a most kind and considerate letter, written by your black horse, and expressing his deep regret that he was too lame to attend the funeral." Silence would have been more prudent in another of our nouveaux riches, who would quote Latin and other languages which he had never learned, and who, when asked why he suddenly disappeared in the middle of a capital run, frankly owned that he came to a fence which was larger than he liked, and that, seeing an open space in the distance, he had made for it, only to find a still more formidable dyke. " And so," he said, " I went from Skilly to Carrybedees, and never saw the hounds again." ***** Is it right for a clergyman to hunt? Again I say, as of cricket previously, if I were a bishop, and that question were put to me by a priest, I should answer, " If you can assure me that you can spare the time and the money, that you can take a day's holiday in the week without neglecting any of your duties, reducing your charities, or getting into debt, you have my permission to hunt on one immutable condition that you ride straight to hounds; and if I hear of you craning and shirking I shall withdraw it at once." HUNTERS. 289 In these happier days of clerical energy very few have the time, and in these sadder days of clerical penury very few have the means, to hunt; but I should be sorry to hear that the ecclesiastical element was banished from the chase. The presence of the parson contradicts an impression which, silly as it is, has been accepted and repeated by those who are disaffected towards us, that we lose our virility on taking Holy Orders ; and the black coat and the white tie may sometimes be a wholesome restraint. I am sure that my influence with my parishioners was not diminished when I hunted once in the week, and I know from the clergy with whom I stayed when I went from home as a preacher, that on several occasions there were men in the congregation, whom I had met in the field, who "had not been seen before in church on a week-day." I recall another incident which illus- trates my argument. On a certain day, when two foxes were before the hounds in a large covert, one of them came out with more than half the pack in front of the huntsman and myself, who were the only horsemen on that side of the wood. He blew his horn for the rest to follow, and away we rode with a burning scent. We had gone about a mile, and were in a high state of delight, when the Master, who had remained with the rest of the hounds in pursuit of fox No. 2, sounded a racall, and obedience was inevitable. As he rode forward to turn the hounds a malediction, brief but vehe- u 290 THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. ment, came from his lips, " D- that horn ! " Before I went home he came to me, and, touching his cap, he said, " I'm very sorry, sir, that I lost my temper and spoke those words this morning." Other memories of the chase will suggest them- selves, when I revert to old Oxford days ; mean- while I would introduce a few reminiscences of another form of hunting, the pursuit of game with a gun. ( 291 ) CHAPTER XXIV. SHOOTERS. Johnny Jebb and his gun My first partridge Joyful memories The past and the present The old keeper's lamentation A clever auctioneer. SOME sixty years ago there lived in our village a poor hunchback, named Johnny Jebb. He had not only the pity but the regard of us all, for, though he was deformed in body, he had a ready wit, a genial temper, and gentle ways, and could make himself useful in many little matters. He was the public scribe of those who could not write, acting as their amanuensis, and even making wills and drawing up agreements in a neat, legible hand. He cut the hair and shaved the cheeks and chins of the rustics, the shoeing-shed of the blacksmith being his barber's shop, when not otherwise engaged. He sold oranges and nuts. I knew him first as a painter, and though I have since seen the galleries of the Vatican, Florence, and other famous collec- tions, no pictures have ever made such an impres- sion upon me as those of Johnny Jebb. He begged old copy-books, which in those days had some object 292 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. delineated on the cover, with a brief description or moral (Charles Dickens tells us that one of these represented a virtuous lion, constrained by his con- science to devour a young man who had contracted a habit of swearing), and these engravings were minutely, elaborately coloured, and converted into pictures which absorbed all my admiration. Two of these, a parrot, and Westminster Abbey, were purchased, on my urgent solicitations, by my mother at an outlay of one shilling. Afterwards I saw in the Zoological Gardens and elsewhere a large num- ber of parrots, and I also saw the real Westminster Abbey, St. Peter's at Eome, and other famous churches, but neither in ornithology nor in archi- tecture anything at all resembling Johnny's brilliant variety of tint. Every feather in the bird, and every stone in the building, had its own distinc- tive hue. He was very poor, and every one was anxious to give him a preference when there were " odd jobs " to be done. " Bird-tenting," the watching and scaring away of crows, wood-pigeons, sparrows, etc., from the corn, freshly sown or ripening in the ear, was one of these employments, and was per- formed by blowing a horn, shaking a wooden rattle, or by the firing of a gun. Wandering about the fields one August afternoon in my early boyhood, " all among the barley I heard this frequent gun," and, guided by the sound, I soon discovered that the gunner was Johnny Jebb. After much persuasion SHOOTERS. 293 and solemn vows of secrecy, I induced him to let me handle the weapon, and in a state of high nervous excitement I had my first shot ; and after numerous failures, the results of blinking, and twitching and wobbling of the implement, I trium- phantly brought down at a distance of not less than twelve yards, and after aiming for not more than two minutes a " spink " ! John said it was a spink, but there was not much left to indicate its species. What a contrast that gun would make with the latest improvements in the hammerless, smokeless, self-loading, self-ejecting breech-loader ! It had the longest barrel and the shortest stock I ever saw in conjunction. The former gradually dwindled from a full-sized breech to a bore about the size of a fourpenny-bit. The small, stunted stock was bound with brass, and, being more convex than concave, seemed to be always slipping from the shoulder. The cock, or hammer, held a large flint, which, when the trigger was pulled, struck the steel oppo- site, uncovering the small pan, and igniting with its sparks the powder which was placed therein, and which passed through a touch-hole into the barrel. Johnny kept his powder in a tin tobacco- box, in one pocket of his trousers, and his shot loose in the other. These he measured out in the head of an old clay pipe, placing over the powder and over the shot a liberal supply of newspaper, which he produced from another portion of his 294 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. raiment, and which required the vigorous use of his ramrod to be kept in position. It was, I think, on the occasion of my third visit to the barley, and when I was anxiously stalking a yellow-hammer by the hedge side of the field, that I was startled by a sound of rushing wings, and a covey of partridges, the first I had ever seen, rose from the corn, and flew towards me. I heard Johnny call, " Don't shoot ! don't shoot ! " but, whether I lost my presence of mind, or was impelled by sporting instincts, or by memories of bread sauce, or whatever may have been my motive, I heeded not his warning voice ; I closed my eyes, raised my gun, and fired. The hen-bird piloted her young ones safely over the fence while I was elevating the long tube and inducing a tardy obedience to the laws of combustion, but the old cock, the father and faithful guardian of his family, fell, dead as a stone, in the grass field beyond. I should say that Johnny's lineaments, when he saw him fall, very much resembled those of the gentleman who " Drew Priam's curtain in. the dead of night, And told him half his Troy was burned." The most accomplished tragedian could not have assumed his look of horror. " The keeper would kill him, and the squire would put him in jail ; " which seemed a superfluous appendix. For myself, though I felt, at first, something of that compassion which, we read in the " American ^Esop," distressed the tender-hearted elephant, when she accidentally SHOOTERS. 295 set her foot on the hen-partridge, and, seeing the young birds in the nest below, sighed, "Alas, what have I done ! I have been a mother myself," and sat down on the callow brood I must confess that, on the whole, my emotions were more jubilant than grievous. Ignoring the fluke, I proudly re- membered that I had brought down my first game. My only regret was that I could not go home and make a full confession, for fear of bringing Johnny into trouble. Gradually he recovered his confi- dence, as he lost his fear of discovery, and he put the bird in his pocket, to be buried at nightfall, as he informed me, in some secret place. No long time after, when my old companion was gone, I told my father the incident, and he said " it would be one of the best suppers poor Johnny ever had!" At an early age I was presented with a gun, about the time when the old " flint and steel " was superseded by the " copper cap," and was instructed how to use it. My father gave me some simple rules : " Never carry your gun ' on full cock,' except when you see, or expect to see, game ; and take care to have the muzzle always pointed downward or upward, so that if the charge accidentally explodes, no harm can happen. If you ever present to me a view down the barrel of your gun, I shall send you home." He was a man of his word, and had the courage of his opinions. I went home once, but it was a-Traf, once for all. I never repeated the offence. 296 THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. Then (and for fifty consecutive years) I took out a certificate, and was duly " licensed to kill game ; " and of all my holidays with the gun, the first have the fondest memories. I have held my own with my companions in the stubbles and the turnips, in the woods, and on the moor ; I have wiped Green's eye and walked Brown off his legs ; I have shot in some of our best preserves, but I can remember no days so delectable as those of boyhood and youth. It is not so in other sports. In hunting, for example, in cricket, and in fishing, experience adds to enjoyment, and the man has more power and skill with his horse, his bat, and his rod ; but in shooting there is no joy to compare with the first partridge, pheasant, woodcock, black- cock, grouse, mallard, snipe, or running game. Who does not rejoice to recall those mornings at Christmastide when, with a supreme effort, he rose at the dawn of day, and went by the brookside, silently over the untrodden snow, with his gun and his retriever ; and there was a rustle among the reeds, and a flapping of wings, and, with a single note of indignation or of fear, the wild drake rose, and sped upon his flight, until a louder utter- ance resounded far and near, and he lay on the ground, a far more attractive sight to the eyes of the young sportsman and to the recollection of the old than a hundred yards of pheasants reared in coops, and shot in corners placed side by side in the riding of a wood, as the spolia opima of a grand SHOOTERS. 297 battue ? As a result, I prefer to this wholesale (and retail) carnage the foreign baron, returning proudly from la chasse, with his retainers shouting in their joy, and a brass band playing triumphant music, while four foresters bear before their lord (on horseback) a diminutive rabbit on a pole ! Or what shall we compare with the eager, intense felicity of boyhood, wandering about the woodlands on a summer's eve, creeping, gun in hand, to the corner of the covert, whence the rabbits come forth to graze, and intercepting one of them ere he can reach his refuge ? Or, when crouched in ambush, half in the fence and half in the dyke, we wondered whether that leveret nibbling the clover on our right was within range of our artillery, or whether we should shoot the rabbit some three yards nearer on our left? Or, who forgets the supreme fruition of hedgerow shooting in the winter months, when the adjoining wood has re- cently been shot (not surrounded by nets as now), and with a friend on the other side, a couple of beaters, and a lively terrier, we saw the nimble rabbit dart from his lair, amid the rattling of sticks, the shouts of the men, and the barking of the dog ; back again sometimes, ere we could raise the gun ; sometimes, wisely, running out of sight down the dyke, not showing himself until, out of reach of our artillery, he neared the wood, and then wagging his little white scut, as though in derision, before he disappeared in the thicket ; sometimes, unwisely, 298 THE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. making for the open and turning a fatal somersault, with the terrier not far from his heels. I am not surprised that the young men of our present day do not enjoy partridge-shooting as it was enjoyed in the days of my youth. I am not surprised that they go forth some two or three hours later, and return some two or three hours earlier ; that they dawdle over their elaborate luncheons, pipes, and cigarettes, and may be found in the billiard-room, or the morning-room, or the easy-chair in the drawing-room, when they might have been, as we were, still in the fields. I am not surprised, because, though they have some advantages, though they no longer need the para- phernalia with which we were encumbered the powder-flask, the shot-belt, the ramrod, the wads, and the caps though they have more birds to shoot at, artificially reared, and driven in the earlier hours of the morning into the turnips, the sport itself is comparatively uninteresting, dull, formal, monotonous. When the sickle was superseded by the scythe and the mowing-machine, and the face of the earth was clean-shaved, when the high hedges were cut down and the broad dykes filled in, when fields were added to fields, or only sepa- rated by the light iron fence, when the old order changed and gave place to the new, there were manifest gains in facilities of cultivation, and in the increase of produce; but to the artist and to the sportsman, to those who loved the picturesque, and SHOOTERS. 299 to those who followed the partridge, the transforma- tion was indeed deplorable. I remember an old gamekeeper sorrowfully surveying a model farm, as though it had been some fair city overthrown by an earthquake, some shore strewn with wrecks, or some plantation of goodly trees laid low by the hurricane, and saying, " I've known the time when that farm was as pretty a spot for game as could be found in the county, and now why, there ain't a place where a partridge can make a nest, or a hare or a rabbit can hide ! You see the grass field yonder. Well, you'll scarcely believe it, but it wor once the beautifullest bog for a jack snipe as ever you'd wish to see. I've killed three couple of a morning among the tussocks and rushes afore they spoilt it with them drains ! " And when I nobly suggested (for my sympathies were with the snipes) that he must not forget that there was more wheat, more food, than before, he wished to be informed " what was the good of wheat, which it did not pay to grow at thirty shillings a quarter, when them foreigners were sending more than we wanted, and folks never left no stubble ! " The jack snipe is a fascinating bird (whether on the wing or on the toast), but he is not an adjunct of true agriculture, and the keeper's denunciation of modern improvements must be regarded as " not proven." It recalls to me another plea for bad farming, as quaint, but far more ingenious, which I heard many years ago from a Notts auctioneer, 300 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the cleverest of his craft in the midland counties. He was offering for sale a farm in our neighbour- hood, which had been long neglected by idle and impoverished tenants, when one of his audience pro- claimed in a loud voice, " that he wouldn't have the place as a gift; that it was more like a cfoc&yard than a farm, and he didn't think it would produce a new corn from an old one." The auctioneer heard him patiently, and, when he had concluded his dis- paragements, he replied to the effect " that he should make no attempt to conceal the fact that the farm was not in a satisfactory condition ; but the land itself was excellent, and he was sure that any occu- pier possessed of the intelligence of the gentleman who had just favoured them with his candid and gratuitous remarks" (hereupon all eyes were fixed on the commentator, to his evident discomfort), "any tenant with his quick discovery of defects, his knowledge of draining " (the sale took place on the afternoon of a market day, and the countenance of the critic, who had just come from " the ordinary," was still aglow with alcoholic fire), " would speedily restore order, fertility, and abundance. And I think," he continued, " that this gentleman has not duly considered the present advantages, as well as the future profits, to be derived from a farm such as this which I have now the honour of offering to your notice. I would ask you to reflect for a moment upon the temptations which beset a young man who has entered upon a farm on which every- SHOOTERS. 301 thing has been done which capital and culture could do. He goes out to find that no repairs are required, no improvements can be designed, no alteration can be made in the regular routine of work. So he returns to his home, has a glass of brandy and water, and smokes a cigar. Takes another walk after his dinner ; same results, more brandy and water, more cigars contracts a habit of drinking, loses his money, loses his health, dies in the workhouse ! Whereas, a young man who takes the tenancy of the farm which is now on sale is compelled to be industrious, and has not a moment of spare time upon his hands ; his active habits make him health- ful, a beautiful wife and lovely children make his home happy, frugality makes him rich, and he dies at an advanced age, respected by all, and bequeath- ing a thousand pounds to the Nottingham Infirmary." After this introduction the speaker, having put all his hearers but one in good humour, proceeded to business. 302 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XXV. SHOOTERS Continued. Partridge-shooting in the olden time The sickle and the scythe Tame birds Temptations and inclinations to poach The poacher. LET me describe a day's partridge-shooting in the olden time, that the young sportsman may, if he please, compare the present with the past. We breakfasted early, and left the house about 9 a.m. The keeper waited with the guns ; a brace of poin- ters whining in irrepressible excitement, and receiv- ing us with joyful embraces, which, as Mrs. Nickleby said, when one of her admirers persisted in carving her initials on the pew-door during divine service, were " gratifying, but embarrassing ; " and a miscel- laneous youth, who was everything by turns, and nothing long, sometimes in the stable, sometimes in the garden, a messenger, a cleaner of boots, whose service everybody claimed, especially " the maids," but who was in September definitely annexed to the shooters. A short walk brings us to a field of wheat-stubble some fifteen inches of straw has been left by the Irish reapers, who came over in those days by thousands with their sickles and as SHOOTERS. 303 soon as the gate is open, our plan of " beating " the ground having been previously decided, and the miscellany sent off to "mark," the pointers rush right and left in front of us, the limit of their range being intimated to them by the whistle of the keeper, and, crossing each other at intervals, pursue their quest of the game. See ! Sancho sud- denly changes his gallop to a walk, and the walk, after a few slow, cautious steps, into a halt. Then he stands, and moves not, unless it be to crouch upon the ground, as he finds himself close to the birds, or to follow as they run before him. Juno sees him, fifty yards away, stops and " backs." Distance does not lend enchantment to the view, and her curiosity (said to be a feminine infirmity, but I have noticed it quite as largely developed in Sancho and other males) impels her to make a stealthy advance towards her mate, until the upraised hand of the keeper, and his " Steady, Juno ! " enforces a reluctant obedience. The guns draw nearer to " the point," and this is a crisis in which you may frequently distinguish the superior from the second-rate sportsman, the silver from the electro-plate I might almost say, the gentle- man from the snob. The former, when he is nearest to the game, waits patiently for his companion, and seems more anxious to give than to take advantage ; the latter either hurries forward with a selfishness which disdains disguise, or moves onward step by step when he thinks that he is unobserved, and in either case puts up the birds. Prematurely or not, 304 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. sooner or later, they must rise from their covert, some to fall and the rest to be accelerated in their flight as though they were not sufficiently scared by the report of the guns and their family bereave- ments by loud holloas of " Mark ! mark ! " to the lad in the lane, who has an engagement with some blackberries in another direction, but is expected to see every bird alight, wherever he may happen to be. Then, as the well-trained pointers obey the word of command, " Down, charge ! " the guns are reloaded, the birds are bagged, and the sportsmen either follow the covey which they have sprung, or go in search of other game. All around us the deep stubbles offered board and lodging for the birds, but, when disturbed, they would seek other refuge ; and following them in the clover and the grass, the turnips and potatoes, the hedgerows and the late crops of beans, we had a continual and charming diversity in the scene and manner of our sport. Sometimes they would alight on the fallows, and then, when the sun was up, and the great clods of clay were baking into bricks, you required a good courage and a good pair of boots. Both the beans and the ploughed land suggested Leech's delightful sketch of the lazy gunner, giving directions to his friend to do the walking, " and I'll stay here and mark." But there was no shirking, no loitering, in those days; the exercise and its results were too enjoyable, and "dwn perspiro, spero" was on the sportsman's crest. SHOOTERS. 305 Sometimes the farmer would join us on his lands for the tenant had not been then informed that it was his duty to hate his landlord and would walk with us, and show us where to find the game, and have a pleasant, friendly talk about the harvest and the markets, until he left us, with a hare in one hand and a brace of birds in the other. And then, jnst when our energies were beginning to flag and the pointers beginning to tire, when our collars were limp and our ties were loose, when the birds, as always in the middle of the day, were more difficult to find, and we were becoming more and more severe with the lad in the lane for not marking those birds which he could not possibly have seen then Tim, the stableman, not remarkable on ordinary occasions for his personal charms, but now beautiful in our eyes as the Apollo Belvidere or the Flying Mercury, approaches with pony and cart, bringing luncheon to restore our vigour, and Don and Jewel to replace our weary dogs. Then the white cloth is spread under the umbrageous oak, or on the bank which is shaded by the tall hedge, and the cold game-pie, or the hot Irish stew, the puff, the cheesecake, and the peach, with the beer, which in that primitive period was made from malt and hops, with the brown bottles of " pop," and a soupqon of sherry there might sometimes be what Mrs. Brown calls "just the least as is" of cognac to blend with the aerated water are spread out for our refection, together with the rugs and the wraps, on x -^06 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. which we seat ourselves around. Sometimes the ladies joined us, and then, if Jupiter had seen our cup-bearers, he would have given poor Hebe warn- ing ; but our seances, though delightful, were brief, and as soon as the small cigar or pipe was smoked (the combination of paper and sawdust, called cigar- ette, was not then discovered) we resumed our sport, Sancho and Juno, refreshed by their rest, struggling with Tim, who had them in couples, and almost pulling him off his legs in their efforts to follow the guns. In the afternoon the birds were again in the stubbles, and we continued our pursuit until " the sun was westering to its close." In those days, when we had no breech-loaders, and when we followed and found the game, instead of its being driven to us, we considered twenty brace a satis- factory " bag " for two guns, and it required good walking and good shooting to accomplish such a result. Under the present system of driving the coveys into turnips before the shooters go out, and then walking them up with a long line of beaters, much larger quantities are easily secured ; but this process cannot be compared for a moment with the diversity of enjoyment which we had in the olden time, and hardly deserves to be described as sport. The rearing of tame birds by the hundred in itself invalidates any claim to the title, and my memory suggests an illustration in support of my argument. There was a numerous assemblage of shooters, SHOOTERS. 307 keepers, loaders, and beaters, on the estate of a great breeder and preserver of game in my neigh- bourhood, and a multitude of partridges were con- gregated in two vast fields of turnips. -There was a piece of grass land between these two fields, and on it stood the house and premises, kennels, and coops of the head keeper. As the company passed from one piece of turnips to the other, some scores of young birds, late hatched and little more than half-grown, gathered themselves around the keeper, and affec- tionately insisted, to his intense disgust, in following him across the field ! I would rather see the Italian and French chasseur stalking the linnet, and bring- ing him down in triumph, because he has little else to stalk ; I would rather see " 'Arry from London " shooting at the seagulls, as they flap their great wings overhead, because, as a rule, he misses, than look upon that procession again. Similar exhibitions may be witnessed in the coverts as well as in the field young pheasants following the man who has reared them as he passes the place where they have been fed ; and I protest against these poultry shows, this excessive and arti- ficial multiplication of game, not only as detracting from the manliness of the sport, and converting healthful, vigorous, sustained exertion into the brief battue, half luncheon and half lounge ; as creating a spirit of jealous competition which induces the competitors to appraise the merits of a day's shoot- ing rather from the quantity which has been shot 308 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. than from their enjoyment of the diversion ; as interfering in many cases with another recreation which, being offered to all who can avail themselves of it, gives a much more extensive pleasure I mean hunting, sometimes forbidden, and sometimes only permitted, because there is nothing to hunt ; but, in addition to these objections, I denounce this extravagant display as an additional temptation, which allures men to disobey the law of trespass, to disregard the rights of property, and to defy those who defend them. I hold no brief, I make no apologies or excuses for those who heed not the Divine commandments, " Thou shalt not steal," " Thou shalt do no murder," but I maintain that it is every man's bounden duty to oppose rather than to encourage all tendencies to evil, to minimize rather than to increase the suggestions and opportunities of vice, to make it more easy to do that which is right, and more hard to do that which is wrong. If I find a burglar in. my house I detain him, if I can, until he is trans- ferred to the police, but I do all that is in my power to keep him out of it ; and I do not have any silver spoons on the lawn to show how rich I am in plate. I grow my apples in an orchard, and not upon way- side trees, and do not wear my handkerchief pro- truding from my pocket when I am in London streets. Proclivities to poach are among those baleful weeds which are indigenous in " the ground of the SHOOTERS. 309 heart," and which, if they are not checked, corrupt and cover the soil. Boys will go where they have been warned not to go, and to be pursued by some irascible owner, sudden and quick in quarrel, but slow in action, is a supreme delight. I have heard that after a holiday pies have come from the baker to the school containing rabbits not purchased in the market. Nay, I have heard grown men say that to see coveys of birds, bred on their own ground, flying over the boundary fence, and settling in a manner which seemed to them designedly and offensively ostentatious in their neighbour's fields, was a most severe ordeal. Indeed, one of them candidly confessed that a certain beanfield, to which a magnificent covey always resorted as soon as he entered the adjoining stubble, had finally led him astray. " I brought back two brace," he said ; " but when, a few days afterwards, I succumbed to the same temptation, and was nearing the spot where the birds had dropped, in a state of profuse per- spiration and some little nervous anxiety, I was horrified to hear a loud and angry voice exclaiming, * What, yer in them be-ans agin ! Young Lovegrove seed yer in 'em last Wednesday; but it's not now, and it's not then it's for iver ! ' ' Speaking generally, these nomad and acquisitive instincts are satisfied by legitimate sports and games; but to those who have no means, and no lawful op- portunities for such a gratification, they present themselves as seductive allurements to crime. A 310 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. friend of mine, a squire in the midlands, an enthu- siastic sportsman, with a large experience both at home and abroad, and an irrepressible desire to narrate his adventures, was staying in the same house with the Eight Hon. John Bright, and one night in the smoking-room he had for some time entertained the company, as chief speaker, with records of his prowess, when the famous orator, having finished his pipe, rose up to go. My friend pressed him to refill and remain. " I thank you, sir, for your invitation," Mr. Bright replied, "but having listened with much interest to your conver- sation, and having formed my conclusion, I think that I will go to bed." " And may I ask," said the sportsman, " what that conclusion may be ? " " Cer- tainly you may," it was answered. " My conclusion is this : that if you had been a poor man you would have spent most of your time on the treadmill, and I wish you good night." The poacher is not an educated man, and does not read, like the Honourable Crasher, " The Idylls of the King," but he is a very clever artist in his craft. He knows the habits and the haunts of all the animals, furred or feathered, which he desires to annex, what they eat, and where they find it. He knows their lair and roost. He can speak their language and imitate their utterance so accurately as to draw them almost within his reach. He removes the top from a tailor's thimble, and covers the vacant space with parchment, through which SHOOTERS. 311 he passes a piece of fine " gut," and, by drawing it backwards and forwards, produces the partridge "call." His snares, and traps, and "gins" are most cunningly devised, neatly made, and skilfully set. His manipulation of trout is delicate as it is fatal. He attaches a running noose of whipcord to the end of a stout rod or pole, and, passing it adroitly over the head of a pike basking on the surface of still clear water, he will tighten it with a sudden jerk as the fish opens his gills, and lift him at once to land. He knows where to set his night-lines in the pools of the brook, or by daylight to dislodge the eels beneath its banks, and spear them in midstream. He watches not only the game but the keeper, and rejoices to elude and deceive him. Gruns are fired by one or two of his company far away from the covert, in which the rest are engaged with their nets. Nor does he confine his devices to the keeper. A dealer in game at Nottingham came to the police- office to state that a man had driven to his house early that morning, bringing two large sacks con- taining hares in his cart. Each sack, he said, held twenty-five hares, and he opened one, and took out three or four specimens, to show that they were fresh and good. The bags were old and worn, and the legs protruded and the skins were visible here and there, where a rent had been made. The seller was in a very great hurry, as he " thought the bobbies were after him," and the dealer agreed to 312 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. take the sacks as they were, and to give three pounds for the lot. On emptying them, he found himself the proprietor of the four sound hares which had been shown to him as a sample, seven hares' feet, several pieces of fur which had been deftly sewn on the sacks, and a various collection of old rags, grass, papers, and other rubbish ! The poacher will sometimes indulge in a quaint, sarcastic humour, as when he delineates in chalk upon the wall of the keeper's wayside home a rude representation of two men, carrying between them a long pole laden with game, and scrawls underneath his mural fresco, " Good night, Billy ; 'ow you does snoar ! " or when he wrote to a dignified and reserved peer of the realm, one of whose Christian names was Robert, the following epistle : * " DEAR BOB, You will be delighted to hear that we had first-rate sport last night in the big wood, and much regretted your absence. One of your keepers ran against a wire, placed in his way by some malicious person, and when he fell among the brambles, and his gun went off, his language almost made us blush. It seems a pity that his mother took him from the Sunday School afore they had finished his education, and he ought to know better than to carry his gun on full cock, when he's a-scrambling among the briars in the dark." * I have seen the letter, but cannot remember the spelling and grammar verbatim et literatim, but otherwise it is accurately repeated. SHOOTERS. 313 Many years ago, I had an interview with a poacher, which, though it was very brief, and not a word was spoken, produced a great excitement, a memorable alternation of despair and victory. Walk- ing with my gun by the side of a brook which ran through my property, in search of the wild duck, which sometimes came in the winter from the frozen lakes in the neighbourhood, and from the Trent, to our running stream, I had reached a point where it was crossed by a bridge and a public road. On this road, to my right, and but a few yards from the bridge, stood a man, who also carried a gun, and who, my keeper informed me, was a notorious poacher. The words had only just passed his lips when a fine mallard rose in front of us, and flew towards the bridge. I suppose that I was nervous in such an august presence, but, whatever was the cause, I fired and missed ! The mallard was now an easy shot for the poacher, when, as he deliberately raised his gun, I pulled the trigger of my second barrel, and the bird fell dead at his feet. I shall never forget the dissolving view on the keeper's countenance, from the scowl of disgust to the grin of delight, when he went to fetch the drake ! 314 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XXVI. OXONIANS. Preparatory schools Newark-upon-Trent Young Mr. Glad- stone Memories of the elections Arrival at Oxford Magdalen Bridge The anxious freshman College friends^ I went to Oxford to finish the education which began with the archer and the frog. Soon after I had mastered the alphabet, my parents seemed to lose their yearning to " keep their only son, my- self, at home." I had been systematically spoiled,, and trained to be a nuisance, and I was sent to a preparatory school for very small boys, which was kept by an excellent old lady, Mrs. Gilby, in the town of Newark-upon-Trent. I am ashamed to state that I made a most unfavourable impression upon my schoolfellows, soon after my arrival, more particularly upon the head of Master Charles Gilby, at which I threw the king of the ninepins, when he forbade me to join in the game. Worse than that, to make full confession, when Mrs. Gilby commenced the preliminary process of breaking in the colt, by placing the bridle in his mouth, and I, the motto of our House being " Frcena,. vel aurea, nolo " (" I'll have no bit, though it were OXONIANS. 315 gold "), began to rear "and kick ; when, to drop metaphor, I was shut up in the cellar then (ah, reader, remember, I pray you, my loneliness and darkness, and the longing for liberty which glows in British hearts) then I did a desperate deed ; I turned the tap of the beer barrel, and, with a loud voice, announced the fact through the keyhole. Listening, they heard the splash upon the floor. The door opened I was free. A brief emancipation. The toe of retribution was on the heel of crime, and there was quickly a second overflow, Mrs. Gilby manipulating the taps. Some sixty years afterwards, and one hundred and fifty miles from Newark, I, the dean, was con- versing with the bishop, Dr. Thorold, of Rochester, and mentioned that I had seen Mr. Gladstone, canvassing, before he was a member of Parliament. "That is strange," said the bishop. "I saw him chaired after election." And when I inquired how he came to be there, he replied that his home in Lincolnshire was no great distance from Newark, and that he was sent there to a school which was kept by Mrs. Gilby. As the older boy, I had left her tutelage when Master Thorold came, but I had only moved up the street to the Grammar School, some hundred yards away, and it was a curious coincidence that we should again meet in such close (and to me most happy) association, after a severance of so many years, and so far away from the homes of our childhood. 316 TILE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Both schools had a holiday to celebrate the election of " young Mr. Gladstone," as the Conserva- tive member for Newark. He came to us with a great reputation, having just taken his " Double First"* at Oxford, and I have a most vivid re- membrance of the spot on which I first saw him, of his gentle manners, and of his kind, thoughtful, intellectual face. From that day, and for more than half a century, he was of all public men the one whom I most admired arid revered. I read, believed, and still believe, a book which he wrote, in the maturity of his manhood, and the fulness of his faith, to defend that connection between the Church and the State, which was threatened, he said, by the infidel, the Eornanist, the professor of political economy, and the democrat. He maintained " that the State in rejecting the Church would actively violate its most solemn duty, would entail upon itself a curse, would be guilty of an obstinate refusal of light and truth, which is the heaviest sin of all ; and that such a separation would be a practical atheism, that is a human agency, knowingly, delibe- rately, and permanently divested of regard to God." Gradually in the half-century which has passed since this book was written, more rapidly in the later years, the Churchman (as it seems to me) has * His Mathematical First did him special honour, because in his boyhood he had a great aversion to arithmetic, but, when he was told that a statesman must be conversant with figures ;md statistics, he overcame his objection ; and, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the first financier of his day. OXONIANS. 3 I 7 been merged in the statesman, the statesman in the politician, and the politician into the lover of popularity and power ; but the old arguments, un- changeable as truth, against the disestablishment of a national religion, the dismemberment of the empire, and the sacrifice of principle to expediency, may still be used in all charity, and though the hero of my long and loyal worship is little more to me now than a broken idol, I protest against the opprobrious reproaches, scurrilous slanders, and false accusations which are recklessly uttered against the most famous statesman and the most impressive orator of his age, against an accomplished scholar and linguist, a consummate financier, a Christian gentleman, perfectly sincere in his convictions, and prepared to defend them.* It is currently and credibly reported that Mr. Gladstone in his early life desired to take Holy Orders, and were it not for the belief that " whatever is is best " in the end, many would be disposed to think that he would have been more successful as Primate than as Premier of all England. He would have been the greatest theologian and preacher in Christendom, and, once established at Lambeth, with his excellent wife, no temptation in the form of * An absurd instance of this antipathy occurred recently. A volunteer regiment set up a pioneer, who marched with his axe in front. Whereupon, a gentleman in the neighbourhood withdrew his subscription, under the impression that the man with the hatchet was a complimentary representation of Mr. Gladstone ! 318 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. a cardinal's hat or a papal tiara could have sug- gested itself to his ambition. The Radicals were much perturbed by the defeat of their candidate, Sergeant Wilde, afterwards Lord Truro and Lord Chancellor, and gave us schoolboys a very striking proof of their indignation. We were enthusiastic Tories, and we knew the reason why. It was not remotely associated with politics we were sublimely ignorant and indifferent as to party opinions but we had discovered that the gentlemen who, from their social or official position, had the most influence in obtaining half-holidays, were Con- servatives, and we never doubted for a moment that such men were in the right. Accordingly, when, after Mr. Gladstone's victory, " the Blues," Sergeant Wilde's adherents, paraded the town at night with music and torches and barrels of flaming tar, we threw open the windows of our dormitory as the pro- cession passed, and shouted " Red for ever." In two minutes we saw through our error, for there was hardly an unbroken pane, and these sermons-jo, stones were followed next morning by other homilies of a practical character, with illustrations by " the Doctor " and his cane. Rough ways and rude speeches had freer scope in those days, when the rival candidates stood on the same hustings, with great crowds of their sup- porters before them. Woe to the man who had done some mean or foolish act, or said some silly words. They were proclaimed in a tone which all must hear, OXONIANS. 319 and with a simplicity of language which none could fail to understand. Nor were these animosities satisfied with the breaking of windows or the strife of tongues. Instigated by demagogues, exasperated by taunts, inflamed by alcohol, the rivals attacked each other when they met with their bands in the streets. It was the custom to convey the successful candidates, mounted on triumphal cars, through the town, and I remember an occasion when two elegant chairs, draped with lace and pink satin, were brought from the head-quarters of the victorious army into the market-place, and before they could be placed upon the conveyance prepared for them, and the conquering heroes seated, an assault was made by their opponents. I watched the lovely sedilia sway- ing to and fro over the heads of the contending crowd, saw them totter and fall, to become mere rags and matches. They were lively days, those days of election, when I was at Newark School. Not only was there fighting in our streets, the walls covered with addresses and appeals, " Yote for Gladstone," " Plump for Wilde " (I thought of these placards as I walked through Pompeii, and saw traces of the graffiti, " Vote for Marcellinus," ** Yerus for aedile "), parodies, lampoons (rightly named as ;( squibs," fire and brimstone, ending in smoke, with a villainous smell of saltpetre) ; but every secret induce- ment, promise, persuasion, intimidation, and decep- tion was used on both sides to influence voters. Men were stupefied with drink on the eve of the poll, 320. THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. and driven to distant parts of the country. Bribes were freely offered and received. One of the electors made no secret of his plan of campaign : " I takes the brass from both on 'em, and then I votes as I loikes." Another boasted that he had got a five-pound Bank of England note for his suffrage. A subtle acquaintance met him on his way to vote and whispered in his ear, " They've given you a ' flash ' note it ain't worth tuppence." Whereupon the possessor took it from his pocket, tore it to pieces, and voted against the candidate whom he had promised to support. ***** I have lingered too long over my memories of school-days and their surroundings ; the coach waits to take me for my matriculation to Oxford. There were at that time but a few miles of rail laid down, of those vice per Angliam ferro strata, which was afterwards the subject of a prize poem, and the first sight of the University from the hill of Headington was far more admirable and impressive than that which is presented to us now as we approach on the level. There was a flood in the foreground, and to the poetic mind Gray's lines on Eton College came at once and of course " Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the watery glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Alfred's holy shade," even as, from the non-poetic mind, came, in later OXONIANS. 321 days, the exclamation of " Spiers and Pond ! " Sentimental, or facetious, or both, for there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, the old Oxonian never forgets that first sight of Oxford, beautiful Oxford, which he saw from that rising ground. We claim no superiority, mental or muscular, over our brothers on the banks of the Cam ; we have no chapel so exceeding magnifical as King's ; we have no quadrangle to compare in expanse and dignity with that of Trinity ; but when you come to a close and complete comparison of the city with the town (which ought to be a city), of street with street, college with college, of our parks and gardens, our river and its banks, with " the backs " and miserable stream at Cambridge (all honour to the men who from such vile material achieve such grand results !), why then no eyes in good working order can fail to see that, though Granta is quite as clever and quite as amiable as her sister Bhedicyna, she is not so pretty to look at. What city has so fair an entrance as Oxford, over Magdalen Bridge, by the stately tower and the famous college which King James commended as "the most absolute, that is, the most complete building in Oxford," and which the old historic Antony a Wood declared to be " the most noble and rich structure in the learned world ; " with its Founder's Chapel, once profaned by the malignant Puritan, who broke down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers, but now " set in its state," 322 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. and hallowed by a reverent worship, thanksgiving and the voice of melody ; with its pinnacles and turrets, its cloisters, library, and hall, with its deer park, and streams, and trees ? Where is there a street like " the High," with its churches, colleges, and schools ? These edifices, it must be confessed, are not of uniform merit sunt bona, sunt mala, sunt mediocria: did not Dr. Ashhurst Gilbert, after- wards Bishop of Chichester, declare, in preaching in St. Mary's, and in deprecation of an incongruous similitude, that " as well, my brethren, might you compare the solid masonry of University with the meritricious architecture of Queen's ? " but the com- bination, the tout ensemble, has no counterpart. There are many incidents in boyhood and youth which are as evergreens in the garden of memory, never losing their glossy leaves the first prize we won, the first pony we rode, the first watch we wore, love's young dream (of a tragic actress coeval with our mother) ; but there is no event which, as it seems to me, impresses itself so distinctly and per- manently upon our remembrance as our introduction to college life. There is a delightful fascination in our new experience of comparative independence, possession, and authority. We exult in the exclusive tenancy of our small but snug habitation (the bed- room a mere slice of masonry, just holding the inmate and his appurtenances, but of all dormitories the most delightful, and no king "laid in bed majestical can sleep so soundly as the " under- OXONIANS. 323 graduate) ; we are impressed by a supreme sense of our dignity as masters of an establishment item, one joint-stock servant and as proprietors of six dessert and six tea spoons, real silver, hall marked, and engraved with family crest, three dozen of port and ditto sherry, an armchair which might have been made for Falstaff,* and a series of richly coloured prints in which the achievements and catastrophes of the chase, over or into the wall, the timber, and the brook, were cleverly portrayed from " The Find " to " The Finish," from " Gone Away " to "Who-op!" "Then ' the oak' is such a blessing ! " as Shelley said to his Oxford friend and biographer. In a moment, by closing that outer door, you ensure stillness and peace ; you can rest, you can read, you are secure from touts and bores, you can enjoy uninterrupted the genial parlance of some kindred spirit, some friend to whom you can open your heart on subjects which would be incon- gruous " where men most do congregate." Some of my dearest, happiest memories come to me from these hours, when "oft in the stilly night, ere slumber's chain had bound us," our secret thoughts and holy aspirations, so seldom uttered, rose high above our studies and our sports, and we spoke, with mutual trust, and brotherly affection, and * Suggesting the observation, made by the professor from Padua, "that Oxford had a right to be called 'the seat of learning,' because it was a seat in which Learning sat very comfortably, well thrown back, as in an easy-chair, and slept so soundly that nobody could wake her." 324 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. humble reverence, of our faith and duty, of our hopes and fears. Then came the anxious, nervous curiosity con- cerning our companions, as we met them for the first time in chapel, lecture-room, or hall. Would they like us ; would they be kind, and call on us ; or would they regard us as too puerile, too awkward, too " rugged and unkempt," for their patronage ? Was our tie correct? Was the cut of our coat comme il faut? Should we go to the wrong pew and be contemptuously repulsed ? Should we demean ourselves creditably at meals ? Certainly, we should not commit ourselves as the notorious freshman, who put his knife to his lips, and was sternly rebuked by his neighbour, " Sir, you can't juggle here." That first awful lecture ! Should we be " put on " ? Should we utter a false quantity, omit an aspirate ? What were the results of these solicitudes ? Few disappointments, because animal implume is gregarious as birds of a feather, and men of like minds and habits soon fraternize and keep together. There is an instinctive sympathy. I remember that when I first dined in hall I made a selection of several faces, having a faith in physiognomy which has rarely misled me, of those whom I most wished to know, and all of them eventually were numbered among my friends. There were exceptions to my rule, preaching "fronti nulla fides" "nimium ne crede colori ; " and if these memories have a reader OXONIANS. 325 going to the University, I would impress upon him the wise instruction which Polonius gave to his son " Do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade." Beware of the effervescent spirits, who are prone to call you Jack, or Billy, or Bob, as soon as they know your surname, and who, if you accept their first familiarities, may annoy and depress you always. Mate with your equals, with men of your own grade and means. Otherwise, you may be led, or you may lead others, into habits of extravagance, into vain conceits and expectations. These sudden ascents and condescensions are spasmodic, as a rule, and rarely establish a lasting friendship. The exceptions are, when men are united by spiritual sympathies in the service of One who is no respecter of persons, and then in all ranks we may find " the friend that loveth at all times, and the brother born for adversity." 326 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XXVII. OXONIANS Continued. Dons and undergraduates Eeading, hunting, and boating men Humiliation of pride Want of religious sympathy and instruction How supplied in later and happier days The Universities and Public Schools Missions. THE collegians of my day might be divided, like the universe, into four quarters dons, reading, hunting, and boating men. There were some undergraduates, including the manliest and wisest, who were not only eager students, but brave horsemen, stalwart oars, agile cricketers (lawn-tennis was unknown, football was not in vogue, and golf had not come over the border) ; men who, when they were invited to self-indulgence, seemed almost to apologize for their splendid courage, " because they did not think it right to give, or could not afford to give, more time or money to amusements, in which none had greater enjoyment" they might have added, "or in which none had greater success." I remember a signal illustration. At a large wine-party one of these heroes, who had just come up as a freshman, was invited by his neighbour to go out next day OXONIANS. 327 with the hounds, and when he replied that he must stick to his books, one of our foremost riders (the only one who was bumptious) remarked in a tone which pretended to be a whisper, but was audible to all, that he should not think the young gentleman had ever heard of any horse but Pegasus and the wooden quadruped which they took into Troy. I saw a frown and a flush on the young gentleman's face, and a quivering of the lips, and an upward movement, as though he would rise from his seat; but he was learning the noblest of all lessons, and was silent. Not many days after, we had a fast run in the Bicester country, and a dozen of us, well up with the pack, were stopped for a time by an impossible bullfinch. There was a partial aperture in the centre of the fence, but this contained a huge, grim, dreadful stile, with a step crossing the lower bar, and surmounted by a beam of strong oak, polished by friction with wayfaring men, and clamped with an iron band. The sarcastic critic, to whom I have just referred, was the first to inspect it, and he pronounced it " not negotiable." Cheer- fully accepting his verdict, we were turning to seek some practicable exit, when to our astonishment a young horseman, quietly attired in black, and mounted on a steed which some of us recognized as an unruly but well-bred four-year-old, recently imported from Ireland by one of our Oxford dealers, rode calmly but resolutely at the stile. It was evident that both the horse and his rider meant 328 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. business, and that the former required restraint rather than encouragement. But he was well in hand (only lunatics gallop at timber), and just steadying himself for a second, to concentrate his power and measure his distance, he rose and cleared that formidable obstruction. Then he who had done the deed turned with a pleasant smile to him who said that it could not be done, and, uttering but one word, rode on. The word was " Pegasus ! " Then he, to whom it was spoken, made a show as though he would follow the speaker ; but we knew, and he knew, and his horse knew, that there was no real intention. No effort was made, no second attempt after the first ignominious " refuse ; " and the freshman had pounded the field ! Unhappily this composite order of undergraduate, of men who are as zealous in their work as in their play, and who, whatsoever their hand findeth to do, do it with their might, has few examples ; and I therefore repeat that, speaking generally, we may classify the members of the University as : (1) men who rule ; (2) men who read ; (3) men who ride ; and (4) men who row. Wherefore, first of the dons, or domini, who exercise dominion over us. Remembering that not a few of them were of humble origin,* had come to * The Christ Church swell may be reminded that Wolsey was a butcher's son, and I remember that in my day the son of a butler took a First Class soon after the son of his master was ignominiously " plucked for his Smalls " ! OXONIANS. 329 Oxford from secluded homes in the country, or from streets in manufacturing towns, with no surroundings to elevate and refine, and therefore had little in common, outside the lecture-room, with those who, living among the beauties of nature, the elegancies of art, the accomplishments of culture, the luxuries of wealth, the K-ffjrut Ko.1 cyKoXXoj7ri'o-/x,aTa TrXovrov measured all men by their own standard, and enlisted none who did not reach it, who refused the title of " gentleman " to those who had a provincial accent, dishevelled hair, unseemly raiment, creaking shoes, prehistoric hats ; when it is recollected that, in those days, heads of houses were regarded as ornamental rather than useful, figure-heads rather than pilots, as sitting in serene expectation of bishoprics and deaneries, and tutors were looked upon by parents as teachers and economists to help their sons in obtaining classes and degrees, and in keeping them out of debt by the sons themselves, as hindrances to their enjoyment, to be interviewed only on re- straint; it seems to me that our rulers fully and faithfully discharged the duties which they under- took, as they understood them, as they were under- stood by those whom they succeeded, and as they satisfied the public expectation. They were learned, and, as a rule, apt experts in imparting knowledge ; they were just; they were patient and kind. In addition to their regular instructions, they were always ready privately to help the ignorant to 330 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. pass his examination, as well as the more intellectual and erudite to win honours in the schools. They were men of high moral integrity, with discreet appreciations of their good old common-room port. As for the realization and promotion of the sacred purposes for which the University was de- signed, for which the founders built and the benefactors endowed its colleges and halls, it would be a false compliment to speak of failure, because failure implies effort, and no effort, worthy of the name, was made by our rulers in my day. Ever since the days of St. Frideswide; ever since King Alfred, according to the old black-letter verse " In the yeare VIII. hundred LXXX. and tweyne Did found and make a study then againe, And an Universitee for Clerkes in to rede, The which he made at Oxenford indeed, To that intent that Clerkes by sapience Again Hereticks should make resistance ; " in the days of Ethelred, Guimond, Canute, William of Durham, Walter de Merton, John de Balliol, Walter de Stapledon, Adam de Brom, William of Wykeham, William Waynflete, Bishops Fleming and Smith and Fox, Knights Sutton and Pope and White, the founders or restorers of University, Merton, Balliol, Exeter, Oriel, New, Lincoln, Mag- dalen, Brasenose, Corpus, Trinity, and St. John's, the multitude of generous men who endowed them with money and estates, were all of one mind that OXONIANS. 331 while Oxford was to be a place of general instruc- tion, having Schools of Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, Grammar, Logic, Music, Moral and Natural Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Khetoric, these studies were absolutely subservient to the queen of all science, Theology, mere tributaries to the river which maketh glad " the city of our God," helps to the Christian faith. The design of Oxford was not only the development but the consecration of the intellect. " There are those," St. Bernard writes, " who desire to know only in order that they may know, and this bears the taint of curiosity ; to know that they may be known, and this is but vanity ; to sell their knowledge, and this is a shameful trade ; but some that they may be built up in the love and fear of God, and that is wisdom." " Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." This wisdom was not taught. No appeals were made by our tutors, privately, personally, to our spiritual instincts of love and fear. At a time when the influence of good and that of evil are alike most powerful, when holy ambitions and noble thoughts are contending with worldly motives and with carnal lusts, when earnest words of encouragement and warning fall as the gentle dew from heaven on the hard ground beneath, no advice was offered, no sympathy was shown. No attempt was made to understand our special qualities, inclinations, temper, temptations ; no study of character with a view to its improvement, no gentle pleading face 332 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. to face, as the Master bade, " If thy brother trespass, go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Golden opportunities lost for ever ; many a crisis, in which a kindly hand on the shoulder and a tender voice in the ear might have saved from sin and shame. It may be said you had constant services, sermons, and divinity lectures. The services certainly were frequent ; but they were also compulsory, and therefore attended grudgingly and as of necessity. They were said in a dreary edifice, and, as a rule, in a cold, monotonous, perfunctory tone, which did not invite devotion. I never heard a note of music in our college chapel ; the University sermons (I do not remember that any were preached in college) failed to impress the undergraduate mind, except when Newman, or Pusey, or Claughton preached. No advantage was taken of lectures on the Greek Testament for exhortation, or reproof, or instruc- tion in righteousness ; but they were occupied by the consideration of textual arrangements, diverse interpretations, parallel passages, commentaries, descriptions of scenery, dates, and statistics. It was a time in which ugliness and dirt were re- garded as bulwarks of the Protestant faith, and beauty and order were " marks of the beast." Doc- trine was bigotry, reverence was idolatry, and zeal was superstition. I remember two sad examples of disinclination OXONIANS. 333 and incapacity on the part of our teachers, spiritual pastors, and masters (all tutors of colleges were then in Holy Orders), to commune with their pupils concerning the one thing needful, to strengthen and to guide. An undergraduate, who was very earnest and anxious about his religion, went to his tutor for explanation and instruction on certain perplexities which had harassed and oppressed him. His appeal was received with a manifest surprise, and when he pressed it with some fervour, it became more and more apparent that he was supposed by his senior to be suffering from nervous or mental dis- order. Finally, he was recommended to see a doctor ! Another, who was in great trouble from a remorseful conscience, went to his superior, as invited by the Church, to open his grief, to receive comfort and counsel and the benefit of absolution, and was curtly informed " that if he meant confes- sion and that sort of thing, he had better go to some popish priest," which advice, I grieve to say, he ultimately followed. These are extreme cases, but they promoted distrust, and restrained others from the risk of similar repulse. The intercourse should have been initiated and encouraged, instead of being suppressed, by the elders, and then, as we know from the happier ex- perience of later years, there might have been " showers of blessings." It is indeed a matter of deep thankfulness to be assured that this spiritual sympathy is now more largely and lovingly offered, 334 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. and that where indifference and unbelief had risen in its place, like weeds where there is no culture, it is earnestly contending with doubtful disputations, oppositions of science (falsely so called), rationalism, materialism, false doctrine, heresy, and schism, for " the faith once delivered to the saints." Its power may be estimated by the wonderful work which one man, *Az/a dvSpw (true to his name), having the desire, received the power to do among the undergraduates for Christianity and the Church at Oxford ; and its results may be seen throughout the land in devoted priests and generous laymen, no- where more admirably wrought than by our Uni- versity missions among the London poor. Nowhere, in these later days, has been shown more convincingly the marvellous influence of Christian love in uniting all sorts and conditions of men, nowhere has the Church given a more beautiful proof of her heart's desire that the poor should have the gospel preached to them, than in those parts of the metropolis where the Oxford, Cambridge, and Public School Missions (the latter having been organized by Oxford and Cambridge men) are doing their noble work. At the opening of the new Oxford House the Archbishop of Canterbury said, " I should wish to emphasize that what before was predicted and believed in the idea which brought Oxford men down to Bethnal Green has been realized beyond their most sanguine expectations. It has been found by absolute experience that among all the OXONIANS. 335 differences, which evil powers or false principles use to divide men from one another, there is really nothing more untrue and nothing more fatal than the distinction which so many people quite uncon- sciously draw between class and class. Here in this Oxford House it has been found that people of all the so-called classes mingle harmoniously together. They desire the same things, they have the same aspirations, the same amusements, the same morals, and they find that both one class and the other, as we so mistakingly and commonly speak, are really one. This Oxford House is one of the ways in which a combination of all kinds of people, of men of all sorts of positions and various employments, has been effected in the happiest and most harmonious manner. It is founded on true definite religious principles, the principles of the Church of England ; and these, it is found, so far from separating man from man, are the truest and best cement, the most binding power which can be applied." 336 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. CHAPTER XXVIII. OXONIANS Continued. The first lecture Timidity and impudence A brave beginning The fascinations of the chase Mr. Drakes' Hounds, and the Heythrop Jim Hills Buying and selling horses Perils and penalties " The Grind " The river The race with seven oars. DESCENDING from the heights of Olympus, from the potent, grave, and reverend seniors, to the nondum ad Parnassum graduati at its base, I joined the latter, with resolute ambition to reach the mountain- top. I went to Oxford, as thousands before me, to take a First Class. An insuperable objection on the part of my Pegasus to cross the Ass's Bridge had destroyed my hope of mathematical honours ; but I had made good progress in the literce huma- niores, had a real admiration for ^Eschylus and Thucydides, Theocritus, Horace, and Yirgil, % and had transformed many stanzas of " Childe Harold " into Greek iambics, which would have amazed the author of " The Isles of Greece." I began to read with a brave industry, got up my books, and was commended for translations which would have lashed Sophocles into fury and choked Aristophanes with OXONIANS. 337 laughter. Half a century has passed since my first " lecture," but the scene is presented to imagina- tion by memory with a reality which no artist could paint the anxious freshman in his new gown and cap, feebly imitating the nonchalance of his elder brother as they enter together the tutor's room, furnished with the most beautiful of old furniture, well-bound books by standard authors, and sur- rounded by chairs for the students, wherein they await the word of command " Line 505 Mr. Aspen-Leaf, will you be so good as to begin ? " There are exceptions to this timidity. I recall an occasion on which there was some doubt as to the locality of a city mentioned in the text, and the lecturer addressed a youth, who had just come from Shrewsbury School, "Now, Mr. Bentley, you are a pupil of our great geographer, Dr. Butler, the Atlas of our age, who carries the world, not on his shoulders, but in his head " (enthusiastic applause, as always when a don condescended to a jest), " and you can probably enlighten us as to the position of this ancient town." " I believe, sir," it was promptly replied, "that modern travellers are of opinion that the city ought to be placed about ten miles to the south-east of the spot which it now occupies on our maps." Alas ! I am constrained to add that, after receiving respectful thanks for his information, the informer told us, when we left the lecture-room, that he had never heard of the vener- able city before, but that, " for the honour -of z 338 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Shrewsbury and the reputation of the doctor, he felt himself bound to say something." Retribution swiftly followed ; and on his second experiment in transplanting cities, the fiction was detected, from the delight of the audience, too audibly and visibly expressed, and the disconcerted topographer was brought to rebuke and shame. o For two or three terms I sailed smoothly over Learning's solemn seas ; then the sirens began to sing. The men who read were not, as a rule, such cheery companions as the men who rode and drove, and played cricket, and wore gay clothing, and smoked fragrant regalias, and were always jubilant. There were some, as I have intimated, who com- bined diligent study with moderate relaxations and joyous demeanour, such as Buckley, who rowed in the College Eight, took a First, became Fellow and Tutor, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and of Classical Literature of Haileybury, and who, from his large sympathies and pleasant genial ways, always won the undergraduates' love ; and Forbes, afterwards Bishop of Brechin (who apologized to his father when writing for money, but " ventured, at the same time, to remind his parent that a son was an expensive luxury "), a delightful companion, a most earnest Christian, and one of the most learned theologians of his day ; and there was hand- some William Lee, one of Dr. Arnold's favourite pupils, who was also in the Brasenose boat, rode occasionally with hounds, took a Second, and was OXONIANS. 339 Archdeacon of Worcester. I think that if I had known these men sooner, or if some kindly tutor had shown me, with words of brotherly affection and common sense, my privilege and responsibility, and had proved to me from such examples as those which I have quoted that it is possible to be both merry and wise, I think that I should have listened to the lyre of Orpheus, and turned my back on the sirens. I read resolutely for two terms and a Long Vacation, but when once more " the horn of the hunter was heard on the hill," and I met a siren in a black-velvet cap and scarlet coat, a blue bird's-eye tie, buff kerseymere waistcoat, buckskin breeches, and pale brown tops, coming adown our staircase on his way to the chase, I could resist no longer, and was lured to the rocks. He dazzled my eyes, he bewildered my brain, he caught my affections, so light and so vain ; I wrote home for my pink, I bought a horse, and joined the equestrian order. I ceased to court the Muse, and wooed the " Goddess Diana, who calls aloud for the chase." The freshman who is fond of hunting may find his photograph, and see his semblance, as from a mirror, in the epistle which Horace wrote to the Pisos " Imberbus Juvenis, tandem custode remote, Gaudet equis canibusque, et aprici grainine campi, Cereiis in vitinm flecti, monitoribns asper, Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus seris, Sublimis, cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix ; " 340 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. which may be translated freely, " The youth who does not grow a beard, released at last from his mother's apron-string, and far from his father's frown, rejoices in horses and hounds, in galloping over the grass of the Bicester country, or in leaping the stone walls of the Hey throp. He is easily led into mischief ; kicks if touched by the whip ; im- provident about common things ; ignorant of the value of money; flighty, flirty, loth to leave his delights." Irresistible to him the fascinations of the chase at Oxford, the merry companions, the cantering hacks, the high, commodious dog-cart, oft requiring, when the meet was distant or the hills were steep, the prefix of a second steed (again suggesting the quotation, " tandem custode remoto" a " leader," where no proctor is seen), and then the grand excitements of the hunt, and those " moving accidents by flood and field," which immersed the rider in the deep Evenlode, or brought the brush to his saddle-bow. Going forth, or returning home, cloud or sunshine, our spirits never flagged. " Why do you call that grey hack of yours At/ccuos ? " I asked a friend one morning as we rode " to covert." " Because," he said, " a fellow in my form at school once translated Sifccuos ' white horse ; ' and when asked the reason why, he replied that he had looked the word out in the lexicon, and it said, candidus, wquus, * white horse.' * On another occasion I inquired from the same comrade, just when the hounds were beginning OXONIANS. 341 to draw, why he did not exchange the grey afore- said for his hunter ; and he answered with all gravity that he had just received intelligence of the death of his uncle, and was consequently in mourning. It was a remarkable demonstration of grief, seeing that the afflicted nephew was in full hunting costume, and that, being one of the best riders in the University, and the grey hack having some galloping and jumping powers, he was for a time foremost in the run. Never weary, nor dejected, a perpetual proof of Addison's statement that "man is the merriest species of creature ; all above and below him are sad," the undergraduate of my day of all the cheeriest was the man who rode to hounds, some- times it may be transgressing " the limits of becoming mirth," and too practical in his jokes, but ever ready to retract and recompense. I remember that, as we were drawing near to Oxford, and the light began to fail, on a December day, we had just ridden through the toll-bar famous in history,* when we saw * Famous as the scene of the interview in which the head of a college, having informed the gate-keeper that he had for- gotten his purse, and expecting profound obeisance and prompt permission to pass, on adding the announcement, " I am the Master of Balliol," was astonished to see a hand on his bridle, and to hear a gruff voice reply, " If you ben't master o' tuppence, you don't go through this gate to-day." There was a rookery at that time in the grounds of Balliol College, visible from the Master's lodge. " I am grieved to observe," he (the Master) remarked one day to a friend, " a very serious- epidemic among the crows. The symptoms are 342 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. before us the tall form of Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, and my comrade, Charley Allen, who had marvellous mimetic powers, turned to me and said, " I'll make him believe I'm Mainwaring." Now, our friend Mainwaring was reading for his degree, and had made a solemn promise to his chief that he would abstain from hunting until the examination was over ; and therefore it was very naughty and mischievous on the part of Master Charles to pass Dr. Hawkins at a hand-gallop, holding up the collar of his scarlet coat and hiding his countenance, as one who feared recognition ; and his conduct was the more deplorable, because a similarity of form and the surrounding gloom were auxiliary to his purpose, and made his deception a success. I met the innocent victim on the following day, and he informed me that he had just had an extraordinary interview with the provost, who had sent for him, and received him about as cordially as though he had been a burglar, and commenced the conversa- tion with, " Mr. Mainwaring, I always thought you were a gentleman," and when Mr. Mainwaring responded that " he hoped such was the case," the provost had exclaimed with loud indignation, " No, in all instances the same : a sudden quiver of the wings, fol- lowed by vigorous, but futile, attempts to cling with their claws to the branches, and then they fall dead. The carrion is immediately removed, and interred by the college servants." I need hardly inform the sagacious reader that the rooks were picked off by the air-gun of an undergraduate, and " interred by the college servants " in a pie 1 OXONIANS. 343 sir ; you gave me your word of honour that you would not hunt this term, and you have not only broken it, but, conscious of your deceitful conduct, have vainly endeavoured to conceal it. I recognized you at once, when you rode past me yesterday." The result was that the accused proved an alibi, and the provost was convinced of his mistake ; but when I explained the mystery to my friend, he was for some time unable, though he had a very keen appreciation of humour and a great regard for Charley Allen, to enjoy in all its fulness the success of that little scheme.* The sport was excellent with Mr. Drake's hounds * The practical joke was, and will always be, a favourite occupation of the undergraduate. The results, as in the instance quoted, are sometimes serious. " Oxford mesmerism " was intro- duced in my time. The operator, having asserted his power to mesmerize, and having selected a subject from those who disputed it. produced two plates, and placed upon each of them a tumbler containing water. After a few preliminary manual evolutions, he took one of the plates in his hand, and requested his vis-a-vis, on whom the experiment was to be made, to take the other (which had previously been held over a candle and made quite black by the smoke), and then to watch his movements and copy them minutely. Dipping his forefinger in the water, and then rubbing it with slow solemnity on the under side of the plate, he passed it from the top of his forehead over the nose to the chin, and then made a transverse line just above the eyebrows. The result, with a few supplementary spots, was fascinating, but in one case much to be deplored. The victim left the room and the college, quite unconscious of his facial enrichments, and seeing a church lighted and open for evening service, went in with the best of motives, and, to his intense surprise and indignation, was angrily ejected by the beadle and two churchwardens. 344 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. in a fine hunting country, although the rash under- graduate sorely tried the patience of John Wingfield, huntsman, and his " Now, do 'e, gentlemen, keep back," could hardly restrain him from spoiling his own amusement. He preferred the cheery voice and frequent horn of Jim Hills, and his " Tally-ho, for'ard ! " whether there was a fox or not. Most of us, I fear, " in our sallet days, when we were green in judgment," cared more for the riding than the hunting too often when there was a scent we pressed the hounds off it, or blamed them for not running when there was none. Experience brought a truer enjoyment as we began to note the clever- ness and perseverance of the pack, until in our elderhood we were flushed with righteous anger to see mere boys riding on before us, charging prepos- terous fences with indecent haste when hounds were close in front of them, and there was an open gate not a hundred yards to the right. The right way, doubtless, is to let them alone, and I remember bearing a caustic message from one M.F.H. to his neighbour, "Tell him that if he will put his hounds into such a covert, and then ride home, he will probably hear in the course of the day that they have killed a fox." Horsedealers are not universally regarded as men who would prefer pecuniary loss to the use of exaggeration or guile, but I have found them, in my purchases at Oxford and elsewhere, as honest as their fellow-creatures. Buyers should know something of OXONIANS. 345 the article which they require, and should have a warranty. I recall a letter, written by a veterinary surgeon to a young collegian, who had instructed him to inspect a horse which he proposed to pur- chase : " Sir, I have examined the horse. The interesting family of quadrupeds to which he belongs is liable to a great number of diseases and injuries, hereditary, climatic, accidental, and I have no hesi- tation in stating that he has got most of them. He would be a very precious acquisition, as an object lesson, in our veterinary college, but I do not feel justified in commending him 1 to you, with a view to use or recreation." Inseparably from this letter, as a Siamese twin from his brother, is associated another example of the wisdom of making exhaustive inquiry before you invest in horses, A graduate, who had left the University, and who was a most accomplished per- former both in the saddle and on the box, increased his slender income by purchasing, breaking, and educating horses. At a large public auction he secured at a low figure, without a warranty, a very handsome and well-bred steed, which turned out the most obstinate, vicious, hopeless, and worthless of his kind. His owner could do nothing with him, and sent him back to the repository from which he came, to be sold for what he would fetch. Another customer was attracted by his showy appearance, and when he had bought and paid for him he came to his recent proprietor, and said, " Now, sir, seeing 346 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. that the horse is mine, and you can incur no further liability, I should feel much obliged if you would candidly tell me what sort of animal he is." And the answer was promptly given, " Well, sir, if you dont want him to ride or drive, you II find him a very nice horse" I may not leave the subject of hunting at Oxford without making my confession that the pleasures of memory are accompanied by a regret surgit amari aliquid that too much time and money were spent in the delectable pursuit of the fox, and I rejoice to hear that the restrictions upon this pastime are not so elastic as they were in my day. Post equitem sedet atra cura, and many a young Nimrod and reck- less Jehu has brought sorrow to his home, and encumbered himself with debt for years, by his extravagant outlay in riding and driving, and in expenses incidental thereto. One day a week should suffice for those who are in statu pupillari, and that only when their tutors know that they can afford it, and have their parents' or their guardians' consent. "It is not right," Archbishop Laud wrote from Lambeth two hundred and fifty years ago " it is not right to put such a charge upon parents without their particular leave and directions," and if that permission is withheld, it is a tutor's duty to enforce obedience. Not many young men have the mag- nanimous self-control of an undergraduate, to whom, knowing him to be one of the best riders in his county, I offered a mount. "You are very kind," OXONIANS. 347 he said, " because you know how I love the sport ; but you don't know that the best friend I have in the world, my father, is making sacrifices to keep me here, and I have promised him not to hunt." The cynic, who " rejoiced to be told that virtue was its own reward, because, as it seemed to him, there was no other remuneration," would be disappointed to know that not many years elapsed before my friend had a couple of first-rate hunters, the results of continuous and careful work. At Brasenose we invented " The Grind," though I am unable to explain the origin or meaning of the word. It was applied to a small company of under- graduates, meeting, after lectures and luncheon, at a rendezvous outside of Oxford, mounted on the ordinary hack, selecting some building or plantation two or three miles away, and racing towards it as our winning post. The excitements of the contest were heightened by the incapacity of the steeds, and by the appearance on the scene of the furious farmer encouraging his men to pursue and capture. With an impracticable fence before, and a man with a fork behind him, the trespasser was sometimes in the sad predicament of a certain flying-fish, of which we read that the albatross attacks him when he leaves the water, while the dolphin waits for him below. ***** Although we were divided at Brasenose College into the men who rode on the land, and the men who rowed on the water, and I was a bigoted dry Bob, I 348 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. had many dear friends in the boats, and especially among those who maintained our supremacy. Gilbert Sandbach had left the college, before I entered it, with the reputation of having found our crew in a low place on the Isis, and, after " bumping " a boat every night of the races, having rowed finally at the head of the river. He was succeeded by three admirable strokes Bishton Garnett, Somers-Cocks, and Francis Tuke. Somers- Cocks had been taught by Aleck Reed, when at Westminster,, the noble art of self-defence, and when he was insulted and attacked by a blustering bully, who went by the name of " the Henley Pet," he punished that hero so effectually, that no en- treaties could induce him to resume the perpendicular attitude, from which he had been dislodged. How they loved the river, and the boat, those grand, genial, brave-hearted, strong-armed men ! Again I see those eager faces, striving in vain to hide their anxious zeal, as they listen for the signal, " Incumbite remis ! " and the eight oars dip and rise as one, and " Bravo, Brasenose ! " tells our joyful hope. Will you not pardon the captain who, in his sad despair, silently approached the coxswain, who had lost the race, raised him by the collar of his coat, and dropped him into the Isis ? Will you not almost believe that an enthusiastic " No. 5 " was last seen walking down Bond Street with an oar on his shoulder ? In the summer of 1843, there was a large exodus OXONIANS. 349 from Oxford in vehicles of all denominations to see the Henley Regatta, especially the great race be- tween the crews which represented the two Univer- sities, the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge Subscription Eooms. Our men were giants, adroit as they were strong, and we were sanguine of success. The oarsmen had just taken their places for the start, when one of the brothers Menzies, in the Oxford boat, fainted and fell. He was taken from the boat, placed on a large sofa, and carried on the shoulders of his comrades to the Lion Hotel. He lay at full length, pale and motionless as though in the last sleep, and no sound was heard as this strange procession went, like a funeral, slowly along the street. Leaving their invalid to the speedy restorations of the doctor, the crew returned to the river with a substitute, whom, though he was not in training, they proposed faut de mieux to put in Menzies' place. Unhappily the Cambridge captain objected to this arrangement, and refused to allow an additional oar. While the Oxonians, and, as it was reported, some of the Cambridge men, were protesting against his decision, and the former were discussing whether they should row or not, the steward, Lord Camoys, informed them that the signal for the start would be given at the appointed time. Both the boats went down the Cambridge with eight and the Oxford with seven oars. I never saw an assemblage of faces on which disappointment and disgust were so 350 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. plainly and universally expressed, or heard so many exclamations, not loud but deep, of " mean," " cowardly," " sneaking," " snobbish," etc. We mounted the drag which had conveyed us from Oxford, and was now placed on the bridge, and there we waited to denounce and deride the immi- nent and inglorious victory. I shall never forget the roar of " Bravo, Oxford ! " which reached us as the boats came in view, nor the amazement, which could not believe what it saw the boats close together, and our own gradually drawing ahead, until the race was over, and, by half a boat's length, Oxford beat Cambridge with seven oars I Had they been the Seven before Thebes, or the Seven Cham- pions of Christendom, or the Seven Bishops,* who stepped out of their boat at the Tower, they could not have been cheered more heartily. It was a strange result, so strange that some regarded it as super- natural, a penal visitation on injustice. None were more surprised than the victors. " The boat," one of them said, " seemed to trim and go as though no change had been made." The Cambridge captain undoubtedly made a mistake, but nemo mortalium, etc., and all men know, who have seen the Isis and the Cam, that Cambridge has quite as brilliant a record as Oxford in the annals of aquatic fame. * I may notice here that four oarsmen who have rowed in. their University Eights, Selwyn and Wordsworth, Pelham and Hamilton, have beeu made bishops. ( 351 ) CHAPTER XXIX. PREACHERS. My experience No help at Oxford The " Evangelicals " the best preachers fifty years ago Ordeal and result Dr. Dollinger and Newman Objections to preaching without manuscript The matter and manner of preaching The Great Example Read and think Savonarola Utterance Length Preachers. I LITTLE thought wheii I first heard the ancient Oxford story of the vice-chancellor on his way to St. Mary's exclaiming, in a tone of dignified rebuke, to the undergraduate who was going in a contrary direction, "Is this the way to the University Sermon, sir ? " and receiving the affable answer, " First turn to the right, sir anybody will show you ; " still less, when, like young Harry, with my beaver up and buckskins on my thigh, gallantly armed, I leapt on my steed like winged Mercury, at the corner of Brasenose Lane, that I should ever walk through that sombre avenue preceded by the University bedel. I little thought when I first heard Newman preach, in such a pathetic and impressive tone that the .words with which he began his sermon have never been forgotten, "Sheep are defenceless creatures, wolves are strong and fierce," that I should 352 TEE MEMOEIES OF DEAN HOLE. ever stand where lie stood. Nor should I refer to the subject, were I not more severely conscious than any one else can be that the contrast is as between Handel playing the organ and a schoolboy learning the flute, and yet believe that my experience as a preacher may be helpful to other ordinary mortals, whose duty it is to preach. There are hundreds of clergymen who have never really tried to preach. There are hundreds of clergymen who can write far better sermons than mine, who fail to impress their hearers, because they don't know how to preach. These men I would entreat, with all brotherly love and humility, to ponder my history. It has been useful, I am thank- ful to know, to some of those who have heard it. In the years which I spent at Oxford, I did not receive one word of advice or instruction as to the composition or the utterance of a sermon. The preachers, as a rule, with few exceptions, such as Newman, Pusey, Claughton, of Trinity (afterwards Bishop of Rochester and St. Albans), failed to interest their hearers. There was a public orator, but I do not remember any lectures on oratory. He appeared annually at Commemoration, not to silence and engross the undergraduates with his splendid eloquence, but rather to evoke than suppress their jocose admonitions, "Don't be shy, sir," " Mind your h's," " Cut it short." There was then no theological college, no school of preparation for Holy Orders ; and, therefore, for PREACHERS. 353 many years after rny ordination I composed and copied feeble discourses, which I read in monotonous and soporific tones.* The clergy known as " Evange- lical " were almost the only preachers, and they were either regarded as having a special gift and genius, which was innate, and could not be acquired, or as mere Methodists and Ranters, whose enthusiasm was glaringly inconsistent with the dignity and gentility of the Church of England. The rest were either high (far over the heads of their hearers I remember preaching, as a deacon, to the farm labourers con- cerning " the Anglo-Catholic Church and the (Ecumenical Councils," and at the same time a quotation which appeared in the Times from a sermon by one of our greatest theologians to the rustics at Ambleside, in which he reminded them that they were surrounded by " an apodeikneusis of theopratic omnipotence"), or they were dry as the desert, or both. Then came a momentous epoch. An evening service was so long delayed that I was unable, on entering the pulpit, to read a word of my sermon. In my brief, but awful perplexity, the thought came to me, " Surely you have some words for your Master," and I prayed that I might speak them, remembering * Well might Sydney Smith inquire, " Is it a rule of oratory to balance the style against the subject, and to handle the most sxiblime truths in the dullest language, and in the driest manner ? Is sin to be taken out of man, as Eve was from Adam, by casting him into a deep sleep ? " After one of these dreary discourses in a Lincolnshire church, a member of the congregation said that the text should have come after the sermon. It was, " Awake, thou that sleepest ! " 2 A 354 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the promise, " It shall be given unto you what ye shall say." I repeated the text, without chapter or verse, forgotten, began to utter the thoughts which came into my mind, preached for the first time in my life (to read is not to preach) some twenty minutes, and then thankfully concluded. Nor should I ever have repeated the experiment, had not my churchwarden informed me in conversa- tion afterwards, that the congregation were much more impressed by my extempore address than by the ordinary sermon. " You see, sir," he said, " the enemies of the Church are always jeering our folks, and telling them that the parsons buy their sermons at so much a yard, and that any Cheap Jack from Newark Market is a better speaker. They say that no one would employ a barrister who read his brief, or go to see an actor who repeated his part from a book ; and that preachers who would win souls must speak from the fulness of their own hearts, and not from other men's brains." The incident, and these commentaries upon it, constrained me to obey the wishes of those who had the first claim upon my sympathy and service. I had always entertained the ambition, but never until now the hope, of preaching without a manuscript. Had I been requested, when I entered the church on the occasion to which I have referred, to speak without reading to my people, I should have replied, as thousands of the clergy would reply to-day, that it was simply impossible. PREACHEES. 355 I bad been mucb impressed by Dr. Dollinger's words to Mr. Gladstone : " Depend upon it, if the Church of England is to make way, and to be a thoroughly national Church, the clergy must give up the practice of preaching from written sermons" I remembered Newman's statement : " For myself I think it no extravagance to say that a very inferior sermon delivered without book answers the purpose for which all sermons are delivered, more perfectly than one of great merit, if it be written and read." And I recalled an occasion wben Mr. Simeon, who was then the great preacher of his day, being kept at home by illness, sent a sermon, which he considered the best he had ever written, but which made very little impression, though it was well read by his friend. Now it seemed that the time was come to give some practical expression to my belief in this suggestive instruction, and I began at once to comply with my convictions, and to realize my resolutions to preach from memory my own thoughts. I had fallen into easy ways of transfer and adapta- tion, which required little time or reflection ; and I soon discovered that my new ambition demanded and deserved all my energies in anxious and perse- vering work. I never had faith in " extempore " preaching, except in cases of unforeseen necessity. It is profanity to offer unto God that which costs us nothing, and it is folly to contemplate success except on His immutable condition, " In the sweat of thy 356 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. face thou shalt eat bread." But when there is earnest, arduous preparation, it will be accepted and blessed, as were the firstlings of Abel, because we bring our best. That preparation means prayer, a definite purpose, meditation, plan, study, illustration, simpli- city. It means laying foundations, that is, thinking and reading (above all the Book) ; then the scaffold- ing, the scheme and outline ; then the building, the sermon itself, solid in structure, and yet attractive in form, enriched, like a cathedral, with reverent ornamentation. Then the architect must contemplate his completed work until it is reproduced like a photograph on his brain he must learn his sermon by heart, not word by word, but with such a com- prehensive remembrance of the sentences and arguments as will ensure a continuity, though it may not be an identity, of words. " I wish I could do it," it has been said to me again and again by my younger brethren, " but it is not in my power. I know that I should forget and break down." And my reply is : How do you know ? How can you know, having never tried ? You cannot be more fearful of failure than I was, and as to forgetting, did you never hear what the Scotch elder said to the minister? The minister made a very free use of notes in the pulpit, and his congre- gation did not approve. They decided to expos- tulate, and sent a deputation. He heard their remonstrance, and he informed his visitors, some- what rudely, that his memory required assistance, PBEACHERS. 357 and that he intended to use it. " Weel, then, minister," said the chief of the legation, " if ye sae soon forget your own sarinons, ye'll nae blame us if we follow your lead." " Have there been no failures ? " I have only heard of one authentic case, that of Bishop San- derson, but of course there may be collapses from want of faith. Twice in twenty years I have come to a brief silence once for want, not of faith, but of food, having travelled nearly four hundred miles and foolishly postponed my meal until the service was over. I had not preached two minutes before it seemed as though the upper part of my head was petrified. I had just enough consciousness to tell my hearers that my memory failed, but that I was sure that God would come to my help, and then the stupor left me in a moment, and I preached without further interruption. Once again, and more recently, I was thoroughly exhausted by a long series of engagements in different parts of the country, including the Church Congress at Rhyl, and while speaking at a great meeting of working men at Leeds I was seized with blank oblivion. " Keen was the shaft, but keener far to feel, I nursed the pinion which impelled the steel." I had ceased to take with me the few written words which suggest the chief topic of sermons or of speech, which would have released me from my dilemma, and which I shall not forget in the future, though I hope that I may never want them. 358 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. Usually, iii case of embarrassment, the repetition of a sentence, in substance not verbatim, will enable the speaker to remember and to follow his line of thought, to pick up the thread which had fallen. He must expect the disappointment of forgetting now and then some argument or example, which he regarded as of special importance ; and though some new ideas and enforcements may suggest themselves when he is speaking, he should always have more material prepared than he is likely to want in delivering. Happily for me, there was a programme of musical interludes, and Dr. Talbot, with prompt and merciful consideration, gave a signal to the organist, and while he discoursed most excellent music I remembered, though imperfectly, the remainder of my speech. Wherefore I maintain that sermons should be spoken from memory, and not read from a book. I believe that hundreds of the clergy, who write excellent discourses, would make a more general and a deeper impression upon their hearers, if they addressed them without a manuscript, face to face. They would rejoice to find that difficulties, which appeared to be so huge at a distance, dwindled and disappeared as they approached them in the courage of their faith, and that they possessed a new free- dom and a new power in running the race that was set before them ; and they who have not the same cleverness in composition would, I feel sure, have more influence if, after the best attention of thought PREACHERS. 359 and study has been bestowed upon their subject, they would speak instead of reading the results. St. Paul tells us that his speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and where that Spirit is, there is an earnestness which speaks from soul to soul. It is not from incapacity, but from a mis- taken diffidence, or from want of zeal, from indolence, that so few sermons are preached. Let me ask, in proof, would any unprejudiced observer say that the clergy of our Church were inferior in abilities and education to the Romanist or to the Nonconformist ? I assert, on the contrary, that, having the same intellectual power, the Church- man has advantages, many and great, over the Dissenter, in his more complete education, in his orders, sacraments, creeds, and liturgies, and the English has this precedence over the Roman Catholic, in that he preaches a purer doctrine, and knows more of the men to whom he preaches. They use no manuscript, and if he dares not disuse it "He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small." ***** As to the matter and the manner of preaching, it must be "very meet, right, and our bounden duty " to follow in all meekness and lowliness of heart the example of One who would have all men know that He is the Christ, because " the poor had the gospel preached to them," and of whom it is recorded that 360 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. the masses (6 TroXv? 0^X05) " heard Him gladly." We should copy " the simplicity of Christ," and, like the Apostle, " use great plainness of speech." We should be bold in rebuking sin, as He who drove the money-grubbers from the house of God, and denounced the Pharisees as hypocrites and children of the devil ; yet tender and pitiful and compas- sionate as He who wept over Jerusalem, and said to the woman taken in adultery, " Neither do I con- demn thee : go, and sin no more." We should illustrate our sermons, as He did, by parables, by connecting them with the events and surroundings of our common daily life, speaking to our hearers of those matters which interest us all most deeply our nation, our occupations and homes, our common anxieties, our temptations, our troubles, and our joys.* There are too many preachers who seem to forget that God teaches us by the dispensa- tions of His providence, as well as by the revelations of His Word, and that it is for them to demonstrate the fulfilments of prophecy, the teachings of history,. * And so George Herbert writes of the parson in his " A Priest to the Temple : " " When he preacheth, he procures atten- tion by all possible art, both by earnestness of speech, it being natural for men to think that where is much earnestness there is somewhat worth hearing. Sometimes he tells them stories,, and sayings of others, according as the text invites him ; for them also men heed, and remember better than exhortations; which though earnest yet often die with the sermon, especially with country people ; which are thick and heavy, and hard to raise to a point of zeal and fervency, and need a mountain of fire to kindle them; but stories and sayings they will well remember." PRE ACHE IIS. 361 the adaptation of the gospel to all the conditions and necessities of human life, to lighten the dark- ness of our sorrows and our sins, and " to guide our feet into the way of peace." In words which all could understand, our Lord, who afterwards sent " unlearned and ignorant men to go into all the world and preach the gospel," has connected the Divine truth which He taught with the objects most familiar to us. His people would not hear His voice, even as now they will not hear or read His Word, but He has made all creation to preach of Him. He has associated those things which are ever before us with the blessings and the lessons of the Incarnation, and has signed them with the sign of the Cross. " From morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve," we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses " the bright and morning star," the light that " lighteth every man that cometh into the world," " the sun of righteousness," sleep and resurrection, the water that cleanseth, the bread which strengthens, the very door through which we come and go, the stones and the streets, the banks, the market-place, the courts of justice, the prisons, the hospitals, the little children, the men standing idle ; or, out in the country, the sheep and the oxen, the trees barren or bearing forth good fruit, the grass and the corn, the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field, the burning of the weeds, the ploughing, sowing, and reaping ; or, beyond city and country also, the sea, and the ships, and the fishermen. 362 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. And not to the Apostles only, but to us the com- mand is given, " What ye have heard, that preach ye." " The message which we have heard of Him declare we unto you." We must "preach the Word" A young clergyman came to an older priest, who was greatly respected for his goodness and learning, and for his impressive preaching, and asked him what sermons he would recommend for his study and imitation. And the reply was promptly given, " The sermons of Jesus Christ. Eead them, with prayer before and after, again and again, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, until it is with you as with the two who journeyed to Emmaus on the first Easter Day, ' and they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us, and opened to us the Scriptures ? ' ' Asked to name books which, though not in- spired, were most helpful, he said, " To me, the works of St. Augustine and St. Bernard; the commentaries of Cornelius a Lapide and Bishop Christopher Wordsworth ; the writings of Bishops Andrewes and Jeremy Taylor, Isaac Barrow and Isaac Williams ; the sermons of Dr. Pusey, and the poems of Herbert and Keble. Kead, and reflect on what you read ; but books will not make you a preacher. You must study your own heart as a surgeon studies anatomy, that from self-knowledge you may know your hearers. It is specially true of preachers, that ' the proper study of mankind is man.' Keep your ears and your eyes open, and PREACHERS. 363 then say what you have to say, plainly, bravely, to others." Not many months ago, I was in the Duomo at Florence. No church in the world has witnessed more marvellous manifestations of the preacher's power. Eude mountaineers from the Apennines and crowds of peasants from all sides of the city came in at daybreak, and waited for hours in all weathers until the cathedral was opened, to hear Savonarola preach ; and such was the effect of his sermons that ladies burnt their ball-dresses and finery, as being the hateful proofs of worldliness and pride, and sold their ornaments and jewels, that they might give more alms to the poor. Five hundred years after Savonarola's martyr- dom, a similar sensation and scene was witnessed in the same church, and thus described : " Day after day through the greater part of Lent (1887), and down to Easter Tuesday, the Duomo at Florence has presented a striking spectacle. The great veil of dark green silk spread over the nave, a few feet higher than the sounding-board of the pulpit, has thrown the church into mysterious gloom. From seven o'clock in the morning till eleven, men and women have sat on chairs and benches to keep a place. Long before eleven, the whole dark area has been crowded thick with human beings, and the crowd has swelled and spread till it has filled the aisles and all the westward parts of the vast build- ing. At eleven o'clock, men carrying a sedan-chair 364 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. have made their way to the pulpit steps ; their living freight has passed with an effort into the pulpit, to pour forth for a whole hour a torrent of impassioned words, addressed to the working classes by a preacher who has stirred them as no one has since Fra Girolamo Padre Agostino de Montefeltro. It is computed that an audience of seven thousand, chiefly of the working classes, has steadily attended his course of thirty-two sermons." * How did those preachers attain this irresistible influence ? They prayed for it, that utterance might be given them, that they might speak boldly as they ought to speak, and then they were not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. They who had preceded Savonarola had preached the dry dogmas of abstruse theology, the subtleties of Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Schoolmen, even as they who preceded Monte- feltro had declaimed on Papal Infallibility, Mariola- try, and other " fond things, vainly invented ; " but these men, as the eagle mounts from the cold barren rock, and soaring upward " Bathes in the bickerings of the noontide blaze," raised the thoughts of their hearers above sophistry and superstition, legend and myth, to Him who came to bear witness of the Truth, exhorting them to repentance and "newness of life," because the Saviour will soon be the Judge, because " the wages * A selection from these sermons has been admirably trans- lated by Miss C. M. Phillimore, and is published by Masters. PREACHERS. 365 of sin is death," and because "in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; but faith which worketh by love." * * * * * As to utterance, the voice should always be dis- tinct, and audible by all ; not monotonous, but vary- ing with the subject-matter, not failing at the end of a sentence. If there are no inflections, no modu- lations of speech, attention will succumb to drowsi- ness, and drowsiness to slumber. If there is no indication of intense feeling in the heart of the preacher, he will excite no emotion from his hearers " Si vis me flere, dolendura est Primum ipse tibi." The manner should be spontaneous, natural, and the parson should follow Hamlet's advice to the players, "Let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action." As to duration, happy is the priest, and beloved by his people, who can say with Apelles, "I know when to leave off." * There is no more cruel tyrant than " one whom the music of his own sweet voice * Lord Chancellor Halsbury, speaking on this subject, " remembered when the head of his college was asked by a distinguished preacher at St. Mary's what he thought of his sermon, the former gravely replied that he had heard in it what he hoped never to hear again. 'What was that?' asked the alarmed preacher. ' I heard the clock strike twice,' was the reply. A sheriff's chaplain had once asked a judge what was the proper length of a sermon. ' Well, twenty minutes,' was the answer, ' with a leaning to the side of mercy.' " 366 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. doth ravish like enchanting harmony," while it wearies all beside. I have known a popular preacher join three sermons into one (it was easy to distin- guish the connecting links) ; the first was heard with eager admiration, the second with calm approval, the third with a weary impatience. To such a dis- course a lady, it is said, who adored the preacher, took Bishop Magee, and when she exclaimed, as they were going home, "Oh, what a saint in the pulpit ! " his lordship added, " And oh, what a martyr in the pew ! " I may not speak of our great living preachers. Of those who are gone, " where beyond these voices there is peace," they who impressed and instructed me the most were Bishops Wilberforce, Magee, and Lightfoot, Doctors Pusey and Liddon. One of the best preachers I have heard, unknown to fame, a quiet gentle spirit, but endued with a wonderful power to make men think and try, was the Rev. E. H. Parr, the Yicar of St. Martin's, Scarborough. ( 367 ) CHAPTER XXX. WORKING MEX. Happy sympathies The demagogue distrusted as ignorant and immoral Promissory notes Might against right True friends Parks, gardens, and playgrounds Clubs and libraries Technical schools The home The smoke nuisance Temperance The Church and the working men. As a child extracts the candied peel from his cake, or the epicure reserves the plumpest oyster on his plate for his last bonne-bouche, or as, when leaving a mixed company, we keep, if we can, our final farewell for him or for her whom we love the hest, so, parva componere magnis, I come in my concluding chapter to the happiest of all my memories recollections of hours (I would they had been multiplied a thousand- fold !) which I have spent with working men, in public worship and in private prayer, in fields and factories, on land and sea, on road and rail ; in their sorrow and pain, in sick-rooms and hospitals, in homes darkened by the shadow of death ; in their hours of relaxation, in their gardens and their games. My heart is with the working man who deserves that noble name, who " goeth forth to his 368 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. work and to his labour until the evening," not believ- ing in those malcontents who imagine mischief, and go astray, and speak lies, and stir up strife all the day long, denouncing all rulers as tyrants, all rich men as knaves, and all parsons as hypocrites. No long time ago, my son heard one of these dema- gogues orating in the Park. " My brothers," he said, " the trumpet of war is sounding through the land. Even the village 'Ampton is hup in harms, and the worm which has been writhing for centuries under the 'eel of the landlord is shouting for the battle. Listen, my friends, and I'll tell you what poor 'Odge is adoing to deliver himself from the oppressor. One Sunday he ventured to take a walk in my lord's park, a-thinking that as it contained twenty thousand acres it might, perhaps, be big enough for both, and hup comes the noble-hearted peer, a-blustering and a-blowing, and he bellows out at poor 'Odge, ' Now, feller, what are you adoiug, a- trespassing on my land ? ' And 'Odge answers, ' Who guv you this land ? ' And my lord, he says, ' My faythur guv me the land.' And 'Odge, he says, * And who guv your faythur the land ? ' And my lord, he says, ' My grandfaythur guv my faythur the land ! ' ' And who guv it your grandfaythur ? ' says 'Odge. * You himpudent snob,' says the 'orty peer, * it has been ours ever since the Conquest. We fought for it, and the king guv it us.' ' Ho,' says 'Odge, ' you fought for it, did you ? and we mean to fight for it, and we mean to have it ; ' and then WORKING MEN. 369 he walks up to his lordship, and snaps his fingers close to his noble nose, and finishes the discourse with, ' We don't care that for kings ! ' And this is what \ve must do, my brothers. We must fight for the land," etc., etc. But the working man, having quite as large an amount of brains as any other section of the com- munity, is aware that if 'Odge, in defiance of law and equity, in the absence of the police, the army, and the auxiliary forces, were to take possession of the land, Dodge and Podge, with a few hundred thousand " brothers," would lose no time in asserting a similar indifference to the rights of property and of title deeds, and would claim their equal share ; that this portion would be too minute to maintain the few who knew what to do with it ; and that if every man had three acres (which he could not cultivate) and a cow (which he could not milk), the industrious, temperate, and acute, would in a very short time annex the possessions of the idle, the drunken, and the dunce. Wherefore, if only as a matter of common sense, the working man declines to be humbugged by these " murmurers and complainers," who not only covet and desire other men's goods, but openly avow their intention to let him take who hath the power, and let him keep who can. It is a policy which dates from a remote antiquity, and was once the dominant principle of our own British Constitution ; but it has proved to be incompatible 2 B 370 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. with national progress and domestic happiness, and the character of those who desire its revival does not inspire confidence. They are roughs, and they are distrusted and despised by working men, not only because they are incapable, but because they are immoral. I have lived a long life among all sorts and conditions of my brethren, and I am convinced that no section of the community has a more appreciative respect for honesty, justice, and truth than the genuine working man. Splendid evidence has been given to the public. I remember the case, referred to by the present Arch- bishop of Canterbury, of the printer employed in the Oxford University Press, who refused an offer of five hundred pounds for a surreptitious copy before pub- lication of the Revised Version of the Holy Scrip- tures, and that of the working carpenter, who was not to be outdone in generosity even by such a man as Frederick Denison Maurice. Maurice accepted an offer for the lease of his house, forgetting that he had let a stable and coach-house at the end of the garden to the carpenter. His solicitor proposed to make the best bargain he could ; " but," said Maurice, " you must tell him exactly how the case stands, and let him know his advantage. " Well, now," said the working man, on receiving the message, " that's what I call a real gentleman, and I'll give up the stables any day, and take nothing for going out."* * Economic Review, vol. i. No. 2. WORKING MEN. 371 When he is assured of a sincere, practical interest in his welfare, the working man is grateful and sympathetic ; * but until he is convinced, he is coy and suspicious. He is losing faith in " the true Friend of the working man," in placards which only profit the printer. He is ceasing to care for pro- missory notes, which are renewable, but never cashed. Like the pupil at Dr. Birch's school, on receipt of a hamper from home, he is surrounded by admiring friends, desirous to lend him their knives ; but, when they have got at the cake, he feels " like one that treads alone some banquet-hall deserted." He is distrustful alike of words which are softer than butter, and of words which are very swords. He does not believe that he is superior (or inferior) to his fellow-men, that he is an hereditary bondsman or an hereditary monarch. Nevertheless, though the working man has many would-be leaders, who disappoint him inflated wind- bags, who collapse when they are pricked with the pin of common sense : rem acu tetigisti he has " troops of friends " whom he can trust, who regard him as a brother and not as a machine, of whom it may be said that " In making their thousands, they do not forget The thousands who help them to make." I mean the men who give parks, and gardens, and playgrounds (if you don't now and then take the kettle from the fire, and let it sing on the hob, * See p. 185. 372 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. you will burn a hole in it), who build hospitals, and restaurants, and swimming baths. I mean such men as Francis Crossley, who, when he gave large and beautiful recreation grounds for the people of Halifax, told them on the opening day that he attributed his prosperity in business very largely to the fact that, when he first commenced it, his mother had said, " If the Lord prosper us in this place, the poor shall taste of it." I mean those who, having ascertained that working men have minds as well as muscles, provide libraries, and galleries, and museums, and interesting entertainments. Including music. It was my privilege to meet, not many weeks ago, a gentleman who told me that, having been successful in his business, he had made it a subject of anxious consideration how he might best lay out a portion of his wealth for the happiness of his fellow-men. " I have always," he said, " had a strong faith in the influence of music to refine, to solace, and to cheer, and I am therefore taking part in building premises for the professors and pupils of the Royal College of Music, with a view to the promotion of good music among all classes, by sending accomplished performers and teachers through the length and breadth of the land." This Royal College of Music will cost him 40,000. They are his friends who help him to reduce his expenses by co-operative stores, and to obtain fair remuneration for his work. It must surely be WORKING MEN. 373 right for the tradesman and the working man to make the best market of his labour, so | long as there is no violence (there is a tyranny of numbers as well as of individuals), and justice is done to all. He is a friend of the working man who helps him in his brave self-denial to provide for the time of sickness, who subscribes to those societies which obey the wise man's counsel, " If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all ; yet let him remember the days of darkness ; for they shall be many." And here, appropriately, I would refer to the advantage of inducing working men to join an ambulance corps, those especially who are engaged where accidents are frequent, so that they may know what to do in a perilous emergency. A traveller not long ago rescued two children from a canal, in which they had fallen. They appeared to be dead, and, had he not known the process of restoration, life would soon have been extinct. They help the working man, and he knows it, who establish and maintain technical schools, in which the young may learn from skilled masters the best methods of using the best tools in the craft which they propose to practise. And with these technical schools for boys I would connect schools of cookery and thrift for girls, that they, who will be hereafter the wives of the working men, may be useful as well as ornamental, and know how to make the most and the best of their resources. If 2 B 3 374 TEE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. there were more ivives who were good cooks, there would be more good husbands at home for supper. The working man has no truer friends than those who are doing what they can, whether as owners or from any other influence, to improve his home. No place deserves that beautiful name, in which men and women, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, cannot maintain both their moral and physical integrity, in which they lose the shame which is a glory and grace, in which they cannot breathe the pure air, and enjoy the pure light, which God designed for us all. I shall be disappointed in my estimate and expec- tations as to the sagacity of the working man, if, being now master of the situation, he does not direct his attention, and the attention of his representatives in Parliament, to the abolition of the smoke nuisance. It has been proved, by Mr. Fletcher of Bolton and others, that the process is easy and inexpensive, and it is for those who suffer from it most to insist on its removal, with other pollutions and noxious exhala- tions, injurious to human life. Such a purification would be followed by infinite blessings to the bodies and souls of men ; the restoration of sunshine to darkened homes, of smiling health to wan, sallow cheeks, of green leaves and singing birds to blackened and stunted trees, and of fish to poisoned streams. And, brightest of all, the splendid and sure results would be such a grand help to temperance, by the removal of temptations to drunkenness, as no other WORKING MEN. 375 human scheme, within my conjecture, could ever hope to win. Not only medical men, but all of us who know the crowded homes of the poor in our large cities and towns, can testify that a foul atmosphere induces a craving for stimulants. " You come and live in our court," a drunkard said to a philanthropist, " and you'll soon take to the gin." It has been asserted, and not disputed, much less disproved, that, wherever men are engaged in a healthy outdoor employment, and where their homes are also situated in healthy localities, these men, as a rule, are sober, and that drunkenness may i be attributed more to atmospheric impurity than to facilities for drinking in the number of public-houses ; and that men who are employed in mines or works, where they breathe for hours a highly noxious atmo- sphere, with their homes in proximity, are more or less intemperate.* The best lecture I ever heard on intemperance was from a working man. He was sitting on a bench by the Midland Eailway, looking somewhat weary, when a drunken fellow staggered alongside, and began to mumble nonsense. " I don't want you," said the working man to the sot. " Gro away ; you're drunk." "Now just you listen to me," it was answered. " Do you suppose as a mighty Power would make the barley to grow in the fields, * A very interesting letter on this subject will be found in the Times of September 6, 1892, written by the author of " The Topography of Intemperance," Mr. Thomas Glyde, of Cardiff. 376 THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. and the hops to grow in the hopyards, and then put it into the mind of another party to make 'em foment, and me not to drink 'em ? Why, you know nowt." " Well," said the other, " I believe in a glass of good ale, and I should like one now, for I'm fine and dry, but I'm quite sure as a mighty Power never made the barley and the hops to grow and foment for you to take them and turn yourself into a beast." * * # * * What are the special helps which we clergy can offer to the working man ? First of all, we must win his confidence and affection. It is not difficult, when he is assured that we do not want his vote, or anything he has, but himself. He seems to know by intuition when, for the sake of the Lord our God, we seek to do him good, when we have too much respect for him and for ourselves to natter him with "mere verbiage, the tinsel clink of com- pliment," and when we go to him with some of Christ's love in our hearts. Moreover, he must be assured that we too are working men, for . bees love the hum of the hive, and they who labour rightly condemn those " Who by their everlasting yawn confess The pains and penalties of idleness." " Do you know why I came to your church ? " an artisan said to a clergyman. " Because I saw you going about your business early and late, and I don't believe in blinds down at nine o'clock in the WORKING MEN. 377 morning, churches locked up all day, and six Bank holidays a week." And when once he believes, he will return your affection. " Thou hast gained thy brother." He will listen, when you speak to him of the truth as it is in Jesus, the love of the Saviour, and the justice of the Judge that " the gift of God is eternal life, but the wages of sin is death." You will help him and he will help you, as ye " bear one another's burdens," to fulfil the duties and attain the promises set before us in the Gospel. You will welcome him to his Father's house, and he shall know that " Our mother the Church hath never a son To honour before the rest." You will try to make his life happier, his home brighter. You will be the friend that " loveth at all times, and the brother born for adversity," until " the night cometh in which no man can work " the night and also the day until " Where the dews glisten and the song-birds warble, His dust to dust is laid, In Nature's keeping, with no pomp of marble To shame his modest shade. " " The forges glow, the anvils all are ringing Beneath its smoky veil, The city, where he dwelt, is ever swinging Its clamorous iron flail. " But by his grave is peace and perfect beauty, With the sweet heaven above, Fit emblems of a life of Work and Duty Transfigured into Love." PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SON8, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. WORKS BY THE DEAN OF ROCHESTER, THE VEEY KEV. S. KEYNOLDS HOLE. A Book about Roses. Twelfth Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. " A perfectly charming book." Daily Telegraph. "No one will rise from its perusal without having caught something of the Dean's enthusiasm. . . . The work is withal eminently practical." Pall Mall Gazette. " A standard book upon the subject." Manchester Guardian. " A well-known and delightful book." Tlie Guardian. " A book brim full of enthusiasm, humour, information, and common sense." Church Times. "By growers of roses the book will be found full of information and suggestion ; . . . there are passages that will rank among the most delight- ful prose on the gardening art." Evening News and Post. A Book about the Garden and the Gardener. With Steel Plate Frontispiece by JOHN LEECH. Crown 8vo, 6s. This volume includes a variety of papers on Gardening subjects, and also a new edition of the " Six of Spades," which has long been out of print. A steel plate by LEECH, entitled, " Love among the Tea Eoses," forms the frontispiece. CONTENTS. THE JOY OF A GARDEN. THE GARDENER'S DREAM. THE Six OF SPADES. [THE HOSES. MY FIRST FIGHT IN THE WARS OF SOME CORNISH GARDENS. THE SPRING GARDEN AT BELVOIR. ALPINE GARDENS. THE CARNATION. A WALL OF FLOWERS. TYPES OF GARDENERS. THE SONG OF THE EXHIBITOR. LOVE AMONG THE TEA ROSES- " No less charming and useful than the Author's ' Book about Roses.' " Daily Telegraph. " A dainty book, ... a profusion of jokes and good stories, with a Tein of serious thought running through the whole." Guardian. "A delightful volume, full, not merely of information, but of humour and entertainment." World. " Dean Hole has contrived to make his book both amusing and of real practical utility." Morning Post. " The papers are all written with that charming mixture of practical skill in gardening, learning in the literary art, clerical knowledge of the nature of men and strong love of flowers, that is already familiar to this author's readers." Scotsman. "For hints on roses and how to grow them, the amateur, and indeed the professional gardener, can go to no better authority than the Dean." CHARLES J. ROBINSON in the Academy. LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 37, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C. to the Entota Office. WORKS BY THE DEAN OF ROCHESTER, THE VEEY KEY. S. KEYNOLDS HOLE. Illustrated by JOHN LEECH. A Little Tour in Ireland. By AN OXONIAN. With nearly 40 Illustrations by JOHN LEECH, including the famous steel frontispiece of the " Claddagh." Large imperial 16mo, handsomely bound, gilt top, 10s. Qd. The " Oxonian " who accompanied John Leech in his famous " Little Tour in Ireland," and who wrote the account which was illustrated by Leech in his happiest and most successful manner, was the present Dean of Eochester. The book has been out of print for over thirty years, for, although the first edition was exhausted in a few weeks after publication, no other was issued, the second being withdrawn, owing to a question as to the copyright. "A welcome contribution to the revival of Leech literature. Mr. Hole, the ' Oxonian ' of those days, was blessed with buoyant spirits, and even then had a delightful taste for ' couleur de roses ; ' his narrative is full of fun, observation, kindliness, remarkable and unusual comprehension of the people of Ireland, and sympathy with them. Leech's illustrations are charming ; their exaggeration has not the slightest touch of malice, and their humour is irresistible." World. " Leech's drawings comprise some of that artist's happiest work as a book illustrator." Saturday Review. " A book to buy, to read, and to treasure jealously." Westmorland Gazette. " There is wisdom as well as wit." Spectator. " Illustrated in the happiest way by Leech, and in itself as bright and jolly a holiday book as one could read, its reissue in its present agreeable shape is sure of a hearty welcome." Scotsman. " The illustrations are in Leech's best style, and would make the fortune of a much less readable book than the one they are attached to." Morning Post. LONDON : EDWARD AENOLD, 37, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.O. to tlje Entota fficc. 37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, LONDON, October, 1892. A SELECTION FROM MR. EDWARD ARNOLD'S LIST ^forthcoming SHork0. STUDENT AND SINGER: THE REMINISCENCES OF CHARLES SANTLEY. With a photogravure portrait of the Author as a young man, and two other portraits in operatic costume. Demy 8vo. , cloth, i6s. " Mr. Charles Santley, the famous singer, has been writing his Reminiscences, which will be published in the autumn by Mr. Edward Arnold. For many years Mr. Santley was as prominent on the operatic stage as he is to-day in oratorio or concert-room ; and his book is full of anecdotes of the Dii Majores whose names are a household word in ' the profession.' His account of his own training, his early difficulties and mature triumphs will be no less welcome to the general than to the musical public." The Academy, announcing the book on July 30. ENGLAND IN EGYPT. By ALFRED MILNER, Late Lender-Secretary of Finance in Egypt. Demy 8vo., i6s. This important work deals with the period of the British occupation in Egypt, describing the causes by which it was rendered necessary, and the difficulties that have been successively faced and overcome. As a work of reference the book will prove invaluable to all who are concerned with the affairs of Egypt ; while as a A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. history of one of the most remarkable enterprises ever undertaken by this country abroad, it presents a record of events rarely paralleled, and full of deep interest to all patriotic Englishmen. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. The Land of Paradox. Restoring Order. The Veiled Protectorate. International Fetters. The Years of Gloom. The Break in the Clouds. ' The Fellah as Soldier. The Race against Bank- ruptcy. The Struggle for Water. Experiments in Justice. Odds and Ends of Reform. The Egyptian View of the Future. The French View. The Other Powers. The Teaching of Expe- rience THE MEMORIES OF DEAN HOLE. With a photogravure portrait of the Author, and several original illustrations from sketches by Leech and Thackeray. Demy 8vo , cloth, i6s. The Dean of Rochester has arranged his " Memories " under alphabetical chapters : thus, he takes in order Archers, Artists, Authors, Cricketers, Ecclesiastics, Gamblers, Gardeners, Hunters and Shooters, Oxonians, Preachers, and Working Men. Many have been his friends in all these divisions, and the book is full of anecdotes and good stories. EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE. " These Memories are the holiday task of an old boy, who desires, and hopes that he deserves, to rest, but is too fond of work to be quite idle. And though he cannot aspire to combine with his own relaxation any signal service to his fellow men, he ventures to hope that from the varied experience of a long and happy life, among all sorts and conditions of men, he may communicate information which will be interesting and suggestions which may be useful." ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. Being Recollections of Sport, Society, Politics and Farming in the good Old Times. By J. K. FOWLER (RUSTICUS), Formerly of the White Hart Hotel and the Prebendal Farms, Aylesbury. With a photogravure portrait of the Author and other illustrations. Large imperial, cloth, IDS. 6d. * # * It is also intended to issue a large paper edition limited to two hundred copies only. Price 2is. net. Subscribers' names will be entered and the orders executed as received until the edition is exhausted. The book is dedicated by permission to the Right Hon. Sir Harry Verney, Bart. , and contains many curious and hitherto unpublished anecdotes related by Mr. Fowler, from personal knowledge, of a large number of eminent sportsmen, politi- cians, and public men, including Lord Beaconsfield, Count D'Orsay, Lord West- bury, the Rothschilds, Bishop Wilberforce, etc. There are also numerous reminiscences of the last days of coaching and posting and the early days of railways, and of country life and manners, and agriculture in the middle of the century. A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 3 THE BATTLES OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. Abstracted from Carlyle's Biography, and Edited by CYRIL RANSOME. M.A., Professor of History at the Yorkshire College. With numerous illustrations reproduced from the German Imperial State Edition of Frederick's Works by special permission of the Director-General of the Royal Museum of Berlin, the original battle-plans from Carlyle's Biography, and a map. Square 8vo. , cloth, 55. The " History of Frederick the Great," in some ways the grandest monument of Carlyle's genius, has hitherto only been accessible in its complete form, filling ten volumes. Professor Ransome's Extracts have been made by special arrangement with the publishers (Messrs. Chapman and Hall), in the belief that, both as affording brilliant examples of Carlyle's style, and as intensely interesting from a historical and military standpoint, such a book cannot fail to be welcome. The illustrations by Menzel are not those familiar to readers of Kiigler's " History of Frederick," but were drawn for the Imperial German State Edition of Frederick the Great's Works, never before accessible to the public, and specially reproduced for this book by permission of the Director-General of the Koniglichen Museen at Berlin. OMARAH'S HISTORY OF YAMAN. The Arabic Text, Edited, with a Translation, By HENRY CASSELS KAY, Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Demy 8vo. , cloth, 173. 6d. net. " Mr. Kay is to be heartily congratulated on the completion of a work of true scholarship and indubitable worth." Athenetum. " We have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Kay's book on Mediaeval Arabia stands clearly in the front rank of Oriental historical scholarship. As a learned commentary on an obscure and difficult text, it is a monument of industry and thoroughness. The notes throw a flood of light'upon one of the least known periods of Mohammedan history." Saturday Review. THE MORAL INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. By FELIX ADLER, President of the Ethical Society of New York. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 6s. This is a new volume in the International Education Series. A List of the Series can be had on application. A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. ' gtcwourife A charming Series of Juvenile Books, each plentifully illustrated, and written in simple language to please young readers. Handsomely bound, and designed to form an attractive and entertaining Series of gift-books for presents and prizes. PRICE Two SHILLINGS EACH. DEEDS OF GOLD. A book of heroic and patriotic deeds, tending to inspire a love of courage, bravery, and devotion. MY BOOK OF FABLES. Chosen chiefly from the famous old Fables of ^Esop and others dear to children of all generations. MY STORY-BOOK OF ANIMALS. Anecdotes and tales about animals, from the familiar pets of the house to the beasts of the forest. RHYMES FOR YOU AND ME. Short verses and rhymes, which everybody loves, and which are the first to be learned and the last to be forgotten by children. * # * Other Volumes of the Series are in course of preparation. EACH VOLUME CONTAINS ABOUT THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS. PRICE Two SHILLINGS. Illustrated by JOHN LEECH. A LITTLE TOUR IN IRELAND. By AN OXONIAN. With nearly 40 illustrations by JOHN LEECH, including the famous steel frontispiece of the "Claddagh." Large imperial i6mo., handsomely bound, gilt top, los. 6d. The " Oxonian " who accompanied John Leech in his famous " Little Tour in Ireland," and who wrote the account which was illustrated by Leech in his happiest arid most successful manner, was the present Dean of Rochester. The book has been out of print -for over thirty years, for, although the first edition was exhausted in a few weeks after publication, no other was issued, the second being withdrawn, owing to a question as to the copyright. " A welcome contribution to the revival of Leech literature. Mr. Hole, the ' Oxonian ' of those days, was blessed with buoyant spirits, and even then had a delightful taste for ' couleur de roses ' ; his narrative is full of fun, observation, kindliness, remarkable and un- usual comprehension of the people of Ireland, and sympathy with them. Leech's illustrations are charming ; their exaggeration has not the slightest touch of malice, and their humour is irresistible." World. "Leech's drawings comprise some of that artist's happiest work as a book illustrator." Saturday Review. " A hook to buy, to read, and to treasure jealously." Westmorland Gazette. A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. 5 A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN AND THE GARDENER. By the Very Rev. S. REYNOLDS HOLE, Dean of Rochester, Author of "A Book About Roses," etc. With steel plate frontispiece by JOHN LEECH. Crown 8vo. , 6s. CONTENTS : The Joy of a Garden The Gardener's Dream The Six of Spades My First Fight in the Wars of the Roses Some Cornish Gardens Spring Gar- dens Spring Garden at Belvoir Alpine Gardens The Carnation A Wall of Flowers Types of Gardeners Love among the Tea Roses ; etc. " No less charming and useful than the Author's ' Book About Roses.' " Daily Telegraph. " A dainty book, . . . a profusion of jokes and good stories, with a vein of serious thought running through the whole." Guardian. " A delightful volume, full, not merely of information, but of humour and entertainment. ' World. " Dean Hole has contrived to make his book both amusing and of real practical utility." Morning Post. " The papers are all written with that charming mixture of practical skill in gardening, learning in the literary art, clerical knowledge of the nature of men and strong love of flowers, that is already familiar to this author's readers." Scotsman. A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. By the Very Rev. S. REYNOLDS HOLE, Dean of Rochester. Twelfth Edition. Crown 8vo. , cloth, vs. 6d. ANIMAL SKETCHES. A Popular Book of Natural History. By Professor C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S., Principal of University College, Bristol, Author of "Animal Life and Intelligence," " The Springs of Conduct," etc. With nearly sixty illustrations by W. MONKHOUSE ROWE. Large crown 8vo., cloth, 73. 6d. CONTENTS : The King of Beasts. Bruin the Bear. Long-Nose, Long-Neck, and Stumpy. Seals and Sea Lions. Thornies and Tinkers. Awuk the Walrus. Eels and Elvers. Flittermice. < The Oyster. Master Impertinence. The Honey Bee. Cousin Sarah. i Snakes. Spiders. Sally's Poor Relations. The Ostrich. ! Crayfishes. Horns and Antlers. Dwarf Lions. The Mermaid. Froggies. " One of the most simply delightful books about Natural History that has come under our nolice since the days of Frank Buckland, whose mantle, indeed, the present author appears to have inherited. Like Buckland, Professor Morgan writes at first hand. The result is a charming volume full of bright and lively anecdotes about all manner of animals, as fresh and simple as if they were being told to a circle of eager listeners, and with just a slight tincture of science in occasionally explaining interesting peculiarities or differences of structure." Guardian. "There is a pervading tone of sympathy with all that lives, as well as a general love and admiration of nature, that renders it a most suitable work for the young. The cover and general get-up are attractive, and every school should add this charming volume to its list of prizes with the certainty that it will be highly appreciated for its own sake by the recipients, and that its influence will be altogether wholesome and good." Nature. " Every page is bright with information and enticing anecdote." Westmorland Gazette. " An altogether delightful book : the illustrat al, are worthy of the text." Leeds Mercury. "A very charming book." Daily Chronicle. " Every boy with a taste for natural history o 'ctorial. '' A charming book about animals." Saturday Review. " An altogether delightful book : the illustrations, moreover, and that is saying a great deal, are worthy of the text." Leeds Mercury. "A very charming book." Daily Chronicle. " Every boy with a taste for natural history ought to be presented with a copy." Lady's Pictorial. 6 A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. MEN OF MIGHT. Studies of Great Characters. By A. C. BENSON, M.A., and H. F. W. TATHAM, M.A., Assistant Masters at Eton College. Crown 8vo., cloth, 35. 6d. CONTENTS : Socrates. Carlo Borromeo. Dr. Arnold. Mahomet. Fe'nelon. Livingstone. St. Bernard. John Wesley. General Gordon. Savonarola. George Washington. Father Damien. Michael Angelo. Henry Martyn. " Models of what such compositions should be; full of incident and anecdote, with the right note of enthusiasm, where it justly comes in, with little if anything of direct sermonizing, though the moral for an intelligent lad is never far to seek. It is a long time since we have seen a better book for youngsters." --Guardian. EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT. Trans- lated from the French of ALFRED FOUILLEE, by W. J. GREENSTREET, M.A., Head Master of the Marling School, Stroud. Forming a Volume in "The International Education Series." Crown 8vo., cloth, 75. 6d. " The reader will rise from the study of this brilliant and stimulating book with a sense of gratitude to M. Fouillee for the forcible manner in which the difficulties we must all have felt are stated, and for his admirable endeavours to construct a workable scheme of secondary education." Journal o/ Education. LOVE-LETTERS OF A WORLDLY WOMAN. By Mrs. W. K. CLIFFORD, Author of " Mrs. Keith's Crime," " Aunt Anne," etc. In one vol., crown 8vo., 6s. "It is that rara avis a volume characterized by knowledge of human nature, and brightened by refined wit." Morning Post. "A book that will gladden the hearts of all those who love literature for its own sake." World. " I have been reading one of the cleverest books that ever a woman wrote that is, ' Love- Letters of a Worldly Woman.' " Queen. " The characterization of the dramatis persona; in each case is forcible and clear, and the letters in which the three stories are embodied are natural and on the whole convincing." A then&um. " This volume comes to us in a particularly charming dress, which we hope may entice readers to one of the most delicate, most original, and most noticeable books of the season. . . . Many writers have pictured to us a woman, but none more successfully than Mrs. Clifford, whose Madge Brooke stands forth distinct and almost flesh and blood, a human document." Review of Reviews. " Irr short analytical stories of this kind Mrs. Clifford has come to take a unique position in England." Black and White. BAREROCK ; or, The Island of Pearls. By HENRY NASH. With numerous full-page and other Illustrations by LANCELOT SPEED. Large crown 8vo. Over 400 pages, handsomely bound, gilt edges, 6s. " An excellent work, the interest of which, from commencement to finish, does not flag for an instant." Daily Telegraph, "The story is a particularly good one, interesting from start to finish, without being too sensational." Review of Reviews. " For fertility of invention, wealth of imagination, and luxuriousness of incident, commend us to ' Barerock,' the new story of adventure by Henry Nash. " Sheffield Telegraph. " A book vastly to our taste a book to charm all boys, and renew the boy in all who have ever been boys." Saturday Review. " A captivating story of adventures by sea and land." Daily News. A Selection from Mr. Edward A mold's List. 7 FRIENDS OF THE OLDEN TIME. By ALICE GARDNER, Lecturer in History at Newnham College, Cambridge. Illustrated. Square 8vo., 2S. 6d. "A capital little book for children, whose interest in history it is desired to stimulate by lively and picturesque narratives of the lives of heroes, and the nobler aspects of heroic times. Leonidas and Pericles, Solon and Socrates, Camillas and Hannibal, the Gracchi and Alex- ander, form the subject of Miss Gardner's animated recitals, which possess all the charm of simplicity and clearness that should belong to stories told to children." Saturdav Review. WORKS FOR THE LIBRARY. MY MISSION TO ABYSSINIA. By Sir GERALD H. PORTAL, K.C.M.G., C.B., Her Majesty's Consul-General for British East Africa. With photogravure portrait, map, and numerous illustrations. Demy 8vo. , 155. " The dangers to which the mission was constantly exposed, and the calmness and courage with which they were faced are simply and modestly recorded, whilst we obtain also much light as to the habits and characteristics of the Abyssinians as a nation." United Service Institution Journal. DARK DAYS IN CHILE: An Account of the Revolution of 1891. By MAURICE H. HERVEY, Special Correspondent of the Times. With 15 full-page illustrations. Demy 8vo., i6s. " We have derived from Mr. Hervey's book a more intimate and vivid notion of things and people in Chile, of the forces and the men that were the chief factors in the war, than we have derived from any previous source." Freeman's Journal. POLITICAL SCIENCE AND COMPARATIVE CONSTITU- TIONAL LAW. By JOHN W. BURGESS, Ph.D., LL.D., Dean of the Uni- versity Faculty of Political Science in Columbia College, U.S.A. In two volumes. Demy 8vo. , cloth, 255. " The work is full of keen analysis and suggestive comment, and may be confidently recommended to all serious students of comparative politics and jurisprudence. " Times. ANIMAL LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE. By C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S., Principal of University College, Bristol, Author of "Animal Sketches," "The Springs of Conduct," etc. With 40 illustrations and a photo-etched frontispiece. Second Edition. 512 pp., demy 8vo. , cloth, i6s. " The work will prove a boon to all who desire to gain a general knowledge of the more interesting problems of modern biology and psychology by the perusal of a single compact, luminous, and very readable volume." Dr. A. R. WALLACE, in Nature. A GENERAL ASTRONOMY. By CHARLES A. YOUNG, Professor of Astronomy in the College of New Jersey, Associate of the Royal Astro- nomical Society, Author of "The Sun," etc. In one volume, 550 pages. With 250 illustrations, and supplemented with the necessary tables. Royal 8vo., half-morocco, 125. 6d. "A grand book by a grand man. The work should become a text-book wherever the English language is spoken, for no abler, no more trustworthy compilation of the kind has ever appeared for the advantage of students in every line of higher education." Prof. Piazzi Smyth. THE LIFE, ART, AND CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEARE. By HENRY N. HUDSON, LL.D., Editor of "The Harvard Shakespeare," etc. Twovols. Large crown 8vo., cloth, ais. " They deserve to find a place in every library devoted to Shakespeare, to editions of his works, to his biography, or to the works of commentators." Athentruin. 8 A Selection from Mr. Edward Arnold's List. THE BEST ELIZABETHAN PLAYS. Edited, with an Intro- duction, by WILLIAM R. THAYER. The selection comprises " The Jew of Malta," by Marlowe; "The Alchemist," by Ben Jonson ; " Philaster," by Beaumont and Fletcher; "The Two Noble Kinsmen," by Fletcher and Shakespeare ; and " The Duchess of Malfi," by Webster. 612 pages. Large crown 8vo., cloth, 75. 6d. "A useful edition slightly expurgated." Times. ' A HANDBOOK TO DANTE. BY GIOVANNI A. SCARTAZZINI. Translated from the Italian, with notes and additions, by THOMAS DAVIDSON, M. A. In two parts ; the first treating of Dante's life, the second of his works, To every section is appended a valuable Bibliography. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 6s. " This handbook gives us just what we require, a faithful representation of the man, his life, his love, his history, and his work." 1'erth Advertiser. DANTE'S ELEVEN LETTERS. Translated and Edited by the late C. S. LATHAM, with a Preface by Professor CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Crown 8vo. , cloth, 6s. " An interesting and serviceable contribution to Dante literature." Athencrum. THE JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY : A Journal of Animal Morphology, devoted principally to embryological, anatomical, and histological subjects. Edited by C. D. WHITMAN, Professor of Biology in Clark University, U.S.A. Three numbers in a volume, of 100 to 150 large 410. pages, with numerous plates. Single numbers, 173. 6d. ; subscription to the volume of three numbers, 455. Volumes I. to V. can now be obtained, and the first two numbers of Volume VI. "The articles are all able, all excellent of their kind, and all informing and suggestive." Glasgow Herald. THE FORUM : The Famous American Review, which holds a position in the United States equivalent to that of the Nineteenth Century in England. Price 2s. 6d. monthly ; annual subscription, post free, 308. A conspicuous feature in the Review is the prominence it gives to articles by European contributors, nearly every number containing articles by the best English writers. It is obtainable in England about the loth of each month. THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW. Price 2 s. 6d. monthly. THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW. Edited by J. G.SCHURMAN, Professor of Philosophy in Cornell University, U.S.A. Six Numbers a year. Single Numbers, 35. 6d. ; Annual Subscription, 125. 6d. SIX YEARS OF UNIONIST GOVERNMENT, 1886-1892. By C. A. WHITMORE, M.P. Post 8vo. , cloth, 2s. 6d. PUBLICATIONS OF THE INDIA OFFICE AND OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. Mr. EDWARD ARNOLD, having been appointed Publisher to the Secretary of State for India in Council, has now on sale the above publications at 37, Bedford Street, Strand, and is prepared to supply full information concerning them on application. INDIAN GOVERNMENT MAPS. Any of the Maps in this magnificent series can now be obtained at the shortest notice from Mr. EDWARD ARNOLD, Publisher to the India Office. LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 37, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C. $ttblis!ur to the Eniia fficc. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. A rinn n c '